Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Hmm, feels weird not to have an active tournament character at the moment. Guess I'll just enter a random tournament... Seems like this one fits the bill ;)

So, lets get the dice (aka random.org) rolling:
  • 7 = Druid (I went by the character creation screen from left to right)
  • 1 = Rogue Merc
  • 2 = Cold
Interesting. *wanders off to decide on when to spend skill points*

[highlight]Outlier, the Druid and ?, the Cold Rogue, level 1, Rogue Encampment[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

jiansonz said:
At least you have BoS, TS/Tail and DF.

Are you using MA skills with a claw, or are you using a 'Steel' Flail, javelins or a bow at the moment?

Hang in there and help Aliza as much as you can. I think the real crunch time for you will be Act IV. If you can get through that, the quick levelling in Act V will probably give you some key skills. Also, Hand Scythes are qlvl 41, btw. That´s good to know in that act. I know it was for my assassin in the Skill-less tourney...
Click to expand...

Jian to the rescue!

I've been considering making 2 'Steel' Claws, if I get another point in claw block. For now though, I've been using a claw/rare large shield combo.

Right now Tail isn't very strong because I'm using some Boots of Fortune...perhaps my new plan will be to switch to some better-damaging MF boots and make a 'Steel' Flail for charging TS. Or maybe I should put 'Steel' in some Blade Talons, since that will be almost as good as the Flail and will leave options open in case I get another point in Claw Block.

Sorry, but I don't know the significance of Hand Scythes being qlvl 41. Can you explain? Hand Scythes are the first claws that can have skills on them, correct? Can Hratli or Jamella sell them? Or are you saying I should gamble a pair, then reroll them? I'm guessing I can't gamble them until -- theoretically -- level 37 (although it would be much more practical at level 41). Which means I won't be getting 'em in A4.



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Ah Wakiki.

"Steel" can only be made in 2 Socket Swords/Axes/Maces. It therefore cannot be made in Claws!

Just thought i let you know before you went ahead with it lol.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Oops! Got it mixed up with 'Malice.' Thankfully, I hadn't done it yet. :) Thanks.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

wakiki said:
Sorry, but I don't know the significance of Hand Scythes being qlvl 41. Can you explain? Hand Scythes are the first claws that can have skills on them, correct?
Click to expand...

Exactly. Staffmods will allow you to use skills you haven´t rolled yet.

No vendor in Normal will ever sell an exceptional item (even if he ilvl would otherwise allow it), so gambling is indeed the way to get it. Rerolling with chippies would make the level 18 skills tier the most common one (half of all the staffmods will be from this) 20% of them will be level 12 skills and 20% of them will be level 24 skills, so you should be able to get CoS or MB in not too many rerolls.

My skill-less assassin had a dual-claw weapon switch with BoS and CoS on one claw and Death Sentry on the other. Main switch was Langer Briser unique Arbalest. The KB combined with CoS was enough crowd control to progress, and the OW and decent damage added to our damage output. The rogue still did the most damage (until DS started to rule in low players setting on Hell difficulty).



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I got started with Outlier, the druid. He has just cleared the Dark Wood and Tristram and will continue in the Black Marsh next time.
After a pitched battle against Blood Raven his companion Klaudia, the Cold Rogue, has joined the merry party. Outlier has quite a huge entourage by now. Not much too report otherwise. Both Outlier and Klaudia are bravely plucking away at the enemies with gemmed Hunter's Bows. No finds of notice yet, 3 chipped Topazes so far. Stats/skills (random.org is really handy):
Code: 
Stats:
1	4	1	2	3	2
3	4	3	3	3	
1	3	4	3	2	
1	4	1	4	3	5
2	2	2	4	1	
1	4	1	4	4	
3	2	4	3	2	
1	1	3	2	2	
2	4	3	4	4	10
4	2	4	3	4	
3	1	3	4	1	
3	3	1	4	1	
1	3	3	4	2	
2	4	4	2	4	15	


Skills:
oak - raven - wbear - arctic - fire - raven (6+den)
swolf - wwolf - swolf - wwolf - oak - pois (12)
wbear - raven - fire

Definite trend towards Summons, pretty even stat distribution (15-14-19-22).

