Set/Unique Item Worshippers Tournament II

Gibsu is moving through Act 2 better than I had feared. There are a lot of cold immunes and unleachable undead, but as long as we can separate them from the herd they have been manageable. Along the way Gibsu reached level 78, and put his last directed skill point into Resist Cold to complete his Freezealot build. I haven’t decided if his next free points will go into Zeal, Salvation, or Holy Shield (if we even live that long!).

Out in the desert we found the Dark Adherent. Not the best armor in the game, but better than our other options. Gibsu finally gave up the Arctic Furs, since the Dark Adherent has much better defense. (Gibsu is already wearing Laying of Hands, but the Disciple set bonuses seem particularly lousy.) With the Furs gone, there was no good reason to keep the Arctic Binding, so it was replaced with Hwanin’s Blessing. The added defense reduced our hits by ~15%, which is nothing to sneeze at. Those Dung Soldiers were really starting to put the hurt on! And the extra row of potions is a big help, too. The only loss was a big reduction in MF, but at this stage I’d rather survive than leave a corpse surrounded by bright shiny objects.

The Maggot Lair was no trouble, except for Coldworm’s lair. I didn’t have the patience to finish off the entire chamber, so just hacked our way to the chest and left with the staff. The Viper Temple was a 90 minute slog, filled with CI skeletons & vipers. Ugh. Mostly we choked them in doors and sucked down potions while fighting them one on one. We had one NDE due to a cursed extra fast viper pack, whose boss one-hit dropped Gibsu down to no visible life ball! :shocked: He got parked in one end room and the door closed in his face...

There was only one Sarcophagus, which I expected to be trouble since those are CI too. I stood in front to prevent more Embalmed spawning, but the ones that had escaped were distracting my zeal and causing me to use up potions. I didn’t want to move, since getting back in the right spot could be difficult. Then I had an idea – Those random skill points in Sanctuary can actually be useful! With the aura active the Embalmed couldn’t get within striking range of Gibsu, and he was free to beat down the Sarcophagus. Meanwhile Jelani was able to whittle away the Embalmed, since they were impotently focused on Gibsu! :grin:

Naturally, the stairs were in the last arm of the Temple we explored. Since Fangskin has killed one of my previous tournament characters, I was extra cautious. We crept slowly around Level 2, and had an escape TP ready in a corner. Fortunately we were able to only wake one or two monsters at a time, so it was surprisingly easy (especially after Level 1). We picked up the amulet and left.

Now we’re ready for the Palace, but I think I need a break first!

Conqueror Gibsu, level 78 Paladin (Freezealot), 16 S/U equipped, Act 2 Hell
 
The palace was a breeze, although Gibsu spent a lot of time hiding behind corners to lure archers and mages in smaller numbers. The Arcane Sanctuary was actually fun, although no good drops. I got more use out of Sanctuary. It kept minions out of the way while I worked on troublesome Specter bosses, and slightly increased my killing speed on CI Ghoul Lords. (Sanctuary isn’t a skill I’ve really experimented with before this character. Has anyone made a build based on it?)

The Summoner dropped two keys of (whatever). That’s two chances for uniques I missed! :rant:

Down we went into the tombs. Since the underground parts are such a slog for Gibsu, I didn’t try any of the false tombs, but went straight for the true tomb. Sanctuary helped with the Sarcophagi, otherwise HF was good enough. That is, until a fanaticism boss pack of Apparitions cam though a closed door while he was dealing with a lone Scarab. He turned to flee, but it was deeds in two hits. :sad2:

Gibsu was fun to play, although the random points kept us from building his attack up to a decent speed. He might not have lasted much longer, especially against Duriel, but I was looking forward to Act III. Oh well, there’s a thrower barb calling me... Good luck to the remaining participants!

[Highlight]Conqueror Gibsu, level 78 Paladin (Freezealot), 16 S/U equipped, dead in Tal Rasha’s Tomb[/Highlight]
 
Oh no! R.I.P. Gibsu. :hanky:

Fanatic Apparitions sure can be nasty. In Hell, they are also quite speedy (even at normal speed).


Gibsu holds the leading position now. I will try to get Melica to catch up, as soon as I can get my computer together.
 
