The Certain Death Tournament.

Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Kavarin. Great progress man! Can’t believe you have made it this far with a melee character. I am very impressed!

@Loz. Dam you are one lucky bugger with WitherBow arn’t you? Runes for a Harmony, Razor Tail....damn! Too bad I play Vanilla because a Harmony bow would be ideal for Alice! Aw well.....maybe I can get the runes for a Zephry instead :rolleyes:.

@Hp_Sauce. Congrats on making it to hell! I wish you the best of luck with AlreadyDead!

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I have decided that I will not alternate between my two new characters. Rather I will focus all my efforts on just one gal at a time. I feel this will allow myself to better adapt to one play style, instead of having to switch between two. Considering Alice was half way through Act 1 before I decided to join in with Aisha, Alice will be my focus. So here is her story so far.

The early game for Alice saw her build up Critical Strike. Not only did it help greatly against her foes but the real advantage is the synergy bonus that the Valk will get. I boosted it to level 6 for a nice 46% chance. I think I will leave it at that for now, however I might boost it to level 7 later down the rack, who knows.

Alice has been very lucky with her charms. The first few charms she found all spawned with elemental damage! Making it that much easier. One thing I had to be careful and mindful of was the poor hit recovery Amazons have with non dagger weapons. I tried avoiding melee in dangerous situations to prevent this from occuring, instead, I resorted to throwing javelins.

At clvl 17 I began my gambling spree for some nice MF gloves/boots. I was having no luck at all and was ready to give up, but I decided to gamble just one more set of Heavy Boot’s. Score! Nice tri-resists, half freeze duration and 14% MF :). Nice starter boots!

I fought Andariel on p/8, as i usually do. I wasn’t going to dare melee combat, so I played cat and mouse instead around the blood pool. Andy was distracted by Elexa (who only died once), which allowed me to throw my rare javelins without any real danger. After a short and uneventful battle, Andariel fell dropping 4 useless rares.

PS. I am contemplating dropping the Lighting Fury path that i planned with Alice and foucs more on the Valk, by pumping up the P&M skills along with of course high level Guided Arrow. I will wait and see....

[highlight] Alice the Valk/GA/Fury (?) Zon, Level 20.8, Normal Lut Gholein, Life = 88[/highlight]
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Is it too late for me to have a go?

...looks like no. I think this will be fun; I've not played Hardcore before >)

Patch 1.12

Arvon (because I don't have a single character that starts with A yet); Psnovamancer.
let's go let's go
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Freshly rested, Enchilada picked up her FSFOA and headed out for a lovely hike to the summit of Mount Arreat. Her damage grew quickly due to the many levels gained and most enemies fell to the dust after only a few hits. The merc was also satisfied with his new Savage Partizan of Alacrity (once he could wear it).
Enchilada even managed to cunningly trick her enemies into using a meaningless curse on her. As usual she neglected to repair the FSFOA (there usually is a video window obscuring the right upper corner of the D2 window :whistling:).
She picked up the odd item or two from the wayside, including her first life gc, a Shael (guess what I'll use that for...) and surprisingly enough managed to gamble a set item.
Her confidence was still great and she fearlessly took on enemies like the whirly fellow, Bartuc and finally Baal - no luck on the drop - with the inevitable result.

To cool off after the strenuous hike, she decided to take a quick bath - in cow blood. Some green Heavy Boots got her very excited. They weren't what she had hoped for, but still good enough to put on (I like frw).
She was actually strong enough to (most of the time) one-hit kill p5 cows :yes:

Once again arrived in Act 1, the Shael found its (unsurprising) new home and a bit along the road an interesting crafted amulet was added to Enchilada's equipment. Additionally an "Edge" Hunter's bow now waits in the chest for gambling and the occasional scary monster.
Coldcrow was dispatched with only minor difficulties (like eating her cold nova...). Only totally unfair enemies could slow her down a bit.
Enchilada even survived teleporting right into a pack of extra fast goats. Boneash was only a minor problem while alive - but his cold nova really hurt, especially since I had planned to avoid it. As you can see in the screenshot the merc was more zealous than planned (for once)...
For some doors, Enchilada had to really pick up her courage. Luckily she remembered that fighting fair was not necessary.
Andariel hit very hard, but ultimately stood no chance. At least Cleglaws Gloves had dropped in the Cats lvl 4.

