@m4ke Unfortunately, no, I don't know of any way to quickly level up a 1.08 merc... I was just exploring why it takes so long, and it turns out that 1.08 not only massively raised the XP reqs for mercs to level, but ALSO clamps down HARD on how much xp they get...
At level67(both), a 1.07 rogue merc needed
less than ¼ of the xp a 1.08 barb merc needed to level, AND was getting
48 times the xp/kill in hell WSK!!!
BTW, I noticed no one ever answered your question about the defense of a Gloom you made in a 1.07 eth archon plate... you got 248%Edef from the RW, +50%Edef from the eth bonus for 298%Edef... 1.07/1.08 eth armors always have max base defense+1, so [525 * 3.98 = 2089.5] = 2089 defense
(lol, I got your answer in just under a year later...)
@frozzzen Art already answered mostly, but I will add: You
do want a high level crafter, easy enough to get 99 in 1.07 and forward them... You DON'T need to try to get Lums for greater crafts, not for caster, Tals for lesser is sufficient... the FCR on both is 1-15, so all the greater craft gives you is 7-21% mana regen instead of 4-12%, and +15-25 mana instead of +10-20 (and if you happen to roll a +mana affix, it will OVERWRITE and
not stack with the automod mana anyway...this behavior is unique to 1.08 crafting, and was probably the result of the dev's ham-handed attempt to quick-fix the stacking and overflow bugs in 1.07 crafting/cubing)
So Tals from Qual-Kehk work great if you already HF rush in 1.07 (I do, a lot)... just add rescuing the barbs and ancients to the runs (and don't talk to Qual-Kehk with the rushees until you're ready to collect the runes)... If your crafter is lvl99, 2xAncients (clvl42) will give ilvl92 crafts, 3xAncients (clvl52) will produce ilvl99 crafts... both are high enough to get +2 skills
If you don't HF rush, then, as
@art_vandelay suggested, running 1.08 hell LK can provide Tals, jewels, and gems at a decent rate, plus racking is just like 1.07 but with better odds of dropping unique (and 1.08 eth weapons are still GG), and you'll probably also find some decent 5%frw SCs, too, so well worth it (IMO)
I've crafted ~70 caster amulets so far, I'll post all the details in the crafting thread Art linked to above soon, but I'd like to get to 100 first (gotta do some more 1.07 HF rushing...)
WoRG