Tournament: Envious of the Green and Gold

[jiansonz]

For this tourney, is there any point in keeping chippies?

The occasional chippie might be good early on (for "normalizing" low quality whites you want to use) but you are unlikely to have cubed up all of them anyway.

Since Sol runes are used for upgrading normal unique weapons, saving a few chipped topazes and amethysts will be good so you can cube a few more Sol runes from slightly lower runes. (Thul -> Amn and Amn -> Sol requires chippies).

Cube up the rest and use them for rerolling jewels and charms. Resists are often a problem in these tourneys so I often reroll Grand Charms. One lucky reroll can mean a lot for the resists situation.

What can runes be used for besides upping rares?

El/Eld for "normalizing" low quality whites (until all slots have S/U items, then they are useless)

Hel rune for destroying a socketed gem/jewel if you want to put something else in that socket.

Ort runes for repairing weapons, if you use something expensive to repair (like that Heart Carver my Amazon had).

Mid-runes can be cubed towards those that are used for upgrading exceptional uniques (Lum/Ko/Lem/Pul)
Anything above Pul is useless. Mule them off (if you ever play twinked) or freakin' SELL them. :badteeth:

What about jewels that aren't green or yellow?

If you have a build that likes an IAS jewel, save one or two with the best item levels for rerolling yourself one (ilvl 39-40). Colour is rerolled but it is of course harder than normal to get both Fervor and a correct colour.

 

[HC Gunther]

Somehow, I ended up without the claw viper amulet. I went back to the Claw Viper temple and got to the altar on /p1, but I couldn't smash it. Any suggestions on how to work around the lack of a claw viper amulet?

I was a bit bored with my twinked projects, so thought I'd keep HC Gunther company here.

Thanks for the company!

No S/Us, although gambling daggers - should probably be gambling polearms or spears to increase my chances of maybe being able to keep an Act 2 merc when I get there.

Let me suggest that you keep your money until your first set item drops and then gamble to get the rest of the set. Your chances of getting a unique are pathetically low. A set item is twice as likely and if there is a unique version of the item, then you are three times as likely to get something useful. Three times almost nothing is still too close to nothing.

You could reroll non-green/yellow jewels with the Pgem recipe (I'm pretty sure that rerolls the color too?). Not much use for gems or jewels otherwise. And I think you meant runes for upping uniques, not rares?

Yeah, I meant uniques

The occasional chippie might be good early on (for "normalizing" low quality whites you want to use) but you are unlikely to have cubed up all of them anyway.

Since Sol runes are used for upgrading normal unique weapons, saving a few chipped topazes and amethysts will be good so you can cube a few more Sol runes from slightly lower runes. (Thul -> Amn and Amn -> Sol requires chippies).

Cube up the rest and use them for rerolling jewels and charms. Resists are often a problem in these tourneys so I often reroll Grand Charms. One lucky reroll can mean a lot for the resists situation.

El/Eld for "normalizing" low quality whites (until all slots have S/U items, then they are useless)

Hel rune for destroying a socketed gem/jewel if you want to put something else in that socket.

Ort runes for repairing weapons, if you use something expensive to repair (like that Heart Carver my Amazon had).

Mid-runes can be cubed towards those that are used for upgrading exceptional uniques (Lum/Ko/Lem/Pul)
Anything above Pul is useless. Mule them off (if you ever play twinked) or freakin' SELL them. :badteeth:

If you have a build that likes an IAS jewel, save one or two with the best item levels for rerolling yourself one (ilvl 39-40). Colour is rerolled but it is of course harder than normal to get both Fervor and a correct colour.

Thanks for this information. I found early on two 3-socket ethereal Bardiches. I put three emerald chippies in the first and my merc used in through Act I. In Act II when a third flawed emerald fell, I put them into the other Bardiche for my merc to use. Later, I thought, "Why didn't I cube up all of my emerald chippies to make a more powerful weapon for my merc?" It may not matter much longer.

 

[jiansonz]

Somehow, I ended up without the claw viper amulet. I went back to the Claw Viper temple and got to the altar on /p1, but I couldn't smash it. Any suggestions on how to work around the lack of a claw viper amulet.

Hmm, maybe your character is wearing it? If the amulet slot is empty and you pick up the Viper ammy (and you do not have the inventory screen up while you do it) the amulet becomes equipped.

 

[Yann1]

What jiansonz said! i know I have had that happen to me

 

[Dezrok]

Envy has reached Lut Gholein after one of the hardest Normal Andy fights I've had in a while. At one stage there were no pots left in the belt and Envy was poisoned with 16 life left. Run Away!


