[Guide] The Time Traveler's Vortex - Part 1 - A guide to SPF Time Travel

[Albatross]

Originally posted by helvete on Jul 9, 2016

[Allright, here goes! I'll continually update this for as long as I'm around. I'll authorize in advance whoever may be the authority at whatever time to edit this guide, for the purpose of keeping it updated]

(best read with the accent of Londo Mollari, Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5)

Greetings, fellow Diablo 2 nerds! And welcome to my guide to the marvellous universe of time travel. The goal of this guide is to provide you with the knowledge required to obtain the most powerful items in the game, and to elaborate on how to advance with as little hassle as possible. Be advised, however, that embarking on a journey like this could take a rather long time, but, the rewards are manyfold, and some truly astounding items can become yours!


This guide will briefly mention the tech stuff and method I used to get any patch running with multiple instances. The gameplay will be a lot more in-depth in the guides to follow. In summary, we will look at the following patches:

1.00 - The original, classic Diablo II as it was shipped.

1.06b - Classic Diablo II, as patched as it got before the expansion was released.

1.07 - Lord of Destruction expansion as it came out of the box.

1.08 - LoD with working TC system but broken MF.

1.09b - LoD with the "players" command, which goes from 1-64

1.10a - The first glimpse of the game as we play it today.

1.10s - The last patch with items superior to 1.13d.

Bear in mind, no item or character can ever be brought back in time; only you have that ability.

The Why
Why the long journey? I'll try to elaborate on the why's for each patch before we get down to the how's. If you've ever read the patch notes, you probably thought to yourself that Blizzard didn't think the game balance very well through to begin with, and that they aren't very good at fixing bugs. That thought is true, but sadly not the whole truth. In the patch notes, a LOT of what they fixed/broke/changed isn't listed at all (which doesn't make writing this guide any easier...). I've been running a few tests, but sadly, I do not have any code digging skills, and the people who did dig into the code have lost interest in this game after only sixteen years! I, for one, still get value for my money, and if you are into character optimization without breaking forum rules, then please read on.

During sixteen years since Diablo 2 was released, items, monsters and even characters have been changed with patches. However, pre-existing items were very rarely affected by these patches, and even if they were, the effects were usually beneficial. What we want to do is to get these items to pre-exist.

I am not aware of any changes to items from 1.00 through 1.06b, except that some items couldn't drop until about 1.04. The reason to start in 1.00 and not 1.04 or 1.06b however, has to do with monsters and skills, not items.

Regarding Monsters:
- The Cow King can be killed without penalty whatsoever in 1.00 and 1.01
- Spawned monsters, such as maggot eggs and maggot young give exp and drop items (although at a lesser rate than pre-existing monsters). This makes for some great exp opportunities, especially since the command to set single player simulated additional players (known in 1.10+ as the "/players" command, but was actually introduced in 1.09 just without the / and with no confirmation from the game as to what actually happened) wasn't available.

Items to look for in pre-LoD versions (1.00-1.06b):
- Rare boots
These can have up to 19 strength/dex and 20% faster hit recovery. Also available are mana, life, and the single resists have a 9% greater range than in LoD. For some, up to 119% extra gold will be a real treat, as 80% is the max in LoD. Rares don't drop very frequently from anything but the Cow King, but the Secret Cow Level wasn't restricted to one king kill until patch 1.02, so that's not a problem in 1.00. Furthermore, a pair of boots (normal ones) cost 2500 gold to gamble, regardless of character level, so one can gamble them very efficiently.

- Rare belts
Can't have more than 19 str, but can have 19dex and 9% greater resists, same as boots. Also the goldfind max is 119%, which is almost 50% better than anything in LoD. Very cheap to gamble, at 2200 gold for a sash. In LoD, however, most will use String, Goldwrap or Arach, and only the goldfind chars will see real useable belts from pre-LoD.

- Unique rings
There are only three: Nagelring (which is worse than 1.09+), Manald Heal (which is the same) and The Stone of Jordan (which is also the same). Three distinct advantages, though. First of all, unique items pre-LoD were generated in a certain order if there were more than one. This was abolished with LoD, and replaced with a rarity system where uniqes are weighed first, then a rare would drop if the game chose a Nagel, but one had already dropped. Pre-LoD, the order is always Nagel -> Manald -> SoJ and Nokozan -> Etlich -> Mahim Oak. Cute. Second, uniques pre-LoD have neither level requirements nor quality levels. Which means that if a monster can drop the base, it can drop the unique, and if an item can be seen in the gambling screen, it could be unique, whith one exception, which brings me to the third advantage: A unique item can only generate if that unique hasn't yet been in the game. Contrary to LoD, equipped and stashed items DO count, which means that if Manald Heal and Nagelring are in the game, the next unique must be a SoJ. This, combined with a 3% odds for a unique when gambling, makes getting those SoJs MUCH easier than in LoD, and that is even without level requirement. The usual level requirement will be applied if any unique is ever converted to LoD in any way, but not if it is kept in classic.

- Rare rings
These are similar to the rares we already know, but with greater range on most stats except strenght. Prismatic rings are always 15@, single resists go up to 39%, dual leech is possible and with greater leech than LoD, and they have really low level requirements. 6% mana leech available at character level 4... Ormus has a habit of handing out superb twinking rings for later patches.

- Rare amulets
These have amazing potential, with a minor catch. They need to be ilvl ** to get +2 character skills (which is magic only in 1.07). Only Diablo himself is high enough (lvl 90), and getting to a level where gambled items can reliably get ilvls this high is pretty tedious. Getting one for use in 1.00 is therefore difficult (requires lvl 84+ character or a Diablo runner), but with 1.04, the recipe for rerolling rares with 6 Perfect Skulls was introduced. And it always has ilvl 99 output! Needless to say, collect every skull possible, upgrade to perfect, mule off, send the mule, a cube and a couple rare amulets to 1.06b and cube away. +2 skills is pretty easy to get as well, since the affix pool is much more limited in classic. I'm unsure about dual, but both types of leech can spawn independently. Prismatic is also frequent, with a range of 15 to 24 (rolled independently). MF should in theory go as high as 48% on a rare, but this requires a combination of prefix and suffix. Single resists go up to 49% and life to 59. Mana could in theory reach **, but this also requires both prefix and suffix to roll perfect mana. Anyway, +2 skills is level req 67 as it has always been, but +1 is just lvl req 22, so potential for some unparallelled twinking gear.

- Gems
Yes, gems. They are always normal quality in hell (except moo moo farm). They are almost completely useless in classic, as you can't add sockets to items, and only grey items have them. However, any grade of sapphires, topazes, rubies and emeralds can be cubed ad infinitum in 1.07 with the ring recipes. Skulls are even better for 1.06b amulet cubing, although they must be perfect. Normal (and flawless) gems can be used with 1.10a to roll socketed magic weapons. Other perfect gems are best used for 1.07 prismatic amulets, but of course, perfect amethysts and rubies are very popular in 1.10+ for crafting. And then there's 1.08 crafts which require perfect gems.

- Normal (white) War Scepters
These can be shopped, and you'll want one with +3 Holy Shield for socketing and runewording in 1.10s

- Exploding potions
Buy from the potion guy (Lycander) in act II then forward to 1.07 as they cannot be bought there. You need them for the fire resist ring recipe along with rubies.

Items to look for in LoD 1.07

Oh my, where to even start? I'll have to divide this up into several subsections.

