"Rare Pleasure" Tournament
- Thread starter skunkbelly
- Start date
Code:
Name Build Level Act/Diff. Forum Name Pts
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Victor Shen Meleemancer/Curses 88 5/Hell Insane Wayne 192
HCTornNecroI Bonemancer 76 5/Hell Thov 191
Rarnonn Jailkeeper 76 5/Hell Mordalles 189
Freddie Lord of Mages 86 5/Hell jiansonz 179
CrossCheck CrossbowZon 76 2/Hell crazy_bear 138
Sarah Javazon 69 5/NM Hrus 123
Ursula Shockwave bear 60 5/NM jgreg7 122
Undead_WingWong Bonemancer 33 1/NM Starving_Poet 61
Arial Firewall/Tstorm 39 1/NM BFD 58
Phrozen_Phire Firezon 41 5/Norm skoolbus 53
LuckyCharm ConcBarb 24 3/Norm OpethAZ 23
Yorel_X Shadow-sin 24 3/Norm Reid Fleming 22
Patsy Leap Barb 20 1/Norm Radagast 20
Jonathan Hunter Druid 25 2/Norm Cattleya 6
Freezydinny Frost Zealot 18 2/Norm Rickyson1 2
Coraxasn MA-Sin 20 2/Norm tinantlu 1
Slayer Berserker 6 1/Norm Immortal_Slayer -2
DeadKnight Avenger 6 1/Norm Frosty -2
Icy_Hot Bowazon 15 1/Norm Exarkun -4
WalkingDead Hybrid Zon 12 1/Norm MAAM -6
Reinard Ranger 14 1/Norm BennB -6
Fallen Heroes:
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Plak Frost Zealot 29 1/Nm Sint 86 R.I.P.
Rare-Skunk Barb (Frenzy) 44 2/NM Skunkbelly 83 R.I.P.
Chillibit Freezealot 41 1/Nm Slothman 71 R.I.P.
Fang Javazon 37 1/NM phatbrava 60 R.I.P.
JagerMeester Summon/WereWolf 25 4/Norm Horobi 45 R.I.P.
Wolronett Sorceress-Cold 31 3/Norm Wolron 27 R.I.P.
Inferno HolyFireadin 27 3/Norm SuperSavage 21 R.I.P.
Fenris RabidFury Wolf 20 2/Norm Quickdeath 16 R.I.P.
Bremm Tesladin 25 2/Norm Nacaa 15 R.I.P.
Halisstra HydraSorc 20 2/Norm Liliel 9 R.I.P
GlacialTyro Frost-Zealot 13 1/Norm SeDnA 6 R.I.P.
Elolroel Charged Boltress 13 1/Norm goltar25 0 R.I.P.took out mephisto and diablo 2day. diablo especially was really hard, especially with negative fire resistance. had to use lots of full rejuvs.
rarnonn had a lot of close calls.
alas! rarnonn is no more! he died in the 1st map of act 5 to those cats that throw spears. those spears go right through my bone walls and prisons, leaving rarnonn exposed. it took about 2 spears, and i didnt see the enemy, but im guessing it was a unique one. AND AGAIN, i frantically pressed about 4 keys on the keyboard simultaneously, but missed the "full rejuv" button!!! this always happens. haha. i always put full rejuvs in slot 4, but then when i need it i always press 3 out of hastiness to save my life. i think from now on full rejuvs r going in slot 3.
i had great fun with rarnonn, and i must say that the jailkeeper is quite a strong build. on the other hand, i had so many close calls. :lol:
hmm, atleast i wont have to face the ancients, since 2 of them i wouldnt have been able to imprison.
great tourney, skunkbelly. :clap:
good luck to the rest. hope well see a guardian soon here.
final score: 189 (96+96+73-76)
i had great fun with rarnonn, and i must say that the jailkeeper is quite a strong build. on the other hand, i had so many close calls. :lol:
hmm, atleast i wont have to face the ancients, since 2 of them i wouldnt have been able to imprison.
great tourney, skunkbelly. :clap:
good luck to the rest. hope well see a guardian soon here.
final score: 189 (96+96+73-76)
Insane Wayne
Active member
rotten luck there mordalles, my condolences.
I had a lot of trouble with those cats myself. Their javelins pass through everything. It's not exactly a piercing attack, because they're harmless to the merc and minions. Dodging is the only defense against them.
As if that's not bad enough, they have cold or fire bonuses, which is big trouble with low resists.
Congrats on a good run!
I had a lot of trouble with those cats myself. Their javelins pass through everything. It's not exactly a piercing attack, because they're harmless to the merc and minions. Dodging is the only defense against them.
As if that's not bad enough, they have cold or fire bonuses, which is big trouble with low resists.
Congrats on a good run!
jiansonz
New member
Sorry to see rarnonn die. Freddie has also had his share of "OUCH!"-moments against those javelin cats (especially the ones that do cold damage).
Dim Vision has been very important in act 5, mostly to protect my party, and especially the valuable poison mages. I need those mages to be able to make any sort of progress against highly physical resistant foes (i.e. those that I need to Amp to break the physical immunity). Combine this high resistance with a lot of hurting power and you get what we were up against in Abbadon. Three PI Frenzytaur boss packs! Jeez...
