~ Undeadcraft Tournament ~

[Jocular]

GrunkleStan has had a fun first act. Brandishing only a simple axe in his hands, he howls as he attacks his victims one by one in the nude.

I kinda forgot to take pictures along the way...except one of Andy. Act 1 was a breeze though (of course). I've never played a Barbarian in PvM, and I had no idea how much fun using Howl and Taunt could be. I can see how necessary they'll be for crowd control later on, as Beserk won't deal with mobs with the same expediency as whirlwind.

I found surprisingly few runes, only one Tir from the Countess (and only one jewel! Guh). I don't see how I can't rerun areas for runes/gems, as pretty much every single piece of armor I'll need to make myself (and most likely my weapons, too). All of the item mods for GraveGolem are related to +max damage, which doesn't really spawn on armor (shields, circlets are the only two). I'm definitely going to run act 1 shrines to make some Perfect rubies, I need to make a Blood axe and a Blood belt ASAP. Having no belt is probably the most annoying thing I've ever had to deal with in D2, especially as I'm constantly having to use healing potions.

I'm currently using a Broad Axe of Maiming (+3 max), which gives me 21-54 damage. At /p8, my killing speed is already slowing down quite a lot in the beginning of Act 2 so the sooner I can craft a Blood Axe, the better. Thank god for the inherent 35-60%ed on Blood weapons, I would hate to waste a pruby on something that wouldn't be any better than my current. I can see my weapon woes becoming a recurring theme of this build, though thankfully Beserk's insanely high enhanced magic damage% will make it a little easier.

All in all, a very fun start, and I can't wait to start crafting! Really, I can't.

As promised, a picture of Grunkle killing Andy:
http://i.imgur.com/2M29IX7.png

"ALIVE"
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score
AchmelTheCursed   Mummy/Druid/Reaper/Shadow Affinity         pharphis        12     1    4
Katabatic         Vampire/Assassin/Reaper/Shadow Affinity    SunsetVista     1      1    0
JohnnyMnemonic    Banshee/Paladin/PathOfTears/Bonecraft      Mezion          10     1    4
KaldiWintermaid   Wraith/Sorc/Witchcraft/Terror              felixbavaria     1     1    0
GrunkleStan       GraveGolem/Barb/Reaper/Shadow              Jocular         20     2    14
DEAD/RETIRED
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score

I'm in first place!

P.S. As an explanation for GrunkleStan's name, it's from a really cool cartoon called "Gravity Falls". This is the intro. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tctX771EQeA The universe that they're in has supernatural things and such, so I thought it fit the theme. Kinda.

P.S.S. For those that watch cartoons...watch the show. Is good.

[pharphis]

You haven't found an eth belt? Those work too! (and even when broken you can keep the extra slots)

[Jocular]

Sadly I have yet to find an eth belt! I looked and looked, but none have dropped. You might call it frustrating.

[SunsetVista]

"ALIVE"
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score
AchmelTheCursed   Mummy/Druid/Reaper/Shadow Affinity         pharphis        12     1    4
Katabatic         Vampire/Assassin/Reaper/Shadow Affinity    SunsetVista      9     1    6
JohnnyMnemonic    Banshee/Paladin/PathOfTears/Bonecraft      Mezion          10     1    4
KaldiWintermaid   Wraith/Sorc/Witchcraft/Terror              felixbavaria     1     1    0
GrunkleStan       GraveGolem/Barb/Reaper/Shadow              Jocular         20     2   14
DEAD/RETIRED
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score

Wall of text story:

Spoiler

I am awakened. It is cold, so cold.
I hunger, but prey is scarce. I must control the hunger, for in this land beset by the ravages of demons, there are precious few who would help me. And I do need help. Weak from lack of blood, I have chosen to disguise myself as a Mage-hunter. Perhaps I can gain the trust of this small caravan and journey with them until I can find richer hunting grounds than this wasteland.

These weapons are useless. I am better off clawing things to death. That's more fun, anyway.

My disguise is working so far. I nearly did a double-take when Warriv said he wasn't surprised to see 'my kind' here. But then I realized he meant the Assassin. There must be many adventurers come to seek their fortune by slaying the demons. They don't seem to have been very successful though.