Uniques/sets
more or less complete list can be found here:
The highlights would be
- Vampire Gaze has 25% Damage Reduce and no cold damage, rest of stats like today, but always perfect
- Valkyrie Wing has IAS, FHR, FRW and FCR all at 30% which is the only 30%FCR from a helm ever
- Harlequin Crest (Shako) is 100%ED, +2 all skills, Indestructible, 50%MF and a whopping 40% max life
- Arkaine's Valor is 200%ED, +2 all skills, Indestructible, 30%FHR, 50% Fire res, +2 life/clvl and a stunning +2.5 vitality/clvl!
- The Gladiator's Bane has 25/20 PDR/MDR and Indestructible, but lower defense
- Hellslayer has +2 vitality/clvl and is Indestructible
- Wizardspike has 95% resist all
- Baranar's Star has +1.5 vitality/clvl but no elemental damage
- The Grandfather has Increase max life/mana 25% (but always 150% ED)
- War Traveler has 100% Extra Gold, +10 dex and MF fixed at 45% but no +str or damage
- Hellmouth has Cannot Be Frozen, the only gloves to ever have that
- Skullder's Ire has 30 vitality and 25 MDR, always 200% ED. (Same MF, but displayed as goldfind)
- Visceratuant has +2 necro skills and +80 life
- Gerke's Sanctuary has +1 vitality/clvl but no resists
- Kelpie Snare has Slows Target 100% (whatever that entails)
- Coldsteel Eye has 50% Crushing Blow
- Herald of Zakarum has Cannot Be Frozen and +1 Offensive Auras, but is otherwise terrible
- Arreat's Face has +0.5 max damage/clvl but is otherwise terrible
- Jalal's Mane has 25% Crushing Blow but is otherwise terrible (knockback...)
- Raven Claw is nothing special in this patch, but forward to 1.10+ for lvl 30 Exploding Arrow at lvl 15...
- M'Avina's Tenet has 10-15% manaleech and 40% FRW, the fastest run/walk on a belt ever.
- Laying of Hands has 50% Fire ABSORB, which makes characters fire immune until patch 1.10

Ethereal Weapons
Etherealness was different in 1.07; Armors had 50% enhanced defense (not base defense as in later patches) and weapons had 50% enhanced _maximum_ damage. For armors, this means a given eth armor always has the max defense possible, as base defense is set to max+1. Patch 1.11 introduced the cube socket bug, where etherealness was reapplied whenever adding sockets via the cube. As the 1.07 eth armors are NOT base defense, these will only win out against the current ones when the rune word applied doesn't have any enhanced defense on them (such as Treachery). For runewords such as Stone and Fortitude, with massive defense bonuses, current armors win by miles.
Weapons, however, will update their damage when brought forward to 1.09+. But the 50% enhanced max damage stays. This makes ANY 1.07 ethereal weapon vastly superior in 1.09+, and the higher the max damage (war pikes, berserker axes, thunder mauls...), the greater the benefit. You will never again look for socketed weapons in the current patch!

Crafted Items
I will refer you to Worg's 1.07 crafting miniguide, as it has all the currently available information.
The short version is, crafts in 1.07 can get magic only affixes, and up to 3 sockets from Larzuk. A Greater Safety Armor could get 30PDR and 3 sockets for a whopping 51 PRD with SOL runes. Amulets can get +3 skilltab with prismatic and mana, while the bugged lifeleech items will solve any leech problems with just one item...

Magic Items
Larzuk can put up to four sockets in a magic item, which makes for some killer armor, especially druid/barb helms. +3 warcries with +3 Find item, 100 life and 3 sockets anyone? Or +3 elemental skills with +3 nado, hurricane and cyclone armor? Sadly, only paladin shields can ever get 4 sockets in 1.07, and circlet-type headgear can only have one. Still, a Cruel Phase Blade of Quickness with 4 sockets could see some use, and don't forget that ethereal items will update their damage with an extra 50% max damage, so imagine the Cruel War Pike of Quickness, ethereal with 4 sockets! (One was found by WorG, named the "Spear of the Gods")

Cubed Rings and Amulets
Now, THIS is when 1.07 gets really interesting. Especially if you have a steady supply of gems from 1.00.
There are five recipes which can be used. In detail, these are
1 - Prismatic amulet (any amulet + 1 of each perfect gem except skull)
This will roll an amulet with a "hidden" prismatic affix, which rolls 6-36 light/fire/cold and 12-72 poison resist. "Hidden" in this case, means this amulet is NOT a magic "Prismatic Amulet (of X)" but ANY amulet with odds 1:1000 unique, 5:1000 rare, 8:1000 set, and 986:1000 magic. ilvl=clvl*0.66 rounded down. Sadly, this means no Mara's, but you could still get Tal Rasha's or Sarachen's Chance. Or imagine twinking with Angelic combo when the amulet has 30/30/30/60 resists? Also, the hidden modifier has no level requirement, so any amulet is a potential twinking gem!
2 - Coral Ring (any ring + 2 topazes [any quality])
Works the same way as the prismatic amu recipe, but adds 6-36 Lightning Resist as the hidden modifier. Hope for Fortutious Ring of Fortune, SoJ or even Angelic Halo. Odds for SoJ are really dim, but only requires clvl 60 to be possible. Actually, using a lvl 60 character is optimal, since a lvl 76 character could give a Raven or Dwarf, which are both worse than their 1.09+ counterparts
3 - Jade Ring (any ring + emerald [any quality] + antidote potion)
Same as above, but with posion resist. Poison resist isn't very important, but still a nice way to reroll rings.
4 - Garnet Ring (any ring + ruby [any quality] + exploding potion)
Same as above, but with fire resist. Fire resist would make for an excellent addition to a SoJ, wouldn't it?
5 - Cobalt Ring (any ring + sapphire [any quality] + thawing potion)
Same as above, but with cold resist. This recipe, however, is bugged in such a way that if the prefix "Triumphant" rolls (on a rare or magic), the cold resist will disappear, and be added to the Triumphant value. The result of this is a ring with 7-37 mana per kill, which is outrageous! Roll these with a level 8 character to also have the suffix "of the Apprentice" available, making for a possible 37MPK 10FCR ring; even better if it rolls rare! Possibly the most broken ring obtainable. Easy to get when rolling with a lvl 8 char, but it gets harder as more affixes are available. Still, when you have 4-5 of them, start using your highest level character for these, for a chance at higher affixes such as prismatic, str, dex, high mana or individual resists.

Charms
1.07 charms are infamous for their damage. In short, +40 max damage is possible on Grand Charms, while +12 is possible on Small Charms. Also, single resists can be up to 12 on small charms and 36 on grand charms, while all resists can be 6 on small charms and 20 on grand charms. Elemental damage cannot spawn, which increases the odds of a good damage charm. MF and GF, however, is horrible. 1.07 also has areas with level higher than 90, so any charm found in chests here could be forwarded to 1.09+ and cubed for a chance at a skiller with 41-45 life.

Rare jewels, gems and Perfect Skulls
Forward them to 1.08 to reroll for possible 6-affix jewels, as 1.07 rare jewels are limited at three affixes and with much lower magnitude. Gems are for crafting, and need not be perfect, unless you're going for the prismatic amulets. I personally cube all flawless, and only leave diamonds and amethysts of the lower grade gems. Well, flawed and chipped skulls also.

Items to look for in LoD 1.08
- Windforce, the unique Hydra Bow. It has +35 dex instead of just 5 and can't spawn in 1.07.
- Rare Jewels and Perfect Skulls. Rare jewels can get 6 affixes in 1.08, best of any patch.
- Highlord's Wrath has 30% FRW instead of IAS
- Some greater crafts which are disabled or different in 1.07, most noteworthy caster amulets with up to 25%FCR, but also greater safety boots and belts can be very juicy.
- Raven Claw for twinking in 1.10+ if you didn't find one in 1.07 or 1.09b
- Some of the uniques are the same as 1.07 and rack odds are 1:800 for unique instead of 1:1000. BUT! Racks are capped at qlvl 75.

