1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Well just did enough phisto runs to get my barb from 83 to 84... only thing that dropped was a peasent crown and about 40 green heavy gloves.

Perhaps tomarrow. I still really want to see that unique russet armor, serpentskin armor.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Try a Countess run and hit the racks - you might have a Russet or Serpentskin rack there. She drops pretty good herself too. Just be prepared for the potential of a MSLE boss.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Well im starting on the nova/blizzard sorc that i have planned to be a countess runner, and if she does well a 99er in the moo moo farm. So far its a fun combo working with frost nova and nova combined.

i think 20 nova 20 LM 20 static 20 blizzard 1 CM 20 warmth and 1 in prereqs will make this character finished at 96. Never put much for points in warmth before, but i think with this mana thirsty build and lack of synergy requirements ill max it. That will also leave me a bit of leeway in equipment seleciton.

Especially with the twinking gear ive found. Havnt got the "great" stuff yet, but the "good" stuff will work fine for now.

Just when you start getting bored with running phisto and cows endlessly. Playing the game all the way through starts it back to fun again. Act 3 normal here i come!!!!
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Nova/Blizz for a Countess/Mephy runner sounds like a winner! I haven't taken my Nova Sorc to Cow Town yet, so I can't speak to it's effectiveness, but I suspect the slow from Blizz with the power of Nova would be a very effective combo.

What kind of gear do you have available?
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

So far she will be using a lidless for mana and fcr
maras i just found today... thats the 2nd one!
oculus tell i can find a wizzy
que hagen wisdom.. for low str req. 1 skill fhr and fcr.. great armor untill a viper drops

magefists for fcr and mana rejen
shako
2 fcr rings to break the 105 fcr breakpoint.. untill a viper or wizzy drops to open them up for SOJ's which will have to drop eventually as well.

I also atm have 3 cold and 2 light skillers gc's
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I just finished running normal cows to get ready for NM. Seems at this point that the nova is better at taking them down then blizzard. Blizzard is more of a random attack, while nova hits everything close by.

Blizz, static, static, static, nova, nova nova seems to kill em all at p8 on normal no problem. Running with crap gear atm untill i can wear the good stuff. And i have around 5 or 6 hard points in nova and blizz atm too.

Seems to show promise, i am excited to see how she fares in nm.

Another note... Faster Hit Recovery seems extra important for this build being surrounded by cows and needing to continually cast or die. Seems that Que Hagens might be a better choice for cowwing then viper after all. 20% FHR getts you 4 breaking points faster, possible belt to use could be the lowly bladebuckle too for the 30% FHR on it as well.

Still deciding on whether to try getting a high block rate or not. Then i have to worry about blocking speed as well and loose the skill on the shield slot.

The 63% FCR breakpoint seems quite fast using nova. I am excited to try the 105% here soon.

Warmth is at 10 and static is at 6. Mana still dissapears faster then it can be replenished. The gear waiting at lvl 42 though gives mana per kill on 3 slots so that should help. Plus the weapon helm and shield all give a hefty bonus.

Im running with magefist for the FCR but iff all else fails i can switch to frosties to solve all the mana problems.

Quite fun indeed!!
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Still deciding on whether to try getting a high block rate or not. Then i have to worry about blocking speed as well and loose the skill on the shield slot.

Or you could go with Visceratuant. You get the +1 skill and 60% block with 30% FBR, but lose the FCR and mana. I personally went with Visceratuant and I love it!

But you'd have to go with Wizardspike to compensate the FCR and lose +3 skills with Oculus, but I don't know if you'd have to do that for the mana Wizardspike provides.

Interesting decision :)


 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

2 Mara's and no Shakos, no Wizzys - lol, that's D2 for you. Don't worry, running Countess/Mephy will produce a number of both if you stick with it. Both items drop at pretty high rates from both targets.

The way I got the 105 FCR was with Wizzy + Skin + Lidless + crafted caster ammy - that allowed Frosties for the mana help that is just required for a Nova sorc. Skillers and SoJs provided the +skills. I'm pretty sure I never got a SoJ from Mephy, but I got 5 or 6 from various regular monsters, maybe one of them from Countess.

