My First Tourney--the Point of No Repair

[NightStalker]

If it's not too late, I'll throw my name into the hat. And since i'm so much of a late comer I'll do a build that nobody else has started(werebear). Never really played one so this should be fun. Here's to finishing act 1.

P.S. - One quick question - can Fireclaws be used for this tourney? If so can I put skill points in the synergy?

 

[erimatbrad]

Probably my last update due to the holiday break starting tomorrow:

Virvelvind
Level 32
Next Area: Arreat Summit

Ah, it's almost ancients time. I'm planning on clearing out a few areas at a higher players setting, though.

Whirlwind is getting slightly better, but I still can't overcome the damage penalty to make it worth using. As for now, I've been shopping for big hurty swords. Leech isn't as important an issue while using it, so I just buy things with the largest damage prefixes I can get.

Nilly was actually very scary, because it took us quite a while to take him down. Fortunately, an ice boar dropped a rare voulge with huge leech and 1-1xx lightning damage, which promptly went on the merc, increasing his killing power. I 'assist', by letting him tank and swinging madly at the enemies, only occasionally actually connecting.

I hope to see some big progress [but not TOO much] this week! I'll get back to playing and updating in about 8 or 9 days.

 

[NightStalker]

My werebear, iUseWeapons?(d2 won't let me use the question mark) is about to make his second trip down into the caves. I'm trying to get my merc on level with me but it is slow going. However, this is the first time I've ever had a character at level 13 before leaving the cold plains. I'd really like to know about fire claws, cuz I need to make a decision soon about primary attack. It's either going to be maul or fire claws with Shockwave as support, and the other skill to handle immunes. No NDE to speak of, then again look where I am. The Top god was good to me earlier and I have a ring mail with three chippies in it and a skull cap with one waiting on one more. The merc has a hunter's bow with 3 chipped rubies, so whe does decent damage. Current weapon is a bardiche with 10% faster attack. I think I was mauling for near a hundred damage max last night... Fallen die quickly with that kind of damage. Now if I could figure out how to make max damage be my minimum...

Anyways, I suppose I'm done ranting.

 

[erimatbrad]

I'd really like to know about fire claws, cuz I need to make a decision soon about primary attack.

I've never used FC. It's basically a fire-based physical attack, right? There shouldn't be any issue with you using that since you're still physically attacking with your weapons. They still can lose durability, right? Hmm... I need to play a druid sometime, since I'm obviously lacking in that knowledge department.

 

[azn_apocalypse]

I did something really stupid today...I clicked the repair all button by accident while shopping Halbu in Act 4 NM.

So I know that normally, I would need to stop using the items which were repaired, but I was thinking that most of my gear was not affected by the flub and I should be allowed to keep it. Need to know if I am allowed to do so.

1) I had several items (armor, belt) that were self-repairing, and so they were at full durability when I hit the button, and hence were not affected.

2) Other items were either indestructible (boots) or had no durability associated with them (rings, ammy). They were also not affected. This leaves helm, gloves and weapons as the slots that were actually repaired.

3) I really want to keep my IK helm, so since it got repaired I was thinking of personalizing it right away (I quit the game as soon as I hit the repair all button) so it would be like I just personalized it. This would allow me to keep it. It was at 10 durability so I probably would have had to personalize it soon anyway.

4) This would leave just my gloves and weapon that would be lost. The weapon doesn't really matter, since I always buy new ones, but the loss of the gloves hurts, since they were very nice gloves.

Let me know if this solution would be acceptable.

 

[erimatbrad]

1) I had several items (armor, belt) that were self-repairing, and so they were at full durability when I hit the button, and hence were not affected.

2) Other items were either indestructible (boots) or had no durability associated with them (rings, ammy). They were also not affected. This leaves helm, gloves and weapons as the slots that were actually repaired.

That seems fair enough to me. Even if they weren't at full durability, they would have been had you stood around for long enough. Maybe you should leave the game running for two minutes and go get something to drink....

3) I really want to keep my IK helm, so since it got repaired I was thinking of personalizing it right away (I quit the game as soon as I hit the repair all button) so it would be like I just personalized it. This would allow me to keep it. It was at 10 durability so I probably would have had to personalize it soon anyway.

That's fine with me too -- so long as you use up your personalization quest...

4) This would leave just my gloves and weapon that would be lost. The weapon doesn't really matter, since I always buy new ones, but the loss of the gloves hurts, since they were very nice gloves.

Let me know if this solution would be acceptable.

Like I said, I think ditching the weapon and gloves is fair enough -- I think that the self-repairing items would have fixed themselves had you shopped Halbu long enough, and the indestructible items can't be repaired, so there you go.

