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

Cafe Society
2581

My sorceress is hardly poorly-equipped, my friend. I gave that Arach to a barb because 1) I bloody well like my current belt, which is Tal’s and 2) because I figured I could either get more life from BO by putting it on the barb or just let it sit in someone’s stash and not get as much life. It was a matter of instant gratification vs nothing.

You can’t get ANY leech from Meph without having lifetap, and absent Dracul’s, a wand with charges or a necro, I don’t know of anything (save %cast which you could conceivably get on a craft, no?) that would enable such leeching. Meanwhile, when the barb is leveling in public runs, I find that having MF on him is almost useless, as anything that drops is far more likely to be picked up by someone using pickit, whereas using the +2 barb helm I get more dmg, more defense, higher res, etc.

Who_me?, is there a current price or even a general idea on how much a full rush (i.e. from Norm through to Hell, not full as in every single quest) would be worth? Alternately, how much a char would be worth if it were given at, say, level 50, with all stat and skill points unused? Such an effort would doubtless be difficult (already my mind begins to spin wondering what the best char would be to do that - probably a sorc with charms etc. and Leaf) but interesting to attempt.

2582

Highlight of finds of the night include:

Marrowwalk
Stormchaser
Rune Master
Wizardspike (this gives us 4)

My feeling is that anything not claimed within a week becomes eligible for trading for whatever else we need. I have a small desire to achieve maximum FCR, which requires Arachnid Mesh and 25% FCR from other gear. Currently the dispensible gear is basically the two rings and amulet (Chronos and I are under the impression that FCR cannot be gained from any boots), and I need to either get a total of 2 dex combined on thos 3 items or Hel my Wizardspike. Hel-ing the Spike is an option, but I’d really rather have nice dex. If anyone finds, for example, a +5 dex 10% FCR ring, one of those and a FCR ring with nice +mana or +life would be lovely. At that point, hopefully Who_me? can trade for a nice +1 sorc FCR ammy, though I’d be perfectly happy with something doing FCR and +life. Sorc’s life atm is 921 and I managed to get her to level 88, above which I do not have a particularly strong desire to level. The barb has about 80-odd mil to go lvling, and I picked the sorc to run tonight because the barb will get a lot more from Meph runs than the sorc will.

Oh, Chronos. Remember our discussion of my cold resistance? I had lower res on me earlier tonight, which pushed my fire res down to 29. Cold was still maxed. That makes my cold resistance at least 46 points above 75 in Hell (though that extra 46 doesn’t usually come into play, obviously).

2583

If you do decide to hel a spike, feel free. I have 2 hels on my personal rune mule. As for full rushes or for leveling services, you’d have to post a thread offering and take bids. Usually the rushes would be for forges and drops.

Another thought… Last season there were people offering to do hell level mule accounts for people. The mule rusher would have the client create an accout (you are not allowed to trade accounts on diabloii). The mule rusher would then create or use precreated characters and rush all 8 into hell, leaving the forges undone. I’d have to check to see if they just took them to act1 hell or took them further. At the time, the bidding was done in soj’s. Now, I won’t be around for a week after tonight but if you wanted to try this I could post a thread offering this service if you’d like when I get back from vacation. The usual turn around on this IIRC was about a week. If we could get 8 people on we could do this in a day easily with 4 people running mules and 4 rushers and doing it in two rushes.

2584

If it’s just to A1 of Hell, we could do it in one big and one small rush. My sorc can pretty well rush Norm and NM, but we’d have to have someone along for Norm Baal-NM ancients. Maybe it’s time to get the 40rusher builds out again…

2585

Well, one large and one small was my first thought… but if we had 8 people on, 4 rushers would make things very fast… especially with at least two sorceresses.

While sorc #1 is tping to Andy, sorc #2 is looking for maggot lair. Rusher 3 is heading to clear Diablo’s area, and #4 is heading for Baal.

After 1 gets Andy she heads for ammy… unless 2 has Maggot 3 up already and is heading for ammy. Once there’s an open sorc, she starts looking for Meph.

The sorc sheparding the mules finds summoner and dispatches with mules in tow, Then heads to Duriel.

After Duriel, pretty much everybody should have TP’s up where their needed. Head to Trav, kill counsel then Meph.

Kill Diablo.

Lose 1 rusher to bring in character that has Ancients quest but not Baal in that Difficulty. Kill Baal.

Rinse and repeat for Nightmare.

2586

I’m not sure how much of a market there would be for this… To someone making a cookiecutter, it wouldn’t matter if points were allocated, and someone experimenting with builds probably wouldn’t be interested. There’d also be the matter of names, and the matter of legality. On the other hand, if we take orders in advance and have the customer make the account, as Who suggests, they could just tell us where to put points.

