- Jan 24, 2008
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Deciding whether or not to click? This is a brag thread vaguely attempting to masquerade as something more. Already clicked? Welcome! Let's get started!
First off, to answer the question you're probably asking: 'Why were you running in 1.11b? Don't you know that you can find a lot more runes in 1.13+?' I'll answer the second question first because it's easiest: Yes. Now, to answer the first question, that's going to take more words (and the way I write ... a lot more words ... )
Back Story:
When I was thinking about getting out of the MMORPG I'd been playing for the last six years and getting back into Diablo II I had to ask myself: What's left for me in the world of Sanctuary? During my 2006-2014 Diablo II heydays I'd created 14 Mats/Pats in 1.07, 2 Mats/Pats in 1.08, 7 Mats/Pats in 1.09, 4 Mats/Pats in 1.10a, and a whopping 72 Mats/Pats/Guardians in 1.13. Suffice it to say, if there was a build that I had wanted to do, I'd pretty much done it. I knew that if I was coming back after a six year break I wanted to do a clean restart. But restart with what? Was rebuilding my favorite characters from scratch really compelling enough to get me back into Diablo II? Then the seed long planted in my brain began to grow ... there was one build ... one build I'd always wanted to do since my earliest DII days ...
The Hammerdin. No, not any Hammerdin. The pre 1.13 Hammerdin WITH Enigma. When I began playing Diablo II on Battle.net v1.11b in 2006 the Hammerdin was the 'it' build. They were everywhere. And why not? A powerful caster that faces no immunities ... what's not to like? Well, there was one problem ... I liked to play self found. More than that, Battle.net was overflowing with what I soon learned to be 'duped' high runes sold from online vendors who polluted the game with incessant advertising bots ... and I wanted no part of that ... not even second hand. So Enigma was out of reach. I made some budget hc and sc Hammerdins but compared to their Enigma wielding brethren they seemed like empty shells. My preferred play style brought me to hc on Battle.net (where self-found seemed more common) and then when my last friend left for other games in 2009 I switched to SP mostly continuing with hc play in tournaments. I didn't get serious about item finding and endgame gearing until 2010 when 1.13 had been released. 1.13 made high runes accessible but it also brought changes to the Hammerdin. "Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons." Oh cruel Blizzard, nerfing my original dream character at the very moment that it seemed possible! I didn't dwell on it very long. I gathered up the materials for an Infinity and enjoyed wrecking stuff with my Sorceresses. Eventually through more or less non-targeted play I had the runes for Enigma ... and eventually I tried it on my Hammerdin. It was fun. Fun enough to lead to my highest clvl (97) ... but it wasn't the dream. Every magic immune seemed to be laughing extra hard in my face. The merc could handle some ... but stopping to watch the merc slowly poke something to death wasn't great and always left me thinking "this wouldn't have been happening back in the day". And then there was stuff that the merc really couldn't handle. Have you ever taken your merc solo against Baal's second wave? It's not good. Sure you can do it. But by the time you get done doing it your 'run' isn't recognizable as a 'run' anymore but more an exercise in frustration. And of course there was the overarching through line "this wouldn't have been happening back in the day". Every time I was sitting there watching the merc poke some magic immune to death my mind would wander towards the idea of creating a 'proper' pre 1.13 Hammerdin with Enigma but I always dismissed the idea as being too grindy, too time consuming, and with pushing 100 characters I could play, there always seemed to be something better to do.
Fast forward through my six year break from Diablo II to play an MMORPG (Lord of the Rings Online) and things have really changed. Too grindy? I've been on the MMORPG endgame treadmill. Grindy is what I do. Too time consuming? I've always been okay with being at home. But now with trying to be responsible about contributing to the spread of COVID I've got more free time spent at home than ever. Too many other characters to play? Nope. I've still got all the save files but decided early on that I didn't want to play characters that I'd largely forgotten about with gear I largely couldn't remember when and how I'd found.
