The Passive Aggressive Tournament
- Thread starter Pb_pal1
- Start date
Welcome (again!) Daz! It will be much easier this time with a mercenary's help! If not, I'm thinking of starting up my new s/u worshipper-esque tournament soon (just have to finish the write-up), so you'll have another shot. 
The only thing that comes to mind for the name is Dark Souls. I didn't play much at all, but my brother-in-law got into it for some time.
Good luck
The only thing that comes to mind for the name is Dark Souls. I didn't play much at all, but my brother-in-law got into it for some time.
Good luck
Kestegs
Active member
I probably won't continue with my necro, I just don't have the time to put into him and the play style isn't that fun to me. I think the days of me taking tedious builds through guardian are past.
Still love reading all the progress here though, so keep it up! And I look forward to seeing your next tournament!
Still love reading all the progress here though, so keep it up! And I look forward to seeing your next tournament!
Interdasting
New member
Well I fixed my D2 And got some progress (this one's a biggie):
I apologize for the image issue, but I seem to have failed at remembering how to use the function/my image host site doesn't work properly(?).
Here
Summoner dropped yet another lame-o item. A weaker version of my weapon. He was quite annoying at p8 with some ghoul lords around destroying my wolves. Tsk tsk no manners.
Here
Found this gem inside of a tomb. What a great way to start off the funfest. Impossible elite!
I finished 2-3 false tombs then got super bored. Headed to Duriel.
Here
Just a little note about Unravelers (or at least how I dealt with them):
Here
You can resummon your wolves behind the packs to more easily allow your other parts of the army to the enemies as well as sometimes drag out the enemies into the other room like so.
Anywho, here are some neat drops I found!
Here
Here
Here
On to Duriel. He wasn't that bad. Had to resummon quite a bit, and the wolves were useful tanks, but his holy freeze aura required me to sit back with my HoW lest I waste more mana on that. Took two trips to town, one for the merc, one for mana.
Here's my "strategy"
Summoning at the side keeps him facing away from my merc, and thus avoiding the paintrain.
And drops Not too good. Couldn't use any of that stuff.
Final Act 2 stats! Time for my most-despised act.
And off we go! Smooth sailing, just long, through the jungle. The forest is quite large overall, and Spider Jungle proved to be empty in its first part. Great Marsh presented us with a nice sign at first glance. Cold Enchanted Gloams! Whoooo! Thank you Cyclone Armor. Life-saver.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, but it's really quite boring, and no real good drops other than poo rares. Suffer with me.
Ormus didn't need this lump of gold anymore. For good reason too.
Okay fine. At least one piece that might be useful. Maybe.....(no).
Took a bit, but we found the Flayer Dungeon. Killed a pack in here, was dangerous, and roped around the two other groups. Stuck in a corner
Bad drops
Was a fun update overall.
Be sure to let me know if a link is messed up and I'll fix it asap.
And got some progress (this one's a biggie):I apologize for the image issue, but I seem to have failed at remembering how to use the function/my image host site doesn't work properly(?).
Here
Summoner dropped yet another lame-o item. A weaker version of my weapon. He was quite annoying at p8 with some ghoul lords around destroying my wolves. Tsk tsk no manners.
Here
Found this gem inside of a tomb. What a great way to start off the funfest. Impossible elite!
I finished 2-3 false tombs then got super bored. Headed to Duriel.
Here
Just a little note about Unravelers (or at least how I dealt with them):
Here
You can resummon your wolves behind the packs to more easily allow your other parts of the army to the enemies as well as sometimes drag out the enemies into the other room like so.
Anywho, here are some neat drops I found!
Here
Here
Here
On to Duriel. He wasn't that bad. Had to resummon quite a bit, and the wolves were useful tanks, but his holy freeze aura required me to sit back with my HoW lest I waste more mana on that. Took two trips to town, one for the merc, one for mana.
Here's my "strategy"
Summoning at the side keeps him facing away from my merc, and thus avoiding the paintrain.
And drops Not too good. Couldn't use any of that stuff.
Final Act 2 stats! Time for my most-despised act.
And off we go! Smooth sailing, just long, through the jungle. The forest is quite large overall, and Spider Jungle proved to be empty in its first part. Great Marsh presented us with a nice sign at first glance. Cold Enchanted Gloams! Whoooo! Thank you Cyclone Armor. Life-saver.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, but it's really quite boring, and no real good drops other than poo rares.
