"Rare Pleasure" Tournament

Hrus said:
With your usual playstyle, how much PSkulls for rerolls do you expect to have until the end of NM?
Click to expand...

Around 5-10. All Freddie´s future Gem Shrines will be used to upgrade flawless skulls.

When I do my usual 'all-out MF in NM' routine, I usually have 14 perfect topazes at work for the latest acts in NM, so that would equal 7 PSkulls.

So I can expect to make one reroll in NM, and maybe one more later (with luck).
 
Kudos to all of you still going! And Thov: :worship: You're going to be a tough act to follow, especially if you survive to the end.
 
jiansonz said:
Around 5-10. All Freddie´s future Gem Shrines will be used to upgrade flawless skulls.

When I do my usual 'all-out MF in NM' routine, I usually have 14 perfect topazes at work for the latest acts in NM, so that would equal 7 PSkulls.

So I can expect to make one reroll in NM, and maybe one more later (with luck).
Click to expand...
That sounds right. I'm mid Act 2 NM, and have 5 PSkulls+ 2 flawless and 2 normal. I had better-than-average luck with gem shrines lately and I used them on flawless skulls. I'm not sure what I'll be rerolling. Probably an elite merc weapon, or a rare jewel.
 
HCTornNecroI started Hell today, and things are going exactly as planned. There was finally an NDE, but that was my carelessness, not a flaw in the character. In the final floor of the tower, he ran across two ghost boss packs in the entrance, and unfortunately, those thnigs go right through the bone barriers he puts up. After regrouping, he managed to get down there, and finally killed the group, as bone spear was hitting almost all of them at once as they gave chase. Other than that, it was an insignificant run through the act. Everything but the ghosts can be stopped with bone prisons/walls, so although things can get slow at times, there's never any real risk. Even Andariel never actually managed to cause any damage. The only foreseeable risk is going to be the gloams, and the ancients, since two of them can get out of bone prisons. Time will tell how those battles go.

As far as items go, HCTornNecroI is still gambling amulets, with no good results to speak of. However, the Hell craft turned out very well. Strictly speaking, it's not a great wand, but the +2 necromancer skills on it a great damage boost. Hopefully, a shrunken head with at least +bone skills that can match the current resists will come along before all is said and done. Here's the wand:

Ghoul Wand
Grim Wand
+10 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 6%
Poison Resist +40%
Adds 58-119 fire damage
9% Life stolen per hit
Increase Maximum Mana 4%
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
150% Damage to Undead

And the score:

Level: 71 - -71points
WPs: 88 - +88 points
Quests: 60 - +120 points
Cow King: Norm + NM - +6 points

Total: 143 points
 
small update: rarnonn killed andy the 2nd time and moved on to the desert. he is lev 18, and his score is 7. he just got bone spear. i like the bone walls. me and my rogue merc like to stand far away as possible. hehe.

i see thov has the same kinda build as i. hehe, that is inspiring!
 
Freddie´s gang has cleared everything up to the Ancients´Way. Two major item improvements today. First, a gambled and upgraded merc weapon:

Dire Spike
Lance
Two-Hand Damage: 54 to 230
Durability: 25 of 25
Required Dexterity: 88
Required Strength: 110
Required Level: 25
Item Level: 40
+100% Enhanced Damage
+108 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage
Required Level +5
Repairs 1 durability in 33 seconds

I usually don´t like the slow Pikes and Lances as merc weapons, but Durga has tanking and curse help as well as artillery support, so he´s doing well with this weapon. Killing speed ramped up significantly.


Second, Freddie reached level 45 and it was time for the imbue. Not excellent, but pretty good:

Eagle Cry
Grim Wand
One-Hand Damage: 5 to 11
Durability: 12 of 15
Required Level: 36
Item Level: 49
+6 to Energy
6% Mana stolen per hit
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+1 to Fire Golem (Necromancer Only)
+1 to Bone Spirit (Necromancer Only)
150% Damage to Undead
Level 1 Zeal (16/22 Charges)

I now have (level 2) Bone Spirit on the left mouse button. It only does around 50 damage, but that´s definately better than Freddie had with Attack!


