A Breath of Fresh Air ... A New Item Find Thread
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jimsfriend
Well-known member
Shouldn't 1.07 JMoD spawn with only 3os?
That was a fun read! Thanks for sharing. I was thinking of playing on ladder for season 8, just to shake things up a bit. Ultimately I didn't because I wasn't sure how many people play online on Switch. I kinda feel like it might not be much different than just playing offline single playerProbably not very appropriate, since this is online, but if you fancy a little story about building wealth on ladder, keep reading.
SP was beginning to bore me a bit, since I only need cow boots and unique wand to finish grail, and I hate looking for very specific items, because the chance for disappointment is absolutely massive. So I thought the new ladder might be fun, and it's been a while. A little late to the party; like 20 people were already 99 when I started, but I knew I would never contend in the leveling race anyway, since I have little time and no friends. I named my first character, a sorceress "Progress" and aimed for hell mephisto quest exploit.
For those of you unfamiliar with that exploit, it only works in multiplayer games, so that would probably be why. The idea is to not complete the final quest of act 3, and join games where the quest is already done, and kill Mephisto. This causes Meph to drop his 1st kill drop, which excludes the "misc junk" TC which contains... well... junk. Ammo, keys, scrolls, and potions. It also has a floor of rare item quality, which means the only blues he drops are failed greens.
With this build, you miss out on a few things, though:
- Any quest reward from act 4 and 5 hell
- Any terror zone in act 4 and 5
- Quick leveling in a party if the terror zone is undesireable, or in act 4 or 5
- "Doing your thing" solo; you *need* to join other peoples games for meph and TZ
But not to worry. Meph is mlvl87 when not terrorized; 12 levels higher than Andariel, which always drop her first kill drop anyway. Also, you DO have access to a variety of runs, in case it is the middle of the night and no bots (which vary greatly in number) making quick games.
- Countess and Andariel in act 1
- Summoner in act 2
- Travincal and Lower Kurast in act 3
Anyway, getting a character as far as act 3 hell when online is pretty trivial. So much can be cheesed, and optional quests can be postponed. I started as Charged Boltress, then respec to blizzard fairly quickly. I was holding on to hammerdin gear, selling or giving away the rest, so as to reduce the need for mules.
First big break was an armor rack in LK. It dropped me a 4s 14%ED Monarch. First try at spirit was mediocre, but the second try netted me 35FCR 111mana 8absorb, which is only 1 mana and 1%ED off absolutely perfect. Even in a relatively young economy, this netted me BER+OHM after 10 minutes.
I would try to join baal/dia/cow/tz/splitmf games, and do LK if there were many players, and do Meph as the players were leaving. I probably missed out on hundreds of trades for stuff like Bartuc and Sigons, but I was aiming higher.
Finding The Oculus and Arachnid Mesh sped up my Progress greatly, and before long, I had 300mf and 105% faster cast, relying heavily on potions since my merc was poorly leveled and geared.
Second big break came in a cow game, which I had joined because of the exp and because many players rush to kill ASAP and will leave tradeable items of lesser value on the ground in order to level faster. I was mainly looking for flawless gems, unwanted jewels and such for trading for runes as currency, in case I couldn't find stuff like Shako or War Travelers. So I was staying back, being polite and letting the fast killers pick drops as they killed, not being grabby (because if it is one thing I do not respect, it is grabby folks). But they will not only skip items of low value. They will also skip single cows. Weak as my sorceress was, she was still capable of dealing with single cows. And one of those single, left behind cows of misery dropped me a JAH rune! With the BER I already had from the last trade, and the 5BO CtA I had made from the OHM also from the last trade, I was now ready to start a hammerdin, my fav char from past ladders.
Getting mid level gear was easy, as I was a quick learner, and gathered resources for richer players. The values were something like this:
IST = 12ral = 6hel = 6pamethyst = 40-50 junk jewels = 1x3 keys
I even started keeping normal amethysts, since no one else picked them up. Before long, I had both characters set up with self-found wizardspike for teleport switch and muling CtA for prebuff.
I found a 20/238 Raven Frost, which took a long time to trade, but eventually got me a LO rune.
