Bulging Biceps Barbarian Brothers Bodacious Blowout (Tournament)

OldSoldier

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Aug 19, 2020
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Hello all, my first post on the new site, thanks for the directions. I never would have made it otherwise, I'm too old to find it without some nudging... please be gentle to the newbie!

Prologue

Bors and Barloc were barbarian brothers separated by circumstances over many miles. They shared familial ties and remembered fondly their days past, but yearned to once again be warriors together, and this latest invasion of the forces of evil have afforded them an ample opportunity to bond by bashing and berzerking together once again. One brother had traveled to the other kingdoms to gather intelligence and knowledge of the struggle ahead, while the other stayed home to guard Arreat and await news in case of calamity.

Well, calamity came indeed and the brothers were separated by long miles. In their last communique, Bors promised to return home as soon as possible, and Barloc agreed to remain in the highlands, defending their home against vast numbers of invading enemies, and home indeed would be their best location for the reunion, whereupon they would battle together thereafter.

Thus begins the story of the lost barbarian brothers...


I've had this tournament idea rolling around my head for quite some time, even writing it down a couple of years ago, and I found my notes the other day. If the thread title interests you, read on!

Rules:
1. Standard tournament rules are in effect, such as being single pass, hardcore (if you play softcore and die, you can still play but you can't "win"), forum approved mods only, current version (I think that's 1.14D still, right?), ATMA/Gomule. Mods please check if this forum's rules are different - I haven't checked into this yet but will edit if I find I am out of line.
2. You must play a barbarian. No other classes are allowed.
3. Any players setting is acceptable and can be changed at any time. Just stay at /P1 when you're going through previously explored areas; minimize killing and don't pick anything up until reaching new areas.
4. When you obtain the ability to have a companion, you can do so with whatever one you want, until you reach Harrogath. Drop your merc before act V if possible (you don't want to make your brother jealous), but no big deal if Diablo isn't able to kill your merc.
5. When you are able to hire a barbarian merc, pick one and that's your brother. You will hereafter remain inseparable and your brother must accompany you for the rest of the game. If your brother dies, get back to town and have him patched up at the earliest opportunity.
6. You can use anything you can find, gamble, craft, etc. There are no equipment restrictions and no skill restrictions *unless you want bonus points as shown below*.
7. You can go back and use quest rewards whenever you want without any problem. The exception is that you can only re-spec one time in the entire journey and it can only be while your newest area is in NM difficulty (so if you've gone into hell difficulty even a single time and you haven't respecced, that door is closed to you).

Scoring:
1. You get imaginary bonus points to naming your character from the list of act V named barbarians. You also get imaginary bonus points for using the same first letter for both barbarian's names (i.e. Bors and Barloc, or Wiglaf and Wulf). You get yet another level of imaginary bonus points if you max out a skill that starts with the same letter as your brothers. For example, if you pick Bors and Barloc as your team, and you maximize the skill "Bash", then you're at a whole 'nuther level.

Victory Conditions:
1. Kill Hell Baal. I haven't done this personally in a long time. My mouse doesn't work very well any more and I can't remember my hot keys preferences either. I hope to make it into hell.
 
This sounds very interesting to me. I have been wanting to start another Barbarian. Plus, I play strictly HC so that's set. This can be my break from my HC Sept of Guardians I'm trying to get done, plus the upcoming MFO.

Entering Wulfstan the Whirlwind Barbarian. We shall see how far he can traverse through Sanctuary. When you get enough interest and have a start date I'll be ready.
 
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I've already started my guy, I say go when you're ready! Start date can be now, end date will be when no one is left alive or unguardianed, or three weeks without a progress update.
 
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Magnus has opened the waypoint at the Canyon of the Magi, but not much to report yet. His act II merc sports MF armor and Dimoak's Hew, not a bad early game weapon. His MF so far is fairly good; 18% in his headgear, 39% in his armor, some decent % in his amulet, gloves and boots, and two nice Nagelrings (23 and 29%). Perhaps this tournament is too niche to get much support these days. If so, I'll keep track of progress here because I always wanted to try another throwbarb, and this time without merc aura support to keep his AR reasonable.
 
