Everything and the Kitchen Sink (Long Term Project)

[Xios]

So I've had this idea for a while, but I think putting it down in writing should hopefully improve my ability to keep this on track (because I've always followed through with everything I've posted.. ).

But my idea is to try and make a group of characters that between them has maxed and used every single skill available across all classes.

Some notes:

• This will be Softcore, 1.14d, RWM, extended stash.
• All characters will be in a shared item pool with one another, since some builds will certainly need the boost.
• There will not be a limit on the number of characters to achieve this in (although feel free to do it in less than myself).
• I would like to go beyond simply maxing skills for synergies-- that is, maxing Fire Bolt to boost Fireball does not count as having used Fire Bolt for the project.
• Regardless I'd like for the skills to be a legitimate part of their playstyle rather than tucked away points on builds that can spare them. This may create the need for some gimmick builds.
• That being said, skills can be repeated among different characters, they're not claimed or exclusive (for example, multiple Paladins could max Holy Shield if they wanted).
• The only objective for a character being complete is to beat Hell, although they can continue leveling regardless to finish their builds.

I think that's a majority of it out of the way. I haven't tried to map out all of the builds quite yet, as I figure I'll have plenty of fairly mainstream/straightforward builds to complete in the meantime before I have to panic over the gimmicks.

I can already foresee some very strange build decisions that could be needed, and some skills that are not only a waste of being maxed but I'm not sure how to properly use.. that's the point of the project however.

 

[Xios]

I haven't started empty handed however. My first character was the fairly classic LF/CS Zon to start things off. The goal was to have a character to kill Cows with, but the character hasn't yet been drafted to that purpose. instead just finishing the game and mindlessly killing Pindle and Eldritch. Lightning Fury is one of those skills that I always forget just how powerful it feels until you start hurling it out and you feel incredible. Charged Strike is certainly one way to make Act Bosses feel irrelevant. No Infinity on the character yet, but it wasn't needed to complete the game on such a powerful baseline character.

Afterwards, I felt the urge to play another Amazon, this time focusing on Passives. Yet a few levels in I decided I wanted to use a bow rather than staying truly passive or being a daggerzon or something. So I decided now could be a good time to knock Magic Arrow off the list due to how standalone the skill is anyways. The character is currently sitting around in Act 5 NM Pindle as my only ranged weapon is a Langer Briser-- not exactly the ideal weapon to go into Hell with. I've been pleasantly surprised at how quickly the character chewed through the early Acts without any real offensive skills. I always underestimate how useful Valkyrie and Decoy can be on Amazons as well, since they're often cut in greedier builds of mine.

Considering my most "powerful" drop so far has been a Warshrike, and my highest rune an Ist, my gear hasn't really pushed me in any particular direction as to what builds to start working on next.

I think it'd be a good idea to get a Sorceress into the group before long, for both their ability to start running certain locations and their general gear independence.

Name	Class	Level	Progress	Skills
StrikesTwice	Amazon	90	Endgame	Lightning Fury, Charged Strike
ClickClickBoom	Amazon	62	Act 5 NM	Magic Arrow, Valkyrie, [...]

Note: [...] Indicates there's more potential skills to be maxed but the character hasn't decided or hasn't completed maxing them yet.

 

[T72on1]

That is definitely a long term project !!! Good luck. I'm looking forward to read how you fare with maxed Thunderstorm .

Interesting concept for sure. Although I don't know if it'll be interesting to use for example Fire Bolt, when you know you could have just used Fire Ball instead. Probably yes for the first couple of characters, but after that?

 

[Albatross]

That is definitely a long term project !!! Good luck. I'm looking forward to read how you fare with maxed Thunderstorm .

...

Maxed Psychic Hammer is also going to be interesting

 

[Xios]

Although I don't know if it'll be interesting to use for example Fire Bolt, when you know you could have just used Fire Ball instead. Probably yes for the first couple of characters, but after that?

It's certainly something I've mulled over and flip flopped on a few times when thinking about the project. There's quite a few "strictly better" skills in the arsenal, and I'm not certain how much insight or entertainment one gains just from intentionally knee capping yourself. My guess is in the case of some of these skills they'll wind up being secondary immunity breakers with lesser investment rather than trying to simply build a worse version of whatever their upgraded skill is.

It may be a wait and see moment, although I can already foresee a few skills that will need to be treated differently. Maxing Resist Fire as a synergy? Definitely. Using its hidden passive for +Max Res? Certainly. Actually running around with Resist Fire for three difficulties rather than just using Salvation? Eh..

 

[Pijus1]

Did you find magic arrow to be a good skill to hit monsters with? I imagine that with pierce and a decent weapon it should be quite alright.

