A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell HF!!

[xxnothing]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I couldn't clear the Den because of the cold immunes,

1 Point in static + Merc = you win! :grin: Unless of course you get a dual lightning/cold immune...

Last night I devoted an hour to Countess runs. Running on /p 1 for pure speed reasons, looking for runes. The result was one Dol, one Io (the Io came from a chest though), several other usefull low runes (Tal, Ral, Ort, Thul, Amn). The amount of gems and lower runes I'ev collected means I'll start doing things like crafting items and rerolling charms. I've already been saving blue items for crafting... Bramble Mitts, Vampirebone gloves, Luna shields, Death Masks, etc.

One interesting drop from a random boss I decided to kill on my way down the tower...

Djinn Slayer
Ataghan
One-Hand Damage: 85 to 151
Durability: 13 of 22
Required Dexterity: 95
Required Strength: 138
Required Level: 65
Sword Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0x8866180f
+229% Enhanced Damage
Adds 250-500 fire damage
4% Mana stolen per hit
116% Damage to Demons
+257 to Attack Rating against Demons
+5 Lightning Absorb
Socketed (2: 0 used)

I also worked on Spammydin, my new hammerdin. He's level 20 now, heading into act 2.


Questions about your Blizz sorc... what are you planning on using as your fast cast skill? I assume you'll have a spam-spell to throw between Blizzard casts? Glacial Spike? Ice Blast? Frost Nova?

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

In NM, most often I used Static Field inbetween Blizzards Then Ice Blast I think, but so far in Hell I can't see myself in a situation where I can stand and spam - usually I need to run away inbetween Blizzards ^^

Oh, and it's
1 Point in static + Merc + Telekinesis + a whole lot of patience = you win
^_^ I am lacking in the last component

 

[xxnothing]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

LOL... patience is the hard bit yeah...

Glacial Spike is a great fast cast spell because it freezes enemies within the blast. Great for safety/crowd control... Not that spectacular damage-wise, but I like it for the freeze effect.

I rolled back to NM for now, since I can put on some MF gear and still kill/survive just fine on /p7. Currently wearing Tancred's ammy and helm for the 78 MF. Combined with the various other bits of MF, I'm running at 148% MF / 178% on switch... + 59% if the moron gets the final poke. Going to run Andy mostly, hoping for an SoJ. Toss in Meph and Baal here and there for good measure. I hated to give up my good hell maps for Meph and LK, but until I get some better gear it's just not worth running hell with 70% MF. Not to mention my killing speed in hell is garbage on anything more than /p 3. I can live with one area or the other being weak, either speed or MF, but not both...hehehe.

I logged into BNET and went meandering around with my Tal's blizz/baller, and holy wow the difference is HUGE. She feels god-like after playing in SP for the past couple of weeks! 500+ MF and mows through everything. Hell WSK runs? No problem! She slows down in pub games with more than a few people in it, but I play alone 99% of the time. The speed and 500+ MF is amazing. Fireball and Blizzard together are awesome. Static + merc for CI/FI. she's 99% unstoppable.

Now all I need to do is complete the full Tal's set for my SP sorc! I know, good luck with that, right?

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I was kinda disappointed with Glacial Spike before, but after your comment I decided I'll give it one more chance. Dunno why I didn't like it before, it's actually pretty good, I've made it my official spamming spell ^_^

150% MF is quite alright IMO - I have around that Then again, I never had full Tal's set filled with Ists, SOJ and skillers

Because of that random items thread I checked through my "LOWRAREZ" stash, and found this nicety:
Bahamut's Burnt Wand of Lower Resistance
One-Hand Damage: 8 to 18
Durability: 11 of 15
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 37
Staff Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x22082a6c
+114 to Mana
+3 to Blood Golem (Necromancer Only)
150% Damage to Undead
Level 2 Lower Resist (33/75 Charges)
So I'm using that on switch now: -30% all resist -- or +30% damage =) Must've been too high lvl req when I found it, so I threw it in the stash and forgot about it ><

Been running Andy, Tunnels and Mausoleum/Crypt randomly. Nothing special, but seeing lots of exceptional uniques is encouraging even if they're utterly useless, so I'm definitely staying in Hell =P Andy is pretty tricky even at p1 though, and the map is also the absolute worst possible, so I'm dropping her until I can relax around her >< I'm 74 and I'm considering leveling in p5 Tunnels up until maybe 85 - that would roughly double my moron's resistance.

