[2015] Fortune and Glory: The Indy Jones Tournament [by japanzaman]

Jan 3, 2007
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DISCLAIMER: Migration finished :)

This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by jiansonz on Sep 12, 2015. The last post was made Nov 20, 2015.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net)


indyjones.jpeg


Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.


Let’s face it, we’re all chasing something in Diablo 2. Some pursue the ever-elusive “grail,” while others amass fortunes in MFO’s and other tests of skill and endurance. But for everyone, it’s the thrill of the hunt and the danger in the journey that keeps bringing them back for more. This is a tournament designed to challenge even the most experienced of explorers, and should not be entered lightly. Luck will play a role, as it always does, but careful planning, creativity, and patience will also be rewarded. So if this sounds like something you’d be interested in, by all means proceed. But be warned, this will be an adventure unlike any other.


GENERAL RULES

1. HC, or SC with disqualification upon first death. Your game is finished upon dying or completing all the Quests and Cows for each difficulty level. At that point your score is set and you cannot earn any more points.

2. Single-pass, untwinked only. (You may sprint from a WP to an uncleared area when starting a new session. Keep kills to an absolute minimum while maintaining safety, but all treasures are off limits) If you need to S&E to not die while running through a previously cleared area that is acceptable.

3. You may defer completion of "rewards" quests (Charsi Imbue, Anya Personalization, etc.) and return for the rewards at any point, but remember that you will not receive points for certain quests until the reward has been used.

4. ATMA/GoMule may be used as an extended stash

5. You may sign-up any time but can only enter ONCE. Choose wisely.

6. Version 1.10+, RRM/RWM/FAM allowed. No MP or Trading.

7. Save + Exit to avoid death is NOT allowed, and results in disqualification from the tournament. (you may, however, S+E if running from a previously cleared area and you get yourself in trouble.)


TOURNAMENT SPECIFIC RULES

1. You are only allowed to use items/equipment/gold found in “treasures” or items given to you as rewards for completing quests. Under no circumstances are items/gold dropped from monsters or bosses to be used or sold unless they are specifically required to complete a quest. This applies to any item including potions, keys, and scrolls! It is recommended that you clear enemies away from chests so you know where the items come from. If you are not sure where an item came from, you cannot use it!

2. A “treasure” is designated as any non-enemy item on the map that can spawn items, including treasure chests, racks, tombs, shrines, etc. Enemy corpses are NOT treasures.

3. No shopping is allowed, as great adventurers must live off the land, but gambling is permitted. You are allowed to repair your equipment. You are allowed to sell legitimately gained items to use for gambling or repair.

4. The cube may be used as long as the components are all legally obtained.

5. You can use whatever player settings you wish for each area, but you cannot change the setting once you have entered the area. For example, no killing the monsters at P1 and then opening the chests on P7.

6. No rerolling maps. This means if you need to go back to a previous difficulty level to use a reward you need to wait until you are about to start a new act or get to another area where you would get a clean break (Arcane Sanctuary, etc.).

7. No restarting a level to reroll the monsters, including the Ancients.

8. Items that you need to temporarily hold in order to complete certain quests (the Staff of Kings, for example) may be kept in inventory but must not be used or equipped at any time. The Book of Skill is not allowed as it is dropped by an enemy and is not necessary to complete the quest. EDIT: You will still have to use it to make sure the quest stays complete, but you cannot use the extra level.


SCORING

This is a score based tournament, which means it is possible to win without completely finishing the game. Here is how your score is calculated.


Final Score = (Character Lvl) + (Quest Points) + (Treasure Points)


Quest Points

1 point for each Normal quest and cows (28 total points)

2 points for Nightmare quests and cows (56 total points)

3 points for Hell quests and cows (84 total points)

*To receive the point(s) for the cow level you must kill the cow king. You may only open the cow level one time per difficulty. A quest is not considered complete until the quest box has been grayed out, so you will need to use your rewards in some cases to receive the point(s) for the quest.


Treasure Points

1 point for any rune obtained from a treasure

3 points for any set item obtained from a treasure or gambling

5 points for any unique item obtained from a treasure or gambling


All tournament participants are responsible for posting their own updates to the score table, provided below. You do not need to re-sort the table every time, just update your character data and attach the updated code-table to your post. I'll tidy up the table from time to time. Those interested can use this excel spreadsheet to keep track of your score (link).


