MFO Summer 2022 Signups and Running Thread

[BBS_Agonistes]

First high rune from Pindle!

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

I know Pindle runs are kind of repetitive to watch, but I just thought I'd post a little gameplay for the thread. My runtimes are obviously hurt by D2R load times (~5 seconds), and I'm not the best player, but the Furyzon seems to run him pretty quick and is sitting at 455% MF.

As you can see, my basic cycle is just to bounce off Malah every 3 runs for mana, which results in this little pattern where you get a longer run every few runs, as in the above runs:


I'm trying not to get hung up too much on runtimes and just focus on hitting a certain total amount of runs. It's working OK, but still a bit behind where I'd like to be.

 

[AntiRush]

I know Pindle runs are kind of repetitive to watch, but I just thought I'd post a little gameplay for the thread. My runtimes are obviously hurt by D2R load times (~5 seconds), and I'm not the best player, but the Furyzon seems to run him pretty quick and is sitting at 455% MF.

As you can see, my basic cycle is just to bounce of Malah every 3 runs for mana, which results in this little pattern where you get a longer run every few runs, as in the above runs:
View attachment 82737

I'm trying not to get hung up too much on runtimes and just focus on hitting a certain total amount of runs. It's working OK, but still a bit behind where I'd like to be.

I love the videos you all are sharing. Maybe I will get it together to record one, too.

After not getting in as many I wanted to yesterday, I did some lunchtime runs. Live is 33% of the way to 95 and definitely had the best day yet for qualifiers.

Still no eth insight base for the merc, though. I have approximately 12 failed cubes.

 

[coju]

I know Pindle runs are kind of repetitive to watch, but I just thought I'd post a little gameplay for the thread. My runtimes are obviously hurt by D2R load times (~5 seconds), and I'm not the best player, but the Furyzon seems to run him pretty quick and is sitting at 455% MF.

As you can see, my basic cycle is just to bounce of Malah every 3 runs for mana, which results in this little pattern where you get a longer run every few runs, as in the above runs:
View attachment 82737

I'm trying not to get hung up too much on runtimes and just focus on hitting a certain total amount of runs. It's working OK, but still a bit behind where I'd like to be.

Since you’re not using pots, would filling all 16 slots up and using them as needed shave a second off every 12 runs when you refill?

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Oh good idea! I will give that a try.

 

[lizard]

Wow. I am ways off those runtimes, @BBS_Agonistes. I tried using the Telestick, but the repairs are going to make me poor. As for goals, I am looking for a list of items i need, for future plans with the character:

• Crown of Ages
• Griffons
• Goreriders
• LoH or Drac's
• eth Titan's
• Stormshield
• BK or SoJ
• Ravenfrost
• Mara's
• Highlord's

This should give me all the uniques to do Ubers and start farming cows at higher player settings to get those runes.
Getting some or all of these during MFO would be incredible, but almost impossible.
The top two are Pindle only and cant be found on Shenk or Eldritch, so i will switch to only pindle at some point, but at this point, most of my qualifiers came from Shenk or Eldritch.

 

[ffs]

@BBS_Agonistes indeed those run times are better than I'd have expected in D2R. Still a great (if not the best) target it seems, I'll have to check whether I can get similar run times on my computer. If I had 16 second Pindle runs on my Barb that would be just as efficient as my initial Pit runs.

Why not Barb though? There's literally no chance of any other class beating his Pindle efficiency.

 

[Arjan]

And that's number 2. again fire, but the level up one this time around.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

@BBS_Agonistes indeed those run times are better than I'd have expected in D2R. Still a great (if not the best) target it seems, I'll have to check whether I can get similar run times on my computer. If I had 16 second Pindle runs on my Barb that would be just as efficient as my initial Pit runs.

Why not Barb though? There's literally no chance of any other class beating his Pindle efficiency.

Oh man. To be quite honest I'm sort of rusty on my D2 knowledge still after restarting and completely forgot you could hork Pindle. I was trying originally to get a barb ready for MFO to run Pits but I was struggling with getting CBF in a slot, and haven't really done a Pitzerker before, and was also concerned his AR would simply be too low because he's only level 82. But I could level him up a lot with Pindle, not such an issue with CBF, and it would be a nice change from the Zon, so that seems like a fun option to change things up.

 

[Excalibur]

Barely found time for farming these days but this guy made me smile.
Lighting Enhanced - Cold Enhanced - Fire Enhanced

 

[Arjan]

Barely found time for farming these days but this guy made me smile.
Lighting Enhanced - Cold Enhanced - Fire Enhanced

View attachment 82748

Well that’s a wee bit over the top

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Wow. I am ways off those runtimes, @BBS_Agonistes. I tried using the Telestick, but the repairs are going to make me poor. As for goals, I am looking for a list of items i need, for future plans with the character:

• Crown of Ages
• Griffons
• Goreriders
• LoH or Drac's
• eth Titan's
• Stormshield
• BK or SoJ
• Ravenfrost
• Mara's
• Highlord's

This should give me all the uniques to do Ubers and start farming cows at higher player settings to get those runes.
Getting some or all of these during MFO would be incredible, but almost impossible.
The top two are Pindle only and cant be found on Shenk or Eldritch, so i will switch to only pindle at some point, but at this point, most of my qualifiers came from Shenk or Eldritch.

TBH I was kind of thinking if I'm going to waste 5-7 seconds on that initial load time, it might almost make sense to hit all 3 each time, but just hitting Pindle is so mindless that I found it easier even though it's more boring. Shenk and Eldritch have dropped great stuff for me in the past.

 

[Triple Helix]

TBH I was kind of thinking if I'm going to waste 5-7 seconds on that initial load time, it might almost make sense to hit all 3 each time, but just hitting Pindle is so mindless that I found it easier even though it's more boring. Shenk and Eldritch have dropped great stuff for me in the past.

