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

Keep it up @darkstarhub! The drops will come over time.

Hiatus made some solid progress, well past her weekly goal, and is now more than half way to level 98:
View attachment 5931
No game-changing finds unfortunately (read: no Sur or Ber for Infinity and no Arachnid’s or Fathom). But some nice ones nonetheless, with Mal #7, an Ohm, Pul #6, and Gul #5. The Ohm allowed a CtA reroll and an upgrade:
View attachment 5932
She swapped out some life charms for more MF earlier in the week, and she’s now back over 2200 HP with BO. Item finds worth screen shots were Nats Mark #2, Gris Valor #2, and Steel Carapace.

A good chunk of her progress this week was due to waking up at 2:30 one day and not being able to fall back to sleep. So she’ll probably (hopefully :rolleyes:) be back to a slower XP pace, but on track for 98 by the middle of next month.
 
Hiatus slightly surpassed her weekly goal, netting 30M XP. She switched it up, and hit Diablo every run, with p8 Vizier and Infector seals, p1 for de Seis, and then p7 for Diablo.

It’s probably about 10 minutes longer per 4M XP (55 min vs. 65 min), but it was a nice change of pace. And it increases chances of unique drops a bit, so maybe an Arachnids. It’s also only 6 or so runs per million, so it’s a little closer to Baal runs in terms of fewer runs for more XP per run. Going forward, she'll probably keep that up, but aborting if Infector is CI unless the merc has him slivered until Hiatus has dealt with other boss packs and minions.

Finds were Ohm #2, a Boneflame from Diablo, and Mal #8. Two instances of being trolled: set Diadem (plus two rares); and one run with – no joke – two blue spiderweb sashes and a rare one to boot!

She had one close call this stretch (I consider under 200 HP a NDE). She always teleports to a spot just south of Vizier’s seal. If there are no bosses in sight, Vizier always appears there, so she takes three steps to the east, drops a Blizzard on the spot, and then hits the seal. Vizier usually dies immediately and then she can check other seal quickly for other bosses before moving on. If there are bosses in sight, she checks the mods to ensure no dangerous auras (conviction, might, fanaticism), kills those bosses if they are dangerous, otherwise hits seal and cleans out the arm.

The other benefit to that spot is there are almost never any monsters on it. The almost nearly got her, as one run, there were not only monsters, but a might enchanted OK boss with 3 other OKs. She got amped immediately, and was under 200 HP in an instant. Thankfully, I keep finger on Esc after using it to minimize inventory screen after hitting the star in the middle of CS, and I had quick reflexes. It turns out the other 3 OKs were a champ pack! So she would have been toast for sure and corpse recovery would have been a challenge.

Needless to say, she gracefully exited that game. In general, after the experience to 99 with Mercy, I am not shy about bailing on a run to avoid issues. I figure that even 10 early aborts is well worth the time saved to risk of a death. From an XP perspective, it’s actually not even a close comparison.

She might hit 97.75 by the end of this week. We’ll see what the weekend brings – no plans as of yet, and my wife will probably be out of town.
 
Yeah, most people (including me) didn't get much time, if any, in on their 99er characters, due to summer holiday, RL in general, other D2 projects or other games (PoE in my case). So you didn't miss that much. Phineas is making very smooth progress though, really impressive !!
 
I would love to plug in another jump on the board but @T72on1 is right about RL getting in the way, especially during the summer. The Amazon I started is getting kinda fun now that she is getting high enough level to wear some decent gear. All I can say is Lightning Fury = wow. In a way by not really ever getting into the Amazon it's given me something new to play with.

My long awaited move is going down all this week which includes getting rid of as much stuff as I can. Even though it's a bigger house, I don't want it crammed full of stuff right at the start. Boxes, totes, and other small non essentials during the week and the big stuff this weekend is the plan. My computer will have a special trip if it's own.

Once I get settled in the new place I am gonna start going nuts on D2. I hope.
 
Hope the move is going well @darkstarhub!

Hiatus got 35M XP and is now just a bit past 97.75. She went back to Gripphon runs, but hitting Diablo whenever there is an experience shrine. Depending on how focused we are on speed, she’s netting anywhere from 4.2-4.4M XP/hour.

