All Alone Tournament III

I knew I wouldn't be able to resist joining, especially after seeing so many players progressing along nicely! I chose a CS zon for a few reasons: to avenge my zon in the original All Alone, to avenge my CS zon in the Melee Blues tourney, and for her ability to steamroll throughout Norm and NM. I've completed about a week's worth of play with her.

Introducing Asteria, the (impatient) CS zon, who won't even pause to give sweet old Akara the time of day. Unlike most of my starter characters that focus on MF, Asteria's only early concerns were +mana, +mana per kill, and some poison length reduction. From level 6, every available skill point went to Power Strike. 1 or 2 hits killed most p8 monsters, even the stubborn Ghostly Ghost. I have no endgame plans for this skill, just the synergy value. After level 18, I focused on CS. My mana drained quick, but my capacity was high, so I never ran out. Melee javelins last forever, no problems there. By the time I fought Andariel, I had ample poison length reduction, including Cleglaw's Shield. Her poisonings were comically short green blips. I had far more trouble with a certain Afflicted Boss, an unexpected LI! I had to kill him with junk off the ground, and used all my reds/purples!

Near the end of Act 2, I went with a new armor plan. I placed 6 Tir runes in a ring mail and large shield. Nice! As the hordes of undead dropped, my blue bulb rocketed upwards. I had 2 ID tomes, so I ID'ed nearly all the blue stuff that I might otherwise ignore. I went from 40 scrolls to less than 10, and back to 40 thanks to the Arcane ghosts.

Acts 3 and 4 were a blur. I continued pumping CS, after a brief pause to acquire a level 1 valk. I needed her to absorb the flayer hits which were locking me up and causing CS misfires. (Also, my resists, blocking, and D/A/E were atrocious). I reluctantly left the useful Crushflange on the ground. I don't think Asteria will need it for bosses.

I maxed CS during Act 5, which provided sick damage. Stray bolts often 1-hit killed p8 monsters. Asteria was a whirlwind of destruction, leaving her valk in the dust. Outta my way, stupid slowpoke barbarians! p8 Ancients took about 20 seconds! :thumbsup: Baal cloned early and teleported a lot, but Asteria's pathfinding kept her on top of him, poking away.

I got an early gift in NM, a 4s full plate mail! I wish I'd added the Ort rune before the PSapph; Asteria looks like a robot Smurfette! Look, triplets! At one point, I had a matching blue maiden javelin. I constantly rerolled my spare stack, looking for good mods.

My highest priority was to make a Rhyme, and to upgrade my belt. Both of which require a Shael rune. I collected 3 Sols, and lacked the freakin' sapphire chip to cube a Shael!! Andy didn't drop it, 2 gem shrines failed me, and in the meantime I found 2 more Sols! Each rune displaced a vital item I was storing. I had to dump a Dim Vision ring, a 5% crimson SC, and prematurely repair my gloves and boots with Rals. Finally, in the Ancient Tunnels, I caught a huge break. Losing my 3-Tir shield caused my first mana shortage, and I had to fight p8 Fangskin w/o blues. I equipped my max mana gear, which sufficed. I also leveled to 57. :smiley: Stash space is critical, so I've left the staff in its chest. I'll leave the game running, and fetch it when needed.

[highlight]Destroyer Asteria, 1.11 CS Amazon, level 57, Act 2 NM, Jerhyn's Palace[/highlight]
Str 82, Dex 129, Vitality 138 (550 life), Energy 16 (236 mana, can be much higher)
CS Damage: 7 bolts, 1-752 damage per bolt
Javelin skills
Passive skills
Resists: 75/56/73/20
Chance to block: 69%

[highlight]Gear:[/highlight]
lame Ceremonial Javelins which get rerolled
weapon switch: War Javelin of Replenishing

Death Mask <---- not too shabby :wink2:
Full Helm
Defense: 41
Durability: 30 of 30
Required Level: 18
Required Strength: 41
Fingerprint: 0xf708f245
Item Level: 36
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+1 to Energy
55% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +29%
56 to Mana (Based on Char Lvl)
Repairs 1 Durability in 20 Seconds

