Skill-less tournament (3rd edition)
- Thread starter epaminondas
- Start date
jiansonz
New member
Indeed, there have been many good ones. I have fond memories of the 'Rare Pleasures' tourney. Only rare items allowed (and Akara's blue reward ring in Normal until we had two rare rings) - and the only thing allowed in sockets were of course rare jewels.
Quite tough to get good resists without charms...
There were skill restrictions, too, to stop some powerful less item dependant builds. I played a quite off-the-wall character build there, a Returnomancer (Thorns merc + Amp + fodder) and Lord of Mages.
@SunsetVista: Ah, TP charges on something other than a staff, don't we all long for that...
@Dazliare Well put indeed.
@epaminodas I saw that Green and Gold tourney, which looked like a lot of fun and was going to join in until I noticed how far back the last post was and it was still listed as an active tournament by the newly appointed tourney moderator. One of you veterans start another one please!
@epaminodas I saw that Green and Gold tourney, which looked like a lot of fun and was going to join in until I noticed how far back the last post was and it was still listed as an active tournament by the newly appointed tourney moderator. One of you veterans start another one please!
I actually have a bone necro in the green and gold tournament, but I think I'm the only one working on anything there. I put it on hold for this one
SunsetVista
New member
Yredelemnul has cleared the Den of Evil and the Cold Plains.
The cave had many skeleton and archer bosspacks. I tried out a few combinations of curses on various wands/heads. Lifetap was alright for keeping my merc alive to tank skellies, but Amp and switching to Edge for the Thorns aura (and prevent monster heal!) was better. I needed to have CE to clean up corpses around fallen shamen. Decrepify/Attract is too dangerous right now because it calls more monsters from farther away and my merc can't kill them fast enough. Decrepify also doesn't last long enough for me to get a few good shots in with my bow.
The going is slow and it's tough. Time to check the stash and see what can be done.
Yredelemnul, dark ranger with bad aim, and Zanarhi who needs a better weapon, lvl 48, Stony Field
blood raven, crypt, mausoleum next
The cave had many skeleton and archer bosspacks. I tried out a few combinations of curses on various wands/heads. Lifetap was alright for keeping my merc alive to tank skellies, but Amp and switching to Edge for the Thorns aura (and prevent monster heal!) was better. I needed to have CE to clean up corpses around fallen shamen. Decrepify/Attract is too dangerous right now because it calls more monsters from farther away and my merc can't kill them fast enough. Decrepify also doesn't last long enough for me to get a few good shots in with my bow.
The going is slow and it's tough. Time to check the stash and see what can be done.
Yredelemnul, dark ranger with bad aim, and Zanarhi who needs a better weapon, lvl 48, Stony Field
blood raven, crypt, mausoleum next
epaminondas
New member
@jiansonz , @Southpaw8668, @Dazliare I think that re-playing old tournaments is like listening to good old songs. It's revigorating to play them once in a while. Count me in for all those you mentioned, but I, for one, need to finish these two current characters I have (Adriana and Ion in Randomly Challenged) before taking other challenges.
Adriana was eager to begin Act III as the area level gets to 21 which means a lot of good unique/set stuff becomes available. She began by trying for Luck boots in gambles, but had no ... well... luck. She had quite a sum of money but I alternated with circlet gambling so the money went fast. Incidentally, I was also checking Ormus when selling >10k stuff from previous acts, and stumbled upon a staff with teleport charges that was not so expensive (a little less than 30k) so I also bought that. During the playing session I continued to check for cheaper versions and found a bald one (only the charges, no extra mods) for 18k and I couldn't abstain buying that also. So I gave up on checking staffs at Ormus and only scan the wands at subsequent visits. I shoped one with Confuse charges, it might be useful.
So Adriana started with 164 MF for chests, 230 for merc kills. The Spider Forest presented suckers (which have higher chance for jewelry so I was very glad) but the area only provided the set double axe and a failed unique breast plate. In the Spider Cavern the unique broad axe dropped, but the real treat was Arachnid Lair where the sparkly chest was a set one! It only dropped 3 items (the set long sword which Adriana already had, a magic double durability yew wand and a magic stag bow) but it was very nice to see it . I read that Nightmare has the most spectacular drops as there the ilvl is high enough to actually favor multiple green/gold items. And that was not all in Arachnid Lair. The next spider Adriana killed after opening the chest, dropped the much desired ring mail . Adriana immediately equipped the partial set although it meant losing 18 MF. +life, fire resistance, dex bonus totally makes it worth, I believe. Incidentally no other set/uniques dropped in the session.