Advancing solo in Hell is very very difficult. I killed Radament but I have died at least 10 times trying to teleport through vipers' temple >< The good news is I did that with less than 105% FCR, so I still have hope. If it's very hopeless I might turn to MP instead at some point.

In the Mausoleum I found Sandstorm Trek. Somewhere I've heard that these are really leet boots, but they look pretty junk to me. Are they really worth anything? I can't imagine not preferring random rares or Natalyas' with any build. Oh well, at least they're Elite Unique... My second ever at that

 

[xxnothing]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

Treks are highly valued for certain builds. I'd consider that a nice find! Up to +15 STR and 15 DEX is nothing to sneeze at. They can get up to 70% poison resist, which can be valuable as well.

For me I always liked using Waterwalks or Silkweaves on my sorceresses... though my BNET sorc is using War Travs for the MF.

I've said it before, anyone who manages to solo the game with a single-tree sorc, untwinked no less, is a better man than I!
I wouldn't blame you one bit for going MP to get her through the quests.

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

Decided to break the 105%FCR and seal Act 2! :laugh:

Actually past the Viper Temple (and by this time I had explored the most dead ends of the first level ) it was pretty easy. Just teled through, and took liberal use of the S&E function. Only died a few times, and didn't have to S&E much either. So now I'm sitting in the beginning of Act 3 =D Duriel seemed far easier than Andy at first - until he learned to kill my merc before he scored a hit to slow him down.

I've said it before, anyone who manages to solo the game with a single-tree sorc, untwinked no less, is a better man than I!

Haha, with dual Spirits, PTopazed Skin and nice circlet and Angelic jewelry I'm hardly untwinked. Besides in cases like this I use S&E to avoid death And it takes hardly any skill OR patience to just tele through everything at 105% FCR and hit Esc immediately if you get locked down So I'd rather say in this case the man who solos game with a twinked single-tree sorc is a cheesier man than you ^^

Forgot to comment before about you saying you can't manage past /p3 in Hell currently. AFAIK, at least for drops you hardly need anything past /p3. I think Hell Andy is improved significantly by /p3, but there's marginal difference between /p3 Andy and /p8 Andy; and for Meph or Pindle the player setting doesn't matter at all. Areas like Ancient Tunnels are usually run on /p1 - the difference between /p1 and /p8 here is something like 10%. So you should actually usually only increase player setting if you are either hunting experience, or doing so much excess damage that it doesn't slow you down more than 10% for lvl85 areas and maybe 60% for Andy.

 

[Gorgrims]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

quite sure player 5 for andy is what u want for max drops. On Andarial.

Players 3 also gives a better chance at getting more drops on meph, not the quality just higher chance to get more drops where max is 6


I run andarial on player 3 and meph the same on hell, My blizzard sorc is rather good now, and i'd Definitely stay in hell difficulty, even if Soj is easier to get in NM. I like the good exp form players 8 Pindle and AT. But it becomes quite hard sometimes + you do get alot mroe drops from the minions. Only the unique Monsters that dont drop much more.

Notable drops: ( players 3 Mephisto ).

Harlequin Crest
Shako
Defense: 121
Durability: 6 of 12
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 62
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x7235439b
+2 to Strength
+2 to Energy
+2 to Dexterity
+2 to Vitality
Damage Reduced by 10%
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to All Skill Levels
+123 to Life (Based on Character Level)
+123 to Mana (Based on Character Level)

Two runewords made aswell, :

Splendor
Grim Shield
'EthLum'
Defense: 227
Chance to Block: 40%
Durability: 68 of 70
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0xea3e1942
+10 to Energy
+75% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 15%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+3 to Light Radius
20% Faster Block Rate
10% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to All Skill Levels
Socketed (2: 2 used)



and
Broad Sword
"Spirit"
Required Strength: 48
Required Level: 25
Sword Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 61
Fingerprint: 0xe65be6d7
+22 to Vitality
+105 to Mana
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Adds 1-50 lightning damage
Adds 3-14 cold damage over 3 seconds
+75 poison damage over 5 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
55% Faster Hit Recovery
34% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to All Skill Levels
+6 Magic Absorb
Socketed (4: 4 used)

