The Certain Death Tournament.

[jiansonz]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Usually when I play SPF tourneys, it´s the decent life pool I get early (combined with careful gameplay - letting merc do the dirty work) that allows me to pile on MF items and still be safe. This tournament turns that on its head. It took until level 23 before Morte broke 100 max. life!

When I saw that there were Night Slingers (the ones throwing poison potions) in Lost City, I became even more careful, using Dim Vision on every one of them.

Ancient Tunnels gave me a nice find (the boss in the pack guarding the golden chest dropped it): Blood Crescent. Not as strong weapon as the Steel Flail I was using, but I equipped it for the defensive abilities (resists/life). I still have a decent OW%. Life is now up to ~130, with a rare Plated Belt giving +9. I have a Bone Armor absorbing 65 damage, so I am not too worried about physical damage (especially not since I have a shield giving max block).

I have gambled a really interesting Circlet. Lots of AR (I think it has both Visionary and Platinum!) +12% MF and +30 life. Maybe even a little cold resist, can´t remember...
I use a 30% Circlet of Luck right now, but I may switch to the rare one soon.

I have also found a +7 life Jewel of Spirit (one point from max). Jewels of Hope get 9-20 life, but they have a much higher alvl.

Seems like you people have lots of nice things to say about Attract. I´ll be sure to test it (I hope to get it as staffmod on a voodoo head) before I decide if I want to invest in it or not. How long does the duration need to be to make it user-friendly? (I suspect duration is halved in NM and quartered in Hell, just like for Dim Vision)


[Highlight]Morte the Necromancer and Iantha the Cold Rogue, level 25, Claw Viper Temple next.[/Highlight]

 

[kavarin]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Seems like you people have lots of nice things to say about Attract. I´ll be sure to test it (I hope to get it as staffmod on a voodoo head) before I decide if I want to invest in it or not.

I prefer confuse - it is nice to be able to flit around the edges of a pitched battle and pick critters off one at a time, but I doubt it fits well with dim vision. My confusing necro didn't survive past NM though so that may degrade the recommendation

How long does the duration need to be to make it user-friendly? (I suspect duration is halved in NM and quartered in Hell, just like for Dim Vision)

It probably depends on the user :whistling: You could try it out in normal on a group and see how long it takes the critters to focus their attention back on you when it wears off. I would aim for around slvl9 for 10 seconds in hell but that may be too much micromanagement.

 

[Mursilis]

Jaheira decided to go ahead and save the cranky old man in the cage. He talks too much, but does save her a little bit of gold so she'll just deal. After that progress all the way up to the monastary was simple, with one hangup. While the mercenary was dealing with a pack of crows Jaheira decided to wander into a house and open the chest present. Out popped two skeletons, which normally wouldn't be too scary except that a crow flew up behind Jaheira at the same time and trapped her in the middle of the doorway. With the mercenary otherwise engaged Jaheira had to reposition a pair of lightning sentries to deal with the monsters whittling away at her life. By the time she got out she was at half life, so it was a good thing no bosses were around to lend an unhelpful aura.

As far as the indoor areas went, Jaheira decided to take things nice and slow. At every doorway she'd lay a sentry on the opposite side and see if it started to fire at anything. If it did then four more would quickly join in the fun, otherwise it was safe and Jaheira could walk through the door. I've been caught too many times walking blindly into rooms only to be trapped on the other side, separated from the mercenary. Don't want to do that with so little life and only 35% chance to block.

As such progress was slow but steady from the Barracks all the way through to the Catacombs. Once all of the monsters at the bottom end of the fourth level were dealt with the mercenary decided to wander up and draw Andariel our way. Brave idea, but the merc didn't last very long, even with buffed up with antidote potions. So it turned into a 1v1 battle, with Jaheira laying traps and keeping one step ahead of Andariel as she chased Jaheira all around the area. Eventually Andariel fell and Jaheira moved on towards the desert.

Did get a fortuitous drop that I think happened in the Barracks, but could have been early in the Catacombs as well. A Rockstopper fell, which quickly replaced the MF helm Jaheira was wearing before. The resistances gives her three elements up to ~40% resistance and the extra 15 Vitality is very key. Also means she can drop a resistance ring for one of my two Angelic Halos for the additional 20 life. This leaves Jaheira sporting around 320 life, very nice.

