[2019] [Tournament] Ability Scrolls Sept [by Chaostar]

[Grisu]

Amazing progress to you both. That is some crazy scroll wrangling there @Grisu !

At least it worked out to several nice scrolls

I've only recently started back to the tourney having been a few weeks on char running for OBP prep and then the tourney itself.

Picked up where I left off in act 2 with Mars my barbarian who had just made it to Far Oasis. Managed to retrieve the staff, then the amulet, then find arcane sanctuary and slay the summoner (+3WT - yes!), Then cleared the canyon and 3 tombs to reach lvl 24. On to Duriel for my next play session. Then I still have to get my assassin through act 2.

I may catch up some day...maybe

 

[Grisu]

Of course, 2 WT wont change a lot of things, and the scroll I pulled was also this one, I paid 1 WT too for my merc !

 

[Grisu]

So, I start my report before I am totally overwhelmed ^^

anathema A4

I chose upgrade blizzard to apprentice. All the act was really easy.

Izual was down without harm

A little grailer on the way.

Diablo was a little longer to kill, but nothing scary here…

Gained scroll
17 You can equip your mercenary with any weapon
not so bad, but I hope I won't need to use it as I will improve my char abilities.


tormentor A4

2nd char to go, I chose the almighty Fire Druid.
fight vs izual was quite long, but harmless. I upgraded fissure to skilled after that.

found a unique helm next to the forge.

I got a Thul from the forge, which I will use immediately to activate scroll 132 : I gain 2 nex ability scrolls at the cost of 1 THUL and 1 WP.

Picked these :

94 You know all runeword recipe involving runes up to PUL
26 You can equip 1 item with "Increased Attack speed" affixe

After that, I chose to activate scroll ** : You know how to insert runes, jewels or gems in items
because it will be useful soon, I guess.
Now if I need to, I could be able to create basic runewords. No to equip them though, unless they have a mod that allow me to wear them (I have a scroll allowing to wear as IAS item, or a + skill item)
I will thing about that, but i could do something if I feel the need.

Diablo gave no trouble

get scroll 129 : skill improvement… again !

 

[Grisu]

Absu

great progression, deal a lot of dmg, but drink a lot of mana too.

I had a NDE with Hephaisto, 1 huge blast when I was poisoned, and I was close to death. He was finally slained, and the forge used to break the soulstone.

For my mana problems, I bought this wand, for about half my money. I felt the difference a little.

Diablo's Turn : I just have to set traps, and run around him.

My reward :
16 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20)

ok there is a lot of these, but it ' s the 6TH I got !!!


Dodheimsgard

I killed fast, but has some real tough moments… I have to watch his life all the time, he 's really frail.

I decided to unlock one more improve skill scroll, as I have a lot of them, and promote Teeth to Skilled.
Found 2 grailers on the way on my way to Diablo

The lord of terror was slained once more

100 You can equip any set class specific item (orb, shrunken heads, pelts, barb helms, paladin shield, katars, amazon Bows, spears and javelins)

lame scroll. Not really happy with the scroll I pick in act 4...

 

[Grisu]

Wilderun

Powerful but frail, really frail.

Found 2 grailers, including a nice cannot equip nokozn relic :

Everything were fine, but for Diablo, I had to use Lightning Bolt, I could not stand very long face to him. With these resistances, it's not really a surprise.

I killed him, still.

137 Mulligan : You can put back in the draw pool all your (unplayed) ability scroll in your hand and draw the same number of scroll minus 1
anoher one…


Empyrium

First full melee char to go.
Remember, I only use normal attack, with a 1 (+3) Holy freeze. It's not much, and my mercenary is my main damage source, I I can drink a lot or red potions, like when I face this…

I tried to gamble a powerful circlet like Grisu, but I'm not so lucky at this.

I progressed slowly, had some frightening situations, but I 'm ok until I face Diablo…
The problem is my mercenary dies fast, and I can't stand in front of him, because of my 10 Light resistance.
I tried the choking gas potions, then…

but I forgot to go back in town before I run out of it….

I had to find something else. I was tempted to use some scrolls, like a Mulligan to see what I can pick, but I remebered I could insert gems, runes and jewels in items.
And I had a Ral and this jewel in my stash

So I shoped a 2 socket plain helmet, a used it

I managed to get my merc alive for a time like this. I could deal better with the lightning red ray.

And finally get it !

