A mini-question thread

[Woof]

A mini-question thread

I've got a few questions about D2 that have been niggling at me for some time, but none of them seemed important enough to warrant their own thread. I figured some people might be in a similar situation and since I couldn't find a thread like this already (if there is one, go ahead and lock this and please direct me to it), I thought it might be a good idea.

Anyway, here goes.

1. To get the benefit of MF items on switch, do I need to cast the killing blow (in my case Blizzard) while wielding those items or do I just have to be wielding them when the monster (Mephisto) dies?

2. Is crushing blow applied using Blade Fury affected by the 3/4 damage penalty?

3. When I'm running Pindleskin, should I be killing Pindle and all his minions, or just Pindle himself before S/E?

4. To run Ancient Tunnels, should I do full clears, just pop the chest, or only kill bosspacks?

5. What players setting should I be doing Pindle/Pits/AT runs at?

Thanks in advance ^_^

Edit: 6. I have a nice Hell Meph map that I don't really want to lose on my Blizzsorc, if I Mat her and go through Izual's portal, will I lose the map?

 

[jamesixgun]

Re: A mini-question thread

1) You must be wielding them.
2) dunno
3) KILLEMALL!!!
4) preference; all about time; random non-boss packs might drop something worthwhile and might not.
5) Run Time/p settings. If you can do 1 p8 run in 1 minute, or 40 runs at p5 in 1 minute, run at p5. (Ridiculous example, I know)

 

[Woof]

Re: A mini-question thread

1) You must be wielding them.
2) dunno
3) KILLEMALL!!!
4) preference; all about time; random non-boss packs might drop something worthwhile and might not.
5) Run Time/p settings. If you can do 1 p8 run in 1 minute, or 40 runs at p5 in 1 minute, run at p5. (Ridiculous example, I know)

Thanks very much. Great response time too! :thumbup:

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: A mini-question thread

1. MF calculated at the time of death - doesn't matter when equiped

2. just a sec.
Edit: I don't know. this thread says that it's always 'missile' crushing blow, even if you have a melee weapon, but it doesn't address your 3/4th question.

3. if he's immune to my attack I often abort - or I might leave a straggler or two sometimes if it's an attack that doesn't always hit everything easily (i.e. Blizzard). Generally about ~85-95% of the minions die though.

4. the chest is capped, so top items will only come from packs/monsters. There's always at least one boss by the chest though, so I figure since you're already there...

5. for item-hunting, /players1. Bosses drop the vast majority of good/great items, and their drops don't increase on higher settings. For more-specific hunting... it depends. Generally though, Speed > everything else.

 

[ancalagon the black]

Re: A mini-question thread

2. The penalty for blade fury doesn't affect CB (or OW). It does suffer from the ranged penalty, though.

This thread has tons of useful information on blade fury.

 

[Rhone]

Re: A mini-question thread

3. Kill the minions--they're a good source of socketable items. The characters I would run Pindle with generally kill Pindle and his minions simultaneously anyway.

4. It's a preference thing, really. The most important thing is the unique monsters, they're the primary source of set/unique items. The other monsters can be good sources of gems, socketables, etc.

5. If you're going for S/U's, p1. As Poops mentioned, player settings won't affect the boss drops and that's where your S/U's are coming from. You might like a higher player setting if you're going for socketables, gems, runes, etc., but it may or may not be worthwhile when you factor in the increased killing time, and it can slow you down when you have to sort through a huge pile of drops because the words are going off the screen and you don't want to miss anything good.

6. Don't worry, matting your character won't lose your Hell maps. As long as you don't accidentally click on Normal or Nightmare you're fine.

BTW, you might be interested in this thread, which has a lot of random questions and helpful answers.

 

[Trim]

Re: A mini-question thread

Like 'poops said, the chest in alvl85 areas are capped, so unlike drops from boss kills you can't obtain the S/Us in the top tier. Some dedicated people here don't pop it because of that. I, however, hit it every time because the only BKWB and pair of Drac's gloves I've found came from that chest. It only takes a moment for my sorc to teleport to the chest in the AT and scan for green/gold/red flashes before I S&E.

And as another FYI, you don't have to take Tyrael's portal after killing Baal to receive credit for the quest. As soon as Baal dies and the items drop, if you S&E you still get the final cutscene and "Congratulations" screen.

