Orange You Glad That Rune Dropped: Craft-Centric Tournament

Great progress everyone, what a fun thread this had become!

--

Out into Hell on /p1 for the merc's sake as he's getting squishy now, a quick clear of the Den before heading towards the Mausoleum for his first real shot at a good CM base. Then, with the Mausoleum in sight, this happened.

X2xDEDf.jpg


Alright, well with lady luck on his side he abandoned clearing the Burial ground(they're all LI anyway), muled in some supplies and gave it a shot in the cube. Bingo! Now the Um from A4NM and the personalization from NM can be put to use (after a respec to get the dex reqs that is).

Jbk0IzO.jpg


Feeling happy about his good fortunes, he bee-lined for the Stony Field to keep progressing and test out his weapon. It's AWESOME, and extremely fast. Non-LIs melt and even LIs go down relatively fast. I'm still keeping it on /p1 since both Elding and the merc lose health faster than I'd like when multiple enemies are around. Through the UP, through Treehead and off save Cain for the final time. The ring was actually alright, and replaces a previous one, so that's great.

Ky0j0RY.jpg


Still, Elding can't afford to get complacent. The insane firepower lends to slipping into a false sense of security, and then nasty archer packs like this LI-Fanat group can show up and be very dangerous.

RATqqjm.jpg


Lost the merc a few times, but Elding prevailed and made it down to the Countess in one piece. Drew LI archers in the Pit but cleared it anyways in case of potential loot (there was none). Tried out our final imbue to no avail and it was through to the Catacombs. Nothing major, except for this fine gentleman that the merc just couldn't survive.

S92wMrG.jpg


Elding pinned him and took him out carefully, and then a leisurely trip to Andariel, who was no big deal and Elding could tank her easily with the help of pots.

Next up on the docket; a major (and likely final) crafting session!

Elding the Tesladin, lvl 75 - Hell Lut Gholein

--


Code:
Forumite     Character         Class   Lvl   Progress
--------     ---------         -----   ---   --------
Skiff        ColdFever         Sorc    77    Guardian
Vang         *Spokane          Zon     81    Guardian
PhineasB     Orange            Zon     85    Guardian
Grisu        Lugh              Barb    84    A4 H
Norcim       Valryka           Zon     83    A4 H
OldSoldier   GaranDarkslayer   Pal     79    A3 H
Pb_pal       Elding            Pal     75    A2 H
Jocular      Cranky            Barb    71    A5 NM
Luhkoh       Amaresu           Sorc    54    A2 NM
Vildecor     Rowena            Sin     53    A2 NM
Babyhell     ItsATrap          Sin     21    A2 N
CaseyJones   RunsWithLava      Dru     17    A1 N

Code:
Forumite   Character   Class   Lvl   Progress
--------   ---------   -----   ---   --------
zemaj      OUGNecro    Nec     33    A3 N
Jocular    PopeJohn... Pal     48    A1 NM
Vang       Solidify    Sor     54    A1 NM
 
Nice job wrapping up Act I Hell, Pb! I'm also finding hell to be dicey beyond /p1 :p

A War Spike dropped in the Crypt, so back to Norm for my 2nd imbue.

I don't think I've ever had such a painful imbue in a tourney...so close, but yet so far. I'm debating whether or not to throw caution to the wind and use my 3rd imbue on an Eth War Axe I picked up in NM just for fun.

Screenshot600.jpg


Also, maybe people have already discussed this, but the 6pskull+rare item recipe is a nice way to reroll a quest reward for another chance at a good item, either a Ring or Imbue.
 
Last edited:
Had some time this morning... time for an Orange session!

We left ItsATrap at Arcane Sanctuary waypoint, and her journey was SP + full clear. I decided to forget about full clear, too much time consuming, but she is still SP for now - if I get some difficulties due to forgetting about SP, I may leave this behind too, but I'd like to handle Normal at least SP. Anyway!

Note: at some point in Act 2 a Stealth armor had been crafted but I missed the screenshot. So she is not white geared only anymore!

