1.07 News, Info and Gossip

Yeah sorcs are fairly weak. Most of her skills weren't buffed til' later on. Maybe he uses Static/Nova? You could always level with a javazon instead, since CB scales with players and works wonders.

Oh, and I rushed a few Amazons today for the Anya quest. Finally got that GMB!
View attachment 7336

Oh, oh I think I'm going to cry. Just look at those pitiful level 1 charges with a level requirement of X. And the sick boost to max damage! :rolleyes:
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I use my all-purpose sorc which is FOrb + static, and a merc, too. You have to place FOrb properly and spam static but it's good enough. It's certainly not as fast as javazon, though.
 
Ya when I want to level chars I do. I need a char to find a safe corner, too, which the sorc is good for.

TBH it probably takes 5 mins per run once all my mules are in place. It's a slow process doing p8 if you want to include any mules in the cow level in hardcore.
 
I found a 100% stable Balrog skin rack yesterday. Not even 200 runs (and 2 Sazabis) later I already got:
Code: 
Arkaine's Valor
Balrog Skin
Defense: 1554
Required Strength: 165
Required Level: 85
Indestructible
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x69ccf006
+200% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +50%
+2 to All Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to Life (2 per Character Level)
+2 to Vitality (2.5 per Character Level)

So lucky!

edit:
Code: 
Bramble Hand
Vampirebone Gloves
Defense: 63
Durability: 7 of 14
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 61
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 61
Fingerprint: 0x706b98be
+4 to Dexterity
+18 to Life
5% Life stolen per hit
16% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
20% Increased Attack Speed
13% Chance of Crushing Blow
+2 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)

Never played an Assassin ... But this thing doesnt look bad?
 
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I read recently in this post that only monster spawns determine the outcome of a rack. I just had 2 racks without enemies around and this holds true: no matter which one i opened first - the outcome was the same
Then I tried to Hydra the racks - the first one changed but the second one was like before. Could it be that opening a rack resets the "enemy count" a rack has? Maybe someone else (looking at @GalaXyHaXz) could test my theory?

Also my Sorc got to lvl95 just now and found couple of neat things:
Code: 
Prefix 1035 Grand Charm of Quality
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 22
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x52bd61df
+12 to Maximum Damage
Fire Resist +26%

Prefix 1167 Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 23
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x2cfdc287
+24 to Life
+1 to Elemental Skills (Druid Only)

Prefix 1063 Small Charm of Maiming
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 43
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x668c431d
+5 to Maximum Damage
Lightning Resist +12%

Beast Lash
Plated Belt
Defense: 19
Durability: 20 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 6
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x7eba366e
+2 to Strength
+64% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +15%
Cold Resist +28%
80% Extra Gold from Monsters
24% Faster Hit Recovery

Doom Circle
Ring
Required Level: 11
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x17a0925f
+4 to Minimum Damage
Fire Resist +24%
Cold Resist +10%
9% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Faster Cast Rate


Now looking for a Collossus Blade Rack so I can start farming Council with my Barb
 
My experience was that the Hydra needed to be near a rack to affect the drop. Never bothered to figure out the radius. But, placement of hydra on/above/below etc would change drop as well. Then if you tele, or travel off screen to another rack, the process would need to be repeated (assuming no interference from monster spawn).
 
In general, some racks are even more stable than others.... so switching the order you hit nearby racks won't change them, or at least not as easily. I'm not sure why
 
I use IK maul + LoH for farming council. You can't beat the massive bonus to demons.

Back when I posted the 1.08 thread I planned to include an extensive section on racking, but ultimately kept it short since few people play that patch anyway. So here's a little more details on racking mechanics based on my testing.

