The Certain Death Tournament.

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I killed EatMyBones. Almost literally - death had little to do with having low life or anything, I just paid too little attention to what I was doing and got trapped. I managed to gulp a juvie and press ESC, but as its No Save&Exit and I had almost nothing to lose I went till the end.

Thanks for the tourney, I wont be reentering - I`ve had my fun times that distracted me from powergaming for some time and thats all I needed :) Better luck to you guys ;)

[highlight]nermind, EatMyBones, bonemancer, Chaos Sanctuary, lvl 34 - RIP, bones eaten![/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Inevitability made it to the Inner Cloister Waypoint. Level 18 and just got glacial spike. She has a monster 66 life. It's almost not fair to diablo's minions.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Inevitability made it to the Inner Cloister Waypoint. Level 18 and just got glacial spike. She has a monster 66 life. It's almost not fair to diablo's minions.

LOL. That's the spirit :)

/OT_spam



 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Teff has reached Lut Gholein. Went through all of Act 1 with no mf, so no S/Us at all. I don't regret it though, because the low hp has me too paranoid to swap out resists for anything else. Two near deaths to CE bosses, and I'm beginning to think it'll be a CE monster that finally kills me, since I'm horrible at gauging the distance the nova will go.

Switching to a act 2 merc will probably let me walk through without as much danger though, so I put on some gloves for an amazing 14% mf. LOL

[highlight]Teff, ES Sorceress, Lut Gholein, lvl 20[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Morathi: Ouch man, I've done that, too. I haven't died from an accidental teleport casting instead of skill casting yet, but then, I haven't done it with a low vit character like this one.

@EmperorMoo: Ah okay. I've almost gotten myself trapped ugly situations with Zeal, so I thought that might have been it. Thanks for re-entering, both of you.

@nermind: Awww, RIP bro. "Bones eaten" made me laugh though. I mean, they might be nice to add flavor to a stew, but they're kinda crunchy if you just eat'em nomsain? (...not that I...umm....have much experience in this area...) Thanks for playing.

Also, I've been listening to In Rock alot. Amazing album. Better than Machine Head imo. I'll probably get Made In Japan next since I love live albums so much.

I'll make a new table in a few hours after my bass lesson. Cyall then.

P.S. LOL Bluechip, love that attitude.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Condolences to all of those who have fallen!!

On a brighter note Tane is still progressing well having collected the cube, staff and headpiece. There has still been no NDE's which is the total opposite than I expected. I had expected to be mourning his loss by now and re-entering a new character. Mind you I've probably jinxed him with this comment. He has only found one decent item to date which was a Blood.....something sword with crushing blow (not much use for a summoner) and 15 to all resistances (very nice). His main skills thus far are Fissure (lvl 8 or 9) and dire wolves (lvl 4)
Tane, Summoner/Fire Druid, Lost City, Lvl 23
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Nevermind, I had time to update it before the lesson.

Code:
Forum Name     Character       Class            Location               Level
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
scrcrw         Kaiko           Blade Fury Asn   (N)Stony Field         47
HanShotFirst   Ulquiorra-san   Bone Necro       Harrogath              34
nermind        EatMyBones      Bonemancer       Chaos Sanctuary        34 RIP
EmperorMoo     FineFingers     Strafezon        Chaos Sanctuary        31 RIP
Tarantella     Amarantine      Skirmisher       Pandemonium Fortress   29
wakiki         BathtubPancake  Charge/H.Freeze  Canyon of the Magi     26
ancalagon      Shatterproof    Strafer          Lost City              24
Brutass        Tane            Summ/Fire Druid  Lost City              23
Morathi        Sibella         Cold Sorc        Maggot Lair            24 RIP
JayeM          Glasscannon     Assassin         Maggot Lair            20 RIP
Thomh          Uzumati         Fireclaws Druid  Far Oasis              24
jdkerr         Lifeless        Wind Druid       Lut Gholein            20
cenyth         Teff            ES Sorceress     Lut Gholein            20
Mournblade     Mouse           Golemancer       Lut Gholein            17
PepitoSari     Kratos          Barbarian        Catacombs Level 2      20
Bluechip       Inevitability   Sorceress        Inner Cloister         18
sirpoopsalot   QuestionMarks   ES/GS Sorc       Barracks               18 RIP
Bluechip       Sickness        Poison Javazon   Barracks               15 RIP
kavarin        Roadkill        Fire/Wolf        Outer Cloister         17
soulmanz       SwayBabySway    Passivezon       Outer Cloister         17
QuickDeath     CandleintheWind Javazon          Dark Wood              14
JayeM          Glassjaw        Barbarian        Dark Wood              13
XxUberStarxX   Inevitable      Chargadin        Stony Field            12
Galningen      Blade           Bf/Light Traps   Cold Plains            6
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
EmperorMoo     Brave Sir Robin Mojomancer       Rogue Encampment       1

