Tournament: Envious of the Green and Gold

Thanks very much Dezrock and jiansonz.

The Vile Husk was responsible for the Amp on Talic. I have to say that an upped Vile Husk is an incredible merc weapon also providing big poison, poison resistance, etcetera. Because of this weapon (and Holy Frost) PI (even Lister) was not much of a problem.

As implied in the update Spellsteel was invaluable; I don't know if I would have been able to clear WSK 1 without it and Hoar could have easily died trying. For instance separating that Cursed + Fanaticism pack without teleport/decrepify could easily have spelled deeds.

As I did not post these in the update, here's some final numbers/gear for Hoar:

STR: 135/150
DEX: 160/160
VIT: 220/220
ENE: 15/15

HP: 872/1108 (1158 with Aldur's Advance)
Block: 75% with Holy Shield
MF: 119

FR: -3 (44 with Aldur's Advance)
CR: 39
LR: 77
PR: 10

Resist Cold: 20
Resist Lightning: 4
Holy Freeze: 20
Fanatcism: 10
Sacrifice: 10
Smite: 1
Zeal: 20
Holy Shield: 6

Head: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest w/PTopaz
Amulet: Tal Rasha's Adjudication
Armor: Upped Hawkmail
Weapon/Shield: Upped The General's Tan Do Li Ga (Wizardspike) / Stormchaser
Switch: Spellsteel (upped Bonesnap)
Belt: Upped Goldwrap (Credendum)
Ring1: Dwarf Star
Ring2: Nagelring (30 MF)
Gloves: Sander's Taboo
Boots: Goblin Toe (Aldur's Advance)
Prebuff: Todesfaelle Flamme
Charms: Shimmering Grand Charm of Life (+20 life, +14@), Arcing Small Charm of Storms (2-53), Gheed's Fortune (+114 GF, -10, +29 MF), other resistance charms

All in all I had great fun with Hoar and found the build to be incredibly robust/defensive while maintaining an adequate killing speed on p3 in hell thanks to (among other things) the awesome Vile Husk and crushing blow from Goblin Toe. I had thought I might restart this tourney with a Barb, and I still might, but for the moment I think I'll try my luck in the CTC tournament. Good luck to all those who are continuing in this tournament.
 
I made it through Act 2 last night and a little ways into Act 3 this morning. I wimped out and went /P5 for Duriel which turned out to be unnecessary. I had to port out once to refill my belt and drink some more thawing pots, but the fight never got remotely dangerous.

I picked up an Angelic Sickle and Hawkmail in false tombs, then Vidala boots and Isenhart helm from Duriel. I was fairly lucky that the weapon and boots didn't mess up my kick damage. Weapon speed stayed at -10 and boots remained light plated. Something like Tancred boots and a bow/staff would've been terrible. Actually, would i have been forced to ditch my white weapon for a 2H set item even if it meant having to put away my set shield? I think i could've just put it as my weapon switch?
 
Nito has joined the fray!

We (clay golem and one skeleton) made quick work of Blood Raven and cleared the Cold Plains. Nothing of note yet, except two rare wands that are just taunting me by not being gold.

I'm planning on being a bonemancer for this attempt. I've never played one, so it could get interesting. I'm trying to decide how much to sacrifice in bone spells for curse radius and CE. I think I'll need as much defense as I can get, and without a lot of +skills, I'll definitely want to put a few extra in defensive curses and CE for radius. Thoughts? What about a trusty IG?
 
Yeah with the (likely) low +skills on your gear your points are going to be stretched. Here's a possible skill layout for a level 75 character just entering Hell, so 82 skill points:

Summoning: (12 points total)
1 point in all except 3 points in Revives

Poison and Bone: (64 points total)
Teeth: 1
Bone Armor:1
Corpse Explosion: 1
Bone Spear: 20
Bone Wall: 11
Bone Prison: 10
Bone Spirit: 20

Curses: (6 points total)
Amplify Damage: 1
Dim Vision: 5

Reasoning: Revives make excellent tanks for such a low skill point investment and the right kinds, Blunderbore types for example, can also be helpful on offense. You will also want to able to select the right golem (clay, iron, or fire) given the situation; they all shine in different places.

You will also probably find that you'll also want the choice depending on the situation between Bone Spirit and Bone Spear; this does mean that you will have a weaker bone armor and wall, but the revives, golem, blocking(?), and Dim Vision should help.

In the curses tree these are the only two that I would say you absolutely need and choosing only these two allows you to spend points elsewhere.

