The Passive Aggressive Tournament

[pharphis]

ctc enchant shouldn't override your higher lvl enchant.. If it does, that sucks

I'm going straight to ES and will put a few points in before I consider putting any extras into shiver armor, which is lvl 1. Currently lvl 23, got the cube and made a crappy 2os partizan with leech (and 2x freedom joolz) for my prayer merc

 

[srrw]

* Sureshrill Frost. I wonder if those Frozen Orbs can do anything useful if I get a couple of levels in Cold Mastery...

It's damage surely won't worth it's repair costs. And I'm pretty sure you won't damage a boss in Hell enough to be worth it (I am assuming you want to use it against PI/FI)
Voice of Reason RW will do a much better job if you stumble across a second Lem. Or ideally Rift if you get Gul + Lem which is extremely unlikely.

* Lava Gout unique Battle Gauntlets. I did not know what this was when it dropped => very exciting to identify. Hm, looks promising but I sure hope the ctc level 10 Enchant doesn't override my Enchant. Do you know if it does? I sure can't actively cast a lower level Enchant than the one that's running, but is ctc different?

It overrides it.

 

[ranagrande1]

Beldric has defeated Andariel and is ready to move on to Act II. Andy was easy, even on players 8, although she did manage to take out my rogue cohort Elexa. Fortunately, they were able to revive her back at the camp.

Beldric is now level 21. Stats are a fairly even split of strength, dexterity, and vitality right now. Basically I'm going for enough str to equip the best gear, enough dex for max block, and everything else in vit.

For skills now I've got 8 points in Mace Mastery, 4 in Find Item, 2 in Shout, and 1 each in Battle Cry, Find Potion, Howl, Increased Stamina, Iron Skin, Leap, and Taunt.

I made it all the way through Act I without finding a single unique or set item. Hopefully that changes soon...

 

[Pb_pal1]

@jiansonz - you beat me to it! Big congrats on the first Conqueror of the tournament! Also just to clear up, I only have the one point in Evade. I've read enough of your tournament threads to know better than that. 18% chance to Evade is more than enough for me .
--
Not a ton to report from the remainder of Act V. The Ancients were taken on successfully using the standard tactic getting the thrower to take chips out of a pillar while we beat up his brothers.

WSK 1+2 were done with easy. We got easy monster draws, so it was pretty straightforward. WSK lvl 3 provided us with this. That completes the recipe for Lionheart, so Calabi now has her armour and weapon (minus the base) sorted out for when she switches into killing mode. Now we just need to sort out Kasim...

The Throne has Ghouls, Dolls, and Unravellers. Not ideal, but with care not very dangerous. This boss pack of ghouls, coupled with a couple unravellers were there to greet us. They gave us the most trouble on the whole map, but Calabi was never in any real danger. The waves were pretty straightforward as well. An extra strong, spectral hit Lister was taken down using our favourite strategy of pinning the valk to his face. This makes him attack only her, and she can't be knocked back as Calabi is blocking her. So Kasim was able to whittle him down no problem.

The big guy himself took a while, but was pretty tame. Unlike in normal, we remembered to knock it down to /p3 so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

As for the drop, can you say underwhelming?

Oh well. At least Deckard had something nice to say to us.

Other finds/notes:
- Garnet(28%) gaunlets of Fortune(24%)
- We used a 4os bec-de-corbin we found in the throne to make Kasin an Insight cheese stick. The damage is almost identical to his previous weapon, but the extra bonuses were too good to pass up.
- We didn't see a SINGLE topaz of ANY kind throughout all of act 5. So our 2nd 4s armour is still empty. If the old :rant: smiley was still around, you'd be seeing alot of it right now.

[highlight]Conqueror Calabi the Axe-wielding Amazon, with Kasim the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 74, NM Moo Moos Next[/highlight]

Also, great progress everyone!

 

[srrw]

@srrw - Welcome to the tourny! Are you going the Hunter/Summoner route?

I will max Dire Wolfs and Oak Sage, probably Grizzly and Cyclone Armor as well. As for the playstyle, I'm not sure yet. I will definitely have a ranged weapon to apply OW/Psn/Slow etc. but I'm not sure if a Fool's Throwing weapon + Shield won't be a better choice, unless I get a Riphook or something... We'll see.

Act I is done, cakewalk with a summoner as usual. If you have someone to tank the rogue does an OK job.

