[2018] Tournament: Super Unique 2018 [by GooberGrape]

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

Wolron said:
GooberGrape said:

Confirmed.

Click to expand...

Wow!!! And then I can do all this in Nightmare too!

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

jiansonz said:
Moving on with my Werewolf. Nothing remarkable in the rest of Act III, although some of the Council bosses dropped some useful things. Also, Mephisto dropped my new hammer:

Corpse Mar
Maul
Two-Hand Damage: 44 to 63
Durability: 60 of 180
Required Strength: 69
Required Level: 10
Mace Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 26
Fingerprint: 0x471c9c6c
+47% Enhanced Damage
+12 to Attack Rating
Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Prevent Monster Heal
150% Damage to Undead

The 'monster flee' is both good and bad.
I am pleasantly suprised by the swing speed of this thing both when I'm in human form and when I'm feral.

I've decided to invest in no (or little, for some axe types) DEX and go for big hammers and two-handed axes. Both types can be crafted and both come with a guaranteed (albeit small) +%ED bonus.

I was scared of Diablo, so I put most points during Act IV into VIT and Lycanthropy.
Here are the stats two level-ups before the fight:

Important find in the CS:

I muled in my resist helm and -boots for this session, and I borrowed Vikhyat's ethereal armor.
Fire resist is fine. Lightning resist...not so much:

Diablo completely ignored Biter when Vikhyat was within sight, so I was free to claw at his back like crazy:

I spent a bunch of purples to keep Vikhyat alive, and quite a bit of money to bring him back several times. At ~9000 gold a pop, I could live with that cost because it was so much safer than the alternative. Sorry about that, Vikhyat!

Loot:

Hm, an even bigger hammer, but it looks to be slow. I'll still try it out along the way, now that I am pushing for the 124 STR needed for a War Club. Vikhyat got the Sigon's armor for now. I've kept Sigon's gloves from earlier in case of 'maybe I'll personalize it', but probably not.
The belt has 25% lightning resist, 17% FHR and +10 life, so that's great.
Just like my current rare Hawk Helm, the Antlers have two sockets. Probably going to put perfect topazes there when I have them (I have Topaz x2 in current helm).

Not sure what to do about my three special rewards. Tempted to use socket or personalize reward in a lightweight 3s armor, for filling with topazes now and with good runeword potential later. We shall see.

I may be scrapping the Rabies idea. I feel like I am too stretched for skill points as it is. Need to figure something out for handling PI monsters...

Current skills:
Poison Creeper 1
Heart of Wolverine 20
Werewolf 7
Lycanthropy 6
Feral Rage 6
Rabies 2 (already regretting those...Ooh, I see now that I can respec!)

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC Harrogath 34 43 jiansonz Biter Druid HC Harrogath 35 42 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 Kestegs Comuppance Necro HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Lut Gholein 16 14 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

Wolron said:
SuperWolf just killed Baal on P3 and is going to go after some cows before a complete update. However the drop was so great that I just had to show off.

The Heavy Gloves were an ethereal item that required level 47 to use and SuperWolf is only level 46. They were not going to be used anyway because the Anya Personalization gloves were:

SuperWolf's Demon Clutches Leather Gloves Defense: 7 +77% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +20% Cold Resist +25% 3% Life stolen per hit 12% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

The Jewel was [+6 def, attacker takes 1 damage, +17% lightning resist]. Not likely to be used.

The Unique Plate Mail is:

Boneflesh Plate Mail Defense: 245 +110% Enhanced Defense +35 to Attack Rating
5% Life stolen per hit 25% Chance of Open Wounds

This item may become the socketing quest item. The strength requirement is 65 which will use up a few of the 51 attribute points that SuperWolf has been saving. The life steal and open wounds will go well with the weapon that I hope to develop.
This is the jewel I would use: Shimmering Jewel of Carnage [+14 to Maximum Damage All Resistances +5]

The Unique Full Helm will probably be used because it is better than the rare Falcon Mask that Anya gifted SuperWolf. That +15 resist all will come in handy in Nightmare.

The Unique War Hammer is "Ironstone". It has a nice +10 to strength, but it is slow, so it will not be used.

