All Alone Tournament III

[OldSoldier]

The poleaxe adds (right now) about 1000 AR, which helps a lot in hitting stuff. That's my only option at this point because it's getting harder to hit things with crappy dex. My block % is at about 10%! The plan right now anyway is to keep some low damage, slow monsters around in each act or area, and make a valk. I know it's pretty diffficult, but I did like that valk with Princess Diana. The bone armor will help tremendously while trying to get the valk to show up. Once I get myself situated with tanks, It'll be bone spear all the way. If my plan is foolish I'll know about it the first couple of times I try and maybe then I'll end up spending points in clay golem. No harm trying it, right? I haven't made a bone necro since before LOD. I'm also holding off on revives right now, focusing on the bone spells. If the valk thing doesn't work then I'll likely spend a few points to get it, but a few points is a lot that I will only spend if I have to. In the meantime, he made it to the cold plains to rest for the night. I have a +2 bone spear bone wand, now I have to socket and find the right runes. (I realize this is also a long shot)

[OldSoldier]

Scunion has gone a bit farther in the last few days. A dark one in the catacombs dropped a ko rune, which I thought was pretty funny since that is the only one higher than a Shael that he's found, and it was the one rune that Princess_Diana so desperately needed. Maybe I'll just forego an Insight and make the Harmony anyway, just as a tribute to long lost characters. I found a sol as well, so only the 4-socket weapon remains... I'm sure that an unsynergized low level valk would last far longer than a level 2 clay golem anyway. That thing vaporizes nearly instantly now.

In the last level of the catacombs, a zombie boss in the foyer before Andariel's room dropped the unique sallet Rockstopper. Strangely enough, my barbarian throwing tourney character also has found that helm. It'll be great for hell difficulty with the triple resists, vitality and 10% damage reduction.

When things get tough I use a new toy, a +2 revive rare necro head. It came in very handy against Andariel, as they actually tanked for a few seconds while I pummeled her with level 22 bone spears. She dropped garbage and I moved on.

Sewers were not tough- my MO is to move forward until contact, then retreat and block the corridor with either summons or a wall, which often the enemy are not smart enough to simply walk around to chase me. In the meantime they get a steady diet of piercing bone. In unraveler areas I move much more slowly, stopping to mop up all undead creatures with corpse explosion. I should probably use poison explosion since it is cheaper but I have plenty of mana right now to sustain combat for about 20 seconds.

In the halls of the dead, really just there to collect drops, I found a crystal sword on the ground. Usually I would not even pick it up but for some reason I decided to try, and it spawned with 4 sockets. I ditched the fools poleaxe and now I am on the prowl for an ort and an amn (already have the tal and thul). My boots finally broke as well, but I am wearing them anyway because when I finally find a ral I'll get the use back and they're really end game boots, with FRW, triple resists and MF. Right now I am running around 100% MF.

He's currently stopped at the dry hills WP, level 54. Maxed bone spear and bone wall, just started working on bone prison. Bone armor has far more HP than my character's life bulb. I'll try to make it out of the desert tonight, we'll see how well he holds up. So far so good though, he did have to defeat all of the rocky waste's uniques (three or four) and a champion pack of slingers right when leaving the gates to Lut Gholein, all within probably 20 steps. That was fun without using any AI curses!

[crazy_bear]

Unfortunately, I am abandoning Vink. Back to school in the fall, just not enough time to play for the extended times demanded by this tourney.:sad2:

Good luck to you OldSoldier, and any others still going.

Great tourney Skoolbus, I look forward to your next challenge!:thumbsup:

CB

[skoolbus]

Unfortunately, I am abandoning Vink. Back to school in the fall, just not enough time to play for the extended times demanded by this tourney.:sad2:

Good luck to you OldSoldier, and any others still going.

Great tourney Skoolbus, I look forward to your next challenge!:thumbsup:

CB

I'm in pretty much the same boat, I can't ever seem to find two hours of free time not better spent studying or doing something else, but I'm still hoping.

[OldSoldier]

Sorry to hear folks bailing out. I pretty much play WP to WP as my only concern. Speaking of which, I got to the Far Oasis and cleared out the maggot lair on Thursday. That was painful as I thought I'd be sneaky and block off side walls with bone walls. Well, that works well until the timer expires (sometimes when I leave an area and come back it's still there minutes later, but sometimes not) and then all of the monsters decide to follow me. There was one time in the 3rd level of the maggot lair where I'd trapped myself, even after killing dozens upon dozens of beetles. I put up a flanker revive on both sides and spammed bone spear as fast as possible. Used up all potions in my belt, which was down to 1 durability, except for two mana potions. I used my only Tal trying to craft a belt out of my 1 durability demonhide sash, but it only got the fixed mods (bottom of the barrel on all of them) and some extra poison resist as the random mod. It could possibly be the worst craft in the history of D2, which I thought was great in a resources-constrained game like this. I'll pull stats if I don't find a better one when/if I pass the 1/2 point of the game. Who knows how far we'll get, this character is very very fragile. Next stop is the lost city and ancient tunnels (I'll do that at P3 to keep the pace going).

