Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Whoa! Loads of deedses...


Offee is still kicking butt, though. Nothing too dangerous in the rest of Act II, although there was a scary CE + Cursed Gorebellies pack in the true tomb. Luckily, they were not in the big starting room (the mosters there were easily killed when I entered) and even more luckily, the room they came out from was empty of other monsters. So I had enough time and space so that I could separate part of the pack, use some portal parking and a simple 'run like Hell until they lose track of you' maneuver. Eventually, the way forward from where the pack started out led back to the starting area, so I could approach the remaining parts of the pack from either side. This made it easier to take out all the minions one on one first.

There were two Gorebelly bosses I wasn´t sure would be killable for me. This guy, and one that, I dare say, was even worse: Holy Freeze Extra Strong Magic Resistance. Both combined resistance/immunity vs my major damage type with being so dangerous that my companions had a really hard time surviving. And of course, /p5 Gorebelly bosses regenerate life insanely fast if you let them.

The key to winning was to switch back to Zanarhi´s imbued weapon, because it has 50 over 5s poison damage! So I had to keep him alive, with potions, careful Shadow recasts and occasional Mind Blasts (from staffmod claw on switch). The screenie shows the situation that was to be victorious against this boss. The Shadow Warrior is on the other side of the door. She has Fade on, so the CELE bolts barely scratch her. She also happens to be closer to the boss than Zanarhi is, so she´s the main target. Zanarhi only gets whacked when the Shadow has been knocked back. My fire bombs and Zan´s puny poison and OK physical damage eventually won out.


I took Duriel on /p3 (all other monsters in the act on /p5). I thought Zanarhi´s 'Strength' Stygian Pike would shorten the process, but the Shadow refused to tank for Zanarhi so he became the main target the whole time. He can´t hit very often when he´s Holy Frozen and under constant hit recovery...

In the end, I just went with the Shadow and lots of lightning traps, with occasional Town Portal breaks.


[Highlight]Offee the Trapper and Zanarhi the Holy Freeze Guard, level 84.9, Kurast Docks, Hell[/Highlight]
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Palpatine has passed on through to kurast.

It went about like act 1 did...Pretty easily for the most part. I didn't make very much of an improvement on his gear, but I may still try and do some jewelery gambling. Changed out a few charms to help out his resists, which are pretty bad, not that it is a huge issue. He has a shield on switch that helps resists a lot, but it has a 3 less skills to bone spear (about 20% less damage) so I don't use it. I do however use it on occasion to blow up some dead bodies, as it has +3 to CE. Had a pretty close call with the summoner, I moved up to the edge of his platform, but I was still across the void from him. I started spamming Bone prison so he would stop ice blasting/fireballing me (see above resists problem) didn't realize that the bone would jump the void once it got to full over there! pinned myself right in next to 2 ghosts! got stuck for 5 seconds or so but was able to finally break free.

It's a good thing Offee didn't meet up with this blunderbore boss! I don't know what he has against assassin's, but he seemed pretty worked up about something!

The act went down anywhere from p1/3/5/8 depending on the monster rolls, but I got pretty lucky and encountered very few magic immunes, and no really nasty ghost packs!

He has run out of super useful places to put skills, all of the spear synergies he can get are maxed, and I honestly the only curse he used the whole act was decrep, and that only in maybe 10 situations tops. So I have been dumping them in Golem mastery. I found a cool 2os Eth balrog blade, which could make for a nice Strength Iron golem at some point, but I am not really convinced it would last long enough to be worth it.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I found this in Yaddle's stash: thoughts?
Carrion Impaler
Scythe
Two Hand Damage: 23 - 55
Durability: 47 of 65
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 41
Required Dexterity: 41
Fingerprint: 0x3f5b193f
Item Level: 68
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
175% Enhanced Damage
+1 to Minimum Damage
+124 to Attack Rating
Adds 1 - 17 Lightning Damage
1 Sockets (0 used)
It doesn't seem be to a quest reward, so is it worth keeping? Yaddle's merc has an
eth Honor bec-de-cobin
at the moment.

Also, I'm not really a MFer, so does anyone know any good targets to run for Ravenfrost in Act 2?
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Vader has fallen!

His entry into the canyon of the magi was greeted by two bosspacks of crushers (later found to also contain a couple champions. A few well placed attracts and golem recastings had the situation reasonably under control, until one of the bosses came close enough for holy freeze to set in.

Vader was able to beat a hasty retreat and regroup in town, but ventured back determined to push through. Leaving a town portal open for quick escape, he slowly moved back toward the pack, but his approach line was the worst possible and woke up the HF boss and two champs before any others. With crowd control curses useless against them, he threw out a golem and made a fast line for the TP... but not before being frozen.

