[2018] Weekend Warrior Tournament [by DiabloTwoinDC]

[Grisu]

DISCLAIMER: migration finished

This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by jiansonz on Jan 22, 2018. The last post was made Nov 19, 2019.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

- From Urbandictionary.com -

Weekend Warrior - a person who holds a regular job during the week which restricts their ability to party/go on trips/partake in awesome activities, and thus plans epic weekend adventures to compensate. As much variation and quantity of awesomness is packed into the weekends as physically possible, warranting the rest of the work week to recharge for the next weekend.

What is this nonsense?
The goal of this tournament is simple: to play a character start to finish in 1 weekend. You have from the end of "work-day" 18:00pm Friday - 23:59pm on Sunday to complete your task (total 54 hours).

Rules and Info:

• This is an open-ended tournament (no start/finish date)
• You can enter as many times as you'd like.
• Twink/Untwink, SC/HC, Single-Pass.. whatever your fancy.

Just keep an eye on the clock!

Player:                  Name:         Level:   Version:  Class:      Build:              Date:
----------------------   ------------  ------   --------  ---------   -----------------   -------
Grape                    Honey          **                Amazon      Fuzzy-Dodger        2018-01-28
DiabloTwoinDC            Urkräfte       81      1.13      Barbarian   Frenzy              2018-01-28
Nanomist                 SubThree       62                Sorceress   Frozen Orb          2018-01-28
drmalawi                 Dougal         81      1.14      Barbarian   DS-Elemental        2018-02-25
drmalawi                 Life           78      1.14      Sorceress   Orb-Enchant         2018-03-04
DiabloTwoinDC            Relâmpago      82      1.14      Amazon      LF Zon              2019-11-19

 

[Grisu]

I've never tried any speed-running before, so any tips would be appreciated. The most I've ever done is one entire difficulty in 1 day. So, this should be a challenge. Obviously want to have a plan in place, so I'm ready to go come quitting time on Friday.

Urkräfte - primordial/elemental forces

• Frenzy Barb -

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I figure this should help with speed. Haven't decided between Sword/Mace yet. 20 pts: Frenzy, Double Swing, Taunt, Berserk, and Mastery, +1 pointers. Not sure about the best order to assign points for max damage?​

• Elemental dmg theme -

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Must use ALL UNIQUE items that deal elemental damage. Swords: Frostwind + Flamebellow, Lightsabre + Djinn Slayer etc. or Maces: Demon Limb + Nord's Tenderizer. Sorry, no Azurewrath or Stormlash available. ​

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Other Gear: (not many helm/boot/body options)​

Gloves - Lava Gout or Hellmouth​

Belt - Snowclash or Thundergod's​

Boots - Infernostride​

Helm - Vampire Gaze​

Body - Corpsemourn​

Amulet - Atma's Scarab, Rising Sun, Highlord's​

Ring - Raven Frost (no SoJ) + Carrion Wind or Wisp Projector (making exception here, elemental CtC effects)​

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Edit: I'm looking over the Normal/Exceptional options, and Swords looks like the way to go. Can use Death's Set until lvl 22 (Hellplague). Then, there are some decent Exceptional options - Ginther's Rift (37), Plague Bearer (41), Bing Sz Wang (43), Cloudcrack (44). Maces have decent Exceptional options - Sureshrill, Moonfall, Baezil's Vortex, but nothing for Normal uniques.

 

[Grisu]

For some inspiration and tactics, planning and twinking:

Guardian Speedy_II - Project 3 hours - Nightfish
Guardian Ariana - Rushed Fire Sorc - Under 48 hours - Drystan

These are the only two threads I can think of where we rushed characters. Other guides might be regarding Hellforge rushing, and perhaps multiplayer with two complementary characters would be a good option as well for some.

