Skill-less tournament (3rd edition)

I can't get enough of untwinked tourneys. Count me in. Randomly chosen Paladin named Raft, I'm hoping to use sacrifice, zeal, or vengeance to get me through.

Code: 
Alive characters:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     WP             Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz         Assassin   Helena        85   A5(H)   Harrogath         1.13
Sput             Sorc       Skilllass     72   A5(N)   Halls of Pain
Dazliare        *Barb       Vladimir      65   A4(N)   Pandemonium Frt
japanzaman       Barb       Babs          57?  A3(N)   Travincal         1.13
Dezrok           Necro      Unlikely      62   A3(N)   Kurast Bazaar     1.13d
michajo2k       *Paladin    Meridian      20   A2      Lut Gholein
Jocular         *Paladin    Raft          16   A1      The Barracks  
imakeigloospat   Druid      Glenn          1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
xXxGrimmxXx      Amazon     WaffleStrike   1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
Atroz           *Assassin   ?              1   A1      Rogue Enc
illya_           Necro      ?              1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13c
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dead ones:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     Place of Deeds  Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SunsetVista      Necro      Yredelemnul   81   A3(H)   Travincal        1.13
HanShotFirst  ***Sorc       Two           86   A3(H)   Flayer Jungle 
felixbavaria    *Paladin    Incompetentus 72   A5(N)   WSK 1            1.13d
epaminondas     *Assassin   Adriana       56   A2(N)   Palace Lvl 2     1.11
illya_          *Assassin   Maxwell       22   A2      Rocky Waste      1.13c
Southpaw8668    *Paladin    Lucious      >19   A2      Duriel           1.13
xXxGrimmxXx    **Druid      Roland      >=17   A1      Monastery        1.13d
Southpaw8668     Necro      Goulash       14   A1      retired          1.13
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 :)
 
@Jocular : Welcome to the tournament! But please, allow me to post table updates (I'm the host of this tournament) as otherwise updates may be skipped (for example, your table post is missing a valuable new addition to the tournament, in the person of Naturallog :) ).

@BulletJon : It's never to late to join this. As stated in the first post, the tournament is here to stay :).

Welcome again to all new skill-less participants! :)
 
Using a random number generator it generated 7, so i will be using the druid class, great lol. My druids name shall be Denzi, wish me luck. Starting now. Playing on 1.13
 
Denzi has cleared blood moor and completed the den of evil, i found a decent rare Brimstone Emblem Buckler in blood moor from a fallen. Using leather armor with 2 chipped topazes for the nice 18% mf and a hand axe with a chipped ruby and chipped emerald, should probably upgrade soon lol. After i cleared
Cold Plains i went into the Cave Level 1 and right by the entrence was a nice exp shrine, but it was cut short because right after that i met a pack of skeles that had amp, grr dang them skelles. Soon after bashing there skulls in i met up with Cold Crow, i first attempted her on p8 but that was not happening lol so i had to switch to p1, no good drops sadly :( almosy died twice to her and her evil sisters. The Cave lvl 2 had no interesting drops, just the usual unique packs (i think thats what they are called) and the little pesky fallens. Onto blood raven next!

Denzi, level 8, Blood Raven
 
felixbavaria said:
I guess if you can get your hands on a Werebear / Shockwave helmet that should get you quite far. I have no idea if it can spawn, though.
Click to expand...

Those are possible (unlikely, though), but only between ilvl 25-36. So it may be worth saving a magical one in this interval, and maybe imbue one at clvl 21-32.
Rares can later be rerolled, and can even be moved down a bit in ilvl unless clvl is too high. The formula is ilvl = 0.4 * clvl + 0.4 * old ilvl
 
@SunsetVista - Thanks, i will need all the luck i can get, i rarely play druids and now im playing one skill less lol.

@felixbavaria - hopefully i can but i almost always have bad luck with drops, always gotta have high hopes though!

@jiansonz - thanks for the info, will be very useful for me as i had no idea, will try and save any magical ones i find.
 
Spineless has finished Act 1 and cleared the Sewers. So far it has gone better than I thought it would. Only touchy part was Andy (I never changed from p8). Now my new Act 2 defensive merc tears through stuff. It helps that I shopped a +3 amp wand and found a +1 amp head. I also have level 4 corpse explosion on switch for clearing bodies out in the tombs.

Spineless, level 21 necromancer, starting Act 2 Rocky Waste.
 
Adynate (Greek for "impossible") the skill-less Amazon has defeated Baal.

Notable finds and moments:

- Countess dropped no rune at all (at /p2). I didn't know that was possible.

- In Act II, we made two tries at cubing polearms. First one became a Halberd, second one a Partizan.

