Skunkbelly's Ultimate Tournament Challenge

HD the assassin has killed Diablo and has been sent onward to Hrus. I already have GertrudeStein from Brak and I hope to get a chance to play her this weekend. One way or another, she'll be my last character in this tourney!
 
Lowell killed Diablo and has been sent forward. HD received.

I had a NDE when I accidently switch my main weapon combo to bare hands and didn't realize that. The Soul's lightnings in Plains of despair hurt me much more than usual and I couldn't figure out why :rolleyes: .
I guess it was because I lost 50 LR not having the main switch on :wink3:
 
That last GC could probably get you a few hundred gold from Charsi :cool: But the others are worth saving. Too bad there was nothing for a necro, though... but 150 gems and 3 skillers is a darn good ratio! Wish I had that kind of luck when I bother to reroll charms...

Yeah I was surprised, thought the usual rate is about one per 30 rolls, so I was expecting one maybe two at best. This is also my second perserver's GC of the tourney, maybe I'll have to make a monk.

Congrats to everyone killing Diablo. And Hrus I feel your pain. I lose over 80% res all when I switch to my off weapon:shocked: . Nearly killed me with some Burning Archers, and now I'm not prebuffing anything if Gloams might be nearby.



 
Thanks again for the tourney SB, can't imagine how long it took to balance all those stashes. Also thanks for getting Eliot to me so fast. Just in time for the start of your next Pass It On tourney. Already have my skills planned. I'll get the stash back to you once I get in to work today.

Good luck to everyone still in it. Hope you all make Gaurdians, even though I was trying to kill you the whole time :grin: .

EDIT: Does anyone have any ideas as to what to use a slightly crippled Bonemancer for? Pits, Pindle?
 
My long nightmare of a work weekend is over, and I've received Dickinson, and will be decking her out, and getting to playing her, as soon as time permits.
 
Well, Dickinson is dead and got her Deeds.

The Oblivians got me, in Diablo's Lair. With my money woes, I already had resorted to clearing the entire River of Flame without my merc. Resurrected him and exited to get some stuff to sell, as I knew I'd probably need to revive him a few more times.

We made it through the outer area the sanctum quite easily. But, naturally, he survived mere seconds vs the Oblivians. And, Dickinsons main skill was Blizzard. I had already put the two points I got into Meteor, as a backup skill. This character was flawed, in my eyes, as Fireball had been maxed, instead of Meteor. Anyhow, the Oblivians Mages are Immune to Cold, so her main kill skill was negated. And, to make matters terribly worse, the Meteors seemed to be doing nothing, with 8 points and 20 in the synergy. I couldn't figure out why they weren't working. I guess they needed even more points, because the Mages were nearly impossible for me to take down. I cleared all the Knights ok, but killed maybe only two of them. And, I couldn't ditch them, either. They were in the passageways on each side of the entranceway to the center area. I thought I might do that, and ditch them, but just couldn't do it. I didn't have enough life in my ball to sit there and pump Fireballs at them. I was taking heavy damage from them, while trying that. And, that's what finally got me. Killed by an Oblivian Mage. Once I realized my woes against the Mages, I revived the merc again, in a futile effort. He lived another few seconds. So, I knew that was hopeless, and those two things cost me in this tourney.

It was probably inevitable, anyhow. Without the money to revive my merc countless times, I was probably doomed against Diablo. My resists weren't that great. And, I'm sure my spells wouldn't have been that good against him.

Got a Gul from the Hellforge. So, that was nice. Luckily, I muled that baby off. Never have done the Hell Hellforge in Hardcore, so that's my highest rune, for sure. Too bad it doesn't seem to be a very helpful one, without any other higher runes.

Well, I'm happy I even lasted this long.

So, now, you want the stash back, right Skunkbelly?
 
Sounds like you had some of the trouble i did with money, and your merc lasting a couple minutes if your lucky.

I havent sent my stash back yet, i forgot about that. Isnt a whole lot left in it now after selling what i could for gold.
 