[wakiki]

Wow...This tournament idea fascinates me, because I spend so much time building my character shopping and using NPCs. I think I'll join it... I may have to quit pretty quickly though if I break too many rules! :P

Last day of the tournament, just managed to squeeze in. I went back and grabbed the most recent table.


Alive Characters
Forum Name Character Build Class LVL ACT WP
Insane Wayne Asteria CS Amazon 83 A5 Hell Drifter Cavern
skoolbus OneFingaPushup Trapper Assassin 69 A1 Hell Rouge Camp
SinningThings Rapunzel Trapsin Assassin 51 A2 NM Lut Gholein
Fingerzam Happiness TS/DTail Assassin 47 A1 NM Roque Camp
Breaker Nosiop Poison Necromancer 36 A5 Norm Frigid Highlands
Chern All_Alone Summoner Druid 33 A4 Norm River of Flame
Zodwizard HC_Rainwalker Fire-Hunter Druid 29 A4 Norm Pand Fortress
Anraxas To_easy Summoner necro 28 A3 Norm Kurast Docks
WestXylophone SoloFirer HolyFire Paladin 26 A3 Norm Kurast Docks
stephan Louise Assassin 23 A3 Norm Kurast Docks
Silverslasher Forlorn fire/summon Druid 28 A3 Norm Kurast Docks
Cygnus Lycus Hammers Paladin 25 A2 Norm Harem
Butzull Silencia Amazon 24 A2 Norm Lost City
Friiser HCAll_Alone Summoner Necro 22 A2 Norm Far Oasis
Docturnal Angriez Fishyzon Zon 21 A2 Norm Rocky Waste
Ron Bamboozle Passive Amazon 17 A2 Norm Sewers Level 2
San Sigrdrifa PsnJava/MA Zon 21 A2 Norm Lut Gholein
thewamp Athena PJ/FA Amazon 20 A2 Norm Lut Gholein
Tweety Remi Boner Necromancer 19 A2 Norm Lut Gholein
Brak Tojolobal Quesodin Paladin 19 A2 Norm Lut Gholein
Ohomemgrande Lonely Trapper Assassin 19 A2 Norm Lut Gholein
tripsu InsaneEnvy Amazon 18 A2 Norm Lut Gholein
Credge YinMKII -- Necro 17 A1 Norm Jail Level 1
Hoop76 Lone_Ranger Paladin 15 A1 Norm Outer Cloister
ZeN DieAlone Fishy Necro 14 A1 Norm Outer Cloister
GreyEagle LoneEagle Trapper Assassin 17 A1 Norm Tamoe Highlands
mjosh Electrolyte light sorc Sorceress 15 A1 Norm Black Marsh
Feared April_Ethereal Summoner Necro ? A1 Norm Black Marsh
Elendoras TheBarbWhoCould Barbarian 14 A1 Norm Dark Wood
Farfus Farfus Healbot Paladin 12 A1 Norm Stony Field
FromBeyond HesHardcore Barbarian 11 A1 Norm Stony Field
SonOfBaal IHateYouAll Trap/Summon Assassin 11 A1 Norm Stony Field
Quickdeath Eve Cold Sorceress 10 A1 Norm Stony Field
Sindus LonelyMaiden Enchantress Sorc 7 A1 Norm Stony Field
Chizz Trapper ? Assassin 6 A1 Norm Stony Field
AlienBoyz DocWho Summoner Necro 12 A1 Norm Cold Plains
Chymaera Marius II BlizBolt Sorceress 10 A1 Norm Cold Plain
Liquidcore ThaDru Wind/fire Druid 6 A1 Norm Cold Plains
Vang WirtsOldMan Barbarian 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
rY xD Illidan Berzerker Barbarian 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
adny Scorch Hydrasorc Sorceress 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
Gabriel74 Smelly Lightning Sorceress 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
Retawd Sinistral -- Assassin 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
Darkstrikes lighamus Amazon 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
Schmeat SchmeatOhs*t Necromancer 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
Mordeth Destitute Hybrid Paladin 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
wakiki Sunchild Bowazon Amazon 1 A1 Norm Rogue Camp
Dead Characters
Forum Name Character Build Class LVL ACT WP
jiansonz Evangelina Phoenix Assassin 81 A3 Hell Durance of Hate lvl 3
OldSoldier Princess_Diana MA/LF Amazon 80 A3 Hell Sewers
Mursilis Anubis Summoner Necromancer 75 A2 Hell Cellar lvl 3
Crazy_Bear Jane_Doe Javazon Amazon 78 A2 Hell Cellar lvl 2
Butzull Warnie Hunter Druid 75 A1 Hell Outer Cloister
Ilshad StyxofThunder CS Amazon 55 A2 NM Far Oasis
Breaker PokePoke Lancebarb Barb 36 A4 Norm River of Flame
inSTAALed EmoPhil Ele Druid 28 A4 Norm River of Flame
whoisfu WhoIsZon Amazon 35 A4 Norm Chaos Sanctuary
jiansonz Kevin HF Zealot Paladin 31 A3 Norm Disused Reliquary
Silverslasher Sizzlingpain Trap Assassin 28 A3 Norm Kurast
EmperorMoo GumbyKicksAss Golemancer Necro 26 A3 Norm Flayer Jungle
Jabash RunAway Blade/Shdw Assasin 28 A2 Norm Duriel's Chamber
Anraxas ibone_alone ranger Paladin 27 A2 Norm Duriel's Chamber
newco KissMyBoots Hybrid Assassin 27 A2 Norm Duriel's Chamber
Crazy_Bear Silent_Bob Psn/Mage Necromancer 27 A2 Norm Duriel's Chamber
Butzull Spinster Amazon 26 A2 Norm Duriel's Chamber
EmperorMoo BertieWooster Summoner Necromancer 25 A2 Norm Duriel's chamber
Sindus Sindus Comando Necro 25 A2 Norm Summoner
inSTAALed HumanMeatBlock Con Barb 21 A2 Norm Halls of Dead
CDRToast Isolated Bow/Trap Assassin 22 A2 Norm Halls/Dead2
Colorless Green Omega Assassin 21 A2 Norm Halls/Dead2
EJB WheresEveryone Druid 22 A2 Norm Radament
EmperorMoo GotArrers Mageazon Amazon 21 A2 Norm Radamant
ShockTactics Frostshock Frostadin Paladin 20 A2 Norm Radamant
Chymaera Marius BlizBolt Sorceress 14 A1 Norm Black Marsh
chizz Chizzy Summoner Necro 11 A1 Norm Jail level 1
EmperorMoo Wordsworth Summon Necromancer 11 A1 Norm Tamoe Highland
Anraxas ibone_alone bone Necro 8 A1 Norm Countess
Liquidcore FightingLove Sniperzon Amazon 6 A1 Norm Stony Field

