Tournament: Envious of the Green and Gold

Thanks Grisu ;)

@Archone:Very nice progress indeed, with some patience Your character will be first Guardian in this tourney

As for Thor, he is lvl 25 right now, cleared all outdoor areas, Claw Viper temple as last one...Found Razortine for my merc, which was very nice because i can use him now forever, also Snakecord belt, extra poison dmg is usefull too...
 
This is my first tourney here at the SP forums. What do you mean with Guardian?
And even though I enjoy this tremendously, whats the ultimate goal of this tourney?

What will my Necro do once he (Read "if he") manages to clean all areas, including killing baal and rinse Hell Cow?



Peace and love
 
Guardian is the HC mat/pat equivalent. Deeding is dying. "your deeds of valor will be remembered" or whatever the game says. It's never happened to me:whistling:
 
Nice progress, everyone! Enjoyed reading everything so far.

Code: 
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
kestegs       SankeEyes    Sorceress    Normal   Lut Gholein         21           3
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


There seems to be a severe lack of sorceress action going on in this tournament, and we just can't be having that!

Snake eyes played most of act 1 just like every other sorc I've played in a tourney: Slow, Boring, and mostly watching things get plinked to death by a fire rogue. She has intentions of someday becoming a firewall/orb sorc. She currently has 9 points in warmth, 3 in fire wall, and the rest in prerequisites and 1 point utility skills.

She found her first S/U before she found her first topaz, a infernal cranium from bloodraven. Not a terrible find, it's got all resist at least. She had a bit of early trouble finding emeralds and topaz's early on, and didn't fill her 1 helm and 2 armors and 3 socket merc bow(emeralds) until around the barracks. And of course once I finally got them filled, one promptly had to be removed! First I found a stoutnail club off of a skeleton boss pack in jail1, then I popped an arctic furs out of a chest shortly after. So the merc is wearing the infernal/arctic and I'm wielding the club. It does at least do half decent damage, so I was able to smash some stuff with it on occasion. I gambled all my money away a few times. You always find the best stuff when you can't use it, saw some really amazing rare boots with 20+ mf, dual resists, and run speed.

I mostly used static and Ice blst/G spike to freeze things. Occasionally used blaze, and used Firewall a bit towards the end.

Andariel was easy of course, I just let her kill the rogue and let her chase me around a bone pile with blaze on. She wasn't very kind with the drop though :(
 
Archone said:
so far Ive made full clears on /p8.

And Ive felt that my lvl is alot higher then necessary = easy progress.
Click to expand...


I do not believe that you have done full clears on /p8, becuase the levels you have reported are quite a bit lower than would be expected.

End of Normal
Your level: 42
Standard P8 full clear level: 48-49

Just reached Act II Hell
Your level: 74
Standard p3 (p8 in Nightmare before that) full clear level: 80-81.
(p8 full clears gets you to level 74-75 when you start Hell)

Just reached Act III Hell
Your level: 79
Standard p3 on Hell (p8 in Nightmare before that) full clear level: 83 (sometimes even 84).
(p8 the whole way past Hell Duriel would probably have gotten you to at least 85)
 
Ive actually done full clears. I dont know why or if I should be the levels youve told me. But thats the lvl I am.

Its possible ofc that I screwed it up somewhere, forgetting to turn on /p8 and played a few hours.
Ive only played 3-4hour at a time, so that might be a reason..

Makes me kinda sad..
 
Phusis the Assassin has reached Act3! To the earlier unique shield (Pelta Lunata) she added two more shields: first Cleglaw's Claw, then Umbral Disk. Just before Duriel, she found a golden amulet, Nokozan Relic. Between that and the Bloodfist gloves, she is a FHR machine. :p Duriel dropped her first S/U weapon, Berserker's Hatchet. This brings the list of equipped S/Us to 5 (gloves/amulet/shield/shield/axe).

I am hoping to move through acts 3 and 4 relatively quickly (probably on /p3), then take my time in Act5.

Code: 
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
jdkerr        Phusis       Assassin     Normal   Kurast Docks        24           5
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     Normal   Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Dry hills           23           2
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     Normal   Rogue Camp          21           2
kestegs       SankeEyes    Sorceress    Normal   Lut Gholein         21           3
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
 
Archone said:
Ive actually done full clears. I dont know why or if I should be the levels youve told me. But thats the lvl I am.

Its possible ofc that I screwed it up somewhere, forgetting to turn on /p8 and played a few hours.
Ive only played 3-4hour at a time, so that might be a reason..
Click to expand...

