A Lack of Information (A S/U Worshipper Tournament)

[Pb_pal1]

I want to join this tourny since I read several of the previous versions and they seem a ton of fun, this one seems especially harsh with the rewards that can't be used. Was thinking to join with a Sorceress but I think the lack of reliable plus skills and fcr might completely cripple her (I don't want to use FO as backup spell since it feels kinda cheesy). Other options would be a Paladin or an Assasin which both have a more versatile skillset. By the way if Fend from Amazons still bugged or was it ever fixed? Any input on character selection will be highly appreciated!

AFAIK Fend is still bugged. I've never used it though, so I'm not the most reliable source on how crippling that may be.

Assassins can thrive in a tournament like this. They have tons of innate crowd control, and plenty of attacks that don't rely on weapon damage.

Paladins are a bit tougher here, as they lack crowd control and weapon damage has a much higher impact on most of their skills. That said, the only living character in Hell right now is kestegs' charger, so Paladins are definitely viable. You could always do a Tesladin, or HF-centric build to completely get away from dependance on your weapon.

 

[jiansonz]

Paladins are a bit tougher here, as they lack crowd control

One word:
Conversion

 

[Old_Frog]

One word:
Conversion

From my experience thus far with Isen is that Conversion is a lot like herding cats. Especially in Hell.

 

[jiansonz]

Moving on a bit with my new Assassin. Once I had enough topazes to start putting them in my merc's helm, I mostly hung back and let her do the killing. Level 18 (thus, Shadow Warrior) was reached in Outer Cloister, making life easier.

Two unique weapons dropped in Catacombs 1. Darn, that's way too early...
Stoutnail and Leadcrow - not the best of the early possible weapons, that's for sure.

Arrived at Lut Gholein and switched to a Prayer dude that I gave a 3s Spetum with a chipped sapphire and an Ith rune (gift from Countess). He pretty much mopped up the first half of the act. I had planned to add a second Ith rune (one usually drops or can be cubed around the AS) into the last socket but a little ways into the Claw Viper Temple, the cozy days were over, because Isenhart's Lightbrand dropped.

So the merc is now weaponless. He and the Shadow can only nibble at most enemies. That certainly puts a dent in my MF number. But I still had a pretty good time against the rest of the snake temple because of the power of my prereq MA skills and my sturdy boots that Fara sold me earlier:

That's the damage a fully charged DTail delivers - as AoE damage. Sweet! I usually go 3x Tiger, deliver DTail at the thickest patch of monsters, 3x Tiger, 3x Cobra, deliver DTail at the thickest patch of monsters. If things to well, I've now fully refilled both mana and life. Rinse and repeat.

The worst thing that can happen now is if some stupid lightweight S/U boots would drop.

As you can see, I've scored Civerb's Ward. Not a bad piece, it's good for blocking. Isenhart's Lightbrand is not a bad weapon for Martial Artistry either. It's pretty fast. Should work nicely for Phoenix Striking, too.


[Highlight]Tinúviel the Martial Artist, level 25, Palace next.[/Highlight]

 

[littlesamurai]

Arya didn't care about reading, she just wanted to learn how to fight and kill stuff (reference to GoT anyone?). She wanted to be an Assassin.

Had to start her twice, first time I bought a magic Katar and after killing a couple of minions remember only whites and socketables until S/U are found. Luckily she was only level 4 so she just died and was reborn as was the will of the many faced god.

This reborn Arya disliked reading as her former self but was smart enough to stay away from blues, only white, grey, green and gold were to be her colours. She killed a couple of things and soon thought why would she need a shield, sold it and bouth a second Katar. I have been spending every point as soon as I leveled, Claw Mastery + Tiger Strike and everything went smoothly.

@jiansonz how do I get a different font color? Tried quoting but it didn't show. Also any Assasin tips you want to share?

Arya, the Assassin, lvl 6 - Cold Plains next.

 

[jiansonz]

@jiansonz how do I get a different font color? Tried quoting but it didn't show.

