Random Tournament 2021 D2R edition!

Some nice progress here, condolences to the fallen.
I need to get back into this, but I'm too busy grinding LK with my UT99er at the moment.
 
BleedCharger's Hell adventures - part 5b - First Mal+ rune!

Literally few runs after complaining, it happened!
  • Mal could have a use for a Cta
  • Ist, same story
  • Gul for a Death axe (base to be found)
  • Vex, same story
  • Ohm for a Cta
  • Lo for a merc Fortitude (base secured)
  • Ber for a self Chains of Honor (base to be found)
Guess what?

But hey, finally, things have kicked off!
 
It is time for Levia to be given a posting. She has almost reached my furthest death point (Act 3 NM). As she is sitting about to kill Duriel.

But let us return to when Levia decided she was going to be fully equipped:

1634868688577.png

Ah Act 2 at level 23.


Later on she sported a more intimidating look heading towards Kurast

1634868773850.png


Her current look is:

1634868910198.png

The journey has been pretty easy thus far, though I haven't had the best of drops, but ones I got are pretty good. I spent 2 levels farming NM Andy to be rewarded with nothing from her other than a couple Sols, Dols, and lower runes during the runes.


I managed find this beauty which I may rock until the end of time:


1634869042049.png

The IAS along with 10% on my gloves (20ish LR and 21MF as well) makes for some really fast attacks that take down targets really quickly. It appears that FE has been fixed, but I don't want to bank on it.

Overall a lot of NDEs though only one in NM and none in late normal other than running into a pack of Frenzyataurs at 47 and living because of my level probably.

Onwards to Duriel and then Kurast at which point I hope that Mephisto rewards me with a drop or two.

I do have 50 stat points available as I am not sure if I'm going all the way to 134 for a mancatcher, but wanted to at least equip War Boots if I needed too.

What about all the cool screenshots? I was streaming some of my adventure and did not take many.
 
Random Assassin RandomWayToDie has the new title of Destroyer!

Act IV was easy, but I could not stand up to big D on p3 even with 85 fr and 70ish lr. I just ran around with level 6 death sentry and let that do the work.

Act V went well, gaining that many levels is pretty fun. I did not run into any Frenzytaur packs, but cloak of shadows shuts down frenzy anyways. It will be nice in hell to use psychic hammer to reset monster ai when they are blinded.

Drops were very lackluster. I found a total of 4 normal topazes and never upgraded my or the mercs armor from 3 flawed ringmails. Anya gave me trash, which I waited all the way until level 47 to get the quest. A shael did drop, so I made rhyme and have been using that. It did drop my dps by a lot, claws of thunder gets two charges per atack when you use two claws, but only one with claw and shield. So it was a 50% reduction in how fast charges built up and probably more importantly cost 50% more mana to get to full charges. It wasn't a huge deal though and my kiling speed was adequate.

Until the minions of destruction. Holy crap those guys took forever. I ended up going to my stash and finding some cold damage charms to slow them down, I was using 9+ potions per minion. Two cold damage charms reduced that to about 4-5 pots per minion. Baal killed the merc twice, and I couldn't get the merc to get the last hit, baal was regenning hp too fast. I did have a set of Vile claws to use, but they had no ar and were whiff city. So I just kept chuggin mana potions and let death sentry do most of the work while I charged up CoT on appendages.

Diablo drop, the ring was angellic so not bad. Could be end game for ar if I can find the ammy.
Screenshot011.png

Rhyme Time!
Screenshot012.png

Anya why you do me like that
Screenshot015.png

Forgot about this cool jewel. Might actually get put into something later on.
Screenshot016.png

Man, no Bartucs.
Screenshot017.png
 
So Duriel dropped me this:

1634878699065.png

And I'm really torn. On one hand the spear gives me a range of 5 so I can safely be behind my mercenary and Valk and attack.

In the other is the ability to wear a shield. I think the gear going into Hell will decide. Its a close call though for sure.
 
BleedCharger's Hell adventures - part 6

There will be a part 5c thenafter, to disclose some finds from LK.

However, at some point, this happened:
A bit sloppy... maybe a bit more tired than usual

And well, that was close this time... so on the next session I went to other places to try to get armor bases, like a bit of Pits, found there a 0os Balrog skin, a 4os Shadow armor, and well finally... a 1os Great Hauberk dropped -_- so some kind of tilt happened - had to kill a bro.

