The Three-Legged Race Tournament

[HanShotFirst]

@Booble - Welcome to the SPF and the tournament!
*Wonders out loud if it's wrong to steal a wallet outside of an introduction thread* Oh well. <swipe>

As for me, the trail of dead demons has grown longer:



My Trapsin has cleared NM Act II at players 7.

She continued to feel pretty powerful. However, I suspect that may be beginning to change ... I finished putting points into the Trap tree while in the Arcane Sanctuary. I now sit at what will be the Trap tree's final resting place of 20 points in Fire Blast, Lightning Sentry, and Death Sentry. Death Sentry has corpse explosion and will therefore continue to scale with the increasing life of monsters, but for Fire Blast and Lightning Sentry, this was as good as it gets ... And to be honest, for those skills it wasn't all that great. I continued to shun Lightning Sentry and instead used Death Sentry as my main trap. In fact, the only place that I used Lightning Sentry at all was against Duriel (for obvious reasons ... no corpses to explode ...). Fire Blast saw a bit more use. When mobs would congregate at crowded doorways in the tombs I would drop five Death Sentries and then spam in Fire Blast for a little extra help. And I do mean a little extra help. Mostly using Fire Blast seemed to be for style points and demonstrating mastery of the character ... to an audience that didn't exist ... (oh well). Anyhow, the point is; I have serious doubts about Fire Blast being useful for dealing with lightning/physical immunes when they start showing up ... I guess we'll find out. But enough of future doom and gloom, for now, things were still great!

At players 7, and with 287 mf (+ 23 mf if the merc kills), there were a good number of set/unique drops. Unfortunately, they weren't anything that you couldn't find at any old flea market:

Iratha's Cord, Heavy Belt (Dry Hills)
Cathan's Visage, Mask (Halls of the Dead Level 2)
Sigon's Gage, Gauntlets (Far Oasis)
Cathan's Visage, Mask (Far Oasis)
Soul Harvest, Scythe (Lost City)
Arctic Horn, Short War Bow (Lost City)
Vidala's Barb, Long Battle Bow (Claw Viper Temple Level 1)
Humongous, Giant Axe (Arcane Sanctuary)
Milabrega's Robe, Ancient Armor (Arcane Sanctuary)
Stormstrike, Short Battle Bow (Arcane Sanctuary)
Iratha's Cuff, Light Gauntlets (Tal Rasha's False Tomb)
Sigon's Sabot, Greaves (Tal Rasha's False Tomb)
Ironstone, War Hammer (Tal Rasha's False Tomb)
Visceratuant, Defender (Tal Rasha's False Tomb) <-- Okay, maybe only found at nice flea markets.
Ume's Lament, Grim Wand (Tal Rasha's False Tomb)
Berserker's Hauberk, Splint Mail (Tal Rasha's False Tomb)
Death's Touch, War Sword (Tal Rasha's True Tomb)
Vidala's Barb, Long Battle Bow (Duriel)
The General's Tan Do Li Ga, Flail (Duriel)

So, no gear upgrades here for characters or mercs.

And oh! Speaking of mercs, I did hire a Holy Freeze merc upon reaching NM Lut Gholein. And after clearing the Sewers I fired that Holy Freeze merc. In concept, I like the idea of a Holy Freeze merc. You get crowd control and some elemental damage ... sounds win-win ... But in practice, I just don't care for them. The merc, and his aura, tends to lag behind the character and so I find that you often take any hits that you would otherwise have taken anyways before the aura locks on. And then once the merc is out front and his aura has locked on it really doesn't matter because having a merc out front is generally all the crowd control you need. So, the aura doesn't seem to be adding much but by trading in my Prayer merc for a Holy Freeze merc I have lost my best source of life regeneration. So to review: I'm getting hit anyways. The extra crowd control doesn't make a difference against almost all mobs. When I get hit, my life no longer regenerates, therefore, I'm either running around with less than full life, or I need to constantly be on the prowl for potions (and that's not fun)! So don't say I didn't try, but once again, it's a Prayer merc for me.

The merc 'upgrade' was a bust, but I did want to upgrade something ... In the end, it ended up being my toolbox of switch items:



Remembering how players 7 Andariel wiped the floor with my merc, I did a little shopping before taking on players 7 Duriel. It wasn't quite the silver bullet that I thought it would be (the poor merc still kept getting stunned and was chilled to a crawl) but, the merc only died once ... and I only had to retreat once ... so I'd say it was well worth it. Go team go!



I also shopped:

Gnarled Staff of Teleportation
Two-Hand Damage: 4 to 12
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 24
Staff Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xbf4b7386
150% Damage to Undead
Level 3 Teleport (41/41 Charges)

... After I did the Arcane Sanctuary ... Did I mention at the start of this tournament that I might be a bit rusty?
Edit: Speaking of rusty, does anyone see anything odd in that middle picture ...

Spoiler: Facepalm

Keys ... on my Assassin ...

Otherwise, there were no gear upgrades since my Sorceress completed NM Act II. My Assassin did find an eth four socketed broad sword and a four socket crystal sword. I have saved some three socketed helms (great helm, death mask, and crowns) so I might make a Spirit sword to replace my Gull dagger and then replace my Lore circlet with a three ptopaz helm ... that would give me a bit more stat bang for my buck and would only cost me 28 mf ... On the other hand, that Gull dagger has been my only weapon since my first character reached the Stony Field. It would be a sad end of an era to see it go ... even if it only goes to switch. Perhaps I'll wait a bit longer until I can shop an artisan helm of <something cool> that'll make the end of an era and the loss of 28 mf a bit more palatable ...

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          60/59   (N) Kurast Docks           84
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         28/35   Harrogath                  33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       22/25   Canyon of the Magi         19
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

Up next: Back to my Frozen Orb Sorceress! No concerns here, she should destroy everything in sight!

