The Grail Grail

[Pb_pal]

Thread originally posted by @purplelocust on April 28, 2010. I have amended it to include additional grails.


The Grail Grail

There are many objectives in our D2 play and many different ways of measuring and keeping track of progress. Some of us enjoy "grails" of various sorts, where we try to tick off objectives from a list, with the idea of eventually completing them or at least making good progress on them.

Some of the grails are serious endeavors, and some are more lighthearted.

Since there are so many various grails, that suggests that we should have a Grail consisting of the various grails. Here is a proposed list:

• Item Grail The most famous and widely-sought grail: the object is to find every set and unique item possible in the game.
• Ethereal Grail Similar to the item grail, but only keeping track of ethereal items.
• Perfect Grail Many set and unique items have variable parameters, and the perfection of an item is measured against the best possible version of the item. The perfect grail keeps track of progress toward having perfect items of each possible type.
• Ormus' grail Ormus' Robes come in many varieties, and this grail is to collect one of each possible +3 sorc skill available.
• Cathan's ilvl Grail Everyone is tired of having the set Cathan's ring drop, but some like to keep track of the ilvls of their Cathan's Seals in a effort to get one of each possible ilvl
• Staffmod Grail This demented quest is to get items with +3 to every possible skill in the game as staffmods.
• Runeword Grail The object here is to collect items and runes to make every possible runeword in the game. The much greater availability of high runes in 1.13 makes this goal more feasible than in earlier versions.
• Failed Grail Getting a failed unique or set TC87 item is annoying, as one thinks about what might have been. The failed grail celebrates these failures by trying to get one for each possible item type.
• Grail of Steel Steel is a cheap runeword, so why not try to make it in every possible item type and keep track?
• Title Grail The object here is not collecting items, but characters. Specifically, to get characters with every possible title (King/Queen/Matriarch/etc.)
• Jewel Collector's Grail The object is to collect one jewel with every single name combination out there. Magic, rare, and Unique.
• Zod God Grail The object is to have the best elite ethereal item socketed with a Zod.
• El Mortal Grail The object is to have perfectly bad uniques socketed with an El.

For each, there is generally a natural way of keeping score- either in terms of the missing ones (-3 means 3 to go) or in terms of the number collected. I haven't entered all of the grails and I'm overdue for updates on several of them, but here is a possible table format to keep track.

Player        |  Item   Eth    Perf   Ormus  Cathans  Staff Runeword  Steel  Failed Title
--------------+-------+-----+---------+-----+-------+------|---------+------+-----+---------+
purplelocust  |    -3 |     |   86.2  | all |   26  | -135 |         |      |     |  all HC |

Suggestions, comments, additions are welcome!

 

[Pb_pal]

Re: The Grail Grail

I would like to be the first to say that, while I do not currently feel the need to add myself to this specific grail grail, I will be diligently pursuing a grail consisting of all grail grails I am capable of finding.

Incidentally, the institution at which I work has a non-ironic committee on committees. My suggestions to form a committee to discuss the findings of the previous committee have not yet led to any appreciable results.

-CG

Re: The Grail Grail

Well... it has finally happened. The meta-graal (I claim dibs on the name) is the nost insane thing ever happened on this forum.

Re: The Grail Grail

I prefer the name Ubergrail.

Re: The Grail Grail

I think some of these are a bit lame. A grail is no good unless there is a reasonable chance of finishing it. Most of these have been finished or are possible to, and a lot of these will actually help your playing experience/fun.

I can't say I've heard of the cathan grail, but the idea of farming say act 3 NM trying to get a mid range cathans sounds like grind for the sake of grind

Perfect grail is basically impossible, have you looked at the range of mods on a Goldstrike arch?

I propose a new table, the Ubergrail Lite, all the grails worth doing minus the boring/almost impossible ones. I'm actively going for 5 of the 10 listed, and might pick up another 3.

Re: The Grail Grail

I doubt the near-impossible ones were meant to be grinded for. I like to call them casual grails. It lessens the disappointment for getting that same old item you've gotten so many times before, but with better stats this time or a new ilvl.
I wouldn't wish cathan ilvl grind on my worst enemy :/

Re: The Grail Grail

I thought of one I'm very actively involved in but not mentioned. Away from items for a change, build all the builds worth building. Everything from your easy cheese of skellymancer, hammderin, blizz sorc, through to the fireclaws bear, phoenix striker, and through to the more challenging ones like melee mancers, zealzons etc lol

Obviously the list is subjective but maybe if you were to say 80 different builds (and no respeccing a mat/pat to say, and here is steve the zealot, then shaun the smiter.