Code: 
Amazons
RiverSue (Wolron), 15 S/U items equipped, level 75, Act 2 Hell Viper Temple R.I.P.
Mama_ZanRondo (ECC), 2 S/U items equipped, level 19, Act 2 Normal
Brina (zatlaren), 2 S/U items equipped, level 18, Act 1 Normal - Jail R.I.P.
Worshipper (atreides), 4 S/U items equipped, level 21, Act 2 Normal - Arcane Sanctuary R.I.P.

Assassins
Confused (atidgng), 13 S/U items equipped, level 67, Act 5 Nightmare
Melica (jiansonz), 16 S/U items equipped, level 63, Act 5 Nightmare
Nyx (erimatbrad), 11 S/U items equipped, level 32, Act 4 Normal
Sassy (mwille), 0 S/U items equipped, level 16, Act 1 Normal
SUWorshipper(Billybgame) 9 S/U items equipped, level 31, Act 4 Normal
Sabriel (Kool69) 0 S/U items equipped, level 1, Act 1 Normal

Barbarians
CryBaby (Quickdeath), 9 S/U items equipped, level 32, Act 4 Normal  R.I.P.
Hap (Gabriel74),  10 S/U item equipped, level 31, Act 5 Normal
DonCaballero (Lostprophet), 7 S/U Items equipped, Level 31, Act 4 Normal
Noobabarb (Purplelocust), 0 S/U items equipped, level 12, Act 1 Normal
Maximum Fang(Insane Wayne), 16 S/U items equipped, level 74, Act 1 Hell

Druids
Bonemuncher (Syklar), 14 S/U items equipped, level 71, Act 1 Hell
Bob (LacertaCK), 16 S/U items equipped, level 62, Act 4 Nightmare
drood (skoolbus), 0 S/U items equipped, level 9, Act 1 Normal
Shevek, 0 S/U items equipped, level 6, Act 1 Normal

Necromancers
Desty_Nova (MadMachine), 2 S/U item equipped, level 21, Act 2 Normal
ToxicMojo (NightStalker), 0 S/U items equipped, level 1, Act 1 Normal
Momo (atreides), 4 S/U items equipped, level 28, Act 3 Normal

Paladins
Gibsu (jgreg7),  16 S/U items equipped, level 78, Act 2 Hell R.I.P.
Skunkmonk (Skunkbelly), 0 items equipped, level 15, A1 Normal
SuJez (Immortal_Slayer), 5 items equipped, level 31, Act 4 Normal
UniquelySet (OpethAZ), 1 S/U equipped, level 7, Act I Normal
Auradin (Tensaiga), 0 S/U equipped, level 11, Act I Normal

Sorceresses
Megaera (Hrus), 9 S/U items equipped, level 28, Act 3 Normal
NeyTour1 (Mimeaphone), 2 S/U items equipped, level 15, Act 1 Normal
Liz (Hambuguer), 0 S/U items equipped, level 14, Act 1 Normal
Jenny (zatlaren), 0 S/U items equipped, level 15, Act 1 Normal R.I.P.
I forgot to update the code table, so here it is.

I was a bit stunned that the Apparitions shredded Gibsu so quickly, especially since the Specters weren't a bother. It was the Fanaticism aura that did it, and the fact that I didn't have enough time to switch to Sanctuary. The aura's knockback gives extra response time! :wink: For previous Apparition packs I had also activated the Vigor on Gibsu's Tearhaunch and outrun them back to a cleared area. Then we could creep back and only alert a few at a time. No telling how many pounced on us this time.

Hope you get your computer revived soon. I'll be watching for Melica's updates! (Is her name from a person, or the grass flower?)
 
RIP Gibsu. Bad luck there. I hate those bogus closed doorways!
I also hate Fanat and/or Extra Fast apparitions. It's bad enough when they fly through closed doors, but they also tend to get stuck "inside" the pillars around corners and doorways, stack on top of each other, and unload on you when you cross.

My S/U worshipper, Felix, is on hold indefinitely until I recover from sports injuries. I jammed my right index finger playing basketball, and a day later jammed my right middle finger catching (unsuccessfully) a football in cold weather. Unbelievable. Both fingers have lovely patches of blue/black/yellow. I could suffer the loss of one or the other and still play D2, but not both, dammit! :tongue:

Meanwhile, I'm playing a simple passive character through Normal, left-handed. It was freaky at first, but not so bad now, and the character is very easy anyway. Hopefully I'll be back to Felix soon.
 
I'll be watching for Melica's updates! (Is her name from a person, or the grass flower?)
Click to expand...

