Slayer Card™ collectors and Hell Gear™ cosplayers, The 98ers Sept

[flakrabbit24]

Intro
They trade, they craft, they buy. They challenge their friends and themselves to top the roster. Some of them are better, some of them are worse, some don't even like the hobby, they're in it just because of their friends. Who kills dclone first? Who is the fastest to ding 98? Who tries to spare the SoJ and get away with it? Who is still without a good character name when everybody else is clearing Act 3? Who becomes the ultimate deckmaster with the sickest gear and wins the title of Hellslayer?

In my years of D2 most of the classes and builds have been left for supporting roles only to serve the greatest few. Whole classes have been reduced to a couple of HF drops from a few novelty builds, their legacy lying in a shared stash of semi-high runes that were not even worth a screenshot.

So I thought about making a sept where everyone plays for themselves and competes with everyone. And even if it's impossible for a druid to compete with an amazon for the title of the fastest (or faster) Baal runner, it should be interesting to see how much every class can improve within their own boundaries and at least try to overtake the next place in the ladder.

Rules and goals
I'm playing in softcore with GoMule stashes. Not really any restrictions. Dying is ok, every build is ok, respecing is ok, no limits to equipment. Just some pretty random, not-too-carefully-thought-out competition elements:

• Seven characters who compete, one from each class.
• Play time is clocked.
• Everyone plays self-found but bartering* is allowed.
• Winner is the one who racks up most points from eleven point-awarding categories listed below.

Main event points are awarded in the following four categories:

• Fastest to reach level 98.
• Fastest to obtain Annihilus.
• Fastest to obtain Hellfire Torch.
• Fastest Baal run time.

Slayer Card™ points are awarded in the following four categories:

• Most magic GCs found** granting a +1 to skill tree.
• Most magic GCs carried** with a worthy** prefix AND suffix.
• Most magic LCs carried** over SCs or GCs, no cheesing.
• Most magic SCs carried** with a worthy** prefix AND suffix.

Hell Gear™ points are awarded in the following three categories:

• Most unique and set items found**, TC87 only.
• Most unique and set items worn**, merc included, weapon switch not included.
• Most crafted, rare and magic items worn**, merc included, weapon switch not included.

Rule clarifications
Gentlemen rules apply in everything.
Challenge ends when everyone has reached level 98, killed dclone and übers and has clocked in their hours.
Everybody can clock in as many hours as they want and everybody has the right to match those hours.
The winner of every category is awarded 7 points, the next one 6, and so on until the last one is awarded 1 point.
There are eleven categories so it's possible to collect a max of 77 points. The worst possible score is 11 points.

*) Bartering:
-Any equippable item can be traded as long the trade is seen co-beneficial, meaning both parties equip the item after trading.
-The above applies to jewels, too.
-Free swapping of skillers is allowed. Since every skill GC grants one point in the award category, and since we're all gentlemen, there's no declining. For worthy** skillers two must be given in return.
-Free swapping of magic GCs, LCs and SCs is allowed.
-Free swapping of unique SCs is allowed.
-Free swapping of unique LCs is allowed as long as the classes match, e.g. necro has a sorc torch and sorc has a necro torch.
-Free swapping of unique GCs is allowed.
-Free swapping of PGs to PGs, chips to chips is allowed
-Rune swapping is ok as the cube transmutes them.

**) Other misc. definitions:
"Found", no max limit, not required to be worn or held in inventory.
"Carried", at the end of the tournament, only six columns of charms is counted toward point awarding.
"Worn", at the end of the tournament when you ding 98, equipped to run your target normally with exping purposes, without cheesing.
"Worthy", with useful prefix and suffix for your build, in general a charm you wouldn't want to reroll because there are others to reroll.
Ties are settled by highest ilvl.

The idea behind bartering was to allow good class or build specific items to be passed on, but on the other hand to prevent one or two good MF characters from equipping everybody in the sept. It should allow some specialization and engage everybody in some form of magic finding whether it was boss runs, more general area running or maybe shopping or gambling. In general I thought it would be more fun like this rather than everybody doing 1000 Mephisto runs one at a time.

Runners
Amazon, Flash, Furyzon
Assassin, Thunderbags, Trapper
Necromancer, Barov, Summoner
Barbarian, Tiny, ???
Paladin, Sixlash, Zealot
Sorceress, ???, Blizz/CL
Druid, ???, Hunter

Amazon, Assassin and Necro are going straight for the Baals with power builds, fury, trap, summoner.
Barbarian will be something until I have enough of something for him to be a bag of support skills for his merc in Trav runs. Eventually he'll be something else for the Baals, maybe.
I'd like to not go for the hammerdin with Paladin, but if need be, then ok. Elemental zealot would be an easy solution as well but I really feel like playing a good old brute force physical zealot. Probably stay in Trav for some time before Baals.
Sorc will be a dual elemental cold/light and I'll probably run Travincal with her at first. When I find the runes for Infinity I'm planning to go for pure lightning for Baals.
Druid will be a pretty basic summoner hunter during leveling. I think I'm either going to go hybrid already during leveling or respec him to a windy with some hybrid points elsewhere, maybe somewhere in his 80s. Either way I'm a bit worried what kind of an abomination ends up in Baal runs.

I try to keep the characters within 20 levels of each other during leveling. Not a strict rule but I think it should be more interesting and keep the bartering going. First goal, timing their first Hell Baal runs.

Class  Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl    1     1     1     1     1     1     1
Hrs    0     0     0     0     0     0     0
Baal  0:00  0:00  0:00  0:00  0:00  0:00  0:00

 

[Irenicus]

Great and sound concept! Very similar to what I would do with a sept and more time. I like especially the bartering rules.

Have fun with the first stretch.

 

[flakrabbit24]

Before starting I thought I would clear one act at a time and then change character but I ended up doing really really small segments, like starting from black marsh and finishing to outer cloister. I think this goes better with my limited time. I play 30-60 minutes at a time, usually try to reach a level checkpoint where the other characters have made it. If there's some time left before the next half hour mark I do some shopping or MFing before writing down the progress.

It's been surprisingly fun. I thought I'd feel rushed trying to achieve everything at once but it seems to be the other way round. Maybe it's the competition setting or maybe it's just the sept but I'm trying to make the best of each 30 minutes, going really slowly with everybody and actually trying to find small improvements where it's the most cost efficient.

