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

jiansonz said:
@zoo: What were those unique rings?

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(Long post ahead...consider yourselves notified...)
Sorry, it dawned on me that I forgot to rename my screenshots before posting them. The two last rings were both Manald Heal. 6 ML, 6 rep life and 7 ML, 5 rep life respectively.

Thanks for the thorough update! Reminds me of the horrors that await in later difficulties. Act II with Fangskin and Duriel is proper scary stuff.
 
OldSoldier said:
What is your MF percentage now? If you go back to a barb merc I count that you'll get eighty eight % from the helm, 48% from the armor and 60%+ from the merc kills alone (if he uses Ali Baba), plus whatever else you can manage from your own gear. That's pretty impressive! I'm still at 110% but do have a long way to go to catch up.
Yes, that's correct. My own value, with Vidala's Barb switch, is currently 50+50+24+30+3+4=161%
(Since he's just been hired, merc's level is now only 59 but it looks like Ali Baba always uses the character's level.)

If I make it to the 'civilized' Kurast areas (with their many containers), we'll kill the monsters in an area first, then I'll pop the containers wearing Ali Baba, Angelic and (no-armor) Sigon's combos, which will be (137 + Ali) %.
 
AndrewNiteTorch made some progress these past couple of days.

Ormus' ring was beneficial in bringing our full-time MF to 119%.
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Our second piece of the Cleglaw's Brace dropped. It is our switch weapon/shield combo and currently the 75% poison length reduction and the heavy scaling damage are very welcome with a high damage skill like Charge. We don't have much mana yet to keep up any real charge chains but hopefully soon we'll find some good items which will help in that regard (I am keeping the MF rings on in lieu of the Manald Heal for now).
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Here's a totally useless ring. Why does this crap even drop? Only greens and golds for me, I've trained my eyes to not even notice blues or yellows!
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A nice little stair trap boss pack in a temple. I got two and Chalan got four of them.
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/P8 Mephisto has dropped like normally. The bastard sword was a failed unique.
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We did also find a second Angelic armor, the Infernal belt, a Cathan's amulet and an Angelic ring. If I can snag the Angelic Amulet, our MF will go up some more via partial set bonuses. We are still wearing white gloves and boots and have a socketed paladin shield with a nice emerald and a really nice topaz in it. On to act 4!

AndrewNiteTorch, level 32 Paladin who watches his mercenary work (and provides a weak Might aura), act 4 next
 
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Great progress, and love some of the finds! Congrats on dual Cleglaw's. That can definitely give a nice little boost if you need it.
I was thinking that a random unique Maul (Bonesnap) would be great for me around now... :)

@Wolron - RIP. Good luck with a Passivezon. It's definitely do-able, but patience is a big thing. You have to be patient enough to rely on the Valk and Merc to get the kills, and that means it's usually slow going later on. Safe, but slow.

@Grisu - I'll have a read of some of Dresden Files reviews, and listen to some audio books if available. Not sure if we have the books here, as I've only heard of this on these forums.
If I re-listen to the Iron Druid Chronicles, I'll start posting some quotes if they're relevent. Some come out of nowhere, and really catch you off-guard.

@Oakbrain - RIP Jathnolf. :( Sorry to hear about the deeds.

I just found Sigon's Boots, and am fighting Izual /players8. I forgot just how many hitpoints he has. He's no danger, attacking the Valkyrie for basically no damage, but barely even doing slivers to his health bar.

@Charlo - Love that Diablo screenshot. Trapped in a bone prison, but still get the kill. That's potentially one of his worst combos he could do: Bone Prison -> Fire Hose on the character. Grats on the Normal D kill.
 
