[2017] 5 Stages of Grief Tournament [by Pb_pal]

Jan 3, 2007
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This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by Pb_pal on Sep11, 2011. The last post was made Mar 11, 2018.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net)

Ulric stared blankly into the fire as he had done for as many nights as he could remember. Warriv placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but there were no words left to say. Ulric had shown up in the Encampment with a group of aspiring heroes, and one by one they set off into the wilderness, but none returned. They had been his fellow students under the watchful tutelage of his father, a master Barbarian warrior. They were his peers, his brothers in combat, his friends.

One by one they left on their mission, five in all. Only one of them made it to Flavie, and only a few days later she reported seeing Bishibosh shambling around dangerously close to the waypoint, his staff adorned on top with a fresh skull, unmistakably barbarian. The news soon arrived from his homeland of Harrogath that an especially harsh winter had hit the town, and his father been caught in the storm during an assault on Shenk. He had not been seen since, and was presumed dead. Catapults of poison and fire now lined the Bloody Foothills, and threatened the town, day in and day out.

He had lost everything.

One day though, the sun rose proper over the gates of the encampment, and for the first time some Fallen were starting to patrol the entrance, threatening to cross into the camp itself. It was in that moment Ulric was renewed with a final sense of purpose. He couldn't sit around the camp anymore, surrounded by memories of lives lost. He was sick of the looks of pity, the sympathetic stares, the whispers from all the others when they thought he was out of earshot. It was time he made amends and paid tribute to his fallen comrades in the only way he knew how.


--

Welcome to the 5 Stages of Grief Tournament! A tournament where we deal with grief and loss in the only way we know how; systematically eliminating hundreds of monsters from the realm of Sanctuary. This is a bit of a catch-all type of tournament, with each act representing one of the stages of Grief (as defined by the Kubler-Ross model) and having its own unique ruleset. There will also be a general ruleset which will always apply.

Rules, you say? Yes, let's have a look.


General Rules:


1.
HC, or SC with disqualification upon first death (feel free to continue to update, although you cannot win the tournament.)

2. Single-pass, untwinked only. (You may, of course, sprint from a WP to an uncleared area when starting a new session. Keep kills to an absolute minimum while maintaining safety, but all drops are off limits)

3. ATMA/GoMule may be used as an extended stash (you may also hot-mule off, as long as you adhere to the rules. Please take extra care to avoid any problems, and you must declare if you are using it (as per the forum rules). I will be. Here is the relevant quote from the SPF Rules FAQ:

Hotmuling


Hot muling is muling while the character you are muling from is in game. It's rarely done because of the risk of creating duplicate items (aka 'duping'). It's usually done with Gheeds because you can only carry one at a time. This is acceptable but should be declared and care must be taken so that the items are not duped.


So you are playing Teagan and she has a Gheeds. Another Unique charm drops.


Minimize to desktop and open ATMA or GoMule. You open Teagan and another character which doesn't have a Gheeds or any stash file.

You move Teagan's Gheeds to the other character or stash. You save that file and exit ATMA or GoMule.

Back in game you drop Teagans identified Gheeds on the ground and pick up the UnID'd one.

You play as normal and when you next exit you can put the 'new' Gheeds in the stash and get the first one back. Same as you would swap any other item.



However, it is not - and never has been - acceptable to restore backups with the intention of having a second chance at making an item whether through cubing sockets, crafting or making runewords. Similarly if you trade an item away, you delete the one on your hard drive. Duping is NOT acceptable.


4. You may re-enter as many times as you wish, or enter multiple characters at once. You may sign-up any time.

5. Version 1.10+, RRM/RWM/FAM allowed. No MP, no Trading.

6. Any /players setting may be used at any time.

7. Save + Exit to avoid death is NOT allowed, and results in disqualification from the tournament. (you may, however, S+E if running from a previously cleared area and you get yourself in trouble.)

8. I will make and maintain a table with progress. This will hopefully eliminate mix-ups and missed updates (it's also less work for you!).


Tournament Specific Rules:


9.
You may NOT return to previous acts/difficulties for any reason. We move forward through the grieving process only. If you don’t collect your quest reward before leaving an act, it’s gone for good.