Two ways:
- Text Color: the 4th button from the left in the editor.
- (Highlight) with square brackets instead of normal ones around the text you want to make golden and bold, like I did in last post. Strange that you did not see it when you quoted my post, because it shows when I quote it.

 

[littlesamurai]

I ruined Arya again, tried to hotmule stuff off because I was full of magic items for Cain to identify and did something wrong, ended up getting a save where Arya lost all the items I hadn't muled yet... Will have to restart her since it was way too much stuff to lose...

Finally Arya's third incarnation completed Act I, despite massive topaz luck, I have them in excess,, I found a single S/U, must say I'm pleased with the one I found at least (wouldn't be too bad with an upgrade):

Blood Crescent
Scimitar
One-Hand Damage: 3 to 10
+15 to Life
+75% Enhanced Damage
All Resistances +15
15% Life stolen per hit
+4 to Light Radius
15% Increased Attack Speed
33% Chance of Open Wounds

One thing I noticed from playing Tournaments with restrictions is how strong every aspect is, free skill point allocation, unlimited equipment choice, mercenaries. Just a thought I wanted to share, it really makes you appreciate each one of them and overall a better player.

 

[jiansonz]

Tinúviel continued to deliver her Dragon Tails in Palace, AS, Canyon and the false Tombs. AS was a bit of a drag, since two of the monster types have substantial physical resist, making the Dragon Tails less powerful.

Ancient Kaa was quite scary. I am not sure about the range of a Broad Sword, but it can't be good. Tinúviel couldn't find a position where she could hit Kaa and he couldn't hit her. She could easily get him to attack the Shadow instead of her, but but it was hard to do the same for the merc. Between the need for recasting Shadow and refilling mana for the kicks (Mana Burn can be so annoying), she needed a lot of extra mana. The sparks and hits called for healing as well:

Ended up using all big purples but one. Geez...

My struggling came to an abrubt end in the last false tomb, where a great gift waited: Bloodthief. Woohoo!
Back to super lazy and safe play. I don't see any trouble making progress for quite a while longer now. At least to a point where Phoenix Strike will be powerful.

MF is now down to 29% (from a helm) after finding Isenhart's helm and armor. Also found Berserker's Hauberk and Cathan's Mesh (the Mesh from Duriel). So now I have three Isenhart's pieces. I'm still only using the sword, but if another S/U helm drops, I'll probably equip the Horns for more resists.


[Highlight]Tinúviel the Martial Artist and Waheed the Prayer Guard, level 31, Kurast Bazaar next[/Highlight]

 

[JudgeHolden]

I really like this tournament, because I like S/Us.

Also, I've never played a barbarian before.

Also, I want to enter as a character who uses weapon damage, which makes the S/U restriction more interesting, but of course I might end up petering out with a weak weapon.

So, I'm entering with a barbarian, Jackson the frenzy barb. I wanted to utilize two weapons because that makes for more fun with the S/U restriction, hence frenzy.

I actually started this character a couple days ago, this is just my first chance to get online to update it. We've completed act 1, currently level 20. No big issues so far.

Drops? A stoutnail early... maybe cold plains or thereabouts? Then, from a random chest in the black marsh, a gull! This is great for MF, obviously. I will be wielding it until the pitiful damage becomes too big of an issue. No other S/Us yet, but I'm quite optimistic given my high MF.

Hoping I can get decent enough AR to use a might merc and not a blessed aim merc in hell. Blessed aim for normal, though.

Any tips on skill point allocation besides 20 in frenzy, 20 in battle orders, and 1 each in battle command and berserk?

 

[Pb_pal1]

@littlesamurai - Glad to see Arya is up and running, third time's the charm, as they say.

@jiansonz - Yikes! Kaa can sure be nasty, great job taking him out. That's nasty.

@JudgeHolden - Welcome back. As for skill points, you'll want a couple extra points into War Cry as well for the stun duration later on I'm sure. You probably won't want to be investing too heavily in weapons masteries, as you don't know what you'll find, but do make sure you put 1 into Natural Resist and the other relevant passive skills. Synergies for frenzy should take care of the rest (Double Swing to lvl 6 gets you to 0 mana cost, so can be used against nasty mana burners, then the rest into Taunt).