The rare Falchion is:

Gale Song Falchion One-Hand Damage: 9 to 17 +30 to Attack Rating Adds 1-7 lightning damage
6% Life stolen per hit 20% Increased Attack Speed +1 to Mana After Each Kill Socketed (2: 0 used)

The two sockets are tempting, but it is king of slow and does not do much damage.

Here is the item that I may develop for SuperWolf:

The General's Tan Do Li Ga Knout One-Hand Damage: 21 to 75
Required Dexterity: 73 Required Strength: 82 Very Fast Attack Speed
+59% Enhanced Damage +1 to Minimum Damage +20 to Maximum Damage +25 Defense 5% Mana stolen per hit
20% Increased Attack Speed 150% Damage to Undead Slows Target by 50%

This unique item was upgraded to a Knout to get the extra damage. However, the only way that SuperWolf can use it is to socket it and then it would be Larzuk's reward item. I would probably put an ORT rune in the socket to get another 1-50 ligning damage. Since I have already spent the upgrade runes and gem, I will probably let Larzuk do his thing. However, I will wait until afte the cows are dealt with just to see if there is a better item to socket. I would sort of like to find a really good rare shield with some good resists. We shall see.

The big decision is the socketing quest item. I can use the Bone Flesh Plate mail without socketing it because it is an SU drop. I could socket the Knout if I am patient enough to wait until I get one more level to meet the STR and DEX requirements. Finally, if I am lucky enough to find that shield, it could be the socketing item (but then the Knout could not be used.)

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

Wolron said:
It appears we may be moving in similar but slightly different directions;

jiansonz said:

I may be scrapping the Rabies idea. I feel like I am too stretched for skill points as it is. Need to figure something out for handling PI monsters...

Current skills:
Poison Creeper 1
Heart of Wolverine 20
Werewolf 7
Lycanthropy 6
Feral Rage 6
Rabies 2 (already regretting those...Ooh, I see now that I can respec!)

Click to expand...

I have decided on rabies and dire wolves. Here are my skills:
Rabies 20
Dire Wolf 9 Spirit Wolf 7 Ravens 5 Poison Creeper 3

I expect to add most of my points from nightmare to the wolves and the Grisley Bear. That might give me enough physical damage to get by the poison immunes.

Since I have never tried this character before, I would appreciate any comments.

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

Wolron said:
The cows are hamburger! I was a bit worried when I started on them. I am not used to slaughtering them wih a melee character. That first horde arrived and I timidly approached them. I decided that the only thing to do was start on one and see how it went. The first cow died, but not all that quickly. So, I swallowed hard and attacked the horde viciously. At first it seemed pretty ineffective, but then after a few seconds, the cows began dying. Oh yes, that rabies poison takes a little time to spread. When it did, the result was amazing. I found that passing rabies around is a lot of fun. So the cows died, The Cow King dropped nothing useful and SuperWolf did not find the great shield that he was hoping for.

However, SuperWolf was loaded with gold. Gambling was fun. The shield that SuperWolf was hoping for did not show up, but this one will have to do:

Ghoul Ward Gothic Shield Defense: 44 Chance to Block: 36% Durability: 40 of 40 Required Strength: 60 Required Level: 21
Resist All +32% Lightning Resist +19%
10% Chance to cast Level 3 Charged Bolt when struck Socketed (1: Perfect Diamond gave the resists shown above)

Nightmare starting stats:
STR:65 DEX:42 VIT:145 NRG:25 [40 attribute points saved]
Def:376; Stam:249 Life:392 Mana:154 Magic Find: 12
PR:36 LR:74 CR:42 FR:75(81)

Nightmare starting Skills:
Ravens:5 Spirit Wolves:7 Dire Wolves:9 Rabies:20 Poison Creeper: 3 Heart of Wolverine:1 [4 other points in prereqs]

Weapons:
The one that will be used most often is: Brimstone Gutter Crystal Sword
One-Hand Damage: 11 to 24 Adds 1-2 fire damage Adds 2-56 lightning damage +75 poison damage over 5 seconds
Socketed (2: TAL rune and Perfect Topaz)

The offhand is: The Chieftain Unique Battle Axe
Two-Hand Damage: 24 to 64 Durability: 40 of 40 +100% Enhanced Damage
All Resistances +18 Adds 1-40 lightning damage 20% Increased Attack Speed +6 to Mana After Each Kill

The Brimstone Gutter is one handed and a shield will give +32 resist all. The Chieftain is two handed, but it provides +18 resist all.