[highlight]Jaheira the Trapsin, Level 51, NM Lut Gholein[/highlight]

 

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

WitherStick has defeated Mephisto! Well, I say WitherStick, it was actually Durga who did the work. The necro played curse-*****, er, -buddy and never so much poked Big M with his toad-sticker. The 3rd Level of the Durance and Mephisto were taken at /players3 but P5 would have been very doable.

Act 3 at /players 8 was a breeze really, punctuated by scary stair traps in the Kurast Temples - here and here for example.


LCS readout here. A few useless uniques (mainly axes, I think) have been dropping, but I did get the complimentary Diggler dirk that you always see. Some nice resists on it mean I cannot use it in Normal without a lot of re-diggling, er, re-jiggling. Maybe later.

Stuff
Skills
Amp, Weaken, IM, Terror, Decrep, Life Tap. Lower Res - 1 pt
DV - 7
BA - 1
BW - 5
PDag - 13

Kill speed is pretty bad, with the merc getting almost all the glory. I blame this mainly on Pdagger not being maxed, nor having any synergies invested. Points are going into Curses & Bone Wall for safety. Plus playing at P8, of course, that too. I have so many places I must put my Skill points into, it's hard to know where to go each time I level. Argh!

Act Highlight - misplacing Khalim's brain and having to search for it in The Sewers, Upper Kurast, some of the Kurast Temples, Travincal, Lut Gholein, The Rogue Encampment, etc, etc, etc.

[highlight]WitherStick, Poison Daggermancer, Level 32, The Pandemonium Fortress[/highlight]

 

[HanShotFirst]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Act Highlight - misplacing Khalim's brain and having to search for it in The Sewers, Upper Kurast, some of the Kurast Temples, Travincal, Lut Gholein, The Rogue Encampment, etc, etc, etc.

Oh noes! I hate it when that happens!

Helen did a complete clear of Act 5 at Players 7 – no problems. In the beginning Helen only used Freezing Arrow as she (and for that matter Mizan) hadn’t had a weapon upgrade since the mid Act 2 :dontknow: . Mizan had more or less become a glorified decoy which was fine because Helen’s Freezing Arrow was handling everything with ease. Everything then changed on the Frozen Tundra when Helen found a Skystrike and armed Mizan with a Malice Pike . . . so suddenly Mizan was a glorified decoy with a 100% chance of open wounds and Helen was now suddenly able to use Strafe again to great effect. The remainder of Act 5 played out with Helen often switching between Strafe and Freezing Arrow depending on whether she wanted crowd control or massive damage (and amusing meteorites).

The only monsters that I suspected might put up a good fight came after the finding of the Skystrike and were thus totally overwhelmed. Nihlathak was defeated with ease due to Helen’s continuous use of Freezing Arrow (and Mizan’s really bad damage). The poor Necromancer never had a corpse to explode (not once) and therefore was defeated with great ease and safety. The Ancients died in about thirty seconds. Baal’s Minions all fell as they would to any non-tournament Level 48 character (really fast and hard). Baal himself was a point of some concern considering how dangerous the battle had been when I faced him with my Bone Necro. I considered dropping the players setting but in the end decided that it would be bad form and left it at Players 7. Baal used all his best maneuvers but for some reason the battle seemed really easy (I guess the biggest problem with my Bone Necro was the Evil Black Magic Voodoo Curse that I made sure would not be an issue for Helen).

Baal’s drop was pretty good as it included a unique bow . . . not better than Skystrike but at least it was the right idea. The same could not be said for quest reward that Anya had earlier awarded Helen. Helen uses Strafe and Freezing Arrow to rescue her and shows up for a reward holding a bow and Anya gives her this (come on)! . . of course as it turns out any reward item probably would have been replaced by the Skystrike so it really didn’t matter but I was pretty annoyed at the time considering Helen was still using her Stag Bow from mid Act 2. Past the unique bows the best drops were runes (a Sol and a Thul) . . . the Sol was exciting because somehow my Bone Necro had managed to do full clears at Players 7 through Act 3 of NM and had never found one Sol Rune! . . so at long last I have found my first Sol of the tournament . . . so now the questions becomes: Am I feeling cheesy? . . . well am I!? (All signs point to yes). The set/uniques found were pretty useless past the two bows and included: Snakecord, Arcanna’s Helm, Gleamscythe, Sigon’s Gloves, Arctic Bow, and another Sigon’s Gloves.

