sirpoopsalot
New member
Re: Guide to Hellforge Rushing in 1.11b.
By popular request (ok, it's one person
), I've typed up and decided to post my rushing process for 1.12a LoD (softcore). And this thread seems like an appropriate place to do it.
*****
Jantia used a paladin for his rushee, but I've been using an assassin (all passive skills, 20 in Burst of Speed, remaining points split between Venom & Shadow Warrior) because your run-speed-boosting skill (BoS) becomes available earlier than other characters.
I use a fully-decked-out enchantress to prebuff the assassin's attack to something virtually unresistable in normal (the Enchantress is fully decked out not as much for the extra damage, as for the longest duration of Enchant I can scrounge). I also use a Blizzwaller sorc to do the teleporting/waypoint-providing/questing-assistance. Basically any sorc can work well for this portion, but I like a dual-element build so I don't have to worry about immunes, and the Blizzwaller has good power for a dual-element build (and I already had the Blizzwaller anyways), so that's what I used. One thing to remember is that you'll always be in a full 8-player game, so you want a sorc that can still kill safely, quickly, and easily through the first 3 acts of Hell. So she can't be a complete wimp.
For the rushee's gear, I basically have a focus at boosting stamina at level1, and adding attack and transportation speed as soon as I reasonably can. At level1 it's a 3xHel'd Blade Talon's and Death's Belt & Gloves (IAS, leech, and Cannot be Frozen) at level6. At level15 I've already boosted my str to 55 (additional points all into Vitality), and can now equip Iratha's Set + Ravenclaw, which is my "end-game" gear. Boots go from Hsarus' to Vidala's to Sander's as I progress along. Armor gets switched to Hawkmail at level15 (Cannot Be Frozen is the reason). Rings and amulets as you choose (I go with +stamina then Cathan's Rings for the leech), and I keep a cube on the rushee (helps in Act2).
Progress through the game:
First things first, as some point(s) you'll need to refresh Enchant on the assassin. I've got my Enchant to level49 for the longest duration I can manage, but I still wish it was longer. I'm not going to focus much on when you need to leave with your rushing-sorc and enter with your enchantress... you should be able to figure that out on your own.
But pay attention for your first few run-throughs and you'll begin to figure out good "stopping points" to refresh Enchant. These will vary from person to person, and even a little (bad) luck on your map can make a difference too. Since exiting & rejoining the game with different characters takes time, you'll want to pay attention to this and try to minimize it though.
For me Enchant is cast at the start, then after I hit level15, then I try to push as far as I can, hopefully to the RoF waypoint in Act4, and finally refresh again before facing the Ancients or starting in WSK2. I need decent luck finding my way around the map to get from Act1 to Act4 before Enchant wears off, but I've made it a few times.
Levels 1-15:
Host the game with a rushee, get everyone partied up, enchant the assassin, and start running through the act with her. Kill the things that get in your way, and boss packs, and keep your eyes open for Experience and Stamina shrines. At level6 start pumping/casting Burst of Speed. Don't bother with the Den of Evil quest, but if you pick wrong in the 2nd area and end up in the graveyard, kill blood raven for the Exp and the rogue merc (whom you can enchant later to help kill things quickly and easily - though I don't usually bother getting the rogue until I reach level 15, and if she dies, I don't resurrect her either). I do rescue Cain, mainly for the experience in Tristam. Keep running through the act and killing the things in your way. You should be somewhere between the Outer and Inner Cloisters about the time you hit level15. Immediately return to town, equip your Ravenclaw, Hawkmail, Vidala's & Iratha's stuff, and get enchant refreshed.
Level15-25(ish):
Leave with the Enchantress & come back with your rushing/questing sorc. Find the path down to Catacomb's 4, but don't kill anything with this character. Throw up a town portal and return to town. After partying up, have the assassin go through the portal & clear much/all of Catacombs 4 and kill Andy.