'Sightless Eye' indeed. The old seer asked me to kill some demons. She must not be very powerful at all if she can't sense my true nature. But perhaps she does notice that I'm not a very good Assassin. She offered 'training, in the skill of your choice' as a reward for this errand. I think there was a sneer behind her words. If I were stronger, I'd never allow such an insult, but times are hard.

It rains much of the time here. People keep their heads down and don't ask questions. This suits me fine. My initial assessment of this area was correct; it is a wasteland. There are a few burnt out shells of houses, but nothing that could charitably be called a dwelling. All the better to loot the ruins.

The fields are full of zombies and little chittering demons whose blood is tainted by fire. There was only one living sentry, and I knew she'd be missed if anything were to happen to her. Quill rats are distasteful. Still, before I found the cave I was to purge of evil, I'd gathered enough energy to intimidate the merchants into selling me a weapon. A delicious, life draining weapon.

Alright, perhaps I'm exaggerating a little. They didn't really care about anything, except the coin. They watched me enter the camp, like vultures, their eyes glossing over my blood-soaked rags, instead appraising the value of the loot I was likely to carry. Fine, let them have these trinkets.

The cave was dark, it was a nice change from the rain. Zombies are no trouble at all. The carnage was over all too soon, and I reported back to Akara. I let her 'train' me in Psychic Hammer. Funny how everyone is so glad to see me now.

Apparently there is some kind of undead abomination loose in the graveyard. What else is new? More zombies and some skeletons. Bleck. Those demons really don't leave anything behind, do they? Blood Raven was a nice piece of work. It's really too bad I had to destroy her and her army; they could've been useful.

Turns out, it was worth it. Kashya was willing to let me hire a rogue scout. I now have fire arrows at my command. How nice it is to master your fears. Oh, Kyoko. You're so innocent even after all that has happened here. Let's see what we can do about that. Starting with this weapon. This delicious, life draining weapon. For you, my dear. You have to survive out there, right?

Just between you and me, Kyoko has forgotten that she's not getting paid for this.

So now Akara says there's some old Sage imprisoned somewhere, and we need his help to combat this great evil. Off I go to rescue more pathetic humans. Hey, the perks are nice. Maybe I can become some kind of great hero around here so that when I come back, it'll be easy pickings. Not that these people would offer much resistance, but.... As long as their problems can be solved with violence, that's alright with me.

I wonder how the caravan made it through the underground passage. That place was swarming with demons and weak undead. Maybe that's why there are only a few survivors in camp. Lucky I woke up when I did, or there'd be nothing at all to eat. Don't worry, I'll be gentle with Kyoko.

I found a beautiful red stone. I must have more of these!

Demons everywhere I look. Nothing for it but to kill them all. I was not impressed by this ancient tree, or these standing stones. Or this ruin of a town. I was somewhat impressed that the old man still had it in him to shout for help constantly, even though it looked like he was all in one piece. So I let him out of the cage and gave him a scroll to teleport back to camp.

Akara was thrilled to have Cain back. She even gave me a useless, shiny, magic ring. Not bad for the first day. The rain even kept the sun away. I wonder if it was a supernatural storm designed to sap the weak wills of the humans and make them easier prey for the demons. Or maybe it was just rain.

Katabatic, lvl 9, Dark Wood
Gear: 2 Katars of the Leech, ethereal Leather Armor, Ethereal Boots
Kyoko, fire arrows, Short Bow of the Leech

Purity is a lie. I intend to switch player settings and rerun areas as I see fit.

[Jocular]

Sweet write-up Sunset! I can't wait to read more

Another act finished by GrunkleStan. No longer does he run free and wild, and is slowly learning that pants may indeed be a good idea.

Spoiler

Surprisingly, I found Darkglow armor already. A much welcome boost to my defense and resists, and probably will last me until I start finding rubies with any regularity, and at least a higher quality than flawed. Crafting axes will be my priority for a while.
http://i.imgur.com/UoPHLZl.png

And speaking of crafting, to even be able to I had to run some Act 1 shrines to upgrade them. I only had the patience to "make" 3 perfect rubies. One went into an axe, one into a belt (thank god), and one into some gloves. Finally having a belt really improved how much I enjoy playing. Being on the front lines the entire time without a belt full of pots is extremely annoying. Plus, I got some sweet fhr on it too

The crafted Great Axe I made...was alright. The roll for the inherent ed% was pretty nice, 55%, but without any other ed% mod it wasn't too much of an improvement. However, I did get 10% fire resists on it, which is definitely in line with the GraveGolems theme!

