I'm really enjoying working on Ananiel. I'm currently deep into the LK grind for runes. In a previous post, I mentioned all the high runes I'm looking for:
Lo (Fortitude)
Jah, Ber (Enigma)
Vex, Pul (Heart of the Oak)
Mal, Ist, Ohm (Call to Arms)
Thus far, I've found Pul, Pul, Mal, Mal, Ist, Sur, Ber, which puts me about 30% of the way there I think. I still need Vex, Ohm, Lo, Sur, Ber (or 2x Sur)
I've sprinkled in a few runs of other targets just for fun. P3 CS is slow, but pretty safe. Pindle is a great target. Meph is fine but will be much better with teleport as Bremm Sparkfist and his crew are LI and cursed so they tend to crush my mercenary. Pits is another great target, and quite safe. Once I find the runes I'm looking for, I'll probably do pits/Pindle to 93.
One thing I need to contend with - I've been saving Rubies and Amethysts for caster and blood amulets, but ideally I'll hold off until CLvl93 to have the best chance at a 2/20. The problem is I'm running out of stash space (I don't have any stashing software so I'm just using the four stash tabs). I may do the blood crafts at a lower level just to make space. I may consider doing pindle to 90 or something just to have a better chance at good amulets, and 86-90 isn't a huge chunk of levelling so having teleport for it isn't a huge necessity. I'm not sure what I'll do yet.
Update time on Hurricane-Syd's progress towards 99. Dinged 97 tonight! My first ever single player character to 97. After about 275 or so P8 Chaos/P8 Baal Waves/P3 Baal runs Syd hit 97. The finds were all over the place during this level.
Chaos+Diablo drops-- 15IAS/11Max jewel, Gores + Kira's same drop from Diablo, Trolled 1Max/10AR/38 Life GC, Astreon's, 15IAS/20ED Jewel/Azurewrath (2 times)/ SUR rune #10 for Syd , Cham Rune
Throne+Baal drops-- Nature's Peace, 175psn SC, Eschuta's + Giant Skull same drop from Baal, Arach's, 3os Tomb Reaver, 49 War Tav's (upgrade from 45mf), Boneflame, Arkaine's Valor, 30mf War trav's
All screenshots are at the attached at the bottom. 1 Azurewrath drop wasn't screenshotted.
Once Syd hit 97, I thought about using that Cham rune in the Stormshield instead of the Um. I would have loved to socket the Jalal's and stick the Cham in there to save the resists; but being a tournament character from the start and using 2 socket quests from that along with socketing the Stormshield early on in the grind for the added resists. Main reason would be to get rid of the Raven Frost and use the BK ring for the extra skill (more damage + life) and I scoured through all the charms to find Fire/PsN res +life SCs to replace the +18-19 life SCs that would be removed for the resists. If the switch was made I would drop 5 Fire res but gain 60 life and 200 damage. In the end I decided to go ahead with the switch and plug the Cham in the Stormshield.
Once that was done, Syd made 5 runs to see if there was a time difference from the runs. Turns out there was about a 30-40 second time gain from the added damage from start to finish. So over the course of the entire level it will add up in the long run. 5 runs netted 2mil exp in about 1 hour of time. Not the fastest exp/hr at all but its a safe and consistent way for myself to handle the grind. I may throw in Nihl at somepoint but I know 98-99 will be all Nihl, so he may wait his turn in the grind to 99. Doing the math with 2mil/5 runs or 400k per run, level 97 to 98 will take about 670 runs. If the average stays at 5 runs an hour thats about 134 hours for the level.
:whispers to self: "Just stay with it, it'll be worth it if you make it"
Side note: Finally took the time to search the site for how to get the table properly put in the post. Found the step-by-step instructions in the archives. No more replying to the last post with the table
Got a question for you, guys: do you mule out items found by your untwinked 99ers to your other characters? I know it's not possible the other way around.
I was considering it, but then I decided to keep D2R completely seperate from my 1.14d stuff. At the moment I only have 3 characters in D2R, all untwinked.
Yeah at least you gotta keep track of it if you intend to use it again on the UT99er. Personally I never muled off and on again but still kept track of any rare items muled off until I hit 99, just to keep a list of what noteworthy items that char found on the way to 99.
How are the 99ers in D2R going? I am still considering moving my HC 99er Barb there. Nihl runs seem terribly slow in D2R but perhaps being among my other HC Chats in D2R (which I did play a bit more recently) makes it so that I’m motivated to play him more. I never seriously expected to bring him to 99 (or even survive long enough), but building up HC stashes has been refreshing so far.
