LL D3 Tourney

[Mavfin]

I admit that some details escape me.

We're used to you, Kevin.

Seriously, though, i just miss different ones from you.

Well, so much for my tourney DH. The event was there in the Festering Wood, or whatever it's called. I had done it several times before, but this time, I'm not sure what was hitting me, as I was taking 1/4 life hits, but the boss was halfway across the screen, and before I could react and get away, I got triple-walled in and died. RIP, LLDH.

[MonTy]

RIP, LLDH.

Doh! RIP indeed. So I've updated the root post with level/class information and changed the format a bit so it's length friendly if we get more sign-ups. Was brainstorming what else I can put or link on the main post. Should I screenshot each characters best gear and post it as a "best item found"? I'm thinking it would be fun seeing the best items people get since everything is self-found.

Also thinking since this is so difficult, if there should be any changes to the number of characters or length of the tourney. I'm having the most fun I've had playing the game (so eager to see every item that drops and using skills I'd normally not use), but I could see people dying early (maybe it's just my noob hc experience) and no longer being able to play for the duration of the tournament. But I'm hesitant to make any changes as I realize a tourney structure must have limits, so any comments/suggestions are welcome!

Heading out of town for a day or two. GL HF!

[FoxBat]

Dunno if I'll get far but go ahead and sign me up when you get the chance.

Still not clear if we roll X skill and Y rune, if we have to use X skill as soon as it is available, or if we can use any skill until Y rune shows up. And even if forced to use X skill, if we can choose our own rune until Y appears.

[MonTy]

Dunno if I'll get far but go ahead and sign me up when you get the chance.

Still not clear if we roll X skill and Y rune, if we have to use X skill as soon as it is available, or if we can use any skill until Y rune shows up. And even if forced to use X skill, if we can choose our own rune until Y appears.

I added your characters to the root post. Man, I love your barb and wizard skill sets!

And yea, sorry I didn't explain that clearly. I'll be sure to write up a new instruction on that when I get back home. You are forced to use X skill and you are allowed to use any rune for that skill until your assigned rune has become available. But you have to use skill X regardless of when rune Y becomes available.

[wkd1]

Dunno if I'll get far but go ahead and sign me up when you get the chance.

Still not clear if we roll X skill and Y rune, if we have to use X skill as soon as it is available, or if we can use any skill until Y rune shows up. And even if forced to use X skill, if we can choose our own rune until Y appears.

From my understanding as soon as the skill becomes available you have to use it (Which was a most tear-jerking of an event for my WD when I had to switch out my doggies for Horrify... which definitely is not as useful. But alas, this is what makes things interesting). And then to answer the second half of your question: you use any rune for your abilities until the designated rune becomes available.

Basically as soon as X is available you use it, and as soon as Y is available you use it.

[Pesmerga]

Just as a heads up, the Lvl 9 WD you have referenced in the first post is actually my non-hardcore character!

[MonTy]

Basically as soon as X is available you use it, and as soon as Y is available you use it.

Perfect summary, thanks! And yes, getting some skills taken away is definitely tear-jerking.

Just as a heads up, the Lvl 9 WD you have referenced in the first post is actually my non-hardcore character!

Whoops, meant to ask you before I updated it. I was like man, that's some pretty bad gear, has to be for the tourney (lol jk). Reverted :)

[wkd1]

I had a couple of thoughts on the way the time limit in the tournament is currently structured:

I like the fact that each character can only have an alotted play time of 5 hours per week. That is 15 hours per week total, which is plenty enough time I'd think to be something of a standard... as opposed to stacking.

With the way the current rules are set up, by the fourth week of this tournament people are looking at a ceiling of 60 hours... which I will be nowhere near. I'm fretting over being able to put in enough time to hit the 5 hour mark per character, let alone 20. And I wouldn't put it past some of the crazy diablo heads currently competing in the tourny to keep up with the ceiling, which in its current state, will give them a huge advantage time-wise over me.

I am proposing that the 15 hour time rule be applied as a non-stacking standard, as a way as keeping this tournament structured and fair. Besides I'm sure there are plenty of us that would rather be playing other toons, which will be virtually impossible in the later weeks of this tourny in its current structure.

