Single Skill Tree Tourney

Yeah, I tried to post this an hour ago, but this website is still giving me fits. Straight from Arreat's:

Base Item Levels
The quality level of an item comes into play in gambling. You will not see these items on the Gambling screen until your character level is +5 levels/-4 levels of the item's quality level requirement.

Edit: Actually, I only read this last night, as I wanted to learn more about gambling. Somewhat amazingly, until now, I've done very, very little gambling. Almost nil. I'm a gambling newbie. Just now I learned how, say, in NM and Hell, as exceptional and elite items become available, all that will show is the base items, but when you gamble them, you have a chance to get the exceptional or elite versions. Whoda thunk it. Duh. Been playing for years, and never even knew that. Being that I never gambled, I guess I didn't care that much. Good to know for these tourneys, though.......
 
A little more progress tonight. The going is getting slower, being NM, and being most of us are overleveled for early NM. Had a NDE in the Jail, when dual boss packs got grouped up, Curses and Cold Enchanted, with less than 10 cold resist isn't good. Got to get that Rhyme! I don't know about anyone else, but I hate the Jail and Catacombs. I've had quite a few deaths there, it seems. Seems the difficulty steps up dramatically, there. I guess that's what it is. Plus, close quarters, at times. And, I really don't like that Pitspawn Fouldog. Run! But, we were brave, and smart, and took him and his posse out, and lived to see the Inner Cloister.

The MF wasn't near as good, either, for the amount of champions and bosses I encountered. And, two NM Countess runs netted me two Els. So, sort of disappointing night, on that front. On the plus side, I did get Isenhart's Parry, which actually completed this whole, rare :rolleyes: set! Anyone else complete a set yet? Too bad I wasn't a Pally. Might be at least a little useful. Howsabout a Tancred's set item, instead?




Forum Name: Billybgame
Char Name: Destroyer TheShadowKnows
Character Class: Assassin
Level 51
Farthest Quest: Tools of the Trade
Farthest WP: Inner Cloister
Game Version: 1.11 RWM HC
 
Character Names: Slayer Isolde (& Destroyer Mark)
Character Class: Fire Rogue (assisted by curses-only necro)
Character Levels: 48/49
Farthest Quests: Eve of Destruction & Cow King
Farthest WP: Rogue Encampment, NM
Game Version: 'vanilla' 1.10 HC
Total MF: +292% for Isolde´s kills, +217% otherwise

Shame about Isolde´s title. I´ve only managed to get a "hardcore" merc through Normal once (my 1.09 Daggerzon in the 'Psychos' tourney).
Isolde has died, but only twice:
* Pwned by Andariel
* Killed by Fire Balls, Fire Walls and Meteors from a Dark Lord boss pack in the Durance, when I was being lazy...


No real problem in the last parts of Normal. While Mark was tanking Korlic, Talic´s whirls hurt quite a bit even though he was Decrepified. Once Mark turned his attacks to him, he went down rather quickly.

For the first time ever, I managed to get XP (kill them before they explode by themselves) for ALL the Frenzied Ice Spawns in WSK 2. Yay!

Baal had a nice gift in store: an ethereal Deathbit. When I picked it up, my first thought was: "Ethereal? Hmm, many of the unique throwing weapons have replenishing. How about this one?" Oh yes. A throwing weapon that is actually doing some damage. Cool! I may even stab with it. We´ll see.

I decided to socket the Static Circlet. Got only one socket. :rant: "Damn Larzuk, why do you always fail my characters that need 2 sockets the most? Those who don´t really need it, you have no problem giving 2 sockets two times in a row...". Looks like Isolde has to suffer a Great Helm soon.

I think I have to do some gambling. Mark´s cold and lightning resists suck.
 
Minor update, I had some time to go through all the marshes of Act III. Found all Waypoints, got all quest items. Now I am taking a bit of time and did a few Andarial runs.