Here is the first pack. Good fighting situation here. The golem (which has just been killed (again; look at all the muddy corpses!)) acts as Thorns bait. Notice the poison mages that makes this method at all possible. I chose Clay Golems because they deliver more golem life per unit of mana spent.
The second boss was this fellow. I have no idea why I was able to break the PI. PI monster type + Stone Skin should have meant 'unbreakable PI', right? Well, I´m not complaining. The boss teleported quite a bit, but never over to Freddie.
The third boss was Extra Fast Spectral Hit something.
The Evil Urns in Crystalline Passage, Glacial Trail and Frozen River all spawned Vipers. There were a lot of Urns, at least a dozen. Luckily, Freddie never found himself inside a spawned pack. Just brushed the edge of the pack once.
Anya gave Freddie a rare Minion Skull. Apart from being only semi-decent, it had two more problems that made me refrain from reolling it with skulls:
1. Requires 77 STR. That is a couple of points too high for Freddie.
2. Its ilvl is apparently the same as the receiving character´s level, 86 in this case. Rerolling it with skulls would give it an ilvl of 68, and a Minion Skull with that ilvl will only have alvl=37, too low for Necromancer´s. Anya, I wanted a NORMAL rare head! I had one which I lost in that hasty S&E earlier. Looks like I will probably use my third rerolling on a rare jewel...
There were annoying PI Death Berserkers on Frozen Tundra. I think this is the first time I´ve seen them. More than once, I was out of poison mages. That forced me to flee from these foes and return later when I had recruited more mages.
I gambled a Serpentskin Armor with +16 STR for Durga, and switched to the imbued Colossus Voulge. Too bad the new armor only has +30% Defense. I think I will hold off using my high runes a little while longer. Pul in the weapon IS a good idea. Emerald or Flawless Skull wouldn´t be bad either. I gambled a lot of War Scythes. Now that Diurga has the DEX to use a Grim Scythe, they are good weapons. I calculated that I need about +270% ED on a Grim Scythe (or slightly less and extra speed) to match the current weapon. Also, I still have that dream of finding an Um rune...
I gambled an amulet that I equipped, so that slot is also closed from gambling now. I like it:
Grim Mark
Amulet
+13 to Life
+5 to Mana
Cold Resist +17%
Replenish Life +4
13% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
The old amulet had +28% fire resist, so I had to do something to make up for that. One of the rings is mostly there for cold resist, which this amulet also offered. Hence, I equipped a ring I found earlier:
Chaos Master
Ring
+60 to Attack Rating
Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +26%
Lightning Resist +3%
Cold Resist +3%
Poison Resist +3%
Freddie has +5 to all necro skills now! Not bad for going untwinked, rares-only...
Conqueror Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 87 (just)
Next area: Nihlathak´s Temple (the zombie garden scares me. I am too greedy to explode the corpses. I´ll probably use Dim Vision and Terror to help merc + golem).
Score: 189 pts.
Dim Vision has been very important in act 5, mostly to protect my party, and especially the valuable poison mages. I need those mages to be able to make any sort of progress against highly physical resistant foes (i.e. those that I need to Amp to break the physical immunity). Combine this high resistance with a lot of hurting power and you get what we were up against in Abbadon. Three PI Frenzytaur boss packs! Jeez...
Here is the first pack. Good fighting situation here. The golem (which has just been killed (again; look at all the muddy corpses!)) acts as Thorns bait. Notice the poison mages that makes this method at all possible. I chose Clay Golems because they deliver more golem life per unit of mana spent.
The second boss was this fellow. I have no idea why I was able to break the PI. PI monster type + Stone Skin should have meant 'unbreakable PI', right? Well, I´m not complaining. The boss teleported quite a bit, but never over to Freddie.
The third boss was Extra Fast Spectral Hit something.
The Evil Urns in Crystalline Passage, Glacial Trail and Frozen River all spawned Vipers. There were a lot of Urns, at least a dozen. Luckily, Freddie never found himself inside a spawned pack. Just brushed the edge of the pack once.
Anya gave Freddie a rare Minion Skull. Apart from being only semi-decent, it had two more problems that made me refrain from reolling it with skulls:
1. Requires 77 STR. That is a couple of points too high for Freddie.
2. Its ilvl is apparently the same as the receiving character´s level, 86 in this case. Rerolling it with skulls would give it an ilvl of 68, and a Minion Skull with that ilvl will only have alvl=37, too low for Necromancer´s. Anya, I wanted a NORMAL rare head! I had one which I lost in that hasty S&E earlier. Looks like I will probably use my third rerolling on a rare jewel...
There were annoying PI Death Berserkers on Frozen Tundra. I think this is the first time I´ve seen them. More than once, I was out of poison mages. That forced me to flee from these foes and return later when I had recruited more mages.
I gambled a Serpentskin Armor with +16 STR for Durga, and switched to the imbued Colossus Voulge. Too bad the new armor only has +30% Defense. I think I will hold off using my high runes a little while longer. Pul in the weapon IS a good idea. Emerald or Flawless Skull wouldn´t be bad either. I gambled a lot of War Scythes. Now that Diurga has the DEX to use a Grim Scythe, they are good weapons. I calculated that I need about +270% ED on a Grim Scythe (or slightly less and extra speed) to match the current weapon. Also, I still have that dream of finding an Um rune...
