Tournament Idea: In training

Vang

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So I've been bouncing around an idea the last few days in my head and figure I'd get feedback.

Your a nephalem. But are unaware of your potential. One morning you wake up and the village elders witnessed your power while you slept. They have been foretold of a village born nephalem would arrive and be clumsy and quite unskilled at the task to protect us. Thus they contacted Kaysha, Greiz, The Ironwolves and the Barbarians to train you. You are to follow them into battle and learn the ways of combat.

During Act 1 you will either hire a mercenary at level 8 or upon Blood Ravens death, and drop your primitive tools and learn the ways of the bow. You may utilize a bow -1, the same, or +1 from what they are using. (detailed later)

Act 2, you shall contact Greiz and enlist a guard of your choice. Weapon falls under the same restrictions.

Act 3, you shall enlist an Iron Wolf of your choice and learn about the elements. For those untrained in elemental magics, you shall apply that element to your weapon attacks at a minimum of 15 cold, 20 fire, 25 lightning (In normal difficulty). If you are trained in the elementals, you shall only use this damage type during Act 3. (Skeletal Mages maybe of poison and your element only, and fire golem maybe summoned if you are fire)

Act 4, you may hire any mercenary. But beware, they will not return if they faulter as the Lord of Terror literally terrifies them.

Act 5, you may hire any mercenary to head out into the the hordes of Baal's minions. Once you stop the Overseer and wander further, you will enlist a barbarian. You shall learn the ways of the sword, weapon falls under same restriction, though 1 and 2 handed swords have their own lines.

Once you defeat Baal, if you need more experience, you may run Act 5 only with any mercenary, following the restrictions.

Nightmare shall follow the same path. For those of you that make it to Hell difficulty, you may now specialize in a weapon and learn from the master you hire before heading to hell difficulty.

Restrictions

You are restricted to the weapon type of your mercenary for Act 1,2, and 5 mercenaries. You may use a weapon of their type at a -1, same or +1.

Example given is you may use a Short Bow, Hunting Bow, or Long Bow if your Rogue is using a Hunting Bow. If they are using a Long War Bow, you may use a Short War Bow, Long War Bow, or Edge Bow.

Your Act 2 mercenary can equip Spears, Javelins, and Polearms. Each type follows its own path. You may use a shield if using a javelin.

Barbarians utilize one or two handed swords and each are considered separate types for the +-1 weapon. You may utilize a shield, or dual wield.

Act 3 Mercenaries force you to specialize in an elemental type. *You may cast armors, teleport, energy shield if a soreress. Traps only of the element type.


Spirit of the tournament

The idea is depending on your class to mimic your master if you reach hell difficulty. (Example, a sorceress will be a teleporting crazed single element fool with a hardy backup weapon)
Some classes will thrive more than others.


Standard tournament rules apply, though you may use any patch including 1.07 for the duration of the tournament.
Rerunning is allowed as stated before it is my preferred playstyle, but characters will have be noted and lose bragging rights if they are victorious against the minions of Hell and Baal.
 
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The idea seems pretty cool, and it sounds like a fun tournament. I do have some questions though.

1. So for Acts 1, 2, 5 you must use the weapon as your primary attacking mechanism? As in, you can't just be a FO sorceress who holds a bow, you have to actually fight with the bow and nothing else(like a hunter build)? Would all elemental skills like Enchant, the Holy auras and the Bow/Javelin skills be allowed for the classes that can accomodate, or only attacks that the mercenaries have (Fire/Cold Arrow, Blessed Aim, Bash, etc)?

2. A3 merc restrictions confuse me. Are you restricted to sword/shield, or can you use any weapon type as long as you use the appropriate element (ie javazon with LF)? What about barbarians, who don't have an elemental attack (other than berserk, which isn't one of the 3 elements)? You also mentioned poison mages for necros, would their poison skills (PNova, etc) count as well? And by that logic, their bone skills (even though they are magic damage)? If not, necros would be restricted to just mages of their type, possibly Fire Golem and CE (if they pick fire)

I also don't really understand the folllowing:
you shall apply that element to your weapon attacks at a minimum of 15 cold, 20 fire, 25 lightning (In normal difficulty).


Cool idea though, sounds promising!
 
Good questions!

1. This is a hard one. There isn't a right or wrong, I think I'd leave it up to each person on how much they want to RP the tournament. The restrictions will limit your power (Example, no +skills for the most part for casting spells an attacking, though your still better than a barbarian who is taking pot shots and plunking away in NM act 1 most likely.

2. A3 mercenaries don't have any weapon requirements, but you most focus on a specific element. For characters who are using attacks, they have to have at least 15 cold, 20 fire, or 25 (averages) lightning damage added per attack in normal difficulty. NM and Hell will scale up, just haven't went and looked at the average damage. They also must have zero damage from the other elements equipped or utilized from charms.

Necromancers will not be able to use poison skills or magic based damage for this part. The skeleton mages of poison deal so little damage, they are just enough to stop regen is all, which is why they are allowed.

Each character will excel at some parts. Frankly Amazon's probably are the most suited for this tournament as they get a barrage of weapons, abilities, and damage types. Act 5 in Normal and NM will be a challenge though.


I feel one of the appeals is the RP mechanic, and forcing additional restrictions such as 1x for every 3 levels in summons and spells that don't add to attacks is kind of hit or miss. Your growing in power and learning how to fight. Who is to say that your not learning how to dodge attacks while casting spells with a bow, because maybe their is a powerful mage bow (We know there really isn't, but your character doesn't know that)
 
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Quite the intersting idea! I looooove thinking about various builds in tournaments like this! I am definitely interested, although this will further limit the time I have for my Random Amazon...

