[2015] The Passive Aggressive Tournament [by Pb_pal]

[Grisu]

Whats your plan vs FI's?

The ones in NM, I am sure we can take with physical damage. Enchant still helps with the hitting.
PI + FI is worse. I hope I can make a big 'Passion' Axe and use Berserk on them.

 

[Grisu]

Must...keep up...with...jiansonz...

Calabi and Kasim ventured out into the Bloody Foothills, determined to find some new weapons, as theirs had both slowed down quite a bit by now. Let's just say it didn't go very well. Act V, although not too dangerous for the most part, ended up being a bit of an exercise in patience as it took some time for Kasim to chase down all the Imps, and we spent alot of time waiting around for the Reanimated Horde-types to raise back up and present us with some extra gifts (not that they gave us anything useful). Kasim eventually got a slight upgrade to his weapon, a rare pike with an even 100% ED (I think, I didn't take a screenie so I'm relying on memory here). This meant killing was going a little bit quicker, and Calabi could still join in with the tougher monsters. She's been keeping her eyes peeled for a better sword (hoping for a Great Sword with either a couple of sockets, or some nice %ED), but Act V didn't want to give her any. She is still using her 'Steel' Giant Sword from back in Act III. It's not a rush, as Kasim is still doing the killing for the MF, but I will need to find her something more helpful at some point.

Once she hit 39, Calabi could finally put those horrid circlet gambling memories behind her, and she shopped two 3os helms (one with +10 life) to take over MF duties. Hopefully she can stuff them full of Ptopazes sooner, rather than later.

A Shael dropped in the Ancient's Way (another one later in the WSK), so Calabi is the proud new owner of a 'Rhyme' Bone shield. She now wears this most of the time with her balanced knives that have ctc monster flee on them, and switches to her big sword for the more resilient monsters to help Kasim out. She also found 2 Amn runes, so she popped one in a bow to make 'Edge' to help her with her gambling addiction.

The Ancients were taken at p8 for kicks, and was done with no problems. Here is how the fight went. If you look closely, you can see Madawc's axe poking out from behind the pillar. He stood there the entire fight, until the other two were killed and Kasim went looking for him.

Baal's first four waves were done with ease as well. The minions of destruction gave us a bit of trouble until we had them separated. This tactic made lister a piece of cake as he couldn't knock the decoy back, and we could all safely poke him until he went down.

I wish I could say the fight with Baal was that easy. I've never had the Lord of Destruction be so active, he definitely had his morning coffee. The fight started with a mad scramble and decoy-spamming to try and keep Baal in the T section. He stayed there for a while, and we swung and poked as best we could. His health was barely dropping. Things were looking alright, as we had ourselves positioned so that his hoarfrost couldn't knock Calabi or Kasim back, but he still wasn't losing much health.

*checks message log* players 8. Oops.

Right after this revelation, things went haywire. Baal killed Kasim, and instantly teleported out of the T. Calabi ran after him and was greeted by double hoarfrost. He had cloned himself. Tp to town to get Kasim back, restock healers and mana pots, and back into the fray! Baal was teleporting like crazy. We would get a couple hits in, and he would teleport. A couple more hits, he cloned himself. This went on for a while. We finally got him settled down and in a good spot up against one of the pillars, and we could do some decent damage to him. He was down to half of his health, but Calabi was running out of Full Rejuvs. This could get ugly. Everything was going well, and then Baal launched one the the most coordinated attacks I've ever seen him do. He double hoarfrosted Kasim, followed by his fire breath attack, frying him almost instantly. Right after this he teleported, then managed to trap Calabi against the pillar with festering appendages! She slammed rejuvs and hacked the appendages away, then tried to make some ground before TP-ing out to resurrect Kasim when out of nowhere Baal showed up again. He hoarfrosted her up against the wall. More rejuvs were slammed, only 1 left now. Calabi was pinned up against the wall, stuck in Dodging animations, and Baal had his sights set firmly on her. It was right at this moment that the valk finally finished poking at appendages, and decided to walk over. This distracted Baal long enough to get a TP up and make it back to town.

