The Exposure Tournament

Re: The Exposure Tournament

tartanasia said:
One question that I have is about getting the quick early mf? Im not too sure on what level/act is best for shoping gambling boots gloves and how people manage 35 mf amulets so fast etc. Any information would be great :)
Click to expand...

I have written a detailed guide about it. Hope you find what you need there.


@sequana: excellent progress for Black Death. That was a seriously scary Swampy Pit he had there!

And I completely agree about Diablo. You are never quite sure as to what he is going to do in the fight.



 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Sorry for the tardy update, got distracted by The Gathering Storm, and then The Way of Kings

Anyway, Nevermore is going well (ish!)

He has been very handicapped by terrible luck in finding weapons, and my own restrictions in build planning, but he is quite fun all the same, if a tad slow

Nevermore has now progressed to the Crystalline Passage of Act 5. I cant remember if I had already updated act 3 and 4, but essentially Sarina in act 3 was the only highlight, being surrounded by 30+ maidens aint fun. No good drops anywhere along the way.

Act 4 was OK, as Nev finally reached Geddon by killing Izual. The leaf staff he had been hoarding from act 2 has been put to great use, although mana continued to be a problem. Nev was still stuck choosing between a maul with good speed and damage or a maul with mana leech. He had to quaff potions to keep up with feral rage alone, so geddon was still for special occasions only.

Hellforge was awesome, dropping a El! On the other hand there was a perfect topaz, but because of Nev's build he isn't really suited for loading up on MF anyway, so it is stashed unless he decides to put it in a weapon.

The sanctuary was OK (p3), as feral didnt do enough damage to suicide Nev immediately, and he had the unshifting buffer as well, although it was never used. He slogged through, with the expectation this would be the slowest part of the game for him (without strong geddon or good melee weapons). Ravens continued to shine - although they didnt stop OKs doing their shooting and cursing, they shut down everything else including whole crowds of venom lords.

The seals were relatively safe, although Nev did TP out to approach the balrog one from the WP.

Diablo was fun, which should be read as SLOOOOOOW. Nev hid behind a wall and let the ravens peck him up. Patience ran out with big D half dead, and Nev decided to lay the smack down. Ate quite a few lightning hoses, but never felt too threatened. Eventually D fell, and dropped nothing of note.

Returning to p8, Nev stormed out of Harrogath and full cleared the first zone. He found a charm with AR, so hit rate went from 60ish to 75ish (I know!) and that meant leech became more consistent. Now geddon was more an everyday meal than a treat, and the fun picked up. Especially with the demon imps, which are normally annoying. Geddon just cleans em up, while Nev engages the slayers/crush beasts etc.

Nothing of real note happened leading up to the Crystalline Passage. The moon lords in Abbadon/Acheron were occasionally a bit hairy, but no real danger.

Now, on to the future! Nev has gambled at least 120 mauls, and still none with mana and speed. In exasperation he has gone down another path, and after about 45 mins of larzuk shopping found a 45ed 20ias giant axe which larzuk deigned to give 1 socket (damn it!) which now has a flawless skull in it. Speed and ML, at the cost of AR. If Larzuk had been nice and double socketed it, an Eth would have been a VEEERY tasty addition, or even a flawless amythest.

However, Nev is saving the amythests. He is one flawed amythest away from a perfect, which is sitting in his stash with a mask, a nef rune and a jewel. The resulting craft comes with 1-4% mana leech. If luck is anything to go by, it will be a terrible roll, or if it is a good roll anya will hand him an awesome visionary +lyc +feral +geddon (impossible I know!) pelt as a quest reward, negating the new helm. I still wouldn't say no, ok Anya?

I think Nev is coming into his own now, with Geddon starting to reach a healthy level (~2 shotting p8 slayers with a skill shrine and leaf staff).

I definately could have made Normal easier by playing him as a elementalist (pumping geddon synergies and less ravens) but he is a Feral Flaming Ravenlord, and to not do that justice would be a tragedy. A wolf surrounded by a geddon field and cawing death birds is quite a sight!