Both! Melica is the cutest little toddler (born in 2002). I met her last summer on a botanical trip to the mountains in the north of Sweden. How she got her name? Well, I guess that´s what happens when both of your parents are botanists... (Her father was one of the two guides on the trip) :rolleyes:
 
Code: 
Amazons
RiverSue (Wolron), 15 S/U items equipped, level 75, Act 2 Hell Viper Temple R.I.P.
Mama_ZanRondo (ECC), 2 S/U items equipped, level 19, Act 2 Normal
Brina (zatlaren), 2 S/U items equipped, level 18, Act 1 Normal - Jail R.I.P.
Worshipper (atreides), 4 S/U items equipped, level 21, Act 2 Normal - Arcane Sanctuary R.I.P.

Assassins
Confused (atidgng), 13 S/U items equipped, level 67, Act 5 Nightmare
Melica (jiansonz), 16 S/U items equipped, level 63, Act 5 Nightmare
Nyx (erimatbrad), 11 S/U items equipped, level 32, Act 4 Normal
Sassy (mwille), 0 S/U items equipped, level 16, Act 1 Normal
SUWorshipper(Billybgame) 9 S/U items equipped, level 31, Act 4 Normal
Sabriel (Kool69) 0 S/U items equipped, level 1, Act 1 Normal

Barbarians
CryBaby (Quickdeath), 9 S/U items equipped, level 32, Act 4 Normal  R.I.P.
Hap (Gabriel74),  10 S/U item equipped, level 31, Act 5 Normal
DonCaballero (Lostprophet), 7 S/U Items equipped, Level 31, Act 4 Normal
Noobabarb (Purplelocust), 0 S/U items equipped, level 12, Act 1 Normal
Maximum Fang(Insane Wayne), 16 S/U items equipped, level 74, Act 1 Hell

Druids
Bonemuncher (Syklar), 14 S/U items equipped, level 71, Act 1 Hell
Bob (LacertaCK), 16 S/U items equipped, level 62, Act 4 Nightmare
drood (skoolbus), 0 S/U items equipped, level 9, Act 1 Normal
Shevek, 0 S/U items equipped, level 6, Act 1 Normal

Necromancers
Desty_Nova (MadMachine), 2 S/U item equipped, level 21, Act 2 Normal
ToxicMojo (NightStalker), 0 S/U items equipped, level 1, Act 1 Normal
Momo (atreides), 10 S/U items equipped, level 32, Act 4 Normal

Paladins
Gibsu (jgreg7),  16 S/U items equipped, level 78, Act 2 Hell R.I.P.
Skunkmonk (Skunkbelly), 0 items equipped, level 15, A1 Normal
SuJez (Immortal_Slayer), 5 items equipped, level 31, Act 4 Normal
UniquelySet (OpethAZ), 1 S/U equipped, level 7, Act I Normal
Auradin (Tensaiga), 0 S/U equipped, level 11, Act I Normal

Sorceresses
Megaera (Hrus), 9 S/U items equipped, level 28, Act 3 Normal
NeyTour1 (Mimeaphone), 2 S/U items equipped, level 15, Act 1 Normal
Liz (Hambuguer), 0 S/U items equipped, level 14, Act 1 Normal
Jenny (zatlaren), 0 S/U items equipped, level 15, Act 1 Normal R.I.P.

Momo has defeated normal Mephisto. After a long sleep, he has returned to action. And our luck seems to be improving. A lot of S/U dropped in durance level 3, and he now worships 10 items. More have been found though. Meph dropped the usual green breast plate, an unique studded leather and an unique falchion.

I have decided to make Momo a boner. The dmg from bone spirit is small now, but we have hopes. The golem will be important but there will be no more points to invest in it. The fire one will be prefered. The clay golem lasted remarcably short against Mephisto and Momo is not looking forward to Diablo.

Skills (3 unused):
Summon
Raise Skeleton 4
Clay Golem 2
Blood, Iron, Fire Golem 1
Golem Mastery 1

Poison&Bone
Bone Armor 3
Corpse Explosion 2
Bone Spear 1
Bone Spirit 3
Bone Wall 1
Bone Prison 1

Curses
Amp Dmg 2
Iron Maiden 5
 
After the demise of Scorchie in the SPUMF tourney, I decided to get back to Melica. And what area was the next to come up, if not the very place that Scorchie died in, the zombie garden!

