Skill-less tournament (3rd edition)

I'm really excited about Yredelemnul's progress!

I looked at the area levels and decided to make it to the Ancient's Way waypoint before tackling Nihlathak's Temple.

Glacial Trail and Drifter Cavern were very chilly. Frozen Tundra and Infernal Pit were full of blood stars, bone archers with cold arrows, and flayers.
/p3 Ancient's Way had tainted, bone mages, and spike fiends.
Snapchip Shatter had conviction and was cursed. There were also succubi, dolls and 3 champion frenzytaur packs down there. It was ok that I wasn't on a higher player setting.

Halls of Pain had maggots. I hate maggots.
/p1 Nihlathak down; I blew up all the corpses before he could. Found an io rune down there. There were vipers, but Waheed survived with some potions since this is only NM.

I spent about a million gold on rings and gloves for crafting. I decided to make some safety rings and blood gloves. The best ones were these:
-----
Wraith Circle
Ring
Required Level: 70
Fingerprint: 0xccc86950
Item Level: 71
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+87 to Attack Rating
+5 to Vitality
+6 to Life
All Resistances +11
Damage Reduced by 1
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
-----
Skull Grasp
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 41
Durability: 9 of 14
Required Level: 73
Fingerprint: 0x123a9750
Item Level: 71
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Increased Attack Speed
1% Life stolen per hit
7% Chance of Crushing Blow
+35 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+14 to Strength
+10 to Life
Lightning Resist +22%
-----
Beast Fist
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 11
Durability: 12 of 14
Required Level: 53
Fingerprint: 0xa732038f
Item Level: 71
Version: Expansion 1.10+
3% Mana stolen per hit
2% Life stolen per hit
9% Chance of Crushing Blow
+59% Enhanced Defense
+9 to Dexterity
+15 to Life
Poison Resist +13%
-----

For the Ancients, I put on Hsarus's boots and belt, Black and Whitstan's Guard, and had decrep, amp, and lifetap on switch. I rerolled until none of the ancients were cursed. One was extra fast, so I was able to separate them, although Waheed needed some potions to stay alive while that happened. I really enjoyed the 73% block chance. The mods on the winning roll were extra fast, spectral hit, fire enchanted (I stayed the hell away).

2 Death Lord bosspacks combined with flesh spawners and witches greeted me on WSK 1, so it was good that I was still on /p1. On /p1 I can use CE to good effect. WSK 2 had souls, beetles, and exploding ice spawn. The waypoint was all the way across the map from the stairs down, so I decided to push forward without a S&E to replenish purple pots.

WSK 3 had more death lords, oblivion knights, and horror mages.

There were dolls, dark lords, and serpent magi in the throne. I had a NDE with a doll explosion when Waheed decided to kill one right next to me. I think Waheed might be jealous that I am taking all the credit. Whatever, he'd have been dead many more times if not for my curses and quick potion reflexes. And I'm a tactical genius compared to him.

I pulled Baal's minions far back to avoid his decrep. CE to prevent minion resurrections, Dim Vision to reduce hydra spam (Waheed still got toasted once), decrep to slow down demons. This time I was able to pull Minions of Destruction one at a time and kill Lister (who was lightning enchanted).

I put on the Black flail and Hsarus's set to melee Baal with crushing blow. I kept Decrep on my main shield; Baal had to be decrep'd at all times. That strategy was successful and it didn't take all that long.
View attachment 626

Conqueror Yredelemnul and Waheed, lvl 71, Hell Rogue Encampment
/p1 NM cows next
 
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@Dazliare - thanks =) And good luck to you too, you can do it!

Cows are dead. I'd never used CE in the cow level before this, and it was fun. =)
Found Hel, Shael, and a head with 3 decrep, 3 lower resist (sweet with potential Harmony).

Now I am checking the stash to gear up for Hell. I have all positive resists, 720 life and 150 mf. The merc has Hawkmail (cannot be frozen), Wormskull (poison damage and leech), and Honor partizan. My Dim Vision will last 3 seconds in Hell.

