My hardcore Challenge - Unique Of-a-Kind

[Phlebiac]

This is where I am usually stuck until the two full %EG jewels are completed.

How exactly would that look like?
You mean one jewel with 63k gf on it?

[Clersius]

Two jewels, each with 63,000% EG on them - 126,000% EG total. They can be socketed separately, or together, it doesn't matter which. I personally like to see them huddled up together in a narrow charm, or with a third in a grand charm.

*sends Suwayyah into Al's instances to sabotage the Ort, Ral and Ist runes, switching their output to an anorexic 1-3 damage each*

[Al-T]

Gee thanks. That is so kind of you

I hope one of yours gets killed so I can be put on your "hatred" list there.

I'll keep that in mind but forgive me if I don't go out of my way to do it

Get_Away (Paladin)

This guy was slightly faster than my Barbarian using a combination of all his bag of tricks, Conversion, Conviction and Vengeance, Zeal and of course Smite and gained a good amount of levels in the process. Guardian number 5. Before I continue with my Druid and Necromancer I am going to have to take another look at both their mercs gear and adjust accordingly (read more WoE runs for my Sorceress).

Happy Zy-Elling everyone
---------------------------
[EDIT]

Get_Dapaba (Necromancer)

On checking this guy and his merc I found the merc needed all res/magic res, max all res, better boots and gloves and Get_Dapaba needs max all res. I considered more damage for his merc's bow but will leave that until later.

As my Sorc had done a few more runs yesterday with a minor contribution to resources from my Barb and Pala, there was 1 Full Zy-El scroll in the shared stash and enough gold to buy another 5. The one from the stash was used to make a pair of Vice Vambraces to replace the merc's Catstrophe gloves. I also replaced her Sanders boots with a pair of Mustang Cobra in a pair of Scarabshell boots. The jewel was a Slice of Celery for more defence. The other five scrolls were used to megaload a jewel for the merc with all res, magic res, max cold and lightning res and finally magic damage (the crafted jewel had "flat magic damage" so I decided not to waste it and gave it a range). A couple more WoE runs with my sorc got enough to finish off the max poison and fire resistances on the jewel but I also had to put a Shard of Hamster unique jewel in her Lament amulet to take her to 95 all ressies.

I'll need to do a few more WoE runs with my Sorc to get the 4 Zy-El scrolls required to give my Necro his max all resistance jewel and then it will be on to the Druid. Once they are both equipped to my satisfaction I will run them both through Act 5 Hell at Players 1.
-----------------------

[EDIT 2]

Get_Clersius (Druid)

After a couple more WoE runs with my Sorc I managed to sort a max all ressies jewel for Get_Dapaba and then it was on to checking Get_Clersius.

On checking this guy and his merc I realised the merc needed an all res + max res + magic res jewel and more life (600% + 24K would be enough i.e. 8 Zy-El scrolls and the ancilliary items) and Get_Clersius required a magic res + max all res jewel.

Sorc did a goodly amount of WoE runs and Get_Clersius' merc is now sorted as is Get_Clersius himself.

The best part of all the WoE runs with my sorc is she is thinking... "We're half way there - Livin' on a prayer". I know...cruddy...but I couldn't think of anything else

[Clersius]

A 5k Sorceress... amazing job, Al! Truly, that is a remarkable feat, so major kudos and congratulations. But please, for the love of all that is good in this world, stop singing Bon Jovi songs!

-----------

*clears his throat, lifts a megaphone to his face, and bellows...*

"Let's get ready to rummmmmmmmmble!!"

I started out thinking that I would try to get an Act done every day until the RagTag's finally finished Hell difficulty, so I took them all through Act I, parked them in Lut Gholein, then sent Sleepy back to Normal to do some gold runs. The next day (yesterday), I faithlessly abandoned my plan and swarmed them through Acts II, III, and IV, with a pair of them also completing Act V. Today, the other five charged through, and now, for the RagTag's, Hell has been completed!

First to attain Guardianship status was Happy. Then came Dopey, followed by Bashful. After that was Sneezy, then Doc, Gumpy_III, and finally Sleepy, the RagTag's Rear Guard and Matron Provider. Sleepy knew that her's would most likely be the team's last execution of Baal, so she took a photograph to forever commemorate the moment.

Sneezy needs to throw his Zy-El's Vengeance into a vast and deep chasm and get himself a real weapon, like a Phase Blade. That Divine Sceptre is so bloody slow, and I just cannot abide slowness anymore. Also, it looks like he, Bashful, and Dopey will all need Elemental Damage Jewels after all. But instead of spending much more time in the Throne of Destruction, I am going to see if the required gold and other resources can be acquired through leveling Happy and Sleepy to 10k. After that is done, then if there is still more gold needed, Sleepy can deal with it.

A few days ago, I was dead sure that Al would beat me to 70k, and the fact that he now has a 5k Sorceress amounts to something akin to a gargantuan lead. But as quickly as I shoved my team through Hell, and as close as they are to being done with crafting, I may still be able to give Mr. Al-Tisaur a run for his money!

Good luck to (almost) everyone in your Zy-Eling adventures! Just fooling... good luck to Al as well. This should be fun!

Code: Select all

The RagTags

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Bashful/Assassin     1106       Hell/5        Happy/Barbarian    1240       Hell/5
Doc/Paladin          1570       Hell/5        Sleepy/Amazon      4236       Hell/5
Dopey/Sorceress      1155       Hell/5        Sneezy/Druid       1439       Hell/5
Gumpy_III/Necro      1223       Hell/5

{Total: 11969    Position: 2nd    Deaths: 2} 

[Al-T]

A few days ago, I was dead sure that Al would beat me to 70k, and the fact that he now has a 5k Sorceress amounts to something akin to a gargantuan lead. But as quickly as I shoved my team through Hell, and as close as they are to being done with crafting, I may still be able to give Mr. Al-Tisaur a run for his money!

No way am I guaranteed to beat anyone and I always knew, from the first time you started "participating for real" on this forum in other tournaments and by your posts outwith tournaments that I had a worthy, nay....exceptional, adversary. I am in no way guaranteed anything. In fact, with my rugby commitments this weekend I fully expect you to take a 10-15K character levels lead over me.

You said a few posts back that you "were not going to win this tournament". Don't bet on that my friend as I am not convinced I am going to beat you, let alone come close That's what I get for starting "The Borg"

Let's get ready to rummmmmmmmmble!

I am going to blow your identity wide open.....Mr. Clersius Clay Never mind the "Rumble in the Jungle"...let's have a "Thrilla in Manila"

A word of warning to both of us though. All it takes is a death or two and both of us could be caught and overtaken
---------------------------

I also meant to say last night "a massive congratulations Clersius" for getting all 7 characters to Guardian status. That really is a huge achievement!