I gambled an amulet that I equipped, so that slot is also closed from gambling now. I like it:
Grim Mark
Amulet
+13 to Life
+5 to Mana
Cold Resist +17%
Replenish Life +4
13% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
The old amulet had +28% fire resist, so I had to do something to make up for that. One of the rings is mostly there for cold resist, which this amulet also offered. Hence, I equipped a ring I found earlier:
Chaos Master
Ring
+60 to Attack Rating
Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +26%
Lightning Resist +3%
Cold Resist +3%
Poison Resist +3%
Freddie has +5 to all necro skills now! Not bad for going untwinked, rares-only...
Conqueror Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 87 (just)
Next area: Nihlathak´s Temple (the zombie garden scares me. I am too greedy to explode the corpses. I´ll probably use Dim Vision and Terror to help merc + golem).
Score: 189 pts.
Cattleya
Well-known member
Jonathan took out Duriel with few problems. (The Summoner was more dangerous than Duriel.) He has switched from a rare crossbow to rare balanced axes, and so far it seems to be working well. Given his overall low damage, and the time restraints of the tourney, I turned down the players setting to 1 after the Canyon on the Magi, and will probably stay at players 1 at least through Act 3.
*******************************
Jonathan
Last WP: Kurast Docks
Last Quest: Duriel
Level: 26
[highlight]Total Score: 17[/highlight]
WPs: 19 Quests: 12x2=24 Level: -26
Items Slots Filled
Everything but a ring and ammy
Gambled Slots Filled
None
*******************************
*******************************
Jonathan
Last WP: Kurast Docks
Last Quest: Duriel
Level: 26
[highlight]Total Score: 17[/highlight]
WPs: 19 Quests: 12x2=24 Level: -26
Items Slots Filled
Everything but a ring and ammy
Gambled Slots Filled
None
*******************************
skunkbelly
New member
RIP Mordalles! Great run, though.
crazy_bear
New member
RIP Rarnonn! Act V hell is always a challenge, no matter the character, (unless well twinked). I hate those spear throwing cats too. The fact is they see you well before you see them, and you really have to be on your toes.
I didn't play at all this weekend because I was out fishing, but I will be trying to get CrossCheck caught up to the leaders. It might be hard to keep her level down though. I have found that even playing at p1 her level has been increasing very steadily.
Good progress everyone!
Hopefully we will some some guardians soon. :thumbsup:
I didn't play at all this weekend because I was out fishing, but I will be trying to get CrossCheck caught up to the leaders. It might be hard to keep her level down though. I have found that even playing at p1 her level has been increasing very steadily.
Good progress everyone!
Hopefully we will some some guardians soon. :thumbsup:
Insane Wayne
Active member
It's the home stretch for Victor, starting with the Ancient's Way. Victor, Razan, and Golem vs. Abominables, Spike Fiends, and Dark Lancers. I liked this monster roll. All leechable, plus the snow monsters make good CE bombs. I took a small risk and raised the player setting from p5 to p8. Razan can handle it. Poison quills were a nuisance, and a speedy lancer managed to jab me down to 400 life once. Otherwise it was pretty smooth.
I forgot to lower the setting back to p5 when I entered the Icy Cellar. I realized this when a few gloams quickly greeted us and they took much longer than expected for Razan to kill. I switched back to p5, which probably only affected the latter half of the area.
Very tough monsters here. Gloams, Sirens, and Pit Vipers with their Bone Spears. Ugh! Lots of potion chugging, and retreating. The center island had a treacherous pack of gloams led by this guy. That's some serious lightning damage, not to mention the siren balls floating all over the place! I had to be patient, tracking down lone sirens and gloams that wandered back into the previously cleared section. Good thing this is a small map. Surprisingly I didn't suffer any NDEs; I credit that to good luck, and alertness from having just started a new session.
The Ancients spawned with some tough mods including "Cursed". I quickly rerolled. The next three were also nasty including an FE. Forget it! My next try was good...
Madawc: LE + Magic Resistant
Korlic: Teleport + Extra Fast
Talic: Stone Skin + Mana Burn
A few teleports left Madawc in the dust. Aided with constant Life Tap, Razan withstood occasional attacks and soon killed Korlic. I amped Talic, and it was all downhill from there. In this case, NM Ancients had proven to be tougher than Hell Ancients. No complaints from me!
Worldstone Keep level 1 was easy, with lots of slow monsters. Bad draw on level 2, with tons of gloams (Black Souls I think). A tough entrance had me really scrambling. They took a lot of fight out of me, and I was grateful to find the waypoint after clearing about one-third the map.
Next session, the monster roll was better, including comical packs of suicide bombers (with no lashers). They simply ran up from off-screen all ready to explode, complete with bosses! Boo hoo...
no drops and no XP!
Keep level 3 had Specters, Strom Casters, and Demon Sprites. In the first wing, an enormous mass of them (assisted with Blessed Aim) absolutely slaughtered the Golem and Razan. I had to teleport-park them and try another section. No problem. After clearing the rest of the map, I tackled the huge mass. Incredibly, this small area (4 screens' worth) had 6 boss packs. 3 ghost, 2 demon, and 1 storm caster pack. It was a triple pack that initially had overwhelmed me. With lots of cleared territory it was now easy to pull them apart.
