The Committed Tournament

[Azimuthus]

You can bring in a bunch of pots and toss them on the ground before you activate the ancients, I've done that at times for hell ancients. Not sure what the disappear timer is on potions, but I think maybe 10 min or so.

That's an interesting idea, thanks. Never actually thought about it (didn't play too much though). Maybe I ll drop some in the corners and in the middle.

Another trick can be to load your Cube up with pots, then when you need to fill up, open your inventory and toss your Cube on the ground.

Ye, possibly I ll do that as well, but that wont help too much. But better than nothing.


-----
Stopped at Arreat Plateau WP, lvl 78. Almost fully cleared first two areas (full of nasty painful archers of all kinds). Had to kite all the time, some hits were really painful. And... got nothing! Not a single rune not to talk about uniqs. However, found white tiara (and all 3 charises still unlocked) in Abaddon Rift. Also noticed funny bug over there - some skels stood just in lava. One dropped small charm, and so I teled there to take it (it was a bad one) -)

View attachment 1061

 

[Kestegs]

Deeds lv51 in Jail 2 to a LI/CI Dark One pack. Thought I could handle it (I had just taken on 2 other LI/CI packs) but I must have stood just right (wrong?) and caught too many Death Explosion filled Charged Bolts from my shout... Dang. Not sure if I will re-enter. I was looking for a way to re-start my career, and I think this did it.

Lesson Learned? Yeah, Fire Mage stinks. His A.I. wants him in Inferno range far too often, which buggy as it is, is totally worthless. Once in a while, you can get him to launch only Fireballs at a target, and he does something at least... Next time, I will just stick to Act II, and park any PI's I come to.

Ah, the bane of any singer
The fire mage could also really compound that bug I think, as far as I remember the death explosion triggers on any kind of hit, and inferno would do a lot of those.

Rip. You did very well with a tough build.

That's an interesting idea, thanks. Never actually thought about it (didn't play too much though). Maybe I ll drop some in the corners and in the middle.



Ye, possibly I ll do that as well, but that wont help too much. But better than nothing.


-----
Stopped at Arreat Plateau WP, lvl 78. Almost fully cleared first two areas (full of nasty painful archers of all kinds). Had to kite all the time, some hits were really painful. And... got nothing! Not a single rune not to talk about uniqs. However, found white tiara (and all 3 charises still unlocked) in Abaddon Rift. Also noticed funny bug over there - some skels stood just in lava. One dropped small charm, and so I teled there to take it (it was a bad one) -)

View attachment 1061

That happens in those act 5 areas somewhat often, and occasionally in act 4 CS also. I can never make myself teleport out there though, scares me

 

[Azimuthus]

teleport out there though, scares me

Ahha ) Ye, I also noticed a thought in my mind: "Hey man, this is lava - you ll be burnt to death!" - but then I thought: "What a vivid imagination" ))

 

[Kestegs]

Act 4 is done. Got another annoying drop early on. Didn't someone else sell a pair of 36% ones? I think the shop must have got robbed, because I found 'em!

Everything was smooth sailing up until diablo. I fired up the fight and got him down about half way when the merc died. Shortly after that I got hit by a lightning hose and got an unhandled exception. Grrrrrrrr! That means I had to clear up to diablo again, and you have to kill lots of stuff, and get a bit extra experience, even on p1. Fortunately it kicked my save back to before I killed Infector, so I only ended up with maybe an extra 20% of a level. Put it back up to p8 for diablo and everything went smoothly this time. Merc died quickly, but diablo isn't too scary with my cyclone armor that absorbs about 500 damage. I TP'd back to town for more pots when I had him down most of the way, came back and couldn't figure out where the merc had gone. I thought maybe he was just invisible, as I've been getting that a lot it seems. Nope, he was hanging out in a prison too scared to fight. Drop was crap.

