All Diablo2 Talk here.........

Cafe Society
2541

Indeed. He also now has PMH (remember punha and I had to run to another game to do some shopping in the middle), and with that, I think he should be ready.

Directions on using him, should I not be on: First, clear out all regular monsters in the area, using other chars. He’s weak against groups. Then, go get the paladin. He’s on the first team account, named “Boss_Og”. Make sure he’s equipped with his resistance shield, fill his belt with red potions, and put on his Malice weapon (currently a broadsword, but that could be improved) for the first few hits. Turn on Holy Shield. If you’re soloing, or partied only with a hammerdin and/or bonemancer, use Smite and Meditation. If you’re partied with an avenger or other Conviction-user, use Zeal and Meditation. If you’re partied with anyone else, use Zeal and Conviction. If you have a necromancer in the party, request Lifetap, or if that’s not available, Decrepify. Swing at D’’ until you see his life bar go down, to be sure you’ve hit, and then retreat and switch to his Black weapon (don’t just switch weapon tabs; make sure he’s still using the resistance shield). Then, with the Black weapon, go back and just keep on swinging until he’s dead. Unless you have Lifetap, you’ll need to guzzle red potions pretty much continuously. Also be sure to keep a portal open, as you’re still likely to die a few times.

His equipment is pretty much done, now. He could still use a Guillaume’s Face to bring CB up to a full 100%; if you give him one, switch out his armor for a Sigon’s (he’s currently using the gloves and helm; any two Sigons give 10% life steal, and the gloves and any other piece give 30% ias). But that would only increase CB by 10%, so it’s not urgent, and if you need Guillaume’s elsewhere, keep it. He could also use something faster for his Malice (which is a nice cheap runeword), but since that’s only for the first few hits, it won’t make a big difference. Yes, there are still many leet items which could help him, but this is a build designed to work on a budget, and those items would also all be good for some other Doper, or for trade.

I’m also undecided about what to do with his further skill points. He has all he needs for the core build now, and is accumulating points. I think the best three options are Sacrifice, Holy Shield, or Holy Bolt. Sacrifice would increase his Zeal damage; points in Zeal itself are unneccessary, since Conviction takes care of all AR problems. Holy Shield would increase smite damage (more so than would points in Smite), and would also increase his defense (good for surviving incidental monsters) and slightly reduce the dex needed for blocking (hence more vit). Holy Bolt would not increase his clonekilling ability at all, but he has half a medic build already, and Bolt will make him more party-friendly, since he currently needs a party to survive anything but single monsters. Thoughts?

2542

One suggestion: if you’re partied with a necro, also request a clay golem, since they have a hidden bonus of Slow Monster. A Slow Monstered, Decrepified boss swings about once every 2 seconds. Add chill onto that, and your Meditation might even out-heal his damage.

2543

Just got a Jalal’s Mane from NM Baal… it’s ethereal. Is it always? It’s a ‘mad phat’ item; too bad it’s got 11 durability to live.

2544

Then another 4s royal or targe shield with good resists should be sought out so the weapon/shield switch works.

2545

Oh yeah, Who I forgot…

A Moser’s shield would be very helpful if you can get one for my amazon.

2546

On the trading front, I’m trying to get the 2 Duriel’s and a GA. The Duriels should be pgems, and I’m not sure about the GA but he has 3 of them…

I’m also looking at other things since I have a pul and an um that I’ll let go of for the right items. Vipermagi seem to be going quickly and for varying prices. I’ll let you know if the guy gets back to me…

2547

I got one Duriel’s and the Guardian Angel. Punoqllads got the GA and gave me a TGods for Yeti. Punha, I have the Duriel’s now. I’ll get another one for the barb tomorrow if I can. If I can’t I’ll stick the one I have on the barb.

So two people happy now (Besides myself)… :slight_smile:

2548

Chronos, amongst the teeming throng of crappola given us by NM Baal over the course of several runs was a +1 asn +7 min 8& ll all res +14 circlet. I guess you could take it if you really want it…

2549

If folks could be on the lookout for Jeweler’s [Armor] of the Whale, with 4 sockets and preferably at least 50 to life, that’d be keen. I think that’s what we’ll be using for MF once we get a Ravenfrost to replace the CBF on Duriel’s.

The barb is up to level 74, wielding some quality gear and some crap, and looking to get into Hell runs before terribly long. XP from Baal runs has tapered off a good bit. I probably will not be home until about 930 or so tonight, maybe a little earlier, and I have work tomorrow at 10, so I can’t be up late at all. We could hold off for tomorrow night, when I will be able to be on all night, or Thurs night, or whatever. The sorc is good, but I don’t know that she is able to rush all of Hell, especially not ancients.