Not long after my initial post last night, Get_Clersius became my 6th Guardian and I made an early start this morning to get the last of my team, Get_Dapaba, to Guardian status. Unfortunately, I don't think I will manage to play any more until tomorrow so in my absence, happy Zy-Elling everyone and Clersius, please don't get too far ahead of me
-----------------------------

Get_Dapaba (Necromancer)

Got home earlier than I thought I would last night and did some normal WoE and Oblivion runs with Get_Dapaba. I carried on since early this morning and now he is Level 1038. It wasn't all sweetness and light. One game I forgot to change from the P127 I used for summons to P8 to play and almost got killed by a normal Chimera. A quick Save & Exit saved the day (even more "twitchy" sphincter time ). Even playing at P8 is not all that easy as I am having to summon more Mages than I would like (100 – 150) and usually by the end of a WoE/Oblivion run I have lost half or more of them, sometimes the merc also and go through a fair number of Full Rejuvs. I have used a lot of cube locks to add skills to this guy's belt but am still short by about 30 skills from where I want him to be. That will come in time and I am not unduly worried in that respect. He will need some serious help with damage reduction and magic damage reduction, as will his merc. In the main, I am very happy with his progress but it is time for a break from him so I can check out the rest of the team.

Code: Select all

We Hate Everyone

Name/Class               Level       Difficulty/Act      Name/Class             Level      Difficulty/Act
---------------------------------------------------      ------------------------------------------------
Get_Hans/Assassin         1044               Hell/5      Get_JrEye/Barbarian     1057              Hell/5
Get_Away/Paladin          1066               Hell/5      Get_Phlebiac/Amazon     1068              Hell/5
Get_This/Sorceress        5029               Hell/5      Get_Clersius/Druid      1027              Hell/5
Get_Dapaba/Necromancer    1038               Hell/5     

{Total 11329   Position 3rd    Deaths 9}

Happy Zy-Elling everyone

[Rahhja]

A little update. Everyone is through Normal finally. Catti is about to kill Andarial.

Plan is to upgrade everyone gradually as they pass through Nightmare so there's not 4 days of crafting before entering Hell.

I'll make a table update when they all finish Act1.

[Clersius]

Congrats on finishing up Normal difficulty, Rahhja! Doing your crafting a little at a time sounds like a sanity-saving plan. Good luck with your journey.

Al, congrats right back at you for getting all seven of your characters to Guardian status!! A gargantuan accomplishment indeed.

That's what I get for starting "The Borg"

You may be on to something there... The Borg claims another victim! However, it seems that it was a choice between changing things up and doing something that you enjoyed, or burning yourself out even more quickly and for a longer period of time by pushing on with something that you were clearly not enjoying at the time. Besides, anything can happen! No one has this cat in the bag, that's for sure. Or, as the Borg like to say, "Nothing is certain except Death and being Assimilated." I almost forgot that they dropped the "Death and" part of their colloquialism around 13.5 millenia ago.

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

Sleepy the Amazon

Sleepy set out on her trek to 10k determined to do so in Hell Insanities, but her intentions came to naught. Even at p8, her damage was wholly inadequate for the task. She suffered through all three of Suicide Sanctum, Wayside of Woe, and Orifice to Oblivion, but then turned her back on that venture and returned to Nightmare difficulty, where she was much more successful. She did WoW and OtO runs for a bit, but then dropped OtO, as it consistently yielded much fewer levels than did WoW. By level 7500 or 8000 or so, she decided to scour the countrysides of Act I for Experience Shrines before starting her runs, and that helped tremendously.

She almost died three separate times, all from the same cause – stupidity of her controller. “Defense Department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid. Great Balls of Fire!” - Goose. Several times during the last two days her life approached the cap and had to be reduced, which was no problem to do, but it seems that it was a problem for me to actually notice that it was approaching the cap. All of a sudden, her life bubble would empty and start rapidly counting up as her life regeneration kicked in. Panic would set in, and the Esc key would be slammed down. Fortunately, it usually happened as a result of just having killed whatever was near her, so she never did die, but it sure was a scare... over and over again! Three times? One would think that I would eventually learn, but that doesn't seem to the case, now does it?

Along the entire way, she was continually slowed down by having to convert so much gold into Scrolls, a task she was sorely tempted to drop during her level rush and resume afterwards, but she stayed the course, kept to the plan, and eventually finished gaining all 10,000 of her levels! Three cheers for the Matron of the RagTags! My first 10k character, not to mention that she is Hardcore... I'd have never in a million years thought that this would be the case when I first caught an interest in Zy-El last May.

Well, back to the team... it's all uphill from here!

Good luck to everyone in their Zy-Elling endeavors.

Code: Select all

The RagTags

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Bashful/Assassin     1106       Hell/5        Happy/Barbarian    1240       Hell/5
Doc/Paladin          1570       Hell/5        Sleepy/Amazon     10000       Hell/5
Dopey/Sorceress      1155       Hell/5        Sneezy/Druid       1439       Hell/5
Gumpy_III/Necro      1223       Hell/5

{Total: 17733    Position: 2nd    Deaths: 2} 

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

[EDIT]

Happy the Barbarian

While Happy doesn't have near the resource-gathering capabilities of Sleepy, he does have nearly infinite amounts more than anyone else on the team, and so he felt a responsibility to continue gathering resources as he leveled rather than forging ahead to join Sleepy at the top. Eventually, he did reach level 10,000 and there was much rejoicing among the RagTags!

He was a little leery of the Insanities in Hell difficulty, due to Sleepy's report on the subject, but he went ahead and tried it anyway. Call it bravery, kamikaze-osity, or plain old thick-headedness, but he set p127 and shouldered his way into Suicide Sanctum with a decided air of disdain. Ten minutes later, he town-portaled back to Harrogath and never set foot in Hell SS again! With only a few thousand mana and just about zero mana regeneration, those darn bunnies keep his mana at 0, which means he cannot even Frenzy them. He had enough Mana Leech to theoretically keep a few mana points in his bubble, but Vorpal Bunnies, as well as 90% of everything else in there, is immune to physical damage, so leeching is out. And what monsters are not physically immune are tagged as unleechable anyway, so that was entirely useless. Sure, he could easily have fixed the problem by adding a little more mana and loads and loads of mana regeneration, but at the cost of Scrolls that are most assuredly needed elsewhere. Besides, apart from testing the waters, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to go in there, so what would be the point?

He moved on to Wayside of Woe and had much more success. True, it takes a lot longer to kill things in there than in Nightmare WoW, but the rewards are a lot better as well. What Happy learned to do was to ignore the Unique and Champion versions of Chimeras, as they give just a small fraction of the experience that the “normal” ones do. They also take about three times longer to kill than the normal ones, so... again, what's the point? He would take them into a corner, hit them to slow them by 75%, and quickly run from them, essentially “parking” them out of the way.

Next, he tried Orifice to Oblivion, where he found Tim the Enchanters again. I'm not sure what is going on with them, but after he Crushing Blows them down to a sliver, it takes ages to finish them off – much longer than either Chimeras or Mini Diablos, and certainly longer than Immortals. Personally, I think that someone made a coding error with their life and made it several magnitudes higher than they meant to do. In Normal and Nightmare, they die in seconds once slivered, far faster than any of three above-mentioned monsters, yet in Hell, they suddenly have five, or even ten times the life of those three types? I cannot imagine that that is intentional, especially considering the fact that they are worth less experience than the other three types. Anyway, they don't really get in the way, so Happy was more than content to just ignore them.

