Terror zones and the Quest for 99

[NorthDakota]

Have you noticed any improvements with your Bowazon due to the Strafe bug fix in patch 2.6?

What was the strafe bug anyways? I haven't noticed any difference with strafe I don't think? wasn't it an %AR thing? since I use faith, it would only be a problem on bosses, who I don't really use strafe on in the first place.

 

[coju]

I thought it was Next Hit Delay.

Edit: 3/4 dmg and AR after a quick yahoo search.

 

[LouB]

Ok, the terror zone I've been waiting for, WSK. Big question is Baal still capped. The answer is yes, and in fact, a terrorized Baal doesn't give you any extra experience.

Killed him once at p/8 and once at p/3. I actually got 99 more experience points at p/3! as a TZ Baal dropped 127,332 on P/8 and 127,432 experience on p/3 to a level 95 character. I immediately did another Baal run once the TZ had shifted and Baal gave me 127,332.

So, the rest of the WSK and the minion waves do drop a lot more experience than normal. One full clear of levels 2 and 3 and a second short run to the doors, plus two sets of waves garnered me almost 10m.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Ok, the terror zone I've been waiting for, WSK. Big question is Baal still capped. The answer is yes, and in fact, a terrorized Baal doesn't give you any extra experience.

Killed him once at p/8 and once at p/3. I actually got 99 more experience points at p/3! as a TZ Baal dropped 127,332 on P/8 and 127,432 experience on p/3 to a level 95 character. I immediately did another Baal run once the TZ had shifted and Baal gave me 127,332.

So, the rest of the WSK and the minion waves do drop a lot more experience than normal. One full clear of levels 2 and 3 and a second short run to the doors, plus two sets of waves garnered me almost 10m.

Informative! I was running the WSK and wondering this myself, but didn't get the chance to test it.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Maybe just a bug, but was running terrorized Catacombs and suddenly they looked like this!

 

[NorthDakota]

The answer is yes, and in fact, a terrorized Baal doesn't give you any extra experience.

Interesting. I suppose it makes sense because his level was already 99, so terrorizing it didn't really change anything for him specifically.

They say terror zones are harder, I know for a fact that stuff hits harder, but I'm not sure about their health, if it's increased then it doesn't seem like it's by much.

@LouB - I'm curious, when you were running baal, did he feel any different terrorized? Health wise/damage wise?

 

[LouB]

@NorthDakota Because I did a full clear of two WSK levels I only had time for two clears of the wave and Baal. I was initially concerned with Lister and his pack, but those fears were groundless. Based on just the two clears I found no difference between the terrorized waves and the hundreds of normal waves I've run and the same with Baal.

Yes, it makes sense that since Baal was already a 99, that he would be the same. I was hoping that maybe they would have changed his cap.

Frenzytaurs are no different for me either. It does seem to take slightly longer to kill a monster, but frankly the only time I've found the terror zone the least bit difficult is when there are three boss packs combined.

Having said that you have to remember what a beast I'm playing. Now ARGH doesn't do huge damage per hit, but he is simply overpowering. Hits close to 90% of the time at 5fps, huge defense and 45% chance to block,

Spoiler: ARGH Stats

So, I may not be the best one to ask. However, I've just dusted off my M'avina strafer and while I haven't played her in years she has so far had no problems with the few TZ she has run.

Oh and ARGH just hit level 96.

 

[NorthDakota]

So it's sort of a similar situation. It feels to me like things are hitting harder in terror zones, I've noticed this across multiple characters. But a lot of times it's not noticeable. Like for example on my bowazon, I don't get hit very much, so it's no big deal. However, on my cold sorc I've had far more close calls in terrorized AT than in regular AT and it just feels more dangerous, meanwhile enemy health feels almost exactly the same. It's the same a hammerdin, it feels slightly more rippy but overall monster health feels the same.

My hammerdin feels like my safest character, and there are still times when things feel rippier to him.



Despite that, the summary of my gameplay story is that I'm having a great time farming terror zones. I love the variety, I love that I'm making progress exp-wise (which still doesn't feel insanely unbalanced). I'm getting some really nifty items. I'm seeing high level base types all the time which is so fun. Like seeing caduceous and legendary mallets dropping all the time is so fucking awesome.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Yes, Might-Aura Frenzytaurs took out my Hammerdin in the Drifter Cavern tonight because I stubbornly decided to tank them. He's only creeping up on 96, so it's not that big a deal, but after he hits 96 I'm going to be save and exiting. (I figure one of the tankiest characters might as well try to tank some of these new terror zones.)

I also have been having fun with high bases dropping. Had an Eth Berserker Axe drop with sockets... sadly 4os, but I rolled a 311% ED Oath for my son's Avenger. It's just nice seeing those things drop unexpectedly in different areas. Surprises my ingrained attitude of predictability towards the game!

 

[NorthDakota]

for my son's Avenger.

Dude what. I have a kid but he's under 1 right now, can I make him have an avenger XD

 

[LouB]

@NorthDakota BBS_Agonistes has talked multiple times about playing with his son. I'm jealous since I'd love to get my 9 year old GRANDSON playing, but he's all rapped up in Minecraft.