Heh, heh ... *All but invites an untimely death* ... And if the bragging doesn't do it the 100 saved stat points might ... '100 saved stat points?!' says my Assassin. 'Heck, I'm a level lower and am sitting on 115 myself.' ... Um, right. Anyhow, not to worry; I'm what you call an expert. *All but invites an untimely death yet again* ... Okay, time to go before I talk myself to death ... Cheers!

 

[Gynli]

tldr; Amazon @ Act IV & Necro @ NM.

Necro Progress :

• Almost-full cleared everything on /p8. Straggers and undiscovered area across the map were skipped.
• First NDE due to Evil Urn; got surrounded by a pack of Frenzytaurs that spawned right on top of me.
  In hindsight, I could've simply teleported away with the tele-staff on switch;
  but I panicked and spammed Rejuvs and tp'ed back to town.
• Found 2 more Sols, and 1 Shael. The Shael was used right away to make a Rhyme.
  
• Lucked into a Gem shrine before finding a Artisan's Great Helm from Larzuk.
  Decided to go for 3 PTopazes over 3 Flawlesses. Currently 1 Normal Topaz shy of the 3rd Perfect.
  How does @jiansonz ever find 7+ Perfect Topazes by early NM !?
  
• Mixing up gambling with some Chain Gloves finally paid off! Perhaps Heavy Belts next?
  Low roll, so the Arctic Gloves + Belt combo will stay on for now.
  
• Couple trips back to town; but Tele-bombing Baal prevented him from straying off too much.
  
  
  
• Cow level coming up next.
  Hoping to find a sword and a polearm to possibly Larzuk.

Amazon Progress :

• Same almost-full clear on /p8.
• Meph was surprisingly easy to tank even on /p8.
• Finally got the Valkyrie for the 2nd summon.
• Not much else to report; no notable drops, no NDE.
  Slow but safe.
• P.S. perhaps a screenshot of the current skill tree.
  All skill points will go into Valkyrie till max; any extra will be split between Decoy and Inner Sight at 2:1 ratio.
  Once Decoy is maxed and Inner Sight is at 10; points will go into Dodge/Evade/Avoid/Crit.
  

Stash :

• Sigon Gloves + Belt + Boots combo ready
• Vidala's Amulet + Boots combo ready
• Angelic Weapon + 2x Ring ready
  - missing Angelic Amulet for +1 skill & 100% MF combo
• Runes for Insight ready
• Tal Thul Ort for Spirit ready
  - missing an Amn or 2 extra Thuls
• all gems/jewels picked up so far; not sure if they'll actually be used by the end.

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          60/59   (N) Kurast Docks           84
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       22/25   Canyon of the Magi         19
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

 

[HanShotFirst]

If you see nothing else:



This was the biggest moment of NM Act III and IV. Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest, Death Mask, from a poppable . And early! So early that I couldn't use it for another half a clvl (I was at clvl 65 at the time it dropped ). I hit clvl 66 in the River of Flame and once I had cleared the area to the wp I revisited Larzuk in Normal. The result:

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Death Mask
'Sol'
Defense: 100
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Strength: 55
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 57
Fingerprint: 0x6a06cb67
+60 to Life
+30 to Mana
+45 Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
All Resistances +15
10% Life stolen per hit
10% Mana stolen per hit
Socketed (1: 1 used)

With the added Sol it is now very much the big brother to the rare circlet that I gambled in Act V Normal:

Spoiler: Rare Circlet

Loath Veil
Circlet
Defense: 23
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 46
Fingerprint: 0xb8a2fb55
+13 to Life
Damage Reduced by 4
All Resistances +18
5% Life stolen per hit

The rare circlet is nice, but I'm feeling much better about facing Hell with 10% life leech on the merc's helm.

Also on the merc facing Hell front, the Hellforge drop was interesting:



I now have Lem (above), Ko (NM Andariel), and could cube a Lum. So options for an endgame merc armor are developing! At present using the Lem to create a Treachery seems most likely ... but, between my two characters there's still a lot of NM left to go and I don't plan on committing to anything before both characters are ready to enter Hell. After all, you never know when something wonderful might drop!

Drops are starting to get more interesting! Full clears at players 7 with 287 mf (+ 23 mf if the merc kills) resulted in these set/uniques:

Hellcast, Heavy Crossbow (Spider Forest)
Death's Touch, War Sword (Spider Cavern)
Isenhart's Case, Breast Plate (Flayer Jungle)
Isenhart's Case, Breast Plate (Lower Kurast)
Cathan's Mesh, Chain Mail (Kurast Bazaar)
Ginther's Rift, Dimensional Blade (Sewers Level 1) <-- I love finding these! Though sadly this one wasn't eth ...
Isenhart's Horns, Full Helm (Forgotten Reliquary)
Venom Grip, Demonhide Gloves (Travincal)
The Chieftain, Battle Axe (Travincal)
Cleglaw's Tooth, Long Sword (Durance of Hate Level 1)
Cathan's Seal, Ring (Durance of Hate Level 2)
Sparking Mail, Chain Mail (Durance of Hate Level 3)
Tancred's Weird, Amulet (Mephisto)

Coldkill, Hatchet (Outer Steppes)
Bing Sz Wang, Dacian Falx (Outer Steppes)
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest, Death Mask (City of the Damned)
Hsarus' Iron Stay, Belt (The Chaos Sanctuary)
Venom Ward, Breast Plate (The Chaos Sanctuary)
Sigon's Sabot, Greaves (The Chaos Sanctuary)
Fleshrender, Barbed Club (Diablo)
Bloodletter, Gladius (Diablo)

Here's the glory shot:



So now I'm at a bit of a decision point. Cold Mastery was maxed out at the Plains of Despair. My skills sit at 20 Frozen Orb, 20 Cold Mastery, 10 Static Field, 10 Teleport ... Which is sort of an odd place to be ... I typically treat Static Field and Teleport as one point wonders but decided to try something different for this tournament. Having a larger Static Field radius has been great and gives this Sorceress a bit of a pre 1.10 vibe ... Extra points in Teleport has thus far not been worthwhile. I guess when it comes to adding points to Teleport I've discovered that it's all or nothing. Either you achieve the ability to 'infinite teleport' or you don't ... with only 10 points invested you don't ... not even with an Insight merc around. So decision time (which really should have been before I started spending skill points given there's no respecs in 1.11 ... and I wouldn't use them even if there were ... make a decision and then live with it! ... but I digress ...): I would like to max the synergy for Frozen Orb (Ice Bolt). I would like to max Telekinesis to better run Energy Shield come Hell. I would like to max Teleport and achieve the ability to 'infinite teleport' (without potions or Insight). I'll have probably 25 skill points to work with before everything's done. Hmm. At present I'm thinking I'd better go ahead and complete my personal experiment of maxing Teleport. I don't feel like it's going to be worth it, but I suppose if I stop now I still won't know for sure. The rest of the skill points would then go into Telekinesis. The end result being some sort of weird throwback utility Frozen Orb Sorceress? ... I think it'll work ... I suppose worst case scenario I can always merc's-merc-it to the finish .

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          67/59   (N) River of Flame         93
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       22/25   Canyon of the Magi         19
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

Up next: Let's do it all again with my Trapsin! I'm not anticipating any issues ... Yeah.Yeah. Famous last words ...

 

[HanShotFirst]

My Trapsin has now cleared NM Act III and IV at players 7.





NM Act III was great fun! Lots of low life, low lightning resistance enemies really let my Death Sentries shine! The lightning damage was effective and the corpse explosion painted the jungles red. Like really red ... I wish I had thought to take a screenshot as sometimes the chain of corpse explosion would extend for several screens worth of landscape. The Durance of Hate was the only part of NM Act III that felt dangerous. Not because of the strength of the monsters, but because of their weakness. The Durance of Hate Level 1 had dolls. At first I was using Death Sentry (as I had throughout NM) but that soon seemed way too dangerous. Dolls running in and out of shadows ... towards the merc ... from the merc ... towards me ... lightning flying ... corpse explosion and dolls exploding here, there, everywhere ... It was all a bit much. So for the Durance of Hate Level 1 I stopped using my traps and instead went back to Fire Blast. Fire Blast isn't very effective when it comes to damage anymore, but it was great for calming that chaotic situation right down. To my great relief, the Durance of Hate Level 2 did not have dolls! This was great because that place sure was huge! I wasn't sure what to expect from NM Mephisto. Happily, Life Tap was good enough to keep the merc alive! And so, many, many, many, Lightning Sentries later (you can see their remains all over the ground in the picture above) the demon fell without incident.

As you can see above, Mephisto snubbed me when it came to set/uniques. Here's the complete list of set/uniques from NM Act III:
Remember, full clears at players 7 with 287 mf (+ 23 mf if the merc kills).

Visceratuant, Defender (Arachnid Lair)
Civerb's Ward, Large Shield (Arachnid Lair)
Cathan's Rule, Battle Staff (Great Marsh)
Manald Heal, Ring (Great Marsh)
Hellcast, Heavy Crossbow (Great Marsh)
Iratha's Collar, Amulet (Flayer Jungle) <-- Completes the set!
Howltusk, Great Helm (Flayer Jungle)
Bloodletter, Gladius (Kurast Bazaar)
Sigon's Visor, Great Helm (Sewers Level 1)
Rogue's Bow, Composite Bow (Sewers Level 2)
Wizendraw, Long Battle Bow (Forgotten Temple)
Sander's Taboo, Heavy Gloves (Durance of Hate Level 1)
Wilhelm's Pride, Battle Belt (Durance of Hate Level 2)

Then came NM Act IV. It started out great ... so great that I had to check to see if I'd remembered to set players to 7 (I had). I encountered my first lightning immunes in the City of the Damned (foul dogs). No big issues there. The merc was super effective against them and Fire Blast wasn't too bad either. The River of Flame had monsters that seemed to have pretty solid lightning resistance. Still, not too bad. Merc plus corpse explosion got things done at a pretty good clip. Then came the Chaos Sanctuary. Here's where I started to have problems. None of the monsters were lightning immune (technically) ... but the lightning damage on Death Sentry sure wasn't doing much. That meant I needed the merc to get corpses. However, depending on how he was cursed, he may or may not have been doing much at any particular moment. A bit annoying, but not really a big deal I suppose. It just slowed things down. The big deal, play-session-defining-moment, came when I decided I'd help the merc out with a particulary nasty mob and start counter cursing. But instead of casting Life Tap ... I cast Teleport ... and went right into that nasty mob with an effective -57 all resistances . I was able to run out, and actually only used a Super Healing Potion along the way... but that could have been the game. And in fact, doing exactly that, has cost me a tournament character before . So, new rule: Teleport staff stays on switch except at the act boss. Life Tap wand goes on switch for the act boss, and only the act boss. That should help me keep things straight. Other than that, there were no big issues. Diablo killed the merc while I was attempting to get set up in his pentagram. Fine, so then I drew him out into the open and tried again with merc. Success! Life Tap kept the merc going even when hit by Diablo's worst elemental attacks! Good thing too, because at players 7 Lightning Sentry sure wasn't doing much on its own.

Diablo dropped nothing interesting. But credit where credit is due; he did drop two thirds of all set/uniques from NM Act IV. Here's the list:
Remember, full clears at players 7 with 287 mf (+ 23 mf if the merc kills).

Angelic Halo, Ring (River of Flame)
Berserker's Hatchet, Double Axe (Diablo)
Ichorsting, Crossbow (Diablo)

Hmm. Good thing my Sorceress had better luck. And speaking of better luck:



My Assassin lost out at the Hellforge too. The only positive I can find is; at least I only have one other Hel? ...