- Crushflange dropped in one of the tombs in Act II, which made all act boss fights very easy.

- Rather nice MF jewelry: 28% Nagelring from the True Tomb, and cubed a 22 MF ring and a 30 CR / 23 MF amulet in Act III.

- Act III dropped three Rals in quick succession and a 3os Short Battle Bow, so Adynate turned into a kind of Bowazon, after relying on spears and pikes for Act I and II.

- Stormtree dropped a nice rare circlet:

Bitter Veil
Circlet
Defense: 23
Durability: 25 of 35
Required Level: 18
Fingerprint: 0x66d5becc
Item Level: 26
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 74 Lightning Damage
All Resistances +9
Lightning Resist +38%
Level 1 Inner Sight (32/33 Charges)

- Act IV Outer Steppes rewarded us with a nice belt:

Havoc Chain
Belt
Defense: 5
Durability: 47 of 48
Required Level: 13
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0x71474725
Item Level: 24
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Faster Hit Recovery
+1 to Strength
+4 to Mana
Lightning Resist +12%
Fire Resist +30%
77% Extra Gold from Monsters


- I forgot to switch to MF gear when delivering the final blow to Diablo. He dropped a rare Edge Bow - d'oh!

- The Crystalline Passage in Act V had Extra Strong frenzytaurs next to the entrance, as well as a Champ pack nearby. That was rather hairy.

- Very nice find in Infernal Pit: a 213% ED Steeldriver (from a Frenzytaur boss, how fitting).

- From a container in Ancient's Way:

Death Crest
Jawbone Cap
Defense: 18
Durability: 21 of 25
Required Level: 24
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0x37017e13
Item Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
48% Bonus to Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
+2 to Battle Orders (Barbarian Only)
+3 to Concentrate (Barbarian Only)
+2 to Find Item (Barbarian Only)
+15% Enhanced Defense
+4 to Life

That would be the jackpot for a skill-less Barb, no? Funny game ...

- Baal and his minions were taken at /p8. I found how OP Life Tap is in Normal ...

- Lister's gang was much tougher than Baal, who dropped crap, but a notable rare sword:

Storm Thirst
Flamberge
One Hand Damage: 29 - 61
Two Hand Damage: 42 - 97
Durability: 39 of 50
Required Level: 33
Required Strength: 70
Required Dexterity: 49
Fingerprint: 0x95220fd6
Item Level: 60
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 3 Ice Bolt on attack
228% Enhanced Damage
+12 to Maximum Damage
+74 to Attack Rating
7% Life stolen per hit



[highlight]Adynate and Alhizeer the Blessed Aim merc, level 48, Rogue Encampment (NM)[/highlight]
 
@felixbavaria: Jackpot for a Barb indeed. And WOW for the Concentrate! I think I mentioned earlier in the thread how incredibly rare Barb combat skills (except Leap) are as staffmods. They are actually not supposed to spawn.


pharphis said:
Make a CtA in a bow for style points!
Click to expand...

Was that aimed at me? I still lack a Mal rune for that.
Anyway, it's too late for that now:

[Highlight]Riphook
Blade Bow[/Highlight]
'Ohm'
Two-Hand Damage: 77 to 151
Required Dexterity: 119
Required Strength: 76
Required Level: 57
Bow Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x92e8c80c
+35 to Mana
+270% Enhanced Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Required Level +7
30% Increased Attack Speed
30% Chance of Open Wounds
Slows Target by 30%
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Meghan's Static Circlet of Accuracy received a +15 Jewel of Carnage. I haven't done any calculations, but my gut feeling says I get more extra damage with that than with an off-weapon 31% Ruby jewel.

Foothills had imps and Death Maulers. Cannon fodder...


[Highlight]Conqueror Helena the Assassin and Meghan the Cold sister, level 85, Hell Frigid Highlands next[/Highlight]
 
Skilllass has made Conqueror and is now level 74. The Ancients were taken at p1 and were split up for easy handling:

View attachment 752

View attachment 753

View attachment 755

The WSK was relatively easy, thanks to be there being no Death Lords on any level. I was very nervous about them since if I recall correctly the freezing of Glacial Spike would not wok on them. The monsters faced were:

WSK1: Zealots, Flesh Spawners, Defilers
WSK2: Serpents, Horror Mages, Scarabs
WSK3: Boars, Sprites, Mages
ToD: Pit Lords, Souls, Knights

Even Lister spawned with pretty benign mods:

View attachment 756

The Baal fight, while never particularly dangerous, was extremely lengthy thanks to me forgetting to switch off of p8 and also because I forgot earlier to have the Hone Sundan in my stash to have some CB for the merc.

View attachment 757

Baal's drop was underwhelming.

