The Certain Death Tournament.

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Go go Enchilada!

Fire it up! Fire it up! Fire it up!

Sorry, it's been a long holiday ... :crazyeyes:

OT:
These dropped. The first is a nearly wonderful failed unique, the second is used for pre-buffing the Valk (it's a thing I do) ...

Code: 
Fiend Cowl
Circlet
Defense: 60
Durability: 81 of 105
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0x81a6407a
+19 to Life
+95% Enhanced Defense
+7 to Maximum Damage
Fire Resist +29%
Lightning Resist +7%
Cold Resist +7%
Poison Resist +7%
20% Faster Cast Rate

Wraith Horn
Circlet
Defense: 52
Durability: 30 of 35
Required Level: 30
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 46
Fingerprint: 0xb065c670
+68% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +17%
Attacker Takes Damage of 6
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Passive and Magic Skills (Amazon Only)
Level 2 Holy Bolt (6/25 Charges)
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

A quick update:

I finally decided to dump some points in Warcry for the extended duration so that is up to slvl10 now. Things are much safer now (I still need to avoid that overconfidence problem).

DeadTwo got a nice upgrade in the life charm department - his new rugged large charm of sustance has +21 life (the previous was +15) / +32 max stamina. He is getting close to 700 life post BO and MF is still over 250. As of level 64, he has 20 spare skill points which may well get spread between Berserk and Mace Mastery later on.

One of Bremm's buddies dropped Hawkmail #2 and a unique ammy. I'm always excited when IDing green or gold ammys before the inevitable Vidala's / Nozokan's pops up. Anyway, it was a new one on me, Crescent Moon, but it looks pretty useless for this tourney. Sure, the (huge) mana leech is nice, but +life is much more important.

And I accidentally took Mephy on p8. That was meant to be p3, silly. Occasionally Azrael would stroll away in the middle of the battle and Meph would turn his attention on DeadTwo. Was that really necessary mate? This made things more exciting than they needed to be. I got some use out of the malice morning star, taking Meph's defence down.

I haven't got a screeny of the drop, but it included a couple of minor greens: Civerb's shield (#2) and something unmemorable. No wait, I've got it - a Cathan's rule.

I missed the temples from Upper Kurast and the Causeway but with the longer stun from Warcry I'm going to do them before starting act 4. Still, please note me down as... (;))

[HIGHLIGHT]DeadTwo and Azrael, Level 64 BO Barb and Might Desert Guard, Pandemonium Fortress[/HIGHLIGHT]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

WitherBow is a Destroyer! That's two for two for me, both my HC characters have managed to beat Normal. :)

The Cows were kind and gave me Vidala's Ambush Leather Armour and The Cow King's Hooves Heavy Boots (a grailer for me).

Highlighted info:
Resists: 50, 45, 48, 33
Normal AR: 2142
Normal Dam: 111-222

Skills:
Bow: CA 7, IA 7, FA 1, MA 1, MS 9
P&M: IS/SM/Decoy 1, Valk 5, D/A/E 1, CS 5, Pen 10, Pierce 5

Valk is pre-buffed to Lvl 8 (well worth it)

Str 59 (61)
Dex 156
Vit 20
Nrg 30

Life 244

MF 152 (200 with a 2 pTopaz Helmet)

The girl now gets a well-earned rest!

[highlight]WitherBow, MS/FA Bowazon, Level 47, Rogue Encampment (Nightmare)[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Oh oh oh!

When it first dropped, I couldn't even remember what it was, but I snapped a screen shot anyway... because well, lets face it, I take screen shots of everything.
A bit later I remembered what it was (Haemosu's Adamant Cuirass) and started thinking "Hey... doesn't that have quite a lot of life on it?... And there is no rule about Sets with +life!"

+75 life, that's like 1 free mistake!

Old armour going away.
New armour strapped on.
'Radiance' Crown (for another +10 vit).
Ring & Amulet swapped. Read Anya's scroll, and removed some charms to bring the resists back down to 50 or less.

All dressed up with an extra 135 life. It's not enough, but it's a start.

Anyway, I was really excited about the new armour, so wanted to show it off!

Also, did I mention that I found another Kelpie Snare? What the heck am I supposed to do with 2 of them?