All that said, it’s an interesting challenge. My guess is a paladin with a Zeal scepter and gear similar to your 40rushers. This would be essentially impossible without strong party support, so I think we should take Enchant (and BO, and conviction/curses) for granted. In fact, if we wanted to get these guys all the way to 50, it might be worthwhile to have a dedicated enchantress, for thousand-point enchants rather than just a hundred. Other char options might be a frenzy helm on a barb or the afore-mentioned Leaf sorc (who would unfortunately not benefit from Enchant). Hardest would probably be amazon or assassin, since they don’t have any items which give individual skills (at least, not without stat points: Assassin claws don’t start getting automods until halfway through Exceptional).

Also, until and unless I get a Tiamat’s Rebuke, my assassin could use the Stormchaser. I’m currently using Bverritt Keep, and Stormchaser quite trumps that. And 1-60 lightning damage may not be much, but 23 average damage is better than nothing (what I’m currently getting from my shield).

By the way: My sorc now has a Wizardspike (and has figured out how to use it!), which brings her to maxed Hell resistances and the 105% fcr breakpoint. What this means is that I’m now comfortable teleporting anywhere, up to and including Hell Baal. This should smooth out our next rush considerably, and also enables speed Baal runs.

Also, my current wish list: Andariel’s Visage, Trang’s gloves, Razortail belt, and Tiamat’s Rebuke shield for my assassin. She’s looking OK in the weapon department, but she could benefit from an ethereal Rune Master or a preferably ethereal unique Legendary Mallet (either one, though Shaefer’s can’t be ethereal). I presume there’s not much demand for nonmerc ethereal weapons, which should drive the price down, but by the same token, I’m not sure if anyone bothers saving them. So don’t worry if you can’t find one.

2587

I spent a sizable portion of the drive up to our new place today thinking about this stuff.

It will be relatively easy to do this (lvl 50, no points spent) for an amazon. There are several bows that will work well. It will be more difficult but still doable to make such a paladin - as Chronos pointed out, we just need something that gives + to a particular skill. I would be inclined to go with a few different items depending on level, but I don’t foresee a difficulty with getting level, say, five zeal (or 5 medit) on such a paladin. We’ll have to get some str charms, of course, but then getting the min str and dex onto these folks will not be an issue, I think.

The sorc will need to be leveled with the paladin. For that matter, I think they will need to play together (or play in runs where they will be able to leech xp well) for this to work at all. A Ravenclaw will work for most of these chars with the exception, I think, of the necro, for whom we will probably want to secure Infernal set and a shield with +skels and + to a curse. Also possible for the barb is some sort of +doubleswing helm — anything that will give him more than base attack. Dual bloodletters would also be useful, and dual manalds combined with a +2 helm and a +1 ammy would probably give him a decent bit of damage, as would adding bloodfists.

Thoughts?

2588

I have no idea whether there would be a market for pre-levelled characters using no points that would pay enough for the trouble we’d have to go through, and that would be for any type, much less being zon specific. I’m not even sure about the hell level mule account, I know that someone offered that and it was taken up once (I cannot find the thread) but I don’t know if it ever was done again or if anyone was willing to pay enough for that to be worthwhile. And that would be a lot quicker to accomplish.

I’m leaving tonight for a vacation, so I won’t be posting anything about it on diabloii since I won’t be there to answer. I’ll probably be back next Saturday sometime and I’ll see what you guys want to try.

2589

I keep getting asked whether an item is tradable. I thought, before I head out on vacation that I’d post some of the more tradable items so that you’d know.

Runes… naturally

Skill charms are tradable for the most part. Pally combat are the most wanted, Sorc fire and cold somewhat less and Barb shout skills are valuable, as are Necro summoning, Poison and Bone, and Zon’s Jav and spear charms . Druid summoning, Necro curses, and other such that really don’t help much aren’t very tradable unless someone is trying something off the wall.

Other charms… 7% smfc’s, 20 life smcharms, are tradable as are several others that I’m not sure about.

3 and 4 socket superior elite light and medium armors where the elite means enhanced defense.

Ethereal colossus blades and other high damage melee weapons. Superior preferred.

Skullders and shakos… of course. Along with War Travs.

Hoz’s, Tal’s set, Boneshade and Death’s Web, Kira’s and Griffon’s Eye, Stormshield, Arachnid Mesh, ethereal Titan’s, Tombreavers, Astreon’s Iron Ward, and Lacerators are among other items that are popular.

Other sets… IK, Trang’s. Nat’s can also be traded easily. Azurewraths aren’t as popular as they were, but they’ll still trade. Tyrael’s Might will be snapped up in a quick moment. The necro shield’s Homunculus, Darkforce Spawn, and Boneflame will trade.

There are other items that will trade such as Guardian Angel, various facets, anni charms, Shaftstops and good gheed’s. In most cases you’ll get better value for unidentified items because a low spawn won’t go for much. For id’d items, then the quality has a big say in what the item will go for. A perfect spawn will bring a lot while a bad one may not even trade.