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC NM Rogues Camp 46 60 jiansonz Biter Druid HC Harrogath 35 42 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 Kestegs Comuppance Necro HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Lut Gholein 16 14 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

GooberGrape said:
Made it through the maggot tunnels, which is one of the worst places in the game for a minion based build. Progress is slowing down, the very weak damage of my wolves and ravens is starting to show. Thankfully Fangskin dropped my merc a gift which helps tremendously.

Loath Scourge
Scythe
Two Hand Damage: 18 - 38
Durability: 33 of 33
Required Level: 9
Required Strength: 31
Required Dexterity: 31
Fingerprint: 0x2f47c083
Item Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
28% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Minimum Damage
+104 to Attack Rating
Adds 1 - 2 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
+2 to Strength
Ethereal

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC NM Rogues Camp 46 60 jiansonz Biter Druid HC Harrogath 35 42 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 Kestegs Comuppance Necro HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Far Oasis 19 18 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

Dunedain said:
I'm glad I took up this challenge. It has forced me to really slow things down, and utilize every obscure advantage I can find.
1 spear + 1 stack of arrows = 1 set of white javelins. Certainly a cube recipe I've never used before, probably never again, but it has been a great help! Just wanted to "throw" that out there. I'll give a full update on my progress a bit later.

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

jiansonz said:
Dunedain said:

I'm glad I took up this challenge. It has forced me to really slow things down, and utilize every obscure advantage I can find.
1 spear + 1 stack of arrows = 1 set of white javelins. Certainly a cube recipe I've never used before, probably never again, but it has been a great help! Just wanted to "throw" that out there. I'll give a full update on my progress a bit later.

Click to expand...

Indeed, and as long as you don't throw away the last javelin, you can keep it going with more arrow packs. Why does that work? Because in this game, a javelin is also - a spear.

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

jiansonz said:
If you take a cracked item to Larzuk, will it be 'normalized' as well as socketed?
(IIRC, the game doesn't allow low quality socketed items)

EDIT: I can answer this myself now because I've tested it.
I was wrong, but also right, in a way.

After socketing by Larzuk, the item will still be cracked, but it will be normalized if you make a runeword in it!

I calculated what the damage range would be if the damage numbers of the cracked weapon were used with the +%ED of the weapon, and the actual outcome of the runeword turned out to be way higher than that. It matches what it would be with a regular quality weapon.

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

kestegs said:
Well, act 2 was quite boring, slow, and uneventful for the most part. The addition of Alhizeer the prayer merc was very nice, and he was pretty good at killing things with his Andy dropped weapon. However I was not good at it. I never found an upgrade for my gemmed wirt's leg through the whole act, and the merc easily killed 2-3 times as fast as me. But I did provide some useful auras at least. Mostly Holy freeze for crowd control and vigor for faster moving. Nothing was terribly dangerous except for my own stupidity at one point in a false tomb. Opened up a door and saw there was a might enchanted pack plus a whole lot of extra guys. accidentally walked into the room, then closed the door, locking the merc out. Completely panicked and ran further in to the room. Luckily there was a second exit and I was able to regroup and start that room over!

Duriel was no problem, although it was around a 5min slugfest. He was always more interested in the merc when he was in range, which was nice. So I just slowly fed him potions and went back to town as needed to refill them. The drop was initially pretty disappointing. The maul had good damage, but didn't have mana leech and I have no off weapon source yet. But I quickly realized that the blue pike had potential and turned it into this with my first chippy reroll. I need to level up once more before I can use it because of the dex, but then I'll toss the best skulls I have in it and hopefully be all ready to go for some actual charging action!

