General-Purpose bragging topic!

[sitnaltax]

[Astral]

That's a really good advice in general sitnaltax, but I found that simply being level 10 gives an easier time for regenfighters. If you do the math you'll see that being level 10 compared to 7 more than doubles your attrition which is really important.
With this style I have beaten 1st wave SMM + Frank before.

Congrats Tinker, that's amazing!

[Tinker]

Since I no longer felt welcome in Naga City, I moved on to the Dragon Isles. I went straight for the Vicious Token, but since my first attempt at it with a Crusader fell short (and made me learn something new about the game), I decided to go for a caster approach. I picked a straight up Elf Wizard of Mystera, and nailed it on my first try:



Now, with hindsight, I must have been smoking something to even try this, because the Matron has retaliate (never noticed it during my Crusader, Berserker, Warlord, et al playthroughs), so had I not found PISORF, it would have been outright impossible to win. Luckily I found actually two copies of it (I found one plus I got the sub with the charitable dragon), so the level felt quite casual, both topside and underneath. I used up two of my Mana potions to go for higher-level kills, and my remaining Mana potions and both Schadenfreude potions to kill the Firstborn, so I only had a single Whupaz potion left when I descended. But thanks to Refreshment and all those glyphs I've been hoarding, plus a super-lucky Crystal Ball I picked up in one of the shops, I actually had resources left when I finished the Matron with what must've been my 60th PISORF. Cliché of the day: %-based restoration is awesome with large mana pools (I had 34 max Mana in the end: 10 base + 5 boosters + 5 mystera + 5 mage plate + 9 from conversions).

[Astral]

What were you smokin and where can I get some?
Brilliant achievement by the way!

[Lujo]

Great run! Mega pissorff spam is actually legit even if you're not optimized - I did it a bunch on Namtar's with bloodmages and it killed stuff dead! (you have to to cast a lot of them, but it kills 2 things at the same time) Love the Mage Plate, too.

Also, you might already be aware, but Avatar's Codex is actually great vs Retaliate: Fireball

[sitnaltax]

Purist VGT is bagged. Dwarf rogue. There's hardly anything to talk about: as I mentioned in the Fails thread, scum for GG, use Pactmaker and Drac as appropriate. No resistance reduction, but I had Witchalok and held BURNDAYRAZ and my mana potions until he was berserking, which helped. After mana was gone, Blood Thirst helped. I also managed to save some popcorn to use with Blood Swells, which is a huge deal in this build--each one is like six swings.

Of all the fun and exciting challenges I've encountered, this was unfortunately not one of them. Hoarder was much more fun and I'm looking forward to doing it with the other classes now.

[caviar]

@Tinker: Whoa, that's a bold approach.. I'd not even have considered trying VT DI without res stacking. Nice work!

On the subject of unlikely heroes, who said goblin assassins can't handle endurance runs?

http://i.imgur.com/YYn21Ef.jpg

Not an astonishing achievement or anything; I just figured I'd try to spice up my NC completion grind a bit by trying something I'd never done before (as it sounds pretty stupid on paper): a defensive counterpart to the acidcaster. Prepped EM and the titan guitar, ran into the platemail by chance. The result - effortless topside leveling and a surprisingly pleasant experience with the gauntlet. Face-tanking SMM as a goblin felt pretty hilarious.

@sitnaltax: Congrats! I'll agree on that Purist VGT is more of a struggle than Hoarder - but beating it is all the more satisfying for the same reason.

[sitnaltax]

Gratz to Tinker and caviar for some amazing, unorthodox wins.

[Tinker]

[Astral]

Congrats sitnaltax, and that's a very nice approach caviar!

In the mean time I crossed out some VGT badges:

http://postimg.org/image/sg1kzznip/

Revealed Binlor floor? Bloodless Dragon Elite in 7th sub? Only obtaining the Sensation Stones in the 8th one? They all meant nothing for this Vampire.

To top the silliness I even got to self cannon in my last sub, was even healing in the process!
http://s17.postimg.org/3s79pa39b/platevamp3.png

Also the bossfight fulfilled one of my all time DD dreams. It was especially awesome.

All thanks to the lucky find of Plate Mail on my 9 lifesteal/31% resist Vamp.

Btw as I never faced VT Horatio before, my previous Vampire suggestions were bad - RBS is essential, the goat has 120/180 damage. I expected him to get a health boost as opposed to damage, which mixes things up. This makes Platemail better too, but DS is a better prep.

Tinker, have you tried Orc Wizards of Binlor with prepped Rock Heart? In terms of flexibility and melee strength it's very far from pure casters, but when you observe how much damage can you dish out with Pisorfs it's worthy of the caster title too. If you run into B2P as well, you can cast Pisorfs at virtual 1/3 - 0 mana depending on which Binlor boons you spam.