Lvl 98 to 99, Killing Diablo, Need Advice

[Essex99]

Lvl 98 to 99, Killing Diablo, Need Advice

Ok so for some reason the lvling bug has caught me and I find myself able to do the endless baal runs it takes to reach lvl 98 on the ladder. I'm currently about halfway between lvl 97 and 98 with my fireball/orb sorc and I've been fortunate enough to hook up with a group of people who have been very good about helping me lvl. Essentially we do a normal teleport to baal run and kill the minions which gets me about 70 to 80k. Next I kill baal either alone or with 1 or 2 other people which gets me another 50 to 70k. In total I average about 140k per run. Still means a TON of runs to get from 97 to 98 but its been a very good system for me. Certainly far better than public baal runs where I'd be lucky to get 90k per run if the whole group kills baal and trust me public runs are SLOW compared to the runs im now used to.

Now here's the snag. In 2 or 3 weeks I will hopefully be lvl 98. From talking to the other lvl 98's on the ladder heres how experience breaks down.

Assuming an 8 Player Game:

Baal's Minions: ~12k if shared with 7 other people
Baal: ~50k if done solo or with 1 other person
Diablo: ~40k if done solo or with 1 other person


So ideally I would want to kill both diablo and baal each run. The problem is theres no way my sorceress can clear the 3 seals fast enough in an 8 player run to kill diablo and I don't want to ask my group to sacrifice all their minions experience to help me get to diablo. However I think I have a way to get both diablo and baal. The plan is to have 2 copies of diablo going and clear out the chaos sanc in a 1 player game AHEAD of the current run. So for example if my sorc and the rest of my group were in run1 I would clear the chaos sanc in run2 while they are killing the minions in run1.

The advice I would like from you guys is which character can clear the 3 seals the fastest in the chaos sanc in a 1 player game.

The best I can come up with is a nicely tricked out hammerdin wearing enigma. The plan would be to clear the balrogs on the right after opening both seals there. Teleport to the Lord de Seis seal at the top and clear that. Then teleport to the left and open one seal. If the minions there pop out I would clear them and leave one seal untouched and send the hammerdin to the next game. If they dont pop out I would still leave the seal untouched since my sorc can kill those minions pretty fast even in an 8 player game.

Best I can figure for this to work, a hammerdin would have to be able to clear all that in about 1 minute, MAYBE 1.5 minutes as killing the minions takes my group about 2.5 to 3 minutes and I'd need time to kill both diablo and baal with my sorceress.

The next step would be to send the hammerdin on to run3. Go back to sorc and kill baal in run1, then send sorc to run2 to kill diablo. Back to hammerdin to clear sanc in run3. Rinse and repeat over and over.

So the questions for you guys are:

1) Is this viable? Can one person do all this assuming 2 copies of diablo?

2) If it is viable is the hammerdin the best character for this. Remember only the bosses need to die to get diablo to come out and this is a 1 player game so hp on monsters isnt too too high. Maybe a whirlwind barb with botd and enigma would work. Any advice here would be very helpful. Anyone done a lot of fast diablo runs and have a char they think is very good at it?

3) Any nice people out there looking for very good baal runs to lvl there characters in feel free to message *Essex99 on USWest and I'll try to fit you in. I can't promise a spot as most times the runs are full but every once in a while it's a struggle to find people.

 

[Shadow_247]

Hammerdin or meteorb sorc are your best bets. Teleport is a must have for this, but huge DR fhr, and block will help alot.

First thing to know is how the seals work - you already know but I'll clarify for others. If you hit all 5 seals, then kill just the boss superunique at each seal (lord de seis, grand vizier, infector) everything in the chaos sanctuary dies. This means that killing the entire seal group isn't necessary - just the big bosses. FHR is nice so you can speed along with the killing, DR helps you take all those hits.

I would take that approach (hitting all the seals) then leave. Then when you enter that game with your lvl98, diablo has already spawned, and you can just tele to the sanctuary and be done with him.

Another build that will do this really quickly and easily is my enigma wind druid. As long as there aren't any PIs he's fine. If you want to take the enigma botd barb make botd out of a max range polearm - the barb should easily take hits from anything around.

 

[BloodAndRoses]

The biggest problems with the Chaos Sanctuary are iron maiden and a scattering of every immunity. If you want to do it as efficiently as possible, that rules out single element sorceresses (blizzrd) and melee characters. You also can't dependo n your mercenary, because even teleporting around you'll get hit with a curse of some kind.

A meteor/other spell sorceress may work, but many I know rely on their mercenary to slow things down (Oblivion Knights are cold immune). Any purely magic damage character would probably do, especially since Lord de Seis is almost always (always?) dual-immune.

 

[Shadow_247]

Sorry forgot about iron maiden thanks for pointing that out. That almost rules out a WW barb, as you would kill yourself before clearing the first seal. I'd say hammerdin all the way, nothing in the sanctuary resists it, and with enigma it's a killing machine.

 

[Essex99]

Thanks for the answers so far guys. Seems hammerdin is my best bet from what I've got back to this point. Who I"d really like to here from is someone who can do 1 minute diablo runs in 1 player games but I guess not many people out there have done that

I would take that approach (hitting all the seals) then leave. Then when you enter that game with your lvl98, diablo has already spawned, and you can just tele to the sanctuary and be done with him.

Trouble is I have to leave one seal so that diablo spawns as more than a 1 player diablo or the experience on diablo drops way off. Im pretty sure the seal I will leave is one on the left since those guys are just lightning immune and if my hammerdin doesnt pick the seal that activates them my sorc can take them fairly easily.

 

[Essex99]

Sorry forgot about iron maiden thanks for pointing that out. That almost rules out a WW barb, as you would kill yourself before clearing the first seal. I'd say hammerdin all the way, nothing in the sanctuary resists it, and with enigma it's a killing machine.