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Frenchy the lone Brother - Act 1 start

Welcome to a new baby!
mrctySgl.jpg


He soon found some rare and useful club (4th mob maybe?), that had been used until a couple of socketable scepters had been bought. He also dropped a nice SC that is still unusable, but will be pretty soon:
FC9lUWzl.jpg


He got a rare sash while questing for the merc, and the close crypt dropped a nice rare ring:
aCHxzWbl.jpg


In the Mausoleum, found a really nice javelin starter for a Zon... well i should use it at all, but i kept it - just in case.
bhKiYYVl.jpg


He stopped there, really close to lvl 9. Next session will see the clear of the Cold plains (ran through on p1 for now just to get the merc), and pushing forward for Cain's cage.

Plan is going Frenzy. For now, points are going to Double swing for boss fights. As usual for my babies, he will have his own thread for possible theorycrafting/global following of the character ;)

See you on next update!

Edit: second session

Cleaning the Cold plains

Not much to say, just the Cave is still to be cleaned, and in the end he just hit lvl 10.

Not sure about the socketing of the scepters...maybe the socketable short sword would give better result as runewords..?
 
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Took a break from pindle for an hour or two and got Penrose in gear:
Screenshot051.jpg

Gambled these:
Leather Gloves of Chance
Leather Gloves
Defense: 3
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 9
Fingerprint: 0x2ac9a30c
Item Level: 15
Version: Expansion 1.10+
13% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Got to use them on Coldcrow:

Screenshot052.jpg

Slow but steady progress parking him at entrance to stony field.
 
I was able to finish off Mephisto last night. I'd edit in some screenshots but honestly act 3 was a bit of an item wasteland. I gave every named monster or champion a good horking but it led nowhere. All that comes to mind for drops were a green BP, two pieces of Cathan's set, a Serpent Lord staff and maybe one or two other set items. Pretty poor considering I did a full clear (minus perhaps a few poppables in the sewers) and sport around 200% MF for merc kills. Oh well, Magnus is off to act 4 at level 31, or maybe 32, throwing balanced rare axes at everything he sees. One of them has dual leech and is a good upgrade candidate for when I can obtain the ingredients.
 
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I was able to finish off Mephisto last night. I'd edit in some screenshots but honestly act 3 was a bit of an item wasteland. I gave every named monster or champion a good horking but it led nowhere. All that comes to mind for drops were a green BP, two pieces of Cathan's set, a Serpent Lord staff and maybe one or two other set items. Pretty poor considering I did a full clear (minus perhaps a few poppables in the sewers) and sport around 200% MF for merc kills. Oh well, Magnus is off to act 4 at level 31, or maybe 32, throwing balanced rare axes at everything he sees. One of them has dual leech and is a good upgrade candidate for when I can obtain the ingredients.

Glad I'm not the only on considering a chucker!
 
Glad I'm not the only on considering a chucker!
Yep, my all time favorite Barbarian was a thrower, so I'm going to [hopefully] relive the glory. I'm getting back into the swing of things, so hopefully he can make a fair dent in the amount of evil in the realm.

The fight with Andariel was not difficult. Magnus was still using purchased scepters for that fight. He hadn't even cleared his throat yet!
Screenshot093.jpg

Nagel1 (23%)
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Nagel2 (29%, a real keeper!)
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A nice crafted merc weapon for act 2 normal. Too bad the level requirement is what it is...
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My brother's starter weapon! I'd better hold onto it for him so he can use it when I get back to Harrogath...
Screenshot102.jpg

Duriel dropped an Iratha's amulet, which is nice, and I forgot that Magnus found a Twitchthroe in the Flayer Dungeon, but other than that, the jungle was an item disaster.
Screenshot108.jpg

The answer to that question is, "He's with Squat and I haven't seen them."

