- Feb 24, 2004
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Originally posted by @Cyrax on Aug 7, 2009:
The Sword of Destiny has reached it's destiny (a guardian thread)
The legends are many. A single warrior. A single blade. Together, no host of evil can stand against them. They are linked through prophecy and legend. Aragorn and Anduril. Rand al'Thor and Callandor. King Arthur and Excalibur.
A short overview of the rules of the tourney:
1) The first unique or set two-handed sword that drops is your character's "Sword of Destiny," the weapon that has been linked to him/ her through prophecy. Once that weapon drops, it is the only weapon that is permitted to be used, with one exception (see #2).
2) No warrior is more intimately linked to his sword than the warrior who has crafted his or her own sword. Once, and once only per character, you may use runes to create a runeword out of a two-handed sword. Once that is done, the character can never use any other weapon, with no exceptions.
3) Only 2-handed swords.
4) Untwinked hardcore (or SC until first death)
5) No socketing allowed except for sword
6) No gambling
7) Melee kills only
8) For amazons only passive tree skills
For a full overview see this thread.
And thus the journey of BigSword started as part of the Sword of Destiny tournament.
A tournament that either keeps you on your toes or gets you killed. From pretty early on in the game a had a couple of NDE's. Not finding a good sword also didn't help. I think i played with a 3x chipped 2-handed sword from the moment i found it early in act 1 until somewhere in act 4. Things got a little easier when i got to lvl 30 and got my valk. An extra meatshield was very welcome. Played normal and NM at p8 except for actbosses.
Things really started to get interesting when at the end of NM act II i found my Sword of Destiny. It turned out to be blacktongue. At that time i was very disappointed with that. But later on in the game i came to realise it's true potential. I don't think i could have finished this game without it.
I think i had several NDE's in almost every act in NM. Things didn't improve when going to hell. Resists weren't that great in NM, but really plummeted (sp?) there. The first act actually wasn't too bad. The second on the other hand...
That's where hell really lived up to it's name. First let me say that at this time i'm fighting with my blacktongue, once upped and shaeled. So you know damage ain't good to begin with. But that was the least of my problems. There were PI's everywhere. First 2 tries at Radament, he was both PI. After that in nearly every area of this act i encountered PI's. Only thing helping me through this is my sword. Now i see you thinking, how can such a crappy sword help you get through that mess. Crappy as it may be, my SoD had 2 helpfull aspects. The first and most important: prevent monster heal. A quality often overlooked. Especially when twinking. But very, very valuable to the untwinked, underpowered adventurer. The second is the poison damage. It wasn't much, but it helped to get the job done. Other than that i had a couple of sc's with some elemental damage, but that would have taken forever. Needless to say i had never been happier to enter act III.
Act III was easy. Especially compared to the previous act. Act IV took some sweet time, but not too difficult either. Btw, all this time (starting in NM) the merc doesn't like to work. So to avoid that, he decides to die. A lot. But what do you expect. His weapon is a lance with one socket that containes a flawed topaz. Only somewhere in act IV he found something to replace that. Damage pretty much stayed the same, but at least that thing had some LL.
Interesting thing i found out when taking on Diablo was that when i had valkyrie selected with my hotkeys that Diablo would target me, but as soon as i switched to inner sight he'd turn his attention back to my valkyrie.
So on to the final act. Rescued the frigging barbs not once, but twice. Somehow there were no barbs inside one of those fences. So i couldn't complete the quest :banghead:. Also had to take several attempts to save Anya. First time there were ghosts that are both physical and poison immune. That would have taken me about a decade to get through that. After several attempts i found an acceptable spawn. Still hard on the merc though with all those succubi. He doesn't take those magic balls to well.
