- May 24, 2005
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Matriarch Hamburgler: CowRunner (LF'zon)
I just finished a couple of test runs with my new LF-zon designed specifically for cow runs. She rocks, but I've got some learning to do - I haven't run cows enough to have a good feel for their runs yet - I still get swarmed or waste too much time on a single monster.
Anyways, before getting to the Cow-stuff:
Hamburgler
Edit: update for reaching level92 here
Level 82+
LCS (while questing)
LCS (while cow running)
Skills:
20 (36) Lightning Fury
20 (36) Charged Strike
20 Power Strike
20 Lightning Bolt
4 (9) Pierce
1 (6) Decoy
1 prereq's
1 unused
Cowing Equipment:
Titan's Revenge (195/9)
Griffon's Eye (+16/-22 with facet)
Skullder's Ire (+3/15 Aureolic Jewel of Fervor)
Head Hunter's Glory
Cat's Eye
Silkweaves
Ravenfrost (20/179)
SoJ
Razortail
rare gloves: (+2 Javelin, 20 IAS, +2 Str, 9 LiteResist, 3% ManaLeech)
Switch: Harmony hunter's bow
Charms:
- 7x Harpoonists (+5 Str, +11 life, +23 life, 37% Gold, +25 poison, +3-6 cold, plain)
- 1x Amber / 1x Sapphire / 2x Ruby SC, each with 'of Balance' suffix
- 5x Amber SC (3 FRW, +42 life total)
Questing Equipment (for Hell only - I used Cowing equipment as much as I could before Hell):
Same as above, except:
2x Pdiamond Moser's Blessed Circle
+50 resist Skin of Vipermagi
Holy Freeze merc (Insight, Fortitude, VampGaze)
Notable Finds:
Lum/Um Hellforge
Rockstopper
Butcher's Pupil
Rixot's Keen
rare Heavy Boots (39 FRes, 40 CRes, 23 PRes, 10 FHR, 1-23 Lite damage, 25% PLR)... if only they had FRW
rare Demonhide Boots (20 FRW, 35 FRes, 39 PRes, 6 CRes)
rare Circlet (+2 sorc skills, +30 Str, 8% MLeech, 4 PDR)... if only it had resists
Notes
- players8 for Normal & Nightmare, /p1 for Hell. NM Baal runs to 76 for Griffon's before hell.
- LF is, of course, awesome. CS too. But surprisingly my low-investment backup attacks were pretty decent most of the time. I used jab sometimes, or just the elemental damage on my Harmony switch on occasion. And the merc did a lot of heavy lifting. I only found 2 monsters that made me want to throw my computer against a wall (but I did eventually kill those too).
Annoying monster #1
Annoying monster #2
<-- both of those took forever, and nothing I could do would make them attack my merc instead of me
- I did skip large chunks of lightning immunes. Decoy + Harmony + Cat's Eye + Silkweaves makes that pretty easy to do most of the time (I've already learned I can outrun an extra-fast, Holy-freeze cow boss with it :nervous. And I was amazingly lucky in the Maggot Lair - I didn't encounter one single beetle in all 3 levels. :shocked:
- I'm not sure if I'll spend my remaining skillpoint(s) in Lightning Strike or if I'll go after Evade. Evade would be handy right now (since I suck at running cows) but I'm thinking a little practice (and a few levels) will improve my chances of not getting hit, and then I'll want the extra damage... I'll probably wait a few levels before deciding, but I'm open to suggestions from experienced cow runners.
- I decided on a low-block approach, hoping the extra life would help me avoid hit recovery more (and the extra shield sockets would improve my damage/speed a lot). I think it'll work just fine with more experience, but she's fragile as hell. I died 5-10 times while questing, and pretty much had to focus entirely on not getting hit at all (read: my attacks were a much lower priority than not letting monsters attack me). Part of that was that I never tried 'hard' to make her safe, just "survivable".
- she is fast on the cow killing, that's for sure. I don't think the low resists or lack of blocking are going to be an issue though.
