LL D3 Tourney

[Kevin]

I present to you...

Giaidau - Female Wizard (Vietnamese, it's missing lots of the accents of course)
Kampjonat - Male Monk (Maltese)
Turnuva - Female Witch Doctor (Turkish)

I do hope to journal some of the adventures and share them with you all.

I started with Giaidau, ...
I've stopped her just as she got into Leoric's Manor at 4:48 played, L15.

Correction she was at the start of the Halls of Agony at that point.

Kampjonat is sitting in Act II just a bit into L16 at 4 hours 24 minutes played (I'll likely move him along a bit with his 30 minutes of time to go). He was still L14 when he entered the halls, partly because he didn't have as many side dungeons, partly because unlike Giaidau he didn't find a ton of gear with +exp. His drop luck also wasn't quite as good. I've run him dual wield, 2H and 1H + Shield (what he is at now). It all depends on the balance of offense vs defense with him.

I had a much easier time with him. It might be because I know monks better, but I also think it has to do with the basic class designs. All the monk generators are good and I was given deadly reach which meant my single target DPS was pretty much the same as my AoE target DPS. Giaidau was not like that. Her AoE was very limited. Sure she only got locking into electrocute very recently but shock pulse wasn't easy to control and arcane orb which she is locked into is expensive. So she was using magic missile a lot and it just took longer.

I am a bit worried about Kampjonat's level. The monster to player level curve has a bigger impact on melee.

As for a story with him. There was only one place where things got interesting. In the Southern Highlands I was L12 or so and I got that 'event' where you have all the Goatmen in the that little area and there are two specials (one shaman and one normal). Well the normal guy, Fausto the Entombed, was a waller.

I got trapped a bit with a bunch of goats and a few of Fausto's minions, and needed my potion and breath of heaven. At the time I was Deadly Reach with piercing Trident; Wave of Light no runes unlocked on it yet; Breath of Heaven no unlocked runes yet; Dashing Strike with no unlocked runes. Those are all skills I'm locked into with the build. Wave did manage to push them back enough that I was able to wait out the wall, but I did end up needing another potion (the spear chucking goats hurt him still) and a few more uses of breath before I managed by stringing along and using the range on reach and the effectiveness of Wave of Light when they are in a line like that to kill them all off. The shaman Skehlinrath had stayed in their little area and was easy to mop up after.

I also had a bit of luck in that I got to buy yellow shoulders from the merchant guy quest just after the halls and just before you get to go in and free Tyreal thanks to the rule that lets you buy the rares from quest merchants. At least I think that is where it was at least, the guy who is pissed about selling to the cultist and having his name and reputation smeared by the other dude. I had not gotten a shoulder drop at that point (I was L15). They were solid shoulders with 11 dex, regen 1 life, +3 exp, +29 globe life and were 35 armor. Going from no shoulders to those was still quite a nice boost even if several of that stats are fairly pointless.

So he is doing alright at the moment. Oddly I might stick with Kormac on him for a bit. I don't think I'll be L20 when the enchantress becomes available and the heal, healing aura, and charge on the Templar have proven helpful. He has also tanked a few things while I was able to stand behind him and use deadly reach's range to my advantage. The better spirit generation he can offer might be worth more than the 15% armor at least for a time. I usually find it a no brainer to use the enchantress with a melee toon simply because of 15% more armor, which from experience, I know stacks with hard target on the mantra of evasion which I'll be using for a while I know since evasion is my mantra and my rune is divine protection which doesn't unlock until 33.

He has been as much fun as I expected. I keep hoping for a life on hit ring or ammy to drop for him though. He hasn't had the same ring drop luck either. Only seen two. The sorc had at least 7 of them by this time as I know she put two on, two on the Templar, and two on the scoundrel and sold a couple of pointless ones.

So just another update on where I'm at.



EDIT: Kampjonat is up to 4 hours 57 minutes. Just found the Khasim Outpost and dinged L18 a little bit ago. So he is parked till next weekend.

[wkd1]

SharmistaLL reporting in at Level 16 with 4:45 played. Just cleared Act 1. Watched the Butcher drop a rare Hand Crossbow and thought I hit the jackpot - no, it sucked.

When I was playing my WD I ran into a quest Merchant who had a unique to sell: A wand.

I got trapped a bit with a bunch of goats and a few of Fausto's minions, and needed my potion and breath of heaven. At the time I was Deadly Reach with piercing Trident; Wave of Light no runes unlocked on it yet; Breath of Heaven no unlocked runes yet; Dashing Strike with no unlocked runes. Those are all skills I'm locked into with the build. Wave did manage to push them back enough that I was able to wait out the wall, but I did end up needing another potion (the spear chucking goats hurt him still) and a few more uses of breath before I managed by stringing along and using the range on reach and the effectiveness of Wave of Light when they are in a line like that to kill them all off

Had something similar happen to my WD... at least Horrify is good for something!

[Frag]

When I was playing my WD I ran into a quest Merchant who had a unique to sell: A wand.