Melica was better suited to handle the undead. She has 60% more life than Scorchie had, she has a merc that provides decent crowd control and best of all, she has Cloak of Shadows. Ah, sweet revenge!

Apparently, I had played several areas in act 5 after my last update. I don´t remember anything that happened there. :tongue:

What happened in Nilly´s temple was that I fought apes on the two first levels. First levels also had melee fetish and melee skeletons. Easy pickings. Second level had maggots and Spike Fiends. More work, but little danger.

Halls of Vaught had Arachs (upgraded version, with nasty poison), Fetish Shamen & crew, plus the infamous Tomb Vipers. The Vipers surprised me by shooting their bugged poison missiles at melee range, even when Melica was Cloaked! Huh? I thought any of these conditions would prevent them from doing that. OK, I soon figured out the safest way to fight them: keep them blinded, kill other monster types that is closer to Geshef first (without standing next to a viper) then charge up and release mayhem on the closest frozen viper.

Thankfully, the champion pack was Fetish shamen. However, the evil urn spawned a boss pack of Vipers: Conviction + FE boss and three minions. They didn´t appear right on top of her, so Melica could easily retreat (while Geshef almost got killed...). She took down the boss with Blade Fury (wielding Spineripper) while Geshef bravely tanked the poison missiles. Good job, dude.

Earlier in the session, I decided to give Melica a full toolbox. Spent five points to get Dragon Tail, Dragon Flight, Death Sentry and two prerequisites for these skills. Melica now has at least one point in each of the 30 skills. 3 skill points are still saved.

Nihlathak was very summon happy. I used a combo of Death Sentry, PS Meteors and PS ice to hurt Nihlathak, kill the Ice Spawns and prevent/destroy corpses. Quite a few bombers formed but Geshef nailed them perfectly. What a great artillery backup he was here!

Nihlathak was FE, so I moved away from him and switched to Blade Fury when his life got low.

Some of you may remember that Melica has struggled with bad lightning resist for a long time. That came to an end (at least temporarily) this session, because she found an awesome 29% Amber Grand Charm. The empty space in inventory is now down to 11 spaces. Annoying, but I´ll manage.


I´m having a lot of fun with this character, and I love this tournament!


Destroyer Melica the PS Assassin and Geshef the Cold Wolf, Level 72, 16 S/U items equipped, NM Ancients´Way next
 
Melica drew pretty nasty Ancients: Cursed Madawc, Extra Strong Korlic and Extra Fast Talic. It´s was hard to avoid getting cursed from the thrown axes, and those two other dudes is not something you want to fight while cursed! Hence, I did a lot of running and threw blades backwards while holding Crushflange. It was pretty effective, I got their life down to about 40% without much danger. Then it seemed like Talic and Korlic got lost on the other side of the Summit. Melica took out Madawc with Meteors in a painful but short fight. Then we waited until the curse wore off. The other two weren´t so bad to fight without the curse.

Overall, a pretty lucky draw in the WSK. No stairs trap on the Throne level, just 3 Serpent Maguses by the stairs.

The worst fights were with Champion Death Lords (two of them, one at a time) in WSK 3 and a Holy Freeze Spectral Hit Death Lord boss on the Throne level. Oh yeah, and Lister. :rolleyes: Damn can he ever hit hard! There was an NDE here, actually.

Melica took down 95% of Baal´s life with Crushflange/Blade Fury and the last bit with PS Meteors and lightning.

Baal dropped no S/U items. He teased Melica by dropping RARE Greater Talons. "Oh, COME ON!" :rolleyes:

Melica took on the cows at /p5. Didn´t want to risk anything. One good find in here: Nokozan Relic. This was welcome, because I have started to think that the ctc Amp on Atma´s Scarab is more a liability than a help for this character. It overrides CoS. If I fight a tough pack of tightly grouped enemies and I have just cast CoS, that can be BAD indeed.


Cold and Lightning resists sucked in Hell, so I tried to roll a good resist Grand Charm. Burned 24 perfect gems, no go (got a skiller twice...).

Then I did something stupid. I wanted to place points in Fire Blast to get one more shot with Death Sentry. I confused the icons and proceeded to waste two points in Shock Web. Idiot! Turns out Fire Blast already had 4 hard points in it. Two more there would have brought DS up to 7 shots.
I placed my other two saved points in Death Sentry itself, for a better blast radius.