Finds:
Beggin's Bonnet
Hotspur - end-game worthy-ish

MF - 79%, 200k worth of boots gambling only produced two pairs of 17% Fortune *sad*

[highlight]PurpleHaze, Summoner Druid and Vikhyat the Prayer guard, Level 20, Act 2 Sewers next[/highlight]

Spoiler

Bone Coil
Ring
Required Level: 9
Fingerprint: 0xb5c00e6d
Item Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+10% Chance to cast level 3 Charged Bolt when struck
+13 to Attack Rating
Lightning Resist +12%
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Fortuitous Ring
Ring
Required Level: 8
Fingerprint: 0x6bc6d658
Item Level: 14
Version: Expansion 1.10+
12% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Fortuitous Amulet of Chance
Amulet
Required Level: 9
Fingerprint: 0x53f7c028
Item Level: 14
Version: Expansion 1.10+
21% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Some amazing jewelry luck through the Rocky Waste. Wasn't planning on an update before the start of Act III but those are awesome <3

The rare ring might have been from the Sewers, tho.

 

[Old_Frog]

@Everyone - Great journaling of your conquests thus far making this tourney look super fun and therefore I've sent message to Contessa the Daggerzon to rally at the Roque Encampment ASAP.

 

[felixbavaria1]

Swoosh and her trusty town guard mercs have moved into Nightmare difficulty.

Duriel was defeated at /p8 without a trip to town (this is a little challenge that I like to pose to my characters). Key to winning was a wand of Weaken. That way, only a few healing potions were needed for Emilio the defensive Merc (who did not get hit a lot).

Act III is where it usually gets exciting drop-wise. First areas where exceptional items can drop, and Mephisto dropped a rare War Dart that was primarily useful for its high stack size (160).

Act IV had a nice treat: perfect Chance Guards! (40% MF)

As the entirety of Normal difficulty, Diablo was taken at /p8 (not having Static Field is no excuse!) He dropped 3 uniques, none of them useful.

In Act V, we shopped a nice Glowing Balanced Axe from Malah. Along with slvl 3 Lightning Mastery, that thing packs quite a punch in melee (not so much ranged since Masteries don't work with ranged damage). And by the way, Sorcs look really professional when throwing axes.

It is rather odd to open evil urns with a Ring of Telekinesis while playing a sorc, but rules are rules ...

An ethereal 3 os Partizan found in Nihlathak's halls was turned into a Malice weapon. 82 average base damage is insane at this point (comparable to non-ethereal Elite polearms), and if an Um drops, we already have a Hell viable merc weapon. The negative life regeneration meant we had to say goodbye to Emilio for now, and hire Vikhyat the Prayer merc.

With Malice equipped, Baal lost a lot of blood before dropping his green Breast Plate.

We entered NM with mid positive resists and still below 400 life. We shopped a Coral Light Belt of the Whale from Charsi. Potion slots are overrated. The first chest opened in the Blood More dropped an Io rune.

Thanks to gem shrines, we have 4 Perfect Topazes stashed, and just in the Jail level 1, a 4os Gothic Plate dropped. I'm inclined to keep two of the sockets free for Rubies, though, as 480 life is still far from what I'd like to have at this point, especially for melee.

Even after probably 1000+ hours into this game, there are still surprises: like Pitspawn Fouldog spawning in the room adjacent to the Jail level 2 stairs.

Swoosh and Vikhyat, level 51, Inner Cloister (NM)

 

[jiansonz]

More life and resists were badly needed for Hell, so I did some gear swapping (and a little crafting and gambling).
Some gear pieces are clearly temporary and there is lots of room for improvement, but this feels OK for now. I expect my first PI/FI enemies to show up in the Catacombs. I think any Stone Skin Ghoul- or Arach boss there will be PI/FI, unless it also has mods that makes it cold immune (native immunity is priority #1, and then comes cold).

Current stats:

AR is 1200-something with my axe. It is definitely not enough to be good, but it's all I can afford for now. Some players want 8000+ but I have always been comfortable with around 3000 for my characters.

Resist go down to the low forties when I swing the axe. That's why I mostly do it when Waheed holds a stable front.

When Defiance is on, both Sissy and Waheed have about 4500 Defense. The 'Chance to get hit by monster X' stat looks pretty good but this is the Lying Character Screen. I think the real AR values for monsters are 4 times the ones used in the calculation on the LCS...

Primary Gear
* Chromatic (23) Circlet of the Sentinel
* Sapphire (36) Amulet of the Whale (89)
* Clasped Orb (+1 Energy Shield, +23 Mana) <- ES gives 20% PDR as long as I have mana
* Haemosu's Adamant (688 Defense, +75 Life)
* 'Rhyme' Grim Shield (144 Defense)
* Magnus' Skin (20% IAS, +100 AR, 15% Fire Resist)
* Rare Ring (+120 AR, +19 Life, 13% Fire Resist, DR by 2)
* Cobalt (21) Plated Belt of the Squid (71)
* Cobalt (28) Ring of the Sun
* Rare War Boots (upgraded Greaves; 20% Faster Run, 26% Fire Resist, 30% Lightning Resist, +24% MF, +75% GF)

Switch
* 'Steel' Tabar

Charms are +life and resists. Nothing fancy.

