Tournament: Envious of the Green and Gold

Wow, had to post this immediately, because it's so awesome that I almost dropped out of my chair:

First thought: "Nah, probably a Manald Heal...maybe Nagelring if I'm lucky".

And then this..
And look at the roll - almost perfect! Well, I guess life got a lot easier right now with that Raven Frost...

Also: yay for finding the Cathedral of the Damned :p

[highlight]Meronym, Phoenix Striker and Ethelred, the Barbarian, level 66, NM River of Flame next. 14 S/Us equipped. [/highlight]
 
What's your highest roll for raven frost so far, Grisu? That's incredible... except that dex is too low for perfect grail probably :(
 
Very nice ring Grisu!

So I've played around with Envy's gear and this is what I've come up with. The first item listed for each slot is equipped with the other items being alternatives considered.


Gear:


Amulet: Tancred's (useless + set bonus MF)/only
Ring 1: Manald Heal (ml, +life, rep life, regen mana)/ Cathan's (useless + set bonus (3) 25 lig res)
Ring 2: Cathan's (useless + set bonus (3) 25 lig res)/only


Weapon 1: Gravenspine (+2 skills, str, dex, mana)/ Blood Crescent (15% res all)
Weapon 2: Heartcarver (ITD, DS, dam, Pois Dagger)/ Blood Crescent (15% res all, OW)


Shield 1: Sigon's (+1 skills, best block + set bonus ll)/ Steelclash (15% res all, good block)/ Bverrit Keep (75% fire res, good block)/ Milabrega's Orb (MF)
Shield 2: Steelclash (15% res all, good block)/ Milabrega Orb (MF)


Helm: Tancred Skull (useless + set bonus 10% res all)/ Peasant's Crown (+1 skills/frw/vit/eng/rep life)/ Cathan Visage (25 cold res/mana + set bonus (3) 25 lig res)/ Duskdeep (15% res all)


Body: Arctic Furs (10 res all +socket 24% MF)/ Venom Ward (90% pois res)/ Rockfleece(10% dr)/ Cathan's (useless + set bonus (3) 30 fire res, 25 lig res)


Gloves: Sander's Taboo (+40 life)/ Magefist (mana regen, 20% fcr)/ Sigon's (useless + set bonus)


Belt: Sigon's (4 slots, 20 fire res, life + set bonus)/ Arctic Binding (2 slots, 40 cold res, +set bonus MF)


Boots: Sigon's (40 cold res, frw +set bonus(3) MF)/ Infernostride (30 fire res, frw)


Interesting that a 3 piece Cathan's (Head, Body and Ring) would have provided the best resists but lacking other useful mods. The headgear was the hardest choice, giving up the +skills and life from Peasant Crown, but ultimately I think I'm going to need to find some better gear to get through Hell so I went with the big dose of MF and decent resists from the Tancred helm and amulet combo, at least to start with.


Jewels:
Ruby Jewel of Knowledge (21% fire res, +4 energy)
Ambergris Jewel of Daring (22% lig res, +3 dex)
Carried in stash for later use (when resists become more important) in the Arctic Furs socket (currently contains a PTopaz for MF). A Hel rune is also carried in the stash to clear the socket.


Used NM Larzuk to socket Sigon's shield and put in a PTopaz for an extra 40% lig res


Charms:
Rerolled some SCs and GCs. Got a couple of SCs with 8% fire res


Bonuses from charms:
51% lig res
50% fire res
29% cold res
62% poison res
5% fhr
3 str
5 dex


Stats:
Str: 70/83
Dex: 128/143


Life: 658
Mana: 209


Fire res: 10
Cold res: 9
Lig res: 31
Pois res: 2


MF: 152 / 177 on merc kills
Block: 54%
FRW: 20%
FHR: 5%
IAS: 20%
FCR: 0


Merc: Ilzan Act 2 NM - Holy Freeze
Weapon: Meat Scraper(damage, IAS, ll, OW, MF)/Battlebranch(upped)(IAS ll)
Helm: Duskdeep (15% res all)/Undead Crown (ll, pois res, half freeze)/Peasant Crown(+skills, frw, vit)
Body: Rockfleece (def, dr)


Envy went for a spin through the Blood Moor and Den of Evil to see how things went at p3. Not too bad, although Ilzan died a few times getting pounded on by Zombies. We found a Milabrega's Robe in the Moor and another Heartcarver (better ED) in the Den.

