Interesting, I’m tempted to start a SP holy grail run myself, but on softcore lol.
1 Like
UPDATE NUMBER 4
I was getting a lot of damage from barlogs and their inferno, was kind of scary sometimes. I had amazing find in City of the Damned, Chance guards 30% MF improving my total MF to 80%.
And another great find and definitely upgrade for me shorty after:
And here is the Hellforge Reward:
I was extremely lucky and got combat shrine basicly next to pentagram. That will be very helpfull when fighting Diablo.
I identified some stuff i found at chaos sanctuary and got these two very nice charms:
I am always scared of Diablo on normal because he really does a lot of damage with his spells, but it was fine. I was able to have good hit chance thanks to combat shrine and could tank his lighting hose without bigger issues with 75% lighting resist. I was little bit suprised that lighting was not doing more but now when i think of it, duskdeep helm was actualy blocking good portion of physical damage from diablo lighting.
Here is the Diablo kill:
UPDATE NUMBER 5
One unique in Pit of Acheron, kind of letdown but they i need everything for grail 
Nightsmoke belt and Milabrega shield in Frozen River.
Unique Voulge in Frozen Tundra.
Rest of normal was boring, only isenharts case dropped in Halls of Pain. Holy freeze was way too weak against baal, it took so long to kill him. Right when I did Den of evil on nightmare, I switched build to hammerdin and hired rogue who can kill enemies with with my concentration quite well.
------------------------NIGHTMARE---------------------------
Sanders Gloves dropped in Tristram, Countess dropped only Amn and I found Cathan mask next to Smith. I skipped majority of act 1 and i preferably skip rest of nightmare to get to NM baalruns as soon as possible.
Here is fight with Nightmare Andariel
UPDATE NUMBER 6
When I started act 2 i bought merc with Holy Freeze and made RW Malice for him:
I had nice drop from summoner:
I dropped set amulet from body on pike just outside of tal rasha tomb but sadly it was only Vidala amulet:
Here is fight with Duriel, I did it on players 3 and it was suprisingly long fight:
When I started ACT III, I was little bit worrried about my Health as I have 666 Life and only 33% block so I am a lot of damage often. Hopefully I will find some good stuff to solve that.
When I made it to flayer Jungle, I found shield for spirit, nothing extraordinary as it had only +17% all resist, but still great. Spirit roll was kind of garbage tho 
Flayer dugeon was not fun, I had more life 750 with spirit shield, but stygians dolls were still scary. Another Amuler dropped in sencond floor but yeah… Civerb…
Lol and another Chance Guards, this time +26% MF, worse than the ones I already use.
Najs Circlet dropped in Kurast Bazaar, nothing good for me but i gave it to merc as his sigon helm did nothing for him really. Najs circlet will give him some STR and decent Defesnse.
Never mind lol, sigon helm went back on my merc because I found Sigon armor and together it has +10% life leech and my merc really needs it.
Unique Heirophant in Travincal dropping Fleshrender, decent weapon for my barbarian playthrough.
Council was suprisingly not hard, probably because hammers killed them far enough from me, but merc died quit fast. One council dropped Unique Military Axe:
I was so lucky with entrance to sewers 2 and unique bat dropped unique Giant Sword.
I finaly made signifiicant upgrade and even if I had to sacrifice spirit shield, I think this one is better for surviving. Rhyme on pala shield with +25 all resist. So now it has 70% block, 40 faster block rate, +50 all resist and cannot be frozen, amazing.
I was curious how much dolls will damage me so i tried to kill few and it was taking away like 1/3 - 1/3 of my Life so nah, its job for merc, I dont want to die 
When I was clearing Durance of Hate, I found ethereal Bec-De-Corbin
I tried to make 4 sockets in it to have good isnight base for merc, but sadly it made only 3 sockets but atleast I found Sanders weapons shorty after and equipped it as main weapon to icnrease FCR. I also have Sanders boots and gloves but even with 3 parts it sucks so i rather use my MF gloves and boots.
And here you can see me fighting in Durance of Hate 3 and killing Mephisto:
3 outside locations of ACT IV were easy but I had near death experience in River of flame. Damn Lightning+Fire enchanted regurgitator elite almost killed me. It would kill me if I would not instantly smash key to drink my rejuv potions. These lightings he was releasing were doing way too much damage even when I had high resistances.
Quest reward from Hellforge could be better but actualy Lum is great for smoke or lionheart.
I found 4 socket polearm and deciced to make Insight for merc and… realized I dont have Sol LOL
I made it to Chaos Sanctuary quite fast and here you can see me killing last two seal bosses and fighting Diablo.
Only act 5 now and Nightmare is finished.
1 Like
UPDATE NUMBER 7
I was taking a lot of damage from certain monsters in ACT V so thats scares me kind of. I must be very carefull around amplify damage elites. The dark archers in Frigid highlandds were horrible, they almost killed me at one point. I am rushing the content to be able to level up at baalruns.
Lucky exit in Frozen Tundra
I eventualy made it to Ancients and they were suprisingly easy. You can see below me fighting them and i included even Baal kill ni same video so enjoy
And I am Conqueror Zax with Paladin
Something absolutly amazing happened second run on baalrun. I could not beleive it :D, too bad it was not also unique shako LOL? that would be epic.
