ROYGBIV - A Colour-Coded Sept+ Project

[Pb_pal]

What?
From Wikipedia:
"ROYGBIV or Roy G. Biv is an initialism for the sequence of hues commonly described as making up a rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet."

Why?
I've always been interested in the coloration of items in this game, and always thought it a fun way to stylize builds, so much so that I've built and run tournaments around it in the past. If anyone has any questions about how coloration works, that link should explain anything you need to know and more. I'm also more than happy to try and answer any questions you have in here, so ask away! Here is an extremely brief rundown (shamelessly stolen from that thread) on how it works:

Spoiler: Basics of Coloration

*Note-all .txt files referenced here can be found in ATMA's Config directory, just drop them into Excel for easy viewing! I will also attach an Excel file that has all relevant .txt files sorted by colour in Appendix B for those interested.*

Basics of Coloration

An item's colour is controlled by transform flags located in the data files. There are two ways in which these transform flags can be manipulated to produce an item with colour; Affixes and the socketing of gems. Not all affixes will change the colour of an item, but those which have a transform code (located in MagicPrefix.txt and MagicSuffix.txt data files) have the potential to change the colour of an item, assuming other conditions are met which I will get into later. Gems work similarly in that they have a transform number (found in Gems.txt) that will change the colour of an item if certain parameters are met (again, I'll explain later). The transform numbers and codes, and what they represent, are as follows:

#  - code - Colour         -     Gems(if applicable)
00 - whit - White          - Perfect Diamond
01 - lgry - Light Gray     - Chipped-Flawless Diamond
02 - dgry - Dark Gray      - Chipped-Flawless Skull
03 - blac - Black          - Perfect Skull
04 - lblu - Light Blue
05 - dblu - Dark Blue      - Chipped-Flawless Sapphire
06 - cblu - Crystal Blue   - Perfect Sapphire
07 - lred - Light Red
08 - dred - Dark Red       - Chipped-Flawless Ruby
09 - cred - Crystal Red    - Perfect Ruby
10 - lgrn - Light Green
11 - dgrn - Dark Green     - Chipped-Flawless Emerald
12 - cgrn - Crystal Green  - Perfect Emerald
13 - lyel - Light Yellow   - Perfect Topaz
14 - dyel - Dark Yellow    - Chipped-Flawless Topaz
15 - lgld - Light Gold
16 - dgld - Dark Gold
17 - lpur - Light Purple   - Perfect Amethyst
18 - dpur - Dark Purple    - Chipped-Flawless Amethyst
19 - oran - Orange
20 - bwht - Bright White

*One thing to note just for completeness’ sake is that runes have a
Transform Number of 18, although they do not actually transform
equipment to a purple colour*

One last thing to note about affixes is that they have a chain of priority which decides exactly which colour takes precedence. If there is only 1 Affix with a Transform Code, if will change the colour of the item (assuming of course the item is able to change colour), whereas if two conflicting affixes are on the same item, the Suffix will take precedence. For example:

Godly (Dark Gold) Archon Plate of Ages (no Transform code) will display as Dark Gold, whereas

Godly (Dark Gold) Archon Plate of Swords (Orange) will display as Orange.

This gets slightly more complicated in rares and crafts when there are multiple prefixes and suffixes, but there remains a hierarchy there as well; suffix 1, suffix 2, suffix 3, prefix 1, prefix 2, prefix 3. Unique and Set items also have their own respective transform codes listed in the UniqueItems.txt and SetItems.txt data files.

--

Now that we know HOW they change colour, there is also the trouble of whether or not they CAN change colour. Basically in the Armor.txt and Weapons.txt data files, there are two columns which govern if it is possible for an item to change colour. These are the "Transform" column which dictates whether or not the colour will change on your character in-game, and "InvTrans" column which dictates whether or not the item will change colour in your inventory. If the "transform" column has a 0 in it, the item will never change colour on your character (though these items can still change colour in your inventory if the InvTrans column does not = 0). So you'll have to be careful that you do not waste a socketing opportunity on an item that won't display on your character, as that is what counts for this tournament. Items that do NOT change display colour (ie. Transform = 0) on your character, and are thus banned*, are as follows:

- Full Helm, Basinet, Giant Conch

- All Paladin Shields

- Circlet, Coronet, Tiara, Diadem (These do not have a graphical display at all on the character, so even though they have a non-zero Transform number, they are still banned)

*Obviously Gloves, Belts, Boots, and Jewelry are not included under this section, despite having a Transform value of 0, as none of them are actually displayed on your character


Now that we know what happens when an item has a Transform value of 0, you might ask what all the other values mean. Well, the rest of the Transform values (1,2,5,7,8) dictate which PART of the item actually changes colour. I don’t know what they all reference, but it seems that each one pertains to a different colour on the actual item (so, if an item has Transform = 1, all gray areas will change colour). The only reason I’m mentioning this is because there are certain items (Mask-type helms come to mind) that only small portions of the item change colour. Taking a Mask as an example, only the horns of the mask actually change colour, but the face does not (think Tal’s Helm). For our purposes in this tournament that will suffice, and I’ll leave it up to the individual participant whether or not they feel it is enough of an impact to warrant use.

