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

Cafe Society
2561

Barb’s mf is up to about 224, I think. We’ll be adding more as he gets more life and AR/Dmg. What I want to do, although it really makes a few folks nothing more than placeholders, is this:

Person 1 makes SDMB. I enter, Yeti’s Son enters. Person 2 makes SDMB2. In SDMB, BO, TP and TP, Meph slivered. I head to A4, then exit game and join 2. Person 1 quits SDMB, then remakes once it’s no longer in existence (I don’t think we had more than 2-3 games go five minutes, and one of those featured Yeti and his son fawning over Ormus’ Robes). In 2, BO, TP and TP. Meph slivered, I head to A4, then join SDMB. If the first SDMB was held open more than 5 minutes, Meph is still dead there and person 1 will have made some other game and told its name to at least both Yeti’s son and me. And so on. Cold, German efficiency. If we eliminate the “waiting for game to open” delay, we’re talking … well, not a landmark difference, to be sure. We would need probably 4 people, to be safe (sometimes the game opens immediately; others, it takes a solid 20 seconds). Two of those people, for all I care, could be rushed mules who are level 3. They don’t need to be able to get anywhere but Hell. The other two are, of course, Yeti’s Son and I. I think a reasonable estimate for time taken during a game is 3-4 minutes, though some are less than a minute. Most of it depends on the map spawn. At this point I’m running 100% FCR, and I believe the next breakpoint is at 148%, which I don’t know that I can reach without sacrificing a good bit in the way of gear; we don’t have a Lidless Wall, do we? I’d also be sacrificing a bit of blocking by equipping that, though how much I’m not entirely sure (not that I block a lot as-is). I also don’t recall FCR being a mod you can get on boots, though I’m certainly up for crafting efforts, and I doubt I’d be so lucky as to spawn a +1 sorc 10% (or more) FCR amulet. However, one of my current rings is +dex +mana, and I’d gladly take, say, a reduction in 50-75 mana on that ring (I run 1700+ mana with BO, and unless I get burned I’m never in any danger of losing mana) for FCR.

We found a Wizardspike last night, which as far as I’m concerned you’re more than welcome to keep. +%mana, +mana/lvl, regen, all res +75. I hope that’ll put you back in the positives;)

2562

Shoulda previewed.

I got down to 5 TPs from 20 three separate times, and down to about ten at least twice, so that’s 65 runs. Then again, we ran from about 3 to about 5:30 with maybe 45 minutes aside for muling, so that’s 105 minutes. Averaging 3 minutes per run, that’s 35 runs during the second installment, and we ran from I want to say 12:30 to about 2:30 in the first installment, with about 30 minutes of muling for 90 minutes there, so that’s about 30 more runs. I think with a little work we could get runs down under 3 minutes each using my method detailed above, but it does call for some patience on the part of those who are making games and then making them again. Then again, that does allow for Yeti to build up his warchest waiting for n00b and me to get back from the other game.

Yeti, how late can you and/or your son be on tonight? I have to be up by about 4 PM tomorrow, so I can stay up rather late. Unless he’s driving to Vegas, I see no reason he can’t run with me. If he can’t, though, that’ll just give me opportunity to get the barb a few more levels (still needs some points in frenzy and could always use more life).

2563

As far as I’m concerned, the only armors better than a Vipermagi are a fireball Ormus’s Robes (but only if it’s fireball), Chains of Honor, or Enigma. Skill, resists, and fcr… What more could one ask for? That said, my current Vipermagi is a bit weak in the resists department; I could use a better one.

The biggest (perhaps only) obstacle to me teleporting right now is my low lightning resists; I won’t tele through any Gloam-infested area without 75 lightning res. This probably means switching to orb+shield, which, unless it’s a unique orb + a skill shield, will mean a drop in my damage.

On the other hand, I’m not sure how useful I would be on your power runs. The drawback to 10k fireballs is I can’t sliver anything. Against my sorc, monsters generally come in two flavors, “not hit yet” and “ash”.

The team paladin might be an asset on those runs, since he’s exceptionally good at slivering monsters (Crushing Blow will do that), and also good at helping others get kill credit (Conviction will do that). But until he’s got a few more levels on him, he has to be played carefully: He can’t tank crowds, and if he gets surrounded, he’s probably dead.

One other thought, by the way, for the sorcs: Most of our characters now have reached the point where the damage from Enchant is unnecessary. However, Enchant also gives a juicy bonus to attack rating, in the vicinity of 100% if you have good skill gear. So it might still be worthwhile to enchant the weapons-users before bamfing off (this can be done while the barb is yelling at you, so you don’t lose any time).

2564

Just saw punha’s latest post. First of all, the fcr breakpoint is (I think) 105%, so if you don’t have that, you’ll want another ring. I think I might have one…

Second, a thought: When doing rushes, damage doesn’t matter much… And with a Wizardspike, although my damage would drop dramatically, the resists and fcr would do wonders for my survivability (especially paired with a shield). I wouldn’t need it full-time, either, just when rushing.

