Skillz Tournament: Get Ready To Play

Ok, I took my character for a brief stint through Act 1 NM nightmare today just to get a feel for how hard it would be. It was, as expected, noticeably harder...I retreated from a few battles and my merc tended to die a lot.

So I made some switches to my equipment, and one of these was to replace the rare circlet I was wearing with Coif of Glory . It helped a lot, and my merc hasn't died since.

Yeah, so now I have a rare circlet that I don't need. Should I just sell it or does anyone want it? I'm not sure if it's worth much but I'll take a low-level rune or something in xchange for it. Here are the stats:

Circlet
Defense: 45
20% faster cast rate
+xx% enhanced defense
+4 maximum damage
+8 energy
+53 mana
Socketed (2) (2 normal topazes)
+36% chance of getting magic items
 
Diana the speed-loving assassin and her trusty archer companion Shayla have cleared up to and including Halls of the Dead. Diana is level 18 now with 6 points in Burst of Speed and 6 points in Dragon Talon.

She has pushed her STR and DEX to 46, the rest is spent into Vitality (all her upcoming stat points until the Duriel fight will also be spent here).

Diana uses some rare Claws with about +30% damage, slight cold damage and mana steal. She just breaks even, mana wise, with her Tiger Strike attacks against enemies you can steal mana from.

Best item so far: a Small Charm with 1-2 cold damage and 5% cold resist. I think that is an awesome charm at this stage in the game and one that I may well use for the rest of Diana´s career. I have also found Hsaru´s Iron Heel. A good item by itself, and will get a very good AR bonus with another item from the set (which may be needed later when Diana will be using Attack (no AR bonus from skills) with a ranged weapon). I still have Death´s Hand in the stash. I decided I won´t need it, so that´s for sale. In return, I would be very interested in a high-end pair of Coral/Cobalt/Garnet gloves of Fortune or a pair of high-end Amber/Ruby/Sapphire boots of Luck.


I had never properly tried Cloak of Shadows before. I did that today in the Lut Gholein sewers against those burning archers. Wow! Me like. I can see that this will become one of her main skills. I think I will even max it (!).

I planned ahead a bit. The main plan is to become a fast ranged attacker. Throwing weapons, bow or crossbow, with a barbarian mercenary for a tank. Lots and lots of Cloak of Shadows will be used. PIs will be dealt with using weapons with elemental damage.

That aside, Diana also plans to be able to kick (pun intended) some a** to help her mercenary, whenever needed. Tiger Strike and Dragon Talon will both see a healthy investment of skill points. I like to keep my weapon options open (who knows what weapons I will find?) so there will be no more points in Claw Mastery (the first point helps a lot through Normal and is a prerequisite for Burst of Speed anyway).

At this stage, I aim for STR 91 as a first target, so Diana can use Scarabshell Boots (for good kicking damage) and any of two lightest elite armors. Dex will be invested in so I´ll have around 50% blocking with a high base-% blocking shield. That will leave many points into Vitality. This is, after all, hardcore...

This character can get really interesting. I am very curious as to how she will perform when the game starts to get tough.

Full clear once everywhere, on players 1. That is the plan and I´m sticking with it. Diana´s fast and easy to play and will hopefully continue to be that way for quite a while. A good contrast to some of my other tourney characters.