Suffer with me.Ormus didn't need this lump of gold anymore. For good reason too.
Okay fine. At least one piece that might be useful. Maybe.....(no).
Took a bit, but we found the Flayer Dungeon. Killed a pack in here, was dangerous, and roped around the two other groups. Stuck in a corner
Bad drops
Was a fun update overall.
Be sure to let me know if a link is messed up and I'll fix it asap.
That was quite an adventure Interdasting. Too bad it had to end so suddenly. Great recap and good pictures though! I always find myself too depressed after a deeds to give a decent writeup.
Last we saw Relic the Ironmancer with his trusty Blessed Aim friend and all but useless iron golem was the NM Cold Plains. I'll quickly recap the next couple acts: (don't worry pictures are coming)
Act 1: I can't remember too much eventful stuff happening. It was pretty fun to play through and dim vision works wonders and preventing Shaman from resurrecting others. I had some decent finds. The best one was probably an Io rune which allowed me to make a White wand which is used solely for prebuffing bone armor. Too bad 2 socketed wands that come with +bone armor cannot be purchased ( I wasted a good hour before I found this out)
Act 2: Pretty run of the mill. Do to my real life time constraints I typically only get an hour or less of playing time per session so that not only does it take awhile to play through, there is also a lot of running through cleared areas. Another negative is that I forget a lot of what happens, but thankful I take a lot of screen shots (as you can see below) that refresh my memory.
Act 3: I have currently cleared the Flayer Jungle at level 61 and am waiting to enter LK. So far so good. I remade my iron golem out of Woestave the unique Halberd. The open wounds, hit freezes target, 50% monster slow, - defense per hit, and prevent monster heal are fantastic!....however, the hit blinds target is more than frustrating. Every time he hits a target the blind overrides my curse, typically amp damage or decrepify, which makes killing individual enemies much more tedious. I'll be looking to switch IG's as soon as I find something equally as good. I'll also note here than his damage is hardly noticeable, the open wounds is the open saving grace.
I did find Bing Sz Wang, the unique Dacian Falx. I'm highly considering making a IG out of that for the higher damage and largest amount of cold damage, but that would mean I would loose my open wounds and PVM. I am also considering making a IG out of an edge bow for additional thorns damage. Any input here?
I am also highly considering switching to an Act V barbarian as well but I don't have much experience with them. I think the Bing Sz would be a good fit. The blessed aim aura of my desert guard is pretty useless as this stage as it seems my IG always hits, which is the main reason I went blessed aim. Any thoughts on the switch to an act V mercenary?
Below is a summary of my decent finds through the first half of NM:
Angelic - Armor, weapon, and two rings. If I was melee I would love the attack rating and MF, but my current equipment offers more MF and more importantly, more resistances.
Arcanna's - I found two Arcanna's Signs. I rarely find this amulet even once in single pass.
Cleglaw's Pincers (gambled)
M'avina's Tenet - useless belt
Sigon's hat, gloves, belt, boots - agian would have been great for the set and unique tournament or a melee character
Whistan's Guard Round Shield - Another unwhelming exception set item.
Cathan's Seal - not unique or anything, I've just found 4 of them already.
**Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest - I found this once all the bone prisons cleared away (see below for more details). I'll probably be socketed this for my merc in NM Act V. Found at level 59 but I can't equip it until level 66!
Humongous - possible IG in the future when crushing blow is needed
Raven's Claw - I considering switching to an Act 1 merc, but unfortunately the majority of my damage come from my act 2 guard so until I get a better IG weapon, I'll be sticking to a desert guard.
Rock Fleece - nice damage reduction
On the other hand I have had very good rune luck:
Amn - 4
Dol - 2
Hel - 3
Lem - 1
Sheal - 5
Sol - 5
Current MF = 265% on my kills (never happens), 385% on merc kills (97% except for when open wounds from the IG takes one down)
Gear is currently pretty standard for this leg in the journey, nothing outstanding as of yet. I've tried my luck on about a dozen or so crafts to no avail. Resists are around 45/50/40/20. They could go up more if I put on my +18% resist all amulet for tough battles. Life is right around 1,000.
Here is a rare stair trap in the dark wood. The initial screen had no monsters but the second my merc walked away he was immediately swarmed. Thanks to dim vision the fight wasn't really all that bad.
