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

@Tarantella Congrats on the Guardian! It looks like a pretty nice WSK map too.

I haven't played much at all until today due to busy work schedule. I did some Baal runs, with a pretty good WSK map with directly down the stairs on WSK2 and then 2 or 3 boss packs clumped together on the way to the stairs on WSK3. Found a Boneflame, which is the first one of these I've ever found (it's one of the -15 grail from my 7x7 project).

After almost dying, I decided that a Call to Arms made more sense than slightly faster run/walk through town with Harmony, so I cubed up some runes. I can't complain, given my really good luck so far, but this was pretty terrible. Oh well.

I had one death, which I can't quite figure out -- I was standing half a screen away from Lister, who was LE and spectral. All I can assume is that my BO ran out and there was a stygian doll from behind or something. But I pinged to Lvl 92.

I think I will go back to LK for a bit, in hopes of some charm upgrades (skiller or 2 would be great).

Code: 
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      95             No          610        268            3           -
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      93             Yes         256        165            9           46
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       92             No          296        178            1           82
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       92             Yes          -         225            8           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      91             Yes          -          -             -           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      89             Yes         329        194            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      83             Yes           -        114            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -

[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
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
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
 
Continuing LK some more paid off with Sur#6-Run#5847, and a 3/19/3 SC. But still, it was almost 2k runs since the last Sur, and no Ber so far.

Upon reaching LK#6000 I decided to switch to Pits for a change of scenery. That 4os eth elite polearm just would not want to drop- usually it was non-eth or wrong number of sockets. Popped a 3 unique chest on level 2 and a Grandfather not much later.

Some of those archer packs can be really nasty down there. Usually CoS will shut down the entire screen, but from time to time I'll take a few arrows and lose 1500-2000 health. Fire blast against LI is a little underwhelming right now, due to lack of infinity, not being maxed out yet, and the high player count. So usually I'll skip lone archer packs.

It's been a long while since I leveled up but I finally reached 93.

Code: 
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      95             No          610        268            3           -
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      93             Yes         256        165            9           46
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       93             No          388        220            1          111
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       92             Yes          -         225            8           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      91             Yes          -          -             -           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      89             Yes         329        194            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      83             Yes           -        114            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -

[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
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
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
 
OK so I was putzing around the RoF with Battleforge because of the @Pb_pal thread about the Superchests there. I'd been running Battleforge in the LK and Andariel to try for a Shako and some Aldur's boots (did get Natalya's tonight, almost as good but not quite in my book). Still no luck with either, or getting 4 sockets out of a flail, or a Pul (I would like Hoto before switching to CS for some more horsepower on the attack and I already have the Vex). After getting a few more uniques I decided to reroll my sweet Andy map to try to see if I could do better with RoF and/or LK, and went a hunting in the RoF. I did not get a superchest in the area near the WP in that thread, but I've also been searching for XP (he's at 87 now so Eldritch is about dried up and his drops stink anyway and Pindle and the CS are still too iffy for my gear and life and gaming skills to be comfortable) and the monster roll was pretty easy so I decided to do some monster hunting before a map re-roll, and lo and behold, this dropped.

View attachment 3144

What in the heck am I supposed to do with this? I have played this game since the beginning and this is the first rune drop over Vex for me (only got two of those too), which I think is pretty nutty. I was surprised to say the least. So what does a Paladin do with this? Switch to a zealot and swing some kind of BOTD? Ignore it and drive on with copious amounts of cheese? Thoughts welcome.
 
@OldSoldier What? No way, that is insane !!! Congrats are in order, I'd say :). I hope to see one myself some day as well, but up till now, no luck.

As for what to do with it? Not much with your Hammerdin I think, but I'm don't know anything about Hammerdins. Keep it for a future character? Make a eBotD for your merc?
 
You aren't a charity case! Throw it on the Ground! You don't need D's hand-outs! Save and Exit!
 
@OldSoldier - Wow! Huge congrats, that's awesome! There's no denying the style of an eBOTD-wielding zealot, but if I was in your shoes (and could afford losing the meditation aura) I would make a big pokey stick for the merc.

