Skill-less tournament (3rd edition)

I'm going to try to finish act 4 tonight, but I wanted to do a quick update for the table, and because I'm super excited right now.

Vladimir and Jemali have defeated the first prime evil and forged their way to humanity's final sanctuary. As we prepare to do battle with Diablo himself, we find ourselves reminiscing of the journey thus far:

The final push through the Kurast ruins proved both disappointing and unfruitful. We accidentally offered our find item helmet to Ormus, who in his greed, refused to give it back. What a jerk. That's the last time we do business with him.

Next stop was the fabled Travincal. A strange shrine appeared near the waypoint. Upon worshiping this shrine, we were granted a most appreciated blessing: increased experience! We headed straight for the dreaded high council to capitalize on this blessing, but within moments, it was cursed off. Bah! The council were split up and disposed of one or two at a time, but the only interesting drop was a rare quhab. If only we had find item for a few more chances! The dead council inspired fear into the remaining Zakarumites, causing them to cower at the sight of us. This was both a blessing and a curse, in that it took absolutely forever to clear the rest of the ruins.

The only interesting section in the Durance was a boss pack of dolls. We split them up with terror charges and they fell without a fuss. Mephisto himself was easy with open wounds from steel, weaken charges, and thawing/antidote potions. His drops were most excellent indeed: Umbral Disk, Angelic Halo, and a failed unique assault helmt with +1bo! He also dropped a failed set avenger guard. Curses! Bremm Sparkfist dropped Rogues Bow, which may be useful in nightmare with a rogue scout mercenary when upped.

Vladimir and Jemali - level 32 demon masters. Outer Steppes next
 
The flayers are all dead again. Mwahahahaha!

We've thoroughly looted Kurast. Lots of gems, Wormskull and a Ko rune. I had originally planned on Harmony in a chu-ko-nu or demon crossbow, but I'll probably wait for a Hel and Fal to make Obedience, which is godly. Waheed had some trouble with Thrashers; he died a few times when he got stunlocked.

The sewers are done and we have the heart. I blew up lots of Horrors and Horadrim Ancients. Those Feeders really hurt when they come out of nowhere and take a bite out of you.

My plan for Mephisto is to put on some better resist gear, use Life Tap, and let Waheed tank with the lvl 15 Thorns aura on Edge.

Resist Gear for merc:
-----
Wraith Flange
Ancient Armor
Defense: 346
Durability: 31 of 31
Required Level: 18
Required Strength: 90
Fingerprint: 0x26e050ee
Item Level: 48
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+36 to Life
Cold Resist +16%
Lightning Resist +19%
Poison Resist +16%
Ethereal
-----

and for me:
-----
Cruel Visor
Circlet
Defense: 25
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x14c7e118
Item Level: 62
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+6 to Dexterity
All Resistances +19
Damage Reduced by 3
67% Extra Gold from Monsters
-----

Yredelemnul and Waheed, skillless necro and mighty merc, lvl 61, NM Upper Kurast
Trav next!
 
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I found my much wanted first Shael rune in the Drifter Cavern sparkly chest, so now Helena is much better protected with a Rhyme Bone Shield. 50% blocking and finally decent fire/lightning resist (and max cold).

Sometimes it's not bad to have a ranged merc:
Helena03rogueadvantage_zps07f88ca0.jpg


I really like the dual purpose of my Edge bow. In addition to lowering gambling costs, it also has Prevent Monster Heal, great for situations like this. If I had a recastable minion, I could also use its Thorns aura...

No Zephyr for Meghan yet, but I've made her something that does comparable damage (albeit without the IAS and extra foot speed):
Helena04newbow_zps62cf5cdb.jpg

Haven't tried it yet, but it must be a major improvement over the current 4-35 IthIthIth bow.

I can probably tank them, but I would really like to have CoS or MB for the zombie garden. Don't think I can afford any claw gambles yet, though, because MF on my jewelry is still 13, 13 and 12 units away from perfect Fortune(s) and Luck. A Nadir helm is an option. I'll think about that while making the passage clear to the Arreat Summit.


[Highlight]Helena the Assassin and Meghan the Cold archer, level 44, Ancients' Way next[/Highlight]
 
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Babs has cleared Act I of nightmare and is now ready to begin Act II with his brand new might Merc. Hopefully the added boost will help speed things up, as killing on P8 has become very slow and tedious. My Barb makes very little damage and hits very few things, so mostly it's been up to my merc to deal with enemies. I took on some rather nasty boss packs in the Catecombs (can you say Fanaticized and cursed Rat man packs?) but for the most part there were very few tricky moments. Had one close call when the super unique who guards the scroll exploded and nearly did me in. Will have to be more careful about those.