111 You can chose to pick 3 Ability Scrolls or 16 Wisdom Points
Interresting… I think I'll go for the 3 ability scroll soon, even if 16 WP seems a better deal…

1 char to go !

 

[Grisu]

Mayhem

I can immediately see against a pair of Venom Lords, that my low fire resistance will be a problem soon. So extra care is needed !


I found a nice weapon improvement in a shop
I had to change my shield, but whatever.


Hephaisto was not a threat. But the river of flame was a struggle between worms, eggs layers everywhere.


For my resistance problem, I used what I had in stash. Not great, but it will help against Diablo.


The fight was hard, a lot of life and rejuv pots were drank, a lot of merc resurections too !




114 When re-running an act, you can kill the final boss too

Nice, when I would be able to rerun acts !


So, every char made it through ACT4, which is great !
No surprises, some chars are godly (Cold sorc, Fire Druid, Trap Assassin), and 2 are limited (the 2 melees).
The ability to insert runes, jewels and gems propably saved them.
Scroll wise, no real improvement, I still miss a second tree spell unlocked for many characters.

LVL 30 will bring some of them a little help (melee chars, again)

 

[Grisu]

Anathema A5

After I freed Harrogath from the siege, I found this pretty Circlet. It's time to invest a few of my Wisdom Point, and I unlocked this skill for 6 WT, so I can wear it :
66 - You can equip 1 item with "Fast cast" affixe

I Upgraded Blizzard to efficient, as I can now get it past lvl 5.
Even ifIt's already a powerful spell.
I found a rare item on the way.

Everything went fine, until I found myself chased by Frozenstein in the frozen river. He was cold immune and mana burn, and fast, and I took the wrong way, found myself surrounded in recovery lock. No other solution than save & exit.

I decided to improve GS to efficient too, to boost a little my skills. Put this spell lvl 5 to 10, and boosted it and blizzard !
I had to run to the point I quit, without killing a lot of monsters.

The second time was better, I let my mercenary deal with Frozenstein

Anya gave me a nice item !

I srart to find higher runes than usually (Amn, Shael)

I slained pindleskin and Nilhatak easily. First Exceptional items starts to drop.

Before meeting the ancients, I decided to use my 5th skill improvements slot to umpgrade cold mastery to apprentice.
I still have 2 skill improvement scrolls waiting in my stash…
The fight with them was ultra fast as was all the way to Baal's minions.

Baal was done in less than 2 minutes, gave me crappy drops.

153 You can get 4 Wisdom Points in town at the cost of 1 SHAEL Rune (sold to merchant, you cannot buy it back)

Guess who just found a Shael Rune ?
Well it's only +2 WP, so not a big deal, really, so I wont use that scroll, and keep it for a Mulligan.

Act 5 bring Anathema to lvl 35, a lot of xp here, even if for once I didn't clear everywhere (I am becoming lazy).

 

[Grisu]

Tormentor A5

The siege was easily undone.

I decided to upgrade fissure to master lvl (max it out), because I can, even if I don't need it acutally

Froznestein doesnt like fire

Anya's reward was a little crappy.

I though Act 5 was easy with the sorceress, with a Druid and lvl 20 Fissure, it's a joke. I kill everything so fast !!
I decided to go right to the ancients, before deal with Nilhatak. All were quickly slained.

The only remaining difficulty was Baal himself. My mercenary died quickly, and it was a long fight, it seems his resistances to fire are good.

I draw
15 You can equip any charm with poison resistance
Again, not really happy with this, psn resistance is really not a problem

I will have a lot of material for a mulligan. I'll wait for is as much as I can before I use it, probably before my 2 melee chars enter act 5.

 

[Grisu]

Keep up the steady progress @Chaostar ! I am enjoying the write-ups. Especially since I have had little time to play myself.

 

[Grisu]

Just wanted to pop in and say I am still at this!

Grandmama went second as you all know, and she is rocking the place! FO is overpowered at /p1 in Normal, but I usually let my merc do all the killing (48% more MF). Found a very nice magical orb (+2 Cold Skills, +1 FO) and a Shael rune, so I went and made a Rhyme bone shield. I also activated the "use any rare ring" scroll to use this beauty:

Blood Band
Ring
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xe9e95ee6
Item Level: 42
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+8 to Dexterity
Lightning Resist +23%
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Found a Skystrike, which would have been great for my Amazon, but maybe I still get the shared stash scroll

Now my merc needs to get some additional points of strength so that he can use this baddy (rolled with the cube recipe):

Savage Partizan of the Locust
Partizan
Two Hand Damage: 59 - 132
Durability: 61 of 65
Required Level: 23
Required Strength: 113
Required Dexterity: 67
Fingerprint: 0x277b2707
Item Level: 50
Version: Expansion 1.10+
76% Enhanced Damage
7% Life stolen per hit

Next step: WSK level 3 and Baal.

