Re: Is there any interest in a Classic "Tournament"?
Ceto is doing OK and has made it to Lut Golein.
Act 1 went pretty well although she teleported through a lot of it. It's all been at /players 1 and the problems are
1) immunes require care
2) the mercs die regularly, making it hard to not get swarmed and making it hard to be at the "sweet spot" range for orb
3) monsters hit hard
Resists aren't quite maxed, even with thawing and antidote potions active, but I am hoping for some more gear improvements by running Andarial.
She's already been running Andarial some, but quite gingerly at this point. Andy was nice enough to drop a Venom Ward after a few dozen runs, which was a help as the other Venom Wards from NM Andy's Ye Old Equipment Shoppe were sold long ago for stash space. I've been running Andy on /players 1, as it's just a little too dangerous still for running her at higher player counts when there are bosspacks in her room. If I don't rehire mercs on those runs, she gets a decent income stream for gambling and is working on getting better gear that way.
I'm still at basically base strength and I've been agonizing over whether or not to invest in enough to use Sigon's Shield. The +1 skill and great blocking would be instead of good resists and OK blocking. She's got a good bone shield at 60% blocking and that's pretty much the only shield type that she has the strength for currently that can have decent blocking. I gambled a bunch of bone shields (which takes forever, since they aren't often listed) and got only a couple of rares, both of which are inferior to what I have (didn't have "of deflection".) Realistically, the only opportunities for +skills are:
head: +1 Tarnhelm, got that
amulet: +1, got that in a very nice amulet from Hell Andy with 19 prismatic resists (a +2 amulet would require a 90+ level gamble or a great drop from Hell Diablo, so cross those off as possibilities!)
body: +1 Silks of the Victor, very unlikely to find and no resists and requires 100 str
shield: +1 Sigon's Shield, good blocking but no resists and requires 75 strength
weapon: +1 Culwen's point, not easy to find and won't come close to the usefullness of my current wands' FCR and resists (it does have some FHR)
rings: SoJ, not likely to find although Hell Andarial is the best source, she's stingy with those. I've had 4 unique rings from Hell Andy so far, 3 Nagels and a Manald.
So I'm currently at +2 skills (Tarn + amulet) and switching to Sigon's shield would give +3 and better blocking at the cost of some resists, and indirectly life from putting points strength not in vitality. Having the strength for a tower shield also opens up the 3 PDiamond tower option. So I'm waffling on what route to take. Sigon's would give 64% blocking, versus the 60% blocking on a bone shield with "deflecting" and I'm not likely to switch to Twitchthroe, which hasn't dropped anyway, as I need the resists from the body armor slot.
Staves are a good source of +2 sorc skills as well as individual skills, with possibly resists and FCR on a rare, but I can't imagine giving up shield for that.
So I plan to run Andy for a while, gamble boots and belts and rings and see if that gear points to Sigon's shield or keeping with the current bone shield strategy.
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Version 1.12
Forum name Character Name Class Level Location
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Purplelocust Ceto Static/Orb 63 Hell Lut Golein
newco Louie Hammerdin 56 NM Kurast Bazar
Mursilis Mirax Blizzballer 33 NM Rogue Camp
asdfgah eggiWEEG Hammerdin 20 Rocky Waste
SiTro of_Spades Amazon 11 Outer Cloister
Nagisa Riinfosu Orb/TS 11 Stony Field
Thyiad SickTrout Fishy 7 Cold Plains
EmperorMoo GudrunII Amazon 1 Rogue Encampment
Code:
Their deeds remembered
Forum name Character Name Class Level Location
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nubikoen Death Poisonmancer 22 Spider Cavern (RIP)
EmperorMoo Bors Concbarb 21 Lost City (RIP)
JayeM Celia Bowazon 15 The Tower (RIP)
EmperorMoo Gudrun Amazon 7 Dark Wood (RIP)
TLOD Breadfan CLSorc 6 The Cave (RIP)