[2015] The Committed Tournament [by kestegs]

[Vildecor]

Wow. That is the highest rune I've ever seen found in HC tournament. What are you're thoughts about its potential use? Unfortunately, most high end rune words require at least one other high end rune. Fury may be your best bet if you can get your hands on a Gul. Dream would be a good option as well but unfortunately it contains MF. Great progress by the way.

Main plan is that if I find a great necro head (Golemlord's, or +2 skills with good resists, etc), I can socket it for +50 life.

 

[Vildecor]

Sorry for the loss, Old Soldier Probably inevitable with such low life though.

Great progress everyone else. I'm especially happy to read about Mago being fun and viable, and those are some crazy finds as well. The Jah is not super useful without another good rune, but still awesome! But if you start any more Necros you're going to have to change your avatar I think!

After a bit of time off to play my other tourney character I'm back on the horse, but no update yet. I'm just going to officially lodge a complaint against my rune luck. Midway through act 3 hell and a single lum is my high rune drop, which was found back in act 2 NM.

 

[Vildecor]

Finished Act I Hell. No major issues. I'm starting to like the HCMTF on the merc, it really takes off some of the pressure against packs of CI monsters (in particular Corrupted Rogues). Andariel was easy too, just applied a Weaken charge, fed the merc some rejuvs and fired exploding arrows at her. Thx for awesome drop:



This was a close-to-awesome weapon:



Unfortunately not good enough to beat "Strength" in a non-eth Ogre Axe.

Paige the Energy Bowazon and Pratham the Prayer merc, level 77, Lut Gholein (H)

 

[Vildecor]

Brief update on Element the lightning sorceress. Last we saw her she was just a young sorceress in Act 1 normal. She is currently level 55 and in the middle of Act 2 nightmare and is progressing very nicely. Chain lighting and lightning mastery are maxed. Telekinesis has about 14 or 15 points in it and one point in every other lighting skill besides Nova and thunder storm. Every point in TK reduces mana damage takrn by energy shield by 6.25% (it starts at 200% mana damage).

Killing has been extremely quick and the gear has been pretty impressive actually. I'm not at my computer now but I will post some my gear and gambles later this week when I get chance, one godly circlet in particular I am looking forward to posting. Life is currently around 500 with mana around 800. Chain lightning damage is 3-1500 with 9 target hits.

Element, Lightning / Energy only Sorceress, Level 55, Far Oasis

 

[Vildecor]

Nice progress felix and bladejj! Keep it going!

Nothing interesting happened in the jungle areas of act 3, and it went pretty quickly. Only 1 real stairtrap in all of act 3, which was in my first temple. Not too bad, but a little scary with those extra fast guys rushing me immediately. The ruined temple was a bit tough also, there was a ton of guys surrounding sarina, but they go down pretty quick at least. This was one of them, and he gave me some real trouble.

Tough spider in another temple, I have PI teleporting bosses.

Found a rattlecage and natalya's boots. Both are interesting, but the merc needs the str bonus on his armor and I don't meet the requirements for Nat's, and won't without a lionheart.

The swampy pit quickly greeted me with a nasty doll pack. I was able to moat most of the dolls in the sewers, and none were too bad. Got hit by explosions a few times, but never lost more than half my life.

This ghoul lord pack in travincal was a little scary, they tore through the merc way too quickly.

And this guy in durance was the toughest of the act. I tried to get him without the merc, but he regenerated too much, ended up having to just feed the merc a lot of pots.

Bremm and minions were not too bad, although they still came close to getting me. I had to keep casting cyclone armor ever 2 seconds to keep it up, even with the moat.

Meph went down real quick, like 10 seconds, but dropped garbage. Onward to the mini act!

 

[Vildecor]

After defeating the prime evil Mephisto - a surprisingly easy feat once she got to him, it seems that the demon lords were better strategists and leaders than actual fighters - Ruby's way led to the Pandemonium Fortress, from where she could set foot onto the bleak plains of Hell. Great bulky winged demons, grotesque fleshy breeders and other wild beasts tried to stop her to no avail. Ruby was initially surprised at the utter lack of resistance - even when she suffered an occasional hit, she suffered very little harm for it. Then she finally realized: these were not Diablo's true warriors. They were tormented souls locked into an unwieldy body, doomed to serve in menial ways, as cannon fodder perhaps, for eternity, or until a greater demon recognized them as worthy of something more.

