Tournament: Vanilla - A Legacy of Destruction

[Clersius]

... took down Brutus, by running around in circles and shooting:)

Hee hee! Yes, that is what I found to be most effective as well. Once she had a few percent of Faster Run/Walk, it worked out pretty well.

It is a challenging game, though, and you have to play carefully, I found. I like that...

I agree! It was nice, in a way, to have my ass being (almost) handed to me time and time again. Though I will say that, currently, Eastern Sun is challenging for me in much the same way - learning Hell difficulty is quite the adventure!

Though it is too bad that there is not a single-player offline version of the game (thinking of modding, of course), I am encouraged at their current level of involvement in their project. If that continues, even on a more limited scale, the game has the potential to be an ever-changing-and-evolving creature, and that will keep it alive (and interesting!) for as long as they pay attention to it.

If you happen to notice when they announce another Open Beta, please let me know!

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

Act IV was a breeze, of course. Not even Diablo was a threat, which was encouraging.

Act V was also easy-breezy, up until Baal's cronies hit the scene. Namae finally broke down and did a lot of the dstoning for which she had been stockpiling resources all this time. She bolstered her life and her percent Damage Reduction, as well as the merc's life, leech, %DR, and Deadly Strike. She also replaced his Gemworded gloves with The Hand of Broc gloves - she had nothing better, believe it or not. They did have a little leech and lots of room for Obsidian melding, however, which boosted his survivability all the more. After that, the only time his life dropped was from Andy's poison. Oops, not true. It also dropped when fighting the unleechable Mephisto clones.

Anyway, Namae has defeated Baal and finished Act V. Act VI should prove... quite interesting!

Bonne chance a vous tous.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    731   394   3.1    3487
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 71)    272   220   2.2    1082
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 56)    133   114   2.6     642
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP

ps - For anyone who has acquired a Gul decal, be aware that the Vanilla Tourney Scoring sheet will count that decal twice in the LIC score. It includes it as a Green rune for 25 points, which is correct, and again as an Orange rune for 20 more points, which is incorrect. I changed the calculating formula in my sheet, and would be happy to explain how to do so to anyone not familiar with spreadsheet programs. Again, though, this should only be necessary if you acquire a Gul decal.

[Billybgame]

Wow Clersius.....kudos.....making it through Hell and beating Ball is no small feat. Level 89, as well. Hats off. Was your Amazon the Javazon or was that someone else? If so, you outdid every Javazon I tried.

[Clersius]

Thank you for your kind words, sir. Yes, Namae is a Javazon. She maxed out Pyre, Plague, Frost, and LF, and is now dumping all remaining points into Jab to further synergize them. Remember, though, that from the time she left Nightmare, she has been strictly a /players 1 girl. Even so, it was a good feeling to beat Hell Baal for the first time!

Perhaps after her tourney run I can give her some real gear and see how much trouble she can get into with that. I've been putting off starting Act VI - I have little confidence that she can pull that off...

[the_bogan]

Nice work Clersius

Zerker went through the Domain on players 1, just to speed things up since decent leveling wasn't gonna happen.

Now, back to act 2 nightmare.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    731   394   3.1    3487
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 71)    272   220   2.2    1082
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 57)    152   128   2.6     728
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP

[Clersius]

Thanks, Bog! Right back at you. Good luck with the remainder of Nightmare.

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

Namae took the plunge into Act VI this afternoon. First, she cleared out the Moo Moo Farm just to see how well she could handle it. It was ok, but different groups of cows having different immunities was a drag, as it really slows down the killing. No problems, though. Ghost cows were more uniform, but cowboys are annoying in the extreme, no matter how you slice it. The Marsh of Pain waypoint only took about six minutes to find, which was quite fortunate. Bookstore Sarina was uneventful.

Naraku was where things started getting dangerous, but extreme caution paid off - Decoy is simply indispensible!! She created several thousand duplicates of herself whilst working her way down to the depths of Nihlathak's demented dimension. Those Ghost Izual packs were super-mean, but they never managed to close with her, so she survived. The Valkyrie is a tad bit brittle (thanks understatement!), and also had to be recast dozens of times, but she was enough of a distraction to make it well worth the effort.

