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

Cafe Society
1221

I did some Hell countess runs tonight. My best rune? Tal. That’s right, Tal. The wimpiest part of the Frozen Highlands quest reward. I get better rune drops than that rushing people through Normal! I got an Ist from the Hell forge though (my first), so I guess I can’t complain too loudly. But seriously…Eld and Nef? That’s just cold.

Would one of you who’s doing Forge runs be interested in posting a detailed, step-by-step explanation of how to get through each act as quickly as possible? Right now, I know, I goes something like:

Act One: WP to Catacombs 2, walk/tele to Catacombs 4, clear the first two rooms, Town Portal the mules in, kill Andy, take the caravan.

Act Two: WP to Maggot Lair, find Coldworm the Burrower and kill him, Town Portal the mules in and have them get their staves. WP to Lost City, find the Valley of Snakes, clear Claw Viper Temples 1 and 2, TP the mules in and have them touch the altar. Combine into staves. WP to Arcane, find the Summoner, TP the mules in, kill the summoner, read the book, go through the portal, have one of the mules tell you the symbol of the true tomb. Find the Orifice in the true tomb, tp the mules in, have one insert the staff, kill Duriel (they don’t need to be there for this part?)

Note that if you have a staff, people without Tainted Sun can get Duriel (or at least, I was in a bnet game with a guy who claimed that that happened, after bitching for 10 minutes that he was wasting his time because we’d done the Claw Viper Temple already). He got to the Arcane Sanctuary through the Palace Cellar (which is pretty easy, the layout never changes), then got quest credit for Duriel while inside the Sanctuary, dispite not having done any other A2 quests. So if you have 3 mules, you can use them to make three staves, mule two of them, then use those staves to rush the next sets of mules (or the same set through NM and Hell, probably more efficient since you have to find the Cube in normal no matter what).

Act Three: WP to Travincal, kill most of the council, TP the mules in, kill the rest of the council. WP to Durance 2, find Durance 3, clear out everything but Meph, TP the mules in, kill Meph (optionally, just teleport past everything and open a portal on the other side of the flaming river).

Act Four: TP to River, do the Hellforge, clear the River, the Sanctuary, and the Minions. TP the mules in to watch you kill Diablo.

Act Five: TP to Highlands, kill Shenk. Clear Worldstone 2 and 3, clear the Throne, kill the minions, TP in someone who didn’t have the Baal quest, kill Baal (and then everyone gets it, even if they haven’t done ancients?).

Do I have that basically right? Are there any shortcuts I’m leaving out?

Clearly you want as many mules as possible (bounded by the killing ability of the rushers), so what’s a good mix of classes for the mules? The #1 issue is clearly survivability, so I’m thinking 3 Paladins: one for Prayer and two for Resists.

Last: it sounds like it would be really handy to have a “pool” of level 20 and 40 characters who could make baal-for-quest games (20 and 40 being the Ancients cutoffs IIRC). I don’t see an easy way to create such a thing, however; levels 25 to 40 are smooth sailing in public normal Baal games, but levels 1 to 25 are annoying. Best would be to have 7 such mules follow around 1 high-level Sorceress or Amazon or similar group-killer, and bask in the xp, but the logistics involved defeat me.

1222

Meanwhile, my Paladin is almost ready for the quest of his life (level 47 out of a target of level 50), but he still needs a few items. Yeti, if you still have that Wilhelm’s Pride battle belt, TempusNihilator is ready for it. He also still needs:
A 3 socket knout (exceptional flail)
A io rune
A 3 socket helm (any old helm with 3 sockets, preferably with str requirement < 105)
A paladin shield with good resists and 0 or 4 sockets (normal or exceptional, str < 105, preferably 50% or more blocking)
An amulet with chance to cast amplify damage
A lifesteal ring would also be nice, but I can go with Cathans if I don’t get anything better

Except for the rune, these should all be fairly easy to find, except that I haven’t. I actually had the shield earlier today, but I stupidly left it on the ground and it evaporated. If any West dopers have or find any of these items, please save them for me. I’ll also need a Hell rush (stopping along the way to rescue Anya, and possibly going to Hell Anya). If this idea works, I’ll find enough Annihili for all of us.