Then on to the ancients. They quickly disposed of the merc (who saw that coming :surprise: ). After some running i ditched the thrower. Now it's 2 on 2. Or actually 2 on 1. Since i got cursed and one of the 2 was extra strong i didn't dare to risk a OHKO. So my valk took both out. Then the last one. Being the thrower he doesn't like to stay in a place where you can hit him. Quite annoying. Luckily my valk somehow pinned him against a pillar. I don't know why he didn't run, because he could escape both left and right, but he just stood there. So from behind the valk i landed some hits of my own. Finally not being there for decorative purposes, but actually feeling usefull. Took some sweet time since he was stoneskin. I think i whacked at him for about 20 mins (remember: i still have pathetic damage).
Then the WSK. With the end in sight, the fun is far from over. Had trouble there with flesh spawner minions with hardly any room too move. Also fun are those zealots. Especially the guys that heal them and also cast down blizzards. What made that extra fun is my negative cold resist. But i managed to reach my wp.
So yesterday started the final stretch. From the wp went left. Bham, souls combined with fanat aura. Ok, maybe left isn't such a good choice. Right then. Bham again. This time souls with might aura. Okay i think i'll pass. So S&E and try again. Don't remember if it was on lvl 2 or 3, but i got OK's combined with deathlords. Also a fun combo. If you're not my merc that is. He found a new poker, but still died every 5 secs or so. So i left him for dead before running out of gold. Ofc that means no might aura and with my already low damage it's slow going.
Made it to the throneroom. Some more OK's to keep me at my toes. First wave was easy. Second wasn't to hard as long as i watched the coldmages (still negative cold resists). Third also easy. Fourth wave i even found the time to take a screenie. Didn't really look forward to Lister. So i lured him out and parked him. Good thing too, because he was PI. So that would have been both dangerous and slow. Only had these 2 stragglers left to deal with.
So just Baal and we're done. At least that's what you'd think. Normally he's not that hard. But normally i'm twinked and fully armed. Not this time. So let's sum it up:
- no merc (tried 2 or so, but died very very fast)
- no real damage to speak of
- no crushing blow
- negative cold resists (nice combo with the icewedges)
- no slow, so he moves around, clones himself (i think about 30 times) and tentacles everywhere
So you see it's not as easy as it looks. Here's a shot when i'm already fighting him a long time. I think i spend about 2.5 hours before i finally got him. In that time i went back to town numerous times for more potions and scrolls. And i was very happy i stocked up on full juvies, because they were lifesavers in numerous occassions. His drop was pretty decent actually. And so i made it to guardian at lvl 79.
All in all i can hardly believe i finally made it. I think i had something like 20 or maybe even 30 NDE's throughout the game. Somehow i still managed to stay alive. Sometimes luck. Sometimes skill. And often a combo of both.
And to finish things. Here's the stats and equip:
lvl 79
str 125 (131)
dex 70 (70)
vit 275 (276)
ene base
damage: 268-388 (That's without might, i'm not even gonna list with might since in endgame the merc was more dead than alive. And note: a large part of it is poison damage from the sword, so physical damage is way lower)
AR: 2222 (39% chance to hit Baal)
life: 1138
mana: 151
Resists fire/cold/lightning/poison: 38/-19/46/10
Skills:
Max inner sight, decoy, valkyrie and penetrate
3 critical strike
2 D/A/E
1 slow missiles
Gear (including charms):
Merc gear:
The Sword of Destiny has reached it's destiny (a guardian thread)
The legends are many. A single warrior. A single blade. Together, no host of evil can stand against them. They are linked through prophecy and legend. Aragorn and Anduril. Rand al'Thor and Callandor. King Arthur and Excalibur.
A short overview of the rules of the tourney:
1) The first unique or set two-handed sword that drops is your character's "Sword of Destiny," the weapon that has been linked to him/ her through prophecy. Once that weapon drops, it is the only weapon that is permitted to be used, with one exception (see #2).
2) No warrior is more intimately linked to his sword than the warrior who has crafted his or her own sword. Once, and once only per character, you may use runes to create a runeword out of a two-handed sword. Once that is done, the character can never use any other weapon, with no exceptions.