Re: The Grail Grail

I like the Idea for Build Grail, as it allows completing the grail with hard work instead of randomly picking items. If this would be made official grail, comittee of some sort should list all the builds/variatins required for completing the grail, and also make some core rules (level 80/85?, must defeat Hell Baal etc.). Personally, if this would be untwinked, I think I would pass serious commitment to this grail, but if transferring of items would be allowed, I'd go for it (untwinked fire trapper/Zeal barb? No way I'm going to play these untwinked).

Re: The Grail Grail

I love the idea of a grail-grail, but as previously stated some of those seem a little silly!

I re-suggested the grail-lite!

Furthermore to build on the character grail, perhaps there is a call for a main-skill-grail? Similar to NF's sept-sept, perhaps somebody could embark on using every skill as their main for each class? Or even for one class as a -lite version. Who wants to go first at Pat'ing 30 necros? I'll cheer you on, promise.

Re: The Grail Grail

Yeah, build wise don't forget things like a bear sorc, wolf barb, that type of thing would be just plain grind if you did untwinked, pretty much impossible for a single pass play style. I'm away for 2 days but I'll share my list of carcs. Looking at guides/mat/pat/guardian threads you'll soon find all the builds worth playing. Get the committee to decide which are eccentric vs essential.

Re: The Grail Grail

All this thread does is remind me of the failed grail grailers I've thrown away Time to start collecting again I suppose.

Re: The Grail Grail

There are some silly goals there, but the point is that each of us can pick and choose what we are interested in! I wasn't too interested, at first, in the Cathan's ilvl grail, for example, but it is a nice thing to make slow progress on when questing characters through the game. For me, it gave me a reason to be excited from time to time when a set ring dropped somewhere in the game or when one pops out of a high-level gamble. I don't think anyone is actively trying to complete that grail systematically. The 100% perfect grail is obviously unobtainable, but it does give a reason to pick up and inspect items that usually may have been left on the ground. At least for some of us! For me, unfortunately the recording of the perfection scores is pretty tedious so I haven't updated that in a while.

For some kind of Build Grail, there are a lot of possibilities. And there is the Septivariate, which is kind of a Guardian class grail. And there is Nightfish's 7 x 7 Guardian builds, which would be a huge endeavor, of course.

There are also many other possible item- and character-based grails. One I have been working on is to have a collection of characters use every item in the game- at least for one complete level. I just did that for torso armors, shields and one-handed blunt weapons with MakeMake. Perhaps a more modest goal on that front would be to have characters wield every TC87 set and unique for a level. (There are some not-particularly useful items in there!)

Some of these goals are mainly for comedy/entertainment value and some are more useful, but to each his or her own!

Re: The Grail Grail

I haven't started a grail thread for this one yet, but I am collecting ethereal items with an auto-repair or auto-replenish mod with indeed the goal of having one of each type.

Re: The Grail Grail

Some long-overdue updates on these grail counts:

Player        |  Item   Eth    Perf   Ormus  Cathans  Staff Runeword  Steel  Failed Title
--------------+-------+-----+---------+-----+-------+------|---------+------+-----+---------+
purplelocust  |    -3 |     |   86.2  | all |   37  |  -3 |         |      |     |  all HC |

Re: The Grail Grail

At pharphis' suggestion, I just added the Zod God Grail to the list!

Re: The Grail Grail

I have planned to make a thread for this but hasn't yet - the rare/crafted item name grail. The goal is to collect every possible combo of these two-part names. The first part of the name is (as far as I know) completely random but the second part is random within a smaller group of names specific to the main item type. For example, boots are named -Shank, -Track, -Slippers, etc.

I suggest a spreadsheet for each item type that is a matrix with the possible names (I do not know where but I am sure I have read these somewhere), and then one could just mark the cells with an X as the finds roll in.

Re: The Grail Grail

that's a sweet idea

Re: The Grail Grail

(I do not know where but I am sure I have read these somewhere)

I think I know where you can find all of the names (although not specified on which item type they can spawn) , but it's not exactly a legit thingy on these forums, PM if you're interested.

Re: The Grail Grail

I found info about it here. Looks like some surnames can occur in more than one category. For example, 'Cry' can be a name both for a wand and a staff but there are also some that are specific to wands and to staves.

There is no info about rare jewels, but I think (from experience) that they are the same as for amulets.

EDIT: looks like it is not quite complete. I see no Master among the rings. I know there is one because I have saved a 'Death Master' ring for the fourmite with that particular name.

 

[Pb_pal]

Here is an up-to-date table for anyone moving forward:

Player        |  Item   Eth    Perf   Ormus  Cathans  Staff Runeword  Steel  Failed Title
--------------+-------+-----+---------+-----+-------+------|---------+------+-----+---------+
purplelocust  |    -3 |     |   86.2  | all |   37  |  -3 |         |      |     |  all HC |