That's exactly what I've been doing... the sword-wielding crusty dead guy and his crew only.

 

[Nano]

My hand needed a breather from Pit Zerker, so I decided to try out Pit FoHdin. Fairly easy to play: FoH on left click, teleport on right click, and some occasional holy bolts to target down lone lightning resistant/immune monsters.

Magic damage from the FoH holy bolts are the main source of damage, so the trick is to FoH a minion and have multiple holy bolts hit the boss. FoH on the boss itself isn't too bad; sometimes if they are moving fast enough, they will run into a holy bolt after getting hit with the lightning damage. Flashing Conviction would be useful in those scenarios where the boss itself is hit with FoH, but I like not having to switch to an aura all the time.

Maxed skills are: FoH, Holy Bolt, Holy Shock. 1 point Vigor. Rest in Holy Shield, most likely maxed since plenty of skill points remain.
1 point Redemption that I never ended up using. Between the tankiness of a max block Paladin and the regen from Insight/Prayer Merc + LAEK from Enigma, I haven't used a potion in over 200 runs done so far. Suitable build for Hardcore.
I also had enough points in Conviction to reach level 25 after +skills, but didn't bother using this aura in the end.

Gear:
Shako "Ist"
Enigma Mage Plate
Suicide Branch "Ist"
Spirit Sacred Targe
2/20 FCR Paladin Amulet
Chance Guards
2x Nagel
Arachnid Mesh
War Travelers
Gheeds/Torch/Anni
28x MF SC

578 MF with the 125 FCR breakpoint. I don't know if it's worth using the 75 FCR breakpoint to stack more MF, but I prefer the faster play style, so I went with 125 FCR.

 

[ffs]

@Nano great stuff.

Have you considered 125 FCR with Griffon's + FCR gloves + FCR/MF ring combined with 180 MF sword? Should result in ~50 more MF and a nice boost to FoH lightning damage, which I'd expect to have a tangible effect on run times on top of bolt dmg... Somewhat lower life/mana/DR from dropping Shako but at lesat in SC I'd be perfectly fine with that.

So far, my D2R loading times have put me off builds that traditionally relied on having super fast run times. Such as basically any Sorc, and I had expected the new FoH Pally to also fall into this category. But in your case it all seems to work out nicely and quite efficient, and with pretty basic gear too. Definitely on my to-do list in D2R, although with Berserk now being perfectly HC viable it will remain my go-to MF build in the long run.

 

[Trim]

As someone who's running a full-time FoHdin, I'll put a strong +1 out there for it. A lot of what @Nano says holds true for me, as well. Very simple to use, pretty powerful at low player settings, and pretty safe even with lesser gear on my end (though I do run Redemption full time). It's exciting to see an old skill come out of the woodwork and start making a splash on the scene.

Unintentionally, Nano's excellent vid really knocked the wind out of my sails and made me do some internal raging. Without Enigma, I'm relying on Charge as my main movement skill. Charge gets the pally get wedged on even the smoothest of corners and can't be used when next to enemies, so it feels pretty herky-jerky. Add on bnet lag and you get magically repositioned into undesirable places at times. A lot of on-the-fly movement adjustments, but you still get locked into place unintentionally with relatively high frequency. Then consider each run I do is filled with guesswork to locate entrances & packs on constantly random maps. My runs look very different, and it makes me ugly jealous.

Really, though, all it's doing is reminding me how much I despise D2R for not having tcp/ip. MP games have been a regular thing for me over the years, and I don't have the energy to invest in disparate SP & MP progress / wealth, so I'm locked into playing on bnet at all times. The drawbacks of online characters far outweigh the positives, especially from the perspective of a long-time SPF member. Despite the modernization and updates D2R brought to the table, I find my personal experience to be incredibly infuriating whenever I think about it.

...But not really the place to vent on the subject, and I'll stop haranguing everyone on all the ways I'm a lesser contender. I'm stuck with what I've got, to heck with efficiency, and I'm doing my best to put up some solid results this year regardless.

Managed to record a few consecutive runs that weren't completely embarrassing (but are still pretty sad). Probably not worth watching if you wanna see goated FoH gameplay, especially after Nano's demonstration. But this is how I'm brute forcing my way through the MFO this year if anyone wants to sympathize.

 

[LouB]

Wahoo, my first complete level 99 set - Clegaw's. Baal and his minions have dropped a total of 53 set and uniques for me so far and 31 of them have a required level of 20 or less. I got a late start and only had 11 runs through Monday and only another 10 on Tuesday, which means I'm way behind. While the number of low level items is frustrating I'm averaging more than one S&U a run so far, which I think is pretty good.

 

[Gynli]

Finally!

Spoiler: HOTO

35 @res, straight down the middle.

Oh and also...

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Love the updates and gameplay videos everyone!

I threw together a Pindle Berzerker since some had recommended here... I used a typical setup.

Spoiler

Grief/6Ist PB, PTopaz Harlequin, Enigma, Ghoulhide, Upped Goldwrap, War Travs, Nagelring, Rare ring with 10% FCR, MF, etc. Amulet is Highlord's for the moment but as soon as I hit level 89 I'll throw on a +2 Barb / 10 FCR crafted amulet. Suicide Branch and Wspike on switch.

He is a tad slower than the Amazon, but it seems like if he has 50%+ Find Item, as long as my runtimes don't go over 1.5x what the Zon's were, I'm still getting more bang for my buck with more MF. He's certainly well under that.

 

[PhineasB]

Hi All! Keep the updates and other posts coming in this thread. Also, please remember to send me your score updates when you finish running for today.