Basically, I think you're still following the 'spirit' of the rules. How does everyone else feel about this?

 

[water_moon]

ACK! Daily back up in 30 min my behind!
Sorry, it took longer for this page to load than for me to do my ATMA stuff and restart D2

@Nightstalker
If it uses your weapon to do damage, it's all good

@azn_apocalypse
If it has self-repair or industructable then it wasn't repaired by the "repair all." Go ahead and persinalize the helm and we'll figure it was done in reverse order. and if you gloves were the bomb, then you could always save for the prize stash.

 

[Gaz]

Just thought I should let you guys know that I won't be around until the 10 January. I haven't quit the tourney, I just won't be able to get online, So, expect some decent progress to be posted in two weeks or so.

 

[NightStalker]

Coldcrow has been bested three times by my beast. He is now lvl 14 and sitting at the stony field waypoint. I just started up a multizon for my Septavirate and she is around the same level, I'll just have to remember to watch my use of the repair all button. Current plan is, and yes I'm insane, to do a full clear of the rest of act 1, get my merc in act 2 and go back and clear act 1 twice. I think I might be the only one that actually likes act 1. I can't promise the same zeal for act repeats when I get to Act 2 or 3. Next up is Mr. Rat in a shoe.

 

[Hrus]

Teslfrost - lvl 25 - Act 4 Pandemonium Fortress

My tesladin owned everything in Act 3 with his uber Bone Wand

Durability on armors goes down pretty slow at this moment, so I was not forced to buy a new equipment.

 

[goltar25]

Name: Krushara
Clvl: 30
Act/Diff: Act 4/Normal

Act 3 was interesting. I gambled some decent gloves with +1 MA skills and a very nice circlet:

Skull Shell
Circlet
Defense: 27
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x9f4ef896
+7 to Strength
+48 to Life
Fire Resist +12%
Lightning Resist +37%
Cold Resist +12%
Poison Resist +12%
20% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to Shadow Discipline Skills (Assassin Only)

Also, I've picked up 3 of Milabrega's Orb, which will help with MF for a good while. Mephisto was kind enough to give me Isenhart's Parry and Horns, and the third Orb. I've gotten in my 3 runs on Mephisto, and now it's on to Act 4.

 

[azn_apocalypse]

After recovering from the pure stupidity of hitting the repair all button by accident, Warranty went back to Anya in Normal difficulty, personalized the IK helm, and returned to NM to dish out some vengeance. All in all, the mistake wasn't that huge a loss. All I lost were some rare gloves that were 20% IAS, 22% MF, +6 to str, and about 10% to fire resist. These have since gone into the prize stash.

There was only one moment of drama in Act 4, and it was a big one. I was taking the Chaos Sanctuary very slowly, since my damage output had gone up significantly (to 900-1500) and one hit from Iron Maiden would surely kill me. I dealt with the Oblivion Knights by getting close to them and War Crying them. While they are stunned, they can't cast IM (or anything else for that matter). Still, I was not careful enough, and at one point I heard the horrible sound of IM being cast on my character while I was in mid-swing. I had 1490 life before the swing...after the swing I had about 100 life...and I was poisoned, so it was decreasing rapidly. Oh yeah, did I mention I had about five Oblivion Knights casting bolts of lightning/cold/fire at me at the time? Could have easily died. But I guess I got lucky, because I opened the TP and was back in town safely.

Diablo was a joke. My merc tanked him and I didn't have to feed him a single potion. I thought Diablo's PLBoD would at least kill him a couple of times, but for some reason it did not do any damage to him at all. Neither did any of Diablo's other attacks. I'm not sure why. The merc's stats are 2000 life, 4000 def. He has the CBF mod. He has some lifesteal but it's only 2.5% in NM (from Stealskull). Maxed resists, including 90 cold resist. The only other factor I can possibly think of was that Diablo was affected by Battle Cry throughout the battle; perhaps that had something to do with it.

Anyway, Diablo's drop was GREAT. The best drop I've ever had from an Act Boss to date. The items may not have been useful for my character, but they'll definitely sweeten the prize stash. Maybe there is something to this "first drop from an Act Boss" feature after all.

Aldur's Rhythm (Jagged Star, to go with my boots)
Spire of Honor (Unique Lance, tons of damage)
Snowclash (Unique Battle Belt. This one was Ethereal however)
Rite of Passage (Demonhide Boots for the Disciple Set)
...and two crappy rares...

My stash also contains:
Lycander's Flank (Unique Ceremonial Pike. Very impressive.)
Earthshaker (Unique Battle Hammer)
Kuko Shakaku (Unique Cedar Bow, though I believe this one is pretty common)

Destroyer Warranty
Level 66
Act 5 NM, Harrogath WP

 

[water_moon]

azn! I thik SAnta came early for you! Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that will be gone 'till new years eve.

