The "When It Rains, It Pours" Tournament

[skunkbelly]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP      Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     26     A3    Spider Forest    20
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      25     A3     Kurast Docks    16
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   20     A2     Palace 1       12
Docturnal     Sorc.    FrozenTearsOBHF  22     A2     Lost city        7  RIP
Wolron        Paladin    FeastRFamine   17     A1     Cats Lvl2        3  RIP
dune6836      Necro        Rainy_Day    24     A2     Lost city        3
Syzerian      Paladin       Siege       14     A1    Inner Cloister    2
LynKyle       Necro           ?          1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
OpethAZ       Assay      Thunderstorm    1     A1     Rogue Camp       0
Cattleya      Barb          Henry        1     A1     Rouge Camp       0  
EJB           Pally        Hawkeye      15     A1     Black Marsh     -2
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       19     A1    Inner Cloister   -3
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow        8     A1     Cold Plains     -4   
newco         Druid       Haleakala     16     A1     Black Marsh     -5 
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       15     A1     Dark Wood       -5

Level 20 = -20
8 quests = + 16
16 WPs = + 16
SCORE = 12

Well, the really hard part of act 2 is over, I hope... I won't hit any more awful lightning bugs until the Canyon of the Magi. Those things were eating me and my merc alive.

The need for cash has severely handicapped me. I had to sell my helm and my armor in order to resurrect my merc, and at this point I have less than 1000 gold, one gem that I can sell, and that's about it... that needs to last me through the palace, and to the first of the four Arcane Sanctuary treasure troves. Could get dicey. If need be, I can also sell my awful imbued barb helm (nothing useful at all, and one skill bonus: find potion, one of the only two banned skills in the tournament).

I hoped to last to level 24 before hitting the Lost City, but I just couldn't do it... there's no way I would have survived that long on the cash I had, and the experience was coming too slowly. So I hit the City at level 20, then went off and got the Amulet, and built my Staff. I'm currently sitting at the Palace WP.

@ BillyBGame: It will be one random location. For example, it could be the Spider Forest, or Durance of Hate level 2, or the Den of Evil, or even Tal Rasha's Chamber or the Throne of Destruction. All levels will be weighted equally, and the selection will be completely random.

[AlterEgo]

Holy crap. Sint goes from "hello" to A5 and in the lead!! May I ask a couple questions? (I'm gonna sound like a crybaby here...)

I had a hard time going trough act 2 but the ability to make a ''steel'' claymore gave me quite a nice edge, the open wounds on it is astonishing.

So you found a 2os weapon and Tir and El, all in assigned areas? Care to share where these items spawned?

...the CS netted me with a rockfleece that my merc is wearing and D dropped me an etheral Kinemils which will look nice on an act 5 merc. My precious is currently being a +1 shadow skill claw but other then that no big scores.

Holy crap, just what you needed, wouldn't want to post the ATMA stats on those would you?

hwanin's belt

And this too? Which restricted area did you come up with this?

OK, maybe I'm jealous, but come on, how do you get such luck when the rest of us are seeing such crap?

[Cattleya]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP      Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     26     A3    Spider Forest    20
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      25     A3     Kurast Docks    16
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   20     A2     Palace 1       12
Docturnal     Sorc.    FrozenTearsOBHF  22     A2     Lost city        7  RIP
Wolron        Paladin    FeastRFamine   17     A1     Cats Lvl2        3  RIP
dune6836      Necro        Rainy_Day    24     A2     Lost city        3
Syzerian      Paladin       Siege       14     A1    Inner Cloister    2
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      15     A1     Black Marsh     -2
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       19     A1    Inner Cloister   -3
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow        8     A1     Cold Plains     -4   
newco         Druid       Haleakala     16     A1     Black Marsh     -5 
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       15     A1     Dark Wood       -5

I played a little more today, and made it to the Dark Woods. I want to level up a little more before I get to the Black Marsh, but I have to figure out where to level without getting Henry killed. I'm starting to wonder about the wisdom of picking a weapon dependent character. He's still using his starting axe as his primary weapon, with some cracked javelins for when he needs a ranged attack.

