Grats @art_vandelay ! Places were hotly contested, wow! And some of you guys are running absolutely unbelievable times and efficiency. I'm in awe, truly.
This is my first SPF tourney that I can remember competing in, thought I have a faint memory of competing in a MF tourney a long time ago ...
Anyway, I ran Travincal with a Barbarian named Mord who had been parked at level 49 or so for a couple of years. I rapidly took him up to level 80-something the week before the round started, and he is close to level 92 now, so I will keep running Trav with him for a bit.
Mord is the standard build and gear from Grip's fantastic rune finding guide, except with Hoto+Wizzy so I didn't have to get FCR on my ring (still 55% hork). Massive thanks to @D2DC for trading me an Arreat's to complete his gear. The only gear worth mentioning is his rings, which are pretty sweet (Havoc Knot is a LLD gamble, rather nice LLD Bowazon ring);
Code:
Havoc Knot
Ring
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x448cd51f
Item Level: 41
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5 to Minimum Damage
+120 to Attack Rating
+4 to Dexterity
+51 to Mana
Cold Resist +29%
Half Freeze Duration
Ghoul Turn
Ring
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x232260e2
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+55 to Attack Rating
5% Mana stolen per hit
7% Life stolen per hit
+35 to Mana
Cold Resist +27%
15% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
and his Arreat's Jewel, could be better:
Code:
Diamond Jewel of Virility
Jewel
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0xca31d76f
Item Level: 52
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+38% Damage to Demons
+49 to Attack Rating against Demons
+7 to Strength
Haul pic is pretty meager (and I need some practice ):
The Mara's rolled @23 & @24 (my current best)
Some of the more juicy bits:
Thanks for running this tourney! Doubtful I will compete in the next round, but I'll see! Thanks again @PhineasB!
Congrats to @art_vandelay and @Pb_pal, dunno if I'll be able to catch up to y'all in the final round! Also congrats to all the other scorers!
Just have to take a moment to say, I'm awed and stunned by how many runs @Gripphon was able to get in a set...that kinda consistent running speed just blows my hair straight back, truely awesome work, brother!!
I ended up running with a very unusual character for me, an untwinked HC barb... I had started him early this year as a long-term project, and had gotten him the begining of Hell Act I shortly before round 1 of RFL started. One of the things I enjoy about Council running is that they drop really well, but honestly, outside of charms and jewels, there is nothing they can drop in softcore I don't already have, probably in multiples...Hardcore, however, is a very different story. So after first round of RFL, I quested him up through to Anya (no way he's going anywhere near 1.07 Hell Baal )
His first encounter with Hell Council was hair-raising...his chance to hit was abysmal (he was only level 66 at the time), and his weapons (he'd gotten Crainte Vomir & Butcher's Pupil while running Baal for XP earlier) just didn't do enough damage when he did hit... He had popped an out-of-the-blue Sazabi's Cryptic Sword off a rack while questing through Kurast Bazzar, which I had originally rejected due to the cold damage on it shattering corpses, but I tried it and it performed much better! (Though my fear of corpse shattering turned out to be well-founded...I generally shattered one, sometimes two or three, every run ) I still had a couple NDE's getting the quest kill, I desperately needed some help with CtH to go with the new weapon. Liberal use of Battle Cry and Taunt sufficed for the moment, and I pressed on.
