Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Randi_TrueBlood, level 27, got hosed down by Diablo's Lightning. I thought I dodged it, but it turns out the mouse didn't move, and she ran straight into it. I'm not too disappointed; she was going to be very tough, and it didn't look like she was going to get a Valkyrie/tank any time soon. Best of luck all!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Barbalala defeated Diablo in Normal!

With a little help from my friend, though: He's called Telash, is a Lightning sorcerer, and I like his name because it almost sounds like Tesla...well, not quite, but...you know, almost :wink:

(n. b.: Screenshots will follow - not able to upload at work).

Made a lot of screenshots, but to make things short: I found just the right Gloves for my Arctic Binding to get the 40% MF. Oh, and you remember the +12 to all Resists GC I found in Act 1? Guessed what dropped in Act 3: A GC with +11 to all Resists :yikes:

One scary moment with the Ghoul Lord pack behind Mephisto after I killed him, but else the character was pretty safe, esp. since getting a point in Shadow Warrior and then Shadow Master.

Izual took ages to defeat, as did Diablo (he instantly killed my Shadow Master as soon as I cast him - every time) because I didn't doc much damage (swinging Angelic Sickle...if you're asking yourself why: because I got the whole set! That's right, resists, MF, AR...everything one could want, except for damage. But since I use Phoenix Strike and Wake of Fire most of the time anyways, that's not too bad).

Stats (without equipment):
Strength: 66
Dexterity: 66
Vitality: 66
Energy: 62

Skills:
Fire Blast: 6/7
Shock Web: 2/3
Blade Sentinel: 0/0
Charged Bolt Sentry: 2/3
Wake of Fire: 7/8
Blade Fury: 0/0
Lightning Sentry: 0/0
Wake of Inferno: 1/2
Death Sentry: 0/0
Blade Shield: 0/0

Claw Mastery: 3/4
Psychic Hammer: 1/2
Burst of Speed: 4/5
Weapon Block: 1/2
Cloak of Shadows: 1/2
Fade: 2/3
Shadow Warrior: 1/2
Mind Blast: 0/0
Venom: 0/0
Shadow Master: 1/2

Tiger Strike: 1/2
Dragon Talon: 0/0
Fists of Fire: 1/2
Dragon Claw: 0/0
Cobra Strike: 1/2
Claws of Thunder: 1/2
Dragon Tail: 0/0
Blades of Ice: 1/2
Dragon Flight: 0/0
Phoenix Strike: 1/2

So far, I avoided the Finisher-branch of the MA tree, which is probably a good thing. Too bad I didn't get Death Sentry yet, either (but 7 points in Wake of Fire :p).

[highlight]Barbalala, Level 35 Assassin, and Telash, the Lightning Sorcerer, Normal Harrogath next.[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Quick update, killed Meph, dropped his usual junk, as did the monsters in act 3. I need to start getting some more strength so I can equip a better weapon, but I always get stuck with points in energy...

Still using Blade Fury, and it looks like that's what I'll be using the rest of the game. Might be able to do act 4 tonight, have to see.

[highlight]Haphazard, level 31 Assassin, Pand Fort[/highlight]
 
The Life of Brian, continued

Brian is now a Destroyer. :alright:

As I didn´t manage to improve Ithera´s bow for a long time, progress was really slow in Act IV and in some parts of early Act V (/p8 Venom Lords, Crush Beasts and Frozen Horrors have a LOT of hit points).

Diablo was taken down with javelins and lots of running. I had a teleport staff on switch, in case D would Bone Prison me. He never did, though.

About halfway through Act V, a 3s Cedar Bow dropped. I thought about installing RWM and making Edge in this bow (for Ithera, and I could borrow it when gambling). But I decided against it. The big damage vs demons/undead will only be added to the Might ED, not multiplied. I made the bow into an 'IthIthIth' Cedar Bow instead.

About 2/3 into the act, Ithera´s bow was switched for a Zephyr Cedar Bow. Less damage, but far speedier. Also, the FRW made it easier to fight monsters we needed to repeatedly retreat from.

