[2018] Tournament: Set/Unique Worshippers 2017 [by jiansonz]

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Southpaw8668 said:
Starting out again in the Far Oasis a boss pack dropped The Eye of Etlich, which is stashed due to the Cathan's Sigil amulet he's still wearing.

Later in the Claw Viper Temple Level 1 a set of Clegclaw's Pincers dropped from another boss pack.

Wuzhul is having unbelievable luck with useful set pieces dropping from what seems like every other unique boss pack they run into.
While working their way counterclockwise through the tombs lands them another set of Hawkmail scale mail, a pair of Rite of Passage demonhide boots, Coif of Glory helm and an ethereal Blacktongue bastard sword.

Infernal Torch grim wand dropped in the True Tomb to complete the set giving Wuzhul +2 Necromancer skills.

Duriel which I believe was taken down on /p3 dropped The Chieftain battle axe.

A boss pack in The Spider Cavern dropped a pair of Hsarus' Iron Heel chain mail boots.

Can't add anymore screenshots, so I'll just list all the other goodies they found along the way to the Pandemonium Fortress.
Another set of Clegclaw's Pinchers chain gloves dropped in The Spider Forest.
Sigon's Wrap plated belt and Death's Touch war sword was found in The Great Marsh.
Hsarus' Iron Stay belt was found in Flayer Dungeon Level 3.
Sigon's Shelter gothic plate was found in the Disused Fane.
Rite of Passage demonhide boots dropped in the Ruined Temple.
Milabrega's Robe ancient armor dropped in the Durance of Hate Level 1.
Mephisto taken down on /p8 which took some time didn't drop anything useful.

Wuzhul and Durga, Level 64, Pandemonium Fortress

Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- ---------------- jiansonz Viridissima Amazon Valkyrie/CS 64 82 NM Act IV Panda Fortress Southpaw8668 Wuzhul Necromancer Skelliemancer 64 ??? NM Act IV Panda Fortress Grisu Oberon Druid Fire Claws 54 36 NM Act II Dry Hills Charlo KulKanta Druid Ele-Summoner 46 17 NM Act I Stony Field OldSoldier AndrewNiteTorch Paladin Charge 48 ??? NM Act I Rogue Encampment Drystan Goldilocks Amazon ?? 32 12 Act IV Panda Fortress Dezrok Roland Paladin Avenger 28 11 Act III Kurast Docks ioupainmax Habacalva Sorceress Melee Enchantress 22 3 Act II Dry Hills kstuart Chocopower Necromancer Fishymancer 20 ??? Act II Lut Gholein Wolron Pam Amazon Passivezon 20 ??? Act II Lut Gholein GothamsBeard Envy Amazon Elemental Bowzon ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein hackedagainanda Conrad Paladin Frost Zealot ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein RedTang PaniSuka Sorceress FO/Lightning ?? ??? Act I Outer Cloister Oakbrain Olyssia Assassin Lightning Trapsin 18 0 Act I Outer Cloister Dazliare Pestilence Druid Rabies ?? ??? Act I Stony Field

Set/Unique Martyrs

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- -------------------- Oakbrain Jathnolf Barbarian Berserk/War Cry 54 ??? NM Act II Far Oasis zoo Jens-Rune Barbarian Whirlwind 51 27 NM Act I Tamoe Highland Wolron Durbanex Druid Summoner 49 25 NM Act I Dark Tower

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Grisu said:
Oberon defeated Duriel on /p8. It was a long fight that took 15 Full Rejuvs, but no real danger with 1300 life…His drop wasn’t too exciting with Civerb’s Cudgel and The Chieftain as S/Us...but hey! At least he did drop some S/Us!

@Southpaw8668: Apparently Duriel likes The Chieftain

Act II was generous with S/Us (16 in total), with this highlight:

I didn’t even recall that Tal-Rasha’s Horadric Crest could drop before you had the clvl for it! I can’t wait to get to clvl 66 now and put this thing on my merc’s head J

I had a weird S/U gathering in the lost city, when within 5 mins I had the following three drops, all from crackables/chests:

Somehow, both the Goldwrap and the Iron Jang Bong ended up ethereal though...now Goldwrap is sitting in my stash and I slap it on shortly before I finish a boss to keep it from breaking...

All my Act II NM drops (in the order they dropped):

1. Milabrega’s Orb #2
2. Aldur’s Stony Gaze
3. Vidala’s Fetlock (gambled)
4. The Chieftain
5. Goldwrap (ethereal)
6. The Iron Jang Bong (ethereal)
7. Wall of the Eyeless
8. Cathan’s Seal
9. Vidala’s Barb
10. Berserker’s Hatchet #2
11. Tal-Rasha’s Horadric Crest
12. Isenhart’s Case
13. Hwanin’s Blessing (nice because of the PMH)
14. Arm of King Leoric
15. The Chieftain #2
16. Civerb’s Cudgel

Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- ---------------- jiansonz Viridissima Amazon Valkyrie/CS 64 82 NM Act IV Panda Fortress Southpaw8668 Wuzhul Necromancer Skelliemancer 64 ??? NM Act IV Panda Fortress Grisu Oberon Druid Fire Claws 60 52 NM Act III Kurast Docks Charlo KulKanta Druid Ele-Summoner 46 17 NM Act I Stony Field OldSoldier AndrewNiteTorch Paladin Charge 48 ??? NM Act I Rogue Encampment Drystan Goldilocks Amazon ?? 32 12 Act IV Panda Fortress zoo BorisTheBlade Paladin Holy Shock 32 15 Act IV Panda Fortress jiansonz Mirex Paladin FoH/Conviction 30 17 Act III Kurast Bazaar Dezrok Roland Paladin Avenger 28 11 Act III Kurast Docks ioupainmax Habacalva Sorceress Melee Enchantress 22 3 Act II Dry Hills kstuart Chocopower Necromancer Fishymancer 20 ??? Act II Lut Gholein Wolron Pam Amazon Passivezon 20 ??? Act II Lut Gholein GothamsBeard Envy Amazon Elemental Bowzon ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein hackedagainanda Conrad Paladin Frost Zealot ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein RedTang PaniSuka Sorceress FO/Lightning ?? ??? Act I Outer Cloister Oakbrain Olyssia Assassin Lightning Trapsin 18 0 Act I Outer Cloister Dazliare Pestilence Druid Rabies ?? ??? Act I Stony Field

