Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

hoop - oh no! another one down ... condonlences. Mothma was less zappy than she should have been, I thought, for the same reason you did. She also had no real way of getting stronger. I never saw her making it all the way

Yaddle definately had a few hairy moments against mixed dual quillrat packs (I had one with fana/cursed and the other ES/multi plus some elemental enchants thrown in)

joebruce - without spoiing the character too much, I actually can't see any possible orb imbue that could possibly improve on her own primary/switch set up ... if you know yaddle you know why.
Both items are pretty much custom made for her

It did cross my mind, but I figured if she guardians and has the imbue left, all the better!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Sorry that you lost Mothma, Hoop. I agree with soulmanz, I never saw her making it all of the way either.

Soooo...Palpatine retrieved and ready to take on act 2!

kestegs said:
The Senator (palpatine)

I hope that whoever gets him next can upgrade his mercs Kelpie to elite
Click to expand...
The things you say when you don't expect to get a character back...


kestegs said:
I know act 2 will be a little tougher with the emergence of some magic immunes and more ghosts, but its nothing that he can't handle.
Click to expand...

I guess I will get to see if I was right or not! :crazyeyes:

Good luck to all in act 2!


 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

RIP Mothma!

Vader's used his extra couple days to pick up another two levels and a minor equipment upgrade... not expecting ahsoka for another couple days, but I was starting to get a little too comfortable with him and could foresee running around a corner without a golem scout and ending up with a faceful of arrows. Instead he's standing safely in lut gholein.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Too bad for the loss of Mothma! I was the one who chose Valkerie for a Power Skill instead of Pierce back in normal Act 4 so I apologize for that not working out well in the later parts. I thought about it as Pierce mostly being a big plus on cows and mobs where the monsters are in a line more versus another source of damage physical from Valkerie. I was planning ahead so that lightning wasn't the only damage type but that didn't work out I guess. Also too there were already some points in Critical Strike which at least the Valkerie could make some use of. I also didn't think about the Valkerie from Peace so that was a mistake.

I'm still waiting for my next character so I hope I don't have to rush through Act 2 now. It's been a week since I sent my last character so I am going into SUTC withdrawal!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

Alas, Ackbar has bitten the dust. Not much to say other than a double boss pack of Vile Lancers, one with Holy Freeze, the other with Fanaticism, equals = large amounts of swiftly dealt pain. Ackbar was really suffering from the lack of a decent weapon. He was basically relying on the merc and Grizzly to kill everything. The plan was to find an Elite base to Imbue, but sadly I never got that far.

Apologies also for being so far behind schedule. Haven't had much time to play at all the past week, and before that I was mainly playing my 12 Labors Tourney character.

Thanks again to the Skunk for dreaming up a really fun tourney.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

RIP Ackbar and Mothma!

I've forwarded the mail with Kenobi to Westxylophone, just in case Jason Maher hasn't done so already.

Good luck to everyone still going!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Oh no, I didn't mean to make you hurry to a death Jason!

Kenobi received and good luck to all!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Offee the Trapper has reached Jerhyn´s Palace. I´m still going with /players 5 (yes, even in Fangskin´s Lair :badteeth: ). Nothing in the act has been dangerous for her, but both Zanarhi and the Shadow die quite often, what with all the poison damage in this act.

I´m using Death Sentry as main skill against anything not LI. Since Lightning Sentry only has one synergy pumped, it does only marginally more damage than Death Sentry. Sticking with Death Sentry instead gives me two advantages:
1. Fewer skills to keep track of.
2. There is always a trap ready to explode corpses!

Finished another PEmerald, bought and crafted another War Pike, sighed at and sold yet another piece of trash... :p

Zanarhi still got a better weapon after the snake lair - an 'Honor' Great Poleaxe. Not ethereal, but still better than his ethereal imbued stick.
(BTW, I have recently realized that you should multiply the damage on Honor with 1.25 in order to compare it with weapons without Deadly Strike. It makes this runeword look quite a bit better than how I thought about it before.)


[Highlight]Offee the Trapper and Zanarhi the Holy Freeze Guard, Level 82, Jerhyn´s Palace, Hell[/Highlight]
 
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Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I coud definitely use some guidance on Kenobi!

He is a little underlevelled Rabies druid (he came in at 74 and is now 75) and he is seeming like in trouble at this point. There are a lot of poison immunes in the second act! His resists are mostly negative but I can fix that some with charms. I could just try to run through the act but either I would make it and then he would be someone else's problem or he would die, probably from getting mobbed by unleechably poison immune monsters. And it would be a waste after all the time in the tourney, for sure!