 

[Xios]

I found it worked out fairly well so far. Being aware that the +% AR from bow attack skills doesn't work I was relatively mindful of my attack rating, and some rings and charms that my Javazon picked up earlier were swiftly shipped over to the bow user. I was using a Blessed Aim merc until Nightmare where I switched over to Might, so until then I didn't put any points into Penetrate outside of the one. Pierce and Critical Strike were both at 7 hard points which is the general point of dimishment, but they seemed to be occurring frequently enough that I'm not too hasty to start throwing more points in for redundancy quite yet. Given how simple the character is offensively, I found plenty of opportunity between a Merc, Decoy and Valk to place myself in favorable spots to allow for some good multi hits with Pierce.

Despite my earlier ramblings about Inner Sight vs. Penetrate, I haven't put either to much use, although now with Magic Arrow maxed (which was pretty debatable this early) and Valkyrie maxed I've started to pump Penetrate just to make sure my AR doesn't fall too far behind.

I was doing the fairly straightforward playing at P1 until I get to important farm locations like Eldritch/Pindle so it never felt like a huge slog when I was actually questing. One thing to keep in mind is this whole slingshot approach to leveling makes it so that you're (sometimes very) overleveled when it comes to going into the new zones, which greatly helps the other side of the To Hit formula, making Attack Rating less critical. My guess is things will slow down fairly noticeably once the character moves into Hell (since I won't be able to overlevel for it), although I hope to have found a better bow by then.

This could be a pretty good character to max both Penetrate and Inner Sight on, just because the points aren't likely to go in too many other places. It's pretty much a tossup between that or Decoy for helping out the Valkyrie. The advantage here is that unlike using Strafe I'm less likely to be firing at enemies off screen, so Inner Sight is slightly more applicable.

The Magic damage conversion hasn't been extremely useful yet just because there's not much in the way of physical resistance/immunity, but it does mean I don't need to worry heading into Hell on that front at least. Stat distribution is something like 108 Strength, 100 Vitality, and the rest in Dexterity, which I plan to keep up, since I can live with a flimsy character in softcore. Despite what the LCS says, Magic Arrows +20 damage does occur before +% Damage so there is some extra motivation to keep Dexterity high, even if the returns are well, marginal at high levels.

In other news, I did start up a Sorceress who is likely going my comfort zone build of Fireball and Frozen Orb to keep things simple. She's benefited from some of my random early gear and is well into Act 2, just on the cusp of putting on a Leaf, Stealth and other goodies. I expect her to catch up pretty quickly to the others given how fast you can grind through content when you have access to Teleport.

Name	Class	Level	Progress	Skills
StrikesTwice	Amazon	90	Endgame	Lightning Fury, Charged Strike
ClickClickBoom	Amazon	62	Act 5 NM	Magic Arrow, Valkyrie, [...]
Cookie	Sorceress	16	Act 2	[...]

 

[zoo]

Sounds like you will be trying out builds that very few have ever done. I wonder, which Necromancer curse is the least useful when maxed?

Maybe it would be a good idea to alternate between one experimental build followed by a more traditional. Might help keep the process feel more manageable at times.

 

[Xios]

That's the goal, although truth be told I know there's quite a few traditional builds I know I haven't played all the way through Hell, which always feels strange given the amount of time put into this game, so that's another perk of the project.

My goal for the time being is to build up a roster of characters that are relatively item independent, and can generate some items themselves. Then, based on what I stumble into start working on builds. I imagine the first few will be fairly standard, although maybe I'll get some inspiration to try other things early. I did consider going straight into a Holy Fire Paladin just because of Kinemil's Awl for example, but the wiser part of my head has prevailed so far.

Besides Weaken just being a worse version of Decrepify, I'm mostly wondering what the hell to do with a maxed out Attract. There are quite a few headscratchers in utility moves and one point wonders that I'll have to think of some creative solutions before long, I'd imagine.

Spoiler: Staff Bases

I would like to have a moment of silence for this Staff when looking for Leaf bases.

View attachment 9626

I did eventually find a +3 Fireball Staff, but that one would have been nice.​

 

[T72on1]

If I'd be doing something like this, I'd certainly limit myself to all active skills. Maxing every single curse, aura, ... and actually using them ... much respect to you !!!

 

[smittyphi]

Spoiler: Staff Bases

I would like to have a moment of silence for this Staff when looking for Leaf bases.

View attachment 9626

I did eventually find a +3 Fireball Staff, but that one would have been nice.​

..................Moment taken

When using Thunderstorm on a sorc, I would pair it with Glacial spike. Blizzard and Orb are too easy and Spike lets you freeze the enemies in place while the T-storm picks them off...slowly.

 

[D2DC]

I like it. Just don't forget that you also need to utilize every S/U and RW as well.

