[2013] Tourney - Alphabet Soup [by Sid]

[Grisu]

DISCLAIMER: Please do NOT post in this thread yet. We still need to migrate all posts from the old thread on diabloii.net to this thread. Once all posts from this thread have been migrated, the disclaimer will be removed and the thread open to new posts.

This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by Sid on Aug 4, 2013. The last post was made Aug 8, 2015.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

I recently re-installed D2 and felt like some tourney action so of course I came here. I found there weren't any new tourneys, and the ones that were still going seemed to be winding down. Soooo.... time for a new one. Here's what I came up with. This is my second try at starting a tourney here - the other one didn't really take off (twinked items tourney). I think it might have been too complicated and too many rules. This one is much simpler, and hopefully you'all will want to participate. I hope someone can make a table for me... cuz I don't remember how. My character is an Amazon, HC, named Zandra, still level 1 (haven't started yet). I promise to check this thread on a regular basis and answer any and all rules questions as they come up. This tourney is just for fun - no prizes but the glory!


Intro
The Gods looked down upon Bart, the Broadaxe-wielding Bash/Battle Cry Barbarian and considered his fate.
"He is my Champion. Strong he is, and pure of heart" said Talon, the God of Strength.
Xara, the Goddess of Chaos, stifled a yawn. "That he may be - but let's see if he can handle this..."


General Rules
1. HC or SC - IF you play SC, you are out of the tourney after your first death.
2. You can re-enter the tourney with a different character as many times as you like.
3. NOT single pass - rerun as much as you like.
4. FAM allowed, ATMA/GoMule allowed only as extended stash. You should probably start a new stash dedicated to your tourney character, and don't use it for anything else.
5. Any /players settings are allowed, and you can change it as you like.
6. You don't have to complete all quests or get all waypoints.
7. No MP. This is the SPF, after all.
8. Any version that includes LoD.
9. No twinking or trading allowed. You can't mule anything onto your character, except stuff in your extended stash that your character previously found/bought/gambled and muled to the stash.
10. Respec is allowed.


Tourney Specific Rules
1. Any skills you pump past Skill Level 1 must have a skill name that starts with a DIFFERENT LETTER than any other skill that you pump past Skill Level 1. For example, if you have a Sorceress with Fireball level 20, you may not pump Fire Mastery beyond Skill Level 1. Merc skills are irrelavant, and need not be considered.
2. All items equipped on your character and on your merc must have a name that starts with a DIFFERENT LETTER than any other item you or your merc equip. For example, if you are wearing a Dragon's Ring of ____, you (or your Merc) may not carry a Deadly Longsword of _____. Only the first letter of the item name matters.
3. Runeword items are considered to have 2 names, and thus each use up 2 letters - the item name proper as well as the rune string that creates that item. For example, if you create an Enigma, the letters E (for Enigma) and J (for Jah rune, which is the first rune for an Enigma) are both used. You may not use a runeword item if both of it's names start with the same letter. For example, Beast is disallowed because it's first rune is Ber.
Note that this rule ONLY applies to runewords - not all socketed items. For example, it is permissable to put a Shael rune in a socketed Sharp Claymore so long as it doesn't create a runeword item.
4. Consumable items are exempt (potions, scrolls, arrows, bolts, etc.)
5. Quest items are also exempt.
6. Note that personalizing an item via Anya's quest will change the first letter of that item's name. Wise players will consider this when naming their characters.
7. Charms are NOT exempt. If you pick up a charm and ID it and find that it violates the rules, you must either unequip the conflicting item, or immediately go back to town and stash or sell the offending the charm.
8. The 'first letter' restrictions of skills and items are mutually exclusive. Skills and items are totally separate for this purpose. For example, it is permissable for a Paladin with 20 levels of Sacrifice skill to wear a Serpent's Ring (not that he would want to).
9. The most important rule of all.... HAVE FUN! That's what these tourneys are all about, right? Put some thought into your character and your equipment, challenge yourself, and have a good time!

 

[Grisu]

9. Starting gear is NOT exempt. I haven't actually checked to see if the starting gear of any class would violate the rules, but if it does, you have to drop something before leaving the Rogue Encampment. (If somebody actually checks this, I'll ammend or delete this rule as warranted).

Javelin/Buckler
Short Sword/Buckler
Hand Axe/Buckler
Katar/Buckler
Club/Buckler
Wand
Short Staff

I'm taking a little break from D2, but I might join if I start to feel nostalgic.

 

[Grisu]

Really good idea

 

[Grisu]

Thanks srrw! Original post edited to remove the note about starting gear, since none of the starting gear configurations violate the rules.

Thanks pharphis, hope you will play! I will be starting Zandra this afternoon.

 

[Grisu]

Thanks srrw! Original post edited to remove the note about starting gear, since none of the starting gear configurations violate the rules.

Thanks pharphis, hope you will play! I will be starting Zandra this afternoon.

I'm thinking maybe a golemancer since I died on my last one. Or maybe another rabies druid...

What's the rule on items used for golems?

 

[Grisu]

Sounds kinda fun, I'll think about a character I might want to play.

 

[Grisu]

What's the rule on items used for golems?

