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[Zarin]

Hi, all,
I'm in the middle of my most successful (so far) Ao100 run.  I've just saved on the stairs of level 58.  Most of my success can be attributed to Pancor's Jackhammer - I even decided to get Shottyman for it, even though I started with my usual EE(2)->SoB(3) build.  I still kept my plasma rifle, until I was totally devoid of powercells and awash in shotgun shells and rockets - then I ditched it.

To make long story short:
I now have Grammaton Cleric Beretta (awesome!), Jackhammer and advanced rocket launcher (ditched Revenant's Launcher along the way), as well as Necro- and Malek's armor and Gothic Boots.  The trouble is - I'm running out of ammo pretty fast.  I've just had a level with 2 or 3 Arch-Viles hiding behind 5-6 Revenants, 2-3 Mancubi, 3-5 Cacos, a couple (maybe even 3-4) Arachs and 10+ Knights and Barons.  Cost me 400+ 10mm ammo, 20-30 rockets and all of my shotgun shells, as well as two phase devices and 3 large med-kits.  I'm praying for a level with some former marines to restock on either 10-mm or shotgun shells.  Oh, and by the way - rockets are not as plentiful when you have only those left and Revenants/Mancubi are resurrected on top of whatever they just dropped.  Blindly charging in to get to those faraway Arch-Viles is not an option, of course.

Would you just skip the problematic levels and go downstairs at the first opportunity?

Wish me luck,
Zarin.

EDIT: First of all, sorry to having sent this twice - my Internet connection was shaky, and it seems that "an error occurred while processing this directive" referred to the browser trying to see the newly created message rather than post :(.

Now, some news:
Level 59 yielded a lot of 10 mm and some shotgun ammo, so I'm back in business.  Level 60, OTOH, was one of those "Where the hell is the way out of here?!" levels.  I eventually ran out of rockets blasting through the maze, but found a Missile Launcher as a consolation.  Well, I'm now wielding Beretta and Jackhammer (with Juggler).  My character reached level 19, so no further experience for me.  Still, the build is pretty solid, aside from Int(1) which should have been SoaG(3) (Beretta is insanely effective with SoB(3) + just SoaG(2) - single mode pushes back to the edge of my Cat(2) pretty much everything before they can fire back, and full auto needs at most 3 volleys even for toughest enemies).

[skarczew]

Try not to use semi-auto and full-auto of Beretta too much - damage per bullet is lowered, and in the end you shot much more bullets than in single mode. In late Ao100 10mm ammo is a rare sight.

[Zarin]

Yes, I've gathered that much.  In fact, after finding Anti-Freak Jackal (another great find) I switched to using Beretta as a side-arm - when Jackal runs out of ammo and I don't have time to reload.  Anyway, the biggest ammo-burner is the Jackhammer, so now I use it under very specific circumstances - tight big groups of enemies, especially with Arch-Viles among them, or when I'm low on rockets and see a lot of Mancubi/Revenants - this way I do not blow the ammo they are dropping.

By the way, I'm down to level 91 - wish me luck!

[Zarin]

A short funny story:
I faced a large team of Barons (at least 10), a few Revenants (3-4) and 4 Arch-Viles on level 93.  Because the group was tightly placed, I decided to use the Jackhammer.  After killing a few I noticed a red backslash(\) - the first time I've ever seen that outside Chained Court.  I noted it and then proceeded to waste the opposition.  By the end of the battle I was at 38% health and decided to go look for some globes/med-kits before using one of mine.  Then I remembered the chainsaw and decided to pick it up.  Well... you know the effect :).  I did find some globes later on, but that sudden 100% was quite unexpected and fun.

[ParaSait]

Oh? I didn't know Chainsaws even existed outside the chained court. At least I never saw any before =/

[Karry]

The trouble is - I'm running out of ammo pretty fast.

Thats why its a very bad idea to run Ao100 with uniques, since you cant modify them. Modded out advanced weapon is guaranteed to outperform 90% of uniques, and you can stash magazine mods on other weapons to use them as ammo crates of sorts.

[Zarin]

The trouble is - I'm running out of ammo pretty fast.

Thats why its a very bad idea to run Ao100 with uniques, since you cant modify them. Modded out advanced weapon is guaranteed to outperform 90% of uniques, and you can stash magazine mods on other weapons to use them as ammo crates of sorts.

Well - it's not that bad, actually, especially if you find one of the unique pistols early enough (SoB(3) is sick with any of them).   The main lesson for Ao100 is to plan ahead and increase your killing speed with skills wisely.

Besides - I doubt I've seen more than 2 (two!) damage mods in my whole Ao100 run, which would be too bad if I decided to build around an advanced weapon.  Accuracy mods do make plasma rifles better, but it's the damage mods we need to conserve ammo, because EE(2) (for Cateye) is something everyone will need to complete this challenge (and I do mean everyone - not seeing Revenants and Arch-Viles before they start shooting will wear you down no matter how many defensive skills you pick).

The only advanced weapon I would seriously consider is double shotgun - with enough reloading and speed mods and Shottyman it might become viable...  Advanced rocket launchers are also good and I had a heavily modded (A1R2S1) one until I found Missile Launcher, which is better no matter what :).