The Certain Death Tournament.

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

SAfter the smoke had cleared I spotted this on the floor. Since it turned out to be +2 zon skills, Soapie will probably use it once she has enough strength.
I was a bit scared of Diablo and decided to spawn him at /p3. As it turned out the fight was rather easy. The Valk managed twice to get near enough to him so that the lightning hose couldn't hurt her.
His drop was even more incredible than the valk wings :smug:

Great finds, but the question is: Did the +10 to strength let you use the wings?

Ulla


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@ cenyth - thanks man thats where it was.

Well to start things off, VikingJohn is dead.:whistling:

How did this happen ? possibly one of the lamest deaths ever.
He died due to my inability to press escape and pay attention at the same time (hear me out on this one :D)

Someone called so i went to pick up the phone, i paused the game (atleast i thought i did) and went away.
When i came back.. dead barbarian (pretty damn anticlimatic right ?).
Well i looked at it the positive way and took it as a sign to not play a conc barb.
The tournament is too fun though to not enter again.

So on to my next entry (im going through them fast :D)

Wallerina the firewall/thunderstorm sorc. (with some points in e-shield)

Wallerina went out of the rogue camp with her trusty +1 firebolt stick and started to whack away with it (wondering why she took all that time and effort to become a sorceress in the first place)
Though firebolt is potentially a decent starter demon-fry spell, it is much more fun to beat them up with the stick while you still can.
First stat points went to str (for the ringmail) and all skillpoints into the prereqs in the fire and lightning trees.

She then proceeded to improvise her way through act one (using a mixture of static field,frost armor,telekinesis,nova,inferno and the good old "hit them with the pointy end")
Since static field is awesome( i cant stress this enough, static field is awesome!), all it took for blood raven and her army were some static field casts and 1-2 infernos (shock em then fry em)

By the time the sorceress and her red-armored friend reached the tree of inifuss there were 5 chipped topazes blinking in her armor.
After making sure the area was free of demon spawn (did i mention static field is awesome?) she beamed back to the rogue camp and went on to tristam.

One could consider this tristram run as a test for the newly learned lighning spell. After burning everything to the ground, we noticed and old man hanging in a cave in the middle of the freshly hosed-down town (how the heck did he survive both this long time hanging in the middle of nowhere with bloodlusted demons all around him, AND wallerinas psychopatic lightning onslaught?)
Quite an impressive feat to say the least, so wallerina lets the guy down and opens a portal for him.
Back in town he tells a story of some hero who eventually turned mad and burned tristram to the ground (wait, didnt i just do that too?..oh well)

After a quick visit to charsi (for repairing her gear and the usual malus story), wallerina went to gheed to gamble away all the gold she had been saving, resulting in a +8% magic find pair of gloves (hell yeah! -.-)

deciding to take a break before venturing further, i hereby end this update.

rip vikingjoe lvl 17 conc barb (without even having conc yet har-har), the outter gates.
new entry -> Wallerina lvl 15 firewall/thunderstorm sorc, the black marsh.
(and yes, i know my spelling is terrible :D)
Oh, and static field is awesome!
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Morathi - condolences on Iago's demise. To get that far with Melee and bugger all life. My hat's off to you

Wakiki - it's good to be back, albeit frustrating that I haven't made it past Diablo with any characters thus far.

Jezabelle the Javazon, or should I say Axezon atm, since she has done all her killing with a nice little axe she found with lightening and poison damage, has reached the Dark Wood. Her questing has been uneventful so far but she is yet to take on Raskinishi at the stones or Woodfist Treefist for the scroll, or whatever the hulking beast is called. Apologies for the ignorance of monsters names - makes me sound like a noob.
Anyway, I might have a chance to get back on Jezabelle tonight with any luck and make my way through to Andy

Jezabelle, Javazon, Level 12, Dark Wood
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

The tournament is too fun though to not enter again.
So true.

