Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I think Purplelocust's request is very reasonable, though we could also use spoilers like this:

[highlight]Fisto:[/highlight] I started Fisto in Act1...its great to hear that he is doing well, though he is quite different now...
in act 1, Fisto was a holy fire zealot/charger. I shopped a nice +Zeal/+HFire scepter from Akara, and found a 3 OS rondache I filled w/chipped diamonds for a nice resist boost. I made his rogue a very nice envy jewel armor/helm setup (+100 poison/2 sec) with a gemmed hunter's bow (I stuck the jewels into armor so that the weapon could easily be upgraded, and the armor could be used on an act2 merc as well). Fisto also made Stealth in a ringmail (chosen for looks, as a pally in ring mail has that tabard that kinda looks like a Jedi robe), if you could only get a mask in act1, then he really would have looked like Fisto! His switch weapon was a 'green lightsaber' (twohanded sword socketed w/an emerald and a couple nice jewels) which he used with Charge (GREAT fun...I chargechained one boss ALL the way across the Tamoe Highland).

His Imbue was boots, looking for FRW...instead it got resists, PLR, +GF, and +MF, still a win in my book, he also gambled a rare ammy with MDR2 and 25%FR, and he put some sapphires into a helm for mana (charge is very mana intensive at this stage). Skill assignments were: 1 point in each defensive aura up to Vigor, and 1 point in Smite, Holy Bolt, and Charge (prereqs to Holy Sheild). I passed him with 20 stat points and 11 skill points unspent @ level 21.

[highlight]Beru:[/highlight] Not spoilered due to her deeds:
I received Beru from PurpleLocust for act 2. I didn't want to prejudice or force the hands of later players (unlike some people), so I only spent 1 skill point while I had her. Unfortunately, it was in Mind Blast, which was made illegal by the updated rule about terminal non-lvl30 skills...I PM'd skunkbelly and it was resolved via respec, so I actually didn't spend any skill points on her...I will say Beru actually never cast MB herself (but the Shadow Warrior did...)

The first thing Beru did was replace the rogue with a prayer merc. She made him a Stealth (mostly for the FHR) and after finding a 3OS ethereal voulge in the sewers, a nice Malice. Beru herself came wearing an envy jewel helm and armor, which I kept, improving the armor during the act. She mostly stayed behind the merc and Shadow Warrior, shooting poisonous arrows, but occasionally had to step up and shred things with her claws. This was DEFINITELY the case with Duriel, as the merc and SW just evaporated when facing him. I did run short on time with Beru, so I only cleared the true tomb and one other (I always have to seek out and kill Ancient Kaa the Soulless...its a personal rule :p )...as a result, she was only level 27 when I passed her to Nualum. I received Beru @ lvl 21 with 40 stat and 14 skill points unspent, I passed her @ lvl 27 with 15 stat and 20(21) skill points unspent.

[highlight]Dooku:[/highlight] Dooku's skills have already been discussed...
his stat assignments were much more reasonable: 30 Str, 65 Dex, 95 Vit, 25 Energy. Gear was focused almost exclusively on Magic Find: topaz helm+armor for Dooku and the merc (act2 prayer), and MF jewelery for a total MF of 161%!! Now, normally MF is a VERY strong choice in an untwinked tourney, but IMO, with our item restrictions, not nearly so much: no help with gems or runes, only helpful on charms if you're looking for Gheed's (which can't drop yet), and only good on jewelery for better chances of set/rare/unique. The way Dooku was equipped, the merc was pretty much 100% of our offense, and his weapon (Malice in a Brandistock), while not bad, wasn't great either...I also had a lot of trouble keeping the merc focused, he kept wandering away to look at flowers or something. So I regeared Dooku to take a more active role in things: Stealth in a breastplate, Steel in a flail, 3 socket large shield with diamonds, ruby/amethyst in a helm (+life/+str to wield the flail). This helped a TON...with Dooku closer to the action, the merc was MUCH better at staying on task. Things got even better when a 3 OS ethereal scythe dropped...that was a very nice upgrade to the merc's Malice. LK was VERY good to Dooku, not so much for the usual superchests and racks, but for gem shrines! There were 4 shrines in LK, plus 2 right outside the entrance (near Stormtree), and 2 more right inside the Kurast Bazaar...repeated running showed a MUCH higher chance than usual for at least one of these to spawn as a gem shrine!! This allowed me to craft some items earlier than usual. The merc really needed some FHR, so I crafted him a hitpower field plate...it only got 13%FHR, just missing a breakpoint, but the CTC Frost Nova worked REALLY well in conjunction with Gumby's slow, so I later rolled another that got 34%FHR! I also crafted some blood gloves that got 10%CB and FR18%, just in time for the council.