One very last thing to note when you are looking for equipment is that you should pay attention to the affixes of the item in question, rather than simply if the colour looks blue/purple/whatever or not. There are items that do not transform colour in the inventory at all (InvTrans = 0), or do not transform in any really noticeable way, but DO still change the colour displayed on your character (Transform =/= 0). Some examples are Necro heads and Barb-specific helms (Invtrans = 0), and Large/Kite/Tower/Gothic type Shields and their exceptional/elite counterparts (InvTrans = 2). For example, a Savage Helmet of the Mammoth will look its normal gray in your inventory screen, but will give a nice blood-red appearance on your character.

Again, the only items that never change colour (Transform=0) are listed above in the banned section, so everything else is fair game as long as it has an applicable affix or gem socketed!

How?
Rules for this sept are simple:

1. One class of each colour of the rainbow.
2. All gear (interim and final) must follow the character's determined colour. For all displayed gear (Helm, armour, weapon, shield) they must display the correct colour on the character. For all non-displayed gear, they must have the correct transform code for the character's colour (found in the game's .txt files). A bonus is if they display the correct colour in the inventory as well (though not always possible, especially with S/U items and jewelery having special graphics).
3. If there is no way to get a properly coloured equipment slot (or suitable replacement), that slot will remain blank.
4. I'm also going to try and stay with S/U gear wherever I can. This is partially to keep myself from endlessly shopping/gambling but also to make use of items I never would have otherwise. There will be times this does not work (ie. there are no S/U orange belts), and a valid non-S/U item will be used in it's place.
5. Skills will also follow the character's colour convention when possible. If no skill of the colour is available or is not feasible for a build, a "colourless" skill may be used (ie. Frenzy, Strafe etc).
6. Mercenary type and gear do not need to adhere to any rules.

Rules 3 and 4 are not set in stone as sometimes exceptions will need to be made due to the nature of how coloration works (and most notably between the two "blue" colours -Blue and Indigo- and I will detail any time I deviate from it in the character's writeups.


Who?
Here I will give a quick summary of each character, including build and planned (final) gear, subject to change and updating as I take them through their journeys. Interim gear will be detailed in their progress reports.

Spoiler: Red - Assassin (TS/DTail)

Gear:
Helm: Ocher (LR 14%) Bone Helm of the Mammoth (34 Life) - 'Um'
Armour: Jeweler's Chaos Armor of the Squid (67 life) - 'OrtOrtRalRal'
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp
Belt: String of Ears
Boots: upped Gore Rider
Amulet: Rainbow (11 all res) Amulet of the Mammoth (35 life)
Rings: Garnet (29% FR) Ring/Crimson (7% FR) Ring of the Wraith (5% mana steal)
Weapon: Fleshripper
Shield: Medusa's Gaze - 'PDiamond'
Switch: N/A

Spoiler: Orange - Druid (Molten Boulder)

Gear:
Aldurs Set
Mara's Kaleidoscope
2x Manald Heal
Shopped Belt of Spikes(or similar suffix)
Shopped Shield of Spikes (or similar suffix)

Spoiler: Yellow - Amazon (Strafe)

Gear:
Trang's Helm/Armour/Belt/Gloves
Windforce
Civerb's Amulet
Shopped Rings
Shopped Boots (Amber/Coral/Glowing, etc)

Spoiler: Green - Necromancer (Poison)

Gear:
Vamp Gaze
Leviathan
Lenymo
Gerkes sanctuary/Socketed Monarch
Gravenspine
Venom Grip
Tearhaunch
Nature's Peace x 2
Atma's Scarab

Spoiler: Blue - Paladin (Holy Freeze)

Gear:
Nightwings
Heavenly Garb
Frostwind
Stormchaser
Laying of Hands
Credendum/Goldwrap
Rite of Passage
Ravenfrost x 2
Telling of Beads/Crescent Moon

Spoiler: Indigo - Sorc (FO/FN)

Gear:
Milabrega's Helm/Gemmed Great Helm
Silks of the Victor
Spectral Shard
Spirit Ward/The Ward
Gorefoot
hand of Broc
Credendum
Telling of Beads

Spoiler: Violet - Barb (Frenzy)

Gear:
Gemmed Barb Helm (Amethysts)
2x Djinn Slayer
Tal Rasha's Armour
Tal Rasha's Belt
Sander's Gloves
Sander's Boots
2x Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band
Saracen's Chance

