All Alone Tournament III

Quite a bit of work in River of Flame and Chaos Sanctuary for Evangelina, but not too much damger.

I got a Hel from the Hellforge. I may use it later for destroying the topazes in my armor, so I can get more resists.

I got lucky with the Infector´s seal. It was the formation that has the seal out in the open. (I could probably have done the cul-de-sac variant too, with a well-times CoS and then a Dragon Flight, but it was nice to avoid it nonetheless.)

A regular monster in the Vizier´s wing dropped a Ribcracker. Very interesting item. Lots of offensive qualities but no blocking and no resists.

I took the players setting down to 3 for Diablo, and put on my fire resist amulet. I decided to forego any fancy slowing or CB (well, other than on the gloves) in favour of Rhyme shield, access to the Life Tap wand on switch and just good ol´ fashioned flames. I got off to a bad start (and Diablo completely ignored the Shadow Warrior), but once I managed to get close enough so the Lightning Inferno couldn´t touch me, I was pretty safe. The Life Tap healed all minor wounds right away. Sometimes I didn´t even need a potion when the Firestorm was pouring through me.

Evangelina left Swordback Hold and The General´s Tan Do Li Ga to rot, grabbed Ribcracker and headed back for the WP. She used Tyael´s skill points reward to bring Fists of Fire up to level 7.


[Highlight]Evangelina the PS Assassin, level 66, NM Bloody Foothills next[/Highlight]
 
Anubis started to engage in hit-and-fade schirmishes against that nasty room in the Cellar lvl 3 since the monsters have since moved and make getting to the portal room impossible. Oh did I mention the other boss is cursed? :rolleyes: Three army resurrections lead to three eliminated skeleton lightning archers. Unfortunately at this point Anubis has cleared out the entire Act except for the two underground tombs in Rocky Waste/Dry Hills. Well that and he's running critically short on mana potions.

So onward to clear those areas to restock for one more shot at my conviction enchanced nemisis. Oddly enough ran into another conviction enhanced skeleton mage boss pack in the tomb at the Rocky Wastes. This battle however was far easier and didn't require any mana potions or loss of minions.

Along the way encountered a champion pack of skeleton mages. I think this shows what Anubis' main problem was, lack of killing power. One minute for a single non-boss monster simply doesn't cut it.

Anyway, stocking up nicely on potions/bodies when Anubis entered a room with another boss pack of skeleton mages, a champion pack of the same monster and a small pack of lightning beetles. In an effort to drag his army into the room Anubis entered and quickly found this was not the best idea. His minions near the door crumbled quickly and now the way out was blocked. He tried casting the golem to lure the mages away from the door. Unfortunately the golem lasts perhaps a second before it crumbles. Not good. Suddenly Anubis is cornered and then....drat.

Normally I'm not much of a necromancer fan, my last one was boring as anything. I think I was just playing him badly as this one had less killing power and went far quicker than I remember. My main problems were getting the army started (which was avoided by just not ending the game session) and not using all of the options available to me. For example crafting or rerolling wands to get something better than +1 RS :rolleyes: Thoughts to take with me for next tournament. Overall it was fun, this is the second farthest I've ever gotten a HC character and only the third to ever get to Hell.

Good luck to everyone else still playing, guess I'll now be waiting to see who can avenge Anubis :grin:

Code: 
[highlight]Alive Characters[/highlight]  
[b][u]Forum Name      Character       Build       Class       LVL   ACT         WP      [/u][/b]  
OldSoldier      Princess_Diana  MA/LF       Amazon      74  A1 Hell  Inner Cloister
Insane Wayne    Asteria         CS          Amazon      74  A1 Hell  Rogue Camp
jiansonz        Evangelina      Phoenix     Assassin    66  A5 NM    Harrogath
Crazy_Bear      Jane_Doe        Javazon     Amazon      62  A3 NM    Kurast Baazar
skoolbus        OneFingaPushup  Trapper     Assassin    57  A3 NM    Kurast Docks
SinningThings   Rapunzel        Trapsin     Assassin    25  A1 NM    Rogue Camp
Breaker         Nosiop          Poison      Necromancer 36  A5 Norm  Frigid Highlands
Chern           All_Alone       Summoner    Druid       33  A4 Norm  River of Flame
Zodwizard       HC_Rainwalker   Fire-Hunter Druid       29  A4 Norm  Pand Fortress
Anraxas         To_easy         Summoner    necro       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
WestXylophone   SoloFirer       HolyFire    Paladin     26  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
stephan         Louise                      Assassin    23  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Silverslasher   Forlorn         fire/summon Druid       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Cygnus          Lycus           Hammers     Paladin     25  A2 Norm  Harem
Friiser         HCAll_Alone     Summoner    Necro       22  A2 Norm  Far Oasis
Docturnal       Angriez         Fishyzon    Zon         21  A2 Norm  Rocky Waste
Ron             Bamboozle       Passive     Amazon      17  A2 Norm  Sewers Level 2
San             Sigrdrifa       PsnJava/MA  Zon         21  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
thewamp         Athena          PJ/FA       Amazon      20  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Tweety          Remi            Boner       Necromancer 19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Brak            Tojolobal       Quesodin    Paladin     19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Ohomemgrande    Lonely          Trapper     Assassin    19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
tripsu          InsaneEnvy                  Amazon      18  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein  
Credge          YinMKII         --          Necro       17  A1 Norm  Jail Level 1
Hoop76          Lone_Ranger                 Paladin     15  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
ZeN             DieAlone        Fishy       Necro       14  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
GreyEagle       LoneEagle       Trapper     Assassin    17  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highlands
mjosh           Electrolyte     light sorc  Sorceress   15  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Feared          April_Ethereal  Summoner    Necro        ?  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Farfus          Farfus          Healbot     Paladin     12  A1 Norm  Stony Field
FromBeyond      HesHardcore                 Barbarian   11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
SonOfBaal       IHateYouAll     Trap/Summon Assassin    11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Quickdeath      Eve             Cold        Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Sindus          LonelyMaiden    Enchantress Sorc         7  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Chizz           Trapper         ?           Assassin     6  A1 Norm  Stony Field
AlienBoyz       DocWho          Summoner    Necro       12  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Chymaera        Marius II       BlizBolt    Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Cold Plain 
Liquidcore      ThaDru          Wind/fire   Druid        6  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Vang            WirtsOldMan                 Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
rY xD           Illidan         Berzerker   Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
adny            Scorch          Hydrasorc   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Gabriel74       Smelly          Lightning   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Retawd          Sinistral       --          Assassin     1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Darkstrikes     lighamus                    Amazon       1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp

[highlight]Dead Characters[/highlight]
[b][u]Forum Name      Character       Build       Class       LVL   ACT         WP   [/u][/b]  
Mursilis        Anubis          Summoner    Necromancer 75  A2 Hell  Cellar lvl 3      
Butzull         Warnie          Hunter      Druid       75  A1 Hell  Outer Cloister
Breaker         PokePoke        Lancebarb   Barb        36  A4 Norm  River of Flame  
inSTAALed       EmoPhil         Ele         Druid       28  A4 Norm  River of Flame
whoisfu         WhoIsZon                    Amazon      35  A4 Norm  Chaos Sanctuary
jiansonz        Kevin           HF Zealot   Paladin     31  A3 Norm  Disused Reliquary
Silverslasher   Sizzlingpain    Trap        Assassin    28  A3 Norm  Kurast
EmperorMoo      GumbyKicksAss   Golemancer  Necro       26  A3 Norm  Flayer Jungle
Jabash          RunAway         Blade/Shdw  Assasin     28  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Anraxas         ibone_alone     ranger      Paladin     27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
newco           KissMyBoots     Hybrid      Assassin    27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Crazy_Bear      Silent_Bob      Psn/Mage    Necromancer 27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Butzull         Spinster                    Amazon      26  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
EmperorMoo      BertieWooster   Summoner    Necromancer 25  A2 Norm  Duriel's chamber
Sindus          Sindus          Comando     Necro       25  A2 Norm  Summoner
inSTAALed       HumanMeatBlock  Con         Barb        21  A2 Norm  Halls of Dead
Colorless Green Omega                       Assassin    21  A2 Norm  Halls/Dead2
EJB             WheresEveryone              Druid       22  A2 Norm  Radament
EmperorMoo      GotArrers       Mageazon    Amazon      21  A2 Norm  Radamant  
ShockTactics    Frostshock      Frostadin   Paladin     20  A2 Norm  Radamant
Chymaera        Marius          BlizBolt    Sorceress   14  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
chizz           Chizzy          Summoner    Necro       11  A1 Norm  Jail level 1
EmperorMoo      Wordsworth      Summon      Necromancer 11  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highland
Anraxas         ibone_alone     bone        Necro        8  A1 Norm  Countess
Liquidcore      FightingLove    Sniperzon   Amazon       6  A1 Norm  Stony Field
 
RIP Anubis, those Act 2 bonus tombs are TOUGH, potentially the most difficult spots in the entire game. So many boss/champ packs and so little space. Sometimes they spawn with only a few normal monsters, other times they look like what you saw. Boss packs stacked on top of each other. Great job getting this far. :thumbsup:
 
RIP Anubis. If Insane Wayne or I make it that far we'll find your clay golem and give him a stern talking-to for letting you get lynched. Not sure about the other two all alone tournaments before but I'd bet this is farther than anyone else has ever gotten. Someone else may enlighten me, but nevertheless, kudos on an outstanding achievement! This tournament has four Conquerors, very impressive.
 
I'm pretty sure Mursilis is the new all-time All Alone champ for getting past Hell Fangskin. That's where I got trapped by ol' Fangy and deeded.

So Mursilis, how was it against Hell Fangskin? Clay golem is awesome against snakes, because it can't be knocked back. BTW that's a great screenshot in the sewers. Looks like an angry mob trying to get past your personal riot police force.

@jiansonz- awesome Ribcracker! Very tempting. Understandable that you tossed the flail to keep it, although losing the shield slot hurts. And it's got extra durability! How did the ED roll? 200-300 is the range IIRC. Regardless, the CB more than compensates for a low roll.
 
Insane Wayne said:
@jiansonz- awesome Ribcracker! Very tempting. Understandable that you tossed the flail to keep it, although losing the shield slot hurts. And it's got extra durability! How did the ED roll? 200-300 is the range IIRC. Regardless, the CB more than compensates for a low roll.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the max. durability is excellent, but I got unlucky with the initial value - only 20. I have two Ort runes at the moment, but at least one will be used to boost my resists if I make it to Hell.

I am not at the computer I play D2 on now, so I can´t check the +%ED. I am pretty sure it was over 250. I think it was an even ten, either 260 or 280.



 
Insane Wayne said:
So Mursilis, how was it against Hell Fangskin? Clay golem is awesome against snakes, because it can't be knocked back. BTW that's a great screenshot in the sewers. Looks like an angry mob trying to get past your personal riot police force.
Click to expand...

