Instead of send cake on your birthday, I am sending you some inspiration.








































Have a great Birthday, Gris


And remember I want a piece, or 2 or 3 if you make one of these cakes (especially Chocolate with Love).

KoP

Yes, you read that title right. I am reporting on game that closed months ago. I wasn't joking when I said I was going to start playing some of the old games if nothing new came out.


http://www.kendter.com/index.htm

Well, I can get us started on this one. We had a wait to get the whole team together, but not as long as last weeks. We even had a few more people than we needed at one point or another.

Tonight's Roster

W/Rt-Wyrm
W/E-WB for 2, then Seijin for 3
Me/E-Zedd
N/E-It's a Crime (guest from AB)
N/A-Moo
E/Rt-Fox
Mo/A-Vort
Mo/E-Hawk

We fought a total of 5 battles, 2 losses and 3 wins (and a crapload of faction!)

1st Battle, vs. Orden de Balthazar--loss
In short, we got shredded. They shut down our team en masse. Personally, as the Mo/A, I had signet of humility on me constantly, so no RC, and I was diversioned most of the time, so I hardly dared cast anything else, and I had a thumper keeping me on my back half the time. Needless to say, I didn't accomplish much healing. However, since this was our warm-up round, it doesn't count. Also, we had three players gvging with us for the first time, so they needed to learn the build and basic strategy.

2nd Battle, vs. Antii Virus--win
This was a close one, but we managed to pull off a victory. Apparently this guild is very good in HA. They bought a pair of assassins and assorted other stuff I don't remember, but their weakness was three hero monks. They managed to gank nearly all our npc's at one point or another, so at the end we were all fighting to keep our GL alive. Both WB and our guest experimented with their builds, without anyone else realizing it until we were in the match. From a caster's point of view, the absence of our linebacker role was noticeable, and it hurt.

3rd Battle, vs. Contract Killas--flawless win
Warblade had to leave after the 2nd match, and Seijin stepped in to take his place. As much as WB didn't enjoy the hammer build, Seijin loved it. This group was largely made up of heroes, and was built around fire elementalists. Between their heroway and our growing comfort with the build, we stomped them, stormed their base, killed all the npc's, and took down the GL. Flawless Victory.

4th Battle, vs. Kingdom of Allies--loss
This was the only battle where the other team was ranked lower than us, so we met them in their GH, the Uncharted Isle. However, they were more skilled than their rank let on, and we got shredded again. They used a very heavy degen build, with both hexes and conditions, and kept migraine on both of our monks. We tried a split at the beginning to gank some of their npc's, but had to call it off when the main force was annihilated. It didn't last long, and it wasn't pretty.

5th Battle, vs. Dark by Design--win
This guild was unranked, apparently new to GvG (they also seemed unfamiliar with conventional tactics/builds/etc.) After a bad moment early on when they dropped half our team near the flag stand, we turned it around and dp'd them out, not even making it as far as their GL.

Overall Thoughts
I still don't think we're quite to effective splitting level. We fared much better when we were all together than when we split up. Also, a couple times we had the monks split up, and I realized the Mo/A doesn't have the best survivability when spiked without the other monk nearby (at least not in my hands, anyhow). As in previous experiences, I think the most important thing is for everyone to get comfortable with their roles in the group. We got more efficient and organized as the night wore on. I think the same was true for group leadership. In some of the early matches their was a lot of running around without a clear idea of who was doing what. In the later games the leadership was a lot clearer and tighter. Anyway, I'm a little too tired to think intelligently anymore, and hope the above makes sense in the morning.

Ajax

edit: I had another thought. We're a little slow with firing off res sigs in battle. There were a few times when we lost people and after some time without them coming back up, Wyrm would ask if we were out of sigs already. Then people would remember and raise the fallen. If it's not safe enough for the W/Rt to use the hard res (or right before a shrine res) those with res sigs need to be aware of who's alive and who's not and keep the team on its feet.

Okay, I've been reading your tournament game and SG reports for over a year. I have learned a great deal from them, without even owning Civ4. Now I have Civ4. The timing is perfect, I get Civ4, tournament games disappear! poof! All gone!

So when is the next one coming?

I promised I had some ideas in mind for a couple more SG's.

Settings:
Leader: Gandhi
Map: Fractal - random climate and random sealevel
Difficulty: Emperor
Speed: Epic

I had alot of fun in the RB19 game where we played a cultural challenge without using the cultural slider, in other words we basically won a true cultural victory. That is what I was thinking for this game, but try for a true diplomatic victory. I generally prefer not to have complicated variants for my SG's, and usually all my SG's have only 1 variant rule, but this one will be a bit more complicated. I cant help it though

Variant(s):
- Must win diplomatic victory with less than 15% land area.
- Cannot ever declare war by ourselves. If a friend asks us to help, we are allowed.
- No lame tactics like gifting cities. Unless we get over 15% land by mistake, in which case we can.

