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

A bit late but anyway...
@T72on1 and @OldSoldier
I think this is the latest thread about slowing which T72on1 was thinking of:
https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/how-much-slow-is-too-much-slow.963483/

As far as I can make sense of it your characters slowing should work like this:
The player characters slow won't stack with a minions slow of the same kind but will stack with own or others slow of a different kind. It is not additive but multipliers. Hit slows target from items and clay golem is one kind, holy freeze slowing is another and decrepification is a third kind of slow. Chilling is by all means a fourth but less relevant in hell.

Item slow from all items stack, for example 20 + 50 % from helm and weapon. the remaining 30 % velocity is then affected by 53% holy freeze and just slightly less than 15% of the monsters original velocity is left, assuming the monster is affected by holy freeze and is not extra fast or frenzied or something.
 
@Maltatai, so if the particular kinds of slow (in my case the Blackhorns + Woestave + Minotaur) add up to more than 100%, and clearly the monsters don't completely stop, is there a difference in monster speed between the item slow of 70% (Blackhorns + Woestave, i.e. merc only item slow) plus 53% holy freeze (which gets us to about 15% speed left) and, say, the monster speed of whatever max item slow is allowable (i.e. merc gear plus Andrew's Minotaur) plus the 53% of holy freeze? Is the max of the particular kind of slow 75%, 90% or some other value which we may be able to figure out? Just interesting to know, I guess. The Minotaur still comes in handy since I often target a different monster with Andrew than Gulzar is focused on, which spreads out the effect.

AndrewNiteTorch is at the RoF WP now; attacking Duriel and Mephisto with all our available slow sources seemed still more hazardous than a simple fight with a necro's decrepify going even as the only source of slow. Both those bosses were able to get Gulzar on the ground a couple of times each, and I didn't think that would happen honestly. It will be interesting to see how Diablo fares against us.
 
The minotaur and Woestave+Blackhorns are both item slow so they don't stack because they are from different sources (yourself and the hireling). According to the basin article linked in the other thread no unit can be reduced below 15% attack rate or 25% movement speed.
Item slow is capped at 90% against normal monsters, which would be enough to reach the maximum slowing effect unless the enemy is extra fast or so. So finding Kelpie Snare would make a difference in this respect. However, since your party also apply holy freeze you reach the maximum effect against almost all enemies already once your hireling has hit them.
Against bosses, uniques, champions, the item slow is capped at 50%. Decrepify obviously becomes much more significant to add.
 
Yay! Progress has been slow for sure, mostly due to just playing other games, but I finally finished normal lol

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Baal was a marathon (took nearly 25 minutes!), but wasn't dangerous. Rabies just doesn't do very much damage against enemies with lots of hp and poison resist. Using a one handed weapon make fury not very effective either.

Rabies is actually really really good against packs though. This character has been quite pleasant thus far. Things will definitely get harder
 
Even though you start to have chances of potentially good drops, Act V Normal is often quite - boring.
But with Obara, it's been the most fun I've had here in a long time.

I suppose it's time for yet another 'DTail damage numbers sceenie':

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Note that this is with only level 3 Dragon Tail, and Light Plated Boots.
Check out the resists as well (shrine fills out poison resist with the last 20).
The reason I'm saving stat points is that I want to upgrade Swordback Hold first, so I know how many points I need to max blocking with the Barbed Shield version.

Blocking isn't all that great against mobs, though, because if I don't get help from merc, shadow or Cloak of Shadows, I can often get into block-lock and it can take a while to score the 3+1 hits in a TS/DTail cycle. If it's this bad at 45%, then I really need to play smarter (less casually) at 75%.

It's not a good idea with a freezing merc against shambling undead, so I hired a Fire Rogue for those areas. Gave her an upgraded Withersting, which worked out well enough. Since I haven't found any spear or polearm, the alternative would have been to upgrade a sword and hire a Barbarian merc. But both my good swords (Shadowfang and Gleamscythe) do cold damage so there would still have been some corpse shattering.

Potions are needed now and then, but there was one pack that was actually so dangerous that I had to flee and regroup. Here is the boss once I had separated them:

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A big part of the danger is caused by the CBF that these Death Lords have. That meant that the merc was no help for crowd control here.

Obara found a weird rare. Affixes stacked in a way that resulted in only two rows of text:

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With +141% MF, I think that the S/U finds were fewer than expected. Obara seems to attract two specific TC 3 uniques.