In the so-called Plains of Despair, there were lightning spirits that finally caused her some inconvenience, but her new shield, the runeword "Ancient's Pledge", helped protect her very well from all elemental attacks. A frosty Balrog-like creature, which turned out to be the demon Izual's soul was trapped into (and thus her first target, her contractor being the angel Tyrael) wandered these plains, but his body was designed as a prison, to be hard to break into, not to be particularly useful for combat.

The first serious opposition appeared when she found a stairway leading down to a river of lava and descended. Abyss Knights, part of Hell's regular army, as well as massive demons named Urdars - pin-headed brutes swinging human corpses, eerily similar to some other beasts she had encountered from before. They were not skilled enough to outmatch Ruby, however. She eventually came to the Hellforge, where the forge master Hephasto whipped his minions into a fanatical frenzy - however, thanks to her faithful mercenary and the increasingly powerful Shadow, Hephasto could not even reach her.

She continued to the Chaos Sanctuary, Diablo's refuge, where five seals kept Diablo locked away - as Ruby presumed, probably more to secure some peace and quiet from his underlings than anything else. Diablo himself was the first of the demon lords who could be considered a worthy fight, but Ruby fooled him into thinking that she was the Shadow and her Shadow was the real Ruby - good thing she did so, too, as Diablo's lightning blasts eviscerated the Shadow Master easily! She had to go to great pains to force Alhizeer to retreat when her Shadow went down - the foolish mercenary, in the heat of the battle, thought himself more of a match for Diablo than he really was. After long last, though, he fell.

Ruby was puzzled. Was that it? Were the Prime Evils this easy to defeat? Why did Heaven have any sort of trouble with them then? She had this niggling feeling that Diablo wasn't truly dead, that she was fighting an impostor or somesuch - but Tyrael reassured her that she had succeeded. Now, her task was to continue on to Harrogath, from where she'd have to hunt down the last Prime Evil, Baal. Things were going suspiciously easily.

And Act IV complete, blazed through it at /p8. Even without CoS the upper levels were way too easy, and CoS solved everything beyond the River of Flame. Hephasto dropped a Manald Heal, my first unique - not bad, although currently I need every point of strength to wield my Ancients' Pledge shield. I was lazy and didn't want to shop for a 3os Large Shield, as it just refused to pop up at Fara's, so I settled for a Kite Shield instead. When I get some excess Strength points I'll swap out maybe my +1 strength ring for it, for the extra life and Replenish Life.

Diablo's drop was promising, but none of the items were really useful. The polearms weren't needed - I had decided to sacrifice two Chipped Diamonds to craft a polearm for my merc. The first got a Savage Bill - the second, a Savage Bill of the Leech, woot! The armors weren't better than what the merc had - the Ghost Armor was promising as it had 2 sockets and some LR, but I think the third socket on my gemmed breastplate is worth more.

 

[Vildecor]

@kestegs: great progress. Those were some brutal bosses!

@Turbocannon: nice going there, too. Are you saying your assassin with no added strength can equip a STR 47 item? That gives my curses necro hope - he's currently annoyed that he can't even wear a 3-row belt! OK, necros are weaker than assassins, but STR 30 (for Breast Plate and Bone Shield) should be within reach, eh? Or even 34 for a 3-socket shield.

 

[Vildecor]

@kestegs: great progress. Those were some brutal bosses!

@Turbocannon: nice going there, too. Are you saying your assassin with no added strength can equip a STR 47 item? That gives my curses necro hope - he's currently annoyed that he can't even wear a 3-row belt! OK, necros are weaker than assassins, but STR 30 (for Breast Plate and Bone Shield) should be within reach, eh? Or even 34 for a 3-socket shield.

Yeah, I got quite a few decent charms, a +5 strength Belt of Might, and +1-2 strength on several other items (rings, amulet too until I found an Amulet of the Centaur which gives life per level, gloves, currently even my weapon). I even have one more +1 strength charm in my stash - together with other useful charms (+life, +resists) I only have a 2x4 open part in my inventory by now. It's basically about your charm luck. You can always just plug an amethyst into your armor or helm too, although I didn't need to do that.

 

[Vildecor]

Are you saying your assassin with no added strength can equip a STR 47 item? That gives my curses necro hope - he's currently annoyed that he can't even wear a 3-row belt! OK, necros are weaker than assassins, but STR 30 (for Breast Plate and Bone Shield) should be within reach, eh? Or even 34 for a 3-socket shield.