I had actually planned to stop right at 97.75, but decided to get the next 2M for a round 35M. That led to a really great drop:
View attachment 6014
Code: 
Astreon's Iron Ward
Caduceus
One Hand Damage: 134 - 156
Durability: 68 of 70
Required Level: 60
Required Strength: 97
Required Dexterity: 70
Fingerprint: 0x85146ac6
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Unidentified
+3 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+10% Increased Attack Speed
264% Enhanced Damage
Damage +55
167% Bonus to Attack Rating
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 80 - 240 Magic Damage
33% Chance of Crushing Blow
Slows Target by 25%
Damage Reduced by 6
That brings me to grail -6 overall, so I am very pleased with that one. :) Aside from that, drops were meh, with Hiatus’ second Leviathan and second Ghost Flame from Chaos Sanctuary the only other drops meriting screen shots. There was also a set Colossus Blade and defensive aura skiller with +4 damage. Highest rune was a Lem.

She's going to take a break to allow some questing of characters in another project. I think a couple days away from Chaos Sanctuary will also help Hiatus avoid a death -- I definitely felt myself getting a little sloppy there towards the end.

* * *

Progress Update
Code: 
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      97.75          Yes           -        428           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      **             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      **             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      **             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code: 
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
Update for Hiatus, and because pictures are worth a thousand words:
View attachment 6057
Hiatus: Well, hi there!
View attachment 6058
View attachment 6059
View attachment 6060
View attachment 6061
View attachment 6062
For the second update in a row, deciding to go a little further gained a nice drop. :) Hiatus had gotten 3M XP on Thursday and I decided to get another 1M before going to bed. Ethereal for style, with good resists, although the cold damage was low roll:
Code: 
Death's Fathom
Dimensional Shard
One Hand Damage: 45 - 79
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 73
Fingerprint: 0x18fd3bf7
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+20% Faster Cast Rate
+18% to Cold Skill Damage
Lightning Resist +39%
Fire Resist +38%
Ethereal
Swapping a SoJ for a 10% FCR ring kept the 105 FCR breakpoint, and sped up the progress. Then the Lo dropped, which allowed cubing the second Ber for Infinity (Hel’ed the Insight for Superior Eth Cryptic Axe, which was a shame because the roll was very solid). Appreciable step up, although she had to make sure to pick up blue pots during runs to deal with loss of Insight. It actually took about 3-4M of runs to get used to the new set up, but then things picked up.

Runs while watching college football got her to 3.2B today. Other finds were Pul #7, Pul #8, another set Colossus Sword, and another Eschuta’s. After cubing up so many runes to make the Infinity, she also backfilled a bit with nice runes: Vex #2 and Lo #2.

Monday is a holiday, so we’ll see how much progress Hiatus can make tomorrow and Monday toward the level-up. :D
 
Champion Hiatus and Zanarhi the HF Desert Merc, Lvl 98 (pic)
Hiatus got the last 29.4M on Sunday and the Monday holiday and is ready to transition to her next phase.

One side note on gear: realizing a ring slot was getting taken up with FCR due to no Arachnid’s – still :( – Hiatus picked up Ith runes and Sharkskin belts to try to get a 10 FCR caster belt. After 5 tries, we had a winner, and swapped back the SoJ, which made runs more comfortable in terms on not running out of mana pots.

Aside from that, more of the same, although she slowed down when we eclipsed 2.220B because I was worried about dying as she pressed for the final bit of XP. Finds were tremendous, with the last quarter level making up for what seemed like limited drops compared to 97.

Things started off quickly with Ist #3 (I swear it’s an Ist!), then an Eth Spirit Keeper (nice for eth grail!), Ist #4, a 40MF Gheeds to replace the 36MF one that was best found so far. Then Jah #2 :cool:, unique Bone Visage, Um #6, and then Gul #6 on the second-to-last run as a goodbye gift from CS. But the highlight of this stretch was another skiller, her fifth overall:
View attachment 6066
She’s getting a break for the rest of the week. This means I won’t have to make the decision about how/whether to use the last respec until at least after next weekend because we’re going camping next weekend.

I’m still thinking pure lightning for Nihl, but will probably try things out with current build first. The lack of Arachnids means she’ll have to sacrifice on the amulet to reach 117 FCR, or no SoJ at all (the plan is to go with Nature’s Peace in one slot).

It’s a big decision because she’ll have to take Ancients quest XP right away (rather than waiting for later in level) if it doesn’t work out and she needs to respec because she'll need Baal essences. Advice is most welcome! :)

Runes found during all her CS runs, which began sporadically during level 92-93, then almost exclusively from 94-98:
Code: 
Jah x2
Ber
Sur
Lo x2
Ohm x2
Vex x2
Gul x6
Ist x3
Mal x8
Um x6
Pul x8