4 S/Us dropped in Act 1, 2 weapons and 2 armour. Stoutnail was the first in the Tower, Blood Crescent in the Tamoe Highlands and then Arctic Furs and Arctic Binding in the Pits. Both the weapons are being wielded by Envy (leaving Debi the Rogue to wield the emerald chippie bow). Neither weapon is great, Stoutnail does more damage, Blood Crescent has OW. The armour is obviously a great combo to get so early.


Generally game play involves the Clay Golem tanking (he is pretty hard to kill), Envy casting Amp Dam and Debi killing things with 103 MF (58 Envy and 45 Debi). Of course Envy gets a little bored sometimes and swings the sword around for a bit of fun. Play is slow but generally safe. Lots of resist charms have dropped and resists are pretty great for this stage of the game. Skill points are now going into Poison Explosion, which I occasionally remember to cast.


As I already have two S/U weapons, I'm not sure I can make it through all of Act 2 without another dropping … this could be a problem as I really am pretty dependent on the merc for killing at this stage. Ah well, I'll keep gambling bardiche and worry about it when it happens. I think this is a better option at the moment, rather than gambling for Arctic Mitts or Horn. Although the Horn should be available soon, so maybe I'll try that as both a merc and Envy could use it (a Ranger Necro with full Arctics?)


Next up, time to find that pesky cube and think about turning Debi into a skeleton so I can get an Act 2 merc.


[highlight]Envy, Necro, Normal, Lut Gholein, Level 20[/highlight]

 

[HC Gunther]

Hmm, maybe your character is wearing it? If the amulet slot is empty and you pick up the Viper ammy (and you do not have the inventory screen up while you do it) the amulet becomes equipped.

And there it was. Thanks!

 

[jiansonz]

Good that you found your amulet, Gunther.

Name          Character    Class       Diff.   Area               Level    S/U's Equipped
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archone       Chicken      Necromancer  Completed                    87          15
jiansonz      Martina      Amazon       Completed                    87          13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kitteh        Briony       Assassin     NM       Inner Cloister      50          13
felixbavaria  Bruno        Druid        NM       Cold Plains         48           9
srrw          Selene       Sorceress    NM       Rogue Camp          48          11
jdkerr        Phusis       Assassin     NM       Rogue Camp          47           9
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
igloosPat     Hennifer     Assassin     Normal   Secret Cow Level    48          12
RIP           Thor         Paladin      Normal   Harrogath           35          11
Immortal_S    GreenGoldie  Paladin      Normal   Harrogath           34           8
Grisu         Meronym      Assassin     Normal   City of the Damned  33           9
jiansonz      Eric         Druid        Normal   Lower Kurast        30           6   
Glenstorm     Irene        Assassin     Normal   Kurast Docks        27           3
HC Gunther    Fireyogi     Druid        Normal   Palace              25           3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enceladus     Vengence     Paladin      Normal   Dry Hills           23           5
Tox FTW       Oatmeal      Paladin      Normal   Dry Hills           22           2
Jason         Qirana       Amazon       Normal   Rocky Waste         22           4
kestegs       SankeEyes    Sorceress    Normal   Lut Gholein         21           3
Dezrok        Envy         Necromancer  Normal   Lut Gholein         20           4
Jerametrius   Passion      Paladin      Normal   Lut Gholein         20           2
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morathi       Yates        Barbarian    Normal   Lut Gholein         20           0
AnjaS         Beril        Barbarian    Normal   Outer Cloister      17           1
kstarm        Malice       Necromancer  Normal   Outer Cloister      17           0
djmbbandie    Rage         Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
Kitteh        Brydon       Druid        Normal   Rogue Camp           1           0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eric the Werebear is having the best of times. He is halfway through Act III and only one S/U weapon has dropped. It is a good weapon, too!

Have you considered weapon speed problems with restricted weapon choices? Fireyogi is painfully slow with Deathspade in Werebear form. Having a 2-handed axe, hammer or polearm makes a big difference in DPS for a weredruid.

I haven't considered anything yet because I don't know much about how these skills work. Looks like a werebear does indeed like the same weapons that a Sorceress is fast with, and it seems like on-weapon IAS is much more important than off-weapon IAS. If I am not mistaken, my current setup with Long Sword and 20% IAS gloves gives me a 16 fpa, which is not bad.

I thought about making a Fury Werewolf but that skill seems to be a lot like Zeal, a skill I have never learned to like (despite trying quite a bit). I am going to have Maul as main skill. Lycanthropy and Heart of Wolverine are going to be maxed, for lots of life and AR. I see extra points in Werebear as more of a luxury - don't know how much is going to be invested there. As it feels now, I won't have any backup skill against PI monsters, so I will have to rely on mercs and gear to kill those.

