TADA!
"RARE PLEASURE" TOURNAMENT RULES - FINAL VERSION
Once upon a time in a land called Sanctuary, there were some serious snobs walking around. It wasn’t enough for them to fight evil with magical weapons, or with powerful runewords that just anybody could use, or even so-called “unique†items that everyone seemed to have… they needed to be special. They would only fight the minions of the Prime Evils with rare equipment… nothing else would do under any circumstances. If they couldn't use something truly rare, then they'd go nekkid.
RULES, PART ONE: CHARACTERS
1. HC characters only. You must get all WPs and complete all quests before moving to the next act. You may, if you wish, wait to redeem your socketing quest reward (but ONLY this one exception applies... all other rewards must be gathered before moving on, or they are lost).
2. MP is forbidden.
3. SKILLS/BUILDS: The following builds are disallowed. However, banned skills may be used as synergies for non-banned skills.
a. The following Sorceress skills are banned (except as synergies): blizzard, frozen orb, fireball, meteor, chain lightning. Other sorceress builds are permitted.
b. Lightning Fury is disallowed for Amazons.
c. Skeletons and Revives are not permissible for Necromancers (bone skills *are* allowed, as our skeletal mages and skeleton mastery). If you choose to make an Iron Golem, you must make it with a rare item.
d. All Druid Elemental Skills are disallowed, except for Cyclone Armor (and as synergies).
e. Assassin Traps are forbidden, except for the Blade Skills.
f. Blessed Hammer, Holy Bolt, and Fist of the Heavens are disallowed (except as synergies).
g. Barbarians may not use Throwing Mastery or Double Throw.
4. MERCS: Any type of mercenary may be used, but they must adhere to the equipment rules (stated below).
5. DEATH: If your character dies at any point, you are eliminated from the tournament.
RULES, PART TWO: EQUIPMENT
1. UNTWINKED. You may mule items off to your other characters or stashes. Otherwise, no use of ATMA is permitted.
2. GEAR: Your character may only use RARE items. If you do not have a rare item for a particular equipment slot, you may not have an item in that slot. The following exceptions (and *only* these exceptions) apply to the “rares only†rule:
a. You may use the weapon that your character is generated with, until you find your first rare weapon. Upon finding your first rare weapon of any sort (even if you cannot yet use it due to item requirements), you must discard your “birth weapon.†It does not matter if the weapon is not what your character would ideally be using: if you are making a bowzon, you cannot wait to find a bow… you must discard your javelins even if what you find is a rare staff. NOTE: If you cannot use the item due to class restrictions (i.e., you find an assassin katar, and you’re playing a barbarian), you can wait until you find your next rare weapon.
b. All quest-related items can be used. You may also equip quest-related weapons. You may not, however, take such weapons past the act in which they spawn (i.e., no hellforge hammer in act 5).
c. You may use the magic ring that Akara gives you for saving Cain in Normal difficulty, and you may use it until you have two rare rings in your possession (once you find a second rare, however useless it may be, you must discard the magic ring).
d. Potions, scrolls, keys and tomes of all sorts are permitted.
e. You may create 1 crafted item in NM difficulty, and 1 crafted item in Hell difficulty. But you may only make one attempt each time... if you get junk, you get junk, and that's your fate.
3. SOCKETS: Sockets in items can be filled… but only with RARE jewels, or with runes/gems received from quest rewards (Hell Forge and Barbarian Rescue).
4. CHARMS: Obviously, there are no rare charms in the game, so charms are not allowed under any circumstances.
5. BOSSES/"RUNNING": You may kill the following monsters no more than twice in each difficulty level: Andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, Hephaesto, Diablo, Pindleskin, Eldritch, Shenk, Nihlathak, Baal. Otherwise, you can kill whoever you want as many times as you want, and on any /players setting you want.
6. GAMBLING is permitted, but it is strictly limited. See PART THREE for complete rules.
7. IMBUES: Because Charsi's imbue quest reward generates a rare item, those items may be used. However, you must use your imbue quest reward *before* moving onto the next difficulty.
8. RE-ROLLING: You may use the six perfect skull recipe to reroll any rare item you wish.
9. ITEM UPGRADES: You may also use the cube recipes to upgrade the item quality of rare items (i.e., ghost armor to dusk shroud).
10. BANNED SKILLS ON ITEMS: You may not use CHARGES of banned skills from items, and you may not use skills from items that give BONUSES to banned skills (i.e., a staff with +2 to Frozen Orb). You may use the item, however, as long as you don't use the banned skill.
11. "CTC" MODS: Items with "Chance to Cast" mods, even for banned skills, ARE permitted (I don't think these will be much of a factor, given that unique and set items are banned, and CTC mods on rares tend to be weak).
RULES, PART THREE: GAMBLING
There are 12 equipment slots on your character:
Helmet
Amulet
Armor
Weapon
Shield (or 2nd weapon, for dual-wielding barbs)
Belt
Gloves
Boots
Ring 1
Ring 2
Weapon Switch
Shield Switch (or weapon switch 2, for barbs).
