LL D3 Tourney

[MonTy]

Tournament is over. Chesspiece_face won with his level 52 Demon Hunter being the highest level character. Thanks to everyone who participated!

The contest started June 8th and ended August 31st. Winner picked a charity organization of their choice and I donated $150 to it, and a steam game for the player under $40. Rules are below for record purposes:

• Hardcore only
  
• You're randomly assigned the class, skills, and runestones. If you have a free spell slot you may use any skill until an assigned spell becomes available. Basically as soon as your assigned skill is available you're forced to use it, and as soon as your assigned rune is available you're forced to use it. You're allowed to pick your own passive skills.
  
• Single pass until Inferno. You cannot purposely rerun zones.
  
• Full clear of maps (meaning explore the whole map, not destroy every destructible item), no avoiding dungeons or events, and you have to kill every champion pack you find.
  
• No Twinking, Auction House, Jeweler, Blacksmith, or Vendors for gear. If you reach Inferno you're allowed to buy gear from any of the Vendors (woohoo). If you reach a special vendor in the dungeon maps you're allowed to purchase only the rare from him.
  
• You'll be assigned three characters from the start. Each character has a weekly play limit of five hours. So if we're in the third week your heroes can have a total play time of 15 hours EACH.
  
• It won't be easy, and it's not a question of if you'll die, only when. If that doesn't scare you off and are up for the challenge of seeing just how far you can get, shoot me a message :)
  

Current Leader: Chesspiece_face, 52 Demon Hunter

Player List / Assigned Builds:

Frag
Hero 1, Lvl 25 WD. Hero 2, Lvl 1 Monk. Hero 3, Lvl 20 DH.

MongoJerry
Hero 1, Lvl 1 Barb. Hero 2, Lvl 1 Monk. Hero 3, Lvl 9 WD.

Gnollguy
Hero 1, Lvl 35 Monk. Hero 2, Lvl 16 WD. Hero 3, Lvl 20 Wizard.

Quark
Hero 1, Lvl 28 DH. Hero 2, Lvl 29 Wizard. Hero 3, Lvl 40 Monk.

Apostolic
Hero 1, Lvl 21 Wizard. Hero 2, Lvl 1 WD. Hero 3, Lvl 10 Barb.

TheDragoon
Hero 1, Lvl 1 Barb. Hero 2, Lvl 1 WD. Hero 3, Lvl 35 Wizard.

Pesmerga
Hero 1, Lvl 14 Barb. Hero 2, Lvl 10 WD. Hero 3, Lvl 14 DH.

MonTy
Hero 1, Lvl 22 DH. Hero 2, Lvl 30 Barb. Hero 3, Lvl 18 Wizard.

Mavfin
Hero 1, Lvl 14 Monk. Hero 2, Lvl 11 DH. Hero 3, Lvl 13 WD.

wkd1
Hero 1, Lvl 9 DH. Hero 2, Lvl 1 WD. Hero 3, Lvl 18 Barb.

FoxBat
Hero 1, Lvl 25 Barb. Hero 2, Lvl 1 Monk. Hero 3, Lvl 1 Wizard.

Chesspiece_face
Hero 1, Lvl 1 Monk. Hero 2, Lvl 36 WD. Hero 3, Lvl 52 DH.

ErickTheRed
Hero 1, Lvl 14 Barb. Hero 2, Lvl 1 Monk. Hero 3, Lvl 1 Wizard

Crushar
Hero 1, Lvl 13 Barb. Hero 2, Lvl 1 Monk. Hero 3, Lvl 1 Wizard.

[MongoJerry]

[*]No Twinking, Auction House, Blacksmith, or Vendors for gear (health potions/repair is OK) (!!!)
[/list]

No vendor purchases? That seems a little restrictive, since it seems like that's the primary source of rings and amulets in the game. Are you sure about that one?

[Elric of Grans]

I cannot recall ever buying a ring/amulet from a vendor. You get them a little later, but the drops have always (in my experience) been better. In fact, I have found the vendors utterly useless; I certainly would not consider it a handicap.

[Kylearan]

I'd like to participate, but only in a more casual, laid-back way (and thus probably not counting against the seven players requirement). I won't have the time to be a real competition, but I love harsh variants and I'd like to see how far I'll get compared to others who have more skills and knowledge about the game.

[Kevin]

I cannot recall ever buying a ring/amulet from a vendor. You get them a little later, but the drops have always (in my experience) been better. In fact, I have found the vendors utterly useless; I certainly would not consider it a handicap.

That surprises me. The vendors often end up having +damage, with 2 other stats items. I've run into +4-8 damage rings in Act I normal before which are huge DPS boosts and that is the primary stat I'm generally looking for rings and amulets in normal through nightmare is good +damage. But it's rare for me to have a toon that doesn't have at least one of those slots filled with something from a vendor, even with twinking (as the good vendor stuff gets held onto).

[Frag]

Did you make this event just for me or something Monty?

Sure, I'm in, but a time restriction or something seems appropriate, otherwise the people w/o jobs are just going to pubstomp us working/familial types

[Kevin]

Did you make this event just for me or something Monty?

Sure, I'm in, but a time restriction or something seems appropriate, otherwise the people w/o jobs are just going to pubstomp us working/familial types

Yeah I'd need something like this too even though I likely have a bit more free time than average. The issue for me is that when I lost my L53 hardcore witch doctor I lost the group of folks I was playing with too and I've been playing solo enough lately. This tourney looks like it is pretty much solo only (if it isn't then a lot of the challenge could be removed by grouping).

But I would still be interested, even if my focus is still mostly going to be on my currently L42 HC monk, if I get curbstomped because I choose to play other toons more than this one, so be it.