And while I'm talking about my Assassin losing out, something odd has been happening throughout NM. My Sorceress and my Assassin have both been doing full clears at players 7 but my Assassin has been falling steadily behind when it comes to xp ... At present the difference is hyper-exaggerated with my Assassin finishing NM Act IV at a very high clvl 65, and my Sorceress finishing NM Act IV at a very low clvl 67. I'm not really sure what to make of this difference in clvl. I'm guessing my Sorceress must have had xp shrine(s) at very advantageous moments that got her more into the sweet spot of the xp curve ... but I'm not sure ...

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          67/65   (N) Harrogath              102
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       22/25   Canyon of the Magi         19
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

Up next: Back to my Frozen Orb Sorceress! I'm thinking I'll drop most of my mf gear when I enter Hell so these two play throughs of NM Act V could be my last best shot for good loot. I'd like Frostburns and a nice merc armor, say, Duriel's or Shaftstop. Is that too much to ask? We'll find out!

 

[skoolbus]

Well, going to join the fray with Ifrit the Druid and Shiva the Sorc. I will be doing single pass and maybe sharing items (depends on how great of item I find on the wrong one ). Planning to make Ifrit a fire elemental Druid starting out with the elemental tree and hopefully adding the summoning tree for hell. I've never used any of the fire elemental skills but so far I have not been a big fan of either Fissure or Volcano. Does anyone have advice on what fire skills are better than the others? Shiva will be a FO sorc starting out with the cold tree and adding the fire tree for hydras in NM.

Went ahead and got Ifrit through the first two acts. Nothing really too exciting, molten boulder quite literally bowls over everything in it's path, nothing can survive two of them so far, most mobs die to one. I kept it on /p8 for Andy and Duriel, Andy died faster than I can ever remember, barely needed any health potions. Duriel on /p8 was far too ambitious, he did a ton of damage for my low block chance, almost ran out of rejuv potions . MF'ing has been pretty decent so far, getting a bunch of the early sets, though no Gull . It did take over an hour to shop a 3OS breast plate... Flashbacks to the Orange You Glad Tournament...

Next up, I'll start on Shiva.

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          67/65   (N) Harrogath              102
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       22/25   Canyon of the Magi         19
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1     Kurast Docks            ?

 

[Pb_pal]

@HanShotFirst and @Gynli - Some seriously awesome progress, and some damn good finds coming through too! Keep it up!

@skoolbus - Excellent choice on the Fire Druid! Fissure will almost certainly be your go-to skill for 90% of the gameplay. In my experience it just outperforms everything else drastically. For single targets you can use Volcano or Fissure, but even then often times Fissure will be better. Volcano SEEMS like a great idea, but it just doesn't have that beefiness that it seems like it should.

--

As for me, my girls have progressed but not quite enough for an update just yet. Soon though!

 

[DariusTriplet]

"You see," the warrior sighed, "I'm not all that I seem to be." She called for another beer - Gheed's was expensive, but the Sisters all swore temperance, and you took what you could get.

"When I was a child, I kicked over an altar to Athula, and she never forgave me for it. While my fellow Amazons were slinging lightning and clad in divine armor, I was denied even the merest boon from her. I've been getting by as a mercenary with just wits and a big stick, but fighting demons? Leave that for the real heroes." She snorted, thinking of the Zakarum priests that came through that morning, and how their piety was matched only by their arrogance.

The mage laughed, but for once, she didn't feel that it was at her misfortune. "I'm sure that you never tell your clients that, and let them think they're buying Athula's favorite. I've been getting by doing the same - I never say that I'm Zann Esu, but don't deny it either. They rejected me, but a few years later, I was caught up a tree during a lightning storm, and..." She held up her hand, and small arcs of energy coursed over it.

"So we've got a fake Amazon, and a fake Sorceress. Maybe we should team up in Akara's thing, and see if we can test our fakery against real demons," the warrior said as Gheed brought over two more steins.

"I'm sure it pays well, and after drinking at Gheed's, I could use the gold," the mage said with a glint in her eye...

Introducing Zip the Sorceress and Zap the Amazon. Zip will be pure lightning through-and-through, and Zap will be a Jab/Fendazon. I've started Zap with Spear/Javelin tab, which I think was a mistake - there are only three skills to invest in on the entire tab (Jab, Impale, Fend), one of which is a prereq that I used once for a laugh.

Zip so far has done the lion's share of work - Charged Bolt is enough to blitz through Act 1, and Chain Lightning does wonders against packs in Act 2. Teleport certainly doesn't hurt, and with a good waypoint, I was able to knock out Countess runs for 2x Stealth armor. So far, I've gone through Acts 1 and 2 with Zip, who also gambled Pikes as soon as able, then sent those back to Zap. On a whim, I tried gambling a Circlet, and was rewarded with a rare with +39% lightning resist and 3% mana leech - perfect for Jabbing with.

Zap has successfully poked her way through Act 1, and with the help of a Fine Pike and mana leech circlet, had no issues taking down Andariel.

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          67/65   (N) Harrogath              102
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       22/25   Canyon of the Magi         19
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          25/18   Kurast Docks               18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1     Kurast Docks            ?

 

[HanShotFirst]

The battle of NM Act V raged through the night. But then, as dawn's first light crept onto the eastern sky, I threw down this ultimate foe of NM, and smote his ruin upon the floor of the Worldstone Chamber.



And so it was that I ushered in a new era of peace, prosperity and ... What's that you say? ... He just respawns when you leave the game!? ... Wait! Everything respawns when you leave the game!? ... So you're telling me that if I went back there nothing would have changed!!?? ... What was it all for? What was any of it for?

Oh well. At least I got a new title for my letterhead:



I also got some goodies. Here's the set/uniques that resulted from a players 7 full clear of NM Act V:
With 287 mf (+ 23 mf if the merc kills).