The experience rewards from WoW were invariably better than those from OtO, so Happy quit going to OtO after a while. Until around level 9000, that is. At this point, something really strange started happening in WoW. Whenever he came across a group of Chimeras that had a Unique boss among them, as soon as he touched one of the normal Chimeras, every single other normal one would immediately fall dead on the ground, not giving any experience. So for each pack with a boss, Happy could get just one Chimera kill. That really cut down on the tremendous runs he had been having. From level 4000 to level 9000, he was getting a minimum of 350 levels a run, with his maximum being 1006 levels in one run – from 7631 to 8637! Amazing experience, while it lasted. From that point on, he started just going to OtO and skipping WoW.

Next up will most likely be Doc. I learned something invaluable while running the team through Act V Hell. Happy never gets stun-locked. He gets pushed around a lot, sure, and that is almost as annoying as anything ever in the entirety of the universe, but at least it is isn't stun-locked! “Why do Doc and Sneezy and Dopey get stun-locked, while Happy just walks away from it, or pulverizes the baddies trying to do it?” I asked myself. All of my characters have 1200% FHR, so that couldn't have been it – Blood Witches/Mages are the ones that invoke FHR, and Happy suffers from that just like the rest of them do. So what is it? It finally occurred to me while I was on Doc... it's the shield! Grumpy doesn't suffer, because he has minions to take the brunt of the pounding. Sleepy doesn't suffer because she is not usually in the thick of things and she doesn't use a shield. It's already been established that Happy doesn't suffer. But the rest of them... oh yes, it's the bloody shield. Block-lock. So I tested the theory with Doc. With the shield, those monstrous packs of Stone Ghouls can lock him down in a hurry. He can't do anything but Smite. But as soon as he removes the shield, he can walk away, do Yoga, or Zeal them all to death as he sees fit. He takes more damage, but that is why he has that massive life reserve, why all of them have it. So when Doc goes into WoW and OtO, he is going to ditch his shield so that Mini Mauls and Darth Smalls can't block-lock him. "Why don't you just use Smite, like you've been doing?" might be one possible question. The reason is fairly simple - Smite does not carry elemental damage with it, and most of the monsters Doc will be fighting will be Immune to Physical, so... Smite is almost 100% useless for him now, and has been from the moment he killed Baal.

Good luck to all of you in your Hardcore Zy-Elling efforts!

Code: Select all

The RagTags

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Bashful/Assassin     1106       Hell/5        Happy/Barbarian   10000       Hell/5
Doc/Paladin          1570       Hell/5        Sleepy/Amazon     10000       Hell/5
Dopey/Sorceress      1155       Hell/5        Sneezy/Druid       1439       Hell/5
Gumpy_III/Necro      1223       Hell/5

{Total: 26493    Position: 2nd    Deaths: 2} 

[Al-T]

Fantastic work Clersius on getting not one but two 10K Hardcore characters. Don't forget to put them on the "Wiki Hall of Fame". You are miles ahead of me now.

I just hope my plan is going to work: Instead of levelling characters I knew were going to be easier first, I decided to push on with my Sorceress who I knew would be the toughest. I didn't even attempt the Hell insanity levels as her damage isn't good enough and too many Fire + Lightning immunes (sure she could melee with an elemental damage jewel but I want to play as much with inherent skills on each character as I can).

I did try Nightmare insanities at P8 but again, too many damn immunes, same at just P1. At all times I make sure she has an XP shrine. I then tried a few runs at P127 in normal WoE and although the levelling was good, around 60 levels more than a P8 run, I could do two P8 runs in the same time to more than make up the difference. It is slow, heavy going (I played from 8:30am until midnight last night with only short breaks for lunch and dinner) but she is currently level 8012 and I should get her to 10K at some point today. I really hope so or I may lose the will to live

Happy Zy-Elling everyone
---------------------------
[EDIT]

DISASTER !!!

I am so at myself. I got my Sorceress to level 8410 and somehow, before I realised the mouse was hovering over the "Delete" button, I clicked it, didn't register the "Are you sure" dialog and clicked "Yes"

All that work for nothing and no backups so I have to start again from scratch with her. Do I have the will to carry on At the moment I seriously doubt it. Even singing the song in my signature isn't helping.

Whatever I decide to do, good luck to everyone else and don't do anything as stupid as I just did.

Clersius. It looks lke the tournament is yours for the taking.

[Clersius]

Oh, Al.....................

I am so, so, SO sorry!!!!!!!



There is no amount of comfort in the world for that. I would understand completely if you could not carry on after that psyche-crippling death blow. But I know that you won't give up playing Zy-El entirely, and I look forward to our next mission together/face-off.

Clersius. It looks lke the tournament is yours for the taking.

Can't say I'm really interested in taking it at this point. Selfishly, you were my prime motivational push in this tournament, so I'm not sure I have the will to keep on, either. We'll see.

Regardless, what's next on the agenda? PG was/is pretty harsh and demoralizing, but there has been a long period of time in which to forget all that. Or maybe you have some notes socked away for the next phase of Evo? Something entirely new? Take a break for a few days/weeks/whatever, let me know what you decide when you get back. Be well, my friend. We all eagerly await your glorious return. Wait, who are you, MacArthur?

[Al-T]

Thanks for the moral suport Clersius. It is much appreciated.

After having slept on it, I am feeling much better about my idiocy and may as well restart her but not just yet (I need a day or so to recover first). It would have been bad enough if it had been caused by a monster but the fact it was down to my sheer stupidity hurt even more, especially as she was such a high level and probably the best Sorceress I have ever made (damage notwithstanding). At level 8410 she had just over 5.6Million life, just under 2Million Mana and all her other stats/skills/items meant she was virtually indestructible. Even when I took her into Nightmare WoE at Players 8, when she was being pounded on by a large group of Champion Chimeras and one Unique, her life ball hardly moved and her mana ball didn't budge at all.

I am going to take another day or so before I carry on and restart her but please don't let me stop you from continuing. You are doing brilliantly and you now know how good it feels to hear that final "ping" when you reach 10K. Keep going my friend.

I'll be back
---------------

Sod it There is no time like the present. Without further ado and this will make at least one other person smile, introducing....Get_Hellwolf.

N.B. God forbid but if my Pala dies he will probably be renamed Get_Rahhja. Nothing personal, just to keep the theme.

The good thing about restarting at this stage is, with all the WoE runs Get_This completed and the various sorties in Hell by her and the rest of the team, I have enough items (Diadems, Shadow Plates, Vambraces, Hell Belts, Zy-El scrolls, gold etc., etc.,) to pre-prepare most of her end-game gear long before she needs it, including a life/life% jewel and a half-decent Gold Find jewel. Get_This had also, prior to me murdering her, completed 7 major posters, so with those in addition to all the other low to mid-level gear accumulated over time, all I should really have to worry about is simply levelling her and getting her through the Acts and Modes.

ChoMs I don't have spare but should have the resources to make as many as I need, as and when I need them. To start her off I have given her a Rixot's Keen sword, 1 Major Poster, 2 Album Posters, 2 Minor Posters (melee damage @ 17K) and when she hits level 15 I'll make a start on Minor ChoMs. Once she hits 20 I'll look into converting her from melee to a Boltress or may mix 'n' match. At 50 or 60 she will get a crafted belt with life based on character level plus a life/life% jewel stuck in it. 85, yes you've guessed, she will get some Zy-El Artifacts and at 170, the compulsory "Sybil" orb. Thereafter, I'll tweak her as is neccessary.