Are you guys still in this tournament?

 

[Grisu]

Well, I haven't quit the tournament but my focus for what time I do have to play has been directed to UT99ers running other tournaments. I do intend to continue with this one some here and there though I will likely be the last of us to get through it. Do keep posting updates for it though, we enjoy reading them

 

[Grisu]

Hi guys ! I had a short break from Diablo 2 and computers (lot of work,plus some trouble with my computer), but still there !

So far, in the middle of act 5 with my 3rd char, the assassin.

 

[Grisu]

Sorry friends, but I don’t think I’ll ever continue with these characters. My latest D2 itch got cured a bit fast I’m afraid. Apologies for just disappearing without a word

 

[Grisu]

@Chaostar: Could you allow private messaging in your profile please? I wanted to share some news with you in private.

@zarfen: That's a shame! Hope to see you around from time to time though!

 

[Grisu]

Fasten your seatbelts, because this is going to be a looooong ride. Although...maybe you don’t need a seatbelt, because it was a rather slow ride. This is mainly due to the Reanimated Horde monster type. As you probably know, those dudes can rise again ... and again ... and again ... you get the drift. And unlike every other monster that can be resurrected, Reanimated Hordes give you drops and XP every time you kill them again! I don’t want to miss out on those XP points and drops, and this is why Act V comes with lots of waiting time built in. Although, the big outdoor areas with those pesky little Demon Imps are really annoying if you do full clears, making Act V one of my (if not the) least favourite acts.

Beforehand: Everyone made it to NM. Everyone cleared the cow level. Everyone gambled till my mouse finger bled.

Here’s the order they went:

• Gomez, the Necromancer, netting me scroll #142 You can equip any unique amulet
• Grandmama, the sorceress, netting me scroll #45 You can equip any magic shield
• Fester, the Paladin, netting me scroll #108 You can give up any number of Ability Scroll and get 2 Wisdom Token by scroll (discarded Ability scrolls are destroyed)
• Wednesday, the Amazon, netting me scroll #13 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20)
• Morticia, the Assassin, netting me scroll #29 You can equip any rare boots
• Pugsley, the Druid, netting me scroll #114 When re-running an act, you can kill the final boss too
• Lurch, the Barbarian, netting me scroll #107 You can equip any rare helm

All reached level 36, Fester even 37 and Morticia 37 while doing the Cow Level.

Wisdom Tokens:

From playthrough: 105

From scroll #99: 18

Spent: 112

Rest: 11



Ability Scrolls in use:

1 You can place attributes points in STRENGTH or DEXTERITY attr Ability 2

2 You can place attributes points in VITALITY or ENERGY attr Ability 2

4 You can equip 1 magic item equip Ability 1

5 You can equip 1 rare item equip Ability 2

6 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, competent up to 10, Master up to 15, Divine up to 20) skill Ability 3

7 Initiation : pick 1 skill tree (per character) : You can put only 1 pt in any skill from that tree, and use it skill Ability 2

34 You can equip any magic ring equip Ability 1

40 You can chose to pick 2 other Ability Scrolls or 5 Wisdom Token special Effect 1

61 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3

148 you can use any cube recipe involving no runes craft Ability 1

3 You can equip 1 set item equip Ability 2

26 You can equip 1 item with "Increased Attack speed" affixe equip Ability 6

141 You can equip any set boots equip Ability 2

18 You can equip any set belt equip Ability 2

79 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3

54 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3

74 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3

84 You can equip any magic amulet equip Ability 1

89 You can equip any unique weapon equip Ability 2

85 Discard a scroll in your hand, remember its WT cost : pick up new scrolls until the total amount of the picked scrolls's WT cost gets equal or becomes higher than half the discarded scroll's WT cost. special Effect 1

105 You can use your Wisdom Token to get extra ability scroll in town at the cost of 3 WT by card (once only, 10 scrolls max.) special Effect 2