He didn't have any equipment for the merc, so Aliza fell to Rakinishu's lightning bolts and will not be resurected. Cain has been rescued, and Tristrim was a nightmare. First, the portal is very far from both the Stony Field and Cold Plains WPs, so he had to do a lot of running when his life got low or he ran low on javelins. (Throwing that last cracked javelin by accident would be a very bad thing. ) Henry was immediately met by a LE pack of skeletal archers, which brought back horrible memories of my Tristrim death in the Bad Blood Team Tourney. Fortunatly, they went down with only a couple of runs to town needed to replenish life/javelins. I finally got to ID his amulet and boots. The boots were +1 dex (which at least beat the cracked boots he had) and the amulet was +1 max damage. I don't think I've ever been this happy to see that mod. :laugh:

Level 11 = -11
3 quests = + 6
4 WPs = + 4
SCORE = -1

[dune6836]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP      Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
dune6836      Necro        Rainy_Day    29     A4     fortress        33
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     26     A3    Spider Forest    20
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      25     A3     Kurast Docks    16
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   20     A2     Palace 1       12
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
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      15     A1     Black Marsh     -2
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       19     A1    Inner Cloister   -3
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow        8     A1     Cold Plains     -4   
newco         Druid       Haleakala     16     A1     Black Marsh     -5 
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       15     A1     Dark Wood       -5

rip frozen tears. poignant epitaph.
good progress all, enjoyed reading all those.
--
we set out into the spider forest at players3. i had soon upped this to players5 and by the time we had the eye it was set at players8
--
i was reminded rather sharply what having 0 fire resistance really means when i was caught, for perhaps 1 second in the inferno of a fallen sharman and i lost half my life ball in an instant. this is the worst damage i have taken since i started.
--
during a battle with a river stalker zanarhi and one of my skeletons were standing right along side each other whilst the rest of my army fought elsewhere. i noticed that zanarhi simply stood there taking poison blobs, unable to reach the stalker with his scythe, however the skeleton was able to reach and kill the stalker single handed with his sickle.
--
the black marsh wp was tagged. i had only 3 skill points this time.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/785...shot0019xu.jpg

1 point iron maiden
2 points summon resist
--
we used the flayer wp to return to town after clearing all the creatures away from the entrance to the swampy pit. once refilled with mana, which is never full, what with recasting skeletons at 23 mana each and spamming amp as soon as it becomes available again from a ball of only 100 mana, we headed back to collect our hoped for spoils..
--
this was the best haul yet by far.
i kept, are you ready for this...

1 flawed topaz
1 chipped diamond
1 chipped skull
1 chipped ruby
1 chipped topaz
+4 minimum damage jewel
white unraveller head (might give to charsi later)
eth splint mail def 136 with 2 sockets ( )
ring +2 dex
amulet +1 minimum damage and 20% lightening resistance
breast plate with 2 sockets. this is better than i am wearing were it not for the skull and chipped sapphire in my current armour. i will keep this for later use.
1 cracked kris and 1 rare kris (both kept only need a staff and belt now)
2 antidote pots
8 mana pots
2 tp scrolls
1 rare zombie head..

Fiend Emblem
Zombie Head
Defense: 4
Chance to Block: 45%
Durability: 18 of 20
(Necromancer Only)
Required Strength: 11
Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x2e5efc44
+20% Increased Chance of Blocking
Poison Resist +6%
Adds 4-14 poison damage over 3 seconds
Requirements -20%
30% Faster Block Rate
Level 1 Poison Dagger (61/67 Charges)
Socketed (1: 0 used)

zanarhi gained 1 extra defence from a slightly better mask

it took 7 trips on foot back to the wp to clear all the stuff from levels 2 and 3.
i acquired 35782 gold from the items i sold. giving me 52076 in total now. i had to sell some of the items i had kept previously to make space, but i only kept them because i had room to really.
i now have 3 chipped and 2 flawed topaz but i cant decide if i should cube them up or not.

