The Certain Death Tournament.

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Amarantine passed away through the fiery gate to act 4 after three long sessions. The first brought her to the start of the flayer jungle, where the waypoint and the swampy pit were closely situated. She picked up a ral on the way and switching from p8 to p1 for all the side areas and Lower Kurast and beyond, coming in on the left side of Travincal to pause at the waypoint she picked up two iths(with one already cubed a stealth is on the cards for facing Diablo) and another ral on the way. A white maiden javelin was found after an exhaustive search of Kurast but a gambled throwing spear from Alkor looked better as I was saving the remaining chips(4 completed flawless gems so far) for a blue and saving imbue for later.The thoroughness paid off as a serpent boss dropped a nice rare pike with lifeleech to replace the cubed savage weapon Haseen had carried through the earlier part of the act.

Safetywise it was straightforward apart from a magic hit from an horadrim hiding in the dark of the sewers which took her life down to nearly half strength and Mephisto who swept aside the decoy and dropped her to one third life from the one direct lightning hit she received. Keeping distance and 20frw boots helped dodge the snowballs. Amarantine was rewarded with 28 chance guards and an aptly named rune razor blade amongst the rares (for that closer shave you can get) but the shopped acrobat gloves might prove more useful in the next phase.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-iGMJiP4apQ/Sux8eq5YXgI/AAAAAAAAAF8/zm1aD6agDV4/s640/Screenshot011.jpg

Stats are 60/101/20/15 resists are 50/45/50/41 and 170 life.


So it stands now

Tarantella Amarantine Pandemonium Fortress level 29
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Got another long session in today:

The only notable drop which I didnt mention in the last update were Bloodfists, rather annoying since Kaiko is already wearing (and loving) Cleglaws (later on the Sanders gloves dropped to, just to annoy me even more ;) ).
I continued in Lower Kurast where I left off and quickly advanced to the bazaar and got the extra 5 stat points (cleared all six temples actually). Didn't spend much time in the sewers and progressed steadily to Travincal. With Knockback on the gloves the council was no challenge. In the durance Hawk Mail dropped, which Kaiko wanted to wear because the colour fits nicely with Venom enchanted claws (and for its cbf). Before she still wore a 3 sox ring mail with some chipped topazes in it...
Mephisto himself was also no problem at all, even on /p8 (everything else done on p8 too).

Act 4 was even less eventful. None of the enemies could actually harm the shadow master (or Kaiko). Izual and the Smith went down smoothly to a hail of blades. For Diablo himself I dropped to /p1 (dont know if I did it in time though) and defeated him easily by sniping from the distance and constantly recasting the SM. Drop included Bladebuckle (nice fhr) and Pelta Lunata (unique buckler) with I equipped for its fast blocking and nice health bonus. Weapon was a gambled rare scissors katar with 50% ed and some life leech.

Act V was also really easy (even on /p8). I finally managed too complete Malice in some claws, but mostly used an improved life leech claw for convenience. Leveled from about 33 to 46 in total.
Greatest difficulty: Kaiko had to shop for a new armor after the 10 all res quest bonus, since fade and hawkmail put her cold res above 50... Finally got an ancient armor with 29 life and 6 fire res.
Then I accidentally spawned the ancients on /p8, but they did not do enough damage to seriously inconvience the SM (and thus Kaiko):


WSK and the throne were easily done on /p8. For Lister and his friends I put my malice claw to some use to make every hit count. However they could not push me back by much:


For Baal I switched again to /p1 to avoid an endless fight. He actually tried to fight me at a range which made his attacks useless, so I never even used a potion.
This obviously means that little Kaiko may now be called Destroyer Kaiko :balloons:

Never would have thought I'd make it...

Stats after the big moment:


Skills are (the important ones):
bladefury 16
cm 4
fade 2
venom 10
sm 4
ds,mb 1 (never use them though)

Life is at 271 thanks to a 10l sc, 14l lc, 19l gc, 10vit on the shield, 10l on a ring and 29l on the armor. I also have bloodfist and a 20l belt stashed, so it could be at 331.
The only mf comes from the boots (34%). The helmet is a blue visionary and the rare amulet mainly provides 5% ml. Both rings provide about 100 ar (and one some life).
Claws have 41% ed and 7% ll (also have Cathans ring stashed).