[tongue]

sorry delete this post +X

[OldSoldier]

Scunion used the weekend to get a bit farther, and found some good stuff along the way. From the Far Oasis until stopping at the Spider WP, he found three things I've never seen before playing the game: Blackhorn's Face, Spirit Forge, and Gravepalm. I was already carrying two helms, a Ruby Circlet of Luck, with 38% fire resist and 35% MF, which is my main helm, and the Rockstopper, which is just better than Blackhorn's in my opinion. So I dragged it around by dropping some mana pots until I found a good WP and then muled it off. The Spirit Forge replaced a breast plate with 1 PSapphire and 2 PTopazes. That life boost was too nice to pass up, and the two built-in sockets got a sapphire and topaz. The Gravepalm replaced my caster gloves, which were +11 Mana, +2 Mana per kill, and 5% mana regen, along with extra gold and light radius as the random mods. Pretty crappy, so I picked the extra 20 straight-up mana plus the knowledge that I've less to invest in strength should something else nice show up.

Also found: two ort runes, one of which went into my crystal sword, so I am missing an Amn for Spirit RW. That'll kick things off nicely when that extra mana become available. Also found a Hel and a Dol (Woo hoo!) which was dropped in the spider forest by a plain jane flayer guy. I still have the +2 bone spear bone wand, but lack the runes to socket it still (another Amn) but I won't worry about that much until if/when I get an Io. Also found a +1 P&B amulet, which I won't wear much, +19 res all, +11% MF amulet, which I wear sometimes, and +34% amulet which I wear a lot. I found a +5% MF small charm which I've kept, and the 7% on the boots (which I repaired with my first ral drop), 10% on a really quite crappy ring gives me 115% total. I will be happy if I can keep it above 100% at all times. Finally I scored a +1 bone spear, +3 poison nova, + something else necro head, which I paired with the crystal sword for now. It'll make a great rhyme, once I can get it socketed.