Items to look for in LoD 1.09b
- Raven Claw, the unique Long Bow (if you haven't found it in 1.07 or 1.08) as it gets lvl 30 Exploding Arrow when forwarded to 1.10+. Great twinking bow.
- Other uniques should have the stats we have all come to know, so get them for use in this patch.
- Countess' special rune drop goes up to Vex, reportedly in BOTH NM and hell, so she's a potential target for runes. I'd rather rush characters in 1.00, 1.07 or 1.09b to collect Hellforges in 1.10a/s but if you want a Vex in 1.09b she's your best hope.
- Small Charms come with 5% FRW, not 3% like 1.07 and 1.10+
- Not an item in itself, but 1.09b was where the "players (1-64)" command was introduced. Yes, it went all the way up to 64 back then. You can cheese-level extremely fast! Note that this ONLY applies to 1.09b, so if you want broken Chance to Cast for safer Occulus usage, you'll need 1.09d which is capped at players8.

Items to look for in LoD 1.10a
- BKWB (Bul Khato's Wedding Band) for its +2 all skills. What a prize!
- Cubing magic/socketed weapons with normal/flawless gems introduced (not just swords as in 1.09) and you can get a lot of sockets. [Needs confirmation/elaboration].

Items to look for in LoD 1.10s
The famous beta runewords! The big four are:

Call to Arms runeword with
+2 All skills (instead of 1)
level 5-15 Battle Orders (instead of 1-6)
level 5-20 Battle Command (instead of 2-6)
level 10-13 Battle Cry (instead of 1-4)

Crescent Moon with
220-260%ED (+40% compared to 1.10 final and later)
20% CtC Static Field (instead of 7%; almost three times as often)

Bramble with 69-207% to poison skill damage (25-50% in 1.10 final and later)

Delirium with higher overall CtC. 33% Confuse is triple the chance from 1.10 final,


The How
It used to be rather complicated getting all the files and software we'll need, but luckily, @fearedbliss has fixed, wrapped and posted everything we need here!

[Wow, that really cut down on this section!]

Links to be added [any time now]

- ATMA
- GoMule
- Sven's Glide Wrapper

 

[Albatross]

Acknowledgements
These people deserves special mention, either for their contributions directly, or for their previous work which I have based all of this upon:
@Treeharl for his great insight and even greater enthusiasm concerning patch 1.00
@Thyiad for her guidance, understanding and her enormous effort in keeping this place ship-shape
@fearedbliss for his outstanding version switcher, hosting it and helping when we run into trouble. Seriously, without his efforts, the time travel adventure would be a MAJOR PITA to get running!
@imakeigloospat for his insight on 1.00 and for the screenshots he's about to provide
@T72on1 for helping out aligning tables. (I'll update soon)

Then there are those whom I don't see around anymore, but who have contributed massively by leaving us with tools and invaluable information:
Thrugg, RTB, Orphan, Jarulf, Dr. Tenshi (creator of ATMA), @onderduiker (wow, you're still around? We need your help!! Shine the onderduiker light at the sky!) and everyone I've ever quoted, mis-quoted or linked to. My deepest appreciation indeed!


Oh, and please let me know of any broken links or images in the past, present or future, depending on which patch you're currently in

....and of course, any questions! Questions would be my primary source of motivation for improvements to this guide.

 

[Albatross]

A couple things. First of all, I want to thank you for the work you're doing on these guides. On a personal level, these will be extremely helpful for me specifically. I currently don't have time to capitalize on it, since I am so busy in my personal life. But I feel like anyone who is seriously becoming a top level player of d2 needs to time travel. Currently sources are extremely spread out and hard to find, with mostly broken links since the forum has undergone many changes through the years.

Secondly, and despite the fact that in many years to come, the links may also become broken, you should link to each section of your guide in the currently posted section. For example. this guide should have links to all patch version guides that you have made tonight. It appears that these guides are the most comprehensive that have ever been made here.

Last, I would like to ask you a personal question. I understand that putting together something of this magnitude really takes a huge time investment. Something like what you're doing has been on my own mind since I value d2 so highly as a video game. I have always thought it would be so cool to play through each patch to it's fullest, but I simply do not have the time right now to do that. It would take many years for me.

I understand if you don't wish to answer this so publicly, but I'm personally curious and if you'd like to respond in PM that'd be fine by me. How do you find time to do this? What inspired you to do this project? I envy your resolve and have been following your threads with enthusiasm. I think that what you're doing is one of the most important things that can be done with this forum and am quite surprised it hasn't been done in more detail in on place before. Information is fragmented at best. I have been digging through patch notes line by line to try to glean whatever I can from them, but really there is no way unless you simply play and see these patches. I imagine the time investment you've made is massive.

Edit: Embarrassing edit - you've clearly also posted other sections of guides today. They should definitely all link each other. Maybe all at the top of each post as an index for each other. Excellent posts. All of which should definitely be added to the sticky in the proper section.

Thanks for the kind words =)

*HomerDOH-Face*

Of course I should have linked it together from the get go. The reason that wasn't done, is that I just copy-pasted what I had in my .txt files and completely forgot. I'll fix that right away.

About finding time, although it is a personal question, it isn't of the kind I feel any need to keep secret. I squeeze what I can out of the time when my daughter sleeps, when my GF is in the gym, when I get home from drinking and don't feel like sleeping just yet, after band practice, sometimes my GF watches our daughter and I just relax with D2.... It's not what it used to be, some three years ago when I'd get home from work, have crappy dinner, then play past reasonable bedtime. But it is what it is, and research and time travel like this keeps me going. It'll keep me going until my retirement age, barring accident or illness =)

About the resolve, I just like familiar stuff. Even when watching vids, I often re-watch stuff I already know. Babylon 5 and Game of Thrones surely will get watched several more times, even if I've seen B5 like 10 times already. Getting too old to explore something new every day, I guess. That, and I had a few drinks before I posted the thread with the idea of doing this. Couldn't just butt out either, the idea was too well recieved

I've said it before, but I'll say it again ... your time travel posts and now guide are just so inspiring !!! Due to time issues I won't be doing any time travelling as for now, but chances are real I will at some point. And I'll blame you for it .

Must.. Install.. More.. Versions..

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster here.

I recently started playing 1.07 and I've been wondering, what's the usual procedure when forwarding items to newer versions? Is it just simple as: create a mule, stick items to mule, cut'n'paste mule's save files to version of choice (always forward ofc)? Is it safe to bring stuff from, say, 1.07 straight to 1.13, or should the items make a "pitstops" at 1.09 etc. or something? Does forwarding differ between versions? These are most likely no-brainers, but for some reason this has always been unclear to me.

I figured this would be something a guide like this could make clear to an idiot like me, regardless of versions. All in all, these guides have been inspiring read so far, even though I decided to skip pre-LoD versions for now. Looking forward for your insights regarding 1.07. There are so much interesting stuff in that version, but all the info is so scattered/out-of-date it's sometimes frustrating to try to find right answers. Keep up the good work!

Welcome to the forum!

Bringing items forward is as easy as you describe it, except for pre-LoD items which need a pitstop in 1.07 first. Regardless of vanilla/expansion use I believe. The mule with such items need to be opened in 1.07 first before being forwarded to later versions. If this is done, items will not change (except for possibly the name and maybe a few points of max damage). If this is NOT done, pre-LoD items will be completely rerolled, usually with bad results.

The 1.07 patch is indeed strange, and it is quite a massive task to get all the info into a few posts. A few key things are still not known (such as what causes crafted items to get ilvl99 from time to time and how affixes which shouldn't be able to spawn still spawns on lower ilvl crafts).

Still working on the 1.00 guide, as there is a lot of less important but still useful information to add, so the 1.07 version is probably a week or two away at best.

Thanks! Figured it must be something simple, otherwise there would most likely be more talk about it. Good to know about the pre-LoD stuff, though.