Spoiler: White - Amazon (Lightning Spearzon)

Gear:
Coif of Glory
Bloodthief
Mavin'as Armour
Mavina's Belt
Mavina's Gloves
Sigon's Boots
2x Stone of Jordan
Highlord's Wrath

Spoiler: Grey - Paladin (Charge)

Gear:
Guillaume's/Giant Skull/Veil of Steel
Spire of Honor
Guardian Angel
IK Belt
IK Gloves
IK Boots
Dwarf Star/Angelic Ring
Angelic Amulet
Switch: Coldsteel Eye/Tiamat's Rebuke

Spoiler: Black - Necromancer (Revive)

Gear:
Steel Shade
Corpsemourn
Blackhand key
Steelclash
Verdungo's
Vidala's Boots
Vidala's Amulet

Spoiler: Gold - Barbarian (Concentrate)

Gear:
Head: Griswold's Valor 'Ort/Ral'
Weapon: The Grandfather
Shield: N/A
Body: Griswold's Heart 'Ort/Ort/Ral'
Belt: Arctic Binding
Gloves: Arctic Mitts
Boots: Tancred's Hobnails
Rings: N/A
Amulet: The Eye of Etlich
Switch: Crainte Vomir Legend Sword

Spoiler: ROYGBIV - Necromancer (Zookeeper)

Gear:
Head: Trang-Oul's Guise 'Ral' - (Yellow)
Weapon: Gravenspine - (Green)
Shield: Chromatic Gothic Shield of Razors - (Orange)
Body: Heavenly Garb 'Ort' - (Blue)
Belt: String of Ears - (Red)
Gloves: Sander's Taboo - (Violet)
Boots: Gorefoot - (Indigo)
Rings: Dwarf Star (Grey)/The Stone of Jordan (White)
Amulet: Vidala's (Black)
Switch: N/A

Where?
Character status, and where they are in the world of Sanctuary.

Red - lvl 81, Matriarch
Orange - lvl 84, Patriarch
Yellow - lvl 81, Matriarch
Green - lvl 81, Patriarch
Blue - lvl 84, Patriarch
Indigo - lvl 81, Matriarch
Violet - lvl 83, Patriarch

White - lvl 82, Matriarch
Black - lvl 77, Patriarch
Grey - lvl 80, Patriarch
Gold - lvl 82, Patriarch

ROYGBIV - lvl 83, Patriarch

When?
Right now, of course.

 

[Pb_pal]

Orange is a pretty easy colour to start with. There are no gems to colour items orange, and only very select shopping can be done for it. Why did I choose a druid? Well, Aldur's set is orange, Druids are already wearing orange when they are created, and molten boulder looks like he's rolling a big moldy.... orange? I'm also going to skip the volcano synergy and instead pump armageddon. Yes, I know it sucks, but the whole point of this sept is to do things I dont normally do, and physical dmg will be easily convered by the merc anyways. Besides, FLAMING ORANGES FROM THE SKY!

Off we go!

First things first, ditched the non-orange starter gear so it was punching our way until we could put a point into firestorm. Pumped it until 6 where he got Molten Boulder and Oak Sage. Picked up a fire rogue at 8 and bowled his way through the remaining quests.

Quick gear update as he equipped Tarnhelm at 9 and dual Manald Heals at 15 (Yes, they are orange in the transform files. Most jewelery has a colour, though obviously none change graphic because of it).

Luckily Fire druids are just plain awesome at the early game, which is convenient because Orange will be beltless for the next while. Molten Boulder wrecked its way through the rest of the act, killing Andy at lvl 19. In Act 2 he hired a Town guard (Prayer for now), equipped Jade Tan Do for some nice CBF, and a Savage polearm for the merc. Looking decent now!

From there it was smooth sailing through to Duriel, and on to the jungles. It was time now to get kitted out a little bit better and start looking the part. Shopped an orange Heavy Belt of Spikes (multiple potion rows, yay!) and some orange plate mail to hold him over. This leaves him with only an amulet and boots missing. Looking better!

The duo absolutely flew through the jungles, and the merc solved their mana troubles by equipping Insight at 27. level 28 got him an officially orange S/U armour in Goldskin (along with some much-needed resistances!), and Meph was killed shortly thereafter. Act 4 was a blur, nabbing a Tir from the Forge and a quick rout of Diablo. Orange upgraded his belt to a Cobalt Plated Belt of Spikes (a nice example of how the suffix determines the colour when two "colouring" affixes are present) and then headed to Barbland.

Shenk quickly died, Anya was saved and he hit 36 in the Glacial Trail which allowed him to equip his end-game helmet! Not sure what I'm going to do with the sockets just yet, but maybe some resistances once I get to Hell? Either way, he's looking pretty cool now!