EDIT: Look at where the deaths have happened. Interesting eh? This tournament is almost like a gauge that shows where the damage ramps up in each act.
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

RIP EatMyBones, thought you were gonna go a long way

well, ive jumped one dead group, probably all i will get to play today. The stash issue continues, half of my inventory is filled with chips and amulets now. Gambling is still useless, no MF gear at all, although I have wasted a ton of money gambling javs and throwing daggers. Currently running as a daggerzon with rare balanced daggers, just got sick of having only 50 javs

6 levels till decoy and safety! kinda sick of act 1 though, might drop down to players 1 and clean out the cats, and run for the cube before i cant pick up anything anymore.

SwayBabySway, Passivezon, level 18, Inner Cloister
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well Kratos Deeds... so sad... was going so well... had even found a 29% mf nagels... oh well... died to LE/extra fast Fangskin... went down got knocked back managed to go up the stairs. But went I got back down y got perma put into hit recovery and that was it...
Guess it's my fault... since I haven't played much hardcore before it's the first char I lost...

Kratos, barb, lvl 25, claw viper temple lvl 2 Deeds
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well I am back in, so I present SassyAssasin, not a great a name... probably going to make her a trapsin with shadow backup, some points in Blade Fury maybe, who knows...
Did some early game gambling... more for the sake of it and got some nice items...

Raven Tower
Buckler
Defense: 8
+23% Enhanced Defense
+10% Increased Chance of Blocking
Fire Resist +5%
Lightning Resist +10%
Attacker Takes Damage of 1
10% Faster Hit Recovery
15% Faster Block Rate

Raven Chain
Light Belt
Defense: 4
Durability: 14 of 14
+23% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +6%
Poison Resist +6%
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Imp Scratch
Katar
One-Hand Damage: 4 to 9
Durability: 41 of 48
+40 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage
Cold Resist +10%
Adds 1-2 cold damage over 2 seconds
+6 poison damage over 2 seconds
5% Chance to cast Level 3 Fire Bolt on attack

Cleared the Bloodmoor and Den of Evil and that was it for today...
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

While I was in the arcane sanctuary, an odd thing happened. I've never before been 8 points from leveling up without leveling up. At least not that I've noticed before. I was actually going to town for some other reason at the time (for inventory, potions, etc.).

I was doing pretty well (especially after re-hiring a merc, this time a desert guard), and had been pretty safe, so I got cocky and decided to go after Ancient Kaa the Soulless. I was expecting a tough fight, but he wasn't too hard. Lots of dodging unholy bolts and running from lightning sparks, but nothing too bad.

Duriel also proved pretty easy, partly because of the better of the 2 savage polearms I'd rolled up for the merc. I had to put some amythysts in the merc's hat so he could lift it, but it was worth it. Expecting a tougher fight, I sent the decoy and merc in first, then joined them w/ shield and scepter. I'd switched around gear, taking off my mf gloves and rings (all 47% of my mf) for cold res and min damage. I did get hit once, and it took about half my life ball, but that wasn't anything a red potion couldn't fix. I fed a fair number of potions (including one purple) to the merc, but I didn't end up needing to go to town for anything.

Granted I wasn't wearing any mf at the time, so I didn't expect much for a drop, but even so, this drop was pathetic. The worst I've ever seen, in fact, and I have a habit of not wearing any mf at all.

