Skill-less tournament (3rd edition)

Spineless managed to clear Duriel on p5 by casting life tap and feeding thawing pots to his merc. Seemed almost like cheating. Currently level 30 starting Great Marsh. I shopped a +2 amp +2 corpse explosion wand to go with a +1 corpse explosion +2 terror head for everyday use. Weapon swap is a life tap wand with Stormguild (62% block) large shield.

I have a rules question, sorry if it's been answered earlier in the thread: can I use low level enemies in previous areas to pre-buff with Treachery's fade?
 
Okay, so after some crafting and runeword making, Skilllass entered hell with the following gear:

Head (Blood Craft)
Grim Casque
Helm
Defense: 17
+10% Faster Hit Recovery
3% Life stolen per hit
5% Deadly Strike
+34 to Life
Lightning Resist +15%
Fire Resist +12%

Amulet (Safety Craft)
Rune Necklace
Amulet
9% Increased Chance of Blocking
+2 to Minimum Damage
5% Life stolen per hit
+18 to Life
Poison Resist +9%
Damage Reduced by 1
Magic Damage Reduced by 2

Body
Lionheart
Cuirass
HelLumFal
Defense: 202
20% Enhanced Damage
All Stats +10
+15 to Strength
+5 to Dexterity
+10 to Vitality
+50 to Life
All Resistances +30
Requirements -15%

Weapon 1
Black
Tyrant Club
ThulIoNef
One Hand Damage: 70 - 127
+15% Increased Attack Speed
120% Enhanced Damage
+200 to Attack Rating
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
Knockback
+10 to Vitality
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
Level 4 Corpse Explosion (12/12 Charges)
3 Sockets (3 used)

Shield 1
Rhyme
Tower Shield
ShaelEth
Defense: 24
Chance to Block: 44
+40% Faster Block Rate
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
Regenerate Mana 15%
All Resistances +25
Cannot Be Frozen
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Eth Rune

Weapon 2
Sacred Globe of Glacial Spike
Sacred Globe
One Hand Damage: 4 - 8
+1 to Minimum Damage
+2 to Teleport (Sorceress Only)
+1 to Telekinesis (Sorceress Only)
+7 to Mana
Lightning Resist +22%
Poison Resist +16%
Level 1 Glacial Spike (33/33 Charges)
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Ambergris Jewel of Joyfulness
Socketed: Jade Jewel

Shield 2
Rhyme
Bone Shield
ShaelEth
Defense: 24
Chance to Block: 40
+40% Faster Block Rate
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
Regenerate Mana 15%
All Resistances +25
Cannot Be Frozen
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
2 Sockets (2 used)

Gloves
Bloodfist
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 18
+10% Increased Attack Speed
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+5 to Minimum Damage
+18% Enhanced Defense
+10 Defense
+40 to Life

Ring 1 (Blood Craft)
Beast Touch
Ring
+4 to Minimum Damage
+65 to Attack Rating
3% Life stolen per hit
+6 to Strength
+37 to Life

Ring 2
Wraith Grip
Ring
+70 to Attack Rating
4% Life stolen per hit
+8 to Energy
Replenish Life +4
+17 Maximum Stamina
Lightning Resist +30%

Belt
Immortal King's Detail
War Belt
Defense: 89
+36 Defense
+25 to Strength
Lightning Resist +31%
Fire Resist +28%

Boots (Blood Craft)
Raven Brogues
Battle Boots
Defense: 55
+30% Faster Run/Walk
1% Life stolen per hit
+16% Enhanced Defense
+9 to Dexterity
+14 to Life
Replenish Life +10
21% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Replacement Weapon
The Fetid Sprinkler
Holy Water Sprinkler
One Hand Damage: 54 - 126
5% Chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking
10% Chance to cast level 1 Confuse on striking
+2 to Paladin Skill Levels
181% Enhanced Damage
Adds 15 - 25 Damage
+151 to Attack Rating
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 160 Poison Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)

Charms give a combination of resists, life, fhr, and ar. I forgot to take an LCS shot when first entering hell, but I'll post a current one when I do a progress post in a little bit.

