[2004] Unique & Set Worship Tournament [by jiansonz]

Jan 3, 2007
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This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by jiansonz in Jan 2004. The last post was made Aug 28, 2005. The original thread is lost, the rules below are from jiansonz's post in the repost thread
(link to original thread on diabloii.net).

Set & Unique Worshipper Tourney Rules:

1. Characters are Hardcore.

2. You may not mule anything on to the character.

3. You may not use Save & Exit to escape death, unless it happens during a move to a "new" area (see 5).

4. You may distribute stat points (or save them for later) as you see fit. Exception: if you find a set/unique item (see 10) that you don't meet the STR/DEX requirements for and you have no other S/U such item (boots, for example), you will have to add all points to the lacking stat until you can equip that item (unless you find another S/U such item with less requirements before that has happened).

5. There will be NO repeating/farming/running of areas/bosses/chests etc. Recommended methods are to either 1.) Clear an area, get the waypoint and the next time run from the waypoint to the next area without killing anything, or 2.) Run to the waypoint without killing anything and next session start from waypoint and clear that area (only recommended for small areas and those with a known waypoint location (Travincal, Cold Plains, the Cloisters)). However, you may use method 1.) and clear a path from waypoint to exit if you must do so to stay safe, but don't pick up any items that drop during this "transport". You may also kill off monsters that happen to follow you into the "new" territory, but don't lure them out there on purpose.

6. You may skip areas and return later to clear them. You can even go back to an earlier difficulty to clear areas you have skipped earlier. If you fiddle a lot with skipping areas, keep notes about where you have not been.

7. Any /players setting is allowed, and you may change it any time you wish.

8. You may not choose which character class you play. That will be chosen at random. If you roll a "Crap, I don't want to play a ..."-character, you get one reroll, but then you have to take what that roll gives you. This is called a minor mulligan.

9. If your character dies in Act 1 or Act 2 Normal, you get one more chance. This is the major mulligan. When/if you start a second character, you can also take a minor mulligan if you like.

10. (This is the real kicker in the tourney). Whenever you find a set/unique item for a certain item slot (that doesn't have one already), you HAVE to equip that item. It can only be replaced by another set/unique item in that item slot (if you have more than one S/U item for a certain slot, you can choose and switch between them as you like). The total number of equipped S/U items must be as high as possible. This includes the weapon switch and the mercenary. It is OK to put away a crappy S/U weapon in the weapon switch and use whatever weapon you like, until the slots are filled. You will probably at some time have to adapt the choice of mercenary after what items you have. You may not sell/mule off S/U items that may later allow you to equip more S/U items. Be especially wary with shields and one-handed swords (all one-handers if you´re a barbarian!), since the act 3 merc uses those (since he can equip both, an Iron Wolf will most likely be your end game mercenary).

11. To prevent caster characters from totally dominating this tourney, the skill point choices have a large random element to them. Every third skill point you earn (the 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc.), you can place as you wish (or save it for later). All other skill points (the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, etc.) will be determined at random, and those points may not be saved. Hint: use your "free" points wisely, to increase your chances for the random ones to go where you want them.


New participants are allowed at any time (as long as there is interest). When you write your updates, I want you to mention:

* The name and class of the character. This is only relly needed when they are introduced, but it won't hurt.
* What level they have reached.
* How far into the game they have reached.
* How many set/unique items that are equipped.
 
Note: These are posts #1-20 from the original thread.

New Unique & Set Item Worship Tourney Thread

Since the old posts are dead, and you don't seem to be able to add to them anymore, I'm taking the initiative and starting a new one.
I loved the idea, but I ended up deleting my character when I started the ladder. I may start up again at some point, but not just yet. So, Versatility the Amazon is gone. (Hah! It rhymed!)
Good luck recreating your list Sten, I hope you had it written down somewhere. :xx:

The last couple of days have been hectic, so I haven't played much, but I did manage to finish the hills tonight. Didn't really feel worth it, other than the fact that I did gain almost 2 full levels. One random point - Spear Mastery, blah! - and one assigned point which went into Concentrate. I only found one S/U, which was Arctic Horn, which I already have one of in my stash, so it got sold. Seems like my luck is running a bit low in that department this week. Honestly, nothing else to report.

