This travesty of course demanded some sort of redemption on my part, so Chiana was born. Played over the span of six months, due to interruptions to play additional tournaments, Chiana slogged her way to become a Matriarch. A few personal rules are put in place to keep the game interesting, namely that all characters are untwinkled unless a weapon is required to continue questing. Only when Hell is reached may items be twinkled on. This is to ensure no character becomes boring due to the ease of Normal/NM and that tactics are learned in these earlier levels to be used in Hell when they are truly needed.
The journey started off rather slow for Chiana, since Poison Javelin isn't the most damaging spell considering its time requirement. This means she was poking monsters with her starter javelin for quite a while or throwing Poison Javelins and then running around the screen wildly while poisoned monsters chased her. None of the normal monsters posed much of a threat to Chiana, only the act bosses and even then it wasn't so much a fear of death as length of time required to win the duel. For example Andariel eliminated the mercenary with a poison shot early and proceeded to chase Chiana round and round the blood pit in the second room. All the while Chiana would stop from time to time to throw Poison Javelins at Andariel and then continue running around the blood pool a bit more. The same tactics were used against all Normal and Nightmare bosses.
Hell was a different story, which was run at /p1 instead of the /p8 previously used. Chiana and her cold rogue mercenary was able to be twinkled at this point to offset the severely increased challenge that this difficulty produced. Progress was actually quicker in Hell than Normal / Nightmare due to the fact Plague Javelin and Lightning Fury were both maxed. I never quite understood why everyone was excited about Lightning Fury Amazons, I preferred to use Charged Strike / Lightning Strike instead. Now watching how quickly packs can be dealt with using LF I finally understand.
Nothing really withstood Chiana until she ran into very nasty stair trap in the Kurast Bazaar. Upon entering one of the temples she was greeted with triple boss back; 2 Wailing Beasts and 1 Black Rogue with one of the Wailing Beasts having the Fanaticism aura. She got off a few LF shots and a single PJ throw before being put into stun lock and then...death. I determined that a few PJ throws would finish off the rest; simply pop in, throw a javelin and then pop out. Well apparently I forgot that all my equipment was lying on the ground in the temple as Chiana popped in and for some reason couldn't throw a PJ. I was very confused when she died again, until I saw her spawn at the docks and she wasn't holding a javelin....oops. A quick purchase at the local store solved that issue and the remaining monsters were dealt with.
All other monsters and bosses were dealt with fairly easily, until Baal was encountered. The fight with Baal was an epic battle worth of song, dance and much consumption of recreational beverages. For fifteen grueling minutes Baal, his clone, Chiana, her rogue companion and the
valkyrie slugged it out. Baal remained cloned for most of the battle, but Chiana was not to be intimidated and refused to retreat. As a result frost cones, mana draining breath and festering appendages filled the screen continuously. Chiana was actually able to keep her rogue companion alive for most of the battle, although I'm unsure how helpful she was overall. Plague Javelins slowly drained Baal's life while he and his clone teleported all over the chamber unleashing deadly havoc. Eventually he fell and Chiana gained her Matriarch title.Stats:
Level 83
Strength - 50 (80)
Dexterity - 103 (141)
Vitality - 337 (337)
Energy - 15 (25)
Life - 1225 (1301)
Mana - 138 (221)
Lightning Resistance - 75
Fire Resistance - 75
Cold Resistance - 57
Poison Resistance - 63
Skills:
Jab - 1 (11)
Poison Javelin - 20 (30)
Plague Javelin - 20 (30)
Lightning Fury - 20 (30)
Pierce - 1 (9)
Valkyrie - 20 (28)
Decoy - 4 (12)
Equipment:
Weapon: Titan's Revenge
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi (socketed with Pruby)
Shield: Lidless Wall (socketed with Pdiamond)
Boots: Fire Resist +40%, Lightning Resist +26%
Belt: Razortail
Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws
Helm: +10 to Strength, +38 to Life, +101 to Attack Rating, All Resistances +17, +2 to Amazon Skill Levels, Poison Length Reduced by 75% (socketed with Pruby)
Ring 1: Lightning Resist +28%
Ring 2: Cold Resist +21%, Poison Resist +23%, 3% Mana stolen per hit
Amulet: +50 to Mana, Poison Resist +5%, 5% Mana stolen per hit, +2 to Amazon Skill Levels
Mercenary:
Helm: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Armor: The Spirit Shroud
Weapon: Goldstrike Arch
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