- Jun 22, 2019
- 190
- 571
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Hurricane-Syd completed the hard fought, long grinding journey to make 99!
Syd started as an entrant into [Simple+] Tournament of Tournaments on 2/22/2022. I chose to go back to 2015 list of tournaments and picked out The Committed Tournament. The basics of that tournament was HC, Untwinked, 1 skill tree, and pick your Merc before you start.
Syd's journey through the tournament started with a 3os crossbow using the normal attack. All the skill points were put into Artic Blast, Cyclone Armor and Twister all the way til level 24 when Tornado became available. That happened in the Maggot Lair. Stealth wasn't made until Act 3 being single pass and finally acquired the runes and armor. Ancients Pledge was the next upgrade made by the end of Act 3 normal. Syd made a Spirit (26FCR) Broad sword after cows were done in normal. All spirit runes were obtained through Act 4/5 and cows. Lots of cubing were needed but a Prismatic Amulet was crafted before moving to NM. First 4os Flail dropped in Act 1 NM, that was stashed away right away for a future HoTo roll. The first HUGE item came from a Charsi imbue, to this day I believe this to be the best Imbue ever on a single-pass, untwinked playthrough.
Once that imbue was done, Syd continued on through NM. Switched the players setting in NM Act 2 from P8 to P5 due to Duriel waiting at the end. Most of the questing was done by staying away and firing Tornados while the Merc (Waheed) tanked. Syd progressed and finished NM at level 74, moving into hell positive resists and 516HP. Scary going into hell with late little of life but the resists were positive in hell to start. 50 FR, 26LR, 33 CR, and 63PSN.
Act 1 in hell dropped a Superior White Monarch (+12% ED). That was set in the stash for a possible spirit base. The corpse in the monastery gate dropped a Mal rune. The first mid/upper rune for a single pass. That was stashed for a CtA. The first near death experience (NDE) for this character came in the Jail Level 3. Syd managed to kill an Elite that was Conviction/Cold Enchant but was inside the blast radius for the frost nova. The health dropped below 150 and Syd ran spamming pots. Hell Andy was a game of Ring around the Blood Pool while firing tornados. Act 1 down. 4 to go. Act 2 Hell had the first Major end game drop.
This drop was crazy!! 0 MF, single pass and Radament! Drop odds from Silo's at the time said 1 in 24,136. That replaced the rare helm from NM Act 1. Then it was time to focus of a couple more levels and a strength points to get Syd to 156 STR for that Monarch. Syd made that happen by having some more luck in the Palace Levels. Griswold's Armor dropped, which has a +20 STR mod on it. 3 P-Rubies were placed in the armor to get a big boost in life and the Spirit Monarch was created. 35%FCR Roll! The end of Act 2 hell has Syd with Jalal's, Dual Spirit, Gris Armor and random gear. After more questing and nothing note worthy dropping, Syd made it to Act 4 Hell at level 81 and max Resists. Hell Forge drop was a dreaded Hel rune.
. 6 Runes (Lem-Gul) that would have been awesome, but Syd must have used up the RnG earlier. Finished Act 4 and onto Act 5, the final test of being a Single Pass, Untwinked,1 Skill tree character. Act 5 had plenty of hard spots to navigate. Multiple Frenzytaur packs, Ancient spawn which turned out to be a good roll. Talic (Magic Resistant/Stone Skin)/Madawc (Extra Strong/Tele)/Korlic (Spectral Hit/Lightning Enchant). Finished them and down to Baal Syd goes. All 5 waves went down nice and easy, Baal shortly after and Guardian it is. Finished up the Tournament.
After making Guardian and doing 1 cow run to "complete" the Committed Tournament. It was on to the next phase of this journey. Leveling and grinding out the runes for Enigma, HoTo, and CtA. Leveling was started in the Chaos Sanctuary. The next crazy drop came shortly into the leveling process. 120 MF on at this point and
After Chaos, came Spring RFL Round 2...Trav...found 3 runes during the 750ish runs...Pul, Um, Sur #1. But Syd also found a Mara's, Raven Frost, and a Stormshield. 3 Nice upgrades needed. This took Syd from level 88 to 92. First Elemental Skiller came shortly after the RFL during LK, Chaos, Baal, Pits, Ancient Tunnels. Then I started to grind LK hard. 3,688 Runs in total to get Enigma, HoTo, Grief and CtA. Overall rune haul for LK was 7 Pul, 4 Um, 5 Mal, 3 Ist, 4 Gul, 2 Vex, 2 Ohm, 1 Lo and 5 Surs. The Grief was made for possible Uber running later if Syd progressed that far.
