[2015] The Committed Tournament [by kestegs]

[Vildecor]

Maggot Lair is done:

It was not nearly as bad as I had thought. It was actually quite fun (although it's frustrating sometimes when mages block the golem and other mages). One reason it was pretty smooth is that the mages are powerful enough for just one of them to take down an enemy, then I can raise a skeleton from that corpse and establish a front.

I've been looking into what controls the mages' damage output. The Arreat Summit has good info. Not the written description of the skill (that bit is partly obsolete and can in part be considered downright misleading) but the technical aspects, numbers etc. are good.
Mage missiles have their own 'level'. It's increased by 1 for every extra skill in Skeleton Mastery and is also raised by 1 for every second level (the even ones) of Raise Skeletal Mage. After RSM level 3, you get an extra mage every 3 levels. So the best partial 'stopping points' (where you've just gained an increase in both missiles damage and number of mages and can take a couple of levels to develop other skills) for the skill as you level up are levels 6, 12 and 18. (+skills need to be adjusted for, of course). In comparison, going from level 4 to level 5 only raises the Defense a little, and the mana cost by 1.

OK, so getting Mastery up is the best key to their power. Since they rarely die at this stage, it works fine to load up on +skills for Mastery on the weapon switch, then I can be free to use whatever I want on the other switch.
Mago curently has a (shopped) wand with +3 Skeleton Mastery and a necro head with +1. I am going to 'normalize' a couple of low quality heads to try to beat that +1. Since ilvl is set to 1 with that recipe, 80% of the staffmods will be level 1 skills. I am also going to 'normalize' low quality wands of the types that can get two sockets. A 'White' wand can potentially get +7 to Mastery.

It's really annoying in this tourney that necro heads have 2 sockets max. There are only two 2s shield runewords. They are both awesome but they also both have MF!

Mago's "fighter" gear is a 'Steel' Flail and a Glowing Bone Shield of Deflecting. Blocking currently at 61%.

You can see my first Iron Golem is the screenie. Here in the early game I am going to make them mostly from found stuff that is worth very little (too little to pick up and sell), in this case an ethereal stack of Short Spears. Golem fit right in in the Maggot Lair - it's poison immune and has 78% lightning resist (50 base + 28 from level 1 Summon Resist).
Let's see if I can keep it alive for a couple of areas...


Mago the Golemancing Lord of Mages, level 24, Lost City next

 

[Vildecor]

Count me in with a Titan Wolf Drood. Always wanted to make one of those.

Question: If we go act 2 merc, can we re-hire to swap auras?

 

[Vildecor]

Krelos, Oriana the CA rogue and his band of summons have just rescued Mr. Cain @ level 15. Specializing in the summoning tree with an emphasis in skeleton mages. Even stat distribution.

I've been shopping a lot for +3 SM or +3 RSM, but haven't found any without all the other fluff I don't want to have to pay extra GP for.

@jiansonz - That wand must have been pretty pricy with +3 SM. I think we will slightly differ from your build by sticking with Oriana the rogue with a heavy, poison damaging bow and primarily using Gumby, since he gets the biggest life bonuses in NM and Hell and he slows stuff, which we will need I'm sure.

That being said I am already enjoying this build more than Ema the Poisonzon, but then she has been flying solo thus far. Looking forward to getting the Iron Wolf with her to spice things up some.

 

[Vildecor]

Barry slay Andariel last night, but I was too tired to post. Going to run Act II at /p3. Have yet to decide on a merc, so I am still solo.

Hooray for Bone Shield of Deflecting

 

[Vildecor]

Krelos and company just killed The Countess and she dropped us a Tir and a better set of rare hard leather armor. We've lucked out and been able to purchase a +3 SM wand with no extra fluff for a nice bargain price. Much cheaper than the SS of the +3 RSM wand I seen after that. I'm able to cast the mages and golem, switch weapon and shield and still get three skeleton warriors with only one hard point. Pretty sweet!



We've assembled a nice balanced crew at level 16 and haven't had much difficulty raising the preferred fire and lightning mages.
Swapped out Oriana's hunter's bow with a long bow with three chipped emeralds for more damage, which we will switch back to fire damage before reaching Andy.