Full clear of A1NM on /p7, which was more or less a constant near death experience in the later levels. But it's not like this is Hardco... oh, wait ... damn ... maybe I'll have to consider playing a bit more defensively from now on ... well, probably not.

So now she stands in sunny Lut Gholein with these stats (max block, 35% ES).
Life, Defense? Just cramps her style ;) A second element? No one can withstand the Flaming Steel Flail Of Awesomeness!

[highlight]Enchilada, level 52 Enchantress, Lut Gholein NM[/highlight]
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Welcome, Ganoidyn. I like poisonmancers and wish you luck with yours!

I have a theory about runes. When I have stashed runes, unused, waiting for whatever to happen, I gradually seem to find fewer and fewer runes dropping for me. The supply dries up.

My current character is using up runes like a mad thing - I have a bad blood-crafting habit at the moment - and the runes keep on dropping like confetti. My chokepoint for crafting is pRubies, I don't get enough of them! In fact, I had the runes for Edge for ages and ages, and still haven't used them yet as a suitable 3os bow never appeared. The runes for Harmony, plus a decent 4os Cedar Bow, dropped first!

Crazy game.

That blood crafting will be the death of me, I don't even gamble any more. I have rolled a B/C ring (meh-ish) and I want to try my luck at a B/C amulet, once I have pRuby to spare (I of course already have an Amn rune!). Of course, a Lo rune drop will give me Fortitude, I may as well dream big :)

Edit: Kudos to Enchilada, she a big scary girl! Oh, and gieb Cleglaws! :D
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

As the Dragoons are fond of saying, “I have returned”.

Hadriela began Hell Act 1 at a crazy Players 7 setting and probably would have ended up dead but she received some sage council that probably prevented her demise. Following the Blood Moor and the Den of Evil Hadriela opted to reduce the players setting (for really the first time yet) and charged into the Cold Plains at Players 5 and encountered more troublesome cold immunes (there had been CI Zombies in the Blood Moor and Den of Evil but at least they were slow). The CI’s in the Cold Plains were speedy Corrupted Rouges that were really great at tearing into poor Azrael (Hadriela had started to invest in Fire Wall but make not mistake, Azrael was still the greatest weapon against CI’s). After Azrael died a few times (and then a few more times) to the Corrupted Rouges Hadriela finally decided to wise up and become very ‘ninja’ with the players setting.

The basic battle plan was if there were no CI’s Players 7 was used. If there were CI’s that were pretty harmless (such as super slow zombies) Players 5 was used. If there were CI’s that seemed dangerous (speedy, ranged, etc) Players 3 or 1 was used. Smarter use of the players setting made things pretty easy but there were a few exceptions.

A very dangerous Coldcrow was encountered at Players 7 (I started off as a bit of a clumsy ‘ninja’ but got better as Hell Act 1 progressed). A Players 7, CI/LI, CE, Cursed, Multiple Shots, Cold Enchanted, (could not be static’ed) Coldcrow was nearly the end of Hadriela. Azrael pretty much dropped dead simply by looking at her so using the low level Fire Wall had to be the battle plan (running away was not an option . . . okay so there was an absolute ton of running away and maybe twenty trips to town for potions but Hadriela refused to accept defeat). After many near deaths Hadriela’s puny Fire Wall finally prevailed . . . the full clear remains intact. Most of Hadriela’s other players setting problems related to not dropping the players setting before heading into unexplored areas which resulted in some pseudo nasty traps (but nothing that couldn’t be handled after the initial panic abated).

Blood Raven and rescuing Cain was rather routine and the Forgotten Tower (done at Players 1 because that’s one scary place) was pretty easy too. The Forgotten Tower was super scary but Hadriela made it out without anything resembling a near death probably mostly because there was not a single stair trap in the entire place (I can’t remember the last time that happened)! Further excitement centered around finding a Four Socketed Thresher in the Forgotten Tower (which would be a really nice upgrade for Azrael . . . the greatest weapon against CI’s . . . but Hadriela is yet to find a Sol Rune)! Hadriela was hoping the Countess would help out . . . but she had decidedly different plans . . .

