TC3 Hunting Tournament winter 2018 - Sign-up and running thread [by T72on1]

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This tournament has already ended. It was originally posted by @T72on1 on Jan 8, 2018.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net)


Welcome to the second TC3 Hunting Tournament !!! In this thread players sign-up and talk about hunting TC3s. We had a little pre-tournament discussion about this, and it seems like we'll have 6 participants, but obviously the tournament is open to anyone, and it would be awesome if we would have more people enter. Last time it seemed like we would have 4, and we ended up with 14 :).

What is the TC3 Hunting Tournament?

The TC3 Hunting Tournament is a contest where we try to farm as many different TC3 items as possible during a 2 week period, within a maximum amount of time for each character. Score will solely depend on the number of different TC3 items found. This wiki page contains a list of all unique and set TC3 items. All items can be dropped by Normal Andariel (a lot of them even from lower targets), except for the 4 items with a qlvl of >16. If you are seeking for advice to increase your efficiency at tracking down those TC3s, check out the TC3 hunting FAQ draft. Or you could have a look at the first TC3 Hunting Tournament or it's results thread. Both contain very good information on which builds to use, tactics, ...


When is the TC3 Hunting Tournament?

Starts next Friday January 12 at 00:00, ends on Thursday January 25 11:59pm. Both local time.


Rules and info

1.
Areas we run are: all areas up to Normal Halls of the Dead level 3; this includes the Sewers level 1 - 3 and Dry Hills; reason for this is that I want to keep it low-profile, but want to enable the cube, to turn those chipped and flawed topazes into perfect ones ;)

2. Only version 1.13+ of the game.

3. HC or SC

4. New characters only, untwinked; muling items from the character to an external stash (GoMule or Atma) is allowed though

5. MP game to reset a map is allowed

6. Player setting is free; no increasing the /p setting just for chests or other poppables though

7. Max amount spent with one character is 15 hours; you can however enter the contest with multiple characters

8. This is just meant as a small, low profile challenge. There are no prizes, except for eternal glory if you manage to find all items one can find within' these areas (20 items)

9. Every different (e.g. not already found) TC3 item grants you 1 point; readouts of one of each of those different TC3 items can be posted here after the event; in case of a tie, the person who finds the highest total amount of TC3 items, wins

10. Gambling is allowed. TC3 items found while gambling, follow the same rules as TC3 items that drop

11. Reset at Akara is allowed


Scoring

As has already been stated, every different TC3 item grants 1 point. These are all TC3s available:



Tancred's Hobnails, Sander's Paragon and Vidala's Ambush can't drop in the selected areas. Blinkbat's Form can only drop from certain superuniques in act 2, as well as most bosses / champs there. Bane Ash can also drop this item.

Results

In a lot of tournaments there is a supervisor, to whom you can send your results after the tournament period over. Since this is such a low-profile tournament, I suggest all participants just post their result (number of different TC3 items, total number of TC3 items and item readouts (edit: or screen shots)) in the results thread I will put up shortly after the tournament itself has finished, but not until the ending time of the tournament has passed for all participants. So people from Australia and New Zealand will have to wait a bit longer than us Euro people, and those two groups have to wait for people from US and Canada before posting any results :).

Please don't post any info on how many TC3s you have found before the tournament is over, as that would ruin a lot of the fun.


Participants

T72on1
Kitteh
ioupainmax
MizzouFTW
ffs
JoeBruce
NanoMist
Tatterson
Southpaw8668
Cypher Aus
drmalawi
Grape
Smittyphi
jiansonz
Dezrok
Caralis
logoutzero
Gynli
Xios
Darkstarhub
GothamsBeard

Post any suggestions or questions you might have.

Good luck to everyone !!!
 
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[highlight]Participants[/highlight]

T72on1
Kitteh



Good luck all!
I'm not sure about the character I'll be playing. Last time I did a Holy Fire, which is very good for the job: Vigor for faster running, no mana issues, and when high enough a level, you don't even have to hit targets like Rakanishu, your pulse damage is good enough to do the job :).

Now I'm in doubt between Double Swing Barb (has Find Item, some minor increased speed from lvl 24 on, and can dual wield Gull for more mf), some Sorc (teleport, good low level skills) or Assassin (BoS all the way !!!). I'm currently leaning towards a DTalon Kicksin. Not sure if I can get boots that do enough damage though. But if not, there's always 2 TC3 weapons with CB :).

I'm mainly looking for the Gnasher and Biggin's Bonnet, as those would be grailers for me. But I'll welcome any TC3 obviously. I already found eth Torch of Iro and eth Rixot's Keen from Nihl within some 30 minutes of each other, so may all the other TC3s be eth too ;).

Tactic will probably be the same as last time: get to the cube as fast as possible first, maybe as fire trapper instead of Kicker first because of more area damage. Level up until 24 or 25, then focus on Andy for a while first in search of those lovely unique rings !!! What I didn't do well last time, was shrine hunting from the beginning, so I'll be on the lookout for that soon now. Other than that I might run Rakanishu and/or Tristram first, if I get good maps for those targets.

Edit: welcome Kitteh :).
I'll join with a Double Swing/Frenzy Axe Barbarian.

EDIT:

PATCH: 1.14d
STATUS: FAM
STASH: Extended GoMule
SC/HC: SC

EDIT2:
I'll be making a character that goes on to do other things after the tournament has ended, so I won't be respeccing unless I misclick and it might not be ideal, but it will kill 2 birds with one stone, since I've been meaning to start an Axe Barbarian for a while.
I am sorry if this is one of those stupid questions that I should know from the tournament description. I am thinking the answer is yes but I just want to make sure. Is this with a new character?
I'll join with a fire druid.
No, no stupid question, but instead not clear from the description, so I'll edit my post.

To answer your question: yes with new characters.
Let's do it! I'll be going with a Fire Trapper most likely.

[highlight]Participants[/highlight]

T72on1
Kitteh
ioupainmax
MizzouFTW
ffs
I really like this idea. I can probably get 15 hours in during that time frame.

Put me on the list! Unsure about the type of build. My gut says Assassin but it looks like we have one of those already. I will have a late start anyway so I have a few days to decide.

T72on1 said:
Tancred's Hobnails, Sander's Paragon and Vidala's Ambush can't drop in the selected areas. Blinkbat's Form can only drop from certain superuniques in act 2, as well as most bosses / champs there. Bane Ash can also drop this item.

Does that mean we will not be finding these items for this tournament?
Finding those 4 items is not impossible, just very difficult. 3 of those items can only be gambled due to the area restriction. IIRC, none of those 4 items were found in the previous tournament.

Of course I'm in.

[highlight]Participants[/highlight]

T72on1
Kitteh
ioupainmax
MizzouFTW
ffs
NanoMist
Participants

T72on1
Kitteh
ioupainmax
MizzouFTW
ffs
NanoMist
Tatterson
I think I’ll make a Fire Trapper this time around.

Participants

T72on1
Kitteh
ioupainmax
MizzouFTW
ffs
NanoMist
Tatterson
Southpaw8668
I love it when a plan comes together :).

Very happy to see you all joining. I added you all to the op. Seems like there will be quite some Assassins this time around !!
I'll give this a try as well. Don't know how well I'll do but it'll be fun :)

Participants

T72on1
Kitteh
ioupainmax
MizzouFTW
ffs
NanoMist
Tatterson
Southpaw8668
Cypher Aus
Cool !! That makes 10 participants already :).

This tournament is more about fun than anything else, so don't worry. If you skim trough the threads about previous tournament, you'll get a good idea of tactics and such.

This is the complete list for now. Adding it here, so JoeBruce is in it as well.


Participants

T72on1
Kitteh
ioupainmax
MizzouFTW
ffs
JoeBruce
NanoMist
Tatterson
Southpaw8668
Cypher Aus


Edit: just made a test character, an Assassin, and leveled her to 18 as a Fire Trapper. Then respecced to DTalon (4 kicks). Both builds are definitely good options for this tournament, although DTalon only when leveled up, when the focus is on single targets only. Found two TC3s in a few runs, good sign?

So long story short: I'll be sticking to the original plan of leveling up as a fire trapper and then respeccing to DTalon. The only downside of that build is that I'm more or less forced to use Greaves, limiting attribute points spent in Vita and limiting my choice of boots.
Personally, my initial character is a Fists of Fire assassin, but if I have time then I will run with a HF zealot or a barbarian of some kind.
Looks like people are really getting into tactics...almost nobody is going for a Barbarian it seems...oh well!
ioupainmax said:
Looks like people are really getting into tactics...almost nobody is going for a Barbarian it seems...oh well!
I am for my second attempt. First attempt is meant to be competitive, my second one is meant to get me a few grailers and give me an excuse to moan :p
I was in doubt between Sorc, Barb and Assassin. My reasoning was that Sorc and Barb is so cliché for an mf tournament, hence the Assassin :). Seems like for this one, Barbs and Sorcs aren't top pick. While they are top competitors in my opinion.
The sorceress worries me because of the mana pool, but clearly others have handled that. The barbarian, I'm not sure the kill speed will be as good. However, find item is appealing.
 
I always forget to use Find Item, must be conditioning since I usually play Sorceresses so the muscle memory isn't there.
Nanomist did a Sorc last time. He did a very detailed write-up about how he handled mana issues. I didn't take a Sorc then because I was worried about mana too, but Nanomist clearly showed that it doesn't have to be an issue.

But Sorc and mf tournament ... I have done that enough in the past.
Exactly. I see tournaments like this as a good chance to do something different. I've never had a fists of fire assassin, at least not outside of levelling.
T72on1 said:
except for the 4 items with a qlvl of >16.
And then there are only 3 in the list...did you mean >= 16?


This is interesting, as it would be possible to do it within the rules frame of another tourney. The biggest challenge for me would be to actually complete about 1.3 acts in 15 hours...especially if I need to spend an hour or more shopping Ring Mails from Charsi. My normal time up to that point would be something more like 25 hours.