--

Lots of new entrants, so a new table is in order.

The Proven (Guardians):
Forum Name      Class        Char Name        LVL    ACT      Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azimuthus       Amazon       Furiosa          83     --       Game Complete

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Heroes:
Forum Name      Class        Char Name        LVL    ACT      Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kestegs         Paladin      Dauntless_Train  81     A3(H)    Kurast Docks
jiansonz        Paladin      Beren            61     A3(NM)   Lower Kurast
EasyG           Barbarian    Ignorant         ??     A3(NM)   Kurast Docks
Naturallog      Sorceress    Permafrost       53     A2(NM)   Lut Gholein
jiansonz        Assassin     Tinúviel         31     A3       Kurast Bazaar
Dazliare        Necromancer  Covenant         28     A2       False Tombs
Virtue          Assassin     ThisWontEndWell  26     A3       Kurast Docks
srrw            Sorceress    Zoey             25     A2       Palace
SunsetVista     Assassin     Kalandra         23     A2       Far Oasis
littlesamurai   Assassin     Arya             20     A2       Lut Gholein
JudgeHolden     Barbarian    Jackson          20     A2       Lut Gholein
U.i.n.i.u       Necromancer  SetUnique        ??     A2       Lut Gholein
Lord Molybdenum Paladin      Zarquich         17     A1       Outer Cloister
skoolbus        Druid        Clyde_Frog       16     A1       Black Marsh
Bry             Necromancer  BoneCut          15     A1       Black Marsh
Jocular         Paladin      Grok             12     A1       Stony Field
Sid             Druid        Berta Reed       1      A1       Rogue Encampment


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fallen (RIP):
Forum Name      Class        Char Name        LVL    ACT       Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Southpaw8668    Necromancer  Mithik           80     A3(H)     Spider Forest
JudgeHolden     Assassin     snoop_ii         77     A2(H)     Claw Viper Temple 2
Pb_pal          Necromancer  Miasma           75     A1(H)     Cold Plains
Southpaw8668    Amazon       Witchie          69     A5(NM)    Glacial Trail
Pb_pal          Assassin     Karna            67     A5(NM)    Abaddon
Azimuthus       Necromancer  BoneVoyage       62     A3(NM)    Upper Kurast
Southpaw8668    Paladin      Wolfswift        51     A1(NM)    Cathedral
JudgeHolden     Druid        The_Kid          38     A5        Pit of Acheron
JudgeHolden     Assassin     snoop            30     A3        Flayer Jungle
ranagrande      Druid        Orbin            34     A4        Diablo
Jcakes          Paladin      Ares             ??     A4        Diablo
Bry             Sorceress    ScruffMcBuff     31     A4        Plains of Despair
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Brak]

if you found a gull dagger that early, make sure you are horking everything (Find Item). That's an end game weapon switch item right there

 

[jiansonz]

Well, we've made it this far:

Diablo fight was exciting and more than a little dangerous. Resists around 20, blocking at 40%, about 380 life. I could have used Fade, but that would only have taken fire resist to 40 and it would have made me much easier for Diablo to hit. I badly needed the mobility of extra foot- and attack speed. There was one nasty NDE in the fight (like, "OMFG, no visible red in life bulb!!" kind of NDE), when he had softened me up a bit with some flame novas (just little enough that I did not drink a big red) and then quickly killed both merc and shadow and aimed "residual" Lightning Inferno at me when I wasn't ready for it. Yikes. Waheed had a rough time - at least a dozen resurrections in the fight...

Now I feel good about getting much further. Since I currently aim at 40% blocking with my new shiny 55%-blocking shield and I do not plan to invest more than the 69 hard points in STR I already have, I will gain a buttload of life in Act V. And the damage output will improve by a huge factor.