Following the Forgotten Tower most areas were done at Players 1 (because easy killing is addictive, there were plenty of CI’s, and I didn’t have all day to spend watching Azrael slowly defeat high players setting CI’s). So, at Players 1 (more or less) the rest of Hell Act 1 really easy. Cautious advancement (including TK’ing doors) kept Hadriela from being ambushed by anything and as for everything else, the danger is easy to avoid if you can see it coming.

Andariel was defeated with ease (after Hadriela remembered to arm Azrael with the Kelpie Snare). Andariel’s drop was not so hot (the belt turned out to be Hwanin’s). Other set uniques included: Haemosu’s Adamant (nice but Shaftstop is better), Cathan’s Armor, Venom Ward, Bloodmoon, Radament’s Sphere, Isenhart’s Sword, Naj’s Circlet, Skull Splitter, Hwanin’s Armor, Angelic Armor, Arcanna’s Staff, and a Laying of Hands (off Rakanishu . . . screenshot seems to be missing). The best set unique find was far and away Trang’s Belt! . . that has really great stats (cbf, life, mana) but I don’t think Hadriela is going to get to use it because it is the final part of the set I need for my SP collection and I don’t want to lose it here in the Tournament of Certain Death. Hadriela’s best rune drop came early (really early) in the Blood Moor and was a Lum Rune (her highest rune yet)!

Here were Hadriela’s stats at the end of Hell Act 1.

[highlight]Hadriela, Frozen Orb/TK, (H) Lut Gholein, Level 78[/highlight]
 
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Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

I made some progress again. I had some other projects running, but now I'm back to this tourney for a while.

It's lucky that poison creeper is not a summon, as it can kill things in p8. (at least until now, at A2 nromal) It is very sloooooow though. I decided to use a bear later, so merc will die when I reach 30 and if I'm right, I won't be allowed to summon wolwes at all. I killed Andariel, and she dropped crap, but something useful was on the ground in the Jail for me. Very good, it has blind, increased chance of blocking. Now I have 75% block, loads of dex... I won't need too much str as Rabies and Bear will be the killers. (and Poison creeper :crazyeyes: )

I also found A Cathan's Seal in Halls of the Dead, and two Parts of Hsarus' set. (2 shields+boots)

[highlight]Fastpoison, lvl 23 rabies-summoner druid, Act2 Normal, Halls of the dead[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well I guess it was inevitable: Enchilada had beaten Coldworm down to a few percent of his hp, tried to teleport out and got block locked. In the mean time the merc finished off Coldworm. Enchilada first got hit by the mega poison which cost most of her 170hp and almost immediately afterwards was finished off by the cold nova.
At least that's how I think it happened. She was at full hp for the entire fight and then in less than a second got hit very hard twice (Coldworm was listed as killer). I don't think the cold nova alone could have done it, since Enchilada had 35% ES, ~40 cold res and ~15 mdr.

I was determined to play her as a full time (the bow was used only once) melee char who would not hide behind her merc, so reaching NM had already far exceded my expectations. Final lcs damage was around 1600-2050 (20 Ench, 20 FM, 10 Warmth).

[highlight]Enchilada, level 55 Enchantress, RIP to Coldworm the Burrower[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Another double post from me.

Revenge is sweet - Mephisto is dead. I cold-bloodedly moat-tricked him and took him down a little bit at a time, with a 1pt Guided Arrow. Then I did a little dance on the corpse.

Notable drops along the way include, would you believe, a Cliffkiller Large Siege Bow. It's quite a damaging weapon, but more importantly, it replaces the puny Nef'd Long Bow I've been carrying for Knockback vs Cold Immunes. Very pleasing. Amn's and Sol's continue to drop shortly after I have used them in my crafting attempts. Cool. Oh and a sixth Cathan's Seal (yay!), Whitstan's Guard, Woestave, Lum Rune (Smoke beckons in Hell, if I get there) and Trang-Oul's Claws (still no Cleglaw's).

One Skill Point left to go in Cold Arrow, before I can start putting more points in FA. At last! Points in Valk are done, with pre-buff I hit the magic Level 17. Life stands at 307 (357 on the Cliffkiller switch). Just as well, as I got hit a few times by Doll explosions in the Durance, slivering me almost every time. Scary.

