The Committed Tournament

@OldSoldier: a regular skeleton archer with those mods is way more dangerous. The Burners do a fairly small amount of physical damage, so the Cursed + ES part did not boost the damage output much. Once the (FI) golem got close enough to absorb all three shots, the danger was over.
 
Wow, great progress!

Both of you had some really tough bosses in your updates. Looking forward to reading more updates!
 
Whitefang picked up some serious speed these last couple of sessions, obliterating act IV with abandon. As you may recall, I socketed a ruby in his coronet and a fervor jewel in his weapon to optimize his gear a bit more. As we headed out from the Pandemonium Fortress toward Diablo, those items shined (well, the axe did anyway, the coronet has mana leech and resists and now life, nothing really special). The axe, with it's Fool's mod, kept our chance to hit well above 80%, usually about 85%, depending on the enemy.

Flesh spawners were about our only slow-down in the act. They spawned pretty fast and Whitefang was careful to fury most of the time, step back if he was about to get surrounded, sprinkle in some Feral Rage to keep leech high, and once amp triggered, Rage away at the nearest amped Spawner. That tactic worked every time, it was just tedious. Like maybe a minute per spawner tedious, so not too bad.
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This spawner chilled me too, so I put on the Spirit Shroud for this fight.
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Izual took about 10 seconds (after clearing out those spawners). I was able to amp him right away and it never came back off. Too bad I don't need the skill points anymore.
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Several bosses in the act spawned as Stone Skin and were thus PI. Amp broke them all, except maybe Gloom Bite, looks like Decrepify broke his PI status.
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Hephasto put a hitch in my giddyup, he was PI, and hit really hard, hard enough to make me use all but two of my rejuvenation potions. I dropped him but no rejuvs had dropped and I hadn't brought in spares, so I S&E at the way point. The problem that posed is the RoF had been all non-CI, so it was a cakewalk. When I came back to do the last half enroute to the Chaos Sanctuary, Spawners showed up. But we prevailed.
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Grand Vizier shot. He died in about two fury cycles.
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Lord De Seis made me come back from the WP. I do that pretty much as a standard practice anymore. Ajheed froze his minions and I barely got scratched.
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For some reason I had my inventory up when I took this one versus Infector of Souls. Sorry about that. I did the waypoint trick with his crew too. Extra fast boss packs are scary. I've been run down from behind in tournaments more than once.
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Diablo was not difficult at all. I put on the Cleglaw's gloves, got a good Decrepify going pretty fast, and switched to the amp axe and whaled away at him. In this shot, amp triggered almost as soon as I switched to the axe. He was decrepified just before I snapped this one. I preferred Decrepify on Diablo, since it nerfs his abilities so much. He spent most of his last remaining moments taking swings at Whitefang rather than spells. He cast one fire nova, two lightning hoses (which went past me and caused no damage) and raised his hands once like to do the firestorm but nothing happened so maybe he prisoned my escape portal, which was off screen, I don't know. I kept the Smoke on due to fear of facing him with a fire resist of 7% so I dealt with being chilled a lot, but the outcome was not really in question. Ajheed survived again, untouched by two prime evils.
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Our drops this act. I was crossing my fingers for an Um rune but got a Ko. I did get another Lum during the act so once I save Anya I may switch my smoke for a Lionheart and get a lot more life out of the deal. I am undecided at this point since the smoke works so well and I haven't gone below about 400 HP during a battle in a long time. The ring was gambled and is basically a Manald Heal with AR and cold resist. Sweet! The glorious axe got socketed, and received 5 sockets (4 would have been great for Passion, which I have the runes for). I also socketed a decapitator which dropped. It got two sockets so I made a Steel out of it because I have spare low runes and wanted to see the damage. I'll probably never use it.
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Conqueror Whitefang, level 83 Titan Wolf, Harrogath
 
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Nice progress, and good luck on the final act! Looks like you've got a good chance at finishing!
 
Thanks Kestegs. About my biggest fear now is a monster roll similar to the Frozen River in NM (which was witches and snakes), with unfreezable frenzytaurs not far behind. I have a 4 socket Feral Axe that would make a great Passion. The blind and 25% run may help if I get areas of frenzytaurs that are otherwise too hard to handle (I envision these areas being where decrepify from the Lawbringer would proc too slowly and I'd be in deep poo before getting my steam). A 25% IAS elite axe that shuts down special attacks on all adjacent enemies might be pretty nice. I haven't made the weapon yet so I haven't tested function over theory. At this point it would almost feel like I was "cheating" on Shadow Rend, that weapon has been awesome!
 