[Apostolic]

I'll give this a try, but fully expect to die in act 1. Should be a nice enough break from getting my teeth kicked in by Act 2 Inferno...

[TheDragoon]

This sounds kind of funny so I'll join up for it! . My only caveat is I'm not really a hardcore player so I'll probably die early and often (until I am totally out of the tournament)

[Quark]

Alright, my non-existant HC experience should make this amusing for others. At least it'll be easy to make sure I don't twink - I don't have a stash for HC characters yet! I'm in.

I don't think time's really an issue since you can't rerun areas. People are more likely to sink or swim by other factors (skill, luck (items), luck (mob spawns), luck (character/skills), luck ...)

[Pesmerga]

Eh, what the crap. I'm in.

Edit: "If you have a free spell slot, you may use any spell until an assigned spell becomes available."

Does this refer to ANY skill, or any skill within that spell grouping (ie, running without elective mode on)

[Kevin]

But I would still be interested, even if my focus is still mostly going to be on my currently L42 HC monk

Who I got killed over lunch just a bit ago. Just because I had enough life steal to stand in the first magelord champion pack when they went all spinny doesn't mean I have enough to do so when they are desecrators.

If I wasn't having so much fun I might be bothered by my own stupidity.

[MonTy]

Hey all,

Thanks for the replies and suggestions, glad to see we have a fair amount of people interested already. I couldn't take a breather at work so finally able to respond.

I really like the suggestion of having a weekly time limit on your characters- it'll create more of an even playing field and won't reward someone who just simply has more time. Therefore I'm suggesting to extend the duration of the event to the end of August, but each character has a weekly play limit of seven hours a week. I'm also changing the rules so that you have access to all three of your characters from the start, so you can play each hero up to seven hours a week. This should allow someone who wants to play more the opportunity to progress their other characters, not get way ahead on one.

I'm removing the penalty of being out from the tournament if you die below level ten. I did this so people wouldn't die on purpose early levels to get a new character, but since I'm rolling all three of their characters now it doesn't matter as much.

I'm looking to start rolling characters this Friday. So I'll contact people who have posted on here one last time to confirm they're set. I'll edit my original post to show a leaderboard.

Now onto replies to specific people:

Mongojerry, regarding no buying from vendors. I was hesitant to include this rule but it ensures your shared gold stash won't aid you in this tournament, since all your buying is potions and repairing. I agree that rings are the number one benefit from vendors and are a huge help, but in the end I feel it'll create even more of a challenge which is what I want this tournament to be. I hope you'll play in it!

Kylearan, you're absolutely welcome to join as a casual player. You never know, might enjoy it and do quite well :)

Frag, good luck on the random skill rolls. Hope you get hilarious combinations (btw I'll be recording my random selections live, so everyone knows I don't fudge skills. Will be simply using a primitive method of blizzard's skill calc and random.org).

Pesmerga, I plan on allowing any skill until your assigned spell becomes available, whether or not it's from your spell group. I feel limiting it to a classification could create gaps where you can't have access to anything. However, I am rolling your assigned skills according to Blizzard's elective mode. Of course you don't have to have Elective mode enabled so you can move your skills around on your hotkey bar. *edit - I'm still pondering about this. I'd like your opinion (and anyone else) on whether they think any skill should be usable or just ones from the same spell category.

Again, glad to see others sign up. Eager to see what class/spell rolls you get and hearing about hilarious play styles/deaths.

Cheers,
MonTy

[Apostolic]

I'm also changing the rules so that you have access to all three of your characters from the start, so you can play each hero up to seven hours a week. This should allow someone who wants to play more the opportunity to progress their other characters, not get way ahead on one.
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I plan on allowing any skill until your assigned spell becomes available, whether or not it's from your spell group.

Couple of additional questions here...

So are you allowing for the possibility of a given person getting the same class more than once (e.g. monk, monk, monk), albeit with different skills/runes?

I didn't see any specific mention (may have just missed it), but are you rolling passive skills for us as well?


I'm likely to be extremely casual about this, and see it as a good opportunity to mess around with some other classes.

[Pesmerga]

*edit - I'm still pondering about this. I'd like your opinion (and anyone else) on whether they think any skill should be usable or just ones from the same spell category.
Cheers,
MonTy

My opinion is that we should restrict it to that particular category. Don't have a particular reason, I just think it'll make it interesting.

[MonTy]

Couple of additional questions here...
So are you allowing for the possibility of a given person getting the same class more than once (e.g. monk, monk, monk), albeit with different skills/runes?

Nope. Can't get the same class (I take it out of the roll equation).

I didn't see any specific mention (may have just missed it), but are you rolling passive skills for us as well?

I'll throw you a bone and allow players to chose the passives. I'll update the original post.

I'm likely to be extremely casual about this, and see it as a good opportunity to mess around with some other classes.

This is exactly what I've taken away from other tournaments. You're trying out builds/skills that you normally wouldn't and it can be a lot of fun (and challenging!).

[RTM]

Not sure if you wanted to go full-random, but if you click the chat gem at the bottom of the official site skill calculator it'll give you a random build.

[MonTy]

Not sure if you wanted to go full-random, but if you click the chat gem at the bottom of the official site skill calculator it'll give you a random build.

That's bloody brilliant and a huge time saver. The damn chat gem is actually useful!

I'll still allow players to pick passives. Some passives would absolutely not be of any benefit to random skills and I think I've got enough challenges for this tourney

[ViralSpiral]

What, not Iron Man? :op

[Elric of Grans]

In my old Diablo/Diablo II guild, tournament almost always meant Iron Man >

None of us were half as good as the likes of King of Pain, but we all loved it still.