HC Tourney Sept

PhineasB

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Mar 14, 2020
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As off-and-on breaks from Untwinked 99ers, I've played some SPF HC tourneys. I got an Amazon and Druid through single-pass tourneys unscathed, plus a Barb outside tourney format, but as SC characters intended as my 99ers for that class. This Sept reflects the HC entries that have made it through, having finally ticked off the Paladin on the third attempt in late December 2023. All the other classes made it through first time, so go figure. I think Pally can be tough based on tourney restrictions, especially melee based on weapon, or at least that's what I'm telling myself :p

The Three Way Dance and Three-Legged Race, which allowed sharing of finds among three or two characters, respectively (but with skill and other restrictions), accounted for 4 of the 7. The other three were completed via single pass tourneys.

The links to the Guardian threads and basic character details are below, in order of completion, followed by high level summary of the character and tourney details. The Guardian posts include details and links to updates for playthroughs, so the summaries will be pretty high level.
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Amazon, Guardian Orange
The Orange You Glad That Rune Dropped Tourney was a craft only theme, with non-craft available for quest rewards (most importantly Charsi imbue and Anya personalization). Orange was a spectacular tourney playthrough, using a skill I really like (Lightning Strike), and very strong support skills (CS, Valk, Decoy). The gear was so-so, but defintely workable. She was full clear single pass (but not completing Nihl quest or Hell Cows).

Assassin, Guardian Eleos
Three Way Dance is a really fun concept, with three characters progressing together and able to share gear, but with restrictions on skill trees and significant restrictions on gear (no uniques, sets, runewords, or crafts, but with one item opened up per difficulty). So basically yellow / blue playthrough, sharing across three characters, with 6 S/U/runeword upgrades to share among the group. Following Tyche's gear finding, she played as a standard trapper, with the two-skill-tree limitation having no impact. She reran areas a bit, in particular picking up nice drops at Countess to help the crew.

Barbarian, Guardian Folcwald
The amazingly named Bodacious Barbarian Brothers Tourney involved Barb with A5 Merc once available, with no gear and skill restrcitions. I went with Frenzy from the start, saving chippies with hope for a nasty Elite Sword reroll, which happened plus Vile Husk. He pretty much lucked out with drops, getting Darksight (CBF) and Laying of Hands for a pretty top-end non-runeword set up. He was single pass, but abandoned full clears in A3 jungles, but mostly full cleared the rest.

Druid, Guardian Typhon
The Three Legged Race Tourney was a variation on Three-Legged Race, with the idea of limiting to only two characters rather than three. The concept was two skill trees between two characters to start, and then one more tree opened after both finish each difficulty (so two skill trees each, or one and three each). No gear limitations though. I allocated both skill tree buffs to the Necro partner, so he was pure fire without Grizzly, which was a bit dicey at times. But he made it in the end. He was not single pass.

Necromancer, Guardian Deimos
Under Three Legged Race rules, he got both skill tree upgrades, and was very smooth. He did some re-running for items for the duo, but not too much.

Paladin, Guardian Naranja
The Simple+ Tourney was a pick-your-own tourney, and, after deeds-ing a Hammerdin under S/U rules, I came back with the craft-only rules from my hosted Orange You Glad tourney. He originally started as a Holy Freeze Zealer, but Hell - with limitations on physical damage and CB - required a reassessment. Hammerdin was pretty easy with careful play, and having solid resists and FCR due to solid crafts and Spirit shield personalization. He was single pass, but abandoned full clears in A5 Hell to speed up the safe finish.

Sorceress, Guardian Tyche
She was part of my Three Way Dance, leading the charge through the questing. She was pure Blizz and was able to teleport through, which was tricky only in a few spots, and item find for the crew. Per the preceding, she reran areas and pushed to that higher level as a result.
 
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