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Love the content! As for Nightmare, I think the 'interesting moments' bit is a good idea. It's always a slog to get through Nightmare and doesn't feel as fun to get through as Normal and Hell
Years ago, I used to play "naked" runs in D2:LoD quite often. The rules were: only allowed gear was 1 white/grey belt (for holding potions) and 1 white/grey weapon (usually the starting weapon), and no follower. The rest of the playthrough was about levels and skill (or patience, if DPS was too low). I did naked runs with a Bowazon (got to level 97), bone-mancer (99), fire/lighting/cold sorcs (each to 99), and trapssassin (~75). Then D3 came out and killed naked runs like it killed Deckard Cain.
That’s crazy! Was it in the early LoD patches? Crazy feat of patience either way! I did a video where I beat D3 without using a weapon (but allowed all other gear) and I think gearless is straight up impossible in D3
@@zarfen It was sometime between 2006-2007, so I guess patch 1.11b? Patience was often necessary, but thankfully, synergies had already been introduced, so my DPS wasn't always garbage.
@@roguethemachine3928 It did take over a year. I didn't even finish the trapssassin. All was done in softcore offline, and I used /players 8 in normal and nightmare when my DPS was high enough (not really viable in hell).
@@zarfen gearless is possible if you want to kill diablo in D3, but interestingly trying to not level up is how you do it. again the sorceress with ray of frost at level 2 allows you to shred through most of the game, and if you can finesse a gr keystone from visions for the altar of rites getting 100 flat damage makes the game trivial. however actually doing a challenge run on pc would be painful not because of the difficulty but because there is no move-only afaik so you're prone to one-shotting random enemies and permanently damaging your run. and because of the always online you can't roll back a save. I think the best option would be to use the console version after creating a seasonal character to have access to visions and the altar of rites (because season), and have the option to roll back a save, and also have the ability to move without attacking. (because console) all in all I wouldn't recommend it, because it's just a dumb quest/boss rush with no really interesting strategy and you can basically permanently softlock the game by accidentally killing enemies due to the level scaling.
Nightmare is by far the easiest difficulty, & with nearly no items or upgrades to showcase in this challenge (other than simply interesting drops), I don't mind you skipping it in the video at all. Thanks for the content.
It was fun watching you struggle with this challange but good to see you completed it. Thank You for the video :) Your point for skipping Nightmare is absolutely valid but maybe it's an idea to show some highlights, funny moments, close calls or cool drops? maybe a short montage?
Thanks! Yeah I was able to cover everything interesting from nm really quickly in this one, but partially because none of the drops mattered with no gear :) I think I might try doing it again for the next one, but maybe add a few more interesting/funny moments if there are any
Hey Zarfen, great video as always, good execution as well! While watching, I noticed your struggle with the lack of a belt, and I remembered something: D2R has official controller support for PC, and when you play using one, it allows you to use potions from your inventory thru your belt slots, automatically, without the need to open the inv menu. Plus, playing on the controller is actually amazing, responsive and fun! Only to manage inventory stuff that it's worse than M+K, but you can have the best of both worlds on PC :)
Thank you! And thanks for the tip, I had no idea about that. Might be worth considering for the next character to be honest because it was a very tedious part of this run!
The recap made this video more enjoyable. Thank you for taking our enjoyment of the video into consideration. I think depending on the channel a different level of recording would be required but as a regular diablo 2 player I can agree nightmare is the most dull of the three.
Nice channel, it's always nice to see someone who actually knows the game. Every time i think about something you mention it soon after (altough i would have choosen Hydra over Meteor because the damage is actually higher with more hydras and you can safely make progress against souls from 1.5 screen away and camp in safety from a 90° angle) Honestly i never played D2R, but i have played with the original for like 17 years, but i'm familiar with the changes they made in D2R. I think you probably won't do other naked run because Necro, Druid and Assassin is just a walk in the park, even in the origi game. Amazon can be a decent challange, but since your build is strictly bound to Valkyrie with no other option and since we know it's entierly possible to beat the game with Valk it would be pointless. And naked Barbarian is... well can be considered a self punishement for no reason.
Wooo!! Congrats on the sponsor! Also, yeah, if there's nothing exciting going on, I do prefer if you just skip it. In this video, nothing too exciting was happening in nightmare so it's fine.