Apart from the Swampy Pit, I met no Gloams in Act3 - I do hope Act 4 doesn't go overboard trying to balance things out. I generally speaking love Act 4 (except for Diablo, of course), looking forward to it. :) Will keep things at /Players5 except for Big D, who like Mephisto, will get the P1 treatment.

My second ever HC character and my highest level/furthest progressed :)

[Highlight]WitherBow, MS/FA Bowazon, Level 63, The Pandemonium Fortress (Nightmare)[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@Hans. Ahhhh your back :)! I wondered what had happened to Hadriela. Good to see is alive and well and doing nicely in hell. Good luck!

@scrcrw. My condolences towards poor Enchilada :(. Its remarkable how quickly one can go from progressing so well to deeds. I hope this death hasn't scared you away from having another shot?

@Loz. Very nice sir! I am impressed with WitherBow's progress and of course her amazing drop luck! I only hope Alice can recieve the same treatment as i am dreading getting her a big and powerful bow. I guess the Valk can do most of the work....but still :rolleyes:.

Ever since my last update there has been no new progress with Alice. I have been a bit busy these past few days. However i plan on begining my Act 2 adventures with her later on today.

Good luck to all you still remain and also to the new contestants!
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

The last single-pass untwinked character I played that had incredible drop-luck was my SC Blizzballer - and she ended up looking like she was twinked by the time the last Cow had been frozen/crisped. She found Tal's ammy amongst other things, and could have equipped her merc with Fortitude, just from drops. There's an Item Find thread detailing a number of her finds whilst questing.
Now that girl had some crazy-lucky drops :)
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

LozHinge the Unhinged said:
...
I suspect I would not be able to overcome my full-clear obsession and would have deeded there in my attempt to get through.
...
Click to expand...

Luckily I don't suffer from the same level of 'full clear' OCD that a large percent of the SPF suffers from. I've been doing quite well clearing lots with this character, simply because I'm after as many experience points as I can get. But technically I gave up the 'full clear' crown when I ran through parts of the Palace, skipped some of the false tombs, and didn't kill Nilathak or his level in NM.

RIP to Enchilada. I suspected that she might be a bit fragile, and come to a sudden end... but I really was enjoying reading about her adventures! You should build a new one, but a ranged one this time.

As for AlreadyDead & Haseen.

We found this Husoldal Evo right at the very end of the Black Marsh. It does a bit more damage than the Kelpie Snare Haseen was using, and has no resists, so it allows him to wear the Duriel's Shell I found in NM Cows. However, it lacks the 75% slow, which is a bit of a down side, but I think the extra damage (for extra life leech) is probably worth it at the moment.

We had troubles again in the Pits level 2. Things were going fine at first, until a mystery archer pack appeared and erased Haseen. I was forced to flee, and when I returned the boss of the archer pack has setup camp next to the stairs. Luckily not many of her minions were around, so I was able to flee around and eventually clear things up. It was pretty stressful though.

After that things didn't go to badly. Here are a few examples of my favorite kinds of battles. Basically the kinds fought from complete safety.

There were a few places in the Cats level 2 where things got a bit tight. Just a lot of boss packs without much room to maneuver, etc. But nothing really serious. I found/cubed more Full Juvs than we used, so that's always a good sign.

Eventually we made it to level 4. Haseen and I charged up on about 6 minutes worth of Antidote potions (each), and we headed in. Andy hit Haseen really hard, but I was able to keep him alive with a few Super Healing pots, and 3 Full Juv pots throughout the battle. With LR from the weapon switch and some help from Fireblast, she dropped reasonable quickly.

There was also a Goldwrap that dropped earlier on in Cats level 4, which will be handy if I need to do some MFing with this character after she Guardians... :yes:

I have snowboarding all day tomorrow at Whistler, and then work stuff Thursday night, so I'm not sure when I'll get started on Act 2. I have a feeling it might be a long act though.

-hps



 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

After Argoel's finding of a Hel Rune, Act I was fairly peaceful. The deserts and tombs surrounding Lut Gholein were more exciting.
Inside the hidden tombs, there were Mummies, Might/Multishot Mummies, and even two Unique Mummies in the same area. (Although I didn't really get good shots of them.)
There was also a less common Cold Immune Ghoul and a new stone and shiny jewellery, although it turned out to be pretty useless.
Duriel was interesting with a few teleports to protect Haseen, but he soon fell. His drop actually consisted of 2 uniques, a set item, and 2 rares, so was pretty good. The qualities of the uniques/sets were pretty low though.

