Ah i get your point. Sry english is not my first language. The word obsolete was not the right one in this context.
But i think the quite huge amount of extra life from cta is too important to give up. Even in SC every deatg means a big exp and time loss. Oh and the mana gain is also very much needed for teleporting.
@ Vildecor: Any thoughts on Fishyzone vs. Gunslinga? I played a couple of Fishies, but now want to try "the" alternative for the first time. Main reason being that with a stronger lightning-setup Mephisto and Pindle runs should take less time. Although thinking about it, Fishyzone should be safer for HC.
I've never tried a Gunslinger build before, but it could work just fine. You'll just be relying on your weapon damage vs the skill damage of FA for lightning immunes. If you find yourself a pretty sick bow, this could be quite fun to play.
I'm putting my guy in there. I'm not sure if I got the table right, basically I replied to the previous table (Evoken's) and then added my stuff in and tried to line it up with the preview feature. If that's not right someone let me know and I'll edit.
So anyways, I thought it'd be fun to have a fresh new start with the fresh new game. Thought about what I wanted to play, hmmed and hawed about what I was going to do, play lots of different guys, transfer my guys to the new game and keep pushing on my 97 sorc, do untwinked.. etc. Well I just decided to do untwinked.
My real original idea is that I'm going to play a revolutionary unheard of build known as a lightning sorceress to 99 untwinked all the way from level 1 entirely in D2R. I've had a go of it in the past but lacked the persistence for it and I reckon I'll probably fail again. I've got a bit more motivation this time as it might be the last time for a while that I'm able to devote a large amount of time to playing - wife and I just found out we're pregnant so I got about 7 months. I figure through the cold harsh winter of North Dakota I can spend my hours indoors grinding out 99 by next spring, get to 99, then have a baby. That's the plan. Extra motivation is that maybe I could be the first to do it 1-99 in D2R entirely.
The Journey so far:
Basically I started shortly after launch, I think Friday night, played a bit. Saturday I had a bunch of junk to do so I didn't play till the evening. I played as lightning in normal, using mostly charged bolt and lightning for fun. Made stealth, didn't have any lucky drops early except a +3 charged bolt fcr wand that I used until lvl 30. At 30 I respecced cold and spent time grinding normal eldritch till level 42. Sunday morning I woke up, blasted through NM as one does. Found a 4os broadsword for spirit somewhere, made splendor for my shield, did a smidge of grinding at nm meph. I found a vipermagi randomly in a4 nm which really encouraged me and made my time a whole lot easier.
NM was easy of course and I got up to NM eldritch where I blasted out levels until 72. I started slowly working my way through Hell, very much hard for me. I forgot how hard this game is. At any rate I got up to Travincal and called it a night. Monday morning though I couldn't help but take the day off work, so I got to rolling hell meph maps and found a super great one where it's literally 2 teleports. That's where I spent my whole day, blasting meph. I basically rounded out my whole kit in a day, I don't want to post a bunch of pictures here again since I threw them in the IFT but I found it all practically.. wartravs, skullders, occy, arach's, goldwrap, tal belt/helm/orb, just needed that shako but didn't nab that one till the next day.
I left meph because while there are some things I would still like from him, it's pretty much just chance guards now, or a better vmagi or something, maybe a lidless but I'll end up using spirit once I find or cube a 4os monarch. Figured I'd be better served by getting some levels at pindle.
So now I'm doing pindle and I'm 86. I've just been doing /p1. I think that's fine I'm not like ultra rushing the levels or anything and I'd rather they go quicker and maybe a griff's will pop out. After a while I'll switch to LK to farm up infinity and possibly some AT before or after. Kinda don't know what to do about getting a griffons like is it worth just pounding AT till it drops and then going to baal? I definitely don't have it all planned out, I'm just enjoying the ride. Hopefully now I'll get to making some serious progress.
That's where I stand. Happy to finally actually join this thread.
Villanelle has just finished Normal, now level 45. I shopped for some +1 Assassin Claws at Anya. I have a 2os Circlet ready for Lore when I find a Sol, that should see me through NM. I'm playing as a pure trapper at the moment, I don't see that changing until late NM at the earliest.
Next on my shopping list is an Insight base and some Leech for the merc. Circlet gambling hasn't produced anything useful yet.
