Best spot is to have them on the balcony on the lower left corner so they can't spread around at all. Gripp had really the perfect map on his Blizzy, IIRC he used it also for testing purposes (only) with other chars. I also have two Blizzard Sorcs and tried for countless hours but never got something like that. But it doesn't make too much of a difference if you have them tightly packed somewhere else on the balcony IMO. Just a matter of figuring out where to teleport so that the AI doesn't think of spreading out. I believe in the rune finding guide there are some guidelines regarding the map also.
That much damage is absolutely overkill. As Gripphon himself said in (iirc) last year's RFL thread, the returns to increasing damage versus efficiency are rather poor. Of course, there were five years of theorycraft and iteration between that video, but still.
Anecdotally, I run trav with 9.5k average blizzard damage and runs take just as many casts of blizzard as with 14k. If anything, I feel like it's still a little high - I could probably stand to drop another couple of skillers for more MF.
Wow, I didn’t even notice the date was 2012 on that last video. I guess there is a certain point where an overkill amount of dmg comes into play, but man that gear is sick.
I have a level 50 something Sorc that was attempting a dumbass idea I had for a Blizzard/Thunderstorm build I might level up instead of the Barb for this round. I dont want to use my other Sorc, and I can make an Infinity now so it may be the best way to go. I am gonna get a Cham this time if I have to jump in there and fight the council myself.
As you can see, it completely goes against conventional wisdom to have the Council at the very left of the balcony. Having said that, I have never had the Council spawn in such a compact way, close to each other, so I'll probably keep it anyway. With proper teleporting from my part, landing just to the right of them, they (almost) never stray away. Instead they engage my merc right away, this way staying very close to each other. I have never tried to teleport to the left of them. Don't know why, seems counterintuitive. And I'd have to teleport to the right afterwards to check drops.
I had several rerolls of Travincal maps, both on this character and on other ones. It usually took a while for them to all spawn on the balcony. But like I said, never as close to each other as this. As a result there were often stragglers I had to kill individually, which is hardly ever the case with this one. So yeah, most likely keeping it.
A short test period of 50 runs got me to 23 sec average run times. Slow, compared to the most efficient players here, but about 1.5 seconds faster than I have ever been. The council almost always dies very fast, so I'm more and more convinced that I can't improve the run times much with another map, and that it's mostly a matter of getting even more efficient on this map and slower loading and S/E times than the fastest runners out there. Gripphon mentioned that he was running windowed mode withouth Glide Wrapper for fastest loading and S/E times, but I can't see myself getting used to windowed mode to be honest.
Also, I agree with Gripphon's analysis about a max treshold for Blizzard damage, at which point you are better off increasing your defensive stats, mf or gf, because the added damage does (almost) nothing to run times. I tried different setups, and settled on one with 8300 - 8600 Blizz damage, focusing the rest on mf and a bit on defensive stats.
So much looking forward to the start of this round. I'll probably try to get a few hours in on Friday, because next week and the week after will be quite hectic, without much time to play.
There was indeed some discussion about Blizzard damage numbers last year, and the conclusion was pretty much exactly in line with what @necrolemming said. Namely, people didn't get improvements in run times when going above 8-9k Blizzard damage.
@T72on1 if they don't spread out in that spot, that map is tremendous IMO. Looks similar to mine but better (yours is one teleport further, but they are a bit more packed together even). Spawning them in the left hand corner is just icing on the cake, way less important in comparison to how close to each other they spawn, wherever on the balcony that is. I'd definitely keep that map until finding something like Gripp's map on another Sorc... in maybe 10 years.
Did a few test runs yesterday. A bit disappointing actually, somehow I am slower than last year so far. Just need to get back into the groove I hope, granted I misclicked often.
So what setups are you guys going to run with? Currently I'm using this for Blizzard Sorc:
This was the setup I ended last year's Trav round with. After playing with a 68% FCR setup for about the first 8 hours, in the end I was convinced by other runners that 105% FCR is the way to go. This improved run times a little bit and led to sub-20s runs eventually. So, most of the setup is pretty much set in stone except for boots (which is whatever) and head piece. I was switching back and forth yesterday between faceted NWV, faceted Shako and Cham'ed Shako, adjusting charms along the way. Probably will stick with the Cham'ed Shako as I didn't get an improvement in run times with the others, but will continue to compare them.
Will also try with other Merc setup using CoH or Fortitude for higher damage, maybe that will be what may improve her run times in the end.
I also have an idea of another build entirely that I want to test. Will share if it turns out to be able to deliver competitive run times.
My times with the two-handed zealot is about 40secs. I dont care about it, he is so fun for me to play so its worth it
Setup:
CoA 2xPtopaz
Fortitude (could use enigma but I like dmg too much hehe)
War Travs
Laying of Hands
2 Raven Frost
Death Eth CS, perfect roll
Highlords amulet
String of ears belt
CtA Spirit Switch
Merc: might, Reapers amn, kiras Ral, Eth Guardian Angel Ral
As I said in the Results round 1, thread, I will make Enigma and such after the tournament and try to beat my own score next year (!?)