[highlight]Argoel, 1.13* Sorceress, NM Kurast Docks, Level 59[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Haven't played D2 in forever, but the itch has struck again. I think I will join this one, my no vitality tourney charger wasn't the most durable build, so I'll try something different and get revenge.

Now to go hunt down a d2 disc and fire it up!
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Hp_Sauce said:
Luckily I don't suffer from the same level of 'full clear' OCD that a large percent of the SPF suffers from.
Click to expand...

Sadly I’ve begun suffer from full clear OCD. I’d never done a full clear before last summer and now I can’t stop until everything everywhere is dead . . . I’m sure it’s going to cause Deeds sooner than later. In fact, Hadriela had some near deaths in Hell Act 2 as the result of my newly developed full clear OCD.

Hell Act 2 started well with no problems clearing the Sewers at Players 3 (Radament had a fanatic unique near him but that was the only complication). The Rocky Waste, Stony Tomb, and Dry Hills went well at a mix of Players 3 and 1. Then came the Halls of the Dead (where one of my other characters had been slain by slingers in NM). As a result Hadriela was at red alert and dropped the players setting to Players 1 before cautiously entering the Halls of the Dead where she was immediately greeted by a salvo from some might enhanced slingers :shocked: . There was a second to panic and then Azrael dropped dead and Hadriela retreated through the exit. Azrael was resurrected and Hadriela headed back for revenge (no guts no glory! eh). Hadriela reentered the Halls of the Dead and again Azrael was slain in seconds and Hadriela again had to retreat through the exit. Azrael was resurrected again and Hadriela had some serious decision making . . . was it really worth it? . . Hadriela really had no real business in there . . . on the other hand . . . there’s got to be some great items and experience in there . . . hmm . . . so worth it! Azrael was pumped full of every type of potion available and then Hadriela re-reentered the Halls of the Dead and discovered that the potions made a big difference (she had enough time to enter, do some damage, and then retreat before Azrael dropped dead). After some more potions and some more retreats the mighty slinger finally died and Hadriela had breached the front door! The rest of the Halls of the Dead was pretty easy . . . and oh yes, behold the amazing item that Hadriela found in the Halls Level 3 (oh yeah, so worth it) :alright: .

The next real bit of excitement was the Claw Viper Temple (done at Players 1). Thankfully the front door was clear because pretty much everything in the Claw Viper Temple was cold immune (Azrael can handle himself pretty well against CI’s but some room to maneuver is always helpful). So, an entire area of CI salamanders would have been annoying so it’s a good thing that there were a few monsters that weren’t CI (oh wait, guardians standing by sarcophaguses is still annoying . . . um, oh well). Anyways, the real trouble came at the Claw Viper Temple Level 2. Hadriela dropped into Level 2 and discovered . . . nothing . . . at least for a second . . . by the time Hadriela had thought “nothing!â€, there was something. First, one salamander, then another, and then a third, and then a cursed Fangskin appeared and started tearing Hadriela to shreds! Fat Purple! Fat Purple (can’t get to the exit)! Fat Purple (time to blind tele)! Fat Purple (to the altar)! Hadriela landed on a thankfully clear altar cursed and minus about sixty percent of her health :crazyeyes: . . . she grabbed the amulet and tp’ed out for Fara asap. After recovering from the near heart attack Hadriela returned to the altar to discover that there weren’t Unravelers or anything else (well there were zombies . . . but those hardly count) that could get to her if she stayed on the altar . . . ah yes, time for revenge. Hadriela unleashed her rarely seen Firewall (level 15 or so at this point) and defeated every last helpless CI Salamader. Full clear (and life) intact.

