Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Randall died at level 23 in the Arcane Sanctuary. I think the actual cause of death was over-confidence...things had been so easy for him. This is my 3rd strike (1st Barbie, 2nd Vincent), so I'm out of the tournament. I've enjoyed it immensely, but I'd like to relax with some of my SC characters. Good luck to everyone!

Randall, Paladin, level 23, Arcane Sanctuary (RIP)
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Hey guys, would you use an Amulet with 6% Magic Find and 35% Gold Find, or an Amulet with only 8% MF?

I'm currently playing my way to Andariel.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Oh, definetely the one with the 35% GF on it. It'll allow you to gamble that much sooner, you see. Have I ever told you that my amulet/rings of choice all have Greed in them? Merlin likes his gold, yes he does!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

RIP Randall.

I'd use the one with GF. You'll get more gambling gold, which is where I find most of my early game MF gear (boots and gloves). If you're really keen on the higher MF, use it only during your fight with Andariel.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Hey guys, would you use an Amulet with 6% Magic Find and 35% Gold Find, or an Amulet with only 8% MF?

I'm currently playing my way to Andariel.

I'd use the first one, with the gold find, if I had not already gambled high MF boots and gloves. Even if you have, the extra gold find might get you started gambling circlets and amulets earlier. No big deal, though.

I have gone from an "outie" to an "innie" (inner cloister) and from level 17 to 19. No finds, no NDEs, nothing much worth noting. Level 18 was MB (3) (decent, bordering on good) but level 19 was carrion vine (ick, useless as well as openning up solar creeper, also bad.) Level 2 (1 + 1 from pelt) spirit wolf is not much of a tank, so I have to be really careful when i run across large groups or stuff that isn't knocked back. I've played one bowler before, but that was before I knew /p8, so I'm trying (and needing) to do it better this time. Andy should be np, but i'm already worried about early act 2, things like leapers that normally drive bowlers nuts. I guess they get mauled (first time i've ever used that skill, probably doing it wrong).


 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Well, Korweil is dead :( at lvl 33 to Lord De Seis and his group + another champ group of O'Knights. Oh well, I am not a big fan of barbs anyway, so I have started Dorrin, a Holy Fire Pally as of now, he is level 15 and just saved Cain.

I have 1 Point in Holy Fire but +3 on my Scepter! So I am doing quite a bit of Fire dmg. Other than that not much happening with him.

Dorrin, act 1 Dark Woods, Lvl 15



edit: forgot to mention, He has an act II prayer merc.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

R.I.P. Randall and Corwell.

As for the Ammy issue, I had already swapped them out (using the GF one) right away and was planning to switch to the MF for the Andariel kill. Figured I'd ask you guys to see what you said though. I've killed several Champs since then so I bet it's been worth it.

Gambling Sashes, on the other hand, has not been worth it. It took me like 15 sashes and I only got a 41% one, so I'm sure I will lose gold in the long run with this. I didn't get any good rares with resists or anything either like I thought I might. Oh well, it's good to experiment sometimes.

I just cleared Cats 2 and will post a full update after I kill Andy.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Woot I'm in!

Amazon
Act 3 Merc (No type yet as I don't know the order they are listed when hiring.


Will probably die before I get my merc but I love having to randomize everything.

Btw, wasn't there a site that was used by this forum before where you could choose how many results you got each randomization. For example when choosing stats you could put down 4 results between 1 and 4. Anyone know the adress or is it a must to use random.org for a generator online?

Edit: First randomization with random.org which worked really well, so nevermind my above question.
Energy got the bulk of my first 15 points. Second was str, then dex, then vit. yay...
2 Jab, 1 Fire Arrow, about to enter the den. Funfun!
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Story
--------------------------------------------------------