How are the 99ers in D2R going? I am still considering moving my HC 99er Barb there. Nihl runs seem terribly slow in D2R but perhaps being among my other HC Chats in D2R (which I did play a bit more recently) makes it so that I’m motivated to play him more. I never seriously expected to bring him to 99 (or even survive long enough), but building up HC stashes has been refreshing so far.
Live is 96.75. Still running Warcry. Most of this level has been Baal and I have something like 8 hours left to 97.
It's extra slow to kill baal as a singer, though so I'm not sure what I'll do for 97-98. I think the Baal experience is a lot more important there. Maybe just go concentrate and run Nilh for 98 and 99. We will see.
I have an untwinked project, atm. But I'm not sure of upgrading it to untwinked 99er just because of a) ubers/torches viable builds and b) sockets. Thinking about builds that can farm torches, and only 3 Larzuk quest feels so limiting, specially in the late game. Not so sure about this!
But that is part of the challenge, managing your sockets. For example my merc wear’s Tal’s HC because hydras shred him with an in-socketed Andariel’s.
But how many items do you really need to socket? All RW bases you socket with the cube. There are only four equipment slots you can socket anyway. Merc will most likely use RWs.
Also you don’t need a torch, many UT99ers in 1.14d….
I just downloaded/upgraded to Patch 2.6 for SP. The Terror Zone Exp is insane on P8. I have Black Marsh + The Hole 1&2. In 5 minutes to clear all 3 of those zones, it netted my Lvl 97 Druid (Hurricane-Syd) 1.7 million Exp in 1 run!! My runs of P8 Chaos/P8 Nihl/P8 Baal waves/P3 Baal was only netting me 400-500k or so in about 7 minutes...so 4x the Exp in less time...the high level Exp grind just became a lot easier...So should the tables or anything be adjusted to account for this?
I was needing about 660 total Chaos/Nihl/Baal runs, but with the Terror Zone it calculated out to around 150 runs or so for level 97-98.
If this should be in a different thread feel free to create one or I can create one.
I just downloaded/upgraded to Patch 2.6 for SP. The Terror Zone Exp is insane on P8. I have Black Marsh + The Hole 1&2. In 5 minutes to clear all 3 of those zones, it netted my Lvl 97 Druid (Hurricane-Syd) 1.7 million Exp in 1 run!! My runs of P8 Chaos/P8 Nihl/P8 Baal waves/P3 Baal was only netting me 400-500k or so in about 7 minutes...so 4x the Exp in less time...the high level Exp grind just became a lot easier...So should the tables or anything be adjusted to account for this?
I was needing about 660 total Chaos/Nihl/Baal runs, but with the Terror Zone it calculated out to around 150 runs or so for level 97-98.
If this should be in a different thread feel free to create one or I can create one.
Yeah, the Terror Zones are a whole new ballgame. The difference is even bigger 98-99. I've decided that for my UT99er I will ignore them - it just doesn't feel like the same challenge.
Yeah, the Terror Zones are a whole new ballgame. The difference is even bigger 98-99. I've decided that for my UT99er I will ignore them - it just doesn't feel like the same challenge.
Ya I think my UT99er Druid (Hurricane-Syd) I'll ignore them as well. Since I started this character with that intension. (I'll make a note that I ran a couple) just to see how they were. That way I can say I got to 99 the "hard way." Once 99 is achieved then I'll grind the Zones for Sunder Charms.
The rest of my UT characters that I have going and plan on the 99 grind will probably use the Terror Zones and just make notes in the write ups that they were used.
I’m still in v1.14, so way behind the times But I think a notation like the asterisk or cross used to note untwinked and HC, respectively, in the quest for 99 thread would suffice to note reliance on terror zones. It sounds like a different playthrough, like untwinked or HC, but still a 99er. There was big change when OKs were nerfed or rune drop rates buffed, but it’s all been kept together. If still untwinked, I think it would be good to keep here even if using new XP mechanic, with a notation to indicate that was so.
I'm not part of this project (yet), but I'd propose a rule for UT99er using TZ against modifying the local clock to manipulate which ones are available.
I'm torn. When we say table, do we mean one beneath the current one, or a new thread entirely? I see three options - new notation, new table, and new thread. There might be more. I suppose we should have a vote or have someone (@Kitteh?) make an executive decision sooner rather than later.
As someone playing the 1.14d meta in D2R, who had hoped to be higher up in the Hall of Fame, I have a selfish bias toward keeping the tournament equally time-consuming for everyone.
