Single Skill Tree Tourney

join away mate. join away :D
 
Forum Name: Luigjes
Character Name: GKar
Character Class: Combat Mastery Barbarian
Character Level: 1
Farthest Quest: none
Farthest WP: Rogue Encampment
 
jiansonz said:
And...Mark died! :eek: WTF!
Whoa! I wouldn't have expected Meph to score that kill either. Lightning damage is variable, so I suppose it's possible against meager resists. Meph's cold ball attack and Diablo's pink lightning have killed me several times in the past. Since then, I made it a habit to close in on ranged bosses in a hooking pattern. Kind of like a "moth-to-flame" spiral. It's automatic now, even with powerful characters with maxed resists. Plus, it often leaves the merc on the opposite flank, which is usually a good thing.

Anyways, RIP Mark! A tanking necro is a challenging build. I'm sure that would've been a wild tale against Hell Ancients.

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

Oberon's work continues...
I cleared the River of Flame, which held knights, corpse spitters, and balrog demons. They are slow to fall on p5, but infinitely better than maggots and spawners. Hephasto was Aura Enchanted, Spectral Hit, and FELE! I didn't dare go near him, letting Fazel do the work. Hellforge dropped a Pul rune. Interesting...
Now I can upgrade any unique weapon to elite.
I would've prefered to be able to upgrade a normal rare --> elite rare. I have a rare sythe with massive ED that would be great as a thresher. Instead, I can choose from these upgrade candidates:

Fleshrender for Oberon (good damage, plus Deadly Strike, PMH/CB/OW)
Butcher's Pupil (193% ED) for Oberon (better damage than Fleshrender and faster, but no CB/PMH)
Hexfire for Oberon (less damage, but has "Ignore Target's Defense", considering Oberon's weak AR)

Husoldal Evo with 197% ED, for merc (I believe the Deadly Strike on the "Honor" thresher rules this out, mathematically...)
ethereal Tannr Gorerod for merc (too slow I think)

I dunno, I think I'll stick with my eth Demon Limb for now and wait for an eth Hone Sundan to drop in the last act... :lol:

-----

I painfully cleared the CS, at one point having to deal with 10 Oblivion Knights at once, including a champ pack. (tried and failed to get all of them in a single screenshot.)
Diablo fried my merc, but walked into perfect position for Oberon to whack his tail unhindered. CB from Fleshrender did the work, and I TPed out when Diablo was slivered.
I dressed Oberon and the merc in maximum MF gear. My greed (i.e. foolish recklessness) convinced me to finish off Diablo with negative resists. I led the merc towards D, then served him 4 full rejuvs as he worked off the final sliver. Diablo dropped the ethereal unique ghost glaive. That's some sick throwing damage, but not too useful for Oberon. Prize stash.

Before Act 5, I took another shot at an imbue. This time, I tried an ethereal Colossus Voulge. It got everything nice except enhanced damage, so I sold it back to Charsi. I have one imbue left.

-----

So far I have nothing amazing to report in Act 5. I completed tough p5 clears of the beginning outdoor areas. Skill points have been going into Spirit Wolf, a skill I totally ignored initially. It improves the Dire Wolves' AR and defense. At this point, no other option in the Summoning Tree is very useful, so I might as well improve the wolves.
In the Pit of Acheron, I found a perfect Que-Hegan's Wisdom Mage Plate (1:105 chance) which went to the prize stash. I've also seen plenty of rare elites, but no amazing stats. Still, it's cool to find things like rare kraken shells and "colossus girdles".

Frozen River had gloams, but I'd already committed to p5. I broke out the Djinn Slayer again. I was glad to use it, since it also offers +5 lightning absorb for insurance against gloam lightning. I also used Decrep extensively. An evil urn of gloams spawned directly around me, covering my portal. I slipped out unscathed (I think they went for my vine). My heart skipped a couple beats. My true test was not the gloams, but a triple-pack mob of jab-rogues, led by this gal. Wolves cast across the river couldn't withstand one jabbing, and grizzlies lasted a couple seconds. Fortunately I had a large cleared area to pull them apart, but it took a long time. They are so fast, and can't be underestimated.

Nihlathak's Halls had poor monster rolls, with lots of baby maggots to rob me of drop chances. I thought I found my end-game armor, Spirit Forge Linked Mail, with 2 sockets just begging for topaz. Then I discovered that "+life per level" items don't get boosted by Oak Sage. Ditto for the +Vitality on my Verdungo's. That sucks. I went back to my 4 PTopaz Gothic Plate. I'm willing to sacrifice some MF for +267 life, but not +107 life. What can I say? I'm MF-crazy.