Here were Helen’s stats at the end of Act 5.

Destroyer Helen then went and stomped the cows . . . they fell really, really, really fast in the face of Helen’s Strafe. The Cow King dropped a set item . . . but sadly not one of his set items (but then again he never does so there really wasn’t much disappointment). Helen then switched some equipment around and . . .

Here were Helen’s stats entering NM.

[highlight]Helen, FA/Strafer, NM Rogue Encampment, Level 48[/highlight]

@Mattinm - Good luck with that very challenging character . . . I loved the intro post! :thumbup:

 

[NagisaFurukawa]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

HanShotFirst: Congrats on the nice bow, and good luck in NM. .

It seems I forgot to update here, so unleashing my inner Ohomemgrande, Rin kicked the bucket in the Underground Passage in Act 1 at level 46.

Thanks to wakiki for hosting what was a very fun tournament. I'm sorry to say I probably won't rejoin, provided maareek doesn't surpass me, but I look forward to hearing of everyone's endeavours. . Good luck to those still playing, especially the amazons. .

 

[pepitosari]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well Mephist has finally fallen, sadly I used moat trick for it, but since my Shadow Master only lasted few seconds against him I just don't felt like risking it... My earlier concenrns for the Council proved to be wrong, they fell easily, all was cleared p7... no great drops so far other then Manald Heal, which I might wear later...

[highlight]SassyAssasin, lvl 32, Pandemonium Fortress[/highlight]

 

[Alfonso the Great]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

And TheAragorn rolls on into Act 3.

The remainder of the Sanctuary turned up nothing aside from lots of sellables to let me gamble lots of circlets, none of which was an appropriate alternative to my double-topazzed cap. Ah well.

Nothing really noteworthy insofar as screenshots, either. Cleared out the tombs and Kaa actually put up a bit of a fight. He and his retinue of Unravelers could resurrect the skeleton hordes as quick as they were put down and Hazade (he's finally become useful) served most admirably as a meat shield and helped to shatter corpses.

Earlier I worried that Duriel would mess the merc and me right up, but my fears were wholly unfounded. As seen in the screenshot, Hazade stood in one place and drew the bug's ire while I fed him greater healing potions and the occasional purple, and peppered Duriel from out of range of his freeze aura but within the range of mine. His drops were acceptable...if TheAragorn was anything but a Ranger, I might find a use for the Sickle if the RNG smiles upon me and drops the Amulet or Ring, but since he is....

Now TheAragorn is camped in Kurast, he did some more hyperspace exchange to sell some circlets, wands, and staves for a bit of cash, and he managed to gamble a Circlet of Fortune with 1% more MF than the cap. Woooo! I hate the Act 3 jungles...lots of backtracking, it's so FAR between Waypoints, and Flayers are annoyances extraordinaire. I can't wait to hit Lower Kurast.

[highlight]TheAragorn, Ranger Paladin, Level 29, Spider Forest[/highlight]

 

[Tarantella]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Following information gathered from the locals Damasque took off into the Spider forest and got a superb unique drop (for this challenge) on arriving at the waypoint but it was stashed for the present as it compromised speed. The westward path at the first fork leading into the Great marsh was ignored and the other trail first petered out in the forest but a second fork lead the way through the hostile flayer territory and onwards to the heavily defended Kurasts. Ignoring the 6 temples, the full clearance still took ages and then on reaching Travincal steps were then retraced first to the flayer dungeon and then to the sewers. Here in the darkness at one point at a corner junction a doll soundlessy arrived from nowhere to stand nearly obscured right beside Damasque (sorry - no screenshot) as she passed the Valkyrie!. The noise of the dolls failed attack inspired the amazon in a moment to put great distance(80% frw) between herself and it before the Valkyrie turned and the resulting explosion which was quickly followed by the arrvival of the rest of the extra fast doll pack which fury dispatched. With adrenalin still coursing through her veins the perimeter of the sewers was almost completely mapped before the trapdoor was found.