Clearing the tombs was not tough, since I went down to /P3 and /P1. I killed all but two monsters in the real tomb, a gorebelly and a night lord, then I ran away and cleared the other tombs with the extra 4 spaces in the inventory. Upon return I dispatched them and revived them before entering the chamber. Duriel focused on the gorebelly, and I IMed him, and then spammed bone spear. I used one mana potion to keep the spears flying, and Duriel killed the gorebelly and turned on me. I ran past the night lord and he switched to him and a couple of whacks later he fell, dropping rares only.

Level 59, black marsh is next (no path to the flayer jungle except through there).

[wakiki]

Wow. Over the course of several days, I've read the entire thread. AMAZING accomplishment, IW! And everyone else who even got to hell.

Since an Amazon has already completed it sucessfully, I've decided to switch to a Poison Dagger & Iron Golem Necro. What I like about the build:

1) Daggers take up little space! So I can switch between useful ones for different situations. This feels really cool.

2) They can have big elemental damages, so I can have one with loads of lightning damage and one with loads of fire.

3) Daggers can come with useful bonusus like Hit Causes Monster to flee, spell charges, ITD, and the like. Loads of really weird ones.

4) Throwing daggers may also be used, I think. Can anyone else confirm this? If it's true, that gives me alot more possible item drops that are useful, and I can throw them in desperate situations.

5) Iron Golem put good items that are worthless to me to good use.

6) I've never used Poison Dagger before, so it'll be new!

I plan on starting it this weekend, or perhaps sooner. I'm certain about using the Poison Dagger, but not the Iron Golem. How useful do you guys think the Iron Golem will be?

[jiansonz]

4) Throwing daggers may also be used, I think. Can anyone else confirm this? If it's true, that gives me alot more possible item drops that are useful, and I can throw them in desperate situations.

One thing is for sure: throwing weapons last a very long time - in melee.



I plan on starting it this weekend, or perhaps sooner. I'm certain about using the Poison Dagger, but not the Iron Golem. How useful do you guys think the Iron Golem will be?

Like you said, it´s a good utility skill that has some quirky uses. But I would keep its level fairly low (and instead pump Golem Mastery in that case), since you can´t really take advantage of the damage return without using up several items. This is because you can´t take a TP to town to heal the golem. You can use wells to good effect though.

[wakiki]

One thing is for sure: throwing weapons last a very long time - in melee.

Like you said, it´s a good utility skill that has some quirky uses. But I would keep its level fairly low (and instead pump Golem Mastery in that case), since you can´t really take advantage of the damage return without using up several items. This is because you can´t take a TP to town to heal the golem. You can use wells to good effect though.

I've realized the unfortunate thing about meleeing with throwing knives is that they are significantly slower than daggers. They are fast but they still feel sluggish compared to the daggers' very fast speed, especially since I need to poison key enemies quickly and run around alot. I ended up using a dagger with self-repair over a triumphant (+1 mana per kill) throwing dagger that would have lasted me indefinitely just because of the speed.

Yeah, I plan on leaving IG at 1 and putting points into Mastery. How many depends on much emphasis I put on Dim Vision. I do have a few questions about IG though. Can I use it on broken items? Also, do fancy mods like PMH work with them? If so, I might use alot of Malice golems!

Also, if I make an IG out of a shield, will it have block? Shields might be considered wodden anyway which would make it impossible...

DestroyingAngel fought his way to the Black Marsh and has had easy progress so far. While in the Stony Field, he was dealing up to 103 damage. 1-stab Rakinishu kill. He is close to dealing up to 200 at the moment. With numbers like that, clearing everything on /p8 has been easy. (Undead are slightly annoying though) He dropped the number for the Countess but she only dropped an El. No great finds so far except alot of topazes! Twelve in total! 4 are in his helm / armor right now, 2 were in a helm that broke earlier, and the other 6 are sitting pretty in his inventory.

DestroyingAngel, level 16 Daggermancer at the Black Marsh waypoint, Tamoe Highlands next

[jiansonz]

Yeah, I plan on leaving IG at 1 and putting points into Mastery. How many depends on much emphasis I put on Dim Vision. I do have a few questions about IG though. Can I use it on broken items? Also, do fancy mods like PMH work with them? If so, I might use alot of Malice golems!

Also, if I make an IG out of a shield, will it have block? Shields might be considered wodden anyway which would make it impossible...