Last and definitely least of my crafted items are the gloves. For some reason the mods that rolled on them led to the rlvl being 38. Needless to say, very, very frustrating. The crushing blow I had been hoping to use against Duriel simply would not be there, and I was too disheartened to spend the time to craft another pair.
http://i.imgur.com/SLsmIha.png
http://i.imgur.com/T1y9tUL.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ie1999C.png

As for Act 2, very fun! I dunno why people hate the desert so much, I find it interesting and varied. Partly why I'm enjoying myself so much is being able to use Howl and Taunt to force the enemies to do what I want. If I'm in a particularly sticky situation being attacked by ranged and melee alike, all I need to do is taunt the ranged in close, howl everyone away, and pick off whichever monsters are giving me trouble. It's fun to run through the chaos on the screen, with taunted monsters following me like a train, and howled ones wandering around aimlessly. Definitely a different style of playing compared to what I've done before, even with other crowd control skills on other characters.

Also, isn't the Halls of the Dead usually chock full of Unravelers and their skeletons? The only ones I found was a champion pack, with a particularly annoying Ghostly Hollow one. This was before I had my crafted axe, so my damage was pretty weak. My dps and the merc's was barely overcoming the health regeneration rate, and my moron felt it was necessary to take breaks every once and awhile to attack the other hollow ones. This of course let the regeneration climb back up...etc. The Halls was just weird though, hardly any monsters at all, and all of them were lightning bats or the zombies that leave poison clouds.
http://i.imgur.com/l1lgWtZ.png

The staff and amulet were found without a hitch as well, though I did find my first PI monster in the Maggot Lair. Some Stone Skin Itchies, but he was easy to ditch. Arcane Sanctuary was annoying, as usual, but it thankfully only took me until the third path to get it right! However, using a melee class with no AOE skill, and an axe that is seriously unpowered at /p8, just makes the Arcane Sanctuary a chore more than anything. Especially since there's not really enough room most of the time to use Howl and Taunt to their fullest effect.

I wanted to fight Duriel, one on one, at /p8 settings. I felt that once I had the blood gloves with crushing blow, and a belt with open wounds, my damage output would be more than enough. However, since my blood gloves decided to rebel on me, my fight didn't go as planned. With his Holy Freeze aura, I simply didn't do enough damage, and even with ~450 health, I was getting perilously close to dying much too often. Unless I had an inventory full of purples I wouldn't have been able to survive. I unfortunately had to S/E, and fought him again at /p1. If I was level 30, with 1 into beserk, battle command, and natural resistance (and especially 7 into BO), I think I probably would have been able to take him. But...leveling from 25-30 in the tombs would have taken forever, and I wanted to put Duriel behind me. So I did!

Act 3 should be fun with all the little flayers running around, and I can't wait to finally start using my primary skill-Beserk. The fact that it doesn't work with mana steal, life steal, OR even life tap will definitely be annoying, but GrunkleStan is a GraveGolem! He will persevere.

Also, here are the few other items that I've found that I've had to throw away:
http://i.imgur.com/cq4jaV6.png
http://i.imgur.com/6yF8yJ0.png
http://i.imgur.com/loRNnRJ.png

I reallllly would have liked to be able to use Angelics. I know AR will probably be an issue for me in the future...

"ALIVE"
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score
AchmelTheCursed   Mummy/Druid/Reaper/Shadow Affinity         pharphis        12     1    4
Katabatic         Vampire/Assassin/Reaper/Shadow Affinity    SunsetVista      9     1    6
JohnnyMnemonic    Banshee/Paladin/PathOfTears/Bonecraft      Mezion          10     1    4
KaldiWintermaid   Wraith/Sorc/Witchcraft/Terror              felixbavaria     1     1    0
GrunkleStan       GraveGolem/Barb/Reaper/Shadow              Jocular         26     3   24
DEAD/RETIRED
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score

P.S. Can anyone shed some light on why my gloves have such a high rlvl? I have no idea, and the mods on them don't seem like they'd be anything to necessitate a level 38 requirement...

