Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

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Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Mon May 16, 2011 4:40 pm

EVOLUTION SERIES – CHAPTER FOUR!

This is the 4th in a series of mini-tournaments which will increase in difficulty as your character “evolves” and will eventually become a major as scores will be carried forward to each subsequent chapter!

RULES

Please read the entire ruleset carefully before beginning. You are responsible for knowing all rules. It’s straightforward, but infractions may result in points deductions or disqualification. Any use of 3rd party map-revealing software, h@cks, editors and use of the -Act switch is not allowed.

Character. Continue with your registered character from previous chapters. New players may enter the tournament but must create a new character, any you choose is fine apart from a Paladin “summoner” but must be SC only. Register before beginning and always use the Current Zy-El Patch.

NB: New players entering, in order that they are not too disadvantaged by having no carry forward score, can use a CF score of <lowest CF score of existing players> / 2. Alternatively , you can play “catch-up” in Chapters One, Two and Three with no penalty but must adhere to their rules. This should give new entrants a bit of a chance.

Multiplay. No multiplay allowed. This is a single player tournament only.

Skill/Stat reallocation is NOT allowed.

Skill Restrictions. No skill restrictions apart from Paladins who are not allowed to summon in any shape or form and no matter the source of the summons (CtC, Charges etc). The “Conversion” skill is allowed as it is not technically a summoning skill.

Rerunning. Rerunning areas is fine. As your character and the tournament both evolve so shall the rules and we will make a ruling on returning to previous difficulties when we get to that stage. That means at least 1 Chapter before that happens.

Shared Stash. New entrants must start with a new empty stash (both shared and personal). You can dump any items into Shared/Personal Stash pages. You will need to and want to do so in order to “evolve”. See below. Existing players continue with their stashes from previous chapters.

Equipment. Chapter Four sees your “evolution” continue and takes place in Act 4 Normal mode. At the beginning of this Act you can use white items which will include runewords but any runewords you make must be <= your character level. Whether you actually use them is up to you but you must be able to equip all runewords that you make. No making an “Oath of <char>” before you are level 255 for example. You may also use items with “magical” properties (i.e. blue items), rare items (yellow), crafted items (orange) and set items (green). As in previous chapters, any other items may be stored for future use but you can NOT equip them. This restriction stays in place until you complete the Izual quest, at which point you have a “Eureka!” moment and are now able to use Unique (gold) items. One exception to this however, you still haven’t made the discovery of Zy-El Artifacts. Zy-El Artifacts may NOT be used. Anything not named in this list can NOT be used.

For players who have completed the Act 3 “Mephisto’s treasure Hunt” quest, you may also use Treasure Cards to create items but these items are bound by the restrictions for this Chapter.

Note on Crafted Items: You are allowed all forms of crafted items i.e. own crafts, Trinity Demon recipes and if you completed the Act 3 side-quest successfully and are lucky enough...Treasure Card outputs but Megaloading is NOT allowed.

Recipes. Any recipes that use items that are not in the equipment list must not be used to modify gear you find, gamble or are using (see the exception for downgrading immediately below).

Downgrading. Downgrade recipes can be used to make an item that this chapter allows the use of. Any other downgraded items must be stored in your stash.

Mercs. No restrictions on hiring and firing. The same item restrictions apply to mercs as to your character at all times.

Death. All deaths count and will incur a 0.005% reduction in your Evolution Modifier (EM),

SCORING


CFT: Carried forward total. This is the total score carried forward from Chapter Three.

SET: 1st set item = 500 pts. (You do not need to equip it to score but it must be found/dropped in Act 4).

UNI: 1st Unique item equipped = 1500 pts. (Must be equipped after killing Izual but before advancing to Act 5. You must be using it to score. Any made after this can be used but do not score. You may not use Zy-El Artifacts).

DIA: Kill Diablo at Players 8 setting = 3000 pts. (You can clear the area at any setting you like but before you spawn Diablo himself you must set Players 8 or higher in order to score. Lower settings will not score. Higher settings are allowed but you still only score the same 3000 pts). 1-shot-deal. This must be your first attempt at killing Diablo. NO TESTS ALLOWED!

AC: Act Completion results in an award of 5000 pts.

EM: Each death in Act 4 will result in a 0.005% penalty.

TOTAL: Total points = CFT + SET + UNI + DIA + AC * EM

NB: A Perfect Score will allow you to add 0.005% to your Evolution Modifier for Chapter 5.

******************************


This Chapter is now Active!

Good luck, everyone! — Al & Hans.

******************************

Chapter 4 Optional Side Quest – “Diablo’s Seal of Approval”
Author – Metropolis Man


There has been another "Alignment of The Trillion Cubes" causing disruption and chaos to your universe....read on.

AIM

Collect as many rare, set and unique items as you can find.

RULES

(1) The cosmic imbalance caused by the "Alignment of The Trillion Cubes" has this time fallen on the side of “Chaos” and means that Diablo has been resurrected and has to be killed again, only this time you will reap greater rewards. You must have already killed Diablo and completed all Act 4 quests prior to starting this quest.

(2) Character/Merc gear cannot be modified at all once you enter the Chaos Sanctuary.

(3) Players setting cannot be changed once you enter the Chaos Sanctuary.

(4) Touching all seals is forbidden until all monsters are killed and all loot is removed from seal areas — a clean floor in the spawn area is essential.

(5) One shot only — if you die during any point in the Side Quest, the Quest is over and your multiplier cannot be changed from the Quest. NO PRACTICE RUNS ALLOWED! Must be attempted immediately afer your attempt to kill Diablo at Players 8 in the main Chapter.

(6) Activate seals and finish with Diablo.

SCORING

Award yourself....

***.001 to EM for every Rare item dropped
***.002 to EM for every Set item dropped
***.003 to EM for every Unique item dropped

Good luck, everyone! — Metro, Al & Hans.
Last edited by Al-T on Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:57 am, edited 4 times in total.
Al-Tisaur...Card carrying member of mentaldom since March 2007 & "Zy-Sensitive" Veteran Pension Holder!
Veteran? More like "Ancient Relic!"..been playing the mod for 12 years!
Trying to picture Al as a Power,... it's not working it must be the Tiger Stripes that get me every time - Hans
I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down...!
Official Zy-El Website | ZyEl Wiki | Russian Zy-El Website by mahatmaQL | Eastern Sun

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by John11 » Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:51 pm

Any estimate on when Chapter 4 might start?

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Hellwolf_36 » Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:38 am

Most likely not for awhile.

Out of the all the tourney players, 4 of them are in Chapter 3. We would need more people in Chapter 3 or we cannot start.

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:49 pm

This Chapter is now Active!