I also used socket quest for HoZ to add perfect diamond for more resistances.
2 Likes
That’s neat, good luck; have fun.
1 Like
UPDATE NUMBER 8
I decided to run Baalruns up to level 75 atleast to get some levels and loot. I found some set and uniques here and there. One nice ring instead of my plain +13 MF ring. you can see that one and some other drops from Baal below with Magefists.
I wanted to make Lionheart so I decided to run some Lower kurast objects in Nightmare on /players 8 to get Hel and Fal preferably. I was lucky with Hel but not with Fal so I went to start Hell difficulty.
I decided to do 10 Hell countess to get some runes. I found this decent boots in one of the runs:
And with Sol from Countess i finally finished Insight for merc, not the best one but decent.
And yes! finaly FAL
so i could make lionheart:
And here is last final tenth Countess run
Amazing :), together in 10 runs i got allt his:
Ral, Dol, Io, Eth, Amn, Thul, Sol, Eth, Thul, Ral, Amn, Nef, Io, Ort, Sol, Fal, Um, Key of Terror
I rushed rest of ACT I as fast as I could with Charge skill and fought Andariel on /players 3 so I had better chance for loot. She didnt gave me anything really. But in room before her I found Ethereal colossus vooulge and made new insight in it. Much better than the one i made before for merc. The voulge didnt have sockets but i was lucky and made 4 of them with Ral+Amn+P.Amethyst recipe. You can see me doing that and also fighting Andy on video below.
I have to say that this is so far great playthrough. I had some dangerous moments and close death encounters but thats part of it. I could go slower and more safer but I want to get to end little bit faster to have some good farming options or to find some good stuff for other characters I will also slowly start leveling up soon.
UPDATE NUMBER 9
I killed Radament and ventured out of town, at dry hills I found Unique ring and it was Dwarf Star, actualy great find, high magic reduction and fire absorb, exactly what i need so i switched it with my rare resist ring. I had high resistances anyway.
Cerebus Bite dropped shorty after in Far Oasis:
And Natalya armor just 20 seconds after that lol:
I would give it to merc with socketed amethyst so he can use colossus voulge insight I made before but he would lost 10% life leech from sigon combo, so i have to wait and find some helm with life leech for him first.
Maggot Lair was not easy because I had to get very close to enemies to kill them with hammers and beetles do a lot of damage when they are enchanted. It is not very good place for hammerdin. I was progressing very carefully and slow and merc killed most enemies. I had to give him that natalya armor and socket helm with amethyst so he could use colossus voulge Insight. His weaker insight wasnt enough there to kill enemies before he died. I had to revive him several times anyway.
I completely skipped Lost city, just running with charge around edges to find Claw viper temple. It had those damn Mummies immune to magic so merc had to deal with them. Snakes are also bad because I had to go close to hit them with hammers, but i was expecting more troubles there honestly. In the end it was fine.
I also skipped palace just findind stairs as fast as I could. There was nasty elite pack of horror archers on third floor, they were in the way. They killed my merc quite fast and i decided to not try my luck as they are highly magic resistant so it would take too much time to kill them vs them having time to kill me. I went around and just use my Teleport charges amulet I found before and teleported in the middle to go to Arcane Sanctuary.
Sanctuarty was super easy honestly. After I found Summoner, I charged directly to right tomb and I was quite lucky with the layout as entrance to Duriel was not too far. It still sucked tho as magic immune Greater Mummies were resurrecting ghosts stealing mana and giving troubles to my merc. to lure them away from mummies. When I found entrance I switched difficulty to /players 3. It was easy kill and Angelic amulet dropped. You can see me fight Duriel in clip below
2 Likes
Nice work documenting all this!!!
1 Like
Thanks for sharing. This is better content than all the exaggerated high end stuff guides / videos. GL on your journey.
1 Like
I started my single player Grail 3 days ago. I found a HoZ and SoJ last night, it was a great night. The SoJ was the second unique ring I’ve found so far after a nagelring. I was extremely surprised.
1 Like
UPDATE NUMBER 10
I picked up Khalims Eye and used charge to skip majority of jungle zones. When I doing that, I found Cleglaw Sword and Chieftain Battle axe and nice +6% MF small charm.
When I was in Kurast Bazaar I almost died, I run into Fana might enemies without thinking and only two full rejuvs saved me. It was so close… I have to take it more slowly.
This guy in sewers scared the hell out of me LOL.
And I did really dumb mistake casting hammer on another doll when i had amplify damage on me, critical mistake, it took away 700 of my Life! No more running with amplify damge in place with dolls, I am always going to town to get rid of curse from now on.
DAMN DOLLS!! They almost killed me again in second floor of sewers. Second floor is usualy empty, well not this time. Mosquito elite pack and champions greater mummies with some skeletons. I wasnt fully paying attention so I missed two dolls running to me. I accidentaly killed one and ended up with 342! Life. If that was elite dolls or if he had crit hit one me, it would definitely with amplify damage from freaking mosquitos elite pack. I just grabbed the Khalims heart and get the hell out of there without searching rest of second floor.