[highlight]Nevermore, druid, Act 5 normal, level 35? 36?. No idea on points, but will sort it out when (if) he takes Baal down[/highlight]
 
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Re: The Exposure Tournament

Well as I feared.... Will be losing Internet in following weeks. So good luck to all participants. If and when I get Internet back we all be playing D3 if my luck holds true.

I'll continue to try and get my first guardian with this tournament rules. Was fun while it last, but life is unpredictable. Happy Holidays should I not get to say so later.

As far as progress goes I should say there was some, but fate has set me back a bit as nothing seems fun anymore. What happens when you have to restart so much in one week.
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Gorm killed the Cow King and began his journey on Nightmare. Had an unusual drop from a cow in there, Tal's Ammy. With my woeful mf, it was a 1 in 2million chance, half as rare as finding a Zod and about 2million times more useless on a barb. Sigh...

Just finished rescuing Cain in NM, and my AR has reached critical mass. I have less than a 60% chance of hitting just about everything and it's really killing me. I don't leech enough, and it's frustrating whirling around whiffing and any mana burn pack takes a half hour to kill. Does anyone have any ideas or clever tricks? I have little experience with minimal dex melee chars. I'm trying to find better weapons and items with +AR, but I'm not having any luck. Ideally I'd have found and Angelic Ring and Amulet, but that ship has sailed. I'm considering using my socket quest on my weapon and slap an Eth in there or dumping my 65 free stat points into dex, but these both seem like bad short term fixes that I'll quickly regret.

[highlight]Gorm, level 49 WW Barb, Dark Woods, some points.[/highlight]
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Quick update -

Nev has taken down baal. For an unpopular, underpowered build he is starting to feel pretty solid. That axe was turning a corner, after that he crafted a mask, and then abandoned it when both a rare mana leech ring (with ar!) And a manald heal dropped. Went from 3% leech to around 12%. If only I could unsocket the axe and chuck an eth in there!

He didn't spend too much time in act 5, as his level of 39 can probably attest. Ran through a lot of areas (those ice beasts annoy me), but even gimped in level the ancients were taken down with only 8 health potions (i don't use rejuvs, never liked em) and baal only needed a single tp out. Lister was tough, but a bit of the old run in circles dropping rocks on his head cleaned him and his gang out.

Sander's wand and stoutnail are all baal dropped.

Now that normal is over I feel experienced enough to say 2 things

- high level ravens are crowd control par excellence. They do there thing while you kill. If things get tight you back out, and by the time you come back in, everyone is blind. And they look cool

- feral rage has a major gimping bug. I always thought it would be a phenomenal safety skill, and it is, if you approach it from the perspective of a caster. I have a very strong fire spell, with good life and greater than 20% leech, with a fast attack, and a fair ar boost. Consider that in comparison to a meleemancer, or meleesorc. However, the bug keeps it from being everything it could.

The bug is thus: feral rage isn't consistently fast. I have heard people mention this before, blaming a number of things, including getting put into hit recovery or maybe thee skill having a wind up. Some people felt the skill was quick with the first attack, so played with a click frenzy.

Here is the truth- if you miss with feral rage, the normal attack animation is played instead of the feral rage one. This add several frames to that attack. This is also true if you just swing at air. For Nevermore, who suffered through a lot if normal with sub 70% to hit, this means even less hits, less dps and most importantly less leech

I cant think of another skill that makes hitting this important

That said though, a high life tank with a 12 second AoE killer, passive crowd control and massive leech is pretty fun. I hate using a lot of hotkeys (which is why I hate rejuvs, have to have too much finesse choosing the right number), so being able to do everything I need with a simple weapon switch works just fine.

Charging in and calling down the fire really is a treat too.

I will try and update with stats and such tomorrow. Onward to nightmare!
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Curses! I have an ex hard drive. I periodicaly back up my characters to my gmail account, but I haven't done so since this tournament began. So Vanessa might have met her unexpected end at the Cold Plains WP.
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

soulmanz said:
(i don't use rejuvs, never liked em)
Click to expand...

If you can make a guardian without rejuves you will have my undying respect! :thumbup:

Good progress though, keep it up

Sorry about your HD Jason, I hope you can resurrect your Zon

*goes and backs up files to gmail*

It’s been a while, and Running_Scared hasn’t been getting as much face time as she would like lately, but here is a little update.