Thanks for the feedback! It of course depends on the challenge and build but I think a lot of character could get away with summarizing interesting drops and any merc and skill changes for nm
I'm finding your D2 videos very entertaining :) I think that glossing over NM with showing the highlights worked pretty well this time. Skipping it entirely would probably have been a tad jarring though. Cheers
my comment on your Barb playthrough I would like to insert here as well, if you read it, just say it again in your mind, as for additions... WOW, incredible skills you have, Blaize is such a champ, good on you for keeping her around, this was ultimately impressive, I'm surprised you didnt try to go farm a Ral rune right away to fill that helm though, and a bit shocked you didnt sell off the runes you didnt want, or gems, I understand the whole " too good to use, must keep all" aspect of thinking though I do the same, always a full stash and near empty inventory when I beat this and many other games, great job on the inventory management, my first thought right away was "Sorceress with no gear, no belt?! :O " you pulled it off very nicely, I am a HUGE fan of Icy Orb, kept wondering why you weren't using it to begin with but I get the huge range difference and low health at low lvls ^_^
One thing I thought about afterwards is that orb has great coverage and makes sure to hit everything in it’s path while blizzard can completely miss enemies running at you so it might have been a solid or even better choice, even with blizzard’s range advantage. Though in the end I’m happy I got to try a few different skills out :) thanks again for your comment
I was never interested in doing challenge runs, but you and Seer make them look _fun_. So I've decided to try one myself a couple of weeks ago. Something easier though, my rule is that I'm not allowed to put points into or activate skills that have level requirement higher than 6. Finished the Nightmare (who'd have thought that if the game gifts you 4sox eth Partizan your merc melts that difficulty???), but haven't tried Hell yet. Looking forward to it, and also to more weird challenges from you
Great content as always Zarfen. Skipping nightmare feels a little weird when it comes from a spectator point of view. It's nice that you showed a couple notable things happening in Nightmare. Not entirely sure how I feel about not watching Nightmare progression, I understand what you mean though
Thanks and thanks for your input. I could perhaps do a little bit longer of a recap of nm. It did feel a little weird to jump from act 1 to act 4 hellforge to act 5 in like 10 seconds.
Great video again, you goblin! I really envy your persistance, thats a great character trait. And you have quite a good hand with ur humouristic style. Thanks a lot for the entertainment :)
@@balbarith45 come on, she's a sorceress not a mage and it's a camp not a town, clearly the point was extrapolated to medieval fantasy in general, lol. It's just a funny thought.
@@Leongon A sorceress is a mage. It's just a different level of mage. The first act is indeed a camp since the sisterhood escaped from the monastery. In this case , those are demons. Minor ones at that.
The sorceress is my favorite character and you have inspired me to try this challenge as well. I think I will try it online though, so I can trade for charms and runes for my mercenary.
Cool video and cool video series. I like the nightmare summary. What would the opposite challenge be, beat the game with equipment only? What would the most optimized way be to beat the game? Say if you could do something similar but have gear already in your stash or have a 2nd player give you gear as you level up? I guess, without having a 2nd player just give you all the waypoints and run you through the game. How overpowered can you be? What class would you choose? What gear options would you choose I guess is what I'm saying. Maybe also add without teleporting through everything?
Thanks! I’m going to do a no skills run (relying only on equipment) at some point but it’s probably going to take a long time to do so I’m not sure when it’s happening.
I enjoy your videos and like the narration of the journey. Due to that, I would say to leave the Nightmare clear included in the future. But I do get your point otherwise.
I would be glad you to show the Nightmare difficulty in the video, but decision is up to you of course, choose whatever is better in terms of algorithms of TH-cam.
Re: Plains of Despair, You can reroll the enemy types without rerolling the whole map in offline mode. This tip is more helpful to people without teleport, of course.
Personally I like to see nightmare mode and the slightly increased challenge but I can understand why you would want to skip it. I’m a fan of long videos though I watch a lot of 1 1/2 to 2 hour + videos all the time. I like seeing Al the details and more of the choices you made. But that’s probably a smaller audience than a 30-40 min vid. Either way, love your content.
@@zarfen In LoD there was a certain spot where you could stand and he couldn't touch you. They used to do it in the speedruns. I don't know if it works in resurrected though.
I did this with a few buddies once, with the added rule that if you died you had to take a drink. You can imagine it got difficult quick. We did make it to nightmare eventually. Good times.
25:57 I don't see a lot of talk about Duress when endgame gear is mentioned, and that's a shame. It's really solid for how cheap it is. I mentioned my "Normal gear only" challenge on another video; Duress in an Ancient Armor was my torso piece until I respec'd into the Explosive Arrow build. (Also, to my great annoyance, I got 4 sockets from the Cube on THREE Ancient Armors before getting a 3 socket.)
