Great idea to get this tradition going for RFL as well – only saw this thread after posting in the round 1 results thread, but why not elaborate a little here. I regeared most of the runners since I stopped running so don't have GoMule dumps readily available – if anyone is interested can provide them of course. Same goes for any other details or numbers.
I thought I'd use this to summarize some thoughts on some of the top cow builds, although most of these things were discussed in the running thread already. Personally I normally go with Javazon for cows, and I somewhat think of her as the cow running "build to beat" in general. But of course other builds are extremely good, and this year I finally got around to using 40 hours of running to check some of them out in-depth.
TRAPPER
I've been meaning to really run cows with her seriously ever since @Nano came up with those Phoenix on main switch shenanigans last year. A pretty significant thing for this class in general and especially the Fire Blast/Death Sentry cow runner. So after last year's RFL I checked her out a bit, and at one point slammed Beast on her. This worked beautifully and seemed to deliver crazy good efficiency. In the following I thought other setups with Hoto or 6-facet weapons would be stronger – but turns out the Beast route was where it's at, based on both calculations (made this spreadsheet for those) and in-game testing before this RFL.
Setup:
- 3/20 traps circlet, socketed with fire facet (that douche Larzuk gave me one socket only)
- Enigma
- Beast double axe
- Phoenix Monarch
- 2/9 FCR/Str/MF craft amulet
- Magefist
- Arach
- Raven
- SoJ
- eth Treks
- Switch: CtA/Spirit
- Inventory: 7x skillers, ID tome
- Merc: Might with Infinity, Cham'ed Andy, ebug Fortitude
Build:
- 1 Mind Blast and BoS with each + pre-reqs
- 20 Death Sentry, Fire Blast and rest into synergies
Gameplay:
Efficiency: Since she – like all other chars I used this RFL – was below lvl 94, I could only estimate cow kills per minute based on drops, and tracked all runes thet fell for that purpose. Judging by that (somewhat shaky) method, she averaged ~210 P5 cow kills per minute at first, kept that average for several hours, but then dropped to 190-195 later in the set.
Conclusions: Super tanky and extremely fast – that's pretty much it. Being close to drops means she can pick up a lot without losing much time whatsoever, and on top of it she doesn't require any rare S&Us or crazy lucky FCR craft amulets. Efficiency in my case was pretty much exactly the same as with Java (with her I had 200 in during the 2019 RFL) and Necro.
She managed to kill the cow king after 6 hours, so I switched to OP Necro to finish the first set.
NOVAMANCER
I played him a lot in the past, apart from cow running in particular for P7/P8 Pit runs, but never ran cows with him for a 20h tournament set or so. I did participate in 2018 RFL with my untwinked 99er Necro, but somewhat undergeared and with less optimized Summoner spec. In any case, very straight forward cow runner.
Setup:
- 2/20/adds rare circlet with facet
- Enigma
- 2/20 P&B amulet
- 2/2/-47/10 MPK/9 LPK Death's Web, socketed with Ist
- 35 Spirit
- TO gloves
- Arach
- FCR/life/mana craft ring
- BKWB
- eth Treks
- Switch, Merc and inventory: Same as Trapper above
Build: 20 PN and synergies, ~10 each into GM and Amp – that mix worked well.
Gameplay:
Efficiency: Basically same as Trapper, he started out with ~210 and ended up at ~195 cows per minute.
Conclusions: Very straight forward and fantastic runner. Only downside is he's a bit fragile.
* * *
For my second set I used Nova Sorc, Fissure Druid and Fire Sorc.
NOVA/ES SORC
I really like this build and enjoyed running with her the most – maybe alongside Trapper. Again made a spreadsheet for that purpose, I both tested and theorycrafted a bit – see this
comparison of gearing options. I ended up really liking the below setup with good MPK and high damage.
Setup:
- faceted Griffon's Eye 20/24
- Arkaine's Valor (current patch) socketed with 3 MPK/-req jewel
- Crescent Moon
- 35 Spirit Monarch
- +3/10 FCR magic amulet
- Silkweave
- 2x SoJ
- Arach
- Silkweave
- Switch: CtA/Spirit
- Merc: Defiance with Infinity, Andy's with ED RJoF, ebug CoH
- Inventory: 7 skillers, ID tome
Build: 20 Nova, LM, ES and Telekinesis, 1 Frozen Armor. I skilled Static Field to ~15 hard points which was comfortable. Remaining points went into Warmth.
Gameplay:
Efficiency: Before I improved her map she was at around 170 cows/min, and just above 180 on her final map.
Conclusions: Numbers in my case are not
quite as good as Necro/Java/Trapper, but very close. Also her gameplay is a great combination of action packed speed and very simple casting sequences that make for easy runs. The reason I like Nova Sorc and Trapper a lot are that they are always near the action, and that means near the drops. It was very noticeable how I picked up a lot more goodies with these characters in comparison to other runners that are normally positioned at some distance (in particular Necro and Java as the other top builds).
FISSURE DRUID
He was the only character I never ran cows with at all previously, but he's fun and pretty good, too. I tried two variants with him.
Setup 1 (163 FCR) – used on P5:
- 2/20 circlet with fire facet
- Enigma
- 1/19 amulet
- Hoto
- 35 Spirit
- Arach
- Magefist
- Silkweave
- SoJ
- FCR/life/mana rare ring
- Switch, Merc and inventory like Nova Sorc
Setup 2 (99 FCR – P7):
Same as above but with faceted Ravenlore and Phoenix, using 99 FCR to teleport. Performance was basically the same. On P7 the extra damage was very noticeable and it was equally efficient as P5.
Build: 20 Fissure and synergies as well as Oak sage. Also used some 15 points in Armageddon but stopped using it pretty quickly.
Gameplay:
Only recorded some gameplay with 163 FCR:
Efficiency: Around 160 cows/min on both P5 and P7.
Conclusions: Not quite a top runner, but certainly not far behind and at the same time very tanky and easy to play. With Oak, >4k life is not hard to achieve – he is the only character I had no death with at all during this RFL. As for gameplay I found it important with him to always keep moving, teleporting in place etc. to ensure that cows never keep standing in blind spots.
FIRE SORC
After rotating her in, I initially went with a Fire Ball focused approach – until Gripphon showed some gameplay in the running thread that convinced me to focus more on Meteor.
Setup:
- Griffon's Eye 'Shael'
- Arkaine's Valor (current patch) 'Shael'
- fire faceted Eschuta's
- Phoenix
- Magefist
- Mara's
- 2x BKWB
- Arach
- eth Treks
- Switch, Merc, Inventory – same as Nova Sorc
Build: Again ~15 hard points into Static, 1 pt Frozen Armor rest into Fire Skills and pre-reqs
Didn't record any gamplay with her, and I didn't feel my numbers in terms of efficiency (155-160 P5 cows/min) did her justice. Also didn't run long enough to make any conclusions really. At this point I
think she's similarly strong as Nova Sorc, but could be better, e.g. Gripphon claimed she can hang with or even exceed the top build numbers.
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