This will be a very economically and diplomatically focused game, where we have to get the maximum out of every city. Since there will be very little to no warring in the game, some micromanagement will be preferrred where every player checks every city every 3-5 turns. Considering the fact that we will have very few cities and no wars, this wont take much time. Anyone can signup, although some emperor level experience is preferable.

Roster:
Qwack
Reserved for futurehermit if he is interested

Im looking for 3-4 more people, depending on if Futurehermit will be interested.

Not sure if anyone cares (since there seems to be some Anti-Warlords sentiment on the site lately ), but...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=209714

Does anyone have the low down on how henchies and heroes affect drops, say, for green farming? For example, is it possible to use henchies to get to the boss quickly, and then dump them or put them out of range and duo / solo the boss for better drop odds?

I want to try and get the Rotwing Recurve Bow in Majesty's Rest, and don't fancy the 25 minute walk with only the prospect of a 1 in 50 or worse shot at the drop.

Thanks in advance...

From the Official Site:

"As players prepare for the next rounds of the Guild Wars Celestial Tournament, we offer two benefits to PvP players this weekend: double GvG Faction and double Champion Points. The double rewards begin at Noon PST (20:00 GMT) on Friday, March 2nd and end at 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday, March 4 (7:59 GMT on Monday, March 5)."

Let's try to get a bunch of matches in! For once, I'll be available more than just one evening of the weekend (!). If others can make it to some times during Saturday or Sunday, I'm ready to join in.

(Apologies to Kiefer Sutherland...)

Here’s an idea for Diablo multiplayer co-op gameplay. It’s a variation of Dot @ Level and it's not viable for Single player gaming, since the Hell entrance from town is sealed until you locate it inside the dungeon. It is suggested that, like tournament IM, a three-player team be composed of one character of each class. Two-player teams would allow any combo.

The jist is that along with playing Dot@Level (in which the characters MUST achieve their first dot by/at clevel 17) the party also only gets 17 (or less) sessions into the dungeon to achieve this goal. Thus the game has a real finite beginning and end.

Within the limit of 17 game sessions, you get:

all the town interactions you wish (including item ID and shopping at Gris, Adria, and Wirt),

as many shrines as you can (safely) hit within the 17 sessions,

as many bosses as you can kill, chests you can open, bookcases you can reach, etc, etc, etc.

as much book-shopping at Adria as you wish, including diving back into the dungeon to get her to change her inventory,

HOWEVER, if a character leaves the game -- due to lag-drop or other -- and then rejoins later, that character would NOT be allowed to shop at Griswold or Wirt for that session. The items they offered would have changed, and thus would be beyond the allowed 17 maximum if further sessions are played.

Although you'd be possibly doing a LOT of book-shopping, MONEY may prove a major obstacle for the team (them books 'o higher learnin' be esspensive!).

Of course the toughest aspect of the game would be finding a decent pathway to 16 without anyone on the team leveling up beyond clevel 17, within the 17 gaming sessions.

Some strat ideas:

One character would need to stay fairly low in character level (say, clevel 8 to allow for a Cats start the next session?) in order to do multiple Butcher/Leo runs without leveling up to clevel 18.
Suggested character: the Rogue.

On the first session you’d want to have at least one character level up to clevel 13. Why? So that on the second session the character could start either in Caves or Cats or Church and look for bosses and books.
Suggested character: the Warrior.

On the first session probably at least one character should lup to clevel 17 in order to start looking for a somewhat clear path down to Dlevel 16, as this will probably be the game stopper -- not party weakness, but rather characters leveling up beyond 17 before Diablo is destroyed. In that initial and all further sessions that person’s job is to first and foremost scout a path to 16. If such a path is found, then the other two players fight in the dungeon until they reach clevel 17, and then join (via TP) the scouting character. If no pathway shows, then the scout will spend the time TKing chests and armor racks where possible, or assisting with specific boss kills, or book-shopping.
Suggested character: the Mage, and buy him a book of Phasing ASAP to jump walls into rooms that have stairs down.

So, potentially, the first session might look like this:
Warr-Rog-Mage enter dungeon and clear Church, buying book HB from Adria if necessary. (Remember to check Griswold every time a character levels up for items.) All should reach about clevel 8 -- if anyone should fall behind in clevel, it should be the Rogue. Warr-Mage continue through Cats while Rogue tags along (can enter Cats via TP) and mules and shops for books.

Warr-Mage continue until Warr hit clevel 13 (about Cats 6 or 7), and then Mage solos (being fueled with mana and books from town) until he hits clevel 17 (should happen in Cats 8 or early Caves). Warrior can tag along to act as shield.

