[2011] Spirit Tournament [by Wolron]

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

jdkerr said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

@soulmanz: I agree with you. I typically drop out of tournaments because single pass play is so frustrating for me (and join them because I always think that "it won't be a big deal this time" ). However, "single pass except running the countess a few times" does not really make it any less a single pass tournament. 99% of the gameplay is still single-pass; those who don't like that approach are still put out. Those who insist upon single-pass are also put out, obviously. I do not see what is gained by this.

@Morathi: That doesn't follow. There is a small, committed group of tournament players who insist upon single-pass play, and any tournament that wants their participation must cater to that audience.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Vang said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

@Jdkerr, I personally do not like single pass, but the majority of the host(even myself) do single pass tournaments. Crafter's Children for example is not single pass.

The argument for single pass is simple, you can effectively do a lot more and have a lot more wealth with non-single pass. Then again, there is a reason why single pass tournaments normally do not cater to weapon damage based characters, because they require a bit more work.

Either way, if your not happy with single-pass, nothing is preventing you from hosting tournaments that aren't.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

jdkerr said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Oh, I know. I am not complaining about single-pass tournaments (I frequently enter them, like I said), and I know that there are fun tournaments that are not single-pass (I have entered those, too). I am just saying that the almost-but-not-quite-single-pass approach of this ruleset does not make much sense to me.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

skoolbus said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

There's really nothing stopping you from playing single pass and just killing the countess once. That's what I generally do in tournaments that allow rerunning of bosses or areas or whatnot.

I don't know what I'm going to do about MFing, no 3soc ring mail or gambled/shopped items!

Anyway, I'm in with a 'Sin, Amber_Ghost. Going to give the ol' light trapper another try.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

skipjack said:

Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

My first tournament entry.

Code:

[b][U][I]ALIVE[/I][/U][/b]
Forum          Name            Class       Level   Act       WP       Score
Wolron         Spirit_Bull     Barbarian    17      A1   Black Marsh   243
Skunkbelly     Spirit-Skunk    Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
Vang           Spirit_Rod      Druid        1       A1   Rogue's camp    0   
Tupsi          Strangely_Frail Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's camp    0
skoolbus       Amber_Ghost     Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
skipjack       Ghost-Shift     Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
[B][I][U]DEAD/RETIRED[/U][/I][/B]

Added both myself and skoolbus to the table.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Wolron said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

jdkerr said:

jdkerr said:
I do not understand the purpose of the "run the Countess a bunch of times, but everything else is single pass" rule. It seems to me that it would keep out some of our more committed tournament players to no particularly transparent end.

I also do not see the need for a proliferation of permissible non-ethereal equipment. If the purpose of the tournament is to use ethereal items, why create long lists of non-ethereal items that are allowed? The three personalization quests seem a reasonable exception, if you want exceptions, and would require considerable judgment regarding which three items to keep.

I do not see the need to shape rules around the demands of certain melee attacks. If the ruleset makes a certain type of character largely impossible, then the proper response is to avoid selecting that type of character, not to demand that the rules be changed. In some tournaments, the non-melee damage is restricted or prohibited in order to maintain the spirit of the equipment restrictions. In this tournament, I see nothing wrong with pure melee damage being difficult and unpopular due to the equipment restrictions.

-----------------------------

With all that said, if I happened to find the Spectral Shard in this tournament, I would love to use it. It is one of my favorite items anyways, and it fits the theme well. I would probably consider using a personalization quest on it, just to satiate my attachment to it.

Click to expand...

As for the "running the countess" question. Single pass limits the amount of opportunity to find things and makes the tournament a bit tougher. That is the reason for single pass. However, when equipment is so hard to come by, it helps to be able to have a bunch of runes to make rune words and improve the equipment. That is the purpose. It is a balancing act and little more than that.

As for the proliferation of permissable non-ethereals, again it is an attempt to balance between the nearly impossible task of finding good ethereal items that don't break quickly and living long enough to get to the end game. The ghost/spirit/angel/etc. words are an opportunity to find some usable equipment, but don't expect to find a lot of them. Especially not when you are trying to find them.

As for the melee help given with the added strength in act 4. It still leaves the barbarian with a lack of strength to use the really great weapons that make him viable in Hell. If you don't believe that, give one a try:thumbsup:.

Thanks for the comments. If it were just me playing this tournament, I would have had no permissable items (other than anya personalization), and I would not have allowed strength additions at all, and I would have required everyone to be a barbarian. Alas, only I would have played in that one. It is always much more fun to have company, so the rules are to try to make the tournament attractive to a wider set of Diablo nuts.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

skipjack said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Quick Question: According to the rules, delaying the collection of the quest rewards from Larzuk and Anya is allowable. Does the same apply to Charsi?

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Wolron said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

skipjack said:

Quick Question: According to the rules, delaying the collection of the quest rewards from Larzuk and Anya is allowable. Does the same apply to Charsi?