I am trying to figure out a survival plan for him. His Rabies is OK when there are no immunes but they are slow. His merc is a cold act 3 merc with blegh gear who dies a lot while the rabies takes effect on the monsters. I am thinking about switching to an act 2 merc- maybe the Blessed Aim one? It's too late for a Holy Freeze or Might one and if the merc could stay alive and occupy monsters while the rabies kills them that would already be a good start. If the merc could handle poison immunes, that would be way better! I made a beautiful ethereal Honor Cryptic Axe for my last merc and I really missing having that, and that character didn't need much help!

The armor choices for the druid are:

Lionheart: resists and stats are helpful!
personal Rattlecage: has crushing blow and HCMTF, good with rabies I think but resists are then terrible

I am thinking of making Treachary for resists and Venom but I don't know how it works with Rabies or if it messes Rabies up alot or maybe even helps. I think its OK but if anyone knows for sure that would be great.

Weapons are also a good question- he has Ribcracker and can get a Fury from a pelt (whoever found that pelt with Grizzly and Fury and runed it into Lore- wow, what a huge help!) which is fast and damaging, but a one-hander could be good since he has a diamonded Sigon's shield for a skill point and blocking and some resists instead. Or Ancient's Pledge, or Rhyme maybe. For a one hander weapon he only has a Strength truncheon which is slow and I'm worried about getting mobbed. The Rattlecage helps a little with but it is not great. Base strength and dex are 84 and 74. I could try to craft a club with shapeshifting bonus or a wand or scepter with ITD maybe. So there are a lot of possibilities: crafted club, scepter, wand, ax or runewords as well with some luck on finding a base.

Two specific questions, I guess:

a) Is there some good reason to have a cold mage with a Rabies druid that I am missing? I don't think so but if I switch to an act 2 merc I can't switch back.

b) Is there a problem with Venom from Treachary and Rabies combining to mess up and not last very long?

As well as any other advice!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I played Kenobi in Act 3 and Act 5 Nightmare (and act 4 normal - go lycanthropy), so hopefully this helps:

Use those Dire Wolves! They should be close to maxed by now and serve as the meat shields while rabies does its damage. Cast them around to spread out monsters and take off heat from ranged attackers.

The cold mage I was questionable on (he's had him since a3 normal), but he serves a purpose in crowd control (freezing guys so, again, rabies can do its damage). His cold damage is minimal, but between that and Kenobi's crushing blow he helped with a lot of poison immunes in Act 5 NM (and there were a lot). I would have liked to see an Act 2 merc for something with better tanking and a physical punch, but this tourny is about weird restrictions which lead to weird builds. I think the cold mage is viable, but you might have an easier time with an Act 2 merc.

I left a socketed helm in the stash with +fury when I passed him, not sure if it's the same helm but I thought that skill would be helpful.

I made the lionheart armor by using 3 of my 4 highest runes, so please don't throw it out :). Kenobi used the rattlecage all through nightmare - hit causes monster to flee is very usefuly with rabies (there is a thread or two on it somewhere, too lazy to search now) - so the rattlecage could be a viable option, but there are no resists. I don't know how the Venom would interact with Rabies, sorry.

I socketed the ribcracker as a faster weapon with more physical damage and more crushing blow, hoping that would help with poison immunes (this was before I passed him, so I was never able to test that theory). I really wanted to make a Black runeword for him (say in a Knout, it would be very fast and have crushing blow + monster flee) but never found the weapon and lacked an Io rune.

The key to Kenobi is patience. Act 2 Hell is a tough act for him with all the poison immune/resistant monsters - try to level him a bit in an area where there aren't too many of them. Apply the rabies and back off, arrange your dire wolves if needs be, and go to town with crushing blow on whoever the cold merc freezes. Reapply rabies when it runs out, and remember that you can still infect poison immune monsters (so they can spread the rabies) even though it won't damage them.

When I passed him into hell I made sure he had all positive resists; they weren't maxed but definitely positive. He was rocking Ancients Pledge so maybe that got tossed? He also used a +3 rabies helm which really boosted the skill's damage.

edit: @kestegs - we have conflicting notes; I know I played Kenobi in act 4 normal, and I'm pretty sure I received Kenobi from you (meaning you had him in act 3 normal). That means you not only picked his first power, but you chose the cold mage! Double wammy! :)
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I last saw Binks in act 4 Normal, where I set him on his rabid bath (don't hate me)

I much enjoyed the act 3 merc, but its not like I had a choice either. I don't see any reason to keep him hanging around, honestly. I would have loved to see him get matched up with a Holy freeze merc, but whatever I suppose! I think that a weapon that can hit well is key, in single hander of course. I think that the ribby should be kept on switch for safe situations though. Honestly, any weapon that can hit is all you need, even a crystal sword shoved full of eths would probably work pretty well. The HCMtF could be a pretty good mod, I saw a pat thread with a 6os weapon with 4xETH and 2xDOL in it that was the main weapon. I have never played a rabies druid past early NM though, so a lot of that is just theory.

edit: oops, misread my notes, guess I was the one who picked the cold mage in act 3 :rolleyes:
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Hm, those are good questions. Probably the worst act for his build...