Final equipment piece:
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...and my LCS. Not great damage but it occurs very quickly and amp damage happens on most enemies since they take a lot of hits to bring down now. When it goes off, they snuff out with a quickness.
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Here were two collocated bosses that were difficult nuts to crack. I bypassed them and circled back around when the rest of the area was cleared.
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Sin Killer was harder but with maneuver room, not impossible.
View attachment 2419Shenk was no problem, I just ran up to him and his pack and they were no match for Whitefang.
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These two must be fraternal twins? The archer Black Hawk and crew was not an easy monster pack, but eventually they all died.
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In Abaddon there were lots of skeletons. Also two combat shrines. Love those things! I looked at the LCS once when I had the lawbringer up, the AR is the same as with the fools weapon. Odd bug.
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More skellies. This one was surrounded by a few normal packs so there were about 15 of them total. I was able to get one or two to come out each time I approached, killed them, and then beat a hasty poison induced retreat to Mala to get healed. I used about 25 TP scrolls in Abaddon.
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Final skeleton archer shot. More of the same as before. Shadow Rend worked better than Lawbringer, but the runeword was able to get me an initial foothold and helped with the bosses.
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Drops this act. The Crushflange is interesting, but I probably won't use it because it isn't any faster than the Black, which I have only used once anyway. The amulet is interesting - I cubed it with P skulls but it can't replace the lifer I use now.
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Conqueror Whitefang, level 83 Titan Wolf, Arreat Plateau
 
@OldSoldier - You have an amazing amount of health when shape shifted. That's the most health I've seen on an amulet. Very nice CB roll on those gloves. If you run at those archers bunched up like that do they stop shooting as they get knocked back repeatedly from Lawbringer?
 
Yes but some are able to still get a shot off between pulses so it isn't always as simple as equipping the Lawbringer on approach. About the life, I am trying to get some +life on every piece I can. Right now the boots are just too nice as is, and I need the resists from the Smoke, otherwise I'd go for more. I think I may try to make a Lionheart for quite a bit more once I save Anya, but I haven't decided. I'd still be at -10 res all net. I have a ring that gives +10 res and +10 dex, but then I'd lose my +36 life on the ring I use now, which negates that big Lionheart bonus somewhat. I am able to multiply all that life by 2.85 when transforming because of the level 29 Lycanthropy. I still don't have a spirit shield or a +3 SS amulet and I haven't found a Mal to give me +1 more on the armor (via Rain) and my weapon is only a +2 when +3 magic versions are easily gambled. Suffice it to say that I am not really all that optimized either to get to 29. I think 2000 is doable, though I am not sure I will make it.
 
Mago has had a less tedious and an easier time over the last areas than what I showed the last update. Still tricky at times, though. Crystalline Passage featured PI Frenzytaurs, so no place for Thorns against them.
MagoH38%20PI_zpsoxzff37m.jpg

They make excellent Revives, of course.

At least they are vulnerable to fire. OK, most of them are:
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Dangerous situation with the Halls of Pain urn, where I maybe should have preboosted with thawing potions and (more importantly) put on my teleporting circlet. Got nearly surrounded by CE zealots. Quaffed a column of purples and managed to slip out:

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HoV urn spawned a Tomb Viper boss pack, but thankfully they appeared far across the room and they had no nasty boss abilities.

It was pure ownage in this fight (one of my easiest ever):
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Imp towers take a long time to kill, even more so when only parts of the army can attack them. But in this situation, I did not try to drag more of them into the action, as I had a very good reason not to:
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(BTW, to speed things up against the towers, I made in IG out of an ethereal Ferocious War Club that I found.)


Recent finds:
* Golemlord's Amulet of Guarding (3) (gambled)
* 28/95 Coral Mesh Belt of the Whale (found)
* Fal rune
* The Anya reward:
Cruel Emblem
Minion Skull

Defense: 268
Chance to Block: 23%
Durability: 20 of 20
(Necromancer Only)
Required Strength: 77
Required Level: 44
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0xb5e3e840
+5 to Life
+92% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
All Resistances +12
Adds 12-28 poison damage over 4 seconds
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels

Better than the +1 head I currently had. Fire resist is now up to 52% and cold is in the positives. I really want to reroll a magical head with perfect gems now, hoping for +2/3 skills, then socket it so I can put more resist stuff there (thinking PSapphire), or maybe that Jah rune. Problem is, I can't mule in anything if I do not save and exit and I want to keep going as long as I have an army...