I nearly lost it on Nihlathak's level, entering into a stair-trap of ice boars, cold skeleton archers, and nasty poisonous arachnids. I used tons of wolves and all 30 charges of Decrep to gain a foothold, often taking deliberate damage to keep formation. Archers kept creeping around the corners, wreaking havoc. Ravens to the rescue! Peck their eyes out! Spiders have eight eyes, but my ravens can somehow get them all in one shot. Finally we got it under control, and Nihlathak fell easily. Scored a 6% MF small charm. :clap:

[highlight]Conqueror Oberon, Summons Druid, level 87, Act 5 Hell, Frozen Tundra[/highlight]
"vanilla" 1.10 HC
Total MF: 364% for Fazel´s kills
 
Oh my. R.I.P. Mark & Isolde.

I'm thinking about another try though. The pally was fun, but during the development of that char I thought a lot about possible skill distributions and a druid with maxed wolves (both types), maxed bear and maxed HoW, playing with wolves most of the time, looks fascinating. Again that PI problem... but we'll see.
 
My zon is having a lot of problems getting further.. I'm trying to get through to anya.. but so far no luck :( My merc dies too damn often so right now I am raising money before I go there again.. hopefully I can do that soon
 
Finally some progress.. I was lucky to get a perfect monster roll at Anya's yesterday.. Rotwalkers, frost mages and those white "bears" (can you tell that I am really bad at remembering names? ;P) It was pretty much a walk in the park except for a spot where 3 spectral monsters were parked.. aura enchanted of course.. my merc died many times and in the end I didn't even bother to revive him.. My vakyrie died a lot too.. but we got through them and Anya was released from her ice prison :)

My time for games are limited, but I am still planning on getting through this tourney.. so you will get more updates :)
 
Your in hell right?
 
@Insane Wayne:
Nice progress, and you still have some options for the endgame. Myself, I would go for the Fleshrender Tyrant Club (if Oberon is strong enough for it). Lovely melee attributes, and druid +skills.

That rogue situation in the screenshot is a wet dream for Isolde. She would have LOVED that situation! I can imagine the trickiness for your party.


@Shadefallen:
How many points do you have in Valkyrie and Decoy? When I played in the Tankazon tourney, I routinely pulled back the merc (he has a stronger "follow the amazon" behaviour than the valk has, so it was often easy to do) in almost every fighting situation involving more than 2 monsters. That way, the valk tanked almost every monster, leaving the merc much less harassed.

I look down at "fundraising" somewhere else, rerolling monsters (other than Ancients) and parking (other than absolutely unkillable bosses) but I still like your progress. Keep going!


@corax:
Of course she is in Hell. ;)

Oh yeah, I´ll send in my prize stash soon. I will boost it with anything useful from Mark´s private stash. I know you don´t want the runes, but how about gems? Not that there are that many left...
 
I could feel the tension build as I started Oberon on the final leg of his career.
Hell Act 5... Ancient's Way... so far so good, with a relatively easy monster roll. No problems with p5.
Aha! The dreaded Icy Cellar! I switched to the Smoke armor and Djinn Slayer for the lightning absorb.

When entering the Cellar, it's important to dodge a little bit in case gloam bolts come flying in. So I took a quick step to my left, and ran right into the oncoming lightning! I saw four or five streaks intersect with Oberon's face, and his life plummeted. I swear I saw no visible red in his bulb, it had to be down to less than 50 life. I slammed a rejuv. If I hadn't pre-buffed my Oak Sage to level 27 or so (~2000 life), I'd be dead.
I ran out the door and changed to max resistance gear, adding the Nokozon for increased max fire resist. I also drank a case of thawing potions. Back to the Cellar, and this time the gloams scattered quickly and spread their shots around. With very little room to dodge, Oberon took lots of isolated shots which hurt a lot. Finally I spotted the boss. :eek: Also note the evil urn in my way, just waiting for me to accidentally click it while running in circles!

Icy Cellar had more in store for me. Along with the deadly gloams I had PI Ghosts and PI Hell Temptresses. Plus, I was already committed to p5. I wasted no time in tapping Demon Limb's limited Enchant charges and Decrep full-time. I went through 6 Enchants (only 3 remaining) and at least 180 Decrep charges. The loot I found couldn't cover the expenses, so I lost money there. Nothing found for the prize stash either. Now I had a couple Evil Urns to contend with. I had another NDE from another deadly boss. I went down to about 1/5 life. After that battle, I opened the last urn, by the entrance. Nothing... Phew! I was never so happy to get an empty urn! Over two hours of grinding tension in that damned Cellar.

