Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Five!

[Al-T]

EVOLUTION SERIES – CHAPTER FIVE!

This is the 5th in a series of mini-tournaments which will increase in difficulty as your character “evolves” and will eventually become a major as scores will be carried forward to each subsequent chapter!

RULES

Please read the entire ruleset carefully before beginning. You are responsible for knowing all rules. It’s straightforward, but infractions may result in points deductions or disqualification. Any use of 3rd party map-revealing software, h@cks, editors and use of the -Act switch is not allowed.

Character. Continue with your registered character from previous chapters. New players may enter the tournament but must create a new character, any you choose is fine apart from a Paladin “summoner” but must be SC only. Register before beginning and always use the Current Zy-El Patch.

NB: New players entering, in order that they are not too disadvantaged by having no carry forward score, can use a CF score of <lowest CF score of existing players> / 2. Alternatively , you can play “catch-up” in Chapters One, Two, Three and Four with no penalty but must adhere to their rules. This should give new entrants a bit of a chance.

Multiplay. No multiplay allowed. This is a single player tournament only.

Skill/Stat reallocation is NOT allowed.

Skill Restrictions. No skill restrictions apart from Paladins who are not allowed to summon in any shape or form and no matter the source of the summons (CtC, Charges etc). The “Conversion” skill is allowed as it is not technically a summoning skill.

Rerunning. Rerunning areas is fine. As your character and the tournament both evolve so shall the rules and we will make a ruling on returning to previous difficulties when we get to that stage. That means at least 1 Chapter before that happens.

Shared Stash. New entrants must start with a new empty stash (both shared and personal). You can dump any items into Shared/Personal Stash pages. You will need to and want to do so in order to “evolve”. See below. Existing players continue with their stashes from previous chapters.

Equipment. Chapter Five sees your “evolution” hit a brick wall and takes place in Act 5 Normal mode. At the beginning of this Act you can use white items which will include runewords but any runewords you make must be <= your character level. Whether you actually use them is up to you but you must be able to equip all runewords that you make. No making an “Oath of <char>” before you are level 255 for example. You may also use items with “magical” properties (i.e. blue items), rare items (yellow), crafted items (orange), set items (green) and unique items (gold). One exception to this however, you still haven’t made the discovery of Zy-El Artifacts. Zy-El Artifacts may NOT be used. As in previous chapters, any other items may be stored for future use but you can NOT equip them. Anything not named in this list can NOT be used.

For players who have completed the Act 3 “Mephisto’s Treasure Hunt” quest, you may also use Treasure Cards to create items but these items are bound by the restrictions for this Chapter.

Note on Crafted Items: You are allowed all forms of crafted items i.e. own crafts, Trinity Demon recipes and if you completed the Act 3 side-quest successfully and are lucky enough...Treasure Card outputs but Megaloading is NOT allowed.

Recipes. Any recipes that use items that are not in the equipment list must not be used to modify gear you find, gamble or are using (see the exception for downgrading immediately below).

Downgrading. Downgrade recipes can be used to make an item that this chapter allows the use of. Any other downgraded items must be stored in your stash.

Mercs. No restrictions on hiring and firing. The same item restrictions apply to mercs as to your character at all times.

Death. All deaths count and will incur a 0.005% reduction in your Evolution Modifier (EM),


SCORING

CFT: Carried forward total. This is the total score carried forward from Chapter Four.

SHENK: Kill Shenk 3 times progressively at Players 8/16/32 = 50/150/300 pts. You must clear all the way from Harrogath. No waypoints can be used. 1-shot-deal per. Players X setting. Die and your attempt is over for that setting.

ANYA: Rescue Anya at Players 32 = 1500 pts. 1-shot-deal. Die and you can not claim the points.

BAAL: Kill Baal 3 times progressively at Players 8/16/32 settings = 250/750/2000 pts. 1-shot-deal per. Players X setting. Die and your attempt is over for that setting. You must start each attempt at the Players X setting all the way from the Worldstone Level 2 Waypoint.

AC: Act Completion results in an award of 5000 pts.

EM: Each death in Act 5 will result in a 0.005% penalty.

TOTAL: Total points = CFT + SHENK +ANYA + BAAL + AC * EM

NB: A Perfect Score will allow you to add 0.005% to your Evolution Modifier for Chapter 6.

******************************

This Chapter is now active! Start Your Engines!

Good luck, everyone! — Al & Hans.

Tip: Don't activate the Killing Grounds Waypoint unless you want to give yourself more work in the side-quest (see below).