still not a single charm or rune.
--
i had a slightly scary moment in durance level1. i went through an arch and immediatly a mauler moved in from the side, cutting me off from my army. he was joined by 2 more, with whom he seemed well acquainted, and i was surrounded. just then there appeared at my feet a strange orange glow and a sound like the sirroco desert wind was all around me. i had plenty of time to ponder this new sensation without being able to move from the targetted spot, when suddenly a huge firery explosion ripped the air around me and i was left with 50 out of 279 life. my army broke through in that moment just as a second glow appeared beneath me. i pelted back through the archway.
presently i located the source of the meteor. a dark lord, who was swiftly taken down and turned into a skeleton, despite me not needing to replace any fallen warriors.
--
the battle with mephisto did not go smoothly. my whole army was wiped out before we had removed 15% of his life. zanarhi, for all his efforts was killed soon after when i ran out of potions.
it wasnt that far from the wp to level 3 so after i found myself alone i walked back to town to heal zanarhi and stock up well on heal pots.
unfortunatly when i got back mehpisto had returned to full health.
i backed off again and cleared the rest of the area around him, avoiding mehpisto completely.
i recast as many skeletons as i could and taking a deep breath we faced off. i tried casting iron maiden but this was going too slowly and i knew i'd run out of potions again. it was imperative that zanarhi stayed alive. i knew i couldnt take many hits from meph and a full blast from him could 1 hit kill me.
i tried to position meph so that he was stuck in one of the corners and when i got him there i made him stay put by casting and recasting my golum at his feet. meanwhile, now out of the line of fire, zanarhi could chip away at him. i cast golum, golum,golum, amp in a cycle over and over. using most of my stash of mana pots to keep it going.
even so zanarhi died twice more and i was forced to use tp scrolls to return and get him fast. i have only 1 left now.

finally, with a fearsome howl born of rage, mehpisto fell and a strange silence, like the eye of a demonic storm, fell all around us.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3439/meph9er.jpg
--
from the loot i kept...

russet boots of pacing 10% frw and 18% fr. i am not strong enough to use them.
superior crown def 51 given to zanarhi
plated belt 17%fhr. now i only need to find a staff to cube up a savage polearm
1 amethyst
1 flawed ruby
1 flawed emerald
my first rune!.. an el
unraveller head. 1 iron golum, 1 attract, 2 blood golum, 2 sockets.
rare chain boots fire res 8%, 5%mf, 66%gold find, repair mod
5 mana pots
1 rejuv pot

the amulet is...

Death Heart
Amulet
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 26
Fingerprint: 0x6d0879d0
+13 to Life
+17 to Mana
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +3%
Lightning Resist +43%
Cold Resist +3%
Poison Resist +3%
3% Mana stolen per hit

from sale of all the rest i netted 31864. i had to spend a fair bit reviving zanarhi and on heal pots too.
i have left 83317 as i move onto act4.
--
i decided to gamble for the first time at this point.
i netted chain gloves 5% ctc frost nova
and after nearly all my gold was gone, a new weapon for zanarhi..
5% ctc slvl3 chain lit on attack, adds 1-35 lightening, 7% life steal. am happy with that. he now does 50-142 damage.
--
i have 9350 gold left.
--
so rainy_day in pandemonium fortress.
-29 for level
28 for wp's
34 for completed quests.

total 33 points.
--
edit clarification of badly written part

[SuperSavage]

Been playing Act III still on /p 8 the whole time so far.

Started out at the Spider Forest WP and made my way to the great marsh pretty quick because I knew where it already was. I thought for some reason the swampy pit was in the great marsh but I soon realized it wasn't. Got the WP at level 26, so 2 new skills to pick which were one evade one decoy. Cleared most of the Great Marsh then headed into the Flayer Jungle where the ratmen massed a lot more here. Found Gibdinn first along with dungeon which is up next. WP was found next and alast the Swampy Pit. Whats funny is that I've never been in the swampy pit before in my D2 career!!!!! All 3 levels were cleared and I think it took me 6 trips to town for everything. Best item found in this area was for sure the plate mail with 1 DR, 115 def. lots of running and time later I was all finish and ready to gamble with almost 78k. Gambled 66-67k worth of stuff and in the end it wasn't really worth it but thats whats gambling for! Now sit at Flayer WP and ready for dungeon, no problems so far in act III except for those darn shaman.

