Tournament: Super Unique!

What an awful drop! :o

Also, congrats to those who even gave this tournament a try to begin with :)

It helped motivate me to memorize the SU names, so I got something out of it too :p
 
Congrats Cygnus, jiansonz, and uh, felixbavaria too!

Do please keep going and updating the thread!

Also, thanks again for hosting GooberGrape. It was a fun tourney.

@jiansonz - I was SC and Garruk actually did die in NM cows. I did have 118 points though, I was only missing Normal Lister and NM Cow King at that point. I later did 1 S&E to avoid death in Hell City of the Damned, and I did count that as a death.
 
Talking about prize-worthy drops, I'm surprised my losing the Grand Vizier's drop to the lava did not even get a mention :)

Bishibosh, Blood Raven, Bonebreaker, Cold Crow, Rakanishu, Treehead and Griswold: your deeds of valor will be remembered.

In Cold Plains came the first LI monsters in Hell: spearwomen. Dispatched easily.

Blood Raven's areas is full of LI skellies and zombies, so I went in with a plan. Do the usual circle, killing of the smaller monster groups. Pull whatever monsters I can from Blood Raven's sides, pick them off, then rush in and Lightning Strike away. Enough lightning should hit her, even if it doesn't hurt the other monsters. Plan, meet reality. Not enough bolts hit her and she was summoning new undeads with a vengeance. Plan B: cool off a bit, pick off a few more monsters, then rush her, using decoy and valk recasts to keep the underlings busy. Took a lot of chasing, but it worked.

The crypt was even worse. 100% undeads in a closed area. No stair trap, and I could find bottlenecks to handle boss packs, so it was a safe clear. Watched paint dry while my underlings picked away at the monsters. Ok, I actually kept myself busy throwing level 3 poison javelins at whichever monster my valkyrie was focusing on, to prevent monster life regen (the merc has open wounds) and using the decoy to take the heat off the merc (valk can really tank)

I stopped doing full clears at this stage. I only have 2 personalization quests remaining and I already have some personalization candidates, so I really can't use loot from non-SUs. The LI levels really add to playing time and are simply un-fun (fairly safe once you clear some space, so it was really a question of time and patience) I did not even enter the mausoleum. I also do not plan on entering some of the optional level (hole, pit), especially their level 2 areas, where I just don't have the confidence yet. But a lot of other areas, I'm still doing full clears. And I am planning on getting all 180 SUs. They have my loot, after all.

The Cave too was full of LIs! Except for the Fallen areas. Cold Crow's pack took a long time to kill and I had to decoy-block archers from retreating.

The surface areas (including the Cain rescue level) were easy. But I forgot to collect Wirt's leg, which means I need to go there again.

SU finds
* Unsocketed Mage Plate. To be sockets. Hoping for 3 sockets, for which there is a 50% chance.
* Akara's ring: 10% Fast case, 22 mana, 28% lightning resist. Except that I don't need more lightning resist ...

Other Finds (unusable unless I personalize it):
* Harlequin Crest Shako. My first Elite Unique after my restart! +2 skills, 112 life and mana, 10% damage reduction, 50% MF, what's not to love? I'd like wear this and give my Natalya's totem to the merc (who's suffereing for resistance) But I don't have enough fire resistance to remove my current helm yet.

Diana, LS/PS/Valkyrie Amazon. Black Marsh and the Countess next.
 
jiansonz said:
It's 2/3 chance.
Click to expand...

From Arreat Summit:

1 Tal Rune + 1 Thul Rune + 1 Perfect Topaz + Normal Body Armor = Socketed Body Armor of same type
The number of sockets created will vary. The item must be normal and unsocketed. Low-quality items and superior items do not work. The item gets 1-4 sockets, randomly. However, the number of sockets is then restricted by the maximum number of sockets that base item with that ilvl can have. The chance to get X sockets in most armor is 1/4 (I.E: Mage plate has a max of 3 sockets, so it has a 2/4 [1/2] chance to get 3 sockets). The base of 6 was used in the ratios for all the above mentioned areas.

Wrong? BTW, I don't understand the last sentence at all. Base of 6 really should apply only to weapons as only (some) weapons can spawn with 6 sockets.

Not that I will mind a greater chance for getting 3 sockets in this case :)
 
It worked out!

