- Mar 13, 2019
- 1,188
- 1,308
- 93
This one took a bit longer... just kidding, it's 1.09 
Early Levels
Much like rust this character was rushed in 1.07 to receive level 42 via the first two ancient quests but other than than not much is known about his early days. He somehow didn't have the third ancient quest when I picked him back at level 91 a month ago. But as will turn out in just a bit that would have saved 1.5 hours at most, so in retrospect it is not a big deal. (and in fact getting it earlier might be more beneficial even)
He is a zealot with some wasted points in vengeance, so 20 points into fanaticism and 4 into zeal. I also invested 16 points into holy shield because the duration is much shorter in 1.09 than in later patches. Other than that I invested 14 points into vigor and 1 into redemption, conviction and sanctuary. But really, it is just zeal, fanaticism, holy shield and vigor, everything else is pointless for him. The only way to deal damage that scales with player setting is to apply crushing blow or static, so a zealot with lots of crushing blow and a Schaefer's Hammer is probably the best possible paladin build for 1.09.
For lack of a Schaefer's Hammer I could not do cows with him, so I went with the Ancient's Way and the Icy Cellar once more.
Leveling
Just like with rust I always ran the same route from the Ancient's Way WP to the Icy Cellar entrance and from there on made my way through the later, killing Snipsnap at the end. Interestingly enough the monster selection was a bit different. To understand why you need to understand how it works in 1.09 (and possibly earlier).
There is a pool for "regular" monster spawns and a pool for "unique/champ" spawns for each level (and this is still the case in modern, they are just synched up for 99% of the levels) and in the Ancient's way it just happens that Frenzytaurs are in the "regular" but not the "unique/champ" pool, so you will never encounter a bosspack of those guys (= less deaths), unless ... they spawn from an evil urn. This is because the evil urns take the monster types from the "regular" pool and so you can get bosspacks that are not meant to spawn in this area.
Now rust pretty reliably got Frenzytaurs to spawn from an evil urn in the Ancient's Way making for quite a few NDEs and definitely a good amount of merc deaths. Now the same did not apply to galpal simply because he did not get evil urns on this way to the Icy Cellar, which made for a distinct running experience.
Similarly rust never saw a single bosspack of Pindle's kind, even though he popped plenty of evil urns in the Icy Cellar (where they are "regulars") whereas galpal saw them regularly from an evil urn in the middle of the level.
That doesn't make the biggest difference ever but I think it is interesting and adds a lot of individuality to a player's map.
Now for the actual times of the runs which were done on players 7, which I got thanks to @m4ke 's run counter:
making for a grand total of 520 runs over 33 hours and 5 seconds, meaning that it took less than 30 hours from 95 to 96, compared to the less than 20 that rust took.
I personally think this character is incredibly weak and can't adapt well to difficult situations which resulted in 50% more time investment compared to a more sturdy character, the WW barb. That being said I did not have the patience to grind for a Schaefer's Hammer (which would have been a gamechanger) or even a HLW, which simply hasn't dropped yet. That being said this is still miles ahead of any time you can achieve in modern and if you want to avoid 80 hours of Nihlathak you might as well do this.
From 91 to 99 I can only recall two deaths, both due to might packs. The first happened on the way to 94:
while the second is documented in the table but does not have a screenshot to go along with it.
It is worth pointing out that the true danger for a melee character is not MSLE, you can avoid that by scanning each bosspack before engaging and thus simply run past them without engaging. The real threat are might packs since prior to 1.10 the level of a monster's might aura is twice as high as it is nowadays, i.e. [mlvl/4] which for level 93 boss in act 5 means a level of 23 compared to 11 which a modern day boss in an alvl 85 area would have. What is more is that the aura is slow to "trigger", meaning that you could run into a monster that is about to be affected by it but the aura does not display just yet. This is what happened in the screenshot above: I teleported quickly from the south towards the corner above Snipsnap's pack and immediately attacked. At this time the aura was not visible under them but a second later it was and they killed me basically immediately. Of course the extra strong bit did its part as well but without might it would have been a pretty standard fight.
The other death happened as I was teleporting away from a might pack (instead of engaging) and was caught by 3-4 regular Frenzytaurs that were a screen away and not even "frenzied up" yet. Definitely makes me think twice about teleporting away from a might pack. After that I pretty much just S&E immediately when I see might, it is just not worth the time loss.
Gear
This character is living proof that you can get to 99 with subpar gear. I still do not own a HLW in 1.09 nor Goreriders or a weapon better than Baranar's Star, but it somehow worked out.
In holding out hope for a lucky HLW drop I kept a lot of stat points saved until the end but alas they are now wasted (together with 19 unspent skill points) but it just goes to show how little it takes:
The Future
This one definitely will come to 1.14d to become a PvP character sooner or later, as he simply can't impress me in 1.09b. However I might keep him here until I have a 1.09 99er sept
Next up is the amazon which should be finished within one RFL set of doing cows! Only a few days to go
Thanks for reading!