On the way, a nice trophy gift for a Paladin:
Mk8O7Icl.png


And after discovering that now De Seis and Infector are piece of cake - guess the AI is bugged, they and their minions don't consider the merc, so he can kill safely while BleedRunner was moving around oO - it was time to give Diablo his own deeds:
QSYW3hXl.png


Cph7aXDl.png

My place, old man

At Harrogath. Probably back to LK a bit now... I'll see!

Code:
   D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level  Skills      Location               Score
-- --- ----------        --------------       -----   -----  ------      --------               ----
   Yes Babyhell          BleedRunner          Pal     79     78+86+71    Harrogath H             42
SP Yes Quackerz          Nero                 Dru     73     52+26+42    Lut Gholein H           39
SP Yes Grisu             Randomnipotent       Nec     60     33          NM Kurast               24
SP Yes aitrus            RandomDeadNecro      Nec     42     21+75       NM Lut Gholein          21
   Yes Vildecor          Fernando             Pal     25     96          Pandemonium Fortress    9
   Yes maxicek           Forley               Bar     29     42+18       Pandemonium Fortress    9
SP Yes thefranklin       RandomWayToDie       Ass     33     40          City of the Damned      9
   Yes Vang              TrashReturned        Bar     16     84          Sewers                  3
SP Yes Dazliare          Mulgram              Bar     20     56          Tombs                   3
SP Yes D4di56lu3         Deva                 Ass     ?      19          Lut Gholein             3
SP Yes jstani01          mystery              Bar     6      93          Cold Plains             0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your SOUL was swallowed by the resurrection (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SP Yes Jcakes            SerafinaPekkala      Ama     60     5 + 50      Deeds                   24
   Yes Vang              Multiple             Multi   58     Many        Deeds                   21
   Yes corale            Meoh                 Dru     43     65          Deeds                   15
   Yes Dazliare          Priscilla            Sor     25     25+72       Deeds                   9
   Yes Miron             Hartwig              Bar     29     8+75        Deeds                   6
   Yes coju              RandyTom             Bar     25      5          Deeds                   3
   Yes Sid               Brisket              Dru     8      07+52       Deeds
   Yes Jamesixgun        Devi                 Sor     7      66+78       Deeds
   Yes Sid               Bortleby             Pal     23     40          Deeds
 
Jcakes Assassin

Set 44: Dragon Talon, Venom, Wake of Fire
Set 51: Dragon Tail, Fade, Blade Fury
Set 87: Blades of Ice, Weapon Block, Fire Blast
Set 90: Cobra Strike, Dragon Flight, Claw Mastery
Set 29: Fist of Fire, Cobra Strike, Blades of Ice

Armor (1) (Quilted Armour, Leather Armour, Ring Mail, Gothic Plate, Full Plate Mail)
Tower Shield
Bone Helm
Heavy Gloves
Belt
Boots

Wrist Blade
Hatchet Hands
Blade Talons
Crystal Sword

So this is my thought with this character - play as a BF assassin in Hell. I was thinking about using Dtalon as the boss killer, but got the worst boots roll unfortunately.

So thinking for Hell I probably want:
Hell (Required):
Set 44: Dragon Talon, Venom, Wake of Fire
Set 90: Cobra Strike, Dragon Flight, Claw Mastery
Set 51: Dragon Tail, Fade, Blade Fury

Hell (maybe)
Set 87: Blades of Ice, Weapon Block, Fire Blast (The blades of Ice could be a nice crowd control and WB can be nice too, but I can go without).

NM:
Set 29: Fist of Fire, Cobra Strike, Blades of Ice

So thinking that I go with the
Set 44: Dragon Talon, Venom, Wake of Fire as my permanent skill set.

(Unsynergised WoF should be fine for Normal and I can attack with venom if I need). I can then potentially synergise it for NM if I decide to take Set 87 or I just become a Blades of Ice / Blades of Fire Assassin.

Does anyone else see any viable options? @Babyhell interested in what you would do :)
 
I would do it differently:

Forever set - 29 - ml & lol + 2 types of attack
Normal set - 87 - don't see any benefit for later game
NM set - 90 - same as normal
Hell - the rest - you have fade for resist, BF to apply CtC mods from afar, claw mastery to helm with AR and another damage source.
 
