Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

OldSoldier said:
Morathi, if you are already preparing for your exams two weeks out, I'm confused. Today + 2 weeks does not equal June 25th, unless they last for two weeks. If that is the case, why don't you study for the later ones at the end of that period during the days leading up to them? All through college if I got to studying for any single-class exam earlier than about three days before the test (usually two) I'd end up forgetting it all. Of course the Fundamentals of Engineering test was far different as it encompassed multi-disciplines in the same session. Perhaps this is the case for your studies?
Click to expand...

I mentioned they finish on the 25th, but they start on the 11th. Which is in about 2 weeks from now. At the moment i am studying based on instinct, and once the exam dates approach i will focus my studies on that approaching exam (example my first exam is on Macroeconomics).

Anyway i am looking forward to getting back to Keith :nod:.



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

LoremIpsum entered act ii after defeating the scantily clad demon andariel, who, after further inspection bore a strikingly similar resemblance to her Great Aunt Lucicon... probably just a coincidence.Regardless, Lorem snapped a picture for her scrap book and moved on.

Soon after, in the Stony Tomb, Lorem was faced with her first real glimpse of death. A pack of skeleton archers waiting for her at the entrance twice took her down to twenty hit points but eventually, with some incredibly sucky teleporting, she managed to clear it as normal. She would later attribute the troubles to the large number of insects, cockroaches and other little squishy monsters that littered the halls of evil. At that point it became her personal goal to end the life of these aberrations, one by one.

After several crazy adventures, which included destroying eternal darkness and house cleaning the Palace, Lorem came upon The Summoner. Surely he could tell her the source of the squishies powers. Unfortunately, it seemed that they had beaten her to him. All that remained was a cryptic book, detailing the location of some insignificant tomb. It took eight cups of coffee and three trips to the restroom but Lorem eventually deducted that the book contained a secret code. This tomb must contain the secret of the vermin.

The Summoner had given her detailed instructions for finding the tomb(which she lost), so she mapped out the surroundings and began systematically searching each of the individual tunnels for the tomb described in the manual. EVERY SINGLE tomb was searched before she came upon the right one, what rotten luck!

The final tomb contained a large guardian, who also retained the shape of an insect, although Lorem was not to concerned with this one. After all, there was little chance this giant bug could accidentally end up on the bottom of her shoe. Lorem bribed the grotesque thing with a potion of full rejuvination and he left the hero to her work. Systematically, every mocking monster was squished until only one was left standing.http://www.mypicx.com/uploadimg/200973375_05292009_1.jpg Before she could complete the job some sort of over zelous glowing oddity distracted her and shoved her on a boat heading for the jungle Kurast. No doubt similar monsters awaited her there.

[highlight]Progress[/highlight]

Everything is fine and dandy up to this point, although I am sure I would be dead if not for a shopped +3 staff of frozen armor near the beginning of the game. I finally received a weapon that does more than static field at the end of the act, hopefully I don't have to use it that often ;). I look forward to having a merc this next act, even if official sources seem to doubt the power of two anemic sorceresses tanking for each other. I am currently saving all my points until 30, as I gained enchant this last level. I hear hydra is pretty bad but it has to be better than a forth point in telekineses :).

[highlight]Stats/relevant skills[/highlight]
Str:36
Dex:59
vit:45
eng:70

Frost Nova:4
Frozen Armour:1
Static Field:1
Nova: 2
Teleport: 2
Firebolt: 6
Fireball: 2
Warmth: 3
Enchant: 1

[highlight]LoremIpsum, Level 27, Kurast Docks[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Butz, I'm jealous of those five Shadow Warrior points! I have a grand total of zero at level 33.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I swear the D2 gods hate me.....seriously :rant:.

Well i had some time today to play with Keith, all was going well, we were about to rescue Cain, fighting off hordes of Fallen, Skeletons, Archers you name it. As Keith was in the heart of the battle slashing, bashing and clobbering his advasaries something happened unexpectedly, without warning......my mouse froze. In panic i tried frantically clicking, hoping for Keith to respond.....he didn't :(. He was mobbed and over ran a few seconds later.

I realised what the problem was....my darn batteries had died. It just decided to die while i was playing D2 and in the heart of a battle, didn't it.....DIDN'T IT!!!!!!! :rant: :rant:. I should have pressed escape and paused the game, but it didn't come to my mind that my batteries had die, rather it was just a small malfunction.

