The ChuckNoris Challenge

I play the challenge
the challenge says Stick to every single Word
I Do and Stampede is useless
You are telling me that there are ways with certain hard to aquire gear to make it work that have nothing to Do with the guide
whats your point mate?

this is going nowhere . follow the guide and you will be fine .

i just wanted to point out that stampede is not 100% useless and that it can work ok-ish with some specific gear parts on.

End of day 2 as The Seer, build #10:

Spent a lot of time in act 1 farming arcane crystals for my early game uniques, and then a ton of time in Tran Athula. Managed to only rip twice on cubing charms, and my second attempt only had 5-6 deaths! Not bad for my first time doing Level Challenge 1.

So far the only part of the guide I find questionable is switching to a Ra helmet from Cannonball, as it takes you from +40 faster run/walk to -10. It does give more useful bonuses elsewhere, but losing that much movespeed feels terrible. I plan to honorific that slot first to regain that 10% asap.

Skillwise everything is working as intended for the early game build, with the sole exception being I rarely activate Burning Veil, as I don’t really need it yet. I use it on bosses and superuniques, otherwise a couple well placed Boneyards along with Pestilence keep everything going.

I’m impressed by the reanimated Succubi and Dark Magistrates from my unique dirk, they do some decent damage and definitely keep enemies busy once I get them rolling. I’m curious how the skeletons will feel in comparison once I’ve moved over to crafted gear.

As for progress, I made it to the River of Flame in Act 4 Hatred, then stopped for the night. I didn’t stream any today as my girlfriend was streaming video while working on a cosplay project, and figured between that and the game I’d be pushing our connection. I might start recording anyways, however, so I at least have some highlight footage of the build fighting Diablo and such.

It’s been great diving back into Diablo 2 after taking a break for a couple years, and learning Median while doing this challenge makes it feel like a whole new experience. I’m also glad I can play it well enough with my steam controller(accessibility issues); I was wary at first but got a decent setup going.

Something that took me a bit to realize is how much defense I could get from my unique shield; with it at tier 4 I’m at 850~, which is lower than what I’ve heard everyone else having but is feeling pretty good in normal fighting. It’s not quite enough for Tran Athula, but if you’re quick on reacting and kite it isn’t too bad, just a lot of portaling or filling your inventory with potions.

Chuck, so far this build has been a lot of fun! It quickly becomes clear on what the intended playstyle is, creating an army out of your foes and then using them as cover as you advance. If it were to be expanded to more than a miniguide, I might suggest some reanimate skeleton crafts on the early runeword armors, to supplement the dirk and to give you some reanimates while working your way to it.

I might get some play time in tomorrow, failing that I’ll be back on Tuesday, as Monday is FFXIV night for me. Best of luck to everyone!

i'm glad you like it so far . you are the first person who i hear that doesn't need the extra damage boost from Burning veil

you will need it later for sure . the reanimates that go trough the wall are also getting the damage boost . Same for the merc

Before accesing the dirk you could use some rare weapon and socket some (perfect) topaz for reanimates. I will add this info to the miniguide

regarding the shield you use, it's main purpose is the elemental absorb which will keep you safer against spells . this build is not a tank that seeks for tons of character defence , so having it with low defence compared to other shields available should not be an issue . it's not you who does the tanking

good luck !

It’s possible that I don’t mind a slower pace of play; I’m also still in Hatred, so I expect it to change and be needed more. I was even taking down Amazon warriors in Tran Athula without it with no trouble at level... 34 I think?

True, I had noticed that. Do reanimates scale, or are they just a set monster? That’s a mechanic I never fully understood.

Ah I hadn’t thought of that! That would work perfectly.

I definitely have noticed the elemental absorb, it’s been a big help so far. Especially with some pgems in it

.

Freykin wrote:Do reanimates scale, or are they just a set monster? That’s a mechanic I never fully understood.

they scale with the area they are reanimated in

read this page for a more detailed explanation viewtopic.php?f=4&t=124&p=109271&hilit=reanimates+level#p109271

Im still playing my neutral caster build. Im in act 3 terror about to do LC2. Still haven't found apocalypse boots, but it doesn't really matter as my neutral vessel does more damage and hits a bunch of targets anyway. I only wish this build had a "boss killer" skill early game.

Reanimatrix update:
Finished act 3 hatred now & farming mephisto for gear. Act 3 finally made me use arcane torrent and I really love that playstyle. Spamming Arcane torrent until mana is empty --> mana sweep --> everything is dead and mana is full again. I know I'll be sad once I have to use Mana tide totem, because mana sweep is just so nice. I got Queen of Glass now and I think this is the one most important item for this build. The mana is grants is simply insane. I had to respec in order to use it (I lacked about 60 statpoints) and still after I equiped it, I had more mana than before and thus more damage. Will continue farming for a topsin and an aerin orbiter and then go ahead and try LC1

@Goodkidscc nobody said you must find them . they can be rolled . get a higher ilevel pair of boots , turn them into magic and use the oils of renewal untill they spawn with Apocalypse

What a shame. I'm busy away from the game for a couple of weeks and I miss this. It will be interesting to see if it works. It seems some builds are not so easy untwinked.

Chuck are you thinking of making updates to the guides based on feedback? Maybe put some options in if there going to be future similar events?