[2015] The Passive Aggressive Tournament [by Pb_pal]

I've decided on an Axe Enchantress, with Defiance merc. Many 2h-axes have no DEX requirement while the rest have a moderate one. If I avoid the exceptional type Gothic Axe, none of them requires more than 65 DEX.
A Sorc without a shield needs super heavy VIT investment to be sturdy (unless it's a dedicated ES build) and she starts with very low STR so stat points will be scarce as it is. The big polearms feel out of reach because of this.

Defiance will combine nicely with Shiver Armor. It will, however, not combine nicely with what I hope is going to be the main skill in the late game, Berserk. If I find a Lem rune and a suitable axe, I will go with Passion anyway because I think it will a great solution to monsters with high physical/fire resist or immunity. Plus I imagine it will fit her personality. :)

Am I allowed to use my 1-point Telekinesis?
 
jiansonz said:
I've decided on an Axe Enchantress, with Defiance merc. Many 2h-axes have no DEX requirement while the rest have a moderate one. If I avoid the exceptional type Gothic Axe, none of them requires more than 65 DEX.
Sorcs need super heavy VIT investment to be sturdy (unless it's a decidated ES build) and she starts with very low STR so stat points will be scarce as it is. The big polearms feel out of reach because of this.

Defiance will combine nicely with Shiver Armor. It will, however, not combine nicely with what I hope is going to be the main skill in the late game, Berserk. If I do find a Lem rune and a suitable axe, I will still use it because I think it will a great solution to monsters with high physical/fire resist or immunity. Plus I imagine it will fit her personality. :)

Am I allowed to use my 1-point Telekinesis?
Welcome to the tournament (even if it isn't for a little while:)) jiansonz! As Telekinesis is not an "Allowed Skill", it can ONLY be used if you find an item with charges of it (which I believe can spawn on rings and circlets, so it's definitely possible!). Neither CtC items nor charges are limited by skill restrictions.

This character sounds awesome! I'll be rooting for you to find that Lem, as the style-points will be simply too much to handle:p.
 
That's a pretty nasty double boss pack Pb. Jealous of your unique drop though, only thing green or gold that I've found has been Arctic Furs' body armor...:confused: If I find the belt I'll be happy though (40% mf bonus!)

Though I surprisingly have more topazes than I can use (which is a nice surprise), and even have a flawed one from a gem shrine.
 
To show you that my planned build makes at least a little sense:

Frames per attack with a two-handed axe
(going from worst to best, assuming Normal Attack, a weapon with wsm=0 and no IAS)
(polearms and staves have the same numbers)

Necromancer 19
Assassin, Barbarian 18
Paladin, Amazon 17
Druid 16
Sorceress 15
 
jiansonz said:
To show you that my planned build makes at least a little sense:

Frames per attack with a two-handed axe
(going from worst to best, assuming Normal Attack, a weapon with wsm=0 and no IAS)
(polearms and staves have the same numbers)

Necromancer 19
Assassin, Barbarian 18
Paladin, Amazon 17
Druid 16
Sorceress 15
Also sorceress with axe looks awesome
 
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Typical liking of over powered characters - check.
Strong aversion to hardcore - check.
Dislike of playing untwinked - check.

*Sigh*

Zylo Druid Hoyt 22 A2 Far Oasis

He's going to be a standard summoning druid. So far spirit wolves, and then later dire wolves, have been pretty powerful. I decided to save some sanity, I'd go with HoW over Oak Sage to hopefully speed everything along. While searching for the cube, I got a lucky find in netting a rare longbow with ctc amp and surprisingly some other useful mods. I think I'll be going with a BA Merc, and my role will consist mainly of curse duty. A witchwild string would be ideal, but I doubt I'll get so lucky. I'm thinking a crescent moon rw for merc would work well, so fingers crossed for an Um. Every other end game item is still to be determined.

I'm hoping that being powerful in normal/nightmare doesn't lead to being significantly underpowered in Hell. I can dream right?
 
pharphis said:
I might also use an axe. Maybe I'll find a gul or whatever and make that runeword with vengeance (?)
Kingslayer would be awesome, though Mal, Um, Gul and Fal might be a touch of a stretch. Setting your sights high is always good though! ;)


Zylo said:
Typical liking of over powered characters - check.
Strong aversion to hardcore - check.
Dislike of playing untwinked - check.
Lol! Just don't die and it will be like it wasn't even hardcore in the first place. :p I've always wanted to try a Hunter druid, so I'm excited to see how you do!


@Jocular - sweet topaz luck! I didn't find my first until the Stony Field :rolleyes:
 
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From the diary of Natasha

Day 2

The new girl isn't too bad. She doesn't talk a lot, but is very accurate with an arrow when needed. It was actually amusing as she tried to tank Griswold while I set up the blade sentinels that chewed through him like candy. Topaz luck is also getting better (currently at 6 total- 4 in armor and helm combined). May need to upgrade weapon soon (currently now using a rare spear dropped in the dark wood with some +to min damage, AR, and cold damage.)

