[2016] The Untwinked Level 99 Progress Thread [by Kitteh]

Neksja said:
Unlucky with the death @PhineasB but also very lucky that it was early on and you could recover the body. And you've already gotten Mal and Sur from Nihlathak? I've done close to 1000 Nihlathak runs and all I've gotten is Pul...

How fast are you with Nihlathak at the moment? You'll probably get a lot faster once you get more runs done and gain confidence. Looking good so far and isn't it nice to gain those few first pixels of XP? :) Now that I have enough XP gained to actually call it an XP bar, it seems like if I play for a week and gain 20 mil XP, the bar has not moved at all :p So welcome to the "keep an eye on the bar all times" -club, it's both fun and frustrating!
Pb_pal said:
@PhineasB - Sorry about the death, but cool to see the results of your testing (and some rewards already in rune form!). As for the XP bar, I was tempted at times to put a sticky note over it to keep myself from meticulously checking if it had changed. Too bad I would then just check the LCS every run to watch the numbers climb. :p

Good progress everyone!
PhineasB said:
Thanks @Neksja and @Pb_pal. The death wasn't really that bad, largely because I was pretty sure it would happen. I'm glad I tested things out very early on in the level before XP penalty really takes effect.

As to the runes @Neksja, I think that was pretty lucky. But as @NanoMist found, the increased drops from killing all the minions rather than targeting only Nihl make a difference. As you can see in the screenies, both runes actually came from other monsters around Nihl's platform. I almost missed the Mal, and with the Sur also very close to the edge of the screen, Mercy now teleports to middle of the platform before S&E every time (gotta make sure there isn't a Zod hiding in the corner ;)).

Although lucky (and I'm DEFINITELY not complaining), those two early rune drops have actually slowed down the running a little because I scan the whole area for shiny objects + that teleport to get good view of the edges. For me, though, it's definitely worth it, as the idea of killing Nihl over and over without increased chances of nice drops feels like something that I'd burn out on.

I've timed two half hour sessions (one right before respec-ing and one yesterday). The XP/30 min was 1.15M and 1.18M, respectively. So significantly less than 2.5M/hr.

I am pretty sure that will pick up with practice and also as she gets out of the habit of picking up non-rejuv potions. I am pretty sure Malah once every 5 runs (or whenever mana or healers run out) will be faster -- that's the next thing to test. And not looking at the XP bar or LCS during sessions (only after) to help morale :p

Also, a quick question for the 99ers and close-to-99ers: what do you recommend picking up at this stage? I am picking up charms (small and grand); flawless amethysts; jewels; Ral, Sol and Hel+ runes; all unique and rare rings and ammys; and elite sets and uniques (as a trophy, regardless of whether needed for her grail). Am I missing anything or picking up too much? Thanks!
Pb_pal said:
At that point all I picked up were Ist+ runes, SC/GC, Flawless Amethysts/Rubies, unique jewelery and the very occasional grailer/useful S/U. I had basically no MF at that stage though, so I wasn't picking up much of the latter stuff.
Pringlesman said:
Man, you have to be a baller to leaver Mal's and Um's on the ground.
Pb_pal said:
At that point of the journey I took much more joy in saving a second or two rather than picking up my umpteenth Mal/Um that would inevitably go unused. :p
NanoMist said:
I also picked up the usual stuff already listed by Pb_pal, except my rune cutoff was at Um. Rare amulets from Nihlathak only, rare rings anywhere. Sometimes I check gray items and rare boots, sometimes I don't. ID items and discard while death sentry does its thing or fire blast if nothing else to do.

When I rerolled maps, I also searched for a well in Halls of Vaught along with those 3 shrines. I used the well once every few runs, but it could help with using less potions.
Neksja said:
@PhineasB you are still a bit faster than I am, my average XP per hour at the moment is somewhere around 2.2M. But I kinda know why I am not faster...

I pick up some much garbage. Every rune. Yes, that's every rune, even Els and Elds, I've gotta catch em all. And every Set and Unique. In addition to that, I pick up all rare rings, rare amulets if they are from Diablo/Nihlathak and all Grand/Small charms and Jewels. I did give up on picking up flawless gems while running LK, it was slowing me so much down. But that shiny El, oh that's no waste of time at all... :oops:
Me2NiK said:
Is it too late to get in on this? This is exactly what I'm doing with my next character.
T72on1 said:
Not at all. The more the merrier !!! What character are you playing?

Good luck :). Read through the thread for a ton of info and useful tips.
Me2NiK said:
I am playing a (currently level 85, started a couple of days ago) hardcore Amazon named Fugu. She's a LF/FA hybrid until her gear improves. Right now it is abysmal; so abysmal, in fact, that yesterday I accidentally found myself without javs by throwing down to 0 the best javelin that my (then 82) character had found up until that point -- superior maiden javelins. Seventeen years playing this game and I never knew that if you threw a white item to exhaustion it would disappear instead of going down to 0. My mercenary, with his shaft, rockstopper and perfect ca insight, is doing a lot better than I am.

I'll add myself to the chart when I finish playing for the day.

I read quite a bit of the thread already and it's been quite interesting reading some of the stuff that's happened to you guys.
NanoMist said:
Welcome! It's great to see an amazon joining the fray.
Me2NiK said:
Thanks. I love playing amazons, but I personally don't think they do too well at untwinked. I've been at Shenk for a couple of days and I think I'm going to be stuck here until my gear improves by a significant margin.
PhineasB said:
Welcome! Always good to have new characters join.

Also, thanks to everyone for the responses about what you pick up for level 98. It was progress for me to stop picking up all runes, but I will likely cull down the mid-runes a bit more. I have a hard time seeing myself leaving a Lem run sitting there though :rolleyes:
Chaostar said:
Welcome Me2NiK ! :D


Pb_pal said:
At that point all I picked up were Ist+ runes, SC/GC, Flawless Amethysts/Rubies, unique jewelery and the very occasional grailer/useful S/U. I had basically no MF at that stage though, so I wasn't picking up much of the latter stuff.

OMG !

My 2 cents : I also pick up every single rune since I play this game, I hardly let on the ground chipped or flawed gems...
That's also probably why I'm so slow, and it's obvious now I keep record or the hours played for the first time : I realized yesterday that my sorceress who needed 100 hours to get lvl 90 is a joke compared to Naomist sin, who needed... 30 hrs for the same result :eek:. Same for T72on1's Neverland, about 33 hours to get lvl 90. So I'm the problem here :p

Obviously, if I could handle playing over /p1 to /p3 it would be far better, but I'm yet drinking mana pots (thanks to the lightning branch) too often, babysit/resurrect my mercenary far too much to afford /p5 ou /p7...
Me2NiK said:
What's the point of picking them all up though? Where do they all go? I find myself with absolutely ridiculous numbers of midrunes even just by the time I get to 90. Having said that, I would certainly pick up um and mal.

The other side of this is that when you need a specific rune and you don't have it it's a real pain to get it. I spent over an hour yesterday farming for an ith.
T72on1 said:
Yeah, definitely try to have at least some of every rune. Would be really silly to find a Zod, want to make BotD and then have to farm for an El ...
Chaostar said:
Me2NiK said:
What's the point of picking them all up though? Where do they all go? I find myself with absolutely ridiculous numbers of midrunes even just by the time I get to 90.
I know it's not a smart thing to do, but I do this anyway.
It may comes from the way I played Diablo 1 for the first time, back in 20th century :D : I picked every gold pack, even if I knew I would end up soon with an inventory full of gold packs.

On the other hand, I'm far from the situation you describe : my untwinkled sorceress from lvl 1 to 90 gathered :
8 El
6 Eld
21 tir
22 Nef
33 Eth
...
50 Ort is the max rune amount, so I'm far from a ridiculous number of runes.
And the infinite stash make all this easy, but it was the same when I played on battle.net...

Usually, I cube up to Nef, Ral, Sol low runes to use as craft material, and I keep Shael and so, I cube them up if needed,but I never spend hours to cube runes.


Once said, I'm a very slow player, I know why, but I can't help it.
Timinator said:
Normal countess if you want low runes, high levels the rubbish doesn't drop much anymore (thankfully)
Me2NiK said:
Chaostar, I am truly humbled to be in the presence of the player with fifty orts. I don't know what you'll do with them all, but it doesn't matter.

When I said "excessive amounts of midrunes", I was referring to my five sols.

Gear still pretty shabby, but I got a 49 War Travs today, which is leaps and bounds better than anything else I've found. Anya also gave me +2/+2 javs, which is the first time I've ever gotten anything of worth from her.
 
Neksja said:
@Me2NiK last time I checked, I had 480 Ort runes in my 99runner's stashes. So yeah some of us have some hoarding problems...

But 5 Sols is nowhere close to excessive amount, especially for Sol runes. Sol runes are used in Insight and crafting, so they are actually quite "valuable" for a mid rune. Same goes for other runes like Rals, which are used in crafts, Orts are handy for repairing your weapons in the cube to save gold for gambling etc etc. Obviously some of them are rubbish, like I am not sure I could use 370+ Eth runes I have during my life time, unless for some reason I really want godly Blood Crafted boots, which is pretty unlikely.

The fact that we that unlimited stash space, enables us to have all that random garbage for "just in case". If I were you, I'd look at different builds that I'd want to try out in the future and see if any of them would benefit from having a great crafted amulet/ring/gloves/belt and plan accordingly and start picking up runes that are required in that recipe. Want a pair of Knockback gloves with 2javelin/20ias and other goodies? Better stock up on Ort runes and try your luck with crafting Hit Power gloves.


Aura has been running CS and Nihlathak, but not much. Nihlathak dropped a Giant Skull, 2os and 31str if I am not mistaken (2os definitely, not sure of str roll), which was a nice grailer. During my CS runs, I've decided to start taking out boss packs, since they slow me down maybe 2sec per pack, so at least I'm trying to get some of those TC87s I am missing. Also adds a bit of variety to the runs which is nice.

RFL Round 2 starts in less than 17 hours for me, so I'll try to update the table for Aura before that. I've decided that I'll just run one set of 20 hours, doesn't matter what my score is, then it's time to move back to XP grind. I am trying to build a decent lead before @PhineasB is properly starting to hunt me down. Luckily, I still have that Ancients quest left, which will give me a nice boost when I need it the most, but I'm trying to save it for the last 100 mil.
T72on1 said:
Orts are very useful to repair stuff that costs a lot of gold to repair. Items with staffmods come to mind. My WW Sin will happily use the 150 or so Orts I have by now, because repairing his Chaos Claw with some staffmods on it costs a huge amount of gold. I forgot how much, but it's 1M, or even more.
Chaostar said:
And Ort is part of Spirit, it may take several tries before get a perfect spirit roll.
ThomasJohnsen said:
Me2NiK said:
Chaostar, I am truly humbled to be in the presence of the player with fifty orts. I don't know what you'll do with them all, but it doesn't matter.
He can repair an expensive to fix weapon (typically an item with charges or superior item) 50 times :D
I tend to save a lot of the midlevel runes as well - many can be used for crafting or rerolling spirits/insights etc.

#EDIT: Well this was answered several times on a new page which i failed to notice. Too quick on the draw I guess.
Me2NiK said:
I usually don't keep this stuff because I seldom need it. I probably never will need more than five sols in reserve (if that) and this character, being that she is untwinked and an amazon, doesn't have too much use for an infinite supply of low runes. I play almost all of my characters untwinked and, indeed, without an extended stash (using one for this character though), so hoarding is never really pertinent.

I'm also not much of a perfectionist. I'd never attempt to craft 2/20 +knockback when Charsi's willing to sell me a nice 3/20 with 9 defense!
Neksja said:
Code:
Name         (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy     Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal       Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist     Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja       Aura            SC      Paladin   98.20          Yes        6750        462            -           -
T72on1       Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
PhineasB     Mercy           SC      Sin       98             Yes           -        446            9           -
hasuprotoss  Reina           SC      Sorc      96             Yes        1100        339            -           -
PhineasB     Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        375           17           -
Tarantella   Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub  Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz         Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
OldSoldier   Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin     tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar     Prairie         SC      Sorc      90             Yes         508        234           11         105
Southpaw     Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt       CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan      Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Lynchgrinch  Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
PhineasB     Phaedrus        SC      Pala      89             Yes         268        156            9           -
LiquidClear  Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage  zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma      Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja       Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone    Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma      Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb   Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt       AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit       Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila   SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo         Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule   Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl   Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor     Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax   Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb   Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh       Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU          Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit       Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer      Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin   Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC          Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1


As promised, an update on Aura and the tables.

1/5 done! Feels pretty good, but yet, so far away from the ultimate goal. Progress is slow at the moment, but that's because of on-going RFL shenanigans, so I expect things to really pick up in 5 weeks.

As per usual, I've been running CS and occasionally Nihlathak until I get annoyed by his teleporting around. A huge disadvantage to Hammerdin's out there, the hammer spiral is not the most consisting way to hit enemies.

I don't really have much to update, it's only 5% since the last update and I already showed RFL round 1 rune hauls etc. I have been lately wondering what to do with all my runes post-RFL, I don't really have any plans after Aura is done, other than slowly start again with Turirao in this tournament, but I'm not sure how long it's gonna take for me to take on another 99 try :p So if anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate them! For reference, I have access to every rune, even Zod by cubing 2 Chams, so any idea is welcome :)

Good luck with all the 99ers participating to Round 2 of RFL and those who don't good luck with your running around outside Travincal and may your drops be red, green and golden!
hasuprotoss said:
We made it to 97 :) No longer an empty spot in the table!

Not much in the way of excitement. Two dumb deaths, one where I couldn't recover my body since my body retrieval kit doesn't have much FHR and I tele'd into a bunch of Knights, and one this morning where I did recover my body but ran out of time to finish before having to go to work.

Finds in the last stretch of 96 are below:
k0VCI5O.jpg

No idea what to do with this!

4w24whl.jpg

Hope for a better HotO?

ByAYunW.jpg

Hitting this random poppable finally pays off!

pUqtOcM.jpg

Second Tal's armor. Zero Tal's Ammys :(

nJnOIG5.jpg

The ding shot!

Now I need to figure out my last two levels. I would imagine that doing what I've been doing (Gripphon runs) would still be the best for 97 to 98. However, I've thought about swapping up to either Blizz/Nova or CL/FO to a.) mix things up and b.) murder Diablo. I think I have a bunch of respec tokens, so I'll get a chance to play around with a few things before truly settling on the next big grind.

If anyone has any advice for what they think is best for getting to 98, I'm all ears. And to everyone who's still grinding away, keep on keepin' on :D


Code:
Name         (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy     Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal       Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist     Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja       Aura            SC      Paladin   98.20          Yes        6750        462            -           -
T72on1       Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
PhineasB     Mercy           SC      Sin       98             Yes           -        446            9           -
hasuprotoss  Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB     Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        375           17           -
Tarantella   Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub  Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz         Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
OldSoldier   Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin     tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar     Prairie         SC      Sorc      90             Yes         508        234           11         105
Southpaw     Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt       CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan      Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Lynchgrinch  Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
PhineasB     Phaedrus        SC      Pala      89             Yes         268        156            9           -
LiquidClear  Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage  zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma      Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja       Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone    Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma      Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb   Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt       AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit       Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila   SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo         Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule   Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl   Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor     Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax   Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb   Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh       Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU          Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit       Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer      Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin   Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC          Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
T72on1 said:
Very well done !!! And congrats on that Cham. Hold on to it until you find another one and cube up to Zod or (what I'd do) make a Doom runeword at some point.

Most efficient thing to do would be 2 Seal CS runs, yes. But if you're really tired of those, you could always go for Blizz / Nova and go after Diablo as well.
Neksja said:
@hasuprotoss congrats on lvl97 and the Cham! Nice going and most importantly, thanks for filling the gap in levels :)

For a Sorc, I'm fairly sure the fastest way to lvl98 is Gripp runs, like you and @T72on1 said. For me, it was slightly faster to run p7 seals and Diablo as a Hammerdin, but considering that you're a Cold sorc, Lord de Seis will cause you troubles/slowing down, I doubt you can beat Gripp runs for purely XP purposes.

So, that's two Cham runes for runners in this thread for this week! Pretty amazing. Does it mean that @T72on1 will find the third one in Travincal today/tomorrow to complete the trifecta? I sure do hope so! :)
hasuprotoss said:
T72on1 said:
And congrats on that Cham. Hold on to it until you find another one and cube up to Zod
As I was finally moving the Cham from my character to my GoMule stash I had a pleasant surprise... this Cham was my second one! Since I found my first way back on page 22 of this thread (so a little under a year ago) it's not too surprising that I had forgotten that I had ever obtained the first! @T72on1 you actually found one on page 21 as well. Hopefully our Cham finding times are close again as you hunt for one in the RFL!

Thanks for the advice guys! I'll continue running two seals as a pure Blizz sorc. I've definitely settled on Blova for 98 to 99, going p1 seals to p7 Diablo. CL/FO is just vastly different from what I'm used to and in my limited time I couldn't make it anywhere near as efficient as Blova for either Baal or Diablo.

I also remembered that I was looking for an Ist to make Delirium. Luckily as I was moving runes from my character to GoMule I saw the helm and Io rune waiting for the Ist I found in my last post. My mercenary now feels way more impactful instead of with Andariel's Visage. The various procs from Delirium allow for a lot safer running. The loss in IAS is worth it since at this point I'm doing the bulk of the damage and Durga is just here to keep me safe.
ThomasJohnsen said:
I shall enter this with my sorc from the Alphabet tourney, if that is acceptable. She is 1.13 HC and just reached level 91 today.
Hopefully I will have the patience to take her to 99 :)
PhineasB said:
Very cool @ThomasJohnsen. Welcome! You aren't going to keep those tourney restrictions though, right? This is challenging enough, especially in HC as you are, without restricting equipment so much. :eek:
ThomasJohnsen said:
PhineasB said:
Very cool @ThomasJohnsen. Welcome! You aren't going to keep those tourney restrictions though, right? This is challenging enough, especially in HC as you are, without restricting equipment so much. :eek:
The instant Baal was killed, I sided in like 15 charms and switched weapon, amulet and boots. So no on the restrictions :D.
You should try building a char on those restrictions though - it's surprisingly challenging. Even the skills alphabet rule prevents some builds entirely. And some runewords are just killers - taking up 2 letters. I definately enjoyed it while it lasted - but now I enjoy it's over :)


#EDIT:
View attachment 4864 <== Not working!!!!
This makes 2 HoZ, 4 Wizardspike, 4 War Traveler, 2 Bul-Katho's WB, 3 Harlequin Crest, 3 Facets, 4 Shaftstops, 2 Stormshields, 5 SoEs and 0 Skin of the Vipermagi found on this character. And I really really REALLY need an SotV. Pretty pls RNG.

#EDIT2: Oh sorry the image didn't work. I embedded it in another post, but didn't wan't to make an additional post so I copied it here and deleted the original. Obviously the original post was tied to the picture. The picture shows a (another!) Mephisto drop of HoZ.
Tarantella said:
Good progress everyone.

Getting away from the general mustiness of the crypt and mausoleum Tarasha ventured back into the Keep to test the new set up of maxed lightning and minimal orb. Runs were doable but uninspiring damagewise but Baal did drop a 27 Maras. Tweaking the build to use two Wizardspikes and such to up the FCR to the next level just drained the mana pool with little apparant difference to run speeds.

Collecting essences and trying another respect with more powerful orb similarly failed to impress. Undeterred in the next run of essence collecting Tarasha picked up a sixth cold skiller from Mephs chest. (She's found over 40 skillers so far but curiously no fire or lightning ones.

Making full use of the skillers and respeccing to full cold tree made for a return to the Ancient Tunnels that's been was long overdue.

Orb/fireball had proved difficult there previously on high settings. The map hadn't helped with busy T junction at the start with a little "rat run" for denizens to surround the party dangerously on 3 sides- Holy Freeze being a drawback here triggering upwards of 4 bosses regularly and the retreat moves of the mages and invaders combining to make the mercs life difficult.

It proved much easier this time and a 1 in 6 roll on a eth CA finally gave the merc the strike power he needed to take down immune bosses as long as the rest of the packs were cleared.

Tarasha continues to money run for the gambling, has used over 600 gems (150 crafting/300 rolling baal charms/108 rolling a diadem leaving 275 in the stash and has sprinted to 2.6 Billion on the xp clock picking up 3 unique Demonheads on the way (merc using the one with 10% lifesteal) a 4 socket eth thresher, a 4th shako and another 20 lifer. The search for better gear at p8 continues apace.
Screenshot148.jpg
Magic find is currently 205 with 20mf/strength/dual resist rare gloves/Soj/Tgods/RavenFrost (dex for flail from here)/Aldurs set up providing some damage soaking to balance the resists ~ the 50's mark.
ThomasJohnsen said:
Apparently complaining works. Result of some 100 runs today:
Screenshot197.jpg
Screenshot199.jpg
Screenshot198.jpg

Those couple of items allowed me to go from /players1 to /players3. Now to get an amulet - I'll complain about not seeing a Mara and quite expect to see one tomorrow :D
Me2NiK said:
The last few days have been... scary. I'm level 90 now but my gear remains terrible so I've been leveling exclusively by doing Eldritch on /p8. I managed to get past Ancients (although not without much deliberation on whether I should save them or not) but I won't be getting through WSK for a while since I have virtually no way to deal with immunes. Speaking of which, I've all but completely specced out of Frozen Arrow because even with 40 points the damage was abysmal.

My last two play sessions contained the two best drops I've gotten so far: A 49 war travs and a 187ed Tgod's. I'm pretty happy with both of those but I'm still at more or less the same level of efficiency until I get some better weapons.

I almost died a few times in the interm to those dark lancers on act five that have zeal. They do a ridiculous amount of damage.

Time to put myself on the chart!

EDIT: If you'd like a brief idea of just how bad my luck has been on this character, marvel at my 80 S/U, an average of less than one per level.

Code:
Name         (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy     Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal       Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist     Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja       Aura            SC      Paladin   98.20          Yes        6750        462            -           -
T72on1       Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
PhineasB     Mercy           SC      Sin       98             Yes           -        446            9           -
hasuprotoss  Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB     Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        375           17           -
Tarantella   Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub  Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz         Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
OldSoldier   Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin     tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar     Prairie         SC      Sorc      90             Yes         508        234           11         105
Southpaw     Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt       CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan      Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik       Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch  Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
PhineasB     Phaedrus        SC      Pala      89             Yes         268        156            9           -
LiquidClear  Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage  zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma      Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja       Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone    Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma      Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb   Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt       AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit       Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila   SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo         Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule   Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl   Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor     Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax   Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb   Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh       Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU          Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit       Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer      Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin   Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC          Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Chaostar said:
Hi guys !

I'm slowly (because of RFL) on my way to lvl91.
Just after Prairie became a Matriarch, I went to cow level, trying to get this damn Monarch (still not found).
Instead I found on the first cow level a Gul and a Gheed's Fortune.

I also wasted an ethereal Colossus voulge and an ethereal cryptic axe with the cube formulae (no luck with sockets...). So my merc still holds his Non Ethereal Cryptic axe Insight for the moment.

Anyway, I gain xp still at /p1, going from Baal to Diablo, Mephisto to Ancient tunnel...
Speaking of Mephisto, I was praying for a nice gift (I meant Shako, nice Amulet, arachnid maybe...) when he gave me another eschuta :
78847715Eschutanb2.png

The first one (+2 all skills) went to the chest as I dropped The Occulus right after, but This one is serious stuff, especially for a light sorc :

61166816Eschutanb2Stats.png


Maybe I should consider respec into Fire / Light...
Help, my friends !
ThomasJohnsen said:
My journey from 91 to 92 in pictures:
Levels91to92.jpg
I can't wait to get to 93 - I have alot of crafting materials stashed.

I don't know how to update the table; but I am currently level 92 HC 1.13 named xInTheBuffx using extended stash (one mixed with approximately 1200 random items - mainly saved because the have an interesting name :D) grail status unknown.


#EDIT: Oh and about the Andys. I did find the perfect jewel to insert (posted in the finds thread) but only have one socket quest remaining and was kinda saving that for myself :)
Chaostar said:
I'll add you to the table (and update my lvl 91) :


Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.20          Yes        6750        462            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98             Yes           -        446            9           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        375           17           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      89             Yes         268        156            9           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
darkstarhub said:
I really want to just finish questing to Baal so I can run some WSK, but the Ancients bonus is what I am holding off on. I know the longer I can hold off the more advantageous the bonus will be. But, my gear is still not top notch(or even close) and it has to be good for me to feel safe and to avoid stupid deaths.

I am also holding off on my socket quests until I get a better SoVM(current one is 26 AR and that just won't do) and a Shako. Something else still on my mind is respeccing, but I want to do this with Fire Ball and Frozen Orb. My Merc needs to be tougher as well. Running AT and the Pit is still getting decent XP, and I am still hitting LK before I have to reset the map to use my socket quests.

Running Pindle at P1 is so easy that I can actually do it in competitive time. I always ran him on P7 before and that is just so dangerous. Porting in wrong on an Aura enchanted Pindle is pretty much insta gib on P7 and a charge by one of those dudes does the same thing. Meph needs to get in my rotation because I believe he will be much better with drops; at least historically he has for me.

Since this is untwinked, getting the WSK portal is not permitted any other way than actually doing the quest right? I could set up a LAN game on my laptop with an old character that's completed the game which would allow me to get the portal I presume, but that could be considered not legit and this character is going to stay pure as the driven snow. If that's allowed I may make an exception and She'll have a chink in the armor.
 
T72on1 said:
@darkstarhub MP game to setup a portal isn't allowed I think, no.

I wouldn't use a socket quest on Skin of the Vipermagi to be honest. In the end you'll want something better, probably Chains of Honor.

As to Pindle, since you are after experience, it's far better to run him on /p8. He can be dangerous, but if you make sure to only teleport to the left of the room, your merc should provide you with enough safety to keep you alive.

Good luck !!
Kitteh said:
I've been SO busy that I haven't been checking in and I don't quite have time to read through everything haha


Any main points? Any new 99ers?
Neksja said:
Kitteh said:
Any main points? Any new 99ers?
I think the main point you need to know is that I am awesome.

Kidding aside, briefly to sum up from what I've read (terribly sorry if I missed anyone!)

Me, Myself and Aura are doing fine in CS, first quarter of the last level done (and a bit over), but that seems likely to be Aura's home for the rest of the level. Last few weeks have mainly gone with RFL so not much to progress XP wise.

@T72on1 is also a competitor in RFL and that has put his Sorc to rest when it comes XP. He's also stated that he will take his time with Neverland to push for 99 and focus on other things such as his O-skill sept, which will be an interesting read/sept most definitely.

@PhineasB is our latest runner to reach 98 and to be honest, my dark horse for the next 99. The determination to have (and keep to) daily/weekly goals will be his advantage, he'll steadily gain XP and provide a huge threat for Aura to reach 99 next. If I'm not mistaken, also a competitor in RFL, so the ultimate race from 98 to 99 will be relatively uneventful for the next 3-4 weeks until RFL is finished.

@hasuprotoss made us all a favor and filled that gap from 98 to 96 in the table by getting to 97.

Steady progress from users like @Chaostar @Tarantella @darkstarhub etc. and couple of newcomers in @Me2NiK and @ThomasJohnsen.


I'll provide a proper update on Aura on Sunday I think, that gives me couple of hours of gameplay to get a bit more XP so I can update the table with more than just 1-2% increase from last time.
darkstarhub said:
T72on1 I appreciate the advice. To be honest CoH is something I have considered. That would free up a socket quest for the Merc possibly. That 15% AS/Fire Resist jewel that's waiting to drop would be perfect for the Ethereal Andy's that's also waiting to drop. At this point Insight is not keeping up with my Fire Balls and Frozen Orbs so I might throw that Reapers I found on the Merc and punch a hole in it.

The thing with Pindle is on P7 FO's just don't kill them fast enough right now, and those dudes can break out so fast. If he would come off some of that gear he is hoarding I might be able to do more dmg, so P1 is my spot for now. I've been thinking of using the Ancients quest for the last part of 93-94 or 94-95 because I would be furious if I died and wasted any of it. I like running Baal with FO so I need to just do it soon.
PhineasB said:
Nice summary @Neksja!

Updating the table to show incremental progress with Mercy. She finally found Tal's amulet! But not other finds to speak of.

Hiatus also gained some XP and is about 1/4 way to 97, with a really dumb death mixed in as she sorted through drops with too many OKs around. :rolleyes: But body recovery kit helped. And Phaedrus is getting close to 90 -- maybe by the end of the weekend?

I am definitely getting a DNF for this round of RFL, as I've focused on the 99ers and gotten only 5 or so hours of Council runs in so far.

EDIT: I forgot how quickly levels come (relatively) in low 90s :). Phaedrus reached level 90.

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.20          Yes        6750        462            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.1           Yes           -        452           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
ThomasJohnsen said:
The journey to 93 was getting tedious with players 3 AT and players 1 Mephisto. I decided after many (many!!! - best Mephisto Hell map ever) runs to restat and equip a Spirit and switch to higher settings. I did AT players 5 with ease and added LK and Pindle both players 5 with Mephisto at players 3. Near 3/4 of the way I switched to AT players 7 combined with LK while still doing Mephisto players 3 (when I had assembled 7-8 big purples). After the restat I decided to focus heavily on cold and almost not on fire and just skip cold-immune/stoneskins which allowed for a much more potent Blizzard. Besides the shield-change the equipment is the same as it was at 92 with maybe a charm or two added/removed.

The journey in pictures:
Levels92to93.jpg

Now I can craft amulets - and I have saved something like 50 or 60 sets. Fingers crossed :)



#EDIT: After rereading the post I realize that I left out a title. It was supposed to be "The journey from level 92 to level 93". So just to be clear - I've just reached 93 :)
PhineasB said:
Very nice Blizz Ormus! I see Blova in her future.
ThomasJohnsen said:
PhineasB said:
Very nice Blizz Ormus! I see Blova in her future.
Now that you mention it, I guess I could try that one out. I have never actually played one. Maybe when I get a little bit higher level - they're supposed to be used in CS, right? Note though that I am a bit on the elderly side and prefer 1-2 key builds. The 4-5 key builds with switch and such tend to get me discombobulated and suddenly I find myself teleporting into a pack of fanatic monsters with a CtA flail whacking away - unintentionally ofc :)
PhineasB said:
@ThomasJohnsen - yes, I agree that it would be for higher level, likely the last. If you're doing CS for the last level (on p1/p7 because Diablo is the focus for XP at 98), the Nova helps with de Seis. If you're running Nihl (you're HC, I think, so maybe not advisable), Nova can help with a unbreakable cold immune roll. This is what @Pb_pal did for the last level (in SC).

I spent a couple hours at Council for RFL, but came back to Mercy for a little bit today. My goal was to hit 3.26B and then reroll Nihl maps to get map #3 with a well on the way. I think I rolled a keeper:
Screenshot007.jpg
You can barely make it out, but there is a shrine on pretty direct path to stairs from the WP. If I feel like more leisurely running, Mercy can hit the superchest and check out one more shrine before heading down . . .

Screenshot009.jpg
Yeah, pretty good. One teleport out of the way to check a shrine, then a well on the way to another shrine right next to Nihl's platform. In a small sample, Mercy is keeping XP shrines for the kill more than 1/5. I may have to count 100 runs to get a larger sample but I think hitting the shrines will be very worth it for her. She also dropped a +life/+mana small charm in favor of carrying a flawless amethyst for Gem shrines. In the small sample, she got 2 pAmethysts for crafting using this strategy.

And the new map also has runes:
Screenshot005.jpg
Pb_pal said:
Great progress guys!

@ThomasJohnsen - Blova is wonderful, and Phineas is right that I used one to finish the journey here. They are great at Baal, CS/Diablo, Nihl, basically all of the higher leveling targets. Nova will not be destroying things left right and center, but it does a great job at killing those pesky unbreakable CIs (especially at lower /p settings)
Neksja said:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.30          Yes        8170        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.1           Yes           -        452           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

As promised, an update on Aura!

Another 10% done! Pretty nice I'd say. The last 10% came pretty much from Diablo runs, p1 until Grand Vizier and Diablo, who I kill at p7 since Grand Vizier goes down practically as quickly on p1 as it does on p7 so that extra few thousand XP per run will eventually pile up. I have two other variations that I run. One is the same as my XP run, but I also stop to kill bosses so I have a chance of finding some of those missing items from the grail. The other variation is p7 "full RoF+CS clear", where I go and pop two RoF superchests, kill 1-2 boss packs that spawn there, 3-4 boss packs that spawn in RoF on my way to CS and then 3-5 boss packs in CS between the seals. This is considerably longer run timewise, but it also gives me roughly 1.5x the XP I get from my XP runs. However, the runs are more than 1.5x longer, so I don't do these much, just when I feel like refreshing my memory of how dangerous this place can be, since p1 running is so easy that if I forget to change my player setting before I start a run, I might run into trouble with Conviction bosses and die. So, p7 runs occasionally to keep myself on my toes :)

Drops! Since I already finished RFL Round 2, I'm gonna post the findings from that round in this update. Of course I won't include the runes, but the non-qualifiers. Here's the useful/interesting stuff I found there (the same list posted in RFL thread so feel free to skip if you read through them there):

Code:
Andariel's Visage
Demonhead
Defense: 563
Durability: 11 of 11
Required Level: 83
Required Strength: 92
Fingerprint: 0x2fb5974c
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
15% Chance to cast level 15 Poison Nova when struck
+2 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
8% Life stolen per hit
+143% Enhanced Defense
+30 to Strength
+10% to Maximum Poison Resist
Fire Resist -30%
Poison Resist +70%
Level 3 Venom (18/20 Charges)
Ethereal

Beast Scarab
Jewel
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xf0057657
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
27% Enhanced Damage
+13 to Attack Rating
+7 to Dexterity
Cold Resist +24%

Cobalt Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x6b8725e6
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+18 to Life
Cold Resist +8%

Fine Small Charm of Greed
Small Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x8727f2cb
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+15 to Attack Rating
8% Extra Gold from Monsters

Fungal Grand Charm of Life
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0xb9d20af2
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Poison and Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)
+15 to Life

Greyform
Quilted Armor
Defense: 29
Durability: 13 of 20
Required Level: 7
Required Strength: 12
Fingerprint: 0xd7d822cf
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Life stolen per hit
+20 Defense
+10 to Dexterity
Cold Resist +20%
Fire Resist +20%
Magic Damage Reduced by 3

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0xd8cd881e
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
3% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Lightning Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15

Jade Small Charm of Good Luck
Small Charm
Required Level: 33
Fingerprint: 0xcafd266
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Poison Resist +8%
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Natural Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x7065b410
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Elemental Skills (Druid Only)
+21 to Life

Plague Band
Ring
Required Level: 48
Fingerprint: 0xd0ab066b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Faster Cast Rate
+105 to Attack Rating
Cold Resist +18%
All Resistances +9
Level 4 Poison Dagger (13/30 Charges)

Ruby Jewel of Truth
Jewel
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0xccd8e08
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+7% Faster Hit Recovery
Fire Resist +21%

Scarlet Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xd7df9e06
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+4 to Minimum Damage

Shimmering Jewel of Hope
Jewel
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x8f16e465
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+9 to Life
Cold Resist +10%
Lightning Resist +10%
Fire Resist +10%
Poison Resist +10%

Snake's Small Charm of Good Luck
Small Charm
Required Level: 33
Fingerprint: 0x881f0892
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10 to Mana
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Sparking Grand Charm of Inertia
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0xda5a25ad
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+1 to Lightning Skills (Sorceress Only)
+7% Faster Run/Walk

Stone Gyre
Jewel
Required Level: 9
Fingerprint: 0x71416e43
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
17% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Maximum Damage
19% Extra Gold from Monsters

The Stone of Jordan
Ring
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x85848410
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
Adds 1 - 12 Lightning Damage
+20 to Mana
Increase Maximum Mana 25%

Viper Eye
Jewel
Required Level: 19
Fingerprint: 0x65c0ee85
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+6 to Dexterity
+5 to Mana
Fire Resist +27%
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

That would be Aura's second eth Andariel's, second Stone of Jordan and second Highlord's. Definitely not bad, but I was expecting more Rainbow facets. Especially lightning ones, I have a 3os Head Hunter's Glory waiting for more 5/-5 lightning facets, only have one. Still, I'm pleased with Round 2, I know I'm in trouble of getting into top8 with the Sorc bots running around there, but I knew that when I decided to run with a slower runner. All good :)

Drops outside of RFL? There were two rune drops:

cbFtKTB.jpg


TDycDi8.jpg

Pretty nice I'd say! But I have to admit, right now, HRs are not really that much of a desire or don't even give that much of an excitement. Aura doesn't need them for anything, I don't have any current plans for twinked characters, so these are just trophies to gather dust for now :D I think the only "use" for them I can think of now, is Runeword grail. Which is not actually a bad idea, as this would kinda give me purpose of checking certain white/grey items again, in case I find a base for some silly RW like Famine. And it kinda takes the value out of the runes since I now can cube a Zod and have plenty of runes to spare to other stuff. And I might run RFL Round 3 with Aura as well and who knows what I'll find there...

I'm not saying it's not amazing to find HRs, just saying that at this point of Aura's career, I get a lot more excited to see an Experience Shrine or either of the above runes I found.

Non-rune drops? Pretty meh actually, but that's what you'd expect from running practically only seals and Diablo. The two grailers were Giant Skull and Greyform if I am not mistaken. But I did find few neat items:

Code:
Ormus' Robes
Dusk Shroud
Defense: 459
Durability: 17 of 20
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 77
Fingerprint: 0x61d9f239
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Cast Rate
+15% to Cold Skill Damage
+15% to Lightning Skill Damage
+12% to Fire Skill Damage
+3 to Blizzard (Sorceress Only)
+16 Defense
Regenerate Mana 10%

Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xbc172c3
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 23 Venom when you Level-Up
Adds 37 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
-5% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+4% to Poison Skill Damage

Rixot's Keen
Short Sword
One Hand Damage: 9 - 14
Durability: 20 of 24
Required Level: 2
Fingerprint: 0xe686d1a6
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
100% Enhanced Damage
+5 to Minimum Damage
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
25% Chance of Crushing Blow
+25 Defense
+2 to Light Radius

Serpent's Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x9b61081e
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+3% Faster Run/Walk
+17 to Mana

Sparking Grand Charm of Balance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x48b3f2ef
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Lightning Skills (Sorceress Only)
+12% Faster Hit Recovery

So, a FHR Sorc skiller was one I cubed, I had some 50 odd pgems left and decided to try to get a PCombat lifer and that came out when I had 6 pgems left. Should be useful for a 200fcr LK superchest light sorc? Also, that Ormus, Blizzard as skill, +15% cold AND +15% lightning, would this be perfect for Blova sorc? Or would Blova want the skill to be Nova? Anyhow, I thought it was pretty good drop.

About that ethereal Andariel. I already have one and I have it socketed with Ral. I've been looking for that Ruby Jewel of Fervor since I got the first eth Andy's and I got one in RFL round 1:

Code:
Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x5b936d10
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
Fire Resist +18%

Then a little bit later still in RFL round 1, I found another:
Code:
Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x551aa894
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
Fire Resist +19%

Now that I finished RFL round 2, I was disappointed I didn't find a better one, so I ended up finding RJoF #3 this morning:

Code:
Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x829d6798
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
Fire Resist +19%

Argh! The fact that I have managed to find THREE of those in the last month in itself is pretty amazing, but all of the are mid rolls and would leave my poor Merc with sub maxed fire res. Frustrating. I don't want to take out eth Glad's Bane with Um from my Merc, but I might do it, since I do have an Eth Fortitude I made in preparation for my Javazon, but I have not moved it yet to her:

Code:
Fortitude
Archon Plate
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 3447
Durability: 31 of 31
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 93
Fingerprint: 0x1fba759b
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+147 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +28
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

So, I guess the big question here is which of the two would you choose for Merc:

Insight eth CA + Eth Andariel's 'Ral' + Eth Glad's Bane 'Um'

or

Insight Eth CA + Eth Andariel's '19fire res/15ias' + Fortitude Eth AP 28all res/1.5life

Thanks for you opinion! :)
NanoMist said:
Normally, Fortitude is my merc armor of choice, but if the merc is surviving well enough with Gbane, and your javazon needs the Fortitude more for her merc, then I wouldn't mind staying with Gbane. Hammer merc is there for meditation and tanking after all, unlike a few other builds where they might need to assist in killing.
srrw said:
I use Insight + eForti/VGaze (Prayer) on my CS Hammerdin. Unless you let De Seis' gang hit him a million times he's pretty much unkillable.
hasuprotoss said:
OK, vacation time for Reina is over. Time to get back to the grind. I've done a bit of running of various things just to revitalize my desire to gain XP and also done some level 98 testing. I don't think I'll be going Blova and instead sticking with full-on Blizzard as I'm worried the dip in damage due to getting Nova up to snuff will hurt the Diablo/Nihl killing speeds. I may end up running Nihl instead of Diablo (or, more likely, running both) but even then, I'm OK having a handful of killed runs due to CI Nihl than give up a sizable amount of damage for Blizzard. Maybe if I had DF and Blizz Ormus like Elianor, we could go the Blova route, but I've found the drop in Blizzard damage noticeable while also feeling as though Nova damage was... not noticeable.

It was a fun experiment, and I'm glad I tried it. Maybe if the long road to 98 drops some interesting items to make me reevaluate this position I will but for now it'll be Blizzard all the way to 99!

For those that run Nihlithak, what's the plan for the serpents? I know that the damage bug occurs when you move in the cloud which isn't a problem for Reina, but Durga is impatient and doesn't understand how to stand still. Once Delirium hits, I notice it's safe but before then it looks like a crap shoot.

Anyways, time to go put a small dent in that 266-ish? million XP left for 98. I'll aim for 2.5 million XP a day, which will hopefully see me done with this level by early to mid June, assuming I can avoid deaths and stick to my goal!
PhineasB said:
@Neksja - I would probably go the Fortitude route with faster attack speed. But I wonder if you can test it to see if iDR from Gladiator's Bane is too hard to give up. Hel out the Ral, replace with the jewel and run a bit with GBane to see if <75 FR is a deal-breaker. Then add the Fortitude and run for a bit. Worst case, you decide the current set up is best, and you Hel out the jewel (which you probably wouldn't use for other purposes anyhow, and you still have two more low-ish ones stashed anyhow) and go back to Ral.

@hasuprotoss - for serpents, I would get iDR gear, probably Sol in the Shako and Nature's Peace (which also helps with Nihl's corpse explosion for anything you accidentally kill). I can't remember exact numbers, but I am pretty sure that won't negate the damage, but should make it manageable. GBane on the merc might also be in order. A little more than 10% into level 98 with an assassin, and I've concluded that resists don't matter much (especially if you don't have to worry about Nihl's corpse explosion where fire resist is noticeable).

Mini-update here, just because it's exciting:
Screenshot001.jpg
Finally! This led to a gear reshuffle, with Mara's coming in to replace the crafted amulet. I was worried about life with loss of Verdungo's, but the +skills from Mara's and Arachnid's adds to BO. Her total life is now >3900 with the addition of this nice little charm that dropped a few runs later. And her fire resist is maxed.

Prior to the Arachnids, Mercy found the Mal posted earlier, Sur #2, Mal #3 and a Medusa's Gaze. An additional grailer for her was Death's Sash and she also found another 15@ shimmering GC.
Neksja said:
I did some very brief testing about the two Merc options with res/ias jewel in Andy's instead of Ral, somewhere around 10 runs each for now.

Insight eth CA + Eth Andariel's 'Fire res/ias' + Eth Glad's Bane 'Um'

+Sturdy against melee attacks, less in danger against Lord de Seis with bunch of monsters around him. Also capable of taking several melee hits from Diablo at p7 without dying.

-Has 66 fire res, so Infector pack at p1 is causing minor trouble, nothing too bad because of leech. Diablo's firestorm attack at p7 wipes slightly over half of his health away. 2.5k less max damage.

Insight Eth CA + Eth Andariel's '19fire res/15ias' + Fortitude Eth AP 28all res/1.5life

+Higher max damage, faster Diablo kills. Especially noticeable when I don't have time to stack the hammers before Diablo spawns (ie when I'm picking up an Exp shrine). Also useful for general killing stuff when seal bosses move to my blind spot. Maxed fire res, less in danger of Infector and Diablo's Firestorm

-Less sturdy for melee attacks. Extra strong Lord de Seis pack can easily take the merc down if I'm not careful. Diablo only needs two melee attacks to take him down, one if I we are Amped when facing Diablo.


For now, I'm going with Fortitude setup. As long as I don't teleport in the middle of Lord de Seis pack and keep an eye on the merc while fighting Diablo, this should be faster setup. Also, I just need to remember to use Cleansing before Diablo if we are amped and everything should be fine. With both setups, Merc is gonna die semi regularly anyway, maybe once every 10-15 runs, mostly because I'm too lazy to feed him one purple to save 50k in resurrection fee...


@hasuprotoss about Nihlathak. Obviously a bit different for me since I'm using a different character, but for me, it was just best to leave Merc dead and go about it alone. Nihl runs are fast enough that I don't need to use potions (except when there's plethora of mana burn ghosts), so having a Merc there is an inconvenience. He kills monsters that Nihl can use for Corpse Explosion and always walks around in Viper Poison clouds to kill himself. And I did use Glad's Bane with Um in it for him, so I had a little bit of iDR. Now is a brilliant time for you test various ways of killing Nihlathak since you have not gained much, if any, XP yet so if you die, you don't lose anything. Try going alone, change Merc weapon to a low damage one etc etc. And best of luck, that place can be very dangerous!


@PhineasB finally that Arachs! Took you long enough. I just found my 7th one this morning, another upgrade and now I'm using a 119ed one :) One of four slots I can still "upgrade" my gear, other three being Waterwalks (192ed/63life roll), higher base res Spirit (42@ Sacred Rondache) and rare ring (10fcr, 32fire res, 35 light res, 5 all res, no other useful stats). It is indeed pretty exciting to find upgrades at this point :) How about your daily/weekly XP/run goals? Have you figured them out? How's Nihl running going otherwise? Safe and quick I assume?
T72on1 said:
My plan is to try out full Fire Sorc for Nihl, so I'll want to have my merc with me for the Conviction aura. I'll have to see how I'll gear him. Probably with a Sol'ed The Gladiator's Bane (I have 2 with 20 DR) and a Sol'ed Vampire Gaze, or, if not that much DR is needed, something else in the sockets, like Um or ias jewels.