Edit: Babs is lvl 53 now.
 
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@SunsetVista : At the speed you're going you'll make Guardian based solely on inertia :).

Here's the story of Adriana going through Hell. The Outer Steppes began not very hellish, although spawners were present. When a spawner was engaging, Adriana got into merc's flank, guarding it, while, usually, attempting to bruise a spawnee. Eventually the mother was killed by merc, usually quite fast. The inferno lords were nothing to worry, Adriana even felt sorry she left the sunscreen in stash as those infernos would have provided a nice tan for an otherwise pale self (FR was maxed). She also found another voulge in that area, which she sold. Speaking of gold, Adriana found herself in the position of having not really much to gamble for now, but lots of targets for later so she decided to bank 500k cash for rainier days. She kept on gambling the occasional circlet from time to time, but she did not put her heart (i.e. money) into it.

Adriana began the session with the Cleglaw's Set in stash as she wouldn't like to get arthrosis from Izual in Plains of Despair, but the fight was longer than I expected. Izual kept chilling Adriana so CB was slow to work. Eventually he fell, providing the assassin with a reward she did not understand. The area also provided a Grand Charm with +51AR and +19 to life which was put on display in Adriana's inventory and a rare Circlet with some FR and 2 sockets which could provide a good resist helm later.

All in all, until River of Flame there was not much to tell about. In fact, neither was the River of Flame. Hephasto had Holy Freeze on, which might have clued Adriana to use the thawing potion she had recently found and kept in her pocket but, you'll have to understand, she's not very skilled. The forge provided an Ith and a Perfect Saphire. No topazes.

At RoF Waypoint a break was made, to prepare for Diablo. Stuff was muled in, but the Teleport Staff (normal behavior) was forgotten out. Much effort was spent in the area before Chaos Sanctuary to ensure a burial ground for each flying doom spirit, but occasionally one was missed, which brought much anguish upon the team. In the Chaos Sanctuary, Adriana got into the habit of positioning herself between Oblivion Knights and the packs fighting merc, so the curses were usually addressed to her. And she got an earful. But the merc remained safe. The later part of the Chaos Sanctuary was filled with a boss pack of an Oblivion Knight, and I mean filled, as the damned thing was all over the place, decrepifying merc and making a fool of merc by forcing him to run aimlessly around. At last, it was cornered for the second time (the first time, merc decided to give up midfight and go in some other place he found more interesting) and killed. That adventure cost Adriana almost all of her belt of Super Healings, mainly because the boss was Multishot and Adriana didn't remember to use some antidotes and lesser healings while taking curses for merc. Nevertheless, until Diablo, the belt will have been refilled.

Among the seals, Lord de Seis was approached first with little danger to Adriana or merc. The inferno guys were next. Adriana managed to squeeze out 2-3 of them at a time, and we could tell that they did pose a problem to merc. Adriana kept feeding him little potions during fights and, eventually, the boss and some of his pals were extracted at the same time. Adriana kept terrorizing the minions as, Extra-Fast as they were, they were bound to reach far by the time terror had expired, so the boss could have a quiet word alone with merc. The last seal boss was ignorable.

Now about the fight of the Act. Adriana was counting on some shrines usually placed within the Sanctuary, but, alas, they were health/mana and Skill Shrine. The Skilled one was used to get rid of some curses, but Adriana had no use of it otherwise. So shrineless, she was left on equipment alone and she had no reasons to complain in that department. Luck had it that Adriana promoted to level 35 in CS and merc had ample time to follow, so the final stats for before the fight were the following:
Adriana
- damage 32-171
- AR 2103 (chance to hit Diablo 84%!)
- defense (with aura) 1236 (chance to be hit by D. 54%), block 33%
- life 559, mana 126
- resists: Fire/Lightning max, Cold 41%
- 35% Crushing blow
- 21 unallocated stat points
Merc
- life 510
- resists 70
- dmg 65-295
- defense 1072

Looking at the numbers it was obvious Adriana could not lower the players setting below 8 as that would shame her in front of the world. Putting on switch the Life Tap wand, she launched into battle. Diablo rushed to meet her head on and Adriana began distributing potions. She soon realized she had no reason to. Even merc could stand an elemental attack and re-heal before the next. As the belt had only 3 rows (Hsaru's) she stopped wasting those. A little before the end a scramble took place. Life Tap had expired and rushing to recast it, I pressed too fast on W and Right click so Adriana found herself casting Town Portals ( on main right click) instead of Life Tap. In the moment of confusion which ensued, merc found his grave. Muttering foul words, Adriana took the TP back to recover merc and continued were she left over. Once slivered, the MF equipment came back on, but Diablo might have died during a switch to the Life Tap wand (which meant -40MF). Anyway the drop got Adriana heavy gloves, another long war bow, some rares (among which a failed crown shield), a magic ethereal scale mail and an emerald. Not much, really.