Evaluating the usefulness of the rares I find is pretty easy, since this build doesn´t need to bother with damage, attack speed, FHR and such. Basically, I am simply looking for this (in order of preference):

+skills (of the different trees, summoning is most desired, but +1 all skills is better than +2 summoning)
Magic Find
Resists
Life
Mana
(everything else)
 
Code: 
Name             Build           Level   Act/Diff.  Forum Name         Pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HCTornNecroI     Bonemancer         68    4/Hell    Thov                124
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.
Undead_WingWong  Bonemancer         33    1/Nm      Starving_Poet       61
Ursula           Shockwave bear     36    1/NM      jgreg7              61
Fang             Javazon            37    1/NM      phatbrava           60
Arial            Firewall/Tstorm    39    1/NM      BFD                 58
Phrozen_Phire    Firezon            41    5/Norm    skoolbus            53
JagerMeester     Summon/WereWolf    25    4/Norm    Horobi              45 R.I.P.
Freddie          Lord of Mages      32    4/Norm    jiansonz            32
Wolronett        Sorceress-Cold     31    3/Norm    Wolron              27 R.I.P.
LuckyCharm       ConcBarb           24    3/Norm    OpethAZ             23
Yorel_X          Shadow-sin         24    3/Norm    Reid Fleming        22
CrossCheck       CrossbowZon        28    3/Norm    Crazy_Bear          22
Inferno          HolyFireadin       27    3/Norm    SuperSavage         21 R.I.P.
Patsy            Leap Barb          20    1/Norm    Radagast            20
Sarah            Javazon            24    3/Norm    Hrus                19
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.
Jonathan         Hunter Druid       23    2/Norm    Cattleya             5   
Freezydinny      Frost Zealot       18    2/Norm    Rickyson1            2
Coraxasn         MA-Sin             20    2/Norm    tinantlu             1
Elolroel         Charged Boltress   13    1/Norm    goltar25             0 R.I.P.
Fred             Zealot+             1    1/Norm    jjscud               0
Rarnonn          Jailkeeper          1    1/Norm    Mordalles            0
Halisstra        HydraSorc           1    1/Norm    Liliel               0
SirStuckup       DS / frenzy         1    1/Norm    water_moon           0
DeadRinger       F Nova/Tstorm       1    1/Norm    JicamaEater          0
Pokey_poke       Lightning strike    1    1/Norm    Shermo               0
AndOne           Tesladin            1    1/Norm    Poopie_Pants         0
DeadKnight       Avenger             1    1/Norm    Frosty               0
Jenna            Javazon             1    1/Norm    XtasyGrizzly         0
Miko             MA-Sin              1    1/Norm    RikerKirk            0
Portia           Sorceress           1    1/Norm    TRJS                 0
Victor Shen      Meleemancer/Curses  1    1/Norm    Insane Wayne         0
Voberadin        Thornsadin          1    1/Norm    Vober                0
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

Sarah completed act 2 and now rests in Kurast Docks.
Charged strike is nice in this stage, but I have to drink man pots constantly.
I still don't have some slots filled - boots, shield, amulet and I am really not satisfied with my merc weapon (crappy Bardiche).
Score: quests 12x2 + wpts 19 - lvl 24 = 19
 
Code: 
Name             Build           Level   Act/Diff.  Forum Name         Pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HCTornNecroI     Bonemancer         68    4/Hell    Thov                124
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.
Undead_WingWong  Bonemancer         33    1/Nm      Starving_Poet       61
Ursula           Shockwave bear     36    1/NM      jgreg7              61
Fang             Javazon            37    1/NM      phatbrava           60
Arial            Firewall/Tstorm    39    1/NM      BFD                 58
Phrozen_Phire    Firezon            41    5/Norm    skoolbus            53
Freddie          Lord of Mages      48    1/NM      jiansonz            47
JagerMeester     Summon/WereWolf    25    4/Norm    Horobi              45 R.I.P.
Wolronett        Sorceress-Cold     31    3/Norm    Wolron              27 R.I.P.
LuckyCharm       ConcBarb           24    3/Norm    OpethAZ             23
Yorel_X          Shadow-sin         24    3/Norm    Reid Fleming        22
CrossCheck       CrossbowZon        28    3/Norm    Crazy_Bear          22
Inferno          HolyFireadin       27    3/Norm    SuperSavage         21 R.I.P.
Patsy            Leap Barb          20    1/Norm    Radagast            20
Sarah            Javazon            24    3/Norm    Hrus                19
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.
Jonathan         Hunter Druid       23    2/Norm    Cattleya             5   
Freezydinny      Frost Zealot       18    2/Norm    Rickyson1            2
Coraxasn         MA-Sin             20    2/Norm    tinantlu             1
Elolroel         Charged Boltress   13    1/Norm    goltar25             0 R.I.P.
Fred             Zealot+             1    1/Norm    jjscud               0
Rarnonn          Jailkeeper          1    1/Norm    Mordalles            0
Halisstra        HydraSorc           1    1/Norm    Liliel               0
SirStuckup       DS / frenzy         1    1/Norm    water_moon           0
DeadRinger       F Nova/Tstorm       1    1/Norm    JicamaEater          0
Pokey_poke       Lightning strike    1    1/Norm    Shermo               0
AndOne           Tesladin            1    1/Norm    Poopie_Pants         0
DeadKnight       Avenger             1    1/Norm    Frosty               0
Jenna            Javazon             1    1/Norm    XtasyGrizzly         0
Miko             MA-Sin              1    1/Norm    RikerKirk            0
Portia           Sorceress           1    1/Norm    TRJS                 0
Victor Shen      Meleemancer/Curses  1    1/Norm    Insane Wayne         0
Voberadin        Thornsadin          1    1/Norm    Vober                0
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