99 You can give up any number of Ability Scroll and get 2 Wisdom Token by scroll (discarded Ability scrolls are destroyed) special Effect 1

125 you can use any cube recipe involving runes(s), except craft formulas craft Ability 1

** You know how to insert runes, jewels or gems in items craft Ability 1

128 You know all runeword recipe craft Ability 8

52 You can equip 1 crafted / runeword item equip Ability 3

19 You can equip 1 crafted / runeword item equip Ability 3

16 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3

90 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3

62 Mulligan : You can put back in the draw pool all your (unplayed) ability scroll in your hand and draw the same number of scroll minus 1 special Effect 3

91 You can hire / resurect / heal a mercerary and equip him following your characters abilities Gameplay Ability 1

102 Initiation : pick 1 skill tree (per character) : You can put only 1 pt in any skill from that tree, and use it skill Ability 2

28 You can equip any magic weapon equip Ability 1

37 You can equip any rare ring equip Ability 2

58 You can equip any set weapon equip Ability 2

32 Initiation : pick 1 skill tree (per character) : You can put only 1 pt in any skill from that tree, and use it skill Ability 2

13 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3

29 You can equip any rare boots equip Ability 2

107 You can equip any rare helm equip Ability 2

Ability Scrolls in my stash:

42 You can equip any magic belt equip Ability 1

51 You can hire / resurect / heal a mercerary and equip him following your characters abilities Gameplay Ability 3

57 You can equip any unique belt equip Ability 3

71 You can use any skill granted by an item (wand, amulet, …) skill Ability 1

76 You can replay the act you just finished at the cost of 1WT for each replay session Gameplay Ability 1

130 Draw 2 Ability scrolls, plus 2 extra scrolls for each dead (and not replaced) character from your family special Effect 6

69 You can equip any charm with cold resistance charm Ability 3

142 You can equip any unique amulet equip Ability 3

45 You can equip any magic shield equip Ability 1

108 You can give up any number of Ability Scroll and get 2 Wisdom Token by scroll (discarded Ability scrolls are destroyed) special Effect 1

114 When re-running an act, you can kill the final boss too Gameplay Ability 18

Since I play single pass #76 and #114 don’t do much for me. Although it would be tempting to replay Act V with every character – but I’m not entirely sure, how that scroll works anyway, @Chaostar? Can I use it and then replay with every character if I spent 1 WT per character? Or can I only use it for the character that just completed the Act, but multiple times with that character?

With the above scrolls, I have the following options for my characters:

Skills:

- all 3 skill trees unlocked for each character, may place one point in all skills

- 8x skill improvement, that means the possibility of maxing 2 skills for each character



Items:

Weapons: Any Magic, any Unique, any Set, 1 with IAS

Amulets: Any Magic

Rings: Any Rare, Any Magic

Belts: Any Set

Boots: Any Set, any Rare

Helm: Any Rare

Plus 1 Set item, 1 Magic item, 1 Rare item and 2 Runeword/Crafted Items.



That is a lot to choose from, but it is complicated as hell to keep track if I fulfil all requirements (and don’t accidentally equip a magic belt and magic boots for example...)



For all of my characters, almost all of the killing was done by my mercenaries, because of the added MF. I suppose that will change in NM, but still – I wanted to maximise my chances to find better stuff. For example, my Amazon maybe killed like 10 monsters total, because she was running around with Gull as her main weapon...of course, against Nihlatak and Baal she offered support with Immolation Arrow, but made sure to let the killing blow be done by her merc (while wielding Gull herself).

Here are my current MF scores without/with mercenary:

Paladin	Fester	201/227
Barbarian	Lurch	231/270
Necromancer	Gomez	151/177
Druid	Pugsley	184/209
Amazon	Wednesday	257/322
Assassin	Morticia	140/158
Sorceress	Grandmama	191/239

I have lots of skill points and even some stat points left, because I wanted to stay open as long as possible for better finds and skill strategies that fit to the items I found. For example, my barb is still undecided on his main offensive skill or weapon mastery.