There was a nice little party of baddies waiting at the bottom of the stairs into Nihl's Domain proper, so Namae threw a volley of Plague Javelins in their faces and ran back up said stairs. After a count of ten, she cautiously descended again just as they dropped dead of their festering wounds. Three cheers for the Black Plague?

Nikartana the Mangler was not dropping all that quickly, so Namae hauled her party back to town to pick up a few extra accoutrements. She rummaged about in the trash her stash, pulling out an extra 14% Crushing Blow in the form of small and large charms, along with two grand charms and a large charm all containing various amounts of elemental absorbs. As well, she took a deep breath and allocated 50 of her 75 available stat points into energy for another large boost in elemental damage. The other 25 stat points she dumped into vitality, putting her at 5100+ life with Battle Orders. Her trusty sidekick has just under 11k life with Battle Orders.

Back into the pit of Hell she went, summarily dispatching Nikartana, then Ghost Lister and his pack of ne'er-do-wells, followed by Magmajuggler. Without her Dwarf Star ring and those charms she had just picked up, Magmajuggler would have eaten her for breakfast. 15% Fire Absorb plus 82 straight Fire Absorb really made a difference.

Fatalstorm was not too bad a fight. She used the same tactics that she had employed in Normal and Nightmare difficulties, stringing his minions out so that her party could fight them one or two at a time. She then worked her way up the right side of Shadow Harrogath inch by inch, clearing out the riffraff while trying to stick a few Plague Javelins into the Wannabe Nihlathaks when she could. They were putting up a pretty serious defensive front, however, sending out constant and overlapping Bone Waves interspersed with exploding corpses. She decided to back off and try to approach them from the rear to see if that would be any less dangerous.

Of course, that meant waking up Metalspark, about whom she had, by this time, completely forgotton. No problem, though... as soon as the pack started moving, she retreated to allow them to string out in a more manageable arrangement. Her Lightning Absorb, at +39, was not nearly as high as her Fire Absorb, and she briefly considered stealing back the +11 LA jewel that her merc was using (for the %max life that it also had on it), but blew it off as involving too much work. More than three of Mr. Fuseless' minions on screen at the same time was severely unhealthy for her, but three or less she could manage with a potion every once in a while. She really did expect Metalspark to be the end of the line - even if he didn't kill her, she didn't expect to be able to take him down. While it did take a bit of work, he fell eventually and the path was clear to try sneaking up on Nihlathak from the rear.

It turned out to be a good idea to come around from the other side, as not all of them could, at the same time, train their Bone Waves on her helpers the way they could from the other direction. She would cast her Decoy, kill the newly summoned pig-demons, then wait for the corpses to explode. When they did, she advanced her Decoy and moved up a bit to get her merc and Valk to move up as well. Once she was almost in Plague Javelin range of a Wannabe Nihlathak, she could put her Decoy to one side or the other of him, which distracted him long enough to move up, stick him with some mega-poison, and move back to a safe operating distance. This didn't actually take too long, and Nihlathak himself was not difficult at all once he was alone. Act VI completed!! Huzzah! Feels good.

I know that this was all done on p1, but I was simultaneously surprised and elated at how well the merc performed during Act VI! His ~75% DR, solid life, 75% resists, and 53% LL meshed together to keep him alive the entire time. His life dropped below 80% just once - when he leveled to 89.

As to the subject of scoring components, Namae has so far collected all of the white, red, yellow, and orange LoD runes, as well as a Gul and a Ber. She has fashioned 35 Normal Unique LoD items and 22 Exceptional Unique LoD items, none of which are weapons. She wasted five Exceptional Coupons on making an Elite Coupon, and found one Elite Coupon (not that Elite Coupons themselves are scoring items - just thought I'd mention it...). Lacking a way to efficiently farm any area in Acts IV, V, or VI in Hell difficulty, she has little hope of creating any Elite LoD Unique items, but I doubt that will hurt her too much - It seems unlikely that anyone in this tournament will be creating many, if any, of those. I am quite pleased that Namae managed to break 4k points

Good luck to the rest of you!