The rest of the act was completed at p1 with no dolls in durance 2 or 3 thankfully and Mephisto despatched leaving a poor javelin that didn't beat her Baal drop for damage .Humming the lyrics of this song Damasque put her best foot forward and cleared the Outer Steppes, bypassed Izaul at p1 to get a hel rune from the forge at p4. After the River of Flame waypoint was reached with lightning resist still at 32 again she then retraced her steps tiptoing around the Plains of Despair again for her valkyrie to despatch the bad guy.

The Chaos sanctuary was stormed at a brutal p8, the paucity of good javelins dropped in the game till now made this De Seis drop a real kick in the teeth. Just shy of level 66 Diablo himself was taken on at p8. It was a long fight not without incident but the valkyrie pinned him to the walls for several minutes at a time cutting in under most of his elemental attacks.

Act 5 was tackled at p8 all the way up to the Ancients, then mainly at p1 onwards. The side areas were all carefully tackled with shamans and fallen packs causing most delays on the Arreat plateau. They were tackled by fast running, drawing huge packs of fallen onto the valkyrie, then sweeping round to throw a plague javelin at the shaman then being hotly pursued back round the valkyrie and decoy before repeating. At one point there were 8 strong shaman pack who were entrenched in a difficult position but thankfully there were no boss packs. Nihlathak was tackled after freeing Anya giving good experience despite the level difference but a nde with a charging revived prowling dead in the gloom made finding the stairs down to the safety of lower levels a relief and the actual boss combat though long quite relaxing in comparison.

The Keep was breached in comparitive ease, the spirit forge armour finally donned for safety (health plus light countering the gloom's trap) at the final stairs, but the appearance of dolls in the throne of destruction ranked most stressful with one eye on the monsters and the other on the valkyrie with her sickening fast return moves countered by positional decoy placement. Baals minions were stress free in comparison and the drop predictably unuseful when Baal finally died and Amarantines death in the Keep avenged.


Gear update to follow after Cows, 6 temples and maybe Great Marsh clearance.


Tarantella Damasque Thone Room (N) Level 73


Picture resolutions increased

 

[Morathi1]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Hans. Hahahah. Drake appreciates his Skystike a little bit more now after seeing Helen's equally atrocius roll. We both got done over :rant:!

@Tarantella. Great progress! Good luck in hell!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NM began with a minor fashion change for Drake. I switched out the “Steel†Flail and gemmed Ringmail for the Blood Crescent and Cow King Hide (which i decided to punch a Ptopaz in). Unfortunately, the combination put my Fire resist at 51%, :rant:. Damit, 1% over the 50% cap! Got to lower my Fire resit! The only option I had, was to switch out my Belt. No problem, I gambled a replacement. The net gain from the makeover resulted in a nice + 45 to life and +33 All Resistances, however I lost 24% MF in the process. I think that’s a necessary and great trade off! The result put my resistances at a comfortable level entering NM (42/22/40/26).

Fissure isn’t as ridiculously dominant as it was in Normal, but it is getting the job done in NM on p/8. One-hit kills are still common pending on the random pattern of the Fissure. Sometimes it will take several Fissure's, sometimes just one, it really is all about luck with that skill.

Act 1 NM has been very S/U happy to Drake. I actually lost count of the amount of S/U’s that dropped (mostly all of them were unique’s as well)! Although the majority of them were useless, some did take Drake’s fancy and were promptly stashed away (see Interesting Drops).

Andariel was an absolute cake-walk. After Emilio bit the dust for the 3rd time, I decided to let him lay in peace and took matters into my own hands. I was surprised to see that she was stupid enough to go after the Oaks the whole time, which is immune to her attacks! Muahahahaha, no problems at all. Her drop was rather disappointing to say the least, nothing of use at all for Drake.

Interesting Drops:
*2x Amn rune
*2x Thul rune
*The highly coveted, Goblin’s Toe (Stashed for FI/PI immunes)
*Aldurs Rythem
*The General’s Tan Do Li Ga (stashed for utility purposes)
*The Mahim-Oak Curio (stashed for now)
*Ruby Grand Charm of Craftsmanship (30% Fire resist, 1 to max damage)
*Emerald Jewel of Hope (+11 to life, 6%MF)

[highlight]Drake the Fire/Hunter Druid, Level 52.8, NM Lut Gholein, life = 303 (455 with Oaks, that's more than a 50% from last act :thumbup, aided by Emilio the Prayer merc[/highlight]

 

[jiansonz]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Andariel was an absolute cake-walk. After Emilio bit the dust for the 3rd time, I decided to let him lay in peace and took matters into my own hands. I was surprised to see that she was stupid enough to go after the Oaks the whole time, which is immune to her attacks!