And please, take your time with the guides, it's not like I'm anywhere near done with 1.07, or time travel in general. Heck, I'm not even halfway done reading the 1.07 News, Info and Gossip thread, and it has already answered many of my questions. I'm not yet in actual crafting shape (lvl 57 FO/SF sorc, racking shakos and superchesting in LK), but after I get most of the boring rackstuff and leveling out of the way, crafting will most likely be my main focus, and I will pay extra attention to those quirks you mentioned about. Btw, are all the affix levels listed in Arreat Summit still relevant with older versions?

Racking is boring indeed, but I just can't give up on my map with both Lacquered Plate and Shako in the same run. What if I really need that 3rd shako....

Affix levels should be mostly the same. I think RTB mentioned quite some time ago that only very few of them changed. What DID change were the qlvls of almost every single elite item (and probably a lot of the other ones too).

I know what you mean. My current LK map came with TWO shako racks, one of them only two teleports away from waypoint. I figured I probably won't get better opportunity to get those 1.07 harleys anytime soon, so I decided to try and get at least two as quickly as possible. As of last sunday, one down, (at least) one to go. Now I'm taking a small break, levelling, questing and MFing sets @ Bloodraven's.

My plan is to eventually bring some useful items to 1.09, to outfit a new character who, after levelling enough, I will transport to 1.10a and start running Andy. Also, at some point I'll most likely need to do some HF rushing. Not really looking towards those very much. Rushing hurts my brain and Andariel feels somewhat redundant. Also, my luck with unique jewelry, not that great. So yeah, I'll take the boring racking gladly for now. I'll probably post some more progress stuff in the 1.07 gossip thread at some point, don't want to hijack this one with 1.07 jargon.

(speaking of jewelry luck, I cubed bunch of rings and gems today, and this came out. Not very useful, but it's something you don't see every day. Next up: Light-res SoJ? Fat chance.)

"- Countess' special rune drop goes up to Vex, reportedly in BOTH NM and hell, so she's a potential target for runes. I'd rather rush characters in 1.00, 1.07 or 1.09b to collect Hellforges in 1.10a/s but if you want a Vex in 1.09b she's your best hope."

One more comment here: HF rushing isn't an easy task and probably can't efficiently take place until one has a well geared sorc + high lvl BO (mercs help too but most people don't bother with them)

That said, vex rune specifically is very easy to get in 1.07 LK. There are 2-3 patterns for the superchests Which gives it approximately the same chance per run (according to atma calc) as you would from 1.09 countess on /p1. However, LK is much much much faster and can be coupled with great racks or just crafting materials/charms. Plus you can get a Lo rune 1/11k runs since there is one pattern (to later use to make sur for beta bramble, most likely). I believe there is also a gul/ist pattern but I never found one myself.

That said, amazing work. Might want to mention ghoul hide gloves for 1.07 useful uniques. (more dmg per clvl to undead)

It's not very easy, but as you gear up in 1.00 it gets easier. Hell Duriel is the only real threat, and just pop in with a WW barb for that.

Didn't know 1.07 LK superchests were that good. I'll make sure to include this information.

This is the one pattern, right? That one really caught me off guard, wasn't really expecting to see HR so early in 1.07. There was also a ruby in that drop but I picked it up before I saw the Lo (Are gems even pattern specific or random like gold? Or is even the gold random?). I don't think I was more than 200 runs in at that point. Guess I got lucky, though I've been wondering what to actually do with it. Beta Bramble you say? I don't know, it seems kind of a niche item to waste an Ohm in. Are there other builds beside rabies druid that would benefit from it?

I really hope that one of those Vex runes eventually drop, would save me from a lot of pain. My current map only has one fireplace, so after I get my second golden shako I'm going to reroll (breaks my heart) to something with 6 superchests and hopefully useful racks. Thank goodness I've done so much LK rerolling in 1.13 so it shouldn't be that big of a problem, patience wise.

Ghoulhides can drop from monsters in 1.07, right? I mean, they most likely can since I just got Trang's Heavy Bracers from Bloodraven. I need to keep an eye on those.

A high roll beta bramble could be a very useful leveling tool for venomancers. Probably the best build to get a necromancer to 98 in 1.10+. Possibly 99 if doing Diablo, but I'd probably respec to BS/CE for Nihlathak running for the last level.

I can see assassins prebuffing Venom with this being pretty strong too, and ofc rabies druids would drool all day long over a high roll beta bramble.

Problem is the difference between high and low rolls, as the range is so big. I'd say a Lo could possibly go in a weapon for a Druid or Paladin (as assassins and barbarians have their bugged mastery rendering DS useless and the effect would be small for Amazons due to CS).

Even just forwarding to 1.10 FAM and make a Grief or Fortitude.

Hmm, I do have lvl 91 poison necro running Pits in 1.13 at the moment, but I don't really have plans to level up him more than p7 runs do due their course. Besides, can Bramble really be more effective than Enigma? I mean, without Enigma it would be no brainer, but I don't think there will be ever coming back from teleporting. And damage wise he's doing ok right now, and I don't even have Death's Web yet. Dunno, I'll have to look into it. Maybe some whacky Poison Dagger build?



Assassin pre-buffing seems to be more of a PvP thing, and I play only single player. Rabies Druid is an intriguing choice. I feel I've neglected shape-shifting builds, and having beta Bramble would be a strong reason to build one



Low roll on the Bramble would most likely crush my enthusiasm towards D2 for a while So yeah, it's a gamble. I think I'd rather just make another beat CTA with the Ohm Bramble needs. It all comes down to how easily I can (or rather: how painful it is to) collect the runes for the beat RWs.

I've only made plans towards making a sorc and barb in 1.07 for now, but you never know. Paladin is unlikely, but Fury Druid could be something I could try, since I haven't got one in 1.13. Some crafted phase blade with deadly strike would be fun. This is a strong contender.



I thought about forwarding it, but i currently have 3 Los gathering dust in my stash, as I have all the Fortis and Griefs I need in 1.13 (I mostly enjoy caster builds). i'm quite positive I've found more Los than Ists or Ohms during my current Diablo 2 run (that is, since 2012). I think I've found at least 4 just during casual questing. So bringing 1.07 Lo forward would somehow undermine it's rareness

I don't know. maybe I just keep it in stash as a nice trophy that it no doubt is, useful or not.

Oh, and one thing about 1.07 LK running that may be worth mentioning in the guide. The way Telekinesis works in 1.07 makes running LK really efficient and safe, as you can pick up everything, not just gold&potions, with TK. Sometimes the superchest huts spawn with enemies inside, so you can just pop the chest with TK and pick stuff from a safe distance. When did they change that?

Very interesting. I always wondered why we can't pick up more stuff with TK. Apparanly we could for a while, but not anymore. Not saying it makes sense that you can pick up an entire heavy armor with your mind, but just a simple rune should go, if gold and potions (and keys I think) are possible.

It seems they changed it in 1.09. My guess is that it gave sorceresses an unfair advantage when salvaging drops in multiplayer.

Actually, it was to prevent a common scam involving people dropping items at a "safe" distance to "prove they are real". You can guess the rest.

 

[Albatross]

Yes that is the pattern. I doubt there are others given the number of runs people have done in 1.07 and I did after all read through the entire 1.07 info news and gossip thread 2 years ago (which is why I'm semi-certain there is a gul or ist pattern, though I never got one). Never used bramble, myself

I've never been into time travel myself, but I must admit this is one of the most important projects I've ever seen on this forum. Those OP items coming from the past that are usually posted in IFTs always made me wonder how many of those are around in previous patches and how to get them, so it's great that someone took courage and decided to make a comprehensive guide about it. Way to go @helvete, and thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

Thanks for the kind words @zticazzy =)

It is astonishing how the game has changed over the years indeed. I know you like a challenge, so why don't you get into patch 1.00 and get a WW barb to lvl 90? The game was much simpler back then, but kinda charming regardless.