Sigon's Shelter (Bloody Foothills)
Cathan's Mesh (Eyeback the Unleashed)
Sigon's Gage (Abaddon) <- last slot is now filled
[Highlight]The General's Tan Do Li Ga[/Highlight] (Glacial Trail)
Cathan's Mesh #2 (Halls of Valor)
Cathan's Seal #3 (Halls of Pain)
[Highlight]Gull[/Highlight] #2 (Baal)
Cleglaw's Claw (The Cow King)
[Highlight]Biggin's Bonnet[/Highlight] #3 (The Cow King)

What I really want to find is some unique boots that I can upgrade. Light Plated works for now, but will later be too small.


[Highlight]Destroyer Obara the TS/DTail Assassin and Barani the Cold Act III merc, level 48, NM Rogue Encampment, 34 S/U items found.[/Highlight]
 
So before we ventured forth into Hell, we decided to upgrade the Minotaur. Here's what we started with.View attachment 10699

And here is the result. We'd kept a passel of stat points available to do some weapons upgrades, and this was the first. It is a low %ED roll on the weapon itself but it hits pretty hard now (it hit hard before too, but is even better now).
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Here is the LCS on my max-damage weapon switch prior to entering the fray. The damage can get higher if I run Might as the aura but I don't since I rarely hit without conviction as the active aura. I kept the stat points for now too, more on that later.
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Of course, since I already spent the runes to upgrade my Minotaur, another would drop shortly after we started exploring. No matter, it wasn't a high %ED roll (only 145%, or 2% better than my current upgraded one).
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We also picked up a set of Hellmouth war gauntlets. I'm trying to figure out a way to use them, but the 50% fire resist on my current Laying of Hands is just too nice right now.
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Hellforge drop was a nice unusable rune. That would have been great in the Kira's...
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Diablo's drop. I skipped a lot of monsters because it was late. The armor drop is very interesting... so I am going to use it! I do have to put the IK gloves in the stash to be able to equip the Minotaur, which has enough strength bonus to equip the armor, which has its own strength bonus to maintain itself.
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So upon receiving that armor and deciding to use it, I upgraded my heart carver from this:
View attachment 10706

To this. I really like the ITD and DS it brings. Plus, the short range makes charging much easier than the long range Minotaur. And I can keep the shield resists (I socketed the Tiamat's with my NM Larzuk reward before going into act IV, and put a topaz into it).
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Here's the LCS before heading out into the Bloody Foothills.
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I did some equipment switching. Heart Carver is now the primary weapon, I kept the LoH gloves in lieu of the Hellmouth for now, I switched out the Hwanin's belt for the Snowclash (I may switch back, the ctc blizzard seems to mess with Charge, but I can't be sure yet) and the amulet is now full time Nokozan's. I did some testing of the setup in the Bloody Foothills, but I ended up rolling with Quill Rats, which to me are about the most deadly enemy in the game. I spent over 700K gold in merc resurrections in this one area! We touched the WP at the Frigid Highlands and I think I am going to like the upgraded Heart Carver as my primary weapon.

AndrewNiteTorch, level 82 Charge Paladin, Frigid Highlands
 
Yep.

An interesting development for my secondary character. Some of you may remember me playing a fireball sorc with a lightning backup. So my fire skills are where I plan on taking them for the game, and we are working on the lightning backup, so I took her out for a spin into the NM act II desert (we'd already killed Radament). I was just looking for a short respite from AndrewNiteTorch, as he's made it to the Arreat Plateau and I didn't want to go any further with him since it'll take a while to get to the next stopping point, and so I took her into the Maggot Lair and found a green amulet.
View attachment 10722

Much to my joy and amazement it was a Tal Rasha's! Now, I would wear this amulet by nearly any character in this tournament, and being a sorc, Brigid was very happy. But, she can't wear it for 13 more levels! I don't recall finding an item that requires waiting quite that long before. No complaints from me unless she ends up dying before level 67 though, as that will be a great boost to our power via the +2 skills, combat longevity via the +mana and of course the life is very welcome. ATMA says the ilvl is 48.
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Brigid_Crane, level 54 Fireballer, Far Oasis
 
I've experienced it with the mask in the same set. Death Mask is in a fairly low TC.
All Tal Rasha's items have rlvl 67.

Compared to the rlvl, Tal Rasha's amulet has a really low qlvl, 26*. This means that it can actually be dropped as early as from the High Council (the three bosses, not the minions) in Travincal, in Normal difficulty...


* All the items in the set have qlvl 26, but the monster (or container) must of course also be able to drop the base item and their qlvls are much higher, with the exception of the amulet.
 