[Highlight]Conqueror Mago the Golemancing Lord of Mages and Ajheed the Fire Mage, level 84, Hell Ancients' Way next[/Highlight]
 
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Okay, I was committed to the first Ancients roll. There was quite a bit left of Ancients' Way (plus Icy Cellar) but I had several newly Revived teddybears, so it was time.

Uhh, I hear Amp and I see Conviction. Scary!
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Ah, there is the source of both of those things, and OMG, HE'S HALF DEAD ALREADY!!

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Double elemental-enchanted Madawc had a field day vs. all the mages suffering Conviction, and shorly after Talic was dead, the Revives had timed out (or some had actually gotten killed, I don't know) and it was down to just the three of us. Korlic took quite a while to bring down:
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Madawc was not nice to my golems. I went with Clay Golem for a while, to save mana. Bad idea, as that made Madawc attack Mago instead of the golem! Back to Fire Golems, and drinking potions as needed:

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I made sure to stay well away from the death nova (you automatically move towards the last one that dies).
Victory!

Big boss fight in Icy Cellar:
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Not sure where the Amp comes from here, probably a gloam boss pack.

I had to be on my toes on two of the WSK levels, especially on one with Oblivion Knights. Huge brawl ensued here:
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The front is frail at the moment, but more Doom Knights soon fell and joined. They are excellent Revives, with their good damage output (including a strong poison on some hits).

The boss had me retreat several times. HF Multishot is a tough combo on an OB Knight boss, plus there was a ton of flayer blowdarters distracting my army many times. At last, he was caught:
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Throne level was also interesting, with vampires, Hell Witches and Death Lords. Another boss fight where I was glad I am not a melee character:
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Note that the boss is Amped (not that it mattered against him...). That's thanks to a Hell Witch Revive. They were great here.

I had to split up Ventar's pack. They are fast and bulky, and spilled around the golem and hurt my mages. Only one Revived minion could be brought to the Lister fight, but he did a fantastic job there:

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Minions of Destruction can not be revived, so I summoned mages from their corpses. They did not last long against Baal, however.

Clay Golem's level 11 meant enough slowing to shut down most of Baal's spells. But that also meant Baal could not do his hard-hitting melee attack (the Eye Poke) either. So basically it was just Ajheed damaging him, which barely moved his life bar over several minutes. Back to Fire Golems and more lively fighting!

He's almost done for at this stage:
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So there you have it. All of Act V Hell completed over the course of one game. I had no reason to regret that I had not also muled in Wirt's Leg, because the whole army got killed by Baal.


It was a bit of a bummer I had not saved any magical head to reroll. As for the last socket reward, I decided to put a perfect ruby in Ajheed's circlet. Maybe he needs to make a stand against the cows?

I put on my teleporting circlet, and decided to not summon any golem before meeting the first cows. That way, I hoped to not wake up a huge pack the first thing I did. I used movement and a few TP charges to keep Ajheed's wanderings in check as well.

Alright, give me a corpse to revive!
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They are not that many, but it was scary to see how fast the golem's many thousands of life was going down. But I can summon almost an endless supply of gumbys, I just need to make sure to recast before it dies so the cows don't get any ideas...

One cow did get an idea, but since I had two revives up now, a golem recast solved this:
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Just like in Nightmare, I refrained from making loot selling trips so I could keep a steady supply of Revives going.
Golem, 11 Revives and 12 mages were around for most of the place.
Ajheed died in the fight against the King's pack (Extra Strong, Extra Fast), but it never got scary.

Yay!


[Highlight]Guardian Mago the Golemancing Lord of Mages and Ajheed the Fire Mage, level 85, Complete Game Clear[/Highlight]
 
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Awesome job @jiansonz! Congrats on the very cool Guardian. I really enjoyed following his journey, and have now officially added Lord of Mages to the To-Do list for a future tournament.

Also if I'm not mistaken, Ahjeed just became your second-to-last mercenary variant on the list to complete, correct? Send him an extra congratulations for me!

Great job. :)
 
Also if I'm not mistaken, Ahjeed just became your second-to-last mercenary variant on the list to complete, correct?

Indeed. Only Prayer guard left for the dodecavirate.


Some thoughts about Mago's journey

Merc: Fire Mage was not an optimal choice, but it worked this time. Main problem for this guy is that he keeps using the puny Inferno way more than the reasonably effective Fireball. He's at his best when he sees monsters at or near his maximum range, which is further away than Inferno's range, so he'll spam only Fireball in that case. When he does that, he will at least outdo the Fire Golem's punches (plus it's AoE damage, over a small area).