I will post the rules for Chapter 5 just as soon as I have double checked them...done :!: They will go in the main topics so I'll also have to ask d2vern if he would be kind enough to sticky them.
Al-Tisaur...Card carrying member of mentaldom since March 2007 & "Zy-Sensitive" Veteran Pension Holder!
Veteran? More like "Ancient Relic!"..been playing the mod for 12 years!
Trying to picture Al as a Power,... it's not working it must be the Tiger Stripes that get me every time - Hans
I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down...!
Official Zy-El Website | ZyEl Wiki | Russian Zy-El Website by mahatmaQL | Eastern Sun

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Hellwolf_36 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:21 am

Code: Select all

Sidequest
Player          P#    RARE    SET     UNI      EM
=================================================
Hellwolf_36    127       0      0       0  +0.000

Chapter 4 Main Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class        CFT    SET    UNI    DIA    AC      SQ      EM     TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    56053      0      0      0     0  +0.000   1.0266    57544
Scoreboard up.

For Sidequest, just state what player setting you attempted it on, the number of each item you picked up and the final score in your EM. If you die, your EM must state +0.000 and you will put *DEAD* after this value. If you survive, tally up and multiply the values by the gains the item type gives. The final outcome goes into the EM of both tables.

I suggest the following for screenshots (so we don't get any trouble with Al-T)
SET - Show the item picked up in your inventory
UNI - Show the item equipped in your inventory and the Quest subscreen proving Izual was slain, normal screen with Izual's corpse on ground, or Izual's ghost in front of you before disappearing.
DIA - Show your character at Diablo's corpse with the automap displaying a PlayersX of >=8
AC - Show your Quest Subscreen all finished or Tyreal's option to "Go to Harrogath". If you need to, show a picture like DIA displaying a PLayersX that you attempted it on.
SQ - Show all your items, seperated by type.
Last edited by Hellwolf_36 on Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:51 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:48 am

Thanks for doing the tables Hellwolf_36 :)

As for screenshots, I do not insist that they are provided. We play the "honour system" as stated way back in the Chapter 1 threads. Screenshots are an "optional extra" that are nice to see. I trust players to give honest totals (if they don't they are just cheating themselves).

I will carry on doing screenies myself but it is up to individuals whether they wish to do so.

Before starting Chapter 4, I made use of the Treasure Cards I had collected to make this amulet for Dora:
DoraAmu.gif
DoraAmu.gif (61.25 KiB) Viewed 10819 times
Izual: Easy...just did it at Players 1 (whimp I know :P):
Izual.gif
Izual.gif (224.83 KiB) Viewed 10819 times
I wanted to do it fast so I could use all this gear on Dora and her merc :D - 8 Pics added to Chapter 4 Sub-Album

Stuck the "Leviathan" in the Rare Amulet for Dora, the "Cabbage Leaf" in the "Eye of Etlitch" for the merc (she needs the resistances), the "Cats Eye" I put in the mercs belt and the 2 x "Dogs Ear" and the "Mouse Tail" in 3 small charms, 1 rare and 2 magic. Haven't found any set items yet but I'll up the Players setting for the "Hellforge" quest to make sure I get one.

Hellforge: Changed to Players 8, went through the tp left after killing Izual and we enter "The City of The Damned" and straight away secure the Waypoint. Down the stairs and almost straight away, this amulet dropped:
SetAmu.gif
SetAmu.gif (251.19 KiB) Viewed 10819 times
Turned out to be "Cathan's Sigil". 2 Pics added to Chapter 4 Sub-Album. Carrying on it is nice to see that my merc "Myrada", even though she has only just over 2.2K life, is pretty solid and hasn't come close to dying once at this P8 setting even when hit by Kimodos, Wyverns and Otyughs. Got a Vex rune drop from the HF and on Battle.net I'd have been jumping for joy but in Zy-El it may as well have been an ID Scroll :P

No table update for now...I'll probably wait until I have completed the Act and the sub-quest (which I wll do at P 127...not going to whimp out for that one :twisted: ).

It is good to be back to this, as well as playing "Pure Grind".

Happy Zy-Elling :)
Al-Tisaur...Card carrying member of mentaldom since March 2007 & "Zy-Sensitive" Veteran Pension Holder!
Veteran? More like "Ancient Relic!"..been playing the mod for 12 years!
Trying to picture Al as a Power,... it's not working it must be the Tiger Stripes that get me every time - Hans
I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down...!
Official Zy-El Website | ZyEl Wiki | Russian Zy-El Website by mahatmaQL | Eastern Sun

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Hellwolf_36 » Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:03 am

Code: Select all

Sidequest
Player          P#    RARE    SET     UNI      EM
=================================================
Hellwolf_36    127       0      0       0  +0.000

Chapter 4 Main Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class        CFT    SET    UNI    DIA    AC      SQ      EM     TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    56053    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0266    59597
:!: 5 Screenshots have been added to my album.

I slaughtered Chapter 3 on P16 before I took the portal to Chapter 4. After doing the subquest on P127 and surviving with 0 deaths, this was a cakewalk to me. Gained a few levels too.

On Chapter 4, I kept the P16 and decimated Outer Steppes and Plains of Despair before I called it a night. In the process, I got Milabrega's Crown from a Venom Lord in Outer. Izual was then slain near the entrance to the City of the Damned. Before this, a pair of Magefist dropped from a local Burning Soul and I equipped them when Izual was slain since they outranked my current gloves.

Score Shots:
Image
Image
Image

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:00 pm

Nice work Hellwolf :) I also completed Act 4 apart from the side-quest a few days ago but haven't had the time to update until now. I'll have to get a much bigger score than you in the side-quest to put the pressure back on :!:

Anyway, continuing on from my last post....

Chaos Sanctuary: Played at Players 8 all the way....wish I had done it at 127 as it was easy at P8, although killing Diablo himself at Players 127 in the side-quest will take a while. Took about 30 seconds at Players 8.
DiaSpawn.gif
DiaSpawn.gif (81.67 KiB) Viewed 10767 times
DiaDead.gif
DiaDead.gif (228.42 KiB) Viewed 10767 times
Next up...."Diablo’s Seal of Approval" but this will have to wait until the weekend when I have enough free time.

Code: Select all

Sidequest
Player          P#    RARE    SET     UNI      EM
=================================================
Hellwolf_36    127       0      0       0  +0.000
Al-T           127       0      0       0  +0.000

Code: Select all

Chapter 4 Main Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class        CFT    SET    UNI    DIA    AC      SQ      EM     TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    56053    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0266    59597
Al-T               Dora/Ama             43191    500   1500   3000  5000  +0.000   1.0215    54335
Last edited by Al-T on Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:40 am, edited 5 times in total.
Al-Tisaur...Card carrying member of mentaldom since March 2007 & "Zy-Sensitive" Veteran Pension Holder!
Veteran? More like "Ancient Relic!"..been playing the mod for 12 years!
Trying to picture Al as a Power,... it's not working it must be the Tiger Stripes that get me every time - Hans
I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down...!
Official Zy-El Website | ZyEl Wiki | Russian Zy-El Website by mahatmaQL | Eastern Sun

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Hellwolf_36 » Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:32 am

Ummm, why don't I get points? I think you forgot to cut and paste the right table.

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:15 am

:oops: I really don't know what I was doing there. I didn't give myself any points either :lol:

Sorted now...see above.

