A Lack of Information (A S/U Worshipper Tournament)
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After waking up groggy from celebrating Radament's death with Atma, Karna decided it was probably time to get back out into the desert and continue on her way. The Far Oasis drew us both Itchies and Vultures, which is a shame for drops, so we just went FoF crazy and burned our way through it very quickly. Same story in the Maggot Lair, and Coldworm was killed without problem, allowing us to retrieve the staff to appease Cain for a while. He seemed pretty happy, but immediately started bugging us about some amulet he wanted too.
Onwards through the Lost City we travelled, and ended up finding Isenhart's Sword. Now that both of our weapon slots were taken, we had to say goodbye to FoF for good, and were relegated to the status of CoS/MB-dummy along with the shadow. It's not bad though, as we weren't using FoF a ton anyways since we want to take advantage of the merc's MF. The sword actually isn't a terribly bad find either, it hits decently fast with the inherant 20% ias so once we get Phoenix Strike we will be able to charge it up fairly quickly. There are many weapons I would rather have (especially one with range >1!), but it could be much worse.
The Claw Viper Temple went quite smoothly, as CoS makes a joke out of Unravellers and Alhizeer was still killing quite quickly. We were cruising along when this dropped:
Hmm, well that is interesting. It's not particularly strong, but I do like that it has slows target on it. This drop complicates things for Karna, as she planned to switch to an Iron Wolf as soon as she made it to Kurast. We might still do that, but having a weapon to use for an A2 merc could sway our decision. For now we decided to give Alhizeer a rest, and hired Mizan the Prayer Guard to accompany us for the rest of the Act (at least). Mizan got his first shot to prove his worth down in the CVT2. Fangskin's pack was down by the stairs, but CoS made it completely harmless.
So we got the amulet, but we're not telling Cain yet, as we are enjoying wearing it. We haven't found any S/U jewelery, and Karna just wants to feel like a lady for a while. Through the Palace we went without any issues, and we are currently taking a break after reaching the Arcane Sanctuary WP.
Topaz luck has ground to a halt. We managed to complete our first 3-flawed Breast Plate back in the sewers, and haven't seen even a chipped topaz since then. Hopefully that picks up soon, as I'd like to start seeing more S/U dropping, and everybody's nice finds (Nagelrings, Chancies etc) are starting to make Karna jealous! We might have to start doing some serious gambling and hope to get lucky..
[highlight]Karna the Phoenix Strike Assassin, with Mizan the Prayer Guard - lvl 25, Arcane Sanctuary[/highlight]
Onwards through the Lost City we travelled, and ended up finding Isenhart's Sword. Now that both of our weapon slots were taken, we had to say goodbye to FoF for good, and were relegated to the status of CoS/MB-dummy along with the shadow. It's not bad though, as we weren't using FoF a ton anyways since we want to take advantage of the merc's MF. The sword actually isn't a terribly bad find either, it hits decently fast with the inherant 20% ias so once we get Phoenix Strike we will be able to charge it up fairly quickly. There are many weapons I would rather have (especially one with range >1!), but it could be much worse.
The Claw Viper Temple went quite smoothly, as CoS makes a joke out of Unravellers and Alhizeer was still killing quite quickly. We were cruising along when this dropped:
Hmm, well that is interesting. It's not particularly strong, but I do like that it has slows target on it. This drop complicates things for Karna, as she planned to switch to an Iron Wolf as soon as she made it to Kurast. We might still do that, but having a weapon to use for an A2 merc could sway our decision. For now we decided to give Alhizeer a rest, and hired Mizan the Prayer Guard to accompany us for the rest of the Act (at least). Mizan got his first shot to prove his worth down in the CVT2. Fangskin's pack was down by the stairs, but CoS made it completely harmless.
So we got the amulet, but we're not telling Cain yet, as we are enjoying wearing it. We haven't found any S/U jewelery, and Karna just wants to feel like a lady for a while. Through the Palace we went without any issues, and we are currently taking a break after reaching the Arcane Sanctuary WP.
Topaz luck has ground to a halt. We managed to complete our first 3-flawed Breast Plate back in the sewers, and haven't seen even a chipped topaz since then. Hopefully that picks up soon, as I'd like to start seeing more S/U dropping, and everybody's nice finds (Nagelrings, Chancies etc) are starting to make Karna jealous! We might have to start doing some serious gambling and hope to get lucky..
[highlight]Karna the Phoenix Strike Assassin, with Mizan the Prayer Guard - lvl 25, Arcane Sanctuary[/highlight]
It are those tombs at the end of act 2 that give much drops usually, gl there 
After the little break ignorant dropped off his shield with diamonds and equiped this long red sword in his left hand. Ignorant, who wasnt the smartest, didnt know how to fight with his left hand and just kept continueing just using his right hand for his concentration attack. The red sword was just being shiny, and that was good enough.
I dont know if it was because the expectatons of Jelani were lowered, or that the +1 to skills from sigons guard made him that much stronger, but the damage output from Jelani started to feel more serous. Together we fighted through the old cities of kurast looking for treasure and offcourse Kalim's remains.
It was to be noticed that I got hit a lot harder by magical skills and especially fire resistance was very low. In an old temple called the disused fane, things were almost going very bad, while fighting a fiery vampire with stone skin. The aoe damage from Jelani was pretty useless here, because those vampires just kept regenerating and my lifeleech and defense were pretty useless vs those stone skin mages. I managed to make 1 screenshot while having a pretty panicking fight:
Just reentered and already at pretty low hp as you can see. But eventually we managed to kill all foes.
From midle kurast to upper kurast we took the underground sewers and here we found our first green amulet, civerb's Icon, it was hidden in a rat nest. At that screenie you can see how I went back to the strategy of opening chests while Jelaniis should be killing monsters, but instead he is asking me if that amulet might be interesting for him. A little bit furious I tell him he doesnt even use mana for his spells, if he would use them.
At upper Kurast we look under a dead body sitting on the ground and find Vidala's barb. This is not only the slowest bow, but also with the least impressive bonus ever. 1 open socket for a normal topaz would have given better bonus. But since Jelani did his job getting us through the jungle, it was time to fire him and take the waypoint home to look for one of Ignorants girlfriends.
Elly, the fire rogue has trained herself to lvl 30 and was more then ready to become Ignorant' 4th merc. Even with this crappy bow, she did more singletarget damage as Jelani. Also Ignorant equiped the Sigon's guard himself now, giving some nice bonuses, instead of the red longsword.
Im very happy with Elly, lowering the defenses of enemies is not so usefull now, considering I have 95% hitrate and also ignore target defense, but im sure this will be of help later and if we manage to find one of these bows with "fires magic arrows" then we are good for lategame.
Just before starting the fight with mephisto we drop a nagelring! 26 MF and 54 AR.
