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20-Nephalem

Music-Harrogath


But take heed. You are approaching the very summit of Mount Arreat. I have never dared venture there. It is sacred -- our most holy place. The legends say it is guarded by the Ancient Ones, who block the path of all who are unworthy.

Your reputation here does not matter...It will be the Ancients who determine your worthiness.

Good luck.

So, there are plenty of guards for Mount Arreat. We're talking to one right now. But, now that we are approaching the tippy-top we are in to face the best they got, that Baal has casually sidestepped over because who makes a bypass for something like that anyway? This is, effectively, our last quest. The next quest will be taken immediately after we best the ancients, and it'll just be "Kill Baal".

Music-Icecaves


Now, this update is the calm before the storm in terms of game. We have another boss to do at the end of this update, but the rest we can safely gloss over. It's the rest of Mount Arreat, starting from the Crystalline Passage, and there isn't any new monsters. Just recolors.



So, let us sit down and read the good books, as we finally confront some of the biggest elements of Diablo, now that they're on full display here.



First, we're at the Barbarian stronghold of Harrogath, which, unlike most everywhere else, is still holding despite the fact that Baal has passed by. Stopping Baal, on the other hand, is something out of their pay grade, but, Harrogath is a neat town. I think the most striking change it does is that, unlike Acts I, III, and IV, it's bright as day and only gets a little dark at night. No more slinking around in the dark. Just getting lost in the cold.

Music-Siege


Barbarians are big deals. It's hard to portray this what with Greg and by extension Bob being part of Eastern Sun, but Barbarians are well known to be physically unstoppabobble. They mainly owe this to tracing their lineage and way of life all the way back to the very first mortals of Sanctuary. A more proper name for Barbarians is the Children of Bul-Kathos, named as such to emulate Bul-Kathos's lifestyle and his pledge to protect Sanctuary, which is mainly done by settling and wandering around where you can find the Worldstone. The basegame manual lists this as "a sacred pledge". It's fairly funny because it was themselves that did the pledge, to ensure Sanctuary's safety, which they so far have been pretty good at doing. It's just the whole "fraction of Sanctuary versus all of Sanctuary's demons" thing making that not a certainty.



The rumors of Diablo had some of these Barbarians head out to the greater world to chase him down, because that does track with their responsibility. You normally never see Barbarians otherwise. They have no reason to leave. If they care about wonder at all, it's the wonder of iron resolve and committment, which they already have.



Druids are an offshoot of Barbarians, to the point where they are basically friends with eachother but idolize different things. This is largely due to a polite disagreement between how to guard Sanctuary between Bul-Kathos and a younger brother of his called Fiacla-Gear Vasily. (Later lore contradicts the manual's naming of this guy. Thanks Blizzard.) Personally I like this bit because you can describe that disagreement as polite. Something you don't see a lot of in this ballpark.



Aside from their different ideologies these two respected eachother, and while the Barbarians would live in the Northern Steppes to hone their bodies, Vasily's descendants would move out of the frozen north, into the woodlands below, and establish a spiritual connection with the spirits of Nature and Sanctuary itself. That was how the Druids thought they could best protect Sanctuary, and until about now those two groups kept to themselves.

What I'm saying is I like the pitch of Druids, which was introduced in Lord of Destruction.



Now that Blizzard North had a year and a half to work on this lore and the added content equates to all of one extra (but lengthy) Act, (plus some runewords and classes but im talking obstacles here) what they've added definitely has more thought put into it. While I can still taste the sourness of Act 4, a lot has been happening here, which I'm blaming solely on the fact that they only focused on one place and one plot point: Harrogath, and the Worldstone. But as usual lore pitches and setting is their strongest suit, and for things like Druids and even the Assassins also introduced in this patch, they can make really cool concepts that somehow stand the test of time.

Music-Icecaves


Maybe that's the point. I can get a really solid idea of who I am playing and get a good feel of the roleplay boots I'm picking at the character select screen if I simply read the supplementary material I have while Diablo II installs way back in 2000. You very much had to wait for these games to install back then. While it's something like 2.5 gigabytes and that's a drop in our hard drives now, that was a lot of space and a lot of installing to do 20-odd years ago.



In this era, we've yet to reach the point where game writers immerse you in a world. That immersion is for you to do, by yourself, using the setting and ideas presented by the game. I've compared this to tabletop roleplaying already, but the fact that they have put a lot of work into describing this world does show they did put in effort. It's just, the way they've went about doing this doesn't really hold up to time. No longer is the, "You're a hero fighting evil," baseline regarded as good storytelling.