Okay. Resurrect Kasim. Stock up on healing potions. 1 Rejuv left, Baal is at about a third of his HP. They head back down the portal and are immediately confronted with Baal and a new clone. Run around them and TP out again, no clone this time! Calabi managed to distract Baal with a Decoy, and Kasim and the valk rushed in. With the two of them swinging, and Calabi applying OW, Baal's health started dropping! He then turned to Kasim. Calabi was feeding him healing pots like they were water, as she wantd to save the last rejuv for herself, just in case. Baal was slivered, so we unsummoned the valk to ensure Kasim gets the kill... finally!. The drop, of course, was useless.

That was the most intense showdown with Baal I've ever had, and it was in NORMAL. Yeesh.

Calabi is now resting her nerves before paying a visit to the Moo Moo Farm.

Destroyer Calabi the Sword-wielding Amazon, with Kasim the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 48, Moo Moos next

--

I'll update the table too, since there was some good progress this weekend.

Table of Heroes:
Forum Name   Class       Char Name     LVL    ACT      Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zylo         Druid       Hoyt           51    A2(NM)   Lut Gholein
jiansonz     Sorceress   Sissy          49    A1(NM)   Rogue Encampment
Pb_pal       Amazon      Calabi         48    A5       Moo Moo Farm
djmbbandie   Assassin    Natasha        23    A2       Dry Hills
Morathi      Assassin    Carrisa        21    A2       Lut Gholein
Jocular      Assassin    ?????          14    A1       Stony Field/Dark Wood(?)
pharphis     Sorceress   SlamDoorsShut  11    A1       Stony Field
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Grisu]

Relax Pb_pal, it's not a speed competion. (I hope...)



Sissy soon had her Rhyme shield. Bone, 28 Def. Cubed Sol x3 to make it. Then I found a Shael really early next session. Okay, I will likely need a few more, so that's still good.

Fallen Shamans are dealt with by luring most warriors a bit away from them, then telebombing them with Waheed. Probably not recommended if I make it to Hell, though. There just might be a super nasty archer pack behind that shaman in the dark fallen village subcave.

Rakanishu had apparently bought some swords in bulk at Slice-e-Mart:

More MF improvements:
- Completed the first perfect topazed Artisan's Great Helm. This one has the Nova Shield suffix. Not really a plus when Sissy uses it, I think. May just trigger more dangerous LE bolts against some foes...
- Found a second Angelic Halo. After this session I realized that I could improve MF from 82 to 100 on weapon + armor + 2x ring slots by equipping the Angelic stuff. I need to watch my gear while monsters die, especially bosses, because the sword + shield switch has 125 more MF than the axe switch.

Other nice benefits of the Angelic items are +40 life and a HUGE AR boost. With my axe, AR went from 567 to 4204! And unlike the MF and the big fire resist on the armor, the AR boost works on the axe switch because it's tied to the rings combined with 1 more item (the armor in this case).
The DEX boost pushes my blocking to 20% which is not completely useless.


Found another Grand Charm with good lightning resist. Reluctantly sold my big charm with FHR and 6% MF to make room for it.


Destroyer Sissy the Axe (+sword) Enchantress and Waheed the Defiance guard, level 50, NM Black Marsh next

 

[Grisu]

Relax Pb_pal, it's not a speed competion. (I hope...)

Haha, I know. Just a little friendly motivation, that's all .

 

[Grisu]

Slice-e-Mart

I would love to shop there! Swish, swoosh!

I have not been feeling up to playing. I just wanted to say congrats everyone on the great and swift progress!

 

[Grisu]

School started for me these past 2 weeks

I dunno when I'll be able to play and record my d2 shenanigans for quite some time, as I work at a little grocery store part time as well.

pb: I too accidentally went /p7 against normal Baal with my passivezon...it was messy, but not as terrifying as yours was.

 

[Grisu]

@Jocular - No worries, it's not a race. I already have another char planned for once Calabi makes Guardian (if I just keep saying it, it will happen, right?) Just make sure to keep us updated when you do get back to it!

--

Calabi has made some progress. No screenies this time, as for some reason my SS key got remapped to nothing (I usually use spacebar), and I didn't notice until after the session. Oh well.

Cows were a blast, and lots of loot was dropping. Some highlights include:

- 2 more Shael runes (this brings my total for normal to 4(!) Shaels. Not bad.)
- Sigons gloves
- Nagelring (16% MF. Boo.)
- Razortine Trident (I might keep this around for boss fights, especially if I can find Blackhorn's Face. How much slow is needed to be effective against Act Bosses?)
- Cow King apparently had a liking for TC3's. He dropped Infernal Cranium and Death's Guard.