Early Levels
Much like rust this character was rushed in 1.07 to receive level 42 via the first two ancient quests but other than than not much is known about his early days. He somehow didn't have the third ancient quest when I picked him back at level 91 a month ago. But as will turn out in just a bit that would have saved 1.5 hours at most, so in retrospect it is not a big deal. (and in fact getting it earlier might be more beneficial even)
He is a zealot with some wasted points in vengeance, so 20 points into fanaticism and 4 into zeal. I also invested 16 points into holy shield because the duration is much shorter in 1.09 than in later patches. Other than that I invested 14 points into vigor and 1 into redemption, conviction and sanctuary. But really, it is just zeal, fanaticism, holy shield and vigor, everything else is pointless for him. The only way to deal damage that scales with player setting is to apply crushing blow or static, so a zealot with lots of crushing blow and a Schaefer's Hammer is probably the best possible paladin build for 1.09.
For lack of a Schaefer's Hammer I could not do cows with him, so I went with the Ancient's Way and the Icy Cellar once more.
Leveling
Just like with rust I always ran the same route from the Ancient's Way WP to the Icy Cellar entrance and from there on made my way through the later, killing Snipsnap at the end. Interestingly enough the monster selection was a bit different. To understand why you need to understand how it works in 1.09 (and possibly earlier).
There is a pool for "regular" monster spawns and a pool for "unique/champ" spawns for each level (and this is still the case in modern, they are just synched up for 99% of the levels) and in the Ancient's way it just happens that Frenzytaurs are in the "regular" but not the "unique/champ" pool, so you will never encounter a bosspack of those guys (= less deaths), unless ... they spawn from an evil urn. This is because the evil urns take the monster types from the "regular" pool and so you can get bosspacks that are not meant to spawn in this area.
Now rust pretty reliably got Frenzytaurs to spawn from an evil urn in the Ancient's Way making for quite a few NDEs and definitely a good amount of merc deaths. Now the same did not apply to galpal simply because he did not get evil urns on this way to the Icy Cellar, which made for a distinct running experience.
Similarly rust never saw a single bosspack of Pindle's kind, even though he popped plenty of evil urns in the Icy Cellar (where they are "regulars") whereas galpal saw them regularly from an evil urn in the middle of the level.
That doesn't make the biggest difference ever but I think it is interesting and adds a lot of individuality to a player's map.
***
Now for the actual times of the runs which were done on players 7, which I got thanks to @m4ke 's run counter:
levels | runs | total time | average time | deaths (no recovery) |
98-99 | 162 | 10:10:35 | 03:46:142 | 0 |
97-98 | 117 | 07:19:47 | 03:45:530 | 0 |
96-97 | 100 | 06:25:38 | 03:51:387 | 1 |
95-96 | 73 | 04:36:34 | 03:47:320 | 0 |
94-95 | 68 | 04:27:30 | 03:56:033 | 0 |
I personally think this character is incredibly weak and can't adapt well to difficult situations which resulted in 50% more time investment compared to a more sturdy character, the WW barb. That being said I did not have the patience to grind for a Schaefer's Hammer (which would have been a gamechanger) or even a HLW, which simply hasn't dropped yet. That being said this is still miles ahead of any time you can achieve in modern and if you want to avoid 80 hours of Nihlathak you might as well do this.
From 91 to 99 I can only recall two deaths, both due to might packs. The first happened on the way to 94:
It is worth pointing out that the true danger for a melee character is not MSLE, you can avoid that by scanning each bosspack before engaging and thus simply run past them without engaging. The real threat are might packs since prior to 1.10 the level of a monster's might aura is twice as high as it is nowadays, i.e. [mlvl/4] which for level 93 boss in act 5 means a level of 23 compared to 11 which a modern day boss in an alvl 85 area would have. What is more is that the aura is slow to "trigger", meaning that you could run into a monster that is about to be affected by it but the aura does not display just yet. This is what happened in the screenshot above: I teleported quickly from the south towards the corner above Snipsnap's pack and immediately attacked. At this time the aura was not visible under them but a second later it was and they killed me basically immediately. Of course the extra strong bit did its part as well but without might it would have been a pretty standard fight.
The other death happened as I was teleporting away from a might pack (instead of engaging) and was caught by 3-4 regular Frenzytaurs that were a screen away and not even "frenzied up" yet. Definitely makes me think twice about teleporting away from a might pack. After that I pretty much just S&E immediately when I see might, it is just not worth the time loss.
Gear
This character is living proof that you can get to 99 with subpar gear. I still do not own a HLW in 1.09 nor Goreriders or a weapon better than Baranar's Star, but it somehow worked out.
Code:
Guillaume's Face "Ort"
Baranar's Star "Eth"
Stormshield "Um"
Tal Rasha's Guardianship "PTopaz"
1.09 Laying of Hands
String of Ears (perfect)
Goblin Toe
Manald Heal
Raven Frost
Cat's Eye
3 x 19 Max Dmg GC (1.07)
3 x 6 Max Dmg SC (1.07)
1 x 5 Max Dmg SC (1.07)
15@ GC
Mercenary:
Might Aura
Hone Sundan "ShaelAmnAmn"
Duriel's Shell (unsocketed)
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest (unsocketed)In holding out hope for a lucky HLW drop I kept a lot of stat points saved until the end but alas they are now wasted (together with 19 unspent skill points) but it just goes to show how little it takes:
The Future
This one definitely will come to 1.14d to become a PvP character sooner or later, as he simply can't impress me in 1.09b. However I might keep him here until I have a 1.09 99er sept
Next up is the amazon which should be finished within one RFL set of doing cows! Only a few days to go
Thanks for reading!
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