Gemmed Full Plate Mail
Full Plate Mail
Defense: 154
Durability: 32 of 70 <----- love that durability!
Required Level: 21
Required Strength: 80
Fingerprint: 0xd07aed1f
Item Level: 40
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+69 to Mana
Lightning Resist +30%
4 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Perfect Sapphire
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Flawless Sapphire

Goldwrap
Heavy Belt
Defense: 34
Durability: 14 of 18
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 45
Fingerprint: 0x75b9df5
Item Level: 47
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
41% Enhanced Defense
+25 Defense
66% Extra Gold from Monsters
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Light Radius
10% Increased Attack Speed

Soul Hold <----- outstanding gift from Andariel!!!
Chain Gloves
Defense: 8
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Level: 35
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0x4bd07126
Item Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+2 to Strength
+14 to Mana
Fire Resist +21%
Poison Resist +16%
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
20% Increased Attack Speed

Hailstone Shank <--- can't complain, but I could really use some R/W. Asteria is s-l-o-w.
Greaves
Defense: 24
Durability: 22 of 24
Required Level: 18
Required Strength: 70
Fingerprint: 0xeb85298d
Item Level: 46
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
56% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +34%
Poison Resist +19%
9% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Half Freeze Duration

Rhyme
Tower Shield
Defense: 23
Durability: 49 of 60 <---- more sweet durability!
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 75
Fingerprint: 0xbcfd152
Item Level: 31
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
All Resistances +25
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
40% Faster Block Rate
Cannot Be Frozen
15% Regenerate Mana
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Eth Rune

Snake's Amulet of Fortune
Amulet
Required Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x79642b64
Item Level: 46
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+10 to Mana
24% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Fortuitous Ring
Ring
Required Level: 8
Fingerprint: 0x6e1ac735
Item Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
14% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Ring of Chance
Ring
Required Level: 9
Fingerprint: 0x8772221f
Item Level: 39
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
14% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Charms:
Cobalt (23) Grand Charm
Cobalt (25) Grand Charm of Pestilence (+25 poison damage / 5 sec)
Garnet (25) Grand Charm
Ruby (27) Grand Charm
Shivering (5-7) Large Charm of Substinence (18)
Crimson (4) Small Charm of Life (10)
Russet Small (7) Charm of Greed
Ocher (7) Small Charm of Life (6)
Ocher (6) Small Charm of Dexterity (2)
Ocher (6) Small Charm
Tangerine (5) Small Charm of Flame
Lapis (7) Small Charm of the Icicle (2-4)
Lapis (6) Small Charm
Azure (5) Small Charm
Azure (5) Small Charm

In storage:
Acrobat's Amulet
Prismatic (18) Amulet of Enlightenment (26 energy)
Snake's Amulet of Regrowth (Replenish Life 10, for emergencies)
Wyrm's Ring (54 mana)
Cobalt (23) Ring of Strength
Coral (23) Ring
Garnet (29) Ring of Protection
Rare Ring: +35 Mana, +74 AR, Poison Resist +28%, +1 Radius, Half Freeze
Runes: Hel, Io, Sol(2), Ral
PDiamond
Ruby Jewel with 30% fire resist
Nightsmoke Belt (8/16 durability)
 
NM Radament is dead. No real scares during the session, but Evangelina faced some things that annoyed her:

* Lots of Burning Dead, especially meleers. Very high fire resistance (the mages are even immune). This means it´s hard for the Shadow to kill packs of them without dying first. This means I need to use more Blade Fury (or go in and use PS myself, but I want to avoid that because my Flanged Mace only has 20 durability left).

* Excessive Blade Fury use drains a lot of mana if the monsters are non-leechable.