[EDIT]

Heads up.....I added a note to the rules covering the use, or rather, non-use of Megaload recipes.
Al-Tisaur...Card carrying member of mentaldom since March 2007 & "Zy-Sensitive" Veteran Pension Holder!
Veteran? More like "Ancient Relic!"..been playing the mod for 12 years!
Trying to picture Al as a Power,... it's not working it must be the Tiger Stripes that get me every time - Hans
I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down...!
Official Zy-El Website | ZyEl Wiki | Russian Zy-El Website by mahatmaQL | Eastern Sun

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Clersius » Mon Oct 17, 2011 11:44 am

After briefly observing the local color of Act IV, Bloodmist went about the business of crafting. Using between a score and two dozen common/uncommon cube scrolls, he managed to convert part of his extensive treasure card collection into 7 x Five of Stars. Those he used to make this amulet. Dozens more painstakingly-saved-up cube scrolls applied to it, as well as a handful of reduction recipes, converted that raw amulet into this slightly more refined one.

He then returned to Act III and did a slew of Mephisto runs (122 total), reaching level 317 in the process. My philosophy for these runs was fairly uncomplicated. Each one would start as a simple Zy rune acquisition run. If there were any Drake packs (Wyverns in Act III, but I always think of them as Venom Drakes) or Umberhulk packs hanging around, Blood would stop and execute them, pick up anything pertinent to his needs, and carry on. Sometimes there would be collateral damage, as packs of monsters are always dancing around each other. If there were any Champion or Unique bosses that were obvious, he would stop and take care of those as well. Hellhounds are the most annoying thing on four paws in this game, so if any of them were around, then none of the above would apply – it would be straight past the offending canines and anything around them. Majats are awesome for both drops and xp, but they take more than four times as long to kill as either Drakes or Umberhulks, so unless Blood found an Experience Shrine on the way, those would be passed by as well.

As an aside, this Treasure Card was a surprise find on one of those runs - I didn't even notice it when I picked it up. That's a lot higher value by far than anything I've seen before!

When this axe dropped on the last of those runs, it was finally time to make some progress in Chapter Four to reach the “Eureka!” of uniques. Using the axe will mean a heavy investment into Axe Mastery, however, so the decision will require no small amount of thought. I'll need to pore over the runeword list at length to see if there is anything available that is better than that axe. The sockets will probably be filled with Ber runes. On second thought, that might be a problem if the Crushing Blow only applies to hits with that particular weapon. If that is true, then there is almost nothing useful than can be socketed into weapons that would not be more effective socketed anywhere else, so that both weapons would benefit... that is quite depressing, actually.

Bloodmist started his actual work in Act IV with 49k/105k life, 6k-20k damage, and 39k/104k defense.

Within ten minutes of starting the xenocide of every species in the Outer Steppes, this set tower shield dropped. Yay points. A few minutes later, the steps up onto the Plains of Despair were breached, then Izual was allowed his moment of gloating. The plan was to get the waypoint activated, then halt Act IV progress in favour of gathering information to make decisions on runewords and which jewels to socket where. Unfortunately, I became sidetracked on the information part and quit the game before activating the waypoint. Oh well, not like it is crucial, just a little more wasted time.

Now that the possibility of uniques is wide-open for Bloodmist, I think that a pair of high-defense boots will be an ideal place to put some unique jewels. He has many Mouse Tails and Squash Seeds, but only two Dog's Ears and zero Cat's Eyes as yet. Slice of Cherry looks promising, but even better is a Shard of Accuracy. He has a Leviathan as well, but I'm on the fence between more damage and more life. Then again, Blood will lose access to all of the jewels, skills, and increased stats that he sinks into the boots when he does the Chapter Five side quest (only runewords are allowed for boots), so that idea is out. As well, he can't make a pair of crafted gloves and enchant them to make up for whatever deficit he will have in Crushing Blow, Increased Attack Speed, Life Leech, Open Wounds, or Deadly Strike for the same reason. Quite limiting.

Upon perusal of the available runewords for melee weapons (yay Zerb!), eliminating anything with Knockback, Hit Causes Target to Flee, Freeze Target, or Hit Blinds Target, the only solid choice left was Grim Reaper, which is not bad at all. It would probably make the most sense to put it into a Caduceus for two reasons:
  1. He already has Mace Mastery maxed.
  2. The War Sceptre/Divine Sceptre/Caduceus line of weapons is the fastest of the three sceptre types.
  3. The other maces/1H hammers can't take enough sockets to make runewords like Grim Reaper.
Made the three Divine Sceptres and upgraded the trio to a Caduceus. Made it ethereal, then manually inserted six sockets using flawed gems and magic jewels, then downgraded a pair of Zy runes into Lo and Ber runes, and made the Grim Reaper runeword using a Shard of Accuracy as the Gmj. The shard counts as Bloodmist's first unique item. Yay points. The weapon came with 95% Crushing Blow, but just to make sure that every hit by that weapon crushes, as well as adding some chance for the other weapon, I put a Ber rune into a narrow charm that he is already using for a damage boost. He will also use the Gimli's Sharp unique hatchet, at least for now.

I decided to put that shard in the weapon with the lower max damage instead of off-weapon where it could apply to both weapons, because his max damage for both weapons is already getting to be too high. One other comment on the above is that I ended up not putting any more points into axe mastery after all, for the same reason - the max is growing way too fast already.

The Slayer ChoM was no longer necessary, given the other sources of Crushing Blow, so I changed it back to a Destroyer. That gets rid of the Iron Maiden aura that was competing with Amplify Damage, strengthens the chances of getting Amplify Damage to proc, and adds in a source of Open Wounds.

Having decided on and having equipped his first unique item, Blood proceeded to remake one of his 7% CtC Static Field rings into this 10% version. The other ring has had many, many scrolls applied to it, and is now too valuable to replace (although it does need some cleaning-up, I'm just now noticing...).

I decided to stop procrastinating RE making a nice elite armor and creating an Oath of Barbarian runeword in it. Gambled seven ancient armors, two of which were ornate armors. Upgraded three of the normals into a third ornate, then upgraded the three ornates into a sacred armor. Used an “any armor to mag armor” scroll on it, then an “any mag armor to rar armor” scroll on that. Rerolled the rare sacred armor three times using “[rar Item] + [rar Jewel] + [Elixir] -> new [rar Item],” then used a “six sockets to any item” scroll on it. Created this Oath armor from that. Quite frankly, it's horrid. :P Rerolled it and resocketed it to get this base, then redid the runeword to get this, which is a little better on the %max life and a lot better on the defense. [That last pic was taken long after it was made, as I forgot to take it when I wrote this part of the update. *blush*] I was hoping to get %life in the 60s at least so that Blood could get rid of his hex Gigantor 47% max life charm and his grand 15% max life charm and still come out ahead on life, but I may just dump them regardless. To do so drops his life from 105.2k down to 101.6k, a mere 3.5% decrease. I can live with that! “Kowalski, casualty report!” “Only two passengers unaccounted for, Skipper.” “That's a number I can live with! Good landing, boys! Who says a penguin can't fly?” *high-fives with flippers ensue* Hahaha! I love that movie. :D

Better yet, the grand charm takes on weapon characteristics, so I could socket it and use it as the receptacle for Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, or Slow Target runes. As far as the mediocrity of the sacred armor, if I get the urge to be *really* wasteful with Blood's resources, I can always hold onto it and make another one, rerolling it until I get tired of it or until it exceeds the current one's stats. Of course, henceforth it will be more expensive, as the six sockets will start costing six perfect gems... that's about 2 million gold for six sockets, plus the four Zy runes... Maybe this one is just plain ole good enough after all! :twisted:

Finally took his Sailor Moon poster out of inventory, as well. 748 life for six inventory spaces was not a big enough contribution to warrant its continued use. The Manny poster is contributing 750 life as well, but when I remove it, the 569 max damage that he loses drops his max damage from 20k down to under 12k! 8-O So what I need to do instead is replace it with a poster that has a higher max damage. Time to reroll some posters!