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 71)    272   220   2.2    1082
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 57)    152   128   2.6     728
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP

[the_bogan]

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 71)    272   220   2.2    1082
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP

I really need to upgrade my weapon. Still using an upgraded Axe of Fechmar, socketed with a perfect diamond and a blemished sapphire.
Rather than kill the normal monsters, I've taken to occasionally leaping over them to get to my targets. (I can't believe no boss packs of flesh golems in the arcane sanctuary). Picked up a couple more basic coupons, one day I might finish off a few more.

[Nameless]

I have uploaded a new version of the Excel sheet to the Wiki (Diary_Nameless page).
I have added a Line for the unique Crystal Sword Azurewrath and tables to keep track of the Quests/Waypoints, the LGM and to calculate the total score.

There is a small rule change:
Exceptional items now count 6 points rather than 5.
I made this change because I put 6 in the Excel sheet. So if you used the sheet to keep track of the items you found, nothing changes (unless you fixed the formula yourself).

Cudos Clerius, that's quite an achievement.
It's going to take DeathBlossom a while to catch up (if she ever does), especially since I can't really play more than an hour or two per day.

Before she tackled the NM Domain, DeathBlossom did Hell A1 and Radament, then she went back to the NM Domain, which she cleared with little difficulty at /p1 (I only tackle bosses areas on /p1 unless I absolutely have to).

After that DeathBlossom went back to Hell to do the desert part of A2 and to collect the Horadric Staff (playing mostly on /p3). After that she decided to return to NM (mostly the A5 Lava levels, which are my favorite farming area) to gear up for a bit. Hell is still a bit to scary, her health dropped to <20% on several occasions (mostly when fighting unleechable monsters). She needs a bit better gear before advancing further.
So far she found AS#39 shortly after finally gambling the lv75 Amazon Ammy (which required 15 to 20 mill to gamble). Putting the Annihilation aura on my merc's Ammy makes a lot of difference.
She'll stay in NM at least until she can also gamble the Druid Ammy for the Vigor aura.
The other thing she'd really like to do is to get AS#29 and #30 and finally cube all the ring/ammy and jewel points in her rerolling orb up into unique jewels.

She crafted new weapons when she reached A2 Hell (a Deagon Spear for herself and a Lithe Blade for the merc). The current crafts are both pretty crappy, but at least they are on elite weapons and fast ones at that (without a Fanat aura and CBF that's a must).

DeathBlossom and her merc both recently equipped one more LoD item, but those won't count for the LGM score until they defeat Duriel.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 86)    451   309   2.3    1748
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP

[Lucifer666]

Congrats Clersius!!!

Really good progress you made...I'll be updating my score soon too...

[misfulness]

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 86)    451   309   2.3    1748
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16

Hello everyone. I will start to play in this tourn..
Edit. I just do some levels with my new barb..

[Nameless]

DeathBlossom finished up on NM. Forging Annihilation and Vigor on the Ammys plus a few other gear improvements made a big difference and she is now much more sturdy than when she first started Hell, even though her life didn't increase all that much (4k after BO, compared to 3.3k). Damage output could be better (27k max Dragon Blade) but it's enough to play on /p3 (except for act bosses). She finished A3, but hasn't started A4 yet, currently running mainly Countess (got a Fal and an Io; now has all LoD runes up to Fal plus Ist) and Hall of the Dead for DStones. She'll probably stay with this for a bit before starting A4.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 93)    741   511   2.7    3380 RIP
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16

And another RIP. DeathBlossom was farming in the Marsh of Pain, gearing up to tackle Baal, DFlighed into a bosspack Dozeamons (the Zombie types) and died practically instantly. They had a Might aura, but it's still a bit strange, she has been running the MoP for a while now and rarely had any problems and now this.

I don't know if anybody is still playing, I found another bug in the Excel sheet: the Gul rune is counted for both Orange and Green runes.

