- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
[2018] Spirit Tournament [by Wolron]
- Thread starter Grisu
- Start date
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
Misty the Martial Artist has made some progress.
As I wrote before, Tiger Strike + Dragon Talon is pretty useful even at slvl 1, and without weapons or boots:
She has pumped Fists of Fire to level 10. It's a major killer at the moment. The lousy attack speed bare-fisted is more than made up by the area-of-effect mayhem. She's found a few ethereal Spiked Clubs and the like, and while they are pretty decent for bonking monsters (especially undead and especially with 3x Tiger + Attack), she prefers the bare hands so she can use FoF. The weapon switch is used for ranged options: ethereal javelins or Choking Gas Potions (from a shrine). However, lately the switch has been used for storing an ethereal Spear, a future merc weapon if nothing better comes along...
Had a Small Shield for a while, but it broke after using it in a few areas.
Misty has only found one usable claw and she's reserving it until she finds another. Then she'll be a FoF-ing juggernaut...
One good thing with claws is their high durability. Her Katar started with durability 26 (24 now).
Thinking about the imbue. Major candidate is a Sash. There is no difference in the affix pool between imbuing at my current clvl 17 compared to a few more. Can still get 30% single resists, 'Tiger' +life and any of the self-repairing suffixes.
Another candidate is a Javelin, but then I'd really like to get to clvl 21 in the act (for opening up Fiery/Static) and that happens only rarely.
Speaking of life, it's a good thing you can pump Vita a lot early on, since my character is (usually) shieldless, lacks crowd control, needs to tank and has bad resists. Reached 300 (!) life before taking on the Countess.
My major beef is still the limited inventory space. I understand the thinking, but it really detracts from the enjoyment:
Had 14 slots at this stage, and made several trips in this area alone. Why bother with potions selling? Well, gambling awesome rings and amulets is one of the few semi-reliable ways to get some good gear in this tourney, so all the money is welcome. We're cut off from 19/20 of usual major moneymakers like armors and wands/staves/scepters.
Code:Player: Name: Class: Tree: Score: Level: Area: ---------------- ------- -------- ------------ ------ ------ --------- Wolron Ghost Druid Elemental (NM) +377 48 NM: Rogue Camp Grisu Hildr Amazon None yet +160 15 Black Marsh Mir Allanon Druid Summon +156 21 Lut Gholein jiansonz Misty Assassin MA 17 Outer Cloister
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
Yeah, that seems reasonable...if you manage to kill Andariel without the imbued weaponjiansonz said:I myself will wait for level 20 I guess and then imbue an eth Javelin, because it can get both "of Replenishing" (6/166) and "of Propogation" (5/166) as a suffix, which is about 6.62% of getting a self-repairing javelin
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
It's no fun to melee LE monsters when you have 8% resist. Good thing I have these:
I found an ethereal Belt. Very nice. I'm wearing it, even though it broke a long time ago.
Found some Heavy Boots as well. They allowed for some decent DTail damage:
Those boots are now broken and discarded.
Reached level 21 even before getting to Andariel's floor. I think that's a first.
As I wrote before, I went for my Javelin pack to imbue. Decent result:
Those are meant to be my base Phoenix Strike weapon later, unless something better comes along. I had planned to play this character more like an elemental dual claws character, but finding good claws are hard and the STR requirement for all but the most basic claws are a problem. Phoenix Strike makes for more flexibility.
Grisu said:...if you manage to kill Andariel without the imbued weapon
I did get them before the fight, but I saved them. Gave her a WARM welcome instead:
Could bring a pretty nice merc weapon along for my new buddy, Pratham:
Pratham's armor is a 2s Hard Leather with chipped topazes. Misty was wearing it for a while Act I, until it got down to 1 durability. Misty now has a basic armor and gloves, and we both have helms. Merc's helm is even magical, but it's just the 'Strong' affix.
Socketed ethereal stuff is really darn rare. If I have calculated correctly, any grey item on the ground that is capable of having sockets will have:
19/22 chance of being socketed, non-ethereal
2/22 (=1/11) chance of being ethereal, unsocketed
1/22 chance of being ethereal + socketed
Misty has only found three such items: the mentioned armor and Bardiche, and Hatchet Hands with 1 socket. The socketing recipes are highly useful in this tourney.
The Strong Helm is the only blue ethereal item she's seen. No ethereal rare yet.