-hps
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

LozHinge the Unhinged said:
Go go Enchilada!

Fire it up! Fire it up! Fire it up!
Click to expand...

Yes, Sir! Enchilada fired it up but good :yes:
(also, gieb those cow king boots!)

First off there was the trivial matter of getting to level 18. For once, Cain was nice enough to provide some help.
The big moment was at hand in the barracks, due to a unique+champion pack of shamans (p7 so far).
Enchilada put her first point in Enchant and equipped her FLAMING SWORD OF AWESOMENESS.

Well, some rare sword she had just picked up.

Anyways, blinded by her might the legions of evil trembled and lost all hope. Reportedly even Big D was seen looting the CS for some Fire 'sorb gear.

For fairness sake, it was deemed appropriate to drop to /p5. The additional exp from p7 would have made things to easy.
I also dumped a point in Frost Nova for humanitarian reasons. Hapless cuddly mobs were always running up too fast and right into the FSOA. An appalling security risk for them.
In a similar vein, static field was often used, so no one would have to feel the burning touch of the FSOA more than once.

The Rogue Merc got a bit bored, so she was allowed to kill some prestigious foes with her flaming arrows of not-quite-as-awesomeness (not even worthy of caps).

Of course the wielder of the FSOA needs no further equipment. Accordingly she was not overly bothered when the first chipped topaz dropped in the Dark Wood and finally the fifth in the cats.

Interlude: Cool early game BF Weapon and an unusual shrine.

Now the only thing in A1 not having committed suicide or emigrated out of fear of the FSOA was Andariel.
Enchilada of course met her in single combat.

The result was no surprise.
Andariel was even kind enough to provide the new FLAMING SWORD OF EVEN-MORE-AWESOMENESS.

To cool off a bit, Enchilada also ventured into the Lut Gholein Sewers. Being a bit superstitious, she hired a guy to pray for her and - for a laugh - set his walking stick on fire. All those burned corpses weigh heavy on her kind soul.
Radament of course stood no chance (but who could when faced with the new FSOEMA?).


Hp_Sauce said:
+75 life, that's like 1 free mistake!
Click to expand...
Or the entire life pool of Enchilada (ench'd+shiver armor) :thumbup:

[highlight]Enchilada, level 21, Enchantress, Dry Hills[/highlight]


 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Putting potions in the belt would be cheating, especially with such an easy character ;)
I think there is an old tournament thread where no healing whatsoever was allowed. In SC and several stages though. Can't remember how I found it. Possibly someone in this thread linked to it.
Edit: I was thinking of another tournament, but this one also fits the bill. The Certain Death restrictions wouldn't exactly make things easier...
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

jian, thanks for the attract information. As I suspected, bosses probably ignore the curse. Dim Vision is better for crowd control. Attract is better for power killing with Amp/CE, but not as useful for tournaments. Well, there is one big difference: Attract is a better one-point-wonder than DV.

c_b, ouch, I hate that bug. You know you can reset it by restarting your game right?

Docturnal, welcome back and good luck!

kav, nice updates and screenshots. I guess leveling up removes and reapplies BO?

Kretschmer, welcome to the tournament sir! Cyclone Armor is a wise choice. I'd consider making a damage reduction (i.e. pray for Sol runes) build to augment Cyclone Armor.

Drystan, nice progress bro. I totally agree about the snowballing effect of MF. Another thing is that while wearing MF is a bigger risk now, it increases your chances of getting farther later. With MF, we might die in Act 3 NM, but if we don't, we might get the gear to get to Act 3 Hell. If we wear no MF, we might be sealing our fate in Act 1 Hell with worse items. This is theorizing, of course, and there is the randomness to take into account. Someone with 30 MF might find that one item that carries them to Guardianship while someone with 250 might find many more sets and uniques, but not the useful ones. In the long run though, I like this analysis.

Loz, congrats on reaching Nightmare yet again.

Hp, you need to dual wield those Kelpie's. ;) Nice Cuirass by the way. If you don't find anything better before Hell, you might want to even socket that with an +life or other useful jewel, Io rune (if you can't think of anything better to do with it), topaz or whatever. (No rubies of course. Sadly. ;)) Although, a crafted blood armor might be the best way to go. Hmmm.

scr, RIP to Becalmed (I'm still thinking of that song haha) and thanks for rejoining. What an underpowered character choice! Love it! Bet ya can't wait to get your hands on a Steel Flail! Enchantresses are such a fun class because you just need weapon speed and range and all other mods are gravy.