Bartering is also working out nicely as a motivator. I have a "Want to sell" board where each class can tag good items they have found for other classes. Usually when I'm deciding who to play with I pick the class that has most items tagged for on the board. I also have a bank tab so you can borrow money or gems if you're missing some. Let us add that to the rules

I've long thought about making some kind of a leveling guide for myself. I have a problem with forgetting most of the stuff that I "learn" or in general just rushing things without thinking for five minutes. Now that I'm going slow and doing each class at the same time it should be the perfect time to gather notes about each class to one place. Maybe this tells something about their journey and how they handle things as well.

Act 1, levels 1-18

Amazon
Poison javelin is great for leveling, just grab a big bunch of javelins.

Assassin
Burst of speed + the worst possible claw is still a killer. Traps require mana and chipped sapphires provide it nicely.

Necromancer
It requires some effort, maybe an hour or two, but shopping for a good summoner wand is so nice in the long run. Just get the cold plains WP and start running for chests without killing anything. The point is to stay at level 1-6 to keep the staff mods at tier 1 skills (80% chance). I think something like 25k gold is enough for a plain 3/3/3 wand but I amassed about 50k in case the perfect staff mods came in an expensive magical wand. Also, gather every low quality preserved head and cube them to normal quality in act 2. More chances to find a decent summoner shield. Don't bother with CE or Gumby in the beginning unless they come from a shield or wand, just boost your skeletons.

Barbarian
Double Swing is the king.

Paladin
It's a long way to Zeal.

Sorceress
Charged Bolt is the best. Naked chest running for 15k gold should be plenty enough for a +3 CB staff (2os for Leaf). Chipped sapphires are great.

Druid
Just put one point into everything. Whack something with your weak weapon while your weak wolf is biting everything and your worm is poisoning everybody. WW and Feral Rage are kinda nice.

General notes for melee
Ith runes give +9 to max damage in weapons. Shop for mana stolen weapon. Shop for life stolen weapon. Socket chipped skulls to weapons for life/mana stolen.

General notes for everybody
Hire a fire rogue, buy a 2os or 3os bow for her and socket chipped rubies in it.

Class  Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl    18    18    18    18    18    18    18
Hrs    3     3     4     3     3     4     2

Ama lvl 18 / Assa lvl 18 / Nec lvl 18 / Barb lvl 18 / Pala lvl 18 / Sorc lvl 18 / Druid lvl 18

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 2, levels 18-24

Good to know
In gambling and shopping qlvl is clvl +4/-5.

Amazon
Use Spear and charged strike at lvl 18. Spear's range is nice as you can keep a little distance to the enemies. When you get enough damage I don't think the range is needed anymore. Amazon specific spears and javelins are good but can't be gambled.

Assassin
Shock Web should maybe not be used at all due to some damage prevent/hit delay thing which I haven't bothered to look up too carefully. I just thought that saving points for Charged Bolt Sentry seemed like a good idea anyway. After lvl 24 I can keep putting points to both Lightning Sentry and Charged Bolt Sentry for some time. Charged Bolt Sentry is dealing 1-53 per bolt at slvl 13 and Lightning sentry is dealing 1-53 damage per lightning at slvl 1.

Necromancer
Do use your skeletons in maggot lair. I tried to unsummon everything but it seems that the merc is totally incapable of traversing the place. D2R problem or was it always this bad? Shopping and using a teleport staff requires clvl 24.

Barbarian
Concentrate seemed like the best bet. Chippy cubed Poleaxe and Savage Halberd (when you have the cube) are good weapons.

Paladin
Flail is probably the best readily available 1H weapon when entering (and sadly, leaving) act 2. Buy a 3os from Fara and socket something with +max damage into it or chippy cube a magical Flail into 2os with decent damage affixes and then socket something with +max damage into it.

Sorceress
Gamble a Plated Belt when you can (qlvl 27) if you can handle the str req 60 because you'll be drinking a lot of potions. Actually the same applies to amazon as well.

Druid
Pumping Rabies and Poison Creeper. Three points to Dire Wolf to get a full pack. Weirdly enough he's been the fastest of the bunch.

General notes for everybody
Shop 20-25% MF gloves and 20-25% MF boots from Fara. Blessed Aim mercenary for melee/summoner types, Defiance mercenary for casters who need more tanky tank.


Polearm progression list for Mercenaries

1. Gamble a Poleaxe when you hit clvl 17 (qlvl 21).
2. Get the cube, gamble another Poleaxe and chippy cube* it. You get sockets and a chance for better affixes. Keep cubing whichever turns out worse until you have a decent weapon. Socket max damage jewels, Ith runes or chipped skulls.
3. Get the cube, transmute** a Savage Halberd (str 75) or a Savage Lochaber Axe (str 81). Use chipped amethyst armor/helm. At lvl 23 the merc has 81 str on his own. Other weapon bases require too much str/dex to be useful or are just weaker options.
4. Next upgrade is a Savage Partizan but at low levels it requires normal or flawless amethysts on the merc's helm/armor. Fara sells 3os Ringmails and 2os helmets and a combination of normals and flawlesses (flawless 8, normal 6, flawed 4) should make it wearable immediately at the rlvl 23 but this probably isn't feasible untwinked. Maybe wait a few levels and then socket flawed and normal gems as you can.
5. Insight even in a non-ethereal polearm is next. Poleaxe is the first polearm to beat a Savage Partizan with an average damage of 121 (average rolls, critical strike included in the damage). Savage Partizan average damage is about 85.

As a necromancer you should really keep in mind the weapon's rangeadder. Damagewise after taking the weapon speed into consideration Savage Halberd and Savage Lochaber Axe are close to equal but Halberd has better rangeadder (4 vs 2) which allows the merc to hit behind skeletons more easily. Everybody else should just pick whichever comes out the cube first.

*) 3 Chipped Gems + 1 Magic Weapon = Socketed Magic Weapon.
**) Diamond (any quality) + 1 any type of staff (any quality) + 1 Kris (any quality) + 1 any type of belt (any quality) = Savage Polearm Class Weapon


Failed mercenary weapon prospects

• Honor polearm or spear, 5os in a normal or exceptional base polearm or spear is not possible until ilvl 41 (WSK lvl 3 is alvl 42).
• Crafting a weapon removes the ethereal property so sadly that's not a feasible option to improve damage.
• An ethereal polearm or spear could be imbued to have a shot at a decent weapon but it requires luck to find one and exceptional weapon base drops aren't available for a long time. (Lochaber Axe is lowest at qlvl 33, Halls of Anguish in Act 5 is alvl 33.) You would also need some luck because 53 ED% roll is needed on the weapon (80/1.5) to even tie with a Savage Halberd or a Savage Lochaber Axe. So, maybe not worth the shot. In later levels you could probably find an exceptional ethereal base but I'd say that at that time it's preferable to just save it for a runeword (3os Crescent Moon, 4os Insight, 5os Obedience).

