Gunter, the Barbarian Mage

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT II

When Gunter and Cain arrived in Lut Gholein, they found the typically bustling port-city strangely subdued. However, the sight of Warriv's caravan, the first caravan to cross the Western Pass in many months, created some mild excitement for the residents and the caravan was met at the city gates by Jehryn, the Lord of Lut Gholein. While he graciously welcomed the caravan to his fair city and was heartened by the news of the opening of the mountain pass, he was also distracted by the problems plaguing Lut Gholein. A Dark Wanderer had passed through the city not long before and had asked the townsfolk many questions the about the location of the tomb of Tal Rasha, the Keeper of Baal. Soon after he had left Lut Gholein, the dead began rising from their graves and horrifying creatures began lurking in the desert surrounding the city.

Cain told Jehryn of Gunter's heroic deeds and how it was he alone who was responsible for opening the Western Pass. Jehryn seemed impressed and said that any help Gunter could give to Lut Gholein would be greatly appreciated. However, he seemed distracted and at last broke off the conversation by saying that he had some urgent business to attend to. It was clear that Jehryn hadn't told Cain and Gunter all that he knew.

Indeed, as they wandered around town, Cain and Gunter saw another strange sight. The town seemed to be guarded by a band of mercenaries. The townsfolk said that all of the town guards had been sent into the palace. There were mysterious events going on in this city. Would Gunter be able to solve the mysteries and defeat the evil plaguing Lut Gholein?





The monsters in the sewers leading down to Radament fell according to plan. The burning dead archers could be Taunted into coming into the range of War Cry where they could be stunned and killed. Sometimes packs of archers would shoot at me from off screen, but that wasn't a problem. I just taunted the edge of the screen and made the archers come to me.

When I got to Radament, I was presented with a problem. Every time a skeleton gets killed, Radament promptly raises it from the dead and you can't stop Radament from doing that with Taunt. Radament needed to be killed first. Unfortunately, just as with Grizabella, Gunter's mercenary does far more damage against single opponents than Gunter does (Gunter's War Cry does more damage against groups of monsters because of its area of effect). But Gunter doesn't have the benefit of Teleport, so how can Gunter get his mercenary past all of the skeletons and get him to attack Radament?

I used the "poor man's Teleport." I drew the skeleton pack to me and used War Cry to stun them. Then, I Leap Attacked past the pack to Radament, started up a tp, went to town, and came back -- which brought the mercenary with me. The theory was that the mercenary would focus on Radament while my War Cry kept the minions stunned and at bay.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. Radament likes to move around when he's being meleed and whenever he moved, the mercenary would turn and start attacking the stunned skeleton mob. I tried the "poor man's Teleport" trick two more times, but the plan just wouldn't work. So I switched tactics.

I weapon switched to the Heart Carver and spammed War Cry and Find Item. Every time a skeleton died, the Find Item would get cast before Radament got a chance to raise the skeleton. Monsters that have had Find Item or Find Potion run on them can't be raised back from the dead, so the skeleton remained dead. Once all of the skeletons were safely and permanently killed, then Gunter and his merc could focus exclusively on attacking Radament as the screenshot above shows. He fell in short order.



Have I mentioned before how much like I like Taunt? This screenshot shows a typical battle I had in the dungeon areas. While I was stunning and dealing with a pack of skeletons and bats, a boss pack of spear cats started chucking spears at us. I Taunted the minions who promptly stopped throwing spears and politely walked forward to get stunned and killed. An off screen Hollow One started raising skeletons, so I Taunted the edge of the screen and the Hollow One stopped raising skeletons and a few seconds later came walking slowly on screen toward me. The pack was killed routinely. One can't stop the boss spear cat from throwing spears, but hey, that's what 75% block is for. Once the pack is killed, the boss can be dispatched quickly.

Leapers were interesting to deal with. When you War Cry a leaper, it knocks them back out of the range of War Cry -- even if they're already stunned. So to kill them, you either have to knock them back against a wall or do what I did against the non-fire immune versions -- stun them with War Cry and cast Firewall on them. While they're stunned, they won't move out of the Firewall and they don't have a lot of hit points, so they get cooked pretty fast.



The Maggot Lair went fairly smoothly. The biggest irritants were Itchies which are immune to physical. They die pretty quickly to Firewall, but it's a pain in those cramped corridors to aim the Firewall correctly and wait for all of the itchies to get properly cooked one at a time. The main chamber had wall to wall maggots, so it was a slow grind to make progress in the room. But the War Cry took out the baby maggots well while the mamas got slowly cooked by the Firewall. It wasn't long before Gunter had the Staff of Kings in his hand.



The Viper Temple was easier than the Maggot Lair. The vipers aren't immune to fire or physical attacks and can be stunned easily. In the main chamber, it was easy to make my way around the room. I'd Taunt the Guardians (Hollow One types) to keep them from raising the skeletons and use War Cry to stun the vipers that came out. Also, Taunted vipers won't use their charge attacks, so coaxing groups of off screen vipers out with Taunt is very effective. Dealing with Fangskin was easy. With all of his minions stunned, there was very little Fangskin could do to us.