I put 2 Tirs in a hat, a regular skull in the empty bow slot, and use a 4% mana leech ammy, but even so, I have a pretty bad mana potion addiction. It's getting better, though, with more shots for the same cost in strafe and a cheaper decoy. I've been working on my tactics a little bit, and often end up fighting lots of things offscreen. Here I'm fighting Sszark the Burning, although the only reason I knew that when I took the screenshot was that he spawned where he always does.

In the flayer dungeon, I found ravenclaw! Although it isn't an improvement over my current bow, it would be great for an enchantress or a fire ranger. I've made both of those on ladder, but had always had to wait until they could equip kuko or demon machine before.

Found this nice ammy in Act II:
Code:
Mentalist's Amulet of the Tiger
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0xbd9e8f40
+27 to Life
+1 to Shadow Discipline Skills (Assassin Only)
However, I haven't gotten much use out of it, since I need mana leech so bad. It did help a bit with Duriel, though.

I also have a full quota of life charms, the SC is +8, the LC is +10, and the GC is +7. Worse than the SC, oddly enough. :scratchhead:

[highlight]Shatterproof, Strafer, Lower Kurast, lvl 28[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Entering Rin, a Strafer. Kind of curious how she'll play out against the others of her kind who have managed to get relatively far already.

Rin hasn't so much as lost HP thus far, plucking away at things from a safe distance with her 3x Chipped Sapphire +3 AR Long Bow. Her rogue mercenary does decent damage herself, wielding a 3x Chipped Ruby Hunter's Bow, but her major role thus far has been that of a sponge, eating all of the fire against ranged targets such as Blood Raven and Coldcrow.

Notable Finds: Jewel of Envy, 14 FR / 10 Life GC

Hopefully this is not my one and only post, per the usual. *hides*

[highlight]Rin, Strafer, Level 12, Stony Field[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Ulquiorra-san continued to use the Players 7 setting and perform full clears through Act 5. Most everything was pretty easy and the drops were the best to date.

The first good drop was a Duskdeep from Dac Farren (not an amazing find but I never get anything good from him and Leharas needed his mf helm phased out asap so it seemed pretty good at the time). The Duskdeep was followed by a number of useless uniques and set items (many that Ulquiorra had already found) and then some good runes started to drop. Ulquiorra found his first Thul Rune in the Frozen River (which would have gone great with the Amn that Ulquiorra had found in Act 4 . . . but alas, he’d already spent it on a ‘Strength’ for Leharas). The disappointment was short lived though as Ulquiorra soon found his second Amn Rune in a sparkly chest in the Drifter Cavern (and I never get good things out of sparkly chests! . . hmm, now all I need is a four socketed sword). Another Amn Rune dropped soon after as Ulquiorra made his way towards Nitlathak and then a Shael Rune in the Ancients Way (I had recently found a three socketed gothic plate so ‘Peace’ for Leharas came to mind as a good option but I was pretty sure that if I used the Thul I’d end up putting ‘Spirit’ on hold forever so the Thul is still sitting in the stash). The last good find was a Wormskull in the World Stone Keep Level 3. Ulquiorra considered using it for the plus one to Necromancer skills but decided that it would be best to stick it on Leharas for the five percent life leech (Leharas already had seven percent life leech from ‘Strength’ . . . but can you ever have too much)?

In terms of monster battling everything was pretty easy. Most of the monsters only needed to be blasted with bone spear but bone prison and dim vision were also in use (I had never done anything with dim vision before but was really impressed with it . . . by the time Ulquiorra had reached Nihlathak dim vision had reached level 10 and was really great for instantly taking large groups of monsters out of play . . . I can’t believe I never used it before . . . what a waste)! Nihlathak himself had been a point of some concern but as usual his corpse explosion in normal was somewhat under whelming and as Ulquiorra was also capable of exploding corpses the battle turned out to be really easy . . . and really bloody.