Freddie has been crowned Destroyer after an uneventful last playing session. He finally gambled some boots that were worthy of equipping: 40% Resist Lightning, 6% Resist Cold, +59% Gold Find and +20% Magic Find.

He found a good circlet for the merc in the Cow level:

Storm Casque
Circlet
Defense: 25
Durability: 17 of 35
+49 to Life
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Lightning Resist +18%
Adds 20-53 fire damage
20% Faster Cast Rate


Destroyer Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 48
Next area: Blood Moor, NM
Score: 47 points
Gambled slots used up:
Gloves
Boots
Shield #2
Merc weapon (but he will get another gambling opportunity for merc weapon if he reaches act 2 NM)
 
rarnonn finished the desert area (and he is still as pale as always). his score is now 10, and he is heading for the palace.
 
Don´t you just hate it when you see these kind of drops? :D Not a rare in sight!

Freddie has made good progress. Skeleton Mastery is now maxed (working at lvl 21) and Raise Mage is at level 12+3 (giving him 7 magi). I am approaching maximum mage power against rather weak enemies (it´s only early NM) so it´s not surprising that very little can even slow us down.

My magi didn´t survive for long against Andariel, though. Neither did the merc. Back to ol´trusty Golly, then. Since the Clay Golem could survive a hit from Andi, I went with that, because it´s cheap to cast. This screenie is called "Golem Graveyard"!

In Lut Gholein, I switched from Durga, lvl 53 Prayer merc, to Durga, lvl 47 Thorns merc. That´s the 12th and final merc type I´ve tried in 1.10.

I use less Derepify now. Becasue of that, and because I no longer have help from Prayer, I need to cast a lot more golems now. That´s OK, it´s part of the plan. I will boost Golem Mastery a bit later.

Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 56
Next area: Harem, NM
Total MF: +124%
Gambles used up: gloves, boots, shield #2
Socketables used:
Flawless + Perfect Topaz (sits in Freddie´s armor)
Flawless Sapphire (used up to cube a perfect)
Tal (used up to cube a Ral)
Socketables available:
Ral
Ort
Emerald
 
Code: 
Name             Build           Level   Act/Diff.  Forum Name         Pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HCTornNecroI     Bonemancer         68    4/Hell    Thov                124
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.
Undead_WingWong  Bonemancer         33    1/Nm      Starving_Poet       61
Ursula           Shockwave bear     36    1/NM      jgreg7              61
Fang             Javazon            37    1/NM      phatbrava           60
Arial            Firewall/Tstorm    39    1/NM      BFD                 58
Phrozen_Phire    Firezon            41    5/Norm    skoolbus            53
Freddie          Lord of Mages      48    1/NM      jiansonz            47
JagerMeester     Summon/WereWolf    25    4/Norm    Horobi              45 R.I.P.
Sarah            Javazon            29    5/Norm    Hrus                44
Wolronett        Sorceress-Cold     31    3/Norm    Wolron              27 R.I.P.
LuckyCharm       ConcBarb           24    3/Norm    OpethAZ             23
Yorel_X          Shadow-sin         24    3/Norm    Reid Fleming        22
CrossCheck       CrossbowZon        28    3/Norm    Crazy_Bear          22
Inferno          HolyFireadin       27    3/Norm    SuperSavage         21 R.I.P.
Patsy            Leap Barb          20    1/Norm    Radagast            20
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.
Jonathan         Hunter Druid       23    2/Norm    Cattleya             5   
Freezydinny      Frost Zealot       18    2/Norm    Rickyson1            2
Coraxasn         MA-Sin             20    2/Norm    tinantlu             1
Elolroel         Charged Boltress   13    1/Norm    goltar25             0 R.I.P.
Fred             Zealot+             1    1/Norm    jjscud               0
Rarnonn          Jailkeeper          1    1/Norm    Mordalles            0
Halisstra        HydraSorc           1    1/Norm    Liliel               0
SirStuckup       DS / frenzy         1    1/Norm    water_moon           0
DeadRinger       F Nova/Tstorm       1    1/Norm    JicamaEater          0
Pokey_poke       Lightning strike    1    1/Norm    Shermo               0
AndOne           Tesladin            1    1/Norm    Poopie_Pants         0
DeadKnight       Avenger             1    1/Norm    Frosty               0
Jenna            Javazon             1    1/Norm    XtasyGrizzly         0
Miko             MA-Sin              1    1/Norm    RikerKirk            0
Portia           Sorceress           1    1/Norm    TRJS                 0
Victor Shen      Meleemancer/Curses  1    1/Norm    Insane Wayne         0
Voberadin        Thornsadin          1    1/Norm    Vober                0
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