Mephisto himself did not surrender easily. It took me 22 durability from my sword to kill him, but his drops were okish. The little axe was not better as the sword we use, but the isenharts case will replace my double topaz armor. Now the cathans mesh will finally be equiped by myself, pumping my damage to 57-110, thanks to the setbonus.
Itemslots not yet s/u:
-belt
-boots
MF: 59
chance guards: 29
nagelring: 26
lucky grand charm: 4
Ignorant the Concentrate Barbarian and Elly the Firerogue, lvl32, The pandomonium fortress.
After the little break ignorant dropped off his shield with diamonds and equiped this long red sword in his left hand. Ignorant, who wasnt the smartest, didnt know how to fight with his left hand and just kept continueing just using his right hand for his concentration attack. The red sword was just being shiny, and that was good enough.
I dont know if it was because the expectatons of Jelani were lowered, or that the +1 to skills from sigons guard made him that much stronger, but the damage output from Jelani started to feel more serous. Together we fighted through the old cities of kurast looking for treasure and offcourse Kalim's remains.
It was to be noticed that I got hit a lot harder by magical skills and especially fire resistance was very low. In an old temple called the disused fane, things were almost going very bad, while fighting a fiery vampire with stone skin. The aoe damage from Jelani was pretty useless here, because those vampires just kept regenerating and my lifeleech and defense were pretty useless vs those stone skin mages. I managed to make 1 screenshot while having a pretty panicking fight:
Just reentered and already at pretty low hp as you can see. But eventually we managed to kill all foes.
From midle kurast to upper kurast we took the underground sewers and here we found our first green amulet, civerb's Icon, it was hidden in a rat nest. At that screenie you can see how I went back to the strategy of opening chests while Jelani
At upper Kurast we look under a dead body sitting on the ground and find Vidala's barb. This is not only the slowest bow, but also with the least impressive bonus ever. 1 open socket for a normal topaz would have given better bonus. But since Jelani did his job getting us through the jungle, it was time to fire him and take the waypoint home to look for one of Ignorants girlfriends.
Elly, the fire rogue has trained herself to lvl 30 and was more then ready to become Ignorant' 4th merc. Even with this crappy bow, she did more singletarget damage as Jelani. Also Ignorant equiped the Sigon's guard himself now, giving some nice bonuses, instead of the red longsword.
Im very happy with Elly, lowering the defenses of enemies is not so usefull now, considering I have 95% hitrate and also ignore target defense, but im sure this will be of help later and if we manage to find one of these bows with "fires magic arrows" then we are good for lategame.
Just before starting the fight with mephisto we drop a nagelring! 26 MF and 54 AR.
Mephisto himself did not surrender easily. It took me 22 durability from my sword to kill him, but his drops were okish. The little axe was not better as the sword we use, but the isenharts case will replace my double topaz armor. Now the cathans mesh will finally be equiped by myself, pumping my damage to 57-110, thanks to the setbonus.
Itemslots not yet s/u:
-belt
-boots
MF: 59
chance guards: 29
nagelring: 26
lucky grand charm: 4
Ignorant the Concentrate Barbarian and Elly the Firerogue, lvl32, The pandomonium fortress.
jiansonz
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- Jun 22, 2003
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Things are still going well for Holy Shock-toting Beren and his freezing axe. Yeah, and his weaponless Prayer merc that tanks admirably and heals us.
S/U finds:
* Cathan's Rule (Flayer Dungeon level 1)
* Berserker's Headgear (Lower Kurast)
Finding that helm so soon was a bit of a bummer. Now there is only one armor left for topaz use. However, I do like the added fire resist. Fire resist is maxed or near it with the Crushflange + Cleglaw's partial bonus switch, but it was only 10% on my axe setup. Had to wait out (or trigger and run fast around them) flayer shamans' Infernos, then hit with the axe between their castings.
I've put my first point in Fist of the Heavens and tried it out. Conclusions:
1. It's ridiculously expensive. I can cast two, then I am out of mana! But at least the cost is fixed, so the effect/cost ratio will increase when I advance in levels with it.
2. It has a casting delay (but it's quite short). I do not regret picking a melee merc, or my future plan to use Conversion a lot.
3. I will max Holy Shock first and use that for a long long time...
FoH was needed against one river hydra that I could not reach with weapons (and I have no other ranged option besides level 1 Blessed Hammer, which is too weak).
Stormtree was surprisingly tame. He was still hard to kill because of his high resistance, but the combo of the freezing axe and Cleglaw's gloves slowing made him really slow, and Jemali needed only a few healing potions to tank him with ease (he blocked the LE bolts for Beren).
[Highlight]Beren the (for now) Holy Shock Paladin and Jemali the Prayer guard, level 31, Kurast Sewers next[/Highlight]
S/U finds:
* Cathan's Rule (Flayer Dungeon level 1)
* Berserker's Headgear (Lower Kurast)
Finding that helm so soon was a bit of a bummer. Now there is only one armor left for topaz use. However, I do like the added fire resist. Fire resist is maxed or near it with the Crushflange + Cleglaw's partial bonus switch, but it was only 10% on my axe setup. Had to wait out (or trigger and run fast around them) flayer shamans' Infernos, then hit with the axe between their castings.
I've put my first point in Fist of the Heavens and tried it out. Conclusions:
1. It's ridiculously expensive. I can cast two, then I am out of mana! But at least the cost is fixed, so the effect/cost ratio will increase when I advance in levels with it.
2. It has a casting delay (but it's quite short). I do not regret picking a melee merc, or my future plan to use Conversion a lot.
3. I will max Holy Shock first and use that for a long long time...
FoH was needed against one river hydra that I could not reach with weapons (and I have no other ranged option besides level 1 Blessed Hammer, which is too weak).
Stormtree was surprisingly tame. He was still hard to kill because of his high resistance, but the combo of the freezing axe and Cleglaw's gloves slowing made him really slow, and Jemali needed only a few healing potions to tank him with ease (he blocked the LE bolts for Beren).
[Highlight]Beren the (for now) Holy Shock Paladin and Jemali the Prayer guard, level 31, Kurast Sewers next[/Highlight]
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@jiansonz
I just read your adventures in the first S/U worshipper tournament. That were some hard rules with those random skills. Very impressive. I couldnt find a guardian thread of Sten.
Yup you are correct about that mercs cant block, luckily Jelani got fired anyway
Im amazed how you manage to gather so much xp, you seem to be always 1 level above what I was at same places, while I think to do full clear aswell. I can imagine I could gather a bit more xp if I did all areas at lvl order. Saving the higher caves for last. That way xp penalty might work in my advantage. Do you have any other secret strategies for gaining xp?
I just read your adventures in the first S/U worshipper tournament. That were some hard rules with those random skills. Very impressive. I couldnt find a guardian thread of Sten.
