All Alone Tournament III

jiansonz said:
One thing is for sure: throwing weapons last a very long time - in melee.

Like you said, it´s a good utility skill that has some quirky uses. But I would keep its level fairly low (and instead pump Golem Mastery in that case), since you can´t really take advantage of the damage return without using up several items. This is because you can´t take a TP to town to heal the golem. You can use wells to good effect though.
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I've realized the unfortunate thing about meleeing with throwing knives is that they are significantly slower than daggers. They are fast but they still feel sluggish compared to the daggers' very fast speed, especially since I need to poison key enemies quickly and run around alot. I ended up using a dagger with self-repair over a triumphant (+1 mana per kill) throwing dagger that would have lasted me indefinitely just because of the speed.

Yeah, I plan on leaving IG at 1 and putting points into Mastery. How many depends on much emphasis I put on Dim Vision. I do have a few questions about IG though. Can I use it on broken items? Also, do fancy mods like PMH work with them? If so, I might use alot of Malice golems!

Also, if I make an IG out of a shield, will it have block? Shields might be considered wodden anyway which would make it impossible...

DestroyingAngel fought his way to the Black Marsh and has had easy progress so far. While in the Stony Field, he was dealing up to 103 damage. 1-stab Rakinishu kill. He is close to dealing up to 200 at the moment. With numbers like that, clearing everything on /p8 has been easy. (Undead are slightly annoying though) He dropped the number for the Countess but she only dropped an El. No great finds so far except alot of topazes! Twelve in total! 4 are in his helm / armor right now, 2 were in a helm that broke earlier, and the other 6 are sitting pretty in his inventory.

[highlight]DestroyingAngel, level 16 Daggermancer at the Black Marsh waypoint, Tamoe Highlands next[/highlight]



 
wakiki said:
Yeah, I plan on leaving IG at 1 and putting points into Mastery. How many depends on much emphasis I put on Dim Vision. I do have a few questions about IG though. Can I use it on broken items? Also, do fancy mods like PMH work with them? If so, I might use alot of Malice golems!

Also, if I make an IG out of a shield, will it have block? Shields might be considered wodden anyway which would make it impossible...
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I don´t remember how it is in v1.10/1.11, but in 1.09 you needed a level 2 IG to get the Thorns damage. But you´ll probably have at least one +skills item anyway once you get further...

Most abilities work on items, but PMH is not one of them. Malice golems are awesome, though, because Open Wounds works.

I think you can use broken items, but I am not sure.

No, golems can not block.



 
For weapon speed, you want balanced knives, not regular throwing knives. They are very fast like daggers and can have all the great daggermancer mods, and will last very long in melee.

IGs inherit all the special mods from the items used to create them. However PMH may not work, because it is bugged and doesn't work with mercs. OW from Malice will work. I'm not positive, but I'd guess they can be made with broken items. Shields will work, and that's a common way to make IGs immune to certain elements (i.e. socketed with gems).

edit: partially pwned by jiansonz
 
Started on act 2. I was actually quite suprised at how easy it was. No NDE's and DS really helped out with the maggot guys, especially at coldworm where there was him, a boss pack and a champ pack of them. After killing him, I finally dropped my hellclap, which had served me faithfully for about two difficulty levels now, to make room for the staff, as I could not part with any three slots in my inventory. No good finds other than two antidote potions, which will probably let me go kill radament once I talk to drognan.

Stopped at the lost city wp, which is right next to the AT and the viper temple, so I'll get on those if I ever get a chance to play again :rolleyes:.

[highlight]Conqueror OneFingaPushup, level 74, Hell Lost City[/highlight]
 
DestroyingAngel found his way to the Inner Cloister waypoint with ease, where he decided to retire.