Any tips you can give for Hell are very much appreciated. Where/what level can I shop a nice +life armor with sockets? Anyone know any AR solutions?

Conqueror Yredelemnul, lvl 72, Hell Rogue Encampment
Den of Evil next, because I need that 80th useless skill point
 
@Sput : Welcome back man, I thought we lost you. Good (albeit silent) progress ! :)

@SunsetVista: Unbelievable! And at the start of the tourney we were all worried about how hard it would be to reach Nightmare let alone Hell. Congratulations! But you need to work harder, jiansonz is slowly, but inexorably, approaching :).

Adriana has also dealt with cows. The portal spawned right on top of the king and (approximately) 1 billion cows. Managed to flee, spamming confusion left and right. After she hit a wall, Adriana made a stand and managed to beat back the /p8 cows (merc helped; ok, he did all the beating, Adriana was the one cursing heavily). Again, the merc was blocked by the herd while running so the bug hit and Adriana became the only target. And again, that worked in our advantage: we managed to wake up small amounts of cow by taking steps one at a time, so beyond that point all went easy. And yet again, drops have been insignificant: a light belt, an Eld (!), the king dropped 2 (two!) freaking small shields and a two-handed sword and nothing he's special for. The only highlights of the session would be:
- another simple topaz which meant the second perfect, and that led to another MF upgrade (48% helm),
- reached level 49 before NM, but that would have mattered most if an Amn would have been nearby.

We'll have a taste of Nightmare and decide at Cold Plains WP our future approach.
 
SunsetVista said:
Snapchip Shatter had conviction and was cursed.
Click to expand...

He's always cursed. And CE.


SunsetVista said:
I decided to make some safety rings and blood gloves.
Click to expand...

I think those Skull Grasp gloves are really cool. IAS, big LR and okay CB value. The ring is pretty nice too.


Nice going in late NM and congrats to Conquerorhood. Probably a good thing you took on those Death Lords at a low players setting.


SunsetVista said:
Where/what level can I shop a nice +life armor with sockets? Anyone know any AR solutions?
Click to expand...

NM Halbu or Larzuk would be my shopping points. A Gothic Plate is the lowest requirement armor that supports 4 sockets, and you only need to be clvl 66 for those to be possible to spawn at vendors. Check armors with the full red colour ("christmas red"), those are the ones that can have a big +life bonus. If you don't mind the higher STR requirements, Full Plates (extra heavy!) and Ancient Armors can also be Jeweler's at your current level. Larzuk sells all those. If you never grabbed the Halls WP, you can quick shop Anya - she has Ancients Armors and also Light Plates (they only support 3 sockets but are nice otherwise - lightweight and with decent Armor).

AR solutions? 'Passion' runeword, Blessed Aim merc, Angelic combo, Hsaru's combo (only 12 potion belt, though), Sigon's combo, headgear (preferrably circlet) with the Visionary mod.




I'm going to write a proper update when I've made more progress (and is less tired) but let me state that my plan with 'Edge' Cedar Bow and Static Circlet for merc and CoS claw for me worked out fine. So well that I've sold Stormstrike and do not urgently need a better bow. So I'll save up cash to gamble one later. Also, I bought a +2 Death Sentry claw. It cost nearly 300k gold...
 
Dazliare said:
What's the significance of having an amn at lvl 49? I have 4 amns and am lvl 48
Click to expand...

Well, merc needs a good weapon fast and ilvl in early 50ish brings to a lot of normal polearms the Ferrocious prefix. If an Amn would have been available it would have been possible to upgrade a gamble. An extra level means more chances that the ilvl would be high enough to support Ferrocious. So it's not that 49 is a magic number, it's just a better chance for scoring that. The lack of Amn makes it futile, of course.
 
 
Skilllass and Azrael have ventured out into nightmare and things were noticeably more difficult. The Glacial Spike doesn't freeze for quite as long and the Savage Partizan of Carnage is starting to show its age. This is really the first time I have started to feel the pinch of no skills. Nevertheless the duo soldiered on on p8 and have managed to full clear the Blood Moor and the Cold Plains with Blood Raven up next.