My times with the two-handed zealot is about 40secs. I dont care about it, he is so fun for me to play so its worth it
Setup:
CoA 2xPtopaz
Fortitude (could use enigma but I like dmg too much hehe)
War Travs
Laying of Hands
2 Raven Frost
Death Eth CS, perfect roll
Highlords amulet
String of ears belt
CtA Spirit Switch
Merc: might, Reapers amn, kiras Ral, Eth Guardian Angel Ral
As I said in the Results round 1, thread, I will make Enigma and such after the tournament and try to beat my own score next year (!?)
Zaph had pretty decent Travincal times with a 2H zealot if I remember correctly, better than mine was I think, although I only used the build briefly for Travincal. Zaph's 10,000 Travincal runs
Not sure why you'd want Cham in the Shako on a caster to be honest. I guess to save a tiny bit of time when you are chilled and walk up a short bit to pick up something, instead of teleporting.
@T72on1 I was also skeptical at first when people mentioned running with Cham, but I had to admit the CNBF when picking things up does make a noticeable difference. Often times you don't know where exactly an item is on the ground due to cluttering, so teleporting to pick stuff up is little more than an educated guess sometimes. I always run to the drops, and while frozen that takes longer obviously. I had a Cham'ed Shako on my Pitzerker that I'm using, as I imagine many have, so I'd just try it out. It generally depends on what you pick up, of course if you go qualifiers only it doesn't make much sense.
@T72on1 - The Cham is for exactly as you said, or for walking up to the waypoint if you tele right next to it with a non-sorc (ie no Telekinesis). I haven't gotten to the point where it's that important to me, but others swear by it (Gripp included).
My untwinked characters are out for this one anyway, so I'm going with my trusted Blizzy. She never rolled away her amazing map from last year's RFL where she finished 2nd, just an inch behind a sick set from @Pb_pal. So my goal is to finish ahead of @Pb_pal essentially.
Hahah, you should beat me this year I think. I'm probably going to go with my Novamancer if I can get him leveled to a decent spot and find a map with him. So my runtimes likely won't be ideal, as opposed to last year with my Blizzy. Will be a more casual approach this year for me.
His setup will likely be:
Fun Necro Circlet
Skull Horn
Circlet
Defense: 22
Durability: 33 of 35
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x1429e30e
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 51 Poison Nova when you Die
+2 to Poison and Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)
+20% Faster Run/Walk
+20% Faster Cast Rate
Adds 37 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
-5% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+5% to Poison Skill Damage
+83 to Mana
Fire Resist +24%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x29f9c51
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 51 Poison Nova when you Die
Adds 37 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
-5% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+5% to Poison Skill Damage
DWeb + Facet
Death's Web
Unearthed Wand
One Hand Damage: 22 - 28
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Level: 66
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0x643d2c50
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 23 Venom when you Level-Up
+2 to All Skills
+2 to Poison and Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)
Adds 37 Poison Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
-54% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+5% to Poison Skill Damage
+9 to Mana after each Kill
+9 Life after each Kill
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x504316bf
Item Level: 88
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
+5% to Poison Skill Damage
Enigma
Homunculus + facet (+5/5)
Trangs Gloves
Maras amulet
SoJ/Dwarf Star
Arach
rare boots with FR/LR/MF
7/8 Skillers with various mods, depending how much room I want for picking stuff
'Insight' Iron Golem (I made a point to pick up as many bases as possible last round, so I'm stocked up )
Might merc - Steel Shade (Cham), CoH, Infinity
Thing I will test is if it's better to get a higher FCR breakpoint. Currently 11 frames, can easily get to the 75% BP for 10 frames, but I doubt I'll go for the 125% fcr (9 frame) one. If anything, Homunculus would likely just get swapped for a Spirit.
Depending how the round goes, I will likely spend some time with Eleanor (99 Blizzy) to keep things fresh, but not the full 20 hours. Here's a video of some runs by her last year, for those interested.
Pretty standard setup, not changed much from last year:
Nightwings + res all jewel
a pretty lame +1 sorc/10fcr/other junk mods amulet (just to get me to the 105 fcr breakpoint)
CoH
Fathom + facet
Spirit
Trangs gloves
Arach
SoJ/Dwarf Star
Aldurs boot (life+FR+frw=gg)
7 Cold Skillers with various mods. Res/life charms make up the rest.
Might merc - Steel Shade (Cham), CoH, Infinity
Overall goals for this round:
Place in the top 8
Get some levels with the Necro and get him to decent running times
Find some good (hopefully perfect) facets, especially Lightning
Zaph had pretty decent Travincal times with a 2H zealot if I remember correctly, better than mine was I think, although I only used the build briefly for Travincal. Zaph's 10,000 Travincal runs