[1.09] Matriarch root reaches 99 - still doesn't know her mecenary's aura

[art_vandelay]

Finally!

Early Levels​

root started out in Classic 1.00 as one of my eight first characters and was raised on the blood of maggot babies until she finally reached level 67, just enough to wear a +2 to skills amulet. You can see her in this screenshot I posted a year ago in the OBP running thread:

That was around january of 2020. Sometimes there was so much lag that parts of the game would not render at all, including my barb once.

After that she was forwarded to 1.07 but wasn't used for anything because quite frankly I had too many rushees in 1.07 for the beginning. Later on I forwarded her once more, this time to 1.09. I gave her some of my best finds from 1.07, including Tal's amulet, armor and belt as well as one of two racked Wizardspikes.

I finally spent her skill points and turned her into a Nova Sorceress with FO backup. In retrospect I should have also given her a fire spell instead of putting tons of points into Static and Teleport. But it was crazy to have a static range of 16 for once.

Since to this day I haven't found a Stormshield in 1.09 I didn't go for max block, instead I went for about 1k life which is what she still has right now.

Leveling​

For a time I hit Shenk and Mephisto with no real intent of reaching 99 but around the time I reached 90 it seemed like a real possibility and so I spent most of my time running Mephisto, who in 1.09 is level 90. He certainly isn't the fastest leveling target but as I found out later even if you just run Mephisto from 85 to 99 you still only need 69 hours, less than 98 to 99 in modern.

As I progressed through the 90s I through in Shenk for some levels as well. For the final level I first cashed in my Hell Ancients and then ran Mephisto to the halfway point. After that I returned to Shenk and towards the end remembered that I still had normal and NM Ancients left. Together the three Ancient rewards made up more than 20% of 98 to 99.

Three notable drops I got along the way are this Mal rune from Shenk:

as well as an ethereal Warpspear from Mephisto:

Warpspear
Gothic Staff
Two-Hand Damage: 21 to 51
Durability: 21 of 21
Required Strength: 15
Required Level: 39
Staff Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x5d7dc4bd
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+3 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+3 to Teleport (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Telekinesis (Sorceress Only)
+3 to Energy Shield (Sorceress Only)
Ignore Target Defense
150% Damage to Undead
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired)

And yes, this thing is just as rare in 1.09 as it is nowadays.

And for the finale a juicy 1.09 Sur from p13 LK:

Gear​

While sometimes I switched my Tal's combo for Vipermagi I still spent most of my time in it.

The gear for 98 to 99 was as follows:

Shako
Tal Rasha's Guardianship "Perfect Topaz"
Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth
Tal Rasha's Adjudication
1.07 Wizardspike "Hel"
Chance Guards
Aldur's Advance
Wall of the Eyeless "Perfect Diamond"
SoJ
35 MPK ring

Some MF and mana charms.

Mercenary:
Hone Sundan "Shael Amn Amn"
Blackhorn's Face "Ort"
Shaftstop

I don't know what aura he has, it's kinda blue with ring segments, no clue whatsoever.

Her resists were maxed out in Hell and Tal's provided 15 MDR which is all that she needed to be safe.

The Future​

I still don't know what I'll end up doing with her or whether she will be part of a 1.09 99er sept. In any case my Amazon is level 90 and according to my calculations it takes less than 20 hours of Cows to reach 99 and RFL is right around the corner. So that would make two... I'll see where I go from there!



Thanks to you for reading and thanks to @RobbyD who kept 1.09 alive in the SPF! Also thanks to @Fruit to whom I owe the Sur I got from 1.09 LK. I sure would not have known it was there if it weren't for his magic And thanks to @Helvete for writing the 1.00 guide which made it so easy to get root to 67!

 

[Helvete]

Aura sounds like defiance, which adds to defense, much like shout from barbs.

Congrats on the char, the gear, and very big congrats on making a lvl 99 char just about exactly the way I imagined when starting out the time travel guides! I feel a little bad for having postponed the next part(s) of it indefinitely, but then again, after 20 years, we still don't seem to know everything there is to know about the release version. Which is stunning.

 

[Luhkoh]

One should be outlawed from posting a 1.099'er starting with the word "finally" . But in all seriousness, huge congrats and great work. I loved that classic maggot baby screenshot hahaha. Also very cool to see that white sur. Any rationale behind those character names?

 

[DariusTriplet]

Impressive character! 1.09 is such a fun version - always thrilled to see 99s in it

Two gear questions:
- Why the Eyeless over Lidless? The only benefit I can think of would be the 20% poison resist, but at the cost of a +1 skill and some mana
- I don't recall what stats were added to Aldur's Advance in 1.10 (fire resist?), but I remember being disappointed in its 1.09 incarnation. Was there any particular reason for it vs. other S/Us?

 

[art_vandelay]

Congrats on the char, the gear, and very big congrats on making a lvl 99 char just about exactly the way I imagined when starting out the time travel guides! I feel a little bad for having postponed the next part(s) of it indefinitely, but then again, after 20 years, we still don't seem to know everything there is to know about the release version. Which is stunning.

Thanks! Take your time with the guides, in the meantime I'll be spamming information in the News, Info & Gossip threads until they're as tangled and incomprehensible as their predecessors

One should be outlawed from posting a 1.099'er starting with the word "finally" . But in all seriousness, huge congrats and great work. I loved that classic maggot baby screenshot hahaha. Also very cool to see that white sur. Any rationale behind those character names?

Hey, it probably took an amount of time which may or may not have been below 60 hours

root and shaw are named after characters on the TV show "Person of Interest" while galpal had the misfortune of being named by the first bad pun that came to my mind. In retrospect a galpal is not the pal of a gal but rather a gal who's a pal, oh well!

Impressive character! 1.09 is such a fun version - always thrilled to see 99s in it

Two gear questions:
- Why the Eyeless over Lidless? The only benefit I can think of would be the 20% poison resist, but at the cost of a +1 skill and some mana
- I don't recall what stats were added to Aldur's Advance in 1.10 (fire resist?), but I remember being disappointed in its 1.09 incarnation. Was there any particular reason for it vs. other S/Us?

It's been a while since the last 1.09 99er, it was high time to change that

I simply didn't find Lidless until very late in her progress and I kinda didn't want to use a socket quest on it. Now that I have another character in 1.09 with fresh socket quests I'll probably make the switch.

Aldur's has 50 life and +40% FRW, I liked those stats because it allowed me to dodge Mephisto's ice orbs on foot while also allowing me to tank them if I made a misstep. I dodged them on foot because if I teleported while he shot he oftentimes would shoot them right to where I landed anyway.
They don't have fire resistance in 1.09, that's true, but since I used 1.07 Wizardspike with +95 to all res I was at 75 res for fire, cold and lightning anyway, so boots with those bonuses wouldn't have helped. (like Natalya's boots)
Also I only found War Traveler's after hitting 98, so the best alternative wasn't available for most of my time in 1.09.