Def Merc from Act 2 NM with Duress and Insight would have done wonders. Also, you were so worried about playing keep away that you didn't try to use Static Field which would have helped greatly with those Cold Immune mobs that forced you to go dual.
I usually always go Orb/FB when I start fresh. Orb does good damage and FB is the backup skill but Hydra is also decent damage as well with minimal skill points. I would of went orb/FB from the very beginning. Orb till hell and FB or Hydra as the backup in Hell.
The weirdest and hardest run is - in my opinion - hardcore/no death, no damage, fire sorc with no equipment. Or if we're on D2 LoD hardcore/no death, no damage, martial artist assassin with no equipment. Favorite run I did back in the day in the early 2000's was a summon necromancer with no equipment and no damage. I didn't use an aura merc either, I would usually opt in for a rogue so I had range.
Last ladder season on D2 I created a pure summoner necro. I called him bone daddy. It was honestly a ton of fun. Some bosses were harder than others but it was definitely worth trying it. Best part was getting a team mate that also went mostly summons so we had like 30+ skeletons 2 golem and a bunch of shades running around.
Skipping nightmare? Solid. Stat recap/merc recap after would be ideal. Paused right as you said “but a few things of note in nightmare” or similar so maybe you cover though.
hail yea, been looking forward to a new video to watch a dozen times. wouldnt energy shield have been a good choice? idk much about how it works truthfully
I think it would have “cost” too many skill points taken away from my damage skills, but it’s an interesting idea for defense that I didn’t even consider while playing.
This was a great achievement, Sorc is one of the most fragile characters, and doing that without Charms is an even greater achievement. Nice job, two down, five to go =)
I often use the official battle net “arreat summit” website but that has not been updated for d2r so I can’t recommend you use that. This looks comprehensive to me at a glance and the people behind the website are very knowledgeable: maxroll.gg/d2/resources/horadric-cube-recipes
Maybe if the challenge calls for it you could respec into a different skill for nightmare. Would make it less repetitive. Could have the same challenge with a different skill for each difficulty level.
Why not combining healing merc with insight polearm? They do give each other synergies and you can teleport merc out of harms way any time. I use that on summon necro and summon are invincible with that on normal and nightmare xD Also I don't understand why you didn't take a single point of static field on every build...
Honestly I agree with skipping Nightmare mode. Whenever I go back to D2 and decide I want to play a character through till completing Hell mode, Nightmare always feels like a slog to me. Not to make it fun for me though beating Hell difficulty is always a blast.
@@zarfenPersonally I think it's okay to perform naked runs with a broken belt equipped. You get none of the stats but the additional belt slots. As this only saves time restocking the potions from the inventory I think this doesn't really add any benefits besides comfort.
Hello the farming for upgraded gear vids are avesome. Or just a normal playthrough and stop to grind some gear in certain spots? This could be a series done with all the characters? Idk about the game much but enjoy your loot goblinism
14:00 finding um and mal in nm is extremely lucky. But I think you should talk about duriel - he is cold immune so what did you do in his chamber? 14:46 ending NM at clvl 49 is pretty damn impressive. 16:00 i had the same problem with a lightning build... at clvl 82. I'd say do some TZ. 20:00 duriel is cold immune, you can't do damage to him with blizzard. on hell he would make minced meat out of you and your merc.
This run might've been easier on console, because activating an empty belt slot will use a potion from your inventory which closest resembles the one which last occupied that slot.
Tough call imo. Ele is gona be harsh with no FSR but twisters stun may prove to be useful. Great vid btw! Also my vote is for "the diablo dudes" idk y but it just sounds funny
Part of it was because I want to use a bit of variety in mercs in these videos, and part was because melee mercs were hard to keep alive for me. I was quite low level. They changed that at some point in D2R. Don’t remember exactly when but very good change imo
I like the build too, but with 0 FCR I was afraid that it would take so long to summon all the hydras. Would probably have been safer against the souls in the throne though!
I now use OBS, but some of my earlier videos were recorded with Streamlabs. Both worked great for recording, the reason I switched was related to streaming
@zarfen Wowzer, I thought those were just streaming tools. I had no idea you could also use them for recording gameplay that wasn't being streamed. Thank you so much for your videos. I would give you a superchat but I lost my job recently. I hope my praise and encouragement is enough for now. 💔
@oppressionsimulatorgotyedi9009 They’re easy to use but require a little bit of setting up to record with the right settings for your setup. I’d recommend OBS to anyone looking to start recording gameplay, thought I’m sure there are plenty of other options as well. Just watching is more than enough! Please don’t donate money you can’t afford. I’m glad you like the videos, thanks for watching
Check out War Thunder for free on PC, PlayStation or Xbox: playwt.link/zarfen
Use the link to get a free bonus pack if you're a new or returning player who haven't played in 6 months.
