[2015] The Committed Tournament [by kestegs]

[Vildecor]

Oh...oh my...I've read that that imbuing ethereal items gives a lot of staffmods, but this was a most pleasant surprise

View attachment 1429

And I really didn't expect an elite in act 1 nightmare...

View attachment 1430

 

[Vildecor]

And I really didn't expect an elite in act 1 nightmare...

Was that from The Smith?
I think the earliest chance of an elite is NM Griswold (he drops from the same TCs as his Hell version does).

BTW, I have not read anything about ethereal items having a bonus to the staffmod chances, but imbues in general certainly do.

 

[Vildecor]

Was that from The Smith?
I think the earliest chance of an elite is NM Griswold (he drops from the same TCs as his Hell version does).

BTW, I have not read anything about ethereal items having a bonus to the staffmod chances, but imbues in general certainly do.

Yep! The smith is correct

 

[Vildecor]

@felixbavaria Nice work, have fun in the cow level!

@OldSoldier Good to see you around again, Good luck!

@Dazliare Wow, that's pretty crazy! Love love love that orb!

Progress has been a bit slow for me, but mostly just because of other projects. But that's okay, I needed a bit more diversity so I didn't get burned out.

The start of act 3 was a bit odd, as the maps seemed very small. The great marsh was really small, and didn't even have any big chests in it. Nothing too eventful happened that I can remember, as I didn't take any screenshots.

The swampy pit immediately made me regret going down there. Got 2 packs of dolls right by the entrance, both extra fast! Man can those things move fast!

And of course the obligatory conviction gloams! Not really that dangerous, as the conviction only effects my resists if I let my cyclone armor go down.

The scariest thing that happened was I got the merc ignore bug in the last kurast area, the area that has 4 temples in that play section. Was pretty nervous about a stairtrap, but it never happened. I really missed the screenshot on the boss, but it was interesting because he was both magic and fire immune. I almost never see a non-native MI turn that way. He was Fire enchanted/ mana burn. Totally forgot mana burn added magic resist.

I gambled my gold down a bit to far right before the final leg of the council and durance, and was a little worried, but a few extra purples made everything okay. I've become quite the compulsive gambler, as this character seems to be cursed with terrible luck at it. I don't think I've upgraded a single piece since act 2-3 normal by gambling.

I got dolls on level 1 of the durance, and man that sure slows things down, had to be really careful. Lucky not to get any on level 2/3 though. Meph was easy, merc tanked him with liberal potion use, almost had to go back to town, but we got him with what we had. Drop was terrible of course.

Onward to act 4!

Rhett, Elemental Druid, level 64, act 4 NM

 

[Vildecor]

Table of Heroes:
Forum Name        Class                   Char Name  LVL  ACT  Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jiansonz          Summon Necromancer      Mago       75   A1(H)  Blood Moor
kestegs           Elemental Druid         Rhett      64   A4(NM) Pandemonium
felixbavaria      Shadow Assassin         Cisa       48   A1(NM) Rogue encampment
Norcim105         P&B Necromancer         Bones      49   A1(NM) Blood Moor
felixbavaria      Bow Amazon              Paige      48   A5     Cows
Dazliare          Fire Sorc               Quelana    49   A1(NM) Barracks
OldSoldier        Bow Amazon              Sharon     15   A1     Dark Woods
Toa3t             Bow Amazon              Marnie     14   A1     Blood moor
logoutzero        Warcry Barbarian        Tremolo    11   A1     Stony field
jamesixgun        Bow Amazon              Fatema     11   A1     Cold plains