@UllaV Tgods has a str req of 110 and gives +20 str. So Valkwings were not really the problem. Luckily I had stashed away 2 +5str lcs and then made a 3sox crown with 3 normal amethysts (I use gomule rather excessively, so I have plenty of gems of every quality and type).
In short: I used the strength bug. Shame on me. :whistling: I'm putting points in str now though.

I also continued playing a bit in A5. To prepare (i.e. level up as much as possible) for (possibly) Hell, I upped the setting to /p7 and have been clearing more thoroughly than before.
Fighting in the early open areas was rather interesting, since my Valk had apparently decided that she had suffered enough and tried everything to get SoapBubble into the line of fire. No real Ndes though (the 20frw from valks sure was handy).
Additionally in the Arreat Plateau a Unique Ring dropped. Considering my insane luck so far, what do you think it could be?
No, it's neither soj nor ravenfrost. But it's still pretty good.

The last thing I did was the Frozen River. Gloams were plenty.
At one point 8-10 lightning bolts intersected in Soapbubble.

It was bad.

I nearly had to take a healing potion :cloud9:

(Thank you, tgods)

Most astonishingly Anya provided a decent weapon for once. The Result.

I want to reach NM Cows quite badly.


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I want to reach NM Cows quite badly.

LOL!

Congrats on your finds.

My bad: I totally missremembered the requirements & values of TGW, sorry.

I personally want to have both Ravenfrost & Dwarf Star on almost every character I play. Add String of Ears or TGW. If I have The Rising Sun then exchange Dwarf Star to Wisp Protector and make the belt String of Ears. But these are pipe dreams almost always.

Ulla


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Hadriela has destroyed everything in every corner of NM Act 2 (at Players 7). There’s not much to say about her battles (her Frozen Orb continued to dominate everything) . . . so I’ll try not to bore you with the details. General strategy continued to be getting the merc to take the lead (through directed teleporting), opening doors using Telekinesis, and dodging everything (ground breaking stuff eh)?

There really weren’t any close calls (because she dodged everything) but there were plenty of monsters that could have meant deeds. Hadriela encountered Mana Burning Monsters early and often. I didn’t take any screenshots at the time but there were three unique Slingers outside of Lut Gholein . . . all had mana burn . . . one was cursed, one was extra strong, one had multiple shots :shocked: . . . very scary but Hadriela got the merc to take the lead and dodged the remaining errant missiles (so no big deal . . . that’s pretty much how the rest of NM Act 2 played out). Scary stuff a plenty but pretty easy to avoid. The one thing that really couldn’t always be avoided was the lightning bolts coming from the beetles (fortunately the energy shield absorbed most of the damage and a greater mana potion pretty much made it as though the damage didn’t even exist :thumbup: ). There was one really scary lightning beetle that got the merc (that was unusual) . . the unique beetle had conviction and was cursed :crazyeyes: . . . I thought I got a screenshot of it but sadly no . . .