End of first session.

Further sessions:

Everyone always visit Gris to shop. Always visit Adria for books.

Rogue [clevel 8] starts by entering Cats and looking for books/bosses. Then she tries to kill Butcher and Leo for their drops, evaluating them both for use and for sale.

Warr (clevel 13) starts on Caves 9 and looks for bosses and chests and such. (Maybe an “of thieves” item would be a good idea). If foes too tough/numerous, leave and go to Cats to work the level. Can also book-shop. If possible, on Caves 9 try to find stairs to Cats 8, where books of CL and FBall can be found. Bookshop when all other possibilities exhausted.

Mage (clevel 17) tries to find a path to dlevel 16. Is always TKing chests for books and items, along with armor/weapons racks that appear. If no safe path is found, Mage comes back and works Caves/Cats/Church for books. Can bookshop otherwise.

(Alternatively: you could also have the warrior be the character that lups to clevel 17, then have him act merely as a shield -- killing nothing -- as you search for stairs to deeper levels. A high dex for blocking would be necessary to use this strategy! A Rogue with a fast-block shield could do it also.)

Some thoughts on books and book-shopping:

High priority: Telekinesis, HB, Phasing, Heal.
Mid-level priority: Fireball, CL, Stone Curse, Town Portal, Firewall.
At clevel 17 max, Adria will not offer any book beyond ilevel ten -- thus, no Teleport and no Golem and no Blood Star.

Some thoughts on shopping:

It would be good if everyone could read TK so that everyone could TK items and bookcases. That being the case, glasses (+magic items) are a high priority.

The Mage and the Warrior could be on the lookout for a Swifty bow for the Rogue. Also desirable, a +resist all or + resist fire bow for the advos on 16. (Some consideration for a fire elemental bow, like Flamedart.)
The Mage and the Warrior could be on the lookout for fast attack weapons for the warrior. mage should be able to purchase of speed, while warrior can look for of swiftness. Even the Rogue at clevel 8 will be offered of swiftness in one Griswold slot.

Look for “of Thieves” items for the mage and warrior.
Look for “+Dex” items for when the Warrior faces Diablo.
Look for a “fast block” shield for the Rogue.
Perhaps an “of thorns” item for the Mage.
Perhaps a staff or Golem (or at least a scroll of Golem) for facing Diablo.

Some thoughts on unique items of less than ilevel 14 (droppable in early/mid Cats or via Leo):

High Priority: Civerb’s Cudgel, Holy Defender, Constricting Ring, Scavenger’s Carapace.

Mid-level priority: Ring of Engagement, Overlord’s Helm, Shadowhawk, Wizardspike, Gnarled Root.

Low-level priority: -light radius items, Flamedart.

Special mention: Naj’s Puzzler -- very important to keep it if it shows!

Finally, and this would be TOUGH, if a character dies in the dungeon, his/her only means of being ressed should be by teammates! This means everyone should probably toss up a Town Portal as the first order of business when entering a level. And everyone should probably learn the TP-Res skill, just in case. And, if by rare coincidence all three characters, adventuring separately and on different level, if all three die -- then the game is over!

Now this WOULD be awfully tough; very hard to win. IMO the stopper would be to find a relatively clear way down to Hell in seventeen or fewer sessions. It might never show! Them's just the breaks! Then again, plyaing in this fashion wouldn't be that much longer than a typical Ironman game, and it’s not a mindless treasure hunt, and it would encourage both multiplayer co-op gameplay and development of some strategies if not tactics.

There would be some small area of abuse -- the level 17 character could always clear Church 1 and Church 2 without lupping due to the low mlevel of the foes there, meaning two free levels every session, technically. But hey, how many great items drop on Church 1 and 2 in just 17 sessions?

So, this is just a thought on a different way to engage in some co-op multiplayer Diablo. I'm sure there are some odd things I haven't considered in this writeup-- just point em out.

Hey guys,

As you know (or not) it's time to switch halls again. So, are we done with the experimentation/learning process or do we want to keep going? If I remember the list correctly, there's only 1 other hall besides Solitude that people wanted to try, which is Wizard's. However, Wizard's is the same as Warrior's for layout (the halls are slightly different, but not by much) and we've had several matches on Warrior's (which have generally gone our way).

There are also a few other maps we haven't tried that we might (for tactical purposes), if you guys are interested, so if you still want to try one, say so.

In my opinion, such as it is, we might want to go straight to Solitude and get more experience as a team before we try alternating halls again. I think the thing most people are worried about right now is figuring out this whole GvG thing and not so much about how the different halls are going to govern different tactics, splits, or whatever.

And no, I'm not just saying that to get out of buying a sigil.