With the crushers in hot pursuit and Vader unable to outrun them, the outcome seemed almost inevitable as the screen crawled toward the portal. Each four steps brought another mighty swipe, answered by a drawn out hit recovery and a rejuv. It was simply a race against the belt load. With plenty of time to save and exit as the chase unfolded, it was a very sore temptation, but Vader was determined to make a run for it, which he ultimately lost within spitting range of the portal.

There's no good reason he shouldn't have made guardian. Nova with one synergy isn't very strong in hell, but with crowd control and a decent mercenary there was always enough power to get that first corpse, and that's all he needed (well, that and a lot of mana potions). Holy freeze had been trouble once before, but always against things that ultimately succumbed to poison or were nearby usable corpses.

Good luck to the survivors!

And thanks to Skunkbelly and everybody that participated. I had a great time and wish I would have been around for the last few acts!
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Rip Vader :(

He was the character I have played the most, so I had always hoped he would make it through. The canyon can be a very tough place to start, if you get a bad group, which you certainly did! I have lost at least one HC toon there that I can remember.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Argh! How did I forget decrepify! This guy was like duriels cuddly brother, and I knew that was my only chance against the big bug...
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

That brings me to a question I have always had:

What is the general feeling about pausing the game in a situation like this. Not s&e just pause, collect your thoughts, then resume. I have always thought it a bit cheesy, but I'm pretty sure it may have saved the lives of some of my past tournament characters. Just curious if thus has been discussed before, or how people feel about.

And for the record, I have never done this on a HC character before.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I'd lump that into the cheesy category also... otherwise you could do all kinds of goofy stuff like pause, position your cursor, get your fingers ready over certain hotkeys, resume - turn it into a turn based strategy game :scratchhead:. Being able to do all that precisely while the hordes are bearing down on you... that's where the fun is.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I don't think I'd put pausing to collect your wits in the same category as S&E. As long as you unpause and finish what you got yourself into, I think it's fair game.

Incidentally: the character I got killed in this tournament had exactly this happen.

"Whoa, I'm totally surrounded, and out of juvvies!"
[ESCAPE]
"Hmm... not sure what I can do here... but here goes nothing!"
[ESCAPE]
[Your Deeds of Valor Etc.]
"Sigh."
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

So many deeds :(

Chewbacca has slain Duriel. As expected for a Wookie, he went berserk and howled a lot. Extremely safe and unexciting. I probably won't do any extra runs. Blame Fabian.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Sorry to hear about the deaths! I played Ahsoka a long time ago and a strafer is pretty vulnerable to surprises, even when a strong killer.

Antilles' death is too bad- I always think that a Frost Zealot is such a good plan for untwinked or tourney restriction play, and every time I root for a Frost Zealot. Though they often get quite far along, it seems they rarely make it all the way. I played Antilles early, A2 normal, and pretty much set him on the Frostalot path but I haven't seen him since.

It would be great to know about the gear of the fallen characters, if possible.

Binks is standing in Kurast now, ready for his next player.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Vader's gear was generally pretty decent.

Weapon: 'White' bone wand - +1 revive, +1 summon resist
Shield: 'Splendor' demon head - +2 amp, +3 skel mastery, +1 clay
Boots: personalized Slikweaves
Helm: Chromatic Coronet (28@) - socketed by larzuk but empty
Amulet: Venomous - +3 PnB (recent upgrade)
Gloves: crafted w/ low resists, 3 MPK
Belt: crafted w/ 58 life, 9 FCR, low resists
Rings: rares netting resists ~50 lightning, 20 cold/fire
Armor: crafted w/ 42 FHR, 25 lightning/fire res (some of the resists from two socketed jewels)

He was in the neighborhood of 65 str/dex, 300 vit, 900 life, 300 mana
PNova was being cast at level 27, good for about 2500 damage if memory serves
Resists were around 50/20/20/0
He was level 78 when he died

The merc was holy freeze, which wasn't ideal, but he held his own nicely with a rare ethereal lance (30 IAS, 128% ED, 7% leech), Treachery, and a personalized Face of Horror
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

damn, so many deedsees

condolences to all the lost

ceynth - that item was a find in act 1 hell. I felt so bad for not being able to do much for upgrading gear that I just left that in the stash. I dont think it will be worth personalising by act 5, even upped
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

SWITCHES for ACT 3H
This is a little early, but that's OK... don't be rushed. You may send your character to the next player as soon as you are ready. Please endeavor to send them by Sunday, May 29th. If you received your character late, do the best you safely can.

IMPORTANT: As always, you may not look at your Act 3 Hell character until you have sent your Act 2 character to the next player.

Nearly half of the remaining field perished in act 2 hell... harsh. So there's a much smaller crowd this time... hopefully it won't shrink too much more in the jungles!

