[ED] Sorry about the lengthy post. [/ed]
IMO, there are 3 main ideas/thoughts of "No S&E."
1. You're trapped by monsters and can't escape, or one's about to FE/CE explode, or you're about to be charged by 3 of Pindles pack, or there are 10 Gloam lightning bolts coming at you while you're Convictioned... and you just hit escape in time.
To return to the game is to meet certain death. The most common S&E, and obviously banned in this tourney.
2. You walk down stairs, only to be charged at by 2 Unique vipers, and don't have enough room to attack while retreating to kill them. (My situation.) Fireball was likely to be able to kill them, but I needed room - they just came too quickly.
Consequently, you run up the stairs, and have completely trapped that area off. If it's a vital area (Viper Temple,) which you cannot ignore, the two options are return to town and/or S&E somewhere safe (Town etc,) or go down and chance your luck at teleporting past the Vipers.
If you push Escape while in the temple, surrounded by vipers, it'd then be a (1) situation.
3. Sorry, I've lost 3. Maybe there are only 2, but if it comes back to me, I'll mention it.
The first time, was a (2) situation. I escaped back to town, but rerolled the map because I didn't want to go teleporting blind.
That situation basically chance. Not many builds would've found being stuck to the wall by 2 groups of Minion vipers (up to about 13,) and +2 Ancients and their skeletons, easy, especially untwinked with a merc who can't tank.
I also figure that (2) situations are much better than (1) situations, as you avoid becoming trapped. You're able to see the danger and avoid it, instead of relying on S&E to directly avoid death.
Funnily enough, the 2nd time I tried this, the exact same thing happened. I had to back to the very wall, and got trapped again. This time I decided to teleport blind. After tele'ing twice, I got stuck again between a new door and another Unique pack, so teleported blind again! In the end, I luckily came to the right path, and went along killing everything else until I came to the stairs.
Honestly, this char is the luckiest char ever! I wish I had that much luck at poker. I tele'd past the rest of act 2, and most of act 3.
In act 3, I faced Gloams with -4 lightning resist, and was hit by many bolts. Strangely enough, she didn't die, and I removed my Nagels and put on my resist rings. I didn't want to tempt fate again.
So, teleporting around LK, guess what I tele'd into. Two packs of Mana burn uniques! Yes, I got mana burnt, but my mana went up a little and I tele'd out! Anyway, somehow, despite being trapped three times, fighting some Gloams with -'ve resists, and tele'ing blindly into Unique packs multiple times, she has survived miraculously, and is somewhere in Kurast (Bazaar I think.)
But, I ask Morathi to clarify if both situations are unacceptable, and also if I have technically breached the rules. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me though. It's enough that she's survived this far, and I found that I personally hate Blizzballers. Plus, I've found some very nice items (Arachnid's Mesh and Skullder's
, so I'm very happy with how she's done.)
If there's any new threads on which sorc is best, remind me to keep out of it.
This experience has led me to hate blizzballers, and love pure blizz sorc's, despite the fact that they have to tele past over half of hell (I'm doing this anyway.) I just love the damage of pure blizz's!
Also, other peoples opinions/comments/ideas are completely welcome.