BTW, I'm making progress on my dual Zon project - saved Cain for both Zons - MS + Envy Long Bow is NICE - despite what Nagisa posted in my dual Zon project post, the poison from the bow is carried by every MS arrow in 1.09, and they do seem to have some piercing effect. MS is just so mana hungry at low levels.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I think your rightn on the poison being carried by every arrow. If memory serves me correct, and it seldom does, people used to fill the whole inventory with poison sc's and then run around in pk rooms just spamming multishot. The chances of getting hit were high and most people neglected poison resist. So 2 hitts by random stray arrows and you were dead.

Of course that was long long ago in a world far far away....


Ringer (my nova blizz sorc) is now 55 and working on NM Cows. So far im using mostly blizzard there sence nova is a bit dangerous without the proper gear with that many hits comming at you.

Blizzard is doing just fine so far though. It is maxed and 1 in cm so not much room for growth there. It might not be strong enough to be viable in p8 hell cows. It was just intended as a 2ndary for nova though so lets hope nova shines through.

Nova is incredibly weak vs bosses i have found. To beat NM diablo ancients and baal i had to scrap it for blizzard and just runn around while it randomly hit or missed. Got through it on p8 though.

Cheers..
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

So I haven't had much progress in the last week. The holiday had me super busy with family stuff. That and my wife talked me into painting the living room on my one day off last Friday. I also had a bnet stint where I worked on my hybrid lf/faithzon, so HammerTime hasn't seen much action.

I did take on Shenk and saved the barbarians from their weak prisons. I have decided to play p1 until I can baal run/cow run to level some. Then move on through nm on some lower player settings as well until I can run Mephy a bit.

The nova sorcs hold out pretty well in cows. IIRC high blocking wasn't really an issue because the super fast nova's put them in a recovery lock kind of thing. To keep them from hitting you before you start using nova I used FO into a mob then tele'd to the middle to nova. That way they were slowed and could usually get locked before making an attack. Only other suggestion is to get the Cold Armor that freezes on hit to take care of the cows that do end up getting a hit on you. Possibly also levelling a defiance merc and maxing out that armor could net you some better def to lessen your chances of being hit either. That was always a popular route to take since you weren't thinking about synergies back then.

I remember blizzard used to be a little tougher to aim before. Or at least it seemed that way to me when I made a blizz/meteor/thunder strike sorc then. Something makes me think it had its chance to hit or something increased in 1.10+ which helped make it so popular during the great change (other than the added synergies as well). TS and ES were considered 1 point wonders for many builds and extra points always seemed to go into raising the armors.

I also remember the 290 pdsc's being extremely popular for multizon's. An inventory of those made any zon a mass murderer. Taking two lines of inventory would up your damage 2320; even if that is over time it's still a huge increase for the small amount of space used up.

The drops for the elusive Windeh show incredibly higher for Baal than any of the cold cave bosses/pindeh. Do you think the added run time would be more effective vs running pindeh several times over in the same chunk of time. Schaeffer's and the WF are two items that I will be after for end game and Baal has the better rates for both. Are the higher TC's for those going to come out of Baal or the bosses better? I suppose with run time/efficiency of pindle will be a lot more effective and will also produce a lot more gear that can be used otherwise that baal may not produce as often.
 
Last edited:
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

@Enochdarg: I found that you have to play very aggressively to maximize a Nova Sorc. You have to rely on the CC power of Nova. I found on mine that, for instance, OK/AK pack were very dangerous if I took it cautious, but if I aggressively TPd and spammed Nova, my sorc was safe. You want to max Nova and LM to make that the case, though. You will find that once you've gotten it pumped, it's very effective with an aggressive style.