1223

Actually, I’ve heard many different stories about getting the various quests. Some say only one of the mules needs to be present to get the quests for all of the mules to get it. I do know that you can get the Diablo quest without being in sight of Diablo. I was getting more health and mana one time when I received the quest. Maybe we should experiment in normal some time to see just what has to be done to get the quests.

Punha, SD_me was me last night. I wanted to burn in the mule while burning in a new account. This will be the account I’ll be using whenever the ladder resets, numbnut_SDMB. I enjoyed the sight of the level one barb doing squats in front of the stash.

1224

Does anyone here play on open west?

1225

I think, but am not sure, that the A2 Staff, much like the flail, soulstone and other quest-specific items, have been modified in 1.10, with the resulting effect that they do not work in other difficulties. I’d be perfectly willing to try giving a newly-in-hell character the staff from Act2 Norm, but it would probably be red (i.e. nonfunctional) in Hell. I think that trade would have to be made in Act2, too.

I have a level 40 prayerdin with maxed Prayer, level 3 Meditation and level 4 or so Fist. He’s ready to be rushed to his Hell Forge. I’m working on the next one, who is level 12 so far.

1226

I know that you can mule the staff downward in difficulty. I did that with a NM staff that I gave to a lvl 1 mule. That staff, in turn was used by thinksnow on his latest character in normal. What we could do is get the staff in normal for all the rushees, then hand them off (or try to) to other characters and take those characters out of the game so that the staff doesn’t disappear when the tomb is opened. Then we can see if those staves can be used in the next difficulty.

The problem with doing it this way is that it will only save you the time it takes to get to the Maggot lair 3. Everyone must still get the ammy to be able to get a tp into the arcane. This is what I had to do with thinksnow. The opening of the box in the viper level2 is a sort of subquest that allows you to take the tp. The only option to that would be to go though the palace which would take even more time.

So, all in all… I don’t know whether muling staves is really worth it if we have a sorceress tp’ing down.

1227

If it would interest, I’ve got a NM Khalim’s Will muled for SP. I don’t have a character in Act III Normal right now, though, is the problem. I also don’t have a Staff muled at all, because it’s not so good a weapon and I like to scum the Maggot Lair.

1228

It’s a lot easier to TP through in Norm than in Hell. For voltaire I am sure the difference is not quite so grand, but for Fenris’ sorc the difference would be a touch more pronounced. And of course if neither of them are online the responsibility falls to me, I think, unless I’m the one being rushed.

1229

Click on the link and follow the directions to get into the fold:

Diablo 2 Account Names

1230

On the other hand, when Yeti and I were fighting Diablo for the first time in Normal, he didn’t get credit. We were both “honest” characters (i.e., non-mule, and both actually fighting), but I think that Yeti may have been dead at the moment that Diablo died.

Meanwhile, I now have the Io rune I needed, thanks to Yeti, and the resistance shield I needed, thanks to theckhd. Ironically, it’s beginning to look like the stupid 3rd level amulet is the hardest item to find for this build (I’d also settle for a ring, at this point).

To clarify on mule rushing: Is it necessary to get the Ancients quest in order to get credit for Baal?

1231

  1. Try trading for an Atma’s Scarab

  2. Nope.

1232

To expand on punha’s short answer to number 2…
No :wink:

Okay, I’ll continue. You just have to be partied with someone who does not already have the Baal quest, who is present when Baal dies, thus getting the quest. When he/she gets the quest, everybody in Act 5 who does not have the quest will get it. You just have to physically be in Act 5 somewhere.

1233

Oh, as long as I’m here…

I finally maxed my javazon’s resistances at 75, 75, 85, and 85 in hell… I was beginning to wonder if I ever would. The druid’s resistances really suck at the moment. He was rushed from normal to hell and I really didn’t have too much in hell lvl equipment to give him, I guess he’ll get equipped eventually. He really only needs body armor and gloves if he wants to wear the pieces of Aldur’s that he has. I definately need to level him at least 10 levels before I try taking on hell with him without a lot of help. He’s only lvl 58.

I maxed the pally’s resistances out also… but of course that’s just in normal. In two levels or so, he’ll be able to put on Goldskin armor and get rid of the POS he’s wearing now.

1234

I have been playing for about 3 years now, all sp.