Ancients were a breeze, as was the rest of the Act. The first 4 waves were easy as pie but Lister did need to be parked. I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with them in NM and especially Hell, but that's a ways off yet. Baal was Firestormed quickly and efficiently, officially getting Orange to Slayer status at level 40.

Next up: probably a bit of leveling and then a trip out into NM.

Orange, the Molten Boulder Druid - lvl 40, NM Rogue Encampment

 

[Vildecor]

I like it! Makes me wish I had continued with my White Spearzon in the Show Your Colors tourney (non-American 'u' removed ).

I'm looking forward to watching your progress and, more importantly, enjoying your colored characters' screenshots!

 

[Pb_pal]

Orange started back at it by leveling quickly to 43, allowing him to equip the VERY orange Aldur's mace. He then headed off the NM.

A bit of a re-gear first as we added skillers and some other life/res charms as needed. He continued on easily and hit level 45 in the Underground Passage, allowing him to finally equip some boots.

Only the armour left now to complete the set! Other than that, his only remaining inventory slot to fill is the amulet, which is awaiting Cat's Eye at 50. He also got access to Armageddon, so I'll be pumping that until it's maxed. Lots of orange now!

The trip to, and fight with, Andariel was uneventful. Once he reached the desert he hired a HF merc for some planning against immunities. Good thing too, as we needed it by the time we found Radament's Lair and all of the accompanying FI fire mages. Another benefit to a HF merc is that it should help in aiming Molten Boulders, which isn't always easy with the quicker foes. Up through the desert Orange hit 50 in the Dry Hills, finally filling his final equipment slot as previously mentioned. Cat's Eye is just a placeholder for now, as luckily Mara's also happens to be orange in the transform files, so that will be his end-game amulet.

So far Molten Boulder and the merc are still destroying things, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Armageddon is actually contributing on /p8 so far. Smooth sailing all around, Orange cruised his way through the rest of Act 2. Act 3 also provided little resistance and Meph was dead before long. Act 4 was much of the same. Izual fell quickly, nabbed an Io at the Forge, even the Diablo fight was no sweat.

Act 5 followed suit, even the Ancients didn't slow him down. There really isn't a ton to say about it so far, a mix of questing and leveling brought him to Baal, and he was easily killed at 71. Orange leveled to 76 (which took way longer than I would have liked) to allow him his final piece of Aldur's (the armour). He also equipped Mara's, and is now officially done gear-wise. The merc also got an overhaul with Delerium, CoH, and Infinity, so they are ready for Hell!

Looking good!


Orange, the Molten Boulder Druid - lvl 71, Hell Rogue Encampment

 

[D2DC]

Love the use of Goldskin!

 

[Pb_pal]

A couple small housekeeping notes before he set out:

He did a final charm-swap and respec , so the final thing to do is fill some of those sockets that Aldur's set is covered in. As it stands, Aldur's already provides a lot of resistances, and Orange was very lucky that Mara's amulet is, well, orange. Also did a bit of shopping for him and upgraded with this shield:

Chromatic Gothic Shield of Razors
Gothic Shield
Defense: 33
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 30 of 40
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 60
Fingerprint: 0xf828114
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +26
Attacker Takes Damage of 7

So he's actually maxed out on resistances with the help of some basic charms. That means sockets can go to other stuff! Luckily, I have a pile of fire facets laying around that I'm never going to use, so... I used them!

Nice! Also, keep in mind those numbers are with a combined -24 %fire damage from the facets, plus Infinity on the merc. I'm quite happy with that, let's get to some questing!

Act 1 absolutely flew by, even though there are FIs everywhere. They are Inifinity-breakable, so it wasn't actually an issue. I set the players setting to 3 and kept it there, though honestly I could have easily gone higher. To my surprise, Armageddon is actually killing things at a decent clip (decent compared to MB anyways) so that's a cool thing. Blood Raven soon died, and not even an Extra Strong, Cursed Smith could slow Orange down and he was soon into Andariel's Lair. She died quickly, and left nothing of note behind.

Act 2 followed suit, though he had to be a bit careful out in the desert if there were beetles around. Armageddon has a tendency to hit in clusters, so that sometimes led to a whole lot of LE bolts flying around the screen. Radament fell easily, and he got to practice some bowling skills in the Maggot Lair.

It's always refreshing having a character who is actually suited to killing in the narrow passages of that place. The killing power of Armageddon is still great on /p3, as evidenced by how easily the team can handle groups like these Fanatcism-enchanted Urdars

You'll notice the smattering of dead urdars up towards the top of the screen, all thanks to Armageddons passive killing power. Duriel stood no chance, and dropped junk in return. On to the jungles!