Yup you are correct about that mercs cant block, luckily Jelani got fired anyway
Im amazed how you manage to gather so much xp, you seem to be always 1 level above what I was at same places, while I think to do full clear aswell
. I can imagine I could gather a bit more xp if I did all areas at lvl order. Saving the higher caves for last. That way xp penalty might work in my advantage. Do you have any other secret strategies for gaining xp?
jiansonz
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- Jun 22, 2003
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I started writing those about halfway through my original tourney septavirate, and Sten was completed before that.
Nothing secret. I don't even do areas in strict level order either.
I do try to save XP shrines for bosspacks, then kill fast and temporarily ignore loot while the shrine is running.
Your character is level 32 at the Fortress. That's what I am also, every time. I've read several players that made it to 33 in Act III but I've never been close to that. Have no idea how they did it...
Up and through the Arcane Sanctuary our group travelled, our two ladies walking behind Mizan and keeping everything Mind Blasted so he could just poke away without worries. I've always used Shadow Masters on all of my assassins in the past (granted almost all of them were SC), but I must say I am enjoying having more control with the Warrior. I read up on it a bit, and it seems everybody is way ahead of me on this one, and it is almost universally recommended to use the Warrior in HC. Shadow Warrior it is! The Arcane Sanctuary was cleared out without problems and without interesting drops, and when we finally got to the end and killed the Summoner, Karna made Mizan read Horazon's Journal, as she didn't want to even touch the filthy thing. He couldn't make out what it said, as we all know Desert Guards aren't exactly brilliant.. Oh well, I guess Karna would just have to clear all of the tombs. That was fine by her, there were few things she liked better than wiping demon scum out.
Fighting in the tombs is fairly straightforward. Lots of CoS to keep the Unravellers blinded, and Mizan just plows through everything. The Shadow distracts monsters, and Karna stands around admiring the scenery and picking up drops. We have to be careful around Mummy Sarcophagi so that we don't crash the game, but other than that we just cruise right through.
The first tomb (which ended up being Kaa's) dropped us a Crushflange, which Karna promptly started using. Her fire res is now maxed when using Fade, and the CB is a welcome addition so she can start helping out with bosses. The rest of the tomb flew, and Kaa went down without issue (he didn't even manage to kill Mizan, despite the serious neglect I was paying him):
We cleared out the next few tombs, and our topaz luck seemed to be on the mend. We scored our third flawed, filled up Mizan's new BP and immeditaely portalled back in when we found this. Well there goes a big chunk of MF (unless we can score the matching amulet!), with the added sting of just having burned those topazes, and now having none to upgrade a helm. Our mercenary's equipment slots are now filled, so we're down to just Karna's helm and armour for MF. We have started compulsively gambling chain gloves with the distant hope of scoring Chance Guards, but no luck yet.
Current MF: 57% (3-flawed BP + 2-chippie cap)
[highlight]Karna the Phoenix Strike Assassin, with Mizan the Prayer Guard - lvl 28, False Tombs (5/6 cleared)[/highlight]
Fighting in the tombs is fairly straightforward. Lots of CoS to keep the Unravellers blinded, and Mizan just plows through everything. The Shadow distracts monsters, and Karna stands around admiring the scenery and picking up drops. We have to be careful around Mummy Sarcophagi so that we don't crash the game, but other than that we just cruise right through.
The first tomb (which ended up being Kaa's) dropped us a Crushflange, which Karna promptly started using. Her fire res is now maxed when using Fade, and the CB is a welcome addition so she can start helping out with bosses. The rest of the tomb flew, and Kaa went down without issue (he didn't even manage to kill Mizan, despite the serious neglect I was paying him):
We cleared out the next few tombs, and our topaz luck seemed to be on the mend. We scored our third flawed, filled up Mizan's new BP and immeditaely portalled back in when we found this. Well there goes a big chunk of MF (unless we can score the matching amulet!), with the added sting of just having burned those topazes, and now having none to upgrade a helm. Our mercenary's equipment slots are now filled, so we're down to just Karna's helm and armour for MF. We have started compulsively gambling chain gloves with the distant hope of scoring Chance Guards, but no luck yet.
Current MF: 57% (3-flawed BP + 2-chippie cap)
[highlight]Karna the Phoenix Strike Assassin, with Mizan the Prayer Guard - lvl 28, False Tombs (5/6 cleared)[/highlight]
Wolfswift and Gulzar have managed to find more mentionable items throughout the tombs after encountering several Unique Unraveller bosses that Mizan would usually get the final shot on. Several of them dropped a s/u item to include: Cathan's Visage mask, Manald ring, Berserker's helm, Bloodthief Brandistock (Mizan loves this) and Swordback Shield (Duriel's drop). The Hand of Broc gloves finally bit the dust, the duel leech is sorely missed.
Gulzar wanted to show just how much he loves his new Bloodthief and its OW. Who's mauling who?
View attachment 1426
The battle with Duriel went well, we drank several potions went in and started concentrating on him, which really messed up his knockback attack. Wolfswift was able to tank him very well with the added CR from the Visage mask and he donned the Cleclaw Pinchers for their slowing effect as well. Using a different flail we purchased, we stuck a flawless and regular ruby in it and with the very fast speed it worked really well even with Duriel's Unholy Freeze aura. Gulzar was more at his right flank throughout the battle, where he had very little to worry about. As we arrived in Kurast, we ventured out a bit to nab our 25th level and then it was back to town for the night.
Wolfswift and Gulzar, Level 27, Kurast
Gulzar wanted to show just how much he loves his new Bloodthief and its OW. Who's mauling who?
View attachment 1426
The battle with Duriel went well, we drank several potions went in and started concentrating on him, which really messed up his knockback attack. Wolfswift was able to tank him very well with the added CR from the Visage mask and he donned the Cleclaw Pinchers for their slowing effect as well. Using a different flail we purchased, we stuck a flawless and regular ruby in it and with the very fast speed it worked really well even with Duriel's Unholy Freeze aura. Gulzar was more at his right flank throughout the battle, where he had very little to worry about. As we arrived in Kurast, we ventured out a bit to nab our 25th level and then it was back to town for the night.
Wolfswift and Gulzar, Level 27, Kurast
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jiansonz
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- Jun 22, 2003
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Beren had no chance to get here:
Probably means nothing, but it still annoyed me - you could bet there would be a Battlebranch or something equally awesome in there...
Progress is fast and quite easy. The only really tough spot was the start of River of Flame, where we ran into an LE Maw Fiend bosspack, plus Grotesques, Stranglers and half a dozen Abyss Knights shooting at us. Had to make several potion shopping trips, flee out by TP and by stairs several times also.