All these changes in effect, Bloodmist took his new setup out for a spin on a series of Mephisto runs. Normally he was doing them at p64, but he figured that he may as well go “whole hog,” so to speak, and pumped it all the way up to players 127. Mainly he sought Majats, as they would be the true test, but the first two runs had none. Whole armies of monsters were literally melting away like they were statues made of butter sitting on the banks of the River of Flame! Mephisto himself went down in about 2/3rd the time he normally does at half the players setting. Super-sweet! But again, he needed Majats to truly test the setup.

Wow. The difference was truly remarkable! No exaggeration, they were falling in 1/2 to 1/3 the time! And this is at p127. The levels were flying by, just during that one test run, with no experience flag. So much fun! :D

With all of the free space he then had in his inventory, there was plenty of room for a Mega ChoM. :twisted: For the purposes of better EG and MF, as well as some nice skills and stats, he converted his Mega ChoM to a Master. With his amulet as an offset, his replenish life turned out to be exactly 0.

The 18 skills boosted his max damage up to around 25k for one weapon and 27k for the other. With every hit critical, those numbers are doubled, and with Amplify Damage active 90% of the time (or more!), that is doubled again, putting them both over 100k, which is, quite frankly, bad. Yes, the average is below the cap, but that is not a very good argument for sloppy damage management. This opens up the possibility of removing the Manny poster permanently. That drops the maxes down to the 13k-15k range, which can be boosted up to 20k again with a few +skills to the belt, points into axe mastery, or +skills from a few uncommon cube scrolls he has stashed. Lots of possibilities! But that will have to wait until the next update...

For now, in addition to figuring out a strategy for efficient damage management, the plan is to do a lot more Mephisto runs in order to:
  1. Amass more materials for... well, who knows, but he's sure to need lots and lots of whatever it is!
  2. Gain more levels.
  3. Have loads of fun pulverizing hapless Drakes and Majats!
  4. Hear Mephisto tell Bloodmist over and over again how he's too late, and how Meph's brothers have escaped him. Yeah. I'm glad that never gets old. :roll:
Good luck to all of you, doing whatever it is that you do. :)

Code: Select all

Sidequest
Player          P#    RARE    SET     UNI      EM
=================================================
Hellwolf_36    127       0      0       0  +0.000
Al-T           127       0      0       0  +0.000
Clersius       127       0      0       0  +0.000

Code: Select all

Chapter 4 Main Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class        CFT    SET    UNI    DIA    AC      SQ      EM     TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barbie     58074    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0178    61143
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    56053    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0266    59597
Al-T               Dora/Ama             43191    500   1500   2500  5000  +0.000   1.0215    54335

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:58 pm

Really nice work Clersius. I am more than a little jealous of your amulet. I only had 7 x 3 of Stars or Swords I think it was to make Dora's amulet. Maybe I'll collect enough higher numbered TCs to make her a better one at some point in the future. I am also jealous of the amount of life your Barb has. I made the mistake of completing the whole of Act 4 and not improving on gear before taking on Diablo for the first time. I have a dreadful feeling that both you and Hellwolf will absolutely hammer my score in the side quest, and John when he returns also.

Preparation for Diablo's Seal of Approval: Looking at my gear and stats I quickly realise that unfortunately I would foolish to attempt this at Players 127 with only just over 25K life. I should not have done the Diablo quest so soon but done what Clersius is doing, going back to Act 3 to improve all that needs improving. It would also have been good to replace my CtC Hydra ring with either another CtC Static Field or a CtC Decrepify/Lower Resist but going strictly by the rule
(5) One shot only — if you die during any point in the Side Quest, the Quest is over and your multiplier cannot be changed from the Quest. NO PRACTICE RUNS ALLOWED! Must be attempted immediately afer your attempt to kill Diablo at Players 8 in the main Chapter.
I can not change any gear so I will attempt it with what I currently have. I am going to try it at Players 32 and just hope this doesn't affect the "nodrop" factor too much and hope that I can take out monsters before they get too many hits in on me and my merc.

Diablo's Seal of Approval: Players 32 set in town and we go to the River of Flame waypoint to make our attempt. Luck has it there is an Experience shrine right next to the waypoint :). Venom Drakes and Komodos are dangerous to "Myrada" and tend to focus on her for some strange reason. I have to feed her a couple of Full rejuvs quite early on and we are not even near the Chaos Sanctuary yet. Thankfully at this setting my damage on both Multishot and Guided Arrow is enough to kill anything encountered so far in a reasonable amount of time. The Hydra ring is only good for the life and mana leech from the socketed Perfect Skull. The Hydras themselves are not much help given the monsters hitpoints at Players 32 but I suppose even this help is better than none at all. "Why didn't I make a Decrepify/Lower Resist/additional Static sooner?" :roll:.

Okay...here goes. Venom Drakes take a while, in particular one unique "Grief Hack" must have taken over 100 hits of Guided Arrow before going down. I was hoping he would give me a scoring drop but no deal :(. 1st haul 3 rares (+0.003 to EM). 2nd haul round shield (+0.001 to EM, running total 0.004). 3rd Haul Haul 3 (+0.001 to EM, running total 0.005). Seal 1 Clear. Seal 2 Clear. Back to clearing and collecting...Haul 4 (+0.003 to EM, running total 0.008). Haul 5 Rare (+0.001, RT 0.009), Set (+0.002, RT 0.011). Haul 6 Rare (+0.001, RT 0.012), Set (+0.002, RT 0.014). Seal 3 clear. Seal 4 and Seal 5 clear. Back to Seals 1 & 2 to start spawning. Seal 1 & 2 Spawn. After clearing Seal 1 & 2 drops. No scoring elements :( . On to Seal 3...Seal 3 Spawn. After clearing Seal 3 Drops. 1 Rare (+0.001, RT 0.015). On to Seal 4 Spawn and no scoring items Seal 4 Drops. Just Diablo left now. Diablo Spawn. At Players 32, Guided Arrow isn't doing enough damage as he regens his life so fast. After trying a few other skills it finally takes what I thought was one of my weakest skills Immolation Arrow to bring him down in combination with the help of "Myrada" and a Valkyrie. No scoring drops...Diablo's Drops.