The merc is a blessed aim merc equipped with:

Head (Blood Craft)
Loath Circlet
Helm
Defense: 22
+10% Faster Hit Recovery
+15 to Attack Rating
1% Life stolen per hit
5% Deadly Strike
+19% Enhanced Defense
+14 to Life
Cold Resist +14%
+1 to Light Radius

Body
Treachery
Breast Plate
ShaelThulLem
Defense: 100
5% Chance to cast level 15 Fade when struck
25% Chance to cast level 15 Venom on striking
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+45% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
Ethereal
3 Sockets (3 used)

Weapon
Insight
Partizan
RalTirTalSol
Two Hand Damage: 119 - 243
Level 13 Meditation Aura When Equipped
+35% Faster Cast Rate
225% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
191% Bonus to Attack Rating
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
+6 to Critical Strike
All Stats +5
+2 to Mana after each Kill
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
4 Sockets (4 used)
 
Mentor Level 28 Barbarian @ Kurast Docks reporting in.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvAcH6am0bVJXYGIpMv5LtPWH-bUdn3L
Video because lazy, I'll keep the playlist up to date with my progress as quickly as my internet connection allows.

(Edit: embedding the youtube playlist doesnt work for me.)

Act1:
Nothing really

Act2:
Gambled a Pike for Ahsab, and I got lucky (32% ED, +3 Maximum dmg, +1-3 fire dmg, 5% life leach).
Made a Savage Partizan, if I remember correctly it was my 2nd try or something like that :D
Found Cleglaw's pincers, however since they don't give magic find I stashed them.
Found Crushflang, so now I have something with crushing blow to use against act bosses.
Halfway through act 2 I found a gem shrine, however I lacked 1 flawed and 2 chipped to make a perfect topaz (And since I am not sure if gem shrines dissapear if you leave them alone I went back and forth to it every now and then).

Act 3:
Bought charged items with: teleport, enchant, life tap and terror.
Stole felixbavaria's idea and socketed RalRalRal in a Hunter's Bow.

118 chipped,
18 flawed,
1 Skull,
1 Perfect Topaz
8 El,
3 Eld,
1 Eth,
1 Ith,
4 Nef,
2 Tal,
4 Tir

Fails so far: Instead of using my normal topazes in a new armor, I cubed + 1 gem shrined them up to a perfect topaz. The fail part is that 3 socketed helms at its earliest be found in act 5 vendors... so all that magic find just wasting away in ATMA until then....
 
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I have a rules question, sorry if it's been answered earlier in the thread: can I use low level enemies in previous areas to pre-buff with Treachery's fade?

The spirit of a single-pass tourney is that the monsters already killed are not there anymore (I know we see them and they can kill us, but we deny their existence :) ). So they cannot be used. Same goes for shrines, even if they remain in place after S&E. Because they are re-rolled when starting the game again, they should not be accessed any more.
 
The spirit of a single-pass tourney is that the monsters already killed are not there anymore (I know we see them and they can kill us, but we deny their existence :) ). So they cannot be used. Same goes for shrines, even if they remain in place after S&E. Because they are re-rolled when starting the game again, they should not be accessed any more.
How do we deal with fires on the ground? If one finds a way to lure the enemies away from such a flame, should that be allowed to be used to pre-buff treachery?

If the spirit of the single-pass is something like: We play the game like we never exited the game, so monsters don't respawn.
Then it should be alright to revisit old areas, assuming you do not interact with anything that have respawned; monsters, shrines, chests, pots...

Not sure how useful it would be though, since the flames need to be close to a wp to work against bosses.
 
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Well, I think that is the spirit of this gameplay that should guide us, not a set of rigid rules. If one can, in good conscience, find a way to use previous areas (for anything) while avoiding re-spawning advantages, he should be able to do so. I, for one, I'm sure I could not do that.
 
In the Exposure tourney, I usually tried to leave a weak critter alive in some of the first few packs and get that one to trigger Fade. I was on the lookout for traps for the same purpose. I also had some extra claws in the stash I could cast level 7 Fade from, if needed.
 
Unlikely has defeated NM Diablo.

Mostly pretty dull really. No Gloams, no Dammed, no Maggots until the second part of RoF. CS was a bit exciting with several extra fast OK zipping around with their extra fast Doom Knight minions. One multi-shot/Extra Fast lit up the screen like christmas lights. Lots and lots of merc deaths in the CS. These nice boots from the Pit Lord boss.