3) Only 2-handed swords.
4) Untwinked hardcore (or SC until first death)
5) No socketing allowed except for sword
6) No gambling
7) Melee kills only
8) For amazons only passive tree skills
For a full overview see this thread.
And thus the journey of BigSword started as part of the Sword of Destiny tournament.
A tournament that either keeps you on your toes or gets you killed. From pretty early on in the game a had a couple of NDE's. Not finding a good sword also didn't help. I think i played with a 3x chipped 2-handed sword from the moment i found it early in act 1 until somewhere in act 4. Things got a little easier when i got to lvl 30 and got my valk. An extra meatshield was very welcome. Played normal and NM at p8 except for actbosses.
Things really started to get interesting when at the end of NM act II i found my Sword of Destiny. It turned out to be blacktongue. At that time i was very disappointed with that. But later on in the game i came to realise it's true potential. I don't think i could have finished this game without it.
I think i had several NDE's in almost every act in NM. Things didn't improve when going to hell. Resists weren't that great in NM, but really plummeted (sp?) there. The first act actually wasn't too bad. The second on the other hand...
That's where hell really lived up to it's name. First let me say that at this time i'm fighting with my blacktongue, once upped and shaeled. So you know damage ain't good to begin with. But that was the least of my problems. There were PI's everywhere. First 2 tries at Radament, he was both PI. After that in nearly every area of this act i encountered PI's. Only thing helping me through this is my sword. Now i see you thinking, how can such a crappy sword help you get through that mess. Crappy as it may be, my SoD had 2 helpfull aspects. The first and most important: prevent monster heal. A quality often overlooked. Especially when twinking. But very, very valuable to the untwinked, underpowered adventurer. The second is the poison damage. It wasn't much, but it helped to get the job done. Other than that i had a couple of sc's with some elemental damage, but that would have taken forever. Needless to say i had never been happier to enter act III.
Act III was easy. Especially compared to the previous act. Act IV took some sweet time, but not too difficult either. Btw, all this time (starting in NM) the merc doesn't like to work. So to avoid that, he decides to die. A lot. But what do you expect. His weapon is a lance with one socket that containes a flawed topaz. Only somewhere in act IV he found something to replace that. Damage pretty much stayed the same, but at least that thing had some LL.
Interesting thing i found out when taking on Diablo was that when i had valkyrie selected with my hotkeys that Diablo would target me, but as soon as i switched to inner sight he'd turn his attention back to my valkyrie.
So on to the final act. Rescued the frigging barbs not once, but twice. Somehow there were no barbs inside one of those fences. So i couldn't complete the quest :banghead:. Also had to take several attempts to save Anya. First time there were ghosts that are both physical and poison immune. That would have taken me about a decade to get through that. After several attempts i found an acceptable spawn. Still hard on the merc though with all those succubi. He doesn't take those magic balls to well.
Then on to the ancients. They quickly disposed of the merc (who saw that coming :surprise: ). After some running i ditched the thrower. Now it's 2 on 2. Or actually 2 on 1. Since i got cursed and one of the 2 was extra strong i didn't dare to risk a OHKO. So my valk took both out. Then the last one. Being the thrower he doesn't like to stay in a place where you can hit him. Quite annoying. Luckily my valk somehow pinned him against a pillar. I don't know why he didn't run, because he could escape both left and right, but he just stood there. So from behind the valk i landed some hits of my own. Finally not being there for decorative purposes, but actually feeling usefull. Took some sweet time since he was stoneskin. I think i whacked at him for about 20 mins (remember: i still have pathetic damage).
Then the WSK. With the end in sight, the fun is far from over. Had trouble there with flesh spawner minions with hardly any room too move. Also fun are those zealots. Especially the guys that heal them and also cast down blizzards. What made that extra fun is my negative cold resist. But i managed to reach my wp.
