GrimJack's 28 Days Later Knight Vampiress

[FrostElfGuard 9]

The normal mechanism of Awaken Dead is this:

 

You kill something while you're in Vampiress form.

You use Awaken Dead on it.

It rises as a follower of yours. It will attack any target you click on. Even if you abort your own attack.

You raise more. The follower has a slight chance of converting opponents with each hit.

When you TiK, you lose all such followers...except you *might* get a new one converted or raised just as you TiK.

 

If that happens, it will remain with you until Open Wounds kills it, opponents kill it, or your next TiK (assuming you want to play in Vampiress mode for all the extra damage per hit and the dual wielding (double hits instead of one).

 

 

 

GrimJack's idea is simple. What if you never TiK again? Then the one lone Awakened will remain potentially a long time.

If you damage an opponent to near death, and allow your follower to kill it... it will be Awakened even in daytime.

If you repeat this last step instead... your army will grow. And grow.

 

GrimJack starts with the wolves of bellevue using a level 60 AD. With 3 or 4 of these you can obtain about 10 hatchet crabs from crab island. With 10 crabs you (apparently) can very quickly take down dragons.

 

His screenshot shows about 10 hatchet crabs, 10 ice elves (with whips and light sabres) and 4 dragons in his army.

 

Wow.

 

I have to try this at least once. Perhaps you do too?

[Genenut 8]

Can you explain this a bit further? I think I might understand this trick but I'm not sure. Is he basically obtaining a follower just as his vampire form expires and then the follower is turning more creatures to serve you even in knight form? Will this effect remain for HC toons after exiting and re joining a game the next day?

[FrostElfGuard 9]

Yes. The seed (initial) follower is converted just as the Knight form starts. To get this first follower apparently is tricky.

 

Then, you need to nurse it along trying to make sure it doesn't die before it gets a chance to infect others.

 

When you log out you'll lose all followers, just as in the regular game.

 

Most players do not opt for a Knight form Vampiress since it's melee damage output is far less than the night time/underground version of the character.

[Schot 407]

Wow, very cool. I'd love to try this. Eternal followers... What more could you want?! Granted... Considering this is an exploit there's always a chance that those converted may turn on you one day when you least expect it... Could be an ugly scene if there is a huge mob of disgruntled undead around you. Hmmm.... I'm in!

[FrostElfGuard 9]

I tried something with my level 104 Vampiress that didn't really use runes. (Just relied on base attack value augmented by night A.R. increase and double damage from "dual wielding" her claws...

 

I decided to read one of each rune to enable all attack forms.

 

Then. I went shopping. Big Time shopping.

 

It is amazing how much really great gear you can buy in Platinum. Great gear being up to +20 to a given combat art. I was able to push Awaken Dead from 1 rune to over my character level---I think it was 108 AD for the combo. I also shopped for Bats: Blood Swarm, and Hard Hit and TiV. {This all got started 'cause Tit said I only needed 1 rune read in TiV, the result of the TiV could come from a combo you got by shopping/drops.--but since, while you're shopping, you simply get access to ALL the goodies, I figured I might as well stop letting equipment with +18 to a useful CA just click on by...}

 

The dead so Awakened are extremely tough. I stayed in Vampiress form and had about 30 followers.

 

I decided I should pay a call on Miss D'Cay. You know, the undead dragon just south west of Khorad-Nur?

 

Well. I don't think the DRAGON was able to kill ANY of my followers. ANY.

 

They just circled around her and hacked away. It took a few attacks of my own to convince them (they get in each other's way, and if you abort your attack too soon, they change and follow you instead of following through with their attack). Once they're attacking D'Cay only sometimes pays attention to you... mostly she attacks your followers... including fire breath.

 

I wonder if standing right next to her is a fire-free zone. That is, in melee I wonder if ---ah. New topic. New thread.

 

So, it was easy for me to turn necromancer (really, polymancer, since I can now play with any Vampiress ability).

 

By the way, Bats: Blood Swarm is definitely and under-performer. At low levels, the bats themselves can kill monsters. At high levels, they are just a meat shield. That's okay. The melee Vampiress in Vamp form can take just about anything anyway (at least at night!).

 

It seems the key with the Vampiress is have a high level CA. I suspect other CAs might be very interesting (such as Mind Control. That would be cool to convince D'Cay to be in your party and have her raid Khorad Nur or have her go after Orc or Skeleton bands.)

[podgie_bear 184]

"It seems the key with the Vampiress is have a high level CA"

 

Could you expand a bit? I am playing a vamp at the moment and need all the help I can get! I never intended to start a Vamp, just did to team with someone and got hooked as it rapidly became my best character. However, nothing has been planned or reasoned in the build, it has just happened and I find myself at level 53 wondering how I got here and what to do now.

My CAs are TiV 43, Wolf 11, bats(swarm) 12, Awaken Dead 3.

My vamp can really kick butt big time, but my bats/wolf die if you just look at them. So I think I may need to concentrate on necromancy.

1) Is there any other CAs I should develope?

2) Are there limits to the dead you can control (ie, X creatures per CA level, or creature levels totaling X per CA level)?

3) Should I socket for +CAs, +skills, Life Leech, WIDD or all of them?

Help, all advise gratefully received, meanwhile I continue to and hope not to lose my best ever character.

Edited December 12, 2007 by podgie_bear

[FrostElfGuard 9]

Gosh. I missed this reply from 8 YEARS ago!

The wolf companion: gets 40% of its level from you. It needs to match in level its opponents... so you need to read enough runes to get its level to match them. You can see what level it will be by hovering over the CA. It's stronger (higher level) at night.

Attack CA. Just read 1 rune, and then socket (or shop) for higher levels.

Yes. All of them. (CA, skills, LL, WIDD). I don't bother with WIDD myself because I don't like playing that close to death. But, if it floats your boat.

I'm playing a 28 Days Later Vampiress right now. This week. 8 years later.

 

Oh: the bats (of any kind) are only really useful in bronze. They never scale up enough to do much, so I'd abandon them... unless you find them pretty.

Edited July 21, 2015 by FrostElfGuard

[gogoblender 3,069]

Gosh. I missed this reply from 8 YEARS ago!

The wolf companion: gets 40% of its level from you. It needs to match in level its opponents... so you need to read enough runes to get its level to match them. You can see what level it will be by hovering over the CA. It's stronger (higher level) at night.

Attack CA. Just read 1 rune, and then socket (or shop) for higher levels.

Yes. All of them. (CA, skills, LL, WIDD). I don't bother with WIDD myself because I don't like playing that close to death. But, if it floats your boat.

I'm playing a 28 Days Later Vampiress right now. This week. 8 years later.

 

Oh: the bats (of any kind) are only really useful in bronze. They never scale up enough to do much, so I'd abandon them... unless you find them pretty.

Frosty, good seeing you back, and so devoted to the game, build and...us!

thanks for putting up some more info, hope you've keeping well!

 

gogo