Skill-less tournament (3rd edition)

As in no hotmuling, or once per day? I might have broken the rules already then, because I muled off chippies and rejuvs when I reached outer cloister WP, then progressed from there to inner cloister WP.

Anyway, Slow lvl 19, Inner Cloister WP, no set finds, but The Gnasher dropped in Hole lvl 2. Will make for a good source of OW and CB for a long time, potentially throughout the game. Bone Ash and catacombs next.
 
helvete said:
As in no hotmuling, or once per day? I might have broken the rules already then, because I muled off chippies and rejuvs when I reached outer cloister WP, then progressed from there to inner cloister WP.

Anyway, Slow lvl 19, Inner Cloister WP, no set finds, but The Gnasher dropped in Hole lvl 2. Will make for a good source of OW and CB for a long time, potentially throughout the game. Bone Ash and catacombs next.
Click to expand...

I don't think you've broken any rules. I did not hotmule (only ever hotmuled Gheeds anyway) anything in this tourney, but since you can only mule things off that way it shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't dupe. I don't think there's any restriction on the number of times per day you can mule things off, as long as you follow the spirit of single pass and make sure you don't rerun areas unnecessarily.
 
But what is the definition of a "session"? Can one session start directly after another? Just asking because my sessions sometimes last all day =)
 
Skilllass and Durga have killed Andariel.

View attachment 785

A nice find in the level 1 of the Catacombs:

View attachment 786

I decided to wait until after killing Andariel to try the socketing recipe. Nicely I was given four sockets and made this.

View attachment 787

Thanks to a 3 x Perfect Amethyst Grand Crown, Durga was able to equip it when he reached level 79. This weapon made going back and clearing the side areas, Crypt, Mausoleum, Cave, Hole, and Pit, a little easier.

On another note, the Frozen Orb plan for killing PI has been going well even though it means carrying quite a bit of equipment in the stash.

View attachment 788

The above guy was nice enough to drop another piece of my current Frozen Orb gear

View attachment 789

All together with +4 on the orb, +2 on the amulet (rare), +1 on the shield (Lidless), +1 on the helm (Sazabi's), and +1 on the armor (Spirit Shroud), the Frozen Orb can be cranked up to level 9 now.

Another notable drop was an eth unsocketed Shadow Plate in the Crypt which became this.

View attachment 790

I'm now just missing the Lo!

A final nice drop in the level 2 of the Pit was

View attachment 791

which turned out to be

View attachment 792

Skilllass and Durga are now level 79 and preparing to take on Radament.
 
So, I guess it's time for my first real update:

I chose Slow, the Barbarian on the idea that shouts can make a merc very powerful, and that Find Item can make for a lot more drops during a single pass campaign. Barbarians also get the most HP by far, so safety should be less of a concern than for the other classes.

I don't usually do full clears, but for once, I've given it a try.

Progress was not as slow as anticipated, but still a bit painful for a cookiecutter-fan like me. I quickly shopped a 2s scepter from Akara and plugged two chipped rubies in it. After Blood Raven was vanquished, I also shopped for a 3s Hunter's Bow, two 3s Ring Mails and two 2s Skull Caps, and filled the bow with chipped emeralds and the armor pieces with chipped topazes as I went along. However, it took until the Hole before I found anything worth mention:View attachment 793

Sweet! The Gnasher, despite its terrible damage, will make for an excellent source of CB and OW for the more HP-rich monsters. Then my luck went dry again, except for a lot of chippies and a Ral rune from The Evil Countless. I took a break for the night upon reaching the Inner Cloister WP, then continued yesterday. Not far off the very last WP of Act I, my MF luck finally gave me a break:
View attachment 794

Can a tournament character wish for better gloves for facing Andariel in melee? I cannot think of any. Now if only a green, shiny sash will drop, I'm probably end-game equipped for belt and gloves!

A little ways further down the Catacombs, I found "The Chopper" from my "The Game of the Name" puzzle thread:
View attachment 795
...and down he went. These guys are annoying as hell.