PI/PI Oak Sage in Nightmare is awesome. :thumbup:

BTW, I really like that Emerald Jewel of Hope.



Also big congrats to Tarantella for taking the lead in the tournament!

 

[wakiki]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Nice updates guys, especially Tarantella for being the first to reach Hell! With the new location system (expanded beyond waypoints) I'm going to put you at the Secret Cow Level. Now what will I do if you die in the Great Marsh?:scratchchin: Please don't do that! Lol.

Welcome back, EM, and thanks for finding the answer to his fade question for me scrcrw.

Sorry about your deeds, Nagisa. Thanks for playing! (Can't you tell us anything about your death, though? :\ Hehe.)

I'm at the Frozen Tundra but I'll wait for a real update. New table time:

Forum Name     Character       Class            Location               Level
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tarantella     Damasque        Skirmisher       (N)Secret Cow Level      73
scrcrw         Kaiko           Blade Fury Asn   (N)Throne of Destruction 72 RIP
Tarantella     Amarantine      Skirmisher       (N)Throne of Destruction 72 RIP
HanShotFirst   Ulquiorra-san   Bone Necro       (N)Mephisto              64 RIP
Drystan        Argoel          Sorceress        (N)Kurast Docks          58
ancalagon      Shatterproof    Strafer          (N)Rocky Waste           52
scrcrw         Jenna           Poison Java      (N)Radament              53 RIP
Morathi        Drake           Fire Druid       (N)Lut Gholein           52
Mursilis       Jaheira         Trapsin          (N)Lut Gholein           51
Bluechip       Inevitability   Sorceress        (N)Black Marsh           44 RIP
Thomh          Uzumati         Fire Claws Bear  (N)Dark Wood             49
NagisaFurukawa Rin             Strafer          (N)Underground Passage   46 RIP
jdkerr         Lifeless        Wind Druid       (N)Rogue Encampment      48
HanShotFirst   Helen           FA/Strafer       (N)Rogue Encampment      48
soulmanz       SparkyPancakes  Novawaller       (N)Rogue Encampment      47
wakiki         Shadow_Salad    Meleemancer      Nihlathak's Temple       46
EmperorMoo     MELIKECAKE      Concbarb         Crystalline Passage      37 RIP
cenyth         Teff            ES Sorceress     Harrogath                35
HanShotFirst   Scorn           Fire Druid       Diablo                   34 RIP
Brutass        Tane            Summ/Fire Druid  Diablo                   30 RIP
nermind        EatMyBones      Bonemancer       Chaos Sanctuary          34 RIP
EmperorMoo     FineFingers     Strafezon        Chaos Sanctuary          31 RIP
kavarin        Roadkill        Fire/Wolf        River of Flame           36
wakiki         BathtubPancake  Charge/H.Freeze  River of Flame           34 RIP
pepitosari     SassyAssasin    Assassin         Pandemonium Fortress     32
LozHinge T.U.  WitherStick     Poison Dagger    Pandemonium Fortress     32
Mournblade     Mouse           Golemancer       Lower Kurast             28
Brutass        Sparkles        Lite/Orb Sorc    Flayer Jungle            25
Alfonso T.G.   TheAragorn      Ranger Paladin   Spider Forest            29
soulmanz       SwayBabySway    Passivezon       Kurast Docks             27
Zelator        WitchOfEndor    CE/Curse Necro   Tal Rasha's Tomb         28
JayeM          Glassjaw        Barbarian        False Tomb               25 RIP
Bluechip       Vitamin         Throwbarb        False Tomb               23 RIP
PepitoSari     Kratos          Barbarian        Fangskin                 25 RIP
jiansonz       Morte           Necromancer      Lost City                25
Morathi        Sibella         Cold Sorc        Maggot Lair              24 RIP
JayeM          Glasscannon     Assassin         Maggot Lair              20 RIP
JayeM          Trixie          Bladesin         Rocky Waste              20 RIP
holiecows      HolieTraps      Assassin         Lut Gholein              21
QuickDeath     CandleintheWind Javazon          Lut Gholein              20
scrcrw         Clodius         Throwbarb        Lut Gholein              20
Ohomemgrande   GeneralJoe      Summoning Necro  Lut Gholein              20
Bluechip       Murderherder    Hunter Druid     Lut Gholein              19
JayeM          GlassEye        Necromancer      Jail Level 2             17 RIP
sirpoopsalot   QuestionMarks   ES/GS Sorc       Barracks                 18 RIP
Brutass        Snatch          Trapsin          Barracks                 18 RIP
Bluechip       Sickness        Poison Javazon   Barracks                 15 RIP
UllaV          Tilsit          Blizballer       Dark Wood                15
XxUberStarxX   Inevitable      Chargadin        Stony Field              12
Shaandore      Fastpoison      Psn/Feral Rage   Stony Field              12
mattinm        TomCruise       Leap/Howl/Ward   Stony FIeld              12
Galningen      Blade           Bf/Light Traps   Cold Plains              6
EmperorMoo     BraveSirRobin   Mojomancer       Cold Plains              6
Brutass        Sparky          Lite/Orb Sorc    Den of Evil              6  RIP
Kefka          Fergie          Trappa           Rogue Encampment         1
maareek        DeathtoCurtains Berserker        Rogue Encampment         1
Myth           RAWR            Throwbarb        Rogue Encampment         1
Machete        Benny           Bow Barb         Rogue Encampment         1
Galningen      KingLeoric      Bonemancer       Rogue Encampment         1
Zefimas        Susannah        Bowzon           Rogue Encampment         1
EmperorMoo     Magrat_Garlick  Trapsin          Rogue Encampment         1