Fangskin didn't pose any problems. Orignally when I entered level 2 and proceeded to the open area my army split into two groups; one going left to engage Fangskin and the second going right to fight a skeleton/dual unraveller group.

To avoid that issue I retreated to level 1 and then back down in order to bunch up both my army and the attackers in the corridor by the stairs. That way all the monsters couldn't engage my army. Had a line of skeletons protecting me from the monsters with the mages behind doing their thing. Lost about 3 minions (out of 18) before I got my first body, after that CE took care of the rest.



 
R.I.P. Anubis. I can imagine that you´ve had a devil of a time to get your first corpse in a session or after an army wipe-out.

As I understand it, you didn´t have access to the more damaging golems (Iron, Fire) which can (under most circumstances) eventually produce a corpse on their own, nor did you have a high level Iron Maiden, right? Without any of that to work with, I can see that the build would be heavily dependant on a merc to get a corpse. And we don´t have mercs, of course...
 
It´s been notably slow levelling for Evangelina in early act 5, due to a strange lack of boss packs. I have never seen anything like it:

Foothills: Enslaved and Quill Rats (no random boss, just Dac and Shenk)
Frigid Highlands: Burning Dead Archers, Slingers and Blunderbores (no random boss, just Sharptooth and Eyeback)
Abaddon: Horror Archers, Hell Spawn and imps (one Hell Spawn boss pack)
Plateau: fire mages, Carvers and imps (no random boss, just Thresh Socket)
Pit of Acheron: fire mages, imps and Frenzytaurs (no random boss)

Come on, I fought more bosses in Normal!

It only became dangerous once. My fire resist is still not very good (too greedy to use the 40+ resist amulet) so I had to be on my toes not only against the Burning Dead Archers but also against the flaming catapult shots. Even imp shots hurt a bit. Anyway, I handled the archers by either Cloak of Shadows, good movement or hiding behind my Shadow Warrior. Except for one time, and that cost me a full rejuve. I blame that mistake on playing when I was too tired.

I tried to remember where potions fell, because I often needed to go back for them. Sometimes I was low on healing potions, sometimes on mana potions, but there was always at least one (out of four) left in the respective column. When I ran low on healing, I used CoS constantly, stayed behind my shadow and used BF liberally. When I was low on mana, I simply slowed down my advancement and killing, allowing it to refill. In both cases, I would take any good and safe opportunity I saw to fill up the bulb using Cobra Strike.

I am now well aware of the CoS bug vs Evil Demon Huts, so I didn´t use that skill around them. To avoid getting burned too much by the imps, I released 2-3 Meteors on the Hut, then mixed in a 3rd charge here and there to freeze some of the imps that had spawned.

Now that I have a good amount of Crushing Blow in the form of Ribcracker (which has +280% ED, btw :thumbsup: ), I no longer had an immediate need of an Amn rune, so I went ahead and used the one I found to craft a Blood amulet. I liked the result and equipped it instead of the Lion Branded Amulet of Luck I´ve used for a long time now. The new ammy has:
* 3% life steal
* a little Faster Run
* 18% lightning resistance
* +15 life
* a little +AR
* +18% MF


[Highlight]Evangelina the PS Assassin, level 68, NM Crystalline Passage next[/Highlight]
 
I started playing yesterday night and cleared everything up to Stony Field.

After seeing too many angsty character names I named my character Happiness. Happiness is a TS/Dtail assassin.

I can't really believe how lucky I got. I found FOUR experience shrines, too bad I wasn't playing the whole act, I could have saved them for later, and I found the last one when I had almost cleared Stony Field already, so it didn't help much. With these, I got to almost lvl 14 after clearing everything up to Stony Field.

I found two gem shrines, which netted me a normal topaz before I had a lvl high enough to even use one. And on top of that I found three useful small charms: +4% FR, +6% FR and +8 life.

After all this luck, I went and almost got myself killed by Rakanishu, getting swarmed by his gang. Got out of that with a blade sentinel and many potions.

I don't want to think about my characters future when I see how quickly my claws break. Good thing weapon damage doesn't matter so I can just get any (fast) repair weapon.