Diana the assassin, level 18, Far Oasis next.
 
~~~note To All Players~~~

Send all e-mails after this post to [email protected], any e-mails sent after this post to my old e-mail i will not get. However the e-mails sent before i posted this i got. Thanks and good luck on surviving! *Hits play on the cheesey *keep on surviving* song and walks off*
 
Sorry I haven't updated yet.

Eager-Beaver now sits on quest 4 of act 3 and has found quite a few uniques and rares to keep going.

Included in these are twitchthroe, tarnhelm, and gull. there's a few other ones but I don't remember them at the moment...

Just a check... Who's still in the tournament still? Would someone mind making a list?
 
Pointy_Things the Amazon is level 19 and just cleared Act 1.

Gambled some amazing MF items, going to clear the Act 1 uniques a few more times before I commit suicide...I mean, fight Duriel.

So far my LB/PS plan is working, I have respectable ranged/melee attacks with a full time shield. If anyone has a big javelin class weapon w/ mana leech FT lemme know at [email protected]

Pointy_Things - Amazon lvl 19
Funky Defiance Merc - lvl 13

GG
 
Edge666 said:
Sorry I haven't updated yet.

Eager-Beaver now sits on quest 4 of act 3 and has found quite a few uniques and rares to keep going.

Included in these are twitchthroe, tarnhelm, and gull. there's a few other ones but I don't remember them at the moment...

Just a check... Who's still in the tournament still? Would someone mind making a list?
Click to expand...

im working on it, but I just don't have a lot of time for D2 at this junture of my life, I got to play a bit tonight but that will be it for awhile, but I,ll get to work on another update list, just got to get some sleep now... :sleep:
 
Asha is now level 42 and has just rescued Anya. Actually got a semi-decent shield from her.

Act 4 went by easily enough. Hellforge dropped me the ever useful and highely elusive El rune. The Chaos Sanctuary was wrather easy, had to revive my merc several times because of IM. The fight with diablo went better than expected. Used a few potions, but was never close to dying. Found Hellclap, The Impaler, Milabrega's Rod and a few rares from diablo.

Will hopefully be able to find a decent melee weapon soon, currently using a "Steel" flail, mainly for the attack speed as the damage from holy fire still kills quickly. But I don't think I'll make it too far into NM without some decent physical damage to back it up. (Assuming I make it that far)

Will go after Nihlathak tomorrow, and perhaps finish norm.
 
Here's a brief update. I only went back from the most recent post to the beginning of page 5. If you haven't updated since then, get on the ball! :D

azn_apocalypse - Destroyer Iconoclast, lvl ?, A1 NM
Paradox of Reality - Asha, lvl 42, A5
kramph - Brooklyn, lvl 28, A4
El Communisto - Burninated, lvl 32, A4
Resipsa - Trig, lvl ?, A4
loverat - Lord_Lithium, lvl 26, A3
Hergrom - Jade, lvl 27, A3
Edge666 - Eager-Beaver, lvl ?, A3
jiansonz - Diana, lvl 18, A2
GooberGrape - Pointy_Things, lvl 19, A2
sam_manzanza - TreeHugger, lvl 19, A2
Insane Wayne - Liu Zhixin, lvl 20, A2
Sagittarius - SliceNDice, lvl 20, A2
FireAnt45 - Potatoe, lvl 23, A2
Fallen_62 - ?, lvl 1, A1
Wonko the Sane - Cernd, lvl 1, A1
Saidinhc - McBride, lvl 1, A1
Lost-Scythe - ?, lvl 1, A1
Mage11 - Wulfgar, lvl 7, A1
Bongo Fury - IcePrincess, lvl 8, A1
Spook_Cell - Magus, lvl 11, A1
Lacerta - Babs, lvl 16, A1
hearshot03. - HearSHOT, lvl 18, A1
simeonb - Arthur, lvl 19, A1
SuperSavage - Matrix, Level 20, A1 - RIP (Andariel)
JohnnyBravo - SuzieQ, lvl 23, A2 - dropped out
bradley_turner - KaleX, lvl 29, A4 - formatted HD
Couvi - Staticus, lvl ?, A2 - RIP (Duriel)
Kool69 - Pandora, lvl ?, A? - dropped out of his own touranment. tsk, tsk. :D

This is just a quickie update cos I want to get back to playing, but I still wanted everyone to have a vague idea of what was going on.

:drink: Cheers!
EC

edit: 250 posts. Weird... :buddies: <- I like this smiley.
 
El Communisto said:
Here's a brief update. I only went back from the most recent post to the beginning of page 5. If you haven't updated since then, get on the ball! :D

azn_apocalypse - Destroyer Iconoclast, lvl ?, A1 NM
Paradox of Reality - Asha, lvl 42, A5
kramph - Brooklyn, lvl 28, A4
El Communisto - Burninated, lvl 32, A4
Resipsa - Trig, lvl ?, A4
loverat - Lord_Lithium, lvl 26, A3
Hergrom - Jade, lvl 27, A3