[Lucifer666]

I took as it seems a prolonged brake from this game...Sorry people,I'll be back soon enough... When every char you make is powning it gets kinda boring so I decided to chill out for a while...I will NOT retire my char...I will be back to ES SOON...Just though to let you guys and girls(if there are any here actually) know of this...

[Nameless]

I'll give it one more try. This time I'll take it slow with a Farmer. Meet JuJu (short for "Jupiter Junior") a PfE, Holy Bolt, Fist of the Heavens Pally.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 93)    741   511   2.7    3380 RIP
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16
Nameless        JuJu         (Pal, 1)       1     0   1.0       1 

[Clersius]

Sorry to hear about DeathBlossom's sudden demise, Nameless. Did she have any Damage Reduction through skills/gear? I'm still smarting over Trepid's sudden death, and have a growing suspicion that it had to do with lack of mitigation...

I wish you well with JuJu! At the risk of disappearing even further into your shadow, I will admit that I had been planning on going the Paladin route for my last attempt as well, though Namae assures me that she has no plans to shuffle off her mortal coil! I am eager to witness your progress with JuJu.

Looking forward to your return as well, Luci... good luck!

[Nameless]

DeathBlossom had >100% DR from Shade Armor, at least 24 straight DR (4 PObsidian Armor) and about 40k Defense. The biggest reason was probably her Life, about 4.2k after BO. She was still waiting for her final gear for several item slots and I don't like to dstone gear that I'll discard soon.
I didn't count, but it was a small pack (4 or 5), most (or all) of them must have hit her simultaneously.

JuJu is doing well so far (lv 33, late A3, score of about 100), it's still a bit of a hassle to keep his Mana orb full when he uses FotH against stronger monsters, but the situation is improving slowly. He'll probably get his first piece of final gear very soon: Chance Guards (one coupon already dropped and I'll soon have enough duplicate coupons to make a Wildcard). IMHO these are the best LoD gloves, hands down, short of the Elite gloves (Soul Drainers, Draculs).

Javazons are great Farmers as well (I used one in at least one tourney), my main concern with her is the lack of a high damage single target skill for the (Domain) bosses.

[Clersius]

That's a lot of %DR. I have to wonder, then, if it is possible to safeguard a melee character from death under any circumstances, much less in a limited-equipment tournament setting. If the baddies are doing 1k damage through DR, then even a moderate pack of ten could potentially (and easily) slaughter a 10k character. I guess, then, that even melee characters need to always be played as flankers and skirmishers rather than "waders." But wading into the thick of things is where DeathBlossom shone, right? So what would the alternative be for that build?

Good to hear that JuJu is making a name for himself. Chance Guards, eh? The only glove in either the Normal or Nightmare categories for which Namae never found a coupon. I would think that you would want even a moderate 5% leeching to bolster JuJu's totals for the later difficulties, rather than have to expend D-Stoning power on such. Please, expand my knowledge!

Your concern with Javazons boss-killing power is a bit confusing to me. A great farmer (at least in this tournament) cares little for being able to repeatedly kill bosses, correct? Being a ranged attacker, the ability for a quick take-down of a boss was never a priority or an issue for Namae. It did indeed take her some time to execute not only the Domain bosses, but also Baal and even his minions. However, once she had made her Barbarian compatriot into a Brick Wall of Stoutness (at least on p1), it didn't matter if it took her an hour to kill something - she was safe as kittens. After she had successfully finished/found her Q&W, there was absolutely no need whatsoever for her to ever revisit those bosses.

She farmed gold (for gems) and Ancient Decipherer points in Nightmare, and after that the only things she really needed to farm were sources of Coupons and Decals, both of which are much more quickly obtained through mass slaughter than through boss drops (even factoring in the occasional jackpot). That, at least, is my understanding of the situation. However, I wish for my understanding to, you know, actually reflect reality, so I am eager to learn why a great farmer needs to be able to quickly and/or repeatedly take down major bosses!

ps - Pardon me for splitting that infinitive, but the statement reads much more forcefully (and humorously) than when it isn't split.