A stair-trap awaited me on the Throne Level. A pack of Pit Lords quickly killed Razan. I used a sequence of golem casting to slowly nudge the pack aside. I tested out IM, but p5 Pit Lords have way too much life (and too little physical damage) for this to be remotely feasible. I pulled the golem away with a teleport and parked the pack.
I'd hardly turned the corner when we ran into another pack, including burning souls and serpents. Dear God, I just can't seem to get away from these damn gloams! :lol:
I needed frequent golems and Life Tap for Razan, but we eventually got a few Pit Lord corpses. CE took out the whole pack of gloams and the serpents. Thank you! With all that excitement over with, I finally felt the tension ease. Should be OK from here on.
Soon I was luring out Baal's minions. I found the unique Grim Scythe. Pretty cool, if you're into the whole Necro-scythe thing. I also found an excellent rare Balrog Spear. I can see this working out well for a lightning zon. A lot of problems can be solved with these mods!
p5 Baal took absurdly long to kill, even with Razan's excellent polearm jabbing away unhindered. The golem's slowing once again kept Baal's clone from appearing. Basically, he just sat there stomping his hooves. Victor contributed with:
Level 7 Cold Arrow (56 charges)
Level 5 Ice Bolt (32 charges)
Level 4 Ice Blast (30 charges)
Level 3 Power Strike (27 charges)
all my throwing knives
my condensing/buzzing jo staff (whiffing 90%... nice AR Victor!)
Boring? yes. Mind-numbing? yes. Dangerous? hardly.
After a long long wait, Baal's drop. Not bad, a couple respectable itamz there.
All that remains for Victor now is Hell Cows. I have 4 PSkulls, so it looks like I'll miss out on a 3rd reroll.
Guardian Victor Shen, level 88.9, Act 1 Hell, Secret Cow Level
Score: 198
I forgot to lower the setting back to p5 when I entered the Icy Cellar. I realized this when a few gloams quickly greeted us and they took much longer than expected for Razan to kill. I switched back to p5, which probably only affected the latter half of the area.
Very tough monsters here. Gloams, Sirens, and Pit Vipers with their Bone Spears. Ugh! Lots of potion chugging, and retreating. The center island had a treacherous pack of gloams led by this guy. That's some serious lightning damage, not to mention the siren balls floating all over the place! I had to be patient, tracking down lone sirens and gloams that wandered back into the previously cleared section. Good thing this is a small map. Surprisingly I didn't suffer any NDEs; I credit that to good luck, and alertness from having just started a new session.
The Ancients spawned with some tough mods including "Cursed". I quickly rerolled. The next three were also nasty including an FE. Forget it! My next try was good...
Madawc: LE + Magic Resistant
Korlic: Teleport + Extra Fast
Talic: Stone Skin + Mana Burn
A few teleports left Madawc in the dust. Aided with constant Life Tap, Razan withstood occasional attacks and soon killed Korlic. I amped Talic, and it was all downhill from there. In this case, NM Ancients had proven to be tougher than Hell Ancients. No complaints from me!
Worldstone Keep level 1 was easy, with lots of slow monsters. Bad draw on level 2, with tons of gloams (Black Souls I think). A tough entrance had me really scrambling. They took a lot of fight out of me, and I was grateful to find the waypoint after clearing about one-third the map.
Next session, the monster roll was better, including comical packs of suicide bombers (with no lashers). They simply ran up from off-screen all ready to explode, complete with bosses! Boo hoo...
no drops and no XP!Keep level 3 had Specters, Strom Casters, and Demon Sprites. In the first wing, an enormous mass of them (assisted with Blessed Aim) absolutely slaughtered the Golem and Razan. I had to teleport-park them and try another section. No problem. After clearing the rest of the map, I tackled the huge mass. Incredibly, this small area (4 screens' worth) had 6 boss packs. 3 ghost, 2 demon, and 1 storm caster pack. It was a triple pack that initially had overwhelmed me. With lots of cleared territory it was now easy to pull them apart.
A stair-trap awaited me on the Throne Level. A pack of Pit Lords quickly killed Razan. I used a sequence of golem casting to slowly nudge the pack aside. I tested out IM, but p5 Pit Lords have way too much life (and too little physical damage) for this to be remotely feasible. I pulled the golem away with a teleport and parked the pack.
I'd hardly turned the corner when we ran into another pack, including burning souls and serpents. Dear God, I just can't seem to get away from these damn gloams! :lol:
I needed frequent golems and Life Tap for Razan, but we eventually got a few Pit Lord corpses. CE took out the whole pack of gloams and the serpents. Thank you! With all that excitement over with, I finally felt the tension ease. Should be OK from here on.
