The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

[Liquid_Evil]

The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

[highlight]The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch[/highlight]

By clicking on this thread, you have just been entered in a drawing for a lifetime supply of pwn. That’s right! Now it’s time to don your goggles and adjust your rubber diaper because you’re about to be submerged in a thread of liquid awesome. Drop the kids off at grandma’s, shelve that homework for another day, and let someone else worry about cleaning the hamster cage—you’ve got a thread to read!

Melodramatic/Unnecessary Introduction
Gabriel’s trumpet blared triumphantly which signaled that the time of the Horsemen was at hand. As decreed from on high, five warriors were issued forth to ravage the land, ending not only all who opposed them, but the very world itself. Even the fiercest demons spilling over from Hell were no match for the riders. Because their success was preordained, they struck swiftly and without mercy until at last, the entirety of the planet’s evil was left vanquished…Vanquished and lying motionless in a puddle of its own blood and urine. *cue guitar solo* Ahhh yeah.

TLR Intro
To the uninitiated, this is a x5 Patriarch thread highlighting our interpretations of the biblical Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

“Revelation 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell and Heather followed with him.â€

Introductions are in order. Let’s meet the players behind the pwntacular personas.

HORSEMAN         PLAYER
War              Zylo
Famine           Liquid Evil
Death            Ohomemgrande
Pestilence       scottee
Conquest         smilts

What were the builds and themes?

NAME		COLOR				REQ.  EQUIP	    BUILD	
War		Red (“of whale†armor suffix)	2-hand sword  Zeal Paladin
Famine		Fur             		N/A	      Maul/Hunger Bear
Death		Black (Corpsemourn, Nat’s helm)	Scythe	      Whirlwind Barb
Pestilence 	Green (Vampgaze, Templar’s M.)	N/A	      Poison Necro
Conquest	White (Toothrow, Cerebus)	Bow	      Hunter Druid

Did your group have any stipulations?
This was the Horsemen code:
-No teleport. We ride together.
-No shields. We do not fear death. He’s on our team. (*However, Pestilence may use a shrunken head)
-No mercenaries.** We only need each other. (**However, Conquest can have one as part of his summoned beast package)
-Complete all quests. We are thorough.
-FAM mod status. We are not vanilla.
-Softcore. We don’t fear death, but we do fear ping.
-We’ll finish when we’ve killed Hell Baal.
-We’ll keep in the appropriate color scheme with our helm and armors.

Interesting, but isn’t there supposed to be just four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
This is part of the artistic liberties I took with the group. There is some dispute regarding Pestilence and Conquest and which one should rightly occupy a “Four Horseman of the Apocalypse†spot, but I figured we might as well roll with an extra guy just to keep all the bases covered. So yeah, our Four Horsemen team was so badass that we need five of ‘em. Believe it.

How long did this project last?
We started on September 13, 2009 and the group was officially concluded on December 6, 2009. We usually gamed for about two hours every Sunday, but there were a couple of cancellations. All in all, I believe there was a total of ten gaming sessions or about ~20 hours per character to quest through the game, reach Pat status, and level into the 70’s and 80’s.

Enough foreplay. Let’s see these Horsemen!

War the Zealot
You can’t have “awe-inspiring†without War.
SKILLS
20 Zeal
20 Sacrafice
20 Blessed Aim
20 Fanaticism
1 Vigor

GEAR
Helm: Artisan’s Great Helm of the Mammoth
Weapon: .07 “Oath†Colossus Blade
Armor: Jeweler’s Full Plate Mail of the Centaur
Amulet: Highlord’s Wrath
Gloves: Immortal King’s Forge
Belt: Immortal King’s Detail
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Rare w/ dual stats and resists
Boots: Gore Rider
Weapon Switch: Demon Limb

Famine the Maul/Hunger Werebear
Napkins not included.
SKILLS
20 Lycanthropy
20 Werebear
20 Maul
20 Heart of Wolverine
7 Shock Wave
2 Raven
3 Hunger

GEAR
Helm: Famine’s Imp Shell
Weapon: Death’s Tomb Reaver
Armor: “Fortitude†Archon
Amulet: Highlord’s Wrath
Gloves: Conquest’s Laying of Hands
Belt: Pestilence’s Skull Buckle
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Rare Dual Leech
Boots: War’s Gore Riders
Weapon switch: Beta “Crescent Moon†Phaser + “Spirit†Monarch
Charms: Spiritual, Steel, & Shimmering
*Famine donned the entire Horsemen of the Apocalypse item set, for a complete set bonus of +1 to overall awesomeness, and 5% Chance to cast level 19 pwn on striking.

