VGT Olympics

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

Once again, I was lucky to just get all the right things in place for this other entry,

It's Halfling Rogue of [EM -> GG -> Dracul(+PM)] for Non-[Tinker, Crusader, Wizard, Paladin] Hoarder. I thought hard about it and figured Rogue might work though it's not going to be easy.

So, prepped EM serves 2 purposes (actually more):

1. Vine Form for more HP and Damage Reduction (Took 3 shots)
2. Imawal (and Entanglement and Clearances) helps with leveling (though that means having to sacrifice 1 slot for it)
3. Extra EM alter can be desecrated for free,

I was also lucky with the sequences: EM in Floor 1, GG in Floor 2, Binlor in Floor 3, Dracul in Floor 4, PM in Floor 5, and Golden Statue, Triple Curse and Dragon Elite within the first 3 floors. Though Floor 4 was fully revealed with Dancing Blade and I had to pick up Burndayraz for an easier time since I was pretty much out of blackspace by then (actually, I still had blackspace from the Binlor level but wanted to keep it for the fight against H).

Finding Halpmeh and Soul Orb also pretty much solved the issue with Patches and nasty statuses. Patches was helpful giving me 3 shots of Resists (by the time I converted to Dracul), so my Resists were from Dragon Shield (18%) + Patches (12%) + Resistance Scroll (5%) + Blood Shield (15%) + Body Pact (15%).

I took some time to decide what to do with my last batch of purchases before converting to Dracul. I had enough gold (and 1 slot space) for Dwarven Gauntlets OR Alchemist's Scroll OR (Stone Sigil + Blue Bead). I think I made the right choice to go with the 3rd option since Stone Sigil helps with Piety (needed for Body Pact and Dracul's boons) and I had spare gold left after the purchase which was enough for a Schadenfreude or Potion (bought and used a Health Potion in the end for H).

It was really close, I used up all blackspace, potions, bloodpools and pretty much had no advantage against H's 50% resists - only "advantage" was Rogue's 20% Dodging which definitely helped me to pull this off.


Upper level:
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... E31388FAB/

Ending Inventory and Stats (before final killing blow to H):
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... F07B2274C/

Results:
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... 99CBD9E5A/

All in all, I enjoyed this one, too close for comfort but glad to have nailed it, To get another class that can pull this off would be kind of "impossible" (maybe there's still a class that can do it, I ain't sure).

[dusty]

my vgt rat runs are failing miserably so i tried one for the
3. Non-[Tinker, Crusader, Wizard, Paladin] Hoarder challenge
human sorcerer

started in gg for some easy piety and some immediate health, later humility, first glyph i found was helpmeh and couple of levels later soulorb which settled the goto glyph. converted to mystera when found her (shes a piety machine with sorcerer) and to fuel the bodypact when available. could have done without converting to dracul but i wanted parched

quick edit
watching the win screen is it the sorcerers mana shield the cause that it didnt trigger speacialist badge?

[dusty]

ok this one was kinda unexpected for:

I. Purist (non-Rogue)
purist human sorcerer (god chain: jj->pactmaker->mystera->dracul)

had a free path to first tower and first altar was jj to which my reaction was an immediate :sigh: followed by a :blerg:. checked a bit around the courtyard and found helpmeh and fireball close to eachother and midas gloves in the first shop so i decided to give it a try since sorcerer does have an easy start.

found pactmaker (bodypact) in second tower but was a bit worried if jj can handle it. turns out it can (barely) if you dont take any boons. no other altars were viable to convert as mystera showed only in 5th, gg in 6, dracul in 7th and taurog in 9th. had golden statue in dracul floor and used the chaos avatar to remove weakness and corroson then desecrated earthmother, gulped the bought burn salve and converted to mystera (needed piety for dracul later on). gg was not an option because no experience floor was coming up neither was dracul because i was still heavily relying on helpmeh.

made a blunder at the end which fortunately didnt prove fatal as i bought crystal ball and on a whim fireheart but was left with no money afterwards so crystal ball was useless

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

@dusty: Nice one! Sorcerers do get some bonus with respect to more healing from Halpmeh but not expecting them to be this strong, But, still an awesome victory!