10. Gambling is permitted only while in Act 3 (see Act Specific Rules for details).

11. Re-spec is NOT allowed in this tournament.



Act Specific Rules:


Each act represents a single stage of the grieving process and exists in its own bubble. These rules do not carry over between acts, but both General and Tournament Specific (ie rules 1-11) apply to all acts.


Act 1: Denial

You have 2 options in this Act. You can either:


12a). Deny all items found during this act (ie. you can't pick anything up). This means you and the merc will be completely naked until you reach the desert.

Exceptions:

  • You can buy and/or pick up pots/scrolls/keys and pick up gold for repairs/merc resurrections (though you cannot sell any items), but that's it.
  • You may keep the Atma ring quest reward, and one item of your choice to imbue and keep, but you may not equip them until Act 2. If you do not imbue the item(whether intentionally or otherwise), you cannot keep it once you leave the Act.


-OR-


12b). Deny all skill/stat point placement for the entire act. Obviously this cannot apply to the merc, so it's character only. You'll have to get creative if you want to equip some of the better items!


Note: You make your choice upon creating the character and it applies to ALL THREE DIFFICULTIES. Weigh your options, it may be easier to go naked in normal, but do you want to sacrifice a potentially game-breaking drop in Hell?


Act 2: Anger

13.
You MUST assign any unused skill/stat points immediately upon reaching Lut Gholein (anger leads to rash decisions). These initial points can be placed anywhere you like, however;

Any subsequent stat/skill points earned (through leveling or quest rewards) during this act must be used immediately. Skill points can go wherever you want, but stat points MUST be into your build's "offensive" stat.

  • Strength for melee classes
  • Dex for Bowazons, should there be any
  • Energy for all spell-based Casters
The skill book obtained from killing Radament must also be used immediately (as well as it's skill point).

Act 3: Bargaining

This act is all about gambling (both literally and figuratively)

14. You may only gamble for gear in this act
  • No shopping of weapons and/or armour while in Act 3 (selling is okay)
  • No gambling while in any other acts
  • Exception: You may keep/use all quest rewards from this act. Shopping for pots/scrolls/keys etc is allowed.

15. All skill/stat points earned must be randomly assigned and allocated before leaving the Act. You can do it right away upon gaining them, or before you step through the portal, but you must leave Act 3 with 0 saved points.

- Traditionally tournaments have either done it one point at a time or all 5 stat points with one roll. Choose whichever method you'd like, if you want to save up 20 points and roll them all in one go hoping for Vit, more power to you. As long as it's random, it doesn't matter.

For random skills/stats, you essentially assign a value to all available skills/stats and then use a random number generator to "roll". So for stats, str=1, dex=2, vit=3, en=4, then head somewhere like this. Fill in the values you want and voila. You can do this process for each point, or one roll for all points during a level up, or whatever combination you want.

Skills get a bit trickier, but essentially you assign a number to all available (white, clickable) skill options, and roll using that number.


16. You may bargain (sacrifice) the Golden Bird and/or Lam Esen's Tome in exchange for one level's worth of points (5 stat and 1 skill point) allocated however you wish (ie. one non-random level up). You can sacrifice whichever you want, or neither, or both. It's up to you.


Act 4: Depression (Isolation, refusing visitors)

17. No NPC interaction. This means no shopping/selling/gambling/repairing or merc resurrection whatsoever (yes, even potions!), so be careful and save up those Orts/Rals!

Exceptions:
  • Tyrael at the end of the act to travel to Harrogath, you may also collect your Izual skill points at this time.
  • Jamella will act as a sort of "fixed well". You may click her to heal your character/merc at any time, but that's the extent of the interaction allowed. This is to even the playing field in the sense that you should not lose access to a well just because it's in a previously cleared area that has been repopulated by monsters in a new game. Also, you're not just sitting there waiting for a well to regenerate while Diablo runs around waiting for you to come back.
  • You may use Deckard Cain to identify items throughout the act.

Act 5: Acceptance

All bets are off! No act-specific rules here, you've broken through the hardest part so make that final push to victory. The Cow level is optional, but falls under Act 5's rules (or rather, lack thereof) should you choose to clear it.