Act 4 NM: Pretty uneventful really, before heading in I sacrificed a little inventory space and mf gear to get my resists up to near perfect. Switched my amulet and boots out for vidalas, which has some good resists and 50 mf still, and something I had been really missing: FRW. The FRW certainly became more useful as I had to run more and more from things. First real problem came in the sanctuary when this guy showed up. I could break his fire immunity with my LR wand, but it was still way too high for hydras to do any real damage, so I led him up to Grand Visors seal and left him there. Then I got really worried that the same would happen to Lord De Seis, so I dropped it down to P/1 just in case, but of course he was fine since I did. Diablo was pretty easy: static and orb. No useful drops from him, not even a single unique.

Act 5: Foothills and plains were a pain, I was originally glad not to see any burning archers, but got all ranged attackers still, which is a real pain. Thresh socket got stuck on his evil urn, poor guy! Crystaline passage gifted me this lady out of an evil urn, man I hate urns! Frozen river was a pain, spawning witches, sirens, and gloams. I wasn’t respecting the witches enough, and got cursed and then let a champion one hit me, took about 700 life in one shot, Ouch!

Did some endless shopping for some better boots with a resist/luck while the portal was open, but never found anything very good. I thought these were funny, not real sure why.

First level of halls gave me flayers, which are so dang fast, I’m really glad I had my FRW from vidalas, as I was equal in speed to them with is. Next level gave me Quill rats, I really hate those, there shots are so hard to dodge and hurt pretty bad. Had a really bad NDE to an evil urn spike fiend, when these guys popped out right on top of me. Nil was pretty easy, I almost killed him before even seeing him, but he tele’d on screen right before he died. The areat plateau was probably the toughest area yet, as soon as I stepped out I was greeted by a Goat boss pack, and they were FAST! And Cold immune! And that wasn’t because of extra fast either, I had no real room to work as I had just started the level. But fortunately my LR wand took out there immunity, and then they weren’t nearly as fast. I then was able to use the pit entrance to my advantage, luring many goats to there doom there. After that it wasn’t so bad, I could cast Hydras through towers and doors, so goats were usually pretty easy to trap, I would just run around for a minute getting as many goats as I could and then tele across a wall: Goat Herding! The Icy cellar was pretty safe, giving me a good entrance and lots of good moats of coarse. I was really surprised by these guys, didn’t remember ever seeing any dolls in act 5 outside of worldstone before. Ancients were pretty simple, took my first roll as none were cold immune. Took some work to separate them , Talic spawned extra fast, and those whirls were tough to avoid, but his weapon was week and they didn’t hurt much. Hardest one was Madawc, his axes really hurt and I had to use a few purples there. I knew the next great hurdle could be the throne room entrance, and it didn’t disappoint. Got a Gloam stair trap, although it never was too dangerous, they didn’t have any terrible mods. Waves were pretty easy, I employed alternating shots of orb and Gspike on the last two waves. Worked pretty good if I didn’t have too many at once. Baal was pretty easy, and you would think that with 310 mf and a /p8 quest drop he would cough up something good right? Of course not! Got a sigon’s belt as my only S/U

Cows were also easy, started out at p3 just to be safe and then went back to p8. Cow king thought he would be funny and give me another sigons belt, great minds think alike I suppose.

Did some massive rearranging of gear before I got ready to start hell. After my forge (lum) and act 5 I ended up with 4 lums, I figured the game wanted me to make a smoke, so I did. The end result of my hell starting stats are here, with 201 mf still, so I’m pretty happy with that.

The next thing I worry about is Corpsefire, I don’t think he can spawn dual immune, but I could be wrong. The plan for hell is to stay at p/1 until I see the area monster spawns, and if it is good I will up the setting.

[highlight]Running_Scared, level 74, Hell start, 275 points[/highlight]


 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Hester completed a full clear of NM Act 1 at Players 7. Progress continued to be pretty smooth. Hester maxed out Frozen Orb and then started pumping Fireball (mostly in preparation for future CI’s). Frozen Orb continued to destroy everything in Hester’s path and kept Hester pretty safe (if they’re frozen and dead, then they can’t hurt her eh). Hester really didn’t have any monster related problems so I guess there’s not too much to share . . .