Shopping Anya is interesting in D2R. As you have the gap between the screens, you don't need to press escape to close the claw screen, you can just click on the red portal and the screens close. Bad news is there is an enforced 2s delay before you can return through the portal. If you click on it straight away she says "I can't."
Generally it is quicker in D2 Legacy. I will be shopping of some +3 Traps claws and +3 Shadow when I get to Anya in NM.
@NorthDakota To be honest I would not count on a griffons dropping. I mean you can go for it if you want, but chances are you spend houndreds of hours at pindle and never see one. I this time you could get to 99.
Question:
I’m a long way from this at the moment, but once Villanelle has made Infinity, can I use it on other characters temporarily? It will be made by her, just wondering if she needs to be completely stand alone. Because otherwise I may have to forward a Trav Barb.
I personalized my untwinked enigma before using it on other characters. Also don't use a lot of gear on other characters, because you will forget exactly what you muled off unless its personalised or written up somewhere.
@NorthDakota To be honest I would not count on a griffons dropping. I mean you can go for it if you want, but chances are you spend houndreds of hours at pindle and never see one. I this time you could get to 99.
I know griffs took me a long time to get originally. I guess I'll just have to decide what I will settle for before I just start going for it. I think what I'll do is just level a bit in AT since pindle is the worst, and just pray for some goods before I move on.
I've been lurking this thread for a while (like before D2R was even a thing). The big hang up for me was starting fresh and not use any of the nice twinking gear I have built over the years.
I am now contemplating on joining with my D2R necro since I started fresh and didn't transfer anything. I'm in the low 60's right now and in late NM running bugged-Andy and Meph to start each session, then make a little progress here and there.
@Tatterson Personalisation is a good idea. It is only likely to be the things I only have one of at the moment, where that one is staying in 1.14d. If I want to twink a character I will bring items forward. I have enough to keep two full sets in both versions generally.
Not much else has happend tho.... Cant wait to be finally done.
Iam upgrading my RAM to 16GB. I hope this will improve my loading times a bit.
From time to time Iam doing some CS runs on my pala. I forwarded him to D2R as well. Nothing serious tho. He is still level 94. Iam also doing some key runs to prepare for his future torch. I definitly want one on my paladin as it will boosst him quite a bit. I wont be farming for a torch on my barb tho. Not worth the time investment. Runs wont be much quicker with +3 skills. I rather spend the time grinding exp. Mabey I farm a barb torch after I hit 99 to complete this character.
Huh, XP bar in LCS shows 100%? Weird display error, at first I thought you played some 50h straight and hit 99.
So far I'm still playing almost exclusively HC in D2R, not sure whether I'll forward the barb to D2R or start another 99er project.. Slightly off topic as it relates to bnet, but has anyone seen any info on the future ladder system in D2R? Wondering whether it's going to be like D2 legacy (no thanks) or something along the lines of PoE, where it's split in "trade league" and "SSF league" (untwinked).
Yea thats a weird bug. It happened on my paladin aswell. I think its because i forwarded them to d2r. i guess it will get fixed when i level up. At least on my paladin.
Regarding ladder:
I know nothing official but some people on d2jsp are speculating or hoping that there will be some sort of new content to give a reason to play ladder. Since ladder runes words are now available to non ladder as well.
Oh well, saw this coming some time ago...resisted joining this for years, but with the release of D2R....
Entering Aviendha, Blizzard Sorceress to be in D2R. Why Blizzard sorc? Well, because CM in D2R still is bugged and makes Baal running possible which seems much safer than Nihlatak runs...We will see if it remains this way.
Also, I took the liberty to add a D2R column as suggested by @Evoken. (Please don't kill me @all others!)
Will take 15-20 years, I suppose, with all my tournament characters and such. But still - a restart is a restart and why not join if I restart anyways?
Quick update on Fiona, now level 73. She finisehd Nightmare without any problems and continues to do some Andy and Mephisto farming before starting Hell.
The biggest upgrade has been:
What a nice roll!
While gambling she also found a decent FCR DL ring. Not very useful at the moment, but maybe later?
She also found her first Ravenfrost (20 Dex ) and a LoH from NM Baal himself. So far everything is going according to plan!