I don´t remember how it is in v1.10/1.11, but in 1.09 you needed a level 2 IG to get the Thorns damage. But you´ll probably have at least one +skills item anyway once you get further...

Most abilities work on items, but PMH is not one of them. Malice golems are awesome, though, because Open Wounds works.

I think you can use broken items, but I am not sure.

No, golems can not block.

[Insane Wayne]

For weapon speed, you want balanced knives, not regular throwing knives. They are very fast like daggers and can have all the great daggermancer mods, and will last very long in melee.

IGs inherit all the special mods from the items used to create them. However PMH may not work, because it is bugged and doesn't work with mercs. OW from Malice will work. I'm not positive, but I'd guess they can be made with broken items. Shields will work, and that's a common way to make IGs immune to certain elements (i.e. socketed with gems).

edit: partially pwned by jiansonz

[skoolbus]

Started on act 2. I was actually quite suprised at how easy it was. No NDE's and DS really helped out with the maggot guys, especially at coldworm where there was him, a boss pack and a champ pack of them. After killing him, I finally dropped my hellclap, which had served me faithfully for about two difficulty levels now, to make room for the staff, as I could not part with any three slots in my inventory. No good finds other than two antidote potions, which will probably let me go kill radament once I talk to drognan.

Stopped at the lost city wp, which is right next to the AT and the viper temple, so I'll get on those if I ever get a chance to play again :rolleyes:.

Conqueror OneFingaPushup, level 74, Hell Lost City

[wakiki]

DestroyingAngel found his way to the Inner Cloister waypoint with ease, where he decided to retire.

I didn't find any tomes of ID, and I wasn't comfortable buying one at Drognan. On the other hand, there's no way I can deal with not having a tome. I would have been seething with frustration every time I saw an ID scroll. I'd rather find 0 sets and uniques on my whole journey than have to deal with that. I'd've started a new character, but it's too late now. Sorry guys :(

It was a fun tourney, though! Really great idea. I hope that when the next one starts, I will be able to join it sooner and get farther. (My old computer died, which is why I vanished from the forum and the tournaments that I was in)

Good luck to the remaining players!:thumbsup:

[skoolbus]

DestroyingAngel found his way to the Inner Cloister waypoint with ease, where he decided to retire.

I didn't find any tomes of ID, and I wasn't comfortable buying one at Drognan. On the other hand, there's no way I can deal with not having a tome. I would have been seething with frustration every time I saw an ID scroll. I'd rather find 0 sets and uniques on my whole journey than have to deal with that. I'd've started a new character, but it's too late now. Sorry guys :(

It was a fun tourney, though! Really great idea. I hope that when the next one starts, I will be able to join it sooner and get farther. (My old computer died, which is why I vanished from the forum and the tournaments that I was in)

Good luck to the remaining players!:thumbsup:

I'm in act 2 hell and I never found an ID tome. It's really not that bad, you just learn to leave everything on the ground and occasionally drop a potion for a scroll. You should try and see if it really is unbearable.

[OldSoldier]

Scunion continued the fight, getting a few nice things along the way. Last we heard from him, he'd just defeated Duriel. In act III, I switched the players setting a bit more because I just get sniped so much in that act by little hit and run buggers that I thought to kill them with just a few bone spears each rather than bang away until they (inevitably) run off and cause more havoc later. So in some areas I went down to as low as /P3, except in the durance level 3, which I did at /P1, mostly because I was very low on mana potions and was afraid of coming to a stopping point in the game without enough mana, especially if there was a stair trap.

But I get ahead of myself... in the Flayer Dungeon, Witch Doctor Endugu's lower half dropped a Skin of the Vipermaji. Woo hoo! It had 12 durability, which is now down to 8. Other random monsters dropped a hel rune (which gives me two and leaves me one short of an Io, with the help of a chipped diamond, which if I find one I'll keep for safety's sake) and another dol, which I also kept in case I find two more Dols before an Io. I replaced my switch necro head with an ethereal bone spear one that had two sockets in it already. Still no Amn though, which is my last rune needed for spirit in my crystal sword. Not all that happened in the Flayer Dungeon, but rather in the entire act.

One of the revives granted by my necro head must have spawned Mephisto because he came charging out of nowhere while I was still battling council members along the main hallway. He gets stupid when prisoned with bone, so I casted those on him and spammed my remaining mana with lots of bone spear. I finished him off with one or two mana pots left, and he didn't scratch the revives. No need for decrepify even yet. Maybe I'll save that for Baal...

