'Three Way Dance II' - H.C 1.10 Tournament

[Igor Potapov]

Take my condolences too, Angiras. I know what pain it is to lose a char in this tournament. When I lost my Paladin here it was really hard to find a reason to continue team play. It is very hard to win here by making three Guardians. However it is also hard to lose a char or even two and still continue it. Just think about it. Don’t surrender!

 

[PSYCHO]

My condolences for your loss, Angiras. You were doing so well. In the first Three Way Dance my Paladin died in nearly the same way, however it was due to Iron Maiden as soon as he stepped into the Throne Room :drink:

 

[SuperSavage]

Team Savage - (130 Total Points)
Destroyer Ormus - (Druid – Summon/ShapeShift 38 pts) – lvl 51 – Act II NM
Destroyer Atma - (Sorc – Cold/Light. 49 pts) – lvl 60 – Act III NM
Destroyer Cain - (Necro – Summon/Curse 43 pts) – lvl 55 – Act III NM

Ormus: Beat Radament, Continuing Act II
Atma: Staying in Act III, for some Mephisto MF Runs
Cain: Just Beat Duriel, Starting Act III

Total Set/Unique Items: 158

Since my last update, I have only played Cain all the way through Act II, and Holy S**T DID IT TAKE A MILLION YEARS. He started out... getting to the far oasis pretty quick on /players 8 just for some experience. I decided to screw the maggot lair and do it later... and moved to the lost city. The entrance to the valley of the snakes was right when I got to the Lost City on the left, but I did not know this and ran around the City killing probably every single monster and finnaly found it. I luckily found Claw viper lvl 2 fast and then continued onto the Palace. Everything was easy in the palace and it went smoothly. Once i got to the Arcane Sanctuary... im like oh my god this is gonna take a while and I hoped to find it at least by the second try. BUT OF COURSE I FIND IT ON THE 4th TIME and its the stairs one... my merc is so dumb i had to go ahead and tp most of the time on the last route through the Sanctuary. That took me quite a while with just my merc. I get the Canyon WP and then have to go back and do the Maggot Lair, and man I got lucky in there. I found the Level 2 and 3 way faster than i thought and finnaly killed the big worm. I find the right tomb and it takes me almost the whole tomb to find the orfice to duriel, clearing just about the whole thing. I have Merc, lvl 10 fire golem, 10 skeletons, 3 mages, and 5 revives. Well of course with cold mages and might merc Duriel went down very fast only killing one skeleton in the process, dropping The Dirk Diggler and Silkweaves (which I was surprised, to bad I dont have boot slot ). One thing that I notcied was pretty funny is that I have 160 mana and it takes 160 mana to make fire golem, so now I cant get another level into it because my golem would cost more than my total amount of mana :lol: .

Items worth mentioning since last update:

Duriels Shell
Goldrap
Silkweaves
Plaguebearer
Nagelring (25%)

Pretty Nice Rare Gloves:

Skull Fist
Chain Gloves
Defense: 9
Durability: 13 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 55
Fingerprint: 0xa66da8af
+7 to Maximum Stamina
Fire Resist +13%
Poison Resist +16%
+5 to Light Radius
20% Increased Attack Speed
Half Freeze Duration
5% Bonus to Attack Rating

 

[jiansonz]

I am very confused by your post, SuperSavage. It almost sounds like you don´t want to play the game...Care to explain?

When you "ran around the City killing probably every single monster and finnaly found it" (the entrance), it sounds like you didn´t like to play there. Is that normal with you players?

When I play, I do full clears. I want to find the exit from every area the very last thing I do there. I want The Summoner to be in the last quadrant, etc. This leads to less backtracking. Instead, I always seem to find the exit much sooner that I want to. :lol:


Am I in the minority, playing like this?

 

[erimatbrad]

I am very confused by your post, SuperSavage. It almost sounds like you don´t want to play the game...Care to explain?

When you "ran around the City killing probably every single monster and finnaly found it" (the entrance), it sounds like you didn´t like to play there. Is that normal with you players?

When I play, I do full clears. I want to find the exit from every area the very last thing I do there. I want The Summoner to be in the last quadrant, etc. This leads to less backtracking. Instead, I always seem to find the exit much sooner that I want to. :lol:


Am I in the minority, playing like this?

