The Certain Death Tournament.

[Ohomemgrande1]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

[highlight]GeneralJoe, lvl 32, Bloody Foothills, slain by a catapult[/highlight]:weep:

Yeah, we'll just forget about that one. I plugging right along and had almost made it up to Shenk when I got distracted for about 2 seconds. I turned back in time to watch the health bulb rapidly drain.

And we'd just had a conversation about catapults in this thread

So, enter Josephine, sister of Joe, planning on being an ES/FO sorceress with a merc. She has currently killed everything up through the Cold Plains and all associated branches. She has found 2 chipped topazes so she has a MF of 18%. She has 36 strength and 65 energy (for 118 mana) and is now level 12. She kills quickly with a combination of Frost Nova, her friend the merc, and the now unlocked skill of Lightning. With all of that mana, the going is quick at this point (yes, a recipe for disaster!)

Off we go!!

[highlight]Josephine, ES/FO sorceress, level 12, Cold Plains[/highlight]

 

[HanShotFirst]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Ohomemgrande – Aagh! Sorry to see GeneralJoe go (those catapults were really hard on my necro too) . . . but it’s nice that Hadriela now has a sister character :nod: .

Also, your guesses in your previous post were pretty much all correct. Hadriela is going for maxed frozen orb, cold mastery, telekinesis, and then that other random skill that I still haven’t decided on. As for energy shield I’m thinking maybe five or six hard points . . . how about you? Anyhow, good luck!

 

[pepitosari]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Good luck, you two. To get the gold writing, just add [highlight][/ highlight] around the text you want [highlight]highlighted[/highlight] (remove the space I left between the / and the h)

I guess you can answer my question then, how do you post a link to a picture under a certain name, IE: Andy ?

 

[Thomh]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I guess you can answer my question then, how do you post a link to a picture under a certain name, IE: Andy ?

You can just quote people to see how they did it

To answer your question:

(url="insert web adress for picture here")Andy(/url) with [ and ] instead of ( and ).

 

[Tarantella]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

When I have many images to insert I find the quickest way is to copy the picture url using the right button functions (in a separate window), then highlight the part of the text in the reply to thread window that refer to the picture using the left button functions, then press the insert image icon above, then paste the picture url straight in to the box over the http prompt.

 

[Ohomemgrande1]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Ohomemgrande – Aagh! Sorry to see GeneralJoe go (those catapults were really hard on my necro too) . . . but it’s nice that Hadriela now has a sister character :nod: .

Also, your guesses in your previous post were pretty much all correct. Hadriela is going for maxed frozen orb, cold mastery, telekinesis, and then that other random skill that I still haven’t decided on. As for energy shield I’m thinking maybe five or six hard points . . . how about you? Anyhow, good luck!

My build progression is going to be one point in all the prereqs (plus static and warmth) until level 24. From 24 to 30, I'll increase ES. Starting at level 30, it will be FO + CM until I run out of saved skill points [highlight]or[/highlight] FO + CM + ES until I run out of skill points. That I haven't decided yet.

That should at least take me to NM (assuming I make it that far).

I will most definitely go with a maxed ES because I want as much damage to go to the mana pool as possible. If I can get an Insight, the only thing I really need to worry a lot about will be mana-burn packs. I'll probably wait to get a lot of points to TK until late in the game when things hit hard.

I'm not sure if I'll get a backup skill but I'm thinking about Firewall to help out the merc with the cold immunes. But, that won't be until much later I think.

Oh yeah, I continued on and saved Cain last night. I think this girl will go much faster than her brother.

 

[UllaV]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

When I have many images to insert I find the quickest way is to copy the picture url using the right button functions (in a separate window), then highlight the part of the text in the reply to thread window that refer to the picture using the left button functions, then press the insert image icon above, then paste the picture url straight in to the box over the http prompt.

I write my whole sentence (url=)like(/url) (url=)]this(/url), so that I don't lose the (url=)train(/url) of (url=)thought(/url).

