Anything Goes D2 Lounge!

[Arjan]

Today I decided for a use for the pally... I still have some* NM Andy runs to do.

So, he is the lucky one to be transformed to a MF character for those long and lonely runs.
He has been doing 26 runs with 584 MF and I can still chuck two Ist's in a Ali Baba to take it over 600.

In general my speed isn't bad. I found a map where both floors are shortish.
Took some tries, wich weren't all intentional. I still had to get used to choosing Nightmare over Hell.
But we're set for future running...

*some = 1720 or as much as I need to find two Stones of Jordan.

 

[Crudesash]

Got the barb through Act 1, Andy was really easy for some reason, merc stayed alive the whole way and I didn't have to port back to town at all. She dropped an upgrade, and an Eth Gull, so I'll be thinking of creative ways to safely incorporate that into play, probably swap for chests and such.

 

[Arjan]

Got the barb through Act 1, Andy was really easy for some reason, merc stayed alive the whole way and I didn't have to port back to town at all. She dropped an upgrade, and an Eth Gull, so I'll be thinking of creative ways to safely incorporate that into play, probably swap for chests and such.

Nice… I did the same some time with the blade of Ali baba and a Rhyme shield. Used to grief to get the baddy to almost no health and then finish it off with Ali’s blade. Worked pretty well, but wouldn’t recommend this for a HC character. Popping chest is ok, only slows you down a bit

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Got the barb through Act 1, Andy was really easy for some reason, merc stayed alive the whole way and I didn't have to port back to town at all. She dropped an upgrade, and an Eth Gull, so I'll be thinking of creative ways to safely incorporate that into play, probably swap for chests and such.

Gull + Rhyme on Switch is a great idea, but just an FYI: magic find doesn't affect what drops from chests.

For Act end bosses and the like, you can whittle them down to almost nothing, move away to safety and switch to Gull, and let the merc finish them off. That will also stack any MF that the merc has (e.g., 23% MF from Insight) so you can pop up to 150%+ MF on switch quite easily.

 

[Crudesash]

Gull + Rhyme on Switch is a great idea, but just an FYI: magic find doesn't affect what drops from chests.

For Act end bosses and the like, you can whittle them down to almost nothing, move away to safety and switch to Gull, and let the merc finish them off. That will also stack any MF that the merc has (e.g., 23% MF from Insight) so you can pop up to 150%+ MF on switch quite easily.

I didn't realize it didn't affect chests; I wonder if it is something I forgot over the years.

Curious, if you have a swap that boosts your warcries, after you cast them, can you then remove them and equip the MF gear and keep the bonus to skills? That's way too clunky to do all the time, but maybe before certain kills it would be worth the time.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

AFAIK everything sticks once it's been cast. I used to do clunky prebuffs for enchantresses just to get some insane LCS damage, and the good news is, generally the more +skills you have, the longer the duration of such things, so you get some mileage out of it.

I think I've seen people do what you describe, e.g., keep a PTopaz armor in their cube when running act-end bosses and pop it on right before merc finishes off the boss.

 

[coju]

Would gull offhand be safe if bezerking or singing?

Found out I have the runes for Grief recently and have been having fun in the trav with an FoH build so decided to make a horker. Leveled to 30, switch to singer. Just killed ancients. Level 39 iirc now. In a round About way, just half way there!

 

[Arjan]

BARBDAY! got him to WSK level 2 WP so in 4 days we'll be leaving normal. It's still safe and slow goings with concentration as mainskill (still 1 point in it and 6+ skills). But the extra def, the 65+% ctb and the large life pool make it doable.

 

[Crudesash]

Would gull offhand be safe if bezerking or singing?

Found out I have the runes for Grief recently and have been having fun in the trav with an FoH build so decided to make a horker. Leveled to 30, switch to singer. Just killed ancients. Level 39 iirc now. In a round About way, just half way there!

Yes, it should be, but I can't do much attacking with it since it's eth, and with only 9 durability...

I think I'll eventually wind up muling it off and using it on a twinked HC character, seems perfect for a summoner build.

 

[Arjan]

Today is a furyzon day. Which I will spend reinventing her.
Since I made her a mat she been running LK which doesn’t really ask anything but speed. But with the sorc rolling a perfect LK map she needs another purpose.

So… she’ll be fully geared and do Baal runs to gain some levels. Or run countess (or both). Or I’ll gear her for MF and use her to speed up the numbers on the NM Andy thing.

Either way, it means respeccing her. So that’s where we’ll start

Edit: respect her, put CtA and two spirits on her and treachery and gave it a spin. Countess and Baal are viable targets with her. WSK can be a bit of an issue (esecially LI) but treachery gives a new possibility to help kill them with reasonable speed. Throneroom and Baal are pushovers. So next up /p3

Countess is going just fine. So for now that will be her targets. I still need to get more of some gear so I don't need to switch gear between characters that much. And I still need a 35fcr Spirit (2nd one rolled bad). But this is a new start again.

I hit the most important breakpoints fhr and ias (could be a bit more). immu aren't what I'd like them to be and some skillers would be nice (somehow all but 1 amu and 1 charm are + skills to passive) but with 14 skillpoints unspent I shouldn't complain...

2nd edit: made a chains and put that on her and gave the merc the treachery. Seems to keep him alive better and the chains freed up a lot of space and made killing a lot easier

 

[Arjan]

I’m pretty happy how the furyzon turned out. She’s running parts of the game on p8 with not too many issues. River of flame with almost LI monsters only was… annoying but didn’t feel dangerous at all. I had to feed the merc a potion now and then but he’s doing nicely with the treachery and the zon with chains.