A few thing to keep in mind regarding 0/4os polearm bases when continuing into Act 3 and 4

• Champion and Unique monsters have monster levels and drop items with item levels of +2 and +3 of their area's level, respectively.
• Act 3 has a few alvl 24-25 areas where champion drops could be ilvl 26 or more: Sewers lvl 2, Kurast Causeway, Travincal, Forgotten Temple, Ruined Fane, Disused Reliquary, Durance of Hate 1-3.
• From Act 4 and onwards the alvl is 26 or more so (nearly) all polearms should be picked up because they have a chance to be cubed to a 4os base for Insight. WSK lvl 2 is alvl 40, WSK lvl 3 is alvl 42.

                 Sockets/ilvl        Requirements                       Damage
Item           1-25 26-40  41+     Lvl  Str   Dex    qlvl       Avg     Min   Max     Speed  Range
Bardiche         3    3   3        -    40    -        5        14       1    27         10      2
Voulge           3    4   4        -    50    -       11        13.5     6    21          0      2
Scythe           3    4   5        -    41    41      15        14       8    20        -10      1
Poleaxe          3    4   5        -    62    -       21        27.5    16    39         10      3
Halberd          3    4   6        -    75    47      29        28.5    12    45          0      4
War Scythe       3    4   6        -    80    80      34        25.5    15    36        -10      4

Lochaber Axe     3    3   3        21    80    -      33          32     6    58         10      2
Bill             3    4   4        25    95    -      37        33.5    14    53          0      2
Battle Scythe    3    4   5        25    82    82     40        31.5    18    45        -10      1
Partizan         3    4   5        23    113   67     35        54.5    34    75         10      3
Bec-de-Corbin    3    4   6        25    133   91     51          49    13    85          0      4
Grim Scythe      3    4   6        25    140   140    55          50    30    70        -10      4

Class  Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl    24    24    24    24    24    24    24
Hrs    5     5     6     5     7     7     4

Ama lvl 24 / Assa lvl 24 / Nec lvl 24 / Barb lvl 24 / Pala lvl 24 / Sorc lvl 24 / Druid lvl 24

 

[Cattleya]

As a necromancer you should really keep in mind the weapon's rangeadder. Damagewise after taking the weapon speed into consideration Savage Halberd and Savage Lochaber Axe are close to equal but Halberd has better rangeadder (4 vs 2) which allows the merc to hit behind skeletons more easily.

I thought that mercenaries just had a fixed range (3 I think) with their attacks and ignored the rangeadder stat.

 

[flakrabbit24]

I thought that mercenaries just had a fixed range (3 I think) with their attacks and ignored the rangeadder stat.

Oh! I'll have to edit this part out then. I did a quick test when changing weapons but I guess it was just placebo. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[flakrabbit24]

Interlude

Before moving on to Act 3 I ran Duriel with some of the characters for an hour or two in hopes of the Cleglaw sword or some other loot. I think one run took about 2 minutes so I thought I had a good chance of improving my runners' gear with relatively small effort. I was also surprised to see that Mephisto, who I had also thought about running, had almost the same loot table as Duriel but the drop chances were practically halved, so Duriel started to seem even better a target. Not sure I would've done the runs if I hadn't already found plenty of Cleglaw's shields before, though.

Duriel drops, /p1, 50% MF:
1:66 Cleglaw's Tooth [sword]
1:97 Cleglaw's Pincer's [gloves]
1:126 Nagelring
1:126 Manald Heal
1:148 Civerb's Cudgel
1:210 Cleglaw's Claw [shield]
1:216 Bloodfist
1:216 Twitchthroe
1:229 Chanceguards

For the runs players1 seemed fine because the drop chances don't change that much compared to players3. Something like 50% MF seemed worth to have, after that it didn't really increase the drops too much. I think I got 1 pair of Chanceguards, 1 pair of Bloodfist, 2 Cleglaw's swords, 1 Nagelring, 1 Manald Heal. I also got plenty of items from Sander, Hsarus and Berserker sets to get practically everyone a partial set to help with AR, defense or IAS. I think I skipped the runs totally with assa, sorc and necro because they didn't really need any gear.

If I intepret the arreat summit page correctly, Duriel's jab is basically 1-3 physical dmg nudges but the 30-35 cold damage from Holy Freeze makes them hurty. His other two attacks are about 20...25 physical which hurt a bit more. Thawing potions (+50% cold res for 30s per potion) helped quite a bit. I gave the merc some as well to help him survive. A shield with some sapphires could be utilized, also. Another layer of protection was a wand with Weaken charges (14 seconds, slvl 1). One Weaken charge cost 324 gold to repair. The initial cost of the wand doesn't affect the charge repair cost.


Act 3, levels 24-30

General notes for everybody
Shopping a few 3os Kite Shields from Fara can be quite helpful for resistances. Instead of going for diamonds I found it more manageable to just focus on one resistance at a time and swap shields if necessary. Actually I did this in Act 2 already for poison and lightning resistances. In Act 3 fire resistance was really helpful.

Amazon
Gamble a Throwing Spear at clvl 25. It's fast and has good physical damage as well.

Assassin
Still using Charged Bolt Sentry, all shadow disciplines feel useless.

Necromancer
Maxing summons.

Barbarian
Savage Halberd is still fine but I found two Civerb's Cudgels so I went back to double swinging instead.

Paladin
Flail is quite ok but I was starting to feel how weak it was getting already during Act 2. I made a list of available 1H weapons @ clvl 24 when I was trying to decide whether I should invest some time to do Duriel runs or just keep going with the weak flail. The list is at the end. I did the Duriel runs and continued with Cleglaw's sword and shield.

Sorceress
Nothing much, still chugging potions. Charged Bolt is still better than Lightning.

Druid
Knockback is helpful for Rabies, full Cleglaw's is really good.