Another Elemental skiller would drop during the LK grind, that made 2 now for Syd.
Once these amazing Runewords were made, I used Syd's last socket quest to punch a hole in the SS and placed an Um rune in there to get more resists. Up next on the journey was key farming for Ubers. Syd farmed up 7 keysets, figuring on 7 different classes and the odds of getting 1 druid torch out of 7 was reasonable. During the key farming the Countess dropped a Mal rune and Nihlathak dropped a Sur Rune #7. Once all the keysets were farmed, I sat down and did some theory crafting for mini-ubers and Uber Tristram for Druids. Wrote down the gear needed and it was off to Hell Mephisto to grind for the gear needed. I decided to run the Mini-Ubers with a Maul Werebear using Grief/SS. Down went all 21 mini-ubers, which meant 7 organ sets to farm up to 7 Torches. Time to switch specs on Syd to a Fury Werewolf with Up'd Ribcracker. 2nd Torch to drop was my Druid Torch!!
Torch down, next up Anni. Spec'd back to Wind druid NM Andariel farming Syd goes. I did not keep track of the total runs but the 10th unique ring to drop was a SOJ! Then once that was found, it was time to farm Charsi's shop for a Prevent Monster Heal weapon. Once that was found, Syd was ready to take on Uber Diablo as a wind druid...don't recommend this cause its a long battle...16 minutes to be exact.
After all this, the time came to start the long Exp grind to 99. All screenshots and posts can be found in The Untwinked Level 99 Progress Thread, The Saviours of Sanctuary Rise Anew thread.
Level 93-94 dropped a Jah Rune in Chaos as the highlight of that level. Also, crafted a 2 Druid/9 FCR/15 All res/48LR amulet that replaced Mara's.
Level 94-95 was a mixed bag of areas ran. Pits, Tunnels, Act 3 Temples, Act 5 Ice Caves. Big drops from this level were Metalgrid, Griffon's, Sur #8
Level 95-96 was another mixed bag of areas ran. Pits, Tunnels, Temples, Chaos, Act 5 Ice Caves and Baal. River of Flame dropped Sur Rune #9. Re-Rolled a 15 All res GC, BK Ring was found
Level 96-97 was nothing but P8 Chaos, P8 Baal Waves and P3 Baal. Chaos dropped Sur #10! and Cham! Baal waves + Baal dropped 49MF War Trav's which were an upgrade to the 45MF. This level is where a gear change was made. I took the Um rune out of the SS and put the Cham rune in. Got rid of the Raven Frost for the BK ring found at level 95. This added more damage and life, but took some resists away. I scoured through the charm stash Syd had built up and fixed the resists with SCs.
Level 97-97.1-98 was more P8 Chaos/P8 Baal Waves and P3 Baal. Then the new patch was released and Terror Zones took over at level 97.1. It was going to be 660 runs of P8 Chaos+ til 98 and the Terror Zones was 150 runs. I couldn't pass up the exp. Lo rune dropped in Chaos, Elemental Skiller dropped in Cows, Jah #2 in Catacombs level 1, then the big 34 LIFE Elemental skiller in the Viper Temple. 2 Vexes dropped as well. 97.5-98 took 9 days inside terror zones (I would average about 3 hours a day max...so about 24-27 hours total in play time)
Level 98-99 was all Terror Zones. March 9th, 2023 is when Syd dinged 98 and then April 5th, 2023 is when 99 dinged! Crazy exp per run depending on the zone that was terrorized at the time. Crazy fast timing to level from 98 to 99. The Grail got down to -45, the highlights being Windforce, Death Cleaver(98.2) and D-Web (98.9). During level 98-99 Syd found a 43Life Elemental skiller. Syd found SOJ #2 at 98.75. Found a 20 Life/17 Mana SC at 98.8
The left over runes Syd did not use yet include 8 Pul, 4 Um, 3 Mal, 3 Ist, 2 Gul, 3 Vex, 1 Ohm, 1 Lo, 4 Sur, and 2 Jah. So many runewords could be made...