Code: 
[highlight]Alive Characters[/highlight]  
[b][u]Forum Name      Character       Build       Class       LVL   ACT         WP      [/u][/b]  
OldSoldier      Princess_Diana  MA/LF       Amazon      74  A1 Hell  Inner Cloister
Insane Wayne    Asteria         CS          Amazon      74  A1 Hell  Rogue Camp
jiansonz        Evangelina      Phoenix     Assassin    66  A5 NM    Harrogath
Crazy_Bear      Jane_Doe        Javazon     Amazon      62  A3 NM    Kurast Baazar
skoolbus        OneFingaPushup  Trapper     Assassin    57  A3 NM    Kurast Docks
SinningThings   Rapunzel        Trapsin     Assassin    25  A1 NM    Rogue Camp
Breaker         Nosiop          Poison      Necromancer 36  A5 Norm  Frigid Highlands
Chern           All_Alone       Summoner    Druid       33  A4 Norm  River of Flame
Zodwizard       HC_Rainwalker   Fire-Hunter Druid       29  A4 Norm  Pand Fortress
Anraxas         To_easy         Summoner    necro       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
WestXylophone   SoloFirer       HolyFire    Paladin     26  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
stephan         Louise                      Assassin    23  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Silverslasher   Forlorn         fire/summon Druid       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Cygnus          Lycus           Hammers     Paladin     25  A2 Norm  Harem
Friiser         HCAll_Alone     Summoner    Necro       22  A2 Norm  Far Oasis
Docturnal       Angriez         Fishyzon    Zon         21  A2 Norm  Rocky Waste
Ron             Bamboozle       Passive     Amazon      17  A2 Norm  Sewers Level 2
San             Sigrdrifa       PsnJava/MA  Zon         21  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
thewamp         Athena          PJ/FA       Amazon      20  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Tweety          Remi            Boner       Necromancer 19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Brak            Tojolobal       Quesodin    Paladin     19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Ohomemgrande    Lonely          Trapper     Assassin    19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
tripsu          InsaneEnvy                  Amazon      18  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein  
Credge          YinMKII         --          Necro       17  A1 Norm  Jail Level 1
Hoop76          Lone_Ranger                 Paladin     15  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
ZeN             DieAlone        Fishy       Necro       14  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
GreyEagle       LoneEagle       Trapper     Assassin    17  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highlands
mjosh           Electrolyte     light sorc  Sorceress   15  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Feared          April_Ethereal  Summoner    Necro        ?  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Fingerzam       Happiness       TS/DTail    Assassin    13  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Farfus          Farfus          Healbot     Paladin     12  A1 Norm  Stony Field
FromBeyond      HesHardcore                 Barbarian   11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
SonOfBaal       IHateYouAll     Trap/Summon Assassin    11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Quickdeath      Eve             Cold        Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Sindus          LonelyMaiden    Enchantress Sorc         7  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Chizz           Trapper         ?           Assassin     6  A1 Norm  Stony Field
AlienBoyz       DocWho          Summoner    Necro       12  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Chymaera        Marius II       BlizBolt    Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Cold Plain 
Liquidcore      ThaDru          Wind/fire   Druid        6  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Vang            WirtsOldMan                 Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
rY xD           Illidan         Berzerker   Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
adny            Scorch          Hydrasorc   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Gabriel74       Smelly          Lightning   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Retawd          Sinistral       --          Assassin     1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Darkstrikes     lighamus                    Amazon       1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp

[highlight]Dead Characters[/highlight]
[b][u]Forum Name      Character       Build       Class       LVL   ACT         WP   [/u][/b]  
Mursilis        Anubis          Summoner    Necromancer 75  A2 Hell  Cellar lvl 3      
Butzull         Warnie          Hunter      Druid       75  A1 Hell  Outer Cloister
Breaker         PokePoke        Lancebarb   Barb        36  A4 Norm  River of Flame  
inSTAALed       EmoPhil         Ele         Druid       28  A4 Norm  River of Flame
whoisfu         WhoIsZon                    Amazon      35  A4 Norm  Chaos Sanctuary
jiansonz        Kevin           HF Zealot   Paladin     31  A3 Norm  Disused Reliquary
Silverslasher   Sizzlingpain    Trap        Assassin    28  A3 Norm  Kurast
EmperorMoo      GumbyKicksAss   Golemancer  Necro       26  A3 Norm  Flayer Jungle
Jabash          RunAway         Blade/Shdw  Assasin     28  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Anraxas         ibone_alone     ranger      Paladin     27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
newco           KissMyBoots     Hybrid      Assassin    27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Crazy_Bear      Silent_Bob      Psn/Mage    Necromancer 27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Butzull         Spinster                    Amazon      26  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
EmperorMoo      BertieWooster   Summoner    Necromancer 25  A2 Norm  Duriel's chamber
Sindus          Sindus          Comando     Necro       25  A2 Norm  Summoner
inSTAALed       HumanMeatBlock  Con         Barb        21  A2 Norm  Halls of Dead
Colorless Green Omega                       Assassin    21  A2 Norm  Halls/Dead2
EJB             WheresEveryone              Druid       22  A2 Norm  Radament
EmperorMoo      GotArrers       Mageazon    Amazon      21  A2 Norm  Radamant  
ShockTactics    Frostshock      Frostadin   Paladin     20  A2 Norm  Radamant
Chymaera        Marius          BlizBolt    Sorceress   14  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
chizz           Chizzy          Summoner    Necro       11  A1 Norm  Jail level 1
EmperorMoo      Wordsworth      Summon      Necromancer 11  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highland
Anraxas         ibone_alone     bone        Necro        8  A1 Norm  Countess
Liquidcore      FightingLove    Sniperzon   Amazon       6  A1 Norm  Stony Field

[Highlight]Happiness the TS/Dtail Assassin, level 13, The Underground Passage next[/Highlight]
 
Sorry to hear about Anubis's death Mursalis, but a big congratulations on getting as far as you did. As Insane Wayne said, that's the furthest anyone has ever gotten. Do you have any plans of starting another character?
 
RIP Anubis, that was a heck of a run, I don't expect to get that far myself, so hats off to you Mursilis.

As for Jane_Doe, she was last finished Upper Kurast before the current session. The plan was to go all the way to Meph, starting with clearing Travincal then coming back for the sewers. However a boss Mage thing (can't remember the name... Cantor?) caused problems just inside the causeway, with no room to retreat without attracting critters from UK that had previously been cleared. She ended up dragging monsters to one sewers entrance, then coming back up the other to clear space. After this she was able to fight off the minions with a bit of space, then the boss was easy. She cleared the tombs on the causeway next, then Travincal. Council cooperated nicely, and the Valk held them easily, though they had no interesting drops. So it was back to the sewers again and the last body part was collected. On durance lvl 1, a stoneskin/conviction blood lord boss was particularly tough. His regen was incredible. After the amount of time to defeat him, I changed to p5 for the rest of the durance. (and with the increased life of act 4 monsters, it will probably stay there now). The rest of the durance was straight forward (and durance 2 huge of course) A Bloodlord boss on lvl 3 dropped this ring which was a nice surprise:
Beast Gyre
Ring
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x9ae135ed
+1 to Energy
+21 to Life
+82 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +10%
Lightning Resist +19%
Cold Resist +10%
Poison Resist +10%