******************************

Chapter 5 Optional Side Quest #1 – “Narrow-Minded Nilathak” - Authors Hellwolf_36 & Al-T.

There has been another "Alignment of The Trillion Cubes" causing disruption and chaos to your universe....read on.

AIM

The cosmic imbalance caused by the "Alignment of The Trillion Cubes" has this time fallen on the side of “Chaos” and means that Nilathak has been resurrected and is getting away with his Betrayal again. But now, he has utilized the power of Narrow Charms and his new form to create unspeakable horrors in his temple. Your objective is to slay this revived Nilathak and take as many Narrow Charms as you can to "cleanse" this place of his evil once and for all.

RULES

(1) You get a One shot-deal running from the start of The Matrix to The Halls of Vaught culminating in slaying the betrayer. If you have activated the Killing Grounds Waypoint you will not have access to the portal so you must run back up to the Matrix first before descending again (you may clear and collect as you go). Collect as many narrow charms (any quality) as you can find. You fail the quest if you perish during the run and will get no EM bonuses (even if you have any Narrow Charms on death). The charms may be kept.

(2) Character/Merc gear must be runeword items only with the exception of charms, rings, amulet and a crafted belt for you and your merc if you wish to use these instead of a runeword variant and can not be changed once you enter The Matrix to start the side-quest.

(3) Players setting must be a minimum of 8 (higher settings give no advantage) when you enter The Matrix.

(4) You must have already killed Baal and completed all Act 5 quests prior to starting this side quest.

SCORING

Award yourself....

***.001 to EM for every normal (white) Narrow charm dropped
***.005 to EM for every magic (blue) Narrow charm dropped
***.0075 to EM for every rare (yellow) Narrow charm dropped
***.010 to EM for every unique (gold) Narrow charm dropped

***********************************************

Chapter 5 Optional Side Quest #2 – “Hell Hath Frozen Over” - Author Al-T.

There has been another "Alignment of The Trillion Cubes" causing disruption and chaos to your universe....read on.

AIM

The cosmic imbalance caused by the "Alignment of The Trillion Cubes" has once more fallen on the side of “Chaos” and means that you are stripped of some of your best defence mechanisms i.e. the “cannot be frozen” ability and the “half-freeze” ability. Your rewards for successful completion/failure however are aligned on the side of “Balance”...success will be rewarded but failure will be punished (see scoring below) .

RULES

(1) Starting from The Ancients Way waypoint, you get a One shot-deal clearing the entire area of The Ancients Way (full clear) before entering and clearing the entire area of The Icy Cellar (full clear) and must remove all items that have the “cannot be frozen” and “half-freeze” properties prior to starting i.e. remove them in town before starting. These can be replaced by items of your choice but can only be items that are allowed in the rules for this side quest (see 2 below)which also includes the rest of the tournament item restrictions at this point (e.g. no megaloaded items etc) and do not have either “cannot be frozen” or “half freeze” abilities.

(2) Character/Merc gear must be runeword items only with the exception of charms, rings, amulet and a crafted belt for you and your merc if you wish to use these instead of a runeword variant and cannot be changed once you enter The Ancients Way. The rest of the chapter item restrictions also apply. To reiterate the main restriction theme, none of these items are allowed “cannot be frozen” or “half-freeze” properties.

(3) Players setting must be a minimum of 8 which must be set in town before going to the Ancients Way waypoint and cannot be changed for the entirety of the challenge.

(4) You must have already killed Baal and completed all Act 5 quests and have access to the Ancients Way waypoint prior to starting this side quest.

(5) Death. Your first death results in failure and you must deduct the appropriate amount from your EM based upon the Players X setting you had been using. You may not attempt this side-quest again. It is a 1-shot deal.

SCORING

Award yourself....

***0.010 to EM for successful completion at Players 8
***0.020 to EM for successful completion at Players 16
***0.050 to EM for successful completion at Players 32
***0.075 to EM for successful completion at Players 64
***0.100 to EM for successful completion at Players 127

Deduct....

***0.010 from EM for failure at Players 8
***0.020 from EM for failure at Players 16
***0.050 from EM for failure at Players 32
***0.075 from EM for failure at Players 64
***0.100 from EM for failure at Players 127

The rewards are high for success in this challenge but then, so are the penalties for failure! Let’s see how brave you are...

Good luck, everyone! — Al.

[Hellwolf_36]

It took HOW long to get this one going? O.o

Alas, I lost Blivarticcil as I thought this tournament was discountinued, so I will have to redo another from Chapter 1 as I do not want penalties. But that's alright, I can get all my EM back easily and MAYBE more points!

