I decided to drop down to /p1, so the merc could insta-kill any enemies in my way. After last time, I was glad to get the CS finished so I no longer have to worry about OKs.
Diablo was an absolute breeze on /p1, he concentrated on the merc, and left me to get a good couple of whacks in. He killed the merc in 10 secs, but not before he'd started bleeding from the OW on my merc's Malice Polearm. By the time I got back, he was almost dead and I had no time to put on my MF stuff. The best part of his drop was a topaz. Ho hum.
edit: in case anyone's wondering, I have the /fps data up because my laptop is playing me up, and I'm trying to keep an eye on what it's up to.
No more D2 today, so he can sit here until tomorrow, when (with any luck) he'll be in NM. This char is the most fun I've ever had with a barb, it's nice to have one you have to be careful with rather than a go-anywhere-tanking-death-machine.
Well after a long time Act II was finally done, all at players 7, have been using a "steel" flail and this has been getting the job done quite well, thanks to the fast attack speed of BF... there was one NDE and it was against Fangskin, again, though I managed to run through them and face them at the other side of the room, it was a risky move but I couldn't think of other thing to do.
After gambling over half a million gold I still haven't gotten a MF circlet, I am still stuck with a cap with 2 chipped topazes...
The battle against Duriel was long, I figured that since everything went so easy I would face him at p7, my Shadow did last 3 hits max, so I had to recast and run around, lvl 1 lighting sentry+BF got the job done at the end, though there was a nice reward, Cleglaws Claws.
Other interesting finds were: Angelic Ring and Armor, also managed to complete Civerbs set, but I won't be using it yet...
[highlight]SassyAssassin, BF sin, lvl 28, Kurast Docks[/highlight]
HanShotFirst, those are some nice finds. (Gieb Nagel!1) When I'm up against a tough room with unravelers in it, I will kill the skeletons over and over with cold damage until they shatter. Believe me, that's alot worse than having ice arrow. Sometimes I would sit and kill the same skeleton 10 times! This is mainly against champion unraveler packs though. What are you and Morathi talking about again? I seem to have lost my hearing. :whistling:
NagisaFurukawa, congrats on getting Destroyer! Heh, that's some ninja-fancy players changing there. (Not criticism; I think it's smart. I bet by turning it up in A5 you catch right up with everyone else. Maybe I should try that...)
Two new entrants, sweet! Welcome LozHinge the Unhinged and UllaV! I was hoping you guys would join (after you responded to the thread earlier).
I just rescued Anya but I'll update later. Here's the new table:
Rained all day today, so there went my plans to do errands, chores and so forth. However that did give time for DII, so without further ado:
Jaheira switched out some equipment to ensure lightning resistance was as close to 50 as possible, got to 48. I've decided to use the ATMA stash as a gem purse, only gems and runes are allowed in it. Everything else is in my stash, which happens to be full of 2 pairs of boots, 2 belts, and armor, several runes and about a dozen amulets/rings. Normally I'd keep only the best of each, but that could mean going over 50 resistance so having several of the same type of ring/amulet is necessary.
Anyway all the worring Jaheira did over Souls was for naught, they barely made her hair stand on end. Progress through Act IV was pretty straightforward. Throw a lightning sentry out at the edge of the screen and watch if it starts to shoot at anything. If it does run up an CoS the area and then spam the sentries in the appropriate places. Didn't do that for the whole act, only where Souls may be lurking. As such no NDEs were sighted. Even big D was somewhat anticlimatic as even the mercenary survived the entire fight (one health left, but alive).
Onward to the ski slopes then. The severe lack of ranged monsters in Normal Act V means Jaheira didn't have to be careful. Just run up to groups and throw sentries all over the place. Found myself not even using CoS as much. Did however have to be careful inside and underground. With Frenzytaurs lurking and undead skeletons resurrecting all over the place I had to keep a careful eye on Jaheira. Would be just my luck to have a skeleton rise up behind her, charge and one hit kill her. Didn't happen but had me on the edge of my seat each time they appeared.