Then I go and upload the images, copy the links and paste them to whichever part of that sentence they belong. Substitute [ and ] for ( and ) to get the actual tags.

Ulla

 

[pepitosari]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I write my whole sentence (url=)like(/url) (url=)]this(/url), so that I don't lose the (url=)train(/url) of (url=)thought(/url).

Then I go and upload the images, copy the links and paste them to whichever part of that sentence they belong. Substitute [ and ] for ( and ) to get the actual tags.

Ulla

Thanks a lot for all the help, I will try to incorporate images into my reports, as they make them much nicer and interesting to read.

 

[Ohomemgrande1]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Josephine is making good progress through the desert now and is camped out at the Lost City WP. Having a sorceress with a lot of mana in the early game sure makes it easy to spam the spells away. So far she has used Lightning, Chain Lightning, Frost Nova, Glacial Spike and now Blizzard; all of them one point wonders. Getting access to Energy Shield is like getting a boost in life

I found this weapon somewhere in the Black Marsh or thereabouts and made good use of it until we got to the desert where it promptly went into the hands of the merc.

Wraith Thirst
Bardiche
Two Hand Damage: 1 - 40
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 3
Required Strength: 30
Fingerprint: 0x5c10675b
Item Level: 8
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking
+10% Increased Attack Speed
Lightning Resist +8%
Poison Resist +5%
+1 to Mana after each Kill
[highlight]Repairs 1 Durability in 33 Seconds
Ethereal[/highlight]

That coupled with this gambled circlet

Pain Horn
Circlet
Defense: 30
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 18
Fingerprint: 0xfee93276
Item Level: 24
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+110 to Attack Rating
Adds 1 - 100 Lightning Damage
Fire Resist +17%
Damage Reduced by 2
Poison Length Reduced by 50%

has made the merc quite formidable. I've since cubed a savage bill and will be moving that onto the merc once he gets a few more levels to be strong enough to equip it.

Josephine is currently running around with 106% MF and has seen a few useful S/U's:
Civerb's Icon (wearing for the useful 40% to regenerate mana)
Hsarus' Iron Fist
Crushflange
ethereal Serpant Lord

She gambled this nice pair of boots. If only they had FHR.

Bone Slippers
Boots
Defense: 4
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 18
Fingerprint: 0xc53c8203
Item Level: 27
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Run/Walk
+13% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +32%
Fire Resist +26%

Only one NDE when she took on the Misshapen in the Jail/Catacombs but now we're starting to ramp up in power and once we hit level 30, the offense will really get going.

[highlight]Josephine, ES/FO sorc, lvl 25, Lost City[/highlight]

 

[wakiki]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well, here I go again obnoxiously chatting it up with everyone who posted an update. It seems I just can't control myself. Sorry for the spammage. :crazyeyes:

Hp, careful at the Kurast bar, man! You never know what Alkor puts in those drinks.

Han, welcome back man! Oh I see, two dolls insta-killed by your merc/valk will do it. By the way, doll damage does not increase as player setting increases. Thanks for pointing out the RIP tag. I seem to miss those often.

Loz, nice, intense update. Sszark is one of the hardest hitting Superuniques in the game. I don't think I've lost a character to him, but that's because I know he's so dangerous. (Mental preparation helps alot; I always clear his area of the Cavern last to give myself some running room)

scr, welcome back, sir! You are on your way to becoming a fixture of the tournament community here. There is nothing embarassing about almost making it to Hell on your first try, either. I, the oh-so-supposedly skilled and experienced tournament host, lost my first character in Act IV normal! Nice Circlet, btw. If it had 20-30 life, I'd say socket that it use it as end game gear. It's not quite good enough though...

Moo, your first update was excellent. Ack, I can't call you moo, because we have an EmperorMoo. Can I call you "Moosa?" Lol.

LP, that's a really nice belt for your level. How many gambles (roughly) do you think it took? I remember gambling for alot of sashes in hopes of getting one with high gold find and resists (and life/fhr as a bonus) with one tournament character, but it didn't work well at all.