@cheerupemokid10: According to ATMA (and I'm not TOTALLY convinces it's accurate, mind you), drop rates for the Windeh are as follows (assuming 350 MF, which I can reach with an Ali Baba + Rhyme Royal Shield kill switch):

Baal: 1:20,886
Pindle/Snapchip/Thresh/Frozenstein: 1:30,568

So, yes, Baal has better drop rates, but I factor this into my decision - Pindle is MUCH faster and safer to run, especially for my Pally (who regularly stuggles against Lister's crew, but can handle just about any spawn of Pindle). Now Baal has his waves, but the Windeh drop rates for them at 350MF is 1:154,573 (that amounts to 1:30,915 combined chances). So a combined Baal run gives a 1:12,465 chance at a Windeh drop ASSUMING I can get the Ali Baba kill on all wave bosses. So can I do 2.5 Pindle runs in the time it takes to do a Baal run? I think so - I haven't done a comparison, but I bet I can do at least 5 Pindle runs in the time it takes to do a Baal run, and be much safer to boot. Even if Pindle spawns Fana/PI or Might/PI, Sanctuary seriously nerfs him.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

@RobbyD: I figured such with Pindle being the winner with his extremely fast runnability. I can imagine more than 5 being done in the same time as a baal run as running to the throne, waiting on waves to spawn, and then Baal himself all making for a higher combined run time. Even with raising the player setting for the Baal kill and getting an increase to 12,000 ish (IIRC from the ATMA calculator) that's still bumping up run time and effectively lowering your chances overall. 12k runs taking 3-4 minutes each compared to 30k runs taking 20-30 seconds each makes a huge difference.

Also after reading a recent 10k pindle thread about a frenzy barb I considered adding some horking skills to effectively get an extra drop every other run. That would maximize chance for those high end drops even more.

Also, Grats on the 99 barb! Can only hope to join you some day.

@Enochdarg: Robby's explanation goes hand in hand with what I was trying to say. Get in there and nova like crazy before they have a chance to attack and they'll be gone before you know it. That or you'll be gone before you know it. Think about increasing the mana and trying a little bit of ES, even from a staff to see if you want to invest the points. I'm not sure the difference it will make but it could alleviate some health concerns as well when teleporting wildly into packs.

If you can't find the wizzy a spectral shard can be of equally good use for the build, given you can find one of those instead. Has the same 50 fcr to ramp up that cast speed. I would shoot for that next breakpoint and not worry about the drop in +skills. That little bit of increase in speed could be what will make all the difference for your sorc. Best of luck! May the drops run gold.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Yes all good advice. She is almost level 60 now so she is using 30fcr on occy. 20 fcr on lidless 20fcr on magefist, 20fcr on que hagens, and a fcr ammy and ring. to make 110fcr.

So far things work a bit better. I have been trying to static a few times before i nova away and seem to get hit while static-ing. Seems to drop much faster but perhaps its best to just nova the whole way?

The biggest problem i am running into is the tele on hit that the occy provides. Incredibly annoying to suddenly be a screen away from the herd.

I read that that particulary part of the occy was bugged in 1.09 but i can attest that it is indeed working as planned. Perhaps even more so.

I might try to take a break from her tonight and get some cows done on my javazon. I read a bit of your java comparison robby so im readdy to hit her up again.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Occy CtC teleport is broken in 1.09d - you must be playing 1.09b. Yes, 'port and spam nova immediately - static is for the big single bosses.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

So is there any other major differences between 1.09's? I was unaware of multiple patches for 1.09, i just load up the game and it says v1.09

Nova is working better without static, still getting hit and killed occasionally but ill get it worked out with practice i suppose. Probably some operator error in there. Im thinking of dropping a frost nova first then spamming nova after, of course getting the shiver armor will help with that too i think.

Might look into buying a energy shield staff for switch as well to test that out. When i read that energy shield does not take in to account resists i decided against it, but in the cowland not much for elemental attacks.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

So is there any other major differences between 1.09's?

Some. In 1.09b you can use the players command up to 64, though it breakes the game in some ways and isn't really worth it (only 5% increase in XP per player versus 50% increase in monster HP). But if you like some crazy challenge, 1.09b is probably the easiest non-mod way to get it (with p64 or so).

In 1.09d you have the broken CtC's, which just usually means better Oculus. Those are the only two differences I know of.

A minor find: XP from p8 Mephisto stays fairly constant from high 70s to lvl 85. I've gotten about 0.7 million from every run as far as I can remember and I check it every level up. It has even risen to 0.75 million XP per run on lvl 85.