Well, you know -my- playing style. I hate doing full clears. Especially by the time I've made to NM or Hell. Definitely by the time I've made it to hell..

Speaking of my playing style:

Team Eddings (erimatbrad) - 170 points
Conqueror Polgara - (Sorc - Light./Cold) - lvl 69 - Act I Hell
Destroyer Liselle - (Amazon - Jav./Passive) - lvl 54 - Act V NM
Destroyer Zedar - (Necro – P&B/Curse) - lvl 49 - Act V NM

Hurrah! Zedar has made it to Act V, unlocking Pit runs for Polgara!

Too bad she doesn't have much MF -- I'll have to rectify that problem. I only played for a few minutes after Zedar killed Diablo, just long enough to grab the Cold Plains WP...

As for Zedar? Well, his little rogue friend spent more time shooting enemies in their faces rather than playing it cool and hiding back with him. He finally left her for dead after she almost got him killed by dragging more enemies near him when he was killing Izual.

With all of his +skills and the fact he's finally got 20 points in Bone Prison (and Bone Spear, but that's not the point), things aren't too much trouble for him. He just spams prison, traps everything, and blasts them for 1000 damage a pop with Bone Spear.

Even though his listed damage is the highest of all the characters, he's also the slowest going, since he doesn't get multiple hits against the same enemy with each blast.

The Hellforge dropped a Hel rune, making my 'Runes above Shael' count to include: Dol, Hel, Lum. Only one rune away from Lionheart. Yay!

The basic 'tons of prisons' plan of attack worked throughout the Chaos Sanctuary. The only scary parts were where he got hit by the mages before he could throw up his line of defense -- elemental damage will eventually be his downfall.

Diablo never got a chance to leave his pentagram. Tons of prisons, throw a few spears, run away because of lightning breath, and repeat. He died in a very anticlimactic way.

No real new S/U's to report for Zedar's run. He did find an eth Pompeii's Wrath, which I thought was a cool name for the weapon. Now that someone has the chance to get lots of elite uniques and sets (I'm a wishful thinker, ain't I?), things are getting exciting!

 

[nemar]

[HIGHLIGHT]Team HALL OF FAME[/HIGHLIGHT] – 141 points


Destroyer Andariel - Necromancer - Summon / curses – lvl 57 - 43 points – actIII - nm
Destroyer Baal ......- Assasin - Trap / Passive .......... – lvl 63 - 49 points – actIV - nm
Destroyer Diablo ..- Amazon - Passive / bow .......... – lvl 59 - 49 points – actIV - nm
Be Afraid, we are back ! !

Character Rewards :
Andariel : Jewellery & armor
Baal : Jewellery & armor
Diablo : Gloves & Jewellery

Stash reward : only distinct items (max 2 for rings)
Green : 39 items
Unique : 44 items

Baal is now at top venom and starting up traps! always with players8, it's start to be hard time to time. Mephisto was a long fight with a lot of summoning but he drop nice item
-Spire of Honor
- Kuko Shakaku
and a belt.

now it's time to Andariel to kill Mephisto

I take a :drink: in memory of angira !

 

[CRG]

[highlight]Team Renewal - Points 46[/highlight]
Hera - (Ama Javelin/Passives) - Lvl 28 - Act 3 Norm - 14 Points
Hades - (Nec Poison/Curses) - Lvl 30 - Act 4 Norm - 20 Points
Fogged_Mirrors - (Sorc Lightning/Cold) - Lvl 23 - Act 3 Norm - 12 Points

Moving right along last night was Hades, who completed all of Act 3, in addition to rocking out in Act 4, and he is currently sitting at the RoF WP.

Hera began her quest once again and got to Lower Kurast. The Flayer Jungle was annoying, as I got swarmed many times by legions and swarms of flayers and soul killers. Luckily, Charged Strike (or whatever the CB melee skill is) is slaughtering everything on /p8. However, her quest this morning was ended by blood, and not her own. It came from my left nostril, as a massive sneezing/nose blowing fit yielded a massive nosebleed at 6am this morning (Central), which continued to bleed and ooze for 45 minutes (ICK!). Thus she stopped as I could no longer deal with pixels.

FM hasn't moved yet, and she will be the last character through Act 3. I can't wait to hit clvl 30 with her.

crg

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

I am very confused by your post, SuperSavage. It almost sounds like you don´t want to play the game...Care to explain?

