[Invasion] Sarah the Self-found Solo Summoner

Level 13-14

Prisoner's Gate is a low-level summoner's worst nightmare. Fire dogs leaving burning ground that minions are too dumb to move away from, goats leaping over the minions onto your personal self, all in a huge maze-like area that can't be avoided. On top of this, Corrector Draconides found me and nearly ended Sarah II's life prematurely with a Bear Trap, Leap Slam, Fireball Strike combo that had just a sliver left in my life globe. 297 life was just barely enough, but it did suffice, and after the initial attack I was able to stay far enough away while the minions kept him busy and spirits whittled down his health. After that, the Burning Menace didn't seem all that menacing.

Then I found a Fleet Remote Gulch of Exposure (12% lower max resists, 17% increased monster attack/move/cast speed). A smart person would probably have walked away, but I had two levels on the zone, and that resist mod means nothing at this level so all I really had to deal with was faster monsters. Worked out for the best; the extra speed didn't help all that much against all the minions, and Sheaq Maker of Floods is one of the weaker bosses against a minion horde (especially at low levels). Unfortunately the Vaal gem was a Ground Slam; would have preferred something blue. I did find my first Orb of Alchemy and a couple of flasks worth using, so the corrupted area expedition yield wasn't too bad.

Level 14-15

On to the Ship Graveyard, and who do I find but Corrector Draconides again. Ran right back to the waypoint to reset the zone; one near-death experience was plenty, thank you. Rancor showed up after the reset, much easier to deal with. Found the cave and fought to the end without issue, but just as I was about to pick up the Allflame a bunch of goats jumped me...Guardian of the Mound. Ran away quickly, considering myself fortunate to have gotten rid of Stranglecharm before they aggroed. My usual tactic of not moving forward any more than necessary until everything ahead dies served me well in that case. Fairgraves made his usual pathetic showing, and I'm now only two points away from Minion Instability.

Level 15-16

Into the Coves, where the minions immediately got wiped out by a pack of blue water elementals casting fast ice novas. Had to do a fair bit of kiting in between summoning skeletons and spirits to take them out. Rest of the zone was uneventful until the very end, where Grath made an appearance. Looks like he's spent some time in a tanning bed, with that new orange-red skin he's found. The minions made short work of him.

Got the Cavern of Wrath waypoint and picked up Added Lightning Damage from Nessa. In the past I've taken Minion Life from her, but I always end up dropping it a few levels later when I find something better to link up. So this time I figured I'd just skip the Minion Life altogether. Linked it to the zombies for now, although once I find a Fusing Orb I'll probably use it to get a link on that +1 to fire gems wand, so I can hook the lightning damage up to raging spirit.

Level 16-17

Walked into the Cavern of Wrath and encountered the Harbinger of Elements and about a dozen of his closest friends, including a bunch of blue archers. Considered resetting the zone, but since the Harbinger is one of the easier Invasion bosses, decided not to roll the dice in case something worse came up. The zombies didn't last long, but the terrain was such that I could keep summoning skeletons and spirits without being targeted too often, and a few minutes of that took care of them. Later in the zone encountered Ion Darkshroud, who was no challenge at all since all he did was roll back and forth between minions. Glad this was Normal difficulty so that he didn't have Flicker Strike. He dropped my first rare ring, which isn't all that impressive but better than what I had.

Hit level 17 just before finding the Cavern of Anger - hooray, Minion Instability. No change in tactics needed to take advantage of it; still summoning skeletons to tank anything that lives through the initial zombie horde attack, but now they do more damage. Should serve me well up until sometime in the 40s when the minions start to survive longer.

Many annoying exploding spawn in the Cavern of Anger. You can't tell a zombie not to walk up and hit things in the face, so they die a lot to those kamikaze monsters. (Well, I suppose you could tell him, but he won't listen. Trust me.) Had to do a bit of kiting against Ambrosia, as her Firestorm kept melting all the minions, but enough exploding skeletons summoned right next to her did the trick. Same deal with Merveil, making it an easy fight.