If people agree with this then cool, if not then I'll just play my 15 hours a week and hopefully can stay caught up with the competition. Lol, not sure how anyone else would feel about this, but its summer time for me, and there is no way in hell I'm spending 40-60 hours a week playing video games... I got all of the fall and winter for that shite.

[Kevin]

With the way the current rules are set up, by the fourth week of this tournament people are looking at a ceiling of 60 hours... which I will be nowhere near.

I think you misunderstood. It's "stacking" in that by the end of week 4 you can have a total of 20 hours on a single toon, 60 hours across the three, yes, not that you will be able to play 60 hours during week 4.

Since the winner is a single toon, not all three toons, it basically lets you know that if say your big toon dies in week 3 and you haven't played the other two that you can go ahead and put 15 hours in on that toon right off the bat.

You get 5 hours per week, per toon. Not 5 hours week 1, 10 hours week two, 15 hours week three (for a total of 30 hours by the end of week three, it's only 15 total for that toon).

[wkd1]

With the way the current rules are set up, by the fourth week of this tournament people are looking at a ceiling of 60 hours... which I will be nowhere near.

I think you misunderstood. It's "stacking" in that by the end of week 4 you can have a total of 20 hours on a single toon, 60 hours across the three, yes, not that you will be able to play 60 hours during week 4.

Since the winner is a single toon, not all three toons, it basically lets you know that if say your big toon dies in week 3 and you haven't played the other two that you can go ahead and put 15 hours in on that toon right off the bat.

You get 5 hours per week, per toon. Not 5 hours week 1, 10 hours week two, 15 hours week three (for a total of 30 hours by the end of week three, it's only 15 total for that toon).

Oh, I see what you are saying. Thank you for the clarification!

[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, not because I felt I had the best chance with her (I think my monk does) but because, as mentioned, I had very little wizard experience and felt like getting some.

I've stopped her just as she got into Leoric's Manor at 4:48 played, L15. I had a lot of big side dungeons and I'm really good at finding the way down with my first selection of direction and then having to double back to get the stuff I missed and her damage is still weak compared to the other classes I've played non twinked (or it might just be the skills I've been locked into). I'm not used to normal mobs sometimes taking 4 hits of a primary skill to kill even untwinked and that was pretty common.

I think her luck has been pretty good on drops, the 2nd blue drop I got was a pair of 5% run speed boots. I recently replaced those with 7%, 9int boots. I've got a 20 damage wand, several +exp and +life per hit items, a few int and a few vit pieces.

The spider cave was the only place I came close to dying. There were about 70 little spiders and 7 mommas that hit me in a choke point. Energy twister had recently unlocked so I was messing with it. If I still had force push up I would have been fine. As it was I got surrounded and couldn't walk out. I had to drink and put up diamond skin and focus fire with orb (filling in with shock pulse that I was also playing with) and managed to clear a path with about 50 HP and 1s left on diamond skin cooldown. I started to run jamming diamond skin which activated with me at around 10 HP. I was the same speed as the little spiders, 3 of which were on my tail. I dodged some web spit and kept running being grateful for the little ticks of 2 HP Kormacs aura was giving me. I couldn't remember if there were any globes still sitting around I had had to double back to map everything a couple times and just couldn't remember, then I saw two of them sitting around an egg pile and finished my dash too them, turned and blasted the 3 chasers then worked my way back mopping up the rest.

I have a bunch of screen shots, tried to get every champ/unique and I'm logging all my maps too. I wanted to video, but FRAPS throws me out after 1 to 3 minutes, it's not a space issue either I've got 600 GB free on the drive I'm streaming too, and yes I've paid for it, so it's a full version. I may have to try disabling the 2nd monitor and trying again. I hadn't used FRAPS in about 6 years but they are true to their word and my registration was still good for the newest version. I've only spent a few minutes messing with it so I'll try again at some point.

But that is where I'm at now. I may or may not get the 5 hours in on the other two this week, since I'm itching to play my "big" monk. I don't have any toons in NM right now after a few deaths and I'd like to back there again, heck I'd like to be back in hell, maybe I'll have to check with some of the softcore only folks and group up with them on my little barb so I have a toon that doesn't lose progress. I miss the higher difficulties (yes I've been in Hell before too).