Either way, part of the act was made quite interesting when I was affected by the mercenary bug. Having Frozenstein and his pack just run by the mercenary is a bit unsettling. Good thing Jaheira has BoS, otherwise she'd be toast. Even the Ancients went down quietly. Made sure Jaheira made a wardrobe change first to boots with FRW so she could seperate the Ancients and deal with them one at a time. Realized afterwards I had done them at P8 instead of my customary P1, oops. The rest of the WSK was completed in short order and Baal eliminated without posing any problems. He teleported a few times but seemed fixated on the mercenary (who continues to surpise me by surviving) so left Jaheira to stand idle nearby keeping the lightning sentries active.
Jaheira stopped off at the first NM WP after electrocuting a few herd of cows (it's the humane way to do it after all).
[highlight]Jaheira the Trapsin, Level 46, NM Cold Plains[/highlight]
Well, the last thing I expected was for act V to be hard! I'm used to it being a gear/experience fest. And it was. But having 151 life changes things...
Shadow_Salad took down the Bloody Foothills with ease, firing Zanarhi (Prayer) in favor of Mizan (Blessed Aim) so that he was hitting enemies with 95% accuracy once more. He began to use Life Tap to heal minor wounds, which was actually quite enjoyable. The Bloody Foothills were pretty easy, but the Catapults surprised him. Brushing the edge of a poison cloud meant several Life Taps or a healing potion. But the worst was when he was arranging his inventory and a fire blast quietly lit his feet, almost killing him! Ahhh! They need a louder sound effect for that or something. And let's not forget those burning embers, either! Those had him down to 25% health as he was tip-toeing around. The Bloody Foothills wasn't exactly an ordeal, but he really had to stay on his toes and pay attention to his life bulb!
His ordeal began in the Frigid Highlands. He could cast Dim Vision on Crush Beasts, but once the Imps landed on top, they could inferno at will, immune to DV. Same for barricade towers. Their explosive blasts took off 1/5th of his health. There were times when he was dodging catapult poison and fire attacks, embers were spread around him, fresh (non-dimmed) Imps were spawning from huts, and Imps were knocking him around with explosive blasts from the towers/beasts. (He kept far enough away to avoid the inferno but couldn't avoid the little bombs.) Dim Vision couldn't fix any of it! Really dicey situations.
Does that mean he disliked it? Oh Hell no! It was exciting! He was using potions, Life Tapping off select targets, Dim Vision spamming where he could, casting decreptify on bosses, and generally having a blast. Those were the nail-biting but wide open moments. There was a nail-bitingly claustrophobic moment, too...
Ahhh, Abaddon. There's one odd thing about Dim Vision and minions. They can't see you, but they are still somewhat tethered to their boss. Those Hell Lords were casually hemming S_S in at the portal. Now, look at that situation. If Sin Skin kills Mizan, he is almost guaranteed to hack S_S to pieces. Hit recovery on every attack, slowing, no teleport, no S&E...Mr. Necromancer is dead for sure. But Mizan can tank one boss, even if he's a Cold Enchanted Hell Lord, right? With decreptify...barely. So what happens when a minion saunters over and starts attacking Mizan, sending him into hit recovery twice as often and sending his health bar into the yellow? SHEER TERROR, that's what! I frantically switched over to life tap and moved over to help. They barely took Sin Skin down, and were rewarded by a cold nova that washed away 80% of S_S's health! That was a dreadful situation, and it unfolded agonizingly slowly thanks to Dim Vision. Even without the cold nova, and without S_S ever getting hit, it was an NDE. There was no way he could escape a Frenzying cold enchanted Sin Skin, if Mizan had fallen. Whew.
The Pit of Acheron was much cuter. S_S loves his Dim Vision. (It's maxed now.) The caves were also much easier and safer than the open areas. Dim Vision seemed to stop Zombies from reviving, so he switched to Decriptify. (It could have been a coincidence, but I didn't feel like testing it further.)