Brian´s main weapons are Civerb´s Cudgel and Savage Throwing Spear of Vileness. Lister wasn´t too bad to fight now that I could stop his regeneration. Got him and two minions with XP shrine bonus.

Might is now level 11. Brian has also rolled two great skill additions: Redemption and (finally, at level 48!) Smite. /p3 Baal was taken down with Smite, holding Crushflange and having Holy Freeze on. The slowing didn´t stop him from casting spells, but it did stop him from teleporting.

At level 49, I gambled about a million in gold, trying to get a better bow for Ithera. Ended up with a +110% ED, +5 max. damage Double Bow. Kind of a crappy result after so many gambling attempts. Ferocious goes up to +200%, and I have another 'rare upgrading kit' available, so I am going to keep trying to gamble something in the high hundreds. Or if I find a Sol rune I can upgrade a Hellclap to Rune Bow which would be a small improvement.

Strange rune luck in late Normal: I found Amn x2, Shael x2 and Dol x4 but no Sol rune...


Major treasure hunt has only just started. Two perfect topazes at work now. I hope to be able to add 12 more before all of Nightmare is over.


[Highlight]Destroyer Brian the confused Paladin and Ithera the Cold Rogue, level 49, NM Blood Moor next[/Highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Barbalala is now Destroyer! And already moved on...

Act V took hours for me to complete, because the damage dealt was very insignificant...although I had some luck with the point distribution, as you can see:

Code:
Name:       Barbalala
Class:      Assassin
Experience: 41244501
Level:      48

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   84/84
Dexterity:  83/84
Vitality:   86/86
Energy:     72/72
HP:         358/509
Mana:       177/177
Stamina:    236/243
Defense:    20/347
AR:         100000379/100001288

Fire:       108/68/8
Cold:       98/58/-2
Lightning:  92/52/-8
Poison:     58/18/-42

MF:         236       Block:      46
GF:         60
FR/W:       0
FHR:        12
IAS:        30
FCR:        0

Fire Blast: 8/9
Shock Web: 2/3
Blade Sentinel: 0/0
Charged Bolt Sentry: 2/3
Wake of Fire: 9/10
Blade Fury: 0/0
Lightning Sentry: 1/2
Wake of Inferno: 2/3
Death Sentry: 0/0
Blade Shield: 0/0

Claw Mastery: 3/4
Psychic Hammer: 1/2
Burst of Speed: 4/5
Weapon Block: 2/3
Cloak of Shadows: 1/2
Fade: 2/3
Shadow Warrior: 1/2
Mind Blast: 1/2
Venom: 2/3
Shadow Master: 2/3

Tiger Strike: 1/2
Dragon Talon: 0/0
Fists of Fire: 1/2
Dragon Claw: 0/0
Cobra Strike: 1/2
Claws of Thunder: 1/2
Dragon Tail: 0/0
Blades of Ice: 2/3
Dragon Flight: 0/0
Phoenix Strike: 3/4

The WoF with some synergies is able to kill monsters - if spammed 50+ times. This plus Phoenix Strike/Venom was my main Attack, boosted by BoS, Shadow Master gave some more firepower and CoS and Mind Blast were used as main crowd control skills. I must look like a secretary playing that Assassin :rolleyes:

Anya gave me a rare claw I was using for the last part of Act V, but the damage output really isn't that great (base dmg 10-31, adds 14-45 cold damage, +120 AR, 20% IAS), so for some time I was using the unique sword Hellplague, but damage wasn't too good either. If I don't depend on physical damage too much, I use Angelic Sickle for the full set bonus (yes, I found all pieces...).

But even the partial set bonus from the Angelic set (Ring/Amulet/Armor) seems quite good to me. Also, I'm using the Arctic Belt and Gloves plus the bow on switch, which has a nice fire rate and decent damage, although I'm toying with the thought of making a Zephyr Cedar Bow.

The circlet is pretty sweet, after Larzuk put 2 OS in it:
Code:
Circlet of Luck 
Circlet 
Defense: 29 
Durability: 35 of 35 
Required Level: 19 
Fingerprint: 0xa7afba9b 
Item Level: 30 
Version: Expansion 1.10+ 
83% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items 2 Sockets (2 used) 
Socketed: Perfect Topaz 
Socketed: Perfect Topaz

And I gambled a Cunning Coronet (after using the Larzuk socket reward...), which might be end-game stuff, depending on how much points I will get in the trap skill tree. Shield is a "Rhyme" Bone Shield, might make "Splendor" later if I'm depending on more +skills (And if find the runes for it...).