Merry X-mas or whatever you celebrate (or don't)!

 

[azn_apocalypse]

Warranty is now a Conqueror, at level 71.

I think I did a good job of protecting the durability on my equipment. Through all of Acts 4 and 5 the IK helm is at 45/55 durability. 3 of that was lost while battling NM Ancients. This battle was tough b/c I didn't make any equipment switches at first. I kept on the same equipment that I was wearing, but during the battle I got pounded by melee attacks and I think I lost about 5 or so durability on all my armors in the first minute of the battle. That's when I wised up, TP'ed out, and bought some junk equipment from Larzuk to use during the battle. It took a little longer to defeat the Ancients, but it was worth it b/c I saved durability on my armors.

Baal was the same story; his Festering Appendages took off some durability before I made an equipment change. I suspect that the IK helm will not last forever; I have to start thinking about a replacement helm soon.

I'm letting my barb merc do a lot of the tanking/killing to save durability on my armor as well as my weapon. He is a great tank, and I outfitted him with a 297% ed/30% ias Great Sword from Larzuk (too bad it couldn't have spawned Exceptional, tho) so he really hurts the monsters when he hits.

I've found there is a pattern to what attacks by monsters can actually take off durability from armors, and which attacks do not affect durability. This is just hypothesis, of course. Note that this just applies to armor; durability on weapons is only hurt when you hit monsters with the wielded weapon.

Attacks that hurt durability:
-All melee attacks, from any source
-Physical projectile attacks that do not cause elemental damage (arrow attacks from Act 1 Returned Archers and Act 1 Rogues)

Attacks that do not hurt durability:
-All purely elemental attacks (Act 3 Shamans' Inferno, Act 4 Oblivion Knights' fire/ice/poison bolts, Act 4 Gloams' Lightning)
-Physical projectile attacks that also cause some sort of elemental damage (Act 2 Burning Dead's Fire Arrows, Act 3 Flayers' poisoned blowgun attacks, Act 1 Quill Rats' poisoned quill attacks)
-Nihilithak's CE also does not seem to hurt durability.

Anyway, the lack of a good indestructible/self-repairing weapon continues to frustrate me. My necro in the other tourney has found TONS of good unique weapons (which he can't use). My barb, however, seems to have the problem that whenever a unique spawns, it's always a normal item, such as a "mace" or a "flamberge." Total crap, in other words. Perhaps hell difficulty will be the solution to my problems...

 

[erimatbrad]

Way to go azn! Great job making Conqueror!

I've just now gotten back from my Arizona vacation -- and am hankering for some D2 goodness. Hopefully tomorrow things will be full of goodness....

 

[Hrus]

Teslfrost - lvl 33 - Act 5 Harrogath

Teslafrost killed Diablo. Everything went good until Chaos Sanctuary. My mercenary died there 5 times because of Iron Maiden. (I was OK with my Bone Wand) Then I had several NDEs with Infector of Souls and his Extra Fast Venom Lord pack. Their Inferno slaughtered my merc several times in a blink of an eye and my life went pretty fast too despite having 75% FR. They chased me through the whole Sanctuary before I was able to split them and killed them one by one.
Diablo himself was easy. He used his lightning hose and normal attacks against me, my merc was able to survive. I switched to Steel Flail and get rid of him. He dropped Hwanin's Blessing and Gravenspine.

 

[erimatbrad]

Destroyer Virvelvind
Level 37
Next Area: Stony Field

Well, Virvelvind made it out of Normal. This is actually a very difficult tourney, and an equally difficult character. Whirlwind just now has reached the point where (thanks to a +1 skills helm) I actually get a damage bonus! :clap:

Things were slow going through most of Act V, but my merc was a force like no other, slaughtering everything in his path. I've been using a Deadly Great Sword, which has been working well, but I've also been using a Savage Polearm when I can convince the moron to tank.

The ancients were the first place where I used Whirlwind, thanks to a newly dropped find in the Ancient's Way -- Brainhew! With 12% ML, even my pitiful damage output, hindered by the WW penalty still kept my globe full. I let the merc tank one or two, while I spun through the pack.

Baal's minions were pretty easy, I simply led them apart and picked them off one by one. A 100-300 damage output is NOT as impressive as it sounds. Lister caused problems, but nothing I couldn't handle.

The Baal battle, though, was nothing short of epic. I had an atrocious chance to hit him, and he kept duplicating off....