The summoner had been found on the 2nd leg, and dropped two runes. Soon after, this really nice low level jewel had been id'ed:
63c2ErRl.jpg

Pretty at clvl 9, only lack some psn

Duriel has been fought on /p3, and went down with few pots on the merc. Drop was somehow trash - the Kris could be used for a Savage recipe, kept for later.

Act 3 was an easy run through, Spider cavern was close, Flayer's dungeon found quickly too, and didn't put a foot in the Great Marsh, so... pretty cool given my new limitations. And well, Ormus' ring wasn't too bad:
WVJLratl.jpg


Then a Ral had been picked on the way to LK. Ruined temple had been a pretty surprising moment, but fire traps took care of it. Council had been kind enough to drop a diamond, then it was time to head towards Mephisto and... tough the guy had been! Not for her, but for the merc, who needed a lot of attention, pots, and a couple of resurrection. But in the end, only 3 levels gained from this act - it will be a tough Act 4.
mYrEXkul.jpg


Available runes table:
Code:
|    El |   Eld |   Tir |   Nef |   Eth |
|    11 |     5 |     9 |     6 |     3 |
|   Ith |   Tal |   Ral |   Ort |  Thul |
|     1 |     0 |     2 |     0 |     0 |

See you on the next update!

Code:
Forumite     Character         Class   Lvl   Progress
--------     ---------         -----   ---   --------
Skiff        ColdFever         Sorc    77    Guardian
Vang         *Spokane          Zon     81    Guardian
PhineasB     Orange            Zon     85    Guardian
Grisu        Lugh              Barb    84    A4 H
Norcim       Valryka           Zon     83    A4 H
OldSoldier   GaranDarkslayer   Pal     79    A3 H
Pb_pal       Elding            Pal     75    A2 H
Jocular      Cranky            Barb    71    A5 NM
Luhkoh       Amaresu           Sorc    54    A2 NM
Vildecor     Rowena            Sin     53    A2 NM
Babyhell     ItsATrap          Sin     29    A4 N
CaseyJones   RunsWithLava      Dru     17    A1 N

Code:
Forumite   Character   Class   Lvl   Progress
--------   ---------   -----   ---   --------
zemaj      OUGNecro    Nec     33    A3 N
Jocular    PopeJohn... Pal     48    A1 NM
Vang       Solidify    Sor     54    A1 NM
 
Last edited:
@Babyhell I'm sorry to let you know, but your imgur links aren't working :/

I think as long as you full clear certain areas in NM that have lots of monsters you could keep it SP, like Act III up until Lower Kurast, the Tombs, Arcane, Cows, y'know. Otherwise you may not have runes/gems/jewels. I know I feel like I barely have enough at the start of hell, and I did full clears, /p7, and find item (25% chance). Then again I have to waste all of my blood crafts on (lackluster) weapons, (and also a bunch of sapphires on Hit power weapons earlier on) so your crafting may be a bit more flexible and therefore may not need as much craft mats? Who knows.

I like your fancy rune table :love:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zyr and Babyhell
I'm sorry to let you know, but your imgur links aren't working :/
Weird, when I click on them, it opens correctly oO

Regarding SP, it is just about time dedication... when you go full clear, you know you can't be playing for 15/20 minutes, it can bring you to much more, and currently, I can't do such on a regular way (RFL it taking much time for sure as I wanted one full batch at some point, but my other activities are leaving me less time, whereas I'd like to push this character, so... I have to cut somewhere ^^)

See you in NM... or at least Baal defeated!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Luhkoh
Weird, when I click on them, it opens correctly oO

Regarding SP, it is just about time dedication... when you go full clear, you know you can't be playing for 15/20 minutes, it can bring you to much more, and currently, I can't do such on a regular way (RFL it taking much time for sure as I wanted one full batch at some point, but my other activities are leaving me less time, whereas I'd like to push this character, so... I have to cut somewhere ^^)

See you in NM... or at least Baal defeated!
I know exactly what you mean! Have you tried hibernation mode? That way you can continue after yiu resume from hibernation even if there are some days inbetween. Works for me if family business comes up while I am beating up Demons...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Babyhell and Luhkoh
@Grisu My PC is shared, so my gf is using it regularly for her own stuff (don't ever let anyone know a gaming PC works well...). But anyway, today had been a catching day, so here she is, Baal killed!