Here is where I found my S/U items:

Pit - Hotspur (ethereal). Had to equip them, of course. Since I had to do a bit of tanking for my merc, I could not help losing a few points of durability. There is 4/7 left - these boots may make a comeback for the Diablo fight.

Andariel - Hsaru's Iron Heel. Nice boots, and good that I did not have to wear out Hotspur completely.

Early Act II - Cathan's Mesh (went to merc)

Middle of Act II - Cleglaw's Claw

Maggot Lair - Snakecord

Arcane Sanctuary - Angelic Mantle. Just after I had completed a 3s flawed topazed armor. Oh well.

Tombs - Arctic Binding. The cold resist makes it better than Snakecord, at least for now.

Act III jungle - Cleglaw's Tooth and Sander's Taboo. Nice damage from the Cleglaw's combo (even though the damage range is huge).

Arachnid Lair - Stormguild


Merc is having a field day with his Poleaxe, with HoW adding over 100% ED for him. I can just cruise along. Note that I am actually trying to maximize MF anyway. The only pieces at work now are two Full Helms with flawed topazes (so 52% MF for Vikhyat's kills).

I have learned that werebears can not use Throw. I guess it would look goofy if they could, but that still took me by surprise.


[highlight]Eric the Werebear and Vikhyat the Prayer Guard, level 30, 6 S/U items equipped, Lower Kurast next.[/highlight]

 

[HC Gunther]

I thought about making a Fury Werewolf but that skills seems to be a lot like Zeal, a skill I have never learned to like (despite trying quite a bit). I am going to have Maul as main skill. Lycanthropy and Heart of Wolverine are going to be maxed, for lots of life and AR. I see extra points in Werebear as more of a luxury - don't know how much is going to be invested there. As it feels now, I won't have any backup skill against PI monsters, so I will have to rely on mercs and gear to kill those.

Does the damage boost from Maul and HoW stack? How many points are you going to put into Maul? Maxed Maul and maxed HoW probably will give you some awesome damage.

Are you going to put any points into Shockwave? I haven't found it that useful so far. The best use was to keep multiple greater mummies stunned until the merc could make it through the skellies to get to them.

Here is where I found my S/U items:

I am envious of your drops. Ditto for Dezrok.

Arachnid Lair - Stormguild

Are you going to put points into Dex so you can block? I haven't put any points into Dex because the chances of getting an S/U shield with good blocking are so low. However, you have one now.

 

[Jcakes1]

Does the damage boost from Maul and HoW stack? How many points are you going to put into Maul? Maxed Maul and maxed HoW probably will give you some awesome damage.

Are you going to put any points into Shockwave? I haven't found it that useful so far. The best use was to keep multiple greater mummies stunned until the merc could make it through the skellies to get to them.

Shockwave IMO is the reason to play as a bear, it is a very nice skill for locking up all the monsters. That said when I last used the ability I was playing as a summoner and needed the ability to lock everything. Note that IIRC you don't want any more than 15 points in the skill (10 seconds) as it is bugged not to give any more duration past 10 seconds.

Are you going to put points into Dex so you can block? I haven't put any points into Dex because the chances of getting an S/U shield with good blocking are so low. However, you have one now.

I'd advise to avoid blocking with a bear as it is extremely slow.

Druid (Bear)
FBR Frames
0% 12
5% 11
10% 10
16% 9
27% 8
40% 7
65% 6
109% 5
223% 4

 

[Dezrok]

Act 2 was pretty slow. Mostly waiting around for the merc to kill things, at least in the first half of the Act. Changed to an Act 2 Defiance merc around the Ancient Tunnels, when I had 3 flawed emeralds and shopped a 3os Spetum (Debi was pushed into a ditch then brought back as a Skellie - just for laughs). Then, just as I was finishing the first arm of AS it happened! A green dropped, yup the first S/U for the Act was Sander's wand, a weapon, my third weapon and none could be used by an Act 1 or 2 merc. I thought about swapping back to an Act 1 merc, at least they still get their special fire/cold arrow when they don't have a bow, but decide to stick with the Act 2 merc for the aura, the tanking and the bit of damage he does with his hands. Things really slowed down then as all the killing was left to Envy and he was relying on OW from Blood Crescent or the cold damage from Sander's (Stoutnail got moved to the stash).