Now to update the table. At this point I'm pretty sure this tournament has more entrants than the No Vitality tournament. I'm too lazy to count, but here's the last table from that one. That one has alot less dead players and more Guardians than this one though, heh. ;)
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Hp_Sauce said:
You know the game is a lot easier if you carry potions in your belt.
Click to expand...

:grin:
That comment was pure gold!




When Morte was cleaning up in Kurast Bazaar, he found a Resist Poison Shrine. I like those when it´s time to enter temples that might be infested with spiders. I decided to take on the Bazaar temples, after all. They are usually the least dangerous of the temples - there are no beetles, no snakes, no archers and no bats.

First temple had en empty entrance room, but I soon found myself juggling DV on monsters from two directions. To speed up spider killing, I usually Decrepified the closest one. Being poison proof, Morte could tank a regular spider without problems. I managed to secure enough fighting space that even an LE spider boss wasn´t too hard to fight safely.

Ruined Temple was worse - much worse. It was the left-facing 'T-formation'. I Dimmed an intial melee rogue pack and they got killed, along with some regular vampires. But before I could secure any of the side rooms (I like to do that so I can set up an escape portal there in advance) I had woken up some of Sarina´s pack, including the *****y One herself. LE...ouch!
Alright, time to park her in a side room for now. Oops, a pack of Wailing Beasts has set up camp in that room, and Sarina is hot on my heels! TP out NOW.

Back from entrance, I threw out a DV and rushed towards the other side room. Wailing Beasts here, too, blocking the doorway! This time, I made it out of this side branch, ran past Sarina and up the stairs.

OK...
What now?

Right, I think I need to make use of the big room. Draw Sarina in there, and park her in the back somewhere. That might be very dangerous, since I have no idea if there will be any more boss packs in there. At least there won´t be any spiders (I´ve seen all three monster types in the place now). Besides, it´s not like I have any other ideas I like more at the moment.

Down from stairs, DV, run past Sarina and into the big room. HUGE pack of Flesh Hunters (the majority of Sarina´s pack, plus a full 5-pack of regular rogues). They were so quick to run in and hit me, I didn´t even get a DV off. Bone Armor down, and now I am really on the run! By now, Iantha is dead. Must be Sarina´s work, mostly. I run into vampires in the back of the room, and they aim Meteors at me. That won´t do any good, since I don´t plan to stay in place...

The enormous mob chasing me is scary (I spot Sarina in the back, too), but I know what I have to do. Micro stop, so the rogues think they can hit me, then dash off and cast DV. YES, I made it! I can even recast Bone Armor before Sarina catches up. Tempt fate with her, set up a TP and get out. Finally! Of the eight full rejuves I had in the belt, there are only two left now...

Once I had cleaned up the front rooms, I set up an escape portal in the upper side room. When it was time to take on Sarina, things didn´t go perfectly, but well enough. Sarina was already quite hurt when Morte and Iantha barricaded themselves in the escape room, using Bone Walls and Prisons. The LE bolts hurt the prison segements fast. Our last defense line broke and I was about to enter the portal. But an arrow from Iantha did Sarina in.

After this adrenaline-inducing temple, I had a nice relaxing clearance of Upper Kurast, the Causeway and the Sewers. Although the Boss + Champ pack of Heirophants on the Causeway took me a long long time to kill, since they kept healing each other. I had to wait for them to separate themselves a bit, take them from long range (so the ones in the back couldn´t see us), distract them with Bone Walls/Prisons, Decrep them to slow them down, namelock with Bone Spirit, etc.


Now, how the heck am I going to be able to take on the four other temples when the time comes? Any suggestions (other than to try to get as much +life gear as the rules will allow)?


[Highlight]Destroyer Morte the Mojo/Bonemancer and Iantha the Cold Rogue, level 62, NM Travincal next[/Highlight]
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

jiansonz said:
Now, how the heck am I going to be able to take on the four other temples when the time comes? Any suggestions (other than to try to get as much +life gear as the rules will allow)?
Click to expand...