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fallen (RIP):
Forum Name        Class                   Char Name  LVL  ACT  Area
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azimuthus         Trap Assassin           Fury       80   A5(H)  Ancients
japanzaman        Martial Assassin        Highheels  70   A1[H]  Underground Passage
Pb_pal            Shift Druid             Yau        60   A3[NM] Spider Forest
Southpaw8668      Javalein Amazon         Ema        55   A2[NM] Duriel
logoutzero        Warcry Barbarian        Barry      51   A1(NM) Jail
Dezrok            Martial Assassin        Marita     50   A1(NM) The Cave L2
Southpaw8668      Summon Necromancer      Krelos     30   A3     UK temples
Dazliare          Fire Sorc               Atronach   19   A1     Catacombs
Collateral.Damage Combat Paladin          Parker     15   A1     Stony field
GooberGrape       Shift Druid             Vilkas     14   A1     Black Marsh
Dazliare          Fire Sorc               ???        12   A1     Stony field
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Vildecor]

I was able to kill Andariel last night and finally get a moron to tank for me. Incidentally I rolled a nice Savage Bill of Alacrity so when the merc hits level 25 I'll be in good shape. I did act 1 at P8 and got exactly one rune (Countess Tal). I have gone through act II and killed Coldworm and have gotten about 10 runes and two Arctic Binding belts. Not much else but am doing a lot of gambling so far and am wearing mostly rares. The no MF is interesting, I am not sure what to keep Topazes for!

Act II is P7. Most of Sharon's points are going into Exploding Arrow and Fire Arrow at this point.

About a year ago I upgraded my computer and for some reason I cannot take screenshots. My story will be pretty boring without them so hopefully I can figure this out before getting into NM when things get interesting.

Bowazon Sharon, Level 25, Far Oasis

Edit: 777 posts! Only 560 more to go until I reach elite status!

 

[Vildecor]

The screenshots might just be going to a weird place, I think mine used to go to a user file or something. I think it does that if not installed in a certain way under Windows 7/8. You could try searching the system for them, or post in one of the help threads around the spf.

I don't think I've used any topazes at all, probably just use them for 3pgem rerolls layer I guess.

 

[Vildecor]

I love act 4, so short!

Not too much exciting happened. Found this cool shield. Just a shame it's no good for me, would be great on melee builds.

Forge was an IO, would've liked something better, but oh well.

Chaos went smoothly, merc died to De Seis pack, but not to Infector, mainly because I was more careful with Infector as I really didn't want to get swarmed.

I was nervous about P8 Diablo, even though I have maxed resists and cyclone armor. Mostly was worried that the merc would just melt, especially since he still has no life leech. Fears were unfounded though, 80% of the fight was right here. He managed to get Pratham with a firestorm eventually, and then again after I tried to get set back up, but I got him after the next resurrection. I think I used about 10 Full Juves in CS. Drop was bad of course.

Despite not wanting to support the scumbag Nihl, I decided to gamble in act 5 and actually got some pretty nice boots. Well, they're not that great, but they're a massive upgrade to what I was wearing.

edit: Looking back at the screenshots I really love that first Diablo one, we've both got our arms raised up and I think it looks cool!

Rhett, Elemental Druid, 67, NM Bloody Foothills

 

[Vildecor]

That is a cool screenie Kestegs.

Throughout the last half of act II, Sharon found lots of chips and low runes, and even two set items. First was Sander's boots and second was Sander's gloves. So as soon as Sharon found the boots she was sporting 40% FRW, which is great for a bowazon. As soon as she hit level 28 (in a false tomb) she put on the gloves and got a faster attack out of it. She is still using a rare hunter's bow. It is nothing special but spits out arrows quickly, and when the enemies clump around the merc, exploding arrow takes them down by the truck load. Usually I find the false tombs tedious but this character mowed through them quickly. I expect the same in NM at least. Maybe I'll experiment with a tir in a helm or armor to help with mana in those types of fights.

I was able to take Sharon past Duriel last night. It was far less harrowing than I expected because he was unable to get my merc past about half life. I TPed out one time to restock mana pots because exploding arrow eats mana pretty quickly. His drops were bad so I guess I'll have to keep waiting for that sweet bow to drop.

Bowazon Sharon, level 28, Kurast Docks

 

[Vildecor]

Nice going @OldSoldier, which stat are you maxing?