Now I'll be heading for Nihlatak and if Kaiko survives she will probably get some rest for one or two days.

UPDATE: Nihlatak (/p8) also went down easily (SM doing the tanking). This means all quests on normal are completed (more or less, socketing and imbue are still available).
More interesting is the Amn Rune that dropped somewhere in the Halls of Anguish. Together with the Sol from Abaddon I now have the runes for Honor :) Still havent found a 5sox weapon for it though (only been looking since Abaddon). Forge drop was Ort btw.

[HIGHLIGHT] scrcrw, Kaiko, Bladefury Assassin, Rogue Camp NM, level 46 [/HIGHLIGHT]
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

scrcrw said:
Got another long session in today:
This obviously means that little Kaiko may now be called Destroyer Kaiko :balloons:
Click to expand...

Congrats scrcrw!

My *long* session today took me as far as the outer cloister at level 17 :crazyeyes: Drops have been fairly good - a grand charm and a large charm with +10 life each and 9 chipped topazes, therefore I have around 110 jiansonz MF. Since I got carrion vine I don't even need to think about drinking the red stuff.


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Wow, awesome progress guys, especially scrcrw! A destroyer already. Don't forget your Cow Level! (it's optional though and you can go back and do it at any time)

Another 40 posts, another table:

Code: 
Forum Name     Character       Class            Location               Level
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
scrcrw         Kaiko           Blade Fury Asn   (N)Rogue Encampment    46
Tarantella     Amarantine      Skirmisher       Pandemonium Fortress   29
HanShotFirst   Ulquiorra-san   Bone Necro       Kurast Docks           28
wakiki         BathtubPancake  Charge/H.Freeze  Sewers Level 2         21
nermind        EatMyBones      Necromancer      Lut Gholein            20
JayeM          Glasscannon     Assassin         Lut Gholein            18
EmperorMoo     FineFingers     Strafezon        Inner Cloiser          17
PepitoSari     Kratos          Barbarian        Jail Level 1           18
Bluechip       Sickness        Poison Javazon   Barracks               15 RIP
kavarin        Roadkill        Fire/Wolf        Outer Cloister         17
sirpoopsalot   QuestionMarks   ES/GS Sorc       Dark Wood              15
Thomh          Uzumati         Mauler           Dark Wood              15
Mournblade     Mouse           Golemancer       Dark Wood              12
XxUberStarxX   Inevitable      Chargadin        Stony Field            12
QuickDeath     CandleintheWind Javazon          Stony Field            12
ancalagon      Shatterproof    Strafer          Cold Plains            6
Galningen      Blade           Bf/Light Traps   Cold Plains            6
Brutass        Tane            Summon Druid     Rogue Encampment       1
Morathi        Sibella         Sorceress        Rogue Encampment       1
Kefka          Fergie          Trappa           Rogue Encampment       1
Bluechip       Inevitability   Sorceress        Rogue Encampment       1
maareek        DeathtoCurtains Berserker        Rogue Encampment       1
Myth           RAWR            Throwbarb        Rogue Encampment       1
Machete        Benny           Bow Barb         Rogue Encampment       1

I've cleared through the Sewers with BathtubPancake. It's been absurdly easy. I took Andariel out using 3 minor healing potions and 1 light heal. (And a bunch of Antidotes in advance, of course) Iantha survived that fight, too.

I am now wishing that I had simply disallowed both summons AND mercs. Oh well. Maybe that'll be something I use in another tournament...:scratchchin:

I now have my three allowed life charms: a grand with 12 life, large with 9, and a small with 10. I've also found two charms with cold damage (unecessary on a Holy Frost Pala) and also a small charm with poison. And then there's these lovely gambled gloves/boots:

Ghoul Hand
Leather Gloves
Defense: 4
Durability: 6 of 12
Required Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x5dccf582
Item Level: 19
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+2 to Dexterity
17% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +14%
Poison Resist +13%
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Half Freeze Duration

Demon Track
Boots
Defense: 3
Durability: 8 of 12
Required Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0xf2a194bb
Item Level: 17
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Lightning Resist +10%
Poison Resist +5%
24% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Light Radius
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
10% Chance to cast level 3 Charged Bolt when struck

I've also found a total of 17 chipped topazes. Sheesh!