Rhett the Windy Druid, Level 35, Act 5 start

 

[Azimuthus]

Waw, that was an EPIC fight -)

Thanks everyone for advice, that really helped (a little bit, because yes, pots disappeared soon). I tried to make Harmony bow, but suddenly discovered that I miss 1 Lum rune to make Ko - so, Plan A failed. Maybe I misclicked or smth during muling, but my table shows I have 3 lum, so I was sure that I could make Ko. Alas. Plan A failed.

Then I got 80 dam fool's legend spike (dagger) and boosted some AR for plan C. Also made Duress armor, and put a lot of +run charms into inventory (all I had, and I had 5-6 I think). So speed seemed to be okey. Recharged 25 casts tele amu and started final preparation (pot drops):

View attachment 1064


Then press ONE & ONLY CHANCE ancients button in the middle of the arena -) Bah! Suddenly I saw aplify curse and merk's hp quickly went down to yellow bar. EJECT! EJECT! EJECT - cried Fury and pressed hidden button on her tele amu -) Let's wait till curse will fade off:

View attachment 1065

Okey, now, carefully. Step by step, lets see whom we can lure here. Ah! Madawk! How nice -) Very good spawn, only lightning immune (and light damage aura - but no problem with it). Kelpie Snare did nice work. He almost could do nothing.

View attachment 1066

Soon he was over.

Aha! Who's next?
Step-step-step... sloooowly. Aha, here you go Korlic. Nice Spawn - Cold immune only -)

View attachment 1068

That wouldn't be hard -)

And here you go:

View attachment 1070

Okey. The last guy and we are off to the Baal -)
DAMN! Now THAT is a very BAD spawn. Amplifiy damage. Zaharni the Merk could do nothing and died in two seconds. Ok. PLAN B engaged. RUN!

View attachment 1071

Not so soon! He spawned as Fire Immune only (very good!) and... EXTRA FAST (veeeeery BAD).

View attachment 1072

There was no chance to run away - he was faster even with my - I dont know - like 80 or more +Speed (30 boots, 30 circlet, ~25-30 on charms). Stamina was running low, we can't run for so long. Tele-tele-tele, and have some rest. Now ... lets carefully approach and fire him with sentries from afar:

View attachment 1073

Damned! He suddenly ran like mad and chased me with almost no stop all the time. I tried to use all possible obstacles and covers (especially entrance and left-upper tower. But no way - he was too fast and didn't stand for long enough. During this MAD RUN he hit me maybe 5-7 times, taking out like 95% HP! But we have FULL POTS... but not for long! Again again and again. Lets hide here or there or somewhere. No result, he sits on our back like glued, while still having like 75% life remaining. Last pot - we are doomed, there is no way out.

View attachment 1074

And yes, the Moment Of Truth. If there was something we could have done.

View attachment 1075

 

[Azimuthus]

As an epilogue.

That was a bad joke with that LUM rune. If I had Harmony bow, I would get HUGE BOOST to my speed and thus I would certainly win. But it seems my destiny was to die here. But anyway, that was fun -). Items list (on the moment of death).

Now I move into my personal Barbarian Brothers tourney to see what I can collect with Magic Find Barb (never played him a lot, not even up to 80 lvl I think).

Good luck everyone with this tourney, though it will be a real challenge with hell ancies ofc -)

 

[jiansonz]

@Azimuthus: Wow, that was an EPIC fight and update! I could almost feel like I was there to watch the fight.
Thanks for having the fortitude to make such a good write-up after a defeat - I am usually pretty down after a death so I find that's a hard thing to do.
You've set the bar high in the tourney.

How's your Mages' killing power? Think you'll need to summon monsters?

Mages currently own the opposition. I am enjoying this while it lasts. It's a bit disheartening to know that my mages are close to their full power while the enemies are still in the infant stage.
I don't think I'll need monsters much in Nightmare, but I will put a point there with my Den of Evil point. Since I will probably run with a ton of +skills, that's all the Revive points I'll need.


