[2009] Tournament: Merc's Merc [by Morathi]

[Grisu]

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This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by @Morathi on Sep 19, 2009. The last post was made Sep 2, 2010.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

Tournament: Merc's Merc

Hosted & Created by Morathi and Jiansonz

Ulf the Barbarian nervously clutched his sword as a veritable horde of snake-men and mummies were approaching. "Be ready, this could get ugly!", said Amy, his companion since yesterday.

She had approached him as he rested in Qual-Kehk's camp. She was carrying a big sword. "Do you want to become a hero?", she said. Well of course he did! Protecting his people came foremost, but earning a reputation as a great warrior would be oh so sweet. He was always the 'average guy' in Qual-Kehk's competitions. Maybe this was a chance to make a real name for himself.

"But, I thought you were doing this with that Emilio guy...", he asked. "Emilio's alright, but we found this legendary sword yesterday, and he does not have the proper training to use it. According to Qual-Kehk, you do. I think you will be a much stronger fighter than him if you use it. I have a feeling we could make a great team."

Ulf accepted the sword and tried a couple of practice swings. It was an elegant weapon, almost transparent, and from what he could feel, perfectly balanced. He could almost feel like the spirit of Bul-Kathos himself was watching over him.
Yeah, this partnership could indeed work.


He had no idea that the very first place she would take him to would be a monster-infested underground tomb area. He already hated the place.

Wow, are those snakes ever strong or what! Ouch! They bumped Ulf around, and he had trouble focusing on the fighting. Suddenly, he was surrounded! Snakes charging and slashing from all directions, mummies punching him with their disgusting hands. Ugh! They must be infected with something really nasty. It felt like his life force got drained away, literally.

This was getting serious. Now where the heck is that Amy, and her 'Shadow Magicks'? (or whatever she called it when she bragged about her abilities at the campfire yesterday). Suddenly, the place got even darker than before, and Ulf felt a rapid surge of life force filling him. The enemies surrounding him seemed to be pushed off him. Only the snake that appeared to be the leader still fought him. "One on one, that´s my kind of fighting!", thought Ulf, as he plowed the sword deep into the snake leader. It cried in pain, and it backed off and seemed to tell its minions to help. Two of them stood around, less than 5 feet away. They acted like they could not see him! And is that mummy attacking them? Wow, he had never seen anything like that before.

One more mighty sword slash and the snake leader gave up. With the other enemies occupied in fights with each other, it was an easy job for Ulf to mop up in here. When he was done, he turned towards Amy. She was all smiles: "Shadow Magic can be quite useful, eh?".


In the SPF tournaments, I have experienced that (during most parts of the game) mercs often do a very good job killing monsters all by themselves. This tournament takes that part one step further. The merc is the Hero (they are immortal, after all) who does the killing, and your character is their faithful helper, assisting them in many (hopefully creative) ways.

General Rules

• Your character must be HC although it if you cant you may go SC, but a SC death disqualifies the character from further participation.
• If your character dies, you may re-enter with another character. There is no limit to this rule, you may re-enter as many times as you wish.
• Players can use versions from 1.10+
• RRM may be used however RWM is banned (if installed, please dont make any of the runewords it allows)
• No multi-player, no trading. This is strictly SP.
• Players can asign stat points as they please, no restrictions.
• Any /players setting is allowed, and may be changed at will.
• Single pass only (no re running of act bosses and areas).
• You may revisit prior difficulties to hire mercs or shop, however you may not leave town except to refresh the vendor screen and to retrieve wirts leg (make sure you do not pick up or use any item, and keep the killing to a minimum, do this at p/1).
• Atma may be used as an extended stash
• Quests can be completed at any point in time, the box does not have to turn grey for a quest to be deemed completed. (i.e collecting the malus and returning it to Charsi, even without imbuing is considered completed)
• There is no restrictions on collecting waypoints (however it can cost you points)

Prologue
(or: What Happens Before You Have A Merc?)
At the start of the game, we need to get a merc, of course. To put it simply: anything is OK at this point (within the limitations of what is allowed regarding skill point placement). Either slay Blood Raven and collect the merc, or reach character level 8 and hire one. This marks the end of the Prologue. You must recruit a merc before you enter any of the areas The Cave, Crypt, Mausoleum or Stony Field.

Once you have a merc, you may no longer (at least not for almost two acts, see the section about Utility Attacks below) attack monsters with any skills (including Attack and Throw) that involves a weapon. A good way to prevent involuntary attacks is to hold a melee weapon (or be weaponless) and map Throw to the left mouse button.

Utility Attacks/Items
This is a chance for your character to become more involved in the action, and to help your merc with crowd control, tactical movement, or making them better at surviving a fight. Typical abilities on the gear to look for are things like Hit Blinds/Slows/Freezes Target, cold damage, Prevent Monster Heal, Knockback, etc.
Typically, Utility Attacks are delivered by the "skills" Attack and Throw, but some classes have other options as well (see the class-specific/Skills details).

The starting point (where they first may be used) for Utility Attacks is the fight with Duriel in Normal. From that point and onwards, they are allowed.

To prevent your character from doing any significant damage with their Utility Attacks, these criteria must be met if you want to use them:

• No Open Wounds or Crushing Blow anywhere on the character´s gear.
• Poison damage no higher than an Anthrax suffix or perfect Emerald in weapon (100 damage over 6-7 seconds), unless the monster you hit is immune to poison.
• No more than 100 average cold/fire/lightning damage, unless the monster you hit is immune to that element.
• No more than 100 average physical “weapon damage”, unless the monster you hit is Physical Immune.
• Assassins who use Kick skills as utility attacks may not use exceptional or elite boots.
• Paladins using Smite as an utility attack may not use exceptional or elite shields.
• The 'chance to cast Static Field' ability (like on a Crescent Moon weapon) is not allowed.
• No other restrictions on items.