The lightning merc is pretty crappy, and I'm still waiting for a 4 OS sword to drop and make "Spirit", although I'm still missing the Amn, found 2xShael, 1xSol and 1xIo though.

Other than that, my only hope of killing bosses from now on is probably to make A "Strenth" claw or two...

[highlight]Barbalala, the Random Assassin, and Telash, the Lightning Mage, level 48, NM Stony Fields next[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Well, [highlight]Barbalala the random Assassin, level 54, died...[/highlight]

Only made it till Act 2 NM, and it was a pretty safe, albeit slow journey. Had lots of skills for crowd control, but not much damaging attacks and an Act III Lightning merc isn't exactly a powerhouse either :rolleyes:

Anyways, but then I faced Radament - his minions were no problem at all, but I got hit once by one of his shot for 40% of my HP and was thinking "whoops - I have to be careful", and by then the Poison Damage (yeah, my posion resist was pretty bad, because I forgot to gulp some Antidotes before...beginner's mistake...) already got me down to 1 HP. Trying to frantically press the Full Rejuv key, I was too slow as one revived skeleton mage hit me with a pretty weak ice blast...but since I only had 1 HP left...

Well, I'm pretty angry at me for forgetting the Antidotes ... and I thought I shattered all mage corpses with Blades of Ice, but apparently I was wrong on that one, too.

It was fun while it lastet, though! Although I doubt I will be starting another character in this tournament anytime soon - it's far too time consuming for me right now, and I still have some 5+ tourney characters to finish off... :rolleyes:

Good luck to those still participating!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

RandintII is lvl 24, up from lvl 13. Amazing progress for almost 4 months...
Blaze is used to kill melee attackers and Firewall roasts anyone that stays still.
There is something awesomely fun about drawing lines on the ground and killing monsters with them. The maggot lair was quite fun with Blaze in particular.

[highlight]RandintII, lvl 24 sorceress, Far Oasis[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

[highlight]Darwin, lvl 1 Druid, Rogue Encampment[/highlight]

Darwin will begin his cursed adventure on Easter Sunday. This tournament looks like a blast, and is one of the reasons I wanted to make a forum account.

Wish me LUCK!
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

My Paladin and his trusty sidekick Ithera are moving on in Act I Nightmare. The have now rescued Cain again.

Gameplay consists of Brian using Smite to keep enemies away from Ithera and himself, while Ithera guns down the enemies. That is often not enough crowd control (too short Smite stun duration) so we must often flee a bit, plus make good use of the terrain. For eample, Treehead was shot down from behind the cover of a fence.

I found a nice amulet in Tristram - Angelic Wings - so now Brian is using a 3-combo with Angelic Sickle, Wings and Halo. His MF improved by 4 units, and a lot of other nice mods were added. Lightning resistance went down to -1, though, so I need to be very careful around LE bosses and lightning spitters in particular.

Ithera has a slightly better bow* now. At first, I thought it was crap because it was only +56% ED (compared to 102% in the old bow, which was also a faster bow type) but then I noticed the decent +max damage, the lightning damage and the chance to take advantage of those sockets for something useful. After some quick calculations, I found out that it would be an improvement, and I invested the required runes. I can still make one more rare weapon upgrade but that will make me run out of Ral, Ort and Amn runes.

(* the item text is weird, both in game and in ATMA. Before I upgraded this bow, it had 'adds 2-17 damage', which should have read 'adds 2-26 damage' after I put the Ith in there. It works as it should, because a +56% ED, +9 max. Cedar Bow has only max. damage 54, so that +17 is still there somewhere. Weird, eh?...)


[Highlight]Brian the Might-Smite Paladin and Ithera the Cold Rogue, level 50, NM Black Marsh next.[/Highlight]
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Randurp the level 26 sorceress with Rozen the level 25 Rogue sitting in act 3 having just slain Duriel.


