Gurney Halleck, the dagger barb, versus Diablo

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Act IV.

Found Izual. Killed him. No problems. While shopping at Jamella's, I
finally got a break, weapon wise. She offered to sell a "Static Kris of
Thunder" - 2-11 damage, very fast attack, 2-127 lightning damage! Yeah,
now that will help a lot on my way to Diablo.

[ I learned an interesting thing about quest items today. I killed
Hephaesto and took his hammer. Then I left the game and copied the
hammer to a d2i file (the hellforge hammer and khalim's will together
make for a kick ass set of noob weapons). When I returned, I killed
Hephaesto again, and he dropped ANOTHER hammer, but when I tried to
pick it up, my char said "I can't." No problem, I just left it there,
and smashed the soulstone. Naturally, the hammer I caried disappeared.
However, when I looked over at Hephaesto's corpse, I saw that the
second hammer was not only still there, but that I could now carry it.
So, the lesson is: if you need an easy +40 fire resists, before facing
Big D, then double kill Hephaesto, and equip the hell forge hammer
during the upcoming battle. ]

I set the game back to /players 1 before entering Diablo's sanctuary. I
am not relishing the incredible tedium of playing on simulated 8
players with weapons that caused 2-11 damage per hit! Also, I can't
seem to remember if there are OK's in the Chaos Sanctuary on normal. I
hope not, since I haven't got a point in berserk! LOFL. I hope War Cry
is not susceptible to Iron Maiden. Just the same, I picked up a decent
balanced knife - just to be safe.

Oh, dear! There ARE Okies in normal! I am so glad I bought throwing
knifes! Anyhow, clearing the sanctuary wasn't too bad. The IM was
frustrating, but even with no points in throwing mastery, and using the
default throw, I was able to clear out all of the undead. Once that was
done, I broke the seals, dealt with the bosses (lots of taunting going
on here) and faced off with Diablo. He wasn't too bad, although his hit
points are extreme compared to the damage I'm causing, and without PMH
he was able to slowly regenerate a bit. But, I made it. He's dead, and
he even dropped me Isenhart's Case! I also got a rare axe, some claws,
a decent 'zon spear. No daggers though. I realise now that I'll need to
determine a more viable strategy for Diablo in nightmare. My War Cry
can be used against IM, but it's a mana-hog, and the damage really
isn't that great. I don't have Berserk. I may need to rethink my skill
allocations...

Well, it's off to Hagaroth. At least now I KNOW that I can get Larzuk
to make me a 3 socket kris. I was hoping, however, to save that reward
for a more end-game weapon. Perhaps fortune will smile on me in my
barbarian homeland?