The only nice find was a Gem shrine which allowed me to make my first PTopaz which I stuck in the Tarnhelm Larzuk socketed in normal. I'm still on the lookout for a 2os Tower Shield for Rhyme, but if I have to wait much longer I might have settle for a Bone Shield.
 
NM is complete!

Hazade did a full clear of NM Act V and the Cow Level. Players 7 was used everywhere except Nithlathak's Temple and the Cow Level (those areas were cleared at players 5) . . . and um, the Ancients were done at players 1 . . . not sure why I would do otherwise . . .

Following the elation of scoring an Um Rune at the Hellforge, NM Act V got off to a rough start. The Bloody Foothills was one big near death from Harrogath all the way to the Frigid Highlands waypoint. The problem, Slingers, Foul Crows, topography, and Hazade's Honor Partizan (you know, the one from late NM Act II :rolleyes: ). Most of those problems are self-explanatory but I'll elaborate . . . I haven't played much Diablo II in the last year and had forgotten that Slinger's javelins pass right through the mercenary . . . and that almost got me right out of the gate (literally). I immediately ran into a group of Champion Slingers plus a named Slinger and the hurt was coming unexpectedly hard and from all directions. Fat purples that had sat in the belt for ages were suddenly getting guzzled at an alarming rate and things were starting to look bad. I was dodging javelins heading generally away from the gate (so I wouldn't trap myself in town) when I spotted some Foul Crows on the edge of the screen. Good I thought, at least those aren't too dangerous. And then they torpedoed into my Sorceress requiring yet another fat purple o_O . Turns out they are dangerous when you have no damage reduction and not much life (730 or so). So now I had way more monster on screen than Hazade could handle and there seemed to be only one option: Brave Sir Robin maneuver! RUN AWAY! So further into the Bloody Highland we went tele-running until we hit an open spot and could tp out, regroup in town, and return fully mentally prepared (and stocked with fat purples ;) ). Upon our return we were able to freeze and shatter the Foul Crows that had pursued us to the spot of the tp and we had our foothold! But our problems continued . . .

The trenches and battlements that so often help my characters turned out to be a real problem. Poor melee Hazade was up against ranged foes (and yes, I'm counting Foul Crows as ranged foes because their torpedo attack from the edge of the screen was the real problem). My options: I could teleport Hazade past the impediments . . . but then I risked being impaled by a salvo of javelins or I could let Hazade walk around the impediments . . . but then javelins starting flying in all sorts of crazy directions :eek: . In the end I decided that walking was better and only teleported if Hazade's navigational AI got really stuck. So the end result was javelins and Foul Crows flying into the screen from every possible direction . . . if there was a Diablo III-esque delay in between being able to use potions I probably would have been toast.

But wait you say, you said you cleared everything but Nihlathak's temple at players 7 . . . why not drop the players setting? Good question Greg (Colbert Report anyone?). That brings us to our last problem: Hazade needed a better weapon and no matter how dangerous the foes I had it in my head that dropping the players setting would result in a death spiral. Less players, less drops. Less drops, less gear upgrades. Less gear upgrades, monsters get harder. Monsters get harder, Sorceress gets dead. Better to go out doing all you can to achieve the best outcome . . . right? Well, I'm still here and Hazade did get his better weapon so . . . so far, so good.

Hazade's better weapon dropped in the Ancient's Way:

Insight
Bec-de-Corbin
'RalTirTalSol'
Two-Hand Damage: 51 to 280
Durability: 49 of 55
Required Dexterity: 91
Required Strength: 133
Required Level: 27
Polearm Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x2a7a2d69
+5 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+5 to Dexterity
+5 to Vitality
+230% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+75 poison damage over 5 seconds
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+5 to Critical Strike
35% Faster Cast Rate
180% Bonus to Attack Rating
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Level 15 Meditation Aura When Equipped
Socketed (4: 4 used)

I used Telekinesis on an Evil Urn in the Ancients Way and dropped a group of Conviction enhanced Skeletal Mages on my head :eek: . When the dust settled the four socketed Bec-de-Corbin was on the ground . . . it was the only four socketed exceptional polearm to drop in all of NM . . .

