It’s only been about two weeks since my last update but Joker has made a lot of progress, so this might be a longer one.
Continuing from where I left off, I farmed a combination of Meph and Andariel, alternating between them as I got bored. I managed to get most of the essentials by doing this: LoH, Gheed’s, Gores, String, V Gaze (merc), as well as a 25 Mara’s which I’m still using until I get a Highlord’s. I also crafted a pretty sweet dual leech ring.
At this point I realized I’m really farming for just 3 items: Arreat’s, Highlord’s, and War Travs. On top of that I have a suitable replacement in all 3 of those slots: G Face, Mara’s, and Gores, so I decided now was the time to push through and make Joker a Guardian. I was only 89 after killing the Ancients, but I was very anxious to try out Terror Zones so I decided it was worth it for me. In hindsight, I probably would have waited until the early 90s because the TZs weren’t very efficient for me at that point. Nothing else of note to report other than the sad Hel rune from my forge. Thankfully, I haven’t had any close calls or save & exits up to this point.
I still have a lot of work to do to get Joker geared to a point where I’m happy with him. My first goal was to get some better weapons. For frenzy I generally prefer swords with Grief + Lawbringer over Grief + Grief, especially in HC, so I hit LK in search of a Lo rune. I didn’t keep track of my runs but I would guess 2-300 a night for 4 nights, so maybe 1000ish. I didn’t get anything above a Pul for the first 3 nights at p7, but once I switched it to p5 I got a Lo and 2 Mals in just one evening. My first Grief rolled 36/371. This put me in an awkward situation though as I was still using Oath ettin / Honor ettin. I never found a 3 socket phase blade for a Lawbringer (after dozens of tries I still don’t have one…) so I didn’t really have a great off hand option for swords. I ended up deciding that using Grief now was worth it, used my NM respec, and slapped a Lightsabre in my offhand.
I wanted to play around with my shiny new Grief so I tried out some terror zone farming. It didn’t feel efficient for me yet, but I did enjoy the variety. Eventually the terror zone was Trav, and I decided to give that a try even though it was a bit dangerous. This didn’t even feel fair.
I had quite a bit of internal debate about what to do with this Lo, Fort or a 2nd Grief. I decided to go with a 2nd Grief, which in hindsight I think was the right choice. It rolled 38/343. Frenzy with dual Grief felt fantastic, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about switching to WW. I’ve never played a fully decked out WW barb, and this felt like a good opportunity. But for now, I’m sticking with frenzy. The damage from 2x Grief made terror zone farming very comfortable, so I switched to that for a few days and hit 90 in the process. I also got a Jah rune from Tower!
My original plan was to make Fortitude over Enigma, but with the Jah drop and dual Grief I decided to farm a Ber and switch to WW with my hell respec. I headed back to p7 LK but had no luck, so I headed to try out some council + hork action which was fun. It didn’t take long.
I use my last respec to switch to WW. I have to say, it’s been a lot of fun so far. I will eventually go back to frenzy to farm some torches, but I think I might stick with WW moving forward.
I’m 91.5 at this point and doing a mix of Baal runs and terror zones I enjoy. I have found 14 sunder charms and 0 physical sunder charms. I still have a few other upgrades I’m farming for, but at this point I’m pretty happy with Joker’s progress. This is probably the luckiest untwinked run I have ever had in terms of rune drops. I’m also toying with the idea of starting a second untwinked hc project so I have some more variety, we’ll see.
My gear:
Helm: Guilluame’s Face
Armor: Enigma Archon Plate
Weapons: 2x Grief Phase Blade
Switch: HotO/Spirit
Amulet: Mara’s
Rings: Raven Frost & Dual Leech
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore Rider
Belt: String of Ears
Merc:
Helm: Vampire Gaze
Armor: Treachery Diamond Mail
Weapon: Obedience Giant Thresher
Continuing from where I left off, I farmed a combination of Meph and Andariel, alternating between them as I got bored. I managed to get most of the essentials by doing this: LoH, Gheed’s, Gores, String, V Gaze (merc), as well as a 25 Mara’s which I’m still using until I get a Highlord’s. I also crafted a pretty sweet dual leech ring.
At this point I realized I’m really farming for just 3 items: Arreat’s, Highlord’s, and War Travs. On top of that I have a suitable replacement in all 3 of those slots: G Face, Mara’s, and Gores, so I decided now was the time to push through and make Joker a Guardian. I was only 89 after killing the Ancients, but I was very anxious to try out Terror Zones so I decided it was worth it for me. In hindsight, I probably would have waited until the early 90s because the TZs weren’t very efficient for me at that point. Nothing else of note to report other than the sad Hel rune from my forge. Thankfully, I haven’t had any close calls or save & exits up to this point.
I still have a lot of work to do to get Joker geared to a point where I’m happy with him. My first goal was to get some better weapons. For frenzy I generally prefer swords with Grief + Lawbringer over Grief + Grief, especially in HC, so I hit LK in search of a Lo rune. I didn’t keep track of my runs but I would guess 2-300 a night for 4 nights, so maybe 1000ish. I didn’t get anything above a Pul for the first 3 nights at p7, but once I switched it to p5 I got a Lo and 2 Mals in just one evening. My first Grief rolled 36/371. This put me in an awkward situation though as I was still using Oath ettin / Honor ettin. I never found a 3 socket phase blade for a Lawbringer (after dozens of tries I still don’t have one…) so I didn’t really have a great off hand option for swords. I ended up deciding that using Grief now was worth it, used my NM respec, and slapped a Lightsabre in my offhand.
I wanted to play around with my shiny new Grief so I tried out some terror zone farming. It didn’t feel efficient for me yet, but I did enjoy the variety. Eventually the terror zone was Trav, and I decided to give that a try even though it was a bit dangerous. This didn’t even feel fair.
I had quite a bit of internal debate about what to do with this Lo, Fort or a 2nd Grief. I decided to go with a 2nd Grief, which in hindsight I think was the right choice. It rolled 38/343. Frenzy with dual Grief felt fantastic, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about switching to WW. I’ve never played a fully decked out WW barb, and this felt like a good opportunity. But for now, I’m sticking with frenzy. The damage from 2x Grief made terror zone farming very comfortable, so I switched to that for a few days and hit 90 in the process. I also got a Jah rune from Tower!
My original plan was to make Fortitude over Enigma, but with the Jah drop and dual Grief I decided to farm a Ber and switch to WW with my hell respec. I headed back to p7 LK but had no luck, so I headed to try out some council + hork action which was fun. It didn’t take long.
I use my last respec to switch to WW. I have to say, it’s been a lot of fun so far. I will eventually go back to frenzy to farm some torches, but I think I might stick with WW moving forward.
I’m 91.5 at this point and doing a mix of Baal runs and terror zones I enjoy. I have found 14 sunder charms and 0 physical sunder charms. I still have a few other upgrades I’m farming for, but at this point I’m pretty happy with Joker’s progress. This is probably the luckiest untwinked run I have ever had in terms of rune drops. I’m also toying with the idea of starting a second untwinked hc project so I have some more variety, we’ll see.
My gear:
Helm: Guilluame’s Face
Armor: Enigma Archon Plate
Weapons: 2x Grief Phase Blade
Switch: HotO/Spirit
Amulet: Mara’s
Rings: Raven Frost & Dual Leech
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore Rider
Belt: String of Ears
Merc:
Helm: Vampire Gaze
Armor: Treachery Diamond Mail
Weapon: Obedience Giant Thresher
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