View attachment 758

I have decided to skip (for now) the nightmare cows, mostly because I am eager to start tackling hell and don't want to make a dumb mistake at the last moment.
 
After a bit of a break I'm back and Unlikely has defeated NM Mephisto. Before I start on the update, great progress everyone and welcome to all the new entries!

Picking up in Upper Kurast things were pretty awkward at first and Unlikely was feeling more unlikely than ever before. It didn't help that I'd nerfed his gear to be able to get the extra MF from Tancred's Amulet, so now all I had on main weapon was the CG, while switch killed the CG but gave me Decrep and Dim Vision (plus low level CE). Being rusty, I kept on forgetting to replace my tp scroll (I usually only carry one) and had to wait for one to drop before being able to head back to town…

Plenty of merc deaths and the going was oh, so, slow at first. However, I slowly got the hang of things. Spamming the CG to good effect and getting some nice switching going to cast decrep or DV when needed to keep the pressure off Emilio (the Prayer merc with the big nasty weapon of doom who does all my killing). I then took a break before coming back to do the temples, so had a nice sprint to start with.

First temple was the Forgotten Reliquary with a stair trap .. not too bad though, just normal Flesh Hunters and Night Lords so we were able to deal with them without too much trouble. Would have been pretty nasty if there had of been a boss or champ though.
View attachment 759
(How not to do a stair trap!)

Next temple was the Forgotten Temple. No stair trap but just into the room was Extra Strong, Mana Burn bats and regular beetles. A couple of the bats went for Unlikely and before I knew it I'd dragged them back to the stairs. Emilio was pounding on some beetles, so sparks were flying and things were not looking good. Attract would have been superbly useful in this situation, but I'd ditched it when I nerfed my gear. (although I probably panicked a bit watching my blue bulb vanish, when all I really needed to focus on was the red). Still, 8 purples and 4 big reds later it was well time to exit to UK and re-plan. Except, waiting on the surface were the monsters that had followed me on my sprint across the surface to get to the temple. Bugger. Time for a tp (lucky I'd remembered to keep one stocked by this stage) and reapproach from the waypoint. Then it was a bit of a dance to drag the monsters away from outside the entrance to the temple, without bringing anymore into the picture. Emilio ended up killing a few but we got there eventually. Now, we could plan a return to the temple, this time with a teleport staff. A tele past the bats into the now mostly empty room beyond allowed us to drag the monsters away from the door, run back to the door, exit and then reenter into a now safe space. The bats and beetles were scattered and we could pick them off singly or in small groups. Phew!
View attachment 760
(Ouch!)

After that mess we ran through to the Trav waypoint before taking a S+E to put a wand with Attract on it and Telling of Beads into the stash. We could now fully gear up if things got tough.

Cleared half of Trav then the Causeway and its two temples. The Disused Reliquary had some Champ beetles that hit hard (or maybe their lightning did?). The Ruined Fane had a nasty, nasty stair trap of snakes and hunters (I thought about giving it a miss as I didn't like my chances of surviving but in the end went back for one attempt). The teleport staff saw some more use. This time we had to tele all the way to the back right corner of the temple before finding a relatively safe spot where we could cast a tp. There were a few anxious moments trying to get the first tele away from the stairs as without any extra cast speed, tele is pretty slow and we found ourselves in hit recovery a few times. Once we had the tp set we put on all that gear from the stash and came back with curses blazing. The mess when we'd finished made me thing that perhaps it wasn't such a 'safe' spot after all. But compared to the stairs it was 'safe'.
View attachment 761
(How to do a stair trap!)

View attachment 762
(and this was the 'safe' spot)

Finished clearing Trav before taking another break and then on to the Durance. No Dolls meant it was all pretty straight-forward but some of those Maulers can hit hard! Meph was taken on p5 while Emilio wore Stealskull to give him some leech … no pots required.

Drops of note:
UK - Wizendraw, 9% cold res SC, Bloodletter
Disused Reliquary - 4% all res/+1 dex SC
Durance 1 - Islestrike
Durance 2 - 5% MF SC,
Durance 3 The Cat's Eye (a Grailer for me, some nice stats but not really useful for Unlikely … from the Councillor on the right-side )
Meph - Bladebone, Beserker Hatchet and Arm of King Leoric (normally the Arm would be awesome for a necro … but the + skills arent really good enuf on their own to make things work)

Unlikely the Necro, Emilio and the CG, Lvl 64, NM Act 4, Pandemonium Fortress

View attachment 763
(Boring shot of our first Elite - 2os Tomahawk)
 
Dezrok said:
Being rusty, I kept on forgetting to replace my tp scroll (I usually only carry one) and had to wait for one to drop before being able to head back to town…
Click to expand...