I didn't expect to get to level 40 until I had reached nightmare, but it is looking like I will be there long before the ancients. Surprising.

Bob the Barb, lvl 37 and still just 12 S/U (4th place? How did that happen?)
Another update

I've been very bored, so Obsidian has been gaining a stupid amount of levels and generally bulldozing the competition. I'm lvl 37, about to rescue Anya.

Set and Unique items -
Chance Guards
Isenhart's Lightbrand
Bladebone
Humongous
Hwannin's Blessing (belt)
Vidala's Barb

I'm currently using the Humongous (slow attack speed! GAH) and praying for a shael, or failing that, a better weapon. I now have 4 points in natural resist, and 1 in concentrate and berserk.

The game is getting less cruisey. Things take time to die. Moonlords hurt. My Rogue merc needs watching. I have almost 100% MF on a merc kill, which is always nice. Diablo dropped me the humongous and Hwanin's belt. prevent monster heal? and 30 lightning damage? me? arguing? :D Anyway, this barbarian looks like he could be a long term contestant. watch out for me ;)

flamearrows
Lacerta said:
Since the old posts are dead, and you don't seem to be able to add to them anymore, I'm taking the initiative and starting a new one.

Good luck recreating your list Sten, I hope you had it written down somewhere. :xx:
Good initiative starting a new thread, Lacerta. 👍


I don´t think Sten even knows how to write... :D
Sadly, I have not kept a copy of the standings (I will from now on!), so I would like every competitor to make an update as soon as possible.


Lacerta said:
I didn't expect to get to level 40 until I had reached nightmare, but it is looking like I will be there long before the ancients. Surprising.


AlterEgo reached level 48 on Normal, doing a /players 8 full clear, so that´s where some of us are heading.





I rewrote the rules from memory. I think they are actually easier to read/understand now.


Set & Unique Worshipper Tourney Rules:

§1. Characters are Hardcore.

§2. You may not mule anything on to the character.

§3. You may not use Save & Exit to escape death, unless it happens during a move to a "new" area (see §5).

§4. You may distribute stat points (or save them for later) as you see fit. Exception: if you find a set/unique item (see §10) that you don´t meet the STR/DEX requirements for and you have no other S/U such item (boots, for example), you will have to add all points to the lacking stat until you can equip that item (unless you find another S/U such item with less requirements before that has happened).

§5. There will be NO repeating/farming/running of areas/bosses/chests etc. Recommended methods are to either 1.) Clear an area, get the waypoint and the next time run from the waypoint to the next area without killing anything, or 2.) Run to the waypoint without killing anything and next session start from waypoint and clear that area (only recommended for small areas and those with a known waypoint location (Travincal, Cold Plains, the Cloisters)). However, you may use method 1.) and clear a path from waypoint to exit if you must do so to stay safe, but don´t pick up any items that drop during this "transport". You may also kill off monsters that happen to follow you into the "new" territory, but don´t lure them out there on purpose.

§6. You may skip areas and return later to clear them. You can even go back to an earlier difficulty to clear areas you have skipped earlier. If you fiddle a lot with skipping areas, keep notes about where you have not been.

§7. Any /players setting is allowed, and you may change it any time you wish.

§8. You may not choose which character class you play. That will be chosen at random. If you roll a "Crap, I don´t want to play a ..."-character, you get one reroll, but then you have to take what that roll gives you. This is called a minor mulligan.

§9. If your character dies in Act 1 or Act 2 Normal, you get one more chance. This is the major mulligan. When/if you start a second character, you can also take a minor mulligan if you like.