So if you still feel up to the task, feel free to toss your fedora hat into the fray and test your treasure hunter skills. But be forewarned: many of your favorite strategies and approaches to the normal game may not work as well on this journey and may in fact result in an early deeds. Unique and creative gameplay is encouraged; shameless Indiana Jones references and jokes will also be well received. Fortune and glory await!

Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
 
Last edited:
Finally! [emoji14]

I'm not sure what I want to play yet, I've got a couple ideas of builds that would be good I think. I also have a few other projects going, so might not start right away.

IMO you should not make people use the skill book, as long as they kill radament. I think I'd likely accidentally screw up my points, but maybe that's just me. Either way it's not a big deal really.
 
Yay! I'll start right away with Sophia_Hapgood, probably a Lightning/Blizzard sorceress. Let's see if she's up to the task :)

@japanzaman: Hope that RL loosened its grip on you!

Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Grisu         | Sorceress |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
IMO you should not make people use the skill book, as long as they kill radament. I think I'd likely accidentally screw up my points, but maybe that's just me. Either way it's not a big deal really.
The problem is that you cannot completely finish the quest unless you use the book, which I did not realize until looking further into issue. You actually complete the quest After you talk to Atma, but if you do not use the book the quest will be incomplete the next time you load the game if you move the Book of Skill into your Atma stash. You will then have to kill Radamant again, as you won't be able to use the book, even if you try to put it back into your inventory. Leaving the extra skill point unused seems to be the easiest solution.

Hope that RL loosened its grip on you!

Hmmm. A little. In some ways I just needed a break!

Willie the Amazon has completed Act I and parts of Act II, mostly on player 7. Actually found a unique (Gorefoot) and some runes as well!

Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A2 N   | 23  |   6    |   9    | 38
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Grisu         | Sorceress |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Last edited:
Sweet, been waiting for this one! I'm in.

Gerhalt the Rabid Summoner is more than happy to join the fray!

Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A2 N   | 23  |   6    |   9    | 38
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Grisu         | Sorceress |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Pb_pal        |   Druid   |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Makes sense about the quest, I assumed you could just pop it back in later to use.

You seriously are doing a rabid summoner? That's the exact build I was going to do! Great minds think alike I guess! [emoji14] I guess I'll do my other idea then!
 
Willie continues to progress through normal. No other unique drops yet, but the runes have been aplenty at P7. Unless I make a serious error there probably won't be much resistance until Hell. Gotta hope for those drops.

Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A3 N   | 30  |  14    |   19   | 63
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Grisu         | Sorceress |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Pb_pal        |   Druid   |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Since it isn't specified in the rules, I just want to clarify whether or not gold piles spawned on the map (ie. Countess' Tower lvl 5) count as treasure? I think from the old thread you said they would count, even though they aren't 'dropped' by a treasure. Just wanted to confirm before Gerhalt sets out. :)

@kestegs - Great minds do think alike! And Gerhalt wouldn't mind another Rabid Summoner in the tournament, it would be interesting to see how different they end up being with gear being such a crapshoot!
 
felixbavaria said:
Can we use our starting gear?

EDIT: Can we buy arrows/bolts? (Since throwing weapons can be refilled by repairing)
Starting gear is acceptable, but shopping is off limits even for bolts and arrows. Considering how many bolts/arrows get dropped from chests and the fact that an extended stash may be used, I don't see this being a problem as long as you take care to pick them up and store them.


Willie has been progressing nicely at P7 and is about to start Act V of normal. Got lucky and found a Sigon's Guard in the Outer Steppes, my second non-rune treasure find. I'll give a more detailed write-up once normal is complete.

Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A5 N   | 33  |  20    |   26   | 79
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Grisu         | Sorceress |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Pb_pal        |   Druid   |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Last edited:
I don't think casters are as cheesy in this tournament as they are in others due to the difficulties of equipping a merc and the scarcity of mana potions.

Not sure if I can invest a significant amount of time into this, but if I can, I'll be playing a Poison Javazon named Lindie. Will add her to the table if I make some progress.

Thanks!
 
