The Untwinked Level 99 Progress Thread, Revenge of the 99ers

@NanoMist - My sub-98 plan is to run Infector/Vizier Gripp-style, which as you state Infinity is not crucial for. The only thing I can see wanting Infinity for in the meantime is to break CI Infectors (which are fairly common, as I understand), but I'm sure that won't make a huge difference for XP gains in the grand scheme of things.

My 98-99 plan however is to switch to Lightning and run Nilly (assuming it's feasible with gear and safety at that point). Even if I was to run Blizz still, I'd want an Infinity to break Nilly's CI when it happens. On that note, does anyone know if running Nihlathak with a Blizz sorc is viable?

Either way, I've got tons of time before I have to make a decision , so I'm not too worried.

@T72on1 - Yeah, there have been some tough decisions to make for sure. So far it hasn't been a huge pain, but it definitely limits options. The most annoying thing by far has been my decision to keep track of all S/U drops. Coupled with no extended stash (and therefore a full stash in-game), it means I have to mule every time I find one. :p

Also, definitely find a 2-fire map if you're spending some time there. After all, it should be twice as efficient that way!
 
@T72on1 - I agree that the 2 campfire may is definitely worth it if you're focusing on LK, even given the loss of a great map elsewhere (I recall that you liked your AT map, right?). My rough guess is that half the run is running through town, and you have to do that twice as often with the one campfire.

@Pb_pal - Echoing the congrats on the CtA!

I have the runes set aside to cube up the Ohm and Ist, along with a nice base. But I am holding off because (1) I suspect my roll won't be as good as yours and (2) I can do the runs safely without the extra life and the time to cast war cries + no vigor slows down my runs more than it seems worth relative to the risk of getting caught off guard and losing XP at my current level. I'm curious, is there a point in the leveling where not dying is the most important consideration due to XP loss?

For me right now, efficiency is doing runs that are fun and/or challenging (depending on the mood) so that I don't get burned out or shorten the session because I am bored. I'm trying to save the focus needed to grind for later, when I'm sure it'll be a real grind. But it's hasn't too much of a concern of late due to very little time available to play . . .
 
I followed the advice of @Pb_pal and @PhineasB and rerolled my LK map (although PhineasB, I don't run through town, I take the wp back and then go to Act 4, to start there). After less than 10 tries I got this one, which I can run in 30 - 31 seconds if I do what I should do: just run the huts with their chests and racks (and sometimes some other poppables if they are near):

View attachment 3088


I would have to check the LK thread again, but I think I recall that 30 - 31 seconds isn't too bad for a LK run, so I'll keep this one for now. My average over 50 runs was actually some 40 seconds or even a bit more, but that's because I still run into my old habit of picking up too much and occasionally not resisting the urge to find a boss pack in one of the huts. And also id'ing charms and jewels, cubing up flawless gems, ...

No luck yet as far as HRs are concerned, but I did get a few Hels and a Pul, so I'm getting closer ...

I also did some more AT runs, which seem to give me better xp than Pindle at this point. I don't have a really good map for it though, so I'll probably only do those when I need a change of pace from LK.

Edit: 50 more LK runs, as well as some AT runs to stock up on full rejuvs again. Lem, Mal, a Barb combat skiller and a 4os Tresher to finally replace that Insight Voulge my merc was still using. Lem has been put to good use for a Treachery for my merc.

So overall very good haul, although I'm still at 41 seconds on average, due to the reasons I mentioned above. But I like LK runs, which was something I didn't expect. The sheer number of jewels and charms, combined with the potential of good to great runes makes LK a lot more interesting than I thought.
 
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@T72on1 - 30 seconds is very reasonable for dedicated (Ie: rune focused only) LK running, especially untwinked. Pretty nice map you got there, so I'd keep it too. :) And yes, one of the big joys of LK is actually the non-rune goodies, even if they aren't as flashy. I've found some of my best charms and jewels from there.

@Kitteh - I know in Act 4, CoS can crash the game if it is used on the Trapped Soul type enemies and expires while you're within a couple screens. Don't know for sure about Act 3, but I think the Water Watcher types can trigger it as well. "Stationary" targets tend to give it the most trouble (and the Ancients, of course), as Mummy Sarcophagi in Act 2 and even the Raptor nests in Act 1 have been known to crash with it.

@PhineasB - As T72 said, try to get a circular map where you can bounce back from the WP to Act 4 and start your run there. That should be quicker than running through town. :)
 
For you LKers, I'm sure y'all've seen it though :)
@T72on1 where is the WP in that map? I've seen some awesome maps where you go left for hut 1 then right for hut 2, then back to the WP making a nice little circle, but (@PhineasB) I just use the TP to TP > TK > WP > act 4; but some have experienced more lag S&Eing in certain situations.