After what felt like 20 minutes, he finally died, gracing me with a large number of crappy rares, and something I'll actually use (and upgrade, when I find an Amn) -- A rare ethereal self-repairing broadsword with 30% IAS, 6x% enhanced damage, life leech, and something I can't remember now. It has a hefty level requirement of 39, though.

As for my other weapon, I'm planning on running a lot of blood recipes for battle hammers and knouts. For the price (jewel, Tir, p. sapph), it's crazy not to. A guaranteed Deadly+ weapon? Tch! I'd be silly not to. It'll probably end up being saved for undead heavy areas, where the damage bonus will be what I'm gunning for.

Nightmare has been surprisingly easy so far. Blood Raven, who I expected to give me trouble, contentedly ran around while we stabbed, slashed, bashed, and poked her repeatedly.

I've seen a shocking (shocking!) lack of sets and uniques with this character, even though I'm packing about 100% MF. I've still got 2 Baal runs which I'll use when I get slightly better gear... so maybe some stuff will start popping up then.

 

[Hrus]

Hi everybody, no update for Teslafrost, just some related question:

WHEN THE ARMOR-ITEMS LOSE DURABILITY?
Going from 2nd to 4th act I use the same armor-Splint Stealth and Berserker's Headgear. They didn't lose much of durability, so: Do they lose durability when you are attacked or when you are actually hit? What about shield? Do they lose dur when successful block is made or even when the block animation comes (Zeal is uninterraptible so I don't see much block animations)

I doubt anyone here knows the answer for sure.

@erimatbrad - I am interested how far the untwinked Whirlwinder can go, I thought that they are viable only highly twinked in 1.10, but I may be wrong.

 

[erimatbrad]

Hi everybody, no update for Teslafrost, just some related question:

WHEN THE ARMOR-ITEMS LOSE DURABILITY?
Going from 2nd to 4th act I use the same armor-Splint Stealth and Berserker's Headgear. They didn't lose much of durability, so: Do they lose durability when you are attacked or when you are actually hit? What about shield? Do they lose dur when successful block is made or even when the block animation comes (Zeal is uninterraptible so I don't see much block animations)

I doubt anyone here knows the answer for sure.

I'm not sure -- I've had an ethereal shield since act 3 or so, and it still hasn't broken. It's lost maybe 10 points of durability, though. I *have* broken gloves, hats, and boots too. Body armor takes a big hit too, but I switch it out a lot and have yet to lose a set.

@erimatbrad - I am interested how far the untwinked Whirlwinder can go, I thought that they are viable only highly twinked in 1.10, but I may be wrong.

A successful WW'er is highly dependant upon it's weapon. I think an upped Brainhew would have done me well, but of course, I can't repair it. If I can't find a good mana leeching weapon, I can't whirl. It may very well be that I use a 6 PSkull phase blade... were it not for the damage problem. :lol:

 

[azn_apocalypse]

A sad update...

Conqueror Warranty is dead at level 72. I'm not sure how it happened, but I think I may have just experienced the FE bug for the first time.

So I went into Hell difficulty, cleared the Blood Moor/Den, then went into the Cold Plains. The Cave was right next to the Cold Plains WP, so I decided to go on in. It would be a fatal decision. My best weapon (cruel great maul) wore out and I couldn't find anything that good to replace it, so I was forced into using a magical highland blade with poison dmg, but no ed% on it. Believe it or not, this weapon was better than anything I had at that point. As you can imagine, my killing speed was extremely slow. It took about eight to ten hits to kill most normal monsters (and I was on players 1!) :xx:

Still, I was able to deal with most of the champion/random boss packs inside the Cave, of which there were a lot. Before I died, I killed a LE/PI/CE ghoul using Berserk after picking off his minions with Taunt. I was particularly proud of this kill, although he didn't drop anything good. None of the monsters did, really. The only set item to drop in the Cave was...drumroll...Isenheart's Case!

Anyway, I soon ran up against a Cursed/Fire Enchanted Ghoul with some other nasty mods. Still, as I had over 1500 life (and my merc 2500 life) I thought it would be safe to take him on. Wrong. I got cursed with amp dmg, took a single hit from the boss ghoul, and my life bulb was suddenly empty and I was reading the "Your deeds..." message. It all happened so fast. Anyway, like I said, I have never experienced the FE bug prior to this, so I am not sure if this is the cause, but I doubt that one normal hit from this ghoul could have killed me (he was not Extra Strong or Aura Enchanted).

Anyway, I had fun in this tourney. I have to say that it gets really tough somewhere in late NM, when you start running out of good items to use.

Who do I send the prize stash to, and do I have to send all the items I found? I found a ton of good stuff, so I would like to keep some of it if I am permitted to.