Hell presented some difficulties. No mana pots dropped for what seemed like ages, and I actually ran out a few times. The toughest part was right out of the first gate, I hit two champ packs of doom knights. Not dangerous but at /P5 they required some work and spammage to bring down. Not one of those buggers dropped a single mana pot. I felt cheated. So after bringing those guys down, I holed up on the stairs to the pandemonium fortress, built a few walls for flesh beasts to beat upon, and waited for mana to recharge. I spent a couple of hours clearing the outer steppes.

The plains of despair were no better, spawning burning souls, which were MUCH more tolerable since the vipermaji showed up. I put on the +19 res all amulet and was good. Pit lords were one of the spawns there, which make excellent revives and actually do some damage of their own via the fire breathing. Hellforge was nice, a pul, which I muled off. I don't have many of those for some reason in my game stashes. I stopped at the entrance to the Chaos Sanctuary and will probably try to clear it tonight. I'll have 85% fire resist with nokozan. Oh yeah, a hidden stash dropped a 25% nagelring, which was equipped immediately. I had crappy rings, but now sport that and a manald heal which is great for a caster in this tourney. I threw out that circlet when I got the armor and replaced it with a bone helm with 2 topazes, so my max MF is now at 119%. How some guys get it much past that in these tournaments, I'll never know.

[OldSoldier]

Short update:

Chaos sanctuary was pretty easy. I kept it on /P3 to keep the mana pot usage and drops about equal. I probably should have done the CS at /P5 as I had a few mana pots left on the ground when I left for Harrogath. Did I mention that Venom Lords make great revives? I kept those guys up the whole time, and the place was cake. Curses? Who cares. The only time I ran was fighting Lord De Seis when he Bone Spirited me twice. Other than that, no sweat. I cleared the wing with Infector last, and his seal was at the dead end. I put up two bone walls in an arrow formation, created three revives (two venom lords on my side of the bone wall and a ghost type on the outside of the wall) and hit the seal. The pack immediately set upon the wall, as the ghost revive ran away in seconds. Meanwhile I got to the bottom of the corridor and hit the monsters stacked up against the wall with enfilading fire, getting up to five at one time. The upper half of my arrow wall disintegrated in about 5 or 6 seconds, but the venom lord revives were there to plug the gap and nothing focused on me. Infector was in a perfect line with several of his friends trying to damage my venom lords and I slammed him with bone spear (only level 23, but on /P3 it works well) until he went down. My three revives were still alive, and I went straight for Diablo after picking up three more mana pots at the scene of the fight with Infector.

Diablo focused his entire attention at the two venom lords. I put a prison around him and hit him with bone spear. Nokozan relic gave me 85% fire resist, so his fire nova didn't hurt, and it didn't seem to do much against my revives either. They both survived fissures and lightning attacks as well. I was quite impressed, as Diablo only killed one of the two of them before he died and dropped Tancred's Skull. It was the second one of those to drop in the Chaos Sanctuary, I think. I didn't ID either one of them. I also saw a Ripsaw and one other unique that I don't remember in the CS. On to Harrogath! I will try to keep it at /P8 to get as many levels as possible, as I'm only at 63 right now.

[skoolbus]

Just so everyone knows, the deadline to enter passed a while ago, so once all the characters alive die/no progress for three weeks the tournament will be officially over.

Minor update.
Finished the AT, claw viper temple, and journeyed down to radament. Actually saw some decent drops down there in the form of a unique spiked shield, shael rune, and a 3os dragon shield. I finally dropped my old one and made this.

Gemmed Dragon Shield
Defense: 65
Chance to Block: 43%
Durability: 71 of 76
Required Strength: 91
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x17468daf
Fire Resist +78%
Lightning Resist +38%
Cold Resist +38%
Poison Resist +38%
Socketed (3: 3 used)

It brings my resists significanly up, and I think my lowest is poison at 38%. Just noticed that my bladebuckle is down to 2 durability, but I think I entered hell with it at 3, so it should hopefully last me a while.

Now that I'm putting all my points in DS, I notice my killing speed dramatically increasing. Next time I play (hopefully tomorrow morning) I'll get to the arcane sanctuary and hopefully do a few of the arms.

Conqueror OneFingaPushup, level 74, Hell Harem

[OldSoldier]

Keep up the fight, skoolbus! This tourney needs someone to join IW.