Steeldriver, Great Maul (Bloody Foothills)
Crushflange, Mace (Bloody Foothills)
Sigon's Sabot, Greaves (Frigid Highlands)
Arm of King Leoric, Tomb Wand (Arreat Plateau)
Pierre Tombale Couant, Partizan (Arreat Plateau)
Haemosu's Adamant, Cuirass (Arreat Plateau) <-- No! I wanted the unique Cuirass, not the set Cuirass!
Duskdeep, Full Helm (Pit of Acheron)
Venom Ward, Breast Plate (Crystalline Passage)
Sparking Mail, Chain Mail (Crystalline Passage)
The Salamander, Battle Staff (Crystalline Passage)
Isenhart's Lightbrand, Broad Sword (Frozen River)
Snakecord, Light Belt (Glacial Trail)
The Meat Scraper, Lochaber Axe (Nihlathak's Temple)
Sigon's Visor, Great Helm (Halls of Pain)
Rattlecage, Gothic Plate (The Ancients' Way) <-- This will be useful against bosses on my Trapsin's merc.
The Grim Reaper, War Scythe (Icy Cellar)
Arctic Horn, Short War Bow (Worldstone Keep Level 1)
Sigon's Sabot, Greaves (Worldstone Keep Level 2)
Hwanin's Splendor, Grand Crown (Throne of Destruction)
Cleglaw's Tooth, Long Sword (Baal)
Iratha's Cord, Heavy Belt (Baal)
Berserker's Headgear, Helm (Baal)

Quite the haul! But only one item that will be of use ... and only situational use at that .

But wait! There was one other set/unique, not from a monster but from Anya. And it's a game changer!

Spoiler: Anya Gamble

Frostburn
Gauntlets
Defense: 48
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 70
Fingerprint: 0x542532e6
+13% Enhanced Defense
+5% Enhanced Damage
+30 Defense
Adds 1-6 cold damage over 2 seconds
Increase Maximum Mana 40%

He, he, he. Before I started NM Act V I'd said that I wanted to find Frostburn's and a decent merc armor. Halfway through NM Act V I decided to get a bit proactive and stopped gambling anything but gauntlets. My first batch of 700,000 gold didn't result in anything interesting. Then when I'd maxed out my gold carrying capacity again I got them ... on the very first gamble! This 'strategy' really shouldn't have worked, but I'm so happy that it did . Frostburns will be a huge help when I start Hell and start running Energy Shield in earnest.

In related news, I made a decision as to how I was going to spend my remaining skill points. Heavy early resistance in NM Act V led me to decide that I'd better focus on defense. To that end, I'll be maxing Telekinesis first. After that, extra skill points will go into Teleport as I've been meaning to test out the merits of a Sorceress that can 'infinite teleport' with or without an Insight merc. Final skills will look like: 20 Frozen Orb, 20 Cold Mastery, 20 Telekinesis, 10 Static Field, 16-ish Teleport. And while I was at it, I decided to stop hoarding stat points (I was up to 150-ish) and put many of them into Vitality. I started NM Act V with 450 life ... that was starting to feel sort of dangerous. I've held onto 85 stat points (enough to equip a monarch ... should I find a four socket one in a timely fashion and choose to use it ... ). Anyhow, after spending stat points on Vitality I ended up at 649 life. That, along with an Energy Shield that was getting more and more buffed by points going into Telekinesis made things feel pretty safe by the time all was said and done.

So, no near deaths to report. The most wtf moment came at one of the false wings near Nihlathak. I activated an Evil Urn with Telekinesis (I don't know why I bother, it doesn't seem to help) and a unique Viper and it's posse nearly landed on my head. Merc charges, poison clouds fan out , Frozen Orbs answer, and in an instant, the Vipers are dead, the merc is dead, mana is gone, Energy Shield is gone, the life orb is showing half full, and I'm left standing there alone wondering what happened and just how close to the end I'd just come.

Otherwise, nothing too interesting to report. I of course encountered widespread cold immunes for the first time. They slowed things down and resulted in some crowd control issues but weren't anything that Static Field and the merc couldn't solve. Though, perhaps worthy of special mention: Stygian Fury ... I hate those ... so much. Cold immune with ranged attacks and casting amplify damage ... ugh ... just ugh. And did I mention that they're great at finding a way to die over water or lava or some other terrain where their drop is lost . Good thing I don't have to see them until Hell Act V ... oh wait ... I guess I'll be seeing them again momentarily with my Trapsin. Hmm. Let's see how those cold immunes like Death Sentries!

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          74/65   (H) Rogue Encampment       113
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       22/25   Canyon of the Magi         19
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          25/18   Kurast Docks               18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1    Kurast Docks               12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

Up next: It's my Trapsin's turn to tackle NM Act V. If successful, she'll finally get her Shadow tree unlocked! Also, it's probably my last best chance to find a good merc armor as I'll be dropping a lot of mf going into Hell. Here's hoping for something good!

 

[Crudesash]

@HanShotFirst: Your writeups are the stuff of legend! I feel like you're the Sopranos to my late night local access ambulance chaser commercial, nervous guy with a bad comb over sweating profusely...hey, we've all watched too many Bonanza reruns at some point, right?

So my Amazon, Artemis, took it to Duriel, and came out smiling; Act 2 now cleared on both characters, and the steamy jungles of Kurast await our intrepid heroes...but how did we get here? Well...

After dispatching Fangskin, I embarked on a semi speed run to get to Duriel; I'm not a big fan of full clears until mid nightmare, when we start to see some end game items pop up, and there are some areas I am loath to canvas, but after my experience with my latest Matriarch, I think FC is the way to go, especially for as long as I want to stay single pass.

So I decided to gamble for an MF coronet for my merc (another tip I learned in this thread), and while I didn't get one, Elzix was kind enough to proffer:


That is a great find and I imagine it will carry me through Normal and probably Nightmare. Left the socket empty until I can cube a PTopaz.