So with no reason left not to, I got the no CD version of 1.11b up and running. I made my favorite budget Sorceress (Frozen Orb/TK) and bee-lined it to Hell Mephisto and spent a few weeks getting some staples for her and my dream Hammerdin (Harlequin Crest, Arachnid Mesh, Mara's, SoJ, War Travelers ... that sort of stuff). Then I decided to get serious and head to Lower Kurast. I found my ideal six super chest map (that I managed to stay on for all 18,260 runs), did a couple hundred 'test' runs to game out average times (and see if my sanity could handle this project), and decided that since the SPF allows it and Blizzard did it eventually anyways, I'd install CRM and set all runes to orange. Then before firing up the run counter and getting going in earnest I had one more stop to make ... and it proved pivotal ... The River of Flame to get Mephisto's soulstone out of my stash (and maybe get a pretty rune to christen the launch of my journey). I had no idea. The Hellforge would drop an Io but before that happened I found a players 1 Ber along the way (originally reported here)! And so at the very moment that it was to start, my LK quest for Jah+Ber simply became the quest for Jah. 18,260 P3 LK runs later, here are the results:
Results:
Runes:
Lum: 22
Ko: 12
Fal: 5
Lem: 8
Pul: 7
Um: 7
Mal: 0
Ist: 7
Gul: 2
Lo: 3
Sur: 1
Ber: 1
High runes came at run #1,824 Lo (originally reported here), #12,164 Ber (originally reported here), #13,883 Sur (originally reported here), #14,343 Lo (originally reported here), and #18,260 Lo (originally reported here). I obviously had the runes to cube a Jah at run #14,343 but there was mission creep and the quest for Jah became the quest for Jah+Lo.
For some context,
There's 65,536 different drop patterns for the LK Super Chests, and if you have an LK map with six Super Chests, run #10,923 would be your earliest possible chance to come across each drop pattern.
If you did happen to get one of each drop pattern here's the runes you'd get:
Lum: 11
Ko: 6
Fal: 4
Lem: 4
Pul: 3
Um: 4
Mal: 1
Ist: 2
Gul: 1
Lo: 1
Sur: 1
Ber: 1
Again, I ended at run #18,260 which is nearly exactly 2/3 of the way between one theoretical complete set of drops at #10,923 and two theoretical complete set of drops #21,846. Here's how it all compares:
Theoretical at #10,923, Actual at #18,260, Theoretical at #21,846,
Lum: 11, Lum: 22, Lum: 22,
Ko: 6, Ko: 12, Ko: 12,
Fal: 4, Fal: 5, Fal: 8,
Lem: 4, Lem: 8, Lem: 8,
Pul: 3, Pul: 7, Pul: 6,
Um: 4, Um: 7, Um: 8,
Mal: 1, Mal: 0, Mal: 2,
Ist: 2, Ist: 7, Ist: 4,
Gul: 1, Gul: 2, Gul: 2,
Lo: 1, Lo: 3, Lo: 2,
Sur: 1, Sur: 1, Sur: 2,
Ber: 1, Ber: 1, Ber: 2,
I briefly considered doing another 3,586 runs to allow for better data analysis ... but ... I had what I came for, and that many runs would have taken me another 50 hours ... I'm crazy ... but not that crazy.
So speaking of hours spent, here's some stats. The average run time was 47.625 seconds (that's with the clock starting on a run the moment you click 'save and exit game' on the previous run). For reference, it takes me 5.473 seconds to select single player, select my character, click 'ok', select the difficulty, and load into the game. How do I know this? Well, I accidentally exited once immediately upon entry so I lost my fastest run time. It was 25 seconds and change. That's if I load into the Pandemonium Fortress, wp into LK, hit the six super chests and the only interesting armor rack, get back to the wp, load back into the Pandemonium Fortress, save and exit immediately and don't find anything interesting along the way. Mostly though I was finding things that were interesting: low runes, flawless gems, jewels, charms, and rares. Add time for cubing, identifying, sorting and stashing, and it's easy to see how I averaged 47.625 second run times. A 47.625 second average over 18,260 runs gets you to a grand total of 249.3 hours. I had the runes for a Jah at 199.5 hours ... so, it took another 50 hours to get to Jah+Lo. Was it worth it? Well ...