When you "ran around the City killing probably every single monster and finnaly found it" (the entrance), it sounds like you didn´t like to play there. Is that normal with you players?

When I play, I do full clears. I want to find the exit from every area the very last thing I do there. I want The Summoner to be in the last quadrant, etc. This leads to less backtracking. Instead, I always seem to find the exit much sooner that I want to. :lol:


Am I in the minority, playing like this?

I much prefer doing full clears. I started this tournament thinking that I wouldn't, and ran my characters through Act I without clearing every area, and missed some of the optional areas entirely. But it was so much less satisfying playing like that -- almost feeling like I was cheating by not killing all of the monsters -- that I've reverted to my normal habits and intend to be full clearing the rest of the game.

But yes, I do think we're in the minority for playing like this.

 

[Lacerta]

I much prefer doing full clears. I started this tournament thinking that I wouldn't, and ran my characters through Act I without clearing every area, and missed some of the optional areas entirely. But it was so much less satisfying playing like that -- almost feeling like I was cheating by not killing all of the monsters -- that I've reverted to my normal habits and intend to be full clearing the rest of the game.

But yes, I do think we're in the minority for playing like this.

I'm somewhere in the middle on this one. I rarely run past monsters, but I don't go out of my way looking for every last one either. If I see it, I kill it, if it can stay hidden, it gets to live. Usually, if I find the entrance/exit right away, I will take it (assuming I have found the waypoint, which I try to always do, with a couple of exceptions, like the Palace Celler waypoint, which I almost always skip). But if I have to clear an entire area to find both the waypoint and the exit, I have no problem with that either. I've found good items before while running down that one last hall. Some areas I do full clears, especially if they have super chests, like the maggot lair and the arcane sanctuary.

 

[steelsixtyIV]

I'll be out of town for a few weeks so no updates. Currently everybody finished Norm and Magic finished Act I NM. I hope to see some Guardians when I get back.

steel

 

[madmaxxam]

I'm somewhere in the middle on this one. I rarely run past monsters, but I don't go out of my way looking for every last one either. If I see it, I kill it, if it can stay hidden, it gets to live. Usually, if I find the entrance/exit right away, I will take it (assuming I have found the waypoint, which I try to always do, with a couple of exceptions, like the Palace Celler waypoint, which I almost always skip). But if I have to clear an entire area to find both the waypoint and the exit, I have no problem with that either. I've found good items before while running down that one last hall. Some areas I do full clears, especially if they have super chests, like the maggot lair and the arcane sanctuary.

That's pretty much the camp I fall in. Full clears seems excessive, but I don't run from a fight (unless it's deemed impossible or just plain stupid). Anyway, Ieyasu_Tokugawa made conqueror, but I'll do a full update when the other two also make conqueror, which will be a bit, since I'm going to do a lot of MFing on the way.

 

[Mage11]

Starm is almost finished with Act 1. Let me tell you, it has been both frustrating and challenging. I don't know how many NDE's she's had, but it's quite a few. She's getting used to living life on the edge. However, she has retrieved the malus, and reached the final waypoint. I just didn't quite have enough time to take her to Andariel. I can't wait until she gets to Act 2 and can start going a little quicker.


[highlight]Team Mage1 (Mage11) [/highlight] – 18 points
Sara – (Amazon – Passive/Bow) – lvl 20 – Act II Nml - 6 points
Klaudia – (Assassin - MA/Shadow) – lvl 22 – Act II Nml - 7 points
Starm – (Sorc - Cold/Light.) – lvl 19 – Act I Nml - 5 points

 

[crazy_bear]

I am very confused by your post, SuperSavage. It almost sounds like you don´t want to play the game...Care to explain?

When you "ran around the City killing probably every single monster and finnaly found it" (the entrance), it sounds like you didn´t like to play there. Is that normal with you players?

When I play, I do full clears. I want to find the exit from every area the very last thing I do there. I want The Summoner to be in the last quadrant, etc. This leads to less backtracking. Instead, I always seem to find the exit much sooner that I want to. :lol:


Am I in the minority, playing like this?

For me it depends a lot on how much time I have to play and how much exp my char is getting from an area. I almost never clear any of act I NM because my chars get pretty much no exp from there if I have levelled against norm baal, and there isn't really much chance of finding an item I want. On the other hand, I almost always clear all of act I in norm, including the optional areas, because of how much that helps in getting a char ready to take on Andariel. If I don't have a lot of time then I will often run by monsters, just to get to the next WP. Finally, playing HC, I find full clears help a lot, because it saves you from having that monster get you in the back.

