DELIRIUM RUNEWORD, Diablo 2: Pre-eminent Crowd Control

In this post I exhibit optimization to my Pit-conquering bowazon. For those who haven't been following, the bowazon's history is as follows:

• [Softcore] Twinked Bowazon: Part I — Godly at First Level
• [Softcore] Twinked Bowazon: Part II — Normal mode
• [Softcore] Twinked Bowazon: Part III — Nightmare mode
• [Softcore] Twinked Bowazon: Part IV — Hell mode
• [Softcore] Epic Bowazon: Maxed Spawns Extreme: Pit running
• [Softcore] Epic Bowazon: Maxed Spawns Extreme: Chaosing
• [Softcore] Epic Bowazon: Maxed Spawns Extreme: Revised: Pit running

Basically, both bowazon and sister-merc have been given Delirium instead of Andariel's Visage; it's a helm upgrade.

This results in markedly accelerated and optimized Pit-clearing of 7,000 enemies. Why? Delirium's 11% chance of on-hit lvl 18 necromantic Confuse curse.

Here shows the approach to the Pit indicated by the black hole near the center of the image. We can see that all enemies in the vicinity are under the effects of Confuse. There are multiple AoEs currently active, stretching out off-screen. This is huge.

Why? Because enemies negatively affected by Confuse are attacking each other and ignoring the bowazon and her merc and valkyrie allies. Under the effects of Confuse, enemies always prioritize attacking each other rather than the player's combat units. While they are so-addled in the head, the player is obviously ripping them all new assholes.

Bang, they're all dead. 3 secs flat. Wasted.

Note how in that first pic we are completely surrounded. Without Delirium, we would be dead meat if we found ourselves in that situation.

Confuse is hugely advantageous for the following reasons:

• Confuse grants us more breathing space to line up our Multiple Shot [recap pic]. Without fear of retaliation, we can get in close to the megapacks and inflict devastating concentrated fire from point-blank range. This also saves ammo.

• We are almost never flanked as the enemies are preoccupied with each other instead of finding alternate ways to hunt us.

• Once confused, the enemies gather into tighter packs than usual in order to attack each other. This makes targeting for concentrated fire even easier than it already is (Why spray multi-shot at 30 enemies when you can spray it at 90?)

• Enemies no longer rush us because they are attacking each other. Thus, we get hit less and don't have to change our position to defend ourselves against rushers. I killed 80,000 enemies in one session and got hit only 10 times...

• The merc and valkyrie almost never die now because the enemies ignore them.

• Getting to the Pit from the wayoints is made much easier. We fire multi-shot a few times, chase after our arrows with +run/walk bestowed by on-switch Harmony, and simply run by the confused 69th level mooks without needing to waste our time killing them. We cannot do this without Delirium (not under max MonDen/maxpacks).

In a nutshell, Confuse is the pre-eminent form of crowd control for our bowazon. In fact, for our spearazons and javazons as well; for many builds.

The Pit: Second Level

Moreover, both merc and bowazon wear this helm. Thus, the enemies are always affected by the curse.

Note that super uniques cannot be confused. That doesn't really matter because under max MonDen/maxpacks it's the hordes that are the problem, not singular toughies which are not multiplied. And the addled megapacks box in and whale away upon the super uniques most of the time, anyway. Also note that enemies take ages to kill each other, but that is irrelevant in that we already possess killspeed in spades, and Confuse increases our killspeed as per the bullet points above.

I didn't think I could optimize my bowazon all that much from the setups exhibited in previous posts, but I just did thanks to the underrated Delirium runeword. I was pretty happy with my Andariel's Visage socketed with a demon's-bane jewel, but its advantages in the Pit are as nothing when compared with Delirium.

I think that's enough Diablo 2 for now.

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