Originally posted by T72on1
Ok, here's my round:
I thought I had the runes nicely lined up, but apparantly they got mixed up in the end
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So yes, total amount of qualifiers isn't too bad, but just like with the Cow round quality just wasn't there to get a good placing.
My start was actually excellent: in the first hour I got a HoZ, Bul-Kathos' ring, Dwarf Star, perfect poison facet and my first qualifier, a Vex:
The trend continued during that first 3 hour session, when a Lightsabre dropped, followed by my second qualifier, another Vex:
To top it off, I got the one unique amulet I had never ever found during all of my D2 days, and as such had set as one of my goals for the round : Metalgrid.
The next session, less than 2 hours, so me getting a Pul and then yet another HR: Ohm #1
3 HRs after 4 hours ... not bad at all. But, good as it was, I knew it meant nothing in the light of final rankings. If you want to compete for the top spots, Vex and Ohm don't mean much, merely a solid rune to close that top 5 consisting of Cham / Ber / Jah.
Nevertheless, it's better than seeing no good qualifiers at all, right? Moreover I was at an average pace of 23.165, half a second faster than last year, so I was really having a good time.
During the next session, some 1:45 hours, I got Um, followed by these two lovely TC3s:
and then around the 6 hour mark, a rune I had set as a goal for this round, because I mainly lack those for my runeword grail:
Definitely a solid start. 6 qualifiers in 6 hours means nice quantity, and with 4 out of those 6 being HRs, I definitely scored above average there as well.
Unfortunately things slowed down a lot from that point on. It wasn't too bad at first, with a Pul not too long after, followed by 2x Gheed's GC, eth War Travelers, a Lightning facet, a Cold facet the session after that, and then another HR:
At that point I was some 10 hours in. While quantity had decreased, I still had gotten 5 HRs, so a HR every two hours. Very solid, but ... as I knew that luck probably wouldn't continue, I was worried that I wouldn't get much improvement over that score anymore. Unfortunately this turned out to be entirely true, as the score I had then would also be my end score.
For the next 5 hours I wouldn't see a qualifier, except for an Um shortly after that Lo. I also suffered my only death at that time, when one of the Council bosses, with the lovely mods teleport and Fanatism, decided to teleport next to me while amped and 2 hit kill me.
As it often goes, not only qualifiers refused to drop during that period, but I didn't get any interesting drops alltogether, except for a lonely Cold facet. So at one point, even though I finally had some 3 hours to spare and I knew it would be a close call to finish the set, I just decided to call it quits on Travincal and I started a Trapper instead.
A few days before the end of the round, I decided to pick up Travincal runs again. The short break had done me well. Not only did I finally manage to get my run times just below 23s avg, but I also finally found another qualifier:
Obviously this left me with mixed feelings. On one hand it's a HR, and I still get excited when I see a HR drop. On the other hand it continued the trend that had been going on this RFL for me: amount of qualifiers is ok, amount of HRs is ok (6 HRs in some 16 hours still is solid), but the ones that really matter just wouldn't drop.
Now, such obviously is what's RNG is all about, and what such tournaments are all about. So contrary to last year's Travincal round, where I just couldn't get my head cleared and could only think about where I was in comparison to expected drops, now I didn't care too much, and I just hoped that the Ohm rune was a sign that things would pick up again.
And luckily they did. Not in terms of quality, since I didn't get any more HRs. But I did get 5 more qualifiers: Um, Gul, Mal, Pul and Gul. Getting me to 22 Gul runes in total in my stash, which is quite nice
. Other drops also picked up again, with a SoJ, perfect fire facet, Lenymo and second Metal Grid.
Looking at last year's results and the fact that there were far more participants now, I just knew it wouldn't be enough to score any points. In the end I wasn't that far away from it. A single Lo+ qualifier would have gotten me in the top 8. Now I kept all my luck for the last round
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Next to the qualifiers and good amount of TC3s (I posted about uniques, but also got a few set ones), I also got a lot of jewelry (more on that later), which the Council is known to drop a lot. But, and I don't know if this is so in general or if I just got lucky, I also got a lot of class-specific S/U.
Code:
Arreat's Face
Slayer Guard
Defense: 314
Durability: 39 of 55
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 118
Fingerprint: 0x3b902f60
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
3% Life stolen per hit
+160% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
All Resistances +30
Firelizard's Talons
Feral Claws
One Hand Damage: 78 - 189
Durability: 27 of 52
Required Level: 67
Required Strength: 113
Required Dexterity: 113
Fingerprint: 0xe91480df
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)
+15% Increased Attack Speed
257% Enhanced Damage
Adds 236 - 480 Fire Damage
+2 to Wake of Inferno (Assassin Only)
+1 to Wake of Fire (Assassin Only)
Fire Resist +53%
Herald of Zakarum
Gilded Shield
Defense: 456
Chance to Block: 52
Durability: 30 of 50
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 89
Fingerprint: 0x8d417f1e
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+2 to Paladin Skill Levels
+30% Faster Block Rate
30% Increased Chance of Blocking
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+170% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Vitality
All Resistances +50
Wolfhowl
Fury Visor
Defense: 360
Durability: 22 of 35
Required Level: 79
Required Strength: 129
Fingerprint: 0x45165ee4
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)
+4 to Feral Rage
+6 to Lycanthropy
+6 to Werewolf
+139% Enhanced Defense
+13 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+13 to Vitality
Level 15 Summon Dire Wolf (11/18 Charges)
and others like Jalal's, Homunculus, Cerebus' Bite, Bartuc's, Jade Talon, Shadow Killer, Oculus, Eschuta's, Tal's Orb, ...
When it comes to rings and amulets, I got the following:
35 rings:
2x Bul-Kathos'
4x Dwarf Star
9x Manald Heal
13x Nagelring
6x Raven Frost (best one 243/20)
1x SoJ
16 amulets:
1x Highlord's
2x Metalgrid
4x Nokozan
2x Saracen's
2x The Cat's Eye
2x The Eye of Etlich
3x The Mahim-Oak Curio
So yeah, even with only some 170% mf, Council dropped a unique ring or amulet every 23.5 minutes. Unfortunately, no Mara's, while I'm still looking for a 28+ one, or a second Wisp Projector, but with those 2 Metalgrids and 1 SoJ, I guess I can't complain.
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