Skills
All skills may be used as prerequisites and synergy skills, even the Banned skills.

Amazon

Allowed: All Passive & Magic skills except Critical Strike(see below) and Valkyrie.
Restricted: Critical Strike is allowed 1 point. Cold Arrow, Ice Arrow, Freezing Arrow and Poison Javelin allowed 1 point for use as Utility Attacks.
Banned: Everything else, including Valkyrie.


Assassin

Allowed: Burst of Speed, Fade, Cloak of Shadows, Cobra Strike, Mind Blast, Blade Shield (Mind Blast and Blade Shield are restricted to 10 points in normal, beyond that there is no restrictions).
Restricted: All three Kicking skills, Psychic Hammer and Blades of Ice allowed 1 point for use as Utility Attacks.
Banned: Venom, Shadow Warrior/Master, all Traps (except Blade Shield), Tiger/Phoenix Strike, Fists of Fire, Claws of Thunder, Dragon Claw.


Barbarian

Allowed: Leap, Double Throw (treat as a utility attack), Increased Stamina/Speed, Iron Skin, Natural Resistance, all Warcies except War Cry.
Restricted: The six weapon Masteries are allowed 1 point. Bash, Stun, Leap Attack, Double Swing, Frenzy and Whirlwind are allowed 1 point for use as Utility Attacks. War Cry is restricted to 6 hard points.
Banned: Concentrate, Berserk


Druid

Allowed: Werewolf, Lycanthropy, Cyclone Armor, Carrion Vine, Solar Creeper, all three Spirits and Shock Wave. (Shock Wave is restricted to 10 points in normal, beyond that there is no restriction)
Restricted: Werebear, Hunger, Arctic Blast and Molten Boulder are allowed 1 point. Poison Creeper is banned in Act I Normal, but restricted to 1 point after that. 1 point in Raven is allowed per act in Normal, it is then restricted to 10 points in NM and unrestricted in Hell. Hurricane is allowed 1 point in Hell.
Banned: Grizzly, Wolves, Fire Claws, Feral Rage, Maul, Fury, Firestorm, Fissure, Volcano, Armageddon, Twister, Tornado.


Necromancer

Allowed: Bone Armor/Wall/Prison, all Curses. (Iron Maiden may not be used when you have Bone Walls/Prisons out.)
Restricted: 1 point Raise Skeleton is allowed for corpse destruction (Unsummon it right away!)
Banned: All other Summoning skills, All Poison skills, Teeth, Corpse Explosion, Bone Spear/Spirit.


Paladin

Allowed: Conversion, Smite, Holy Bolt (for use on merc only!), all Auras except Holy Fire/Shock/Freeze.
Restricted: Charge is allowed 1 point, for the movement/Knockback effects. Holy Shield is restricted to 5 hard points. Holy Freeze is restricted to 1 point for the first 6 acts. Once you get to Act II NM, it becomes unrestricted as long as you don´t use an attack it works with. So you either just stand near monsters without hitting them, or you use Smite.
Banned: Sacrifice, Zeal, Vengeance, Blessed Hammer, Fist of the Heavens, Holy Fire/Shock


Sorceress

Allowed: All Cold Armors, Warmth, Energy Shield, Telekinesis, Teleport, Cold Mastery, Fire Mastery, Enchant (cast on merc only - if you miss him/her with the Enchant casting, you can´t use Utility Attacks until your Enchant has timed out)
Restricted: Frost Nova is banned in Act 1 Normal, restricted to 1 point for the rest of Normal and Nightmare, and unrestricted in Hell. However, Frost Nova may not be spammed. You may not cast it while monsters are still chilled from the last casting of it. Glacial Spike is allowed 1 point for the freezing effect. In Hell difficulty, Hydra is allowed 1 point for scouting purposes.
Banned: Everything else.



Mercs
Here is the focus of the tournament, the Merc. He/She will be your main damage output and the one that will truly be the difference between you making a guardian and not. Choose wisely!

• There is no restriction on merc types, you may pick any of the 4 variants.
• You may change your merc type if you wish at any stage of the game.
• Your merc does not have any item restrictions. He/She may use whatever you can get your hands on.

Points System

• 1+ point per character level
• 1+ point per Waypoint collected (including each camp)
• 2+ points per Quest completed (box does not have to turn grey for a quest to be deemed completed)
• 5+ points for finishing Normal (Finishing Normal also means Killing the Cow King)
• 10+ NM
• 20+ for Guardian
• 50+ If you manage to make a Guardian Merc (your merc doesn’t die at all!, Oh hi Insane Wayne :crazyeyes

Signup + Updates:
This tournament starts now!!! You may sign up at any time and re-join as many times as you see fit.
This tournament will run until interest has been lost (no posts in 3 weeks). With regards to posting the table, please try to limit the amount of times it is posted on each page. If you are simply updating your character's progress, write a brief description at the bottom, stating your level, act, points etc. If you are entering the tournament for the first time/ re-joining, you may post the table with your new characters details.

***Please note that if you are posting the table, be sure to quote the most recent version.

Forum Name     Character     Class       Location      Level    Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morathi        Mane          Druid       Rogue Camp    1        2

Good Luck!