 

[Grisu]

Nice @Drystan. I remember reading that 3 hour project from Nightfish years ago. I'm not trying for anything that crazy. I usually play at a pretty leisurely pace, with plenty of breaks, and tv watching. Just need to push myself to speed it up a bit, and probably skip some areas/quests. I also didn't want to do a Sorc, and just tele past everything. Finishing in a weekend should be pretty doable, it's no Olympic qualifying time. Still have ~8000 levels to go, so popping 75+ over a weekend wouldn't hurt.

I'm curious which quests you skip though? I almost never do Blood Raven or Nihalthak, and no Countess on Normal/NM. Obviously, I don't do the Halls of dead on NM/Hell. Hmm.. I think that's about it. Areas, I almost never do any of the unnecessary crypt/pit/caves etc. A1&2, I run straight through Taome Highlands, shortcut the sewers, and mostly run through the Palace. A3, if the map allows it skip the Great Marsh, only go into the 1 Temple, and mostly run through the sewers. A4&5, I run right across the Frozen Tundra without fighting anything. Any other suggestions?

Edit: I guess you could skip the HF on normal. The rune is terrible, but you get 1pg + a couple flawless and it doesn't take that long..

 

[Grisu]

Good plan! This will help in the 10000 levels club

 

[Grisu]

Nightfish's is a very impressive run, and people twinking/trying this out could get a lot of information from it. I wasn't going for 3 hours, but just rushing through as quickly and safely as I could with a slightly different build, mostly so I could use that helm.

@DiabloTwoinDC Tournament characters/untwinked/single pass: I do all areas (single pass, so everything may count,) until I can feel pretty safe, including all caves/side areas. Nihlathak, I may skip on NM/Hell due to the Corpse Explosion and Viper Poison bug, and by Hell, I may avoid more caves/pits/side-areas. But almost all Quests will be done, and through Normal, basically every area is cleared (current plan for the Set/Unique Worshippers.)

Characters going to Guardian/Twinked: I only skip Nihlathak on NM/Hell. I'm somewhat a completionist, so I can't stand not seeing waypoints obtained, or quests not completed. I'll go to the Halls of the Dead, just to get the waypoint, and same with Nihl's waypoint, even though I may skip his quest. I may, or may not, (unsure) do Nihl's just because of the danger.
Even for Act 1, I prefer all the quests completed, even if that means wasting the Imbue quest just for it to look like all the other quests. The exception is Nihl (personalisation,) and Larzuk socketing. Nihl depends on how gutsy I'm feeling against his Corpse Explosion AND bugged Viper poison.
Twinked, I generally just do the quests and move to the next quest/waypoint, ignoring the side areas.

Ariana, I probably just teleported past everything. I didn't want to gain too many levels.

Your barb: Through Normal, if you've got any Jewels of Envy setup, you can do a lot of damage very early, and then change when you get to your next level requirements. Personal favourites for me are Cleglaw's Set and Butcher's Pupil, but I know there are more optimised items.

 

[Grisu]

This is awesome.


Doing a "dry run" with Bul-Kathos Barb before the weekend. Current gear (lvl 42) includes: Lava Gout (Enchant), Plague Bearer (Pnova), Snowclash (Blizzard), and Infernostride (Blaze). A few more levels, and he will get some FoH as well from Cloudcrack.

 

[Grisu]

Sorc is definitely the easiest for all three difficulties. I've done all of normal with a druid in <2 hours but it's not well suited for longevity. I'll sit this one out, but if folks have questions or strategies, I do have some experience speed running

 

[Grisu]

Sorc is definitely the easiest for all three difficulties. I've done all of normal with a druid in <2 hours but it's not well suited for longevity. I'll sit this one out, but if folks have questions or strategies, I do have some experience speed running

What players setting do you use? I usually do p8 for normal + NM, and p1-3 on Hell. On my test run I'm finding that p5-6 goes much faster though, and the exp difference isn't all that bad.

 

[Grisu]

Some tips here. And great reading from a nostalgia point of view:
https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/the-quest-for-ber.524296/

Yes, @dune6836 ran (not rushed) the Hellforge for a Ber.