Sarah completed act 3 and act 4. She still doesn't have rare boots.
Hellforge drop was really bad: NEF, P Skull, F Amethyst, F Emerald, Diamond
My playing style is really simple, buy a lot of mana pots, set player settings where I can kill most monsters in 1 hit and rock and roll. I think I have spent only 10 hours playing Sarah so far. I think I will run some act 5 areas or superuniques to get some better gear and level sarah lately.
score: 21x2 (quests) + 31 (wpts) - 29 (lvl) = 44
 
Freddie has reached NM act 3. Nothing too bothersome on the way. The worst situation was at the very start of the last session, in Canyon of the Magi. An early beetle boss pack took down the merc before I even had any mages (I don´t allow myself to create an army from areas I have visited before). I had been gambling a lot so I could only afford one merc resurrection without selling any gems. When we came back, I used Terror to get rid of some beetles, golem recasting and Life Tap to keep the merc alive against the others.

Life Tap is very good to have, BTW. If the merc goes down to 1/2 life, I let him hit a Life Tapped monster once or twice. That´s all it takes to fully heal him. Then I go back to Amp or Decrep again.

Amplify Damage is my main curse now. I spam it against everything that engages my two tanks. The reason is threefold:
* Merc does more damage
* Thorns does more damage (I don´t like my mages being slaughtered, but it´s at least very painful for monsters to do it in melee).
* If I want to use Corpse Explosion (and I did that a LOT in the seven tombs :D ), the monsters are already Amped!

I found another Amn rune and used that to upgrade my imbued Grim Wand (I use a better +1 necro skills rare Grim Wand that I found, with Faster Cast, +1 Iron Golem, +1 Iron Maiden and +1 Summon Resist)) That was too early, because I found this hurty stick soon thereafter:

Demon Picket
Pike
Two-Hand Damage: 40 to 182
Durability: 13 of 13
Required Dexterity: 45
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 24
Spear Class - Slow Attack Speed
+94% Enhanced Damage
+47 to Attack Rating
Adds 1-7 lightning damage
4% Life stolen per hit
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (1: 0 used)

If I can upgrade this, that´s likely as good as it´s going to get without being elite...

I am close to rerolling that rare Grave Wand. I have 5 Perfect, one Flawless and two Skulls.


I used Clay Golem + Decrepify against Duriel. It worked very well, but it was hard to get D to focus on the golem. He went for the merc most of the time. The slowing made it possible to win anyway, using no more than 3 healing potions and two rejuves to save the merc. I had 8 mages (a few cold ones among them) shooting at Duriel almost the whole fight. Six of them survived; that says something about how safe it was for Freddie.


Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 60
Next area: Spider Forest, NM
Score: 79 pts

(Oh, and next person to update the table, make sure to include Insane Wayne´s character)
 
rarnonn killed duriel in a very interesting fight, where duriel couldnt moved, cause there was around 5000 thousand bone prisons around him. rarnonn and his roque took care of the rest.
he also got the statuette and gidbinn, and is in the flayer jungle waypoint.

score: 24.
 
CrossCheck fought her way through act IV this weekend, defeating Diablo only once so far, but going back for more soon. With the Valk as tank, and the actIII merc providing ranged support she had few difficulties, though since her overall damage is low I did lower the players setting to 5 so speed things up.
The hellforge gave: Ort, P. Diamond, Fs Amy, Fs Skull, Skull. None are set to be socketed just yet. D dropped 5 rares and a magical. Normally I would have thought that sucked :). Two of those items, a ring and a breastplate, are now in my equipment. The rest are owned by Larzuk now.
Crosscheck has still not found a rare amulet. :rant:
Anyway, onward with act V!