After the shock of my unmerited luck with Keith, i replaced the batteries and regrouped from the tragic loss.

This hasn't scared me off just yet....so i will be re-joining (for the 4th bloody time, and only once have i died legitally....:rolleyes:). Random org gave me an Assassin named Luella, who will be aided by an Act 1 Fire Rogue merc. Thank god i didn't get another Barb, Druid or Sorc. Least i can say i got lucky in that aspect :smug:.

I will rage if anything happens to Luella, if its none D2 related!!!!
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

So the brave Keith was killed by a mouse... Better luck with your new venture, Morathi!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

...at least you can be comforted in that it didn't happen to a more important character :scratchchin:. I had to toss my wireless mouse, they are pretty horrible for gaming purposes.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

[highlight]Story[/highlight]

Chrysantheum was very excited when he returned to the camp, because now he had a new friend in the form of Cain! Finally somebody there to play macetag with!
Alas, that idea proved to be about as disastrous as the earlier plan with the chickens. It's not that Scarface couldn't catch up with Cain, on the contrary, the old stodger hardly moved from his place. It's just that Cains constitution, given his age and a rather harsh imprisonment in a small wooden cage, was less then stellar.
Just one tag of the mace later, Akara was needed to nurse Cain back to consciousness. She shot our friend such a venomous look that he decided to play outdoors again... Women!

Anyways, the Black Marsh was just around the corner, and he had read that interesting little story in the stony fields he was curious what he would find there. His bowling skills were more then equal for all his outoorsie opponents though, goatfaces included. Another Gem shrine was found, and Chrys now had a Topaz in his stash.
There was a hole in the ground to explore first though. It proved to be vastly uninteresting though. Soon, he was outisde again, and now he was ready to enter that lovely little tower. Before he did so, he got the XP shrine. Alas, the heropack on level 1 was situated at the very end of the map, completely on the opposite side of the stairs. Still, stoneskinned ghosts made very fun targetpractice for huge flaming boulders. There was still a bit of XP shrine time left when Chrys went to level 2, luckily enough, the devilkinbosspack was close to the entrance this time, and he managed to kill all but one miniopn before the shrine ran out. But with all those shenanigans, he was nearing lvl 17. And sure enough, when he entered the 5th level, he gained a level himself. Yay!
Level 17 was there, time to reacquaint himself with Gheed.
"Hey, you!"
"Oh hello there! I'm Gheed, and I can see I'm going to be your new best friend here..."
"Great! A new friend! Let's play macetag!"

Half an hour later Gheed regained consciousness, and found Scarface sitting sheepishly next to him.
"I guess you southerners just don't have the endurance to play macetag. Oh well. Care to gamble a bit then?"
Gheed found that a MUCH better idea, and soon the new game was on. Chrys soon figured that he wasn;t all that good in this game, since he had almost bartered 100000 coins away with only some MF gloves to show for it. Finally he found a pair of MF boots as well, both had 23%, so he figured he had had enough.
With a jaunty wave he proceeded back to the tower and killed the countess. She dropped 3 runes.
"Yay!" Thought Chrys.
Then he took a closer look at the runes.
"Boo!"thought Chrys. Two El runes and a Tir rune! Well, at least some money came pouring out of the big gold chest, that was a bonus. Since his stash was filled, Scarface called it a day.

However, he didn't think they wanted him back at the camp. at least not until he had found that cloister of theirs, so after a brief nap (with a lovely dream in which he could easily catch and crush all the bloody chickens!) he awoke refreshed and empty stashed and ventured into the highlands. Apparently, word of his arrival had spread around, because he suddenly found he had a lot of stalkers.
But apparently, the stalkers had issues facing the boulders our scarred hero called forth. These issues were so severe they quickly turned lethal, and soon the Highlands were declared a stalker free zone. That concept bored Chrys to tears, so he ventured into the Pit (Again with an XP shrine). To his delight, he found two bosspacks next to each other, one Bone warriors and the other dark archers. Both died before the shrine faded, and then... he found another XP shrine!
Nevertheless, Chrys made it down to the second level before he gained his level. He looked around a bit, and saw that there was a Chamion pack of archers and a devilkin Cold Enchanted boss pack.
The perfect time to get a little merc slaughtered. Indeed, about ten seconds after she was hired she was fired(upon, by angry champion archers). After she had passed on to a better world, Chrys thoughtfully killed of the archer packs that had made her life such a nuisance, so they could continue to pester her in the afterlife. The things Chrys would do for his bestest friends...