Nothing worth a pic before the forge, which gave crafting materials - always nice to get a PAmeth. Act 4 delivered quite a bunch of gems but iirc, mf is not that useful in this tournament, right...?
EAjvfKtl.jpg


Diablo had been taken down on /p8, because... I forgot to switch to /p3.

Then for Act 5 I decided to grant my merc a stick, so I crafted an Halberd with some chippies, and after a few tries, got 2os - Eth + Skull.

Nice runes were found, being a Sol and an Amn some time after, but in the meantime, Anya had been SSOOOOOO DAMN GRATEFUL - I don't think I ever get something THAT useful as a reward in Normal!
ECYgQM7l.jpg

30IAS, and a bonus +1skill. Crazy!!!

Glacial trail and The Ancient's way were... full cleared, but not on purpose. Given the fact that clvl41 was close, some mobs were killed in the Icy cellar before facing the Ancients. And guess what... I forgot to switch to /p1 -_-

Hit clvl 44 before Baal, while killing Lister's minions that were separated to facilitate the process. Baal himself dropped a chipped sapphire and nothing else worthy, allowing ItsAtrap to access Cows.
jbca3WPl.jpg


It has to be noted that Pindle and afterwards hadn't been ran over yet. Probably next time!

Additional note: I decided to pump Shadow Master instead of pushing trap skills when hitting clvl 30, as planned here. Well... I do think it was the very best decision, it tanks so well after having some points in!

Available runes table:
Code:
|    El |   Eld |   Tir |   Nef |   Eth |
|    11 |     5 |    10 |     9 |     5 |
|   Ith |   Tal |   Ral |   Ort |  Thul |
|     3 |     4 |     4 |     6 |     0 |
|   Amn |   Sol | Shael |   Dol |   Hel |
|     1 |     1 |     0 |     0 |     0 |

See you on the next update!

Code:
Forumite     Character         Class   Lvl   Progress
--------     ---------         -----   ---   --------
Skiff        ColdFever         Sorc    77    Guardian
Vang         *Spokane          Zon     81    Guardian
PhineasB     Orange            Zon     85    Guardian
Grisu        Lugh              Barb    84    A4 H
Norcim       Valryka           Zon     83    A4 H
OldSoldier   GaranDarkslayer   Pal     79    A3 H
Pb_pal       Elding            Pal     75    A2 H
Jocular      Cranky            Barb    71    A5 NM
Luhkoh       Amaresu           Sorc    54    A2 NM
Vildecor     Rowena            Sin     53    A2 NM
Babyhell     ItsATrap          Sin     44    A5 N*
CaseyJones   RunsWithLava      Dru     17    A1 N

Code:
Forumite   Character   Class   Lvl   Progress
--------   ---------   -----   ---   --------
zemaj      OUGNecro    Nec     33    A3 N
Jocular    PopeJohn... Pal     48    A1 NM
Vang       Solidify    Sor     54    A1 NM
 
Last edited:
Finished through a3 nightmare! Forgot to take many screenshots this stint, but lets see what we've got.

Progress was pretty smooth. Frozen orb does good work, but doesn't destroy everything with no plus skills on p8. Hydra works well enough to help dispatch a single cold imune boss, but I'm not sure it's going to cut the mustard in hell, when we have full packs of cold immunes. But I'm thinking less and less that I will try and full clear hell, so may not need to deal with too too many.

Been casting shiver armor and ES from my orb often. Really helps take the ege off of incoming damage. And the mid 200's mana pool is such a nice upgrade from normal difficulty. Nothing too exciting from AS or tombs, but slowly accruing more crafting mats.

Duriel down, no tps!
LuFvMIl.png


Ah a3, I sorta hate it, but I love the free 30 hp i get. Also found a few charm upgrades and ofc leveled up some throughout this act, and the life pool is getting more reasonable, despite having >100 stat points saved, in case I want block for hell.