§10. (This is the real kicker in the tourney). Whenever you find a set/unique item for a certain item slot (that doesn´t have one already), you HAVE to equip that item. It can only be replaced by another set/unique item in that item slot (if you have more than one S/U item for a certain slot, you can choose and switch between them as you like). The total number of equipped S/U items must be as high as possible. This includes the weapon switch and the mercenary. It is OK to put away a crappy S/U weapon in the weapon switch and use whatever weapon you like, until the slots are filled. You will probably at some time have to adapt the choice of mercenary after what items you have. You may not sell/mule off S/U items that may later allow you to equip more S/U items. Be especially wary with shields and one-handed swords (all one-handers if you´re a barbarian!), since the act 3 merc uses those (since he can equip both, an Iron Wolf will most likely be your end game mercenary).

§11. To prevent caster characters from totally dominating this tourney, the skill point choices have a large random element to them. Every third skill point you earn (the 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc.), you can place as you wish (or save it for later). All other skill points (the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, etc.) will be determined at random, and those points may not be saved. Hint: use your "free" points wisely, to increase your chances for the random ones to go where you want them.


New participants are allowed at any time (as long as there is interest). When you write your updates, I want you to mention:

* The name and class of the character. This is only relly needed when they are introduced, but it won´t hurt.
* What level they have reached.
* How far into the game they have reached.
* How many set/unique items that are equipped.




I didn´t play Sten yesterday, I played Venus, my fledgling trapper in the "Mostly naked" tourney. But this evening, Sten will go up against the Chaos Sanctuary.
Decided to join back in on the fun this tournament was. I rolled a *gulp* Sorc. Hmmm...will be tough for me. Never did well with a HC Sorceress. I shall call her MissMatched. I mean, uhh, none of her clothes will match...nor will her skills. :lol:

So:

MissMatched, Lvl 1 Sorc, 0 s/u
Ska level 18 druid in the inner cloister, 1s/u
How do you do your randomisation procedures?


As far as I know dice won't be able to help me in many circumstances.
Indemaijinj said:
How do you do your randomisation procedures?


As far as I know dice won't be able to help me in many circumstances.
How do you get the random numbers?

* I programmed my calculator to do it.

* You can use a web based random number generator, such as

http://www.random.org/nform.html

* You can draw a 5x6 grid and write the numbers from 1-30 in there and use a normal 6-sided die twice (one number for the column, one for the row, reroll if you get a "6" for the row/column that doesn´t exist).



What do you do with the numbers?

* First, you need a number (1-7) to determine your character class.

* For each of the skill points earned that are not "free", count how many options there are for that skill point to go, and roll a number between 1 and that. Before you roll, you need a method to determine what number represents what skill. I just count from the top to bottom (top skill tab first) each row from left to right. Example: If all skills are open for a barbarian: 5 is Find Item and 29 is Whirlwind. But any method will do, as long as you define it for yourself before rolling the number.
More n00bism: How do I use other programs without exiting Diablo 2?

I play in full screen and I seem to be unable to shut the game momentarily down.

I am of course speaking about the early levels where you are likely to gain more levels during one session.
Indemaijinj said:
More n00bism: How do I use other programs without exiting Diablo 2?

I play in full screen and I seem to be unable to shut the game momentarily down.

I am of course speaking about the early levels where you are likely to gain more levels during one session.
alt+tab will minimize it
Indemaijinj said:
More n00bism: How do I use other programs without exiting Diablo 2?

I play in full screen and I seem to be unable to shut the game momentarily down.

I am of course speaking about the early levels where you are likely to gain more levels during one session.
Alt/Tab works for me, but my computer isn´t very powerful so I don´t like to run anything but D2 when I play.

I suggest the grid/dice method. In the beginning you often need numbers like 1-11 and so on. I will use 1-11 as an example.
Let´s say the grid has 5 rows and 6 columns and that the first die represents the row. So a "6" for the row always gets rerolled.
In the case of 1-11, you only have use for the first two rows (they hold the numbers 1-12). You can avoid getting the other rows by letting 1-3 represent the first row and 4-6 the second (or use odd/even, or flip a coin). If you get a number you can´t use (in this case, 12), reroll from the beginning (new row, then new column) to get equal probablilty for all the numbers.
[brag] Or get a second monitor and run a browser on the other monitor so you can roll random nubers on random.org while playing :D [/brag]
Spoiled Brat!!
MissMatched, Lvl 14 Sorceress -- Countess slaughtered

No sets/uniques yet.