My sorceress had at least 34 strength (base is 10, the lowest of any class) since act 2 in normal, and that wasn't too hard to attain. Charms did provide a decent amount of strength then. As I leveled and I found better strength gear, inherrant with some good rates, specifically with jewelry, I replaced the strength charms with essential life charms. Hitting 70 strength may be a little tougher though.

 

[Vildecor]

I made it a point to get to 30 so I could wear a breast plate and chain boots. I had to wait for exceptional belts (demonhide and sharkskin I think) to get 4 rows with less than 30 strength with Splat.

 

[Vildecor]

My zon has 76 strength (20 base) in Act II Hell. Later on you can get insane attribute boni on rare items that usually go unnoticed. She has +27 STR on her circlet and +19 on her belt (Demonhide Sash), and a PAmethyst socketed in her body armour.

 

[Vildecor]

My zon has 76 strength (20 base) in Act II Hell. Later on you can get insane attribute boni on rare items that usually go unnoticed. She has +27 STR on her circlet and +19 on her belt (Demonhide Sash), and a PAmethyst socketed in her body armour.

Well, I wouldn't say they go unnoticed - items with high strength bonuses are valued quite highly in trading if they have other good bonuses.

 

[Vildecor]

Here is the gamble I referenced earlier.

Skull Visor
Circlet
Defense: 25
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 51
Fingerprint: 0x1e307a44
+6 to Mana
Damage Reduced by 6
All Resistances +20
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
Level 2 Dim Vision (25/25 Charges)

Remember that Element is an all energy, lightning sorceress who utilizes energy shield. Dim Vision is will be my only real source of crowd control so to get that one a nice circlet is great. I do plan on socketed this helm as well, most likely with a ruby or maybe a Sol. +1 skills, resistances, and damage reduction are all good mods as well. In fact, the damage reduction might be the best outside of Dim Vision.

The way energy shield works is that it absorbs a percentage of your damage takes off mana. So if I have level 25 ES it sends 80% of the damage taken to mana and the remaining portion to life. For example, if I were to take 100 physical damage, 80 would be deflected and only 20 would hit my health. That's when the integer DR takes affect. In this example, this circlet alone would decrease my damage taken to health by 30% (20 down to 14).

When coupled with some safety crafts, theoretically most damage to health should be reduced greatly.... or at least that's the plan. Mana steal and elemental damage will still be quite deadly as resistances only take affect after energy shield is factored in. That means that elemental damage will deplete my mana as if I have zero resistances.

Anyways, good luck to the other participants!

 

[Vildecor]

Cool circlet, bladejj! I'd go Sol personally, I like how you think! But I'd choose once I reached hell difficulty or close to it and knew how my resists were going to stack up.

 

[Vildecor]

Cool circlet, bladejj! I'd go Sol personally, I like how you think! But I'd choose once I reached hell difficulty or close to it and knew how my resists were going to stack up.

My thoughts as well. However, if I planned correctly, resistances should not be necessary by the time I reach hell. As I mentioned before, energy shield does not factor in resistances. So as long as I have energy shield active with mana, resistances are not needed at all. Currently in Act 3 NM all my resistances are terrible and I haven't had a single NDE yet during the act.

As promised, below is a list of my current gear. Element, the all energy, lightning sorceress is level 61 in a Flayer Jungle. Finds has been nothing short of astonishing. I am blown away at the quality and quantity of items which dropped given no magic find.

Life: 437
Mana: 1,166
Stength: 10 (38)
Dexerity: 25 (30)
Vitality: 10 (20)
Energy: 340 (350)
Resistances: -3/20/40/1
Magic Find: 0%

Skills:

Chain Lightning: 20 (27) - damage is 4 - 2,300
Lightning Mastery: 20 (27)
Telekinesis: 16
Lightning: 6 (13)
Energy Shield: 1 (14) - 67% reduction
Prerequisites: 1 each

Helm: Rare Circlet (+1 sorceress skills, Lvl 2 Dim Vision charges, +20 resist all, 6 damage reduction)
Armor: The Spirit Shroud (+1 Skills, replenish life, cannot be frozen, 8 magic damage reduction) - found in great marsh NM
Gloves: Rare (+1 strength, 23% LR, 30% CR)
Belt: Beryl Belt of the Whale (+98 life, 9% PR)
Boots: Rare (+5 Dex, 33% LR, +20%FWR)
Weapon: Memory War Staff (see below) - socketed with the cube, lum round in a false tomb
Shield: N/A
Weapon2: Random orb with +1 skills
Shield2: Ancients' Pledge Large Shield