Laid waste to the monkey population of the Southern Forest on my way up to the Forest Encampment. Ran into Bladetooth as well; no great challenge, just had to stay back far enough to avoid his poison clouds. Found an interesting +1 to minion gems helm with 10% lightning resist, but only one green socket on it, plus it needed more dex than I currently have. So no upgrade for now, but if I get lucky and find a likely-looking three or four linked helm then I may use that new vendor recipe on it for +1 to minion gems.

<3 go sarah II

You can dooooOOOOO it!

Level 17-19

North to the Old Fields, where Sarah hit level 18 quickly. I intended to head up to the Crossroads for the WP, but found the Den first. Granitecrush must be following me around, third time I've seen him already. Used the small tunnels to my advantage to stay away from his Discharge and keep from getting rolled over, while letting him kill himself on exploding skeletons. Took a while, but eventually down he went. Compared to that, the beast was a pushover...never made it past the minion skirmish line to take a swipe at me.

Emerged from the Den to find a corrupted area staring me in the face, but lost any desire to enter when I saw one of the mods was Chain. That mod might as well be a big "Abandon all hope, ye summoners who enter here" sign. Progressed to the Crossroads WP without further incident, hitting 19 on the way. Picked up a life node and Purity of Flesh with the skill points, and plan to grab the life nodes in my starting area next.

Yeena gave me a rare Chain belt that had such bad rolls that the item-level 7 blue belt I'm using had both higher ES and fire resist totals. Ah, useless quest rewards.

Level 19-20

Ran through Fellshrine to pick up the Crypt WP. Didn't see an Invasion boss, but lost a lot of minions to the poison-on-death invading zombies. Ran across a corrupted area, but didn't like the look of the mods: faster monsters combined with 25% slower mana/life/ES regen.

Time to go south, into the Riverways. You can bet I'll be very cautious if I see any green projectiles in here after Sarah I's demise at the hands of the Judgement Apparatus, although since this is Normal it's probably less dangerous. No Apparatus this time though; instead the Duchess made an appearance, right next to a big camp of bandits and a spawn of carrion queens. Fought her for a bit, but her Soul Eater bonus was just too much after taking out all those extra spawns, so eventually had to run away. Grabbed the Blackwood WP and headed back to town.

Found another Added Lightning Damage gem, and got enough currency to get a Fusing Orb, so rolled my wand to have two linked sockets. All I needed was to roll them to both blue; easy on a wand, right? Some days, the RNG is kind; and some days, it laughs in your face at your feeble attempts to improve your gear. Blew all 9 Chromatics I had saved up; not only did I not get BB, but I ended up with GG so I can't even put Summon Raging Spirit back in the wand. At least the intelligence and mana regen rate mods on it are still useful.

Level 20-21

Onward to the Chamber of Sins. Level 1 is nearly as bad as Prisoner's Gate: zombie clouds-o'-poison-death for the minions to kill themselves in, and lightning arrow skeletons to chain you to death. At least it's not as large, but I still managed to choose poorly in my navigation and thus explore nearly the entire zone before finding the exit. Killed Kall Foxfly along the way; easy pickings other than one bad moment where he immobilized Sarah with a Bear Trap. Found a Minion Damage, which is now linked to the spirits while the zombies go back to having no linked support.

Level 21-22

Made a short trip into the Chamber of Sins level 2 to get the WP. Hit 22 on the way; now at 488 life, with a passive tree that looks like this. Next I'll pick up Agility, then head toward Death Attunement.

Back to the Blackwood, where I killed Kall Foxfly again; not smart enough to stay down. Found the exit and the Western Forest WP, then back to the woods to find the spider. There was a Secluded Copse corrupted area in the spider lair, but I know I stand no chance against Kutec at this point, so I didn't bother with it. The Weaver herself was fairly easy, just had to keep enough skeletons out to distract the spider hordes while the spirits did their job.

Took Lesser Multiple Projectiles from Silk and put it on a weapon switch to start leveling. Also found my first unique, Ezomyte Peak, which is unfortunately totally useless for this character.