Unfortunately, I had left the council and the Durance of Hate to finish up the weekend before we passed to the next player, and there was an icestorm that knocked out my power for most of that...that left me really strapped for time. The durance was VERY dangerous, spawning hordes of undead dolls that would ignore the golem and merc to attack Dooku. I really hated to, but in the interests of time (and staying alive!!) I ended up rerolling his map seed to get a better map and monster draw. After that, things progressed smoothly, Meph was no problem (he did kill Gumby, but the merc never died, and Dooku didn't even use any potions for that fight!) and Maffer dropped a Thul! I received Dooku @ lvl 28 with NO stat or skill points unspent, I passed him @ lvl 32 with 21 stat and 4 skill points unspent.

Note: for the respeccing of Dooku, I chose Raise Skeleton as the power skill, since you always had to deal with a shipload of minions before you could confront Dooku himself ;)

WoRG
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I like this idea as well. Good thinking. Let's all use the Spoiler capability if we're giving away much info about a character. I don't really think there's any way to use the information we're discussing to better our chances (after all, who knows who we're going to get, and we only get to keep two items in our stash)... but if some of us like the element of surprise, I'm happy to respect that.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Well, here a are a few notes on the characters I played. From memory, since I am on business travel.

[HIGHLIGHT]A1 Ackbar the Druid:[/HIGHLIGHT] Druids may be my least favorite character, so naturally this is what I got.

For skills, I placed 1 pt in Ravens and Spirit Wolves, and eventually, 3 in Dire Wolves - and that's it. I avoided any core skills in elemental or shape-shifting branches to avoid biasing the choices of the players who came after me. I figured 3 Dire Wolves will always be handy!

Like WoRG, I decided that MF was not the right strategy for this tourney -certainly not for early acts in Normal. I was on the prowl for socketed items, ethereals for my merc and Superior quality as well. I cant use magic, rares and S/Us (except for jewelry) so who cares about MF? and money? after A2, you can't spend money on shopping and the only thing you can do is gamble for uber ammys and rings.

I decided to adopt a long forgotten strategy for Diablo that players seldom use early in the game - switching gear depending upon the type of monster I was facing. I originally socketed a shield with three chipped emeralds and another with two chipped topazes (and an OS) for lightning and posion resistance. Later after running the Countess, I socketed a couple of Tals (or Rals?) in a shield for 60% Pois Resist for when I engaged Andariel. My weapon was a scepter with a couple of runes in it for damage -much better than socketed chippies or the Steel runeword.

I waited until after I had killed Andy and was at Level 21 before I imbued boots, hoping for a good attribute. Unfortunately, my imbue was pretty mediocre. But I put on the boots and passed them on.

I passed Ackbar along with 17 unused skill points and lots of unused attribute points.

[HIGHLIGHT]A2 Dorme the Assassin. [/HIGHLIGHT]

Not much to tell here. I received Dorme with very few points in core skills, and I did not invest any skill points myself while I had her. I principally used BoS and CoS, went though on /p7 and dropped to /p1 or /p3 for Duriel. I had a rash of rubies drop, so I cubed up to two Rubies , popped them in a helm and replaced the MF helm that Dorme came with. A helm in A2 with +40to life? Much better, IMO, than a helm with MF that reduces the chance of finding socketed items.