Decided to keep players at eight, since I had 75% reduced poison length and 74% resistance. Andariel fight went well, with no trips back to town:

View attachment 796

And her drop:
View attachment 797
Act I done!

For act 2, I was still not sure about the muling rules, so I ran all the way to Halls of the Dead lvl 3 to get the cube, then cleared the whole place before going back to town. I abused the cube to get some new weapons for myself and my new merc, and I'll leave you with the promise of screenshots of those as a cliffhanger for now, because I'm itching to get to playing!

Slow, lvl 22, Rocky Waste.
 
epaminondas said:
@helvete: Both jiansonz and SunsetVista are correct: muling in is to be done only between sessions. Muling off, anytime, as long as one keeps track of stuff.
Click to expand...

Wow! This makes life much easier! One of the hardest things for me in tourneys is not filling my character stash with useful tools so that I can have enough space to store any useful finds along the way. Usually I end up S+E'ing after every area because I have filled my character stash with loot and need to make more space. It can lead to some hard decisions on what stays and what has to be sold towards the end of an area, and some crazy runs through areas already cleared at the start of a new session. With this clarification I'll be able to put a lot more useful tools in my stash, keep more of the potentially useful stuff I find along the way and reduce the number of crazy runs.

Hmm, might be worth this going into the rules as my understanding was that the forum doesn't allow hotmuling except in very specific circumstances and therefore it wouldn't be allowed in tourneys.

Unlikely is nearing Anya on the Frozen River ... will update once we free her.
 
Act 5 so far.

Bloody Foothills only had Enslaved and Slingers … I guess the catapults might count as a third?? Or Doc Farren and his imps?? Anyway, it was pretty easy except for one pack of Extra Strong/Might Aura Slingers. Best drop: Moser's Blessed Circle.

Frigid Highland's had Slingers, Demon Gremlin, Demon Huts + Imps, Lashers +Slayers

Abaddon - A bit more of a challenge with Dark Shaman + Dark Ones, Hell Witches and Balrog. Found a nice rare ring with 118AR, 5%ll, 9 dex and 1MDR. Well, good to twink onto a melee char sometime.

Arreat Plateau had Returned Mages (Fire and Lightning), Death Slashers, Evil Demon Huts and Imps. Drops - A beautiful Amber(10%) SC of Vita(19)!

Pit of Acheron - Hell Clan, Burning Dead Mages and Maw Fiends

Crystal Passage - Bone Mages, Succubus and Claw Vipers

Frozen River - Succubus, Snow Drifters and Gloams. The Gloams weren't much bother with both Unlikely and Emilio having 75% lig res. Snow Drifters (esp the Champs) were the biggest problem and caused more than a few merc deaths. Overall one of the tougher monster combos for the River I think.

Anya's reward was a head with +2 attract, 2os and a few other irrelevant mods. The 2os might make it worth using at some point.

We pretty much stuck with just using the CG most of the time (to keep MF high). Occasional use of Decrep for the harder hitting monsters and DV (mostly in Abaddon).

Unlikely the Necro with Emilio and the CG, Lvl 70, NM Glacial Trail up next
 
Dezrok said:
Bloody Foothills only had Enslaved and Slingers … I guess the catapults might count as a third?? Or Doc Farren and his imps??
Click to expand...

Not sure what counts as what, but I do know that BF always has only two random monster types.


Nice progress. Have you tried out Revive yet? They can make great tanks, at least as long as they are simple 'move in and fight in melee' monster types.
 
@Dezrok (thank you for pointing out this slip from the forum rules) and @ all the other current participants of this tournament:
Thyiad said:
Hotmuling

Hot muling is muling while the character you are muling from is in game. It's rarely done because of the risk of creating duplicate items (aka 'duping'). It's usually done with Gheeds because you can only carry one at a time. This is acceptable but should be declared and care must be taken so that the items are not duped.