CrossCheck, lvl 32 Bowazon,
WP: 31
Quests: 21
Level 32
Points: 41
 
Victor continued his duties in NM Act 2, starting with Jehryn's Palace. Cellar Level 3 seemed to be sparsely populated... then I found the hive. A quadruple boss pack! Monsters came pouring out of the doorway; what followed was one of the most entertaining battles in my D2 career. I was running and dodging mage bolts like crazy, spamming curses and hitting eveything with PMH balanced knives. Right away a rare jewel dropped, which made the fight more fun since I had a potential nice find to look forward to. After the dust finally settled, the jewel turned out to be disapponiting (+2 max damage, fire resist 12, 12% damage to mana).

jiansonz said:
The worst situation was at the very start of the last session, in Canyon of the Magi. An early beetle boss pack took down the merc before I even had any mages (I don´t allow myself to create an army from areas I have visited before). I had been gambling a lot so I could only afford one merc resurrection without selling any gems.
Click to expand...
:lol: Just as I started the Canyon, my merc was killed by a nasty Multiple Shot Spear Cat. When I re-entered, he flushed out an Aura beetle pack and was killed again, leaving me no gold for resurrections. I had to run through part of the Canyon casting Terror and raiding the chests/urns until I found a nice armor to sell.
After that delay, I cleared the Tombs and left the setting at p8 for Duriel. The clay golem tanked while the merc stood on Duriel's tail and jabbed away. I used IM mostly, with occasional decrep to keep the golem alive.

Act 3 was incident-free until I hit the temples. The first three were OK. When I entered the fourth, I was displaced, as the doorway was completely clogged with Spider Magi. I couldn't see Victor because he spawned away from the door, behind a pillar. I heard him taking hits and saw his life bulb sinking quick. By the time I got my bearings, I realized I was trapped by 3 spiders and the pillar boxing me in. I had used a couple rejuvs already. I finally got a Terror off and squeaked out, only to awaken a few archers. Too make matters worse, I had taken a super-poisoning, the kind that drain you quick. Healing potions were barely able to stop the life drain. I had to spam Terror until my merc could free some space for me. Very close call.
Both remaining temples had stair traps, but my entry positions were more favorable and I was able to manage.

Within two minutes of entering the Durance, my merc was one-hit killed by a Berserker Doll with a Fanatacism Aura. The source of the aura was a mauler boss with only one minion, trapped in an unusual position. I wanted that XP, so I cast my golem in there, used IM, and threw my rare throwing axes with 1-201 lightning damage.

Mephisto dropped my first rare amulet. Up to that point I'd full-cleared everything at p8 and hadn't found one. It has 2 useful mods, resist all +12, and +10 energy. Much better than my crafted disaster.

CE worked perfectly against the spawners of Act 4. Other than them, my monster rolls were pretty good. No leapers or maggots. I was excited about Hellforge. But the gems were a disappointment. Once again... no diamonds, rubies, or topaz. Damn, that's some real bad luck. But what about the rune? Aha! That's where my luck went!
With a Fal I'll be able to upgrade a merc weapon to elite. Otherwise, I get a resist-all bonus for helm/armor/shield.

Diablo started out pretty tough. He bone-prisoned and fried my merc, twice. Then my clay golem managed to get in close, so close that Diablo's elemental attacks had no effect on it. Meanwhile, I led my merc around to attack D's back. Result = cakewalk. Amp damage all the way. :clap:

A breakdown of Victor's skills:

20 Clay Golem
20 Golem Mastery
1 Blood Golem
3 Summon Resist
1 Iron Golem
1 Fire Golem

1 Teeth
11 Corpse Explosion

1 Amp Damage
1 Weaken
1 Iron Maiden
1 Terror
1 Life Tap
11 Decrepify

Victor Shen, level 67, Act 5 NM, Harrogath
Score: 101 (I think)
 
wow finally someone to kick me from that second place :D good show!

I'm still following this thread with good interest, seems like alot of people are doing better than me.. keep up the good work!
 
Ursula is back in act2 NM. The going is getting slow, though. The NDEs are also becoming too frequent for my taste. It's probably time to start farming for better gear. I did finally stumble upon a rare amulet, though, with +1 to druid skills! Sweet!