The most interesting thing that happened in Act 5 was discovering the Evil Black Magic Voodoo Curse that the Stygian Furys cast (the Arreat Summit calls it the Blood Mana Curse). Apparently I’ve never had a character that has had more max mana than max life (apparently what causes the curse to be cast) . . . so I had never seen the curse before and had no idea what I was dealing with (except of course that there was some Evil Black Magic Voodoo going on :dontknow: ). Soon I figured out that when cursed with the Evil Black Magic Voodoo Curse I was doing damage to myself every time that I casted anything (my life went from 190 to 50 casting dim vision . . . wtf)! . . I’m not sure if you could directly kill yourself (I didn’t want to find out the hard way) but there’s no doubt that you could give the monsters a huge head start :no: . I still don’t really understand the mechanics of the curse (the Arreat Summit is not very forthcoming) but I was noticing that the damage seemed to escalate if I started continuously casting. In any event two things are clear: It is pure Evil Black Magic Voodoo and it is too late for me to do anything about it (Ulquiorra has 125 points in Energy so, 317 mana vs 207 life . . . so I’m pretty sure that his life will never be higher than his mana :\ ). The other bad news is that Stygian Furys were seemingly everywhere and weren’t the only monsters that cast the curse . . .

Baal too cast the curse of Evil Black Magic Voodoo. His minions had fallen without incident (only the plucked chickens put up a fight . . . but not much once separated) . . . Baal was a totally different story. Baal’s opening move was to clone himself and then use his icy wedge to drive Ulquiorra into the clone’s waiting tentacles (that was some rejuvenation potions and then a trip to town). Ulquiorra returned and was instantly surrounded by tentacles and hit with the curse of Evil Black Magic Voodoo (so Ulquiorra couldn’t shoot them and at Players 7 he couldn’t exactly stand to absorb many hits . . . so simply getting near Baal was a challenge). Then when Ulquiorra got near Baal he was very exposed to any one of Baal’s elemental attacks (they all hurt . . . the mana burn fire bolt combo was enough to send Ulquiorra scrambling for the rejuvenation potions). Another problem was that Baal was sending up a ton of tentacles (that really hurt) and often used his icy wedge to drive Ulquiorra into them :tombstone: . Ulquiorra couldn’t stant still to shoot or he would get cursed and/or attacked to within an inch of his life and Leharas wasn’t helping much. Leharas spent most of his time going after the endless supply of tentacles (so the crushing blow from his ‘Strength’ really didn’t come into play). The battle really became a war of attrition with the big question being would Baal run out of hit points or would Ulquiorra run out of rejuvenation potions (the only thing that was keeping him alive) . . . thankfully Ulquiorra was finally able to get into a good position to do some damage and Baal ran out first (but it was close).

Baal didn't drop much (considering the effort) but the Angelic sabre could come in handy (Ulquiorra already has the armor and would really love to find the ring and amulet . . . there have been three set rings found so far . . . all Cathans) . . .

Destroyer Ulquiorra then proceeded to defeat the cows and in the process found the unique scimitar (that might have been tempting to carry around . . . if RWM wasn’t allowed). There were a couple other set/unique items but not the ones that Ulquiorra wanted (the Cow King refuses to drop his set items for me :rolleyes: ) . . . oh well.

Here were Ulquiorra-san’s stats at the end of Act 5 . . . and here is what they look like going into NM (but changes will made! . . I refuse to play with negative resistances . . . no way, no how).

[highlight]Ulquiorra-san, Bone Necro, NM Rogue Encampment, Level 47[/highlight]
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

At level 16, GlassJaw is in the Black Marsh, having finished off the Hole and the Tower. The Countess dropped Tir and El, so I'm considering a Steel axe. GJ found another Arctic Furs, which the rogue Blaise is wearing now. Life goes on...now for the Tamoe Highland and the Monastery.

[highlight]JayeM, GlassJaw, Barbarian, 16[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I've updated the table. RIP Kratos, Fangskin is one of the most brutal bosses in the game. Thanks for joining agai, pepi. I like the high replay rate that this tournament has so far. I added you to the table at level one for now.