Well I took a screenshot, but I can't find it :(

Pestilence has made some progress through Act 1 NM. We rushed Cain without killing anything really (I probably won't do this again if I make it to Hell. It was dicey getting through the underground pass), then went back and did the first few areas. Coldcrow was a treat - her poison resistance is quite low so one bite into her minions gave her the plague and she died quite quickly. The mausoleum and crypt are slow going. Zombies and skeletons have high poison resistance so our damage output is pretty lame against them, and it takes a lot of splitting up packs and luring to take them out. I like this a lot because it remind me of playing oldschool roguelikes, but it can get tedious.

We found a Goldwrap at some point, which was supposed to be the screenshot, but alas. We also socketed our Face of Horror with a perfect topaz, so we have some more MF now.

I'm really worried about Andariel. I found a Ravenclaw in A5, so it may be worth hiring a rogue to help with Andariel, but we'll see as she gets closer. Anyone have some tips? I think Rabies might do basically zero damage to her
 
@Dazliare, maybe just go at a lower players setting... I might be tempted to stay in human form and use the raven claw myself. You are right, the rabies won't do much.

I stayed playing Brigid_Crane today, and hoo boy am I glad I did! We found three items after the Tal Rasha's that got immediately equipped as soon as we found them.

The first, I'll call a minor upgrade. Brigid has been running with a set of Tearhaunch boots, which have built in resists and decent FRW. We got these, which I think dropped from Fangskin. I think it is a minor upgrade because it has 10% better FRW, and increases my mana by 19 points via the 10% max mod, but it also adds +5 MPK. That allows me to shoot more often before having to chug a blue, which is still A LOT. Just not as bad as before. I'll probably go back to the Tearhaunch in hell difficulty if we make it that far, just because of the resists.
View attachment 10727

Level 1 of the palace cellar started off nicely with a big upgrade over the once-upgraded Bloodthief that Pratham had been using. The Kelpie Snare has 171% ED, so fairly high-end damage for one of them (range is 140-180%), and since we still have 5% life leech on Pratham via the Undead Crown, he's in pretty good shape right now (he also wears a Darkglow ring mail, of which Brigid has actually found two).
View attachment 10728

Less than one minute later, a champion Blunderbore dropped a nice set of Magefists. Those immediately replaced the Death's gloves, which will probably stay in the ATMA stash forever. The +1 to our main skill tree, and a hard-to-come-by source of FCR and we're in business! Those gloves are worth two frames on both fireball and lightning! Deal.
View attachment 10729

Brigid_Crane, level 56 Fireballer, Palace Cellar 1 WP
 
Aloysia worked her way through Act 1 and 2 finding the following S/U items:
Clegclaw's Claw - Blood Raven
Infernal Cranium - Unique in Outer Cloister
Clegclaw's Claw - Pitspawn Fouldog
Stoutnail - Unique in Catacombs Level 3
Blood Cresent - Andariel
Razortine - Unique in Maggot Lair Level 3
Hsarus' Iron Fist - Unique in Tal Rasha's Tomb
Gorefoot - Unique in Tal Rasha's Tomb
Angelic Sickle - Canyon of the Magi
Darkglow - Duriel

For the most part in Act 1 she utilized level 1 Tiger Strike with a normal attack wielding a socketed Scepter purchased from Akara, which after filling the Fire Rogue's Hunter's Bow with chipped Emeralds she also placed them in her sockets. Of course after defeating Andariel, she had to sell the Scepter after finding the second one handed S/U. Andariel wasn't too difficult to take down given Aloysia's high poison resistance from the Clegclaw's Claw and several points in Fade.
After heading to the desert with Warriv she hired a Combat Mercenary from Griez and purchased him a 3 socketed Scythe, which she eventually filled with chipped Emeralds as well. Of course about the time she was about to upgrade him with a new 3 flawed Emerald Scythe the Razortine Trident dropped in the Maggot Lair and he needed to use that now. Act 2 went pretty smooth for the most part and they took on Duriel at /p3 just like Andariel and the fat demon dropped them a nice set of Darkglow Ring Mail armor for Waheed to wear for Act 3.