By careful movement Bremm's pack was split, and defeated, and the rest of durance 3 was easy. Jane kept a Valk in Meph's face and he dropped without much of a fight. He dropped an infernal torch, angelic armor, rare mask and longsword, a junk jewel and a Blackhorn's Face. With the possible gloams in act 4, Jane finally ditched the Iratha's Coil she had been carrying, and kept the Blackhorn's. The other mods are nice too, I wonder if the slows enemies is enough to affect baal?
So now Jane is in the Pandemonium Fortress, ready to head into act IV

Jane_Doe, lvl 64 Javazon, Act 4 NM.
 
Surprisingly easy and safe yesterday. I guess the monster rolls were good for me. Frozen Horrors just get owned by PS Metors. If a monster is big, it will take damage from several fire spots at once. That´s what makes it such a great act boss killer.

Drifter Cavern was heavily populated by Abominables, rogue archers and goats, but was not threatening at all.

I found my first ever unique Russet Armor! It dropped from a normal monster in one of the ice caves. I decided to wear it until I can make a Treachery armor. The +skills sure is nice. It gives me a beefier Shadow that uses level 17 Phoenix Strike (21/2+21/3).

I have recently learned that the Shadow will get Fists of Fire synergy (synergy level is counted the same way as other Shadow skills) if that particular shadow has ever used Fists of Fire. I have run out of hotkeys, but when a new shadow is fighting in a situation that isn´t dangerous, I will manually bring up FoF on the left button until she uses it.

Next session is all for the marbles. Evangelina will Conquer or die...

[Highlight]Evangelina the PS Assassin, level 70, NM Ancients´Way next[/Highlight]
 
Thanks for all the support. I was rather down when I first deeded as I was starting to think the only problem areas I would have were where gloams appeared (due to 5% LR). I never expected to have Anubis' journey end in Act II. After reading the threads for the first two All Alone tournaments I'm feeling much better though :grin:

skoolbus said:
Do you have any plans of starting another character?
Click to expand...

At the moment I wasn't going to start another character. I restarted somewhere around 4 months ago and only have a single mat/pat as I've been playing almost exclusively in tournaments. I want to get back to my poison javazon for now. However when I mat her, if I can still join this tournament before the deadline I may do so as it was quite fun.

Until then I'm rooting for someone to pass me and get a guardian :thumbsup:



 
Jiansonz, that is a great find. I've played this game since it came out and have never found a Skullder's. Having high MF is always great in tournaments, but hopefully you won't run out of ID scrolls looking at great items. I was lucky in this tournament to find two Tomes of ID in the normal jail but last night I was down to 5 scrolls in a single tome and so I freed up two spaces by combining them. Needed to happen when I found this. What's the chances of finding something that can max out your poison resist two levels before facing Andariel? I took it with pleasure, temporarily putting aside my main skill during the big fight. More on that later...

The catacombs weren't too hard this go-round, none of the boss packs were very hard. The usual cursed, extra fast stuff, but no terrible spawns, so it was fairly straightforward. There were a lot of shamans and of course they can resurrect fallen several screens away, to my annoyance. So several times that opened up my flank and I had to grit my teeth and run headlong forward to find them to use LF or decoy to distract while I plinked away with the magic arrows. Still no Ko. I did full clear the levels but only on P1. I don't want to push my luck. I did find a cruel hyperion javelin but it didn't roll with replenishing so I left it. Sadness!

Clearing out Andariel's level was easy too. A boss pack or two of slow moving zombies was easy to deal with, as were the shaman due to Lightning Fury. My valk must have been LI because she bathed in bolts since I started at the inner cloister and never lost a lick of life. That is, until Andariel woke up and smashed her in three hits. Three hits turned out to be the max, most went down in two. I entered the fight with 12 full rejuv potions, 2 healing and 2 mana pots.

At the start I tried using LF because I had it but quickly realized that I needed the Jade Tan Do. I got poisoned two or three times without that equipped and had to retreat to level 3 to un-poison. Once that happened I went back down and tried some more. Andariel was healing pretty fast so I decided to stick it out and stay down there for the kill rather than let her heal up while I was doing the same. The valk casts sometimes got a hit, sometimes they didn't. At 186 mana max, I could cast her four times before needing more mana.

I found a good tactic, shown by these two screen shots.
One.
Two.
Basically I ran around the valk in circles, while Andariel chased me personally. The valk did pirouettes of pain, impaling Andy as she went round and round. This worked until Andy decided that she was tired and stopped to hit the valk, which nearly always instantly perished. I was out of mana pots, and there weren't any very close to the stairs so I started using rejuv potions to make more valkyries.

I got caught in the stream of poison several times. When I had the bow on (poison was barely negative here) my life drained to 1 in no time. Time out. When I had replaced the javs with the Jade Tan Do, and got poisoned, I lost about 50 life before the poison timer ran out. Nice! I still didn't want to tank her since she hits hard enough to mess up my mojo, but eventually about 25 valkyrie casts later, she went down and dropped utter garbage. Nothing even to ID. Goodbye buddy, maybe my best situational drop ever. I ended the fight with 2 healing pots and 7 full rejuv potions. Not too shabby.

Off to Lut Gholein!