Jungle didn't feel as bad to full clear as I was expecting. Definitely takes ages, but is mostly linear and you make steady progress. Got a lem rune from spider cavern, not sure where I would use this on sorc though. Might use a lawbringer a5 merc if I werent in this tourney where it would require personalization.
TPIswey.png


Ormus ring. Was an upgrade since I need cold resists. Replaced that 46mana 10mf ring i had from nm anya,
fjHgERH.png


In upper kurast had my closest NDE so far... from pure stupidity. I thought the area was completely cleared of monsters and i alt-tabbed to a spreadsheet or something. Which was covering the screen, so I didn't see a champ pack of those tree frenzier guys approaching. However, fortunately, the window in front was not coving the bottom left corner life bulb, because I saw my hp start plummeting. I alt-tabbed back, press esc with just over 100 hp remaining and merc dead, realize I'm in a no s/e tourney, unpause blast some rejuvs and get out of there. You always read about deaths from stuff like that, and I'm always like "why would anyone tab away without pausing first?" And here we are lol. But I'm STILL. ALIVE.

Left myself just the a3 sewers and all of durance to clear yesterday and was dreading both. The sewers didn't take as long as I was afraid they would, but durance took soooo long. Those maps can get big. And those ghoul lords seems to have a decent bit of cold res because they take a while to go down. But we made it through unevenfully.

Mephisto down.
wC8pRsS.png


A4 shouldn't take me long at all and I'm looking forward to it. Not really looking forward to full clearing those open areas in a5 again or nihla's halls tbh. But i'm close enough to the end of nightmare that I will definitely push through. Got maximize those crafts! Really looking forward to the pre-hell crafting session. Hope everyone is doing well!
 
@OldSoldier: nice work! Getting close to the finish line now. Valryka had a Tal's Mask drop earlier and I had the same thought as you; in almost any other tournament that gets equipped immediately.

@Grisu: Lugh looks extra cool with the thresher and no helmet look!

@Jocular: I really enjoyed your updates! Great details and lots of pics are what I need!

@Pb_pal: I'm pumped you were able to get the CM going early!

Everyone else: keep up the great progress! This thread has gotten really good with all the entrants and updates lately, let's keep those coming! I really like seeing people get excited about the Cain/Ormus/Anya reward items; you just don't typically see those get used so this is very cool.


For myself, I haven't had much chance to make any progress in Act 5 yet. Valryka is at the Frigid Highlands WP, and will stay there until later next week when I might get some chances to play again.
 
Had an interesting drop tonight! Oh well, I've already used my Norm and NM personalization, but no worries I'm pretty happy with how the Barb has ended up thus far. I wonder which one it is and how it rolled? Hoping for 2 sockets if it's Heaven's Light!

Screenshot647.jpg








Hmmmmm.


Screenshot648.jpg






Screenshot649.jpg
 
I suppose it's about time I update you all :)

Svetlana the soon to be Hydra Sorceress finished act 2. Fireball is really strong, though mana intensive in the early game. By far the highlight of this character so far is this staff. I shopped for maybe a half hour to find the base:

Leaf
Long Staff
TirRal
Two Hand Damage: 2 - 8
Durability: 28 of 30
Required Level: 19
Fingerprint: 0x4e6702b3
Item Level: 20
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Fire Skills
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
+3 to Inferno (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Warmth (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Fire Bolt (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Nova (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Fire Ball (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Blaze (Sorceress Only)
+56 Defense (Based on Character Level)
Cold Resist +33%
+2 to Mana after each Kill
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Tir Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune

Tir Rune
Required Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +2 to Mana after each Kill
Armor: +2 to Mana after each Kill
Shields: +2 to Mana after each Kill

Ral Rune
Required Level: 19
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
Armor: Fire Resist +30%
Shields: Fire Resist +35%

I didn't actually expect to find a Ral in act 2! This made the arcane sanctuary and tombs an absolute breeze.

