[2015] The Show Your Colours Tournament [by Pb_pal]

After crafting the weapon seen below for Gulzar and using up her normal socket quest, he tried it out when first venturing out into the Cold Plains in NM. With the lack of LL at that point on any of his gear, Gulzar was continually taking a dirt nap very quickly when mobbed.
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It's too bad because he would have done some respectable damage as you can see below and look great doing it.Screenshot003 (1).jpg
So we gave Gulzar back his 4 socketed Partizan and continued on our way to vanquish Andariel.
S/U found along the way, mostly useless and sold but nevertheless.
A unique light belt and two-handed sword from the same sparkly chest in the Underground Passage Level 2.
Spectral Shard in the Black Marsh.
Cathan's Mask in the Tomoe Highland.
Sigon's Greaves in the Jail level 2.
Unique War Hammer in Catacombs level 3.
This rare Heavy Belt was gambled from Gheed and was a decent upgrade from the previous red colored, rare Belt she was wearing.
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These are the rings she is currently wearing to beef up AR because she really seems to miss the larger monsters alot, add some more mana leeching and resists are always nice.
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These were by far the two toughest creatures we encountered prior to reaching Andy and they happened to be in the same chamber.
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I forgot to dial the difficulty down before entering her chambers and ended up taking her on solo for most of the battle at /p8, since Gulzar kept biting it after a few seconds with her toe-to-toe, even after giving him a couple black potions. Same goes for the slvl1 Shadow Warrior as you can imagine isn't offering much help in NM, so I'm considering investing in the Master at this point and beef her up lastly.
The drop from Andariel looked more like a Hell Forge drop. :( At least the War Hat was worth some nice GP.
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Ember and Gulzar, Level 52, A2 NM
 
*bump*
Where have all the others gone?

Act III went down rather fast. We stopped doing full clears in the Kurast Bazaar, where fleeing CI Zakarumites almost cost us our sanity. The Council was tame, just the guys in the Durance were annoying because two of them were LI/CI and there were two Blood Lord bosspacks nearby, one of them was LI/CI was well.

Mephisto killed the level 15 Valk in a few seconds, so Vanilla put on the prebuff +2 magic gloves since she would not need the +2 java anyway. That helped, the level 17 one was strong enough to hold the front against Mephisto so that Razan could apply the Crushing Blow. We were rewarded with a nice blue item:

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If the tournament allowed respec, this would probably be the time to switch to FA/Strafe.

Other notable finds:

- Vex rune (would be useful for FA/Strafe as well)

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- Weathergirl orb

Superior Smoked Sphere
One Hand Damage: 4 - 11
Durability: 39 of 39
Required Level: 24
Fingerprint: 0x79ab1249
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Blizzard (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Thunder Storm (Sorceress Only)
+2 to Meteor (Sorceress Only)

+49 to Life
Increase Maximum Durability 14%
2 Sockets (0 used)

Conqueror Vanilla and Razan, level 80, Pandemonium Fortress (H)
 
Great progress @felixbavaria and that's a cool named Sphere you found. I think @Pb_pal is focusing a lot of time on the rune hunting trials in the RoF. I'm sure he'll make his way back eventually. I've been trying those runs a bit, but I think I will re-focus on Ember's progress, since she is still pretty fun to play at the moment.

Ember and Fazel (B/A) and the Shadow Master (slvl 4) have found their way to assembling the Staff after battling a very nasty pack of Claw Vipers in CVT Level 2. Never did see what the boss' mods were, because I was too focused on staying alive on /p8. They pushed the trio all the way back to the last stand at the stairs and the heroes prevailed once again. Ember's main focus was to keep them frozen in place as much as they would allow.
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Stony Tomb Level 2 - Unique Field Plate
Maggot Lair Level 1 - Set Chain Boots and Cathan's ring
Maggot Lair Level 2 - Unique Demonhide Gloves (Eth) Save these for act bosses I suppose.
Lost City - Unique Quilted Armor
CV Temple Level 1 - +2 Venom Hand Scythe of the Bat (To buff with on switch)
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I really hope I can stumble onto some Runic Talons w/ socket/s, or preferred mods.
Been able to continue on at /p8, but will definitely take on Duriel at /p3 or lower, since cold resistance is Ember's lowest one. Curious to see how the tombs are going to roll for the trio at /p8...

Ember and Fazel, Level 56, Entering Palace
 
Great job guys!

@felixbavaria - Well done, you're almost there! AS Southpaw said, I'm focusing mostly on the RoF runs right now, but I will be back to Lemon at some point. My D2 time has taken a hit for the time being, but don't count me out yet!

--

Here's a table update at least! (the last one is 2 pages back, oops!)

Code:
Table of Heroes:
Forum Name     Class      Colour   Char Name     LVL    ACT     Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
felixbavaria   Amazon     Blue     Vanilla       80     A4(H)   Pandemonium Fortress
Southpaw8668   Assassin   Red      Ember         56     A2(NM)  Palace
Pb_pal         Paladin    Red      Lemon         53     A2(NM)  Lut Gholein
Vildecor       Amazon     White    Lucent        32     A4      Pandemonium Fortress
Interdasting   Druid      Red      Crimson       14     A1      Black Marsh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fallen (RIP):
Forum Name     Class      Colour   Char Name     LVL    ACT      Area
Ailelya        Paladin    Blue     Sinine        47     A1(NM)   Dark Wood
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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