The Great Marsh contained very nice monsters: drowned carcasses (slow and good xp) and gloams (another larger shot at good jewelry!). Sadly, I was forced to end the session at the waypoint (quite early) so it wasn't that profitable. They got me a Ral though, which could be used for a helm when Diablo approaches. Either for a socketed helm or for a crafted one (a blood would sound good, if not for Adriana maybe for merc even if resists cannot go as high as a circlets). Meanwhile I would also insist on circlet gambling as I could use one or two with good resists for tough elemental monsters like Diablo.
Adriana found level 29 (kept the stat points in reserve) and reached the Great Marsh waypoint.
Adriana was eager to begin Act III as the area level gets to 21 which means a lot of good unique/set stuff becomes available. She began by trying for Luck boots in gambles, but had no ... well... luck. She had quite a sum of money but I alternated with circlet gambling so the money went fast. Incidentally, I was also checking Ormus when selling >10k stuff from previous acts, and stumbled upon a staff with teleport charges that was not so expensive (a little less than 30k) so I also bought that. During the playing session I continued to check for cheaper versions and found a bald one (only the charges, no extra mods) for 18k and I couldn't abstain buying that also. So I gave up on checking staffs at Ormus and only scan the wands at subsequent visits. I shoped one with Confuse charges, it might be useful.
So Adriana started with 164 MF for chests, 230 for merc kills. The Spider Forest presented suckers (which have higher chance for jewelry
so I was very glad) but the area only provided the set double axe and a failed unique breast plate. In the Spider Cavern the unique broad axe dropped, but the real treat was Arachnid Lair where the sparkly chest was a set one! It only dropped 3 items (the set long sword which Adriana already had, a magic double durability yew wand and a magic stag bow) but it was very nice to see it . I read that Nightmare has the most spectacular drops as there the ilvl is high enough to actually favor multiple green/gold items. And that was not all in Arachnid Lair. The next spider Adriana killed after opening the chest, dropped the much desired ring mail . Adriana immediately equipped the partial set although it meant losing 18 MF. +life, fire resistance, dex bonus totally makes it worth, I believe. Incidentally no other set/uniques dropped in the session.The Great Marsh contained very nice monsters: drowned carcasses (slow and good xp) and gloams (another larger shot at good jewelry!). Sadly, I was forced to end the session at the waypoint (quite early) so it wasn't that profitable. They got me a Ral though, which could be used for a helm when Diablo approaches. Either for a socketed helm or for a crafted one (a blood would sound good, if not for Adriana maybe for merc even if resists cannot go as high as a circlets). Meanwhile I would also insist on circlet gambling as I could use one or two with good resists for tough elemental monsters like Diablo.
Adriana found level 29 (kept the stat points in reserve) and reached the Great Marsh waypoint.
epaminondas
New member
@SunsetVista : What weapon does your merc use? He might be strong enough for a savage partizan now if you don't have it yet and could spare the diamonds.
SunsetVista
New member
This is what he has now:
-----
Brutal Partizan of Shock
Partizan
Two Hand Damage: 49 - 108
Durability: 58 of 65
Required Level: 23
Required Strength: 97
Required Dexterity: 57
Fingerprint: 0xd9019a40
Item Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
45% Enhanced Damage
Adds 1 - 8 Lightning Damage
2% Mana stolen per hit
3% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -15%
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Jewel of Freedom
Socketed: Skull
-----
any ideas?
-----
Brutal Partizan of Shock
Partizan
Two Hand Damage: 49 - 108
Durability: 58 of 65
Required Level: 23
Required Strength: 97
Required Dexterity: 57
Fingerprint: 0xd9019a40
Item Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
45% Enhanced Damage
Adds 1 - 8 Lightning Damage
2% Mana stolen per hit
3% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -15%
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Jewel of Freedom
Socketed: Skull
-----
any ideas?
japanzaman
New member
View attachment 562
Babs has cleared Normal and the Cow Level and currently sits at lvl 48 heading into nightmare. I still have not utilized the rare reward from Charsi or Anya's personalization reward. I'm waiting for some better bases to drop before I burn Charsi's gear. I've been fairly brief with my posts so far, so I'll go into a little more detail here about Babs' journey to date.