Starting out from the Pandemonium Fortress Wuzhul built up his army and then we turned it back up to /p8 and never left a stone unturned. Shortly after venturing through the Outer Steps they found the Axe of Fechmar, which Wuzhul placed on switch.
After finding and killing Izual, in the City of the Damned they found second Isenhart's Lightbrand.
The Hellforge was the worst with an El and a bunch of non-usable gems we had to sell off, but Diablo definitely made up for it by dropping these 32% MF Chance Guards and a couple other semi-useful pieces!
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Beserker's Headgear dropped by Eyeback the Unleashed by his little hangout. Wuzhul gave this piece to Rhadge until he could find a more suitable cap for a Necromancer. He found a much nicer belt than the one Diablo dropped when a boss pack from an Evil Urn in the Glacial Trail dropped him the Infernal Sign heavy belt.
After making their way to the Frozen Tundra another boss pack dropped him some BloodFist heavy leather gloves, but he naturally elected to keep the Chance Guards on.
They found this nice little jewel along the way in Act V and it could potentially find some use later on in something Wuzhul elects to socket.
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The Baal fight was a little tougher than expected on /p3, but he did drop them another set piece with some decent resists and another useful set of Frostburn gauntlets. Unfortunately, Wuzhul now had to remove a big chuck of his MF potential from his headgear.
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Bingo, in the Halls of Pain he was finally able to find himself a set piece amulet with the Cathan's Sigil to match up with his two previously found Cathan's Seals. Now he has 25% MF back and several other nice resistance and strength bonuses from the three pieces together.
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Another Milabrega's Orb dropped in the Halls of Pain to make two for the party. Now both Wuzhul and Rhadge have all bit of MF from their shields.
Very nice indeed when the Cow King dropped what I thought was his Horns, but turned out to be the Infernal Cranium to match nicely with Wuzhul's heavy belt. I forgot the Cow King's Horns is actually a war hat not a cap.
Man Wuzhul has gambled some of the nicest kit he's been told repeatedly by Gheed, but he thinks it all garbage and just sells it back to him right away. He's only interested in the Green and the Gold goodies!
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Now all he seems to be missing is a nice pair of boots that he's spent a fortune in gold pieces gambling for with no luck thus far. He really does enjoy talking and gambling with Gheed though.
They picked up a Spectral Shard and another Isenhart's Case in the Crypt after killing off Blood Raven and venturing below.
Some Darkglow ring mail and The Centurion hard leather armor and yet another Isenhart's Case was picked up in the Dark Wood.
Aldur's Rhythm dropped in the Tower Cellar Level 2 and Wuzhul can actually wield this nice weapon with all the added strength bonuses from his jewelry, even if he just misses everything he swings at with his horrible attack rating.
Cathan's Mesh dropped in the Tower Cellar as well, so he put that on instead of his current Hawkmail armor due to all the nice bonuses from the set. The Jade Tan Do dropped here as well on Level 3, but he probably won't ever find any use for it unless he can seriously pump up his dexterity.
The Pit Level 1 delivered the Angelic Sickle.
Andariel was very kind indeed at the perfect time, just prior to heading to the desert to now be able to hire a Might mercenary there and place this beauty in his hands. Man I forgot just how beefed up this weapon is, 10%LL, 50%OW and 25%MF!!!
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After heading out in the desert with Durga his new Mercenary they found the Sigon's Guard tower shield in the Rocky Waste, which unbelievably he can also wield with all of this bonus strength. This gives a nice little buff to all his minions on switch, but then he switches back to gain the MF bonus from the Milabrega's Orb.
And finally in the Dry Hills the first pair of boots drop, a pair of Vidala's Fetlock giving him a nice run/walk and stamina boost.
And yet another useless pair of boots gambled, these ones were purchased from Elzix in Act 2.:eek:
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He socketed a +19 max damage jewel and two perfect emeralds in the Aldur's Rhythm, looks lovely if he could only make contact a whole lot more.:rolleyes: He doesn't really need to assist anymore though now that he has Durga along with his juicy stick.
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Wuzhul and Durga, Level 54, Far Oasis
 
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@Southpaw8668 That's a great update and lots of gear found! Small update for me tonight. We made it past Diablo. All of act 4 at /P8 except for him, at /P1 due to lack of any source of crushing blow.

Our HF drop was OK, giving us an emerald and some upgrade ingredients.
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Diablo's drop was the same as all the other act bosses so far. At least we're consistent: no S/U whatsoever from any of them. We got a grand total of 0 S/U in act 4, which was disappointing with 119% MF. AndrewNiteTorch killed maybe four or five oblivion knights with Charge and his Cleglaw's Brace and Chalan got all the rest because the Gull dagger doesn't really do much damage any more and I really want that 100%. Fat lot of good it did me this time! Notice I had the Cleglaw on switch during Diablo's final blow. Oops! Charging at him with that was the only thing that did any damage, and Chalan got the last sliver when I didn't expect it.
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I was able to secure a Cathan's ring in the Bloody Foothills, yippee! How about a Crushflange at least, you crazy D2 game?