No spectacular founds though, just a bit more experience and a bit more practise at boss killing. I am really happy about the lvl 4 "weaken" charges knife I found, it really helps with Andariel.

Nathan, lvl 54
Act III NM
Quest: Blade of the Old Religion,
WP: Kurast Bazaar

EDIT: I've added a few pictures right here:
http://www.freewebs.com/randall_q73/nathan.htm

It's the "fotoalbum" feature of freewebs, I hope it works for everybody. I've added 4 pictures, 2 of progress in normal, 2 of nightmare (one to show my current stats)

Randall

PS.
@Billybgame: As you have joined the SPF HC Ladder, your trading is "strictly" seen more restricted as others:
- This tournament say you can not trade outside of this tournament
- The ladder says you can not trade outside of the ladder
-> you "can" only trade with people also playing this tournament and have joined the ladder.
 
Update:

Forumname: Cormallon
Character Name: Destroyer Mithuad
Character class: Paladin (offensive)
Character Level: 44
Farthest Quest: Den of Evil
Farthest WP: Cold plains
1.11 HC, no mods

I had a hell of an afternoon yesterday and didn't feel too well playing a HC char in the evening. Therefore I made only little progress, just a test how Mithuad feels in Nightmare. The days before he went shopping for some time, collecting some +3 zeal scepters with sockets or to be socketed for runewords. I finally have some idea how to play him in NM and what kind of equip to look for. Next step: find some runes, especially an AMN or two. Later, I'd appreciate a LEM, but that one depends on luck (hellforge maybe).
 
"PS.
@Billybgame: As you have joined the SPF HC Ladder, your trading is "strictly" seen more restricted as others:
- This tournament say you can not trade outside of this tournament
- The ladder says you can not trade outside of the ladder
-> you "can" only trade with people also playing this tournament and have joined the ladder."

Oh, I see. Newbie me, here. No worries.
 
Also IMHO it is rather bad manner to transfer items from SC to HC anyway. ;)
Shadow Druid said:
Forum Name: Shadow Druid
Character Name: Primal
Character Class: Hunter Druid
Character Level: 61
Last Quest: The Blackened Temple
Last Waypoint: Durance of Hate Level 2
v1.11, SC, No Mods
Click to expand...
 
Well I made it through act one hell :

Forum name: SharnMes
Char name: IllBeDeadSoon
Level 75
WP: Hell Lut Gholein
Quest: Hell Sister to the Slaughter
1.11 No RWM, HC

Nothing new. But im REALLY happy about the Hone Sundan. Did I mention that earlier??? :D

And the skullders, chance guards and The Spire of Honor, although I havent used the latter yet but youll never know... Now if I only could get my hands on a +3 to summonskills amulet with 20 to all resist....But ill guess its not even possible to get one like that :D
 
Warrior of Light said:
Also IMHO it is rather bad manner to transfer items from SC to HC anyway. ;)
Click to expand...


Ah....that's right,anyhow. Keep forgetting we have a few playing SC. Should have had only HC players.

How's about everyone join up on the HC SP Ladder, so we can commence with some trading?

Just dropped Andarield, and didn't get squat. Two rares. And, boy, it was not an easy battle. However, I did get what I really need, even more than a helm improvement. An upgrade in my weapon. Not sure about you other Assassins, but I haven't seen anything, beyond a Quhab(ILvl 30), eons ago. Until Andy just dropped the Wrist Spike. This was a very minor upgrade in damage. I need something a lot nicer, and haven't seen even a damaged Wrist Spike(until now), Fascia, Hand Scythe, or Greater Claws. Not a one. I guess just bad luck.
 
As far as the rules go, I don't think this issue has been raised, although quite a few have preceded me in NM, where there is no need to enter the Halls of the Dead, do the Countess, etc: The rules say get all quests and waypoints. This does mean we have to get the Halls of the Dead, lvl 2 WP, even though we don't have to enter, right?