Mago has completed Normal. Very easy overall. My Fire Golem very rarely dies to anything other than act bosses, but this was such an occasion:

Clay Golem made an appearance since I was down in mana and needed something cheap to cast.

I love this item name:

Ancients:

For this last leg in Act V, I kept a poison mage. It survived from early Ancients' Way all the way up to the Baal fight. It was especially useful in this fight:

This fight got quite messy, with Lister and three of his minions here. I had to keep Lister occupied with a golem while me and Ajheed fought him. The other MoDs went through some skeletons and magi, but those mages held out long enough for us to succeed.

I think I had 5 mages with me into the Worldstone Chamber, but they died pretty soon. The Edge Thorns + golem approach was AWESOME. Other than with Static Field, I have not killed /p8 Normal Baal this fast. He suffered HUGE damage every time he smacked the golem - life bar moved visibly, more than one pixel per hit.

Mago's biggest weakness is his lack of mobility and control. Without teleport or curses, he can't control much at all. He can't even control his own troops! He can recast the golem (unless it's an IG), he can sometimes fortify a second front by raising a skeleton from a corpse there, and he can use himself to draw attention. Ajheed can be moved with careful maneuvering. He behaves like an Act I merc and I am good at positioning them - but that's harder to do when I have other troops to take into consideration.

I did a bit of gambling and shopping. I now have +5 to skills (Lore helm, Necromancer's wand and Mojo amulet). I plan to gamble circlets in late Act II NM and I am almost guaranteed to see a Golemlord's wand for sale pretty soon after I hit level 54 so the number of skills will improve further. Skeleton Mastery is maxed and RSM has 17 hard points. I can now summon 9 of them, and 4 warriors.

Resists in Nightmare are currently 79/18/73 and Mago has 469 life.


[Highlight]Destroyer Mago the Golemancing Lord of Mages and Ajheed the Fire Mage, level 49, NM Rogue Encampment[/Highlight]

 

[felixbavaria1]

I also like the odd Glowing Orb of Frozen Orb, the Noxious/Venomous Circlet of Remedy, and Saintly/Blessed/Godly Hellspawn Skull.

 

[logoutzero]

Currently thinking of my second entry... Sorry to hear the deeds Azimuthus, and nice work indeed jiansonz, but honestly you are such a tourney pro I expect no less

 

[Old_Frog]

@jiasonz - I love the splash damage off those fireballs hitting Korlic, whilst he's poisoned. Great work indeed wrapping up normal, I was waiting for one more rune to make Edge as well for my Rogue. Happy to see it worked well for you.

 

[Kestegs]

Sorry to hear about the deeds! Sounds like an epic battle, thanks for sharing it so well with us. That one mod on them can make all the difference. You did very well to make it that far.

 

[Pb_pal1]

Act 4 is done. Got another annoying drop early on. Didn't someone else sell a pair of 36% ones? I think the shop must have got robbed, because I found 'em!

That would be me! Glad you could at least get some gold out of them too Just a small note, Yau has progressed, but I am away from reliable internet with my laptop this week, so his true update will have to wait.

Sorry about the deeds @Azimuthus, great job though!

@jiansonz - congrats on the Destroyer! best of luck in NM

 

[Dezrok]

Sorry to hear of the Deeds @logoutzero and @Azimuthus . Well played both.

I'm going to join the movement with Marita Deeding to a LE Skeleton on lvl 2 of The Cave at lvl 50.

NM had been throwing up a few more challenges for Marita and the lack of options other than kicking was starting to be felt. Extra Strong Cursed Griswald had taken a while. One hit would remove about 90% of Marita's life. Cold was also a problem and an Extra Strong Extra Fast Holy Freeze Aura Treehead was another standout challenge.

Having said that, this LE Skeleton should not have been a problem. Some lazy play and not looking at my health bulb led to me being very surprised when the Deeds message came up on the screen. Had come back to The Cave after rescuing Cain as I wanted to mule on the Hawkmail armour before tackling Coldcrow, in the end we never did find Coldcrow.