I plan to stick around for many years to come, so I will try to update this pet project of mine as much as possible. I'm no tech wizard, however, so the majority of the credit should go all around the internet. I just scrape the pieces together as best I can =)

You're all welcome. I did a page by page ctrl f search in the 1.07 thread (20 posts per page...) for "gul". Lots of "gull" which was annoying and it wasn't until thee very last one that I got a pattern for it :/


For convenience, here it the gul pattern, with only a halberd (nice!)
http://s666.photobucket.com/user/Mostly-Harmless_2009/media/Screenshot026.jpg.html

I might repeat the process for "vex" later but there's no way i'm doing it for ist.

Vex patterns:







Probably only 2 of them, total. Also at least one um pattern but probably more. I never kept track of that and don't care enough to look.

So 1/11k for Gul, 1/11k for Lo, 1/5.5k for Vex runes. Much more efficient than 1.09 countess for getting vex runes (time-wise) and lots of other goodies especially if you're aiming for beta CtA

edit: there were more posts that reference vex patterns but nothing else that referenced different patterns, so I didn't quote all of them

You'd be looking to check druid helms for possible +3 elemental +3 nado/hurri/cyclone 3sox from larzuk 100 life ones, so that vex would be hard to miss =)

Very nice effort @pharphis ! Having this info in the 1.07 guide will be great. I have begun typing it all out, but theres SO MUCH INFO to squeeze into a few posts. I'll have to resort to some shortcuts for the time being. The 1.07 guide will probably require a lot of tuning.

This isn't exactly correct - 1.09 NM Countess doesn't drop Gul and Vex - her bug is dropping Hell TCs, so you can get a LoH from her.

I defer you to an old guide I wrote on 1.09:

http://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/robbyds-time-travelers-guide-to-1-09-v1-1.753642/

Yo, RobbyD, how long is an efficient hell countess run (for vex rune rates)? Do you remember your average time? I forgot the maps were small (I guess this changed in 1.10+?) so that certainly helps the case for running her

Hey Pharphis - I had a character built for just that purpose - a 105FCR Nova Sorc "GIEB_VEX" - I documented my quest back when I did it. I don't remember the exact run time, but it was well less than a minute with a decent map. That thread appears to be elusive, but here's the Mat thread for my Countess runner:

http://www.diabloii.net/forums/thre...-09-nova-orb-meteor-countess-runner-i.793623/

I'll look for the GIEB VEX thread in the meantime.

*************************************

OK, found it:

http://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/ok-im-going-to-try-whining-here-geib-vex-kountess-ifr.790030/

Per this post, run times are <1 min.

http://www.diabloii.net/forums/thre...b-vex-kountess-ifr.790030/page-3#post-7812306

Nice @pharphis ! Good to see the Gul pattern is easy to notice, though noticing white runes hasn't been as hard as I feared. So there isn't an Ohm pattern in 1.07 LK? Seems kind of strange, since there's Lo.

So what I gather from this and @RobbyD 's info is, that you should get your Gul-Vex runes from 1.07 LK, and Um/Mal/Ist from 1.09 Countess, right? I'm guessing 1.09 LK is an option too (it's strange if they made it worse between the versions) but since 1.07 LK gives so much more useful stuff, it's a moot point.

How can she not drop the same runes if the TCs are the same? Runes are base items in rune TCs, so if NM and hell TCs are the same, shouldn't the runes be the same too?

EDIT: They didn't intentionally make superchests worse or better between versions, but they did actually FINISH the TC system with 1.08, and change drop rate of jewels at least in 1.09, probably some rune changes as well.

Depends on what you want to do with the runes. If you want to do crafting in 1.07, hell forge rushes in 1.07 will give tons of those runes. I usually saved the 'hell' drop for forge in 1.10a or 1.10s and collected the nm drop in 1.07 (runes up to um)

I'm not aware of any consistent way to get mal/ist/ohm in 1.07 itself though patterns for at least 1 of these runes probably exist in 1.07 RoF. Other than that you're pretty much left with cows or council (got a ber, Lo, guls but not mal/ist/ohm :/)

I'm pretty sure they changed the drop mechanics and ties between items and TC in 1.10+. For example, all monsters are level 90 in Hell Act 4 and 5, but the Windforce can only drop from a few monsters in A5.

But for the Countess, we are talking about her special rune drop anyway.



Actually, what I would say is that 1.09 Hell Countess is hands-down your BEST choice for pre-1.10 Gul and Vex. Anything above that would probably be better farmed from 1.07 LK.

Gul, yes. Vex, I don't think so. 1.07 LK is just as efficient per run (~1/5.5k runs), but the average run should be 2 times faster

@helvete Finally, I started reading this, and will plan for time traveling just because of this guide (I have a 1.10a char for the purpose of beta BKWB, but I haven't played for a long time).

One thing I spotted



You have two "magic" there. Did you mean "set" for one of them?

Meant set, yes.

After 3 years away from the game, I've decided to return and give 1.07 a shot. I played extensively on 1.09 back in the day but I never sunk any time into the strange and crazy 1.07.

However, after my initial excitement and character planning and 3 hours of trying to get 1.07 to work, I'm left more confused then when I started. Downgrading to 1.07 is stupidly complex it turns out (or I'm just stupid...). I'm very angry and frustrated this is so difficult.

Here's a summary of my attempts to get 1.07 working and what I've learned.
1. The latest patch 1.14d which I have installed deletes several key files making it impossible to downgrade to 1.07.
2. I uninstalled the game and re-installed to patch 1.13c as the instructions state.
3. I downloaded BlissVersionSwitcher and went through several steps to ensure UAC is not interfering with BlissVersionSwitcher (disabled UAC and also ran the UAC batch file provided to prevent any UAC issues.
4. Copied over the Expansion folder Bliss provides into my Diablo 2 folder (containing all the patch folders from 1.07 to 1.13d).
5. I ran the Bliss jar file using my current 1.13c patch information to double check everything is working. It is working great.
6. I mount my Diablo 2 1.12a expansion ISO to Drive G with Daemon Tools Lite. I change Diablo 2 CD drive letter in my registry to G. I look for Securom emulation which I believe Diablo 2 needs in order to correctly check for the CD. It doesn't exist in the latest version of Daemon Tools Lite and then I read up and realize that Windows 10 removed support for Securom making running my old Diablo CD's impossible - is this correct? CDs are a moot point because my current computer does not have a CD Drive. I will have to find an ISO mounting solution.
7. I create the 1.07 path in the Bliss jar and press the launch button. Obviously nothing happens because I don't have a 1.07 CD in the drive or a 1.07 partial ISO as helvete does.

Somebody please help me. I'm losing my mind trying to get 1.07 to work. I think the issue is I don't have a 1.07 partial iso file which the game is checking for. If someone is kind enough to send me this, will that fix the problem or will mounting the iso in Daemon Tools not work anymore because Securom has been removed from Windows 10?

1. The 1.14+ patches doesn't delete files, it merges them into the game.exe. Probably some sort of anti-hack measure, but it rendered the bliss version switcher (at its current edition at least) unable to function.
2. Correct
3. Correct
4. Correct
5. Good.
6. No securom is needed, but the image would have to be 1.07, not 1.12 as they changed the file structure with that patch (to allow no-cd or something, I don't know the specifics) and 1.12 disks or images cannot run any earlier patch AFAIK. Changing the drive letter in registry should only prevent a few error messages on first startup I think.
7. I believe the bliss version packages will be updated very shortly, with all missing pieces. 1.00 and 1.07 partial images, as well as the modified d2gfx.dll for 1.00-1.06b which some people have already been asking for via PM.