Good Luck to all.

 

[PetroPanko]

Small update:
[Highlight]Team Petro (PetroPanko)[/Highlight] – 151 points
Destroyer Haron – (Necro – Summon/Curse) - lvl 63 - Act IV NM
Destroyer Athena - (Amazon – Passive/Bow) – lvl 64 - Act IV NM
Destroyer Hera – (Sorc – Cold/Light.) – lvl 67 - Act V NM
Items in stash - 328

Finally Athena killed NM Meph and all my characters are free to fight for their Conqueror titles. But before this Ive runed Meph a couple of times with Hera wearing about 250%MF. No noticable finds (Im still looking for good bow/xbow, Peasant Crown and good head for Haron) but next NDE. During endles runs is very hard to pay etention on ewerything. My Sorc has about 650 life and about 30 res all. Usually Im looking on Meph life bar in order to know when SF stops working and I should swich to FO. Thanks God I must drink mana potions from time to time, so I control blue bal too. Once Ive looked on blue bal and noticed I HEAVENT RED BAL! (it was complertly black means empty). Ive drinked two big purples together, becouse of fear I cant aim buton corectly :lol:
After that expirience Hera ended Meph runs and went to act IV. Back to players8. I always do full clear of act IV becouse its short, gives good expirience and sometimes good items/runes too. But not that time - Hera finded nothing special. Helforge droped Pul rune. High but not to usable. Sanctuary and big D on players3 - no problems, no good drops. After that Hera completed first quest of act V, so I have posibility of Eldrich/Shenk runs too.
What Ive lerned? Dont play HC when You are tired or have a headache!
I wish You all good luck - Piotr

 

[a_shikoff]

[highlight]Team 'Three Old Men'[/highlight] - 119 points
Destroyer CatchThis - Barbarian (Combat/Masteries) - lvl 56, Act III NM (45 points)
Destroyer AngerOfNature - Druid (Elemental/Summoning) - lvl 54, Act II NM (37 points)
Destroyer CallOfTheGraves - Necromancer (P&B/Summoning) - lvl 51, Act II NM (37 points)

My barb took lead in my team. I've finished my NM Countess running ending with 5 Amn runes, so I've gambled 4 rare nice throwing weapons and upgraded them to exceptional status. Then my thrower was ready to face NM.
He finished Act I and Act II and on the way hired his new might mercenary.
This is my most gold-consuming char - he need tons of money for repairs and merc ressurection (without BO my merc dies often)
So he has found the gibbin and the golden bird and now reached Lower Kurast WP. I'll try to kill Mephisto with him and then rest him until the other two reach their conqueror titles.

 

[jiansonz]

[Highlight]Team jiansonz[/Highlight] - 63 points
Herne (Druid, Shapeshifting/Summoning) - level 35 - Harrogath - 21 points
Odysseus (Paladin, Offensive/Defensive) - level 35 - Harrogath - 21 points
Elayna (Assassin, Martial Arts/Shadow Disciplines) - level 35 - Harrogath - 21 points

Nice even scoreboard this time.

Herne caught up with the other two, without any major hiccups. His "mighty" wolves were owned only on two occasions:

* River of Flame: a Cursed Urdar boss pack, with some Stranglers mixed in and a couple of Abyss Knights firing in the background. A non-act-boss fight in Normal that is almost a challenge. Will wonders ever cease?. What to do? I summoned the Grizzly for the first time. What a TANK that is! Over 2000 life. Good grief...

* Diablo. This was to be expected, of course. I forgot to take it down from /players 8, but we made it anyway. Diablo focused on the Grizzly, who could survive two full Lightning Infernos. I recast it (and the Oak Sage) as needed while the merc poked and Herne clawed Big Red to death. I still use that 'Steel' Flail. The Open Wounds sure help; at the end of the fight, there were several gallons of demonic blood on the Sanctuary floor. :lol:


Now I have a tedious task ahead of me. The only part of the game I find slightly boring: Act 5 Normal. It ususally takes several playing sessions for me to finish it, and now I will do it three times. Expect a couple of Destroyers in about 2 weeks...