[HIGHLIGHT]A3 Organa the Sorc[/HIGHLIGHT]

Organa arrived relatively virginal and clean. One point each in TK, teleport, Shiver Armor and 4 in Warmth. She was only lvl 28, which effectively deterred me from picking Frozen Orb (my favorite Sorc skill) as a power skill. I mulled over the choice of power skill quite a bit, considering how many synergies and what level of FCR were needed to make skills Hell-viable. I finally selected Fire Wall as Organa's first pwoer skill, and pumped about 11 points into it so that she had a way of killing monsters.

I hope Fire Wall turns out to be a good choice. It does not need synergies nor elevated FCR to be hell-viable like Fire Orb and Lightning skills. Blizzard was an obvious possibility, but I decided to let the next player choose between Blizzard and Frozen Orb (or something else, who knows?)

Anyway, turns out that even at /p7, a slvl 11 Firewall burns up flayers like they are gasoline. Whoooo-boy.

I was unable to upgrade Organa's gear very much (she too was chock-a-block with the amazingly impotent MF gear) but I just didn't get many grey item drops.

[HIGHLIGHT]A4 Amidala the Amazon[/HIGHLIGHT]
I love, love, love playing bowazons and javazons so I eagerly downloaded Amidala to find ... a Spearazon? Yikes, her first Power Skill was Lightning Strike. I've never played that and tried it out, even pumped it to slvl 8 but it was killing very slowly on /p7. I guess it gets more effective at higehr levels and with some synergies.

I debated: Charged Strike as a Boss Killer and synergy for LStrike? or Valk? or Frozen Arrow? Or maybe Plague Javelin?

Eventually, I decided to pick Charged Strike. It is a great skill, a synergy for LStrike and a complement to LStrike. I put enough points in ChStrike to kill A3 monsters on /P7. I also switched from a Malice Spear that she came with to a faster javelin with a shield. The javelin didn't do as much damage but made up for that with a faster attack rate. Plus I had extra blocking and resists from my socketed shield. I did search for a Spear upgrade but never found one.

I am not entirely sanguine about Amidala's prospects. IMO, a spearazon is a very chancy proposition. Amazons have the game's best ranged skills (incuding Slows Missiles as a defensive skill) but are fragile when they must fight in close. She will probably need a fair amount of IAS (which may be hard to obtain), + skills and Mana Leach. I did drop a pair of Hsarus' gloves (as I remember them) with 20% IAS so I passed them along to the next player in case they have nothing better to personalize.

[HIGHLIGHT]A5 Dooku the Necro:[/HIGHLIGHT] We have already discussed his skills. What also surprised me was that his gear was so great, in sharp dissonance with his skills. Now I realize that I have WoRG to thank for that. Thank you WoRG, a really nice job.

I will start to play Dooku this weekend, when I return from travel.

Dooku will be reborn as a Fishymancer: RS, SM and CE. A long distance CE will be a nice luxury. However, CE will not help with Act Bosses like Duriel, Diablo, Baal and the Ancients. He will need a point or two in Summon Resists from a Shrunken Head or wand and I worry about Dooku without Revives or Skellie Mages - the latter part of Hell can be...um... Hell. But I think a Fishymancer needs CE and he is not going to get it as a staff-mod at this point.

I am having a blast. Thank you Skunk, and thanks to all my fellow players!
 