When that is said, I really REALLY recommend starting in 1.00, for a multitude of reasons. An incomplete list in no particular order:
- Nostalgia factor is immense. Breathtaking. So many things were changed.
- Experience sorceresses with NO cast delay and WW barbs with 1FPS WW
- Unlimited Cow King runs with awesome drops
- After playing for a while, basically free SoJs
- Getting +2 character skills rare amulets for 1.07 (as they cannot spawn there, you HAVE to get them in 1.00 or 1.06b)
- Rushing characters to save ancients quest
- Leveling characters from lvl 1 to lvl 60+ without having to recreate and rejoin ever

Really appreciate the response. I guess it's just a waiting game until 1.00 and 1.07 partial images are available. I dug all around the web to purchase a 1.07 Diablo Battlechest but there was nothing out there guaranteeing the chests weren't the updated 1.12a with the No CD patch. I think 1.07 is extinct on the web.

As far as 1.00 versus 1.07, 1.00 seems like a much bigger hassle to play since muling is so difficult without ATMA. I'm mostly interested in 1.07 for the runeword bases and interesting charms/rings. No cast delay in 1.00 sounds really fun. Is 1.00 missing a lot of the interesting items that 1.07 has?

The update happened, and every piece should now be available =)

Muling isn't difficult, it's just like good ol' battle.net. And there aren't a lot of items you'll want to keep IN 1.00, maybe enough to fill five mules.

 

[Albatross]

Any suggestions on what to do with 1.07 gold? I've got a bunch, I was just probably gonna gamble on rings. Maybe try to gamble 1.07 Raven Claw? or bring forward to 1.10a for a chance at BKWB?

I don't think you can gamble uniques.

I'm currently just using gold to gamble rings/ammies so I don't have to pick them up for crafting.

Probably not worth bringing forward, either. Maybe to 1.08 for windforce

No gambling uniques, but use it to fill in jewelry spots and to get those few elite craft bases which cannot be shopped.

K. I thought you could gamble set/unique in earlier versions? Is that in classic only?

They nerfed it completely with 1.07 but pre-LoD it was a 3% chance for uniques, 5% chance for sets and 7% chance for rares when gambling. Way, way higher than what we're used to.

I see, now 1/2000 for unique. There's only 9 unique rings, so 1.10 BKWB is 1/18000? That's not too bad!

From LoD on, unique rings are weighed odds. 1.10 drops a unique ring with ilvl 99 it could be any ring, but SoJ, Wisp, Natures and BKWB have MUCH lower odds than Nagel, Manald, Raven and Dward. Don't remember odds for carrion wind, but probably somewhere inbetween.

Hi helvete and everyone else who follows this thread.

Sorry about the bump, I first noticed this thread now and read through it, a very nice read, thank you for a great contribution.



As I read the quoted text I did remember there were many disabled greater crafts in 1.07, but I had trouble finding them. Finally I used the wayback machine on diabloii itself and found some, perhaps interesting (it certainly made me come out of lurk), information I have not seen elsewhere.
https://web.archive.org/web/2001080...net/items/crafted/recipes-class-amulets.shtml
https://web.archive.org/web/2001080...i.net/items/crafted/recipes-class-rings.shtml
https://web.archive.org/web/20010807105407/http://diabloii.net/items/crafted/recipes-deadly.shtml

Now normally I would not bother with something like this, even the idea of recipes that depends on the computer clock seems extremely far fetched, if it wasn't because of what homepage it is and that it says: "All Recipes work on and off the Realms in v1.08"

I would test this myself, but like helvete and others I have been playing 1.00 recently and am not planning on changing version as of yet. If anyone have more information about this, even if it is to simply reject the possibility, I'd be very grateful.

Have fun.

I read about these a lot a little while ago but thought they weren't active...?

The deadly crafts are, for sure and I posted about it as well. I've got a folder of ~400 test crafts and some conclusions written up wherever I posted them (anything goes lounge?) but frankly the deadly crafts are mostly useless it seems. The class-specific ones are super broken, though. If they were active in 1.08 SP then I'd be amazed they aren't being abused atm but the same could be said about 1.08 (even though they're less useful, I still only found a single example of someone making them in SP through time travel)

I don't think those were active at all, IIRC they have a 0 where there would have to be a 1 or something, much like the Constricting Ring and Merman's Sprocket or whatever the unique wyrmhide boots were called. The code is there, but it isn't enabled.

I just tested both sorc ring recipes and neither worked. The waybackmachine link even says they don't work off-realm in 1.08, as well.

Thank you and my apology for missing the realm-only part. I looked through it again and it says so in every section except for the deadly items section.

I did btw. manage to find the recipes for 1.08 crafting via the other fan pages diabloii linked to back in 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/2001071.../expansiond2/items/guide/crafted/table3.shtml
I hope that homepage is okay to link to, otherwise I'll remove the link again.

Have a pleasant evening pharphis, helvete and everyone else.

I only discovered deadly crafts because I was spending a huge amount of time googling about (5th page of google whyyy) trying to learn random stuff about older versions.

@helvete Not sure if you ever mentioned this somewhere, but can we expect more in-depth guides on the patches from 1.07 onward?

Planning some time traveling, huh?

Lol, no not immediately. I like to read about it though, and I thought that helvete did a tremendous job to explain to time traveling noobs like me what I need to know about every patch.

I do plan to do time traveling at some point though. Then again I tend to make far too many plans ...

I'm in the last phase of renovating my house, and the fapcave is last on the list. Have to redo some parts of all the guides to accomodate the revised forum rules too. Current draft of 1.07 guide has too much emphasis on dual wield, and that is just one example.

We can forgive you for allowing RL to take priority over D2. But only because you already built some credit when posting your guides .

I'm guessing no 1.08 Cranium basher, if 1.08 tops out at qlvl75 and it needs to be qlvl 91? Shame if so.

If there a list of impossible to get items per patch? I've seen some incomplete bits

1.08 has no impossible to get items, but as mf is broken, and it is tc90 with a qlvl only bosses and champs will drop.... highly unlikely.

 

[Albatross]

Hi time travellers !
I'd love to try old patchs, but as I understand, tools to get old version like bliss version switcher aren't available (could download it).
So I install from one of my old Diablo2 CD, and I get to 1.03 version, and it works (window mode only, my computer doesn't manage diredtdraw it seems...).

My questions are :
- 1.03 is patched with the cow king king, as I understand ? So it's far less interesting than 1.00 ?
- How do you run multi instance of the game ? Doesn't work here.
- It's impossible to downgrade from 1.03 to 1.00, I guess ?

Thanks !

Why not use the skulls to reroll rare jewels in 1.08 instead? Seems like a waste to use them on rare amulets when those can be gambled.

Because of the different affix pool. Better resists and far better goldfind comes to mind.

Also, 1.08 rare jewels can be cubed with skulls coming from 1.07 where they have no crafting use, and you're typically popping chests and council members which drop them like crazy.

Finally, you may want a +2 class skills rare in 1.07, where they can't be gambled. We know now that they can be crafted, which we didn't when this guide was written.


When I get the time, I'll do some polishing on these guides.

Whoops, missed a post. Sorry about double-posting.

- Only patch 1.00 and 1.01 has the unrestricted king kills.
- The multi instance dll for 1.06b works with all previous patches, I believe.
- Not impossible if you have the files. I don't know Trenshadow switcher though, I use an old version of bliss' from before there were non-FAM stuff added.

Also, sven's glide wrapper is pretty much a must for running old versions of d2 on newer systems. Game runs way better with glide.

Compared to 1.00? I get that classic has different rare affixes than LOD, but is there any difference between 1.00 and 1.06b, assuming the ilvl is high enough for +2 skills? Even if that were the case, you could simply gamble amulets in 1.06b. Or is the cube recipe somehow different from gambling, apart from the ilvl=99?