In fact it may have been bad then. It's hard to tell, because a large demographic of Diablo II players did not play this game for its story, myself included until a while ago when I got to really appreciate what they did right. It's not that those players cared nothing about the setting and just wanted to grind. It's that, outside of your personal bubble of imagination, there wasn't a lot to work with or chat about. I haven't looked particularly deep to find traces of this, but I'm pretty sure most people posting online about Diablo weren't talking about its story or its setting. They were talking about playing the game. That was its appeal.



So should the game even bother with story then? I mean, the future has plenty of games that have introduced a story and a setting as a barebones feature of a game and their players don't care because the focus is on optimizing playing the game. Gamers gonna game and all that. Maybe Diablo would've left a better impression if they didn't go the "this has to be an epic story" route, and instead went with a more subliminal, but still compelling, way of presenting a story. I'm asking the impossible from this game. I'm suggesting that minimalist storytelling would be a great way to tie the mountains of lore to the core gameplay without having to choose one or the other at any given time. And you don't have to write compelling dialogue or choose dramatic plot points to do that. You just need to illustrate purpose and motivation. Blizzard North is criminally bad at writing dialogue and this path of storytelling would allow them to stop doing that.



For example, there's nothing to this plot point right now. We have the blessings of the Barbarians, and it means nothing to their ancients. The ancients will speak, but do they really have to? We understand that they see and respect one thing: strength. You don't need more words to explain that. A blank canvas is just a better medium for the imagination being cultivated by this game.

...Maybe I'm spoiled by Souls games, maybe that's why I'm on this tangent.



So let's put this aside for now. It's time for a boss fight.

Step 1: Place a portal BEFORE the passage. Not after.

Music-Siege


The guardians of Mount Arreat await.

Step 2: Take in the view. This is probably the best setpiece in the game.



Step 3: When you're ready, approach the altar.



Before you enter, you must defeat us.



Step 4: Prepare to die.


The Ancients | CR: *****
==Madawc uses Shout and Double Throw.
==Korlic uses Leap Attack.
==Talic uses Whirlwind.
==Madawc is Cold and Lightning Resistant.
==Korlic and Talic are Physical, Fire, and Poison Resistant.
==All Ancients spawn with random equipment.

So, Duriel is as hard as he is because he is an amazing melee build for where you're at. Duriel, however, does fall behind once you figure out ways to deal with melee attacks.

There is no such luxury here. These three are going to slam your face to the ground in various Barbarian ways, and your health is going to disappear if they get the chance to pile on attacks.

In time, this will be the hardest fight in the game. Now? It depends.



For Greg, who almost exclusively uses lightning damage, he deals enough damage that the two Ancients who doesn't blunt that down to under a third don't get a chance to do much of anything. A lightning Blizzard is very effective against them. (Even a normal Blizzard works.)

Madawc, on the other hand, heavily resists Lightning, so we do have to be patient with him.



You see, like Blood Raven, they too get random gear stapled onto them. This means they very well can take their heavy resistances and turn them into immunities and the game will not tell you this, because this is a buggy mechanic they forgot existed. This is definitely what happened to Greg's Madawc which is why he takes forever to kill him.

Right now the most dangerous things are eating a Whirlwind or Leap Attack. While Leap Attack is very slow, as has been noted, it's very likely to hit if you don't get out of the way and it does a hefty amount of damage. None of the Ancients, however, benefit from things like buggy numbers or monster mods. So long as you don't get bulldozed by all of their attacks and you have a good life total this fight isn't particularly hard.

So why is this five stars?

Because when they start getting random monster modifiers and better random gear, there is a very high chance you'll melt if they so much as touch you.

Good luck touching them back as well.



When you kill all three, they'll return to their podiums, golden.



This gate will now open and we can head into the final dungeon.

But wait, let's see how this is like for the other 6.



If you are wondering why Bob has been shooting Firestorms, it's because I'm trying desperately to get him something for crowd control. This works, thanks to me abusing the reset skills button PlugY adds in. Let me put it to you this way: if I didn't abuse this and played the game the way purists want me to, my character would be dead because I would be unable to turn this fatal melee flaw around.

Also, it's Eastern Sun, mod famous for having a multiplayer experience where you can just ask the admin, "Hey can you reset my points?" and they'd do it.

However, I didn't start a caster nor focus on caster items, so instead, I had to gamble for gear to keep this character alive.



Bless me father, for I have sinned: I am using a two-handed weapon.





Eastern Sun tries, tries, to make them better, but they still have the issues of using literally anything in place of a shield. That doesn't matter at this point because we're not in death country yet. But this is a set I had to gamble for.