Except the drops (though they really weren’t too good). Andariel dropped some interesting looking loot . . . but the rare amulet and small charm turned out to be useless. Set/uniques were numerous (but useless) and included: Angelic Sabre (Cold Plains), Sigon’s Great Helm (Crypt), Sigon’s Gauntlets (Cave Level 1), Brainhew Great Axe (Black Marsh), Isenhart’s Breast Plate (Hole Level 1), Sander’s Heavy Gloves (Hole Level 1), Cleglaw’s Long Sword (Pit Level 2), and M’avina’s Sharkskin Belt (Pit Level 1). The Countess dropped a Ral Rune . . . handy, as Hester had started crafting caster amulets (though, without much success).

Here were Hester’s stats at the end of NM Act 1.

NM Act 2 (done at Players 7) continued to be pretty easy. Hester maxed out Fireball and then started pumping Cold Mastery. Frozen Orb (Level 20 . . . no plus skills :unimpressed: ) continued to be pretty strong and made Unravellers (my usual nemeses) pretty easy. The biggest monster related problems came from Ghouls (didn’t see that one coming). Ghouls seemed to have pretty good cold resistances and regeneration rate plus they tended to flee in different directions causing Hester to only be able to dispose of one at a time . . . and in the mean time, the others would be busy regenerating . . . and then the process would start again . . . annoying, but not a very big problem. I suppose the biggest monster related problem came from Duriel. The battle began by Duriel being hit by static field and Hester being hit by Duriel’s stunning punch combo (ouch). Hester then proceeded to run around the small chamber casting Frozen Orbs (that all badly missed the sweet spot) as Duriel chased landing punches here and there. Hester probably could have been deeded by a lucky stunning punch combo but it didn’t happen.

Duriel dropped some mostly useless loot. Other set/uniques found included: Skystrike Edge Bow (Sewers Level 1), Woestave Halberd (Sewers Level 3), Tancred’s Military Pick (Maggot Lair Level 3), Sazabi’s Basinet (Lost City), Gravenspine Bone Wand (Ancient Tunnels), Civerb’s Large Shield (Palace Cellar Level 1), The Face of Horror Mask (Palace Cellar Level 2), and Stoutnail Spiked Club (Arcane Sanctuary). Hester’s best find was a gambled circlet (+28 all resistances, magic damage reduced by 3 . . . pretty good . . . and probably going to get better via NM Larzuk . . . here’s to hoping for two sockets).

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

[highlight] Hester, Frozen Orb/TK/Fireball, Level 60, NM Kurast Docks, 201 Points [/highlight]

