Fenris, Zods are obscenely rare. If you get one, it would be wasted in your sword. A Breath of the Dying runeword would be the perfect use for a Zod.
I’ll put it to you this way, Fenris:
vol and I full rushed (I think it was a full rush … might have just been hell, which is enough of a pain) a guy, plus gave him a Tiamat’s shield and a crafted ring with about 11% ll on it (and other fun mods) … all for a Zod. And it was a steal.
If you got a Zod, you would be saving it for Breath of the Dying, which is Vex Hel El Eld Zod Eth (I think. I haven’t quite memorized all the new rune words).
And now all I need for Kingslayer, now that I’ve abandoned my swordbarb, is Mal, assuming MDSL hasn’t used his Um yet (and if so, no worries; I can run countess with this new guy much faster’n with the old). And if I can get my hands on a Jah I can make Fury, but I’m not holding my breath (of the dying). Cuz a Gul ain’t something you just throw in a weapon. Not yet, anyway; I don’t have 15 of them laying around doing nothing.
If anyone happens upon me today and I haven’t gotten to Baal runs yet (I only want a few more levels to secure 3K HP and beef up some other things), I’d love some help getting past act 2 and 3. At that point I can run countess until my eyes bleed.
I still have the Um. I can hook you up. I also have a whole mess of lower level runes. I’ve been transmuting like a crazy man and I still have tons of the damn things 
I also have about 7 Hels that I don’t know what to do with. So if you have any ideas…
Transmute them, d00d. I have some chipped gems. I’ll be on punswva2.
And there’s no point now in giving me the Um, as I have relegated the barb to being a Hell-level mule. I may end up playing with chips and other such fun things (i.e. cubing) later on, but for now he is a hell-level mule until I find enough gear to restore him.
er…which barb? Og, or Stol? And I forgot to ask for a nm rush for my palidin…forgot that he wasn’t to Baal yet…later on I suppose.
Well, I managed my way into A5. I still have several side quests to do (Radament in I think two diffs, Den in NM and Hell, Book in NM and Hell, figurine in Norm and NM, Anya in Hell and probably a few others. Oh, and 3 Forges and 2 Malus), but I can now at least do Hell Baal runs for xp. I’d go do countess for an hour but … well, I am exhausted. I woke up at about 2 (AM) and have been awake since.
Og…
I LOVE IT!
(Being on West, I didn’t know what you named him punha
Maybe I will name my next Barb “Og of Grog” or something…
Sometimes, I wish I can “Untrasmute” a rune to get the three (or even 2) next lower runes…
Not just ANY Og.
Ahem.
When he beats Baal in Hell (which may well never happen, since that first kill bug is so juicy), he will be Patriarch Og_Smash. For now, he is Champion Og_Smash.
Past (and of eminent status) barbs of mine have been punmfmacebarb and punmfbarb. So I thought I would have fun with my naming from now on. My very first char when I got D2 was Stol, the barbarian. So my first barb on ladder was also Stol, which I felt was a very barbarian-like name. The next one was Mosch, but somehow I thought Og_Smash would make for a better name for a character who … well, smashes things up. He dual-equips mace-class weapons and is currently using Demon Limb Tyrant Club and Horizon’s Tornado Scourge. He needs to be doing more damage, but that will come with time, and for now his resists and leeching are more of a necessity than his damage. A character who relies upon melee damage is going to be hurting anyway, and the reason I built (rather, am building) this guy is as a companion to vol’s MF sorc. So really he has to withstand Hell Meph, Hell Baal runs, the occasional “let’s break up the monotony” Andy runs and Pit runs.
Yeehaw. Finally beat Hell Baal with my zookeeper. Turns out the key things to do are a) use town portal to let all my forces dogpile the poor fella, b) make sure several of my mages were cold users and c) decrep, decrep, decrep. After that, he became the easiest fight I’ve had in a while, although it took a while to take him down. Didn’t even lose a skellie. Hm. Bastard got back at me, though, by not dropping anything besides a pair of frosties…
Ah, well. This gives now me more time to devote to my werebear, “Grizzleby.” I even found a bow for his rogue earlier tonight, once she grows into…goldstrike arch, I believe it’s called. Very cool weapon.
Goldstrike Arch is the U Gothic Bow and has insane IAS. IMHO it’s worth upgrading if you can, though be sure whoever’s equipping it has the stats to use it.
MDSL and I plowed through various things and got a few runes, a nice rare Blade bow, rite of passage boots and some other stuff. Nothing totally spectacular.
Well, boys and girls. I’m going home for the Holidays. I’ll be back on the realms on Sunday night.
Happy Trails and Happy Holidays!
–==Mike==–
So I don’t have to scroll through all this to find out, who all’s playing on USEast, and where are you?