That sounds like pain, even with the massive boosts to gamble rarity. There's a simpler way to do this though.



Gambling chits function like gambling, except you buy the item, cube it, and get the exact item base you want. Why is this better than gambling? Because then you don't have to constantly roll for the exact item base you want. This system does it in spades, and is even nice enough to tell you what the rates are, rates that, as far as I know, are the exact same as gambling normally. This way, getting the pieces of that Blackwing set does not take forever.

Larzuk has some, while Anya will have the rest. Both of these inventories refresh when you set foot in a non-town area. So, once you free her you can now gamble for, uhh, a lot of things, pretty efficiently. Where do you get the money to do this? Oh you'll find out.



On the bright side, sets that involve a two-handed weapon do make it up to you, in my limited bad opinion. This is the second time I've used such a set in Eastern Sun. You'll see the first soon enough. Bob's a little sluggish, but he takes down the Ancients. This is still a marked improvement though. It didn't take me more time to make it here than it did to kill these Ancients.



But really this is probably my favorite area. So much detail crammed into one place, and it's tranquil, which is bizarre in a game like this. Everywhere you go there's demons, but here, you can just relax before you take the test. The Ancients are in no hurry. ...I guess you are, bu-



What th-who's this?! Narthal is here as a miniboss addition to Median XL. MXL loves putting these in. He is a perfect Barbarian: does nothing but walk up to you and bap you with sticks.



In MXL the Ancients are...largely...the same?

In truth all that's been changed is that they are more proactive and won't flipflop between using their skills and running up to attack you. They will be using their skills, a lot. I think their damage output may have improved as well, but otherwise it's the same Ancient flavor.



To be fair the Ancients are already one of the most mechanically complex fights in the game. Their resistances vary and really, only magic damage works against all of them.

Now, if you have minion meat shields, then they really help. They'll get caught up killing them and you can deal with them at your leisure. (The only downside is they will.) Jane Croft's coven picks paid off a while ago, since she can now summon Ice Elementals to A: freeze things, and B: tank. She has like 6 of them. They're really effective meat shields. In a fight like this where it's really good at tearing apart single targets, Jane doesn't have difficulty.



The Ancients also have a fatal weakness in that only one of them has any ranged options. The rest must run up to you, and, they also tend to bunch up together if they have to run up to you.

That makes them easy pickings for Arty. Korlic is annoying to hit though what with that Leap Slam.



Bone Zone still Bone Zone. My only concern is if our Barbarian gets chumped by the other Barbarians, but I have a skill to fix that...something I've had for a while because it's a Level 24 skill but it's worth explaining now.

Bloodwarp is Teleport for Necros. You have to pay a Life cost as well and it has a cooldown but the Life is refunded to you over time, and, it's Teleport in all its wall-removing glory. This also highlights a very useful thing about Teleport, and a reason why anyone that relies on minions need to have it: you teleporting teleports your minions and hireling with you. Did they bite off more than they can chew? Teleport them out. This is absolutely vital.

Anyway, you could say something like ooh Whirlwind will chew your bones up, but minion builds do not struggle at this point. Again, being embodients of melee, they are extremely strong against single targets but are vulnerable to chaff, of which Zoul has an infinite amount of.

...I have no idea how this fight goes in Vanilla where you can't get extra corpses at all. It's been too long. It sounds like unless you've specced correctly you are getting stonewalled.



In a way this is melee's last stand. This is one of the hardest fights in the game, and it's using one of the worst classes in the game three times over. This fight gets nasty later on, in higher difficulties.

Funny enough, the worst way to fight the Ancients is to try to beat them at their own game. You won't. You shouldn't.



If you're someone like Vanir, whose melee splash and low damage does not help him here, your only defense is to max out your block, and that's not a great defense. Last I checked Vanir has a high block rate, thanks to Holy Shield, but not maxxed, and also he still has to dodge stuff. Thankfully right now their damage isn't extreme, but I don't just sit there and click repeatedly in the open.



See, the AI is not smart enough to deal with both hit-and-run and cover tactics. Madawc specifically will try to keep in range with you, but will not check to see if you're behind something. A solid wall stops his hatchets.



Whirlwinds are very dangerous, followed by Leap Attacks. However, the AI tends to do those skills in bursts: spamming them one instance and then relying on basic attacks the next. When Talic starts spinning, run. Korlic's leaping makes him really slow, and he'll be seperated from Talic, giving you an opportunity to deal damage to him when he stops. If you have the merc draw aggro and you can't bail them out, they're going to die. You're just going to have to hold that.

What's that you say? Portal out to save the merc?

Don't do that. Opening a portal or having no living players in the arena restarts the fight.