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC NM Rogues Camp 46 60 jiansonz Biter Druid HC Harrogath 35 42 Kestegs Drive_By Paladin HC Act 3 28 24 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Far Oasis 19 18 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

Wolron said:
SuperWolf made an insight War Scythe and the merc was having a ball. SuperWolf had the ingredients to make an insight Brandistock and then noticed that a Brandistock is a spear. He did not try it. Would it have worked?

This question occurred to him just as he was killed by a nest of Ghouls in the Catacombs level 3. Sometimes it is better to act than to think, especially when thinking takes so much energy and concentration.

It must be time to try a trap Assassin. Name will be SuperTrap.

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jiansonz Biter Druid HC Harrogath 35 42 Kestegs Drive_By Paladin HC Act 3 28 24 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Far Oasis 19 18 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Wolron SuperTrap Assassin HC ColdPlains 8 1 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC NM Catacombs lvl 2 51 72 Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

logoutzero said:
kestegs said:

blue pike had potential and turned it into this with my first chippy reroll

Click to expand...

That's neat! I wonder what would happen if you then stuffed your low-quality socketed item in the cube with three standard quality gems. Logic says it should just roll a new item using the same base item you fed the cube, but who knows, could be that some code-sorcery might happen?

kestegs said:

blue pike had potential and turned it into this with my first chippy reroll

Click to expand...

I love it when the chippie recipe can be put to good use!

Wolron said:

Brandistock is a spear. He did not try it. Would it have worked?

Click to expand...

It would not have worked, only Polearms and Staves. Good run otherwise, looking forward to the next!

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

kestegs said:

My guess is that it might normalize its stats? My recent experience with my pike makes me think that, as it actually dropped it's double durability from being a failed set when I rerolled it:

Code:

Deadly Pike
Pike
Two Hand Damage: 18 - 81
Durability: 25 of 25
Required Level: 12
Required Strength: 60
Required Dexterity: 45
Fingerprint: 0x7ed243e4
Item Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
29% Enhanced Damage
4% Mana stolen per hit
6% Life stolen per hit
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Skull
Socketed: Skull

Skull
Required Level: 12
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 2% Mana stolen per hit
3% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Replenish Life +3
Regenerate Mana 12%
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 12

Skull
Required Level: 12
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 2% Mana stolen per hit
3% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Replenish Life +3
Regenerate Mana 12%
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 12

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

jiansonz said:
I feel so guilty for exploiting the most overpowered (for the time in game and cost) item in the game.

I was slow to add the RWM when it was released, and my several first characters had self-imposed delayed times for when in the game I would allow myself to make Insight, Spirit and Obedience. My reasoning was that, for the weapons, I should wait until I was at a stage in the game where it would be at least theoretically possible to shop or to imbue/gamble + upgrade something with similar damage. This was mainly for the merc, because you do sacrifice safety if you add enough STR/DEX for the bigger polearms.

Yes, I've maxed Heart of Wolverine, but come on, this is ridiculous for Normal difficulty!
(75 of it is poison with long duration, so think away that for the actual instant damage)

Having said all this, it sure is fun seeing my merc mowing down imp towers in one poke and crush beasts in two! (one poke = two attacks, I think)

Nihlathak had a nice present for me, Skystrike (medium damage number, 172%).
Decent damage as an archer (and it's a little more if I bop the bow over the enemies' heads as a wolf):

Baal fight was annoying, as he kept summoning his Vile Effigy. With Biter's low fire resist, he kept the distance and used his bow in this fight. Drop was mediocre:

The only useful item was Duskdeep (resists + extra damage for the merc is nice). The three ranged weapons have nothing on Skystrike (even if they were to be upgraded to elites), Lance of Yaggai has nothing on the Insight Partizan and the armor is ethereal with no resists.

In the Cow level, Biter could finally cube himself a second perfect topaz and use the headgear that Diablo dropped. He wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it, though:

Hey now, nearly all my Sorceresses start using ugly yellow helmets with goofy horns in late Act V, and you don't see them complaining - much.

Cow King had apparently been at a Skull Caps sale at the Medieval Mart:
(I cleaned out the stamina potions for better view)

The Tarnhelm has 49% MF. That's gotta be used, so I stashed Duskdeep for now.