Level 28, starting Act 3 soon :)
 
Nice choice on Hydra :) One of the very first SPF posts I ever read was someone beating an old pre-lod version with a hydra Sorc. Had me hooked here ever since!

What're you planning as her secondary skill?
 
Well the ending act was pretty eventful for GaranDarkslayer. The game threw pretty much everything it had at he and Pratham, so without further ado, let's find out if he prevailed or if Baal's destruction conquered him instead.

After a fairly uneventful Bloody Foothills, GaranDarkslayer used the Larzuk reward to put a hole in his charsi-imbued circlet, which yielded a spot for a 11% res all jewel. As such the circlet had life, res all, strength, and +2 necro skills. Not bad, and it helped him maximize his fire and lightning resistances, while bringing his cold resistance up from the poor depths where it had been languishing.

It was the Frigid Highlands where the physical immunes started showing up, culminating with these two bosses. Pratham's lightning and cold damage, along with his open wounds, were instrumental in bringing these enemies to their knees.
PI1.jpg

In the Crystalline Passage, the intrepid duo were met with PI Frenzytaurs such as this:
PI2.jpg

It was not smart to try to take on more than 3 or so of these guys at a time. That many was manageable by the power of smite, which was Garan's only asset against PIs. The stun was great but Pratham did all the damage since he had physical, cold and lightning all at the same time (plus OW if you consider that a fourth damage type).

After rescuing Anya, we went straight after Nihlathak so that we could upgrade one more piece of gear via her personalization reward. Levels one and two were not too bad, but level 3 had the poison vipers, and they killed Pratham and caused a few NDEs for Garan.

Redemption removed most of the bodies that Nihlathak would have blown up, and the result of the personalization was this:
Screenshot019.jpg

We could only muster an 8% res all elite paladin shield, but it did improve our smite damage to between 600 and 700 per hit to about 950 to 1150, a nice upgrade. The +2 skills helped our cleansing, vigor, redemption, and fanaticism damage as well. Overall a nice upgrade.

Onward, the Frozen Tundra gave us more PI Death Berserkers, and the Ancient's Way gave us more Frenzytaurs, this time non-PI varieties, which made them much more manageable. Still we stuck with no more than three at a time, which was workable since there were no stairs traps.

The Ancients required one reroll, since they killed Pratham too quickly the first time. We were able to separate them, and their mods were quite tame. Score!
Ancients.jpg

WSK1 wasn't hard, but level 2 gave us Black Souls. WSK3 was PI ghosts (not hard, because of our level 8 Sanctuary aura, which smashes PI undead) and PI Succubi, which were a real tough nut to crack because of their steadfast refusal to move, instead deciding to simply shoot orbs at us constantly.
PI3.jpg

The Throne of Destruction had OKs and Claw Vipers, an odd combo for sure. The waves were not difficult, since Redemption cleared the bodies that Pratham quickly made (he did 1000 to 3000 damage with Fanaticism, pretty quickly to boot) and Smite stopped all enemies in their tracks.

Lister was pretty easy, but I knew that because smite is pretty mean to all single non PI enemies. It was fun being the bully against him again.
Screenshot044.jpg

Baal was a pushover, being killed in about a minute or so. The Eschuta's he dropped was only my second, but very low end.
Screenshot046.jpg

I got better drops out of these bosses than I do with oodles of MF (I had less than 15% I think). What the heck?

Our Equipment:
Equip1.jpg
Equip2.jpg
Equip3.jpg

Guardian GaranDarkslayer, level 83 smite paladin

Thanks for following along everyone!
 
Alright, time for the (likely final) crafting session!

First things first, a new weapon for the merc. I have 4 Sols available, so I spent some time shopping some bases and went for it.

Attempt 1: crap
Attempt 2: crap
Attempt 3: Okay. Damage not there but the leech is nice.
Attempt 4: Bingo!

TrsOkTS.jpg


Damage and speed! No leech, but I'll take it.