Level 18 happened about the same time that the second level was clean. Statwise, a pretty nice roll, with 3 vit and 2 dex. However, his skill landed in the second Vine. Whoa, bummer. After a last bit of mopping up, Chrys ran for the waypoint in the cloister and called it a day. He needed to plan for the future.

[highlight]Progress[/highlight]
That's not an idle line though. It starts to take several boulders to kill my opponents, not a good sign. I guess I'm going to have to lead my opponents more. Luckily enough, I have my werewolf backup. Level 16 and 17 both went into this part of the tree, one in Lycanthropy, the other opened Feral Rage.
I'm not too pleased with the second Vine, I'd rather have some more points in the other side there, the spirits. Oh well, that's the price to pay for randomness I suppose.
I have finally found a somewhat useful pelt, tha is, +1 to Moulten Boulder on a plain white wolf head. I'm not yet quivering in my booties of happiness, can you tell? Still, it's better then nothing, and I can use all the help I can get against the smith, so I'll take it.

[highlight] Scarface, level 18, Outer Cloister WP[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

OldSoldier said:
Butz, I'm jealous of those five Shadow Warrior points! I have a grand total of zero at level 33.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was wrapped. I knew I was pretty lucky and enjoyed it while it lasted. Hopefully I can get the odd additional one here and there from now on, but I think I now have around 25 skills open, and that'll grow when I hit 30th.

Duriel has just fallen (on /players 8 for something different), so as promised, the progression (in case anyone is interested). The 1,2,3,4 correspond to Str, Dex, Vit, Ene in that order in case it wasn't obvious.

L02: 2,3,4,4,4 + Psychic Hammer (1)
L03: 3,3,4,4,4 + Claw Mastery (1)
L04: 1,1,2,3,4 + Fire Blast (1) at Lvl 6
L05: 1,2,3,3,3 + Blade Sentinel (1) at Lvl 6
L06: 2,3,3,3,4 + Dragon Talon (1) at Lvl 12
Den: + Cloak of Shadows (1) at Lvl 12
L07: 2,2,3,4,4 + Psychic Hammer (2) at Lvl 12
L08: 2,2,3,3,4 + Fire Blast (2) at Lvl 12
L09: 1,1,2,2,3 + Weapon Block (1) at Lvl 12
L10: 1,3,3,4,4 + Shadow Warrior (1) at Lvl 18
L11: 1,1,1,2,3 + Dragon Talon (2) at Lvl 19
L12: 1,1,1,1,2 + Shadow Warrior (2) at Lvl 19
L13: 1,2,2,3,4 + Weapon Block (2) at Lvl 20
L14: 2,2,3,4,4 + Dragon Claw (1) at Lvl 20
L15: 1,2,2,2,4 + Weapon Block (3) at Lvl 20
L16: 1,1,1,2,4 + Shock Web (1) at Lvl 20
L17: 1,2,3,3,4 + Dragon Claw (2) at Lvl 20
L18: 3,3,3,4,4 + Shadow Warrior (3) at Lvl 20
L19: 1,1,2,3,4 + Fists of Fire (1) at Lvl 21
L20: 2,3,3,3,4 + Dragon Tail (1) at Lvl 21
L21: 1,2,2,2,4 + Shadow Warrior (4)
L22: 2,2,4,4,4 + Burst of Speed (1)
L23: 2,2,3,3,4 + Shadow Warrior (5)
Radament: + Claw Mastery (2)
L24: 1,2,3,3,3 + Tiger Strike (1)
L25: 1,1,3,3,4 + Claws of Thunder (1)
L26: 1,2,2,2,3 + Fists of Fire (2)
L27: 2,3,3,4,4 + Burst of Speed (2)
L28: 1,2,2,3,4 + Wake of Fire (1)

Level 28
Str: 47
Dex: 57
Vit: 59
Ene: 57

So I was pretty lucky in that as I progressed through levels, I stopped allocating skills as soon as the prerequistes for my ultimate targets were achieved, and then when Shadow Warrior opened, I waited each level when it was greyed out, which fortunately happened straight away at level 18, second attempt at 19, 6th attempt at level 20 and 3rd attempt at level 21, by which time my savings were gone, but well spent.