* * *

Progress Update
Code: 
Name          (C)            SC/HC    Class  Level/exp   Extended Stash  #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths  # of Hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy      Perkele         SC      Barb      99             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal        Eleanor         SC      Sorc      99             No         3068        437            5           -
NanoMist      Izuna           SC      Sin       99             No         5109        470            4         360
PhineasB      Mercy           SC      Sin       99             Yes           -        475           11           -
Neksja        Aura            SC      Paladin   98.50          Yes        8606        464            -           -
T72on1        Neverland       SC      Sorc      98.17          Yes        2190+?      475           13         270?
PhineasB      Hiatus          SC      Sorc      98             Yes           -        438           19           -
hasuprotoss   Reina           SC      Sorc      97             Yes        1751        384            -           -
Tarantella    Tarasha         HC      Sorc      96             Yes           -          -            -           -
Grim          Furious_Blonde  SC      Ama       96             Yes           -          -            -           -
XyleneCyanol  Fishie          HC      Sorc      95             No            -          -            -           -
ThomasJohnsen xInTheBuffx     HC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
darkstarhub   Neptune         SC      Sorc      95             Yes           -          -            -           -
PhineasB      Phaedrus        SC      Pala      94             Yes           -        274           12           -
Reyz          Qty             SC      Sorc      93             No            -          -            -           -
Chaostar      Prairie         SC      Sorc      91             Yes         659        261           12         126
OldSoldier    Battleforge     HC      Pala      91             Yes           -        236            -           -
tokerdin      tokeress        SC      Sorc      91             yes           -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Ayura           SC      Barb      91             No            -          -            -           -
Southpaw      Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
Qwernt        CanbeOnlyBlizz  SC      Sorc      90             Yes           ?          -        Dont want to know
MercMan       Este            SC      Ama       90             Yes        1212        278            2  Classified
Me2Nik        Fugu            HC      Ama       90             Yes          80
Lynchgrinch   Tattersail      SC      Sorc      89             Yes           ?        321         too many    lots
LiquidClear   Sally           SC      Assn      **             Yes         225          -            1           -
liquid_mage   zDadColdSorc    SC      Sorc      **             Yes           -        160            -           -
ffs           HelpYourself    SC      Sorc      **             No            -          -          many          ?
Neksja        Turirao         SC      Druid     87             Yes         191        124            5           -
Gladstone     Socrates        HC      Druid     86             ?             -          -            -           -
Zenigma       Gnosis          SC      Druid     86             No            -          -            -           -
Lord Molyb    Cruise_Control  SC      Necro     86             No          115         94           19         idk
Naturallog    Athos           HC      Barb      84             No          159        105            0           -
Lord Molyb    Verisimilitude  SC      Ama       83             No           28         25            0         idk
Qwernt        AmaAgainstAll   SC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit        Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
Lord Molyb    But_Why         SC      Sin       81             Never        55         51           53
Jean Avila    SpeedAdict      SC      Ama       77             No            -          -            -          50
logo          Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
TwentyMule    Rayne           SC      Sorc      76             Yes         195        140            ?           ?
Gripphon      Ryu             SC      Sorc      76             Yes           -          -         over 9k       13
Darke Rahl    Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0
Vildecor      Celia           SC      Ama       59             Yes          52         43            0           -
ioupainmax    Durnik          SC      Paladin   52             Yes          50         42            -           -
Kitteh        Darozzo         HC      Druid     45             No            -          -            -           -
TrU           Henryk          SC      Barb      41             Yes           -          -           22          12
Gambit        Colossus        SC      Pal       39             Yes           0          0            0           0
Smancer       Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
Ergroilnin    Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
hackedagainanda Hugo          HC      Barb      16             Yes           -          -            -           -

The Fallen
Code: 
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
TwentyMule  Valus           HC      Barb      76             Yes           -          -            1           -
Pb_pal      Stevesy         HC      Paladin   76             Yes           -          -            0           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     49             Yes           -          0            1           -
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
Last edited:
Well, you have to goals you can set in between: catching me, and catching @Neksja (what happened to him, btw?). That should break up the road to 99 a bit. And currently we aren't moving, so ... :).

Good luck !!
 
Hiatus did a little testing for Nihl runs, starting with her pure Blizzard build. It was interesting -- the pale little guy dropped in an instant when he wasn't cold immune, but there was lots of CI rolls. Unbreakable CI runs were immediate an S & E. She had a death after about 500K of XP due to trying to drop a breakable CI with Vipers around. It just took too long. So she switched up to add immediate S & E when he was CI and Vipers were around and/or Nihl was cursed.

Although quite safe with this approach, there were too many aborted runs for it to be sustainable for me. So we bit the bullet and used the last respec when she got to 3.23B. @Pb_pal froze Nihl, and @T72on1 is roasting him, so we figured it was our duty to fry him. Pure lightning it was!