10 FCR and ML are extremely useful, with the FCR for hitting 99 FCR breakpoint if you don't get a bonkers caster ammy roll and ML useful to have. Very nice, and the fire resists are really handy to have on the ring also, especially if you're aiming for Spirit shield. Congrats! I've still never gotten FCR dual leech ring, even after gambling 100M gold a little while back and lots of gambling with my 99ers.
And it's time for an actual update from me:
Yep, we've shifted to Nihl but more on that later. After getting to lvl 97 in May, Septimus sat for a while. I messed around with p1/p7 CS runs on a 3-shrine map with good A1 shrines, switching to p7 at Vizier. It was pretty safe and it was definitely an option to avoid Baal runs, as he ended up getting to 97.05 across several sessions of runs.
But then MFO rolled around, and we went with Baal. Although Ventar runs would have been better XP/hr, we did full runs, dropping to p1 at Lister most of the time. As summarized in MFO results post, drops were dreadful (except a second 3os eTomby) but he made it a little past 97.4. The main thing is that MFO offers incentive to run, so Baal runs were engaging. After MFO ended, less so.
After another 5 Baal runs, and then 15 minutes of Ventar, I decided to assess other options. I had rolled away my nice CS map, but Nihl map was the pillar-WP room and a shrine right at the stairs on Nihl's level. So we built a Delirium for the merc and tested it out. Step-back technique isn't a real option for Windy because Tornados are so unpredictable, making telestomping Nihl the way to go. Viper rolls are therefore pretty diffiicult and resulted in more aborts than other characters.
But it was pretty engaging, and I tried out different skill uses, eventually settling on not casting CA but using Oak. Because merc is right on top of the Druid, the extra summon isn't really a problem for viper clouds, and the extra life is handy at the start of the run. It poofs about half the time, but usually at the end of the run. On net, I figured the time to cast it was worthwhile for the cushion and less need to use a potion at the start of the run.
So we rolled away the great WSK map and found a three shrine map with relatively light spawn density most of the time. Vipers are still a challenge and resulted in more aborted runs than I'd like. Plus a few of these:
Merc doesn't cast confuse often enough to shut them down, so basically 50% of runs where vipers are around the platform were aborts. I started figuring out aborting if confuse doesn't trigger quickly wasn't necessary unless amp'ed or Might/fanaticism if Druid could step back, and then aiming the Tornados. It is not always possible and slower on the run due to Decrep generally not proc'ing and missing with some Tornados, but it is nowhere close to doubling the run-time (factoring in the rare run where it ends up aborted after extending).
But I kept fiddling because it was still more aborted runs than I'd like, and realized the Druid could also wear Delirium for double odds of Confuse. I don't have a pelt with +Tornado, so I just put it in a Grand Crown, and it works pretty well. The downside is the occasional run that must be aborted due to stygian doll conversion.
I'm hoping he finds a 3os +tornado pelt and a Jah, which would allow Dream (to avoid doll conversion but keep confuse) without two much loss of +skills, or even gain if +3. I will also likely mix things up and do some Pit and CS runs for the change of pace, recognizing the ~13k Nihl runs that await for lvl 98. Another 4500 on top of the ~850 estimated runs so far seems a bit much
I'm hoping to finish off two twinked characters and also get a Wolfbarb ready for the next MP group, so likely will take a break from this guy, aside from maybe some time in the Pit. Cool to see all the continued new entries, keep it up and good luck, all!
@PhineasB good to see you back at it! Looking forward to you finishing this ridiculous epic project of yours!
@Irenicus agreed with others, that ring is super good, very lucky find especially on an untwinked Java. For reference, I have ~1650
rare rings in my stashes and surely more than 10x the amount was ID'ed and discarded in game. Of all those, only three have FCR & dual leech, and they're all used on Javazons. Finding Griffon's is a piece of cake in comparison.
@ Pax, Phineas and ffs: I honestly did not know that this is such a good ring and was more pleased to see the great Titans roll. I never really had perfectly geared characters, therefore I sometimes do not know what "niche" items are needed for that. Let's hope that finding Griffon will be as easy as ffs says.
WWS also dropped, so in theory I could transfer to Hell. Although with such a good Titans roll Jab might be enough to handle LIs, right? For now I will continue to do some Andy runs, mainly for Viper and Razortail, with the off-chance to get a SoJ.