Code: 
[highlight]Alive Characters[/highlight]  
[b][u]Forum Name      Character       Build       Class       LVL   ACT         WP      [/u][/b]  
OldSoldier      Princess_Diana  MA/LF       Amazon      75  A2 Hell  Lut Gholein
Insane Wayne    Asteria         CS          Amazon      74  A1 Hell  Rogue Camp
jiansonz        Evangelina      Phoenix     Assassin    70  A5 NM    Frozen Tundra
Crazy_Bear      Jane_Doe        Javazon     Amazon      64  A4 NM    Pand Fortress
skoolbus        OneFingaPushup  Trapper     Assassin    57  A3 NM    Kurast Docks
SinningThings   Rapunzel        Trapsin     Assassin    25  A1 NM    Rogue Camp
Breaker         Nosiop          Poison      Necromancer 36  A5 Norm  Frigid Highlands
Chern           All_Alone       Summoner    Druid       33  A4 Norm  River of Flame
Zodwizard       HC_Rainwalker   Fire-Hunter Druid       29  A4 Norm  Pand Fortress
Anraxas         To_easy         Summoner    necro       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
WestXylophone   SoloFirer       HolyFire    Paladin     26  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
stephan         Louise                      Assassin    23  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Silverslasher   Forlorn         fire/summon Druid       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Cygnus          Lycus           Hammers     Paladin     25  A2 Norm  Harem
Friiser         HCAll_Alone     Summoner    Necro       22  A2 Norm  Far Oasis
Docturnal       Angriez         Fishyzon    Zon         21  A2 Norm  Rocky Waste
Ron             Bamboozle       Passive     Amazon      17  A2 Norm  Sewers Level 2
San             Sigrdrifa       PsnJava/MA  Zon         21  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
thewamp         Athena          PJ/FA       Amazon      20  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Tweety          Remi            Boner       Necromancer 19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Brak            Tojolobal       Quesodin    Paladin     19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Ohomemgrande    Lonely          Trapper     Assassin    19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
tripsu          InsaneEnvy                  Amazon      18  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein  
Credge          YinMKII         --          Necro       17  A1 Norm  Jail Level 1
Hoop76          Lone_Ranger                 Paladin     15  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
ZeN             DieAlone        Fishy       Necro       14  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
GreyEagle       LoneEagle       Trapper     Assassin    17  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highlands
mjosh           Electrolyte     light sorc  Sorceress   15  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Feared          April_Ethereal  Summoner    Necro        ?  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Fingerzam       Happiness       TS/DTail    Assassin    13  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Farfus          Farfus          Healbot     Paladin     12  A1 Norm  Stony Field
FromBeyond      HesHardcore                 Barbarian   11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
SonOfBaal       IHateYouAll     Trap/Summon Assassin    11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Quickdeath      Eve             Cold        Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Sindus          LonelyMaiden    Enchantress Sorc         7  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Chizz           Trapper         ?           Assassin     6  A1 Norm  Stony Field
AlienBoyz       DocWho          Summoner    Necro       12  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Chymaera        Marius II       BlizBolt    Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Cold Plain 
Liquidcore      ThaDru          Wind/fire   Druid        6  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Vang            WirtsOldMan                 Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
rY xD           Illidan         Berzerker   Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
adny            Scorch          Hydrasorc   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Gabriel74       Smelly          Lightning   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Retawd          Sinistral       --          Assassin     1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Darkstrikes     lighamus                    Amazon       1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp

[highlight]Dead Characters[/highlight]
[b][u]Forum Name      Character       Build       Class       LVL   ACT         WP   [/u][/b]  
Mursilis        Anubis          Summoner    Necromancer 75  A2 Hell  Cellar lvl 3      
Butzull         Warnie          Hunter      Druid       75  A1 Hell  Outer Cloister
Breaker         PokePoke        Lancebarb   Barb        36  A4 Norm  River of Flame  
inSTAALed       EmoPhil         Ele         Druid       28  A4 Norm  River of Flame
whoisfu         WhoIsZon                    Amazon      35  A4 Norm  Chaos Sanctuary
jiansonz        Kevin           HF Zealot   Paladin     31  A3 Norm  Disused Reliquary
Silverslasher   Sizzlingpain    Trap        Assassin    28  A3 Norm  Kurast
EmperorMoo      GumbyKicksAss   Golemancer  Necro       26  A3 Norm  Flayer Jungle
Jabash          RunAway         Blade/Shdw  Assasin     28  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Anraxas         ibone_alone     ranger      Paladin     27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
newco           KissMyBoots     Hybrid      Assassin    27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Crazy_Bear      Silent_Bob      Psn/Mage    Necromancer 27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Butzull         Spinster                    Amazon      26  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
EmperorMoo      BertieWooster   Summoner    Necromancer 25  A2 Norm  Duriel's chamber
Sindus          Sindus          Comando     Necro       25  A2 Norm  Summoner
inSTAALed       HumanMeatBlock  Con         Barb        21  A2 Norm  Halls of Dead
Colorless Green Omega                       Assassin    21  A2 Norm  Halls/Dead2
EJB             WheresEveryone              Druid       22  A2 Norm  Radament
EmperorMoo      GotArrers       Mageazon    Amazon      21  A2 Norm  Radamant  
ShockTactics    Frostshock      Frostadin   Paladin     20  A2 Norm  Radamant
Chymaera        Marius          BlizBolt    Sorceress   14  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
chizz           Chizzy          Summoner    Necro       11  A1 Norm  Jail level 1
EmperorMoo      Wordsworth      Summon      Necromancer 11  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highland
Anraxas         ibone_alone     bone        Necro        8  A1 Norm  Countess
Liquidcore      FightingLove    Sniperzon   Amazon       6  A1 Norm  Stony Field
 