View attachment 1190
Looks like someone decided to store some runes in this chest (or rock, I can't tell from the picture).
View attachment 1193
This area took a long time to clear, and yes, that is a boss pack of bat makers but unfortunately the both didn't drop anything!
View attachment 1189
I thought this was a pretty cool action shot.
View attachment 1194
I am still in the process of reading through the last set and unique worshipers tournament hosted by Morathi, but someone in that tournament would have loved this Andariel drop.
View attachment 1195
Somewhere in Act II I had this awesome gamble with Larzuk was kind enough to put two holes into (2 Perfect Topazes filled the slots. I will probably substitute those for Perfect Rubies or resistances later if I need them.
View attachment 1196
A very scary start to the Canyon of the Magi. You can see how little of the map I've explored. Some time after this screenshot I tried using bone wall (and bone prison) and just got got deeds because of it. Basically I tried to trap a few of the big guys in with my merc and golem, but of course things got very hectic and I trapped myself in by walls and couldn't move! Thanks to big purples I made it out of that experiment alive. I'm not so sure I'll be utilizing those skills much in the future. Have anyone else had luck with either of these?
View attachment 1198
View attachment 1199
Duriel's Drop:
View attachment 1200
[highlight]Relic the Ironmancer, with Moron the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 61, NM Flayer Jungle[/highlight]
Last we saw Relic the Ironmancer with his trusty Blessed Aim friend and all but useless iron golem was the NM Cold Plains. I'll quickly recap the next couple acts: (don't worry pictures are coming)
Act 1: I can't remember too much eventful stuff happening. It was pretty fun to play through and dim vision works wonders and preventing Shaman from resurrecting others. I had some decent finds. The best one was probably an Io rune which allowed me to make a White wand which is used solely for prebuffing bone armor. Too bad 2 socketed wands that come with +bone armor cannot be purchased ( I wasted a good hour before I found this out)
Act 2: Pretty run of the mill. Do to my real life time constraints I typically only get an hour or less of playing time per session so that not only does it take awhile to play through, there is also a lot of running through cleared areas. Another negative is that I forget a lot of what happens, but thankful I take a lot of screen shots (as you can see below) that refresh my memory.
Act 3: I have currently cleared the Flayer Jungle at level 61 and am waiting to enter LK. So far so good. I remade my iron golem out of Woestave the unique Halberd. The open wounds, hit freezes target, 50% monster slow, - defense per hit, and prevent monster heal are fantastic!....however, the hit blinds target is more than frustrating. Every time he hits a target the blind overrides my curse, typically amp damage or decrepify, which makes killing individual enemies much more tedious. I'll be looking to switch IG's as soon as I find something equally as good. I'll also note here than his damage is hardly noticeable, the open wounds is the open saving grace.
I did find Bing Sz Wang, the unique Dacian Falx. I'm highly considering making a IG out of that for the higher damage and largest amount of cold damage, but that would mean I would loose my open wounds and PVM. I am also considering making a IG out of an edge bow for additional thorns damage. Any input here?
I am also highly considering switching to an Act V barbarian as well but I don't have much experience with them. I think the Bing Sz would be a good fit. The blessed aim aura of my desert guard is pretty useless as this stage as it seems my IG always hits, which is the main reason I went blessed aim. Any thoughts on the switch to an act V mercenary?
Below is a summary of my decent finds through the first half of NM:
Angelic - Armor, weapon, and two rings. If I was melee I would love the attack rating and MF, but my current equipment offers more MF and more importantly, more resistances.
Arcanna's - I found two Arcanna's Signs. I rarely find this amulet even once in single pass.
Cleglaw's Pincers (gambled)
M'avina's Tenet - useless belt
Sigon's hat, gloves, belt, boots - agian would have been great for the set and unique tournament or a melee character
Whistan's Guard Round Shield - Another unwhelming exception set item.
Cathan's Seal - not unique or anything, I've just found 4 of them already.
**Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest - I found this once all the bone prisons cleared away (see below for more details). I'll probably be socketed this for my merc in NM Act V. Found at level 59 but I can't equip it until level 66!
Humongous - possible IG in the future when crushing blow is needed
Raven's Claw - I considering switching to an Act 1 merc, but unfortunately the majority of my damage come from my act 2 guard so until I get a better IG weapon, I'll be sticking to a desert guard.