No real issues in the Palace or AS, but I did start to see some pushback in the Tomb; I've been at /p5 throughout, but some of the skellie/summoner combos were whacking me pretty hard...no NDE, but it made me skittish about Duriel, so I dropped to P1 again...and again, there was no need. I just ran up and stabbed him right in his smelly bug chest, and again the merc didn't die...it seems so counter intuitive based on previous experience, but bum rushing Duriel has worked very well for me...I could've easily done him on /5 or /7, I think I used 1 health pot the whole fight. His drops were, as usual, less than inspiring:


So now it's off to Act 3...as @DariusTriplet mentioned, starting in the Jav tree may have been a mistake...especially since I am not sure what I want my final skills to be. This is my first ever Javazon, and I've only buffed Charged Strike so far. I am thinking CS/LF is the way to go, but I am a bit leery about being a one trick pony in Hell. I noticed that CS does not show an AR value on the LCS; is it treated as a spell, and thus is not affected by AR?

My Paladin gets first crack at all the spidery, flayery, heirophantery goodness A3 has to offer. Time to start looking for an upgrade from my Steel flail...Cleglaw's Tooth would be quite nice; I have the shield, and I can defeat Normal with just those two.

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          74/65   (H) Rogue Encampment       113
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       26/25   Kurast Docks               24
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          25/18   Kurast Docks               18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1    Kurast Docks               12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        1/12    Outer Cloister             0
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

 

[DariusTriplet]

So now it's off to Act 3...as @DariusTriplet mentioned, starting in the Jav tree may have been a mistake...especially since I am not sure what I want my final skills to be. This is my first ever Javazon, and I've only buffed Charged Strike so far. I am thinking CS/LF is the way to go, but I am a bit leery about being a one trick pony in Hell. I noticed that CS does not show an AR value on the LCS; is it treated as a spell, and thus is not affected by AR?

Kind of! CS performs a normal attack (which is affected by AR), but always fires the bolts, regardless of whether the attack hits or not. There's no +attack% bonus on CS, so you can check your AR by just swapping to Normal Attack. Note that leech is reliant on the physical attack connecting, so if you have poor AR, it's difficult to keep your mana up without potions. LF, on the other hand, always connects with physical damage on the "main" bolt (IIRC) so you don't need to worry about keeping mana up with it.

I've taken lightning Amazons through to Guardian, and your mercenary+Valkyrie should be enough physical support that you don't need to worry about being weak to LIs. The one area that's really horrible is the Act 3 jungle in Hell, since it's absolutely loaded with guaranteed LIs (Fetish and either Flayers or Soul Killers, Gloams, vultures). You can reroll away LIs in any other area in the game, but due to how Act 3 Hell is set up, you're going to have to some combination of a backup attack, strong mercenary, or very fast boots

 

[Crudesash]

Kind of! CS performs a normal attack (which is affected by AR), but always fires the bolts, regardless of whether the attack hits or not. There's no +attack% bonus on CS, so you can check your AR by just swapping to Normal Attack. Note that leech is reliant on the physical attack connecting, so if you have poor AR, it's difficult to keep your mana up without potions. LF, on the other hand, always connects with physical damage on the "main" bolt (IIRC) so you don't need to worry about keeping mana up with it.

I've taken lightning Amazons through to Guardian, and your mercenary+Valkyrie should be enough physical support that you don't need to worry about being weak to LIs. The one area that's really horrible is the Act 3 jungle in Hell, since it's absolutely loaded with guaranteed LIs (Fetish and either Flayers or Soul Killers, Gloams, vultures). You can reroll away LIs in any other area in the game, but due to how Act 3 Hell is set up, you're going to have to some combination of a backup attack, strong mercenary, or very fast boots

I rarely avoid mobs or park uniques, but playing HC sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. I'm thinking if I make it that far, I really need a powerful attack to take down the Ancients and Baal, so if I occasionally come across a PI/LI, I might try to get around them if possible. I'm thinking of having a Bow on Switch with some elemental damage, but a CTC Amp on my Javelin/spear might be better...

 

[Booble]

Little update

Light Sorc McDouble
Cruised through Act 2 . Having a bunch of fun maxing charged bolt. Just started using teleport a little bit. Biggest problem is burning through mana like crazy. Not a huge problem once I get a belt that holds more that 8 potions. I'll work on that soon. Been very lucky with some drops. Picked up a Gull dagger, 19MF rare gloves, 9MF ammy, and socketed 2 regular Topaz's into a skull cap.


Elemental Druid McRib
Also cruised through Act 2. Fissure is fun and also kills everything so fast. Also been pretty lucky with drops. +1 elemental druid ammy already, 21MF Nagelring off of Andy I think. Using a leaf staff.

Both char's using stealth armor. Haven't had a ton of time to play but hopefully will have more soon.

Awesome progress from everyone else. Been reading all the updates.

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          74/65   (H) Rogue Encampment       113
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       26/25   Kurast Docks               24
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          25/18   Kurast Docks               18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        22/22    Kurast Docks              12
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1    Kurast Docks               12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       1/1     Rogue Encampment           0
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

 

[PhineasB]

The Druid has completed the first 4 acts of Normal, and the Necro is at the Docks. Druid is elemental with fire at least until A4 NM, and the Necro has the summon tree, with the first tree unlock going for curses. It's been slow and steady since the tourney started, but I finally decided to update.

I won't waste space with pics, as we progressed safely following general untwinked tourney approach, but without full clears. Some charms, some MF, etc. Nothing too exciting. I hope to quest the Necro through A3 tomorrow and then finish A5 with the Druid (with some time spent at Eldritch and Pindle along the way), with an Insight Partizan the key target.

* * *

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          74/65   (H) Rogue Encampment       113
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       32/24   Harrogath                  33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       26/25   Kurast Docks               24
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          25/18   Kurast Docks               18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        22/22   Kurast Docks               12
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1    Kurast Docks               12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

 

[HanShotFirst]

Ha ha! My Trapsin finally gets her second skill tree.



NM Act V has been cleared at players 7! In fact, all of Normal and Nightmare has now been cleared by both of my characters at players 7. Every dungeon, temple, tomb, evil urn, ... heck, every urn (I'm looking at you Flying Scimitars) ... there were no survivors!