Here goes....wish me luck and Happy Zy-Elling everyone .

[Rahhja]

doh!

Sorry to hear about your brain fart Al, I couldn't imagine to rage I would feel if that happened to me. Good to see you back on the horse though:)

Remember no posters before lvl50 hehe

[Al-T]

Remember no posters before lvl50 hehe

Oh crap Brain fart number 2 What am I doing

I'll kill her off and start again

Still got plenty starter gear so it's no biggie
---------------

Take Two: Introducing.....Get_HellwolfII

Note to self; "No posters until level 50 and no more brain farts!!!"

Happy Zy-Elling everyone and thanks for spotting my infringement Rahhja. Luckily I hadn't done much with the first incarnation so she won't be missed
--------------------------

[EDIT]

Get_HellwolfII (Sorceress)

Starting over, in order to compensate slightly for not being able to use Posters until level 50, I bought my sorc this sword and added a Mega 2 scroll and a few other damage scrolls to give this weapon. I also had a nice Hex Charm which I gave her.

At level 6 she got a pair of Booster Boots and a Booster Belt, Hsarus Shield, Death's Gloves, a 2 soc Cap with chipped rubies and a 2 soc Torso with the same. At level 8 I replaced the cap with a 2 soc Skull Cap with 2 flawed rubies and the Torso with a 3 soc Torso with flawed rubies. At level 15 I made her a Speed and an Icer CHoM. At level 16 she got a Hellbound's Mega and a Byrk's Totem. Still levelling her in Blood Moor/Cold Plains and currently level 24. Only 8386 levels to equal Get_This' level .
--------------
[EDIT 2]

Got to level 25 and decided to change from Melee to using Charged Bolt so I made Get_HellwolfII another 3 Minor ChoMs and converted her existing 2. She now has 2 Healers and 3 Masters. I also checked what was in the shared stash and found a Stone of Jordan (+2 all skills), a nice "Eryn's Sparkle" +3 Sorc skills ring, a "Thydra's Idea" +4 Sorc skills amulet, a Visceratuant shield (+2 sorc), a "Syr-Tara's" Circlet to which I added 5 common +1 sorc helm scrolls to give +10 Sorc skills and finally made her a "Witch" runeword in an Orb that got +4 to Sorc skills. By the time she had cleared the Den of Evil she was level 31. Carried on levelling in Cold Plains/Stony Field for a while and got to level 35 and made her a Gigantor. Those were last night's exploits. Today I will endeavour to get her to at least level 64 so she can use the belt with life on level (lreq 51) and the 1050%/30000 life jewel (lreq 64) I have already prepared for her as well as maybe an Album poster or two. I'll also convert her 3 Minor Masters to a Major at 50. Ideally it would be nice if I could get her to 85 but we shall see.

Happy Zy-Elling

[Clersius]

Wow, you are the quite the resilient one, aren't you!? Way to bounce back so forcefully, Al.

Very nice max life % on the Gigantor - would that they were all so resplendent! I wish you the best of luck getting her up to 85 today - that would be a nice stepping stone on the way to 120. Mmmmmmm Artifacts at 85... Twinking is so much fun. While I certainly don't hope for the chance to do any more of it in this shindig, I am looking forward to it in the Rotation tournament. Have fun with your twinking adventures, and just let me add that I am bubbling over with joy that you have not abandoned us to our own (de)vices!

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

Doc the Paladin

After making the decision to jettison his shield, I found that Doc had resists around -100 and no poison duration reduction. He went into Wayside of Woe at p127 and was getting his clock cleaned quite thoroughly, glugging lots and lots of potions. Chimeras were taking off huge, multi-million chunks of his life at a time, and the combination of poison damage and burn curse were lowering his life by several hundred thousand a second.

He headed back to town and made four adjustments:

1. He added Reduce Poison Duration by 75% to his Decorum (with cube scrolls).
2. He added around a dozen cube scrolls each of Reduce Damage by X and Reduce Magic Damage by X to his Decorum to give a whopping 160ish to the first and 130ish to the second.
3. He added a 255% Resist Magic jewel to his Decorum.
4. He added a Shard of Elements jewel to his amulet.

One or more of those adjustments fixed the aforementioned problems, and it seems reasonable to assume that it was the magic and elemental resistance boosts. That would also suggest that a large portion of Chimera damage is either magical or elemental. However, if my memory is not playing tricks on me, I recall that when Sleepy first set foot in the Normal difficulty Insanities she had max resists and was having the same problem with Chimeras taking off huge chunks of her life at a time. She most definitely did not have any Magic Resistance then. I would therefore posit that some portion of Chimera damage, probably most (if not all) of it, is magical in nature.

The news about Get_This came after Doc had broken level 5000 and was taking a much-deserved breather. Rather than abandon his quest, Doc decided to push on in memory of Get_This, quickly achieving level 10,000. It was a lot faster for him than for Happy, mostly because he can kill Chimeras about twice as fast as Happy by using Vengeance and Conviction. He fought exclusively in Hell difficulty's Wayside of Woe, where he ignored all monsters except Chimeras and Tim the Enchanters. Once a pack of one or the other of those were dead, he would teleport around until he found another pack to eliminate, restarting the game once they were all dead. Not having to kill 95% of the monsters in WoW saves quite a bit of time, oddly enough!

Good luck to everyone in their Hardcore adventures!

Code: Select all

The RagTags

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Bashful/Assassin     1106       Hell/5        Happy/Barbarian   10000       Hell/5
Doc/Paladin         10000       Hell/5        Sleepy/Amazon     10000       Hell/5
Dopey/Sorceress      1155       Hell/5        Sneezy/Druid       1439       Hell/5
Gumpy_III/Necro      1223       Hell/5

{Total: 34923    Position: 1st    Deaths: 2} 

[Al-T]

Wow, you are the quite the resilient one, aren't you!? Way to bounce back so forcefully, Al.

Thank you. I like to lead by example, although, guess who is in the lead Your good self Dapaba (and Al-T) eat your hearts out

Twinking is so much fun.

In this instance it is a neccessity rather than a luxury. If I only had a couple of hundred levels to make up I wouldn't have taken the same heavy twinking approach, however, 8K+ levels to get to where I was previously gave me an easy choice.

A massive congratulations on (a) getting your 3rd 10K HC character and (b) taking first spot Awesome work Clersius. (am I saying this while grinding my molars )

I am bubbling over with joy that you have not abandoned us to our own (de)vices!

I don't trust you that much
------------------

Get_HellwolfII (Sorceress)

I got her to level 64 and before that, at level 50 I upgraded her 3 Minor Masters to a Major and my Assassin kindly rolled her a Punk Rock Album Poster. She then donned the Crafted Belt and added the life%/life jewel to give her this result at level 64. I may up the ante and play at P127 since with that amount of life she is unlikely to be killed by anything in Acts 1/2/3. Once she hits level 85 there are a "Requiem", "Decorum" and a pair of "Vice" waiting in the shared stash for her. I am aiming to be at least level 122 before finishing Act 1 which should mean the rest of the Acts are a piece of cake given the gear she will have. I'll hold off making her a crafted gold find jewel until she gets to Act 3 and a mana%/mana jewel after that.

