- Mar 14, 2020
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Originally posted on November 24, 2018
First, congrats to @Gynli - amazing progress and mad style for pushing the bowazon to 97! Second, very cool to see the flurry of new entries, including the melee builds. Looking forward to following their journey! As for me:
* * *
Champion Pestilence and Alhizeer the Might Desert Merc (and Insight IG), Lvl 97 (pic)
Pestilence got back moving, and got the last half of 96 to reach the next level. I hadn't touched him since MFO warm up tourney in July, so it's nice to push him ahead again.
He was still focused on Pit runs, and was probably averaging ~8M/hr or so, as I was generally running pretty relaxed. No deaths, and only a few S&Es when mis-teleporting into fanaticism/might mob while amp’ed.
The one interesting moment was right around 2.95B, finally losing the IG (not sure to what actually). And then realizing that I hadn’t saved any Rals due to rolling caster amulets as he went. And I really haven’t picked up any low runes on the playthrough. He had just enough to cube up from Eld to remake the runeword He has been picking those low runes up ever since.
Finds were solid, which makes sense given the still relatively decent 239% MF that I wore through the end of the level. Drops meriting screenshots were (numbering is items found from Pit runs): a 10/54/40 Sharp GC of Vita, Mal #4, Gul #2, Ghostflame #2, Ber #1, Ist #6, this nice Lion Branded GC of Inertia, Stormspire, Steel Pillar, Griffon’s #2, Ist #7, and Lo #2. Crazy that it’s his second Griffon’s; I guess this one is a better roll
Other notable drops were Trang’s Helm #2, Stonecrusher #4, an eth 4os Thresher, Um #4, Pul #7 and #8, a 4os eth Giant Thresher, Medusa’s, Spirit Ward, eth Duriel’s shell, a 5/5 cold/die facet, Nat’s Mark, and these fun little charms/rares:
I really liked the map he rerolled and made a vid of a run at the end, which ended up being the one where Nat’s Mark dropped It shows how I approached the runs on the map pretty well.
As you can see, Pestilence has three shrines right on the path, which actually helped with XP gain average due to picking up XP shrines. The map also had up to six boss packs in the first little circle after entering, and then a carver nest that often had boss packs if not high numbers in the circle, and then the room immediately to the north. There weren’t regular boss spawns on the rest of the map if any bosses spawned after the shrine downstairs, so he could just skip the whole north portion and go straight to Level 2. The only drawback was average of 2-3 boss packs in Level 2, with one pack occasionally rolling.
Anyhow, now it’s time to consider next steps. He has only one respec, so I may do some testing with a twinked necro that’s been retired. I can pretty much replicate Pestilence’s gear, although the tester will be ~10 levels lower if I recall correctly. He also has one socket quest left, and I think it will go to the Griffon's, due to still not having improved on 1/20 rare. I guess he could luck out, but it seems like the socket will get put to use in meantime for +life, resists, or vita depending on the target. Which brings us to:
-- Pits: Pestilence did 2 runs on the Pit map, and he’s getting around 60k/run, which is about half of the average for 96-97. So continuing in the Pit would likely mean ~4M/hr. We'll do a few more runs to get a more reasonable estimate of XP/hr on the current map though.
-- CS: CS could theoretically be faster XP gain, but I hadn't been able to make it work in earlier levels. I didn’t spec for Attract (or any in the Dim Vision curse tree arm), so maybe that would make a difference to take the heat off Pestilence while he waits for the first few corpses. Based on testing by @ffs it seems he will want that for Nihl anyhow. And he also will have to assess whether the 6 skill points sunk into LR are worth it (seemingly not for 98-99 at Nihl, but maybe needed for CS; so if attract is needed to make CS work and LR is needed, that may be ruled out due to limited respecs and wanting to maximize skill points to CE).
-- Nihl: And Nihl remains the most intriguing choice. I’m a bit worried about having only ~2600 hit points, but Hiatus did fine with around 2550, and Aldurs and Dwarf Star would bump him closer to 2800, I think. He could drop from 125 FCR and wear Shako for extra vita and mana, but that's likely a big efficiency trade off.
So I think I’ll focus testing on Nihl with different set ups and CS. Feedback is most welcome, especially from @ffs based on his testing. Either way, I think I'll take a little break from him for at least a few days and maybe until after I get back from trip east to visit my family the first full week of December. So I won’t have to make the decision right away.
Instead, I will spend the more limited time I’ll have for the next 10 days on some testing with the twinked necro, the Trio of Twins barb (inspired by recent Barb entries to get him moving again), and LK runs with Quinta. Speaking of which . . .
