08-31-2003, 05:00 AM
GUNTER: ACT V NIHLATHAK'S TEMPLE
Anya continued, "Nihlathak told me he struck a deal with Baal to protect Harrogath. In exchange for the demon's mercy, the misguided fool plans to give Baal the Relic of the Ancients, our most holy totem! Doing so will allow Baal to enter Mount Arreat unchallenged by the Ancients. I tried to stop Nihlathak, but he imprisoned me in that icy tomb.
Nihlathak must be stopped before he dooms the whole world. You must go to his lair through this portal I will open, kill him, and then bring back the Relic of the Ancients."
A portal opened next to Anya, and Gunter stepped inside it. Can he stop Nihlathak before it's too late?
I entered the portal to Nihlathak's Temple better prepared than I was when I did the same in nightmare difficulty. In nightmare difficulty, the charging Defiled Warriors who kept reviving themselves gave Gunter a little of trouble. But I knew what to do this time.
![[Image: Gunter5_nih1.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Gunter5_nih1.jpg)
Like vipers, Taunted Defiled Warriors won't charge you. Instead, they'll slowly creep toward you into melee range where they can be stunned. What's more, if you run Find Item on a body, it can't be revived, so Defiled Warrior corpses on whom Find Item has been run won't wake up again.
So, I Taunted all of the warriors who came on the screen, stunned them with War Cry when they got in range, and then switched to the Heart Carver and ran Find Item every time one of them died. This process made short work of the Defiled Warriors outside the temple.
![[Image: Gunter5_nih2.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Gunter5_nih2.jpg)
After Grizabella's scary experience with the newly beefed up Pindleskin, I was much more cautious with him this time. I crept inside the doorway to the temple and immediately spammed Taunt on all of Pindleskin's minions. I had to withstand a charge from Pindleskin himself, but otherwise, I since I was able to stun the minions, the pack fell without much trouble. I again ran Find Item on the pack to make sure everyone stayed dead.
I then walked into the Halls of Anguish which had Temple Guards, Horror Mages, and Tomb Creepers (leapers). This was pretty easy stuff and by luck the stairs down to the Halls of Pain happened to be roughly in the first direction I went. Incidentally, I found out that you can't run Find Potion on Horror Mages (skeletons) but that you can run Find Item on them. (OK, most of you probably knew that, but as I'm fairly inexperienced with barbarians, I didn't).
![[Image: Gunter5_nih4.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Gunter5_nih4.jpg)
The Halls of Pain started off well with Temple Guards and Grotesques. Grotesques are a little tougher in that they have a lot of hit points and pump out little Grotesque Wyrms, but a simple Taunt on them stops them from making babies and their extra hit points just means that they need a few extra War Cry's and Firewalls to kill. No big deal. Then, I turned the corner.
![[Image: Gunter5_nih3.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Gunter5_nih3.jpg)
Ah, great. Heirophants and their Zealot minions. Oh, well. At least if you taunt Heirophants, they'll stop healing minions and casting Blizzards and instead they'll calmly walk toward you. It often meant spamming Taunt on the edge of the screen to get all the Heirophants and their minions to come. The most annoying part was when the Heirophants would be in the next hallway -- around two corners -- and would cast Blizzard. There was nothing to do but take the hits and try to make one's way around the corners to take them out as quickly as possible.
I ended up having to practically do a full clear of the Halls of Pain before I found both the waypoint and stairs. I walked down the stairs to the Halls of Vaught and found Ghosts and Hell Temptresses. Both were physical immune, so most of the damage my mercenary and I could do was done by my Firewall. I took on one pack of monsters. My mercenary had a rough time of it and I quaffed a lot of mana potions. After spending much too long killing the pack, I decided it wasn't worth it. I quit out and rerolled the monsters. The experience also led me to think about the 6-socket pike I had muled away earlier. Maybe it'd be a good idea to socket it with five Ort's and a perfect emerald just to have a weapon to give to my merc when dealing with physical immunes.