Note: Gambling is still forbidden in Act 5 as it falls under the Tournament-specific rules.

--


The tournament begins now, good luck!
 
Woohoo, let the games begin !!

I'm in with a to-be Hydra/Orb Sorc, Through_Grief. Jumped the gun already, so started a few hours ago. Currently level 13, cleared the way to the Stony Field WP. It's lots of fun !!

This one got me very excited ...

Screenshot153.jpg

... but excitement got tempered a bit:

Screenshot154.jpg

Still very cool.

The 10 str a Sorc starts with, definitely was an issue early on. I took no skills/attribute points for act 1 btw. Got some more now, due to gear found and an amethyst in my cap. Things were really slow early on, but once I got the Merc, it was much better.

Looking forward to reading all the stories !!

@Pb_pal Thanks a lot for hosting. Very cool concept.
 
Another Sorceress with the same Act I choice, meet Fran the Blaze Sorc.

Named after the sitcom The Nanny (both the character and the actress). Not a particularly good show, but it did have its moments. The connection to the Grief theme is that grief often involves suffering, a theme in this little exchange (maybe not the exact words, but close):

"It's a shame you didn't want to marry me, Mr Sheffield.
This is what I had planned to wear on our wedding night." (hands him a handbag)

(Looks in handbag) "But Miss Fine, there is nothing in here but some lip gloss!"

"Suffer..."


--------------------------------------


Well, I had no idea you can wear neither armor nor shields with base Sorceress strength! Also, the only +STR armor item you can shop at the ilvl cap in Act I (ilvl 12) is gloves with +1 to it. I relied on a +1 ring and such gloves for quite a while, and could eventually swap for a +2 ring with some lightning resist as well.

Weapons were also troublesome. Javelins were available for the ranged fights, but I was very far from being able to use my standard socketed Scepter. Had to settle for a socketed Spiked Club instead (2 less average damage). That worked out well enough to fight enough monsters so I could hire my friend Gwinni (although the FE melee rogue pack early on Cold Plains had to be separated, and that boss was a major pain to fight with no skills, no fire resist and very little life).

Bought a nice staff about halfway through the act:

Fran01, nice staff.jpg

Lots of chilling/freezing on that thing. I had this on my weapon switch to:
- keep SA up at all times. Just the extra light is really nice to have in dungeons.
- cast level 3 Frost Nova (chilling lasts for 10 seconds on non-resist foes) against fast bothersome meleers
- freeze fallen warriors I didn't want resurrected. Had Ice Blast on LMB on the switch.

For the Andariel fight, I had a +2 Static staff instead of my main weapon/shield switch. With items, I think my max life was 86 by now. I alternated between chilling her with Frost Nova and zapping her with SF:

Fran02, fighting Andariel.jpg

This fight quickly turned out a lot scarier than I had hoped. Merc died. For the last bit of Andariel's life, I swapped to a javelin/shield setup, kept chilling her with Frost Nova from my switch weapon, and threw javelins for the kill.

Here were my stats going into Act II:

Fran03, stats after the Act.jpg

Those lie a bit, though. Real STR was actually 12. The other 13 are from four large charms with +STR (+3, +3, +3 and +4) I had kept around in case I needed to equip something really good which demanded that much STR. These charms were now in inventory because I was about to sell them (no longer needed).

I gave Fran enough stats for a Flail (41 STR, 35 DEX) and put the rest in Vitality.
As for her skill points, I used 4 to get Shiver Armor, 2 to get Teleport and 3 to get Static Field with a reasonable range. The remaining 11 were used to push Blaze to level 9 (the maximum at her current clvl). The last point (along with the Radament one) would normally have been saved for Fire Mastery later, but that can't be done in this tourney. As I have planned to (for my first time ever) use Thunderstorm with this character, I placed it in its prereq, Charged Bolt. Radament point will go to Lightning, which could actually be a useful skill in a pinch here in early Normal.

I found Knell Striker with this character. I think that was only the second one ever for me.