Act IV began with a great find for Jane_Doe, and ended with a horrible drop from D. The first was a Trang's set gloves. A nice boost to cold resists and +25% poison skill dmg, just the thing for plague javs. From there, she had a relatively easy time with the critters she found. They either weren't very poison resistant or had low enough life that a couple of plague javs would wipe out groups. Izzy went down fairly easily (Valks are amazing tanks) and it was off to the River of Flame. The unique lance dropped. Id'd it to get stats, but it went into the cube to make more javelins... Hellforge gave a Ko... Not exactly what she was hoping for. For now it is in the stash, maybe it will become a melody bow if a suitable bow can be found.
The chaos sanctuary was hard on the javelin supply. With still no replenishing javs (or magical amazon javs...) she is reliant on the spear (or jav) + arrow recipe to create more and 3/4 of the way down the first arm I carelessly let Jane throw her last javelin. No spears were left from before, so she had to fight the rest of the act with the bow! I guess it's a good thing for the point in MA! Diablo took a while, but he fell in the end too. He dropped 3 magicals and 2 rares, none of them on good base type items. The experience from D put Jane within a whisker of lvl 67 though.
Onward to act V, I'm going to be watching boss monsters to compare to Jiansonz's experience.

CB
 
Evangelina can now call herself Conqueror! :azn:
But she nearly bit the dust. Twice.

No problems up to the Ancients. I brought two TP scrolls with me to the Summit, just in case. Korlic had Mana Burn, Talic was Extra Strong and Madawc was FE. Main priority: stay AWAY from Talic and Madawc! But Madawc was very stubborn in his pursuit. After a lot of running and some progress, I screwed up and ended up in a corner, trapped by Korlic and Madawc moved up right next to me. "Hey, you are supposed to be a RANGED attacker!!". As I understand it, the FE bug is not at all "fixed" in NM. NM Madawc caused my first FE bug death in v1.10. Instadeath from 700 life. With an Assassin... I did not have the nerve to try to DF out to the approaching Talic. I quickly opened inventory and cast a TP. Phew!

Next try: CE Korlic, LE Madawc and Might Enchanted (ouch!) Talic. This was trouble. The two meleers pwned my Shadow Warriors in short order, and Madawc simply would not leave Evangelina alone. I tried to work on Talic with Blade Fury (wielding Ribcracker) the short times I had the chance. I figured that if I can kill him, there would not be much danger left. But he moves a lot when he whirls, so it was difficult to get several blades to hit per try. And Madawc was never far away.

Screw that! I changed plans. Since the Shadow will not move from a fight unless I move far away from her, I tried to get her to fight one or two Ancients on one end of the Summit, then quickly move to the other, thereby teleporting the shadow to me so the guys couldn´t track us. It worked, only Madawc followed. We fought him along the lower edge of the place. His axes had Knockback, so the fighting situations shifted a bit. Nailed him without "waking" the others. Now it should be easy, right? Wrong.

I still did not have much time to throw blades before a new shadow was needed. This was very taxing on my mana. Ran around the Summit to refill mana often, chased by two crazy guys. Another problem was that Korlic quite often decided that fighting a Shadow was boring, and made a leap for Evangelina. He was helped by Might the whole time, of course. If I reacted quickly and my clicking was good, I could run away far enough to be out of reach, but if everything didn´t go perfectly, I have learned that it´s better to not try to get away if you are not sure you will - better to stand still and have full blocking in that case. He´s unlikely to kill me in one hit anyway. As it turned out, Evangelina did manage to block all his Leap Attacks. Talic died eventually (I switched to BF with Buther´s Pupil when he got low - the bleeding was nice to see, a confirmation that I made progress...) but Korlic still made occasional attacks. Not so scary now, though. Evangelina entered melee and rained some flames on him, but his very last life was taken down with BF to avoid the death nova. Victory at last!

I had plenty of full rejuves left, but few other potions. The plan for the WSK was to try to establish a foothold on the next level as soon as I had found the exit, had full life and mana plus one full column each of healing and mana potions.

First floor had vampires, Sirens and Defilers. This was pretty easy, and I found the exit early. So, I now had a place I could farm potions, if needed. Good.

Second floor had poison mages, snakes and suicide bombers (including a boss pack of bombers :grin: ). I only managed to get XP for one bomber, but the floor was easy.

Third floor had Hell Temptresses, Flayer blowdarters and Doom/OB Knights. This was much more dangerous and draining on both life and mana. Twice, I went back to restock potions from WSK 1 and 2. I made a terrible mistake here. I often lured Doom Knights far away from their masters, so I could kill them quicker and easier (same method I used in the Choas Sanctuary, described earlier). On such occasions, the OB Knight often flung a curse at me when I "fetched" the Doom Knights. On one occasion, I had brought back three knights and went to work. And my life plummeted like mad! Oh yeah, he hit me with Iron Maiden earlier, I suddenly realized. :rolleyes: I let go of the button, but the next swing was too late to cancel. Evangelina´s lucky star was shining today, though, so she actually survived two hits in a row while cursed by IM.

I felt sheepish, like i didn´t really deserved to survive since it was so stupid. Quickly shrug that feeling off, and played much more focused after that.

Throne level was dead calm when I entered. Easy start with some stray vampires, then it warmed up fast with Undead Flayers and finally Doom/OB Knights, including a Champion pack of them. I decided to take on as much as possible of the floor and Baal´s boss packs now, and leave what was left of the other floors as reserves. Turns out everything here got killed without too much trouble. I found enough replacement potions on this floor.