2550

What is the strength on the barb, and what will it be when complete? I don’t want to buy a Jeweler’s Sacred Armor from Larzuk and find out he only has 170 strength…

2551

His str is around 195 with bonuses - and from what I remember, these bonuses are not all that big. I intend to get his str to about 210 or so nekkid - enough that he hits with decent power and can wear some of the heavier stuff, but not so much that vit suffers hugely. He’s running around 2K life right now. I’d like to get that up to around 3K by level 85. Of course, should someone find Jeweler’s Sacred Armor of the Whale with +85 life, that’s 21 vit points there there, so he could certainly pump str (and add a few charms) for that. He’s wearing Iron Pelt right now, which is not known so much for being good for tanking in Hell.

Sorc is 87, and I doubt I will get her to 88 this week. Two reasons: 1. Class and 2. 97 mil away. She’ll get 3-4 mil per Baal run, I think, which is not bad, but that’s time that could be spent doing other stuff. The barb has fairly well capped out in NM, and I am not about to take him into Hell solo with his current res. We have a few chars ready for a Norm-Hell rush, so there’s little point in making another.

2552

Thanks again Who & Punoqllads for the T-Gods belt. I found a +1 curses, +18 life Grand Charm a night or two ago…what could that go for Who?

2553

Frosties were found today doing NM Baal with Punoq. W, I’m thinking it’d be best to toss those your way.

2554

Let’s climb into the wayback machine:

I want to correct some of the numbers here. Looking at the character pane of my Avenger, it seems that the elemental damage is based upon a percentage of the weapon’s base damage, rather than the damage modified by a character’s strength. So the first equation should be 75 * 3 * 3.16 * 2 = 1422 points of damage and the second should be 184 * 3 * 3.4 * 2 = 3753.6 points of damage. Not as effective as I had thought, but still nothing to sneeze at.

2555

Round 1 of Power Meph went fairly well, though I didn’t know that for the most part until we started muling. I wanted to get runs done fast, and figured that once Meph was slivered there was no reason for me to stay around, so I’d get BO from Ian, TP to Meph, help sliver him, then get to a4 and go to the next game (a4 because it’s quicker to get to dur2 from there than it is to walk from the edge of the kurast dock). I lost count of how many runs we did, but it was several. Other than a power blip, wherein I lost connection and died, there wasn’t much trouble at all. I think I drank three potions during all … more than ten runs, probably more than 15.

Highlights, item-wise, included a Firelizards, Nat’s armor, Saracen’s Chance, Wizardspike, a rather nice +1 barb +other stuff ammy, Aldur’s mace (we have now 3 of those?) and probably one or two other things I’m forgetting.

I should be on by about 9:30 tonight (roughly 17 hours from now), and am very much up for doing many more of those runs. I like the speed of the run and not knowing what’s being found until it’s muled. It’s like Christmas in the Rogue Encampment:D Also, upon re-reading the stats listed for Splendor, I don’t want it. I thought it had (at least minimal) resists, and it doesn’t. Right now I want +skills and +life/mana. Toward that end, I think once we have more than one of an item we don’t really need, we should try to trade it for something we do need. Good example is Saracen’s Chance, which doesn’t really lend itself to much of anything I see. We might trade it and something else for something we could use (like a Tal’s ammy or something similarly good).

The barb will be doing quite well, I think, once he has Horizon’s and Dracul’s. Other than that, he just needs more life, which at this point I think will come more from charms than anything else. I have plans to level him some more, but he is in no present danger of reaching the 4K HP plateau. To his credit, though, I think he has a higher AR than my old barb did, and that is certainly useful.

2556

The problem I see is, there is no market for things like Aldur’s mace or Saracen’s Chance. While just about every rare and unique found in SDMB games get muled, most people wouldn’t. You can probably pick up an Aldur’s for 2 or 3 pgems and a Saracen for a couple more. It’s pretty safe to say that anything that we don’t want won’t go for more than pgems. Hell, the Duriel’s that the barb is wearing I got free as a throw in when I traded for the Guardian Angel.

The best things we have at the moment in terms of trade value are 3 and 4 socketed elite armor. The 3 socket Archon plate would be worth a lot if it wasn’t as low as 434 defense. I’d rate 90% of the stuff we have on the community mules as totally untradeable, most of the rest not worth the effort. Runes and pgems are the easiest things to trade. The difficulty I’ve been having is I don’t have a very large selection of mid runes to trade (actually I’m down to just an Um) and trying to get even value is not easy.

2557

Just adding a thought…

The best runes for trading are Lem, Pul, and Um. Of course, higher runes are used to get items that are in high demand. Puls are the standard for a lot of items. Ums are for the items a bit better, Lems for ones a little bit worse. Items lower than Lem can usually be had for x amounts of pgems. Right now, all I have is an um. If anyone can “change” the um for puls/Lems that would be a help.