[b]Fran the Blaze Sorceress and Gwinni the Fire Rogue, level 20, Lut Gholein[/b]


@Pb_pal: Before I can continue on, I need you to tell me what 'the offensive stat' is for a Blaze Sorc. You've read my reasoning in the other other thread. I think I could actually make a valid case for any of the four...
 
jiansonz said:
@Pb_pal: Before I can continue on, I need you to tell me what 'the offensive stat' is for a Blaze Sorc. You've read my reasoning in the other other thread. I think I could actually make a valid case for any of the four...
I'm fine with you either using Vitality or Energy (I wonder which you will pick!:rolleyes:). What sold me is that the true weapon of the Blaze sorceress is her stamina, and Vit increases stamina, so good enough for me!
 
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Here is how Blizzard treats stat bonuses regarding a Javazon in D2X.
In the Expansion they are 50/50 Str/Dex, so add .5% weapon damage in bonus damage for every 100 points added. This is useful since most javelins require much more Dex than Str to equip. That being the case it might be sensible to require alternating points be placed in Strength and Dexterity during Act 2. The decision is ultimately up to @Pb_pal to rule on it.
 
I'm in for this one as well. Some nice challenges ahead!

I didn't have any particular build I was wanting to play, so I rolled the class randomly and got Druid. I wasn't feeling especially excited about a druid, so rolled again and got druid again, and then a third time as well ... so Druid it is! Will probably go with a Windy, but as I'm taking the no stat/skill point placement in Act 1, I have a bit more time to think about it before I have to make a decision.

Naruma the 'warrior who wants to be a druid one day' has defeated Blood Raven and is itching to get into the Stony Fields. Druid base Str and Dex are enough to equip a decent range of early-game gear, including short bows and leather armor. Should be plenty to get through Act 1.
 
Dezrok said:
I'm in for this one as well. Some nice challenges ahead!

I didn't have any particular build I was wanting to play, so I rolled the class randomly and got Druid. I wasn't feeling especially excited about a druid, so rolled again and got druid again, and then a third time as well ... so Druid it is! Will probably go with a Windy, but as I'm taking the no stat/skill point placement in Act 1, I have a bit more time to think about it before I have to make a decision.

Naruma the 'warrior who wants to be a druid one day' has defeated Blood Raven and is itching to get into the Stony Fields. Druid base Str and Dex are enough to equip a decent range of early-game gear, including short bows and leather armor. Should be plenty to get through Act 1.
I was actually planning to go Druid until I realized I haven't played a zon in years. My plan was to go shapeshifter - probably fire claws, though rabies might have been fun to play with too
 
@Dazliare - Javazons are a bit of a tricky circumstance, yeah. They are pretty much casters, but the element of an actual thrown javelin (ie weapon use) kind of lets them cross borders. Same way that an Enchantress could technically argue either energy or str. Southpaw also brings up a good point:

Southpaw8668 said:
Here is how Blizzard treats stat bonuses regarding a Javazon in D2X.
In the Expansion they are 50/50 Str/Dex, so add .5% weapon damage in bonus damage for every 100 points added. This is useful since most javelins require much more Dex than Str to equip. That being the case it might be sensible to require alternating points be placed in Strength and Dexterity during Act 2. The decision is ultimately up to @Pb_pal to rule on it.

I don't love the idea of splitting points between dex/str, since that would (imo) start a slippery slope which defeats the whole purpose of the restriction. I say you're free to pick one of either str/dex/energy and use that as your point dump for the act. Your choice will apply to all difficulties.

--

Good progress to everyone and glad to see some interest :) I'll get a table set up once a few more participants have started, so don't forget to include your character's name/class/level/farthest area reached in your updates!
 
I have a question about randomizing in Act III. I think I understand how stat point distrubution is handled - the player chooses how many points at a time that are to be distributed, and also get to choose a new amount of skills to distribute after the first roll. All combos allowed, from randomizing every single point at a time up to making a single roll for all of the points earned in the act (in Normal, typically 25 points on a /p8 full clear) and every possible combo between those, as long as the amount of points to roll is chosen before each roll. Correct?

