Jabari's Diablo 2 Place

Heptad update - 3 to Lut Gholein

2008-06-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

3 of my 7 have made it through to Lut Gholein.

Dustweaver was first. In keeping with the goal of getting to Act 2 at as low a level as possible, she basically ran directly through the Jail and Catacombs, running by everything instead of killing them. She got surrounded a couple of times and had to blast her way out, and she blasted stuff out of the way when there was a dangerous-looking swarm nearby.

She went from level 11 to 13 doing that (not too bad), and killed Anderial on /p1. She really could have easily handled /p3 - the rogue merc could tank just fine when given pre-emptive Antidotes. No drops obviously. She's ready to crank it up to /p7 and take on the deserts - carefully. I want to be as high as possible in Act 2 (Lightning), as Act 3 (Warmth) is going to get a single level and that's all (hopefully).

Bessy the Amazon was next - she easily ran through everything at /p5, and Anderial at /p3. No town trips required at Andi, which was cool. She has a huge pile of skill points saved up. She also gambled a very nice rare belt with +17 life (she's no-VIT), and as sockets are going to be hard to come by (to put rubies in) she is looking for every spare point possible. Don't anticipate any trouble with her, as long as I don't get surrounded in a tomb and stay away from beetle lightning.

Wazcul the paladin was the latest. He hit level 18 while spending a single skill point (in Might) up to that point. I then had a decision - my original plan was to go with Blessed Hammers, but I remember trying them a long time ago and couldn't aim them at all.

I threw together a ladder character to try it real quick - it's super-fast to get to level 15 by jumping into 8-player "Trist" games (lots of champs/bosses in Tristram where you rescue Cain). Ran him to 18 and put the hammer points in. Absolutely hated it. It works great in big open areas where the hammers can spin and hit lots of things, but they don't work very well at all indoors (for example, in the Barracks), and I couldn't hit anything directly in front of me. I tried a few points in Charge (from SSOG's great guide) to try that, and it was cool but had 2 problems. It was a huge mana-drainer (I had to drink a mana point for basically every monster), and it seemed really, really buggy - he kept "freezing up", mostly when I wanted to charge again but didn't have mana, and that was frustrating. Might try a pure Charger someday though - it's kinda fun.

Oh well, at least I didn't waste any skill points. Zealots are easier (I've made Fanat Zealots before) - no fanaticism, conviction, or holyshock, with my "<= Tier 18" skill set, so it's either Concentration or Holy Freeze. Freeze is pretty obviously better - so that's what I'm going with now. Since I can only use "blues" and don't have Holy Shield, I'm going to go with an "abbot" approach (tons of resists and PDR) and see what happens. Should work pretty well.

Bault the Summon Druid is next - I'm going to dump points into getting 5 Ravens, as they seem to be useful for blinding and getting in the way (per Insane Wayne's post in a no-vit tournament).

Heptad - Outer Cloister reached!

2008-06-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

Finally - everyone made it intact to the Outer Cloister waypoint. That means that I can trade stuff around between everyone!

Not much to give - mostly moving charms around (the Necro has an inventory full of +STR charms to be able to squeeze out enough strength for a Ring Mail with 3 sockets (for MF). Moved all the DEX charms to the Barbarian, and the Life charms to the Barb/Zon. All the +GF charms went to the Barb as well (because of Find Item).

The Barbarian found my first Unique in the Pit - a Biggin's Bonnet that I horked (find item) from a minion. I put 5 points in Find Item so far, and are using it on basically every single corpse - makes it go slow, but I'm finding a ton of stuff.