 

[drmalawi]

I like it. Just don't forget that you also need to utilize every S/U and RW as well.

And all mercs

 

[Brak]

I'm mostly wondering what the hell to do with a maxed out Attract.

maybe that answers the question of what to do with maxed out Iron Maiden?

I'm more excited to see what maxed Dim Vision looks like. You can blind an entire screen with that. Might pair well with Poison Dagger?

 

[drmalawi]

maybe that answers the question of what to do with maxed out Iron Maiden?

I'm more excited to see what maxed Dim Vision looks like. You can blind an entire screen with that. Might pair well with Poison Dagger?

When I have Heavy Metal evenings, I ALWAYS max out Iron Maiden! \m/

 

[Xios]

Cookie the Sorceress is now into Act 5, although like most of my Sorceresses she's lower than 25 on arrival. Given that you can't as readily fight upwards in levels until you are Level 25 without massive penalties, there's the conundrum of what to do to get yourself up to that magic number before you can start plowing through Act 5 content and cranking up the player settings to kill Eldritch or Pindle and pals.

It's a bit of an awkward position in the low 20s, because if you go too high (namely Act 4) you're taking penalties from the higher level stuff, namely the normally high priority champions and uniques. But if you go too low, you're blasting through chaff for little experience while hunting down uniques. Due to an interesting waypoint placement, I've actually been killing Izual. He happens to be at a good level (29) that so long as you're Level 22 you're making pretty good gains from killing him. At Players 8 he's worth almost 100k XP before penalties, which is about a third of an entire level at 23. Obviously the gigantic sack of hitpoints wouldn't be an ideal target for most, but Static Field is a spell that exists, and makes the whole run pretty speedy with Teleport.

After a few more runs Cookie should be online and ready to start leaping forward in levels before long. I don't really have any gear set aside for her besides a Skin of the Vipermagi, although I'll be sure to double check my loot piles.

Name	Class	Level	Progress	Skills
StrikesTwice	Amazon	90	Endgame	Lightning Fury, Charged Strike
ClickClickBoom	Amazon	62	Act 5 NM	Magic Arrow, Valkyrie, [...]
Cookie	Sorceress	24	Act 5	[...]

 

[Jocular]

I remember reading somewhere on this site that 1.09 thunderstorm hits twice?

 

[Xios]

So I'll likely slow down my frequency of posting for the beginning, since I doubt the adventures of cookie cutter builds are all that noteworthy or interesting to read about.

That being said, it turns out there's this skill called Teleport, and it's pretty good at letting you move around quickly. Maybe you guys should try it some time.

So Cookie is now at Pindle in Act 5 Nightmare and will be taking the time to level up there. Turns out I did have a bit more gear than I was anticipating in waiting for this character, an old Lore and Frostburn being added for example. I also maybe sort of borrowed StrikesTwice's Merc gear including a Treachery and Insight, because what are friends for if not to use their Insight?

No particularly noticeable drops so far, although what can you expect this early on. Fireball and Meteor are now maxed (I'm probably not going to list this as a Meteor character though, we'll see) and I've started to skill up Frozen Orb. Luckily I was able to crutch on Static Field and a well equipped Mercenary to get through the Fire Immunes in Chaos Sanctuary, so it's been full speed ahead.

Name	Class	Level	Progress	Skills
StrikesTwice	Amazon	90	Endgame	Lightning Fury, Charged Strike
ClickClickBoom	Amazon	62	Act 5 NM	Magic Arrow, Valkyrie, [...]
Cookie	Sorceress	72	Act 5 NM	Fireball [...]

 

[Xios]

Cookie is currently progressing through Hell, with a mix of greedy teleporting and more cautious clearing. Found a Riphook, which is not the most exciting of drops for a bow, but while in the Sewers I was blessed with quite the lucky drop that my other Zon could sure appreciate.

View attachment 9654

A little late to help her with leveling, but you won't hear me complaining. In fact, did someone's Amazon recently die in the Sewers? The place is littered with the stuff.

View attachment 9655

Mephisto wasn't so generous, nor was the Hellforge (Io) or Chaos Sanctuary (Husoldal Evo, Endless Hail), but I'll call it a win regardless. At Hell Pindle so this character is in the comfortable state of grinding up some levels. Will need to see what items drop or what mood I'm in for the next character, as I'm sure Cookie can go kill off Baal eventually, no rush on that front.

Name	Class	Level	Progress	Skills
StrikesTwice	Amazon	90	Endgame	Lightning Fury, Charged Strike
ClickClickBoom	Amazon	62	Act 5 NM	Magic Arrow, Valkyrie, [...]
Cookie	Sorceress	76	Act 5 Hell	Fireball, Frozen Orb

 

[Grape1]

That's what I call a long-term project!

Any guesses how many characters will you need to get this done?