[Al-T]

Welcome back Hellwolf Sorry to hear you lost Blivarticcill

I was lucky I had done a backup to cloud storage just before my old PC died so I still have "Dora" at the point she left off. It took this long to restart this due to (a) my old PC dying and being unable to replace it for well over a year (b) real life (c) lack of interest in the tourney ... only you, Clersius and I made any real attempt at it (d) more recently ... there were other tournaments to play.

It's really only because I had seen a few posts from you here and Clerisus expressing his interest in playing this again fairly recently that prompted me to resurrect it.

I'll probably wait until you are back to Chapter 5 before cranking up "Dora" again, which is good as it will give both Clersius and I a chance to do some more in the Ladder tournament (why not join that as well the rules are much simpler in that one).

The rules on the face of it may appear "simplistic" but I can assure you that creating them is far from simple due to the myriad of items and recipes that have to be taken into account and trying to avoid any ambiguity (just noticed something in the rules for Chapter 6 that needs changing to avoid exploits...so thanks for making me think about this tournament again ).

Onywhoo, once again Welcome Back! Hellwolf and the best of luck to you in your adventures

[Hellwolf_36]

To be very honest, I would need to think of a plan before I can crush you both in that ladder one, especially Clersius. So I tend to steer clear of those. Also, I am only playing it during breaks from Diablo 3 or work. But considering it didn't take me long to beat you all before Clersius began winning, I see no problems getting back to Chapter 5. And I did it with a non-summon class even.

Where I stand in Diablo III at this time:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/ChrisH36-1805/career

[Clersius]

20140801:

Bloodmist was a little miffed at being so rudely awakened in the midst of his sloth nap, but to his credit he adjusted quickly enough. After a quick glance at his inventory, he plunged deep into the heart of the Durance of Hate and started slaughtering anything that dared violate the sanctity of his personal space.

He became bored with that in just a few minutes, at which time he upped the setting to p32. He fiddled around with more baddies for a while before upping it again to p64 and doing a few pseudo-Meph-runs. He spent waaaaaay too much time picking up trinkets and scooping piles of gold into his knapsack to call them “real” Meph runs, but the primary goal wasn't to become an efficiency expert, it was to work out the kinks of his handler playing a bona fide character again, after months upon years of playing bit parts in the world of Zy-El.

It sure is a lot of fun, I can tell you that much! It's been too, too long – playing Bloodmist again feels like coming home. It's been so long that when I first fired him up and started in on the foes, I was amazed at how much life he had – over 70k and still in Normal Difficulty! *gasp* Then I realized that I was playing a Barbarian.... a Barbarian with actual skills... and actual equipment. Battle Command? Check! Shout? Check! Battle Orders? Check! Ahhhhh yes, over 300k life, and that seems like an insane amount of life!!

After warming up to the idea of playing Bloodmist again in the Evolution tournament, I re-read the rules for Part IV, Part V, and Part IV, set p8, and headed straight for Shenk. Shenk at p8 dies a quick death... sudden, even. Shenk at p16 fares no better. Lastly, Shenk at p32 puts up a fight! Nope. Just trying to make it more interesting through the liberal application of terminological inexactitude.

Actually, he did take a few seconds to kill that last time, as opposed to dying in less than half a second. Dac Farren and his cronies were the robust ones on the slopes, however! Even at a lowly p32, they take some beating to bring down. On he goes to save his brothers from the slave pens... done!

The rescue of Anyanka at p32 was accomplished without a hitch, area cleaned out subsequent to the rescue. Waypoint achieved in the Crystalline Passage, and that is a wrap for this session.

Here we go with the new table... first blood has been drawn! Any responders?

*Neglects disremembering to add in the 0.005% EM bonus for a Perfect Score in Chapter IV*

Code: Select all

Chapter 5 Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class       CFT    SHENK  ANYA   BAAL   AC     EM      TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barbie     69558    500   1500      0    0   1.0268    73476

Merry Zy-Elling to all the Zy-Elling boys and Zy-Elling girls!

[Al-T]

Here we go with the new table... first blood has been drawn! Any responders?

Hmm....I'll think about it

[Clersius]

[Sat Aug 02, 2014 11:01 pm]

Bloodmist plowed ahead, still at the p32 setting from rescuing Anyanka, finding waypoints and killing only what stood in the way of his drive towards quest completion. He even forewent the “pleasure” of clearing out the Arreat Plateau in favour of pushing on to Baal. Before entering WSK 2, he dropped down to p8 and kept it there all the way to Baal for his premier attempt at dispatching the mighty Prime sniveling little toad. Back in Harrogath, there was much rejoicing, as their recently-returned prodigal son had made good with the Slayer-osity!