Paige has arrived in Act II NM. I love it when the Act boss fight is actually the showdown of the Act (taken at /p7).



Only two rejuvies left here. Pratham could take only 2 hits from Andariel and she once managed to take out 1/2 of Paige's life with one hit. I actually had to get her into a position where she spit some poison clouds, because with 80 poison resist they can be countered by healing potions, and try to get some free shots. I'm sitting on two Amns but I'm waiting for a better base than a 2os Poleaxe to drop for Strength. It should make Act boss fights considerably easier ... Also have to remember to put some Weaken wand on the shopping list.

The Cow King in Normal dropped a Nokozan relic. Other than that, the following gear was shopped and gambled:

- Garnet Light Belt (d'oh) of the Whale
- Faithful Hard Leather Amor of the Whale
- Amber Heavy Boots
- Chromatic Circlet of Health (so close!)
- Rare glove with Garnet and Spearmaiden's prefixes (d'oh!)
- Valkyrie's Long Bow of Anthrax (how about Incineration?)

Anyway, can't complain about the gear. 476 life, mostly from armor, all positive resists, max fire resist and some resistance jewelry in the stash.

Destroyer Paige the Energy Bowazon and Pratham the Prayer Merc, level 52, Lut Gholein (NM)

I will probably go for a quick run through Act II at /p3 in order to avoid deeds against Duriel ...

 

[Vildecor]

Nice going @OldSoldier, which stat are you maxing?

I am committed to spreading mine out. I thought long (not really that hard though) about dex pure but lack of strength would be a tough choice to get a decent bow in the later acts and still maintain some semblance of life (I think I can make up for one stat deficiency but not really two). Plus, high dex is good for physical bow damage (if I were to be a strafer) but not without a good bow, which I wouldn't be strong enough to wield without some good luck and I am focusing on fire/cold anyway, so I took the easy road.

 

[Vildecor]

Act II and Duriel done at /p3. The Duriel fight, which is kind of a nemesis for a Cold Bowazon, went as planned. According to my calculations, a brute force approach would require around 2 quivers worth of Freezing Arrows to wear him down. I shopped Chain Gloves of Weaken for Paige and made a "Strength" Partizan for Pratham, which softened him easily:



Then, cursed him with Lower Resist to cut his Cold Resistance to a manageable 44% and finished him off:



No merc resurrection needed. Now, imagine that drop would have been golden ...

The Tombs were a lot of fun with a character who mows through hordes of Burning Dead like nothing. There was an incident before though that almost had me retire the character, where I S+E'd with the Horadric Staff lying on the ground, so I had to sneak into the CVT and Maggot Lair again ... Getting the shaft without killing monsters is not possible except with a very lucky map layout, and getting the Viper amulet without killing Fangskin or at least some of her minions is very risky and may lead to deeds or S+E, so in the end I decided that waiving the XP from one of the tombs would be the cleanest solution to comply with the single-pass restriction.

Paige the Energy Bowazon and Pratham the Prayer Merc, level 58, Kurast Docks

 

[Vildecor]

Bones started out his journey in NM by enjoying the boost that Wall and Prison get just by being in this difficulty. Wall and Prison went from ~70 life to ~770 in NM! The first bosspack we ran into in the Blood Moor was an LE zombie pack. In normal, prisoning an LE boss would result in the prison vaporizing instantly due to the bolts, but now it is strong enough to tank them all! I've actually been using Wall a lot more that Prison so far. The Walls are really nice for getting enemies to form into a line and come right at Bones. It's really easy to take groups out when they all get hit by every Spear. Archers and other ranged attackers are excellent candidates for Wall as well as Bones can just cast one between them and us and they will shoot the wall while Kyoko and Bones fire over it. Bosses (especially anything FE, CE, or LE) always get prisoned. I often find that if I prison something in but still leave it space to move that I won't actually attack the prison for a bit. They just kind of stand there or run around a bit.