Time for a gear update:
* Superior 2s Full Helm with regular and flawed topaz
* (empty amulet slot)
* Stormeye (1 frame slower than Isenhart's sword but with better range, so it's easier to avoid getting hit)
* Arctic Furs socketed with a perfect topaz
* Swordback Hold
* ethereal Light Gauntlets (15 Defense, 4 durablity left)
* Cathan's Seal
* Superior Plated Belt (12 Defense)
* (empty ring slot)
* Sigon's Sabot (good MF potiential - other pieces are among the easier ones to find)

I have Leadcrow on the weapon switch. Pretty useless now that I can use Blade Fury.
Stuff in her stash includes Stoutnail, Civerb's Ward, Isenhart's Lightbrand, Cathan's Mesh, 2x Isenhart's Case and Berserker's Hauberk.

Waheed the Prayer Guard
* Isenhart's Horns
* Bloodthief
* Venom Ward (probably worth upgrading when a Shael drops. Will get some credible Defense as a Cuirass, and what else is there to do with these runes?...)


[Highlight]Tinúviel the Phoenix Striker and Waheed the Prayer Guard, level 37, Frigid Highlands next[/Highlight]

 

[jiansonz]

My duo (no Shadow needed, she just made things complicated...) bowled over the rest of Normal with extreme ease. Phoenix Strike's power increasing exponentially with levels, because of the longer burning time of the Meteors. And then when Waheed was dextrous enough for a War Fork (happened two levels after I found my first Sol rune), I upgraded Bloodthief and it was just ridiculous. Isenhart's Horns actually helped here. The +6 DEX made the switch possible a couple of levels earlier than would have been the case without it.

S/U finds in the act:
* Tancred's Crowbill (keeping this on switch so I have it ready if the amulet drops)
* Infernal Sign (my first S/U belt)
* Sander's Riprap (but I prefer Sigon's for now)
* Sparking Mail (Waheed's new armor. Upgraded to Mesh Armor with 372 Defense)
* The Diggler (my new main weapon. The resists, the speed and especially the ITD outweigh the drawback of the lousy range. When I fight regular monsters that can't block, I almost auto-hit, so I can quickly bounce in and out at a mob edge of monsters to drop my Meteors. The DEX bonus has made me spend a little more DEX than I had planned, because I now aim at 50% blocking)
* Vidala's Barb
* Wall of the Eyeless (ethereal, from Baal. Keeping this on the switch for the mana steal with Blade Fury with Tancred's. Haven't tried it yet, but after I've dropped a Meteor with my regular setup, if I happen to be low on mana, I think it's feasible to switch to WoE and reap the benefit of the mana per kill when monsters start to drop. I think it's also the best normal base item shield in the game for an Iron Wolf).
* Cleglaw's Claw (from Cow King)

Other finds:
* Two 5% fire resist small charms
* a +10 life small charm
* Ethereal (48 Def.) Demonhide Gloves (6 durability left)
* Great Helm dropped by one of those boars in WSK 2. Since they are level 41, max number of sockets for the helm is 3. I usually never save after this floor, but I did so now so I could use the recipe on the helm. 3 sockets (yay!) - two of them now have perfect topazes, and I am only two flawless or a gem shrine away from the third.

Even though I killed Baal at players 8, I ended up completing Normal at the lowest level ever, I think. Didn't even reach level 48.7

Feeling pretty good about early NM. My only concern is my bad lightning resist (which of course isn't helped by the lack of the usual resist scroll). I've brought in two mediocre large charms that together give me 13% more. Feels like I need them.


[Highlight]Tinúviel the Phoenix Striker and Waheed the Prayer Guard, level 48, Nightmare next[/Highlight]

 

[jiansonz]

Another act completed. No major problems, but I had to be careful now and then. Powerful archers, Extra Strong zombies, anything lightning based (-11% resist!). Worst situation in the act was when I was sloppy and got hit by three spitter balls at once. Not quite an NDE, but scary.

Brutal but short Andariel fight. Merc bit it after my third Meteor was released. It was a waste of time to recast Shadow Warrior as she usually died within a second (still only spell level 1). It was better to grind it out, drink a bunch of potions and rain down half a dozen more Meteors.