Fair enough. I have yet to seriously get into 1.07, since I'm trying to do some more preparation in 1.00 first, but I spend most of my time playing 1.14d so progress is slow. But unless it's so hard to find rare jewels that you never run out of perfect skulls to reroll them with, bringing skulls forward from 1.00 still means more shots at something you can't just gamble.



You can gamble them in classic, though, and bring them forward to 1.07, the same way you could bring forward a cubed amulet. But any amulets cubed in 1.06b can't be used in 1.00, while gambling amulets in 1.00 allows maximum flexibility to use them in whatever patch they are needed.



Oddly enough, I've found the opposite to be true. While the game definitely looks better with sven's glide wrapper, DirectDraw in windowed mode runs smoothly on every version I have tried it on (apart from no cinematics), while sven's glide wrapper does not run as smoothly with 1.00. Most noticeably, it causes added lag on entering a game, switching acts, and S&E. I'm not sure if this is the fault of old versions of D2 being buggy or the wrapper being designed for more modern versions. But even in 1.14d, running 8 simultaneous clients is a lot less laggy in DirectDraw mode.

I am running Linux, so my results may not be typical, but sven's glide wrapper is OpenGL-based, so it should run equally well in Linux and Windows, as Linux supports OpenGL natively, so there's no translation overhead, as there would be with a different glide wrapper that translated into Direct3D. It is possible that the difference may be that DirectDraw does not work very well in newer versions of Windows. It wouldn't be the first time an older Windows program broke in newer versions of Windows but worked in Linux.

Either way, I agree it's a good idea to install sven's glide wrapper, since it can easily be enabled or disabled at will. But if you encounter problems, you should test it both with and without the glide wrapper to see if it makes a difference.

On 1.06b amulet crafts:
Not compared to 1.00, but as this guide was written before the knowledge of 1.07 ilvl 99 crafts and before I actually thought that more than a handful of people would be crazy enough to get a 1.00 character (or any pre-lod character) into the 90's, I wanted to put emphasis on the fact that this is one of two ways of getting that +2 skills rare for use in 1.07. Thus, the reasoning was made that perfect skulls are well spent in 1.06b. I think that recipe was added before that, though, so I will check that for the upcoming revision.

On 1.08 jewel crafts:
Actually, you want to use 1.07 jewels, as these are limited to 3 affixes in 1.07 but due to just being an input item, gets to have 6 affixes in 1.08. Unless you're short on jewels for crafting in 1.07 that is.

On 1.00 gambling:
As mentioned before, 1.00 gambling still requires a high level character. Not as high as initially believed, but to guarantee the chance for +2 skills clvl 93 is required. Clvl 89 would on average produce the same results, spending twice the gold, thus spending twice the time. Using pskulls in 1.06b can net you your +2 amulet for 1.07 without ever leveling a character into gambling range.

Now, this was a LOT more relevant before we made the discovery that +2 crafted amulets were possible. Still relevant to those trying to maximize goldfind. +2 amulet with 119% goldfind, FCR and stupid high stats/resists? Yes please.

On glide wrapping:
Now I'm on thin water. I'm not very technical, at least not compared to linux users. But using win7, glide wrapping is king. Might depend on graphix card and / or driver. I'm a n00b at that stuff.

Good points on all of this, though even gambling at 50% efficiency (which I believe would occur at eighty-eight, not 89, no? Since gambling is -5 to +4, and 5 of those 10 possibilities, +0 through +4, give ilvl>=clvl), or even lower than 50%, I'd still consider it worthwhile. And a gold find barb farming champions in A4 hell will get a lot of experience in the process, adding 10% to the odds of gambling a high enough ilvl for +2 skills with each level gained. The only catch is that without a muling program, and the limited amount of gold you can store in a character's stash in classic, storing gold to gamble with after leveling up is a lot more of a pain, which is why it makes sense to gamble amulets early even at low efficiency. This is especially true since the other stuff you want to gamble en masse in 1.00 is generally really cheap, so without gambling amulets it can take a much longer time to get rid of that gold. That is also why I often gamble things like boots at a higher clvl than would be optimal, since boots are very cheap to gamble compared to amulets, and the time savings of gambling multiple items at once and therefore having to refresh the gambling screen less outweighs the increased chance of getting worthless affixes on the boots, even if you open a cow portal next to Gheed to speed up the process. Apart from the time tradeoff, I also find refreshing the gambling screen to be a lot more boring than acquiring the gold, so would be looking to minimize time spent doing that in any case.

I think you're right though in that someone who wanted to start 1.07 without putting in so much time in 1.00 first might want to consider using those skulls in 1.06b, instead of saving them for 1.08. I suppose it really depends on how eager you are to play 1.00 versus 1.07. I just think both possibilities should be presented. Though in my view, if you're gonna play 1.00 first to set up 1.07, you might as well do it right.



My understanding is it doesn't matter whether the jewels drop in 1.07 or 1.08, except that it's much harder to find rare jewels in 1.08. And of course obviously you don't want to reroll a jewel that is already good, and a jewel dropped in 1.08 that already had 6 mods would be more likely to be worth keeping. I read WoRG's guide to 1.08 rare gem rerolling, which is what prompted me to ask about the skulls I've been collecting on a mule in preparation for the day when I expand from 1.00 to LoD time travel. I had been planning to use them in 1.06b when I was ready to start 1.07 until I saw that post, and am now glad I didn't, which is why I posted about it here.



Drivers and hardware definitely matter. But I have a reasonably powerful GPU with excellent Linux drivers, that should be perfectly capable of handling the OpenGL, so I don't think that is the problem for me. It's possible it's just that the fancier graphics in Glide mode, along with the overhead of the glide wrapper translating calls to the glide DLL into OpenGL calls in realtime, and that disabling glide is effectively just turning down the settings to increase performance. But I did try lowering the settings (both in-game and in the glide wrapper config utility) to a minimum, and still got worse performance than with DirectDraw. And Wine has to translate the DirectDraw, which also creates overhead, so I suspect there might be a Wine configuration fix somehow to make the glide wrapper perform better. Because it should be king on Linux as well, but for some reason isn't. I'm not knowledgeable enough to figure out why though, and so far Google hasn't been able to help me find a solution either.

I would be less surprised if it was Windows 10 causing issues, since I've heard it has a lot more issues with older games than 7, and IIRC that played a role in Blizzard's decision to release the 1.14 patch. My knowledge is all secondhand at best though, since I gave up my Windows dual boot back when XP was the newest version.

And it's slightly off topic, but Linux is a lot easier to use nowadays than it was in the past, and if you choose a noob-friendly distribution like Mint, it's in many ways easier to use than Windows. I'm a technical enough person to have used it back when there were a lot more rough edges, though I wouldn't consider myself an expert by any means. But in recent years I've set up Linux for a few non-technical relatives who were dissatisfied with Windows 10 for various reasons, and they've done fine using it. And while Blizzard has never officially supported Linux, their games generally run very well with Wine.

I think this is the best place to post this:

What follows is an info dump on the differences between the 'TreasureClassEx.txt' for all patches from 1.07 to 1.13a (and potentially 1.14d). I was not able to find patches 1.09c, 1.13b and don't have the files for 1.13c-1.14c at hand. First the following is a list of 'eras' in which the 'TreasureClassEx.txt' was not altered:

• 1.07
• 1.08
• 1.09-1.09d
• 1.10a-1.10f
• 1.11-1.12
• 1.13a
• 1.13c-1.14d (presumably)

The changes between eras are listed below with three exceptions:

1. Rune drop rates: I made a separate graphic and table for that, showing the rune drop chances throughout the eras.
2. Countess: She used to be different in 1.09 compared to her 1.10+ counterpart.
3. Equipment TCs: That is worth a post of its own and right now I don't have time for that. (this includes the armor and weapon drops)

This post contains 1. but 2./3. have to wait for a later date. All other changes follow now but not before a list of all TCs that were never changed:

Spoiler: Unchanged TCs

• Ammo
• Misc x
• Hpotion x
• Potion x
• Act x Junk
• Act x Magic
• Act x Good
• Act x Chest
• Act x Champ A,B,C
• Act x Citem A,B,C
• Act x Unique A,B,C
• Act x Uitem A,B,C
• Griswold
• Smith

Note: The x's and y's are placeholders for numbers and difficulties and when I write 'A,B,C' I mean that there is a version A, B and C of that TC.