I just finished a couple of test runs with my new LF-zon designed specifically for cow runs. She rocks, but I've got some learning to do - I haven't run cows enough to have a good feel for their runs yet - I still get swarmed or waste too much time on a single monster.
Anyways, before getting to the Cow-stuff:
Hamburgler
Edit: update for reaching level92 here
Level 82+
LCS (while questing)
LCS (while cow running)
Skills:
20 (36) Lightning Fury
20 (36) Charged Strike
20 Power Strike
20 Lightning Bolt
4 (9) Pierce
1 (6) Decoy
1 prereq's
1 unused
Cowing Equipment:
Titan's Revenge (195/9)
Griffon's Eye (+16/-22 with facet)
Skullder's Ire (+3/15 Aureolic Jewel of Fervor)
Head Hunter's Glory
Cat's Eye
Silkweaves
Ravenfrost (20/179)
SoJ
Razortail
rare gloves: (+2 Javelin, 20 IAS, +2 Str, 9 LiteResist, 3% ManaLeech)
Switch: Harmony hunter's bow
Charms:
- 7x Harpoonists (+5 Str, +11 life, +23 life, 37% Gold, +25 poison, +3-6 cold, plain)
- 1x Amber / 1x Sapphire / 2x Ruby SC, each with 'of Balance' suffix
- 5x Amber SC (3 FRW, +42 life total)
Questing Equipment (for Hell only - I used Cowing equipment as much as I could before Hell):
Same as above, except:
2x Pdiamond Moser's Blessed Circle
+50 resist Skin of Vipermagi
Holy Freeze merc (Insight, Fortitude, VampGaze)
Notable Finds:
Lum/Um Hellforge
Rockstopper
Butcher's Pupil
Rixot's Keen
rare Heavy Boots (39 FRes, 40 CRes, 23 PRes, 10 FHR, 1-23 Lite damage, 25% PLR)... if only they had FRW
rare Demonhide Boots (20 FRW, 35 FRes, 39 PRes, 6 CRes)
rare Circlet (+2 sorc skills, +30 Str, 8% MLeech, 4 PDR)... if only it had resists
Notes
- players8 for Normal & Nightmare, /p1 for Hell. NM Baal runs to 76 for Griffon's before hell.
- LF is, of course, awesome. CS too. But surprisingly my low-investment backup attacks were pretty decent most of the time. I used jab sometimes, or just the elemental damage on my Harmony switch on occasion. And the merc did a lot of heavy lifting. I only found 2 monsters that made me want to throw my computer against a wall (but I did eventually kill those too).
Annoying monster #1
Annoying monster #2
<-- both of those took forever, and nothing I could do would make them attack my merc instead of me
- I did skip large chunks of lightning immunes. Decoy + Harmony + Cat's Eye + Silkweaves makes that pretty easy to do most of the time (I've already learned I can outrun an extra-fast, Holy-freeze cow boss with it :nervous. And I was amazingly lucky in the Maggot Lair - I didn't encounter one single beetle in all 3 levels. :shocked:
- I'm not sure if I'll spend my remaining skillpoint(s) in Lightning Strike or if I'll go after Evade. Evade would be handy right now (since I suck at running cows) but I'm thinking a little practice (and a few levels) will improve my chances of not getting hit, and then I'll want the extra damage... I'll probably wait a few levels before deciding, but I'm open to suggestions from experienced cow runners.
- I decided on a low-block approach, hoping the extra life would help me avoid hit recovery more (and the extra shield sockets would improve my damage/speed a lot). I think it'll work just fine with more experience, but she's fragile as hell. I died 5-10 times while questing, and pretty much had to focus entirely on not getting hit at all (read: my attacks were a much lower priority than not letting monsters attack me). Part of that was that I never tried 'hard' to make her safe, just "survivable".
- she is fast on the cow killing, that's for sure. I don't think the low resists or lack of blocking are going to be an issue though.