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I know p3 doesn't GUARANTEE you max drops from Andy. But the difference between p3 and any higher setting is so small that in the long run you'll earn more by shoving off a few seconds from each run and thus doing more runs. Same goes for Meph at p1. You don't ALWAYS get max drops at p1, but you get them USUALLY.

p1 Andy is pretty poor though

Cong on the Shako (how many runs did that take?) and nice Spirit roll!

 

[Tigereye1]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

On average:

Andariel/Durial(quest)
p1: 3,743289843
p3: 5,315135915
p5: 5,872815488
p7: 5,963057236

Andariel/Duriel
p1: 4,918060784
p3: 5,890500137
p5: 5,991545142
p7: 6

Meph/Diablo/Baal
p1: 5,453743558
p3: 5,98219126
p5: 6
p7: 6

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

Rushed myself through Act 3 and 4. Actually nothing has been nearly as hard as vipers' temple. Died only like twice, and had to save and exit maybe five times. Chaos Sanctuary was very slow due to the CI mages (forgot to mule on a Malice, thankfully I found a random poison small charm and Angelic set gave me lots of attack rating =P), but quite safe - didn't die before Diablo hit me with his flames and I was dumb enough to stand straight in it.

When I reached the end of Act 3 I did some Meph runs despite a horrible map, and I'm finally getting the feeling that I've found a sweet spot =) He is easy to run (easier than Andy who walks up on you), and drops nice. Already gave me an item of use - Tal's mask

Hellforge was a Hel XD I think the gods of Diablo despise my cheesy style Had to reroll the map to get rid of CI spawners It was piece of cake after that.

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

Argh, must've missed Edit timer by like 5 mins again.
Ended siege and saved the barbarians as well. Died very quickly in Frozen River. Looking very, very tough :/ But I gotta save that girl to get axess to the sweetest target of them all... Filled up the bar in the Tunnels in order to not lose any XP, and am now sitting in Harrogath ready to take on one of the hardest tasks in my Diablo history.

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

Hahahahahahaha either I was insanely lucky or I had ridiculously wrong assumptions, because that was a piece of cake! Only like 4 deaths and 2 S&E, all of them before I had located Anya. When I saw the questlog button appear, I happened to be on a clean island. I invited my moron, killed a few evil rogues, and simply parked Frozenstein's mob on this plaza! =D Had two NDEs near Anya, but turned out to be just fine =) Pindle is sweet. I did two level's worth of runs. Nothing special, but you gotta love that rate of uniques even if they're usually rare or magical. Still, at this point I feel Meph's regular colours improve me more, so I rerolled the map into something tolerable (accidentally chose the chaliorb at first so I lost her great LK map and OK countess map ><). A few runs resulted in another Tal's mask

Off to sleep now. I've got a lot of MF-ing to do tomorrow ^_^

 

[Gorgrims]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I managed about 140'ish LK runs, total. The last 60 or so resulted in a Large charm, 7All res 4 Dext., An Io, another Io, and a Lum. I'm hoping for a my second Ber rune to make infinity. Unless im lucky enough to find jah before ber, that is. Thouhg realisticly i won't have a ber for a long time.

I was bored and thought to myself how lucky i was finding the 1st, Duriel dropping 1:300k ish after u complete quest, mean't it would take 300k minutes. How much money irl could u earn before getting that ber? :laugh:


Despite, I searched on for the Ber...but gave up eventually. I also got 76-87 with pindle, so he's nice. But gave me nothing i could use

I'm thinking of doing some mephisto runs aswell. Baal run will problably be too difficult, and Cow's bored me quick.

 

[xxnothing]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

Nice! Tal's mask makes decent merc headgear... 10% life leech is good stuff!

I've just been working on my hammerdin. It's going well, I'm just getting to the point where I'm using hammers as much, if not more, than a melee attack.