Okay, now to bolster the rest of the gear. First thing, the merc's new blood helm to get some leech. I don't need a ton of rubies since I'm happy already with Elding's blood gloves. His belt is okay too but could be better. This lets me take a few cracks at the merc helm guilt free. I did 4 attempts and this was the best one:

rbbN5nZ.jpg


Well. it's better than his current one, but I think I'm going to pop an Amn into the weapon to give him some extra leech anyway. I'm kind of at a weird spot now where I'm quite happy with his stats and there aren't any glaring equipment holes. So in a bid to make him a bit more durable, and to be extra on-theme, I'm going to try and replace his reward rings with good crafts (even though they are rather good rares). I have only one spare Amn (saving one for the mercs weapon), so I can try one safety ring, and... it didn't work out.

Okay fine, the rings will stay as rewards ring. That frees me up to try some blood belts. I tried 4, with the best one as follows

1w1cXtg.jpg


this got his PsR into the positives, so I'll call it a win even though he sacrificed a few points of OW. Next up he rolled his 3 remaining PEmeralds to try and get a new safety helm and he got a decent upgrade.

9Qso0sB.jpg


It might not look like much but he's got a scintillating jewel (+12 all res) to put in the socket which makes his resistances fantastic. Good. Now for the amulet. I have no use for amethysts anymore so I figured why not use my remaining rals (keeping one in waiting in case of a socketing need) and see about some caster ammys. I got 6 tried, with the best being:

Code:
Death Necklace
Amulet
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x5777f0da
+4 to Life
+19 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 10%
All Resistances +11
Replenish Life +9
+5 to Light Radius
6% Faster Cast Rate
5% Bonus to Attack Rating

Great! AR and resistances, can't ask for much more especially since amethysts were useless anyways. One final thing to do is roll some hitpower armours to see if he can get an upgrade. The best was this one, I love the sockets for versatility.

8NpZdFw.jpg


So we socketed the mercs weapon (amn) and helm (ed/dmg jewel) and this is what the guys look like:

Bo9MjGF.jpg

rV6OCls.jpg


Pretty darn good! Turns out crafting is a very viable way to equipping tournament characters!

Next time, some actual gameplay.
 
Great stuff everyone! Huge congrats @OldSoldier!

I've been hitting this sorc pretty hard between rfl rounds and have now finished nightmare! Completed it full clear, p8 except for ancients and act bosses (though I reallllly wish I hadn't done cows on p8).

Let see, got my first lum in plains of despair. Might have been able to cube one anyways, but was glad to see that drop as it will likely make up a pretty obvious piece of my end game gear via personalization ;).

I quit to mule off my stash after plains of despair and had to tele back to city of the damned, and almost lost it all.
H6ShPre.jpg


And on the second attempt to tele through there were gloams and I got down to ~180 hp. Thankfully that was just "during transport", so I was allowed to s/e.

River of flame rolled some super annoying monsters. Blood maggots and grotesques. Took ages to plow through as well as many mana pots, but wasn't dangerous. Forge was hel, but with some nice amethyst action.
CPuGNv5.jpg


I feel like I've been dropping more amethysts than other gems through nightmare, and I'm not complaining. Chaos was easy after that RoF, soon had diablo down.
DyVUjYa.jpg


Act 5 I rolled some cold immune monsters and finally started to get acquainted with the strengths and many weaknesses of hydra :p. Cold immune goatmen and witches were in two of the early overground areas, and of course the frozen creeper guys. Holy freeze merc , hydras, frequent teleports, and frequent mana pot drinking saw them down eventually. And I did come to appreciate hydras ability to kill my enemies around corners or off screen, and used it a decent bit in the latter half of a5 to help thin crowds of souls and non-CI witches, before running in and clearing out with orb. Anyas orb was sold back to her.
R27whj8.jpg


Unfortunately wasnt useful like the normal orb was. Ancients were no problem on p1. Then went ahead and beat baal without doing nihlathak, saving the halls areas for last. WSK had no CIs so won't complain much, but the zealots + heirophants plus flash spawners (grotesques again!) that did spawn took a lot of time to take out. But the throneroom, waves, and baal went smoothly. Got my first conqueror!
DkpPS4S.jpg


Next up was cow level. I kept it at players 8 which was a big mistake. Took probably 45 minutes to clear and I barely gained any appreciable exp at all. Ah well live and learn.