The Insight Bec-de-Corbin offered a pretty good damage increase vs the Honor Partizan and the rest of NM was pretty smooth.

Wait! What? That's it? A page on the Blood Foothills a passing mention about the Ancients Way and then a cop out description of 'pretty smooth' to sum up the Ancients, Worldstone Keep, Baal, and Cows?

. . . Yes? . . . I probably lost almost everyone by now anyways . . . right?

Okay. On the off chance anyone's still reading . . . here's a bit more: Fallen Shaman are annoying. Snakes are bad. Unique and Champion snakes are really bad. Might enhanced snakes from Evil Urns are worse (how did that happen twice . . . twice)! Snakes, Gloams, and Succubi all at once (in the Icy Cellar) are the worst. Well, worst excluding Slingers and Fell Crows of course :D .

Now, let's wrap this up because it's really eating into play time and SunsetVista isn't showing any signs of slowing down :) .

Drops. Nothing really great dropped except the base for the Insight (and considering I was Level 72 at the time . . . that really wasn't all that great either). 251 MF helped produce the following set/unique drops: Cathan's Ring (from the Bloody Foothills), Disciple Demonhide Boots (from the Bloody Foothills), Naj's Circlet (from Abaddon), Bloodrise Morning Star (from Abaddon), 35 MF War Traveler Battle Boots (from the Pit of Acheron), Aldur's Jagged Star (from the Frozen River), Venom Ward Breast Plate (from the Glacial Trail), Hawkmail Scale Mail (from the Halls of Anguish), Culwen's Point War Sword (from the Halls of Vaught), Witchwild String Short Siege Bow (from Nihlathak), Isenhart's Breast Plate (from the Frozen Tundra), Athena's Wrath Battle Scythe (from the Frozen Tundra), Dark Clan Crusher Cudgel (from the Worldstone Keep Level 1), Duriel's Shell Cuirass (from the Worldstone Keep Level 2), Civerb's Shield (from the Worldstone Keep Level 3), Tancred's Military Pick (from Baal), 300 ED Bonesnap Maul (from Baal), Angelic Sabre (from the Cow Level), Rattlecage Gothic Plate (from the Cow Level), and Whistan's Guard Round Shield (from the Cow King). That's a Witchwild String for SunsetVista and me . . . hopefully jiansonz gets one too . . . well, assuming he'd want one . . . I suppose the ctc could be dangerous for someone micro managing curses . . . but let's get back to me . . . Duriel's Shell was amongst my most wanted items . . . until the Um Rune dropped . . . now I'm thinking Duress. I've really been enjoying the Open Wounds on Hazade's Boneflesh Plate Mail and really don't want to let that mod go but CBF is important too. . . hmm, stay tuned . . .

Hanshotfirst, Sorceress, Two, Level 74, Act I Hell, Rogue Encampment
 
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@Sput - Sweet! Welcome to Nightmare! A bone shield's not so bad, at least it doesn't have a run speed penalty.

@HanShotFirst - woohoo! Congrats on making it to Hell! Nice job doing it at higher /p settings, too.

I've been busy this week and so haven't played much more. We're at the Cold Plains waypoint. Den of Evil and Blood Moor were no problem. I actually really love Hell difficulty; it's where the fun starts (and could very likely end). =)
 
@HanShotFirst : Congratulations! And it was a nice read :).

Adriana has set out into the plains of Nightmare. I was certain something nice would drop in the Blood Moor (the game always tries to impress by dropping something good at the start of Nightmare :) ). In this case was a Shael, from a fallen. Soon a Rhyme was developed and the shield is no longer a concern for Adriana. Not long after, finally, a Savage Partizan was cubed and that meant higher speed and a little higher damage than the previous rare pike, but at the cost of 0 cold damage for merc (the pike had a chance to cast Ice Blast). Fallen became a problem but we managed.

