Tournament: Envious of the Green and Gold

[jdkerr]

Here is the part where I embarrass myself once again by entering a tournament with full intention to see it through and then abandon it long before Nightmare.

My assassin is named Phusis and she intends to be a Phoenix Striker later in life (frozzzen and nagi keep talking about them, and Jian keeps extolling them at high decibels, and so fourth). At the moment, I am pumping the charged bolt sentry as a leveling strategy, but it is not high enough to be of any real help.

I have found two S/U items -- but neither from monsters! The first was the Pelta Lunata, which dropped from the chest in the Mausoleum/Crypt. The second was Bloodfist gloves, which was exactly the fourth item this character gambled. I was, needless to say, rather shocked.

I am wearing 4x chipped topazes; my merc is doing likewise.

[highlight]Phusis the Assassin, level 16, 2 S/U items equipped, Outer Cloister next[/highlight]

 

[Tox FTW]

Name          Character    Class         Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon        Frigid Highlands    36          12
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid         City of the Damned  33          9
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer   Kurast Docks        29          5
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin      Arcane Sanctuary    25          7
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin      Lut Gholein         20          1
CDM           BK           Druid         Black Marsh         16          1
Jason         Qirana       Amazon        Stony Field         13          1
Morathi       TBA          TBA           Act 1  Normal        1          0
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon        Rogue Camp           1          0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin      Rogue Camp           1          0
RIP           Thor         Paladin       Rogue camp           1          0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid         Rogue Camp           1          0

I managed to deed Tipsey in the Chaos Sanctuary with an errant D flight right on top of Infector of Souls and his pack. It was swift and most likely very painful. She was lvl 32 and had 3 S/Us. Though the Arctic Belt was really hurting me since it had no decent mods and only 2 rows of potion slots. Before my screw up, she was rolling along quite well.

Restarting with Oatmeal the Elemental Druid.

[highlight] Oatmeal the Druid, Lvl 1, 0 S/Us equipped, Rogue Camp[/highlight]

 

[Archone]

Name          Character    Class         Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer   A5/Cow lvl Normal   42          8
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon        Frigid Highlands    36          12
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid         City of the Damned  33          9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin      Arcane Sanctuary    25          7
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin      Lut Gholein         20          1
CDM           BK           Druid         Black Marsh         16          1
Jason         Qirana       Amazon        Stony Field         13          1
Morathi       TBA          TBA           Act 1  Normal        1          0
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon        Rogue Camp           1          0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin      Rogue Camp           1          0
RIP           Thor         Paladin       Rogue camp           1          0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid         Rogue Camp           1          0

Update on my own progress!

I just killed Baal on nrml difficulty, he dropped Arctic Bow and another Tancred Military Pick. Both which I disregarded, since I got my 3 weapon slots filled with better or equal items.

Im now lvl 42, and will rinse the Cowlvl before I go NM.

 

[jiansonz]

Axe Amazon (not by choice, but by necessity) Martina is slowly progressing in Act V. She has found a slightly better axe than Bladebone, namely Skull Splitter Military Pick. Skull Splitter has OW and Hit Blinds Target (or rather, it's 'HBT +2', does that mean it casts Dim Vision two levels higher than the standard (whatever that is)? It does have a decent duration here in Normal). Skull Splitter also has a pretty high ED for a normal unique (so it's a better upgrade prospect than Bladebone) and despite no IAS on it, it's reasonably fast due to the fast base weapon type. Working together with the OW, I have added a 50 over 6 damage Grand Charm of Anthrax.

Cathan's Visage dropped; that reduced my MF to 65. I didn't lose the whole 48% from my topazed Crown because Cathan's ammy gets 25% MF in a 3-combo. The general bonus for 3 Cathan's pieces is 25% lightning resist, which is nice. I needed a boost there.
Soon after this, I found a Gem Shrine, upgraded a topaz to perfect, had Larzuk make a hole in Arctic Furs and stuffed the topaz there. So up to 89% MF now.

Going to hire a temporary merc now (probably a lightning mage) and stash my cold damage charm. Can't go around doing cold damage to shambling undead, you know...


[Highlight]Martina the Amazon and Telash the Cold Mage, level 40, 13 S/U items equipped, Frozen River next[/Highlight]

 

[Pyrotechnician1]

From the Arreat Summit:

Hit Blinds Target
Decreases radius of awareness similar to the Necromancer Curse:
Dim Vision.