IMO stairtraps is where confuse excels. Shop a +3 confuse wand. Enter the temples with terror hotkeyed, cast that between you and the pack close to the pack's edge if there is one, then decrep them (to get the unconfusables) and then cast confuse. Try it outside first to see if it works! Good luck.


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I was going to suggest Attract instead of Confuse.

My experience of these spells is that Confuse causes random targetting by monsters (and you are just as likely to be hit as anything else) whereas Attract can take the sting out of the situation, as monsters will attack the Attractee, as long as it is not too much farther away than you are (from them). You need to be sure that your target for Attract is near the middle of the group you are facing, and not too close to you (or too far away from the group you want to avoid).
Attract won't work on an in-your-face, camping-on-the-stairs stair-trap (at least, it won't work quickly enough to save you), but it can really help if the monsters are a few strides away from the stairs.

The Terror suggestion is a good one, except I've had numerous occasions where the Terrored monsters ignore the AI and attack you anyway (perhaps because they are bouncing off each other and back onto you).

Once down the stairs, my preferred option is instant Decrepify (to give you a chance vs 1-hit kills), then "Terror" (if there's space for the mob to disburse and they are normal monsters), or Attract if there are normal/minion monsters and Champions mixed up, and "Cry like a Baby" if it's just Champions. Obviously, if the monsters are not in melee range, casting DV after the Decrepify is the best option.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@jiansonz Love the play by play from your temple battle. I "certainly" would have died even if given multiple tries at it. Nice work.


I am still plodding along with Freddie. He is level 26 sitting at Canyon WP. Act 1, I had the rogue, so I used sword and shield and protected her. Currently, I have swapped over to using a bow, now that I have a desert merc. This guy feels pretty safe with the howl handy. No real NDE so far, but a few times I have ran into a room for some reason, only to make a quick exit once I realized it was full of hollow ones and skeletons. I do that in later difficulties, and I'm done for.

[highlight]Freddie Mercury, Singer, Level 26, Canyon WP[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

wakiki said:
kav, nice updates and screenshots. I guess leveling up removes and reapplies BO?
Click to expand...

On level up, the merc's life drops by around half (which is approximately the original boost from BO of course). If we were in a pitched battle and it was already yellow, it can be pretty bad.

Now to update the table. At this point I'm pretty sure this tournament has more entrants than the No Vitality tournament. I'm too lazy to count, but here's the last table from that one. That one has alot less dead players and more Guardians than this one though, heh. ;)
Click to expand...

I guess the success of this tourney is down to the fact that you haven't limited the offensive power of the characters. On the contrary, melee chars will be more effective due to greater strength / dex. But I think you've struck the balance pretty well. I wouldn't have entered if I had thought that my toon wouldn't get out of normal and I was confident my druid would at least make it to hell ;) (the barb in comparison is living on borrowed time). To sum up, thanks for a great tourney! :thumbup:

LozHinge the Unhinged said:
My experience of these spells is that Confuse causes random targetting by monsters (and you are just as likely to be hit as anything else)...
Click to expand...

Yes it does, and from a mob it reduces the damage received over time. Without some type of stun skill, you are guaranteed to get hit in the situation. The trick is to reduce the damage to a managable amount

...whereas Attract can take the sting out of the situation, as monsters will attack the Attractee, as long as it is not too much farther away than you are (from them). You need to be sure that your target for Attract is near the middle of the group you are facing, and not too close to you (or too far away from the group you want to avoid).

Attract won't work on an in-your-face, camping-on-the-stairs stair-trap (at least, it won't work quickly enough to save you), but it can really help if the monsters are a few strides away from the stairs.
Click to expand...

And this is the problem with Attract. As long as you have time to work, to take the artistic approach you're fine, go back up the stairs, draw them away and open a portal, smack 'em with cleg's/general's. The advantage that confuse has is that it is spamable. Click click click on the whole mob, and damage received goes down. Hopefully. (hey, it's worked for me on a few occasions)

The Terror suggestion is a good one, except I've had numerous occasions where the Terrored monsters ignore the AI and attack you anyway (perhaps because they are bouncing off each other and back onto you).
Click to expand...