First, congrats to @Gynli - amazing progress and mad style for pushing the bowazon to 97! Second, very cool to see the flurry of new entries, including the melee builds. Looking forward to following their journey! As for me:
* * *
Champion Pestilence and Alhizeer the Might Desert Merc (and Insight IG), Lvl 97 (pic)
Pestilence got back moving, and got the last half of 96 to reach the next level. I hadn't touched him since MFO warm up tourney in July, so it's nice to push him ahead again.
He was still focused on Pit runs, and was probably averaging ~8M/hr or so, as I was generally running pretty relaxed. No deaths, and only a few S&Es when mis-teleporting into fanaticism/might mob while amp’ed.
The one interesting moment was right around 2.95B, finally losing the IG (not sure to what actually). And then realizing that I hadn’t saved any Rals due to rolling caster amulets as he went. And I really haven’t picked up any low runes on the playthrough. He had just enough to cube up from Eld to remake the runeword He has been picking those low runes up ever since.
Finds were solid, which makes sense given the still relatively decent 239% MF that I wore through the end of the level. Drops meriting screenshots were (numbering is items found from Pit runs): a 10/54/40 Sharp GC of Vita, Mal #4, Gul #2, Ghostflame #2, Ber #1, Ist #6, this nice Lion Branded GC of Inertia, Stormspire, Steel Pillar, Griffon’s #2, Ist #7, and Lo #2. Crazy that it’s his second Griffon’s; I guess this one is a better roll
Code:
Griffon's Eye
Diadem
Defense: 201
Durability: 17 of 20
Required Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x75fee21f
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+25% Faster Cast Rate
-20% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+11% to Lightning Skill Damage
+147 Defense
Code:
Doom Spiral
Ring
Required Level: 74
Fingerprint: 0x3561afe
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Minimum Damage
+45 to Attack Rating
6% Mana stolen per hit
All Resistances +11
Poison Resist +24%
Natural Grand Charm of Balance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x97751a37
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Elemental Skills (Druid Only)
+12% Faster Hit Recovery
Witch-hunter's Coronet of Life Everlasting
Coronet
Defense: 36
Durability: 23 of 30
Required Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0xa6e5b802
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
Damage Reduced by 22
Amber Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xe9a89fbf
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery
Lightning Resist +11%
Graverobber's Grand Charm of Strength
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x6896df6b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)
+6 to Strength
Anyhow, now it’s time to consider next steps. He has only one respec, so I may do some testing with a twinked necro that’s been retired. I can pretty much replicate Pestilence’s gear, although the tester will be ~10 levels lower if I recall correctly. He also has one socket quest left, and I think it will go to the Griffon's, due to still not having improved on 1/20 rare. I guess he could luck out, but it seems like the socket will get put to use in meantime for +life, resists, or vita depending on the target. Which brings us to:
-- Pits: Pestilence did 2 runs on the Pit map, and he’s getting around 60k/run, which is about half of the average for 96-97. So continuing in the Pit would likely mean ~4M/hr. We'll do a few more runs to get a more reasonable estimate of XP/hr on the current map though.
-- CS: CS could theoretically be faster XP gain, but I hadn't been able to make it work in earlier levels. I didn’t spec for Attract (or any in the Dim Vision curse tree arm), so maybe that would make a difference to take the heat off Pestilence while he waits for the first few corpses. Based on testing by @ffs it seems he will want that for Nihl anyhow. And he also will have to assess whether the 6 skill points sunk into LR are worth it (seemingly not for 98-99 at Nihl, but maybe needed for CS; so if attract is needed to make CS work and LR is needed, that may be ruled out due to limited respecs and wanting to maximize skill points to CE).
-- Nihl: And Nihl remains the most intriguing choice. I’m a bit worried about having only ~2600 hit points, but Hiatus did fine with around 2550, and Aldurs and Dwarf Star would bump him closer to 2800, I think. He could drop from 125 FCR and wear Shako for extra vita and mana, but that's likely a big efficiency trade off.
So I think I’ll focus testing on Nihl with different set ups and CS. Feedback is most welcome, especially from @ffs based on his testing. Either way, I think I'll take a little break from him for at least a few days and maybe until after I get back from trip east to visit my family the first full week of December. So I won’t have to make the decision right away.
Instead, I will spend the more limited time I’ll have for the next 10 days on some testing with the twinked necro, the Trio of Twins barb (inspired by recent Barb entries to get him moving again), and LK runs with Quinta. Speaking of which . . .