After a few days of male bonding with that awesome Warriv dude, Danny became so vexed with Akara constantly wining about how she wanted Cain to be saved that he decided to just go ahead and get that over with. A quick jaunt through the Cold plains brought him at the entrance of the Stony Fields. Three of those rogues were trailing him still, so he dispatched of them and ventured forth into uncharted territory. As it turned out, carvers had just as little chance against his awesome sceptre of totally kick everythings *** as fallen had, so he cleaned out a fair bit of the map. However, he began to worry when more and more oif those little red and blue cretin kept telling him that their hero rakanishu would shock him to pieces. But those little fiends had deliberately kept silent about the Moon clan hero with equally shocking properties that managed to surprise Danny. His health dropped quickly, lucky enogh though, the moon clan hero dropped even more quickly, so that ended with live left. Good. Other then that, nothing serious threatened Danny, and that also went for rakanishu, who was totally pwned by three sceptre swipes. The underground passage proved fairly uneventful, mainly because danny habitually broke misshapen hero packs apart before tackling them a few at the time. Only 1 cold enchanted dude was a bit troublesome, but not too much. The dark woods held what Danny figured would be a serious challenge, namely Treehead woodfist, but before that, it held a boatload of trees and all sorts of little blue midgets running around through them. It took a fair bit of time to clean everything out. Then Danny found some sort of fenced in tower ruin, with a shaman in the middle. When he started to whack at the shaman, he noticed a hero archer pack, Extra strong, who simultaneously launched a volley of 8 arrows into poor dannyboy. Luckily enough, he a had a shield... After 1 set of those his health was diminshed by about 40 points, but he managed to kill the shaman the next swipe, so he ran for it. After that, it was simply a matter of tackling the skeleton bowdudes out one at a time, sometimes two at a time.
The last hurdle was coming up, but just before he found Treehead, Danny found a skill shrine. Good, more damage from the sceptre would prove useful. It took a fair bit of running around and chugging a few health potions before his two minions were dead, and treehead soon went the same way. Finally done here!
That left tristram. Lucky enough, the two hero packs both turned out to be skeleton archers, and his sceptre totally pwned the weak teleportation and extra fast packs. The champion shaman also croaked pretty easily. That left griswold, who was tackled with the ethereal axe with life leech. That one proved more then sufficient to dispatch of griswold, no need to chug potions or run away. Cain was saved, and in gratitude Akara gave him a crappy ring. So danny went a gambling to forget his sorrows, and he only stopped when his gloves now also held 13% MF. Now that akara had her wish, perhaps Danny could have some quiet time with Warriv, although Charsi was starting to whine a lot about her favorite hammer she had left behind...

Stats
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Three more levels, and, unsurprising enough, three more mastery skills.
Axe and spear mastery both went up by a point, but I also managed to crack Throwing mastery open, which was a positive sidenote.
I finally found a jawbone cap, or rather said 3. One superior gray one, which had a socket. One white one, and one blue one. None of them had any +skills, but the grey one at least had better defense then the other ones, so he is using that.
Still no topazzes... It has happened before, and then they started to drop in the countess tower. Perhaps they will gaain this time, who knows?

One of the level ups gave me three vit points, which was nice, but the other one had none and the third one but one. Still, after dex, vit received the most points these three levels, so that isn't too bad.
Str 49, Dex 44, Vit 38, En 24.
Sword Mastery - 5
Axe Mastery - 2
Mace masstery - 2
Polearm mastery - 2
Throwing mastery - 1
Spear mastery - 3

[highlight]Straight_Danny, Barbarian lvl 15, Black Marsh next[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

R.I.P. Randall. Was it the Summoner´s powerful spells that killed him?

R.I.P. Korweil. Sad for him - I really thought he was destined to make it to NM. How come he was fighting another pack at the same time as De Seis´pack? It seems to me that would be pretty hard to arrange even if you aim for it.
(for me, everything else in the CS is always dead when I trigger that seal).

Nice to see that you are not giving up. And Holy Fire is a powerful early-game skill indeed. Good merc draw, too. That is nearly always the one I use for most of Normal if I have the freedom to do so. I like the low-maintenance aspect that Prayer provides.


@Dolph: welcome to the tournament.

@Merlin: love the storytelling. Let´s hope that Danny soon gets some combat skills and warcries he can play around with. Early game Barbarians do not have much mana, but it would be nice to put it to use nonetheless.
(At least you will probably find a suitable helm with some +skills. They can have 3 sockets quite early, too.)



Pete has just done Blood Moor and Den of Evil. No interesting drops (but one Gem Shrine, so now I am only another shrine or two flawless topazes away from "upgrading" the merc helm). Reward skill point went to Iron Golem (not so useful).

I am thinking ahead with gear planning. One thing is clear: Drus the merc needs a much bigger sword when I get further into Nightmare. I have the stuff for a rare weapon upgrade (although I want to use my Amn for 5/6 chance of 2 sockets in my favourite necro head as soon as a Shael drops). I think I´ll start gambling Bastard Swords when there is a good chance to score a Ferocious damage rare. I need ilvl 53 for that, so it won´t happen until a bit into Act II. If I can find a 3s ethereal Great Sword (or any of the exceptional two-handed sword types), a King´s Grace might be another option.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

@jiansonz: It was indeed the Summoner. :(

Ok, I couldn't stay away. An assassin named Fate this time, with an Act 2 merc.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Wee, this iss really fun.

MrsRandom has now killed Andariel and is level 19.
No NDE yet atleast, so that's nice. Only hard enemies were early LE bosses and the smith also packed a punch, all taken care of with a rare javelin.