Level 22-23

To the Western Forest, where neither Alira nor Captain Arteri had an answer for suicidal skeleton bombers. Found a couple of Chromatics and managed to get my wand back to RB, so put the spirits back in the wand and decided to cut my losses on the colors. Back to zombies-minion damage for now.

Level 23-24

Time to finish out the Chamber of Sins. Took the waypoint back to level 2 and found Black Death the spider, who didn't last long once I ran away enough for her to lose interest in me and fight skeletons instead. Found the stairs without seeing the Invasion boss.

Ran into nothing particularly difficult to fight as I went through level 3 also, and was beginning to think I'd gotten lucky with avoiding the bosses when I found Marrowcage...right next to Fidelitis. Ran like a little girl, then came back cautiously and was relieved to find that Marrowcage had chased me a bit, but Fidelitis had not. Beat up Marrowcage with the usual kiting tactic to get him alone, then had no problems with Fidelitis.

Obtained Raise Spectre from Greust, and took the opportunity to rearrange gear a bit. Got a new rare padded vest from Fidelitis. Greust was kind enough to also sell me a shield (BBG linked) and gloves (BG linked plus a solo B)...only blues but they'll do until something better comes along. All of these significantly increased my ES and evasion as well as giving me usable sockets. Raise Zombie is still linked to Minion Damage, and Raise Spectre is linked to LMP.

Level 24-25

To the Riverways, in search of a tree to poison. Found not only my first Chaos Orb, but also my second; however, also got a second useless +1 minion gems helm with only one green socket and no other decent mods. Ah RNG, you are a fickle beast. Ran across Grath and made short work of him, then into the Vaal Ruins.

Uneventful trip through the Vaal Ruins: no boss on level 1 and Kall Foxfly (again) on level 2. Smooth sailing. Nice to have projectile construct revives again. Hit 25 just after entering the Wetlands and found the waypoint without seeing anything more dangerous than a blue snake.

Glad to see you are back:) I died with my first self found guy to Invader (chaska or something) a while back. Now I am slowly progressing with my second guy, fingers crossed:)
Good luck to you!

Level 25-26

Headed north to the Broken Bridge, an uneventful trip to Kraityn's camp where he died quickly. Finally got an improved belt from his corpse, with a bit of ES, 26 life, and 10% fire resist.

Next, over to the Crypt to grab my respec points. Killed Harbinger of Elements on level 1, yawn. Hit level 26 along the way. Found another Minion Damage, which is nice; no place to link it yet, but can at least start leveling it up.

The Revenant appeared in the Crypt level 2, which is a good place to meet him, since the narrow corridors make it difficult for him to do any significant damage with his whirlwind. Have to watch out not to get caught in a Searing Bond flame line, though. I hid around a corner and tossed skeletons out to keep him occupied until he died. Shortly after I found a Entombed Alcove corrupted area, with extra monster move/attack/cast speed as the only mod. Cleared that easily enough, although Shrapnelbearer at the end was putting out a ton of damage; had to retreat and resummon a couple of times before he went down. Got a Vaal Arc out of the deal, which I'll use as long as I have an open socket, just on the general principle that Vaal skills are neat.

Even if I hadn't gotten the respec points, that Crypt run would have been worthwhile for the currency items alone. Picked up a chaos orb, fusing orb, scouring orb, a few chromatics, and a bunch of lesser stuff. Found slightly better helm and body armor, too.

Level 26-27

Went up to the Wetlands and picked up my 40 life from Oak...at 629 total now. Onward to the Caverns. Found the Duchess just inside and decided to reset rather than risk fighting her. The second version of level 1 contained Glassmaul, much easier. Hit 27 along the way and picked up Death Attunement. Ran into some devourers in level 2, but fortunately no bosses.

Found a +1 minion gems helm that doesn't suck! 48 ES, 14 Int, 14% lightning resist, and it has two linked blue slots. Moved Zombies+Minion Damage there, and put Spectre+Minion Damage+LMP in the shield. Also got some 28 ES gloves with +44 life and 13% cold resist. Currently at 706 life and 38/43/57/8 resists. Definitely want to improve the resists some, but not a lot of options at this point.