Last edited:
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Here are my notes on the characters I have seen so far, and my progress on Ahsoka, if anyone cares to spoil it. :)

[highlight]Solo the Barbarian, Act 1[/highlight]
It was fun starting as a barb – skill limitations mean little to an act one character designed to melee. After a few days into the tournament, someone pointed out that Double Throw was a power skill (I had overlooked this), which meant Double Swing could have a point in it and be used in normal. Other than that I placed a point in Howl and Shout, Axe and Mace masteries (the two decent craftable weapons).The stat points were mainly strength and vitality, with a little dexterity. I had some decent scepters/maces to use, but stuck with a two-handed sword with 3 chipped topazes for most of the act. For the armor I used rubies, since magic finding was not really a priority. Despite 0 magic find, I found a few unique items and a couple sets; I kept a Rixot’s Keen sword and Bloodfist gloves in my stash, surprised to find candidates for the Act Five quest rewards so early. In the Catacombs (cLvl 18 I believe) I imbued a barbarian helmet, but it wasn’t good for much more than gambling supplies (I still passed it on). Played mostly at /players5 with some /p8, no re-running; finished at cLvl 19.

[highlight]Amidala the Amazon, Act 3[/highlight]
When I received Amidala, she was decked out in some magic find gear and a spetum with a couple jewels boosting its maximum damage and providing a few other perks. I made her a stealth armor and upgraded her helmet to give her a life and magic find boost. I also switched out her amulet with a pre-provided mana leech necklace. She was level 29 with a lot of skill points to spare, so I had a pretty immediate choice for her power skill. She had already been given the 3 dodging skills and a few extra into Critical Strike, and one point into Charged Strike. The obvious choice here was either Charged Strike or put a few points into Lightning Fury once she hit 30. The not so obvious choice was to put a few points into Lightning Strike and forget about Fury. Although I have never used it, I always thought that Lightning Strike is a pretty awesome skill, and once it had a couple points it was starting to shine.

I was not able to upgrade Amidala’s weapon during act 3, but I did make a Malice for her mercenary. Mephisto took a few trips to town, and even a clever (but risky) use of a fire shrine on Durance 3, but he went down. I passed her on with about 15 skill points still to spare, having leveled Lightning Strike as much as I could and dropping a few extra into Decoy – a great skill, and not to be neglected. Act three was full cleared with no rerunning on /players 8 (I was going to skip part of the sewers, but by the time I had found the heart they were already 85% cleared).

Responses to other comments on Amidala: I wanted to choose something different. With several characters representing each class, I assumed many of the standard builds would be taken. I have never built an Amazon around Lightning Strike, but I have read positive things about it around the forum, and I figured maxing a level 30 skill couldn't be a handicap for a character. Lightning Strike works with a javelin too, so although she used a spear throughout the act I assumed she would switch to javelin/shield down the road (plus Charged Strike becomes an obvious second power skill, and we all know that works). When considering her power skills, I didn't think Valkyrie was a great choice for this tournament, except for a few builds (possibly Amidala's included), more so because Decoy is a core skill, and a high level Decoy is an excellent, very inexpensive tank. I put the extra points into Decoy and was using it to great effect throughout the act.

[highlight]Ahsoka the Amazon, Act 5[/highlight]
Ahsoka has just rescued Anya and chosen her final power skill. I was going to write up her progress so far but decided I'll wait until she's defeated Baal.:whistling: I will say that of my two stashed items (from Act 1!), only one may be useful for Ahsoka; I will have to find a replacement for the other.:scratchchin:

I won't post yet on Biggs or Kenobi, as I have not seen discussion about their final skills. They were my Act 2 and 4 characters, respectively.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

[HIGHLIGHT]Act 1 Organa[/HIGHLIGHT]
Glad to hear she went with firewall. I dumped a few skill points into warmth hoping to steer her in this direction, but I didn't want to go overboard so as to keep her options open. I had dreamed of a Firewall/Nova sorc as it fits in well with the tourney restrictions

[HIGHLIGHT]Antilles[/HIGHLIGHT]
So the item I found in Act 5 is a Heartcarver. As much fun as the prospect of running around zealing things with a dagger looks to me, I've decided it'd probably be better used on a Barb due to the skill restrictions in this tourney. The Grim Ward could be a vital source of crowd control for builds with no AI warcries. But the decision as to whether or not he keeps it will hinge on what else drops in Act 5. So far, I have nothing else useful for the socket quest. So a stabby pali is still a remote possibility
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

re:brak build talk
solo or farr could love that weapon. especially farr if no safety crafted glaives work out for a melee weapon. ITD is soooo tasty, and free find item is gravy too! he is gonna have the dex anyway.

i love firewall/nova as a build, although my main MFer has a near full power ES as well! keeps the nova a bit safer
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Act1: Amidala
As an amazon, there's no trouble getting through. Minimal investments.