Click to expand...

All quest rewards have to be taken by the end of the act. However, the cow level is considered part of act 5 so you can wait and see if you get something there before making your decision.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Mournblade said:

Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

I'm in with an amazon. Passives thru normal.

Code:

[b][U][I]ALIVE[/I][/U][/b]
Forum          Name            Class       Level   Act       WP       Score
Wolron         Spirit_Bull     Barbarian    17      A1   Black Marsh   243
Skunkbelly     Spirit-Skunk    Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
Vang           Spirit_Rod      Druid        1       A1   Rogue's camp    0   
Tupsi          Strangely_Frail Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's camp    0
skoolbus       Amber_Ghost     Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
skipjack       Ghost-Shift     Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
Mournblade     SpiritOfAnnaMay Amazon       1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
[B][I][U]DEAD/RETIRED[/U][/I][/B]

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Vang said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Code:

[b][U][I]ALIVE[/I][/U][/b] Forum Name Class Level Act WP Score Wolron Spirit_Bull Barbarian 17 A1 Black Marsh 243 Vang Spirit_Rod Druid 21 A2 Sewer's 165 Skunkbelly Spirit-Skunk Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 Tupsi Strangely_Frail Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's camp 0 skoolbus Amber_Ghost Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 skipjack Ghost-Shift Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 Mournblade SpiritOfAnnaMay Amazon 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 [B][I][U]DEAD/RETIRED[/U][/I][/B]

Spirit_Rod threw his first skill point into Raven, and thus a summoner was reborn. My trusty Raven and I got lucky and in the Moor found an ethereal armor with 2 sockets and some ethereal boots. Both of these proved to be the tipping point of survivability in the Den of Evil where they were heavily damaged and soon after discarded, but alas I was nearly level 6 by this time. Cold plains proved to give me up to level 8 and with three Spirit Wolves and a Rogue mercenary with a chipped topaz bow, we continued on. I ran the countess from 17 to 19 and got two rals, decided it was time to go considering I found a ethereal belt there, and two small shields as well as a nice +4 str amulet that would come in handy later on.

Did a full clear and after I got 4 points into Dire Wolves in Catacombs level two, I finally switched to them. Andariel dropped me an ethereal rare large shield, and upon identifying it, it came with the repair durability mod, 10% FHR, and some minor ED and fire resist. 24 strength was no problem with my 2 smc +1, gc +3, and my +4 strength amulet.

Having not found any ethereal wolf head, or more than one for that matter, the light belt got imbued. 10FHR, 10LR, 7 FR, and repairs durability as well. Not bad. At least I will always have available a belt and shield I suppose.

I tossed away around 30 gems I imagine as they kept dropping and not able to use atma until after Radament was vanquished proved to be tough. I did find one usable rare: Wraith Impaler a sabre that was unable to be used nor did I attack often with my wirt's leg.

Overall I found ethereal of the following: 2 Quilted Armors, 1 cap, 1 chain gloves, 2 boots, 1 sash, 1 light belt, 3 small shields, 2 wands, 1 throwing knives, 1 spiked club, 1 large shield on a full clear of players 8 and rerunning the countess.

Spirit_Rod the 21 Summoning Druid in Act2

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Morathi said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Wolron i suggest you make an official tourney thread and leave this one for discussion only

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

skunkbelly said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Code:

[b][U][I]ALIVE[/I][/U][/b] Forum Name Class Level Act WP Score Wolron Spirit_Bull Barbarian 17 A1 Black Marsh 243 Vang Spirit_Rod Druid 21 A2 Sewer's 165 Skunkbelly Spirit-Skunk Necromcr 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 Tupsi Strangely_Frail Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's camp 0 skoolbus Amber_Ghost Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 skipjack Ghost-Shift Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 Mournblade SpiritOfAnnaMay Amazon 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 [B][I][U]DEAD/RETIRED[/U][/I][/B]

Wanted to update the table to reflect a change for my character choice... I was planning on an assassin, but already have three assassins going at various points in the game, and no necros... so necro it is, instead.

Spirit-Skunk has started his journey, and it's interesting so far... he's starting with the summoning tree, and will be a pretty standard skellimancer (a build I haven't played in a couple of years).

Punching things was a little silly, and of course slow on players 8, but it worked, and now Spirit-Skunk is a hair way from level 11, with base strength and a couple of junky items. But his army now consists of a Gumby, a Rogue, and four skeletons... so he's doing just fine, even without curses to speed things along. He got all the way through the Den and Blood Moor before finding anything ethereal to wear... but in the Cold Plains, he found an ethereal one-socketed buckler, and an ethereal set of javelins. He later found an ethereal one-socket cap in the Crypt or Mausoleum, can't remember which.