Next session, the Ancients. My third roll was tolerable, with a couple Extra Strongs, but no Curses or FE. I used more Decrep and several rejuvs for the merc. Overall it was a safe, smooth battle. Worldstone Keep served up another shot of gloams, with another nasty leader, but I dodged him easily. I noticed an incredible map formation for levels 2 and 3. This has got to be the shortest Baal-run route in history. (Not that I cared, since I full-cleared anyway.) The Throne Level had a stairtrap of champion Assaliants, luckily they went down easier than expected.

Eager to get to level 88, I took the minion waves at p7. By pulling them apart it wasn't too hard. I ended up a sliver away from leveling when Lister went down. Crushing Blow took Baal down quick. I'd been using Decrep full-time since the Ancients, and I ran out of charges and money before Fazel could get the last shot in. Baal started cloning and spamming dozens of tentacles, and I got so fed up I had to finish him myself. His drop sucked. But at least his death leveled me to 88. :D

[highlight]Guardian Oberon, Summons Druid, level 88, Act 1 Hell, Hell Cows[/highlight]
"vanilla" 1.10 HC

I will post a follow-up soon with Hell-Cow report and full stats/skills/gear!

jiansonz said:
Myself, I would go for the Fleshrender Tyrant Club (if Oberon is strong enough for it). Lovely melee attributes, and druid +skills.
I actually held off on the upgrade. (I agree Fleshrender is the best candidate.) The thing is, even an upgraded Fleshrender only does half the damage of eth Demon Linb, if that! And CB was less important at higher player settings. I decided to wait for a possible merc weapon upgrade.

jiansonz said:
That rogue situation in the screenshot is a wet dream for Isolde. She would have LOVED that situation!
Amen. I wish I could rent Isolde for just that situation.
 
congrats on the guardian wayne.
 
:clap:

Wayne, what battles you have fought with this gang! I´ve asked it before and I´ll do it again: why are most of the really good battles to be found in "non-essential" areas?

Insane Wayne said:
Over two hours of grinding tension in that damned Cellar.

I know the feeling, and the satisfaction when you pull through such an ordeal. Believe it or not, I have once spent 1 hour and 30 minutes in The Pit level 2!



Unlike the others, I won´t congratulate you just yet. Before you gain a foothold, the cow level could be really hard for a character with only limited crowd control abilities. Good luck!
 
Starting new character

Quix is the name.
I am picking the Barbarian class.

Someone started a week ago so I assume its ok to start now.
If the tourney is over due to well yesterday a winner was crowned,
then I will have spent some time having fun playing Diablo :)
 
Hi there Quix. Before you sign up for Tounaments, you might want to make an intro thread. Tell us about yourself, your likes, dislikes, and maybe a bit about your life/D2 Life.
 
A Whole Thread?

How about a little paragraph.

First of all for my character (Quix) - whether or not I get to be in the tourney I made a barb Quix and had a lot of fun.

In one session I put /players 8, and went to town. Well I went out of town. Well actually I went back and forth in and out of town a whole bunch of times.

Got first 4 way points, and first 3 quests done up to Cain.
Got to level 13 with my archer merc at level 10.

Biggest Break: Getting 2 throwing axes (960 gold) early on and being able to spend that cash on a fairly nice 2 handed sword (2-11 damage with 1-8 lightning damage). Also I was able to buy a hunters bow for my merc with 3 open slots and I had a red, blue, and green gem to put in there. So my merc hits for some nice damage early on.

All skill points went to sword mastery. Since I am going straight sword for my weapons my first 17 points will go to sword mastery (maybe 1 into natural stamina), and then I will alternate between sword mastery and increased defense mastery. After that well there are only so many things to put my skill points into so there will be no tough skill point decisions to make.


Myself: well I am not sure that a complete THREAD is necessary but here is a quick run down. I played Diablo II long long ago - version 1.10. Played mostly on my computer at home. My best character was a hard core druid - level 81 I think was his max level. Now for various reasons I am coming back to it (only real reason not to play TOO much is that my clicking arm starts to get sore after I play a lot).

My children live away from home so I am probably older than most other players here. I am a gamer at heart, so once I stop playing Diablo again (maybe in the year 2012 or so) I'll just hafta find another game to play. I am amazed that Diablo is still around after all these years. I am just now getting somewhat familiar with the changes to 1.11, and for the most part the changes seem to fix a good number of the flaws and problems that 1.10 had without opening up any serious new flaws. I have no idea what RWM stands for at this time, so hopefully someone will clue me in on that.

If I have to start a new thread and put more information there I will be glad to do so. I just need someone to lead me as to where to start it. This is a somewhat friendly place here so far, which I like. For the most part I am looking for amicable, honest games, and want to have some fun as I entertain myself and maybe some others as well.