"It wasn't an elegant solution, but it was a solution. And a solution, that is just a solution, is solution enough for me."
Words to live by.
That was at 24:00 for those that wonder :D
The highlights from nightmare was enough. I think it was a good choice.
Thanks for the input!
Love the content! As for Nightmare, I think the 'interesting moments' bit is a good idea. It's always a slog to get through Nightmare and doesn't feel as fun to get through as Normal and Hell
Thanks for sharing your opinion.
I do like your idea of skipping Nightmare mode but maybe you could replace that part by playing the Hidden Cow Level for us.
Hmm, I don’t usually do the cow level at all, but maybe… like a half-time show between normal and hell
Years ago, I used to play "naked" runs in D2:LoD quite often. The rules were: only allowed gear was 1 white/grey belt (for holding potions) and 1 white/grey weapon (usually the starting weapon), and no follower. The rest of the playthrough was about levels and skill (or patience, if DPS was too low). I did naked runs with a Bowazon (got to level 97), bone-mancer (99), fire/lighting/cold sorcs (each to 99), and trapssassin (~75).
Then D3 came out and killed naked runs like it killed Deckard Cain.
That’s crazy! Was it in the early LoD patches? Crazy feat of patience either way!
I did a video where I beat D3 without using a weapon (but allowed all other gear) and I think gearless is straight up impossible in D3
@@zarfen It was sometime between 2006-2007, so I guess patch 1.11b? Patience was often necessary, but thankfully, synergies had already been introduced, so my DPS wasn't always garbage.
@@abhimanyusheshashayee it would had taken more than 1 year to complete all this considering solo 1-99 is extremely long if not player 8
@@roguethemachine3928 It did take over a year. I didn't even finish the trapssassin. All was done in softcore offline, and I used /players 8 in normal and nightmare when my DPS was high enough (not really viable in hell).
@@zarfen gearless is possible if you want to kill diablo in D3, but interestingly trying to not level up is how you do it.
again the sorceress with ray of frost at level 2 allows you to shred through most of the game, and if you can finesse a gr keystone from visions for the altar of rites getting 100 flat damage makes the game trivial.
however actually doing a challenge run on pc would be painful not because of the difficulty but because there is no move-only afaik so you're prone to one-shotting random enemies and permanently damaging your run. and because of the always online you can't roll back a save.
I think the best option would be to use the console version after creating a seasonal character to have access to visions and the altar of rites (because season), and have the option to roll back a save, and also have the ability to move without attacking. (because console)
all in all I wouldn't recommend it, because it's just a dumb quest/boss rush with no really interesting strategy and you can basically permanently softlock the game by accidentally killing enemies due to the level scaling.
My guy Uffe didn't last long, but we will always remember him. Rest in parkbänk, Uffe.
Haha 😂
Nice name, parkbänk Jango will follow in his footsteps
A parkbänk is a glorious place to be ❤
Nightmare is by far the easiest difficulty, & with nearly no items or upgrades to showcase in this challenge (other than simply interesting drops), I don't mind you skipping it in the video at all.
Thanks for the content.
Thanks for your input.
I really enjoy your commentary Zarfen! Thanks for sharing this hilarious run
Glad you liked it!
It was fun watching you struggle with this challange but good to see you completed it. Thank You for the video :)
Your point for skipping Nightmare is absolutely valid but maybe it's an idea to show some highlights, funny moments, close calls or cool drops? maybe a short montage?
Thanks!
Yeah I was able to cover everything interesting from nm really quickly in this one, but partially because none of the drops mattered with no gear :)
I think I might try doing it again for the next one, but maybe add a few more interesting/funny moments if there are any
Sorc hasn’t been drinking this much since she graduated from sorc school 😂
4:58 I never knew that the monsters can't climb the stairs in the Claw Viper Temple lvl 2. You learn something new every day... Thank you!!
Hey Zarfen, great video as always, good execution as well!
While watching, I noticed your struggle with the lack of a belt, and I remembered something:
D2R has official controller support for PC, and when you play using one, it allows you to use potions from your inventory thru your belt slots, automatically, without the need to open the inv menu.
Plus, playing on the controller is actually amazing, responsive and fun! Only to manage inventory stuff that it's worse than M+K, but you can have the best of both worlds on PC :)
Thank you!