So yesterday started the final stretch. From the wp went left. Bham, souls combined with fanat aura. Ok, maybe left isn't such a good choice. Right then. Bham again. This time souls with might aura. Okay i think i'll pass. So S&E and try again. Don't remember if it was on lvl 2 or 3, but i got OK's combined with deathlords. Also a fun combo. If you're not my merc that is. He found a new poker, but still died every 5 secs or so. So i left him for dead before running out of gold. Ofc that means no might aura and with my already low damage it's slow going.
Made it to the throneroom. Some more OK's to keep me at my toes. First wave was easy. Second wasn't to hard as long as i watched the coldmages (still negative cold resists). Third also easy. Fourth wave i even found the time to take a screenie. Didn't really look forward to Lister. So i lured him out and parked him. Good thing too, because he was PI. So that would have been both dangerous and slow. Only had these 2 stragglers left to deal with.
So just Baal and we're done. At least that's what you'd think. Normally he's not that hard. But normally i'm twinked and fully armed. Not this time. So let's sum it up:
- no merc (tried 2 or so, but died very very fast)
- no real damage to speak of
- no crushing blow
- negative cold resists (nice combo with the icewedges)
- no slow, so he moves around, clones himself (i think about 30 times) and tentacles everywhere
So you see it's not as easy as it looks. Here's a shot when i'm already fighting him a long time. I think i spend about 2.5 hours before i finally got him. In that time i went back to town numerous times for more potions and scrolls. And i was very happy i stocked up on full juvies, because they were lifesavers in numerous occassions. His drop was pretty decent actually. And so i made it to guardian at lvl 79.
All in all i can hardly believe i finally made it. I think i had something like 20 or maybe even 30 NDE's throughout the game. Somehow i still managed to stay alive. Sometimes luck. Sometimes skill. And often a combo of both.
And to finish things. Here's the stats and equip:
lvl 79
str 125 (131)
dex 70 (70)
vit 275 (276)
ene base
damage: 268-388 (That's without might, i'm not even gonna list with might since in endgame the merc was more dead than alive. And note: a large part of it is poison damage from the sword, so physical damage is way lower)
AR: 2222 (39% chance to hit Baal)
life: 1138
mana: 151
Resists fire/cold/lightning/poison: 38/-19/46/10
Skills:
Max inner sight, decoy, valkyrie and penetrate
3 critical strike
2 D/A/E
1 slow missiles
Gear (including charms):
Code:
Blacktongue
Gothic Sword
'Shael'
One-Hand Damage: 22 to 63
Two-Hand Damage: 62 to 95
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Dexterity: 20
Required Strength: 113
Required Level: 31
Sword Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x58f8d125
+59% Enhanced Damage
+50 to Attack Rating
Poison Resist +50%
+112 poison damage over 6 seconds
Required Level +5
20% Increased Attack Speed
Prevent Monster Heal
Socketed (1: 1 used)
Plague Horn
Circlet
Defense: 57
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x1f1ba4e
+29 to Life
+85% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +22%
+1 to Defensive Aura Skills (Paladin Only)
Doom Mark
Amulet
Required Level: 52
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 44
Fingerprint: 0xebfd96e9
+19 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 4%
Damage Reduced by 4
All Resistances +8
7% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Passive and Magic Skills (Amazon Only)
Death Jack
Breast Plate
Defense: 82
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Strength: 30
Required Level: 55
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 78
Fingerprint: 0xa3450964
+57 to Life
+20% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Lightning Resist +22%
Attacker Takes Damage of 8
Half Freeze Duration
Dire Claw
Gauntlets
Defense: 20
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x367b6a1d
+27% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +22%
+5 to Light Radius
10% Increased Attack Speed
5% Bonus to Attack Rating
Bone Lock
Belt
Defense: 5
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 33
Fingerprint: 0xa7f25ebd
+6 to Strength
+8 to Maximum Stamina
Fire Resist +20%
Attacker Takes Damage of 5
17% Faster Hit Recovery
Stone Touch
Ring
Required Level: 70