[highlight]Envy the poisonmancer and Ilzan, Lvl 75, Hell Cold Plains, 15 S/Us equipped[/highlight]
 
Nice gear analysis there, Dezrok.

My Werebear has such a large life pool and good crowd control that my gut feeling is to keep going with maximum MF (OK, I'll switch out the MF grand charm for one with the most needed resist). Then again, a 2-slot belt is a bit of a bummer. We'll see.
 
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It's been a crazy week at work, so I decided to fire up D2 on this chilly Friday night, and work on Priscilla.

Priscilla and Chalan have completed Act 3, defeating the Lord of Hatred in the process. We had one surprising NDE when I confused my own Phoenix Strike meteor with a few blood lord meteors. I'll have to make note of the ghouls in the future and perhaps abstain from using meteor against them. Maffer Dragonhand's room was also particularly obnoxious, with him having stone skin, and a resident elite Blood Lord with lightning enchanted.

Mephisto himself posed little threat, and a few trips back to town to restock potions was all that's needed. Fade, combined with a thawing potion, an antidote, and fire resist from berserker's helm gave Priscilla nearly maxed resists. His drop, while a little disappointing, yielded what will likely be a useful item later in the game.

7 S/U's this act: Cathan's ring, Isenhart's Case #2, Isenharts Horns, Ichorstring Crossbow, Arctic Binding #2 (vendored), Sigon's gloves, and a GAMBLED Iratha's Cord. That makes two set items gambled thus far!

Currently using 3 piece Isenhart's, with Axe of Fechmar on switch. I also swap in Berserker's helm if I need the fire resist. Most unfortunately, I have zero MF now. Hopefully that doesn't cause problems later.

Priscilla, Phoenix Striker and Chalan, the desert mercenary, level 32, Act 4 next. 10 S/Us equipped.
 
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@Dazliare: Nice drop with the Sigon's gloves! And two S/Us already gambled? Wow!

Made it to Act 5 NM. Diablo's drop was interesting. I could cube a Lum and with the Pul from Diablo I could up an exceptional unique to elite...but I will have to wait to see, what's worth it. Probably a weapon for my merc. But the best weapon for him I found so far is still the Plague Bearer...

Other S/Us in Act 4 were:

- Boneslayer Blade
- Magewrath
- Death's Touch
- Cathan's Seal (my 3rd)
- Raven Frost (see last post)

HF gave me a Sol rune. Not much else to say really. The Diablo fight was easier than I thought - he kept attacking the barb. The lightning hose always missed him, but the Firestorm took him down by 75% life, but thanks to potion management and slowing down with Chaos Ice Bolts my barb never died. I kept on dropping Meteors on Diablo's head and let Ethelred have the finishing blow with my Langer Briser equipped for more MF.

Any thoughts from you guys on upgrading weapons? The only viable options right now are Plague Bearer, an once upped Shadowfang or Magewrath. The only other items I have and which are usable by mercs are Gleamscythe, Dragon Chang, Steelgoad. I think I'll wait for now.

[highlight]Meronym, Phoenix Striker, and Ethelred, the Barbarian, level 67, NM Bloody Foothills next. 14 S/Us equipped.[/highlight]
 
Any thoughts from you guys on upgrading weapons? The only viable options right now are Plague Bearer, an once upped Shadowfang or Magewrath. The only other items I have and which are usable by mercs are Gleamscythe, Dragon Chang, Steelgoad. I think I'll wait for now.
Plague Bearer seems a pretty decent weapon for NM already, so unless you're finding killing speed really frustratingly slow I'd suggest holding off on the upgrade and seeing what drops in Act 5.
 