Death the Whirlwind Barbarian
Our resident man in black.
SKILLS
20 Whirlwind
20 Pole Arm Mastery
20 Battle Orders
4 Natural Resist
3 Grim Ward
1 Berserk, Leap, Battle Command
1 Iron Skin, Increased Speed
11 prereq’s

GEAR
Helm: Natalya’s Totem
Weapon: The Reaper’s Toll
Armor: Corpsemourn
Amulet: Crescent Moon or Highlord’s Wrath
Gloves: Immortal King’s Forge
Belt: Immortal King’s Detail
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Rare (+27AR/+6%LL/+17life/+29mana/+29%CR)
Boots: Immortal King’s Pillar
Weapon switch: N/A

Commentary from Ohomemgrande: “Normal was fun with all of the taunting and getting to use those nifty utility Barb skills. Nightmare was nice until the later acts when my exceptional scythe (Athena’s Wrath) started to feel underpowered. Once I was able to equip Reaper's Toll, things picked up. Hell wasn’t too bad but it was pretty tough to solo when I had to catch up. When we were in party mode, Death took advantage of other folk’s auras and provided the BC/BO/Shout to buff up the team.â€

Pestilence the Poison Nova Necromancer
Cover your mouth or we’re all going to catch it.
SKILLS
20 Poison Dagger
20 Poison Explosion
20 Poison Nova
11 Corpse Explosion
4 Dim Vision
3 Lower Resist
Clay Golem, Golem Mastery, Summon Resist:1 each (For solo play times)

GEAR
Helm: Vampire Gaze
Weapon: Death’s Web
Shield: Trang-Oul’s Wing
Armor: Templar’s Might
Ammy: Mara’s Kaleidoscope (26)
Gloves: Trang-Oul’s Claws
Belt: Trang-Oul’s Girth
Ring 1: SoJ
Ring 2: very random rare /w life, AR, GF, and FR
Boots: Silkweaves
Weapon switch: N/A
Charms: 2 PnB, the rest strength to help wear that Templar's

Commentary from scottee: “This character died more than any other character I have ever played, including my very first barb ever who had points in every single skill (except BO ) and as many points in energy as vita. The combination of putting a ton of points into strength to equip the Templar's Might, the lack of meat shields (except for Famine, oddly enough ) and lag meant that I spent more time running away from things than trying to poison them. I still died, even with the running away. I hated missing a session, because that meant that I was going around with my one-point clay golem and a badly under-leveled merc as my protection.â€

scottee’s thoughts continued:

Spoiler

“Since the gear that Pestilence used has significantly less in the way of +skills than you would usually find on a poisonmancer, I found his damage to be underwhelming when we hit hell. In fact, for the last four acts I was basically just a walking curse machine. Amp, Dim Vision, Life Tap, and Decrepify all were used much more often than lower resist. I actually ended up wishing I had taken those points from Corpse Explosion and put them into curses instead.

Although Pestilence was not the dominating presence that I've usually seen from my past poisonmancers, this was a very fun game to play. With my fragility, I often felt like the skinny kid from down the street, tagging after the big kids, running frantically to catch up whenever they got more than a screen away from me. Fortunately, the other guys did a pretty darn good job of keeping the heat off of me.

What I will remember most about this: Probably the sheer number of times War died... it was, somehow, very fitting. At the same time, seeing "War was slain by..." roll across my screen three times in quick succession nearly had me falling out of my chair laughing. Hm, maybe you had to be there- it was funny, I swear it was!â€

Conquest the Hunter/Summoner
Not just another bedpost notch.
SKILLS
4 Ravens
20 Spirit Wolves
20 Dire Wolves
20 Grizzly
5 Spirit of Barbs
15 Carrion Vine
3 prereq’s

GEAR
Helm: Cerebus’ Bite
Weapon: Windforce s/Shael
Armor: Toothrow
Amulet: Mara’s Kaleidoscope
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Belt: Credendum
Ring 1: Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band
Ring 2: Raven Frost
Boots: Natalya’s Soul
Weapon switch: N/A
Charms: Trainer’s

Nicely done, but how was the trip through the game?
This slew of scrumptious screenshots showing our super sweet spree should help you see:
SS01, SS02, SS03, SS04, SS05, SS06, SS07, SS08, SS09, SS10, SS11, SS12, SS13, SS14, SS15, SS16, SS17, SS18, SS19, SS20, SS21, SS22, SS22, SS23, SS24, SS25, SS26, SS27, SS28, SS29, SS30, SS31, SS32, SS33, SS34, SS35, SS36, SS37, SS38, SS39, SS40, SS41, SS42, SS43, SS44, SS45, SS46, SS46, SS47, SS48, SS49, SS50, SS51, SS52, SS53, SS54, SS55, SS56, SS57, SS58, SS59, SS60, SS61, SS62, SS63, SS64, SS65, SS66, SS67, SS68, SS69, SS70, SS71, SS72, SS73, SS74, SS75, SS76, SS77, SS78, SS79, SS80, SS81, SS82, SS83.