S_S made an odd choice. Thinking that he would be using a Circlet in Nightmare, and that he needed perfect topazes for an armor, but that he wanted more magic find now, he put 3 Flawless Topazes in a Great Helm (Larzuk). 60 MF instead of 72, and at one third of the cost...He's satisfied with his choice.
S_S taunted Anya for a while. Hey! He can't help it! He's a Necromancer!
Other finds:
Death's Hand (Gambled)
Cathan's Ring
Amn Rune (in the Arreat Plateau)
Another astonishing pair of boots (gambled). Possibly better than the others:
(I'm making small changes to locations. When someone has cleared the Claw Viper Temple, there location is no longer "Lost City" (since that's their last waypoint), it's "Harem Level 1." The progression in act V goes Crystalline Passage --> Nihlathak's Temple --> Halls of Pain --> Glacial Trail.)
Earlier in the tournament I had been depressed with my decision to allow mercenaries. Every time I had a tough fight (Unravelers, Beetles, etc) I was able to let my merc take care of it while I sat back and said "hlap hloop i eat it." However, if I hadn't allowed Blessed Aim this Meleemancer would not be viable, so now I'm much happier with my decision. And anyway, that's normal for ya. Nightmare should be plenty hard with these restrictions. I just have to make it there...
Trixie is now in Lut Gholein. She found Andariel extremely easy with Blade Fury, though her shadow didn't live through the battle. No time to resummon, as Andariel was almost dead by then. She dropped a topaz along with a lot of useless stuff. At some point in the Monastery, Trixie found the Arctic light belt to go with the quilted armor...I think the benefits of the 2 of them together more than make up for the loss of 4 potion slots. Trixie isn't a heavy drinker anyway. She's been saving her gold for a heavy-duty shopping spree...looking forward to next level when she can start gambling for circlets.
Can someone tell me if weapon speed affects Blade Fury casting speed?
I would say that`s a pretty terrific plan. Your kill speed with a Blizzballer shouldn`t decline all that much and Hydra will be very useful. Welcome to the tournament btw
As for my own progress, I`m putting it on hold for a little while since I`m running LK like crazy. I will probably get bored by that after a while, so it won`t be long
WitherStick has defeated Duriel and is catching his breath in Kurast Docks at this time.
P8 until the big bug, but then I wilted and reduced to P1 - so glad I did, I nearly Deeded. The battle consisted of me running in tight circles to ensure the merc could get hits and casting Decrepify whenever I could. I think I stabbed Duriel once with P-Dagger but I couldn't toe-to-toe him at all. The battle ended as I desperately ran for the safety portal I had initially cast - I was almost out of stamina. Duriel slivered me, my stam ran out before I reached safety and I was just about to see Deeds ... boom, the bug died. Thanks merc, I forgive you for the 150 stoopid things you did in this Act. Too close for comfort.
LCS readout here, plus some nice gambled boots which I will wear when I re-jig equipment (my current boots have 10% FHR/FRW which I had to keep for Duriel). 99% of the Act was cleared with zero lightning resistance - those scarabs bloody hurt. In fact, I did a lot of Act 2 with the Viper Amulet equipped, a first for me. A 21% LR amulet turned up after I made the Horadric Staff so at last I had some LR.
NB. Life Tap - 0 (I meant to get a point here before Duriel but mis-counted. In the end I didn't need it as the merc did not exist as far as Duriel was concerned.)
NB. I was 12200 XP short of Lvl 29 for Duriel - as usual - pah.
Act 3 preparations - I will be socketing a couple of topazes into a shield to get my LR up, I just need to find an amulet I like to replace the LR one I'm wearing. This resistance restriction is amazing, I'm normally such a resists whore
Edit: Forgot the merc stuff ...
