Want a torch but it seems just too difficult? Here’s how to do it without finding a load of crazy gear. I’ve done it with less gear, but this is the minimum for a fairly average player. It’s actually not that hard, but it is time consuming. Once you have everything the actual quest is quite fun, but key-farming can get a little tedious.
- Build a sorceress (yes, that’s right, not a smiter) - you need keys and the fastest way to farm the countess and summoner is with a sorceress. If you are playing through pick up any charms that you see and build an inventory of +health charms. I usually build a fire+cold sorc, using the rune words Stealth, Leaf, Lore, and Rhyme until late Nightmare. Spirit and Dual spirit as soon as I can get them and Smoke. Get a Holy freeze Act 2 Mercencary and give him Insight (very useful for the farming runs later).
1a. Pick up every single full rejuve you see. Cube in juves into full rejuves.
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Once the sorceress reaches around level 70, has at least spirit and a couple of FCR rings, you are ready to start your key farming. Respec the sorceress into pure chain lightning. That means 1 points in teleport, 1 point in warmth, 20 points in lightning mastery, 20 points in chain lightning and the rest in chain lightning synergies. Optionally trade a lem/key for any skin of the vipermagi when you find one if you need more FCR.
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Time to start your runs it goes like this → new game → arcane sanctuary waypoint → kill summoner → read book → through portal → black marsh waypoint → tower → kill countess → save and exit. Don’t forget to pick up any runes and any keys that drop. Chain lightning is the only skill you’ll be using to electrocute the boss and the mob. You need at least 3 or each key and a few lem (or higher) runes. If you don’t want to / can’t kill Nihlathak then you’ll need up to 6 of each key. If you don’t have dual spirit either trade a rune for a Monarch or hit the shield rack in the tower cellar 5 every run until you find one. Sometimes the countess will be surrounded by lightning immune archers, either save and exit or try to teleport to the other side of her to electrocute her.
3a. Cube up higher runes into Fal’s and above, use the lower runes to build spirit packs and continually reroll (hel + scroll tp) until you get dual 35% FCR. Build a pally shield with spirit.
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Build a Hammerdin. Reach level 80. You can use the gear from your sorc once you get to about level 20 as a Hammerdin is basically a caster. If you are farming Nihlathak yourself then build Lawbringer. You need a smiter hybrid so it’s 20 points hammers, 20 points concentration, 1 point smite, 20 point holy shield and 20 into fanaticism. 1pt redemption, 1pt salvation are useful too, 1pt vigor as soon as you can get them are also useful. You need enough strength and dexterity to wear your gear and every last point in vitality. Make sure you do the den of evil, radament, jade figurine, lam essen’s, izual and anya side quests in every difficulty.
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Either use the paladin equipped with lawbringer and use hammers to farm Nihlathak for keys or trade some spare keys. Ignore the in-game lobby and head to Discord or whatever your favourite online trading D2 community is. If you are lucky you can find people offering 1 for 1 key exchanges. Earlier in the ladder it’s 2 for 1. Either way get 3x3 keys.
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Trade runes (mostly lems, some of these will be fals). You need Guillaume’s Face, Goblin Toe, Nightsmoke, Guardian Angel. You’ll also need a 3os flail (normal cows), any 3os armor and the best 4os paladin shield you can find (best == highest smite damage, preferably with all resistances). I usually try and find one in cows and use larzuk if necessary. Take the guardian angel to larzuk. If you got lucky with the runes you might also be able to buy a ravenfrost, any low torch and an anni. These are all fairly optional. A reaper’s toll for your merc. You’ll either need to craft blood gloves or trade for dracul’s. If you are using crafted gloves then you want a life tap wand to put on switch. I find the wand easier to use than dracul’s as life tap will be running from the start rather than waiting for it to proc. You can shop a lifetap wand from Akara.
6a. If you didn’t find enough Lems to trade then keep farming keys. People will trade keys for runes and then you can trade runes into items.
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Put a perfect ruby into the guardian angel, put black into the flail, put 4 perfect diamonds into the shield, put Treachery into the armor (needs a Lem). I usually build these as I’m farming the countess. Upgrade Nightsmoke in the cube so you get 16 potion slots.
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Create a new game with a name and password. If you die ytou can recover your body by rejoining the game rather than running around to find it. Put all your best +life charms into your inventory. Put on the best resistances amulet you found on the way, any yellow rings with +resists and ravenfrost if you got it. Put dual spirit on switch and black + 4pdiamond on main. Gface, guardian angel, upped nightsmoke. You are ready. You’ll switch to dual spirit to cast holy shield and use the flail for smiting. Your aura will be fanaticism.
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Open one red portal, kill the mini uber inside, open the next, kill the mini uber, open the last kill the mini uber. Don’t forget to pick up the organs they drop. Do not open all the portals at once like the YouTubers do … why not? Because if your internet connection drops or your computer crashes you’ll be farming all the keys again. You want your potion belt to be red, blue, purple, purple.
9a. Don’t just teleport to the mini uber and kill them, if you are reading this guide you are likely going to die trying that. Walk through the levels slowly and kill everything on the way. If you die rejoin the game and collect your body from town. Your merc will likely be useful for getting to Izual if they are holy freeze and especially if they have reaper’s toll. The merc will die immediately in the matron’s den and be of no use for duriel.
9b. Matron’s Den will be the hardest. The other two levels will be easier. Just find duriel, hopefully he is near the way point (he usually is) and beat him down, if he isn’t then it’s the same procedure as for Izual - work your way around the map until you find him and smite everything on the way. Use your life tap wand liberally if you used that option. For Matron’s Den you’ll have to try and ‘drag’ monsters away from their packs to take them on one on one. just run about avoid the missile with ideally one monster on the edge of the screen. Pop in and out of doorways until one follows you. It takes a little while. Life tap and then pin them against the wall with smite. If you die then exit and rejoin the same game. Always have a TP open in the room behind you so you can run back and escape quickly if you need to.
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Well done you should now have all three organs. Cube them to open the final portal. Put on Treachery, go through the final portal and head up. Stand in the fire, wait for Fade to proc. Switch back to Guardian angel. If you have a spare charm swap your town portal tome for the charm. Back through the portal and head to the top of the map.
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Head down slowly, until you see meph on the edge of the screen. He’ll spawn minions and should chase you. Careful not to head any further down - you don’t want to activate Diablo or Baal just yet. Dragh Meph to the top right corner, ignore the minions and set to work on him. You’ll need to drink juves when you see your health drop dramatically. If you are down to your last juve then run back to the red portal and restock.
11a. Mop up his minions, being careful to stay out of the central area while you do it. This is not essential, but it does make life easier.
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Head to the top of the map, then to the far left, then down the far side. Enter the centre of town slowly. Baal should spot you. Drag him out to the left and beat him up. Should be easy enough. Keep an eye on your health. His minions can be physical immune, so if you choose to mop them up use your hammers.
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Time for BigD. Just run up to him and start hitting him. When you are done either run back to town to ditch some inventory space for the torch or kill the minions (they’ll probably all have life tap running on them anyway, I usually mop them up as I find it easier than trying to run through them without dying and it only takes a few seconds).
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This build is actually fairly overpowered and the actual ubers go down really easily. So long as you have a black flail and a source of open wounds, you only really need to worry about resists. That’s why I choose Guardian Angel and Nightsmoke - fairly common, cheap items. Not necessary though and fade can be used to pre-buff resists anyway.