Level 27-28

The pyramid half of the Caverns level 2 began with an encounter with Glassmaul (again), leading to his demise (again). In the Pyramid, Pewterfang made an appearance just outside the stairway. Nice of them to show up early and save me wondering what nasty thing might be lurking around a corner. Got to level 28 on the way up, finishing out the Death Attunement cluster for now. Here's the current passive tree. Will come back later for that last minion life node if I live long enough.

My buddy the Vaal Oversoul was not at his best. He summoned one batch of minions, popped up and summoned a second batch, surfaced long enough to throw out some freezing ground, and died. The minions really worked him over; took all of about a minute. He dropped a Oiled Coat with all three elemental resists on it, nice of him: up to 36/66/71/8 now.

Up through the hole in the ground to the City of Sarn. Took out Tailslinger as I moved along; easy when you're at the top of the stairs and he's at the bottom, turning every which way to try to hit all the skeletons. Didn't drop anything useful. Sarn Encampment reached.

Level 28-29

Onward to the Slums. Snakes everywhere, along with Carrion Queens, which is a lot of projectiles. The key to any fight involving massed projectile monsters is to get them from catching you in a crossfire; dropping a couple of skeletons behind them usually causes half the group to turn around, cutting their damage in half. Of course, getting into position can be a challenge, but that's what Quicksilver Flasks are for. You'd think the snakes would make good revives, but at this level they just don't have enough hit points to survive long enough to make it worthwhile. The Carrion Queens do, and while they don't cast the fireballs as often as I'd like, they hit really hard when they do.

Killed off the guard captain and Cintiq the not-as-inescapable-as-she-thinks-she-is fairly easily by the simple expedient of staying out of their line-of-sight and casting skeletons at them. Got to level 29 along the way and began moving toward Grave Expectations; I'll pick up that cluster plus the life nodes around Holy Strength next.

Level 29-30

Took things slow and easy through the Crematorium as my fire resistance is still pretty low (36%) and zombies are very flammable. Didn't hit any Invasion bosses, but there were a couple of packs of those fire-bomb guys that wiped out all the minions and required some run-and-resummon tactics. Piety also wiped out all the minions handily with all her lightning spam, but she is also fairly easy to distract. Alternated summoning skeletons, moving out of the way of the ball lightning, and summoning spirits until she ran away.

Picked up Enfeeble from Maramoa for the quest reward. I'd have loved to get Flesh Offering instead, but this is hardcore and damage mitigation is important. Enfeeble is especially good against bosses, and since this is Invasion there's a lot of those. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a Flesh Offering later.

Sewer time. Went through both the Slums and Warehouse sewers with only one Invasion boss encounter, Pewterfang, and she didn't cause any significant damage. Also took out Ion Darkshroud again, fortunately in an area where he was the lone spawn. The rest of the trip was a pain due to all the poison-bomb throwers, which must have been invading since they spawned in packs. Tons of zombie resummoning required, and no small amount of running away while the poison clouds dispersed.

Hit level 30 along the way and also found an Animate Guardian gem. The guardian is kinda weak, but he's an extra minion that gets all the passive minion bonuses and requires only one red socket to use. No reason not to make use of it. Also found a second unique...Queen's Decree. Sigh. Useless to me, can't afford the loss of defense that would be needed to use a two-handed weapon.

Level 30-31

Warehouses, ugh. Snakes in narrow alleyways, never a good thing. This instance wasn't too bad; no Invasion boss and only had to go through about a quarter of the zone to find the exit. The Marketplace was equally straightforward except for the appearance of another rogue exile (one of the melee guys, I forget which) next to a rare snake with Discipline. Had to do a lot of dodging of the exile while I threw spirits at the snake and kept up the skeleton corps before they went down.

