[VH-HC] Ironman Contest

[locklere]

UPDATED 11/23/09

This is an ironman challenge specifically for melee Destroyers on VH-HC. Yes, it's hard. Here are the rules:

PROHIBITED
-Traveling to town
-Using any vendors, including dungeon ones
-Fishing
-Backtracking to previous levels
-Summon spells
-Ranged weapons
-Mods which benefit your character (skins are OK, but items, maps, etc. are not)
-Heirloom items
-Exploits (trapping Brink, fighting through gaps, and so forth)

REQUIRED
-Enter every phase portal
-Fight every monster you see, including bosses: if you see it, either it dies or you do
-Hit every plunger, check every chest, etc. (excluding TNT barrels)
-When you first start in town, you have 100g, which you should use to buy 3x Health Potion

ALLOWED
-Clearing levels before proceeding (this was added to address two problems: (1) excessive reliance on luck, and (2) over time, a decreasing gap between player and monster level)

If anyone has additional suggestions, please post, and I'll edit the original posting. Please post screenshots of your attempts! Good luck, and have fun!

P.S. Screenshot instructions: shift-F9 takes an image, then you can go to C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\Application Data\runic games\torchlight\screenshots to find the files. Just paste that into Start -> Run. ImageShack has an "Uploader" program that makes it easy to upload and link multiple images simultaneously.

VICTORS
1. Bourrnif, level 27, 12h 36m, Devastate (stats on page 12)
2. nermind, level 28, 11h 53m, Devastate (stats on page 14)

[locklere]

Damascus' Journal: Torchlight, Day 1



I came to Torchlight in search of battle and wealth, but quietly, I also hoped that defending this small border town would bring me a lasting sense of peace. I've always traveled, but Torchlight is somewhere I could put down roots, set up a small farm, and live out my days in solitude.

When I first entered the corrupted mines, I was immediately set upon by rodent-like men and huge arachnids. Strangely, one of the rat-men had a scroll of town portal, but perhaps was too dense to make use of it himself. Regardless, I knew I wouldn't be needing it...



I've arrived at the second level of the mine, and as I'm beset upon by these twisted visions of Ember, I can feel the power of my ancestors rising up to protect me. This force is so vindictive that, on occasion, I have seen it reach out from the nether-realms to strike at my foes in the living world.



I had just finished a battle against more rat-men when I felt a shower of dust fall from above. Looking up, I saw a pack of purple, bat-like creatures crawling along the ledge. Before I could raise my blades in defense, they set upon me, leaping down from the ledge and making hideous, inhuman noises, as if calling each other to the feast. Although I was again victorious, I was weakened, and my supplies were spent. It was then that a giant rat-man, perhaps one of their warlords, rushed to meet me...



Perhaps now I will protect you, my ancestor, as you delve into the darkness under Torchlight...

[locklere]

Argentum's Journal: Torchlight, Day 1

Like my ancestor before me, I ventured underneath Torchlight in search of what I did not have...



Before long, I came to a large, cavernous room, covered in the goo of what must have been several hundred rotted creatures. At the center of the room reclined a massive arachnid, pregnant with the blood of her victims, larger even than those in legends.



The outcome of the battle was unequivocal...

[locklere]

Almost made it to level 5 that time... might have to think of some way to make this more viable.

[kronchev]

Gl everyone!

I prefer to play SC ironman and it's a lot more possible with the traveling vendor-pet. I kind of blew it after my first rerun after Retirement because I was finding 0 pots and getting murdered. :/

[locklere]

Gl everyone!

I prefer to play SC ironman and it's a lot more possible with the traveling vendor-pet. I kind of blew it after my first rerun after Retirement because I was finding 0 pots and getting murdered. :/

Thanks for the well-wishes.

Is SC ironman still an ironman? I thought the main ideas were total self-sufficiency and that it ends if you die.

[jackx]

This is so not going to end well...

In fact, it's pointless. Even with good drops, it's an endless kite-athon of epic proportions which ends when you run out of potions. Or patience.
Still, I made it to clvl 5, and even managed to save up a lot of potions for Brink (though that exploit is tempting me, tbh - but then, this is an exercise in futility, so success is not an option...)