In this act things started shifting a little bit, gameplay-wise. Molten Boulder is tough to aim with all the small speedy monsters running around, so we had to rely on Armageddon to do the bulk of the work. Luckily it is still more than powerful enough, so progress was smooth. The Jade Figurine was found, Sszark killed, and then Orange met his first unbreakable PI/FI in the Great Marsh, which was accompanied by another zombie bosspack (thankfully just PI).

Orange cleared out the minions easily enough with Armageddon/Molten Boulder and the merc had to slowly whittle down the boss with his Hole Freeze damage. I've been singing Armageddon's praises this whole time, but you know what it ISN'T good against? Dolls. Orange had his first death in the Flayer Dungeon when he had Armageddon active and a pack of dolls came flying into the room, around the merc, and exploded in his face. Lesson learned, no Armageddon in potential doll spawning places.

Up through Stormtree with ease, as well as Sarina, the Travincal was the next hurdle as it was absolutely teeming with unbreakable FIs.

It was up to the merc to clear them out, which he did, and then a slow trek through the Durance (watching out for dolls) and soon it was time to face Mephisto. The fight was very easy, and keeping in theme with the other Act Bosses, he dropped nothing of value.

He'll stop there for now, but his next update should be his completion!


Orange, the Molten Boulder Druid - lvl 78 (I think?), Hell Pandemonium Fortress

 

[Pb_pal]

Out into act 4 with momentum from his easier than expected romp through the first 3 acts. He soon found Izual, accompanied by loads and loads of Gloams. Okay, new tactic; Cast Armageddon and run around in circles hoping desperately not to get fried.

It worked, and Izual soon bit it, so it was onwards to the River of Flame where things started to slow down a bit. Unbreakable FI Pit Lords meant that it was basically just waiting for the merc to kill things and making sure Oak Sage stayed alive. Hephasto was also FI, but otherwise benign. Forge was a Ko.

Venom Lords (also unbreakable FI) also made the CS slow going. Orange followed his merc through and it came time for the seals. Vizier went down to Armageddon, De Seis had his minions pulled away and then he had a personal showdown with the merc (unbreakable FI again). Infector's pack is entirely unbreakable FI (great...) so we had to bail out of a TP and walk back from the WP to pull them out in small batches for the merc. Diablo himself was quite easy, actually. I forgot to take a screenie during the fight or the drop, but you didn't miss anything.

The final act began with a fizzle as Orange had his second death. A nasty Archer pack sniped the Oak Sage immediately, and the rest is history.

Not to be dismayed he plodded back and went on the kill Shenk amidst a volley of spears

The barbs were saved, as was Anya, and the trip down to Nihlthak was also quite smooth. Once we got down there though, vipers greeted us. Slow and steady we cleared them out from as far as possible by rolling Boulders in their general directions, and then we could go after the bossman himself.

The Ancients are always a bit of a worry with a single-element character, but this time that worry was unfounded. Orange managed to get two of them by themselves in the far corner and the merc easily took them out. The final Ancient was a piece of cake after that, and before he know it Orange was through the WSK and facing the waves. Waves 1-4 were simple, but Lister's pack is all unbreakable FI. We had a heck of a time trying to separate them, and in the end they were just too much for the merc, so Orange parked them by the stairs and turned his attention to the guy in charge.

It was easy enough with Armageddon and Firestorm. Nothing to speak of during the fight, but in what I can only assume is a nod to the point of this sept, Baal left a very colourful (albeit useless) drop behind including two of Naj's circlets. That officially wraps up the first character of this sept, as Orange has made Patriarch at level 84

First colour done! Pat thread is posted here.

Orange, the Molten Boulder Druid - lvl 84, Patriarch

 

[D2DC]

Congrats! I didn't know Izual was a member of the WWF. Looks like you're facing off in a 90s Royal Rumble!

Spoiler

 

[Pb_pal]

Hahaha it does! There's definitely A LOT happening in that pic.

 

[Pb_pal]

The next character to set out will be Green the Necromancer. When deciding what character would be green, it was quite simple. The only real options for green skills are poison, so that left me with either the necromancer or amazon. An amazon would be viable as well, since she even has weapon choices (Gargoyle's Bite and Viperfork), but I just have a soft spot for poison necros and I couldn't really think of any other colour to fit a Necromancer into, so here we are! There are technically 3 shades of green (light, crystal, dark), but for the purposes of this sept I'm going to treat them all as equal and give him access to any of the green equipment.

As for his skills, the plan right now is to have him be a Poison Explosion Necro and skip PN just for variety, but I'll decide on that for sure later. He won't have access to any summons, since none of them are green, and almost all of the curses are out as well. More on that later.

--

First things first, ditched the starter gear and popped a chipped emerald into a dagger so he could set out on /p8. He stabbed his way quickly to level 5 and could equip his first S/U in Bane Ash for some extra damage.