Natasha and Visala, the Assassin and the Rogue, level 15 and 12 respectively in the Dark Wood. Next Up: Black Marsh
 
Just a small update from Calabi:

She and Fiona continued their way from the Outer Cloister to go see what all the trouble was in the Jails. Charsi had asked her to get some silly hammer back that she left in there somewhere, and since she was on her way anyways, Calabi decided to oblige her. The Smith was dispatched with no problems, as we could easily clear out his area before confronting him.

Slow and steady is the name of the game, as Calabi is letting Fiona do all the killing for the extra MF. It seems to be working though, as we managed to find our second TC3 so far this tournament. Here's hoping this is a sign of things to come once the drops become more useful! Happy with their luck, the two ladies are waiting at the Inner Cloister WP, planning their route through the Catacombs.

Calabi the Tankazon and Fiona the Cold Rogue, lvl 19 - Inner Cloister

Code:
Table of Heroes:
Forum Name    Class      Char Name    LVL    ACT    WP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zylo          Druid      Hoyt         22     A2     Far Oasis
Pb_pal        Amazon     Calabi       19     A1     Inner Cloister
djmbbandie    Assassin   Natasha      15     A1     Black Marsh
Jocular       Assassin   ?????        14     A1     Stony Field/Dark Wood(?)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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Hm. I would maybe add blaze to the sorc skills (though I wouldn't use it myself)

Anyway, I'm just about to start my sorc:


edit: down. Found only 4 topazes, threw them in hats and had many close calls against coldcrow :p
Found MF ring, though, and some other stuff. Stony field next! (lvl 11.9)
 
Zylo said:
Typical liking of over powered characters - check.
Strong aversion to hardcore - check.
Dislike of playing untwinked - check.

*Sigh*

Zylo Druid Hoyt 22 A2 Far Oasis

He's going to be a standard summoning druid. So far spirit wolves, and then later dire wolves, have been pretty powerful. I decided to save some sanity, I'd go with HoW over Oak Sage to hopefully speed everything along. While searching for the cube, I got a lucky find in netting a rare longbow with ctc amp and surprisingly some other useful mods. I think I'll be going with a BA Merc, and my role will consist mainly of curse duty. A witchwild string would be ideal, but I doubt I'll get so lucky. I'm thinking a crescent moon rw for merc would work well, so fingers crossed for an Um. Every other end game item is still to be determined.

I'm hoping that being powerful in normal/nightmare doesn't lead to being significantly underpowered in Hell. I can dream right?
I recently made a fire huntermentalist with a harmony bow for the main attack, even in a multiplayer setting the build was underwhelming, however the wolves/bear hold their own until about mid hell. After that you may experience some difficulty especially in the river of flame/chaos sanc where there are a few more enemies around than normal. Maybe with the spirit wolves life boost synergy it might not be as bad for them dying so frequently but I don't know for sure.
 
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pharphis said:
Hm. I would maybe add blaze to the sorc skills (though I wouldn't use it myself)

Anyway, I'm just about to start my sorc:


edit: down. Found only 4 topazes, threw them in hats and had many close calls against coldcrow :p
Found MF ring, though, and some other stuff. Stony field next! (lvl 11.9)
Glad you got started pharphis! Next update, let me know her name and I'll add her to the table.

Good luck!

EDIT: adding pharphis to the table
EDIT2: Updated Zylo as per post below

Code:
Table of Heroes:
Forum Name    Class      Char Name        LVL    ACT    WP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zylo          Druid      Hoyt             32     A4     River of Flame
Pb_pal        Amazon     Calabi           19     A1     Inner Cloister
djmbbandie    Assassin   Natasha          15     A1     Black Marsh
Jocular       Assassin   ?????            14     A1     Stony Field/Dark Wood(?)
pharphis      Sorceress  SlamDoorsShut    11     A1     Stony Field

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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Pyrotechnician said:
I recently made a fire huntermentalist with a harmony bow for the main attack, even in a multiplayer setting the build was underwhelming, however the wolves/bear hold their own until about mid hell. After that you may experience some difficulty especially in the river of flame/chaos sanc where there are a few more enemies around than normal. Maybe with the spirit wolves life boost synergy it might not be as bad for them dying so frequently but I don't know for sure.
What sort of gear did you have on him? I think the summoning tree screams to be some sort of hybrid. With the timers on the fire skills, that makes for a perfect fit. Did you use the dire wolves more or the bear? I was planning on using the bear, and I'm hoping to snag some +skills somewhere to have a flock of ravens to help with crowd control. At the very least, a continuous casting of ravens will give me something to do.

Without any fire skills, or shockwave for a shock summoner, play style so far is pretty much shift+left click. No real noticeable difference in killing speed when I'm attacking or just standing there.

After reading that everyone is slammin' topaz in their gear, I decided to do the same. I think I'm in the area of +130 mf now. So far drops have been few and far between. I've netted several set items, only two of which go together, and zero unique items thus far.