Okay onto the good stuff! . . the drops! However, before I talk about NM Act 2 I’d like to remind you that NM Act 1 had been really stingy towards Hadriela. Hadriela had been pulling for a four socketed sword, a four socketed partizan, a Sol Rune, and an Amn Rune (and only got the four socketed partizan and the Amn Rune . . . so no Spirit or Insight). NM Act 2 started appearing that it was going to be more of the same. Hadriela found a useless Sigon’s Armor in the Sewers followed by a Dark Clan Crusher and a Flesh Render (okay those would have made Iago happy but do nothing for Hadriela) and then a great drop! Kelpie Snare! . . which topped Azrael’s Partizan Malice in every way (and may even be better than a Partizan Insight . . . I’m still not sure . . . but I still don’t have a Sol Rune so it really doesn’t matter at this point). Soon after finding the Kelpie Snare Hadriela found a nice rare orb that was about as close to a Spirit as Hadriela could get (without finding that elusive four socketed sword). Then in the Maggot Lair Hadriela found her first four socketed sword! . . but it was eth (curse you D2 drop god)! The good news was a Tal Rune dropped next to the eth four socketed sword and was crafted into Hadriela’s first blood belt (not too amazing but considering she was only after plus life . . . not bad at all). Hadriela’s next big find came in the Palace when a four socketed sword dropped (not eth)! . . So at long last Hadriela was finally able to create a Spirit (not a really good roll but still a great item). And if you were paying really close attention to the last screenshots you would have noticed that Hadriela’s armor and helm had changed to a three ptopaz Great Helm and four ptopaz full plate armor (the one thing that NM Act 1 had been good for was gem shrines and considering that three of my other tournament characters crashed and burned with a stash full of ptopaz’s I decided that this time I was going to use them for sure)! So next up was the Arcane Sanctuary, where Hadriela’s newly found 210 MF turned up zero set/uniques but an Io Rune did drop. The False Tombs were much better for mfing and there were numerous useless drops until this dropped in the fourth false tomb. A Shaftstop! (my new favorite item of the tournament)! Hadriela cleared out the other false tombs and then returned to normal to create Hadriela’s Shaftstop before entering the true tomb.

The true tomb was cleared with ease and all too soon Duriel was facing a level 60 Frozen Orb Sorceress with a Kelpie Snare toting merc (there wasn’t a battle it was a massacre)! Duriel dropped a pretty nice item (considering that Duriel seldom drops anything nice and that Hadriela was once again at a lowly 114 MF . . . the four socketed ptopaz full plate armor was so very short lived . . . but performed oh so very well)! Other random set/uniques included: Milabrega’s Shield, another Isenhart’s Helm, a Nokozan Amulet, Vidala’s Boots, Stormguild, and Milabrega’s Armor. Also, I can’t use them yet because of the resistances restriction but checkout these rare boots that Hadriela gambled! . . those might be the best tri-resistance mf boots I’ve ever found . . . maybe . . . oh great D2 drop god I apologize for ever doubting you!

Here were Hadriela’s stats at the end of NM Act 2.

(Note, at the end of NM Act 2 Hadriela has 398 life! . . she only had 198 life at the end of NM Act 1 . . . pretty sweet! :alright: )

[highlight]Hadriela, Frozen Orb/TK, NM Kurast Docks, Level 60[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

If you don't want to sound as noob you can use this source to check the monster names. That's what I do if I don't remember.

Ulla

Thanks Ulla. I had forgotten all about the Arreat Summit; I used to refer to it all the time. Thanks for the reminder


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@ hanshotfirst

Woah thats some very nice drops youre getting (especially the shaftstop, 30% dmg reduce coupled with a decent health-pool and ES is awesome) just make sure you dont die now that you have the means to survive :D

Is it btw possible to have 2 spirits ? (one in weap one in shield), i will need to get the runeword mod to work soon. (my countess just dropped an el -.-.. but anyway)

Not much of an update, but Wallerina has slaughtered everything in the black marsh & the forgotten tower.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Hans. OMG! Iago is eyeing that Flesh Render with jealous eyes right now. That was the highest weapon on his wishlist. Its such a great weapon for a melee character, especially one that attacks very fast. The mods on that thing make me drool!Too bad he is Iago is now with his brother Drake, playing in the heavens.

BTW, great drops indeed! Kelpie Snare and Shaftstop are awesome finds!

Good luck in Act 3!



I am still undecided as to whether or not i will be re-joining this tournament. I am struggling to think of a build that i haven't tried yet hahaha! I need more time to plan and ponder before i make my decision. However its likely that I will be returning, I have to revenge Iago and Drake afterall, don't I?
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Is it btw possible to have 2 spirits ? (one in weap one in shield), i will need to get the runeword mod to work soon. (my countess just dropped an el -.-.. but anyway)

Yes it is, but except for pallys, lowest 4os shield is monarch which needs 156 strength to wear and they don't drop before Hell. Although you can socket one yourself earlier if you find a monarch of high enough ilvl.

