Guardian Amaresu - Orb/Hydra Sorc in Orange Tournament

[Luhkoh]

Amaresu was the first HC character I've ever made, and I created and ran her for the "Orange You Glad that Rune Dropped" tournament, hosted by @PhineasB here (LINK). In this tourney, your character could only use crafted items, reward rings, imbues, anya rewards, and personalized items. It was single-pass, hardcore.

Early in nightmare, I decided to try out orb/hydra, rather than standard meteorb, and don't regret it. Don't get me wrong, I would say meteorb is better, but hydra has some nice advantages. Being able to damage enemies off-screen and around corners is a serious boon in many situations. And it was fun to try something new.

Amaresu full cleared normal and nightmare, all on p8 except some act bosses and the ancients, in order to maximize my crafting potential. This was the first time I have played like this, and it took quite a bit of time and patience even with sorc! Much respect to the tournament regulars here.

When I finished nightmare, I crafted most everything I had available, and got lucky with huge resistances on many of my crafts, which is the main thing I was looking for. I personalized smoke runeword for even more resists, and then personalized a 1 skill, 20 fcr orb, just because I had the second personalization available. I went 60% block with a crafted shield to start hell, and invested all stat points in dex from then on out, since I already had 800+ life. Ended up with 67% block or so by the end.

On reaching hell, I decided to just play p1 and rush through the end. Felt like a breath of fresh air after all that full clearing . There were a couple of dangerous situations (mostly in wsk) but I made it through to the end with relatively few scares. And got my first guardian .

Here are links to my updates in the tourney.

• Start
• Shortly after
• End A1 Norm
• Start A4 Norm
• Start A1 Nm
• Start A2 Nm & First craft session
• Start A4 Nm
• Start A1 Hell
• Pre-Hell crafting session
• All of Hell

Here is a video summary of my gear starting hell. I used this same gear throughout hell, only difference being level ups and quest rewards giving me more like and block %. I got guardian at lvl 78. Also crafted a war pike lance for the merc on starting act 2 hell.

So max f/c/l resists, 60+ block, 37fcr, and 30fhr. Felt like a good build, and I was very satisfied how she turned out. Thanks again @PhineasB for hosting a great tourney.

Now I have big plans with this sorc to start gearing her properly and start a HC holy grail, if I stay alive long enough to warrant calling it a start. But I'll probably get a thread up for the progress on that front shortly. She already had a couple of super lucky finds. Hope everyone is well!

 

[art_vandelay]

Congratulations! Now for the big question: what happens to her final gear? Put into a special stash as a memorial to her start... or just trash it?

 

[Crudesash]

Grats! A single pass Guardian is not an easy feat!

 

[DaveWThe2nd]

Congrats Luhkoh! Will you also re-spec her? Hydra/orb may not be the best char for HC Grailing.

 

[saracen85]

Congrats on the Guardian!

Oooh... Hydraa! Lately been loving that skill!

 

[Luhkoh]

Thanks so much everyone!

@art_vandelay will at least keep it in the gomule stash for the memories. I'm actually still using the gloves atm. The tri-res is nice.

@DaveWThe2nd yep! I've got no qualms about respeccing. Used my second akara respec already to go max vita pure blizz for meph farming (and pindle for some levels), but I'll detail that a lot I'm sure when I get the thread up!