Ascent to 99, Izuna Reaches the Vertical Limit

[Brak]

maybe try it with CTC Howl and as mentioned a means of corpse disposal?

Awesome achievement Nano!

 

[PhineasB1]

Other than that, yeah, what you said. Kickers are terrific at single targets, but you have to be able to target Nihl of course. Maybe if you wield Stormlash or even Crescent Moon, that is a partial solution? Even if you don't get to target Nihl right away, you still take his life down already.

Mercy found Stormlash, so I feel at least the obligation to give it a go when Mercy hits 98. I'm thinking about going hybrid dancer using DS and maxed LS + synergies, and dropping fire blast to max dragon talon. I burned two tokens to try out Stormlash for Baal runs and was underwhelmed (hence using the second one). Pure traps is very powerful and maxed fire blast is pretty good for single targets also.

Edit: To be fair, I realized later that I hadn't upped the Gore Riders, which probably made a difference.

Congrats again to Nano -- I went back and read the updates linked in the summary, and it was quite a read, with lots of good info mixed in.

 

[Hookipa]

@NanoMist impressive feat to accomplish. It seems it was quite the journey to get there, congratulations!

 

[Nano]

Mercy found Stormlash, so I feel at least the obligation to give it a go when Mercy hits 98. I'm thinking about going hybrid dancer using DS and maxed LS + synergies, and dropping fire blast to max dragon talon. I burned two tokens to try out Stormlash for Baal runs and was underwhelmed (hence using the second one). Pure traps is very powerful and maxed fire blast is pretty good for single targets also.

Edit: To be fair, I realized later that I hadn't upped the Gore Riders, which probably made a difference.

Congrats again to Nano -- I went back and read the updates linked in the summary, and it was quite a read, with lots of good info mixed in.

I tested a pure kicker setup against Nihlathak recently and it has potential, so definitely try it out. In 30 minutes of testing, I was very close to the number of runs I would have completed with a trapper, and that was with poor play, so there's some room for improvement skill-wise. I didn't have a Stormlash to test, but I'd imagine saving a few seconds (2-3 max?) compared to a Fleshripper. Had to abort 2 runs due to chasing Nihlathak into poison clouds, so there will be some time loss there.

Random play notes:
I also tested Lacerator for amp, but went back to decrep on a reaper's merc since the additional slow is really needed to keep Nihlathak from running off every 2 seconds.
As I teleport in, shadow master will sometimes mindblast and convert the boars next to Nihlathak, making it easier to name lock.
Teleporting into poison clouds with both merc and shadow master results in the damage alternating between them, but not you.

Still, trapper has her advantages:
1. Easier to play in my opinion, no need to name lock Nihlathak and chase.
2. Less issues with Tomb Vipers, which is the greatest threat down there. I rather deal with corpse explosion, to be honest.
3. Very low abort rate.
4. Easy to reach 102% FCR breakpoint for teleport. I used 65% on kicker.
5. Better drops by killing all creeps.

Like Cyrax said, kicker is faster in theory. More testing needs to be done, but I'm calling it quits here. Running more Nihlathak wasn't exactly on Izuna's to-do list after hitting 99.

 

[Ancient Of Mu Mu]

Congrats NanoMist,

great read and achievement! (off to read full untwinked 99 thread)

I had no idea Nihl was so good for rune drops.....

cheers

 

[Nano]

Thanks! That'll be quite the thread to read.

I wouldn't say Nihlathak is that great for runes, considering the amount of time I spent running him. After looking up the drop chances, I'd say I was very lucky.