Code: Select all

Sidequest
Player          P#    RARE    SET     UNI      EM
=================================================
Al-T            32      11      2       0  +0.015
Hellwolf_36    127       0      0       0  +0.000
Clersius       127       0      0       0  +0.000

Code: Select all

Chapter 4 Main Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class        CFT    SET    UNI    DIA    AC      SQ      EM     TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barbie     58074    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0178    61143
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    56053    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0266    59597
Al-T               Dora/Ama             43191    500   1500   3000  5000  +0.015   1.0365    55132
:oops: I previously messed up my score giving only 2500 for killing Diablo instead of the 3000 it should have been. I have sorted this in my previous post and this post.

Also, Clersius: You have been adding the EM for a "Perfect Score" for Act completion before going to the next Chapter/Act. Although it makes no difference to the overall scoring you should only add the 0.005 on starting the next Chapter. It does say specifically in each Chapter's rulesets that you can add this in the next chapter.

Conclusion: Glad I did it at Players 32. I just wouldn't have been able to kill Diablo at any higher settings. I have no idea if the drops were kind or unkind as I have no benchmark to test this against. Ony on seeing Hellwolf and Clersius' scores will I get an idea of how well or badly that went. 11 Rare and 2 set items giving an addition of +0.015 to my EM Final Tally. Before moving on to Chapter 5 I am going to return to Act 3 to do a load of Meph runs to improve upon all my gear. I definitely need much more life and damage. The CtC Hydra ring will also be replaced.

Meantime, good luck and happy Zy-Elling :)
-------------------------------------------

[EDIT]

Preparation for Act 5: This begins with a ton of Meph runs to collect as many Zy runes as possible for using to make cube locks in order to increase the life on level on Dora's and Myrada's belts. Also to be used for general upgrading of items, in particular Myrada's boots, helmet, torso and gloves are now well past their sell-by date so I'll have to research better runewords for her level (208). After doing a ton of Meph runs and making cube locks for the "life on level" recipe for crafted belts Dora has just over 42K life and Myrada has 7.7K. I also socket 4 small blue charms and add jewels for additional damage and socket Dora's boots and add: Shard of Vengeance, Shard of Defiance and 2 x Leek Sprout jewels for some added defence and Faster Hit Recovery...Boots. Next I need to research runewords for Myrada's boots, helmet, torso and gloves. I decide on a "Lust for Life" for Myrada, buy this base armour, add 6 sockets to it and make the Lust. The jewel was a Shard of Elements. Next up I make her a pair of Xterra boots. Next I make her these gloves Prowess. Finally I make her this helmet Zodiac Sign. Next up another ton of Meph runs.
Last edited by Al-T on Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Clersius » Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:20 am

Al-Tisaur" wrote:I am more than a little jealous of your amulet.
I'll let you in on a little secret... come a little closer... closer... Rakanishu! That little demon drops more than his fair share of treasure cards, and they are often 3s and 4s. True, you will get plenty of dry runs from him, but that is the same as running the low-level named monsters for elixirs or demon boxes as well. Also, the council drops a ton of common cube scrolls, and that's where a lot of my TC transformation scrolls originated.
Al-T" wrote:I made the mistake of completing the whole of Act 4 and not improving on gear before taking on Diablo for the first time. ... I should not have done the Diablo quest so soon... I can not change any gear so I will attempt it with what I currently have.
Rules" wrote:(5) One shot only — if you die during any point in the Side Quest, the Quest is over and your multiplier cannot be changed from the Quest. NO PRACTICE RUNS ALLOWED! Must be attempted immediately afer your attempt to kill Diablo at Players 8 in the main Chapter.
Holy crap am I glad you did the side quest first! I'm sure you look at this and see no possible way to understand it other than the approach you took, but due to your previous comments about how you were going to disallow practice runs, as well as the explicit “NO PRACTICE RUNS ALLOWED!”, I applied the term “immediately after” to simply reinforce the idea of no practice runs allowed. That is, the very next run of the Chaos Sanctuary must be for the purposes of the side quest, not that the very next thing you do must be the side quest. Like I said, I am glad you did it first, because I would have violated that rule for sure, however unintentionally. I understand the way you read it, and I completely agree that your interpretation is the clearer interpretation, by far.
Rules" wrote:(3) Players setting cannot be changed once you enter the Chaos Sanctuary.
I read this as “once you enter the Chaos Sanctuary to begin the side quest.” This is clearly how you read it, as you killed Diablo the first time at p8, and for the side quest at p32. Our interpretations on this rule coincide neatly. :)
Rules" wrote:(2) Character/Merc gear cannot be modified at all once you enter the Chaos Sanctuary.
I read this the same way I read rule (3) - “once you enter the Chaos Sanctuary to begin the side quest.” On this rule, our interpretations are clearly polar opposites. Whichever way it is interpreted, I assume that it must be interpreted consistently for both rules (2) and (3). I do need to know which way to interpret these two rules before I enter the Chaos Sanctuary for the first time, though.

I did not realize it before your post, but it seems that I am also a little fuzzy on the scoring method for this side quest. Allow me to present you with my interpretation of how scoring would proceed:

The name of the side quest is:
Rules" wrote:Chapter 4 Optional Side Quest – “Diablo’s Seal of Approval”
This indicates to me that the central theme of the side quest has to do with the Seals themselves.
Rules" wrote:(4) Touching all seals is forbidden until all monsters are killed and all loot is removed from seal areas — a clean floor in the spawn area is essential.
This further reinforces that the Seals are, in fact, the key. Clearing all items before activating them would indicate that I am going to want to know what falls onto the floor after the Seals are activated, which leads me to believe that the only drops that score are the rare, set, and unique items that fall from the time the Seals are activated through the death of Diablo.
Rules" wrote:(6) Activate seals and finish with Diablo.
followed immediately by:
Rules" wrote:SCORING
Again, this says to me that I clean the floor, activate the Seals, kill everything that spawns and Diablo himself, and then figure out the score from the items that dropped from the time the floor became clean, which is equivalent, as far as drops are concerned, to the time that the Seals are activated.

Perhaps you could clarify for me where I have gone astray in my interpretation? Thank you, kind sir. :)
Al-Tisaur" wrote:I also socket 4 small blue charms and add jewels for additional damage and socket River's boots and add:
*voice of the announcer in a stadium* And now, a Special Guest Appearance by the lovely and indomitable Queen of Pure Grind, the one-and-only River :!: :!: *the crowd goes wild*
Next I need to research runewords for Myrada's boots, helmet, torso and gloves.
Loooove those Prowess in War gloves! So perfect for an archer. Blood has drooled over those many times in the past few days, but they are sadly less-than-perfect for a non-archer.
Al-T" wrote:Also, Clersius: You have been adding the EM for a "Perfect Score" for Act completion before going to the next Chapter/Act. Although it makes no difference to the overall scoring you should only add the 0.005 on starting the next Chapter. It does say specifically in each Chapter's rulesets that you can add this in the next chapter.
Due to the wonder that is compounding interest, it does indeed make a difference in the overall scoring. If there were no side quests, the difference would just be the 0.5% “interest” on the completion points – 50 points, then 51 points, then 52 points, etc. With side quests, the difference is the 0.5% “interest” on the side quest points as well, and that will add up to hundreds, if not thousands, of points over 15 chapters.