Soon I was luring out Baal's minions. I found the unique Grim Scythe. Pretty cool, if you're into the whole Necro-scythe thing. I also found an excellent rare Balrog Spear. I can see this working out well for a lightning zon. A lot of problems can be solved with these mods!
p5 Baal took absurdly long to kill, even with Razan's excellent polearm jabbing away unhindered. The golem's slowing once again kept Baal's clone from appearing. Basically, he just sat there stomping his hooves. Victor contributed with:
Level 7 Cold Arrow (56 charges)
Level 5 Ice Bolt (32 charges)
Level 4 Ice Blast (30 charges)
Level 3 Power Strike (27 charges)
all my throwing knives
my condensing/buzzing jo staff (whiffing 90%... nice AR Victor!)
Boring? yes. Mind-numbing? yes. Dangerous? hardly.
After a long long wait, Baal's drop. Not bad, a couple respectable itamz there.
All that remains for Victor now is Hell Cows. I have 4 PSkulls, so it looks like I'll miss out on a 3rd reroll.
Guardian Victor Shen, level 88.9, Act 1 Hell, Secret Cow Level
Score: 198
You got it! :thumbsup: Nice gamble, armors cost at least 150K and up, at this point. Lucky score!jiansonz said:
jiansonz
New member
Freddie had no problems reaching and killing Nihlathak, or in the Ancients´Way, but Icy Cellar turned out to be a very tough challenge. We were up against Hell Temptresses (PI), Gloams and Abominables. There were champion packs of all three types, and two succubi boss packs (both with an unbreakable PI Stone Skin boss.
Entrance at the northern edge of the cave (that´s usually better than starting on the central island). My army spreads out when I first enter an area. That drew an Abominable from the left and awoke the first succubi boss pack on a little peninsula to the right. They took a while to kill, but no problems. I advanced to the left, killed some Abominables, rounded the corner and then the trouble started. Out on the central island was the other succubi boss pack (with a Cursed boss), and a regular succubi pack was ahead of us. Every now and then, strams with massive lightning damage would pour out from the island as well. My valuable poison mages got killed. Minions from the boss pack flew over to us. It was very hard to overcome the regeneration of the succubi without poison damage. I needed many merc resurrections here.
I spent much time trying to coax Gloams and succubi to come to us, often dodging dangerous attacks. The first Gloam that I managed to lure to us was a Ghostly. Very nasty chilling on top of the lighting + physical damage. A Gloam here, a succubus minion there, Abominable champs, succubi champs. It was slow going and quite dangerous, but progress was being made! All the time, I was throwing Dim Vision at the edge of the screen, where the blood stars and lightning came from. Sometimes I even had to advance a bit, then cast DV again. The awareness range of these monsters is incredible. Rounded the down-left corner, rounded the down-right corner. Finally I could step onto the central island without having to worry about anything but the remains of the Temptress boss pack. Here is where we finally managed to corner that damn boss. The five mages that were lucky to avoid the sparks had to do all the damage (helped by LR). The poison mage that is the reason we could win has died, but its legacy lived on. Talk about revenge from beyond the grave. :clap: at >5 minutes poison duration.
The work was far from over. More Gloam packs and a massive mob of succubi awaited near the golden chest. Snapchip and his minions arrived 1-3 at a time to us and got killed easily. Still spamming Dim Vision at the edge of screen. Nearing the chest area, I had to keep succubi from 3 directions Dimmed (they were even attacking from places above water). I worked a lot to protect my only poison mage, Terroring away Gloams and succubi from it many times. Victory in Icy Cellar was complete, after more than two hours.
Its Ancients time next. I did actually spend Ko + Pul to upgrade Durga´s armor to a Wyrmhide. 500+ Defense. My third rare reroll was done on a jewel, which turned out even crappier than before. Now I ponder how to use the last socket reward, and if I should do it before the Ancients. The only socketable item Freddie hasn´t sockets in already is the wand, and I have nothing cool to put in it. For Durga, I have the following options:
* Ort in armor/helm (gets the lightning resist up from ~60 to 75)
* Flawless ruby in armor/helm (for life)
* Flawless Skull in weapon (gets the life steal up from 5% to 8%).
* Emerald in weapon
* Perfect Topaz in armor/helm
* Perfect Sapphire in weapon (a little chilling)
(any suggestions for which is most useful vs Ancients?)
Conqueror Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 87
Next area: Arreat Summit, Hell
Score: 193 pts.
Awesome!
(but I think your score is off. You should add the 20 points Guardian bonus!)
Your description of the Ancients battle gives me hope. I have to reroll until I get something manageable. Your golem is tougher and the merc´s weapon/damage is much stronger than mine. You also have Teleport (I do as well, but only 6 charges!).
If the Ancients decides to focus on merc/golem, I may be able to defeat them. Life Tap will probably be the main curse. I have Thorns, and I have strong Bone Walls/Prisons that can help (I hope to be able to keep some walls between Madawc and his target). Since I had a full army when I saved, I will recruit one in Ancients´Way (and get Durga to switch on his aura), hopefully with many cold mages.
I really like that Condensing/Buzzing staff!
About Baal´s drop: hmmm, that´s Guillaume´s Face and Arcanna´s Flesh but I have never seen a unique claw. That will be a surprise one day (hopefully with an assassin that is allowed to and wants to use it!).
Is 'less than 4 hours' soon enough?