A lot also depends upon how lucky you are finding a weapon for the merc. With a good to great merc weapon you could focus more on corpse explosion, with the assumption that the merc will be able to kill things for you to blow up.
 
Thanks for the advice! That's almost exactly what I was thinking as well, though I'll likely throw a point in life tap as well for the merc. I'm really looking forward to this character :)

Bonus question: anyone figure out my second favorite game?
 
Its a shame that Goblin Toe are Light Plated Boots, else you could gamble Greaves for Goblin Toe, Gore Riders, or Shadow Dancers!
 
I definitely expect a TC3 out of this tournament!

hJNjjAI.png
 
Nice find. Hard to argue with 45 FR and 15 life at that stage of the game.

I made it into LK last night. That was probably my first ever full clear of the Swampy Pit in 15 years of playing D2 off and on.
 
At the River of Flame now, and my set shield spree continues. I picked up Milabrega's Orb in Trav then i found another one in the Durance. Mephisto drop was a bunch of garbage. I finally got something useful in Act IV, my first paired set piece. And then in the Plains of Despair.. another Milabrega's Orb!

That brings my set shield tally to 3x Milabrega's, 2x Cleglaw's, and 1 Civerb's. In comparison, I've found 3 uniques total, and the last one was a crossbow that i couldn't use for anything. Still no sign of set/unique jewelry either.
 
Nito and Aliza have reached the outer cloister at level 17. We've found 9 topazzes, which means Aliza is killing as much as possible. Amplify Damage has proven quite helpful thus far.

I'm actually pretty happy with the progress so far. I found a white preserved head with +1 clay golem, +1 Corpse Explosion, +2 Bone Armor, and I'm main handing a white scepter. I think I might shop around for some kind of wand with more skills now that Aliza is doing all the killing. One gold came about in the cave, in the form of hotspur :D Not the most useful for end-game, but I'm not going to complain!

Nito the Bone Necromancer and Aliza the Cold Rogue, level 17, Outer Cloister
 
Last edited:
Once you get to Act 2 it shouldn't be hard to buy a nice wand off Drognan. As soon as you do you will probably find some junky set sword that you have to replace it with though :)
 
Made it to the Crystalline Passage WP tonight. I scored an angelic halo in one of those act 5 hell pits which gave some 2pc bonuses. The amulet would be extremely nice now giving 75 life, +1 skills, 50 MF, and 30% IAS on the weapon. *fingers crossed*
 
Bruno made swift progress through Act II. I had found a Stormstrike Bow which gave some much needed lightning resistance.

The Maggot lair was OK on the first two levels despite a double maggot boss pack in level 2.

At level 3, only Coldworm was left. Her lair was packed with Beetles, so it took some time to get to the entrance. In the meantime, she had spawned a LOT of maggots. Bruno managed to kill 50% of the maggots and the offspring, but then he got stuck in the right part of the lair and he could not reach the escape TP. Deeds.

[highlight]Bruno, Werebear, level 55, Maggot lair, RIP[/highlight]
 
Bold playing felixb and bad luck on the deeds. I think I would have stood in the entranceway and waited for the maggots to come to me, rather than wading in and getting surrounded like that.
 
Nito and Aliza have defeated the demon queen! Progress is easy, with the clay golem tanking everything, Aliza finishing off health bars, and Nito throwing out curses and bone spears. Andariel went down without a fuss, though she took Aliza with her. Andariel didn't yield any precious green or gold items, but she did drop a Tangerine Grand Charm (12%) which will be nice for the lightning mages in the tombs.

One green and one gold so far: Hotspur Boots, and Hsaru's Iron Stay Belt.

Plans for Act 2 include hopefully finding a new shrunken head, and scouring Drognan's stores for some nice white wand.

Nito the Bone Necromancer and Aliza the Cold Rogue, level 20, Lut Gholein, 2 Green and Gold Items Equipped
 
jiansonz said:
I use Esc to pause, then alt+tab to get out and then I just leave the computer on for as long as I need to. I don't play in windowed mode, and I don't see how that has anything to do with the ability to tab out and get back later.
Click to expand...
I've heard a mix of people say that the game doesn't pause for them when they alt-tab out and another mix of people saying it doesn't work when they play fullscreen. I can't say either of those are accurate or misunderstandings but it's been about 13 years now and I've found alt-tabbing pauses the game in SP no matter what for me

edit: and now I see this post wasn't a recent unread post but one from weeks ago. oops
 
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account
Remove Ads - Go PurePremium

Latest posts

Back
Top