I didn't find any tomes of ID, and I wasn't comfortable buying one at Drognan. On the other hand, there's no way I can deal with not having a tome. I would have been seething with frustration every time I saw an ID scroll. I'd rather find 0 sets and uniques on my whole journey than have to deal with that. I'd've started a new character, but it's too late now. Sorry guys :(

It was a fun tourney, though! Really great idea. I hope that when the next one starts, I will be able to join it sooner and get farther. (My old computer died, which is why I vanished from the forum and the tournaments that I was in)

Good luck to the remaining players!:thumbsup:
 
wakiki said:
DestroyingAngel found his way to the Inner Cloister waypoint with ease, where he decided to retire.

I didn't find any tomes of ID, and I wasn't comfortable buying one at Drognan. On the other hand, there's no way I can deal with not having a tome. I would have been seething with frustration every time I saw an ID scroll. I'd rather find 0 sets and uniques on my whole journey than have to deal with that. I'd've started a new character, but it's too late now. Sorry guys :(

It was a fun tourney, though! Really great idea. I hope that when the next one starts, I will be able to join it sooner and get farther. (My old computer died, which is why I vanished from the forum and the tournaments that I was in)

Good luck to the remaining players!:thumbsup:
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I'm in act 2 hell and I never found an ID tome. It's really not that bad, you just learn to leave everything on the ground and occasionally drop a potion for a scroll. You should try and see if it really is unbearable.



 
Scunion continued the fight, getting a few nice things along the way. Last we heard from him, he'd just defeated Duriel. In act III, I switched the players setting a bit more because I just get sniped so much in that act by little hit and run buggers that I thought to kill them with just a few bone spears each rather than bang away until they (inevitably) run off and cause more havoc later. So in some areas I went down to as low as /P3, except in the durance level 3, which I did at /P1, mostly because I was very low on mana potions and was afraid of coming to a stopping point in the game without enough mana, especially if there was a stair trap.

But I get ahead of myself... in the Flayer Dungeon, Witch Doctor Endugu's lower half dropped a Skin of the Vipermaji. Woo hoo! It had 12 durability, which is now down to 8. Other random monsters dropped a hel rune (which gives me two and leaves me one short of an Io, with the help of a chipped diamond, which if I find one I'll keep for safety's sake) and another dol, which I also kept in case I find two more Dols before an Io. I replaced my switch necro head with an ethereal bone spear one that had two sockets in it already. Still no Amn though, which is my last rune needed for spirit in my crystal sword. Not all that happened in the Flayer Dungeon, but rather in the entire act.

One of the revives granted by my necro head must have spawned Mephisto because he came charging out of nowhere while I was still battling council members along the main hallway. He gets stupid when prisoned with bone, so I casted those on him and spammed my remaining mana with lots of bone spear. I finished him off with one or two mana pots left, and he didn't scratch the revives. No need for decrepify even yet. Maybe I'll save that for Baal...

Hell presented some difficulties. No mana pots dropped for what seemed like ages, and I actually ran out a few times. The toughest part was right out of the first gate, I hit two champ packs of doom knights. Not dangerous but at /P5 they required some work and spammage to bring down. Not one of those buggers dropped a single mana pot. I felt cheated. So after bringing those guys down, I holed up on the stairs to the pandemonium fortress, built a few walls for flesh beasts to beat upon, and waited for mana to recharge. I spent a couple of hours clearing the outer steppes.

The plains of despair were no better, spawning burning souls, which were MUCH more tolerable since the vipermaji showed up. I put on the +19 res all amulet and was good. Pit lords were one of the spawns there, which make excellent revives and actually do some damage of their own via the fire breathing. Hellforge was nice, a pul, which I muled off. I don't have many of those for some reason in my game stashes. I stopped at the entrance to the Chaos Sanctuary and will probably try to clear it tonight. I'll have 85% fire resist with nokozan. Oh yeah, a hidden stash dropped a 25% nagelring, which was equipped immediately. I had crappy rings, but now sport that and a manald heal which is great for a caster in this tourney. I threw out that circlet when I got the armor and replaced it with a bone helm with 2 topazes, so my max MF is now at 119%. How some guys get it much past that in these tournaments, I'll never know.
 