On to Nightmare!

A quick look at the LCS showed Calabi that her resists on her Rhyme switch (the main one for now, while we are MF-ing) were 52/54/14. Yikes at that LR, she'll have to be extra careful around LE bosses for now. Progress is still quite smooth, although slower than in normal. Kasim will need a better weapon soon, but for now it is still doing alright. The Den was no trouble, and Blood Raven also fell easily once we had cleared her zombies. We basically chased her to a corner and then Calabi pinned her there with the Valk and Decoy, while Kasim poked over their shoulders.

A multi-shot Coldcrow gave us a bit of a scare, but once we established position and stopped her pack from running around, slow missiles made her harmless. I have to say, Slow Missiles is quickly becoming one of my favourite D2 skills. Reducing archers to basically non-threats is a really good feeling. It's amazing how safe it can be for Calabi with a well-placed Decoy and Valk, the only time she is ever in danger is big packs of kockback creatures mess up her tactical placements.

Cain was rescued without problem. Something happened that I've never had before. I cleared out all of Tristram without seeing Griswold. I even had to run around the whole of it again once it was cleared, looking at bodies to make sure Kasim didn't somehow kill him without me knowing. He was nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes we finally found him (fittingly) inside his old shop, just standing in the corner facing the wall. Only once we approached him did he turn and start attacking. I guess he was feeling nostalgic..

To end the session, Calabi sprinted into the Black Marsh and nabbed the WP (luckily it was right near the entrance). That is where she will start next time!

Destroyer Calabi the Sword-wielding Amazon, with Kasim the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 49, Black Marsh

 

[Grisu]

(this brings my total for normal to 4(!) Shaels. Not bad.)

Wow, have never seen that myself.

- Cow King apparently had a liking for TC3's.

He is indeed pretty good with those. And since the mlvl is high enough, he's one of the best chances for Tancred's Hobails and Sander's Paragon.

I have to say, Slow Missiles is quickly becoming one of my favourite D2 skills. Reducing archers to basically non-threats is a really good feeling.

I think it's even better against some other types of ranged attacks. The arrows from archers still travel their full length and they still do damage (although it's easier to avoid big damage to the character if the fight goes haywire) but some attacks lose their range. Flayer shaman- and megademon Infernos get a really small range, spitter lightning balls do no damage once they have travelled about half their normal range, etc.

LOL @ Griswold.

 

[Grisu]

I think it's even better against some other types of ranged attacks. The arrows from archers still travel their full length and they still do damage (although it's easier to avoid big damage to the character if the fight goes haywire) but some attacks lose their range. Flayer shaman- and megademon Infernos get a really small range, spitter lightning balls do no damage once they have travelled about half their normal range, etc.

Absolutely. I think I'm going to sink a few extra points into it for the extra duration, especially if Calabi reaches Hell.

 

[Grisu]

Sweet merc find.

Spoiler

He is now rockin' that, and two piece sigon's. He's actually quite beefy now.

Nice find in the Tal's tomb.

Spoiler

Now I just need a base for harmony.

Lil' Deazy.

Spoiler

Act 2 was pretty much a breeze. I ended up finding a Wizendraw and upgrading it. Damage was pathetic, but shooting magic arrows made me feel like I was contributing something.

Next up - Act III (Duhn, duhn, duuuh!)

Hoyt - Kurast Docks - Level 59

 

[Grisu]

<3 magic arrows

 

[Grisu]

Great job Zylo! Seems like your group is doing quite well, and great finds so far. I was hoping someone would try out a hunter druid in this tourney, so I'm glad to see it's been successful so far!

--

Calabi picked up at the Black Marsh WP, armed with her ever-growing love of Slow Missiles and ready to make some progress. She cleared out the Black Marsh before heading down into the Hole. Nothing much of note, except for this boss pack. Not ideal when you only have 14 LR. They gave her a bit of trouble, but she backtracked to the point in the screenie and was able to set up a good formation of valk/decoy thanks to the rock formation in the middle of the ground. Slow Missiles toned them down, and Kasim slowly but surely took them all out. Instantly after we cleared these guys, we were met with another nasty boss pack of the lightning hounds, and used the exact same set-up to beat them.

The Countess' tower consisted of spamming Slow Missiles as soon as we went down a staircase, and then setting up from there. It was a successful strategy, and the Countess ended up rewarding us with this.