Other updates:
- The Barbarian is definitely going to go Concentrate - just want something safe-ish to keep horking everything, even if it's slow going. Will probably use axe mastery, but I haven't put any points there yet.
- The Paladin is going to change a little bit - he's (skills <= tier 18) and was going to be a pure hammerdin, but I read a great guide on the forums about Charge, so I'm going to make him a hybrid Charge/Hammerdin (emphasis on hammers, but Charge for single guys).
- The Sorceress scooted through the rest of Act 1 in about 15 minutes - I want to finish as low as possible, to get as many levels in act 2 as possible (A1 = Charged Bolt, A2 = Lightning). Then, I'll be sprinting again in Act 3 (Warmth - I want a grand total of 1 level here if possible).
- Amazon got to the Inner Cloister - I definitely need more +life stuff as she is going down a bunch even taking 1 hit from anything - eek! Luckily, I found a +15 life grand charm between the OC and IC, so that's a big help.

Heptad Barbarian - Jabari

2008-06-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

My own character! *chuckle*

The last one out of the gate (as I like them the least, I guess), his restrictions are as follows:
Attributes: STR only (7) (no VIT, DEX, or NRG)
Skills, Equipment, and Merc: No restrictions (1)

The STR only restriction is the worst of everything in the tournament, so I put everything else as unrestricted to make it as easy as possible. His role is going to be "try to survive, get as much MF as possible, and hork every corpse to get items for everybody". I'm not totally sure what build he's going to be, but I'm currently leaning toward a Concentrate build. It's a boring, but safe build, and I'll have a fully powered Might merc (assuiming I live that long, which I should) to kill things.

He's gotten through to get the Key to the Cairn Stones with no problems at level 13 (all at /p5). Should be a fairly easy (if long and tedious) run to the meeting point from here - the only worry would be double nasty archer packs in the Pit 2 area (something like that nearly killed my Assassin).

Have been piling up +life items for him (amulet, charms), so even with base VIT he's at >100 life right now. I just have to be careful but it should be fine for a while. He's piling on as much MF as possible (already have 5 chipped topazes working for me), so hopefully I'll find some good stuff.

(I've only gotten 2 set items so far, with 6 characters at the OC waypoint, grr...)

Once he gets to the waypoint, I can trade everything around and go on to Anderial (which is gonna be scary for a couple of chars).

Heptad Druid - Baultizor

2008-06-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Now it's time for the main summoner of the group - the Druid!

Attributes: Distribute points evenly (4) (Base STR, DEX, VIT, and NRG must stay even)
Skills: Single tree only (5) - the Summoning tree
Equipment: All items used must have a "based on character level" property. (7) Rings and amulets are excluded from this.
Merc: Act 2 merc (2)

The equipment restriction is going to be extremely difficult. Nothing really starts to show up at all until Act 4 shopping (+life/lvl and +def/lvl). Resists are definitely going to be a problem.

The Druid summons are powerful enough to carry the character through Nightmare Act5 (when physical-immunes start to show up), but it'll be really rough after that.

I'm hoping to be an archer/hunter and use a bow, but I think I'll settle for whatever equipment shows up. It's easier to "snipe" at dangerous guys (revivers/archers) that way while the summons run around killing everything else randomly.

(But it's not like I'll have a weapon for a long, long time...)

Bault is through getting the scroll and the Dark Wood waypoint - rescuing Cain is next. It's been super-easy so far, as I put 5 points into Spirit Wolves (which I wouldn't do with any other hybrid, but with single-tree there's really no reason not too). It should be fairly fast going, all the way through at /p5, and then there's only one more guy left (the Barb).

Heptad Assassin - Manauia

2008-06-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Last update from the current group - the Assassin!

I'm really looking forward to this one, as the build seems fun (but difficult).

Restrictions:
Attributes: 2 STR/2 VIT/1 any per level (2) - the "free" point will go into DEX each level
Skills: Obessive (7) - Pick a skill, max it (any synergies), then repeat with another skill in another tree, and repeat with third tree. My skills will be Tiger Strike (no synergies), then Shadow Master (no synergies), then Death Sentry (LS and FB synergies). Only the "obsessed" skills can be used.
Equipment: No equipment that has +attributes can be used (the STR, DEX, VIT, NRG values on the char screen should all be white) (4). This is interesting, as a whole lot of stuff can be used, but things "randomly" can't, mostly at random *chuckle*.
Merc: Hire Merc from current act (5) - Interesting, as it always changes. The A3 merc can be used in A4. Unfortunately, Stealth (TAL-ETH) can't be used on the A3 merc (+6 DEX). :(

Planning to use a big 2H weapon, and hoping for lots of IAS. Should get Death Sentry at about level 41/42, so that will really, really help.