Short update:

Chaos sanctuary was pretty easy. I kept it on /P3 to keep the mana pot usage and drops about equal. I probably should have done the CS at /P5 as I had a few mana pots left on the ground when I left for Harrogath. Did I mention that Venom Lords make great revives? I kept those guys up the whole time, and the place was cake. Curses? Who cares. The only time I ran was fighting Lord De Seis when he Bone Spirited me twice. Other than that, no sweat. I cleared the wing with Infector last, and his seal was at the dead end. I put up two bone walls in an arrow formation, created three revives (two venom lords on my side of the bone wall and a ghost type on the outside of the wall) and hit the seal. The pack immediately set upon the wall, as the ghost revive ran away in seconds. Meanwhile I got to the bottom of the corridor and hit the monsters stacked up against the wall with enfilading fire, getting up to five at one time. The upper half of my arrow wall disintegrated in about 5 or 6 seconds, but the venom lord revives were there to plug the gap and nothing focused on me. Infector was in a perfect line with several of his friends trying to damage my venom lords and I slammed him with bone spear (only level 23, but on /P3 it works well) until he went down. My three revives were still alive, and I went straight for Diablo after picking up three more mana pots at the scene of the fight with Infector.

Diablo focused his entire attention at the two venom lords. I put a prison around him and hit him with bone spear. Nokozan relic gave me 85% fire resist, so his fire nova didn't hurt, and it didn't seem to do much against my revives either. They both survived fissures and lightning attacks as well. I was quite impressed, as Diablo only killed one of the two of them before he died and dropped Tancred's Skull. It was the second one of those to drop in the Chaos Sanctuary, I think. I didn't ID either one of them. I also saw a Ripsaw and one other unique that I don't remember in the CS. On to Harrogath! I will try to keep it at /P8 to get as many levels as possible, as I'm only at 63 right now.
 
Just so everyone knows, the deadline to enter passed a while ago, so once all the characters alive die/no progress for three weeks the tournament will be officially over.

Minor update.
Finished the AT, claw viper temple, and journeyed down to radament. Actually saw some decent drops down there in the form of a unique spiked shield, shael rune, and a 3os dragon shield. I finally dropped my old one and made this.

Gemmed Dragon Shield
Defense: 65
Chance to Block: 43%
Durability: 71 of 76
Required Strength: 91
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x17468daf
Fire Resist +78%
Lightning Resist +38%
Cold Resist +38%
Poison Resist +38%
Socketed (3: 3 used)

It brings my resists significanly up, and I think my lowest is poison at 38%. Just noticed that my bladebuckle is down to 2 durability, but I think I entered hell with it at 3, so it should hopefully last me a while.

Now that I'm putting all my points in DS, I notice my killing speed dramatically increasing. Next time I play (hopefully tomorrow morning) I'll get to the arcane sanctuary and hopefully do a few of the arms.

[highlight]Conqueror OneFingaPushup, level 74, Hell Harem[/highlight]
 
Keep up the fight, skoolbus! This tourney needs someone to join IW.

Scunion did the Bloody Foothills last night. I wish I hadn't. It took almost 2.5 hours because in the entire area, I only got seven mana pots. Two of those dropped from Shenk, who was the last monster I killed. The skeletons and quill rats that were pretty much equally dispersed throughout the level just never dropped any, and I didn't want to go below 2 at any point, so I ended up hiding behind the side walls until the bulb refilled, then going forward to blast one or two, and then retreating back. I was doing it on /P8 to maximize experience in an easy area. I finished around 1 AM which is waay past my bedtime. There was a mana regen shrine, but it was at the very gate to Harrogath, so once I got past about halfway in the level, it wasn't worth it to go all the way back.

Watch out, Eldritch, he's coming for you next!
 
Well, I changed my mind about quitting my Necro. I decided that he needed to be seriously tested at least once in his journey.

So I fought my way down to Andariel. I found the stairs to each level reasonably quickly, leaving large portions of the map unexplored.