Ohom, I can totally relate to your death. I had an insane NDE with zero visible life in the bulb from those embers on my necro. Chances are pure luck kept me alive there; a higher damage roll and I would have been deadinated like you. RIP for GeneralJoe and a big-time thank you for rejoining!

 

[Cor Blimey]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Because your sorcies are untwinked, you may in time find a tiny bit of a problem with cold immunes, of which there are some really annoying ones (Hell infidels and a lot of act 5) (though thankfully you will have a much easier time than many with the truly dangerous ones like souls). Consider putting 1 point in enchant (and prereqs) to give your merc a 100%+ bonus to AR?

I have been a bit busy recently but hopefully today I can progress some more on my mercadin.

 

[soulmanz]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

i totally endorse firewall, even as the early skill, with cold catching up, as it is easy (with a bit of patience) to shop a leaf-able +3 fw staff, which essentially gives +6 FW, +6 warmth, +3 fire mastery for around 3000 dam/sec when FW is maxed with 1 point in FM

3000 dam per sec with 21 points in a low level skill

i think its worth it, if you plan to use it later

i also worry a bit about low ES/TK as i ran practically the same build (nova/LM instead of GS or FO/CM) and bit it without chance to respond in act 3 NM. gloams chewed me up

of course, resists would have helped

not teleporting into a bosspack would have helped

but you get what i mean. i personally would go

FW as kill skill (as jianz i think said, no regularly FI enemies till act 4 NM) for massive damage

ES/TK pump

secondary cold skill (and just put up with merc phys damage till then)

but thats just me

 

[Cor Blimey]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@soulmanz: yeah but where are you going to find the very rare El runes? Might have to wait for your HF drop, which in my experience tends to enjoy giving me very rare runes like that



Update: Act 2 is brreezzy for a HolyBoltadin and I was fortunate enough to find this, a life leech ring (4%) and a cathans (6%) for 20% ll . Unfortunately these 3 encourage my impatient self to forsake my ranged low-health cowardly ways and go into melee leading to 3 NDEs in quick sucession (one when I thought it would be a good idea to charge a leb-bug boss from a non-cardinal-point angle and one when I got body blocked in the tombs and could not escape the mighty Unholy bolts, and the third, most dangerous one, was from underestimating the effects of a boss' Frost Nova on death. Left me with 5 health despite 20% resists).

Current Status: ~40% mf, 20% resists, lvl 21 Act 2 Claw Vipers p8. Best gear: shadowfang, favourite gear: Flawed Topaz'd armour. Current damage: 250 HB damage @ ~2.3 mana a bolt...easy killing, and heals for 60. I am waiting for an Eth rune to drop to give my merc malice.

 

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Not a big update here, this time. Cleared out the Council with ease at /Players 5 and negotiated the Durance Levels 1 and 2 at the same setting. This unpleasant character gave me a shock, or at least tried to, but we had the solution for him.

All too soon, Level 3 was here, and sensibly I lowered to P1. Bremmfist was awful, I suffered at least two NDEs before I could poison and Decripify him, and allow the merc to engage and tank him.

The other Council members and their Ghoul Lord retinues were easily dealt with, by comparison.

We engaged Mephisto. At first I was able to maneouvre him into the path of the merc, alternating Amp Dam and Life Tap as appropriate, but a series of ranged attacks from The Lord of Hatred spoiled the party and, low on potions, I portalled to Town and quickly returned to the fight. Although I could block Mephisto's snowballs, the Lightning attacks and Charged Bolts had to be dodged. I couldn't close on the demon personally as his Frost Nova would rip through my 15% CR in no time at all. Eventually I was able to use a type of moat trick, with me on the central promontery and the merc and Mephisto in the right-hand wing. This position was tenable for some time, but I was again running low on potions and with great reluctance, portalled out from a potentially winning position.
Returning again, I tried to tempt the demon out of the Right Wing so that I might resume my moat trick. At first, I used Bone Walls to do this but the wily old devil simply Blizzarded them. Stalemate. I tried to tempt him out with my valuable person but my approaches were repelled by an unseen Mephisto casting Blizzards at me. Time and again I attempted this, to no avail. A double cast of Blizzard froze me and slivered me ... how did I escape?

