Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Antilles is doing OK in Nightmare so far - only the Catacombs left to do in this leg.

He´s a Frost Zealot, and I freakin' hate Zeal. Well, actually, I rather like it against single foes (bosses) but I think it´s so messy against mobs.
I do not like to do most of the killing myself, either...

So I´ve taken it slow, lending low-level (but growing) Fanaticism to my Prayer buddy Emilio. His weapon has been a Stength Pike, but for this last part I have made him something more damaging.

Antilles has a fast bow on switch, and that works nicely with Holy Freeze to gun down those pesky Shamans.

Countess gave me an El rune. I swear, it´s been like 20 NM/Hell killings since she gave me anything higher than Ort. She really hates me.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Thomh said:
Mothma killed Nihlatak a lot, but now she`s sent to Kestegs to hopefully get some rest.

Chewbacca received from Ohomemgrande.
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Good luck!

Chewie's story:
I'm also not a big fan of Barbarians and I've never played this build before. I doubt I ever will do it on purpose.

Chewbacca came to me with a healthy investment in Concentrate, Battle Orders and 4 points in Battle Command.

I decided that since Howl was one of the Core Skills, I would choose Berserk as the 3rd power skill.

Act 5 was fairly straightforward, just slow.

I ended up personalizing the Bladebuckle belt and socketing a nice rare helm that had been passed on from a prior player (+3 to warcry)



 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Mothma received from Thomh, and wow!
Talk about well geared and over leveled! I have never ever in my whole D2 career played a javazon, so I am excited to give her a go! I will be lucky if I can get her to level up even once. I am a little concerned that she does not have a back up skill to lightning damage, besides valk and merc at least. But she should be a very easy play for anyone who gets her in NM!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I have finished act 1 with Binks. He ripped through everything, and I played on Players 8 almost the whole time and still didn't level him. I've never had someone that high of level in act 1 nm before. I imbued a white wolf helm, hoping to maybe get some help skill wise, i got a decent one, but nothing really better that what i had.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Biggs received from Nualum. Working fine.

I have now played six different character classes in first 6 Acts - all but Paladin.

[HIGHLIGHT] Dooku Act 5[/HIGHLIGHT]
Dooku was reassigned Raise Skeleton and Skeleton Mastery by WoRG and nulaum. I respeced Dooku, to reduce the Clay Golem from 17 skill points down to 1 and reassigned points to RS, SM and Corpse Explosion, CE. Dooku was only clvl 32 -very low for A5.

Initially, Dooku was slow sledding - skeletons were dieing frequently and monsters took a long time to kill at /p7 -where CE is less help. I reran Shenk and Eldritch for a while rasing him one additional level. Finally by the time I saved Anya I had leveled up enough that my Skellies were fairly tough, and the game-play became quicker.

I was able to shop a reasonably good blue wand with +2 to summoning skill tab and + 2 to summon resists - this eventually became my personalization item. I gambled, shopped and ran Cows looking for a good item for Larzuk to socket, but eventually had to settle for a a mediocre =21 damage reduction blue circlet -and then Larzuk gave me only one socket! My Anya reward for rescuing her was a rare shrunken head - but the skills were a mismatch for a skelliemancer. Grrrr.

Dooku was handed off at clvl 45. He was simple to play but some patience was required at times. Equipment item that would help most would be a shrunken head with +X to summoner skilltab, and +x to revives.
 
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Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Cheers quickdeath, dooku looking fine. Already bumped him a level or two, cant see him doing to poorly this run around the rogue camp

the charm load was a little heavy though! I think you only left 3 rows to pick up loot!

oh, a hel just dropped from a zombie! nice. and the den of evil spectral hit zombie dude dropped a large shield unique i didnt have

think i will spec him up for MF this act, for no real reason, considering we cant use most of it, but no reason not to
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Skywalker sent to JoeBruce.

In the end, chose Bloodfist and Hawkmail for quest rewards. Was considering one of Rattlecage and Crushflange for crushing blow, but I have no experience with knockback/HCMTF + zealots, so I left them alone.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

kestegs said:
Mothma received from Thomh, and wow!
Talk about well geared and over leveled! I have never ever in my whole D2 career played a javazon, so I am excited to give her a go! I will be lucky if I can get her to level up even once. I am a little concerned that she does not have a back up skill to lightning damage, besides valk and merc at least. But she should be a very easy play for anyone who gets her in NM!
Click to expand...

Good luck.

About Mothma:

I just wanted to find either a Razortail or Titan`s from Nihlatak before passing the character, so I started running that evil dude. He didn`t drop any of those items, so I eventually had to settle for Tarnhelm and Tearhaunch for the socket and personalization quest, but Mothma gained a considerable amount of experience.

Not much to say, really, the vast amount of runs I did, resulted in a lot of runes as well, so I managed to make some decent runewords and this character is equipped to beat Nightmare as it is, although some life charms would be good as I wanted to make her a max block Javazon. Still, accidents happen and he life pool is a little low. It`s going to be interesting to see what you guys do with her shield in the long run as her current shield is poor for blocking.

About the newly received Chewbacca:

I`m scared. I generally dislike skills like concentrate and berserk and I was really afraid when I saw his weapon. It just looked so abysmal, but when I took Chewie for a spin on players 1, I was pleasantly surprised. It`s going to be a lot slower than my previous character, but it certainly seems doable. Hopefully I`ll be able to upgrade some of his equipment, but I`m so unfamiliar with this type of build that I don`t know where to start:)


 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Thomh said:
Good luck.