Marita the ex-Kicker, lvl 50, NM Act 1, furthest progress Dark Woods

 

[logoutzero]

[highlight]Enter Tremolo, the all-Vita Singer, and Waheed, the Desert Mercenary.[/highlight]

I gotta do it. Here goes attempt #2! /p8 for Act I. Wish me luck!

Edit:

Tremolo is currently level 8, cleared the Blood Moor, Den, and Cold Plains. Tremolo is currently level 11, cleared up to the entrance to Stony Field, minus the Crypt and Mausoleum. Off to a nice start already:

Felloak
Club
One Hand Damage: 1 - 10
Durability: 12 of 24
Required Level: 3
Fingerprint: 0xebb4a5e0
Item Level: 4 <-Can't remember ever finding a Unique this fast!
Version: Expansion 1.10+
75% Enhanced Damage
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 6 - 8 Fire Damage
Knockback
Lightning Resist +60%
Fire Resist +20%

The resists will certainly be useful!

 

[Kestegs]

Sorry to hear of the Deeds @logoutzero and @Azimuthus . Well played both.

I'm going to join the movement with Marita Deeding to a LE Skeleton on lvl 2 of The Cave at lvl 50.

NM had been throwing up a few more challenges for Marita and the lack of options other than kicking was starting to be felt. Extra Strong Cursed Griswald had taken a while. One hit would remove about 90% of Marita's life. Cold was also a problem and an Extra Strong Extra Fast Holy Freeze Aura Treehead was another standout challenge.

Having said that, this LE Skeleton should not have been a problem. Some lazy play and not looking at my health bulb led to me being very surprised when the Deeds message came up on the screen. Had come back to The Cave after rescuing Cain as I wanted to mule on the Hawkmail armour before tackling Coldcrow, in the end we never did find Coldcrow.

Marita the ex-Kicker, lvl 50, NM Act 1, furthest progress Dark Woods

Oh no, not another one! I'm starting to feel like this is too hard!

[highlight]Enter Tremolo, the all-Vita Singer, and Waheed, the Desert Mercenary.[/highlight]

I gotta do it. Here goes attempt #2! /p8 for Act I. Wish me luck!

Edit:

Tremolo is currently level 8, cleared the Blood Moor, Den, and Cold Plains. Tremolo is currently level 11, cleared up to the entrance to Stony Field, minus the Crypt and Mausoleum. Off to a nice start already:

Felloak
Club
One Hand Damage: 1 - 10
Durability: 12 of 24
Required Level: 3
Fingerprint: 0xebb4a5e0
Item Level: 4 <-Can't remember ever finding a Unique this fast!
Version: Expansion 1.10+
75% Enhanced Damage
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 6 - 8 Fire Damage
Knockback
Lightning Resist +60%
Fire Resist +20%

The resists will certainly be useful!

Wow, you really are committed! Good luck on your second attempt. Pure vita is good I think, you should have a ton of life with BO. And you don't need high str gear, just enough to equip a crystal sword really.

 

[Dezrok]

Oh no, not another one! I'm starting to feel like this is too hard!

I don't think it is too hard. Azimuthus got all the way to Hell ancients before deeding and as he said himself, one extra Lum rune and he could have made Harmony rw and probably wouldn't have died. If he had of done slightly fuller clears then he would almost certainly have found that rune. My death was pretty lazy and quite unnecessary.

 

[felixbavaria1]

View attachment 1104

Normal difficulty is done (entirely at /p8). Diablo was rather tough, lots of potions needed here, could not keep the merc alive. Act V was steamrolled once Venom had reached some additional levels. Shopped 2 Magekiller's claws from Anya and made Strength in a Quhab, as well as Zephyr in a Razor Bow. Found another Amn for a second Strength claw. Baal was easy, no trip to town required. Level 17 Venom, Level 8 SM after + skills, will do some gambling and shopping before entering NM Act I.