Act2: Chewbacca
Didn't have to think about skills, just dumped into battle orders. The small duration is a pain though.
Had a fail moment trying to make Steel for him.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b372/cenyth/diablo/sutc2011/chewbacca-a2-derp.jpg
Used Prayer merc so Chewy could use a Malice flail. In retrospect, maybe should've just given the merc a Malic polearm instead. At the time, I wanted Chewbacca to be able to kill things, and also have the merc have cold damage on his polearm too.
Found 2nd bloodfist. First was in Gomule, so I just left this one in his stash for next player to handle, because I don't really know if Bloodfist is worth keeping or not.

Act 3: Binks
==========
Initial:
--------
There are points in Cyclone armor, and prereq points in Twister and Tornado, so Wind druid? Full wind druid tho, or with power skill in Grizzly to tank?
Looking at Guardian compilations, there's a lot of Fire/Summon druids, which might be safer because Windy needs you to walk closer to enemies, and less immune problems because Twister/Tornado are physical dmg as well..the cold damage on hurricane is pretty weak vs 2 skill maxed fire tree (which allows for grizzly).
I kind of dislike the choice of Stealth for armor, because as a kind of summoner at the moment, you mostly don't want/need to run faster than your summons. Also, Nadir is good choice for CoS, but wearing it on rogue kills the money >_<.

In act:
--------
found Hawkmail woot! keeping for socket
sold ichorstring
skipped: swampy pit, temples in upper kurast and causeway
not full cleared: sewers, upper kurast, travincal, durance lvl 1
mephisto dropped crushflange - left on binks

End:
--------
No power skill chosen, just raised dire wolves (core)
In retrospect, I should've left the skill points I got, but I raised the wolves so I could advance as fast as possible, since I was late.


Act 4: skywalker
==================
Initial:
--------------
Wow, he's lvl 26. I see holy shock... I don't think it's neccessary for me to choose another power skill, so I'll leave to the act 5 player. Going to try running him a few times to get him lvled before act 5.

In act:
--------
Crushflange right after entering outer steppes woot!
wasted a gem shrine. Fortunately there was a skull in inventory so it wasn't a total waste.
Hmm, zeal would increase damage output with multi attacks, and I can get it by "power skill prereqs".
1 pt zeal -> oh..only two attacks... oops. At least it gives AR.
Venom ward dropped, leaving on char.
Rattlecage dropped from diablo, leaving on char. Eth blacktongue sold.
Soulflay sold.
diablo #2 - jade tan do, vidala's fetlock - fetlock sold
diablo #3 - eth grim reaper, sold

End:
satisfied with end result, and got him up to lvl 35 too.

Act5: skywalker
Currenly between Shenk and Anya.
Chose zeal and holy freeze. Considered vengeance/conviction, but holy shock is already quite high, so it didn't seem to mesh.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

skunkbelly said:
So... why didn't you hire an act 5 barbarian merc? :wink: (oh yeah, because they're awful!)
Click to expand...

I did. ;) He made a good tank (survived Baal with no rezzes), though I was still cursing the absence of healing from Prayer (and the subsequent necessity to pick up red pots constantly).

soulmanz said:
Jason, if binks is the character I think he is, doesn't he have castable tanks? Kinda removes the need for a town guard. If I remember correctly, I am the one who didn't change his lass in act 2.

He certainly didn't need another tank then
Click to expand...