For my Sorc, I was planning to use Shako with Sol and Nature's Peace as well. That's 18 DR already. I might try out a setup with lower +skills and more DR, for example by replacing Bul-Kathos' with another Nature's Peace, and even CoH with a Sol'ed Vipermagi. Although I'd think that dual Nature's Peace and a Sol'ed Shako, giving 29 DR, should be enough to make it manageable. After all CoH also supplies some minor DR%, although I'm not sure that does much against those Viper clouds.
Neksja said:
Not exactly an expert on Nihl runs, but do you need you stack DR that much on your character? Poison clouds don't deal that insane damage if you stand still or move using teleport. My hammerdin has had no issues at all with 16%dr from Shako and Enigma and 10 iDR from Nature's Peace. It's your merc who you need to stack with DR and you've got that figured out.

With my setup, I won't survive walking in those clouds at all, but it could be because I don't have much iDR. But since I don't walk there at all, I am fine. As as Sorc, you shouldn't be walking much either? So at least best to test if going with facet in Shako, SoJ/BK instead of one Nature's will speed you up with the damage increase, but won't put you in huge danger.
T72on1 said:
I just checked @Pb_pal's thread from his 99er Sorc, and indeed it seems that DR isn't really needed. Probably not even on the merc, as he was using CoH apparantly. I don't recall, @Pb_pal , did you have many close calls when doing Nihl? Many times you needed to resurrect your merc? Tried other gear than the endgame gear on him or on the Sorc?
T72on1 said:
Ok, I just went away and respecced Neverland to Fire Ball / Meteor. I had this on my mind for so long now that I just had to try it out. Gear is Shako with Sol, Mara's, CoH, Eschuta's Temper (+3 skills, 19% fire dam) socketed with -5 / +5 fire facet, Spirit shield, Magefist, Arachnid's, War Traveler, Nature's Peace, Bul-Kathos'. Inventory Gheeds, 2 skillers (don't have more :(), rest life SC. Merc with Infinity, eth Fortitude and Andy's, socketed with ias / fire res jewel.

Fire Ball and Meteor kill Nihl very fast. I usually cast a Meteor, teleport right next to Nihl and start spamming Fire Ball. He only needs a few Fire Balls before he is dead. Meteor probably doesn't really increase killing speed, but I hope to kill some more other monsters with it, while keeping the same killing speed. After all I respecced to fire to be able to kill more monsters, giving me more chances for runes.

I had some 20 skill points to spare after I maxed all fire skills needed, and didn't use them at first. After a few runs I got FE Nihl, which made killing him slow. So I decided to dump the remaining skill points in FO. It still doesn't kill him fast, so there might be better options. Maybe take away a few points from the fire skills and add more in the cold skills. Not sure. I can also add a few cold skillers to see if that makes a big difference. This was only a very small sample, so I need to do far more runs to have conclusive results. He also spawned FI once, probably because of the combination of FE and Magic resistant.

I have some 2600 hit points now, due to all SC of Vita. No close calls in those 10 or so runs, although once I went down to some 700 hit points really quickly, when there were snakes around. Not sure if it was because of the clouds or not. Again, more runs have to be made to make any conclusions. Like I said, killing speed vs non FI or highly resistant Nihl is very good, so there's definitely room to take out the Bul-Kathos' and use a second Nature's Peace instead if needed.

Btw, what makes a good Nihl map? Just a very short distance between the WP and the exit? Or other stuff too? Iirc hunting for xp shrines only made a very small difference, so I'm not sure I really want to go through that hassle. I like to keep things as simple as possible, you know ...
 
Pb_pal said:
@T72on1 - LOTS of close calls for me, but that was mostly just due to my really low life total and not necessarily from the vipers themselves. If you're standing still, the clouds don't matter (unless your merc runs back to your side, in which case you get pinged for damage extra second frame so.... you're dead). I just tele'd into the corner and threw a Blizz out, the merc would run in and engage the monsters, which left me alone and safe from the clouds.

As for maps, there are only 3 maps to worry about. If you're not going to bother with XP shrines, the 3rd map is the shortest and therefore the best (it's also what I used). You can also try to find one with a well/health shrine along the way so you never have to visit Malah. Just for clarification for those who don't know, Nanomist and I did some pretty extensive testing on shrines and it turns out that due to the extra time it takes to scan for and click them, they aren't noticeably more efficient in terms of straight XP/time. They ARE however more efficient in the sense that you require less runs to level, so technically your chance of dying is lower. I didn't bother with them for the most part, Nanomist did, so it's really whatever you're more comfortable with. Personally I prefer the more streamlined playing of not checking for them.

Cool to hear the fire sorc is working out, always nice to get some different builds checked off the list as viable runners. :)
PhineasB said:
I'm no expert because Mercy is only about 1500 runs in. But I definitely prefer map #3. @zticazzy had a nice little summary here.

Basically, if you go through WP and find yourself in a large-ish room with columns, you've found the right map. Mercy has also found the well on Nihl's level convenient to have, although she uses it only once every 5 runs or so.

For the shrines, @Pb_pal pretty much covered it -- I've now done check-all-three shrines (which are slightly out of the way) and hit only one shrine that is directly only the fastest path to Nihl's platform. Trying to get and keep an XP shrine has been a nice little side-challenge that I suspect will keep the runs more interesting for me over the long term. But I could also see myself skipping some or all shrines for more streamlined runs along the way.
T72on1 said:
Cool. Thanks guys. I seem to have hit map #3 atm, so that is nice. No shrines or wells, but it doesn't really matter if I don't plan on going for the xp ones, right?

Did some more test runs and died once, due to teleporting right next to Nihl immediately, being cursed by witches and then charged by those slow zombie types. Shouldn't happen anymore, as I had the impression that one meteor actually takes out Nihl when he has been brought to 1/2 life with Static. So I should just make sure to follow a safe routine of teleporting just past his pack, cast Meteor on him, Static a few times, and finish off with Fire Ball if needed. But hey, that's what test runs are for, right, to find such things out ;).

I'm happy it works out, because it's definitely a fun skill routine to follow, and as @Pb_pal mentions, it's always nice to have more viable builds. I'll still have to work out how to nail down highly resistant Nihl though, and it might be better to skip FI Nihl altogether I think. The problem isn't so much that it takes a while for my merc and my Orb to kill him in that case, but more that it gives him time to teleport around, which only adds to the time needed to kill him. In my ususal routine he is dead by the time he starts teleporting around.

Sorry I'm too lazy to check it, but what run times / xp per hour did you guys get?

O yes, and I completely forgot about Delirium again. Gonna try that out now instead of the Vamp Gaze.
Pb_pal said:
I was doing 28s/run, Nanomist I think was just north of 30s.

Also, Delerium ftw down there. Confused vipers = big time safety.
Gripphon said:
I ran Nihl with dual Dream ES zealsorc for fun and it was fast, but not something I'd call fun. Not for untwinked play for sure, but doable. Can't even recall the details about it now.
NanoMist said:
Just to provide some numbers for the shrines, 15% of my Nihlathak runs were successfully completed with an exp. shrine, or 7.5% more exp. overall. That's with a 3 shrine map and includes the possibility of losing the shrine to curses. Looks like the rest is already covered..

Also, S&E > rejuv when in trouble. Save the rejuvs for nice drops that you have to fight for.
Kitteh said:
I deeds Lim-Dul today by coming back through a portal and getting swamped, oops. I'm not a fan of S&E to avoid death, so off he went. Fordyl is (relatively) close to 99, so I'm planning to put what little D2 time I get into getting him over the line. After that, I may enter this again. Probably not in HC though, given my little play time, HC just isn't worth it. Hopefully I will have more time in the future, or perhaps make it a tournament entry.
ThomasJohnsen said:
Sorry to hear that. I also do not S&E - if it's meant to be it's meant to be. Gl with Fordyl.
T72on1 said:
Sorry for the loss, Kitteh.
T72on1 said:
Some more test runs for my yesterday evening.

The good news ... average run times of 28 - 30 seconds, definitely happy with that, as I'm only starting out with them. Regular runs are very fast, as Nihl indeed dies to one Meteor most of the times when being Static'ed to 1/2 hp, but it's the times when Nihl is FI or FE which slow me down. I added some cold skillers to help out in those situations, which seemed to help, but it's still much slower. When he is FE / LE I already just skip him, because it would take far too long.

The bad news ... died 2 more times, so I'm still at base xp :(. Two times to snakes, I guess I have to be more careful as to where I teleport. Also I should make a habit out of teleporting far enough away from the monsters, so my merc has to take a few steps forward before he can engage them. Right now I often teleport right behind the pack, but if there's snakes around and the merc just moves a bit, we are both dead instantly. Not sure if there's more things I can do as to not to die. O yes, I also equiped that second Nature's Peace instead of Bul-Kathos', but haven't had any situations that really tested me ever since.

I hope I get better at this and stop dying, because I really want to do that final level at Nihl. I don't feel like going back to the CS. I might include Baal runs into the mix later on, if I get bored with Nihl, but for now I'm not taking on Ancients yet. I want to get better at Nihl first and stop dying, so I don't loose that juicy xp boost I get from Ancients.

O yes, I got a Shako from those first test runs, so that's a start :).
Neksja said:
Just keep at it @T72on1, you'll figure it out :) It took me a while to get used to running Nihl, now that I have not run him for maybe two weeks, I'd probably need another "warm up" -session to get used to it again. Also, you've moved from relatively safe, and more importantly a consistent, CS runs to more dangerous and variable Nihl runs.

All this talk about Nihl runs makes me want do some Nihl running :) Maybe I'll give it a go and actually time my runs. I'll report back if I decide to do that :)


edit.

Did very brief testing, 20 mins p8 Nihl, 20mins p1 CS and 20mins p7 CS.

Nihl p8 avg run time 40sec
p1 CS avg run time 1min 27sec
p7 CS avg run time 1min 35sec


I think I'll be switching to p7, just for the extra chance of nice drops. I liked these from the last test run:

Code:
Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 99 - 273
One Hand Damage: 99 - 193
Quantity: 69
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 15
Required Dexterity: 99
Fingerprint: 0xa7e35572
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
+30% Faster Run/Walk
176% Enhanced Damage
Adds 25 - 50 Damage
5% Life stolen per hit
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
Increased Stack Size
Replenishes quantity
Ethereal
T72on1 said:
@Neksja Thanks :).

One more hour of runs done yesterday, and they went very smooth. S&E one or two times when the place was crowded and things looked as if they were getting too nasty, but other than that absolutely no issues. As long as I remember to take a few steps back after I have teleported behind Nihl, I seem to be fine, even with vipers around. Only had an average of 33s or so, but that was because I was eating and chatting in between running. So 30s should definitely be doable for me. Next time I'll try to see how much xp / hour I get, as that says more about efficiency of runs, with some abandonned runs thrown in the mix and such.

Btw, managed to hit the 3.232M xp mark for the first time, so that is a start.

I'm thinking of going back to LK first though, to see if I can find a Sur or Ber, so I can make an Enigma for my Zon. I'd love to do half of my RFL round 3 runs with a fire Sorc and half of them with the Javazon, so I'd better get that Sur or Ber soon. And yes, that is a little spoiler for the results of RFL round 2, but you all already knew that my top 5 completely consists of Cham and Jah runes, so it doesn't matter that much anyway ;).
Naturallog said:
Since I love Barbs, and I'm looking for a challenge, I decided to get in on this untwinked 99 thing. I made my Barb, named Athos after my favorite Musketeer, yesterday. He's a hardcore with no extended stash, and I'm also not going to use any skill resets (but I will use RWM runewords). I started offloading every S/U he finds into a stash so I can track his item totals. I thought about going for a Frenzy build to be different, but Whirlwind is what I like so Whirlwind is what I will spec. Well, 1 point Concentrate until I get a suitable weapon for Whirlwind.

He started off pretty slow, no S/U drops in Act 1 despite clearing out all the various caves along the way. Act 2 and 3 made up for it though, and by the Flayer Jungle I had all 3 pieces of Hsarus along with Cathan's ring, amulet, and body armor. I could hardly believe my luck, and it made the rest of normal go by easily. I'm starting nightmare now, and I'll update when I get to hell. My next goal will be finding a new source of CBF, since I outgrew the Hsarus set (Goblin Toe boots dropped, must equip for crushing blow). Probably a Rhyme shield, since all I need is a Shael. I'm patient enough to play a sword and board Barb. Plus my last attempt at a HC Barb ended up dead after I dropped his shield for more Whirlwind damage.

EDIT: Oh and I'm a masochist so I'm leaving p8 on until I finish nightmare. Also I finish every quest and find every waypoint in normal and nightmare. It bothers me if things are incomplete on lower difficulties.
T72on1 said:
Cool!!! Good luck.
PhineasB said:
Welcome to @Naturallog! I’m also looking forward to @BKC joining us when his Sorc hits level 90! And @T72on1 it’s very cool to see different builds tried out for level 98. I look forward to watching Neverland’s progress roasting Nihl over and over. ;)

Mercy is another 1/10th closer to the goal. Not too much excitement, with one exception, as she continues to plug away.

A little after the last update, she ran out of flawless amethysts to carry around for gem shrines and so generally had a ruby or other flawless in her inventory for the shrines, with the idea that it would allow occasional Baal charm rerolls.

But she hit a stretch with no amethysts dropping between 12 gem shrines, so she had built up quite a pool of pgems. So she also picked up all flawless gems to cube for a while. It slowed the runs down noticeably, but was okay for a brief stretch. She also had been picking up and cubing to pRubies since the beginning of 98 and had ~20 or so stashed.

So Mercy did a little spree and used up the pgems, including the rubies (I have quite a few good rare rings, so I figured potential upgrade to charms is better use than minuscule chance of amazing blood ring). Well, hi there:
Baal GC Trap Skiller.jpg
The +5 life suffix is kind of hilarious, but another +skill is quite welcome. :cool: She dropped the Shimmering GC of Sustenance (keeping Gheeds for now to work on her grail) and used that set up for the remainder of runs.

She is switching up though, to drop three SCs of vita in favor of the Shimmering GC. Fire resists in mid 50s and near zero poison and cold and low 40s lightning were just a little too uncomfortable. Nihl’s corpse explosions were taking off big chunks and she regularly was in the 1000s hit points at the end of runs. The loss of ~30 hit points for 15@ resists (now back to almost maxed fire) seem a safer bet in the long run.

Finds of note since last update: Um, Ist, Stonecrusher, and Mal #4, plus the Cat’s Eye amulet and Tancred’s boots (which were grailers for her).

One annoying side note: her XP shrine luck cratered. One stretch is illustrative: 12 shrines in a row got cursed off, with the ones picked up on level 2 or right by level 3 entrance cursed off by witches and Nihl being cursed for each of the ones she found right by his platform. :mad: I’m not sure how to avoid Nihl when he’s cursed – I’ve tried positioning as far away as possible while Merc’s aura still gets Nihl, and the XP shrine still gets cursed off. Oh well . . .

Neksja said:
How about your daily/weekly XP/run goals? Have you figured them out? How's Nihl running going otherwise? Safe and quick I assume?

I’ve settled on the goal for this level. Now that she is back to more streamlined runs (only gems she’ll pick up are flawless amethysts), she is ~2.35-2.4M XP/per hour (and with better shrine luck, she would be closer to 2.45M). So averaging half an hour each weekday and 4.0 hours each weekend would see her getting >.05 of the level per week or ~ a tenth every two weeks.

I’ll have limited time the rest of March, as we’re leaving for a short vacation tomorrow, then visiting friends the following weekend and my parents visiting the week after. And I’m going to spend more time on Phaedrus and Hiatus. I’d like to get Phaedrus to 91 on p5 RoF superchest runs before shifting to LK, using CS runs with Hiatus as a break.

So I will aim for Mercy making it 98.25 by the end of March. Then my weekly goal will start. It would see her to 99 sometime in July (assuming I can keep her alive!).

Table Update:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.30          Yes        8170        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
NanoMist said:
PhineasB said:
One annoying side note: her XP shrine luck cratered. One stretch is illustrative: 12 shrines in a row got cursed off, with the ones picked up on level 2 or right by level 3 entrance cursed off by witches and Nihl being cursed for each of the ones she found right by his platform. :mad: I’m not sure how to avoid Nihl when he’s cursed – I’ve tried positioning as far away as possible while Merc’s aura still gets Nihl, and the XP shrine still gets cursed off. Oh well . . .
Nothing you can do about the witches, but cursed Nihla is manageable as long as he does not have a pulse damage aura or is not LE. If I see cursed mod, I will reposition merc with a teleport before the arctic blast hits him. I've also had bad stretches of RNG with shrines, but also good stretches as well. Should balance out in the end.
PhineasB said:
Thanks @NanoMist. I didn't realize the pulse damage and LE trigger the curse. Mercy (and merc) dodge the arctic blast, but she must have gotten unlucky with holy __ auras or LE.
ThomasJohnsen said:
Sadly this update is uninteresting. I decided to make the most of my great Mephisto map and ran him alot. Did find some interesting items but nothing I really can use for this character. I also used up all my craft materials (which wasn't as much as I had remebered) but didn't get anything spectacular. Most of the leveling is from AT players 8.

Level 93 to 94 in pictures:
Levels93to94.jpg

I can already see that the next update will be much more interesting - I am at 94.25 and have abandoned Mephisto in favor of a very good LK map. I have made a CtA and an eth Duress for the merc, and progress is good without me wasting time on popping Mephisto for loads of items that I'll never use :)
Naturallog said:
Update on my barb, I've finished nightmare and now need to focus on getting a decent enough weapon for hell. I will need a lot of +str on gear to equip elite weapons. I'm not allowing myself any respecs and I've put only 80 base str since I eventually will make Enigma. Currently I'm using a helm and body armor stuffed with flawless topazes for MF, hopefully I'll find a good weapon soon.

Table Update:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.30          Yes        8170        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      71             No           48         41            0           -
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Neksja said:
Table Update:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      71             No           48         41            0           -
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

How are we on page 2?! Runners, get a grip!

So, huge update on Aura at least on XP wise. Halfway mark has now been reached, thanks to doing the Ancients quest this week in preparation of RFL Round 3 for cows. I know, Hammerdin is not the most efficient Cow runner, but I wanted to hunt for that Zod to finish a runedrop grail and I'm still 6 grailers behind @NanoMist and it would be amazing to nail down one or two Cow King Set items ;)

RFL Round 2 happened, not pleased with the results. I finished last of those who finished full 20hr set, landing a top 5 of Sur, Sur, Ohm, Ist and Ist. None of those runes have any use for Aura obviously. They are nice, but I doubt I'll use other than Ohm and Ist for rerolling CTA because what else I'm gonna with my runes?

Ancients Quest took me to 3.370bn, so I just ran the last 5mil at CS on /p5. No significant drops. Actually, none since my last update, except the Eth Titans I posted here already. I also found Eth Shaftstop, but it's already in one of my stashes and couldn't find it anymore for a readout :p

Aura's future plan is to hunt cows for the next 20 hours, then back to /p7 CS runs. I'll do some maths when I start running again for XP that how long I estimate it to take to get that last half a level.
 
Reyz said:
Hello again guys! I made a break for a few months and just started leveling my Sorc again. Nice to see this thread is still active and congrats to Pb_pal and NanoMist to reach 99, impressive feat there :)

Personally I haven´t made much progress since the last time I posted here. Only thing mentionable is I found a Lidless Wall, so I´m now able to use a CoH while still have the 117 fcr breakpoint.

For the future leveling I´m looking for a thread I had saved on my old PC. It was about high level zones without monsters with a certain immunity (in my example lightning) Anyone knows what I´m talking about? I haven´t managed to find it again for half an hour.
T72on1 said:
Hey, and welcome back :).

The thread you are looking for might be this one, no?

Good luck getting to 99 !!!
hasuprotoss said:
Reina's hit a pretty big landmark today!

LMneBDF.jpg
Reyz said:
T72on1 said:
Hey, and welcome back :).

The thread you are looking for might be this one, no?

Good luck getting to 99 !!!
Wasn´t the exact one I was looking for but this seems great aswell! Thank you! :)
PhineasB said:
Welcome back @Reyz! And great job @Neksja -- having 40M XP waiting for you at this stage is a huge plus and must be a big relief to get nearly 0.15 level just from killing three old guys :).

Mercy had a little mishap. As I mentioned, we were going out of town on Sunday, so I thought it would be fun to squeeze in another 2.3M XP and let Mercy tag 3.29B before we left. But I also had to finish something up for work before we left, and was rushing. There were vipers and Mercy had laid down some death sentry's before switching to fire blast to finish off Nihl. I'd been using LMB for FB and Nihl teleported right as I was clicking, so Mercy charged ahead, while cursed, into poison clouds.

Nihl was still very much alive, along with some vipers, for the body retrieval, so it was a bit tricky. But once it was accomplished I quit and finished my work rather than risking another mistake. But I ended up getting another million XP back that evening and pushed back through 3.287B to 3.29B over the last few days.

So lesson learned -- don't rush! :rolleyes: And FB is now hotkeyed to RMB for use if vipers are around.

On the plus side, the second time through the 3.28_ range led to a Gul, Arkaine's (grailer for her) and an Azurewrath. After this set back, I am going to focus on Mercy more than I expected to try to get 3.3B XP before we leave for another trip next weekend.
darkstarhub said:
I had a little mishap last night myself in the AT. It was late and I was getting really tired, but trying to trudge on in hopes of a Mara's or Shako. I mistakingly hot keyed to Teleport instead of FO, and proceeded to TP right into a pack of cursed skellies. Getting the corpse back wasn't too hard, but I hate dying when I see what's coming. Coming around a corner in the pit, and getting nailed by an archer pack sucks, but is a little less maddening as far as messing up my maneuvering since very little can be done about that.

Since it seems help people, I will just throw it out there to the RNG gods that I need a damn Mara's. 3 Seraph's Hym's and 2 Highlords Wraths are nice, but gib me Mara's.
ThomasJohnsen said:
Like @hasuprotoss I reached an albeit smaller milestone yesterday. My journey from 94 to 95 started off really well. Within something like 20 runs I had made CtA and ebug Duress for merc and nice items were dropping everywhere. It quickly teetered off though and the journey from 94.25 to 95 was very tedious with preciously few highlights. Barring an unforseen Griffon, Death's Fathom or Mara (possibly Tal's Amulet), I am quite set as far as uniques/sets are concerned. I would love for LK to start coughing up some runes soon though if I am to maintain my hope of ever assembling an Infinity and moving on to CS for leveling. Would also love to eventually see a useful skiller with life (currently one plain fire and one plain cold - both rolled). My charms besides skillers are nice though.
For the time being, I think I'll stick to LK/AT and very very slow leveling, so don't expect any updates in the near future from me :)

94 to 95 in pictures:
Levels94to95.jpg
Neksja said:
@PhineasB yes, that 40M boost definitely felt amazing. Also, a bit frightening since now I can't tell myself "Just keep grinding, eventually you'll get that 40M boost from Ancients". And now I really can't die anymore, I don't think I could handle another death at 98. Maybe I should start keeping a Recovery Kit in my stash, but I have no clue what items I should include, maybe I could make a Sanctuary Sacred Targe, I have a 3os 45@ base already, and then use something like a Skin of the Vipermagi, Wizardspike/Spirit Sword and maybe that's enough? Just to stack resists, since that's most likely the reason I would die, Conviction and Fire damage.

Unlucky with the death, but I am glad you are back on track :) Not rushing is a good rule, I've now also adopted the "Do not watch Netflix when doing p7 runs" :)

As mentioned, the next 2 weeks-ish, Aura will be running Cows. Hoping for all three pieces of Cow King Set and maybe another grailer would be great, not to mention Zod, but let's just start with the hopes of finding Cow King Set item(s).
T72on1 said:
Agreed, that 40M boost @98 feels incredibly, but also has a big 'don't die anymore now' sign attached to it. Then again that's not something you want to do at that level anyway.

About a recovery kit: definitely do it. You'll go crazy if you die and don't have one. I have a moser's with diamonds, vipermagi, arachnid's and spirit. Although that might be too much.
PhineasB said:
+1 to the body recovery kit. Losing the full 29M versus <8M is a huge difference. The latter is only ~3.5 hours, while I'm not sure I'd handle having another 13-14 hours to make up the full amount.

I don't worry about "too much" in the kit because Mercy's stash is basically empty without it (I go straight to GoMule when the cube gets full). So Mercy's kit includes Shako, Vipermagi, Moser, Heart of the Oak, a +life plated belt, and gloves with +dext to allow her to carry the Heart of the Oak. More items means greater care to ensure you get every piece from the corpse (as I learned). But I think safety to avoid a second death is worth it. And the goal is to not have to use it anyhow, right? :rolleyes:
ThomasJohnsen said:
Play HC - then you will never need a recovery kit and all your worries about loosing exp to deaths are over :D
Tarantella said:
It's the anniversary of the start of the thread! :)




Tarasha is 40 million short of level 96
Kitteh said:
Oh, so it was! It is pretty awesome that we have a few 99ers already in that time :D Although, I think one actually started earlier than the tournament and joined? I can't remember exactly. :D
LiquidClear said:
So I've always liked the idea of this thread and have my Assassin on the table, but I have always had a bad habit of not sticking to one particular character... so my stable of self-found untwinked chars has been growing. I've got the 90 Assassin, who hasn't been touched in a while and is quite honestly pretty boring at this point without better gear (and the grind for better gear is kind of slow for her). This led to the creation of a sorc, now 76 and my current focus, although I get tired of Blizzard easily so she will probably wear me out soon. (I mean, without Infinity, Cold is kind of the way to go, and Orb, while a spell I like, is just so weak...) Jim the Frenzy Barb is 77 and killed the Countess once, but he's a bit of a drag with his current weapons. Larry the (at present) Fissure Druid is 31, hoping to eventually respec to some kind of shapeshifter.

So why the long story? Basically I'm thinking of making a "sept" type thing for this, although none will ever reach 99... but having a rotation of chars to keep me interested as they slowly progress levelwise seems fun. Anyways, I was feeling like starting a Zon. They seem to have fairly low representation here so far.

My initial thought was a FA/IA bowzon, but I'm kind of worried about mana. I *hate* mana potions, and self found will mean no neat 1.07 MPK rings to ease the suffering. So instead I was thinking I might play through the game as a Spearzon, allowing myself to use charged strike, but avoiding Lightning Fury since I've used it to death over the years. Maybe some kind of physical/lightning hybrid... Was thinking 2h Spear, but may go ahead and do 1h melee as well. Anyone run a cheap zon like this before? Will it be incredibly frustrating?

So, yeah, ramble ramble ramble, etc. Keep up the good work all.
ThomasJohnsen said:
Ok so my weekly update is a bit anemic, since I didn't add a level and only very little experience (like 0.2 levels).
I did play alot (!) though, but decided to hit the LK-pipe hard. And I got some nice results to show for it - Infinity is quite a bit closer now and I got some nice updates on a couple of my small charms. No luck with skillers though.

(All the numbered pictures are at 95.2 since I am only LK-ing atm to get some headway on upcoming levels)
Levels95_A.jpg
Ok so that #11 really got me fired up. I can taste that Infinity :)


#EDIT: On a side note: Would it actually be better for me to make a CoH with that Ber? That would allow me to go full on mf in AT and search for Griffon + Facet (plus maybe Eschuta). Or is a light-sorc without Griffon fully capable of coping with CS players 8? I also reckon I need some more mana charms before loosing the Insight - how much mana is enough for a light-sorc (without having to chug blue pots all the time)?
NanoMist said:
If you're intent on playing lightning sorc, Infinity is by far the better investment. It could be a long time before a Griffon drops, not sure I would try to MF for that. -ELR is really nice for the storm casters, you can try to look into a crescent moon setup with vipermagi.
ThomasJohnsen said:
Thanks for the advice - I appreciate any help I can get.
I'm not intent on playing pure lightsorc, but I doubt I can muster the energy to go to level 99 in AT. And going to CS, Baal or Nihlathak with my current setup is just not something I fell comfortable doing; I'm not the type to just tele into the fray and only kill bosses - that is just not my playstyle. Even in AT I prefer full clears.
I could however see myself going to 98 or 99 doing players 8 (mostly) full CS clears - which is why I thought of light sorc.
Someone suggested also a Blowa - maybe I could try that for Baal runs and level there. But I really hate dolls, gloams, witches etc. - I once lost a 97 paladin to a pack of conviction gloams just before the throne.
Or I could retire this lass and try something else entirely, but I really like the idea of getting her to 99 still. I think 95 is too early to call it quits.
I'll just keep LK'ing atm and see what develops. Heck maybe I'll end up with both a CoH, Infinity and a better CtA - the way runes are flowing, I'm not too far away.
PhineasB said:
LiquidClear said:
So why the long story? Basically I'm thinking of making a "sept" type thing for this, although none will ever reach 99... but having a rotation of chars to keep me interested as they slowly progress levelwise seems fun. Anyways, I was feeling like starting a Zon. They seem to have fairly low representation here so far.
I support the Sept approach (even if they never reach 99) and hope you will post their progress in this thread or elsewhere. I think the rotation is a good strategy to keep interested, and part of the reason why I ended up with three 99ers so far. I've actually toyed with the options for an untwinked Necro and Barb to build out the options (and keep me occupied until 2020 :rolleyes:). I don't see a Zon or Druid untwinked in the cards for me though.

But I'd be interested in following the progress of an untwinked Sept into the 80s and 90s, whether you push them through to the end or not.
T72on1 said:
BKC said:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.30          Yes        8170        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -

So i entered my Meteor / Frozen Orb sorceres(Meteorbin) to the table, i hit 90 this weekend and i am planning to play her in AT until atleast 94 :). After that i will do a gear review and might switch to CS. (maybe even a respec not sure yet). I do not want to roll a new map since i got the best LK/ROF maps ever (close to andy and meph too) i will keep you guys posted about her progress. Poison_Vic is in the fridge for now :) so removed him from the table!
 
Tarantella said:
Tarasha reached 96 today running AT. She was running the full map for most of that time except for the last 30 million where she ran just the first 'boss heavy' two thirds. She completed the Tal's set, picked up a pair of eth treks and increased her tally of 7mf sc's to 10.

Screenshot155.jpg

4 more skillers were found including a druid 40 lifer.

On the rune side since the vex she has picked up a gul, an ist , a mal, several ums and against the run of play in the last 40 million xp within a dozen runs of each other a fine brace of Ohms.

Screenshot157.jpg

Screenshot166.jpg


Might make a CTA to keep the merc alive but he dies usually when attention is beginning to wander.

Playwise Tarasha runs most of the AT but the merc is vulnerable to damage from holy fire mage packs and other fire enchanted bosses. Keeping a bit closer to him helps but prompted a switch from SoJ to Dwarfstar and a swap to dual 25+ fire/lightning resist gloves.

Keeping focus by item finding is also a good prop with trips to the shop for breaks. She's still picking up all the gold and checks/sells lots of things with gambling rapidly approaching the billion mark.

On levelling she blew another 150 gems on her Baal charms without success with 15 more on crafts with two druid and a paladin +2 amulets to show but the odds on getting a good class specific craft as well as any extra fcr seem remote. Two more rolls on the diadem brings the skull cost to 120 and maybe a change to rolling orbs (a repaired high level one perhaps) springs to mind. 220 gems left in the kitty with everything to play for.




Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.30          Yes        8170        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hasuprotoss said:
Died twice on Reina yesterday. First death was dumb, but whatever. Put on my body retrieval kit, get back in, touch my body... and die again. :(

Lost a Griffon's, my crafted amulet, a rare ring with 10% FCR and 20% MF, a BKWB, etc. Pretty sad about it. Going to have to think how to re-gear the few slots I lost and the body retrieval kit itself. Also need to make up a lot of lost experience. Though that may be tempered as I run AT to recover for a bit. Hopefully I have enough gear in my stash to get back to the 105 FCR breakpoint... Maybe I should hold onto a few more things! :)

May also take a short break to recover from the incident and play my Druid that has recently beaten Act 1 Normal. Don't know what his end game is, but right now he's a fire druid and probably will be so until we get to the very end of the game. I imagine we'll rush through most of the quests, run Pindle until a reasonable level, then some alvl 85 place without a lot of Fire Immunes (I think AT only has one and it doesn't roll sometimes) until 94, and then LK. I think he'll go without an extended stash to make things more interesting. I'll add him to the table once he's at least through the questing portion of the game.
T72on1 said:
Oh, that's no fun. Good luck getting back into it.
Kitteh said:
Great progress everybody!
Naturallog said:
I'm still plodding along with my Barb, currently running Countess and killing most of the stuff on the way. It's slow, because of my fairly pathetic damage, but I found a Bonehew for my merc so his damage makes up for my Barb's shortcomings. I was lucky enough to find several good runes already, I have Pul, Um, Ist, and Ohm. Now I'm looking for a 5os PB for a Grief base and/or a 4os eth Cryptic Sword for an Oath base. Athos doesn't have the Str to equip the elite two-hand swords, which makes things a little more difficult. Still, I think he's doing reasonably well for level 79. Progress is slow now because I don't enjoy the tentative, cautious play style required of a poorly geared HC Barb. Once I get at least an Oath weapon I expect my pace to pick up.

Current LCS:

Screenshot034.jpg


Table Update:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      79             No           96         73            0           -
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
BKC said:
Naturallog said:
I'm still plodding along with my Barb, currently running Countess and killing most of the stuff on the way. It's slow, because of my fairly pathetic damage, but I found a Bonehew for my merc so his damage makes up for my Barb's shortcomings. I was lucky enough to find several good runes already, I have Pul, Um, Ist, and Ohm. Now I'm looking for a 5os PB for a Grief base and/or a 4os eth Cryptic Sword for an Oath base. Athos doesn't have the Str to equip the elite two-hand swords, which makes things a little more difficult. Still, I think he's doing reasonably well for level 79. Progress is slow now because I don't enjoy the tentative, cautious play style required of a poorly geared HC Barb. Once I get at least an Oath weapon I expect my pace to pick up.

Current LCS:

Screenshot034.jpg


Table Update:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      79             No           96         73            0           -
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

*Kuch, Kuch* i think you have the wrong contestants table sir *Kuch, Kuch*
Kitteh said:
Why a cryptic sword for Oath? I would get your strength up (if that is the only reason) and put it in a balrog blade, much better :D
Naturallog said:
BKC said:
*Kuch, Kuch* i think you have the wrong contestants table sir *Kuch, Kuch*
Yeah, the table linked above me looked a little off (didn't have my character in, Aura was listed with less XP than in a previous table) so I took an earlier table and tried to update it to be current. Oh and I messed up quoting it cause I'm bad at forums.

Cryptic for Oath because it has low Str requirement, I'm not adding more Str because Enigma will give me plenty when I get the runes for it (I found a beautiful 465 def 3os Dusk base) and I've already decided to do this old school and not use any respecs. We're talking 41 vs 45 average damage on a weapon I will only use until I make Grief, it's not a big concern for me.
BKC said:
okay shame i am no longer on the table, but apparantly it got mixed up somewhere, it is okay i will enter it later again.

Edit: maybe if i feel like it
Kitteh said:
Ah ok, I didn't realise that you were avoiding respec :)
Reyz said:
Since my last post here 2 weeks ago I decided to farm Pindleskin for further leveling.
Tonight Qty finally reached level 93 :)
Screenshot017.jpg

It went overall pretty smooth, it took me about 500 Pindle and about 100 Mephisto kills (which was very bad exp) to go from 92 to 93.
Only noticeable drop was a Vex from Pindle´s minnions.

Screenshot016.jpg

Don´t really need it right now, since I already had 2 other Vex runes in my stash, so I cubbed it into an Ohm, to eventually craft CtA in the future.
Btw, it was already my second high rune from there, already got a Jah (my highest rune found on this char) from this place a few months ago.

Died once, which already hurt quite a bit, since 10% of leveling were about 2 hours of playtime for me. Luckily I risked it and got my corpse back, without any gear that was a pretty hard decision for me, but it turned out well.



For the further progress I´ll stay at Pindle for now. Exp is still pretty good, about 150k/run which will make it a little bit more than 1000 runs (if I don´t die) to reach 94. Even if the chances are low, I´m hoping for a Gripphon to go anywhere else, since I don´t really have other slots I can upgrade anymore. (No Infinity for me sadly)


Losing a Gripphon by dying hurts me even through reading @hasuprotoss :/ Good luck for recovering after this big loss!



Table Update:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      79             No           96         73            0           -
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC           Poison_Vic      SC      Necro     12             Yes           1          1            -          2,5

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
T72on1 said:
Reyz said:
Even if the chances are low, I´m hoping for a Gripphon to go anywhere else, since I don´t really have other slots I can upgrade anymore. (No Infinity for me sadly)


Losing a Gripphon by dying hurts me even through reading @hasuprotoss :/ Good luck for recovering after this big loss!
We are all hoping for a @Gripphon anywhere, since he helps us out so tremendously. So yeah, losing a Gripphon would really be terrible, since there is only one and one only. Have no fear though, there still is a Griffon to comfort us if it would ever happen.

Sorry, couldn't resist ;).

Congrats on the progress and the Vex. Try to get a CtA base asap, as the runeword will make your runs so much safer. Infinity makes a huge difference for a Lightning Sorc, so you might want to run LK or other areas in search for Sur or Ber runes.

Good luck !!
BKC said:
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      79             No           96         73            0           -
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -

Reposted the table hopefully with everyone in it this time!
darkstarhub said:
I dinged 94 last night but I am going to wait until I get home to update the chart. It should have been several days ago, but some stupid deaths along the way hurt me even though I did manage to get the corpse every time. From 92-93

I need to do something different in regards to leveling faster. Onviously, the longer you can wait on the ancients quest the more valuable the XP is, but I really want to do some Baal runs. My gear is definitely not optimal enough to do Baal or CS runs in a timely manner so maybe staying in the Pit and AT until I get what I need is the plan for now. At least I can get some XP there while MFing.
T72on1 said:
Congrats.

Not sure what more gear you need, but if it's rune related, hit up on LK, otherwise you should be good in AT or Pits, but maybe you want to shift gear somewhat to mf at times and do fast mf runs on /p1, just killing bosses.
Pb_pal said:
darkstarhub said:
I dinged 94 last night but I am going to wait until I get home to update the chart. It should have been several days ago, but some stupid deaths along the way hurt me even though I did manage to get the corpse every time. From 92-93

I need to do something different in regards to leveling faster. Onviously, the longer you can wait on the ancients quest the more valuable the XP is, but I really want to do some Baal runs. My gear is definitely not optimal enough to do Baal or CS runs in a timely manner so maybe staying in the Pit and AT until I get what I need is the plan for now. At least I can get some XP there while MFing.
Pits/AT is great up until 95 I found, then the difference between those areas and something like CS starts to diverge. You can always throw in some practice in the CS as well, especially since you're at the beginning of the level so no real loss of XP if/when you die. CS takes some getting used to before you can get efficient, so keep that in mind.

That said, if you don't like those runs then doing the Ancients and Baaling could be a better option if you enjoy it more. If I were you, I'd put the ancients off at LEAST until you can use them to ding 95. There's nothing worse than losing the essentially "free" XP to deaths, silly or otherwise (and you can continue to collect some gear in AT/Pits until then). Remember, this is about having fun too, and with the amount of hours you're going to put in to get to 99 you should focus on what you enjoy.

Congrats on 94 :)
PhineasB said:
Congrats to @Reyz and @darkstarhub on the levels. I don't have much to add as far as leveling advice. I can't remember if you found a Ber yet, but CoH made a big difference for Hiatus. So maybe some time in LK if you're still missing that piece of gear.

Mercy lost her Nihl map due to sloppy keyboarding :(. She did ~9.5 hours in RFL 3, with some grailers found along the way. She also made it past 98.25 and was only ~3 hours from 98.3 before the misclick during Cow runs.

I'll have little time this weekend because my parents are visiting, but hopefully will at least be able to reroll another 3 shrine map#3 with some spare minutes. Keep up the progress, everyone!
ThomasJohnsen said:
Ok - another week of going ham in LK. Still at ~95.25. As the pictures show I played alot and got a bit lucky as well.


Levels95_B.jpg
Levels95_C.jpg

So now I find myself with 5 x Pul, 5 x Mal, Ist, 4 x Gul, Vex, 3 x Ohm, 2 x Lo, 2 x Sur, Ber and Cham. I think the way to go is new CtA to replace the +2 one I have, a CoH and a Fort for merc to start. I think I'll wait a bit on the infinity - I'm really loving LK atm.
I'm open to suggestions on what to do with all this though, as I'm not used to having this many runes available.


Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      79             No           96         73            0           -
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
BKC said:
ThomasJohnsen said:
Ok - another week of going ham in LK. Still at ~95.25. As the pictures show I played alot and got a bit lucky as well.

Levels95_B.jpg
Levels95_C.jpg

So now I find myself with 5 x Pul, 5 x Mal, Ist, 4 x Gul, Vex, 3 x Ohm, 2 x Lo, 2 x Sur, Ber and Cham. I think the way to go is new CtA to replace the +2 one I have, a CoH and a Fort for merc to start. I think I'll wait a bit on the infinity - I'm really loving LK atm.
I'm open to suggestions on what to do with all this though, as I'm not used to having this many runes available.


Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      79             No           96         73            0           -
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Now you are getting rich sir :)
ThomasJohnsen said:
BKC said:
Now you are getting rich sir :)
A bit. I went a tad overboard with LK - but it didn't exist as a place to run on ladder and I've just come to love getting excellent charms, loads of crafting materials, loads of gems for rolling and high(ish) runes; all while drinking a cup of coffee and never getting below BO life. That's my kind of area. If only it gave exp as well I'd never go anywhere else.
 
Kitteh said:
Rather than doing something with them, wait until you need them to do something :)
darkstarhub said:
Updated the table for my level from 93 to 94 and added the fallen HC table back in here for posterities sake. I will probably end up using the Ancients quest when I get close enough for the XP bonus to get me to 95. In order for me to have a shot at 99 in a reasonable amount of time I must get more efficient. I really wanted to save that Ancients bonus as long as possible, and still might unless I get some better gear before I get to the point of using it for the next level. I am gonna read over the area run times thread again to see if anything else jumps out at me that I didnt notice already. My character still has all three respecs so there might be a build change at some point during the late level trudging. FO/FB does pretty good since I am so used to it, and landing a perfect Orb explosion is very satisfying, but a Lightning or Blizz Sorc has to be faster.

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      79             No           96         73            0           -
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Pb_pal said:
@darkstarhub - I would definitely recommend going Blizzard. It's just insanely powerful and can plow the AT like nobody's business. It's also the preferred build for CS runs, so something to think about if you wanted to really make a run at those.

--

As for me, well, here we go again.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and since the thread has recently had it's first birthday I figured that was the nudge I needed to start this silly project again. Why do it again you say? Well, as George Mallory famously said about Mount Everest; "Because it's there".

This time things will be a little different though. It will be melee, and it will be HC. Oh, and it will be a Beardin (eventually). Yes, that's right, a melee HC single-attack furry paladin. He WILL be using an extended stash though, so there's that. I fully expect to kill him before he even comes close to 99, but hey, stranger things have happened right? ;)

Enter Stevesy, the future Holy Shock Beardin. His journey will be slow, I'm sure it will be very painful at times, and will spend an inordinate amount of time in LK, but I hope you all can find it at least a little interesting. :)

--

Just a quick start for him for now, he began his journey with a trip into the Den. A point in Holy Fire (and later Holy Freeze and a +1 Zeal Scepter) along with a trusty Fire Rogue took him easily through Act 1 to a face-off with Andariel The Merc didn't survive the fight (big surprise!), but Andy did give us our first S/U of the campaign.

8nWcxJm.jpg


Act 2 began in the standard way with the purchase of a Prayer Guard. Once the cube was grabbed and some diamonds burned on a savage polearm Stevesy took up residence behind his merc and followed him through the desert. He his level 24 in the Arcane Sanctuary and officially began his career as a Holy Shock paladin (though the merc is still doing the killing). The Duriel fight was a tough one, as we lost the merc a good 5 or 6 times. Persistence paid off however and we were soon on our way to Kurast.

The jungles quickly dropped us a Tir which we used to make Steel in a Crystal Sword. It means we give up Zeal from the scepter, but honestly I HATE the mechanics of Zeal and am much happier just whacking away with normal attack (especially in HC). Stevesy noticed his cth was lacking, so we popped back to the desert and switched to a BA merc. Eventually (and I mean eventually) once we have an Infinity I'll switch him to Might for LIs but with only normal attack, AR will be a huge issue if I don't take BA with me. Things began to pick up now that Stevesy could hit things, and Sszark, Endugu and Stormtree all fell before a quick trip through the Sewers got us the last organ.

At this point Holy Shock is picking up some serious steam, so the rest of the trip to Meph was easy. He himself was a little tough. He killed the merc 4 or 5 times, but Stevesy was able to tank him decently and OW from his Steel sword eventually wore the big guy down.

jp1Pngt.jpg


He's resting there for now having reached level 28. I'm not going to bother with the table just yet as his level will be changing dramatically over the next few sessions, but if he's still alive after Baal I'll officially add him in.
T72on1 said:
@Pb_pal I can't express how excited I am to see you entering with a second character. And a melee HC one nonetheless !!! I'll be following this with great interest !!!

Knowing you, and the fact that you already did a 99er, I'm pretty sure you have already given a lot of thought about endgame actually. So tell us: what's the plan? Endgame weapon, targets past 85+, ... ?

I can definitely see myself doing another one too, or starting another one before my Sorc has hit 99. If it weren't for my Sept, I'd probably already started another character. Not sure if I could bring it up to do another untwinked one though.

Anyway, good luck !!! But I'm pretty confident you'll do just fine.

O yes, @darkstarhub +1 to Blizz sorc.
Pb_pal said:
T72on1 said:
@Pb_pal I can't express how excited I am to see you entering with a second character. And a melee HC one nonetheless !!! I'll be following this with great interest !!!

Knowing you, and the fact that you already did a 99er, I'm pretty sure you have already given a lot of thought about endgame actually. So tell us: what's the plan? Endgame weapon, targets past 85+, ... ?
Glad to see you're interested! I figured I may as well make it a weird one this time, I've got plenty of cookie-cutters I can level in the meantime. ;)

End-game leveling will almost certainly be exclusively Baal runs (Pit runs before then most likely). I'll try CS/Diablo too but I doubt with the whole "no-teleport-while-shifted" thing that it would not be efficient or comfortable. Nihl I *might* try, but it's quite scary in HC and suffers from the same problem.