1H weapons for lvl 24               Dmg   Average     qlvl for base
3os Flail with 3 Ith               1-51     26
King's Grace Grand Scepter        16-36     26        15
King's Grace War Scepter          20-34     27        21
Civerb's Cudgel @ clvl 24          8-62     35
Cleglaw's Tooth @ clvl 24          3-49     39

1H weapons for lvl 30+              Dmg   Average     qlvl for base
Honor War Scepter                 26-44     35        21
Civerb's Cudgel @ clvl 30          8-68     38
Cleglaw's Tooth @ clvl 30          3-56     45
Kings Grace Dimensional Blade     26-70     48        37
Kings Grace Battle Sword          32-68     50        40
Kings Grace Holy Water Sprinkler  28-72     50        40
Kings Grace Divine Scepter        26-76     51        45
Kings Grace Rune Sword            20-84     52        44
Kings Grace Ancient Sword         36-86     61        49
Honor Dimensional Blade           34-91     62        37
Honor Knout                       34-91     62        43
Honor Crow Bill                   36-88     62        43
Honor Twin Axe                    34-99     66        39
Honor Divine Scepter              42-99     70        45
Honor Naga                        42-117    79        48
Bloodletter                       31-97     64
Cleglaw's Tooth* @ clvl 40         3-69     54
Cleglaw's Tooth* @ clvl 50         3-82     63

King's Grace also has 26 avg elemental damage.
Cleglaw's sword+shield set bonus is included in the damage and 50 DS% is included in the avg dmg.
Bloodletter drop chance is 1:37 from Diablo /p1 50% MF.

Most of the table concerns later levels and acts but what it shows quite well is how good the Cleglaw's sword+shield is. Normal Baal could drop better exceptional uniques but the drop chances on the weapons are something like 1:500 so some luck is required. The next good runewords like Passion, Crescent Moon and Oath all cost quite big runes and I'm not sure how feasible it is to farm them and at what level you'll be at the time when it is feasible.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   30    30    30    30    30    30    30
Hrs   7     7     7     8     9     9     8

Ama lvl 30 / Assa lvl 30 / Nec lvl 30 / Barb lvl 30 / Pala lvl 30 / Sorc lvl 30 / Druid lvl 30

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 4, levels 30-36

Kept an eye on 4os polearms and 4os swords. I did Diablo runs with six of the characters from 32ish to level 36 and what was interesting I got no 4os items at all in CS. So I started checking the alvls one by one and what do you know, there's a big difference compared to LOD. Here's a little snapshot of some alvls in normal Act 3-5:

Area               alvl in D2R   LOD
Travincal                  24    24
Durance of Hate Level 1    24    25
Durance of Hate Level 2    24    25
Durance of Hate Level 3    25    25
Outer Steppes              26    26
Plains of Despair          30    26
City of the Damned         27    27
River of Flame             30    27
Chaos Sanctuary            24    28
Bloody Foothills           32    24
Frigid Highlands           33    25

About Diablo runs
Druid was the only class I didn't want to do any running because Rabies doesn't really work on Venom Lords. And I suppose killing Diablo himself would've been hard and slow, too. Barb was slow at 10 mins per run but quite enjoyable anyway. Pala was also slow at 8 mins per run and a bore to run. All the others were quite fast and enjoyable, maybe 5 or 6 minutes per run. Players setting was 1 with all of them.

Amazon just melted Diablo. Assassin had to cheese behind colums. For necromancer I had to invest a point in Decrepify, keep spamming Clay Golem and hover my cursor on a TP in case he tried to hose my crew. Paladin and barbarian used CB items (Cleglaw's full set, Rixot's Keen/The Gnasher). Sorc was ok with static field and CB though quick feet were helpful, 20% FRW was a bit too little, 30% FRW was ok.

Diablo drops, /p1, 50% MF:
1:22 Bonesnap
1:22 The General's Tan Do Li Ga
1:26 Frostburn
1:29 Spectral Shard
1:30 Humongous
1:30 Ironstrone
1:36 Goblin Toe
1:36 Goldwrap
1:36 Iceblink
1:36 Rockfleece
1:36 Undead Crown
1:37 Bloodletter
1:37 Woestave
1:42 Bloodfist
1:42 Boneflesh
1:42 Twitchthroe
1:42 Wormskull
1:44 Chanceguards
1:44 Nightsmoke
1:54 Venom Grip
1:54 Rattlecage
1:65 Spineripper
1:75 Nagelring
1:90 Ume's Lament
1:96 Tarnhelm
1:196 Infernostride
1:196 Peasant Crown
1:196 Skin of the Vipermagi
1:196 String of Ears
1:196 The Spirit Shroud
1:325 Civerb's Cudgel
1:419 Gull
1:426 Hwanin's Blessing
1:520 Immortal King's Will
1:562 Eye of Etlich
1:623 Ribcracker
1:1021 Rite of Passage
1:1128 The Stone of Jordan


General notes for everybody
It's quite easy to gamble a +1 class or +1 skill tree circlets but Lore is such a nice helmet that I made one for ama, assa, nec and sorc. Gems are starting to be plentiful so I shopped 3os Kite Shields and socketed them with 3 flawless diamonds for ama, assa and sorc.

Amazon
Investing points to CS and LF. I should've left LS without points, it's just too weak to be helpful. Maybe it shows to be useful in Act 5 against imps. It's good to keep a few +10% IAS Maiden Javelins in the inventory because you run through them quite fast with LF.

Assassin
Point in Mind Blast to give some breathing room.

Necromancer
Point in Decrepify to make Diablo running easier.

Barbarian
I scored a Bonesnap from Diablo so using that now. I think if I hadn't found Bonesnap or Humongous from the runs I'd let Larzuk punch a plain Poleaxe or something into an Insight base.

Paladin
Cleglaw sword+shield combo damage was starting to lack. Not too bad but faster killing speed for survivability would be nice. Got a good boost from max damage jewels in 3os armor and 2os helm. My other runners found Bloodletter and Spineripper but I don't have anything to trade for them so I'll just continue with the Cleglaw's.

Sorceress
Nothing much, chugging potions. Charged Bolt is still better than Lightning.

Druid
Rabies going strong.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   36    36    36    36    36    36    36
Hrs   10    9     10    11    13    12    9

Ama lvl 36 / Assa lvl 36 / Nec lvl 36 / Barb lvl 36 / Pala lvl 36 / Sorc lvl 36 / Druid lvl 36

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 5, levels 36-42

General notes for everybody
I powered through at players 1...3 with everyone because I wanted to run Baal as early as possible but when I got there at lvl 40 I realised Baal drop list is just bad. Didn't even consider running for anything when I saw it. Some decent items have like 1:500 drop chance and good items are in the range of 1:1000 or 1:2000 or even worse (again /p1 and 50% MF). So instead I'll just go to Nightmare at lvl 42 and spend some time farming Countess for Amns and Rals for cube socketing.

