Usain Bolter: Hell Difficulty Part One

I edited together three screenshots to capture the current damage output of Usain's three skills. As always, Holy Bolt remained the primary offensive tool with average damage right around 2000 per shot. This was despite the fact that Holy Bolt still had significant room for improvement as it was only sitting at SLVL 15+7 to reach the SLVL 22 displayed in the screenshot. Similarly, Fist of the Heavens (which Usain used primarily for the Holy Bolt synergy) sat at the same SLVL 15+7 which meant that there were a full 10 more skill points that could be allocated to boost Holy Bolt's damage further. By contrast, Blessed Hammer was completely maxed out at SLVL 20+7 and its Vigor synergy was similarly almost done as well at SLVL 18+7. Even with all of those skill points invested, Blessed Hammer did far less damage at roughly 1000 per hammer while also being the far tougher skill to hit things with. My plan for Act One was to finish maxing out Fist of the Heavens because I knew it would be needed against the Magic Immune greater mummies in Act Two. This would also increase the damage of Holy Bolt at the same time, quite useful given that I had previously established that about 90% of the monsters in Act One were either demons or undead.

The opening portions of Act One weren't too bad for Usain on the whole. The fallens in the Blood Moor took 2-3 shots apiece with Holy Bolt while the zombies took quite a few more, roughly 4 or 5 to drop the shambling undead. Holy Bolt's excellent range and fast-cast spamability still made it an outstanding weapon that tore these demon or undead foes apart. The toughest enemies were therefore the quill rats who had to be fought with Blessed Hammer and that forced Usain to get closer than I would have wanted. While ordinary quill rats would die in a couple of hammer casts, bosses or champion pack quill rats were a lot sturdier while also doing more damage. One Cursed quill rat boss chewed right through Usain's health orb and nearly forced me to drink a full rejuv potion. This wasn't the most optimistic sign for the first area of Hell difficulty and I knew that Usain would always have a rougher time fighting anything that he couldn't Holy Bolt, right up until the final leg of his journey.

Fallen shamans appearing in the Den of Evil didn't make things any harder, they died just as fast as their shorter minions. That had been Usain's experience on the lower difficulties and I was happy to see the same pattern continued here. Zombies were also prime Holy Bolt bait no matter how much health they might have; enemies like Corpsefire were never going to reach Usain, not with his own ridiculous speed against their slow and halting steps. The one monster that forced some real effort was the handful of Gargantuan Beasts in the Den of Evil, with the big yetis having right around 10,000 health. This meant close to a dozen casting of Blessed Hammer needed for each kill and that gave the Gargantuan Beasts enough time to smack Usain around while he was still tossing out hammers. I definitely needed to increase the damage of Blessed Hammer, right after finishing up with skilling Fist of the Heavens.

The Cold Plains proved to be easier than either of the first two areas because everything inside was vulnerable to Holy Bolt. Usain had the usual fallen with their shamans and then two different types of corrupted rogues. One of the evil rogue types was immune to lightning and the other was immune to cold, neither of which mattered to Usain since they both had zero magic resistance. Everything died very quickly in this outdoor area, including Bishibosh and his big fallen camp, plus there was even a pair of experience shrines to speed Usain along to the next level. The Cave was a similiar story where everything was again Holy Boltable; corrupted rogue archers were slightly more dangerous since they had a ranged attack but still not something to worry about overmuch. Once again, Usain sped through this underground area while dropping about ten different bosses across the two floors. None of them were dangerous enough to merit a screenshot even though I spotted some of them with traits like Cursed and Might/Fanaticism auras. They all just died in mere seconds to the power of Holy Bolt.

At the end of this gaming session, I finally managed to hit the Paladin +1 skills aura that I'd been searching out forever. It had some really nice other modifiers too: 9% resist all along with 41% resistance on poison (the least important resistance type but still not bad), +9 Energy for a little more mana, and even some minor reduced poison duration. I happily made the swap over to this new amulet with every Paladin skill now benefiting from +8 total skills. I decided to swap over to gambling rings for the moment in the hopes of picking up something with a little more fire and cold resistance, and once Usain was able to improve his setup there, he could go back to gambling amulets in the hopes of finding +2 or +3 Paladin Combat skills. (Then a little bit later Usain gambled an amulet with +3 Paladin Defensive auras, then rolled +3 Defensive auras a second time; he had +3 Offensive auras and double +3 Defense auras without hitting Paladin Combat skills, the only one that he actually needed - sheesh!)