Treachery
Mage Plate
ShaelThulLem
Defense: 232
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Level: 43
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0xabd2a027
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 15 Fade when struck
25% Chance to cast level 15 Venom on striking
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+45% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters

That should help Vikhyat's survival. Now, if only I can get him a good hurt stick ...
 
Pyrotechnician said:
All armors use a base of 4 since that is the max any armor can get, your 2/4 chance to get 3 sockets is correct.
Click to expand...

It's a 1d6 roll. Mage Plate has a max of 3 sockets. Therefore:

So on a roll of 1 = you get 1 socket.
Roll 2 = get 2 sockets.
Roll 3, 4, 5, or 6 = get 3 sockets.

Jiansonz was correct. 4/6 chance of getting 3 sockets. Grats on a nice runeword!
 
Thanks for running the tourney GooberGrape and congrats to all the winners, well actually to everyone who entered.
I'd be more than happy to play in this tourney again some time.
 
Mini-update (ok, mostly a thread bump): Diana has killed the countess. Full clears of all tower cellars. No stair traps. lightning immune archers only in 2 levels. Their bosses were taken care of by blocking the doorway with the valkyrie and casting decoy inside the room to take the heat off her.

I'm thinking of replacing the HF merc with a might one, to increase LI kill speed.
 
Ulric has finished Act III Nightmare. Nothing too dangerous. Mephisto (/players 3) managed to hit me with some ice balls but Ulric had 60+ cold resist and over 700 life so it was quite safe. I pulled a reversed moat trick (Meph on the righthand side) and I had him munch on Blood Golems while Iron Maidened. Moat trick didn't really work from this direction but the golems kept him busy anyway. Mephisto threw a couple of Lightnings at me immediately after a golem kill a few times, but I had taken up a strategic position behind a pillar so he didn't hit me.

Really crappy drops from the council bosses. The ones in Tranvincal gave me only gold, potions and one measly Light Crossbow. "Hey, if you want to drop crappy weapons, at least make them metallic, please!"

Maffer dropped a Pally shield (14% resist all). I will start the next session with a golem made from it.

I screwed up with Bremm Sparkfist's drop. I killed him too close to where anouther council member died, so I could not tell who had dropped what in a pile of magical items and a rare. The main item I missed out on was a magical wand (that could have been a nice crafting prospect).

Level-up skill point went to Dim Vision. Its duration on Hell difficluty is now a bit over 5 seconds. Not quite where i want it, but it's getting closer. I am still saving 5 skill points for future levels in Fire Golem. Can't have it higher than level 15 because my mana pool can't handle that. Ulric has 198 mana now. I think that should allows for another FG level the next time I level up.


[Highlight]Destroyer Ulric the Golemancer and Mighty Razan of Lut Gholein, level 64, NM Outer Steppes next[/Highlight]
 
I thought Act IV was going to be tiresome, that my merc's damage would not be good enough for decent progress. I was not completely wrong but it was much better than I thought it would be even though he still uses nothing better than an ethereal +54% ED Partizan. Amp helps, of course, plus he was 5% chance to do a Deadly Strike thanks to his helm. The fire golem does 200-something fire damage with its punches.

Diablo fight was not so scary. I just saw one bone prison (on the merc, who quickly destoyed it) and the only damage Diablo did to Ulric was the flame nova and small fractions of lightning breath. Blood Golem + Iron Maiden won the fight.

After Bloody Foothills was defeated (perfect score against Shenk; not a single Enslaved mutated!), I used Larzuk's socket reward so I could make this:

Rhyme
Zombie Head
'ShaelEth'
Defense: 7
Chance to Block: 45%
Durability: 20 of 20
(Necromancer Only)
Required Strength: 14
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 15
Fingerprint: 0x4ef19476
+20% Increased Chance of Blocking
Regenerate Mana 15%
All Resistances +25
Adds 2-7 poison damage over 3 seconds
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
40% Faster Block Rate
+2 to Dim Vision (Necromancer Only)
+3 to Corpse Explosion (Necromancer Only)
Cannot Be Frozen
Socketed (2: 2 used)

(Zombie Head was not dropped by a SU monster so I needed the reward to give it SU status.)