This boss had no time to teleport before he felt the full wrath of my skele-mage fireballs.

 

[Vildecor]

Yeh, jiansonz knows how to get that early gold income in! I'd even wager he had plenty left over after his purchase!

 

[Vildecor]

The Cold Raven was a bit tough, as usual, but only due to initially stupid play. Once I rectified that, she went quietly. I picked up whatshername, took her to a crypt and led her straight into the middle of two mummy boss packs. Whatshername went quietly after that.

Fatema is still in the Cold Plains. She'll run through at P1 before starting the Stony Field.

Currently level 11, sitting on 6 spare skill points that should probably go into cold or fire arrow, but not until later.

Fatema the Bowazon, level 11, Cold Plains. Next Up: Cain Rescue.

 

[Vildecor]

Almost level 22, Barry had to turn the difficulty down. His Spiked Club just wasn't cutting it towards the end of Act I, and have been running Act II at /p3 so far. Cleared the Sewers and Radamant without much hassle, even if it did take almost 3 hours. Well, I did clear the first map and tomb outside of Lut Gholein as well. Made myself a 'Steel' Flail, and it is a MAJOR upgrade. Even if the average damage is about the same as before, the speed is a huge difference. Not getting interrupted nearly as often is helping get more damage on the board. I'm gonna call it a night.

 

[Vildecor]

Is gambling allowed?

Still in the process of thinking but I kind of want to try out a pure poison/bone necromancer. I've never used bone wall/prison before.

 

[Vildecor]

@jiansonz - That wand must have been pretty pricy with +3 SM.

Not at all. SM is a level 1 skill and I found one with no other staffmod. It's a magical one, 'of Energy', and cost less than 4000 gold IIRC.

I like your LoM variant as well. Will be interesting to follow.
Clay Golem has its advantages (especially if Iron Maiden is available) but my character here needs his golems to dish out a little more damage as well as tank.

Two questions about the Iron Golem:
1. The damage synergy from points in Fire Golem - is it +6% per level to the (frankly, pathetic) base damage or is it +6% per level to (base damage + weapon damage (if golem is made from a weapon))?
2. My level 1 IG does 150% Thorns damage. I am absolutely sure you had to get it to level 2 to get the Thorns in some earlier version of the game. Do you know which version changed this?

 

[Vildecor]

I didn't see a table yet, so I'll start one. Feel free to add/remove columns to make it useable.

Character        Class      Skill Tree        Stats        Clvl    Waypoint
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vilkas           Druid      Shape Shifting    Strength     7       Cold Plains

 

[Vildecor]

I'm super excited about this tournament, but I might not make it past Act I! I forgot that sorceresses only get +2 life per point in vitality. I shopped a buckler of blocking, but that will be replaced soon. Hoping to snag an orb with +3 fire bolt. In the meantime, I'll be on the lookout for a stick suitable for the fabled Leaf. Not much has really happened so far, so this is a short update.

I chose the name Atronach because my other favorite game is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. My Dark Elf thief slaughtered the atronachs to near extinction, but one eluded me quite mightily. She was able to enchant her allies, and summon raging flaming heads, and we were forced to retreat. Atronach hopes to avenge her fallen brethren.

 

[Vildecor]

I'm super excited about this tournament, but I might not make it past Act I! I forgot that sorceresses only get +2 life per point in vitality. I shopped a buckler of blocking, but that will be replaced soon. Hoping to snag an orb with +3 fire bolt. In the meantime, I'll be on the lookout for a stick suitable for the fabled Leaf. Not much has really happened so far, so this is a short update.

I chose the name Atronach because my other favorite game is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. My Dark Elf thief slaughtered the atronachs to near extinction, but one eluded me quite mightily. She was able to enchant her allies, and summon raging flaming heads, and we were forced to retreat. Atronach hopes to avenge her fallen brethren.

Keep checking with Droghan once you get to act II. Hopefully you can roll the entrance right by him so you can keep running out the gate and back to him to reset his items. You might even find one with fireball or fire bolt modes on it. Another good one would be teleport and/or cold armor to build the Leaf with.