The one downside is that, in contrast to her 5 cold skillers, Hiatus has only one lightning skiller. :( Gear changes: a +3 skills / +17% lightning damage Eschuta's, 5/4 facet in the Shako, Vipermagi (for +skill and FCR, given the +20% damage from Ormus doesn't add much on top lightning mastery), one SoJ swapped for Nature's Peace, the extra FCR from Eschuta's meant she no longer needs the caster belt so she went with Goldwrap hoping to speed the finding of Arachnid's, and a whole lot of SCs of vita to fill inventory space vacated by cold skillers and 2 resist GCs that were no longer needed. She was at +2500 life with BO and 33 lightning skills with BC active. Lightning damage is 5-22K, so not too bad.

Nihl usually drops in 4-5 casts when he's not immune, and the frequency of LI is lower than CI. He is rarely unbreakable. It's reasonably fun so far, but she bails if he is LI (breakable or not) due to how slow it is to take him down. And she generally does S & E if amped with Vipers around, just to be safe.

She's a little more than another 2M in, with a little pixel of white showing. Almost exactly 1% of the way there! :rolleyes: Boneflame and Medusa's Gaze are the only two drops of note so far. She will aim for 98.1 by the end of the month and likely make little progress beyond that before heading out for vacation in mid-October.
 
T72on1 said:
... And currently we aren't moving, so ... :).
Click to expand...

I have to correct myself ... I'm moving again :). I'll have to see how much time I can squeeze in in between doing the 5 stages of Grief tournament, but at least I have done an hour of Nihl runs after what seems like ages. Still a bit rusty, so rather slow, but no close calls or deaths, which is the most important thing. I had to get used to how slow the xp is coming at this level though ...
 
Nice to see you back running @T72on1! Stay safe.
PhineasB said:
But I've found the biggest path to safety is not being shy about S & E
Click to expand...
Um, yeah . . . shortly after writing that I didn’t heed my own advice. :(

We were two runs short of 3.24B on Saturday morning. There were Vipers. Hiatus had to vacate her usual landing spot because there were three of them there. But she proceeded safely and had Nihl slivered when amp triggered. “Well, just two more casts . . . “ Poof! Nihl died, a Viper charged, and the merc was next to Hiatus in a cloud of green, followed immediately by the red letters.

Well, Nihl was dead, so I figured corpse recovery would be safe enough and mean only an hour lost. The corpse recovery kit lacks FHR and isn’t 105 FCR, however, and I hadn’t noticed the Vipers and pack of witches lurking right by the stairs. Charged immediately upon hitting Nihl’s level, in hit recovery, and dead again before I could hit Esc.

I had no idea if recovering both corpses allows recovery of items from the first one, but I figured we had nothing to lose. The only problem was a fatal exception error from Merc’s delirium triggering while teleporting to reach the stairs from the way point. So S&E was imposed by a crash.

We decided to take a break before surveying the damage. Returning later in the day, she had the body recovery kit on the corpse and lost everything else from her main equipment.

In sorting through the stash, she had lower spec versions of everything except: socketed Shako (now only a plain one available), both Spirit shields, Mara’s, and nice rare boots with 40% FR, 20 FRW, and 22 MF. She also lost 1 of her 2 SoJs, but the other was still available, and she lost the CtA with 5 BO, but still had the 3 BO one stashed.

She went back to HoTo instead of Eschuta's, and used double lidless, Aldur’s boots, and a 9FCR +2 sorc skills ammy she’d crafted a while back. Overall, her damage and life were lower. We had two Vexes and a 5os crystal sword stashed, so we cubed up and tried our luck for a better CtA:
View attachment 6154
Nice! We started running again, getting back 3.24B between yesterday and today. She mixed up some p1/p7 Diablo runs (about 2M worth), and I think that’s something she will continue off-and-on. She eventually found a plain Monarch that got 4os in the cube and became a 33FCR Spirit. The extra skill, +vita, and mainly FHR were much welcomed back. Oh, and as Diablo taketh away, Diablo giveth:
View attachment 6155
Four lower on resist-all than the one she lost, but very nice to have back now that she doesn’t need the FCR from the amulet due to having Spirit again. She’s also picking up flawless gems now and cubing Nihl GCs. She got a Spiritual skiller with gold find, and a passive Zon skiller with +15 life. Hoping for a Sparking skiller to up her damage a bit.

I’ll try not to die again :rolleyes: The painfulness of it will definitely make me more disciplined in bailing on runs on the future. So I’m optimistic!
 
Ouch. Sorry to hear about those deaths. Kudos to you for not giving up but going on right away !!! You definitely deserved the good roll on the CtA and to find the Mara's because of that.

Stay safe !!!
 
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