Finds:
* Sigon's Gage (Upper Kurast)
* Sigon's Guard (Durance 2)
* Treads of Cthon (Mephisto)
* Tancred's Crowbill (City of the Damned)
Despite losing the set bonus resists, Sigon's Guard replaced Cleglaw's Claw on my Crushflange switch. Sigon's is a great shield for act boss fights because of the high blocking (boosted even further by the +1 to Holy Shield). I have now invested in enough DEX for max blocking, which isn't hard for a Paladin with such a shield.
I haven't tried Sigon's gloves yet. I like the slowing on Cleglaw's, even if it's only of use against any boss type of monster. Everything else get frozen by Axe of Fechmar. OTOH, I won't get the nice IAS bonus on the gloves as long as I want to use a two-hander. For that. I need to find another Sigon's piece first.
I've moved Arctic Furs to my merc and have equipped a 3s Breast Plate, currently with two perfect topazes. Only against act bosses will I switch back. Since they don't regenerate, I can get the MF for both items if I am patient.
I didn't have more than 25% lightning resist against Diablo. That was still not too bad since blocking was maxed (the lightning hose is half physical damage anyway). Fire resist maxed, of course. Crushflange and my helm do that by themselves.
[Highlight]Beren the (for now) Holy Shock Paladin and Jemali the Prayer guard, level 35, Harrogath[/Highlight]
Probably means nothing, but it still annoyed me - you could bet there would be a Battlebranch or something equally awesome in there...
Progress is fast and quite easy. The only really tough spot was the start of River of Flame, where we ran into an LE Maw Fiend bosspack, plus Grotesques, Stranglers and half a dozen Abyss Knights shooting at us. Had to make several potion shopping trips, flee out by TP and by stairs several times also.
Finds:
* Sigon's Gage (Upper Kurast)
* Sigon's Guard (Durance 2)
* Treads of Cthon (Mephisto)
* Tancred's Crowbill (City of the Damned)
Despite losing the set bonus resists, Sigon's Guard replaced Cleglaw's Claw on my Crushflange switch. Sigon's is a great shield for act boss fights because of the high blocking (boosted even further by the +1 to Holy Shield). I have now invested in enough DEX for max blocking, which isn't hard for a Paladin with such a shield.
I haven't tried Sigon's gloves yet. I like the slowing on Cleglaw's, even if it's only of use against any boss type of monster. Everything else get frozen by Axe of Fechmar. OTOH, I won't get the nice IAS bonus on the gloves as long as I want to use a two-hander. For that. I need to find another Sigon's piece first.
I've moved Arctic Furs to my merc and have equipped a 3s Breast Plate, currently with two perfect topazes. Only against act bosses will I switch back. Since they don't regenerate, I can get the MF for both items if I am patient.
I didn't have more than 25% lightning resist against Diablo. That was still not too bad since blocking was maxed (the lightning hose is half physical damage anyway). Fire resist maxed, of course. Crushflange and my helm do that by themselves.
[Highlight]Beren the (for now) Holy Shock Paladin and Jemali the Prayer guard, level 35, Harrogath[/Highlight]
Wolfswift and Gulzar have made it to Upper Kurast waypoint and have managed to find several more items to round out their kit. Adventuring has gotten a whole lot more enjoyable for the pair of travelers, after many more S/U items they had often heard about sitting around the fire starting popping up all over the place!
--Sszark the Burning dropped the Cleglaw's Tooth, but Wolfswift kept using his flail for the time being.
--Next up some Flayer Unique boss dropped some 31MF Chance Guards.
--They then popped a chest in the Flayer Jungle and found an Infernal Torch wand, which forced Wolfswift to sell his ruby socketed flail and don the strange Necromancer weapon in his switch hand with the Swordback Hold.
--In the Ruined Temple they found another Cathan's mask with 1 higher Defense, so they sold the previous one.
--Another chest in the sewers delivered the Cathan's Mesh, so Gulzar was set up with this and the mask which gave him some fire damage and now Wolfswift would elect to wear the Berserker's helm and the only remaining Topaz enhanced armor.
--Wolfswift chased down a unique Zealot boss at the beginning of the Kurast Bizarre and it paid off when he dropped a pair of Sander's gloves, which we also elected to sell. It's hard to beat the Chance Guards with anything other than some LoH gloves and we are up to our eyeballs in gloves at the moment.
--In the Forgotten Temple yet another chest hidden in the final corner opened and there was a lovely Griswold's Edge glowing bright red, so Wolfswift elected to start giving that a whirl, since he wasn't wearing the Cleglaw's pincers anyway during their regular battles. It felt light and well balanced, but he found the knockback to be rather annoying unless he found himself surrounded at a stairwell entrance like what happened in this very place. He quickly threw on the Cleglaw's pincers, which provided all the right blend of bonuses he required to slice his way back to Gulzar's position.
We thought this little fellow's name was catchy, but he didn't drop anything useful.
View attachment 1428
EDIT: To avoid a double post, since it looks like everyone else is playing some other tournament at the moment. I will add that Wolfswift and Gulzar have easily beat the Council, Mephisto and Diablo. Just prior to getting to the Hell Forge Wolfswift earned the Fanaticism skill, which didn't appear to make a huge difference yet compared to the 1-point Concentration from before. Perhaps a slightly faster attack speed, but more likely for Gulzar to get interrupted. However with the Griswold's Edge knockback even the Undars didn't pose much of a threat for Wolfswift, after landing the first hit in the five hit sequence they would be stun locked till death. The only drops worth mentioning were two Isenhart's swords and a Tancred's helm. Hell Forge dropped some gems and a Thul.
Wolfswift and Gulzar, Level 35, Harrogath
--Sszark the Burning dropped the Cleglaw's Tooth, but Wolfswift kept using his flail for the time being.
--Next up some Flayer Unique boss dropped some 31MF Chance Guards.
--They then popped a chest in the Flayer Jungle and found an Infernal Torch wand, which forced Wolfswift to sell his ruby socketed flail and don the strange Necromancer weapon in his switch hand with the Swordback Hold.
--In the Ruined Temple they found another Cathan's mask with 1 higher Defense, so they sold the previous one.
--Another chest in the sewers delivered the Cathan's Mesh, so Gulzar was set up with this and the mask which gave him some fire damage and now Wolfswift would elect to wear the Berserker's helm and the only remaining Topaz enhanced armor.
--Wolfswift chased down a unique Zealot boss at the beginning of the Kurast Bizarre and it paid off when he dropped a pair of Sander's gloves, which we also elected to sell. It's hard to beat the Chance Guards with anything other than some LoH gloves and we are up to our eyeballs in gloves at the moment.
--In the Forgotten Temple yet another chest hidden in the final corner opened and there was a lovely Griswold's Edge glowing bright red, so Wolfswift elected to start giving that a whirl, since he wasn't wearing the Cleglaw's pincers anyway during their regular battles. It felt light and well balanced, but he found the knockback to be rather annoying unless he found himself surrounded at a stairwell entrance like what happened in this very place. He quickly threw on the Cleglaw's pincers, which provided all the right blend of bonuses he required to slice his way back to Gulzar's position.