Ulla


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Yes it is, but except for pallys, lowest 4os shield is monarch which needs 156 strength to wear and they don't drop before Hell.

Ouch 156 strength is quite a bit for a sorc.
I guess ill just have to hope for a lidless wall drop (if i even get that far that is) though i am quite comfortable with sorc survivability.


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@MOOsaccre: 156 str isn't so much if you have all those stat pts to burn with nothing in vitality!

@Hans: Nice finds!:thumbsup:

As for me...
Britta completed act 2 last night, finishing the big slug off with traps an BF while trusty Waheed taking Duriel's blows.

It's still early in Britta's career, so there were no real surprises or NDE's thus far. Once she got a couple of levels into LS she could take out most things early if it seemed unwise just to charge ahead. By the time Britta cleared all the false tombs the mana potions dropped faster than she used them up so the LS was used constantly. BF is still doing well too as the quick speed and a bit of extra elemental dmg from charms allow her to take down most critters quickly even with the Gull equipped. I expect that will change quickly though, and BF to be more of a way to spread the OW goodness.

After a relative cruise through the rest of the act I still expected Duriel to be a bit of a problem with how hard he can hit, but it turned out that the Halberd of the locust that I had cubed for Waheed him allowed him to leech back enough life to tank very easily. Even at p8 it didn't take that long for Duriel to go down, but then, his drop wasn't anything to write home about either.

Most interesting finds for the act: Angelic armor × 2, duskdeep, crushflange, gleamscythe, Hsaru's belt (+20 life!, not used yet, but tempting), Isenhart's helm
a couple of rares, belt gambled, ring from Summoner (I think):
Code:
Bramble Fringe
Plated Belt
Defense: 13
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Level: 12
Required Strength: 60
Fingerprint: 0x24bfb569
Item Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+1 to Strength
+26 Maximum Stamina
15% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +19%
17% Faster Hit Recovery

Havoc Eye
Ring
Required Level: 13
Fingerprint: 0xac81de7d
Item Level: 18
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+17 to Attack Rating
+3 to Minimum Damage
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
Fire Resist +25%
Poison Resist +24%
Her MF is pretty good for act 2 normal, with Gull, 3 chippy armor, 22 MF ammy, 13 MF ring, 24 MF gloves.... hopefully the drops will continue to be good with that bit of help!

[highlight] Britta, lvl 28 trapsin, Kurast Docks, normal[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

[highlight]Lurz, lvl 20 summoning Druid, Lut Gholein[/highlight]

Just finished taking down Andariel. I get the impression this is going to be one slow character, and somewhat dangerous (ultimately it will be one fully synergised bear, a vine, and a handful of ravens between me and insta-death). Should have gone a cookiemancer...

My gear thus far is not even worth mentioning. Ultimately I hope I luck on either Vipermagi or Spirit Shroud, Sigon's shield, a +3 summoning pelt, a +3 summoning club, and a +3 summoning ammy. I see some gambling in my future.

My only find of note thus far is a pair of Hotspurs, which are of course nigh on unequippable in Normal difficulty.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@UllaV At least you knew what a unique war belt is. I thought it was Snow Clash when I made the screenshot... Accordingly I was quite happy with what I found in my inventory :cloud9:

@Han Congrats on that Shaftstop. I'd like one too, please ;)


First up, some random finds from NM:
1) Nice Blizz orb (for untwinked play at least).
2) There's got to be a nec build for this knife.