Couple that with few mana potions dropping, and I was craving mana a lot. Some shrines were very helpful, as was letting the Shadow use Fade. Fade made all the types of Burning Dead much less deadly to her, and I could stand around recovering mana a lot more. Shadow Warrior provides the only way that lets you take advantage of BoS and Fade at the same time. :azn:




Welcome to the tourney, Wayne. Interesting progress for you so far. :thumbsup:
Interesting how much happiness a chipped sapphire can produce...



On the topic of getting stuck, Evngelina was close to doing something really stupid in Kurast Sewers in Normal. There was a pack of Preserved Dead on one of those little 'plus'-shaped islands. Without thinking, I Dragon Flighted over to it and killed them. I am so used to having a big stack of TP scrolls that I didn´t realize I would be stuck on this island if no monsters were in sight. I tried DFing to all the edges of the screen. In one place, it seemed like the game tried to let me do a DF, but failed. Probably some monsters close by. I dropped a Lightning Sentry, and that drew the monster into the screen, and I could get away!
 
jiansonz said:
Interesting how much happiness a chipped sapphire can produce...
Click to expand...
It surely did, I was delighted. :grin: I not only acquired the awesome properties of Rhyme (which nearly doubled my blocking), I also reclaimed 4 precious units of storage space.
The tower shield weight penalty is a bummer. Asteria has heavy armor and a heavy shield and no faster run/walk. The stamina penalty is noticeable.
 
Warnie has made it to the Outer Cloister, and there his journey ended.

I was actually doing ok, got into a nice position, started plucking away with the bow, seemingly safe out of the charged bolt stream, and then the red bulb plummeted. I raced in a panic for the purples and frickin' pressed 3 (purples on 1,2 and 4).

Apparently I was in an invisible stream of bolts. We all know it can happen, but I'm a bit bummed it did. Still, I should have made it through, but it wasn't to be. Oh well, it was a good run while it lasted.

Good luck to those who remain!

Code: 
[highlight]Alive Characters[/highlight]  
[b][u]Forum Name      Character       Build      Class        LVL   ACT         WP   [/u][/b]     
OldSoldier      Princess_Diana  MA/LF       Amazon      65  A5 NM    Frigid Highlands
Mursilis        Anubis          Summoner    Necromancer 63  A5 NM    Harrogath
skoolbus        OneFingaPushup  Trapper     Assassin    52  A2 NM    Lut Gholein
jiansonz        Evangelina      Phoenix     Assassin    52  A2 NM    Lut Gholein Encampment
Breaker         Nosiop          Poison      Necromancer 36  A5 Norm  Frigid Highlands
Chern           All_Alone       Summoner    Druid       33  A4 Norm  River of Flame
Zodwizard       HC_Rainwalker   Fire-Hunter Druid       29  A4 Norm  Pand Fortress
Anraxas         To_easy         Summoner    necro       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Crazy_Bear      Jane_Doe        Javazon     Amazon      28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
WestXylophone   SoloFirer       HolyFire    Paladin     26  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
SinningThings   Rapunzel        Trapsin     Assassin    25  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
stephan         Louise                      Assassin    23  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Silverslasher   Forlorn         fire/summon Druid       28  A3 Norm  Kurast Docks
Cygnus          Lycus           Hammers     Paladin     25  A2 Norm  Harem
Friiser         HCAll_Alone     Summoner    Necro       22  A2 Norm  Far Oasis
Docturnal       Angriez         Fishyzon    Zon         21  A2 Norm  Rocky Waste
Ron             Bamboozle       Passive     Amazon      17  A2 Norm  Sewers Level 2
San             Sigrdrifa       PsnJava/MA  Zon         21  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
thewamp         Athena          PJ/FA       Amazon      20  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Tweety          Remi            Boner       Necromancer 19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Brak            Tojolobal       Quesodin    Paladin     19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein
Ohomemgrande    Lonely          Trapper     Assassin    19  A2 Norm  Lut Gholein  
Credge          YinMKII         --          Necro       17  A1 Norm  Jail Level 1
Hoop76          Lone_Ranger                 Paladin     15  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
ZeN             DieAlone        Fishy       Necro       14  A1 Norm  Outer Cloister
GreyEagle       LoneEagle       Trapper     Assassin    17  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highlands
mjosh           Electrolyte     light sorc  Sorceress   15  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Feared          April_Ethereal  Summoner    Necro        ?  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
Farfus          Farfus          Healbot     Paladin     12  A1 Norm  Stony Field
FromBeyond      HesHardcore                 Barbarian   11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
SonOfBaal       IHateYouAll     Trap/Summon Assassin    11  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Quickdeath      Eve             Cold        Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Sindus          LonelyMaiden    Enchantress Sorc         7  A1 Norm  Stony Field
Chizz           Trapper         ?           Assassin     6  A1 Norm  Stony Field
AlienBoyz       DocWho          Summoner    Necro       12  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Chymaera        Marius II       BlizBolt    Sorceress   10  A1 Norm  Cold Plain 
Liquidcore      ThaDru          Wind/fire   Druid        6  A1 Norm  Cold Plains
Vang            WirtsOldMan                 Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
tripsu          InsaneEnvy                  Amazon       1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
rY xD           Illidan         Berzerker   Barbarian    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
adny            Scorch          Hydrasorc   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Gabriel74       Smelly          Lightning   Sorceress    1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Retawd          Sinistral       --          Assassin     1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp
Darkstrikes     lighamus                    Amazon       1  A1 Norm  Rogue Camp