Edge666 - Eager-Beaver, lvl ?, A3
jiansonz - Diana, lvl 18, A2
GooberGrape - Pointy_Things, lvl 19, A2
sam_manzanza - TreeHugger, lvl 19, A2
Insane Wayne - Liu Zhixin, lvl 20, A2
Sagittarius - SliceNDice, lvl 20, A2
FireAnt45 - Potatoe, lvl 23, A2
Fallen_62 - ?, lvl 1, A1
Wonko the Sane - Cernd, lvl 1, A1
Saidinhc - McBride, lvl 1, A1
Lost-Scythe - ?, lvl 1, A1
Mage11 - Wulfgar, lvl 7, A1
Bongo Fury - IcePrincess, lvl 8, A1
Spook_Cell - Magus, lvl 11, A1
Lacerta - Babs, lvl 16, A1
hearshot03. - HearSHOT, lvl 18, A1
simeonb - Arthur, lvl 19, A1
SuperSavage - Matrix, Level 20, A1 - RIP (Andariel)
JohnnyBravo - SuzieQ, lvl 23, A2 - dropped out
bradley_turner - KaleX, lvl 29, A4 - formatted HD
Couvi - Staticus, lvl ?, A2 - RIP (Duriel)
Kool69 - Pandora, lvl ?, A? - dropped out of his own touranment. tsk, tsk. :D

This is just a quickie update cos I want to get back to playing, but I still wanted everyone to have a vague idea of what was going on.

:drink: Cheers!
EC

edit: 250 posts. Weird... :buddies: <- I like this smiley.
Click to expand...

Thanks man that will help, I got a copy of the entrants on a mircosoft word document but I got to update it and see who all we got. And yes i dropped out of my own tourney tsk tsk, and I was having fun. Just too many forces of evil are conspiring against me playing D2 right now. Good luck to those that remain!
 
kool69, would there be any chance of me being allowed to re-enter the tournament? i know its not fair, but since i dont have any of the stuff from before... or anything at all for that matter, it would be like i didnt enter at all before :D
 
Brooklyn has beaten Diablo. He dropped a couple of bows and the giveaway item. She equipped Gaile with the Skystrike. Brooklyn didn’t have too much trouble except for the few times she was tagged by the Lightning Hose of Death. She may come back at a later time and take on Diablo again and again… :lol:

Bad guys perforated:
Endugu (Griswold’s Edge), Diablo (Vidala’s Barb, Skystrike) – 1
Blood Raven, Rakinishu, Griswold, The Smith, Bone Ash, Creeping Feature, Blood Witch, Coldworm (Nagelring 29%), Fangskin (Ith rune; Deathspade), Fire Eye, Summoner, Izual, Hephasto (Angelic Halo) – 5
Radamant – 5 (Nef rune, Berserkers Headgear, Acrobatic Circlet)
Countess – 5 (Eld x3, El x2 runes; Cleglaw’s Claw)
Andariel – 5 (El rune, Eth rune; Arctic Binding; Biggins Bonnet)
Duriel – 5 (Angelic Sickle, Civerb’s Ward)
Mephisto – 5 (Hawkmail, Death’s Touch, Sigon’s Gage, Sigon’s Visor, Cleglaw’s Pincers, Milabrega’s Orb)

Skills:
Jab – 1 (2)
Poison Javelin – 20 (21)
Lightning Bolt – 4 (5)
Inner Sight – 1 (2)
Dodge – 1 (2)
Critical Strike – 4 (5)
Slow Missiles – 1 (2)

Equipment:
Acrobatic Circlet
Wraith Clasp Amulet (Fire/Lightning/Poison Resist +9%/Cold Resist +33%/Half Freeze Duration/+1 to Lightning Skills (Sorceress Only)/5% Chance to cast Level 3 Frost Nova when struck)
Hawkmail
Carrion Goad Maiden Javelin (+41% Enhanced Damage/+8 to Maximum Damage/4% Life stolen per hit/42% Damage to Demons/+96 to Attack Rating against Demons)
Cleglaw’s Claw / Milabrega’s Orb
Cleglaw’s Pincers
Hsarus’ Iron Stay
Nagelring / Blood Spiral Ring (+5 to Strength/+96 to Attack Rating/Fire Resist +25%/Poison Resist +27%/34% Extra Gold from Monsters/Half Freeze Duration)
Hsarus’ Iron Heel (found in Urn in Dry Hills)

Free to Good Home:
Shadow Bar
Scythe
Two-Hand Damage: 11 to 28
Durability: 36 of 65
Required Dexterity: 41
Required Strength: 41
Required Level: 15
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0xa6ea1d82
+42% Enhanced Damage
+19 to Attack Rating
+1 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
10% Chance to cast Level 4 Fire Bolt on attack

Brooklyn – 29th level Amazon
Gaile – 29th level Ice Rogue
 
jiansonz said:
I had never properly tried Cloak of Shadows before. I did that today in the Lut Gholein sewers against those burning archers. Wow! Me like. I can see that this will become one of her main skills. I think I will even max it (!).

[/B]
Click to expand...


Why do you want to max CoS? Do you realize once you cast it, you cannot recast it again until the timer resets? Any critter not on the screen when you cast it will not be affected until it is re-cast. This truly is a 1 point wonder.
 
Hergrom said:
Why do you want to max CoS? Do you realize once you cast it, you cannot recast it again until the timer resets? Any critter not on the screen when you cast it will not be affected until it is re-cast. This truly is a 1 point wonder.