Achmel poisoned me twice, and I retreated to a safe spot to wait out the poison. The Shadow Warrior I had here didn´t get hit with any poison. I checked with Unsummon selected, but there was no indication that it was poison immune. Strange.

Lister was really tough to beat and the fight felt like it took forever. I pulled off a classic: strand right behind your minion so it doesn´t get knocked back. I needed about 15 Shadow recasts before the fight was over. I needed only a few mana potions because I snuck in a little Cobra Strike here and there.

I mopped up the rest of WSK 1-3 and planned for the Baal fight. My 3 PTopazed Crown had now served its purpose and I knew I was going to use the Hel to make it into a resistance item. I decided to do that now so I could make room for more potions for the Baal fight. He tends to suck out all your mana on a regular basis and I knew I was going to need many Shadow summons. So focus on mana potions but a few extra healing as well.

I took the players setting down to 1 and entered. I was met with an early swarm of Appendages but as soon as I got a Shadow in Baal´s face, I whipped out Ribcracker and started throwing blades. The fight was on. In less than 20 seconds, it looked like this.
(BTW, I love Evangelina´s posh look here. Shiny armor, a crown and a big blue staff. It has 'mighty spellcaster' written all over it!)

When he got a little more hurt, I took the rest of the fight with axe + shield, finishing him off in a burst of flames. The drop was crappy (Tancred´s Crowbill as only S/U item). The only item worthy of an ID was a rare Belt. Total crap.


Status report at the beginning of Hell difficulty:

Stats:
STR 100+8
DEX 168+8 (gives 75% blocking)
VIT 152
ENE 25+2
Life 769
Mana 154
Resists in Hell: 40/59/62/-50

Skills:
Phoenix Strike 20+1
Shadow Warrior 20+1
Fists of Fire 14+1
ALL other skills except Shadow Master, Wake of Inferno and Blade Shield: 1+1

Primary Gear:
* Gemmed Crown ('RalOrt' + 29/6 Sapphire Jewel of Virility), 14/50 dur.
* Stone Talisman (rare Amulet): 10% ctc lvl 3 Hydra when struck, Resist Fire 41, Resist Cold/Lightning/Poison 5, +1 max damage, +1 Offensive Auras (Pally only)
* Butcher´s Pupil unique Cleaver (indestructible)
* Skullder´s Ire unique Russet Armor (self-repairing)
* 'Rhyme' Tower Shield, 41/60 dur.
* [Highlight]Pain Hold[/Highlight] (Heavy Gloves): +15 life, Resist Lightning 17, +1 Light, 1% Life Steal, 9% Crushing Blow, 10/14 dur.
* [Highlight]Skull Grasp[/Highlight] (Ring): +2 STR, Resist Cold 30, Resist Lightning 18, +35 AR, +18 Life, 2% Life Steal
* [Highlight]Dread Buckle[/Highlight] (Sharkskin Belt): Resist Fire 18, 8% Faster Cast, +40 Life, +18 Mana, Regenerate Mana 6%, 12% ctc lvl 4 Charged Bolt when struck
* Skull Touch (rare Ring): 10% ctc lvl 3 Charged Bolt when struck, +2 ENE, Resist Lightning 30, +10% MF
* Grim Tread (rare Chain Boots): 30% Faster Run, 10% FHR, Resist Cold 32, Resist Poison 20, +23% MF

Weapon switch:
* Ribcracker unique Quarterstaff (+280% ED), 24/130 dur.

* Sapphire (29) Grand Charm
* Ruby (26) Grand Charm of Dexterity (4)
* Coral (21) Grand Charm of Sustenance (29)
* Large Charm of Sustenance (21)
* Ocher (7) Small Charm of Life (7)
* Tangerine Small Charm (5)
* Tangerine (4) Small Charm of Dexterity (4)
* Small Charm of Sustenance (13)
* Small Charm of Sustenance (13)
* Small Charm of Sustenance (12)
* Small Charm of Sustenance (11)

Other stuff:
* Demon Knell (rare Wand): +1 Curses, +1 Golem Mastery, +46 Mana, Resist Fire 34, 6% Life Steal, Level 2 Life Tap (29/75 Charges), 9/15 dur.
* 18/10 Ambergris Jewel of Prosperity
* Jewel of Envy
* Jewel of Fervor
* 6 perfect gems (Amethyst x2, Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby, Topaz)
* Runes: Nef, Ith, Tal x2, Ort, Shael, Lem x2

[Highlight]Conqueror Evangelina the PS Assassin, level 73, Hell Rogue Encampment[/Highlight]
 
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Good work, Jiansonz! Your Baal fighting experience was far far different than mine. That's great though! Makes it interesting. I guess having BF and lots of crushing blow really helps a lot. My NM ancients fight was easier than yours though so it all evens out.

Crazy Bear, that is a great find on the gloves. What a powerful drop for your build! Not that plague javelin needs any more damage, it is already a ridiculously powerful skill when synergized.

Princess_Diana decided to clear the sewers last night. There were no LI monsters until she got near Radament, and then there were only a few mages. I pulled them away piece by piece and the valk killed them all. There was one place where about 20 archers were in close proximity all firing (albeit slowly due to slow missiles) at my valk. I took a screenshot of the hordes of arrows (a la "300" or "Hero") but forgot to put it on the USB stick. I cleared it all out without incident, no good finds either. I did spend 3 pgems rerolling a tiara but it came out garbage. She is level 76 now. Skill points are spread all over the passive tree, 11 MA and 20 LF + prereqs. Blocking is still at 60%.
 
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