Next up is the sorc doing LK runs. Tried an exercise run just before I quit playing. Since both teleport as telekinesis are right button skills I think the time has come to do something I have postponed for over a year already… changing my skill keys from the F1-10 to the QWERTY part of the keyboard.

I played this game for decades with skills under the F-buttons so this might be a lifechanger for me.

Edit: “oh let’s do a few more Baal runs now everyone has gone again” great idea… especially since you already swapped your Spirit from the zon to the sorceress you big oaf

 

[Arjan]

LK running the way it “should” be done. Perfect map, sorc, and go.

I thought my zon was doing decent, but the amount of runs I can do now is incredible.

I did change my skill keys and it took some getting used to resulting in a dead or two, but the last 90 minutes I popped those chests like a maniac… and got nothing above Hel

But the next run will be better!

 

[coju]

I’m pretty happy how the furyzon turned out. She’s running parts of the game on p8 with not too many issues. River of flame with almost LI monsters only was… annoying but didn’t feel dangerous at all. I had to feed the merc a potion now and then but he’s doing nicely with the treachery and the zon with chains.

Next up is the sorc doing LK runs. Tried an exercise run just before I quit playing. Since both teleport as telekinesis are right button skills I think the time has come to do something I have postponed for over a year already… changing my skill keys from the F1-10 to the QWERTY part of the keyboard.

I played this game for decades with skills under the F-buttons so this might be a lifechanger for me.

Edit: “oh let’s do a few more Baal runs now everyone has gone again” great idea… especially since you already swapped your Spirit from the zon to the sorceress you big oaf

Welcome to the WEF TAC!



(Wolf pack with left side keys)

 

[Crudesash]

Playing on my Fanazealot, and this dropped in a false tomb:

First ever, and highest rune ever. It took me a second to realize what it was. Dropped from a random skellie.

Edited to save your eyeballs

 

[Arjan]

Welcome to the WEF TAC!



(Wolf pack with left side keys)

I still need to figure out how to best use those as best as possible. With the sorc it’s really easy with only teleport, telekineses and spacebar for showing items. But if I have a lot of skills to use?

Most used will go up front and pre-buff go at the bottom. But how do you choose between left click skills and right clicks? Just see what works best I guess?

 

[coju]

It’s “fun” because you now get to rebind quest, skills, and all that fun stuff…

Quest is like U or Y.
Skills is the other.
I and B are inventory.
V is show items (more useful when it wasn’t a click to keep showing). I tried space, but I enjoyed that for closing all windows.
G is Stats.

Q always TP Book
S always teleport (it was also Summon Skeleton, but I have hopes of making an Enigma by 2025)
W is armor buff (or cloak of shadows)
Z is speed buff (and summon skeleton)
FDC are most common skills I switch through
A is the Fear Skill/Telekinesis
F1-4 are now Barb Shouts
E is utility (clay golem, taunt)


But good luck! I’m sure you’ll switch it up twelve times before settling with one!

Good thing now is each toon can have their own key bindings!

 

[Arjan]

It’s “fun” because you now get to rebind quest, skills, and all that fun stuff…

Quest is like U or Y.
Skills is the other.
I and B are inventory.
V is show items (more useful when it wasn’t a click to keep showing). I tried space, but I enjoyed that for closing all windows.
G is Stats.

Q always TP Book
S always teleport (it was also Summon Skeleton, but I have hopes of making an Enigma by 2025)
W is armor buff (or cloak of shadows)
Z is speed buff (and summon skeleton)
FDC are most common skills I switch through
A is the Fear Skill/Telekinesis
F1-4 are now Barb Shouts
E is utility (clay golem, taunt)


But good luck! I’m sure you’ll switch it up twelve times before settling with one!

Good thing now is each toon can have their own key bindings!

This is really giving me a lot of ideas how to do this better! Thanks a lot for that…
There are so much more things I can assign a key to, like TP and teleport (if I indeed get an Enigma one day)

The space bar is great for closing screens. I really missed that with the sorc. But I have some issues with my left hand making it less movable then I would like… so I need to consider that when I plan my bindings

 

[coju]

This is really giving me a lot of ideas how to do this better! Thanks a lot for that…
There are so much more things I can assign a key to, like TP and teleport (if I indeed get an Enigma one day)

The space bar is great for closing screens. I really missed that with the sorc. But I have some issues with my left hand making it less movable then I would like… so I need to consider that when I plan my bindings

My mouse has 4 extra keys that some games have trouble recognizing, so I’ve macrod them to like the page up and down keys, for example.

Glad it helped some! Curious what you come up with! Key bindings are interesting!

 

[Arjan]

My mouse has 4 extra keys that some games have trouble recognizing, so I’ve macrod them to like the page up and down keys, for example.

Glad it helped some! Curious what you come up with! Key bindings are interesting!

Yeah mine has some extra buttons too. Need to get them useful too and get used to using them too.

So far I decided to use W, E and R for the main hand attacks and Z, X and C for the pre buffs from CtA.

Biggest issue I’ve run into is what key I want for weapon swap

 

[coju]

Yeah mine has some extra buttons too. Need to get them useful too and get used to using them too.

So far I decided to use W, E and R for the main hand attacks and Z, X and C for the pre buffs from CtA.

Biggest issue I’ve run into is what key I want for weapon swap

I use CTRL, but think about using ALT.