Ventured into the Market Sewers to get the last bust. Much easier trip than the other sewers as the hordes of poison-bombers apparently had another engagement (probably killing some other poor exile back in the other sewers). Did see Strangledrift and took him down fairly easily; as long as you pay attention so that you see the Lightning Warp and big blinding attack coming, they're easy to dodge.

Been moving forward pretty quickly and the area levels are getting near to my own, so decided to make a quick detour through the Catacombs to pick up some extra XP. First monster I saw was Granitecrush, so I turned around and reset. Second instance was better; still had an Invasion boss right up front, but this time it was Corpsestitch. No trouble once I stole his corpses for my own use. Got to level 31 shortly thereafter. Later on found an Entombed Chamber corrupted zone with only one mod, faster attack/cast/move monsters. Fairly easy clear, as most of the monsters were melee and Ossecati Boneshaper isn't dangerous as long as you stay back from his Infernal Blow attack. Got a Vaal Fireball; interesting, but no place to socket it. Finished up the Catacombs, then back to the Marketplace (dodging the Guardian of the Mound) to find the exit and make my way forward to the Battlefront WP.

Level 31-33

Next stop, Solaris temple. Hit level 32 just before entering and picked up Grave Expectations, which is a big survivability boost for the minions: 16% to all resists, plus the extra targets running around.

Saw Glassmaul in level 1, and somehow managed to avoid the Invasion boss in level 2 even though I explored a huge area before I finally found the waypoint. Hit level 33 just before Dialla and started in on the life nodes leading to Holy Strength. Found a new shield along the way with slightly increased defenses.

Level 33-34

Used the Battlefront waypoint to go grab the ribbon spool. Had to fight both the guard and Pewterfang for it, but neither gave me any trouble. Onward to the Docks. Found the waypoint, then went in search of the sulfite, but found the Guardian of the Mound first and decided to exercise the better part of valor. Stopped by Dialla to turn in the spool and received a decent rare fire resist ring, so the resists are now 75/58/59/8.

Second Docks instance was full of voidbearers, easily twice as many as any other group, so they must have been invading as well as native. Lost the full set of minions many times, but since I could just revive a couple of the corpses afterward it wasn't too bad. Invasion boss was Bladeback Guardian, who made the mistake of getting himself stuck in a corner below some stairs. Stood at the top of the stairs and tossed skeletons down into his Incinerate Nova until they blew him up. Found the sulfite and opened the sewer passage, but not heading through to the Barracks just yet.

Level 34-37

Made a quick stop at the Marketplace to enable Fairgraves' drinking problem. Killed Orra Greengate along the way. She dropped a rare amulet that's not horrible, but it doesn't have a Dex bonus. I need that Dex if I want to keep leveling LMP, at least until I make my way over to Alacrity on the passive tree.

And now for a multitude of Docks runs. It gets boring, but it's the best way to minimize the chance of insta-death at the hands of upper act 3 bosses. Ran through 6 instances on my way to 37. Saw the Stagnant Canal corrupted area a few times, but stayed away, as Wiraqucha the multiplying snake is a ridiculous boss. Totally unpredictable fight that's not worth the risk. A few choice encounters:

Glassmaul: He's learned Lightning Strike, but it didn't help him.
Grath: Showed up right outside the waypoint, nice of him. Easy takedown.
The Book Burner: Took a bit of kiting since he spawned with his own minions plus a group of voidbearers. No big deal once he was alone.
Corrector Draconides: Saw his guards coming and was able to kill them before he came after me. He did one giant leap slam over the minions to hit me, but then they killed him as I was running away.
Droolscar: Spawned right next to one of those big stacks of crates, so I just hid behind that and tossed out skeletons until everything had died.
Mother of the Swarm: Saw her minions coming and ran back enough that my guys could kill them away from her. She summoned a few more by the time I went after her, but the numbers were down enough that her Soul Eater bonus didn't get out of control.

Grath dropped a Goldrim, which I decided to use. Means I lose the +1 to minion gems helm, but it caps my resists. Also found a Blackheart unique Iron Ring, which isn't all that useful. Found a 4-linked RBBB Mesh Boots and rolled it to a usable 16% cold resist and 15% movement speed. Linked up Animate Guardian, Additional Lightning Damage, Raise Zombie, and Minion Damage.

