The "When It Rains, It Pours" Tournament

[Kool69]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP         Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
dune6836      Necro        Rainy_Day    43     A5     finished        50
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      44     A1NM   Rogue Camp      47
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       49     A1NM   Rogue Camp      46
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       35     A5     Harrogath       36 
newco         Druid       Haleakala     32     A4     River of Flame  36  RIP
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     29     A3     Kurast Bazaar   25  RIP
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   25     A3     Flayer Jungle   23  RIP
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
D.Master      Amazon      Cassandra     18     A2     Canyon of Magi  18  RIP
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow       21     A2     Canyon of Magi   8  RIP
Docturnal     Sorc.    FrozenTearsOBHF  22     A2     Lost city        7  RIP
Wolron        Paladin    FeastRFamine   17     A1     Cats Lvl2        3  RIP
Syzerian      Paladin       Siege       14     A1     Inner Cloister   2
azn_apoc      Paladin     RainDancer    13     A1     Outer Cloister   ?  
Kool69        Necro        BoneFront     1     A1     Rogue Camp       0 
LynKyle       Necro           ?          1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
OpethAZ       Assay      Thunderstorm    1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
Cattleya      Barb          Henry       11     A1     Dark Woods      -1  
EJB           Pally        Hawkeye      21     A1     Cats Lvl2       -4  RIP

An interesting tourney as per usual Skunkbelly, looks like I'll have to halt my other characters progress to work on this one. :wink3:

[jiansonz]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP         Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       58     A2NM   Arcane Sanct.   64  RIP
dune6836      Necro        Rainy_Day    43     A5     finished        50
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      44     A1NM   Rogue Camp      47
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       35     A5     Harrogath       36 
newco         Druid       Haleakala     32     A4     River of Flame  36  RIP
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     29     A3     Kurast Bazaar   25  RIP
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   25     A3     Flayer Jungle   23  RIP
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
D.Master      Amazon      Cassandra     18     A2     Canyon of Magi  18  RIP
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow       21     A2     Canyon of Magi   8  RIP
Docturnal     Sorc.    FrozenTearsOBHF  22     A2     Lost city        7  RIP
Wolron        Paladin    FeastRFamine   17     A1     Cats Lvl2        3  RIP
Syzerian      Paladin       Siege       14     A1     Inner Cloister   2
azn_apoc      Paladin     RainDancer    13     A1     Outer Cloister   ?  
Kool69        Necro        BoneFront     1     A1     Rogue Camp       0 
LynKyle       Necro           ?          1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
OpethAZ       Assay      Thunderstorm    1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
Cattleya      Barb          Henry       11     A1     Dark Woods      -1  
EJB           Pally        Hawkeye      21     A1     Cats Lvl2       -4  RIP

Deeds!

I found out the main weakness of this character - the hard way. He had no real 'Save My @ss' skill and he was a complete wuss, tanking-wise.

You can say that greed killed me...

skunkbelly, the Arcane platform loot rule is EVIL! If you had made the rule such as "monsters that start on the end platforms can be looted", then I would still be alive!

I abandoned my first assault on the Summoner´s platform because there were many monsters in the way. My peek made 4 Specters come after us (=no loot from them). That pissed me off, and probably clouded my judgment.

Next try: I got two wolves up on the platform and got the merc to round a corner so he could get up there as well. We seemed to be doing well, then a damn goat took the stairs down and attacked Vince. The wolves were slain so I summoned a new pack. Tried to "rub" that goat off me (tried to get it to attack the merc instead). Then it happened. Vince got sandwiched on the stairs between two goats. And they hurt like hell. Vince has only 7% blocking, but they still damaged him surprisingly much. A couple of Ghoul Lords set the stairs on fire. Now I am really in a panic. Fire resist was 24% (normally it was 45, but I had my MF ring on...). Healing potions get drunk, I cast Fissure, I recast wolves, I give Waheed (my new HF merc was also named Waheed) potions so he can hold up. Wolves die again. I cast a bear this time. More Fissure. Damn, the goat is hardly damaged at all. Fissure is a great skill, but sometimes a particular spot on the ground just refuses to open fire. I drink a rejuve and decided to take a TP. It came up on the other side of the goat. I click on it, sometimes they work anyway. No go. OK, time for a Volcano on that goat. Maybe that will hit better. I´ll just drink this full rejuve first (I think it was my second-to-last in that column, and that I had one more in one of my mana potion columns). Oops, too late, I´m already dead! I think there were three Ghoul Lords that Fire Walled me at the same time, so I took even more damage than before.