Move everyone to Act2 and have the rushing-sorc teleport straight to the maggot lair 3*. If you can get the kill with your assassin it's extra EXP, but it's not critical. Have the assassin collect the staff. Same rush/process for getting the amulet in Viper Temple 2. When you've got the staff pieces, cube them immediately & talk to Drognan (if you miss this part and go to the Arcane Sanctuary with your rusher first, the idiot guardsman won't let you talk to Jerhyn in the palace at the end of the act - so you have to go through the Palace Cellar & Harem to throw up a waypoint and have all the rushees get to Jerhyn that way. What a headache).
* actually, you can mule the staff on/off and avoid the Maggot Lair in your rush
After making the staff & talking to Drognan, get a rush to just before the Summoner, then let the assassin kill the Summoner and find her way down to Duriel (going from level15 - 25 has to be done somehow, but it's not the quickest because there aren't any 'really' good runs for those levels. I find this is as good as anything for getting ~7 levels while still making a little progress. Kill Duriel & move everyone to Act3. I do want to get to at least level21 for this portion, so I'll run a 2nd tomb if I haven't quite leveled to that point.
Have your rusher provide a town portal to the Travincial waypoint, then have the assassin kill the council. Then get a portal to the stairs at the top of Durance3, and have the assassin clear that area & Meph. Fortunately you don't need to collect all of the flail pieces, you just need to be present when the Trav. council is killed to enter the Durance (via town portal).
Kill Meph with the assassin, throw up a waypoint near the portal to Act4, and move everyone to Act4.
For Act4 I just get a town portal to the RoF waypoint then quest with my assassin through to kill Diablo. The main reason is I don't want my rusher-sorc's merc to kill himself to Iron Maiden, and if you're below level25 in most parts of Act5, the rate you gain EXP is slow as hell. You might need a little help killing Grand Vizier of Chaos since he's fire immune. I usually let my rusher-sorc help for that kill.
In Act5, if I'm still level23 or lower, I'll just start running through the Bloody Foothills to get that last little boost for 24. I also get the Frigid Highland's waypoint and kill Eldritch & Shenk. Then a quick rush to the Ancients. After killing them, you should be level25 by now.
Level25-40:
Make sure your assassin gets the WSK2 waypoint. For the first pass through, have her kill Baal. Hopefully you'll be level30 by the time you make it down to face Colenzo (the first minion wave), since he's always Fire Immune and having Venom makes this batttle much better. If you're not quite level30 by then, you might want your rusher-sorc to help get that kill. After you've killed Baal the first time, you should be level30+ for sure. Have the rushee-host leave the game (don't worry about everyone else exiting first - when the host leaves, they'll save & exit and get the quest completion too).
For getting the last few levels, I usually host a new game with the Enchantress, move her to the WSK2 waypoint, then join with the assassin. Party up & get enchanted. When you're casting enchant, make sure to set the players setting to 8 too. Have the assassin return to the frigid highland's waypoint and kill Eldritch (and Shenk if you want, though he gives less EXP) before having her run through WSK2, WSK3, the Throne Room & killing the bosses, minions, and Baal. If your Enchantress can handle teleporting to the Throneroom, that's probably as quick as running through WSK2 & 3, but I find that in the end it costs me an extra run, so the difference isn't very big (and my Enchantress isn't geared for teleporting).
It should only take 3-4 more WSK/Baal runs to get to level39 or 40. If you're careful in Nightmare you can keep this character alive for a couple of battles - enough to get a level or two, so I'd rather just go straight to NM if my assassin is level39.
For Nightmare & the first 3 acts of Hell:
First, you should strip the assassin before hosting a new game. I keep the cube on her to help with Act2 cubing, but otherwise all gear gets removed so that if she dies (which she will), she doesn't need to retrieve her corpse to avoid loosing all of your rushing gear.
After that, it's finally time to rush.
At some point, have the host set the /players setting back down to /players1. This one isn't important while you're rushing, but if you forget and push through to complete the full rush all at once, killing Hephasto in Hell can be a lot more difficult than you want it to be on /players8. (Guess how I figured this out
). I usually lower the setting back down as soon as my host sets up the Nightmare game.
Once you kill Mephisto in hell, don't forget to have all of the mules go through to the portal to act4 before they leave the game. And definitely make sure all-but-one leave the game before collecting the HF quest, or if they're still partied you'll only get one rune for your rush for those characters.