Finds in the act, roughly in the order I found them:
* Venom Grip (my first S/U gloves)
* Hwanin's Justice (Waheed uses this now. He has no life steal atm but this weapon dishes out a ton more damage than even an upgraded Bloodthief)
* Nagelring (22%, found in Tristram)
* Spectral Shard
* Razorswitch (I stashed my Tancred's + Wall of the Eyeless combo and have this on the switch, see below)
* Spire of Lazarus
* Soul Harvest
* Hellplague
* Goreshovel (I usually keep every green and gold, but I sold this one. Can't ever see it in use. If I need OW, I have my awesome shield)
* Death's Touch
* Bloodrise (Andariel)
* The Mahim-Oak Curio (Andariel) First S/U amulet. This is a NICE one!

After I completed my topazed Great Helm and found the Nagelring, MF is now up to +118%. With that number, another headgear is destined to drop, so am enjoying it while it lasts.

For situations where elemental damage is more dangerous than physical, I have the option to switch to my unique staff and cast level 1+1 Fade. It's already hotkeyed on that switch. I just have to remember to use it. Compare these numbers with the resists 16/48/-11 and 75 less life I had at that time on the other switch:

Semi-useless note: Hellplague boosts Fire Blast and WoF (obviously) but also Dragon Tail and Fists of Fire. The latter can't be used actively, but could be used if I had a stronger Shadow to learn her a higher level FoF synergy to Phoenix Strike. Too bad PS itself does not count as a fire skill...

I have upgraded Swordback Hold to Barbed Shield. I was pleasantly suprised by the very reasonable STR requirement (65) and that the shield blocking increased 7 units. I had no idea. The printed-out info I've used for many years was wrong for all the exceptional shields except the three with the highest blocking!
With that boost and the extra DEX from my amulet, blocking is now 61%. I can go all-Vita for many level-ups before it drops below my goal of 50%.


[Highlight]Tinúviel the Phoenix Striker and Waheed the Prayer Guard, level 53, NM Lut Gholein[/Highlight]

 

[Pb_pal1]

@jiansonz - Awesome progress! Some pretty sweet finds piling up for you, which is always nice to see in these tournaments. Cool note on Swordback Hold, I've never bothered upgrading shields before, but maybe I should look into it more for future use. Congrats on the Destroyer.

 

[Brak]

I couldn't stave off the tournament itch any longer. I've got two other projects running, but they're both rather passive characters at the moment, so I will be running with a Barb named Snowflake.

He's cleared through the Black Marsh and its side areas. Currently has all of his and Merc's chipped topazes filled save one.

Only S/U thus far is a gambled Death's Hand. Running with a shopped sword containing chipped emerald and sapphire, and Fire Rogue. Put his Countess Tir into a Large Shield to ease the blue potion addiction post horking, but then realized that +mana per kill doesn't work with the Merc, so that will be a waste until merc loses her MF from S/U items.

Plan is to go WW if I get a viable weapon as I've somehow neglected to ever play a WW barb. Otherwise mayhaps a Flying Booyaka

 

[Pb_pal1]

@Brak - Welcome! Pretty cool getting a gambled S/U so early on, congrats. WW should be interesting, it has potential to be very strong if you find the right weapon, although I wouldn't mind seeing a Flying Booyaka give it a try, it's been too long since I've read about one (or even heard that name!).

Good luck!

 

[Brak]

The plan was to spend most all of my monies gambling for mauls in the hope of either a Bonesnap or Bloodtree Stump. In the meantime, Barbs can keep their build pretty open until later game by just maxing BO before getting into any build specifics. Hopefully a gold hurty stick makes its way to my possession by early-mid nightmare (and I make it that far).

For the gloves, I really wanted the Hand of Broc for mana leech, but if I happen to get Death's Guard, I'll have a pretty awesome pairing in the partial set.

 

[Brak]

Of course Arctic Furs drops once I decide to fill in the Merc's armor before helm
*shakes fist at Diablo gods*

creeped my way down to the Jail last night
Horking addiction at 100%

 

[littlesamurai]

Nvm, found the answer in page 1... My third shield dropped and I wanted to check if I had to go weaponless. Good I don't so I can use the extra mf his kills provide for a little longer.