Rock Fleece - nice damage reduction
On the other hand I have had very good rune luck:
Amn - 4
Dol - 2
Hel - 3
Lem - 1
Sheal - 5
Sol - 5
Current MF = 265% on my kills (never happens), 385% on merc kills (97% except for when open wounds from the IG takes one down)
Gear is currently pretty standard for this leg in the journey, nothing outstanding as of yet. I've tried my luck on about a dozen or so crafts to no avail. Resists are around 45/50/40/20. They could go up more if I put on my +18% resist all amulet for tough battles. Life is right around 1,000.
Here is a rare stair trap in the dark wood. The initial screen had no monsters but the second my merc walked away he was immediately swarmed. Thanks to dim vision the fight wasn't really all that bad.
View attachment 1190
Looks like someone decided to store some runes in this chest (or rock, I can't tell from the picture).
View attachment 1193
This area took a long time to clear, and yes, that is a boss pack of bat makers but unfortunately the both didn't drop anything!
View attachment 1189
I thought this was a pretty cool action shot.
View attachment 1194
I am still in the process of reading through the last set and unique worshipers tournament hosted by Morathi, but someone in that tournament would have loved this Andariel drop.
View attachment 1195
Somewhere in Act II I had this awesome gamble with Larzuk was kind enough to put two holes into (2 Perfect Topazes filled the slots. I will probably substitute those for Perfect Rubies or resistances later if I need them.
View attachment 1196
A very scary start to the Canyon of the Magi. You can see how little of the map I've explored. Some time after this screenshot I tried using bone wall (and bone prison) and just got got deeds because of it. Basically I tried to trap a few of the big guys in with my merc and golem, but of course things got very hectic and I trapped myself in by walls and couldn't move! Thanks to big purples I made it out of that experiment alive. I'm not so sure I'll be utilizing those skills much in the future. Have anyone else had luck with either of these?
View attachment 1198
View attachment 1199
Duriel's Drop:
View attachment 1200
[highlight]Relic the Ironmancer, with Moron the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 61, NM Flayer Jungle[/highlight]
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jiansonz
New member
Bows are made of wood, so you can forget about this idea.
Great update and progress - I'll read in more detail later. Will be espcially good for me because my character in the Committed tourney sometimes uses IG.
Interdasting
New member
@bladejj Pish posh. You write much more refined and condensed write-ups than me. And in fact, the deed was a little...liberating? The build is kind of slow, and I don't know what I would have done without relying upon lucky rune drops to break past Hell.
But I do also enjoy your own adventure. I hope you make it to "save" the Worldstone in Hell. I'll be reading.
But I do also enjoy your own adventure. I hope you make it to "save" the Worldstone in Hell.
I'll be reading.@kestegs - I figured when I made this tournament that the tedium would deter a few folks. It definitely takes a certain mood(and ample time) to play through that way. I'll leave WallE in the table, and he can keep your spot warm if you decide to return 
. Thanks for joining!
@Interdasting - Aw man! Sorry about the deeds. Great update though, I'm glad that you seem to have had fun with the char. Hopefully I'll catch you in my next tournament too.
@bladejj - Wow great progress, right up to the top of the table! As for A5 mercs, I'm using one in the Committed Tournament, and I've been pleased with him so far. I've only had him for 2.5 acts(in a2NM now), but I quite like him. He stuns enemies, which is useful. The knockback from his bash can be a bit annoying, but I haven't had any major problems with it. As for how he will be later on, I can't say. Hopefully someone who has taken one all the way will stop by to give you some advice.
--
. Thanks for joining!@Interdasting - Aw man! Sorry about the deeds. Great update though, I'm glad that you seem to have had fun with the char. Hopefully I'll catch you in my next tournament too.
@bladejj - Wow great progress, right up to the top of the table! As for A5 mercs, I'm using one in the Committed Tournament, and I've been pleased with him so far. I've only had him for 2.5 acts(in a2NM now), but I quite like him. He stuns enemies, which is useful. The knockback from his bash can be a bit annoying, but I haven't had any major problems with it. As for how he will be later on, I can't say. Hopefully someone who has taken one all the way will stop by to give you some advice.