He ducked out and back in again, set p16, and stormed the battlements once more, laying Baal low for the second time. Once more, this time at p32, and his Baal duties have been rightly dispatched.

After that, he did some thorough post-apocalyptic stash cleaning, trying to set his house in order before making the final decisions on the equipment he would use for his attempt at the “Narrow-Minded Nihlathak” side-quest.

I must say that, overall, I appreciate the dynamic flow of this tournament. It would be a lot more convenient if I could simply pick a few key pieces of gear and dump all of the variously useful scrolls onto them. But it is a lot more fun and interesting that Bloodmist's equipment has to change every once in a while to accommodate the new rules for the next sub-quest or the next chapter. Good work on this one, Al! Trying to plan ahead, both for the chapter 5 subquests and for chapter 6, has become an actual challenge, at least for me.

In the meantime, here is Bloodmist's updated score:

Code: Select all

Chapter 5 Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class       CFT    SHENK  ANYA   BAAL   AC      EM      TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barbie     69558    500   1500   3000  5000   1.0268    81690

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

[EDIT]

I have a couple of questions, Al:

• Are unique jewels allowed in runewords for the chapter five side quests, provided that they do not violate the CBF/half-freeze rules?
• The rules for chapter six say that posters are allowed at a certain point - is that limited to minors, or are albums and majors included?

Thanks.

[Al-T]

Nice work Clersius I guess I'll have to spend a bit of time re-familiarising myself with Dora and re-acquainting myself with the rules as you have done with Bloodmist (yea I made them but didn't commit them all to memory).

...I must say that, overall, I appreciate the dynamic flow of this tournament. It would be a lot more convenient if I could simply pick a few key pieces of gear and dump all of the variously useful scrolls onto them. But it is a lot more fun and interesting that Bloodmist's equipment has to change every once in a while to accommodate the new rules for the next sub-quest or the next chapter. Good work on this one, Al!...

I must be doing something right then I am also re-reading all the rules in preparation for the challenges ahead.

I have a couple of questions, Al:

Are unique jewels allowed in runewords for the chapter five side quests, provided that they do not violate the CBF/half-freeze rules?

I don't see why not...a runeword variant with a "gmj" is still just a runeword

The rules for chapter six say that posters are allowed at a certain point - is that limited to minors, or are albums and majors included?

All (clue is in the word "All") Posters are allowed so if you are lucky enough to have Album and Major Posters, you may use them. Enjoy their power while you can...you never know when "The Alignment of The Trillion Cubes" is going to take them from you

Just sent you an email to your gmail account about some "secret, hush, hush testing"
------------------------

Did a 20 minute stint in Durance Levels 2 & 3 to re-familiarise myself with Dora and her sidekick, Myrada. Time for Act 5 and...

Shenk (Players 8): Instead of a full commentary here I decided to capture Dora’s return to action.

Shenk (Players 16): No full commentary this time either but no full video either. I just ploughed through and started recording toward the end of the Players 16 run.

Shenk (Players 32): Same as with P16...ploughed through the Bloody Foothills and started recording at the end of the run.

I think I will continue to do this from now on....create a video of the last few minutes of every quest/side quest instead of just text and screenshots or full videos.
-----------------

Anya Players 32: Stygian Harlots in the Crystalline Passage took a few hits to kill but nothing there to really threaten Dora or Myrada. Daishi in the Frozen River also took a bit of killing but again, were no real threat! Picked up a “Hynda’s Hairpin” Unique Maiden Javelin along the way which is on switch for when I need to use Plague Javelin. Almost at Anya so it’s time to record the event. Job done

I'll not do a table until I have killed Baal the required 3 times and completed the Act.

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

***Just noticed a mistake in the rules for Side Quest 2, "Hell Hath Frozen Over"......I have changed it to a full clear of The Ancients Way followed by a full clear of "The Icy Cellar" (which is directly off The Ancients Way) and should not have been "The Drifter Cavern". My apologies for this oversight***

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

Baal Players 8: Having cleared as far as Worldstone Keep Level 2 at Players 1, I restarted the game at Players 8 to make my first assault on Baal.

Baal Players 16: Here’s the video.