Dead Characters
Forum Name      Character       Build       Class       LVL   ACT         WP         
Butzull         Warnie          Hunter      Druid       75  A1 Hell  Outer Cloister
Breaker         PokePoke        Lancebarb   Barb        36  A4 Norm  River of Flame  
inSTAALed       EmoPhil         Ele         Druid       28  A4 Norm  River of Flame
whoisfu         WhoIsZon                    Amazon      35  A4 Norm  Chaos Sanctuary
jiansonz        Kevin           HF Zealot   Paladin     31  A3 Norm  Disused Reliquary
Silverslasher   Sizzlingpain    Trap        Assassin    28  A3 Norm  Kurast
EmperorMoo      GumbyKicksAss   Golemancer  Necro       26  A3 Norm  Flayer Jungle
Jabash          RunAway         Blade/Shdw  Assasin     28  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Anraxas         ibone_alone     ranger      Paladin     27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
newco           KissMyBoots     Hybrid      Assassin    27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
Crazy_Bear      Silent_Bob      Psn/Mage    Necromancer 27  A2 Norm  Duriel's Chamber
EmperorMoo      BertieWooster   Summoner    Necromancer 25  A2 Norm  Duriel's chamber
Sindus          Sindus          Comando     Necro       25  A2 Norm  Summoner
inSTAALed       HumanMeatBlock  Con         Barb        21  A2 Norm  Halls of Dead
Colorless Green Omega                       Assassin    21  A2 Norm  Halls/Dead2
EJB             WheresEveryone              Druid       22  A2 Norm  Radament
EmperorMoo      GotArrers       Mageazon    Amazon      21  A2 Norm  Radamant  
ShockTactics    Frostshock      Frostadin   Paladin     20  A2 Norm  Radamant
Chymaera        Marius          BlizBolt    Sorceress   14  A1 Norm  Black Marsh
chizz           Chizzy          Summoner    Necro       11  A1 Norm  Jail level 1
EmperorMoo      Wordsworth      Summon      Necromancer 11  A1 Norm  Tamoe Highland
Anraxas         ibone_alone     bone        Necro        8  A1 Norm  Countess
Liquidcore      FightingLove    Sniperzon   Amazon       6  A1 Norm  Stony Field

Butz. :dunce:
 
R.I.P. Warnie. :hanky:

What an annoying way to go down!

It was indeed a good run. Clearing out act 5 NM on a high players setting is a good achievement for any character.
 