Final Build for Syd is a pure Wind Druid. Maxed Cyclone Armor, Twister, Tornado, Hurricane, and Oak Sage. 5 Points to Grizzle, 2 Points to Dire Wolf, 1 Point to Raven, Spirit Wolf and Artic Blast
Final Gear for Syd:
Helm--Jalal's Mane
Armor--Enigma
Belt--Arachnid's Mesh
Weapon--39 All Res HoTo
Swap--3 BO CtA + Spirit
Shield--Stormshield w/Cham
Gloves--Trang's
Boots--49MF Trav's
Amulet-- Crafted 2 Druid/9FCR/17 Mana/15 All res 48LR/Regen Mana 8%/MDR 2
Ring #1--BK Ring
Ring #2--Rare 10FCR/31 Life/73 Mana/19 LR/DR 2/20 Max Stamina
Charms--150/15/38 Gheed's, 11%Phys Sunder, -70 Cold Res Sunder, 43 Life Ele Skiller, 34 Life Ele Skiller, 3 Plain Skillers, Torch (14/18), Anni (14/10/6), 11 Fire Res/5 MF SC, 20 Life/17 Mana SC, 20 Life/10 Mana, 20 Life/4 Mana, 11 Fire Res/11 Life SC, 20 Life/9 PSN Res SC, 20 Life/15 PSN Dam SC, Cube and TP Tome.
Ending thoughts on this process--
It's long, but not nearly as long now with the Terror Zones. Mentally it was fun and engaging. I'm glad I picked a Wind Druid to do it with first. Beside a Paladin, Druid is my 2nd favorite class to play. Very versatile character, can do any and all things when geared or spec'd correctly.
Plans for Syd--switch the gear to pure MF Wind druid, switch the Players setting from 8 to 1 and MF Terror Zones to finish the grail.
Next up for myself is to take my Untwinked Poison Zon (Sydney) to 99, I have a twinked out Mosaic Sin that I have put together for RFL Cows. After Sydney's journey to 99 with a Zon, its an untwinked FoHdin name is HeavensRain to 99.
Syd started as an entrant into [Simple+] Tournament of Tournaments on 2/22/2022. I chose to go back to 2015 list of tournaments and picked out The Committed Tournament. The basics of that tournament was HC, Untwinked, 1 skill tree, and pick your Merc before you start.
Syd's journey through the tournament started with a 3os crossbow using the normal attack. All the skill points were put into Artic Blast, Cyclone Armor and Twister all the way til level 24 when Tornado became available. That happened in the Maggot Lair. Stealth wasn't made until Act 3 being single pass and finally acquired the runes and armor. Ancients Pledge was the next upgrade made by the end of Act 3 normal. Syd made a Spirit (26FCR) Broad sword after cows were done in normal. All spirit runes were obtained through Act 4/5 and cows. Lots of cubing were needed but a Prismatic Amulet was crafted before moving to NM. First 4os Flail dropped in Act 1 NM, that was stashed away right away for a future HoTo roll. The first HUGE item came from a Charsi imbue, to this day I believe this to be the best Imbue ever on a single-pass, untwinked playthrough.
Once that imbue was done, Syd continued on through NM. Switched the players setting in NM Act 2 from P8 to P5 due to Duriel waiting at the end. Most of the questing was done by staying away and firing Tornados while the Merc (Waheed) tanked. Syd progressed and finished NM at level 74, moving into hell positive resists and 516HP. Scary going into hell with late little of life but the resists were positive in hell to start. 50 FR, 26LR, 33 CR, and 63PSN.
Act 1 in hell dropped a Superior White Monarch (+12% ED). That was set in the stash for a possible spirit base. The corpse in the monastery gate dropped a Mal rune. The first mid/upper rune for a single pass. That was stashed for a CtA. The first near death experience (NDE) for this character came in the Jail Level 3. Syd managed to kill an Elite that was Conviction/Cold Enchant but was inside the blast radius for the frost nova. The health dropped below 150 and Syd ran spamming pots. Hell Andy was a game of Ring around the Blood Pool while firing tornados. Act 1 down. 4 to go. Act 2 Hell had the first Major end game drop.
