1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I've been hoping for some caster gear to start dropping but have not had the most luck so far in that department. I'm wanting to transition, for the time at least, to a sorc for mfing. The tele ability is priceless when trying to do fast runs. Wishing a peasant crown, viperskin or que-hagen's would drop to give me some decent plus skills. maybe

I'll start gambling for circlets to get some of those +sorc skills and hope for some fcr. Even a spectral shard would be nice right about now to help a sorc out. Even a lore for the +skill would be worth it. Have a couple of the norm unique bone shields for a decent starting shield with fcr. If only a viscerataunt would show or the lovely lidless.

I have been picking up any staff's/orbs that drop to look for some decent +skill/fcr ones and have found a couple with the +1 and a +2 orb. But until I feel I can outfit a sorc a little bit better I'll keep pushing on with the barb.

Act 4 isn't too bad so far but I have not made it to the fiery pits yet. Izzy went down allright and p8 hasn't been too harsh. I'm sitting at 53 getting ready to take on the forge and then heading on to big D. I know I need to buff up some fire res before trying to take him out. The venom lords inferno has been packing quite a punch lately.

At this point and time I'm pretty sad about getting rid of my defiance merc. The small boost in damage has not upped my survivability at all. I'm using the cb from my strength axe and the headstriker for damage to take out any monsters. it's like 600/200 max damage split between the two. But that decent cb helps out. I may try and switch back to a defiance merc to get the added defense coupled with my shout or try for the HF merc to slow down the baddies. More decisions... meh...
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Enochdarg said:
Does this mean you found a mystic Windforce? How close are you to completing your grail?

Got up to a vex rune i remember and if you snagged a wf your getting the super rares.

I wish mephy would just cough up these dozen items im waiting on so i can start running higher level areas.
Click to expand...

No, I traded for a 1.13 WF - My 1.13 Zon will be a WF Strafer. My 1.09 Zon's bow skill will be a GA/MA with the Buriza.

I do hope for a WF in 1.09, but I think the rarest thing I've found is Griswold's Valor and the rarest USEFUL thing has been Schaefer's Hammer. Funny, the first elite unique my 1.13 Pally found was a Messy's Reaver, which is a 1.09 drop I never got.

My 1.09 Pally is running Pindle to 99 on the hope of a WF drop.

@cheerupemokid10: You mostly need some MDR and/or fire absorb - I think a Dwarfstar would be a one-item fix. Just tank Big D - the lightning hose will miss him if he's mano-e-mano with Big D, only the fire carpet hurts. Remember to Zerk the OKs when you're IM'd.


 
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Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Well last night I went back and did some more Meph runs to try and get some items for the drafting tourney soon. Found a couple of pieces from Sigons which I have not found any of so far.

Also had a few amazing drops, consecutively at that. First was an old favorite that I had totally forgotten about: the suicide branch! +1 skills, 50 fcr, increase mana, every caster's dream and way better than the spectral shard I had been thinking of. I had used dual suicide branches on my 1.09 singer barb way back when known as CryBaby. Then two runs later the epic TITANS!!! Ohh I was so excited I could hardly handle it. The very next run a bloodletter dropped. Even though I'm not a whirler it was still a pretty nice find.

I ran the beast until my laptop was about to die and I was too tired to plug it in and do any more runs. I just need to find an alright 2os helm to make that Ort+Sol in and I think I'll have enough +skills to get my lvl 10 sorc moving a little nicer. I may even finally try some self mp to rush her and see how it goes.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Yep the suicide branch is indeed a fine caster weapon for all early to mid stages. I have even considered it over occy on my noca sorc sence i can not for the life of me get a wizzy to drop. NM phisto and diablo were my main targets to get geared up when i started up on SP a few months back. Super fun finding all the old goodies i remembered from way back when.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Well I ran some more Mephy over the weekend and got a few more nice drops. Two more titans dropped and one with near perfect ED for a max dmg of 202. A skin managed to drop, albeit with only 22 @ res :(. I could nearly believe it when the golden grim helm dropped. opened the stash and it was eth! Would've been perfect for my barb but will go just as well on a merc eventually.

I managed to gear up my sorc who was at level 9 pretty well. She's now got all the parts to sigon's that I've found and a civerbs (the +max dmg/clvl is really nice). It's going fast and i can't wait to get to 18 for tele and 30 for FO and all the gear I've found so far will be able to equip by then other than the suicide branch at 33. Lore helm, Skin, Wall of the Eyeless bone shield for the fcr (and since nothing else better has dropped), Waterwalks, and Frosties. After all that she'll be a force to reckon with.

Starting over again without all the nice twink gear goes slow but at least this is better than starting totally fresh with her. I'll probably go back and forth between the sorc and the barb. I want to get to Hell Meph to get the rest of that sweet gear for the end game stuff with the barb. But, I also miss playing an orb/nova sorc too. So I'll just switch back and forth between the two.