Thanks for the updates guys, especially Han for all the detail. I didn't do any playing today myself; logging off for the night; good luck everyone.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well, found some time again. Congrats on NM for Ulqiourra

I did exactly what I thought I would. Sick of Act 1 and running out of inventory space I trashed the cats and Andariel at players 1 (she unsurprisingly dropped filth, even with my godly 60% MF). From there a quick sprint down the Halls of the Dead (they count as cleared, but the first 2 outdoor regions were simply skipped) and I had my cube. I cubed the gems, and the rings, and the amulets. Nothing worthwhile at all from alllllll that jewelry (single affix 5%MF amulet .. yay!), cubed up a nice savage polearm for my now act 2 merc though, one more level and he will dominate the rest of this act

also managed to buy a bone shield of deflecting, 30% increased block rate, and 20% increased block, for a on shield total of 65% and a LCS total of 75% for the next maybe 4 levels without further dex input (i was running at 70% block with a 45% block shield!)

so ..
SwayBabySway, PassiveZon (currently daggerzon), Lut Gholein, Level 19
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Waving tearfully goodbye from the Kurast dockside to the returning and ever faithful Haseen* (Milabregas shield being a nice parting gift off a pitlord) Amarantine set off again with her new companion and skills into the Outer Steppes. Playing at a snails place at p4 brought another tal and then an ort from the forge and then just after levelling again inside the chaos sanctuary entrance a random caster dropped a sol. Opting for style points over safety the sanctuary was cleared with utmost attention (casting the valk into the heart of the Infectors pack as it spawned) and Diablo was then faced at p1. It took well over 5 minutes of skirmishing at maximimum range and casting a valk on his toes to bring him down. He took evil delight in cuffing her into immobility, counting 5 then shattering her with lightning just as she was about to move again. The drop was unhelpful too so onwards to act 5 and playing at p8.

Increased mana/maidens weapon shortages peaked in the mid 30's but gradually the previous minimum skills allocation paid off as both fury and valk were increased each level and game play speeded up dramatically without incident towards the denouement with Baal.

The first circlet in the hills to drop(:jig:) was made into the possibly endgame gear lore. An angelic ring dropped on the plateau followed by a 25 nagel on the frozen river with the quest reward being a maiden spear so the white ceremonial javelins found had to be used carefully.The weapon on swap by now was a shopped maiden throwing spear of alacrity.

The ancients were faced at level 44, the valk pinning one by the entry gate and Baal also tackled at p8 took 15 minutes at range. Being level 60 items with the possibilites of +3 javelins and the like was too tempting to miss but the drop was not totally disappointing. I scrapped the crafted belt with annoyance because it had too much life but kept the rather nice armour. A dol was found in mopping up the stragglers on level 2 of the Keep and an amn from a Nihlathak clearance. To finish off normal the Valk dropped the Cowking for a deaths sash which goes in the already short for space stash.


Tarantella Amarantine Rogue Camp (N) Level 47



*Artistic euphemism
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

i promise this is the last day i post 3 times!

cleared up to the far oasis. the early days of MF-lessness have improved a fair bit. a rain of topazes (topi?) and a 21% (bah) nagel have pushed me over the 100% mark, and thats with single digits of MF on boots and amulet

not entirely looking forward to the maggot lair considering i dont pitiful damage with my rare balanced knives, which dont even have ll

maybe i will start looking for a nice rare blade

anyway, signing off for the night

SwayBabySway, Passivezon, Level 22, Far Oasis
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Congratulations to the two new Destroyers. Kaiko was feeling a bit lonely in NM ;)

I completed Act 1 NM easily. Andy fell surprisingly quick. /p8 all the way.
After reading up on the socketing mechanics, I grabbed a war scepter early on in Act 2 and had norm larzuk punch some holes in it. Result:

Damage-wise it did not feel like that much of an upgrade to the malice claw, probably because the monsters are rapidly getting tougher. Every hit that isn't blocked really hurts by now.
More or less smooth going though up to the viper temple. The skeletons + revivers were so annoying that I dropped to /p1 (would have taken hours on /p8, even with ds). Really missing some large area of effect spells...
Fangskin was a non-issue since I never actually saw a single lighting bolt. Just fired blind into the room until I no longer saw the leach symbol over Kaikos head.
Also switched my equip around a bit, since I really missed the fast block from pelta lunata. Resulting stats (damage display is irrelevant):

Also gained an fhr breakpoint in the process and some frw (wearing stealth now). AR is about 2200 which seems to be working alright.

Hope I'll be able to go up again to /p8 for the arcane sanctuary to get a bit of leveling done...

[HIGHLIGHT] Kaiko, BFsin, Harem lvl 1 NM, level 55 [/HIGHLIGHT]
 
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