Blood Raven is classified as a demon which made her an extremely easy opponent to defeat. Her zombies were of course shot down with Holy Bolt and then Blood Raven herself spent the next few minutes running around in crazed circles. She rarely paused to fire a shot with her bow, instead spending all of her time just running, running, running away. What's the point of having an enemy boss that never bothers to attack - were the developers trying to bore the player to death? Her defeat opened the path into the Mausoleum and the Crypt, two of the stranger subdungeons in Diablo 2 since both of them always have the exact same pair of monsters present, skeletons and zombies. These are therefore always all-melee and all-undead zones which makes them somewhat tedious to complete. I have nothing interesting to report from these places, Usain killed everything with ease using Holy Bolt and took more damage from smashing barrels than getting hit by enemies.

The Stony Field had crows present which forced the use of Blessed Hammer for the first time in a while. Crows are one of the least-dangerous enemy types in the whole game though and the extra health and higher damage on the Hell difficulty version of these evil birds didn't pose much of an issue. The rest of the Stony Field had goats and fallens/carvers, and you can pretty much guess how that went. Rakanishu has extremely low health for a unique boss and he died offscreen from some long-range Holy Bolts. The Underground Passage added Misshapen to the mix, however they were demons as well and died just as readily to Holy Bolt as everything else. Nothing in there had more than a few thousand HP, none of them had any magic resistance, and Holy Bolt was approaching 3000 damage as its Fist of the Heavens synergy came close to maxing out. This was a lopsided matchup in Usain's favor.

The Dark Wood on the other side of the Underground Passage had mostly undead and demon opponents as well, huge crowds of carvers milling around along with lots of corrupted rogues. The exception to the rule was Spike Fiends (upgraded quill rats) who were a type of animal and tricky to hit with Blessed Hammer because of their small character models. While individual Spike Fiends weren't much of an issue, it was a real problem when bosses popped up with their attendant minions packing traits like Cursed and Extra Strong. I never quite had to drink an emergency full rejuv against them but that's probably because Usain had a hefty 1500 HP to work with.

I cleared most of the Dark Wood before finding the Tree of Inifuss which brought Treehead WoodFist roaring out. The boss is always Extra Fast / Extra Strong and this time packed on the Magic Resistance trait to cut Blessed Hammer's damage along with the Mana Burn trait to empty Usain's mana orb. Normally Mana Burn is one of the least dangerous boss affixes but it was a legitimate threat here, with a single hit enough to remove hundreds of MP. I'd also been stacking all that movement speed on Usain mostly as a joke to fit with his character theme, not really thinking it would be that helpful. Well, it was genuinely helpful here because Treehead was really fast and Usain's own incredible movement was the only reason why he could stay ahead of the enemy brutes. This was a very dangerous fight and I was extremely glad that Usain had the open spaces of the Dark Wood to employ hit and run tactics, throwing Blessed Hammers behind him as he danced away. I wasn't sure what I would do if he had to repeat this fight in a cramped environment; hopefully I won't have to find out.

Usain continued onwards into the Black Marsh where the enemy draw didn't change much, skeletons and corrupted rogue archers and more Brutes, this time as a normal monster instead of a unique boss. The Brutes required the most effort to defeat due to their resistance to Holy Bolt and their higher health totals, though fortunately none of them rose to the challenge level of Treehead in the previous area. Then it was time to venture into the Forgotten Tower for the Countess quest, known for its dreaded stairs traps. This time around there was only one trapped staircase and it didn't have a boss present which I considered to be a very friendly draw for Usain. All five floors of the Forgotten Tower will pull from three out of four possible monsters: Devilkin, Ghosts, Blood Clan goats, and Dark Archer rogues. All four of them have the undead or demon tag which made this another paradise for Holy Bolt use. That's not to say that everything was easy going though: the second floor had a Might aura goat boss as soon as Usain came down the stairs and it was only through firing Holy Bolts like a machine gun that Usain made it through unscathed. I never even saw the traits on that goat boss, I had to focus on dropping it ASAP. The Countess on the bottom floor had Cursed and Blessed Aim aura for her extra abilities (and I nearly put Usain in dire peril walking into her room to get the screenshot), then dropped Amn and Tal runes for the quest reward. That would mean another roll on a crafted Blood Amulet as soon as Usain turned up a Jewel to use in the Cube recipe.