Sorry to hear about Dickinson Billy. I was wondering what became of her fire skills. When I had her (act 3 normal) I tried to steer her towards Hydra as I'd never played this type of sorc before and I thought it might be fun and safe. I had a great time with her as I realized I had never used the Fireball skill in Diablo 2:shocked:. I guess since it was so bread and butter in D1 I was too excited to try out all the new spells. It was definitely a lot of fun and took me back to the old days a bit.

It looked to me as though she was destined to become a blizzballer. She had all the pre-reqs for Blizzard when I got her but I chose to devote all of my points to the fire tree. This is how she looked after Act 3 normal:

Fire:
firebolt-6
warmth-1
inferno-1
blaze-1
fireball-10
firewall-1
enchant-1
fire mastery-1
hydra-2

Lightning:
static field-1
telekenisis-1
teleport-1

Cold:
ice bolt-1
frozen armor-1
frost nova-1
ice blast-1
glacial spike-1

Pretty sure I dumped all of her stats into dexterity to be sure she could equip my Wizspike if she ever made it back to me.


Felt like updating the table as its been a while. Didn't even remember that Sidney had dropped out of the tourney. Looks like necros and sins have really ruled this tourney, and melee characters have all gotten wasted. Guess that's the item-dependentness of the game. Oddly enough SB is the only player that won't get to replay any character (I told you it wasn't me sabatoging them).

Code:
Live players    Hell A5 character         Gaurdians
------------------------------------------------------
Skunkbelly      Olga  - Assassin      
Brak            Eliot - Necromancer       X
PurpleLocust    GertrudeStein - Amazon 
Hrus            HD - Assassin      
JoeBruce        Lowell- Necromancer

Good luck all:thumbsup:. If we do this seven more times we'll catch up with Nightfish :laugh:
 
I finally got around to sending my stash back to you Skunk. I sent it to "memmers4 AT peoplepc DOT com". Sorry it took so long to return. Let me know when you receive it.

Thanks again for the tournament! It was good fun right up until the conc. barb!

-hps
 
I would have gladly traded a melee character for this Sorc, in act 4. Even with the O Mages and Knights. I had some great melee weapons including my Bloodmoon and a Lightsabre. Along with a lot of other good items for melee builds. This Sorc was probably the worst possible build with the Cold Immune Mages.

Funny thing was, these were the first Cold Immunes I saw in act 4. And, the worst possible! If that's not the luck. Any of the prior monsters could've been cold immune,and I may still be living.
 
Sorry to hear about the demise of Dickinson - I've been passing my chars to Billy this entire tourny, and it's too bad the last one (if I live...) won't be going to you. Dickinson was a "Blizzballer," a character I've never made but was glad to have the opportunity to play in the late game. Now I know what to do to make her more viable. I've never really liked blizzard, though I've made sorcs that use it, mainly because sometimes it can be so darn impossible to hit one monster. If there are 20, it will kill them in seconds, but 1, it seems to take me forever. Oh well.

Olga has made it through the City of the Damned and will soon attempt the River. Don't know exactly when I'll finish A4, have a few things that need doing tonight/tomorrow, but I don't see why I can't have her finished by Thursday afternoon.

Sorry again about the deeds, and good luck to us, "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers." (Where was Shakespeare in this tourny? Too cookie-cutter maybe? :smiley:)
 
I finally got around to sending my stash back to you Skunk. I sent it to "memmers4 AT peoplepc DOT com". Sorry it took so long to return. Let me know when you receive it.

Thanks again for the tournament! It was good fun right up until the conc. barb!

-hps

I got it, HPS. And RIP to Dickinson... I guess it's either going to be Olga or Lowell for me. Can't recall Olga right now, but Lowell'd be a cakewalk.



 
OK, Olga was received over the weekend, and I've got her up to the Anya quest so far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish her (one way or the other) this week. Everyone else should also have their act 5 character... if you're finished, or if you've gotten your deeds, please report!
 