Set/Unique Martyrs

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- -------------------- Oakbrain Jathnolf Barbarian Berserk/War Cry 54 ??? NM Act II Far Oasis zoo Jens-Rune Barbarian Whirlwind 51 27 NM Act I Tamoe Highland Wolron Durbanex Druid Summoner 49 25 NM Act I Dark Tower

Oberon, level 60 Fire Claws Druid, and Neeraj, the HF merc, NM Act II Dry Hills next. 52 S/Us found so far.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Southpaw8668 said:
@Grisu - Gib The Arm of King Leoric to Wuzhul please! Some nice finds for you already.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Dezrok said:
jiansonz said:

You have covered everything once the slots are filled with S/U items, but before that you have:

El, Eld: Normalizing low quality whites; especially El for those Demonhide armor items in late Normal. And as long as the merc weapon slot can still take non-magical weapons, you might want to use it on the first Crude Poleaxe or Cracked Pike you find (usually in Tal's tombs).

Thul, Amn (+ Tal, Ral): Socketing recipes, especially for a shot at 3-socket helms or 4-socket armors. Normally, you can buy Artisan's Great Helms from Larzuk at clvl 39+ but magical items aren't allowed in this tourney. You need ilvl 41+, which means you can first get them in Normal WSK or so. Keep track of which monster type dropped it, or look in ATMA etc. And of course it must be a Mask, Crown, Great Helm, Gothic Plate, Full Plate or Ancient Armor.

Click to expand...

Ah thanks, I did think about those ones and decided that they would be very unlikely to be usable, but there is always a chance.

Great progress @Southpaw8668 and @Grisu. For my part, Roland has finally defeated Mephisto!

He started Act 3 by rerolling mercs until Flux turned up. Flux was a level 23 Cold Wolf ... that was the lowest level merc available by 4 levels, but I had decided I wanted to go with a Cold Flux instead of a Lightning Flux because Roland would be in need of the crowd control. Also, it would allow Roland to focus Vengeance's synergies on Lightning and Fire and so get the passive resist bonus on these much more useful elements. And so we were back to a weaponless merc (not that it makes that much difference for the Act 3 ones).

To start with, Flux was pretty useless, however, he gained levels fairly quickly and by level 26 was being more than useful. Once we reached level 30 and Conviction was available, he took over almost all of the killing.

Gleamscythe dropped in the Spider Forest (giving Flux something to hold onto ... I think the +light was the most useful bonus).

Ormus' ring was actually useful, especially the AR bonus:

Isenhart's Case dropped in the Flayer Dungeon, Hsarus's Iron Heel in the Swampy Pit (a much needed bonus to fire resist).

Kurast Bazaar coughed up the Beserker Hauberk and then Lenymo dropped from a rack. Roland's 2nd TC3.

Cathan's Seal in the Sewers allowed us to get rid of Akara's reward ring. While a 25% fire res GC was probably the most useful item of the Act.

Upper Kurast coughed up Bladebone, while another Isenhart's Case dropped in the Forgotten Temple.

Then it was time to gamble 825k gold before heading into Trav.

We took out the Council first, so we could get our hands on Khalim's Will and use it for that brief period of time to clear the rest of Trav.

Only the second level of the Durance had Dolls ... which was nice. And then Flux had a couple of deaths to Bremm Sparkfist.

Finally it was time for Meph, no problems on p8, although I forgot I had The Gnasher on switch and just pounded away with Milabrega's Rod. His drop was a good one, without being earth shattering: Iratha's Cuffs and Griswold's Edge

Roland the Avenger and Flux the Cold Wolf, Level 32, Normal Act 4, Pandemonium Fortress. Total S/Us=21. S/Us equipped=11.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

kstuart said:

Progressed a bit more this morning zero S/U including fails.... Cleared both Dry Hills and whatever was befire including stoney tomb. Do now rock 36% MF with the moron on 49% although with a 7 skellie army and the moron usually standing in corners its not that useful...

Next area is the annoying underground crap which will be P1'd for speed reasons and the fact skellies cant swarm in tunnels.

Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard

Code:

Player:            Name:           Class:       Build:            Level:  S/U found:  Area:
----------------   ------------    -----------  ----------------  ------  ----------  ----------------
jiansonz           Viridissima     Amazon       Valkyrie/CS       64       82         NM Act IV Panda Fortress
Southpaw8668       Wuzhul          Necromancer  Skelliemancer     64      ???         NM Act IV Panda Fortress
Grisu              Oberon          Druid        Fire Claws        60       52         NM Act III Kurast Docks
Charlo             KulKanta        Druid        Ele-Summoner      46       17         NM Act I Stony Field
OldSoldier         AndrewNiteTorch Paladin      Charge            48      ???         NM Act I Rogue Encampment
Drystan            Goldilocks      Amazon       ??                32       12         Act IV Panda Fortress
zoo                BorisTheBlade   Paladin      Holy Shock        32       15         Act IV Panda Fortress
jiansonz           Mirex           Paladin      FoH/Conviction    30       17         Act III Kurast Bazaar
Dezrok             Roland          Paladin      Avenger           28       11         Act III Kurast Docks
ioupainmax         Habacalva       Sorceress    Melee Enchantress 22        3         Act II Dry Hills
kstuart            Chocopower      Necromancer  Fishymancer       22        3         Act II Dry Hills
Wolron             Pam             Amazon       Passivezon        20      ???         Act II Lut Gholein
GothamsBeard       Envy            Amazon       Elemental Bowzon  ??      ???         Act II Lut Gholein
hackedagainanda    Conrad          Paladin      Frost Zealot      ??      ???         Act II Lut Gholein
RedTang            PaniSuka        Sorceress    FO/Lightning      ??      ???         Act I Outer Cloister
Oakbrain           Olyssia         Assassin     Lightning Trapsin 18        0         Act I Outer Cloister
Dazliare           Pestilence      Druid        Rabies            ??      ???         Act I Stony Field