--

As for me, finally an update! As mentioned before, playing time has taken a hit due to RL and Daz' tournament, but I'm still plugging away with Eleanor when I get the chance.

We tried out our first Imbue, with pretty lackluster results. Not like we were expecting anything great anyways, oh well!

Not long after that, we found ourselves a new hat anyways. It's not amazing by any means, lacking FCR, MF, life etc, but we'll gladly take it over our current Tarnhelm! We also crafted ourselves a pretty decent amulet, which we are now using. Shame it didn't roll 10 FCR, but we can live with that for now. It's still an upgrade, and Eleanor is more than happy to use it.

Unfortunately, Eleanor died once as well. She teleported right into the middle of an Extra Strong, fanaticism-enchanted OK pack on our way between seals, and bit it before we could even hit a rejuv. This prompted her to do some gear switching, and focus a bit more on survivability/killing power and sacrifice some MF. Basically, she swapped her Goldwrap out for Snowclash, and a Nagelring for Dwarf Star (plus a bit of charm swapping with some we had in the stash). Her MF is sitting just below 100 right now, so hopefully she continues to find some goodies! Here is a look at her LCS (post-BO):

PltIyQI.jpg

.
Not bad! She became instantly much sturdier and promptly got back to leveling. She was well on her way to 96 when her 2nd golden Dusk Shroud dropped. She headed back to Cain and he informed her that she might want to take a closer look at it:

4dlEG1p.jpg

.
Well that complicates things. Eleanor is seriously reconsidering switching to lightning in the end, as the gear she is amassing is beginning to really make a strong case. It's hard to deny popping facets in the Robes and our Fathom and staying cold for the duration. As if she wasn't torn enough already, right before she hit 96 she found this awesome cold skiller with +33 life. Yeesh.

She hit 96 shortly thereafter, and will now take some time to deliberate what direction we're going to take in the future. Decisions, decisions...

Ah, she also breached 'Grail -200'. Woo!

Other finds:
- Andy's Visage which will be kept in the stash for now, as the CC on Delerium is imply too good to pass up.
- 2x Mal (1 and 2)
- A pretty nifty crafted Assassin amulet
- Reaper's
- ANOTHER plain cold skiller (brings our total to 3 cold skillers now)

--

Updated Battleforge's level as well. :)

Code: 
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      96             No          890        309            4           -
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      93             Yes         256        165            9           46
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       93             No          388        220            1          111
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       92             Yes          -         225            8           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      91             Yes          -          -             -           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      89             Yes         329        194            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      87             Yes           -        114            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -

[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
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
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
 
Very well done @Pb_pal :). Nice going. Too bad you died once. I bet it means the loss of a few hours worth of grinding xp at your level? Anyway, congrats on level 96 !! I never got beyond 95 myself, so I find that very impressive.

Also congrats on the skiller. I still don't have a cold or lightning skiller at all, although I did find my second fire one :(. Again with +life, this time +29. Oh the irony ...

@NanoMist What I forgot to ask: why are you doing so many LK runs? If I'm not mistaking, you already have the runes for Infinity, HotO and CtA, no? I'd think that's all you need, but I'm probably missing out on something. Hopefully not something too embarrassingly obvious ...
 
@coju ha that's a good 'un, I already stashed it though, so I guess I'll hold onto it for now!

I think I'll wait for a nice Great Poleaxe (ethereal of course) and then give the whole mess to the merc. I can also use it (If I don't die first) with a WW barb, which I've always been underwhelmed by honestly, but perhaps it is because of the weapon choices I've had available to me.

@Pb_pal great update! What a sweet set of robes! And what a skiller! I believe the game is telling you to stay cold for a while longer.
 
@Pb_pal - Congrats on 96! Nice blizz damage too, especially now with the Ormus. If you want to stick with the cold equipment maybe Blizzball at 98? p1 seals should be quick and p7 Diablo not too bad with static. Nihlathak is a bit scary though without RIP. Infinity would help here as well, boosting fire damage and also lessening cold mastery investment.

@T72on1 - I have Enigma, Hoto, and Cta, with just Infinity remaining. I found another Sur since my last update, so now I'm a Ber away from Infinity. (Also missing the polearm base) I'll post that Sur screenie on the next update. For now I'm back in the Pits to search for the base and hope for Sur/Ber to drop along the way. I'm also gaining good exp. in Pits too.