Luckily the Summoner was on the second arm of AS that I tried, along with Isenhart's Lightbrand (straight to the stash). Then, leaving the other two AS arms for later, it was a sprint around the Canyon of the Magi to find the true tomb and then a painfully slow clearing of it. Envy had to dig into his bag of tricks and use most of his curses at different times, something I've rarely had to do. Amp, DV, Life Tap, Attract and Decrep all got a showing, even Terror a few times. There were Unravellers and their packs of skellies, Gorebelly and Apparitions. Some of the Unravellers proved very tricksy to kill and there were many, many trips back to town to buy more potions and a few resurrections for the merc. Only 2 of the full rejuvs I'd stashed to fight Duriel were left by the time I finished the clear.


Duriel was taken on p8. I thought long about dropping to p3 or even p1, but in the end decided to have faith in Decrepify and OW (not without some nervousness given my progress through Tal's Tomb). It ended up being fine, maybe half-a-dozen trips back to town for more pots (and I finished with both of my full rejuvs still in the belt). Mostly Duriel focused on the Clay Golem, which meant lots of recasting it and then through the tp when the blue pots ran out. A couple of times Duriel focused on Envy and then it was back through the tp when the red pots ran out. The merc was so useless that Duriel didn't even bother hitting him once! Bloodrise morning star was dropped, my 3rd S/U for the Act and my 5th S/U weapon. It replaces Blood Crescent as my main weapon, a nice upgrade. With Duriel dead, it was on to Act 3 to pick up a Fire Iron Wolf, then back to Act 2 to finish clearing the AS, the Canyon and the other Tal's Tombs.


These were the usual grind, maybe about 3 1/2 hours, but much easier than without a useful merc. Not too many Unravellers which was nice. Isenhart's Case dropped from the first corpse I kicked in the Canyon. My second S/U armor, so goodbye to the merc's topaz armour. Angelic Sickle dropped in the final Tomb.


So gear is Bloodrise and Sander's Wand, Arctic Furs and Binding (40%MF), a topazed full helm (29%MF), white chain gloves and white heavy boots. Shields are Zombie Heads, main with +1 Amp Dam (and 2os) and switch with +3 Clay Golem. Merc has Blood Crescent, topazed helm (26%MF), Isenhart's Case and a 2os Bone Shield. A total of 9 S/U's so far (6 are weapons!), 6 of which are equipped. 4 Rals have also dropped, a shame they aren't much use in this tourney.


Slow, painful and challenging, but also seriously enjoyable. Reminds me why I love untwinked and particularly the challenges of these tourneys. Hopefully will have another 13 Acts of the same.


[highlight]Envy, Necro, Normal, Kurast Docks, Level 28[/highlight]

And I'll add my 2 cents for investing in Shockwave. If you get mobbed by lots of little guys (think Flayers, etc) and put into block lock or hit recovery then you are as good as dead. Stunning them all with Shockwave is pretty essential I've found. Act 3 particularly is very difficult without it. Also, low/no dex and no shield are good to avoid block lock. Which reminds me to ask. If I want to wield a 2-h weapon (assume it is an S/U) but then find an S/U shield do I have to give it up and equip the shield? I'm pretty sure it's okay but thought I'd check.

 

[jiansonz]

If I want to wield a 2-h weapon (assume it is an S/U) but then find an S/U shield do I have to give it up and equip the shield? I'm pretty sure it's okay but thought I'd check.

Yes, weapon choice comes first. All the three weapons in use in the late game for my amazon were two-handers.

It was different in my original set/unique tournament. There, it was illegal to play with a setup with fewer set/uniques than what was possible for you (including the choice of merc, so everybody who made it far ended up with Act III merc).

I have a slightly different (and unusual) situation now because I have now found my third S/U shield and I still only have one such weapon (Cleglaw's Tooth). I assume that I should look at it this way: weapon takes priority and I still have two "free" slots I can use white/grey weapons in. If I want to use one or two 2-handers (including merc slot) I am free to use that, and do not need to equip all three (or even two) shields. The only thing that's a given is that my green sword is used somewhere, and I can of course not use any white/grey shield since I have three S/U shields.



Thanks for the info about Shockwave and blocking. 12 frames, that's roughly half a second. Is that so bad? What does the amazon have with a sword + shield (because that IS bad)?
I picture myself Mauling with a big two-hander and only have a shield setup on switch for single dangerous enemies. Have a big life pool and be ready with purples (reds aren't going to help much, not even Super reds)
Anyway, looks like I am pumping DEX only so I can use my gear then. Maybe keeping a couple of Steel GCs...

@HC Gunther: HoW-, Maul-, Werebear- and Strength- (and Might-, if I used that merc type) damage bonuses all get summed up into one ED value (as usual for off-weapon ED) that is multiplied by weapon damage.

 

[Jcakes1]

An Amazon wielding swinging weapons is really bad. Bear blocking is bad enough that I'd usually avoid it, with shockwave you are relatively invincible anyway. If I am playing a shifter my preference is usually 2-handed.