To show a practical example of this difference, I'll use the points that Bloodmist has been acquiring over the course of this tournament so far. This has the added bonus of revealing whether or not I've been doing it incorrectly.

This table shows his running score from Chapter to Chapter by scoring the first way, the way you have set it up, gaining the EM modifier after leaving the Chapter:

Code: Select all

Act     CFT   Completion        SQ      EM_Mod        EM     Score     Notes
  1       0        10000         0     +0.0050    1.0050     10050     +0.005 for SQ completion
  2   10050        10000      5214     +0.0000    1.0050     25390     +0.005 for perfect Act I; -0.005 for Act II death
  3   25390        10000     22000     +0.0078    1.0128     58125     +0.0078 from SQ
  4   58125         2000         0     +0.0050    1.0178     61195     +0.005 for perfect Act III
The second way, by gaining the EM modifier before leaving the Chapter:

Code: Select all

Act     CFT   Completion        SQ      EM_Mod        EM     Score     Notes
  1       0        10000         0     +0.0100    1.0100     10100     +0.005 for SQ completion; +0.005 for  perfect Act I
  2   10100        10000      5214     +0.0000    1.0050     25441     -0.005 for death
  3   25441        10000     22000     +0.0128    1.0178     58463     +0.0078 from SQ; +0.005 for perfect Act III
  4   58463         2000         0     +0.0000    1.0178     61539
Even after only three and a half Chapters, the difference is starting to become quite significant! (If there is any question as to whether these points are significant, ask Hellwolf if he would rather I was ahead of him with 61,195 points or ahead of him with 61,539 points! :twisted: ) Therefore I want to make absolutely sure that I apply the bonuses that I gain exactly the same way that everyone else does.

1) Notice how, in the rules and as shown in the first table above, the EM modifier for successfully completing the Chapter One side quest should be applied to the score before that person graduates his or her character to Chapter Two. I made an attempt to correct this, in my last post in Chapter One, but it was already way too late, and in Chapter Two onward, neither Hellwolf's nor Billy's scores reflect this. To maintain congruity, my EM modifier for the side quest does not show up in Chapter One either, nor did I retroactively apply it to Chapter One, but instead to Chapter Two, which is the way it was done for Hellwolf and Billy.

2) Notice my wording as to how I calculated the correction to my score in Chapter Three:
Clersius" wrote:However, that also means that I completed Act I with a perfect score, starting Act II with a multiplier of 1.0050. Then I died and lost 0.005, falling back to 1.0000. But then the Act I SQ was successfully completed, which bumped it back up to 1.0050 :!:
All of that happens at the start of Chapter Two, not the end of Chapter One. Rather than go back and disrupt the Chapter Two thread, which has already moved on past my graduation, I instead retroactively calculated what my score would have been if that change had been made at the start of Chapter Two. Visually, my final update at the end of Chapter Two should have looked like this:

Code: Select all

Player             Character/Class        CFT        B     R    ALB    AC      SQ     EM     TOTAL         
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barb       10000      500  1500   3000  5000    5214  1.005     25340
Again, that “extra” 0.005 on the Chapter Two EM was from a combination of the death (-0.005), the Chapter One side quest (+0.005), and the perfect Chapter One score (+0.005). 1.000 - 0.005 + 0.005 + 0.005 = 1.005. The 1.005 EM is what I should have had at the start of Chapter Three, and the 25340 is what I calculated and inserted in my Chapter Three edit.

3) As for the second table of my update for Chapter Three, the EM of 1.0128 comes from adding the 0.0078 bonus from the side quest to the 1.005 that should have carried over from Chapter Two, as just explained.

4) Finally, the bonus that I gained from a perfect Chapter Three score was added here, in Chapter Four, after graduation from Chapter Three, to give a total EM of 1.0178.

I apologize for beating this into the ground, but if the EM modifications are added in earlier than allowed, that gives an unfair advantage in the score, and I want to be absolutely sure that I am not guilty of such a violation. :) I have tried to be as thorough as possible in conveying where I have done what and why I have done it, in the hopes that, if there still exists the belief that I have added EM bonuses from perfect Chapter scores in the wrong places, I can be referred to the exact place where I have done it, so that I can fix it.

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:54 am

This further reinforces that the Seals are, in fact, the key. Clearing all items before activating them would indicate that I am going to want to know what falls onto the floor after the Seals are activated, which leads me to believe that the only drops that score are the rare, set, and unique items that fall from the time the Seals are activated through the death of Diablo.
As the author of this side-quest is "Metropolis Man" I can't say with 100% certainty whether he meant this or my interpretation allowing you to pick up scoring items before clearing all seal areas as well as any that drop from the seal-mobs. It doesn't say anywhere in the ruleset that you can't pick up scoring items prior to clearing and then activating the seals which is why I interpreted it the way I did. If it is the former of the two, then I will score a measly 1 rare and even if other players have much more MF than I did (1045%), I don't expect they will get much more due to the low numbers of monsters available to kill from seals only and Diablo.

I'll send Metro a PM to get clarification and if neccessary, adjust my score.....PM sent.
-------

[EDIT]
*voice of the announcer in a stadium* And now, a Special Guest Appearance by the lovely and indomitable Queen of Pure Grind, the one-and-only River :!: :!: *the crowd goes wild*
:lol: EOA rears it's ugly head again. I forget who I am never mind what character I am playing...."what day is this?" :P I'll edit the above post to "Dora"...done.
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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Metropolis Man » Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:07 pm

Hi everyone. It's been a long time. Hope everyone is doing great. Sorry if there was confusion with some on the side quest. You are to clean the entire Chaos Sanctuary before activating any seals at all — that way you know for sure that what drops and what you'll get credit for is the result of activating the seals. In other words, you don't score before activating the seals and the clean up process. Once you activate the seals, then the scoring begins. Hope that helps.
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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:55 pm

Hello Metro and nice to see you :)

Thanks for clarifying that even though it means I only get 1 scoring drop from Lord De Seis and his cronies at seal 3. A single rare Flamberge.

Score adjustment as follows:

Code: Select all

Sidequest
Player          P#    RARE    SET     UNI      EM
=================================================
Al-T            32       1      0       0  +0.001
Hellwolf_36    127       0      0       0  +0.000
Clersius       127       0      0       0  +0.000

Code: Select all

Chapter 4 Main Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class        CFT    SET    UNI    DIA    AC      SQ      EM     TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barbie     58074    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0178    61143
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    56053    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0266    59597
Al-T               Dora/Ama             43191    500   1500   3000  5000  +0.000   1.0225    54388
Al-Tisaur...Card carrying member of mentaldom since March 2007 & "Zy-Sensitive" Veteran Pension Holder!
Veteran? More like "Ancient Relic!"..been playing the mod for 12 years!
Trying to picture Al as a Power,... it's not working it must be the Tiger Stripes that get me every time - Hans
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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Clersius » Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:02 pm

Thanks for the clarification, Metro. :)

Are you getting any ES time in these days, or is it all Sims action for you?