Scunion did the Bloody Foothills last night. I wish I hadn't. It took almost 2.5 hours because in the entire area, I only got seven mana pots. Two of those dropped from Shenk, who was the last monster I killed. The skeletons and quill rats that were pretty much equally dispersed throughout the level just never dropped any, and I didn't want to go below 2 at any point, so I ended up hiding behind the side walls until the bulb refilled, then going forward to blast one or two, and then retreating back. I was doing it on /P8 to maximize experience in an easy area. I finished around 1 AM which is waay past my bedtime. There was a mana regen shrine, but it was at the very gate to Harrogath, so once I got past about halfway in the level, it wasn't worth it to go all the way back.

Watch out, Eldritch, he's coming for you next!

[wakiki]

Well, I changed my mind about quitting my Necro. I decided that he needed to be seriously tested at least once in his journey.

So I fought my way down to Andariel. I found the stairs to each level reasonably quickly, leaving large portions of the map unexplored.

After clearing the first room of level 4, I set the players to 3 (I had had them on 8 up to this point). I had my inventory practically completely full of potions, although I did have a head and wand that gave me +4 to Clay Golem (I also had a grand charm with cold damage on it). First, I tried killing her with Poison Dagger. Turns out, she's more resistant to Poison Dagger than I expected. I dealt nothing to her! My main attack was a no-go.

After running out of potions (I should have retreated earlier; stupid me) I tried using Clay Golem + Iron Maiden. I used a few mana potions doing this, but she wasn't damaging herself fast enough. She also kept using her spray attack instead of her melee.

I decided I could do it but needed loads of mana potions to pull it off, so I set off to clear the Catacombs. Boss after boss and champion after champion fell and yet I was getting no mana! When my inventory was full of potions again, I had almost all spaces filled by health and rejuvination and only 2 with mana!

Nasty thoughts crept into my head at this point. Might I lose the game here? I imagined the likely scenario: I would fight her, run out of potions, ascend the stairs with no life to gather my nerves for death, then take the final plunge into Andariel's arms.

I forced these morbid thoughts out of my head and sat down to think. I had to make the best of the situation. I realized that with low mana and high health (in potions), I couldn't be casting my golem over and over again. I might not even have enough to keep her poisoned constantly. I realized that I would have to be the golem in this situation, absorbing her hits myself while she had Iron Maiden cast on her! A frightening proposition.

I summoned my golem, waited for full mana, and stepped back down to try it. It was working! The combination of Iron Maiden + Poison Dagger brought her health down quickly, but I sucked up many health potions. I had to crawl back up the stairs when she had lost 2/3rds of her health.

I rushed back (the clock was ticking) and cleared the Catacombs level 1, and found a well! However, it was very far away, so if I ran out of potions, she might be able to heal herself faster than I deal damage if I have to take trips to that well. I had no more areas to clear. I returned to the steps to level 4 with 1/3rd of my inventory full of potions and full health (thanks to the well).

The two forces clashed. Andariel sprayed poison. I resummoned my golems. (I had a better ratio of mana potions than last time, so I could afford them) Andariel stabbed and writhed in pain as her own blows were returned to her. I stabbed her back, boiling with frustration as the she quickly brushed away the chilling and poisoning effects of the dagger.

My belt emptied. My inventory emptied. But she was nearly dead! Only a sliver of health left on her! We both ran circles around my golem as I pondered my next move. My golem pounded her several times, and then a ray of hope came to me: could my golem finish her off? I kept running and running, and she ignored my golem, intent on her primary prey who was out of health and potions. She misjudged the might of the Clay Golem; he landed a powerful hit, she screamed, and a pillar of fire erupted from the ground! DestroyingAngel laughed exuberantly and his golem, err, made happy golem noises (he had finished her off, after all!) as the floor shook!

I cleared the Throne area, retrieved two health potions for my trouble, and stepped through the Portal, finally deigning to speak with Warriv about traveling to Lut Golein (I certainly didn't speak to him during the journey).

DestroyingAngel, level 20 Daggermancer at the Lut Golein waypoint, Sewers(most likely) next

I think I might just buy a tome at Drognan and hope that I find an ID tome in Nightmare so I can stop feeling guilty every time I look in my inventory. :\

That was one of the most intense fights I've ever had in Diablo II. I think I'll be fighting Duriel on /p1. :P I also hope you enjoyed my write-up! Was it too detailed and boring?

[Insane Wayne]

Well that is quite a finish against Andariel! I remember leaving Diablo mid-battle to farm some potions (earlier version, years ago) and when I returned he had mysteriously healed. I'm glad that didn't happen to you.

[OldSoldier]

Scunion hit deeds in the Glacial Trail against two champion Blood Lords. It was a good run but painfully slow because I couldn't ever really get good mana items and I insisted upon /P8 until getting to hell. I'd maxed out Bone Spear and both Armor and Prison and was about to start placing points in CE, but alas I never got far enough to speed the game up a bit. I guess that makes just a couple of characters left. Good luck to all remaining!

