Diablo 4 Builds
Build Planner
Map
Diablo 2 Guides
Forums
Support PureDiablo
Vessel of Hatred

2018 Spring RFL Sign-Up and Running Thread: 1st Round

My merc gets the first corpse quickly, I think my map is good, density is good and I think my herding is fine too. Got my run times to some 4.5 mins, but considering my gear is close to optimal, I'm not sure why I can't get close to 3 mins.

Anybody minds sharing a video of their necro cow runs, to see what I'm doing wrong?
 
T72on1 said:
My merc gets the first corpse quickly, I think my map is good, density is good and I think my herding is fine too. Got my run times to some 4.5 mins, but considering my gear is close to optimal, I'm not sure why I can't get close to 3 mins.

Anybody minds sharing a video of their necro cow runs, to see what I'm doing wrong?
Click to expand...

is the gathering of Leg included in your run time?
 
4-facet shield adds about ~30% of overall damage on a Javazon compared to a shield that doesn't improve damage, IMO that's quite a bit. ;) But it's anyone's choice whether other things have more utility of course, e.g. I can see the convenience of Phoenix in particular for cows. However, not using Infinity makes no sense to me. It's the biggest damage boost in the game, and as I've said it's not hard to make the Merc safe IMO. Combination of BO, Defiance + ebug Forti makes him essentially immortal, but even with e.g. Shaftstop and leech he shouldn't die, also Infinity has good damage for decent leech.

As far as shields go IMO the go-to shield for a more budget variant is Lidless Wall with facet. Better damage than Spirit and good MPK, it's amazing bang for the buck.

Regarding IAS breakpoints: I have tested 52% IAS vs 35% several times and always found 35% to be preferrable. Others like @Gripphon have tested it way more and came to the same conclusion. Mathematically, in my case 55% IAS should be ~3.5% higher damage (when comparing actual setups in their entirety). But that never affected run times and 35% IAS allows for more useful other stats (skills, facets, MPK, ML...) to be included in the setup.

@T72on1 I'm going to record a run or two with Fishymancer, but first I need to get it more streamlined. :)
 
ffs said:
Initial conclusion after first 2.5 hours: Run times with untwinked Necro are slower than expected. Bad idea! Definitely had hoped for faster runs than his current ~4 min on P5, everytime in char screen I'm itching to click on the Java. ;) Personal goal for now is to get him to 3.5 mins by just getting better, optimizing runs a bit and getting more familiar with spawning. In general his map his good though.

I also confirmed for him that P5 is more efficient than P7 by a small margin, so he'll be running P5 even though his first qualifier dropped on P7 and I tend to take these things as signs. :) Also cluttering on P7 is more of an issue when running with a non-optimized character, because you tend to kill more cows in the same area due to slower overall kill speed, resulting in more cows running towards you before you move to next area.

If interested, here's the data required to compare efficiency on different player settings (provided by @Gripphon during last RFL).
Click to expand...

My run times with my fishymancer (including the leg) are horrible, I'm not even posting a time :p
 
@T72on1 here's one by Gripphon:

My times with javazon are worse than the last time. Crap. 99frc is good, but I think it's my playing that lacks something. I may spend too much time with the leftover wandering cows when I should be already teleing away and herding the next big pack. When rationalizing it's ofc the cows per minute (or w/e time unit you prefer) that matters but I just seem to try too full-ish clear now.
 
@Grape I think I improve my kills/time for each run now. I kill probably 10% fewer cows/run now but about 20-25% faster runs overall
 
I finally found a way to record with audio so I decided to record a run with Necro.


Couple of considerations:
  • At ~3m30s this is run faster than normal since the spawn was good with several big clusters.
  • Only going for big groups as can be seen. That's generally more efficient but in my case even more so because Merc lacks Andy's. So he provides corpses a bit more slowly and I need to make each of them count. :)
  • After the first corpse, I found it makes a huge difference to not start CE chain immediately. Instead, I normally first teleport to the vicinity of the corpse and then start it. That way, the cows walk towards it and into the CEs.
  • I have to S&E after getting leg due to a very annoying ~10s lag when TPing back to town, so S&E is faster for me. It's annoying in particular with Summuner who could raise his army on the way to the leg and have Merc trigger his aura more quickly otherwise.
  • Almost died during the run once due to teleporting into cows while Amped. Spirit variation is not very tanky generally. When comparing P5 to P7 he died once every 15-20 runs. P5 is generally fine though, it's a bit embarrassing actually. :)
Gear used (not ideal of course being untwinked)

Shako PTopaz
Enigma BP
Beast Double Axe
Spirit 35%
Magefist
Nagelring
String of Ears just for DR, lacking Arach :(
FCR/MF/stats/res rare ring
+1/10 FCR/60 life/res rare ammy
Waterwalk

Switch: CtA + 3 BO, Spirit

Merc (Might): Insight eth CV, ebug Forti Great Hauberk, Tal's helm (really want that Andy's)
 
Last edited:
My run times on average are with everything included: gathering leg and buying tp tomes. The latter I usually do 10 or so at a time, stash them, then start my runs.

Edit: also S&E after getting the leg. Seems faster to me than tp'ing back, no?
 
@drmalawi yeah, I'm pretty sure that one will win me @maxicek's side competition. Glad to have video proof. :)

@T72on1 depends on build I'd say. With Java I didn't mind either, as I felt it's at least just as fast to S&E, but with Fishymancer I really do mind that annoying lag. Raising skeletons at Rakanishu and having an army as well as Merc aura triggered (at least most of the time I guess) when entering cow level should make a significant difference in run times.
 
Glad I’m not the only six minuter @Locohead :)

Last RFL I worried too much about run times and didn’t finish. This time I’m going to enjoy it, pick up stuff I normally would and hope to complete the 20h.

My setup for Jav:
Ethereal upped Titans, second in inventory.
Spirit
Griffon’s with IAS Jewel
Highlord's, Ravenfrost, 1.07 10FCR MPK ring.
Enigma
War Traveller, Razortail, 3/20 Gloves
CTA + Spirit switch
8x Jav skillers, 8x Life/Mana SCs, 2x8 space spare.

Merc: Infinity / Andy's / Fortitude. When I started last night I realised I still had Holy Freeze from the WSK tournament. Normally I would go Might, but I didn't want to change map, so I'm using Defiance. I really like it, I can let cows come right up to me and they can barely hit.

Yes I have all the toys but am still slow :)
 
1 hour in the books. I've scored at least :D. I'm definitely not optimized for running cows yet. Slow and steady won't win this race but I enjoy running cows.
 
I might have to give the first round a miss... Will just leave this here to explain the situation :rolleyes: As always, my reaction the 'situation' is included and is, if I may say so myself, quite respectable :cool: Also included is two drops that I was very happy about prior to 'the thing'.

[youtube]guOThFbwD9I&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
 
Rip Kitteh, I know how much it hurts losing high level hc chars. :( Though I have to ask, 730 hp at lvl 91? What was your gear?
 
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account or log in with BattleNet
 Discord
 Twitch
 GoogleGoogle
PurePremium
Remove ads & support the site - Get PurePremium
Top Bottom
Back
Estimated market value
Low
High