Revive: Awesome skill, with some peculiar drawbacks. I've used Revive with other characters (including one who had all skill points randomized), but none where it was as important as for Mago. Some monster types are absolutely hopeless to drag with you any longer distance, so the'll be eaten by the game often. Others, like flesh beasts, melee rogues and Frenzytaurs are better at following.

Edge: Game-changing runeword for a summon build like this! It made all those important stands early in areas MUCH easier to handle, and act bosses almost a joke. Regular necros can use Iron Maiden, but that's a lot more work and the effect is weaker. The Prevent Monster Heal was important several times, mostly when I did not yet have any poison mages, or the monsters were poison immune. Even with Mago's lousy chance to hit (he often needed something like 10 shots to score a hit), it made a difference. The poison damage helps a little, but it's mostly useful to see if I had hit with the PMH.
The reduced vendor prices is perhaps the main selling point overall but that effect played only third fiddle for this character. Still nice, of course.
 
Awesome!!! I'm very impressed that you were able to guardian this character. The power of thorns is truly amazing, I will no longer dismiss it as a novelty. I have always been a huge fan of revives, I love having all those odd monster abilities in my side.

It's also impressive to take an entire act in one session. I'm pretty sure I've never done that in a tournament before.
 
It's also impressive to take an entire act in one session. I'm pretty sure I've never done that in a tournament before.

It wasn't actually one playing session. The sessions were no longer than usual but instead of shutting the computer down overnight, I put it in 'hibernate' mode.
 
It wasn't actually one playing session. The sessions were no longer than usual but instead of shutting the computer down overnight, I put it in 'hibernate' mode.
Right, that's what I meant! I do that all the time, as I don't usually have time to play more than an hour at a time.

Playing in one marathon session would be nuts. I think the average act takes my tournament characters around 10 hours, but I'm guessing this character was much more than that. Play time is one stat that I always wish the game kept, it would be fun(or depressing) to know how long each guardian took.
 
Awesome work! I think a prayer merc for your last mercenary guardian will be fairly easy to pull off, since act 2 mercs can use really nice weapons. Do you have any potential builds in mind for a future tournament that will actually put the aura to work?
 
Do you have any potential builds in mind for a future tournament that will actually put the aura to work?

It's somewhat of a novelty skill, but I really like the Amazon skill Lightning Bolt, and the fact that its damage is both skill-based and weapon-based. But I always run out of mana too fast when I use it. A merc with Insight would help a lot, and if I pick Prayer I can get one that provides fast healing as well. Then I could also be a very tough-to-kill Tankazon when needed.
 
Whitefang, after tipping his cap to Mago and his excellent adventure, continued onward himself toward the ultimate goal. Well, the ultimate goal which will enable to real ultimate goal and the purpose of this tournament, anyway.

On the Arreat Plateau he stumbled upon 8 Carver Shamen. Just imagine how many carvers died in the making of this screenshot, and they don't freeze for long, so we got to play for a while here.
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This screenshot was my fourth or fifth of this unkillable boss monster. We found him in the Pit of Acheron toward the end and he killed Ajheed 8 times, and I ran out of TP scrolls and had to run away, not Raged up (he hammered me too fast to get in any Feral Rage unless I could get an early proc of Decrepify during a Fury cycle). I tried my hide-behind-Ajheed tricks and my Lawbringer, but I wasn't able to overcome his regen. So I left him and whatever was behind him in the level to live again. See my drops in this post, the one that could have helped hadn't fallen yet.
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The game rewarded my patience with Doom Maul and his PI-goodness by giving me PI frenzytaurs in the Crystalline Passage. Here they are below. Puke Shank was pretty tough. He killed Ajheed several times too. Once in a single frenzy double swing. I used the Lawbringer on all these guys until I felt comfortable and they were decrepified, then sometimes I switched and hammered away with the axe. Pulse Tongue was a nice easy change of pace here!
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The frozen river gave me many undead bosses, which were not too difficult.
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Frozenstein, with the help of the Spirit Shroud, was not difficult at all.
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This guy had me keep the Spirit Shroud on as well.
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The Drifter Cavern was very easy with the Spirit Shroud. All of the special enemies were champions, which are not difficult unless they are fenzytaurs.
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My drops this session. The Hwanin's belt was kept in the game stash for the PMH, which I think will come in handy in some spots. Notice the sockets on the damaged aegis. Larzuk hooked me up, as I knew he would, and I got my spirit shield. About 50+ more life and 40 more seconds transformed, with some AR thrown in for good measure.
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Conqueror Whitefang, level 83 Titan Wolf, Hell Frozen Tundra
 
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