2565

Well, hate to break this to you…but Yeti Jr. gotta another date tonight with punk rock girl…I am imposing a midnight bedtime (PDT), so there may be a couple of hours before and after the date. Jr. is quite slow and sluggish when he wakes up, so I don’t want him going to sleep like 2:45 last night when I want to be on the road at 9:00am.

2566

I think I’ll be home tonight for most of the evening; certainly by 9 or so I’ll be on until late, so I can participate in whatever’s going on.

Also, a question:

I picked up a Jalal’s Mane the other day which is the incentive to rebuild my wolf-druid. But, it’s ethereal. A friend mentioned that I could get it socketed and find (heh heh) a Zod to put in it and then it’s totally usable.

My question is, is this worth it? Is finding/trading for a Zod for this purpose stupid?

2567

That would be a terrible idea. Jalal’s, while wonderful items, are not worth Zodding. Zods can be used for much, MUCH better things.

2568

For what it’s worth, Hell Meph slivered to half life still takes several (i.e. more than 3) fireballs to sliver enough that Yeti’s son can get him in a few swings. I’d say it’s at least 20 of them, and my Fball is only about 3K dmg. It might not be mathematically accurate to say this, but I’d think that, assuming a 3:1 ratio of my Fballs to yours, you’d be able to sliver Meph quite well also, and if you get down to “Fball would end this, but he isn’t slivered enough” territory, you could always try good ol’ firebolt. My fbolt is something like 200 points of damage right now.

There are no crowds TPed into for Hell Meph. I avoid the council entirely; I think I killed any of them like a half-dozen all of last night, and in two cases that’s because they got close enough to worry me (in other cases, they were sitting there doing nothing; a few Fballs tossed 'em).

Re: 105% breakpoint, I’d be perfectly happy with any old ring that gave 10% fcr, since I don’t need the extra mana I get from my current ring.

2569

I can see a D2 commercial PSA, (if there ever would be one)…

Cut to a movie camera over some D2 noob moving his cursor over a Zod rune, picking it up and placing it in an etheral cap…the faint screams of one million D2r’s can be heard in the distance and a vaguely familiar voice with a vaguely familiar PSA would follow up with the appropriate message…

“A Zod is a terrible thing to waste.”

:smack: :smack: :smack:

We also found an etheral Jalal’s last night too…

2570

There are also no gloams on the way to Meph, and no quick-hitters like beetles. I probably could teleport Meph, though Baal is out of the question. But

Behold the power of synergies. Your firebolt has (I presume) 1 point in it. Mine has 20 (synergy for Fireball and Meteor). And it has (guess what) Fireball and Meteor as its synergies. End result is that my Firebolt does about 8k. Next step down from that would be Inferno, which isn’t synergized or pumped and hence does only 1k per second, but trying to use Inferno on Meph would be a quick way to end up dead.

I guess you put the portals right next to Meph, though? In that case, the clonekiller would work well (especially if he got Hell Anya, for cold/lightning/poison resist). The only other monsters you can get near Meph are (occasionally) vampires, and Boss_Og laughs in the face of fire. Next time you’re doing those power runs, let me know and I’ll bring him in.

By the way, is there or is there not an advantage to having more players in game for a boss drop? I seem to recall reading that the advantage to more players comes in the form of a decreased chance for “no drop”, but for a boss, that’s negligible anyway.

2571

Well, in your scenario I’d be superfluous. Any hell lvl Character would work. I guess as long as we have the first 4 characters necessary for your plan, I’ll just do Pit Runs and hope, although once we have some empty hell level mules, a fifth (or maybe 6th) person could just run the mules to pick up the stuff you find. That would save the time spent muling.

2572

Oh sure, you say that now that Yeti’s son and I did a few dozen runs without the aid of conviction:D Hell, if there are two people other than me online, I’m more’n willing to do Hell Meph until my eyeballs bleed. Bring a barb with good BO and someone who’ll help (conv paladin being a good choice now). The TPs go close enough to Meph that they’re far away, generally, from the council, and I’ve gradually gotten better at placing them so folks can maneuvre around Meph.

Yes and no. If you have players partied with you in the same area, you have a higher chance of a good drop (don’t know the numbers for the calc, though). If you have other players in-game, you get more xp. This XP is non-trivial, though; the barb got a level doing these runs last night. I’m something slightly less than 80 mil away from leveling, but then I also didn’t stick around every time waiting for Meph to die.

I similarly have no problem, re: muling, with rushing a char to A3 Hell purely so that char can hold junk we find, thus freeing others up to going to the next game. It might be an idea to load up such a char with Fire and Poison resistance, pump vit and have 'em down there to grab everything and go. Then again, I’m known for my micromanagement and that does tip the old scale…

2573

OK, I tried fixing a game and wound up losing us a semi-decent Druid item. Now I’m paranoid, but I want to get some stuff off the mules. Can I arrange a time with someone, please?