Here's what I did with those runes:
The assembled ingredients:
And the results:
Enigma
Light Plate
'JahIthBer'
Defense: 856
Durability: 39 of 60
Required Strength: 41
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 38
Fingerprint: 0xd191091d
+750 Defense
Damage Reduced by 8%
Increase Maximum Life 5%
+14 Life after each Kill
45% Faster Run/Walk
+1 to Teleport
15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
+2 to All Skill Levels
+0 to Strength (Based on Character Level)
1% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (3: 3 used)
Fortitude
Great Hauberk
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 3375
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Strength: 108
Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0x941df158
+200% Enhanced Defense
+300% Enhanced Damage
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
Fire Resist +26%
Lightning Resist +26%
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Cold Resist +26%
Poison Resist +26%
Replenish Life +7
+1 to Light Radius
25% Faster Cast Rate
12% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+1 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)
Heart of the Oak
Flail
'KoVexPulThul'
One-Hand Damage: 1 to 24
Durability: 19 of 30
Required Dexterity: 35
Required Strength: 41
Required Level: 55
Mace Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x997349b7
+10 to Dexterity
All Resistances +31
Adds 3-14 cold damage over 3 seconds
7% Mana stolen per hit
Replenish Life +20
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
40% Faster Cast Rate
75% Damage to Demons
150% Damage to Undead
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
+3 to All Skill Levels
Level 4 Oak Sage (25/25 Charges)
Level 14 Raven (60/60 Charges)
Socketed (4: 4 used)
Spirit
Sacred Targe
'TalThulOrtAmn'
Defense: 158
Chance to Block: 50%
Smite Damage: 22 to 70
Durability: 45 of 45
(Paladin Only)
Required Strength: 86
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0xb7cdb100
+22 to Vitality
+97 to Mana
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Fire Resist +45%
Lightning Resist +80%
Cold Resist +80%
Poison Resist +80%
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
55% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to All Skill Levels
+6 Magic Absorb
Socketed (4: 4 used)
I went with the light plate base for the Enigma to maximize the benefit of the +strength stat (War Travelers has the highest strength requirement of any gear that I'm planning to use at 95). Besides, I created it for a Hammerdin but might want it for something else ... so best to keep options open.
Speaking of keeping options open, I went with the eth Great Hauberk base for the super low strength and clvl requirements (because isn't it nice to be able to throw the endgame gear on the merc asap). The base item was racked in LK on a different map than where I did my 18K LK runs. Surprisingly it only took five hours to find a Great Hauberk rack that was reasonably stable and get an eth base from it that was four defense points from perfect! Oh yeah, and of course it cubed to four sockets (which was really, really, really nice ... thanks RNG)!
Not much to say about the Heart of Oak except, sure, I wish the resistance roll had been better ... but oh well ...
I included the Spirit here because the base shield (perfect resistances and defense) came from my 18K LK map. I also had two shields with perfect resistances and one point less than perfect defense. I rolled all three of them and then rerolled all three of them with 23 of the 24 Hel Runes I found in LK. Above is the best result and actually the only roll of the 26 that got 35 FCR. So, perfect resistances, defense, and 35 FCR ... I'll rate that as good enough ...
That's it for the big ticket items but when you run LK you don't just get runes. Here's some of my other finds:
Charms:
Skillers:
(Notable suffixes in parentheses)
Amazon:
Javelin and Spear - 2 (+29 Life)
Passive and Magic - 6 (+7% FRW, +5 Strength)
Bow and Crossbow - 7 (+4 Strength, +34 Life)
Assassin:
Martial Arts - 5 (+37% Extra Gold)
Shadow Disciples - 6 (+27 Life, +28 Life)
Trap - 1 (+15 Life)
Barbarian:
Warcries - 5 (+36 Life)
Combat Masteries - 4 (+4 Dexterity)
Combat Skills - 3 (+30% Extra Gold)
Druid:
Elemental - 2
Shapeshifting - 8 (+12% FHR, +5 Dexterity, +36 Life, +38 Life)
Summoning - 4 (+20 Life)
Necromancer:
Summoning - 4 (+34 Life)
Poison and Bone - 5 (+6 Dexterity, +16 Life)
Curses - 5 (+4 Dexterity, +30 Life)
Paladin:
Defensive Auras - 3 (+3 Dexterity)
Offensive Auras - 4 (+6 Stength)
Combat Skills - 6 (+12% FHR, +12% FHR, +11 Life)
Sorceress:
Cold - 2 (+6 Stength, +17 Life)
Lightning - 3
Fire - 5 (+40 Life)
I didn't reroll any charms along the way (all charms were found as-is). So that's 90 skillers found in 18,260 runs. That's about one skiller found per 203 runs. Remember, I was running at P3.
Shimmering Charms:
Grand:
+15 All Resistances - 1
+14 All Resistances - 3 (+28 Life)
+13 All Resistances - 1
Medium:
+8 All Resistances - 1
+7 All Resistances - Don't think I found any.
+6 All Resistances - Wouldn't have kept them if I did.
Small:
+5 All Resistances - 2
+4 All Resistances - 3
+3 All Resistances - Don't like 'em. Didn't keep 'em.