Gear update:

Geshef the Cold Wolf:
* Duskdeep
* Angelic Sickle
* Hwanin´s Refuge
* Sigon´s Guard

Melica´s Primary Gear:
* Sazabi´s Mental Sheath 'Ort'
* Nokozan Relic
* Hawkmail 'Ort'
* Death´s Hand
* Nagelring (25)
* Hwanin´s Blessing
* Nagelring (28)
* Infernostride

Weapon switch 1
* Death´s Touch
* Steelclash Dragon Shield
Default skills ready: Phoenix Strike and Cloak of Shadows
Chance to block: 74%
Resists with this setup: Fire 72, Cold -10, Lightning 49, Poison -4
MF with this setup: +60%

Weapon switch 2
* Crushflange Flanged Mace
* Milabrega´s Orb
Default skills ready: Blade Fury and Cloak of Shadows
Chance to block: 36%
Resists with this setup: Fire 95 (Yay!), Cold -25, Lightning 34, Poison -19
MF with this setup: +80%

After my first session in Hell, I feel pretty good about playing there. I have different methods available for different types of enemies. I usually start off spraying a few blades around. The belt has PMH; it´s faster to kill somthing that doesn´t regenerate. Geshef could kill Quill Rats and Fallen quite well. I will not have much trouble with the endless Fallen types in act 1. Geshef will make many ice cubes. :grin:

The zombies were killed by a combo of Blade Fury and PS Meteors. Except for Corpsefire who ate blades all the way. It worked out well but it sure took a while.

Crushflange is far too slow to melee with but it´s a fabulous BF weapon with its 33% CB and Knockback.

Hell will be interesting. Bring it on!


Conqueror Melica the PS Assassin and Geshef the Cold Wolf, Level 75, 16 S/U items equipped, Hell Cold Plains next
 
Im wondering if i can join this tournament :smiley: I didnt participate in first one , but read everything. Now i've noticed this one , and it has been going for quite a while. There doesnt seem to be much players left, but i really want to participate in this one. Heck, last tourney i joined ended 1.5 years ago.
 
Cain has been rescued, for the third time. The old geezer simply can´t seem to stay out of trouble...

Progress is steady and usually safe. The worst enemies are fast cold immune meleers. A pack of more than 2 more or less requires CoS, a little movement and then Melica tanks one of them and tries to release Meteors as fast as possible. When this enemy dies and when the CoS times out, there is now hopefully a vividly burning patch of ground that the (previously blind) survivors now run to, and hopefully collapse quickly on. Add a Death Sentry if needed. :azn:

Boss packs of the cold immune corrupted rogues are not as dangerous as one might think. Melica can blind all the minions, then spam Blade Fury (with Knockback and CB) on the boss. Not even the early pack of Fanaticism Extra Strong Cursed :yikes: Vile Hunters in the Underground Passage was much of a threat, but in that case I was very alert and played perfectly. It could quickly have turned into a disaster otherwise. I fought a Champion pack of Vile Hunters in the Dark Wood. They were a major pain.

Griswold was Stone Skin + LE. Didn´t dare to tank him, and it was very slow going to grind him down with Blade Fury. Too slow even for my patience...I got back to town and put on Atma´s Scarab. During the short periods that Amp lasted, the Crushing Blows were much more effective.


Some interesting finds lately:

* a Pul rune. That´s a tie in my 'rarest rune outside Hellforge' category.

* Cerebus´Bite, the elite unique Wolf Helm (forgot the actual name of the item type, (Something) Spirit; all the elite druid pelts are Spirits). I wonder if the name relates to Kerberos, the 3-headed beast guarding the entrance to Hades, from Greek mythology.

* Sigon´s gloves.


Sigon´s gloves was a good find, since it allows Melica to have a fast attack with weapons other than Death´s Touch. She has wanted to use Sigon´s shield and belt for a while, but the slow attack speed has stopped me. Another problem is the loss of resists from removing Steelclash. What to do? I came to think about Tearhaunch. Those boots are just as fast as Infernostride, and the fire resist loss from switching out Infernostride is made up for by adding Sigon´s belt! Nice.

What weapon should I use then? Crushflange will stay on the switch, then there is quite the collection to choose from:
* Swords: Death´s Touch, Skewer of Krintiz, Angelic Sickle, Cleglaw´s Tooth
* Daggers: Spineripper, The Diggler, The Jade Tan Do
* Bloodrise (upgraded)
* Tancred´s Crowbill
* Sander´s Superstition

I do not like the short reach of the daggers, the wand and some of the swords, so those are out. I decided to go back to faithful old Bloodrise. The bleeding is back!