Wow I thought this was dead, but since it's alive I may as well post my progress.

Rolled Elemenalist with a cold merc at the start.
Kindof sucks without a tank but I figure it wont be so bad if I can manage to get glacial spike, teleport and some decent damage on my merc.

Glacial spike seemed pretty integral to the strategy though it looked a little scary hiding behind 2 prerequisites so I figured I would spend my skills based solely on acquiring it.

That means levels 1-5 spending skills only until I get a point in ice bolt then saving until level 6 and then only spending points until I get ice blast and then once again saving until 18 at which point I splurge, hopefully getting glacial spike.

That went to hell however as I didn't get ice blast until lvl 26. :P

The start was EXTREMELY rough.
I couldn't kill blood raven on players 8 the first time we fought so I had to go level in the stony field. I came back with frost nova and an ethereal spiked club which worked fine, albeit swtill very slowly. That would become a major theme in this run so far. Slowly. Everything dies damn slowly.

After I got my rogue things went ok in act 1, frost nova and my rogue handily dealing with everything fairly easily.

Act 2 was terrible. My stat points went full retard leveling fire bolt, charged bolt and ice bolt but refusing to give me glacial spike or static field although I did get teleport just before the claw viper temple (thank god) and the RNG was nice enough to give me 3 points in fireball supplemented by 2 in firebolt. Throw in my newly made leaf staff (giving +5 fireball) and I have atleast moderate killing power.

I was worried about Duriel but he was super easy and I only needed to throw my merc at him twice before finishing him on the third trip in. A static field staff helped immensely, covering my back nicely for the little bit of RNG screwage although I would like to get a hard skill point in it sooner then later.

skills at the moment:

ice skills, total: 7
4 ice bolt (+1) (ugh)
2 frozen armor
1 frost nova
1 ice blast

lightening skills, total: 10
2 charged bolt
2 telekenesis
2 lightning
2 chain lightning
1 teleport
1 mana shield (makes use of that chain lightning and telekenesis I guess..)

fire skill, total: 9 (+3 all fire skills)
2 fire bolt (+3)
2 warmth (+4)
2 inferno (+3)
3 fireball (+2)

stats: 48/55/39/63
RNG seems to want to give me a tonne of dex and energy

The energy and super high level of warmth is pretty good right now letting me spam teleports and fireballs, but the lack of vit is going to hurt later.
I also have a 2 socket recurve bow and an eth rune, just waiting on an Ort to make a Zephyr.

items: nothing worth noting except my leaf staff (base +2 fireball, +1 ice bolt and +1 warmth) as well as some charms for resistances

EDIT: Deeds. Teleported into a huge group of champion shamans and took 3 champion infernos to the face along with a good 30 blowgun shots. Owch.

Enter GoldNGlory a random wikipedia page... errr I mean my new druid. Also with an act 1 ice merc.
I foresee some difficulties with the fact that elemental and SS trees totally don't supplement each other at all and once again my damage will be terrible but I won't have be able to kill myself with teleport this time so maybe I'll get a bit further.
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

[highlight]RIP Darwin, lvl 14 Druid, Dark Wood[/highlight]

Heavy stroke of unluck, and I have a deeds on my hands. I was fighting Treehead Woodfist, not really paying all that much attention, and I proceeded to brush my finger over the screen sleep button when i went to adjust my screen angle. So i was sitting there watching a black screen as my computer went into sleep mode, knowing I was dying and could do nothing about it. I even hit the esc button but it didnt help :(

Heavily embarrassing, so I may have to start another character just to redeem myself.

[highlight]Pseudia, lvl 1 Sorceress, Rogue Encampment[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

[highlight]GoldNGlory the level 28 poison creeper/fissure Druid and Tylena the cold arrow Rogue mercenary, lower Kurast[/highlight]

atm I'm spamming a level 5 (+2 off my helm) fissure with 4 points in synergies, but the RNG has decided I don't get a heart of oak so I'm running with spirit wolves for now.

Duriel was annoying and took a while, but he went down after a steady volley from Tylena and about 200 sacrificed spirit wolves.

