Meet Pandora - The Princess of LK!

[Excalibur]

Diablo 2: Resurrected
Pandora - LK Runner

Loved by many and hated by others there's no doubt that Lower Kurast is perhaps the most rewarding area to farm for anything but Uniques. Often targeted for it's popularity to find High Runes, Lower Kurast's treasures don't end here. Valuable Skillers, Small Charms, Jewels and Gems in abundance combined with the ease of running the area, the short running time with pretty much any undeveloped character put LK on top of everyone's farming spot. But even though it is particularly very easy and fast to do LK runs reducing your run times will eventually benefit you in the long run.

In order to maximize the efficiency of your runs, the best possible scenario would be to roll a circular map where you open the chests and end up back in the Waypoint to go to Act4. As widely known, Act3 is the least desired place to spawn for its long distance to reach to the Waypoint thus, heading to Act 4 after finishing your LK run is more profitable. With an easy access to Teleport, Telekinesis to open the chests from distance and able to achieve the highest FCR in the game, a Sorceress was all you needed. A regular route would look like this.

• Start in Act4
• Waypoint to LK
• Open Chests
• Back to LK Waypoint
• Act 4
• Save and Exit

However, if you plan to run LK in D2R, the long loading times especially when changing acts can only delay the process described above. This leads to one solution which is none other than running the docks in Act3 which now opens some room for new builds to step in and prove just as good as a Sorceress. The running that needs to be done from Act 3 to the Waypoint is a quite long route so the FRW should not be neglected.
Considering that the Teleport issue is solved with Enigma, any character with FRW skills is a good candidate to test out. Out of the 7 Characters, with a quick look we can already dismiss Amazons, Necromancers and Druids since they offer no mobility at all. Paladins have Vigor aura which seems exceptionally good for this case but at level 20 it grants 43% FRW which is outperformed by Assassins and Barbarians, not to mention that Vigor can be provided by the Harmony Runeword which Paladins would still be unable to stack while the other Characters could with their own FRW skills. This leaves Paladins far behind.

So, we are left with 3 characters.

• As already mentioned, Sorceress has Teleport, Telekinesis and the highest FCR. Harmony on switch can also help with the Running that needs to be done.
• Barbarians have Increased Speed, same FCR breakpoints as the Sorceress and can Dual Wield. A level 20 Increased Speed grants 43% FRW and Dual wield can help reaching the massive 200% FCR much easier.
• Assassins have Burst of Speed. A level 20 Burst of Speed grants 61% FRW, faster than any class and has the ability to unlock chests without keys.

Eventually, my vote goes for Assassin. Burst of Speed adds the highest FRW available in the game and combined with Harmony and some items can make you run faster than the speed of light. This combined with her unique ability to unlock chests makes a very convenient character to run LK. Not having to worry about the Keys makes the boring farming of LK a less tedious experience. Obviously, without the need to buy keys, there will be no reason to visit the vendor while also you will have more inventory space therefore reducing your visits to the vendor overall.

Meet Pandora - The princess of LK!
In Greek Mythology, Pandora was the first mortal woman to be created by the Gods. Pandora opened a jar, known as Pandora's Box, which released all types of suffering against the humanity. The chests in Lower Kurast are no different than Pandora's Box. Each chest is slightly sucking the life source of Pandora until one can drop a valuable gift which will restore her faith!

This character is exclusively made for Lower Kurasts runs so we only need to focus on gear and skills that will help us save time. The only skill that can help us here is Burst of Speed. You can literally leave the rest Skill Points unspent so most of the build's development is based on the gear. Regarding the Stats, put enough in Strength and Dexterity for the gear and add the rest into vitality. At level 80 you will be able to wear all the Gear mentioned below so there's no need to go beyond that. Hireling also doesn't matter much, just pick one to carry an Insight to make sure you never run out of mana.
Since FRW has no limit, there are three routes that we can follow with our Assassin.

