- Mar 14, 2020
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I figured that I’d tick off a 2021 goal sooner than later
I’ve enjoyed my single pass tourney playthroughs, but I am interested in a break from the standard approach of pumping MF through gambling and shopping and following the merc to maximize drop potential. I’ve been pondering a rule-set that would reward full-clears while also providing incentives to maximize the character’s firepower from the start. I circled around to a rune-centric tournament, specifically with crafts at the center, but also not too restrictive to turn off people who are new to tourneys or HC or just wanting a fun but somewhat challenging way to reach Guardian. I came across this older tournament in the compendium as inspiration.
Here’s the concept:
I’ve enjoyed my single pass tourney playthroughs, but I am interested in a break from the standard approach of pumping MF through gambling and shopping and following the merc to maximize drop potential. I’ve been pondering a rule-set that would reward full-clears while also providing incentives to maximize the character’s firepower from the start. I circled around to a rune-centric tournament, specifically with crafts at the center, but also not too restrictive to turn off people who are new to tourneys or HC or just wanting a fun but somewhat challenging way to reach Guardian. I came across this older tournament in the compendium as inspiration.
Here’s the concept:
- Single pass only, full-clear not required.
- No class, skill, stat, or merc restrictions; respecs permitted.
- Gear restricted to crafted items (with rewards noted below giving flexibility).
- But crafting restriction doesn’t kick in until A2 NM due to limited ingredients.
- But-but items are limited before A2 NM to something using a rune (e.g., item of any type socketed with a rune, upgraded item, Runeword) or reward items (as noted below).
- Rewards: Akara ring, Charsi imbue, Ormus ring, Anya reward item, Anya personalized item can be used throughout.
- No restriction on charms.
- Quest items can be equipped only as needed to complete quests.
- No scoring or prize, but major style points for anyone who finishes with a Vex+ runeword enabled via reward quest.
- Tournament name will be a bad pun because that’s the way I roll
- The gear restrictions limit incentive to pick up all gold piles and items to sell for gambling, speeding up early play and the journey through NM.
- In theory, it may still be worth it to gamble weapons and armor in hopes of socketed rare for use before A2 NM (I think Mechanic’s affix is somewhat rare though). But it’s much less important given how tame Normal generally is.
- No need for MF boots or gloves early on, and Topaz luck is not really important. The real focus will be on gems and runes to work toward crafting.
- The rewards allow some flexibility, in particular personalization from Anya, and reward rings will allow some jewelry until crafting is possible.
- I worried it might be too many reward items, but I think the odds of great ones are limited relative to crafts for rings and imbuing is a crapshoot always. And the personalization reward still makes for hard choices (e.g., using for merc Insight in A2 NM means wasting one on an exceptional base that will likely lose steam in Hell).
- Allowing any item that’s socketed with a rune before A2 NM is intended to keep Normal from bogging down: savage recipe can be used and then rerolled with chippies to socket for A2 merc early on to keep merc useful into late Normal.
- I’m still not sure on balance when characters reach end-game.
- Weapons, in particular, are limited in crafting, especially for Mercs (although great weapon is certainly possible). That was a big reason for allowing imbue and personalization rewards, assuming at least one personalization will likely be needed for merc’s end-game weapon.
- I thought about focus on melee because casters aren’t as impacted by restrictions. But they will also potentially lose out on some +skills to keep it interesting. And this isn’t intended to be a really hard set of rules, and I wouldn’t want someone to skip participation because they had their hearts set on a caster Guardian.