But I agree with @PhineasB that this is not the first time the game has changed. It has been a while since regular content/balance patches were the norm, but I'm thrilled this is happening again. It does sound like a different playthrough, and probably much faster, but so is my SC cold sorc vs. a HC fire druid. Specifying in the same table is likely enough - people will make their own assumptions of difficulty. Even with TZs and sunder charms, I'd guess an UT99er is still on the order of magnitude of 100s of hours. But I see how a new table would be a cleaner separation, especially as our current one is getting long.
Lastly, ust brainstorming here, a new thread that adheres to the latest, dynamic iteration of the game may be just the way to get a new community excited over new tactics, content, and conversations. A new tournament for a new time. But would it be worth losing that from this thread? Would Kitteh's 2016 vision for the Revenge of the 99ers become a legacy patch tournament, or even reach it's eventual end like Kesteg's before it? That wouldn't be wrong, but if the current contestants finally have their vengeance and move on to something new, would it be bittersweet, or would we find it to our liking? Just thoughts.
In other news, the popular achievement lately seems to be reaching level 97. Now, forged from ice amongst the fires of the Chaos Sanctuary, a new level 97 enters the realm:
My goal for Ledyne the blizzard sorceress was to reach level 97 by December, and then Christmas, and then New Year's... Sadly, I worked all through the holidays and the general busyness of the time precluded the dedication I had hoped for. My revised goal was to gain the level by January 31st. I made it with five minutes to spare.
It took 38 hours and 10 minutes to complete this level, spread over 62 sessions. For me, the best way to make meaningful progress was through steady and ritualized sessions before work. Accordingly, 45% of my efforts, or over 17 hours total, was spent between 5:00 and 6:00am. Waking up early was worth it to know I was achieving my goals and doing what I always want to do, but often lack the energy to initiate after a long day.
I spent the entirety of my time since my last post doing players 8 Infector/Vizier runs. About 1600 of them total. They are not the best source of S/Us, so I only found 330 this level, 16 of which were grailers. My favorite was this personal grailer for me with a near-perfect roll:
And I can't complain about the rune haul:
Pul - 2
Um - 1
Mal - 1
Ist - 1
Vex - 1
Ohm - 3!!!
Sur - 1
I unfortunately died early on while experimenting with faster, more careless runs, and then a second time while trying to recover the body. The runes above didn't change my main gear, but did allow me to make a body recovery kit that is essentially an identical collection of my main gear, including HotO, CtA, Spirit, Stormshield, and Shako. It's nice to have spares.
I'm starting to feel the competition ramp up. Welcome to all of the newer contestants - it's been fun to see your progress. Keep the posts coming!
I think one table and a notation for TZ would be the most welcoming to new players/open/practical approach. Adding information about how much less time it takes with TZ should be enough. D2 players, especially the ones going for level 99 untwinked, are already a vast minority and do not need to be split even further. The same logic applies for SC/HC in my opinion.
I haven't played D2 in a while and do not know when and how I will continue Fionas journey. But for people like me with little time to play it will be difficult to keep away from TZs. However it might also encourage players to start new characters with TZs in mind.
Just my two cents. Happy running/playing everyone!
Ya I think my UT99er Druid (Hurricane-Syd) I'll ignore them as well. Since I started this character with that intension. (I'll make a note that I ran a couple) just to see how they were. That way I can say I got to 99 the "hard way." Once 99 is achieved then I'll grind the Zones for Sunder Charms.
The rest of my UT characters that I have going and plan on the 99 grind will probably use the Terror Zones and just make notes in the write ups that they were used.
I’m still in v1.14, so way behind the times But I think a notation like the asterisk or cross used to note untwinked and HC, respectively, in the quest for 99 thread would suffice to note reliance on terror zones. It sounds like a different playthrough, like untwinked or HC, but still a 99er. There was big change when OKs were nerfed or rune drop rates buffed, but it’s all been kept together. If still untwinked, I think it would be good to keep here even if using new XP mechanic, with a notation to indicate that was so.
Given that I'm already playing HC and have a rule that none of my characters will ever wear an Enigma, I feel like Terror Zones would be a fair tradeoff, and that I'd still be trying to get to 99 the "hard way". Does my rationale make sense?
As for the discussion re: a separate table, given how OP Enigma is (well, in my opinion, anyway), should that get a separate table as well? Because in theory, the real "hard way" of getting to 99 would be to not use any of the OP rune words at all, wouldn't it?