The formula is as follows:

Chance = 50 + (Attacker Level + (Bonus * 4) - Defender Level) * 5

Where the bonus is how many items of hit blinds target the character has -1.
Some items have something like hit blinds target +2, which means they count as 2
items for the bonus calculation. Missile Attacks are at 1/3 this chance.
The level of Dim Vision that's cast on the target is equal to (Chance -
Roll)/5+1, max of 20.
​

 

[RIP]

Name          Character    Class         Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer   A5/Cow lvl Normal   42          8
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon        Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid         City of the Damned  33          9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin      Arcane Sanctuary    25          7
RIP           Thor         Paladin       Dry hills           23          2
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin      Lut Gholein         20          1
CDM           BK           Druid         Black Marsh         16          1
Jason         Qirana       Amazon        Stony Field         13          1
Morathi       TBA          TBA           Act 1  Normal        1          0
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon        Rogue Camp           1          0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin      Rogue Camp           1          0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid         Rogue Camp           1          0

I had not enough time to make real progress, but still, Thor killed Countess, cleared the Pit and is waiting for battle against Smith...Only one interesting item dropped -The Hand of Broc gloves, with nice mana/life leech bonuses, + some more mana will be usefull too...

I'm doing p8 full clears btw, so it will take lots of time to finish just Normal difficulty, but extra skill points will be usefull in NM, if Thor will ever get there...

GL to all :thumbup:


Edit: Today Thor finished Act 1 Normal, and also killed Radament and cleared many areas including Rocky waste, Dry hills and Halls of the dead...Unforunatelly, Andariel droped only rares, so Thor has to wait for his third S/U little bit longer...Also, Fire rogue has been sent back to her camp, she never died, but Thor needs better tank, therefore Desert warrior (combat) replaced her...

The biggest problem so far is lack of lightning resist, Rakanishu nearly killed my hero, and getting Resist lightning skill helped just partially, so i have to be more carefull in Beetle plagued areas...I will post screens next time

 

[felixbavaria1]

Bruno has defeated Diablo and Shenk the Overseer. After Milabrega's Shield dropped in the CS, Bruno has been wielding the Berserker's Axe. Thanks to Sander's gloves (courtesy of some random rogues in Act III) it strikes at lightning fast speed (23 fpa).

The Diablo fight was rather easy (at /p1), despite having only 36 lightning resist with Stormguild on switch. It was a matter of creating enough distractions (bear, vine, spirit) and then landing a few hits, rinse and repeat.

Unfortunately, since early Act V the days of the topazed armors are gone, but at least the replacement is very useful (Hawkmail). Furthermore, the Berserker's Helm dropped in the Bloody Foothills, giving a huge boost to Bruno's AR and nearly maxing his fire resist. If only the weapon and armour in the set were not completely useless for him ...

Gameplay has been very safe but slightly boring. You know, there are more exciting things than using frozen and stunlocked crowds of monsters as punching bags for a 23 fpa single target attack. If Bruno did not shift to human form every 80 seconds, I would probably have fallen asleep in the last session.

[highlight]Bruno the Werebear and Haphet the Cold Mage, level 36, 10 S/Us, Frigid Highlands next[/highlight]

 

[Immortal_Slayer]

Hi all!
Thought this tourney would be a lot of fun to get back into DII. Have never been any good with hardcore characters (case in point, I killed my HS/HF paladin before I even had a chance to post an update at level 17...), but would like to rejoin with another Paladin, GreenGoldieII. Am undecided yet as to try again as a teslafroster, or whether to try a hammerdin. Got a long time to think before either option is available I guess!

GreenGoldieII the Paladin, level 1, 0 S/Us, Rogue Encampment

 

[crawlingdeadman1]

Found Hotspur so now I'm rocking 2 uniques.

Name          Character    Class         Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer   A5/Cow lvl Normal   42           8
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon        Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid         City of the Damned  33           9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin      Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin       Dry hills           23           2
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin      Lut Gholein         20           1
CDM           BK           Druid         Outer Cloister      17           2
Jason         Qirana       Amazon        Stony Field         13           1
Morathi       TBA          TBA           Act 1  Normal        1           0
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon        Rogue Camp           1           0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin      Rogue Camp           1           0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid         Rogue Camp           1           0

Everything's going smooth, I decided to put a point in oak and treat it like decoy, casting it to get killed.

 

[Kitteh1]

Found Hotspur so now I'm rocking 2 uniques.

Name          Character    Class         Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer   A5/Cow lvl Normal   42           8
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon        Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid         City of the Damned  33           9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin      Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin       Dry hills           23           2
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin      Lut Gholein         20           1
CDM           BK           Druid         Outer Cloister      17           2
Jason         Qirana       Amazon        Stony Field         13           1
Morathi       TBA          TBA           Act 1  Normal        1           0
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon        Rogue Camp           1           0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin      Rogue Camp           1           0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid         Rogue Camp           1           0

Everything's going smooth, I decided to put a point in oak and treat it like decoy, casting it to get killed.