I think tonight I'm going to do some LK/Pindle runs with the sorceress though...

 

[Gorgrims]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

hammer's are cool regardless of teleport. My first char on battle.net this season, ( Before i stopped ) was a hammer. He got me loads of stuff, and they are viable as hell.

Even with the basic "spirit + spirit + viper", and thats not that hard to find eventually. theyre great.

They eventually do get boring, so it's not a character I want to try again.

Sorceress's are fun and I've yet to try a few things like meteor/FO combination, or full points in lightning. And i could really use both (meteor orb for baal, Lightning for Cow/Countess for example).

Also thought about a Javalin amazon, but, I think i'll rather have a lightning sorceress first atleast.

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

Hahaha, I'm finally getting the feeling I'm tapping the gold vein - Meph ^_^

I have learned to trap him on the edges so that he can't attack me and runs around back and forth on the same two tiles XD Oh the cheese, but what can I do I use the Lower Resist wand on the switch, which supposedly increases my damage ~30%.

Niceties he has dropped me:
Andariel's Visage
yet another Tal's Mask ~~
The Rising Sun amulet - not TOO great an ammy, but it's rather rare
Ormus Robes - with +3 Energy Shield, but Ormus Robes nevertheless
Duriel's Shell
Frostburn
IK's Belt + another pair of gloves
+19 Dex +19 All res +2 Lightning skills Coronet (my chaliorb's new headgear, it seems
Naj's staff
Milabrega's Robe

Also these useless Elite Uniques:
Arioc's Needle (Hyperion Spear; IS it useless? 81 lvl req :shocked
Ethereal Edge (Silver-Edged Axe)
Sword Guard (Excecutioner Sword)
Windhammer (Ogre Maul)

I thought Duriel's Shell would give my merc some beef. It did, but not quite enough to use him for Meph. I'm not willing to mess with Rejuvs just for him.

I might punch a hole in that Ormus' and fill it with PTopaz. I really don't think I can use my merc against Meph even if I socket his Kelpie or Duriel's Shell or whatever as well as level him up. I have good run times without him anyway (no more than 20 seconds to kill Meph). But I think when soloing, Ormus would increase my times slightly.

In any case I feel pretty happy over what I've found =) Things are getting interesting!

 

[Gorgrims]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I found these beautys, from about 30 Lk runs, 80 Mephisto runs, 100 pindleruns.

Pindle was fruitless, gave me 2 RARE diadems, and 5 rare Sacred armours :undecided:.

at first i ran meph players 3. Thanks to u guys i tried players 1 and its just much faster.

Pindle however was not very good at dropping useful stuff, LK / Meph is great though Think it's time to start making my Lightning sorceress

Scintillating Jewel
Required Level: 26
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xae175dd
All Resistances +15


Small Charm of Good Luck
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x7db4a8a3
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Arachnid Mesh
Spiderweb Sash
Defense: 131
Durability: 4 of 12
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 80
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb447f951
+108% Enhanced Defense
Increase Maximum Mana 5%
20% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to All Skill Levels
Slows Target by 10%
Level 3 Venom (8/11 Charges)


Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x4fd0ec6
Lightning Resist +35%
Adds 1-30 lightning damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to All Skill Levels
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15
32% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)


Harlequin Crest
Shako
Defense: 98
Durability: 6 of 12
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 62
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x1fe370d2
+2 to Strength
+2 to Energy
+2 to Dexterity
+2 to Vitality
Damage Reduced by 10%
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to All Skill Levels
+1 to Life (Based on Character Level)
+1 to Mana (Based on Character Level)

Jalal's Mane
Totemic Mask
Defense: 285
Durability: 12 of 20
(Druid Only)
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x753d1fe4
+20 to Strength
+20 to Energy
+188% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +30
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+5 to Mana After Each Kill
+2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only

Chance Guards
Chain Gloves
Defense: 28
Durability: 10 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xaf92378
+30% Enhanced Defense
+25 to Attack Rating
+15 Defense
200% Extra Gold from Monsters
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Light Radius

Silkweave
Mesh Boots
Defense: 114
Durability: 10 of 16
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 36
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xbc13d958
+154% Enhanced Defense
+200 Defense vs. Missile
Increase Maximum Mana 10%
30% Faster Run/Walk
+5 to Mana After Each Kill

 

[slayer37]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I use the Lower Resist wand on the switch, which supposedly increases my damage ~30%.

