Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

@kestegs Sounds like you got off to a good start! Keep that momentum up! Pray to the number gods for some sexy rolls.

@pwangsta Good luck! Act3 mercs are my least favorite, but at least you got the most useful variety.

@Wenis Sorry for your loss. Way to stay motivated. Good luck with your new victi- I mean character.


Decided to not wimp out of this tournament.
Rejoining with a new char. I happened to roll a necro again but this time I've got an act 1 fire rogue for a merc. Makes most of norm easy, but definitely going to miss having an extra tank on the front lines by the end of nm (assuming I make it that far).

Right now Tekitou (not to be confused with TekitouNecro) is sitting at the inner cloisters wp waiting for a me to get enough time to make a run at Andy. He's level 18 and so far the skill rolls have been some what kind. Although I know this will likely change once more and more skills get opened up. Basically he's got a point in all curses. A bunch of points ended up in clay golem. I think something like 5 hard points. And 3 points ended up awesomely in Corpse explosion.

Once I gain a few more levels I think the skill points are going to start looking ugly like everyone elses.

Stat wise he's not looking so good. Most of the points have gone to energy this time around. Just barely got enough strength to equip ringmail at level 18. woo. He's kind of got low life for a HC char...

I'll update again with some more interesting flavor text + screenshots once I make some more progress.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Hey, maybe it's actually the most amazing combo ever.... you never know. I bet few people have attempted such a pairing.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Randi_Trueblood the Amazon is making slow progress. It's painfully slow. She's dropped down to /players 3, may even drop it to /players 1, and is plinking away with Magic Arrow and a bow that has 5% chance to cast Amp Damage.
I have no idea how she's supposed to defeat Duriel!

[highlight]Randi_TrueBlood, Amazon, Level 20, Dry Hills[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Drystan said:
I have no idea how she's supposed to defeat Duriel!
Click to expand...

Buy a Bone Shield of Deflecting from Drognan.

Gamble some javelins with decent melee damage (of the biggest type you can equip).

Gather all the Greater Healing potions you find in the act.

Prebuff with thawing potions. It is also advisable to wear some cold resist items, enough to get your cold resist to 85% with the help of the potions.

Set up an escape TP as you enter the chamber.

Jab Duriel to death!
(over several 'rounds' if you have to)



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Heh, Amazons are not my favourite class, and one without a strong Valk as a tank is going to be painful at times!
Thanks for the advice, Jiansonz! Do you know of any solid ways to improve damage? Are bows/javelins worth gambling early an the act, or better later on? Or just better to gamble circlets?

The Shield of deflecting and javelins are definitely good tips; I've never done either of those before! :thumbup:
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Drystan said:
Thanks for the advice, Jiansonz! Do you know of any solid ways to improve damage? Are bows/javelins worth gambling early an the act, or better later on? Or just better to gamble circlets?
Click to expand...

When I have a rogue merc, I tend to buy a 3-socketed Composite Bow and stuff Ith runes in there as I find them. A fast bow doing 4-35 damage is not to be sneezed at this early.
No reason that shouldn´t work nicely for a bow-using charcater.


Gambling for bows is not so good, mostly because both the base damage and the +ED prefixes are so wimpy at this stage.


The latest rogue I used gained a nice damage boost from +minimum damage jewels in armor/helm. She had two with just +3 minumim damage, but they added a surprisingly good boost. But such jewels will of course hurt your MF since they occupy sockets that could otherwise hold topazes...


The (throw) damage of the early javlins is better than for early bows. But I think that the best javelin you can get in early Act II is to get a Javelin (the lowliest type) with Fiery or Static damage. Since Javelins have such low qlvl (1), they can get these elemental damage prefixes already at ilvl 25. So gamble them when you have a reasonable chance to get ilvl 25 on the gambles, or you could try some chippie rerolling (that recipe sets ilvl to 25).

Throwing Spear is one of my favourite weapon types overall. They are fast, have 80 in a stack, look cool and always do at least 12-30 throw damage. They are qlvl 29, so you can´t gamble them until rather late in the act. Also, the DEX requirement is 65, which a randomly challenged character might not reach for quite some time.