Single Resistance Small Charms:
(I kept any that were +10 and +11)
Amber Small Charms:
+10 Lightning Resistance - 9 (+2 Dex, +7 Life, +12 Life)
+11 Lightning Resistance - 5 (+6% MF)
Emerald Small Charms:
+10 Poison Resistance - 5 (+3% FRW)
+11 Poison Resistance - 10 (+7% Extra Gold, +12 Life)
Ruby Small Charms:
+10 Fire Resistance - 10 (+4% MF, +7 Life)
+11 Fire Resistance - 11 (+5% FHR, +2 Dex, +10% Extra Gold, +2 Strength, +19 Life)
Sapphire Small Charms:
+10 Cold Resistance - 5 (+7% Extra Gold)
+11 Cold Resistance - 10 (+2 Dex, +3% FRW, +15 Life)
Small Charms of Vita:
+20 Life - 16
+19 Life - 19
+18 Life - 31
+17 Life - 14
+16 Life - 17
Too many prefixes to enumerate in any meaningful way ... so instead, here's my favorite:
Serpent's Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 40
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x2346591c
+19 to Life
+15 to Mana
I could really go for a whole inventory full of those .
Small Charms of Good Luck:
(I only kept ones with +7% Magic Find.)
+7% Magic Find - 24
While not good for a Hammerdin, here's my favorite:
Steel Small Charm of Good Luck
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xbe47fb3c
+35 to Attack Rating
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Jewels:
I found pretty close to 2,000 of them and kept them all, mostly for future crafting endeavors. Below are some that might see use.
Scintillating Jewels:
+15 All Resistances - 2
+14 All Resistances - 3
+13 All Resistances - 4 (+15 IAS)
+12 All Resistances - 1
+11 All Resistances - 1
Realgar Jewels:
(Because mid game gear needs love too.)
+30% ED - 6 (+9 Stength)
+29% ED - 3 (+9 Dex)
+28% ED - 4 (+8 Dex)
+27% ED - 6 (+10 Min Dmg)
+26% ED - 2 (1-57 Lightning Dmg)
+25% ED - 1
+24% ED - 2
+23% ED - 1
+22% ED
+21% ED - 4
A Realgar jewel of fervor really would have hit the spot in one of my favorite twinking weapons, Ginther's Rift. Alas, I guess I'll have to settle for finding a nice home for this:
Realgar Jewel of Bliss
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x52cc9196
+27% Enhanced Damage
+10 to Minimum Damage
Ruby Jewels:
+40% ED Nope, not a single one.
+39% ED - 5 (+11 Max Dmg)
+38% ED - 2 (5-14 Cold Dmg)
+37% ED - 1
+36% ED - 4 (+18 Life)
+35% ED - 2 (+7 Strength)
+34% ED - 1
+33% ED - 4 (+15 IAS)
+32% ED - 3 (+9 Strength)
+31% ED - 2
Here's the readout for the best of the bunch:
Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x33013efc
+33% Enhanced Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed
And I think I'll end with something quirky:
Jewel of Joyfulness
Required Level: 3
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x2d774925
+4 to Minimum Damage
I found nine that rolled '+4'. Those Quill Rats in the Blood Moor won't ever know what hit them ...
Perfect Gems:
I cubed about 2,760 perfect gems and about 315 perfect skulls. Which caused me to notice something that I hadn't noticed before in my eight years of playing Diablo II. Flawless skulls are rarer than flawless gems. According to ATMA's 1.11+ drop calculator the best shot for flawless gems (all varities) is 1:804, while the best shot for flawless skulls (which happens to be the same source) is 1:1207. So you'd only expect to find 2/3 the amount of skulls compared to gems. That tracks nearly perfectly with my demonstrated skull to gem ratio. Huh. I learned something new ... (though if you're reading this you must be really committed to your Diablo II and probably already knew). Anyhow, for me, I guess that means nothing but skulls get offered up to gem shrines from now on ...
Credits:
Well as per usual, this ended up being a lot of words. If you took the time to read any of them: Thanks! And big thanks from me to all the folks who did the original work of discovering the LK /P3-4 Superchest Drops back in 2008 (I know there's at least a few of you still around). Also, big thanks to Skinnyy who's 2008 thread Result's of ~17K LK Runs (P8) provided the reassurance I needed to launch my own LK project and also provided me with a framework for organizing my results. Skinnyy seems to have left Diablo II in 2010 but his work lives on! Lastly, that bring me to Elly, Rush, and all the moderators that have kept the site(s) running and the community strong: Thanks! Diablo II is fun but had the knowledge from twelve years ago been lost or had there no longer been any community around to share the experience with I doubt I would have bothered with this crazy thing. Thanks everyone out there past and present!