[highlight]Outlier, the Druid, and Klaudia, Cold Rogue, level 15, Black Marsh[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

after dieing once to the certain death tourney, i needed a break this one i will give a go.

rolled a 1, 1 and 1 again

Amazon,
rogue merc
cold i would assume comes before fire.

starting 5 stats i got were 1 3 4 4 3... so no dexterity at all right now.. and i rolled a 4 out of the 5 talents for the first talent, so i have 1 point in magic arrow to start off.

numbers lvl 2 blood moor.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

First tournament character, and this seems like a nice challenge. I'm sure I'll be frustrated with my luck soon :P So without further ado, I present Fluke, the Barbarian. He'll be accompanied by an Act 1 Cold merc, so far this seems rather doable :)

Fluke is currently level 6, just finished the Den quest, skills are 1 in Find Potion, Sword, Axe and Spear Mastery, and 2 in Bash. Stats have been favoring vitality so far (5-6-9-5)

Fluke the Barbarian, Level 6, Cold Plains
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Joining a bit late, but oh well.
I rolled a Necromancer.. Defiance merc.

Level 13 atm, moving in the tunnel towards Dark Wood..

Stats have been pretty spread out... mostly going towards dex/energy though.

Skills.. awesome..
So far I've been given:
3 Dim vision

1 Teeth
1 Poison Dagger
3 Bone Armor

1 Skeleton Mastery
2 Raise Skeleton
1 Clay Golem
1 Golem Mastery..

= :D

Found 2 20 poison dmg jewels early, 1 with AR... threw them both in my armor.. so my wand is doing 50-59 dmg atm.
Wand = 1 raise skeleton, 1 skeleton mastery
Shield = 1 skeleton Mastery, 2 bone armor.

Going well so far, still waiting for a rune to drop so I can see if this RRM worked... I guess countess will let me know.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Nice to see some new entrants. :thumbsup:
Good luck to all of you! @Darker: That´s a cool setup, with a "poisonous" wand. :D



The forest areas in Act III are conquered, and I was lucky to not meet any Gloams there (although there were some in Swampy Pit). Progress is generally safe and fast. As I said before, this is because of the excellent gear my merc has, the sturdy golem, the Revives and CE.

There hasn´t been any real hiccups in the act so far, but I am getting to the temples now. I think I´ll enter them at /p1, buffed with thawing potions and with some antidotes in inventory (in case there are spiders).

Very close to a level-up now. I think I will have this one and at most two more before the game is over.


[Highlight]Conqueror Pete the Necromancer and Drus the Barbarian merc, level 84, Hell Kurast Bazaar next. [/Highlight]




I am not going to play much D2 the next couple of weeks, because I have just found out that a group of skillful and dedicated people have majorly updated and improved one of my most beloved games, the old (or even ancient, in computer terms) MicroProse game Magic the Gathering. As one who was unfamiliar with anything past 4th edition and the cards that were in old ManaLink v1.32, I am very excited. So many new cards and rules/keywords to take in!

(It´s 'abandonware' these days, and can be found here. Recommended for anyone who likes MtG.)
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Yes, the poison wand worked well for a while... but ended up using throwing knives to be safer :P

Countess was kind enough to drop me an El rune..

So I worked my way up towards Andariel.. nothing notable dropped, killed andariel fairly easily on /p8.. Cast golem - Throw a few knives - Recast golem. A few junk rares + cleg gloves..

I'm now up to the canyon in A2. I got my merc and switched back to a wand, letting him do all the killing..

Mercs gear:
Greyform
Random socketed helm for dex
80ED battle scythe (Also cubed a 75 ED partizan for when he has enough str/dex)

I'm mainly geared towards MF gear, now switching for more life and resistance..


Stats are still pretty balanced..
Skills have been fairly good, still no amp :( so no hope for decrep yet.
But clay golem + golem mastery have gotten a fair few points, so he's a bit of a tank. I don't even bother to cast skeletons anymore, they die too fast.

Time to go kill duriel.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

As I know how much everyone just LOVES resurrected threads, here I am joining in the minute (more accurately, the year) after the last.

