- Mar 19, 2020
- 3,349
- 1,404
- 113
@Irenicus - Hard to argue with a blizz sorc or hammerdin, even starting fresh they will probably outrace your other builds. It just depends how much time you want to spend in LK (hammerdin will typically need more, obviously). My vote goes for Blizz sorc, as you can use her to farm more locations and gear out other characters if that's what you want to do. It's been shown by several of us that Infinity isn't even necessary, so you're only rune-farming for Hoto/CtA and maybe a CoH/Fort or two. Whatever you choose, good luck and keep us posted!
--
As most of you may know, Stevesy hit 98 in the MFO.
Man, did it feel GOOD to run the waves on p1 instead of p8. Nevertheless, Baal runs are still... not ideal. I had some discussions with @ffs before about the subject of other melee options and, well, I did some testing. Not a ton to test really, but back on lvl 95 I made the discovery that D runs are not horrible to do with a wolfbarb. After this was confirmed by @ffs to be the case on other barbs, it became a real option for the final level. I'm getting ahead of myself though, so let's start with some options for Baal running:
Baal (p1/p3):
I tested a few different Baal setups to see if I could reduce the time it takes him to kill Baal.
- Grief + Reaper's Merc - the standard setup
- Grief + Kelpie merc - to try and eliminate Baal's teleports between Decrep procs
- 'Death' Setup, focused on CB
- 'Stormlash' (found in the MFO!) setup for the CB + Static.
I was going to get into a long-winded monologue about each setup and what I was trying to accomplish, but it simply comes down to this:
Grief is better.
Yes I know, the entirety of the SPF (myself included) already knew this, but I always like to double-check. None of the other setups even came close to Grief + Reaper's. It's nice that way too since I don't have to worry about any gear-swapping mid run. Well, that's settled.
Main problem with Baaling?
IT'S SO SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.
Stevesy testing numbers: ~1.1-1.2M XP/hr
Diablo (p1/p7):
It's awkward, it's clunky, it's tough to get used to, but it's faster than Baaling. Not by a small margin either (we're talking 70+ hours, by his numbers). There are however a few problems with running Diablo with a Wolfbarb that I noticed in my limited testing:
1. It's weirdly dangerous. And no I'm not talking De Seis, just the runs in general. Probably has to do with all the shifting in and out in and around large packs.
2. PI Infector happens a LOT. Not a huge deal but it's frustrating since I can't easily re-position the merc to get Decrep on him, so it slows down those runs by a sizeable margin.
3. They are not relaxing runs. You can't really turn your brain off since you're constantly shifting, weapon swapping, teleporting, getting mana-burned, and trying to skirt packs to get to the bosses. I could see making big mistakes if not paying attention (and in HC, it only takes one).
Stevesy testing numbers: ~1.7M XP/hr
Now, that's without shrines or an ideal map layout so it can easily be improved, but it's a good indicator for now.
So that leaves us with:
Nihlathak (/p8):
The prospect of melee Nihl running in HC is not one that makes me warm and fuzzy inside. After @ffs showed that it's feasible, I figured I owed it to myself to at least try it out.
Turns out; not so scary! It was way smoother than I expected it to be, though quite obviously more clunky than the casters I've taken in there before. It actually felt much safer than Diablo runs too, at least in my limited testing. I did have one Viper scare, but it was more me being stupid and pushing my luck than anything. Reminder; don't do that!
Even on little practice and using the higher end of his runtimes his numbers blew the other options away:
Stevesy testing numbers: ~2.4M XP/hr
Well alright. Looks like we have our answer, which I'm fine with as these runs feel more Wolfbarb-like than the Diablo shifting-heavy runs. Now I'll have to roll a good map, maybe tinker with some gear, and it's time to go spend some time with my old friend the wannabe-necromancer. Only ~13k runs to go, but at least my runtimes will probably improve!
--
As most of you may know, Stevesy hit 98 in the MFO.
Man, did it feel GOOD to run the waves on p1 instead of p8. Nevertheless, Baal runs are still... not ideal. I had some discussions with @ffs before about the subject of other melee options and, well, I did some testing. Not a ton to test really, but back on lvl 95 I made the discovery that D runs are not horrible to do with a wolfbarb. After this was confirmed by @ffs to be the case on other barbs, it became a real option for the final level. I'm getting ahead of myself though, so let's start with some options for Baal running:
Baal (p1/p3):
I tested a few different Baal setups to see if I could reduce the time it takes him to kill Baal.
- Grief + Reaper's Merc - the standard setup
- Grief + Kelpie merc - to try and eliminate Baal's teleports between Decrep procs
- 'Death' Setup, focused on CB
- 'Stormlash' (found in the MFO!) setup for the CB + Static.
I was going to get into a long-winded monologue about each setup and what I was trying to accomplish, but it simply comes down to this:
Grief is better.
Yes I know, the entirety of the SPF (myself included) already knew this, but I always like to double-check. None of the other setups even came close to Grief + Reaper's. It's nice that way too since I don't have to worry about any gear-swapping mid run. Well, that's settled.
Main problem with Baaling?
IT'S SO SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.
Stevesy testing numbers: ~1.1-1.2M XP/hr
Diablo (p1/p7):
It's awkward, it's clunky, it's tough to get used to, but it's faster than Baaling. Not by a small margin either (we're talking 70+ hours, by his numbers). There are however a few problems with running Diablo with a Wolfbarb that I noticed in my limited testing:
1. It's weirdly dangerous. And no I'm not talking De Seis, just the runs in general. Probably has to do with all the shifting in and out in and around large packs.
2. PI Infector happens a LOT. Not a huge deal but it's frustrating since I can't easily re-position the merc to get Decrep on him, so it slows down those runs by a sizeable margin.
3. They are not relaxing runs. You can't really turn your brain off since you're constantly shifting, weapon swapping, teleporting, getting mana-burned, and trying to skirt packs to get to the bosses. I could see making big mistakes if not paying attention (and in HC, it only takes one).
Stevesy testing numbers: ~1.7M XP/hr
Now, that's without shrines or an ideal map layout so it can easily be improved, but it's a good indicator for now.
So that leaves us with:
Nihlathak (/p8):
The prospect of melee Nihl running in HC is not one that makes me warm and fuzzy inside. After @ffs showed that it's feasible, I figured I owed it to myself to at least try it out.
Turns out; not so scary! It was way smoother than I expected it to be, though quite obviously more clunky than the casters I've taken in there before. It actually felt much safer than Diablo runs too, at least in my limited testing. I did have one Viper scare, but it was more me being stupid and pushing my luck than anything. Reminder; don't do that!
Even on little practice and using the higher end of his runtimes his numbers blew the other options away:
Stevesy testing numbers: ~2.4M XP/hr
Well alright. Looks like we have our answer, which I'm fine with as these runs feel more Wolfbarb-like than the Diablo shifting-heavy runs. Now I'll have to roll a good map, maybe tinker with some gear, and it's time to go spend some time with my old friend the wannabe-necromancer. Only ~13k runs to go, but at least my runtimes will probably improve!
Last edited:
I assumed the build would be alright despite occasionally being annoyed by Nihl teleporting too much, but haven't actually tried – cool to see it seems to work well enough! Looking forward to following along for his final level.
Google