And thanks for the tip, I had no idea about that. Might be worth considering for the next character to be honest because it was a very tedious part of this run!
@@zarfen Belt size doesn't matter at all on controller it's great :) Big downgrade on pc when it's not auto-refilled
Controller also gets the ability to pick up items directly to the Horadric Cube, OP
The recap made this video more enjoyable.
Thank you for taking our enjoyment of the video into consideration. I think depending on the channel a different level of recording would be required but as a regular diablo 2 player I can agree nightmare is the most dull of the three.
Nice channel, it's always nice to see someone who actually knows the game. Every time i think about something you mention it soon after (altough i would have choosen Hydra over Meteor because the damage is actually higher with more hydras and you can safely make progress against souls from 1.5 screen away and camp in safety from a 90° angle)
Honestly i never played D2R, but i have played with the original for like 17 years, but i'm familiar with the changes they made in D2R.
I think you probably won't do other naked run because Necro, Druid and Assassin is just a walk in the park, even in the origi game. Amazon can be a decent challange, but since your build is strictly bound to Valkyrie with no other option and since we know it's entierly possible to beat the game with Valk it would be pointless. And naked Barbarian is... well can be considered a self punishement for no reason.
Found your channel recently. I love the vids regardless of you including noghtmare or not.
I just love listening to you
Thanks! Glad you like the videos
Great video as always. I think the nightmare highlights was fine. The drops you got were so troll.
Thanks! Haha yeah for sure.
Wooo!! Congrats on the sponsor! Also, yeah, if there's nothing exciting going on, I do prefer if you just skip it. In this video, nothing too exciting was happening in nightmare so it's fine.
Thanks for the feedback!
It of course depends on the challenge and build but I think a lot of character could get away with summarizing interesting drops and any merc and skill changes for nm
This video was amazing and I think your idea to do a recap of act2 is perfect ! Thank you !
Always happy to see a new Zarfen video! Also good work getting a sponsor, get that bag. 💰
Also I like skipping Nightmare for future videos.
Thanks! Appreciate the input. I’m glad the feedback regarding nm skip has been positive.
I'm finding your D2 videos very entertaining :)
I think that glossing over NM with showing the highlights worked pretty well this time. Skipping it entirely would probably have been a tad jarring though.
Cheers
Thanks!
Yes, “skipping” is probably not the right phrase, there should definitely be some summary/highlights.
More challenges please! The best kind of videos. SSF sets only is a fun one.
I have never been happier to activate the bell on a TH-cam Channel. Gawd damn. Thanks Zarfen! Enjoyed every second of it!
Thank you for the kind words!
Great video!!❤ the way you covered Nightmare was perfect btw
Thanks!
my comment on your Barb playthrough I would like to insert here as well, if you read it, just say it again in your mind, as for additions... WOW, incredible skills you have, Blaize is such a champ, good on you for keeping her around, this was ultimately impressive, I'm surprised you didnt try to go farm a Ral rune right away to fill that helm though, and a bit shocked you didnt sell off the runes you didnt want, or gems, I understand the whole " too good to use, must keep all" aspect of thinking though I do the same, always a full stash and near empty inventory when I beat this and many other games, great job on the inventory management, my first thought right away was "Sorceress with no gear, no belt?! :O " you pulled it off very nicely, I am a HUGE fan of Icy Orb, kept wondering why you weren't using it to begin with but I get the huge range difference and low health at low lvls ^_^
One thing I thought about afterwards is that orb has great coverage and makes sure to hit everything in it’s path while blizzard can completely miss enemies running at you so it might have been a solid or even better choice, even with blizzard’s range advantage. Though in the end I’m happy I got to try a few different skills out :) thanks again for your comment
I was never interested in doing challenge runs, but you and Seer make them look _fun_. So I've decided to try one myself a couple of weeks ago. Something easier though, my rule is that I'm not allowed to put points into or activate skills that have level requirement higher than 6. Finished the Nightmare (who'd have thought that if the game gifts you 4sox eth Partizan your merc melts that difficulty???), but haven't tried Hell yet. Looking forward to it, and also to more weird challenges from you
That’s awesome! I hope hell goes well.
It’s a lot of fun and feels “fresh” to play through the game with some extra rules
It's ok to give us just the highlights of Nightmare. Don't skip it entirely
You know you have to put on the Headphones during work when my man Zarfem drops a new banger video.
Good job on the video. Keep them coming ❤️
Great content as always Zarfen. Skipping nightmare feels a little weird when it comes from a spectator point of view. It's nice that you showed a couple notable things happening in Nightmare. Not entirely sure how I feel about not watching Nightmare progression, I understand what you mean though
Thanks and thanks for your input.