Also a 5/5 lightning lvl green facet, which got me another BER.
Then, I was careless and broke my sorc. I didn't pay attention to the trade game I was in, and accidentally completed the meph quest. That got me down a little, but by now I had so much gear that I just started another. But just before she was done, Chaos Sanctuary became terrorized. I did a few runs with the hammerdin, and got lucky: Tal Rasha's Guardianship (armor) dropped. I had been running vipermagi on the sorcs up until then. Now I just needed the amulet. MF hit a little dry streak, though, so that wouldn't happen for another couple days. I did get very lucky with Dclone, though, getting near-perfect annis, but opting for self-use.
I don't remember what I found to trade for SUR rune, but i was able to trade SUR 2IST for a 15/15 Paladin torch. Also two ists for shakos. Found Seraph's Hymn. My hammerdin had become a powerhouse, lucking into two combat skillers in two hours. I almost had my second meph sorc ready when... Catacombs TZ. I opted to run with the hammerdin, since he was lvl 91, pushing Andariel to mlvl96 which greatly increases TC87 drops. And lo and behold, around 45 minutes in.... Golden Diadem!! Left a trade game overnight to see what I could get for it, and 2JAH was highest offer. Today, I sold for 2JAH fairly quickly. I also crafted this ring, which I probably should have waited to sell, but being antsy from getting good trades, I let it go for BER+LO:
View attachment 91180
If that thing had high fire resist instead of miniscule AR... it would allow a hammerdin to equip dusk enigma with the stats from torch, anni and shako (nn maras even) and still get 15dex free for max block. It still is a wonderful ring, but I sold it way too fast. Oh well, easy come, easy go, right?
So now I basically have everything I need to build even more wealth quick. Just want Dracs for uber Tristram. My 2Jah 2Ber 8Ist Mal 2Pul rune stash should in theory get me a good pair, but I'm a little stubborn and want the rush of finding them for myself....
If you made it all the way to the end of the post, congrats! I have to wake up for work in 190 minutes, and still haven't finished my last drink for the evening
Maybe I'll give it a try in season 9!
Elrond_Hubbard
Member
Haven't posted in a while. Started D2R a couple months ago for a fresh reset. Mostly been farming Meph/Pindle and hitting the odd TZ with my Blizzy, still missing a lot of key items (Occulus, Arach, Tal Ammy to name a few) but this weekend I dropped Tal's Armor in TZ AT and then this from Infector of Souls in TZ CS last night, my first ever and rarest item overall of my entire D2 career. Eth too, I love getting eth caster weapons for the coolness factor. I've never built a poison necro but this looks a lot like moral imperative:
Helvete
Well-known member
Shouldn't poison necro be really, really strong with sunder charm and the massive -res from gear? I remember using a near antiperfect Dweb in 1.10 and it was already strong. That was with full TO set and full inventory of skillers, but I think poison has been buffed since then? Torch+Anni is a major buff at least.
Yeah, it's a rather strong build in D2R! Fully synergized Poison Nova plus Lower Resist is already a potent combo. Add in Death's Web and Rotting Fissure Sunder GC, and you're really cooking. Round it out with 3pc Trang-Oul's set for the -25% enemy poison res. on the shrunken head and +25% poison skill damage on the gloves. I think most would recommend 'Enigma' as the BiS armor for this build, which I guess is hard to argue with... but we do not use 'Enigma' in the little birdy household, so I instead use 'Bramble' on my Poison Necro for another boost to poison damage and +100% poison res. to make up for the penalty from Rotting Fissure. It's a very strong, if a bit squishy, character!
I made one in D2R and I have detailed guide here! There's a video at the end.
I also use a beta Bramble with 138% Poison Damage!
Cure Runeword is excellent for Iron Golem for the cleansing aura as well to help with poison.
Also, Act1 merc with Harmony to provide Vigor aura is very convinent to just run and cast!
I also use a beta Bramble with 138% Poison Damage!
Cure Runeword is excellent for Iron Golem for the cleansing aura as well to help with poison.
Also, Act1 merc with Harmony to provide Vigor aura is very convinent to just run and cast!
Why not harmony Iron Golem, put Cure on act 2 merc helmet?