Happy Zy-Elling everyone
------------------------
[EDIT]

Get_HellwolfII (Sorceress)

I tried an Inner Cloister run at P127 but until she gets her masteries, damage isn't high enough to kill fast enough. She can kill about 4 times as fast at Players 8 and with an XP shrine that more than makes up for the higher players setting. Got to level 70 and killed Andariel. Cleared the rest of the Catacombs level 4 and got to 71. I'll continue doing Inner Cloister + Catacombs runs to at least level 122 and will always make sure she has an XP shrine to make it as fast as possible. Got to level 82 and because my sorc is in no danger of being killed, I decided to push on through Acts 2 and 3. Got to 85 shortly before wasting Radament and gave her the Requiem, Decorum and Vice. Finished Act 2 at level 111 and killed Mephisto for the first time at level 134. Getting masteries at level 120+ made killing and levelling so much faster. Currently level 154 and will do a few more Travincal/Durance runs before doing Act 4.

[Hellwolf_36]

Excellent. I am now pleased that I am apart of your army of vengeance against the other board members. You also made me the Sorceress and for that, I am happy . But I am not happy you had her kill off the first time over a Level 50 issue (grrrrrr!).

Too bad you nuked your Sorceress by accident. But she will live on IN ME

I have also updated my avatar since I downloaded and watched the entire Gargoyles series. I am currently working on the comics.

The Amazon is going rather well though. I think I should be able to crush Andariel on my next attack and begin either the Sorceress (which i got the equipment for) or the Barbarian (picked up enough maces to crack skulls).

Lady-Raven the Amazon

I smoked Andariel with my 2nd Character on Players8. It was actually quite easy because of some arrows I made when I was breaking down my scrolls (they take up 6 pages of my shared stash). I got some Chipped Gem to Magic Arrows and Magic Arrows to Slayer Arrows. The arrows ended up with +700 damage, +800 attack rating, 14% chance to cause Fear and 3 sockets. The sockets I won't be using as I will not be able to buy them back. But a Replenish Quantity modifier WOULD be nice.

Code: Select all

Warriors of Harven

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Caretaker-Chibz/Dru    7          Normal/1    Lady-Raven/Ama     65         Normal/2
Commander-Fan/Nec     90          Normal/2    Lord_Terence/Pal    1         Normal/1
SlyvTheUnseen/Asn      1          Normal/1    Tymopheus/Bar      25         Normal/1
Kurisu/Sor             1          Normal/1

{Total: 190   Position: 17th    Deaths: 1}

I think I will start my Barbarian next. I will take Montex's approach from the tourney and do a Mace Barb, since they are lot easier on the maintenance bill. Plus, I got a few Morning Stars I made with Club to Morning Star scroll and a Flail with a few sockets. He will carry 2 weapons.

Tymopheus the Barbarian

My Barbarian's starter gear looks promising, but the stuff I am sharing with him can't be used for awhile:

• Consecrated Spiked Club -> 116% extra damage vs Undead, +35 Attack Rating vs Undead
• Basic Armors: Hard Leather Armor, Boots, Sash, Skull Cap, Leather Gloves
• Arctic Furs armor (Level 2)
• Jawbone Caps (level 3 is miminal). Most have sockets and +skills. I got a 101 defense Horned Helm for later to apply my Barbx to Helm scrolls.
• A series of socketed and unsocketed Maces (level 4 with strength ups)
• Death gloves and sash (level 6)
• A tome of identify
• Series of Morning Stars (72 str required)
• 2 Choms (level 15)
• A Cherish Belt (Level 60)
• A piglet poster (Level 50)
• A rare spiked club (level 6)
• A Cub Scout ring (level 3)
• +2 Barb Skills, +800 life, +600 defense, +51 resist all Amulet (level 45)
• +1 Barb skills, +300 life, +1 light radius amulet (level 4)
• A Flail with 2 sockets. (82 str/70 dex)

I got some work to do at the start, but I should be fine. For rings, he needs Life Tap and Static Field on striking.

================

I am now using my Morning Star that deals 51-70 base and using the 2 socket Flail along side it. My primary strategy is to get in the middle of a mob and bash them all senseless until 40 when I get Shout and Double Swing. The Bash damage is influenced by the Morning Star. Both my weapons repair themselves every 12 seconds so the repairs are boiled down to the armor I'm wearing. I also made the Reflex runeword out of a Barb Helm that offers +3 to Find Potion to help with the healing (41% chance to get potions). I am now level 18.

With my capabilities, I am able to take on anything up to Cold Plains. I don't even need the Bear or the Rogue to help me. But I will need the Rogue's help to slow down the Monoliths later on, since it will be around level 50-60 when I get my CTC rings online.

==========================

With Level 20, I have acquired Mace Mastery, which has virtually doubled my Bash damage to 170-300 using the Morning Star. I also got enough mana and life leech at the start to constantly do it to any monster, with a +6 mana per kill on the Morning Star to recover the losses. I am going to use my points on Mace Mastery until level 40 for Double Swing and Shout combo, rendering Bash useless.

With it's assistance, I smoked Den of Evil at level 20 with no trouble on Players5. Even the Tombrats had major problems hurting me (I had poison resistance in the positives, 75% length reduction, life leech AND 23 damage reduction from Reflex), getting surrounded by Peckers was no big deal (except for mercenary), and Ogre Demons got smashed in 1-2 strikes. If I get low on life, I just take potions from their fallen corpses.

===============

I applied Horacer77 to my 2 socket Flail, to make it on par with my super Morning Star. The fire damage is nice, but I still need Double Swing. I got Leap a few minutes ago, I use that to close the distance between myself and Shadow Rogues mostly. I did Cave Level 2 and killed some Black Rogues with minimal effort, despite the fact they were receiving assistance with a Might aura.

[Clersius]

Nice update, Hellwolf, I enjoyed reading it.

You are making decidedly quick progress, Al! Keep up the forward grind!

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

Gumpy_III the Necromancer

The only adjustment that Gump had to make before embarking on his journey was to add the few +Nec skills cube scrolls that had accumulated since he last played. After that, he hit the slopes, used Poison Nova to slaughter a few Enslaved to start his Army of Darkness, and off he went! Seeing as how protracted a process it is to summon an army of 400, he decided that he could not afford the luxury of simply picking off the high-experience monsters in one area, but would instead need to do full clears of all three of SS, WoW, and OtO.

With 480 skill points in both Skeletal Mages and Skeleton Mastery, his 400 Mages were fairly competent at melting away any resistance they encountered. Gump ensured that all of their targets had Lower Resist active at all times, and even then it took a little work to whittle down the high-life monsters at p127. After liberally salting each new group of monsters with Lower Resist, he would sometimes run in and pound each individual monster three or four times to get them down to 10-15% life or less (Crushing Blow is simply marvelous). Even with all of these activities, it took quite a while to slog through those 8500 levels, but slog he did, finally achieving the Grail of level 10,000.