A few questions:

1. Do I have to "lock" the weapon choices for my merc? Or is it just that every time I change my or my merc's weapon I have to make sure to stay in the +/-1 range?

2. Act III Hell seems hard to beat for characters relying on elemental damage - esp. sorceresses. For example, if you choose a cold iron wolf you are only allowed to use cold spells, right? So no way to deal with CIs whatsoever. There will be a lot of skipping monsters in this Act.

3. Act III again - "For those untrained in elemental magics".
3a. A Paladin has Holy Shock etc., so is he required to use the corresponding Aura? Is he allowed to opt to use Fana and stack up elemental damage of the chosen type?
3b. What about Vengeance? Is he allowed to use it at all? If so: Only the synergy for your elemental type? But what if he already pumped other synergies?

4. Act IV: That means, once a merc dies they stay dead till Act V? Am I allowed to hire a mercenary from another act? Or hire a new one from the same Act with a different name? (After all, it is NOT the same one as the one who died :unsure: ;))

5. Hell difficulty: What do you mean by "you may not specialize in a weapon and learn from the master you hire before heading to hell difficulty"?
 
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Quite the intersting idea! I looooove thinking about various builds in tournaments like this! I am definitely interested, although this will further limit the time I have for my Random Amazon...

A few questions:

1. Do I have to "lock" the weapon choices for my merc? Or is it just that every time I change my or my merc's weapon I have to make sure to stay in the +/-1 range?

2. Act III Hell seems hard to beat for characters relying on elemental damage - esp. sorceresses. For example, if you choose a cold iron wolf you are only allowed to use cold spells, right? So no way to deal with CIs whatsoever. There will be a lot of skipping monsters in this Act.

3. Act III again - "For those untrained in elemental magics".
3a. A Paladin has Holy Shock etc., so is he required to use the corresponding Aura? Is he allowed to opt to use Fana and stack up elemental damage of the chosen type?
3b. What about Vengeance? Is he allowed to use it at all? If so: Only the synergy for your elemental type? But what if he already pumped other synergies?

4. Act IV: That means, once a merc dies they stay dead till Act V? Am I allowed to hire a mercenary from another act? Or hire a new one from the same Act with a different name? (After all, it is NOT the same one as the one who died :unsure: ;))

5. Hell difficulty: What do you mean by "you may not specialize in a weapon and learn from the master you hire before heading to hell difficulty"?

Let us start with:

5. Typo! Major typo, lol! You may NOW specialize! (corrected initial post, thanks for pointing that out!)

1. No, you are able to freely switch weapon types as long as you meet the +-1 requirement of weapon.

2. Yes, act3 hell will be hard for sorceress. Find a quality melee weapon to join in the fray! (I would maybe suggest something with some crushing blow!, and that maybe a /p1 area)
3. You need to equip elemental damage. Find yourself a weapon, circlet, charms, socket with runes some elemental damage of the chosen element in Normal and NM, possible hell if using an act3 mercenary.
3a. No you are not required to use the corresponding aura, you can stack elemental damage from the above mentioned.
3b. That would be a no-go in Act3.

4. You may hire any mercenary, but once they are dead may not hire another mercenary or resurrect your dead one until Act5 (This requirement should probably be tied to only normal and nightmare, as for RPing you could say that you are now the master and the master has decided to help you complete your journey at all cost)
 
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Thank you for the clarifications! Still one question:

Let us start with:

5. Typo! Major typo, lol! You may NOW specialize! (corrected initial post, thanks for pointing that out!)
So what precisely does it mean that you may specialize in a weapon for hell and learn from the master? Do I get to equip any weapon I want for Hell? Do I have free choice over the merc I use? Or do you mean weapon masteries for barbs? I am confused to be honest 🤪🙈
 
Thank you for the clarifications! Still one question:


So what precisely does it mean that you may specialize in a weapon for hell and learn from the master? Do I get to equip any weapon I want for Hell? Do I have free choice over the merc I use? Or do you mean weapon masteries for barbs? I am confused to be honest 🤪🙈

Oh, my bad. You get to choose which mercenary to use, and their weapon restrictions apply, as you have discovered your specialty and chosen the master you want to learn from in Hell difficulty. *Sidenote, your allowed to use normal mercenaries in NM/Hell (basically if you prefer a different aura is where it will come in handy I presume and hell if you want slight better stats compared to the NM one.)
 
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Ah, got it! So this way, a sorceress is actually viable because she can choose a different type of merc for Hell Act III than an iron Wolf.

1. Can you still switch mercenaries in Hell mode (and stick to the rulings of the new merc of course)?

2. Can we go back in difficulties to hire mercenaries?

3. What about respecs? Are we allowed to use those? At any time?

4. When does the tournament start? 😁
 
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Ah, got it! So this way, a sorceress is actually viable because she can choose a different type of merc for Hell Act III than an iron Wolf.

1. Can you still switch mercenaries in Hell mode (and stick to the rulings of the new merc of course)?

2. Can we go back in difficulties to hire mercenaries?

3. What about respecs? Are we allowed to use those? At any time?

4. When does the tournament start? 😁

1. Yes you may!
2. Absolutely
3. Anytime you want to.
4. I'll have to write-up the follow tournament stuff late tonight or tomorrow morning (EST).
 
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