First off, to answer the question you're probably asking: 'Why were you running in 1.11b? Don't you know that you can find a lot more runes in 1.13+?' I'll answer the second question first because it's easiest: Yes. Now, to answer the first question, that's going to take more words (and the way I write ... a lot more words ... )
Back Story:
When I was thinking about getting out of the MMORPG I'd been playing for the last six years and getting back into Diablo II I had to ask myself: What's left for me in the world of Sanctuary? During my 2006-2014 Diablo II heydays I'd created 14 Mats/Pats in 1.07, 2 Mats/Pats in 1.08, 7 Mats/Pats in 1.09, 4 Mats/Pats in 1.10a, and a whopping 72 Mats/Pats/Guardians in 1.13. Suffice it to say, if there was a build that I had wanted to do, I'd pretty much done it. I knew that if I was coming back after a six year break I wanted to do a clean restart. But restart with what? Was rebuilding my favorite characters from scratch really compelling enough to get me back into Diablo II? Then the seed long planted in my brain began to grow ... there was one build ... one build I'd always wanted to do since my earliest DII days ...
The Hammerdin. No, not any Hammerdin. The pre 1.13 Hammerdin WITH Enigma. When I began playing Diablo II on Battle.net v1.11b in 2006 the Hammerdin was the 'it' build. They were everywhere. And why not? A powerful caster that faces no immunities ... what's not to like? Well, there was one problem ... I liked to play self found. More than that, Battle.net was overflowing with what I soon learned to be 'duped' high runes sold from online vendors who polluted the game with incessant advertising bots ... and I wanted no part of that ... not even second hand. So Enigma was out of reach. I made some budget hc and sc Hammerdins but compared to their Enigma wielding brethren they seemed like empty shells. My preferred play style brought me to hc on Battle.net (where self-found seemed more common) and then when my last friend left for other games in 2009 I switched to SP mostly continuing with hc play in tournaments. I didn't get serious about item finding and endgame gearing until 2010 when 1.13 had been released. 1.13 made high runes accessible but it also brought changes to the Hammerdin. "Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons." Oh cruel Blizzard, nerfing my original dream character at the very moment that it seemed possible! I didn't dwell on it very long. I gathered up the materials for an Infinity and enjoyed wrecking stuff with my Sorceresses. Eventually through more or less non-targeted play I had the runes for Enigma ... and eventually I tried it on my Hammerdin. It was fun. Fun enough to lead to my highest clvl (97) ... but it wasn't the dream. Every magic immune seemed to be laughing extra hard in my face. The merc could handle some ... but stopping to watch the merc slowly poke something to death wasn't great and always left me thinking "this wouldn't have been happening back in the day". And then there was stuff that the merc really couldn't handle. Have you ever taken your merc solo against Baal's second wave? It's not good. Sure you can do it. But by the time you get done doing it your 'run' isn't recognizable as a 'run' anymore but more an exercise in frustration. And of course there was the overarching through line "this wouldn't have been happening back in the day". Every time I was sitting there watching the merc poke some magic immune to death my mind would wander towards the idea of creating a 'proper' pre 1.13 Hammerdin with Enigma but I always dismissed the idea as being too grindy, too time consuming, and with pushing 100 characters I could play, there always seemed to be something better to do.
Fast forward through my six year break from Diablo II to play an MMORPG (Lord of the Rings Online) and things have really changed. Too grindy? I've been on the MMORPG endgame treadmill. Grindy is what I do. Too time consuming? I've always been okay with being at home. But now with trying to be responsible about contributing to the spread of COVID I've got more free time spent at home than ever. Too many other characters to play? Nope. I've still got all the save files but decided early on that I didn't want to play characters that I'd largely forgotten about with gear I largely couldn't remember when and how I'd found.