Well, Dire Wolves are a Core Skill, and are the castable tanks I had access to, but they bite the dust very quickly against tougher monsters. I just find the Prayer aura so very, very useful (both for the tanking ability fo the merc himself and for the free regen), and I cannot for the life of me see the use of a rogue merc. I do realise though that you had no idea Binks would be turned into a Windy by the players that followed. A Windy benefits greatly from a Prayer merc, even when he can't benefit from the banned Insight hurty-stick, because he has to get up close for his Tornadoes and the spinning Hurricane to reliably hit anything.

I will admit that even with Prayer, the desert merc won't stand up to Baal like the Barb merc did.

Hoop76 said:
It was nice to get Offee back for act 5. She was the one i played act 1 in so i didn't really have a clue what direction she would be going it. Found out she was a trapsin. All 3 power skills are in the traps section. Should be ok, she has Lightning, fire, and damage from CE.

My anya quest item actually helped it was a rare assassin weapon with +1 to Assasin skills.

My personalize quest ended up being bloodfist.

And my socket quest ended up being a rare circlet that after socketing has
66% Light resist, and 39% Fire resist, with some other mods. It was the best one i gambled, and i thought resists can always help later on.
Click to expand...

Well trap sin is fairly obvious when you receive a character with 20 points in Fire Blast. I chose Death Sentry rather than Lightning Sentry because it's lightning is more powerful at low levels, it is less synergy-dependent, and it has that lovely CE.

Okie dokie, here is more fullsome account from my (not so) good self.

[highlight]Act 1 - Palpatine the Necromancer[/highlight]
I played Palpatine purely as a bowmancer. I made do with a point in Amp, and a 1-point gumby (which I abandoned toward the end of the act due to being too weak to be of any use). I may have added points in a couple of other curses (the pre-reqs for Decrep or some such), but I tried to leave as many points as possible for the players following me. I was lucky enough to dig up 4 Tal runes from the Countess (one on the quest kill, and 3 more on my 10 allowed runs), so I was able to set the act 2 player (skunk, I believe) with the option for a 3 Tal Hunter's Bow, which I know from experience is viable into Act 5. So I sent along a 3os Hunters Bow with two of the Tals socketed, and a free socket with an extra Tal and an Ith, in case the next player wanted to go with a bit of physical damage rather than full poison.

I will admit I screwed up by equipping a blue head on switch, thinking it was white, because of its staffmods (CG and GM). As I said, I abandoned the CG toward the end of the act because it wasn't viable anyway, so my unintentional cheating didn't get me anywhere much (and it was only marginally better in terms of staffmods than the white head it replaced).

[highlight]Act 2 - Organa the Sorceress[/highlight]
Again I stuck with using bows, so as not to rob the following players of any skill choices. I didn't see the 4 points in Warmth as suggesting a Firewall build, so Brak is going to have to work on his subtle hints. :p If anything, I would have taken it as a hint toward an enchantress. I was lucky enough to find a second Tal to go with the one I kept for myself from act 1, and stuck these in a Composite Bow with an Ith, which was sufficient to clear act 2. The slug required a few TP trips as always, but the poison did its work in the end.

[highlight]Act 3 - Chewbacca the Barbarian[/highlight]
Skunk has hit the nail on the head with my choice of Concentrate. Apart from the fact I love the skill for its uninterruptableness, the ability to free up a power skill choice for the following player because its main synergy is BO (a Core Skill, and one into which virtually every Barb alive dumps 20 points) was just too sensible a choice.

I did pretty much straight away ditch the Malice weapon for a Steel, though I was thankful for the merc choice that weapon forced upon my predecessor (especially after cursing the bow mercs I received with my next two characters). Speed + OW easily trumped the damage of Malice, which I passed on to the merc.

I think I stuck with 2 points in Conc, and added a few extra points to BO.