I decided to record well… stream Travincal and Mephisto Hell but I didnt stop there. I continued streaming some farming in lower kurast for a while and my whole journey in ACT IV and V to the end so you can see how I made it. I had Lum from Hellforge reward and after that not really much dropped. I had several very dangerous situations in ACT V, once I would most likely die without hitting escape and ending the game. Some hardcore player are against usage of escape, but for me its part of game and tool how to sometimew save to character so i dont have issue with using it.
Saving anya was not fun, I hate Frozen river location. I had to do it on second attempt because there were so many Hell tempress and Succubus. I at one point found 4 socketed sword for spirit but it was ethereal cryptic sword lol. I didnt care, I had enough str and dex to use it so i made spirit in it and it was good roll 33%. I pretty much rushed majority of act 5 with charge just as previous acts.
And then it was time for ancients :). I was honestly scared, I spend several last levels improving dexterity to I had block around 60%. First attempt was fail, my merc died quickly and I used like two full rejuvs and used TP to stop them. I managed to kill them on second attempt. Worldstone keep 1 was not fun at all, I was blocked in one spot for a long time before i managed to deal with enemies there. It was pack of heirophants, ther minions and other stuff. I didnt want to rush it and die so I killed them slowly one by one.
When I made it to Throne room, it was not fun. Not only Stygian dolls spawned there and a lot of them, but also greater mummies who can resurrect them. So yeah, hell on earth. My merc managed to destroy them all, but when second wave hit the ground, I realized I am screwed as I forgot that they are magic immune. I was thinking shorty before they landed about going behind them to stand next to baal so merc will not have decrepify on himself from baal, but it was too risky. I didnt want to be cut out from escape route by Mummies.
Damn Mummies kept resurrecting skeleton cold mages and also dolls and I was not able to deal with situation. Out of desperation, I sacrificed my UM and made duress so I could use smite and deal with mumies that way. But I could not, decrepify and freeze from bone mages resulted in 2 attacks per 1 hour and dmg was also too weak. On top of it dolls around running… I was just too scared and went to town to think what to do. I could just respec, but I didnt want to give up. I even tried Sureshill flanged mace and frozen orb from it, but it was too weak also.
And Then I got idea I went to vendors and kept checking their offer for scepter with Redemption (yeah I didnt put point there, kind of mistake). I could not believe my eyes when I was checking ACT 2 vendor. He was selling epic scepter which I bought, +3 combat skills, +2 conviction and +3 Fist of heavens.
Here is that epic thing
But that was not what i was looking for. I wanted scepter with redemption so I bought one with that too. Then I wend back to throne room and let merc kill dolls and skeleton one by one and destroyed their bodies with redemption. Then he was able to kill Greater mummies with me baiting Decrepify from baal. Rest of Baalrun was just fine, no issues and baal as not hard either. And my Paladin is Guardian
Here you can see whole stream from Travincal to Baal Hell. I included end cinematics
THX guys I am glad some people like it.
6 Likes
There’s an Aura also that Pal can use to remove/shorten curses, I used that non stop when soloing ubers, because the Matron’s Den is no fun when amped and those archers/succubus are everywhere around.
Glad you managed to escape death though, those stygian dolls are my bane.
1 Like
Thx, yeah i had few moments where i almost died on my playthrough Once with barb i eascaped death explosion of elite mob with barbarian with 2 HP
Anyway, since i already finished hell as Paladin, I am making amazon now. I am starting as Bowazon and would like to clear whole game with that. Then I probably switch to Javazon build.
Oh my, you may want for 2.4 to be live for that, because without the Avoid Dodge thingy working correctly you’ll be pretty weak. Depending on your build, you may also be quite challenged on the immunities in hell.
1 Like
Well I play offline with 2.4 and if they remove PTR I can still play ama. Its not that bad, I always played javazon even with the avoid and dodge.
2 Likes
Pretty sure you left a Tyrael’s Might on the ground behind that pillar
2 Likes
Haha good one, well i hope you are joking 
1 Like
Great content Zax,
Been wanting to do this for a while on hardcore, and seeing you document this so nice… I think I’m gonna start tonight
Good luck!
1 Like
UPDATE NUMBER 11
I started playing Amazon and planning to finish Hell with her just like with Paladin. I wanted to try boazon as I usualy always play javazon. I leveled magic arrow to lvl 13 so it cost 0 mana and next main skill will be probably guided arrow. I might switch to something else later if that will not work well. But i have some stuff from my apaldin playthrough like Buriza . I plan to play on /players 1 from start to endbut unlike with pala, i will try to completely clear all location on all 3 difficulties.
I found my first Unique with Amazon, Blood crescent:
And Iths are still usefull runes
I am also using this nice armor I found with Paladin
Unique Ring in Catacombs from chest:
And it is Nagelring +25% MF, great!
As always, I recorded my character killing boss so here you have clip with me killing andariel normal. She didnt drop anything interesting even when i had quite decent +%MF bonus.
Go for it, its fun and right way how to play diablo 2
2 Likes