Started sinking points into PDagger at 6 and kept his little dagger on switch so I could alternate between it and Bane Ash. Whittled Blood Raven down and that allowed him to hire a merc, which greatly sped things up with some envy jewels. Level 7 gave us our end-game belt in Lenymo. Yes, you read that right. It's the only green S/U belt available, so that's that. Luckily it's Unique and not Set so I'll be upgrading it along the way as the time comes for more potion rows. Soon after that we got more gear at 11, thanks to Cathan's set. Cathan's armour, amulet, staff, and 2 rings all got equipped (we left the helmet off since it doesn't transform well and looks terrible). The fire damage bonus from the set was very welcome, and things became smooth... and green(ish)!

Treehead gave us a VERY rude welcoming to the Dark Wood, but we got him, grabbed the scroll, and saved Cain easily. The rest of the act flew by, and Green upgraded to a better looking armour in Hawkmail.

Even Warriv is impressed with his new look! Green also equipped Treads of Cthon at this time for his first pair of boots. He hit level 18 and got access to the only two green curses he is allowed to use (Terror and Confuse), as well as a new skill in PExplosion. Andy died without issue, and after grabbing a Prayer merc (not sure what my end-game merc will be yet, but that's fine for now) and giving him a savage polearm things relaly took off. PE is picking up steam as well. It's still mostly the merc killing things, but PE is fantastic for weakening mobs. Confuse is also getting a workout already, keeping the heat off the merc. He grabbed the cube, equipped Gravenspine, and popped an emerald (plus some diamonds) into a shield to give him some equipment there for now. One level later he was able to equip a proper helmet in Wormskull, and I dare say he's looking halfway decent (except for those red pants...)!

The rest of the act flew, Duriel dropped nothing, and it was on to the jungles. Sszark, Endugu, Sarina all just died in a flash. He threw an Insight on the merc even though the poison dmg on it overrides PE. It's only temporary, but I'm just sick of carting around an inventory filled with mana pots. Meph died shortly thereafter, and he hit 29 shortly into act 4 which allowed him to finally complete a gearset by equipping Venom Grip. He also upgraded his boots to Tearhaunch, and upped his Lenymo for some more potion rows. Act 4 was over in a flash (HF was a Ral, btw), and despite Diablo being a bit trickier, he was cornered on a wall and Green ran in and out jabbing him while the merc poked away.

The duo tore through Act 5 as well, all the way to the Ancients. The Ancients themselves were easy too, as was the WSK and waves 1-4. Lister's pack was tough, especially since AI curses don't affect them. We pulled them out and dealt with them, and Baal was handled easily enough to get Green to Slayer at 41.

He leveled to 44 to equip both Vamp Gaze and Gerke's Sanctuary, and that will do it for Normal. Wait a minute. Vamp Gaze on a necro? Over Wormskull?

That's right. Sure I lose out a +1 skill, but I gain some Dr and MDR and the vamp gaze colour is much better (you'll have to trust me, i forgot to screenie it). Worth it!


Green, the Poison Necromancer - lvl 44, NM Rogue Encampment

 

[Pb_pal]

Well, after all that trouble to level him up before Nightmare to equip some extra gear, I didn't love how Gerke's looked in the end.

It's a bit strange because it's light green in the transform files, yet it looks markedly darker than his other crystal green equipment. It's just another example of how item types can dictate the look just as much as the colour codes themselves. Either way, it didn't look good, so it's on my PDagger switch now for boss fights, and Green's main switch is going to stay as his socketed shield. He loaded upon skillers and went out into the wild.

Act 1 absolutely flew, PE is still quite devastating so shortly they were through to Andariel. She was led in circles through PEs of her fallen minions until she croaked. I had a weird anomaly in the sewers, check out these shrines:

I've never seen 2 shrines THAT close before. They must be on corners of adjacent tiles, but still it seems quite unusual. That, or I just never really paid attention before. The actual questing of the act was easy and fast, with the only real notable thing being a minor stairtrap by Fangskin. Confuse is Green's only real crowd control, and it certainly proved its worth here. Duriel was a cakewalk, he focused on Green so with some fancy footwork the merc was able to take him down.

Act 3 gave Green his first death. I accidentally had Poison Nova selected instead of Explosion, and thre it right into a pack of dolls. Not recommended.

The rest of the act was easy, and Meph soon fell. Green hit 60 near the end of the act which allowed him to put on his end-game amulet (Atma's Scarab) and finally get rid of the Cathans he'd been wearing since A1 normal. Atmas isn't really any better for him, but it's the thought that counts!

Green soon killed Izual, and his skill-points maxed out the poison skills. Next up: get a huge radius for Confuse. I have literally nothing else to put the points into other than Terror, and we have yet to use that at all (and I doubt I will). The merc also got an upgrade in a new Insight, and off they went to the Forge (Lum). Poison immune Venom Lords made the CS slow, but thanks to the mercs new weapon it went easily enough. Diablo was killed by snugging up in front of the hose and having Green tank while the merc jabbed away.