As far a weapon, I've got a few options for the top end gear:
  • Grief PB - If I roll a perfect 40% ias it will get me 5fpa (5 attacks/sec)
  • BotD PB - the 60% ias gives it a 4 fpa (6.25 attacks/sec)
  • Grizz Caddy - Can also get this to 4 fpa If I roll 4 sockets and fill em with Shaels
The only really attainable one is the Grief, and with all the LK I have to do I'm hoping to score enough Lo runes to get a perfect roll. In the meantime I'll probably use a Crescent Moon, though I haven't given it much thought.

Rest of the gear is standard. Infinity, Enigma, Beast, Griffs (yeah right, probably a circlet of some kind), Exile/HoZ, Arachs, etc etc.

Gameplay plan?

Get to Hell and level a bit in the Pits and hopefully find some gear. MFing will be interesting with this guy, I'm kinda just hoping it will work itself out along the way :p. After that I will spend the foreseeable future in LK gathering rocks. Then Pits/Baal to finish it off. Sounds so easy when it's put that way...

T72on1 said:
I can definitely see myself doing another one too, or starting another one before my Sorc has hit 99. If it weren't for my Sept, I'd probably already started another character. Not sure if I could bring it up to do another untwinked one though.

I didn't think I'd do another either, but here I am. :rolleyes:

T72on1 said:
Anyway, good luck !!! But I'm pretty confident you'll do just fine.

Thanks, that makes one of us! ;)
LiquidClear said:
@Pb_pal You, sir, are a brave man. I used a Dream Auradin for about 85 hours of an MFO running Baal... and hated it so much afterward I didn't use Zeal (or any other left-click exclusive skill) for years afterward. And probably never will again. But on the bright side you're making him a Werebear, which is my favorite thing in D2, so by all means go for it. :cool:

Did you run the numbers on his damage? Was just curious how he compared to other furry chars damage wise.
NanoMist said:
Oh my, a 2nd 99? I'll admit I've thought about it, but I can't commit to it. Memories of level 98 are still too fresh..
Pb_pal said:
LiquidClear said:
@Pb_pal You, sir, are a brave man. I used a Dream Auradin for about 85 hours of an MFO running Baal... and hated it so much afterward I didn't use Zeal (or any other left-click exclusive skill) for years afterward. And probably never will again. But on the bright side you're making him a Werebear, which is my favorite thing in D2, so by all means go for it. :cool:

Did you run the numbers on his damage? Was just curious how he compared to other furry chars damage wise.
I didn't do too much hard number-crunching, no. I did however take @Grape at his word that fuzzy paladins are both lethal and fun. I'm holding him entirely accountable if I have any difficulty whatsoever playing this character.

As far as other fuzzy characters, I didn't really check since the paladin seems like a clear winner due to being able to synergize his Holy Shock. The other option would be a Dream sorc, but I already have a 99er sorc so that was ruled out.

May as well look at the numbers now that I'm committed though. With +15 skills (doable I think; 8 skillers, enigma, crafted amulet, arachs and shield) a fully synergized HShock does ~1-8900k damage. So ~4450 average damage applied at 4fpa (6.25 attacks/sec) is 27-28k/sec before resistances etc. With -res from Infinity (and hopefully Griffs and a facet) non-immunes should hopefully melt decently. This is top-end of what I would expect to achieve, but dream big right? I chose Shock with Baal runs in mind, since lightning shines there.

I'll likely reach the 75 FCR breakpoint for teleporting on switch (35% Spirit, Arachs, and then either Griffons/+2pally, 20fcr circlet/Trangs gloves/fcr ring+ammy or some combination of that). 125 FCR is *technically* achievable, but not untwinked. I'd need 35% Spirit, Arach, Griffs, Trangs, a 10FCR ring and then at LEAST a +2 pally/15 FCR crafted amulet. Well, I guess I could carry a Hoto in the cube and switch it out to Beast when I get to where I'm going to free gear up, but that seems like a ton of trouble for a few saved frames. I'll see what happens when I get there I guess.

I'll just state now that I don't plan on this character being very fast. As mentioned before I have lots of cookie cutters I can run for uber fast leveling. This will be an extremely long-term project where I probably won't worry too much about min-maxing those runtimes.

EDIT: Also, DC got 3:30 Baals with his Tesladin. He had great equipment (no Enigma though) and mad skillz, but if I can come close-ish to that I'd be very happy.
Reyz said:
T72on1 said:
We are all hoping for a @Gripphon anywhere, since he helps us out so tremendously. So yeah, losing a Gripphon would really be terrible, since there is only one and one only. Have no fear though, there still is a Griffon to comfort us if it would ever happen.

Sorry, couldn't resist ;).

Congrats on the progress and the Vex. Try to get a CtA base asap, as the runeword will make your runs so much safer. Infinity makes a huge difference for a Lightning Sorc, so you might want to run LK or other areas in search for Sur or Ber runes.

Good luck !!
Haha, awful typo there :p Well my excuse therefore is, that I have never seen this word written before ingame in more than 10 years of me playing D2 :s

I´m actually thinking about doing a bit of LK again. I guess I need a break from Pindle, especially because I died there shortly after reaching 93 and lost about 50 runs of experience again.

My concerns though, is changing weapons twice per run and activating 3 different skills not quite an annoying task to do?
Also, since low level shouts have a pretty short duration, don´t I lose them often when I´m in the middle of a CS / Baal run for example?

For Infinity, I don´t want to use any mods and play it the way it´s intended, so no extended stash and no battle.net only runewords for me.


PhineasB said:
Congrats to @Reyz and @darkstarhub on the levels. I don't have much to add as far as leveling advice. I can't remember if you found a Ber yet, but CoH made a big difference for Hiatus. So maybe some time in LK if you're still missing that piece of gear.

I already made one and replaced my Viper. It´s a nice upgrade but unfortunately not something game-changing for me. Problem is also I couldnt use a SoJ or BK ring, because without being able to use a Spirit shield and not having a (good) fcr amu I would lose my 117 fcr breakpoint.


Congrats to all the others how where able to make some progress and good luck further! :)
hasuprotoss said:
I'm also thinking of doing LK again. Maybe try and farm up an Infinity or something. Also need crafting gear to re-craft a decent amulet. Don't know what I'll do for rings, may just gamble some.

I would be more saddened by the loss of the Griffon if I didn't have another one that was only slightly worse. Amazing luck on my end, for sure. I may end up actually swapping to lightning if I end up enjoying it and I can stand farming LK long enough for the requisite runes. But Blizzard has made it this far and it's really hard to turn down the sheer damage capabilities. And having to drink blue pots? Ugh!
Naturallog said:
This might be the luckiest character I've ever made. I had just gotten tired of trying to farm Countess for Mal and decided to go ahead and work my way up to Act 5 for the various skill point and resistances quest rewards. Just chugging through Act 4 and what do I see?

Athos_Lo.jpg

I stared at it for a second thinking "no way, I'm just imagining it" before taking a screenshot and picking it up. Shortly thereafter (I had to do Hellforge and cube the Um I got from it) I made this:

Athos_Grief.jpg

Of course the attack speed is irrelevant in a Phase Blade, so +394 damage is about as good as it gets. Guess I'm committed to this now, time to go back and farm Travincal for Enigma.

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.2           Yes           -        457           10           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            9           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Grape said:
@Pb_pal Awesome! Best of luck!

And I'll totally take the blame when you deed that char. :D (if you can make a replica of Alyosha that is ;) ) Besides that, I fully believe you can make it all the way, given enough time. Have fun! :)
PhineasB said:
@Pb_pal -- Yes! Great to see another attempt, and so much style with this one. Safe journeys for Stevesy. I had a blast with my Beardin -- quite possibly the most fun of all the characters in my 7x7. Untwinked would be daunting, especially in HC, but I'm confident you'll make pull it off.

@Naturallog -- very nice progress. Good to see a melee build equip a Grief. Best of luck in the search for runes.

@hasuprotoss -- sorry to hear about the death and, worse, the loss of equipment. Ouch! Good job for taking it in stride and getting back right into the runs. Good luck on piecing together the replacement equipment!

As for me, I'll have an update later this week. With limited time due to trips and parents visiting, the Mercy and Phaedrus still have made some progress. Keep up the progress, everyone!
Kitteh said:
I've got a new copy of D2 for my Mac ahead of going to Glasgow, and it will be vanilla, which is fun :D I plan to reenter the tournament on my mac, vanilla, hardcore (debating that...). I'm not really sure on a build yet, if it is hardcore then I really need to think this through haha I'm really siding towards a windy druid!
Pb_pal said:
@Kitteh - Vanilla will be a cool challenge! Windy should be a good choice I think, they aren't TOO mana intensive other than spamming 'nados. By the time you're doing that you should be able to have a good mana pool and maybe some mpk items (plus CtA, since it's vanilla!). Lotsa life from Oak always helps. No matter what you choose, good luck!

--

Alright, back at it with Stevesy!

Act 4 was interesting, to say the least. Holy Shock is more than capable right now, but Stevesy himself is becoming a touch more fragile than I'd like (probably has something to do with being in full MF gear...). We had a few scary moments with boss packs, but no tru NDEs just yet. Soon enough the duo had worked their way to, and killed, Izual. A quick trip to the HF got an El, and the path to Diablo was cleared safely (as long as we stayed away from Venom Lords, that is).

The fight with Diablo was.... horrific.

qdGg477.jpg


Basically the strategy was to throw on Sanctuary, run in and try to proc the Open Wounds from his Steel sword before the merc got fried, and then commence a frantic mixture of hose-dodging, panic rejuvs, and getting the merc to chip away at D.

After about 6 merc deaths, a ton of NDEs for Stevesy, and a whole slew of town trips for healing and pot refills we eventually got him!

ivL8IGG.jpg


Skewer of Krinitz is a great find (ITD) and I'm sure it will get some use to help with our ongoing AR issues.

Act 5 was a much smoother ride. The XP explosion and subsequent drastic improvement of Holy Shock meant that monsters simply melted and soon enough Anya was saved and the Ancients were killed with ease (on /p1, for safety). Through the WSK and Throne we went, and even waves 1-3 were speedily disposed of. Ventar's group was dangerous, and we had to be very careful of their fire. Seperating them into groups worked and soon they were dead too.

Lister was his dangerous self, so we backtracked out of the throne room and drew them out a couple at a time. The Baal fight was nothing compared to the Diablo fight. He only cloned himself once, so we just pateintly whacked him and let the merc get the final kill for the extra MF, getting us a Vipermagi[ss] to wear in NM.

bP8DQa4.jpg


Stevesy made Destroyer at level 43, but will likely level up some before heading out into NM next time.
PhineasB said:
Great job @Pb_pal! Diablo untwinked with a melee based character is always scary. Glad to see that Stevesy made it. It's also good to see @Kitteh planning to give this another go. I'm not much help on build choices for Vanilla, although Windy makes sense for all the reasons noted.

As for me, how about a little update? Sure!

Mercy hit 98.4 last night. As noted in the RFL thread, she got to 98.25 before doing 9.5 hours of Cows in RFL Round 3. She also ran some Nihl along the way and hit 98.3 the Saturday after RFL ended. And she obviously made solid progress over the last week.

Here’s a run-down of the finds: Schaefer’s dropped before starting Cows, which was a grailer for her. Then she found another Stonecrusher, Vex, Gul and Gul during RFL Round 3, along with the Redeemer, a Cold/Die facet and Cow King’s Horns, which were grailers.

She had mixed in some Nihl runs with Cows, netting Mal #5 and Ist #2. She then was back to Nihl, settling on a two shrine map. My theory is the 15-whatever minutes more rerolling to find a perfect map would be at least a half million XP, and I doubt the optimal map will make that much XP up before I misclick and reset it :rolleyes:

Mercy finally found Iron Pelt (followed shortly by an Eth one), which was a grailer. Then came two more higher level grailers, with Spirit Keeper and a nice TC87, IK Soul Cage. Within 10 minutes on Thursday she found two Nightwings (one was +15% Cold damage, the other +13%), and then less than an hour later a Dragonscale.

Yesterday netted 12M XP, along with Sur #3, Steel Carapace (a grailer for her), SoJ (another grailer), and a Lo. Mixed in there was also a Fire/Die Facet, leaving only Cold/Level for facets in the grail. She also found her second Wisp Projector.

So she’s getting close to only TC3 and TC87 items left for the grail – only 4 exceptional uniques, 2 non-TC87 elite uniques, 3 unique ammys, Carrion Wind, and the facet (plus two Cow pieces) left. Still no rune higher than Sur though :( But here is the rune summary for 98.2 to 98.4:

Code:
Sur
Lo
Vex (from Cows)
Gul x3 (2 from Cows)
Ist
Mal

She had a couple close calls along the way, oddly all of them were on the level with the WP – cursed, might/fanat Zakarumites or Moon Lords while teleporting. :eek: Worst one had ~900 HP left.

* * *

Phaedrus is back in LK. He did a set of 50 runes found, with Lem the highest. The 4 Hels in that set went to rerolling the Spirit, without a 35: 27, 31, 28, 29. So that's close to 15 rerolls, with no luck so far.

One more death from getting stuck in hit recovery trying to pick up a charm with cursed boss pack in the hut.

He’s part way into the next 50 rune set, and he will probably be in LK until he finds 5 more Surs, unless he stumbles on some item upgrades. He might also go back to RoF runs for a change of pace. We’ll see.

* * *

I’m optimistic Mercy could reach 98.5 by the end of next weekend or early the following week. Good luck to everyone else!

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.4           Yes           -        468           11           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            10           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Gripphon said:
I will add myself later as a part of this untwinked journey, even though my plan has nothing to do with 99, but something completely different. I wanna add myself in here because I'd like to share journey somewhere before I forget everything since I don't take notes, but rather will write it from my head.

Yesterday I started a new sorceress. My goal is to develop strong MF sorc from zero. By "strong" I mean she hits certain farming numbers quickly. My goal is to be more efficient farmer than AT sorc who hits 5 bosspacks in 35 seconds with 500 MF measured across 100 runs and to see how fast can sorc achieve that. With time I will see how hard of a challenge this actually is and might make it harder if needed, or easier if I fail to deliver.

Rules of development:
1. I'm not allowed to kill any act boss more than once
- it means no farming on Andy, Meph... no leveling on Baal either, though minions are allowed.

2. I'm not allowed to farm on Hell Pindle or Eldritch, or level on them.
- I leave other difficulties out of this since there I can't farm godly stuff obviously, but also I want to have access to NM Eldritch to level up reasonably fast. Though that is already done.

3. I'm allowed to farm on LK chests or any similar things to my liking
- obviously, if I ban myself LK, I'd be crawling to make a progress and journey would be too slow for my taste

I'm already on hell with her, but more on that later or tomorrow.
LiquidClear said:
Random update on my not-quite-a-sept ragtag band of adventurers:

Sally, Level 90 Trap Assassin: benched for months due to being bored with her.

Jim, Level 77 Frenzy Barb: Pushed to Countess in Hell. Ran her once, for quest, very painfully... and decided I wasn't feeling him anymore. His next step was pretty much going to be farming Countess for Oath runes, and the PI ghosts, among other things, make running her very annoying. So... benched for a couple weeks.

Bliss, Level 77 Blizzball Sorceress: I don't have any of my old twinked chars/gear on this computer, but I was kind of craving getting to the more primary MF targets that we all know and love so I could actually start finding some cool stuff. So I pushed her through A1 Hell without any trouble and was doing the same in A2, although she died once trying to TP through the Claw Viper Temple. As a former HC player... I hate that. I was going to level up in AT a bit, but her Blizzard is super weak, she's super frail, her merc is super frail, and I hate the spell Blizzard anyways. I could respec her to a more powerful Blizzard build... but I don't want to burn respecs yet and I was going to hold onto the Fireball secondary at least until I hit Pindleskin, my preferred level up/starter MF target. So yeah, she's parked at Arcane Sanctuary until inspiration strikes me again and I push onward with her.

Bertha, Level 20 Lightning Spearzon... for now: I started this lady with the plan of being a Fend/Charged Strike Zon, but I've been having second thoughts. Thus far I've been a bit disappointed in her performance. (Yeah, Act 1 Normal and I've already made that kind of deduction) Pumped up Power Strike (or whatever the prereq for CS is called) to a point where it does what should be insane damage for this point in the game, but this lady seems to miss way more often than she should and mana burns up very quickly. She's rocking 11 MPK (lots of Tir rune farming) and it's still an issue. And one of my biggest pet peeves in this game is chugging blues, so she's taken a few days off. I think I want her to end up as a Frozen Arrow/Physical bow hybrid eventually anyways, ideally wielding a Faith and trying that out. But that's a long way and a lot of work away.

Larry, Level 66 Fissure/Grizzly Druid: This guy has been my primary focus the past week or so. The plan has been to quest/MF through NM with him as Fissure before respeccing to a Fury druid for hell once I get some gear. Well, he is now plowing through NM Eldritch with 232 MF on, finding absolutely nothing of even remote interest thus far on his adventures. I'm not sure how easily he'll be able to quest through Hell; good weapons are hard to find for SS druids and I don't have much in the way of supportive gear either. Plus finding a PI solution's going to be necessary. I always try and plan out Shapeshifting druids before giving up because they suck... But I want one to succeed so badly! Here's hoping Larry's luck picks up.

Russ, Level 1... Holy Freeze Pally?: Seeing Pb_pal take the plunge on the left-click exclusive Pally has inspired me to create my own, although he has not yet left the Rogue Encampment. I've always liked the look of Holy Freeze, as well as the idea of slowing everything around me to a crawl... plus the elemental damage seems like a decent idea for untwinked, although I don't know if he has any long-term use as a Holy Freezer. I was thinking about pushing him to A2 Hell as one before respeccing to the almighty Pharphis-a-din, and FoHing my way through the Ancient Tunnels. FoH looks kind of daunting to quest with, and I'm kind of impatient anyways.

???, Not-yet-born Necromancer: Creativity is great and all... but I'm pretty sure this guy's going to be your typical Skellymancer. The idea is to have a wide variety of chars to play, so I guess this guy can be my character in the group that lets me just play on Easy Street. As far as end game goes, I never really gave the telestomping Summoning Necro a chance, so maybe I'll one day try that out a bit more with this guy.

General Thoughts: So I'm realizing more and more that I'm kind of an idiot. I suspect I don't have nearly the patience for untwinked play that most of you do, but I continue to play this way anyways since I love the sensation of finding items that are actually useful for a change, instead of just throwing them into the stash to gather dust since I already have everything. I'm realizing more and more that... I pretty much like to kick ass when I play, so the slow grind to start off is a bit of a struggle. I really need to bite the bullet and push a couple of these guys through instead of dawdling around creating new guys. That being said, I think I'm off to start a new char, so...
Kitteh said:
Haha, which one are you actually planning to take to 99? :p
Gripphon said:
I'm adding myself to table. Sorceress is only level 76 and I don't know when will I go further to level her up. She is hitting LK until CtA is made at least. Goal of my sorc is stated in this thread few posts before. I wanna make proper AT runner out of her, not going for 99. Ideally would be if I pay attention to all S/U items that dropped, but honestly there is just no way I'm gonna collect them all, so this data as well as grail data might not be shared at all. Even by now I didn't pick everything up because lol.

Normal:
I got pretty awesome maps for some running, though I didn't use them to my advantage.
MDSco3M.jpg


uzNy1nX.jpg

I did total of either 4 or 5 Countess runs, I already forgot. Anyway until I farmed runes for Stealth and Leaf, then I simply rushed through the game pretty much with stop of leveling on Rakinishu, Beetleburst and bigger stop on Eldritch. I went to Nightmare after level ~40 or something like that. I developed Fire Wall sorceress, but now she is Blizzard with Fire Wall backup. Fire Wall is too weak to be useful for now.

Nightmare:
Same old story, except now I rushed through the game to Lower Kuras where I rolled a simple 3 chest map 1 teleport away from the waypoint and did ~50 runs to farm Sol rune to make Insight. I got 2 bases for it while killing act 3 dudez. After that I leveled up on Eldritch up to ~58 or something like that before going to kill Baal.

After that I did 1 hour of cow running to farm 4 os sword for Spirit and some other stuff like 2 os shields, helms and such. In case someone misses Insight bases, I found 6 of those during 1 hour of cow running on p3. Average runtime was like 6 minutes...

Funny story, yet again:
doLWFIA.jpg


eyaxKAK.jpg


I tried to teleport to town, but couldn't do it even with extended teleporting. It's simply too far away!

Also some finds:
4zJIEZS.jpg


Q8gX3Ad.jpg


Hell:

Took me 8 hours to get here as a level 63 and now plan was very simple. Run some nightmare cows to farm certain socketables and then do some leveling on Rakinishu and to also farm full rejuvs on him, and then gogogogo to LK farming. I gotta say nightmare cows are also good for leveling, they do give solid xp.

Act 3 was pretty annoying because I had map where I needed to get to Flyer Jungle through Marsh, and it was full of Gloams all the time. I rerolled maps because I kept dieing there and then rolled great map and just cruised through quests, though it wasn't easy. Solved quests, defeated Meph, got act 4 and then LK hunting could proceed.

It took me only 3 rerolls to roll this map:
8Y4ATMb.jpg

It is not ideal, but is it pretty solid. Strongest point of this map is it has 2 shrines along the way so I constantly upgrade my amethysts to perfect. Weak point of this map is it has ugly spawns, all huts are hosting bosspacks from time to time...

I started to run with 37 fcr breakpoints, but upon fcr ring drop I got to 63. Equipment I use is pretty OP, agreed:
Lore helm
Stealth armor
Spirit sword (26 fcr)
Splendor shield
plain fcr ring
some mana ring
some gloves
some boots

I'm collecting blue amulets and rings, rare gloves, circlets, boots, rings, amulets, all charms, all jewels, flawless gems, all runes, rare orbs sometimes, rare wands. Also am checking 2 shrines per run to upgrade amethysts. Measured runtime across 20 runs is 24.1 seconds, which means at average I shrine ~9 amethysts per hour of playing which is not bad. Pace will increase once I stop picking up all those things, but for now it is pretty cool to farm like this.

Now I'm 13 hours in total and ~2 hours of LK farming, found these things which is not awesome, but is cool since I have nothing.

Code:
Corpse Fist
Light Gauntlets
Defense: 10
Durability: 6 of 18
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 45
Fingerprint: 0x1ab121de
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
3% Mana stolen per hit
+15 to Dexterity
Cold Resist +17%
Fire Resist +11%
Poison Resist +20%
20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Serpent's Large Charm of Life
Large Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x36ad9dc9
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+14 to Life
+31 to Mana

Snake's Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 24
Fingerprint: 0x863eb8f4
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+13 to Life
+12 to Mana

Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xa632d92a
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
Fire Resist +16%

Steel Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x860728d4
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+125 to Attack Rating
+23 to Life

Ruby Large Charm of Sustenance
Large Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xa36bdf60
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+18 to Life
Fire Resist +15%

Jade Small Charm of Fortune
Small Charm
Required Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0x6cf9e79e
Item Level: 52
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Poison Resist +9%
4% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Shimmering Small Charm of Life
Small Charm
Required Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0x5345b168
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+6 to Life
All Resistances +3

Um and Gul fo runes, I have over 100 pgems so far and thats pretty much it. Plan is to run LK to farm CtA and MF charms which I found some, but still nothing to make character from. I want to farm more life/mana stuff so I can hit AT comfortably at least. I definitely have to replace Stealth with something at some point, though I don't see that happening too soon unless I strike some major circlet with fcr. I also need to farm pretty much everything lol. And roll a better Spirit.


Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.4           Yes           -        468           11           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         292        162            10           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
Grape said:
And soon you're 9x by AT running. Little switch to CS and hey, you can almost keep up to your best leveling times. Why not?

Now you're wondering at lvl 98 what would be the most efficient way to 99.

Gripphon confirmed going for 99, GG.
Gripphon said:
Indeed. Found another Gul and Mal before rerolling map. This LK map was fine, but it had too many bosspacks in huts, it was too annoying and I died too often for my taste. I'll take a chance to try to roll for a better map, though didn't manage to find any in 30 min rerolling. But I'm fine, now I'm basically 50% into CtA if I cube runes, but since I need charms, I might as well farm much more than just CtA, though I don't have desire to use other runewords. I would need elite base for Insight so I will probably need to hit cows at some point to farm base, heading into AT with exceptional base merc is not exactly brilliant idea I think. AT is still far away, don't even have 3 rows of usable charms yet.
Gripphon said:
Spent 45 minutes to roll a better map and now I'm total of 8.5 hours into LK running: 2xPul, 2xUm, 2xMal, Ist, 3xGul and Sur. Luck is not really good since by now at average I should have farmed ~3 Vex+ runes, but quantity is slightly above average at least. 1 more Gul to cube Ohm, but I would also want Lo to make Fortitude for merc. MF charms are going nicely, but I would prefer to find something soonish to move out of LK to finish quests and then cows for bases and possibly lucky Lo or something. I also can't find +2 or +3 cold skills amulet while already found +3 to nearly everything else...
Kitteh said:
@Gripphon Haha, you're not going for 99? :p
PhineasB said:
Mercy hit 98.5 earlier today. I think I’ve finally gotten comfortable with the runs.

Mercy is now landing at the bottom right of Nihl's platform with the final teleport almost every time. And I also have figured out how to target Nihl almost immediately, which allows me to see his mods, and then drop 5 traps before switching to FB (now on RMB to avoid another misclick). If there are vipers nearby or Mercy has an XP shrine and Nihl is cursed, she takes one more teleport to the top right corner of the room before laying down traps.

At a leisurely pace, she’s averaging ~2.35M XP per hour, and focused running nets >2.45M. She is still picking up all Hel+ runes and every elite unique/set, plus SC/GC and jewels. She generally picks up flawless amethysts, but not always, and also checks out interesting normal and exceptional uniques to see if they are ethereal.

Stopping this latter practice and focusing only on Pul+ runes would probably let her get over 2.5M XP per hour. But I will probably keep up the current approach, as Mercy has helped make good progress on my ethereal grail.

Solid finds, including a 5% life leech BKWB to replace the 4% one (and match the Ravenfrost!), a Mara’s upgrade to 28@ (with my preferred art), an eth Steel Shade (a grailer for her), eth Spike Thorn, Nat’s Claw (grailer for her), another Ravenlore (-16 efr, so better than first one), another Medusa’s Gaze, 50 MF War Traveler (first for me), and Graverobber skiller with GF.

The Nat’s Claw was ilvl 84, so it dropped from an Ice Spawn, which is pretty unexpected. Assuming I did the drop calc correctly, it is something 1:5 million odds, which is less likely by far than a Zod (1:2 million odds). :eek: So Mercy will take it!

Runes for this tenth of the level were okay: Vex, Um, and Vex #2 (hiding off on the edge of the screen again).

To commemorate the milestone, Mercy used the Vex from RFL3 to reroll HoTo, hoping to upgrade her 36@ one. Sadly, it was not to be (31@).

But, in the course of doing that, she swapped out a plain +20 life SC for a +19 life one with 15 mana. It resulted in a much more aesthetically pleasing inventory (this pic also shows the improvement in appearance that the Mara's and BKWB upgrades allowed).
98.5 inventory.jpg

* * *

Phaedrus finished up the 50 rune set and then completed a second, for a total of 151 runes found since returning to LK this month. He found an Um and a solid FCR ring that will come in handy for him down the road, I think.
Code:
Eagle Spiral
Ring
Required Level: 48
Fingerprint: 0xc1666bc9
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+10% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to Maximum Damage
+56 to Attack Rating
Cold Resist +16%
All Resistances +10
Damage Reduced by 1

Nothing higher than a Lum beyond that. But he had another 5 Hels, and set to rerolling. On the fourth try, after 25, 26, and 31, Phaedrus finally got 35 FCR on his spirit. I went back and checked – 18 tries before hitting it! But it’s nice to have that out of the way :D

He will continue plugging away in LK, finishing off another 100 runes to get to 500 total so far. I also realized that I forgot to post a Vex Phaedrus found in RoF back in February.

* * *

The pace with Mercy is going to slow down a bit and focus on the weekly goal of 15M XP per week. I will also pick Hiatus back up and start chipping away for 96.5. Keep up the progress, everyone!

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.5           Yes           -        470           11           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         296        164            10           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
NanoMist said:
@PhineasB - The 50% mark is a nice milestone to reach. That eth Steel Shade would go nicely on a trav merc, every stat except the ED rolled perfect too.
T72on1 said:
@PhineasB Congrats, very well done !!!

I finally picked up playing Neverland as well, next to my oskill Sept. Nothing major, but at least I made a start again. I was quite worried about going down to Nihl after such a long hiatus, so did some LK runs first, then rerolled until I got a good Nihl map again. To my pleasant surprise the runs went really well. Not so much in terms of efficiency, as there were quite some misclicks and slow runs overall, but they were all very safe, which is the single most important thing for me at the moment.

I only did a bit below 60 minutes of running, but in that time I managed to find a poison facet, Crescent Moon amulet and a HoZ, so that was certainly nice.

Code:
Crescent Moon
Amulet
Required Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xddb0ff2f
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
15% Mana stolen per hit
6% Life stolen per hit
+45 to Mana
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
-2 to Light Radius


Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x7afa9e62
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
100% Chance to cast level 23 Venom when you Level-Up
Adds 37 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
-5% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+4% to Poison Skill Damage


Herald of Zakarum
Gilded Shield
Defense: 454
Chance to Block: 52
Durability: 46 of 50
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 89
Fingerprint: 0xb3604770
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+2 to Paladin Skill Levels
+30% Faster Block Rate
30% Increased Chance of Blocking
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+169% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Vitality
All Resistances +50

Progress will remain slow, as I plan to focus on the Sept, but it feels good to be back to Neverland as well.
PhineasB said:
@NanoMist - the Steelshade was exciting, as it's the first eth one I've ever found, and I was very happy with the rolls. Although, if defense had been perfect, I would have been compelled to donate it to @Grape for the Zod God sept!
LiquidClear said:
On The Bench: Jim the 77 Frenzy Barb, Bertha the 20 Spearzon, Sally the 90 Trap Assassin, Russ the 20 Holy Freeze Pally, Clarence the 36 Skelemancer, Larry the 68 Fissure/Grizzly Druid

Actively Playing: Bliss the 87 Blizzballer

I started the Pally and did Act 1 with him... but was kind of disappointed with how quickly I bored of him. I thought Holy Freeze would be a bit more powerful considering I was able to dump insane amounts into synergy before even getting the skill. Clarence the Skelemancer was born next so I could do some playing on auto pilot with my brain turned off. He moved along with ease (surprised?) and is parked at the Arreat Plateau WP for now. I lost a bit of the will to play him when I thought about what I'd do with him once getting to Hell; non-Enigma'd summoners don't tend to run many targets particularly well. (And by "well" I mean "quickly")

So I decided to pick up Bliss the Blizzballer again and finally push to act 5 and her Pindle destiny. She reached the red portal, where she would devote herself to EXP until her present 87. (I definitely didn't plan it, but how convenient that I stopped just shy of the level that has been hijacked by Nazi propaganda and gets blurred to a lovely "**"! And now I can skip it before the next update and pretend it doesn't exist! Hurray!)

So basically my plan was to level up at Pindle for a while then head to Mephisto and run him a bajillion times to get the basics out of the way, and because I haven't run him in years. For the 10 levels at Pindle my most prized find was easily the white Monarch that I cubed 4 sockets onto for my Spirit. I was rolling with about 150 MF, so expectations weren't super high, but I was hoping for a bit more than white items. So I moved to Meph, thinking he would be a bit more fun for someone with nothing since he drops more frequently, albeit with a lower ceiling.

Then, maybe 5 or so runs after I started, I found something to top my white monarch.
Code:
 Arachnid Mesh
Spiderweb Sash
Defense: 131
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 80
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x7b16d4f7
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Faster Cast Rate
Slows Target by 10%
+108% Enhanced Defense
Increase Maximum Mana 5%
Level 3 Venom (11/11 Charges)

So that was basically the entire reason I was planning to run Meph for a long time, because of the qlvl requirement on that item making it a no-go for Pindle. So I ran him for another 30 minutes or so before deciding to bid him farewell... probably forever. Or until I get to a point that I need essences. I rolled a mediocre LK map and did that for a couple hours with nothing notable. Hoping to get an Ohm for CTA (I got an Ist from HF earlier) and maybe a Vex for HoTO. Obviously long-term I want Infinity, but I'm not going to isolate myself in LK until that happens; I don't have a proper polearm for Infinity, or even anything to make CTA in now that I think about it. I hate Blizzard, but at least I can pound pindle with it without needing Infinity.

So if I were to ever even approach 99, I figure Nihlathak would be the target of choice. I found a video Pb_pal had uploaded to YT running Nihl with sorc using Blova build. (As I state every post, I hate Blizzard. The spell, not the company) From glancing at a D2 wiki and watching the video, it looks like he can roll Cold, Fire, or Lightning immunity, but only 1 at a time and only Cold being unbreakable by Infinity? Is pure Lightning a viable build for this sort of thing? Would be interested to hear other thoughts on Sorc Nihl runners.

And random question time, topic: Socket quests. One of the things I spent the most time thinking about before starting a project in this thread was what to do with socket quests. Going through various stages of gearing a Sorc, if I weren't self-found I'd be popping sockets in Tals Armor, Tals Helm, Tals Orb, Shako, Griffons, Fathom, possibly things like Ormus Robes, any nice Circlets I'd want to use, and who knows what else. With only 3 I'm holding off on using any of them until I decide what my final goals would be. (A Griffon's, if it ever drops, seems a prime candidate, but even then I have to consider: if it's a crap roll, do I hope for another better one?)

So what have you used/do you plan to use your socket quests on?

(still not messing with the table until I get to a more noteworthy level)
Pb_pal said:
@LiquidClear - Nihl can still be unbreakable LI if he spawns LE+Magic Resistant or LE+Spectral Hit. Base 33% + 75%(LE) and 40%(MR)/20%(SH) gets him over the 117% threshold that Infinity can't break. That said, a pure light build would be a really effective Nihl runner and would just skip the runs where he spawns unbreakable LI. zgpmf used a pure light build for a while running Nihl, but later switched to Light/FW, though IIRC he didn't notice that it saved him any actual time over the pure build.

Long story short, if you're okay with aborting whenever he's unbreakable, then pure light would probably be the fastest build you could take. Bonus would be you could run D and Baal quite well as well for when Nihl gets tedious.

--

Stevesy Pindled until he hit 54 to get both Holy Shock and it's first synergy Resist Lightning maxed before venturing out into NM. He also decided not to take any chances and switch out of full MF gear in favour of a Vipermagi and 'Lore' circlet to give him some respectable resists and a couple + skills.

I had no idea Holy Shock was this powerful mid game! We're basically two-shotting everything we come across, and even the pulse is still doing respectable damage to big groups. This means progress is smooth and quick, and after snatching a Goldwrap in the Stony Field, we were soon facing down the big gal herself. Other than a few merc deaths, it went pretty much without a hitch and we were on to Act 2.

Well with ~4k lightning damage act 2 was limited only by the increasing squishyness of the merc. Despite increased babysitting, progress is still quick and Radament, Coldworm, and Fangskin were soon dead.

Partway through the Arcane Sanctuary we found our first 4-soc pally shield. Despite it being only +7 res all, we decided to make Stevesy his first Spirit:

E4f0JJB.jpg


Before we knew it we were fighting Duriel. The merc just couldn't stay alive however, so Stevesy decided to take the big bug on solo.

mVB88SY.jpg


No problems there, and he eventually bled the bug out and was on his way to Kurast.

Almost immediately in Act 3 we found a 4-socket polearm and we made an Inisght for the merc. We don't need the mana, but you just can't find a weapon with comparable firepower at this stage, so that settled that. The rest of Act 3 melted and we found our first nagelring (28%) in the flayer jungle before plowing our way to Meph.

3gF8EsJ.jpg


He was easy enough, and the merc even survived the fight! Stevesy will rest a bit in the Pandemonium Fortress before heading out, and will level some more before adding himself into the table (he's 59 now).
GalaXyHaXz said:
I thought about pursuing this challenge soon. Though all my characters have shared gear, so I'll start fresh with a necromancer.
Anyway, I felt the need to post my advice on getting to level 99. It's obviously very difficult, and there isn't too much info around.

Tips for getting to level 99 [WIP]
First, we need to examine the penalties applied to raw XP. We have:
- Exponential decay past level 70
- Level difference of +5/-5 (and if your under lv 25 another penalty)
- Split XP amongst party members

Of these things, we can eliminate ALL but the first one. To do this, we need to find qualifying monsters. Due to the +5/-5 penalty, this means lv 85 areas will cap out at 91 (and for uniques [8_8] this will be 94). This leaves us with only three monsters higher than lv 8_8.
- Diablo (mlvl 94)
- Nihlathak (mlvl 92)
- Baal Crab (mlvl 99)
- Ubers (mlvl 110)

As you can see, running Nihlathak the +5 penalty WILL kick in at level 98 (92+5=97). Therefore, only Diablo/Baal will avoid this penalty going from 98 to 99. They also give much more XP, and Baal gives about twice as much as Diablo.

From a sight, it appears Baal would be your best source of XP.
- Start game in /players1
- Get to Baal and kill the waves
- Enter /players8
- Go to throne room, kill Baal

Alternatively, although this is probably classified as "twinking", you can do a TCP/IP game which may be faster:
- Start TCP/IP game with sorc
- Tele to Chaos and kill only seal bosses
- Enter /players8
- Static Diablo halfway
- Go to town, and bring character in you want to level
- Character enters portal then unparties, kills Diablo

This is, in a nutshell how the XP bots work on bnet. They make an 8 players game that does Cbaal/Nith runs, then they unparty to give the leecher all the XP. These bots will run 24/7 and hit level 99 in 1-1/2 weeks.

Anyway, I hope someone finds this information helpful. Its a lot harder getting to 99 than it is in 1.09, which had higher mlvl's and less of a penalty. I still plan on getting all my toons to level 99 in 1.14, but most of them are twinked.
Dodgydave said:
I don't believe Baal gives any more experience at /players 8 than he does at /players 3 hence why Baal running has decreased in popularity (and efficiency) compared to Chaos Sanctuary/Diablo and Nihlathak running.
NanoMist said:
@GalaXyHaXz

Nihlathak is mlvl 95, not 92.

There is a maximum experience ceiling of 8388607 (2^23 - 1) from a single kill before penalties, which is only reached in single player by P3 Baal and P7 Diablo (excluding Uber bosses). This is done to prevent signed integer overflow in the penalty calculations that come after the bonuses.

In fact P3 Baal will provide about 1% less experience than P7 Diablo at level 98, since there is an additional penalty of clvl/mlvl if clvl < mlvl.

All experience bonuses, except shrines, Anni, and Ondal's, are applied prior to this ceiling check. Interestingly enough, signed integer overflow can occur in multiplayer settings where there is an additional party bonus granted when partied players are in the same area. This lead to the infamous Wave 2 exp. bug where 8 player games received very little experience from Wave 2, due to the mummies having a base experience high enough to reach the overflow. Having 1 person unparty fixed this issue. Wave 2 was bugged in 1.10 but no longer occurs 1.11+ due to a small reduction in party bonus that put the mummies under the overflow. Overflow can still occur with a few monsters (like Hell Baal) in multiplayer games, however.

On the (off)topic of leveling in multiplayer, this thread by Corrupted in the theorycrafting subforum provides a nice approach to a fast level 99 ladder reset character that can be done with a core group of players. Irrelevant to SP, but I found it interesting.
Reyz said:
LiquidClear said:
And random question time, topic: Socket quests. One of the things I spent the most time thinking about before starting a project in this thread was what to do with socket quests. Going through various stages of gearing a Sorc, if I weren't self-found I'd be popping sockets in Tals Armor, Tals Helm, Tals Orb, Shako, Griffons, Fathom, possibly things like Ormus Robes, any nice Circlets I'd want to use, and who knows what else. With only 3 I'm holding off on using any of them until I decide what my final goals would be. (A Griffon's, if it ever drops, seems a prime candidate, but even then I have to consider: if it's a crap roll, do I hope for another better one?)

So what have you used/do you plan to use your socket quests on?
That´s an interesting question for me aswell.
At level 93 I still have all my 3 socket quests open. At the moment I would only use it for a potential Griffons, even if it´s a bad one. I might also use it for a nearly perfect Eschutas (but can´t afford to lose allres / HoTO right now anyway). But other than that? A Lightning Ormus comes to my mind or a perfect Lidless Wall or Shako, which I wouldnt ever be able to upgrade again by a potential drop in the future.
Even if an upgrade for those 2 items is pretty much useless I couldn´t bring on my heart to vendor one because my worse item is already socketed.
GalaXyHaXz said:
Hmm, interesting I didn't know XP capped at P3. Nihlathak is mlvl 92, but I guess since he's a superunique it adds +3 so 95 then huh?

Either way, I think doing baal or diablo would be better and safer. One death at 98 is about 1k+ runs worth. If your playing multiplayer, the obvious quickest way is to get other players to TP you to D/B/N. But that's not the case if you solo. I got to lv 97 by doing straight baal runs years ago, was about to hit 98.

Edit: read corrupted's post. Basically the same thing the XP bots do: leech D/B/N and use other characters to clear the way.
T72on1 said:
If you go through this thread, you'll find plenty of info on the quickest ways to reach level 99, including comparison between Diablo, Baal and Nihl. This has been done both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. This way the overall conclusion was that for most characters Nihl is the most efficient target. Main exception to this is if you run a build that isn't very good at Nihl. For example @Neksja 's Hammerdin switched to Diablo runs again, because he couldn't target Nihl well, due to the nature of the build. But the three people in this thread who already finished the journey to 99 all did Nihl.

Obviously there's indeed the risk of dying as an important factor. Then again Neksja died once after 98 in CS, while none of the 3 99ers died at Nihl iirc. I'm also doing Nihl and haven't had a close call or death once I figured out how to properly run him (stepping away from your merc right after teleporting in being the major factor).
PhineasB said:
T72on1 said:
none of the 3 99ers died at Nihl iirc.
@T72on1, now you're making me feel lame about Mercy's death a little ways back. :p
T72on1 said:
Lol sorry, that wasn't my intention.

Amazing news here. Since Monday my computer suddenly didn't want to boot anymore. I always got an error message, and whichever option I chose, I couldn't reset the computer to an earlier version, a recovery point, couldn't get it fixed, no nothing. So I was afraid I had lost all, including everything D2 related. I had taken a backup a while ago, after the RFL, as I often do, so it wouldn't be too bad, but still.

Luckily the IT guy at my work could recover what was on the SSD, and today I reinstalled everything. Did 2 Nihl runs with Neverland, but loading times were slow, at which point I recalled I had to use Sven's glide wriper. Installed it, and on my very first Nihl run, bam:

Screenshot001.jpg

I was too surprised, and since there were snakes around, also suddenly very nervous, so I had to backtrack a little and kill everything before I picked it up.

Definitely a good start again for Neverland :).

Edit: and a grailer ...

Code:
Widowmaker
Ward Bow
Two Hand Damage: 56 - 149
Durability: 37 of 48
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 72
Required Dexterity: 146
Fingerprint: 0x7c5902e7
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
Fires Magic Arrows
182% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
33% Deadly Strike
+4 to Guided Arrow

Grail -26.
Pb_pal said:
@T72on1 - Glad to hear you salvaged Neverland! Nice find as a welcome back present too. :)

--

Act 4 saw things get a bit tougher for the duo, the squishyness is becoming quite real. Stevesy can't take more than a couple monsters at a time without the merc dying so it was definitely some slow going at times. CtH has started to fall below 70%, so Stevesy switched his main weapon to his Skewer of Krinitz (ITD) and keep his Steel sword on switch for when he needs the OW. They eventually plodded their way to Izual, grabbed a Pul from the HF and got the RoF WP.

The increasing toughness of the monsters and the general scariness of the CS prompted us to dial it down to /p3 to get through in a timely (and safe) manner.

wTNdZeO.jpg


D himself was quite easy as Stevesy snugged up in front of the hose and tanked with his 75FR/85LR. Open Wounds and the merc took care of the rest.

We kept it at /p3 to quest through Act 5, and before long we were through to the Ancients. After a quick rout of the trio, and a quick clear of the WSK it was time for the waves. The first 3 were very straightforward, and the fourth and fifth had to be separated as usual but eventually were killed.

cputk1m.jpg


Baal fight was pretty much as pictured, open wounds plus a couple trips for potion restocking and the big guy was dead, making Stevesy attain Conqueror status just shy of lvl 69.

92imHql.jpg


We now sit at our first real crossroads of the journey. We should definitely level before heading into Hell, but we can't really handle anything above /p3 without too much risk. An elite polearm for a new Insight would help with that, but the merc is too weak to deal with LIs in Hell right now to go and find one. Stevesy's gear is quite lacking as well, but we run into the same problem with run times being very slow right now for any good targets (Pindle, Baal).

Hmm. Decisions decisions, but for now he rests.
PhineasB said:
Nice progress @Pb_pal! I feel like transition to Hell and somewhere in the 88-92 range (without hitting LK until all needs are met) are the toughest. And I suspect that is at least twice as true for HC! :eek: Good luck figuring out the strategy. Pindle with a melee build would be a bit too risky for my tastes (in HC, as you are), so maybe p3 Baal runs or crafting a runeword like Smoke with high resists to allow progressing to Hell?

As for Mercy, calling it quits for today. A nice milestone and close to the next major update (~4M XP to go).
Screenshot003.jpg
 
PhineasB said:
Mercy is another 10th of the way there. Not much to say (other than, another 4 of these :eek: ?!!). Finds were a little disappointing, at least on the rune front: only Vex #3 and Gul #2 (within 2 hours of each other, actually).

Items were a bit better, with another Wisp Projector, a Cold Skiller with +damage, Mahim amulet (finally – grailer for her), Tal’s plate, Giant Skull, Harpoonists w +6 dext, Widowmaker, her second Stormlash, Boneshade and her second Arachnid’s.

Two NDEs, back-to-back under 1000 HP with an S&E, but otherwise uneventful. She’s hoping for something Ber or higher in the next tenth to get back on track (or at least get within shouting distance of @NanoMist's runehaul).