So with no reason left not to, I got the no CD version of 1.11b up and running. I made my favorite budget Sorceress (Frozen Orb/TK) and bee-lined it to Hell Mephisto and spent a few weeks getting some staples for her and my dream Hammerdin (Harlequin Crest, Arachnid Mesh, Mara's, SoJ, War Travelers ... that sort of stuff). Then I decided to get serious and head to Lower Kurast. I found my ideal six super chest map (that I managed to stay on for all 18,260 runs), did a couple hundred 'test' runs to game out average times (and see if my sanity could handle this project), and decided that since the SPF allows it and Blizzard did it eventually anyways, I'd install CRM and set all runes to orange. Then before firing up the run counter and getting going in earnest I had one more stop to make ... and it proved pivotal ... The River of Flame to get Mephisto's soulstone out of my stash (and maybe get a pretty rune to christen the launch of my journey). I had no idea. The Hellforge would drop an Io but before that happened I found a players 1 Ber along the way (originally reported here)! And so at the very moment that it was to start, my LK quest for Jah+Ber simply became the quest for Jah. 18,260 P3 LK runs later, here are the results:
Results:
Runes:
Lum: 22
Ko: 12
Fal: 5
Lem: 8
Pul: 7
Um: 7
Mal: 0
Ist: 7
Gul: 2
Lo: 3
Sur: 1
Ber: 1
High runes came at run #1,824 Lo (originally reported here), #12,164 Ber (originally reported here), #13,883 Sur (originally reported here), #14,343 Lo (originally reported here), and #18,260 Lo (originally reported here). I obviously had the runes to cube a Jah at run #14,343 but there was mission creep and the quest for Jah became the quest for Jah+Lo.
For some context,
There's 65,536 different drop patterns for the LK Super Chests, and if you have an LK map with six Super Chests, run #10,923 would be your earliest possible chance to come across each drop pattern.
If you did happen to get one of each drop pattern here's the runes you'd get:
Lum: 11
Ko: 6
Fal: 4
Lem: 4
Pul: 3
Um: 4
Mal: 1
Ist: 2
Gul: 1
Lo: 1
Sur: 1
Ber: 1
Again, I ended at run #18,260 which is nearly exactly 2/3 of the way between one theoretical complete set of drops at #10,923 and two theoretical complete set of drops #21,846. Here's how it all compares:
Theoretical at #10,923, Actual at #18,260, Theoretical at #21,846,
Lum: 11, Lum: 22, Lum: 22,
Ko: 6, Ko: 12, Ko: 12,
Fal: 4, Fal: 5, Fal: 8,
Lem: 4, Lem: 8, Lem: 8,
Pul: 3, Pul: 7, Pul: 6,
Um: 4, Um: 7, Um: 8,
Mal: 1, Mal: 0, Mal: 2,
Ist: 2, Ist: 7, Ist: 4,
Gul: 1, Gul: 2, Gul: 2,
Lo: 1, Lo: 3, Lo: 2,
Sur: 1, Sur: 1, Sur: 2,
Ber: 1, Ber: 1, Ber: 2,
I briefly considered doing another 3,586 runs to allow for better data analysis ... but ... I had what I came for, and that many runs would have taken me another 50 hours ... I'm crazy ... but not that crazy.
So speaking of hours spent, here's some stats. The average run time was 47.625 seconds (that's with the clock starting on a run the moment you click 'save and exit game' on the previous run). For reference, it takes me 5.473 seconds to select single player, select my character, click 'ok', select the difficulty, and load into the game. How do I know this? Well, I accidentally exited once immediately upon entry so I lost my fastest run time. It was 25 seconds and change. That's if I load into the Pandemonium Fortress, wp into LK, hit the six super chests and the only interesting armor rack, get back to the wp, load back into the Pandemonium Fortress, save and exit immediately and don't find anything interesting along the way. Mostly though I was finding things that were interesting: low runes, flawless gems, jewels, charms, and rares. Add time for cubing, identifying, sorting and stashing, and it's easy to see how I averaged 47.625 second run times. A 47.625 second average over 18,260 runs gets you to a grand total of 249.3 hours. I had the runes for a Jah at 199.5 hours ... so, it took another 50 hours to get to Jah+Lo. Was it worth it? Well ...