Tips & Notes:
- Reading these guides can make rushing seem like a complicated process, but it's really not. Do it once or twice, expect to make a mistake at some point, and you'll have it figured out. Don't stress about making a mistake - we all do, and that Ber isn't going to come overnight anyways.
- The first time through this process, focus less on minimizing the time and instead make sure you're comfortable with remembering what you have to do and when. Screwing up a necessary quest and having to rehost/rejoin the game takes quite a bit of time (it feels like almost 1/2 of my time is spent moving rushees from act to act and keeping the quests straight). Once you're familiar with the process you can focus entirely on minimizing your time after that. My first rush was close to 6 hours, 2nd close to 4, and after ~5 rushes I was down under 3 hours total.
- If you forget to talk to Drognan with your rushee after collecting the amulet in Act2, it's not a big deal. Use your rushing character to teleport from the Pallace Cellar Waypoint back to Harem 1 and throw up a waypoint near the stairs. Fortunately there's no monsters on Harem 1, but this definitely takes longer than talking to Drognan before anyone (including the rusher) enters the Arcane Sanctuary, so I try to remember it.
- If one of your rushees can't enter a portal it's because you forgot to have them join a party together, or it means that your rushee needs to talk to one of the townsfolk to progress the storyline/complete the quest. It may sound like common sense, but I guarantee you'll forget it at some point and wonder why you can't enter a portal (and curse yourself for the wasted time).
- I find the entire rushing process can be broken up into as many as 5 parts, so you don't need to go from level1 to collecting your hellforges all in one D2 session. But I find hosting/joining games slow enough that I try to only stop a rushing session at these points:
a) questing/rushing through normal difficulty (50-60 minutes)
b) completing the final WSK/Baal runs to get to level40 (15-20 minutes)
c) questing/rushing through nightmare difficulty (35-50 minutes)
d) questing/rushing through the first 3 acts of Hell difficulty (25-35 minutes)
e) collecting hellforges (one rushee at a time) (20-30 minutes, per difficulty*)
... so it's very rare that I'll shut down in the middle of Nightmare, for example.
* For me, the time required to collect NM forges outweighs the runes I get, because it's such a large percentage of overall time and you're only looking at an ~Um+ on average.
- You may want to play in windowed mode, but be sure to leave the sound-option enabled. with sound mode turned off, the game will crash if you're questing and try to change acts. So in your shortcut to activate the game you can have the -w command, but cannot have the -ns command.
Before listing the bare-bones list of mandatory quests, I'll mention that your rushee needs to be "present" for the kill. By "present", I mean somewhere within ~2-3 screens of the monster. So if you forget, or get unlucky, and your level90 rushing sorc kills Andariel without any of the rushees present, no one gets credit for finishing the quest and you have to rehost/rejoin/redo. Not a fun way to waste time.
However, since your "best" rushee is only level40 and isn't wearing any gear, she will be fragile, so just getting "present" may sound like a challenge. Fortunately, it isn't.
The process is to get your rusher to where you want, then immediately return to town without doing battle (yet). Have the rushee go into the portal. At this point, it's likely that the rushee will die. Don't worry about that, but DO NOT press the escape key to return to town with the rushee. As long as you're looking at the "You have died / You have lost experience" message, you still count as "present". So switch back to your rusher and kill the necessary monster, and only after that's done should you return to the rushee and press the Escape key.
Mandatory Quests/Progress:
As just mentioned, these are where at least one rushee needs to be "present".
Act1:
- Andariel's death
Act2:
- collect the staff (Maggot Lair 3) & amulet (Viper Temple 2)*
- The Summoner's death
- Duriel's death
Act3:
- the death of the 3 "bosses" of the Travincial council**
- Mephisto's death
Act4:
- Diablo's death
Act5:
- all three Ancients deaths (you also need to be level20 in Normal and level40 in Nightmare)
- Baal's death
* when collecting the staff & amulet, you don't need to be "present" for any monster's killed for these, but you do need the rushee to actually grab the item and cube it.
** actually, you might only need to be present for the final of the three Trav. bosses, but I haven't bothered to test if it's only one or all three, so I stick with all three. It's not like there's any real difference between being there for one or three anyways.