Although you may spend as much money as you wish on gambling, and gamble any type of item you like, you may equip ONLY ONE gambled item in each of these slots during the life of your character. Once you have equipped a gambled item in a particular slot, you may NEVER equip another gambled item in that same slot. The same rules apply to your mercenary, except that they have only three slots (or four for Iron Wolves).
*****Here is an easy way to keep this straight for yourself: Make a list of all equipment slots on your character and your mercenary. If you equip a gambled item in a particular slot, cross that slot off your list. If a slot has been crossed off your list, you can never fill it with a gambled item again. There is only one exception to this rule, detailed in #6 below.*****
Here are some additional explanations for questions that came up in the thread:
1. The SLOT is the important thing here, not the specific type of item. If you gamble a decent sword, you cannot gamble for axes to replace it: you have already used up your gambling rights for that weapon slot.
2. You may certainly remove a gambled item from your character, if you find something better. But remember, you may never gamble again for that item slot.
3. If you wear a gambled item, then remove that item and pass it to your mercenary, BOTH your mercenary's and your character's slots are now used up for purposes of gambling. So be careful! Doing this might actually result in you having fewer opportunities to gamble (by wasting the merc's slot).
4. This also means that if your mercenary is *already wearing* a gambled item in a particular slot, you *cannot* take a gambled item off of your character and use it to replace the mercenary's gambled item.
5. You may switch a gambled item from your main weapon slot to your weapon switch ONLY if you have not used up the gambling rights for your weapon switch slot… and if you do switch a gambled item from one slot to the other, you may not equip a second gambled item in the first slot.
6. If you switch mercenaries (i.e., you have a Rogue, and hire a Might merc), you may gamble for a new weapon for your new mercenary (ONLY WEAPONS—not armor, helmets, or shields). However, this is only permitted when the new mercenary is from a different class or from a different difficulty level: going from a Might mercenary to a Holy Freeze mercenary does not permit you to gamble a new weapon (this could easily be abused). Going from a Normal Act 2 mercenary to a NM act 2 mercenary, however, would allow you to gamble a new weapon.
7. If you equip a two-handed weapon that you have gambled, it uses up your weapon slot, but not your shield slot. You may still gamble a shield for your shield slot, if you wish (though obviously, to use it, you'll need to discard your two-handed gambled weapon... and in doing so, you will no longer be able to equip any gambled weapons in that weapon slot).
8. If a barbarian starts out with a gambled weapon in one slot and a gambled shield in the other, you cannot discard the shield and replace it with a gambled second weapon. The reverse is also true… if you start out dual wielding, and hold gambled weapons in each hand, you cannot replace either weapon with a gambled shield.
RULES, PART FOUR: TRADING
Some limited trading is allowed. The question to ask yourself is, “Do I want to help my competition?†If the answer is “NO,†then it’s simple: don’t trade. If you want to risk making your own competition stronger, then you must adhere to these rules:
1. All players involved in any trade must have living characters in the tournament.
2. During their life, your character may receive up to TWO rare items through trades. These items may be used in any item slot, on either your character or mercenary.
3. Only rare items (including rare jewels and Imbued items) found in the tournament may be involved in trades: there is NO other legal currency.
4. Gambled items may not be traded.
5. Crafted items may not be traded (see rule 3 above).
6. All trades must be conducted publicly in this thread: no secret trading via PM, e-mail, etc. Once an agreement is struck, trades will be conducted in the standard forum method: e-mail an ATMA stash to your trading partner with the items being traded, and delete your copy of the stash once you are sure it has been received.
OTHER DETAILS
1. TIMELINE: This is a quick tournament. It will begin on Sunday, May 1, at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. It will end on Friday, July 1, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
2. UPDATES: Players must make an update upon the completion of Normal difficulty, NM difficulty, and upon the completion of each act in Hell difficulty. Of course, everyone is welcome to post more frequently, if they desire.
3. SCORING: will be determined as follows:
a. 2 points will be awarded for each quest completed.
b. 1 point will be awarded for each WP gathered.
c. 3 points will be awarded for killing the Cow King in each difficulty.
d. 1 point will be *subtracted* for each character level gained (yes, a negative score is possible).
e. Achieving Guardian status gives a bonus of 20 points.
f. In the highly unlikely event of a tie, the winner will be determined by a forum vote… whoever is democratically determined to have the lamest gear will win the tie.
4. THE PRIZE: The winner will receive an ATMA stash containing the complete proceeds from 100 hardcore Hell Mephisto runs, to be completed by my sorceress. She will do the runs at /players 3, and will wear about 400% MF. So the prize could be great, or it could be lots of breast plates and keys. You’ll have to win to find out!
5. To enter, add your name and character class to the sign-up table below. Remember, no starting until 7:30 a.m. EST on May 1. You may change your character class up to 7:30 a.m. EST on May 1; after that, no changes to your character class may be made.
after reading up on some stuff I remembered that a shapeshifter needed a fast weapon to attack fast enough. So, I changed my guy to a frost zealot, his named changed to Plak 
