brak - I totally agree re: leap attack, but I am pretty sure everyone is glad I didn't take Farr down my favourite build path - the flying booyaka - and take leap and leap attack as 2 of his power skills! Maybe leap alone would have been justified, but the 2 together would have been ridiculous!
as for hotkeys and such - yes, I think you all are weird with your character set ups! Cube at the bottom left jason? for shame! top left or right, depending on mood is clearly the right way to go about things.
I wholeheartedly agree with boycotting identify tomes though. waste of space!
Still havent had time to dooku it up, but hopefully will get to tonight and over weekend. Exams are getting closer, a very large pointy end is ariving soon!
brak - I totally agree re: leap attack, but I am pretty sure everyone is glad I didn't take Farr down my favourite build path - the flying booyaka - and take leap and leap attack as 2 of his power skills! Maybe leap alone would have been justified, but the 2 together would have been ridiculous!
Hah, I had him in Act 4, and he would have been a flying booyaka if not for the points in Bash, Stun, Concentrate when i received him. I think it's totally justifiable. Leap is one of the best safety skills in the game, and the damage output on fully synergized Leap Attack is immense.
as for juvs, I always pass a character with at least 2 rows of juvs, but i never use them. I keep them in the belt for 'emergencies', but i might use 1 per all 3 difficulties, and usually accidentally. I dont know why, this is a psychological problem for me! I can logically see all the benefits of full juvs, but they just seem ... wrong.
Maybe it is just I feel like I wasted something valuable by using them, like making an insight IG, even though I could make 1000 insights!
It is probably a major factor in a lot of my HC deaths. Oh well, I accept my own eccentricies.
I am with skunk as far as the cube/tomes - I set it up exactly the same way. All my charms go on the right of the inventory, so items wind up next to the cube/ID tome. I like carrying the ID tome because I pick up a lot of items, and the ID lets me know if it's worth keeping/selling. In the beginning of act 1 I think it's essential anyway, since there is no Cain.
My hotkeys are all based around the left hand typing position. 'F' is usually my primary skill, with R,V and G also used for main skills (I like putting a summon on G, or a skill like taunt/battle cry for a barb or static for a sorc). The W is still my weapon switch, and the C is still my character screen, but most of the other keys around that area are all available for mapping, and most get used (depending on the type of character and available support skills). A Barb's three warcries (Battle Command, Battle Orders and Shout) are mapped to T, 5 and 6, respectively (crazy I know, but it makes sense to me...) The only F-key I use is F1, and that's my TP.
Purple potions are always in the 4th belt slot. If I tried to change that now my hardcore characters would drop like flies...
edit: And for the record, I think leap attack is awesome. Definitely not the most effective skill, but possibly the most fun (sail halfway across the screen to slay a giant mummy - who probably thinks he's safely within his circle of undead skeletons - in one strike and tell me that isn't the coolest thing in D2). Marginally safe with a long range weapon and the hidden knockback effect too.
I've been enjoying the conversation about Hotkeys.
When I received Biggs he had:
F1 BO
F2 Shout
F3 (I shifted Taunt here)
F5 Frenzy
F9 Berzerk
F12 Nothing (Not TP!)
This was completely alien to me, usually my offensive skills are F1 to F4, my "charge up" war cries are in a row from F5-F8 as follows: BC, BO, Shout, and BCry. Taunt, Howl and Leap are either F9 to F11 or QWER.
But what I did with Biggs was what I did with each new character, I tried to learn the previous players keying pattern, but perhaps with a few changes to help me get comfortable with it. I was seeking to learn "new tricks." Good idea, I think - just a bad result, lol.
Though I tried to be flexible with hotkeys, I too have been selling the Tomes of Identify and moving the Cube out of the pack into the inventory. Jiansonz expressed the reasons very well -I can't go down two layers during gameplay.
I am sorry to report that Farr the Barbarian has also met with an untimely end.
I entered the act with great trepidation, since I knew that barbs are ... ahem, not my cup of tea. Farr arrived at a slightly-but-not-truly underleveled clvl 43, so I cranked the difficulty up to /p8 and went to work. To my surprise, the malice spetum proved to be quite effective at killing stuff - slow, true, but steady. I had no trouble in any of the open areas - my tactic was the WW at the edges of any mob, providing for easy retreat and potion-guzzling if necessary. Alas, I lost sight of that strategy in the Tower, and got smacked by a couple of champion Fallen (or whatever the appropriate type of Fallen exists in the Tower). I believe my BO ran out during that final, fateful whirl, since I lost nearly 2/3 of my life bulb in one whirl. Being unable to guzzle pots while whirling, I could do nothing to save myself. By the time I realized I was in danger, I was in the middle of the pack and could not whirl my way clear in time.
I am quite ashamed of this particular death, too. I was so looking forward to the end of the act, when I would have had a chance to imbue and upgrade or craft an exceptional (I had the materials saved up) new weapon for the next player in Act 2. I was very impressed by Malice's continued effectiveness and really feel that I should not have died. Oh well. Them's the breaks, I guess.