I had hoped to find 5 Ber equivalent within 6k runs, but have only 4 to show for it. I haven't had a single Ber pattern drop within those 6k runs, so it's just bad luck there. At the very least I've crafted some decent jewelry and found good charms.
 
@T72on1 - Yeah that death hurt. I got my body back, so it wasn't a total loss, but I definitely lost a couple hours worth of grinding. Don't want that to happen again, that's for sure.

@OldSoldier - Thanks! It sure seems that the game wants me to go cold, that's for sure! Are you positive about wanting a GPA for your base? I thought Threshers/Giant Threshers were desirable for their speed, at least for mercs. Although I guess BOTD has what, 60 IAS on it? Maybe that's enough to offset it.

@NanoMist - I think I've pretty much made up my mind to stay cold the whole way. I'm second guessing Nilly runs though, as I really don't want to die at 98. I'll test them out right after I level to get a gauge for the safety I suppose. She found a Nature's Peace early on and has kept it with her, so I've got RIP taken care of!

Good suggestion though for Blizzballer if I do D for the final level. I'd really only need a decent enough FB to kill /p1 De Seis and CI Infectors when they spawn, which I'm sure is pretty doable with minimal investment.

I'm struggling with whether or not to even make an Infinity now. That would mean I could go pure cold, but I'm not sure I want to lose the mana from Insight as it's just so terribly convenient and CM already drops all non-CIs to very close to their max -res. The thought of having to keep mana pots on hand and coordinate using them is a bit of a bummer too.

Hmm...
 
Pb_pal said:
@OldSoldier - Thanks! It sure seems that the game wants me to go cold, that's for sure! Are you positive about wanting a GPA for your base? I thought Threshers/Giant Threshers were desirable for their speed, at least for mercs. Although I guess BOTD has what, 60 IAS on it? Maybe that's enough to offset it.
Click to expand...

I'm getting way ahead of myself but I just can't seem to help it! Threshers only have 5 sockets, so they're out. GPA and Giant Threshers have 6, and they both hit the last WW breakpoint I think. GPA has a lower dex requirement by a lot, which is nice. That doesn't matter for the merc but it would for any of my other characters that might like a nice weapon like that. I think I'm leaning toward the GPA simply because it is not hard to get some more IAS on a merc in case I need him to swing just that much faster. In fact, Battleforge's stablemate is currently sporting a Hwanin's armor for the poison resist and CTC Static (and 100 life) and I've been thinking about switching that out for a Treachery for several days. Neither one of them are considered to be top shelf armors, that's for sure, but Treachery is better in most circumstances. But then again, Battleforge himself is still wearing his Stealth!!!

I don't have either base item so maybe I'll just jam it in whichever one drops first? I probably won't even wait for a superior version either. Maybe I'll get an eth Tomb Reaver first and all this will go out the window. I have already found a Ruby JoF (34%). Perhaps like your cold sorc specific drops I'll just keep playing and wait for the game to tell me what to do.
 
@Pb_pal - I know what you mean. I will miss the unlimited mana when I switch to Infinity. All I can do now is build up a sizable mana pool to minimize potion use. If I ever find a shako that would help a lot too. Or find a spare Jah and build a Phoenix shield for that redemption. High price for convenience there.
 
@NanoMist Ok. Good luck on finding that Ber. You surely have a lot of dedication, doing so many runs.

@Pb_pal I'm not an expert in Nilly runs, but as far as I remember from doing them, I was fine with a source of RIP.

About Infinity and the loss of Insight ... after acquiring CtA, I tried switching the Insight of my merc for a much better Obedience. I focused on mana (without going overboard), which easily got me to some 1150 mana after BO. Even then I had to use mana potions from time to time. It's not that it was really annoying, and the Obedience definitely was an improvement, but using Insight instead is just so convenient. And in the end it's not like the merc does much of the killing, so I switched back to Insight. For Infinity though, I'd definitely try harder to make it work ...

As for CS runs ... I was assuming seals on /p8 all the time, and then include Diablo from level 96 or so on. Is it only Lord De Seis on /p1 because he is tough overall, or do you switch to /p1 for all seals at some point, to speed up the process to get to Diablo?