She has gotten through to Cain, but that's it. Using a big ugly rare axe right now. Found a sweet rare ring, but I can't use it (it has +1 STR - bleh), but the amazon will really appreciate it at the trading point!

Heptad Necromancer - Villan

2008-06-09T08:59:00.001-07:00

Now for the next in the Heptad - the necromancer!

I've always played skeleton summoners before, so I did something different for this one. Uh oh!

Attributes: No STR (3) - No problem, but I'll need a bunch of charms to wear any armor.
Skills: 2 allowable per tier (2) - note that this is all that's allowed - no "extra" points for prereqs. Skills are listed later.
Equipment: Socketed (gray)/Crafted only (5). This is VERY restrictive! He won't have any Gloves, Belt, Boots, Rings, or Amulets until some are able to be crafted - eek! I can MF a bit though (5 topazes, as soon as I get enough charms to hold heavier armor), and weapon/shield can just find a decent socketed something and throw diamonds or jewels into it. Endgame gear is a White wand and Rhyme or Splendor necro-head shield.
Merc: Act 5 merc (6) - This is good - an aggressive tank for the caster - no summons that need an aura. (I can use an A2 merc until A5, but nothing in A1).

Skills: Bonecaster, as follows: (* means that I can't put any hard points there - must come from staffmods on equipment)
(Lvl 01): Teeth, Bone Armor
(Lvl 06): Corpse Exp, Dim vision
(Lvl 12): Bone Wall, Summon Skeleton Mage*
(Lvl 18): Bone Spear, Confuse
(Lvl 24): Bone Prison, Decrepify*
(Lvl 30): Bone Spirit, Revive*

It's been pretty simple so far - Teeth is not nearly as good as Charged Bolt, as it doesn't hit single monsters very well (limit of one hit per, unlike CB where all of them can hit), so I have a 3-socket bow on weapon-switch to kill single monsters. Bone wall has actually been pretty amusing - it holds back things while I shoot at them.

Screenshot of Villan pretending to be an archer:Not quite to the O.C. waypoint yet (finished Cain and stopped there), but not much longer.

Heptad Amazon - Bessy

2008-06-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Amazon Time! Here are the restrictions:

Attributes: No VIT (5). Glass cannon amazon, but I should be able to get plenty of life from the equipment, and pDR/mDR/resists as well.

Skills: 5 are allowed to have >1 point and be used (3). This will be a Freezing Arrow amazon. Skills chosen are Freezing Arrow, Cold Arrow, Decoy, Valkyrie, and Pierce.

Equipment: Rares only (2).

Merc: Act 1 only (3). This will work well with the Valk and Decoy tanking.

The hardest part for this build is going to be Anderial. No tank at all for her (Decoy is lvl 24), so it will be "ring around the bloodpool" and snipe with cold arrows. Duriel shouldn't be bad because of the decoy (just slow), and the build really comes into power at 30 (as a lot of mine seem to). Hopefully she'll survive ok - she should have great resists because of the rares. I need to look for +VIT/+life and damage reduction stuff.

She's through to the Outer Cloister meeting point, with a ton of skill points unspent.

Score: 4 (q) + 6 (wpt) - 16 (lvl) = -6 * 13 (diff) = -78 + 25 (equip) = -53

Heptad Paladin - Wazcul

2008-06-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Now for the Paladin!

Attributes: No restrictions (1)
Skills: Only place points at tiers <= level 18.
- He is going to be a Hammerdin. I hear they're super-powered, but I've never actually played one (I've always played zealots of some sort). Unfortunately, Holy Shield is at level 24 and isn't usable, but I get a "pure cheese" hammerdin otherwise.