Other nice finds lately have been:
- Fal rune
- Large Charm of Sustenance with +21 life. (Ulric's second charm)
- This rare armor that Frozenstein dropped:
Gale Hide
Ring Mail
Defense: 45
Durability: 14 of 26
Required Strength: 36
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0x2a5786c
+23 to Life
+32 to Mana
Fire Resist +29%
Lightning Resist +16%
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Skill points have been spread around lately. Some in Dim Vision and some in Bone Prison but now I have decided to be true to my Golemancer ambitions and heavily pump the Blood Golem synergy for even more life for my golems. Effectiveness be damned! If I wanted to be effective in the late game, I'd pump Corpse Explosion and maybe get some Revives instead, but I am not going that route. My new zombie head gives a nice bonus to CE, and I still hold out hope for a nice +skills wand, eventually.

Frozen River was lively, with cold skelly mages, Sirens and gloams. Lots and lots of Dim Vision was used, but I often needed to stop using it on stragglers that hovered over water so they could come over to us. I have no tools to kill them out there (not that I'd want to anyway since I want their drops...). Best curse for boss/champ gloams: Decrepify! Shut them up nicely and boosted Razan's damage a lot. They have high physical resistance - against the regular Dimmed ones, it often felt like the fire golem actually damaged them more than Razan did.

Anya's reward totem had +2 Necro skills but nothing else that was good. No staffmods at all. I am sure I will at the very least need the Rhyme resists for that slot so I reluctantly sold it.

I am enjoying this act quite a bit. Guest monsters keep it varied, plus there is always a small chance of a nice imbuable elite weapon for a merc.


[Highlight]Destroyer Ulric the Golemancer and Mighty Razan of Lut Gholein, level 70, NM Glacial Trail next[/Highlight]
 
Well, that was that.

Some really nasty **** there. Extra Strong spearwomen plus a Champ pack. I got into an awkward position right away, where the merc took off and left me close to a bunch of Dimmed invaders (NOT the ones on the screenie). When I tried to drag him to me, the golem died to that champ pack and they rushed the merc. I cast a new golem and gave the merc a full purple. But they were too strong and too fast and Decrep did not help much (probably missed a few of them with it too, it was hectic!). I was already on the run when both merc and golem died. Here is where I Dimmed the mob you can see and where I cast the portal. As I saw them run in, I thought "This portal parking won't accomplish anything, I need to drag them around the corner so we can come back from the Summit and actually WIN the next fight by the entrance".

I had not realized the place I ran to was just a little alcove. Before I even had the time to think "Dim" or "Terror", they had me surrounded.


Somewhat sloppy performance here (that's a risk you run if you have just owned the Ancients...) but I still think I would have had at least 50% risk of losing even if had been more alert.


A bummer that I never got to experience some real late game Golemancing but it was an interesting run anway. Great tourney concept!


[Highlight]Destroyer Ulric the Golemancer, level 73, NM Worldstone Keep level 1, R.I.P.[/Highlight]
 
jiansonz said:
Well, that was that.

Some really nasty **** there. Extra Strong spearwomen plus a Champ pack. I got into an awkward position right away, where the merc took off and left me close to a bunch of Dimmed invaders (NOT the ones on the screenie). When I tried to drag him to me, the golem died to that champ pack and they rushed the merc. I cast a new golem and gave the merc a full purple. But they were too strong and too fast and Decrep did not help much (probably missed a few of them with it too, it was hectic!). I was already on the run when both merc and golem died. Here is where I Dimmed the mob you can see and where I cast the portal. As I saw them run in, I thought "This portal parking won't accomplish anything, I need to drag them around the corner so we can come back from the Summit and actually WIN the next fight by the entrance".

I had not realized the place I ran to was just a little alcove. Before I even had the time to think "Dim" or "Terror", they had me surrounded.


Somewhat sloppy performance here (that's a risk you run if you have just owned the Ancients...) but I still think I would have had at least 50% risk of losing even if had been more alert.


A bummer that I never got to experience some real late game Golemancing but it was an interesting run anway. Great tourney concept!


[Highlight]Destroyer Ulric the Golemancer, level 73, NM Worldstone Keep level 1, R.I.P.[/Highlight]
Click to expand...
Ouch :(

Beats my durance lvl 2 in nm on my attempt at a golemancer at least :p


You going to try golemancer again sometime?
 
jiansonz said:
[Highlight]Destroyer Ulric the Golemancer, level 73, NM Worldstone Keep level 1, R.I.P.[/Highlight]
Click to expand...

Awww, it was a good run with a fun character idea, and fun to read too! I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks so much for playing! :highfive:

Any comments or recommendations for next tourney time? I will probably fire this up again next Christmas if there's interest.
 
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