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Well, I had an extremely detailed, exciting account of Kitty the barb's adventures in Act 1 ready to go. After slaughtering Andy, though, I felt the itch to keep playing. "Just another half hour or so," thought I, "then I'll write it up and do some studying." So off I went, happily clicking my way through the sewers. Alas, I found myself fighting Radament before I realized what was happening, and trapped myself between Raddy, a bunch of skellies, and a wall. Try as I might, I couldn't hack my way out of the trap, so poor Kitty met an early end.

Nevertheless, I am unfazed by my small setback and will try again with Miss_Guided, a scatterbrained Assassin who will (hopefully) be aided by a trusty Barbarian sidekick if she makes it that far.

In the meantime, I would like to share this item with you folks. It's simply too delicious to keep to myself. I didn't realize circlets were gamble-able at level 20, but I guess I know now.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Hmh, I'm bored, been reading the forums, have the itch again. This tourney looks like a good way to pass time. Nothing like jumping on a barely controlled HC character after a year of inactivity.

Rolling... [highlight]Veda, the Assassin, with act 3 Fire mage.[/highlight]

Yay on the class, ugh on the merc. Worst possible roll, really. Here's hoping I get one of the shadow summons later on.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Well, Chaotic-Skunk has made it through Act 1. He's already probably not hell-viable, but that won't stop him from trying. Got a very nice drop from Andariel: Hand of Broc and Deathspade. So a nice upgrade on both weapon and gloves to start act 2 with.

As for his skills and stats at this point... let's see, some highlights:

-- He's had to put about 20 points into Energy. No mana troubles, at least!

-- 5 points into Holy Bolt, 3 in Smite, 1 or 2 into nearly every other combat skill tiers 1-3, and almost nothing into auras whatsoever (single points into a couple of things).

Hopefully he'll get some better luck down the road, but in the meantime, it's pretty ugly.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Wow! A lot of action still going on here...after my deeds with Barbapapa a year ago or so, and with my Obsession necro in Act 4 Hell, I'm ready to roll a new character:

[highlight]Barbalala, the Assassin, accompanied by a Lightning Mage[/highlight]

Good luck everyone! (and very nice updates there :thumbsup:)
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

A couple of more areas cleaned, without much danger. A Cursed + Fanaticism rogue archer pack that spawned from an Evil Urn in Crystalline passage would have been extremely dangerous if they had spawned within sight of us. As it was now, I managed to run sideways past the whole pack before they fired at us.

Frozen River was lively and had very interesting gameplay. It had both types of succubi - Dim Vision was used a lot.

I got two Revived snakes with me down to Drifter Cavern. Entrance was along the upper edge of the place. The early part had no bosspacks, so it was relaxed fighting. Then it got a lot more chaotic when I had completed more than half a lap around the outher edge. A Fanaticism succubus pack, and two archer boss packs in the background. I sure was glad I had a trio of my new favourite Revives with me here.

An Frozen Tundra, I found an elite unique that was a grailer. My immediate reaction was: "WTF is that thing?"

Infernal Pit had Unholy Corpses, Salamanders and Doom/Oblivion Knights. Drus died 7 times to IM. Money is very much not a problem, though...


[Highlight]Conqueror Pete the Necromancer and Drus the Barbarian merc, level 86, Hell Nihlathak´s Temple next[/Highlight]



As the tournament host, I feel obliged to present an update table every now and then:
Code: 
[B][U]Heroes still standing[/U][/B]