We thought this little fellow's name was catchy, but he didn't drop anything useful.
View attachment 1428
EDIT: To avoid a double post, since it looks like everyone else is playing some other tournament at the moment. I will add that Wolfswift and Gulzar have easily beat the Council, Mephisto and Diablo. Just prior to getting to the Hell Forge Wolfswift earned the Fanaticism skill, which didn't appear to make a huge difference yet compared to the 1-point Concentration from before. Perhaps a slightly faster attack speed, but more likely for Gulzar to get interrupted. However with the Griswold's Edge knockback even the Undars didn't pose much of a threat for Wolfswift, after landing the first hit in the five hit sequence they would be stun locked till death. The only drops worth mentioning were two Isenhart's swords and a Tancred's helm. Hell Forge dropped some gems and a Thul.
Wolfswift and Gulzar, Level 35, Harrogath
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Kestegs
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- Aug 27, 2008
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- 3
Dauntless_Train continued Charging through act 1 at a rapid pace. Well........He charged 3 times and then promptly ran out of mana... As I soon learned, Charge costs 9 mana, and I have like 30 something mana, and that's not so great. I will say that charge is an insanely satisfying skill to use though. It's especially fun when you shatter monsters with it
Hmmmm...I may have read the scroll wrong. I thought I could do it, but even the pictures were confusing to me. And I had even saved up a nearby EXP shrine just for it! Fortunately the exp shrine spawned again when I remade the game and ran back!
Countess gave me a pretty nice drop, one went immediately in a two handed sword, the other waited a couple more levels.
I can sum up my luck of finding useful things in act 1 in 1 word: awful. Upon entering the catacombs I had found only 2 chipped topazes. Found 2 in there at least though, and 1 more from Andy. She also dropped my first S/U of the act. It's not a bad axe, and I think I'll use it a bit. The hit blinds target is nice and 4 mana per kill helps with being able to charge more.
I found some creepy looking book in act 2 after killing a nasty mummy. Some guy back in town told me what a fool I was to leave it there, but I had to respectfully disagree.
Decided to go on my first gambling spree after I had killed radament. Gambled leather/hard gloves/boots. Most of the s/u's I could get could be helpful, and anything would be an upgrade to what I had of course. And low and behold, look what I found! Not that amazing, but the poison resists are welcomed for sure. This prompted me to start gambling sashes as well! The set bonus is pretty nice, and the cbf is invaluable.
I also hired a prayer guard for the act at least.
Dauntless_Train, Charging Paladin, level 21, Dry hills
Hmmmm...I may have read the scroll wrong. I thought I could do it, but even the pictures were confusing to me. And I had even saved up a nearby EXP shrine just for it! Fortunately the exp shrine spawned again when I remade the game and ran back!
Countess gave me a pretty nice drop, one went immediately in a two handed sword, the other waited a couple more levels.
I can sum up my luck of finding useful things in act 1 in 1 word: awful. Upon entering the catacombs I had found only 2 chipped topazes. Found 2 in there at least though, and 1 more from Andy. She also dropped my first S/U of the act. It's not a bad axe, and I think I'll use it a bit. The hit blinds target is nice and 4 mana per kill helps with being able to charge more.
I found some creepy looking book in act 2 after killing a nasty mummy. Some guy back in town told me what a fool I was to leave it there, but I had to respectfully disagree.
Decided to go on my first gambling spree after I had killed radament. Gambled leather/hard gloves/boots. Most of the s/u's I could get could be helpful, and anything would be an upgrade to what I had of course. And low and behold, look what I found! Not that amazing, but the poison resists are welcomed for sure. This prompted me to start gambling sashes as well! The set bonus is pretty nice, and the cbf is invaluable.
I also hired a prayer guard for the act at least.
Dauntless_Train, Charging Paladin, level 21, Dry hills
After Mephisto, the adventure of Ignorant continued in act 4
With around 900 hitpoints and similar amount of defense and resistances around 70%, our defensive stats were great, but it was to be noticed that our damage really started to fall short. Here are the 2 weapons used by Ignorant and Elly:
So the plan for act4 was to find new weapons. The act started with cleglaws pincers.
Not directly a weapon, but it does turn cleglaw tootk in a pretty strong weapon. However, im not planning to drop the chance guards, so sticked to Skewer of krintiz. On switch I have cleglaws tooth+skewer of krintiz. So I can witch to my other skewer of krintiz when the durability of the first one gets low. Which wasnt for nothing, because the fight vs Izual took way longer as the fight vs Mephisto and broke both my Skewers.
City of the damned dropped me my 3rd Steelgoad. Just sold it to npc this time. And then River of flame followed finally up with a higher s/u weapon:
It didnt matter how badly I wanted a better weapon, I couldnt equip this one. It simply has slow attackspeed and not enough damage to make it worth losing the mana steal and shield.
While slowly moving my way towards diablo. The oblivian knights gave me a very hard time. Cursed with decrep and slowed further by ice nukes, I could sometimes hardly move let alone deal damage. It was a struggle, but diablo was reached.
Just before fighting him I also decided to try my gamble luck at belts and boots but no luck. I saved 500k gold and decided I could better try my luck at witchwild string later, since that bow would be gamechanging. Could anyone quickly explain me what lvl would be best to gamble for that bow?
After switching to cleglaws tooth+cleglaws pincers, his first 90% hitpoints went down pretty fast. After that switched back to chance guards and Skewer to deal that last hitting blow.
Drops: A 3rd Skewer of krintiz
@Pb_pal
After picking up the charm and skewer, I went to town and talked to Tyrael and then my videocard crashed. After logging back in again, I was rolled back to the state during the fight with diablo (with cleglaw equiped), without 3rd skewer or small charm in inventory and hadnt finished my quest to kill him. I would like to continue this tournament and would like to ask if it is ok, if I clear diablos throne again at p1 without picking up items or gold (besides maybe potions and townportals). I cant prevent gaining extra xp this way.
edit: Already did this, gained about 15% xp in lvl 35. Just to troll me, diablo dropped a unique bow. This time the video loaded without crash.
Ignorant, The Conc Barbarian and Elly the fire rogue, lvl 35, Harrogath.