Entrance at the northern edge of the cave (that´s usually better than starting on the central island). My army spreads out when I first enter an area. That drew an Abominable from the left and awoke the first succubi boss pack on a little peninsula to the right. They took a while to kill, but no problems. I advanced to the left, killed some Abominables, rounded the corner and then the trouble started. Out on the central island was the other succubi boss pack (with a Cursed boss), and a regular succubi pack was ahead of us. Every now and then, strams with massive lightning damage would pour out from the island as well. My valuable poison mages got killed. Minions from the boss pack flew over to us. It was very hard to overcome the regeneration of the succubi without poison damage. I needed many merc resurrections here.
I spent much time trying to coax Gloams and succubi to come to us, often dodging dangerous attacks. The first Gloam that I managed to lure to us was a Ghostly. Very nasty chilling on top of the lighting + physical damage. A Gloam here, a succubus minion there, Abominable champs, succubi champs. It was slow going and quite dangerous, but progress was being made! All the time, I was throwing Dim Vision at the edge of the screen, where the blood stars and lightning came from. Sometimes I even had to advance a bit, then cast DV again. The awareness range of these monsters is incredible. Rounded the down-left corner, rounded the down-right corner. Finally I could step onto the central island without having to worry about anything but the remains of the Temptress boss pack. Here is where we finally managed to corner that damn boss. The five mages that were lucky to avoid the sparks had to do all the damage (helped by LR). The poison mage that is the reason we could win has died, but its legacy lived on. Talk about revenge from beyond the grave. :clap: at >5 minutes poison duration.
The work was far from over. More Gloam packs and a massive mob of succubi awaited near the golden chest. Snapchip and his minions arrived 1-3 at a time to us and got killed easily. Still spamming Dim Vision at the edge of screen. Nearing the chest area, I had to keep succubi from 3 directions Dimmed (they were even attacking from places above water). I worked a lot to protect my only poison mage, Terroring away Gloams and succubi from it many times. Victory in Icy Cellar was complete, after more than two hours.
Its Ancients time next. I did actually spend Ko + Pul to upgrade Durga´s armor to a Wyrmhide. 500+ Defense. My third rare reroll was done on a jewel, which turned out even crappier than before. Now I ponder how to use the last socket reward, and if I should do it before the Ancients. The only socketable item Freddie hasn´t sockets in already is the wand, and I have nothing cool to put in it. For Durga, I have the following options:
* Ort in armor/helm (gets the lightning resist up from ~60 to 75)
* Flawless ruby in armor/helm (for life)
* Flawless Skull in weapon (gets the life steal up from 5% to 8%).
* Emerald in weapon
* Perfect Topaz in armor/helm
* Perfect Sapphire in weapon (a little chilling)
(any suggestions for which is most useful vs Ancients?)
Conqueror Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 87
Next area: Arreat Summit, Hell
Score: 193 pts.
Insane Wayne said:
Awesome!
(but I think your score is off. You should add the 20 points Guardian bonus!)
Your description of the Ancients battle gives me hope. I have to reroll until I get something manageable. Your golem is tougher and the merc´s weapon/damage is much stronger than mine. You also have Teleport (I do as well, but only 6 charges!).
If the Ancients decides to focus on merc/golem, I may be able to defeat them. Life Tap will probably be the main curse. I have Thorns, and I have strong Bone Walls/Prisons that can help (I hope to be able to keep some walls between Madawc and his target). Since I had a full army when I saved, I will recruit one in Ancients´Way (and get Durga to switch on his aura), hopefully with many cold mages.
I really like that Condensing/Buzzing staff!
About Baal´s drop: hmmm, that´s Guillaume´s Face and Arcanna´s Flesh but I have never seen a unique claw. That will be a surprise one day (hopefully with an assassin that is allowed to and wants to use it!).
crazy_bear said:
Is 'less than 4 hours' soon enough?
jiansonz said:
hey jiansonz are you for real with this one?
from what i've read in your posts, you seem an excellent and experienced player, but you have yet to se a unique claw or charm
i only have two answers for this: you're either mocking us or you havent done enuff MFing
phatbrava said:hey jiansonz are you for real with this one?
from what i've read in your posts, you seem an excellent and experienced player, but you have yet to se a unique claw or charm
i only have two answers for this: you're either mocking us or you havent done enuff MFing
Jiansonz plays only untwinked hardcore and doesn't repeat any area. The only time I remember that he did some runs was that Duriel project and he deleted all the stuff gained IIRC.
EDIT: Congrats Insane Wayne on the guardian!
Code:
Name Build Level Act/Diff. Forum Name Pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Victor Shen Meleemancer/Curses 88 5/Hell Insane Wayne 198+
Freddie Lord of Mages 87 5/Hell jiansonz 193
HCTornNecroI Bonemancer 76 5/Hell Thov 191
Ursula Shockwave bear 73 2/Hell jgreg7 144
CrossCheck CrossbowZon 76 2/Hell crazy_bear 138
Sarah Javazon 69 5/NM Hrus 123
Undead_WingWong Bonemancer 33 1/NM Starving_Poet 61
Arial Firewall/Tstorm 39 1/NM BFD 58
Phrozen_Phire Firezon 41 5/Norm skoolbus 53
LuckyCharm ConcBarb 24 3/Norm OpethAZ 23
Yorel_X Shadow-sin 24 3/Norm Reid Fleming 22
Patsy Leap Barb 20 1/Norm Radagast 20
Jonathan Hunter Druid 26 2/Norm Cattleya 17
Freezydinny Frost Zealot 18 2/Norm Rickyson1 2
Coraxasn MA-Sin 20 2/Norm tinantlu 1
Slayer Berserker 6 1/Norm Immortal_Slayer -2
DeadKnight Avenger 6 1/Norm Frosty -2
Icy_Hot Bowazon 15 1/Norm Exarkun -4
WalkingDead Hybrid Zon 12 1/Norm MAAM -6
Reinard Ranger 14 1/Norm BennB -6
Fallen Heroes:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rarnonn Jailkeeper 76 5/Hell Mordalles 189 R.I.P.