General notes for melee
Whatever weapon got you through Act 4 should get you through Act 5 because it's not really an increase in difficulty. I still kept an eye for weapon racks and when I found one I tested a few easy patterns on it to find out if it would be stable and drop good base weapons. Didn't have any luck with any of them but considering the time investment I would recommend giving it a shot anyway. Best areas were Arreat Plateau (1 rack in a hut), Halls of Pain (sometimes 1 rack) and Halls of Vaught (1 or 2 racks). Halls of Pain and Halls of Vaught were good areas to try to find Partizans, also.

Amazon
LS was useless, CS and LF all the way.

Assassin
Maybe I should've skipped the Mind Blast and get Shadow Warrior instead because she is really tanky.

Necromancer
Maxing summons.

Barbarian
Still using Bonesnap.

Paladin
Still using Cleglaw's. Maybe a bit weak but OKish.

Sorceress
Same as in previous, nothing much, still chugging potions. Charged Bolt is still better than Lightning and seemed to get quite a boost from Lightning Mastery.

Druid
Same as in previous, Rabies is strong.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   42    42    42    42    42    42    42
Hrs   11    11    12    13    14    14    11

Ama lvl 42 / Assa lvl 42 / Nec lvl 42 / Barb lvl 42 / Pala lvl 42 / Sorc lvl 42 / Druid lvl 42


I also mapped out the rest of the alvls in normal, they're inside the spoiler blob below. The LOD column is copied from diablowiki and probably exists in many places in the internet. I don't know how old it is but D2R is quite different to it.

Spoiler: Normal alvls in D2R and LOD

                              D2R   LOD
Blood Moor                      1     1
Cold Plains                     1     2
Stony Field                     5     4
Dark Wood                       5     5
Black Marsh                     5     6
Tamoe Highland                  8     8
Den of Evil                     1     1
The Cave Level 1                4     2
Underground Passage Level 1     5     4
The Hole Level 1                5     5
The Pit Level 1                 7     7
The Cave Level 2                1     2
Underground Passage Level 2     1     4
The Hole Level 2                6     5
The Pit Level 2                 7     7
Burial Grounds                  2     3
Crypt                           2     3
Mausoleum                       2     3
Tower Cellar Level 1            7     7
Tower Cellar Level 2            7     7
Tower Cellar Level 3            7     7
Tower Cellar Level 4            7     7
Tower Cellar Level 5            7     7
Monastery Gate                  8     9
Outer Cloister                  9     9
Barracks                        9     9
Jail Level 1                   10    10
Jail Level 2                   10    10
Jail Level 3                    9    10
Inner Cloister                 10    10
Cathedral                      10    11
Catacombs Level 1              11    11
Catacombs Level 2              11    11
Catacombs Level 3              12    12
Catacombs Level 4              10    12
Tristram                        6     6
Secret Cow Level               28    28
Rocky Waste                    14    14
Dry Hills                      15    15
Far Oasis                      16    16
Lost City                      17    17
Valley of Snakes               00    18
Canyon of the Magi             19    16
Sewers Level 1                 13    13
Sewers Level 2                 13    13
Sewers Level 3                 14    14
Harem Level 2                  18    13
Palace Cellar Level 1          18    13
Palace Cellar Level 2          18    13
Palace Cellar Level 3          18    13
Stony Tomb Level 1             14    12
Halls of the Dead Level 1      15    12
Halls of the Dead Level 2      15    13
Claw Viper Temple Level 1      15    14
Stony Tomb Level 2             17    12
Halls of the Dead Level 3      15    13
Claw Viper Temple Level 2      18    14
Maggot Lair Level 1            16    17
Maggot Lair Level 2            17    17
Maggot Lair Level 3            17    17
Ancient Tunnels                18    17
Tal Rasha's Tomb               23    17
Tal Rasha's Chamber            22    17
Arcane Sanctuary               19    14
Spider Forest                  21    21
Great Marsh                    22    21
Flayer Jungle                  23    22
Lower Kurast                   22    22
Kurast Bazaar                  22    22
Upper Kurast                   22    23
Kurast Causeway                24    24
Travincal                      24    24
Arachnid Lair                  21    21
Spider Cavern                  21    21
Swampy Pit Level 1             23    21
Swampy Pit Level 2             21    21
Flayer Dungeon Level 1         22    22
Flayer Dungeon Level 2         22    22
Swampy Pit Level 3             21    21
Flayer Dungeon Level 3         22    22
Sewers Level 1                 22    23
Sewers Level 2                 24    24
Ruined Temple                  23    23
Disused Fane                   23    23
Forgotten Reliquary            23    23
Forgotten Temple               24    24
Ruined Fane                    24    24
Disused Reliquary              24    24
Durance of Hate Level 1        24    25
Durance of Hate Level 2        24    25
Durance of Hate Level 3        25    25
Outer Steppes                  26    26
Plains of Despair              30    26
City of the Damned             27    27
River of Flame                 30    27
Chaos Sanctuary                24    28
Bloody Foothills               32    24
Frigid Highlands               33    25
Arreat Plateau                 33    26
Crystalline Passage            33    29
Frozen River                   42    29
Glacial Trail                  33    29
Drifter Cavern                 34    29
Frozen Tundra                  36    27
Ancients' Way                  38    29
Icy Cellar                     35    29
Arreat Summit                  00    37
Nihlathak's Temple             35    32
Halls of Anguish               35    33
Halls of Pain                  40    34
Halls of Vaught                40    36
Hell 1 (Abaddon)               33    39
Hell 2 (Pit of Acheron)        36    39
Hell 3 (Infernal Pit)          37    39
The Worldstone Keep Level 1    34    39
The Worldstone Keep Level 2    36    39
The Worldstone Keep Level 3    37    39
Throne of Destruction          35    43
Worldstone Chamber             00    43

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 1 (NM), levels 42-50

General notes for everybody
Countess until lvl 48 for runes, then Andariel until lvl 50. Didn't expect great drops from Andariel due to low volume but I did find an IK helmet and The Eye of Etlich.
The Tower / Catacombs yielded every runner a 4os polearm, some even got two or three. Only two of the base items were exceptional, though. It seems to be more difficult to find 4os swords, only four dropped. The plastic look of the Crystal Sword is like straight out of a game merchandise shop, made me laugh out when I first saw one in the character menu.