Here's what I did with those runes:
The assembled ingredients:
And the results:
Enigma
Light Plate
'JahIthBer'
Defense: 856
Durability: 39 of 60
Required Strength: 41
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 38
Fingerprint: 0xd191091d
+750 Defense
Damage Reduced by 8%
Increase Maximum Life 5%
+14 Life after each Kill
45% Faster Run/Walk
+1 to Teleport
15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
+2 to All Skill Levels
+0 to Strength (Based on Character Level)
1% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (3: 3 used)
Fortitude
Great Hauberk
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 3375
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Strength: 108
Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0x941df158
+200% Enhanced Defense
+300% Enhanced Damage
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
Fire Resist +26%
Lightning Resist +26%
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Cold Resist +26%
Poison Resist +26%
Replenish Life +7
+1 to Light Radius
25% Faster Cast Rate
12% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+1 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)
Heart of the Oak
Flail
'KoVexPulThul'
One-Hand Damage: 1 to 24
Durability: 19 of 30
Required Dexterity: 35
Required Strength: 41
Required Level: 55
Mace Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x997349b7
+10 to Dexterity
All Resistances +31
Adds 3-14 cold damage over 3 seconds
7% Mana stolen per hit
Replenish Life +20
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
40% Faster Cast Rate
75% Damage to Demons
150% Damage to Undead
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
+3 to All Skill Levels
Level 4 Oak Sage (25/25 Charges)
Level 14 Raven (60/60 Charges)
Socketed (4: 4 used)
Spirit
Sacred Targe
'TalThulOrtAmn'
Defense: 158
Chance to Block: 50%
Smite Damage: 22 to 70
Durability: 45 of 45
(Paladin Only)
Required Strength: 86
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0xb7cdb100
+22 to Vitality
+97 to Mana
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Fire Resist +45%
Lightning Resist +80%
Cold Resist +80%
Poison Resist +80%
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
55% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to All Skill Levels
+6 Magic Absorb
Socketed (4: 4 used)
I went with the light plate base for the Enigma to maximize the benefit of the +strength stat (War Travelers has the highest strength requirement of any gear that I'm planning to use at 95). Besides, I created it for a Hammerdin but might want it for something else ... so best to keep options open.
Speaking of keeping options open, I went with the eth Great Hauberk base for the super low strength and clvl requirements (because isn't it nice to be able to throw the endgame gear on the merc asap). The base item was racked in LK on a different map than where I did my 18K LK runs. Surprisingly it only took five hours to find a Great Hauberk rack that was reasonably stable and get an eth base from it that was four defense points from perfect! Oh yeah, and of course it cubed to four sockets (which was really, really, really nice ... thanks RNG)!
Not much to say about the Heart of Oak except, sure, I wish the resistance roll had been better ... but oh well ...
I included the Spirit here because the base shield (perfect resistances and defense) came from my 18K LK map. I also had two shields with perfect resistances and one point less than perfect defense. I rolled all three of them and then rerolled all three of them with 23 of the 24 Hel Runes I found in LK. Above is the best result and actually the only roll of the 26 that got 35 FCR. So, perfect resistances, defense, and 35 FCR ... I'll rate that as good enough ...
That's it for the big ticket items but when you run LK you don't just get runes. Here's some of my other finds:
Charms:
Skillers:
(Notable suffixes in parentheses)
Amazon:
Javelin and Spear - 2 (+29 Life)
Passive and Magic - 6 (+7% FRW, +5 Strength)
Bow and Crossbow - 7 (+4 Strength, +34 Life)
Assassin:
Martial Arts - 5 (+37% Extra Gold)
Shadow Disciples - 6 (+27 Life, +28 Life)
Trap - 1 (+15 Life)
Barbarian:
Warcries - 5 (+36 Life)
Combat Masteries - 4 (+4 Dexterity)
Combat Skills - 3 (+30% Extra Gold)
Druid:
Elemental - 2
Shapeshifting - 8 (+12% FHR, +5 Dexterity, +36 Life, +38 Life)
Summoning - 4 (+20 Life)
Necromancer:
Summoning - 4 (+34 Life)
Poison and Bone - 5 (+6 Dexterity, +16 Life)
Curses - 5 (+4 Dexterity, +30 Life)
Paladin:
Defensive Auras - 3 (+3 Dexterity)
Offensive Auras - 4 (+6 Stength)
Combat Skills - 6 (+12% FHR, +12% FHR, +11 Life)
Sorceress:
Cold - 2 (+6 Stength, +17 Life)
Lightning - 3
Fire - 5 (+40 Life)
I didn't reroll any charms along the way (all charms were found as-is). So that's 90 skillers found in 18,260 runs. That's about one skiller found per 203 runs. Remember, I was running at P3.
Shimmering Charms:
Grand:
+15 All Resistances - 1
+14 All Resistances - 3 (+28 Life)
+13 All Resistances - 1
Medium:
+8 All Resistances - 1
+7 All Resistances - Don't think I found any.
+6 All Resistances - Wouldn't have kept them if I did.
Small:
+5 All Resistances - 2
+4 All Resistances - 3
+3 All Resistances - Don't like 'em. Didn't keep 'em.