Amazon *) wielding a 1-handed swinging weapon
* 1-handed swinging weapons include 1-handed axes, clubs, 1-handed maces, orbs, scepters, 1-handed swords, 2-handed swords wielded in one hand, throwing axes, and wands.
FBR Frames
0% 17
4% 16
6% 15
11% 14
15% 13
23% 12
29% 11
40% 10
56% 9
80% 8
120% 7
200% 6

 

[Dezrok]

I have a slightly different (and unusual) situation now because I have now found my third S/U shield and I still only have one such weapon (Cleglaw's Tooth). I assume that I should look at it this way: weapon takes priority and I still have two "free" slots I can use white/grey weapons in. If I want to use one or two 2-handers (including merc slot) I am free to use that, and do not need to equip all three (or even two) shields. The only thing that's a given is that my green sword is used somewhere, and I can of course not use any white/grey shield since I have three S/U shields.

Have been checking the rules and they say "After an appropriate S/U item has been found, you must use that item for that slot or go empty." This would seem to indicate that you can leave your shield slot empty if you wish, such as when you wield a 2-hander.

A quick update.


Envy has progressed to Travincal, finding another 5 S/Us along the way. 3 from the Spider Forest (Stormguild, Civerb Ward and Cathan Staff), one from the Spider Dungeon (Cathan Seal) and Steelclash from Upper Kurast. Yup, 3 shields, so no more Zombie Heads, which means no +3 to Clay Golem, so he goes from being a super enduring little tank, to not much better than a pile of mud. Will probably put a few hard points into CG now to get him back to some level of usefulness.


Poison Explosion is getting plenty of use and melting monsters (although it's AoE is pretty limited), Poison Nova would be getting use but it costs too much mana to use as more than novelty at the moment, until I can find some +mana and mana regen items … could be a while! The merc's fireballs are also starting to pack some punch, however, he keeps on wanting to use his inferno hose which does pretty much zip.


Got my first perfect gem, a topaz. Had just cubed up a flawless one when I found a Gem Shrine in the Disused Reliquary (off the Causeway) … not that I have any sockets to put it in. Still, that is pretty early for me to have a Pgem.


Will go back and clear the Sewers before tackling the Council. Have also left Arachnid Lair and the Swampy Pit for later. Might deal with Meph before going back for them.

Not really sure what sort of Necro Envy is at the moment, some combo of golem-/poison-/melee-/mojo- mancer. None of it that effective, but it seems to be getting the job done.


[highlight]Envy, Necro, Normal, Act 3, Travincal, Level 31, SUs equipped 10[/highlight]

 

[HC Gunther]

Shockwave IMO is the reason to play as a bear, it is a very nice skill for locking up all the monsters. That said when I last used the ability I was playing as a summoner and needed the ability to lock everything. Note that IIRC you don't want any more than 15 points in the skill (10 seconds) as it is bugged not to give any more duration past 10 seconds.

Will do. I was thinking 5 second would probably be plenty.

I'd advise to avoid blocking with a bear as it is extremely slow.

The inspiration for this build is Mordalles' ShockBear using Armageddon. That build had a Dex of 175 and a blocking of 43%. Sounds like he/she would have been better off putting that into VIT.

 

[jiansonz]

Ah, nice that we interpret the rules in the same way, Dezrok. I think you worded it better than I did.


Eric the Mauling werebear has finished Act III. Merc died twice in the last stretch: once because I left him to fight Conviction Bremm (+ a minion) on his own and once when I was too slow to pull him pack from a bad nest of Blood Lords on Durance 3. Jeez, the spells from these Normal Blood Lords really are MUCH more damaging then the ones from Night Lords in the slightly earlier areas.

Eric tanked Mephisto and needed only greater healers to do it. My second S/U weapon dropped here - Ichorsting unique Crossbow. Not particularly good, but at least a ranged option with poison damage. He needs to shift back to druid to shoot bolts from it, though, or the werebear will move over and bop the crossbow over the head of the enemies (?).

I start my sessions now by prebuff-casting Heart of Wolverine wearing Antlers (+2 to the skill) that I otherwise keep in the stash. I can usually play the whole session without the HoW dying. I think it has died a grand total of 2 times since it first appeared back in the Barracks.

With almost 670 life, pretty much nothing can pose a threat to Eric unless I do something stupid. Since Werebear + Lycanthropy currently gives +125% life, finding that Sander's Taboo meant +90 life.

I have one weapon that actually does a little more damage than Cleglaw's sword, a near-perfect 3s Superior Giant Axe. But to use that now I would need to hire a merc that can equip Cleglaw's sword, so it's not happening.