--
Code:
The Proven (Guardians):
Forum Name Class Char Name LVL ACT Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz Sorceress Sissy 87 --- Full Game Clear
Pb_pal Amazon Calabi 88 --- Full Game Clear
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Heroes:
Forum Name Class Char Name LVL ACT Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bladejj Necromancer Relic 61 A3(NM) Flayer Jungle
Zylo Druid Hoyt 59 A3(NM) Kurast Docks
sivaeB Necromancer Toast 49 A2(NM) Lut Gholein
felixbavaria Sorceress Swoosh 51 A1(NM) Inner Cloister
srrw Druid PurpleHaze 48 A1(NM) Rogue Encampment
djmbbandie Assassin Natasha 36 A5 Frigid Highlands
Dazliare Amazon RIP_Vladimir 35 A5 Harrogath
kestegs Necromancer WallE 32 A4 Pandemonium Fortress
ranagrande Barbarian Beldric 28 A3 Kurast Docks
Bee Barbarian Rocky 28 A3 Kurast Docks
pharphis Sorceress SlamDoorsShut 23 A2 Far Oasis
Morathi Assassin Carrisa 21 A2 Lut Gholein
Jocular Assassin ????? 14 A1 Stony Field/Dark Wood(?)
jamesixgun Druid John 13 A1 Dark Wood
queenEm Druid LittleGirl 1 A1 Rogue Encampment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fallen (RIP):
Forum Name Class Char Name LVL ACT Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thefranklin Druid FollowTheBear 66 A4(NM) Diablo
Southpaw8668 Necromancer Hallow 61 A3(NM) Great Marsh
Interdasting Druid Interdasting 29 A3 Flayer Dungeon
Southpaw8668 Amazon Contessa 15 A1 Andariel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Interdasting
New member
Ok, so Relic is up to the NM River of Flame, level 66. Last we left off was in the Flayer Jungle. I'll do a quick recap of Act 3 and beginning of Act 4 and then onto the big changes which I just finished making going forward with this character.
Act 3
Pretty quick and easy progress. The were several times when I was casting Dim Vision, Amp Damage, Attract, Dim Vision, etc., etc., where a long Flayer or enemy would sneak up to me and take off significant life while I was distracted trying to keep the mercenary of IG alive. I'll have to keep note of that in the future.
Stair trap in the Disused Reliquary. Dim Vision made easy work out of the situation.
View attachment 1220
Good news is the boss in the picture above dropped a Pul rune!
View attachment 1221
Check out the resale value on this, and there isn't even a 3rd skill.
Mephisto was a breeze with Woestave on the IG (50% slow + freezes target). I didn't even need to use deprecify. I use Iron Maiden while equipping my trusty Edge short bow. No portions needed and he only focused on the IG. With maxed IG and Golem Mastery he is nearly indestructible. More on him later.
View attachment 1222
Onto Act IV with a kind welcome party.
View attachment 1223
Confuse is fun; however, it's starting to create situation which are a little too difficult to micromanage.
View attachment 1224
The IG is a great tank! However, due to monster regeneration and the high level defense of the IG, monsters tend to miss quite frequently which works at maybe cross purposes with the thorns damage.
View attachment 1225
Hellforge was a Shael (my 9th). I was hoping for a Lum so I could upgrade use it for a future weapon upgrade for my merc. Rune finds have continued to be good. I netted a Ko and Lem clearing the outdoor areas of Act IV.
So onto my changes. I ditched my blessed aim desert guard in favor of a Barbarian. My reasoning for the change is the following:
1) I felt the blessed aim aura was really needed.
2) I feel using swords has more utility purposes. Ie. I can switch them more as needed going forward with crushing blow, open wounds, and high damage being easily be attained through basic runewords.
3) I like the idea of using a more unconventional tank to supplement my IG.
4) Pb said he liked the idea, and as he was the only one to respond I went with it.
His current weapon is the Bing Sz Wang, which I hope to upgrade to elite once I find a Lum or can cube up to one. Currently he is dawning magic find gear but I have Tal's mask and Rockfleece on switch for Diablo. He is currently level 61 but I hope to level him to 66 before Diablo...I'm not keeping my hopes up though. I purchased the lowest level barbarian available because if they level naturally, they have more health. Call me stubborn, but I feel in the long run this is the best option.
I also have the runes for a Treachery if I find a good ethereal 3 socketed armor. I also plan on making strength before taking on Diablo for the crushing blow.
For the iron golem, I got too feed up with the "hit blinds target" on Woestave (it overrides my current curse) so I made the difficult decision to recast my IG. I just made an Insight out of a regular Partizan. I purposefully waited to late in NM to make this as I feel it is too overpowered / cheesy.