Set/Unique Martyrs

Code:

Player:            Name:           Class:       Build:            Level:  S/U found:  Area:
----------------   ------------    -----------  ----------------  ------  ----------  --------------------
Oakbrain           Jathnolf        Barbarian    Berserk/War Cry   54      ???         NM Act II Far Oasis
zoo                Jens-Rune       Barbarian    Whirlwind         51      27          NM Act I Tamoe Highland
Wolron             Durbanex        Druid        Summoner          49      25          NM Act I Dark Tower

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

zoo said:
BorisTheBlade's next report is way overdue. He has just arrived at the shining jewel that is Lut Gholein yet again.

I have never really played a holy shock paladin and I was surprised just how easily stuff melts away in normal difficulty. All done at /players 8 but felt like I had forgotten to actually write the command. Iceblink droped just when Boris started to get fed up with all the corpses that refused to stay dead.

When we got to nightmare things got a bit more troublesome though. From Corpsefire all the way through Andariel, it felt like every single bossfight was a near death experience.

Since Boris' only two sources of magic find is his Nagelring and a Milabrega's Orb, he really wanted to make use of the shield even though he still has the choice of a socketed paladin shield. This meant resists were quite low and he had to fight most of the lightning enchanted bosses with resist lightning aura active.

Set/Unique items found since last update:

Isenhart's Case (Plains of Despair)
Bloodthief (City of the Damned)
Hawkmail (Diablo, Chaos Sanctuary)

Irath's Cuff (Crystalline Passage)
Wormskull (Drifter Cavern)
Iceblink (Halls of Anguish)
Sigon's Wrap (Throne of Destruction)

Arcanna's Head (The Secret Cow Level)
Milabrega's Orb (The Secret Cow Level)

The Salamander [Ethereal] (Den of Evil)
Tancred's Weird (Crypt)
Raven Claw (Stony Field)
Berserker's Headgear (Pit Level 2)
Magefist (Jail Level 2)
Griswold's Edge (Jail Level 3)
The Battlebranch (Catacombs Level 2)
Deathspade (Catacombs Level 4)

Boris has just hired a different mercenary in hope of better support at the front line. He is planning to give his new partner this:

The Battlebranch, exceptional edition!

Boris' current setup.

Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- ---------------- jiansonz Viridissima Amazon Valkyrie/CS 64 82 NM Act IV Panda Fortress Southpaw8668 Wuzhul Necromancer Skelliemancer 64 ??? NM Act IV Panda Fortress Grisu Oberon Druid Fire Claws 60 52 NM Act III Kurast Docks zoo BorisTheBlade Paladin Holy Shock 53 32 NM Act II Lut Gholein Charlo KulKanta Druid Ele-Summoner 46 17 NM Act I Stony Field OldSoldier AndrewNiteTorch Paladin Charge 48 ??? NM Act I Rogue Encampment Drystan Goldilocks Amazon ?? 32 12 Act IV Panda Fortress jiansonz Mirex Paladin FoH/Conviction 30 17 Act III Kurast Bazaar Dezrok Roland Paladin Avenger 28 11 Act III Kurast Docks ioupainmax Habacalva Sorceress Melee Enchantress 22 3 Act II Dry Hills kstuart Chocopower Necromancer Fishymancer 22 3 Act II Dry Hills Wolron Pam Amazon Passivezon 20 ??? Act II Lut Gholein GothamsBeard Envy Amazon Elemental Bowzon ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein hackedagainanda Conrad Paladin Frost Zealot ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein RedTang PaniSuka Sorceress FO/Lightning ?? ??? Act I Outer Cloister Oakbrain Olyssia Assassin Lightning Trapsin 18 0 Act I Outer Cloister Dazliare Pestilence Druid Rabies ?? ??? Act I Stony Field

Set/Unique Martyrs

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- -------------------- Oakbrain Jathnolf Barbarian Berserk/War Cry 54 ??? NM Act II Far Oasis zoo Jens-Rune Barbarian Whirlwind 51 27 NM Act I Tamoe Highland Wolron Durbanex Druid Summoner 49 25 NM Act I Dark Tower

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Southpaw8668 said:
Heading out from the Pandemonium Fortress on /p8 killing had started to slow somewhat, but still happening as long as Durga was caught hanging in the back of all the skeletons. Just prior to finding Izual the Kuko Shakaku cedar bow dropped for Wuzhul, which was stashed since he wanted to keep the Might aura running for his army. They slayed the evil angel and continued on to find the Hell Forge where a Hel dropped and a handful of gems.

All else went pretty smooth up to confronting Diablo, which was done at /p3. I wish I had dialed it down to /p1, because he was taking much longer to kill than I had anticipated. Right when he spawned Wuzhul popped back through the TP right on top of him to get this tight grouping with all his minions inside his lightning hose range.

Wuzhul started getting fancy and landing a whole mess of hits with his wand, due to his wonderfully high AR with all the set bonuses. Diablo keep singling him out and pounding on him, so he ran out of health pots and teleported out to the fortress to buy more. When he came back through the portal sneaky Diablo had moved away and cast a bone prison around his TP. One lightning hose later Wuzhul was a well done, trapped rat. We should have just stood our ground and not be so stingy with the big purples, since he was well below half when we teleported out.