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Metropolis Man » Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:49 pm

Yeah, the Sims 3 Pets was just released yesterday so I'm busy writing lots of articles. There's a whole horse racing and breeding component to this expansion that's pretty cool and unique. But, for the last couple months I've really been into Rift. Never played WoW, but I love this game. Quite addicting. BlizzCon is next week and I'm hoping that at least Blizzard will give us a release date for D3. It's been 3 years since the announcement which is borderline ridiculous IMO.
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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Clersius » Wed Oct 19, 2011 11:31 pm

Ridiculous indeed. This is a company that has been dealing with this game genre for decades now - if they don't have a handle on how their projects tend to slip, by how much, and for what reasons, then they don't deserve to be raking in the profits that they obviously are. The other explanation is that they know exactly what they are doing by announcing so early, and are simply milking it for all its worth, intentionally and with malice aforethought - a much more likely scenario. In which case, they are right bastards! Unfortunately, they make awesome products, so they probably won't lose many customers through their bastardism. :roll:

Horse racing? :lol: That is certainly different for that type of game... :cool:

All that aside, I have self-inflicted blinders on in regards to the gaming world in general, so I know nothing about Rift. What is there about it that fascinates you so?

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Metropolis Man » Wed Oct 19, 2011 11:36 pm

Clersius" wrote:All that aside, I have self-inflicted blinders on in regards to the gaming world in general, so I know nothing about Rift. What is there about it that fascinates you so?
I do not even know where to begin. Here's a nice promo video that was recently released...

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Lady Isabelle » Wed Oct 19, 2011 11:57 pm

Metropolis Man" wrote:
Clersius" wrote:All that aside, I have self-inflicted blinders on in regards to the gaming world in general, so I know nothing about Rift. What is there about it that fascinates you so?
I do not even know where to begin. Here's a nice promo video that was recently released...

Team Fortress 2 also added in "The Sun on a Stick" and "Sharpened Volcano Fragment" on Rifts release.
http://news.tgn.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Rift.jpg

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Clersius » Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:34 am

I have played several mmorpgs, so I am acquainted with the genre... I was wondering what about Rift in particular drew you in specifically. Was it the amazing graphics? A cutting-edge combat system? Crafting abilities above and beyond those of its peers? Everything about the game? Just wondering. :)

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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Metropolis Man » Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:12 pm

Well, I do not want to hijack this thread, so my apologies Al, but I am a total MMORPG newbie. Or at least I was until Rift. I have absolutely no comparison. I just love nearly everything about the game. But, I do not participate in all the warfront/pvp stuff. That is not my style. But, there's so much else to enjoy — something for everyone. But, if you want to continue this we can take it to PM.
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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Al-T » Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:31 pm

Hijack away :)

The forums here are so quiet nowadays that I don't think anyone bothers about threads going slightly "off topic" and this one will get back "on topic" failry soon anyway.

I had a look at "Rift" and that trailer but my PC is way under the minimum specifications so I can't try it which is a pity as it looks like a very good game :(
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Re: Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Four!

Post by Clersius » Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:33 am

Bloodmist has been doing lots and lots of Mephisto runs. To tell the truth, I think I'm addicted to doing them with the Barbie. It's so much fun!! Rarely are the runs just to kill Meph anymore. It's all about wading hip-deep into festering masses of Wyverns, Majats, Umberhulks, Medusae, and Jem Hadars while swinging those weapons of mass destruction at the speed of light until nothing is left but melting ice crystals and heaping piles of glittering gold!

Along the way, Blood finally maxed out Battle Orders, ditched the last poster he was using, added +24 all skills to his belt, and rolled up three Mega X arcane scrolls – Mega2 ring, Mega3 amulet, and Mega4 amulet. Unfortunately, the ones for an amulet are completely worthless to him, and the one for the ring adds max damage, which is just about the last thing he needs right now. :lol:

I've finally had to actually devote some thought as to how to approach the Chaos Sanctuary. There seem to be two options available to avoid the Iron Maiden curse. The first option is Berserk, which will be detrimental in two ways:
  1. Completely remove all defense, meaning Blood will take more damage that will need to be healed.
  2. Turn all damage into magic damage, which means zero life leeching, which means the extra damage taken from zero defense cannot be remedied other than through potions.
The positive aspects of Berserk:
  1. It deals quite impressive damage, allowing him to wear a shield, which will deflect ¾ of incoming blows.
  2. The shield can be enchanted, via Cube Locks, with modest to massive amounts of Extra Gold from Monsters.
The other option, the alternative to Berserk, is to equip throwing weapons.
  • Even with maxed Double Throw and Throwing Mastery, the damage will be low.
  • Attack speed will be much faster, and Double Throw lets him make twice the attacks per time unit as compared to Berserk. This will help close the damage gap betwixt the two, but Berserk does massive amounts of damage.
  • It will have the opposite effect of removing defense, as thrown weapons allow him to remain completely outside of melee range, taking few hits (if any), while still retaining all leeching capabilities.
I needed to do a high-level comparison regardless, but it is now quite clear why Al gave this advice:
In Chapter One, Al" wrote:Al's Barb Advice: The type of Barb I would make for this tournament to minimise the chances of death, especially from Iron Maiden, is a "Throw" Barb.
Thanks again, Al!

The problem then became, “What weapons to use for his weapon switch?” There obviously weren't going to be any runewords for throwing weapons, which meant finding good rares or uniques. First, I tried the “rares” route, gambling for an hour or two (a long time) to get three Winged Knives. Flying Knives have a higher maximum, but Winged Knives are inherently much faster. I used “any wpn to rar wpn” scrolls on two of them, then rerolled them 16 times total to see what kind of mods they would get. I was really hoping for Replenish Quantity, but that never appeared. Knockback is a nice mod, but he already has that on a unique small charm. Hit Causes Monster to Flee 100% would be just about ideal, especially coupled with 150% or more Enhanced Damage.

As far as unique throwing weapons are concerned, there just isn't much information available. Not much to be found on the Wiki, and my necro, Sable, has found exactly one so far, and that one is a Normal item, so not much help. I decided to buckle down and do a few upgrade tests with the necro to see what would show up. I gambled with him to get three more Winged Knives, crafted them, then converted them to a unique item. The first time he ended up with a Flying Knife, and it wasn't all that great. I was disappointed by it and did not save the information about it, unfortunately. The second attempt created a Zy-El's Windsong Artifact Winged Knife. While that is certainly a much cheaper way to create an Artifact, it was bad news in all other respects. Blood cannot afford to invest all of those resources and wind up with an Artifact that he is not permitted to use for the foreseeable future!

There was good news, though. A byproduct of the process of testing out the uniques was catching a glimpse of the stats of Trinity Demon Winged Knives. Those have added damage (200-300) as fixed stats, and can get some additional good attributes (+% ED, Flee, etc).

Back on Bloodmist, I used his resources on one of the knives for three tries at a Trinity knife, finally getting one with 100% flee. Rerolled the other two rare knives another 12 times, getting a good one with maximum damage BoCL.