But what about skill points and the fact that skill allocations can open up other skills? Can I decide to roll for all points (typically for me 4 in Normal) in one go? Or do I need to roll them one at a time? I can take my character as example: if I must roll one point at a time, I could get something really unwanted (like Fire Bolt) on the first roll which would open up another unwanted skill (Fire Ball) for the upcoming rolls. If I get to roll all four in one go, I will of course risk getting 4 points in Fire Bolt but the risk of getting something I don't want will be lower. Especially if I can wait until after reaching level 30+ (since none of the Sorc Masteries are completely useless for my character, and two of them are skills I plan to max).
 
I started early with a Zerker who just killed the Radament, but then after the official launch of the tournament I decided to use the RNG to come up with a new character. I rolled a 1 and then I rolled a 4, which according to my realistic 7 Amazon builds that could potentially finish the game it turned out to be the Lightning Fury/Charged Strike build. Kraestra will primarily utilize LF, but will use CS on the big solo beasts and Act bosses.
Edit: She will be collecting items in Act 1 and will throw all points into Energy in Act 2 since my main skills are so Mana intensive. Thanks for hosting this clever tournament @Pb_pal
 
Enter ruru the warcry barbarian! Time to cry through the grieving process.

Not having items with the barbarian didn't look like a good idea, so I went with denying skill/stat points. Fortunately, the barbarian has a high base strength of 30, thus equiping items was not much of an issue. Fought through Act 1 with a gemmed scepter, poison potions, and rogue mercenary.

Treehead hit very hard and would send ruru into hit recovery with every hit. Had to let Klaudia and strangling gas potions take care it.
laulJkw.jpg



Not a useful item for a barb but had to share this nice orb:
ihjeP4v.jpg



I was lucky enough to come across a poison shrine in the Stony Field; I made sure to carefully pick up each potion individually into the inventory. Once ruru reached level 16, he spent much gold buying back 25 stacks of choking gas potions for some good AoE damage.
n68kST0.jpg



Andariel was very scary with her poison spray attack, but she eventually fell to the barrage of poison potions, arrows, and drive-by scepter hits.
Stat/skill pages before heading off to Lut Gholein:
fJ4rqLf.jpg



I suppose singer is the one barb build that will have his offensive stat into energy?
 
@jiansonz That's some very good progress already !!! It took me ages to get through the first few areas and sublevels, doing full clears on /p8. Did you take the usual single-pass approach as well, or did you just forward through the quests only?

For Act 3 I'm not sure I'll take the usual single-pass approach of doing full clears on /p8. I mean, that's the act where we get to assign skill points and attributes randomly. I was thinking it might be better to play through it the shortest way, on /p1, to minimize the amount of (potentially) wasted skill points. What do the others think? What approach will you take?

Edit: Good luck everyone !!! I'm keen on hearing everyone's tactics, as this tournament has some quite specific and restrictive rules. The trick with poison potions for example (the lower ones, not those with 72 poison damage) ... been there, done that, to take out Bloodraven. Other than that my 3 socket bow with chippies has proven a good help.

Right now I'm also doing the usual 'stick Topazes in armor / helm to improve drops' routine, but with only 50 hitpoints, I often wonder if it wouldn't be better to use Rubies instead ...
 
T72on1 said:
@jiansonz That's some very good progress already !!! It took me ages to get through the first few areas and sublevels, doing full clears on /p8. Did you take the usual single-pass approach as well, or did you just forward through the quests only?
I started early - way before the official tourney start. Wednesday or so. Usual /p8 full clears.

Interesting idea about doing Act III on a lower players setting to minimize the number of level-ups there. I wouldn't be suprised that if you do it on /p1, then the rest of Normal on /p8, you would still finish Normal at the usual level 48-49 (since you are way overlevelled in the late Normal areas anyway).


Love the Choking Gas potion tactics of reselling and buying back several full packs. It has struck me how powerful they are compared to the lowly version of poison potion, and really not far behind the most advanced type.
 
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Now that you both have brought up that point regarding Act 3, I'm planning to blast through there like it's a timed speed run on /p1 since this is my least favorite Act anyway. :rolleyes: I suppose I will find out if my level at the end of normal balances out as you mentioned @jiansonz
My Javazon with her javelins and higher dexterity seem to be killing and clearing everything quicker than my Zerker was, at least until he found that unique spiked club. He seemed to be whiffing a lot more though than her until he picked up the BA mercenary in Act 2 before I parked him.
 
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