Helforge droped Pul rune. High but not to usable.

Well, if one of your characters have chosen weapon or merc weapon as reward, a Pul is a very good rune. Along with a Lum, you can make the elusive exceptional unique -> elite unique upgrade.

 

[SuperSavage]

I am very confused by your post, SuperSavage. It almost sounds like you don´t want to play the game...Care to explain?

When you "ran around the City killing probably every single monster and finnaly found it" (the entrance), it sounds like you didn´t like to play there. Is that normal with you players?

When I play, I do full clears. I want to find the exit from every area the very last thing I do there. I want The Summoner to be in the last quadrant, etc. This leads to less backtracking. Instead, I always seem to find the exit much sooner that I want to. :lol:


Am I in the minority, playing like this?

lol, jianzonz... I have followed your style of play since I have been here, which is very interesting and probably one of the more "better" styles. In that last post that I posted, I made it sound a lot worse than it was. I love this game, this is the best tournament I have ever been in and try to spend as much time as possible playing in it as well. I have never played necros before, and I just didn't really see how bad summoning necros have it in Act II. It was annoying, but If you were me its not "that" bad as the words seem. Its just peoples gameplay is much different, like you like full clears and I cant stand full clears at all, as well as what you said about the SUmmoner like I want to find him first not last becauase it just is too time consuming because I can only have my merc out and not all of my summons. When you said you like too find the entrance last, and when I said I like to find it right away, it also depends because like if you want to level, or you dont need to level and just getting through the act, etc.

 

[nemar]

[HIGHLIGHT]Team HALL OF FAME[/HIGHLIGHT] – 143 points


Destroyer Andariel - Necromancer - Summon / curses – lvl 60 - 45 points – actIII - nm
Destroyer Baal ......- Assasin - Trap / Passive .......... – lvl 63 - 49 points – actIV - nm
Destroyer Diablo ...- Amazon - Passive / bow .......... – lvl 59 - 49 points – actIV - nm
Be Afraid, we are back ! !

Character Rewards :
Andariel : Jewellery & armor
Baal : Jewellery & armor
Diablo : Gloves & Jewellery

Stash reward : only distinct items (max 2 for rings)
Green : 39 items
Unique : 49 items

just a little run to kurast but lot of unique in only one shoot

 

[CRG]

[highlight]Team Renewal - Points 46[/highlight]
Hera - (Ama Javelin/Passives) - Lvl 30 - Act 3 Norm - 18 Points
Hades - (Nec Poison/Curses) - Lvl 31 - Act 4 Norm - 20 Points
Fogged_Mirrors - (Sorc Lightning/Cold) - Lvl 28 - Act 3 Norm - 14 Points

More leveling for me, and all of my characters aer approaching that ever important clvl 30.

Hera cleared the rest of Act 3 last night, and her Durance 2 WP is ONE room away from Durance 3. It help that Hera is my fastest Meph runner too.

FM is rolling right along, and a clvl 17 charged bolt (21 bolts!) just rocks. I can't wait for clvl 30.

That's all from me for now. Tonight and tomorrow night will be layout for our campus newspaper, so my next update will be friday or monday.

be careful out there,
crg

 

[erimatbrad]

[highlight]Team Eddings (erimatbrad)[/highlight] - 176 points
Conquerer Polgara - (Sorc - Light./Cold) - lvl 77 - Act I Hell
Destroyer Liselle - (Amazon - Jav./Passive) - lvl 54 - Act V Nm
Destroyer Zedar - (Necro – P&B/Curse) - lvl 49 - Act V Nm

So, Act I Hell, complete! The Pit is exceptionally difficult for Polgara. The Masoleum is okay, though, although nothing good dropped in like, four runs. And then I got impatient and went on.

I'll probably be doing a lot of Andariel runs with Polgara. She has a beautiful, 8-10 teleport path to her room in Cat 4. All I need now is some four socket armor for some quick and easy PTopaz MF gear.

As for the adventure itself? Cold Immunes are much scarier than Lightning Immunes. For some reason, Chain Lightning isn't so impressive when they're tightly packed. But, hey, I'm sure things will get better with more levels.

The Countess was pretty stingy, only dropping a Tal and a Nef. One of the champions out on an earlier level did drop a Mal, though. Now I just need 2 Ko runes.

Up next? Liselle's adventure up north.