By popular request (ok, it's one person
), I've typed up and decided to post my rushing process for 1.12a LoD (softcore). And this thread seems like an appropriate place to do it.*****
Jantia used a paladin for his rushee, but I've been using an assassin (all passive skills, 20 in Burst of Speed, remaining points split between Venom & Shadow Warrior) because your run-speed-boosting skill (BoS) becomes available earlier than other characters.
I use a fully-decked-out enchantress to prebuff the assassin's attack to something virtually unresistable in normal (the Enchantress is fully decked out not as much for the extra damage, as for the longest duration of Enchant I can scrounge). I also use a Blizzwaller sorc to do the teleporting/waypoint-providing/questing-assistance. Basically any sorc can work well for this portion, but I like a dual-element build so I don't have to worry about immunes, and the Blizzwaller has good power for a dual-element build (and I already had the Blizzwaller anyways), so that's what I used. One thing to remember is that you'll always be in a full 8-player game, so you want a sorc that can still kill safely, quickly, and easily through the first 3 acts of Hell. So she can't be a complete wimp.
For the rushee's gear, I basically have a focus at boosting stamina at level1, and adding attack and transportation speed as soon as I reasonably can. At level1 it's a 3xHel'd Blade Talon's and Death's Belt & Gloves (IAS, leech, and Cannot be Frozen) at level6. At level15 I've already boosted my str to 55 (additional points all into Vitality), and can now equip Iratha's Set + Ravenclaw, which is my "end-game" gear. Boots go from Hsarus' to Vidala's to Sander's as I progress along. Armor gets switched to Hawkmail at level15 (Cannot Be Frozen is the reason). Rings and amulets as you choose (I go with +stamina then Cathan's Rings for the leech), and I keep a cube on the rushee (helps in Act2).
Progress through the game:
First things first, as some point(s) you'll need to refresh Enchant on the assassin. I've got my Enchant to level49 for the longest duration I can manage, but I still wish it was longer. I'm not going to focus much on when you need to leave with your rushing-sorc and enter with your enchantress... you should be able to figure that out on your own.
But pay attention for your first few run-throughs and you'll begin to figure out good "stopping points" to refresh Enchant. These will vary from person to person, and even a little (bad) luck on your map can make a difference too. Since exiting & rejoining the game with different characters takes time, you'll want to pay attention to this and try to minimize it though.
For me Enchant is cast at the start, then after I hit level15, then I try to push as far as I can, hopefully to the RoF waypoint in Act4, and finally refresh again before facing the Ancients or starting in WSK2. I need decent luck finding my way around the map to get from Act1 to Act4 before Enchant wears off, but I've made it a few times.
Levels 1-15:
Host the game with a rushee, get everyone partied up, enchant the assassin, and start running through the act with her. Kill the things that get in your way, and boss packs, and keep your eyes open for Experience and Stamina shrines. At level6 start pumping/casting Burst of Speed. Don't bother with the Den of Evil quest, but if you pick wrong in the 2nd area and end up in the graveyard, kill blood raven for the Exp and the rogue merc (whom you can enchant later to help kill things quickly and easily - though I don't usually bother getting the rogue until I reach level 15, and if she dies, I don't resurrect her either). I do rescue Cain, mainly for the experience in Tristam. Keep running through the act and killing the things in your way. You should be somewhere between the Outer and Inner Cloisters about the time you hit level15. Immediately return to town, equip your Ravenclaw, Hawkmail, Vidala's & Iratha's stuff, and get enchant refreshed.
Level15-25(ish):
Leave with the Enchantress & come back with your rushing/questing sorc. Find the path down to Catacomb's 4, but don't kill anything with this character. Throw up a town portal and return to town. After partying up, have the assassin go through the portal & clear much/all of Catacombs 4 and kill Andy.
Move everyone to Act2 and have the rushing-sorc teleport straight to the maggot lair 3*. If you can get the kill with your assassin it's extra EXP, but it's not critical. Have the assassin collect the staff. Same rush/process for getting the amulet in Viper Temple 2. When you've got the staff pieces, cube them immediately & talk to Drognan (if you miss this part and go to the Arcane Sanctuary with your rusher first, the idiot guardsman won't let you talk to Jerhyn in the palace at the end of the act - so you have to go through the Palace Cellar & Harem to throw up a waypoint and have all the rushees get to Jerhyn that way. What a headache).