Wuzhul and Durga, Level 67, KIA

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

zoo said:
Southpaw8668 said:

Wuzhul and Durga, Level 67, KIA

Click to expand...

Wait, what? KIA as in Killed In Action?

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Southpaw8668 said:
zoo said:

Wait, what? KIA as in Killed In Action?

Click to expand...

Yep, Diablo's lightning hose did him and his party in, before we could bust through the Bone Prison or throw up another TP out.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

zoo said:
Southpaw8668 said:

Yep, Diablo's lightning hose did him and his party in, before we could bust through the Bone Prison or throw up another TP out.

Click to expand...

Ouch, really sad to hear it. I didn't realize on the first read. Big Unlike then!

Will you have another go in the tournament?

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

PhineasB said:
Sorry to hear about the deeds @Southpaw8668 . It was a nice journey to follow. Hope you enter again.

* * *

This tourney looked like lots of fun, but I held off because I’ve been focused on the two untwinked 99ers. But I am getting a bit tired of LK and thought it would be worthwhile to have another option when the pally needs a break from CS. And because it’s an untwinked tourney, this could be a starter for the next class I would tackle if I finish the pally.

So meet Quinta, the passive-zon. The plan is to one-point all the passives, except critical strike (a few extra points), Decoy and Valk (maxed), and pierce (no points, unless we get nice bow or javelins for a hybrid).

She is SC so that I can potentially continue on the untwinked journey if she gets taken out before reaching Mat. I can level her to 98 on Baals (and probably would anyhow), so the loss of Ancients isn’t as much an issue. But she won't use socket quests on the play-through to ensure that's available in the future.

She started off lucky, with a gem shrine in the Blood Moor, which was saved for first topaz (in the Den of Evil). Blood Raven, Griswold, and Countess dropped. Triple emerald bow for the merc, and triple emerald spear for Quinta (not the trident but the other one) was fine, if a little slow going.

She had very nice topaz luck along the way, with full chippies for Quinta and Merc (2os armor for Quinta instead of ring mail to avoid stamina drain), the flawed in Quinta’s hat, and quite a few extra stashed. But the first S/U didn’t fall until just before Andy fight (Axe of Fechmar). Andy dropped the second unique (Umbral Disk) and a Topaz (nice!).

When I saw Fechmar drop, I remember thinking, interesting, the freeze target will likely to come in handy for shattered skeletons in A2 to prevent reanimation by Unravellers. Boy did that turn out to be the case!

Quinta went after the cube first after picking up a town guard and giving him the spear. With an assist from immediate left hand entrance to Dry Hills from Rocky Waste, successful retrieval of the cube allowed her to make three flawed topazes, one of which went into the skull cap with the regular topaz, with the others going into a 3os breast plate (that took nearly 10 minutes to finally roll in the vendor screen).

She then cleared the first two above-ground areas before tackled Radament, with her third unique (and second weapon dropping, the Skewer of Krintiz). You can probably see where this is headed. No uniques or sets as she cleared surface areas up to Claw Viper temple. She planned to grab the amulet, then hit AT, then clear to Arcane Sanctuary before going back to get the staff. Honestly, she was hoping for no more drops until A3 to avoid risk of having a weaponless merc.

Of course, in AT, the third weapon dropped from a poppable, Isenhart’s sword. I was so annoyed that I apparently messed up the screenie. This obviously made the rest of the Act much more challenging, as the merc was now weaponless and useless except as an extra decoy.

Maggot lair was a joy, but the freeze target allowed Quinta to manage the passageways and eventually bash her way through. Arcane Sanctuary involved lots of running forward and retreating, with the ghosts a challenge due to (I think) some physical resists. She actually picked the right arm the first time and decided to clear the surface area in the Canyon in the hopes of a lucky polearm or bow drop. No such luck, so she slogged through the other arms of the Arcane Sanctuary.

I almost caved in and hit Duriel’s tomb first to allow retrieval of a cold mage in A3. In retrospect, I wish I had, but instead cleared the six false tombs first. Berserker’s helm dropped, which the merc got. Pics show how the merc tanked Kaa’s lightning bolts as Quinta swung over his shoulder, the second-to-last tomb presented an (at that time) unkillable boss, and a similar issue with a Ghostly Unraveller in the last tomb.

The pic below shows Quinta’s tactics for the tombs, with merc and decoy establishing a beachhead while Quinta attacked from the perimeter and ensured that they never got flanked.
View attachment 8457
Several tactical retreats were needed, but she was able to plod along shattering corpses one-by-one. The relatively low damage made it so it quite a few swings to take down a single monster. Four tombs had Unravellers, but they were actually one of the better rolls given the tactics she had to use. The most dangerous roll was vampires mixed with Blunderbore types.

She had picked up a poison damage charm (and a second) when clearing the true tomb, so she went back to take on the Ghostly Unraveller, with one town trip needed to restock on potions (the pic above is actually from this fight). It turned out she had not cleared the rest of the tomb, so cleared the rest of it, with Isenhart’s armor dropping. The merc was now weaponless and without MF in either armor slot, but it didn’t matter because he wasn’t doing any killing!

It turned out that Quinta couldn’t safely take down the chest-boss in the final false tomb, so she gave the other parked boss (physical immune ghost) a shot before moving on to Duriel. He went down in about 5 minutes, with one town trip needed to restock on potions.

Duriel at p1 took one trip to town to restock healing potions, but eventually fell:
View attachment 8458
Sander’s gloves were useful, and the set quilted armor meant Quinta had to give up her topazed armor. She took Isenhart’s (mostly useless mods, but partial set bonus ftw!) and gave the merc the other, along with the Skewer. With a cold mage in tow (Flux!), she returned to take down the last boss (observant readers noticed that the pic above had the cold mage doing his thing while Quinta tanked).

It was a slog, but she made it and now has a merc that can wield the third weapon. She will get some time hear and there, but it won't be steady progress.