Sneezy the Druid

Next up was Mr. Druidic Fail himself. It took about a quarter of a second for me to decide that, even if I could get his wolves to perform well enough to accompany him into the Insanities, it would still be a complete waste of time. Why? Well, because the plan was to kill the high-profile targets, just like Doc did. Chimeras and Mini-Diablos are Physical Immunes, so what exactly would the wolves be doing? A whole lot of nothing, that's what.

The next item to which to attend was his weapon. I gave him a throwaway Phase Blade in order to test his swing speed against the Zy-El's Vengeance he was using. With the high level of IAS that he had, there turned out to be no difference at all – apparently Druids just naturally swing their weapons slower than a dozing grandma after lunch in 115 degree weather swatting absent-mindedly at horseflies. Let me reiterate that thought : I'm going to let a little of my inner vitriol seep to the surface, so you may want to avert your eyes. There is nothing, and I mean not one damn thing, more useless than a bloody Druid after about level 250 in this mod. Worthless is a term of endearment when speaking about Druids. Worthless is like the ground floor, and Druids can be found subterraneously on around floor -42,906. If there was an award for the biggest load of horsefeathers in the ether, for the biggest pile of abcessant putrefaction ever conjured up in the hideous blackness of the minds of humankind, Druids would win it hands-down. Every moment, every one of the 50+ swings that it took to kill every Chimera and Mini-D that he had to in order to finally limp up to level 10,000 was absolute torture for me. Pure, blinding, roiling hatred is about the only emotion left inside of me after enduring that heinous ordeal.

But hey, at least it's over, right? *kicks out at Sneezy's groin one last time before walking away from him forever* Good riddance, scumbag!

Dopey the Sorceress

I did a lot of prep work on her before starting her on the road to 10k, but none of it was with elemental jewels. I took Al's passing comment about trying to get her to the top using her own “natural” abilities to heart, determined to adopt it as my own as far and as long as I could. I'll elaborate more on that in a few weeks, after I get Dopey_II up to speed.

That's right, disaster struck, though not as late as it did for Al, and under much more mysterious circumstances. I thought about making a case for these mysterious circumstances and then requesting a restoration from one of her backups, but I've changed my mind. I will relate some of the mysteriosity, though. First, she died at somewhere around level 4800. But the character screen tells a much different story – a story of corruption and extreme hinkiness.

Somewhere in the late 3000's she reached the life cap, and performed the normal operations adjunct thereto – she lowered her belt's Life BoCL by using rubies and full rejuvenation potions. Except that after using 6 standard rubies, her life was still close to the cap, which was very odd, though I did not pay it much mind at the time. Then she used a flawless ruby, and her life plummeted to 7.22M, which was quite a drastic reduction for one flawless. Very odd. Again, I was not paying it much heed at that moment.

She went through another round of leveling, and the number of levels she gained did not seem even near enough to get her to the cap so soon, and this is when I started to get a little twitchy. Recalling the previous trouble with standard gems, I went straight for the flawless this time, and two of them dropped her to... 7.22 again. I can't say that it was exactly the same number, but it was suspiciously close. Hmmmm.

So back out into the field she went, and less than halfway through her first WoW clear, she died. There is no possible way she could have killed enough monsters to gain enough levels to break the cap that soon, and there is no possible way that anything could have hit her hard enough to break her Energy Shield. There were no Immortals in the area. She had not passed any on the way in, there were none on the screen, and she had not used Static Field, so none could have been awakened close enough to throw stars at her, if there even were any at all on the map. There is no possible way that poison and Burn Curse could have dropped her life to 1 that quickly after dinging (she had leveled again a few seconds before she died). So how did she die?

My current working theory is that something outside of the norm was playing havoc with her life values. I don't think the reductions worked correctly either time I applied them, and I think that leveling after trying to reduce her life the second time triggered her life back up to, and then over, the cap. She had killed at least a dozen Chimeras by that time, so there had been many dings. I will admit that I was not paying attention to her life value at all, just to the level of her life bubble. I (quite rightly) did not have any reason to believe that she would be near the cap again so quickly. I also admit that I did not look at her life bubble after she leveled that last time, so I don't know that it emptied itself (as it does at some point after the life cap is broken, though not necessarily the moment the cap is broken). What I do know is what I typed above – that I can rule out the “normal” reasons that life bubbles become evacuated.

Anyway, I'm not sure what to make of the whole situation. I'm not sure that I could prevent it from happening again even if I knew it was coming, which is the main reason I'm not all fired up about trying to restore her from a backup.

Kind of in limbo at the moment, not sure how I will proceed. Good luck to the rest of you, though.

Cheers.

Code: Select all

The RagTags

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Bashful/Assassin     1106       Hell/5        Happy/Barbarian   10000       Hell/5
Doc/Paladin         10000       Hell/5        Sleepy/Amazon     10000       Hell/5
Dopey_II/Sorc      (4800)     Normal/1        Sneezy/Druid      10000       Hell/5
Gumpy_III/Necro     10000       Hell/5

{Total: 55906    Position: 1st    Deaths: 3} 

[sokol815]

That is quite unfortunate, Clersius. I don't know if you use or needed to use potions at all for your sorceress, but with my sorceress, I have noticed something extremely weird:

using a rejuv potion (not a full rejuv) will actually remove 1/3 of her max life, so chugging 3 rejuvs brings her down to 1 life instantly. She only has about 280K life, but this is still the case. When I realized that I had been chugging rejuvs in battle and running around with 1 life for the last 30 levels.... I was amazed I hadn't died yet. Do you think that could have been what happened to you?

Has anyone else ever noticed this happening?

Anyways, 5 Level 10K hardcore characters... wow. That is quite impressive.

[Clersius]

Sokol, I'm not sure why that is happening to your Sorceress when she has 280k life. It usually happens after the life cap has been exceeded. Talking to a healer or using a full rejuv at that point will bring the character's life to 1 immediately. Again, it is very strange that it is happening to you while being so far away from the cap... I really hope someone else has an answer for that problem. I sure don't.

Dopey had not used a full rejuv for at least a thousand levels, as nothing can so much as dent her life. Poison and burn curse can slowly drain it, but it is rare that they will do so faster than the next *ding* comes and fills her life bubble back up again.

Thank you for your commiseration, I appreciate that. Best of luck to you, sir, in all your Zy-Eling adventures!

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

[EDIT1]
(I forgot to take some of the pics at the relevant times, so I took them much later – sorry!)

Dopey_II the Sorceress

I wanted Dopey_II's start to be as smooth and easy as possible, so I employed Happy to forge for her a few baubles and trinkets. For her starting ensemble, he took a Rixot's Keen and enhanced it a bit to give her a fighting chance. To go with it, he added a few IAS and FCR scrolls to a set of starter Chain Gloves and added a bunch of “hpX to any charm” scrolls to a FRW small charm for her. Next, he used some Demon Boxes to create a Quad Charm and a Hex Charm for her. (The Cherry Pit and the Squash Sprouts were added at level 12.) A simple Pelta Lunata rounded out her starting equipment.