Heres what I upgraded:
-Helm 18 defense + 10%FHR/+5 fire resist (Gamble)
-Ring #2 Lightning Resist 20/DR 2
-Gloves defense 6 +10%IAS/cold resist 9 (Gamble)
-Boots defense 11 +charged bolt when struck/cold resist 13/fire resist 8 (Gamble)

Merc upgraded:
-Armor defense 115 +1 damage reduce
-Weapon Rare pike with 10%ed/1 max (Gamble)

MaryJane, clvl28, A3 Flayer jungle WP
11894 gold
Str=44 Dex=45 Vit=111 (398 life), Nrg=15
22 waypoints, 14 quests, Score +22

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP      Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
dune6836      Necro        Rainy_Day    29     A4     Fortress        33
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     28     A3    Flayer Jungle    22
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      25     A3     Kurast Docks    16
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   20     A2     Palace 1        12
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
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      15     A1     Black Marsh     -2
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       19     A1    Inner Cloister   -3
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow        8     A1     Cold Plains     -4   
newco         Druid       Haleakala     16     A1     Black Marsh     -5 
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       15     A1     Dark Wood       -5

[newco]

@ skunkbelly: maybe i am a little bit dense, but i would like to ask you for some futher clarifications :scratch: .

>>>>
16. Quest Reward Items: the only quest items you may use are your imbue reward and your personalized item reward. All other reward items may be sold for gold. Non-reward quest items (Gidbinn, etc.) may only be used for their appointed purpose, not equipped. Wirt’s leg may be gathered for the purpose of opening the Secret Cow Level… however, bear in mind that you are only allowed to purchase one tome of town portal… if you use it to access the cow level, you will then have to play without a TP tome!
<<<<

can i use:
act 2 skill tome ?
act 3 + 20 life potion ?
act 3 + 5 stats book ?
act 5 + 10 resi scroll ?
act 5 + socket reward ?
act 5 reward item ?

cheers newco

[EJB]

Well, this looks like it will make a nice first tourney for me. Relatively (sp?) new around here, I am mostly just a lurker that reads for tips.:cool:

Any who, I will be entering a Zealot named Hawkeye. I am going to place odds at 2:1 that he won't make it to Andy.

EJB

Well, I guess I should have known this would happen. When you tempt fate like I did, it is bound to bite ya.

Hawkeye had little to no problems all through the highland, and jail levels. Then a close one in the cathedral. But it was relative smooth sailing up unto Andy. And what happens? I get blocked to my own tp by my moron/merc. So a very careless and poison filled death to one Hawkeye.

Final score--21 for level+9 for wp+8 for quests(shoulda used the imbue!!!)= -4.

On a side note, this was a great first tourney for me. I expected/hoped to stay in a little longer, now I just have to work on my wind druid. Almost to hell baal- first time ever that far!!

Good luck all who are left.

EJB

[newco]

RIP EJB

Haleakala made it to Lut Gholein.

To beat Andi i switched to p1, which made it quite easy. 5 wolfes + 2 fissures + cold merc = dead andi. Unfortunately the drop was rather disapointing.

Most notable gear:

Skull Claw
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 8
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 3
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x45659448
+1 to Strength
+1 to Dexterity
+27% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +8%
Repairs 1 durability in 33 seconds


Studded Leather
Defense: 34
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Strength: 27
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x68dad6e1
Socketed (2: 0 used)

this might be useful if arcanes nets me some runes.

and from the den of evil:

Corpse Blazer
Boots
Defense: 2
Durability: 12 of 12
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0x90eb0cd9
+1 to Dexterity
+8 to Maximum Stamina
Cold Resist +5%
Poison Resist +5%

belt: Belt of Self-Repair (gambled)
headgear: none
weapon: start weapon
shield: start buckler
amu: none
1. ring: +2 mana
2. ring: +1 energy

Gems:
2*chipped sapphires, 1 chipped ruby, 1 skull
no diamond :sad2:

potions:
3 rejuv + 1 antidote

SCORE: 0
level 20 = -20
quests 5 = 10
wp's 10 = 10

[Horobi]