Farr's equipment:
Weapon:
Malice
Superior Spetum
'IthElEth'
Two-Hand Damage: 21 to 42
Durability: 7 of 31
Required Dexterity: 35
Required Strength: 54
Required Level: 15
Spear Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0x421be2aa
+13% Enhanced Damage
+33% Enhanced Damage
+50 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage
Drain Life -5
Increase Maximum Durability 11%
+0 to Light Radius
-25% Target Defense
Prevent Monster Heal
-100 to Monster Defense Per Hit
100% Chance of Open Wounds
Socketed (3: 3 used)
Armor:
Wraith Cowl
Mask
Defense: 33
Durability: 16 of 20
Required Strength: 23
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xe9b457e9
+11 to Mana
+19% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 9%
Cold Resist +26%
2% Mana stolen per hit
Stealth
Ghost Armor
'TalEth'
Defense: 111
Durability: 15 of 20
Required Strength: 38
Required Level: 22
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 43
Fingerprint: 0x50193f6
+6 to Dexterity
+15 to Maximum Stamina
Regenerate Mana 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Poison Resist +30%
25% Faster Run/Walk
25% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Faster Cast Rate
Socketed (2: 2 used)
Pain Fringe
Belt
Defense: 7
Durability: 13 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0x3cf1f66c
+11 to Life
+20% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +28%
3% Life stolen per hit
17% Faster Hit Recovery
5% Chance of Open Wounds
Farr's The Hand of Broc
Leather Gloves
Defense: 14
Durability: 6 of 12
Required Level: 5
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x9b189850
+20 to Mana
+20% Enhanced Defense
+10 Defense
Poison Resist +10%
3% Life stolen per hit
3% Mana stolen per hit
Fiend Spur
Heavy Boots
Defense: 8
Durability: 10 of 14
Required Strength: 18
Required Level: 16
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0x7a45908e
+25% Enhanced Defense
Heal Stamina Plus 25%
Fire Resist +29%
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
20% Faster Run/Walk
10% Faster Hit Recovery
Angelic Halo
Ring
Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 24
Fingerprint: 0x2eb0979
+20 to Life
Replenish Life +6
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
+588 to Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
Tangerine Ring of the Leech
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 30
Fingerprint: 0xf3377f9a
Lightning Resist +5%
3% Life stolen per hit
A few notes about equipment:
Weapon-wise, my plan (as I noted earlier) was to imbue a pike, and, if the results were favorable, to upgrade it. The other option was to gamble for a lance and craft a safety lance. I had not successfully gambled a lance at the time Farr passed, but I'm confident it would have been doable before the end of the Act, pending a few more levels to raise the gambled item's ilvl to improve the chances of rolling an exceptional. The plan was to do both and take the best of the two. I had crafted a safety fuscina earlier in the act, but since the weapon managed to not get any damage boost at all, it was actually significantly inferior to the malice spetum.
Another plan I had wanted to try out was to make a "Peace" armor and make use of the free level 15 Valkyrie that armor grants. I'm not sure if the Valkyrie sticks around after you take the armor off, but I see no reason why it wouldn't. That would have given me another tank, which would have been helpful. Alas, I had no Shael rune at the time of death and had actually been planning on running countess until one dropped. Oh well.
Farr came to me wearing a pair of crafted blood gloves with some modest crushing blow on them, but I opted in favor of the personalized Hand of Broc for the dual leech present. That limited the guzzling of mana potions, allowing me to go to town every other minute rather than every minute (alright, fine, that's a slight exaggeration).
Finally, I would just like to express my amazement at the quality of Farr's normal imbue (the boots). I have never seen boots that good from Charsi. I actually had to go back and check where the boots came from, because it never occurred to me that Charsi could provide boots with that many useful attributes. My first thought was, literally, "Uh-oh, someone cheated."
Anyhow, that's Farr in a nutshell. Some final stats:
Life: 675 (1172 w/ BO)
Skills: WW - 11, Spear M - 17, BO - 12, BC - 3, NR - 2
Average time to kill a Fallen: 5 minutes (I kid, I kid!)
Good luck to everyone else still trudging along (especially any Barbs still out there) and I hope that other chars I've had a hand in (Vader, Amidala, and Palpatine) go all the way!
Also (this post will end eventually, I promise!), thanks to skunkbelly for hosting this tourney and making sure that everyone stayed in line and that everything ran smoothly. This was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next SUTC, whenever that may be. Thanks everybody!
EDIT: Also also, just realized I had not expressed my condolences to Quickdeath for his loss yet. RIP Biggs!
You can´t drink potions while you whirl?!? :shocked:
Wow, all the more reason for me to not like that skill. I could never get 'the hang of' WW the few times I have tried it. The whirls would often stop much earlier than I wanted them to, but I suspect the skill is easier to use with a bigger mana pool and better gear than I had.
The other option was to gamble for a lance and craft a safety lance. I had not successfully gambled a lance at the time Farr passed, but I'm confident it would have been doable before the end of the Act, pending a few more levels to raise the gambled item's ilvl to improve the chances of rolling an exceptional.