AndrewNiteTorch, level 36 and lazier by the level, standing and watching Chalan work with his Dimoak's Hew
 
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@Southpaw8668: Congrats on the Meat Scraper, it should serve you well for quite some time.

Cathan's Sigil has a 3-items MF bonus? I had totally forgotten about that...

Southpaw8668 said:
...and a bunch of non-usable gems we had to sell off

Not completely 'non-usable'. Perfect gems can still be used to reroll charms and jewels. I'm pretty sure that nets a higher probability of getting something useful than the extra gambling money does.
 
jiansonz said:
@Southpaw8668:
Cathan's Sigil has a 3-items MF bonus? I had totally forgotten about that...

Not completely 'non-usable'. Perfect gems can still be used to reroll charms and jewels. I'm pretty sure that nets a higher probability of getting something useful than the extra gambling money does.
Yes, I had completely forgotten about this hidden bonus as well, until trying to decide whether to continue wearing the Hawkmail with a perfect Topaz, or put on the newly found Cathan’s Mesh. Since just having the three pieces of jewelry doesn’t work, I didn’t see the green, bonus on the Cathan’s Sigil until donning the the armor as well. He gained some of the most beneficial bonuses from that set.
30%FR, 25%LR, 25%MF, 20+Strength, as well several others not as useful for a caster.
Yes, you’re absolutely right about the re-rolls with the gems. I was just running low on space and didn’t want to save and exit to mule all of them off. I had completely overlooked the need for a perfect, Diamond for upgrading unique armor. Bummer cause I’ve sold off a ton of flawless ones.:rolleyes:
 
Pam, my new character (Amazon level 20), has killed Andariel and moved on to act 2. She has two tales to relate to those who will listen. One is a tale of celebration and the other is a tale of woe:

Celebration: Andariel dropped three S/U's, Bloodfist, Blood Crescent and Hsarus Iron Stay. The Hsarus Iron Stay is a belt, so the three tiers are better than the two tier belt that is most typically the first belt found. This meant that Pam's total SU's after Act 1 is 7. The four that were previously found were "The Gnasher", Pluck Eye ( is there any worse item than Pluck Eye???), Cleglaw's gloves and the Hand of Broc. Pam will use the Bloodfist gloves and put the other two pairs of gloves in ATMA.

Woe: Even though she longs to use Pluck Eye and take advantage of her Magic Arrow skill, she cannot. She must equip The Gnasher and the Blood Crescent. She will probably use The Gnasher because of the Crushing Blow, but the Crescent does have +15 resist all, so that may be the better choice until a rough customer like Duriel must be dealt with.

In spite of the woe, the damage that Pam deals is only cut in half (max of 90 down to max of 50). The real problem is that she is now a melee character. Luckily she has been putting alot of stat points into Vitality.

Oh well, the game is early. As long as she stays alive, the weapon list may grow to include something worthwhile. If it does not and she manages to get through Act 2, I guess the act 3 merc could take the Blood Crescent and she could use Pluck Eye..... I can hardly wait!

By the way, I am envious of the pictures that everyone has for their member post. Is there a website where such pictures can be found?
 
Wolron said:
Woe: Even though she longs to use Pluck Eye and take advantage of her Magic Arrow skill, she cannot. She must equip The Gnasher and the Blood Crescent.
The way I meant for the rules to work is that you can equip Pluckeye (crappy as it is) but then your merc (Act I or Act II version) will be weaponless for the time being. You always have the option of leaving a slot empty instead of having an S/U item there.

Wolron said:
She will probably use The Gnasher because of the Crushing Blow, but the Crescent does have +15 resist all, so that may be the better choice...

The resists on Blood Crescent are nice, but the selling point in Normal is the Open Wounds. I've started a second character in this tournament (update coming later, when I feel like it...), a FoH Paladin, and Blood Crescent's OW has been about the only thing that has kept him going in early Act II.

Wolron said:
By the way, I am envious of the pictures that everyone has for their member post. Is there a website where such pictures can be found?