2574

I’m not sure when i’ll be getting home tomorrow evening, so i may or may not be around for the mule rush.

If anyone ever needs a hand muling, they can hop on irc or AIM and get ahold of me (if i’m around) – now that i have all 5 computers working, it’s the rare occasion that i don’t have one free to hold a transfer game.

That being said, i haven’t played much at all in the past week. I haven’t even picked up the hellforge quests from the last mule rush, and there haven’t been any anni co-ops that i’ve been involved in. In addition, i have preliminary exams coming up, which means i have less time for gaming for a month or so. Unless something changes soon, it’s likely that i’ll be taking a hiatus from D2 for a while. It feels like i’ve gotten to the end of another long stretch of frenzied Diablo playing (it usually takes me 6 to 9 months to tire of the game), which usually means i move on to a different game for a few months before coming back.

I’ll try and pop in here from time to time to stay in the loop, and help out when i can. Also, if this ends up being another several-month hiatus, i’ll try and distribute the ladder annis i have to you folks.

2575

I was hoping to find a thread here listing all the good stuff you found last night. I know about the belt (Arachnid Mesh?), but what did you find after I left?

A thought, if we’re doing multiple runs… wouldn’t it be faster and easier to transfer all the mf to Chronos’ sorc and have him do the killing? He could wear my necro’s 4 topazed armor and 3 topazed helm, wear the rest of the mf from the barb (couldn’t wear the helm due to being barb only)… we’d get faster killing and more magic find. Chronos’ sorc wouldn’t have to be prepared for anything because punha’s sorc would be doing all the teleporting and can start to clear Meph’s area and the barb would still be there to tank. Even without Magefists and a + skill orb or staff, the sorc does much more damage than the barb.

2576

I hate doing this, but when we’re on again I’ll donate my 31% gheed’s to the cause. The only condition is that I get it back if he gets a higher one. I’m not going to try to transfer it alone, I’ll wait until someone else is around to directly transfer it to the barb.

2577

Not much. I didn’t see many of the drops. We did at least 20 runs, but I’m not sure how many of those you saw drop.

Yes, that would make more sense, and for two reasons:

  1. He kills faster, using fire, than either the barb or I do.
  2. That frees up the barb to gear himself up for being a tank, not a MFer. That means hello +2 all helm, +3 cries (+4 min) ammy, probably arach’s belt and — my guess — crafted gloves, and echoes. This also means we likely won’t require a paladin coming along to help my paltry Fball dmg, but it also increases the number of people needed for such a run to 3 from 2 (one sorc to TP, one to get LH, one barb for shouts).

We’re going to be away from Friday noonish until Monday or Tuesday. If there is anyone who’d like to use the sorc for TPing (and get that FCR ring from Chronos to lower the FPS of teleport) for MF runs, I recommend doing some practice in NM if you aren’t familiar with my girl. She TPs decently fast. Just make sure you practice with BO from a barb or else she does lose mana — not quickly, but it happens.

If there is a rush tonight, I will be unavailable until probably 9:30. Penultimate class, going over the last chapter and I’m fairly sure the combination of Prof Trying To Fit Everything In and Nervous Students Asking Silly Questions will make for a very late exit.

2578

Now I’m told we will be away for only part of Friday. Sat etc. are still in-bounds, though how much Iunno yet.

2579

It’s a thought, certainly… There’s no doubt that my sorceress does more damage than punha’s. The question is, though, which does more damage, my sorc naked (skill gear would all be swapped out for MF, so she’d be killing at her naked rate), or punha’s sorc with Conviction support? If I’m not playing my sorc for the power runs, then I’d be on the team paladin, with his maxed Conviction (effectively doubling or more all elemental damage). And the paladin’s contribution itself isn’t negligible, either: If there’s one thing he does exceedingly well, it’s slivering bosses (Crushing Blow makes this easy).

By the way, punha, I still think it’s a waste to give the Arachnid Mesh to a barbarian. Even without it, his Battle Orders seem to be plenty effective at keeping folks alive, and the skill point will add a maximum of ten percentage points to his damage (which translates to much less than 10% in actual damage increase). The fcr, of course, wouldn’t help him at all. If you’re giving items like that to a barbarian, it’s no wonder that your sorceress is so poorly equipped!

BTW, Immortal King’s Will, in addition to being godly for magic finding, also already has +2 to warcries, so you probably want to just keep that on the barb. And what gloves would you craft for a barbarian? Blood? You should be able to get more leech from an appropriate rare or unique without too much trouble, and I can’t think of any other crafted gloves that would be better for tanking.

2580

My thought was to just equip the sorc before we start the runs, if we have enough people to do the runs properly. All the mf equipment should go back to the barb and to my necro after the runs are over. This way I can mf while no one else is on and the barb would be ready for when punha and one other person is on. The gheed’s would go back to the barb instead of to the necro however.

I have a bid in for a Dracul’s, Lidless, another Duriel’s and a Vipermagi now. I’m also getting a price on an Occy.