Bought a +99 Light Belt of the Whale from Charsi before I realized it only has 2 rows and you can't upgrade magic items... Nice to know that of the Whale can spawn already though. Hoping for a 4 socket crystal sword at some point. Spirit would be a nice addition, especially for the +22 to Vitality. Blood Raven got locked up, but took a surprisingly long time to kill. I had two sets of prisons expire before she went down, getting speared the whole time. Does she have a natural Magic resistance?


An Io was found from the sparkly chest in the Crypt. No Dol yet, and I'm one Shael short of cubing one (I have 3 Shaels now, but I want to keep one available just in case a Lem drop. Kyoko would like very nice in a Treachery!). Poor Coldcrow got locked up and went down without a fight!


A Boneflesh dropped in the Stony Field, so Kyoko is rocking that now for the OW. There was a boss pack of minions as soon as I entered the Hole. I've been keeping Prison active whenever I enter anything like this just in case. I ended up in a prison with one of the minions but bone armor is strong enough to tank pretty much anything with physical damage at this point, and enemies don't last long enough while getting speared to cause my trouble. I can already tell that Kyoko's Edge bow is starting to lose power. She can still bring things down, but I see her really slowing down in an act or two without an upgrade. With Harmony a pipe dream at this point, I am planning on gambling some bows soon.

Had a unique Grim Wand drop in the Pits Level 1. That's a nice drop and upgrade for Bones, especially with 0 MF! The FCR bumped Bones up a few frames which is already making a noticeable difference.


I had bought a pair of 40 FRW/38 LRes boots from Charsi earlier in the act but didn't want to equip them until I reached the Outer Cloister WP for a good muling spot. Bones put these on and rearranged charms to keep maxed resistances and improved life a bit. The FRW is really nice as it gives me a bunch more wiggle room when throwing prisons on fast approaching baddies. Catacombs were really easy with liberal use of prison and wall. Andy got prisoned in the room with the pond and didn't attack the prisons. She kept casting the poison nova attack, so Bones just stayed behind Kyoko as we blasted away. We both prebuffed antidotes and Kyoko only needed a few super healers. Nothing interesting from the drop.

A few other screenies from Act 1:



I ran into Radament and a multi-shot mage boss almost right away when I entered level 3 of the sewers. Liberal use of prison and then CE on the skellies left us with just Raddy. Bones prisons could only hold up for 2 shots from Raddy, but the nice thing about having all of the mana is that Bones is not limited on how many prisons can be cast. I just held right click down and swapped between spear and prison every few seconds until he died.


Bones scored a Fal rune in Claw Viper Temple. Just a Lum away from a Lionheart now!


Bones had his first NDE in here as well. I thought that the entrance to a room was cleared, but there were two vipers just inside of the door that I couldn't see and that weren't attacking. I cautiously walked into the room and got hit by them both, which wasn't actually damaging due to bone armor. The knockback, however, drove me further into the room, where a bunch more vipers were waiting. I panic spammed prisons and hit potion keys. I ended up with only one viper in the prison with Bones, which the armor could tank. Once that one was dead I was able to enact vengeance on all the rest of them. I don't think life dropped below a quarter, but still nerve racking when my life total is just over 400... I found my fourth Shael rune here, so I was finally able to cube a Dol to make White in my +3BS wand. I had to finish clearing the temple so that I could mule everything in, but now Bones is sporting a shiny +8 to BS from his wand alone. Also, a very underrated part of White is the +10 to Vitality! Spear damage went up by almost 500! Also, finally shoppped a teleport staff after the temple. I'd been checking each time I went to town all through Act 1 and 2 without seeing one. I didn't want to waste my playing time power shopping and figured I'd see one much earlier than I did. Glad to have that on switch for emergencies now.

Here is a screen shot of the power of bone wall. Bones dropped a few of these upon entering level 2 of the CVT and Kyoko and I wiped the floor with everything in here from total safety.