Current Gear
Weapon 1- Hellplague
Weapon 2- Strength (Gladius)
Shield 1 - Rhyme (Bone Shield)
Shield 2 - Nothing
Helmet - +1 Taunt/+1 Item Find/+1 Iron Skin Horned Helmet; Socketed: P topaz, 2 flawless topaz (+64% MF)
Armor - +27% MF breastplate
Belt- Rare Plated Belt with 10% L res
Boots- tri res with HR and 21% MF (awesome, even with low res rolls)
Gloves- blood gloves with 8% CB
Amulet- Res all amulet
Ring 1- MF 15%
Ring 2- Rare ring with some resists
Merc Gear (Prayer Merc)
Weapon- Upped Tannr Gorerod Lance 50-214 base damage
Helmet- some socketed helmet for Fire and Lightning res
Armor- Magic Plate Mail for higher def
Game Play
The beginning was rough with this character as he was limited to swinging at things with no real means of crowd control. Things got better when I got a hold of a taunt helmet, and then I managed to get a taunt/item find helmet which I then put 3 sockets in with Larzuk. Item Find is invaluable in a tournament where chances at items are at a premium, but also comes in handy to dispose of corpses, making certain levels much easier to clear. Taunt is also one of the best 1 point wonders in a game, useful for both splitting apart mobs and also controlling enemy movement in close quarter combat.
Killing was pretty slow entering Act IV, but things picked up once I was able to up my Tannr Gorerod. Even at player 8, I kill pretty smoothly as long as I can taunt the packs of enemies apart. There were no extremely dangerous situations with this character, which cleared all normal areas at P8 and bosses at P1, with the exception of the cow level which was done at P3 (no experience to be gained here anyway). The most annoying enemy was Nihlathak, who I ended up taking on at P8. Lister was a tough customer but required no rejuvs to deal with. Baal was also his usually pesky self, but the CB wore him done soon enough.
Looking ahead, I'll need to start thinking long term strategy for dealing with enemies in Hell. Berserk is one option with the Passion Runeword. Lawbringer would be the absolute best option, but getting the Lem and Ko in Nightmare seems unlikely, and even then I'd need a decent base to socket it into. Harmony could be an interesting option, but I'm not sure it's up to the task of Hell PI's. Crescent Moon is also another option on the table depending on how Hellforge plays out. With any luck I'll get either a Lem or Um from Nightmare hellforge, which will give me some options to play with. I'll also need to improve most of my gear across the board with the exception of maybe my boots, as it is insufficient for dealing with the later parts of nightmare and hell. Just have to keep on the lookout for decent gear as it drops.
Finds (~120% MF)
Uniques
RIXOT'S KEEN (eth)
HOTSPUR (eth)
BLOODFIST
BLOOD CRESCENT
THE DIGGLER
WIZENDRAW
GRAVENSPINE
THE TANNR GOREROD
HELLPLAGUE
Set Items
HSARUS' IRON FIST
ANGELIC HALO
ISENHART'S CASE
BERSERKER'S HEADGEAR
SANDER'S SUPERSTITION
HSARUS IRON STAY
TANCRED'S CROWBILL
CATHAN'S MESH
CATHAN'S MESH
MALABREGA'S ORB
CATHAN'S SEAL
CLEGLAW'S PINCERS
ANGELIC SICKLE
SIGON'S SABOT
SIGON'S GAGE
CATHAN'S VISAGE
HSARUS' IRON HEEL
ISENHART'S HORNS
ARCTIC MITTS
ARCTIC BINDING
HWANIN'S BLESSING
Babs has cleared Normal and the Cow Level and currently sits at lvl 48 heading into nightmare. I still have not utilized the rare reward from Charsi or Anya's personalization reward. I'm waiting for some better bases to drop before I burn Charsi's gear. I've been fairly brief with my posts so far, so I'll go into a little more detail here about Babs' journey to date.