I hope so, as that was one difficult area, for me, just know. Got to play smart there, I tell ya. I had a couple of NDE's, and had to run around like a chicken with my head cut off, and resurrect my merc, many times. Especially with fairly low resists, still looking for the Shael and Rhyme.

Might be time to drop the players 7 down. What are you NM players using now? And you Hell player, you?

Did get a Sol rune to drop, after a VERY long spell with nary a rune to drop.
 
Billybgame said:
As far as the rules go, I don't think this issue has been raised, although quite a few have preceded me in NM, where there is no need to enter the Halls of the Dead, do the Countess, etc: The rules say get all quests and waypoints. This does mean we have to get the Halls of the Dead, lvl 2 WP, even though we don't have to enter, right?

Might be time to drop the players 7 down. What are you NM players using now? And you Hell player, you?
Click to expand...

I got all WPs and quests done so far. I find it really annoying that I need to get those that I hate as well (Great Marsh, Halls of the Dead and some A5 ones).

I am up to A5 NM now and turned the players setting down to 5 for the Bloody Foothills. I will leave it at that as long as possible and up it again if I find a decent bow. Killing was getting just too slow. Hell (if I get there) will be /p1 all the way.
 
I am so pissed right now, I think my blood is boiling. I was in the Far Oasis, having just fought my way through some hellacious boss packs(scarabs and maggots mixed, with amp dmg and LE= not good). Lived through that, though it took forever. Move forward, and a monster drops a set of unique demonhide boots. Cool! Move forward, and kill more monsters, and another boss pack. It was a few minutes, at least. Encounter another boss pack of locusts, and we're poking and clawing away, and all of a sudden, my computer screen freezes up. Ok.....I'm thinking....this is kind of like lag. I Ctl-Esc out, and there's an error message. I click on that, and the game closes. I reload the game, and ZX&*)(C$%&*)^C%^)&$)&^$)&^$&)%#$*$%9-67y)&^%(%T^)&%^&(E$(^$)^&^&(*&^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's back to way before then, just after I leveled up, and I lost my unique boots! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I really want to kill something, and I'm not sure it's monsters. Maybe a computer. I have never seen this, or had this happen to me, ever before. My first thought was I hoped I was still alive. When I saw I was I was relieved. But, when I realized I lost my unique boots, I could about scream. I don't imagine there's anything I can do, or anything I could have done. I realize the game saves at various intervals. Any way to get it to save, when you want, in case of something like this? I don't want to become paranoid, but as much as we need to find good stuff in this tourney, this really hurts.

Very discouraging :(
 
Billybgame said:
Any way to get it to save, when you want, in case of something like this?
Click to expand...

No, only save and exit. You could open your char file in ATMA every time you find a unique, mule the unique off, then go back to the game and drop the unique on the floor, I think this is what people mean by 'hot muling' and I think people prefer to avoid it if possible.
 
@Billybgame:

After some good "finds" you can always save and exit at "strategic" points of the game without needing to replay a lot. (at reaching a waypoint for example). That's the only way I know of that "forces" a save.

EDIT:
About the countess or Halls of the dead, nothing in the game forces you to do all quests, you can skip a lot of them (also in normal). That is why the tournament rule is there.

Randall
 
Randall said:
@Billybgame:

After some good "finds" you can always save and exit at "strategic" points of the game without needing to replay a lot. (at reaching a waypoint for example). That's the only way I know of that "forces" a save.

EDIT:
About the countess or Halls of the dead, nothing in the game forces you to do all quests, you can skip a lot of them (also in normal). That is why the tournament rule is there.

Randall
Click to expand...

Well, sure, we all know that. I had found these, as I was searching and expecting to imminently find the Far Oasis WP, so not the position to exit. I guess I'm going to be thinking in terms, a whole lot more, of what Humphrey's talking about. I already have been doing that, when I knew I would have too much to exit with. But, I think I'm going to be doing it a lot more often.