Hadn't thought of using Shockwave but now I think I will, espcially if I have a ranged merc. It's kind of like War Cry for a Berserker (and Maul is like Berserk, except it's physical damage). I will aim for somehwere between 5 and 10 seconds stun, I think.


[highlight]Eric the Werebear and Vikhyat the Prayer Guard, level 32, 6 S/U items equipped, Outer Steppes next.[/highlight]

 

[jiansonz]

I forgot to show you this in my last post. Now why could not that chest drop have been a couple of item levels higher? So close to pure awesome.


Act IV was mostly uneventful. Annoying spawners on the Plains and on River of Flame. RoF also had maggots and Abyss Knights. Ugh. That slowed down Vikhyat a lot. We had to take turns tanking and I had to feed him potions or pull him far back so his Prayer could heal him.

Chaos Sanctuary was more straightforward. Vikhyat was now equipped with a faster weapon, a Halberd. He usually stunlocked the Oblivion Knights so very few of them managed to flee or even Decrep him. I had one scared Storm Caster flee out over the lava and I could not get it to come back. I hate when that happens.

What greens and golds did I find? Another Civerb's Ward and then Venom Ward in the CS. Gave that to Vikhyat for more Defense and better poison protection. Swapped out Angelic Mantle for Cathan's Mesh on myself. Later in the CS I found my first jewelry piece. Yup, you guessed it, a Cathan's ring. Ah, now my armor makes more sense. I like the STR boost and the little fire damage. Every bit helps.

Here are my stats in the Diablo fight. That shrine was nicely placed early in the RoF and easy to reach from the City WP. I had saved up 25 stat points but then Vikhyat died really quickly and that lightning breath of D scared me a few times (it's half physical and I had only 10% blocking). I resurrected Vikhyat, invested all the points in VIT, went back to the shrine again and then back to the fight.

He dropped Isenhart's Horns and Soulflay. This changed my plans. I got back to hire a merc from Asheara and gave him Cleglaw's sword and shield, Venom Ward and Isenhart's Horns. Took the Soulflay myself. I swing a bit slower with it but I think it's tolerable. Will be interesting to see if that mana steal gives me infinite Mauling. What is exciting is that I am close to upgrading it as well. I need two more level-ups and a gem shrine (or two more flawless emeralds). I may swap to a barb merc when they are available, give him Soulflay and go back to Cleglaw's. Then again, with my current setup, I gain no extra MF for the merc's kills so maybe Jarulf and I will 'party on' for far longer than that.

Only one item left to put bigger topazes in. I am on the lookout for a 3s (or unsocketed) pelt with some nice staffmods.

Oh yeah, I tried Shockwave a couple of times. I had no idea it is aimed in the direction you click - I thought it worked more like War Cry.
It was very useful to lock down three of The Infector's minions while Vikhyat killed him.

I'm going to enjoy this character's progress a lot. Yes indeed. Well, at least until I run into PI monsters...


[highlight]Eric the Werebear and Jarulf the Cold Mage, level 35, 11 S/U items equipped, Bloody Foothills next.[/highlight]

 

[Dezrok]

I forgot to show you this in my last post. Now why could not that chest drop have been a couple of item levels higher? So close to pure awesome.

That would have indeed been all sorts of awesomeness!

Envy has moved into Act 4.


The Sewers, Arachnid Lair and Swampy Pit were cleared without a hitch. Duskdeep dropped on Level 2 of the Durance, so it was time for the merc to give up the last of his MF. Meph took a while, mostly because I had to separate him from some Dark Lords who wanted to join the party (and good call jiansonz, Dark Lords on Durance 2 are a nuisance, but on Durance 3 they are suddenly deadly). Meph dropped Sigon's greaves (my first S/U boots). So, 7 S/Us dropped in Act 3 and Envy now has all but 4 slots filled with S/Us (gloves, helm, amulet and ring) - the merc is fully geared up with S/Us.


Act 4 has been painfully slow. High life, fire resist and poison resist (think Venom Lords) really doesn't play to Envy's strengths (actually I'm not sure he has any strengths at the moment). Still, it was all safe enough with lots of DV. After clearing the Outer Steppes I decided to swap the Fire Wolf for a Lightning Wolf, which has sped things up fractionally.


Envy, Flux and the Clay Golem are now sitting at the City of the Dammed waypoint about to take on the River of Fire. No S/Us so far in Act 4, but I could really do with a better weapon, even better if it was a ranged one!


[highlight]Envy, Necro, Normal, Act 3, City of the Dammed, Level 34, S/Us equipped 12[/highlight]


On Shockwave, you've probably already noticed that the angle of the shock cone varies depending on how far from your bear the cursor is when you cast it. Wider angle means more area of the shock, but some monsters can slip between the arrows and be missed. Tighter cone and the shock arrows will hit everything.