Into Act 5 and a quick trip up to Shenk let Green level at Eldritch until 65. He could FINALLY get rid of those stupid-looking red pants, and give his his end-game armour Leviathan, which looks MUCH better.

Sure, that's a rather large strength investment for a Necro, but it's all worth it for those sweet sweet aesthetics. He stayed at Eldritch until level 69 to get his final gear upgrade, dual Nature's Peace rings. Of course, those REALLY mess up his plans to be a PE-based build, since the RIP totally negates his ability to chain them, but he'll just have to lean more heavily on PN from now on. I also went back and nabbed him a might merc to help with future PsI monsters, and kitted him out with CoH, Vamp Gaze (green!), and Infinity. Wait, what's that? Conviction doesn't lower poison resistance? Oh I know, but the aura is GREEN! So...

They plowed through the rest of the act, taking on the Ancients with ease, and storming the Worldstone Chamber to take on Baal himself. The fight was easy enough, Green threw in Novas every now and then, but really it was Chalan who did the bulk of it. Green soon obtained the title of Champion at level 71. Next up, Hell!

Green, the Poison Necromancer - lvl 71, Hell Rogue Encampment

 

[D2DC]

Looking good!

 

[Luhkoh]

Loving it. Keep up the good work.

 

[Pb_pal]

A final respec and re-charm later, and after making himself a brand new shield (Gerke's remains on his PDagger switch), Green is ready to set out into Hell:

Looking good! Here is a LCS snapshot for those interested.

I'm going to keep it at /p3 for now to balance difficulty and speed, low health and less-than-ideal resistances (except for poison, fittingly) mean I'm going to have to be a bit more careful moving forward. As mentioned in the last update, Nature's Peace has made PE a little bit unusable, so it's basically PNova full-time now, with PDagger for tougher bosses. Killing speed is still quite good, and they blasted through the Den and Blood Raven, saved Cain and offed the Countess. Archers were a pretty big pain in her tower, and are clearly going to be quite dangerous in the future. LE bolts have also proven quite troublesome, so the merc handled the Smith while Green stood valiantly behind some boxes and cheered him on.

The rest of the act was simple, though a bit frustrating with PsI skeletons all over the place. Soon enough they had made it to Andariel, and she was killed by stabbing her with PDagger and then running laps around the blood pool.

Radament was soon dead, and the staff and amulet retrieved. Act 2 has been quite polarizing. Anything not poison immune dies super quickly, and then the monsters who ARE poison immune tend to be slow (for obvious reasons) and also quite dangerous for the merc. Green also suffered a couple deaths to LE bolts from bosses, as they are basically an insta-kill for him. Ghosts made the Arcane Sanctuary quite slow, but we slogged through and made it to (and through) Duriel.

The jungles were the exact opposite, PNova massacred its way through the low health monsters of the jungles, even SSzark was a piece of cake. Although the sewers were a bit slow due to tons of PsI monsters they were never dangerous, and it was through the Council and on to Mephisto. Green used the pillars to keep himself safe from Mephs elemental attacks. He dropped junk, and it was on to Act 4.

Things getting trickier now as the monsters beef up. Izual was accompanied by 4 boss packs of Spawners and Venom Lords, so Green got pushed back all the way to the entrance to the PoD, and from there bottlenecked him and the merc handled it. Before they knew it they had nabbed a Mal from the Forge, cleared the CS, and were facing down Diablo. The big guy himself was no real trouble, just a bit of hose dodging and trying to keep the merc alive.

Shenk was soon dead, Eldritch was nice enough to drop us a Stormshield, the barbs were freed, and it was time to go underground. Confuse is great, but if you have an enormous radius like Green does, it can definitely get you into trouble by drawing in too many monsters. Here is an example from the frozen river where it drew in a flurry of attacks from Sirens off screen. Luckily, they were aimed at the other confuse sirens, and not at Green himself. That's the bad of Confuse, but man can it ever bo good too! Check out how it completely neutralizes 2 boss packs on Anya's platform while Green just spams away PN until they die.

Down to Nihlathak we got a pretty big dose of danger. Yep, Vipers (who happen to be poinson-immune). They were accompanied by PsI skeleton archers too, great! Lots of Confuse, lots of very slow steps, and eventually they were through. I got no screenies due to me being so tense I forgot, but soon they were up to the Ancients. First they separated Talic (Extra Fast, Stone Skin). He took a fair wile due to being stone skin, but he wasn't overly dangerous. Madawc (Teleport, Extra Strong) was next. I was neglectful with pots and he actually managed to kill the merc right before he died, so Green was faced with a choice; re-roll and fight them all again, or go it alone. He went it alone. It was actually quite easy, as we could just time Korlic's jumps and side step, PNova, then run out of range. Repeat until dead.