I could perhaps do a little bit longer of a recap of nm.
It did feel a little weird to jump from act 1 to act 4 hellforge to act 5 in like 10 seconds.
Great video again, you goblin!
I really envy your persistance, thats a great character trait.
And you have quite a good hand with ur humouristic style. Thanks a lot for the entertainment :)
Thank you! I appreciate the kind words :)
The idea of a mage stepping out of town and punching a damn armed goblin to death is funny af.
It's a demon imp. But yeah I agree.
@@balbarith45 come on, she's a sorceress not a mage and it's a camp not a town, clearly the point was extrapolated to medieval fantasy in general, lol. It's just a funny thought.
@@Leongon A sorceress is a mage. It's just a different level of mage. The first act is indeed a camp since the sisterhood escaped from the monastery. In this case , those are demons. Minor ones at that.
@@balbarith45 Now you're being dense on purpose my dude. Okay then.
@@Leongon says the person who doesn't know how to use the word dense.
well done friend, really enjoyed the video. I cannot imagine how hard this challenge must have been.
I’m glad you liked it!
The sorceress is my favorite character and you have inspired me to try this challenge as well. I think I will try it online though, so I can trade for charms and runes for my mercenary.
Cool video and cool video series. I like the nightmare summary. What would the opposite challenge be, beat the game with equipment only? What would the most optimized way be to beat the game? Say if you could do something similar but have gear already in your stash or have a 2nd player give you gear as you level up? I guess, without having a 2nd player just give you all the waypoints and run you through the game. How overpowered can you be? What class would you choose? What gear options would you choose I guess is what I'm saying. Maybe also add without teleporting through everything?
Thanks!
I’m going to do a no skills run (relying only on equipment) at some point but it’s probably going to take a long time to do so I’m not sure when it’s happening.
Skipping nightmare was good call. Highlights was good! Good that you included a hover over blizzard damage
Great video, will absolutely agree that Nightmare as highlights is fine
Thanks for the input!
Babe wake up, Zarfen uploaded
finally, some good food
I enjoy your videos and like the narration of the journey. Due to that, I would say to leave the Nightmare clear included in the future. But I do get your point otherwise.
Nice vid :) +1 on skipping Nightmare, it's the boring difficulty in every kind of run (casual, speedrun, challenge)
Thanks, I appreciate the input
I would like to see nightmare included in your runs. You should make as much D2 challenge content as possible. These vids are fantastic.
Thanks, glad you like them!
I would be glad you to show the Nightmare difficulty in the video, but decision is up to you of course, choose whatever is better in terms of algorithms of TH-cam.
Thanks for sharing your opinion on the matter
"As you can see in this cinematic shot of the fight" 🤣🤣🤣
Re: Plains of Despair, You can reroll the enemy types without rerolling the whole map in offline mode. This tip is more helpful to people without teleport, of course.
Personally I like to see nightmare mode and the slightly increased challenge but I can understand why you would want to skip it. I’m a fan of long videos though I watch a lot of 1 1/2 to 2 hour + videos all the time. I like seeing Al the details and more of the choices you made. But that’s probably a smaller audience than a 30-40 min vid. Either way, love your content.
At this point you should make a run named " Can Mercenery Beat Hell Diablo 2?"
Nice to see another crazy feat by Zarfen!
Thanks TS! I hope you’re good and that we will see your return soon :)
I did not know about that Blizzard trick in the catacombs. That is pretty sweet. Good stuff all around as usual!
Now if we could only figure out a way to cheese Duriel too…
Thanks buddy!
@@zarfen In LoD there was a certain spot where you could stand and he couldn't touch you. They used to do it in the speedruns. I don't know if it works in resurrected though.
Oh? Interesting! Sometimes I wonder how there can be so much that I don’t know about this game despite playing and watching for so long
I did this with a few buddies once, with the added rule that if you died you had to take a drink. You can imagine it got difficult quick. We did make it to nightmare eventually. Good times.
25:57 I don't see a lot of talk about Duress when endgame gear is mentioned, and that's a shame. It's really solid for how cheap it is. I mentioned my "Normal gear only" challenge on another video; Duress in an Ancient Armor was my torso piece until I respec'd into the Explosive Arrow build.
(Also, to my great annoyance, I got 4 sockets from the Cube on THREE Ancient Armors before getting a 3 socket.)
It’s so hard to forego the insane amount of IAS on treachery (and Fade AND venom) but I totally agree duress is very underrated!