 

[Ohomemgrande1]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

So Joe and his posse heard bad things about the surrounding desert of Lut Gholein and stuck around town for a bit. He took some time out to do some charitable work by cleaning up the town's sewers and was rewarded with a nice upgrade to his golem (golem mastery) and cheaper prices at the local shops. Halfway through the sewage gig, he also became wiser in the ways of raising the undead and coaxed a 5th skeleton warrior to join the group. That brings his army up to 5 infantry troops, 3 artillery folks, and a single (but faster lump of clay).

After a brief stay in town, Joe and friends decided to venture out to the desert. He ran into some lightning beetles and leapers but all were taken down easily by the growing army. Of course, being a necromancer he just had to explore the Stony Tomb that he ran across but there was really nothing of interest there other than some dried out corpses that spouted little poison clouds. Joe was unimpressed and was tempted to put a point into Poison Explosion to show off but then remembered that he doesn't want to waste skill points. Oh well, he'll let some of his cousin Necromancers have fun with poison.

[highlight]GeneralJoe, Summon Necro, Rocky Waste, lvl 21 (Dry Hills next)[/highlight]

 

[NagisaFurukawa]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Congrats on reaching Hell, Tarantella!

wakiki: I *could*, but don't you feel that's too much work? . It was the most common source of deaths for me. Carelessly run around, assuming any misstep can be avoided by "superior" play, see a half dozen giant balls of death coming from the far end of the screen, remember this is a no vitality character, and kick the bucket before using any potions. .

 

[HanShotFirst]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

At Players 7 Act 1 of NM was easy but rather dangerous. Helen only had 250 life so any monster that was cursed needed to be treated with great care. Helen’s resistances were only in the mid 20’s so any monster that was elemental enchanted needed to be treated with great care. Any monster that was cursed and elemental enchanted pretty much needed to be treated as though it had the plague. Really everything seemed dangerous.

Probably the most dangerous area was the Forgotten Tower were Helen was instantly greeted by a double boss pack (LE and Extra Strong . . . the picture really doesn't capture the excitement at all) that together ripped right through Mizan and forced Helen screaming and running out of the Tower. I was bit concerned that I might have to both abandon the full clear and lose out on the Countess but upon returning the entrance was clear enough that Helen was able to use Freezing Arrow to get a foothold. The rest of the Forgotten Tower continued to be really dangerous with elemental enchanted/cursed uniques hiding around every corner (the worst was a double boss pack of cursed archers). Mizan and the Decoy were essential to success as Helen opted to lead from the relative safety of the rear.