[felixbavaria]

P.S. Can anyone shed some light on why my gloves have such a high rlvl? I have no idea, and the mods on them don't seem like they'd be anything to necessitate a level 38 requirement...

From the Item Generation Tutorial:

Affixes control the required level of the craft. The formula is rlvl = rlvl(of highest affix) +10 +3x (#of affixes). So if you have a craft with 4 affixes and the highest affix has a required level (rlvl) of 12 your required level for that craft is 12 + 10 + 3*4 = 34. Since character level controls affix level and the # of affixes that can spawn it also controls the rlvl of the craft.

Since your gloves have four affixes, a required level of 16 for the best affix is enough to account for a rlvl of 38. Sadly.

[Mezion]

Very nice stories and crafted items guys
I've been busy the School semester restarting so didn't make any real progress. I'll probably get some time soon.

I like your RP SunsetVista And also your documented experience Jocular. I also like act II, the first 2 maps are so-so but then it get really interesting:

- Oasis enemies are interesting.
- The Tombs are pretty and FULL of undeads. Same for Sewers.
- The Harem is really cool (and as my favorite music in the game), too bad it's short.
- Arcane sanctuary is pretty awesome design right there.
- I have a love/hate relationship with the maggot lair since it kills to many of my (and friends) hc characters. There's always a random Super fast/Extra Strong/*insert your worst element here* Scarab around the corner. And minions and any CC Curse are totally useless there.

[SunsetVista]

I've been busy with other stuff too. Short update:

Spoiler

-----
"Your blood will boil!" screamed the Countess.
"Make my day," I replied, or I would have, if Kyoko hadn't shot the Countess full of arrows before I could.

I think Kyoko would do anything for me now. I may have overdone it.

I've slain many demons today. In gaining strength, I've rediscovered my command of darkness. This will surely be useful.

I made my way to the Monastery, the source of this region's demon troubles. Cain was sure the Demon Queen Andariel was to blame. I had never heard of her, but if my plan was to succeed, she had to die.

This is a fantastic jail. Did the Sisters have this set up or is it entirely demonic? Maybe I can take over when I remove the demons.

I wasn't much for shopping in life, I remember that. Something changed in undeath though. I spent hours looking for a better weapon. It had to be just right. I suppose, I do have hours to spare now.

I overheard Gheed talking with Cain about a fantastic treasure hidden in the desert, some kind of magic box that can transform things. I should go look for it after I take care of this demon. I'm getting stronger with every kill. I have no fear of Andariel's poison.

-----

Katabatic, lvl 13, Inner Cloister
Gear: Wrist Blade of the Leech, Wrist Blade of the Bat, ethereal hard leather armor, eth boots, eth sash, eth skullcap
Kyoko has some eth armor also. She says she doesn't mind the cold.

[Jocular]

So GrunkleStan has progressed quite a bit. I haven't been documenting his progress as much as I'd like, but I'm definitely still enjoying this tourney.

Spoiler

When we last left Grunkle he was about to start picking his way through the endless jungle. And it really is endless with no faster run walk. (Why oh why did I use my perfect emerald to craft a helm rather than some boots...oh well).

It was a surprisingly quick and easy jaunt over to the Spider Cavern. Szark the burning (or whatever he's called) has killed a few of my HC characters here and there. He and his spiders are pretty fast, random with their movement, and hit hard on /p8 cursed or not. I was extra careful in making sure to use War Cry and taunt to make sure I could take him one on one, and it went over easy. Even with ~550 health or so I didn't want to take any chances.

His dead body at my feet!: http://i.imgur.com/p2PJr3U.jpg

With that done came the long walk to the Flayer Dungeon. Nothing was really strong enough to put Grunkle in danger, just the flayers were annoying as hell as I have no way to kill more than one at a time. Nothing of interest happened.

Stormtree was dealt with in quick time as well. A War Cry to start out the battle, and then let my moron take the hits for me.

