[2005] Renaissance Man Tournament [by skunkbelly]

[Grisu]

DISCLAIMER: Migration finished

This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by skunkbelly on Feb 15, 2005. The last post was made Mar 16, 2005.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

Renaissance Man Tournament

Renaissance Man Tournament


RULES

1. HC characters only.

2. Untwinked, though you may keep an ATMA stash for your character, and mule freely to and from it.

3. You can play any character class or build you wish, as long as you follow the skill restrictions (below).

4. All skill points you earn must be distributed evenly between each of your character's three skill trees, on a consistent rotating basis. For example, an assassin may put a skill point into the shadow tree at level 2, put a point into the martial arts tree at level 3, and at level 4 put a point into the traps tree. Then, at level 5, she'll need to put another point into the shadow tree. Etc. The order in which you will assign points to your skill trees must be determined before starting your character, and you may not vary from it.

5. The winner is either the first to reach Guardian status, or the last man standing.

The tournament will start on Monday, February 22, so all characters should be entered by then. I'll maintain a list of participants, with notes of everyone's progress (assuming you post to the thread on a regular basis).

 

[Grisu]

Note: These are posts #2-20 from the original thread.

Oh, lol... and I'm going to play an assassin, Skunkfoot. She will place skill points in the following order: martial arts, shadow skills, traps.

Hmm, sound like it could lead to some intersting builds, i like the idea.
Would do it myself, but i have enough projects going on as it is, and HC can be just too annoying, especially when i die, thats the worst part of HC...

At least one question.

What do you with skills points earned from quest rewards? Do they go in the rotation when earned?

I will play, I like interesting and hard tournaments.

Popeye
Level 1
Palidan

Hope people sign up ;(

I'm in. Sounds like a blast.

I shall play a Sorceress, as of yet unnamed. Should be interesting.

- Tom

Just a mistake fix...

Monday is February 21 not 22.

do we have to assign the skill points right away, or just in the right order (if that makes any sense). As in, can I save my skill points to use at later levels.

No choice but to sign up to add yet another project, I don't know how much time I'll have, but since none of my hardcore characters reached destroyer status so far, it should not be that much of a problem. I'll be going for a paladin I think.

edit: I've decided on the paladin indeed, and named him (created the character, but not yet played since the tourney hasn't started yet) Izun.

hum , why not , but the great, the fabulous, the marvelous , the perfect , the best J. Nemar don't work for nothing ! what is the price ?

@ OpethAZ: skill points from *all* sources (levels and quests) need to be used in their proper order.

@ stupidgreen: This would *not* mean that you have to immediately assign a skill point upon receiving it... you still must assign them in order, though, so waiting to assign a skill point in one tree means that you will have to wait for *all* trees.

An example: pretend for a moment that you are a level 25 sorceress, and you are supposed to put your next skill point into the Sorceress Cold Tree. You're planning to maximize Orb, and you already have the prerequisites filled... so you don't want to waste a point in any other cold skill, you obviously want to save it for Orb. You're welcome to wait to hit level 30 before assigning that skill point. However, you may *not* assign any points to the other trees while you are waiting. You'll just have to level up to 30, then continue assigning your waiting skill points in order.

For most builds, this won't be too much of an issue. It will make it quite difficult, though, to maximize level 30 skills. Unlike a typical character, who might be able to maximize a level 30 skill at clvl 50, it will be impossible in this tournament to maximize a level 30 skill until your character is somewhere in the mid 80s. Yikes!

@ nemar: yeah, I was wondering about this myself. As Indiana Jones would say, the best reward is always "Fortune and Glory, kid. Fortune and Glory." Which means we need some fortune!

How about this: all characters in the game should keep a stash of all set and unique items they find (i.e., there should be no selling sets and uniques to Charsi, no matter how useless). When your character is out of the competition, e-mail me your stash file (not your character file... those items are lost with your corpse). The winner will receive all the stash files. The prize may be junk, of course... but assuming that at least some of us survive to late NM and early Hell, there will no doubt be some decent loot.

Oh, and don't forget: when you post your character and name, tell me what order you will assign points to your skill trees.

Another tourney! I think I will skip this one. Not a bad idea though. But there will be couple of overpowered builds. Hammerdins and tesladins for example. Barbarians are quite strong too. On the other side sorcies, druids and necros will be quite week in later stages.

Another tourney! I think I will skip this one. Not a bad idea though. But there will be couple of overpowered builds. Hammerdins and tesladins for example. Barbarians are quite strong too. On the other side sorcies, druids and necros will be quite week in later stages.