With around 900 hitpoints and similar amount of defense and resistances around 70%, our defensive stats were great, but it was to be noticed that our damage really started to fall short. Here are the 2 weapons used by Ignorant and Elly:
Skewer of Krintiz
Sabre
One-Hand Damage: 7 to 19
Durability: 24 of 32
Required Dexterity: 25
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 10
Sword Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 17
Fingerprint: 0x328a6fbf
+10 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+50% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Minimum Damage
+7 to Maximum Damage
7% Mana stolen per hit
Ignore Target Defense
Vidala's Barb
Long Battle Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 3 to 18
Required Dexterity: 50
Required Strength: 40
Required Level: 14
Bow Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 23
Fingerprint: 0x5e297065
Adds 1-20 lightning damage
Sabre
One-Hand Damage: 7 to 19
Durability: 24 of 32
Required Dexterity: 25
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 10
Sword Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 17
Fingerprint: 0x328a6fbf
+10 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+50% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Minimum Damage
+7 to Maximum Damage
7% Mana stolen per hit
Ignore Target Defense
Vidala's Barb
Long Battle Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 3 to 18
Required Dexterity: 50
Required Strength: 40
Required Level: 14
Bow Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 23
Fingerprint: 0x5e297065
Adds 1-20 lightning damage
So the plan for act4 was to find new weapons.
The act started with cleglaws pincers. Not directly a weapon, but it does turn cleglaw tootk in a pretty strong weapon. However, im not planning to drop the chance guards, so sticked to Skewer of krintiz. On switch I have cleglaws tooth+skewer of krintiz. So I can witch to my other skewer of krintiz when the durability of the first one gets low. Which wasnt for nothing, because the fight vs Izual took way longer as the fight vs Mephisto and broke both my Skewers.
City of the damned dropped me my 3rd Steelgoad. Just sold it to npc this time. And then River of flame followed finally up with a higher s/u weapon:
Arcanna's Deathwand
War Staff
Two-Hand Damage: 12 to 28
Durability: 37 of 50
Required Level: 15
Staff Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x72ca34fc
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
150% Damage to Undead
25% Deadly Strike
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
+50 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 5%
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
War Staff
Two-Hand Damage: 12 to 28
Durability: 37 of 50
Required Level: 15
Staff Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x72ca34fc
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
150% Damage to Undead
25% Deadly Strike
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
+50 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 5%
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
While slowly moving my way towards diablo. The oblivian knights gave me a very hard time. Cursed with decrep and slowed further by ice nukes, I could sometimes hardly move let alone deal damage. It was a struggle, but diablo was reached.
Just before fighting him I also decided to try my gamble luck at belts and boots but no luck. I saved 500k gold and decided I could better try my luck at witchwild string later, since that bow would be gamechanging. Could anyone quickly explain me what lvl would be best to gamble for that bow?
After switching to cleglaws tooth+cleglaws pincers, his first 90% hitpoints went down pretty fast. After that switched back to chance guards and Skewer to deal that last hitting blow.
Drops: A 3rd Skewer of krintiz
@Pb_pal
After picking up the charm and skewer, I went to town and talked to Tyrael and then my videocard crashed. After logging back in again, I was rolled back to the state during the fight with diablo (with cleglaw equiped), without 3rd skewer or small charm in inventory and hadnt finished my quest to kill him. I would like to continue this tournament and would like to ask if it is ok, if I clear diablos throne again at p1 without picking up items or gold (besides maybe potions and townportals). I cant prevent gaining extra xp this way.
edit: Already did this, gained about 15% xp in lvl 35. Just to troll me, diablo dropped a unique bow. This time the video loaded without crash.
Ignorant, The Conc Barbarian and Elly the fire rogue, lvl 35, Harrogath.
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jiansonz
New member
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Short Siege Bow has qlvl 43 and Witchwild String itself has qlvl 47. So clvl 52+ guarantees a high enough ilvl on the gambles for the upgrade to be possible.
Too bad about the rollback. It must be OK to do what you need to do to progess.
@kestegs - That's weird about the Cairn Stones, I've never seen that happen before. Also, terrible topaz luck, here's hoping it improves from here on out!
@EasyG - Ouch, too bad about that roll-back. Crashes are really frustrating, especially in single pass tournaments. You did right though, progressing in the least impactful way possible. Kudos for besting Diablo not once but twice!
--
Karna picked up where she left off, and cleared out the last false tomb without troubles. The true tomb was next, and we found Cathan's Mesh. This meant we had to say goodbye to our last 3-flawed topaz BP, and our MF dropped to 18%. The rest of the tomb was cleared out successfully, and we took a break to try some more gambling of chain gloves hoping desperately for some Chance Guards. No such luck, although we did score a pile of really good rares that would have been great in another tournament, Oh well! We had to stop gambling so that we had some gold left for any merc resurrections during the Duriel fight. We prepped everyone with thawing potions and went down into Duriel's chamber.
Luckily Duriel decided to focus almost entirely on the Shadow, so Mizan was free to poke him in the behind. We kept FoF hotkeyed (event hough we can't use it anymore) so that the merc could keep using it against Duriel, I'm not sure if it helped much, but I'm sure it did something. Karna smacked away with her Crushflange and before we knew it, the fight was over.
Onwards to Kurast we went, and immediately ventured out into the jungles. SSzark posed no problems, as CoS kept his minions blinded, and Mizan and the Shadow could take them all out in peace. The swampy pit presented us with our first taste of gloams, but again CoS made them harmless. We also found Arctic Mitts, which finally gave us our first S/U gloves. At least they've got some MF potential if we can score the belt.
Finally in the Flayer Jungle we hit lvl 30 and could start using Phoenix Strike and contributing to the fights. First we switched our crushflange out, as the knockback made it tough to drop meteors on the baddies' heads. We equipped Isenharts sword and Armor, as the set bonus to AR on the sword helped out with our chance to hit. So far I'm really liking Phoenix Strike. It will take some getting used to with the timing of the charges, but so far so good. Stormtree was no problem, although he did smoke the Shadow a couple times:
We nabbed the LK waypoint and are currently resting there before pushing through the rest of the act.
Other finds:
- Iratha's Belt (Currently in use)
- Shadowfang (Might be nice for an A5 merc if Mizan starts struggling, we will take a closer look if we get to Harrogath)
- Topaz count so far for A3: 1 flawed.
We are still awaiting S/U for Karna's boots, headgear, and all jewelery.
[highlight]Karna the Phoenix Strike Assassin, with Mizan the Prayer Guard - lvl 30, Lower Kurast[/highlight]
@EasyG - Ouch, too bad about that roll-back. Crashes are really frustrating, especially in single pass tournaments. You did right though, progressing in the least impactful way possible.
Kudos for besting Diablo not once but twice!--
Karna picked up where she left off, and cleared out the last false tomb without troubles. The true tomb was next, and we found Cathan's Mesh. This meant we had to say goodbye to our last 3-flawed topaz BP, and our MF dropped to 18%. The rest of the tomb was cleared out successfully, and we took a break to try some more gambling of chain gloves hoping desperately for some Chance Guards. No such luck, although we did score a pile of really good rares that would have been great in another tournament, Oh well! We had to stop gambling so that we had some gold left for any merc resurrections during the Duriel fight. We prepped everyone with thawing potions and went down into Duriel's chamber.
