1.09 News, Info and Gossip - Make 1.09 Great Again

[m4ke]

I decided to level more with Meph. He also still gives grailers reqularly. I tested P settings for more XP because I didn't see any difference in run times. He can be slivered at P14-19. After that I didn't find any setting. Tested 20,21,25,30,35,40,45,50,55-64.

I found three different behaviours. 1. Health didn't drop at all !! 2. It dropped some and 3. It dropped some more. Weird =) Don't know what the cap is in Hell but 'some more' was like to 't' in his name.

m4ke

 

[m4ke]

I've been wondering that Merc weapon. How can this (AmnAmnShael):

Hone Sundan
Yari
Two-Hand Damage: 110 to 220
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Strength: 101
Required Level: 37
Spear Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x68812aaa
+200% Enhanced Damage
+20 to Minimum Damage
+40 to Maximum Damage
45% Chance of Crushing Blow
Repairs 1 durability in 10 seconds
Socketed (3: 0 used)

beat this:

Honor
Thresher
'AmnElIthTirSol'
Two-Hand Damage: 58 to 666
Durability: 33 of 33
Required Dexterity: 108
Required Strength: 142
Required Level: 53
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x3872b81f
+10 to Strength
+160% Enhanced Damage
+250 to Attack Rating
+9 to Minimum Damage
+9 to Maximum Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +10
+1 to All Skill Levels
+1 to Light Radius
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
25% Deadly Strike
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (5: 5 used)

Is it that CB only? How much do we fight Act Bosses and the Merc is doing the killing? I mean we play 100% twinked and propably all Act Bosses are killed already..

m4ke

 

[art_vandelay]

@m4ke I think it has to do with the fact that CB scales with playersetting and so merc can take on immune bosses even on higher playersettings. But yes, that Honor is otherwise totally better.

 

[m4ke]

I've been running Meph for my Zon's bow but no luck so far. But he just dropped this:

m4ke

Edit: Yes, odd indeed..

 

[Delsy]

1.09 does display item level? Odd.

 

[entwilighter]

Hey! Thanks for making this thread, art!

I have just started in 1.09 with a Sorceress, "Charmed", who was rushed to NM Ancients in 1.07 then brought forward. At first I was planning to purely farm SCs with her, but I have decided to try to build her into a ranged Enchantress with ES. ATM she is level 44, and going has been tough due to low life and low level ES, but I LOVE the way that teleporting ranged Enchantress plays and I'll definitely build more in other patches (not sure it's the best build for this patch, but we'll see). I am not planning to take her into Hell anyway, since I prefer the affixes available in NM for LLD gear.

I have some questions about the Rogue Scout "lightning hose". Anyone have any experience with it? Is it as powerful as they say? From what I have read, once she has a +3 skills she will either shoot arrows or her lightning attack. Does the attack have a consistent duration or can it be shorter or longer? I am trying to work out both whether it is worth using and if so, whether it is better to maximise IAS (faster cycling between arrows/lightning - more lightning) or to minimise IAS (less chance of the lightning attack being "overwritten" by shooting arrows).

I'm pretty in the dark here, so if nobody knows I will try to work it out myself when she gets to the right clvl and will report what I find.

Here's a couple of Charmed's trophies so far:

 

[entwilighter]

My friend Wendy, she's a real LIVEWIRE

 

[Klonki]

I hope someone or RobbyD himself finds this forum and this thread!

He started it on the other site, years ago Many memories with 1.09!

Maybe im ghonna start it once again one day, remember the guided arrow

glitch!

 

[Delsy]

My frenzier found Pompeii's Wrath off NM Meph and there's no timer when the Volcano is triggered (v1.09b). What a pleasant surprise. If that works for all items, I'm already loving TGV!

Also, I found Nightsmoke in early normal and it has single handedly solved mana needs for my frenzier (currently in A2 Hell). That was a revelation to me.

 

[entwilighter]

So it seems the Rogue Scout Lightning attack is pretty powerful. I made a quick video of her soloing NM Bloody Foothills. I am still experimenting with the setup. I noticed that with "Stealth" on, she seemed to be shooting a lot less lightning and casting a lot more Inner Sight etc. so it seems to be affected by mods like FHR/FCR/FRW or at least, her AI is affected. She cast noticeably more lightning with Iron Pelt on, and it feels like she does even more with no armour at all, as you will see in the video. It would be cool to find a setup where she constantly sprays lightning. >:~)

Edit: rather nice SC that was in her inventory:

Serpent's Small Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 40
Unidentified
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0xaa6fb8f9
+14 to Mana
5% Faster Run/Walk

 

[art_vandelay]

I have reason to believe that you don't get +50% XP per player in 1.09b but instead something higher. Basically I read on another site that the XP bonus is +66,6% per player and decided to test it. I killed a champion Frozen Scourge in the Ancient's Way and got 210474 XP for it, for the record I'm level 77 and the Frozen Scourge Champ is level 92 with a base XP of 44707. (global XP penalty at level 77 is 50%)

With +50% per player I calculate about 168k XP from the Scourge but with +66,6% per player I get 205k which doesn't match the actual ingame XP gain.