The rest of Hell Act 2 was pretty tame. The Palace didn’t have many CI’s so it was done at Players 3. The Arcane Sanctuary was pretty easy at Players 1 with the only trouble coming from CI Vampires (and really only the unique vampires were troublesome). The False Tombs had CI’s coming out of the demon holes so Hadriela decided that it was time to upgrade Azrael’s weapon (partizan Insight). The four socketed thresher that had been found in the Forgotten Tower became a thresher Insight after Hadriela cubed three more Amn Runes to create her second Sol Rune (note, she still hasn’t found a Sol Rune :doh: ). So that’s six Amn Runes that have been put towards arming Azrael . . . but it was so worth it! The extra damage really seemed to noticeably speed things up. Groups of regular CI Unravelers and Blunderbores fell quickly before Azrael and his new weapon and really the only remaining sources of trouble were therefore uniques. Most memorably, a CI/FI Blunderbore hanging out near the entrance of one of the false tombs, a group of Champion Unravelers hanging out next to a Fanatic Unique Unraveler (by the way, that five-some refused to split up), and there was also a group of Champion Beetles hanging out next to a conviction enhanced unique beetle :shocked: (deemed too dangerous for a screenshot). The True Tomb of Tal Rasha offered up an ambush of beetles and fanatic skeletons/unravelers but Azrael and Hadriela were too powerful and soon enough it was time for Duriel. Duriel got the Kelpie Snare treatment and was defeated in seconds :thumbup: .

Duriel didn’t drop much . . . and not much dropped elsewhere. The only equipment change for Hadriela was replacing her 24 (maybe 26?) life gc for a 37 life gc. Set/uniques were sparse and included: Duskdeep, Vidala’s Boots, Tearhaunch Greaves, Cathan’s Ring, another Tearhaunch Greaves, and Aludur’s Jagged Star. There was a noteworthy rare drop in the Lost City, a Colossus Voulge with 405% ed and 7% LL :cool: (pretty awesome damage but pretty useless considering RWM is allowed :dontknow: ).

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

[highlight]Hadriela, Frozen Orb/TK, (H) Kurast Docks, Level 82[/highlight]


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

HanShotFirst said:
There was a noteworthy rare drop in the Lost City, a Colossus Voulge with 405% ed and 7% LL :cool: (pretty awesome damage but pretty useless considering RWM is allowed :dontknow: ).
Click to expand...

Wow, I have never managed to get a polearm with this much damage! Why is that useless? The tough STR requirment? What do you have that can compete with this beast?

EDIT: OK, I see the Insight Thresher. But there has to be some situations where the superior damage + leech of the rare is better, no?



 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

jiansonz said:
Wow, I have never managed to get a polearm with this much damage! Why is that useless? The tough STR requirment? What do you have that can compete with this beast?

EDIT: OK, I see the Insight Thresher. But there has to be some situations where the superior damage + leech of the rare is better, no?
Click to expand...

There probably is(are) some situation(s) where the superior damage and leech would be handy but so far the Insight and the Kelpie Snare combo has been more than enough. The biggest problem using the rare seems to be the strength requirement (and therefore the need to change up the merc's gear) resulting in needing to store the Colossus Voulge and a spare merc helm and/or armor somewhere about the character/stash . . . and there really isn't that much room considering how many full rejuvenation potions I'm keeping on hand. So, considering the logistical problems I'd rather simply stick with the all purpose Insight Thresher (which is none too shabby itself . . . in my opinion). But the Colossus Voulge does have style points, so maybe I’ll be able think up some good use :dontknow: .


 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

Well, I finally got around to playing D2 again.

At the beginning of Act IV, I was painfully aware that I only had 25% fire resistance, which I was fairly sure wouldn't be enough for Diablo. But it had been awhile since I'd played, and I needed to get a feel for the character again, so I jumped right in, and was impressed by how painfully slow it went. I remember it being fairly slow, but not quite this bad.

The Valk was still near-invincible, though, so the going was fairly safe. There were about 2 PI bosses that I had to park, both poison immune, too.

After trudging along for quite awhile, I finally found the entrance to the Plains of Despair, and it took quite awhile to finally get in, since the sharp bend in the stairs kept me from attacking more than one at once, and I got driven away from the bend a couple of times because the boss was a teleporter who liked teleporting right next to me as soon as I got around the curve. I ended up combat casting the valk a couple of times, just to get her into a decent position, but I finally got through. Izzy turned out to be a pushover, and both skillpoints immediately went into decoy, who is now quite a decent tank at level 19, despite having HP based on mine. After that, the valk had 3.7K HP when combat cast, and 4.2K when pre-buffed.