(For screenshot context and first person accounts of the characters, see our original update thread)

…and here’s two bonus video compilations further documenting the devastation:
VIDEO1
VIDEO 2

Wow. If screenshots were gold, you would be Fort Knox.
Aye, and if screenshots were dolphins, I could build a ladder to the moon.

Um…Right then. All tomfoolery aside, I hope you didn’t expect me to click on all of those.
Ah ha, but you will! I counted on your laziness and hid an Easter egg among the shots. Now you’ll be consumed by curiosity and spend the better part of your afternoon opening indiscriminate imageshack screenies of epic Horsemen scenes in a panicked effort to find it! Check and mate.

Damn you.
You’re welcome.

Any thoughts you’d like to leave us or random threats you’d like to issue?
-Here’s a Pat screenie. You’ll notice that Cain is sportin’ a helmet. Zylo showed me this trick—if you save and exit with an item on your cursor after you defeat Baal for the first time, you’ll have said item as your cursor for the final Slayer/Champion/Patriarch image.
-Here’s a cheese doodle MS Paint scene I did for the MS Paint Diablo thread. I don’t claim to be an artist. I claim to be a badass. Unsubstantiated FTW.
-I wasn’t the only one who made use of the under-utilized personalization quest rewards. Here Death had some fun with a couple of his.
-Future plans? Who knows what I’ll be up to next.

Anyone you’d like to thank?
Yes, several people. Thanks to…
-Our European MP group counterparts: nepeta, skiffcz, Spudnik, and Jae. I loved your theme and maybe one day it will get an injection of encouragement and you’ll get to see the Sins finish the game.
-Anyone that read along in the update thread or offered encouragement along the way: JoeBruce, UllaV, maxicek, Ragnarod, Paradigm, mn4nu, Ashmer, Timinator, Sssith, FrolfFreak, and many others.
-NacRuno for including MP groups into the Pat/Mat Compilation thread. That thing is like a virginal white wall and I’m the only one standing around in graffiti scrubs holding a can of spray paint.
-Ray Patean, bassen, and Serdash for various wares. Scottee thanks Zylo, Cygnus, and Fabian for some choice items as well.
-My esteemed group of colleagues: Ohomemgrande, scottee, Zylo, and smilts. Without these guys, the Horsemen wouldn’t have been capable of such apocalyptic levels of awesome. Kudos again.

TLR Conclusion
Not this time. In fact, Bubbles the attack primate is trained to gnaw the faces off of those that have merely skimmed. Maybe just one more quick perusal is in order? No? Well then perhaps he may be satiated with a comment. Don’t be just another faceless forumite; the first few to post get Horsemen-inspired bumper stickers.

 

[smilts]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

All I know since there seems to be a lack of thoughts from, well me. I had a good time I may not have been the toughest horseman but I'm the shiniest. I love hunters but they have a decided weakness, there animals! No really great time and nice thread thnx Liquid for the experience...

 

[EightDigitSin]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Congratulations!!! It was a fun read and I'm sure it was even more fun gaming with that party. Anymore themed MP groups are in planning stage, Liq?

 

[Twoflower]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Interesting, but isn’t there supposed to be just four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

If you read Terry Pratchett, there are actualy several apocalypses on the Discworld. All the times it got of course saved in the last second. But more interesting, all times there were 5 riders.

Spoiler

The Horsemen of the Apocralypse

Besides Death, the Horseman of the Apocralypse are War, Famine and Pestilence (and, originally, Kaos). Like Death (and many other anthropomorphic personifications) they have developed beyond their roles. They make a brief appearance in The Light Fantastic and subsequently have more significant roles in Sourcery and Thief of Time. War and his children also make an appearance in Interesting Times.