* actually, you can mule the staff on/off and avoid the Maggot Lair in your rush
After making the staff & talking to Drognan, get a rush to just before the Summoner, then let the assassin kill the Summoner and find her way down to Duriel (going from level15 - 25 has to be done somehow, but it's not the quickest because there aren't any 'really' good runs for those levels. I find this is as good as anything for getting ~7 levels while still making a little progress. Kill Duriel & move everyone to Act3. I do want to get to at least level21 for this portion, so I'll run a 2nd tomb if I haven't quite leveled to that point.
Have your rusher provide a town portal to the Travincial waypoint, then have the assassin kill the council. Then get a portal to the stairs at the top of Durance3, and have the assassin clear that area & Meph. Fortunately you don't need to collect all of the flail pieces, you just need to be present when the Trav. council is killed to enter the Durance (via town portal).
Kill Meph with the assassin, throw up a waypoint near the portal to Act4, and move everyone to Act4.
For Act4 I just get a town portal to the RoF waypoint then quest with my assassin through to kill Diablo. The main reason is I don't want my rusher-sorc's merc to kill himself to Iron Maiden, and if you're below level25 in most parts of Act5, the rate you gain EXP is slow as hell. You might need a little help killing Grand Vizier of Chaos since he's fire immune. I usually let my rusher-sorc help for that kill.
In Act5, if I'm still level23 or lower, I'll just start running through the Bloody Foothills to get that last little boost for 24. I also get the Frigid Highland's waypoint and kill Eldritch & Shenk. Then a quick rush to the Ancients. After killing them, you should be level25 by now.
Level25-40:
Make sure your assassin gets the WSK2 waypoint. For the first pass through, have her kill Baal. Hopefully you'll be level30 by the time you make it down to face Colenzo (the first minion wave), since he's always Fire Immune and having Venom makes this batttle much better. If you're not quite level30 by then, you might want your rusher-sorc to help get that kill. After you've killed Baal the first time, you should be level30+ for sure. Have the rushee-host leave the game (don't worry about everyone else exiting first - when the host leaves, they'll save & exit and get the quest completion too).
For getting the last few levels, I usually host a new game with the Enchantress, move her to the WSK2 waypoint, then join with the assassin. Party up & get enchanted. When you're casting enchant, make sure to set the players setting to 8 too. Have the assassin return to the frigid highland's waypoint and kill Eldritch (and Shenk if you want, though he gives less EXP) before having her run through WSK2, WSK3, the Throne Room & killing the bosses, minions, and Baal. If your Enchantress can handle teleporting to the Throneroom, that's probably as quick as running through WSK2 & 3, but I find that in the end it costs me an extra run, so the difference isn't very big (and my Enchantress isn't geared for teleporting).
It should only take 3-4 more WSK/Baal runs to get to level39 or 40. If you're careful in Nightmare you can keep this character alive for a couple of battles - enough to get a level or two, so I'd rather just go straight to NM if my assassin is level39.
For Nightmare & the first 3 acts of Hell:
First, you should strip the assassin before hosting a new game. I keep the cube on her to help with Act2 cubing, but otherwise all gear gets removed so that if she dies (which she will), she doesn't need to retrieve her corpse to avoid loosing all of your rushing gear.
After that, it's finally time to rush.
At some point, have the host set the /players setting back down to /players1. This one isn't important while you're rushing, but if you forget and push through to complete the full rush all at once, killing Hephasto in Hell can be a lot more difficult than you want it to be on /players8. (Guess how I figured this out
). I usually lower the setting back down as soon as my host sets up the Nightmare game.Once you kill Mephisto in hell, don't forget to have all of the mules go through to the portal to act4 before they leave the game. And definitely make sure all-but-one leave the game before collecting the HF quest, or if they're still partied you'll only get one rune for your rush for those characters.