Code: 
Name           Character       Class       Location         Level  Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
kestegs        Running_Scared  Sorceress   H Rogue Camp       74     275
Tarantella     Uta-Refson      Necromancer H Rogue Camp       72     274
sequana        BlackDeath      Necromancer NM Harrogath       67     238
Hanshotfirst   Hester          Sorceress   NM Kurast Docks    60     201
ChrisTheMean   Scaven          Barbarian   NM Kurast Docks    59     200
ancalagon      Umbriel         Assassin    NM Kurast Docks    59     200
skoolbus       Gorm            Barbarian   NM Dark Wood       49     ???
SoulManZ       Nevermore       Druid       NM Rogue Camp      39     ???
Jason Maher    Vanessa         Amazon      Moo Moo Farm       48     136
jiansonz       Smaragd         Necromancer Harrogath          35     ???
Old Soldier    Thalestris      Amazon      Lower Kurast       30      81?
wikkid         Rabidwolfkin    Druid       Lut Gholein        24      ??
jdkerr         Kobe            Assassin    Halls of the Dead  23      50
GCanada        PoohBear        Druid       Lut Gholein        20      42
liquid_mage    Wulfgar         Barbarian   Lut Gholein        20      42
scrcrw         Nagisa          Barbarian   Lut Gholein        20      42?
Hanshotfirst   Hector          Paladin     Lut Gholein        20      42
Vang           Deadite         Barbarian   Lut Gholein        20      42?
ILikeRocks     Gragamel        Paladin     Lut Gholein        21      41
Brak           TheStreak       Paladin     Inner Cloister     19      37
CM             Lisbeth         Assassin    Inner Cloister     18      36
DaveW          Blades          Assassin    Lut Gholein        18      36
Shaandore      Irreducible     Paladin     Black Marsh        17      30
daed           Strafy          Amazon      Stony Field        12      19
wielanja       Beowulf         Barbarian   Stony Field        12      19
Sorcererbob    Cabaret         Sorceress   Stony Field        12      19
Ashmer         Fuzzy           Druid       Stony Field        12      19?
wakiki         Polemos         Barbarian   Cold Plains         7      11
Quickdeath     Limber          Amazon      Cold Plains         6       9
NightCraweler  Ragran          Barbarian   Rogue Camp          1       2
vague          Benkei          Barbarian   Rogue Camp          1       2 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
RIP: 
ChrisTheMean   TheLoner        Paladin     NM Underground P   48     148
HanShotFirst   Frost-Fang      Druid       River of Flame     33     100
Morathi        Dorian          Paladin     Flayer Dungeon     30      80
Krazy_Solo     Burn_Notice     Druid       Duriel             27      67
Morathi        Diago           Druid       False Tomb         27      ??
Krazy_Solo     Auriel          Amazon      Halls of the Dead  22      48
Krazy_Solo     Snave           Druid       Act II             21      46
Krazy_Solo     Nispart         Assassin    Andariel           20      39
GCanada        MsGarrison      Assassin    Jail               18      35
tavaritz       Boner           Necromancer Barracks           18      35
Wikkid         BloodQuencher   Barbarian   Kurast Docks       28      28
Bluechip       SeymourKrelborn Necromancer Tal Rasha's Tomb   23      23
Dark Matter    BoneyM          Necromancer Stony Field        12      20
Quickdeath     Blink           Assassin    Barracks           15      15
Vang           Leeloo          Amazon      Catacombs 3         1       2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Retired:
Dark Matter    Arthur          Barbarian   Lut Gholein        20      42
Jason Maher    Fanven          Paladin     Dark Wood          15      25
mattinm        Kamikaze        Necromancer Rogue Camp          1       2
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

thanks for updating the list Han

kestegs - I guess I can hope, but the idea of me being able to guardian this underpowered, underlevelled build with really only a single decent element is unreasonable enough, not even taking my juvphobia into account. Especially when underlevelling effects my ravens ability to blind!

Im not too hopeful I will even clear NM, but at least he is a fun build to try it with

If he drops I also have a blade sentinel/dclaw shredder at the arcane sanctuary, unless I get distracted by another tournie or a MFer.
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Ugh. Died to a bosspack of rogue archers in the tower. Mid whirl I got frozen and cursed. Never finished that whirl. It was frustrating since I didn't want to whirl there, I guess I clicked on the other side of a wall, so I was whirling for like two full seconds. I saw the death coming after about one second.

I might rejoin with a caster later. Have to see.
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Wow great updates so far everyone. I'm not having as much time to play as I would like, but I guess that's what happens when you have a full time (plus) job :whistling:

My only post was introducing Elsa, the undeclared toddler of an assassin. We she has grown up a bit and decided what path the D2 gods had for her. She was chosen to become a fire trapper that utilizes blade fury. I may put spare points in death sentry later on if fire immunes pose too much of a problem. Well anyways, Elsa had a pretty interesting childhood, her story begins in normal Act 1...

Act 1 was basically just like every other one for a starting character, fairly easy and cookie-cutter. The fun really began but putting my first 7 points into fire blast. Boy does that skill dominate early on. I had a couple very early finds that I would consider game changing:

The Gnasher
Hand Axe
One-Hand Damage: 4 to 9
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Level: 5
Axe Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 8
Fingerprint: 0x88930c39
+8 to Strength
+62% Enhanced Damage
50% Chance of Open Wounds
20% Chance of Crushing Blow

Cleglaw's Pincers
Chain Gloves
Defense: 8
Durability: 10 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 4
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 14
Fingerprint: 0xabd8d5f8
Knockback
Slows Target by 25%


Those two items coupled with Blade Fury will be able to take down almost every unique in the game that is capable of being knocked back (a vast majority). Here is my main strategy is to heard groups together, set up multiple fire traps, cast cloak of shadows, (later in the game I will make liberal use of mind blast to help combat unique that can't be blinded), then use blade fury to finish them off. Fire immunes will will be taken care of my cloak of shadows, blade fury and possibility death sentry, but that last one is a big maybe. I don't want to sacrifice any of my fire skills damage or my survival skills.