Thanks to some sturdy meat shields, bosses have gone down fairly easy and without incident.

Update: Level 32 and just hit the River of Flame WP. (I can't tell where my level should be at for single pass.) So later this evening the plan is to slay ol' Big-D. It's going to be really intense! Okay, not really intense... but pretty intense.
 
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Great job so far Zylo, awesome progress!

As for your level, that seems a bit lower than the standard single pass, although not by alot, and definitely not something to be worried about.

Typically it's something like:

A1: 20 - 21
A2: 28 - 29
A3: 32-33
A4: 35
A5: 48-49

for full clears throughout normal, with small fluctuations for exp shrines, amount of bosspacks, etc.

Here's some light reading if you want to know everything you need to know about early MF-ing. Courtesy of jiansonz, so you know it's right! ;) There is also a guide geared more for general gameplay with alot of handy info.

EDIT: I updated Hoyt in the table a few posts up, just so everyone knows how far ahead you are ;)
 
Ahh, great links. I should have looked more information up, instead of charging in blindly. Hind sight is always 20/20. It's kinda neat reading about what I should/could have done differently. A big difference in what I did vs. suggested was using the early chipped topaz for mf instead of using them for that leet lightnin' damage. Mid act 2 is when I was able to switch my gear over to a MF setup. Oh well, I'll know for next time.

It has been years since my last HC character, it's not really conducive to my play style, and I've never played single pass. I wasn't sure I'd actually make any progress before deeding.

I'm working graves this month, and I'm currently on days off. So I have a good deal more time to game then usual. So I'll enjoy the lead for now, but I'm doubtful it'll last.
 
@Pb_pal: Those end-of-act levels are what I always have, with one exception: I've never managed to reach level 33 in Act III.


I have started my character before finishing what I said I would. She called out to me, and I followed. :)

She is in part inspired by Sirian's write-up of this character. Now here's a guy who is awesome at fleshing out his characters with cool stories! His main D2 page here. Any fan of D2 should read his ecapades, those with Ember, Skeletorr and Subpoena in particular. Be warned - they are very long! Lytra's chapter is also very interesting and not as long. It's almost as if it's at that time players in general came to understand that Charged Strike actually does not suck. :)

I really wonder what became of Little-Sister in the end. It is unsusual for Sirian not to follow through with the write-up of a character.
It's interesting to note some differences the game has gone through. When he describes what I strongly suspect is Ancient Kaa, he says this boss is cold enchanted, which he was back then (Classic V1.03). Also, purple Fangskin, Yay!



Sissy the Axe Enchantress-to-be put all the stat points from her first five level-ups to STR so she could use a Large Axe and 'get into character' asap. After that it was vitality like crazy for many levels to make it possible for her to tank shieldless for her merc when the monsters started to get more dangerous (Barracks).
Here is what eventually became of her first axe - I like that it's 'a little bit of this and that':

Sissy01%20first%20axe_zps7b6fnui1.jpg


I have to say that this weapon was far more effective at killing fallen shamans than the Scepter I usually go with. Yes, even before Enchant was available. Later in the act, my level 5 Shiver Armor was an actual threat to the fallen warriors. Just attack me a few times and you're done for.

Found a very unusual item. The big selling price made me take a closer look:

Sissy02%20druid%20helm_zpsti9bvllo.jpg


A 3x +3 item! Those are 1 in 10000 (unless it's an imbue). I can only remember one more I've seen - a Clasped Orb I collected in Scavenger Hunt #4.

Andariel was a painful experience, but our damage output was so good that the fight went quickly. I was wearing Death's Hand for most of this fight, and that must have helped.


Hired Waheed the Defiance merc, and after the Halls, cubed some polearms for him. He's currently using an 80% Savage Poleaxe and I have Bill and Partizan waiting for when he's stronger. Sissy's current axe is a 'Steel' Battle Axe.

In one of the tombs, we encountered the rarely-seen-outside-Sewers Burning Dead boss:

Sissy03%20burner%20boss_zpshfv06tj8.jpg


I found a 3% MF jewel, which made me switch my current Bone Shield of Deflecting to a 3s Kite Shield. I plan to have this shield to collect MF jewels in and hold it while Waheed kills most things. Current weapon along with the shield is a stack of ethereal Pilums.

It's a pity it pays off so well to have the merc kill monsters. What if we could always count the MF from both player + merc no matter who got the kill? Then I could be stylish all the time with only 3% MF loss!

Sissy04%20second%20axe_zpswh3uwe3h.jpg


The amount of life against (/p3) Duriel was 40 more because I used Bloodfist in that fight. Needed two full purples and 4-5 greater healers. Pretty smooth fight overall, much better than I thought for a shieldless Sorceress without Static Field.


Sissy the Axe (+javelin) Enchantress and Waheed the Defiance guard, level 28, Spider Forest next
 
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