The headstrikers and aldur's rhythm are working well with the barb, although I think I might just go with dual aldurs since the deadly strike doesn't factor in from the headstriker. The whole crit strike bug factors out the deadly strike and the mods on an aldur's are much more beneficial than the headstriker. I'd get plenty of leech and super fast attacks this way.

The only thing to start considering now is what skill to max next. I've finished up frenzy and BO, so now it's time to decide to sink some points into a mastery, shout, berserk, or hork (to get closer to 50% when running Pindle).
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I'd pump Zerk. It's very handy to be able to Zerk with your main 1H weapon over a 2H on switch (so you can keep dual Ali Babas on switch), and the returns on Zerk are very nice.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Yep i think aldurs weapon is not bad at all. Mastery was my last to max and i did not notice any huge difference. Personally i think berserk is a 1 point wonder skill. I only put 1 in it and i can mow through PI with a chippy sword at a fair pace.

But zerk, shout, iron skin, mastery, find item, are all skills that a few points in would not be a waste.

As for my drops update... i finally got a skullders and war travs( 50%mf ) to fall, so that will bump my magic find barb up to 450 or so. Quite pleased with that.

I also got a lightsabre 155% meh.. seems to be a bit weaker then the chippie swords (cruel champion sword) but more testing will be required to see if the added elemental and magic damage plus light sorb is worth the loss in direct physical damage.

Not too much of a problem with elemental dammage with him being mainly a phisto runner for now. Phisto only atacks with poison and physical when going toe to toe.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I've got some nice finds from Hell Mephisto running lately. Found titan's (163% / 7ll), wizardspike (finally!!) and a raven claw. What's the fuss the raven claw? Is it good in 1.09 or only when forwarded to 1.10+?
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

That Lightsabre will come in quite handy for other MF targets for the Frenzy speed and protection from MSLEs. Gratz on the sweet drops!

Raven Claws are only awesome after conversion to 1.10+
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Third run of the day, after giving up all hope the previous day, A GOLDEN SHAKO DROPS!
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Just when all hope is lost the game sucks you back in.... same story for us all.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

It's always early on in a session when an epic drop happens. That's happened to me multiple times.

My Zons are finishing NM Act 3 - Blitzkrieg already took down Mephy, ShocknAwe is in UK. What I've found is that the tanking jav skills SUXXOR in 1.09 versus 1.10+. I've tested CS, LS, Jab and Fend, and, really, I like Jab over everything else right now, but I'll plan on really giving Fend a chance. Good thing is the bow skills are so much better in 1.09 than 1.10+, so you just have to play more as a true hybrid.

Question - is anybody playing 1.09 in Windows7? Did you have any problems?
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I think jab is far superior to fiend as well. There just seems to be too many times when you miss every hit on fiend. And for it to hit multiple times vs 1 mob you must have a valk, decoy, and merc around it. Jab is more user friendly.

I play on windows xp. On a dinosaur of a laptop that overheats after about 1.5 hours... and lately has been closing D2 due to an error c000005... No idea what thats all about.

I might just do a reinstall of the operating system and start the whole thing from scratch. First i got to figure out how to save the atma stash and the chars ive worked so hard on before this thing crashes for good.

The trapsin is now in act 5 NM and the trap strength is getting weak. Still making progress but the firewave is nearly useless at lvl26 and LS is medeocre at best. I have yet to pump Death sentry but a few points is not doing much there.

I do not notice much difference with the shadow warrior helping, but it is nice to have another meat shield since i just stand there while the merc and traps do the killing.

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

RobbyD said:
Question - is anybody playing 1.09 in Windows7? Did you have any problems?
Click to expand...

I'm playing 1.09 in Windows7. I've not noticed any problems, other than that the OS changes the Windows visual style to basic when launching the game. I didn't even have to meddle with compatibility settings, if I remember correctly. I'm using TrenShadow's version changer, though, so it might be different if I'd done it the other way around (install old discs and patch up to 1.09).


 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Sorry for double post, but I have to report an end of an era.

I'm officially done with Mephisto. Well, for now.

After reaching level 87 (been mainly running him from mid-70s) and finding most of the items I looked for (shako, skin of the vipermagi, wizardspike, hone sundan, to name a few) I'm ready for the moo moo land. Running mephisto for god knows how many times gave me 2/3 of the game's items - flavie reports 67.3% completed grail. I might continue running Mephisto some day, because I still frequently get new items off of him and I didn't yet hit the jackpot zone (mara's, SoJ, tal rasha's and the rest).

I still didn't figure out why the XP acted like it did. It used to be fairly solid 0.7 - 0.75 million XP per p8 Mephisto Hell kill from levels ~80-85, but it dropped to 0.58 million in level 86 and continued that way in level 87. I still don't know how the game works with XP in 1.09 and if there is level based XP penalty or not. As in terms of runs needed for a level, it required about 50 p8 runs in the low 80s in contrast of nearly 200 runs to get from lvl 86 to lvl 87. I don't know if it slows down more after that, but the XP is something to consider even if people usually run Mephisto for the itamz.