I hope Sissy isn't too angry with her, but Calabi found this lying around in the Barracks. Despite spending her entire journey swinging a sword as her switch weapon, Calabi couldn't resist spending a little time in Sissy's shoes, and her killing power has gone up because of it. Quite an upgrade over her old 'Steel' Giant Sword.

Everything was smooth sailing until we hit the Catacombs level 2 and 3. Apparently this is where all the hurty boss packs wanted to hang out. On level 2 we found a double boss pack of spiders. The first one was Extra Fast. Okay, we can deal with that. A bit annoying, but not too dangerous. Second one: Extra Strong. Hm, this could be a bit tricky, they can hit Calabi pretty hard so I'll have to be careful. And then all of a sudden one of the spiders on the outskirts of the pack got Fanatacism. I didn't have to wait too long to find out who was giving it to them. A THIRD spider boss pack! Luckily they were just around a corner and hadn't awoken yet, so we lured the first two packs away and were able to deal with them seperately. It didn't end up being too dangerous (although that whole "drop-a-trail-of-spider-web-and-run-away-when-I'm-about-to-die" thing has moved right up my list of things that annoy me), but I shudder to think of what could have been if Calabi had woken up that third pack. Level 3 had a bunch of zombie boss packs, most of which were extra strong. We had to be quite careful around them, luckily all the doorways made it pretty safe (albeit slow).

We went down to Andy's level and cleard out the first two rooms on p8 before switching to p1 for the big girl herself. I didn't want any repeats of her baal fight, so we double and triple checked that we had her on p1. The Andy fight itself wasnt that bad. Lots of running around, and this screenshot gives you a very good idea of Kasim's contribution to the fight (despite 85% poison resistance). I let him take a nap there while Calabi used her shiny new axe toy to whittle andy down, in amongst frantic decoy and valk recastings. The CB on the axe was a major help in this fight. Once andy was slivered, we woke Kasim up and convinced him to poke her a few more times for the extra mf. Here is the drop (the ring was cathan's), at least we got a Topaz...

All in all that was a fun act! Things are definitely getting more interesting(read: difficult), especially boss packs, so I'm going to have to start seriously looking (ie. gambling) for some end-game worthy equipment.

Other notable finds from the session were:

-Rattlecage Armor(end-game worthy for Kasim? The CB is great, and the monster flee might help with crowd control later on..)
-Dol rune in the Cathedral
-Io rune in the Catacombs


Destroyer Calabi the (for now)Axe-wielding Amazon, with Kasim the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 52, Lut Gholein

 

[Grisu]

I hope Sissy isn't too angry with her, but Calabi found this lying around in the Barracks.

Naah, my Giant Axe has IAS (because it's a Steel RW) so I think it does more damage for me on high players settings than this axe would.
(Gotta give bonus points for a unique that has a higher STR requirement than the base item, though...)


Sissy has also defeated Andariel (and Radament). She hit Andariel over Waheed's shoulder, while I fed him reds and purples. Fight was brutal but pretty quick - she really doesn't like fire damage. I used 10 full purples which meant I had only the 12 in the belt and four in reserve at the start of Act II. I hope and think I can collect some more in this act, but if it gets worse I may cube some from gems.

Pit level 2 was (us usual) lively. Before we even saw the obligatory Devilkin, we were ambushed by an archer boss pack. CE Multishot. Trouble!
I teleported quickly twice to the right and put up a town portal. No archer followed but there was a large pack of regular melee rogues (probably two spawn packs of five). We (or at least Waheed) made a heroic stand so we could secure some space:

I then worked clockwise from here, starting with the Devilkin pack by the Golden Chest o' Joy. It was accompanied by a skeleton boss pack so I used stairways to reduce that danger. Wasn't really any problem after this.

An interesting find this act was Axe of Fechmar. I've upgraded it and keep it in the in-game stash. It gives me a (hopefully) much better corpse shattering tool than what Shiver Armor is.

Against Radament (who was LE), I could not get Waheed to fight at a distance outside Raddy's melee range, so he got beat up pretty badly. I saved him with full purples - exactly the number of them I had found/cubed this session, so I went +/- 0 on full purples in the first Act II leg.