When prebuffed, the IG is being cast at level 28 (3,700 life), with Golem Mastery at level 26 (+650% AR), and Summon Resist at level 10 (~52% resist all).
I'll update if I manage to best Diablo!
Relic the Ironmancer, with Bulwye the Barbarian - lvl 66 and 61 respectively, NM River of Flame
Act 3
Pretty quick and easy progress. The were several times when I was casting Dim Vision, Amp Damage, Attract, Dim Vision, etc., etc., where a long Flayer or enemy would sneak up to me and take off significant life while I was distracted trying to keep the mercenary of IG alive. I'll have to keep note of that in the future.
Stair trap in the Disused Reliquary. Dim Vision made easy work out of the situation.
View attachment 1220
Good news is the boss in the picture above dropped a Pul rune!
View attachment 1221
Check out the resale value on this, and there isn't even a 3rd skill.
Mephisto was a breeze with Woestave on the IG (50% slow + freezes target). I didn't even need to use deprecify. I use Iron Maiden while equipping my trusty Edge short bow. No portions needed and he only focused on the IG. With maxed IG and Golem Mastery he is nearly indestructible. More on him later.
View attachment 1222
Onto Act IV with a kind welcome party.
View attachment 1223
Confuse is fun; however, it's starting to create situation which are a little too difficult to micromanage.
View attachment 1224
The IG is a great tank! However, due to monster regeneration and the high level defense of the IG, monsters tend to miss quite frequently which works at maybe cross purposes with the thorns damage.
View attachment 1225
Hellforge was a Shael (my 9th). I was hoping for a Lum so I could upgrade use it for a future weapon upgrade for my merc. Rune finds have continued to be good. I netted a Ko and Lem clearing the outdoor areas of Act IV.
So onto my changes. I ditched my blessed aim desert guard in favor of a Barbarian. My reasoning for the change is the following:
1) I felt the blessed aim aura was really needed.
2) I feel using swords has more utility purposes. Ie. I can switch them more as needed going forward with crushing blow, open wounds, and high damage being easily be attained through basic runewords.
3) I like the idea of using a more unconventional tank to supplement my IG.
4) Pb said he liked the idea, and as he was the only one to respond I went with it.
His current weapon is the Bing Sz Wang, which I hope to upgrade to elite once I find a Lum or can cube up to one. Currently he is dawning magic find gear but I have Tal's mask and Rockfleece on switch for Diablo. He is currently level 61 but I hope to level him to 66 before Diablo...I'm not keeping my hopes up though. I purchased the lowest level barbarian available because if they level naturally, they have more health. Call me stubborn, but I feel in the long run this is the best option.
I also have the runes for a Treachery if I find a good ethereal 3 socketed armor. I also plan on making strength before taking on Diablo for the crushing blow.
For the iron golem, I got too feed up with the "hit blinds target" on Woestave (it overrides my current curse) so I made the difficult decision to recast my IG. I just made an Insight out of a regular Partizan. I purposefully waited to late in NM to make this as I feel it is too overpowered / cheesy.
When prebuffed, the IG is being cast at level 28 (3,700 life), with Golem Mastery at level 26 (+650% AR), and Summon Resist at level 10 (~52% resist all).
I'll update if I manage to best Diablo!
Relic the Ironmancer, with Bulwye the Barbarian - lvl 66 and 61 respectively, NM River of Flame
LittleGirl has reached lvl 15, he is in the Black Marsh and is ust about getting ready to move into the Forgotten Tower and Dispose of the Evil Countess (who onced bathed in the rejuven... etc etc...)
He has three wolves and 3 ravens as well as the poison vine and the oak sage. At the moment he is melee, wielding a scepter with sapphires in it but my plan is to very soon move over to a crossbow. Liking it very much!!
He has three wolves and 3 ravens as well as the poison vine and the oak sage. At the moment he is melee, wielding a scepter with sapphires in it but my plan is to very soon move over to a crossbow. Liking it very much!!
SunsetVista
New member
I thought only the difficulty they were hired in mattered. Can anyone confirm?
I can confirm. I was level 66 and purchased a 61 barbarian in act V normal (lowest available). I can guarantee there are no characters whom are level 61 in act V normal.