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

Baal Players 32: Platinum Drakes take a few hits to kill but so far Dora and Myrada are not in any major trouble. If/when Mind Maws appear, they may test them fully. Okay, met a group of six of them and they were no real threat at all. I was worried that Myrada with only 9K life might be vulnerable to their Corpse Explosions but she only got a small fraction of her life taken. In fact, the biggest danger is herself when she levels and I need to take the time to feed her a potion At the Throne room now...time for the video.

Code: Select all

Chapter 5 Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class       CFT    SHENK  ANYA   BAAL   AC      EM      TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barbie     69558    500   1500   3000  5000   1.0268    81690
Al-T                    Dora/Cutie      54388    500   1500   3000  5000   1.0276    66165

Happy Zy-Elling, Zy-Ellers

P.S. Clersius...your EM still not adjusted for the 0.005 addition

[Clersius]

Al, thank you for answering my clarification questions.

Wonderful videos! I like the idea of capturing the ends of Dora's scoring adventures... that is working out quite well. It's fun to see her in action. If it is not Top Secret, what kind of a bow setup does she have? I know that the "Cutie" character class is heavy into bow damage, "death from above," and all that good stuff...

I have noticed something while watching your video scrapbook sessions... When Dora procs Meteor, it centers on the target at which she is firing. When Dora's mercenary procs Meteor, it centers on Dora's mercenary! Wild.

Outstanding work on completing the main Chapter 5 objectives, sir. I think that Dora will have little trouble doing the second side quest at p127. I think that she will get swarmed and eaten alive if she does the first side quest at p127. But that's just one guy's opinion.

I must be doing something right then

Most assuredly, and rock on!

P.S. Clersius...your EM still not adjusted for the 0.005 addition

Sadly, it IS adjusted! I somehow got it into my head that Bloodmist's only death, back in Act II, counted against his having a "Perfect Score" for that chapter, and his EM has been trailing everyone else's throughout the balance of this tournament. Chapters 5 & 6 don't mention anything at all about there being any correlation between a Perfect Score and deaths, but it might have been mentioned in the earlier chapters – I have not gone back and examined that possibility.

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

20140803:

I decided to do the second side quest first, as it would require fewer changes to Bloodmist's setup. One of the items affected by the rules for “Hell Hath Frozen Over” was his torso armor, an Oath of Barbarian with Cannot Be Frozen added to it. It seemed logical that he should keep his current Oath, which is set into a rare Sacred Armor, intact for use later in the tournament. He should make himself a new Oath in a magic item so that it can be used for both the sub-quest and again in chapter 6. But then I remembered that CBF can be removed with the Reduction Recipes, which made laziness king for yet another day.

The only other item affected by the rules was his off-hand weapon, a unique axe (Gimli's Sharp Hatchet) that has served him quite well over the past several hundred levels. After perusing Zerb for a few minutes, it became apparent that Reaper/Grim Reaper is just about the perfect weapon for him, so he decided to make a second one.

The problem is, in what medium? A Phase Blade has mega-appeal, but he doesn't have Sword Mastery maxed, and he would be foolish to do so. That is his retreat when and if his damage becomes too great. On the other hand, it might be wise to treat this new weapon as something he will use for ages to come, and throw lots of stored-up scrolls at it, which would also be foolish if he is planning to switch to another weapon type in the future. Ah well, too many variables – go with the path of least resistance for the time being and make another ethereal Caduceus, laddie!

He decided to do just that – make a Grim Reaper in an ethereal Caduceus. He used this as the Gmj, making this simple, yet highly effective, weapon. It has lower damage output than his primary Grim Reaper at both the minimum and maximum ends (his primary uses a Shard of Accuracy for +150 min/max damage), but it can be used from now until at least the end of Chapter 6.

That done, he was ready! More or less... I'm a little trepidatious of the true dangers of fighting cold-slowing monsters without CBF. I can't imagine a scenario in which he could possibly be in danger, but by no means am I implying that the danger doesn't exist! I guess we'll see what happens. P127 set and away he went.

No problems with any of the non-freezing baddies at p127. Even when cold-slowed, it was hard to tell any difference in Bloodmist's attack or movement speeds, he has so much excess of both.

Entrance to the Icy Cellar found, but still a few areas yet to clear in The Ancient's Way. A nice big pack of Frozen Horrors, or ”The Frozen Horde” as Bloodmist calls them, took him a moment or two to clear out, and then he was done. Down into The Icy Cellar he descended.

Didn't take him too long to clear it out. Daishi were the most “dangerous” creatures that he encountered during this side quest. Their Blood Curse is powerful. I still remember, quite vividly, how easily they ate BloodStar's life with that blasted curse. Bloodmist is made of sturdier stuff, however, and simply shrugged off the attacks.