Anyway, no truly notable finds, aside from the 3 ethereal items (I also found an ethereal sorc orb, but obviously that wasn't any good to me). No uniques or sets yet to break my heart, and no rares with usable names. I have a pretty substantial bank roll at this point, though, so once things start to get rougher, I'll do some gambling.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Grisu said:

Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Code:

[b][U][I]ALIVE[/I][/U][/b]
[highlight]Forum          Name            Class       Level   Act       WP       Score[/highlight]
Wolron         Spirit_Bull     Barbarian    17      A1   Black Marsh   243
Vang           Spirit_Rod      Druid        21      A2   Sewer's       165  
Skunkbelly     Spirit-Skunk    Necromcr     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
Tupsi          Strangely_Frail Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's camp    0
skoolbus       Amber_Ghost     Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
skipjack       Ghost-Shift     Assassin     1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
Mournblade     SpiritOfAnnaMay Amazon       1       A1   Rogue's Camp    0
Grisu           GhostInTheShell Paladin        1        A1   Rogue's Camp     0


[B][I][U]DEAD/RETIRED[/U][/I][/B]

Joined the fray! :jig:

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

ChrisTheMean said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Sounds like fun. I have started Wraithel (pronounced like Rachel with a lisp). She is a zon who has started punching and slapping through act 1. She has so far found eth gloves (broken) 3 eth bucklers (1 broken) and an eth cap. All p8 so far except Blood Raven, who was taken at p5 as she was running out of throwing potions. No weapons yet, but a 1-2 cold damage sc is helping her tank for her new rogue.

edit: Forgot to mention that she will be using passives for Normal, then will add jav or bow in NM depending on what she finds (assuming she can kill Diablo and Baal with Wirt's Leg).

Code:

[b][U][I]ALIVE[/I][/U][/b] [highlight]Forum Name Class Level Act WP Score[/highlight] Wolron Spirit_Bull Barbarian 17 A1 Black Marsh 243 Vang Spirit_Rod Druid 21 A2 Sewer's 165 ChrisTheMean Wraithel Amazon 11 A1 Stony Field 110 Skunkbelly Spirit-Skunk Necromcr 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 Tupsi Strangely_Frail Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's camp 0 skoolbus Amber_Ghost Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 skipjack Ghost-Shift Assassin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 Mournblade SpiritOfAnnaMay Amazon 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 Grisu GhostInTheShell Paladin 1 A1 Rogue's Camp 0 [B][I][U]DEAD/RETIRED[/U][/I][/B]

edit: a question for the host regarding item names:
so one could use, for example, the Spirit Shroud, but not a white Ghost Armor, correct?

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Wolron said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Morathi said:

Wolron i suggest you make an official tourney thread and leave this one for discussion only

Click to expand...

Is there some way to link them so that newcomers would be able to find both threads easily?

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Wolron said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

ChrisTheMean said:

a question for the host regarding item names:

so one could use, for example, the Spirit Shroud, but not a white Ghost Armor, correct?

Click to expand...

The name of the item must have one of the four key words: GHOST, SPIRIT, ANGEL or WRAITH in it. A plain old Ghost armor would be fine because its name is "Ghost Armor". Of course that makes it easy to get a rather good piece of armor, but you have to live to get to act 5 first!:nod:

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Morathi said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Wolron said:

Is there some way to link them so that newcomers would be able to find both threads easily?

Click to expand...

Uhhhh....i guess the easiest way is to copy the link of this thread into the Official tournament thread.

Don't wont to combine both discussion and progress in one thread. Could become confusing for alot of people.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Grisu said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Wolron said:

The name of the item must have one of the four key words: GHOST, SPIRIT, ANGEL or WRAITH in it. A plain old Ghost armor would be fine because its name is "Ghost Armor". Of course that makes it easy to get a rather good piece of armor, but you have to live to get to act 5 first!:nod:

Click to expand...

Would it be allowed to use a socketed Ghost Armor and make a runeword out of it? Because then the Ghost Armor would have another name (like "Stealth"), and your ruling says:

You may wear or wield only ethereal items, rings, amulets and those special items that contain the letters SPIRIT, WRAITH, GHOST or ANGEL at the beginning of a word in their name.

Click to expand...

Also, does "Arch-Angel's" as a prefix count towards quoted rule? Or rather not, because it's not at the beginning of the word?

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

Tupsi said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Oh, it seems my character name is a little inappropriate. I knew I was maybe bypassing the rules a bit since my char name didn't have anything to do with angels, but I didn't read the rules carefully enough to actually notice my mistake. I may just have to kill her and start a new char, but I'm kind of keen to HC Assassins so maybe I'll just give her a shot anyway without personalized items.

Grisu · Oct 8, 2022

ChrisTheMean said:
Re: Spirit Tournament Plan

Yeah, we should clarify some of this stuff before people get too far in.
These might be good examples to give a yes or no on:

1. Ghost Armor
2. Imp Suit Ghost Armor (rare)
3. 'Stealth' Ghost Armor (RW)
4. Wraith Spike (rare javelin)
5. Javelin of the Wraith (magic)
6. Strangely_Frail's Skin of the Vipermagi