I have plenty of experience of full clears, and the level I am at the different stages varies very little for me. It goes something like this for the different acts:
Normal (/p8): 20-28-32-35-49
Nightmare (/p8): 52-60-63-67-75
Hell (/p3): 79-83-84-85-87
(the numbers in bold text means I have always been that level, with every character that has been played on that setting)

With 'full clears', I mean that every area in the game is cleared once. Maybe you didn't play some areas? Did you full clear all seven Tal's tombs on Hell, for example? Every part of the huge outdoor Act V areas, the entire Nihlathak sidebrance and the entire enormous Durance of Hate level 2 on NM, etc?


There are a few ways to miss out on XP but I think they do not make up a large part of the total XP pool (certainly not to explain your lower level):
- not saving XP shrines for bosspacks
- not hanging around long enough for shambling undead to reanimate (or shatter or use up their corpses)
- kill imps on towers rather than out in the field
- having sucide bombers explode (by their choice)


(BTW, Insane Wayne reached level 89 on a p8 full clear of the whole game.)
 
I guess Ive got alot to learn about SP. Never really played it this seriously before.. Im a 100% ladder guy.
 
Not that you being a few levels lower matters much. As you said, your level seems to be quite sufficient. I just thought it was weird.

Now watch out for those Gloams in Great Marsh and Swampy Pit, will you?
 
Martina the Amazon has become Destroyer. Killing has been pretty slow but the speed picked up considerably after the sparkly chest behind Bonesaw Breaker coughed up a Sol rune so I could upgrade Skull Splitter to Crowbill. Had to invest 24 points in STR to equip it. I am not a big fan of respecs (other than to correct misclicks or as a feature in 'switch character' tourneys) so I am not going to use them. Thus, I tend to keep a pool of points around. Since I do not know which one of Jab or Immolation Arrow is going to be my main skill in NM, I have saved up around 25 skill points as well. I have taken Decoy to level 10 (which means it has twice Martina's life and a duration of 55 seconds if it isn't destroyed). Not going to use Valkyrie because a) I have 'Been there, done that' already (with my first Guardian in my original tourney Septavirate) and b) I do not want any points in Evade with this character. Just one each in Dodge and Avoid is fine.

Two more slots have been filled with S/U items. Third shield slot went to Sigon's Guard. The huge blocking may be useful later and I now have a decent 3-combo (shield, belt & gloves) available for times when I ditch my MF setup. But for now, Sigon's Guard is used by my Iron Wolf merc. It's the first item that has really been of use to them.

I had a short period where I used white Demonhide- and Sharkskin Boots but now Sander's Riprap fills that slot. Very nice foot speed and the DEX boost had me raise my ambition with Steelclash - I now keep blocking at 60%.

I used a Lightning mage in all areas with shambling undead and a Cold mage for other areas, so I had to switch mercs a couple of times.

Baal dropped only one S/U item; my first exceptional unique - Heart Carver. So, the game wants me to be a Daggerzon for a while? Cool, I can do that. Holding a dagger will prevent that annoying and very slow block recovery I've had to endure when I used the axes.

Primary Gear:
Cathan's Visage
Cathan's Sigil
Heart Carver
Arctic Furs, socketed with a perfect topaz
Steelclash
Arctic Mitts
Cathan's Seal
Arctic Binding
(no second ring)
Sander's Riprap

switch
Crushflange (will probably be replaced by Skull Splitter for Act 1 NM, so I can blind Shamans and such)
Hsaru's Iron Fist

Iron Wolf
Milabrega's Diadem
Skewer of Krintiz
Hawkmail
Sigon's Guard


[Highlight]Destroyer Martina the Daggerzon and her Cold-slinging companion, level 48, 15 S/U items equipped, Moo Moo Farm next[/highlight]
 
jiansonz said:
I agree, it´s a satisfying skill to use once you have a couple of levels in it. Did you go claw/shield or dual claws here in the early game?
Click to expand...
I went claw/shield, dual wield always makes me feel more vulnerable, and like I'm diluting the effectiveness of my main weapon.

I had a 3os superior poleaxe I saved from Act1 for my new merc, then I goofed by putting a blue jewel into it (In my defense, it had nice damage mods and I was salivating at how awesome my merc was going to be), so I had to abandon it. Sometimes D2 can make you feel pretty dumb :P

With a crappy purchased polearm, Irene and her new companion Razan, a combat merc, made their way through Act2, but found no drops to speak of for the longest time (Envious of Green and Gold is completely right, at one point I actually got excited when I saw a poisoned monster, somehow perceiving him to be a green drop). My luck picked up when I got nearly back to back drops of Cleglaw's pincers and claw at the end of arcane sanctuary and canyon of the magi, respectively. I'm considering gambling long swords now in hopes of finding the tooth and picking up the set crushing blow, although it's a bit annoying being a melee fighter with knockback.