As SunsetVista claims the current version of the table does not entirely reflect his awesomeness :), here is the updated version:

Code: 
Alive characters:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     WP             Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SunsetVista      Necro      Yredelemnul   62   A4(N)   Pandemonium Frt   1.13 
HanShotFirst  ***Sorc       Two           52   A2(N)   Lut Gholein         
japanzaman       Barb       Babs         >48   A2(N)   Lut Gholein       1.13
jiansonz         Assassin   Helena        44   A5      Frozen Tundra   
felixbavaria    *Paladin    Incompetentus 34   A5      Harrogath         1.13d
epaminondas     *Assassin   Adriana       35   A5      Harrogath         1.11
Dazliare        *Barb       Vladimir      32   A4      Pandemonium Frt  
Sput             Sorc       Skilllass     30   A3      Flayer Jungle
Southpaw8668     Necro      Goulash       14   A1      Black Marsh       1.13
imakeigloospat   Druid      Glenn          1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
xXxGrimmxXx      Amazon     WaffleStrike   1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dead ones:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     Place of Deeds  Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Southpaw8668    *Paladin    Lucious      >19   A2      Duriel           1.13
xXxGrimmxXx    **Druid      Roland      >=17   A1      Monastery        1.13d
xXxGrimmxXx    **Assassin   Noctyria       9   A1      Cave Lvl 1       1.13d
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: 
*  = this class has been randomly chosen
** = this class has been somewhat randomly chosen
*** = this character needed a random decision that it would not be random :)

Edit: Updated SunsetVista as he's reached Act IV before I could type Act III in :).
 
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@jiansonz - I am jealous of your ranged merc in situations like that. I have so much respect for your tactics, having read through your adventures in previous tournaments. It sounds like Inner Sight is a great option to have.

@japanzaman - nice going! Yeah, I've been staying way far away from anything fire enchanted in NM. The Hell FE bug was mostly fixed but the NM one never was, right?

@epaminondas - grats on /p8 diablo kill! wow! And I didn't say anything about the table! =P but here I go messing it up again

/p1 trav was not too bad with good resists. Dim Vision on Hierophants was sweet.
There was a conviction vampire pack that I stayed away from until I had cleared most of the area. Then I lured the minions away one at a time to be dispatched while Dim Vision'd.
I carefully lured the council out of the temple, but had to be sure that Waheed wasn't distracted by the river monsters that he couldn't reach.

back to /p5 for durance, /p1 Meph
found a Hel rune in Durance 2! Now I just need a Fal (and an Elite base....)
lvl 62
Waheed died twice, each time was to a possessed Mauler. Everything else in Durance was not so bad with Dim Vision.

The life tap and thorns plan went smoothly, although it took a while. Waheed only needed one potion. We did have to keep moving around because Waheed would not keep still. Sometimes Meph would turn around and shoot some lightning at me. Sometimes I got hit with a stray charged bolt. Once I was inside Frost Nova range. So it was good that I had resists.

Mephisto down
and
he dropped Witchwild String, wow!
-----
Witchwild String
Short Siege Bow
Two Hand Damage: 32 - 75
Durability: 38 of 40
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 65
Required Dexterity: 80
Fingerprint: 0xd57f80a4
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
2% Chance to cast level 5 Amplify Damage on striking
Fires Magic Arrows
153% Enhanced Damage
62% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
All Resistances +40
2 Sockets (0 used)
-----

Magic Arrows, do those get any % AR? Would they trigger crushing blow?

Yredelemnul and Waheed, lvl 62, NM Pandemonium Fortress
 
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@SunsetVista Ranged attacks only do 1/2 of CB damage. Not sure about the AR. Most of the Amazon bow skills don't get the listed AR boni due to a bug. Grats on the WWS!

Meanwhile, Incompetentus has reached level 45 (last WP: Halls of Pain) and is on his way to the Ancients ... Will post more later.
 