Yep. When I ran into the situation on my Demon Hunter, and sought out Monty to discuss the issue about amending the rules, the merchant had a claw. Here's the thing though, it's the same as a drop, except at a slightly higher % to have a rare. Like the rest of the situations in this Tourney, it's all luck and good play.

[Pesmerga]

[/quote]
Curious question or two about that picture: Do your skills 'reset' when you die? If they don't, I'm wondering why Ground Stomp and Potion aren't on cooldown, because I assume you'd have used them to keep them controlled and your HP up a bit.
[/quote]

Good question. I can almost guarantee I blew their cooldowns before dying. But I was so sleep deprived last night, I can't remember.

On second thought, I know I used my potion.

[MonTy]

Not an excitement issue. More a "I have no idea when I need to go to bed" issue.

Hah, I'm sure that's a problem most of us have ;)

Anyway, I'm having an incredibly fun time with this.

Glad you're having a good time, I'm finding it much more enjoyable than I had expected- probably in large part due to my first time taking a Hardcore character past level 13. Pretty damn exciting. Additionally I love the excitement of finding items purely off drops- I've never identified rares so fast, and I'm pretty much praying it's something good while my character is in process of IDing it.

So just another update on where I'm at.

Thanks for those write-ups, they were a lot of fun to read and helped kill some time on my train rides back home. Look forward to future updates- no pressure on not dying!

[wkd1]

Glad you're having a good time, I'm finding it much more enjoyable than I had expected- probably in large part due to my first time taking a Hardcore character past level 13. Pretty damn exciting. Additionally I love the excitement of finding items purely off drops- I've never identified rares so fast, and I'm pretty much praying it's something good while my character is in process of IDing it.

Yes, it definitely adds a tinge of excitement to the item finding... but I'm finding the unique builds I have to work with to be really the most entertaining aspect, though I do suspect things to become quite frustrating in the later acts... not to mention the later difficulties if I even make it that far.

And my Barbarian just passed the part where Pesmerga died... all I can say is thank the Diablo gods for rolling Leap into my barbs skill sheet.

[MongoJerry]

Not an excitement issue. More a "I have no idea when I need to go to bed" issue.

Yes, this kills quite a number of hardcore characters.

[wkd1]

Just hit the 5 hour mark with my Barbarian... in summary; Barbaranne stomped all over the Butcher with only having to drink one potion, and has dove head-first into Act 2. Bash/HotA and Leap being my first three tournament required skills on this character have proven effective so far. Revenge (waiting for next skill to unlock) has proven itself to be a worthy fall-back skill when I need a quick heal. I'm interested to see how far this toon will go.

[MonTy]

So my Barb fared quite a bit better than my late Wizard, thanks largely to some very nice gear that never stopped dropping after the Skeleton King. His skills are notably proficient in AoE killing, so I figured if some gear dropped I could get a nice killing spree going, which is exactly what happened. Cleave, Revenge, and eventually Earthquake allowed me to clear large groups fast. Weapon Throw was icing on the cake for times when I needed to get out of the bad stuff and do some damage (Butcher). I used Leap for a while and then switched to Sprint once I found some Vitality gear so I could speed clear as fast as possible, which let me get up to level 21 and the Blood and Sand quest. Ignore Pain unlocks next level, so I'll have to give up my Sprint which will certainly hinder my ability to clear zones as fast as this first week. I foresee this Barb doing well into Nightmare- assuming I don't do anything too stupid.

But aside from my characters, Foxbat and Chesspiece_face has also joined the race. Good to see more people joining up!

[wkd1]

So my Barb fared quite a bit better than my late Wizard, thanks largely to some very nice gear that never stopped dropping after the Skeleton King. His skills are notably proficient in AoE killing, so I figured if some gear dropped I could get a nice killing spree going, which is exactly what happened. Cleave, Revenge, and eventually Earthquake allowed me to clear large groups fast. Weapon Throw was icing on the cake for times when I needed to get out of the bad stuff and do some damage (Butcher). I used Leap for a while and then switched to Sprint once I found some Vitality gear so I could speed clear as fast as possible, which let me get up to level 21 and the Blood and Sand quest. Ignore Pain unlocks next level, so I'll have to give up my Sprint which will certainly hinder my ability to clear zones as fast as this first week. I foresee this Barb doing well into Nightmare- assuming I don't do anything too stupid.

Wow, I thought Frag had set the bar by getting to level 18... but level 21?! For Zakarum's sake! I was moving as fast as possible with my Barbarian after experiencing the sluggish crawl that was my WD and still was just barely able to break into Act 2 and ding 16. With the right equipment and skills I could see how "sprinting" of this magnitude would be possible... but damn, nice job Monty. Hopefully I can get even closer to this new "par" you set with my DH... I'll be given that a go over the next couple of days.

[MonTy]

but damn, nice job Monty.

Thanks, I was fueled by my failings with the Wizard. So disappointed over losing him the first week :P I tend to be pretty competitive with tournament type stuff (done well in a few quake tournaments), so I was eager to make up from my Wizard shortcomings.