The rerolled Halls of Pain spawned with blowdart flayers, razor spines (quill rats), and Night Lords. I took on a Night Lord just to see how Gunter would do, and he did OK, but when I saw a fanat Night Lord boss pack, I decided that I would see enough of Night Lords/Moon Lords on the way up to the Arreat Summit and that I really should hurry on to Nihlathak.
Anya continued, "Nihlathak told me he struck a deal with Baal to protect Harrogath. In exchange for the demon's mercy, the misguided fool plans to give Baal the Relic of the Ancients, our most holy totem! Doing so will allow Baal to enter Mount Arreat unchallenged by the Ancients. I tried to stop Nihlathak, but he imprisoned me in that icy tomb.
Nihlathak must be stopped before he dooms the whole world. You must go to his lair through this portal I will open, kill him, and then bring back the Relic of the Ancients."
A portal opened next to Anya, and Gunter stepped inside it. Can he stop Nihlathak before it's too late?
I entered the portal to Nihlathak's Temple better prepared than I was when I did the same in nightmare difficulty. In nightmare difficulty, the charging Defiled Warriors who kept reviving themselves gave Gunter a little of trouble. But I knew what to do this time.
Like vipers, Taunted Defiled Warriors won't charge you. Instead, they'll slowly creep toward you into melee range where they can be stunned. What's more, if you run Find Item on a body, it can't be revived, so Defiled Warrior corpses on whom Find Item has been run won't wake up again.
So, I Taunted all of the warriors who came on the screen, stunned them with War Cry when they got in range, and then switched to the Heart Carver and ran Find Item every time one of them died. This process made short work of the Defiled Warriors outside the temple.
After Grizabella's scary experience with the newly beefed up Pindleskin, I was much more cautious with him this time. I crept inside the doorway to the temple and immediately spammed Taunt on all of Pindleskin's minions. I had to withstand a charge from Pindleskin himself, but otherwise, I since I was able to stun the minions, the pack fell without much trouble. I again ran Find Item on the pack to make sure everyone stayed dead.
I then walked into the Halls of Anguish which had Temple Guards, Horror Mages, and Tomb Creepers (leapers). This was pretty easy stuff and by luck the stairs down to the Halls of Pain happened to be roughly in the first direction I went. Incidentally, I found out that you can't run Find Potion on Horror Mages (skeletons) but that you can run Find Item on them. (OK, most of you probably knew that, but as I'm fairly inexperienced with barbarians, I didn't).
The Halls of Pain started off well with Temple Guards and Grotesques. Grotesques are a little tougher in that they have a lot of hit points and pump out little Grotesque Wyrms, but a simple Taunt on them stops them from making babies and their extra hit points just means that they need a few extra War Cry's and Firewalls to kill. No big deal. Then, I turned the corner.
Ah, great. Heirophants and their Zealot minions. Oh, well. At least if you taunt Heirophants, they'll stop healing minions and casting Blizzards and instead they'll calmly walk toward you. It often meant spamming Taunt on the edge of the screen to get all the Heirophants and their minions to come. The most annoying part was when the Heirophants would be in the next hallway -- around two corners -- and would cast Blizzard. There was nothing to do but take the hits and try to make one's way around the corners to take them out as quickly as possible.
I ended up having to practically do a full clear of the Halls of Pain before I found both the waypoint and stairs. I walked down the stairs to the Halls of Vaught and found Ghosts and Hell Temptresses. Both were physical immune, so most of the damage my mercenary and I could do was done by my Firewall. I took on one pack of monsters. My mercenary had a rough time of it and I quaffed a lot of mana potions. After spending much too long killing the pack, I decided it wasn't worth it. I quit out and rerolled the monsters. The experience also led me to think about the 6-socket pike I had muled away earlier. Maybe it'd be a good idea to socket it with five Ort's and a perfect emerald just to have a weapon to give to my merc when dealing with physical immunes.
The rerolled Halls of Pain spawned with blowdart flayers, razor spines (quill rats), and Night Lords. I took on a Night Lord just to see how Gunter would do, and he did OK, but when I saw a fanat Night Lord boss pack, I decided that I would see enough of Night Lords/Moon Lords on the way up to the Arreat Summit and that I really should hurry on to Nihlathak.