All this switching made me gain some helpful things, like OW, +1 skills, more blocking and more potion slots in the belt.

I gave up 5% resist cold/lightning, Prevent Monster Heal, damage-to-mana and big poison protection (from Death´s gloves).

Lightning resist is now down to 44%. If it looks to be problematic in a particular fight, I can borrow Steelclash form Geshef, or use Fade. Or both.

Monsters haven´t taken too long to die, so I guess I can do without PMH for now. Open Wounds will help, as will the 6 seconds poison duration from a charm I have. Up to this point, I have used my low-level Venom (about 100 damage per hit) but now I will likely do better without it.

One level-up this session, with random skill point going to...Phoenix Strike! Yes, only pumping it to level 19 before was totally worth it. :azn:
It was good I got it now, otherwise I would have put it there soon. Melica sure needs all the firepower she can get.


Conqueror Melica the PS Assassin and Geshef the Cold Wolf, Level 76, 16 S/U items equipped, Hell Black Marsh next
 
Online said:
Im wondering if i can join this tournament :smiley: I didnt participate in first one , but read everything. Now i've noticed this one , and it has been going for quite a while. There doesnt seem to be much players left, but i really want to participate in this one. Heck, last tourney i joined ended 1.5 years ago.
Click to expand...

Welcome! :wave:

I haven´t seen the tourney host (erimatbrad) post in a while. He comes and goes for periods of time, it seems...

It was I who first came up with the tournament concept though, and I certainly welcome more players. Just roll a character class and begin!



 
jiansonz said:
Welcome! :wave:

I haven´t seen the tourney host (erimatbrad) post in a while. He comes and goes for periods of time, it seems...

It was I who first came up with the tournament concept though, and I certainly welcome more players. Just roll a character class and begin!
Click to expand...

Great :smiley:

Rolled my character , got druid. Thought about it for a while. While druid seemed like a decent choice, i do not really like that you cannot use both shapeshifting and elemental skills at same time. Off course, you can switch between modes, but thats too much of hassle to me.

Took a mulligan and got necromancer. :jig: This surely going to be really interesting. Curses will give me quite some crowd control, hopefully i'll have some half-decent minions to back me up.

I'd love to play now, but my computer decided not to work (bastard!) and now the only thing i can do is to surf net. Oh well, guess i'll have to force my father to fix it.



 
A minor update :

So, meet Twilight, the randomaster :tongue:
He started out whacking monsters with his wand. Somewhere in blood moor he picked up a set of javelins, which helped him greatly.Den of evil was cleared quickly, Corpsefire didnt last long. In fact, he and his minions didnt even try to strike back.

In cold plains, Twilight threw away his wand, grabbed a sword and pretended to be a meleemancer. A bit later he found blood raven, who was quickly forced into corner and killed. With his new merc, clay golem and one skeleton he continued to clear both crypts, cave in cold plains , stony field and underground pass. On other side few brutes took quite some beating until they were killed but weren't really dangerous. Tristam was cleared after that. So now, Twilight rests at black marsh, ready to dispose of countess.

His skill levels at the moment :
Raise skeleton - 1
Clay golem - 2
Bone armor - 3
Poison dagger - 1
Amplify damage - 1
Iron maiden - 1

And 5, i think, skill points saved. Random number generator wasnt really kind to me. I hoped to get CE but it looks i'll have to put points there myself. Also, i wanted to get more points into curses. Anyway, it could have been worse. Bone armor is quite useful too, i still havent drank any healing potions :smiley:

Twilight, level 16, no S/U equiped
 
Progress is usually safe, and not that slow either. I am starting to think that a cold mage is the best companion of a Phoenix Striker even if all merc types were available. Cold is the weakest of the three elements on Phoenix Strike. Melica can also deal big physical damage in the form of Crushing Blows. This means that immunities of all kinds can be handled well by us.

The toughest part in act 1 was the Forgotten Tower. Several nasty boss packs with some of them appearing as part of a stairs trap.

I found two exceptional unique helms on the way: Peasant Crown and Blackhorn´s Face. Melica is too dependant on the resists from Sazabi´s helm to use them, but Geshef received Peasant Crown to boost his running speed and spell skills.