Plak Frost Zealot 29 1/Nm Sint 86 R.I.P.
Rare-Skunk Barb (Frenzy) 44 2/NM Skunkbelly 83 R.I.P.
Chillibit Freezealot 41 1/Nm Slothman 71 R.I.P.
Fang Javazon 37 1/NM phatbrava 60 R.I.P.
JagerMeester Summon/WereWolf 25 4/Norm Horobi 45 R.I.P.
Wolronett Sorceress-Cold 31 3/Norm Wolron 27 R.I.P.
Inferno HolyFireadin 27 3/Norm SuperSavage 21 R.I.P.
Fenris RabidFury Wolf 20 2/Norm Quickdeath 16 R.I.P.
Bremm Tesladin 25 2/Norm Nacaa 15 R.I.P.
Halisstra HydraSorc 20 2/Norm Liliel 9 R.I.P
GlacialTyro Frost-Zealot 13 1/Norm SeDnA 6 R.I.P.
Elolroel Charged Boltress 13 1/Norm goltar25 0 R.I.P.Ursula pushed her way through act 1 Hell, including Andariel, with no real problems. I was a little concerned because poison is the resist I work on last, and so Ursula’s base poison resist is -50. But an antidote potion puts it back at zero, which proved sufficient. Ursula placed her bear friend in Andy’s path, then clawed over its back to reach her. Life steal was almost enough to compensate for the poison. Whenever her belt ran dry it was back to town to restock. It took about ten trips, but no real danger. No notable drops, either. Waheed spent the whole time “sleepingâ€, as usual. Those merc funeral costs are really cutting into my gambling funds!
The imbue quest gave us a +2 to Druid skills alpha helm. The other mods are pitiful (+2 energy, 7% fire resist, and some banned skills), but the skill bonus was too tempting for me to sell it back. My previous helm had 28% cold and 24% poison resist, so it will go in the stash for special occasions. Still neither is as good as that #$@% blue Griffon Headress...
In act 2 I had to park my first boss, a MSLE burning dead mage on the sewers level 3. We couldn’t even get close to him, and with no leech it was suicide to try. (Not that this stopped Waheed from charging in several times and keeling over.) Radament was a repeat of the Andariel battle, but was over faster and even less dangerous due to the higher leech he gives up. Now it’s into the desert...
Ten days left!
Conqueror Ursula, Werebear
Level: 73
Next area: Dry Hills, Hell
Score: 144 pts.
jiansonz
New member
phatbrava said:
That´s OK. I have realized I am different in this regard.
For years, I played Diablo 1 (and Hellfire), D2 Classic v1.03 and LoD v1.09 without knowing about any forums. Also, I am too much of a control freak for multiplayer.
When i started D2, I hated the saving system (I still don´t like it!). I wanted it to be like in D1, where your loaded game looked exactly like when you saved it. All dead monsters still dead, every item just where you left it, no monster respawning, limited resources. I did what I could to simulate the D1 situation. This is why I still clear every area once (no more, no less).
There were problems with this, especially in Classic. You didn´t get to a particularly high level. This hurt fighter characters more than casters, because of the 'lvl vs. lvl'-controlled To Hit chance. 1.09 remedied most of these problems. I didn´t know I could change the players setting, though. All my 1.09 Mats/Pats/Guardians are level 72-73 (players 1 the whole way).
1.10 finally got the XP-gaining right. Even on /players 1, you get to level 84 on a full clear, meaning that there is definately no need for 'levelling' any more, if you play like me.
Then I found the SPF. I was very surprised that people
1) moved items between characters (especially their own characters)
2) skipped some parts of the game while 'running' other areas/bosses repeatedly. Even more absurd, they made characters specifically designed to hunt for items for their other characters.
I was really baffled that someone would actually come up with the above ideas. I thought long and hard if these methods were for me. The answer was an uncompromised "NO!", because I realized that doing any of that would disturb the balance I need to be able to enjoy the game. The balance with limited resources, how it´s all tied together. Survivability, killing power, MF, gambling and so on. For me, NOTHING in D2 beats the feeling of finding an item that will be a major help for a long part of a characters´career.
So yes, I am an experienced player when it comes to untwinked play (still pretty much a Pally and Druid noob, though) but there are many set/unique items I haven´t seen yet. Especially the class-specific items are notoriously hard to find. These are the only ones I have seen so far (counted both 1.09 and 1.10):
* Titan´s Revenge x3 (one with an amazon, in a Tankazon tournament; Javelins were banned!)