Elrond_Hubbard
Member
A few more trophies. Had a solid run at TZ AT last night getting Starla the Blizz Sorc to lv91, and then switch to a very luck streak at Meph/Pindle dropping Arach, HoZ, 30@ Mara's, TGod's, 8/8/20/12 VGaze, Shaftstop #2, and lots of other middling goodies all in the span of a couple hours.
I found these early in her career, definitely among the better tri-res MF boots I've ever found:
As an enjoyer of both doom metal and the band Death Grips, I was very pleased by the names of this pair:
I found these early in her career, definitely among the better tri-res MF boots I've ever found:
As an enjoyer of both doom metal and the band Death Grips, I was very pleased by the names of this pair:
Wow great write-up! I'll definitely be referencing this when I get around to building a Poisonmancer. Despite having that incredibly lucky drop I'm still in "startup" mode farming for basic pieces of kit. Eventually I'll get bored of Meph/Pindle and switch to CS to build up my Rune collection.
You can’t make an iron golem from a bow. Using the cure for your Merc, that works though!
yeah, one has to use a "metallic" item to make IG
I have only made insight IGs
Elrond_Hubbard
Member
I've been wanting an eth Spirit base for style points, was really hoping for Crystal Sword or at least some Normal base... last night Stony Tombs dropped an eth 4os Cryptic Sword. Kind of a troll drop, made me mad at first but my sorc hits all the requirements so what the hell. Went ahead and socketed it, to my delight it rolled 35%/+107/+7, just a few points off perfect! She's looking classy with her see-thru sword, now I just need to find an eth 2os Heater to complete the set.
On a related note, Stony Tomb has been very good to my Blizzy. I was struggling a few levels ago to manage the poison but between a new Insight CV and some good resist charm drops Hazade and I are getting pretty tough. I also found that she did very well in TZ Far Oasis which was kind of a surprise, got almost 3 bars through level 92 there last night. TZ Black Marsh/Hole has also been very nice and feels a little more relaxed than Pits even with the high concentration of Wingdingos. I have nice circular outdoor maps for both and an S-shaped Hole map with good pack spawns.
Tal Rasha's Tombs are still a slog, I can manage everything else but Unravelers are a huge PITA and take forever to kill. I spammed Duriel during the TZ last night and I got my first cold facet off him (3/3 die, meh...) but nothing else to show for it except a few Manalds and a full TP tome.
Overall very much enjoying the TZ feature for mixing up my usual AT spamming, and Cold Sunder for making those other areas viable to me.
On a related note, Stony Tomb has been very good to my Blizzy. I was struggling a few levels ago to manage the poison but between a new Insight CV and some good resist charm drops Hazade and I are getting pretty tough. I also found that she did very well in TZ Far Oasis which was kind of a surprise, got almost 3 bars through level 92 there last night. TZ Black Marsh/Hole has also been very nice and feels a little more relaxed than Pits even with the high concentration of Wingdingos. I have nice circular outdoor maps for both and an S-shaped Hole map with good pack spawns.
Tal Rasha's Tombs are still a slog, I can manage everything else but Unravelers are a huge PITA and take forever to kill. I spammed Duriel during the TZ last night and I got my first cold facet off him (3/3 die, meh...) but nothing else to show for it except a few Manalds and a full TP tome.
Overall very much enjoying the TZ feature for mixing up my usual AT spamming, and Cold Sunder for making those other areas viable to me.
hackedagainanda
Well-known member
Leveling my frenzy barb to 99 is starting to pay off!
Some post MFO finds, including a few drops from finishing off that MFO TZ list.
Griffon's: -19/+14
CoA: 2 Soc/11dr/24ar
Facets: 5/5 Cold Die
Zod drop in catacombs while leveling up my Sorc. Very unexpected since I haven't seen anything above gul for a while.
Bonus screenshot of a double "unique" partizan drop
Griffon's: -19/+14
CoA: 2 Soc/11dr/24ar
Facets: 5/5 Cold Die
Zod drop in catacombs while leveling up my Sorc. Very unexpected since I haven't seen anything above gul for a while.
Bonus screenshot of a double "unique" partizan drop