[highlight]BathtubPancake, Holy Freeze Chargadin, level 21, Rocky Waste Next[/highlight]
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

So I finally had some time to play RAWR the Throwbarb, it wasn't a long session because I am way too tired to play seriously right now. RAWR did a full clear up to the Cave level 2 in cold plains. He is now level 10 and a monster away from leveling up to 11. He had no problem killing everything on P8. Next up: Burial grounds + Crypt and Mosoleum. That'll be for tomorow though.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Great progress guys!

@Wakiki. Ok hold up let me get this new MF rule straight.

You said it doesn't apply for those who are already in progress, however you said until "you die" is that refering to the merc or our character?

Edit: Ok so for as long as my character is alive there is no restriction on MF with my merc? Ok cool!

Makes me feel a little quilty though. I don't think the rule even needs to be in place TBH. You said you wanted to make Mercs be like summons but Summons have the advantage of being recasted easily, while mercs cost money and time to resurrect. Evens out IMO......so don't see a need with the MF rule.

TOO MANY RESTRICTIONS!!! arrrghhh!
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Your character. I wish I had thought it this before, but I don't feel like making people change around the items that they already have now. I will personally phase the MF items out once I find a viable armor/helm for my merc, to make things more even with people who start after the rule change. (I expect to get an elemental damage circlet for Iantha soon). Lowering merc MF is more in the spirit of the rules and I encourage other participants to as well, but it isn't required for those who have already signed up.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Introducing Sibella the Sorceress :)

Sorceresses start out with a massive (:rolleyes:) 10 vitality (the lowest of all 7 classes!), giving her a fragile base life of 40. Not very encouraging knowing she will be stuck with 10 vitality for her whole journey. With that in mind it looks like the cold tree seems the best path to go down or should I say...... the most safest path :smug:. It seemed like the D2 gods also had the same idea, dropping Sibella two early small staff’s each with +1 Ice Bolt. Ok, a cold sorc it is!

Most early stat points went into Energy, allowing for a healthy mana bub. IB is cheap to cast, with reasonable damage for p/8 (for now), and long cold duration. It was used in conjunction with Spike, which was used sparlingly in sticky situations. We stayed with IB as it is more mana efficient and has a longer cold duration.

Blood Raven posed quite a threat. Special hit and an Amp damage bow! Ouch! The battle was well worth it though, as she dropped something quite amazing. That is a great amulet for this stage of the game....possibly the best i have seen that early on. The 7%MF is what takes my fancy.....oh and the other mods arn't bad either :wink2:.

Tylena the fire rogue assisted, with a nicely created gemmed bow :smug:. No problems full-clearing Act 1. However we did come across this potentially dangerous situation in the Jail. No problem, a steady flow of IB kept them slowed, while Tylena picked off the stragglers.

Ice Bolt was fine against Andy. The cold duration kept her constantly slowed, allowing Sibella to run around firing away. We managed to sliver Andy before Tylena unleashed the killing blow. With 119% MF, Andy’s drop had potential. Unfortunately both the rare jewels rolled bad mods and the rest was useless.

S/U and cool items:
*Sibella’s first S/U dropped in the cave. No use for us however.
*This and this both dropped within 1 screen of each other and both from Caskets! The armor is nice, but without any + life mods I prefer my topaz’d ringmail ;).
*Sibella managed to gamble this rather nice gloves at clvl17. 1% off perfect Fortune and Garnet mod! Very nice indeed!

[highlight] Sibella the Cold Sorc, Level 20.9, Normal Lut Gholein, aided by Tylena the fire rogue (soon to change) [/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I couldn't resist: I am in, much to the detriment of the other tournaments I am supposed to be playing at the moment. ;)

I decided to play a wind druid -- a build that has always seemed compelling to me but that I have never tried. Is that a good choice for this tournament? I have no idea, but we will find out.

Thus far I have been pumping cyclone armor and bashing things with this fun little toy that dropped early on:

Stoutnail
Spiked Club
One-Hand Damage: 10 to 16
Durability: 36 of 36
Required Level: 5
Mace Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0x8a6c00c9
+7 to Vitality
+100% Enhanced Damage
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
Attacker Takes Damage of 4
150% Damage to Undead

Andy is dead; Act 1 is complete. Play was pretty straightforward. No great charms, but lots of gems -- I have 9 chipped topazes in use and 7 in the stash. MF is 106% when I kill and 142% when the mercenary kills (I had already outfitted my merc in MF gear when the new rule was made). No particularly stunning finds because of it, though.