I'm pretty sure the FE bug was fixed for nightmare, but no reason to start experimenting now. The main threat was never the FE guys but the FE/LE enemies, as the FE damage is applied every time the enemy is put in hit recovery. I think the damage is based on monster life, which at P8 is rather significant.
 
As I understand it, the mechanics behind the FE bug (where monsters under certain conditions would sometimes deal their FE explosion damage before the actual death of the FE boss) were never really fixed, it is just the damage that is toned down a lot (relatively more so on Hell than on NM). BTW, the "real" FE death explosion is not part of the bug, it's intended. Simply do not stand next to high-life FE bosses when they die...



I've played Ancients' Way and Icy Cellar. I won't write a real update, but I will show the amazing boots that were dropped by Snapchip Shatter:

Plague Stalker
Heavy Boots
Defense: 8
Durability: 9 of 14
Kick Damage: 4 to 10
Required Strength: 18
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x2803f5df
+19% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +29%
Lightning Resist +39%
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
30% Faster Run/Walk
12% Chance to cast Level 4 Nova when struck


Endgame worthy, I say! They are actually better than the boots most of my finished characters have worn.
 
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Those are beautiful Jian!

It's been awhile since my last update. We took on big D at P8, which was probably a mistake. I didn't shop a life tap wand (I definitely will now), and red lightning hose was pretty much instant death for Jemali. We were successful in the end, though, and Diablo dropped Riphook. I've never used this bow, but I'm find the OW and slows enemies on hit to be extremely useful. If only barbarians didn't look ridiculous shooting bows...

Making good progress through act 5, still on P8. I have a savage partizan of the locust (thanks cube!) waiting for a couple levels for Jemali to us, which should a little less than double his damage. We're level 40 now.
 
Inspired by jiansonz's boots:

I've got the staff and am preparing to enter the palace.

An upgrade to Hazade's Savage Partizan has yet to appear . . . (the closest I've come is a white bill and an eth poleaxe :rolleyes: ). However, I did find something cool in the Ancient Tunnels:

Doom Wing
Kite Shield
Defense: 17
Chance to Block: 38%
Smite Damage: 2 to 5
Durability: 22 of 30
Required Strength: 47
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 46
Fingerprint: 0x19f84b84
+10% Increased Chance of Blocking
All Resistances +18
17% Faster Hit Recovery
15% Faster Block Rate
12% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
Socketed (2: 0 used)

Neat huh?

I also found Sigon's Gloves in the Ancient Tunnels which completes the set! (I'm not going to use the completed set, but, mid NM Act II seems pretty early for such a feat . . . at least for me :D ).

Hanshotfirst, Sorceress, Two, Level 56, Act II NM, The Palace
 
Incompetentus has reached Destroyerhood.

There wasn't much that could stand in our way in Act V after we made the "Strength" Grand Scepter with +2 Zeal and +2 Might (thanks Drognan). I don't like the mechanics of Zeal but with a short range weapon it is fairly useful, since it's easy to position the character so that all hits are focused on one monster only.

We also found a +3 conversion scepter in the Halls of Pain, so now we have a few crowd control options for nasty things like Frenzytaur boss packs, though I prefer to rely on wands with Attract or Dim Vision because they are far more reliable.

Notable finds include The Ward, Kinemil's Awl (I was quite excited about this, but without synergies Holy Fire is so weak that you can buy better weapons in Act V!), Soulflay, and this rare axe that is good for the statistics book (quadruple elemental damage).

30 FR, 25 MF gauntlets were shopped from Anya, but her quest rewards was a crappy shield without resistances.

Baal and his minions were easy to defeat (at /p3), and he dropped 6 crappy rares.

Entered NM after changing the Merc type to Blessed Aim (so Incompetentus can hit things in NM), and upgrading the Merc's weapon, a 64% ED 10% IAS pike:

Doom Bite
Lance
Two Hand Damage: 44 - 186
Durability: 21 of 25
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 110
Required Dexterity: 88
Fingerprint: 0xa6107457
Item Level: 34
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Increased Attack Speed
64% Enhanced Damage
+10 to Attack Rating
Adds 1 - 3 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Required Level +5

Greeted by a triple bosspack of Fallen and a cold enchanted Quill Rat, not good, but not too much trouble either. Corpsefire was Extra Strong and his minions were in the middle of a Fallen Shaman pack, not good either.

Incompetentus and Razan, level 47, Cold Plains (NM)
 
Adriana reached Harrogath and immediately set out of the town to smack monsters and look for items. She previously tried to cube a partizan using the flawed diamonds she saved until then, but no partizan was scored despite 6-7 attempts. If merc will reach 113 str and no partizan will make itself available, Adriana will be forced to break the piggie bank and use chipped ones in the recipe.