Random skills haven't been too bad, would've preffered less of the armors:

Firebolt - 2
Charged Bolt - 1
Ice Bolt - 3, Frozen Armor - 2, Ice Blast - 1, Shiver Armor - 1

Saved all skills. Very important to max strong skills with this build for this tourney.
I forgot about the major mulligan rule and since I bombed in Act 2... I will have to give it another try. I will roll tonight and see what I come up with. Thanks for restarting the thread.
Act IV finale

Ah, the Chaos Sanctuary.

Let me just say that I spent an hour and 15 minutes in the CS today. My basic plan of action was: run forward, grab a few enemies, let Meghan kill them, and assist if there are no Oblivion Knights around.

The plan worked brilliantly, except that it took a very, very long time to kill everything.

Diablo was set free, and I changed auras from Fanatacism to Salvation.

Now none of his attacks took off more than 15% of my life, and I just needed regular ol' healing potions to stay caught up.

With all the crushing blow and open wounds between the two of us, we took Diablo down without much fanfare. He died, leaving me one level higher, and five yellow items (none good) richer.

What wonders await our heroes in Harrogath? Stay tuned!

---
Destroyer Seven, Level 54, Act V NM, 8U/3S equipped
Slayer Meghan, Level 53, Cold Rogue, 2U/1S equipped
Sten, the tanking and blinding barbarian doing so-so damage, assaulted the Chaos Sanctuary today. He drew Grotesques (he´s fought those damn spawners in EVERY area in act 4!), Abyss Knights and Urdar on the River. No boss and progress was steady, mostly thanks to Taunt.

The welcoming crew was waiting outside the Sanctuary: two groups with Doom Knights and their Oblivion masters. I lured away the knights. I always do that with melee characters, to avoid Iron Maiden as much as possible.

There were a lot of Venom Lords in the narrow hallway. Sten has fought many of those before and knows how to deal with them. Blind them with a Concentrate hit and back off. Fight one at a time. Then came a Spectral Hit boss pack of Venom Lords. Good practice before taking on the Infector. The boss was surprisingly easy to deal with. It´s good having 75% fire resistance.

The Infector´s wing ended with a dead end and I portalled out. I got back and Taunted out a minion at a time. The Infector himself was no joke, but his life regeneration was nowhere near what that Urdar boss earlier had.

I cleared the Vizier´s wing, opened the seal, portalled out an got back. And: the game crashed. Unhandled Excess Violation (whatever that means).

(Sigh!)

I did what I could to not take advantage of having to clear most of the Sanctuary again. I leaped/ran past the River maze, cleared (on /players 1 ) the Sanctuary up to where it crashed, picking up no items except a few potions. It was fun to see Khaleel the Lightning Mage dominate against /players 1 Doom Knights and Venom Lords. He just ate them up!

I forgot to turn up the players setting before opening the Vizier´s seal. Oh well, it may have been a good thing against the FE + Extra Strong Vizier. Khaleel did the killing blow with Sten safely away from the explosion (good to practice while there is still room for errors!).

On the way to the last seal, Sten got one hit in while he was Iron Maidened. He hardly felt it, only about 45 damage. Doing so-so damage can be good here. :)

Lord De Seis was a major pain. Sten needed loads of mana potions to overcome his regeneration while being Decrepified almost the whole fight.


Time for Big Red, then. I can do very little gear adjustments at the moment. I did however switch my 15 MF ring for one with 27 Resist Lightning, taking it to 73%.

Diablo quickly killed Khaleel. I decided to go for Concentrate with Crushflange and having Battle Orders and Shout up the whole time. In short, it took a while but there was never any danger. Yes, I ran around him when he breathed. Yes, I ducked to the side when he laid out his fire carpet. But there was no need for hyper fast reflexes or anything, since the margin for error was very large. There was the usual fireworks, "NOT EVEN DEATH CAN SAVE YOU FROM ME" etc. , some town trips for repairing and potion refilling, yadayadayada... and I was just going, like: "Would you just die and gimme my itamz, plz?!!!!!"