Hammerdins could potentially be fairly strong, but it will still be impossible to have a typical hammer build... it will be impossible to maximize both blessed aim and concentration, for instance, and it will take a very long time to maximize blessed hammer (wouldn't be maxed until late NM, at the very earliest). Still, could be one of the stronger builds.

Tesladins... also a strong possibility, but suffers from the same problem (you can only maximize one synergy, and it will take you quite a long while to accomplish that). The nice thing, though, is you'll have plenty of spare points for Holy Shield, or a strong Zeal, etc.

Barbs might be the strongest, depending on the build. Splitting up points evenly means a good chunk in masteries (more than some would like, perhaps), a good chunk in warcries (who doesn't max BO anyway?), and the rest in combat skills (a given). But still, several builds would be very difficult... for example, if your combat skill has a warcry synergy, do you max the synergy or max BO? Bye-bye Zerker, and perhaps bye-bye Frenzy. WW would work nicely, though.

Barbs might be the strongest, depending on the build. Splitting up points evenly means a good chunk in masteries (more than some would like, perhaps), a good chunk in warcries (who doesn't max BO anyway?), and the rest in combat skills (a given). But still, several builds would be very difficult... for example, if your combat skill has a warcry synergy, do you max the synergy or max BO? Bye-bye Zerker, and perhaps bye-bye Frenzy. WW would work nicely, though.

This is what I usually do, maybe not the order, but the point spread. I'd love to join but I've been neglecting my barb for my own tourney....*sigh*

Oh, and don't forget: when you post your character and name, tell me what order you will assign points to your skill trees.

Popeye
Palidan
Skill Tree Order:

1. Offensive Auras
2. Combat Skills
3. Defensive Auras

Hmm, this tourny doesn't look like it's going to happen... alas! Sign up, all!

I had to dig deep to find this one back. I've not yet had time to play, but I'll probably start soon, and will be putting points in the order offensive-combat-defensive.

Sorceress - I'll name her when i start tonight,

but i think i'll do Cold / Fire / Lightning
i'll try to post after i play every time.

I think I'll join, as it looks like you need some more people
I'm gonna use a pally, I'll just go
Defensive
Offensive
Combat
so I can remember

Pally
Thor
lvl 1

 

[Grisu]

Note: These are posts #21-41 (final post) from the original thread.

Lee Loo

Didn't have much time to play, but got Leeloo the renassiance sorceress started.

Leeloo was something of an oddball back at the magick academy. normally new students show affinity for one or at most two schools of magick, Leeloo never really felt comfortable putting all her eggs in one basket and it apparently went right down to her inner disposition, she found it near impossible to study any single school of magick long enough to gain any benefit, at most she was able to gain a single tier of proficiency with a spell. but further progress was always impossible unless she first tried to learn two other types of magick in between.

She left the school of magick and traveled to the rogue's encampment immediately after hearing about tristrams fall and the ongoing corruption spreading east through her homeland. it seemed an attack loomed near, deciding it was as good a time as any to begin her journey she ventured forth with naught more than the ability to cast firebolts from a staff she recieved as a gift during her first year. . .

Character Progress
Name : Leeloo (yes, after the 5th element)
Skill Selection has been as follows - Cold / Fire / Lightning
Level : 9
Has cleared Den of Evil, but i had to run before i could play more, and didnt really feel like playing her again so soon when i got back. so until tomorrow at least the rogue camp is safe.

Well, looks like this tournament is back on I thought it looked like nobody was interested. So come on, all, it's not too late to get started!

My kicksin will get started this weekend... Skunkboots. Her rotation will be whatever the menu order is, top to bottom, just to keep it simple (I think that's martial arts, shadow disciplines, traps... have to check).

Leeloo Part II

Leeloo woke up late that morning, yesterday's battle had taken a lot out of her. yesterday she had followed the trail leading from the rogue encampment and gone left at the fork and soon found herself before an opening into what seemed to be a large underground cavern. Inside the sounds of foul creatures and the smell of rotting flesh greeted her.

She had begun a systematic search through the caves and fought and defeated more monsters than she had ever seen before in her life. finally at one dark corner of the cave an immense zombie unlike any she had encoutered before stood, his skin seemed to glow with an inner power. Her side still hurt a little where his hand had seemingly burned and froze her when it connected on a swing. It was only through her superior speed she had been able to fight this monster.. and she knew that the minions of evil were not all so feeble...