Kiting mobs with shadow armour (start running after it starts swinging) and hit-and-run with slash is not fun, even when a few strategically placed health/mana shrines, and some less-than-abysmal drops help you out. Probably should've opted for something other than the imaginary pet, too.




Going to bed now, not sure when I'll start the Brink fight...

One rule question btw: Does "every barrel" include TNT barrels? I hope not, so far, I've avoided playing suicide terrorist and blowing myself up xD

[locklere]

This is so not going to end well...

In fact, it's pointless. Even with good drops, it's an endless kite-athon of epic proportions which ends when you run out of potions. Or patience.
Still, I made it to clvl 5, and even managed to save up a lot of potions for Brink (though that exploit is tempting me, tbh - but then, this is an exercise in futility, so success is not an option...)

Kiting mobs with shadow armour (start running after it starts swinging) and hit-and-run with slash is not fun, even when a few strategically placed health/mana shrines, and some less-than-abysmal drops help you out. Probably should've opted for something other than the imaginary pet, too.

Going to bed now, not sure when I'll start the Brink fight...

One rule question btw: Does "every barrel" include TNT barrels? I hope not, so far, I've avoided playing suicide terrorist and blowing myself up xD

I edited the original post regarding TNT barrels (not required; this is hard enough). I also posted that you should use your original 100g to buy 3x Health Potions, which should help alleviate some of the kitefest early on.

[jackx]

Ok. I did buy in town (and even sold my two TP for that purpose), initial purchases were always a part of Diablo Ironman (though that was co-op, so you'd stock up on resurrect scroll), so I thought that was ok..

Now, on to Brink...

[nermind]

I`ll most likely pick this up when I get a new PC (and can finally play the game flawlessly) in a week or two.
Should be refreshing after D2 (that I`m currently bored of...probably not for long though), probably even harder than some of the untwinked, HC, single-pass tourneys over at forums.diii.net

*thumbup* to author and good luck to those that keep going

[locklere]

I`ll most likely pick this up when I get a new PC (and can finally play the game flawlessly) in a week or two.
Should be refreshing after D2 (that I`m currently bored of...probably not for long though), probably even harder than some of the untwinked, HC, single-pass tourneys over at forums.diii.net

*thumbup* to author and good luck to those that keep going

Got to 7, nice gear, plenty of potions stocked up... then insta-gibbed in a phase portal by archers. Was doing so nicely... oh, well.

It's definitely harder than D2 HC.

[nermind]

What were your stats and skill distribution?
I`ve found the game to be pretty easy if I add (almost) all stats do defense and upgrade only Shadow Armor early on up to lvl 5 (the damage it deals helps a ton). But I haven`t gone much further on VHHC - the giant 5th level lags like hell on my ancient PC.

Although I guess that a phase portal so early (and not only) is a real killer no matter what skills/stats you have

[jackx]

The first attempt to kill Brink ended in death by windows update, so I started over...

Progressing nicely, though I wouldn't mind more health potion drops...


Made it to clvl 5, still clearing dlvl 3... probably made a mistake by skipping on Stampede, though, if I don't find better weapons, I'll be barely able to scratch Brink with my current gear...


Edit: going 2:3 str:def for attributes, as I'm playing DW(slash) hit-and-run. Must be using different shadow armour than everyone else, though, the few % block chance don't make much of a difference, and it mostly deals glancing blows or single-digit damage...

[locklere]

What were your stats and skill distribution?
I`ve found the game to be pretty easy if I add (almost) all stats do defense and upgrade only Shadow Armor early on up to lvl 5 (the damage it deals helps a ton). But I haven`t gone much further on VHHC - the giant 5th level lags like hell on my ancient PC.

Although I guess that a phase portal so early (and not only) is a real killer no matter what skills/stats you have

I went about 2 Strength : 3 Defense, but when I needed to do so for major upgrades, I dropped a couple in Dexterity. Here's how I placed my points at each level:

2: Shadow Armor
3: Shadow Armor
4: Shadow Armor
5: Titan Stomp
6: Armor Expertise
7: Shadow Armor

If not for that phase portal, I would have been in very good shape. I had about 5 of each potion, and I was killing things without much hassle. Brink was really hard, though -- I probably used about 8 healing and 5 mana potions. Starting to think the poster above me might have the right idea about Shadow Armor -- once in a while it lands a big crit, but for the most part, the damage sucks and the block is too low to make a significant difference.