Andariel killed Geshef very quickly. Surprisingly, Blade Fury with Crushflange didn´t work well against the Demon Queen. Of course I knew the Knockback wouldn´t work, but with my decent running speed, I thought I could do some hit-and-run. After a couple of minutes with very little progress, Melica took a deep breath and went into melee. Time to put some of those full rejuves to use! Two PS Meteors (that burned a couple of seconds) later, Andariel was half dead!


Conqueror Melica the PS Assassin and Geshef the Cold Wolf, Level 77, 16 S/U items equipped, Hell Lut Gholein Sewers next
 
jiansonz said:
* a Pul rune. That´s a tie in my 'rarest rune outside Hellforge' category.
Click to expand...
Nice. Now you have a good shot at an elite upgrade. Spineripper Bone Knife? :shocked:

jiansonz said:
* Cerebus´Bite, the elite unique Wolf Helm. I wonder if the name relates to Kerberos, the 3-headed beast guarding the entrance to Hades, from Greek mythology.
Click to expand...
I found that helm once, and wondered that myself. I've rarely seen the name spelled Kerberos; Cerberus is the more common usage I think. "Cerberus" is too close to "Cerebus" to be a coincidence, considering the item type. I think Blizz goofed up.

----------------------------

I took Max out for a stroll today, through the Cold Plains. I used Fallen skulls to knock the rust off my weapons, as Flux the cold mage was nice enough to freeze them. After some practice remembering my hotkeys, I went after Blood Raven, and she fell easily.

Inside the crypt, I knew Howl would have no effect against my adversaries. I took a lucky first turn and found a dead end, perfect for a safety portal. This turned out to be critical, because the first monster was none other than a dreaded CEFELE zombie boss with minions right behind him! I used alternating exits to work on them safely. After that I managed without Howl just fine, thanks to monster slow and chilling.
My latest random point went to Find Item, now at 32% chance. :smiley:

Next up: the Cave.

It's been a while, so here's an update on Max's gear:

Conqueror Maximum (Max) Fang, 16 S/Us, level 75
Fleshrender Barbed Club "Shael", used with Berserk mostly
Steelclash Dragon Shield (worthwhile upgrade, chance to block 44%)
Iratha's Coil Crown
Iratha's Cuff Light Gauntlets (20% IAS set bonus)
Cow King's Hide Studded Leather
Hwanin's Blessing Belt
Tearhaunch Greaves
The Mahim-Oak Curio Amulet
Cathan's Seal x 2 (I must improve on these!!)

Weapon Switch:
Pompeii's Wrath Crowbill
Blackbog's Sharp Cinquedeas
I double-swing these for speedy application of Monster Slow (both have 50%). It's great against small groups.

Flux's Gear:
Blood Crescent Cutlass
Steelclash Kite Shield
Naj's Circlet
ethereal Goldskin Full Plate Mail

My resists are at 75/58/59/13. Assigned skill points in Natural Resists helped a lot. Good ol' Hawkmail is available for CBF when needed. I have lots of small resistance charms and these 4 biggies:

Steel (+132 AR) Grand Charm
Steel (+116 AR) Grand Charm of Sustenance (+23 life)
Steel (+105 AR) Grand Charm of Sustenance (+25 life)
Sharp (+9 max, +76 AR) Grand Charm

Only six spots are available in my inventory. Max doesn't sell too much.
My MF is at 0, which is a travesty for sure, but cannot be helped. :cry:



 
The most fearsome monster in the Cave was not Coldcrow, it was her nasty cousin "Star Maim the Unholy", Cursed CEFE and cold immune. She got the drop on Max, but I was ready with Hawkmail, and easily took her down. Same for Coldcrow a bit later. I found the Gravepalm gloves, but decided against using them.

Max has seen several "Black Hacks" on his journey, and I fought yet another on Level 2. His gang dropped a neat little Russet Amulet of Teleportation. What a pity it is not worshipable, not even for emergencies. :undecided:

I worked through half the Stony Field, stopping at the waypoint. The only notable incident was my encounter with a Nest Champ Pack.
Max scoffed at their "champion" status and beat them to a pulp. Neither dropped any items, but a hork produced a standard champ drop from one corpse, which was mildly amusing.

[highlight]Conqueror Maximum (Max) Fang, 16 S/Us, level 75, Act 1 Hell, Stony Field[/highlight]
 
Insane Wayne said:
the first monster was none other than a dreaded CEFELE zombie boss with minions right behind him!
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Yikes! Did you manage to stay away from the death explosion? I will guess yes, since Fleshrender provides PMH and OW.