[Nameless]

%DR is capped at 50% (like Resists are capped at 75%), except that there is no mod to increase the cap. Having up to 130% DR makes some sense, with 130% you'll still hit the cap when Amped, which makes you effectively imune to the Amp curse.

The only way a character could become really immune to damage would be crazy amounts of straight DR (or MDR for Elemental damage). This much DR isn't feasible, but medium amounts are useful against some skills that hit many times with small damage amounts (especially Sandstorm and Tornado). The ES version of Sacrifice adds a huge amount of straight DR while attacking (like Concentrate adds Defense) making you effectively invulnerable while you attack.

Usually making a melee character "unkillable" involves a combination of %DR, straight DR, leech and lots of life. Enough life to stay alive until she gets a hit in and leeches back the lost life. Blade Shield is a big help here since it leeches, so whenever you are surrounded by monsters, it will leech periodically.

For me a VERY important other component is a crowd control skill to keep the monsters from attacking (Mind Blast or War Cry). DeathBlossom usually stunnded mobs with Mind Blast before wading in, this time I mashed the wrong button and cast DFlight before Mind Blast.

The main attraction of Chance Guards is the 200% GF (that's 20 DStonings worth of GF), which is a huge amount on a single item, especially on a minor slot.
JuJu is a caster, so he doesn't really have much use for leech.

I wouldn't farm bosses with a Javazon anyway, but I don't really like it when a bossfight takes more than a few minutes, especially if you can't be sure if the boss isn't regenerating more than I can dish out. The merc can usually hold his own easily (with decent gear), except against act/domain bosses. I've had mercs whose life bar didn't budge from full against normal monsters (including regular bosspacks) die in one hit from a special boss.

[Lucifer666]

What a Moron I was,there I was in the Wilderness when it suddenly crosed my mind that maybe I had enough Wild Cards to sacrifice to improve my equip a little,and I go back to Camp to find what??? Two Normal Coupons of Tarnhelm!!!And I was wearing thru whole Normal and Nightmare with a stinking magic Helmet!!! I immediately upgraded...After I beat Hell Andariel I'll be back...Muahahahaha...

[Nameless]

I really should update the table, JuJu has about 1450 points, which puts him in 3rd place. He started doing the NM Special Areas yesterday.

Not all that much to say about his progress, most of it was pretty standard. The biggest danger was actually Normal Diablo, but that was mainly my own fault: By that time JuJu was using mainly FotH, so his weapon/shield combo had PfE staffmods (he didn't have any FotH staffmod items yet) with Holy Bolt staffmod items on the switch for bosskilling. His resists were maxed for the battle against Diablo... but only on his main gear). When he switched to Holy Bolt, big D's Lightning Hose hurt bad. But he perserved, emptying all the pots in his belt.

He postponed the Domain until after he had killed NM Duriel, by that even the Domain bosses presented little problem.

The main reason I'm writing this now is that he got some incredible luck yesterday:

LoD Decal drops has been pretty meh, now he got quite a cluster: A Fal day before yesterday and yesterday a Ko and a Lum on the last clear of the Act 3 areas before starting the special areas (MoP).

And then, after a clear of the Lost Farm, he reached level 77 and started gambling for the lv 75 ammys for eventual aura forging.
Set the gamble filter to Pally items (I decided JuJu will go with Cleansing (mainly for the healing from the Prayer synergy) and Vigor (for the merc) auras) and start a new game. He got the BlackKnights Holy Signet on the very first try.
Reset the gamble filter to Druid items, start a new game. Check the shops for javlins, like on every game since starting NM, and Malah has a javlin with +11 BO! He'll need to pair it up with a shield with lots of +Dex (jewels), but so what?

[Nameless]

I really should update the table, JuJu has about 1450 points, which puts him in 3rd place. He started doing the NM Special Areas yesterday.