The same pattern was used for other indoor areas such as the Catacombs. The Decoy was the first into a room, followed by Mizan, followed by a veritable rain of arrows, followed by Helen. When NM Andariel was finally reached she too seemed rather scary at Players 7. Mizan could only withstand a couple of hits and the Decoy died in one (which would seem to suggest that Helen would die in one hit too . . . I didn’t bother to test though). The battle plan against Andariel turned into shooting six Freezing Arrows while Mizan ran up and stabbed her once (and in turn got really wounded), tping to town, healing Mizan, and then doing it again, and again, and again.

Andariel didn’t drop anything useful (which pretty much sums up the drops in general from NM Act 1). Here’s the list of useless set uniques: Darkglow (from a chest . . . that was pretty cool), Skullsplitter, Arctic Belt, Sigon’s Greaves, Razorswitch, Iratha’s Crown, Goreshovel, Woestave, Bloodletter, Iratha’s Crown (again), and a Skewer of Krintiz. Rune finding was also abysmal. The best rune to drop was a Shael. The Countess drop (Forgotten Tower Level 5 was done at Players 1) was pretty disappointing.

So clearly if you want something good you’ve got to go and make it yourself! Yep, that’s right I made an Insight and it follows the merc mf rule and the RWM rule so I’m not apologizing! Apparently I’m the only person who's done it because everyone else has been too concerned about good form but rule #40 of the Evil Overlord List (if you don’t know what this is Google 'Evil Overlord List' and take the top hit) clearly states:

40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.

Ah, words to live by . . .

Here were Helen’s stats at the end of NM Act 1.

[highlight]Helen, FA/Strafer, NM Lut Gholein, Level 53[/highlight]

 

[HanShotFirst]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Blast it all! . . she was too young to die! Helen had been doing full clears of Act 2 at Players 7 and hadn’t had any problems until she opened up this door in the Halls of the Dead and got hit with ten Extra Strong spears . . . instantly dead (she only had 250 life). Shame too because she was really fun now that she didn’t need to go to town every other minute for mana potions. RIP Helen.

I’ll probably enter with another character but this is getting a bit depressing . . .

[highlight]Helen, FA/Strafer, NM Halls of the Dead Level 1, Level 54, RIP[/highlight]

 

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Han, no, that was unlucky! My view is it'll be a strafer that will be the first Guardian.

Hope you re-enter

Too tired this evening for much D2, I'm in Normal RoF at present and dreading Big D.

 

[soulmanz]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

damn it. condolences han

sparky runs on (i was away for 4 days which is why no progress)

full p8 clears up to inner cloister. milebraglia;s orb dropped, which is nice. i was starting to get a lot of survival gear, but as a test have gone full hog MF (for a total of 120%! ok, so i didnt give up lore and stealth) with 48% on merc. no survival decrease, this game is actually too easy!

so i know what my death will be due to. HUBRIS

damn you firewall and your 3000+ damage per second, you have coddled me into the arms of death!

but not yet. sparky charges forward, very happily now her mana pool is large enough to accomodate teleporting for the fun of it. i dont worry about ranged attackers cos i just tele-jink all missiles. and if they hit it is pretty fine too, barely any damage

i suspect at this stage of the game all i need is maybe 20-30 PDR and im nigh invincible. of course, still having NDEs (due to kamikaze playstyle) but nothing too major

watch out andy, im coming!

SparkyPancakes, ESNovawaller, level 50, NM Inner Cloister

ps. i decided to kinda raise the skills as i see fit. all into nova unless enemies are taking chunks of life, then the next few points into ES. its working fine for now, although nova is terrible (cant even stun lock devilkin!)

pps . arrrgghh dammit, just checked the rules. MF for mercs is 35% and 50%, i thought it was 50 and 100. what a waste of 2 ptopaz' and socketed ancient armour. at least he hadnt dropped anything in the 10 minutes since i gave it to him. consider it removed.

 

[UllaV]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

RIP Helen. My condolences.

Tilsit ran from Dark Wood waypoint on /p1 to Black Marsh and paused immediately. Followers were slain and then the players were raised to 8.