[wkd1]

But that is where I'm at now. I may or may not get the 5 hours in on the other two this week, since I'm itching to play my "big" monk. I don't have any toons in NM right now after a few deaths and I'd like to back there again, heck I'd like to be back in hell, maybe I'll have to check with some of the softcore only folks and group up with them on my little barb so I have a toon that doesn't lose progress. I miss the higher difficulties (yes I've been in Hell before too).

I have a SC Wizard who is level 55... and yeah he dies alot. The only HC characters I have are the ones I've created for this tourny. I do not think HC is very viable in D3 right now just on the basis of latency issues, let alone game mechanics. However this tournament has put forth a worthy challenge so I figured I'd try my hand, regardless of the lag monster lurking in the shadows.

[Kevin]

I have a SC Wizard who is level 55... and yeah he dies alot. The only HC characters I have are the ones I've created for this tourny. I do not think HC is very viable in D3 right now just on the basis of latency issues, let alone game mechanics. However this tournament has put forth a worthy challenge so I figured I'd try my hand, regardless of the lag monster lurking in the shadows.

Eh I was at L53 (1 bubble from 54) on the witch doctor when I died farming in Act 1 Hell, and Swirly and Frag both made 60 and got into Inferno (Mongo might have made 60 at one point too). I don't have any latency issues anymore (I did the first couple of days). When I say deaths I've died a total of 3 times in this game (including in beta). The L53 witch doctor, the L43 monk, and then once at L15 on a SC barb. I'm around 110 hours of play across all toons at the moment.

I think HC is perfectly viable at this stage and it's getting even better with the changes.

[wkd1]

Eh I was at L53 (1 bubble from 54) on the witch doctor when I died farming in Act 1 Hell, and Swirly and Frag both made 60 and got into Inferno (Mongo might have made 60 at one point too). I don't have any latency issues anymore (I did the first couple of days). When I say deaths I've died a total of 3 times in this game (including in beta). The L53 witch doctor, the L43 monk, and then once at L15 on a SC barb. I'm around 110 hours of play across all toons at the moment.

I think HC is perfectly viable at this stage and it's getting even better with the changes.

I should specify: HC is not viable for me. Lol, I am currently playing on a laptop that is below minimum specs, so I have to coax it into running D3... which it does, but when things start to get crazy in the later acts I lag from the graphics alone. However with all things considered this tournament seemed interesting, and regardless of my hardware I wanted to give it a go.

[Pesmerga]

Well, that was quicker than anticipated. Died in Leoric's Manor, when I took on more than I could handle:



The closest to dying before that? When I fell asleep at my keyboard briefly...

[MonTy]

The closest to dying before that? When I fell asleep at my keyboard briefly...

Well, not the most exciting format for you, is it?

[Pesmerga]

The closest to dying before that? When I fell asleep at my keyboard briefly...

Well, not the most exciting format for you, is it?

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

[wkd1]

So I finished up my first 5 hours yesterday, as well as starting on my second toon. First off though, my first toon through was my frog-tossing, horrifying WD named BadJuJuBeans... whose build had me chuckling practically the whole time, as it is completely off-beat yet somewhat viable. Very slow-going however... I am just shy of level 14 and had just entered the Northern Highlands coming up on Leo's Manner before having to bail do to running out of time.

My second toon is a leaping, Bash/HotA Barbarian who I'm thinking as long as I have good luck with drops will probably be my most viable build in this tournament. I was "speeding" (as much as one can speed when required to full-clear) through the begining of Act 1 with Barbaranne, moving alot faster then I did with my WD... she is currently level 9 and only about 1 hour and 45 min into her playtime. I have high hopes for this one! Lol... once I finish up Barb's 5 hours I will probably get to work on my DH (SelenefromUW)... whom I have to look at what I was given to work with skill wise, because depending on what was given I'm assuming the DH will be another speedy toon in the begining.

Anyway, I'm having an incredibly fun time with this. Cheers to Monty for thinking of/hosting this tournament (and letting me enter).

[Frag]

Well, that was quicker than anticipated. Died in Leoric's Manor, when I took on more than I could handle:



The closest to dying before that? When I fell asleep at my keyboard briefly...

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.

[Quark]

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.