Tips & Notes:
- Reading these guides can make rushing seem like a complicated process, but it's really not. Do it once or twice, expect to make a mistake at some point, and you'll have it figured out. Don't stress about making a mistake - we all do, and that Ber isn't going to come overnight anyways.
- The first time through this process, focus less on minimizing the time and instead make sure you're comfortable with remembering what you have to do and when. Screwing up a necessary quest and having to rehost/rejoin the game takes quite a bit of time (it feels like almost 1/2 of my time is spent moving rushees from act to act and keeping the quests straight). Once you're familiar with the process you can focus entirely on minimizing your time after that. My first rush was close to 6 hours, 2nd close to 4, and after ~5 rushes I was down under 3 hours total.
- If you forget to talk to Drognan with your rushee after collecting the amulet in Act2, it's not a big deal. Use your rushing character to teleport from the Pallace Cellar Waypoint back to Harem 1 and throw up a waypoint near the stairs. Fortunately there's no monsters on Harem 1, but this definitely takes longer than talking to Drognan before anyone (including the rusher) enters the Arcane Sanctuary, so I try to remember it.
- If one of your rushees can't enter a portal it's because you forgot to have them join a party together, or it means that your rushee needs to talk to one of the townsfolk to progress the storyline/complete the quest. It may sound like common sense, but I guarantee you'll forget it at some point and wonder why you can't enter a portal (and curse yourself for the wasted time).
- I find the entire rushing process can be broken up into as many as 5 parts, so you don't need to go from level1 to collecting your hellforges all in one D2 session. But I find hosting/joining games slow enough that I try to only stop a rushing session at these points:
a) questing/rushing through normal difficulty (50-60 minutes)
b) completing the final WSK/Baal runs to get to level40 (15-20 minutes)
c) questing/rushing through nightmare difficulty (35-50 minutes)
d) questing/rushing through the first 3 acts of Hell difficulty (25-35 minutes)
e) collecting hellforges (one rushee at a time) (20-30 minutes, per difficulty*)
... so it's very rare that I'll shut down in the middle of Nightmare, for example.
* For me, the time required to collect NM forges outweighs the runes I get, because it's such a large percentage of overall time and you're only looking at an ~Um+ on average.
- You may want to play in windowed mode, but be sure to leave the sound-option enabled. with sound mode turned off, the game will crash if you're questing and try to change acts. So in your shortcut to activate the game you can have the -w command, but cannot have the -ns command.
Before listing the bare-bones list of mandatory quests, I'll mention that your rushee needs to be "present" for the kill. By "present", I mean somewhere within ~2-3 screens of the monster. So if you forget, or get unlucky, and your level90 rushing sorc kills Andariel without any of the rushees present, no one gets credit for finishing the quest and you have to rehost/rejoin/redo. Not a fun way to waste time.
However, since your "best" rushee is only level40 and isn't wearing any gear, she will be fragile, so just getting "present" may sound like a challenge. Fortunately, it isn't.
The process is to get your rusher to where you want, then immediately return to town without doing battle (yet). Have the rushee go into the portal. At this point, it's likely that the rushee will die. Don't worry about that, but DO NOT press the escape key to return to town with the rushee. As long as you're looking at the "You have died / You have lost experience" message, you still count as "present". So switch back to your rusher and kill the necessary monster, and only after that's done should you return to the rushee and press the Escape key.
Mandatory Quests/Progress:
As just mentioned, these are where at least one rushee needs to be "present".
Act1:
- Andariel's death
Act2:
- collect the staff (Maggot Lair 3) & amulet (Viper Temple 2)*
- The Summoner's death
- Duriel's death
Act3:
- the death of the 3 "bosses" of the Travincial council**
- Mephisto's death
Act4:
- Diablo's death
Act5:
- all three Ancients deaths (you also need to be level20 in Normal and level40 in Nightmare)
- Baal's death
* when collecting the staff & amulet, you don't need to be "present" for any monster's killed for these, but you do need the rushee to actually grab the item and cube it.
** actually, you might only need to be present for the final of the three Trav. bosses, but I haven't bothered to test if it's only one or all three, so I stick with all three. It's not like there's any real difference between being there for one or three anyways.
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