Or are you talking about the life aspect? If so, a mercenary who is leveled naturally always has better stats. I'm not sure of the actual formula but take a look for yourself. If you have a high level mercenary go back to the act where they were purchased and compare the stats.
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Interdasting
New member
Levels give a difference but not necessarily worth taking into consideration unless you're planning to optimize for the sake of optimization. That being said, nice work cleaning up that third of NM, bjj. Necros and curse-builds are always fun, and it's great to see you enjoying them too. My favorite class behind Barb.
My favorite class behind Barb.When we last left Rocky, he was just about to start Act 3. Since then we have finished normal and are onto NM.
Overall, the build is very safe, with no survival issues at all for Rocky or Mizan, in fact I believe Mizan only died once and that was all the way back in act 2. Barbarians are always very strong in normal and this one has spent all its points in defensive skills including BO, shout, natural resits, and this makes him very strong. By the time we finished Act 5, we have 75 in all resist except poison and over 1300 life, so it was impossible to take much damage.
The other side of the issue is that we have now reached the point where we can't kill anything. Damage is absolutely awful, I decided to jump into NM and see how it felt and so I cleared out the blood moor and den of evil. There are still no survival issues, although we sometimes needed to use health potions however, we now cannot even kill a fallen without hitting it 10 times. This will get worse, so what I need is utility weapons that either give + skills or have some effect such as CB, slow enemy, or something where damage isn't important because it will be impossible to get damage high enough.
Act 3:
Act 3 was mostly a breeze except for one point in one of the temples where there was a bit of a stair trap that was a little scary. It seemed like everything I did for crowd control didn't work and it was only later that I realized for some reason all of the monsters were ignoring my merc.
This led to a couple interesting situations, and I was wondering how much experience people have with this glitch and if they know why it occurs or if there is anyway to fix it other than leaving the game?
Meph dropped nothing so that was a little disappointing but onto Act 4 we went.
Act 4:
Act 4 is always so nice and quick, and during act 4 Mizan got enough strength to use the savage partizan we had cubed earlier. Once that was in his hands it really sped up our attack.
Hell forge was an Amn rune, so that was actually good as it allowed us to make "strength" for bosses. During act 4 our LR was at 75 but our fire resist was much lower, around 40ish. We realized this was going to be an issue for diablo so had planned on switching our belt to sigons for the extra FR. However after clearing half of the CS I realized I forgot to mule sigons belt back on. Luckily when we killed Infectors group one of them dropped a ruby amulet with 37FR. So we were able to use that amulet and then tank diablo. The entire fight involved Rocky standing in front of diablo doing very little damage and just drinking a potion whenever he did his lightening attack and Mizan in the back killing him.
Act 5:
I always forget how much you level during act 5, all of normal was done at 8 players, but act 5 is incredible. It seems you constantly level and as all of my skill points were going to BO it just made our group stronger and stronger.
We found a Shael on the way to Nihlathak, so we were able to make a nice Rhyme shield. Other than that we found a 3 os barbarian helm that also had 2 to BO and 1 to Find item. Unfortunately we didn't have enough flawless topazes to make us of it yet so it had to wait.
Listers bunch took a bit of time to kill, just because with our single attack we have to separate them and slowly take them down but overall nothing was at all dangerous.
After act 5 it was onto the cows. I probably won't do the cows after NM or Hell (if I make it that far) for the simple reason that it is so very very slow when the only killing power comes from the merc. Though we did get some nice drops in the cows including 2 flawless topazes, 2 normal topazes, and another Shael rune. That allowed us to make use of our barbarian helm we had found during Act 5.
We have been very lucky in finding set items, it seems like green items are falling all over the place, but we have not been as lucky with uniques. Very few unique items have fallen and those that did tended to not be very useful.
In NM our resists are 75 LR and CR and 59 FR with 30 poison and we have 1380 life. So I think again surviving won't be too bad but we will see how long we last on 8 players just because of speed. Some of that will depend on if we can get a good weapon to drop for Mizan. We currently have 323mf on merc kills (which are all kills) so hopefully between the high MF and the use of find item we can get some improvements to our gear.
Edit:
Rocky the Tank Barbarian, Level 48, Cold Plains (NM) with Mizan a Blessed Aim Mercenary
Overall, the build is very safe, with no survival issues at all for Rocky or Mizan, in fact I believe Mizan only died once and that was all the way back in act 2. Barbarians are always very strong in normal and this one has spent all its points in defensive skills including BO, shout, natural resits, and this makes him very strong. By the time we finished Act 5, we have 75 in all resist except poison and over 1300 life, so it was impossible to take much damage.