* War is an overly jolly and enthusiastic man, something like the less sadistic kind of gym teacher, in red armour. He is married to a former Valkyrie, who does his thinking for him. They have two sons (Terror and Panic) and one daughter (Clancy)[1]. Clancy appears to be about seven years old, and wears a hard hat and a Pony Club badge. (Terror and Panic are obviously the Discworld versions of Phobos and Deimos, in which case Clancy might be Harmonia). Clancy may also be a reference to the American author Tom Clancy, whose novels often focus on military matters.

* Famine is, as his name suggests, permanently hungry (or at least, permanently eating, although this may be merely to ensure others go hungry). While he enjoys good food, he also enjoys salad cream sandwiches. Amongst the personality traits he has picked up from humans is arrogance.

* Pestilence's sense of self has led to a sense of self-preservation. Beyond that, his most notable personality trait is an annoyance with soap, although he likes hospitals, which gather sick people together. In early appearances he spoke in italics (representing a voice that sounds contagious), but this was dropped by Thief of Time.



An anthropomorphic personification of Chaos, originally spelled with a "K". Fifth horseman of the Apocralypse who left before they became famous (a play on the fifth Beatle), known for his disruptive behavior whenever the horsemen attempted to interact with mortals, a parody of various stories of temperamental rock stars. Rides a chariot rather than a horse and wields a sword so cold that it has negative heat – it radiates cold, symbolizing in general Kaos' power to reverse entropy and violate laws of probability.

His abandonment of the Four Horsemen coincided with a decreasing sense among humans of the nature of the unpredictable Kaos from which the universe sprang as their world became increasingly civilized. He was persuaded to return to power in a new form by Lu-Tze, one of "his creatures" (an individual naturally defiant of odds and of the way things ought to go), after learning how to exist in a symbiotic rather than hostile relationship with order, and also that the vastly increasing complexity of civilization and laws only made their effects more widespread and unpredictable. In Thief of Time, he changes from the ancient Kaos of old to a slicker, altogether more modern and mathematically complex Chaos (Pratchett uses the butterfly effect and fractals as recurring themes leading up to this). His intervention is decisive in giving the other four horsemen the power to defeat the "overwhelming odds" of the Auditors, for whom he holds a special hatred and whom he refers to as "The Law".

When not heralding the destruction of all that is (or saving it from the Auditors), he runs a very fine dairy, using his super-cold sword (which is so cold that he is considering expanding to ice cream to keep things from getting too cold) and his ability to move outside of time to be able to sell any dairy product in existence (derived from any species' milk, including alligator), perfectly fresh, perfectly cold, and always arriving at precisely 7:00 a.m. simultaneously at every household in the city to sell his wares. Known for being the only person punctual enough to please Jeremy Clockson's preternatural awareness of time.

Anyway, nice write up and it sure looks like you had tons of fun bashing the forces of evil I will klick all the screenshots and look for the easter egg some other time though.

edit 23:28 : yay i found it nice screenies

 

[skiffcz]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

My hunger was not extinguished!

obligatory

Also, you own me. Roll of toilet paper I just used wiping all the legendary ejaculated from the screen. GG!

 

[NacRuno]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Congrats to all members of the horseman. You definitely seem to have enjoyed yourselves. And a very well written and entertaining write up as always Liq. Hope to see more of your themed MP projects at work, the MP compilation is all yours

I think finishing such a big MP project in 2.5 mounths is praiseworthy by itself. You seem to have done a good job as the whip cracker Liq.

All the screenshots are great (yeah, i found the easter, i am special). When i clicked on Conquest's character info SS, i though he was riding a white horse for a second. But your MSpaint work is the best.

Masterfully done Horsemen :thumbsup:

:honks:

Edit @Pyro: Sorry to burst your bubble but i am quite sure that is not the easter. You will feel special when you find the real one =)p

 

[Pyrohemia1]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

-Here’s a Pat screenie. You’ll notice that Cain is sportin’ a helmet. Zylo showed me this trick—if you save and exit with an item on your cursor after you defeat Baal for the first time, you’ll have said item as your cursor for the final Slayer/Champion/Patriarch image.

What's this 'Shepherd' doing here and why didn't the horsemen of the apocalypse grind him up for dog food and feast on his sheep? :wink:

Is this supposed to be an easter egg? That's clearly the runt of the easter bunny colony.

You can keep your lifetime supply of pwn because I'm allergic to small fry. :evil:

Edit: Next time you try this 'Easter Egg' among 50 screen shots, you should name the images in a boring fashion so the Easter Egg can't be sifted out by mousing over the links and looking at the status bar. :girly:

 

[nepeta]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Congratulations everyone! Seems like a cute quintet of nasty bastards to meet on a dark sunday evening on the moor

 

[Paradigmshift]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Congrats on the Pat'ing of the Horsemen. I thoroughly enjoyed following the progress of the group in the update thread and then seeing the finished product here. I was lame and found the screenshot the hardway...