Lowering % resists is not just equal to having that % increase in damage. This is better demonstrated with an example.

You do 1k blizzard damage. Monster is 50% cold resistant. Let's say you have 0 CM for simplicity in computation. If you blizzard that monster, one shard will deal 500 cold damage. Let's say you cast LR first before casting blizzard, the monster's cold resistance drops to 20% thereby dealing 800 cold damage per shard. From 500 to 800 cold damage is not just ~30% increase in damage but a 60% increase.

 

[Vantek]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I know, but I assumed my Cold Mastery already negates Meph's resistance. Once below zero, the percentage of reduced resistance equals the percentage of increased final damage. Another thing worth noting is that when the monster has negative resistance to cold, then + Cold Skill Damage % is effectively amplified - for an example if the monster has -100% resistance to your attacks, then +15% Cold Skill Damage results in +30% final damage. As an item effect matching with the effect of the mastery is added to it, not multiplied with it like that, + cold skill damage is better than - enemy cold resistance, and - enemy fire/lightning resistance is better than +fire/lightning skill damage.

On another note...

Today brough some very, very nice finds. I didn't go to any lectures because I had a test in the last one and I wanted to study for it. Between sessions of studying I did some MF-ing. Started with farming Meph and the first noteworthy find was... Skullder's Ire! =D EXACTLY what I was looking for! It was SO satisfying I equipped it immediately and kept running. Then, the man dropped Goldwrap, which was nice as well, and replaced my Snowclash. Haven't upped it yet, mostly because I have such comfy routines I don't really need more boxes =P Soonafter, Kira's Guardian, which I thought would be my new headgear for quite some time. Many other decent/pretty finds.

Then I went to take the test and the half a lecture following it. It went smoothly, a 50/50 between an A and a B from what I can tell.

I had found TWO more Arioc's Needles, and although without much hope, once I returned home I decided to try wether or not my merc could leech enough with it to survive against Meph (never used a "ignore target's defense" weapon before so I had no idea if it's as cool as the level requirement makes it to be), so I brough my merc to level 81 through p3 Pindle. Unsurprisingly, he was just as pathetic with this weapon, so I just didn't resurrect him and continued Mephing alone.

And it seems the gods of Diablo 2 decided to reward me for the effort I put into this test. I kept finding nice items throughout the session, but the real jackpot came just as I was about to pack my bags. Harlequin's Crest! =D This had been pretty much the leader of my wishlist! It was almost as satisfying as that Vex rune from the LK chest.

Inspired by this awesome find, I decided to reroll my Meph map. And can you believe it, the very first try netted the absolute best Meph map ever. I'm pretty sure I have seen this EXACT map somewhere.

Further inspired by this ridiculous luck, I decided to do one more stashful of Meph farming. And again, just as the stash was filling up and I was about to end the session... Stormshield! =) What a proper end to a highly enjoyable day of MF-ing

Notable finds not mentioned so far:
Wizardspike - don't have a use for it ATM, but it's still a very handy little thing
Arkaine's Valor (does this have any use?)
two Bonehews (how about these?)
Chromatic Ire
Credendum, the belt of The Disciple - nice stats actually
IK Maul, as well as my third pair of IK gloves
Jade Talon
M'avina's gloves
Naj's Circlet
an ethereal Nightsmoke (Belt)
Silks of the Victor - unique Ancient Armor
Zakarum's Hand

 

[slayer37]

Re: A belated introduction, confession, and OMG I got an IST from my first ever Hell

I had found TWO more Arioc's Needles, and although without much hope, once I returned home I decided to try wether or not my merc could leech enough with it to survive against Meph (never used a "ignore target's defense" weapon before so I had no idea if it's as cool as the level requirement makes it to be), so I brough my merc to level 81 through p3 Pindle. Unsurprisingly, he was just as pathetic with this weapon, so I just didn't resurrect him and continued Mephing alone.

ITD only works on regular monsters... not bosses/super-uniques.