I remember that the lack of ranged abilities was a problem for my S/U worshipping barbarian. I used eveything I had (OW, War Cry, Hydra charges from the unique Shamshir, my mercs lightning missiles, etc) in different situations, but nothing was particularly good.

I really appreciate Blade Fury with my current character; it´s excellent for this tournament.


Nice Iratha´s combo there! Cold, fire, lightning resist, half freeze, IAS and some bonus defense. If you get lucky and find the amulet, it will be even better.


I think it´s weird that those nest Champs didn´t drop anything. Regular nests seem to drop item as often as regular monsters.

-----


Melica and Geshef move on in act 2. They have so far been able to handle everything in the act really well.

If I face a boss I don´t want to melee, I can usually deafeat it with Blade Fury, using Crushflange. If the boss is PI, I try to lay down Meteors on other monsters, then lead the boss to that area. I can push the boss around with several methods: Knockback BFs, kicks and (safest and most reliable, and recently discovered) Mind Blasts. :thumbsup:

No exciting finds lately. A unique ring always has potential, but it was just another Nagelring (the worst so far, at that)...


Conqueror Melica the PS Assassin and Geshef the Cold Wolf, Level 78, 16 S/U items equipped, Hell Lut Gholein Sewers next
 
jiansonz said:
Yikes! Did you manage to stay away from the death explosion? I will guess yes, since Fleshrender provides PMH and OW.
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Yes, that time I did. However, as you mentioned, it's sometimes difficult to avoid. I've taken plenty of Hell FE blasts, often with CE or LE mixed in. I have a defense kit: Nokozan + Hawkmail + thawing potions. That should suffice against p1 bosses, I hope.

----------

Max and Flux easily cleared out the Underground Passage. It's amazing how much easier it is to tank cold immunes, once they're slowed by 50%. We were dumped into the middle of the Dark Woods, instead of the usual edge entrance. Immediately we were beseiged by packs of Fallen and rogues. Every time Flux strayed a bit, we drew a rogue boss pack. Howl kept them off, but 2 packs had mana-burn and I went through pots quickly.

Out of desperation I ran into a house, which served perfectly as my home base and safety portal location. :smiley:

jiansonz said:
Nice Iratha´s combo there! Cold, fire, lightning resist, half freeze, IAS and some bonus defense. If you get lucky and find the amulet, it will be even better.
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I was quite proud of gambling those gloves, and was satisfied with the set combo as my endgame gear. Then of course I went and found an item which complicates things, one of the rare "this changes everything!" drops.
The Dark Woods had incredible boss density, and despite zero MF I saw a couple lame S/U's. Then I scored this hork. :grin:

The combination of Fleshrender and Guillaume's is so awesome, I had to have it:
55% CB
47% DS (includes a few random points in Mace Mastery + Battle Command)
PMH
OW

There's a heavy price to pay for this setup; I'll lose 20% IAS and 30 points in each of my primary resists. I'll swap Iratha's Gloves with Bloodfist. According to the weapon speed calculator, 10% IAS is as good as 20. That solves the speed issue.
To help with resists, I can PDiamond my upped Steelclash. I hate to use my second socket quest already, but something's gotta give. Unfortunately, it falls a bit short of recouping what I lost, and leaves me exposed when I switch to Double-Swing.

Maybe I can "Ort" Guillaume's and swap Hwanin's belt for the Arctic belt, and swap Mahim Oak amulet with the Nokozan. This keeps the resists independent of the weapon switch, but I hate to lose a row of potions and the +10 attributes from Mahim. No way around it, something's gotta give...

[highlight]Conqueror Maximum (Max) Fang, 16 S/Us, level 75, Act 1 Hell, Black Marsh[/highlight]



 
Quick question. Anybody mind if I join in on this tournament. I've always found Random Tourneys to be more fun than anything else. If there are issues, I'll just play according to the tourney rules anyway.

I rolled a paladin as the random character and Randadin was born. So far I've been very lucky with my random rolls. Managed to get a couple of points in Might and a point in Prayer and Sacrifice. Still hording those free skill points though until I see what I might need down the line. No sets or uniques, but I've only just got to the first waypoint. Hopefully some nice stuff drops.

Randadin, 0 S/Us, level 7, Act 1 Normal, Cold Plains
 
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