@japanzaman - First off, I really enjoy that spreadsheet. Good work, the effort is much appreciated. :)

@JudgeHolden - I wouldn't say it's cheesy at all. CE isn't nearly as effective at higher /p settings anyways, so it really only takes off in Hell. IMO if you've made it that far, you've earned it.

--

Super excited to start this one out. I debated taking an assassin simply for the fact that I wouldn't have to worry about keys, but the pull was too strong in another direction. Thus, Gerhalt the Rabid Summoner Druid was born. The only thing I'm worried about is not having any natural way to boost resistances, or real crowd control. Oh well, we'll see how it goes, at least our life total shouldn't be a problem. :p So Gerhalt stepped out into the moor, and the first rock he kicked over provided him with magical armour and boots. Not a bad start, hopefully this is a sign of things to come! Corpsefire was no problem for Gerhalt, the vine and his new Spirit Wolf.

Poison Creeper is doing wonders for the early game, and we easily moved up through the Cold Plains where we found our first belt, and hired Amplisa the Fire Rogue before heading over to see Blood Raven. She turned out to be no problem whatsoever, as our army easily overpowered hers.

Coldcrow got completely bowled over by our team, and the blues were beginning to pile up, so Gerhalt pushed onwards to try and find Cain so he could identify everything that was sitting in his stash. There really isn't that much to say about Gerhalt so far, his team is extremely powerful and since he is pumping Posion Creeper anyways, it is just mowing through everything. Treehead surprised us quite literally right outside the exit of the Underground Passage, but he was easily dispatched and Cain was saved without issue.

We also cleared out the Countess' Tower, where we popped our first chipped topaz, sweet! We have a little bit of MF going from our rings, but nothing really major so far.

We finally hit 18 in the Barracks and the real fun could begin with Rabies. Well, sort of. gerhalt's mana pool is atrocious right now, and since we can't buy mana pots we can only use Rabies fairly sparingly. It's quite fun when we do get to use it though, so I'm looking forward to once Gerhalt can pile up some extra blue stuff. We also switch to Carrion Vine, so our life total stays topped up most of the time. I kept track of our bookcases, so I figured I'd detail them here in case others are curious.

Barracks (3 Bookcases):
- 1 Scroll of ID
- 1 Tome of ID
- 1 Tome of TP (Woo!)

Jail (7(!) Bookcases):
- 2 Scroll of TP
- 1 Scroll of ID
- 2 Tomes of ID
- 2 Tomes of TP

Wow, we weren't expecting to see 3 Tomes of TP in normal, so that was a huge delight. We are now technically set to do cows in all 3 difficulties, which is really cool!

Gerhalt offed the Smith and took the hammer back to Charsi. Not being one to wait when a shiny treasure is waiting for him, Gerhalt got her to make him his reward straight away:

TNZ0TO8.jpg

.
Well, it's not terrible. It's not as good as the pelt he currently wears, but I'll hang on to it and use it for the Andy fight for the increased PR.

We had one scary moment in the Catacombs when Gerhalt unshifted while amped. Luckily, they were distracted by his many minions, but still a frightening moment anyways! The rest of the trek to Andy was easy, so easy in fact that I forgot to lower the /p setting before stepping down the stairs. Looks like we're taking Andy at /p8! This was a bit worrisome since we had no antidotes for pre-buffing, but we had to give it a shot so we parked her by the stairs and returned through a TP, donned our PR pelt from the Charsi imbue, and approached the Maiden of Anguish. Amplisa died almost immediately and we figured it would be futile to waste our gold on raising her just to die right away, so Gerhalt kept at it with his summons. Well, before we knew it we were entirely out of healing pots (although we still had a few rejuvs), so the fight divulged into a frantic game of "throw a dire wolf at her face, bite with rabies and run before she killed the wolf".

3IXmoqj.jpg

.
Once we got her down to low enough health, we brought Amplisa back to help finish her off. Okay, that was the scariest normal Andariel fight I've had in a while, and we are completely out of healers for the start of Act II, but at least we made it!



Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A5 N   | 33  |  20    |   26   | 79
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Grisu         | Sorceress |   A1 N   |  1  |   0    |   0    | 1
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Pb_pal        |   Druid   |   A2 N   | 20  |   6    |   0    | 26
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
I started my sorceress yesterday. Her name is TheRealElsa, and she will be a light/fire Sorc, unlike her fake counterpart. (There's an IJ reference in there, just in case you didn't realize) She will use charged bolt for sure, and either blaze or firewall. I keep going back and forth on which one I want, but will make a decision soon.

This was probably the most difficult start to a character I've ever had. The combination of no potions, no scrolls, and not much gear was almost too much to handle. I ran out of potions several times early on, and had to walk back to town just to heal. Corpsefire was also really tough. There were times when I was fighting his pack with less than 15 life to try to conserve potions. But I finally got him and moved on. Once I got to the cold Plains it was better, I could abuse the wp and heal at akara. I also gambled a large axe, which helped me actually kill things again. Things got way better after I got my rogue, as I was lucky enough to find her a rare short bow in the Plains with added elemental and poison damage. Blood raven was tough also, she had a nasty bow, which had amp. I pretty much ran around trying to keep her focused on me while the merc shot her.

This is much tougher than I thought, but it's also very fun. I get so excited every time I see anything to click on!

Ready to head to the stony field next!

Any thoughts on blaze vs firewall?
Blaze is great for bosses, and can put out some serious dps. Firewall probably works better in conjunction with cb, as I could cast it and then spam cb.
 
Sophia Hapgood's adventures started with a disappointment: No key, no loot...

So I had to revert back to good old Indy Jones fighting style for a while: "If you break my things, I'll break your bones!"

I managed to assemble some gold and items though, and in the end Bloodraven was bested after minutes of run and gut/punch/hit. Soon after, i found my first superchest and could fill/upgrade some of my equipment slots. The second one was not quite as good...or was it a sprakly chest? Ah, I forgot, it's already been some days :)

This drop got me excited and an additional 5 points and ist still in use. (Pelta Lunata)
It complemented my main weapon for most of Act I well: Bone Razor

Of course, I wouldn't be a treasure hunter with some (gambling) luck: These Boots of Fortune go along well with this tournament's theme :)

OF course I stored all potions I could find to be well equipped for future fights. I S&E after each WP to mule off things could probably use later on, which of course was a pain in the somewhere to do. Town trips, too, were predominantly done via WP to save TP scrolls, although I found plenty. No Tome though, which makes me a sad panda :-(

Andariel was surprisingly easy due to Static Field and some Lightnings afterwards. So now I'm looking forward to Act II!

Oh, btw - I somehow forgot to mention my second unique drop: A Nagelring! I must have a screenshot somewhere, but I'm currently at work, so I have to dig it up at home...but yeah, my MF is skyrocketing high!! :-D

@Pb_pal: Nice writeup and good progress *thumbsup*
@kestegs: I usually prefer FW for the greater damage and because it's better against ranged attackers. FW sorceress does require a sturdy merc though most of the time to tank while you spam FW on top of your opponents...of course, Blaze is THE Duriel killer *g* since you want to use CB, I'd probably go for FW. If your other offensive skill was something like FO or Blizzard, I'd use Blaze probably...oh well, I'm undecided.
 
btw, for those of you who like statistics - here is a table of all the treasure objects I found:

6 Sparkly Chest
215 Chest
16 Hidden Stash
19 Loose Boulder
55 Dead Rogue
24 Locked Chest
16 Loose Rock
297 Barrel
2 Grave
2 Superchest (?probably?)
47 Casket
3 Armor Stand
9 Weapon Rack
3 Bed
2 Body
2 Poison Shrine
1 Skeleton

P.S.: I hope we are allowed to pick up potions from a poison shrine? Didn't use them anyways...

And no, I won't continue to keep track, because it is time consuming as hell :p

And here's my current score (Didn't collect the Charsi Quest yet):

Code:
   FORUM NAME   |   CLASS   | PROGRESS | LVL | QPOINT | TPOINT | TOTAL
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  japanzaman    |   Amazon  |   A5 N   | 33  |  20    |   26   | 79
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Grisu         | Sorceress |   A1 N   | 20  |   5    |  10    | 35
----------------|-----------|----------|-----|--------|--------|------
  Pb_pal        |   Druid   |   A2 N   | 20  |   6    |   0    | 26
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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