Not all that much to say about his progress, most of it was pretty standard. The biggest danger was actually Normal Diablo, but that was mainly my own fault: By that time JuJu was using mainly FotH, so his weapon/shield combo had PfE staffmods (he didn't have any FotH staffmod items yet) with Holy Bolt staffmod items on the switch for bosskilling. His resists were maxed for the battle against Diablo... but only on his main gear). When he switched to Holy Bolt, big D's Lightning Hose hurt bad. But he perserved, emptying all the pots in his belt.

He postponed the Domain until after he had killed NM Duriel, by that even the Domain bosses presented little problem.

The main reason I'm writing this now is that he got some incredible luck yesterday:

LoD Decal drops has been pretty meh, now he got quite a cluster: A Fal day before yesterday and yesterday a Ko and a Lum on the last clear of the Act 3 areas before starting the special areas (MoP).

And then, after a clear of the Lost Farm, he reached level 77 and started gambling for the lv 75 ammys for eventual aura forging.
Set the gamble filter to Pally items (I decided JuJu will go with Cleansing (mainly for the healing from the Prayer synergy) and Vigor (for the merc) auras) and start a new game. He got the BlackKnights Holy Signet on the very first try.
Reset the gamble filter to Druid items, start a new game. Check the shops for javlins, like on every game since starting NM, and Malah has a javlin with +11 BO! He'll need to pair it up with a shield with lots of +Dex (jewels), but so what?

edit:
And I got a Gul decal, now I just need the ES rune to make the rune...

Somebody asked a while back:
You can find Exceptional Coupons in Normal Special areas, of course the drop rate is pretty low.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 93)    741   511   2.7    3380 RIP
Nameless        JuJu         (Pal, 77)    290   317   2.4    1456 
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16

edit:
Juju just defeated the Hell Ancients and is up to ~3550 points.
Drops have been interesting...
Only 5 unique charms so far, any those were only Perfect Cells and Yello Jellos. So, 2 All Skill forgings and a Vet charm. (an AS reroll gave me #49. Also #48, but no Deviant Cell to use it on yet, and not nearly enough unique jewels either.)
I used the Elite Unique Stone to make AS#29 to get at least a few unique jewels, still waiting on #39 for the Aura forging, though...

Decal drops have been pretty good in the last few days, though. The Gul and Vex are still waiting for the ES rune, I'm not desperate enough to start up/downgrading ES Runes to make them yet. Also, an Ohm and a Sur decals dropped and have been made into ES runes. Now I'm only a Mal short of making a "Call to Arms" for the Switch Weapon slot and upping the LGM to 3.1.

The last item slot for the LGM is the merc's second ring (still using a magic ring with 9% LL), I have 2 coupons each of rings 4, 6 and 7, we'll have to see which drops first...

And JuJu just got his first (as far as I remember) coupon jackpot: a Flayer boss in the Gidibin area dropped it: 1 normal and 5 execptional coupons.

[Lucifer666]

Took my Assassin last night for a spin of the Nightmare Special Areas...In Poppy Farm I run into a Fanaticism Extra Strong Boss Pack...had to run away...man...with BO and BC from my merc I have around 1900 Life...without those I have around 1200...hhehee...guess it's just a matter of time before something puts me six feet under...Cows on the other hand ware a piece of cake on p/7...damn...guess I gotta start building my life a little...so long all my collected DStones...

[Nameless]

...And King JuJu takes the lead!

All Quests & Waypoints done, except for Hell Nilhatak.
Decal drops have been pretty good, all White, Red (though I had to downgrade another Decal to make a Thul rune) and Yellow Runes. Two Orange, all three Green and two Gold (Sur and Jah) runes.
84 Normal Uniques and 13 Exceptional uniques (and a few Elite Coupons). Recently I got the second Gilded Shield coupon, only 8 more random Coupons and I can make a second Wildcard and a Herald of Zakarum.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Nameless        JuJu         (Pal, 93)    761   616   3.0    4131 
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 93)    741   511   2.7    3380 RIP
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 58)    141   177   2.5     795
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16

[Lucifer666]

God damn man...Congratulations!!!