Destroyer Cisa the Shadow Assassin and Slayer Elexa the Cold Rogue, level 48, Normal Cow level next

 

[jiansonz]

Here is Mago the Summoner Necro's first update from Nightmare. It's mostly screenies. Not too much to say about the gameplay. Basically, once his army is built every session, we're rolling over the opposition.

Oh yes, the early part of a session, when it's just me, Ajheed and a golem. It can be tricky. Take a look at this map for the session coming after this one, for example:

Tree of Inifuss right in the path. I muled in my teleport staff. I did not summon a golem right away, and with a little luck, we could sneak by Woody's pack undetected by hugging the western wall.

Not quite the shield* I seek for the Scavenger Hunt but I like the name anyway:

(* the item to look for there is a Warden's Ward or a Ward of Warding.)

The reason I was looking at shields for sale was to improve in the one item slot in Ajheed's wardrobe where there are no easy ways to get FCR or +All Skills. He now wears a 24% Chromatic Large Shield of Absorption. His last level-up took his resists to 75.

Starting to use Revives more and more. I like it, it's fun and useful. Very good in tough fights:

Even if the skeleton warriors and the golem die, I know the front will hold with such behemoths up there. Very reassuring. I think it's cool that Revived minions in a boss pack retain their bonuses. I saw this in the Sewers, where my only poison mage had gotten killed, and enemies still got poisoned. How? Revived Spectral Hit skeleton minions.

Toughest start as of yet was in Catacombs:

Went through a whole column of blues recasting golems. Bad positioning for Ajheed - he's much more effective when he's further away and out of range for his Inferno. That gets increasingly harder to arrange since his Inferno range gets ever longer.
This pack was too tough, I had to go a few screens away in another direction to get going here. Once that was done, the rest of Catacombs was really easy. Not even Champion Dark Shaman packs (that are tricky for almost any build that do not freeze every enemy) could stop us for long. The big fight was a joke:

I used IG to get a good start - it's immune to poison. Andariel chopped up one or two Afflicted first, though. That hurt her substantially, then the IG even more so. I recast a couple of fire golems to protect my mages. Four of them survived.

"WE...LIVE...AGAIN"
Yeah, good for you - not. All the more fodder for my army...

Reached level 54 and bought a Golemlord's wand with +1 Revive. Also a Necromancer's wand with 75 charges of level 2 Attract. May come in handy (although I am almost a complete noob with that skill).

Total skills are now at +7. Other than the wand improvement, I've found a Summoner's necro head. Once I got high enough in level for imbued Zombie Heads to support +2 necro skills, I used both of my imbues on such heads, but that only netted me some crap to sell.

Level 20+7 Raise Skeletal Mage gives me 11 of them.


[Highlight]Destroyer Mago the Golemancing Lord of Mages and Ajheed the Fire Mage, level 54, NM Rocky Waste next[/Highlight]

 

[bladejj]

Jiansonz - do you think your makes damage output would be more substantial if you could use lower resist, and is their damage now noticeable? Also, on an unrelated note, does the imbue take into account item level or is it just based on character level?

 

[jiansonz]

Jiansonz - do you think your makes damage output would be more substantial if you could use lower resist

Yes, of course it would. I saw this with my last LoM character. But in the late game, I did so much crowd control with my curses that LR was a luxury I rarely had time to use. That build had no Revives, though.

and is their damage now noticeable?

Yes, so far so good. They are the main damage dealers (except against act bosses where it's Thorns). In Act II Sewers, the merc could often not get a clear shot because of the narrow passages, and sometimes my meleers were blocked as well. Plus I met my first FI monster type, the fire mages. Good thing I had ~8 lightning shooters.

Also, on an unrelated note, does the imbue take into account item level or is it just based on character level?

The new item level becomes clvl+4 so the origin of the item does not matter.