With level 10 FoF and level 8 CoT, Duriel was in for some pain. It took many seconds to fully charge both, but then he was due for several hundreds' points of elemental damage:
I had a Small Shield in the fight, providing 8% blocking, IIRC. It still has 2 durability left.
Code:Player: Name: Class: Tree: Score: Level: Area: ---------------- ------- -------- ------------ ------ ------ --------- Wolron Ghost Druid Elemental (NM) +377 48 NM: Rogue Camp jiansonz Misty Assassin MA +394 28 Kurast Docks Grisu Hildr Amazon None yet +160 15 Black Marsh Mir Allanon Druid Summon +156 21 Lut Gholein
EDIT: This sums up the tournament pretty well:
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
After reaching Lut Gholein, first things first, Allanon went into the desert to find the Horadric Cube so he could empty his stash & inventory a bit for future finds. The advance was slow at the beginning but after another gem or two dropped he snapped and just made a run for it. Luckily he managed to retrieve the cube without dying.
After freeing some space for future loot he went back to the desert, this time making sure to clear every inch before moving to the next area. Nothing noticeable happened and nothing of value dropped during the journey even though he is sporting ~ 50% MF… well, something did dropped, but it was irrelevant (I should've listen to @Worlon):
Wolron said:
Allanon never thought that ravens would prove to be so useful; their blinding ability helped him control the battlefield more than once and every bit of damage help, especially since the wolves begin to lose some steam.
Allanon the summoner, level 25, (Palace next)
Str 27
Life 284
Wp 13
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
Good progress for Misty, and she's finally finding some better equipment.
Pratham, her mercenary, got a major weapon improvement partway though Act III, when he could trade his Gemmed Bardiche for a 'Malice' Spetum. Guaranteed OW on every hit means that he will often have a couple of monsters bleeding at the same time.
Misty can just tag along behind Pratham. The only tactical skills she uses are Dragon Flight (to get Pratham to where she wants him when he's doing...less clever moves...) and the occasional Town Portal. She can also freeze a pack with Phoenix Stike if needed, but that hasn't been needed yet.
Her best find:
She forfeited the possible Black Book strength points in favor of more inventory space.
(I have a plan to solve most of the STR problem later)
She's started to wear a couple of (pretty good) fire/lighting resist charms. Those, her fire resist gloves (Crimson (7%) Heavy Gloves) and two lightning resist rings (Coral 23% and a rare 15%) got her these stats for the Diablo fight:
The shield is a Spiked Shield of Blocking - she had 28% chance to block with it.
I was careful vs Diablo. Even with my good resists and life, I still went with /p1. Act boss drops are likely to be far less useful in this tourney than usual. Phoenix Strike level 6 (backed with lvl 10 FoF) is reasonably strong but it still took a while to fry him.
Nice gift from Diablo, especially since I had no boots at all:
Weapon is mostly just a placeholder for a 6% MF jewel, but it's still a useful PS weapon in a pinch. I'm trying my best to improve MF in other ways as well. You've seen my amulet, and the current rings have 14% and 13%. Merc's armor is a Chain Mail with a flawless topaz. I've used socket recipe on one of my Helms. It now holds a perfect topaz, waiting for a second.
I have plans for my Act V rewards. Anya reward is pretty much decided already. Larzuk reward has a couple of candidates, but more may turn up if I wait longer in the act.
Anya's other reward (the item) can never spawn ethereal, right?
Code:Player: Name: Class: Tree: Score: Level: Area: ---------------- ------- -------- ------------ ------ ------ --------- jiansonz Misty Assassin MA +517 36 Frigid Highlands Wolron Ghost Druid Elemental (NM) +448 51 NM: Lut Gholein Wolron Spook Necro Summoner +186 20 Lut Gholein Grisu Hildr Amazon None yet +160 15 Black Marsh Mir Allanon Druid Summon +156 21 Lut Gholein
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
Wow, that was...testing my skills and patience?
I think I never punched my way through Act I without any skills or weapon...but now it is done!
First thing in Black Marsh was another Gem Shrine, so I am now proud owner of a Topaz. The Hole was tough, but with my lightning damage charms and the use of natural bottle necks like stairs and small passages, I overcame every ... single ... monster in Act I at /p8. The Countess was kind enough to stand around and cast Fire Walls while my merc shot her, so no trouble fighting her. A Ral Rune was my reward.