Spoiler

I didn't.

Skills
No matter.

My very first HC character, and my second ever no-vita (previously a Mat'd Dexazon). Gutted that I didn't make Hell difficulty - nevermind. I was being very cautious, but in the end, not cautious enough.

I will try to recover my equilibrium and re-enter, once I think of a class I want to try.

Good luck to my colleagues on their attempts to beat this incredible tourney!

[highlight]WitherStick, Poison Daggermancer, Level 62, Durance of Hate Level 3 (NM) - RIP[/highlight]

 

[Cor Blimey]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Mephisto can be nasty, particularly if your main damage requires a melee strike (poison dagger).

It can be useful to remember that bosses no longer have any life regen whatsoever. As such, a stack of throwing weapons, in combination with your curses, could ultimately take him down. I wonder whether iron maiden would be useful? Alternating between IM and lifetap for your merc. You should have been able to survive 1 frost nova so it might have been possible, albeit risky, to have poisoned him if he was focused on your merc. Alternatively, with Meph, if you just aggro him then run away to the other side of the blood moat you can keep enough of a distance to (hopefully) have enough time to evade all his ranged attacks.

Oh well, hopefully you enjoyed the journey regardless. This is why I like HC, it doesn't get boring

 

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience - there's a danger that my SC characters will be neglected (even more than they have been!).
I can see a lot of different ways I could have handled Mephy, but a double-sucker punch put an end to it. I thought I had the measure of him, but a mistake is costly in this tourney!

 

[HanShotFirst]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Loz – Oh noes! . . but congrats on getting so far with what would seem to have been a really challenging character! Glad to see you’ll be back!

Hadriela cleared Act 2 doing full clears at Players 7. Tactics continued to be unexceptional and pretty much amounted to casting Glacial Spike and later Glacial Spike and Blizzard from behind the beastly combat merc Azrael (scintillating eh)?

The biggest obstacles were Unravelers (surprise, surprise). A single or a couple Unravelers weren’t too bad but Hadriela and Azrael unfortunately found an absolute ton of chambers that had upwards of four Unravelers (that could revive the undead far faster than Azrael could drop them). Hadriela’s best option was to spam Glacial Spike at the undead hoardes and hope that the corpses turned to mush upon death . . . which worked pretty well but was pretty slow going considering that each undead minion had to (on average) be killed several times before the corpse would turn to mush (can you say tedious). So sometimes Hadriela would get dangerous and speed things up by teleporting around a room from Unraveler to Unraveler dodging undead minions while encouraging Azrael to do what he does best (this method was much more fun but seemed a bit risky considering Hadriela never had more than 87 life).

Now Hadriela only topped out at 87 life but at the end of Act 2 had five points in energy shield and ten points in telekinesis and 225 mana so really she had more hit points than are immediately apparent but regardless, I was extremely hesitant to do anything too aggressive (and past the Unraveler problem why would I? . . that’s what Azrael is for :grin: ).

Set/unique finds were few and far between. An Umbral Disk was found early but not equipped (yes I know it gives +20 life)! . . but it would have cost Hadriela nearly all her resistances so it was stashed. The Sword of Destiny was found in the Ancient Tunnels. A 20 MF Nagel was found in the last false tomb (it replaced one of Hadriela’s magic 13 MF rings). The only other set/unique find came from Duriel (who by the way was static fielded to death in about twenty seconds tops) . . . and yes, the drop was totally useless (it almost always is . . . )

[highlight]Hadriela, Frozen Orb/TK, Kurast Docks, Level 28[/highlight]

(Almost time for Frozen Orb )

Cor Blimey – Yep, I was planning on one hard point in Enchant (on the way to Hydra . . . for scouting) plus using a Leaf Staff (oh yeah, I found a Ral Rune) for prebuffing the merc with a level seven(ish) Enchant . . . mostly so I don’t have to recast it every two minutes :thumbup: .