Further questing soon revealed another problem with Sazabi's sword...it's damage vs demons is good, but vs undead, not so much...I ended up slowly 'zerking my way though CS with Butcher's Pupil instead (after all, IM in CS is alive and well in 1.07!) After killing D and questing through to Anya, I returned to Council at level 74...annnnd I still had real issues with CtH. Normally I'd just socket the sword and drop an Eth in it, problem solved, but this is untwinked, and I'm saving his socket quests for later...(this, incidentally, is probably the hardest part of untwinked play for me... I find that I've gotten VERY used to just popping a socket in an item to get it to 'fit,' and not being able to do that has forced reevaluation on items like Sazabi's, which I normally just wouldn't use)
I noticed my LK map had a campfire right off the waypoint, and the armor rack dropped Slayer Guards...Arreat's would cure my CtH issue, so I started running the rack. The weapon rack paired with it dropped crap, but it turned out that a nearby hut had a weapon rack that dropped Bone Knives stably if ticked once by portaling...which also made the runs VERY fast, if a bit expensive at 80gp a pop. I got lucky and got a Wizspike after only about 300 runs...it took another 50 or so to get Arreat's, so about 350-400 runs for both... With these upgrades, running Council got MUCH smoother and faster. By this time, the opening weekend of the round had past, but I put in ~1½ hours a day, and by noon on saturday of the second weekend, I'd done just over 8 hrs. That's when my pc bluescreened and my drive crashed...I'd made backups of my stashes right before starting, and my characters are saved on a different drive, but I lost everything I'd gotten so far...well, not quite. Several upgrades that had been found (Skullder's, War Travellers, the rare ammy he's still wearing, eth Vamp Gaze on Merc, several good mindamage charms) were still on the character, and as a side project, I'd been putting all set items in a separate stash that turned out to be on a memory stick, so they were all safe as well. (I was tracking how many different set items I'd get during this round, I even printed out a list and kept it next to the keyboard so I wouldn't waste time grabbing things I already had)
At least I didn't lose any qualifiers...I hadn't found any . I did lose a lot of non-qualifiers...but the best stuff was still on me, and when I got my pc back up and running late the third weekend, I found thing going much smoother...I finally rolled a very good map, with a well, an occasional shrine, and most importantly, no random boss or champ packs of vampires!! As I mentioned earlier, Sazabi's is weak vs undead, and in my earlier efforts I kept getting maps that seemed good, but would then start spawning packs of these runtime destroying nasties, so that was very nice. Also, within 10 minutes of starting back, a Stone of Jordan dropped!! I found that the extra MF I'd picked up since starting meant I was getting grailers more frequently than before, and when the Gul dropped about an hour after resuming, I no longer had to worry about not having any qualifiers. That really took the pressure off, and I relaxed into the groove and found my runtimes getting dramatically better than before...when the Ist dropped a couple hours from the end, it was a nice surprise, but at this point it really had become all about getting as many grailers as possible! It was pretty amazing, and I had a blast!!
Obviously, I knew from the start that I was going to need more inventory space than usual for picking, so I kept 5 rows clear plus the cube... this meant NO space for skillers, but WW barb doesn't really need them (and he doesn't have any anyway ), and I kept a 3xptopaz Lion Helm w/+3FI & +3NatRez in backpack/cube to switch for Horking... charms were heavily focused on +MinDam (one of the issues with Sazabi's sword is it has very low min damage, so +mindamage charms helped a ton, and I was continuously upgrading mine throughout the runs as better ones dropped, which was one of the reasons the runs got smoother as I went.) I picked Uniques, Sets I hadn't gotten yet, rare rings and ammys, jewels, charms (I id'd GCs and LCs ingame if space was an issue, otherwise I checked this stuff in ATMA after S&E to speed runtimes), gems, gold, and of course, runes (picking gold slows runtimes a bit, but it reduces white clutter and ensures I don't miss any runes (white in 1.07), and lets me gamble for bases occasionally). I forced myself NOT to pick/check rare circlets & staffmod items...1.07 rares just don't have as much potential, and it takes too much time... One really nice thing about using Sazabi's & Wizspike is that both are indestructible, really cutting back on the repair costs!!
Getting Arreat's, with its '15% target defense' mod, was a huge improvement, and Wizspike ensured that all resists were maxxed. Getting enuff mana leech was tough, thus the dual Manald Heals...
8%ML, 13%LL (8% SoE + 5% Venom Grip)
34MDR (15 each SoE & SofVM, 4 ammy)
8MF on kill switch (charms)/130MF horking switch(charms+Gull+switch helm)
53%Hork on hork switch under Battle Command
Ending Stats
Clvl: 87
Helm: Arreat's
Body: Skullder's Ire
Gloves: Trang's Claws
Belt: String of Ears
Boots: War Traveller
Ammy: Blood Collar rare +1 barb, 17@rez+28PR, 8%ML, +9min, 10 rep life
Ring1: Stone of Jordan
Ring2: rare 6%LL, 98AR, +6min, 52mana, 15MF, half freeze dur
Weap: Sazabi's Cobalt Redeemer
Offhand: Wizspike
Switch: Blade of Ali Baba(10MFjewel)/Gull
Almost all of his gear upgrades came during the first 8hrs of running (the 'lost hours'), but were NOT lost because they were on him and not in a stash...the only items that didn't get upgraded were the Helm, primary weapons (though I really tried to get something better than Sazabi's), and the belt (REALLY hard to get better than SoE for melee char). Blood Collar was especially nice, as it provided the most important stats (8%ML, rep life, @rez) from my starting rings & ammy in 1 slot!!