Current gear. For Quinta, it’s plain belt and boots; jewelry slots open; topazed skull cap (flawed and regular for 25% MF, which is her total); Isenhart’s sword and umbral disk, with Fechmar on switch. Backpack has some resist charms (she’s been reasonably lucky there, with 19/27/12/14 all from charms) and 21 points of poison damage. Cold mage has Berserker hat, Arctic Furs, and Skewer (no shield).

Quinta, the Level 28 Passivezon, and Flux, the Level 27 Cold Mage; A3 Normal, Lut Gholein

Edit: Updated Wuzhul

* * *

Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- ---------------- jiansonz Viridissima Amazon Valkyrie/CS 64 82 NM Act IV Panda Fortress Grisu Oberon Druid Fire Claws 60 52 NM Act III Kurast Docks zoo BorisTheBlade Paladin Holy Shock 53 32 NM Act II Lut Gholein Charlo KulKanta Druid Ele-Summoner 46 17 NM Act I Stony Field OldSoldier AndrewNiteTorch Paladin Charge 48 ??? NM Act I Rogue Encampment Drystan Goldilocks Amazon ?? 32 12 Act IV Panda Fortress jiansonz Mirex Paladin FoH/Conviction 30 17 Act III Kurast Bazaar Dezrok Roland Paladin Avenger 28 11 Act III Kurast Docks PhineasB Quinta Amazon Valk/Passive/? 28 8 Act III Kurast Docks ioupainmax Habacalva Sorceress Melee Enchantress 22 3 Act II Dry Hills kstuart Chocopower Necromancer Fishymancer 22 3 Act II Dry Hills Wolron Pam Amazon Passivezon 20 ??? Act II Lut Gholein GothamsBeard Envy Amazon Elemental Bowzon ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein hackedagainanda Conrad Paladin Frost Zealot ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein RedTang PaniSuka Sorceress FO/Lightning ?? ??? Act I Outer Cloister Oakbrain Olyssia Assassin Lightning Trapsin 18 0 Act I Outer Cloister Dazliare Pestilence Druid Rabies ?? ??? Act I Stony Field

Set/Unique Martyrs

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- -------------------- Southpaw8668 Wuzhul Necromancer Skelliemancer 67 ??? NM Act IV Chaos Sanctuary Oakbrain Jathnolf Barbarian Berserk/War Cry 54 ??? NM Act II Far Oasis zoo Jens-Rune Barbarian Whirlwind 51 27 NM Act I Tamoe Highland Wolron Durbanex Druid Summoner 49 25 NM Act I Dark Tower

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Southpaw8668 said:
PhineasB said:

Sorry to hear about the deeds @Southpaw8668 . It was a nice journey to follow. Hope you enter again.

* * *

This tourney looked like lots of fun, but I held off because I’ve been focused on the two untwinked 99ers. But I am getting a bit tired of LK and thought it would be worthwhile to have another option when the pally needs a break from CS. And because it’s an untwinked tourney, this could be a starter for the next class I would tackle if I finish the pally.

So meet Quinta, the passive-zon. The plan is to one-point all the passives, except critical strike (a few extra points), Decoy and Valk (maxed), and pierce (no points, unless we get nice bow or javelins for a hybrid).

She is SC so that I can potentially continue on the untwinked journey if she gets taken out before reaching Mat. I can level her to 98 on Baals (and probably would anyhow), so the loss of Ancients isn’t as much an issue. But she won't use socket quests on the play-through to ensure that's available in the future.

She started off lucky, with a gem shrine in the Blood Moor, which was saved for first topaz (in the Den of Evil). Blood Raven, Griswold, and Countess dropped. Triple emerald bow for the merc, and triple emerald spear for Quinta (not the trident but the other one) was fine, if a little slow going.

She had very nice topaz luck along the way, with full chippies for Quinta and Merc (2os armor for Quinta instead of ring mail to avoid stamina drain), the flawed in Quinta’s hat, and quite a few extra stashed. But the first S/U didn’t fall until just before Andy fight (Axe of Fechmar). Andy dropped the second unique (Umbral Disk) and a Topaz (nice!).

When I saw Fechmar drop, I remember thinking, interesting, the freeze target will likely to come in handy for shattered skeletons in A2 to prevent reanimation by Unravellers. Boy did that turn out to be the case!

Quinta went after the cube first after picking up a town guard and giving him the spear. With an assist from immediate left hand entrance to Dry Hills from Rocky Waste, successful retrieval of the cube allowed her to make three flawed topazes, one of which went into the skull cap with the regular topaz, with the others going into a 3os breast plate (that took nearly 10 minutes to finally roll in the vendor screen).

She then cleared the first two above-ground areas before tackled Radament, with her third unique (and second weapon dropping, the Skewer of Krintiz). You can probably see where this is headed. No uniques or sets as she cleared surface areas up to Claw Viper temple. She planned to grab the amulet, then hit AT, then clear to Arcane Sanctuary before going back to get the staff. Honestly, she was hoping for no more drops until A3 to avoid risk of having a weaponless merc.

Of course, in AT, the third weapon dropped from a poppable, Isenhart’s sword. I was so annoyed that I apparently messed up the screenie. This obviously made the rest of the Act much more challenging, as the merc was now weaponless and useless except as an extra decoy.

Maggot lair was a joy, but the freeze target allowed Quinta to manage the passageways and eventually bash her way through. Arcane Sanctuary involved lots of running forward and retreating, with the ghosts a challenge due to (I think) some physical resists. She actually picked the right arm the first time and decided to clear the surface area in the Canyon in the hopes of a lucky polearm or bow drop. No such luck, so she slogged through the other arms of the Arcane Sanctuary.

I almost caved in and hit Duriel’s tomb first to allow retrieval of a cold mage in A3. In retrospect, I wish I had, but instead cleared the six false tombs first. Berserker’s helm dropped, which the merc got. Pics show how the merc tanked Kaa’s lightning bolts as Quinta swung over his shoulder, the second-to-last tomb presented an (at that time) unkillable boss, and a similar issue with a Ghostly Unraveller in the last tomb.