She started out of the gate at p127 and was doing a smashing job at first, until she noticed that groups of monsters were causing her to go into blocking animation way too often. She took off her shield, realizing that she would be doing that eventually anyway, but that didn't work out quite as well as she hoped. Even low-level monsters do plenty of damage at p127, eating through her 2700 life in no time flat. She stowed the Pelta Lunata (at level 12) and pulled a Steelclash out of the stash, along with a pair of Hotspurs and an ethereal Venom Ward. At that point, she started fighting in a more strung-out style, so to speak – attack a group and freeze a few of them, run away a bit, freeze a few more, etc, until there are just a few. Kill those, then work back up the string of frozen monsters. It worked out well enough until level 30, at least.

Around level 15, she started using a pair of Shield ChoMs, for obvious reasons. At level 30, she stowed her shield for once and all after socketing her next gift from Happy. Notice that amazingly low level? Months and months ago, the team had set aside half a dozen of their lowest-leveled crafted jewels for just such an occasion! Without the shield, she was taking a lot of hits, but she had more than enough life to compensate. Her low-level equipment, however, was taking a major beating. Even with repair every 20 seconds, her Venom Ward shattered less then half an hour after losing the shield.

At level 40 she was finally done with her melee career because of the amazing belt that Happy had stashed for her. Suddenly she had a super-powered Charged Bolt at her command! Things definitely improved at that point. The Rixot's, even with the damage jewels, was taking ages to kill things by this time. She flew through the rest of Act I, and she was almost level 70 when she descended to Andariel's floor in the Catacombs. She cleared a few rooms using carpets of CB, dinged 70, learned how to Teleport, used it to immediately assault the Evil Queen herself, and left the Act while still level 70.

I debated whether or not to push her on to level 120 as quickly as possible, or let level 120 come by pushing through the Acts as quickly as possible, and the latter eventually won out. Dopey_II finished Act II at level 74, and Act III at level 84. Act IV was where she encountered her first real problem. She had started off at p127 and kept it at that setting the entire time, but she hit a very tall and extremely thick brick wall when she tried to kill Izual. Try as she might, she just could not make a dent in him without the bigger guns of the Sorceress' arsenal. She finally conceded defeat, restarted, set p1, and carried on through the rest of her journey at that setting.

She finished Act IV at level 87, at which point she employed the final gifts that Happy had left for her – the standard Zy-El's Requiem, of course, but with only a single “sor1 to any helm” scroll applied to it (that's all that she managed to scrounge during her journey, and her predecessor had left none in the stash), as well as a Zy-El's Decorum with a Shard of Elements in it, and a Zy-El's Vice with four Cat's Eye jewels in it.

She finished Act V at level 89, achieving the rank of Destroyer. Nightmare difficulty was completed with similar alacrity – she achieved Conqueror status by level 98. Hell difficulty took a little longer, but by level 132 she was once again a Guardian!

That's where things stand at the moment. I have positioned her almost perfectly for taking a run at the “Insanity Achievement” listed on the Septathlon Tournament page on the Wiki – clear out all of the Insanities at p127 in Hell difficulty with the lowest-leveled HC character possible. Level 132 is pretty low. I hope she survives!

She has a Shard of Elements in her Decorum, but her level is not high enough to max her resists out yet, even with the spare TC amulet the team had in the stash, so she will need a megaload each of those, plus a shot of Magic Resist as well. She will make a Zy-El's Idea ring for more skill levels, use a few more +AllSkills scrolls on her gloves, add a pair of +20 Charged Bolt small charms to her inventory, and add a +10 Hydra small charm to her inventory. At that point, she should be about where her predecessor was, and ready to proceed!

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

[EDIT2]

Dopey_II the Sorceress

The Matrix went quickly enough – lots of Hydras everywhere made quick work of most things. The Killing Grounds, on the other hand, took hours and hours to clear out. The high-quantity monsters like Ryokin and Dolls were all fire immune, so spamming massive waves of Charged Bolt was about the only real option. Even doing 83k per bolt, it seemed agonizingly slow-going. Soooooo many of those little devils in there!! Everything else she mopped up with her 1.2M damage Fire Wall, finishing those areas at level 1104.

The Secret Cow Level was much more fun, even with four Champion Immortals. She encountered them about halfway through, killed two of them, and left the other two alone while clearing the rest of the Succubi, Cows, and Skeletons (?!) from the area. When she returned to them, they were “ready” to be taken down as well, which was quite the lucky break. It certainly could have taken a lot more time, had she been forced to wait longer for them to be “ready.” The Skeletons were immune to lightning, so she used Fire Wall on them and the high-life Cow King. Everything else (apart from the Immortals) had very few hitpoints and fell easily to a few waves of Charged Bolt. She finished at level 1250.

Suicide Sanctum had more of those annoying Ryokin, but not nearly as many as KG, for which Dopey_II was quite thankful. She finished it at level 1432.

Wayside of Woe was where the real fun began, what with actual experience-giving monsters. She encountered some large packs of Chimeras, which helped boost her level up a few notches. With skill level 444 Charged Bolt and skill level 305 Lightning Mastery, she could barely touch Chimeras. She could take one down if she managed to get a good angle on it in order to deliver most of the bolts to it per cast, but it would take several minutes to do so. The key to her success, then, was to employ a Fade Away ring. Level 20 Lower Resist worked wonders on those pesky Lion-Eagle-Dragon abominations. There was a pack of Immortals in there as well, right next to a pack of Champion Immortals. She took out what she could, then continued clearing, returning every few minutes to see if she could take out any more of them. Fortunately, they were all dead before she got to the end of her run. Thanks to the roiling masses of Chimeras, she raked in 1354 levels, finishing at level 2786.

Last on the list of p127 Hell difficulty Insanity Areas was Orifice to Oblivion. There were less than half a dozen Mini-Diablos in there, sadly, which she took out with Lower Resist and Charged Bolt. Two packs of Immortals, each with a unique mini-boss, gave her quite a bit of trouble. Even returning to them every few minutes did not see them all dead before she was done clearing. The last one kept her there about ten minutes past the rest of the clear, but she finally dropped him! It really was a pathetic run, though, only netting her another 57 levels. She finished her entire Insanity clearing at level 2843.

So that is my entry for the Septathlon Tournament's “Insanity Achievement.” A level 132 character successfully clearing out the Matrix, the Killing Grounds, the Secret Cow Level, Suicide Sanctum, Wayside of Woe, and Orifice to Oblivion in Hell difficulty, at p127, the first time she entered them, one after the other.

She's obviously not done yet, but between my experiences playing both Dopey and Dopey_II, I must admit that the Sorceress has turned out to be a lot more powerful than I thought she would be in the endgame. From reading all of the comments by Zy-El veterans throughout the various tournament threads in this forum, I had the distinct impression that she was going to be struggling level-by-level on her arduous climb to 10k. Perhaps that was true of her in previous versions, but I'm here to tell you that it is true no longer! She is a killing machine, pure and simple!

The plan from here is to start cherry-picking Chimeras and Mini-Ds at p127, while keeping one eye on her life bubble and one finger on the escape key at all times. I'm hoping that whatever hinky nonsense was going on with Dopey the First will not be present in the second iteration.

I wish you all a big fat bowl full of Happy Zy-Elling!

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

[EDIT3]

Dopey_II the Sorceress

Well, the hinky nonsense that was going on with Dopey the First showed up again with Dopey_II, after all. It happened a lot later, in the low 7,000s. It is insidious, it is fast, and it is really odd that there has not been more posted about it. The only time I've ever seen it mentioned was when Dapaba related his story about his Sorceress getting pummeled in Act III like she had no armor on at all. He had just added mana Based on Character Level to some item (his belt, maybe?), walked out into the countryside and some pisher lopped off a million or so life.