The other side of the issue is that we have now reached the point where we can't kill anything. Damage is absolutely awful, I decided to jump into NM and see how it felt and so I cleared out the blood moor and den of evil. There are still no survival issues, although we sometimes needed to use health potions however, we now cannot even kill a fallen without hitting it 10 times. This will get worse, so what I need is utility weapons that either give + skills or have some effect such as CB, slow enemy, or something where damage isn't important because it will be impossible to get damage high enough.
Act 3:
Act 3 was mostly a breeze except for one point in one of the temples where there was a bit of a stair trap that was a little scary. It seemed like everything I did for crowd control didn't work and it was only later that I realized for some reason all of the monsters were ignoring my merc.
This led to a couple interesting situations, and I was wondering how much experience people have with this glitch and if they know why it occurs or if there is anyway to fix it other than leaving the game?
Meph dropped nothing so that was a little disappointing but onto Act 4 we went.
Act 4:
Act 4 is always so nice and quick, and during act 4 Mizan got enough strength to use the savage partizan we had cubed earlier. Once that was in his hands it really sped up our attack.
Hell forge was an Amn rune, so that was actually good as it allowed us to make "strength" for bosses. During act 4 our LR was at 75 but our fire resist was much lower, around 40ish. We realized this was going to be an issue for diablo so had planned on switching our belt to sigons for the extra FR. However after clearing half of the CS I realized I forgot to mule sigons belt back on. Luckily when we killed Infectors group one of them dropped a ruby amulet with 37FR. So we were able to use that amulet and then tank diablo. The entire fight involved Rocky standing in front of diablo doing very little damage and just drinking a potion whenever he did his lightening attack and Mizan in the back killing him.
Act 5:
I always forget how much you level during act 5, all of normal was done at 8 players, but act 5 is incredible. It seems you constantly level and as all of my skill points were going to BO it just made our group stronger and stronger.
We found a Shael on the way to Nihlathak, so we were able to make a nice Rhyme shield. Other than that we found a 3 os barbarian helm that also had 2 to BO and 1 to Find item. Unfortunately we didn't have enough flawless topazes to make us of it yet so it had to wait.
Listers bunch took a bit of time to kill, just because with our single attack we have to separate them and slowly take them down but overall nothing was at all dangerous.
After act 5 it was onto the cows. I probably won't do the cows after NM or Hell (if I make it that far) for the simple reason that it is so very very slow when the only killing power comes from the merc. Though we did get some nice drops in the cows including 2 flawless topazes, 2 normal topazes, and another Shael rune. That allowed us to make use of our barbarian helm we had found during Act 5.
We have been very lucky in finding set items, it seems like green items are falling all over the place, but we have not been as lucky with uniques. Very few unique items have fallen and those that did tended to not be very useful.
In NM our resists are 75 LR and CR and 59 FR with 30 poison and we have 1380 life. So I think again surviving won't be too bad but we will see how long we last on 8 players just because of speed. Some of that will depend on if we can get a good weapon to drop for Mizan. We currently have 323mf on merc kills (which are all kills) so hopefully between the high MF and the use of find item we can get some improvements to our gear.
Edit:
Rocky the Tank Barbarian, Level 48, Cold Plains (NM) with Mizan a Blessed Aim Mercenary
I have this happen from time to time as well, but I am usually good about preventing it. I have found it happens when the merc is too far away and is required to teleport back to you. My guess would be that 5% of the time the merc would be affected by the bug. Typically, if he is blocked off or in a different room I TP home to eliminate the possibility of the bug happening.
The only way I know of "fixing" it is to either have him killed or as you stated, restart the game. Having him killed off is as you can imagine not the easiest as everyone tends too ignore him. Elemental damage usually does the trick. A quick place to kill him is either Bone Ash or the Council members in the Tranvical.
You might consider reading about my barbarian Vladimir in the Skill-less tournament. For the vast majority of NM and Hell, I didn't attack enemies. I couldn't handle melee damage, and didn't do enough damage to make it worth it anyway. I elected for weapons with helpful mods like PMH, open wounds, CB, etc. A life tap wand on switch kept my mercenary alive. It's a bit tedious, but you might consider those options.
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