My current builds are (with numbers representing skill tiers, not necessarily actual skill level)

Character	Name	Tiers chosen	Tiers Left
Paladin	Fester	Holy Freeze 20, Zeal 5, Resist Cold 5	2
Barbarian	Lurch	Find Item 5, Concentration 5	6
Necromancer	Gomez	Raise Skeleton 20, Skeleton Mastery 10	2
Druid	Pugsley	Dire Wolf 20, Grizzly Bear 10	2
Amazon	Wednesday	Immolation Arrow 15, Freezing Arrow 10	3
Assassin	Morticia	Phoenix Strike 10	6
Sorceress	Grandmama	Firewall 10, Frozen Orb 10	4

I still haven’t found the elusive /players X scroll. Other nice scrolls would be the two remaining skill trier scrolls (Wow! Have I really hit 8 out of 10 already!?!) or one of the “all level 6/18 skills and below skills are open if you maxed one/two skill in this skill tree” of which there are 4 (3/1).

This tournament is really taxing – constantly switching between characters makes it hard to stay in touch with your build. I may take a short break and maybe start that random tournament of my own for the time being before coming back to this.

Stay tuned though, because I definitely will be pursuing this further! In my next post (this one is getting lengthy already), I will post a few screenshots and story behind it J Thanks for reading!

 

[Grisu]

So, here’s the promised additional stories and footage to my journey(s):



Fester, the Holy Freeze Zealot

Fester is a very safe to play Holy Freeze Paladin. His high level HF aura caused most imps to instantly die when they came into the radius of Holy Freeze. This way, I couldn’t benefit from the higher MF of my merc, but chasing Imps is just so tedious that I didn’t mind.

This beauty was somehow tricky to build:

I had a low level crown shield. First, I used the cube recipe to make a normal quality crown shield out of it, which sets the ilvl to 1 (which results in a maximum of 2 sockets for the shield). I even got +10 resist all on it instead of the for my build rather useless %ED. Then, I used the cube socketing recipe and got 2 sockets. It really was a gamble, because it could have easily been 1 socket, but then I would have bought a 2 os Bone Shield from Drogan and lived with my choice. Now though, the gamble paid off and I have a really nice ResAll and high blocking shield J

The downsides of using Zeal:

The mods are really nice for a HF Zealot though: ML keeps the attacks coming, and the additional AR both from the axe and the partial set bonus really helped to hit things. For NM though, I will rather use this circlet I gambled (screenshot at the beginning of Act I NM, i.e. with the resist penalties):

Bonus pic - Physical oddities in Diablo II:

Gomez, the Skellimancer

Let the merc do some killings, raise 10 skeletons and done:

So next is the sorceres...

Nah, just kidding of course I’ll write more about Gomez. But that is how gameplay with a skellimancer at p1 feels. It’s just a breeze.

Although Gomez had the second worst MF, he was somehow lucky in regards to S/U drops (ok, there’s one rare waldo in it):

To show how relaxing the gameplay is, I will show the whole screenshot of the Frostburn drop:

Gomez: “I wonder what’s in that casket...whoa! A unique item! Let’s see what it does..:”

Skellies: must...fight...dangerous...monsters... ... ... block...way...to...Gomez

But yeah, that’s it. I didn’t even need CE, so it is still level 1. I only used Amplify Damage against Baal and Nihlatak. Oh, and getting the merc scroll really made things easier. Before, I was never shutting down my computer in order to keep the game running, so that I would still have my skellies – it was an ordeal to get the first body to raise a skeleton. Now though? Easy peasy – Alhizeer takes care of the first bodies.



Grandmama, the FO/FW sorceress

After getting my merc, things were much easier, because at p1 he can kill almost anything. FW wasn’t even needed most of the time. The same with FO after hitting level 30. I kept staying in the background and let my merc do the killing for the additional MF. There were exceptions though:

Those guys seemed too bloodthirsty for my taste, so Firewall it was!

I really don’t know why I used FO over FW in the fight against the Ancients, but it worked:

And finally a Baal drop that made me happy and giggle madly in my chair:

Suicide Branch maybe isn’t the best for a FW/FO sorceress, but hey! You have to take what you get!

Summary: Grandmama before merc scroll: risky!!! Grandmama after merc: yawn...

Funny random note: She actually managed to gamble a set item: Death’s Hand leather gloves. I won’t complain...

Oh, and the Cow King was kind, too:

Now if it only were green heavy boots for the chance to be Cow King’s...or can he even drop them in Normal? Have to look it up...



Lurch, the probably? Concentrate Barb

Ah, probably the most tiresome character to play since putting points into Find Item. I chose tier 1 (level 5) for it and kept on horking...and horking...and horking. Malah made so much money off of me buying mana pots, she is probably now somewhere settled down in the Caribbean with a luxury villa and five dozen servants...