Ursula
Werebear
Level: 45 (a2 NM)
Score: 79 pts

Has anyone else noticed that the top three surviving contenders are now all necromancers? (Thov, jiansonz, & Insane Wayne) Not so surprising I guess, considering that using rare equipment is even easier than going naked!
 
Act V has been going well for CrossCheck. She has defeated Shenk, rescued some soldiers and freed Anya from her icy prison. Continuing at P5 seems to have had less effect on the total exp gained than I thought. Then again, when I play on p8 all the way through that usually has me around lvl 40-42 heading to ancients, and she is currently only 37. She has killed pindle once already, so on the next time through she will be sure to go and find the WP in the Halls of Pain.
Anya even gave a surprisingly good bow, which made CrossCheck happy. I have come to the sad conclusion that she will pretty much be just a regular Magezon. I hope she will find a crossbow to use, but it seems pretty unlikely at this point.

Anyway, she will have to go back and take out D one more time soon, and then it will be pushing on to ancients and Baal.

Still no gold ammy.....

good luck all.

CrossCheck, lvl 37 bowazon, act V NM
Quests: 24
WP: 35 (up to glacial trail)
level 37

total points 46
 
jgreg7 said:
Has anyone else noticed that the top three surviving contenders are now all necromancers? (Thov, jiansonz, & Insane Wayne) Not so surprising I guess, considering that using rare equipment is even easier than going naked!
Click to expand...

I think that is a coincidence. Even with the restrictions in this tournament, there are many non-necro builds that are not particularly weapon dependant (and Wayne´s necromancer is still fighting, btw).





The Kurast jungle suited Freddie´s gang perfectly. Narrow enough to keep enemies from coming from multiple directions, but still wide enough for golem + merc to find a way through the mage army and up to the enemies. I had long periods of playing where none of my 9 mages died. :D

It was more problematic in some of the dungeons, especially Swampy Pit level 3. It was the layout that has the most intricate maze with long corridors.

Stormtree´s gang managed to kill all my mages and the golem, and Stormtree himself went after Freddie. That was very scary because he was FE! Good thing the golem and the mages were dead and the merc was a melee type who was a couple of steps away (=> no bugged sparks emitted when Stormy was standing next to Freddie).


Oh yeah, I completed a half-dozen of PSkulls and rerolled my rare Grave Wand. I pulled a jackpot:
+2 Necro skills
+2 Decrepify
Sapphire cold resist
some mana

Yay! The affix calculator says there was a 4.6% chance of getting the Necromancer´s prefix. What luck!
Since I can´t reroll most merc weapons (all types other than javelins are too big!), the next batch of skulls will probably be used on a necro head (but I have to be careful with the item-, character- and quality levels there, to allow the chance for Necromancer´s).

Still no Circlet that has been good enough. I have seen two +1 necro skills rares so far: one with Emerald resist and +2 mana per kill, and one with +30 life and +17 energy. Since we can´t use charms, I need resists (especially fire/cold) on my circlet! I have also seen one circlet with life steal (most desirable affix for the merc) but it had nothing else of use.

Destroyer Freddie, Lord of Mages
Level: 61
Next area: Lower Kurast, NM


(Sidenote: There has sometimes been somewhat of a debate whether poison damage completely stops monster life regeneration or if it only "works against it" (life regeneration gets subtracted by the drain from the poison). I can now safely say that it DOES completely stop the regeneration. Case in point:

Freddie had level 17+3 Raise Skeletal Mage and level 20+1 Skeleton Mastery. This means that his poison Necromages do 105 poison damage over 310 seconds. Yes, you read it right, thats 0,34 life/s. Laughable!

I had been Unsummoning the posion mages so far. After all, the fire/lightning mages do more damage per hit than the poison ones do over 5 minutes!

In one of Tal´s tombs, I managed to block a Mummy Sarcophagus with a golem. Golem, merc and 4-5 mages were pummeling it. A /players 8 sarcophagus in NM has a lot of life and very high regeneration. You could see the regeneration in the life bar. After about a minute, my gang had it down to half life. For some reason, I had a poison mage in the gang (probably because I had exploded so many corpses, and didn´t have any spare ones around). This poison shooter was firing into a pillar, but suddenly moved a bit and got a clear shot. Sarcophagus turned green and the last half of its life was taken down waaay faster than the first!

So now I will welcome poison mages in my gang (although I certainly don´t want more than 1-2 of them). They will be very good to have in Hell. They only need to hit once, because of the enormous poison duration.)
 
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