Tower running was just about enough to score all the runners a Sol. I would've hoped for like two each but I guess more will drop as I need them. Only one Lum dropped, not sure if it was from Countess or just somewhere, but only one Smoke armor. They're mostly doing fine on the resistances because of the diamond shields but I would've liked to see a few more drop. I would've also liked to see more Amns drop so I could've used my hefty stash o' gem shrined perfect amethysts to try to socket Partizans.

Made an Insight polearm for each of the mercenaries just to replace the Savage Halberds / Lochaber Axes. I don't feel the upgrade is greatly needed anymore because all the characters have gained some muscle but more damage is always more damage. I really thought I would've needed to keep upgrading the mercenary oomph early on in the game but the Savage polearms turned out to be solid enough stepping stones.




General notes for Notes for melee
When I entered Nightmare I thought I would level up some, then just gamble a Naga and craft a few Blood weapons (for druid, paladin). Turned out it's not as easy as that. The chance to get the ilvl high enough are 50/50 at clvl 47 but then you still have to get a succesful exceptional roll [1 + (ilvl - excep qlvl) * 90 / 100 = chance in percents] which turned out to be about two or three percent. Mobs won't really start dropping Nagas until Act 3, either, so this was just another failed prospect.

What turned out to be the key to the next weapon checkpoint was the unique upgrade recipe which I had totally overlooked. Yeah, I could've done the upgrading earlier, just didn't realize I had something good in my hands. I upgraded a Rakescar and a Bonesnap with the recipe. Other good or decent weapons comparable to Honor RW in damage were:
Rakescar 75...150% ED
Bonesnap 200...300% ED
Steeldriver 150...250% ED
Humongous 80...120% ED
Ironstone 100...150% ED


Amazon
Spearmaider's (40) gloves of Alacrity (43) could be shopped at this point. And of course the lesser Harpoonist's (20) gloves of Readiness (20) are also available which increases the chance of finding at least a decent pair even if it isn't the perfect one. I didn't specifically take time to shop for them but I did check the vendors each time I went to town and eventually one of my characters found a nice pair of +1/20%. Also made a Smoke armor.

Assassin
Made a Spirit sword.

Necromancer
Made a Spirit sword.

Barbarian
Upgraded the Bonesnap, big hurt now. Also made a Peace armor for the +2 Critical Strike. Not sure if it's really a big increase in damage because I didn't run the numbers but the armor slot is kind of useless at the moment.

Paladin
Found a 4os Full Plate and socketed all my best +min damage jewels into it for a nice dmg boost. Cleglaw's is still ok, Rakescar would've been better but I think by the end of Act 1 they would've been be pretty much tied, anyway.

Sorceress
Made a Spirit sword.

Druid
Traded and upgraded a Rakescar. Traded a Twitchthroe. Fast Rabies good damage, decent Fury speed ok'ish damage. I think the build will slowly fall apart through NM.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   50    50    50    50    50    50    50
Hrs   13    13    14    16    18    16    14

Ama lvl 50 / Assa lvl 50 / Nec lvl 50 / Barb lvl 50 / Pala lvl 50 / Sorc lvl 50 / Druid lvl 50

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 2 (NM), levels 50-55

Mercenary changes when entering Act 2
Ama 18...50 Blessed Aim → 50... Blessed Aim
Assa 18...50 Defiance → 50... Holy Freeze
Necro 18...50 Blessed Aim → 50... Might
Barb 18...50 Blessed Aim → 50... Might
Pala 18...50 Blessed Aim → 50... Might
Sorc 18...50 Prayer → 50... Holy Freeze
Druid 18...50 Blessed Aim → 50... Might

General notes for everybody
Running NM Duriel felt pointless. I did like 5-10 runs with everyone until I hit 55 but it was quite slow and the chances of finding anything during so few runs was like zero.

Amazon
Feeling OP.

Assassin
Feeling OP.

Necromancer
Started using and putting more points to CE because kill speed started to slow down. I think the mana from Spirit was also needed to really start using the skill. On that note maybe it would be a good idea to invest points to energy to have decent mana. I had 150 free stat points and 250 life just because I didn't feel I was in danger at any point. I did put some points to vita but it wasn't really necessary. The points to CE could've been placed a bit earlier, like through levels 45 to 50. It would be just fine maxing the skeleton skills after that because they survive well enough and their damage starts lacking at this point anyway.

Barbarian
Changed from Blessed Aim to Might merc and had to go back to 2 piece H'sarus for more AR. Not even sure the extra damage from Might is worth it. My Concentrate damage went from 1100...1600 to 1300...2000 and my Whirlwind damage went from 550...800 to 800...1200. So a quarter and a third more but even with the Hsarus' two piece my chance to hit is still only ~80% (from 90% with BA).

Paladin
Ok'ish, maybe a little slow but not too bad. It seems that Cleglaw sword quickly outpaces anything I find or try to find.

Sorceress
CB is not the worst but I I'd like to get something with a bit more oomph. Thinking about respecing to Nova but I don't know if that would help that much.

Druid
Melee feels weak, Rabies doesn't really kill anymore. Respec'd to elemental after Duriel.

Post notes
Didn't really feel like continuing from 55 to 60 before the new patch 2.4 was released. I've been at 55 for a long time, just haven't posted this update. Now that the patch is out I got some thinking to do regarding the builds.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   55    55    55    55    55    55    55
Hrs   15    14    16    18    20    18    16

Ama lvl 55 / Assa lvl 55 / Nec lvl 55 / Barb lvl 55 / Pala lvl 55 / Sorc lvl 55 / Druid lvl 55

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 3 (NM), levels 55-60

Patch 2.4 didn't really affect my plans. Maybe later in the game but nothing so obvious and powerful that I'd want to respec right away. Holy Bolt / FoH is something I'd like to try at some point if it goes along with my running targets.

General notes for everybody
Merc survivability seemed to become an issue for almost everyone. Crafting Blood helmets for the mercenaries was an improvement and probably should've been done in Act 2 already.

Amazon
Slowing down but still strong. One point Valkyrie was helpful, less running away, more throwing.

Assassin
Slowing down but still strong.

Necromancer
Easy going.

Barbarian
A runner found a Steeldriver (which barb then traded and upgraded) so I got the chance to compare it to Bonesnap. I definitely like the faster Steeldriver better, especially with WW which I have been using almost exclusively, weirdly enough. Also found a Pul at Durance of Hate 3 so I could now upgrade something to elite. Too bad Steeldriver's rlvl would shoot to 77. Bonesnap's rlvl would only go to 63 but I'm not sure I want to go back to such a slow weapon.