 

[Helvete]

@NorthDakota BBS_Agonistes has talked multiple times about playing with his son. I'm jealous since I'd love to get my 9 year old GRANDSON playing, but he's all rapped up in Minecraft.

Yeah, I have a daughter, almost 8, and they get minecraft pre-installed on their school ipads. Even if I wanted to get into minecraft, it would do me no good, because she has a special educational edition, and they don't mix with any other edition.

Also, I'm very much with the terror zones. They will, however, take some of the "wow, yes! finally" out of quite a few items. Just got an IK soul cage from the countess yesterday.

 

[NorthDakota]

They will, however, take some of the "wow, yes! finally" out of quite a few items. Just got an IK soul cage from the countess yesterday.

Really? You didn't feel the wow yes with that? I've been feeling the wow yes with big items anyways. Like wow yes I am not in the pits or AT for my entire lifetime.

 

[Arparrabiosa]

Really? You didn't feel the wow yes with that? I've been feeling the wow yes with big items anyways. Like wow yes I am not in the pits or AT for my entire lifetime.

And it's funny because AT and Pits feel refreshing to me, as I was doing CS, Cows and Pindle+TS mainly.

Oh, and the other day I got Immortal King armor AND an arachnid mesh drop from terrorized Andy.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Minecraft is my main competition as well, lol. That and Fortnite/Apex Legends/Destiny. My boys (10, 11) get really into new characters when they start, but then sometimes the novelty wanes and they lose interest.

 

[snickersnack]

A little while ago I found a post on reddit where someone was keeping a google doc with all of the offline terror zones, and it seems that they've now worked out the pattern. This
(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...CGa97pj8JLOGZLMbSPjBs92TQ/edit#gid=1335514091) has future dates listed and they seem to have been accurate today. Times are US East. I lost track of the original reddit post.

 

[bill_n_opus]

Makes sense. I don't think the devs would go through the extra effort to randomize the rotation, for the most part.

The thing is, some terrorized maps are far more profitable than others so it makes sense to target certain rotations than others, especially for specific builds that are stronger in certain areas or for specific bosses and accessibility.

Ime, terrorized Andy is way more profitable, she drops way better and is easily run quickly.

I was just running threshsocket which was a quick teleport or so from the way point ... but he drops terrible. I'd be lucky to get a decent small charm from him. So, not worth it except for the XP maybe

 

[NorthDakota]

Makes sense. I don't think the devs would go through the extra effort to randomize the rotation, for the most part.

The thing is, some terrorized maps are far more profitable than others so it makes sense to target certain rotations than others, especially for specific builds that are stronger in certain areas or for specific bosses and accessibility.

Ime, terrorized Andy is way more profitable, she drops way better and is easily run quickly.

I was just running threshsocket which was a quick teleport or so from the way point ... but he drops terrible. I'd be lucky to get a decent small charm from him. So, not worth it except for the XP maybe

The thing I kinda enjoy is that it really does depend on the build what's good and what's not. For example, I like it when arreat plateau is terrorized, but it's not at all due to thresh socket, it's just because it's a big open zone with easy, mostly leachable targets. Which is excellent for multishot bowazon. Whereas I really don't like when Andy is terrorized because I'm a bad bosser, and the catacombs kinda suck for me because of how chopped up it is.

Maybe it's because I don't really need many items anymore (only 7 or 8 tc87s left), but terror zones kinda take the pressure off item farming or something.. like I know anything can drop, and good stuff is dropping generally, but also I'm making headway exp wise, and sort of having fun just killing monsters. So I don't feel like I'm wasting my time regardless if items are dropping or not

 

[snickersnack]

The thing I kinda enjoy is that it really does depend on the build what's good and what's not. For example, I like it when arreat plateau is terrorized, but it's not at all due to thresh socket, it's just because it's a big open zone with easy, mostly leachable targets. Which is excellent for multishot bowazon. Whereas I really don't like when Andy is terrorized because I'm a bad bosser, and the catacombs kinda suck for me because of how chopped up it is.

With my PSsin/Mosaicsin, I like the frigid highlands because there're a lot of non-enemy targets to build charges on. One of the biggest hassles with the build is needing to go to town and then rebuild charges, but the glut of doors and towers makes that pretty easy.

 

[maxicek]

I have been deliberately staying out of this discussion to see what other opinions are. In fact the discussion has already changed my initial opinion.

When Nihilathak was discovered as a better source of XP from level 98, we didn't put an asterisk by the names of running him. Or when rune drops increased in1.13d, or when Annihilus became an option in D2R. People aren't saying "Yeah but you had it easy in 1.14d, you didn't have 12 seconds of loading per run like we have in D2R."

Generally we have played with the full width of what is available in the current patch. I don't think we need any marker now. If people want to play with artificial restrictions within that availability, that is a personal choice.

So for me, version number is enough. Any other restriction can be documented by the player in their posts.

___

So I have been thinking about what I do with Terror Zones for my current UT99er. As a Kick Trap Assassin, she would be a great area runner, so adding a no TZ restriction seems a bit silly. Getting to 99 quicker opens up the potential for other projects. I haven't run a TZ with her yet, but I'm seriously considering embracing the latest state of the game.