This morning she decided she should first walk over to Akara, and get some more herbs to tend to her side. As she traversed the camp she noticed Kashya was pacing back and forth as though she had something on her mind. Leeloo approached Kashya, the warrior hadn't been unkind to her on their first encounter, but certainly didnt seem to like her much either, but on this meeting she blurted out a story of a fallen warrior who went mad and was even now ressurecting the dead from the Rogue Monastery's graveyard. Leeloo swore to do what she could.

With her things packed and a few extra potions that Akara had recommended would be invaluable she left again down that path and this time went towards the cold plains. A kind rogue scout warned her of the danger, but was able to give her directions to the graveyard. As Leeloo approached the graveyard she saw anything but the stillness she associated with such hallowed grounds. skeletons with swords and sometimes a shield from when they were buried were moving with undead menace to and fro around the crypt and mausoleum, a good number of zombies too were concentrated in the center, and there, by them was an archer with pale blue skin and leather stained red with blood...

The battle lasted well on into the day, and at last a final blast of cold from Leeloo pierced Blood Raven's Defenses and an unearthly scream sounded as lightning pierced the body and twirled it through the air. the undead around fell flat and returned to the earth from which they had come, no longer tethered to this existence by the foul creature. Lee loo returned to camp that night and barely remembered Kashya posting a personal guard for her as she collapsed exhausted into a heap of straw by her stash...

Character Progress
Name : Leeloo
Skill Selection : Cold / Fire / Lightning
Level : 15
Has recovered Cain from near death. more to come , lightning has been proving invaluable as a killing skill, i can only hope that with 1/3 the normal skill points that i can still kill at all. have been playing on p8 so far.

I will start playing Popeye soon.

Well, Skunkfoot got up to level 16, and the Outer Cloister WP. Nothing too eventful so far in her adventure... and no items to speak of yet, either. With any luck, she'll get to Act 2 tonight.

Come on, people, it's not too late to join!

Enter Troylet, the dysfunctional Amazon!

Troylet
Amazon
Passive, Javelin & Spear, Bow & Xbow

I wanted to play a non-obvious build. After mulling over a Necro and an Amazon I picked the 'Zon -because I always enjoy them. But this tourney has tough rules and my Zon will be a non-classical hybrid build. Should be fun.

Troylet has reached the Stony Field WP after completing the Den of Evil quest and kiboshing Blood Raven - on P8 mode. She's clvl 11 but the skill choices are starting to become hard. I may start saving skill choices soon.

So far I have invested:
CS: 3, IS: 1, Dodge:1
Jab:3, PoisJav:1
MA:1, ColdArr:1, Multi:1

said:
She's clvl 11 but the skill choices are starting to become hard. I may start saving skill choices soon.

Yes, I've had to wait a couple of times... the one case I really remember was at level 11, when I had to put my assy's next skill point into the Shadow tree, but was still a level away from the skill I needed next (weapon block). Had to wait a level before spending the point, so as not to waste it on a lower-level skill. It will really get interesting between level 24-30, I think, for most players. And of course, later on, when leveling gets harder, and you can't max the skill you want to max as quickly as you'd like

Troylet
Amazon: passive,javelin, bow
Level 19, Inner Cloister WP

After investing 11 skill points, I saved skill points until I hit clvl 18-so I would not waste any on the Bow&Xbow Tree. I definitely felt underpowered at times. At clvl 18 I promptly invested 3 points (rotating through the three trees) and I invested another three when Troylet reached Level 19.

An Amazon's Dilemma

Here is the fundamental dilemma of an Amazon in this tourney: most Amazon builds tend to have 50 or more points in the Passive Skills Tree-including a maxed Valkyrie and heavy investments in pierce and penetrate -all high level skills.

In this tourney, there will only be about 30 points available per skill tree -and only twenty points left in a single tree for Skills that are lvl 30. A fundamental decision for a 'Zon is to decide whether to have a maxed Valk -which, in this tourney, means virtually no pierce nor penetrate! Or, alternately, one can invest heavily in Penetrate and Pierce -but either forgo having a Valk, or have a one-point Valk. What to Do? I agonized over this before creating Troylet.