Well, from my last post you might have guessed that Act 5 NM was a lot of fun and astonishingly easy.
Even the Souls in the Throne only tickled a bit. Non LI monsters were annihilated in a heartbeat due to lvl 28 Fury and fast javelins.
Ancients (on /p1) were not a problem (as expected). The WSK was also not that hard. One level had charging skeletons that hit Soapie for 90% of her life in one charge. Luckily the exit was soon found.
The Throne had Souls, Vipers and Assailants (Kaiko's doom). But this time no one waited at the stairs (or even anywhere near).
The waves were obviously no problem, since they spawn perfectly for a few quick fury throws.
For Baal I dropped to /p3. Again Fury was my weapon of choice (due to the cbf from rhyme). Soapie never was in any danger. The drop.
Also: Novel way to prevent cold feet.
In the WSK the third unique ring dropped. Guess what it is this time?
Only a 4ml manald this time (already have a 5ml one).
Runes were still scarce. Only Shaels were plenty (6 or 7 in total). At least the first Sol dropped in the Halls of Pain.

Cows were a massacre (at /p7), as expected. I still had a pretty bad nde when I tried to herd as much cows as possible together for some cool screenshots and nearly got trapped between two huge groups (and hit a few times).
Afterwards I sobered up. So, no screenshots, but also no deeds. Fair trade imho.
No spectacular drops. A Pus Spitter and Soapie's first Io.

Stay tuned for the next update when I reveal my insane equipment choices for Hell :thumbup:

[highlight]Conqueror SoapBubble, LFStrafezon, level 73.99, Rogue Encampment Hell[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Great progress, everybody! Keep it up!:thumbup:

Fishyzon stood somewhat away from battle for the vast majority of the remainder of Act 2. Harem, Arcane Sanctuary, Valley of the Magi, and false tombs. Yay, a belt with +Life and halfway decent resists! Duriel was doubled up on. Charged Strike helped own him something fierce. And, contrary to my hopes and predictions, I ended Act 2 at Level 28. Thanks, total absence of Experience Shrines!

Pratham stuck with Fishyzon through the initial parts of Act 3, until she hit level 30 immediately before entering the Flayer Dungeon. Point in Valkyrie, point in Frozen Arrow, point in Lightning Fury. Live well Pratham! Hello Elexa. And, yes, I would like you to walk into this mob of dolls completely naked....

I regretted going the Valk route almost immediately. She does no damage, so I lose the awesome MF of the Gull. But that's fine. No, the main irking is the fact that I have to fill the inventory with mana potions before triapsing out and CSing/LFing things to death. She's an alright tank, don't get me wrong, but (as I learned) is absolutely woeful against super-uniques and act bosses thanks to the ridiculous bonus damage they deal...and I don't have Mana as is thanks to the hoggish nature of my main attacks. Topping all that off is the fact that I can't synergize her to to the maximum (or at all, really) because I'm dumping 80 points into my main attacks (Cold/Frozen Arrows, Charged Strike/Lightning Fury). Maybe she'll get better come NM/Hell and with some +Skills under my belt, but right now...blegh.

Anyway, Flayer Dungeon was cleared successfully (if slowly...friggin' mana troubles). Kurast was entered (thank you thank you thank you for spawning Thrashers!) and the looting began in earnest. Starting with this. Ohhhhh, yes. Then this showed up in the Bazaar. Not the Nokozan Relic, surprisingly, but Eye of Etlich. The +1 to skills is nice but the other mods are mediocre at best.

In the Sewers I grabbed this old standby and Fishyzon felt a strange pang of loss and an affinity for a man named "ATheragorn" or something. Aside from the regular trips to town to top off the manafont, the Sewers were cleared in safety, despite dolls' presence.

When entering Travincal through the Causeway, please be sure to remain mindful of traffic you come across at the small temples. Heckuva stairtrap, guys. Travincal proper gave up this. Hmm...I already had the amulet, but I really didn't want to trade my halfway decent rare short battle bow for mediocre damage and 50% MF...right? Especially since CS and LF were my go-to skills. It was stashed nevertheless. The first Council Member I dropped gave up some exemplary boots that I immediately put on. I'll trade 5% MF for sweet lightning resist footgear that'll stick around until Act 5.