I keep hoarding +life charms. Sacrificed some fire resist (which is maxed anyway on my sword/shield setup) and cold resist to pack on some more. I've decided to go all VIT on every level-up in this act except the last one (at level 60). If I then save all the stat points from levels 60-75, that should (at the very end of NM) leave me with enough points for any elite axe.


Destroyer Sissy the Axe (+sword) Enchantress and Waheed the Defiance guard, level 53, NM Rocky Waste next

 

[Grisu]

Natasha, Visala and Melody have finished the Desert. Elzix still needs to give out better circlets. Natasha found a decent hatchet hand that upgraded her damage slightly. Visala is sporting a static circlet now. Melody is attracted to forms of Greater Mummies and really likes their poison melee attack (has died 4 times now).

Natasha, Visala, and Melody (levels 25,24 and 3) headed for the Palace. Next Up: Harem

 

[Grisu]

I used 10 full purples which meant I had only the 12 in the belt and four in reserve at the start of Act II. I hope and think I can collect some more in this act, but if it gets worse I may cube some from gems.

I hear you on this one. Calabi had to use up her ENTIRE stash of purples except for 3. Here's hoping Act 2 is full of grape juice for the both of us!

Melody is attracted to forms of Greater Mummies and really likes their poison melee attack (has died 4 times now).

She must be related to Kasim. He can't get enough of the stuff.

 

[Grisu]

Calabi's trip through Act II has been interesting, to say the least.

We managed to shop a Ferocious Pike (195%ED) for Kasim, so killing was going more quickly than usual. At least until we hit the Halls of the Dead level 2. This level alone took several hours to clear. We got a double draw of Hollowed Ones, backed up by Spear Cats. Not a super dangerous draw, but one that we had to pay very close attention to, as getting swarmed by skellies was not an option. The main problem was that in every single larger room, we had maybe 3-4 packs of Hollowed Ones, which meant that they could raise their skellies faster than we could kill them. This meant we had to either pull the skellies out into the hallways, far enough away to get them out of the resurrection range, or find a way to kill the Hollowed Ones if that wasn't an option. All I can say is thank goodness the valk has a longer leash than Kasim, as we could use her to tank skelly packs while Kasim and Calabi ran after the big guys. Things were going smoothly (although slowly), up until we were about to clear the last room.

We approached from one hallway and got immediately cursed. Okay nevermind that, Calabi can't afford to get hit while amped, and we need Kasim to be able to survive. Run through the level to the other entrance, and we get immediately confronted with extra fast skeleton minions. Okay, pull them all down the hallway and dispatch of them accordingly. That wasn't so bad. We make it up to the doorway, spend some time fighting off a pack of spear cats, and we are finally able to make it in there to see what we are dealing with. Not one, not two, but three Hollowed One boss packs. Oh, and a mummy sarcophagus, just to top things off. Since the extra fast minions had been dealt with already, we retreated out of the room and looped back around to the other approaching hallway. We managed to pull the minions out a few at a time, and were able to deal with them without the amp being too much of an issue (although Kasim did take a few dirt naps). Now we just had to deal with mummies, and the 3 bosses. The Extra Strong and Cursed ones were of course hanging out together, and were completely inseperable, so we decided to loop back aorund and take out the extra fast boss. We then took out the mummy sarcophagus, and then took on the other two bosses. With liberal use of decoy and valk, they were dispatched of with only a couple more merc deaths. That fight alone took probably an hour, and while it didn't end up being that dangerous, the potential for big danger was always looming.

After that level, everything else seemed like an absolute walk in the park. The maggot lair was cleared with no issues, although Coldworm's chamber took a while.

Our next big hurdle was, of course, Claw Viper Level 2. Good old Fangskin. We stepped down the stairs and were immediately rushed with a couple of minions. Uh oh. Calabi did NOT want to be trapped near the doorway for this fight. Just then we could see the rest of the pack start rushing us. Calabi threw a decoy at them, and it vaporized almost immediately. She cast another decoy, drank a blue pot, and threw a Valk at them too. That kept them occupied long enough for Calabi to make a desperate sprint through the room to the altar. She weaved around some other snakes, and was just about the reach the stairs when a snake ran up and clipped her. The knockback sent her right into the arms of another snake. She was in hit recovery. She slammed some purples, and managed to sidestep the next attack, giving her just long enough to throw up a decoy and run around the snakes up the stairs. The threw up a TP and collected her group. The rest was easy, as this is, as we all know, the most favourable spot to be in down here. In hindsight, she probably should have muled on her staff of teleportation for this one..