Spoiler: 1.07 to 1.08 Changes

• Runesx: Changed chance to drop down to the next lower Rune TC.
• Jewelry A,B,C: Changed weight of Jewels from 1 to 2. ; Jewels are now nearly 1,9 times as likely to drop! (Weight of remaining items is 18 in all patches)
• Act x H2H A,B,C: Changed nodrop from 180 to 100.
• Act x Cast A,B,C: Changed nodrop from 180 to 100.
• Act x Miss A,B,C: Changed nodrop from 180 to 100.
• Act x Wraith A,B,C: Changed nodrop from 100 to 75.
• Quill x : Changed nodrop from 200 to 125.
• Swarm x : Changed nodrop from 250 to 125.
• Flying Scimitar : Changed nodrop from 200 to 100.
• Cow : Changed nodrop from 200 to 100.
• Trapped Soul : Changed nodrop from 200 to 100.
• Added the TC 'Izual ' to control Izual's drops. It is very similar to the TCs of Blood Raven, Radament, Haphesto and Nihlathak.

tl;dr All regular and minion monsters have had their drop rates increased drastically, rune drop rates where changed, jewels are 1,9 times as likely now and Izual got his own TC.

Spoiler: 1.08 to 1.09 changes

• All Gem TCs: Change the weight of non-skulls from 1 to 3 and that of skulls from 1 to 2. ; non-skulls are each 5% more likely to drop while skulls are 30% less likely to drop.
• Act x Cpot A,B,C: Changed pick from -2 to 2. This means that Uniques/Champions in Hell no longer drop a guaranteed 2/1 full Rejuvenation potions.
• Act x (N) Unique A,B,C: Changed weight of 'Act x (N) Uitem A,B,C' from 2 to 1 and the weight of 'Act x (N) Cpot A,B,C' from 7 to 2. ; This means that uniques in Nightmare go from dropping 2 items and 2 potions to dropping 1 item and 4 potions.
• Act x (H) Unique A,B,C: Changed weight of 'Act x (H) Cpot A,B,C' from 5 to 2. ; This has no effect, it is about saving face.
• Added the TCs 'Act x Super A,B,C' to buff up Super Uniques.
• Summoner : Changed rare qualityfactor from 800 to 972.
• Council : Changed number of picks from 4 to 3 and unique qualityfactor from 800 to 650.
• Cow (H): Changed 'Act 1 (H) Junk' to 'Act 5 (H) Junk'. Cows now drop better Junk
• Haphesto : Changed rare qualityfactor from 800 to 900.
• Nihlathak : Changed rare qualityfactor from 800 to 900.
• Blood Raven : Changed rare qualityfactor from 800 to 972.
• Izual : Changed rare qualityfactor from 800 to 972.
• Changed the name of 'Duriel ' to 'Duriel - Base' and added a new TC named 'Duriel ' which has -2 picks, one entry of tsc with weight 1 and one entry of 'Duriel - Base' with weight 1. This ensures that Duriel will drop 1 scroll of townportal followed by a maximum of 5 items from his actual TC.
• Added the TC 'Countess ' to control what the Countess drops.
• Added the TC 'Cow King ' to control what the Cow King drops. It is basically a copy and paste of the 'Griswold ' and 'Smith ' TCs except that it has 5 picks instead of 3, has nodrop 0 and qualityfactors.

tl;dr Skulls are now rarer than regular gems, Uniques/Champions don't drop guaranteed rejuvs anymore, SU TCs introduced, Council nerfed immensly, some mini bosses drop slightly better, Duriel gets his trademark townportal scroll and Countess starts her career as a viable target for runes.

Spoiler: 1.09d to 1.10a Changes

• Added TC Upgrade system as well as level and group columns.
• Added the TCs 'ROP ' used in the Worldevent. Not used in unmodded SP.
• Added 'quest' versions of the act boss TCs which are used on the first kill instead of the usual boss TCs: Andarielq , Durielq , Durielq - Base, Mephistoq , Diabloq , Baalq ; Both Andariel and Duriel can be questbugged permanently due to the way their quests are structured.
• Runesx: Changed chance to drop down to the next lower Rune TC.
• Added the TCs 'Act x Super Ax,Bx,Cx' in a failed attempt to nerf Pindleskin and Thresh Socket; Frozenstein and Snapchip Shatter are nerfed by accident.
• Radament : Changed unique, set and rare qualityfactor from 800 to 900.
• Summoner : Changed unique and set qualityfactor from 800 to 900.
• Nihlathak : Changed unique and set qualityfactor from 800 to 900.
• Changed the 'Countess ' TC and added the TCs 'Countess Rune ' and 'Countess Item '.
• Cow King : Changed unique qualityfactor from 983 to 850.

tl;dr TC upgrades and quest drops introduced, rune drop rates raised, failed Act 5 SU nerf, some mini bosses drop differently and Countess is overhauled completely.

Spoiler: 1.10f to 1.11 Changes

• Summoner (H): add pk2 with weight 1 to TC
• Nihlathak (H): add pk3 with weight of 1 to TC
• Countess Item (H): add pk1 with weight of 1 to TC
• Uber Andariel, Uber Duriel, Uber Izual TCs added. Not used in SP.
• Pandemonium Key A,B,C TCs added, apparently unused.

tl;dr Slightly worsened item drops for Countess, Summoner and Nihlathak;

Spoiler: 1.12 to 1.13a Changes

112 to 113a

• Runesx: Changed chance to drop down to the next lower Rune TC.
• Duriel , Durielq : Changed pick from -2 to 5 and weight of 'Duriel - Base' from 1 to 2; Duriel now drops more items.
• Andariel (H), Andarielq (H): added 'Twisted Essence of Suffering' with weight of 1 to TC
• Duriel (H) - base, Durielq (H) - base: added 'Twisted Essence of Suffering' with weight of 2 to TC
• Mephisto (H), Mephistoq (H): added 'Charged Essence of Hatred' with weight of 1 to TC
• Diablo (H), Diabloq (H): added 'Burning Essence of Terror' with weight of 1 to TC
• Baal (H), Baalq (H): added 'Festering Essence of Destruction' with weight 1 to TC

tl;dr Essences introduced, rune drop rates raised once more and significantly better drops from Duriel.

Spoiler: 1.13a to 1.13c Changes

• Runesx: Changed chance to drop down to the next lower Rune TC.

tl;dr

Finally here are the rune drop rates over all patches:

These are the chances for each rune assuming that the TC 'Runes17' was picked, i.e. a Zod-capable monster was killed (or a chest...). Here is a visual representation:

It looks very similar for 1.07 to 1.13a but changes in 1.13c+ when crafting runes become the most dropped runes.

Keep in mind that superchest patterns and the chance to find runes 'in the wild' are potentially influenced by things outside the 'TreasureClassEx.txt' and so in practice every patch has the potential to have it's own specific 'best places to hunt for runes'. (A good example of this is the HF reward which goes up to Um in patches before 1.10a and up to Gul in 1.10a+)

***

I plan to also add a comparison between 1.09 and 1.10 countess, a comparison of the Equip TCs as well as comparisons of other .txt files. When that will happen is unclear though