Completed act 4. I'll post a more substantial update probably tomorrow, but right now I'm super psyched at this cutie. Not using any white items anymore, but I'm still missing a ring and amulet. Such is life
 
Zutalors had arrived at Lut Gholein
* When Zutalors reached the Inner Cloister, he had gotten 60 chippie drops, 4 of which were topaz
* After that, Zutalors had 15 more chippie drops before facing Andariel, one of which was a topaz
* I put the one I had been holding out for a gem shrine into my armor to get max MF of 45%
* With a +3 Holy Fire, the fight against Andy at /p8 was easy. I popped back to town once and that was because my poision resist went back to 0. I rebuffed with antidotes and polished off Andy
* Andy dropped yellow, blue and an Emerald

I think I have everyone up to date
Code:
Name          Character    Class       Diff.   Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer  Completed                    87          15
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon       Completed                    87          13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dezrok        Envy         Necromancer  Hell     Rogue Camp          75          15
jiansonz      Eric         Druid        Hell     Rogue Camp          75          13   
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     NM       Harrogath           67          14
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     NM       Inner Cloister      50          13
igloosPat     Hennifer     Assassin     NM       Black Marsh         50          13
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid        NM       Cold Plains         48           9
srrw          Selene       Sorceress    NM       Rogue Camp          48          11
jdkerr        Phusis       Assassin     NM       Rogue Camp          47           9
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Harrogath           35          11
Immortal_S    GreenGoldie  Paladin      Normal   Harrogath           34           8
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dazliare      Priscilla    Assassin     Normal   Outer Steppes       32          10
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin     Normal   Kurast Docks        27           3
HC Gunther    Fireyogi     Druid        Normal   Kurast Docks        28           4
Enceladus     Vengence     Paladin      Normal   Dry Hills           23           5
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Paladin      Normal   Dry Hills           22           2
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason         Qirana       Amazon       Normal   Rocky Waste         22           4
kestegs       SankeEyes    Sorceress    Normal   Lut Gholein         21           3
Jerametrius   Passion      Paladin      Normal   Lut Gholein         20           2
Morathi       Yates        Barbarian    Normal   Lut Gholein         20           0
HC Gunther    Zutalors     Paladin      Normal   Lut Gholein         16           2
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AnjaS         Beril        Barbarian    Normal   Outer Cloister      17           1
kstarm        Malice       Necromancer  Normal   Outer Cloister      17           0
djmbbandie    Rage         Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Kitteh        Brydon       Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
A MF question: If my merc has a poison weapon and he hits an enemy and it dies of poison a few seconds later, does the merc's MF get added to the kill?
 
Priscilla is now a destroyer! Act V, while quite the marathon session (blah crappy weather outside), was actually really easy. PS Meteors with a few points in fists of fire for synergy made quick work of the majority of the act. No NDE's, and nothing really obnoxious, outside of Baal himself. I seriously hate that guy without CBF and poor attack rating with no mana leech. After awhile, Baal went down without too much of an issue, and dropped two uniques: Rogue's bow and Soul Harvest, neither of which I find all that useful. Upped Soul Harvest might be worth looking at for OW, but that's really it.

12 S/Us this act. I have screenshots for all of them, but the ones I'm most psyched about are this, and this, both of which were equipped immediately. With the axe in hand, damage thus far has been fantastic, and freeze target from Iceblink has been great for CC. Duskdeep also dropped, which adds some much needed resist. Also found a second Cathan's ring, for huge life leech.

I must say I'm looking forward to Nightmare. This character is a lot of fun to play.

Priscilla, level 48 Phoenix Striker and Chalan, the desert mercenary, 14 S/U's equipped, Nightmare Rogue Camp next!
 
Wow, great progress, Dazliare!

I'd keep that Soul Harvest in my stash if I were you. In fights against Stone Skin or PI monsters it might be the only thing that allows you to let your merc take the kill. And damage output of OW was increased in 1.10+, since then it does noticeable damage:

Life drain per frame in bits (1 bit = 1/256 point):

Clvl Life Drain
1-15 = 9*clvl + 31
16-30 = 18*clvl - 104
31-45 = 36*clvl - 374
46-60 = 36*clvl - 779
>60 = 45*clvl - 1319

This may then be modified against certain targets or when using certain attacks:

0.25 (1/4) with any melee attack on a player
0.125 (1/8) with any ranged attack on a player
0.5 (1/2) with any melee or ranged attack on any Champion, Unique, Super Unique or boss (excluding normal or minion Putrid Defiler) monster
1 with any melee or ranged attack on any other target

Life drain is rounded down to the nearest bit after division.

Life drain per second in points = Life drain * 25/256

Total life drain in points = Life drain * 199/256


On the other hand: With Phoenix Strike, you can of course defeat any monster in the game...well, maybe Fire/Lightning Immune ones not too fast, but still...
 