2558

Right, here’s an idea, Who_me?:

Yeti’s son and I do Meph runs. Other folks come or don’t, whatever. We get X amount of stuff. That stuff for which folks in-game don’t have immediate (or soon-to-be) use gets put on communal mules. After a week or so, certainly enough time for active players (consideration being made for anyone who’s let us know that s/he will be out of town for a determined amount of time) to take what they want, that gear gets put on an account … let’s call it, theoretically, sd-teamtrade. You, since I think it’s been unofficially established that you’re the marketplace person, review what gear is present and do as you’re able with it. You also let us know what runes will be most helpful in trading, or what items we might make that would be in demand. We, in turn, let you know what we’d eventually like to have.

Right now, my wish list for the sorc is high and mighty (other than random +life charms, as some of my charms have rather outgrown their need), so let’s ignore that. The MF barb really needs three pieces to tank those runs. In descending order of importance, they are Dracul’s Grasp, Jeweler’s [Armor] of the Whale and a Ravenfrost. The barb can’t leech mana off Meph, so there’s no need to go for a dual leech anything. In fact, he’s scheduled to drop Manald for another Nagel next time he levels (those being used only during Meph runs, obviously).

We should strongly consider organizing another mule rush. I know we have a few characters who can get their Norm Baal and go through to Hell, and rune drops of late have been more generous (a Lum in NM and a Mal in Hell from the mfbarb). I’d like to tentatively schedule one for Thurs night and request that more than one sorc be involved; I would guess that once Chronos gets his girl outfitted a little better (C, would Ormus or Spirit Shroud be of more use to you than what you’re using now?) she’ll be just fine for tanking NM and into Hell. My girl has shown remarkable skill (cuz it sure as hell ain’t MY doing) handling TPing around Durance, and I think she will be able to adequately handle TPing other areas of Hell. I am still more than a little nervous about doing 2-player Baal runs while the barb is only level 83, but I think if we had either the Clonekiller with his maxed Conv or Punoq’s paladin with his maxed conv, we’d be set. Killing Meph took about 1/3 to 1/4 the time with conv vs. without it.

I’d also like for us to consider starting to offer rushes for forges. Obviously a Norm rush for forge is almost worthless to us, since the highest rune that can drop is I think Amn. Perhaps forge+item for Norm, dual forges+less worthwhile item for NM, all 3 forges for full Hell rush (we’ll get something out of those latter two runs, since we’ll have to use a mule to get through unless the person is already level 40 or 60).

2559

I’ll be on in the afternoons and evenings today, tomorrow, and I’ll probably be on from the afternoon until late Friday. I may be on a little on Saturday, but I’m leaving to go on vacation Saturday night and I won’t be on again until the next Saturday.

As you’ve seen, my necro can tank anything long enough for you to sliver it’s life. Then you can go to the next game. I’m not sure how much mf the barb is carrying, but the necro is over 260. If he has more, I can back off or tp to town, or if I have more he can back off.

If you want to do Baal runs… that’s okay too, although my resists are awful, my summons’ resists aren’t bad. If I can stay alive through (or preferably avoid seeing) gloams/souls then I should be okay through the minions. Baal’s attacks will probably kill me, but I think you and the barb can handle him.

2560

A few notes from the Himalayas:

I am 99% sure that I have gotten a pul rune from a NM forge quest…and a dol from a normal forge quest…so don’t totally discount NM forges.

We did 3 muling sessions during those Anmephetaminesub[/sub] runs and it usually took 15-20 runs before we did a mule session…so I believe we did 45-60 runs, some runs where well under 2 minutes! Usually the four of us (Punha, Punoq, N00binat0r, and myself) where there to have a drop based on 4 players, sometimes 3 players if Punha left early. There was some stuff left behind that I couldn’t resist selling so I can gamble on rings and amulets with Anya later, therefore, I might have missed a couple of the runs because I took an extra minute to sell the junky but lucrative armor, helms, etc.

Even the Yetis’ gotta get out of the Himalayan town at times and we will be headin’ to Vegas for my birthday…we (Yeti Jr. and I) are leaving tomorrow (Thursday) morning and we’ll be back Sunday evening…maybe Sunday afternoon.

Therefore, if the need for the Ormus Robes is greater for someone else, speak up tonight when I’m on (I’ll be packing at times tonight though), I also got a Stormshield, and Kira’s Tiara which max out my resists in hell…that Saracen’s might work better for a non-ranged melee character, let me know if your need is greater.

Those runs and items were pretty fun last night!