The pic below shows Quinta’s tactics for the tombs, with merc and decoy establishing a beachhead while Quinta attacked from the perimeter and ensured that they never got flanked.
View attachment 8457
Several tactical retreats were needed, but she was able to plod along shattering corpses one-by-one. The relatively low damage made it so it quite a few swings to take down a single monster. Four tombs had Unravellers, but they were actually one of the better rolls given the tactics she had to use. The most dangerous roll was vampires mixed with Blunderbore types.

She had picked up a poison damage charm (and a second) when clearing the true tomb, so she went back to take on the Ghostly Unraveller, with one town trip needed to restock on potions (the pic above is actually from this fight). It turned out she had not cleared the rest of the tomb, so cleared the rest of it, with Isenhart’s armor dropping. The merc was now weaponless and without MF in either armor slot, but it didn’t matter because he wasn’t doing any killing!

It turned out that Quinta couldn’t safely take down the chest-boss in the final false tomb, so she gave the other parked boss (physical immune ghost) a shot before moving on to Duriel. He went down in about 5 minutes, with one town trip needed to restock on potions.

Duriel at p1 took one trip to town to restock healing potions, but eventually fell:
View attachment 8458
Sander’s gloves were useful, and the set quilted armor meant Quinta had to give up her topazed armor. She took Isenhart’s (mostly useless mods, but partial set bonus ftw!) and gave the merc the other, along with the Skewer. With a cold mage in tow (Flux!), she returned to take down the last boss (observant readers noticed that the pic above had the cold mage doing his thing while Quinta tanked).

It was a slog, but she made it and now has a merc that can wield the third weapon. She will get some time hear and there, but it won't be steady progress.

Current gear. For Quinta, it’s plain belt and boots; jewelry slots open; topazed skull cap (flawed and regular for 25% MF, which is her total); Isenhart’s sword and umbral disk, with Fechmar on switch. Backpack has some resist charms (she’s been reasonably lucky there, with 19/27/12/14 all from charms) and 21 points of poison damage. Cold mage has Berserker hat, Arctic Furs, and Skewer (no shield).

Quinta, the Level 28 Passivezon, and Flux, the Level 27 Cold Mage; A3 Normal, Lut Gholein

Edit: Updated Wuzhul

* * *

Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- ---------------- jiansonz Viridissima Amazon Valkyrie/CS 64 82 NM Act IV Panda Fortress Grisu Oberon Druid Fire Claws 60 52 NM Act III Kurast Docks zoo BorisTheBlade Paladin Holy Shock 53 32 NM Act II Lut Gholein Charlo KulKanta Druid Ele-Summoner 46 17 NM Act I Stony Field OldSoldier AndrewNiteTorch Paladin Charge 48 ??? NM Act I Rogue Encampment Drystan Goldilocks Amazon ?? 32 12 Act IV Panda Fortress jiansonz Mirex Paladin FoH/Conviction 30 17 Act III Kurast Bazaar Dezrok Roland Paladin Avenger 28 11 Act III Kurast Docks PhineasB Quinta Amazon Valk/Passive/? 28 8 Act III Kurast Docks ioupainmax Habacalva Sorceress Melee Enchantress 22 3 Act II Dry Hills kstuart Chocopower Necromancer Fishymancer 22 3 Act II Dry Hills Wolron Pam Amazon Passivezon 20 ??? Act II Lut Gholein GothamsBeard Envy Amazon Elemental Bowzon ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein hackedagainanda Conrad Paladin Frost Zealot ?? ??? Act II Lut Gholein RedTang PaniSuka Sorceress FO/Lightning ?? ??? Act I Outer Cloister Oakbrain Olyssia Assassin Lightning Trapsin 18 0 Act I Outer Cloister Dazliare Pestilence Druid Rabies ?? ??? Act I Stony Field

Set/Unique Martyrs

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- -------------------- Southpaw8668 Wuzhul Necromancer Skelliemancer 67 ??? NM Act IV Chaos Sanctuary Oakbrain Jathnolf Barbarian Berserk/War Cry 54 ??? NM Act II Far Oasis zoo Jens-Rune Barbarian Whirlwind 51 27 NM Act I Tamoe Highland Wolron Durbanex Druid Summoner 49 25 NM Act I Dark Tower

Click to expand...

Wuzhul had some incredible luck with item finds and I was sad to see it end. Would you mind editing your last post and put Wuzhal with the other Martyrs?

I just started another hero with the exact same mindset as you for her skill progression. Invest heavily in passive skills until we hopefully find a S/U javelin, spear or bow.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

zoo said:
And there goes another. BorisTheBlade has sadly passed away in the Acient Tunnels after an encounter with lightning horror magi. He was level 56.

Act II felt very safe otherwise. Especially compared to Act I. The first monsters that really hurt Boris was these horror magi. Still, he had cleared almost the whole tunnel area when disaster struck.

Now what?

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- -------------------- Southpaw8668 Wuzhul Necromancer Skelliemancer 67 ??? NM Act IV Chaos Sanctuary zoo BorisTheBlade Paladin Holy Shock 56 33 NM Act II Ancient Tunnels Oakbrain Jathnolf Barbarian Berserk/War Cry 54 ??? NM Act II Far Oasis zoo Jens-Rune Barbarian Whirlwind 51 27 NM Act I Tamoe Highland Wolron Durbanex Druid Summoner 49 25 NM Act I Dark Tower

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Southpaw8668 said:
zoo said:

And there goes another. BorisTheBlade has sadly passed away in the Acient Tunnels after an encounter with lightning horror magi. He was level 56.

Act II felt very safe otherwise. Especially compared to Act I. The first monsters that really hurt Boris was these horror magi. Still, he had cleared almost the whole tunnel area when disaster struck.