Magnus is at the River of Flame WP and is level 34.
 
Yeah, my only non-HC is a chucker since I started playing again. One of the best types of playstyles implemented in a game IMO.
 
The Black Marsh /p7

Frenchy has now cleared up everything up to Black marsh included, stopped 16.5, will be heading to the next areas in the coming days. No really good finds, but his second rare ring is pretty nice
Pv1Yl69l.jpg


Afterwards, found a useful jawbone cap with Mace mastery for a low level one, and finally the Countess delivered...
wf1R0tSl.jpg

...not. Btch <3

See you after his next session!
 
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Now that MFO is over, we are definitely entering this tourney. I’m thinking Frenzy (until he deeds) :unsure: Later this week will be the start
 
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Entering the cloister
uAZUv3Ll.jpg

After last session, Frenchy cleant about each square possible up to the Inner cloister waypoint. Still no S/U found, but well this session brought the very first MF pieces, being 6MF gloves and 8MF ring (meh...).

Anyway, found some useful charms, and resistances are quite good at this point I'd say. Also, now he used fire socketed superior scepters, so even in p7, damage is quite nice for now:
L28jWyrl.jpg

Yes, Frenchy is Mighty!

I do hesitate to start a gambling session with the 100k gold saved...in fact i'm mostly waiting after act 2 shopping upgrades to get better weapons, 2os socketable Breast plate, cube the topazes, and maybe even get another helm (the current one is still a +1Mace mastery plain jawbone cap).

Well, lunch time anyway, see you after next session!
 
Folcwald left his brother Frisian to defend Harrogath and set out to hunt the Prime Evils. He journeyed to the land of the Rogues, Lut Gholein, on to Kurast, and then to the edge of Hell, vanquishing all foes that he encountered as he explored every corner of the maps. He was excited to find Frisian as he returned to Harrogath . . . but he was nowhere to be seen.

Qual-Khek informed Folcwald that Frisian had been captured, along with other warriors, and encouraged Folcwald to free them. "Some commander," Folcwald muttered, and journeyed to the Frigid Highlands. There he saw his brother and others imprisoned, and set them free. Upon return to town, Frisian wasn't there (he must have been among the stragglers to return, likely protecting the others as they fled), so Folcwald went back out and returned and found him:
N A5 Frisian Found.jpg
"Seriously, you're making me pay to fight alongside my brother!?!" he muttered under his breath. Oh, well, a small price to pay to battle side-by-side once more . . . .

* * *

So it was a pretty standard untwinked, full-clear tourney playthrough, upgrading MF along the way. I went double swing, planning to go Frenzy through late NM and then settling on build based on drops (will max Find Item either way, I think). He was a little underpowered as a result due to limited weapon drops.

He had good topaz luck early, filling up all 5 slots by the Underground Passage. His first unique was Torch of Iro, which was fun. Andy fell with ease, with weaken charges and potion prebuff. He rolled a Partizan on third attempt, and rerolled to 2os with damage mod, with 2 -requirement jewels allowing the town guard merc to power through the Act. Aside from that, there was little of note aside from continued MF upgrades through gambling, until Shadowfang fell in AS, a possible upgraded weapon for Frisian (but cold damage could shatter bosses for horking), and a Shimmering GC with life that was nice. Duriel was also easy with weaken and potion prebuff.

We dropped to p7 for A3, again with little of interest except two stair traps in the temples that were easily managed (#1 and #2). Meph fell, as a bit more of a challenge (and a merc resurrection needed due to the ice ball attack).

Things started slowing down in A4, with damage from gambled war hammers falling off, and slow attack speed being felt because of spawners (and my least favorite monster, the Stygian Hag type, everywhere possible). And I didn't really have a good Diablo solution, I realized as we got to the CS. No high damage weapon, except sort of the merc, but he would get fried (and Folcwald likely deeds) if the battle lasted too long.