(That skeleton mage in the Cathedral is named Bone Ash, btw)
I'm in!!! :D

I need a break from my usual twinked MF-ing and perhaps add a few TC3's to my (small) grail.

No idea what build to play, don't think I wanna read the guides but just go with what my gut tells me :p
Cool. Added you to the OP.
I think i'm going to play paladin as my first character since thats the only class I don't have played in singleplayer. Maybe ill do sorc since i want to make a zealer sorc sometime in the future
Not sure if there's people from countries like Australia and New-Zealand, but if there are, I think the tournament is about to start for them. For me it's still 8 hours away, but I won't be playing much this weekend, if at all, unfortunately.

Good luck everyone !!! O yes and don't forget: people can still join this even after the start. It shouldn't be too hard getting 15 hours in, even being a few days late.
I won't be starting until Saturday personally, and I have applications for summer research schools and lots of reading to do ahead of my honours project. I may even only get to do one attempt - heinous! :(
I'm going to start right after hitting 98.25 with my 99er Sorc. We'll see when that is, though I hope some time this weekend! :)
I'm in!

This was fun to follow the last time.

Since my eth grail misses most of the TC3s, why not to give this a go?

I probably won't be really competitive, but let's see. I feel like playing some stupid funny build instead of killing Andy +1k times with a sorc. :p
Cool. Welcome. PC Druid confirmed?
New to diabloii forums, old diablo 2 vet. Some may have seen me on the Amazon Basin boards. Reinstalled D2 about a month ago and I haven't had the opportunity to start a paladin. Throwing my hat into the ring. Probably going holy fire for this.
Smittyphi !!!!! Now that is a welcome surprise. Funny thing is that I thought about mentioning the SPF to you today, but didn't get around to do it.

Welcome to the forum and this tournament. Great one to get you started. Good luck !!! I did Holy Fire last time. Works really well.
Okay, I'm in with a Necromancer.
Welcome, and good luck !!!

I couldn't resist staying up late, so I already have some time under my belt. Fun, fun, fun.
Okay, I'm a late entry for this one. I've a few builds I want to try, but I think I'll start out with a Rabies Wolf. Could be a complete disaster, but has nice novelty value!
I will start in a few hours. Will do a fist of fire sin since I need to practice with MA sins :)
Nice everyone, let's go :) I'll probably start running Sunday/Monday with a Fire Trapper!
I need hotspur for my hammerdin :p. So i will join, dont know what to run though.
 
Started playing a sorc using the charged bolt / nova combo. Got to lvl 19 and got leaf. used up 2 hours. I skipped the catacombs lvl 2 waypoint on my playthrough but apparently its one teleport from the lvl 3 entrance. lvl 3 is like 15-20 seconds of running with no boss packs. Idk if i should keep the map or try to find a gem shrine map and run that for topazes. Found a 27% nagelring in act 2 so thats nice.
I'm travelling today and will be away from home tonight too, so I won't start until tomorrow :(
Started before going to bed last night. My plan is to make a Curses-and-Golem Necro, the ultimate merc helper that won't need to kill much himself.

A very strange experience, this constant stress of trying not to waste any valuable time! Totally different from what I usually do. I even got stressed because my hotkey setup was mapped after a Sorc (my latest created/played character) and I had to switch around the keys so I can map newly acquired skills the way I want to.
No time for shopping any good 2s helms, just go with a Cap I found and the first other I saw for sale (another Cap). No time for shopping a decent Scepter either but I found one already in Blood Moor, with some +%ED and lightning damage. Will probably not need a better melee weapon.

Halfway around the Cold Plains perimeter, I was getting pretty close to lvl 8, so I went into the Burial Grounds and soon completed the level-up on the undead there (they give much better XP than the Fallen packs on the Plains). Hired rogue and powershopped 3s Long Bow from Gheed (took about 15 trips), put a ruby in it, soon to be followed by a sapphire and another ruby. All other non-topaz gems will be sold for gambling money. Pretty quickly cleaned out the rest of these early areas, then went powershopping for 3s Ring Mails (I've lucked out with the Camp layout with WP close to Charsi). Took maybe 30 trips to get the first one, then I got the second about half a dozen trips later. What luck!

If I need to kill something quickly, I use Amp + javelin tossing. Pwnage so far.

Two topazes found. Not quite level 12 yet. Will do my first boots + gloves gambling at clvl 13. Have decided to sell all jewelry I don't wear as well, since there is so little left to play once I get the Cube, and far too much item administration to keep them around to cube.

Time used: 1h 15 min
I am pleased with my performance, but my brain was completely fried when I saved...


Xyx the Necromancer and a Fire Rogue, level 11, Stony Field next
Found a envy jool right off tha bat in cold plains :)
Gonna do like 3 Burst of speed, 1 Cloak of shadows, rest into Fist of Fire.
Goal is to get a Claw socketed with Tal runes, shield with Diamonds, gloves, boots, rings, amulet with MF, Armor and helm with Topazes.
Blessed aim act 2 merc???

Got a godly Stony Field map. Poor Rakanishu, gonna get killed soooo many times :D


1606404666951.png
Holy Fire paladin reminds me of my holy frost zealot I made back in the day. That ranks close to the top of my favorite build.

I'm still new (again) to the single player experience. Do gem shrines stay static with the single player maps?
Smittyphi said:
Holy Fire paladin reminds me of my holy frost zealot I made back in the day. That ranks close to the top of my favorite build.

I'm still new (again) to the single player experience. Do gem shrines stay static with the single player maps?
No the gem shrines are not static.
Remember not to reveal your drops before the results guys :D
I am gonna make a little YT video about this tournament and perhaps draw more people to the forums :)
I also made a HF Paladin for my first character in this tourney. Had some decent luck so far, just over 6 hours in. Rushed for the cube and don't regret it as I'm having terrible luck with finding gem shrines. Have had incredible luck gambling but terrible luck with shopping the few things I needed to shop for. Map rolls are pretty good. Enjoying the character which may inspire me to continue playing the character or respec him after the tourney is done. Good luck to everyone else!
So what's everyone's strategy? Gear up first for awhile, and if so, have you set a deadline after how many hours you run your personal target(s) exclusively? Or running the target right after getting cube? Intuitively I'd get the cube and start running Andy ASAP, but I'd be interested if there are other approaches. :)
Kitteh said:
Remember not to reveal your drops before the results guys :D
Sorry, I missed that part.
I got the cube and did some countess. After getting leaf and a few chipped topazes, I went shrine hunting / farming. When I got an exp shrine, i went to do halls of the dead lvl 2 and 3 at players 8. Got me up to lvl 24 pretty darn fast. Leaf and firewall make a killer combo. I have like 750 avg fire damage per second with it. About 3h 15mins played. I have 1 square topaz but thats about it
drmalawi said:
I am gonna make a little YT video about this tournament and perhaps draw more people to the forums :)
Dooooo it! I will be recording and posting both of my playthroughs too :)
I'm in with a Barb. Starting as soon as I get a counter.

Edit: 1 hour of play in, I've only just rescued Cain, and not a single topaz.

I'm rusty! Might enter a few different characters, as I went for Barb being in the single pass mindset. 15 hours is the limitation, not single pass. Need speed and power!
I'll join with an Assassin. Gonna be a fire trapper, as I plan to continue on with her into Hell with it.

Leaf staff for weapon and mf everywhere else is my plan so far. Will have to read up on targets to run and etc first though.
What are you all doing for player setting? I'm playing my first one through P8, but I may swap to a P1 rush and then level for my second character.
I play /p1 while questing through normal and nm, and only gradually bump up to /p8 on leveling targets. For Act 1 and 2, that's Rakanishu and Beetleburst.

For clarification, am I allowed to progress further than getting the cube, as long as I farm anything prior to it?
I'm wondering if power leveling at Beetleburst is allowed in this tourney.
Oh, this seems fun, I'll slide in a little late here and see what I can do this weekend.

Will probably not do anything too optimized, and instead play some sort of quirky low level gimmick build, because when do you really get the chance to do such a thing?

Who needs optimization when you can let RNGesus take the wheel anyways.
Bunsen, a fists of fire assassin, has reached The Countess and found herself a nice map. She will get a few bits before moving on. I'm at 50 minutes, which isn't great considering my 2 hour allowance for questing...
Gynli said:
I play /p1 while questing through normal and nm, and only gradually bump up to /p8 on leveling targets. For Act 1 and 2, that's Rakanishu and Beetleburst.

For clarification, am I allowed to progress further than getting the cube, as long as I farm anything prior to it?
I'm wondering if power leveling at Beetleburst is allowed in this tourney.
Nightmare?

I thought Dry Hills in Normal was the last area allowed to run?
 
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You can't go further than normal Halls of the Dead Level 3.
First of all ... 19 entrants already, low level madness confirmed !!! This is great guys, good luck everybody.

@Dezrok Rabies definitely has a high novelty value.

@jiansonz Great I could get you out of your comfort zone :).

@drmalawi That's definitely the kind of Rakanishu map you want. Ran a very similar one a lot with my Holy Fire Paladin last time. The pulse was enough to kill him at a distance at /p1, so that saved yet some more time on those runs. And yes, jewels of Envy are one of the nice side effects of this tournament. Speaking of which ...

1606405001835.png

Might be the best Jewel of Envy I have ever found.

Btw, as far as screenshots go: you can post screens about stuff you found in the tournament during the tournament, except for qualifiers. So no TC3s, everything else is fine. Side note: you might be wearing one of the TC3s you found, but not think about it, when posting a non-TC3 you found. Try to avoid that ;).

@ffs (and others) You have to remember that player setting doesn't affect S/U drops. So /p1 is all you need. Obviously gaining some levels is important too, so if you can set the player setting higher without slowing down too much, that's a good thing.