Last up was the halls. No vipers! But you guessed it, I did spawn herophants and grotesques. So took some time, but plenty safe. Nihla himself went down no problem. I don't know how you might go about taking him out without eating about a million CEs, but fortunately they didn't do more than 100 dmg ever, and I was able to just drinking healing pots through the fight. Didn't even need a juv.

Found this rare orb near the end of the halls clearing.
urCmQ66.jpg


I doubt it's nice enough to be a personalization contender, but it's possible. A nice orb for sure. That wraps up nightmare. Managed to get through without dying to FE! The sorc is lvl 74, and I've cubed up my gems and have this many perfect ones:

Amethyst - 13
Emerald - 11
Ruby - 8
Sapphire - 7

Cant wait to get my pre-hell gear crafted. Honestly pumped enough about it, might get it done in the next few hours and double post about it. I think I have my crafts, imbues, and personalizations planned out (mostly) and will cash them all in before starting hell (but ofc will craft more if the mats drop as well as craft merc a new weapon when I can buy an elite basin in a2h). This is the most fun part of the tourney for sure! So talk to you soon!

Code:
Forumite     Character         Class   Lvl   Progress
--------     ---------         -----   ---   --------
Skiff        ColdFever         Sorc    77    Guardian
Vang         *Spokane          Zon     81    Guardian
PhineasB     Orange            Zon     85    Guardian
Grisu        Lugh              Barb    84    A4 H
Norcim       Valryka           Zon     83    A4 H
OldSoldier   GaranDarkslayer   Pal     79    A3 H
Pb_pal       Elding            Pal     75    A2 H
Luhkoh       Amaresu           Sorc    74    A1 H
Jocular      Cranky            Barb    71    A5 NM
Vildecor     Rowena            Sin     53    A2 NM
Babyhell     ItsATrap          Sin     44    A5 N*
CaseyJones   RunsWithLava      Dru     17    A1 N

Code:
Forumite   Character   Class   Lvl   Progress
--------   ---------   -----   ---   --------
zemaj      OUGNecro    Nec     33    A3 N
Jocular    PopeJohn... Pal     48    A1 NM
Vang       Solidify    Sor     54    A1 NM
 
@Pb_pal haha thanks! I'm going to put the crafting narrative in a spoiler since there's so many screenshots, but as promised...

First I went ahead and personalized a smoke. I'd been eyeing that as my primary candidate for personalization the whole time, and basically the only thing that would have stopped me from going that route would've been a vipermagi drop in nm. Am I the first to personalize a smoke in this tourney? Seems like such a great choice. Put it in a 9ed superior ghost armor.
b408rOg.png


That helped the res out greatly, and I probably could hit an acceptable amount of resistances just with that change, but ofc hoping for big improvements from the other slots from crafting. Also note that I am not willing to use any of my socket quests with this character. Since if she should make it through to guardian, I have longer term mf plans for her where I know exactly what I want to use my sockets on. Shouldn't be too stringent a limitation at all for sorc, but wanted to mention it.
Planned to divide my 13 amethyst between amulets and belts. Started with the belts. On belt craft #2 I got this beauty:
5rBILuy.png


And figured that was more than good enough to switch to the amulets immediately. I want 17fcr combined from the amulet and belt to hit the 37fcr breakpoint, so with the 9fcr craft above, need 8+ on amulet. Did 5 amulet crafts to start. No sorc skills at all, but got this one.
V3ASuM0.png


I also got a 1barb/18 fcr amulet which could be interesting, but since I alread got a nice caster belt craft, and that barb amulet didnt have fcr, the craft above was the way to go. Light res and life are nice for sure. Next up was 4 safety gauntlet crafts. And man oh man, craft #4 came through for me big time :D.
S0VsdLv.png