• Prioritizing FRW with 102% FCR
• Hitting 174% FCR while filling the gaps with FRW
• Both of the above with 1.07 items

Equipment	Prioritizing FRW (262%)	Prioritizing FCR (174%)
Weapon	Wizardspike	Wizardspike (50%)
Shield	Lidless	Spirit (35%)
Armor	Enigma (45%)	Enigma
Helm	Rare Circlet (30%)	Rare Circlet (20%)
Gloves	Trang-Oul's Claws	Trang-Oul's Claws (20%)
Belt	M'avina's Tenet (20%)	Arachnid Mesh (20%)
Boots	Aldur's Advance (40%)	Aldur's Advance
Rings	10% FCR x2	10% FCR x2 (20%)
Amulet	Cat's Eye (30%)	Crafted (10%)
Switch	Harmony (36%)	Harmony

At this point we have to test out which one is more important. Does the last Assassin's FCR breakpoint saves us a second? Or the FRW is actually more profitable? Personally, I am aiming for a very High FRW because it is going to be super funny and extremely easy to achieve. In any case, we will test both scenarios to figure out which build is the best but most importantly how they perform against a 200% FCR Sorceress.

All characters are close to 25-27 seconds once you hit "Save and Exit".
The FCR Assassin seems to be doing a second better than the FRW while the Sorceress is somewhere between those two but with a much worse map layout.

General Tips
Aside from the Character and the build that you decide to follow for your Lower Kurast grind, there are several stuff that you can do with any character to take advantage of every tiny detail to invest the least possible amount of time for a run. Some these are only available in D2R but the rest can be used in both D2L and in D2R.

Item Label Display - In the options menu, enable the setting to make the items always be visible once you hit Alt once.
Alt Beforehand - In the beginning, press ALT to enable the show filter. Once you reach the chests you won't have to worry for hitting Alt anymore.
LK Waypoint - Enabling only the LK Waypoint will make it easier to detect it instantly. It also removes the chance of traveling to a wrong location.
Sell Keys to Ormus - Instead of running to Hratli, you can sell keys with low quantity to Ormus and by them back in full capacity.
Harmony - Keep your Harmony on switch without Arrows. The notification with the missing arrows is an extra hint to know you are on switch.
Switch before WP - Before you take the WP to LK switch back to your main Weapons so you can start immediately teleporting to the the chests.
Light Armors - Armors will have an impact on your FRW. Make sure to choose "Light" types to keep your FRW as high as possible.
Gheeds - Chests drop too much Gold and since in D2R you can auto-pick them up, Gheed's will increase the amount for future investment.
1.07 items - As said above, some 1.07 items can be particularly very effective since they can provide stats that these items can't. Specifically, Mavina's Belt adds 40% FRW (currently 20%) while Valkyrie's Wing 30% FRW and 30% FCR. A crazy item overall that can help you keep the highest possible FCR along with highest possible FRW.

Conclusion
To sum up, a Sorceress is hard to be de-throned since she has some heavy advantages which are ideal for players who lack Enigma. Other than that, Telekinesis can also be used for maximum efficiency and in combination with the highest possible FCR in the game it grants her great mobility since a part of the FRW issue can also be solved with Harmony on Switch. Unfortunately, Engima once again is a vital part of running LK efficiently with any other Character so if you are missing it you have no alternatives but to go with a Sorceress for the best possible result. However, for the reasons we mentioned above, characters with FRW can get a chance to shine in D2R and Assassin's unique ability to open locked chests while being the fastest character in the game can put a challenge to the queen of LK.

 

[Nona]

Great write-up! Thanks for posting. I am currently doing a lot of LK for my untwinked hammerdin and definitely agree that load times don't make ACT IV nearly as feasible in D2R. As I don't have Enigma I like to stop to heal at Ormus before heading out as I almost always take some damage on my route. The only thing with your write-up I might consider is that your assassin might want some skills to kill monsters. If you pop a chest and need to bail and come back to it to collect runes if monsters spawn in the hut. I guess you could always lead them away but If they are particularly nasty, especially a fast leaper pack you might need to kill them. Again maybe less of an issue with enigma, and better skillz

 

[little birdy]

Nice guide! Great detail.