Skills:
Oak Sage (1), Carrion Vine (1), Cyclone Armor (9)

Stats:
103 Life, 70 free points

[highlight]Lifeless the Wind Druid, Level 20, Normal Lut Gholein, aided by a fire rogue (soon to change)[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I'd like to join as well. Teff will be an ES sorceress, if I survive that far.

Started out using a bow with 2 chipped emeralds and 1 chipped sapphire, before switching to full time spell casting after my rogue took the bow.
Before my rogue joined me, everything was easily killed with a combination of Ice Blast + kiting with bow (I actually never knew what ice blast did before this char, it's pretty awesome before GS), with the exception of Coldcrow. Separating her from her pack wasn't that hard. Just one tag-along that was killed with dodging + shooting. I tried doing the same thing to Coldcrow, but i had spammed about 10 iceblasts into her face before I realized they weren't doing much of anything. It ended up with Teff running around Coldcrow and static-ing like mad like her life depended on it (which it did). With only a sliver left, Teff shot one arrow to end the fight...I forgot about the nova, and it nearly killed Teff. First NDE of the game, and haven't even left Cold Plains yet. xD

[highlight]Teff, ES Sorc, lvl 12, Stony Field[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Ok, so maybe my early hopes of completing normal by the end of today (now Sunday in the rainy UK) are a bit far-fetched. More like the end of A3 if I'm lucky.

My drops have vastly improved, with these beauties from Ancient Kaa:
Code: 
Chance Guards
Chain Gloves
Defense: 27
Durability: 14 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 23
Fingerprint: 0xe16da69c
+23% Enhanced Defense
+25 to Attack Rating
+15 Defense
200% Extra Gold from Monsters
37% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Light Radius

I have also decided to not go for a pure Glass Cannon, as equipping equipment (!) had become a noghtmare with such low strength.

Also I had a major NDE due to my (ironically named) Combat merc - more pacifist than Ghandi - leaving me for a typical merc daydream/wander about whilst I was fighting Fangskin.
[highlight]EmperorMoo, FineFingers, lvl25, Canyon of The Magi[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

The GlassCannon shattered in the Maggot Lair at 20th level. Supposedly she was killed by a death beetle, but I'm not sure how it happened--things were going fine and all of a sudden her life globe drained. Her barbarian brother, GlassJaw, has decided to avenge her death. We'll see how far he gets...and how many more names I can think of that start with glass. :)

[highlight]JayeM, GlassJaw, Barbarian, Rogue Camp, 1[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Wakiki: I applaud you for the rules change, and I will phase out my Topaz equipment as soon as possible. It will make my current skill progression look kind of stupid as I haven`t put a point into kill spells yet:)

Just a small update as I`m in a little hurry:)

Uzumati had no problems clearing out act1 and Andariel rewarded him with a Topaz:) But the find of the session was definately in the Sewers, This is quite possibly the best gloves possible for a Werebear in this tournament, so one piece of endgame equipment down:)

Switching the act1 merc for a desert mercenary helped kill speed quite a lot, and Uzumati hasn`t killed a single monster in act2 so far. The Savage Lochaber Axe cubed for his merc didn`t exactly make things harder to kill:)

Some stats so far:
20 Lycanthropy, 1 Werewolf, 1 Feral Rage, 1 Werebear 1 Maul and 1 ShockWave
345 HP, muhahahahahha:)
180-ish MF without merc

I have decided to pump points into Fire Claws and synergies now, as it seems very unlikely I`ll be able to get decent AR in addition to a fast and high damaging weapon. Fire Claws has a decent AR bonus at least, and mostly rely on speed, so it will make things a lot easier. The plan is to pump Shockwave for a bit and rely on the merc for a while, so we`ll see what happens.

[highlight] Thomh, Uzumati, Druid, Fireclaws, Far Oasis, lvl 24[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well I continued advancing and with my 2 newly found uniques I got some lifeboost, Soutnail (7 vitality) and Umbral Disk (20 life), this also allowed me to get max block... Also found a rare throw axe with replenish and some other nice mods... will save for future use... Found what might be a godly low level necro head... 3 to skellies, 2 to mastery and 1 to amp dmg... lvl r 6... oh if I was a necro...
Next step Andy... I will be taking her at p7 to maximize drops

[highlight] Kratos, Barb, Cats lvl 2, lvl 20[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Deeds.