Equipment: Magic-items (blues) only (3)
- This seems tough, but isn't rated very difficult so it must not be that bad.

Merc: No mercenary allowed (7)
- Eek! I hope Blessed Hammer is as good as advertised!

The Paladin is through the Black Marsh waypoint (finished the tower, got a TAL from the countess, which is great!) Played entirely on /p5 (really, really boring BTW - 1-point Might and a crappy blue scepter aren't very good at killing things quickly), and am at level 15 now, which is actually too high for the area. (Outer cloister is level 9, so I'm already losing XP due to >5 level difference.)

Score (at waypoint):
(4 (q) + 6 (wpt) - 15 (lvl)) = -5 * 15 (difficulty) = -75 + 25 (all equipment filled) = -50

Will just run directly to the next waypoint at /p1, then it's on to the next one! (probably the amazon)

Heptad Sorceress - Dustweaver

2008-06-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

I'll do Heptad updates whenever one of the characters reaches the next trading point (or dies *chuckle*). The first character through is my Sorceress Dustweaver. She is actually my "most difficult" character according to the restriction weightings, but I have high hopes for her as the plan seems really solid. There will be a couple of weaknesses, of course (due to the restrictions), but nothing insurmountable.

Her restrictions, and the reasoning behind them:
Attributes: Vitality only (6)
- Sorceress equipment hopefully won't be too heavy. No DEX isn't a problem, and no NRG just means drinking a ton of blue pots (but I'm used to that, so no biggie). I do see collecting lots of +STR charms though.

Skills: Scavenger (6) - see below.

Equipment: Set/Unique only (6)
- This will make it difficult at the start (but I have a very strong early-game skill to make up for it), but will be no problem at the end. Not much MF for a long while though, unless I get lucky and find a Nagel or similar.

Merc: Act 3 only (4)
- This was actually because I couldn't think of any other character that could use the A3 merc at all. The assassin and necro can't (corpse exp), the druid must have A2 (summoner), paladin is solo, Barb wants A2 as well (harsh attribute reqs), and the zon is planned cold-based so A3 is redundant. So the sorc is stuck with an A3 merc. I am allowed to use an A1 merc until then however, so that helps.

Skill plan:
Dustweaver will be a Chain Lightning/Frozen Orb hybrid. The skill plan needs to take care of 4 things:
1) Early game survival (until I get to the higher level spells, and get better equipment) - these must all be synergies for Lit/CL though!
2) Short acts for 1-point wonders (Cold Mastery/Warmth)
3) Long acts for the major skills (CL/FO)
4) Get Warmth in the plan, so I can put a point there.

My declarations:
A1: Charged Bolt (A5H)
A2: Lightning Bolt (A4H)
A3: Warmth (A3H) *runrunrun - only want 1 point this entire act*
A4: Chain Lightning (A2H)
A5: Frozen Orb (A1H)
A1N: Lightning Mastery (A5N)
A2N: Nova (A4N) (synergy for lightning stuff)
A3N: Cold Mastery

Note that "quest" skillpoints can go to any declared skills (or prereqs thereof). For me, they are all going to prereqs for FO, even if I can't use them at all.

This has been rearranged slightly since my initial declaration.
I calculated what level the character should be at for the end of each act, to see how many skill points get distributed in each part. The skills that need to be "small" are Warmth and Cold Mastery. The skills that need to be "big" are FO, CL, LM. Everything else is synergies, so will be average.

"Small" acts are A3 normal, A1 Nightmare, and A4 nightmare. (surprising on A3 normal)
"Big" acts are A1 normal, A5 normal, A5 nightmare, and A2 hell. Also, A4 normal can be surprisingly big depending on where you enter it.