I don't have all the nice gear you have, but a FRW-optimized Assassin was my choice as well for running LK and I found it worked quite well. Without 'Enigma', rolling the best map possible was crucial. I also experimented with a Sorceress for running LK, and if I'm being honest it was a smidge faster, but I found it to be a bit disorienting. I play on Switch, and I'm not sure if the hardware can keep up with the game. When you teleport a bunch and then stop, it takes a second for the huts and other things to appear on the screen. Even though I knew where the campfires and huts were, those little delays made me feel like I was getting lost all the time. Running LK with the FRW Assassin was much more comfortable.

 

[Excalibur]

As I don't have Enigma I like to stop to heal at Ormus before heading out as I almost always take some damage on my route. The only thing with your write-up I might consider is that your assassin might want some skills to kill monsters. If you pop a chest and need to bail and come back to it to collect runes if monsters spawn in the hut. I guess you could always lead them away but If they are particularly nasty, especially a fast leaper pack you might need to kill them. Again maybe less of an issue with enigma, and better skillz

Enigma will definitely keep you away from mobs most of the time. Currently I am also using a Prayer Merc with my Assassin so he can heal me whenever needed! In case something valuable dropped, I would try to bait the monsters out. Wouldn't really bother killing them at p7 with an undeveloped character.

 

[Ergro]

Nicely written little guide with which I identify.

I do get how sweet LK is, though I really only done it once in my life in D2L like a year or two before D2R came to be.

And even without enigma, I chose assassin. The reason with not having to bother with keys and also simple running (however very fast) instead of having to play more actively with sorceress through teleporting and telekinesis made it an obvious pick for me.

I was hitting around 30-35 sec / run IIRC but do not take those numbers too seriously, it is what I seem to recall without any proof behind them.

And obviously since usually LK takes thousands of runs to put a single high RW to life, shaving seconds is important, however with the way I like to play, which is more passively since that is what relaxes me, having a few more seconds per run with way more passive play proved more important overall. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep up with the running at all netting me zero HRs at all.

And I kept just running without using teleport even after I made my first self found enigma, which I used for all those stats, FRW included. So take mine experience in mind if you like to play more lazily as well since in the end the only thing you have to do to success is to keep trying. If playing faster but more aggresively and actively is off putting you from the running, then don't.

By the way, I love all the theorycrafting about LK and I do get how lovely it is in it's entirety but I chose I won't be doing any LK running in D2R at all, for no other reason than that I find HR hunting not rewarding anymore with "exploiting" LK that way. Mind that I am not saying that it doesn't take time or effort, not at all, just that finding runes naturally while playing the game seems way more rewarding and thinking about using each one has way more weight to it without choosing to "cheese" the runes.

 

[Excalibur]

By the way, I love all the theorycrafting about LK and I do get how lovely it is in it's entirety but I chose I won't be doing any LK running in D2R at all, for no other reason than that I find HR hunting not rewarding anymore with "exploiting" LK that way. Mind that I am not saying that it doesn't take time or effort, not at all, just that finding runes naturally while playing the game seems way more rewarding and thinking about using each one has way more weight to it without choosing to "cheese" the runes.

Truth to be said, I have never done LK runs and I was hoping I will never have to.
This is the first time I am giving it a shot only because Cows weren't giving me HR as often as I expected.
Also, all these Screenshots players post from LK is driving me crazy!

 

[NorthDakota]

I love LK, but when I stop and think about what I'm doing it makes me uncomfortable. It pulls back the curtain a bit too far revealing the inner skinner box. Ultimately that's all farming in this game really is, but LK is so transparently pulling the lever that it makes me question what I'm doing in my actual real life and how I want to be spending my time. But until I get those perfect 5 all res 20 life small charms I keep coming back rofl

Check this one out that I got the other day



Or check out this trap charm I got the other night when I logged in for a few minutes and ran LK just to relax



Like how can you not do it?! You have to do it.


Also getting your load times down is so important. @Excalibur your loads are so painful to watch for me I'm so sorry T.T I still use sorc + act4 because it's the fastest with my loads but I don't think that's going to be the case for everyone.

If your computer won't explode, the best way to improve your loads is to uncap your framerate (no vsync, framerate cap slider all the way to the right in game). For whatever reason, it improves your load times significantly depending on hardware. You'll notice during load screens, with your fps uncapped, your fps flies up to the 4-500s and your loads go through quite quickly. You can see how slowly your load times go if you set your framerate cap slider all the way to the left (8 fps cap). Your loads will be hilariously slow.