I think this is because Mephisto is lvl 85 monster, so even though the XP nerf comes into play, it is compensated by less difference between the monster level and you. So I would think running Mephisto on p8 with moat static trick is efficient leveling-wise until you reach lvl 85 - after that I think your XP intake will drop. Right now it takes about 95 million to reach lvl 86, so about 126 runs on p8, which really isn't that much if you think about it (some two hours of MF'ing). The runs per level has increased some, but not so much as you would think.

So if I were to write a cheesy starting guide for 1.09, I would recommend taking a static sorceress with some of the following skills: firewall, meteor, blizzard and trying to reach hell mephisto as fast as you can. If you could reach him on lvl 70 or so, and would be able to static moat him with p8, you would rocket yourself to lvl 80 and the journey to lvl 85 would give you plenty of wealth to continue your 1.09 journey.

After lvl 85, I think cows and/or baal ?


 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

My first chararter here after my return was a meteorb sorc. I did NM cows untill 60 then basicly teled all the way to the ancients and ran circles while i dropped meteors and orbs then ran phisto without the high static, would have been nice, untill i was more able to take on lister, who i find much harder then baal.

Now to decide whether or not to track down a 1.09d patch and make the switch or just keep going with the normal 1.09 version.

My Javazon found yet another trap skiller tonight. That makes 4 now. Really tempting me to start on that character too....

So many funn builds to try and so little time to try them. Amazing how such an old game can swallow you up. Good times.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

@Enochdarg: I'll back up mouseman's answer... the only differences I am aware of between 1.09d and 1.09b are the broken CtC and P8 limit of 1.09d vs the working CtC and P64 limit of 1.09b. On Sorc safety, I made Memory in a +2ES/+2Chilling Armor Staff, and I was much more impressed with the CA than the ES (Chilling was best for Countess running because it addressed the LI Archers). Next best thing to Memory in a +ES staff is a Warpspear Gothic Staff if you want to experiment with ES.

I can't help you on the decision on converting your sorc - you have to decide that yourself. One thing I would suggest you keep in mind is that you said the Occy is only until you get a Wizzy, so you won't be dealing with that 'porting one the Bone Knife drops.

@mouseman: 1.09 Hell Mephy is level 90 - that means that you can get +2 skill rare ammys from him. There is no level XP nerf in 1.09 - the only XP reduction is the one based on level differences. My Barb ran Mephy most of the way from 98 to 99.

I can't say I disagree with your cheesy starting 1.09 idea - other than to say that there's no reason not to ride Mephy all the way. Cows are always fun, and a good place to get nice charms - also good for some of the top end stuff Mephy can't drop (I got Naj's armor, Arkaine's Valor, Trang's hat, etc. from cows), but especially good for nice charms and jewels.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I recall only using the ES on my nova sorc because of the high mana pool and I mostly ran cows with her. Wizzy, Frosties, Soj's all bumped the mana pool tremendously and made it pretty viable. 1 pt didn't make it the most effective like ES pvp sorcs in 1.13 but it seemed to take the edge off a little in those cow games.

As far as the frost nova first think about the cold length cut in hell vs how fast you kill the packs and how well you can switch over skills after you tele in. I know frost nova has a pretty good cold length but hitting those extra hotkeys could factor in some more operator issues if you find that you really are facing them.

Instead of shopping that staff you could always check the ones that drop in those cow games. If you're going to be in there already why not. That's where I used to search for trap claws myself on top of the charms/jewels Robby already mentioned. Hello 40/15's :drool:
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Yeah, I relied on Wizzy/Shako/Frosties/SoJs for the mana as well. Even with that, you run dry after a couple minutes of aggressive spamming. I'd say just keep some blue/purple pots at the ready - even if you can't shop blues, they generally drop enough to keep a collection.

BTW, I got my dual Zons to level 15, so I put the Tarnhelm on Blitzkrieg and ran some Coldcrow for my last TC3 gap, the Torch of Iro. MS with an Envy bow is awesome, let me tell you. Didn't find a Torch, but I did find only my second Knell Striker ever! However, the Envy Bow is not nearly as OMG! as the 1.09 Raven Claw in 1.13 (ShocknAwe) - that is hilariously overpowered.
 
Back
Top