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.6           Yes           -        471           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     84             No          104         87           16          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       50             No           12          9            0         idk
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Kitteh said:
Hi guys. I'm really sorry that I've not been active in this tournament, I have a couple of really big IRL things going on just now so I'm kinda just floating around. Any highlights? Is everybody doing ok? Any issues?
T72on1 said:
Issues? You not participating of course ;).

Other than that the RFL has slowed progress somewhat for some of us, but now that that is over, we don't have that excuse anymore :rolleyes:. @PhineasB just took over from @Neksja on the way from 98 to 99, so that's definitely big news. I expect Neksja will pop in here any time now though, to show us all who's the boss ...

Next to that, biggest news probably is that @Pb_pal entered again, this time with a HC to-be Beardin. If it was someone else, we'd say he's absolutely crazy, but given the fact it's Pb_pal we are talking about, we call it courage and dedication.

O yes, and @Gripphon also entered, pretending he doesn't actually do it to reach 99, but just to test things out. Sounds familiar, no?
Lord Molybdenum said:
ok, coming back in on this one... I managed to keep all my data except number of deaths/hours, gonna assume deaths stayed the same and I'm not counting hours anymore.

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.6           Yes           -        471           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     85             No          107         89           16          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       13             Never         1          1            0           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

Also putting in an assassin.
PhineasB said:
Welcome back @Lord Molybdenum.

Also, to echo @T72on1, highlights are @Pb_pal starting a second character -- HC melee, no less -- and @Gripphon pretending not to make a real run at 99 :p.

Good luck to others -- keep pushing those characters along!
Lord Molybdenum said:
So, I haven't played d2 in a while, but I have played a lot of d3. There are so many cool parts of d2 that I wish could make it into d3 in some form. Runes/runewords, higher variance on item stats (and more interesting legendary ones), blood hawks... just kidding, blood hawks are awful. As a bonus, you can actually buy occasionally useful stuff from the earlier vendors.

Screen Shot 2017-04-28 at 10.44.34 PM.png
I know who you are, Gheed. Your daughter scams the hell out of me in the future.

I bought some 'heavy' boots from Gheed and moved on. All I knew I wanted to do with this character was kick things. A lot of things. But why? The reason is: I don't actually know how to play d2 properly. That level 85 necromancer I have on the leaderboard? Highest level I've ever gotten on any character, and the third character I've actually beaten the game with. I don't even know how I got an Amazon to hell, but that's another story. Charging up a massive kick of death is strangely satisfying, as is dealing 100 damage in one attack before I've even finished the second quest.

With that mentality, I went to kick Blood Raven's... self. Unfortunately, I missed the first few attacks and some of her skeletons got flung into act 2 as a result. More on that another time.

Screen Shot 2017-04-28 at 10.49.37 PM.png
Let me help you with that 'army of the dead'. Pretty sure they shouldn't be moving, for starters.


Seeking Cain and probably an awful ring, I journeyed into the underground passage, which looked suspiciously like the Den of Evil except with carvers. Similarly, there wasn't anything interesting here wait a minute what?

Screen Shot 2017-04-28 at 11.01.14 PM.png
I guess this means I have to take off the Demon Suit I found in the Den of Evil. Undressing near dead rogues is so embarrassing.

After stalking down the great beast Treehead Woodfist, finding the waypoint that is for some reason never next to the tree, realizing that I forgot to pick up the scroll I was looking for, and double-checking my inventory, I returned to Akara. She quickly deciphered the scroll, then totally ruined any major historical value it might have had by writing on it. Akara pls.

Screen Shot 2017-04-28 at 11.08.55 PM.png
I ended up walking up to the stones and tapping them at random until lightning bolts were shooting everywhere.

I rescued Cain, who immediately made the tome of identity + scrolls I had spent 2000 gold on obsolete. ...Thanks?

Currently somewhere around level 13.
--

I also took my amazon out for a spin, because I was having trouble believing that I had actually gotten to act 3 hell with an Amazon. I'm really bad at amazon. Turns out I went all-in on lightning damage.

Screen Shot 2017-04-28 at 11.16.21 PM.png
How am I supposed to kill this guy?

The council is going to be very interesting with this character...

Updated the table in my previous post.

I also have a question: Where am I supposed to run with a Bonemancer since I beat Hell? IIRC I was doing shenk the overseer + baal on /players 3 and it was working out OK but not great.
Screen Shot 2017-04-28 at 10.40.35 PM.pngScreen Shot 2017-04-28 at 10.49.37 PM.png
Kitteh said:
I'm the opposite, I want to make D3 more like D2 haha
Kitteh said:
I'm the opposite, I want to make D3 more like D2 haha
Lord Molybdenum said:
Kitteh said:
I'm the opposite, I want to make D3 more like D2 haha
I mean, that's kind of what I said.
Kitteh said:
"There are so many cool parts of d2 that I wish could make it into d3 in some form."

That tells me that you want to make D2 more like D3, not D3 more like D2 :p

I appreciate what you're saying though haha
LiquidClear said:
He wishes there were more aspects of D2 that made it into D3... that sure sounds like he's wishing D3 more closely resembled D2 to me
Kitteh said:
Ah, it totally reads like that now :p Not sure why it wasn't reading like that before...
darkstarhub said:
I am still baffled how certain aspects of D2 never made in into D3. At this point I look back at the time leading up to D3 and it's launch, and even back to 2008 when the Gameplay video of JW playing the Barb was released and wonder WTF happened. At least I know there are people out there like me that really love D2, and we are still able to enjoy it, whatever version you prefer.
Lord Molybdenum said:
Upon further review, here are the facts and probable events:
  • Cruise_Control (Necromancer) may not ever get level 99 unless I change his build, which is currently a home-brewish bonemancer. Leveling is kinda slow already.
  • Verisimilitude (Amazon) is somewhat more likely to get level 99 just because the damage output is quite a bit higher so far. Lightning immune is sort of a problem, though. I'm stuck at the council members. The build is a cookie-cutter lightning javelin one.
  • But_Why (Assassin) is level 20 so who knows. The build is a kicksin, although I'm not sure how it will work yet.
  • This (or any update) might be my last update ever, and it certainly will be the last update for a while. For some reason, diablo 2 takes 25+ attempts to successfully open on my computer, with failures either showing an error report or stalling indefinitely, and I'm never sure that it will actually open eventually. I'll be leaving the game open indefinitely, but eventually I'm going to have to restart my computer... I also have an avalanche of exams incoming in the next week so I won't be playing too much if at all.
Cruise_Control decided to journey to Mount Diablo to get rid of the One Rune, preferably by finding a Ber to accompany it inside an Enigma armor.
Screen Shot 2017-04-29 at 6.45.48 PM.png
I have no idea how I actually managed to find one of these but there's no way in hell I'm letting go of it. It's my precious.

After checking out a few areas, I decided to run diablo until I leveled up. That would take about 12 clears on /players 1 which felt reasonable at the time. However, unexpected obstacles, also known as Lord De Seis, decided to monkey around with me. He was solely responsible for the last of my 3 deaths at level 85, the other two resulting from me forgetting how my character worked (it's been a while), and the mage proved to be extremely irritating to have to deal with over, and over, and over.

Screen Shot 2017-04-29 at 7.30.49 PM.png
How many of Lord De Seis' minions are hiding behind that wall? The answer is ALL OF THEM.

Somehow, I failed to find anything noteworthy in 12 diablo runs. I had 0 upgrades and 2 side-grades to my gear (belt and boots switched for roughly equivalent ones with more defense), but nothing I was looking for. Regardless, I made level 86.

Screen Shot 2017-04-30 at 9.24.40 AM.png

Other than a Ber rune, the other item I'm specifically looking for is the Shako.

Screen Shot 2017-04-30 at 11.04.01 AM.png
No, not this Shako.

After the last CS clear leveled me up, I tried checking out Nihlathak and the River of Flame super chests. The latter was kinda exciting, but about 30-40 /players 8 runs yielded 0 unique/set items and one Fal rune. Nihlathak dropped a magic item and some gold.

Probably bad luck, but... meh. Was expecting more. Maybe I'll give lower karast another shot, but I think Ber runes are even less likely to drop there? The travel time is probably about the same or better given that I can't teleport, and I have to kill enemies in the RoF path fairly often.

Meanwhile, But_Why finished up act 1 on /players 8. She will be playing /players 1 for the foreseeable future, however. Players 8 was particularly tough in The Jail and barracks, where the locals were at their least friendly.

Screen Shot 2017-04-30 at 2.48.48 PM.png
I didn't believe Mr. Smith at first, but after noticing he was Extra Strong I decided he probably could make weapons from my bones.

Screen Shot 2017-04-30 at 2.55.29 PM.png
For the last time, I don't want to join your stupid clan!

I picked up a Death's Guard sash in the Catacombs. Then, 2 minutes later I found a SECOND one. So much for /players 8 helping me get my gear going.

Screen Shot 2017-04-30 at 6.19.54 PM.png
Screen Shot 2017-04-30 at 6.19.57 PM.png

Those and the Arctic Furs are the only S/U items I've found so far on my assassin, but hopefully act 2 will be better. (Spoiler alert: so far, it's not).

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.6           Yes           -        471           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

My next update, should I ever make it, will be a much more significant one.
BKC said:
small Table update from my side during my LK/pindle running i levelled the Sorc to 91

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.6           Yes           -        471           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
maxicek said:
You won't get to 99 with a pure kicker, but a hybrid with traps should be fine. You are still going to need Infinity, Enigma and a Stormlash or another decent Crushing Blow weapon.
Lord Molybdenum said:
I was already going down the traps (death sentry) path, I'll keep those items in mind. I can't get infinity because it's ladder only and I'm on single player, though...
GalaXyHaXz said:
You can download the RWM to get ladder runewords in single player.

Hybrid sins are the best. You won't depend on infinity quite as much. My hybrid is lv 90 and does fine on players 7. Since you can't twink though, doing lk runs and mephisto is a good start. Remember to get nature's peace if you farm nihlathak.
Lord Molybdenum said:
I tried downloading RWM last summer IIRC, but I couldn't get it to work. I guess if I get far enough that I have the runes for Infinity I can try again.

Would it prevent me from playing on realms or open battlenet, out of curiosity?
Kitteh said:
You would get banned with RWM, I would imagine. I don't know if there is a way that you can maybe run two installations without needing another copy?
 
T72on1 said:
I have RWM installed and play on BNet. No issues at all.
GalaXyHaXz said:
RWM is not a bannable offense on battle.net, I used it in 1.12. It's entirely client-sided and has no effect on the server. The server will only ban you for code modifications (if you inject it).

Edit: there are two types of communication with battle net:
Server -> client
Client -> server

"Runes.txt" for runewords is entirely server -> client. It is NOT used or read by the server. In order to get banned from battle net, it must be "client -> server". You can receive any packet from "server -> client". Certain packets will instantly ban you, other's will kick you under certain circumstances.
PhineasB said:
Mercy continued her progress, inching another tenth forward. This segment was helped along with a Saturday spent playing more than normal (and probably much more than advisable :oops:). She finished up the progress with two hours on Sunday and a bit more than an hour tonight.

She rerolled maps pretty early on due to finally getting frustrated with placement of a shrine in a location that often caused cursor to land on it and stop teleporting, as well as lots of popables causing the same issue (maybe I’m missing a workaround for that?). She generally did 1-2M XP on a map before rerolling.

She finally settled on a map for the last 10M or so. I realized that after so many thousands of runs to the upper left chamber, that’s the one that always turned out easiest. So she settled back on that layout. This map has poor shrine placement, so she is skipping them altogether with no appreciable drop in XP/hr (and actually a slight improvement due to not going back on the not-infrequent occasion when she teleported past an XP shrine).

Finds were quite solid, with two grailers (Lavagout and Atma’s amulet), and a couple decent skillers: plain Fletchers, Graverobbers with +24 life. There were also, I am not kidding, three Barb mastery skillers that were consecutive. :rolleyes: Other non-screenshot finds were Spirit Ward x2, SoJ, ethereal 4os Rune Master axe, Arkaine’s with +2 skills, Trang’s helm and Veil of Steel #2. She also found her second Spirit Keeper.

Runes were very frustrating until the end: Um # 3 early, then nothing until she rolled the current map. Then Vex #3 and Um #4 in quick succession, followed by Ist #3 and, finally, a Cham with 2M XP left before 98.7. So she finally found her Ber+ rune from Nihl and now has the rune drop grail -Zod.

During the stretch with poor rune luck, her charm luck compensated. Three screenies below show upgrades with added resists to replace a plain +20 vita charm and a +5FCR with low poison resist charm, plus the first pestilent SC I’ve found with poison as suffix also.
Nihl (Coral SC of Vita).jpg
Nihl (Poison Res SC w FHR).jpg
Nihl (Pestilent Charm).jpg

* * *

Phaedrus is also slowly progressing toward level 91 with Pit runs. After that, he will be back in LK until he can make Enigma.

* * *

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.7           Yes           -        473           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Kitteh said:
I didn't know that, nice! :D
T72on1 said:
@PhineasB Great progress and finds. A non-screenshot SoJ though ... that is pure evil.
Yann said:
PhineasB said:
She rerolled maps pretty early on due to finally getting frustrated with placement of a shrine in a location that often caused cursor to land on it and stop teleporting, as well as lots of popables causing the same issue (maybe I’m missing a workaround for that?).
Hold ALT while teleporting :)
PhineasB said:
Thanks @T72on1!
T72on1 said:
A non-screenshot SoJ though ... that is pure evil.
Mercy is just moving items to her "Nihl" stash in GoMule without IDing them in game, so I hadn't bothered to get a screenie. But here you go:
Screenshot001.jpg
:p
Screenshot002.jpg
Yann said:
Hold ALT while teleporting :)
I don't know if this is something I once knew and have forgotten or completely new. :rolleyes: But very helpful either way. Thanks!

I tried the /nopickup command, but didn't think to try ALT. But now that Mercy has rerolled maps, there isn't a need or opportunity to test it out. Maybe another map reroll is in order. :)
T72on1 said:
Lol thanks for the screenie. I have found a few SoJs over the years, but have yet to find one this time around.

And yes, hold alt. I was going to answer that, but somehow forgot. I always do it, because without it, I still seem to get stuck from time to time. Or at least remember getting stuck in that case, because I frankly don't know if I could teleport not holding down alt nowadays.

As for my progress, I plan to do a proper update once I get some serious time to play and actually make progress. It seems that won't be happening any time soon though :(. I'm still only at 3.285M xp, from some short 30 - 60 minute sessions here and there. Drops have been quite good though, and most important, runs have been extremely safe so far, nothing even close to a NDE.
darkstarhub said:
I was making solid progress from 94-95 running AT and The Pit with the occasional P1 sets of Pindle/Meph runs and of course some LK. Last night I encountered one of the worst groups of Archers in the Pit lvl 2 I've ever seen. One of them I was aware off and the other one took refuge behind the devilkins. I was dead before I knew it, and like an idiot thought I could get the corpse. Nope. Dead again. So, one bad decision followed by another one, and no damn way in hell of getting my corpse back resulted in a pile of XP lost.
I filled out my hurt feelings report and promptly sent it in to Blizzard. As much as it stings, you just gotta get back on the horse and try to ride it again.
T72on1 said:
Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.7           Yes           -        473           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0           -


The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

I decided to update the table anyway, since it will probably be a while since I play Neverland (doing my Sept), and I did make some progress over the last few weeks / months. There's only 1 problem: my computer crashed a while back and with it I lost my notes on Neverland's journey :(. I was able to recover almost everything I needed, but didn't think about my desktop, which contained quite some D2 related stuff like those progress notes. So amount of hours spent and runs done is forever gone I'm afraid.

As for progress, I said it in my last post: not much to say, but runs were very very safe after figuring out how Nihl and especially the Tomb Vipers work. So that's the main thing I keep in mind from this, because I so don't want to die at level 98.

These are some items Neverland found along the way:

Code:
Carrion Wind
Ring
Required Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0xd1bd5d4f
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 10 Poison Nova when struck
8% Chance to cast level 13 Twister on striking
8% Life stolen per hit
+144 Defense vs. Missile
Poison Resist +55%
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Level 21 Poison Creeper (5/15 Charges)


Crescent Moon
Amulet
Required Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xddb0ff2f
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
15% Mana stolen per hit
6% Life stolen per hit
+45 to Mana
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
-2 to Light Radius


Ghoul Gorget
Amulet
Required Level: 73
Fingerprint: 0xd3bcfec8
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
Adds 1 - 6 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
6% Life stolen per hit
Cold Resist +27%
All Resistances +19


Havoc Torc
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0xbaf9a3df
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
Adds 1 - 6 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
+10 to Dexterity
+37 to Life
Lightning Resist +21%
Fire Resist +20%


Lacerator
Winged Axe
Throw Damage: 17 - 151
One Hand Damage: 27 - 141
Quantity: 112
Required Level: 68
Required Strength: 96
Required Dexterity: 122
Fingerprint: 0xea30e5
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
33% Chance to cast level 3 Amplify Damage on striking
+30% Increased Attack Speed
152% Enhanced Damage
33% Chance of Open Wounds
Prevent Monster Heal
Hit Causes Monster to Flee 50%
Replenishes quantity


Herald of Zakarum
Gilded Shield
Defense: 498
Chance to Block: 52
Durability: 33 of 50
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 89
Fingerprint: 0xd034ef12
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+2 to Paladin Skill Levels
+30% Faster Block Rate
30% Increased Chance of Blocking
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+195% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Vitality
All Resistances +50


Herald of Zakarum
Gilded Shield
Defense: 454
Chance to Block: 52
Durability: 46 of 50
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 89
Fingerprint: 0xb3604770
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+2 to Paladin Skill Levels
+30% Faster Block Rate
30% Increased Chance of Blocking
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+169% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Vitality
All Resistances +50


Eschuta's Temper
Eldritch Orb
One Hand Damage: 18 - 50
Durability: 26 of 30
Required Level: 72
Fingerprint: 0xa5a61162
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+40% Faster Cast Rate
+13% to Lightning Skill Damage
+12% to Fire Skill Damage
+20 to Energy


Dwarf Star
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xaa54c138
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+40 to Life
+40 Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 15%
Fire Absorb 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 12
100% Extra Gold from Monsters


Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x7afa9e62
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
100% Chance to cast level 23 Venom when you Level-Up
Adds 37 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
-5% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+4% to Poison Skill Damage


Seraph's Hymn
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x87c38205
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+2 to Defensive Aura Skills (Paladin Only)
+43% Damage to Demons
+196 to Attack Rating against Demons
+36% Damage to Undead
+249 to Attack Rating against Undead
+2 to Light Radius


Tal Rasha's Guardianship
Lacquered Plate
Defense: 927
Durability: 33 of 55
Required Level: 71
Required Strength: 84
Fingerprint: 0x133b1d65
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+400 Defense
Cold Resist +40%
Lightning Resist +40%
Fire Resist +40%
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
**% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Requirements -60% Set (2 items): +10% Faster Cast Rate


Trang-Oul's Girth
Troll Belt
Defense: 153
Durability: 10 of 18
Required Level: 62
Required Strength: 91
Fingerprint: 0xc989c859
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+93 Defense
+66 to Life
Replenish Life +5
+29 to Mana
+30 Maximum Stamina
Cannot Be Frozen
Requirements -40% Set (3 items): Cold Resist +40%


Widowmaker
Ward Bow
Two Hand Damage: 56 - 149
Durability: 37 of 48
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 72
Required Dexterity: 146
Fingerprint: 0x7c5902e7
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
Fires Magic Arrows
182% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
33% Deadly Strike
+4 to Guided Arrow

That last one was a grailer, but I think I already posted about it, when I made the post about the Jah I found a while ago.

Good luck everyone !!! Keep on running ...
Pb_pal said:
Stevesy has been busy!

He did a few WSK runs in NM to level up to 73 before officially heading into Hell. It was seriously tough going, even on /p1. The merc dies all the time, LI's are a serious problem right now, and Stevesy is currently made of glass so we have to be on high alert at all times. We slowly plodded our way to the Pits and decided to try our hand at some runs. The bad news is he can't do them at all comfortably, and the LI archers are just too scary right now. The good news? Well about 75% of the way through our first (and only, mind you!) Pit run we dropped a 4-soc Cryptic Axe, thus leading to a new hurty stick for the merc.

0UJADCo.jpg


Now he can actually kill things! Well, as long as he doesn't get killed first that is. ;)

Stevesy decided to push through and at least make some questing progress since leveling is a bit out of the question right now, and he slowwwwwwwly made his way to Andariel after many merc resurrections and plenty of frantic running.

The merc died immediately on contact with Andy, so Stevesy took it upon himself to play a very bloody game of ring around the rosy:

Nmz64rt.jpg


After many town trips, potion restocks, and lots of open wounds she eventually fell. While this tactic works wonderfully with Andy, I am not confident I can do anything of the sort against Duriel, so Stevesy decided to take a trip back to NM Meph to see about some gear upgrades (and re-fill his bank account after all those resurrections). Well it turns out that was a good choice as literally the first run dropped us a golden cuirass, and it's ethereal! Didn't really find a whole lot else other than an upgrade on Stevesy's Vipermagi, and the runs were a bit slow and boring for my liking, so the duo decided to try out the desert.

The sewers were slow, but safe. Radament killed the merc quite a few times, but once Stevesy had cleared the corpses with Redemption he could go after the big guy himself. Next up was the Maggot Lair. It SUCKED. We caught a break and didn't draw too many beetles, but it still took an age to lead the merc around and poke them all to death with the help of our 1 hard point (5 after +skills) in fanat. After grabbing the staff, and a quick (and surprisingly easy) detour for the amulet, we tried a little bit of leveling in the AT (no-go), then the Arcane Sanctuary (slow-go), and eventually crept our way to 76. At this point Stevesy decided that it was time to face his fears and go and see what Duriel had to offer.

So he cleared his way to the chamber, and popped down through the hole knowing full-well this could be his final moment. The merc died almost immediately (not a fan of act bosses, I suppose), and after blowing 200k+ gold on resurrections, we gave him his wish and left him dead. Stevesy decided to go head-to-head with the bug until only one of them remained.

The fight consisted of porting in, throwing a new TP up, whacking Duriel until OW triggered and then running in circles and healing himself until Duriel stopped bleeding. Rinse and repeat this process for about 30 minutes, throw in a pile of deperation trips back to town to re-fill pots and heal, and eventually it was in fact Stevesy who reigned supreme!

JdCnSNo.jpg


The drop was garbage, but Stevesy didn't care. He hopped the boat to Kurast with thoughts of LK in his mind.
PhineasB said:
This thread was part way down the second page – can’t have that :eek: Time for an update!

But first, congrats to @Pb_pal on the progress. That Duriel fight sounded quite anxiety-making! Also, I’m sorry to hear about the deaths @darkstarhub, but glad to hear you have pressed on.

Another tenth of the way through the final level for Mercy. As far as the playing, what’s to say, other than that she killed Nihl another ~1140 times?

Actually, I will say that the countless runs do lend themselves to sloppiness over time, at least for me. There were a couple NDEs that were entirely unnecessary, except that the runs had sort of gone to autopilot when I was playing tired. A quicker trigger finger to bail when things look nasty as she’s gotten closer has probably helped avoid another death or two.

Aside from that, the drops were very solid for this stretch. It started off with Pul #1 and then Vidala’s Armor (a grailer that took Mercy to grail -30). The next stretch was Halaberd’s #1, a Nature’s Peace, Vex #4, Pul #2, a 10 FR SC of vita (20) to replace a plain SC of Vita, an Eth Griffon’s, Giant Skull #2 (with 2os), an Ohm, and Halaberd’s #2.

Mercy then found Sur #4, which was a nice little story. She killed Nihl on the platform, but there was a small charm down to bottom left, so she teleported to pick up and a death sentry took out a ghost, who dropped the Sur. Helpful little SC drop, which of course was trash, but without it, wouldn’t have gotten the rune :)

The last stretch of 7M or so saw a Rising Sun ammy, Eaglehorn, an eth Darksight (helping ethereal grail), Ist #4, and finally Headstriker, which was a grailer and put her at 475 uniques found. She also found two Trang’s helms toward the end.

Here are some readouts from the interesting items from this stretch:
Code:
Giant Skull
Bone Visage
Defense: 397
Durability: 25 of 40
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 106
Fingerprint: 0x1f9d765b
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
10% Chance of Crushing Blow
Knockback
+288 Defense
+25 to Strength
2 Sockets (0 used)

Halaberd's Reign
Conqueror Crown
Defense: 411
Durability: 27 of 50
Required Level: 77
Required Strength: 174
Fingerprint: 0x4acfc6e1
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+1 to Masteries Skills (Barbarian Only)
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to Battle Command (Barbarian Only)
+1 to Battle Orders (Barbarian Only)
+157% Enhanced Defense
Replenish Life +21

Halaberd's Reign
Conqueror Crown
Defense: 419
Durability: 32 of 50
Required Level: 77
Required Strength: 174
Fingerprint: 0x520935b4
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+1 to Masteries Skills (Barbarian Only)
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+1 to Battle Command (Barbarian Only)
+1 to Battle Orders (Barbarian Only)
+162% Enhanced Defense
Replenish Life +21

Griffon's Eye
Diadem
Defense: 226
Durability: 11 of 11
Required Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x13f8d9f0
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+25% Faster Cast Rate
-20% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+12% to Lightning Skill Damage
+142 Defense
Ethereal
Mercy has only three non TC3 or TC87 items left in her self-found grail (Carin Shard, Fetid Sprinkler, and Heaven’s Light), plus two Cow King’s items and three pieces of jewelry (Seraph’s, Carrion Wind ring, and Cold/Level facet). I doubt she will eclipse 480, but I’m hoping for at least 2-3 more items before it’s all said and done.

Table Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.8           Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      88             No            -          -            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
T72on1 said:
Very well done !!!

Facets don't count for the grail. So that is one less to care about :).
PhineasB said:
T72on1 said:
Facets don't count for the grail.
I'm confused by this. The 99er table header has Grail as out of 504, and Flavie shows 505 total items (with Azurewrath included as a Normal item, so eliminating it gets to 504). But the 504 includes 30 jewelry items, which counts the 8 facets and Gheed's.

So I've just been using the Found# from the bottom of the Flavie report, and the grail -30 was based on the Total -1 for normal Azurewrath (504). Is everyone else manually adjusting the Found# in the table to remove facets?

Just checking. I didn't know about holding ALT while teleporting, so I clearly miss some basics now and then :rolleyes:
T72on1 said:
Not at my computer right now, but I'm pretty sure that facets don't count. Just add up normal (minus Azurewrath), exceptional and elite uniques, class-specific, rings, amulets and all set items, and I think you get to 504.
Yann said:
Shouldn't facets it at least count for 1?
PhineasB said:
Just opened a Flavie report to check more carefully. All items = 505. 378 Uniques and 127 Sets, so that adds to 505.

The uniques are broken into 5 groupings: Normal (117), Exceptional (119), Elite (85), Jewelry (30) and Class-specific (27). 117 + 119 + 85 + 30 + 27 = 378.

Up in the report, the jewelry is broken out into four groups: Amulets (12), Rings (9), Charms (1) and Jewels (8). 12 + 9 + 1 + 8 = 30. So I think* that confirms that all 8 facets and Gheeds are included in the 505!

* italics included because maths are not a strong suit for me :rolleyes:
NanoMist said:
As far as I know, it's 504 with those 8 facets.
Zenigma said:
So in other news I min-rolled a Scalper on my throwbarb
Code:
The Scalper
Francisca
Throw Damage: 45 - 82
One Hand Damage: 27 - 55
Quantity: 52
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 80
Fingerprint: 0xa33d6fed
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
150% Enhanced Damage
25% Bonus to Attack Rating
4% Life stolen per hit
33% Chance of Open Wounds
+4 to Mana after each Kill
Replenishes quantity

So... for better or for worse, I've found myself with more time on my hands recently, so what better thing to take my mind off of life than spend some free time on D2?
Tried running LK for runes on my Druid, got bored. Tried making a new untwinked char, but haven't gotten into it yet and therefore got bored. Opened my untwinked throwbarb, found myself looking at pindle with some mid-grade throwers on hand. Kill him a few times. Killed him a few more times. And a few more times after that. Okay, I felt into it. So I went with it. I dinged, I found an item I had on my list, and I got careless. I've died a few times because I play when distracted a lot. But dying right after leveling is no problem, especially when EXP is as easy to come by as it is at 89.

Aforementioned item on the list:
Code:
 Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 38 of 40
Required Level: 34
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0x5f0300b8
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
+120% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength
I can drop the realgar of fervor in here that I found a while ago; it's been waiting patiently in the stash to be put to use.


I also found a item not on the list:
Code:
 Nosferatu's Coil
Vampirefang Belt
Defense: 58
Durability: 7 of 14
Required Level: 51
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x5630a790
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Increased Attack Speed
6% Life stolen per hit
Slows Target by 10%
+15 to Strength
+2 to Mana after each Kill
-3 to Light Radius

But it got me thinking about altered endgame gear for my guy here. I have thus far gone with using a respec, mind me that I haven't actually allocated stats and skills optimally. I've dropped points here and there to experiment with skills, points I probably would use on other skills if I chose to respec, but I don't care all too urgently to do so. Anyhow, I'm thinking I might pursue an engima. I can hel out the treachery from the MP that I made a while ago (my merc is using it for now), then I can move the fort I'm using to my merc until I decide what I want on him. Depending on my weapon combo, I could toy with different ias gear to hit 4 frames, or 3.5 fpa if I'm feeling ritzy. Hmmm.... does NextDelay apply to throwing items that pierce? Anyone know?

Per diablowiki:

So I guess that's something I should figure out... I'm a big fan of warshrike + razortail for that juicy 83% piercing rate, but if you throw at 3.5 fpa, one would wonder if half of your throws never do damage to the target you're aiming at.

Anywho, I can make an MP Enigma, respec, dump a mere 25 into strength and be set for the rest of my planned gear. Right now, I'm sitting at a hard 105 STR and I'm still not able to equip whatever I want without some help (That Guill's is technically out of reach without some shuffling to get it to equip itself...) And I can make up for the lost health if I really needed to by putting some 30-ish points into vitality. I lose some resists, too, but my lightning will still be way over max, and I can make up the fire res once I find Laying of Hands. Maybe even Lava Gout would cut it. Fire res and ias, some enchanting to boot. It would work if I settle on Nihl to run for drops and EXP.

Enough of my wishful thinking for now, onto what Ayura has been running the past couple of days. I've decided to return to LK. And I have so far been rewarded, despite that pitiful excuse for a throwing weapon I posted above.
Check out these sweet drop from /p8 LK
Screenshot271.jpg Whoa
And for some less impressive drops:
Screenshot273.jpg
Screenshot274.jpg

Just one more until I can craft an enigma! (Or a faith! :O Would be for a rogue merc, and I would have to drop the reaper's, so I think I'll hold off on that for now. I have a lot of theorycrafting and testing to sort through, no shame.)

Also I wanted to include some screenies of my pindle ventures of late before going back to LK, but I'm too lazy to figure out where to put these above, so... yeah
Screenshot260.jpg
Screenshot268.jpg
(That's my second wizzy on this guy from pindle. And since I haven't muled them off yet, I found it tempting to dual wield these with an enigma, but I'm going to settle on hoto/spirit and hit the 63 FCR breakpoint without any hassle. Plue I'll get some +skills out of it to make BO better. And I might consider howl a one-point wonder for clearing space in order to hit high value targets more easily. Oh, and if I do that, I might not need pierce whatsoever. We'll see. Further testing must be done. Either way, I should just mule off the wizzies to clear up some much desired room on Ayura

And a grailer for the sake of it:Screenshot246.jpg
I don't think I've posted this before, sorry if I had

So lots of things are changing, it's making the whole experience quite refreshing. I leave you with another screenshot:
Screenshot270.jpg
The exciting thing is that my current map has a semi-consistent winged knife/francisca, and you can in fact see both of those items in the above rune drops, as well. The only thing I'm wondering is if I'm wasting my time hoping that a warshrike can drop from the rack. I don't know if the qlvl is too high for the area or level of the racks. It goes beyond my expertise. Not even sure if those are the right terms for it. Anyhow, enough rambling
Edit: I'm pretty sure that thge racks in LK can't drop a high enough qlvl to produce warshrike. So it goes

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.7           Yes           -        473           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

Also I finally pulled Ayura out of the double-asterisk zone. Gotta let that 89 stand proud!
T72on1 said:
Sorry for the confusion. Glad that I finally know that facets are in as far as the grail is concerned.

I think I have them all, but I'll check later.
 
darkstarhub said:
When I first read what you said @T72on1 I thought I remembered facets counting, but I could have been wrong.

On a side note, I have always been a little noid about messing with many of a programs features once it is up and running, except those features I know exclusively about. I decided earlier to go out on a limb and hit the "Proj Flavie Report" button in GoMule. WOW! Holy expletive expletive expletive expletive!!!! That is awesome. I feel really stupid that I have not did that before now. Like I said, just getting GoMule to work this time around is exciting enough, but to see all the items laid out like that, and how many of each I have is so cool man.

I am making more progress towards lvl 95 after my moronic mishaps. I just about died again last night falling asleep at the chair. In the future, when I start feeling tired, instead of quitting for the night I will work on my other characters because a death with one of them wont be a big deal. Drops have been kinda disappointing(other than the Zod of course). I have seen so many white, blue, and yellow Shako's its driving me crazy. Plus, gold amulets have been dropping, but no Mara's as of yet.
hackedagainanda said:
Screenshot113.jpg


Hugo the HC fishymancer has entered the fray!

Level 16 :)
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.7           Yes           -        473           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0
hackedagaina  Hugo            HC      Necro     16             Yes           -          -            -           -
Pb_pal said:
@hackedagainanda - Welcome, glad to have some HC company! Good luck and stay safe! Are you planning on staying a summoner the whole way to 99?

--

Excitedly Stevesy went out into the jungles to make his way to LK when low and behold the first bosspack he encounters dropped something golden. It wasn't the Jade Figurine, but it was something a little nicer:

0kEKsrs.jpg


That took the sting out of having to deal with all the LIs in this act. Stevesy decided not to bother with any of the organs just yet (sorry Cain!) and instead just fought/sprinted his way to LK to let the rune harvest begin.

According to the averages (outline by Gripp in his guide) I should need ~7710 runs to get all the runes I need for Enigma(3855), Infinity(2570) and Beast(1285). I have a feeling that's on the low end, but it's there's only one way to find out!

He rolled himself a decent linear map, and is just running through town to the WP for now. Runs take about 40 seconds so it could be faster, but I'm just anxious to get out there and find some rocks right now, I'll re-roll if I need a switch up.

Stevesy has completed his first batch of 1000 runs, and let's just say it got off to a good start!

Run 52 - Sur (Not bad for a first rune, eh? ;))
Run 201 - Ist
Run 206 - Gul
Run 598:
wAm91ze.jpg


Run 667 - Ohm (from a corpse)
Run 906 - Pul


Skillers found:
- Cold sills (+30 life)
- Defensive Auras (so close!)
- Shadow Disciplines
- Masteries (Barb)

Other finds:
- popped Magefist from a corpse, which is great for some FCR once we build our Enigma
- 39% MF Gheeds froma corpse
- We have an armour rack that reliably spits out Akaran Targes, so we got ourselves a +44 res 4 socket one for a Spirit upgrade, and also made sure to nab an ethereal 4-socket 45 res all version for a potential Exile in the future.


All in all a VERY good start! I can only imagine my luck will come crashing down to earth for the forseeable future, but for now I can't complain about being halfway to an Enigma already. I'm thinking I'll update every 1k runs or so, depending how long they take me. Oh, and I figured it was time to actually get him in the table and make it official, even if he won't be leveling any time soon. ;)

--

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.7           Yes           -        473           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       78             No           19         16            0         idk
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       20             Never         3          2            0 
hackedagainanda Hugo        HC   Barb          16                Yes          -               -               -
T72on1 said:
@hackedagainanda Cool !! Welcome, and good luck. Definitely a very nice starter wand you have there.

@Pb_pal That's some serious luck right there, bud !!! I hope this continues for you.

And yes, I already have all facets. Nice :).
NanoMist said:
@Pb_pal - Nice progress with Stevesy. Is it worth completing Trav to have those zealots run away from you?
PhineasB said:
Awesome progress @Pb_pal, and some very solid rune luck out of the gate. I hope it continues for Stevesy.

I will echo @NanoMist's observation about Council. Mercy died a couple times early on in LK runs because she hadn't progressed past LK and zealots were dangerous. Having them flee made her runs much safer -- can't recall off hand, but I think she died only one time after killing Council and smashing the orb, compared to 3 or 4 prior.
BKC said:
hackedagainanda said:
Screenshot113.jpg


Hugo the HC fishymancer has entered the fray!

Level 16 :)
that wand is so DOLIO material...
Pb_pal said:
I've definitely considered smashing the orb to get rid of those pesky zealots, but quite frankly Stevesy and the merc is basically made of glass right now and Sszark/Sewers are a bit too frightening for my tastes.

I'm not having too much trouble with the zealots right now but definitely once I get some gear upgrades (CtA, maybe even Hoto) I'll go do some smashing for sure. Thanks for the encouragement guys!
Lord Molybdenum said:
But_Why found a steelclash in act 3 normal. She is still wearing it, due to my complete inability to find a decent 2-socket shield.

Screen Shot 2017-05-06 at 2.15.58 PM.png
That +1 to Paladin Skills is making the real difference here. Obviously.

I made my way through normal and nightmare with little difficulty other than goddamn Pitspawn Fouldog (1 death from him, 4 total). Being only level 58, I was a bit nervous to bring her into hell, but I was quickly convinced she'd do fine after dying just 10 times to Corpsefire.

Screen Shot 2017-05-10 at 2.05.46 PM.png
Negative poison resistance, so of course all 23 of his hits were poison. All. 23. And yes, he kept 2-shotting me.

Nevertheless, I struggled my way through acts 1 and 2 with only a dozen more deaths, mostly to other monsters that somehow managed to do over 400 damage out of nowhere. Act 3 was tricky due to all the lightning immunes, but I eventually remembered I was technically able to kick things so I very slowly (took two sessions) got to and defeated mephisto. He was easier than the holy freeze + lightning enchanted council member as well as both lightning + physical immune council members in the Durance level 3. I took out one of the latter with fire blasts, lacking sufficient corpses to explode.

Oh yeah, and I found two Duriel's Shells: one in Act 4 Nightmare, and one in the Maggot Lair in Hell.
Screen Shot 2017-05-12 at 9.47.09 PM.png
The extra 36 defense is absolutely game-changing here.

I expected the rest of the run through hell to be very boring, but I was soon proven wrong. Diablo, for starters, dropped an absolutely terrible Gheed's Fortune.

Screen Shot 2017-05-16 at 12.58.16 PM.png
99% extra gold from monsters seemed pretty good until I looked it up and the range turned out to be 80-160.

Act 5 was uneventful...

Screen Shot 2017-05-16 at 5.40.44 PM.png
Dammit! Why won't your clan leave me alone already!

...Until the ancients. It turns out that being extremely squishy at level 75 with just over 1000hp and no shadow master as well as a merc made out of marshmallows is kinda bad against 3 barbarians (I died in just over one second), so I decided to drop a bunch of potions on the ground and reroll until I got something manageable. On the second attempt, I decided to go for:
Madawc: Teleportation, Extra Fast
Korlic: Stone Skin, Mana Burn
Talic: Magic Resistance, Teleportation

Korlic fell easily but slowly to my sentries, so I decided to use the Strength rune word Legend Spike I had made for Diablo to take care of the other two. Then the mana potions I dropped on the ground were suddenly gone.

Not a huge problem, since I still had a few in my belt and inventory, and dragon claw doesn't take up so much mana. Since the health potions were still intact from running around for a few minutes, and since Talic was magic resistant, I opted to take it completely melee. After tanking damage and using up all but two of the health potions in my inventory/belt, madawc was almost dead and talic had lost quite a lot of health himself. Then I noticed all the health potions on the ground were also gone.

With just a sliver of health left on Madawc's bar, the game informed me that I had, in fact, died and lost experience for the 44th time. My chair was pushed several feet backwards from the sheer frustration.

I'm going to level up a few more times before I try the ancients again. Maybe I will find gear that is actually decent.


Also, I beat hell easily with my amazon, dying zero times. I even killed Lister without too much of a problem, although I'm positive I'm playing the build totally wrong. I got past the council + other problematic lightning immunes with a wand equipped with lower resist charges.

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.7           Yes           -        473           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -      Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2      Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many     lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19          idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       78             Never        33         29           48
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo        HC   Barb          16                Yes          -               -               -

Update: Tried the ancients a few more times, defeated both Korlic and Talic, got Madawc to 5% health and ran out of health potions so I died.
Zenigma said:
If you don't pick up potions from the ground, they disappear after 5 minutes. Sounds rough, though. I know there are some tactics for taking on ancients one at a time, but I've never tried them myself. Speed runners tend to use them because they're often under-geared and under-leveled when doing the ancients.
Zenigma said:
The double post is strong with this one. I'll turn this into an update later for Ayura :p

Edit:

I'm not writing this from home, so no readouts or screenshots, and I'll try to be brief; I know I tend to get long-winded and sidetracked by tangential thoughts lol

... Anyways, Ayura has been grinding out LK for those pesky runes, thankful for not having muled off any of his previous rune finds over Fal.
He started off only needing a Vex and Pul for a hoto, but after finding an Ist on day one, he cubed up to a Vex. Pul was found two days ago, which took a lot more effort that we were hoping. But with that done, as well as a 4os flail found inside a corpse, a hoto was born. In fact it's the first one I've ever made in SP.
Yesterday bore witness to improved luck once again where he found another Mal and Gul. Ayura sits at one Mal and one Vex rune away from being able to cube out the runes for Enigma.
Fun times ahead
PhineasB said:
Nice to see the continued progress, everyone! Keep it up.

Mercy did her part also, just hitting the 98.9 mark. This was a pretty uneventful stretch, but a very efficient and quick one.

Finds for this stretch were pretty tame: Pul #3 within the first 1M XP, then nothing all the way to 3.47B. Then she found another Rising Sun, Mal #6, an Eth Giant Skull, a 4@ Shimmering SC of Dexterity, a regular Steel Shade (to compliment her Eth one), a plain Lion Branded skiller, Gul #3, her third SoJ from Nihl, an Um, and Mal #7. She closed out the last 5M with a 3os Tomb Reaver, a Firewall Ormus with bad damage rolls, and another 2os Giant Skull.

I am kind of disappointed with the skillers so far, only 18 total, nearly half of which are pretty useless skills. For some reason, I expected more, I guess because of how many GCs Nihl and co seem to drop.

Well, I’m pretty sure that Mercy will ding the final level before the end of the month. I’ll update the 99er progress thread when she hits 3.50B, so that’s the final milestone for her journey. I need to figure out video recording options to record the last 500K or so. But I’ll hold off on that for now to avoid jinxing her :eek:

Edit: It looks like we had a table version control issue somewhere within the last week. I updated Neverland to the last update from @T72on1, in addition to Mercy, and added the Fallen back. I think everything else should be right in the Progress table, but you may want to double check if you updated recently.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.9           Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98             Yes        2190+?      446           13         260
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10          -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       78             Never        33         29           48
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Pb_pal said:
So close! Super excited to see Mercy make the final push, and the ensuing write up :) I use Bandicam for my recording needs and it suits me just fine, but I know there are other options out there.
T72on1 said:
@PhineasB Great progress again !! So close now, go go go. But in a safe way of course ;). Also congrats on the SoJ, I still have to find my first one, and badly want it.

Btw, the info on Neverland in your updated table still isn't accurate. But thanks for trying, and for pointing out there was an issue to begin with. I put in the correct info.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.9           Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10          -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       78             Never        33         29           48
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
NanoMist said:
So close! I use OBS Studio for streaming/recording.
PhineasB said:
T72on1 said:
Btw, the info on Neverland in your updated table still isn't accurate.
D'oh! I guess I typed in the edit and then actually forgot to paste in the updated table from Notetpad.

Thanks for the encouragement @everyone! I'm hoping that Mercy can make some progress into the 3.5XX range this weekend, and also on figuring out the video recording options. Helpful to hear what others use.
Lord Molybdenum said:
Screen Shot 2017-05-19 at 2.27.22 PM.png
Separated Korlic/Talic from Madawc. Neither of them had cursed or lightning enchanted or anything weird so I went for it. Finished them both off pretty easily, then Madawc turned out to have stone skin... longest battle I've ever had.

Will update once I kill baal.
Lord Molybdenum said:
(Assassin)

After I failed the first few times at the Hell Ancients (something I have never done with another character) I was kinda lost. I ended up doing some horribly optimized LK runs where I looked for runes, small/grand charms, items that sold for 35k, and flawless gems. My run consisted of taking the waypoint, moving down and slightly left, clicking on the armor stand (usually dropped an Aegis) and the shrine if it was a gem shrine, moving right and checking that chest, then swinging to the left, clicking on all chests/corpses in the immediate path to the other two chests.

I did 400 runs like this. My results (only counting Pul+ runes) were:
42: Mal
91: Sur (!)
181: First gem shrine
199: (Only) death
201 and 202: Second and third gem shrines (not recorded are ~5 more gem shrines in the last 198 runs)
252: Pul
325: Accidentally sold the +11 LR small charm I had found (this becomes significant later)

This is also how I found Natalya's Helm and Tal Rasha's Fine-spun Cloth. My gloves were Blood Vampirebone gloves (and kinda bad) that I've been rerolling. I tried the forgotten tower about 20 times for Nef runes before I decided LK was more efficient (although more boring).

I also gambled about 350-400 rings/amulets, being not really sure what I should do with all the extra gold. No uniques or sets, or even anything worth keeping. Near the end of the 400 runs, I did find a unique amulet on the ground, but it was just the Eye of Etlich.

Once I hit level 80, I decided the ancients were worth another try. My second attempt (not counting the rerolls) is above - the first attempt consisted of me dying almost immediately.

The Worldstone Keep was actually quite difficult. Level 1 had zealots/healers and vile witches that loved casting amplify damage along with extremely fast invaders. Level 2 was quite a bit easier, but the opening room was extraordinarily messy.