 

[Vildecor]

Not at all. SM is a level 1 skill and I found one with no other staffmod. It's a magical one, 'of Energy', and cost less than 4000 gold IIRC.

I like your LoM variant as well. Will be interesting to follow.
Clay Golem has its advantages (especially if Iron Maiden is available) but my character here needs his golems to dish out a little more damage as well as tank.

Two questions about the Iron Golem:
1. The damage synergy from points in Fire Golem - is it +6% per level to the (frankly, pathetic) base damage or is it +6% per level to (base damage + weapon damage (if golem is made from a weapon))?
2. My level 1 IG does 150% Thorns damage. I am absolutely sure you had to get it to level 2 to get the Thorns in some earlier version of the game. Do you know which version changed this?

Looks like a couple interesting things to research while at work.

 

[Vildecor]

Keep checking with Droghan once you get to act II. Hopefully you can roll the entrance right by him so you can keep running out the gate and back to him to reset his items. You might even find one with fireball or fire bolt modes on it. Another good one would be teleport and/or cold armor to build the Leaf with.

I don't think teleport on an orb would be allowed since I'm fire. The teleport would have to be either charges or global (Enigma?!)

 

[Vildecor]

I don't think teleport on an orb would be allowed since I'm fire. The teleport would have to be either charges or global (Enigma?!)

Oh that's true you couldn't use those spells anyway, but you can't make leaf with an Orb anyway right. Needs to be a staff.

 

[Vildecor]

Oh that's true you couldn't use those spells anyway, but you can't make leaf with an Orb anyway right. Needs to be a staff.

Yes, this is true. The only runeword that is possible to make in an orb is Venom.

 

[Vildecor]

Krelos and company have slain Andariel and were shown nothing for their efforts. But then again with Oriana's 3 ruby long bow, 3 fire mages, 4 warriors and Gumby they dropped her in like 2.2 seconds. Couldn't even get a SS off. I was just standing there with my boney jaw agape.

Somewhere in Tomoe Highland a boss dropped us Arctic Furs and down in the Pit we faced our first Stone-skinned boss. We picked up some nice experience down there for sure running into two or three different boss packs.



Krelos party, Level 19, Act II

 

[Vildecor]

Not at all. SM is a level 1 skill and I found one with no other staffmod. It's a magical one, 'of Energy', and cost less than 4000 gold IIRC.

I like your LoM variant as well. Will be interesting to follow.
Clay Golem has its advantages (especially if Iron Maiden is available) but my character here needs his golems to dish out a little more damage as well as tank.

Two questions about the Iron Golem:
1. The damage synergy from points in Fire Golem - is it +6% per level to the (frankly, pathetic) base damage or is it +6% per level to (base damage + weapon damage (if golem is made from a weapon))?
2. My level 1 IG does 150% Thorns damage. I am absolutely sure you had to get it to level 2 to get the Thorns in some earlier version of the game. Do you know which version changed this?

In the Passive Aggressive tournament you just finished, I noticed several things about the Golems that I hadn't before:
1. The CG was the best overall tank, he could take a serious beating, however still couldn't kill very much when I reach NM with FG almost maxed and GM maxed.
2. The level 1 IG I would summon with a decent damaging weapon and would die far to quickly when surrounded even the thorns kicking in, because I only had one point in BG which boosts their base life as you know. Maybe if you have more points pumped in IG he will be much more durable???
3. FG was almost maxed, making it super mana intensive. He would kill some things with low FR in N/NM, but again wasn't very durable and would die all the time to fire based attacks, which I couldn't understand. It is supposed to be able to fire absorb, which I assume means it's going to heal him not kill him.

Not really sure when, regarding your question when thorns was applied in the past.

 

[Vildecor]

Lv 23.5, almost time for Barry to get B.O.! WEEE! Lost City is up next. Done for tonight.

Did you know that you cannot use Find Potion on Skeletons? I'm assuming that goes hand in hand with the fact that you can't leech from them. I never knew...