Waheed the Defiance Guard
* Crafted Casque (97 Defense, 3% Life Steal, 5% Deadly Strike, +14 Life, 11% Resist Cold, 30% Resist Poison)
* Ethereal 'Insight' Partizan (+227% ED, +3 Critical Strike)
* Twitchthroe Trellised Armor

First two Hell playing sessions were very controlled. Lots of backwards teleporting to control Waheed and lure enemies. Fallen shamans get telebombed when their warriors have been lured out of sight and killed. This can be tricky indoors, which it certainly was in Cave level 2.

The fight with Blood Raven was easier than I expected. Sissy chased Raven while Waheed took on the zombies. Raven ran out of bodies to resurrect, and the fight became almost surreal. Her bow did almost no damage* but it had knockback.
(* it's a rare Short Bow on all difficulties. Not nice to her by the developers.)

This acher lady and a few of her minions camped a little dead end around this corner:

She was quite stubborn at guarding that place but I eventually outsmarted her.

Recent finds:
* Ko rune (in cow level, fittingly enough (ko is the swedish word for cow)).
* Lum rune
* Ornate Plate. This is up there with the low-end elites for Defense. But I want a low quality armor, so I can normalize it and make it have 3 sockets max. Best 3s armor I have is a Cuirass (192 Def.) - I think my Lionheart-to-be deserves to be bigger.


[Highlight]Conqueror Sissy the Axe Enchantress and Waheed the Defiance guard, level 76, Hell Stony Field next[/highlight]

 

[djmbbandie]

Natasha, Visala, and Melody plan to clean out the rest of Act III tonight. If they can.

 

[pharphis]

heh. I didn't know Blood Raven was stuck with a short bow in all difficulties.

 

[Old_Frog]

View attachment 934 View attachment 935 Contessa - I traveled all night to get to the Rogue Encampment. Once there I worked my way eventually down to the Catacombs to face the hideous, pierced demon Andariel. I had very little trouble up to that point while facing the lesser demon and undead of Santuary.

So, armed with my rare cold/poison throwning dagger and Cleclaw's claw, I started to duke it out doing very little damage even with my vast training in Inner Sight. I thought I had her as she was down to a sliver of life and bam it was lights out she must have hit me with those huge talons. I was 3/4 health with Cleclaw's and she one-shot me to my deeds...View attachment 936

 

[Pb_pal1]

Wow, amazing progress everyone! I'm speechless!

@Southpaw8668 - Ouch. Sorry about the deeds. Andariel can be mighty dangerous, and quite tough with limited resources. I hope this doesn't deter you and that you'll give it another try.

--

Just a short update for Calabi. She has cleared up to the Cold Plains WP on /players5, still in full MF gear. Progress is slow but safe. The only moment that required much care so far was this:

I'm undecided on when to make the switch out of MF gear. Things aren't dangerous yet, but I have that looming feeling that something nasty will take me out and I'll regret not bumping up the safety...

My current plan is to fully MF until I find a suitable base for my 'Passion' sword. From then on I will switch to killing gear. Thoughts?

Here is her LCS as of right now on her shield switch. Obviously not an ideal situation, but can be vastly improved with fighting gear.

[highlight]Conqueror Calabi the Axe-wielding Amazon, with Kasim the Blessed Aim Guard - lvl 75, Hell Cold Plains[/highlight]

As I said, short update. I mostly wanted to get a new table out there, since all you guys are moving so well!
(@Southpaw8668 did you want me to add Contessa's deeds to the table? If so, I'll just need her finishing level.)

Table of Heroes:
Forum Name     Class        Char Name      LVL    ACT       Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz       Sorceress    Sissy          76     A1(H)     Stony Field
Pb_pal         Amazon       Calabi         75     A1(H)     Cold Plains
Zylo           Druid        Hoyt           59     A3(NM)    Kurast Docks
felixbavaria   Sorceress    Swoosh         51     A1(NM)    Inner Cloister
sivaeB         Necromancer  Toast          35     A5        Harrogath
djmbbandie     Assassin     Natasha        31     A3        Upper Kurast
pharphis       Sorceress    SlamDoorsShut  23     A2        Far Oasis
Morathi        Assassin     Carrisa        21     A2        Lut Gholein
ranagrande     Barbarian    Beldric        21     A2        Lut Gholein
srrw           Druid        PurpleHaze     20     A2        Sewers
Jocular        Assassin     ?????          14     A1        Stony Field/Dark Wood(?)
jamesixgun     Druid        John           6      A1        Rogue Encampment
Southpaw8668   Necromancer  Hallow         1      A1        Rogue Encampment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fallen (RIP):
Forum Name     Class        Char Name      LVL    ACT       Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Southpaw8668   Amazon       Contessa       15     A1        Andariel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Old_Frog]

@Pb_pal - Contessa was clvl 15 when she deeded.