Making use of doorways was standard tactics, especially because once I got surrounded, the durability of my cap dropped rapidly from 7 to 2, and I didn't want it to break.
I have to admit I was afraid of the Smith like I was only afraid the last time I had to face the Butcher in Diablo I...his quickness and extra strong are frightening, but thanks to almost 300 life and the use of quite some potions and shrines he went down. And the reward for my success will be quite generous
This Goatman really scared me and his pack hit really hard. I managed to apply the Diablo I Butcher tactis though and slammed a door in his face. I then managed to trap him between the banner and the bars where he kept running in place and I could still punch him through the bars
Pitspawn Fouldog...the bane of all untwinked melee characters in normal...First, I tried to engage him (it?) in melee, but he hit hard.
Then I tried the rabbit tactic, which worked better once he stood still and shot at me instead of pursuing me.
There were some nasty boss packs down in the catacombs, lots of them cursed...but again: doorways ftw!!!
I had one S/U drop so far (Berserker's Hatchet - of course not ethereal, since set items never spawn ethereal...
I reached level 20 early on the 2nd floor of the catacombs, so my hopes were high to reach level 21 before or then later after Andariel. Alas, that did not happen. I decided to take on Andy without my imbue and see how it goes. If it would have been to hard to beat her, I'd have used my imbue before in order to get a better weapon than the eth Scimitar I was using for the fight (went from 12 to 1 durability in the fight, had to switch to the eth javelins to finish off Andariel). But the fight went smoothly, took like 12 town trips or so to heal and I decided not to resurrect my merc again and again to save money.
Andariel even dropped an ethereal item, but it's not usable by any merc unfortunately:
Code:Club of Shock Club One Hand Damage: 1 - 9 Durability: 25 of 25 Required Level: 3 Fingerprint: 0x608d8dd7 Item Level: 12 Version: Expansion 1.10+ +150% Damage to Undead Adds 1 - 7 Lightning Damage Ethereal
Inventory management was quite the hassle, and I tried to enhance my stash place by dropping items in the rogue encampent and equipping them at the end of each session - thus I could save durability of the eth items but still bring them forward for later. Also, I filled up my inventory with "weightless" items (gems, amulets, rings) and put items with weight I wanted to save for later (charms, potions) in the stash.
So now, I have a plethora of eth items *cough* to make use of - foremost being *drumroll* my imbue!
It's only 1 per 20 seconds and only has 3 mods (with a mighty Fire Bolt attached to its attacks!!!), but hey! I won't complain!Code:Gale Wrack Javelin Throw Damage: 9 - 25 One Hand Damage: 1 - 11 Quantity: 60 Required Level: 5 Fingerprint: 0xa013963a Item Level: 24 Version: Expansion 1.10+ 5% Chance to cast level 3 Fire Bolt on attack +4 to Maximum Damage Replenishes quantity Ethereal
Then there is the cap I presented to you earlier.
- Tangerine Buckler of Blocking
- Superior Spiked Club
- 1 os Small Shield
- Superior Chain Boots
- Voulge
- Superior Spear
- Club of Shock (see above)
- 2 os Spiked Club
- 2 Sets of Javelins (44 and 47 quantity)
- 1 os Leather Armor
- Quilted Armor
- Quilted Armor with 2 chipped Topazes
- Skull Cap
Making a total of 15 usable items.
First thing I'll do now is skip all monsters in Radament's Lair to get the Atma reward - then mule off everything to make space for new shiny (ethereal) items!
[b]Hildr, the probably CS+X Amazon to be, Level 20, Normal Act II next[/b]
Spirit Tournament Leadership board
Remember the score formula is 5xWPs + Life -2xSTR -5xLevel. STR and Life are with all equipment and Charms applied.
Code:Player: Name: Class: Tree: Score: Level: Area: ---------------- ------- -------- ------------ ------ ------ --------- jiansonz Misty Assassin MA +517 36 Frigid Highlands Wolron Ghost Druid Elemental (NM) +448 51 NM: Lut Gholein Wolron Spook Necro Summoner +186 20 Lut Gholein Grisu Hildr Amazon None yet +209 20 Lut Gholein Mir Allanon Druid Summon +156 21 Lut Gholein
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
- Jan 3, 2007
- 9,174
- 967
- 113
Google