RIP Warnie, you got Baal twice, which is more than anyone else, so far at least. Good work Butz! Princess_Diana has been parked for a while now, still waiting to finish up my other, more advanced, tourney character. We'll all do the next act in Warnie's honor.

edit: I did find a ko rune under a rock last night... with my other tournament character. Ugh! That'd make Princess_Diana go about 5 times faster through this slow as molasses game!
 
Last edited:
RIP Warnie, you gave it a fantastic run. Any plan of trying to avenge his death?

Welcome Wayne, nice to have the reigning All Alone champion enter.
 
RIP Warnie

That is a crappy way to go... invisible bolts. On the other hand, you had a great run and impressive results for a limited char. I only hope that I can make it nearly as far.

Welcome Wayne! Amazing progress so quickly... I'm impressed she can keep CS rolling so well, but then with all those Tir's I guess it's pretty straight forward.

Right now Jane Doe is at the City of the Damned WP, ready to enter the RoF. She was fortunate to find a gem shrine in the plains of despair that allowed her to upgrade a flawless amethyst to perfect, so now she just needs a thul to upgrade the belt to get the extra slots. (Hoping for a lucky HF drop here) As well, a large number of gems are dropping, meaning more decisions on gem selection. The standards are good for rerolling as well, but flawless and chippies only can be used to reroll javelins... gotta save space for those chippies. She is keeping no extra potions outside the belt as its not too dangerous yet, but it could come back to haunt her if she gets stuck somewhere.

CB
 
RIP Warnie... an unexpected death for sure. I was looking forward to reading your adventures in Act 2 Hell. Better luck next time.

crazy_bear said:
Welcome Wayne! Amazing progress so quickly... I'm impressed she can keep CS rolling so well, but then with all those Tir's I guess it's pretty straight forward.
Click to expand...
The Tir technique was fantastic for the last 5 Acts. The only time I came close to a mana shortage was Act 4 against dense packs of Abyss Knights (highly lightning resistant even in Normal). Every other monster-type dropped like flies, which greatly prolonged my durabilities even though I'm a melee fighter.

Now I've had to move past the Tir approach. My armor/shield needed upgrading anyway, and the p8 monsters are a bit tougher with more resistance mods. I've switched to raw +mana. I can easily equip ~400 if needed. At that point, regen is respectable for CS. Also I have the Nightsmoke available, which quickly converts life to mana, in a pinch. When I find/cube a Shael, I'll have to decide between upgrading Goldwrap or Nightsmoke. Tough choice. For these two, I left a String of Ears lying on the ground. (It rolled poorly.)
 
Thanks for the condolences everyone...but strangely, this death didn't bite too hard, probably because I felt pretty good about what he'd accomplished rather than focussing on the "what may have been".

skoolbus said:
RIP Warnie, you gave it a fantastic run. Any plan of trying to avenge his death?
Click to expand...


That's an interesting question, and one I gave thought to last night. If I can plan out a build that gives me a reasonable chance to make it nearly as far as Warnie (or dare I dream...further), I'll probably give it a go.

I think, for me, without a Merc, a castable companion is a pre-requisite. I did lose my Septavirate Amazon recently, so that might be a goer. I could also track my progress against Insane Wayne's Zon (and incidentally used some of his previous posts to tailor my updates...a picture tells a thousand words, and Wayne's updates are good reads!).

Even though I pretty much know how I would normally build a CS/LF/FA Zon, I wish there was a skill planner spreadsheet or website that didn't look "gamey" so I could have a play around at work and see if I wanted to make any changes from the Norm to get through the challenges of this tournament. ;)

Butz. :dunce:



 
Ok I've been reading this thread for well over an hour and have decided to register to this site for this tournament alone. I haven't a clue as to what i'll make yet, but it will be well thought out. I will post my decision soon as I can't wait to begin.
 
Looks like 'zons are all the rage right now. I have to admit, I expect to see some more trappers out there at the top, but maybe the mana is too much to handle?