Passive tree at 37. I've started moving right of my starting area over toward Alacrity, as otherwise I'm going to run into Dex issues soon.

Glad to see you're back. May Sarah live long and prosper

Level 37-38

Went down to the sewer passage and was greeted immediately by Corrector Draconides and a swarm of poison bombs. No thanks, reset. Second try...Corrector Draconides and a swarm of poison bombs. Twice in a row, what are the chances? Was just about to reset again when I noticed the poison bombs had stopped...seems there weren't very many of the bombers in this spawn, and the minions managed to take them out and knock Draconides down to about 1/3 health in the bargain before they died. (Or, given Minion Instability, more likely as they died.) So I tossed out a few more skeletons and spirits to finish him off. Rest of the trip through the passage was annoying due to the number of poison bombs, but not particularly dangerous.

Into the Barracks. Stopped as soon as I saw anything run onto the screen and let them come to me, which made it a fairly easy trip up to Gravicius. All those charging soldiers aren't too bad as long as you don't fight overwhelming numbers. The General himself was a pushover with my 5 level advantage; his Molten Shell did explode and kill many minions, but thanks to Minion Instability he took a ton of damage in the process. Skeletons and spirits finished him off.

Took a short detour over to the Imperial Gardens to get the waypoint. Hooray, projectile vomit birds to revive! Effective spectres and amusement for my inner 12 year old all at once, what more can you ask? Picked up Fire Penetration from Maramoa as a quest reward back in town; it's not that useful now, but should work nicely linked to spectres if I live into Merciless.

Back to the Barracks and an uneventful run up to the Lunaris Temple. Sadly the first big room contained Bladetooth, who died quickly but took all the minions with him, so no more vomit birds for now. Rest of level 1 was a piece of cake, and I hit level 38 shortly into level 2.

Level 38-39

Bladetooth came back for more in the Lunaris Temple level 2; ended no better for him than the last time. Took out Kole easily enough as well, though he did murder the entire minion horde in the process.

Found Rancor near the level 3 entrance. Fight was going nicely when I noticed that his Reave had build up to the point where it was hitting me, nearly an entire screen away, so ran away to let him calm down a bit. Came back with a full horde and found his corpse; apparently the last few skeletons I'd summoned had exploded and killed him. Found and revived a couple of Burned Miscreations for the first half of the level since no Tentacle Miscreations were making an appearance. Kind of fun, reminded me of the good old pre-nerf days with everything catching fire. Finally found some Tentacle Miscreations to revive once I got into the jail cell area. Ran into Thena Moga there, too; she seemed confused and kept running around without attacking anything. Must have aggroed on something at the back of the minion pack initially, and took a while to reset her target. Finally she did a Viper Strike that poisoned a bunch of zombies, but by then she was already almost dead.

Piety posed no real challenge. Less than 30 seconds from start to finish. She did kill off all the minions with a lightning storm, but that was about the extent of the threat. Skeletons and spirits finished her off. Drops were worthless. I did find a 4-link Scarlet Raiment earlier in the zone and used my one Alchemy Orb on it, but the mods were mediocre at best. Saving it in the stash in case I need the links more than better mods at some point.

Decided to spend one of my Piety points on Elemental Adaptation for the max resists, on the general principle that more defense is never a bad thing in hardcore play. Here's the passive tree as it stands now. Still heading toward Alacrity.

Level 39-40

Back to the Gardens and over to the Library. It's especially important to cast skeletons ahead (mainly through doorways) in these areas, since otherwise the alpha strike from monsters like Undying Archivists and Bone Rhoas can really ruin your day. Found a Life Leech along the way, which would make me very happy on most characters but is fairly useless for this one. No Invasion boss in the Library, but found the Book Burner in the Archives. He managed a full minion wipe before I ran, resummoned, and re-engaged to knock him down. After that, Trinian was a pushover. Took Purity of Lightning from Siosa; I think I'll run it unless I find something better. Mana hasn't really been much of an issue, and flasks take care of things when I run low.