Additionally, since the sound has been upgraded in D2R, using the -ns command in the target line has an actual noticeable impact on loads, however it's only marginal, but required if you're insane like me.

I also recommend blocking d2r from connecting with the internet using firewall settings on your computer. For some reason, the game seems to occasionally connect to the servers even if you're just playing single player and it can slow you down when going out to the character screen or loading into the game. You can just pull your ethernet cable as well, has the same effect but I prefer making a rule in my firewall settings that I can enable/disable quickly so I can still browse the internet on my second monitor while playing.

Quick video of the possible load times with my hardware:

Spoiler: Video

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

As usual, great write up!

I love LK, but when I stop and think about what I'm doing it makes me uncomfortable. It pulls back the curtain a bit too far revealing the inner skinner box. Ultimately that's all farming in this game really is, but LK is so transparently pulling the lever that it makes me question what I'm doing in my actual real life and how I want to be spending my time.

I believe it was Nietzsche who said, “Stare long enough into Lower Kurast and it stares back.”

 

[Excalibur]

Ultimately that's all farming in this game really is, but LK is so transparently pulling the lever that it makes me question what I'm doing in my actual real life and how I want to be spending my time.

I think it's the reason why I decided to give up on D2L. D2R offers many QoL stuff that it makes it a more pleasant experience and I expect to eventually reach my goals faster than having to torture myself in D2L.

Also getting your load times down is so important. @Excalibur your loads are so painful to watch for me I'm so sorry T.T I still use sorc + act4 because it's the fastest with my loads but I don't think that's going to be the case for everyone.

Yeah I know but doesn't everyone pretty much has the same loading times? Your guide to reduce them goes beyond my will to mess out with these kind of stuff. Your loading times are crazy short! Thank you for the tips, I will give them a try!

I found my @5/20 in Cows!

 

[NorthDakota]

Yeah I know but doesn't everyone pretty much has the same loading times?

No definitely not. Hardware definitely has a large impact, and settings also (just look at my video..). Do these things right now and see improved load times:

1. Disable vsync
2. Disable framerate cap (slider all the way to the right)
3. Turn down graphics to lowest settings
4. add -ns to the target line in your d2r.exe shortcut

If you haven't done this you're gimping your load times unnecessarily.

As far as I can tell, SSD is the #1 thing that affects load times, after that it's cpu/gpu/ram (hard for me to really pinpoint to what degree each impact other than by actually swapping out hardware, I've swapped gpus and it definitely has an impact). after that it's making sure you have vsync and frame cap disabled (really can't stress the importance of this enough), next turning down graphics still does impact load times (less to load and unload from ram when loading into a previously loaded area), then -ns next, then blocking in firewall settings is last but it has a bigger impact at certain times.

One thing that might make a bigger difference than what I've been able to test is ram speed. It's certain that areas are loaded into ram the first time you zone into them, then on subsequent loads they're pulled from ram. It's the same as how like your character's inventory is held in memory which is why you're not able to mule on the character select screen with gomule. So if you have fast ram/plenty of ram it definitely has some impact.

There are some further methods to improve your load times, but they aren't accepted according to forum rules as it involves some more complicated goofing around with game files, but everyone can still uncap their fps, disable their vsync, turn down graphics, and use -ns. Those will improve your loads instantly with basically zero effort.

it's too bad that act 3 has the slowest load times besides high harrogath, because those loads are extremely painful. Act 4 pandemonium fortress is among the fastest, so if you can get your load times a bit quicker, it makes the act 4 > LK > act 4 route the best again, which saves you a lot of mental anguish trying to juggle run speed and weapon swapping and doing all this try-hard stuff.


On a different topic, one thing that has made LK much more enjoyable imo is that blizzard fixed the item tooltip flickering problem. Items are like so solid and stationary now, it's wild to see the difference when first swapping to 2.5, imo just another reason to swap from LoD to D2R, it really makes a difference on eye strain.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

I can confirm: I had also implemented all those tips, as I saw them posted elsewhere, and my load times were significantly slower. Secondly, I play on a laptop and desktop, and despite doing everything the same, the laptop is still 1-2 seconds slower than the desktop for loading times. I think the changes also really help the black screen on exit. That's almost gone for me now. The loading screen still takes a few seconds. I think Pandora could shave some serious seconds of runtimes just with those changes.

