Cows as good as Baal Runs?

[Pherdnut]

Cows as good as Baal Runs?

It seems like by the time I'm done with a full cow run I've inched as far on my XP bar as I do in 8-player Baal games (level 89 atm). I'll check the exact XP gain tonight but are cows comparable? Baal runs are probably a little bit faster but I like gaining decent XP while trying to find those high rune worthy socketables.

 

[Thrugg]

You're already into xp penalties for being above the cows' level at 89 (they are only mlvl 81). This penalty will get steeper and steeper as you go up more.

Cows give you exp by virtue of quantity, not quality. There are around 500 of them on each level. Their base exp is ~40K, but the penalty for being above their level drops that to 20K and then the huge penalty for being level 89 drops it to 1600 (at higher levels all exp is nerfed, down to 8% at clvl 89). But, 500 of those is still 800K.

You are probably getting a lot of your cow exp from boss cows and minions. Those are mlvl 84, which means you are not getting the first penalty at all (you still get the second, big one). So maybe another couple hundred K from them.

By comparison, just Baal is worth 4.5M. Your penalties on him mean you get about 320K each time you kill him. Add on his minions though too and you can roughly triple that (each pack except the frst one is worth about 150K after penalties).

Altogether, fairly comparable (assuming full games for each). However, because of the penalties for level difference, you will very soon start to get much less for cows (by clvl 91 it won't be worth it anymore) whereas since Baal is 99 and his minions 88 they will be good value all the way into your 90s.

 

[Darnoc]

can pretty much everything drop in hell cows? I'm sure this has been covered before, but I don't feel like sifting through pages of search results that mention cows..

 

[jrlafrance]

can pretty much everything drop in hell cows? I'm sure this has been covered before, but I don't feel like sifting through pages of search results that mention cows..

According to Thrugg, Hell Hell Bovine are mlvl 81, so everything except TC84 and TC87 can drop there. I am assuming the alvl is also 81, so that would make unique/champions mlvl 84/83 respectively. So, the uniques can drop up to TC 84, but not TC87. Speaking of champions...I haven't done Hell cow runs, but do champion bovine spawn?

 

[Thrugg]

mlvl is not the same as TC. The two are related but not equal.
Cows are mlvl 81 but they can drop TC87. The only things that can't drop there are some of the higher qlvl uniques, because that is checked directly against mlvl - so you'll see more triple durability rares than you would like to.

You will not see these at all:

Tyrael's Might
Arachnid Mesh
Azurewrath
Crown of Ages
Stormlash
Tomb Reaver
Mang Song's Lesson
Andariel's Visage
The Gladiator's Bane
Arkaine's Valor
The Cranium Basher
Arioc's Needle
The Grandfather
Wolfhowl
Halaberd's Reign
Alma Negra
Shadow Killer
Kira's Guardian

and you will only see these from bosses and minions:

Medusa's Gaze
Dracul's Grasp
Hellrack
Wraith Flight
Boneshade
Dragonscale
Griffon's Eye

and these from champions or above:

Ormus' Robes
Head Hunter's Glory
Executioner's Justice
Schaefer's Hammer
The Reaper's Toll
Warshrike
Templar's Might

 

[helvete1]

Edit: Guess Thrugg had typed for hours already when I decided to make my post :lol:

 

[Quietust]

Hell Cows can drop from all treasure classes, including TC87 - I would know, having once found two low quality Archon Staves in the same run (whilst I was looking for an ethereal normal-quality one). However, since their mlvl is only 81, several uniques cannot drop from them (such as Arachnid Mesh, Azurewrath, Tyrael's Might, Andariel's Visage, Crown of Ages, and a bunch of others).

 

[Darnoc]

Thank you everyone for your input!

 

[Thrugg]

Edit: Guess Thrugg had typed for hours already when I decided to make my post :lol:

After the second or third time I typed such lists out I recognised that if I typed all the items in the game just once more into a (very large) Excel spreadsheet I could thereafter sort on them and copy paste them as required.
Saved my fingers a bit of exercise.

 

[helvete1]

Well, so you HAD typed for hours, then