[U]Forum name      Character       Lvl    Merc         Area reached[/U]
jiansonz        Pete (N)         86    A5           Hell Nihlathak's Temple 
Insane Wayne    Black (N)        60    A5           NM Spider Forest
Butzull         Fate (As)        57    A1 Cold	    NM Arcane Sanctuary
XxUberStarxX    Cador (B)        42    A3 Lightning NM Black Marsh
Rhia            Slapdash (P)     34    A1 Cold      Harrogath
stillirise      Lorem Ipsum (S)	 32    A3 Fire	    Pandemonium Fortress
sheayua         ? (As)		 26    A2 Bl. Aim   Spider Forest
wakiki          Moonchild (As)   28    A1 Cold      Spider Forest
ILikeRocks      Dorrin (P)       25    A2 Prayer    False Tombs
StevehRogers    Lottie (As)	 27?   A3 Cold      Canyon of the Magi
Darker          (N)               ?    A2 Defiance  Canyon of the Magi
LprMan          ADHD (N)         25    A1 Fire      Harem
Fluffballer	GuidedbyStars (P)21    A1 Cold      Maggot Lair
Oneofakind      Ran_D (D)        21    A3 Unknown   Halls of the Dead WP
jgreg7          Neddy (N)        20    A2 Holy Fr.  Dry Hills
Drystan         Randi_Trueblood(Am)20  A3 something Dry Hills
kestegs         MindBlastedSin(As)21   A2 Bl. Aim   Lut Gholein
Fenrix          Maleagant (P)    20    A1 Fire	    Lut Gholein
Machete         Shazza (Am)      20    A1 Cold      Lut Gholein
ilshad          Brainless (N)    20    A2 Defiance  Lut Gholein
Dolph           MrsRandom (Am)   19    A3 Unknown   Lut Gholein
soulmanz	Stormy (D)	 19    A1 Fire	    Lut Gholein
skunkbelly      Chaotic-Skunk (P) ?    A3 Cold      Lut Gholein
Vague           Tekitou          18    A1 Fire      Inner Cloister
jdkerr          Bbrcc (As)       17    A3 Cold      Jail lvl 1
RGValdearg      RandomGuy (P)    18    A3 Fire      Jail lvl 1
mrsplifferton   Randazon (Am)    17    A5	    Outer Cloister
DSnail          Jallen (B)       16    A2 Might     The Hole
sethyboy 	Ragnar (B)       17    A1 Cold	    Black Marsh?
Vang 	        WoG (N)          16    A2 Prayer    Black Marsh
scrcrw          Outlier (D)      15    A1 Cold      Black Marsh
DemonofWrath    ? (As)           15    A3 Cold	    Black Marsh
shizwiggle      Raila (S)        15    A5	    Black Marsh
atreides        George (D)        ?    A1 Fire      Black Marsh
QibingZero      Heisenberg (D)   14    A1 Cold      Dark Wood
Lostprophet     Bill (As)        13    A3 Cold      Underground Passage
cenyth          RandintII (S)    13    A3 Fire      Stony Field
Poida		Swamp (S)        12    A1 Fire	    Stony Field
Poppis          Jarp (B)	 12    A5           Stony Field
Mostly_Harmless Harry (D)        12    A2 Holy Fr.  Stony Field
Docturnal       Erratikk (As)    12    A1 Unknown   Stony Field
Butzull         Fate (Asn)       12    A1 Cold      Stony Field
zarfen          Joanne (Am)      12    A1 Fire	    ?
QuickSlash      Random Genius (D) 9    A2 Def. (?)  Cold Plains
Fellow		Odd (B)           7    A2 Might     Cold Plains
Alien           Fluke (B)         6    A1 Cold      Cold Plains
zemaj           Wormchow (S)      6    A1 Fire      Cold Plains
Equalizer       Equazon (Am)      4    A5           Cold Plains
atigdng         (Am)              2    A1 Cold      Blood Moor
ashpe           Nadia (As)        3+   A1 Fire      ?
dlav   		bloody-hell (As)  7     ?
Pendeleu        Agatyr (N)        6+   A2 Bl. Aim   ?
Pyrohemia       Iron_Wolf (Am)         A3 unknown
Pipboy          Lex (P)                A2 Prayer
sirpoopsalot    ? (P)                  A2 Thorns
Gahzban         ? (Asn)                A3 Cold
Amoeba          Napkin (B)             A3 Lightning 
Poppis          Sherah (S)             A5
Kassul          ? (S)                  A2 Defiance
newco           Shangalar (N)          A2 Prayer
spikewilbury    Jester (D)             A1 Fire
thewamp         Tyche (Am)             A5
SteveIgnorant	? (Am)		       A2 Holy Fr.
Docturnal       Alana_Tibbles (Am)     A5
FaNCy           ? (N)                  A2 Offensive (unknown if Bl. Aim or Might)
Morathi         Luella (As)            A1 Fire
Docturnal	Alana_Tibbles	  1    A5	    Rogue Encampment
Quickdeath      Lohan (As)        1    A3 Cold      Rogue Encampment
mrflippy        Iwpngilk (S)      1    A3 Cold      Rogue Encampment
Grisu           Barbalala (As)    1    A3 Lightning Rogue Encampment
Low Key         Veda (As)         1    A3 Fire      Rogue Encampment
pwangsta        Miss_Guided (As)  1    A5           Rogue Encampment
Wenis           Hope (P)          1    A2 Defiance  Rogue Encampment