After that we headed to the Arcane Sanctuary, where Calabi was rewarded for all her hard work. She couldn't believe it! This was the ONE item that she was hpoing to find in all her quest! I didn't even know it could drop this early in the game. This means the first 4-socket elite sword she finds will be home to a nice 'Passion' runeword (if, of course, we even find one). The only thing that can de-rail her plan now is if she's lucky enough to find a Ko rune, in which case Lawbringer is a definite possibility. We aren't going to worry about that for now, Calabi just wants to bask in the beauty of her new toy for a while.

So all-in-all, a very good session. She is currently sitting at the Canyon WP, dreading those false tombs like nothing else.

Other notable finds were:
- Ethereal Visceratuant
- Hel rune
- her 5th (!) Shael so far
- Sigon's Helm, which she can pair with the gloves she found earlier.
- We completed our second Ptopaz Artisan's Helm, so now it's time to start filling armours!

Destroyer Calabi the (for now)Axe-wielding Amazon, with Kasim the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 58, NM Canyon of the Magi

 

[Grisu]

I'm right behind you, Pb_pal. Stopped at the same spot as you did.

Great find with the Lem. Don't forget the almost always good option of Treachery.
Less rune luck for me - still nothing above Dol.

- We completed our second Ptopaz Artisan's Helm, so now it's time to start filling armours!

I am just a flawless topaz ar a gem shrine away from this. I have no 4s armor yet. Saved up a few Ancient Armors (Defense matters for me and Waheed!) for potential socketing.

It's pretty smooth progress. Waheed needs plenty of healing potions, though. No life steal and all that poison in this act, ouch. He has almost 2500 Defense, which is very nice. Especially notable against those Specters in the AS. He could take on half a dozen and barely break a sweat because they had trouble hitting him.

I teleported up to the altar mound in Fangskin's lair. That was not the end of things because there were two Guardians firing spiky balls at us, and Waheed could not make any progress because there were snakes constantly Charging him at the base of the stairs. He took so much damage. I ended up teleporting to that cul-de-sac down and to the left, then lured enemies here and had Waheed fight them by the opening. It was great that we could get to the Guardians while still out of sight of Fangskin's pack.

Recent finds:
* Tancred's Weird
* +15 life small charm
* +30 life grand charm
* Hwanin's Refuge x2
* Whitstan's Guard
* Improved my big axe to a bigger one: a 'Steel' Tabar. The IAS and OW are still very useful. This must be one of the best runewords for the cost.
* 26/21 Cobalt Ring of Fortune (3->1 cubed at clvl 56 from a large pile of saved amulets)
* Coral Chain Gloves of Fortune
Defense: 13
Durability: 9 of 9
Required Strength: 15
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 46
Fingerprint: 0x6dbf5ae2
Lightning Resist +24%
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired)

I fight so little so them being ehereal isn't a problem for the treasure hunt part of the journey.

Tancred's Weird called for a change of gear, because the Angelic stuff no longer had the best MF values. So I equipped Tancred's axe + amulet and re-equipped my topazed armor and MF rings. I now lost my huge AR bonus.

Current stats:

Note that I have 25% more resist all on the shield setup. Blocking is down to 12%

It's disheartening working on the life amount for a Sorc - so much focus and I am still not even close to 600! And soon I will have to start saving up points for bigger axes, and will then improve with 1 life per level-up...


Destroyer Sissy the Axe Enchantress and Waheed the Defiance guard, level 58, NM Canyon of the Magi next

 

[Grisu]

Great find with the Lem. Don't forget the almost always good option of Treachery.

Yes that is in the back of my mind as well. It's great to know that either my end-game weapon (I just need the actual weapon, which is by no means a guarantee ) or armor slots are basically filled. Whenever I am done with the treasure hunting, I will assess the situation and see which hole is bigger, although I am leaning towards weapon, just so progress isn't too painfully slow later on.

He has almost 2500 Defense, which is very nice. Especially notable against those Specters in the AS. He could take on half a dozen and barely break a sweat because they had trouble hitting him.

Glad to see Defiance is working out for you, I will have to try it on another tourney char sometime.

