- Mar 13, 2019
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And again!
Early Levels
rust started out in 1.07 as part of a batch of rushees and received level 42 via the first two ancient quests. He was then forwarded to 1.09b and leveled using a Ribcracker, primarly in NM act 5 where the Ribcracker still did acceptable damage. After that he switched to cruel chippy colossus blades with "EthShaelShael" socketing which brought a huge damage boost, not only because it meant using elite weapons over exceptionals but also because two weapons means twice as many crushing blow applications.
He is just a run of the mill whirlwind barbarian, 20 into whirlwind, battle orders and sword mastery as well as 9 into find item. However I at some point stopped using find item as it slowed down my leveling.
I leveled rust to 91 in the Ancient's Way and the Icy Cellar before taking an extended break from him, mostly because I felt that the time for each level was growing so fast and of course upon reaching level 91 the final stage of the global experience penalty starts to kick in, meaning that instead of getting only a fourth of XP I would now receive only a fifth.
Leveling
A week ago I decided to dust off rust and complete what I had started. And as nothing about his gear had changed since the last time I played him I was also going back to the same leveling strategies, i.e. for the final 8 level ups I stayed in the Ancient's Way and the Icy Cellar killing everything in my path. In 1.09b every monster here is level 90, 92 or 93, depending on whether it is a regular/minion, a champion or a unique/superunique, which means that I did not face a XP penalty for level difference until I reached 96. (And uniques/superuniques never receive one, because 98-93 = 5)
I had the same map throughout:
where the red dots mark boss/champion spawns.
I make no claims that this is the fastest way to level a barbarian in 1.09b, but comparing his times to modern patch times should make it abundantly clear, that this way of leveling is fast in the grand scheme of things:
Getting from 98 to 99 took a total of 7:06:48 including ancients and running through to the throneroom and getting to 99 just before the first wave. All of these numbers include muling and all of the menuing in town such as frequent repairs and moving items into stash as well as selling items to pay for the repairs.
In total this makes for a time of 19:55:28 from 95 to 99, so just shy of 20 hours. For comparison your average player will spend about 80+ hours running 1.14d Nihlathak JUST to get from 98 to 99.
My play is far from perfect and I am not a fan of whirlwind even, so a better player could certainly save another hour. Adding to that my gear was suboptimal, with me using LoH for the fire resistance, despite demons being really sparse in the ice caves (and of course the IAS has no effect on whirlwind). Additionally I targeted all monsters throughout, even when regulars and minions received a penalty to XP, maybe this was a mistake.
As to the strategies used they are similar to modern: there are no upsides to being a hero, you will just lose 10% experience. So especially towards the end I would skip might or fanaticism packs as well as conviction/lightning enchanted packs, simply because it was not worth the risk and usually it would result in a dead mercenary costing me 50000. Generally all packs were scanned before engaging, primarily to avoid MSLE (= multishot + lightning enchanted) or to be careful with fire enchanted monsters. This safe way of playing spared me any deaths from 91 to 99 and made for smooth fights.
I also skipped the occasional frenzytaur pack, as those are about the only truly dangerous monsters to a barbarian. Once an evil urn spawned a fanatacism frenzytaur pack right on top of me which resulted in an immediate S&E. It's just not worth it.
It's worth noting that monster aura levels are different in 1.09 with e.g. might having roughly twice the level it does nowadays, making it absolutely deadly.
The drop section is very short since besides some garbage grailers (like a green diadem and spired helm) there was only one standout item I found, but that one made up for everything else:
Bam! Worth over 100 points in round 3 of RFL this is an insane find and might very well become another beta CTA or if I really find something great it could become a socketing option in 1.09b.
Gear
The gear was mostly focused on getting crushing blow (scales with psetting in 1.09!!!), resistances as well as damage from the weapon. There is also a focus on MF from when I parked the character, so there is room for damage optimization:
As you can see I did not use Raven which is mainly from the earlier levels where I still horked... using that could be an improvment as I could run when frozen instead having to teleport on switch.
Finally here is the stats screen, don't judge me for overinvesting in vita:
The Future
Maybe rust will eventually come to 1.14d to become a runner or PvP character, but for now I keep him in 1.09b so I still have a chance at a 99er charscreen in the future
As I alreadly noted a year ago in my 1.09 sorceress' 99er thread my 1.09b amazon is level 90 and should take less than 20 hours for level 99. So all I need to do now is run her during RFL round 1 and net a high rune (one can dream
)
Thanks for reading!
Early Levels
rust started out in 1.07 as part of a batch of rushees and received level 42 via the first two ancient quests. He was then forwarded to 1.09b and leveled using a Ribcracker, primarly in NM act 5 where the Ribcracker still did acceptable damage. After that he switched to cruel chippy colossus blades with "EthShaelShael" socketing which brought a huge damage boost, not only because it meant using elite weapons over exceptionals but also because two weapons means twice as many crushing blow applications.