Luckily Duriel decided to focus almost entirely on the Shadow, so Mizan was free to poke him in the behind. We kept FoF hotkeyed (event hough we can't use it anymore) so that the merc could keep using it against Duriel, I'm not sure if it helped much, but I'm sure it did something. Karna smacked away with her Crushflange and before we knew it, the fight was over.
Onwards to Kurast we went, and immediately ventured out into the jungles. SSzark posed no problems, as CoS kept his minions blinded, and Mizan and the Shadow could take them all out in peace. The swampy pit presented us with our first taste of gloams, but again CoS made them harmless. We also found Arctic Mitts, which finally gave us our first S/U gloves. At least they've got some MF potential if we can score the belt.
Finally in the Flayer Jungle we hit lvl 30 and could start using Phoenix Strike and contributing to the fights. First we switched our crushflange out, as the knockback made it tough to drop meteors on the baddies' heads. We equipped Isenharts sword and Armor, as the set bonus to AR on the sword helped out with our chance to hit. So far I'm really liking Phoenix Strike. It will take some getting used to with the timing of the charges, but so far so good. Stormtree was no problem, although he did smoke the Shadow a couple times:
We nabbed the LK waypoint and are currently resting there before pushing through the rest of the act.
Other finds:
- Iratha's Belt (Currently in use)
- Shadowfang (Might be nice for an A5 merc if Mizan starts struggling, we will take a closer look if we get to Harrogath)
- Topaz count so far for A3: 1 flawed.
We are still awaiting S/U for Karna's boots, headgear, and all jewelery.
[highlight]Karna the Phoenix Strike Assassin, with Mizan the Prayer Guard - lvl 30, Lower Kurast[/highlight]
jiansonz
New member
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
If you like it now, you'll probably love it later.
You can't compare with FoF now (or can you? FoF works weaponless, are we allowed to go bare fisted even if we have found S/U weapons?) but in my experience, Phoenix Strike (the Meteor charge) starts to compare favourably with FoF at around spell level 5 (if FoF is level 10 or so), so late Act IV. That's where I think it starts to 'carry its own weight'.
Later on, I think it's more important to pump the CoT synergy first to deal with FI or highly fire resistant enemies. Against anything vulnerable to fire, stacked Meteors is powerful enough with only about 10 points in FoF. You can just stack a few more. Since the lightning charges only hit once or twice on each enemy, you generally need to hit more times with them than you need to do against enemies you can burn. It's also harder to deliver several lightning blasts in a row (due to under-/overcharging) so it's important that they are powerful.
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If you like it now, you'll probably love it later.
You can't compare with FoF now (or can you? FoF works weaponless, are we allowed to go bare fisted even if we have found S/U weapons?) but in my experience, Phoenix Strike (the Meteor charge) starts to compare favourably with FoF at around spell level 5 (if FoF is level 10 or so), so late Act IV. That's where I think it starts to 'carry its own weight'.
Later on, I think it's more important to pump the CoT synergy first to deal with FI or highly fire resistant enemies. Against anything vulnerable to fire, stacked Meteors is powerful enough with only about 10 points in FoF. You can just stack a few more. Since the lightning charges only hit once or twice on each enemy, you generally need to hit more times with them than you need to do against enemies you can burn. It's also harder to deliver several lighting blasts in a row (due to under-/overcharging) so it's important that they are powerful.
I haven't used FoF since I found my second S/U weapon, so I'm hazy on that. Technically yes, you can fight bare fisted if you'd like instead of donning S/U weapons, but I just continued on using them. I felt it was more in the spirit of the tournament, and progress wasn't slowed too much anyways.
So far I've dumped all my spare points into FoF (it's 10+ I believe, possibly around 12), so the meteors are doing decent damage. Not great though, as Mizan easily kills anything before I can get a couple meteors to drop on their heads (not that that's a bad thing!).
Great tip though on the Lightning synergy, I'll probably dump some points in there as I go forward to make any FI's I find in NM go down a bit easier. Also, I want to practice more with getting that 2nd charge off, and that will give me an excuse to do so.
I know PS assassins are one of your favourite builds, and so far I can definitely see why. I'm excited to see how she turns out! I forgot to add a table into my post up there, so I'll take this chance to add one in now.
--
Code:
Table of Heroes:
Forum Name Class Char Name LVL ACT Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz Paladin Beren 35 A5 Harrogath
EasyG Barbarian Ignorant 35 A5 Harrogath
Southpaw8668 Paladin Wolfswift 30 A5 Harrogath
Pb_pal Assassin Karna 30 A3 Lower Kurast
kestegs Paladin Dauntless_Train 21 A2 Dry Hills
srrw Sorceress Zoey 1 A1 Rogue Encampment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Just to note the odds of scoring that exceptional unique in a gamble: according to this http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/gamble.php (it's in german, so I hope a got the item name right), at clvl 52 it's about 0.00435% chance for every Short Battle Bow seen in gamble screen (this also needs plenty of gamble screen refreshes - if one of ten screens has this item type, an optimistic estimation I believe, it would need about 200000 screen refreshes or about 110 hours at 1 screen at every 2 seconds). That would also make, on average, more than 290 million gold spent to find one (at gamble prices from level 43, closest I could find among my characters). I don't think that's feasible single-pass. My opinion is that gambling for sets/uniques is only reasonable for normal item types.
Thanks for the detailed info's about gambling
Im aware the odds for WWS are incredible small, but the normal unique version of short battle bow would also be welcome and WWS is something I can hope for
I really like reading up here every time I come. I never played a foth paladin, charge paladin or PS assassin, so very interesting to read how they go.
Believe it or not, but I never played any barbarian at all. So this tournament is one big learning experience for me. I considered barbarians always the class that you need to build expensive runewords for and thats it. Also those weapon masteries just look frustrating playing untwinked. That is mostly why I always stayed away from barbs.
Now im playing one, I must conclude that find item skill is pretty overpowered for single pass tournies (its so overpowered that maybe it should be banned for most tournies). I find so many extra items and runes and gold (especially with chance guards). Also my barbarian is much more tanky as I expected.
Anyway here is the act5 report:
Act5 started slow due to the lack of damage, but this was soon to be changed. Started off by finding my first s/u boots. Sanders that is awesome, and like 5 seconds later I found Sanders weapon aswell. This weapon looks amazing. Very fast attackspeed, mana leech and good damage and the 2 item set bonus. But I decided once again not to use my new weapon, since the cold damage would just frustrate me whenever I shattered a monster. Also with its durability I would need to go to town every minute.
Skewer, I choose you!
Again like 1 minute further, I finally found the weapon I was looking for: Civerbs cudgel! It kinda tripled my DPS, and because of the synergy with the amulet I gained some nice resistances. Just had to drink manapotions now in order to use find item all the time. Allthough the damage taken goes to mana at helmet and mana regenration at amulet helped out.