It's been a long time since I updated, sorry! Mulgram is a bit of a chore through normal, which I expected. I can use frenzy, but I don't have any decent one handers yet, and don't have any damage skills to use with my maul. Auto-attacks it is!

That said, Grim Ward is great for tournaments. Excellent crowd control.

Anyway, Act III was fine. Act 4 was also fine, except Diablo himself. In normal at least, I find that fight completely tedious. He's level 40, and in single pass, you're likely to hit him around 35, and he has high defense, so a melee class CANT FREAKING HIT HIM ARGH. He also just demolishes mercenary, and red lightning hose makes short work of me. It's not super dangerous, just takes forever. I lowered to P1 just for that fight.

Mulgram is level 36, Act 5 next
 
@Miron 90 is the set with Claw Mastery. I tend not to pick a Normal set (if I can help it)
My mistake, anyway I think Claw Mastery don't work with kick based finishing moves.

If no set used for normal then use 87 for NM.

Another option is just use BF as forever set and all the rest is optional
 
@Jcakes I never played a BF Sin, so maybe if you don't have on your side @maxicek could be of better advice.

But still, I do think that even without the higher damage boots Dragon Talon can be played, if some CB can be found (Strength at least, not sure that it would work on offhand claw though...here we need the Master of Shadows @maxicek), and having Venom seems pretty solid combo.

Second point: even if Weapon block is nice, is it worth sacrificing Rhyme? Probably not. So I would go this way:
Forever 44
Set 44: Dragon Talon, Venom, Wake of Fire
Normal - none added
Nightmare [44]+87
Can go for WoF synergy+Blades of Ice or Venom
Set 87: Blades of Ice, Weapon Block, Fire Blast
Hell [44]+51+90+29
Set 51: Dragon Tail, Fade, Blade Fury
Set 90: Cobra Strike, Dragon Flight, Claw Mastery
Set 29: Fist of Fire, Cobra Strike, Blades of Ice
 
@Jcakes I never played a BF Sin, so maybe if you don't have on your side @maxicek could be of better advice.

But still, I do think that even without the higher damage boots Dragon Talon can be played, if some CB can be found (Strength at least, not sure that it would work on offhand claw though...here we need the Master of Shadows @maxicek), and having Venom seems pretty solid combo.

Second point: even if Weapon block is nice, is it worth sacrificing Rhyme? Probably not. So I would go this way:
Forever 44
Set 44: Dragon Talon, Venom, Wake of Fire
Normal - none added
Nightmare [44]+87
Can go for WoF synergy+Blades of Ice or Venom
Set 87: Blades of Ice, Weapon Block, Fire Blast
Hell [44]+51+90+29
Set 51: Dragon Tail, Fade, Blade Fury
Set 90: Cobra Strike, Dragon Flight, Claw Mastery
Set 29: Fist of Fire, Cobra Strike, Blades of Ice

Edit: @Miron points out 51 as forever skill. Can't tell about Blade fury, but a permanent Fade availability looks sexy!
 
I always remembered act 1 NM to be easier than late act V normal due to how much less hp monsters have. That is not the case here :) Most of my gear has not progressed since act 1 normal! What is normal is that I am not gaining much exp at level 48.5. I am running around with less than 100 def still and the merc is using the same savage partizan since act 3 normal. Lots of potions are being used and I have to separate mobs that do damage to the merc. I was able to trap Blood Raven against the fence and tank while my merc finished the job.

I still have not found a flawless topaz, and only have 5 or 6 normal topazes. My mf rings/ammy are 13, 14, 22. Rerolling in the cube has gotten me nothing and I have not used gold to gamble them yet.

Skills:
Set 74: Tiger Strike, Fade, Wake of Inferno (nm set)
Set 40: Claws of Thunder, Cloak of Shadows, Death Sentry (forever set)

I maxed Death Sentry, Tiger Strike (maybe 17 here, next few levels will max it), put 8 into fade, and one point CoS. I do have a War Hammer from normal with about 70 average damage, but it isn't doing a whole lot to the zombies in act 1. And it is slower than molasses. I did find an Io so I could make Black in a 3 socket War Hammer I have, but I might hold off in case I can find a Battle Hammer.