I did have a couple questions to those more experienced in assassins.

1) What do you think the ideal level for cloak of shadows is? I know there is some timing but that's the extent of my knowledge.

2) Is there any reason to boost burst of speed or fade past level 1? I figure that plus skills will be able to get them up to a respectable level.


Also, I figured I also show off two more things Elsa fell in love with at first sight...

Leaf
Battle Staff
'TirRal'
Two-Hand Damage: 6 to 13
Cold Resist +33%
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+3 to Warmth (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Inferno (Sorceress Only)
+2 to Blaze (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Fire Bolt (Sorceress Only)
150% Damage to Undead
+3 to Fire Skills
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
+2 to Defense (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Raven Loop Ring
Fire Resist +9%
Lightning Resist +11%
4% Life stolen per hit
14% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

[highlight]Elsa, Fire Trap/Blade Fury Assassin, Level 28, Kurast Docks, ?? Points[/highlight]
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

To give some input on your questions:

1. I think level 1 cos is just fine, I Guardianed a Sin in the Gold Diggers tourney and had a skill level 1 (not even any plus skills) and I never thought it needed anything more.

2. I see no reason for you to use BoS except for shrine effects, since BF has a fixed frame attack. I guess it effects trap laying, but I don't find that that important.
Fade has a hidden 1% per hard point invested to physical damage reduction (not sure if you knew that) So any extra points are always welcomed there, but any level past 11 only nets you a 1% resist all gain on average, so not the best investment. I put 10 hard points in it on my last sin, but I could afford the points.

That Gnasher is a nice a nice little weapon, not sure I've ever seen one drop before, and Cleglaws are awesome for you as well, best of luck, It's a very viable build. The only downfall to BF is it based on your AR, so keep all of those AR charms for later.
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

bladejj said:
1) What do you think the ideal level for cloak of shadows is? I know there is some timing but that's the extent of my knowledge.
Click to expand...

Depends on how strong the character is. Usually, if you kill fast, you want level 1 (in fact, sometimes you even wish that +skills didn´t work with it!). The reason is that you can´t cast a new CoS until the old one has timed out. So if you have woken up some monsters that were outside the AoE when it was cast, you can´t affrect them with it for a while.

If you are a slow killer that needs to spend a long time killing a mob, you want a higher level so you don´t need to recast it as much. Monster Defense drops more with a higher level also.


bladejj said:
2) Is there any reason to boost burst of speed or fade past level 1? I figure that plus skills will be able to get them up to a respectable level.
Click to expand...

I have put a couple of points in Fade in the tournies with more severe item restrictions than this one (like Gold Diggers, Green with Envy and Bounty Hunter´s Heaven) where it was hard to get enough resists gear.



 
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Re: The Exposure Tournament

Blade, I think I will disagree with the others here. Especially using the gnasher (no claw mastery) you are really gonna struggle to hit with blade fury.

Cloak reaches greater than 90% reduced enemy defense at high levels. You can hit anything.

And while the blind doesn't work on bosses, the -def does.

Put it like this, you can have level 1 cos, and points for venom (cos you can't have a shadow anyway), giving you a bit of extra damage, and have to sink a fair number of points in dex, with no shield to benefit from it

Or

You can pump cos, never worry about hitting, pump vit, and still max your fire traps and fade. I would aim for at least 10 hard points, 15 if you can. Because you are using crushing blow you don't need any additional points in fury (ie 1 point only)

1 point cos is great, but in this setting I say boost it. Is having to wait 30sec to use it again that big an imposition? Just round up the next big mob to blind

I do agree on burst of speed though, you don't need it

edit: just realised an error - I'm pretty sure the AR of claw mastery doesnt work with fury anyway, so even if you were using claws I would pump CoS. Think of all the things you dont need to find in untwinked gear - heaps of AR, resists, DR%, IAS. All of those slots can now be safety - stacked res, vit/life/PDR or whatever, and it probably only costs you 10 skill points!

