Running The Pit

[ZealotBoy]

Running The Pit

What is the general consensus among this board as to what the best character is to use to the run The Pit? I would like to be able to run The Pit as fast as possible, but without the use of powerful, high-end items. I will be creating this character after ladder resets, and naturally this character will have mostly basic, low-level items (whatever I can get from running Meph with my Blizzard Sorc).

I was considering a Summon Necro, focusing on Raise Skeleton/Mage and CE; I can load him up with MF without having to worry about my own attack power/ability to take damage.

Is this the way to go or should I use a different approach/character entirely?

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Running The Pit

For cheap to outfit, I'd vote for a different necro: a Poison Novamancer. There are no poison immune monsters in the Pits, so with PoisonNova and Corpse Explosion you can roll through quite easily. I've been dabbling at runs with my heavily-twinked poisonmancer lately, and he can do a full clear in 3-4 minutes at this point (it'll get faster with more practice & levels too). I've got nice gear (no teleport though), but I'd think ~5 minute runs are a reasonable expectation without good gear.

Trang's set should be quite cheap to trade for, even after the reset, and it fits the build quite well. DeathWeb is the only top-end item that's a clear winner, but you could do ok without it too (consider the 'White' runeword as a cheaper substitute). All other items for building a solid runner should be tolerably cheap & relatively easy to get your hands on.

 

[NASE]

Re: Running The Pit

My vote goes for an amazon. wws strafeazons are cheap as hell and can easily got through the pit. And the fragility of the character isn't a problem as it only increase the fun.
downside might be the lower mf, yet socketable hunting should still be interesting in the new patch (or so I assume).

 

[DECOYBOY]

Re: Running The Pit

lit sorc if you have infinity

 

[sweetalmonds]

Re: Running The Pit

zon good .

 

[ZealotBoy]

Re: Running The Pit

Thanks for the replies.

After doing some more reading I decided that I will simply use my Meph-running Sorc to run Ancient Tunnels/Mausoleum.

Another question: I read that the items a monster drops can have a qlvl as high as the monster's level. If a monster was level 80, for example, could they drop from TC 81 (qlvl 79/80 items, but not 81) or would they drop starting from TC 78?

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Running The Pit

What you read is correct, but I'm not sure how the upper limits on TC-drops are calculated (Cows are 81, but have a small chance to drop from TC87, yet Diablo is 94 and can only drop from TC84, etc. ). Search for "Item Generation Tutorial by Warrior of Light" and you could likely figure it out if you really wanted to know (I'm just not that ambitious).

And yes, the qlvl is important as well. The most well-known case is Pindleskin (level86) who can drop every item base-type from every TC in the game, but he can't drop 3 unique items (Arachnid's Mesh, Azurewrath and Tyrael's Might) because those items have a qlvl of 87.

 

[ZealotBoy]

Re: Running The Pit

It seems that "super uniques" are programmed separately and don't follow the same rules when it comes to their level/TC drops (I guess cows are just specially because they're a "secret" monster). On that note, does anyone know if the info on http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/TC_SuperUniques_v1.10 is correct (for 1.12 at least)? There are many inconsistencies regarding the mlvls between this list and Arreat Summit.

Edit: what is the qlvl of Gheed's/Facets?

 

[Damric1]

Re: Running The Pit

A descent trang/deathweb novamancer can solo and one-hit kill any monster that spawns in the pit on players/8.

 

[skullvomit]

Re: Running The Pit

I have poison necro with enigma and all. It is fast but I prefer windy with mf/gf gear, most expensive being spirit. Takes bit more time than with a necro but more uniques/rares on one run. And if items aren't good enough theres always the gold that drops = lots of tiaras from gambling.

 

[Hrus]

Re: Running The Pit

Quote: "Until the monster level (the same as the area level for regular monsters in 1.10) > actual TC level, upgrade TC to the higher TC in the same TC group."

Example:
Zakarumite from Lower Kurast (mlvl=80):
Doom Ape has defined TC in hell (from MonStats.txt): "Act 3 (H) H2H A" (which is from group 7)
Now looking to TreasureClassEx.txt, relevant classes from group 7 are:
Act 3 (H) H2H A class level 74, mlvl 80 >74 -> go to higher level TC class in the same group
Act 3 (H) H2H B 76, 80>76 -> go to higher level TC class
Act 3 (H) H2H C 77, 80>77 -> go to higher level TC class
Act 4 (H) H2H A 79, 80>79 -> go to higher level TC class
Act 4 (H) H2H B 80, 80 is NOT > 79 - this is the actual TC for Zakarumite
Act 5 (H) H2H A 82 (this is only for evaluating other melee monsters with different mlvl, this leads to TC84)
Act 5 (H) H2H B 83 (this leads to TC87, very low probability)
Act 5 (H) H2H C 85 (this leads to TC87, high probability)

Our "Act 4 (H) H2H B" contains "Act 4 (H) Equip B" which contains equippable items form TC78 at maximum ("weap78" and "armo78"). weap78 for example drops base item weapons with qlvl(*) between 76 and 78.



