This blog is part of my series about my impressions of, and experiences in, the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls beta. The beta is over, and the expansion is coming out very soon! Even so, I am still interested in blogging about the RoS Beta. It gives me a chance to share what I was thinking about as I was playing through it.
Joan the Crusader hit Level 17 in the previous blog. This blog will pick up from there and show the highlights of her adventure from Level 17 to Level 18. All of the screenshots that you see in this post are from January 4, 2014.
This time, Joan the Crusader selected Kormac the Templar to be her Follower. Here they are at the Wortham Bluffs, talking to the Crazed Hermit.
Crazed Hermit: My queen sings to me. Her music echoes from beyond…
Yeah… that guy has lost his mind. The next quest is to enter the Caverns of Araneae and search for the Chamber of Queen Aranaea. As you can see, the whole cavern is filled with spider webs, spider egg sacs, spiders, and great big spiders. The queen that the Crazed Hermit is so enamored with is a giant spider woman. Obviously, their relationship cannot end well (at least, not for him).
In the screenshot below, you can see Joan the Crusader using the Blessed Hammer skill and throwing lots of hammers at the spiders.
Players who happen to be arachnophobic are going to be really creeped out while playing through the Caverns of Aranaea. Nearly every enemy in this zone is a in the shape of some kind of spider. Personally, I think spiders are cool, so this area is not a problem for me.
Next up, Joan the Crusader and Kormac the Templar fought Borgoz the Terrible.
Followed by Hatemonger Deathflame, who has the Molten affix. All the fire on the floor is coming from him.
The “big bad” of this zone is Queen Araneae, The Shadow Weaver. Players get a quest called “Kill Queen Araneae”. When your first enter the Chamber of Queen Araneae, you run into a non-player character (NPC) named Karyna. She is stuck in a big spider web, and is hoping you can free her before she becomes the Spider Queen’s next meal. Suddenly, Karyna hears Queen Araneae coming, and she freaks out. This is when the fight begins.
Ok, so you kill the Spider Queen, and you free Kayrna. Joan the Crusader, and Kormac the Templar, leave the Chamber of Queen Araneae together.
The next quest is called “Talk to Kayrna”. One of the things she tells you is that she stole a staff from the Khazra (the “goat men”) and that they aren’t too happy about it. She helpfully points out that you could go find her cart, where the she left the staff. She doesn’t want you to give it back to her, though. It is to be used to fight the Khazra, or something. (Or, at least that’s what ends up happening).
Now, originally, Diablo III was supposed to include three crafters: The Blacksmith, the Jeweler, and the Mystic. But, the Mystic got removed from the game sometime before it was released. Since that time, I have always suspected that Karyna was the Mystic.
That didn’t turn out to be true, at least not for the original Diablo III. I know that the Mystic is part of the Reaper of Souls (RoS) expansion, but I’ve no idea how you find her. What I do know is that finding Karyna in the RoS beta did not result in adding the Mystic to my game. I was honestly expecting that something big and obvious would happen at this point to make it clear that I’d unlocked the Mystic.
Next stop, the Southern Highlands! This area was full of elite monsters (and tons and tons of Khazra). Loathus Skullcrusher had the Mortar affix. He’s also the type of monster that charges. You get a couple of seconds to move out of his path of trajectory before he charges at you. Move immediately out of the way, and you can avoid some damage. In this case, you would still have to watch out for the mortars he throws, though.
Treasure Bandit!!!!
My Crusader happened to find the Abandoned Servant House. Inside is Arghus the Collector. Talk to him. Have him repair your stuff. Sell your junk to him. You might want to see if he is selling anything that is good for your character (or Follower). I think there might be an achievement for talking to all the vendors, and I am of the impression that Arghus (and the Abandoned Servant House) may, or may not, randomly appear in a new game.
The next elite monster was Shakal the Gorgon, who had the Electrified affix.
Killing him off gave Joan the Crusader just enough experience points to hit Level 18!
The next blog will pick up with Joan the Crusader’s adventure from Level 18 to Level 19.