So we dropped to p1 to be safe, arranged so merc was behind Diablo, who was thankfully targeting Folcwald. I managed to get the merc fried twice as my dodging and Diablo's movement brought him in the lightning hose. And I managed to almost get Folcwald fried twice, as I zigzagged out from Baal to avoid bringing the merc into danger. But Diablo eventually fell, requiring a row of full purples (slot 3). So not bad given circumstances.

The Act Bosses all dropped junk, except this interesting sword from Diablo:
N A4 Diablo Drop.jpg
The +ED% isn't very high. But the one-hand sword double-damage for Frisian and two sockets (one got an Amn for leech, the other a Tal for poison because of upcoming freezing areas that will slow number of attacks the duo can deliver) make it the option for now. But I will be gambling weapons for sure.

Folcwald has only 181 MF (topaz luck slowed down a lot after early Act I, and I didn't hit a single gem shrine so far, which I didn't think was possible). He has one pTopaz and a flawless, so hopefully that will improve. The first exceptional mesh belt will go with a pRuby for a 4-slot blood belt. Otherwise, with fast attack weapons and Frenzy level improving, it's decently fast going.

Folcwald (Lvl 39) and Frisian, Act V Normal, Arreat Plateau WP
 
Magnus traveled into Hell just like it was another day, but this time he was determined to bring Diablo to his knees, even if only so he could finally get home and reunite with his brother. He made sure to "dismiss" his mercenary Pratham at the appropriate time. It is too bad he'll have to linger in the afterlife like that, but such is life.
Screenshot110.jpg

Diablo's body shattered into a million tiny ice cubes, and funnily enough dropped a nice weapon for Pratham!
Screenshot111.jpg

Magnus was so excited to see his brother that he went straight to Harrogath upon leaving the Chaos Sanctuary, only to be disappointed to find that he wasn't actually there, and that he had been captured by the minions of Baal himself! Qual-Khek, trustworthy and honest to Magnus throughout all of his life, explained where he thought his brother would be, and Magnus wasted no time in traversing the battlefield via leaps in order to find him. Indeed, he jumped over nearly every enemy, completely ignoring their angered masses, until he was able to find the barricades where all of his barbarian brothers were being held captive, including his brother, Alcuin. It was scary enough that I wasn't able to get any pictures of the leaping and overall carnage, but Magnus' throwing weapons were not the most powerful at this point, and he endeavored to retrieve his brother most hastily so they could double back and kill the foul demons and beasts together. Mission accomplished, they started at the gates again, clearing all areas and relieving the siege on Harrogath without further delay.

Along the way, they found some Gorefoot boots, a Manald Heal ring, a Skewer of Krinitz sabre, and some really quite amazing boots.
Screenshot115.jpg

Baal's Minions of Destruction were kind of a pain in the behind with their regeneration, which even when being fought two-versus-one, almost equaled the total damage output of both Alguin, with his upgraded Coldfang, and Magnus' balanced axes and hurlbats. Magnus made a mental note of showing some of Alcuin his runes and jewels, which might be able to add some poison or open wounds damage to their weapons and fix this problem in the future. As such, Magnus and Alcuin went back to town several times for additional throwing weapons. Alcuin fought hard, and chuckled at Magnus' inability to finish his enemies without more help from Larzuk.

Without ability to slow Baal's attacks, the barbarian brothers settled on using a healthy shot of battle cry to lessen his effect, and both brothers were victorious and relatively unscathed.
Screenshot117.jpg

Baal's drop (/P3) was not bad, including some gloves which also would have come in handy during the fight, similar to the one against Diablo earlier in the journey. The battle dart had charges of poison dagger and extra stack size, which would not have mattered much except that Magnus accidentally asked Larzuk to replenish the stack, never intending to use them, thus costing a small fortune in gold pieces.
Screenshot118.jpg

Magnus and Alcuin will return to Tristram for some steak before heading off to other green pastures.

Destroyers Magnus, level 48 Double Thrower-upper, and Alcuin, level 47 Stunbasher, Cow Level next
 
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