8%ML, 14%LL (SoE + ring)
40MDR (25 Skullder's & 15 SoE)
188MF on kill switch/365MF on Hork
54%Hork on hork switch under Battle Command
Crafting
One of the nice things about running for runes in 1.07 is that all the mid-level runes that aren't worth any points are still great for crafting, and I normally take full advantage of this. This time, I didn't do any armor crafts, as I lack the required bases with this guy, but I did craft amulets and rings every time a Lum or Ko dropped... unfortunately, they were mostly crap, the best was a 18%LL bugged blood ring with decent +Str but nothing else worthwhile (I had crafted a pretty good Pally amulet prior to the crash, but its gone...) Throughout the runs, I was continuously looking for a better weapon than Sazabi's...it was the best weapon I could muster, and it works well vs Council, but the corpse shattering really is a big issue... Every Ort was immediately used to attempt to craft a replacement... 19 crafts since resuming, plus at least 10 before the crash (not sure, I lost that stash...), but none even came close to the necessary combo of damage and speed
However, I did manage to craft an awesome bow! I had decided to use any Fals to craft a greater safety weapon for the merc, using some Diamond Bows I gambled for the base...I had only gotten 3 Fals since resuming (plus a couple before the crash), and the early rolls were crap, but right after the Ist dropped, I got a Fal, and rolled an amazing combo of affixes: 'Grandmaster's', 'Cruel', 'Pestilent', and 'of Amplify Damage'!! I do wish it could have rolled just a bit more %ED, this is the second time I've rolled 507% (the first was last year with Rune Grinder), and I'd really like to craft a weapon with >max (511%, you can actually roll up to 580%, but it gets truncated to 511% upon save)
Demon Fletch
Diamond Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 200 to 230
Required Dexterity: 172
Required Strength: 77
Required Level: 67
Bow Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x6fdd980a
+507% Enhanced Damage
+293 to Attack Rating
Damage Reduced by 12
Magic Damage Reduced by 9
+68 poison damage over 2 seconds
2 seconds poison duration
5% Chance to cast Level 1 Amplify Damage on striking
Charms
I got some VERY nice non-qualifiers, though I did lose some in the drive crash...in particular, I lost a Pally combat/20Maxdam skiller and Sorc Fire and Druid Elemental skillers with big +life After resuming, I did get a Sorc Cold/42life skiller, but other than that, skiller luck was pretty poor, only 4 more, all plain (nec summon, sorc light, pal combat, & druid SS). I was very lucky with other charms, though, getting several great Shimmering charms: 19@rez FRW GC, 18@rez 31life GC, and 13@rez 13life LC! I also got a lot of great damage charms (Min damage was especially welcome...)
Jewels
Jewel luck was really great, for 1.07... I actually had 3(!) Ruby(%ED) jewels of Fervor drop!! (This isn't as great as it sounds, though... 1.07 jewels get max 25%ED ) I also got a 28LR fervor jewel, and a 10MF jewel (good as it gets in 1.07, jewels really are nerfed there...) I ended up with 52 other jewels, including 9 rares...but I burned at least 30 along the way crafting, so I really was getting a lot of jewel drops!
Unique ammys
2xNokozon
Mahim Oak
Saracen's
Rising Sun
HLW
Unique rings
4xNagel
2xManald
Raven Froat
Dwarf Star
SoJ(!)