The Tower was right on the right to the entrance to Black Marsh so Tilsit decided to make visit there first. The levels were just a breeze with frost nova, mashing and sniping except for one. Cannot remember which level it was but in one corner behind a doorway there was one boss pack, at least two normal packs and two champion packs of devilkin. The door was used as a chokepoint for a while, but then I entered the corner. There was no problem but the running around the devilkin made was very confusing. I name locked one of the champions and ran all over the place casting frost nova once in while and Basanti sniping in the back. It was hilarious. The only remakable drop there was a new contender for a weapon for Tilsits Act 2 merc. Level 5 was done on /p1 and the Countess was met and killed, meh.

Onward with the clearing of Black Marsh. There were at least two carver settlements that were fun to clear and one tight spot. Corrupt Rogue Archer boss pack, enough said, but anyways, the boss was fast and multishot. Lots of potion chugging and running around the pack, but in the end Tilsit and Basanti were victorious. Result of that battle was an item that might be the normal transfer to my septavariate necro. Somewhere in Black Marsh Tilsit found also thrid gem shrine.

In to the Hole went their way and somewhere there Tilsit found better insurance. Several times after battle she switched weapons to regain mana faster. On level two they found another archer boss pack, but it was nothing except Tilsit had her seventeeth birthday. The result was much gambling after the Hole was cleared. Here are the highlights:

Start with the info of the first (and only) MF ring found
Price of boots
Why GF
Keepers
Price of gloves
Best but no cigar

Starting the gambling Tilsit had 13% gloves and 10%boots. That's why she gambled boots first and why the MF12% gloves weren't enough: the additional mods weren't making it. When I gamble boots and gloves I always gamble those that have lower MF.

Tilsits resists are now: 16/0/42/16. Must do something on that cold resist.

[highlight]UllaV, Tilsit the Blizzballer with fire rogue Basanti, Black Marsh, Level 17[/highlight]

Ulla

 

[wakiki]

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Nagisa, thanks. I just like to hear about every death so I (and everyone else) can learn from it.

HanShotFirst, NOOOOOOOOO that is such a brutal monster! Luck certainly plays a factor in this tournament. If you get a stairtrap (or doortrap like that), you can be toast. It might take someone several tries even with perfect play. (Also, don't feel bad about making the Insight. I let mercs use MF just for "incidental" MF on items like that and I plan to make one myself. For my merc...or possibly myself.) P.S. can you tell me what level of the Halls you were on when you died?

soulmanz, I love characters where you can be flexible with skills. Sorry about the wasted topazes. I feel bad every time something like this happens. My next tournament will have fewer rules. Thanks for removing the armor. What would people think if I let him mule 2 P topazes back on if he mules 30k off (for the gold he got for the Ancient Armor)? Does that sound like a bad idea?

By the way guys, I changed my mind about Nihlathak's Temple. It comes after the Glacial Trail but before the Frozen Tundra. (I decided to go with the waypoint location rather than the quest log)

Also, the table has been updated.





S_S has progressed smoothly, even boringly, to Nightmare. He did have one brutal NDE to a Catapult though. He was walking around in the Frozen Tundra, and suddenly his life vanished! None left in the bulb! Can anyone explain how those ember things work? Sometimes they seem to do nothing as I walk over them. And sometimes they do the above (although it's usually not as scary since my characters have more 200 health or more).

I got the merc glitch during Baal's waves. It was probably earlier, but I didn't notice it thanks to DV. I really really hate this glitch. Rather than fighting Lister, I ran around in circles while my merc poked him to death. It feels both annoying, silly, dangerous, and not-at-all-strategic. The Baal fight was much less exciting than the previous act boss fights. S_S just hid behind a pillar while Baal attacked it and my merc killed him. I should have restarted for his minion waves. Ah well.

The Cow King was right on top of the entrance portal. That was amusing. Nothing else of any interest to report though. S_S is looking forward to Nightmare. Hopefully his finds will improve. He hasn't found anything good throughout normal -- with the exception of jewelery, every piece of gear has been shopped or gambled. :\ (And I'm still using a 'Steel' Giant Axe -- ouch!)

Random finds:

• lovely rare amulet
• Sol Rune
• Face of Horror (unique Mask)
• Bloodthief (unique Brandistock)
• Coral (12 lit res) Large Charm of Balance (8)
• Another Berserker's Hatchet
• 26% Nagelring! I'm using that one!
• Cathan's chain mail
• Angelic ring (praying for the Amulet )

[highlight]Destroyer Shadow_Salad, level 48 Meleemancer, Nightmare Rogue Encampment[/highlight]