Code:
   D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level  Skills      Location               Score
-- --- ----------        --------------       -----   -----  ------      --------               ----
   Yes Babyhell          BleedRunner          Pal     79     78+86+71    Harrogath H             42
SP Yes Quackerz          Nero                 Dru     73     52+26+42    Lut Gholein H           39
SP Yes Grisu             Randomnipotent       Nec     60     33          NM Kurast               24
SP Yes aitrus            RandomDeadNecro      Nec     42     21+75       NM Lut Gholein          21
SP Yes thefranklin       RandomWayToDie       Ass     48     40+74       NM Cold Plains          18
   Yes Vildecor          Fernando             Pal     25     96          Pandemonium Fortress    9
   Yes maxicek           Forley               Bar     29     42+18       Pandemonium Fortress    9

   Yes Vang              TrashReturned        Bar     16     84          Sewers                  3
SP Yes Dazliare          Mulgram              Bar     20     56          Tombs                   3
SP Yes D4di56lu3         Deva                 Ass     ?      19          Lut Gholein             3
SP Yes jstani01          mystery              Bar     6      93          Cold Plains             0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your SOUL was swallowed by the resurrection (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SP Yes Jcakes            SerafinaPekkala      Ama     60     5 + 50      Deeds                   24
   Yes Vang              Multiple             Multi   58     Many        Deeds                   21
   Yes corale            Meoh                 Dru     43     65          Deeds                   15
   Yes Dazliare          Priscilla            Sor     25     25+72       Deeds                   9
   Yes Miron             Hartwig              Bar     29     8+75        Deeds                   6
   Yes coju              RandyTom             Bar     25      5          Deeds                   3
   Yes Sid               Brisket              Dru     8      07+52       Deeds
   Yes Jamesixgun        Devi                 Sor     7      66+78       Deeds
   Yes Sid               Bortleby             Pal     23     40          Deeds
 
So the long awaited update is finally here, is what I would like to think.

Deva, the fire trapper with two dedicated meatshields has made it to Harrogath.
Being a firetrapper has its advantages, notably safety, which made act 2 and 3 quite pleasant in terms of kill speed and progress even on p8 all the way. Re-summoning the shadow meatshield took aggro for Duriel as well as Mephisto making it possible to handle them on p8 as well. Unfortunately Mehpisto-the-douche made a "save and exit" to save his sorry hide (aka. D2R crashed on me when there was a sliver of life left on the bony wretch, reminding me that a ~7 year old underspecced laptop has its limits...). Second try went smooth, so sweettalking the old lappie worked a charm. The re-run also ended my single playthrough streak, which I had no intention of keeping since it does not give me any joy to adhere to that disciplin, for now :p

Act 4 presented me with more fire resistant enemies, considerably slowing me down and the pricey meatshield with the stick did not take Diablos lightning hose very well (still p8).
So I had to dance and re-summon quite a bit since the kids could wake up any moment and demand I play mario kart with them instead...

Diablo died, crisis averted, the forge gave me an amn, useful indeed.
Had the time to taste Act 5 and found my first usable S/U, and a nice one too, with a pleasing aesthetic and perfect %ed roll as well.

Screenshot028.pngScreenshot029.png

I hope I did the spoiler correct :unsure:

When I hopefully reach NM I plan on going death sentry/kicker (having greaves is nice here) or Claws of thunder/Death sentry. Going full Lightning trapper in hell.

Code:
Code:
  D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level  Skills      Location               Score
-- --- ----------        --------------       -----   -----  ------      --------               ----
   Yes Babyhell          BleedRunner          Pal     79     78+86+71    Harrogath H             42
SP Yes Quackerz          Nero                 Dru     73     52+26+42    Lut Gholein H           39
SP Yes Grisu             Randomnipotent       Nec     60     33          NM Kurast               24
SP Yes aitrus            RandomDeadNecro      Nec     42     21+75       NM Lut Gholein          21
SP Yes thefranklin       RandomWayToDie       Ass     48     40+74       NM Cold Plains          18
   Yes D4di56lu3         Deva                 Ass     36     19          Frigid highlands        12
   Yes Vildecor          Fernando             Pal     25     96          Pandemonium Fortress    9
   Yes maxicek           Forley               Bar     29     42+18       Pandemonium Fortress    9