I hope it's not too late to join in the tournament. I recently came back to D2 the other day and all I could think about was taking an Amazon to hell in hardcore. Then I found this thread and thought, what could be more fun than to do that with only sets and uniques!

So I made Shaniqua, an Amazonian warrior who, despite her Moor parents, has a rather fair complexion. My only hope is that I can find decent weapons for her. I don't really have a specific character build laid out but I'll most likely be using Lightning Fury/Frozen Arrow unless I can find a good bow to use Strafe with.

So far she's level 6 and just finished the Den at 'players 8' setting. Nothing useful found yet, but hopefully Raven has some surprises. I plan on doing full clears and max players until I get too bored lol. (single strikes get old :p)
 
Welcome to the tourney and good luck! Just yesterday, I found a weapon with my character in this tourney that will make you "Green with envy" (with a nod to said tourney): Lycander's Flank. :p Hope you get something as useful! (For me, it was kind of a wasted drop...playing an Assassin in this tourney...)
 
So I made Shaniqua, an Amazonian warrior who, despite her Moor parents, has a rather fair complexion. My only hope is that I can find decent weapons for her. I don't really have a specific character build laid out but I'll most likely be using Lightning Fury/Frozen Arrow unless I can find a good bow to use Strafe with.

Good luck!

I would go with Power/Charged/Lightning Strike instead of Lightning Fury, because Fury requires you to find a unique javelin...
 
Nice find Grisu! Too bad it wasn't something more useful to you.

Good luck!

I would go with Power/Charged/Lightning Strike instead of Lightning Fury, because Fury requires you to find a unique javelin...

Thanks for the heads up. I haven't played a pvm zon except in SC for killing cows and such.
 
Nice progress everyone.

In a session this morning Envy cleared the Cold Plains, the Cave, the Crypt and the Mausoleum. I'm always excited by the Mausoleum: the first lvl85 area and there is always the opportunity for some very interesting drops. This time it was this, which turned out to be:
Code:
Rainbow FacetJewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xc2f14f3f
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 41 Nova when you Level-Up
Adds 1 - 74 Lightning Damage
-5% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+5% to Lightning Skill Damage
Not really any use to me but always nice to find one of these, especially a perfect one. Shame it wasn't a poison one.

Otherwise, in the Crypt, Bonebreaker was Extra Strong and Might Aura - never a good combo. Another Isenhart's Lightbrand dropped in the Cold Plains.

[highlight]Envy the poisonmancer and Ilzan the merc, Lvl 76, Hell, Stoney Field next, 15 S/Us equipped[/highlight]
 
Nice amulet there, Dezrok. I am yet to find any of those.
No matter what the rules say, I think we should be able to use these, regardless of amulet colour.




My Werebear's large amount of life and crowd control has allowed me to keep up the treasure hunting in early Hell, and it has already paid off. First nice find was Hawkmail (Cold Plains random monster), which may be useful because it's the only CBF item I have that a merc can use.

I have been playing on players 3, and it's very slow going because I want Unferth the barb to get the kills. Eric helps out sometimes, especially against the zombies. The OW from Ripsaw is very good because Unferth often switches targets (more so than an act II merc would because of his knockback Bash attacks) and the bleeding means that less progress is lost.

Unferth has only died once and this far, I use far fewer purple potions than I find, so that's good. The Heart of Wolverine survives a lot better than I feared it would. It does have over 700 life, but the main reason it stays alive is my heavy Shock Wave usage.

Blood Raven was a real drag to fight because I forgot to mule on some Crushing Blow items. Her arrows were unusually potent and also annoying because of Knockback and poison. We had to let her summon zombies until she ran out of them.

The real kicker among the finds was something Bonebreaker (the superunique in Crypt) dropped: Hwanin's Justice. I am sure going to try a Might merc next session. He will have Hwanin's Refuge as well, but oh dear, what an underwhelming 2-items bonus this set has. :(

Other somewhat interesting finds were Hexfire and this thing, which made Eric wish he was Grisu's character.
Uninteresting finds were Isenhart's Case and Horns.

I gamble for nothing but amulets now. Would have been nice to be able to fill that last empty item slot.


[Highlight]Conqueror Eric the Werebear and Hazade the Might Guard, level 76, 12 S/U items equipped, Hell Stony Field next[/Highlight]
 
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