The fights were uneventful but not very easy as the ranged attacks did threaten merc with death. Adriana continued to run around the merc/monsters taunting attacks to dodge and that kept merc healable by way of simple potions. She managed to gather 3 wandering barbs to assault the imp pack midway Bloody Foothills and that helped a bit there. Finally, the breast plate was found in that area, thank you very much, and immediately after, also a failed unique breast plate.

The overseer guy was not frontally assaulted as that would have meant more primed minions (which don't drop and it's hard to get xp from them). Adriana attacked from the WP direction and lured the minions away from the boss. Accordingly, only about 3 of them exploded and that made us glad. The seer dropped an war axe.

Into the Frigid Highlands, Adriana found and rescued a score of barbarians and got as reward her highest rune yet: the Ort. She continued to search and have merc destroy every little imp in hope of a larger rune. Any of the Amn, Shael, Sol variety would mean big news. The Eth and 2-socketed Bone Shield are already waiting in stash for one of the lucky drops.

Abaddon was determined to be unchallenging to Adriana, but the few frenzytaurs that sparsely populated it, still wreaked havoc. Ample use of terror charges was necessary to keep merc fighting. It provided Adriana with the occasion to remember that she also has in stash a 'Steel' flail, if her doing damage would be needed.

The next WP (Arreat Plateau) was conveniently placed close to the area's entrance, but, unfortunately, 6 slayers were dispatched inside, so next session Adriana must remember to park an equal number. Retiring for the night Adriana also made another deposit to Bank of ATMA worth 500k bringing the total of saved cash to 1 million.

Level 39 now, inching away toward glory.
 
Helena is also a Destroyer. Very little trouble in the later parts of Act V. I took a fairly passive approach in the zombie garden, staying near the bottom and only activated a few of them at a time.

A very nice drop on Nihlathak's floor. A Champion Temptress gave me Stormstrike, which I promptly upgraded for the final Act V session (Ancients and onwards):
[highlight]Stormstrike
Short Siege Bow[/highlight]
Two-Hand Damage: 23 to 54
Required Dexterity: 80
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 30
Bow Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x8b4cc476
+8 to Strength
+81% Enhanced Damage
+28 to Attack Rating
Lightning Resist +25%
Adds 1-30 lightning damage
Required Level +5
Piercing Attack [25]

Major improvement for Meghan. Slightly slower than the gemmed Razor Bow and with less lightning damage, but much more physical damage and with an attack that can pierce.


Made a 'Strength' Kris for the Baal fight (never found any 2s Blade Talons, or that would have been better). One interesting drop from Baal: Arctic Mitts. That meant I could improve my MF by switching our the Arctic armor for Meghan's flawed-topazed Breast Plate and give her a new one with (as of yet) two flawed topazes.

I may need to do something about my resists in NM. With the armor switch I lose 10 resists vs. all elements and I have not found any good resist charms for fire and lightning. A great one for cold, though: a perfect (30%) Sapphire Grand Charm of Inertia. I still have hope to get a decent resist charm from the cow level - so many things drop there.


[Highlight]Destroyer Helena the Assassin and Meghan the Cold archer, level 48, Moo Moo Farm next[/Highlight]
 
jiansonz said:
That, or it tries to tell you something about your merc choice.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. That said, I have a nice hurt stick a desert merc can use here in about a level, so I'm not sure it would be worth moving a rogue. If I do, I would have the rogue use Riphook
 
Progress through Act I NM has been slow, but steady for Incompetentus and Razan. A wand with level 4 Dim Vision charges was the duo's best friend in archer-infested areas. No NDEs so far.

Razan is now also wielding a 'Strength' weapon, which was made in a 14% ED superior Partizan. Wormskull provides him with good additional leech so that he can tank most non-Skeleton monsters.

The Countess dropped an El and an Ith. Almost like the good old 1.12 days. Still no Shael rune, but a potential Spirit base (4os 10@ Rondache) dropped. Yet, no Thul rune :(

Running with The Ward since early NM, which has the nice side-effect that fire and lightning attacks are a non-issue (98 / 82 when dropping Nagelring for a rare resist ring). Only when fighting Cold-Enchanted monsters, we shop some Thawing potions before whacking away.

Oh, and these guys belong to the category "boss mod fail".

Incompetentus and Hazan, level 51, Inner Cloister (NM)
 
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