 

[ffs]

Interesting build comparison.

My loading times are pretty terrible as well, and in my case the things mentioned above had very little effect. I should note that I do play with sound, just because I basically only play HC in D2R and I want those audio triggers. But even with -ns, the difference to @NorthDakota's loading times is massive. Btw is that solely with the steps described above (or including other things)? If so, hardware makes an even bigger difference than I thought.

I noticed in the initial 2.5 patch it was again possible to run during load screens. For example on my D2R Trav Barb, with some practice in clicking blindly towards the WP during the load screen, it was faster to run through A3 town. I mostly ended up just a couple of steps away from the WP.

But Blizzard apparently quickly "fixed" that again, so now you have to wait and start next to Meshif in A3 after the game loadad. Which in my case again made it faster to start and end runs in A4.

Agreed that in particular for LK, every second shaved off run times will save many hours in the long run. Luckily, personally I never had much reason to run LK in D2R. By the time I started (or moved) my HC chars there, I already had them reasonably geared up. So I moved straight to other targets like lvl 85 areas or cows. My Trav Barb is somewhat affected, but his runs are generally a bit longer so it is less felt than for (what used to be) super fast runs such as LK or Trav Sorc.

From what I've seen and tried, it could very well be that cows are ultimately the best rune farming target in D2R. Even in LoD, properly built cow runners weren't too far behind LK and Travincal in efficiency. With cow runs being by far the longest rune farming activity (on a "per run" basis), they are barely affected by bad loading times.

 

[NorthDakota]

Btw is that solely with the steps described above (or including other things)? If so, hardware makes an even bigger difference than I thought.

The crazy part is my loads are actually faster than in the video because in the video my settings were set to "very high" across the board with the exception of using dlss on performance setting. Setting to low actually makes a pretty big difference when considering my already very fast loads.

On typical mid-range hardware for a tower PC, the "other things" (non forum accepted) shave something like .5 seconds off each loading screen. I don't want to talk any further about it here since it's clearly not allowed, but I just want to illustrate that it's not a massive impact so people don't feel as though they're missing out on something crazy.

 

[Excalibur]

No definitely not. Hardware definitely has a large impact, and settings also (just look at my video..). Do these things right now and see improved load times:

All my settings were just as you mentioned except vsync but it doesn't seem to have helped me much. Not quite sure if recording was a culprit here. Made some tests and at first it was quite obvious that the loading times were better without recording but then again even without recording they were just as bad. So confused.

I had my game installed on SSD and didn't notice any difference to be honest and re-installed it back to HD. My PC is like 7 years old now so perhaps the SSD alone is not enough to make a difference. Perhaps with a greater hardware it would cooparate better.

Your loading times are impressive @NorthDakota but I though it was based on the advanced tips you posted on reddit that even MrLlamaSC made a video of? Personally, I don't really mind the loading times. LK is not for me.

What Specs are you on?
Mine:
16GB Ram
i5-4690k 3.5 GH (4 Cores)
Asus r9 380x Strix 4gb

 

[m4ke]

the "other things" (non forum accepted) shave something like .5 seconds off each loading screen. I don't want to talk any further about it here since it's clearly not allowed, but I just want to illustrate that it's not a massive impact so people don't feel as though they're missing out on something crazy.

I have to disagree. I did that non FAM thing and my S&E times went from 4-5s -> 1-2s and loading screens went from 6-7s -> 2-3s. WP & TP times are halved or more. I'd call that a life saver..

My HW:
Acer laptop Intel 6700HQ CPU @2.66GHz 4 cores, 32GB Ram and WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD on v3 PCIE line.
GFX: Nvidia GTX M760. I have to keep the lowest settings to make my game run even acceptable smoothly :/

Maybe I was not allowed to tell that here? @maxicek please delete this post if it's against forum rules.

m4ke

 

[maxicek]

Rule 2.1 no mods are allowed should be quite clear.

D2R is strictly Vanilla + GoMule. If you want faster load times, play 1.14d.