I've been thinking about us 1.09 players getting together for some cow running (because everyone can clear part of the level independently, the XP intake multiplies with each player). It would be fun to meet some of you in game, too. Too bad we seem to live far away from each others.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I have yet to try multi-single player playing.. If that even makes sence. However i would be game to try. I usually get on for a few hours at about this time ( i believe the forums have a time clock when posts are made) If that works at all we can figure out how to do it.

Mephy gave you all that i have been waiting for... viper, wizzy, especially.

Im a bit jealous.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I've MP'd with Hamachi - I still have a 1.09 Hamachi group establised. Dormant now, but a good go-to place for folks that want to hook up.

Group name: D2 1.09
Password: D2 1.09

I made a breakthrough in my Windows7 problem - 1.07 launches, but with the display glitch. I'm going to try to get patched up to 1.09 and install the glide wrapper.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I play so seldom that it would really be lucky if I managed to be online at the same time as somebody in Alaska or anywhere in the United States, for that matter. We could maybe schuedule a weekend or something, but it might be more trouble than anything else.

Also, I think some of us play different versions of 1.09. This limits the MP and trading possibilities. I might be willing to move up to 1.09d, if it becomes some kind of standard in here. I mean, why split up a small community any further? I went 1.09b only because the players command goes up to 64, but that turned out to be pretty useless (gained XP doesn't keep up with monster HPs).

I changed my prayer merc, which I've been playing with from the beginning, to a holy freeze merc. I thought the new merc would level fast enough in Hell cows, but I was wrong (mainly because it's so hard to keep the merc alive). Then I tried normal cows, but wrong again. Now it's normal Baal runs, because the monster levels are close enough to mercenaries (he's lvl 38 now). I have a couple of questions about that:

Does my merc get less XP because I, the one killing all the monsters, are so high level? I've considering just using static field (I've got lvl 25 static field with 110 fcr) and letting the merc kill everything, would this be wise?

Also, I now have 1 point in enchant, but I find the damage somewhat underwhelming (averaging around 60, I think). Does enchant give AR in 1.09 or just fire damage? Do you really find that extra damage that useful that you will re-cast it all the time, RobbyD?
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

I have never mp'd SP style either and don't have a good net connection at home to play. Otherwise I would definitely be down to join in if time zones and things worked out. I usually play late on the weekends but I've been busy putting a patio in, grading for the end of the year, and other junk so I have not been playing much. Also had to give back my work laptop which I was using to play on and the power cord is fried on my personal laptop. So once I get that all fixed I'll be back in business.

@mouseman: Your merc will get less experience than you do for the kills, I think about half of what you're getting. If he makes the kill he receives the full experience. So while staticing and letting him get the kills will result in more experience for him per kill it will probably be faster still to do the killing for him. Even with the experience cut he's taking your kills will go a lot faster. My suggestion for areas to run would be the bloody foothills. Start in town A5 and make your way up to Shenk, take on Eldritch as well if you like. The packs are a little smaller and you can tele out of the way of those spike root attacks and away from the catapult drops. Try going on up to NM and see how the merc holds out there. Those cows swamp mercs in no time and are a lot tougher on merc survivability. If you've gotten a shaftstop or gaze throw that on him before taking on any more cows (once you get him to 42 of course) and then he might be able to handle them with more ease.

As for enchant I do believe it added AR in 1.09. I recall it being useful for zons on lavagouts (IIRC) to bump up their AR even higher. So yes it will help the merc hit more but he probably won't kill too much faster given the small damage increase. If he's just plain missing a lot from the mlvl's being too high for him then it will help in that department. But given the suggestion earlier, do the killing for him and you won't have to worry about it.

I always did bloody runs to level up my mercs in 1.09 and it was a crazy popular way to gain levels on the realms. Just as popular as baal runs and close to popularity with the meat farm.
 
Re: 1.09 Roll Call - Goals, Progress, Finds

Leveling your new NM merc is a pain, no doubt. However, I don't usually have huge survivability issues because I have level 35 gear ready for him - Face of Horror, Honor Yari, and your choice of normal or low exceptional armor should keep him good until he's level 41 for the Gaze/Hone/DShell combo (Gaze beat Blackhorn's until you start running into the MSLEs in Hell). I usually don't go back to normal to level him - I just gear him up and soldier on.

I put the point in Enchant, honestly, only because it gave the merc SOME damage when the Countess spawned PI, and my MeteOrb had so much in skills and FM (which impacts Enchant damage). With all that, Enchant actually gave some decent fire damage and a real nice duration. No AR in 1.09 though... but I did use it for cows as well as the damage (with FM) is actually worth the effort of casting it whenever you're in town.

When I converted to 1.10a, whooo boy, that Enchant is actually really nice for some Andy running.
 
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