Aloysia and Waheed, Level 28, Kurast Docks

[HIGHLIGHT]Set/Unique Worshippers Leaderboard[/HIGHLIGHT]
Code:
Player:            Name:           Class:       Build:            Level:  S/U:    Area:
----------------   ------------    -----------  ----------------  ------  -----  -------------------------
jiansonz           Viridissima     Amazon       Valkyrie/CS       87      154     Guardian #1
PhineasB           Quinta          Amazon       Valk/Passive/?    83      120     Guardian #2
Grisu              Oberon          Druid        Fire Claws        86      124     Hell Act IV RoF
OldSoldier         AndrewNiteTorch Paladin      Charge            82       76     Hell Act V
jiansonz           Mirex           Paladin      FoH/Conviction    74       86     NM Cows
zoo                Alexander       Paladin      Holy Shock        48       51     NM Act I Rogue Camp
OldSoldier         Brigid_Crane    Sorceress    Balls of Fire     56       ??     NM Act II Lut Gholein
Dezrok             Roland          Paladin      Avenger           52       40     NM Act II Lut Gholein
Dazliare           Pestilence      Druid        Rabies            35       >2     Act V Harrogath
ioupainmax         Habacalva       Sorceress    Melee Enchantress 32       15     Act IV Pand. Fortress
Drystan            Goldilocks      Amazon       ??                32       12     Act IV Panda Fortress
Southpaw8668       Aloysia         Assassin     Phoenix Striker   28       10     Act III Kurast Docks
Logoutzero         Bruin           Druid        Summoner          28       10     Act III Kurast Docks
Jocular            GodKnowsWho     Assassin     Dragontail        ??        3     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
TwentyMuleTeam     TwoHearted      Druid        Fury              13        0     Act 1 Underground Passage
jamesixgun         Bethany         Sorceress    ChargedBolt/FOrb  13        1     Act 1 Dark Wood
Docturnal          Kody            Druid        Hunger/???        12        0     Act 1 Stony Field

[HIGHLIGHT]Set/Unique Martyrs[/HIGHLIGHT]
Code:
Player:             Name:          Class:       Build:           Level:   S/U:    Area:
----------------   ------------    -----------  ---------------  ------   -----   --------------------------
Southpaw8668       Wuzhul          Necromancer  Skelliemancer     67       89     NM Act IV Chaos Sanctuary
Wolron             HotBones        Necromancer  Fire Golem/BSpear 65       81     NM Act IV de Seis
Wolron             Pam             Amazon       Bowzon            67       78     NM Act IV Diablo
Wolron             TheBoss         Barbarian    Singer            68       70     NM Act V Halls of Vought
Wolron             ShadowLurker    Assassin     Trapper           63       60     NM Act IV Diablo
Wolron             Persephone      Sorceress    Frozen Orb        58       41     NM Act II T.Rasha's tombs
Charlo             KulKanta        Druid        Ele-Summoner      59       28     NM Act III Kurast Sewers
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
LacertaCK          Haramis         Sorceress    Meteorb           49       28     NM Act I The Hole (MSLE)
Southpaw8668       Velak           Necromancer  Poison/CE/CG      34       27     Act IV Diablo
Skunkbelly         NewestSkunk     Sorceress    FO/FB             34       16     Act IV Diablo
kstuart            Chocopower      Necromancer  Fishymancer       34        9     Act IV Diablo
Charlo             Talameer        Paladin      Thornadin         32        5+    Act IV Diablo
Charlo             Meroca          Necro        Skelli/Poison     30        9     Act IV River Of Flame
Wolron             Paul            Paladin      FOH               27        6     Act II Tal Rasha Tomb
 
Brigid_Crane continued onward toward Tal Rasha's tomb, hoping to uncover more pieces of his wrappings. We didn't find any, but we were able to get a few greens and golds.

AS netted us a Culwen's Point, handy for the +skills and FHR but not really anything else.
View attachment 10747

We went into the true tomb first. Adventuring with a sorc is so much faster than other classes! We took on Duriel at /P8. The merc (still using Pratham the Prayer desert guard) with his Kelpie Snare tamed Duriel enough so that when he got low on health it was easy to go back to town and restock potions.
View attachment 10748

The double green staff drop. Both yield +skills but not much else.
View attachment 10749

We stuck around the tombs and found Ancient Kaa and cleared out a couple more, as well as changed out the merc to a holy freeze type, and we got level 60. On to act III!