Code: 
==============================================================
Forum Name              Email Address                   SEND TO
==============================================================
cenyth                  cenyth at gmail dot com         jiansonz 
jiansonz                04084370   at bredband dot net       kestegs
kestegs                 beeselectric at gmail dot com        Thomh
purplelocust            purple_locust at yahoo dot com       Soulmanz
scrcrw                  scrcrw.spf at gmail dot com          purplelocust
SoulmanZ                soulmanz at hotmail dot com        cenyth
Thomh                   lillelab at hotmail dot com         WestXylophone
WestXylophone           WestXylophone at gmail dot com      scrcrw

DEEDS:
1. tavaritz (playing Wendu)
2. Gahzban (playing Beru)
3. Quickdeath (playing Biggs)
4. pwangsta (playing Farr)
5. Smilts (playing Fisto)
6. Skunkbelly (playing Amidala)
7. Brak (playing Dorme)
8. Wolron (playing Skywalker)
9. WoRG (playing Solo)
10. Hoop76 (playing Mothma)
11. Jason Maher (playing Ackbar)
12. JoeBruce (playing Antilles)
13. Ohomemgrande (playing Ashoka)
14. nualum (playing Vader)


Good luck, all.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I'm doing better with Kenobi but it has been slow going. I hope to make Sunday but I am not sure!

Is there anyone who has played all of the 8 remaining characters? I have played Dooku, Yaddle, Palpatine and now Kenobi so that's half of them.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

I'm almost embarrassed to discuss Antilles' gear and stats, because he was indeed a strong character and should have made it to Guardian.

He had maxed Holy Freeze and Resist Cold, Maxed Fanatacism and 14 hard points in Zeal. I was planning on dumping his Act 2 levels into Holy Shield and maybe Zeal. He had 230 vitality and a little more than 1100 life, but very little life leech (I think 2%). Chance to block was 75% with Holy Shield active. He was competent using both Holy Freeze and Fanatacism, but definitely safer with Holy Freeze (he was rocking Fanat when he bought the farm, due to the cold immune Spear Cats).

His weapon was an upped Butcher's Pupil, very excellent find. The merc (might aura) was using a Bonehew, also end-game worthy. Both he and the merc were wearing Treachery armors, so attack speed was good and resists were maxed once fade kicked in. Antilles also had 2 Angelic rings and the Ammy, so his chance to hit was over 90%. The helm was Lore, shield was Rhyme, belt was a blood craft and boots a safety craft. I believe the gloves were a blood craft with some IAS. In summary, his gear and stats were good, he perished simply to operator error.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Bad news. Yaddle is dead.

I was running Duriel for the 5th time, and came across a room with 6 Horadric mummies, 2 of them uniques, the rest champions. Easy, I thought.

Yaddle slaughtered all the skeletons with Frozen Orb, then ran through the entrance to Tal Rasha's tomb a few times to eliminate all the bodies. After that, all that remained was mummy cleanup. Since they are cold immune, we sat in the doorway static-ing and whacking until 4/6 (including the uniques) were dead. The last two weren't going to approach the door, so I walked in to static them.
Poisoned, at ~500/990 hp.
At that moment I had been feeling safe, because all the hits from the mummies hadn't hurt that much at all and I had just potted. If I had to hazard a guess, energy shield probably went down just as I approached the mummies.

In any case, it was a really dumb move, considering I could've just gone to town, healed and rebuffed and this wouldn't have happened.

I'd like to thank Skunkbelly for hosting this tournament and giving me these fun experiences, and apologize to the previous players of Yaddle for such an embarrassing end.

Good luck to everyone still alive.
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Alas for Yaddle! Here's the updated table:

Code: 
==============================================================
Forum Name              Email Address                   SEND TO
==============================================================
jiansonz                04084370   at bredband dot net       kestegs
kestegs                 beeselectric at gmail dot com        Thomh
purplelocust            purple_locust at yahoo dot com       Soulmanz
scrcrw                  scrcrw.spf at gmail dot com          purplelocust
SoulmanZ                soulmanz at hotmail dot com        jiansonz
Thomh                   lillelab at hotmail dot com         WestXylophone
WestXylophone           WestXylophone at gmail dot com      scrcrw

DEEDS:
1. tavaritz (playing Wendu)
2. Gahzban (playing Beru)
3. Quickdeath (playing Biggs)
4. pwangsta (playing Farr)
5. Smilts (playing Fisto)
6. Skunkbelly (playing Amidala)
7. Brak (playing Dorme)
8. Wolron (playing Skywalker)
9. WoRG (playing Solo)
10. Hoop76 (playing Mothma)
11. Jason Maher (playing Ackbar)
12. JoeBruce (playing Antilles)
13. Ohomemgrande (playing Ashoka)
14. nualum (playing Vader)
15. cenyth (playing Yaddle)
 
Re: Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge 2011

Binks sent to Soulmanz.

Sorry to hear about Yaddle! I had her in NM A3 and pretty much played her as an orb sorc with the enchant for the merc, hanging back. At that point, the third skill wasn't chosen and she had static from a staffmod on possible switch. Did someone choose energy shield or static, or were those both from staffmod skills?
 
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