So far the randomness has treated her like this:

Str 24 (26,64%)
Dex 23 (25,53%
Vit 18 (19,98%)
Ene 25 (27,75%)

Exactly preoritized as I would not do it...
Skills:
Jab:5
Power Strike: 3
Critical Strike: 3
Inner Sight: 2
Magic Arrow: 2
Cold Arrow: 2
Fire Arrow: 1
Penetrate: 1

I'm liking Jab and Power Strike, but a bit dissapointed in the "arrows". Penetrate is nice and so is CS, but 2 in inner sight wasn't that great...
Hoping for more Power Strike and maybe slow missiles.
Will likely die on Duriel.

Cheers!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Sword Mastery - 5
Axe Mastery - 2
Mace masstery - 2
Polearm mastery - 2
Throwing mastery - 1
Spear mastery - 3

[highlight]Straight_Danny, Barbarian lvl 15, Black Marsh next[/highlight]

Danny sure loves those masteries.

I have only just started with Jarp(lvl 7), but thanks to the quest 1 skill reward, I now have both Bash and Leap. Those should come in handy next with Blood Raven. Even got lucky and found a chipped topaz at the Den, so Jarp can wear his ring mail with proud.


 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Joining up with Randy the Necromancer, joined by a cold rogue.

Randy is level 15 with way more energy than I want
Stats:
Strength: 29 (20%)
Dexterity: 42 (24.3%)
Vitality: 33 (25.7%)
Energy: 46 (30%)

Skills:
Skeleton Mastery 1
Raise Skeleton 1
Clay Golem 3
Golem Mastery 1
Skeleton Mage 2
Teeth 3
Bone Armor 1
Poison Dagger 2
Amplify Damage 1

Was lucky and got Clay golem to level 3 early (at level 8) so i have him to tank, along with a skeleton, while Liene the cold rogue kills everything.

[Highlight]Randy, Necromancer level 15 with cold Rogue, Rescued Cain[/Highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I've got some decent luck while doing Quest 2(Act 1).

Soon after entering Cold Plains, I found my second chipped topaz. Then just before confronting Blood Raven, I thought I'd get a better weapon to replace Jarps scepter, so I gambled a morning star and got one with 30%ED and 4% dual leech. This coupled with Bash and Leap were more than enough to kill the corrupted rogue. I used leap to get out of the summoned zombies clutches, until I realized I could tank Blood Raven even in the middle of the zombies and frozen by her arrows. Didn't take too many bashes to take her out.

Regarding drops, I've gotten quite a lot of rares, none worth noting here, but one interesting drop was a wand with +3 Dim Vision/+2 Glay Golem/+1 Teeth. Too bad Jarp doesn't like magic sticks.

Stats:

Str: 47
Dex: 31
Vit: 38
Ene: 24

Skills:

Bash 1
Leap 1
Stun 1

Sword Mastery 2
Axe Mastery 2
Mace Mastery 3
Throwing Mastery 2

I'm amazed at my luck with stats and skills. Energy has managed to stay lowest and skill points haven't spread too badly between the masteries, with mace and throwing at 3/2. I saved my skill points from lvl 10 to lvl 12, hoping for some of the lvl 12 skills. Got stun which might be handy along the way. Still no warcries though.

[highlight]Jarp, Barbarian level 12, Stony Field next[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Moonchild finished Andariel without any trouble. I forgot to switch amulets though..oh well. :) (She dropped an Emerald and 2 chipped rubies.)

Stats:
46 Strength
41 Dexterity
43 Vitality
51 Energy

Skills

4 Fire Blast
3 Blade Sentinel
2 Dragon Talon
2 Fade
2 Shock Web
1 in Tiger Strike, Fists of Fire, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail, Claw Mastery, Burst of Speed, Claw Block.

Still 2 points away from Cloak of Shadows and Blade Fury. I suppose I should be happy since I'll probably get them eventually, and I don't want them high. then again, I don't want Fire Blast or Blade Sentinel high either. :P Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have focused on maxing Mind Blast instead of Fade.