He had 10 inventory spaces worth of Extra Gold jewels in random charms, so we dumped those in order to make room for a second Mega Master ChoM. He is approaching level 500, which means that each of those is worth almost 1000% EG and 1000% MF.

Bloodmist's replenish life currently stands at -95, with two Mega ChoMs (-80), a Major (-16), a Minor (-10), the Trinity Demon knife (-66), his sweet amulet (currently at +74), and his Prayer Offering gloves (+3). I'm tempted to have him use both crafted knives, but I think the drain would be too prohibitive, even with 290k life.

Interesting fact: the common cube scroll “add stack1 to any thrown” does not work on winged knives. I have not extensively tested why, or to what extent it works/doesn't work on other thrown items, but I do know that the Normal and Exceptional knives have a “normal” stack size of 480, while the Elite items have a modified stack size of 511. Perhaps this modification is interfering with increasing the stack size. The cube scroll is consumed, so it technically can be applied to a winged knife, it just doesn't increase the stack size, even after selling it and buying it back to replenish its quantity. As well, all of the knives that showed up with “Increased Stack Size” as an attribute had a maximum stack size of 511 – in other words, that attribute made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

Throwing weapons sorted out, I went ahead and maxed out his Throwing Mastery – his third maxed skill – giving him 5.7k-8k damage for the Trinity knife and 1.3k-9.4k for the max dmg BoCL knife while using Double Throw. Unfortunately, increased levels of Double Throw only increase his AR, which is more than adequate for now.

I took off the charm he uses with cold damage and a socketed Cham rune so that I could test out the efficacy of the Hit Causes Target to Flee 100% modification, and to make sure that everything was copacetic for corpse-looting. Oddly enough, he was still cold-slowing monsters, causing a 10-20% corpse loss due to shattering. I scoured every line of mods on every item he was using, and could not find any source of cold damage, so I took everything off, putting things back one at a time until the culprit was discovered. I would appreciate it if everyone who reads this would take a look at Blood's Prayer Offering runeword gloves. Those gloves are the culprit. They are somehow providing a source of cold damage, but I just can't see it! Where is the cold damage? Does Holy Bolt have a cold component? Regardless, monsters are getting cold-slowed even when the Holy Bolt doesn't activate. I just can't figure it out! Those gloves are sooo nice, I'd hate to have to ditch them, but I'll have to if I can't figure out how to fix them.

Once he reaches level 500, I will be out of excuses for postponing his completion of the rest of Chapter Four, which will be my next update. :)

------------------------
[EDIT]

Bloodmist reached level 503, so we headed back into Act IV. Fought down to the Forge, picked up a Jah rune, a Perfect Skull, and some other perfect gems, then on to find the waypoint and fight through to the entrance of the Chaos Sanctuary itself.

To finalize his equipment for the two CS runs, I removed the 15% Enh Def/Incr Max Life 15% grand charm, replacing it with a +30 Str/Dex grand charm, triple socketed and outfitted with two Shards of Vanity and a Shard of Avarice. Removed the Freeze Target narrow charm, then added in four 100% MF tall charms, a 50% MF large charm, and a pair of 16% MF small charms, all from the Chapter Two side quest, completely filling his inventory. I also made an eleventh-hour decision to have him wield the second Trinity Demon Winged Knife. I was wrong about the Drain Life -161 being an issue – it doesn't make a whit of difference at 300k life even after standing still for 10 minutes. I applied a “pierce5” scroll and a “blind and noheal” scroll to the primary knife and a “pierce4” scroll to the other. Those bad boys are deadly! Even at much less than half the damage of his normal weapons, they kill faster. Part of that is due to the speed at which they are thrown, and part of it is due to the piercing. They must be replenished every few minutes though (1022 knives don't last long!), and the combined cost is almost 600k to do so. He doesn't make anywhere near 600k in five (or even ten) minutes, so it is not a sustainable form of annihilation. But they sure enough are a joy to use!

Everything was in order, players was already set to 127 for the normal playing up to this point (and remained at p127 throughout the two CS runs), and Bloodmist started the first of his two runs with these stats. No Oblivion Knights showed up, and nothing really interesting to note. Diablo's death was quite satisfying. Actually, there was something to note. That demon has some major blocking powers, and he doesn't even need a shield to do it! 95% chance to hit him, and Blood was whiffing at least 9 out of 10 swings. It was quite similar to when he first met Dark Ones in the Inner Cloister – the ones with shields. It took ages to kill groups of them due to all the blocking they do.

The start of run 2 was also at p127 and with 3071% MF. All quests had been completed and inventory was the same except that the four tall charms were in mirror image formation. Neat! :P This time there were several packs of Oblivion Knights, concentrated between Diablo's Pentagram and Lord de Seis's seal (the middle one, above the pentagram, if you don't know who de Seis is or where he spawns). There was a very interesting development during this run, as well. Bloodmist somehow found himself glitch-frozen, and I thought I was going to have to forfeit the run. It also happened out in the Lava paths, near the Hellforge, but out there he got slammed by an Otyugh's Bone Spirit spell and it broke the glitch-freeze. What happens is, he is attacking and for some reason that I have not quite figured out, he just stops in mid-attack, unable to move, unable to use skills or cast spells, even town portal. He still makes noises when he gets hit, and he still takes damage, but he is otherwise in stasis. I tried everything I could think of, including alt-tabbing out and back in. What finally worked was switching his weapon bank. I guess that the update in his toon appearance forced the game to redraw him, and it broke stasis. Yay!

Seal one on the right cleared. Seal two on the right cleared. Seal three in the upper middle cleared. Seals four and five on the left cleared. He first tripped Seals four and five, as he was already standing there. No drops. Then back to Seal Three, taking out Lord de Seis and his cronies for a couple of drops. The rare Quhab was from Find Item. Seals One and Two yielded a third drop. Diablo doesn't drop scoring items at p127, of course, but he did contribute a pair of Zy runes to the cause. Thanks, Big D!

Total score for the side quest: 2 rares and 1 set for +0.001 + 0.001 + 0.002 = +0.004 to EM.

I'm kind of bummed now. Blood has accomplished a massive amount over the course of these four chapters, and is primed for continuing his adventure, but who knows how long it will be before Chapter Five becomes available. Not that I don't have anything else to do, mind you... Suwayyah is plenty torqued that she's been neglected so long, and all because of some moronic, testosterone-infested mass of dumb-like-a-stump muscles. :roll: I guess I should stop playing favourites, huh?

Code: Select all

Sidequest
Player          P#    RARE    SET     UNI      EM
=================================================
Al-T            32       1      0       0  +0.001
Hellwolf_36    127       0      0       0  +0.000
Clersius       127       2      1       0  +0.004

Code: Select all

Chapter 4 Main Scoreboard
Player             Character/Class        CFT    SET    UNI    DIA    AC      SQ      EM     TOTAL
====================================================================================================
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barbie     58074    500   1500   3000  5000  +0.004   1.0218    69558
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    56053    500   1500      0     0  +0.000   1.0266    59597
Al-T               Dora/Ama             43191    500   1500   3000  5000  +0.000   1.0225    54388
Good luck to all of you in your Evolutionary experiences!

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