I've made it to the Outer Cloister safely - no issues at all (except for continuously drinking mana pots). Found a single Set item, Arctic Furs (quilted armor), so she's not totally nude now. Level 11, as I'm trying to blast through on /p1 so I can develop Lightning Bolt in A2 (for A4 use).
I really think that even 11 is too high - I want to finish A1 at 11, so I can't gain any levels throughout the rest of the act. (One more wouldn't be a killer, but it wouldn't be ideal).
Also found a few nice rares, but those got put into the tournament ATMA stash for use by other characters.

Observations:
- Charged bolt is still really powerful early.
- A1 Merc with no bow (need a S/U one!) totally sucks - she can't kill anything on /p1.
- The Countess was nice and dropped me 3 runes (Tir, Tir, Eth).

Charged Bolt owning Carver camps, all at once:
Score:
(4 (quests) + 6 (wpts) - 11 (level)) = -1 * 22 (difficulty) = -22

Paladin is next up!

The Heptad Team Tournament

2008-06-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

Eek - what have I gotten myself into?

This thread has the details of the tournament. In short, it's a year-long tournament where you create a team of seven characters (one of each type), all with different restrictions on Attributes, Skills, Equipment, and Merc. There are seven of each restriction (of varying harshness), and each restriction can only be used once. Each character then has a "difficulty" multiplier, which is the sum of the difficulties of the restrictions (1 thru 7).

Short Version:
Attributes:
1) Any 2) 2 STR, 2 Vit, 1 Any 3) No STR 4) Even distribution
5) No VIT 6) All VIT 7) All STR

Skills:
1) Any 2) 2 each "tier" allowed placed points 3) 5 usable skills (can place 1 in prereqs)
4) Only tier <= lvl 18 usable 5) Single-tree only
6) Plan one skill each act, through NM 3, then reverse order afterward
7) Pick 3 skills to obsess, in order - must max obsessed skill and all synergies, then go to next. Must be in different trees.

Equipment:
1) Any 2) Rares only 3) Blues only 4) No +attribute equipment or charms
5) Socketed/crafted only 6) Set/Unique only 7) All equipment must have a +/lvl affix.

Merc:
1) Any 2) Act 2 only 3) Act 1 only 4) Act 3 only
5) Use current act merc 6) Act 5 only 7) No merc

The "team" can trade equipment at set stopping points, which are between each act, and once in the middle of each act (except 4). The first trading point is when all characters have reached the Outer Cloister waypoint.

Oh yeah, Hardcore characters only (death means that character is out), and single-pass only - no re-running act bosses or areas for items!

I've entered the "FallenElders" team (from my original WoW guild) - all the character names were character names from that guild (my good friends that I used to play with).

Note: Everything else is likely to be put on hold now! Poor Xecil...

Arimos (GwE2) - Level 27, Kurast

2008-06-02T07:55:00.001-07:00

Got a little bit of time in on the Green with Envy tournament. Got Arimos (the fire hunter) up to level 27 and killed Duriel (who dropped a large pile of rares, boo). Got quite a few set items, which is surprising with my ZERO% MF.

The fire spells are quite good - Fissure is awesome against groups in the open fields or on the pile of enemies on the other side of the door:

Volcano is great for single guys that you can't reach, or that you don't want to get near:

Found an amulet! (Cathan's Sigil - wish it were the Angelic one, but at least I have an amulet now):

Score:
Level 27 (-27)
19 waypoints (+19)
12 quests (+24)
6 set items (+18)
Total: +34

Set items:
- 2 x isenharts helm (one on Merc)
- isenharts sword
- cathans sigil
- cleglaw's pincers
- Hsarus iron stay

Xecil - Level 39

2008-06-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Not much to report on Xecil. He's moving nicely through act 5 (on /p5), just killed Nith. Up to level 39. Anya gave me a pretty nice necro head as a reward (+1 summon, +1 SumResist/Attract/Decrep, good blocking, FR) so I'm using that for a while.

Working my way on skills to get Attract (my favorite curse).

A screenshot from the Frozen River on the way to Anya...