Well, Princess_Diana took a turn at handling the evils of the world last night and did pretty well. She hadn't heard from (or seen) Warnie in a long time but had this strange sensation that something bad had happened, so she decided to take it out on the demon she considered responsible for all this mess, or at least some of his highest-ranked lieutenants. She resumed her quest from the Crystal Passage, looking high and low for four things: a ko rune, sigon's boots, a two socketed armor, and a nef rune. Well, she searched through all of the side areas of the crystal passage, glacial trail, frozen tundra, and ancient's way but could not find any of the runes or sigon's boots. She did find a sweet 2 socketed mage plate but left it on the ground because of the lack of a nef rune to make Smoke. DANG. She didn't want to lose out on the 30%IAS, 10% res all, 24% MF and mana that the current full plate was providing, so on the ground it stayed.

She also left on the ground, in the span of no more than 2 minutes, both Rattlecage and Humongous (total: 58% Crushing Blow). She just isn't built for that kind of thing; leaving the Rattlecage was tough because it is so close to Baal and the CB would be really handy, but the chance to flee would create random stragglers in her clearing of areas, and that's just dangerous. Thinking about it now, I'd probably switch it out until I could find the nef and 2 socket armor, but whoops too late.

I thought about staying at higher players setting for the ancients (she's at 70) but dropped it down because well, you just never know. I went into the fight with 15 full rejuv potions, 2 heal potions, 2 mana potions, 40 short spears, and 2 town portals (made space for those by dropping two flawless diamonds- who needs those at a time like this!?!). None of them rolled with tough mods - no immunities whatsoever, and only one was CE.

Princess_Diana threw up her decoy, touched the altar and ran to the bottom of the screen, leaving the decoy to be nearly instantly pummeled. The valk valiantly engaged Korlic and Talic, which Madawc moved about 5 yards away and started throwing things at the valk. I stood at the bottom of the summit area and tossed lightning fury javelins at Madawc which split and hit both of the others. I don't think that any of them pierced because no bolts ever came back down toward me afterward. That's OK, because by the time I even checked the two ancients who were meleeing the valk, one was down and the other was about two hits from the same fate. The only danger was Madawc who periodically decided to throw some axes at Princess_Diana. He'd turn around, and I could move her out of the line of fire slightly, and he'd go back to the valkyrie. Easy! In total I'd used both mana potions to keep the javelins flying and the valkyrie finished off Madawc.

Princess_Diana dropped her two town portal scrolls, decided to forego the 30% FHR ethereal bladebuckle (3 durabilty remained) for the belt she'd been dragging around in the cube for a while now, and upgraded it to a battle belt (using her only ral, thul and perf amethyst, but it was WELL worth the items as she now has a belt with 119 defense, +33 life, good fire and cold resist, 17% FHR and self repair). She continued to the WSK 2 WP and stopped there because it was almost midnight local time. Her resistances are all in the 30s (I think) except poison which hasn't been an issue yet. She's at level 71 and on her way to Baal's throne to keep the fight going. I just need to re-read my lessons learned from the last fight.
 
Evangelina had a nice little stroll in the desert, with some good item luck. First monster killed dropped an Amn rune, she found a Goldskin in Stony Tomb, and an urn in there dropped Evangelina´s first Shael, completing an awesome 40 durability Rhyme Tower Shield.

She also found an interesting rare circlet. Big emphasis on 'offensive' affixes: +1-109 lightning damage, +4 minimum damage, +AR (straight bonus) and the "Hawkeye" ability (big plus to AR based on level). Would have been great for a merc, but the precarious stack space situation made me leave both that and Goldskin on the ground. If I find a Hel rune, I can later customize the rare Breast Plate for even better resists (at least against two elements).

Evangelina then ran screaming to the Dry Hills WP and ended the short session.


I am only a few XP and a Ral or Ort rune away from wielding an upgraded version of the rare War Hammer as Blade Fury weapon.
 
I finished a weird trip through the Arcane Sanctuary, refilling my ID tomes along the way (thanks ghosts!). I've been ID'ing every shield, knife, wand, and staff, looking for useful charges. Quite a few unexpected and potentially useful items dropped, which caused a stash crisis and forced me to leave some stuff. I might've spent more time pondering what to keep than it took to wipe out the level!