[skoolbus]

Gah, deeds...

I was in Harem and I went into a room I knew was full of skeleton archers to CoS them, but they shot like a million arrows and I slammed on what I thought was the full rejuvs, but might actually have been the tilda key or healing pots key. It was a stupid way to die. Oh well. Good luck wakiki! I think you're the only one who's actually updated in a while and is alive.

[Butzull]

Oh no, 2 deeds posts in a row!

Sorry to see the falls, but very well played both of you!

Butz. :dunce:

[Mursilis]

I agree. Well played both of you. :thumbsup: Tough deaths but very nice progress overall.

[wakiki]

Sorry to hear about your deaths guys. I wish more people could join -- it's less interesting being alone. That's why I generally prefer tournaments to end when they stop being posted in for X amount of time, rather than after a set date.

I opted against taking DestroyingAngel into the Sewers for now. I will wait until I get Iron Golem (100% poison resist) to kill Radament.

As soon as I stepped out of town, I was mobbed by a group of cursed sand leapers, and I only had two potions. They were killing me, so I ran out to see if there were any easier monsters to fight for potions, but I got swarmed by beetles and javelin cats. Things were going south so I had to turn back.

The way I killed them was I would wait for my mana to regenerate, step out of town and stab them, then step back before they could retaliate. It was fairly cheap, but it worked. I hope you are allowed to do that. I didn't have to talk to anyone in town so I don't think I broke any rules.

Anyway, I cleared the Rocky Waste easily after that (thanks to a health shrine), though it took about an hour. Monsters in act II require 2 poison dagger hits to die, which is annoying indeed! I can't level it up for a while either because I've been skimping on prerequisites. I decided to end my session at the Dry Hills waypoint, and will clear the Stony Tomb next (it's right near Lut Golein)

By the way, I forgot to mention it earlier, but a monster in the Catacombs level 4 dropped me Cleglaw's gloves. :) It put them on in case I'm able to find other members of the set.

It isn't much, but I'm really providing this update to let people know that I'm still playing after Andariel.

[Insane Wayne]

Scunion hit deeds in the Glacial Trail against two champion Blood Lords. It was a good run but painfully slow because I couldn't ever really get good mana items and I insisted upon /P8 until getting to hell.
I'm impressed you maintained p8 as long as you did, without access to vendor mana pots. I found my Bone Necro to be far more mana intensive than my Alone CS Zon. RIP Scunion.


I slammed on what I thought was the full rejuvs, but might actually have been the tilda key or healing pots key. It was a stupid way to die. Oh well.
D'oh! RIP and congrats on a great run. I don't trust my fingers to slam just one key. Next time try this sloppy move to triple you odds: the multiple unknown keys slam! :rolleyes: :tongue:
My rejuv key is 4. During many panics, I've used 3 fingers and slammed 3-4-5, or 3-e-4-r. Anything around the 4 key is fair game.

[EmperorMoo]

Hi everyone,

First, a note of apology - I am the one who is supposed to be hosting this thread / tournament, and due to pretty extreme RL pressures I have been absent almost since it started. So, now that life is settling down again I can return, albeit intermittently.

However, having read the thread it has - due to great input from a lot of people - done exactly what I wanted.

Looking back at my posts, I was going to do a silent barb. I will hopefully start him again at some point over the next few days (a boot sector failure on the HDD with D2 installed was one of the problems of the last few months).

Cheers,

Teh Emperor
:wave:

[EmperorMoo]

Hi everyone,

First, a note of apology - I am the one who is supposed to be hosting this thread / tournament, and due to pretty extreme RL pressures I have been absent almost since it started. So, now that life is settling down again I can return, albeit intermittently.

However, having read the thread it has - due to great input from a lot of people - done exactly what I wanted.

Looking back at my posts, I was going to do a silent barb. I will hopefully start him again at some point over the next few days (a boot sector failure on the HDD with D2 installed was one of the problems of the last few months).

Cheers,

Teh Emperor
:wave:

OH NO I'VE POSTED THIS IN THE WRONG THREAD! :embarassed: Obviously during my absence I've forgotten how to read/post/check what I'm doing.

Sorry 'bout that all! :flowers:

[Morathi]

LOL yeah seems like you did plus this tournament is finished :laugh:.

[EmperorMoo]

Sweet! That means not too many people will see my foolishness...

[Morathi]

Sweet! That means not too many people will see my foolishness...

well considering it is on the first page of the forum, i would be doubtful lol.