Xecil - Level 35

2008-05-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Diablo down (fairly easily at level 31 - I didn't have to go back to town or run and get more skeletons at all). Dropped 2 uniques and 2 sets (listed later), none of which are usable (but get thrown into the grail, such as it is).

The biggest drop of the night was an AMN rune, from somewhere in the act 5 open fields. It will combine with the TAL from the "save the barbarians" quest to make me a super-nice runeword.

Aside: I love to gamble - gloves, boots, amulet, and one ring are all gambling results right now - (all MF stuff), and I've gambled a couple of really nice belts as well (life, mana, LR, 24 FHR being one). That's why I always list my GF on this character - GF is MF (for rares, which you can target - mostly rings, amulets, and circlets).

Anyway, the runeword will be EDGE (TIR - TAL - AMN), in a cheap bow (hunter's bow) for the 15% vendor price discount, so I get 15% more gambling!

Finds:
- AMN rune
- Angelic Halo (set ring)
- Sander's Taboo (set gloves)
- Tancred's Skull (set helm)
- Crushflange (unique mace)
- Treads of Cthon (unique chain boots)
- Manald Heal (another one - unique ring)
- Perfect (10GF) Small Charm of Greed

Current MF: 217. Current GF: 336.
Need to find 1 more flawless topaz, so I can put a perfect one in the helm.

Screenshot of the skeleton wall typical of a Fishymancer.

Xecil - Level 30

2008-05-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, Xecil got a very nice gift from someone on the forums (linked on the side). I was sent a Goldwrap (70 GF), Tarnhelm (only 26 MF, nearly "perfect worst", but it's still MF/GF/+1 skills, so I'm not complaining!), and a Blade of Ali Baba (that I can use at level 35).

Those are super nice - the 'wrap is endgame gear (after I "up" it), the Tarn will last a LONG time, barring a super circlet gamble, and the Blade is endgame worthy as well. (Hmm, Lems or Ists, which is good? One of each?)

I made my +12 STR hat (2 Ame), and with my +12 STR armor (3 flawed Ame), the merc can use the great polearm I showed before. He 1 or 2-hit kills things on /p5 - wow.

Killed Meph one last time for fun (got nothing), and progressed through Act 4 to the River of Flame waypoint. Only one "find" - a Duskdeep helm that the merc will use, eventually. I now have 20 in Summon Skeleton though, so I can start pumping Mastery. No revives yet - it's 3 points to get there, and not really worth it yet.

Diablo is next!

Current MF: 182 (aiming for 250 as a good number)
Current GF: 239 (aiming for "lots", to gamble with)

Xecil - Level 28

2008-05-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

Necromancer up to level 28, killed Meph (about 3 times, as I have a really good map for it). Finding the Flayer Dungeon took a while (it was on a small side branch I missed the first time). Still super easy, playing at /p5 (Meph at /p3 as he tops out on drops then).

Cubed a super polearm for the merc (recipe: any staff, any belt, any kris, any diamond) - it will be a couple of levels until he can use it as he needs more strength (one more level, and a 2 Amethyst helm).

Savage Partizan of Alacrity
Two-Hand Damage: 59 to 131
Durability: 38 of 65
Required Dexterity: 67
Required Strength: 113
Required Level: 23
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xa2415e5c
+75% Enhanced Damage
20% Increased Attack Speed

Drops:
- Hawkmail (will be used on Merc once strength high enough to support polearm without +12 STR armor)
- Manald Heal ring
- Sander's Riprap boots

On to act 4!

MF: 137 (getting there); GF: 94 (bleh)

Arimos (GwE2) - Level 24, Palace 1

2008-05-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

Played the Druid a little bit over the weekend. It's weird to not be able to use Topazes to get any MF.

Got through act 1 on /p7, single pass (per tournament rules), mostly full clears. Was at level 20 for Anderial, which was nice as I had all 3 Dire Wolves then. She killed a bunch of them, but I just made more and took her out pretty easily. No trips to town needed. She dropped a pile of rares (bleh) - there was a pretty nice bow that I ATMA-ed to use on an amazon later, but nothing else good.