Soulmanz – Yep, Firewall is nice but this is a Frozen Orb Sorceress! . . I might use Firewall later as a backup skill but I wouldn’t anticipate putting points into it until much later (after Frozen Orb is maxed) . . .

 

[Mursilis]

Seems like now is a good time for an update. Jaheira wandered through rogue territory without any real difficulties. She did run into a few LIs but nothing a tanking mercenary backed up by Fireblast couldn't handle. The traps simply mowed down any opposition on the way to Andariel, who also fell and required only one mercenary resurrection. She dropped 4 gems for me, none above normal quality, and that's it. Grrrr.

On to the desert, where progress slowed to a crawl due to all of the LIs, well everywhere. Can't recall an area she didn't see an LI. This is also where Jaheira ran into her first LI/FI boss, nasty critters. The mercenary slowly poked them to death, but many health/rejuv potions were necessary. To give an idea of the mercenary's ability to tank, here's a situation I ran into a few times. After clearing out the monsters one of the dungeons Jaheira started to pop the urns. Out of one came a Flying Scimtar. Nothing too scary, but FI/LI so let the merc deal with it. As I sat there in astonishment the merc proceeded to lose to the scimtar and only survived due to receiving a couple of health potions. :surprise: It's a flying scimtar, this are supposed to be easy. And forget about it if two of them appear at once, he's dead and I can't save him. :no: Have to actually split the two scimtars up in order to eliminate them. Now that's sad.

As one can imagine the Maggot Lair was very slow and tedious, since LI beetles infested all levels and it ended up being a very windy lair this time around. But managed to get through it and with that the rest of the act went by fairly easily. Even a Fanaticism enhanced Fangskin wasn't much of a problem, mostly because I went the opposite way around the altar and hide up the stairs while throwing Fireblasts at him.

After Duriel was defeated Jaheira tried her luck in the jungle. Things didn't start off all too well when all three monster spawns for the Spider forest were LI. Thankfully they don't hit too hard so some CoS and Fireblast backup was all the mercenary needed.

While exploring Jaheira ran into the Great Marsh. I only planned on going into there if I had to, so skirted the edge along a bridge to head back towards the Spider forest. This is when the Souls came along. Saw one or two so made a quick dash away to avoid them, which Jaheira did. This attracted a crow boss in the Spider forest, who swooped in out of nowhere and hit Jaheira, for maybe 1/4 of her life. Before I could even check the bosses mods and take a few steps back the mercenary poked it a few times. Out jumped charged bolts that apparently all hit Jaheira at once, as she died while I drank a rejuv potion. :shocked:

I just sat there looking at the screen for a bit, mostly because the crow boss whizzed out of the screen before I could see it's mods and take a screenshot. Basically a hit-and-run just happened to Jaheira (as no monsters were on the deeds screen) which is very unfortunate as she was doing oh so well up to that point. Think I'll have to remake her in softcore to avenge the loss, and ensure I get something higher than 49% lightning resistance (which is the reason she's dead).

Spoiler

[highlight]Jaheira the Trapsin, Level 78, Hell Spider Forest, RIP[/highlight]

 

[Mournblade]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

has made the merc quite formidable. I've since cubed a savage bill and will be moving that onto the merc once he gets a few more levels to be strong enough to equip it.

Wow, learned something new today. Didn't realize cubing up a savage polearm could result in an exceptional polearm. Off to find the ingredients to make my own. Probably take a few tries given my luck.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll have an update later today. Svelte_Savage just killed the Council and entered Durance.

 

[Cor Blimey]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Hans. nice idea, I did not think of scouting with hydra.

Also, Umbral disc with some P'ds is a very nice shield. But it would depend on your HF luck I suppose.

@Mursilis: sounds like a first-class mugging