Now what?

Code:

Player: Name: Class: Build: Level: S/U found: Area: ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ------ ---------- -------------------- Southpaw8668 Wuzhul Necromancer Skelliemancer 67 ??? NM Act IV Chaos Sanctuary zoo BorisTheBlade Paladin Holy Shock 56 33 NM Act II Ancient Tunnels Oakbrain Jathnolf Barbarian Berserk/War Cry 54 ??? NM Act II Far Oasis zoo Jens-Rune Barbarian Whirlwind 51 27 NM Act I Tamoe Highland Wolron Durbanex Druid Summoner 49 25 NM Act I Dark Tower

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear of the deeds, you got fairly far with this one. These type of tournaments are definitely tough with straight melee builds.
You should try either a Phoenix Striker or Kicker/Blade Fury build. Or perhaps a Rabies Wolf would be fun. None of them are extremely weapon dependent.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

zoo said:
Southpaw8668 said:

Sorry to hear of the deeds, you got fairly far with this one. These type of tournaments are definitely tough with straight melee builds.
You should try either a Phoenix Striker or Kicker/Blade Fury build. Or perhaps a Rabies Wolf would be fun. None of them are extremely weapon dependent.

Click to expand...

Thanks! It's just a bit sad when it ends when you think you're doing alright. I was preparing myself for the Fangskin encounter and all of a sudden it's all over. I was hoping to get far enough that it felt challenging for real. Boris hadn't even started to encounter regular lightning immune monsters yet.

I have never played Assassin or Druid. Not sure if I feel like starting now to be honest.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

jiansonz said:
Two characters in Nightmare dead, including the current leading character.
Tournament keeps claiming victims. That was a rare one for NM Diablo. Sneakily played by him.
Pulling the skeletons close to him with a TP was a great starting move, though.

Phoenix Striker is a lot of fun in these kinds of tourneys (I've played three, all of them made it to Act V Hell (one died there, one made Guardian, one is still running)), but I don't think it works for zoo if he has trouble with fast skill switching.

Mirex has had a mostly uneventful last half of Act III. The one exciting fight happened because of my stupid greed with an XP shrine:

Mirex has a good amount of life and decent resists but his blocking sucks (4%, I think). He also has only 8 potions in the belt. At around this point, I opened inventory to see if I had any spare healing potions. Nope. Stupid Thadar was standing outside this room, firing almost every shot into the wall, but he wised up after a while. As you can see, there was an extra pack of Flesh Hunters in addition to Sarina's gang, and they kept filling up spots whenever I managed to kill one, preventing me from fleeing. I tried to avoid letting the spider get close enough to bite. I survived in the end, but it was a 'half belt fight'.

Maybe I should put a point in Smite? It may have allowed me to flee sooner, if I could find a single enemy with nothing behind it that stopped me. At any rate, I have to be more careful when enemies are more dangerous.

I am down to 29% MF (topaz + flawed topaz in my helm). The rest of the act gave me only two more S/U items: Angelic Sickle in the Bazaar and Infernal Sign in Durance 2. A 12-slots belt, nice!

Mephisto was taken down first with Crushflange and then (as the CB effect faded) with Blood Crescent. Went with level 3 Conviction the whole way. Thadar seemed to be doing good damage to Mephisto. Maybe the merc damage penalty to act bosses is lower for elemental damage than for physical?

Failed unique Flail from Mephisto. Pfft.

Mirex the FoH/Conviction Paladin and Thadar the Cold mage, level 32, Pandemonium Fortress, 17 S/U items found

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

Dezrok said:
Act 4 done!

Roland and Flux made pretty steady progress through Act 4. Mana was a pretty major issue and we spent quite a bit of time standing around waiting for Meditation to refill the blue bulb. Otherwise, not too many problems.

Sigon's Visor dropped in the City of the Dammed. Which meant that Flux now had 0% MF.

In the RoF a Thul dropped, then a Sol. The Sol is especially nice as it means we are now only a flawless emerald away from a weapon upgrade.

Hell Forge didn't deliver the goods however:

Nearing the end of CS and still no signs of any more S/Us. One S/U for the Act felt pretty poor form and I wasn't really looking forward to facing the Big D with only a hand axe. So, I was pretty happy when I saw this gold drop from one of Infector's minions.

I boosted my Dex to be able to wield it, and then realised that it actually had worse physical damage than Milabrega's Rod and also lost Roland the bonuses from his shield. Pretty useless weapon.

So, Diablo was faced on p3 with the mighty Gnasher hand axe. Our fire and cold resists were maxed, however lightning resist was a lowly 17%, Salvation was therefore used instead of Conviction. It was pretty nerve racking standing toe-to-toe with Diablo, especially with only two rows of pots on the belt. Still we hacked away and his life dropped.

Flux also did his share of the work, proving to be quite effective even without the Conviction aura. One thing I like about the Act 3 mercs is how far away from the action they can stand and still engage the monsters. Flux will quite often be standing off screen to cast his spells. This was very useful against Diablo, keeping him well out of harm's way most of the time. He did still manage to kill himself a couple of times by running through the lightning hose.

So, we swung away and guzzzled pots. We went through all 14 of of our full rejuvs in the time it took to get Diablo down close to zero life. Many of those probably weren't strictly necessary, but after the recent spate of Deeds in the tourney I was determined not to join the list and guzzled early rather than leaving it too late.

Diablo's drop was okay.

The gloves were Arctic's and replaced the Iratha's pair Roland was wearing to give us 3 pieces of the Arctic set.

Roland the Avenger and Cold Flux, Level 35, Normal Act 5 Harrogath. Total S/Us=24. Equipped S/Us=12.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

kstuart said:

Did act 2 maggot lair to entering arcane sanctuary tonight, one green dropped from er fire eye at end so moron has berserkers helm now. Did have a failed green eagle orb as well. Forgot to get summon resist hitting lvl 24 too but not that bothered as i'll be able to level up at least once more before getting to Duriel, espcially if i go on a tomb tour.