Screen Shot 2017-05-19 at 2.55.15 PM.png
I'm having trouble deciding what the most disgusting thing in this picture is.

Level 3 required a few rerolls due to the opening room not leaving enough space, but I got through it eventually. The throne of destruction then spawned Death Lords and Burning Souls (and some other monster, doesn't matter), which were almost as annoying as the ancients.

In conclusion, Baal was the easiest part of late act 5. Thanks Baal. He also dropped a Windhammer which I sold immediately, but I probably should have considered it despite requiring almost 70 more strength.


Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       98.9           Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10          -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

I think I may play another one of my characters for a while...
Zenigma said:
The game felt bad for min-rolling a Scalper for me, so they gave me another from the rack:
Code:
The Scalper
Flying Axe
Throw Damage: 44 - 197
One Hand Damage: 50 - 194
Quantity: 180
Required Level: 49
Required Strength: 88
Required Dexterity: 108
Fingerprint: 0xe7c1b4e0
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
199% Enhanced Damage
25% Bonus to Attack Rating
5% Life stolen per hit
33% Chance of Open Wounds
+4 to Mana after each Kill
Replenishes quantity
Required Level +7
Yes I upped it, what else is Ayura gonna spend all those dang Pul runes on?? 1% off perfect in damage and LL - it's not terrible

Well, it took a week of LK, but I finally found enough runes to cube up to a Jah. I previously had a Ber, Sur, Ist, Mal, Ohm, and Gul just chilling in the stash from my first set of LK runs on Ayura, and in past 7 days Ayura snagged a Ber and Ist (both previously posted), and then a Vex, another Ist, 3x Mal, 2x Ohm, Gul. I was averaging 1-2 runes per day that I played. I missed one day, I think, because I didn't want to stay up after getting home from work. Anyhow, the runes felt awfully stingy, but I'm glad I stuck it out.


[For those curious, I was actually more than an Ist and Vex away last time I posted--I forgot I was missing a couple other runes at the time, so you might imagine my sadness to find that I lacked the runes to continue onwards when both of those runes incidentally popped up...]

The first Ist was combined with the old Ist, and then with Gul to make my first Vex, which I used to make my first ever Hoto on SP (mentioned in my latest post); however, now I'm posting from home, so....

Code:
Heart of the Oak
Superior Flail
KoVexPulThul
One Hand Damage: 1 - 27
Durability: 30 of 30
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 41
Required Dexterity: 35
Fingerprint: 0x92af4792
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to All Skills
+40% Faster Cast Rate
14% Enhanced Damage
+1 to Attack Rating
+75% Damage to Demons
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
7% Mana stolen per hit
+10 to Dexterity
Replenish Life +20
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
All Resistances +31
Level 4 Oak Sage (25/25 Charges)
Level 14 Raven (60/60 Charges)
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Ko Rune
Socketed: Vex Rune
Socketed: Pul Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune

And the spirit I made to accompany it:

Code:
Spirit
Long Sword
TalThulOrtAmn
One Hand Damage: 3 - 19
Durability: 44 of 44
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 55
Required Dexterity: 39
Fingerprint: 0x8f6843ab
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+31% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
7% Life stolen per hit
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+102 to Mana
+8 Magic Absorb
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

The most important rolls to Ayura are the mana and magic absorb, so I'm quite pleased with this. The decent mana roll helps the blue ball, and the sorb is nice to put damage woes at ease when teleporting around, granted I'm moving around with 75s, which is nice for a change.

I put so many HRs through to cube it isn't funny. Let's say I haven't naturally found a Lo rune on Ayura since the one that ended up in his Fort. When you're as rune-poor as I am, it's probably considered heresy to put 2 Pul, 1 Um, 1 Mal, 1 Ist, 1 Gul, 1 Vex, 3 Ohm, 1 Sur, and 1 Ber into making one runeword. But this is untwinked play here, and there's no room for an extended stash. So you cube 'em while you got 'em, and you roll the dice in the name of something bigger. <- Put that on a t-shirt... Not only was Ayura himself rune-poor, I myself don't hold many runes to my name. I don't much mind though, if I truly want more, I can farm them up. Granted, I've taken a big liking to untwinked play. It's simply much more rewarding, so I don't mind burning through as mess of runes on the guy that found them.

I also accidentally muled off a Pul rune, which is unfortunate. Force of habit when the stash got full, I must have had it among some junk that I like holding onto for posterity.

The fruits of my labor (and I certainly did reuse a base. Treachery, you served us well; in a future life, I'll see you put to use again)

Code:
Enigma
Mage Plate
JahIthBer
Defense: 1011
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0xe5ba9314
Item Level: 69
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+45% Faster Run/Walk
+1 to Teleport
+753 Defense
+66 to Strength (Based on Character Level)
Increase Maximum Life 5%
Damage Reduced by 8%
+14 Life after each Kill
15% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
89% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based on Character Level)
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Jah Rune
Socketed: Ith Rune
Socketed: Ber Rune

As soon as I made it, I toyed around with it for a bit. Accidentally left the game on /p8 while I went to pindle, but everything went off without a hitch. I took a hit in raw damage output, but I made up for it in being able to postition my mercenary much more easily. No longer was he faffing about with resurrectees in the front of the temple. I was able to get him focused where I wanted him. On top of that, with the sudden boost to +skills, howl has become a worthwhile spell, which I prefer to using grim ward. I feel like the meager 8% DR is actually quite useful, and the strength is a juicy bonus.

Satisfied with the performance, I went to normal to use my first respec, while I was there, I paid Larzuk a visit:

Code:
Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0x5f0300b8
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
28% Enhanced Damage
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
+120% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Realgar Jewel of Fervor


Realgar Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x65452924
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
28% Enhanced Damage

I am extremely pleased with this over IK's Helmet with 2x fervor jewels. As it turns out, this is the type of helmet I used on my first barb pat (also a throwbarb), except instead of using what I believe was a cold res/ias jewel, I socketed it something significantly more to my liking.

I ended up keeping my stats more or less the same, except for putting far fewer points in strength. I considered pumping more into Vitality, but decided I would be better served by putting them into Dexterity. Between that and not putting single points into Grim Ward or Taunt, opting for maxing out Double Throw in their stead, Ayura has gone from 9k AR to 12k AR.

I took him for a spin around the D2 World, running around parts of Acts 1, 3, and 5. I was rewarded mightily for my efforts
Screenshot292.jpg

Can I get a BOOYAH?
One of the exact pieces of equipment I wanted for this guy.

Ayura's future is bright.

Table updates to following when he actually gains a level ;P
PhineasB said:
Mercy made it to 99.
99.jpg
Seeing Fordyl hit 99 inspired Mercy to plug away and finish up this weekend. For the last quarter of the level, Mercy was averaging 2.65M/hour, with several stretches toward the end at >2.7M/hour. This helped move things along faster, needing only ~11 hours each for 98.8-.9 and the final tenth.

The big difference was leaving flawless Amethysts, limiting the bases checked to grey superior elite polearms (for ethereal) and grey superior elite Amazon bows, and getting out of a bad habit I’d picked up of grabbing gold piles. She still picked up every Hel+ rune and every Elite Unique/Set, plus all unique jewelry, and all jewels and SC/GC.

Finds were solid on the last stretch, with Eschuta’s #3, Lo #2 and Ist #5 within the first 3M XP. Um #6 dropped right before hitting 98.95, then another Dragonscale, Pul #4, Um #4, and Nightwing’s #4 (perfect +cold damage and +20 dext on the roll). The last 5M saw three Ormus (meteor, telekenesis, and ice blast) and the final meaningful drop of the journey was Sur #5.

Complaining about the lack of skillers also helped, as she found an Offensive Pally skiller with +poison damage, a Cold skiller with +24 life, a plain Druid Summoner, a plain Harpoonists, and a +22 life Elemental skiller.

I’ll do a more complete rundown of finds from level 98 in Mercy’s 99er write up, but for now, here are the runes found from Nihl:
Code:
58  Hel Rune
37  Io Rune
33  Lum Rune
16  Ko Rune
15  Fal Rune
13  Lem Rune
4   Pul Rune
7   Um Rune
7   Mal Rune
5   Ist Rune
3   Gul Rune
5   Vex Rune
1   Ohm Rune
2   Lo Rune
5   Sur Rune
0   Ber Rune
0   Jah Rune
1   Cham Rune
0   Zod Rune
That nets to 4 additional Vex runes, with cubing. I guess I don’t regret picking up the lower runes. :)

I hope to post full write up within the next couple days. I have to figure out how to upload videos and such, plus organize my thoughts to make it worth reading!

* * *

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10          -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      89             No            -          -            -           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
NanoMist said:
Wow, congrats, you made it!
Kitteh said:
Woop, well done! I shall save most of my congratulations for your upcoming 99er thread :D
BKC said:
Congratulations sir! Well done!
Pb_pal said:
Amazing! Huge congrats, looking forward to the writeup :)
T72on1 said:
Tremendous !! Now go write that write-up, and I'll send you my congrats as well ;).
Reyz said:
Congrats @PhineasB, huge achievement! Looking forward to read a full report soon :)
darkstarhub said:
Congrats @PhineasB. Wow 2 99'ers in quick succession.
You may have mentioned it already, but how much MF were you running with?
PhineasB said:
Thanks all! Write up is finished. @darkstarhub - Mercy had 218% MF after Hel'ing out the Sol and putting in a perfect Topaz for Cows RFL round 3, and leaving it in upon returning to Nihl and realizing it didn't make much difference given her life pool. The higher MF definitely helped with the item drops.
Lord Molybdenum said:
Verisimilitude (Amazon) found a 4 socket Monarch, so I decided to try installing RWM. I use a mac, so I went over to the Game Changes Help Thread that's stickied in this forum and clicked the download link where it said RWM/RRM for Macs here. Of course, it led to a 404 error. Undeterred, I found a link further down to a thread called "D2 for Macs: a User's Guide" and clicked where it said "For RWM/RRM on macs, see here." Another 404. Then I did a google search or two and found a post from March 2016 that said RWM is not supported in v1.14 for macs. Of course. :rolleyes:

So, hmm, not sure what to do with that monarch now.

Currently doing pindle/shenk runs on /players 4. Verisimilitude has reached level 87 which is higher than any other character I've ever made. I'll update further when something interesting happens or I get bored.
Pb_pal said:
Another 1k runs done, and after his hot start Stevesy has had a visit from the "regression to statistical averages" fairy.

Run 1078 - Gul
Run 1168 - Vex
Run 1335 - Ohm (from a corpse)
Run 1473 - Mal
Run 1494 - Mal
Run 1724 - Gul
Run 1943 - Gul
Run 1975 - Gul

Skillers found:
- Cold Skills
- Offensive Auras (sweet!)

Other finds:
- 40% ED Ruby jewel (plain though, too bad)
- Ravenfrost from a corpse (awesome!)
- Fine SC of Vita (2/18/20)


Even if the rune finds weren't too exciting, LK in HC with no teleport is always full of nice surprises!

bdi9F4K.jpg
PhineasB said:
Congrats on the Captain's skiller @Pb_pal. And generally on the good progress, although that last pic still terrifies me.

After a break from D2 during the week after Mercy pinged the final level (although we did sort through her stashes a bit), Hiatus has, um, ended her hiatus?

I was worried about a death after such a long break from CS, which turned out to be the case. She was getting close to 2.80B before a conviction Infector got her. Body was recovered and some of the XP regained, back to 96.3 (~2.791B).

But CS welcomed Hiatus back with open arms, with a Gul, Mal, Um, and Sur dropping today. She also got some +19 vita SCs to improve the life pool. And Sandstorm Trek's from a poppable.

After the experience with Mercy, Hiatus is streamlining her approach. Inventory is already crammed full with SCs, and she is cutting way back on items to pick up: Ral and Ko+ runes only, flawless amethysts (no other types), GCs/SCs, jewels, and interesting sets/uniques. She is no longer worried about progress toward grail either, so likely only picking up useful elites.

The goal is for her to reach 97 before @Gripphon's WSK tourney starts around June 20. She's hitting Diablo whenever there is an XP shrine in the CS, but otherwise just Gripphon runs.

Edit: Hiatus hit 96.5, with a Greyform, another Mal, a +life Elemental Skiller, and an Insight upgrade (been rerolling at Superior Eth Cryptic Axe for higher +damage% and critical strike)
Zenigma said:
I thought about completing two levels in one day, but I figured I'd like to waste some of my time off doing things other than play D2, so.... I came up a touch short.

Either way, things have been progressing very well for Ayura.
For those of you following the IFT, you may have noticed in the past 24 hours that D2 hates me. Not only has my first Death's Fathom fallen from Pindle on this untwinked dude, my second DF has also fallen from Pindle on this untwinked dude. Not to mention my first Griff's and a perfect light eschuta with +3 skills. Ohhh, I get it game, I was supposed to be a blova sorc. Point taken.

Additonally, I forgot to share another way the game hates me:

This was back from LK, probably could've posted this in my last big update

Code:
 Shadow Spike
Flying Knife
Throw Damage: 123 - 305
One Hand Damage: 123 - 305
Quantity: 47
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 38
Required Dexterity: 131
Fingerprint: 0x199d569
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40% Increased Attack Speed
262% Enhanced Damage
+12 to Maximum Damage
+226 to Attack Rating
Adds 1 - 49 Lightning Damage
Ethereal

And it would probably have been my main hand thrower at the time if it weren't eth....

Looking back at my extended stash, I muled off some possibly better throwing items than I have equipped right now, which hurts considering I'm not muling back on.... Despite that, I'm pretty pleased with my equipped items. I found this gem off my dear pindie as well:

Code:
 Havoc Spike
Hyperion Javelin
Throw Damage: 107 - 212
One Hand Damage: 80 - 219
Quantity: 16
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 98
Required Dexterity: 123
Fingerprint: 0x5764d4ee
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40% Increased Attack Speed
284% Enhanced Damage
+1 to Maximum Damage
Adds 1 - 2 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
Required Level +7

Upgraded it, as you can see. It's my new main, and I reverted my offhand to an old find; it was posted previously (and in use before hacing found my reaper's toll), I believe, but here it is again to refresh anyone:

Code:
 Viper Song
Winged Harpoon
Throw Damage: 35 - 262
One Hand Damage: 87 - 126
Quantity: 4
Required Level: 77
Required Strength: 76
Required Dexterity: 145
Fingerprint: 0xd5d45242
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking
224% Enhanced Damage
+13 to Maximum Damage
+14 to Attack Rating
Replenishes quantity
Required Level +12

Not tremendously good, but the amp helps when the merc can't trigger decrep to save his life, and the cheap repairs help me so that I don't have to hoard every item that drops. On top of that, it's fair damage. I'm sorta glad I don't have dual gimmershreds on this guy. My first throwbarb twinked them on, and when it costs 30k to repair two weapons that wear down in minutes, well... not as much fun with the inventory management.
Overall, much better damage than the knife/axe combo I was using before. But with much lower stack quantities. The way I've overcome the stack issues is by routing vendor stops into my town movements. If I'm running an area, I try to optimize such that no more than a full weapon set's worth of use is allocated to a run. Each time I load a new game, I stop by a weaponsmith, repair, and venture out. It keeps the action flowing much more than while questing. Though having quested a throwbarb before, I'm not as put off by the town visits as many who have played a throwbarb are.

Back on topic: Without regards to mistakes in muling, and less than stellar weapons, I'm running /p8 pindle for exp for the time being. The improvements in Ayura's gear have made a staggering difference in my play.

In spite of the downs, we are much more feeling the ups. Ayura's future continues to be bright

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        380           18           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      90             Yes         381        194            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      90             No            -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
PhineasB said:
Nice progress @Zenigma!

After Hiatus' progress toward 97, Phaedrus got a little time to reach level 91. He was ~half way there from last bit of playing before the final push with Mercy, and he finished the level exclusively on Pit runs.

No finds of note, sadly, but not too long before pinging the level. Like Hiatus, his approach to items is now very streamlined. He abandoned picking up every S/U, which is reflected in table update below, and focusing only on fewer items: Ral and Io+, all flawless gems (he will go on a big GC cubing spree at some point), SC/GC, jewels, and potentially useful uniques (and maybe elite sets).

The goal for him is to get 250 Meph runs, for fun. After rolling for a map straight down the stairs, he's completed 100 of those runs. He found Ali Baba's in the Pits, so he is rocking nearly 400% MF on switch for the kill, hoping to pick up a Shako and maybe Arachnid's if he's lucky (and a high rune if he's super lucky) before going back to LK for another 500 runes found and hopeful progress toward Enigma.

Hiatus is plugging away with goal of 5M per weekday and 35M over the weekend to hopefully hit 97 by mid-June.

Good luck to everyone still running. Keep it up!

* * *

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        387           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      90             No            -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Kitteh said:
Great progress here people, I can't wait for the next 99er :D
T72on1 said:
Yes you can wait ... no sign of @Neksja , and I'm currently doing my Sept in my almost non-existant playing time ;).

But we'll get there ... eventually :).

Keep up the good stuff here folks.
LiquidClear said:
After stopping my playing for a while, I picked it up again the past week or so. I was really motivated after LK dropped me some HRs fairly quickly after picking it up again, but I've been on a dryish spell for a while now. Will break down my experiences more once I get the final Lo+ drop I need to have my runes set for the lvl 90 Sorc's gear.

Of course I'll have the runes for Infinity but no base, so I'll probably be moving from LK to ATs for what is certain to be a disgustingly long hunt for the eth, elite 4 os Polearm. I'm assuming the smart thing to do is to play efficiently and target the boss packs like a normal MFing session and hope one eventually drops, but I'm not sure about the likelihood of them dropping versus random monsters on various p settings. Anyone have any thoughts on socketable hunting?
T72on1 said:
You want xp as well. So I'd go for highest player setting at which you can still kill at a good pace, and kill most large packs. You can leave lonely stragglers alone, but I wouldn't only go for bosses.
PhineasB said:
Agreed. It sounds like Sally will have all the key runewords by that point except Infinity, so she should be plenty powerful for AT runs at higher p-settings. Regular mobs in AT still give solid XP at level 90 (level difference penalty hasn't kicked in yet), so I think it's definitely worth it to hit large packs along the way. And that will hopefully lead to the eth elite polearm drop quickly. Good luck!
Zenigma said:
It's about time for another update.

Spoiler alert, Ayura has leveled once again. And then he died. And then he fought his way back to reclaim his body. And he horked this on his way there:
Screenshot310.jpg

Having spent so much time in LK, it wasn't quite impactful, but it was nice all the same, especially after having burned through so many runes to make the enigma he's wearing.

He also found this, which was close to being pretty cool for a druid:
Screenshot297.jpg
But I junked it

Found a neat LC today, and it might be put to use after I clear out 10-13 spaces in my inventory that are dedicated to MF
Code:
Sharp Large Charm of Sustenance
Large Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x8f65ecea
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+4 to Maximum Damage
+46 to Attack Rating
+18 to Life
Nothing to write home about, but it isn't bad.

Pindle is pretty easy going, and it's looking like easy EXP for at least a little while to come. Not much else to report. didn't have too much luck with rare throwers this past level, but with each increase in level, I get one more % of MF, so I'm optimistic that I'll get more rare throwers as I progress.

It's been chill


Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        387           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

Also let's get some hype for my highest level SP character ever!
LiquidClear said:
Mmmmk, so Bliss the lvl 90 Sorceress has completed her LK journey. I've got some data from her experiences to dump below, although I don't keep track of things in the same manner as most of you. I didn't use a run counter, so my method of measurement is how many P gems I farmed. So, essentially I ran about 1k P Gems worth of LK (I had maybe 20 P gems and no HRs at the start) and found the following items:

Runes:
Code:
3 Sur
2 Lo
3 Ohm
3 Vex
2 Gul
5 Ist
2 Mal
5 Um
97 Ral

1010 Perfect Gems
139 Perfect Amethyst

Skillers:
Code:
2 Cold Skills
1 Fire Skills
1 Light Skills
2 Zon Passive/Magic
1 Offensive Auras
1 Traps (18 life)
1 Barb Combat
1 Masteries
2 PnB GCs (one with 7 FRW)
1 Necro Summoning
1 Jav Skills
1 Pally Combat (19 life)
3 Shadow Disciplines
2 Def Auras (one with 37 life)
2 Martial Arts
1 Warcry
1 Shapeshifting
2 Druid Summoning

Fun Charms:
Code:
Shimmering Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0x3dd49ec5
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+14 to Life
All Resistances +5

Emerald Small Charm of Good Luck
Small Charm
Required Level: 33
Fingerprint: 0x6576660f
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Poison Resist +10%
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Coral Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x51ca237c
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+19 to Life
Lightning Resist +9%

Ruby Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x7cf26112
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15 to Life
Fire Resist +10%

Runewords:
Code:
Delirium
Diadem
LemIstIo
Defense: 318
Durability: 16 of 20
Required Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0x9b67893d
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
1% Chance to cast level 50 Delirium when struck
6% Chance to cast level 14 Mind Blast when struck
14% Chance to cast level 13 Terror when struck
11% Chance to cast level 18 Confuse on striking
+2 to All Skills
+261 Defense
+10 to Vitality
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Level 17 Attract (60/60 Charges) 3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Lem Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Io Rune

Enlightenment
Mage Plate
PulRalSol
Defense: 325
Durability: 52 of 60
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0x3b04e343
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 15 Blaze when struck
5% Chance to cast level 15 Fire Ball on striking
+2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+1 to Warmth
+30% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +30%
Damage Reduced by 7 3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Pul Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune

Runewords with rolls that matter:
Code:
Heart of the Oak
Flail
KoVexPulThul
One Hand Damage: 1 - 24
Durability: 26 of 30
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 41
Required Dexterity: 35
Fingerprint: 0xca922a1f
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to All Skills
+40% Faster Cast Rate
+75% Damage to Demons
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
7% Mana stolen per hit
+10 to Dexterity
Replenish Life +20
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
All Resistances +30
Level 4 Oak Sage (25/25 Charges)
Level 14 Raven (60/60 Charges) 4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Ko Rune
Socketed: Vex Rune
Socketed: Pul Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune

Call to Arms
Twin Axe
AmnRalMalIstOhm
One Hand Damage: 68 - 206
Durability: 13 of 13
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 75
Fingerprint: 0xe4782c48
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+40% Increased Attack Speed
262% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+5 to Battle Command
+1 to Battle Orders
+2 to Battle Cry
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items Ethereal
5 Sockets (5 used)
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune

Nice rolls, yeah?

So after that I still have the runes to make Infinity and make another CTA... although I actually need bases for both. And for another Spirit Shield for CTA switch. I made the Delirium figuring my merc will eventually use it at Nihlathak, but I don't have any worthwhile headgear, so I wear it. This of course made for lots of fun because I never bothered to take it off running LK, which led to many confused reactions when I transformed into a little stygian doll or whatever that thing is.

So what now? I'm probably going to just plow the AT for some exp while I hunt for bases (and honestly I'm still missing some pretty basic gear.) She has level 35 Blizzard which means something like 5.7k Blizz damage, so she should be able to kill at a decent p level. I'd like to prepare for the presumably upcoming WSK tournament, hopefully with some gear to run as a Lightning Sorc because that's really the build I enjoy playing the most. Although I'm still considering investing some time into my 68 Druid parked at NM Eldritch, because I just can't quit the idea of pushing high with a Druid in spite of their... limitations. We'll see.
 
ioupainmax said:
@LiquidClear

Nice runes & charms! You got a fairly even distribution there.
PhineasB said:
Very nice haul @LiquidClear. Best of luck in the search for the Infinity base!

Hiatus continued her push to 97. She’s 3/4 of the way there, and, with a Ber dropping, she is also 3/4 of the way to Infinity from this level. With the earlier Sur and Mals/Ums, she is a Sur and Mal short. She is still looking for an eth 4os Thresher or Giant Thresher.

Other finds were unique Berserker Axe and the set Colossus Blade. She’s going to make some progress on the last quarter level tomorrow, and then hopefully get 25M during the week and then finish up on Saturday.

Phaedrus also got some time, with 150 Meph runs under his belt. Not what he was looking for, but another Steelshade dropped along with a perfect poison facet. Once he finishes his 250 Meph runs, he's probably going to focus on p8 RoF runs until level 92 and then hunker down in LK for a while.

Edit: Hyperlinks fixed!
LiquidClear said:
@PhineasB That Ber and Zerker Axe are very unique.



This is a trollish way of saying the links are to the wrong screenshot.
grim said:
Hi guys... I'm officially entering this tournament... So I would like to introduce you to my javazon: Furious_Blonde.

Screenshot032.jpg

I've been playing her for quite some time (first screenshot i found was from september last year) and she actually is my only SP char after deleting all my old characters, but I refrained from entering until I considered she was strong enough to get there eventually.

I wanted to make her really powerful, not just crawl to 99 and hope for good drops so I decided that getting Infinity + Enigma was mandatory... I used to consider them unattainable in SP even on 1.13 (that's why I used to only play on BattleNet), but I learnt a lot from your progress updates and the rest of the SP forum and decided to give LK a try after finishing hell at about lvl 83 (I wanted to Baal so didn't even consider saving Ancients Q).

Sure enough it worked, but it took so much patience...

I slapped all FRW gear I had on my Ama, made a Harmony bow (that really helped), rolled a map with 2 campfires and went to work on /p7... When i began i had an average of 70 sec/run... In the end, the average went down to 35 - 37 sec/run including muling...

First 1000 LK runs i got: Ber + 2 x Sur. Was really excited... Infinity was within reach... A high end SP RW would be mine... Then I started searching for a base in Pits/Cows and it hit me...
A good base (was dreaming of eth Thresher/Giant Thresher) could take forever... For over a month I looked at my lovely HRs and searched for a base... /P7 pits were slow due to lack of gear, cows also. I thought it was so dumb that a base took me longer than finding the HRs... But making a merc infinity in non eth polearm was dumber. Then while going in for a slow Baal run, a random mob in WSK dropped a 4 sock etheral CV... After watching the runes for so long, it was good enough for me. Did not even consider running for Enigma runes at that time... I was so sick of LK already... My java should kill mobs, not just run around...

Infinity was a game changer for her. Baal (/p1,8,3) was actually doable and pretty safe... But walking the WSK was tedious, dangerous (that's where I most frequently died) and really slow. Lack of merc control with tele was also really annoying...

So i leveled to lvl 93 and after a lucky Sur drop from the chest behing meph, she returned to LK.

1000 runs in... no HRs whatsoever... Was extremely annoyed and bored again...

Then i pushed 3000 runs (which took me 2 months): 3 Surs dropped + 1 lucky Ber from a non-superchest (a chest right in front of the north hut). I planned to make Eni in a non-sup BP (for versatilty and used to also like the look on ama), but after researching my options, decided that dusk shroud looks best. So here it is:

Screenshot034.jpg

Another game changer. I can now safely run Baal (/p 1,8,3) and Diablo (/p8) and also enjoy them... I still have some problems with wave 3 (merc death) and LI Lister that the merc can kill by himself but takes too long...

Summary of 5000 /p7 LK runs: 2 x Ber, 5 x Sur, 1 x Lo, 2 x Ohm, 6 x Vex + about 2200 other runes (I picked almost all of them up like a madman)

Current gear:
  • Head: crap rare circlet: 1 ama, 20 frw, 5ll, 45 to life, 13 all res, 37 light res (can not bring myself to put anything other than a circlet/tiara/diadem due to how they look) - hoping for a griffon eventually ofc
  • Weapon: rare 2 ama, 2 java, replenish quantity javelins - not one titans dropped yet and i'm lvl 93... i want one so bad...
  • Gloves: 3 java gloves - i tried to shop 3/20's at charsi and anya like crazy, but still no luck
  • Armor: Enigma dusk shroud
  • Shield: Spirit Monarch 35% fcr
  • Belt: Razortail - I consider it the best java belt hands down; it made a huge difference in damage output
  • Boots: Aldur's
  • Amu: Mara 29 res
  • Rings: manald + crap rare dual leech and all res ring - a ravenfrost here would help immensely
  • Switch: CTA 5BO (first roll) + Spirit Monarch
Merc gear:
  • Weapon: eth CV infinity 315 ed
  • Armor: Fortitude 3,1k def in ebugged Boneweave
  • Head: Andy visage (cannot socket it because i already wasted 2 socket quests - i was a moron here... it was too late when i realized the importance of the larzuk reward when playing untwinked and now it's most definitely too late)
So best of luck in all your running, and i look forward to all of your updates...

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      96             Yes           -        387           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

Hope I didn't screw up the table... It's my first time editing it...
T72on1 said:
@LiquidClear That CtA really hurts my eyes, such terrible luck. And then the HotO ...

Better luck next time !!!

@grim Very cool, welcome to this fun journey :).
PhineasB said:
Welcome @grim. Very nice to see an Amazon make an appearance up the table. I hope the angry maiden finds a golden diadem to match her hair soon.

One thought on your Baal runs -- my trapper started making much faster progress when she bailed immediately whenever she encountered an unbreakable LI Lister. It certainly made the runs more enjoyable, and I'm pretty sure her overall XP/min increased due to how long that spawn could take. Best of luck on the next level!
grim said:
I appreciate the suggestion @PhineasB . I think I'll also skip LI Lister... It just takes too long...

Wave 3 is still a problem though. Those hydras frequently kill my merc or make me run to town to heal him...

A griffon would be amazing. But Titan's + Ravenfrost + 3/20 jav gloves are all a lot more frequent drops that I just haven't found yet. It's really weird for me to already have all the runewords i want while still needing common uniques... But i guess it's one of the challenges of playing untwinked...
Pb_pal said:
Well Stevesy has reached the 3k mark, meaning I'm approaching the halfway point of the expected number of runs needed for all of my runes.

Run 2011 - Um (missed getting a screenie due to impending doom of fanat-enchanted apes)
Run 2077 - Mal
Run 2487 - Lo - Great! We'll likely need lots of these for rolling Griefs later on.
Run 2677 - Mal
Run 2792 - Vex
Run 2817 - Sur - Finally! After almost 3k runs since the last one, I was starting to get worried.
Run 2987 -
RW4kqMD.jpg


And just like that, Stevesy is only one Sur away from Enigma! (also I hope you guys appreciate that I almost killed him to get this shot :p)

Technically I could cube the last Sur now, but it's not worth it to use up all those useful lower runes especially since I'll need them for Grief/Exile/Cta etc.


Skillers found:
- Shape Shifting
- Javelin Skills

Other finds:
- Eye of Etlich
- Laying of Hands
- Ruby Jewel of Carnage (36%ED/11 max damage) Kinda fun, though I won't be using it I don't think.

Glad to see that progress at the end there, it was beginning to look a little bleak for a while. At some point I'm going to have to go scouring for bases for everything, but for now I'm going to focus on just finding those pesky rocks!

Great progress to everyone else out there!
darkstarhub said:
I went ahead and pulled the trigger on killing the Ancients. I sorta wish I would have waited, but at least I can do some Baal/WSK/Cow runs if I want. Stupid me decided to go for it late last night, and forgot to change the player settings to /p1. Seeing as though I could save and exit if things got too crazy on /p7 I kept going just to see how crazy it could get. Yep, I know, it's pointless to do it on anything more than /p1, but I wanted a fight, and I sure as hell got one. I managed to keep my Merc alive for 2 of the three so all I really had to face alone was one of them. It was a fun way to ding 95(need to update the table when I get home).
Now I need to find a good set of runs to make things more efficient for just pure XP grinding. AT/Pits are being stingy and XP from them is getting low at this point. Since I am not the fastest runner and don't have all the end game gear I want maybe it's time to do some time tests to see what nets me the most XP per hour.
ffs said:
@Lord Molybdenum I had the same problem, shoot me a PM with your email and I will send you a link to mac RWM when I get home tonight.
PhineasB said:
Champion Hiatus and Zanarhi the HF Desert Merc, Lvl 97 (pic)
Hiatus continues her progress, hitting level 97. Nothing too exciting (in a good way) for the last quarter level, aside from Mal #3 (so she's now just a Sur away from Infinity) and a Pul, which allowed a very nice reroll on the Heart of the Oak.

Zanarhi was still squishy, dying too often, so we sorted through the stash shortly after the last update. OKs were the biggest problem, so we tried out Gladiator’s Bane due to integer DR and MDR and cannot be frozen. Big improvement, with only two merc deaths the last quarter level.

Hiatus is also starting to run low on gold, due ~$250K per repair (I guess from the superior base for her CoH). So she is probably going to switch up to GF gear for council and then hit Meph for a bit in hopes of scoring Arachnid’s (there is a theme with my 99ers in the difficulty finding that key piece of gear :rolleyes:).

Once that's finished, she’s going to test out a different gear set up for CS, with Ormus’ Robes. That will mean a few Shimmering GCs swapped in for SCs of Vita, but that will also allow her to go back to SoJ x2 due to the FCR from the armor (BKWB would be better for the +life, but no luck there yet). I’m curious if the loss of one +skill will be worth the +skill damage.

* * *

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
ffs said:
Ok so I've played and levelled an untwinked char as well recently..


Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      76             No            -          -          many          ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub said:
I forgot to update the table.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      76             No            -          -          many          ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
grim said:
Javazon reached lvl 94 this weekend, replacing @darkstarhub 's place on the table...

Best drop this level came from wave 1 Baal:
Screenshot035.jpg

Other notable drops: Mara 21 (I'm already wearing a 29) and Lo from the big guy himself (Baal)
Did not find any items that i'm searching for.

Current wishlist: Titans's, 3/20 java gloves, Ravenfrost, BK ring/SOJ, vampire gaze, griffon's

Changes i made:
  • Replaced unsocketed andy visage with peasant's crown. That improved merc's survivability to wave 3 hydras.
  • Dropped valk+decoy after respecking. They were a tremendous help while leveling but not so much now and i got tired of casting them
Deaths this level: 1.
I tried to drop D/A/E because I read somewhere about that. I guess I need a lot more fhr, chance to block and life for this to work. First run i did, I teleported straight into a huge group of mobs in CS and instantly died... No chance of corpse recovery. That sucked so much I immediately changed back...

What do you guys do with gems found on your untwinked chars?
I've started rolling a Baal GC. It saves me the hassle of muling them off constantly and I still need about 4 java skillers... No luck so far...
Also, although I'never experimented with crafting, I'm thinking about crafting a caster amulet after I reach the next level. Chances to get something useful are extremely slim I know, but I've seen some awesome amulets...
Suggestions are more that welcomed...

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      76             No            -          -          many          ?
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
T72on1 said:
Great progress everyone !!!

@PhineasB don't pay for repairs, just use runes and the cube. For armor I believe it's Ral runes.
PhineasB said:
Thanks @T72on1. I had thought about it part way into level 96, but Hiatus was having a hard time using those Rals for repairs rather than caster ammys. It's probably worth it for now to avoid spending time GFing though, so thanks for the reminder. I'll save the GFing at Council for when she needs a break from CS!

@grim -- I'd definitely focus on rerolling Baal charms, although you may eventually find it faster to start leaving flawless gems on the ground to focus on the XP. The odds of getting your class tree of skiller aren't super high, in any event (although Mercy did get one, so it paid off for her!).
Crazy Runner Guy said:
PhineasB said:
Hiatus is also starting to run low on gold, due ~$250K per repair (I guess from the superior base for her CoH).
May I suggest repairing /w a Ral rune? 'tis what I do for my Fortitude, in an AP, which can cost, for example, >1.25M when it was at 29 durability (69 total).
ffs said:
So, after having started as pure Blizzard Sorc through normal and nightmare and leveling to the mid 70s, I respec'ed her to Meteorb once I was ready for some hell action. Then I realized this is just awful without decent gear and respec'ed to Blizzballer. Then I realized that when aiming for 99 it might make sense not to kill the ancients any time soon. Then I realized... this means no Baaling, which means no essences. Great. So no more respecs for me until level 99 or what... Super great, cause I had planned to go back to pure Blizzard for leveling and MF, which is now out of the question. However, I'm surprised how well Blizzballing works without top notch gear. At least I didn't use any Larzuk quests. ;)

Speaking of gear, my sorc "HelpYourself" truly lived up to her name so far. She was relatively quickly able to assemble two Spirits, Lore, and Stealth, found Magefist and two Nagelrings (25 and 30 mf). Upon entering A3 hell, she spend a couple of hours in LK - and was up to a very quick start there: Sur and Vex dropped within the first 2 hours. Since I had already picked up a Ko on the way, all of a sudden I was only a base and a Pul away from Hoto. The next decent rune that dropped was indeed Pul, and after rolling sockets into 5 flails she finally got a 4os one and made a beautiful +38 all res Hoto. About 3-4 hrs of further LK runs in, Mal and Ist dropped, now putting her an Ohm and Um + Sur away from CtA and CoH, respectively. So no complaints regarding LK so far. :)

A few Meph and Pindle runs then netted Naj's Light Plate and Skullder's Ire, meaning she can run Mephisto and Pindle with around 200% mf on low player settings. Still looking for a lot of stuff like Harle, Viper, +2 amu and SoJ/BK, but overall of course super happy with the drops so far.

Still pissed about my respec fail though as levelling on high /p settings will be difficult without synergized Blizzard. :(

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      91             Yes           -        224            10          -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      85             No            -          -          many          ?
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
T72on1 said:
@ffs That's definitely a great start !!! Congrats.
ffs said:
Thinking about it actually, I think I might still use my last quest respec and go for pure blizzard until lvl 98 anyway. When hitting the ancients at level 98 I guess I should have enough gear assembled to finish them off at /p1 nonetheless with a (hopefully) decently geared Merc, right? Killing Baal to then get essences for any later respecs is going to be a pain as well though... oh my..
 
Albatross said:
@ffs a blizz sorc can do hell baal runs with a strong merc but you might have to restart sometimes if the throne room is filled with witches which are CI.

Apart from those, only the 2nd wave spawns naturally CI monsters and those are the mages which can be easily cleared once you've dealt with Achmel. Some of the bosses, like Bartuc and Lister, can become CI. You can park them to save time.

I used to run baals with a blizz sorc, teleporting on p1, clearing the first two waves on p1 (if I'm lazy), doing the rest on p8 and finally baal on p3, but if your only goal are the essences you can run everything on p1 for speed.
Pringlesman said:
I've been working on a physical bowazon for this. Currently level 75 and just finished Nightmare. I'm planning on doing Chaos runs until 98 and then doing hell ancients for that 40 million payoff. Any suggestions? I'm really not looking forward to doing the elevendy billion LK runs to get all the runes to make a Faith.
Crazy Runner Guy said:
Pringlesman said:
I've been working on a physical bowazon for this. Currently level 75 and just finished Nightmare. I'm planning on doing Chaos runs until 98 and then doing hell ancients for that 40 million payoff. Any suggestions? I'm really not looking forward to doing the elevendy billion LK runs to get all the runes to make a Faith.
Yes, will share experiences later.
Pb_pal said:
Run 3078 - Pul
Run 3082 - Pul

Then we had ourselves a nice 500+ run dry streak before:

Run 3602 - Sur

Always pop the poppables. Always.

After some fiddling with the cube Stevesy had a new toy:

5wHAghM.jpg


He even made something for his mercenary friend too! (after reviving him for the first time since he started LK runs. Sorry Jemali!)

u2p21c8.jpg


I would have made more RWs, but I don't have any suitable bases :p. Stevesy is going to take a rest for now, and next up he will try to make his way to Act 4 and get the Fortress WP before rolling a nice circular LK map.


Other finds:
- Trangs Shield
Crazy Runner Guy said:
Pringlesman said:
I've been working on a physical bowazon for this. Currently level 75 and just finished Nightmare. I'm planning on doing Chaos runs until 98 and then doing hell ancients for that 40 million payoff. Any suggestions? I'm really not looking forward to doing the elevendy billion LK runs to get all the runes to make a Faith.
Crazy Runner Guy said:
Yes, will share experiences later.
I have an inkling in my mind to make a bowazon and take him to clvl 99. Here's what I have discovered:
  1. Most importantly, know that no one has made it to clvl 99 with a pure-bowazon because she lacks the ability to kill any of the big three (Baal; Nihl; D) quickly with physical damage. This is largely a function of a) CB is nerf'd with missile weapons; and most importantly; b) Guided Arrow doesn't pierce anymore. It did, up to five times, in v1.09. That went away in v1.10.
  2. Second most importantly, Faith - wearing it yourself - is the best bow, period. 7 fpa, ITD, and Fanat Aura top anything else, even WF. Using WF also requires you to use a Faith Merc (which then cuts your damage boost from it by 1/2, requires you to use Atma's, gives you less skills, means need more res (faith has 15% all), don't get natural ITD and need points in Penetrate, and limits your tanking ability and your damage from non-arrows). About the only thing WF gives you that faith doesn't is Knockback, a socket (which will be shael'd...), mana leech, and a huge damage # in your inventory, but not where it matters. I can't, can't, can't stress enough how much superior Faith is than any other bow. Don't waste your time with any other other bases (Mat, Shadow/Diamond/Ward, or GMB should be your only options).
  3. Your non-bow equipment - specifically how much IAS you want to carry - will dictate what bow you can use. If you want to use Reapers and can get 45% on your helm (i.e. Mav's circlet or jeweler's circlet), you can make it in a GMB. Next up is 65/70% in a Shadow/Diamond/Ward. Next up is 45/50% in a Mat bow. Each has its benefits, but a Mat bow with its lowest IAS gives you the most options. I have mine (+1 all/slvl 15 Fanat, which I re-rolled once to get) in a 10% Superior Shadow Bow, and wouldn't turn back or make another one. GMB limits you too much (b/c you need IAS in every slot you can to get it, and if you roll an slvl 12 Fanat, you can't use LoH...). Given the untwinked nature of it, I'd suggest Shadow Bow (LoH + HW + IAS's helm + Nos's Coil) or Mat (LoH + HW + ias jewel'd helm).
  4. Review the Amazon IAS tables.
  5. Review the TABLE in the "In-Depth Bow Comparison" thread. This is the reason I made my Pride.
  6. I would suggest running Throne to clvl 98 b/c nothing else is as effective or safe. Lister with a physical-damaging Bowa is also difficult because of his blocking % and PDR%. If you're going to run Baal, and I would suggest you do, I would to Ventar runs to clvl 98. Sucks (e.g. Lister + Baal = ~33% of your XP/run @ clvl 96), but there is no real alternative.
  7. Running CS to clvl 98 isn't really an option. It's hard to keep yourself safe and your merc safe, and even your Valk safe with all of the physical damage + Amp/Decrep going around. Also, a bowa decrep'd is no fun.
  8. You have two options for merc weapon (A2 Merc): Reaper's or Pride runeword (in an eth Thresher or Giant Thresher, preferably the former). I have tested both, and either works. The only sticking point with Pride is that you must use Atma's Scarab and get enough pierce that you are comfortable with to make it work.
  9. Surprisingly, you don't need Razortail (as good as it is). With Faith, you're have enough skill points around to push Pierce up to 90%. That's plenty, trust me. The only loss there is the +10 max damage from Razortail. This leaves you open to use either Nos's Coil (10% IAS + LL) or a caster belt (for the FCR).
  10. You need at least 68% FCR for teleport, perhaps only going less if you have REALLY good WSK maps and are OK with that speed to teleport from Throne stairs to main room, or are OK running that. You'll get 35% from Spirit.
  11. Getting the requisite IAS and FCR will require some gymnastics. Faith has no natural IAS. I like this build though b/c every piece of gear fits, and no slot is a "fill-in-what-you-can/need/are missing from other equipment-here." Every slot matters.
  12. Charms are Sharp GC's of Life or fine SC's of Life, with enough fire/light res to make you comfortable. Gloams hurt, but can be neutralized by Slow Missiles. Once you're to the waves, res isn't something to worry about. Carry antidotes in your belt to deal with wave 2.
  13. You need Fortitude (or in the alternative, CoH), and you can swap to it after you sweep the throne.
  14. Use Decoy at the top of the stairs to draw Baal's decrep away, much like a Baal-running LF zon would do.
  15. Go for about 1,500 life after BO; everything else into DEX. You need the damage. The AR boost when Faith's true ITD doesn't work v. Uniques doesn't hurt either.
  16. None of the above really solves the problem of going 98->99. My best guess right now is that a Fire-based zon, using the same Faith and merc /w Infinity/G-Bane/Delerium, could do it vs. Nihl, but I haven't tested it enough to trust it. I can get 40-45 secs/run, which is slow, but I think it can be speeded up. Other option is an Hand of Justice in a +3 Bow Mat Bow (for the -20 enemy fire res, mostly) and getting a total of 75% IAS (HoJ has 33% naturally). Fire DPS is about the same re: Faith v. HoJ b/c Faith is 7 fpa and HoJ is 9 fpa.
  17. I have tested using MS v. Nihl, and I don't trust it. The merc does too much damage and leaves corpses everywhere. Unless you've got Tyreal's to swap on him (for the Monsters RIP mod), you're going to have CE trouble. I also am not sure yet if the Monsters RIP mod applies to all arrows in MS or only the center two (much like ML/LL/procing mods do); that needs testing.
  18. Skills are suggested to be max'd Strafe, enough arrows in MS to be comfortable, enough Crit Strike to be comfortable (I usually get to about 71%), high slvl Valk (at least 17, cast on switch), enough pierce to be comfortable /w equipment, 1 in GA, and rest in D/A/E.
  19. Read this: 99 Theorycrafting thread -> search results for "bowazon"
Specifically applicable re: the above to untwinked:
  1. Zons are generally bad at runefinding in the typical LK-running instance because the need Enigma to teleport and their teleporting speed is so terrible. Me thinks that if you're going to be serious about this, your best bet is either strafing at the Council or MS'ing at Cows. B/C you need Faith, Enigma, Fort (2x, preferably), CtA, and maybe Pride, you're going to need a LOT of runes. Maybe also running Pindle (small, tightly packed group)?
  2. It bears repeating: I can't, can't, can't stress enough how much superior Faith is than any other bow. Much like a elemental-damaging character is made stupendously superior by his/her merc using Infinity, you'll be shocked as to how much better Faith is. Don't waste a socket quest on a WF or Eaglehorn.
  3. You won't have access to a v1.07 Valk Wing (30% each FCR/FHR/IAS/FRW), the best bowazon helm, hands down. This limits your helm choices and I would be loath to expend a socket quest in untwinked play on a magic circlet that you NEED two sockets from if you go that route. But hey, chance it if you desire. Other options are Mav's (30%); 2os CoA, Stealskull (10% IAS already), Andy's (20% IAS).
Not sure what else to say. Good luck!
Pringlesman said:
Thanks for the tips. I know no one has successfuly done a SP lvl 99 bowzon, it's a large part of the reason I want to do it. I'm surprised about Diablo being a difficult kill. I remember doing a WF/Faith/LoH combo on Bnet and taking down diablo no problem.