It was a fun side quest. It's always enjoyable to have an excuse to put Bloodmist through his paces at p127. The reward of +0.1 to his EM is a really nice bonus, too! It's like getting paid to have fun.

Now he must set his attention to the task of outfitting himself according to the rules for the first side quest.

Code: Select all

Chapter 5 Scoreboard
Player        Character/Class       CFT    SHENK  ANYA   BAAL   AC     EM      TOTAL
====================================================================================
Clersius      Bloodmist/Barbie     69558    500   1500   3000  5000  1.1268    89646
Al-T          Dora/Cutie           54388    500   1500   3000  5000  1.0276    66165

20140803:

I must have been over-thinking the first side quest, because now that it comes down to actually getting ready for it, the only changes Bloodmist needs to make are a) adding CBF back to his torso armor and b) removing all sources of cold damage and freeze so that he can use Find Item on the corpses he creates.

In he went... and almost immediately found a unique charm! But it was a Quad. Wow... the place is swarming with fans seeking Bloodmist's autograph! I had no idea he was so popular in the 'burbs of Harrogath...

So... much... stuff... to sort through. What a problem to have. Unfortunately, none of the truckloads of items strewn across the ground were Narrow Charms until right near the end of the clear of The Matrix, when this magic charm dropped.

The majority of the monsters in The Matrix were Shadow Mists, with a liberal helping of Mind Maws thrown in just to mess with the corpses. Bloodmist had to zero in on and destroy those as soon as possible in order to preserve as many of the corpses as possible for use with his Find Item skill. Whirlwind is a huge help on that front, as it prevents him from ever getting hemmed in by the oodles and oodles of bodies pressing up against him.

On he goes to the premier level of The Killing Grounds.

20140804:

Level one of The Killing Grounds yielded four more magic Narrow Charms: the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth. Six total so far. They may only be magic quality, but 3000+% MF grants a pretty good chance that none of them will be white. Another unique charm dropped, this time in the form of a Small Charm. Hopefully he will get lucky with a unique Narrow Charm before the adventure concludes.

At just over two hours to clear, it progressed more than twice as fast as The Matrix. The lower levels have the potential to be the slowest if hordes of high-life, cowardly Ryokin-type critters swarm the place. Hope for dolls... hope for dolls... hope for dolls... lots of chances for Narrow Charms to drop and easy as pie to kill with Whirlwind!

Down to the second level he goes...

Zy-Ellers Zy-Elling merrily, my most fervent wish is!

ps - Al, can you divulge information regarding your soundtracks? Do you have that music on as you play, or do you add it in during video production? I am especially interested in the music from the first and last videos.

[Al-T]

If it is not Top Secret, what kind of a bow setup does she have?

Just this little trinket

When Dora procs Meteor, it centers on the target at which she is firing. When Dora's mercenary procs Meteor, it centers on Dora's mercenary! Wild.

It's actually a bonus/life saver for her...any melee enemies get too close and at least she has an additional form of damage pre-cast while Dora deals with the long-range nasties

I think that Dora will have little trouble doing the second side quest at p127. I think that she will get swarmed and eaten alive if she does the first side quest at p127. But that's just one guy's opinion.

You may be right but we shall see

Sadly, it IS adjusted!

That truly is a "bummer" I am honestly gutted about that as your score would be even more impressive.

As for deaths counting against the score...each chapter and side-quest specifically has a "Death" rule which states you must remove a percentage from your modifier, which implies a score that is "not perfect". [QUICK EDIT 06/08/2014] A Perfect score is achieved by completeing all quests and sub-quest with no deaths. Any deaths suffered at any time in a given Chapter including side-quests results in an imperfect score and a reduction of 0.005% to your EM. This applies only to the first death. Subsequent deaths incur no further penalty.

I am running out of time...sorry if this sounds like an uninterested reply (I would love more time to comment on Bloodmists exploits...they were aewsome) but it is late here and I am off to my father's house again tomorrow until Saturday and need to get organised for that. It also means I don'thave time to reply to your gmail and PM here

I will answer one final question though....the music I used for the videos was added with the text overlays during the editing process and the various music files used are available from...

http://www.meejah.co.uk , http://www.templateswise.com and http://www.teknoaxe.com

Wish I had more time to give more info on the various "tracks" used and I may do so when I get back at the weekend.

[[teknoaxe files are .mp4 so you have to convert them to .mp3 or .wav etc., to use them as just music files in your projects]].