Finished through the Palace 1 waypoint in act 2. It's really easy right now on /p7, as Fissure is just really, really good. I'll build up evenly between it and Dire Wolves for now until both are maxed, then I'll switch to building up Volcano and Heart of Wolverine.
Still using the Rogue merc, as the Normal auras aren't that good. I'll switch to a cold mage in act 3 (no weapon needed!) - one of the big problems for this tourney is that there is only a single Set spear/polearm, so the Might merc won't be very good unless you get it (but I'll still use it, even weaponless).

Found 3 set items:
- Hrusu's Iron Stay (belt)
- Isenhart's Horn's
- Berserker's helmet (on merc)

Finding the second helmet actually sucked, as I was using a 2-socket +3 Raven pelt, but I had to get rid of it when I got the 2nd Set helm. Oh well. 4 Ravens was nice, as they were blinding things pretty consistantly, and are great scouts.

Really really want a set bow, as I'm building him up as a Fire Hunter (archer, to support the wolves from a distance). Actually, I just want to find something with MF right now - anything!

Score:
Level 24 (-24)
8 quests (+16)
16 wpts (+16)
3 set items (+9)
Total: 17

Arimos (fire summoner) - Green With Envy 2 Tournament

2008-05-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

I also started up my character for the Green with Envy 2 Tournament - a Fire Summoner Druid named Arimos.

Tournament rules:
- 1 death and you're out
- You may use Set items only. White/Gray items are usable until you find a set item.
- Sockets must be filled with Emeralds or Jewels that have a green graphic.
- Any charms are usable.
- No re-running any areas.
- Must complete all quests and find all waypoints.
- No bringing in items from other characters. (Must find all items by self)
- Merc follows same equipment rules

Scoring:
- (-1) for each char level
- +1 for each waypoint
- +2 for each quest
- +3 for each set item equipped

Since you can't re-run anything, maximizing experience during normal play is super important, so I'm running at /p7. Going to downgrade for act bosses (5 for andy/duriel, 3 for others).

Build will be roughly as follows (1 in all prereqs):
- 20 Dire Wolves
- 20 Heart of Wolverine
- 20 Fissure
- 20 Volcano
- rest to Grizzly Bear

Stats will be for a bow character, even if I end up with a melee weapon for this tourney (likely), so I can use him afterward.

Progress:
- Cleared Den, killed Blood Raven (got Ice Rogue). No finds yet, at all (not even charms). Level 8. Score = (-8) + 2 + 4 + 0 = (-2).

Xecil - level 26

2008-05-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

A little bit of progress yesterday. Ran some tombs and killed Duriel again (who dropped absolute crap - a blue mask and a bunch of white junk, sheesh). Killed Andy again for fun just to see, and got nothing. There was a rare Necro head that was almost good - resall, ethereal, selfrepair, but only +1 to skeleton. Too bad.

After a little research, I'm simply set everything to /p3 - it's the best for maximizing speed while minimizing nodrops. (Set to /p5 for Andy and Duriel though).

S/U finds: Deathspade (unique axe), Swordback Hold (spiked shield - giving to Paladin - 50% OW is good for zealing!), Isenhart's Lightbrand.

I also cubed a nice Bill for the merc - 78% ED, 10% IAS. Needs 95 STR, and he's at 85. I have enough Amethysts to make a 3-socket (all flawed) armor so he can use it for now, so that's cool.

No, the Palidan hasn't been started yet, but he has 2 shields and a nice grand charm (4 dex, 10 mana) and some small charms (elemental damage) already.

Current MF: 110
Current GF: 94

Both of those are not nearly good enough :(

Xecil - Duriel down - level 24

2008-05-22T07:42:00.001-07:00

Progress with the Necromancer:

Completed Act 2 at level 24 (need Decrepify for Duriel), no problems at all. Did the Arcane Sanctuary at /p1 (it's almost as bad as the maggot lair for a fishymancer), and I lucked out and found the summoner on the 3rd branch (it's usually the 4th). He somehow almost killed me though - I usually never have problems with him.