There was one particularly scary moment clearing the false tombs when Diablo II decided it'd had enough of my antics, and promptly crashed on me. I was happy to find everything was still intact, D2 crashes pretty gracefully. I haven't gotten a crash before though, I sort of suspect it might be related to a shadow warrior using cloak of shadows?

Like Andariel, Duriel dropped pure yellows, despite taking him out with 84% mf. On the bright side, all my weapon slots are still free - I'm not looking forward to having those locked down.

Code: 
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
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin     Normal   Kurast Docks        27           3
jdkerr        Phusis       Assassin     Normal   Kurast Docks        24           5
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     Normal   Arcane Sanctuary    25           7
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Dry hills           23           2
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     Normal   Rogue Camp          21           2
kestegs       SankeEyes    Sorceress    Normal   Lut Gholein         21           3
Morathi       Yates        Barbarian    Normal   Lut Gholein         20           0
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
 
Glenstorm said:
but found no drops to speak of for the longest time (Envious of Green and Gold is completely right, at one point I actually got excited when I saw a poisoned monster, somehow perceiving him to be a green drop).
Click to expand...

LOL

I had something similar when I saw golden text in Spider Cavern. It had been a lively fight and apparently, I had popped the quest chest without noticing, so it was of course Khalim's Eye that I saw...

Glenstorm said:
I haven't gotten a crash before though, I sort of suspect it might be related to a shadow warrior using cloak of shadows?
Click to expand...

Yes, on my old computer, CoS crashed the game under certain circumstances. For me it happened every time me or my Shadow "hit" certain objects with CoS and I later was still within CoS range (and the object alive) when it timed out:
- Crow nests
- Mummy sarchophagi
- Evil Demon Huts
- Trapped Souls (the living ones, not the containers)
- The Ancients

It could sometimes happen against leaper monsters as well but that was quite rare.

Since it happened in the tombs, you were probably close to a sarcophagus. Right?


I haven't actually tested it on my new computer, but I am pretty sure I have happened to do it on a Trapped Soul and gotten away with it. So maybe my crashing days are over? I am still going to make it so that CoS has no hotkey assigned to it when I fight The Ancients with an Assassin.
 
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I don't know if I'll get through act 2. Forced to use a socketed weapon with a green shield, on a charatcer that is meant to be a Bowazon. Tanking beetles and snakes will be the very antithesis of fun.

Actually, insteading of assuming, I should ask the question: does finding a shield (Hsaru's, in my case) force me to go 1-handed melee with a white or socketd item?
 
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Jason Maher said:
I don't know if I'll get through act 2. Forced to use a socketed weapon with a green shield, on a charatcer that is meant to be a Bowazon. Tanking beetles and snakes will be the very antithesis of fun.
Click to expand...

Ouch.

How many S/U shields do you have, and what S/U weapons?

Jason Maher said:
does finding a shield (Hsaru's, in my case) force me to go 1-handed melee with a white or socketd item?
Click to expand...

Certainly not if you can move the shield to the weapon switch (or from Act III, to the merc's gear). I do not know what is allowed if both your switches have shields. That is very unusual, though, since weapons are more common drops than armor pieces.

If you can use a socketed weapon, I interpret the rules that in that case you can use a socketed bow. The rules say
"After an appropriate S/U item has been found, you must use that item for that slot or go empty."
If you use a socketed bow, the shield slot is empty, isn't it? :badteeth:
(Maybe Morathi has a different opinion?)
My original S/U Worshipper rules were quite strict: you had to equip as many S/U items as possible, and even change merc types if that would let you fit in more of them.


You should be able to at least have a low-level Decoy to help with the tanking by the time you get to the snakes.


I was in a similar situation myself, but thankfully, I could have my merc use a Spetum/Poleaxe through the whole act. My toughest days were in late Act I and in Acts III-IV.
 
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Decided to continue the journey with my sorcy.. Oh well.

As with every untwinked sorc Act I is a pain. A huge pain. It was the usual drill; Frost Nova and wait for the merc to kill stuff, slowly. I just hate the Rogues AI, it's retarded. They run in circles twice as much as the time they're actually attacking things.

The Tower dropped a green Quilted Armor and not much later I got another one. Bye, bye topazed armors. I got a conciliation prize tho. Arctic belt dropped in the Catacombs 40CRes, 10@Res, 40MF... Not bad at all I'd say.

Andy's drop was crap. Except for the gems but still it was pretty bad.

[highlight]Selene the Blizzwaller and Chalan the Prayer Merc, Level 20, Act II, Sewers Next[/highlight]
 
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