Maiden Javelin of Replenishing. My new weapon. Like all the zon javs so far, it only has +1 skills. I'm no longer reliant on gems for jav reroll "repairs".
Jewel of Fervor. I made room for this. In case I dump Goldwrap, I can maintain minimum 30% off-weapon IAS.
Chipped Sapphire. Keeper. I have 2 Sols. One more and I'll cube another Shael for a belt upgrade.
Circlet of Teleportation. From a bonus chest at the end of a wing! This thing totally threw a monkey wrench into my stash situation. Do I really need it? I thought about all the potential stairtraps waiting for me. Without emergency portal parking, teleport might be my only hope. Memories of my original All Alone zon, pinned helplessly by Fangskin, clinched it. I had to keep it.

Now the hard part: what to abandon! I remembered a flawed gem from the previous wing. I fetched it, and used a Ral to recharge the Circlet to 22 charges. A bit wasteful (it had 7 charges), but I recovered an inventory space. I pitched my Shivering LC of Sustenance and an Azure SC. A level 2 Dim Vision Ring also failed to make the cut. No big loss. The duration is too short to be very useful anyway.

[highlight]Destroyer Asteria, 1.11 CS Amazon, level 58, Act 2 NM, Canyon of the Magi[/highlight]
 
I'm insatiable. Spinster the Zon entered the world last night and made it to the Outer Cloister (the site of Warnie's demise) in one sitting.

She had a few issues in the Countess' tower. There were three archer boss packs at various places, one might, one extra fast and one Holy Fire. By the time they were all dealt with, I had gone from about 15 little rejuvs to 1. There were no out and out NDEs, but there were a couple of bits that were slightly too close for comfort, and had the potential to escalate if unlucky.

As would be blatantly obvious to all, I can't wait until at the very least the Decoy comes along, but particularly the Valk. She might be Spinster by name and by nature, but certainly not of her own chosing. ;)

Butz. :dunce:
 
Jane_Doe continues to press on through normal difficulty, though it's Baal's turn to be dealt with now. Act 4 was completed uneventfully, with plague javelin being used to safely kill most monsters. The occasional one got picked off with the arrows as well. After a scare in the Chaos sanctuary, low on arrows and low on javelins when nothing dropped for her she finally put the 1 pt into magic arrow. Hopefully she won't regret it later, but at least she knows she have something as long as she has mana. Going back a bit, she got an eld from the hellforge, which she promtly ignored, but she is slowly building up a few runes, and a good number of gems.
Anyway, back to the Chaos Sanctuary, the seal packs were all easy. She had a worry when it came to the balrog pack, but decoy allowed her get around them and then pick them off leisurely. After the last pack but before D I switched the players setting to 3, remembering the long battle with Izzy. It was probably a saving change for her, as the battle still took a long time, and while waiting for the poison to work she would get caught by D's fire nova. She didn't have great fire resists, so it was a continual drain on her healing potions. As well, the valk didn't even last 10 seconds vs D, so that was no help. In the end, there were no scary moments, but she was down to 1 healing potion left, after using all she had and collecting all that could be found in the sanctuary. The only item worth mentioning that D dropped was a self repairing 11 res all gothic shield. Jane_Doe seems pretty lucky with the self repair mod. Anyway, this became her new shield and it was on to act 5.
She started Act 5, discovering that the catapults (PsnI) were a pain, but not too bad. As well the monsters in act 5 tend to have a lot of life, so the poison was acting slowly. However, she is continuing at P8 and has done full clears up to the Crystalline Passage. The WP for the Plateau was near the start of the plateau, so she did a sprint to the passage WP using the decoy to get past some of the nastier spots. And next session she will resume from there

CB

PS I think she is cursed, not one magical maiden javelin yet....
 
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account
Remove Ads - Go PurePremium

Latest posts

Back
Top