[2009] Tournament: The Gish [by AureliusTiber]

[Grisu]

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This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by @AureliusTiber on Jul 3, 2009. The last post was made Nov 3, 2009.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

Tournament: The Gish

Before I begin, some background for the uninitiated:

In PnP role-playing games, the "Gish"-type character has been a perennial favorite, at least as far back as the Elvish Fighter/Magic-User in 2nd Ed. D&D. This sort of character is typified as primarily a warrior of sorts who uses utility magic or buff magic to increase their (usually) melee fighting capabilities. In D2, there are many examples of single classes who are Gish "out of the box," so to speak: Assassins use Venom, BoS and Fade along with claw attacks and shadow magic; Paladins use potent auras, HS, and a variety of combat techniques.

The real kinds of Gish-y characters in D2 are the Enchantress and Melee Necro, and those are the sorts of characters I wish to model this tournament after. (If this is starting to sound familiar, there was a previous Tournament with similar intent, but our permitted skills differ greatly -- cf. http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658533.) Every class in D2 has the capability to be a Gish. The strict definition of a Gish in this sense is as follows: a Gish is a character who uses normal, unmodified melee attacks to kill enemies, and cannot use any skills that directly damage enemies or create summons whose sole purpose is to damage or tank enemies. To wit, here are the permitted skills for each class, by class:

Amazon
Bow and Crossbow Skills - None.
Passive and Magic Skills - All, except Decoy and Valkyrie.
Javelin and Spear Skills - None.

Assassin
Martial Arts - None, except Cobra Strike*.
Shadow Disciplines - All, except Psychic Hammer, Mind Blast, Shadow Warrior, and Shadow Master.
Traps - None, except Blade Shield**.

(*Cobra Strike deals no extra damage. Not sure how useful it'll be on its own.)
(**Blade Shield has a pathetic enough damage output that it shouldn't hurt anything; included more for flavor than anything else.)

Barbarian
Combat Masteries - All.
Combat Skills - None, except Leap.
Warcries - All, except War Cry.

Druid
Elemental - None, except Cyclone Armor.
Shape Shifting - None, except for Lycanthropy, Werewolf, Werebear, and Hunger*.
Summoning - All, except Poison Creeper, Spirit Wolves, Dire Wolves** and Grizzly.

(*Hunger does not increase damage at all. Chow down!)
(**Dire Wolves may have a 1-point investment for corpse-eating purposes.)

Necromancer
Curses - All.
Poison and Bone Spells - None, except Bone Armor, Bone Wall, and Bone Prison.
Summoning Spells - None, except Skeleton Mastery*, Clay Golem**, Iron Golem**, Golem Mastery, and Summon Resist.

(*I don't know why you'd invest in it, but hey, it's allowed.)
(**These Golems are capped at 1 point each, for their utility effects; that is, slowing from CG and Auras from an item used to make an IG.)

Paladin
Combat Skills - None, except Holy Shield.
Defensive Auras - All.
Offensive Auras - All.

Sorceress
Cold Spells - None, except Frozen/Shiver/Chilling Armor and Cold Mastery.
Fire Spells - None, except Warmth, Enchant, and Fire Mastery.
Lightning Spells - None, except Telekinesis*, Teleport, Energy Shield, Thunderstorm**, and Lightning Mastery.

(*Telekinesis is permitted only for picking up or activating items and using its synergy with Energy Shield. Not that you'd want to actually use it for killing...)
(**I went back-and-forth a lot on Tstorm, but if you think it's a little too much like a direct-damage spell, feel free not to use it.)

Any skill that is not allowed may be pumped for synergies but cannot be cast on its own.

Build rules aside, here are the other specifics:

• Version 1.10+
• HC only, or SC until first death.
• Untwinked.
• RWM and any colored-rune mods are the only acceptable mods.
• /Players settings can be changed freely.
• Muling items off the character is OK.
• ATMA is OK as an extended stash.
• Single clears only, but full clears are optional.
• Any merc is acceptable.
• Charges and "oskills" are allowed as long as they are otherwise permitted skills (e.g. Curses are OK, Zeal is not). Items with CtC skills are fine.

First to Mat/Pat wins! Or, failing that, whoever gets the highest level. The winner shall receive bragging rights commensurate with their class choice and completion, and likely their patience as well. This tournament will end when no updates are posted for two consecutive weeks. Good luck!

Forum Name            Class         Level        Last Waypoint
--------------        -----         -----        -------------
AureliusTiber         Shadow-Sin    1            Rogue Encampment