Hotspur is -in my opinion- one of the best early uniques you could get, useful pretty much forever.

 

[srrw]

Name          Character    Class         Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer   A5/Cow lvl Normal   42           8
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon        Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid         City of the Damned  33           9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin      Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin       Dry hills           23           2
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin      Lut Gholein         20           1
CDM           BK           Druid         Outer Cloister      17           2
srrw          Selene       Sorceress     Dark Wood           15           0
Jason         Qirana       Amazon        Stony Field         13           1
Morathi       TBA          TBA           Act 1  Normal        1           0
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon        Rogue Camp           1           0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin      Rogue Camp           1           0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid         Rogue Camp           1           0

After a looooooong break from Diablo I guess that's a pretty good way to come back.
I'm gonna go with Orb/Something sorcy.


- Edit: Rescued Cain. Zero S/U so far, Black Marsh next.

- Edit2: Can someone link me to a unique/set gambling formula? I mean at what clvl can I start gambling for a X set/unique item?

 

[jiansonz]

- Edit2: Can someone link me to a unique/set gambling formula? I mean at what clvl can I start gambling for a X set/unique item?

Gambled items get an item level (ilvl) that is equal to a random number from character level (clvl)-5 up to clvl+4. The item level on the gambled item needs to be at least as high as the quality level (qlvl) on the item you want to gamble, both the base item type and the set/unique item in question. Since it's so hard to gamble set/unique items (1 in 1000 and 1 in 2000, respectively), I recommend you gamble only for things that have qlvl no higher than clvl-5.

For normal weapons/armors, it's pretty easy to see if you have a high enough clvl to gamble the base type - they can't appear in the gambling window if you do not...

Here is a useful list for qlvl of the different items (courtesy of Hakai_no_Tenshi).

An example of how to use the list: Let's say you want to gamble Tancred's Hobnails. Boots have qlvl 3 so they can be gambled right from the beginning. But Tancred's Hobnails have qlvl 27, which means they are not possible to gamble until you reach clvl 23 and not practical until you reach clvl 32. Much higher level than that is not good either, because then you will start having the Boots getting upgraded to Demonhide Boots (qlvl 36) more and more often.

 

[Archone]

Lost my internet connection at 10:30 PM, Friday.. Called my operator, and they said that they could get it back on 11ish this morning.. Lazy !&"/!)) 'ers..

Anyhow! Couldnt be better circumstances for this tournament though!

My summoner is still alive!! Which is a great deal ofc, but amazing for me. Since its the furthest Ive gone in Hardcore.

Hes at lvl 74 atm, Hell act 2. Got to throw or replace a few items, so heres what I use atm!

37mf Tarnhelm - w Perf Topaz
Heavenly Garb
The Diggler
Steelclash

Nokozan Relic
Cathans Ring
17% Nagelring

Bloodfist
IK belt - Awesome find there!
Tearhaunch

Upgraded my mercs Razortine to Exceptional.. Still quite a puny merc stick.. Also just swapped that Prayer merc to a Might merc. Which was really needed, since my skellies arent that good anymore.
(Even if that +1 from tarn gets me 9 skellies)

Maxed CE now, and put 5p in Revive. Together with 50%res from Summon Resist, they could stand Andariel.. But just barely.

I fear that Duriels demonic face will be the last thing my necro will ever see..!

Name          Character    Class       Diff.   Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer  Hell     Hell A2             74          15
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon       Normal   Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid        Normal   City of the Damned  33           9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     Normal   Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Dry hills           23           2
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin     Normal   Lut Gholein         20           1
CDM           BK           Druid        Normal   Outer Cloister      17           2
srrw          Selene       Sorceress    Normal   Dark Wood           15           0
Jason         Qirana       Amazon       Normal   Stony Field         13           1
Morathi       TBA          TBA          Normal   Act 1  Normal        1           0
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon       Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0

 

[jiansonz]

Archone, you are flying in this tourney!

I fear that Duriels demonic face will be the last thing my necro will ever see..!

Why is that?
If you can bring a couple of revived Gorebellies, he won't stand a chance.

Old faithful Golem + Iron Maiden is also very reliable against the act bosses.

 

[Archone]

Yeah! This is far away from my normal ladder play! But sooo much fun!!

Thanks for the tip!! Im not very good w necros! Thats why I picked one.


Peace

 

[Morathi1]

Name          Character    Class       Diff.   Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer  Hell     Hell A2             74          15
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon       Normal   Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid        Normal   City of the Damned  33           9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     Normal   Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Dry hills           23           2
Morathi       Yates        Barbarian    Normal   Lut Gholein         20           0
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin     Normal   Lut Gholein         20           1
CDM           BK           Druid        Normal   Outer Cloister      17           2
srrw          Selene       Sorceress    Normal   Dark Wood           15           0
Jason         Qirana       Amazon       Normal   Stony Field         13           1
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon       Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0

Yates a young Barbarian, was born into this world driven by the desire to be the best in his village, he cared little for inferior armory ..to him it simply was not good enough! He had to wear the best and that was anything shimmering or glad in Green and Gold...for those colours...were the colours of a true King!