He, too, is fan of some “Rhyme”ing:

Even more Rhyming?

One of the nicer jewels I found so early on:

Boss putrid defilers? You bet!

And I guess I’ll take those?

Funny thing happend in the end – I couldn’t enter the portal to DESTRUCTION’S END (because of the pillar I guess?:

TBC in the next post...

 

[Grisu]

Morticia, the Phoenix Striker

Gameplay has been quite safe for her most of the time, but I must have missed that some monsters wewre immue to CoS? Frenzytaurs for example?

It somehow worked out most of the time though.

If only I had a melee sorc friend...this might be something for her

This guy gave me a scare and I had to split up the group as best as I could using Shadow Warrior as a distraction:

All in all somehow the least fun character for me to play - I don't know why, it may simply be that I don't like Assassins much... *shrug* But she DID finally finish Baal:

She also found a Hand of Broc on the way, which might be nice later on.


Pugsley, the Summoner Druid

That guy is fun though! Not as badass as the skellimancer, but it is really fun to switch between different summoning for different situations, use a bow inbetween, then switch to Bonesnap...wait - WHAT?!

And this, too - just for bragging:

He in turn didn't mind extra fast Frenzytaurs at all:

Although, for the ultimate lucky drop, there are a few sockets missing:

Nihlatak gave up something of worth at last:

I used Dire Wolf mainly, but for areas with Prowling Deads I used Grizzly to avoid destroying their corpses. Both are pretty powerful minions, and I never felt unsafe, even against Minions of Destruction, although I did lure them out one by one:

Yeah, as I said: Fun build, fun times

Wednesday, the Magezon Daggerzon

Now she's more of a daggerzon right now, but will be a Magezon some time. I only used FA occasionally against dangerous mobs and in the cow level, but else I was just standing around watching Durga kill things. She will be a powerful Magezon for sure and these might come in handy:

She also has a collection of those (three so far):

Oh, ok, I forgot about that fight - no dagger for me there...

Save the best for last, they say - this made gaming with a dagger much easier:

Baal down, 7 times in total, now on to Nightmare!

 

[Grisu]

Very cool @Grisu ! Nice progress...you seem to have much more patience for this type of tourney than I do. I expect to get back to it one day but haven't actively played any of the Sol family in a couple months. I too don't like having to switch characters so often...breaks up a good flow sometimes.

I still have 1 char to finish act 2 if I remember correctly....then 6 for the next few acts given that my sorc died foolishly. Hoping for a res scroll one day...

Good luck and keep the updates coming!!

 

[CaseyJones]

At my last update, I left off with Mars the Barbarian and Uranus the Assassin heading in to Act 2.

Mars progression was pretty smooth:
Raddy -



Through the Maggot and Viper lairs and cubed up the staff:



Off to the summoner - Yay for 3WT!


On to Duriel - Opened the tomb - (just like this animation sequence )


And squished the big bug - with concentration I was able to tank and Emilio and I whacked away -


Rolled 47 - Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill....

Next up, Uranus where I immediately spent 3WT to unlock scroll 47 and started into Fists of Thunder

No problem getting Radament -



Maggot Lair, Viper Temple, No problem - so I cubed up the staff :


On to the summoner! And win another 3 WT -


At this point, it was February and I took a break from the tournament. I picked this back up briefly on May 1 so a couple quick orienting shots
Quest Log -


All right - Ready to take down Duriel! Let's get to it!
Oh yeah, better check my stats:


Ouch on the resists...better tread carefully...
After clearing about 85% of the tomb, the lightning bolts collided


And then there were 5.

So I am through Act 2 normal in some manner of speaking but down 2 family members now, both lost to charged lightning bolts
I plan to continue on, and hope to roll the resurrection scroll and copy cat scroll to bring back these members but it may never happen. The loss of WT and ability scrolls from these characters will be felt deeply too I am sure.

Oh well, will trudge ahead in time. Probably not many updates until RFL is complete and I get through the Random Tournament. I may even finish the Overburdened tournament Trapsin before picking this back up and sometime MFO will roll around in there. It is much more difficult and time consuming than the others.

Until next time...

 

[Grisu]

Wow, somehow missed your update, @CaseyJones ! Are you still acitvely playing this tournament? I will pick it up again now after I finished the Random Tournament. Hope to see you around!