Also updated table too

Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard

Code:

Player:            Name:           Class:       Build:            Level:  S/U found:  Area:
----------------   ------------    -----------  ----------------  ------  ----------  ----------------
jiansonz           Viridissima     Amazon       Valkyrie/CS       64       82         NM Act IV Panda Fortress
Grisu              Oberon          Druid        Fire Claws        60       52         NM Act III Kurast Docks
zoo                BorisTheBlade   Paladin      Holy Shock        53       32         NM Act II Lut Gholein
Charlo             KulKanta        Druid        Ele-Summoner      46       17         NM Act I Stony Field
OldSoldier         AndrewNiteTorch Paladin      Charge            48      ???         NM Act I Rogue Encampment
Dezrok             Roland          Paladin      Avenger           35       24         Act V Harrogath
Drystan            Goldilocks      Amazon       ??                32       12         Act IV Panda Fortress
jiansonz           Mirex           Paladin      FoH/Conviction    32       17         Act IV Panda Fortress
PhineasB           Quinta          Amazon       Valk/Passive/?    28        8         Act III Kurast Docks
kstuart            Chocopower      Necromancer  Fishymancer       24        4         Act II Arcane Sanctuary
ioupainmax         Habacalva       Sorceress    Melee Enchantress 22        3         Act II Dry Hills
Wolron             Pam             Amazon       Passivezon        20      ???         Act II Lut Gholein
GothamsBeard       Envy            Amazon       Elemental Bowzon  ??      ???         Act II Lut Gholein
hackedagainanda    Conrad          Paladin      Frost Zealot      ??      ???         Act II Lut Gholein
RedTang            PaniSuka        Sorceress    FO/Lightning      ??      ???         Act I Outer Cloister
Oakbrain           Olyssia         Assassin     Lightning Trapsin 18        0         Act I Outer Cloister
Dazliare           Pestilence      Druid        Rabies            ??      ???         Act I Stony Field

Set/Unique Martyrs

Code:

Player:            Name:           Class:       Build:            Level:  S/U found:  Area:
----------------   ------------    -----------  ----------------  ------  ----------  --------------------
Southpaw8668       Wuzhul          Necromancer  Skelliemancer     67      ???         NM Act IV Chaos Sanctuary
zoo                BorisTheBlade   Paladin      Holy Shock        56      33          NM Act II Ancient Tunnels
Oakbrain           Jathnolf        Barbarian    Berserk/War Cry   54      ???         NM Act II Far Oasis
zoo                Jens-Rune       Barbarian    Whirlwind         51      27          NM Act I Tamoe Highland
Wolron             Durbanex        Druid        Summoner          49      25          NM Act I Dark Tower

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

T72on1 said:
Condolences for the fallen, and good luck to those starting or starting over.

Grisu · Jan 2, 2021

OldSoldier said:
Big update for AndrewNiteTorch today... it has been a while and he has completed several acts since we last saw him defeat Baal in Normal. I will break the update into a post per act, it seems to fit my screenshots well that way.

Act 1 NM saw him begin with a small amount of poor S/U. Acts 4 and 5 were not kind to him, even with the Gull and a Nagelring and a MF charm, only dropping a few S/U, and the act bosses were the stingiest of all, dropping no greens or golds throughout the entire difficulty. Things would change for the better soon.

The initial plan for my character was to hire a lightning merc because I've never used one of those before, and I planned on being a conviction charger with a big 2 handed weapon that hits all the time. As I played through the end of normal I realized that I probably would not enjoy tankless play, and that the slow monsters from the Cleglaw's gloves would be handy in another way, so I started testing out the ability of my merc to stand in place and AndrewNiteTorch would charge at the enemies that attempted to flank him, maintaining fewer enemies he had to contend with and also extending my ability to keep the Gull as main weapon and thus increase odds of finding better gear, which honestly was very bad.

So I changed my plan and decided that I'd go with a holy freeze act 2 merc, who could slow enemies ~50% and my cleglaws gloves could make some of them really crawl. As such I stopped putting points in Vigor as a Charge synergy and went back to Might, since that was our primary aura anyway and would help the merc damage and thus our speed along the way. I usually let Chalan do the vast majority of the work, except in circumstances like this, where I switched weapons and took "charge" with Andrew, ba dum bum.

We had a fun time testing out our tactics in the Cave, against this double boss pack of skeletons. Chalan couldn't last long alone but together we got them. I backed out a time or two to pull Chalan to the bottleneck and that made things easier. We use our terrain as an effective team!

AndrewNiteTorch was a bully against The Smith, with his Cleglaw's Brace (50% DS and 35% CB). The Smith never got in a single hit.

Another two boss pack stack here: the damage from the Gull is terrible (even upgraded to a Poignard) so against Blood Lords I would often switch to the Cleglaw and run them until they were about dead and switch back to finish them off with the additional MF on the Gull.

Action shot with Andariel. I kept Cleglaw's on for most of it, and since the shield has 75% poison length reduce, and the full set has CB, the smiting was very effective. I'm pretty lucky I got that set, the going against act bosses would be much harder without it.

Andariel's drop. WOO HOO a better merc weapon! It was a 58% damage version of the Battlebranch, which I upgraded as soon as I could. The 7% life steal is the real helper here.

Act drops along the way. The Bladebuckle and Darkglow found in this act are currently being worn. The Belt shown here is a Hwanin's, which has PMH. I think this may come in handy in hell difficulty if I made it that far, so I am stashing it in the game stash permanently. It also has 3-33 lightning damage, which will get larger the more points go into Conviction. The Blacktongue is the first two handed weapon drop (non bow anyway) in the entire journey, and it is no good except that it also has PMH on it. Stashed in ATMA for now.

Continued...