The Hole tends to be a bit of an afterthought, an optional area with no reason to explore inside, however it was anything but routine for Usain this time around. A Brute boss and its half dozen minions spawned on the first platform below the entry staircase and Usain had zero room to maneuver before the furry monsters were on top of him. I retreated back to the stairs tossing Blessed Hammers all the while, knowing that I was running out of space, then had to sprint in a daring attempt to break free as the enemies were closing in. I thought for a second that Usain had been trapped against the walls only to see him wriggle free and make it back into empty space. The Brutes were eventually cornered on this narrow path down where they had to approach single file and repeated Blessed Hammers could wear them down. This was a nasty little fight and this Brute boss didn't even have dangerous traits. Then later in the dungeon Usain ran into a Cursed/Multishot archer boss where he very carefully dodged the incoming arrows, followed by a Brute boss and corrupted rogue archer boss fought simultaneously. I wasn't able to take more pictures because these situations were simply too dangerous - it would really help if Usain didn't have to have movement and spellcasting keyed to the same left mouse button!

The Tamoe Highland had plenty more skeletons and corrupted rogues for Usain to fight, though once again the toughest opponents were the latest incarnation of quill rats. These were officially named Thorned Beasts and they were annoying since they were the only thing that couldn't be hit with Holy Bolt. After getting roughed up from yet another charge into close range for Blessed Hammer usage, I decided that I'd try another tactic against a clump of Thorned Beasts:

That fireworks show was courtesy of Fist of the Heavens, which Usain had finally finished maxing out in skill points at SLVL 20+8. Fist of the Heavens was the least practical of Usain's three damaging skills in terms of frequent usage; it hit for right around 1000 damage, lower than Blessed Hammer and a lot lower than Holy Bolt, while being attuned to lightning element which many enemy types strongly resisted or were immune outright. Fist of the Heavens also has a casting delay of 0.4 seconds to prevent the player from fast-cast spamming it while also costing a hefty 25 mana per use. However, Fist of the Heavens did work against animal type opponents and could be used at a distance, unlike Blessed Hammer which was virtually useless outside of melee range. In situation like these where the quill rats were bunched up together, Usain could stay at range and wear them down with repeated uses of Fist of the Heavens. That was preferable to running up and getting hit by seven Extra Strong-enhanced monsters at once! I figured that I would use this tactic more often against ranged opponents; Blessed Hammer was better against melee foes because they would run forward into the hammers and could be kited backwards.

The Pit Level 2 is often the single deadliest part of Act One, a tiny deathtrap with no room to manuever that usually holds three bosses. I thought that Usain might have better luck here since everything in the Pit was either an undead or a demon, and in fact Usain turned out to have the easiest Pit encounter that I can remember on Hell difficulty. He was able to snipe the Devilkin shamans at long range without having to move down the steps, shutting down their resurrection before it could cause any issues. Then when it came to the bosses, Usain had the extremely good luck to draw three different Devilkin bosses - not Devilkin shaman bosses, the little critters themselves. Even with their health tripled by the boss bonuses, these Devilkin bosses still died in three or four shots of Holy Bolt and I didn't even have time to see what their abilities were before they were splatting on the ground. I really wish that some of my weaker characters could have gotten a monster draw like this, Usain could have handled much tougher opposition!