Sorry to hear about HD Hrus. I recently played her in Act 3 Hell and she served very well for running LK to get some rune drop data. I think I warmed up to assassins a lot during this tourney, and was probably too excited every time I remembered I didn't need keys :laugh: .

I'm glad I didn't have a trapper for Act 5 since the Ancients seem as though they'd be pretty difficult. I know the Whirler took Eliot's merc out in one pass which was pretty scary. Does Mind Blast work on them for stun?

She was pretty sturdy when I got her, and my gear was decent for her. I had a +2 traps circlet which helped, and a wizspike to greatly cover res. I only leveled her once or maybe twice. I added a skill point to MindBlast since I was running LK and possible a point to BoS but I can't recall. Might have added a point to LS instead.

Thanks for putting Fireblast on the Left Click Skunkbelly, that worked out really well and I wouldn't have done that myself. Good luck with Olga. I was just looking over my screenshots and she looked a lot more damaged than any of the remaining characters. Definitely more so than HD. I was actually pretty impressed that EJB made it through Act 1 with her (and her subsequent success in Hell).
 
Well, I'm now at the last outdoor area before the Ancients' Way (can't remember... is that the Arreat Plateau? sigh...). I wanted to get through with Olga last night, since my mother-in-law is coming to visit for a week, but it wasn't to be. Got too tired, and ran into a ton of lightning immunes in the Ancients' Way... so I left that for another day.

My biggest problem right now is the combination of poor merc gear (no leech at all) and not a ton of gold and rejuvs. I have about 30 or so juvvies, which ought to be enough for the Ancients... if my merc can survive for a while. But if I have to reroll them several times due to the merc biting the dust, then I'll be broke. I have lots of things I can sell still, but I'm hoping to avoid that.
 
Sorry to hear about HD's death, Hrus! I had her twice and thought she was OK but the Hell Ancients are the Hell Ancients...

I don't have many notes from the first time I had HD, which was level 32 to 55 in normal Act 5, which was a breeze. I think I was pumping vitality and Death Sentry as at that point she was pretty much a pure Wake of Fire trapper, which was great for A5 normal but she would eventually be facing fire immunes and stronger monsters. She did personalize a 3-socket breastplate in A5 normal that I later made into Treachery, which has been very useful for mercs and lots of characters, including Olga and later HD again.

The second time I had her was Hell Act 4, which was slow going but not terrible. I didn't have Gloams and I didn't have the Damned in the City of the Damned, so that was fortunate as lightning immunes were slower going. I set aside a big chunk of time for the Chaos Sanctuary and was careful there, often standing next to a TP waiting to hear the IM sound to run away to save my merc. I didn't level her once and had only the 2 skill points from Izual to invest, which I put into Shadow Master in hopes that she might last more than one half of a second. I had excellent gear for her, including Treachery (shared with the merc), a circlet imbued in Act 1 Hell which was fantastic- +2 traps, FCR, FRW, and prismatic resists and life, and a much-handled Wizardspike. Lightning immunes were not too bad as Fire Blast would actually kill them, and of course Death Sentry is such a great skill in players 1 Hell. The merc was pretty strong and was useful against the seal bosses but against Diablo he didn't last long and I think I gave up after resurrecting him twice versus Diablo. Then it was the classic "have Diablo chase you around while you strew traps about" protracted battle.

HD Act 4 Hell arrival: level 78
S 87 D80 V253 E65
2BoS 1Fade 1SMaster 2 Mind Blast
20 Fire Blast 20 WoFire 1 WoInf 9 LS 20 DS
1 DFlight

HD Act 4 Hell departure:
L78 S87 D80 V253 E65
same skills except +2 in Shadow Master
 
SB, yeah my merc was pretty much just a mild monster distraction before I could get him significant leech and dmg. I thought you personalized a helm for blood crafting just for the merc? Suppose doing Nihly wouldn't be worth the danger in order to get the personalization reward for a blood helm. Also if you have enough skulls and a yellow circlet you can try rerolling, that's how I got lucky, or a blue circlet and any old Pgems.
 
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