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jiansonz Biter Druid HC NM Rogue Encampment 48 60 Kestegs Drive_By Paladin HC Act 3 28 24 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Far Oasis 19 18 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Wolron SuperTrap Assassin HC ColdPlains 8 1 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC NM Catacombs lvl 2 51 72 Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

Dunedain said:
kestegs said:

My guess is that it might normalize its stats? My recent experience with my pike makes me think that, as it actually dropped it's double durability from being a failed set when I rerolled it:

Code:

Deadly Pike Pike Two Hand Damage: 18 - 81 Durability: 25 of 25 Required Level: 12 Required Strength: 60 Required Dexterity: 45 Fingerprint: 0x7ed243e4 Item Level: 25 Version: Expansion 1.10+ 29% Enhanced Damage 4% Mana stolen per hit 6% Life stolen per hit 2 Sockets (2 used) Socketed: Skull Socketed: Skull Skull Required Level: 12 Version: Expansion 1.10+ Weapons: 2% Mana stolen per hit 3% Life stolen per hit Armor: Replenish Life +3 Regenerate Mana 12% Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 12 Skull Required Level: 12 Version: Expansion 1.10+ Weapons: 2% Mana stolen per hit 3% Life stolen per hit Armor: Replenish Life +3 Regenerate Mana 12% Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 12

Click to expand...

Hey there mister kesteg, how many chip gems do you have saved by now? A few more rolls I bet could really juice up that pike! I may have just been super lucky, but within five rolls I made a composite bow with good %ed with + max damage
(Edit) trying to reply to kesteg seperated his code tagged items from the actual quote. Looks a bit sloppy but I'm working with a potato computer here, is it just on my side?
(2nd edit) it was something weird on my side but I think I fixtit

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

kestegs said:
@jiansonz That skull cap drop is awesome, were either of the rares failed uniques by any chance? And did you use your socket quest on that insight or how did you get it usable?

@Dunedain I thought I might be able to, but I would also be happy to replace it soon, and I mostly just needed the 2 sockets to function. The range 4 on a pike is not really ideal in my mind, especially in act 3 with all these fast little monsters running around getting in melee range. So I'll gladly upgrade it asap.

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

jiansonz said:
kestegs said:

were either of the rares failed uniques by any chance?

Click to expand...

Good question. I didn't look for that, and now they are sold.

kestegs said:

And did you use your socket quest on that insight or how did you get it usable?

Click to expand...

Yes, on a Cracked Partizan that dropped soon after going down into Halls of Valor.

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

kestegs said:
Act 3 was much more pleasant with my new stick of hurtiness that I made. I did realize that it has an annoying range to it, sometimes it seems like I'm in melee range with monsters half way across the screen with this giant stick! But it wasn't too bad, and I am slowly growing accustomed to the play style. Nothing terribly dangerous or interesting really to be honest. The latter part of the act was made easy by salvation aura, which is a lovely addition to my arsenal of auras for sure. I left the merc dead for most of the Meph fight since he couldn't quite handle it and just charged in and out into meph. The drop was truly insulting, couldn't really be any worse, I would love to get some rares on boots, gloves, belt and helmet...but no, here's 6 useless weapons instead!

I'm a bit nervous going into the diablo fight soon, as I haven't done him in a few years. But this character is fairly well equipped for it, even though charger is a terrible boss killer.

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jiansonz Biter Druid HC NM Rogue Encampment 48 60 Kestegs Drive_By Paladin HC Act 4 28 36 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Far Oasis 19 18 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Wolron SuperTrap Assassin HC ColdPlains 8 1 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC NM Catacombs lvl 2 51 72 Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

jiansonz said:
Act I NM completed, without too much trouble. Worst parts were the rogue archers (especially ones doing cold damage) as they made life hard for Vikhyat by running away. Fallan Shamans were also highly annoying. Seriously considersing investing points to get a corpse eating vine, but as long as Vikhyat's Insight keeps filling up life and mana very quickly, it will be hard to get the vine to eat. Maybe I should hire another merc type, one that doesn't have Prayer.

Smith dropped a plain Plate Mail. Probably going to use the socket recipe so we can add more perfect topazes here in NM (and it can later be turned into Stealth or Smoke, unless I get unlucky with only one socket). I have one perfect topaz at the moment, but I'll wait until I have two, because the recipe itself eats one, and maybe another SU will drop a magical or rare armor with 2 sockets...