Frost-fire sorceress was one of the most comfort character for me to beat D2
I am genuinely impressed. I was never able to get a sorceress through Hell even with gear.
Def Merc from Act 2 NM with Duress and Insight would have done wonders. Also, you were so worried about playing keep away that you didn't try to use Static Field which would have helped greatly with those Cold Immune mobs that forced you to go dual.
Grats on the sponsor 🎉
I usually always go Orb/FB when I start fresh. Orb does good damage and FB is the backup skill but Hydra is also decent damage as well with minimal skill points. I would of went orb/FB from the very beginning. Orb till hell and FB or Hydra as the backup in Hell.
dude I was just binging your older videos and wanted something new, and here you are, what a legend!
The weirdest and hardest run is - in my opinion - hardcore/no death, no damage, fire sorc with no equipment. Or if we're on D2 LoD hardcore/no death, no damage, martial artist assassin with no equipment.
Favorite run I did back in the day in the early 2000's was a summon necromancer with no equipment and no damage. I didn't use an aura merc either, I would usually opt in for a rogue so I had range.
Last ladder season on D2 I created a pure summoner necro. I called him bone daddy. It was honestly a ton of fun. Some bosses were harder than others but it was definitely worth trying it. Best part was getting a team mate that also went mostly summons so we had like 30+ skeletons 2 golem and a bunch of shades running around.
13:58 What luck! I always love getting max medi on the first try. ❤
Usually firewall is a good supplemental skill for a different element
i can understand skipping through nightmare. i appreciate the highlights tho
Grym kanal! Är det genomförbart utan static field?
Tack! :)
Ja, jag använde faktiskt inte den så mycket i de senare svårighetsgraderna där den bara kan få ner monster till 25% / 50% som lägst.
you should have considered using regular white belt with 20 slots as the only gear. It wouldn't affect anything but convenience )
you should make a twitch and stream your runs
I agree, I should. I have never streamed so it’s a bit of a barrier to get started but these runs would probably work well live
Yep ive done it before
Skipping nightmare? Solid. Stat recap/merc recap after would be ideal. Paused right as you said “but a few things of note in nightmare” or similar so maybe you cover though.
20 seconds later “why did I type”
hail yea, been looking forward to a new video to watch a dozen times. wouldnt energy shield have been a good choice? idk much about how it works truthfully
I think it would have “cost” too many skill points taken away from my damage skills, but it’s an interesting idea for defense that I didn’t even consider while playing.
@@zarfen after thinking about it more, it would have taken away your dual elemental and be much, much slower
Very well written dude. Really enjoyed it
Thank you!
It would be nice if you had the hp and mana numbers above the orbs on. It would make it easier to understand the build and situations ❤
This was a great achievement, Sorc is one of the most fragile characters, and doing that without Charms is an even greater achievement. Nice job, two down, five to go =)
Sorc is the best character in the game for bad gear, teleport and static field are the best spells in the game
Thank you for telling me the set amulet was a Cathan's. I was actually curious lol.
Where do I find a good list of all these obscure cubing recipes?
Sadly there is none that I know off. At least no complete on. I still have to look them up after all this years 😅
I often use the official battle net “arreat summit” website but that has not been updated for d2r so I can’t recommend you use that.
This looks comprehensive to me at a glance and the people behind the website are very knowledgeable:
maxroll.gg/d2/resources/horadric-cube-recipes
Maybe if the challenge calls for it you could respec into a different skill for nightmare. Would make it less repetitive. Could have the same challenge with a different skill for each difficulty level.
Interesting idea. I will keep that in mind for potential future challenges, good way to “force” some variety
Why not combining healing merc with insight polearm?
They do give each other synergies and you can teleport merc out of harms way any time.
I use that on summon necro and summon are invincible with that on normal and nightmare xD
Also I don't understand why you didn't take a single point of static field on every build...
Honestly I agree with skipping Nightmare mode. Whenever I go back to D2 and decide I want to play a character through till completing Hell mode, Nightmare always feels like a slog to me. Not to make it fun for me though beating Hell difficulty is always a blast.
Im surprised you didnt pick the necro for a no gear run, hes pretty good without being gear dependant
The hard part is definitely not having a belt 🥴
Amazing work! I enjoy all the video! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Super tedious for sure! Afterwards I started doing some farming with her, and 16 potions slots feels like infinity 😆
Thanks!
@@zarfenPersonally I think it's okay to perform naked runs with a broken belt equipped. You get none of the stats but the additional belt slots. As this only saves time restocking the potions from the inventory I think this doesn't really add any benefits besides comfort.