How is a rack seeded?
Whenever you click on a rack, several steps are taken to determine what happens next.
1) First the area level is read to determine what can't drop. If the area level is higher than 10 or so, Staffs/Wands/Bows/Crystal Swords are excluded from the possible items. I think Blizzard allowed them in lower areas to increase the low variety early on. If the area level is higher, than those items and any item qlvl > alvl are excluded.
2) Now with the list of remaining items, an item is chosen based on the X/Y coordinates of the rack (which is based on the map seed). Diablo is an isometric 2D game, so in this case the Y position is skewed.
3) If a monster, minion, or other non-player "sprite" spawns nearby, the rack is reseeded. The seed is changed based upon the new X/Y locations of the monster in question.
4) In case of Hydra, Town Portal, Traps, etc. player based sprites have much less radius in reseeding a rack than monster spawning does. From my testing it seems monsters have a radius of ~1 screen where as player sprites are only 3-4 yards.

Sparse populate: 1.00-1.08 vs. 1.09
So why is it that racks are no longer stable in 1.09? Since we know monsters are what determines the rack, we look into the code responsible for spawning them. The sparse populate function is responsible for fetching a list of monsters, and putting them in the game. Prior to 1.09, they are spawned based on the following:
1) What monsters are specified for a given area?
2) Is the chosen monster enabled and set to be spawnable?
3) If so, spawn all monsters within a ~2 screen radius of the player. The map seed shall determine variants, pack size, and location.

I take it this was an oversight on Blizzard's part. Seeing as Pre-LoD drops from the Cow King and other monsters are the same, they planned to randomize it in the expansion. They fixed the drops for monsters, but overlooked the function which populates the area. This wasn't changed until 1.09. The difference is that in 1.09, step #3 is based on more variables such as time, game seed, RNG outputs, etc.

You will notice that in 1.07 unique monsters will usually be the same type of monster, and always spawn in the exact location. The new mechanics of 1.09 randomized this, which in turn changes the amount of monsters and the location of them. This makes it much harder to rack, although not impossible. There are still maps in 1.09+ which have fewer monsters by the racks, and usually churn out the same item.

Here is a crappy paint drawing to give you a better idea. The big "X" is the actual location determined to spawn the pack, which is randomized in 1.09. The dots around it are the different monsters in that pack.
rackblub.png

Empircal testing
I performed a test awhile back. Upon removing all monsters from the game, each time every rack would spawn the exact same item. I could take different paths, wait a different length of time, etc. but the rack would never change until a monster or player sprite was introduced into the area.

I created a small custom map of a square area and filled it with tons of racks next to eachother. No monsters spawned in the map. Pretty much all racks had the same sequence, although a few racks that were close enough together seemed to influence the drops.
 
Okay, that looks totally viable to me ! But the route you choose to get to the rack is often influencing the rack, too. How can that be ?

unnameddmkbw.jpg



unnaded14wjls.jpg


Here are two different angles I can teleport into the shag. Both ways are 100% stable (Hydra in first SS was casted after I popped the rack)


I got some racks which I have very little tolerance to teleport to (in a straight line that is). If I missclick the first teleport away from the waypoint, the rack will change. If I teleport the right line, it is 100% stable
a015.gif



Another quick question: Is your fix-it mod (the dlls) available/necessary for 1.13 too ? I only found it for 1.07, a few pages ago. Made me very happy to finally have red runes in 1.07 and got improved TCP/IP loading speed =))
 
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Yes. Monsters are spawned up to a 2-2.5 screen radius, so even slight path changes will influence mobs off screen. Some racks are more stable because of the map seed, where no mobs spawn within said radius and end up 100% stable.

If the path itself determined the rack, then you could run around in circles for some wierd combinations. Thankfully that isn't the case :)
 
Okay, that explains....everything :D Wow, youre like the reincarnation of Jarulf =) Tyvm for your detailed theorycraft input :)

E: Is there a 1.13 fix-it ? I only found 1.07...
 
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So I was doing some council runs and killed Torc, and then horked a pair of green Battle Boots. But how is that possible, his drops are broken?

As it turns out, a bug in Find Item fixes another bug! Just like in classic, Find Item will only use the base monsters normal tc, instead of champion/unique. Using Find Item on unique council members drops from their regular TC instead of unique, which means they drop correctly. Tragically you can't use FI on bosses, or else we would essentially have working boss drops.

Anyway, not sure if that was already known, but nonetheless it's worth killing all unique members and horking them.
Screenshot001.jpg

Anyone know what's wrong with this picture?
data5.jpg
Source
 
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