Adriana is still wearing full Angelic Set so she made some compromises related to MF. She gave up some, to reach close to max resists, but when she switches to a weapon (usually a rare war javelin) she worries about the -25% resist all that accompanies the switch. Found a 31% MF amulet but I realized that I wouldn't switch out Angelic's, and thereafter we sold rings & ammys.

The trickiest fight of the session was against Blood Raven which was approached head on, trying to prevent her from raising minions (wearing Cleglaw's gloves and The Jade) but that tactic failed. There were to many minions already there and soon they overwhelmed our party. We retreated, killed minions outside the cemetery and re-assaulted Blood Raven when she was almost alone. She tried to resurrect some more but merc could dispose of a good number of them, the rest ending up to far from the battle to matter. In the end Adriana and merc cornered the monster and slowly stabbed her to death.

We found a normal Partizan (ilvl 36) so if a Sol would drop we will socket it at Larzuk to make an Insight. Also cleared the cave in the Cold Plains making heavy use of Life Tap charges.

That "ignore merc" bug hits us very often, I'm surprised I'm the only one experiencing it. I might purposely trigger it when Cloak of Shadows is available. Think monsters blinded and merc hacking at them, ignored :D.

Code: 
Alive characters:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     WP             Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SunsetVista      Necro      Yredelemnul   72   A1(H)   Cold Plains       1.13
HanShotFirst  ***Sorc       Two           74   A1(H)   Rogue Enc        
japanzaman       Barb       Babs          55   A2(N)   Palace Cellar     1.13
felixbavaria    *Paladin    Incompetentus 55   A2(N)   Lost City         1.13d
jiansonz         Assassin   Helena        53   A2(N)   Sewers Lvl 2      1.13
epaminondas     *Assassin   Adriana       49   A1(N)   Cold Plains       1.11
Sput             Sorc       Skilllass     48   A1(N)   Cold Plains
Dazliare        *Barb       Vladimir      48   A1(N)   Cold Plains 
Southpaw8668     Necro      Goulash       14   A1      Black Marsh       1.13
imakeigloospat   Druid      Glenn          1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
xXxGrimmxXx      Amazon     WaffleStrike   1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dead ones:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     Place of Deeds  Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Southpaw8668    *Paladin    Lucious      >19   A2      Duriel           1.13
xXxGrimmxXx    **Druid      Roland      >=17   A1      Monastery        1.13d
xXxGrimmxXx    **Assassin   Noctyria       9   A1      Cave Lvl 1       1.13d
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:
*  = this class has been randomly chosen
** = this class has been somewhat randomly chosen
*** = this character needed a random decision that it would not be random :)
 
epaminondas said:
That "ignore merc" bug hits us very often, I'm surprised I'm the only one experiencing it.
Click to expand...

I try to stay close to my merc (he is the only damage source I have apart from CB and OW), I have no FRW, and in areas like the Maggot Lair and the Arcane Sanctuary I used a Staff with Teleport charges on switch in order to have him catch up.

My "capable" characters experience that bug rather often, though.
 
Can someone run through a quick scenario for me? I'm a little confused. I found a Cruel hunter's bow at Charsi in NM, but I'm confused how it spawned. For cruel, alvl>=51

qlvl_huter's_bow = 5

Does that mean the ilvl had to be >=54, since the alvl in this case should be alvl=(ilvl-qlvl/2)? Or am I missing something?
 
HanShotFirst said:
That's a Witchwild String for SunsetVista and me . . . hopefully jiansonz gets one too . . . well, assuming he'd want one . . . I suppose the ctc could be dangerous for someone micro managing curses . . .
Click to expand...

OF COURSE I want one! Like I said, any of the exceptional unique bows would be good. And I am not using any 'curses' other than CoS. That's more like macro managing...

Congrats on reaching Hell, and to the Duriel's Shell as well. And the Um rune. Since you have Duriel's, I would look at Crescent Moon instead of Duress. Keep in mind that it works in both polearms and swords. One of the most powerful mercs I've ever had in these restricted tourneys used an ethereal Crescent Moon Legend Sword. (Sure, he was accompanied by a Necromancer who had many more skills than you can have in this tourney but they were randomly placed, so he played like a mojomancer with CE and Revives.)