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 72
Fingerprint: 0xbf6bc38b
+1 to Vitality
+14 to Attack Rating
+2 to Minimum Damage
Damage Reduced by 1
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
All Resistances +8
+1 to Mana After Each Kill
Ghoul Grasp
Ring
Required Level: 16
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0x60cb9472
+112 to Attack Rating
+1 to Maximum Damage
4% Life stolen per hit
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Level 2 Charged Bolt (25/25 Charges)
Bone Nails
War Boots
Defense: 65
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 125
Required Level: 51
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0xc510c287
+21% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 2
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
Fire Resist +7%
Lightning Resist +26%
Cold Resist +29%
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
30% Faster Run/Walk
Sharp Grand Charm of the Glacier
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 38
Fingerprint: 0xc0a160de
+52 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage
Adds 3-5 cold damage over 1 seconds
Amber Small Charm of Fire
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x52044979
Lightning Resist +11%
Adds 2-4 fire damage
Amber Small Charm of Frost
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 55
Fingerprint: 0x6842c29f
Lightning Resist +10%
Adds 1-2 cold damage over 1 seconds
Garnet Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 20
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0x10474382
Fire Resist +9%
Russet Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 8
Fingerprint: 0xaa60a1f3
Fire Resist +7%
Ocher Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 16
Fingerprint: 0x517fbac0
Lightning Resist +7%
Viridian Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0x8fbc81a1
Poison Resist +7%
Viridian Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 30
Fingerprint: 0xf351c35e
Poison Resist +7%
Ocher Small Charm of Greed
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 52
Fingerprint: 0x497aeebf
Lightning Resist +6%
9% Extra Gold from Monsters
Lapis Small Charm of Shock
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x55d2194d
Cold Resist +6%
Adds 1-4 lightning damage
Amber Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0xb338be13
Lightning Resist +13%
Crimson Small Charm of Shock
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 9
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 6
Fingerprint: 0xc5515099
Fire Resist +5%
Adds 1-5 lightning damage
Tangerine Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 55
Fingerprint: 0x470bc431
Lightning Resist +5%
Small Charm of Frost
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 66
Fingerprint: 0x7d2efc6
Adds 1-2 cold damage over 1 seconds
Steel Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x9a0687eb
+18 to Life
+35 to Attack Rating
Sharp Large Charm of Quality
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x4fe5df20
+42 to Attack Rating
+6 to Maximum Damage
Small Charm of Venom
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x6e3a579a
+15 poison damage over 4 seconds
Merc gear:
Code:
Doom Mask
Circlet
Defense: 24
Durability: 66 of 105
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 26
Fingerprint: 0x27173898
+6 to Strength
Adds 1-109 lightning damage
62% Extra Gold from Monsters
Viper Cloak
Templar Coat
Defense: 341
Durability: 47 of 60
Required Strength: 118
Required Level: 46
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0xe094961f
+12 to Life
+24% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 3
Cold Resist +14%
2% Life stolen per hit
+2 Life after each Demon Kill
5% Chance to cast Level 3 Frost Nova when struck
Hailstone Nails >> found in hell WSK lvl 2 until then he used grim prod (see below)
Mancatcher
Two-Hand Damage: 117 to 252
Durability: 25 of 28
Required Dexterity: 134
Required Strength: 132
Required Level: 55
Spear Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xc9eee3b9
+174% Enhanced Damage
+343 to Attack Rating
+2 to Minimum Damage
6% Mana stolen per hit
Grim Prod
Lochaber Axe
Two-Hand Damage: 12 to 125
Durability: 44 of 50
Required Strength: 80
Required Level: 36
Polearm Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x8c3fc5ba
+116% Enhanced Damage
+11 to Attack Rating
Adds 8-24 cold damage over 1 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
Level 3 Zeal (14/27 Charges)