A simple loss of concentration for a couple of seconds got me flash-mobbed and separated from my escape portal. I didn't even get a chance to take any juves. At least I'd muled off the chancies I found earlier before entering.

[highlight]EmperorMoo, FineFingers (RIP), lvl31 Strafeazon, Chaos Sanctuary[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Found arctic furs early on, and used it ever since.

Countess dropped a Nef, which turned out to be useful later on, when I used the chippy recipe on a couple of short battle bows in Act 2 until I got something with 2os, 48% ed, and +3 max damage. I Nef'd it, but haven't used the other slot yet. (Considering a Tir rune, to help with strafe's mana cost.)

Trying a trick I'd used against Andy once or twice back when I played 1.07, I amassed 100% poison length reduction. It didn't quite work like I remembered, but that, a few %res, and an antidote potion made it pretty easy to tank her poison.

Gained level 24 in the maggot lair, giving me access to decoy, so I killed off my merc, then promptly avenged her. :cry:

However, strafe is expensive, and decoy even more so, so my kill speed actually dropped a bit.

Fangskin was a royal pain, and supplied several NDEs. I probably shouldn't have taken him on at /p5, but I did, and despite my knockback and good damage, I couldn't stop them from coming up the hallway. After the first NDE, I ducked up the stairs and went to town for some shopping. I came back with a bone shield of deflection and a scepter of carnage, and ducked back down with expectations of imminent death. Surrounded by Fangskin, one surviving minion, and tons of skeletons, I whacked Fangskin once, got hit by lightning that took out almost half of my life, drank a red, and whacked him again. Bad idea. The second lightning bolt dropped me to a still visible but uncomfortably small sliver.

So I ran, screaming in terror, back up the stairs and went to town for more red potions. And to calm down a bit.

I settled into more or less of a routine after that, ducking down the stairs, hitting something, running back up the stairs to heal, and then back down. The skeletons helped a ton, since they couldn't hit me (10% chance to hit me + 75% blocking + 2 points in dodge + their low damage = not a threat), but they could keep Fangskin and his minion off of me, most of the time. Things went pretty smoothly, except that one time I got knocked sideways by Fangskin, away from the stairs. I made it back, but if I hadn't, it would have been game over.

[highlight]Shatterproof, Strafer, about to enter the palace, lvl 24[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

RIP FineFingers

Duriel`s drop with 260% MF @players8 (i took off all the MF from merc as soon as I read about the change of rules - before clearing most of the tombs).
As you can see the fight wasn`t hard at all - a shopped wand with +1 life tap made sure my merc was always at full health and lvl 11 bone spear with 16 points in synergies made a short work of him.:smug:

The act seemed easier than previous - probably because EMB already has most of his endgame spells, which keep him very safe and kills fast as long as I dont mess something up (like casting a bone wall in a wrong place and trapping him in a cage together with monsters which happened a few time - but hopefully my skills improve slowly:))

Mummies that revive skeletons? Dim vision them. Lightning enchanted anything or beetles? Bone wall between me and the bad guys. Huge groups of monsters that I cant deal with instantly? Bone wall all over the place, retreat a bit and bone spear them to death. Anything that deals physical damage? Might as well forget about them - with 270 damage absorbing Bone Armor they cant really hurt me. A very versatile caster build. :yes:

Quite a few S/Us dropped through the act (p8 & more then 200% MF all the way) - this was one of the best MF moments. 2 sets and a unique from a single boss back looks quite amazing. The ring was angelic - coupled with amulet (I don`t have it yet) those would give almost 100 life - something worth considering.

Charms with life seem to do all the best they can to avoid me - I`ve only found 1 GC (11 life), 1 LC (8 life) and not a single SC with life.

The LCS after entering act3.

[highlight]nermind, EatMyBones, bonemancer, Kurast Docks, lvl 28[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

ancalagon the black said:
So I ran, screaming in terror, back up the stairs and went to town for more red potions. And to calm down a bit.
Click to expand...


:doh:

You might enjoy the struggle(or even the panic :whistling:) of making it even harder for yourself but the decoy is not classed as a summons, as far as I understand it, for this event.



 
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