I like Solo!
I have never played a zerk or conc barb for very long, which is why I had been a little leery to make conc his final power skill. Apart from these 2 skills, he is rounded out by Find Item courtesy of jianz
He came to me with a power merc (see the readout, I havent changed anything - he almost never died, although to be fair I was tanking for him a lot). An ethereal malice pike? Madness and pure demolition. He was fury on legs.
Solo's equip was pretty good too, blood boots and gloves, a very nice lore helm (still on him, check it out) and stealth armour. He also had a steeldriver with 175% ed in stash, waiting for a socketing. I obliged, and zerk damage hit the high 800s, and relatively fast swinging too. I filled the socket with a prize rare jewel I had (played with a few calculators to make sure it was the best option) with 20% ed, some str and energy. 1 hit KOs were nice. His switch was a strength flamberge, and the CB made up to some extent for the low damage.
My quest shenk kill dropped something that decided Solo's path for me - The Ward shield. This is end-game worthy probably, high defense, high resists, ok blocking. Match made in heaven for conc. So I regeared him to utilise it. The ML amulet made way for a safety amulet with +10% blocking. The stealth made way for a veeery nice safety armour (see readout). He was nearing invulnerable now ... nearly unhittable (prob ~30% from most critters), 50% blocking. What he needed was LL, and he already had it, but the damage of the strength flamberge was letting him down.
So he crafted up a ton of gems to make a hit power hammer, and got real lucky (see readout). 1 handed conc damage reached 300 if I remember right! The frost nova when hit was nice too, just more safety.
Play was easy. Zerk when safe, smashing everything down, and switching to hammer/shield if mobbed or facing ranged attackers. The ancients were a walk in the park (stand and hammer them into the ground. They took 10 seconds each at most). The throne room was easy enough to run on p4, yielding levels nicely. Conc is really great vs Lister and Co, because it is uninterruptable meaning the stun/kb does nothing! Being swarmed by all of them at once on p8 with merc dead wasnt pleasant, but it was survivable without purples (!). I have mentioned around here before I dont really use purples, although in a tournie like this having them there is nice for the safety-mash factor. The belt load solo came with, he leaves with!
Baal remained the pussy he always is. I found using concentrate with the maul worked well as blocking wasnt needed, and damage seemed high enough to not need the strength sword I kept in the stash. Merc died maybe 3 times in the Act, and Solo had no NDEs.
Finishing up, Solo went to the farm. P8 cows was slow, but soooo safe. The tactic of choice was to run in first, and draw all the heat (the merc would lose life slowly if surrounded by more than 5 or 6 cows, whereas solo could be totally mobbed and be fine). If the merc got caught in a pack, Solo would charge through to his aid, crushing cows and clambering over their corpses to reach his friend. Very fantasy novel-esque, cleaving a path to rescue a comrade! The speed of killing (medium pack of cows = 30 seconds) was made far nicer by the fact that he could hork the corpses with around 40% chance of success. A lot of nice stuff dropped, including 4 S/U of no real importance. The King went down, unfortunately the hork failed.
So Solo moves on to Skunkbelly. He should have really good resists, and be near invulnerable. I can't see him dipping out of the tournie for a while, barring some extreme bad luck. A true tank. He may be a little slow, but there is something enjoyable about him as well, and you can always zerk with the steeldriver if you want to live dangerously.
I get dooku next, looking forward to him as a well made fishymancer. Managed to pick up a decent wand in the cow level in case he doesnt have anything good, relegating the hellplague I had stashed to my extra-competition stashes. I had thought a fire trap assy with blade fury might enjoy that, but i doubt it will be that useful by NM act 5.