 

[Dezrok]

The River of Fire passed without anything of note happening, same for the Chaos Sanctuary. They were slow but not so dangerous. I was pretty nervous about Diablo though. It was taking us a long time to kill things, life was around 300 and resists weren't maxed. In the end I decided to drop down to players 5, this turned out to be a good decision as Envy's life would drop down below 50 when Diablo used his hose. I don't think I would have been happy at all on the higher players setting. Anyway, the D fight took a while, a few trips back to town to get more pots, and only one merc resurrect (and that was when I accidentally ran towards the merc instead of away when Diablo was hosing). The Iron Wolves seem to be much better at surviving Big D than the Act 2 clowns. The fight wasn't stylish or pretty either. Envy and the CG went toe-to-toe with a Decrepified D and it was mostly OW that did the damage, along with a bit of charged bolt support from Flux. Diablo dropped my first (and only) S/U for Act 4 … Rockfleece! Not too bad. On the merc for now as I don't want to replace the Arctic Furs and lose most of my remaining MF, but it would be nice on Envy.


Act 5 - progressed through to the start of the Crystal Passage (or the end of the Arreat Plateau). Larzuk socketed the Arctic Furs and a PTopaz went in, I figure every bit of MF is worth it at the moment. Once I'd rescued the soldiers we hired a Barb merc (my first time ever using one of these). He's using the Blood Crescent, Duskdeep and Rockfleece. Our killing speed improved dramatically and Envy spends a lot more time sitting back, casting curses and poison spells. The CG also appreciates having another tank and doesn't die nearly as much either. Sigon's gloves dropped right at the start of the Arreat Plateau, very nice in combo with the boots.


I went for a run into the Crystal Passage to try and find the waypoint without killing anything. We covered a fair bit of ground but couldn't find the waypoint and the remaining passages were fully blocked up with monsters and no way past. My stash and the cube are completely full, so next session we'll have to run through about 1/4 of the Arreat Plateau and dive into the hole behind Threshsocket.


[highlight]Envy, Necro, Normal, Act 5, Arreat Plateau, Level 40, S/Us equipped 12[/highlight]


Well, I played another session before getting to post that previous update. Rather than rewriting it, I'll start another.

Envy and Brom (the Barb merc) have made it to the Ancient's Way (haven't cleared it yet though, just hit the waypoint). Brom is carving up the monsters and Envy's poison spells are now high enough level to cause some carnage. No more chasing imps around trying to wack them!. With DV taking out almost all special attacks, progress has been pretty comfortable. Envy's life now up to 400, so I'm holding on to stat points for now (although I don't have a problem with using respecs).


When Cathan's Visage dropped in the Glacial Trail Envy gave up his MF helm (MF is now 64% after being 93% for a while there). Then Tancred's Pick dropped in the Infernal Pit (have been waiting for it to appear). 13 S/Us equipped now and no more whites or greys (only the amulet and a ring slot are free). Three 2 item set combos in operation Cathan's (head and ring), Arctic (body and belt), and Sigon's (Gloves and Boots). Some nice bonuses from those. Gambling Tower Shields and Short War Bows for now, although with Rares taken out of the game gambling doesn't seem all that useful, but there is nothing else to spend money on.


[highlight]Envy, Necro, Normal, Act 5, Ancient's Way, Level 44, S/Us equipped 13[/highlight]

 

[HC Gunther]