Waheed was not dead, so the Summoner actually never hit me. The Hell Clan got credit for the kill.

I should have been less greedy. When that goat chased me, I should have backed off, swallowed the greed, taken a TP, regrouped for the next assault. This is my main mistake.

(Of course, 70 saved-up stat points probably didn´t help either. I had planned to add DEX for blocking, as soon as I had a decent shield. That never happened...)


I might have made it anyway if I had either

* used Raven from the beginning. Then that stupid goat might never had seen me. I invested 3 extra points in Raven on the Black Marsh WP. I used Ravens sooo well in Halls of the Dead and the Claw Viper Temple. I guess I was tired, unisprired, whatever, to forget about them here.
* used Volcano non-stop on the goat as soon as I got sandwiched
* or, I could have switched to Bonesnap. 22% more fire resist, and a chance to smack down that goat.



I am very disappointed right now. This character was a great D2 experience, and I certainly expected to reach at least Hell act 2. That´s how well things were going.

Of course, it was sometimes frustating (but in a twisted, fun sort of way) looking at the stuff we are not allowed to use. Mind you, it was not all that often I hit Alt, mainly after I had killed a double boss pack or a really large pack of monsters, but I found tons of great stuff in act 2 NM. I sometimes picked up interesting items, then when I found an ID scroll, I´d identify it, then I would drop it on the ground. Just to satisfy my curiosity. If this had been a "normal" character, Vince would have been sporting at least +4 to all skills in late act 2, because he found:

* The Mahic-Oak Curio (no skill on this, but not a common item)
* The Eye of Etlich
* rare Antlers with +1 Druid skills
* Fleshrender (even if I never planned to shapeshift, it would still be an excellent weapon for this build)
* And this. For once, I had a character that would probably have used it...


Good luck to the rest of you!

[Sint Nikolaas]

Thanks, and yes, I'm always pretty happy.

No, no one's done more in one update - you can check and prove me wrong if you like. You were singled out because you were the only one who did this. Again, show me I'm wrong...

So, your stats are a bit suspect :undecided: . Maybe post them as ATMA sees them this time. We an handle foreign languages, if that's the issue.

(My apologies to skunkbelly for being a pain in the *** in your tourney.)

I'm not burning a damn CD to show my atma readouts, I don't have internet at home so I copied the atma stats onto a paper and wrote them down here. Now take it or leave it. If you still think I'm cheating the tourny or misreading any rules without taking my word against it then just say so, as a matter of fact, if anyone thinks I'm acting out of the normal here just say the word and I'll step out.
I'm restraining myself here.
In the mean time I'm going to play on and pretend I just didn't hear any of this, it allready cost me a week of playing. Sigh I hadn't seen the tourny had an end date.

[skunkbelly]

Sint's been a member of this forum for a long while, and I accept his explanation of the spelling errors in the stats. If the items levels were all off, I'd be suspicious... but those check out just fine.

And frankly, while his finds in normal difficulty were good, they weren't so wildly good as to cause suspicion for me. My current character in the Merc Tourny has accumulated *three* infernal craniums... and he's only reached the Dry Hills, and he wears zero MF. The first one was gambled, even, and we all know what the odds of that are like. Weird things happen in this game sometimes, and luckily they don't all suck :cool:

RIP jiansonz!

[AlterEgo]

Sorry about the loss jiansonz :embarassed: You were doing so well too. And you found the rare hardcore SOJ! Very cool. :cool: I'm afraid to ask, but I assume you didn't keep it, did you?

You and Sint have taken all of my item find luck - I want some back now!!

---------------------------------------

Act 5 is going pretty much according to plan - my plan is not dying! :smiley: Nothing too notable this session. Switched to Gorm the barbarian merc, putting a topaz/emerald into the rare sword that Diablo dropped - no life leach items to spare. He is by far my main killer at this point in the game.