I hadn't 100% decided on my end game bow. I was planning on letting drops determine this. But my favorite character of all time was that WF/Faith zon and I wanted to recreate it. But reliably finding a WF seems like it would take forever. But probably no worse than finding a +3 Bow 4 socket GMB. (And to think I currently have both bows just rotting away on a mule.) I had 2 zons planned depending on what end game bow I found first.

Helm: 3 socket life helm with 3x IAS jewels with best mods I can get.
Armor: Fort
Weapon: WF with OHM or ed/ias jewel depending on merc faith
Ring: Raven
Ring: Life leech ring
boots: War Travs
Belt: Nosfs (Razortail if I have to IAS jewel the weapon)
Gloves: LOH

Merc: Rogue
Weapon: Faith (Great bow base?)
Armor: Fortitude
Helm: Andy (Ias Jewel)

95-100 ias

or

Helm: 3 socket life helm with 3x IAS jewels with best mods I can get.
Armor: Fort
Weapon: GMB Faith
Amulet: Cats
Ring: Raven
Ring: Life leech ring
boots: War Travs
Belt: Nosfs
Gloves: LOH

Merc: Might
Weapon: Pride thresher or Giant Thresher
Armor: Fort
Helm: Andy (Ias Jewel)

95 IAS and pray I get a level 13+ faith

The nice thing about this is between the two builds I only use a total of three socket quests. So doing one does not stop me from doing the other.

Man I wish I could get a 1.07 Valk wing on my bowzon, that would be amazing with an ed/ias jewel in it. But alas it's not in the cards.
Crazy Runner Guy said:
Pringlesman said:
Thanks for the tips. I know no one has successfuly done a SP lvl 99 bowzon, it's a large part of the reason I want to do it. I'm surprised about Diablo being a difficult kill. I remember doing a WF/Faith/LoH combo on Bnet and taking down diablo no problem.
How many players in game? Doing it quickly ~5K times @ /p7 is what you're after.

The other problem with Big D is that his damage, particularly his fire damage, has greatly increased. He still has the lightning hose, which can be partially negated by straight PDR/MDR. You can't leech off of him, and he does increased damage to mercs. You'd need a way to slow him to a crawl (e.g. like what was done in early v1.10 with Kelpie Snares v. Baal) to really make your merc safe. Otherwise you're going to be spending a lot of gold resurecting him. Using a A1 merc is just asking for getting lightning hosed/Firestormed to death.

You don't necessarily have this problem with Baal, but then with him you also have him with more life than Big D by a long shot.

Pringlesman said:
I hadn't 100% decided on my end game bow. I was planning on letting drops determine this.
Good idea; I am not a fan of constant MF running and so much of the end game gear for this zon is either stuff that can/should drop or runes which can be reliably farmed from known spots, given sufficient time, and the same with a reliable base (Cows, e.g.). No guarantees, but likely better than running Pindle until a WF drops, e.g.

Pringlesman said:
Helm: 3 socket life helm with 3x IAS jewels with best mods I can get.
Armor: Fort
Weapon: WF with OHM or ed/ias jewel depending on merc faith
Ring: Raven
Ring: Life leech ring
boots: War Travs
Belt: Nosfs (Razortail if I have to IAS jewel the weapon)
Gloves: LOH

Merc: Rogue
Weapon: Faith (Great bow base?)
Armor: Fortitude
Helm: Andy (Ias Jewel)

95-100 ias

or

Helm: 3 socket life helm with 3x IAS jewels with best mods I can get.
Armor: Fort
Weapon: GMB Faith
Amulet: Cats
Ring: Raven
Ring: Life leech ring
boots: War Travs
Belt: Nosfs
Gloves: LOH

Merc: Might
Weapon: Pride thresher or Giant Thresher
Armor: Fort
Helm: Andy (Ias Jewel)

95 IAS and pray I get a level 13+ faith

The nice thing about this is between the two builds I only use a total of three socket quests. So doing one does not stop me from doing the other.
I don't see Enigma or any FCR in there. How are you planning to get anywhere quickly enough to make the run worthwhile? Running to Baal might work (e.g. Cat's Eye), but that's not preferable either. And it isn't too much fr/w too (e.g. mine has 30% (Valk Wing) + 45% (Enigma) + 25 or 30 (Travs or Gores), and I wouldn't want to run to Throne with that if I didn't have to).

Both builds lack either Atma's or Reaper's. The damage boost from either is too significant to pass up.

re: bow choice for A1 merc /w Faith. This is another reason to make it in Diamond/Shadow/Ward bow - if you decide to use it on an A1 merc, you can't do so if you drop your faith into a Mat/GMB. Her damage isn't going to be too significant, so skip going with a Great Bow (I believe you would choose it for the -10 WSM, but don't - it has worse average damage than a Mat bow if you decide to wear it yourself.

Pringlesman said:
Man I wish I could get a 1.07 Valk wing on my bowzon, that would be amazing with an ed/ias jewel in it. But alas it's not in the cards.
Best socket is res all/IAS. You need the res in every slot you can on a build like this. Do some searching and other will say Cham is the best, but with a Zon's IAS needs and limited slots to get it, you can't/shouldn't expend a slot to get one mod (CBF) when that same mod is available elsewhere in a slot that you can't get IAS in.
ffs said:
Always interesting to see how different of an approach you can take to Bowie, I'm following very different paradigms than @Crazy Runner Guy ;).

I was convinced that WF + Faith merc is superior after considering: To get 7 fpa GMB Faith you'd have to drop Razortail - which most rightly consider a must, and dropping it is a really really big deal for your overall damage output (especially when running areas like CS or WSK). Using other Faith bows to get to 7 fpa and Razor will on the other hand lower the base damage even more, with nothing gained in the end in terms of DPS. WF + Faith merc provides 7 fpa + Razor very comfortably which beats out any 7fpa Faith + Razor setup in terms of DPS, and gives a lot of wiggle room for helm and amulet slots. Also having knockback is actually a big advantage, as switching out LoH for knockback gloves is not an option due to the extreme loss in damage. To me the advantages of using Faith yourself just don't make up for this as they improve things where the amazon either doesn't need improvement or, at the other end, where she can't improve enough anyway: Having good resists with a bowie is neither necessary nor possible without crippling her damage, and +15 isn't much more than a drop in the ocean anyway. ITD and AR bonus are great but you have plenty of skill points to spend freely, so maxing penetrate is not an issue at all, and finally the extra skills from Faith are nothing more than "nice to have" as they don't significantly increase either damage or survivability. Also, while the A2 merc is sturdier, it's not like you have to rebuy the A1 lady all the time either.

Finally I'd never use Enigma on a Bowie. I think Enigma is great for Javazon because of Griffon's Eye providing 25% FCR, which gets you to 99% or 68% (which I consider minimum) on switch super easy. For a bowazon, you have to use Wizzy + Spirit to only get to 68% which is not safe enough to teleport constantly without CtA, and no matter how you get additional FCR, it's going to hurt big time in terms of DPS or other things, and even more restricting your gear choices.

Just my very different 2 cents on bowies. :)
Pringlesman said:
Crazy Runner Guy said:
How many players in game? Doing it quickly ~5K times @ /p7 is what you're after.
Honestly I don't remember. It's been a few years since I had that character.

I don't see Enigma or any FCR in there. How are you planning to get anywhere quickly enough to make the run worthwhile? Running to Baal might work (e.g. Cat's Eye), but that's not preferable either. And it isn't too much fr/w too (e.g. mine has 30% (Valk Wing) + 45% (Enigma) + 25 or 30 (Travs or Gores), and I wouldn't want to run to Throne with that if I didn't have to).
Between War Travs and Harmony on switch I figured I would have enough FRW. And honestly if I was to be teleporting I would just abuse the animation switch bug to teleport at 7 frames. But with good baal maps teleporting isn't necessary anyways.

Both builds lack either Atma's or Reaper's. The damage boost from either is too significant to pass up.
I forgot to list amulet on the first one, meant to list list Atma's on the WF build.

re: bow choice for A1 merc /w Faith. This is another reason to make it in Diamond/Shadow/Ward bow - if you decide to use it on an A1 merc, you can't do so if you drop your faith into a Mat/GMB. Her damage isn't going to be too significant, so skip going with a Great Bow (I believe you would choose it for the -10 WSM, but don't - it has worse average damage than a Mat bow if you decide to wear it yourself.
Fair point.

Best socket is res all/IAS. You need the res in every slot you can on a build like this. Do some searching and other will say Cham is the best, but with a Zon's IAS needs and limited slots to get it, you can't/shouldn't expend a slot to get one mod (CBF) when that same mod is available elsewhere in a slot that you can't get IAS in.
It's just going to be a pain to find one ias/res all jewel not to mention 3-4.
PhineasB said:
Very nice @Pb_pal! Congrats on the Enigma. And best of luck to the new entrants, particularly those contemplating the challenge of a bowazon. :eek:

Phaedrus hit level 92. He finished 250 Meph runs, with little useful to show other than his first Gheeds (34% MF). He did also find Carrion Wind and Reapers.

He mixed in some RoF runs before finishing the last 100 Meph runs, due to super chest map roll with 3-5 boss packs in between WP, and then finished off the level there. From RoF, the finds were a Pul, Stone Crusher, and a BKWB, which was quite welcome for the +skill.

One death from cursed might Megademon boss + Champion Urdar pack, but it took only four runs to make up the lost XP after a body recovery. He generally bailed pretty quick on any run with tricky spawns in RoF to avoid deaths, but this was basically an insta-kill because I didn’t notice the cursed mod on the boss pack.

I had really hoped for at least on high rune from the runs to level, but no such luck. He is now back to LK, having rolled a nice little map for a character without teleport. The goal is another 500 runes found, and then he may do another level and roll some caster ammys. I doubt he’ll have runes for Enigma by then (only the Sur from the first 500 runes found in LK). But he should have runes for CtA and maybe another skiller to allow some more efficient RoF runes for XP. It would definitely be more efficient to just focus on the Enigma though, so we’ll see.

Hiatus will also get some sporadic play, but the LK runs with Phaedrus will be the main focus, along with some questing for two new characters.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      92             Yes           -        246           12           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
BKC           Meteorbin       SC      Sorc      91             Yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      85             No            -          -          many          ?
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
BKC said:
Well i made a terrible mistake, i muled a Skulders onto Meteorbin breaking her untwinkedness... so i removed her from the list! Maybe i put poison_vic back onto it i am not sure.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      92             Yes           -        246           12           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      85             No            -          -          many          ?
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
ffs said:
@BKC Sorry about that, but how does that even happen? Also if you haven't equipped it, does it still mean she's twinked?

As for HelpYourself, she's been mixing up running LK, Mephisto and Pindle, though mostly LK. I really enjoy building those runewords, including looking for bases, rolling sockets in them, being super annoyed when your awesome defense roll elite armor rolls one socket etc. :)... stuff you just don't have when playing twinked.

She continued to be hot after her amazing Sur + Vex + Pul, Mal, Ist start in LK: Two more Vex runes within the next 5-6 hours, which allowed her to build CtA (+3 BO). However, since then there's just nothing in the HR department, the last 6-7 LK hours only netted one Pul and lower. However, eth bugging a hellforge plate got me a nice 4os base which is currently used as a 4.4k defense Stone but will of course become Fortitude once a Lo drops. Meph was moreover kind enough to drop Tal's amulet, Snowclash, 47% War Traveler's as well as a perfect +35@ Viper. Especially happy about the latter which is super awesome, as I don't think I'll even go for CoH with the next Sur from LK but rather save for Infinity or mule them over to my other characters' stash.

I think I might use my first Larzuk quest for the Viper -- unless anyone here stops me? :) The only other item I really need to socket is a Shako, everything else is runewords. Maybe at some point an Andy's for Merc as well or something, but I think I should be fine using the quest and having 2 left.

Stuff she's still looking for:
High priority: Shako, Soj/BK, Arach.
Lower priority: eth 4os elite polearm; Lo rune; skillers.

Probably going to go back to running only Meph for a while to try and get those uniques, only mixing it up when things get too boring.

As far as levelling goes she's at 88 (eighty eight) right now, but I'm taking it easy as there's no rush, though I go for Pindle on /p8 to speed things up as he quickly enough even with ~250% mf gear and Blizzballer spec.

Couple screenshots of highlights so far:

99er_hoto.png

99er_cta.png

99er_stone.png

99er_ciper.png



Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      92             Yes           -        246           12           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
Pb_pal        Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

EDIT: There we go!
Screen Shot 2017-06-18 at 17.55.25.png
PhineasB said:
Phaedrus did a set of 250 runes found in LK. The first 50 led to nothing higher than an Io, the next 50 has a Gul and a Mal, and then nothing higher than Lem, Ko and Fal for the last three 50 runes sets to 250. No major charm upgrades, although he did find a Sounding Skiller with + life and a cold skiller.

He saves some time with a teleport per run on this map, so I was able to keep track of the number of runs using Naj’s Puzzler: 9 repairs plus a few extra = 625 runs for 250 runes, for ~2.25 runs/rune found. Also, it turns out Phaedrus had found 600 runes in LK (not 500) prior to hitting level 92, so he’s at 850 runes found from LK, or about 2000 runs. Still 5 Surs from Enigma :\ A little break from Phaedrus is in order, so I'll probably do some CS runs with Hiatus and focus on questing the two new characters this week.
Pb_pal said:
Woops.

COfqfmA.jpg


Well it seems it wasn't meant to be after all. Here's how it happened:

Stevesy was teleporting through the Durance to get to Meph and make it to A4, and got caught up in a fanat mummy pack. He slammed all his rejuvs and just barely made it out and across the wall and landed right in the centre of this pack of beauties.

Should I have tried to teleport blindly through to Meph? Nope. Should I have done it with only one column of rejuvs? Definitely Nope. My only regret is that he never even got to become a bear.

That's alright though, truth be told my playtime will be severely limited for the forseeable future and I just wouldn't have had the time to complete this in any reasonable way, so I'll take this as a blessing in disguise to work on some of my stalled tournament characters and get back to some questing.

Best of luck to all remaining runners! I will be watching. :)

--


Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      92             Yes           -        246           12           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Kitteh said:
@Pringlesman
I was actually thinking that if I reenter this it would also be as a borazon possibly, so maybe we could go for it and provide each other with some competition, plus also learn from each others experiences? Could be fun! My current plan is to go Act 2 merc with reapers and run Baal, mostly because Fordyl ran CS and the extra safety of decrep plus another tank is appealing, plus might :p Attack speed though...

@Crazy Runner Guy
I know this is going back a bit, but I've been occupied haha Please don't repair with Real. For somebody who saves for crafting amulets, it is SO SO terribly painful :p You cruel person...
Grape said:
@Pb_pal ouch, RIP.

Well, there's some few (if not more) hundred hours of future D2 playing time reserved for something else :p

Still, would've been awesome to see some Bear Pala action.
Pb_pal said:
Grape said:
Still, would've been awesome to see some Bear Pala action.
I might revive him in another attempt some day, but almost certainly as SC and twinked next time. :p
LiquidClear said:
@Pb_pal

I liked your post, but not in the sense that I like that you died. I'm not that much of an ass. No, really.

Maybe you could pursue some sort of bear on SC now instead? I am a D2 wildlife advocate, so I vote yes.
T72on1 said:
@Pb_pal Condolences :(. Sad to see you go out of this tournament.
PhineasB said:
RIP, Stevesy. Ouch, that must have been so painful. This is why I don't ever envision myself seriously going the HC route:
Pb_pal said:
Should I have tried to teleport blindly through to Meph? Nope.
Even if I know something is a bad idea and that a slower approach makes more sense, I still sometimes do the thing I know is a bad idea. If that one mistake was RIP, loss of character progress, and loss of gear . . . ? I'll stick to SC for the most part, thanks :p

I look forward to seeing some twinked, SC Bear pally vids soon :)
 
Crazy Runner Guy said:
Kitteh said:
@Crazy Runner Guy
I know this is going back a bit, but I've been occupied haha Please don't repair with Ral. For somebody who saves for crafting amulets, it is SO SO terribly painful :p You cruel person...
I also save them for crafting and have ~180ish of them in my stashes. And repairing something like that is rare. I went from putting the AP Fort on at clvl 63 through clvl 87 and pat'ing @ /p8 my 2H Charger and only had to use a Ral once during pvm, and then perhaps once after he was retired and the armor was put back on my WW barb and then only after several Baal runs. You're going to find plenty of Rals in that time to repair them. Now using Orts to repair expensive weapons (Grief/Beast BA's, e.g.) is another thing. Durability there is a problem.

The problem for me is accumulating the appropriate pgems for crafting since the majority of my play right now is Nihl, and I don't pick up flawlesses during those runs - no issue with the runes upon which the main crafts rely.
Pringlesman said:
Kitteh said:
@Pringlesman
I was actually thinking that if I reenter this it would also be as a borazon possibly, so maybe we could go for it and provide each other with some competition, plus also learn from each others experiences? Could be fun! My current plan is to go Act 2 merc with reapers and run Baal, mostly because Fordyl ran CS and the extra safety of decrep plus another tank is appealing, plus might :p Attack speed though...
Go for it man. Angelin the Bowazon is always welcome to have some company. Currently I'm in act 5 nightmare running baal trying to get a LoH, Witchwild String, and a second Tal's Mask for my mercenary. I was lucky enough to get a 19 dex Ravens within a day of baaling. Found a Guillame's today but I don't have the strength to currently equip. I switch between using a harmony and a Goldstrike Arch. I have a pul and I could hunt down a Lum to upgrade it but I really don't have the strength for a Hydra Bow right now.

I'm currently posting my progress on D2jsp, would be kosher to post a link directly to my walkthrough over there?
Kitteh said:
I think that linking to that website is against the forum rules (possibly mentioning it too), best to check :p

That is some nice luck though! I always had a soft spot for Lycander's, even though it is pretty terrible, I just like it haha
Pringlesman said:
Found this on my bowazon. Not very happy about it.
Zle9SjJ.png
grim said:
Pringlesman said:
Found this on my bowazon. Not very happy about it.
Zle9SjJ.png
My untwinked javazon is currently 94 and 3/4... Still hasn't found 1 titans yet... let alone an etheral one...

Although it might be useless for u, I still kind of hate u...
coju said:
What is that skill in the RMB, Pringlesman?
Pringlesman said:
coju said:
What is that skill in the RMB, Pringlesman?
ID scroll.
PhineasB said:
Really busy work schedule the last two weeks has meant limited time for playing or even writing up limited progress. But I ended going back to LK with Phaedrus during that time, completing another 250 runes found, for a total of 1100 runes found from LK so far. His luck didn’t change :(

He found Mal #3 during the first 50 runes, with Lem, Ko and Lem the highest for the next three sets of 50 runes, followed by Mal #4 in the last 50 runes. No other major finds, although he did upgrade with a couple plain 6% and 7% MF SCs for use in RoF or CS runs down the road (still without Shako or Arachnid’s). He also had a major let down, finding a 7 FRW Combat skiller, getting really excited, and then seeing “Barbarian.” :rolleyes:

These 250 runes were found in 621 runs (based on 1 teleport charge per run). So around 2750 LK runs in with Phaedrus, and still 5 Surs short of Enigma. By this point (1103 runes found from LK), Mercy had netted the equivalent of 2 Bers and a Sur from LK (Jah and Sur from Pit runs left her one Sur short of Enigma, which she got from LK, but she also had Infinity, which meant 2 Ber equivalents from LK). So I’m guessing these two characters represent different ends of the spectrum of expected returns based on random variance.

But at least all the Mals allowed some cubing to deliver this disappointment:
CtA.jpg
:mad: He is probably going to gain a level on RoF and CS runs, even if it’s not efficient, which will allow some caster ammy rolls and maybe some item upgrades along the way.

* * *

Hiatus also got a little time on Gripphon runs (hitting Diablo if there is an XP shrine in CS), now showing a couple pixels on XP bar, just short of 10M into level 97. She donned a 13% cold damage Ormus, which allowed swapping out a FCR ring for the second Stone of Jordan. The loss of resists from CoH also meant some charm shuffling, but she has about 2300 life with BO.

She’s been rerolling CS maps looking for one with a couple bosses spawning near the seals. No luck so far, but she’ll slowly chip away with 10-20 minute play sessions as a break from the World Stone King Tourney.
Zenigma said:
Pringlesman said:
ID scroll.
Actually it's a fat guided arrow
PhineasB said:
Don't mean to complain, but Phaedrus would have preferred a Jah :rolleyes::
RoF (Cham).jpg
He's slowly plugging his way to level 93 with short RoF runs (just to the Forge, where he always gets at least two boss packs along the way, sometimes three) and Pits. Still 5 Surs away from Enigma.

Edit: And he would have definitely preferred a Shako:
RoF (Corona).jpg
Phaedrus hit 93, without any major drops for the level to aid his end-game gear. Cham and Set Corona were posted earlier, with the remaining significant finds being a Fleshripper (low roll), 15@ Shimmering GC that he’ll never use, and a Golden Diadem (lowest possible -eLR roll and second lowest +lighting damage, but at least defense was one off perfect!). Highest rune after the Cham was a Fal :(.

It’s going to be back to LK in search of runes, probably another 500 rune set, with some caster ammy rolling mixed in along the way to break things up.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97             Yes           -        394           19           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      93             Yes           -        264           12           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
PhineasB said:
Phaedrus went back to LK, with very nice results. The poor rune luck from the WSK tourney was more than redressed, with 4 Surs falling in quick succession. :) He’s finished another 500-rune set, for 1600 runes found in LK total so far (~4000 runs total), and is now one Sur from Enigma. Summary of the drops:

1-50: Mal #5
51-100: Ko (highest)
101-150: Vex #2, Gul #4
151-200: Sur #2, Sur #3, Mal #6
201-250: Sur #4, Pul #4, Pul #5


A total of 651 runs for that set of 250 runes found. The Surs fell as runes 156, 184, and 214, within ~150 runs of each other. A warcries skiller with +5 dexterity was best skiller, with a few plain, and two nice SCs, an Amber of Vita (11/18) and Jade of Vita (11/20). The next 250 runes:

251-300: Sur #5, Um #2
301-350: Lem (highest)
351-400: Ko x2 (highest)
401-450: Lem x2 (highest)
451-500: Lum (highest)

A total of 641 runs for this set. There were a couple ruby jewels with + damage modifiers, an Acrobatic skiller with +1 max damage, and two +20 vita plain SCs. The Sur was rune 282, so 4 Surs within about 280 runs of each other, and some other solid drops mixed in! :cool:

He also burned through 100 pAmethysts for caster ammys, with nothing much to show for it. There was a 2/15 offensive aura amulet with 11@ resists and +19 strength, but Mara’s is better for him for now and it’s hard to see that changing. Due to cubing along the way in LK, he also has more than 600 pgems (plus another 400 flawless) in the stash for GC rolling once he gets some Diablo charms. He may take a break to do some inefficient CS runs in the hopes of getting a few of those just to mix things up.
darkstarhub said:
Solid finds @PhineasB. My luck has not been so good lately.

I am making solid progress towards 96. At this point it may be better for me to change things up a bit. The Ber I found that's collecting dust needs to go into a CoH, and stocking the inventory with skillers instead of MF and resist charms seems like a plan. I am convinced, despite what I have read, that the drop rates in 1.14 were changed. My style of playing is not getting the results I had in 1.13. There is always the possibility that RNG is just being fickle, but I am gonna find this RNG person and beat them with a stick if my drops don't get better.
PhineasB said:
A little quiet in this thread, so I’ll add an update. It’s actually a pretty big one for both active characters!

First, Hiatus is back running again, picking up >45M XP over the past week and a bit, to be a little past 97.2. She is in CS, mostly doing Gripphon runs, but hitting Diablo if there is an XP shrine. It’s a pretty good map, I think, with my preferred two straight arms layout and several bosses regularly spawning near Grand Vizier and in the room right outside Infector. She’s netting just under 100K XP per run on average.

I actually starting getting in a bad habit of also doing Diablo every so often when there was a CI boss near Grand Vizier's seal (for the extra drops), but realized how much slower the leveling would be and got more disciplined. She’s moving along pretty efficiently now.

Still no Arachnid’s :( A major improvement came when I realized the Merc could now wear the CoH after Hiatus donned the Ormus. :rolleyes: So he is now sporting that + Delirium, which makes a big difference. He was too squishy without life leech, so I hadn’t been comfortable using Delirium earlier.

Aside from that change, we did a little shuffling with belt (Verdungos), boots (Sandstorm), and charms (still only three cold skillers, with a Ruby GC with FHR and Shimmering GC of life; the rest are 19/20 vita SCs or resists). This has her ~2300 life with BO active, hitting 105% FCR breakpoint (115% actually), and hitting the 86% FHR break point, with everything except lightning resist maxed. MF took a major hit and is now just 113, but she is all about getting the level at this point (and hopefully runes!).

Finds haven’t been major, but nice nonetheless. Runes were Um #4, Um #5, Mal #4, Pul #3, Gul #3, Pul #4, and Ist. The items that warranted screen shots were Nat’s Mark, Torch of Iro, and Ghost Flame, with an Eth Cerebus Bite, and Eth Kelpie’s, the Sandstorm Treks she’s wearing (plus another later), and the set Colossus Sword.

Still hoping for Arachnid’s and another Sur or Ber (plus a 4os eth Thresher or Giant Thresher base) for Infinity. I’m planning to focus on her to reach 98, and my goal is 2M/weekday + 15M/weekend, for 25M/week, which will put her at 98 at the end of September, assuming no deaths :\

Based on the last stretch of leveling, I think that’s manageable relative to what I did with Mercy. It should actually be a little less than 30 min a day during the week, and then about 4 hours over the weekend.

* * *

Phaedrus got some time as a break from CS runs. He hadn’t actually completed the Nihl quests in any difficulty, so he did that, as I was planning on rerolling to LK map to get a better CS map to run at p1 in search of Diablo charms. As luck would have it, Hell Nihl dropped a charm :) So he burned through 100 or so pgems, ultimately rolling a Harpoonists with FHR that is now on a Spearazon questing through Hell.
Code:
Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Balance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x480102bb
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+12% Faster Hit Recovery

After that, he rolled LK maps, finding a decent one, and did 10 minutes here and there. In the first 25 runes, he got 2 Lems and +FRW Fungal skiller. And then #28:
LK (Ber).jpg
Well, 4 of the Surs got loaded up along with a +15% defense superior breast plate, and viola:
Enigma Makings.jpg
Enigma.jpg
So 1628 runes found in LK, and around 4075 total LK runs and he was now able to move with purpose! He still didn’t have a Shako or Arachnid’s (yes, it’s a theme :rolleyes:), so we decided to do some Meph runs. A couple rolls later, we had 7 teleports to the stairs, and the second run dropped this (on p3):
Meph (Sur).jpg
So Sur #5 from LK had a partner, which opened up CoH for the merc. After cubing 4 eth armors, we got one with 4os, and the merc had a new outfit.

He is also now in CS, with a decent little map, running p1 with p7 Diablo kills hoping for another GC or two to burn through the ~500 pgems he has left (and he'll go through the rest of the pAmmys and Rals he has for caster ammys). But no luck so far, as he’s around 1/5 of the way to 94.

* * *

I hope to see updates from others who are still grinding. But I will probably keep up weekly updates for a while. Cheers!

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97.2           Yes           -        406           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       94             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      93             Yes           -        270           12           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Grape said:
Nice progress @PhineasB ! Little (and sometimes not so little) but steady steps really do build up as the time goes!

You may have said it already, but what's your 98-99 plan with Hiatus? :)
PhineasB said:
Thanks @Grape! She's definitely going to run Nihl for the last level, with some Baal runs mixed in for a fun break if she needs it.

Because she found two Stone of Jordans, I am thinking about going pure lightning (assuming the merc has Infinity). She's probably use Nature's Peace and one of the SoJs though, to eliminate Nihl's corpse explosion.

The other option would be Blova, but I think @Pb_pal already blazed that trail with Eleanor. Hiatus has one respec left without getting a Baal essence. So we'll probably go pure lightning and then use the Ancients quest early in the level if we need to try out different build options.
Grape said:
Eager to see how it will turn out! Let's see some runes before that ;)
grim said:
It's been about 2 months since my last update, but i've been slowly grinding with the java and have finally reached lvl 96, my highest lvl ever achieved... I mainly did Baal runs with only a few /p8 Diablo runs. The latter felt a lot more dangerous and kinds of slow due to the 15 frame teleport.

Best drop for these 2 levels came from Baal:
Screenshot045.jpg

Leveling from 94-95 was uneventful with no significant drops and 0 deaths.

Lvl 95-96 felt 10 times longer but I also managed to avoid any deaths. Tried using 4 skill Thunderstrokes which had great damage but the need to repair after every run was really annoying.

At about 95 and 1/3, the elusive titans finally dropped, closely followed by another pair some runs later...
Screenshot041.jpg

Also found: 2/20 jav gloves with 15 fire res (spent hours shopping for 3/20, but no luck so far), Ravenfrost 20 dex, vamp gaze (noneth) for merc and an upgrade for my Gheeds

I managed to improve my infinity merc's survivability. Tried a delirium + COH (in ebugged dusk shroud made with a previously found Ber). Enjoyed the confuse that triggered wave spawn faster, but he became more fragile to wave 5 and damage was severely reduced. Finally settled with fortitude + gaze. Feeding him an antidote potion after wave 2 also helps a lot. Merc deaths are now extremely rare.

I also replaced her crap rare circlet with pTopaz shako. I hate the look but + 2 skills, life, mana and mf are hard to ignore. Later replaced the topaz with a 15 ias jewel, reaching the next ias bp which helped her damage significantly...

Wishlist:
  • Griffon's: apart from the damage boost and looks, I would love to hit the 68 fcr bp)
  • Phoenix shield: cause i love that redemption aura, but will make only if a Jah drops by any chance.
  • 4 x Java skillers
Any advice is more than welcomed and I look forward reading all of your updates...

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97.2           Yes           -        406           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      93             Yes           -        270           12           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
PhineasB said:
@grim - Congrats on the levels and finally getting those javelins! I'm not sure anyone has done testing on CS vs Baal runs for efficiency with a Javazon at the later levels.

CS is generally more efficient if you can target the boss packs and Vizier/Infector easily. Trapsins not so much, but I think lightning fury will allow it. It might be worth giving CS some time and hope you can get comfortable dodging -- the delirium on the Merc should make a difference there. At the end of the day, though, I think it's what is most comfortable and fun for you. :)

As for me, Hiatus surpassed the weekly goal, getting 30M to hit 3.050B. Not the Sur or Ber she was after, but quite a few runes fell: Gul #4, Mal #5, Mal #6, Pul #5, and a Jah:
CS (Jah).jpg
The Mals fell on the same run, which was pretty cool. Most importantly, she also found another Cold Skiller (plain), her fourth, and that extra skill makes a noticeable difference. She might get a little more time this evening, but:

Champion Phaedrus and Azrael the Defiance Desert Merc, Lvl 94 (pic)
Phaedrus also made some progress, pinging 94. After finding a Diablo charm shortly after the last update, he burned through the rest of the pgems, netting a Cold Skiller with FHR with about 20 pgems left.
Code:
Chilling Grand Charm of Balance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x915b5fbb
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Cold Skills (Sorceress Only)
+12% Faster Hit Recovery
Hiatus is totally jealous. :rolleyes: There were six other skillers along the way, either plain or not particularly useful, that were rerolled.

Phaedrus then did Gripphon runs at p8, but hitting every boss pack along the way, plus Diablo if there was an experience shrine. It was pretty quick, about 11 runs per tenth of the level at this point. Finds were solid: Windforce (only the second one I’ve ever found), Trang belt, and offensive skiller, which replaced 3 small charms with MF.

After hitting 94, he gambled 5M gold worth of circlets, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with 2 pala + 20FCR. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t happen, but he came really close to something spectacular and had another close-but-not-quite that would have been okay.
2 Martial Arts 20FCR.jpg
Close 2 Druid FCR.jpg
He kept the Druid coronet so it can be transferred into my general stash. But he did net this, which will replace the 3 pTopaz artisan’s helm until Shako drops (still didn’t have any better option, except maybe a Tarnhelm):
Code:
Rose Branded Coronet of Life
Coronet
Defense: 34
Durability: 30 of 30
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xc5e9cbaa
Item Level: 93
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
Damage Reduced by 4
He then cubed up all flawless gems (except amethysts) and rolled the other Diablo charm that he’d found during the level. It was about 100 pgems worth, and he netted a Burning skiller with strength, with 3 pgems left.
Code:
Burning Grand Charm of Strength
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x7630d713
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Fire Skills (Sorceress Only)
+4 to Strength
Phaedrus also rolled 10 caster ammys, with nothing to show. He has quite a few flawless stashed still, so he will cube those up and use them, plus also gamble the remaining ~8M gold he has on circlets. Maybe he’ll get lucky.

I’m not 100% committed to picking up flawless gems anymore. I know rolling charms increases the chance of Lion Branded charms, but I don’t know if it’s enough to be worth the slower runs to pick them up. Interested to hear what others think!

* * *

Progress Update

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97.3           Yes           -        408           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
darkstarhub said:
Nice going guys!!! I am still plugging along to 96, but not really finding anything good to make it interesting or give me a little boost. I feel asleep last night(again) and managed to die, which was my first time at level 95. I managed to get my corpse back, but it still sucks, and makes me mad. Meh, it gave me a little bit of a second wind to run a little more and make up some of the XP loss.
This screenshot kinda sums up my item luck as of late:
Screenshot150.jpg
 
PhineasB said:
Keep it up @darkstarhub! The drops will come over time.

Hiatus made some solid progress, well past her weekly goal, and is now more than half way to level 98:
3.1B.jpg
No game-changing finds unfortunately (read: no Sur or Ber for Infinity and no Arachnid’s or Fathom). But some nice ones nonetheless, with Mal #7, an Ohm, Pul #6, and Gul #5. The Ohm allowed a CtA reroll and an upgrade:
CtA #2.jpg
She swapped out some life charms for more MF earlier in the week, and she’s now back over 2200 HP with BO. Item finds worth screen shots were Nats Mark #2, Gris Valor #2, and Steel Carapace.

A good chunk of her progress this week was due to waking up at 2:30 one day and not being able to fall back to sleep. So she’ll probably (hopefully :rolleyes:) be back to a slower XP pace, but on track for 98 by the middle of next month.
PhineasB said:
Hiatus slightly surpassed her weekly goal, netting 30M XP. She switched it up, and hit Diablo every run, with p8 Vizier and Infector seals, p1 for de Seis, and then p7 for Diablo.

It’s probably about 10 minutes longer per 4M XP (55 min vs. 65 min), but it was a nice change of pace. And it increases chances of unique drops a bit, so maybe an Arachnids. It’s also only 6 or so runs per million, so it’s a little closer to Baal runs in terms of fewer runs for more XP per run. Going forward, she'll probably keep that up, but aborting if Infector is CI unless the merc has him slivered until Hiatus has dealt with other boss packs and minions.

Finds were Ohm #2, a Boneflame from Diablo, and Mal #8. Two instances of being trolled: set Diadem (plus two rares); and one run with – no joke – two blue spiderweb sashes and a rare one to boot!

She had one close call this stretch (I consider under 200 HP a NDE). She always teleports to a spot just south of Vizier’s seal. If there are no bosses in sight, Vizier always appears there, so she takes three steps to the east, drops a Blizzard on the spot, and then hits the seal. Vizier usually dies immediately and then she can check other seal quickly for other bosses before moving on. If there are bosses in sight, she checks the mods to ensure no dangerous auras (conviction, might, fanaticism), kills those bosses if they are dangerous, otherwise hits seal and cleans out the arm.

The other benefit to that spot is there are almost never any monsters on it. The almost nearly got her, as one run, there were not only monsters, but a might enchanted OK boss with 3 other OKs. She got amped immediately, and was under 200 HP in an instant. Thankfully, I keep finger on Esc after using it to minimize inventory screen after hitting the star in the middle of CS, and I had quick reflexes. It turns out the other 3 OKs were a champ pack! So she would have been toast for sure and corpse recovery would have been a challenge.

Needless to say, she gracefully exited that game. In general, after the experience to 99 with Mercy, I am not shy about bailing on a run to avoid issues. I figure that even 10 early aborts is well worth the time saved to risk of a death. From an XP perspective, it’s actually not even a close comparison.

She might hit 97.75 by the end of this week. We’ll see what the weekend brings – no plans as of yet, and my wife will probably be out of town.
Kitteh said:
Sorry everybody, I've been absent basically all of summer. I hope that you are all having fun with the tournament, I will try and catch up when I can sit down and read this thread haha
NanoMist said:
All I know is that Phineas has been making great progress this summer.
T72on1 said:
Yeah, most people (including me) didn't get much time, if any, in on their 99er characters, due to summer holiday, RL in general, other D2 projects or other games (PoE in my case). So you didn't miss that much. Phineas is making very smooth progress though, really impressive !!
darkstarhub said:
I would love to plug in another jump on the board but @T72on1 is right about RL getting in the way, especially during the summer. The Amazon I started is getting kinda fun now that she is getting high enough level to wear some decent gear. All I can say is Lightning Fury = wow. In a way by not really ever getting into the Amazon it's given me something new to play with.

My long awaited move is going down all this week which includes getting rid of as much stuff as I can. Even though it's a bigger house, I don't want it crammed full of stuff right at the start. Boxes, totes, and other small non essentials during the week and the big stuff this weekend is the plan. My computer will have a special trip if it's own.

Once I get settled in the new place I am gonna start going nuts on D2. I hope.
PhineasB said:
Hope the move is going well @darkstarhub!

Hiatus got 35M XP and is now just a bit past 97.75. She went back to Gripphon runs, but hitting Diablo whenever there is an experience shrine. Depending on how focused we are on speed, she’s netting anywhere from 4.2-4.4M XP/hour.

I had actually planned to stop right at 97.75, but decided to get the next 2M for a round 35M. That led to a really great drop:
CS (Astreons).jpg
Code:
Astreon's Iron Ward
Caduceus
One Hand Damage: 134 - 156
Durability: 68 of 70
Required Level: 60
Required Strength: 97
Required Dexterity: 70
Fingerprint: 0x85146ac6
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+3 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+10% Increased Attack Speed
264% Enhanced Damage
Damage +55
167% Bonus to Attack Rating
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 80 - 240 Magic Damage
33% Chance of Crushing Blow
Slows Target by 25%
Damage Reduced by 6
That brings me to grail -6 overall, so I am very pleased with that one. :) Aside from that, drops were meh, with Hiatus’ second Leviathan and second Ghost Flame from Chaos Sanctuary the only other drops meriting screen shots. There was also a set Colossus Blade and defensive aura skiller with +4 damage. Highest rune was a Lem.

She's going to take a break to allow some questing of characters in another project. I think a couple days away from Chaos Sanctuary will also help Hiatus avoid a death -- I definitely felt myself getting a little sloppy there towards the end.

* * *

Progress Update

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97.75          Yes           -        428           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
PhineasB said:
Update for Hiatus, and because pictures are worth a thousand words:
CS (Fathom - Eth).jpg
Hiatus: Well, hi there!
CS (Lo).jpg
CS (Infinity Makings).jpg
CS (Sup Eth 4 os Cryptic Axe).jpg
CS (Infinity).jpg
3.2B.jpg
For the second update in a row, deciding to go a little further gained a nice drop. :) Hiatus had gotten 3M XP on Thursday and I decided to get another 1M before going to bed. Ethereal for style, with good resists, although the cold damage was low roll:
Code:
Death's Fathom
Dimensional Shard
One Hand Damage: 45 - 79
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 73
Fingerprint: 0x18fd3bf7
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+20% Faster Cast Rate
+18% to Cold Skill Damage
Lightning Resist +39%
Fire Resist +38%
Ethereal
Swapping a SoJ for a 10% FCR ring kept the 105 FCR breakpoint, and sped up the progress. Then the Lo dropped, which allowed cubing the second Ber for Infinity (Hel’ed the Insight for Superior Eth Cryptic Axe, which was a shame because the roll was very solid). Appreciable step up, although she had to make sure to pick up blue pots during runs to deal with loss of Insight. It actually took about 3-4M of runs to get used to the new set up, but then things picked up.

Runs while watching college football got her to 3.2B today. Other finds were Pul #7, Pul #8, another set Colossus Sword, and another Eschuta’s. After cubing up so many runes to make the Infinity, she also backfilled a bit with nice runes: Vex #2 and Lo #2.

Monday is a holiday, so we’ll see how much progress Hiatus can make tomorrow and Monday toward the level-up. :D
PhineasB said:
Champion Hiatus and Zanarhi the HF Desert Merc, Lvl 98 (pic)
Hiatus got the last 29.4M on Sunday and the Monday holiday and is ready to transition to her next phase.

One side note on gear: realizing a ring slot was getting taken up with FCR due to no Arachnid’s – still :( – Hiatus picked up Ith runes and Sharkskin belts to try to get a 10 FCR caster belt. After 5 tries, we had a winner, and swapped back the SoJ, which made runs more comfortable in terms on not running out of mana pots.

Aside from that, more of the same, although she slowed down when we eclipsed 2.220B because I was worried about dying as she pressed for the final bit of XP. Finds were tremendous, with the last quarter level making up for what seemed like limited drops compared to 97.

Things started off quickly with Ist #3 (I swear it’s an Ist!), then an Eth Spirit Keeper (nice for eth grail!), Ist #4, a 40MF Gheeds to replace the 36MF one that was best found so far. Then Jah #2 :cool:, unique Bone Visage, Um #6, and then Gul #6 on the second-to-last run as a goodbye gift from CS. But the highlight of this stretch was another skiller, her fifth overall:
CS (Cold Skiller - No 5 overall).jpg
She’s getting a break for the rest of the week. This means I won’t have to make the decision about how/whether to use the last respec until at least after next weekend because we’re going camping next weekend.

I’m still thinking pure lightning for Nihl, but will probably try things out with current build first. The lack of Arachnids means she’ll have to sacrifice on the amulet to reach 117 FCR, or no SoJ at all (the plan is to go with Nature’s Peace in one slot).

It’s a big decision because she’ll have to take Ancients quest XP right away (rather than waiting for later in level) if it doesn’t work out and she needs to respec because she'll need Baal essences. Advice is most welcome! :)

Runes found during all her CS runs, which began sporadically during level 92-93, then almost exclusively from 94-98:
Code:
Jah x2
Ber
Sur
Lo x2
Ohm x2
Vex x2
Gul x6
Ist x3
Mal x8
Um x6
Pul x8


* * *

Progress Update

Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98             Yes           -        438           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
T72on1 said:
Congrats !!! Great progress.
NanoMist said:
The final stretch!!
PhineasB said:
NanoMist said:
The final stretch!!
Ha! Hardly the case, as you well know. About as long to go as 94-98 combined, in all likelihood. :rolleyes: But thanks for the encouragement!
T72on1 said:
Well, you have to goals you can set in between: catching me, and catching @Neksja (what happened to him, btw?). That should break up the road to 99 a bit. And currently we aren't moving, so ... :).

Good luck !!
Pb_pal said:
Woo gogogogogogo!!
PhineasB said:
Hiatus did a little testing for Nihl runs, starting with her pure Blizzard build. It was interesting -- the pale little guy dropped in an instant when he wasn't cold immune, but there was lots of CI rolls. Unbreakable CI runs were immediate an S & E. She had a death after about 500K of XP due to trying to drop a breakable CI with Vipers around. It just took too long. So she switched up to add immediate S & E when he was CI and Vipers were around and/or Nihl was cursed.

Although quite safe with this approach, there were too many aborted runs for it to be sustainable for me. So we bit the bullet and used the last respec when she got to 3.23B. @Pb_pal froze Nihl, and @T72on1 is roasting him, so we figured it was our duty to fry him. Pure lightning it was!

The one downside is that, in contrast to her 5 cold skillers, Hiatus has only one lightning skiller. :( Gear changes: a +3 skills / +17% lightning damage Eschuta's, 5/4 facet in the Shako, Vipermagi (for +skill and FCR, given the +20% damage from Ormus doesn't add much on top lightning mastery), one SoJ swapped for Nature's Peace, the extra FCR from Eschuta's meant she no longer needs the caster belt so she went with Goldwrap hoping to speed the finding of Arachnid's, and a whole lot of SCs of vita to fill inventory space vacated by cold skillers and 2 resist GCs that were no longer needed. She was at +2500 life with BO and 33 lightning skills with BC active. Lightning damage is 5-22K, so not too bad.

Nihl usually drops in 4-5 casts when he's not immune, and the frequency of LI is lower than CI. He is rarely unbreakable. It's reasonably fun so far, but she bails if he is LI (breakable or not) due to how slow it is to take him down. And she generally does S & E if amped with Vipers around, just to be safe.

She's a little more than another 2M in, with a little pixel of white showing. Almost exactly 1% of the way there! :rolleyes: Boneflame and Medusa's Gaze are the only two drops of note so far. She will aim for 98.1 by the end of the month and likely make little progress beyond that before heading out for vacation in mid-October.
T72on1 said:
Great !!! Curious to see what the Lightning route will turn out to be. Good luck !!
T72on1 said:
T72on1 said:
... And currently we aren't moving, so ... :).
I have to correct myself ... I'm moving again :). I'll have to see how much time I can squeeze in in between doing the 5 stages of Grief tournament, but at least I have done an hour of Nihl runs after what seems like ages. Still a bit rusty, so rather slow, but no close calls or deaths, which is the most important thing. I had to get used to how slow the xp is coming at this level though ...
PhineasB said:
Nice to see you back running @T72on1! Stay safe.
PhineasB said:
But I've found the biggest path to safety is not being shy about S & E
Um, yeah . . . shortly after writing that I didn’t heed my own advice. :(

We were two runs short of 3.24B on Saturday morning. There were Vipers. Hiatus had to vacate her usual landing spot because there were three of them there. But she proceeded safely and had Nihl slivered when amp triggered. “Well, just two more casts . . . “ Poof! Nihl died, a Viper charged, and the merc was next to Hiatus in a cloud of green, followed immediately by the red letters.