It turns out that somewhere over 2.05 million mana and somewhere under 2.25 million mana there is a thin blue line that Energy Shield does not take kindly to anyone crossing. An educated guess would be 2^21-1, or 2,097,152 mana. Without Energy Shield, there is no problem, but with it, at that amount of mana, it is just like wearing no armor and being level 1. Anything can hit you with 95% accuracy, it does full damage when it hits, and the entirety of the damage comes directly out of the life bubble (that is, Energy Shield does not take effect). It is truly scary how fast the red bubble empties! Had my finger not already been on the esc key, and had I not been looking directly at the life bubble at the time, I am certain that there is no way she would have survived. It happened less than a second after she dinged.

Anyway, after fearfully waiting for that event to occur, it was a relief to be able to stop being so bloody twitchy. Dopey_II lowered her mana to under 2.05 million and kept it there (by removing Energy BoCL from her Requiem), and had no problems whatsoever reaching level 10,000! Even with her intrepidless handler hindering her from truly supersonic leveling, she was by far the fastest of the bunch to level. Even Sleepy was not that fast! Actually, Doc was the fastest prior to team Dopey's adventure, but D_II was faster than him, as well.

On the one hand, it sort of sucks that I now have 3 deaths counted against me, as that last one was completely beyond my control, but on the other hand it created the perfect opportunity to achieve something that I could not have otherwise. On the balance, then, I'll gladly accept the death in return for her showing in the “side quest.”

The only reason I had not taken Bashful through before now was because I thought that she was going to be my lowest-leveled contender for the Insanities Challenge. Since that is no longer the case, her prep-work should be fairly straightforward and quick. Magic and elemental resists, along with refining her skills to max out at least one of her lightning-damage attacks should be all she needs. Actually, I think that I will test her Venom against Chimeras first – she may not need to max out a lightning attack after all!

Wow, starting work on the last of the seven... that is mind-boggling to contemplate.

Good luck to the rest of you!

Code: Select all

The RagTags

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Bashful/Assassin     1106       Hell/5        Happy/Barbarian   10000       Hell/5
Doc/Paladin         10000       Hell/5        Sleepy/Amazon     10000       Hell/5
Dopey_II/Sorc       10000       Hell/5        Sneezy/Druid      10000       Hell/5
Gumpy_III/Necro     10000       Hell/5

{Total: 61106    Position: 1st    Deaths: 3} 

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

[EDIT4]

Bashful the Assassin

It turns out that Bashful already had a Shard of Elements socketed, so she just cleaned a jewel and put 255% Magic Resist on it, then went out to test how well Venom worked against Chimeras. She left the MR jewel in her inventory for the time being, just in case she discovered that she needed something else on it, like any elemental damage. Silly me, I forgot about the MR for the next 6000 levels while it sat there in her inventory!

Venom worked a treat against everything except Mini-Mauls and the blue Banshees. Oh yeah, and Hell Whips. She used a few more scrolls (there were only a few left in the stash after the Dopey fiasco) to give herself a few more skill levels for Charged Bolt Sentry, Venom, and Wake of Fire, but it was a drop in the bucket. Even at skill level 444 (quite the coincidence – Dopey's Charged Bolt was at 444), CBS only does around 34.5k and WoF only does 52k. WoF was only useful against the blue Banshees, but CBS was useful against many things, including the blue Banshees. I use the word “useful” quite loosely – it took quite a bit of time to kill things with traps, but at first, she could not get to the good stuff without clearing some riffraff out of the way. Using Teleport was better, but when she had a lot of things pounding/casting on her (especially those red Banshees!), she could use neither traps nor Teleport.

She was not wearing a shield, but her dual claws acted as a shield, which meant that she was getting block-locked a LOT! After about 2000 levels, I finally figured out that I could remove her off-weapon, Teleport out to a less busy spot, then re-equip it. Another thousand levels after that, it dawned on me (yes, I am slow, thank you very much!) that I could just weapon-switch to no weapons, Teleport or cast traps, then swap back to her weapons. Finally, around level 6500 or 7000, I just stopped switching back. She hits almost twice as fast with her fists as she does with her weapons, and the only things she loses are the skills. The only point of swinging at all is to deliver massive amounts of poison damage, and that works with her fists as well as her weapon, even though the Lying Character Screen (LCS) indicates that the poison damage is not active when she is bare-fisted. But, that's why we call it the LCS, isn't it?

At the start of every new run, she would switch back to her weapons long enough to cast Venom (the extra skill points were beneficial in that case), then swap them out and carry on with the slaughter-fest. True, she took a lot more damage that way, but... that's why I gave every member of the RagTags a 20/20 jewel in the first place. Besides, she just kept Teleport on her secondary skill button and moved to the next Chimera/Mini-Diablo as soon as her current target was dead, so she never lost more than a couple million life before the next kill/ding. Actually, about the same time she stopped using weapons, I discovered that she could just sliver the monsters and move on to the next one without waiting for it to die – the poison damage would finish it off about four seconds later.

Once the killing process was streamlined, she rocketed to level 10,000 lickety-split. As you can see, she was pretty excited about it. It still hasn't fully sunk in, but... I seem to have completed the Septathlon! Unbelievable...... I learned a ton about all seven of Zy-El's D2 characters during the last 5.6 months (Nov 1 to Apr 19 - time sure does fly!), to be sure. I had a fantastic experience, at least most of the time. I don't really know what else to add, except that the conclusion of the journey is leaving behind something of a void. I'm sure that I will find a way to fill it, however.

Bon chance to all of my companions still slogging their way through these 70,000 levels of simultaneous bliss and torture!

Code: Select all

The RagTags

Name/Class          Level   Difficulty/Act    Name/Class        Level   Difficulty/Act
------------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
Bashful/Assassin    10000       Hell/5        Happy/Barbarian   10000       Hell/5
Doc/Paladin         10000       Hell/5        Sleepy/Amazon     10000       Hell/5
Dopey_II/Sorc       10000       Hell/5        Sneezy/Druid      10000       Hell/5
Gumpy_III/Necro     10000       Hell/5

{Total: 70000    Position: 1st    Deaths: 3} 

[Rahhja]

Congrats man, quite the achievement!

[ImperiusDamian]

Major congrats, Clersius! That's an awesome achievement!

[Hans]

Hey great job on getting 7 characters to level 10k in HC.

[Clersius]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the sentiments!

[Phlebiac]

That is really an awesome job you did there.
Congratulations!

[JrEye]

Grats Clersius, never really had much of a drive for that lmao

[Al-T]

Not three bad Clersius. Not jealous at all...not at all in any way whatsoever

Well done my good man

Been over a year since I was last here (has it been that long?). My 12 year old PC died...total failure of HD, graphics card and power supply . Lost everything that was dear to me i.e. all my Zy-El files...ALL OF THEM ... was slightly disappointing

Taken me until recently to afford a new PC and start again but I am not going to restart this Hardcore Challenge unless Clersius comes back and we both start again from scratch