Hmm I know about IM but honestly the barb dying every once in a while wouldnt be a problem. The advantage would be if I make a hard to kill barb (other than IM) which isnt too hard I could target just the 3 bosses and not have to kill anything else. Thats why I was thinking maybe barb.

 

[ThereIsNoSpoon]

Concentrate on 98 for now Imaginex. When the time comes, we will work it out don't worry.

-Fatal

 

[cascius]

Yo imaginex, glad to see you on these forums. Well, I'd be more than glad to help with this. I've been making act4 mf runs lately and been pretty pleased with the drops so i might be willing to make/ use a char to take care of those seals for you when im on. Also, i was just thinking that lighting fury javazons do quite qell in cs. Making an hybrid one with freezing arrows would make her dual elements and could more very nicely.

Although, the advantage of having a barb would be that he could give u a massive bo and shout at the beginning of the game. Which never hurts at those higher levels!

Anyway, see you online,

-Cas

 

[dmg1]

Enigma hammerdin all the way. There are no issues, like dual resist bosses or IM, to worry about. It's, quite simply, the most efficient route.

 

[Nastie_Bowie]

Dumb question;

Why do you do Diablo/Baal runs for exp? The plus of the drops?

I find better experience doing repeated Pit runs, or bloodruns, or clearing the act V ice caves, over and over, without the as much of the boredom.

I have never calculated time versus experience points, but it seems to me that I get quicker experience doing non D/B stuff.

All without the mind numbing boredom of killing Baal over and over.

Just asking.

NB

 

[CreatureOne]

i like summoner necromancers in hell diablo, they can cast lower resistance, decripify(sp?) and DIM VISION.

I think dim vision is one of the most over looked necromancer spell.

It makes all casters completely blind, so they just...stand there, yet i don't think you can cast that on the doom knights..

oh well...plus you got tanks around.

 

[dmg1]

Anything other than Lister and his boyz, Baal, and Diablo dont get you jack squat for experience at lvl 90+. I'm only at 92 and my exp bar seems to hardly move after doing 30 baal runs. I can only imagine the determination it takes to have gotten to lvl 97...and the agony one suffers at death.

 

[cascius]

Okey, tested with meteorb and lf zon. Result, go with hammeradin all the way! lol

The only thing i could think of would be to use a bone necro with a few revives, tele to each boss and bone spirit him real quick. I havent played bone necors since 1.10, but considering the massive damage they do they should be able to kill 3 single targets real fast while revives tank for them.

Has anyone tried that?

-Cas

 

[Nastie_Bowie]

Anything other than Lister and his boyz, Baal, and Diablo dont get you jack squat for experience at lvl 90+. I'm only at 92 and my exp bar seems to hardly move after doing 30 baal runs. I can only imagine the determination it takes to have gotten to lvl 97...and the agony one suffers at death.

Could be, my highest char is an ** 1.09 zon. She is tough to play, as skills aren't right for 1.10. My 1.10 gal is 80, and she is still finding the pieces for the hell staff. At level 80, 5 pit runs = 1 level, solo with another character parked in town, using second computer.

 

[TunaMofo]

... Then teleport to the left and open one seal. If the minions there pop out I would clear them and leave one seal untouched and send the hammerdin to the next game. If they dont pop out I would still leave the seal untouched since my sorc can kill those minions pretty fast even in an 8 player game.

There are only two different layouts for this area. One will be where you run to the end of the path and it turns 90°, shaped like an "L". The other will be where the path forks into two paths, shaped like "]-".

- L: Hit the first seal to spawn the boss, the one where the path turns 90°.

- ]-: Hit the seal towards the top of the screen.

I can't believe this isn't common knowledge... oh wait, no one hangs out in the Chaos Sanctuary... not since LoD, anyhow.

 

[Aristanna]

The seal layout information can also be found in the purediablo.com quest guide:

From http://www.purediablo.com/quests/act-four.shtml

The Seals that release the Seal Bosses are always the same, depending on the layout of the level. De Seis always has one seal, so no wondering there. He used to appear right on top of it some times, but in the Expansion he's always over far to the left, in the hallway coming towards his Seal. The Grand Vizier is always to the left, if there is a single hallway with a corner there, the first Seal you reach will always release him. If there is a fork there, the Seal to the right will release him. For the Infector of Souls, if there is a single hallway with a Seal in the middle, and then a pair of right turns into a Cul de Sac, it's always the Seal in the back corner. If there is a shorter straight hallway with Seals on both sides, it's always the first Seal you reach. Knowing which Seal is going to release them is useful to get ready for their appearance.

 

[Ghist]

The only thing i could think of would be to use a bone necro with a few revives, tele to each boss and bone spirit him real quick. I havent played bone necors since 1.10, but considering the massive damage they do they should be able to kill 3 single targets real fast while revives tank for them.

Has anyone tried that?

-Cas

I have to try that, but based on previous experiences a very high level +skills are needed unlike hammerdin that can easily do this with far less +skills. I'll post the results after trying it this evening.

 

[Essex99]

Thank you for all the replies guys. Especially the information about the chaos sanctuary layout. Very helpful. I got Diablo2 about 2 weeks before the expansion came out and so yes I haven't spent as much time in the chaos sanc as maybe I should have. Hopefully I'll get to rectify that. Think killing diablo 3000 times will help get me acquainted with it?

Also has anyone tried single player diablo runs and how fast is it possible to do them. Any info much appreciated.

 

[festers50]

From lvl98 to lvl99 seemed to take an eternity in 1.09

I spent all my time in act5 and underground as much as possible.

The best part of getting from 98 to 99 for me was Frozenstien dropping the WF