Arrived at Abaddon hoping to turn my fortunes, but no such luck. Nothing but potions, scrolls and sellables. Anya rubbed salt in the wound by handing me a +1 assy skills claw, then the 6500 gold in exchange for my sale. I guess I'll stick with my A1 katar/damaged katar combo for now, but I'm planning a gambling spree on these babies soon. :rolleyes:

DoWithout the trapper, clvl32, A5 Glacial Trail
102901 gold
Str=35, Dex=20, Vit=90 (life 342), Nrg=55 - 45 saved
36 wps, 23 quests, score 36+46-32=50

(might someone kindly update my table entry? - thanx)

[azn_apocalypse]

RIP jiansonz. The drop gods really did decide to screw with you by giving that SoJ, didn't they? I still have never found one in five years of playing on-and-off.

Here's my RainDancer update:

I started at the Outer Cloister with about 1700 gold. I thought players 8 would be too hard for the lack of rewards, so I set players to 5 and fought my way through the cloister to the barracks. As I was looking for the malus my merc was killed by a boss pack of rogues. I paid the 600 gold to resurrect her, only to have her killed again a minute later by The Smith. At this point I decided to leave her dead and I dealt with the Smith by leading him all the way back to the Outer Cloister WP, then wearing him down with Holy Fire javelins.

With my merc dead I was barely doing any damage on my own, so I decided to set players to 1. This was a good idea; I was able to use Holy Bolt against the undead in the Jail and at /players 1 they simply melted away. Non-undead were tougher, and I sometimes skipped killing them depending on how many knives/javelins I had left, and how close I was to a WP.

As I approached Catacombs 4 many healing potions were needed. I seemed to always choose the wrong direction when looking for the stairs to the next level, and this resulted in me spending more time in areas than was necessary. When you have 1000 gold, minor healing potions are expensive. I watched as my gold dropped lower, lower...and still lower. I thought I might run out of gold but thankfully, I reached Catacombs 3, and the stairs to Catacombs 3 and 4 were almost right next to each other

I set players to 5 before I entered Catacombs 4, then went in to begin the slaughter. A barrel dropped a superior scepter with +1 cleansing, worth 5000 gold. Excellent, I decided to hold on to it until Act 2, where I can sell it for more. Andariel was scary, but doable. Raindancer attacked her with a steady stream of Holy Fire javelins and throwing knives, running upstairs when necessary to recover stamina/get unpoisoned. One trip to the Catacombs 2 WP was needed to buy potions. Eventually Andy fell, and she dropped all rares, including a decent rare ring with some MF/gold find on it. Nothing with resists on it though. One of the dead rogues sitting near Andy's throne dropped a TP scroll...excellent.

Once in Act 2 I hired a prayer merc, then tested the Sewers. They appear to be doable at /players 5. and I will probably spend some time in there leveling up. I really really want to be level 24 when I get to Lost City WP, so I can get Meditation.

RainDancer, level 16

[jiansonz]

I'm afraid to ask, but I assume you didn't keep it, did you?

Haha, here´s the whole story:

* Entrance to Ancient Tunnels was right at the start of Lost City. Went down right away.
* Found a unique ring in Ancient Tunnels.
* Played a bit more in the Ancient Tunnels. Found ID scroll. Identified unique ring. "Darn, wrong tournament to find this in!" Dropped it and took the screenie. Left.
* Played Lost City.
* Just when I was about to enter Valley of Snakes, I thought to myself: "Someone is going to hate me if I show that picture and tell them I just dumped it and left". Went back and picked it up.
* Took the WP to town and put it in stash.
* Playing session ended after CVT. My intention was to move it to an ATMA stash I use for giveaways, but I forgot to do so (many characters have a natural muling session that follows playing. This character is not one of them).
* Next playing session: Died, with the ring still in the stash.

[dune6836]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP         Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       58     A2NM   Arcane Sanct.   64  RIP
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      44     A1NM   Rogue Camp      47
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       35     A5     Harrogath       36 
newco         Druid       Haleakala     32     A4     River of Flame  36  RIP
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     29     A3     Kurast Bazaar   25  RIP
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   25     A3     Flayer Jungle   23  RIP
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
D.Master      Amazon      Cassandra     18     A2     Canyon of Magi  18  RIP
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow       21     A2     Canyon of Magi   8  RIP
Docturnal     Sorc.    FrozenTearsOBHF  22     A2     Lost city        7  RIP
Wolron        Paladin    FeastRFamine   17     A1     Cats Lvl2        3  RIP
Syzerian      Paladin       Siege       14     A1     Inner Cloister   2
azn_apoc      Paladin     RainDancer    13     A1     Outer Cloister   ?  
Kool69        Necro        BoneFront     1     A1     Rogue Camp       0 
LynKyle       Necro           ?          1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
OpethAZ       Assay      Thunderstorm    1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
Cattleya      Barb          Henry       11     A1     Dark Woods      -1  
EJB           Pally        Hawkeye      21     A1     Cats Lvl2       -4  RIP

for personal reasons i wont be active on the forum for a while. i have removed myself from the table. good luck all who remain. dune