   Yes Vang              TrashReturned        Bar     16     84          Sewers                  3
SP Yes Dazliare          Mulgram              Bar     20     56          Tombs                   3
SP Yes jstani01          mystery              Bar     6      93          Cold Plains             0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your SOUL was swallowed by the resurrection (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SP Yes Jcakes            SerafinaPekkala      Ama     60     5 + 50      Deeds                   24
   Yes Vang              Multiple             Multi   58     Many        Deeds                   21
   Yes corale            Meoh                 Dru     43     65          Deeds                   15
   Yes Dazliare          Priscilla            Sor     25     25+72       Deeds                   9
   Yes Miron             Hartwig              Bar     29     8+75        Deeds                   6
   Yes coju              RandyTom             Bar     25      5          Deeds                   3
   Yes Sid               Brisket              Dru     8      07+52       Deeds
   Yes Jamesixgun        Devi                 Sor     7      66+78       Deeds
   Yes Sid               Bortleby             Pal     23     40          Deeds

Edit: Crap, can't get the table to show correctly -.-'
Edit2: Woohooo, got the table, gotta learn the spoilers next time xD
 
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BleedCharger's Hell adventures - part 7

Decided to share the time between base farming/leveling, LK, and questing, roughly LK until full personal stash or nice rune, replenish cash, then switching to either of the other one. Mandatory gambling session afterwards, either for boots, belts, caps or rings.

So since last time an Ist had been popped, opening either the road to CtA or setting CoH if a base is ever found:

After the mandatory Larzuk's quest unlocking, and the met soldier's one for the low runes, it was about time to head to Anya. Pretty uneventful, lucky on the mobs and Anya find pretty quickly, but well it cost quite a bunch of gold of merc resurrections.
vX1a23Kl.png

Love those fireworks :love:

Session ended then by grabbing the Ancients' way waypoint, at clvl 80, with no noticeable find during questing.
8N8WWl1l.png

Maybe that is noticeable!

I have to admit that apart from open-wide areas, or single target fight, Charge is not really used more than for FFRW... Lawbringer rules. Having freezed+decrepified packs solves 99% of the equations!

6rXnDW9l.png

Nice Duress base I guess...

At 80+, found those in the Pits
2MItFGpl.png

To be Larzuk'ed!

IdgByArl.png

MFO points :)

XnCusiNl.png

No points, but maybe for an upcoming HR Necro journey?

See you on next update! I have still to make this big update about LK drops...

Code:
Code:
  D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level  Skills      Location               Score
-- --- ----------        --------------       -----   -----  ------      --------               ----
   Yes Babyhell          BleedRunner          Pal     80.6   78+86+71    Ancients' way H         42
SP Yes Quackerz          Nero                 Dru     73     52+26+42    Lut Gholein H           39
SP Yes Grisu             Randomnipotent       Nec     60     33          NM Kurast               24
SP Yes aitrus            RandomDeadNecro      Nec     42     21+75       NM Lut Gholein          21
SP Yes thefranklin       RandomWayToDie       Ass     48     40+74       NM Cold Plains          18
   Yes D4di56lu3         Deva                 Ass     36     19          Frigid highlands        12
   Yes Vildecor          Fernando             Pal     25     96          Pandemonium Fortress    9
   Yes maxicek           Forley               Bar     29     42+18       Pandemonium Fortress    9
   Yes Vang              TrashReturned        Bar     16     84          Sewers                  3
SP Yes Dazliare          Mulgram              Bar     20     56          Tombs                   3
SP Yes jstani01          mystery              Bar     6      93          Cold Plains             0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your SOUL was swallowed by the resurrection (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SP Yes Jcakes            SerafinaPekkala      Ama     60     5 + 50      Deeds                   24
   Yes Vang              Multiple             Multi   58     Many        Deeds                   21
   Yes corale            Meoh                 Dru     43     65          Deeds                   15
   Yes Dazliare          Priscilla            Sor     25     25+72       Deeds                   9
   Yes Miron             Hartwig              Bar     29     8+75        Deeds                   6
   Yes coju              RandyTom             Bar     25      5          Deeds                   3
   Yes Sid               Brisket              Dru     8      07+52       Deeds
   Yes Jamesixgun        Devi                 Sor     7      66+78       Deeds
   Yes Sid               Bortleby             Pal     23     40          Deeds
 
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