I've upgraded my rare Maul. Damage looks pretty good...

..but I soon found out that Skystrike is much more effective because of the superior speed. Disappointing. But if I can get lots of IAS, I suppose the hammer can compete.

Andariel fight had me spend a lot of purples. Neither Biter nor Vikhyat could stand up to her for long. The HoW is immune to both her damage types, but you can't count on it to stay where you want it to. When I ran low on purples, I changed to archer mode for a pretty long part of the fight. In that situation, the HoW works better as a tank:

I have two crappy charms now, that I can reroll - a Grand from Countess and a Large from Andariel. Problem is, the rerolling is darn expensive at this stage of the game.

Andariel also dropped a blue Plate Mail. I'll see if I can craft it right away. Merc would do a lot better if he had some life steal...

Code:

Forum Name Hero Name Class HC/SC Last Waypoint Level Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jiansonz Biter Druid HC NM Lut Gholein 52 73 Kestegs Drive_By Paladin HC Act 3 28 24 srrw Hrothgar Barbarian HC Lut Gholein 20 13 GooberGrape Einfuhr Druid SC Far Oasis 19 18 Dunedain Grelda Amazon SC Dark Woods 14 8 Wolron SuperTrap Assassin HC ColdPlains 8 1 Southpaw8668 Atalanta Amazon HC Rogue Encampment 1 0 Resting In Pieces ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolron SuperWolf Druid HC NM Catacombs lvl 2 51 72 Wolron SuperSaint Paladin HC Diablo 35 41 logoutzero Sheev Paladin HC River of Flame 34 40

Grisu · Jun 13, 2020

kestegs said:
Act 4 was interesting at least, lots of chances at large monsters, which I like! But I got lots of flesh spawners and rock worms, which are not fun at all. Nothing too eventful through the early zones, but I did feel like I had good rune luck. Ended the act with at least 3 of every rune thul or lower and 1 amn and sol, which I'm excited about. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for a nice base to make insight in for myself.

One pretty scary moment moment in the RoF where I got surrounded by mobs and couldn't move. had to normal attack my way out and chug potions. Was much more careful after that, it's always tempting to charge through and try to get the spawners, but it can be dangerous. Pretty bad drop luck in general, but I did get my third blue ring. I could cube them into an amulet, as I don't have one currently, but I am using one and would have to replace it with a basically useless rare one, so I am just waiting for now. It was from Izual, who dropped very terribly besides that!

The CS was fairly easy. I used salvation as needed. I quickly realized how dangerous decrep was though. A couple times I inadvertently did a normal attack while cursed, which seems to be over a 2 second motion! Tried very hard to avoid that in the future! Infector was pretty easy as his pack easily separated and he came out first.

I took Diablo on p3 because I was not feeling too confident, which was probably wise as it was somewhere around a 5-10 min fight as it was. It wasn't really dangerous though. The merc died about 5 seconds into the fight and I decided to just let him rest. The thing that terrifies me most about the fight is going back to town and coming back to a bone prison. In the end I never had to go back, I did refill my belt once from my inventory though and used about 15 super healers but no juves. I would circle him about half a screen away and then charge in after he did an attack/spell. With good timing it was never bad, and I of course was running salvation for max res. As long as I timed things right there was little risk of getting LHoDed. Drop was a bit meh, but better than meph's at least. The heavy belt was nice, although I did already have a 3 row belt. But it could be upped if I really want. It did roll with 55 life and a little poison res though, which I was very happy to see! The armor went to my merc, as it has a little fire/light res. The axe is interesting, and possibly usable. If I upped it (I actually could do that now if I really wanted) it would be about 10% less damage than my pike but I could use a shield, and I have some decent resist shields already. Not going to do it now, but I'll think about it. The other nice thing about it is that it's damage is much more consistent than my pike, which can roll very low damage sometimes.

Anyways, I have hired a Fire Rogue to assist me for now. A bit tired of the Prayer guard clogging up monsters and he is starting to die more since his weapon has not been upgraded since I hired him.