Brigid_Crane, level 60 Fireballer, NM Kurast Docks
 
Brigid_Crane continued on to the jungles around Kurast while my youngest son was sick at home, so I got extra play time today! The jungles themselves were not really very interesting. Fireball does do a number on flayers, that's for sure. Our fight to get Lam Esen's tome was easier than it was for AndrewNiteTorch recently...
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In Upper Kurast we got our lightning switch weapon. It has 50% FCR, which yields 70% when coupled with the gloves! It is very handy for firing off lightning bolts and teleporting. The Sander's bone wand I was using for the FCR is now stashed forever.
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Another one of these? It is a very high-end model, with 195% ED and 18 strength. Alas, it will not be used.
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Kelpie Snare made Mephisto nice and easy. I did realize that I would really like something with open wounds for the merc, like a Boneflesh armor. Some monsters are proving hard for him to dispatch at this point if they are immune to fire and have high regen. Maybe I'll leave the Bloodthief in the stash for such occasions. We also found our second Soul Harvest, which might be a good alternative also because of the OW and 20 res all.
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I killed everything I saw so I could get to level 67 and put on the Tal Rasha's amulet, which I did for the seal bosses. Then I took it right back off in lieu of the Nokozan for the actual fight with Diablo.
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His drop was nothing we hadn't seen before, so it is on to Harrogath!
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Brigid_Crane, level 67 Fireballer, NM Harrogath, 62 different S/U found

edit: I also counted AndrewNiteTorch's different S/U (I do not keep the duplicates, nor do I track them): 97 so far for him
 
Here's a teaser for AndrewNiteTorch. We were such a couple of bullies against Frozenstein, it was nice turnabout from the usual duck and run tactics I normally use against him. See how we pushed him into the corner to die? Ha!
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I'd have to say he's been pretty blessed with the gold drops lately. Perhaps the Sazabi's Ghost Liberator has more style, but this is a much better armor. I'm very happy with my equipment now, and with the resist scroll from Malah, our resists are pretty much excellent...
View attachment 10775
 
Backtracking a bit with AndrewNiteTorch, here's the LCS with Might as our aura, which I dabbled with for a few areas since the Heart Carver has ITD on it. It is better than the conviction on the non boss & champion monsters, but not really by all that much when you factor in all the elemental damage that gets multiplied with conviction, plus I have to remember to switch back and forth on the special beasts, so I have decided to just go with Conviction until the end. That damage looks pretty though, for a knife...
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There were still some monsters that gave us pause, like this rogue in the beginning of the Frozen River. Notice in the LCS above that our cold resists, even with the shield/knife switch, was not great, so the CE lightning bolts coming out of Snot Wing were painful enough to make Andrew steer clear. Fortunately, Gulzar was up to the task. If he couldn't I would have had to quaff a few thawing potions to beef that cold resist up temporarily.
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Ice Crawler was another boss nearby the entrance to the Frozen River. We had plenty of room to handle these rogues a few at a time.
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Storm Eye would have been more of a problem if it weren't for the upgraded Woestave we were using for most of the area. That and the merc's Blackhorn's Face really help the pace of play to keep my old eyes and fingers in the game.
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Got a nice belt. Too bad it is about two difficulties too late. I like the Snowclash and Hwanin's much better, so this will probably never get used.
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Notice the distance from the entrance of Ancient's Way to the summit? That's handy for me.
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I tried three times to beat the Ancients but they got Gulzar each time (once I got two of them, but the cursed stone skin whirler proved too hard for Andrew to beat). He killed Gulzar just about immediately after this, and despite what I thought was sufficient hitting with the Woestave to take his defense to zero, I had a hard time hitting him with my charges, and even though you can get him to stop whirling by backing into the edge of the cliff, you can't charge that way either, so I've found an inherent weakness in this build, and I need Gulzar alive for the duration of the fight, so we're going to have to try again. I tried the Woestave, the Viperfork, cleansed the curses, used Vigor to separate them to fight one at a time, but that Talic gets me in trouble. I probably have to wait until he gets elemental enchantments for his abilities because that is fairly easy for Andrew to beat now (once we got the resistance scroll from Malah and put on the Duriel's Shell I showed in the last post, Fire resist is at 85% with aborb of 15, Cold resist is at 90% with absorb of 15 and Lightning is at 75%).
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AndrewNiteTorch, level 82 Charger, Arreat Summit
 
Brigid_Crane moved onward today, for a spell. We were at the Arreat Plateau, moving along just fine, when we came upon a champ pack of Bloodbringers. I got in close to work on some statics, and one of them, I think a fanatic, started hitting me. My youngest son was watching on my left, and he likes to come in close, so I felt crowded on the left side of the keyboard, i.e. the number keys for the potions. I saw the life going down and made several attempts to hit the "2" key, which is the purple, but apparently missed and she died. RIP Brigid_Crane. She made it to level 69 and was pretty fun to play.
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