[Kool69]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP         Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       58     A2NM   Arcane Sanct.   64  RIP
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      44     A1NM   Rogue Camp      47
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       35     A5     Harrogath       36 
newco         Druid       Haleakala     32     A4     River of Flame  36  RIP
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     29     A3     Kurast Bazaar   25  RIP
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   25     A3     Flayer Jungle   23  RIP
Kool69        Necro       BoneFront     28     A1     Flayer Jungle   20 
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
D.Master      Amazon      Cassandra     18     A2     Canyon of Magi  18  RIP
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow       21     A2     Canyon of Magi   8  RIP
Docturnal     Sorc.    FrozenTearsOBHF  22     A2     Lost city        7  RIP
Wolron        Paladin    FeastRFamine   17     A1     Cats Lvl2        3  RIP
Syzerian      Paladin       Siege       14     A1     Inner Cloister   2
azn_apoc      Paladin     RainDancer    13     A1     Outer Cloister   ?  
LynKyle       Necro           ?          1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
OpethAZ       Assay      Thunderstorm    1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
Cattleya      Barb          Henry       11     A1     Dark Woods      -1  
EJB           Pally        Hawkeye      21     A1     Cats Lvl2       -4  RIP

BoneFront swiftly completed quests after he got his first skill dump in the Black Marsh. (Those Hell Clan are deadly at players 8 when you only have a rare club and cracked quilted armor!) Currently he is sitting on the Flayers WP already and has already made his trip into the depths of the Swampy Pit for his treasure hunting.

Bonefront's Skills:

1 Amplify Damage
1 Weaken
1 Terror
1 Decreptify
12 Skeleton Mastery
9 Summon Skeleton
3 Skeleton Mage

His best item currently was found in the bowels of the great worm Duriel:

Demon Cudgel
Bone Wand
One-Hand Damage: 3 to 7
Durability: 15 of 15
Required Level: 18
Staff Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0x74357c97
+6 to Energy
Poison Resist +10%
+2 to Raise Skeletal Mage (Necromancer Only)
+1 to Bone Wall (Necromancer Only)
+2 to Confuse (Necromancer Only)
150% Damage to Undead
+1 to Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)
Level 1 Dim Vision (25/67 Charges)
Repairs 1 durability in 20 seconds

[AlterEgo]

@ Jiansonz - thanks for the rest of the story. Seems like that's how things just work out sometimes. I guess you'll have to put an asterisk by that sweet find!

Last update for a few days as I seem to only be able to find time to play on weekends. DoWithout has obtained the shiny title Destroyer. The rest of A5 went smoothly with no NDEs. Baal's minions were a pain to kill, even on my P1 setting, and I had to run back quite a few times just to refill mana.

Completing the entire difficulty drop pattern, Baal was a stingy demon. He dropped a few useless rares (though two will sell for 25K+ in NM) a useless unique, and only one usable item - Duskdeep will help with resists in NM. I hadn't planned well earlier, and had only that helm to use for Larzuk's socketing quest. I personalized my 3os shield which may be put to use earlier than my A5 NM plan (Ancient's Pledge).

After Baal's demise I gambled a bit to see if I could snag a "caster" katar upgrade. No luck after 10 attempts, so I bailed on that plan for now. I may need to switch to a wand or other caster weapon in NM.

At the Ancient's Way WP I added Death Sentry, Shadow Master & Mind Blast at 1pt each. I also pushed Lightning Sentry to 7pts.

I look forward to the extra rewards in NM. But before that, skunkbelly, I'd like to re-run a random area. My luck HAS to change...

Destroyer DoWithout, clvl35, completed norm
59456 gold
Str=35, Dex=20, Vit=90 (life 348), Nrg=55 - 60 saved
39 wps, 27 quests, score 39+54-35=58

(I hope someone might update my table entry - my comp's OS can't handle code blocks... thanx)