I say skip nightmare but cover the interesting parts like you did here. Good stuff sir
Thanks for the input!
I think you can let Nightmare out, But show important things like you did here. And maybe a timer in the corner would be interesting❤
I've never seen someone use charged bolt so much...most of the experts VERY STRONGLY recommend grabbing Nova as soon as you possibly can.
A run like this with druid would be quite interesting
Do you think summoner or elemental build would be easier without gear? Maybe a hybrid?
Hello the farming for upgraded gear vids are avesome. Or just a normal playthrough and stop to grind some gear in certain spots? This could be a series done with all the characters? Idk about the game much but enjoy your loot goblinism
Thanks! Some loot videos are in the works, and I do plan to re-visit the farming up a budget character idea. It’s fun to make!
Could you tell where you got those 3d render models you use for YT preview images, please?
Also this is good video, I like it a lot.
Oh no, he's done it again.
Who's next?
I have to do this with every character now, don’t I?
Maybe Druid or assassin, I don’t think I’m ready for the barbarian yet!
@@zarfen i would love a zero to hero for druid
@@zarfenmerc only run? You may buff them with auras etc but not attack
Maybe you should do Necro next? @@zarfen
Assassin is my pick!
If you keep a gamepad handy, you can drink potions straight from your inventory with the d pad.
I love you and this is awesome but you need to do it with no mercenaries. Maybe do one without ever using a attribute point.
>i cant wear any gear
>but my companion can
14:00 finding um and mal in nm is extremely lucky.
But I think you should talk about duriel - he is cold immune so what did you do in his chamber?
14:46 ending NM at clvl 49 is pretty damn impressive.
16:00 i had the same problem with a lightning build... at clvl 82. I'd say do some TZ.
20:00 duriel is cold immune, you can't do damage to him with blizzard. on hell he would make minced meat out of you and your merc.
None of the act bosses are immune to anything. Maybe you’re thinking of uber Duriel?
@@zarfen i didn't know that.
This run might've been easier on console, because activating an empty belt slot will use a potion from your inventory which closest resembles the one which last occupied that slot.
I learned that from another comment on this video, I never knew that before! Might use that for future gearless runs actually
Up next: The Druid No Gear Challenge
Do you think summons or elemental skills would be the best? Maybe a hybrid, but gotta spend those skill points wisely…
Tough call imo. Ele is gona be harsh with no FSR but twisters stun may prove to be useful.
Great vid btw! Also my vote is for "the diablo dudes" idk y but it just sounds funny
@@zarfensummons, with an edge bow merc
Skipping nightmare is a good idea IMO
I’m surprised you didn’t prefer act 2 merc with prayer aura, insight pole arm and duress armor. I didn’t even know you could make insight in a bow.
Part of it was because I want to use a bit of variety in mercs in these videos, and part was because melee mercs were hard to keep alive for me. I was quite low level.
They changed that at some point in D2R. Don’t remember exactly when but very good change imo
Nose: picked
Pants: shidded
Diablo: 2'd
oh yeah, bideo time. thank you, mind goblin
I can't remember reaching lv 50 when finishing Hell, ever.
I'd have went hydra/orb personally but that's all personal bias on my part, lol. I've ran hydra/orb forever on my sorcs, it's just my fave build.
I like the build too, but with 0 FCR I was afraid that it would take so long to summon all the hydras. Would probably have been safer against the souls in the throne though!
29:00 never realized that Diablo himself could actually shatter from cold damage!
It must be rare because I was a bit surprised when it happened too!
Very good video :) Love these kinds of videos
Thanks! Glad you liked it
really makes me wanna play d2 again
"This is why I don't do these challenges in hardcore by the way." Fair enough~
What recording software do you use?
I now use OBS, but some of my earlier videos were recorded with Streamlabs. Both worked great for recording, the reason I switched was related to streaming
@zarfen Wowzer, I thought those were just streaming tools. I had no idea you could also use them for recording gameplay that wasn't being streamed.
Thank you so much for your videos. I would give you a superchat but I lost my job recently. I hope my praise and encouragement is enough for now. 💔
@oppressionsimulatorgotyedi9009
They’re easy to use but require a little bit of setting up to record with the right settings for your setup. I’d recommend OBS to anyone looking to start recording gameplay, thought I’m sure there are plenty of other options as well.
Just watching is more than enough! Please don’t donate money you can’t afford. I’m glad you like the videos, thanks for watching
New video! I'll be sleeping good tonight!