Actually, I began playing a while ago, so Vasile, the paladin with a Prayer merc as help, is now in Act V. Of course, you, my eager listeners, await tales of this adventure.

Like most people, Vasile had much luck and few misfortunes, and, as most people, he feels unappreciative. At the age of 40, many skill points are in Resist Fire, Sacrifice, some in Zeal, Thorns, Prayer, Might, Conversion and a few in Resist Cold, Lightning, Smite, Blessed Aim, Vengeance, Concentration. Stat points have gone quite evenly in Str, Vit and Dex, with Energy a little less (but catching up of late).


Item-wise, Vasile keeps (inspired by jiansonz) an assorted collection of wands with curse charges, a Nadir helm (easily overlooked and very important, I always keep a Nef close in case the charges finish abruptly). An important item was found quite soon in Act V. A Shael rune dropped from an Imp-like creature, and a little further along a Sol. A Rhyme was soon formed, fact that almost lead to Vasile's demise as he approached in a rather jovial manner a boss-pack of Holy Freeze frenzy-dudes. For now, I treasure the Sol, ploting a way to maximize its effect.

I'll keep a log in this thread from now on (as Vasile reached pretty far for my standards), to keep track of important events in Vasile's life.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Vasile is now Destroyer. Baal and his minions were approached on /players 3 and dropped nothing of interest. The imps scattered through Act V have been generous rune-wise. All that trouble killing every single one of them netted me: A Shael and a Sol (as stated in the above post) and further along an Amn. I will probably use it to upgrade some enhanced dmg rare pike if I manage to gamble a decent one.

These are the current stats for Vasile (lvl 47):
Str 90
Dex 82 (90)
Vit 83
En 65

Skills:
-defensive:
Prayer 4
Cleansing 1
Resist Fire 5
Resist Cold 2
Resist Lightning 3
Salvation 2
-offensive:
Might 2
Blessed Aim 1
Concentration 1
Thorns 4
-combat:
Sacrifice 9 (a good synergy for Zeal which I mainly use)
Smite 2 (my skill of choice against difficult single monsters, combined with Blood Crescent as a weapon)
Holy Bolt 3
Zeal 4
Vengeance 3
Conversion 2

I would have a few points in Holy Shield also, as I will need the best blocking possible, but I'm missing 2 prerequisites so the chances are slim.

Equipment is not the best possible (not even for single pass). As armor Vasile still wears a ring mail with 3 chipped topazes. Topazes have been few in Normal, but Act 5 provided 2 gem shrines so I now have 3 PTopazes waiting for a decent armor. Another 2 PTopazes sit in a rare socketed Bone Helm on Vasile's head. The belt is a magic one with life, some MF rings and amulet (far from perfect) and also MF on boots and gloves. As weapon a rare war hammer with 2 sockets and +max dmg jewels. On switch: a wand (situation dependent, mostly confuse) and a bone shield of deflecting. The merc equipment is laughable so I will only mention his weapon which is an ethereal unique poleaxe.

More to come from Nightmare which is currently visited on /p 5.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Well, a long time since my last post, but Vasile has been working thoroughly through Act I nightmare on /p 5 in the meantime. I began Act I in nightmare totally forgetting about the cows. After checking with the rules, I went back to them when I reached the Outer Cloister WP.

My style of play changed significantly in NM. I used to charge into the fight zealing like crazy, but in more than a few situations the uninterruptable zealing almost killed Vasile. As I scored 3 points in Conversion I mainly use that against pack of monsters and Smite against single ones. As my main aura, 1-point Defiance, switching to Resists/Salvation if needed. With Blood Crescent, the speed of smite is quite good and the Open Wounds mod works wonders. I foresee a big problem with Physical resistant monsters as the Vengeance dmg with this weapon is puny. I lost my damage-weapon (a rare war hammer with two sockets and +max dmg jewels in it) by saving the game while it lay on the ground (stupid me, never play when tired). I'll just have to keep around a pike with lots of elemental dmg, but in Hell (if I survive that far), that won't suffice, methinks.