NM Act V was pretty easy for my Trapsin. She generally seemed to be up against less formidable mobs than my Frozen Orb Sorceress had faced. Or perhaps it was simply the difference in play styles between the two characters. There were of course widespread lightning immunes, but they seemed to bug me less than the cold immunes that my Sorceress had faced. The toughest spot for my Trapsin was interestingly the same place as for my Frozen Orb Sorceress: The Frozen River. My Frozen Orb Sorceress had rolled Stygian Fury type monsters in the Frozen River (cold immune, flying, casting amplify damage, and shooting glowing orbs of death). My Trapsin rolled Gloams in the Frozen River (lightning immune, flying, and shooting lightning bolts of death). Okay, the regular Gloams weren't all that bad, but I think every unique spawn in that area went to the Gloam type monsters. And I'm positive that every Evil Urn spawn resulted in Gloams ... usually uniques ... often dropping on my head . I considered not doing the Evil Urns, but then it wouldn't have been a full clear now would it? Here's a sample of the action:



I think all of the unique Gloams were dual physical/lightning immune. Fortunately Fire Blast was still quite effective against them. I'm not sure if the skill will retain much usefulness in Hell, but it got the job done here in NM.

With about 1,000 life, there wasn't anything that felt like a near death. The snakes in Nihlathak's Temple that had caused a wtf moment with my Sorceress didn't make an appearance this time around. The thing that seemed the most dangerous to me was the Frenzytaurs. With only the Trap tree I had no inherent crowd control skills available. So, if something fast and hard hitting blew through the merc, I was probably going to be toast. Champion and unique Frenzytaurs seemed most likely to pull off something like that. Fortunately, they only spawned in a couple of areas and the bulk of the champion/unique spawns in those areas went to other monster types! When encountered, I was able to spread the champion/unique Frenzytaur packs out by using my teleport staff on switch. I was then able to engage those more dangerous badies one on one. Easy-peasy, stuff you guys already know ... so let's get to something you don't already know: Drops!

Here's the set/uniques that dropped in NM Act V:
Remember, full clears at players 7 with 287 mf (+ 23 mf if the merc kills).

Ghoulhide, Heavy Bracers (Frigid Highlands)
Sigon's Shelter, Gothic Plate (Abaddon) <-- Completes the set!
Coldkill, Hatchet (Crystalline Passage)
Bartuc's Cut-Throat, Greater Talons (Crystalline Passage) <-- Cool find with an Assassin. Not the best for a Trapsin though ... turned out to be eth ...
Wormskull, Bone Helm (Drifter Cavern)
The Meat Scraper, Lochaber Axe (Drifter Cavern)
Arctic Horn, Short War Bow (Infernal Pit)
Silks of the Victor, Ancient Armor (Halls of Anguish)
Cathan's Mesh, Chain Mail (Halls of Anguish)
Skull Splitter, Military Pick (The Ancients' Way)
Tancred's Weird, Amulet (Worldstone Keep Level 1)
Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth, Mesh Belt (Worldstone Keep Level 1) <-- Cool! But I prefer the resistances on my upped Nightsmoke to the mf here.
Arctic Binding, Light Belt (Baal)
Stormspike, Stiletto (Baal)
Berserker's Hatchet, Double Axe (Baal)

Cleglaw's Tooth, Long Sword (The Secret Cow Level)
Tancred's Crowbill, Military Pick (The Secret Cow Level)
Shadowfang, Two-Handed Sword (The Secret Cow Level)
Toothrow, Sharktooth Armor (The Secret Cow Level) <-- Ugh. Why not Duriel's?
Kinemil's Awl, Giant Sword (The Secret Cow Level)

I'd been hoping for a good to great merc armor going into NM Act V. I found a green Cuirass and a gold Sharktooth armor. No dice! Fortunately my Sorceress got a Lem from the NM Hellforge (Treachery here I come). My Sorceress found an eth Russet Armor (343 def), and my Assassin one upped her and found an eth Templar Coat (393 def). They also found four Thul Runes combined (I previously only had the one from Act V Normal). So with a 2/3 chance on each armor of cubing for three sockets, I'm feeling good about my chances for having a nice enough base for a merc Treachery.

Also of note:



That's a pretty darn deluxe Teleport staff! I'm planning on sticking a +25 lightining and a +29 fire resistance jewel into the staff. That should help take some of the nerves off of going to switch and otherwise losing 57 to all resistances!

Past that, a few nice mana charms dropped:

Serpent's Grand Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0xacc81886
+51 to Mana
7% Faster Run/Walk

Serpent's Grand Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0xc30d3ad
+20 to Life
+50 to Mana

Serpent's Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0x248e9476
+34 to Mana

My Trapsin doesn't need more mana. But when you've got a Sorceress running Energy Shield; can you ever have too much?

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          74/74   (H) Rogue Encampment       124
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       32/24   Harrogath                  33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       26/25   Kurast Docks               24
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          25/18   Kurast Docks               18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        22/22   Kurast Docks               12
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1    Kurast Docks               12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

P.S. It looks like my Sorceress started hitting xp penalties and my Assassin caught up! They're both mid clvl 74 now with my Sorceress only a little bit ahead.

Up next: Enough of the preliminaries, it's time for the main event! I'm going to swap some gear around (drop mf stuff for more essential stat stuff) and then my Frozen Orb Sorceress will start Hell. Assuming one of those two exceptional eth armors cubes to three sockets I think I should be in pretty good shape!

@Crudesash68 - Thanks for kind words! And don't sell yourself short! I quite enjoy your updates and character write ups!

 

[Kartongen]

[...]
LF, on the other hand, always connects with physical damage on the "main" bolt (IIRC) so you don't need to worry about keeping mana up with it.
[...]

Oh, this is why so many people run manaleach (and up their titan's) on their javazons. I could never see the worth until now.

 

[Crudesash]

Hephaestus tore through the Act 3 Jungles like he had a burr in his chain mail, /p5 all the way, probably 75-80% of the maps explored. Sanders's gloves dropped off a random mob and the extra speed is just glorious. I found a War Hammer with CtC Amp, but it is so slow and I'm not having a lot of damage problems, so I stuck with the Steel Flail.