Cruel Blazer
Light Plated Boots
Defense: 11
Durability: 12 of 18
Required Level: 18
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x288f2f2b
Item Level: 61
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Run/Walk
Cold Resist +20%
Lightning Resist +16%
Poison Resist +40%
Half Freeze Duration
13% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

On to Diablo. Emilio tanked and Unlikley cast Decrep. The CG poofed as fast as I could cast him, so I stopped bothering. With Diablo still about 75% health I'd used 8 purples on the merc and rezzed him twice. With only 4 purples left this wasn't looking like it was going to get me to the end. Diablo's lightning hose or fire attack would take Emilio down to almost dead. Emilio was wearing Stealskull so had some leech and also had Insight plus his Prayer aura, so would heal given time, but without a purple would die if Diablo used two attacks in a row (or in a short space of time). At this point I realised I'd forgotten to change the players setting and was still on p8. Nothing to do but soldier on though … and claim bragging rights if we won!

Grabbing the teleport staff from the stash for our next run (after rezzing Emilio again), I got a quick decrep on Diablo then tele'd on top of him to hopefully get Emilio under the lightning hose. Unlikely then backed off to a safe distance for casting decrep. The plan worked and while Diablo's fire attack still hurt Emilio he didn't use it twice in a row, so we were able to defeat him with no more deaths, no more purples and only a few more red pots. Was a 'nice' moment of blindness when I opened the cube to switch out the tele staff … always good to have a bit of extra panic! And then forgot to switch weapons at the death, so missed out on 78% MF (did remember to change the merc helm though!).

Drops:
Outer Steppes - Lem; Tal's Horadric Crest (both of these are oh so nice)
Hellforge - Hel (appropriate but not so exciting)
RoF - Duskdeep
Diablo -
View attachment 766

And here we are showing p8 Diablo how it is done!
View attachment 765

I can never get enough of looking at Lem runes!
View attachment 764

Unlikely the necro with Emilio and the CG, Lvl 67, NM Act 5 Harrogath
 
@Dezrok: What a nice fight! And impressive drops!

And many thought that in this tournament would be impossible to reach Hell ... Looking at the table we have a lot of Hell players with more on the verge to join them. Eh, SPF has really no challenges left ... :)
 
I also forgot to mention that I noticed that Spawners would also be immune to Dim Vision if you cast it at the same time as they were spitting out a pup ... further to jiansonz's comments regarding Spawners and CoS. Not such a big problem with DV though as it has no cooldown period. Perhaps they are immune to all 'curses' while spitting pups?
 
Mentor is no more.

He got to level 35 and normal act 4, namely Diablo. While he technically did not die, he could not defeat Diablo.

Mentor spent his days spending money here and there. Buying teleport and life taps charged items for the future. He spend every bit gold as soon as he found it, investing it in the future.
He thought he was a responsible barbarian, sure he gambled quite a bit, but it was for a good cause he used to say.

He had long going plans, and always thought two acts ahead.

Sadly that it is just his long term planing and investing that sealed his destiny.

Like the old barbarians on the north used to say, unless you can make it through the coming winter, all those wast fields will be of no use.

Mentor did not live by the code of barbarians, he thought himself to cleaver for that.

And in the end he did not even die in combat against his (i)mortal enemy.

The wind whispers of an eternal struggle, where neither barbarian nor beast could hit the finishing blow.

Let his tale be of some value, do not invest all your gold into the glorious future. Save some, for potions, against Diablo.


(I tried to use a few skulls I had in a helmet, then ran awa.. I did a tactical retreat to let my hit point go up before joining the fight again. However, since Diablo also regenerates life.... it would be an eternal fight.)
(If I had more leech, resists, crushing blow, slow %.... it would probably be, not easy, but manageable. Sadly all those items where in ATMA, and because of the rules I could take them out (since I already cleared everything except diablo before I remembered those items..)

I will create a new character later, using the same random selection and random naming as last time. This time I think I will have a better chance :)
 
Skilllass and her Blessed Aim merc companion Durga have made it to the Outer Cloister Waypoint. They have so far skipped all the side areas: Cave, Crypt, Mausoleum, Hole, Pits, but plan to clear them upon (if) defeating Andariel. The clears of the otheras have been full clears on p3. Here's an LCS shot taken in the middle of this questing.

View attachment 771

The enemies which are not PI have been relatively routine so far, with Durga and Skilllass teaming up on them; Durga with Insight and Treachery and Skilllass with Black and Rhyme (Max Block). The knockback of Black has not been annoying since the team positions themselves in a "flanking" position nullifying the knockback; see the pic below for an example.