* I started with 2 unique weapons (Deathspade, Leadcrow) that aren't useable by mercs. To minimize the chance that I got a third S/U weapon that a merc can't used, I planned on rushing to defeat Duriel, bypassing as many as areas as I could
* I had planned on doing just the arms of the Arcane Sanctuary I needed to find the Summoner and then after I defeated Duriel, I would come back and finish the Arcane Sanctuary. The second arm I went into was the Escher arm, which I dislike, so I backed out and did another arm. The Summoner of course was in the Escher arm
* At some point, I realized that I didn't have the Viper Amulet. Turned out I had unknowingly equipped it when I got it
* I was going to only do half of each arm of the Arcane Sanctuary, but then I realized that I hadn't muled on the Staff of Kings. I full-cleared the Arcane Sanctuary (no S/U's dropped), saved, then muled on the Staff of Kings
* I wanted to bypass as much of the true tomb as possible, but I didn't find the cone until the last room. Sigh. I did leave all of the urns and chests unopened to minimize the chance of getting a S/U weapon before Duriel
* I killed Duriel on /p8. I gave my merc thawing potions before the fight and I kept a wolf cast next to Duriel. I don't think I was ever hit. Duriel dropped a unique, a...second Deathspade. Boy, was I unexcited
* I traveled to Kurast and hired a cold merc, Jabari. I then cleaned out the true tomb, saved and muled off
* When I came back, I added a Dire Wolf to my usual summons of a Carrion Vine and an Oak Sage. He was to be the meat shield that distracted enemies. I cleaned out the Canyon of the Magi and the six false tombs. Jabari makes a ton of noise as he spams cold spells
* The Carrion Vine was suddenly of no use as most of the enemies Jabari killed shattered and the Dire Wolf ate the rest, leaving none for the Carrion Vine
* With the new set up, I felt very safe. I stayed in the back with Jabari. The wolf would grab the enemies' attention and then Jabari would freeze them in place and keep spamming them until they died. Some enemies like Unravelers and Ghoul Lords took a lot of cold spells to kill, which led to me getting bored
* Then I remembered - I had Leadcrow! I downshifted to human form and started plunking away whenever we encountered an enemy that was slow to kill with cold spells. I eventually switched from a Dire Wolf to a Spirit Wolf as the life wasn't that different and the Spirit Wolf didn't do as much damage (so Jabari was more likely to kill enemies) and also would leave a corpse for the Carrion Vine
* That went pretty well. One nasty spot was a boss Lightning Enchanted Unraveller was really nasty as he spewed lightning balls constantly (lightning bugs don't) and if I shot him, I made him spew even more. The next Lightning Enchanged Unraveller I met, I knew to roll a couple of Molten Boulders at him to knock his life down
* No S/U dropped in the false tombs, leaving me at 4 S/U's. The only one that is getting any use is Leadcrow and it sucks

[highlight]Fireyogi the Crossbow wielding former Werebear and Jabari the Cold Mage, level 28, 4 S/U items equipped, Kurast Docks[/highlight]

I am going to park him as I am not finding this tournament anywhere close to as fun as the Exposed tournament. I may come back to him later

 

[Dezrok]

Hey HC Gunther, sorry to hear you are parking. Hope you'll be back soon.

Meanwhile...

Back to Nihilithak's Temple to kill Pindle and Nihili. Isenhart's Parry dropped from one of the garden zombies … even with 3 items of Isenharts set it still isn't worth equipping. Then back to clear Ancient's Way, wehre Isenhart's Lightbrand and Griswold's Edge dropped. Griswold's provided an upgrade to the merc's weapon. We were really rolling along nicely now, with out level way above that of the monsters'. In the Icy Cellar Sigon's Guard was found, our third Sigon's piece and giving a much need +1 skills along with an extra 50% MF. All the way up to 114% now! WSK 3 we found Bladebone and Undead Crown. Undead Crown replaced Duskdeep on Brom, a bit of life leach always comes in handy.


Then it was time for Baal's minions. Colenzo dropped Warlord's Trust, our first exceptional unique. Unusable by a merc and not worth giving up resists or +50% AR for Envy. Lister and his pack caused us a few problems and a death for Brom. We eventually split them up and took them down one by one. Just before taking on Baal I decided to put the 40 saved attribute points into Dex, to get my block up to around 50% (from around 20 something).


Baal himself was a bit of a grind (no CB), but pretty safe with the CG and Decrepify providing plenty of slow. Most of the damage was done by Brom, judging by the lack of blood on the ground OW didn't trigger very much, meaning Envy didn't hit very much. 5 blue pots later Baal was dead, dropping Sander's gloves. Envy was level 48.


Cows were also smooth sailing: Amp as they mobbed the merc and CG, then Poison Explosion once the first corpse appeared. The last S/Us for normal were Civerb's Ward and Arcanna's Head. So that was 13 S/Us for Act 5 (+Cows), 4 uniques and 9 set items.


For all of Normal we had 11 uniques and 19 set items drop. There were also 7 green or gold jewels drop, none of which are really worth a look at. 13 S/Us are equipped and 2 slots remain empty (amulet and ring). Envy's set up going into NM is: Cathan Visage and Seal; Arctic Furs and Binding; Sigon's Tower, Gage and Sabot; Sander's Superstion. Switch is Blood Crescent and Steelclash for a big boost to resists. Brom has Griswold's Edge, Undead Crown and Rockfleece. Cold resist is 115%, the others range between 4% and 17% (34% and 47% on switch).


Envy has been doing well as a meleer so far, but the plan for NM is to take more of a caster role and let the merc and CG do the tanking. We'll see how that goes.


[Highlight]Envy and Brom, Poison Necro and Barb merc, NM, Act 1, Rogue Camp, Level 48, 13 S/Us equipped[/highlight]