Single Resistance Small Charms:
(I kept any that were +10 and +11)
Amber Small Charms:
+10 Lightning Resistance - 9 (+2 Dex, +7 Life, +12 Life)
+11 Lightning Resistance - 5 (+6% MF)
Emerald Small Charms:
+10 Poison Resistance - 5 (+3% FRW)
+11 Poison Resistance - 10 (+7% Extra Gold, +12 Life)
Ruby Small Charms:
+10 Fire Resistance - 10 (+4% MF, +7 Life)
+11 Fire Resistance - 11 (+5% FHR, +2 Dex, +10% Extra Gold, +2 Strength, +19 Life)
Sapphire Small Charms:
+10 Cold Resistance - 5 (+7% Extra Gold)
+11 Cold Resistance - 10 (+2 Dex, +3% FRW, +15 Life)
Small Charms of Vita:
+20 Life - 16
+19 Life - 19
+18 Life - 31
+17 Life - 14
+16 Life - 17
Too many prefixes to enumerate in any meaningful way ... so instead, here's my favorite:
Serpent's Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 40
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x2346591c
+19 to Life
+15 to Mana
I could really go for a whole inventory full of those .
Small Charms of Good Luck:
(I only kept ones with +7% Magic Find.)
+7% Magic Find - 24
While not good for a Hammerdin, here's my favorite:
Steel Small Charm of Good Luck
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xbe47fb3c
+35 to Attack Rating
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Jewels:
I found pretty close to 2,000 of them and kept them all, mostly for future crafting endeavors. Below are some that might see use.
Scintillating Jewels:
+15 All Resistances - 2
+14 All Resistances - 3
+13 All Resistances - 4 (+15 IAS)
+12 All Resistances - 1
+11 All Resistances - 1
Realgar Jewels:
(Because mid game gear needs love too.)
+30% ED - 6 (+9 Stength)
+29% ED - 3 (+9 Dex)
+28% ED - 4 (+8 Dex)
+27% ED - 6 (+10 Min Dmg)
+26% ED - 2 (1-57 Lightning Dmg)
+25% ED - 1
+24% ED - 2
+23% ED - 1
+22% ED
+21% ED - 4
A Realgar jewel of fervor really would have hit the spot in one of my favorite twinking weapons, Ginther's Rift. Alas, I guess I'll have to settle for finding a nice home for this:
Realgar Jewel of Bliss
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x52cc9196
+27% Enhanced Damage
+10 to Minimum Damage
Ruby Jewels:
+40% ED Nope, not a single one.
+39% ED - 5 (+11 Max Dmg)
+38% ED - 2 (5-14 Cold Dmg)
+37% ED - 1
+36% ED - 4 (+18 Life)
+35% ED - 2 (+7 Strength)
+34% ED - 1
+33% ED - 4 (+15 IAS)
+32% ED - 3 (+9 Strength)
+31% ED - 2
Here's the readout for the best of the bunch:
Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x33013efc
+33% Enhanced Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed
And I think I'll end with something quirky:
Jewel of Joyfulness
Required Level: 3
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x2d774925
+4 to Minimum Damage
I found nine that rolled '+4'. Those Quill Rats in the Blood Moor won't ever know what hit them ...
Perfect Gems:
I cubed about 2,760 perfect gems and about 315 perfect skulls. Which caused me to notice something that I hadn't noticed before in my eight years of playing Diablo II. Flawless skulls are rarer than flawless gems. According to ATMA's 1.11+ drop calculator the best shot for flawless gems (all varities) is 1:804, while the best shot for flawless skulls (which happens to be the same source) is 1:1207. So you'd only expect to find 2/3 the amount of skulls compared to gems. That tracks nearly perfectly with my demonstrated skull to gem ratio. Huh. I learned something new ... (though if you're reading this you must be really committed to your Diablo II and probably already knew). Anyhow, for me, I guess that means nothing but skulls get offered up to gem shrines from now on ...
Credits:
Well as per usual, this ended up being a lot of words. If you took the time to read any of them: Thanks! And big thanks from me to all the folks who did the original work of discovering the LK /P3-4 Superchest Drops back in 2008 (I know there's at least a few of you still around). Also, big thanks to Skinnyy who's 2008 thread Result's of ~17K LK Runs (P8) provided the reassurance I needed to launch my own LK project and also provided me with a framework for organizing my results. Skinnyy seems to have left Diablo II in 2010 but his work lives on! Lastly, that bring me to Elly, Rush, and all the moderators that have kept the site(s) running and the community strong: Thanks! Diablo II is fun but had the knowledge from twelve years ago been lost or had there no longer been any community around to share the experience with I doubt I would have bothered with this crazy thing. Thanks everyone out there past and present!
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