[Clersius]

Ahhhhhh yes, Sweet makes SUCH a nice bow! I think that might be my favourite runeword of them all.

That truly is a "bummer" I am honestly gutted about that as your score would be even more impressive.

Your commiseration is duly noted...

Not that you need my agreement, but I agree completely with the idea that suffering a death and losing points because of it taints and undermines the whole concept of a Perfect Score. I am delighted to learn that suffering more than a single death in a chapter does not continue to eat away at one's EM!

I did not get a vibe of "uninterested" at all, so no worries there.

Thank you for the musical links... I am going to enjoy that immensely

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20140805:

All I can say is... be careful of what you wish!! Bloodmist got dolls on level two, all right. Scads of them. Oodles, even. They are certainly not easier to kill than Ryokin. First of all, he had to take out the Shamen before working on the dolls, or use Find Item after every single kill. Second of all, it would have taken three times as long to try to kill them with Whirlwind as it did with Frenzy. They have lots of life, they regenerate, they get healed, they run away; all sorts of special circumstances that ruin the efficacy of Whirlwind. The upside, of course, was that there were lots and LOTS of chances to find Narrow Charms, which he did.

Thirteen more Narrow Charms he picked up, in fact; two of them white, ten of them magic, and one of them rare. I took pics of all of them as he found them, but I won't persecute you with all of those. They are in the album, should their viewing be desired.

Second level of The Killing Grounds cleared, descending to the third...


20140806:

Portal swarm, as usual. No danger, however. Within ten minutes of entry, Bloodmist encountered his first Physically Immune foe in the form of a unique Venom Drake. He patiently cleared out most of the surrounding baddies to strengthen his odds, then switched over to Berserk and killed it with magic damage.

The first wing he chose to clear turned out to house the Mervingian himself, so in order to preserve the spirit of the side quest, he went and cleared the other three wings first, in order to amass all of the Narrow Charms available to him. That way, he reasoned, the ritual would be as strong as possible – hopefully strong enough to permanently eradicate the problem and prevent its return

During the course of clearing out the four wings of the bottom level of The Killing Grounds, Bloodmist happened across three more Narrow Charms, all of them magical in nature. This gave him a grand total of twenty-two Narrow Charms: two white, nineteen blue, and one yellow.

Finally he returned to Nihlathak's platform, bringing all of his Narrow Charms with him. He cleaned up the last few monsters lurking about in the shadows, then strewed his charms about the chamber in a strategic manner. He turned to face The Mervingian, Nihlathak's deformed, twisted alter-ego, pronounced his intent to permanently cleanse and purge that lair of evil, and proceeded to slaughter the beast in cold blood. Revenge, she is so sweet.

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Chapter 5's “Narrow-Minded Nihlathak” Quest Results

Player        White  Magic  Rare  Unique    EM Award
=================================================================
Clersius          2     19     1       0      0.1045

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Chapter 5 Scoreboard

Player        Character/Class       CFT    SHENK  ANYA   BAAL   AC     EM      TOTAL
====================================================================================
Clersius      Bloodmist/Barbie     69558    500   1500   3000  5000  1.2313    97960
Al-T          Dora/Cutie           54388    500   1500   3000  5000  1.0276    66165

Merry Zy-Elling to all the Sarcastiphiles out there!

[Al-T]

Preparation for Side Quest 1 – “Narrow Minded Nilathak”: I am just going to do this at Players 8 since there is no advantage at higher Players settings other than a reduction in the “nodrop” factor. I am hoping enough narrow charms will drop to post a decent score. Killing monsters at Players 8 will be hard enough for Dora and Myrada as it is. I am lucky in that the only adjustments to Dora’s gear I will have to make for this side quest is to make a pair of runeword boots to replace her crafted ones (no big deal as there are a few good ones she can make) and change her switch weapon for a plain javelin, which is no big deal either. For Myrada, I’ll only have to replace her crafted bow.
For Dora, I swap out her switch javelin for just a plain javelin, make “Xterra” (same as Myrada has) in a pair of Greaves and for Myrada, I make a “Sweet” in a Short Battle Bow. Just before starting I realise I also have to make Dora’s switch shield into a runeword so I buy a new Kite Shield, put 3 sockets in it and turn it into a “Kato” (Sur, Nef, Shael). Players 8 set and here goes...

Side Quest #1 - Narrow Minded Nilathak

The Matrix: ....even at Players 8 there is so much stuff dropping that it takes longer to sort through it than it does to slay the demons. No narrow charms so far. Right hand side cleared but still no Narrow Charms. Finally a Blue Narrow Charm drops, somewhere close to where I killed Diablo....and another nearby. A third Blue Narrow Charm drops just as I clear the area. On to...