The tombs are probably my favorite area in D2 - difficult for the level, and appropriate amounts of loot. I put it on /p7 and cleared out tombs until I was level 24 (no way I'm gonna try Duriel before getting Decrep). Duriel was pretty standard at /p7 - had to run back to town twice to replenish skeletons and merc. He dropped an Isenhart's Case and an ok rare poleaxe - the merc is using both. I really need to start cubing Savage Polearms (belt, diamond, kris, staff).

Other finds: Snakecord, useful MF rare boots, GC: 26 GF + 14 Mana.

Next: ~~Act 3, which sucks until Travical, which is cool.~~
Edit: Actually, I'm going to /p7 some Tomb/Duriel runs for a while - it seems to be the best place to find Chance Guards, and it's good for levelling (went from 21 to 24 in two tombs, so if I go for a while and get to 30 for Meph, that would be nice.

I'll try to remember to get pictures next time!

Xecil (Necro overlord) progress

2008-05-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

My first char is up and going! Meet Xecil, the Necromancer Overlord.

Starting with the Necro, as it's the easiest to start with no equipment, and I can pile on the MF and GF and run areas.

He's currently level 20, having just picked up the staff out of the Maggot Lair (ick - that area sucks with Necros).

Levelling technique:
- /p3 to Tristram
- /p8 on Trist until level 15 (to max XP)
- /p3 to Andy
- /p7 for Andy (to max drops)
- /p3 to Maggot Lair
- /p1 for Maggot Lair (because it's annoying)

A few decent finds so far: A Pelta Lunata (unique buckler) that will go to the Paladin, a Death's Sash, and I gambled a pretty nice set of gloves:

Shadow Knuckle
Leather Gloves
Defense: 5
Durability: 11 of 12
Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 19
Fingerprint: 0xa205ad0
+31% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +18%
Cold Resist +10%
63% Extra Gold from Monsters
11% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Dual-resist, MF, GF - not bad. Will probably keep these until I find a Chance Guards. Next up is to gamble a decent set of MF boots.

Skills: 1 SMastery, 13 Skeleton, 3 Mages, 1 ClayG, 1 Amp, 1 Teeth, 1 CE. Need to get the prereqs for Decrep and a point in Golem Mastery.

A D2 blog (and intro)

2008-05-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

I played a lot of D2 a lot time ago (pre-synergy, super-powered A2 mercs, and super-hard-Hell mode), and recently returned to the game.

I was on the USWest ladder for a little while, but a "mule accident" losing some stuff ticked me off (temp-banned after changing characters ONE time *sigh*), and I found the single player forum (from the link at the side) more interesting anyway. The tournaments look awesome!

Going to play v1.11b, RWM/RRM, and using ATMA as well.

As far as D2 stuff, I like:
- All the classes (Barbs the least, however)
- Obscure (but still viable) builds
- Summoning things (Skeletons/Wolves/Valks/ShadowMaster - anything!)
- Playing through the game instead of getting rushed
- Lots of goldfind and gambling for sweet rares
- Packratting things to sell

First builds for characters:
- Necro: Skeleton Overlord (Warriors + Mages ) - I know I know, not so obscure, but I loved my old necro that could get 30 of each type of skeleton!
- Sorc: Hydra/FO (Hydra's a summon, right? RIGHT??! Note - this is not a game mechaincs question *chuckle*)
- Pali: Conviction Zealot
- Zon: Ice Maiden
- Asn: Kicker (or Kick/Trap)
- Druid: Either a Fire Hunter or Town-Dump Bear (i.e., max the summons!)
- Barb: Poleaxe WW

Also going to attempt to build a hellforge rusher (to get cool runes like Gul to make Rifts out of for the palidan) - the Hydra sorc will do that job.