I just sped through the game on the highest setting I could do fast. That was changing between anything between /p1 and /p7 iirc, but mostly /p1 and /p3 I think. That was with a fire trapper though, and a driver who didn't even think about Leaf runeword :(. Holy Fire Paladin for example can mostly play on the higher settings for example, at least iirc.

I ran Countess enough to be able to make Stealth, but was quite fortunate with my map and drops, so it didn't take me too long. I had a ridiculously good 3 shrine map at Dark Wood, so immediately took the time getting 2 topazes up to perfect. After that I went all the way to the cube, spent some more time on another perfect topaz, but then got impatient and rerolled maps. In hindsight I should have continued until I got 2 more perfect ones, but my reasoning was that I'd probably encounter shrines when running specific targets on new maps, which wasn't the case then. It turned out that I was lucky enough to get a great Coldcrow and Andy map after 2 rerolls, but without any shrines on the way. So now I'm torn between just running those with lower mf, or doing that one area (I think it's Dark Wood again) where there's one shrine next to the waypoint.

Anyway, that's my take on it: go through the game fast, up to the cube. Try to gain some decent levels, so you get to lvl 20+ (depends on the build, lvl 24 - 25 should not take too long and is what most people shot for last time; I'm only at lvl 22 now, but that's because I changed from Fire Trapper to DTalon too fast, and the latter isn't the best area runner). In the end, that isn't that important though, as /p1 is what you need anyway for drops. Most important stuff is fast movement speed and mf. Almost any skill can kill fast at /p1 at this stage, so you can pick a lot of different stuff there. After that, but again that is my take on it, you can either try to upgrade runes first (cubing is slow, you want shrines for that), go for Nagelrings (Andy) or try to hit Gull dagger fast (Coldcrow). Actually Rakanishu probably is the best target, but you want to increase mf first, hence one or more of the three targets above first.

@Gynli You are only allowed to go until the area where the cube is. See rule number 1.

Again, good luck everyone !!!
I have to admit, after my initial play earlier, I am tempted to drop to P1 until I get the cube, and then level up a bit with some farming. Anybody have any interesting plans for gambling? I'm focusing on boots/gloves as I would with an ordinary untwined character, hoping for of luck. After that, daggers all the way until I get Gull. After that, probably just whatever I don't have...
drmalawi said:
Nightmare?

I thought Dry Hills in Normal was the last area allowed to run?
I meant that I will be taking this Assassin over to the untwinked 99er after this tourney is over. So I need to use a build that can take me through normal and nm with at least some ease. For this tourney though, just normal act 2. that's all. =P

T72on1 said:
...
@Gynli You are only allowed to go until the area where the cube is. See rule number 1.
...

Dang, I had wished to power level at Beetleburst, but I guess that's not possible.


I will start either tmr or day after. Gl to everyone~
I haven't started yet, but I also plan on gambling some boots for "of luck" and also a chance at Tancred's Hobnails. Maybe a few circlets too, and hope to get lucky. Mechanic's circlet of luck would be awesome. Mechanic's anything would be better than a 2 socket cap. At the very end I'd gamble my remaining gold on leather armors, caps, and boots.
Holy smokes, we're going to get there! 5 hours and 18 minutes in, we're standing on the stairs to the Catacombs. By far the fastest ever for me. May even be twice as fast as my second fastest. Still not sure if I enjoy it, but it's interesting. :cool:

That's more than halfway. I think I will even have time to think (!) a little on how to optimize my gambling, and also time to actually do it. Getting unusaully rich, from all those gems, amulets and rings I normally don't sell.

My first MF gamble was 21% Fortune boots, something like my 8th gamble at clvl 13. Only 10% chance to get ilvl 17 that I needed, and they rolled upper half Fortune, too. Sweet.

5th topaz in the outdoor Marsh area, I think. 10th (the last I've seen) in Barracks entrance room.

Main skills are Clay Golem (with a few levels in Mastery), level 2 Amp and level 5 Dim Vision (that's where I think DV starts to get reasonably user friendly in Normal).
I had a change of heart and ended up starting a day early. =D

@jiansonz 5 hours!? made me double check the rules to see that this isn't a single-pass ;)

Anyways to my first update.

I followed typical speed running route as I've seen MrLlamaSC do on his speed runs; rushing to Countess, running her for Stealth and Leaf, stopping only for boss packs along the way for some quick levels. Countess was being stingy and dropped me a Tir rune at about 10 or so runs in; but eventually I made a leaf in a 2os plain staff I bought from Akara, and Stealth in a random 2os armor from Charsi.
1606405106937.png
1606405254161.png

After the tower runs, I just sped through rest of the act straight to Andy, finishing the act at lvl 15.
1606405371191.png

Few more mins later, I picked up my cube, and she is now ready to start rerolling a good Andy map.
1606405437372.png

Stealth was just a nice addition to the leaf; I had planned to just go for leaf, but got the Tal/Eth before I got Tir/Ral. I will replace it when I find/cube enough flawed topazes for this neat 3os bp from Fara.
1606405500210.png

I have very minimal experience with the run counter, so i'm not 100% sure if the # of runs is what it says it is. It seems to not register sometimes. Nevertheless, the total run time seems to work fine, so here's the screenshot of the RC for day 1.
1606405598044.png

Plans for her now are...
- Den of Evil/Sewer for 2 skill points
- Reroll Andy map, and farm up for a good while. iirc T72on1 ran her for Nagelrings last time.
- Start picking up items to sell for gambling.

Oh and lastly, I see the rule for muling items off the char, but nothing else. Does that mean I shud assume no extended stash for this tourney? Asides from a stash full of TC3s, I guess.

EDIT: now that I think about it, I only need the stash for the TC3s; and that's only muling off. I'll be fine w/o the extended stash.
T72on1 said:
@ffs (and others) You have to remember that player setting doesn't affect S/U drops. So /p1 is all you need. Obviously gaining some levels is important too, so if you can set the player setting higher without slowing down too much, that's a good thing.
Um, I thought that players setting affected S/U drops for Andy (p5 is designated best) and for poppables and I'm pretty sure for regular monsters as well. It's just bosses and champs that aren't affected. Right? I probably should go and use the drop calculator to check these things before posting...

I've been going p1, with the plan to stay p1 till I get the cube. Something like Den of Evil, Tristram, Countess, Andy, Radamant, Cube. Then level a bit (to lvl 24ish) at p8 before running the TC3 targets.

BaneAshBites mucked around a bit at the start and hit the Countess at the 1:20 mark - level 9. I then ran Countess to get the runes for Stealth and Zephyr (3xRals to cube to the Ort). An hour later I had reached level 15 and had 4xRal, 7xTal and not a single Eth. Far too much time wasted here so I'll hope for the 2xEths along the way. Pushed on a bit further to the Inner Cloister and level 16.

Somewhere along the way I realised it has been ages since I played a wolf and I really had no idea what gear I should be looking for. So, I stopped and did a bit of research, read up on the skills, looked at breakpoints and class specific IAS, that sort of thing. Have a much clearer picture of where I'm going now.

Another thing I've noticed is that Poison Creeper is killing fast and so I've decided to become a Poison Creeper Wolf and skip the Rabies altogether. A few points in Feral Rage and Werewolf for the FRW and to get 7fpa. Feels like it is going to be a laugh even if it isn't efficient!
Yes, PC is very good, especially early on.

I wanted to go for Zephyr too, but in the end didn't bother to run Countess for the runes, hoping for a lucky Ort later on. Not sure if that can even drop from other monsters than Countess in the areas allowed though. Anyway, so I'm without a Zephyr, but probably should have gone for it.

Uniques are definitely not affected by player setting, and those are the only ones you should bother killing. I'm in doubt about Andy now. Hopefully someone will chime in and give us some insight on it. If that's the case, I'm screwed, because my character can't do her properly.

I mucked around too much on the session this evening. Couldn't really decide what to focus on, so ended up doing everything and nothing at the same time. In the end I kept rerolling maps until I had a good 2 shrine map (both very close to the waypoint) and got the 2 remaining topazes to perfect. Than I rerolled maps until I got a good one for Coldcrow (with Bishibosh also next to the waypoint, although I'll have to check if he can actually drop something useful).

Next time will be devoted to some extended Coldcrow running. If you want a high level of 'ah almost' feelings in this tournament, you should definitely run her. She drops almost exclusively good bases for the tournament, but (almost) always blue and yellow, with the latter really common, which makes for that 'ah almost' feeling.
@Gynli: I understand the usefulness of Stealth but why do you want Leaf for a non-Sorceress?

Yes, I know that it isn't single-pass, but it is for me. Areas I have already played simply do not exist for my characters.


@T72on1: First drop chance for Ort isn't until Travincal or so.

Act bosses are affected by the players setting, because it reduces the risk that some of the drops become no-drops. To reduce the no-drop risk to 0, you need /p5 for Andariel/Duriel, and /p3 for the three prime evils.


I like my new merc's weapon:

1606405620643.png
@jiansonz I'm running a fire trapper, so it's purely for the +3 fire skills. I might swap it out for gull + shield if I ever find it.
I just checked with the DropCalc and for Champs, Uniques and Super Uniques players setting makes no difference.

For Andy. The drop chance for Gull with 100%MF went from 1:830 on p1, to 1:567 on p3, to 1:486 on p5, to 1:466 on p7/8.

Regular monsters also show significant improvement of drop odds on higher player settings. That Gull dagger with 100%MF for a regular monster in Tristram goes from 1:139,293 on p1, to 1:68,776 on p5 and 1:60,941 on p8. All of which are pretty long odds.