Now the d2wiki claims it's even more convoluted:

Player Settings - Diablo Wiki

The player setting gives account of how many players are present in one game. It has impact on monsters' hit points, experience gained and drops. The default player setting is 1. However, with every player joining a multiplayer game the player setting is increased by one up till a maximum of 8...

diablo2.diablowiki.net

and with those percentages I get 210k. (+275% used)

So I guess d2wiki is correct on this. It doesn't list XP bonus for p9 though and claims you only get +5% after that for each player.

Since you only get +25% extra for p6, p7, p8 it seems to me those might not be worth it for leveling unless you want to exploit static slivering certain bosses.

 

[entwilighter]

Some LK runs, for any wondering what that might look like in 1.09b. I find it pretty fun!

 

[art_vandelay]

@entwilighter Why no Hell runs?


I seem to have some really good luck with Lem runes in 1.09b:

Spoiler

Since I found Buriza from Mephisto I have been playing my Bowazon exclusively, first in Act 5 and then in Cows. Multishot is actually viable there but it takes a lot of herding and repositioning and most importantly it's very very boring At least she made it halfway to level 86 that way.

Now it's back to Mephisto to find HoZ so that I can actually dare to melee a boss in Hell with my Paladin...

 

[m4ke]

I tested racking in 1.09b. Seems that racks are still stable BUT now monsters spawn randomly and racking is quite impossible.

m4ke

 

[art_vandelay]

It's not impossible, just more restricted. I once racked Sacred Targes/Threshers in 1.14d and the key to success is having a rack nearly immediately next to the WP and no monsters spawning on that tile.

 

[m4ke]

I think I'm going to 1.10a for BKWB. I have Sorc and Necro ready. Necro is Summoner and he is just rune collector for HF rushes. I read that there is no muling program for 1.10a. I had to test that =)

Atma IV loads character created in 1.10a ok. So muling is possible. I copied my Necro (full Tranc) to 1.10a but Atma complains about every item on the character. So I took off every item from him in 1.09b (he got and leveled merc there) and copied the save again. Now it loads into Atma ok =)

Minor problem here is that every item for my Sorc and Necro must be shopped or found in 1.10a if I want to use Atma for muling =)

Anybody have any ideas?

After testing I deleted all character files from 1.10a. My Necro and his stuff is in 1.09b.

Anyway, I was leveling Necro's Merc in 1.09b and found a Grailer (0,00% MF) !!

Carin Shard:

Spoiler: Readout

Carin Shard
Petrified Wand
One-Hand Damage: 8 to 24
Durability: 13 of 15
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 35
Staff Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xd08d0e73
Replenish Life +5
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
10% Faster Cast Rate
150% Damage to Undead
+2  to Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)
+1 to Life (1.25 per Character Level)
+1 to Mana (1.25 per Character Level)

P20 Hell WSK 2 was not maybe the optimal final leveling setup for the Merc but hey, my Necro leveled from 71 -> 76 too =)

m4ke

Edit: Summoner Necro can shop nice Wand in 1.10a and other gear and do MF runs there =) Money transferred ok. And why not Sorc too. Without any +skills..

Edit2: NO GO.. Atma IV doesn't load 1.10a items either. Have to stay in classic muling =)

 

[art_vandelay]

@m4ke They changed item format with each new beta patch after 1.09 if I recall correctly, so unless ATMA is made for it it won't work.


Been running Mephisto for to level from 96 to 97 and when I looked in my character today I was a bit shocked to find that all the items I got from him are level 90. Did a quick check and indeed Mephisto is level 90 in 1.09 instead of 87 as in modern

Rarest thing I got from him during this time is Gladiator's Bane:

But I also got Razortail, Arreat's Face, Bartuc's (191/9!!!), Thundergod's Vigor, SoJ, Lidless Wall, Shaftstop, Vipermage (+34), Nagelring (30), Skullder's, Baranar's, a 5% FRW/5% Cres SC and this:

Grim Buckle
Spiderweb Sash
Defense: 60
Durability: 24 of 36
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 50
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x4644b8f4
+20 to Strength
+12 to Maximum Stamina
+15 to Attack Rating
Cold Resist +6%
49% Extra Gold from Monsters
+1 to Light Radius

If only ...