The journey began with doubling whacking skulls in with socketed scepters, and this tactic continued through the remainder of the Act. Yates was fortunate enough to find many early chipped topazes! In fact by level 8 we had already accumulated 10 topazes! (filling both mine and Elexa's armour/helm). However, as good as our early topaz luck was....it did not help a single bit in finding shiny gold/green items . Not a single S/U has dropped! Nothing! Not a drop! Even despite a few successfull horks (29% chance), we failed to discover anything of use. I guess you are wondering what about Andariel? Well......

Let us hope and pray our luck improves for the journey through the deserts!

[highlight]Yates the hopefull Berserker Barb, Level 20, Act 2 Normal, Lut Gholein, 0 S/U's Equipped, aided by Elexa the Fire Rogue[/highlight]

 

[jiansonz]

I guess you are wondering what about Andariel? Well......

The Spear is a failed set item (you can otherwise not get blues in an act boss quest drop) and any of the five rares may be a failed unique.
Two of the rares do not have a unique version and the unique versions of the other three have a much higher qlvl than Andariel´s level (12).

Overall, a bad roll for the item types.

 

[srrw]

@jiansonz: Thanks!

OK, so I guess I've played way too much sorcs and I got bored pretty quickly.

When I think of a build I would actually stay motivated to take past Act I Normal I'll rejoin.

So far the favorites are some kind of a caster Druid with summons as I've never played one or a Fanazealot/Teslaranger/Smiter or w/e else I might come up with Pally. Oh well.

 

[Grisu]

Wow! Nice progress everyone! And RIP and Merlin making a tourney reappearance? Great! Welcome aboard (again)!

Meronym finished Andariel, and of course the first unique I found was - as always - Stoutnail...it was from a corpse or chest or something. With it I clubbed through Act I with a Shadow Warrior, my Act I Rogue and heavy use of CoS and faced Andariel, who - with a 3 chipped emerald Shield, Antidote Potions and Fade - was a sissy. OK, she killed my shadow, but once I got my Rogue directly behind me, she couldn't hit her anymore and I used TS until she died (of course, the last shot had my Rogue Hannah).

Andariel's presents were, well...I would have preferred the unique version of the set item, but I won't complain. Maybe I'll get the whole set, that would be awesome (Attack Rating!!!).

The Voulge was a failed ethereal set item, the Light Crossbow was a failed Set Item, too (every magical item from a first boss kill is a failed set item for those who didn't know, because First Kill guarantees Rare+). A normal sized Topaz would have been better of course, but at least it's an emerald which I am allowed to use

Name          Character    Class       Diff.   Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer  Hell     Hell A2             74          15
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon       Normal   Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid        Normal   City of the Damned  33           9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     Normal   Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Dry hills           23           2
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     Normal   Rogue Camp          21           2
Morathi       Yates        Barbarian    Normal   Lut Gholein         20           0
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin     Normal   Lut Gholein         20           1
CDM           BK           Druid        Normal   Outer Cloister      17           2
srrw          Selene       Sorceress    Normal   Dark Wood           15           0
Jason         Qirana       Amazon       Normal   Stony Field         13           1
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon       Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0

[highlight]Meronym, level 21 Phoenix-Striker-to-be, and Hannah, the Rogue Fire Merc (soon to be substituted by a BA Merc), Normal Act II next.[/highlight]

 

[Archone]

Name          Character    Class       Diff.   Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer  Hell     Hell A3             79          15
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon       Normal   Frozen River        40          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid        Normal   City of the Damned  33           9
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     Normal   Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Dry hills           23           2
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     Normal   Rogue Camp          21           2
Morathi       Yates        Barbarian    Normal   Lut Gholein         20           0
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin     Normal   Lut Gholein         20           1
CDM           BK           Druid        Normal   Outer Cloister      17           2
srrw          Selene       Sorceress    Normal   Dark Wood           15           0
Jason         Qirana       Amazon       Normal   Stony Field         13           1
djmbbandie    Cassie       Amazon       Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0

Just a small update, so far Ive made full clears on /p8. And Ive felt that my lvl is alot higher then necessary = easy progress.
Now its alot harder, the main reason being very low +skills. Its not hard, but my skellies struggle at times...

Then 2 items dropped, that I never thought would drop! Trang armor(+2Sum.sk.) and a +2sk boneflame.. Both from Travincal.



Peace