Just for completeness. That same Gull with 100%MF.
Coldcrow 1:487
Uniques in the Caves Lvl 1 1:974
Champs in the Caves Lvl 1 1:2470
Minions in the Caves Lvl 1 are 1:51,303 on p1, 1:25,331 on p5 and 1:22,445 on p8
Despite the fact that both my Stony Field and Black March maps were godly, the Catacombs maps were awful. So I decided to reroll them. Got a pretty good map already at the first trial, and Andy dropped me a (16%MF) Nagelring at the same time :)
4 hours in, got a second nagelring, hsarus boots and belt from andy! The belt is very nice with the 3 slots it offers. The nagel was a 29% so my MF is somewhere in the 70's.
Don't mention your TC3 finds :D
I think that only the Hsarus shield is TC3?
Kitteh said:
I think that only the Hsarus shield is TC3?
That is true! I thought it was the belt, but the TC3 belt is Death :)
Just thought I'd share a few of the jewels I've picked up so far :) Not sure what to look for in low level jewels but these seem decent.

Ghoul Heart
Jewel
Required Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0xc1e3a862
Item Level: 5
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Life
11% Extra Gold from Monsters
Requirements -15%

Beryl Jewel of Avarice
Jewel
Required Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0x4f624b61
Item Level: 2
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Poison Resist +15%
20% Extra Gold from Monsters

Grim Eye
Jewel
Required Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0x6265d872
Item Level: 7
Version: Expansion 1.10+
7% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Life
Fire Resist +14%

Rune Talisman
Jewel
Required Level: 5
Fingerprint: 0x646ee134
Item Level: 12
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Dexterity
+14 Maximum Stamina
Cold Resist +14%
Requirements -15%

Death Gyre
Jewel
Required Level: 3
Fingerprint: 0x8f85f4e5
Item Level: 7
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Minimum Damage
+8 Defense
Poison Resist +12%
Requirements -15%
Here are my two good jewels, they are sitting nicely in Merc armor :D

Code:
Jewel of Envy
Jewel
Required Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0xccd72550
Item Level: 5
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 20 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)

Camphor Jewel of Envy
Jewel
Required Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0x9f3435e0
Item Level: 15
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 20 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
Lightning Resist +8%
I always appreciate nice envy jewels. @T72on1 I hate you :rolleyes:
 
So finally decided to run Assassin because i want a trapper in SC. GL to everyone!

1606406626615.png
Nice @Caralis !
I really enjoy my Fist Of Fire Sin :)
I made a leaf and finally realised that FoF is not phoenix strike :rolleyes: I also crappy shrines and had to run the cube twice because I forgot to pick it up - catastrophic so far! Oh, and I can't FoF with Gull if I have/find it...
Keyra is now in act 2. 55 min andariel kill, 15 min behind speedrunners practice times lol.

Already found bases and runes for Zephyr, Leaf and Stealth, the only thing i lack is experience (lvl 13 currently).

1606406640134.png
How well would running Cave/Crypt/Mausoleum sparkly chests work for the purpose of this tourney? They can roll desired quality of green or gold, and when that happens, you could get more than one item in the drop.



EDIT: Xyx the level 23 Necromancer is now done. The Act II areas took 2h 43min. I could afford a more leisurly pace, which was much less tiring and more enjoyable.
The whole thing took me 9h 21min. I thought 15 hours would be too short. Nice to see that he (and I) was up to the challenge.

What you guys are doing is way out of my league. I couldn't enjoy playing any other way than I do. Too much freedom otherwise, too many decisions to make. And being able to make those decisions while the clock is ticking, too. (okay, most of it can probably be planned outside gaming sessions, but still...)


Next character I play will definitely be back to taking 25 hours to get the Cube...
Gynli said:
@jiansonz I'm running a fire trapper, so it's purely for the +3 fire skills. I might swap it out for gull + shield if I ever find it.
Shield shouldn't be too hard to find, no? ;) .
jiansonz said:
How well would running Cave/Crypt/Mausoleum sparkly chests work for the purpose of this tourney? They can roll desired quality of green or gold, and when that happens, you could get more than one item in the drop.



EDIT: Xyx the level 23 Necromancer is now done. The Act II areas took 2h 43min. I could afford a more leisurly pace, which was much less tiring and more enjoyable.
The whole thing took me 9h 21min. I actually though 15 hours would be too short. Nice to see that he (and I) was up to the challenge.

What you guys are doing is way out of my league. I couldn't enjoy playing any other way than I do. Too much freedom otherwise, too many decisions to make. And being able to make those decisions while the clock is ticking, too. (okay, most of it can probably be planned outside gaming session, but still...)


Next character I play will definitely be back to taking 25 hours to get the Cube...
Play the way you enjoy! I'm recording it all and I was chatting about how I was automatically playing like a typical untwinked character, and then discussed how much you might struggle to change to a fast paced rushing style. 5 minutes later, you posted about your 5 hour mark :rolleyes:
Kitteh said:
I made a leaf and finally realised that FoF is not phoenix strike :rolleyes: I also crappy shrines and had to run the cube twice because I forgot to pick it up - catastrophic so far! Oh, and I can't FoF with Gull if I have/find it...
Just keep Gull on switch and use the 3rd Charge from FoS (the one that gives fire duration)
drmalawi said:
Just keep Gull on switch and use the 3rd Charge from FoS (the one that gives fire duration)
That was my plan, I'm just hoping that my damage will be in the sweet spot :D
Alright boys and girls, got my Sorc to 98.25 so it's time to kick your ass now! Well, actually too much RL stuff today and tomorrow, BUT TOMORROW you're done! ;)
@jiansonz I hear you! It is definitely a challenge for me to shift from my usual slow methodical ways. I keep on dropping back into that mode and having to focus to get back up to speed. At times I'll find myself just sitting staring at the screen while thinking about different options, and then realise that the clock is still running and I should save my thinking for later (or at least run and think at the same time).

Having said that, BaneAshBites has hit the 8 hour mark and is maybe level 22.

Reached the Cube at the 4 hour mark and was able to make Stealth by cubing some Nefs. Leveled to 21 in the Dry Hills (the highest area level we have access to), probably would have been better leveling in a slightly lower level area with a higher boss density though?

At level 21 was able to make Zephyr, once again from cubing Nefs. Originally I'd planned on leveling to 24, but I was impatient so I headed back to Act 1 to see what my maps were like. Ended up with a nice little route:
  • Cold Plains to check a shrine close to the waypoint;
  • Stony Field for Rakanishu who was a couple of steps from the waypoint (see below). A Poison Creeper cast into the middle of the stone circle would often take care of him and all his minions. When it didn't we would have to chase him down.
  • Dark Wood for Treehead, who was close enough to the waypoint to start running as soon as we appeared (see below). It was a race to see whether Floria could pick him off with her bow (3os Comp Bow: RalRalSapphire) before BaneAshBites could reach him. There was also a shrine nearby, but unfortunately in the complete opposite direction to Treehead, still worth checking though.
  • Inner Cloister for Bone Ash. There was usually a boss pack just outside the door on the right side and then another one just inside the door. There would sometimes be a third boss halfway down the Cathedral and then Bone Ash himself.
1606406687760.png

1606406740238.png

After a couple of hours of this run, I decided I really wanted to be running Andy. My Andy map was terrible though. So, I bit the bullet and rerolled my maps. First time for me to ever hit the Multiplayer button. I then spent at least 30 mins trying to get a map that wasn't terrible. Quite a few that would have been fantastic with teleport. Eventually settled on one that is much longer than I would like but will do me for now.
I decided to level to 24 for jewellery cubing and began levelling in Halls of the Dead, but swapped to Dry Hills because I had a nice route with boss pack/shrines. So, depends on the map :p
I started the journey by rushing to Countess Runs, starting the runs at P1 and ramping up the players count as I got stronger. I only needed runes for Stealth and Leaf, and fortunately the Countess cooperated. I've had runs where the Eth rune would never drop, so I was glad to see it drop early. Static Field made short work of P8 boss packs, with charged bolt and later nova as the finisher. I grabbed the cube 58 minutes in, just reaching level 18 in time to incorporate teleport into the leveling/gearing phase. I had forgotten to skill telekinesis at level 17, but the Book of Skill saved me in that regard.

I have 2 nearby shrines in the Black Marsh, and 3 shrines in the Stony Field that I checked for gem and exp. shrines. There were 2 additional shrines in the Stony Tomb where I leveled up to 26 by the 2 hour mark. I shopped MF gloves and boots from Elzix during these runs since the entrance to the rocky waste was on his side.

I respec'd to firewall and checked my MF target options. Catacombs is decent, but Coldcrow, Rakanishu, and Treehead were distant. MP games are slow to create, so I decided to forgo rerolling any maps and run Andariel only.

Awesome FCR/MF ring.
JMmX4vv.jpg


Actually a rare find in Act 1 norm. I think only the Catacombs Ghouls can drop Isenhart's Case here?
DqWMDZg.jpg


I quickly found Hsarus' belt and a life SC to boost life pool. Died one time playing inventory tetris while being poisoned down to 1 health- a phantom fireball from a Shaman got me. 5 hours in as of now.
jiansonz said:
How well would running Cave/Crypt/Mausoleum sparkly chests work for the purpose of this tourney? They can roll desired quality of green or gold, and when that happens, you could get more than one item in the drop.
The Cave is area level =2 and so poppables can't drop any set or unique items, which have a min qlvl =3.
The Crypt and Mausoleum are area level =3 and so can only drop 3 of the TC3 S/Us from poppables.
Reference: This nice guide by Quickdeath https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Guide:Sparkly_Chests_v1.10,_by_Quickdeath

What might be interesting is racking in the Tower (area level =7) for the qlvl 7 wand, staff and scepter (item types that are three to four times less likely to drop from monsters than the other item types) ... if you get to a stage where these are the only items you still need.
@NanoMist That sounds terribly efficient. I bet you'll have a good chance at victory again. Then again luck will still determine much obviously.