It was good that not much was opened up on the MA or Traps tree through that time, my dice didn't want to spin a low number, with Tiger Strike not being hit until level 24!

I'd love a little more strength, but that will come anyway and is easily supplemented by items and charms anyway!

Good luck all, off into the swamps for me! ;)

Butz. :coffee:



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Slapdash, the less-than-successful paladin has conquered Mephisto and graduated to Chapter 4! D2 shut down right after I killed the big guy, before I gathered up the soulstone which made me very nervous! I had to go through there again to get to the portal, but thankfully the soulstone was in my inventory when I reached the Pandemonium Fortress. Whew!

Izual proved a very long, but easy fight. He found the WP for City of the Damned and River of Flame will be his next path.

For his efforts, Slapdash was gifted with yet another point in Cleansing. :(

And one in Holy Fire, which is wonderful for opening up that tree further! He also got another point in Charge, bringing that up to 6.

I'm just glad he's still alive! :)

Slapdash, Level 32 Paladin, City of the Damned Waypoint.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

With a new merc sword (+158% ED Gothic Sword), things became a lot easier for Pete and Drus. Apart from bosspacks with nasty ability combos, the only critters that give Drus trouble are the ones with stun attacks. Crushers, Thrashers, Maulers - gotta love their names... ;)

Fortunately, the very same critters make excellent Revives, so when one or two have fallen, we can usually turn a tough fight into something easy and controlled. The golem is usually in there as well, taking loads of damage. That´s what it´s for. I note that the golem has a great deal more life in NM than it had in Normal. Is there any other minion in this game that actually scales with difficulty?

I had a slight scare in the AS, where Pete had a close encounter with an annoying vampire. I was about to use the TP, but toughed it out.

In the AS, I worked hard to make sure as many Specters as possible died above ground, so the drop wouldn´t be lost. It´s not so easy when you have a merc that loves to use Bash at bad moments, knocking those ghosts around (it´s actually better to have him fight a pack of 3-4 of them than just one).
My meticulous monitoring paid off at least once (and gosh, that one was awfully close!)

I had another scare in Canyon of the Magi, where two Crusher boss packs attacked early. One Cursed something and one Extra Fast something. Before this session, I´d had a nice dinner and two rather large glasses of wine over a rather short time. I was more than a little intoxicated when I did my best to direct my troops in the Canyon. I thank my long experience with underpowered necros for getting through that jam. In the middle of my drunken and sloppy playing, I actually had the sense to think along the lines of: "My reactions are slow now, so I better do this before that happens and I may be too slow to react to it"!
(Sidenote: now I know how it´s like to play Beerbelly Stoutliver!)

I also had the sense to end that session after the Canyon was cleared.


It was a very tough start in one of the tombs. Tons of monsters, two portal parkings, and one time where I had extremely little room to work with. Long after, I saw just how very close it was that I also woke up even more hordes of skeletons, from this guy and his four buddies.

Some points have found their way to the Clay Golem skill. The slowing is now significant. Between that and Decrepify, the Lord of Pain didn´t manage to kill even one golem. Wow.

As always, I dreaded the Act III temples. I entered them all with two fresh Revives. Preferrably Thrashers, but vultures, swarms and Zealots had to be settled for some of the times. Stairs traps in three of the temples. Two were just with normal critters (had to use some Terror and Dim Vision anyway) but the Reliquary on the Causeway had a Multishot archer pack. And snakes (I hate snakes in stairs traps - they are responsible for the majority of my HC deaths).

Rogue archers are hard to deal with playing a character that uses minions for safety. They zip around a lot. This battle looked really nasty for a while, but it turned when I could get one snake Revived to hold the line in the center of the room, and when I managed to pin the acher boss against a wall with a precise golem recast. I still needed to flee out once to heal the whole party (including myself) but it was not too bad.

The rest of the act was uneventful. A Monster Shrine produced a Possessed Mauler, and my merc suffered a lot against him. Thankfully, I could recruit some help to deal with that bugger.

Mephisto was almost as timid as Duriel. He would have managed to kill a couple of golems, but I recast them before they died so the merc would be safe. Drus used Rattlecage in nearly the whole fight. Pete often switched over to his new toy, Riphook, to speed up Mephy´s demise with some bleeding.
(BTW, Riphook made it a lot easier to kill the river hydras Drus could not reach. Before I had Riphook, I had to use 2 full mana bulb´s worth of level 2 Poison Novas on every one of them. Took ages...)