Click to expand...

I would agree with you in general, but in this tournament, for this character, the situation is unusual.


Five reasons for Diana to max Cloak of Shadows:

* Far into the game, I envision long battles in the same spot with a small group of monsters, where my barbarian merc tanks the enemies while my assassin whittles them down with a bow. Several more nasty monsters will be in line-of-sight and they will attack as soon as they can see us. Most boss battles will probably also be like this.

I know that I can´t recast Cloak of Shadows when it´s active, that is the main reason I want to max it. A timer of 8 seconds will simply not be enough. Let´s say the battle with that first monster group will take approximately one minute. At level 1, there would be 7 recastings needed during that minute. Each one of them will be a potentially dangerous situation (think 20 archers in the back waiting to kill us!). If maxed, only one or two recastings will be needed. There will be much more time for small but important battle details like micro movement, feeding the merc potions, more time to watch out for dangers, etc.

I realize I will often have to wait for it to time out before taking on the next pack of monsters but that is my style of play. I can pick up items, go to town, check vendors, etc. I will have to choose wisely when and where to cast it to get all (or most) of the enemies blinded.

* As Diana will probably suffer AR problems, getting the monsters´ defense down by 72% (instead of 15) will hopefully make her hit them a lot more.

* Extra defense. +67% defense is a lot better than +10 %...

* I have very few other options for crowd control. No minion (other than the merc), no Mind Blast.

* I can max both Tiger Strike and Dragon Talon. Then what else is there to do with the skill points if I have decided to avoid the dual-claw skills, traps and Fists of Fire? OK, a couple of more points in Burst of Speed but not much else.
 
jiansonz said:
* I can max both Tiger Strike and Dragon Talon. Then what else is there to do with the skill points if I have decided to avoid the dual-claw skills, traps and Fists of Fire? OK, a couple of more points in Burst of Speed but not much else.
Click to expand...

I am running into a similar "problem"...Iconoclast is lvl 48 now (still in Act 1 NM), and with his last skill point he's now maxed both Zeal and Might at lvl 20 each. I'm not sure what skills I'm going to put points into now. The only other skill I have put more than 1 point into is Smite, and I already have a bunch of points in it and don't want to put any more in right now.

The main candidates, as I see it, are these: Sacrifice (for the dmg bonus to Zeal), Healing, or Holy Bolt. Are either of those last two skills any good? I noticed that Healing provides a bonus to Holy Bolt and that could be useful for keeping my merc alive. But I've never used Holy Bolt, and I've always seen Healing as useless when you have potions in your belt...but maybe it's been improved in v 1.10?

Next time I play I am going to go back to Normal (for the last time, probably)and kill Diablo/Baal/Meph the maximum alloted 4 more times. I'll also run cows 5 times. This is cause I just inherited a large bonus to magic find; I found a 4 socketed gothic plate in Act 1 NM, and I quickly loaded it up with topazes of various qualities for a total of 78% MF. I gave the topzed armor I was wearing before to my merc, which improved his MF by about 15%. (With MF, every little helps.) I also gave my merc a new weapon that I gambled from Gheed: a 93% ed war scythe with +14 max dmg and 5% chance to cast chain lightning on attack. It's sweet.

Hopefully I can find some good stuff running Normal...

---
Destroyer Iconoclast, lvl 48, Act 1 NM
 
Aeronwy has made some forward progress again. Sorry about being so slow in this tourney. It is my third one in a row, and I needed a weekend off. Also, I picked up Sacred, but the quests are so buggy right now, that I came back here until a few of the bugs get worked out.

I stopped doing runs last night and just played forward. I finished clearing Act 1 and did my 5 Andy runs, which were quick and easy, and completely non-profitable. I got no green or gold at all. So far, I have received Crushflange and one of the set shields (not Sigon's, don't remember which one it was, I'm at work right now). I killed Radamant for the quest and then stoppped for the evening. More forward progress to come tonight.