I'm currently running Coldcrow. Runs take some 37 seconds, long S/E time included. Not great but not too bad either. Mf is close to 200%, main focus is on finding Gull for 100% more, then I'll probably switch to Rakanishu. When I was doing him for a bit earlier, I was also including Tristram, but drops were terrible there. I don't have the feeling it is worth it.
I just got my character started this afternoon: Barbarian Torc_CairnIII (in honor of our TC3 tournament). His will be a bit of an unconventional build, but I never planned to be too competitive with this anyway. He should be lots of fun to play, and a pretty fast monster slayer.

After 50 minutes, I managed to rescue Cain and have a great Dark Wood WP just next to Treehead. Before logging off I went back to do the Den of Evil quest, and noticed a gem shrine on the way. I still had not found any topaz, so after clearing the Den I went back and tried my luck:
1606406825490.png
I included Tristram briefly too. I'm running with little efficiency really; Bishibosh-Coldcrow-Rakanishu-Treehead-Andariel, every single game. I might be more tactical next time :p
Spent just under 3 hrs today over 3 sessions.

1st sessions was spent on finishing sewer/den for the extra 2 skills, and rolling a 3 shrine map for 5 PTopazes. The session took about 140 or so runs over 1.5 hours.

After the 1st session, I quickly came to realize how important frw was for this tourney, so I decided to run Countess for Zephyr and leveled to 21.

Afterwards, i spent good 30 minutes on rerolling for a decent Andy map, and I am happy I did. The current map has the strairs just around the corner from the wp and a short walk from 3 to 4. It also turns out Rakanishu is just a screen away from the WP, so I have a good map to run for a long while. I tested out a dozen Andy runs on /p5, and decided i'm happy at the current kill speed. So, any extra skill points will now go towards Burst of Speed for the extra frw.

I plan to dedicate 100 runs on andy, and move on to rakanishu + tristram for the remainder of the hours.

Cumulative run time : 4 hrs.
Anybody have a problem with me joining late? I’ve been working a lot because of inclement weather, and I wasn’t sure how much time I would have over the next bit to get a full 15 hours. I think it may be possible, but if the tournament is closed it’s all good.
@darkstarhub I don't mind if you join :)
 
@darkstarhub You should join, there is still ages left!
I'm debating swapping my map up - I need to sit down and see what I still need and where best to get it :p
Managed to run a bit and went to get the cube, now just under 1.5 hrs in. Now intend to run Countess to get Stealth. After reading @NanoMist's route I realize I should have done that the other way around I guess. So much speed running prowess. :)
3 hours in and level 18. Pleased to have scored some points as of right now.
@darkstarhub Of course you can still join ! Good luck :).
Spent 1.25 hrs today on Andy runs. First 50 or so runs took 1 hr, and I started worrying that I just might have to stick with magic mf rings. Then, during the last 15 minutes, I got 22 Nagel and 25 Nagel back to back! In total it was just shy of 60 runs, and the calc says I would get 1 in every 56; so I definitely got lucky there.

I guess i'll also share this nice gamble from earlier today. =D
1606407036931.png

Cumulative run time : 5.25 hrs.
Gynli - those gloves are phenomenal.

I played another 20-30 minutes just now. Going to do a few countess runs before progressing. Found a couple more topaz (my first two both came from gem shrines!) and I'm at lvl 14; clvl 12 granted me two of my main skills for this tournament, but as with most barbs I will still be item dependent for a little bit.

I am 99% sure the answer is yes, but we can use GoMule for an extended stash (muling things off and on), correct? The rules mentioned muling things off, just want to make sure we can mule things on (self-found only, of course).
[HIGHLIGHT]Ulath the Barbarian[/HIGHLIGHT]
Total Time Spent: 15 Hours

I'll leave the write-up until the results thread, but it wasn't very good since I made several mistakes in terms of my approach and my luck with Topazes and Gem Shrines was woeful.

ioupainmax said:
I always forget to use Find Item, must be conditioning since I usually play Sorceresses so the muscle memory isn't there.

I forgot to use Find Item...in any case, didn't have the mana pool for it.

I may enter again with another character, now that I'm a bit more clued up on strategy.
I've hit 10 hours and decided to respec to Fire Druid ... Poison Creeper/Feral Rage was fun but not very reliable.
Will see what we can do in the final 5 hours.

And congrats to @ioupainmax on your first 15 hours! Looking forward to the next one
@Gynli Man, these gloves !!!! Definitely an über gamble there.

@JoeBruce Yes, you are correct. I didn't phrase it too well, but it's the untwinked part that matters. So you can also mule back on, as long as it's stuff you found with that same character.
Do you use the first few chipped Topazes or do you save them all for shrining up to perfect.
I used the first 2 chipped topazes in a helm, without realizing I could shrine them. Definitely keep the chipped topzes for shrines because there were a few runs where I didn't have a chipped topazes to shrine up.

EDIT: I wanna ask, what are good targets to run? I'm debating between Rakanishu + Tristram vs Andy vs Bone ash.
I am going Barbarian for my second, but still a few hours left on Bunsen.

It depends what you still need. I think the best tactic is to hit up Andariel/Bone Ash/Coldcrow until you have most TC3s, and then specialise. These are your odds at 200mf, on P3 (which is mostly not relevant). Each is odds of 1:xxx
Code:
·        Pelta Lunata (Qlvl 3)

o  Coldcrow - 305

o  Bishibosh/Bonebreaker - 307

o  Corpsefire - 308

o  Andariel (Q) - 712

o  Pitspawn - 1001

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1016

o  Bone Ash - 5362

·        Rixot's Keen (Qlvl 3)

o  Coldcrow - 393

o  Bishibosh/Bonebreaker- 395

o  Andariel (Q) - 457

o  Pitspawn - 1287

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1306

o  Bone Ash - 3447

·        Biggin's Bonnet (Qlvl 4)

o  Coldcrow - 305

o  Bishibosh/Bonebreaker - 307

o  Corpsefire - 308

o  Andariel (Q) - 712

o  Pitspawn - 1001

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1016

o  Bone Ash - 5362

·        Felloak (Qlvl 4)

o  Coldcrow - 393

o  Bishibosh/Bonebreaker - 395

o  Corpsefire - 396

o  Andariel (Q) - 457

o  Pitspawn - 1287

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1306

o  Bone Ash - 3447

·        Gull (Qlvl 6)

o  Coldcrow - 395

o  Andariel (Q) - 459

o  Pitspawn - 1293

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1313

o  Bone Ash - 3465

·        The Gnasher (Qlvl 7)

o  Coldcrow - 395

o  Andariel (Q) - 459

o  Pitspawn - 1293

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1313

o  Bone Ash - 3465

·        Hotspur (Qlvl 7)

o  Coldcrow - 307

o  Andariel (Q) - 715

o  Pitspawn - 1006

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1021

o  Bone Ash - 5390

·        Hand of Broc (Qlvl 7)

o  Coldcrow - 307

o  Andariel (Q) - 715

o  Pitspawn - 1006

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 1021

o  Bone Ash - 5390

·        Knell Striker (Qlvl 7)

o  Coldcrow - 1185

o  Andariel (Q) - 1379

o  Pitspawn - 3880

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 3940

o  Bone Ash - 10396

·        Bane Ash (Qlvl 7)

o  Coldcrow - 1179

o  Andariel (Q) - 1372

o  Pitspawn - 3860

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 3919

o  Bone Ash - 10341

·        Torch of Iro (Qlvl 7)

o  Coldcrow - 1182

o  Andariel (Q) - 1377

o  Pitspawn - 3870

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 3930

o  Bone Ash - 10368

·        Greyform (Qlvl 10)

o  Andariel (Q) - 712

o  Pitspawn - 1001

o  Bone Ash - 5362

·        Lenymo (Qlvl 10)

o  Andariel (Q) - 715

o  Pitspawn - 1006

o  Bone Ash - 5390

·        Pluckeye (Qlvl 10)

o  Andariel (Q) - 457

o  Pitspawn - 1287

o  Bone Ash - 3447

·        Blinkbat's Form (Qlvl 16)

o  Bone Ash - 5390


·        Arctic Furs (Qlvl 3)

o  Coldcrow - 109

o  Bishibosh/Bonebreaker - 109

o  Corpsefire - 110

o  Andariel (Q) - 306

o  Pitspawn - 356

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 363

o  Bone Ash - 1898

·        Hsarus' Iron Fist (Qlvl 4)

o  Coldcrow - 109

o  Bishibosh/Bonebreaker - 109

o  Corpsefire - 110

o  Andariel (Q) - 306

o  Pitspawn - 356

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 363

o  Bone Ash - 1898

·        Infernal Cranium (Qlvl 7)

o  Coldcrow - 109

o  Andariel (Q) - 306

o  Pitspawn - 356

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 363

o  Bone Ash - 1898

·        Death's Hand (Qlvl 8)

o  Andariel (Q) - 307

o  Pitspawn - 358

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 365

o  Bone Ash - 1911

·        Death's Guard (Qlvl 8)

o  Andariel (Q) - 307

o  Pitspawn - 358

o  Treehead/Rakanishu - 365

o  Bone Ash - 1911

[I]·        Vidala's Ambush (Qlvl 19)

·        Sander's Paragon (Qlvl 20)

·        Tancred's Hobnails (Qlvl 27)[/I]
[code]
Best targets are Andariel (nagelrings and high qlvl TC3s), Coldcrow (best target overall, because there's less, even almost none, non-TC3 base items interfering with the drops - she can only drop the lower qlvl TC3s though, but one of those she can drop is Gull, which is an item you really really want in this competition) and Rakanishu. The latter because you can get him to spawn right next to the waypoint, which makes for very short runs.

I got Bishibosh and the entrance to the cave where Coldcrow is both spawn next to the waypoint, so I do include him in my runs, but otherwise he isn't worth it imo, as he can only drop 4 TC3s (edit: make that 6, I forgot about the 2 set ones). Many people include Tristram when doing Rakanishu, but I'm still not convinced it is worth it. Then again I haven't done enough of those runs to really decide on that.