Forum Name    Character   Char Name     LVL   ACT        WP      Score                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sint          Assassin       Pia        35     A5     Harrogath       39
Horobi        Necro         Rathma      33     A5     Harrogath       38
dune6836      Necro        Rainy_Day    29     A4     Fortress        33
SuperSavage   Amazon       MaryJane     28     A3    Flayer Jungle    22
AlterEgo      Assassin    DoWithout     22     A3     Kurast Docks    19
skunkbelly    Barb       ThunderSkunk   20     A2     Palace 1        12
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
newco         Druid       Haleakala     20     A2     Lut Gholein      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      15     A1     Black Marsh     -2
jiansonz      Druid         Vince       19     A1    Inner Cloister   -3
Billybgame    Sorceress    Willow        8     A1     Cold Plains     -4   
Greyeagle     Amazon       Osprey       15     A1     Dark Wood       -5

Rathma; Necro;
Lvl 33 (-33)
20 Q (+40)
31 Wp (+31)

Total (+38)

Well Act 3 was done relatively quickly. When I reached the Great marsh WP I was only lvl 26 so, at that time I was only able to put 2 new skills in:

+2 Skeleton Mastery (3)

The Swampy pit was nice as a place to collect items (especially mana pots &TP's) but not astonishing. Th only thing I kept as equipment was a 1 os head with +1 to Corpse Explosion. The way to mephisto was walked with ease, only encountering trouble with the counsil (Needed a complete skellie recast). His drop wasn't spectecular, I only kept the light gaunts. Meanwhile I encountered my 4th Gem shrine making my Flawless skull Perfect :grin: .

So I went on in Act 4 wich was quick as usual. Izual wasn't a big problem and bringing him down took very little time. The Hellforge quest was done but without a reward to collect it a bit of a strange quest . When I finally reached the River of Flames WP I was Lvl 32, so I could spent 8 Skills:

+1 Clay Golem
+1 Golem Mastery
+2 Summon Resistence
+4 Skeleton Mastery (7)

And I went on into Chaos Sanctuary, and I must say the drops are very nice here. Since it's a large area with lots of monsters there are lots of drops (TPs :grin: ) But Diablo himself wasn't very nice with his drop . Dropping not one Unique.

My current Eq:

Head: 33 def / +5 Lf
Body: 105 Def
Belt:1 7 def/ +5 Str / +8 Mana / +27 Poisen res.
Weapon: + 1 Summon Skeleton (starter Weapon)
Shield: 9 Def /+1 Corpse Expl. / 1 os
Hands: 10 Def/+2 Str / +14 Fire Res /+8 Poison res / Half freeze dur /+2 Light Radius
Boots:6Def/ +6 Fire Res / +21 Poison Res / 10 FRW / 10% CTC lvl 3 nova / Self repair
Ammy: +4 Nrg / +7 Life / +5 Mana /+10 Stamina /9 MF
Ring #1: 7 Nrg
Ring #2: +3 Life /+22 Mana/ +13 Fire Res/+21 Lightn. Res./ Magic DR 1

Merc:

Helm: 33 Def
Body: 67 Def
Weapon: Razortine (Trident)

Edit: Newco's Table Input

[skunkbelly]

@ skunkbelly: maybe i am a little bit dense, but i would like to ask you for some futher clarifications :scratch: .

>>>>
16. Quest Reward Items: the only quest items you may use are your imbue reward and your personalized item reward. All other reward items may be sold for gold. Non-reward quest items (Gidbinn, etc.) may only be used for their appointed purpose, not equipped. Wirt’s leg may be gathered for the purpose of opening the Secret Cow Level… however, bear in mind that you are only allowed to purchase one tome of town portal… if you use it to access the cow level, you will then have to play without a TP tome!
<<<<

can i use:
act 2 skill tome ?
act 3 + 20 life potion ?
act 3 + 5 stats book ?
act 5 + 10 resi scroll ?
act 5 + socket reward ?
act 5 reward item ?

cheers newco

No problem, and you're not dense... my wording wasn't precise enough. You may not EQUIP any quest reward item, with the exception of the item you imbue, and the item you have personalized. Other quest reward items may be used (the scroll, the book, etc.). The socket quest doesn't give you an item, it modifies an item you already have, so that is no problem either. The remaining rewards are your rings from Akara, Ormus, and the item Anya gives you for rescuing her... these may be sold for gold.