If I could get to the Hell hellforge I wouldn't need the Um. :P

I'm currently in the process of doing this:

I kill NM baal until I've stocked up on full rejuv potions for a little while. Once I have tose, I do Hell countess. I can handle most everything but the countess and her minions. Waheed can take them out, if I split them up into smaller groups. The full rejuvs are for the countess herself. I pop a super healing potion on him when he starts getting lower on health, and if he gets close to death, I give him a full rejuv. Also, the full rejuvs help me GET to the countess. Since I'm teleporting to her, I have to watch out not to die. If I teleport into a group of those mana-stealing ghosts, it can mean instant death if I don't have a full rejuv, since no mana=no teleport=sitting duck.

My plans after I get a couple of good runes is to go to act 2 and clear the ancient tunnels a few hundred times. I should get pretty decent experience there, and pretty awesome items(it's similar to the pit, except there are no cold immunes.) Once I feel that my gear and my merc's gear is suitable, I'm going to work on getting through hell. I suspect that there will be a couple of roadblocks, though, that will prove difficult.

I don't think I can get past act 2 until my gear is pretty darn good, because my merc is going to have to take hell duriel all by himself. With potions and a few tricks, this shouldn't be TOO hard, but I need to get him some better gear anyway. If I remember right, hell duriel is immune to cold, so the best I can do is static him to 50%.

Next, the chaos sanctuary will be hard. I really don't know how I'll get through it other than to just keep on trying. I'm going to have to seriously stock up on gold for keeping my merc alive, since I believe the caster knight dudes in the chaos sanctuary are cold immune. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, because Waheed can kill them, but in this case it will be a bit more tricky. Since they cast Iron Maiden, it's going to be tricky to have him kill them without him killing himself. Also, I don't know if it's possible, but if any of the 3 minions of Diablo end up being cold/phys immune, I think I'll just have to start over. Cold/phys immunes are the only things I really can't do anything against, for now.

It's going to be tricky and difficult, but I'm determined to do it. I know for a fact that a pure blizzard sorceress can solo all of the way through hell, with a few tricks up their sleeve. I've never done it, myself. I've never gotten this lucky with gear, though.