Amulet: Angel's Amulet of the Colossus (+55 life, +1 Sorceress skillsl) - gambled
Ring: Stone of Jordan (+20 mana, +1 skills, +25% max mana) - found in first area of Act 3 NM
Ring: Ring of the Ox (+9 strength)


Mercenary:

Weapon: Malice Halberd
Armor: Skin of the Flayed One (5% life steal, +17 replenish life)
Helm: Rare Coronet (+88 AR, +16-53 fire damage, 3% life steal)


Memory
War Staff
'LumIoSolEth'
Two-Hand Damage: 21 to 28
Durability: 37 of 50
Required Level: 37
Staff Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x6e97046
+10 to Energy
+10 to Vitality
+50% Enhanced Defense
+9 to Minimum Damage
Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Increase Maximum Mana 20%
+3 to Sorceress Skill Levels
33% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Static Field (Sorceress Only)
+2 to Energy Shield (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Energy Shield (Sorceress Only)
-25% Target Defense
150% Damage to Undead
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Overall progress has been a ton of fun and very, very efficient. Only NDE's were because of my own reckless use of teleport.

Element the all energy, lightning sorceress, level 61, with Ahsab the Prayer Guard, Flayer Jungle NM

 

[Vildecor]

Well the first situation that meant trouble was also the last one. Cursed Salamander boss directly next to CVT entrance, merc dead, blind teleport to the right, charged by two snakes, dead. You can tell that I had almost all rejuvies left ...

She did have almost 700 life but no blocking and no tank.



Paige and Pratham, level 78, deceased in CVT level 1 (Hell)

 

[Vildecor]

Tough loss felixavaira. I've had to blindly teleport a view times now in close quarters like that. Faster cast rate definitely saved by life more than few times already. Major achievement though making into he'll with a melee character with pretty tough restrictions. Good luck on your next character.

 

[Vildecor]

Ouch, that was a nasty entrance, felix. I see it's the big starting room variant which can be treacherous indeed.



Geezer the Curses Necro has made a little progress, about half an act. Countess is slain. Level 17 reached. Best find as of yet is a pack of rare javelins that deal some decent damage. He found a pretty cool head also. Well, it is useless for him, but would have been cool if he had been a more normal character:

It wasn't in my plans but I forgot that once you hire a merc, you are committed to that one type of merc only. So it's Blaise and me for the long haul, I suppose. It's not the first time I've played this build with a fire rogue:

* Mike and Isolde (v1.09, players 1 all the way) made it to Hell Ancients, where Mike was killed by a Leap Attack from Korlic, while cursed. This was more than ten years ago, and I still rank this as one of the best runs I've had in D2. He bent the rules a little against Hell Duriel, but still...

* Mark and Isolde (v1.10, players 8 Normal/NM) didn't go quite as far, even though I thought they had a great chance. This guy had maxed blocking and used a combo of The General's unique flail, cold damage and Decrepify to tank for his merc when needed. Unfortunately, Hell Mephisto fried him with a quick double Lightning before he could close the distance and slow him. 40-something resist and over 900 life. I thought that was bad luck.

 

[Vildecor]

Sorry about the deeds, felix, that's a tough one for sure.

Good progress otherwise for everyone. That is indeed some nice gear, bladejj! I love the circlet, and that amulet is great also! You'll likely find plenty of hel runes, so you can always change your mind later on the socket. Don't your resists matter for the portion of the damage that goes to your life though? That's the way I've always thought it worked at least. Not that you want to go crazy on resists, but it would be bad to have them super low.

I have always struggled to find the str I need, and I don't think I've ever gotten mine over 45ish. A crystal sword needs 43, which was my minimum for a while. Now I have an eth spirit sword, so my highest str item is 34 for my shield. When I got that one I was finally able to ditch the amethyst in my helm I've had for most of the game. I never got any rares with anything over 10 strength.

I have an update, but no time to do it, so you guys will just have to wait until I get back from vacation, no D2 for 4 days! Stay safe out there!

 

[Vildecor]

Felix, sorry about Paige. Those snakes are tough!

I've kept Sharon parked while I do a side character so there is still one Bowazon in the mix. I'll have an update on this side character in a few days hopefully (maybe once he reaches level 30). I'm excited about him because it is rare that I'm piloting the tank.