Mephisto dropped a grailer: The Cat´s Eye. A peculiar amulet with Faster Run and IAS. Always nice to find a grailer, but it was not to Pete´s fancy. He´s more interested in the Angelic combo, or maybe the Scintillating Amulet of the Squid I have saved.


Pete has 8 million gold saved. If I gamble Claymores now, there is 1/2 chance to get an ilvl high enough for a Cruel rare to be possible. So there is a 5% chance to get a rare with high enough ilvl. I have the upgading means - maybe time to try? Too bad it´s so tedious to gamble for just one item type...


[Highlight]Destroyer Pete the Necromancer and Drus the Barbarian merc, level 64, NM Outer Steppes next. [/Highlight]
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Is it ok to join this tournament, I rolled a 4 for mercenary so I guess I get to wait until act 5 (if I can make it that long without one), and I rolled a 1 for character, so Randazon the Amazon it is.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I love reading about Pete and Drus! I think the golem should have a name, too... ;)

I wish I knew more about itemization and when it's a good time to shop and gamble and what are good items in the first place. Might make my equipment less haphazard. I know there are lots of information out there, but I have a tough time sorting through it all.

Welcome to Randazon!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Thanks, Buraz! I've read over them and over them and they certainly helped me in my MF hunting! As much as I've gambled, I've not yet come across a circlet of fortune or luck. I don't even have a flawless topaz, yet. But I have a normal one sitting in inventory in case that elusive gem shrine pops up!

It's more what base type of equipment can be (and should be) had in certain areas as well as what prefixes and affixes can be expected by "power shopping" which I'm learning. Slowly. That's one of things I love about this game - there's always something new to learn!

I was curious why Jiansons says in his guide to always keep an Eth on hand at around the point I'm at. I'm assuming it's for some sort of cube recipe to make something better!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

@Rhia - I wondered the same thing one time. It's for forming the 'Rhyme' runeword in a 2os shield, should a Shael rune drop. Which it can starting from Act3 normal.
Rhyme is potentially one of the best runewords out there for a shield, and it sports MF, a difficult thing to find otherwise.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Yes, the Eth rune is for a Rhyme shield.
I am not completely sure, but I think the first drop chance for a Shael is Hephasto. Not sure about the last part of Act IV, but I know Shaels can drop in some the Act V outdoor areas. I know I have found Shael and Dol on Arreat Plateau. You could of course find three Sol runes before that, if you are lucky.

I think the best thing about the Rhyme shield is the combo of so many great abilities. MF, GF, good resists, bonus to blocking and especially Cannot Be Frozen. When you play untwinked and single-pass, there is no other reliable souce of CBF in the game.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I sure hope I find a Shael! I'd love a Rhyme shield. I've not been lucky with runes, either. But that doesn't mean my luck won't change! Thanks for the info, guys! :)
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Randazon has rescued Deckard Cain. She is now lvl 15

So far the random gods have been good to me stat wise

str + 19
agi + 15
sta + 23
enr + 13

Skills not so much

Jab (2)
Power Strike (2)
Poison Javelin (1)
Lightning Bolt (1)
Impale (2)

Critical Strike (1)
Inner Sight (2)

Magic Arrow (1)
Multiple Shot (3)

I've found tons of saphires (probably close to 15 now) and a bunch of diamonds. I've found 4 topazes and 2 rubies. All chiped of course. How ever while wiping out Tristam I was able to find a ring with 10% mf and 32% gf. My mf is a whopping 62%

I started out with a short bow with 3 chipped saphires, worked well for the first couple areas, but got slow after cold plains (multiple shot works wonders for CC when you have a cold damage bow) Then I shopped a Spear and started Jabbing everything to death, much faster. Anyways it appears that will be my standard attack for a little while unless my skill points allocation takes a different turn. From the way the last couple lvl's went it looks like I might become an ImpaleAzon:crazyeyes:
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Randomness is difficult for amazons...I kept changing my mind on the bow/javelin/spear question as my skill points changed. I recommend buying/building a good bow and spear, and carrying both. Good luck, mrsplifferton. :)
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Wog made a minor update, he killed the countess, found black marsh waypoint, and hit level sixteen, which gave me 2x Str and Vit, and 1 Dex, along with my first point in skeleton mastery.
 
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