***

In other news all regular chests in act 5 have been checked for Zod patterns with the help of @Fruit and sadly there's only locked patterns at players 17/19 (smallest MF value 69). 99% of regular chests in act 5 aren't lockable, so rip the dream.

 

[art_vandelay]

Been theorycrafting 1.09 99ers with @Luhkoh and I decided to calc the number of runs needed for 85-99 for a few different targets.

109XP_Comp.xlsx

Main Run,Players,Time (s),85-99 (h) Cows,8,80,cows/min,21,08 Mephisto,8,40,67,82 Shenk,8,40,40,44 Pindleskin,8,20,44,46 Nihlathak,8,40,34,38 Snipsnap,8,30,48,31 Ventar,8,120,58,63 Lister,8,180,58,55 Baal,8,240,58,07

docs.google.com

You can download the sheet and alter the yellow fields (playersetting, runtime and cows/min) to see how long it would take you to reach 99 with a specific run.

Some insights I got with players 8 and "educated" guesses on runtimes are in this table:

Run	Time	Hours 85 to 99
Cows	400 Cows/5 Minutes	21,08
Shenk + 20 Enslaved	40s	40,44
Pindleskin	20s	44,46
Snipsnap	30s	48,31
Ventar	120s	58,63
Lister	180s	58,55
Baal	240s	58,07
Mephisto	40s	67,82

Obviously the runtimes will vary by character and you need to find out yourself what each of your characters is capable of.

It's also possible that MF is more important to you than pure leveling speed so Pindleskin might be more attractive than this table makes him out to be. It should be noted that Shenk can't drop all items in the game but the other act 5 super uniques can. Baal himself is capped to TC 87.

EDIT: I tested what XP bonus you get at each playersetting and updated the tables accordingly. I also added Nihlathak runs to the table.

According to RTB at players 8 and 9 monsters get the same XP and HP bonus. But drops are better at p9 so it seems only natural to play at p9 instead of p8 like in modern.
The post by RTB with the table is here:

An experience question (v1.09)...

An experience question (v1.09)... Okay, I've noticed (on several characters) that experience seems to take a huge dip as soon as I reach clvl 76. I used to stay in NM until then so I figured that I'd just reached a clvl much higher than the mlvls of the monsters in Act V, but on my Pally I...

www.diabloii.net

I was able to verify those XP factors.

 

[m4ke]

C&P from 1.08 thread:
<clip>
The ethereal bonuses of 1.09+ are multiplicative with +% enhanced defense and with each other. So:

• 1.09+ eth: total def = [[base*1,5]*(1+ED/100)]
• 1.09+ eth-bugged: total def = [[[base*1,5]*1,5]*(1+ED/100)]
• 1.07-1.08 forwarded to 1.09+: total def = [base*(1+(50+ED)/100)]
• 1.07-1.08 eth-bugged in 1.11+: total def = [[base*1,5]*(1+(50+ED)/100)]

</clip>

I did some rack searching in 1.09b and found a rack that drops lots of Sacred Rondaches without ticks w/wo monsters nearby.

So eth-bugged 1.09b shield is good for Exile?

60% vs 58%? Would you @art_vandelay do 1k+ runs to find one suitable base or spend at least that time first to find Sacred Targe rack?

I also did rack gold in 1.09b !!


m4ke

 

[art_vandelay]

I did some rack searching in 1.09b and found a rack that drops lots of Sacred Rondaches without ticks w/wo monsters nearby.

So eth-bugged 1.09b shield is good for Exile?

60% vs 58%? Would you @art_vandelay do 1k+ runs to find one suitable base or spend at least that time first to find Sacred Targe rack?


m4ke

Should be, if you want to be one hundred percent sure you should forward an eth 1.09 shield to 1.11+ and eth bug it. If it gets 2,25 times base defense you're good to go. (just note that base defense will be random since the shield doesn't have enhanced defense on it)

Sacred Targe/Rondache and Vortex shield are usually the shields people consider for Exile/Smite and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't matter whether you take Targe or Rondache, it's just a few statpoints difference. Plus either one is excellent for all other runeword bases .(Dream, Dragon, etc.) Vortex shield has the potential for highest defense but costs you way more statpoints for strength and dex.

Also racking uniques is easier in 1.09 because the chance is usually higher than 1 in 500 (or for Class Specific 1 in 300).