Really? When I'm playing a minion-light necro (e.g. my sword of destiny golemancer - admittedly 7k of clay golem helped a lot there too), I always have terror on right-click on descending any stairs, and it has saved me many more times than confuse has. I click on the edge of the mob that is closest to my character and keep clicking. And if that doesn't work due to champions, bosses in the pack, the next tool out of the box is generally confuse (although sadly it wasn't permitted in the SoD tourney).

Once down the stairs, my preferred option is instant Decrepify (to give you a chance vs 1-hit kills), then "Terror" (if there's space for the mob to disburse and they are normal monsters), or Attract if there are normal/minion monsters and Champions mixed up, and "Cry like a Baby" if it's just Champions. Obviously, if the monsters are not in melee range, casting DV after the Decrepify is the best option.
Click to expand...

I like the way you're thinking here too (although DV after terror is my choice - then they're heading in the right direction :))


 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Can't see anything wrong with your strategy, Kavarin :)
We've both played Golemancers with restrictions, you learn what works and what kills you!

Back OT, my MS/FA Zon has so far found the Bow, Amulet and Armour of Vidala's set. I'm guessing even the full set is no good for Nightmare, but I'm ready to be corrected.

I think three of a set is the most I've ever found playing single-pass - not counting the four parts of Cathan's this character has found: the Ring, the Ring, the Ring and, of course, the other Ring :D.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Quick update on Freddie. He cleared all the false tombs, then took care of Duriel. Being level 28 compared to previous characters being lower 20s does make a big difference. Couple levels from war cry.

[highlight]Freddie Mercury, Singer, Level 28, Kurast Docks[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

nice progress guys, keep it up:thumbup:.

Just to let y all know im not dead, (working on a huge update atm, but havent quite found the time to finish it yet)
im posting this mini-update.

Zapsarrap has made it through all of nightmare difficulcy on /p8, and is taking her first carefull steps in hell, where everybody and their mother is immume to cold (thank god i did a dual element build).
I have found some really nice stuff in nightmare (including a guillaumes face, a skin of the vipermagi and 2 KO runes)

I have also dragged my fireclaw bear kharne to the outer cloister WP

Also zapsarrap is now officialy the highest d2 char i have ever played :whistling:.

Oh and happy new year and drinks all around :nod:.
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Good work, MOOsaccre, great finds.
You pick the Certain Death tourney to make your highest level character? Magic :)
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@MOO Congrats on reaching Hell! Really nice finds indeed :thumbsup:

@wakiki Oh no, how could you guess my secret plan for victory (i.e. a 'Steel' flail)? Also, Enchilada resents being called 'underpowered' :rant:...
Forgot to mention: I didn't actually know the song you mentioned (thanks to youtube I do now). Instead I was simply referring to the nautical term (as opposed to windy/tornado/hurricane...). Great song though.


My aim for the next session was of course to complete a Steel flail. Just to spite me, the game decided on only dropping plenty of Els and Elds... Thus Enchilada had to wait for the cube to create her new FLAMING STEEL FLAIL OF AWESOMENESS (ok, ok, I'll stop that now). The merc got his usual Savage Halberd.
Going was rather easy afterwards, even on /p7 (the merc may have played a "small" role). Drops were still meager, the first unique finally dropped in the Lost City (yes, it's the good old ladies' favorite), followed shortly by a more useful one (not that The Diggler is so bad, but I don't like the short range). No Ral or Tal yet, so no prebuff Leaf or a Stealth. My first try for a circlet sums up the gambling luck.
Tactics varied between cheesy, cowardly and insane = telebombing Unravelers in the false tombs.
Duriel was of course no problem, since I allow myself the use of Static Field (and Frost Nova).

Only two more levels to Fire Mastery :jig:. Be afraid Mephisto, be very afraid!

[highlight]Enchilada, level 28 Enchantress, Kurast Docks[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

MOOsaccre said:
Zapsarrap has made it through all of nightmare difficulcy on /p8, and is taking her first carefull steps in hell, where everybody and their mother is immume to cold (thank god i did a dual element build).
Click to expand...

After your first three didn't make it through normal, amazing job (and great perserverance) to get one through nightmare MOOsaccre :thumbup: How much life does Zapsarrap have?


 
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