[B][U]Our Fallen Heroes[/U][/B]

XxUberStarxX    Sir_Lionell (P)  56+   A2 Bl. Aim   NM Spider Forest (Arcane Sanctuary (mobbed by ~15 monsters))
atreides        Vasile (P)        ?    A2 Prayer    NM Tal's Tombs (Ancient Kaa)
OldSoldier      Calavera (As)    40+   A2 Bl. Aim   Frozen River (Frozenstein´s death nova + Prowling Dead Charge)
Oscuro          ? (D)            27    A1 Cold      Chaos Sanctuary (Diablo)
ILikeRocks      Korweil (B)      33    A3 Lightning Chaos Sanctuary (De Seis´pack and OB Knight Champ pack)
XxUberStarxX    Stifler (B)      29+   A5           Disused Reliquary (Holy Shock archer boss & crew)
jgreg7          Amp (D)          25    A5           Spider Cavern (Sszark the Burning)
cenyth		randint (S)      28    A5           Tal Rasha´s Chamber (trapped with Duriel)
soulmanz        Lupus (D)        26    A5           Tomb of Tal Rasha (Some Army of the Undead)
Grisu		Barbapapa (P)	 27    A5	    Tal-Rasha's Tombs (Boss Mummy)
buraz           Oblivion_Bob (N) 27    A5           Canyon of the Magi (mobbed by Steel Scarabs)
JayeM           Randall (P)      23    A1 Cold      Arcane Sanctuary (The Summoner)
Merlin the W.   Scarface (D)     26    A5	    Arcane Sanctuary (mobbed by Hell Clan)
Islandstone     Randy (N)        25    A1 Cold      Palace Cellar (Extra Fast Blunderbore pack + archers)
jjscud          MustNotBeNamed(N)25    A1 Cold      Harem         (CoD unknown)
JayeM           Vincent (N)      21    A5           Claw Viper Temple lvl 2 (Fangskin & Co)
Oscuro	        ? (Asn)	         20    A2 Might	    Halls of the Dead  (Bloodwitch the Wild)
pwangsta        KittyOnKeyboard(B)     A1 Cold      Sewers lvl 3  (Mobbed by Radament & crew)
FatFree         Kastle (P)       21    A3 Lightning Sewers lvl 3  (Radament's resurrected Horror)
Rhia            Aimless Andy (D) 19?   A2 Thorns    Jail lvl 2   (Pitspawn Fouldog & 2 minions)
Wenis           Reznik (N)       18    A5           Barracks (Cursed goatman boss)
JayeM           Barbie (Am)      11    A3 Unknown   Barracks  (Black Rogue boss pack + archers)
JayeM           Fate (As)        18    A2 Unknown   Barracks  (CoD unknown)
Morathi         Kane (D)	       A1 Cold	    Outer Cloister  Lost (reformatted HD without backup)
wakiki          Sunchild (S)     17    A2 Defiance  Tamoe Highlands  Retired (D2 crash that resulted in lost items)
Merlin the W.   Str._Danny (B)   17?   A3 Lightning Tamoe Highlands (Cursed skeleton archer bosspack)
PandadudeSP     Modnar (P)       14    A2 Might     Black Marsh  Retired ("Too much hassle to be enjoyable")
Morathi         Keith (B)        15?   A5           Tristram (mobbed to death because the mouse had bad batteries!)
Poppis          Sherah (S)        ?                 ?         (Nasty archer pack in Act I)
Insane Wayne    ? (B)             ?    A2 Bl. Aim             (Chest trap)
Morathi         Wendy (S)         9    A5           The Cave  (Coldcrow's pack)
Stride          Nostalgiamancer(N)5    A1 Fire      Den of Evil (Corpsefire)
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I think it would be fun if this tourny had started post 1.13 to some how incorporate the respecs into the randomness of this tournament. Say, once you get to act 5 of each difficulty you have to travel back to act 1 and use your respec. I know it would be exhausting to respec every skill and stat point but it would definitely make for some real randomness. Just something fun to think about for Randomly Challenged III. :)