Other targets like Bone Ash, Radament, ... can be worth it afterwards if you really need a particular item.
Tristram isn't worth it. Also, Rakanishu/Treehead are equal, so if Treehead is close then there is no reason not to run him too.
Thanks for the tips...about those Topazes. Any more viewpoints on how to spend your first few?

Do you wear Stealth? What kind of gear are you aiming for, for both yourself and merc.
For me it was Stealth until I got 3 perfect topaz armor. I cubed up a few topazes to flawed, but probably mainly because I was fortunate enough to find quite a few. It always pays off to go for a good 2 or 3 shrine map (shrines close to the waypoint) and run that until you got 5 perfect topazes, 3 for armor and 2 for helm. That's 120% mf right off the bat, which makes a big difference.

Other gear: Nagelrings, mf on amulet, gloves, boots and belt. But don't sweat it if any of those doesn't have it. Always frw on boots. Shield and weapon depend on build, but almost always Gull is the weapon of choice because of the 100% mf.

I didn't really bother with outfitting the merc, because he always comes to late to make a kill anyway. Maybe for Sorcs that might be different because of Teleport.

@Kitteh Hmm, didn't know that. In that case indeed it doesn't matter. Which gives me twice the chance to roll a good map once I move on from Coldcrow.
I spent my first chipped topazes like I normally do on an untwinked character, without thinking. Second time around, I will be cubing them up immediately. I also tried getting my merc to get the kills, but as mentioned, he is too slow getting there.
I had a decent map with lots of shrines close to WPs....however, they very rarely turned up as gem shrines. It took hours of running to get perfect topazes.
Gem shrines are rather rare compared to others. Hours is very long though, in that case you must have been very unlucky.
 
Yeah, very unlucky, always seemed to get Explosion/Fire/Poison.
I've just managed to find one gem-shrine

Rakanishu and Bone Ash has been really bad targets for me. So I am just focusing on Andy and Coldcrow

My MF is 254% now with about 6H left to play :O
I stayed with stealth to reach the 37% FCR breakpoint. I could reach that too with 3 FCR jewelry and an FCR wand, but I already have both weapon slots occupied. Caster belt only have 1 extra row of potions, no way I'm using that even if the level requirements are low.

I don't remember seeing this mentioned, but make sure not to look for gem shrines in the Cold Plains; Stony Field and beyond have better odds. As @T72on1 mentioned, run Bone Ash only for one particular item.
Is it ok if I join in and give this tourney a try? I feel like it'll help me build my character and game knowledge in a fun way.
Thanks for the tips guys. @NanoMist Yes I did know about Blood Moor & Cold Plains being worse for gem shrines, however, I was running Coldcrow and my CP WP had 3 shrines directly by it, so I did check them anyway in case. Did get a few gem shrines out of it over the course of running. Bone Ash was a complete waste of time, so you and @T72on1 are right about that. I ran him for nostalgia. Bone Ash provided my first ever unique on my first play through of Diablo 2 back in 1.09...it was...Bane Ash, a fitting drop for my fledgling sorceress.

I think I spent too long getting perfect topazes. In the end, I got 10 perfect topazes for me and my merc to have 48% Helm, 72% Breast Plates. Should have done more runs with less MF.

EDIT: @GothamsBeard By all means, join in. There is plenty of time left. Check out the rules and previous threads in the original post for ideas.
Thanks! Made an assassin and am about 45 mins in after killing the countess. Feels weird running past a lot of stuff along the way but after a fair bit of reading that seems like the way to go.
Welcome to the fun !!!

I'm some 9 hours in. Got bored of Coldcrow, who also didn't drop what I was looking for. Rerolled maps and got nice maps on Treewood and Countess. Only needed some 7 runs to find the item that Coldcrow wouldn't drop and the runes to make Zephyr. The latter is definitely worth the small time investment.

Now I'm rerolling maps for a good Andy one, but even after 30 mins didn't get a good one. And my character isn't strong enough to kill her fast on /p5. So I'm in doubt between keeping on rerolling for Andy or going for Rakanishu or Treewood.
I've spent a lot of time looking for the right Andariel map, and it still isn't great, but I couldn't waste more time...
Always interesting reading other people's strategies and hearing about other people's luck (or lack of it). I'm just under 12 hours in and have a total of 3 PTopazes. I've pretty much had 2-3 shrines on my runs the entire time ... I've never ignored so many XP shrines in my life! Total MF is somewhere around 130-140%.

Switching to Fire Druid was definitely a good move! As much as I like playing non-standard builds, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense in a tourney like this one.

As for mercs, I'm using an Act 1 merc for the very reason that she can kill from a distance and so no waiting for her to walk to monsters. A 3xRal (or even 2xRal) bow is very effective against p1 monsters ... actually it is pretty effective against p5 monsters on Andy runs also.
I have just about 4h left to play with my Fist of Fire sin. I actually think I will try again but with a Holy Fire paladin. I entered this challenge without doing that much research so now that I have dug deeper I wanna try also with a more "meta" build :)

Would actually love to see and join more of these short, low level, challenges in the future! :)
Kitteh said:
I am going Barbarian for my second, but still a few hours left on Bunsen.

It depends what you still need. I think the best tactic is to hit up Andariel/Bone Ash/Coldcrow until you have most TC3s, and then specialise. These are your odds at 200mf, on P3 (which is mostly not relevant). Each is odds of 1:xxx
Good job making the effort of doing the drop list :)
No worries :)

My Barbarian is going to be a frenzy/double swing build, with dual Crushflange and hopefully dual Gull:D
Just under 3hrs in now. Currently running p5 Andy on a map that's mediocre at best, but for now it will do (and just can’t bother getting into how to reset it self-MPing). Thanks @Kitteh for summarising the drop odds, guess I’ll definitely run other targets soon! Hasn't exactly been raining TC3s so far, but those that dropped were great (including one of the two grailers I was hoping for). I've also been lucky in terms of finding great MF stuff early on, so who knows good things might happen still. ;)
I've had good finds at the wrong times :rolleyes:
Kitteh said:
No worries :)

My Barbarian is going to be a frenzy/double swing build, with dual Crushflange and hopefully dual Gull:D
Crushflange from Andy (Q) p3 200% MF is 1:45 ;)
@Kitteh you may be in luck, my Frenzy/Double Swing Barbarian found 3 Crushflanges which I didn't use due to knockback.
I'm considering Rixot's Keen instead. The AR% means that I can put less points in mastery too, and thus more in bash for DS damage :D
A true TC3 barb! :D

Biggins, hotspur, death sash and gloves, greyform
Nah, everything else will be MF :p
 
I managed to net myself a Nagel ring within the 15 hours playtime allowed for my Holy Fire Paladin. I spent a lot of time messing around/reading/AFK due to being sick. I'm going to start a new character tonight. With any luck I can get through 3 characters before the end of the tournament.

How's everyone else doing? Don't have the time to read through the last few pages but I will tonight.
Time spent reading doesn't count as part of your 15 hours mate, just play time :D
I started a Barb last night and got a few hours in. Nothing special at this point, I am trying to get some topazes worked up and some socketables. I had to name him John Wick.

On a side note, my cat barfed on my keyboard again and this time it’s screwed. I got lucky last time, but after disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly the TAB row of keys won’t work(QWERTY and all the way across). I would punch a human in the face for less, so my cats should consider themselves lucky I am a huge animal lover. I will be buying a vinyl case and keyboard cover when I buy a new keyboard.
Just buy a dog, solve your cat problem.
:40 left on this first run and I’m quite pleased with my turnout from Andariel and a one time random boss pack in the Forgotten Tower gathering runes for “Leaf” and “Stealth”. Perhaps I’ll run another Fireball or Firewall Sorceress after finishing with Ruby the WoF Trapper.
Its interesting to see the different builds - glad to see that I'm not the only Barbarian. Bunsen finished her runs today. Alaric will commence tomorrow, hopefully. I have a lab meeting in the morning, but I'm hoping to be free for the afternoon.
Kitteh said:
Just buy a dog, solve your cat problem.
Strange for someone named @Kitteh to suggest this...
Just finished my 15 hours with BaneAshBites. 10 hours PoisonCreeper Wolf, 5 hours Fire Druid.

Learnt a lot; wasted way too much time at the start; 4 hours to the cube is too long; playing a novelty build didn't pay off; had some crazy luck (both good and bad);

So, I'm keen to see if having more of an idea and mucking around less makes much of a difference. Tempted to jump back in with another Druid and stick to Fire Druid for the full journey this time, just to see how much difference it makes ...

but there are also some other classes that I'd like to try ... including a few novelties ... will sleep on it and see what I feel like playing tomorrow.

Good fun and thanks to @T72on1 for organising and everyone else for their updates.
@Dezrok My first character was experimental, taught me some lessons. Character number 2 streamlined and well planned.
T72on1 said:
...long S/E time included.
@T72on1 Do you use Singling? If so, what version?

I only noticed the long S/E time in the last month or so.
No, no Singling.
I think I might've messed up the Andariel quest bug... Can you take your own portal to town?
yes, as long as you talk to warriv before save and exit you are fine

Killrob explains this
Its really annoying because everything (else) says it needs to be the quest portal, but that just doesn't sound right to me :p
Well he tested like 10 different ways of doing and not doing the Qbug. Including taking your own portal.
Not sure where you were looking @Kitteh but this is some pretty definitive testing by Hrus:
https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/what-causes-andariel-bug-drop-test-results.449699/
All that matters is talking to Warriv in the same game that you first kill Andy.
For those running Andy, what are your running times? I still have the impression my map isn't good enough, even after 30 mins of rerolling.
I managed to squeeze the time to 50 secs on p3
So if you save 10 seconds/run, 30 min you need 180 runs to make that up
Hmm, ok. I'm currently around the 1 minute mark, also on /p3. I actually rerolled again and had the impression it was a better map, but in the end it doesn't seem to be faster. It drops well though :). Also two more Nagelrings (17% and 27%). The latter was an upgrade. Currently sitting at 295% mf.