Aeronwy - Level 22 - Act 2
 
Yearrgh. Burninated has joined the ranks of the dead. Bloody Oblivion Knights. After about 20 NDEs with the Infector of Souls and his group, I finally got rid of them. So, I walk around the corner, and see one Oblivion Knight and one Doom Knight. Take one double-swing at the Doom Knight, and JUST manage to catch the animation of Iron Maiden appear over my head as I swing, and *poof*, dead. I hate Iron Maiden. Probably wasn't the best time for me to switch from my wildly inconsistant but trusty flails, to the much more damaging Battle Hammers. Ah well. :buddies: Let us drink to the memory of Burninated!

I had fun while it lasted, and will be forwarding some stuff to Kool. Thanks for running this.

keep up the good work everyone!
:drink:
EC

edit: He died at level 32, a mere 2000 exp from level 33, in the Chaos Sanctuary for those playing at home.
 
jiansonz said:
I would agree with you in general, but in this tournament, for this character, the situation is unusual.


Five reasons for Diana to max Cloak of Shadows:

* Far into the game, I envision long battles in the same spot with a small group of monsters, where my barbarian merc tanks the enemies while my assassin whittles them down with a bow. Several more nasty monsters will be in line-of-sight and they will attack as soon as they can see us. Most boss battles will probably also be like this.

I know that I can´t recast Cloak of Shadows when it´s active, that is the main reason I want to max it. A timer of 8 seconds will simply not be enough. Let´s say the battle with that first monster group will take approximately one minute. At level 1, there would be 7 recastings needed during that minute. Each one of them will be a potentially dangerous situation (think 20 archers in the back waiting to kill us!). If maxed, only one or two recastings will be needed. There will be much more time for small but important battle details like micro movement, feeding the merc potions, more time to watch out for dangers, etc.

I realize I will often have to wait for it to time out before taking on the next pack of monsters but that is my style of play. I can pick up items, go to town, check vendors, etc. I will have to choose wisely when and where to cast it to get all (or most) of the enemies blinded.

* As Diana will probably suffer AR problems, getting the monsters´ defense down by 72% (instead of 15) will hopefully make her hit them a lot more.

* Extra defense. +67% defense is a lot better than +10 %...

* I have very few other options for crowd control. No minion (other than the merc), no Mind Blast.

* I can max both Tiger Strike and Dragon Talon. Then what else is there to do with the skill points if I have decided to avoid the dual-claw skills, traps and Fists of Fire? OK, a couple of more points in Burst of Speed but not much else.
Click to expand...

Good points. There are certainly pros and cons to either 1 or 20 points, and either can be deadly. I wasn't really thinking in terms of level 12 and lower skills only. I'm just glad you have thought it out. Good luck, and enjoy!
 
Game problems

Trig is stuck at level 33 in Act 4. I am having computer/software problems in which all my characters/graphics are significantly slower than normal. All other games/programs are working...it is just the Diablo game which has been slowed...I don't know why. It makes for frustrating play and I am trying to troubleshoot it. If it cannot be fixed I will have to remove the game and start over. If that happens I will forward those items I saved in ATMA.
 
Resipsa said:
Trig is stuck at level 33 in Act 4. I am having computer/software problems in which all my characters/graphics are significantly slower than normal. All other games/programs are working...it is just the Diablo game which has been slowed...I don't know why. It makes for frustrating play and I am trying to troubleshoot it. If it cannot be fixed I will have to remove the game and start over. If that happens I will forward those items I saved in ATMA.
Click to expand...
Run the Video Test and see what options you have availble for running D2. If you're running a hardware accelerated version, and it chugs in A4, try switching to the software mode and try it again. That usually clears it up.

EC
 
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