[jackx]

Killed Brink, took a while... now clvl 6 and dlvl 5, found some really nice stuff, and, most importantly, found Heal Self 1. Major boost right there.



As far as skills go, Entropic Aura is great, as slower enemies = easier hit and run.
I've also dumped some point into armor expertise... not sure if I'll live long for that to pay dividends, arguably boosting dmg output further and relying on my dodging skills could've been better...

Shadow armour is odd, it seems to scale with clvl in addition to slvl - it's now doing 20-30 dmg fairly regularly, despite still being on slvl 1

[Damoklesz]

I tried this, got swarmed by mobs in the begining of the second level, I used up all but one of my potions just to survive. Had an unique pistol drop from a boss, which I obviously didn't use. Tried to save my last healing potion for the last second, but I screwed it up and died. I think the best case scenario would be me killed by Brink.
I didn't get very far, but I think that Shadow Armor is the way to go. Extra points spent on Slash seems a bit of a waste for me. On the other hand Shadow armor's extra block will be useful in a long run. If I ever get to lvl5 I will be improving Titan Stomp for a while. Actually I was wondering about Shadow Bowman at lvl10 (lol). I don't have any experience about the damage of this skill, but the fact that its ranged looks promising.

The best thing about this contest is that I won't need to spend points on barter

Edit:
Oh, and I got a question: So far I thought that the game saves when I go to town. How does saving works exactly? Or part of the contest is to do the whole game at once?

[locklere]

Oh, and I got a question: So far I thought that the game saves when I go to town. How does saving works exactly? Or part of the contest is to do the whole game at once?

I believe it also saves when you exit to title, or when you go into a portal.

[jackx]

I don't see the appeal of block early on, not only is the % chance fairly low, but you're also unlikely to get hit in the first place.

Smooth sailing for my guy now, more so due to the 2 decent weapons than due to healing, which'll probably come into its own in a couple of lvls when I can no longer reliably kill stuff without taking damage.

Clvl 7 and heading down to dlvl 6 now...

[Damoklesz]

Can I ask how you killed Brink?

I reached him on my second try, but the only way I found to damage him without constantly using health pots is to circle around that obstacle part of the map, changing directions and waiting for my pet to hit him once or twice before he starts to focus on him and sends him to flee again. Killing him like that takes a LOT of time... Actually I died again because of the exploding crystals, but those can be avoided or destoryed.

If I were to fight face to face with him I'd have needed about 15-20 potions (I tried this for a while, but gave up after about 3 pots, coz I didn't believe my 13 will last). Maybe I didn't find weapons good enough. Both of them were 60-70 DPS if I remember correctly. Still, I believe that the Shadow armor's damage is greater then the extra damage for lvl4 slash instead of lvl1. Glancing blows to normal monsters are very rare, and often my armor hits more than I do. However its value against Brink is questionable.

Also I was wondering... Two of the three (i think) bosses I met before Brink were those big rats with hammers. I can't hit them without getting hit, so I had to waste about 2 potions for each of them. Actually I can't even kill the normal version of those without getting hit once or twice, I'm lucky that they are kind of rare. Is there a trick I don't know about?

[locklere]

Can I ask how you killed Brink?

Good picture of a bad day, thought you guys might get a kick out of this:

As for Brink, I just used Slash Attack and Titan Stomp, and tried to stay out of his way as much as possible. Basically I ended up just going head-to-head, though, and sucking down my store of around 8-10 potions. Same idea with rat bosses -- they're going to hit you either way, so the best you can do is kill them ASAP.

Some other useful things I've come across:

-Don't forget to buy the 3 healing potions with your 100g in the beginning
-Use a 'shepherd' approach to round up small monsters, then use Slash Attack to wipe them all out at once
-Kite larger groups to a TNT barrel before using Slash Attack, as the damage you take from the barrel is sometimes less than you would take without it (since it kills things so fast)
-Trolls can be killed without taking any damage if you use good timing -- run up, wait until they begin to attack, run back, and then run forward and hit them as soon as their attack completes, then repeat