I also tried the gamble screen again. Turns out you can gamble Greaves, they just don't show up often. Only had enough money for 3 pairs. The first ones had 10% frw, which was most useful of those gambled.
I average 28 seconds per run on P5, and that includes 5 seconds of S/E time. My Cata 2 map isn't great but Cata 3 is decent. I realized from last time that getting both Cata 2 & 3 to be great was a long shot, so just having one of those levels be decent is enough for me.
 
I did try a second character, but I got bored, so just one for me! :)
Reading through the last few pages of posts, I am way out of my league here. But it has been informative. I'm not sure if I'll even get to the 15 hour mark, but at least I have a good start to a double throw Barb!

Will continue to update as I make more (slow) progress. I have at least found a couple of the items we are supposed to be looking for.
I avg couple seconds over one minute for /p3 Andy + Rakanishu runs. When I take it at a leisurely pace and pick up random items to sell, it's closer to 1:20~ or so.

I haven't put in any time since the last update; hopefully I can finish over the weekend.

EDIT: stairs to Cat 3 and Rakanishu is right beside the wp; so super lucky there. Cat 3 map is also decent at just about the diagonal length of Rogue Camp.
Been using my time to play my new travincal zealot.
Today i come back to my tc3 assassin. Im 4 hs in, farming andariel. Sadly my map is medium, so i will try to roll a better one.
Whew, just finished my 15 hour set and spent 1 hour+ gambling away almost 3 million gold. I had forgotten it takes this long to gamble when the items are only 5-6K per gamble.
If a decent map means about the diagonal length of the Rogue camp, and looking at the two run times posted above, apparantly my map is just plain bad. Back to rerolling once more I guess.

Keep up the good progress everyone !!!

@Kitteh I'll only be doing one character as well. Currently some 10 - 11 hours in.
Somehow I still felt the urge to push my 99er in my limited play time this week so far. Going to be a busy weekend as well so I really have to make some room for this now as I’m still only ~3hrs in. So definitely no second char but hopefully I’ll finish one set.

@NanoMist's below 30s p5 Andy runs are only possible with Sorc I guess? Timed a few runs yesterday evening and they take about 1m20s including checking 2 shrines near WPs. Apparently that’s horrible irrespective of class. ;) Maybe I should figure out how to self-MP and reset my map. Or start running different targets.. but despite nice MF gear otherwise, I only have one Nagel so far with a really bad roll, so I feel like I should run her at least for a second one.
Yes, with a Sorc. For non-Sorc Andy runners, I think it is possible to cube a staff with teleport charges via the 3 chipped gem recipe. Even if someone if lucky enough to cube one, I'm not sure the few seconds of time save is worth having to maintain a steady gold supply for repairs. A Catacombs 2 map with Catacombs 3 stairs 1 teleport away from the waypoint is ideal, and then there's the shortcut in Catacombs 4.
Well, looking at the time I have left, the items I'm still missing and the drops odds for those from each of the potential targets, I'm not sure it's worth it for me to reroll maps for Andy another time. I'll probably have a few tries, but after that I guess I'll focus on getting a very good map for Coldcrow and run her until I complete 15 hours.
How long do we have left for this tournament? I've been unwell and not able to play much but if there's time left I'll see what I can find.
Back for a second round with a Fire Trapper (IroTheHero), reached the cube in about half the time that it took me in the first round.

I didn't time any of my runs, but going off spell durations my p5 Andy runs were around 1:20-1:30. My lvl 2 map was pretty bad, my lvl 3 map was okay. Stealth + Zephyr makes a very big difference to running speed when you have to cover a lot of ground and may be worth losing some MF for? Or even swapping armors for the Andy kill (its not like your really need all those +4 mana GCs in your inventory).
I swapped armour and weapons, you get quick enough that it is worth it. Especially given your run speed with BoS.
Bowing out of this. I've got some things that came up and I'll be in playing hiatus for the next week or so.
Just thought I'd share the map, intead of trying to make you gauge how big my map is.

Also, I'm using Zephyr + BoS without the 10% from boots. Am also using 3x PTopaz bp instead of stealth. The 72% mf is quite big to skip i think.

EDIT: It took me about 30~40 mins to roll this map. Main goal was a good map to farm Andy for the Nagels; Stony field was a nice surprise. /EDIT

Stony Field
1606407442622.png

Cat 2
1606407519870.png

Cat 3
1606407553174.png

Rogue Camp for comparison EDIT: changed pic to help see better
1606407619248.png

Oh and a nice ring I found for questing after the tourney is over =D
1606407662153.png
That Catacombs map is incredible !! And then Stony to boot ...
@Gynli I don't think that I like you anymore :p
Roger that
I'd reroll that Rogue's Camp map!
6 hs in, very happy with results till now, currently running this map over an over again. Sadly my andy's maps are terrible so i will stick with rakanishu.

1606407722619.png
 
I actually didn't think much of the map till reading everyone's responses... now the pressure is on for me to actually be efficient with such a good roll xD

Dropped my 23% mf boots and random belt for Hsarus set, as suggested by someone in either this or the previous tourney; and I'm liking the extra 20frw. Currently at about 6~7 hrs in, so I guess I"m sticking w/ Andy Rakanishu till the end of time :D
@Gynli You should, unless you come to a point where they have dropped almost everything they can drop, but you still lack some of the low qlvl drops, like Rixot's and Torch of Iro. In that case it might be better to try and roll a very good Coldcrow map and run her instead.

@Smittyphi Too bad. Hopefully you can still get some running time in.

@Caralis That map is nice, but for Rakanishu you actually want even better. He can spawn literally next to the waypoint, which is what you are seeking for. Same goes for Treehead Woodfist. So when rerolling maps just check both areas and choose whichever gets you the perfect map first.

I'll be taking some time off work in some 15 minutes, since I can't concentrate anymore anyway. So finally some more TC3 running for me this afternoon.

Good luck everyone !!
I think my Cata 3 map is slightly more than the Rogue Camp standard, but the Cata 2 map!!!

1606407903322.png

1606407939197.png

This was from my first map reroll, so I've got 10+ hours to make use of it. Only drawbacks are no secondary targets, only one shrine (in the Dark Woods) and no regular boss along the path (can be up to 4 bosses but zero is the norm). Run times are around 1:15 (including selling off loot and checking the shrine).
@Dezrok I'm surprised you actually take your time to cube up your full rejevs!

Idk how efficient it would be to include Bone Ash if you have no other targets. Probably not as efficient as just running Andy; but I guess it's possible to try your luck at Blinkbat's =P Also, why do you need to check the shrine? Are you still in the process of upgrading your topazes?

EDIT: Also, you might have a faster route by going down to the right and back up?
EDIT2: they seem about the same. But you could get lucky w/ regular boss spawns. Worth a check i think =D

EDIT3: I don't need to roll the map yet, but for when/if I do.. what's considered a good map for Coldcrow? My Caves IS right beside the WP, but Coldcrow is so far from the entrance. How close to the entrance can she spawn?
Ok I am done! Looking forward to read everyones results and strategies, successes and failures next weekend! :D
Gynli said:
@Dezrok I'm surprised you actually take your time to cube up your full rejevs!

Idk how efficient it would be to include Bone Ash if you have no other targets. Probably not as efficient as just running Andy; but I guess it's possible to try your luck at Blinkbat's =P Also, why do you need to check the shrine? Are you still in the process of upgrading your topazes?

EDIT: Also, you might have a faster route by going down to the right and back up?
EDIT2: they seem about the same. But you could get lucky w/ regular boss spawns. Worth a check i think =D

EDIT3: I don't need to roll the map yet, but for when/if I do.. what's considered a good map for Coldcrow? My Caves IS right beside the WP, but Coldcrow is so far from the entrance. How close to the entrance can she spawn?
Rejuvs - probably not my most efficient use of time, but I'm not naturally a very efficient player. It is probably more a hangover from doing p8 full clears in my regular playing. I've cubed up the ones for the belt and a few extras and now I never use them I don't bother cubing any more.

Bone Ash - His chance of dropping Blinkbats with 200%MF is 1:5390 ... I'd rather get in more Andy/Coldcrow runs and leave Blinkbats for gambling.

Shrines - I currently have 1 PTopaz, so yes I am still in the process of upgrading. I'm either missing something or my shrine luck is just terrible.

Faster/alternate route on the right - yes, I just saw that when I posted and will give it a try.

Coldcrow is always going to be at the far end of the Cave (in one direction or another). I think the distance from the waypoint to the entrance is the most important variable. A map where you can run in a relatively straight line to reach her and where there are few (no) narrow areas that monsters can block up slowing your progress are bonuses as far as I'm concerned. But would be interested to hear other people's thought.
If you get a branched map for Coldcrow, it doesn't have to be very far. But you can't expect her to be next to the entrance either. For reference, my Coldcrow runs currently take 34 seconds, on what I consider a good but not great map. I think I had one where I was at some 30 seconds. Both are with about 5 seconds of S/E time.

I ended up doing Coldcrow because I still didn't have a good, not even decent Andariel map after more than an hour of rerolling. Not what you want to see, and certainly not after 10 hours in already. Out of sheer frustration I started checking the Coldcrow, Rakanishu and Treehead maps too, ready to go with whichever was the first to be a good one. It ended up being Coldcrow.
@Dezrok

I spent the first hours of the tourney rolling a map that had 3 shrines in Stony Field. Took me i think 1~1.5 hrs to cube up 5 PTopazes. If you are not too far in to the tourny and don't mind losing the map, mebbe it's worth it to look for a map w/ many shrines. Stony/Dark Wood/Black Marsh is are good candidates.