Current Gear
Weapon 1- Hellplague
Weapon 2- Strength (Gladius)
Shield 1 - Rhyme (Bone Shield)
Shield 2 - Nothing
Helmet - +1 Taunt/+1 Item Find/+1 Iron Skin Horned Helmet; Socketed: P topaz, 2 flawless topaz (+64% MF)
Armor - +27% MF breastplate
Belt- Rare Plated Belt with 10% L res
Boots- tri res with HR and 21% MF (awesome, even with low res rolls)
Gloves- blood gloves with 8% CB
Amulet- Res all amulet
Ring 1- MF 15%
Ring 2- Rare ring with some resists
Merc Gear (Prayer Merc)
Weapon- Upped Tannr Gorerod Lance 50-214 base damage
Helmet- some socketed helmet for Fire and Lightning res
Armor- Magic Plate Mail for higher def
Game Play
The beginning was rough with this character as he was limited to swinging at things with no real means of crowd control. Things got better when I got a hold of a taunt helmet, and then I managed to get a taunt/item find helmet which I then put 3 sockets in with Larzuk. Item Find is invaluable in a tournament where chances at items are at a premium, but also comes in handy to dispose of corpses, making certain levels much easier to clear. Taunt is also one of the best 1 point wonders in a game, useful for both splitting apart mobs and also controlling enemy movement in close quarter combat.
Killing was pretty slow entering Act IV, but things picked up once I was able to up my Tannr Gorerod. Even at player 8, I kill pretty smoothly as long as I can taunt the packs of enemies apart. There were no extremely dangerous situations with this character, which cleared all normal areas at P8 and bosses at P1, with the exception of the cow level which was done at P3 (no experience to be gained here anyway). The most annoying enemy was Nihlathak, who I ended up taking on at P8. Lister was a tough customer but required no rejuvs to deal with. Baal was also his usually pesky self, but the CB wore him done soon enough.
Looking ahead, I'll need to start thinking long term strategy for dealing with enemies in Hell. Berserk is one option with the Passion Runeword. Lawbringer would be the absolute best option, but getting the Lem and Ko in Nightmare seems unlikely, and even then I'd need a decent base to socket it into. Harmony could be an interesting option, but I'm not sure it's up to the task of Hell PI's. Crescent Moon is also another option on the table depending on how Hellforge plays out. With any luck I'll get either a Lem or Um from Nightmare hellforge, which will give me some options to play with. I'll also need to improve most of my gear across the board with the exception of maybe my boots, as it is insufficient for dealing with the later parts of nightmare and hell. Just have to keep on the lookout for decent gear as it drops.
Finds (~120% MF)
Uniques
RIXOT'S KEEN (eth)
HOTSPUR (eth)
BLOODFIST
BLOOD CRESCENT
THE DIGGLER
WIZENDRAW
GRAVENSPINE
THE TANNR GOREROD
HELLPLAGUE
Set Items
HSARUS' IRON FIST
ANGELIC HALO
ISENHART'S CASE
BERSERKER'S HEADGEAR
SANDER'S SUPERSTITION
HSARUS IRON STAY
TANCRED'S CROWBILL
CATHAN'S MESH
CATHAN'S MESH
MALABREGA'S ORB
CATHAN'S SEAL
CLEGLAW'S PINCERS
ANGELIC SICKLE
SIGON'S SABOT
SIGON'S GAGE
CATHAN'S VISAGE
HSARUS' IRON HEEL
ISENHART'S HORNS
ARCTIC MITTS
ARCTIC BINDING
HWANIN'S BLESSING
japanzaman
New member
Those should last you until you get a pair of blood gloves!
epaminondas
New member
@SunsetVista : Well, the savage partizan would be an improvement, albeit small. The str requirements should be reached by now by the merc without freedom stuff. Another option is to gamble poleaxes, if you can afford to upgrade it. From ilvl 51 a poleaxe can get ferocious dmg. There are also other options for ferocious with faster polearms but with lower dmg. The pike needs ilvl 53 to support ferocious.
HanShotFirst
Well-known member
Baal is dead. Act V has been cleared at players 7. The Cow King's hide has been turned to armor. I've had a nice day.
Act V continued to be easy. The plan continued to be teleport for positioning, freeze stuff with Glacial Spike, and let Hazade shatter it. Only two monster types were immune to this strategy: Defilers and Death Lords. Defilers merely slowed things down. Death Lords had a chance to be fatal. The most dangerous battle of normal was immediately upon entering the Infernal Pit and encountering a group of extra fast Death Lords. I hadn't encountered the cannot be frozen variety yet and casually shot a Glacial Spike into them and to my great dismay nothing happened. Before I could fully process this disturbing turn of events they were upon me. Then Hazade was dead (which hadn't happened before except at bosses). Then the group of extra fast Death Lords all hopped up on Frenzy were coming for me! Fortunately the layout of those Pits is extremely advantageous to teleporters and I was able get to the safety of another platform. Hazade was resurrected and more importantly, I got fully mentally prepared, and then we went back down there and kicked some butt. The rest of Act V was a bit of a snooze.