I've been hoping for a 3-socketed helm to drop, until I recently read on the forum that it can be bought from Larzuk in Act V Normal. Of course I've been checking his inventory every time I passed through town in Act V but never saw one. After I read about it, tough, I scored one on my second visit while cowing :). Put 3 PTopazes in it and threw it on the merc. Now I await that special 4-socketed armor to drop to finally get rid of the 3 chipped topazes ring mail I've been wearing all through Normal.

Item find-related, I found a lot of unique and set rings. All of them Cathans Seals (around 4 of them) and Manald Heals (about 3). Frustrating. But luck was eventually on my side as in a single session (from Baracks through Jail), 3 pieces of the Tancred Set dropped, including the amulet. The helmet does not add to much, but the weapon (together with the amy) is suitable. No OW, but fast, and the 78% MF bonus from the amulet is worth it as I don't do much damage anyway. I stashed the not so bad amulet with +15 resist all and 20%MF and use the Tancred combo instead. After that, I also found the Set and Unique Round Shields. Which are very good shields, but I'm sticking to my "Rhyme" for the moment. These are the stats if anyone cares (from Arreat Summit):

Whitstan's Guard
Round Shield
Defense: 154 (Base Defense: 47-55)
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 53
Durability: 64
Chance To Block: Pal: 97% Ama/Asn/Bar: 92% Dru/Nec/Sor: 87%
Paladin Smite Damage: 7 to 14
+175% Enhanced Defense
Half Freeze Duration
40% Faster Block Rate
+55% Increased Chance Of Blocking
+5 To Light Radius

Moser's Blessed Circle
Round Shield
Defense: 156-179 (varies)(Base Defense: 47-55)
Required Level: 31
Required Strength: 53
Chance to Block: Pal: 67%, Ama/Asn/Bar: 62%, Dru/Nec/Sor: 57%
Durability: 64
Paladin Smite Damage: 7 To 14
+180-220% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+25% Increased Chance of Blocking
30% Faster Block Rate
All Resistances +25
Socketed (2)

Both look very good, the set for its immense blocking, the unique for the sockets and other good mods, but CBF of the Rhyme is much better. If I can find this mod on something else, I might let go of the Rhyme and get one of this shields.

I also started a jiansonz-patented :) approach of exploiting most of the little drops I would normally ignore (like mana pots). Most of the gold went into gambling a better weapon for the merc, with little success. I wonder if its human nature to take joy/comfort in reaching your goals with as few resources as possible or is it character related. Judging by the success this tourney and others like it had in the past, it might be the former and that means our future as a species looks good.

The stats for Vasile were spread pretty even from my last post, with energy having a slight advantage. Skill-wise I scored my 10th (!) point in Sacrifice which is to much of a coincidence to ignore. Maybe random.org is sending subliminal messages to Vasile :). With that in mind (actually, is the fact that I don't always have internet access) I finally got off my butt and wrote a minuscule program to random stuff for me.

Ok, enough for today, I'm off to watch some more Soccer World Cup. We seem to have a nice game on.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Hello again,

Vasile has defeated Andariel. It was not an easy fight on /p3. Andariel kept going for the merc and he has low survivability. I kept the tancred weapon at first, but I had to switch to Blood Crescent for the Open Wounds. It was to slow for the merc to go alone. When Andariel reached a sliver of health I fled to town and switched gear for the MF. It was worth it as she dropped an unique arbalest, the sigon boots (I have the gloves) and the belt from arctic set. The arbalest is far from perfect (40% MF, good damage otherwise) but I ponder if it's an option later on, when the damage, open wounds, knockback and ranged attack are more important than blocking and CBF. I'll probably keep the shield though.

Langer Briser
Arbalest
Two-Hand Damage: 41 to 94
Required Dexterity: 61
Required Strength: 52
Required Level: 32
Crossbow Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xb9856e1a
+30 to Life
+197% Enhanced Damage
+14 to Maximum Damage
Adds 1-212 lightning damage
40% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Knockback
33% Chance of Open Wounds


As NDEs go, I had a few. Most due to those annoying shamans which keep getting me inside large mobs. One of them droppped a Hel, my highest rune up to now. I need a damage weapon to take out critical targets myself when the merc is distracted. Another NDE was during a fight with a cursing pack. I was running around converting strategic minions, when a few of them hit me simultaneously. Due to very low defense, I took a couple of hits. Being cursed, the red bulb disappeared. I was so shocked I forgot to drink a purple. It's very lucky that I managed to escape that.