This drop was crazy!! 0 MF, single pass and Radament! Drop odds from Silo's at the time said 1 in 24,136. That replaced the rare helm from NM Act 1. Then it was time to focus of a couple more levels and a strength points to get Syd to 156 STR for that Monarch. Syd made that happen by having some more luck in the Palace Levels. Griswold's Armor dropped, which has a +20 STR mod on it. 3 P-Rubies were placed in the armor to get a big boost in life and the Spirit Monarch was created. 35%FCR Roll! The end of Act 2 hell has Syd with Jalal's, Dual Spirit, Gris Armor and random gear. After more questing and nothing note worthy dropping, Syd made it to Act 4 Hell at level 81 and max Resists. Hell Forge drop was a dreaded Hel rune.
. 6 Runes (Lem-Gul) that would have been awesome, but Syd must have used up the RnG earlier. Finished Act 4 and onto Act 5, the final test of being a Single Pass, Untwinked,1 Skill tree character. Act 5 had plenty of hard spots to navigate. Multiple Frenzytaur packs, Ancient spawn which turned out to be a good roll. Talic (Magic Resistant/Stone Skin)/Madawc (Extra Strong/Tele)/Korlic (Spectral Hit/Lightning Enchant). Finished them and down to Baal Syd goes. All 5 waves went down nice and easy, Baal shortly after and Guardian it is. Finished up the Tournament. After making Guardian and doing 1 cow run to "complete" the Committed Tournament. It was on to the next phase of this journey. Leveling and grinding out the runes for Enigma, HoTo, and CtA. Leveling was started in the Chaos Sanctuary. The next crazy drop came shortly into the leveling process. 120 MF on at this point and
After Chaos, came Spring RFL Round 2...Trav...found 3 runes during the 750ish runs...Pul, Um, Sur #1. But Syd also found a Mara's, Raven Frost, and a Stormshield. 3 Nice upgrades needed. This took Syd from level 88 to 92. First Elemental Skiller came shortly after the RFL during LK, Chaos, Baal, Pits, Ancient Tunnels. Then I started to grind LK hard. 3,688 Runs in total to get Enigma, HoTo, Grief and CtA. Overall rune haul for LK was 7 Pul, 4 Um, 5 Mal, 3 Ist, 4 Gul, 2 Vex, 2 Ohm, 1 Lo and 5 Surs. The Grief was made for possible Uber running later if Syd progressed that far.
Another Elemental skiller would drop during the LK grind, that made 2 now for Syd.
Once these amazing Runewords were made, I used Syd's last socket quest to punch a hole in the SS and placed an Um rune in there to get more resists. Up next on the journey was key farming for Ubers. Syd farmed up 7 keysets, figuring on 7 different classes and the odds of getting 1 druid torch out of 7 was reasonable. During the key farming the Countess dropped a Mal rune and Nihlathak dropped a Sur Rune #7. Once all the keysets were farmed, I sat down and did some theory crafting for mini-ubers and Uber Tristram for Druids. Wrote down the gear needed and it was off to Hell Mephisto to grind for the gear needed. I decided to run the Mini-Ubers with a Maul Werebear using Grief/SS. Down went all 21 mini-ubers, which meant 7 organ sets to farm up to 7 Torches. Time to switch specs on Syd to a Fury Werewolf with Up'd Ribcracker. 2nd Torch to drop was my Druid Torch!!
Torch down, next up Anni. Spec'd back to Wind druid NM Andariel farming Syd goes. I did not keep track of the total runs but the 10th unique ring to drop was a SOJ! Then once that was found, it was time to farm Charsi's shop for a Prevent Monster Heal weapon. Once that was found, Syd was ready to take on Uber Diablo as a wind druid...don't recommend this cause its a long battle...16 minutes to be exact.
After all this, the time came to start the long Exp grind to 99. All screenshots and posts can be found in The Untwinked Level 99 Progress Thread, The Saviours of Sanctuary Rise Anew thread.
Level 93-94 dropped a Jah Rune in Chaos as the highlight of that level. Also, crafted a 2 Druid/9 FCR/15 All res/48LR amulet that replaced Mara's.