About Mothma:

I just wanted to find either a Razortail or Titan`s from Nihlatak before passing the character, so I started running that evil dude. He didn`t drop any of those items, so I eventually had to settle for Tarnhelm and Tearhaunch for the socket and personalization quest, but Mothma gained a considerable amount of experience.

Not much to say, really, the vast amount of runs I did, resulted in a lot of runes as well, so I managed to make some decent runewords and this character is equipped to beat Nightmare as it is, although some life charms would be good as I wanted to make her a max block Javazon. Still, accidents happen and he life pool is a little low. It`s going to be interesting to see what you guys do with her shield in the long run as her current shield is poor for blocking.
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about Mothma:

I figured those were the things you were looking for. /p8 is an absolute joke with her. And unless I start running targets past my 10/10 runs she won't be gaining any levels in A1. I used my imbue on the Ceremonial javs she cam with. Nothing impressive, but a bit better than before. I will likely ttry to do a couple of crafts for java/spears to improve hers/merc's weapon's a bit as that is the only thing worth trying to improve. I switched the ancients pledge tower out for the Rhyme tower in her inventory and supplemented a lightning resist charm so that she still has near perfect resists, and now has max block. I will leave both shields for the next person just in case they want to go the other way.

And I think I may have to make a javazon of my own now!


 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Antilles the Paladin is safely in NM Lut Gholein.

I had several options for imbuing:
* Rune Scepter, in hope for some useful staffmods
* Circlet
* Act II merc weapon

During the whole act, I looked for an ethereal Poleaxe/Halberd/Pike but found none. It would have had some nice damage potential if imbued (Ferocious and extras was possible) and then upgraded.

I ended up imbuing a normal Pike, but it only got about +50% ED. Even as a Lance, it would deal less damage than the current ethereal Malice Partizan, so I sold it.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Thomh said:
About the newly received Chewbacca:

I`m scared. I generally dislike skills like concentrate and berserk and I was really afraid when I saw his weapon. It just looked so abysmal, but when I took Chewie for a spin on players 1, I was pleasantly surprised. It`s going to be a lot slower than my previous character, but it certainly seems doable. Hopefully I`ll be able to upgrade some of his equipment, but I`m so unfamiliar with this type of build that I don`t know where to start:)
Click to expand...

I had the same reaction when I saw his weapon until I realized that the prayer merc was helping out with the life-loss. Then I realized that the open wounds helps so I'd hit a bunch of monsters at a time and then they'd all bleed to death. I was trying to gather stuff up to craft a weapon but no such luck.



 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Well, I took Biggs the Barbarian for a spin. Maybe I'm feeling like ThomH, but this Barb feels very fragile. Yes he pwned /p7 monsters - in Blood Moor -when they were one at a time. He needs better weapons and he needs skill points everywhere. I will need to play him very carefully.

Given the rules, I think I will be surprised if any Barb goes all the way.

The going gets rougher in NM. Game on!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Ah Skywalker... I have you now...



I see you guys taught him force-lightning. Way to go :)
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

jiansonz said:
From what I have read about Solo, I think he can do it.
Click to expand...

Could be, but I wouldn't put him above the other two barbs I've also had the pleasure to play (Chewy and Farr).

Find Item is a great skill, but in a tournament where you only have three Power Skills to use, it's an interesting choice. There is a clear benefit: Solo should have the best gear of any character going as a result. But there is also a clear cost: you can only use it once critters are dead, not while you're trying to make 'em that way.

Anyway, all three of the barbs I've seen are pretty much equally viable, in my book.



 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

to be fair
my boy farr is gonna be a challenge. WW aint no hardcore friendly skill, not like conc+BO is. Not with spears.

But hell, i am damn glad i did it. 2 conc barbs? wow!

I'm thinking at the moment the javazon is one to watch, although dolls could be mega scary with a mistimed LF. Dooku, who I have right now seems crazy safe, as long as he is played with patience. Immunes could be tricky, but unbreakable PIs arent so common that they cant just be parked.

Binks will be tough i reckon, but doable. Antilles is a monster right now but I have no experience with how he will go later in the game.

Its a lot of fun though, great tournie all round.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Just completed Dorme's countess runs. Here are the results of ten trips:

Tir, nef, 4 eth, 3 tal, ral, ort, thul, amn, 4 sol,3 shael, 3 hel

Not bad, has anyone done better?
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Hoop76 said:
I have finished act 1 with Binks. He ripped through everything, and I played on Players 8 almost the whole time and still didn't level him. I've never had someone that high of level in act 1 nm before. I imbued a white wolf helm, hoping to maybe get some help skill wise, i got a decent one, but nothing really better that what i had.
Click to expand...

I frequently over-level characters in Act 5 normal. Binks needed it because of my decision to max Cyclone Armour first. I once levelled a 1.09 Raven Claw-wielding Bowbarb to level 65 running normal Baal so he could equip an Ice Bow at the start of Nightmare.

Also:
I received Chewie with a Malice Flail, which I promptly ditched in favour of Steel. Speed + not losing life + it has OW anyway (albeit 50% instead of 100%) = win. I'd be interested to know who ditched the Steel for another Malice. ;)


 
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