Hazade left Harrogath using a Savage Lochaber Axe of the Leech which was getting things done but you could tell that progress was slowing down . . . At some point though I must have stopped noticing because before I knew it I was in the Frozen Tundra and Hazade had more than enough strength to use a Savage Partizan and then progress really picked up again. Two also had a chance for a significant equipment change but it wasn't acted upon until after Baal. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me to use the three chipped gem recipe on an orb before and after depleting my stash of chipped gems I came up with:
Angel's Glowing Orb of the Magus
One-Hand Damage: 8 to 21
Durability: 20 of 20
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 24
Orb Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0x89f96e4f
+13 to Life
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
20% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Teleport (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Glacial Spike (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Telekinesis (Sorceress Only)
Socketed (1: 0 used)
Which means I can finally use a shield
. Milabrega's was used in the Cow Level which was no doubt the reason for my three set/unique finds: The Skewer of Krintiz Sabre, the Angelic Sabre, and the Cow King's Hide (from the Cow King). Truth be told set/uniques were dropping at a pretty good rate before bringing on Milabrega's Shield. Act V set/unique drops were: Blood Crescent Scimitar (from Shenk), Bloodletter Gladius (from the Frozen River), Swordback Hold Spiked Shield (from the Halls of Anguish), the Skewer of Krintiz Sabre (from the Halls of Pain), Sander's Gloves (from the Halls of Pain), Sigon's Boots (from the Halls of Pain), Gleamscythe Falchion (from the Glacial Trail), Wall of the Eyeless Bone Shield (from the Frozen Tundra), Isenhart's Armor (from the Frozen Tundra), Isenhart's Shield (from the Ancients Way), Isenhart's Helm (from Baal), and Cleglaw's Sword (from Baal). (I was operating with 199 MF when Hazade killed . . . which was always ).
Hanshotfirst, Sorceress, Two, Level 47, Act I NM, Rogue Encampment
Here's what things look like going into NM. (So, I'm expecting to sub out Milabrega's Shield for something with resistances a.s.a.p.)
Act V continued to be easy. The plan continued to be teleport for positioning, freeze stuff with Glacial Spike, and let Hazade shatter it. Only two monster types were immune to this strategy: Defilers and Death Lords. Defilers merely slowed things down. Death Lords had a chance to be fatal. The most dangerous battle of normal was immediately upon entering the Infernal Pit and encountering a group of extra fast Death Lords. I hadn't encountered the cannot be frozen variety yet and casually shot a Glacial Spike into them and to my great dismay nothing happened. Before I could fully process this disturbing turn of events they were upon me. Then Hazade was dead (which hadn't happened before except at bosses). Then the group of extra fast Death Lords all hopped up on Frenzy were coming for me! Fortunately the layout of those Pits is extremely advantageous to teleporters and I was able get to the safety of another platform. Hazade was resurrected and more importantly, I got fully mentally prepared, and then we went back down there and kicked some butt. The rest of Act V was a bit of a snooze.
Hazade left Harrogath using a Savage Lochaber Axe of the Leech which was getting things done but you could tell that progress was slowing down . . . At some point though I must have stopped noticing because before I knew it I was in the Frozen Tundra and Hazade had more than enough strength to use a Savage Partizan and then progress really picked up again. Two also had a chance for a significant equipment change but it wasn't acted upon until after Baal. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me to use the three chipped gem recipe on an orb before and after depleting my stash of chipped gems I came up with:
Angel's Glowing Orb of the Magus
One-Hand Damage: 8 to 21
Durability: 20 of 20
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 24
Orb Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0x89f96e4f
+13 to Life
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
20% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Teleport (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Glacial Spike (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Telekinesis (Sorceress Only)
Socketed (1: 0 used)
Which means I can finally use a shield
. Milabrega's was used in the Cow Level which was no doubt the reason for my three set/unique finds: The Skewer of Krintiz Sabre, the Angelic Sabre, and the Cow King's Hide (from the Cow King). Truth be told set/uniques were dropping at a pretty good rate before bringing on Milabrega's Shield. Act V set/unique drops were: Blood Crescent Scimitar (from Shenk), Bloodletter Gladius (from the Frozen River), Swordback Hold Spiked Shield (from the Halls of Anguish), the Skewer of Krintiz Sabre (from the Halls of Pain), Sander's Gloves (from the Halls of Pain), Sigon's Boots (from the Halls of Pain), Gleamscythe Falchion (from the Glacial Trail), Wall of the Eyeless Bone Shield (from the Frozen Tundra), Isenhart's Armor (from the Frozen Tundra), Isenhart's Shield (from the Ancients Way), Isenhart's Helm (from Baal), and Cleglaw's Sword (from Baal). (I was operating with 199 MF when Hazade killed . . . which was always ).Hanshotfirst, Sorceress, Two, Level 47, Act I NM, Rogue Encampment
Here's what things look like going into NM. (So, I'm expecting to sub out Milabrega's Shield for something with resistances a.s.a.p.)