My plan still is to do AT runs until level 95, with some other runs like CS and LK thrown in the mix if I need a change of pace, or if I still need the Bers for Infinity or some more skillers (in which case I'll run LK as well), then CS until 98. After that do the Ancients and then Baal runs until 99. All of this if I ever get that far of course. Ideally I'd want to switch to Lightning at level 96, but that only makes sense with Infinity and Griffon's, both of which I don't have at the moment.

But maybe it makes more sense to just stay cold all the way. It makes gearing easier in a way. It's just that I was mentally prepared to make the switch at some point, when I first started this. Likewise, Nilly might make an equally good or better target at some point. It's just not something I considered when starting this.

Well, there's plenty of time to adjust if needed. That's the nice thing of this project :).
 
T72on1 said:
As for CS runs ... I was assuming seals on /p8 all the time, and then include Diablo from level 96 or so on. Is it only Lord De Seis on /p1 because he is tough overall, or do you switch to /p1 for all seals at some point, to speed up the process to get to Diablo?
Click to expand...

I was talking about 98-99, where the XP comes primarily from Diablo, in which case it's /p1 seals(for speed), /p7 Diablo(max XP). De Seis is CI, so for a cold sorc /p1 is essential for letting the merc kill him faster.

For the road to 98, my plan is just keep doing what I've been doing, which is Infector/Vizier seals at /p8 ('The Gripphon Run', as I like to think of it). At some point if I get bored (and make an Infinity), I'll consider adding Diablo into the mix, but it's doubtful (I think he technically becomes efficient at 97, but I'm not sure). My plan even before the fathom and the ormus robes was to stay pure cold until 98 and then re-spec to lightning for Nilly/Baal runs, as from what I could gather that was the most efficient way to do this.

Of course once you hit 98 there are the 3 big targets to choose from; Nilly, Diablo and Baal. Without going into too much detail, assuming you get ideal maps for all (including shrines for Nihlathak or Diablo), the consensus seems to be that those 3 targets in order of XP/time rank as:

1. Nihlathak (/p8)
2. Diablo (/p1 CS, /p7 D)
3. Baal (/p1 waves, /p8 Baal)

Of course that depends on the build, play-style, yada-yada-yada, but that's what the numbers show. As you say though, plenty of time to nail down a game plan! Glad to hear you were okay with a source of RIP though, that is definitely encouraging!
 
@Pb_pal Have you considered Blizzard/Nova for the last level? I can imagine that being quite effective in CS for P1/P7 runs. There's even one 99er although baal running one.

Anyway, great going all! Been following this thread all the time :)
 
@Grape - Hmm. Blova could be quite interesting indeed. I'll definitely consider it, like you said it seems quite well suited for CS runs, even for Nilly runs. Maybe I'll test it out a bit on another sorc and see how it goes. Great idea!
 
I was going to say that nova is such a mana hog that you can't do it without Insight. But the thread Grape linked to, proves me wrong. So it's definitely a viable option. I respecced my tainted Blizzard Sorc to Blizz / Nova for Baal runs, and it worked very well, even without Infinity.

As for Baal as final target: I assumed he was the best target, frankly because I didn't consider any other options, as I thought everyone did Baal runs for that. Once again, it shows how much I know about certain aspects of the game :oops:. It certainly feels wrong to level a character all the way to 99, and not even finish the game :confused:. But it's always nice to know there are more options, so you can mix things up.
 
I finally hit level 94 ... and that's all there is to say really. From lvl 93 to lvl 94 I didn't find anything really worthwhile I think, except for a second Shako :(. Not a single TC 84 or TC 87, not a rune above Pul I think. I did seem to find a lot of grailers though, quite a few of which were ethereal, so there's some bonus points there.

Ah well, my lucky streak will come eventually ...

Code: 
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      96             No          890        309            4           -
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      94             Yes         351        206            9          52.5
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       93             No          388        220            1          111
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       92             Yes          -         225            8           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      91             Yes          -          -             -           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      89             Yes         329        194            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      87             Yes           -        114            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -

[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
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
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
 
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