[highlight]Act 4 - Offee the Assassin[/highlight]
One of the characters I am currently playing privately is a Trapsin, and when I saw 20 points in Fire Blast, it was pretty obvious I'd be heading back down that road. It is interesting to compare my unrestricted (though still underpowered, given I've just done a restart) character to the tourney character. My trapsin was built with points in LS synergies prior to LS being available, so her main skill is LS, with DS as a backup for the CE. Offee went instead with DS, for reaasons I've detailed above in my response to Hoop. She proved very viable, though Shadow Warrior is annoying and not a very good tank, so I had to do a lot more running around than I do with my personal trapper, who has an eminently sensible Prayer merc for support (and a Shadow Master, of course). :p

[highlight]Act 5 - Binks the Druid[/highlight]
Well, when you get a character with multiple points in Cyclone Armour, Tornado, and Hurricane, your choices are limited. There is the obvious choice of the Twister synergy, or I guess one could invest in Grizzly for an awesome tank, and swallow the less powerful attack skills. I went the obvious route. Once again, I was cursing the lack of a Prayer merc, though at least I was able to hire a nice chunky Barb this time as a tank who could stick around longer than the wolves.

I did make the character less immediately viable than I could and possibly should have by pumping Cyclone Armour rather than twister. My defence is I can't stand a 20 second Hurricane, though I was regretting my choice a bit when facing Baal (downed my last purple just before he bit it). Lister also took an eternity to kill. Never noticed how fast his regen is before.

I will be doing some runs with Binks, to put a few more points in Tornado for the next player, and to find a more useful Druid helm (or a Sol for Lore), and hopefully two items worth using the quest rewards on (the best I have currently is Civerb's Cudgel, which would be great if I had a melee character, or if the Barb merc could wield blunt weapons).


 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Jason, how can you think that a Clay Golem isn´t viable by the end of Act I? The golem is there to tank monsters (and slow them a bit) which I think it does well for a couple of acts even when it´s only at level 1. It´s not like the late Act 1 monsters can kill it in a few seconds, is it?
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Perhaps I only gave up on it against Andy. I don't really recall. I just remember gumby getting zapped very easily a couple of times and not bothering to recast it.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Yeah, OK, Andariel is the exception. Golem works best against her if you use it with Iron Maiden (which is indeed true for all act bosses through the game). You need lots of golems, though...
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Jason Maher said:
[highlight]Act 2 - Organa the Sorceress[/highlight]
Again I stuck with using bows, so as not to rob the following players of any skill choices. I didn't see the 4 points in Warmth as suggesting a Firewall build, so Brak is going to have to work on his subtle hints. :p If anything, I would have taken it as a hint toward an enchantress. I was lucky enough to find a second Tal to go with the one I kept for myself from act 1, and stuck these in a Composite Bow with an Ith, which was sufficient to clear act 2. The slug required a few TP trips as always, but the poison did its work in the end.
Click to expand...
Well I tried shopping a two socket Firewall staff, but didnt have any luck


EDIT: Antilles has completed Act5 and the MooMoo Farm. After much back and forth I finally decided on how to set him up for the pass. Hope it works out.



 
Last edited:
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Talkin 'bout random stuff

havin trouble working out what to keep in stash for sure, although a great drop from baal had to be discarded just now

woulda been great for a spearie, a +2 zon, 70%ed, 10IAS, 80AR, 18Coldres beauty that wuld not be useable for a while nother difficulty (till personalisation in NM). wont be so useful by then

is it ok to discuss stored items with characters in mind? like "how would .... work for ...." or "who would this item suit best?"
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

soulmanz said:
is it ok to discuss stored items with characters in mind? like "how would .... work for ...." or "who would this item suit best?"
Click to expand...

I have no trouble with this... all the discussion of items in the world won't interfere with the basic fact that (1) you may never see the character you think you should save a particular item for, and (2) that character may arrive with better gear than you were saving for them, and (3) you may receive a character who could use a particular item before you have the ability to let them wear it (i.e., you're saving an item to personalize in act 5, but get the character who really would love it in act 4).

For act-end print-outs... sure, that could be fun.



 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

If we find a great item for that character and get that character in act 4, can we drop the item that we had in ATMA into their stash to be passed on with the character?
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

kestegs said:
If we find a great item for that character and get that character in act 4, can we drop the item that we had in ATMA into their stash to be passed on with the character?
Click to expand...
I hope so, because I've already done that.