If you have a Harmony (the vigor bow, yes?) and timed it if you wanted, it may take, just guessing, 4 seconds to run through town with that and you can start running BEFORE you actually load into the game (just move the mouse to where you want to run and click, and you'll see your hero running when you actually load images). If you had instant s&e times, that could be just as quick if you had nothing better on switch. I'm thinking to go back to WP or TPing from the last hut, the time, guessing again, would take 2.5 seconds on average.

Glad you jokers have made it this far! @Pb_pal tossing that item! Man! You must have some wealth built up in those stashes!

I always liked LK running, although I never did it much, or at all, but perhaps, if this necro is still too slow for my habits (he's act 1 nm now in his 40s, perhaps i could add him soon), making a 200fcr sorc to run lk for funsies could be fun. My last sorc died in to a Normal or Nightmarish Lister because I teleported in the middle of them, and was dumbfounded my what I had just done. Bad habits of clicking around whilst hitting hotkeys... Kind of like when you're driving a manual, how, when at a stoplight, you'll wiggle the stick.
 
@coju You can see the cross on the map, where my character is. The waypoint is a bit to the left of it, also visible in the screenshot (but not on the minimap). The map isn't perfect, but quite good, and kinda circular, where I teleport to the lower right to hit the first 2 huts, then to the upper right to hit hut 3 and hut 4, then back to the left for the wp. I only hit the 63% fcr breakpoint, but maybe that's a good thing, to prevent me from misclicking too much. No deaths yet, although I had a few close calls.

I don't have a Harmony bow yet. I don't think I have found a Ko yet. I'm not using my switch at the moment, so Harmony would definitely be worth a try. In the end it's probably about as fast, but when tp'ing back, I hit 2 corpses to the right of the wp, which always means a small chance for something good.

Speaking about those corpses, and poppables in general (I assume that's also why you put that link at the beginning of your post): except for the 2 I mentioned, I don't hit many other poppables. Some are on my way to the huts actually, but still I feel they would break the flow somewhat. At the same time I've had good experience with poppables in LK before, so I would want to hit them more actually. Also, in one of the many LK threads here, I saw someone mentioning the corpses at the campfires in particular. Do those have special drop mechanics, or just the same as other corpses in LK?
 
@Kitteh CoS is also known to crash game if a shadow is trying to cast another CoS on top of an existing one. I haven't experienced this crash and I don't summon shadow warrior or master either. But then again I remember using CoS against Ancients without crashing (maybe?).

@coju I timed my run through town and 4 seconds is accurate. Closer to 5 seconds if I don't cast BoS as the game loads. Using Harmony here as well. PhineasB is also an assassin so it should be similar. I just run through town since I don't want to bother with TPing to WP, and also I will occasionally sell items to Ormus who is on the way.
 
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coju said:
If you have a Harmony (the vigor bow, yes?) and timed it if you wanted, it may take, just guessing, 4 seconds to run through town with that and you can start running BEFORE you actually load into the game (just move the mouse to where you want to run and click, and you'll see your hero running when you actually load images). If you had instant s&e times, that could be just as quick if you had nothing better on switch. I'm thinking to go back to WP or TPing from the last hut, the time, guessing again, would take 2.5 seconds on average.
Click to expand...

I'd like to expand on this a little bit actually, as he has a point. This obviously wouldn't apple to non-extended stash users, but since Phineas is using one, I'll discuss it anyways.

My first LK runner was an assassin. She had a less than ideal map (huts fairly far from WP) which was also non-circular, and she could easily run sub-30 seconds without using the Act 4 WP strategy. I re-specced her to max out BoS, Harmony on main and 2x +3 Shadow discipline claws on switch, strapped on some high FRW boots (Aldurs and Sanders have 40%, for instance) and filled her inventory with FRW charms. The rest of her gear was centered around either +Shadow skills or +FRW (Stealth, for instance. Or even better, Trangs Armour if you have it).

I don't remember the specific times but it actually took her LESS time to run through town to the WP than it does for my sorc to back-track to the WP and get to Act 4. With better hut placement I think she could have very easily challenged close to 20 seconds. That's with quite low-end, easily attainable gear. Plus, it's much easier to just bail at the end of the run than port back to Act 4.

So if you want to do some dedicated running in LK with an Assassin, and don't mind burning a re-spec, that's a very viable strategy. I'm sure it could be very efficient even without re-speccing to full-Bos as well, and loading up of +Shadow/FRW gear.

Haven't tried with any other classes, although for non-teleporters it might be worth experimenting a bit to see if it works for them as well. I don't see why any class (especially extended stash users who have more gearing options) shouldn't be able to reach a ~30 second run with some specific gearing and a good map.

@T72on1 - Not sure about odds of specific poppables, but my personal experience is that I've gotten more from the "corpse" type poppable than others, although that's not a huge sample size to go off. Could just be that there is (almost?) always a corpse or two by the huts, so they get hit more.