* Lycander´s Aim x3
* Lycander´s Flank
* Thunderstroke
* Immortal King´s Will x5 (three of them with barbs, nice!)
* Tal Rasha´s Lidless Eye
* Trang-Oul´s Wing (with a Necromancer!)
* Aldur´s Stony Gaze x3
* Natalya´s Mark
(My Duriel runs netted a HoZ but I don´t count that)
There are still normal uniques left for me to find. Freddie found the unique Pike earlier in Hell. A first for me.
jgreg7 said:
I hate it! I am in the mood to play my SC characters or doing runs with my MF chars. Now I have to try to focus on Sarah. She has negative resistances, only Fire is +1. She has crappy gear. She is week and I am not in the mood to rerun areas to get a better gear (I tried that, but got only crap). I think I will try to sneak through the Hell, killing only monsters I need to kill.
skunkbelly
New member
Insane_Wayne, a Guardian!!! That's.... INSANE! :flip:
Congrats, and well done. I think you won't be the last, though. Keep going, everyone! Riches await.
Congrats, and well done. I think you won't be the last, though. Keep going, everyone! Riches await.
Congratulations on everyone's progress, it looks like not playing this character for a while has put me behind quite a bit. I've mostly been concentrating on my new blizzard sorceress recently, I can't even coun the Mephisto runs I've done in the past few days. However, with the end of the tournament approaching, I do realize that I am going to have to get moving or risk running out of time. So today, it was on to the Bloody Foothills.
The first thing I have to say is that playing this character was such a shock coming back from a twinked blizzard sorc. Picking off monsters one or two at a time, and slowly at that, simply doesn't compare to casting a blizzard and seeing everything die instantly. I decided that I needed to increase my killing speed somehow, and without a good source of money from just questing (most of it goes to potions), and with running the usual targets not being an option, I just went back to nightmare where my bone spears killed most monsters in a shot or two and quested around for a bit. I had 55% MF, so some of the drops were pretty decent. Most notably, I had the luck of finding a necro head with +1 skills and an amulet with +1 skills. That puts me at a total of +4 - I would certainly hope for better, but this will have to do. Monsters in the Foothills were going down in 5-6 bone spears, which is reasonable. It would be nice to gain a few more levels and increase my corpse explosion radius, but I don't think it's worth the loss in points. This may end up being very close, and every level is probably going to count.
As the necromancer moved through the Bloody Foothills, I remembered Mordalles' untimely end, and was thankful that I saw no spear cats. Without anything that can hit me through my bone prisons (which cost only 2 mana and aren't going to break unless the timer runs out), the rest of the clear was just a matter of tedium. The catapults were annoying, but never dangerous, and getting to the next waypoint was nothing other than a matter of spamming bone prison, spamming bone spear, and occasionally firing off a corpse explosion when appropriate. I get the feeling that the rest of Act V is going to be much like that - slow and unexciting. The ancients and gloams may prove to be different, but they're still far off. That's what I get for not realizing the importance of an area of effect skill :lol:
The first thing I have to say is that playing this character was such a shock coming back from a twinked blizzard sorc. Picking off monsters one or two at a time, and slowly at that, simply doesn't compare to casting a blizzard and seeing everything die instantly. I decided that I needed to increase my killing speed somehow, and without a good source of money from just questing (most of it goes to potions), and with running the usual targets not being an option, I just went back to nightmare where my bone spears killed most monsters in a shot or two and quested around for a bit. I had 55% MF, so some of the drops were pretty decent. Most notably, I had the luck of finding a necro head with +1 skills and an amulet with +1 skills. That puts me at a total of +4 - I would certainly hope for better, but this will have to do. Monsters in the Foothills were going down in 5-6 bone spears, which is reasonable. It would be nice to gain a few more levels and increase my corpse explosion radius, but I don't think it's worth the loss in points. This may end up being very close, and every level is probably going to count.
As the necromancer moved through the Bloody Foothills, I remembered Mordalles' untimely end, and was thankful that I saw no spear cats. Without anything that can hit me through my bone prisons (which cost only 2 mana and aren't going to break unless the timer runs out), the rest of the clear was just a matter of tedium. The catapults were annoying, but never dangerous, and getting to the next waypoint was nothing other than a matter of spamming bone prison, spamming bone spear, and occasionally firing off a corpse explosion when appropriate. I get the feeling that the rest of Act V is going to be much like that - slow and unexciting. The ancients and gloams may prove to be different, but they're still far off. That's what I get for not realizing the importance of an area of effect skill :lol:
It's a good kind of different, as far as I am concerned. I play pretty much the same way, and for the same reasons. (I'm SC though - dying ticks me off too much to go HC outside of tourneys. This tourney is the first time I have done deliberate exp runs, and that was because I was too chicken to play a HC char higher than /p1.)jiansonz said:
The D1 saving system was nice in that you could stop the game at any point and return without having to fight back to where you left off. Not to mention town storage! Wouldn't that have been handy recently? The one saving grace about the D2 save method is that if you end up with a nasty monster mix you can reroll the level.
So kudos for sticking to your principles. I am looking forward to Freddie's story about meeting the Ancients!