Well I hope this is acceptable for a start.
Time for bed as it is late and I am tired (3am CST here).
 
jiansonz said:
Unlike the others, I won´t congratulate you just yet. Before you gain a foothold, the cow level could be really hard for a character with only limited crowd control abilities. Good luck!
Thanks for the jinx! :lol:
And you're absolutely right, cow level entrances can be very tough.
Before entering, I muled over a load of crap I no longer needed, and sold it for gold to repair the Decrep charges. I didn't want any wandering pets, so I entered with only the merc and spirit.

After taking two steps, some Extra Fast cows advanced. Boss alert... CEFE!
I set up a lame safety portal, and summoned some wolves. During the fight, in strolls another pack. Holy Shock Extra Strong PI. Crap. Massive decrep/rejuvs/wolves.
How about 2 more boss packs? With LE, Conviction, Cursed (2), Extra Fast, FANATICISM!!!

Without ever stepping out of sight of the red portal, I fought tooth and nail against 4 boss packs + friends. My vine was gorging itself on beef. Fazel drank my rejuvs like soda pop. I was lucky the fanat pack wandered in only after I had the other 3 under control, otherwise I'd have been running blindly, a considerable risk. Stupid cows. That was one of Oberon's top 5 hardest battles.
After that madness, the rest was easy. The Cow King dropped the unique Grand Crown, the last item for the Prize Stash.

Oberon retired from the hero business, married Flavie, had a hundred babies, and lived happily ever after. The end!

Cormallon said:
Congrats, Wayne !
I'm sure I'll try a single tree summons druid one day.
Yeah, it was a pretty fun build. PI's in Hell are frustrating, and I was blessed to find that Spellsteel for the Decrep. Otherwise, I'd have done p1-p3 in Hell, instead of mostly p5. I saw your earlier post about maxing HoW. That's cool for SC, but I think Oak Sage rules for HC. Druids only get 2 points life per stat point. Plus, the Sage made a HUGE difference in the tankability of the wolves and merc.
The AR from HoW is tempting. AR was a constant problem for me. I managed OK with a lucky Ravenfrost and Visionary wolf helm.
 
[highlight]Guardian Oberon, level 88 Summons Druid:[/highlight]

Hard Skill Points:
20 Oak Sage
1 Heart of Wolverine
20 Raven
16 Spirit Wolf
20 Dire Wolf
20 Grizzly
1 Poison Creeper
1 Carrion Vine

Stats: Oberon's stat screen.

End-game Gear*:
*Although I completed 99% of Hell with more MF gear, I'm showing what I think is the best combo of MF, power, and safety.

ethereal Demon Limb socketed with Ruby (38% ED) jewel. Sick damage! 1200-2000 using attack! (w/ Might)
"Ancient's Pledge" Blade Barrier
--weapon switch-- Spellsteel Bearded Axe
Visionary Spirit Mask of the Wolf, socketed with two fervor jewels
Jeweler's Gothic Plate of Accuracy (+8 Dex), socketed with 4 PTopaz
Verdungo's Hearty Cord Mithril Coil, +32 Vit, 12% damage reduction
Laying of Hands Bramble Mitts, 20% IAS, 350% ED demons, +50% fire resist
Gore Rider War Boots, CB, DS, OW :D
Chaos Eye Amulet, +1 damage, +7 Str, +46% lightning resist, +12% C/F/P resist
Nagelring, +29% MF
Ravenfrost, +249 AR, +15 Dex

Charms (including Gheed's) with: +37% fire resist, +50% cold resist, +47% light resist, +3% poison resist, +8 Str, +1 Dex, +40 life, +173 AR, +3% Faster R/W, +50 poison damage over 6 seconds, +46% MF, +178% Gold Find, 11% Reduced Vendor Prices

Special Tool Kit:
Fleshrender Barbed Club, PMH, CB
"Rhyme" Hyperion
"Malice" Fanged Knife
Djinn Slayer Ataghan: 250-500 fire damage, socketed with Shael and rare jewel (+6 min damage, 1-94 lightning damage)
Keeper's Amulet, +3 Summoning Skills
Carrion Knash Crowbill, nice Life Tap source found in the field. Never used it.
Grim Shank Mesh Boots
"Smoke" Studded Leather

[highlight]Fazel, Act 2 Might Merc, level 88[/highlight]
"Honor" Thresher
Artisan's Mask of the Tiger, socketed with 3 PTopaz
Iceblink Russet Armor, socketed with fervor jewel
Fazel's stats. 5000 life?! You're welcome Fazel.
 
Back
Top