Killing Grounds Level 1: About 1/3rd cleared and 2 Plain White Narrow Charms have dropped. A Blue Narrow Charm next (Total, 4 Blue, 2 White). Area clear with no more scoring drops. On to...

Killing Grounds Level 2: Finally, after what seems an eternity (mainly due to the time picking up items), another Blue Narrow Charm drops (Total 5 Blue, 2 White). Next a White and a Blue Narrow charm drop (Total 6 Blue, 3 White). Finally another Blue Narrow Charm drops (Total 7 Blue, 3 White). I hope Level 3 is kinder....

Killing Grounds Level 3: South room drops no Narrow Charms. West room drops 1 Blue (Total 8 Blue, 3 White). North Room drops no Narrow Charms. This is pathetic East room is where The Mervingian is....no Narrow Charms Drop. Grand Total 8 Blue and 3 White (0.043 to EM)

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Chapter 5's “Narrow-Minded Nihlathak” Quest Results

Player        White  Magic  Rare  Unique    EM Award
=================================================================
Al-T              3      8     0       0      0.0430

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Chapter 5 Scoreboard

Player        Character/Class       CFT    SHENK  ANYA   BAAL   AC     EM      TOTAL
====================================================================================
Clersius      Bloodmist/Barbie     69558    500   1500   3000  5000  1.2313    97960
Al-T          Dora/Cutie           54388    500   1500   3000  5000  1.0706    69934

Conclusion: I really did not enjoy that Side-Quest, not because there was anything wrong with it but I hated the amount of time it took to pick up items and filter through them looking for Narrow Charms and anything else that might be useful later on. 4.5 hours was way too long for my liking. I think any future side-quests I make will not require and maybe even not allow you to pick up items.

Next up "Hell Hath Frozen Over" at Players 127...

A final check is done to check that Dora and Myrada do not have any items with either “No Freeze” or “Half-Freeze” attributes before setting Players 127 and starting...

Hell Hath Frozen Over

Ancients Way: So far so good...Maskari and Stone Ghouls first up....take a few hits but no threat so far. Blood Bringers and Demon Imps are easy enough. Death Slashers and Moon Lords are also easy. I might do a video when Dora has cleared the Ancients Way and is about to start the Icy Cellar. Entrance to Icy Cellar clear but still got lots to clear here first. Area clear after about 30 minutes...on to...

Icy Cellar: Video Link.

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Chapter 5 Scoreboard

Player        Character/Class       CFT    SHENK  ANYA   BAAL   AC     EM      TOTAL
====================================================================================
Clersius      Bloodmist/Barbie     69558    500   1500   3000  5000  1.2313    97960
Al-T          Dora/Cutie           54388    500   1500   3000  5000  1.1706    75373

I guess I should start working on the rules for Chapter 6 Side Quests and also Chapter 7 but I might have an interlude in the Ladder tournament first. I am also seriously considering starting a new character in Pure Grind Mark II

Happy Zy-Elling, Zy-Ellers

[Clersius]

Another fun video! I have a question about the glitching that happens around the 5:30 to 6:00 marks... is that due to the recording, or is your game doing that?

I agree about the 1st side quest... I found myself grinding my teeth a few times over how bloody long it was taking to sift through all the crap.

Anyway, nice work on completing both quests with grace and aplomb.

I've been "preparing" Bloodmist for Chapter 6, stockpiling Zy runes, and leveling him just for the sheer joy of it. He has 15 Albums now, at least two of which will be helpful to him once he can use posters in Chapter 6. He has the resources for at least 20 Zy-El Scrolls (not that that is germane to, well, anything), though he will use some of said resources to remake any of his runewords currently set into rare items. He sure is a lot of fun to play! He's level 810 and still advancing, though more slowly than before.

I mention all of that in a veiled effort to influence you to exert at least part of your energies into "working on the rules for Chapter 6 Side Quests and also Chapter 7."

[Al-T]

The glitch is due to throwing so many Plague Javelins and my graphics card can't handle all the animations. If I throw just 1 or 2 it's fine but any more starts to cause the lag effect. No other skill has caused this so far.

Bloodmist is about twice Dora's level then. I'll be doing the same, stockpiling Zy runes etc., but even I don't know how useful anything will be for Side-Quests since I haven't created any yet. I'll start working on them and Chapter 7 on my return from my father's on Friday evening/Saturday morning.