Level 94-95 was a mixed bag of areas ran. Pits, Tunnels, Act 3 Temples, Act 5 Ice Caves. Big drops from this level were Metalgrid, Griffon's, Sur #8
Level 95-96 was another mixed bag of areas ran. Pits, Tunnels, Temples, Chaos, Act 5 Ice Caves and Baal. River of Flame dropped Sur Rune #9. Re-Rolled a 15 All res GC, BK Ring was found
Level 96-97 was nothing but P8 Chaos, P8 Baal Waves and P3 Baal. Chaos dropped Sur #10! and Cham! Baal waves + Baal dropped 49MF War Trav's which were an upgrade to the 45MF. This level is where a gear change was made. I took the Um rune out of the SS and put the Cham rune in. Got rid of the Raven Frost for the BK ring found at level 95. This added more damage and life, but took some resists away. I scoured through the charm stash Syd had built up and fixed the resists with SCs.
Level 97-97.1-98 was more P8 Chaos/P8 Baal Waves and P3 Baal. Then the new patch was released and Terror Zones took over at level 97.1. It was going to be 660 runs of P8 Chaos+ til 98 and the Terror Zones was 150 runs. I couldn't pass up the exp. Lo rune dropped in Chaos, Elemental Skiller dropped in Cows, Jah #2 in Catacombs level 1, then the big 34 LIFE Elemental skiller in the Viper Temple. 2 Vexes dropped as well. 97.5-98 took 9 days inside terror zones (I would average about 3 hours a day max...so about 24-27 hours total in play time)
Level 98-99 was all Terror Zones. March 9th, 2023 is when Syd dinged 98 and then April 5th, 2023 is when 99 dinged! Crazy exp per run depending on the zone that was terrorized at the time. Crazy fast timing to level from 98 to 99. The Grail got down to -45, the highlights being Windforce, Death Cleaver(98.2) and D-Web (98.9). During level 98-99 Syd found a 43Life Elemental skiller. Syd found SOJ #2 at 98.75. Found a 20 Life/17 Mana SC at 98.8
The left over runes Syd did not use yet include 8 Pul, 4 Um, 3 Mal, 3 Ist, 2 Gul, 3 Vex, 1 Ohm, 1 Lo, 4 Sur, and 2 Jah. So many runewords could be made...
Final Build for Syd is a pure Wind Druid. Maxed Cyclone Armor, Twister, Tornado, Hurricane, and Oak Sage. 5 Points to Grizzle, 2 Points to Dire Wolf, 1 Point to Raven, Spirit Wolf and Artic Blast
Final Gear for Syd:
Helm--Jalal's Mane
Armor--Enigma
Belt--Arachnid's Mesh
Weapon--39 All Res HoTo
Swap--3 BO CtA + Spirit
Shield--Stormshield w/Cham
Gloves--Trang's
Boots--49MF Trav's
Amulet-- Crafted 2 Druid/9FCR/17 Mana/15 All res 48LR/Regen Mana 8%/MDR 2
Ring #1--BK Ring
Ring #2--Rare 10FCR/31 Life/73 Mana/19 LR/DR 2/20 Max Stamina
Charms--150/15/38 Gheed's, 11%Phys Sunder, -70 Cold Res Sunder, 43 Life Ele Skiller, 34 Life Ele Skiller, 3 Plain Skillers, Torch (14/18), Anni (14/10/6), 11 Fire Res/5 MF SC, 20 Life/17 Mana SC, 20 Life/10 Mana, 20 Life/4 Mana, 11 Fire Res/11 Life SC, 20 Life/9 PSN Res SC, 20 Life/15 PSN Dam SC, Cube and TP Tome.
Ending thoughts on this process--
It's long, but not nearly as long now with the Terror Zones. Mentally it was fun and engaging. I'm glad I picked a Wind Druid to do it with first. Beside a Paladin, Druid is my 2nd favorite class to play. Very versatile character, can do any and all things when geared or spec'd correctly.
Plans for Syd--switch the gear to pure MF Wind druid, switch the Players setting from 8 to 1 and MF Terror Zones to finish the grail.
Next up for myself is to take my Untwinked Poison Zon (Sydney) to 99, I have a twinked out Mosaic Sin that I have put together for RFL Cows. After Sydney's journey to 99 with a Zon, its an untwinked FoHdin name is HeavensRain to 99.
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