Recent finds:
* 26/21 Cobalt Ring of Fortune (3->1 cubed at clvl 56 from a large pile of saved amulets)
* Coral Chain Gloves of Fortune

Calabi is getting quite jealous of some of Sissy's MF equipment. Her gambling luck has been sub-par so far, most of her MF equipment is just plain. Great finds!

 

[Grisu]

Calabi has continued on her journey by visiting the six false tombs. With the memories of the Halls of the Dead lvl 2 fresh in her mind, she shopped a +2 Amazon Skills spear just in case she drew a double Unraveller tomb. This way she could pre-buff her valk to slvl 9 and get her the weapon upgrade to make killing more efficient should we need to, while not permanently hampering Kasim's ability to get all the kills (and keep our MF optimized).

How well they went depended heavily on two things:
1. Were there Unravelers?
2. Was there an entrance "trap"?

Only one of the false tombs didn't draw Unravellers, so that should give you a pretty good indication of how long it took. Two of the tombs had both unravellers AND an entrance trap, and both of these tombs had the narrow hallway entrance with off-shoots, which was actually probably better than getting the one big entrance room.

Basically the plan for those were to hold ground as long as we could, and try to back the minions away as far as possible from their Unravellers by drawing them towards the stairs. Once we got them there, Calabi would sprint around the pack of skellies, and set up a TP as far away as was feasible, while staying in the little entrance cul-de-sac. From there we would bounce between the portal and the stairs, taking out unravellers as quickly as we could, and dealing with the skellies at the end. This strategy was quite successful, and allowed us to open up JUST enough room to then deal with any packs in the hallways safely. Once one hallway was cleared, it was smooth(although slow) sailing, as we could pull skelly minions away from their Unravellers and kill them outide of the resurrection range.

Kaa's tomb was interesting, as there were multiple boss and champ packs of Gorebellies, with Steel Scarabs and of course Unravellers along for the ride. The problem with the Gorebellies is they can knock back both Kasim and the Decoy (I don't recall seeing the valk get knocked back, is she immune?), which really messes with our tactical set-ups. This can get risky if we are dealing with too many monsters at once, but as before, once we had enough room we could seperate them into manageable groups. There were ALOT of merc deaths in this tomb. So with lots of patience and gold, we eventually cleared it out, and managed to take down Kaa without too much trouble.

Finally! And we didn't even need to use the +skills spear we shopped, as there were no double Unraveller draws.

Kasim's weapon was upgraded from a Ferocious Pike (195%) to a Ferocious Lance (187%), which almost doubled his damage. We got lucky in the true tomb and didn't draw Unravellers, so it was a walk in the park. Duriel was quite easy after buffing with thawing potions. His drop was slightly more useful than normal, just not for Calabi. On to Act III!

With Kasim's weapon upgrade, the Spider Jungle was no problem whatsoever. It was a nice change of pace after all that drudging through the false tombs, and we even had a nice drop that Kasim (or maybe even Calabi!) will almost certainly be wearing once the treasure hunting is all done. Szzark was taken on with care, as his additional modifier happened to be Extra Fast (in addition to the always Cursed + Extra Strong). Luckily we managed to seperate almost all his minions and take them on without him, so he wasn't too much of an issue. Calabi grabbed Kalim's Eye and cleared up until the Great Marsh WP. This is where she is resting for now until next time.

Other notable finds:
- 3rd piece of Sigons(Boots)
- Goldwrap Belt (we will upgrade this at next muling break for more potion space)
- this amulet might be useful in Hell, so we are hanging on to it for now.
- M'avina's Tenet (it's always nice to see set items for the class you are playing, even if they aren't useful for that exact build)


Destroyer Calabi the (for now)Axe-wielding Amazon, with Kasim the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 60, NM Great Marsh

 

[Grisu]

From the diary of Natasha

Day 15

Boats are not fun to ride. Especially for people that are not used to water. At least we finished up the Lut Gholein business without mishaps but with a few NDEs to Scarabs and Apparitions. Game-Changing find award goes to the Ravenclaw found in the Palace Cellars (Visala squealed and wanted to hug the dead body of the horror mage variation boss.)
Other notable finds include civerb's cudgel and Cathan's Mesh. Time for the jungle. Melody died 5 times and Visala once to Dury, but he fell to the blade sentinel onslaught. Looking forward to watch blade sentinel cut through flayers....

Natasha, Visala, and Melody levels now 28,28 and 3, on a boat for Kurast. Next up: The Jungle