Sander's turned out to be the only S/U drop for the act, but I did find a decent Heraldic Shield as an upgrade, and I am saving a 3os Tower shield barring a better find, for Ancient's Pledge, though I'd prefer Rhyme for the MF and blocking.

Edit: Forgot to mention my first NDE! I got careless in the Spider Cavern, and Szzark was, as always, very rude to uninvited guests. I was fighting and didn't even realize it was him until amp hit, and my bulb went completely clear! I managed to move and pop a rejuv and I could not have had more than 5 HP left. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to have a heart attack.

Finally got down into the Durance and after dispatching the bodyguards (75 LR made Bremm a joke), went after Mephisto. My strategy was to try to hold his attention so the merc could just whale on him, but the Savage Lochaber Axe must've been in high roll phase, because I had to rez him twice, but down he went:


The drops were worthless, save for the Throwing Spear, which spawned Eth and replenish quantity, a nice upgrade for my Zon.

I think I'm going to break from my off/on Act pattern here and finish attempt Act IV with the Paladin. I think I'll pump sacrifice to boost Zeal, but once I unlock the offensive aura tree, I'll likely switch to a Vengeance build. We shall see!

**UPDATE** Cleared through to the River of Flame in A4; a Ral from the Forge, and along the way Goreshovel and Bladebone dropped.

SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          74/74   (H) Rogue Encampment       124
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       32/24   Harrogath                  33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       26/31   River of Flame             32
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          25/18   Kurast Docks               18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        22/22   Kurast Docks               12
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1    Kurast Docks               12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

 

[DariusTriplet]

"So THAT'S your secret," the warrior growled. "And look where it's gotten us."

The mage just stared at the ground.

I'm marking myself for disqualification - I was taking Zip through the Chaos Sanctuary, and feeling invincible after getting Lightning Mastery, I decided to try Diablo at players 8. I got a few Statics in, and spent a while spamming Charged Bolts and slowly chipping away at his health; while it was tense, I was never really at risk, and figured that it would just be a long slog. I decided to TP back for a potion refill and merc revive, and when I came back down, Big D had put a Bone Prison around the TP. I sigh and start firing Charged Bolts to wear it down, when a pink hose came bearing down...

Drink a purple, drink a purple, see Zip's HP drop precipitously (with 50% LR + 3 MDR!), reflexively Save & Exit. Oops. It's extra embarrassing since I could've just Teleported out.

Good luck to everyone playing - I'll definitely keep watching

       SP  Forum Name         Characters        Level   Furthest WP             Points
--  -----------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------------  -------
Y   Hanshotfirst       Sorc/Sin          74/74   (H) Rogue Encampment       124
Y   Gynli              Zon/Necro         32/48   (N) Rogue Encampment       33
N   PhineasB           Necro/Druid       32/24   Harrogath                  33
N   Crudesash68        Zon/Paladin       26/31   River of Flame             32
N   DariusTriplet      Sorc/Zon          31/24   River of Flame             32
Y   Pb_pal             Sorc/Zon          19/25   Canyon of the Magi         18
N   Swamigoon          Sin/Druid         23/20   Kurast Docks               17
N   Booble             Sorc/Druid        22/22   Kurast Docks               12
Y   Vildecor           Zon/Sorc          21/20   Lut Gholein                12
Y   skoolbus           Druid/Sorc        28/1    Kurast Docks               12
Y   Maltatai           Druid/Druid       21/15   Lut Gholein Sewers         9
Y   b1ur               Paladin/Druid     20/1    Lut Gholein                6
N   CaseyJones         Sorc/Druid        1/1     Rogue Encampment           0

 

[Crudesash]

Sorry to hear that Darius; I hope you continue with the character though, for your own enjoyment. I think I am also going to self DQ, because...

My Paladin is sort of dead...but not killed by anything in game; the file is not being recognized by ATMA or D2, and I think I know why...

During my play session this morning, I ever so gently nudged the power strip on/off switch, just enough to shut down the PC...twice.

The first time it happened, it rolled back a few things I'd moved around to let my merc equip a savage partizan-like, I equipped the gear on the merc, and after the crash, it was back in the inventory. But I put it back on the merc, and everything was fine, finishing at the RoF way point. The 2nd occurrence of the crash happened right when I closed D2.,,and I think that zonked the file. It does not appear as a character when I start the game, and if I try to open it in Atma, it says it is not a Diablo ii save file.

Not sure what to do now. I have save files (the .org ones), but they would roll me back all the way to before Mephisto was killed, and, if I was just doing this for myself, I'd consider it, but being a tournament character, it doesn't feel right to do. Also, I moved items from that character that were gained after that point and mixed them with a shared Atma stash, and in the case of the spear I mentioned above, given to my Amazon. It seems right to me to pull those characters out of the tournament. I will think about perhaps doing a fresh reroll in the tournament, but I'm going to think about it for a while.

Edit: The save file was actually just before I beat the Hellforge...but it still feels weird.

 

[Pb_pal]

@DariusTriplet - Ah sorry to hear that. I hope you either continue your characters on your own, or you can always bring up a new character to replace her as per rule 5!

@Crudesash68 - That's odd. No recent Gomule backups or anything? If it's close enough, I'd be okay with you just continuing on. You can also retire that character and bring a new one up in it's stead as per rule 5 as well. Whatever you choose, good luck!

 

[Crudesash]

@Pb_pal I use ATMA, and the closest my save got was just before doing the Hellforge; if that sounds ok I will continue on. The item I muled to the Zon was found before that save. I actually lost the items found after that save, I never muled them off, Bladebone, Ral from the forge and whatever else was there.

I actually started an Assassin, and I’ve only placed points in the Shadow tree so far, she’s level 6…I’ll have her take the Paladins place and keep the Zon parked for a while. I’ll post an update once I beat Blood Raven.