Meph quest glitched, portal?

[Rodrigo]

Hello guys!

I've been reading about the quest'glitch for Meph, and I'd like to start over my MF blizz sorc for that purpose. It's going to be a pain to level her up in the Ancient tunnels, but I think it's worth it.
My question is (I'm already guessing, but just to be sure), can I enter the red portal to act IV if I don't complete the quest? I like to do that at the end of every Meph run, to start the next run in act IV, where the waypoint is closer.

Thanx!

 

[Nano]

You need the Meph quest to go to Act 4.

 

[Rodrigo]

Does it work in 1.13c?

I think I should explain a little first. I used to play on a private server running 1.13d. When I heard about the quest drop glitch, I rebuilt my MF sorceress, and tried it a few times with Mephisto hell, with great success. Then a few days later, another private server, closer to where I live, came online, and I quickly joined, and it's where I'm currently playing. It runs 1.13c, so I had to downgrade from 1.13d to 1.13c. I built a MF sorc hoping to use the glitch too, but after some Mephisto nightmare runs, getting lots of junk, I'm beginning to suspect something's not working as I expected.

This is how I do it. Champion bulletproof char creates new game in nightmare. Obviously has completed act III NM. Teleports to the Durance of Hate lvl 3, opens a portal and stands there holding and Insight staff and drawing hydras to her, who is near immune to fire. Slayer MF char joins game, loaded to the rim with MF but negative resistances to all. She hasn't completed act III and can't complete it in this game. Enters the portal and kills Mephisto. Rinse and repeat. Isn't this how it is done? Am I doing something wrong?

Did it worked in 1.13d and now that I downgraded to 1.13c it no longer works?
Is it because, when I had success, I was doing it in hell and now I'm in nightmare?
I don't remember getting any junk in hell. But I didn't do that many runs, maybe just 30. Was it just beginner's luck, or did I actually get quest drops all the time?
Does Mephisto's quest drop in nightmare actually include junk? Does it become bugged sometimes? Just look at Duriel's drops. He drops junk all the time, in any difficult, quest or not.

Basically, what I need to know is, seeing that I'm actually getting junk in nightmare, should I complete the quest and move to Mephisto hell, and try the quest glitch in hell? Will I get quest drops in hell, even if I don't in nightmare? Because if I won't, there's no point rushing to hell. Mind you that we're on the first days of the ladder, and I'm really poor. Even my bulletproof sorc is so only in nightmare, she surely will have trouble in hell, and I'd like to loot nightmare Meph for awhile, before moving to hell.

 

[krischan]

Does it work in 1.13c?

Oh, it seems I overlooked this thread. I assume that with glitched Meph, you mean producing first kill drops all the time, right?

I haven't heard that it doesn't work anymore. Either you are doing it wrong or you have a wrong understanding of what's meant with "junk".

The starter of the game needs to have the quest completed while the Meph killer hasn't. For the Meph killer, the quest window has to show "you cannot complete the quest".

The term "junk" doesn't just mean "useless stuff", like all those useless magical and rare items or Tancred's set or so, it means that there will be no potions, scrolls, arrows etc. It will produce only rare, set or unique items if possible, as well as runes or gems. If a magical item drops anyway, it's because the game tried to produce a set item, but there is none of that kind (or the srt item's qlvl is too high), so it creates a so-called failed set item. They have double durability, that's how to identify them as such. Similarly, if a unique item is to be produced, but none of that kind exists or the qlvl is too high or (most probably won't happen in your case) the same item has dropped before, a rare is produced with triple durability (or a magical one if no rares of that kind exist as well, like for grand charms).

TL;DR: In order to check whether quest draops are produced, check the magical items among those which can have durability at all. If all of them have double durability, it's all fine. There must be no scrolls, potions, arrows etc. as well.

BTW, you don't have to visit nightmare Meph for that long. Make a blizzard sorc and somehow sneak and teleport through everything until you reached hell Meph (do nightmare Baal until level 70 or so). Killing him a few hundreds of times will probably earn you the bread and butter uniques. Then continue with the Ancient Tunnels (below the act 2 Forgotten City), one of those places in which all the high-level uniques and set items can drop as well and also any rune.

 

[Rodrigo]

Sorry for the late reply, the server went offline and I stopped playing for awhile. Now that I'm back, I'm having the same questions.

Oh, it seems I overlooked this thread. I assume that with glitched Meph, you mean producing first kill drops all the time, right?

Right, because I've noticed with ATMA Drop Calc, that 1st kill drops have 33% better chances to be uniques.

I understand what junk items mean, and I saw some of them dropped. It's been awhile, but I think I was doing it right. Unfortunately those accounts got deleted and now I can't show some evidence, and now that I restarted my characters, I'm not yet by that point.

However... !

I also heard about the Andariel bug, that if you do some steps in the correct order, she becomes bugged and from there on, she'll yield 1st kill drops all the time. I made a character to test it, in normal mode, because I could level her up fast and do a few runs just to be sure. I know that Andariel bug and Meph quest glitch are different, but if one is still working, maybe the other too.
Kill Andy and get the quest completed, take the automatic portal, speak to Warriv, go East, right? I belive I did it right, but in the next games I'm seeing some inconsistencies. I'll post a few images.

I do get junk, but also, most of the magic items I get are failed sets, so I'm kind of lost. Is she dropping 1st kill drops or not? The junk should indicate that she isn't, but what about the failed items? I've gotten at least one in every game. Is it a coincidence? Are failed items very common in regular (not quest) drops? So common that I get at least one every time? Or am I getting mixed regular and 1st kill drops?

The orange boxes show the junk dropped (don't mind the tome in the first image), and the green boxes show the failed sets and their durability. It is not very clear, but all items were dropped in the same kill.

Thanx!

View attachment 5579

View attachment 5580

View attachment 5581

 

[krischan]

Kill Andy and get the quest completed, take the automatic portal, speak to Warriv, go East, right?

Yes, I'm 100% sure that it works like that, at least in nightmare and hell. I think I never made Andy runs in normal, however, so perhaps the bug doesn't occur there.

Is she dropping 1st kill drops or not? The junk should indicate that she isn't, but what about the failed items?

Apart from the junk, if there are any magical items with normal durability, she's not producing first kill drops. You can still have failed set items, that would explain why a few have double durability.

 

[Rodrigo]

Bummer! I asked the admins, and they said the bug exists in the official servers, but private servers have the option to fix it, and they did in the server I play.