Bones got Unravelers in every single tomb... Unravelers seem to cause us more problems than anything else we've encountered so far. They pack quite a punch, the missles can be hard to see, and I'm pretty sure they have a native magic resistance. Single unravelers are no big deal but every boss and champ pack seemed to be them as well. Bones also ran into a few extra fast spectre packs. They just disregard prisons and walls, so Bones had to resort to firing a few spears then running. We will need a better plan than this for Hell. We got away with it because we could put them into hit recovery most of the time with one spear, but that probably won't always be the case. Ancient Kaa himself was super easy.


Bones hit 60 just before the true tomb, so I spent some time gambling circlets hoping to improve life before the Duriel fight. Ended up scoring a Jeweler's Circlet of the Wolf (+12 life, 2 sockets). Stuck in 2 P. Rubies and now have +88 life from the helm. Good for a 33 point increase, bringing Bones's life total to 480! The Duriel fight was super unclimactic. I dropped ~20ish prisons on him as soon as we entered, then just spammed spear while refreshing prisons every 10 seconds or so. The whole fight cost us 2 mana pots. Bones and Kyoko did not lose any life at all! The drop had a bunch of rares, but none of a useful type or useful mods.


Bones, Level 60 P&B Necro with Kyoko the Fire Rouge. Act 3 NM. Full game clear at P8.

 

[Vildecor]

Great update Norcim. Great luck with items so far, the runes you found are perfectly suited for your character, especially the white wand. You're character is the polar opposite of my necromancer in the passive aggressive tournament. I tried using bone wall and prison but both times it nearly caused his deeds.

To solve the teleport issue, you should try you luck gambling for a amulet with teleport charges. That may be useful to wear full time as it may save your life if you accident prison yourself in with some nasty monsters. This may be especially useful in he'll when the monster speed greatly increases and charge you and are able to get to the other side of your walls.

 

[Vildecor]

That's awesome Norcim and bladejj! Here's a really quick screenshot of a very unexpected find

 

[Vildecor]

@Dazliare I had to look up that one. It's been ages since I last used a staff on a sorc ...

Act III (at /p7) treated us nicely. Only two semi-stairtraps that were easily dispatched, however I learnt - soon after taking this screenshot - that casting Terror on snakes is not a good idea as they tend to spread out in the room and then charge from everywhere ...



I'm building up Exploding Arrow as a secondary attack now. Nevertheless, Lower Resist was needed to take down this guy:



Durance III was very lively, with around 25 blood lords including two bosspacks. Dim Vision is only moderately useful on these guys, as it causes them to run around erratically and the merc to chase them. I dare not imagine a Convicting Bremm Sparkfist joining the fray ... but luckily he "only" had a Might aura and stayed away from the entrance.

After clearing this floor, Mephisto was really a pushover (using the tried and true Weaken / Lower Resist strategy), and he dropped crap.



Twitchthroe (from Durance I) was the most interesting find, but I doubt this character will make much use of it.

Still in dire need of a weapon upgrade for Pratham. We imbued two ethereal Polearms, but got nothing that could beat his (non-eth) Strength Partizan.

The RNG is apparently set to give us lots of Amulets of Life Everlasting, but not a single rune above Dol so far. I fear I will have to play this good old 1.12 style (anyone wants to trade an Artisan's Breast Plate of the Whale?)

Paige, level 64 Bowazon, Pandemonium Fortress (NM)

 

[Vildecor]

Nice progress everyone!

@felixbavaria Some good gear there, nice life total for no vita for sure! And good work on Durial, he really does suck for Bowas!

@Dazliare That's a nice staff, and not an item you see much. Cool that you found it on a sorc as well!