After clearing the first room of level 4, I set the players to 3 (I had had them on 8 up to this point). I had my inventory practically completely full of potions, although I did have a head and wand that gave me +4 to Clay Golem (I also had a grand charm with cold damage on it). First, I tried killing her with Poison Dagger. Turns out, she's more resistant to Poison Dagger than I expected. I dealt nothing to her! My main attack was a no-go.

After running out of potions (I should have retreated earlier; stupid me) I tried using Clay Golem + Iron Maiden. I used a few mana potions doing this, but she wasn't damaging herself fast enough. She also kept using her spray attack instead of her melee.

I decided I could do it but needed loads of mana potions to pull it off, so I set off to clear the Catacombs. Boss after boss and champion after champion fell and yet I was getting no mana! When my inventory was full of potions again, I had almost all spaces filled by health and rejuvination and only 2 with mana!

Nasty thoughts crept into my head at this point. Might I lose the game here? I imagined the likely scenario: I would fight her, run out of potions, ascend the stairs with no life to gather my nerves for death, then take the final plunge into Andariel's arms.

I forced these morbid thoughts out of my head and sat down to think. I had to make the best of the situation. I realized that with low mana and high health (in potions), I couldn't be casting my golem over and over again. I might not even have enough to keep her poisoned constantly. I realized that I would have to be the golem in this situation, absorbing her hits myself while she had Iron Maiden cast on her! A frightening proposition.

I summoned my golem, waited for full mana, and stepped back down to try it. It was working! The combination of Iron Maiden + Poison Dagger brought her health down quickly, but I sucked up many health potions. I had to crawl back up the stairs when she had lost 2/3rds of her health.

I rushed back (the clock was ticking) and cleared the Catacombs level 1, and found a well! However, it was very far away, so if I ran out of potions, she might be able to heal herself faster than I deal damage if I have to take trips to that well. I had no more areas to clear. I returned to the steps to level 4 with 1/3rd of my inventory full of potions and full health (thanks to the well).

The two forces clashed. Andariel sprayed poison. I resummoned my golems. (I had a better ratio of mana potions than last time, so I could afford them) Andariel stabbed and writhed in pain as her own blows were returned to her. I stabbed her back, boiling with frustration as the she quickly brushed away the chilling and poisoning effects of the dagger.

My belt emptied. My inventory emptied. But she was nearly dead! Only a sliver of health left on her! We both ran circles around my golem as I pondered my next move. My golem pounded her several times, and then a ray of hope came to me: could my golem finish her off? I kept running and running, and she ignored my golem, intent on her primary prey who was out of health and potions. She misjudged the might of the Clay Golem; he landed a powerful hit, she screamed, and a pillar of fire erupted from the ground! DestroyingAngel laughed exuberantly and his golem, err, made happy golem noises (he had finished her off, after all!) as the floor shook!

I cleared the Throne area, retrieved two health potions for my trouble, and stepped through the Portal, finally deigning to speak with Warriv about traveling to Lut Golein (I certainly didn't speak to him during the journey).

[highlight]DestroyingAngel, level 20 Daggermancer at the Lut Golein waypoint, Sewers(most likely) next[/highlight]

I think I might just buy a tome at Drognan and hope that I find an ID tome in Nightmare so I can stop feeling guilty every time I look in my inventory. :\

That was one of the most intense fights I've ever had in Diablo II. I think I'll be fighting Duriel on /p1. :P I also hope you enjoyed my write-up! Was it too detailed and boring?
 
Well that is quite a finish against Andariel! I remember leaving Diablo mid-battle to farm some potions (earlier version, years ago) and when I returned he had mysteriously healed. I'm glad that didn't happen to you.
 
Scunion hit deeds in the Glacial Trail against two champion Blood Lords. It was a good run but painfully slow because I couldn't ever really get good mana items and I insisted upon /P8 until getting to hell. I'd maxed out Bone Spear and both Armor and Prison and was about to start placing points in CE, but alas I never got far enough to speed the game up a bit. I guess that makes just a couple of characters left. Good luck to all remaining!
 