He is just a run of the mill whirlwind barbarian, 20 into whirlwind, battle orders and sword mastery as well as 9 into find item. However I at some point stopped using find item as it slowed down my leveling.
I leveled rust to 91 in the Ancient's Way and the Icy Cellar before taking an extended break from him, mostly because I felt that the time for each level was growing so fast and of course upon reaching level 91 the final stage of the global experience penalty starts to kick in, meaning that instead of getting only a fourth of XP I would now receive only a fifth.
Leveling
A week ago I decided to dust off rust and complete what I had started. And as nothing about his gear had changed since the last time I played him I was also going back to the same leveling strategies, i.e. for the final 8 level ups I stayed in the Ancient's Way and the Icy Cellar killing everything in my path. In 1.09b every monster here is level 90, 92 or 93, depending on whether it is a regular/minion, a champion or a unique/superunique, which means that I did not face a XP penalty for level difference until I reached 96. (And uniques/superuniques never receive one, because 98-93 = 5)
I had the same map throughout:
I make no claims that this is the fastest way to level a barbarian in 1.09b, but comparing his times to modern patch times should make it abundantly clear, that this way of leveling is fast in the grand scheme of things:
Percentage | 95 to 96 | 96 to 97 | 97 to 98 | 98 to 99 |
20% | - | - | - | 1:35:31 |
40% | - | - | - | 3:28:20 |
50% | 1:42:00 | 2:01:48 | 2:36:24 | - |
60% | - | - | - | 4:56:35 |
80% | - | - | - | 6:30:15 |
100% / 40 million XP to 99 | 3:24:33 | 4:08:00 | 5:16:07 | 6:58:02 |
In total this makes for a time of 19:55:28 from 95 to 99, so just shy of 20 hours. For comparison your average player will spend about 80+ hours running 1.14d Nihlathak JUST to get from 98 to 99.
My play is far from perfect and I am not a fan of whirlwind even, so a better player could certainly save another hour. Adding to that my gear was suboptimal, with me using LoH for the fire resistance, despite demons being really sparse in the ice caves (and of course the IAS has no effect on whirlwind). Additionally I targeted all monsters throughout, even when regulars and minions received a penalty to XP, maybe this was a mistake.
As to the strategies used they are similar to modern: there are no upsides to being a hero, you will just lose 10% experience. So especially towards the end I would skip might or fanaticism packs as well as conviction/lightning enchanted packs, simply because it was not worth the risk and usually it would result in a dead mercenary costing me 50000. Generally all packs were scanned before engaging, primarily to avoid MSLE (= multishot + lightning enchanted) or to be careful with fire enchanted monsters. This safe way of playing spared me any deaths from 91 to 99 and made for smooth fights.
I also skipped the occasional frenzytaur pack, as those are about the only truly dangerous monsters to a barbarian. Once an evil urn spawned a fanatacism frenzytaur pack right on top of me which resulted in an immediate S&E. It's just not worth it.
It's worth noting that monster aura levels are different in 1.09 with e.g. might having roughly twice the level it does nowadays, making it absolutely deadly.
The drop section is very short since besides some garbage grailers (like a green diadem and spired helm) there was only one standout item I found, but that one made up for everything else:
Gear
The gear was mostly focused on getting crushing blow (scales with psetting in 1.09!!!), resistances as well as damage from the weapon. There is also a focus on MF from when I parked the character, so there is room for damage optimization:
Code:
Guillaume's Face (unsocketed)
Chippy Sword #1: +231% ED "EthShaelShael"
Chippy Sword #2: +260% ED "EthShaelShael"
Tal Rasha's Guardianship (PTopaz)
1.09 Laying of Hands
1.07 M'avina's Tenet (+10% ML/+40% FRW)
Goblin Toe
Rare Ring #1: +8% LL/MF
Rare Ring #2: +6% LL/HFD/+26% fire resist
Cat's Eye (for FRW)
Switch: Naj's Puzzler
Over 100 mana from charms (very helpful for WW!)
Mercenary:
Might Aura
Hone Sundan "ShaelAmnAmn"
Duriel's Shell (unsocketed)
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest (unsocketed)Finally here is the stats screen, don't judge me for overinvesting in vita:
The Future
Maybe rust will eventually come to 1.14d to become a runner or PvP character, but for now I keep him in 1.09b so I still have a chance at a 99er charscreen in the future
As I alreadly noted a year ago in my 1.09 sorceress' 99er thread my 1.09b amazon is level 90 and should take less than 20 hours for level 99. So all I need to do now is run her during RFL round 1 and net a high rune (one can dream
)Thanks for reading!
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