 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Cool skunky

trying to work out if I should hold onto the twitchthroe I found. It was a tough call to personalise the ward over this for solo, but in the end I didn't think tt would be good enough defense wise, and the ward will be useful for the whole game if nothing better drops

I'm sure someone will need it, but considering it will need to wait to act 5nm it is maybe pushing the limits of its effectiveness?
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

While playing Ahsoka the Amazon through Act 5, I found 2 class-specific items that would be pretty amazing for this tournament. Too bad they were not for Ahsoka.

Unraveller Head
Defense: 7
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 10 of 20
Required Level: 24
Required Strength: 18
Fingerprint: 0x22766afe
Item Level: 37
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 2 - 7 Poison Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
+3 to Summon Resist (Necromancer Only) 2 Sockets (0 used)

Superior Fanged Helm
Defense: 23
Durability: 39 of 39
Required Level: 24
Required Strength: 35
Fingerprint: 0x6604cb4d
Item Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Battle Cry (Barbarian Only)
+2 to Grim Ward (Barbarian Only)
+12% Enhanced Defense
Increase Maximum Durability 14% 3 Sockets (0 used)

I have not gotten Grim Ward to work effectively for me, but apparently it is a crowd-control skill. Battle Cry is just a great utility skill for act bosses and tough monsters. The 2-socket necro shield with +3 summon resistance is a no-brainer for a summon necro's Rhyme shield. Too bad neither will come in to play...
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

kestegs said:
If we find a great item for that character and get that character in act 4, can we drop the item that we had in ATMA into their stash to be passed on with the character?
Click to expand...

You can, sure... it would be noble, even. But watch out... who's to say, after all, that you won't get a different character of the same class in act 5, and no longer have that useful item available for yourself?

On a different subject: I'm done with Farr. He has killed Baal his allotted times. If you want to know more, clicky:

OK, so Farr is a pretty traditional old-fashioned Spear whirler. Except he's of course missing several of the skills you might want such a character to have (battle cry and war cry, for example), and lacks a decent weapon. He is still using the malice superior spetum he was sent to me with... I found nothing better overall. I had the opportunity to make a Strengh war spear, but the damage difference wasn't all that sizeable, and the trade-off of crushing blow vs. open wounds seemed fairly even. So I stuck with the Malice. I played most of the act on players 5... players 7 in some areas, and Baal on players 1 (which still took forever). I would have loved to have played on players 7 or 8 throughout, but killling speed was very slow, and even worse, the mana cost of WW was really annoying on higher players setting... he isn't doing enough damage to get a significant amount of mana back from his hits, so I had to go back to town every five minutes (literally) for more potions. Argh. He was still fun, though, and by the time I got him up to level 40 or so, the trips to town became less frequent.

I was able to upgrade Farr's gear significantly, however. He now has crafted blood gloves, a crafted blood belt, and a crafted caster helm. He arrived with good rare imbued boots, and a decent selection of jewelry. His three special reward items from act 5 are:

1. A Sigon's Shield, socketed by Larzuk, and on switch: +1 to war cries, if nothing else. And of course, it could be used with an Act 3 merc (which is the kind of merc Farr currently has).

2. Farr's The Hand of Broc gloves. I didn't actually use these, but after I killed Baal my allotted times and did not have anything more useful, I personalized these. I prefer the blood gloves I had on, but there's no doubt the dual leech on these will be very useful.

3. The Anya rescue reward was a fairly crappy barb helm, with a single useful trait: +1 to Find Item. So while I didn't actually use it much, it is in Farr's stash for the next player. So be aware he's allowed to wear it!

Anyway, the next player will need to sort out the weapon problem. If nothing else, though, Farr should be fine until the Charsi imbue quest reward comes up again.



 
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account
Remove Ads - Go PurePremium

Latest posts

Back
Top