After Izzy, and finding the WP, I took a break from playing, and considered my options for gear upgrades, particularly armor and weapon. I shopped for armor for awhile, since I hadn't found anything with 4os that I had enough strength to wear, but didn't find any 4os armors after shopping for awhile. I did find a 3os armor with 2MDR that turned out to be my best option. The only way to make the resistances work out was to take off my 17% res all ammy, and trade it for a 22 PDR ammy, swap a pair of rings, and then put an Ort, a Ral, and an 11% res fire jewel in the armor. I ended up with 50% lightning res, 39% fire res, 25 PDR, and 3 MDR.

Then I looked at the weapon. A ward bow can get the cruel mod from the chippy recipe, and I had 2 magical ones, so I decided not to try to wait for a GMB (which was my original plan), and burn the rest of my chipped gems on a ward bow, hoping for something better. When I ran out of chipped gems, I started using standard gems, and nearly ran out of those too, but I finally got something worth keeping.

In the end, I did 36 rerolls, 23 of which got 2os, and 13 of which got 1os. My third roll was +82% ED 2os, which I nearly kept, but had slightly lower average damage than the one I was using. There was another fairly interesting roll, 108-147 fire damage +2 dex 2os, but that wouldn't have helped much in the chaos sanctuary. Finally, I got a +97% ED 2-6 fire damage 2os bow, which had slightly higher average damage than what I had been using, and was a faster base speed. In the end, the base speed was probably the best thing about it. I put 2 Eth runes in it immediately, just like I had my previous bow. My stats were thus improved, though hardly spectacular.

On my way to the hellforge, I met a conviction enchanted PI balrog boss. He was tricky, and most of the time, I fought him from offscreen, not so much because he was dangerous himself, but because of the Abyss Knight bosspack that was standing behind him. I did not want to get a facefull of heavy elemental ranged fire even without conviction in effect. I had to combat cast the valk across the river to tank them when I'd got past the balrogs, but even in her weakened state she didn't bat an eyelash.

Hephasto lasted a bit longer than Izzy, but his minions took quite awhile to clear out. It was well worth it, however, since the hellforge dropped an Ist. I was going to bemoan my terrible drop luck, but after that I don't think I can.

I proceeded into the Chaos Sanctuary, where I met a multishot OK bosspack with fanaticism. It was not terribly difficult, since I had 2 good tanks and the ability to fire blindly from offscreen, but the valk had started dying quickly from the IM. She seemed to do slightly better than in the NM Chaos Sanctuary, since she sometimes lived after stabbing herself in the foot once, but she still died fast. A nice legend sword dropped from that OK boss, too bad that I have no use for a 2H sword.

In the finger mage branch, the only scary thing was a extra fast balrog bosspack, that scared me a bit since it looked a bit like Infector's pack, but they clustered around the valk (quickly) and died (not so quickly). One of the finger mages dropped an amn, which was nice, but I stupidly knocked the boss back over lava, so I didn't get his drop.

A couple of times, I got cursed with lower resist, although I usually didn't retreat much, since I was already pretty far from the action most of the time anyway. I treated Infector's pack with great cowardice, which turned out not to be needed, since the valk tanked quite well, although I think I needed to recast her once.

Big D himself was manageable, though there was one very bad NDE, when I got hit with a partial lightning hose. The MDR/PDR/resists that I'd scrounged up to prepare turned out to be absolutely vital. I hit one fat purple on the way out of the hose, and had to hit a red right after, since I was at half health even after the purple. Fortunately, he was aiming at the valk, so I was able to avoid any more lightning hose incidents. His fire ring usually took out 1/3 of my health, but once it took off 2/3. Without the extra resistance and PDR, I think either of these two incidents would have been fatal. (I don't think I'm going to fight Diablo with a no-vit 39% fire res character again.)

He didn't drop anything good, although the Short War Bow would have been decent if it were in anything but a Short War Bow.

[highlight]ancalagon, Shatterproof, strafer, level 80, Harrogath(H)[/highlight]
 
Re: The Certain Death Tournament.

@ancalagon: epic post, it's nice to see some movement at the top again. You plan on starting act 5 anytime soon? Good luck whenever you decide to :D No vit A5H is pretty legit
 
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