I just reinstalled this (been waiting for the 1.1) and would love to play with some dopers.
Welcome, Eonwe…
Just join (or make) sdmb//cecil and you’ll find them or they will find you…
I’m on West and on occasion, on East (if West goes down)…
It’s just a plain old lovefest no matter which realm you join on.
I suggest both because of the 3 hour time difference…
And do read at least back towards the end of October when 1.10 came out and you’ll get a good idea of where everyone is on and all the nifty things we’ve discovered thus far…
I’m punswva and punswva2. I’d add more, but I am very sleepy and about to leave for a family gathering where the family members are all unrelated to me completely.
Long ugly story and some whining. Skip this post if you’re not in the mood.
(Although, I suppose it could be worse)
I was doing Baal runs. I’d done about 3 or so in NM with no problem (using my Magic Find gear). I was getting shit for drops, but what the hey. Roll the dice enough and something’s sure to come up, right?
So I start on what I’d planned would be my last run. And it looked like an easy one. None o’ them danmed burning souls, none of the Oblviion Knights: just the axe guys and the harpy-chicks. AND all the stairs were near the other stairs. I whipped right through. No prob.
I whizzed right through to the Throneroom, I wiped out the first three groups of minions…then…the Venom lords come out and I’'m insta-slaughered. I’m not sure how or why, but no big deal–they’re wimps. It’s not like they’re the lizard things in the last wave. A couple of shots with nova and they’re toast. They’re even easier softened up with a few statics first. Right?
Wrong.
I TP back down (and make a new TP). Normally it’s easy to lure the bastards away from my corpse and then teleport over to it. No such luck this time. Apparently, Baal has bred a newer, stronger, smarter Venom Lord. About half of them come after me, and the other half sit on my corpse.
Again, not a huge deal, right? They’ve split up. Easier to kill! I go back to town and get my good stuff (a really nice helm that Charsi made, a pair of wyrmhide crafted sorc. booties, my frostburns AND that shield from the Orphan’s set :: sob :: I NEED that shield ) 'cause there’s no way I can take these new Kryptonian-style Venom Lords on naked.
Then, just as I TP down…the game lags. I’m killed. With two bodies full of stuff. THEN the damned game kicks me out “…dropped due to Timeout” which has NEVER happened to me before. I rejoin the game but…only the stuff on my first corpse has survived. The three items on my second corpse are gone, perhaps forever.
I figure, “Maybe my other corpse is still down there or at least the items on it are laying around?” and zip back down. I eventually kill the new, uber-Venom-lords, and look around. All the money and potions I’ve dropped are there, but no body, no items.
I decide to finish the fight 'cause ev’rybody knows that the tougher the fight, the better Baal’s drops, right?
Not so much.
After fighting another group of super-minions (lister took like 25 shots to kill. He normally takes about 8 - 15 in NM) I go after Baal. Who instantly clones, before I even get to him.
I finally take him down, and y’know what he drops? After costing me four really good items (I gotta replace the frostburns…I suck without them) a few dozen deaths, etc?
-
A shacko hat–Not the “shacko” artifact that everyone drools over… Just a nice rare item.
-
Some stoopid sword or other. (It was magic and it sucked)
-
A TP scroll
-
A flawed saph.
-
A identify scroll.
That’s it.
Dammit.
:mad: : sigh :
Fenris, with a much less effective sorceress.
That’s why you always retrieve your corpse or leave the game and rejoin… sorry that you had to learn the hard way.
FYI, you’re probably better off running Meph.
I’m back and about to jump on to get my D2 fix, which has been starved for a week.
Yeah Fen, it’s dangerous to re-equip before getting your body. The game will only save the body with the most expensive equipment if you leave the game for any reason. You’re probably lucky that your first body was worth more than your second.
BTW, I’ve got a Whistans shield somewhere with your name on it.
Thanks Vol. I’ve recreated an iteration of the boots (they were wyrmhide casters…I made demonhide casters with similar stats. I know Pun has some blank tiaras and I’m pretty sure I can bum one off him to have Charsi do her thing to. So I’m not too badly off.
I think I paid a very low price to learn an important lesson (I’d thought that the multiple dead body thing meant that if you died, you’d get ALL your stuff back. Oops)
I learned that lesson after about an hour and a half trying to retrieve a body… fortunately, no Battlenet problems. I got a stern lecture from a veteran player about it.
Did you still need Frostburns? (If you’re on USEast, buzz me, “fluiddruid2” is my ladder acct.)
I could use 'em for my 'zon. Who_me? was nice enough to give me a pair for my Sorc. I’ll be on and off early this morning and should be on tonight. Maybe I have something to swap you for them.