@Norcim105 That's some good progress, and some really great item luck you're having as well. Getting a nice White wand that early is really amazing and helpful. Blood raven has 50% Magic resit, BTW. I will also advise that you try to work out a permanent solution to teleport. You will inevitably wall yourself in somewhere bad and kill yourself without it, it's probably the biggest weakness of the build. I think I just kept it on switch on my last one though. I just had it set up so it was on right click when I weapon swapped. That is generally fast enough I think. Just make sure you check it at the beginning of every play session, as it sometimes gets reset and then it won't be selected when you switch.

 

[Vildecor]

@kestegs: Thanks! After complaining so much about the rune luck, I just found a Ko rune and made Harmony in a Stag Bow I'm not sure if I understand this rule correctly:

12. +Class-Specific Skills granted from items may only be used if they they fall under your skill tree.

I assume this refers to skills like "+3 to Dodge (Amazon Only)", so for example Melody is out for any non-passive zon. But does it also mean we can't boost oskills by +skill tree or +class skills items? What about "+X To All Skills" items?

 

[Vildecor]

@kestegs: Thanks! After complaining so much about the rune luck, I just found a Ko rune and made Harmony in a Stag Bow I'm not sure if I understand this rule correctly:



I assume this refers to skills like "+3 to Dodge (Amazon Only)", so for example Melody is out for any non-passive zon. But does it also mean we can't boost oskills by +skill tree or +class skills items? What about "+X To All Skills" items?

Yes, I reworded that, add rule 12 and 13 probably should have been 1 rule to be more clear. You have it correct, harmony is fine on either you or your merc.

You can boost any legal skill by any means.

Edit : to be clear. You could use harmony, because those are 0skills. You couldn't use melody, because those are +amazon only skills. Merc can still use either of course. You can use anything to boost an 0skill that still follows the rules, so you can't use a +amazon only skill item to boost a skill that isn't in your tree.

Like a cold tree Sorc wearing an enigma can't wear any +teleport or +lightning skills (Sorc only) items, but +all skills is still okay. You could wear those +teleport or +lightning skills items if you didn't wear enigma, but you can't use the skill.

 

[Vildecor]

On to Act V! /p5 now for the rest of NM.



In the very first outdoor area, a Ko rune dropped.



Since Melody can't be used by bowazons in this tournament, we went for a 'Harmony' Stag Bow:

Spoiler

Harmony
Stag Bow
TirIthSolKo
Two Hand Damage: 30 - 46
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 30
Required Dexterity: 45
Fingerprint: 0x33eadb82
Item Level: 39
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Level 10 Vigor Aura When Equipped
+1 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
213% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
+9 to Maximum Damage
Adds 55 - 160 Fire Damage
Adds 55 - 160 Lightning Damage
Adds 55 - 160 Cold Damage Over 6 Secs (152 Frames)
+5 to Valkyrie
+10 to Dexterity
Regenerate Mana 20%
+2 to Mana after each Kill
+2 to Light Radius
Level 20 Revive (25/25 Charges)
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tir Rune
Socketed: Ith Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Ko Rune

In order to equip it, we need strength and dexterity. A hardly noticed property of Twitchthroe is its bonus to ... strength and dexterity! And Amazons look really badass in it! Downside is we have to waive a significant life bonus. A 2os or 3os armor of the Whale seems to be a pipe dream, just like Lionheart ... Hellforge gave us a Shael, by the way.

The Diablo fight went smooth, I had a Valkyrie and a Revive to distract him. The Valkyrie lasted only a few seconds, but long enough for Pratham to get to point blank range and finish him off (took a few tries though). The Revive was less useful. It was one of the Infector's minions, which I thought would be useful with their extra resist, but he just ran around erratically and it was hard to make him engage Diablo.



Why not more Revives? Well, with 4.5 seconds cold length (FA + charm + Harmony cold damage) Pratham kills all enemies while frozen, and only unique monsters can be CI at this stage.

The Bloody Foothills had quill rats and Maulers, easy peasy.

This will be the last update for a few days as I won't have time to play next week.

Paige the Energy bowazon and Pratham the Prayer merc, level 67, Frigid Highlands (NM)