A nice crafted one of these:- Savage War Scythe
Two-Hand Damage: 27 to 64
Durability: 51 of 55
Required Dexterity: 80
Required Strength: 80
Required Level: 19
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xae68dd6
+80% Enhanced Damage
Had to add some emeralds to the mercs armour to get his dex up. This no MF rule for mercs means you can get creative, doesn't it? However, merc kill speed now totally embarrasses me - at least, as long as we are at /players 8.
Another deeds posting. Funny how this always seems to happen at the weekends for me. I can't remember the last time I had a deeds on a weekday.
Act 5 started so well, too. It was almost too easy at first, but once I got into the Crystalline Passage the Frozen Creepers chilled me so much it was quite hard to fight them.
The deeds happened thusly. I found the entrance to the Frozen River, and just as I was checking the mods on the Frenzytaurs (you can see one on the bottom right of the deeds screenie), my normally docile and myopic merc decided to plunge in, recklessly. Cheers for that, Fazel.
I now had 4 angry, whirling, fully frenzied up Champion / Berzerker Frenzytaurs bearing down on me. So, I did the only sensible thing: ran away screaming. However, I took a wrong turn down a passageway, which was full of frozen creepers. I found myself in a corner, frantically chugging potions as fast as can be. As my defense was nice and high, I fought them off for a few seconds, but I had about 4-5 of their ice blasts paralysing me. I had about 10-20 secs of crushing inevitability, knowing I was doomed and contemplating a quick S&E. I never have S&E'd, ever, but in situations like this it's rather tempting.
I may be back with another char soon, it depends if I can resist the lure.
Let´s hope I don´t die in these parts then, because I usually clear out all the way up to and including the entire Frozen Tundra before I set my foot in the zombie garden. (I do this because it´s much more dangerous to start a new session from a WP in the ice caves than from Frozen Tundra.)
I have entered the tournament with Morte the Necromancer. You know, like Latin, for Death...:badteeth: (Planescape:Torment fans will recognize this immediately)
I have made some plans for this character, but many things are still uncertain.
Morte will be a summonless Necromancer; he will dedicate his life to assisting Iantha the Cold Rogue as well as he can. When her damage is too low or of the wrong types, he will use throwing weapons and/or cast Bone Spirits. Since Bone Prison is useful in itself, and a synergy to Bone Armor/Wall/Spirit, I will go for maxing it.
Dim Vision seems to be popular in this tourney, and will probably also be Morte´s most important curse. Anything boss-like will be Decrepified most of the time.
Here was a perfect opportunity to do some Bone Wall practice.
When the terrain is less favourable, you have to work more with it. I noticed that these Rat Men didn´t attack the Bone Wall (I wonder if it makes any difference if they see the Bone Wall before they see us? Anyone know?). That´s new to me, because they did attack it back in v1.09 when I last played with it. Bone Walls worked like a "neutral" monster - even your own summons attacked it. Hence, you could harm monsters with BW + Iron Maiden (but you received no XP if it dealt the killing blow). Looks like you no longer have that option.
I have now tested and confirmed that Life Tap works with ranged attacks. I wasn´t sure about that.
There was a very convenient Well in the blood pool room on Catacombs 4, so I could rescue Iantha from death (and de-poison Morte) a couple of times without potion use. It´s placed close to where Andariel is here. Morte´s pack of Javelins of Maiming (+4) lasted through the whole fight.
This a failed unique Crystal Sword. Oh Blizzard, why the heck did you remove the v1.09 Azurewrath Crystal Sword from the game? :rant:
It would have been a really nice weapon for Morte in early Act II:
I am undecided if I want to invest in and use Confuse and Attract. Using them may be a bad idea in this tough tournament if you have no experience at all with them. I have some questions for players who know more about these skills than I do.
Confuse: If I confuse the minions of a boss, I can see that they will likely attack the boss. Will the boss be distracted and fight back, or will it continue to go after us?
Attract: Same here, if I cast Attract on a minion, will that fool the boss and it will attack its minion?