I also used to carry only one TP scroll (what an optim decision that was, to save 1 inventory space :) ), until I found myself in a stair trap, put a TP and could not reach it. I escaped the trap, but had nowhere to go. If I had another TP on my person I could recast it and flee before monsters came back on top. Didn't, so haven't. Very creepy deeds ensued. From that time I always carry a tome with at least 3 scrolls inside.

Quick! A table post before the page is done:

Code: 
Alive characters:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     WP             Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz         Assassin   Helena        85   A5(H)   Frigid Highlands  1.13
Sput             Sorc       Skilllass     74   A1(H)   Rogue Enc
Dazliare        *Barb       Vladimir      65   A4(N)   Pandemonium Frt
Dezrok           Necro      Unlikely      64   A4(N)   Pandemonium Frt   1.13d
japanzaman       Barb       Babs          57?  A3(N)   Travincal         1.13
felixbavaria     Amazon     Adynate       48   A1(N)   Rogue Enc         1.13d
Naturallog       Necro      Spineless     21   A2      Sewers Lvl 2      1.13d
michajo2k       *Paladin    Meridian      20   A2      Lut Gholein         
Jocular         *Paladin    Raft          16   A1      The Barracks
BulletJon       *Druid      Denzi          8   A1      Cold Plains       1.13
imakeigloospat   Druid      Glenn          1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
xXxGrimmxXx      Amazon     WaffleStrike   1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13d
Atroz           *Assassin   ?              1   A1      Rogue Enc
illya_           Necro      ?              1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13c
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dead ones:
Forum Name      Class       Char Name    LVL   ACT     Place of Deeds  Version
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SunsetVista      Necro      Yredelemnul   81   A3(H)   Travincal        1.13 
HanShotFirst  ***Sorc       Two           86   A3(H)   Flayer Jungle         
felixbavaria    *Paladin    Incompetentus 72   A5(N)   WSK 1            1.13d
epaminondas     *Assassin   Adriana       56   A2(N)   Palace Lvl 2     1.11
illya_          *Assassin   Maxwell       22   A2      Rocky Waste      1.13c
Southpaw8668    *Paladin    Lucious      >19   A2      Duriel           1.13
xXxGrimmxXx    **Druid      Roland      >=17   A1      Monastery        1.13d
Southpaw8668     Necro      Goulash       14   A1      retired          1.13
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 :)
 
Adynate and Alhizeer are having a blast in Nightmare.

The start was rather tough, and Blood Raven was hard to defeat. Must have been her bow:

Screenshot059_zpsa3f18b48.jpg


With Skystrike (near perfect %ED, btw), the damage output skyrocketed from the previously used Zephyr Razor Bow, and it was /p7 from then on.

As the only Partizan that dropped in Act V and Act I NM was ilvl = 41, the Larzuk reward was saved, and the cube recipe was used instead. 2/3 chance of getting an upgrade over the Savage Partizan Alhizeer was using seemed worth sacrificing the only Amn and perfect amethyst so far. The Partizan turned out with 5 sockets, and by cubing 3 Thuls to another Amn, a Honor runeword was made. With the 160% ED and 25% Deadly Strike, it is not that far from a low-roll Insight ... plus it has built-in life leech, saving the armor slots for pure MF items.

Nice glove find in the Underground Passage:

Cruel Fist
Demonhide Gloves
Defense: 46
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 21
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xd054d7b
Item Level: 38
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Increased Attack Speed
+30% Enhanced Defense
+2 to Strength
Cold Resist +26%
Lightning Resist +21%
Repairs 1 Durability in 33 Seconds

The Countess tower had a kind of stairtrap (dual boss pack of archers and ghosts in the first room), but other than that, it was rather easy going - Dim Vision knife for archers, Terror wand for melee enemies, it all feels so familiar. Yet at the moment she feels much more capable than Incompetentus, being able to snipe away monsters on her own.

The Countess dropped an Amn and 2x Eth.

[highlight]Adynate the Skill-Less Bowazon and Alhizeer the Blessed Aim Merc, level 50, Black Marsh (NM)[/highlight]
 
Last edited:
I would hate running out of TP scrolls. My routine is that if I am not in a rush to cast one, I open inventory and cast TP by right-clicking the tome while having a quick glance at how many scrolls there are left in it. If it is 8 or lower*, I will buy so I have 14 of them (I find more scrolls than I use in some areas - this method lowers the risk that I end up with more than 20).

(* This gives me plenty of margin for error. I can forget to buy new ones over several town trips and still have some left.)


Nice going there, Sput. But Skillass' amount of life scares me. I would not want to set my foot in Hell without DOUBLE that amount!

@Dezrok: Yikes, exciting temples!


Also, congrats to Adynate for finding a nice bow.
 
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