Helena and Meghan struggle on. Huge variation between areas and enemies how slow going it is. The extra damage vs demons and undead from the Edge bow is very obvious. Meghan ate all types of ranged skeletons in the Palace for breakfast, and she's great against the slow mummies. Even the high-life Hollow Ones and Blunderbores haven't been too bothersome. On the other hand, Invaders are a pain, maggots are a pain, beetles are on the border of being a pain. All 'animals' with lots of life are a pain. I really do not want do draw Crushers in the Canyon...

This was a dicey situation:
HelenaNM07casketwoes_zpsa96bb505.jpg

Meghan saw the mummy and thought she could hit it, but the wall was in the way. I really hate to retreat when I have managed to block a mummy casket. So I did a quick switch to hit the mummy with a PMH arrow, then just ground it down with my "pwnage" base Hand Scythe damage. Didn't even get poisoned. :)

Jackpot in the CVT level 2:
HelenaNM08hahasuckers_zps0f4f2534.jpg


Arcane Sanctuary was reasonably smooth sailing - everything but The Summoner is undead or demon. Why the heck is he called The Summoner, btw? He doesn't summon anything - he uses a couple of Sorceress spells and Weaken...

Gambled War Bows (Short and Long) for two million gold. Got no Ferocious rare to upgrade. Crap.

Recent finds:
Lum x2
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest (not as useful for my duo as it would be for many other chars/mercs)
Coldsteel Eye (dropped by a flying scimitar!)
2s Greater Claws with +2 Shadow Warrior
Rare jewel with small AR bonus, +24% ED and 9% Resist All

And an ethereal Partizan, which I sold. Masochistic and stupid or not, I have made my merc choice. But it was tempting to socket this with the recipe. With 4 or 5 sockets and a merc switch, Helena's companion could have been made into an instant God (compared to now, at least)...

I am not too concerned about the seven tombs but the Canyon could be troublesome indeed.


[Highlight]Helena the Assassin and Meghan the Cold sister, level 58, NM Canyon of the Magi next[/Highlight]
 
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After several months break from D2 I was looking for a new game to play at my local games shop and there on the shelf was the D2 Battle Chest, for only $18. Taking it as a sign, I bought it, reinstalled and was then faced with the difficult decision of what to do first. Jumping on to the SPF for inspiration I saw this tourney and thought it would be just the thing.

Next decision was what class to play. Not wanting to make the challenge too hard for myself I have opted for a Necro. Lots of opportunity for +skills from wands and heads. Feeling very rusty and unlikely to make it very far I rolled out onto the Blood Moor. That is, I rolled out once I worked out that I use the mouse to move, not the keyboard .. and a few other technical details.

At first it was all pretty straight-forward. Wack monsters with my wand, summon a Skeleton to wack things as well. At level 6 I was able to buy a wand with Clay Golem on it, a substantial improvement over the skeleton. Blood Raven was probably the biggest challenge of the Act. Strangling Gas pots did about half the damage and then it was javelins for the rest.

When a head with +1 Raise Skeleton dropped I was able to have both the golem and a skellie, as well as Tylena the Fire Rogue. Continued shopping of wands eventually netted me a +3 CG wand, although I never was able to find one with Golem Mastery as well.

By the end of the Act, the skellie was merely a temporary distraction, the CG was a great tank but did effectively no damage and it was up to Tylena to kill just about everything on her own. Me, I pretty much wandered around opening chests and picking up loot.

Cleglaw's Shield was the only S/U to drop, in level 2 of the Jail. I was going to wear it for the Andy fight but forgot. Andy wasn't too problematic. Took a bit of time but the CG tanked and Tylena did damage, while I kept out of the way and recast the golem as required.

All in all a satisfactory return to D2 so far, if a somewhat rusty one.

Unlikely the Necro and Tylena the Fire Rogue, Lvl 21, Normal, Lut Gholein
 
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