Gah, deeds...

I was in Harem and I went into a room I knew was full of skeleton archers to CoS them, but they shot like a million arrows and I slammed on what I thought was the full rejuvs, but might actually have been the tilda key or healing pots key. It was a stupid way to die. Oh well. Good luck wakiki! I think you're the only one who's actually updated in a while and is alive.
 
Sorry to hear about your deaths guys. I wish more people could join -- it's less interesting being alone. That's why I generally prefer tournaments to end when they stop being posted in for X amount of time, rather than after a set date.

I opted against taking DestroyingAngel into the Sewers for now. I will wait until I get Iron Golem (100% poison resist) to kill Radament.

As soon as I stepped out of town, I was mobbed by a group of cursed sand leapers, and I only had two potions. They were killing me, so I ran out to see if there were any easier monsters to fight for potions, but I got swarmed by beetles and javelin cats. Things were going south so I had to turn back.

The way I killed them was I would wait for my mana to regenerate, step out of town and stab them, then step back before they could retaliate. It was fairly cheap, but it worked. I hope you are allowed to do that. I didn't have to talk to anyone in town so I don't think I broke any rules.

Anyway, I cleared the Rocky Waste easily after that (thanks to a health shrine), though it took about an hour. Monsters in act II require 2 poison dagger hits to die, which is annoying indeed! I can't level it up for a while either because I've been skimping on prerequisites. I decided to end my session at the Dry Hills waypoint, and will clear the Stony Tomb next (it's right near Lut Golein)

By the way, I forgot to mention it earlier, but a monster in the Catacombs level 4 dropped me Cleglaw's gloves. :) It put them on in case I'm able to find other members of the set.

It isn't much, but I'm really providing this update to let people know that I'm still playing after Andariel.
 
OldSoldier said:
Scunion hit deeds in the Glacial Trail against two champion Blood Lords. It was a good run but painfully slow because I couldn't ever really get good mana items and I insisted upon /P8 until getting to hell.
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I'm impressed you maintained p8 as long as you did, without access to vendor mana pots. I found my Bone Necro to be far more mana intensive than my Alone CS Zon. RIP Scunion.

skoolbus said:
I slammed on what I thought was the full rejuvs, but might actually have been the tilda key or healing pots key. It was a stupid way to die. Oh well.
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D'oh! RIP and congrats on a great run. I don't trust my fingers to slam just one key. Next time try this sloppy move to triple you odds: the multiple unknown keys slam! :rolleyes: :tongue:
My rejuv key is 4. During many panics, I've used 3 fingers and slammed 3-4-5, or 3-e-4-r. Anything around the 4 key is fair game.



 
Hi everyone,

First, a note of apology - I am the one who is supposed to be hosting this thread / tournament, and due to pretty extreme RL pressures I have been absent almost since it started. So, now that life is settling down again I can return, albeit intermittently.

However, having read the thread it has - due to great input from a lot of people - done exactly what I wanted.

Looking back at my posts, I was going to do a silent barb. I will hopefully start him again at some point over the next few days (a boot sector failure on the HDD with D2 installed was one of the problems of the last few months).

Cheers,

Teh Emperor
:wave:
 
EmperorMoo said:
Hi everyone,

First, a note of apology - I am the one who is supposed to be hosting this thread / tournament, and due to pretty extreme RL pressures I have been absent almost since it started. So, now that life is settling down again I can return, albeit intermittently.

However, having read the thread it has - due to great input from a lot of people - done exactly what I wanted.

Looking back at my posts, I was going to do a silent barb. I will hopefully start him again at some point over the next few days (a boot sector failure on the HDD with D2 installed was one of the problems of the last few months).

Cheers,

Teh Emperor
:wave:
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OH NO I'VE POSTED THIS IN THE WRONG THREAD! :embarassed: Obviously during my absence I've forgotten how to read/post/check what I'm doing.

Sorry 'bout that all! :flowers:



 
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