This is why you put a portal before this area: it will get eaten if you start the fight and it's in the area. The fight will also restart if you put another portal up.

You must do this in one go.



(This is one of the hardest boxes of dialogue to get to pop up. It's supposed to appear when you kill the last Ancient, but most of the time it doesn't, and if it doesn't, there's no way to get it back up.)

Beware. You will not be alone. Baal the Lord of Destruction is already inside.

The Archangel Tyrael has always been our benefactor, but even he cannot help us now. For Baal blocks Tyrael's spiritual presence from entering the chamber of the Worldstone. Only you, mortal, have the power to defeat Baal now.

Baal threatens the Worldstone -- and through it, the mortal realm, itself. You must stop him before he gains full control of the sacred stone. With it under his control, Baal could shatter the boundaries between this world and the Burning Hells, thus allowing the hordes of the Prime Evils to pour forth into the mortal realm like an unstoppable tide!

If you are weak, the world as you know it could be lost forever. You must NOT fail!

So, we are still falling behind, but at least now we have proven that, yes, we can kill Baal. Doing this, by the way, grants a massive experience bonus on top of beating the Ancients normally. That's the quest reward.

But what is this Worldstone?

Music-Harrogath


The Worldstone before Diablo III isn't really described in detail. It's important, and we're told it protects Sanctuary. Good enough for me. Later lore will describe the Worldstone more as the ultimate mcguffin.

It's not just a stone of a world, it's a stone that makes worlds.



A creation myth floats around Sanctuary, of Anu, already everything and nothing in existence, once thinking, "But what if I was perfecter?" Thus he split into two: Anu and everything that shouldn't be Anu. These two things will eventually become the angels and demons we know today. Those two would fight, and that fight would birth the universe because they would both explode into many pieces. While Anu ceased to be just one, that pearl's still there, and it still has the sort of powers Anu had. It goes by many names, like the Eye of Anu...or the Worldstone.

Where is this creation myth described? In the post-D2 novel called the Book of Cain, which describes the myth as being part of, the Black Book of Lam Esen.

Told ya that book was important.



The Eternal Conflict is called as such because angels and demons have been fighting to get a hold of that pearl. And it's been described that there's been periods where angels or demons would get a hold of it for a while, and attempt to achieve the sort of creation slash perfection they once beheld, but their worlds tend to break apart soon after conception. Think the first iteration of the Matrix, except it's either too perfect or too imperfect to sustain. It can also be because the universe as it exists now was only created because two beings smashed their heads very hard into eachother. More than two actually. There was a dragon. A seven-headed one. Its corpse is the Burning Hells.

There's some other bits about the Eternal Conflict, but those aren't particularly relevant here. What's relevant is that war fatigue is very real, even for beings like angels and demons, and eventually, two of them and other likeminded people would hatch up a plan to escape it.



At the time, the Worldstone was held in Pandemonium Fortress, which I've desrcibed as a stronghold for angels. You know Pandemonium is also just the location where the big bang happened but don't think too hard about it. It turns out, Inarius and his band of merry thieves managed to swipe the Worldstone under everyone else's nose and run off with Lilith to make a much better place to be. Together, they did the impossible, and used that stone to make a world that could actually persist...with some asterisks regarding those two dummies. By the time anyone was concerned about demons getting the Worldstone again, they found out it's gone, and no one can find it.

That's because, being the ultimate mcguffin, Inarius calibrated it to cloak Sanctuary, and the stone, from outside detection. Angels and demons don't just walk into Sanctuary. The Worldstone is why. If one knows how to finagle with it, literally anything is possible, including going off the grid. It took until some random idiot wizard in Sanctuary tried making a connection from Sanctuary before the Prime Evils finally found it. ...Thanks wizards.



So yeah, Worldstone. Very very very important. So much so that if mortals can figure out how to use it themselves, they can achieve power unimaginable. I'm serious. We're talking power that can exceed the might of both angels and demons combined. That's how the Sin War ended: certain mortals, tired of war, tapped into the Worldstone and became known as Nephalem. Their only weakness, was having feelings and just winking themselves and their powers out of existence because they hate everything they know and love blowing up. (Thanks Uldyssian.) The other two sides will parlay at the table, and agree to stay out of Sanctuary. This...part isn't really explained well, so I like to think of it as, "...So, our asses getting kicked? How about we pretend that didn't happen and make sure no one remembers this? Alright cool."

...

Yeah. That's how that war ended. Dead serious.

This is probably why no one cares much about the Sin War.

Diablo is a kid's show.

Next time: That kid's show reaches the finale.