Getting both Platemail and Vampiric Blade definitely helps for the Purist Badge, if you don't get Bysseps. I tried giving Bloodmage a shot for Purist, couldn't get past the first few towers without Resists. Crusader, Thief, Tinker, maybe even Transmuter or even Chemist (Possible? maybe, with early GG) do look like they have a chance at Purist too.

[dusty]

yeah i think tinker and thief definitely have a strong chance, transmuter will have a really hard start imo

just out of interest when playing purist vgt and you happen to have first altar pactmaker. do you take consensus and bodypact to have a headstart on resistances (but will gimp you later on) or do you wait it out for the second altar?

and for the:
6. Battle of the Holy Priest Vs the Undead King (PRIEST ONLY, prep Pepper, bring to H and turn him undead for the fight)
this epic h2h is in pictures if anyone is interested

we make our way to the H with pepper in inventory, 1 health and 2 mana potions, 27 piety worshipping mystera

then we turn him undead

3 potions later and exploring a couple of tiles we almost made it, 1 tile short of health refill for victory

so we convert to dracul and win

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

[The Tapir]

So, no crusader purist victory yet, but here's my most recent (and so far most successful) run:



Started in JJ and was in the process of farming piety until I found GG, at which point I converted over, took some absolutions and humility, and with the early Getindare find started working on leveling and tackling the tower monsters. Reached 100 piety with no Taurog or Pactmaker in sight to fuel my resists, so I took an enlightenment for the extra mana and CP and continued on my way. Next floor had Taurog, so I quickly converted over for the resists before my troubles began. Got dancing blade on the retaliate fireball floor, which was frustrating but manageable with how much blackspace I had saved from efficient leveling. The next two floors weren't too bad, but the golden statue and illusion gave me around 10 weakening and 6 corrosion on top of 2 I already had from the goblin miner, which undercut my damage and minimal resistances to the point that I had to start eating popcorn to be able to kill tower monsters efficiently. In hindsight, I probably could have used Bysseps, but I was under Taurog and wanted to save as much piety as possible for an immediate blood shield under Dracul. Problem is, I then found the no experience floor with two warlocks and 2 dragonspawn, whose boosted damage/health necessitated glyph use, but as I soon found out Taurog does not give piety for no experience kills and I watched my piety sink to 0. The next floor (8th) killed me, as I had no resources left and only 20% resists due to a 9th floor Dracul spawn.

So, the problems I've faced repeatedly:
-In the majority of cases, a lack of resists has been the killer in my runs - either I get body pact when I can't fuel it or too late for it to be useful, or I have late Taurog/Dracul spawns that cripple me for the majority of the run. This run, I did not take body pact as I knew that it would halt Taurog's piety gain and with the glyph use needed I would quickly bleed piety. If both GG and PM show up early for uber resist stacking, chances are that I don't have getindare, halpmeh, platemail, or other useful items or glyphs on the level, and Taurog and Dracul will show up late.
-I'm divided as to which status potion to pick up from the shop - weakening makes the tower so much more painful to deal with, but corrosion makes the horatio fight hell with the accumulated extra damage that has to be accounted for. Most runs I take the fortitude tonic to clear weakening and ensure that I can kill all of the tower monsters, but if I find both the statue and illusion early I'll usually be able to get rid of it with cleansing and will take the salve.
-After my latest runs, I'm starting to think that it might be better to look for early pactmaker and skip going into Taurog altogether as it is far too easy to get trapped in him with glyph use and the low amounts of piety that will be generated during the tower phase. Even if I find him when piety is plentiful (early on), the mana penalty hurts for dealing with goo blobs and the illusion in the late tower floors, which are the enemies that cause the most problems for me.

I've been working towards this win for well over 3 weeks now and though I have seen progress I still haven't been able to at least reach Horatio. I'd love some build advice from the experts so that I can finally see my work amount to something.

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

[The Tapir]

[~'(^ + ^)'~]