@Kitteh - No problem! Hopefully that clears up your issues, and you just have to get a bit less CoS-happy in those areas ;)
 
About CoS crashing the game ... I'm currently doing a PS Assassin for the 'a lack of information' tournament. She is in Act 5 now, and has been and still is using CoS a lot. This also applies to her Shadow Warrior. I've never had a crash. Not on any other Assassins that I remember as well.

So I'm not sure what's causing the crashes for you, @Kitteh. I hope you get it figured out.
 
Tarasha continued leveling in an indolent fashion starting with Eldritch and Pit runs on a handy map with 3 healing shrines in it. Dropped a poison facet and another white monarch (which got 1 socket) but little else there but Eldritch dropped a IK belt which allowed an adjustment of jewelry and stacked resistances again. Got around to completing the Anya quest edging round in an edgy fashion versus gloams.

View attachment 3089


Fire and cold enchanted extra strong creatures being quite tough still to Tarasha. Rerolled the pit map continuously for a while dropping a Ko then did a few LK clears. On the 3rd run (out of 6) chasing down every evil extra fast zealot all over the map (quite hard with a merc now wearing upped Rattlecage) got this.

View attachment 3090

Followed by an Ist off a Shenk follower around 30 minutes later. More pit and Eldritch runs for gambling. Crafted two rubbish caster rings (checking item levels) and now in the process of doing some Andy runs after re checking the map and seeing it's very quick to get to her. No experience here but temporarily shuffling gear to get 90mf has resulted in dropping Magefists, a Dwarf star and Blackhorns. Got the 63fcr break point on both sides now and reached level 86.
 
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T72on1 said:
Speaking about those corpses, and poppables in general (I assume that's also why you put that link at the beginning of your post): except for the 2 I mentioned, I don't hit many other poppables. Some are on my way to the huts actually, but still I feel they would break the flow somewhat. At the same time I've had good experience with poppables in LK before, so I would want to hit them more actually. Also, in one of the many LK threads here, I saw someone mentioning the corpses at the campfires in particular. Do those have special drop mechanics, or just the same as other corpses in LK?
Click to expand...
From your map, the structure to the right of the upper campfire will have three stable poppables, a corpse in the middle and at the bottom a log/skeleton pair. These all have better drop rates than chests (25% no drop vs 0% no drop), so I would definitely hit them in addition to campfire corpses. There's also always a body on a treestump to the right of the wp. If I had your map I start straight up to the upper campfires, get the corpse and the three poppables I mentioned on the way down to the lower campfire. There's also a skeleton in the elongated hut just below your lower 2 Superchest hut that you could hit if you wanted. Basically try to figure out where to tele so that you can quickly TK all the poppables. Also if you wanted to hit it there is a rack and corpse in the L shaped hut between your WP and upper campfire, but this would break up you teleport chain, so might not be as desirable to check.

Finally if you have some stashes early in your run near the WP. You can hit them on your way out and check them on your way back so you dont have to wait for them to open.


EDIT @Tarantella Wow a Cham in LK, that's amazing. Also ASDC for pots and no skill hotkey? Never seen that before
 
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@Brak Wait, what ... did you break into my computer to check my map? ;)

Great advice, thanks a lot. I will certainly help me a lot. For some reason I've done the lower campfire first and the upper one afterwards from the start. I'll give it a go to do it your way as well and see what works best.

@Tarantella Congrats on that Cham !!! And on your overall progress, on HC nonetheless ...
 
Great job Tarantella! Looks like I need to get back into the swing of things, I'm falling behind!

Regarding that Cham drop, what peeks out at me is making a Doom out of it for the merc (since you have a cold sorc going, even though I don't remember your plan for the final end game). If doing that with a holy freeze merc, would the two HF auras stack?

As far as my progress, I'll get back into it but I had a thought also the other day. Would using some of my retired tournament guardians pass muster? I assume they would because they were all untwinked. I've been messing around a bit lately with my double throw barbarian, SaladShooter. He found a Cat's Eye in his tournament journey, and by respeccing him with high natural speed he can get pretty fast for whatever he does if he ends up finding a nice set of FRW boots. I'm just trying to find a way to fight the boredom and perhaps get some of those guys some play time again. Many of them were very fun and they all have the respec leftover so I could make them whatever I want and it would save me hours getting a fresh build up to speed.

My current pally has a maxed out Vigor but not much else except the Stealth armor so he's not nearly as fast as a maxed out Burst of Speed Assassin or Barb with a Harmony bow. I'm just thinking about the length of time I'll be in LK and it is a daunting task for sure, and a character say 30-40% faster would sure cut my overhead. Of course, my runs so far have been pathetic (although he did get a 34% ED/15% IAS jewel, the best jewel of my career). I've done probably 50 runs and gotten a Hel rune, so not good so far, and FAR from an Enigma, which I just about see as necessary for a try at 99.
 
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