My first of the aforementioned superunique troubles came in the form of Bremm. The valk just would not survive against the releasing of bolts (thank Ahura Mazda he had Holy Freeze as the aura) and his 50% LR made CS a much slower method of killing. FA could be forgotten, since it was an even huger manahog. Eventually he fell, as did Mephisto. CS worked its magic to the fullest; the valk only had to be recast three times.

Into Act 4, where Finger Mages or Burning Souls dwelled, in every single area! Yep, their lightning resist made Frozen Arrow a necessity in some places (like, say, when uniques spawned Lightning Immune!) but mostly Lightning Fury saw me through. The Flesh Spawners and their brood got the same treatment, and I spent a long time shopping something--ANYTHING--with the "of Propogation" suffix to avoid running back to town every seven minutes. Finally got some regular ol' javelins with the affix. Mana replenishing was less an issue until the big D because potions flew out left and right. See? Hellforge!

Theeeen Diablo. Ye gods, ye gods. He's what made me regret once and for all and finally my opting for Valk. She would die if he sneezed on her...nay, looked at her! Fire ring? There goes a third of her life. Firestorm? Dead. Lightning hose? Dead. Regular physical attacks? Dead in two, three hits provided Dodge didn't smile upon her. And I needed her to tank for me. Oh, and Valkyrie cost 25 of my (then) 66 Mana, and it has a timer, and he never went after my Decoys (which cost 15 Mana and lasted all of 10 seconds anyhow), and I was going through Mana like a beast trying to kill him with Charged Strike. And you can't feed her potions! Many, many, MANY NDEs after he killed the Valk and started hosing after me. Or stuck me in Bone Prison and hosed at me. Or stuck me in Bone Prison as I avoided Firestorm. Or stuck me in a Bone Prison while the valk was timer'd out. Or did anything other than charge. Diablo was hell, hell, hell, as totally befits one of the Prime Evils.

Oh, and did I mention I had to return to town a LOT to buy mana potions?

He eventually toppled, though. And what a drop!:jig: Another piece of Vidala's set, Hsaru's boots (to go with the belt) Sigon's Belt (!!!)! Fishyzon put on Sigon's and reveled in her extra potions. Smooth sailing up through the Ancients, for sure. LF will own Gremlin mobs like nobody's business and CS will tear down Frenzytaurs now that the Valkyrie can actually tank again...in theory.

[highlight]Fishyzon, Fishyzon, Level 35, Harrogath[/highlight]

I really regret going Valkyrie, at least right now. Hopefully come NM/Hell the health boost will help her out, and I'll get some +Passive skills somewhere on my equipment. We shall see!
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Alfonso:

Eye of etlich actually has a really good mod -- it has a hidden 4-10 sec (IIRC) cold duration. That gets nerfed in NM and again in hell, but you get at least one extra second of freeze time even in hell.

Sorry that valk isn't working out for you. With lots of skill points in her she's a beast, but with your build you don't really have the points to spare. 'Peace' armor would give a CtC level 15 valk, which won't poof since you have a hard point in it.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

As i was contemplating weather or not i would re-join this tournament. I decided to take a look at the table, just for inspiration, to see where everyone stands and which builds seem to fair better than others. What caught my fancy was the fact that there is NOT ONE ALIVE BARBARIAN IN THIS TOURNAMENT!

I was surprised but not shocked. Given the tourney rules, i can see why people would stay clear away from the Barb. However IMO, i can see some good potential, with the right kind of build of course.

So introducing, my 9000th character (no not really but its close!), Blake the undecided Barbarian. He heard the demise of his cousins Drake and Iago and was determined to try to and revenge their deaths.

I say undecided for Blake, because i have so many ideas right now, i can't assign a specific build to him. I am tossing up between either a Zerker/Thrower/Single Thrower/Conc/or some kind of other vairent. I am going to let it pan out and see which is the best option to take.

[highlight]Blake the Barbarian (Undecided), Level 1, Normal Rogue Camp, life = 55[/highlight]

PS. Wakiki. Does this put me with the most attempts for this tournament?
 
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