On a couple occasions I've had Tyrael's portal spawn off the side of the catwalk so it wasn't accessible. The first time it happened I was super stressed 'cuz I was using a pretty weak character and figured I'd have to run Baal again. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased when I saw Deckard Cain giving the character their new title.

 

[Woof]

Re: A mini-question thread

Thanks all!

And yes, I did mean Tyrael, all these angels look the same to me

 

[Lostprophet]

Re: A mini-question thread

Ooh ooh let me try.

I've been trying to find a decent 2-socket shield for some time now, and none will drop. I've tried the socketing recipe twice, to no avail. However, I seem to remember something about upping a low quality item rerolling the iLvl to 1, which would affect the number of sockets, right? A low quality Grim Shield has dropped, so my question is: If I upgrade it to regular quality, will either Larzuk's reward or the socketing recipe guarantee 2 sockets? Or, rather, will 2 be the maximum number of sockets on a Grim Shield with iLvl 1? (I know the socketing recipe is random, but it would be 3/4 chance if I'm not mistaken).

 

[maareek]

Re: A mini-question thread

2 is the maximum number of sockets for any grim shield. BTW, you should bookmark this page so you can get instant answers to questions like that later on.

 

[Woof]

Re: A mini-question thread

Ooh ooh let me try.

I've been trying to find a decent 2-socket shield for some time now, and none will drop. I've tried the socketing recipe twice, to no avail. However, I seem to remember something about upping a low quality item rerolling the iLvl to 1, which would affect the number of sockets, right? A low quality Grim Shield has dropped, so my question is: If I upgrade it to regular quality, will either Larzuk's reward or the socketing recipe guarantee 2 sockets? Or, rather, will 2 be the maximum number of sockets on a Grim Shield with iLvl 1? (I know the socketing recipe is random, but it would be 3/4 chance if I'm not mistaken).

This handy page has a list of items and what their max number of sockets is for certain ilvls. According to the chart a Grim Shield will always have 2 sockets, so Larzuk would grant you 2 sockets even if you don't upgrade it to normal quality (but it never hurts to get a bit of extra def). I think with the cube socketing recipe, it would give a 5/6 chance of 2 sockets and 1/6 chance of 1 socket.

Edit: Bah, ninja'd

 

[Shagsbeard]

Re: A mini-question thread

3/4 and 1/4 if my understanding is correct... the /6 applies to weapons, which can have six sockets (as a general class) while shields can have at most 4 (again, not all shields, but shields in general).

 

[Woof]

Re: A mini-question thread

Ahh ok, I thought it was always x/6.

Another nooby question from moi, would the +15% Cold/Fire/Lightning Skill damage from Ormus' robes work with other sources of elemental damage, like say the elemental damage from Glimmershreds? Or does it only work if the skill itself deals the elemental damage, like from Frozen Arrow, Holy Shock etc.?

 

[pharaoh1]

Re: A mini-question thread

Another nooby question from moi, would the +15% Cold/Fire/Lightning Skill damage from Ormus' robes work with other sources of elemental damage, like say the elemental damage from Glimmershreds? Or does it only work if the skill itself deals the elemental damage, like from Frozen Arrow, Holy Shock etc.?

It'll work on the elemental damage from a weapon, provided you're using it in melee.

The +% damage from Ormus' Robes and similar items functions just like sorc fire and lightning masteries. These will boost any skill damage, and also boost elemental damage in melee attacks. This is why a sorceress using Enchant is said to get the Fire Mastery bonus twice. Say the base Enchant is 1000 damage, and +200% from FM. The damage then rises to 3000, and now she effectively is wielding a weapon with 3000 fire damage for the duration of the Enchant, and FM will boost that in melee attacks. The same thing would happen if you have +% damage and use a weapon that grants one of the paladin elemental damage auras: you'd get the boost on the skill's damage, then in melee attacks, you'd get it again (the pulse would only get it once, though).

The -res% mod that comes from Cold Mastery and some items will work with any damage of that type that you deal. However, it will not help your minions; remember that Hydra and assassin traps (except Fire Blast, Blade Fury, and Blade Shield) are considered 'minions' by the game.