Simply put, it was the safest fight I have ever had with Normal Diablo with a melee character.

Diablo dropped Tancred´s Crowbill (Military Pick) and Shadowfang (Two-Handed Sword). I put Tancred´s in the weapon switch next to Berserker´s Hatchet. Now I could FINALLY sell that darn Torch of Iro! Shadowfang is reasonably speedy and does slightly more damage than my two primary weapons (Deathspade and Crushflange), but has no extra abilities other than some cold damage and cold resist. I don´t really want cold damage. It went into the stash for now. I don´t know if I ever want to use it later.


So Sten (at level 35, still with 14 S/U items equipped) has now joined the "Got to Act 5" club of four of his competitors. The careful and methodic Bob, the speedy and very promising Obsidian, the eccentric and creative Sun XingJiang and the elusive and seemingly unstoppable Seven.
jiansonz said:
...the elusive and seemingly unstoppable Seven.
I know, I know, I say this all the time -- Seven might be in trouble. The problem lies in the guest monsters. He killed Shenk (and got nothing for his troubles), but with the quill rats and archers as guest monsters, he had to frequently flee and run to town for potions. with several poison related NDEs. The advantage is that those stupid teleporting fire throwers aren't around, so it's a give and take, really.

I'm desperately hoping I'll find a better shield... although that would mean firing Meghan.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, I've got a socket quest in normal still. I was thinking about putting a P. Topaz in my Guillame's Face. I'm not sure about the one for nightmare, maybe a Topaz in the Skin of the Flayed one?

Another disappointing thing from this tourney is that I realize how much it sucks you can't upgrade a set item. I'd love to upgrade my belt so it gets 4x4 slots. :)

Welcome to Act 5, Sten! May it bring you the joy it brought me.
Bob had a much more rewarding night tonight. I actually had some time to play, unlike the last few nights, and real progress was made.

Starting out at level 37 at the first Act 5 Waypoint, I spawned Eldritch before realizing I hadn't turned on players 8, so he dropped very disappointingly, with only 2 magical items. After making that correction, I proceeded into the Frigid Highlands Proper, only to realize that none of my points have ever gone into taunt, and the Demon Imps drove me crazy. I didn't focus too much on getting a full clear through these two outdoor areas, just killed enough so I had room to maneuver and not get trapped. I picked up a Kite Shield Milebrega's Orb from a Crush Beast in the F.H., only my second S/U shield, so it went onto my merc, as that was the only way to increase my count.

I had several NDE's in the area under the Frigid Highlands (Abaddon??). Those Blood Lords really hurt, but the experience was nice. A random boss (the overlord kind with the whips) then was generous enough to drop a Long Sword Hellplague for me. YAY!!! Since I have 3 one handed weapons, 1 two handed weapon and 2 shields, my count wouldn't be any different no matter where I tried to equip this, as far as I can tell, my merc has s/s, I have s/s in one slot and the 2 handed in the other slot. Let me tell you, thanks to the elemental damage on this weapon, my overall damage tripled. My Razortine is not even in the same class anymore.

This wonderful find was enough to spur me onward faster and faster, and the experience was great. By the time I reached Threshsocket, I was up over 1.5 levels for the day and when I reached Anya, I was up another 2.5 beyond that. The Crystalline Passage Waypoint was so conveniently close to the way into the Glacial Trail, I decided to stop there for the night and get some sleep.

Tomorrow, the Ancients! I was dreading this, but with my new weapon, I'm actually looking forward to it. My defense is decent, I'm doing all right damage, plus 3 types of elemental, and Flux is only 1.5 levels behind me, so his damage is about caught up with mine too.

Oh, my random points for the night went into shout, spear mastery and sword mastery. Not great, but not terrible. My free point went into concentrate again.

Bob the Barb, level 41, now with 13 S/U, and one more waiting in storage until I get another S/U one hander or shield and can up my weapon switch count.
 
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