The best ever drop I ever saw was on my first character, a bowazon, killing diablo in nightmare I got a large charm. Pestilent large charm of Anthrax, +330 poison dmg over 10 seconds. I traded it on open for a buriza.

Funny thing about it, I had nadda for mf, didn’t even know why anyone would want mf, I concentrated on dmg and resists. I hadn’t heard of the buriza, the guy I traded with just said it was a good bow. Ah, to be that innocent again! :wink:
Now I play the way I want. I use a dropmod/expanded stash patch and regularily dupe stuff. Yeah, I know everyone thinks it’s bad, but since I ONLY play sp, I’m gonna play the way I want, I haven’t traded since I added the mods and started duping, so I’m not screwing anyone else up.

I play TCPIP with my brother all the time and we love it, just wish I could get some of the really fantastic items. I have had a Cruel Collosus (sp?) blade just drop in regular play, but nothing else really great.

1235

Cool. The reason I ask is that my paladin is almost ready to get rushed to Hell, and once the rusher gets him there, he should be able to take on NM Baal solo (remember, his whole build is optimized for killing bosses). Which would be a good opportunity to give the quest to a few other mules, if we can coordinate it.

Meanwhile, my sorc now has all four of her primary skills maxed (firebolt, fireball, meteor, fire mastery), and I’m trying to decide what to do with her current, unassigned, skill point. My options, as I see them, are:
Inferno, for the mild synergy with meteor (increase to the damage over time from the flames)
Enchant, since I’m usually playing with 4-8 weapon users
Hydra, which is starting to look attractive as a survival skill
Or I could finally start putting real skill points into non-fire skills.
Enchant is probably a bad option, since I’ve learned that it can actually decrease the damage done to fire immunes. Which are the things I need my teammates to be killing in the first place. And meteor impact damage (16k, last I checked) is high enough that the flame damage isn’t really needed. But Hydra is very useful for shooting around corners, or at long-range enemies off-screen (gloams, anyone?), and I already have Firebolt and Mastery maxed, so I can get a lot out of points in it. On my non-fire skills, I already have all I need from plusses on my items. The problem there just comes in when I teleport somewhere and get killed, and can’t teleport to retreive my body. So I guess it’s really a question of hydra vs. teleport.

1236

Who, I’ve got a spare mace and boots for Aldurs, if you don’t have them yet.

Speaking of: I would like a touch of advice on what to socket (3) into the Aldurs Rhythm. Even with the completed Watchtower bonuses, it’s maul damage (WB form) maxes around 1500, IIRC, while my switched buriza starts at 1100 and tops in the high 3ks. The AR is better on the Buriza, too, of course.

So, I’ve got 3 sockets and I want to really be able to crank the damage or at least the effective hitting power, if that means crushing blow or prevent heal or what have you.

Ideas?

1237

Chronos, Hydras are good as scouts (you made a similar point, but I think it bears expansion); if you don’t know what, if anything, is ahead, it never (or rarely; see ahead) hurts to lay one or two out and see what happens. Of course, if your lightning resistance is horrible, or if you happen to wake up a group of Fanat Champion Maulers (or those lethal axe-guys), then obviously you’d rather leave those things as they are. Given those choices of fire skills, however, I’d go with hydra.

Thinksnow, you will probably not, or at least not without a lot of IAS jewels and Shaels, get that weapon to hit faster. The bad part about that set is that the mace really does not pack enough damage for later levels; other than putting some 30% ED jewels in it or getting a holy freeze merc to compensate for your damage and speed, I don’t know what to suggest.

1238

Well, I’ve got a pair of 15%IAS jewels I could put somewhere (else), as opposed to Sheals, which would have to go in the weapon.

Maybe an Ohm-Ohm-Ohm…

1239

I really need to remember to check off the signature…

1240

Just got to Hell last night with my new paladin, and it’s soooo much easier than the assassin was. I figured out that against creatures that start off with no resistances higher than 15%, I’m doing 1,700 points on average of damage, divided almost equally amongst physical, fire, cold, and electric (not nearly as much physical as the rest, though).

I’ve not found any good equipment for my paladin yet, but I just picked up a rare dual-leech Colossus Voulge than does something like 70-700 damage; my merc is now doing around 2,500 points of physical damage per hit.

Wheee! Now to find some good armor…

Daniel