Fighting through act 3 right now, really hoping I get point i oak so I can maybe eventually get a grizzly.

Also does anyone know the earliest +grizzly will spawn on a druid hat?
I'm probably going to start full clearing at that point caus goddamn do I need a grizzly for bosses.
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Also does anyone know the earliest +grizzly will spawn on a druid hat?
I'm probably going to start full clearing at that point caus goddamn do I need a grizzly for bosses.

You need ilvl 37 or higher on the hat - so it´s possible in very late Normal. Worldstone Keep or so.

Also, I think Diablo is level 40, so there´s probably the first chance.



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

haha well ****
I'm nearing Diablo right now and have no idea how the hell I'm going to fight him.
Probably just over level and go into bear form but that fight will last ages :X
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

haha well ****
I'm nearing Diablo right now and have no idea how the hell I'm going to fight him.
Probably just over level and go into bear form but that fight will last ages :X

I´d get some decent Faster Run, move around a lot and use Fissure on him.

On the switch, I would get a staff with Teleport charges, to use in case he Bone Prisons you.



 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Is it weird that after 10 years diablo has NEVER bone prisoned me once?

I agree that fissure should work well, he only has 33% resist to fire...go figure, and if you keep a wolf on him then he should be happy to focus on it. I generally try to avoid melee with normal diablo, especially with something as slow as a bear, but it could still work. Get max fire/light resist if at all possible is my best advice. And yes, Diablo is level 40. Good luck!

Edit: 10 min later he prisoned me 3 times :rolleyes:
 
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Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

So this tournament looked really fun and I decided to join. After a couple of random rolls Billy the necromancer was born and if he makes it far enough he will be joined by an act 2 holy freeze friend.

Made it past blood raven and currently level 10. Put way too many points into dex at this point and not enough into vitality. As well the random number seems to like having me pump teeth (3 points) with only recently giving me one point in the curse tree (amp damage). Play so far has been me having my minions in front of me, casting amp and then using my socketed spear to kill, slow but safe and effective.

[highlight]Billy, Level 10 Necromancer, Cold Plains[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

After about an hour of dueling Diablo, all was going well until I came through a town portal to meet an instant lightning hose which took me from full to 0. I didn't even have cyclone armor up that time... Real nooby :P

[highlight]R.I.P. GoldNGlory

Enter uofalberta, level 1 Barbarian and soon to be blessed aim companion, Rogue encampment[/highlight]
 
Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II

Brian and Ithera are now in Lut Gholein again.

Gameplay over the last areas has been slow but not too dangerous. Larger packs with fast meleers give us trouble (not enough time to Smite all of them into submission), causing some retreats to more strategic positions.

All Fallen warriors get lured far away from their Shaman masters, killed and Redeemed so they can´t be resurrected. I think the concept of Redemption is cool: "If you give me some life and mana, you´ll be forgiven for past misdeeds and can rest in peace". Heh.

Skill points have lately been going to useless crap like Sacrifice and Prayer.

I have gambled a Long Battle Bow that (if I upgrade it) will do more damage per hit than Ithera´s current bow. It also has some good poison- and lightning damage. But I want to gamble up the gold I collected in the last session (to see if anything better comes up) and I also need to think one more time if this bow is worth spending the only upgrade supplies I currently have.

Very crappy topaz luck - only one Artisan´s Great Helm is filled with perfect topazes this far. Both our armors are mainly with flawed topazas, and Ithera still has her Circlet of Luck she´s worn for a long time now.

I found two more green rings, but they were unfortunately both Cathan´s. Another Angelic´s would have boosted my MF by 24 units.

I made a 'Black' Flail for the Andariel fight (had to cube six Dol runes and my only Hel to get the Io rune). While not as effective on /p8 as it is on lower settings, the big Crushing Blow made this fight pretty quick nonetheless. Lots of rejuves, antidotes and healing potions were drunk in the fight, to keep it from becoming dangerous. I´ll keep this weapon in the stash for the next leg, so I can use it against Radament.


[Highlight]Brian the Might-Smite Paladin and Ithera the Cold Rogue, level 52, NM Sewers next.[/Highlight]
 
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