I still only have 6 Topazes in my equipment. This is pretty unusual for starting Act II, right? Hmmm.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Story
------------------------------------------------------------
This time, Danny was smarter then to let things in the rogue camp get out of hand. A screeching Akara was bad enough, but a screeching Charsi? Besides, she was the one fixing his tools of trade, so he had to keep her as a friend. Therefore, he opnce again left Warriv alone at the fire and went out to bash some heads.
The Black Marsh posed no problem whatshowever, since the minions of the brute hero pretty much came in just one at a time, and so he could dispatch of them before the next one showed up. The boss accompanied his last minion, but he was no match against the barb. Another heropack was a teleporting bloodhawk, so that was nonessential. The hole didn't pose much of a problem either, since the heros and champions there were all blue midgets. Lousy blue midgets. The last one was a Rakanishu wannabe, complete with charged bolts, but Danny wasn't having any of that, so he whacked the poor thing so hard that he had to clean carver poo from the sceptre because the intestine had burst.
That left the forgotten tower, which curiously enough still held monsters. However, once Dannyboy traversed all levels, no monsters were left. Not too much of a problem either, apart from a Blood clan Extra strong hero at the entrance of level one, but a few liht healings and massive slashing with the axe were sufficient to kill him/it and the minions. The countess ran around a lot, and made very pretty fires, but Danny didn't much care for her, so he bashed her head in. The result were a Nef and an ELd rune, and 3 or 4 blues, none of them useful. Then, a nice surprise! There was a corpse in the entrance to the tamoe highlands, and it held a chipped topazz!
Well, with even more magic find at his fingertips, Danny started exploring the highlands. His new found helmet had +1to howl, and soon he could put it to good use. After all, he found a pack of returned archers. Cursed.
So danny zigzagged a bit to dodge the arrows, and when he came close, he started howling, and sure enough, the skeletons started to run away, leaving Danny alone with the hero. It was some hard whacking to bring him down, and Danny was cursed as well. Still, prospects were good that he could finish the hero off before the hero could finish him off. However, the skeletons rather unexpectedly returned and started shooting arrows. That proved most fatal to poor Danny boy, so he went to barbarian heaven, or whatever passes for it. Danny just hoped it was filled with hunky man and no carvers... never again carvers...

Stats and stuff
---------------------------------------------
two levels, and apparently, your wishes worked, since neither level point landed on a mastery! The first one didn't leave passive however, so now I could run longer. And the next one landed in Leap. Well, that wasn't very useful either, but at least it made leapattack feasible... Not that that matters now :)
Two levels gave me DeX= 4, En = 3, and Str = 2 and Vit = 1. Cool huh?

This death wasn't necessary. I was partly distracted by other stuff (think tv), and didn't count on the skeletons returning. But they did... There must have been a wall closeby that the skeletons ran against while under howleffect.

Well, I'm dead, so I guess I need to roll another char soon :P

EDIT:
And the reroll netted me a druid. That's a barbarian relative, so that's close kin. Better yet, the merc came out as a barbarian himself. :)
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

RIP Danny. :(

Fate is doing well, level 17 and resting in the Outer Cloister after clearing the Pit...and everything that came before it. She's hoping for a point in Blade Fury when she makes 18th. I'm not fond of martial arts, so of course she got several points in that tree. She has normal attack on left-click (2 wrist blades: a leecher and a fairly good rare) and blade sentinel (2 points) on right-click. This is an effective combination, especially with the 20 poison/2 sec jewel set in her studded leather armor. On switch she has a 3-gem hunter's bow for things she'd rather not get close to. And now, back to the monastery...

Fate, Assassin, level 17, Outer Cloister
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Sorry, not a story person.

So I had trouble with my necro's name so he's named MustNotBeNamed. I just finished off Andy at level 20 (getting close to 21). Nothing too exciting yet, though a drop of Death's Hand (50 Poison res and -75% poison length) in the catacombs was very timely, though most of the time the rares I had on were better. Andy also dropped me a Topaz, that will probably be put in a new bow for my merc.

Beyond that, I've been reasonably lucky with the basic making of a summoner. Though I'm really missing some curses and CE.

Here are the stats:

Str 42
Dex 47
Vit 37
Eng 49

Skel Mastery 5
Raise Skeleton 2
Clay Golem 3
Raise Skelli Mage 3
Teeth 3
Bone Armor 3
Dim Vision 1

[highlight]MustNotBeNamed, Necro level 20 in Lut Gholiem[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Amp has slogged his way through Act I Normal. I think I’m having as much trouble with him as I do with some characters in Act I Hell! Usually by the end of Act I a character will start to take shape, but that will never happen with this guy…

The rolls haven’t been so bad, all things considered. His points haven’t all been dumped into energy and Arctic Blast. We’re definitely feeling the lack of a merc, though. Without a developed primary skill my usual technique would be to hang back and let the merc tank. That will have to wait until Act IV for Amp. (@Merlin, sorry to hear you’ll be in the same boat.)

Based on what we’ve got to work with in the meantime, I’ve been summoning everyone we can and keeping him in wolf form to attack. That is working OK, but he really needs a better weapon. Right now he has a scepter with ctc Amp Damage and +damage. I’m waiting for the cube to maybe roll some poleaxes. Off we go into the desert!

point breakdown:
STR 41
DEX 43
VIT 50
NRG 41

Firestorm 3
Arctic blast 2
Werewolf 4
Lyncanthropy 2
Werebear 1
Maul 1
Raven 3
Poison creeper 2
Spirit wolf 2
[highlight] Amp the druid, clvl 20, Lut Gholein[/highlight]
 
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