Well, Nihl was dead, so I figured corpse recovery would be safe enough and mean only an hour lost. The corpse recovery kit lacks FHR and isn’t 105 FCR, however, and I hadn’t noticed the Vipers and pack of witches lurking right by the stairs. Charged immediately upon hitting Nihl’s level, in hit recovery, and dead again before I could hit Esc.

I had no idea if recovering both corpses allows recovery of items from the first one, but I figured we had nothing to lose. The only problem was a fatal exception error from Merc’s delirium triggering while teleporting to reach the stairs from the way point. So S&E was imposed by a crash.

We decided to take a break before surveying the damage. Returning later in the day, she had the body recovery kit on the corpse and lost everything else from her main equipment.

In sorting through the stash, she had lower spec versions of everything except: socketed Shako (now only a plain one available), both Spirit shields, Mara’s, and nice rare boots with 40% FR, 20 FRW, and 22 MF. She also lost 1 of her 2 SoJs, but the other was still available, and she lost the CtA with 5 BO, but still had the 3 BO one stashed.

She went back to HoTo instead of Eschuta's, and used double lidless, Aldur’s boots, and a 9FCR +2 sorc skills ammy she’d crafted a while back. Overall, her damage and life were lower. We had two Vexes and a 5os crystal sword stashed, so we cubed up and tried our luck for a better CtA:
Nihl (6 BO CtA).jpg
Nice! We started running again, getting back 3.24B between yesterday and today. She mixed up some p1/p7 Diablo runs (about 2M worth), and I think that’s something she will continue off-and-on. She eventually found a plain Monarch that got 4os in the cube and became a 33FCR Spirit. The extra skill, +vita, and mainly FHR were much welcomed back. Oh, and as Diablo taketh away, Diablo giveth:
Nihl (Maras).jpg
Four lower on resist-all than the one she lost, but very nice to have back now that she doesn’t need the FCR from the amulet due to having Spirit again. She’s also picking up flawless gems now and cubing Nihl GCs. She got a Spiritual skiller with gold find, and a passive Zon skiller with +15 life. Hoping for a Sparking skiller to up her damage a bit.

I’ll try not to die again :rolleyes: The painfulness of it will definitely make me more disciplined in bailing on runs on the future. So I’m optimistic!
NanoMist said:
Really unfortunate deaths and game crash there. It's devastating to see Hiatus lose her main equipment, but good to see her bounce back though!
T72on1 said:
Ouch. Sorry to hear about those deaths. Kudos to you for not giving up but going on right away !!! You definitely deserved the good roll on the CtA and to find the Mara's because of that.

Stay safe !!!
 
Ashenshugar said:
Wow, PhineasB that sounds completely crushing, but you seem to take it like a champ!

I am excited to enter in this long term endeavor myself. My candidate for this (probably multi-year) project for me will be Natur, the currently level 92 wind druid.

His journey to 92 is fairly uneventful, but his runeluck has been quite spectacular finding both Ber and Jah before actually attempting any runefinding so I got a very early Enigma which let me respec to the same spec with lots more vit. Also stumbled across a Vex so I could make Heart of the Oak, too. Finding Arachnid's Mesh and Harlequin's Crest took like forever, but I have them now. The rings are very poor ones, but they both have 10% faster cast rate letting me use Frostburns for the extra mana. Amulet is also a bad one, with a bit of resistance and MF. The boots are dual resist with about 20% MF.

Merc has Reaper's, Duriel's Shell and Tal's Helmet. I could make him a Fortitude armor, but I like him not being frozen so he can apply Decrepify for me.

In the future I want a Call to Arms for more stable high life, the Oak Sage can be very unreliable at times.

Being only level 92 I still get pretty good xp from AT at players 8. At which point should I swap targets for maximum xp? I do not dare venture in the CS before I get the Call to Arms, would it be worth it to farm that so I could kill Diablo or would this be premature at this stage?
T72on1 said:
If you can handle CS, it's faster than AT from level 92 on or so in my experience. Having said that, CtA is an absolute must for those, so I'd just stick to AT runs for 1 or 2 more levels. It's not like it was such a big difference for my Blizz Sorc. O yes, and CS is only left hand and right hand seal runs, not the upper one and Diablo.

Very cool to get another entrant !!! Good luck :). And congrats on the rune drops. Quite lucky indeed.
Ashenshugar said:
Yeah, I don't think I dare venture into the CS before I have the Call to Arms - I did a couple of runs there a little while ago and it was pretty rough. Those curses are mean!
PhineasB said:
Welcome @Ashenshugar! It's very cool to see other character types working their way up the table. May Natur's journey be safe and enjoyable. For what it's worth, I found AT much more manageable through 93. After that, I think some LK runs if needed to build CtA would be worthwhile.

As for Hiatus, thanks for the encouragement, @everyone! :) One interesting thing about her conversion to lightning is that the loss of equipment wasn't too bad. Griffon's would have been really painful (as I believe @hasuprotoss experienced -- condolences again on that :(), but not much else beyond that. Most others seem to have found multiple Arachnid's by this point (not Hiatus though).

Most everything else was items that she had multiples of and had actually stopped bothering to pick up. A 33@ Vipermagi was replaced by a second 33@ with only one point lower integer MDR, Trang's gloves with 2 lower defense, Verdungo's with 3 lower +vita, etc. She hadn't bothered picking up any more grey Monarchs after getting two Spirits. But that would be overcome by a different approach through the leveling: rolling new Spirits in new bases rather than being lazy and Hel-ing one of the two until 35FCR was reached. And it was pretty quick to replace the first Spirit anyhow.

I had actually planned on trying out new gear combos at 3.24B, most notably going back to HoTo and using Aldur's (on the premise that +17% lightning damage from Eschuta's is marginal on top of mastery, and plus life/MF from Aldur's and charm swaps that would be possible with better resists might be better). I actually like her replacement set up more on those fronts, so those items were not really a loss for Hiatus, even if the rare boots would have been very solid in my general stash for other characters. The replacement Mara's was very fortunate, but she had two +2 skills amulets with 9% and 10% to choose from in the meantime.

So her build thankfully made it less painful. Loss of Fathom would have hurt much more. And an Enigma wearing character would have been a totally different story. I'm not sure how I would recover from that.

But that's good knowledge for Phaedrus -- he'll definitely keep a second CtA for the body recovery kit and bail at the first sign of trouble in a recovery attempt. The full 10% XP penalty would not be nearly as bad as losing Enigma and other gear for him!
Grape said:
Wow, that was quite the recovery @PhineasB ! Good to have you back on track :)
darkstarhub said:
You bounced back very graciously from a hard hit like that @PhineasB. The XP loss would make me freak, but the gear loss also is heartbreaking. I remember once getting into a situation like that where there was no way getting the gear back was ever going to happen and after a retrieval failed I S&E. The only SoJ I ever found was on that character and I had bought stuff from vendors to attempt retrieval, and was scared to death it was gone, but luckily it was on the corpse at restart.

So running CS mostly consists of the left and right seals eh, and probably P7 if doable? I am assuming some boss packs in there are a plus, and obviously if a shrine is near that can possibly be XP. I don't think I have the twitch response to run Nihly so that might be the best alternative at this point.
Ashenshugar said:
Had two completely unremarkable level-ups, so now I am level 94.
Screenshot033 d99  l94.jpg

The only thing that happened that was worth noting was that I found this, which is a first for me.
Screenshot032 d99  mallet.jpg

Now the need for the Call to Arms is more pressing ,and I did a couple of runs in LK to test my luck and not 20 minutes in and this drops.
Screenshot034 D99 SUR.jpg

Not what I needed, but I will take it regardless!
PhineasB said:
Hiatus is back on track! She’s more than a tenth into the level, with a better map for Nihl and CS. She also eclipsed 450 items for her grail thanks to a Schaefer’s hammer. Finally, she also found a second Monarch, which also got 4os and a turned into a 27FCR roll for Spirit. It was subsequently Hel’ed and rerolled to 32FCR.

I liked the idea of switching up to p1/p7 Diablo runs for a break, either when getting sloppy or as a cushion for slightly longer sessions of Nihl. So I rolled for Map #3 for Nihl, and double straight-arm layout for CS. After a little more than 5 minutes, the Nihl map has one shrine directly on the way, which she tags if it’s an XP shrine, and the CS map has two shrines.

The Nihl map has his platform in the Northeast, which is more open than the Northwest option. With lightning, that works better, as she has more choices (and chances) of a clean landing spot without Vipers. She is bailing with any LI roll, plus as soon as Amp triggers if Vipers are around. Otherwise, she is solid – the biggest risk right now is when teleporting on Nihl’s level if she lands in some vipers.

Two other tweaks in style, which may be of use to others. First, she never teleports to pick up items if Vipers are around or if she isn’t certain on the roll. Her life pool is just too low to risk it -- one close call when she had only seen two monsters types and teleported to pick up a SC, only to land in a green cloud was all that was needed to make that part of the routine. In general, she runs to pick up items rather than teleporting just to be safe.

Second, she has cut back on items to pick up considerably, for similar reasons – trying to pick up an item is the biggest risk for her. At this point, it’s only GC/SC, Ko+, most Elite uniques, various assassin claws, grey Threshers/Giant Threshers, and any grailers she may find. No more flawless gems, and jewels just aren’t worth the risk.

Rune drops were disappointing, considering that she kills lots of monsters in addition to Nihl. Three Fals, a Ko, and an Ohm are all she has to show for her efforts so far. It’s particularly disappointing when considering that she has an extra 11M of runs due to her earlier death. Aside from that, the only items from Nihl worth screenshots were Schaefer’s hammer and a second Boneflame from Nihl.

But, from about 1M of Diablo runs she was able to find another SoJ (replacing the one she lost). It was a nice double unique ring drop – you can barely see the second, which was a Carrion Wind. Other fun finds (all from Nihl) were an eth +4skill Arioc’s (sadly not perfect +damage%), Dragonscale, and Ondal’s.

I am going to try to Mat the first of my Trio of Twins characters and take the second to Hell this week. So I may not get much progress on Hiatus this week. We’ll see if she gets some play time, maybe by next weekend.
T72on1 said:
Good progress both !!

If you think you had crappy drops, not sure what to say about mine ... In all the runs I have done so far after returning, I haven't gotten a rune above Ko, and almost no elite uniques, let alone useful ones or grailers. And since complaining helps, here I am ... complaining :).

I'm getting close to 2.30B xp. Will post an update when I get there.
PhineasB said:
Nice to see Neverland moving again @T72on1. I hope the complaint helps improve the drops :)

Also, @darkstarhub, I realized I didn't respond to your question about CS. Before 98, the most efficient approach is Vizier and Infector seals at p8. I think it depends on the map whether hitting other boss packs on the way is more or less efficient from an XP perspective, generally more if the other packs are grouped by the seals. But I found it more fun and engaging long-term to hit other boss packs between the seals due to more drops and TC87 possibilities.

I think p7 work fine if p8 is too tough starting out. And I wouldn't bother with shrines if you're just doing seals. Due to Oblivion Knights, it will likely get cursed off.
T72on1 said:
Sorry to be lazy, but I can't find it immediately here, so I'm asking instead: how much xp/hour did you guys get on average running Nihl from 98 to 99?
Pb_pal said:
I was at ~47k/min on Nihl, Nanomist was around ~42k/min I believe. So anywhere from 2.5M-2.8M/hour, though probably closer to the lower end (or even lower really) since it's hard to sustain those rates over an extended period of time.
NanoMist said:
I recall 2.5 M/hour as the benchmark rate I was trying to sustain, so Pb_pal is right about that.
T72on1 said:
Thanks guys :). A little 30 minute test gave me a result of 2.6M / hour. The session 'felt' quite average, so that should be a good benchmark, I think.

Over to the bigger news ... I finally hit the 98.25 mark (if I counted correctly) !!!

Screenshot176.jpg

Runs have been really smooth lately. Almost no abandonned runs, no potions used. The only thing I noticed, is that I almost never use Frozen Orb. Even on a FI Nihl, who is (almost?) always breakable, my fire skills kill almost as quick as FO, and they are far more convenient to use. So I should have just respecced to full Fire instead of Fire/FO. Ah well, I don't feel like farming for essences now, and it won't make that much of a difference hopefully.

Nothing much else to say I'm afraid. Drops have been incredibly bad, especially in the rune departement. Nothing higher than Ko since returning, and even that was an exception :(. Best other drops were 3 rainbow facets, a plain Fungal GC, Bul-Kathos' Tribal Guardian, Titan's Revenge, a 298% ED Ribcracker (only my second since starting over, the other one was almost lowest roll) and a 1os Tomb Reaver.

O yes, I unfortunately lost track of time spent, numbers of deaths, ... Run Counter crashed a few times, and I didn't bother with it when returning. I definitely should try it again next time.

I'll probably take a break from Neverland now, as I want to focus on my 5 stages of Grief tournament character first, with some runs with my Pitzerker to level him up in between. Then a return to Grim Dawn when the expansion hits, somewhere in Octobre, followed by the MFO in November.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98             Yes           -        438           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      88             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
PhineasB said:
Nice progress @T72on1!

Mercy got faster as she went, and for the last 1/5th or so was on the higher end of the range that @Pb_pal and @NanoMist identified. Before that, she was solidly around 2.5/hr. She was picking up every rune Hel+ and every elite S/U, which slowed things a bit. I also was not running in large stretches without at least a short break every 30 minutes, often just to get up and refill my water or something. That allowed a more sustained, more focused running that, at least for me, was more efficient that sitting for hours straight at the computer.

Hiatus is a bit below 2.5M/hour at the moment, closer to 2.35-2.4M, based on two timed 30-minute sessions. She has a more streamlined approach to items, but I haven't converted to full efficiency mode yet, and still kill monsters after taking down Nihl if there aren't vipers around for fun.
ffs said:
Started to do some running again after couple months break!

My Blizzy HelpYourself left off in the final stages of her "initial gearing phase", which was off to a pretty lucky start. She's currently running Hoto, CtA, Spirit, Arach, Shako, Viper, WT, Tal's amu, Magefist/Chancies and Nagels.

As she is only one Sur away from CoH, I will pick it up here and run LK until that's done (and hopefully never regret not saving for Infinity). Also hoping to find a skiller or two along the way. After that I'll try to make some progress in AT. Once CoH is available she will be reasonably well geared and safe enough, so I guess she should be okay to run ATs on /p8, but we'll see how that works. Biggest long-term upgrades will then be SoJ/BK and Death's Fathom, but I don't think it makes sense to hunt for them on dedicated /p1 runs.

In short, let's get CoH and the XP grind shall begin. :)


Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98             Yes           -        438           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      91             No            -          -          many          ?
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
Disposition said:
SO I'm thinking I would like to join in on this.... Curious what these mean however
#of S/U Grail/504

Also if you were starting fresh, solo found, no help, no transfering... what would your first choice be? I find it strange the barb was first to 99 aswell. xD
T72on1 said:
#of S/U = total amount of set and unique items found, should you care to register it. Grail/504 is how many different set and unique items you have found, of all 504 available. Easy trackable with the built-in Flavie report in GoMule.

As you can see in this thread, there are various characters that can make it work. So pick something you think you'll find fun in the long haul, as that is what it'll be :).

Good luck !!
Yng said:
Added my Druid. Going to be a little while before I really focus on leveling while I finish up my setup but good luck @ all.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98             Yes           -        438           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      91             No            -          -          many          ?
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Yng           Kyrie           HC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
ffs said:
I guess this is the appropriate place to ask you guys what you think I should do after finding this beauty, namely: Whether to go and farm Infinity and switch from Blizzard to Lightning. I'm having a few decision making issues:
  • Moral imperative: As @T72on1 put it, i.e. you could say finding this on an untwinked Sorc means I in fact have to do that. It's very unlikely for her to find another high-end item which is moreover well rolled and fits the class perfectly, and it would be a shame not to put it to use. Also, she has one Sur at the moment, and finding 3 more Surs in LK to make Infinity takes like 27-28 minutes (at most) -- as is common knowledge. She also has an eth Great Poleaxe but so far I've been too scared to cube sockets (and ofc won't use a Larzuk quest).
  • XP grinding: Blizzard levels quicker and performs much better in some other key areas (AT, Trav, Pindle). I'm more concerned about the XP grinding than MF though. Can anyone give me an estimate as to how much slower a Lightning Sorc levels in comparison to Blizzy? I guess you could hit CS as well, maybe other targets make more sense with Lightning (e.g. Baal waves), but I just don't have any idea as far as how this compares to Blizzard, which is however crucial when grinding to 99.
  • Socketing: Of course I didn't expect to find a Griffon's, so I socketed my Shako, naturally expecting this to be part of my endgame gear. This leaves me with 2 Larzuk quests at the moment. I also found a Viper with a perfect 35@ roll, and in case I'm switching to Lightning, I'd be very tempted to socket the Viper as well, since IMO it's probably the best armor for Lightning. Doing this and socketing Griffon's means no more Larzuk quests, so in the (granted: similarly unlikely) event that I find a Death's Fathom and/or Nightwing's, it could make it painful not being able to go back to Blizzard efficiently.
  • Other gear: She's got the necessary pieces to do the switch (Hoto, CtA, Viper, Arach). Crescent Moon is also easily obtainable if resists and FCR are taken care of. So it's really just Infinity that needs to be farmed. It may take some time, but it's actually pretty much guaranteed from LK runs. As opposed to finding such OP Blizzard items as Death's Fathom and NWV which is no where near guaranteed of course.
Thoughts? I'm leaning towards switching to be honest, I just really don't want the grind to 99 to take twice as long at the same time. :)
 
grim said:
Congrats on the almost perfect griffon's. It's truly impressive and i would socket it without looking back...

Also i would start running LK and searching for a eth polearm, before switching to lightning.
It actually took me longer to find the base than the runes for Infinity... It was really frustating for me and I finally caved and when a 4 sock eth CV dropped, I just made it in one... Although it obviously wasn't my first choice... I'm close to lvl 97 and a better option still hasn't dropped. So no regrets there...

I would also keep my last socket quest until I find a satisfying tempo in leveling with lightning...

So I wish you luck in finding a base... Cause the runes are only a matter of time (which can be easily predicted thanks to griphon's thread).
ffs said:
Yeah of course I'll only go lightning with Infinity. Regarding base as I said I have an eth Great Poleaxe but haven't rolled sockets in it yet. Will do that with my next P'Amethyst. To be honest I don't really care about the base and would take any eth elite polearm. My other Infinity is in CV as well because I didn't have a Thresher or something else at the time -- and while that means missing out on some crushing blow or faster aura triggering, this rarely makes a (minor) difference, and even though I have better bases now I couldn't care less. :)

I'm not worried about finding either the runes or the base. Question for me is just do I commit to lightning by socketing Griffon's (and possibly Viper), and more importantly, is switching to lighting acceptable from an XP gaining perspective...
PhineasB said:
Switch!!! :) Hiatus is pure lightning due to moral imperative of having one on the table running Nihl, but you actually have the gear (Hiatus lacks Griffons AND Arach).

Even if a bit slower than pure Blizz for CS seals, I think pure lightning will still be pretty quick. Hiatus has played around in CS since respec and the only issue would be unbreakable LIs (Vizier fairly common), but there are unbreakable CIs also. So kill the minions and skip the boss, S&E, and move onto the next run. And your calculus of speed would have to account for not having Fathom vs having Griffon's.

Also, check out your skillers. Hiatus took a hit when she switched because she had 4 Cold skillers but only one Lightning.

Finally, I'd recommend giving Crescent Moon a shot. You shouldn't have any trouble hitting 117 FCR with Griffon and Arachnid's. As long as you have decent resists, I think it might speed things up further?
ffs said:
@PhineasB That's good to know and all I needed to hear. Thanks for giving me the push :) on to the LK Surs it is!

Yeah as I said I also think I should able to use Crescent Moon since I can take care of FCR and resists, especially given Griffon's, Arach and 35@ Viper which can be Um'ed if need be. But Hoto is extremely strong for lightning. I did some calculations on lightning sorc setups back in RFL round 3 (aka animal cruelty in cow level) which indicated that Eschuta's, Hoto and CM are extremely close to each other in terms of performance. I ended up preferring Hoto due to the FCR/resist enabling more flexibility and advantages with remaining gear, while only taking a minor hit in damage. However, that was with a fully geared character (plenty of skillers, SoJs, +3/FCR amu). As I don't have SoJs and my skiller count is at a big fat zero, I will have to recalculate for this situation. Of course, the skiller count hopefully changes in those LK runs ahead -- and it better not be cold skillers. :)
ffs said:
Good news #1:
Untitled.png

Good news #2: Only one Sur and a base away from Infinity.

Bad news #1:
Screen Shot 2017-10-07 at 13.22.11.png
I said FOUR sockets, damn cube

Bad news #2: Due to vacation I need to take another 2 week break. :/ Hope to finish Infinity before MFO early November though since I intend to run with her despite other chars being more efficient.

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98             Yes           -        438           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -          many          ?
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1

EDIT: Good news #3:
Screen Shot 2017-10-07 at 14.10.43.png

This girl is on fire.
PhineasB said:
Hiatus joins Neverland at 98.25, with no major excitement (good or bad) since her last update. Efficiency of runs slowly picked up. She’s now averaging pretty much the 2.5M/hour benchmark (+/- dependent on number of LI Nihl and other monster rolls that lead to S&E).

On the finds front, little of note. For runes: Gul, Um, Gul #2. The only items worth a screen shot were Death Cleaver and Head Hunter’s Glory that turned out to be eth, which was pretty cool. Other notable finds were a 3/18/5 SC of Fortune, Trang’s helm (grailer for her), and eth Blizzard Ormus (low damage roll), Highlord’s Wrath (grailer for her), another Azurewrath, and Vidala’s armor (grailer for her). For her grail, she’s down only to 2 exceptional uniques, and everything else is jewelry, TC3 or TC87, except a few other remaining elite uniques (including Arachnid’s still :().

It was basically three weeks of running for this quarter level, with the death and loss of 11M XP mixed in. Hiatus still has Ancients, so this pace would leave ~7 weeks to hit 98.

Like Neverland, though, Hiatus is going, um, on hiatus for a while, probably not picking back up until Thanksgiving (US). We are leaving for three-week vacation mid-week, and then it will be very busy work when I get back, and limited playtime will go to MFO. Then we’re visiting my wife’s parents, followed by my brother visiting from the east coast. We also have a trip back east in early December. So the goal of finishing before the end of the year may be out of each. But the holidays are the wild card.

Phaedrus will get some runs for the few days before we leave, hoping to make solid progress toward 95. Good luck to all the runners. And congrats @ffs on the Griffon’s and decision to go pure lightning. I hope it’s fun and the runes (edit: rune after nice drops) for Infinity fall quickly!

* * *

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes           -        457           21           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -          many          ?
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
ffs said:
Thanks, also for providing the necessary motivation @PhineasB!

I'm also thinking about going crazy and making Infinity in a low req weapon and use it myself. I realized I have the stuff to hit 117 FCR with such a setup and take care of resists reasonably well (35@ Viper, two FCR/@ rings, +2/FCR/@ amu alongside Arach and Griffon's). Should be similar damage on Conviction, stronger on mobs not hit by Conviction, and of course the major advantage being it enables Insight Merc. However it would also mean taking hits in other departments. Will need to calculate and think it through very carefully, in the past I've always concluded that Infinity Merc setup is better. But it can't be denied it would be pure style. :)

Chilling on the beaches of south east Asia now but I'll continue her quest once I'm back. :)
Trapin' said:
Hey guys! First time posting in this thread as the idea of it is interesting to me. I'm curious if there is a guide or some kind of run pattern you guys follow to most effeciently get to 99?

Did you mf a ton to gear up to be able to handle end game runs?

What do you run exactly for optimum xp?

Is it plausable for a non cookie cutter build to keep pace with others?
Yng said:
I think someone quoted an older post of the table for the update, my HC Druid @ 90 is missing. I also started a SC Sorc as a side project (Sophie, same name as my HC Sorc that RIP'd @ clvl 86 in Hell AT) and I was able to play around 30-40 minutes today. She's clvl 14 from stopping for all champs/non LE uniques on P8 and just finished Stealth from Countess (the default map is like maybe 20 yards to Tower from WP lol). Using the standard speed run build heavily invested into CB with utility points in Frost Nova/Static Field/TK. I'll probably respec Nova after Andariel and Blizzard after Normal Baal. Wanted something with no risk of losing everything on death so I can play extremely aggressive/have something for MFOs etc.

Sadly I'm on my phone and I don't want to break the format of the table, if someone doesn't mind updating? There's also a 94 Druid from last page (Natur IIRC?) if someone wants to add him to. If not, I'll get to it when I'm home. Thanks, good luck all!
T72on1 said:
@Trapin' Welcome to this fun little challenge !!!

There's not really a guide no. Lots of good info scattered in this thread though, which is only 77 pages long :rolleyes:.

Basically you want to move fast through normal and nightmare. Up the player count only if you can still get through fast. Do Pindle runs on the highest player setting you can still do quite fast to gain more levels before you move on to the next difficulty.

Try to include some mf in your gear to get improvements. Don't overdo it though, as some basic runewords like Stealth, Spirit, Insight, Rhyme and Lore can get you a very long way. Your first big goal will be Hell LK to farm some runes for the higher runewords you want: (depending on the build) CtA, HotO, Enigma, Infinity, Grief. It might seem to take long to find the runes for those, but believe me, in the long run it's not that much time, and it will speed up the process afterwards. Note that you don't need all that gear right away. CtA and HotO (or Grief / Oath if you are melee) will get you a long way already.

After that you can level some more on Pindle (until around level 87) or go the A85 area of your choice. People typically take AT or Pits for it, with very good reason :). Run those until around level 93 - 94. When you switch depends on the strength and type of your build. Most characters run the left and right seal in CS from that moment on. At 98 they cash in Ancients and start running either Nihlathak or Diablo. This isn't true for all characters though, as it depends on your build. Best info on it is found in the different threads of those who already reached 99, although it's also in this thread ... somewhere.

Non cookie cutter could work, but will almost always be slower. Blizz Sorc (converted to something else later on), Trapsins, Hammerdins, they are king of speedy progress. But depending on your gear, other things could work too. Most important factor is to have fun, since you are in for the long haul on this one. Also don't forget that you can respec, so there is some room for changes down the road.

Good luck !!
Yng said:
Kyrie going to be pushed aside for a while so I can focus on preparing my SC sorc before the MFO starts. He's roughly 3/4 in to 91. I'm pleased to say that I've been able to make some good progress on the sorc. I've just finished up NM Anya quest and I'm currently grinding Pindle for some XP before I finish up NM and head straight to AT.

This is the first non HC PvM character I've played in probably 3-4 years and I must admit that it's been quite refreshing to not have to worry about death ending everything, especially on a sorc. I RIP'd one time very early on (I think I was clvl 7 in Tower and got amped and consequently 1 shot by a unique Archer) and once again at Normal Diablo when I tried to tank/finish him and he roasted me literally 1 Nova away from finishing.

I played CB for the first act, Nova for the rest of Normal, and then finally Blizzard for all of NM. I'll be Blizzard for quite a while or may even just stay Blizzard.

Quite lucky with first Spirit roll of the walk:

n6Q5vYr.jpg


9JWMKJZ.jpg


Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes           -        457           21           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      92             No            -          -          many          ?
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Yng           Kyrie           HC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Yng           Sophie          SC      Sorc      60             Yes           -          -            2           -
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
NamelessPenguin said:
Trapin' said:
Hey guys! First time posting in this thread as the idea of it is interesting to me. I'm curious if there is a guide or some kind of run pattern you guys follow to most effeciently get to 99?

Did you mf a ton to gear up to be able to handle end game runs?

What do you run exactly for optimum xp?

Is it plausable for a non cookie cutter build to keep pace with others?
I don't know about a direct guide for 99, but I you search through the Lounge thread, you will see some replies for the same question I asked, with some really helpful answers. It's all there.

I think it depends on the non cookie cutter build. There are many weaker builds who you could make very powerful with the new access to high end runewords. Which build are you talking about?

If I were you, I would start a build I'm not used to playing, do some research, find out If you like it, and give it a go. I started an untwinked WW Barbarian, for the first time in 17 years, and he's tons of fun, and can be very powerful with the right gear.

What about a wind (or melee) Druid? There is only one 99 Druid, would be really cool to see another one.

Or an Holy Shock Paladin? He "only" (someone please correct me on this, If I'm off) requires Infinity, Cresent Moon, and Spirit runewords to really fry things. I don't know if 8 skillers is mandatory, or just nice. The lack of uber gear also makes this untwinked play fun and a challenge.

Or a zealot? Those could potentially be very dangerous. If not, then respec to Holy Shock :D

As for farming items and runes, you need the basics for any build you choose to go with. Mephisto can provide these, and LK provides the runes. But be prepared to do 4000-5000 runs (Harmony + Treachery for the win + a VERY good map), give or take, to obtain the optimal gear. Of course It depends on which build you go with (Sorc can get by with 0 runs). Look up Gripphon's Rune Finding guide for more info.
ffs said:
HelpYourself started running a bit again, staying hot regarding runes and now having collected the runes for Infinity.

Sur.jpg

Following the "complaining helps" rule on the other hand, no luck regarding bases still. Rolled an eth Great Poleaxe and an eth Thresher, which netted 5 and 3 sockets. :(

She now transitioned to farming /p7 and /p5 cows (not sure what is better) to look for a base, sometimes checking into LK to maybe get a stable rack for the base. She also found a nice 4os superior Scarab Husk which may serve as a base for CoH, and is one Ist away from another CtA looking to improve on the 3 BO one she currently uses, so LK is still in the picture.

Also, I decided to go with extended stash from now on. Just too much stuff she is currently looking for and picking up in order to transition to lightning. :/

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes           -        457           21           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -          many          ?
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Yng           Kyrie           HC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Yng           Sophie          SC      Sorc      60             Yes           -          -            2           -
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
T72on1 said:
Go for /p5 cows. So much more relaxed to run, and I think some tests by Gripphon pointed out that the difference in return is minimal.
ffs said:
Yet another proof that complaining works: I figured racking would be faster even though annoying as hell, and indeed about an hour after my last post I found a rack I could force a CV from every time (after killing my Merc off). 20 minutes in I got a eth 4os one. Say hello to the sexiest Infinity in town:

Screen Shot 2017-10-20 at 12.36.25.png

Sub-optimal base, terrible roll… I guess it actually could have been better to make it in a non-eth Thresher. :) Anyway, it is an Infinity -- that's all that matters. And I got it just in time, since apparently I killed the Cow King in the last cow run LOL, didn't even notice. I'm so pro running Cows with Blizzy. Well I guess I don't have any reason to visit cows with this char from now anyway on so that's fine.

Of course I immediately respeced to Lightning, and even though I have a serious lack in + skill gear (rings, skillers) the damage with Infinity + Griffon's is actually totally fine. Since Blizzard is so OP I expected a setback still. As an aside, I ran the numbers on the weapons question, in particular Hoto vs Crescent Moon. Result was that while Hoto slightly comes out on top vs low LR mobs, CM is so much higher damage vs LIs broken by Infinity it's not even funny and really surprised me. In my case it's around 50% based on my gear (which - granted - doesn't include stuff like SoJs you could swap in with Hoto), so of course running CM now.

So what’s next? I think HelpYourself is making good progress, but is not quite ready yet to transition to pure XP grinding. She will continue running LK for now, looking for runes for (1) CtA, in order to improve on her +3 BO one, (2) CoH for herself and (3) either CoH or Fortitude for Merc. She will also use all gems, with the help of LK shrines, to roll GCs in hopes of finding lightning skillers. The only other thing I really would like to have is SoJ/BK or a facet, which of course don’t drop in LK, but don’t think it makes sense to run Andy/Meph in the slim hopes of finding these. So once the runewords are reasonably taken care of, she will get to the serious business!
Yng said:
CM is pretty underrated. In concept, you have to think LIs are the mobs that are going to slow you down the most and because of the way -resistance is applied to breaking immunities even if you break them they're still going to have high LR.

Personally I wouldn't use 2 Bers on a CV but it's nice nonetheless, kudos.

E: I have some updates for this as well, as soon as I get time to actually post them..
NanoMist said:
Congrats on the Infinity, it's a great milestone on this journey.

Is CV Infinity really all that bad? I 'settled' for an eth CV as well, but knowing that I'll have 35% IAS coming from a jeweled Andariel's Visage, I knew the merc attack rate wouldn't be too far behind a thresher variant. I see a mask in that screenshot, which I assume is Andariel's, so my use case should apply.

Reading this thread, A2 mercs have 12/13 FPJ/FPA with 35% IAS CV, and 11/11 FPJ/FPA with 35% IAS Thresher. A2 mercs heavily favor jab, with a 85% jab frequency at clvl 93+. Weighing 85% jab and 15% normal attack, A2 mercs attack, on average, about 10% faster with the thresher for faster CB application and aura activation. However, CV's, with its higher base damage, will provide 8% greater DPS overall (and consequently better life steal too).

If the merc is using a 0 IAS setup, then it would be more favorable toward the -10 WSM polearms. I suppose in the end it didn't matter, since for our purposes, the A2 merc is just a tank and walking aura for the most part.
Yng said:
NanoMist said:
Congrats on the Infinity, it's a great milestone on this journey.

Is CV Infinity really all that bad? I 'settled' for an eth CV as well, but knowing that I'll have 35% IAS coming from a jeweled Andariel's Visage, I knew the merc attack rate wouldn't be too far behind a thresher variant. I see a mask in that screenshot, which I assume is Andariel's, so my use case should apply.

Reading this thread, A2 mercs have 12/13 FPJ/FPA with 35% IAS CV, and 11/11 FPJ/FPA with 35% IAS Thresher. A2 mercs heavily favor jab, with a 85% jab frequency at clvl 93+. Weighing 85% jab and 15% normal attack, A2 mercs attack, on average, about 10% faster with the thresher for faster CB application and aura activation. However, CV's, with its higher base damage, will provide 8% greater DPS overall (and consequently better life steal too).

If the merc is using a 0 IAS setup, then it would be more favorable toward the -10 WSM polearms. I suppose in the end it didn't matter, since for our purposes, the A2 merc is just a tank and walking aura for the most part.
IIRC the aura they come with based on which you chose activates on attack, so having faster attack speed procs your Might/Holy Freeze faster. Also, Infinity has CB which is going to be his biggest source of damage vs LI and for characters that don't have Static Field when killing bosses so you will get more CB procs with faster attack speed.

It's not that an Eth CV isn't a good base, it's that there are better bases and Bers are a relatively finite resource for an untwinked character.

E: Infinity - 0 IAS
Andariel's socketed 15 IAS Jewel - 35 IAS
Treachery - 45 IAS

CV - 5.5 FPA Jab
GPA - 5 FPA Jab
Thresher/Giant Thresher - 4.5 FPA Jab
NanoMist said:
Yes, I recognized the faster CB application and aura activation, but the case I was making is that an eth CV is quite close to the faster polearms using a common merc setup of Andariel's Visage and Fortitude/CoH, which is what ffs is also going for (I did not include Treachery setup because ffs did not mention it). A 4 socket eth Thresher/GT can take quite a long time to find, especially if you're unlucky with the socket recipe. Of course I would have preferred the eth Thresher/GT or even a GPA, but when the time spent farming that polearm base is creeping close to the time it takes to farm 2 Ber runes, it's time to move on. I wasn't fortunate enough to find a proper base along the way, so I instead saved my energy for the exp. grind.
ffs said:
OMG I wasted 2 Bers? :) Yeah as I said in response to @grim above on this topic I think any eth elite polearm is absolutely fine imo as the advantages of faster polearms are marginal. We're talking about Infinity which to an extent of 99% is just about Conviction. Regarding CB triggering, basically the only situation where a faster base might be noticeable is against unbreakable LI bosses on high player settings, and even then that's somewhat made up for by CVs higher damage and consistent leech. Aura triggering is somewhat slower on average but again the difference is small and I couldn't care less tbh.

I do value Tresher/GT higher than CV, but just by a hair. It's a "perfection" thing and CV is totally justifiable especially untwinked and given the fact that good bases are actually not that easy to come by, as @NanoMist pointed out.
 
Kitteh said:
Sorry guys I have been so absent, although it pretty much runs itself :p Hope you're all having fun, it certainly looks like there is progress being made! I may consider rejoining at some point in the future.
grim said:
Regarding bases for infinity, I for one think that @ffs is right...

In an untwinked situation where your character is undergeared, farming for infinity bases takes longer than you might think. In my case, finding a 4 sock eth CV was a lot more frustrating than grinding LK for infinity and enigma runes combined...

I would really like to be able to test some Baal runs with CV infinity vs thresher infinity just to settle this (for javazons at least), but the tournament rules prevent this (and I don't have another one anyway). Closing on 97 and still a better base hasn't dropped. If it will, I will seriously consider rolling another Infinity if I have the runse. I still don't think there will be any difference whatsoever because my javazon kills all minions and bosses herself and just skips unbreakable LI Lister.

Clearly CV is one of the worst options (has been discussed ad nauseam on this forum), but the purpose of these characters is to level as fast as possible, NOT to have perfect gear...
Kitteh said:
I don't think that finding an ethereal thresher for Infinity is that big of a hassle, and is worth it to not be using a CV. Ewwwww.
Arranj said:
Hello all ^^

Ive been watching this thread for quite some time and i must say, its awesome. You guys have done some amazing stuff. It inspired to to pick D2 back up and have a go at two things i havent ever done on diablo 2; a) successfuly make guardian b) hit level 99.

Starting from scratch a few months ago, ive managed to take an untwinked bone necro to guardian, my first ever! :D. I've been playing him for a few weeks since,leveling to 89 and slowly improving gear. I planned on officially entering him in this thread this weekend once ive completed my Guardian thread (which ive massivley dragged ass on). So here he is in all his glory.

Guardian Gray
P9XLLX9.jpg
Thats the good news...


..This is the bad news.
JUpZ8iE.jpg

So yes, thats the end of that. Re-rolled a new pits map this morning so i was checking out paths to Meph, CS, Baal ect. Took waypoint to worldstone keep, ran about 5 yards and got smashed to bits by gloams; i wasnt really paying attention and was so surprised that i didnt even pot. I unfortunatley left game at players 8 from the pits, think i got 3-4 hit. whoops :oops:.

Pretty gutted about it i must admit, though its really the method of death for the most part. I mean not even putting up a fight or trying any evasive maneuvers, just pausing and frying, not good!

Ahhh well, we must move on, which leads me to my new official enterant into this grueling task. Raum the lvl 1 HC Druid! Only ever played a wolf druid before, and that was years ago on bnet so playing this through as a windy will be something new. Back on the horse eh? ^^
Yng said:
It's worth noting that if you want to use Delirium it's more Confuse procs with the faster bases too. Although, if you go the Treachery route, there's no difference in effective Jab speed from GPA and Thresher/GT (for Delirium setup) so you get ~10 more average base damage with the GPA.

Wasn't trying to insult anyone, someone asked about the difference between the bases and I was just clarifying. It's more of a personal preference than anything, like I said. The Eth CV will still be perfectly fine lol. I just don't think I wouldn't find/cube a Eth 4 socket Thresher/Giant Thresher before moving on from P8 AT, and Blizzard/Insight works perfectly fine for that.

E: Kudos @Arranj on Guardian. I know the RIP hurts but good luck with that Druid, I had lot of fun with mine.
ffs said:
Kitteh said:
I don't think that finding an ethereal thresher for Infinity is that big of a hassle, and is worth it to not be using a CV. Ewwwww.
Easier said than done in a situation where you have to find it with one specific character while having tons of other stuff on your to do list. :) So at least three 99er runners here made Infinity in a CV, all of them fully aware of the difference faster bases make (or rather lack thereof IMO, given the purpose of this runeword). I believe @NanoMist (or someone else that finished 99, can't remember atm) even sacrificed a socket quest to make it in a CV, which is actually a huge deal when playing untwinked. That's because imo getting back to making progress is just proper prioritization over a negligible downside. Even for my untwinked chars I made it in a CV first for the lack of better base at the time (had just started using GoMule), and when I had spare runes for a second Infinity, I made it in an eth Scythe for gearing experiments instead of Thresher/GS since it still didn't seem worth it to me to improve on the Merc one.

EDIT: Just as a final note, I got curious an checked my main stash to see how many suitable eth/socketed Threshers or Giant Threshers I have collected over the last ~18 months: One eth 4os Thresher, as for 0os ones that could be rolled for sockets there are four eth Threshers and one eth Giant Thresher. That’s not a lot considering I did a lot of running in this period and with highly optimized characters, including countless cows killed in RFL. ;) Granted however, if you really want it and look for a stable rack for these bases it’s definitely doable though. But can’t think of any more annoying and frustrating activity, took me about 4 hours to find the CV rack and even that I consider rather lucky. :)

@Yng don't worry noone is offended :) I just wanted to explain the reasoning and emphasize that the differences are really small.

@Arranj sorry about that RIP , but of course welcome here, may the drops come! You won't regret joining it's a very fun competition. :)
Yng said:
So I finally have a little time to give this an update. Kyrie is still sitting at roughly 90 3/4, although I did do a few more Meph/LK runs that produced nothing worth mentioning. Most of the little time I do have was dedicated towards continuing to prepare Sophie for the MFO, and she's made some decent progress. I made it to AT @ clvl72 and as you can imagine the runs were quite slow/cautious early on. I fell 3 more times early on in AT runs (some of the ranged lightning mobs had potential to literally one shot me and anything CE as well) but after quite a few runs my setup and the merc's had improved drastically. We're pretty safe/quick to finish runs now. I think I will run 86-90 @ P8 and then push to LK.

Stats starting AT:
qCstUEZ.jpg

Stats currently:
QVAzIBy.jpg



Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes           -        457           21           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      92             Yes           -          -          many          ?
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Yng           Kyrie           HC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Yng           Sophie          SC      Sorc      86             Yes           -          -            5           -
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
NanoMist said:
ffs said:
Easier said than done in a situation where you have to find it with one specific character while having tons of other stuff on your to do list. :) So at least three 99er runners here made Infinity in a CV, all of them fully aware of the difference faster bases make (or rather lack thereof IMO, given the purpose of this runeword). I believe @NanoMist (or someone else that finished 99, can't remember atm) even sacrificed a socket quest to make it in a CV, which is actually a huge deal when playing untwinked. That's because imo getting back to making progress is just proper prioritization over a negligible downside. Even for my untwinked chars I made it in a CV first for the lack of better base at the time (had just started using GoMule), and when I had spare runes for a second Infinity, I made it in an eth Scythe for gearing experiments instead of Thresher/GS since it still didn't seem worth it to me to improve on the Merc one.

EDIT: Just as a final note, I got curious an checked my main stash to see how many suitable eth/socketed Threshers or Giant Threshers I have collected over the last ~18 months: One eth 4os Thresher, as for 0os ones that could be rolled for sockets there are four eth Threshers and one eth Giant Thresher. That’s not a lot considering I did a lot of running in this period and with highly optimized characters, including countless cows killed in RFL. ;) Granted however, if you really want it and look for a stable rack for these bases it’s definitely doable though. But can’t think of any more annoying and frustrating activity, took me about 4 hours to find the CV rack and even that I consider rather lucky. :)

@Yng don't worry noone is offended :) I just wanted to explain the reasoning and emphasize that the differences are really small.

@Arranj sorry about that RIP , but of course welcome here, may the drops come! You won't regret joining it's a very fun competition. :)
Yes, I was the one that socketed a plain Eth CV. After 15-20 hours of P8 Pits and a couple of failed socket recipes, I decided to just go to Larzuk instead of going for the 50% chance of a 4 socket CV with the cube. It turned out fine in the end, since I only needed 2 more socket quests for the Shako and Andariel's.

Interesting, my 2nd Infinity after the Eth CV was also in a Scythe! But it was for my nova cow runner in the RFL.
Trapin' said:
I decided to start a casual 99 run with a bowazon! I was inspired reading this thread (still only on page 20) and another one by Zoo to find a Windforce.
windforce.gif
I think both ventures would be a lot of fun to take a crack at. Reading this thread, I found the journey to be interesting and fun to follow along, so I hope it will be just as fun to take part in! It will be SC and no use of any kind of program, just standard LoD. So it will be tough to balance stuff in the tiny stash :eek: but I think it's part of the challenge!

It's going to be a slow and steady climb for sure. Patience is a virtue in Diablo 2 :rolleyes:

So meet WorrA :cool:

zAFKAxG.jpg
T72on1 said:
@Arranj Cool, welcome to the fun !!! But condolences on the loss :(. Btw, no full rejuvs ... in HC nonetheless? Call me very surprised ...

@Trapin' Welcome, this thread keeps on going, so nice !!!

Good luck to both of you (and the rest of course).
Arranj said:
T72on1 said:
@Arranj Cool, welcome to the fun !!! But condolences on the loss :(. Btw, no full rejuvs ... in HC nonetheless? Call me very surprised ...
Yes i thought someone may pick up on that ^^

I never had a single NDE with that character. With attract, clay golem, bone prison and a 900 strong bone armor i was never even threatened. Just 100% sloppy play on my part took me out. I suppose really, the fact that the character was so safe made me sloppy, like not having full rejuvs for instance :rolleyes:
ffs said:
ffs said:
So what’s next? I think HelpYourself is making good progress, but is not quite ready yet to transition to pure XP grinding. She will continue running LK for now, looking for runes for (1) CtA, in order to improve on her +3 BO one, (2) CoH for herself and (3) either CoH or Fortitude for Merc.
Well, I did just that over the last couple of days for some ~15+ hours altogether. After way above average rune drops in the past, she cooled off considerably and started pretty much the first half of this stretch with a massive drought of nothing above Pul. While it was super frustrating I figured she lucked enough previously though, also I’m a proud and determined LK runner :) so I just kept going and a few good things happened afterwards, for example:

1_Sur_s.jpg

1_Ohm_s.jpg

1_Ber_s.jpg
First time I saw anything above Vex drop from a poppable, and what a goody!

Of course eventually there were more runes that dropped but I didn't take screenshots from, including another two Ohms, Vex, Gul and a few Pul-Mal.