Beautiful. Couldn't ask for a better result. Next up, I wanted 50+ block on this character for sure, so need a decent shield. I had in my mind I'd probably be making a rhyme bone shield and using the second personalization on that. But when I planned out my crafts and saw I was only really using the hitpower craft in hopes of getting not-terrible boots, I decided I should try some shields first and see if I can free up my personlization option. 3rd gothic shield got "of deflecting" as hoped. Not much else though.
9gw1xiC.png


Still, better block chance than rhyme bone shield and my resists were looking nice from those previous crafts, so I decided to use it. Next was 4 safety crowns. Less exciting results there, but I did get one with a socket and not much else other than the lres automod. But a socket is pretty powerful, so I was happy for it and figured I'd wait till the end of crafting to see what I want to put in it. Next up i did the merc gear. Shopped one templar coat from nm jamella, but it was 200k, so I was like I'm only crafting one and we'll just have to hope it's good.
cYydCXG.png


Could be better, could be worse. At least got some relevant resists on it. Next I crafted 3 casques for merc, which nearly cleaned me out of rals, including cubing up all my tals. This one was an improvement from his old one, but is nothing special.
qCRb5Ma.png


So merc could use some more res. Was really hoping for a 2os result from one of the two, but that will do I think. Now I had to decide what to use my imbues on. Sorc orbs were the frontrunner to my mind, with options to go for circlets or boots depending on crafts worked out. But now that I had a personalization free, I felt like I wanted to see what I would get from circlets. First imbue:
ILt410w.png


Wow, a whole lot of nothing. Second imbue went better though.
QVvk77i.png


Welp! That didn't help in the ways I was thinking/hoping (skills or fcr) but that is a keeper and a half. Now my res were looking stacked. I looked at what crafting materials I had leftover at this point, and I had the sapphires I'd planned to use on hitpower boots, but was fresh out of rals. Had rubies left though, so decided to try some blood boots, and got a quite nice result
Ad3QhQK.png


Nice! Those are like mini-aldurs. With what was leftover (while still saving 3 emeralds for merc weapon crafts in a2), I crafted 3 hitpower rings. Got 2 somewhat decent results:
WEZTdu9.png

Rall0JY.png


Both are upgrades from my 5mana/25 fire res ring I've had since normal ormus. That's the end of the crafts!

So the last question was what to use my 2nd personalization on. Many options. Main contenders in my mind were a merc armor (treachery probably), a spirit (I said I didn't want to use one this playthrough but man it would work great with my high res, low power setup), and my best rare orb. I decided I didn't care about the merc and wanted to stick to my guns on spirit, so I personalized my best rare orb.
Wk4cRtd.png


It's nothing too special, but is decent. I decided I'd rather use that personalization for a skill and mana than on the merc. So we went with it. So now that I decided to use this orb with light resists rather than my normal anya reward orb with fire resists, I used the fire resist hitpower ring shown above rather than the lres/20 life one. Then I put on my charms. A couple of fhr for the 30 breakpoint with smoke, a couple of cold resist to max it, and the rest lifers. This brought me to 806 life. Nice! I had saved stat points for 50 block with rhyme, plus a little more in case i needed to make safety greaves. So I had been planning on 50 block, but when I saw 806 hp, I dumped all the stats in dex. So in the end it looks like this.
9k1sFFc.png


Wow I'd say that worked out great. Those crafts really came through for me, and this sorc is better equipped than most non-tourney sorcs I've taken through hell. Well, except for the low plus skills, but I'm fine with that in hc tbh. And the light res is (just by circumstance) overstacked to like 129. Now for hell, I'm definitely going to quit p8 and quit full clear. I'm thinking I'll start out on p3, killing boss packs in overground areas and mostly clearing dungeons, but we will see. Will go down to p1 I'm sure for the a3 jungle if not before then. Went ahead and did den of evil on p3 and it went well except for the fact it seems like the merc will blow over in a stiff breeze (he dies pretty fast versus 2 regular zombies, so if you all have tips for him other than a better weapon in a2, let me know). But that's fine! Turned out great.

And for a summary or TLDR, here is a quick video of the gear.
 
Last edited:
Diablo 4 Interactive Map
PurePremium
Estimated market value
Low
High