EDIT:

Decided that it is time to enter Hell...first Jewel that dropped for me was a Lady Eboshi's Greed Unique...talk about luck eh???My Merc died a dozen times before rescuing Cain,every time a pack of archers would take him down in no time...I barely survived...heck I still have less than 2000 health with BO so,yea...will be farming Hell Act 1 for a while...it's more worth than endless farming of Nightmare at least for me...I raised my score a little,but will update when I'm done with Andy...I'm missing only one Ring on my char and Ring and Ammy on my Merc for max LGM...Also a AS 30 dropped on me,and first Unique Jewel I rolled was also a Lady Eboshi!!!Lucky me,I now have two and I barely started Hell...oh and one Maple...

Edit 2:Damn...forgot that my merc is still using Mighty Gloves...so 4 more items for me...

Edit 3: hehehe...The Countess has fallen for my sweet charms...I figure to risk it and bend her to my will a couple more times since the wicked mistress had dropped me a stinking Shi rune...in Hell...damn Her to all Eternity!!!

Also,found a Magic Lithe Blade...Crafted and got 40% IAS amongst other things...Merc Converted,and with some dmg Jewels,looks real decent for my Helper...definitelly decent upgrade from a stinking Crafted Flamberge...

[Billybgame]

Ok.....gave Samurai a very long break, as I started on my immense backlog of other games(started Nox and Icewind Dale and continued Torchlight), but we got him back to work today. Act 2 NM is done. Didn't get to add any vanilla uniques in act 2.....didn't see one coupon today, on my way to Duriel, either. Ah, well, at least we live for my least favorite, act 3.

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Nameless        JuJu         (Pal, 93)    761   616   3.0    4131 
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 93)    741   511   2.7    3380 RIP
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 79)    306   142   2.5    1120
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 60)    187   185   2.5     930
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16

[Lucifer666]

Well...I beat Andy on p/5!!!We will soon procede to Act 2 of Hell...

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Nameless        JuJu         (Pal, 93)    761   616   3.0    4131 
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 93)    741   511   2.7    3380 RIP
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 87)    406   180   2.8    1640
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 60)    187   185   2.5     930
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16

[Billybgame]

Onward we go....NM Mephisto is dead....p3 wasn't really a problem....been doing NM on p5.

Base upped my maul, so that helped a lot. The logjam cleared, after a long spell with hardly any coupons. They started dropping like flies and now we're wearing two more. Will probably rest here and try to do some runs....knowing me, I won't last long at that:)

Code: Select all

Player          Name (Char, Lvl)          Q&W   LIC   LGM   Total
--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-------+
Nameless        JuJu         (Pal, 93)    761   616   3.0    4131 
Clersius        Namae        (Ama, 89)    771   532   3.1    4039
Nameless        DeathBlossom (Asn, 93)    741   511   2.7    3380 RIP
Lucifer666      GoldenGirl   (Asn, 87)    406   180   2.8    1640
Beefy2          BigBadWTF    (Dru, 73)    301   235   2.6    1393
Nameless        Ama_bintAtma (Ama, 80)    295   227   2.2    1148 RIP
Billybgame      Samurai      (Bar, 65)    228   195   2.7    1142
Clersius        Trepid       (Dru, 83)    306   186   2.0     984 RIP
the_bogan       Zerker       (Bar, 60)    185   128   2.6     813
Oldboy          Blackwidow   (Ama, 76)    187   180   1.9     697
Beefy2          TheReaper    (Dru, 56)     92   142   1.9     444 RIP
Billybgame      Michelle     (Ama, 55)     91    67   1.9     300 RIP
the_bogan       of_Whiskey   (Pal, 37)     58    35   1.1     106 RET
J.D.Ward        Orlando      (Pal, 23)     17    61   1.0      78
Billybgame      Mr Freeze    (Pal, 29)     35    24   1.1      65 RIP
J.D.Ward        Viner        (Dru, 25)     31    22   1.1      58 RIP
the_bogan       of_Beer      (Dru, 20)     11    15   1.0      26 RIP
Misfulness      Junior       (Bar, 18)     10     6   1.0      16