54 other uniques, noteably
Lightsabre
Goldstrike Arch
Valk Wing
Vamp Gaze (eth)
2x Skulder's
War Traveler
SotVM (eth)
Arreat's Face
Slayer Guard
Defense: 151
Durability: 55 of 55
(Barbarian Only)
Required Strength: 118
Required Level: 42
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb1a054ca
+30 to Life
+25% Enhanced Defense
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
15% Target Defense
+1 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
+43 to Maximum Damage (0.5 per Character Level)
Blood Collar
Amulet
Required Level: 52
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x71212d17
+9 to Minimum Damage
Fire Resist +17%
Lightning Resist +17%
Cold Resist +17%
Poison Resist +45%
8% Mana stolen per hit
Replenish Life +10
+1 to Barbarian Skill Levels
The Stone of Jordan
Ring
Required Level: 29
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x5b8d7864
+20 to Mana
Adds 1-12 lightning damage
Increase Maximum Mana 25%
+1 to All Skill Levels
Prefix 1119 Grand Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 83
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 93
Fingerprint: 0x7ad8e6d8
+43 to Life
+1 to Cold Skills (Sorceress Only)
Prefix 994 Grand Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 14
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xb6b44d9b
All Resistances +19
7% Faster Run/Walk
Prefix 994 Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 53
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 93
Fingerprint: 0x35c2c292
+31 to Life
All Resistances +18
Prefix 996 Large Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 9
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xf95c9bd6
+13 to Life
All Resistances +13
Demon Fletch
Diamond Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 200 to 230
Required Dexterity: 172
Required Strength: 77
Required Level: 67
Bow Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x6fdd980a
+507% Enhanced Damage
+293 to Attack Rating
Damage Reduced by 12
Magic Damage Reduced by 9
+68 poison damage over 2 seconds
2 seconds poison duration
5% Chance to cast Level 1 Amplify Damage on striking
Sets:
Council drops a LOT of set items once you get your MF up a bit, and I had wondered just how much of a set grail I would be able to complete while running... Let's see how I did:
Counts for sets only include items that can drop from Council, with exceptions noted as follows:
* = one for each item in set that can't drop but must be racked
+ = item in set that can drop, but only in Act4/5/Cows, not from Council
X = Mavina's Caster cannot be obtained in 1.07
Code:
full Angelic (4/4)
full Arcanna's (4/4)
Arctic gloves & bow (2/4)
full Berserker's (3/3)
full Cathan's (5/5)
full Civerb's (3/3)
full Cleglaw's (3/3)
full Death's (3/3)
full Hsarus' (3/3)
Infernal belt & wand (2/3)
full Iratha's (4/4)
full Isenhart's (4/4)
full Miabrega's (4/4)
full Sigon's (6/6)
Tancred's except boots (4/5)
Vidala's except armor (3/4)
Aldur's head, boots, & mace (3/3*)
Disciple boots (1/2+**)
Heaven's Brethren armor & mace (2/2**)
full Hwanin's (4/4)
IK hat, boots, belt, & gloves (4/4**)
Mavina's diadem, gloves, & belt (3/3*X)
Nat's hat & boots (2/2**)
Naj's circlet (1/1+*)
full Orphan's (4/4)
full Sander's (4/4)
Sazabi's hat & sword (2/1**)
Tal's orb, mask, & belt (3/4*)
Trang's armor, nechead, & gloves (3/3**)
Totals 94/99 <==== Scored an A!! :ROFLMAO:
I missed 6 items (Arctic Furs & Belt, Infernal Cranium, Vidala's Ambush, Telling of Beads, and Tal Rasha's Adjudication), but I got one back because I have Sazabi's Cobalt Redeemer, which must be racked
Here's the obligatory haul pic...only 2 qualifiers, so I included some of my rarer non-qualifiers...not sure I really captured the dynamism of a WW barb, but I tried!
Edit: stoopid damn forum software messing up my formatting *grumble grumble*
)
) I still had a couple NDE's getting the quest kill, I desperately needed some help with CtH to go with the new weapon. Liberal use of Battle Cry and Taunt sufficed for the moment, and I pressed on.
. I did lose a lot of non-qualifiers...but the best stuff was still on me, and when I got my pc back up and running late the third weekend, I found thing going much smoother...I finally rolled a very good map, with a well, an occasional shrine, and most importantly, no random boss or champ packs of vampires!! As I mentioned earlier, Sazabi's is weak vs undead, and in my earlier efforts I kept getting maps that seemed good, but would then start spawning packs of these runtime destroying nasties, so that was very nice. Also, within 10 minutes of starting back, a Stone of Jordan dropped!! I found that the extra MF I'd picked up since starting meant I was getting grailers more frequently than before, and when the Gul dropped about an hour after resuming, I no longer had to worry about not having any qualifiers. That really took the pressure off, and I relaxed into the groove and found my runtimes getting dramatically better than before...when the Ist dropped a couple hours from the end, it was a nice surprise, but at this point it really had become all about getting as many grailers as possible! It was pretty amazing, and I had a blast!!
) Throughout the runs, I was continuously looking for a better weapon than Sazabi's...it was the best weapon I could muster, and it works well vs Council, but the corpse shattering really is a big issue... Every Ort was immediately used to attempt to craft a replacement... 19 crafts since resuming, plus at least 10 before the crash (not sure, I lost that stash...), but none even came close to the necessary combo of damage and speed 
After resuming, I did get a Sorc Cold/42life skiller, but other than that, skiller luck was pretty poor, only 4 more, all plain (nec summon, sorc light, pal combat, & druid SS). I was very lucky with other charms, though, getting several great Shimmering charms: 19@rez FRW GC, 18@rez 31life GC, and 13@rez 13life LC! I also got a lot of great damage charms (Min damage was especially welcome...)
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