Roamed around the Gardens for a while, looking for the Hedge Maze. Killed off Thistlesage in the process, but didn't see an Invasion boss. Finally found the maze, and the first monster inside was Wonderwalker. Nice of him to come out solo, as the minions were able to gang up on him. He killed a few with a couple of discharges, but nothing dangerous. Found the Conqueror Wurm as well, fortunately in a location where I could easily put a maze wall between us and let the minions work him over. Grabbed the plum and obtained a Citrine Amulet from Fairgraves, which isn't particularly good but still better than what I was using. An actual usable quest reward, will wonders never cease.

Nothing left now but the Sceptre of God. Horrible zone for summoners with all the massive AoE damage: fireblasts, leap slams, fire breath, lightning nova. First door in had a bunch of Undying Aristocrats behind it which wiped out the entire horde, setting the tone for the whole trip. At least I hit level 40 along the way, and managed to avoid seeing either Caliga or an Invasion boss.

Level 40-41

Upper Sceptre of God was just as bad as the lower floors. Killed Rancor on the first floor and Paradisae Venenum on the second, but those were the easy fights. Much more difficult were several spawns of fireblasting undying, twice led by rares. Lots of resummoning, but eventually I made it through.

Made it to the top of the tower, and away we go. First set of bosses wiped out the minions, as expected, but in doing so killed off the cold dude and got the others down to about half. Fairly easy to finish them off with skeletons and spirits. Second set of bosses is easier; killed off the first two then ran around a bit raising zombies before finishing off the third to be as ready as possible for first form Dominus. Not much in the way of special tactics on the third stage except to stay away from the touch-of-god slam, and run away from any incoming exploding miscreations when you're cursed. In between keeping myself alive, lots of skeleton and spirit summoning. Ended up leaving the zone to replenish zombies a couple of times; there were enough corpses around, but I needed time and mana, so it was easier to leave and come back than to raise the dead in a war zone. Eventually got enough damage in to move on to the second form. This one is easier, but it still took a while, as the minions don't do enough damage yet to take out a giant bag of hit points like goat-Dominus quickly. But in the end, he bit the dust.

All good, right? Talked to Dialla, heard the nice metal music, clicked on the portal...and was staring at the login screen with an error message something like "account must be logged in to complete this action". Logged back in, no portal up, and when I went back to the waypoint and found the Upper Sceptre again, my zone was gone. Lovely...Dominus can't kill me, but a server error took away my victory. I still had one rare in my inventory that I'd picked up, and my XP bar had moved up, so at least some of the fight counted, but no quest completion.

Well, we'll just have to do it again. Found a Sealed Corridors corrupted zone on my way back up to the top and took a few minutes to clear it. No good drops, just a Sacrifice at Dawn, but it got me very close to level 41. Went back down to a new Sceptre instance to finish out the level, then back to the roof.

Second fight went a bit easier, possibly because of the extra level. The first set of bosses went pretty much the same except that the minions killed off fire dude first. Second set, no real difference. First form Dominus went faster this time, and I didn't leave the zone at all, instead making better use of flasks to keep my mana up and running across the screen a couple of times to get away from Dominus long enough to resummon zombies. Second form Dominus went a lot faster, possibly because I did nothing other than cast Enfeeble at the beginning, then throw raging spirits on him. That seemed to work a lot better than alternating skeletons and spirits as I had the first time. And this time, no issues getting through the portal to Cruel.

Had a moderately eventful trip through the Twilight Strand thanks to Granitecrush, who spawned just before Hillock and right next to a rare sand spitter. Had to kite him a bit away from the rare, kill him off with spirits and skeletons, then get the rare and Hillock. Picked up Convocation from Tarkleigh; not sure if I'll get much use out of it, but it's a new summoner trick that I've not used before, so why not?

Why not use unique sword on weapon swap for summoning zombs/spectres?