I actually want to play a similar character, sounds fun. I love fire traps! - if Nev carks it I will leave my shredder and start one of these!
 
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Re: The Exposure Tournament

Thanks you all for the great advice. My current plan is to keep both Fade (which is what I will be using 99.9% of the time in NM and hell) and CoS at 1 and I can always ramp it up if need be. Maybe I'll consider get Fade up to level 10 or so to get the added damage reduction, that definitely would come in handy against hard hitting bosses that can't be blinded.

Another question came to mind, do you guys think that Death Sentry at level 10-20 would work well as a means of corpse disposal against fire immunes? My plan is not to kill FI's with the lightning damage (it would be unsynergized and quite weak anyway), I can do that with Blades of Fury, but the corpse explosion will come in very handy. Also keep in mind that I plan on using two +2 assassin skill claws to help boost the level of all my skills. Will the AoE be large enough to do some decent damage?
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

if it is just corpse clearing, then 1 point is fine. You already have fireblast up, so DS will get more shots, and more points wont improve that.

10 points covers about half the screen (6 yards), which is a good amount. At players 1 in hell, you should be doing about 40% monster life per corpse vs fire immunes (as half of the 80% damage is physical).

as a bonus those 10 points will boost your wake of inferno, for tough bosses.

not gonna beat a dead horse here re:CoS, but your safety in hell will be dependant on 1 thing - hitting for knockback. No tank, no shield, and no blind vs bosses/champions. I guess there might be other ways around it, but none are appetising if the boss is FI. I guess you have a long time to consider it though, just dont be afraid to pump it, most people just have an irrational hatred of the increased length
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

Assuming I get to Hell, I plan on setting the players setting to as high as I can handle, probably around 3-7 depending on how many FI's are in the area. So I'm thinking it might be wise to pump Death Sentry a bit to help me out.

You do make a good point about AR and CoS though. My plans is to using the two claws to lay the traps and cast CoS and maybe Mind Blast, then switch to a two handed big hurty stick of some kind. Hopefully I can find a weapon (or find the runes for crescent moon) with Ignores Target Defense. Does that mod work with Blade Fury? I'm not the most familiar with this game because it's been awhile, but ITD doesn't work against uniques or bosses, correct?

Here is my planned skill allocation (which is highly susceptible to change):

*Assuming +6 to all skills (should be easy to attain with dual claws and a decent amulet).

Shadow Disciplines:

Everything except Summons and Venom - 1 point (5 total points)
Cloak of Shadows - 5 (*Duration: 18 seconds, Defense Bonus: +40 percent, Enemy Defense: -45 percent)
Fade - 5 (*56% resist all, 5% damage reduction)

Traps:

Fireblast - 20
Wake of Inferno - 20 (*424-487 damage, 5 shots) **main skill**
Wake of Fire - 20 (*1662-1887 damage, 10 shots)
Death Sentry - 10 (*8.3 yard radius, shoots 11 times, 1-244 damage)
Blade Fury - 1
Prerequisites - 4


That brings me up to 90 used skills. Assuming I play Normal and NM all at players 8, can someone help me remember when exactly in the game I will be at that point. Any remaining points can be placed in CoS for more -enemy defense or in Death Sentry for extra AoE.

So any thoughts?
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

pretty close to how I would do it honestly. You should have enough killpower without boosting DS through normal/nm, so at that stage see how well you are hitting, and decide on more CoS or more DS.

To actually get to 90 skills you will be into hell I would think, act 2 at the earliest. you would need to be level 80 at that point, so perhaps that is too optimistic?
 
Re: The Exposure Tournament

bladejj said:
That brings me up to 90 used skills. Assuming I play Normal and NM all at players 8, can someone help me remember when exactly in the game I will be at that point.
Click to expand...

Assuming you are past Radament, you need to be level 81 (80 skill points from level-ups and 10 from quest rewards). A /p8 full clear of Normal and NM and then /p3 in Hell gets you there a bit into Act II. I always end Act II at level 83 with that players setting setup.



 
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