Cows have their own TC: Cow (H) and this TC doesn't belong in any specific TC group, so there is no TC update. (But champions and random cow bosses have "Act 4 (H) Champ B" and "Act 4 (H) Unique B" TCs which upgrades normally, so they behave as any mlvl83 champion or mlvl84 boss.

EDIT: Act bosses and some superuniques (those with special drops and appearances - like Smith, Nihlathak, Countess, Summoner) have also their own TC.

*qlvl: there is qlvl of base items (TC3 items have qlvl 1-3, TC87 items have qlvl 85-87)
This determines for example if the item is able to spawn from racks. (Racks spawn rackable items with qlvl<=area lvl-1) and it also does matter in gamble screen (you can't gamble higher qlvl items with low lvl character), also it does matter in chance to get higher magic quality algorithm (high lvl creatures have slightly higher chance for low qlvl items to be magic/rare/set/unique than for high qlvl base items) (EDIT: and of course it does matter for affix calculation....)

And there is qlvl of unique/set items which only have one roll - if it's higher than ilvl (when dropped from monster, ilvl=mlvl), than that item cannot gain that unique (set) quality and will be dropped as failed unique (set).

 

[plasmo]

Re: Running The Pit

If there aren't tons of cold immunes in the Pit, couldn't you just kill everything else and teleport past the CIs? (I haven't played in a while, so I don't remember the percentages of immunities there). Plus, a sorc with tele can get to lots of other bosses fast until Enigmas become widely available from the dupers by the second day after the patch. =/

naturally this character will have mostly basic, low-level items (whatever I can get from running Meph with my Blizzard Sorc).

infinity

deathweb

enigma

 

[NASE]

Re: Running The Pit

If there aren't tons of cold immunes in the Pit, couldn't you just kill everything else and teleport past the CIs? (I haven't played in a while, so I don't remember the percentages of immunities there).

There are a lot of cold immunes in the pit. Those skeletons and those mele corrupted rogues are cold immunes. Leaving you with just the fallen (shamans) and the ranged corrupted rogues who aren't common.

So no, it's not a good place for a cold sorcerer. You could try with a lightning sorcerer or dual tree sorcerer though.

Ancient tunnels on the other hand doesn't have a single cold immune monsters and the only dangerous element is lightning (something we all max anyway if we can). For the rest, teleport and kill the bosses should be possible.

 

[MrBill]

Re: Running The Pit

I have pretty good luck with my Plagueazon; Plague Javelin and Slow Missiles for the annoying, Lightening Immune Might Archers (keep your fingers on the Rejuve keys, Waheed will need a few each run!), LF for all the rest.

Maybe not as much MF as some characters would like, but a very solid build for the Pit -- even Level 2 which can be a very scary place if you get things like overlapping Might and Fanaticism Archers, and can be put together with near ghetto gear (here's my Ladder Hardcore Plagueazon's current build at Level 85):

Weapon : Ethereal Titan's (my one good item, but keep in mind that the build does not depend on this, you can do it perfectly well with a gambled Amazon javelin).

Hat : Rare +2 passives Amazon Circlet with +14 resist all.

Body Armor : 33% Skins of the Vipermagi;

Gloves : Shopped +3 Javelin skills, +9 STR blue gloves.

Belt : Rare 3-row belt with + to STR, plus resists.

Shoes : Infernostride.

Shield : Ancient's Pledge built in a superior 3-socket Hyperion.

Resists are roughly 85-50-75-55, 1220 hit points, some (not perfect) blocking.

Emilio (A2 Holy Freeze Merc) has a Shael-Amn-Jewel Hone Sundan (just regular, not eth... I'm poor :tongue, Duriel's Shell and The Face of Horror Mask (for monster flee... while they're taking 18K poison damage :thumbup. He has 75 across the board resists and about 1850 hit points.

Valk is Level 27 when pre-buffed with things like +3 passives gloves / amulet / hat in stash, she rarely dies.

I have run the Pits quite a bit with this character and she has never been in serious trouble, although Emilio occasionally has some choice words after a dirt nap in Level 2. :dizzy:

Cheers

Mr. Bill