This thread has several references on Venom + rabies. Sounds like it works fine. Fade would definitely be nice, but the resistances and life boosts from lionheart should cover most of it. You don't have to keep treachery on after triggering fade do you (i've never tried since the other bonuses are usually quite useful... not so much in this case)? Fade + Lionheart... yum.

I wouldn't guess the cold merc is providing enough crowd control to be worthwhile... particularly since you need some more punch. At this point I would probably go blessed aim.

Weapon-wise, a crafted club with IAS and skills would be quite nice. Ribcracking fury will be effective, but very dangerous depending on the monster mix. I could definitely see careful scouting into each area to see what you're up against, then reshuffling the gear for each situation...
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Thanks so much for the suggestions!
OK, so I'll swap for the A2 merc and Blessed Aim it will be. Hopefully I can find a good weapon for him!

The Sick Puppy build is helpful and encouraging! I'll have to look for a better source of HCMTF than Rattlecage since the resists are terrible. I haven't had any 3-socket armors drop but once one does I'll try Treachary and Lionheart together, or maybe Treachary and Rattlecage.

The Dire Wolves do not last very long at all, even with the two summoning skillers I found earlier! The bear (from the non-Rabies pelt) lasts long enough to be useful but then the Rabies aren't as good.

Black has knockback, not HCMTF but it's funny to see it suggested since I had thought about a Black knout exactly! But there haven't been many weapons to choose from yet and so I shouldn't be thinking about a specific type. I haven't seen anything even to try socketing with the cube yet.

For poison immunes, the Fury pelt and Ribcracker I think will be OK once he's stronger but right now its dicy using that.

I think I am just going to have to play very very carefully until I get some gear improvements and a better plan!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Status update: Ashoka is again making progress. I hope to finish her today so she can be passed on.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Another one bites the dust...

I'm pretty disappointed; Antilles was one of the more impressively geared characters I had received, and he should have gone all the way, but his journey has ended. I was in the Halls of the Dead lvl 3 - not necessary, but I've been full clearing the acts as I went along and was trying to keep that up. Pretty sure it was the final room where the cube chest is. There were some pretty nasty boss monsters in there, at least one extra boss pack of spear cats on top of the superunique. Might was thrown in there, and I didn't catch that. A few Unravelers and their skeletons as well. Still: full resists, full block, 1.1k life. The merc went down and I had them bottled in the doorway pretty well, but a few got through and I was slow on the rejuvs. My bad folks.

It was a fun tourny; good luck to those still standing.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Ohomemgrande said:
Status update: Ashoka is again making progress. I hope to finish her today so she can be passed on.
Click to expand...

Ashoka went down the stairs to catacombs 2 and got surrounded by extra-fast Arachs and voila- deeds.

So, looks like nualum gets to keep whomever he had for Act 2.

Good luck everyone.



 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Jeez!

RIP Antilles and Ashoka!

Not even sure who's left out there, 4 people maybe? Palpatine still hasn't left the city, hopefully tomorrow.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

RIP both! Very sorry to see Ahsoka go, since she and Dooku have dominated the time i've been playing. Plus, act 2 isn't really the ideal matchup for Vader... I guess we'll get it started today.

I don't have my log handy of who's still standing, but I know necromancers are well represented (essentially one of each major variety, kind of fun). Their crowd control options are becoming more and more important as the tournament rolls on.

Good luck out there!

Quick Edit: Looks like Antilles and Ahsoka were the last paladin and amazon standing. We're down to one assassin, one barb, 2 sorcs, 2 druids, and 3 necros.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Sorry to hear about Antilles- he was powerful in NM A5 when I last saw him and it's sad to see him go! I found Bonehew for the merc there which was great but I had to put an easier requirements jewel in there for him to use it.

I never played Ahsoka but it's too bad for her also!

Kenobi isn't really making any progress questing yet but he is improving a little by very very slowly gaining experience mostly in the Rocky Waste and Stony Tombs! He bites something with Rabies and then runs away or around in circles. Monsters do eventually die but by then so do his merc and his wolves so he is kind of lonely alot.
 
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