So you are playing Teagan and she has a Gheeds. Another Unique charm drops.
  • Minimize to desktop and open ATMA or GoMule. You open Teagan and another character which doesn't have a Gheeds or any stash file.
  • You move Teagan's Gheeds to the other character or stash. You save that file and exit ATMA or GoMule.
  • Back in game you drop Teagans identified Gheeds on the ground and pick up the UnID'd one.
  • You play as normal and when you next exit you can put the 'new' Gheeds in the stash and get the first one back. Same as you would swap any other item.

However, it is not - and never has been - acceptable to restore backups with the intention of having a second chance at making an item whether through cubing sockets, crafting or making runewords. Similarly if you trade an item away, you delete the one on your hard drive. Duping is NOT acceptable.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry I missed this as I come and go off the forums for more than 10 years now. I came to think I know all and didn't need to read the rules :). However this forum rule is what I also support and obey although I didn't declare it. This tournament will allow hotmuling with provisions in regard to duping and recovering of chars/items. Neither are allowed as forum rules (quoted above) also state. I will also add this to the tournament's rules, for the future participants.

Edit: With this lack of proper rule establishing, I can see that some of you have been at a disadvantage. I apologize for that. More reason to start a new character if the previous one has deeded :).
 
Last edited:
Actually, hotmuling makes it easier to be 100% sure that no monster is killed twice, and no container or shrine activated more than once, since they'll retain their status as dead or used. Dropping the ingame items in some previously cleared area should be cake.
 
Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the tourney helvete, I'm looking forward to your updates. And great progress Sput, nice looking Insight and some very nice other drops. @Dazliare - Pul is a great rune to be finding. Nice work!

jiansonz said:
Not sure what counts as what, but I do know that BF always has only two random monster types.


Nice progress. Have you tried out Revive yet? They can make great tanks, at least as long as they are simple 'move in and fight in melee' monster types.
Click to expand...

Ah ... I thought it was 3 randoms for the BF and kept waiting for the next monster type to appear!

I haven't tried out Revive yet with Unlikely, although have used it on previous Necros with mixed success. I tend to play very slowly and so the 3 minute duration generally doesn't see me making good use of them. Checking my stash I find I only have one item that has Revive on it, a Demon Head with +2 Revive/+1 Blood Golem. Not worth giving up my current heads for, although it is white, so could be socketed. Maybe I will need to shop a wand to keep handy.

Actually, talking about how slow I play, with so many people in this tourney mentioning their techniques/disasters with the merc bug I have been very aware of just how much time I spend managing the movement of my merc, watching the mini-map to keep an eye on him, back-tracking to get him unstuck from obstacles, and just standing around waiting for him to catch up. It appears that it is actually what I spend the majority of my game time doing :)
 
@Dezrock That small charm from the Arreat Plateau is very sweet. Really good find.

Also as far as merc management is concerned, do you generally run or walk? Myself I generally run up to nightmare and then walk in hell, since I most of the time go max block when it makes sense. It seems that the merc can catch up much easier and gets stuck far less when I am walking. As an added bonus when walking, I find I get swarmed far less as I can't accidently run too far ahead.
 
So I should be at NM Baal in the next few days. I think I can take all the waves except lister on P8, but wanted some insight from others. Anyone shed some light?
 
@Dazliare: I have not reached that far for a long time in this game, but with Howl/Taunt and Bash supported by a good damage merc, anything should be doable on P8. I would also remember to hit them with PMH. FRW should also help to avoid getting swarmed by possible Extra Fast dudes.
 
@Dazliare: what's usually the most important for me against Baal's waves is to fight only a few at a time (or in the case of Minions of Destruction, only one at a time). Note that AI curses/warcries do not affect the MoDs.
If you need to break the 'boss leash', that can usually be done if you do a quick dash back to the entrance area after seeing the boss. PMH against Lister helps a lot.
 
Dazliare said:
MoDs are immune to curses?
Click to expand...

Not to things like Amp, Decrep, Life Tap, Battle Cry, but to everything that blinds, scares or tries to fool them (Confuse, Attract, Taunt). They are 'boss' monsters in this regard, just like e.g. Defilers.
 
Last edited:
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account
Remove Ads - Go PurePremium

Latest posts

Back
Top