It took some time, and Green used literally every single mana pot he brought, but it worked!

Through the WSK with ease, wave 1 went down easy as well. Wave 2 Green PExplosioned the skellies and the merc slowly took down the Guardians. Wave 3 was easy, but Wave 4 (Poison-immune) was completely up to the merc. Liberal Confuse kept the heat off of him (literally!), and he did just fine. Lister however, was an absolute nightmare. PN does next to nothing, no corpses left to PE either, looks like its up to the merc! We led them out in small groups and had to just wait it out with tons of potions, but eventually Lister was the only one left, and after a few resurrections for the merc we got him.

The Baal fight, on the other hand, was slow but never dangerous. Green had soon earned himself the title of Patriarch! He did a couple Eldritch runs just to top him up to level 81, and is now officially done.

Green, the Poison Necromancer - lvl 81, Patriarch

Pat thread is here.

 

[D2DC]

Congrats! I am green with envy. ::bad teeth::

Love the saving Anya pic! That shield pains my eyes though. XD

 

[Pb_pal]

The shield is a bit rough around the edges, but sometimes that's the price of lookin good!

 

[WoRG]

It's a shame your resists were so poor...a magic 'Necromancer's' (+2 necro skills) head would have been the right shade of green, and could have had staffmods (and a non-coloring suffix) as well...but it could only get 2sox (max 44@rez with Ums) from Larzuk... Still, It would have been pretty cool, IMO

Very cool project, btw, but every time I read the title, this runs through my head:

WoRG

 

[Pb_pal]

Next up, Blue.

Blue is a bit of a tricky one in terms of this sept, since I will be doing an Indigo character as well. As was the case with green, there are 3 types of blue that an item can transform; light, crystal and dark. So I made the choice of using dark blue items only for Indigo, while traditional 'Blue' can be either of the other two.

The decision to go paladin was an easy one when looking through the options. Two big end-game items immediately stood out; Nightwings and Frostwind. Naturally, those lend very well to a Holy Freeze zealot, and of course that aura is also blue so the decision was basically made for me. A bit of a shame I can't use Nightwings on a sorceress, but that's a bridge to cross another time! The only sticking point for Blue is that he won't be using Holy Shield since, well, it's not blue.

--

First things first he ditched his starter gear, threw some chipped sapphires into some basic gear and set out to get some killing done on /p8.

As mentioned, he will be an extremely straightforward HF zealot (without Holy Shield), but due to the nature of this sept he will be without an offensive aura until 18. A flurry of action early as he hit 5 in the Den and gained access to his first S/U in Hand of Broc. At 6 he got his first Blue aura (Resist Cold), killed Corpsefire, equipped Blood Crescent at 7 and then (accompanied by an envy-jewel bedazzled Rogue) replaced that very weapon with Skewer of Krinitz in the Stony Field. He hit 13 shortly after and was able to equip a blue plated belt and some blue boots that Green had shopped for him, and from there they cruised to 18 (and Holy Freeze), and then Andariel.

He grabbed a Prayer merc (blue!) and shot off for Radament. He hit 19 in the sewers which got him his first real shield.

Looking decent already!

That marks the last gear upgrade for the next little while, and with the mercs new savage polearm nothing gave them any resistance through to Duriel either. He hit 27 in Act 3 and got access to a proper S/U belt in Goldwrap and cruising their way through Mephisto and Izual, finally equipping a pair of S/U boots with Rite of Passage and a proper armour with Heavenly Garb.

Nice! Heavenly Garb will actually end up being his end-game armour, which definitely isn't fantastic, but could be worse. An Insight for the merc and they cruised through the rest of the act. Grabbing an Amn from the Forge, and popping Telling of Beads onto Blue once he hit 30 before they smoked Diablo and headed for Harrogath.

Quickly out into Act 5 and he paused at Eldritch to level a bit to 34. Soon thereafter he hit 35 which gave him his end-game shield: Stormchaser (with some extra blue ctc Blizzard, too!)

Soon HF was maxed, and he will start pumping Resist Cold for the synergy from here on out. The Ancients were a cakewalk, as was the trip through to Baal. Not much to say about the fight with the big guy either, he fell easily enough, and Blue is officially a Slayer at level 42.

Some quick Pindling until 43 just for kicks, and next up he will be setting out to Nightmare. First impressions: this guy is freaking powerful! I don't foresee any problems in NM either, so hopefully it's quick and smooth.

Blue the Holy Freeze Paladin, lvl 43 - NM Rogue Encampment

 

[D2DC]

Will he be making use of a certain blue sacred armor?

 

[Pb_pal]

If I had it, yes. I haven't found a single damned golden Sacred Armour yet. Ever.