 

[Grisu]

Nice @maxicek - I'm saving this post so I can find it again in the future.

Edit: 63 characters run to HF. Impressive. Too bad none of those will count towards the 10K!

 

[Grisu]

I'm giving this a try - this weekend should be quite okay for!

Meet lvl 17 Amazon Honey:

P8 all the way. She's going to be a Strafe/MS or something for the Norm and NM - something else for Hell.

I'm spicing it up, she swaps her weapon each Act for N/NM -- 10 bows total.

Nr. 1 was Arctic Horn Short War Bow

Now having a short break and equipping her for the Act II

 

[Grisu]

Can I suggest being a bit flexible on the start/end times. IE stick with the hours. For those who work nights.

 

[Grisu]

Slayer Honey short break for equipment changes and short brake for the user

Maybe 1-2 acts more. I didn't really twink her after completing Act 1, only the bows and couple items for merc, like Hone Sundan for Baal. I played P8 the entire difficulty, including bosses

 

[Grisu]

Grr.. Long day at work. Off to a late start already!


Edit: lvl 6

Spoiler

 

[Grisu]

I tried to skip as much as I could (Den, Cain, Tower), but still ended up lvl 18..


Off to the Grocery. Hoping to finish normal tonight though.

How long did normal take you @Grape?

 

[Grisu]

Nice going already! I was meaning to join, but looks like I won't have too much time to play this weekend and kind of feel like pushing my 99er a bit more if I can. But I'll definitely join for a weekend or two, rather sooner than later!

Cool idea to have this as a cute little challenge that's permanently available. I often wish I had a couple of more reasonably levelled characters to try some new stuff with, and this seems like a great way to make the process of levelling them much more fun. Maybe even worth to include running/results tables with some details such as class, time spent, twinked or not, HC/SC etc.? E.g. with two tables, one for current runners, one for past? Similar to what we have in the untwinked 99er thread. However, might get a little crowded and turn it into a serious speed running competition though, not sure if you intended that.

 

[Grisu]

@ffs - Everyone is more than welcome to post times etc for an ongoing table.

Yea, just meant this as a fun, ongoing tournament. I have my sept characters, that I usually play trough pretty slowly (some are seriously under-powered). This will hopefully sprinkle in a bit of fun/excitement on the occasional weekend.

Edit: Let the A2 twink-a-thon begin!

Spoiler

I used to always use Tarnhelm, but how many copies of normal sets do you need?


I've got a nice pack of damage charms (most are lvl 21).

This is my new toy. Fits nicely into build theme.

Edit: Level 25 Kurast Docks - Time to break for dinner
A1 (25-30 mins)
A2 (45-50 mins)

Edit: Level 30 Pandemonium Fortress
A3 (50 mins?) can't remember

Spoiler: Haxxor

10% extra FRW

 

[Grisu]

Level 33 - Harrograth

A4 (20 mins)

Spoiler

Oh yea, and those boots give 15% max Fire res. That and LL let me just tank Diablo's fire attacks.


Level 41 - Rogue Encampment NM

A5 (35 mins)

Spoiler

I usually do 2x topaz in Spirit Forge. Again, have plenty of normal S/U.

 

[Grisu]

@DiabloTwoinDC Normal took me maybe six hours but I did some cooking, eating and chatting with a friend between playing. So I lost my track of time from the start. Now I'm trying to not think how much time I've sank to this

I also did couple re-runs now and then to be able to equip the next bow from the start of the act.

----

Honey, my sweet weekend warrior has reached Hell Act I. She's been running Pits and is lvl 81 now, only three more and then one important part of her end-game gear becomes available - yea, that's Tomb Reaver's.

Until then she continues as a truly item lame MS/Strafe/Max Valk build.

Here are my bows and stats after each NM act:










Showing off, eh? Fun to use many different bows. Not the most efficient way: normally I'd have gone with the Harmony all the way until Faith.