View attachment 767

PI enemies (such as ghosts in the tower) have proved to be tedious but ultimately killable. The decrepify from the Fetid Sprinkler activates too infrequently and for too short a duration to be really useful. I do have an orb with +2 cold skills, +2 Frozen Orb, +2 Fire Wall, +2 Fire Mastery that I plan to try out instead. We'll see how that works.

The fight against Blood Raven was quite a marathon. The merc bug struck on the way to Blood Raven, so there ended up being a large band of zombies which single mindedly lurched toward Skilllass. Brains!

View attachment 768

The tactic involved waiting till Blood Raven came out from the pack and teleporting on top of her to get a few licks in before either she escaped or the zombie hoard caught up. Needless to say we covered almost every inch of the Burial Ground. Get her, quick!

View attachment 769

Treehead Woodfist presented complications of his own, but the fight was quite a bit quicker than Blood Raven, even with a nasty set of mods.

View attachment 770

Funnily enough the room with the chest that the Countess guards was completely empty when I first entered. Obviously she had heard of Skilllass' great conquests and was scared off.

View attachment 772

She was found hiding around the corner and was easily dispatched.

View attachment 773

Here are a few more pics of some of the tougher monsters along the way.

View attachment 774

View attachment 775

View attachment 776

Apparently 10 images is the maximum per post, so I'll continue into the next post...
 
However, since Diablo also regenerates life....

No he doesn't. No act boss in this game regenerates.

If you get a couple of screens away from him for a while, he may become completely reset (to full life), though.



@Sput: great progress!
(Too bad about about the ghosts, though. Nasty buggers since you can't GSpike them either.
Can't you use a Shocking weapon or something for your merc to take them down?)
 
Well, I can honestly say I didn't think I'd make it this far. Vladimir and Haseen are level 67 and have vanquished the lord of terror!

Hellforge gave us Lem! We now have the runes for Treachery, and I think it will be extremely helpful moving forward.

We did the entire chaos sanctuary and big D on P8. Chaos Sanctuary took awhile, but wasn't really dangerous. You can use the hallways near the start to split packs up pretty well. Lord De Seis and his minions melted Haseen once before we got a chance to split them up.

Diablo was...tedious. The only dangerous part for Haseen was firestorm. If he was anywhere below full hp, firestorm meant certain death. It didn't help that I ran out of big purple potions early on...life tap charges saved the day.

Diablo's drop was worthless:

View attachment 783

The ring only spawned three crap affixes.

Now I have a big dilemna. Act V, while my favorite act, takes forever to full clear. P8 further exacerbates that. I will almost definitely start on P8, but I could definitely see backing off the difficulty, especially in areas where death lords can spawn (anyone have a list? I know they can spawn in the caves and WSK).

Vladimir and Haseen, level 67 Demon Slayers - Harrogoth
 
where death lords can spawn (anyone have a list? I know they can spawn in the caves and WSK).

Frenzytaurs in general:
Cystalline Passage, Glacial Trail, Ancients' Way
Drifter Cavern, Icy Cellar (NOT Frozen River, except there can be bosspacks in Normal) :)
All three WSK levels and the Throne level
All three RoF-like bonus areas
Halls of Anguish, Halls of Pain

The nastiest ones:
Death Lords have Cannot Be Frozen on all difficulties and they can spawn on WSK levels 1, 3, Throne level and in Infernal Pit.

Hell Lords have CBF on Hell difficulty. They can spawn on Abaddon, Pit of Acheron, Icy Cellar, Ancients' Way and WSK level 2.
 
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I can no longer stand just reading about all you guys having so much fun. Consider "Slow" the not random barbarian the newest entry. SC 1.13 final starting now, and progressing stupid slow =)
 
@illya_ : To bad about Mentor, but nice recount :). I'm sure the next char will be more successful.

Another (richer) table post:
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     76   A1(H)   Outer Cloister
Dezrok           Necro      Unlikely      67   A5(N)   Harrogath         1.13d
Dazliare        *Barb       Vladimir      67   A5(N)   Harrogath
japanzaman       Barb       Babs          57?  A3(N)   Travincal         1.13
felixbavaria     Amazon     Adynate       50   A1(N)   Black Marsh       1.13d
Naturallog       Necro      Spineless     30   A3      Spider Forest     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
helvete          Barb       Slow           1   A1      Rogue Enc         1.13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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_           Barb       Mentor        35   A4      Diablo           1.13c
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 :)
 
What were the rules about muling again? It only says ATMA is allowed as extended stash, but I remember reading something about when and where muling was allowed? I also assume GoMule counts as ATMA?
 
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