Maldar, the Magnificent

[MongoJerry]

MALDAR: ACT III, TRAVINCAL

"You have done well, my friend," Ormus told Maldar. "But now the time has come to face those responsible for the evil that has stifled our land. You must destroy the High Council of Zakarum! Once they are gone, Mephisto's hold over this land and its people will be broken!"

Maldar knew he had no other choice. Only once the High Council was slain could the people of Kurast and the demons who had been stirred up by Mephisto and the Council live in peace. He entered Travincal ready for battle.

In both Grizabella and Gunter's adventures, I expounded on the benefits and importance of doing a full clear of Travincal before facing the High Council if you're playing an underpowered character. While you're fighting a Council member, you don't want Heirophants casting Blizzards on you or Blood Lords casting meteors down on you. Plus, you certainly don't want Heirophants healing any Council Members you're trying to kill.

Now I suddenly found myself in a funny predicament, playing a character for whom doing a full clear of Travincal is forbidden.



So, I did the next best thing. I went down the center path of Travincal and led all of the monsters in the middle of the city and in front of the temple back to the two corners of the city farthest from the temple. I Dim Visioned all of the normal monsters and threw bone prisons around the blood lord bosses. The Heirophants were the most difficult to deal with, because they don't automatically follow you. I had to alternate casting Terror and Dim Vision on the normal Heirophants to herd them to the corners. In addition, there was a boss Heirophant halfway between the center of the city and the Travincal waypoint. I couldn't do anything about him other than bone prison him to make him stay put and then carefully avoid the area.

I then walked up to the temple entrance and baited Council Members to come out. The first three Council Members to come out were minions, so I led each of them back to the corners and imprisoned them there.



The fourth council member to come out was Geleb Flamefinger who I imprisoned in the middle of Travincal and killed with Bone Spirits. Strangely, once he was imprisoned, he just sat there doing nothing. He didn't cast Hydras or attack the bone prison. There seems to be some quirk with the council members' AI routines that makes them shut down sometimes, if they get trapped. It doesn't happen every time, so I don't know precisely what triggers the behavior, but I've seen it enough times to know that this wasn't some one time thing.

Also, you can see in the screenshot that the boss Heirophant is casting Blizzards at the bone prison around Flamefinger. He was just close enough to the center of Travincal to be worrisome but far enough away that he didn't actually cause any real trouble during this fight.

Flamefinger dropped the flail, so I picked it up, tp'd to town, imbued the flail, and equiped it on weapon switch. When I came back, I thought, "You know, there are only two boss Council Members left, why not see if Maldar can take them on in the temple itself?" I figured it'd be better to do that than worry that that boss Heirophant might come close enough to cause real trouble.

So, I rushed into the temple and found that in addition to the two Council Member bosses, it still had three minion council members, a boss pack of blood lords, and two Heirophants. This was too much to handle at once. Retreat!

The one good thing about this maneuver, though, was that the boss blood lord chased me, allowing me to draw him back to the back corner. I then led the other three council minions back to the corner, although in the process I slipped up and didn't cast Dim Vision ahead of me enough and a "jailbreak" ensued. Zealots, Blood Lords, and Heirophants scattered. Some Zealots charged me (and Dim Vision and Terror didn't stop them until they actually got to me), and everything else went in all directions. I managed to use Dim Vision, Terror, and Bone Prisons to contain the damage and keep monsters from chasing me, but that was the end of being able to use the corners furthest from the temple to park any more monsters. Luckily, there wouldn't be any more need to do that.



I then led Ismail Vilehand out of the temple and imprisoned him away from the temple but far enough away from the corners to keep from drawing any now freed monsters to us. While he didn't shut down like Flamefinger, he fell without much trouble.



I thought for a moment and realized that the temple itself now only had the one boss Council Member and a few normal Blood Lords and Heirophants. I charged back in there, Dim Visioned the Blood Lords and Heirophants, cast Bone Prison on Toorc Icefist, and took him down. I then weapon switched to the Khalim's Will, smashed the Compelling Orb, and raced down the stairs into the Durance of Hate.

Maldar defeated the High Council and freed Kurast from their evil influence. Can Maldar reach Mephisto in time to stop the designs of Diablo and his brothers?