Last edited:
SunsetVista
New member
Congrats @japanzaman! Nice detail on the writeup!
Congrats @HanShotFirst! That fight with the Death Lords sounds terrifying.
@epaminondas - yeah, a Savage Partizan would be better now. I'll probably try to get one after I have a circlet with leech. Fara sells Lances, so one of those with a Might merc is a possibility if I can survive that long. I do have amp, so I probably shouldn't really be complaining.
Yredelemnul has reached the Outer Cloister. We've been killing on /p5 because some bosspacks are quite nasty. I've been trying to gamble circlets with life leech for the merc. I crafted a blood helm, but it only rolled 1%. Not worth it. Really looking forward to Might.
I amp small groups, decrepify big ones, do a lot of running away, and blow up every carver corpse. Don't forget dim vision on archers. I found a head with both Terror and Decrepify on it, so I feel a bit safer.
There was a scary moment (a near-NDE) with an extra strong, fanaticism vile hunter pack in the Underground Passage, and then Treehead had holy freeze, so that was exciting. Both situations benefited from parking, running away, and approaching from another direction with decrepify to separate the monsters.
The Countess dropped Ral and Thul. On the way to the Outer Cloister I found Visceratuant and The Patriarch, along with a second Angelic Ring. Now I just need the amulet and most of my future AR worries will be solved.
Yredelemnul, impatient mojomancer wannabe, lvl 50, Outer Cloister
Barracks next, maybe I'll get a nice imbue?
Congrats @HanShotFirst! That fight with the Death Lords sounds terrifying.
@epaminondas - yeah, a Savage Partizan would be better now. I'll probably try to get one after I have a circlet with leech. Fara sells Lances, so one of those with a Might merc is a possibility if I can survive that long. I do have amp, so I probably shouldn't really be complaining.
Yredelemnul has reached the Outer Cloister. We've been killing on /p5 because some bosspacks are quite nasty. I've been trying to gamble circlets with life leech for the merc. I crafted a blood helm, but it only rolled 1%. Not worth it. Really looking forward to Might.
I amp small groups, decrepify big ones, do a lot of running away, and blow up every carver corpse. Don't forget dim vision on archers. I found a head with both Terror and Decrepify on it, so I feel a bit safer.
There was a scary moment (a near-NDE) with an extra strong, fanaticism vile hunter pack in the Underground Passage, and then Treehead had holy freeze, so that was exciting. Both situations benefited from parking, running away, and approaching from another direction with decrepify to separate the monsters.
The Countess dropped Ral and Thul. On the way to the Outer Cloister I found Visceratuant and The Patriarch, along with a second Angelic Ring. Now I just need the amulet and most of my future AR worries will be solved.
Yredelemnul, impatient mojomancer wannabe, lvl 50, Outer Cloister
Barracks next, maybe I'll get a nice imbue?
Vladimir and Jemali have successfully made passage to the Kurast Docks!
The tombs were a bit of a marathon, but a really nice rare Kite Shield with dual res, deflecting, and ED dropped which made life more bearable. Paired with a Steel Flail, the tombs were much nicer. Duriel was made simple by a few thawing potions and keeping open wounds going on the big bug. We didn't use any potions or portals, and Duriel was done on P8. He dropped the diggler. We might use it eventually if resists are a huge problem, but we'll see.
Also, a fanged helm with +2 hork, +1 taunt dropped. We continued to use a circlet of luck, then swapped to the Find Item helm once everything was dead. This strategy proved quite effective when Hork yielded a bloodrise. Might be worth upping in the future, but we shall see.