No idea, I (obviously) made mine from a screenshot. I found the pic in on old D2 folder - looks like the size is 75 x 75 pixels.
(BTW, it's Gabrielle, my companion-less staff amazon with heavy restrictions. Died at NM Ancients, mostly because she forgot to repair her staff before the fight...)
 
@Wolron, those items you found in act 1 are pretty sweet if you ask me. That's a great list. I'm in mid act V and still using white gloves. I'd be soooo happy if Cleglaw's gloves dropped for Andrew. It'd be my first source of crushing blow (the set full bonus has it). Pluckeye would be OK if it were upgraded, it does have the best %ED modifier of all the normal unique bows except for a mid to high level Blastbark. I know, you will always find something better by the time you have the ingredients to upgrade it. Aren't The Gnasher and Hand of Broc fairly rare? I hardly ever see them. Bloodfist is a great set of gloves too.

@jiansonz, I played a FoH paladin in the pally tourney I hosted several years ago. He was pretty terribly slow until deep into act V normal because I was hoarding points to put into both FoH and Conviction at each level up once they became available. I think I put the bare minimum into Holy Shock to make it bearable but it was a long time ago. He'll be fun once you grind through the early part, but yikes that part makes it hard.

Andrew finally found some good items today, including a 24% Nagelring, which replaced the ring from Akara (+14% MF net), his first boots, a Sanders Riprap, which makes me really happy and causes Andrew to fly around at 70% FRW with Vigor active, and Twitchthroe, which went onto the merc immediately. We are still searching for our second shield (hoping we don't get one soon, my current main shield is a paladin one with +13% all resistances with two emeralds and a topaz in it) and a set of gloves.

The goods:
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We also got some really sweet jewels, but we'll find something better I'm sure. These things are not properly color coordinated and don't go with AndrewNiteTorch's man bag (backpack).

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He's level 39 at the Crystalline Passageway.

edit: I re-read the rules and realized I should have taken off my Akara/Ormus rings once I found S/U rings. So I put the Manald Heal back on, along with the Nagelring. Maybe the lack of any S/U in act 4 was D2 Karma for me breaking the rule. I kneel at the mercy of Jiansonz.
 
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OldSoldier said:
I played a FoH paladin in the pally tourney I hosted several years ago. He was pretty terribly slow until deep into act V normal because I was hoarding points to put into both FoH and Conviction at each level up once they became available. I think I put the bare minimum into Holy Shock to make it bearable but it was a long time ago. He'll be fun once you grind through the early part, but yikes that part makes it hard.
That's what I've been doing as well, I placed one point in Holy Shock. That, combined with the Open Wounds, so far makes progress bearable. My merc tanks and heals me but his (weaponless) damage output is abysmal. If I make it to the next act, merc damage will improve a lot. Outside of these tournies, not often you can say that...

OldSoldier said:
edit: I re-read the rules and realized I should have taken off my Akara/Ormus rings once I found S/U rings. So I put the Manald Heal back on, along with the Nagelring. Maybe the lack of any S/U in act 4 was D2 Karma for me breaking the rule. I kneel at the mercy of Jiansonz.

Haha.
 
Jens-Rune has just now found his third head gear, right at the border between the Frigid Highlands and The Arreat Plateau. This made me realize that I have been cheating. :(

In the Chaos Sanctuary, Jens-Rune found a set Crown. The crown was the very last drop before Diablo and came from Infector of Souls. This was his second head piece meaning he should have switched it for his socketed Jawbone Cap. For some reason, the switch did not happen and the Crown got left sitting in the stash.

Below are the stats of the Jawbone Cap Jens-Rune has been wearing (since Tristram, Act I):

+1 Howl
+2 Axe Mastery
+1 Sword Mastery
18% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (2x Chipped Topaz)

Diablo didn't drop anything of value (karma?). However, Jens-Rune has managed to find four S/U items in Act V while wearing said Jawbone Cap:

Vidala's Barb
Steelclash
Death's Touch
Berserker's Headgear
 
AndrewNiteTorch traveled beyond the Crystalline Passageway on toward his final goal of defeating Baal. Although we did get some decent drops in the last update, a grand total of one lousy S/U was all we got from the last half of the entire act, including all of those dumb Halls areas (0 there) and all of the rest of the caves (0), the entire WSK (0) and the Throne (1). I guess I shouldn't complain too much, the throne drop was exactly what the doctor ordered.
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This completed the Cleglaw's Brace and got us some MUCH needed crushing blow. Act bosses beware now! The only item we have remaining to fill with a set or unique item is our primary shield (the cleglaw's shield, on my "damage" switch, is my only one so far, sweet!).
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Because of this very new source of Crushing Blow, I decided to take on Baal at /P5 instead of the lowly /P1. He went down VERY quickly to many shield bashes (I think it is crazy that a high damage skill like Charge must take a back seat to a 1 point Smite with a low damage shield like Cleglaw's, but I'm up for whatever gets the job done). Take a look at the drop. My sum total of S/U from act bosses in the entire difficulty (all with above 100% MF) is zero.
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We did get a sweet jewel; hopefully we can find somewhere to stash it sooner or later.
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We found two Sol runes also during this last half of act 5, so I used one to upgrade the merc stick to a Lochaber Axe, and the other to upgrade the Gull to a Poignard. Our damages went up by about 2x as you can expect. The Manald Heal and the Poignard Gull generate enough mana to continue charging in succession in most cases until I push the monster back into an obstruction.

One thing I've noticed with Charge: it's as buggy as an Amish Limousine. Sometimes I get caught into the "I-can't-move" situation until I press W to switch weapons. Sometimes he runs in place for a few seconds (might be the same bug) and can't move until the running is over or I switch weapons. Sometimes I do some kind of a backwards charge (looks like a moon walk a la Michael Jackson in the 80s) away from my intended target and I have to click on empty ground (I use left click to Charge) and actually move toward that spot before I can resume attacking. I had in mind a lightning merc and using conviction but I know there are many areas where it isn't open enough for me to feel comfortable charging around without a tank to slow things down a bit so I'm debating now using a holy freeze merc. We did some practicing in picking off the stragglers and those monsters attempting to engage the merc by doing their standard "monster curl" as I call it. I can hold off several of them from surrounding the merc by doing this on his flank. I also practiced the ping pong maneuver, which seemed to work well up to about a half screen distance between the monsters.

AndrewNiteTorch, level 48 Paladin, just starting to help out a bit at the start of NM. He's going to skip the Cows though
 

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@zoo: That's regrettable, but don't worry about it. Just keep going, with correct gear.

@OldSoldier: That's some terrible S/U luck with your act bosses, and with Act V in general, but congrats on the Destroyer (and for completing Cleglaw's Brace). Charge sounds like something that would be fun to use now and then, but I probably wouldn't enjoy it as a main skill. Smite is great (you could say overpowered) with CB since it's fast and always hits. And you can stun just about anything with it except act bosses.
 
jiansonz said:
@zoo: That's regrettable, but don't worry about it. Just keep going, with correct gear.
I immediately switched out the Jawbone Cap after finding Berserker's Headgear. Jens-Rune didn't venture very far before realizing, but he still managed to find like 1/3 of his total S/U:s after the error had been made, dispite wearing less MF than he has ever been since right before the battle with Andariel. I'll make sure to think over his gear choice an extra time after finding S/U items from now on.
 
Well, got on with killing Baal at p3 thank the gods!. He dropped a disappointing bunch of rares. Worth a tidy sum but nothing more.

Proceed on to cows and had a blast for a change!
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I assume they have a natural weakness to fire? Either way, the steak was well-done all round!

Had no luck with any S/U throughout cows. Was feeling pretty hard done by until this magnificent site in the Cold Plains:
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Tasty bit of Fire Res will do no harm!
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Parked up in the Stony Field for some R&R until i venture out again. Still no rings!

KalKunta, level 46 Ele-Summoner Druid, NM Stony Field. 17 S/Us found so far.
 
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Hmm well been browsing but posting the forum for several months having returned to D2 playing Octoberish time. Been ages since i last posted but i thought sod it lets have a bash at this tourney.

Chocopower the fishymancer (yes well if i am going HC i might as well go with the easiest one being its been a long time since i last did some HC and espcially as i cant pick and choose gear) is level 16 and has reached the outer cloister in a single run thru this morning. Alas only S/U to date is The Gnasher..... More annoying is 2 failed Tarnhelm's and a biggins bonnet so far when i could be bothered to look at drops.
 
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