I prioritized experience gear over anything but strength, so I was running around with low health up until the Butcher. Had a scare or two with Vortex Behemoth pack and Nightmarish Spear Goatmen who of course feared me into poison tree puddles. Like I said before my speed skills will be yanked from me next level, so I'll have to speed run the hard way. Leap was amazing for interior levels so I could clear a lower path and then jump up to the higher platform, and Sprint was fantastic since I didn't really spend all that much rage fighting. Although as much as I'd like to take credit, decent drops really paved the way for me.

[Frag]

I'm impressed too. I am 150xp from 19 on my DH and figured that was the top we'd see as I only used Tumble to move quickly from mob to mob with just enough to tumble back out if I needed to (rarely) and really pushed my fights hard. I'd say it has to do with the fact that I my main attacks showed up very early and are 75%, but hitting 4 enemies. Decent, but I could have cleared MUCH faster with some other abilities and better than a plain white 1h'r before Skeleton King (yes, that's right, I used a lvl 0 white weapon from lvl 3-Skeleton King. Insanity on drops)

[Kevin]

I prioritized experience gear over anything

I do this too, though don't have a lot of options with it. While my monk is only a few hundred exp from 19, 21 is way out there and very awesome.

Of course I have the issue of still picking up the gold and still smashing pretty much everything, even the things that can't drop anything. That is just something that happens when I know I'm going to be mapping everything. Had I left gold on the ground I may have gotten the monk to 19.5 or so. Of course I had the advantage of dashing strike, 10% run speed passive and find 6% run speed boots so he was moving too.

[MongoJerry]

I'm taking the "slow and steady wins the race" attitude -- making sure to break every jar, barrel, and headstone -- in every effort to eek out every kill and every possible item. Of course, the WD I have is slow moving and doesn't have much in the way of AOE skills yet, so things are slow as it is. Only 2 hours in right now, but I'd be surprised if she even makes it past Act 1 before the time limit expires.

[MonTy]

I'm taking the "slow and steady wins the race" attitude -- making sure to break every jar, barrel, and headstone -- in every effort to eek out every kill and every possible item.

Since this is single-pass, that strategy makes a lot of sense. I'll be doing the same in Nightmare and beyond, I'm thinking normal is easy enough without needing it and the items will get replaced soon anyway. But I may be saying differently when all my characters are out of the tournament ;)

[Quark]

ZeraseLL reporting in. Just hit level 18 and I'm about to take on some cultists at the Khasim Outpost. This started out much smoother than the Demon Hunter. Magic Missile early on, plus a locked in Arcane Orb wasn't a bad combination. Then hit level 11, and stole Magic Missile for Spectral Blade. Oh, man. So I was actually kind of impressed comparing Spectral Blade's damage to Arcane Orb. For no cost it's actually not terrible. Then:

1) Arcane Orb got Obliteration, boosting it's damage
2) I lost Diamond Skin to Slow Time (right before The Butcher, augh!)
3) Mob HP and damage scaled up in Act 2

Yeah, it's not a pretty sight right now. Then about the worst thing happened. I found Fuad, and as the link shows, I'm not the only one who had this issue. I'd slam Slow Time, Force Wave, and Arcane Orb - okay, 1/3rd of his life down. Now I'm out of cooldowns and AP, and he goes all way back up before I get anything back. So, I resorted to terribleness. Enter room, slam cooldowns, leave room. Wait. Enter room, slam cooldowns, leave room. Wait. Repeat. I even got cocky at one point "just one more hit and he's dead!" - lost half my progress. Was more patient after that. Eventually Fuad went down and I continued on to the waypoint.

After seeing this in action, and reading some forum posts, I can see a Spectral Blade + Meteor build being viable. Unfortunately, the build relies on a few skills I don't have and gear (+life on hit) that I'm not likely to get enough of. Oh well, we'll see how far I can go with Arcane Orb.

[Frag]

Wait, we can skip jars, barrels, bodies and the like?

Full clear of maps

Seems to require that you do everything you can for every zone you're in. That includes any minor non-useful events, triggering anything that can spawn an enemy (that means barrels), etc.. If I could have skipped those I'd easily be much, much further.

[Chesspiece_face]

Played for about an hour and twenty minutes. Almost got to level 10 so far and took out the Skeleton King. I have a feeling my DH roll is going to work out pretty well. The only thing I'm concerned with is the lack of Vault later on, but I do have Evasive fire to supplement that as well as pretty much the best defensive cooldown the DH gets.

I'm interested in seeing how effective the Spider Companions are going to be or if that skill slot will be wasted. In the long run it's going to be an intersting build. Not overly heavy on resource hogs which frees up a lot of options for passive skills.

[MonTy]

Wait, we can skip jars, barrels, bodies and the like?

As long as you explore the full map I didn't expect everyone to kill every destructible item. Apologize if I was not clear on that, I'll point that out in the ruleset.

[Kevin]

Two questions.

1. Can we use the dye vendor? Or am I stuck with a hideous color scheme to keep good stats?
2. I assume we can't use the jewler (once unlocked) so that if we socket something it's like D2 and that gem is in the item forever. Just want to verify.