Paladin
Found some Nagas during Act 3 and made a decent Blood axe (dmg 34...85). Damage output went down but I really needed to get some resistances from a shield which I couldn't get because I needed the Cleglaw's shield 2 piece set bonus. Kill speed didn't slow down too much and resistances went to max. You could shop a Naga already in Act 2 or 3 but Halbu in Act 4 sells six axes at a time so I think I'd just save the shopping time and just wait until Act 4. It took something like 15-20 minutes to score one from Act 3.

I didn't use the Blood Naga very long because another runner found a Heart Carver. Looking at it right now it could be a nice weapon to upgrade to elite but we'll see how I feel about running for a Pul when I get to Hell Countess.

Sorceress
Still thinking the CB doesn't deliver enough oompf. Also it doesn't put anything to hit recovery so it's hard to tank anything. I've been using Lightning to tank something from time to time even though I only have 10 points in it.

Traded a Tal amu from barb. It's not that useful at the moment but the chance to find Tal armor from Hell Baal is only about 1:700...1200 (300...0% MF) so the amu is a good step towards possibly decent gear. The damage goes to mana on the belt should work nicely with ES.

Druid
Tornado is strong.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   60    60    60    60    60    60    60
Hrs   17    16    17    20    23    19    18

Ama lvl 60 / Assa lvl 60 / Nec lvl 60 / Barb lvl 60 / Pala lvl 60 / Sorc lvl 60 / Druid lvl 60

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 4 (NM), levels 60-65

Amazon
Doom Knights slowed down CS runs but otherwise ok.

Assassin
Surprisingly fast again.

Necromancer
Slowing down a bit. I need to start upping my merc damage. He is now using an Insight in Bec-de-Corbin, Blood helm and no armor. Treachery would be a nice armor for the IAS%. Helmet is ok as it has 9% Deadly Strike and I need some life leech anyway. Oh, I double checked it and it had 2 empty sockets, too, so I should try to find or trade some IAS jewels. As for the weapon, I have to try to spot a weapon rack from Act 5 with a nice stable base for polearm/spear runewords. Not sure if elites are already possible there, I have to check it out.

Barbarian
Didn't upgrade anything yet because I don't have a Lum. Also I think it would be smart to see if I can scrape together an Oath after some Hell Countess runs.

Paladin
Heart Carver emptied my bank at a rate of 2.4k per durability. I had to stop using it because I was running out of money. Also the range was short which was a mildly major nuisance. For this reason I traded an up'd Rakescar from the Druid because he didn't need it anymore. I also noticed that Cruel weapons aren't too rare in Act 4 so I spent 30 minutes trying to shop a Cruel Naga. No luck but I got a Ferocius Naga a couple of times and a Cruel Axe of Swiftness. Ferocius Naga is basically the same as up'd Rakescar but without the 30% IAS. And then I remembered that another runner found an Atlantean which should be about equal to a Cruel Naga. Eh, well, still worth the effort, I guess, because I need to find something to actually trade for the Atlantean. Or I could just find all the stuff for an Oath but that seems highly unlikely.

Sorceress
Respec'd to Nova + ES and got a lot more damage/safety now. Also left vita to base and put everything to energy. I heard they fixed mana burn so it doesn't burn all the way to zero. Didn't even know it wasn't supposed to work like that. I think I should read the patch notes again. Also found a +3 ES staff, just need to find Lum and Io to make a Memory. Another runner found a Tal belt which she traded.

Druid
Tornado is still strong.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   65    65    65    65    65    65    65
Hrs   18    17    18    22    25    21    19

Ama lvl 65 / Assa lvl 65 / Nec lvl 65 / Barb lvl 65 / Pala lvl 65 / Sorc lvl 65 / Druid lvl 65

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 5 (NM), levels 65-70

Amazon
No problems. Found a Harpoonist's GC of Sustenance (26)(!) from one of Nihlathak's halls.

Assassin
Fast and easy again.

Necromancer
A little slow and life seems to be pretty low. Nothing too bad, though. He's looking diabolical with a red coronet.

Barbarian
Traded another piece from the IK set. Now he has gloves, belt and helm but still needs to wear Hsarus belt and boots for the AR bonus. Alas, no one has found the amulet for the Angelic set which would solve the AR problem. I forgot this from Act 4 notes but his resistances were starting to hurt so I socketed Ort+Ort to an armor and Ral+Ort to IK helm.

Paladin
Traded the Atlantean which improved things. He's not blazing but feels fast enough. Numerous small enemies are quite annoying. He dies pretty easily if swarmed by medium/strong monsters. Life Tap wand was needed to take on any Blood Lords or super strong packs.

Sorceress
Another runner traded Gerke's Sanctuary to her. With 18 PDR from a circlet she's got 30 PDR and 15 MDR in total now. So far she's been quite tanky, we'll see how Hell changes things. The shield looks totally fabulous and badass when combined with the green/gold armor of the sorceress, by the way.

Druid
Tornado still strong.

General notes for melee/mercenaries
Regarding Oath and Obedience, I haven't seen any 5os weapons and very few good exceptional base items in general, let alone elite base items. Not having my hopes up when starting Hell, either.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   70    70    70    70    70    70    70
Hrs   19    19    19    25    28    22    20
+1GCs  1     0     0     0     0     0     2

Ama lvl 70 / Assa lvl 70 / Nec lvl 70 / Barb lvl 70 / Pala lvl 70 / Sorc lvl 70 / Druid lvl 70

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 1 (Hell), levels 70-75

Ran through the act on /players1 and leveled up to 75 by running Countess. Almost everyone got a Lum rune to make a Smoke, Lum + higher runes listed below. Not a bad haul for like 20-30 runs(?) with everyone.

Amazon: Lum, Lum, Lum, Ko, Fal
Assassin: Ko, Fal, Lem, Pul
Necromancer: Lum
Barbarian: Ko, Ko, Fal
Paladin: Ko, Ko, Mal, Ist
Sorceress: Lem, Ist
Druid: Ko, Fal, Fal, Lem, Um

Amazon
Fast and easy.

Assassin
Fast and easy. Shadow Master is getting fragile, maybe worth putting some points. Could make a Treachery but I'm not sure I want to see the Fade proc because I need BoS speed for trap laying. I think I could start using Fade after I find a claw with some trap skills.

Necromancer
Quite fast and safe.