First thing we did in Kurast was to gamble the nearly 300k gold amassed in the tombs. Nothing with the mythical "Luck" suffix appeared, but rare boots with 23 MF, 28 FR, and 20 frw did grace our presence. Similar rare gloves were gambled with MF and dual res were equipped. A random circlet gamble thrown in spawned "of luck", which gives us 219 MF when the mercenary kills something. Lastly, we gambled a rare pike with some ED, min damage, and Life Leech so hopefully Jemali will be a little more durable.
Next stop is the rain forests, probably my least favorite area in the game.
Vladimir and Jemali, level 28 Barbarian, Spider Forest next.
The tombs were a bit of a marathon, but a really nice rare Kite Shield with dual res, deflecting, and ED dropped which made life more bearable. Paired with a Steel Flail, the tombs were much nicer. Duriel was made simple by a few thawing potions and keeping open wounds going on the big bug. We didn't use any potions or portals, and Duriel was done on P8. He dropped the diggler. We might use it eventually if resists are a huge problem, but we'll see.
Also, a fanged helm with +2 hork, +1 taunt dropped. We continued to use a circlet of luck, then swapped to the Find Item helm once everything was dead. This strategy proved quite effective when Hork yielded a bloodrise. Might be worth upping in the future, but we shall see.
First thing we did in Kurast was to gamble the nearly 300k gold amassed in the tombs. Nothing with the mythical "Luck" suffix appeared, but rare boots with 23 MF, 28 FR, and 20 frw did grace our presence. Similar rare gloves were gambled with MF and dual res were equipped. A random circlet gamble thrown in spawned "of luck", which gives us 219 MF when the mercenary kills something. Lastly, we gambled a rare pike with some ED, min damage, and Life Leech so hopefully Jemali will be a little more durable.
Next stop is the rain forests, probably my least favorite area in the game.
Vladimir and Jemali, level 28 Barbarian, Spider Forest next.
SunsetVista
New member
NM Andariel has fallen!
Iron maiden/clay golem didn't work. The golem was too fragile, and Andy regenerated the damage she dealt to herself quickly. On his own, Zanarhi didn't stand much of a chance against her, but with Decrepify and lots of purple pots and trips to town to res him, he prevailed. The prevent monster heal on Edge was critical to my success here. I had about 50% hit chance with ~100 dex. (Edit: I've since learned that Act Bosses don't regenerate, so more credit goes to merc + decrep + thorns)
Zanarhi has earned his retirement.
Welcome our mighty new hero, Waheed!
Yredelemnul the Vile and Waheed the Mighty, lvl 51, NM Lut Gholein
sweet vengeance for Atma next!
Iron maiden/clay golem didn't work. The golem was too fragile, and Andy regenerated the damage she dealt to herself quickly. On his own, Zanarhi didn't stand much of a chance against her, but with Decrepify and lots of purple pots and trips to town to res him, he prevailed. The prevent monster heal on Edge was critical to my success here. I had about 50% hit chance with ~100 dex. (Edit: I've since learned that Act Bosses don't regenerate, so more credit goes to merc + decrep + thorns)
Zanarhi has earned his retirement.
Welcome our mighty new hero, Waheed!
Yredelemnul the Vile and Waheed the Mighty, lvl 51, NM Lut Gholein
sweet vengeance for Atma next!
Last edited:
japanzaman
New member
Man, I don't know if I can keep up with this guy! Nice job so far with what I consider to be one of the more difficult classes in this challenge.
SunsetVista
New member
Thanks! I've been motivated to keep going since you're catching up to me so fast! =) It's good fun.
The easy (cheesy) part of being a necro (clay golem/iron maiden) is pretty much over. But I'll have nearly a full set of curses on switch for the rest of the game. Easy access to Amp/Decrep/CE, I just need to find a nice bow (and merc weapon) and survive.
I guess a barb does have warcries and better hp, and find item and dual wield.... Each class has advantages. I personally think necro is easier than barb, so I'm impressed with your progress, too.
japanzaman
New member
Taunt has proven to be a valuable tool so far in Nightmare now that the boss packs have gotten significantly more powerful. I'm also making use of some charged wands to get Weaken and Attract, which makes dealing with hard to break up groups more manageable.
I'm about halfway through act 3, and am dual wielding wands of terror and weaken, which is making the act more or less a joke. I gambled a pike with ED and life leech for the mercenary, so it's been smooth sailing.
