Season Journey: The Second Crusade

Playing a class you're not familiar with is an interesting experience in Diablo III - new mechanics and strategies become available, new pitfalls and traps become apparent, and you get to try out pieces of gear that you would previously have salvaged for the crafting materials.

This has certainly been the case as I've moved through the second half of Act I with my Crusader, HenryJonesJr - if you're interested in my thoughts on the first stage of my journey, they're available here.

I'd just defeated the Skeleton King when I last posted, having hit level 22. Before I picked up with pushing forwards with the storyline, I ran through Old Tristram Road a few times to try out the new spear I'd picked up, the Pledge of Caldeum. I was doing substantially more DPS than I had been, but I realised after a couple of runs that I was probably better going spear and shield than just straight spear, though it meant tweaking my passive skills so I had access to the Heavenly Strength skill, which lets me used a two-handed weapon in one hand.

Having settled my gear - and found Warriv, so I could grab his journal from his corpse to move me a step closer to one of my achievements - I was ready to move back into the story.

Is a crown the best choice?

Wednesday was the next night I could really push on. Having defeated the Skeleton King, and rescued the Stranger, my next objective was to retrieve the three parts of his sword - the reforging of which might help the Stranger remember who he was.

I had retrieved a Templar as I worked through the Cathedral, so I would have some aid on this journey - his healing abilities, as well as the stun he could generate, had already proved valuable.

Retrieving the parts of the sword would mean travelling to three new areas and fighting off the cultists that were gathered around the parts - as well as any creatures who attacked me on the way to my objective.

Being more tooled up than I was when facing the Skeleton King - and now having an ally - made running through these areas a lot easier than the Tristram Cathedral had proven. I wasn't needing to take as much care as I had been, and in the span of two hours I'd managed to gather the sword parts, ready for the blade to be reforged.

Sinister Crusader is sinister

This, of course, is where the game chooses to stab right at your heart with an emotional cut-scene, and the death of a key NPC. Not only was I trying to figure out who the stranger was, and why the world seemed to be ended, but there was a minor matter of personal vengeance to take care of.

During the running around to get the sword parts, I'd also switched my ally - on previous runs I've generally stuck with the Template through to the end of Act I, as a melee tank to tie up mobs is useful when you're playing a ranged character. As I was playing the melee tank this time, I switched out to the Scoundrel when he became available.

In order to get my vengeance, I'd need to start by rescuing the Strange - again - after he had been kidnapped by Maghda. The first stage of this rescue isn't good for anyone with arachnophobia, as there are a lot of spiders to kill to rescue a damsel in distress. Fortunately, I'd recently acquired a piece of Legendary armour which would make this a bit easier.

I love this armour...

On previous runs through Diablo III, Thorns damage has always seemed a little pointless. It triggers whenever you would be hit by a melee or ranged attack, doing automatic damage to the attacker. At some point during the sword retrievals, I'd found a chest piece called the Heart of Iron, which increased my Thorns damage by 250% of my Vitality statistic - and as that is the secondary stat for Crusaders, it meant I was doing well over 1,000 damage when people attacked me.

Trust me, there are few things more amusing while playing Diablo III than watching your opponents kill themselves by attacking you - especially if you have enough life regeneration that the damage they do to you only hangs around momentarily.

This became especially clear when I moved into the Southern Highlands after defeating Queen Araneae - watching Dark Moon Shamen and other Khazra ranged attackers explode after making one attack was very satisfying, and I think I have found a cornerstone of the Crusader build I'd like to make once I enter Adventure Mode.

While I won't be able to use this exact piece of armour - given it is weighted for use at level 30, rather than level 70 - I'll be keeping hold of it so I can use the Kanai's Cube to extract its special ability and apply it to myself. This is one of the cooler features of Adventure Mode, as you can mix and match special abilities for certain slots that you would normally not be able to combine. And, of course, the more things that kill themselves, the less I need to kill during a Greater Rift...

One of these is tough enough to kill at present - let alone two...

One thing I do want to take a moment to touch on is the gimmick for Season 14 - the Season of Greed. This season has meant that any time a Treasure Goblin would spawn, you get a pair of them instead. I imagine this is going to be more fun once I hit level 70 and Adventure Mode, but at the minute I'm not even reliably killing one of these creatures, let alone two at once. It's proving a little frustrating, as seeing that message saying "A Treasure Goblin has escaped!" means a missed opportunity.

Does this thing need hazard stripes?

Another thing that both irked and amused me has been the AI of both some enemies and my ally. I'm often amused when the enemies try to make ranged attacks at me without clear line of sight, wasting their shots on the terrain. Any time I'm not getting hit by the enemy is a good time.

I get less amused when my ally is acting stupidly. As previously mentioned, I've been using the Scoundrel for most of this part of the Crusade, and as a ranged character he tends to hang back. This became a problem when I was working through the Halls of Agony before facing the Butcher.

There's one section of corridor with large descending blades - they're not a problem for the player, or even the Templar, but for some reason the Scoundrel was determined to stand under them each time they fell. This happened so often, that he managed to die from the damage - the first time I can recall a follower dying when I've played. I assume there's something about staying a certain distance away from melee, if possible, but you'd think the AI was smart enough to realise when a spot wasn't a good place to stand...

Two more down - still three or four to go in Act I

With a bit of back-tracking between storyline pushes, I was able to clear two of the outstanding Achievements for Act I. I've still got four to sort out for the Act I part of the Campaign section - I need three things to spawn, including a Cursed Chest, but at least one of the spawns is said to be at around a 5% chance of happening. These are going to be things which require a second Season character to farm for. I'll probably create a Demon Hunter or Wizard for such farming, as I'm comfortable with what I need to do with one of them.

Smash with the spiky thing!

So, the Butcher is now dead - thanks in part to remembering that I had a defensive ability which would reflect damage, something I hadn't used until this fight. I'm pretty sure this will need to be part of my build at level 70 if I go for the Thorns build I was talking about earlier - as it stands, it is the ability of mine I need to get better about using.

Act II lies ahead, in the city of Caldeum. As it happens, I've just upgraded my weapon from the Pledge of Caldeum to a rare mace, as my damage was starting to lag behind. I suspect the Heart of Iron is going to need upgrading soon too, but I've yet to find a strong candidate to replace it with.

I know there are some Achievements I'll need to farm - the Infernal Machine springs to mind as one I'll be sending my back-up character after once I've finished the storyline with HenryJonesJr, but I hope there'll be some I can collect on the way through.

In terms of story progress, I'm hoping to make a bit of a dent in it this week, though I won't be able to use Saturday morning for work on it, due to attending a tournament. Hopefully I'll see you for part three, when I post it.