My strategy with Troylet is to commit to having a high-level Valk -because, IMHO, a Valk is instrumental to having success with an Amazon. But that decision means that I needed to use a Javelin & Spear skill and a Bow skill that are both viable with zero points in Pierce and Penetrate, and with no points in synergies -and the two skills would need to complement each other. After reaching that point in my thought process, the choice suddenly became clear: Lightning Fury and Guided Arrow!!!! LF and GA are both "automatic hit" skills so I don't need Penetrate. Pierce is nice for LF, but the skill will probably be fine without it. And Pierce is irrelevant to GA. So Troylet will be a GA/LF hybrid -if she lives that long! LF for crowds, GA for single monsters and LIs. And a big damage spear and couple of point in Jab for the occasional Dance with Duriel.

Troylet has battled and defeated Andariel! On to Act II!

Troylet, clvl 20 Amazon, now entering Lut Gholein
Items: Arctic Binding Light Belt

Where is everyone else? I hope the Zod Tourney doesn't drain this one of all its players.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing... but I'm still here I'll hopefully get a little more work done on Skunkfoot this evening, and certainly over the weekend.

Finally started, but did not do much yet, took Izun through the Den Of Evil, and to the Cold Plains waypoint. He is now level 6, but I only used three skillpoints so far, one in might, one in smite, and one in resist fire, as of yet I used no statpoints.

Sounds like fun. I'm in!

Smokey (the Bear)
Shifting
Summoning
Elemental

Might not get started on him till tonight or tomorrow due to the UB Bulls game tonight.

I continued a bit and got Izun to rescue Cain, in doing so he attained level 14.
I noticed I made quite a big planning mistake by using offensive/combat/defensive, offensive should have come last.
Put some points into vitality, and used some more skill points:
(1 in each)
holy fire
sacrifice
resist cold
thorns
zeal
resist lightning

No interesting finds so far.

Someone had to update

lvl 10 stoney field
nothing interesting happening so far.

where is everyone else in this tourney?

All right, I played a bit. Brought Troylet the Amazon up to clvl 23 and she reached the Far Oasis WP. Who is ahead of me?

I found the green breastplate - but that works fine for my Defense Merc.

I am starting to look ahead to Duriel. Duriel is always tough on Amazons, and I'm really worried about this character. Hope I find a good spear before then.

Yes, I need to get back to this character some... no progess since my last post. It's hard to play in two tourny's at once, and still work on other chars

Hope it's not too late to enter this thing.

If not, I will make an entry as a Holy Shock pally. His name shall be: Flash!

My tree order will be combat skills, offensive auras, defensive auras.

Flash
Lvl 1

Hope it's not too late to enter this thing.

If not, I will make an entry as a Holy Shock pally. His name shall be: Flash!

My tree order will be combat skills, offensive auras, defensive auras.

Flash
Lvl 1

Not too late at all, Flash... welcome!

Flash has made significant progress today.

He leveled all the way up to 30 and is about to head into Travincal. I have had one NDE, and that was in the Flayer Jungle when I was not being careful and nearly got roasted by two flayer shamans infernoing me at the same time. I estimate that my health went down to the single digits. I have since improved my fire resist

I am very impressed with the synergized Holy Shock. It is one of the fastest killers I have ever seen in Normal. I made a "Steel" Flail for the IAS/Open Wounds and monsters (at players 8, of course) don't stand a chance.

Notable finds: Just a Biggin's Bonnet back in Act 1 (which I'm currently using). I have since loaded up with MF so hopefully I will soon have more good finds to report.

Merc: Act 2 Defiance Merc. I plan to stick with this guy.

Here is my current skill distro. My last skill point was just placed into Holy Shield. I plan at least to put a couple more points in there...it's a great defensive skill. Because of my pursuance of Holy Shield, Zeal has stayed at 5 points for awhile now, since I was using up all my skill points to open the prereqs for H Shield.

Combat Skills (11): Sacrifice/Holy Bolt/Smite/Charge/B Hammer/Holy Shield 1, Zeal 5
Offensive Auras (10): Might/B Aim/Concentration/H Fire/H Freeze 1, Holy Shock 5
Defensive Auras: (10): Resist Lightning 9, Salvation 1

Good luck to all participants!

Well, looks like I overdid the MF thing...my fire resist dropped down to about 20, and Flash got roasted by about twenty Venom Lords as soon as I stepped into Act 4. He was level 31 or 32 when he bit it. Good luck to all those remaining.

R.I.P. Flash. You shall be avenged.

Hey, Azn-apocalypse, you don't fool around when you name a character Flash. Flash was last to join the tourney, but first to reach level 30 and Act 3 and 4. And then first to fall.