The decription says 'Can not be overridden by another curse'. Does this really mean I can´t cast Terror, DV, Life Tap or Decrep. on it until the timer has run out? That sounds dangerous!
[Highlight]Morte the Necromancer and Iantha the Cold Rogue, level 20, Act II Sewers next.[/Highlight]
Attract: Same here, if I cast Attract on a minion, will that fool the boss and it will attack its minion?
The decription says 'Can not be overridden by another curse'. Does this really mean I can´t cast Terror, DV, Life Tap or Decrep. on it until the timer has run out? That sounds dangerous!
IIRC, you curse a monster with attract and then attract remains active even if you lay another curse over the top - that is, cast attract on a minion, then POW! Amp dmg on top.
You can cast other curses while attract is active, you just don't overwrite it.
jiansonz - my golemancer made a great deal of use of both Confuse and Attract.
Confuse will sometimes work as you want, boss and minions will sometimes target each other but they are just as likely to target you and/or your merc. You can stack the odds in your favour by ensuring that you and the merc are out of reach (by using terrain). Note that using BW for this purpose will be chancy, as the monsters will be as likely to hit the Wall as each other. I believe you will already know this, but just for safety I will say that BW works like a super monster attractor, calling monsters from far and wide off-screen. Can be very risky!
Attract, in my view, is vastly superior to Confuse. Monsters are much, much more likely to go after each other if one or more of them are Attracted. With an under-powered build such as yours, go for Attract. I found it particularly invaluable for dealing with Unravelers and other revivers.
jiansonz - my golemancer made a great deal of use of both Confuse and Attract.
Confuse will sometimes work as you want, boss and minions will sometimes target each other but they are just as likely to target you and/or your merc. You can stack the odds in your favour by ensuring that you and the merc are out of reach (by using terrain). Note that using BW for this purpose will be chancy, as the monsters will be as likely to hit the Wall as each other. I believe you will already know this, but just for safety I will say that BW works like a super monster attractor, calling monsters from far and wide off-screen. Can be very risky!
Attract, in my view, is vastly superior to Confuse. Monsters are much, much more likely to go after each other if one or more of them are Attracted. With an under-powered build such as yours, go for Attract. I found it particularly invaluable for dealing with Unravelers and other revivers.
Shatterproof set out from the rogue's camp at /p8, cleared the den and blood moor, and realized that her bow just wasn't good enough. She had a psapphire she'd been saving to make hitpower gloves, so she wouldn't have to put a nef in every bow she used, but she was trying to save it until she could get a ilvl 51+ chassis. She found a composite bow of evisceration in the shops, though, so she decided to get along without knockback for a level or two. It had 4-60 damage, which worked out to about twice her previous bow, so it turned out alright. However, the lack of knockback was very noticeable.
After a level or two, she gambled some gloves and a belt and checked them with ATMA. One set of gloves had ilvl 51, but the belt was only 49. Close enough, though, as she'd got lucky with the first belt she gambled turning out to be a mesh belt (for 4 rows). So she crafted a pair of knockback gloves and a blood belt. Here they are, along with a nice ammy she found (but can't wear because she doesn't have enough mana leech), and a safety ring she made a bit later:
Imp Fringe
Mesh Belt
Defense: 36
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 47
Fingerprint: 0xfd0c4dd1
+20 to Life
Lightning Resist +15%
2% Life stolen per hit
9% Chance of Open Wounds
Spirit Hand
Chain Gloves
Defense: 8
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 48
Fingerprint: 0x8b3cffce
Lightning Resist +9%
Attacker Takes Damage of 4
Knockback
12% Chance to cast Level 4 Nova when struck
5% Chance to cast Level 4 Frost Nova when struck
Death Turn
Ring
Required Level: 34
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xd28cd719
+5 to Vitality
+39 to Mana
Damage Reduced by 3
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +6%
Scintillating Amulet of the Fox
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2a0be07f
+10 to Life
All Resistances +13
Getting knockback on gloves was great, as it gave her some freedom to swap bows around, so she did that a couple of times. Then she found a superior 2os double bow, and made Zephyr in it. The combination of a fast bow with knockback and OW (from the belt) was very visually entertaining. In stony field she met a couple of bosspacks, which had enough life to bleed awhile before dying, leaving this bloody mess. Bone Rend, being stone-skinned, also lasted awhile. After pushing him along the passageway a little, I had to change my angle of fire, due to some monsters that were off to the side. Then I kept pushing him along with strafe in the new direction. Another stone skinned boss got the same red-carpet treatment, this time in a straight line.
