CRUSADER!! - A Journey into Reaper of Souls: Bounty Run Act I

Note: A Purest Challenge is not to twink any character, use paragon points, or use any outside help and progress in Hardcore. Inspired by a post on d2jsp by Bubonic. I chose to start at Expert difficulty and do Bounties (RNG selected) and Rift runs.

The weapon upgrade from the previous Rift Run gave me the confidence to continue with Expert difficulty. It also might have been due to me randomly rolling Act I bounties, which I feel are easier than the Act IV and Act V bounties previously. Oh and the Act I bounties was a Bonus with double shards awarded!

The five bounties took about an hour; halving the amount of time for the previous set. Was it the new weapon upgrade? Was it the new skills available to boost DPS and attack speed? Was it the Act I monsters are easier to manage (slower)? Methinks it's a combination of all of the above.

The Butcher was a bounty and I chose him first. Similar to when I went after Urzael, I didn't want to wait until he was the last bounty remaining and be 4 or 5 levels higher and push up his HP.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Butcher...

I think I've found this ring 3 times so far in ROS. At this level, it's a welcome upgrade.

The Butcher fight went smooth and only drank from the healing well once.

He dropped a good helmet upgrade as well. Kind chap he is.

I cycled through the rest of the bounties and upgraded and replaced the legendary belt with a very nice rare.

Always check vendors for upgrades. I always liked the look of these rare shields.

You'll notice Steed - Nightmare is now on my bar, as well as Akarat's Champion. Iron Will and Law of Judgment is gone. I hate the 90s cooldown on Akarat because the movement and DPS increase is great for fighting elites and single targets.

Here's a boot upgrade after such a fight with elites.