Barbarian
AR seemed to become an even bigger issue especially with WW. I probably could've kept going if I made an Obedience and buffed with Enchant but I didn't have a weapon to make it in. Also I wanted to try how he does as a Singer. Not too well, actually. Merc is weak and I'm having difficulties keeping him alive. Now another runner found a 5os Partizan so I'm tempted to respec back to melee, maybe pure WW now, and try the Obedience pre-buffing.

Paladin
Very slow and weak, he can't be swarmed at all or he's dead. Also freezing became a real issue. Luckily another runner found a Ravenfrost which he traded. Prudence for defense could be nice for survivability but I have no good ethereal base armors.

Sorceress
Not so tanky anymore but enough damage to keep mobs in hit recovery.

Druid
A bit fragile but kills quickly. Lawbringer for a barb merc would be nice, I'd just need another good sword for some leech. Unbending Will would be awesome but I don't have any base weapons for it.

General notes for melee
It would be very hard to make even a decent Oath or Obedience, just not enough base weapons around. The runes shouldn't be an issue, I think a couple extra hours at the Tower should do it.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   75    75    75    75    75    75    75
Hrs   21    21    21    30    30    24    22
+1GCs  1     0     0     0     0     0     2

Ama lvl 75 / Assa lvl 75 / Nec lvl 75 / Barb lvl 75 / Pala lvl 75 / Sorc lvl 75 / Druid lvl 75

 

[flakrabbit24]

Act 2 (Hell), levels 75-80

General notes for everyone
I was surprised that the act itself was so fast and easy. It was the leveling/MFing that was hard this time. I think most characters were still at lvl 76 when they killed Duriel. Arcane Sanctuary and Ancient Tunnels were the easiest and safest places to MF / level up and the amount of elite base items dropping was pleasing.

Amazon
Fast and easy. Had to skip scarabs and teleport through maggot's lair. Leveling/MFing in Arcane Sanctuary.

Assassin
Fast and easy. Had to skip scarabs and teleport through maggot's lair. Leveling/MFing in Arcane Sanctuary.

Necromancer
Not bad but keeping up any speed in MF'ing required constant Teleporting because otherwise the merc just ends up standing still. Found Arreat's Face and Titan's Revenge on two consecutive runs. Barb can give up his Guillaume's Face but not sure what the Amazon is going to give up. Managed to cube a 4os Colossus Voulge. Leveling/MFing in the Ancient Tunnels.

Barbarian
Went back to WW and I'm pleased. Maybe not any faster or safer than with the Singer spec but much more straightforward and enjoyable. I'm using the Partizan Obedience as my main weapon at the moment. Got a 5os Thresher waiting for a Fal to drop. Leveling/MFing in Arcane Sanctuary/Canyon of the Magi.

Paladin
Stacked some life leech and started Life Tapping basically everything. Being swarmed was less of an issue but still really dangerous. I think using any chokepoints in the environment was what was needed to really keep him alive. Sometimes stun from Smite was needed. Sometimes the only possibility to kill anything was to keep the pack in knockback using Sanctuary. Toggling walk to not die instantly from archers was also required. Still using the Atlantean as a weapon, damage feels a bit low but not horrible which was a nice surprise because in Act 1 he felt really really weak. Found an Elementalist's GC which druid traded right away for a trash +1 GC. Leveling/MFing in the Ancient Tunnels/Tower.

Sorceress
Same as before, not so tanky but Nova has still enough damage to keep mobs in hit recovery, barely I think. Probably going to need more damage from somewhere soon. Managed to cube a 4os Colossus Voulge. Leveling/MFing in Arcane Sanctuary.

Druid
Same as before, a bit fragile but kills quickly. Put a point to Grizzly which helped keeping the Oak Sage alive longer. I'll probably balance the rest of his skill points so I have to re-cast either of them as little as possible. Leveling/MFing in the Ancient Tunnels.

Class Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl   80    80    80    80    80    80    80
Hrs   25    24    25    36    36    27    25
+1GCs  1     0     0     0     1     0     2

Ama lvl 80 / Assa lvl 80 / Nec lvl 80 / Barb lvl 80 / Pala lvl 80 / Sorc lvl 80 / Druid lvl 80

 

[flakrabbit24]

Interlude

Before starting the actual questing through Hell Act 3, all the runners shuffled their way to Lower Kurast to do some Super Chest running. I spent 6,5 hours with everyone there. My focus was on racks and base items, super chest runes were more of a bonus. Basically I rolled a new map, scouted the area for racks and bonfires, then kept re-entering until I had tried all the reasonable variations of paths between the points of interest. If some variation provided a stable rack for a good base item, I wrote down a description of the path to a text file and kept running it. If not, I rerolled the map after like 5 or 10 runs. I also tried to reduce loading times by lowering the graphics settings but it was still taking ages to re-enter.

There's a decent gap between this and the last update because I was demoralized by the constant changes in the game. The changes itself, the sundering charms and terror zones weren't the problem but the fear of GoMule breaking and corrupting my stashes was too much for me to handle. It seems that things have somewhat settled now so I'm ready to go again.

Ama
Failed Arachnid's Mesh, d'oh, String of Ears, Shimmering (5) SC of Vita (17).
Bad rack luck, got a few Dusk Shrouds but that's about it.

Assa
First set of ~10 rerolls Entrapping GC of Sustencance (32), Persesrver's GC. Sparking GC. Fal, Sur, Chilling GC.
Really bad rack luck, nothing the whole time.

Necro
IK maul, Shaftstop, Gul. Trainer's GC of Balance, Lem, Mal.
Monarch rack, don't remember how many 4os I got. Sacred Rondache rack, found one 45 all res 4os.

Barbarian
Vex, Bartuc's Cutthroat, Shogukusha's GC, Hexing GC.
Sacred Rondache rack, found two 45@ 4os and two 45@ res 3os shields.

Paladin
Lem, Lem, Pul, Chilling GC, Captain's GC, Fungal GC.
Kurast Shield rack, no 45@ shields.

Sorceress
Pul, Fungal GC.
Cryptic Axe rack, found five non-eth 4os CAs, one ethereal 4os CA and three ethereal 5os CAs.

Druid
Pul, Pul, Spiritual GC, Pul.
Really bad rack luck, nothing the whole time.

Class  Ama   Assa  Nec   Barb  Pala  Sorc  Dru
Lvl    80    80    80    80    80    80    80
Hrs    31    30    33    43    43    33    32
+1GCs   1     4     1     2     4     1     3

Ama lvl 80 / Assa lvl 80 / Nec lvl 80 / Barb lvl 80 / Pala lvl 80 / Sorc lvl 80 / Druid lvl 80