I had some very good luck with runes on the way to the countess. In the chest just outside the tower, I found a dol, on the way down the tower, I found an amn, and the countess dropped a hel. I also found a sol elsewhere in act 1.
I found a sword of destiny, two unique polearms, and a bloodrise, all useless on this char. No unique bows. (Of course, that may have something to do with my 0% mf.)
Sin Killer was a bit scary, as he and his pack moved faster than I think I've seen anything move in D2. Spammed FA + Valk tanking kept him from being an NDE, though. Another interesting moment in the catacombs, where I ran into a Lightning Enchanted Conviction boss. That was a bit scary, but the angle of the doorway kept his bolts away, and the Valk + knockback kept him from getting closer.
After clearing the catacombs through level 2, and finding the waypoint, I took a break for a bit. It was a long map, which meant a lot of running through an area where I couldn't pick things up, but I needed a break at the time, so I stopped. When I came back to it, I went through at /p1, thinking that /p1 + 0% mf would keep anything from interesting from dropping, especially when trying to kill as little as possible. So naturally, I found Nat's Boots. Two resists, 40 FRW, even the stamina boost might be helpful in a tourney like this. So I left it on the floor and proceeded to level 3, then level 4. As I got there I remembered that the rules said something like 'may not use it on *this* character'. :scratchchin: So I ran back up the stairs and put them in the stash to mule off. :alright: After that, of course, Andy refused to drop anything worthwhile.
I'd done about the first half of act 1 on /p8, and the second on /p7. After the discussion on here about /p settings and leveling, I decided to look up the numbers for a level 51 (my level at the end of Act 1) in Act 1 and 2. It turned out I was getting about 10% xp in A1, which had an average xp/monster of 3463, and that I would be getting 79% xp in A2, with an avg xp/monster of 7009. It turns out that, at my level, going to A2 and dropping the /p setting from 7 to 3 would still give me about 3.5x the xp. So I'm planning on taking A2 at /p3, but will probably drop to /p1 later in the act, and then bump back up in A3.
So I started on A2, killing Radament and clearing the stony tomb, which was literally right outside the gates of Lut Gholein. Radament started out somewhere near where the Valkyrie icon is in the upper right hand corner of the screen, until knockback had its way with him and shoved him in a corner.
On the way down to Radament, I hit a monster shrine, and it made the most disgustingly named random boss I've ever seen: Puke Feast. :yuck: :yuck: :yuck:
Well I cleared everything in Act III up to Lower Kurast, this using p7, there were some NDE and those were at the Swampy Pit, Dolls, I just hate them... but nothing that a Rejuv couldn't fix.
After millions of gold gambled I finally managed to get a MF Ciclet, 21% -_-
So I will have to keep gambling... but I gambled some nice ones, though given tournamente restrictions I couldn't use (too much life...) and they were sold again... though I kept this one, maybe it will see future use:
Bone Visage
Circlet
Defense: 26
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xc7e80b25
+6 to Energy
+38 to Mana
Damage Reduced by 2
Adds 1-117 lightning damage
Adds 8-24 cold damage over 1 seconds
Poison Length Reduced by 50%
BF is getting the job done and reaching level 30 helped, I got Shadow Master, Venom and Death Sentry... So far my plan is maxing Shadow Master, Death Sentry and then BF... rest if there is any will go into Venom and CoS.
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