For those interested in seeing what goes for what, check out the Diabloii West Trading Forum, which is where I’ve been trying to trade.

2590

That should be superior… I even previewed…

2591

Eschuta’s, two Kukos and an IK belt were the highlights of our 20 runs today. More later? Iunno. We’re headed to B’s father’s for dinner, so maybe later on. I’ll try to level the Boss some if we don’t MF.

2592

Azurewrath, at least 3 Skystrikes, two Spires of Honor (in consecutive runs, I believe) and a Fleshripper highlighted tonight’s combined runs and Hell help/rush. None of it has been muled yet. Also, an Um was obtained from Chronos’ asn’s forge.

2593

Lightsabre, not Azurewrath, IIRC.

2594

If you mean the one that DeSeis dropped, I think that was a Lightsaber, not an Azurewrath. Also, while I can’t deny that the Herald of Zakarum helps the team paladin, it seems awfully wasteful to use an item like that on alternate tab to prebuff a single skill. Would any of the other paladins like to lay claim to it?

On another note, any thoughts about a mule rush sometime this week? Tonight or tomorrow would be bad for me, but I could do Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Between getting back into practice, putting on more levels, and Wizardspike, my sorceress is much more competent now (consistently teleporting Hell meph without BO), so we should be able to avoid a repeat of the last comedy of errors. I’ll want one helper, possibly the team paladin or barbarian, to help take out fire immunes, and possibly also help from whoever our 40 is (iampunha, you still have a few stored up, right?). Other slots should be filled by mules.

2595

I agree with you, though I’d just like to note for the record that the main reason it was initially put on the team paladin was that he wsa the only paladin there;)

I have three 40rushers saved up, I believe. I could work on another tonight; a variation of what I have done before, though. I’m thinking about making a zon with a fairly decent ice arrow, but doing it by pumping the synergies and thus keeping the mana cost as low as reasonably possible.

Tomorrow night I have the final for my stats class, but Thurs night, for example, would I think be an excellent time. We could even, Og-willing, do more than one rush, or do a full one and start on another one. I think we should first mule from last night’s runs, though.

2596

Ogs_shocker is now lvl 28 or something. He’d be about 40, but I didn’t think to get a rush to A5 when Chronos was online, and you west freaks aren’t online at 3 AM. What the hell is wrong with you?

Damage, though is no issue whatsoever. His upper is above 600 with lvl 17 res ltg and lvl 5 holy shock. I don’t think I will ever run out of skill points, and the increased dmg from HS means I can pump vit. This is a build whose life I can reasonably see exceding 600 if done right.

2597

We now have 4 level 40 chars ready for mule rushing. The paladin’s damage is maxing in the high 3Ks (min is another story). If I twink him just right I can get life to 600+, maybe 650. We’ll see how that goes; unlike with the zons, I don’t have to pump dex to get dmg. I just have to allocate +skill gear properly.

2598

Also, it’s now looking like we’ll be doing a mule rush on Thursday evening, at 7/8/9/10 PM. I’ll be teleporting and punha will be assisting, both with a 40 and with the barb or paladin, and Yeticus and his son and Punoq will (I think) be there, too. Any chance we could scrounge up three more warm bodies, to fill out the list?

Also, what are thoughts on Doper Baal runs? They’re slower than Meph, of course, but there are some items Meph can’t drop, and Baal (and his minions) gives much better experience, as well.

2599

I would like us to do Baal runs for the experience and the items (charm whoring is my specialty!) I actually like to do the whole run from Worldstone 2 wp to the throne room. That increases everyone’s chance to get Gheed’s charm (did I mention that I’m a charm whore?)

I will eventually re-organize the 1 box items into a single account which will be named sd-team1…runes, perfect gems, gem chippies, jewels, rings, amulets, small charms, and the first mule of the account will be for exclusive dumping of all 1 box items to be sorted out later.

The mules that currently contain the 1 box items can then be used for other items such as weapons, armor, etc., or the mules can be discarded and remade with a better description of what that particular mule should be holding. Eventually, I would like to see some organization for each account (armor, weapons, gloves, helms, shields, boots, belts, etc.) so we don’t have to bounce around looking for that tarnhelm or those +3 passive skill gloves.

We can discuss what is the best organizational structure for the mule accounts before it gets really out of hand. I think coming up with the right hierarchy is key here…sort by Item (armor, belts, gloves, shields, boots, helms, wands, staves, polearms, maces, rings, amulets, etc.), Color (unique, rare, set, rune-worded, socketed, magical, normal), Class (As/Am/B/D/N/P/S), Item Level (1-30, 31-60, 61+).

Also, have a dump account for those meph and baal runs so the stuff can be sorted later…

I like this hierarchy…

  1. Item
  2. Color
  3. Class (may not come into play as of yet)
  4. Item level (may not come into play as of yet)
2600

Also I forgot to ask…Do we have a “Og_Trader” account?