From now on, I could play at a decent rate again, which was nice. Also, besides one pretty useless Isenharts parry, it stopped dropping s/u items for a while.
All this time, ignorant felt pretty immortal with its massive hitpoints, but in Abaddon there was a scary moment with a ghostly Hell lord and his friends. They did some massive damage numbers at Ignorant and the first panick rejuv was used in Ignorant career. But after slaying him he got the respect from the other monsters, and they were even hiding deep at the lava where they couldnt be reached.
In frozen river, a Tancreds weird was found, I dont have any other tancreds items yet, but this promises some massive MF for the future. Some useless piece of paper obtained for resqueing a potential new girlfriend for Ignorant was discarded when it turned out not to be a phone number.
At this point I was almost fully equiped by set items, and so it was nice to find another unique. 80 poison damage over 8 seconds seemed something Elly could use, since she was often hitting random monsters, that would just regenerate back again. It also doubled her damage from 39-98 to 119-178.
It turned out that the FRW from my passives+Sanders riprap was sufficient to split up the ancients, making them very easy.
I equiped an ethereal demonhide sash for Baal's waves and himself and after finding Irathas collar and tanking the complete Venom lord wave like a boss. The time was come to challenge Baal.
Cleglaws gloves (with the slow), were atma stashed and very soon I felt sorry for taking Baal on at /p8. But luckily at some point Baal stopped teleporting, this way it took me like 10 minutes to kill him. When he died, it turned out the real Baal was hiding and I did spend all thsi time fighting the fake Baal. Googled how to see the difference and wont make that mistake again.
After this I had to port to town few times when he cloned but eventually he died an funnily while trying to screen my defense with concentration buff, I made a screenshot exactly while executing the finishing blow. When my sword reaches Baal at that screenie, he dies (and drops 0 s/u items).
PS: Check out my max damage, sometimes monsters die in 2-3 hits.
Destroyer Ignorant's equipment going for Nightmare:
Infernal Cranium: provides me with mana, usually I dont use shout, to lower my defense and get more mana.
Civerb's Icon
Civerb's Cudgel: 8-88 damage
Cathan's Mesh
Sigon's Guard
Chance Guards
Cathans Seal
Demonhide sash (eth 2/7 dura)/Demonhide sash (normal)
Nagelring
Sander's RipRap
Switch:
Sander's Superstition: Good vs stone skin
Isenhart's Parry
Elly's Equipment:
Wormskull
Vidala's Barb
Iratha's Case
Highest rune: 5x Amn
Destroyer Ignorant, the concentration Barbarian and Elly the Fire rogue, level 48, The Rogue Encampment (NM)
Im aware the odds for WWS are incredible small, but the normal unique version of short battle bow would also be welcome and WWS is something I can hope for
I really like reading up here every time I come. I never played a foth paladin, charge paladin or PS assassin, so very interesting to read how they go.
Believe it or not, but I never played any barbarian at all. So this tournament is one big learning experience for me. I considered barbarians always the class that you need to build expensive runewords for and thats it. Also those weapon masteries just look frustrating playing untwinked. That is mostly why I always stayed away from barbs.
Now im playing one, I must conclude that find item skill is pretty overpowered for single pass tournies (its so overpowered that maybe it should be banned for most tournies). I find so many extra items and runes and gold (especially with chance guards). Also my barbarian is much more tanky as I expected.
Anyway here is the act5 report:
Act5 started slow due to the lack of damage, but this was soon to be changed
. Started off by finding my first s/u boots. Sanders that is awesome, and like 5 seconds later I found Sanders weapon aswell. This weapon looks amazing. Very fast attackspeed, mana leech and good damage and the 2 item set bonus. But I decided once again not to use my new weapon, since the cold damage would just frustrate me whenever I shattered a monster. Also with its durability I would need to go to town every minute.Skewer, I choose you!
Again like 1 minute further, I finally found the weapon I was looking for: Civerbs cudgel! It kinda tripled my DPS, and because of the synergy with the amulet I gained some nice resistances. Just had to drink manapotions now in order to use find item all the time. Allthough the damage taken goes to mana at helmet and mana regenration at amulet helped out.
From now on, I could play at a decent rate again, which was nice. Also, besides one pretty useless Isenharts parry, it stopped dropping s/u items for a while.
All this time, ignorant felt pretty immortal with its massive hitpoints, but in Abaddon there was a scary moment with a ghostly Hell lord and his friends. They did some massive damage numbers at Ignorant and the first panick rejuv was used in Ignorant career. But after slaying him he got the respect from the other monsters, and they were even hiding deep at the lava where they couldnt be reached.
In frozen river, a Tancreds weird was found, I dont have any other tancreds items yet, but this promises some massive MF for the future. Some useless piece of paper obtained for resqueing a potential new girlfriend for Ignorant was discarded when it turned out not to be a phone number.
At this point I was almost fully equiped by set items, and so it was nice to find another unique. 80 poison damage over 8 seconds seemed something Elly could use, since she was often hitting random monsters, that would just regenerate back again. It also doubled her damage from 39-98 to 119-178.
It turned out that the FRW from my passives+Sanders riprap was sufficient to split up the ancients, making them very easy.
I equiped an ethereal demonhide sash for Baal's waves and himself and after finding Irathas collar and tanking the complete Venom lord wave like a boss. The time was come to challenge Baal.
Cleglaws gloves (with the slow), were atma stashed and very soon I felt sorry for taking Baal on at /p8. But luckily at some point Baal stopped teleporting, this way it took me like 10 minutes to kill him. When he died, it turned out the real Baal was hiding and I did spend all thsi time fighting the fake Baal. Googled how to see the difference and wont make that mistake again.
After this I had to port to town few times when he cloned but eventually he died an funnily while trying to screen my defense with concentration buff, I made a screenshot exactly while executing the finishing blow. When my sword reaches Baal at that screenie, he dies (and drops 0 s/u items).
PS: Check out my max damage, sometimes monsters die in 2-3 hits.
Destroyer Ignorant's equipment going for Nightmare:
Infernal Cranium: provides me with mana, usually I dont use shout, to lower my defense and get more mana.
Civerb's Icon
Civerb's Cudgel: 8-88 damage
Cathan's Mesh
Sigon's Guard
Chance Guards
Cathans Seal
Demonhide sash (eth 2/7 dura)/Demonhide sash (normal)
Nagelring
Sander's RipRap
Switch:
Sander's Superstition: Good vs stone skin
Isenhart's Parry
Elly's Equipment:
Wormskull
Vidala's Barb
Iratha's Case
Highest rune: 5x Amn
Destroyer Ignorant, the concentration Barbarian and Elly the Fire rogue, level 48, The Rogue Encampment (NM)
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Great update EasyG. It will be interesting to follow his progress into NM. I've only played one tournament barbarian as well, but I can say I do plan on playing another because he was quite powerful.
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