The Outer Cloister didn't have quill rats present but did have Yetis, the other potential enemy who couldn't be hit with Holy Bolt. Usain was able to trap a Yeti boss in one of the narrow gates leading into the middle of the Cloister, another place where the big creatures clumped up on top of one another and couldn't push through to hit Usain. This was the only tricky part before Usain continued onwards into the Barracks where everything was Holy Boltable. It's kind of amazing how low the health totals are for the monsters in the Barracks and Jail floors; the goats are the tankiest with around 5000 HP apiece and everything else has less than that. With Holy Bolt now operating off a full Fist of the Heavens synergy and gaining 8 skill points from Usain's equipment, each bolt was hitting for 2618-2948 damage which was enough for two or three shot kills against everything. Usain tore right through here until coming across the Smith in the final room who rolled the Cursed trait to go with his always-present Extra Strong. That was a seriously scary combo and I made use of Usain's extreme speed along with the obstacles in the crowded room to keep the Smith from getting into melee range. The demon smith was never able to get close enough to hit Usain as Holy Bolts cut him down at range, whew.

The Jail levels were pretty uninteresting for Usain without anything too scary or memorable appearing. All three of these floors have the identical set of monsters that they can draw from, and all five of the potential options were vulnerable to Holy Bolt. I guess that Holy Bolt didn't work on the Gargoyle Traps but they hardly counted as real opposition. These were three floors full of Dark Ones (without their shamans), Wraiths, goats, and two different types of skeletons packing either bows or magic firebolts. None of that was going to pose much of a threat for Usain's setup. Pitspawn Fouldog did not appear in a jail cell as it typically does, instead the ugly thing was hanging out around a corner with his fellow demonic minions in a big group. Extra Strong trait on the boss was slightly concerning but Holy Bolt just did too much damage and went through them like a scythe through a wheatfield, slaying everything in mere seconds.

After passing through a deserted Inner Cloister, Usain fought his way past a whole bunch of Dark Ones and their shamans in the Cathedral. I think there were three different shaman bosses in there along with Bone Ash which made for a big romp around the central altar. The first floor of the Catacombs was easy pickings for Usain as everything still continued to be either a demon or a type of undead. There were more Dark Ones and their shamans, which he had seen plenty of by now, and the new introduction of Rat Men didn't do anything to change these combats. Those little things lacked their own shamans that the fetishes and flayers get in Act Three; they always look weirdly lonely without shamans of their own. This floor went by in a hurry, maybe ten minutes to clear the whole thing.

It was a different story on Catacombs 2 and that was entirely due to the presence of the Arach spiders. Those things had far more health than almost anything else that Usain had encountered throughout Act One and required the use of Blessed Hammer since they were not a demon or an undead foe. The normal spiders weren't too bad even if they did require close to ten hammers apiece, however the Arach bosses were genuinely quite dangerous to face. The pictured room above was tricky because the Dark One shaman had the chance to inflict Cursed status, and then there was another fight with an Arach boss in a side corridor where several of the spiders were able to corner Usain against a wall, and only furious Blessed Hammer castings were able to kill one of the creatures to create an escape path. I was relieved to find that the spiders were gone on Cats 3, replaced by much tamer zombies and vampires who were easy prey for Holy Bolt. Usain will need to keep increasing the damage of Blessed Hammer to deal with the various spiders down the road in Act Three.

The big room with the Blood Pool on Cats 4 was quickly emptied by means of casting Holy Bolt at everything in sight, with Usain seeking out and destroying the shamans to stop their reviving efforts. Once the entry area was secured, Usain could open the gates and draw out Andariel after him. She immediately followed my Paladin as we began running laps around the pool, however it quickly became apparent that Holy Bolt was annihilating her health bar. Andariel has about 60k health in Hell difficulty, and while that might sound like a lot, it ticked away very quickly at 2800 damage per Holy Bolt and the demoness having no magic resistance to lower its effectiveness. Usain didn't even complete one full rotation around the pool before Andariel collapsed into a fiery explosion; I even managed to capture the instant of her death in a screenshot.

All in all then, Act One was pretty routine for Usain without any true close calls and only a few instances of real danger. Based on my experience in the first two difficulties, I knew that Act One was the best part of the whole game in terms of monsters being vulnerable to Holy Bolt. Act Two would have far, far more situations where Usain had to fall back on Blessed Hammer which would increase the danger factor tenfold. Usain would also be facing the first Magic Immune opponents of his journey thus far where he'd have to use Fist of the Heavens to secure kills. I had a plan for dealing with the greater mummies in the upcoming underground areas, hopefully it would work in practice or Usain was going to be in a lot of trouble. Things were definitely going to be tougher in the upcoming acts.