Went back at it, and quickly made another find......another Isenhart's breast plate! Woohoo! Uh, I think I'd have rather had the Venom Grips. But, I did then find a Wizendraw bow, and a Hellplague sword. Sure am finding lots of good stuff for a swordsman. And, gambling lots of + skills rare circlets and coronets for every character but an assassin.

A bunch more dicey situations encountered, and the bosses and packs starting to go down pretty slowly. Might have players 5, or lower, on my horizon.

Forumname: Billybgame
Character Name: Destroyer TheShadowKnows
Character class: Assassin
Character Level: 54
Farthest Quest: Radamant's Lair(NM)
Farthest WP: Lost City
1.11 HC RWM
 
Well it is time to post my progress.. I haven't had as much time to play as I wanted, but I am slowly moving forward..

Forumname: Shadefallen
Character Name: LiveAndLetLive
Character class: zon
Character Level: 27
Farthest Quest: Freeing the soldiers in Frigid Highland
Farthest WP: Frigid Highland
1.11 HC
 
Billybgame said:
I guess I'm going to be thinking in terms, a whole lot more, of what Humphrey's talking about.
Click to expand...

That will not really help you. By the time you can see the item in ATMA (while D2 is still running), there is no need for hotmuling anymore as it allready has been saved in the .d2s file and it will not be lost by a crash anyway.

Randall

@Shadefallen:
4 days to get to act 5, I don't see the problem.
Take your time and enjoy the game. Take a look at the nice scenery while you are at it ;) For example, I like the view up at the mountain where the ancients are.
 
A tentative start here in NM. Mark has good fire resistance (54) but really bad cold (2) and lightning (4) resistances. But monsters in early act 1 are not very agresssive, there is lots of space to fight them and Mark has excellent crowd control abilities, so I choose to suffer in kill speed and safety (maximize MF) now so we have a better chance to be stronger later. Contrary to Cormallon, I have a long list of wanted set/unique items that would be really helpful for my duo, and a couple that can completely change our whole situation.

There is lots of room for resistance improvements:

* A Rhyme shield would take Mark a long way towards better resists in NM. Give me a Shael!
* Mark´s gloves are plain 25% 'of Fortune'. I look at both Charsi and Gheed´s gloves at every town visit. Coral of Fortune would be perfect. I also gamble gloves as much as I can at the moment.
* Mark has 3 Grand and 6 Small charms. There is certainly space for more resist charms.
* Any ring/amulet with both good MF and some decent resist. They are too expensive to gamble right now, but when I have scored some good gloves I will go for them.
* Belt can improve, since it only has 15 fire and 8 cold resist.

A nice shopping find on one of the town visits: a +88 life 2-socketed Mechanic´s Hard Leather Armor of the Whale. Any such armor with > +76 life is worth considering, since that is more than a plain 4-socketed armor with 2 PRubies will give.

I like throwing Deathbit daggers. I just wish they were a little faster...


Character Names: Slayer Isolde (& Destroyer Mark)
Character Class: Fire Rogue (assisted by curses-only necro)
Character Levels: 49
Farthest Quest: Den of Evil, NM
Farthest WP: Cold Plains, NM
Game Version: 'vanilla' 1.10 HC
Total MF: +292% for Isolde´s kills, +217% otherwise
 
Update:

Forum name: Semarin
Char name: Semarin
Class: ShadowSin
Level: 47
Farthest WP: Whatchamacallit Trail
Farthest Quest: Nihilatak

Act 5 is my favorite act. I've been doing some leveling and looking for various socketables. I've got two fantastic claws that may last me until I can run NM Meph. I now have an amulet with +1 assasin skills as well as a circlet with +1 shadow skills AND a claw with +2 Shadow Master. :thumbsup: Resists are still in the tank, but I am relatively pleased with my gear as of right now.

The downside is that in all this time, I have only found three uniques. Two of which were horribly useless and the third was Bonesnap, which is nice but effectively useless. Its the first decent stash item for this char at least.
 
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