@all
This is the Coldcrow map I currently have. She is at the far right end of the map. Just went on a test run, and got 40 seconds.
1606407974746.png
1606408013047.png
1606408040861.png
I'm sure there's a better map, but I wonder how long it'll take to reroll it... hm...
The Cave 1 will always have Cave 2 to the "left" of the entrance tile while Coldcrow will be "straight" across from the entrance tile. The direction is based on tile direction, not actual location on the map. The shortest Coldcrow map should be a 3 tile map. Entrance tile, intersection tile, and Coldcrow's deadend tile.

1606408063964.png

This entrance tile is terrible for a non-teleporter though.
@NanoMist

Thanks for sharing your map. I will reroll the map - if the time allows for enough runs.
I am getting close to the 5 hour mark. I've never been great at grinding targets for long hours, so not sure if I will make it to 15. But with the government shutdown forcing me out of work for the foreseeable future, that gives me a lot more D2 time...

Out of curiosity, how long did it take people to stockpile PTopaz? I only have 1 flawless and 1 flawed; I used 2 chipped in a helm at the very start. I have not had much luck finding gem shrines - is there a strategy beyond just running circles around Stony Field/Dark Wood/ Black Marsh WPs as I re-roll maps for better Andy running?

I had a decent map with Treehead right next to the WP and 6 shrines near the three WPs I mentioned above. But Andy was a bit of a jog, and after re-rolling maps I got one with Lvl 3 stairs next to the Cat2 WP, but Lvl 4 is a ways off. And I only have 2 nearby shrines in Black Marsh. I might invest some more time in re-rolling my map. But I really want better magic find (read: more topaz) before I start the true grind.
@JoeBruce Sorry to hear about the Government shut down causing you problems.

Success with PTopazes does vary. On my barb, it took until the 10 hour mark for me to get anything worth mentioning in the topaz department, my gem and gem shrine luck was abysmal.

On my Sorceress, things were much better. Area of Effect spells mean that you can kill lots of things quickly and get that many more opportunities to find the first few gems to get you started. Some of the guys here are pro and get this done in only a few short hours. I take a bit longer as my playstyle is a bit...slow!

I've incorporated shrine running into my target running. So as I'm running I'm always improving those topazes.
@JoeBruce

I've made it a point to go for the PTopazes right after the questing phase. From what I could take from skimming through the previous tourney, it's definitely worth investing some time for the massive MF boost early on. I'd suggest rolling a map with 3~4 shrines near the wp and run them like mad.

Personally, I had a Stony Field map where I had 2 shrines on the way to Rakanishu and 1 further North of him; and it took me about 140 runs over 1.5 hrs to shrine them to perfect. Couple things to note, definitely keep 5 chipped topazes for shrining in case of a dry run. I've had couple shrines go to waste because I didn't have a chippy ready. Also, shrine the highest gem first, just in case you get lucky with chippy drops. And lastly, if you get extra chipped topazes, try to cube into flawed to save 1 shrine. It also helped that I casually hunted any monsters on the way on /p3~8 setting for extra exp and chippy drops. iirc, the 5 PTopazes I have started off as 1 dropped flawed topaz, 2 cubed flawed, and 2 chipped.

If you've already gotten to a stage of dual Nagel/Gull however, it might be worth to look for Raka/Treehead even slightly out of the way.

EDIT: and by all means I am definitely not a pro like some of the guys here =P.
14.5 hours in, but I probably won't have time for that last 30 minutes this week.

Good luck everyone !!! It's a bit quiet here, but I hope everyone is still doing great :).
I finished ages ago, so nothing to update :p
Well I couldn't resist respeccing my Sept Necro to Poison Nova, since that DWeb was screaming to be used. Irony wants it that I found these when I was messing about a bit in the little time I had left before I had to stop:

1606408093991.png
Ditto @T72on1, I found Tancred's boots on a Hell countess run while on a break from TC3 running.
Just a small update from the weekend. I spent all the time on other games and only put in 2 hours or so for the TC3. So, that leaves me just under 3 hrs remaining. I should be able to finish it with many many small sessions over the week. =D
Just finished 15 hours with my Fire Trapper. While I initially thought that I'd like to run three times and it has been plenty of fun, I think two is enough.

Looking forward to the results in a few days.
[HIGHLIGHT]Hestia the Fire Wall Sorceress[/HIGHLIGHT]
Total Time Spent: 15 Hours

A better run than Ulath the Barbarian...but not by much!

EDIT: Since Hestia has completed her 15 hours, I've taken a text file of her stats/skills/gear/merc/qualifiers, some screenshots and done the write up. So I've decided to push forward and carry on playing her to Matriarch. What are you doing with all your characters? Leaving them for posterity or taking them to Mat/Pat?
 
ioupainmax said:
Hestia the Fire Wall Sorceress
Total Time Spent: 15 Hours

A better run than Ulath the Barbarian...but not by much!

EDIT: Since Hestia has completed her 15 hours, I've taken a text file of her stats/skills/gear/merc/qualifiers, some screenshots and done the write up. So I've decided to push forward and carry on playing her to Matriarch. What are you doing with all your characters? Leaving them for posterity or taking them to Mat/Pat?
I am gonna continue with my FoF sin and Mat her as some kind of MA sin. Perhaps a mixture of FoF and BoI. Still gonna play her untwinked and don't invest any skills into the Trap tree.

I have made a YT video for her performance in this tournament, release day is the 26th :)
So have I, good Sir. Same build too of course :p
I am soooo hyped to hear and read about everyone's results :)
I'm twinking the hell out of Hestia, I've heard enough of "Not enough mana" to last a lifetime!
Oh my, work was rough last week and it doesn't seem to be getting any better either, on top of that too much going on last weekend.. sooo I'm still only some 4 hrs in, despite a promising start. So yeah, my gut tells me I'm not going to win this one. :)

Looking forward to all the stuff you guys found though!
Get your **** together and pull an all nighter :p
Although I have more playtime than ffs, I probably won't finish a full 15 either. I'm a little over 8 hours in. Will push a bit more to see what I come up with.

I've had better luck with topaz, but still only 2 perfects. I have a decent Andy map with several shrines near A1 WPs. Andariel herself has been pretty stingy; she just dropped my first Nagel ring, but it was a 15% roll. So an 8% MF improvement over one magic ring, and matches the other 15% MF magic ring I have.
I have about 5 hrs left for John Wick the future all out Frenzy Barb. My luck so far has sucked pretty bad for gem shrines, but I did find a 24% Nagel so thats not to bad. I need a few more levels to get Frenzy, which is what I plan to do tonight with some Andy runs. My maps are not too bad so here's hoping for a few TC3 drops.
Good luck everybody still running !!! And yes, all nighters should be part of the deal :). We are not obsessed, just dedicated ...
Decided to stay up and finish the last hour. I am finally done the 15 hours!! yay...

Will work on the result writeup tmr; and am definitely looking forward to reading others.

Ima go crash now... lol Good luck to everyone still running!
This is coming to an end !! Get some running in if you still want to.

Also, I must confess I have a bit of an issue. The thing is ... I'm leaving on a weekend out with the family and some friends, starting tomorrow evening. I will only be home again at Sunday evening, and then probably too late to post results. As a, ehm, result, the results will only be there on Monday morning, I'm afraid.

Is it ok for everyone that results are being pm'ed to me, and that I put up the results thread early Monday morning at the very last? If not, I should really start looking for a volunteer to whom results can be sent, so he/she can put up the results thread.
I'm happy to wait.
I'm happy to wait. I will just postpone the release date for the YT movie I did
I'm happy to wait, but I can also do the results if you want me to mate.
I'm okay waiting as well. =D
I’m fine with waiting as well.
Waiting will just build the anticipation.
Ok. That's clear. We'll do it that way then :).

So, since the tournament is over for most (all) people now, this is how it goes. Please pm your results to me. As soon as I have them all, I will put up the results thread. Note that this won't be until Monday morning, since I'm away this weekend, and don't plan to type it all out on a mobile phone. That, and I won't have time, since it will be all about walking, eating, drinking, running, playing with the kids, ... :).

Please try to pm me the results before Monday morning, as it's no fun if we would have to wait even longer. Even if for some reason you haven't found the time to run, or have no results to show for it, just let me know.

I'm very curious to see the results !!! Thanks everyone for participating. With 21 participants, this iteration of the tournament has greatly exceeded my expectations. It was great fun, thanks to you !!!
@T72on1 In terms of results that are sent to you, how much detail do you want?

  1. Qualifier Totals? (i.e. grand total number of TC3's found and of those, how many were different)
  2. Qualifier Summary? (a breakdown by the 23 different items, i.e. 3 of 'a', 1 of 'b', 0 of 'c'...)
  3. Qualifier Read-outs?
Presumably, the rest can be posted in the results thread when it is live.
For the results sent to me, I only need the amount of different qualifiers and the total amount of qualifiers (which matters in case of a tie, which is quite likely actually, give the number of participants). You can put more in the pm if you want to, but that's all I need for the end result.

When I post the results thread, I want everyone to post read-outs and / or screenshots of all different qualifiers. So not of every qualifier, but at least of every different one.
 
Only 10 results received, so 10 more to go. Come on people !!!
4 more results in, thanks for that. I'll wait a bit more for the others, but not too much. Results thread will be up between now (9am for me) and 10 hours time or so max. So send these results if you want them included, folks.
It's almost time...







...to find out how close I am to the bottom of the leaderboard :rolleyes:
@ioupainmax don't worry, pretty sure I've got the bottom covered with my glorious 4 hrs, or rather 2 hrs of actual running. :)
At least we'll be in the top 20!
Yeah, sorry guys. Results are finally up.

Last place for one of you? Nah, few people who didn't get much time to run in the end, it seems.
 
Diablo 4 Interactive Map
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