Which led to:

CoH in 13% ed Scarab Husk
1_CoH.png

Eth bugged Scarab Husk Fortitude for Merc -- after cubing two Ohms and running countess for way too long until she finally dropped an El rune. :) Perfect @ roll, too, though any would have been good enough of course.
1_Forti.png

However, considerably less lucky with this CtA fail :(
1_CtA fail.png
Will try again with next Ohm, just wanted to get that ebug Fortitude out of the way first.

The GC front was interesting as well. I found/cubed a lot of skillers in this stretch (I think in the 10-12 region but not sure exactly), including two Barb ones with life (War Cries and Combat), also two Sorc Fire ones, but unfortunately only one plain Lightning skiller. Better than nothing I guess. I also got a few other keepers, among them a 15@/19 life GC. Now I cannot see LK anymore at the moment :) so she will try just picking gems and rolling GCs for now in hopes of getting more skillers.

But she's got all the key pieces now so I think she ready to slowly transition to XP grinding! Now the real fun begins I guess. :) For now I’ll start with testing/comparing her performance in different lvl85 areas. Unfortunately there is a lot of work coming my way so she will probably see considerably less play time next week. Will try to at least push her a little bit before and during MFO!
Yng said:
Progressed to LK to try to finish up a few more things (namely CtA and HotO).
I finally got a Monarch to roll 4 sockets (and a second one not 10 minutes after). I've burned like 10-15 sets of Spirit runes and rolled 34 FCR 5 times..

Could roll HotO at this point but GoMule deciding to launch whenever it wants to and it hasn't been working today which has really bummed me out being a lot of my stuff is not in the character's stash but being stored through the program. Going to try downloading the older version of java to see if that works, still puzzled AF why it would work with the updated version sometimes and then sporadically stop working..

E: No luck, really considering just going back to how I was before (RWM only and just the stash for storage). As of right now I can't access my Ohm, Vex, Sur, and much more. :(

E2: I managed to get it working with an older version of Java as was suggested in the help thread (was not easy, had to try 3 different versions and it's still iffy). Moved my HRs into my stash where they will stay permanently lol.

Anyway, here's some finds after 1k or so runs:
Map:
QRvNYih.jpg


tMco8W7.jpg


gpKpN97.jpg


Changed some binds around sometime before this point:
XfqK4jF.jpg


Was getting close to leveling so did a few P8 AT:
uZVLhEr.jpg


j5zu24C.jpg
ffs said:
Levelled HelpYourself to 94 doing CS seal runs, which I quickly learned does require some effort to do efficiently with Lightning as opposed to Blizzard. It feels considerably less efficient actually, due to the importance of positioning for Lightning and not dealing damage while doing so. It's really packed often with other boss packs at the seals which is not necessarily bad but slows runs down, not sure whether it's good or bad in terms of XP gain. Other times mobs are quickly lined up nicely though and go down quickly, so I'm not too sure if there is a better way, but have yet to compare XP/h with Baal waves and other lvl85 areas.

Regarding gear she also spent some more time in LK to improve on that +3 BO CtA, with these results:

Second time +1 BO
2_CtA fail again.png

Aaaaand second time +3
2_4th CtA try 3 BO again.png

The latter being the fourth CtA she has made, I'm kinda sick of trying to get something better than +3 BO :) basically, if I get the runes I will try and roll it again, but she will no longer run LK for it as she has acquired everything else and at it doesn't seem worthwhile going forward. She even has 3 spare Surs at the moment, after two more dropped:

2_another-Sur.jpg

2_Sur again.png

Not sure what I will do with them tbh. If another Sur/Ber drops and if I ever find a better Infinity base maybe I might replace the Infinity CV the Merc is currently using, which would mean instead of an IAS jewel I could socket a Ral in his And'sy without losing an IAS breakpoint (she has yet to find a IAS/FR jewel, if ever). I could also go with an eth bugged CoH for Merc, which might help his survivability in those CS runs, but I generally prefer the ebug Forti variant he is already using. We'll see. Other than that, she finally got a second skiller from rolling GCs during LK runs and found a Dwarf Star she currently uses in CS runs. Apart from extra skillers, second ring remains the one slot that I'd really like to improve with SoJ or at least BK. I actually do Andy runs from time to time for change of Pace in between CS runs, in hopes of finding one, but no luck so far. She also got a couple nice SCs.

The biggest find however was a 5/5 lightning facet - in her stash lol. She found that months ago when I thought I'd go Blizzard all the way, but by the time I switched to Lightning I actually forgot about it until yesterday. Another facet dropped (5/4 fire), dropped it in GoMule and had this "wait a minute..." moment. :) Anyway, of course that Um in the Griffon's got kicked out immediately:

Screen Shot 2017-10-29 at 11.40.18.png

I'm actually very happy with her stats and gear at this point and will no longer focus on upgrading it. So from now on 95% of her playtime will be grindig XP. GoMule dump with current gear and stats:

Name: HelpYourself
Class: Sorceress
Experience: 2286834896
Level: 94

Naked/Gear
Strength: 136/156
Dexterity: 25/25
Vitality: 349/371
Energy: 35/35
HP: 871/1314
Mana: 221/435
Stamina: 506/746
Defense: 6/1565
AR: 75/75

Fire: 175/135/75
Cold: 165/125/65
Lightning: 179/139/79
Poison: 144/104/44

MF: 73 Block: 2
GF: 209
FR/W: 40
FHR: 60
IAS: 20
FCR: 118

Fire Bolt: 0/0
Warmth: 1/10
Inferno: 0/0
Blaze: 0/0
Fire Ball: 0/0
Fire Wall: 0/0
Enchant: 0/0
Meteor: 0/0
Fire Mastery: 0/0
Hydra: 0/0

Charged Bolt: 20/30
Static Field: 1/11
Telekinesis: 1/11
Nova: 20/30
Lightning: 20/30
Chain Lightning: 20/30
Teleport: 1/11
Thunder Storm: 0/0
Energy Shield: 0/0
Lightning Mastery: 20/30

Ice Bolt: 0/0
Frozen Armor: 1/9
Frost Nova: 0/0
Ice Blast: 0/0
Shiver Armor: 0/0
Glacial Spike: 0/0
Blizzard: 0/0
Chilling Armor: 0/0
Frozen Orb: 0/0
Cold Mastery: 0/0

Serpent's Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x92ef7816
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+14 to Life
+14 to Mana

Lapis Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 17
Fingerprint: 0x8739d735
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+13 to Life
Cold Resist +6%

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x53d702d7
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2f6e1088
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2db35f6b
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Garnet Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x7936e154
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+18 to Life
Fire Resist +8%

Lapis Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x29f76d2f
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +7%

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x30d7941f
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Fiery Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x63d43039
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 3 Fire Damage
+20 to Life

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x8647b4cc
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Sparking Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x3961300
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Lightning Skills (Sorceress Only)

Lizard's Grand Charm of Vita
Grand Charm
Required Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x3329b637
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+38 to Life
+12 to Mana

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0x89a95b74
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
109% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 10%
38% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Tome of Town Portal
Fingerprint: 0xc7886aec
Item Level: 98
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Cobalt Small Charm of Fortune
Small Charm
Required Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0x38481627
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Cold Resist +8%
5% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x3a01c108
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life
Lightning Resist +11%

Ruby Small Charm of Fortune
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x553579ab
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Fire Resist +11%
5% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Nagelring
Ring
Required Level: 7
Fingerprint: 0x3b7b8aea
Item Level: 55
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+56 to Attack Rating
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Attacker Takes Damage of 3
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Serpent's Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 53
Fingerprint: 0xbb3b35da
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+34 to Life
+42 to Mana

Sparking Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x87c9ac3c
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Lightning Skills (Sorceress Only)

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xe8a07e63
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+19 to Life
Lightning Resist +10%

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x29ebd64a
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x8f64cc4b
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+19 to Life

Serpent's Small Charm of Life
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x4e0de258
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10 to Life
+13 to Mana

Steel Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x82048c63
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+90 to Attack Rating

Ral Rune
Required Level: 19
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
Armor: Fire Resist +30%
Shields: Fire Resist +35%

Griffon's Eye
Diadem
Defense: 212
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x49c6528b
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 47 Chain Lightning when you Die
+1 to All Skills
+25% Faster Cast Rate
Adds 1 - 74 Lightning Damage
-24% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+20% to Lightning Skill Damage
+160 Defense
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Rainbow Facet

Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x472bcd23
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 47 Chain Lightning when you Die
Adds 1 - 74 Lightning Damage
-5% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+5% to Lightning Skill Damage

Raven Wing
Amulet
Required Level: 89
Fingerprint: 0x5df29f35
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+9% Faster Cast Rate
8% Mana stolen per hit
+12 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 4%
+20 Maximum Stamina
All Resistances +10

Stone Gyre
Ring
Required Level: 43
Fingerprint: 0x83446a4f
Item Level: 71
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Faster Cast Rate
+28 to Life
+18 to Mana
All Resistances +4
Lightning Resist +14%
Damage Reduced by 1

Dwarf Star
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x1a534957
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40 to Life
+40 Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 15%
Fire Absorb 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
100% Extra Gold from Monsters

Arachnid Mesh
Spiderweb Sash
Defense: 124
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 80
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x1eba483d
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Faster Cast Rate
Slows Target by 10%
+97% Enhanced Defense
Increase Maximum Mana 5%
Level 3 Venom (11/11 Charges)

Aldur's Advance
Battle Boots
Defense: 46
Durability: 16 of 18
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0x5a8a029a
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Indestructible
+40% Faster Run/Walk
+50 to Life
+180 Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 32%
Fire Resist +47%
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Set (2 items): +15 to Dexterity
Set (3 items): +15 to Dexterity
Set (4 items): +15 to Dexterity


Magefist
Light Gauntlets
Defense: 25
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Level: 23
Required Strength: 45
Fingerprint: 0x52e56038
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Fire Skills
+20% Faster Cast Rate
Adds 1 - 6 Fire Damage
+28% Enhanced Defense
+10 Defense
Regenerate Mana 25%

Tome of Identify
Fingerprint: 0xcd9de07
Item Level: 9
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Chains of Honor
Superior Scarab Husk
DolUmBerIst
Defense: 869
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0xa3e946d5
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+200% Damage to Demons
+100% Damage to Undead
8% Life stolen per hit
+83% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
Replenish Life +7
All Resistances +65
Damage Reduced by 8%
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Um Rune
Socketed: Ber Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune

Dol Rune
Required Level: 31
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Armor: Replenish Life +7
Shields: Replenish Life +7

Um Rune
Required Level: 47
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 25% Chance of Open Wounds
Armor: Cold Resist +15%
Lightning Resist +15%
Fire Resist +15%
Poison Resist +15%
Shields: Cold Resist +22%
Lightning Resist +22%
Fire Resist +22%
Poison Resist +22%

Ber Rune
Required Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Chance of Crushing Blow
Armor: Damage Reduced by 8%
Shields: Damage Reduced by 8%

Ist Rune
Required Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Flawless Skull
Required Level: 15
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 3% Mana stolen per hit
3% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Replenish Life +4
Regenerate Mana 12%
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 16

Flawless Emerald
Required Level: 15
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 60 Poison Damage Over 6 Secs (152 Frames)
Armor: +8 to Dexterity
Shields: Poison Resist +28%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 35%
Replenishes Health 35%

Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 35%
Replenishes Health 35%

Flawless Sapphire
Required Level: 15
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 6 - 10 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (60 Frames)
Armor: +31 to Mana
Shields: Cold Resist +28%

Flawless Topaz
Required Level: 15
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
Armor: 20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: Lightning Resist +28%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 35%
Replenishes Health 35%

Horadric Cube
Fingerprint: 0x16dcbb7
Item Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Flawless Amethyst
Required Level: 15
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +100 to Attack Rating
Armor: +8 to Strength
Shields: +24 Defense

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 35%
Replenishes Health 35%

Super Mana Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 250%

Super Mana Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 250%

Super Mana Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 250%

Super Mana Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 250%

Call to Arms
War Scepter
AmnRalMalIstOhm
One Hand Damage: 39 - 66
Durability: 70 of 70
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0xe759edba
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+40% Increased Attack Speed
290% Enhanced Damage
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+1 to Salvation (Paladin Only)
+6 to Battle Command
+3 to Battle Orders
+2 to Battle Cry
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
5 Sockets (5 used)
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune

Amn Rune
Required Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Ral Rune
Required Level: 19
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
Armor: Fire Resist +30%
Shields: Fire Resist +35%

Mal Rune
Required Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Prevent Monster Heal
Armor: Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Magic Damage Reduced by 7

Ist Rune
Required Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Spirit
Monarch
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 138
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 86 of 86
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 156
Fingerprint: 0xd284b43b
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+26% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+110 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+6 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Tal Rune
Required Level: 17
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
Armor: Poison Resist +30%
Shields: Poison Resist +35%

Thul Rune
Required Level: 23
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Armor: Cold Resist +30%
Shields: Cold Resist +35%

Ort Rune
Required Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Armor: Lightning Resist +30%
Shields: Lightning Resist +35%

Amn Rune
Required Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Crescent Moon
Crystal Sword
ShaelUmTir
One Hand Damage: 20 - 64
Durability: 11 of 11
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 33
Fingerprint: 0xd4c479d
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 17 Chain Lightning on striking
7% Chance to cast level 13 Static Field on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
192% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
-35% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
25% Chance of Open Wounds
+9 Magic Absorb
+2 to Mana after each Kill
Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30/30 Charges)
Ethereal
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Um Rune
Socketed: Tir Rune

Shael Rune
Required Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +20% Increased Attack Speed
Armor: +20% Faster Hit Recovery
Shields: +20% Faster Block Rate

Um Rune
Required Level: 47
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 25% Chance of Open Wounds
Armor: Cold Resist +15%
Lightning Resist +15%
Fire Resist +15%
Poison Resist +15%
Shields: Cold Resist +22%
Lightning Resist +22%
Fire Resist +22%
Poison Resist +22%

Tir Rune
Required Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +2 to Mana after each Kill
Armor: +2 to Mana after each Kill
Shields: +2 to Mana after each Kill

Spirit
Monarch
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 145
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 86 of 86
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 156
Fingerprint: 0x24d16ecc
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+34% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+103 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+6 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Tal Rune
Required Level: 17
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
Armor: Poison Resist +30%
Shields: Poison Resist +35%

Thul Rune
Required Level: 23
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Armor: Cold Resist +30%
Shields: Cold Resist +35%

Ort Rune
Required Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Armor: Lightning Resist +30%
Shields: Lightning Resist +35%

Amn Rune
Required Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Mercenary:

Name: Fazel
Race: Desert Mercenary
Type: Def-Nightmare
Experience: 98043946
Level: 93
Dead?: false

Naked/Gear
Strength: 200/229
Dexterity: 162/162
HP: 2087/2192
Defense: 1529/4985
AR: 2009/2009

Fire: 157/117/57
Cold: 187/147/87
Lightning: 187/147/87
Poison: 257/217/157

Fortitude
Scarab Husk
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 3123
Durability: 15 of 15
Required Level: 59
Required Strength: 85
Fingerprint: 0x91945fcb
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+105 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +30
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

El Rune
Required Level: 11
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +50 to Attack Rating
+1 to Light Radius
Armor: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius
Shields: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius

Sol Rune
Required Level: 27
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +9 to Minimum Damage
Armor: Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Damage Reduced by 7

Dol Rune
Required Level: 31
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Armor: Replenish Life +7
Shields: Replenish Life +7

Lo Rune
Required Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Deadly Strike
Armor: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist


Andariel's Visage
Demonhead
Defense: 333
Durability: 10 of 20
Required Level: 83
Required Strength: 102
Fingerprint: 0x50dd6834
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
15% Chance to cast level 15 Poison Nova when struck
+2 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
10% Life stolen per hit
+115% Enhanced Defense
+29 to Strength
+10% to Maximum Poison Resist
Fire Resist -30%
Poison Resist +70%
Level 3 Venom (9/20 Charges)


Infinity
Colossus Voulge
BerMalBerIst
Two Hand Damage: 89 - 886
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 200
Required Dexterity: 45
Fingerprint: 0xe32c84d8
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
50% Chance to cast level 20 Chain Lightning when you Kill an Enemy
Level 12 Conviction Aura When Equipped
+35% Faster Run/Walk
259% Enhanced Damage
-47% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
Prevent Monster Heal
+47 to Vitality (Based on Character Level)
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Level 21 Cyclone Armor (30/30 Charges)
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Ber Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ber Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune

Ber Rune
Required Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Chance of Crushing Blow
Armor: Damage Reduced by 8%
Shields: Damage Reduced by 8%

Mal Rune
Required Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Prevent Monster Heal
Armor: Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Magic Damage Reduced by 7

Ber Rune
Required Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Chance of Crushing Blow
Armor: Damage Reduced by 8%
Shields: Damage Reduced by 8%

Ist Rune
Required Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes           -        457           21           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -          many          ?
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Yng           Kyrie           HC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Yng           Sophie          SC      Sorc      86             Yes           -          -            5           -
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
NamelessPenguin said:
@Trapin' Cool! Would really like to see a bowazon make 99. I thought about making one, but I couldn't really figure out where I could run with her. Have you made any thoughts?

Btw; I think making a Faith bow will be easier than finding WF, as those are very hard to come by. Faith also does more damage (they say..) But IMO is WF more stylish :cool: Maybe WF + Faith merc could be viable. Very interested in this build, good luck, sir!
ffs said:
NamelessPenguin said:
@Trapin' Cool! Would really like to see a bowazon make 99. I thought about making one, but I couldn't really figure out where I could run with her. Have you made any thoughts?

Btw; I think making a Faith bow will be easier than finding WF, as those are very hard to come by. Faith also does more damage (they say..) But IMO is WF more stylish :cool: Maybe WF + Faith merc could be viable. Very interested in this build, good luck, sir!
Bottom line is WF + Faith Merc is highest damage setup and allowing 7 fpa Multi while using Razortail (and LoH without losing knockback). Also Faith only comes close to this with Pride/Might Merc and plenty damage charms. But that doesn't mean Faith setups are inferior, they have a lot of advantages (though personally I prefer the WF + Faith Merc setup, it is more stylish indeed :)). Overall this has always been a highly debated a very complicated issue with a lot of nuances and personal preferences.

Anyway I totally agree: Untwinked you should definitely shoot for Faith rather than counting on finding WF. ;)
Kitteh said:
Chaos Sanctuary is good for bowazons.

Kaylin has entered the competition as a furyzon, just about begin act 2 :)




Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes           -        457           21           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -          many          ?
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Yng           Kyrie           HC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Yng           Sophie          SC      Sorc      86             Yes           -          -            5           -
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Kitteh        Kaylin          SC      Ama       19             Yes           -          -            0           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
NamelessPenguin said:
ffs said:
Bottom line is WF + Faith Merc is highest damage setup and allowing 7 fpa Multi while using Razortail (and LoH without losing knockback). Also Faith only comes close to this with Pride/Might Merc and plenty damage charms. But that doesn't mean Faith setups are inferior, they have a lot of advantages (though personally I prefer the WF + Faith Merc setup, it is more stylish indeed :)). Overall this has always been a highly debated a very complicated issue with a lot of nuances and personal preferences.

Anyway I totally agree: Untwinked you should definitely shoot for Faith rather than counting on finding WF. ;)
Come to think of it, Faith + Reapers/Might merc could work too, as bowa will be doing +50% more damage a lot of the time. With Pride merc, he's basically just a walking aura (or two).

As for P8 CS running, I think that could be tough for a bowazon. I'm testing CS with my dual Grief (+355 and +376 dmg) WW Enigma barb, and even though It's not completely impossible, It's not by any means fast. 90 sec runs on average P8 Vizier + Infector (no stopping for boss packs) runs, but that's not with all of the end game gear, though.

What is a reasonable CS P8 Viz + Infect time?
Yng said:
NamelessPenguin said:
Come to think of it, Faith + Reapers/Might merc could work too, as bowa will be doing +50% more damage a lot of the time. With Pride merc, he's basically just a walking aura (or two).

As for P8 CS running, I think that could be tough for a bowazon. I'm testing CS with my dual Grief (+355 and +376 dmg) WW Enigma barb, and even though It's not completely impossible, It's not by any means fast. 90 sec runs on average P8 Vizier + Infector (no stopping for boss packs) runs, but that's not with all of the end game gear, though.

What is a reasonable CS P8 Viz + Infect time?
IIRC it's more efficient to skip most everything besides Vizier/Infector at a certain clvl, so just Howling off everything else and C/Ting the first part of the route can help with run time a lot. Prior to that you can apply the same concept to packs, just Howl off everything and kill only the unique /champs.
T72on1 said:
@ffs Cool !!! Gogogo xp grinding ...
 
Kitteh said:
Check the 99 quest thread mate, me and Cyrax discussed (at some point in the last year, or thereabouts, possibly, maybe) - anyway, at some point we definitely discussed the benefits of running for P1/P7 for CS and we all came to an agreement that it was faster.
NamelessPenguin said:
It was the run time I was after :) ...however, I will try to find that post
Yng said:
Big update! I ended up doing about 2k runs in LK to get to this point. I rerolled my map 2-3 times trying to get something really nice and settling for ok maps each time. There were quite a few dry spells of 200-300 runs at a time throughout but overall I think I did ok. I won't be grinding for Infinity just yet (don't have that base yet anyway) because I don't plan to make a switch to Lightning unless I get Griffon's and/or a few Lightning GCs. I feel pretty good about what I was able to accomplish preparing for MFO in a little under a month with quite a busy work schedule. I've mustered together a 315 MF/1600 Life/4k Blizz/105 FCR setup for P1 AT spamming and I don't think it'll get much better prior to the start considering my schedule next few days. Not even really sure how much time I'll be able to invest for that but it'll be fun nonetheless.

Current Stats:
This is with the 315% MF setup. LR lower than I'd like but I feel fairly safe for P1 with Glacial Spike:

kbyEUS8.jpg

Current Maps:
This one actually has a great Black Marsh as well with 2 shrines and Tower right next to WP. Getting 4-7 packs in AT at roughly 50 seconds to 1 minute per run:

TRVyUYB.jpg

NF7G3Sh.jpg

Runewords:
Since I was able to get GoMule back working I rolled my HotO. Was hoping for 35+ but it still beats Spirit weapon. Finally rolled my 35 FCR Monarch (20-25 rolls) shortly after. I saw a second Ohm before I found Mal (eventually went to Countess to cube up the Mal) to finish CtA. I had a 15% ED axe base saved for it and I'm definitely happy with the roll.

0B2M700.jpg

yY2j6og.jpg

vMVXD1U.jpg

Runes:
Like I said, this was about 2k total runs on 3-4 different maps. Quite a few Io-Pul along the way and I greatly added to my crafting materials earlier on in the runs:

G23PJr3.jpg

9OdDIlj.jpg

dtIbZoQ.jpg

Others:
Wishing the GC was Cold or Lightning but cool find regardless. Quite a few others throughout the runs but none relevant to me unfortunately. I had a rack dropping Spired Helmets pretty consistently and I was able to roll 3 sockets on the first ethereal that dropped, awesome Delirium base. Just need another Ist! Lastly, the Reaper's (221/14 non ethereal roll) dropped while I was trying to familiarize myself with the new map. Still using Insight for now but I had to post it as it's my favorite unique in the game and it just hasn't dropped for me at all throughout all of my other single player walks.

wRZZ3qP.jpg

qJPtDNC.jpg

uKX3u4i.jpg



Progress Update
Code:
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes        2190+?      477           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98.25          Yes           -        457           21           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      94             Yes           -          -          many          ?
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Yng           Kyrie           HC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
Yng           Sophie          SC      Sorc      89             Yes           -          -            6           -
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      88             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      88             Yes           -        160            -           -
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Kitteh        Kaylin          SC      Ama       19             Yes           -          -            0           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
ffs said:
@Yng Grats on the first try +5 BO CtA! Allow me to complain once more about four rolls netting nothing higher than +3 BO. :)

As to farming Infinity and switching to Lightning, the reason I did that was only because I unexpectedly found that Griffon's. The Ten Commandments of Diablo 2 provide that "Thou shalt use Griffon's Eye when finding it with an untwinked Sorc", and any violation thereof is basically punishable by death, so this essentially forced me to do the switch. I think Blizzard is the stronger build overall, not just for levelling but also the gear is so readily available, given Meph drops the entire end game gear except for Death's Fathom (which is by no means necessary, as good as it is) and maybe Nightwing's Veil (but Shako is just as good).
Yng said:
ffs said:
@Yng Grats on the first try +5 BO CtA! Allow me to complain once more about four rolls netting nothing higher than +3 BO. :)

As to farming Infinity and switching to Lightning, the reason I did that was only because I unexpectedly found that Griffon's. The Ten Commandments of Diablo 2 provide that "Thou shalt use Griffon's Eye when finding it with an untwinked Sorc", and any violation thereof is basically punishable by death, so this essentially forced me to do the switch. I think Blizzard is the stronger build overall, not just for levelling but also the gear is so readily available, given Meph drops the entire end game gear except for Death's Fathom (which is by no means necessary, as good as it is) and maybe Nightwing's Veil (but Shako is just as good).
Thanks! Yea I had 2x Ohm was definitely thinking I was going to get a crap roll at least first one.

And I'd prefer Lightning/CL personally but only with the right items, otherwise definitely Blizzard. I feel like Lightning is more dependent on a few skill GCs and I've only seen 1 Cold and 1 Fire so far. And I feel the same way about Death's Fathom, if I found it I don't think I would be able to not play Blizzard lol.
Trapin' said:
Hey guys!
I decided to add a Necro, as the Zon was super slow. Fizzle is a summon necro, and I plan to respec into poison or bone in later levels to start running xp. Any advice on what to run now as a summon, and later after I respec for xp?
T72on1 said:
Pindle runs was what I did while leveling my sorc. Should work for a summoner too, certainly when the merc has enough killing power to get that first corpse for CE fast. You have all the corpses you want to raise your army in his garden.

For xp levelling also Pindle until 87 or so, although Pits can work too. Or both. After 87 Pits. After 94 or so ... ask again, but CS 2 seals I think, as maxed CE clears very fast.

Just make sure to get that Enigma asap. Unlike other builds it's the only thing you really need, other runewords or uniques are just icing on the cake.
ffs said:
Quick pre-MFO update and probably last one for a while. HelpYourself is slowly but surely running out of upgrades to report on, and from now on it's all about the XP. :)

Levelled her to 95 at P8 Baal waves since I haven't figured out better XP runs for her yet, and honestly at the moment I really doubt there are until she hits 98. She makes quick work of the waves though, and 94-95 was fast and smooth sailing without ever being in real danger. Seems perfectly fine for our purposes here, and currently I expect to be doing just that until 98. Will test other runs going forward to see if there are more efficient ways, but for now I guess I have countless hours of D2 ahead of me which look pretty much like this:


Couple of screw ups but whatever. :) There was also the below mentioned gear upgrade since, as well as a few tweaks speeding runs up a little bit. But I guess this is more or less what I'm looking at for now.

Before the 94-95 runs I finally decided with a heavy heart to give up several great maps and go to NM, in order to socket Merc's Andy's. Figured while I was there I could try and run NM Andariel for a SoJ, to finally get that second (non-FCR) ring slot done. In hundreds of runs I found around 50-60 Manald Heals and Nagels (Edit: Well not quite maybe, but really I stopped counting after 20 about half way through the runs), then had enough of it and stopped at that point to get back to Hell and level to 95. After that was done, I visited Andariel again for another shot (in Hell this time), and this dropped on the second run:

3_BK.png

That's certainly good enough! In fact I'm just as happy as I would have been about a SoJ, for those Baal runs in particular I like the little extra life provided by BK. Now the only upgrades that would make a noticeable difference are additional skillers and better CtA. I squeezed in a few LK runs in hopes of making a little progress on that front, and while I didn't get anything in that regard, the game just keeps being funny:

3_Ber-no3_sm.jpg

She now has 3 Surs and a Ber without much use for them at the moment. I don't feel like saving her rune finds for my other characters, so I'll have to see what to do with them. If runes keep dropping like that I might eventually respec to Bear Sorc. ;)

For the duration of the MFO she will now switch to a ~270 MF setup, which for me is a good enough spot to be at in terms of diminishing MF returns. She will take a pretty good hit in damage, but will also get even safer, so overall I think it's justifiable.

Good luck everyone participating in the MFO (and other runners ofc), hope some progress comes along with a couple of great finds! :)
Nibiru- said:
D2 SPF,

I decided instead of starting a new character, I would try to finish a project I started years ago. Getting my patriarch (Thread) Frenzy barb to 99 totally self-found. I lost my stash and only had some crappy MF gear on him so I am rebuilding.

Here is my current ATMA dump:

Character name : Hrrrrrrrgh
Character type : Barbarian
Character level : 88
Character exp : 1399912749

Strength : 169
Energy : 10
Dexterity : 136
Vitality : 200
Stat Points Rem : 20
Skill Points Rem: 1

Life : 1836 / 989
Mana : 205 / 97
Stamina : 903 / 354

Gold (Inventory): 70580
Gold (Stash) : 2130048

Number of Items : 69

1: Tome of Town Portal
Quantity: 16

2: Steel Large Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 44
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x8045302e
+24 to Life
+74 to Attack Rating

3: Small Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x8c2b74dc
3% Faster Run/Walk

4: Forked Large Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0x4142b242
+31 to Life
+2 to Maximum Damage

5: Large Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xc1c7b3b0
5% Faster Run/Walk

6: Horadric Cube

7: Sharp Grand Charm of Greed
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x4c54e136
+67 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage
30% Extra Gold from Monsters

8: Small Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 71
Fingerprint: 0x9f5259e1
3% Faster Run/Walk

9: Stealskull
Casque
Defense: 232
Durability: 19 of 24
Required Strength: 59
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x3946a009
+219% Enhanced Defense
5% Life stolen per hit
5% Mana stolen per hit
47% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Increased Attack Speed
10% Faster Hit Recovery

10: Death Talisman
Amulet
Required Level: 82
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0x6f22bf70
+18 to Life
Fire Resist +54%
Lightning Resist +19%
Cold Resist +19%
Poison Resist +19%
1% Life stolen per hit
73% Extra Gold from Monsters
8% Faster Run/Walk
Level 1 Attract (22/22 Charges)

11: String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 109
Durability: 21 of 22
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x3b14e049
+170% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 11
Damage Reduced by 15%
6% Life stolen per hit
+10 Maximum Durability

12: Corpse Spur
Battle Boots
Defense: 61
Durability: 13 of 18
Required Strength: 95
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0xd6bfbbfe
+9 to Maximum Stamina
+29% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +20%
66% Extra Gold from Monsters
22% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
20% Faster Run/Walk

13: Doom Knuckle
Vampirebone Gloves
Defense: 73
Durability: 7 of 14
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 74
Fingerprint: 0x6a0a3663
+4 to Strength
+10 to Life
+12% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +16%
2% Life stolen per hit
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Chance of Crushing Blow

14: Foul Large Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 57
Fingerprint: 0x3d97d446
+30 poison damage over 4 seconds
5% Faster Run/Walk

15: Russet Small Charm of Fortune
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x3d6b023
Fire Resist +7%
4% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

16: Stout Small Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x4be9f82d
+1 Defense
3% Faster Run/Walk

17: Small Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xb55a6dbd
3% Faster Run/Walk

18: Small Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 51
Fingerprint: 0x75a7a6e
3% Faster Run/Walk

19: Chaos Grip
Ring
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0xdb9f354b
+4 to Mana
Lightning Resist +29%
3% Life stolen per hit
15% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Poison Length Reduced by 25%

20: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

21: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

22: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

23: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

24: Nagelring
Ring
Required Level: 7
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0x24204d59
+75 to Attack Rating
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Attacker Takes Damage of 3
21% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

25: Spirit Forge
Linked Mail
'Tal'
Defense: 437
Durability: 18 of 26
Required Strength: 74
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x80d31c80
+15 to Strength
+153% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +5%
Poison Resist +30%
Adds 20-65 fire damage
+4 to Light Radius
+110 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (2: 1 used)

Tal Rune
Inserted into a Linked Mail

Poison Resist +30%

Required Level: 17
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

26: Large Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x21e11577
5% Faster Run/Walk

27: Russet Small Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0xb02e50f8
+1 to Strength
Fire Resist +6%

28: Key
Quantity: 3

29: Ring of the Giant
Required Level: 47
Unidentified
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xf6c78546
+11 to Strength

30: Diamond
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: 44% Damage to Undead
Helms: +60 to Attack Rating
Armor: +60 to Attack Rating
Shields: All Resistances +11

Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

31: Diamond
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: 44% Damage to Undead
Helms: +60 to Attack Rating
Armor: +60 to Attack Rating
Shields: All Resistances +11

Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

32: Diamond
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: 44% Damage to Undead
Helms: +60 to Attack Rating
Armor: +60 to Attack Rating
Shields: All Resistances +11

Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

33: Ruby Jewel
Required Level: 58
Unidentified
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x91970ad4
+38% Enhanced Damage

34: Flawless Topaz
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: Adds 1-30 lightning damage
Helms: 20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: Lightning Resist +28%

Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

35: Ruby
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: Adds 8-12 fire damage
Helms: +24 to Life
Armor: +24 to Life
Shields: Fire Resist +22%

Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

36: Ocher Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x835fb0f6
Lightning Resist +9%

37: Diamond
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: 44% Damage to Undead
Helms: +60 to Attack Rating
Armor: +60 to Attack Rating
Shields: All Resistances +11

Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

38: Chestnut Jewel of Wrath
Required Level: 8
Unidentified
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xb92a615
+10 to Maximum Stamina
+6 to Maximum Damage

39: Emerald
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: +40 poison damage over 5 seconds
Helms: +6 to Dexterity
Armor: +6 to Dexterity
Shields: Poison Resist +22%

Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

40: Flawless Topaz
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: Adds 1-30 lightning damage
Helms: 20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: Lightning Resist +28%

Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

41: Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 62
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0xcafa90cb
129% Extra Gold from Monsters
39% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Reduces All Vendor Prices 15%

42: Flawed Amethyst
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: +60 to Attack Rating
Helms: +4 to Strength
Armor: +4 to Strength
Shields: +12 Defense

Required Level: 5
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

43: Tome of Identify
Quantity: 5

44: Flawless Amethyst
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: +100 to Attack Rating
Helms: +8 to Strength
Armor: +8 to Strength
Shields: +24 Defense

Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

45: Graverobber's Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0xed6e8d3f
+1 to Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)

46: Bloodmoon
Elegant Blade
One-Hand Damage: 113 to 155
Durability: 19 of 32
Required Dexterity: 122
Required Strength: 109
Required Level: 61
Sword Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xaa8e0ce5
+245% Enhanced Damage
12% Life stolen per hit
+11 Life after each Kill
50% Chance of Open Wounds
Level 15 Blood Golem (3/9 Charges)

47: Ral Rune
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: Adds 5-30 fire damage
Helms: Fire Resist +30%
Armor: Fire Resist +30%
Shields: Fire Resist +35%

Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

48: Diamond
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: 44% Damage to Undead
Helms: +60 to Attack Rating
Armor: +60 to Attack Rating
Shields: All Resistances +11

Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

49: Flawless Emerald
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items

Weapons: +59 poison damage over 6 seconds
Helms: +8 to Dexterity
Armor: +8 to Dexterity
Shields: Poison Resist +28%

Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

50: The Gavel of Pain
Martel de Fer
Two-Hand Damage: 165 to 278
Required Strength: 169
Required Level: 45
Mace Class - Slow Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x84dfa1cc
+151% Enhanced Damage
+12 to Minimum Damage
+30 to Maximum Damage
Attacker Takes Damage of 26
150% Damage to Undead
Indestructible
5% Chance to cast Level 1 Amplify Damage on striking
5% Chance to cast Level 1 Iron Maiden when struck
Level 8 Amplify Damage (3/3 Charges)

51: Greater Healing Potion
Points: 240

52: Greater Healing Potion
Points: 240

53: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

54: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

55: Full Rejuvenation Potion
Heals 100% Life and Mana

56: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

57: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

58: Grand Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 14
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x273877de
7% Faster Run/Walk

59: Steel Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 44
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xf9b9f42b
+66 to Attack Rating

60: Super Healing Potion
Points: 400

61: Full Rejuvenation Potion
Heals 100% Life and Mana

62: Amulet of Chance
Required Level: 9
Unidentified
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xe74f91a8
13% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

63: Shadow Breaker
War Hammer
One-Hand Damage: 44 to 79
Durability: 55 of 55
Required Strength: 53
Required Level: 40
Mace Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0xa52efa7b
+135% Enhanced Damage
+11 to Maximum Damage
Adds 16-60 cold damage over 3 seconds
150% Damage to Undead
+1 to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)

64: Brimstone Bite
Balanced Axe
Throw Damage: 18 to 34
One-Hand Damage: 8 to 27
Quantity: 130
Required Dexterity: 57
Required Level: 30
Axe Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x956f2d2d
+35% Enhanced Damage
+51 to Attack Rating
+2 to Minimum Damage
+14 to Maximum Damage
+21 poison damage over 4 seconds
+2 to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)

65: Full Rejuvenation Potion
Heals 100% Life and Mana

66: Scintillating Ring
Required Level: 59
Unidentified
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x73da5128
All Resistances +15

67: Greater Healing Potion
Points: 240

68: Grief
Phase Blade
'EthTirLoMalRal'
One-Hand Damage: 31 to 35
Required Dexterity: 136
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 59
Sword Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x67db79ce
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+14 Life after each Kill
39% Increased Attack Speed
Adds +399 Damage
Ignore Target Defense
-25% Target Defense
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
20% Deadly Strike
35% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
165% Damage to Demons (Based on Character Level)
-23% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Socketed (5: 5 used)

Eth Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

-25% Target Defense

Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Tir Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

+2 to Mana After Each Kill

Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Lo Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

20% Deadly Strike

Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Mal Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

Prevent Monster Heal

Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Ral Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

Adds 5-30 fire damage

Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

69: Lawbringer
Phase Blade
'AmnLemKo'
One-Hand Damage: 31 to 35
Required Dexterity: 136
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 54
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xa841b067
+10 to Dexterity
+223 Defense vs. Missile
Adds 150-210 fire damage
Adds 130-180 cold damage over 7 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
75% Extra Gold from Monsters
Slain Monsters Rest In Peace
-50% Target Defense
Level 17 Sanctuary Aura When Equipped
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Decrepify on striking
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Amn Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

7% Life stolen per hit

Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Lem Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

75% Extra Gold from Monsters

Required Level: 43
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Ko Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade

+10 to Dexterity

Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Mercenary Items :

1: Cruel Mantle
Great Hauberk
Defense: 851
Durability: 49 of 50
Required Strength: 118
Required Level: 56
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xd1aeb50d
+6 to Strength
+4 to Mana
+17% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 4
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Half Freeze Duration
+264 to Defense (Based on Character Level)

2: Eagle Horn
Armet
Defense: 228
Durability: 15 of 24
Required Strength: 109
Required Level: 51
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0xc1af85b5
+14 to Life
+52% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +8%
Cold Resist +29%
2% Life stolen per hit
10% Deadly Strike
5% Chance to cast Level 3 Frost Nova when struck

3: Bonehew
Ogre Axe
'Amn'
Two-Hand Damage: 117 to 589
Durability: 32 of 50
Required Dexterity: 64
Required Strength: 166
Required Level: 64
Polearm Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x36c9d3a4
+305% Enhanced Damage
+4 to Minimum Damage
+2 to Maximum Damage
+13 Defense
7% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -15%
30% Increased Attack Speed
Prevent Monster Heal
50% Chance to cast Level 16 Bone Spear on striking
Level 14 Corpse Explosion (29/30 Charges)
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Viper Heart
Jewel
Required Level: 12
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0xb67db450
+4 to Minimum Damage
+2 to Maximum Damage
+13 Defense
Requirements -15%

Amn Rune
Inserted into a Ogre Axe

7% Life stolen per hit

Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Questions:.
  • Getting to 99 will be very slow. But it will be near impossible with my current gear. What gear/runewords/etc should I focus on to allow me to run WSK easier?
  • I am assuming an Enigma will be mandatory to complete this project. I did around 100 countess runs and 100 LK chest runs to no avail. Is there any advice to farming this runeword?
  • Does anyone else have any experience with an entirely self-found 99 project and would like to share advice?

Thank you SPF!

Edit: I realize my post makes it sound like I'm assuming 100 countess runs would be enough for an enigma. That wasn't my intent. Just asking for advice on best way to farm it.
necrolemming said:
Well, you definitely want an Enigma and another Grief. I don't really think the payoff for gearing up for Council running in the short term is worth it, so just keep running LK. Expected number of runs for Jah + Ber equivalent per Gripphon's guide is ~4000, so it'll take a while. The gear that Perkele used didn't seem all that exceptional outside of the two BotDs (which are worse than Griefs anyway, so there's no point if you're using RWM), although I don't know if you'd be safe enough using Guillaume's over Arreat's before level 98 without the resist charms he had.

Consult this thread and the level 99 theorycraft thread, as well as possibly the general level 99 progress thread.
drmalawi said:
Nibiru- said:
D2 SPF,

I decided instead of starting a new character, I would try to finish a project I started years ago. Getting my patriarch (Thread) Frenzy barb to 99 totally self-found. I lost my stash and only had some crappy MF gear on him so I am rebuilding.


Questions:.
  • Getting to 99 will be very slow. But it will be near impossible with my current gear. What gear/runewords/etc should I focus on to allow me to run WSK easier?
  • I am assuming an Enigma will be mandatory to complete this project. I did around 100 countess runs and 100 LK chest runs to no avail. Is there any advice to farming this runeword?
  • Does anyone else have any experience with an entirely self-found 99 project and would like to share advice?

Thank you SPF!

Edit: I realize my post makes it sound like I'm assuming 100 countess runs would be enough for an enigma. That wasn't my intent. Just asking for advice on best way to farm it.
You can not count (pun intended) on getting runes higher than Ist from the Countess. I think the Ist drop rate is about 1:250-ish.
She can drop up to Lo, but the odds of that is extremely small (my highest drop from her is Vex).

You best bet is as mentioned LK. But running around and popping those chests can be troublesome for a barb. I would run the council instead, since they can drop Jah (LK chests can only drop up to Ber) plus you get experience from councils and potentially some nice finds. Also, you can hoark council corpses with Find Item, making every single run count as two runs.

Good luck!
necrolemming said:
I don't think that current level of gear is nearly enough to run council comfortably and have it be more efficient than LK. Even with very good gear (Grief + Beast, Enigma, inventory of +max/life charms), my WW trav runner was dying on occasion at ~1900 life.

I haven't tried it, but between increased speed and leap, it can't be that much of a pain to run LK without teleport, can it?
ffs said:
drmalawi said:
You can not count (pun intended) on getting runes higher than Ist from the Countess. I think the Ist drop rate is about 1:250-ish.
She can drop up to Lo, but the odds of that is extremely small (my highest drop from her is Vex).

You best bet is as mentioned LK. But running around and popping those chests can be troublesome for a barb. I would run the council instead, since they can drop Jah (LK chests can only drop up to Ber) plus you get experience from councils and potentially some nice finds. Also, you can hoark council corpses with Find Item, making every single run count as two runs.
Well, technically it counts as 1+ Find Item %/100 + drop increase due to horking always being at /p7 (too lazy to check number). :) Depends on gear but as a rule of thumb I think of hork Barb runs as around 1.5-1.6 non-hork runs, that's with a decently geared Barb.

@Nibiru- In short though to be clear, as awesome as Travincal is: LK will be the quickest way 100% to farm Enigma and Grief. Without elaborating too much, this statement from the rune finding guide (definitely check it out) says it all: If you try to compete with LK by running Travincal with poor gear, forget it, it won't happen. Travincal is much slower area for farming runes unless you are really well geared, only then can Travincal come somewhat close to LK.

As for running LK with non-Sorc chars before Enigma, it does take longer ofc, but it's definitely possible, several people here have done it. Just spend the time required to roll a great map (two campfires very close to WP) and speed up your run/walk as much as possible - most importantly with a Harmony bow. Maybe as Barb also use Frenzy if mobs are around? Could speed things up, not sure but I'd test it as well.
Kitteh said:
I would stick with LK, but if you get bored then I don't see why you can't run Travincal too. Worry more about enjoying it than being efficient, 99 is a long road anyway, you won't make it if you're bored as hell.
Nibiru- said:
I was running council last night but only on P1. Decent clear speed and no deaths. The dwarf star ring I just found helps keep hydra damage low. LK may still be faster though. I am loaded with fast run charms but it's still tedious.
NamelessPenguin said:
@Nibiru- Greetings, fellow untwinked Barbarian :) I can warmly recommend getting a hold on a "Harmony" bow, Naj's Puzzler, and FRC rings/amu for some lowish breakpoint (23%? Cant remember..), and ofc boots.

Make sure you have enough points in Howl to make the monster run like hell. If you use Howl, this char is a VERY safe runner, I don't remember dying once after I learned to use Howl. Since you will be spending A LOT of time there, get the best map you can possibly find. Don't settle for something meh., since you don't want to spend half the time recharging the staff. I had to do 4 teleports with my map. I think I got my run time down to around +30 sec.

I have been running Travincal for a while now, and in my (sparse) experience, LK wins. But it also depends very much on the runewords you are after. If you are going for dual eBotD, I guess Travincal is the answer, but for dual Grief and Enigma, P8 LK wins hands down. And you will also load up on the charms in the process.
Trapin' said:
Fizzle is in nightmare now :) I've never been so happy to see this drop in the snake dungeon!
ORYuFlQ.jpg


I've only done one self found single player character and he used lore to finish the game, so this was nice to see :)
drmalawi said:
Nibiru- said:
I was running council last night but only on P1. Decent clear speed and no deaths. The dwarf star ring I just found helps keep hydra damage low. LK may still be faster though. I am loaded with fast run charms but it's still tedious.
Could you do a Harmony bow and keep it on switch?

Edit: saw that penguin did mention that :)
Nibiru- said:
Did some Pit runs today and picked up some Gore Riders, great find. Still looking for an elite 4os bow for Harmony. Found out I have an awesome map for both LK and Hell Countess. I also hit 89 this morning. Slow but steady progress.
drmalawi said:
Nibiru- said:
I was running council last night but only on P1. Decent clear speed and no deaths. The dwarf star ring I just found helps keep hydra damage low. LK may still be faster though. I am loaded with fast run charms but it's still tedious.
Elite bows have huge dex req, do it in a normal bow. You just want it on switch for that vigor aura :)

The runes for harmony is easy to find if you wanna make one for a bowazon, bowadin or an act 1 merc later on.
 
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