The Compilation Tournament- Game Thread

[jiansonz]

First update for me.

Fiera the fledgling sorc had a start like so many other sorcies I´ve played. Whacking with staff, then Scepter (bought a nice +1 Superior with two sockets and no expensive Pally staffmods). Javelin (rare, but not so good) on switch. Pumped STR until level 7 so she could wear a Ring Mail, then the rest in Vitality so far. I want about 200 life to feel safe for most of Normal (and about 300 in acts 4-5). I am probably going to skip DEX completely, as this is a character that is not going to be in the thick of things.

Lightning is at level 6 or so now. I have only tried it once, taking down a Devilkin Shaman in Pit level 2. That took 4-5 shots and all of her mana! So it's a useless mana hog this far but I am sure it improves later. How is it these days, does Lightning benefit from FCR or is the casting speed still dependant on weapon speed? And secondly, if it does benfit from FCR, is it worth it to sacrifice +skills and/or survival mods for faster casting speed? I mean, Sorcies have pretty good inherent casting speed and I am only going to use Ligthning when the situation is reasonably under control (distance to enemies, or with a tanking merc that holds the front). The shots at that Shaman went quite quickly and I am a player who has never felt any FCR needs for my Teleports. Also, my other main skill is timered. In short, I question the usefulness of FCR for this character.

Since Enchant is a prereq for Hydra, I may as well take advantage of that invested skill point. My archer companion Visala sure likes it!

My empty item slot is a ring slot. I have only found one ring with MF, and all my other rings that look like that are complete crap. Empty ring may be the endgame solution as well, or I may skip the weapon switch.

Terrible topaz luck! Only 4 chippies found when I am entering the Barracks.


Fiera the Lightning/Hydra Sorceress and Visala the Fire Rogue, level 18, Barracks next.


(Btw, my merc's name immediately made me think of this creature...)

[Drystan]

Lightning/CL do benefit from FCR, but the percentages are different to the rest.
With Charged bolt, fireball, Glacial etc, the FCR breakpoints are 63 and 105 (and 200.)
For Light/Chain, I'm not sure of the lower breakpoint (google = 52 and 78,) before reaching the upper breakpoints of 117 and then 194.

As to whether it's worth aiming for them, especially later, as you know it depends entirely on your finds, gear etc. But for tourneys, survival/safety gear/strategy is key. Killing things faster should always secondary.

Source

[pharphis]

Since you don't find the higher cast rates that important, you might want to consider the lower ones, still. They're in that table that Drystan linked, which I'm pretty sure is accurate as I've used it many times with a few different characters.

Do you use teleport when in combat? Say to position your merc or move about for lightning? If so, my suggestion would be to at least get a few items with fcr. 2 rings with other res mods are usually pretty easy, anyway.

[One nOOb to rule them all]

Forum Name	Char Name	Class/Build	Progress	Level
Malevolent			Act1 -N
pharphis
one nOOb to rule them all	WillBeDeadSoon	Berserk Barb	Act3 Q1	29
Jason Maher
djmbbandie	Insanum	Necro/Bone only	A1-Q3	12
TrubbaNot	Melange	Sorc - Enchanting Charged Boltress	Act1Normal at Stony WP (just defeated Blood Raven)	9
jiansonz
RuddyC	Kofi_BinEntilif	NoVita Ranger	A1-Q5	16

Made it to act 3, been kind of neglecting this guy and been spending all my time leveling my zon got to Lv95 today. I still seem to be farther than everyone else who reported though so I don't feel bad about it I guess.

[jiansonz]

Do you use teleport when in combat? Say to position your merc or move about for lightning? If so, my suggestion would be to at least get a few items with fcr. 2 rings with other res mods are usually pretty easy, anyway.

Merc positioning, absolutely. Plus my whole gameplay with sorcs in the late game is based on backwards teleporting at the first sight of an enemy (usually resulting in splitting up packs (even boss packs) into 2-3 chunks of manageable sizes)).

A few items, eh? But...

For Light/Chain, I'm not sure of the lower breakpoint (google = 52 and 78,)

I need to reach 52% FCR to see any improvement?

[pharphis]

Just find a ring with 52% :P
Stealth is an easy armor to get, but I guess you wouldn't us that until hell, at which point you're going to want something better than stealth, anyway. I was jist thinking it isn't too hard to get at least 10 or 20 fcr from your rings so that you can not have to focus too hard on your other pieces of equipment.

[felixbavaria]

I need to reach 52% FCR to see any improvement?

According to this post you need 7% to get from 19 to 18 frames. ;-)

[Drystan]

LoL - My bad. I didn't look at the very low end ones, as I'm used to Spirit giving around 30%, which really isn't far from the breakpoints I mentioned. I forgot you were Vanilla, thus may've been interested in the extreme lower end when items like Spirit aren't accessible. The links felix and I posted list all of the breakpoints, including those very low ones.

Sorc Breakpoints

Faster Cast Rate
FCR %       FPC
0           13
9           12
20          11
37          10
63          9
105         8
200         7

Lightning / Chain Lightning Faster Cast Rates    
FCR %       FPC
0           19
7           18
15          17
23          16
37          15
52          14
78          13
117         12

For some reason, formatting of copy/pastes in code boxes has disappeared... :/

[jiansonz]

Thanks for the info.

I am actually not Vanilla in 1.13 anymore, but I have banned my characters from using Spirit in swords. Mercs are allowed to use them, though. Those poor Iron Wolf dudes need all the help they can get.


Used a bit more Lightning (against river hydras the merc can't reach). So it's at 19 frames now? That's feels plenty good enough for me.



Fiera has reached Lower Kurast now (with both optional dungeons left to do) and is doing great, but I am sorry to say that this character will soon be out of this tournament. I simply can not cope with the rule about not being allowed to buy TP scrolls. Managed to get this far by using mostly the WPs in Act II for selling trips so I could save up a good TP stock for the jungle. 13 scrolls left now.

I just can not bring myself to leave valuable stuff on the ground, and I will get bored to tears by running to a faraway WP up to 5 times after a big fight to haul stuff to sell. Running will make up >95% of the gameplay ahead if I am going to stick with selling what I want. I am simply not having fun when my characters do not get the wealth they deserve. And it's only going to get worse in Nightmare (more good stuff to sell, and with an inventory mostly full of charms!). I had the feeling from the beginning but the jungle parts really drove home the point of how fast i burn through the scrolls. Sorry but that rule killed my interest in the tourney.

When I am out, I will still adhere to all the other perks in the tourney and I will still write out-of-competition updates.

[TrubbaNot]

Aww now I feel badly about that rule... sorry!