Why not give it another go and this time around I'm aiming to be a lot more patient with the progression. Perhaps clvl 15 was a bit premature to face Andy.

I think it will be quite challenging but fun to follow Toast's lead with Hallow the Golemancer. May the mojo be with me...

 

[jiansonz]

Just a short update for Calabi. She has cleared up to the Cold Plains WP on /players5, still in full MF gear.

I go /p3 with 72% MF. Should make a significant difference for drops.


@Southpaw8668: So Andariel one-hit-killed you for about 100 damage? HaXX! She should not be able to do more than about 40 on a critical.

 

[Pb_pal1]

@Southpaw8668 - Great to see another shot! Hallow and Contessa have been added to the table. Typically with a full clear on /p8 the whole way, you should end up at clvl 20 by the end of A1 (21 on the very rare occasion). If you haven't already, see my post #37 on page 2 of this thread for links to a ton of information about the early game (most courtesy of jiansonz and his wonderful guide).

@jiansonz - I'm hoping for some end-game gear for Kasim, but I might have to tone back the MF a bit and make everyone a little more sturdy. Hm, we'll see as we progress through Act 1 I suppose, although the resurrection costs of Kasim are starting to get a bit ridiculous.

 

[Old_Frog]

I go /p3 with 72% MF. Should make a significant difference for drops.


@Southpaw8668: So Andariel one-hit-killed you for about 100 damage? HaXX! She should not be able to do more than about 40 on a critical.

Out of curiousity I found a rather useful spoiler page on the Diablo Wiki covering all the Super-uniques' attacks and damage potential and it appears jiansonz you are absolutely right (not surprised given your level of expertise). Looking at Andariel's possible melee damage + poison damage over time there should be no chance of her Crit-striking me with one shot in Normal difficulty. My health globe must have been much lower and in the process of rising via chugging health potions, since I didn't have any purples left.
View attachment 943

 

[Old_Frog]

Hallow, Divo (Cold) and Gumby Smash are trudging along at p8 and have reached clvl9 just prior to entering the Underground Passage. I've found Dim or Amp along with Gumby quite useful while the Divo and I bang away at the enemy with cold and poison damage.

If Divo has the MF potential at 9% from a topaz in her suit and I don't have any atm, will she trigger any MF or do I need to be equal to or greater than my merc?

 

[jiansonz]

If Divo has the MF potential at 9% from a topaz in her suit and I don't have any atm, will she trigger any MF or do I need to be equal to or greater than my merc?

If you (or stuff provided by you, like Gumby, IM, etc.) makes the kill, only your MF counts.

If merc deals the killing blow, MF from both merc and character counts (is added together).

So in your case, 9% MF on Divo's kills, none on your kills (or when you open containers).

 

[Old_Frog]

@jiansonz - Thanks for the MF insight. That puts Hallow at 76% GF and 18% MF, unless Divo makes the kill which puts us collectively up to 36% MF.

We found a small set shield early in our travels. It might come in handy for Andariel, if I even bother using it after also finding a +1 CG/+2 BA head. Just recently purchased a +3 CG/+2 IM wand I've yet to put into action.

We've been primarily cursing with Amp and Dim and letting Lvl 16 Gumby, who hasn't died thus far run interference whilst Divo turns them all into pin cushions doing 55-67 cold/poison damage.

I am certainly feeling passive aggressive thus far as I curse those demons and undead creatures and stand back and let my fellow party members do the slaying. Just sort of tricky at times getting Divo to stop standing around and start dispatching arrows. Looking forward to getting either a more powerful weapon on her or trade her in once I get to the shining city of Lut Gholein.

Hallow - Lvl 18 Jail 1 waypoint.

 

[ranagrande1]

Beldric and Elexa are making steady progress in Act II. They took a trip through the sewer systems to kill Radament. Then they headed into the desert and found the Halls of the Dead, where they persuaded dead things to stop roaming the halls and start acting properly dead.

It's all very safe still on /players 8. Beldric can be surrounded by huge mobs without needing potions most of the time. With Shout, his defense is just under 400. Elexa's is over 600. She generally doesn't take damage at all.

On the other hand, things are also starting to get very slow. I wish I had some AoE damage, but that's a long ways off. I also want to find an Amn rune so I can make a Strength weapon. Crushing Blow should help shorten boss fights at least.

I still haven't found any unique or set items yet. I'm pretty sure this is the farthest I've ever played without doing so. Now that I have the Horadric cube, I'll be doing some upgrading. I should at least be able to get flawed topazes in now.

I've also got a large jewelry collection building up. Should I transmute them all now in the hopes of getting some more MF gear? Right now I only have a single Felicitous Ring.

Edit: I forgot to mention, Beldric is level 23 now.