Multiplay is great and I bet it's even better with a theme such as this and quality people to multiplay with. Ok, sucking up is over now...

Overall, was the gameplay better doing this theme in a group setting vs normal questing with others in random mp games? Or is there really no difference?

 

[Serdash]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

GG Liq, although really you could've been a lot more stylish with the rares, IMO. Sure the uniques and runewords give you all the overpowered win of piledriving a shark, the uniques and runewords become predictable. I mean come on, Tomb Reaver? AGAIN? Don't start failing now, Liq, you've come so far.

EDIT:
GG to everyone else as well, but Liq is the only one I expected anything from. You other guys are just regular nubs so I can't say I expected style out of you.

Except maybe Zylo.

But we all know he's as bad as the rest of them.

 

[maareek]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

pwn

Oh Liq, you shouldn't have! You knew I'd been wanting an occasion to wear my pink dress and pearls and here it is for Christmas! Makes me feel good I got you sorceress lessons for the holiday.

Pestilence is the sexiest looking char, but I have to admit Conquest is seriously stylin with the all white. Nice bringing together of the theme on everybody's part.

I looked at all the pics and found the egg(s). Then I made an omelet and came back for the vids.

Nice writeup, great theme, but I think the ladies might have cause to grumble about Heather being their sole representation.

BTW, I wish I had read the last paragraph before gobbling up this whole thing. Bubbles doesn't look so tough. Congrats, all of you!

 

[Ragnarod]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Great writeup as always Liq, congrats to all of you for carrying on with such a great MP group idea :thumbup:

 

[Ziggyzug]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Congratulations to you five. Nice little themed group you have there. :thumbup:

 

[Liquid_Evil]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Anymore themed MP groups are in planning stage, Liq?

Yeah. I have one I’d like to try maybe after the New Year. We’ll see.

If you read Terry Pratchett, there are actualy several apocalypses on the Discworld. All the times it got of course saved in the last second. But more interesting, all times there were 5 riders.

I haven’t read any Pratchett, but that is interesting. Gogo gadget 5 riders.

Roll of toilet paper I just used wiping all the legendary ejaculated from the screen. GG!

Definitely a nominee for wildest mental image conveyed via forum post. (and I was hoping you’d post to demand “moar†)

Hope to see more of your themed MP projects at work, the MP compilation is all yours

And I hope to post some more! That thing definitely needs some more contributions.

Is this supposed to be an easter egg? That's clearly the runt of the easter bunny colony.

That was just a group picture autographed by Famine. Not an Easter egg. Foo.

Overall, was the gameplay better doing this theme in a group setting vs normal questing with others in random mp games? Or is there really no difference?

Well, we certainly got a feel for one another’s role and style in a group like this. Plus, recurring jokes with the same group of guys = gg. Also, finishing with the same group you started with and leveled with is much more satisfying than random MP’ers imo.

I mean come on, Tomb Reaver? AGAIN? Don't start failing now, Liq, you've come so far.

Ahh, but this was a Werebear tomby, not my etomb. Look at how fast that thing swings. Uber. (And I totally donned that rare helm just for you.)

Makes me feel good I got you sorceress lessons for the holiday.

*Just* what I wanted! And as far as the sexiest chars went, I thought they were all pretty gg though maybe I was a bit partial to Conquest with all that white. Thanks for the post.

Raggy/Ziggy- Thanks guys!

 

[Pyrohemia1]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

That was just a group picture autographed by Famine. Not an Easter egg. Foo.

I guess that I lose.

This time around I can also congratulate all involved. GG :thumbup:

 

[Serdash]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

I totally donned that rare helm just for you.

<3

(Tomb Reaver is still lame, though. sry guy)

 

[smilts]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Pestilence is the sexiest looking char, but I have to admit Conquest is seriously stylin with the all white.

Dont full yourselves that green was envy because I looked good. I had to it was my only job

 

[jiansonz]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Very nice theme and well done! :thumbup:

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]
(And Damn, that´s seriously fast! I am not past half of Normal after 20 hours...)

 

[Evasive]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

Congrats guys, it was interesting following your progress. We should have more MP Pat threads!

 

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Re: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse make Patriarch

GG read Liq and congrats on the squadron of pwners. lol @ Pyro. Could I get an invite as well to your next MP adventure?