If you had made it to Act II, the next player could have shopped Lances from Fara. The advantage of this is that it gets a fairly high ilvl (clvl+5) and you will also know the ilvl it gets, which helps in determining at which clvl it´s the most strategic to shop and to craft.
Regarding hotkeys: I use a, s, d, f and a few other keys for skill switching. These letters are randomly assigned to the skills 9-16 in the hotkey menu. I imagine that looks a bit strange on more standard setups.
Kenobi hasn't seen much action yet, but I don't expect any serious problems (famous last words...).
RIP Farr, Barbs always seem like a shoe in with there massive life pools and great skills like Nat resists, BO, and stone skin. But they are surprisingly fragile. Good luck and play safe to all who are still running!
Alas, RIP Farr! I ended up liking the guy, and thought he had a decent chance to keep moving, given some luck obtaining a better weapon.
That "no potions while WWing" problem also nearly did me in a couple of times (my definition of "nearly being done in" being something like having only a third of my red globe left... not quite a real NDE, but closer than I ever want to see...).
Now I'm getting nervous about playing Solo. I've only defeated Blood Raven with him so far, so I have a long way to go this coming weekend/week.
Well I am ashamed of myself and slightly shocked. Fisto has died! Im not sure what happened to be honest. One second I entered the 5th lvl of The Forgotten tower the next my bulb dropped to nearly zero. I hit one full rejuv, then I died. It was that fast. I was literally shocked and just sat there for a minute looking. He was really slow but I was working on gathering things to improve his equipment. I didn't particularly like his skill set but I know its a perfectly viable setup. Well sad day I was having a lot of fun in this tourney I may have to give another a try.
RIP Fisto, Farr, and Biggs. I'm starting to feel bad... my act 2 (Farr), 3 (Beru), and 5 (Biggs) characters are all out of commission. I was quite nervous for Biggs going into nightmare - just hoping the taunt/howl combo could space things out enough for frenzy and berserk. It certainly wasn't my general playstyle, but I think learning different techniques and styles is what this tournament is all about.
As for his odd hotkey setup (not surprised it didn't translate onto the F keys), i almost always go with z-v for prebuff/summon, a-f for primary combat skills, g for weapon swap, and q-r for utility/crowd control. I've been considering moving things around to have quicker potion access for HC, but feel pretty sure that will lead me to a quick deeds before I get used to it.
Won't be back from vacation until sunday, at which point Organa will get on her way. She sounds like a good one.
ouch! damn, farr was my baby! I am sorry to hear he cost someone the tournie so early. He was always gonna be tricky, especially if you werent used to WW. I always take a health potion before whirling if i am not full life and the pack is big. Too many things could happen in a long whirl to take the risk! Of course, short, defensive whirls are a safer approach, but when is safe fun?
Would it be possible for someone to send me the farr files at the start of nm just so I can play him a little as a send off? I never got to whirl with him, although that had always been the plan
And yes, if I hadnt had those imbue boots happen in front of my eyes I would have called hax as well, they were amazing. I was grinding my teeth trying to keep quiet about them until we were allowed to discuss characters, by which time they had become slightly less awesome compared to other gear!
Any reason no one had crafted a safety pike yet? that had been my plan in act 3, and I could have done it in act 4 (in fact, I have a bunch of materials saved just for him!). Just wondering. Of course, safety crafts dont have inherent ED, so it could have been tried and got nothing usable.
I played dooku for about 30 mins last night, just moving through the UG passage now, and boy is he safe! Fishymancers are just like that! I have to say, I think there is something a bit imbalanced about having access to all curses in this ruleset - a fishy who can use a 1 point lifetap is so strong/invulnerable it maybe should be a power skill, or found on a head/wand. Same goes for dim vision and decrep, although the duration is less.
That said, I have always played fishys real lazy and not utilised all the curses before (not played a HC one) so this is fun, I actually feel actively in the game rather than watching. Amp stragglers, decrep booss packs, lifetap deadly things, blind the shaman and so on. Fun times.
RIP Fisto, wow the jump between difficulties is taking its toll.
I'm finding Offee a little bit weird to play. Guess I just don't enjoy the playstyle of the build (although on paper I always thought it would). I've tacked it down to players 5 to make things less dangerous, hopefully she won't go on underleveled. She's only up to BloodRaven. I have slightly improved the merc weapon so hopefully the more sturdy tank will improve gameplay.
Any reason no one had crafted a safety pike yet? that had been my plan in act 3, and I could have done it in act 4 (in fact, I have a bunch of materials saved just for him!). Just wondering. Of course, safety crafts dont have inherent ED, so it could have been tried and got nothing usable.
I have yet to find a Sol rune. Even if I had found one with Farr, I would have made a Lore as the benefits are known and pretty good at that point of the game (life+mana from BO, res all from NR, +1 combat skills, Light res). Think he would have gotten more bang for his buck at the stage I had him given the odds of any significant ED popping up on a Safety weapon.