I also upgraded a rare pike (159%ed) to a lance but it has little else. I'll use the socketing reward from Normal to put an Amn into it. I doubt Vasile will last enough to regret it.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Vasile has died. To the hands of Ancient Kaa. I decided to help the merc and smite the mummy. Next thing the life orb (full, a little shy of 600) was no more. I had the lightning resist aura on (79% resist) but the fire was -5%. After death I was able to see he was fire enchanted extra strong. Stupid of me to not check before hand. I believe it was an inevitable death. My style of play was careless enough to get me into a handful of NDEs. I hope I have learned my lesson, though. Next is a druid with a fire rogue as help. He's named George and is currently in Black Marsh.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I can´t abandon a character in my own tournament, right?

There has been some good progress for the mighty barbarian Drus and his pale-skinned sidekick, Pete the Necromancer. And we shouldn´t forget Mudpile the golem, of course. :badteeth:


Gameplay vs. boss packs usually comes down to one thing: safely getting that first corpse or two, either to blow up or to create an extra tank where it´s usually needed the most.

Chaotic fighting 1. This was actually a little complicated since the Sexton Champs kept healing each other. Recasting the golem next to the Ghostly one closest to Pete distracted it enough for the first Champ to fall. CE did most of the rest.

Chaotic Fighting 2 (Sarina´s pack).

Here, the stupid merc is staring at the river hydra, doing nothing to fight that pretty darn dangerous Horadrim Ancient. It´s for these situations I have Riphook on the weapon switch. An abysmal 885 AR makes it pretty boring to use, though.

Usually when I play a city part that have temples, I prefer to do the temples last. Not with Pete - he enters them as soon as he has some good revives. A mild beetle stairs trap in Forgotten Temple was handled very well by my Thrasher buddies.

One of the coolest rare bows I´ve seen. If I was a twinking player, I´d have stashed it. I even considered using it (AR went up to 1100 when I held it) but I think I need the OW from Riphook more.

One of Revives' best features, IMO, is their scouting ability. Some monster types (skeletons especially) can sense enemies much further away than merc + golem can. It helps me decide where to go first, and when to be ready with a curse. Can you see my three snake scouts here? They were hanging around alongside that wall, which told me there are monsters in the room in that direction. BTW, those snakes are from Ruined Fane. Once I had defeated an early boss pack in that temple, I took three snake minions with me and entered the last temple. There were no monsters at all on the Causeway, and I didn´t want to go into the final temple with only merc + golem.

Here, Drus and the snakes went after some archers, leaving the whole beetle boss pack to the golem. The Revives blocked Drus from reaching the archers, so this could easily develop into something dangerous. I pulled back a bit and the merc followed. This caused him to take on the beetles instead. Worked out fine from there.

Another level-up (that does not happen often anymore). Skill point went to...Poison Dagger! :rolleyes:
Well, I am pretty much set for the endgame anyway. Most likely, there are four more skill points coming if I make it the whole way.

Stat points rolled better: 4 out of 10 to Vitalily. Pete has 1018 life now.


[Highlight]Conqueror Pete the Necromancer and Drus the Barbarian merc, level 85, Hell Travincal next[/Highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Nice work Jiansonz, I didn't even know that this tourney existed. Kinda sad that no one finished it (I didn't read but the last few pages, but I didn't see any Guardians), so I hope you can do it. I like not having to make any decisions on where to put points, I often agonize over that stuff. I would have really loved to give this one a shot, but I'm sure it was really tough, there had to be some really crippled Characters out there.
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

kestegs said:
I would have really loved to give this one a shot, but I'm sure it was really tough, there had to be some really crippled Characters out there.
Click to expand...

If you don´t think you are spreading yourself too thin, why not give it a go!? :crazyeyes:


Yes, I very much thank my good luck for rolling a potentially great char + merc combo. I think the hardest possible you can get is Druid + Act III Fire merc.



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

I'm tempted to do this now. I remember we did some crazy tourney a few years back, and I had to play a druid that could only use 2h swords or something.
 
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