[highlight]Tekitou the necro[/highlight] has successfully completed act1. Nothing interesting at all dropped. Andy was a joke. His golem is pretty burly now with roughly 500 life and 47% or so slow. Andy just sat there while my rogue blasted her with fire arrows and Tekitou chucked throwing axes. I had to recast the golem and amp damage a few times but that was it. With decrep from a wand, or from a skill point, I think boss battles will be pretty safe, but take a long long time. :( If only I could get a couple points into revives and skellies when the time comes.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

So I did make it through Act 1. Killing Andy gave me the unique bardiche (nothing special). I did also get 3... that's right 3 arctic belts through my troubles. Strategy consisted of me using zeal and either defense (archers) thorns (melee) or resist fire (bone mages) auras. I had 3 to zeal (made me want to high five someone anytime I got one) and 4 to resist fire (felt as if I got kicked in the balls everytime I got one) I never realized until now but every point (at least it looks like) into fire resist gives 1 to maximum to fire resist. Although with the aura my char gets 79 to fire resist. Also had 2 to defense aura and 2 to thorns. Besides this my skills went to nothing important. I didn't have many NDE but rejuvs were my life saver until then. Boss packs with cursed/ cold enchanted were feared by Hope. So at lvl 20 I am prepared for the Act 2 mobsters!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Wenis said:
I never realized until now but every point (at least it looks like) into fire resist gives 1 to maximum to fire resist.
Click to expand...

Yes, the three resist auras give +1 to maximum resist for every point in the skill while you use it. Also, you get a +1 maximum resist for every second point in those skills when you are not using it. So now that you have 4 points in Resist Fire, you can bring fire resist to 77% without using the skill, if you have the equipment for that.



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Alright this tournament seems really enjoyable so I'll try it out. After a few dice rolls I ended up with a Barbarian with a lightning Kurast merc.

WhatYouGet the barbarian plowed through everything in the blood moor and the den of evil without much trouble then stopped at the cold plains waypoint.

He's now level 6 and I managed to get him a point in double swing however he already has four points in weapon masteries and, if he survives, I expect many mores to be placed there. Of course his mana pool is steadily increasing but fortunately most of his stat points went into dex.

It's certainly a little liberating to leave most of your decisions to chance. That way, when I fail miserably, I can put all the blame on my dice.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Nihlathak's Temple (aka 'the zombie garden') was slow going. When I play, the spirit of full clear says that corpses of these monsters shouldn´t be used up if there is a chance that they will rise again. So no CE and no Revives (at least no Revives while the fight is going on) in this area. It worked out well in the end. Mudpile tanked one pack and Drus another. I kept the enemies Dimmed nearly the whole time. Some that got close to Pete were Terrored away. Drus needed two full rejuves.

Halls of Valor/Pain were easy, but Halls of Vaught was not. Archers, Night Marauders and Tomb Vipers made life hard for Drus. I usually do not agree on the term 'moron' for our beloved companions, but Drus could not stop getting himself killed when he stupidly ran into one Viper poison trail after another. A couple of times, I used Teleport to bring him back around a corner so we could lure the snakes to us and keep them Dimmed.

These guys were great tanks in here, with their double immunity. Tomb Vipers can´t damage them.

Nihlathak was owned. Surrounded by 5-6 of his own creations turned against him, he never had a chance. Sure, he teleported a few times, but that only delayed the inevitable. Pete exploded or Revived every new corpse that formed.