No restriction. It's not an item equipped on you or your Merc. And I don't see any reason to punish a golemancer over and above other classes.

 

[Grisu]

No restriction. It's not an item equipped on you or your Merc. And I don't see any reason to punish a golemancer over and above other classes.

Sweet

I kinda feel like multipass with make a golemancer more bearable. Full clears are sooooooo slow

 

[Grisu]

Also excited for multipass, full clears can be a bit of a disincentive to play for short periods of time. I think I'm going to try a Paladin, we'll see how it goes.

 

[Grisu]

Welcome kestegs and endlesscircuit!

Updated General Rules in first post (1.10+, no MP, no twinking).

Looking for advice... since this is meant to be a casual tourney and there are no prizes anyway, should we just get rid of the scoring altogether? Seems like peeps like the idea of multi-pass, and I don't want to create a disincentive to play multi-pass if that's what you want to do. Is there really much point to keeping score?

 

[Grisu]

Probably not a lot of point. I'll certainly be doing multi pass myself.

I was thinking it might be fun to keep track of either what letters you have in your gear or how many letters you have.

 

[Grisu]

As someone who has yet to guardian a tourney char, I'll give this a shot. Starting a sorc, hopefully I don't bite the dust in a1 hell like my last couple of attempts.

 

[Grisu]

Welcome dysania! Hope your fate is better this time. Myself, truth be told, I'll be happy just to get to a1 Hell.

Probably not a lot of point. I'll certainly be doing multi pass myself.

I was thinking it might be fun to keep track of either what letters you have in your gear or how many letters you have.

Updated first post - axed the scoring system and all references to it. Clarified extended stash rules (you CAN mule stuff onto your character that your character previously muled off - you just can't twink).

I like the idea of keeping track of how many letters you have on the table. Listing them all might make the table a bit unwieldy though - probably better if people just post that info in character updates if they want.

Could you (or someone that knows how to do it) start the table?

 

[Grisu]

I started a druid, who will likely employ bowling and 1 summoning wolf/bear and a sage of some kind.

A couple things that came up:

rare items: go by the name, right? So, "dire crack scepter" Uses up a D.
superior/cracked items. "Superior buckler", does the S for superior count?

 

[Grisu]

Yes to both. Those two items would use up D and S. The first letter of the first word of the item name is what counts. The only exceptions are runeword items, which each use up two letters per the rules.

Updated the first post to clarify a couple things about runeword items.

 

[Grisu]

Rules for respec?
(den of evil quest reward in 1.13)

 

[Grisu]

Respec is allowed.

 

[Grisu]

I easily rolled through act 1 this morning. All on/p8. Molten boulder is pretty OP early on, it 1-shots almost anything.

Arranging my items proved to be far more difficult than I had anticipated though. Several letters proved to be far to common, namely S. It took me until level 18 to complete all my gear, and I didn't even bother trying to gear the merc!

I found something interesting though: if you put a gem in a normal item it becomes a "gemmed armor" but if you put a gem in a superior item it stays a "superior armor" so you can get both your helm and armor socketed with topazes if you want.

 

[Grisu]

I noticed the same thing with the letter S at low level. Sash, strong, studded, skullcap, superior - I had to do some shuffling to keep it to only 1 S. L too. Leather, light (as in light belt, light helm, etc).

My bowazon is only level 7 so far and yet to kill Blood Raven. It's been slower going with her than it probably was for your bowler, mostly because I've been using normal attack with a crap bow. Just don't have enough mana to use skills very much. I did finally get a 3-socketed bow (just a hunter's bow, unfortunately) and upped a topaz to flawed via gem shrine, so at least it won't take me 5 arrows to kill zombies anymore. Still 2 open sockets because I'm waiting for 2 more topaz.

Nice catch about the 'gemmed' and 'superior'.

I'm going to go FA/Strafezon. I want to go cold for safety reasons. Only problems I foresee are:
1. Cold Arrow and Critical Strike - CA is a synergy for FA, and therefore it will go to 20, which means I can only put 1 point in Crit.
2. Penetration and Pierce - I'll pump Pierce and have to settle for 1 hard point in Penetration, so my AR may be a little on the low side.

I'm hoping to find decent +skillers eventually to help with those lacks. I don't think those problems are too serious though - I probably wouldn't have pumped either Penetration or Crit past 5 anyway (but just 1 does seem a bit weak). I should be able to max Valk to 20 with the points I save.

I plan to make an Edge bow as soon as I find the runes - the rarest one is Amn, which shouldn't be a problem since we can run Countess.

Late game I'll probably run hell Andy and Meph quite a bit, at least until I get a Kuko or Hellrack or something else to help with cold/physical immunes. Hopefully I can find a ring with TP charges so I can moat-trick Mephie. That's if I even live that long in the first place.

 

[Grisu]

I fingered out how to post the table.

Forum Name  Hero Name    Lv Class   Build             HC/SC Location   Item Letters
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sid         Zandra       7  Amazon  FA/Strafer        HC    Act I Normal        6   
kestegs     ?            ?  Druid   Bowler/Summoner   ?     Act II Normal       ?
pharphis    ?            ?  Necro?  Golemancer?       ?     ?                   ?
dysania     ?            ?  Sorc?   ?                 ?     ?                   ?