I had just (happily) gotten used to using taunt to keep the Thrashers from using frenzy when I met a champion pack of them. Eurgh. I did not want to get caught in the middle of them with my grand total of 17%fhr. Luckily they all aggro-d against me rather than my merc...so I just ran around while he slowly poked them to death.
http://i.imgur.com/4WXkX0O.jpg

An action shot of taunt being used against some thrashes!: http://i.imgur.com/D7VLmS4.png

I guess the Council was too intense for me to take any screenies of it, because I don't remember it very well. I do remember slowly drawing them out one by one as going in there guns blazing with only ~20 fire/lightning resistance simply wasn't an option.

Once the Council was dead and done with, all we had was Mephisto! And what an anti-climactic boss he was. Didn't put a fight at all really. I don't remember the /p setting, but I think I took it down the /p3 for the fight. Nothing of importance dropped, or at least nothing I could use given Grunkle's restrictions.
Grunkle in all his Berserker glory: http://i.imgur.com/OLVHVUr.jpg

Sadly, I have only picture from Act 4: http://i.imgur.com/oPLjDMu.jpg

Izzy, a long battle as always. Don't remember how long it took, but it was annoying that he never really took to attacking my merc as much as I would've liked. The Gloams didn't bother me too much, at this point I was nearing 700 life and with level 2 natural resistance I could take many hits before I needed to turn tail and run. Plus, taunt again is ridiculously useful. All they have as a melee attack is a wimpy slap, so I would just taunt all that were on screen and let them follow me while I attacked the other monsters.

Hephasto could have been a problem at /p8, but I made sure to let my merc take the hits instead of Grunkle. Unfortunately I didn't get rubies or emeralds from my hellforge :( I guess I'll have to stick to gem shrine running still.

The Chaos Sanctuary could have been annoying or a little dangerous as a melee character if not for...yep War Cry and Taunt. Honestly with these two skills I have so much power over the monsters it's ridiculous. The Oblivion Knights unfortunately can't be taunted, but it wasn't too bad even with decrepify on. I took Diablo at /p3, and had a couple times where I came a little closer to death than I would've liked. However, it was a very relaxed boss fight. I just used berserk, and ran away if he looked like he might use his Lightning Hose or Firestorm. Again, nothing of note came from his demise, and Grunkle entered Act V, sorely wishing for a new axe.

I put off Shenk for a few days. I absolutely hate the first area of Act V, the walk to Shenk feels like forever, especially since everything looks the same on the way up.

I did have some fun with the barbarians mercenaries that were walking aimlessly around: http://i.imgur.com/MGsiM1Q.jpg

With BO/Shout they actually fare relatively well against the monsters at /p8, and at one point I had 5 of them with me It was kinda sad that their combined damage did roughly the same dps as mine. Sad for me, and definitely sad for them. (An axe! An axe! My kingdom for a [good] crafted axe!)

I still haven't killed Shenk yet actually, once he was in sight I simply walked past him to the way-point. Grunkle shall behead him soon, just not tonight.

"ALIVE"
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score
AchmelTheCursed   Mummy/Druid/Reaper/Shadow Affinity         pharphis        12     1    4
Katabatic         Vampire/Assassin/Reaper/Shadow Affinity    SunsetVista      9     1    6
JohnnyMnemonic    Banshee/Paladin/PathOfTears/Bonecraft      Mezion          10     1    4
KaldiWintermaid   Wraith/Sorc/Witchcraft/Terror              felixbavaria     1     1    0
GrunkleStan       GraveGolem/Barb/Reaper/Shadow              Jocular         34     5   42
DEAD/RETIRED
Character Name----Type/Class/Path/Talent---------------------Forum Name----Level--Act--Score

[pharphis]

Well, reached level 17 after clearing Tower, Black Marsh and the Hole. That makes 17 points into Poison creeper thus far
It works super well. Also, found a beryl hunter's bow, so the merc now has a weapon,a nd I also found 2 rings of greed to go witha GC and SC of greed, so hopefully I'll be able to gamble for boots of luck a bit more frequently. My GC of Greed adds cold damage, which is absolutely wonderful! It really adds another level of safety, even if i'm only using a single target attack.