Pete gained what is to be his last level-up. He gained his 29th skill: Fire Golem. The only skill he never rolled a point in is Bone Prison.

Next session will (hopefully) be pretty long - the Guardian run. I hope to find some good Revives in Ancients' Way for the Ancients fight. Wish me luck.


[Highlight]Conqueror Pete the Necromancer and Drus the Barbarian merc, level 87, Hell Ancients' Way next[/Highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Easy monsters in Ancients' Way: Abominables, purcupines and cold mages. I got three Abominables with me onto the Arreat Summit.

Korlic was Extra Fast + Cursed. Even when Amped, Drus was doing OK against him, but he had trouble when Talic whirled on him. I think Talic´s weapon must have been pretty powerful. I fed Drus rejuves and tried to get Mudpile to tie up Talic as much as possible. Once Korlic fell, I ran several laps around the Summit to let the curse expire.

Talic was FE + Magic Resistant (don´t go near this guy - FE bug warning here!) and not too hard for Drus to take down. The Extra Fast Mana Burn Madawc wasn´t troublesome either. Success!! Total potion use in the fight: 1 super healer and 4 full rejuves.

The WSK levels were a mixed bag. I got Souls on level 2 and Death Lords (Frenzytaurs), Blood Bosses and PI Hell Temptresses on level 3.

Entering the Throne level is always risky. I got lucky and only met two of these guys by the stairs. There were also Souls and and Doom/Oblivion Knights on this level. I took my time, trying to be as methodic and safe as possible. I exploded every undead in and around the throne room before starting with Baal´s boss packs.

None of the boss packs posed any threat at all, so I soon reached Big Ugly. I teleported to this position as soon as possible and sent a Clay Golem onto Baal. Keeping him Decrepified prevented Baal from teleporting and from being useful at all. He got off a few Flame Novas, poke attacks and flamethrower bursts (and one Hoarfrost that didn´t even hit) bit he was never close to killing any of my companions. He just sat there and got killed, albeit slowly. Why didn´t I bring Rattlecage? :bonk:

It wasn´t as bad when he was above half life, because of the ctc Static on Drus' sword, but then...oh my, what a bore. Pete got impatient and often mixed in 10 Bone Spirits (they do about 200 damage per hit...) between Decepify castings. He could do four of these cycles from full mana.

After what felt like 20 minutes, Baal died and dropped two famous uniques: Witchwild String and Ormus' Robes (Robes was ethereal, had +3 to Fire Wall and was a grailer for me).


YAY!! :crazyeyes:


Only the 'Epilogue' left now. Barring a really bad start, I don´t see how the bovines are going to stop us. Revive and CE must be great in there.


[Highlight]Guardian Pete the Necromancer and Drus the Barbarian merc, level 87, Hell Moo Moo Farm next[/Highlight]
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Big congrats on the new Guardian, Jiansonz! I wish I had of read the start of Pete's journey, but will look forward to a Guardian thread.

I didn't even realise this tournament was a year+ old when I started earlier this month.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Wow! Yet another tournament guardian by you, jiansonz :thumbsup: Sounds like you played your cards well with CE+Revive as your main skills in the late game (that's my impression from your last posts...): They are both strong without much need for synergies or skill points. Adding the whole Curses, that makes a lot of crowd control...I hope the same is true for different skills of my Assassin (Mind Blast, CoS...).

Speaking of her:
Barbalala defeated Andariel. Act I really wasn't a threat to Barbalala. CoS was used against dangerous boss packs when it became available some time around level 15, BoS and Fade proved equally useful (and BoS saved a lot of time).

Special events were a completely empty level 2 Tower and 2 gem shrines - one in the blood moor and one in the Pits, which were used to upgrade chipped topazes to flawed ones early on.

This Charm is probably my best early Act I find ever - I didn't even know that Shimmering GCs could drop that early (ilvl 15...)!

[highlight]Barbalala the Assassin, with no hireling yet, level 20, Lut Gholein sewers next[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

going to start this now, its a fun change to endless runs and things on bnet :D
 
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