Damn, broke my biggest pet peeve…
You can find your character’s blocking rate by hovering your mouse over your defense on the character screen.
Well, thanks to buckgully, I got the pul rune to complete the upgrade of my perfect titan’s and the damage stats went from 79-212 throw damage to 130-248 throw damage and I’ve seen more monsters take a dirt nap in one throw instead of two. Nice upgrade…but sometimes, I find myself acting like a tank and I charge into some nasty groups that kill me off after my first throw when I should be more careful turning around dark corners…
Chronos was very helpful in finding a +3 bow/xbow skills grand matron bow with three sockets and gave me the runes to make it a “melody” runeword…very nice to have +6 to bow/xbow skills…and I do have the runes to replace them with…
buck didn’t leave empty-handed…I have two sets of runes to make melody and gave him the other set of runes (for when we find him another 3soc mat bow), my skystrike, the crafted gloves that chronos gave me and a couple of rings to bolster his resists, and yet I feel that I still owe him some other things…
I might be on tonight, but I have to make an early night of it since I have to be on a Laughlin bus trip at 7am tomorrow (Sat.) and won’t be back until midnight. We’ll see if I’m sober enough to be on Sat. Night…(doubtful)…
Geeze, for some reason I haven’t been getting any notification on the state of this thread, so I missed all the great offers being thrown my way! I’ll definitly take that Hellrack off your hands for you. I have only gotten my zon up to level 42 this morning. I have been too busy rushing Puhna and (someone else?) to actually work on my char 
I expect the next DShell that drops, by the way 
Do you want to put low level stater stuff on the communal mule, or not? I have plenty of that stuff to donate and runes and gems too if that’s what we’re doing with it. It would be easier to trade things when all of the resources are on one account.
In other news, we were talking about making a trapassin last night and I was wondering if anyone had successfully done so on this build of the game. If so, what should I focus on? Do traps make a dent in Hell? Does the damage scale?
Hey vol, you still out there in diablo land? I’ve been looking to get the Tal stuff transfered for a bit now. She’s got a belt (14%) and an ammy already, but she needs the rest of it. Also need some shield and glove stuff.
AGGGHHHHH!!!
Got IP blocked just now… too much switching of characters probably. Now I have to wait until they let me back on… I can still get into other realms, just not East.
Well… it’s happened before and will probably happen again…
I’ve got a decent SP Trapassin in Hell Act 2. With maxed Death Sentry, Lightning Sentry and Wake of Inferno she’s respectively doing average of 1050 lightning (or corpse pop), 1250 lightning and 1000 fire per second. With a decently equipped merc and +8 to skills it seems to be working so far, but I’ll get back to you when I get to Diablo.
Aside from a few items (Raven Frost, Dwarf Star and Magefist for tanking and another Nagel or something equal for MFing), the Talsorc is geared up. She’s level 76 and is busily (or was until I stopped playing for the time being) leveling up the merc so he can equip the Reaper’s Toll. On her first NM Baal run (done with the first-kill bug intact) equipped with Tal and other MF gear, she scored a Bonehew, and while leveling the merc, who’s now 65 or so, she found a Fal. I am planning, unless someone would like to suggest a better plan, to do solo River runs in 8-player games to get her merc levels. Once she has Decrep working, life will be much, much easier for all concerned. For that to be the case, however, merc needs 8 levels, so optimistically it will be midnight before she is ready for Hell and later than that before she is in her mid 80s and ready for Hell Meph runs.
I had understood that magic find was now irrelevant against act bosses? Not that you need it, with the quest credit bug.
Meanwhile, we had a total of five Dopers on USWest yesterday. Myself, Yeti, theckd, and buckgully were all online, with a special guest appearance from the SDMB hampster, who was running the battle.net servers that night. Ping times ranged from about 50 to 2000, sporadically, and without warning.
In the good news department, I’ve found a new place to hang out in Hell. The Mausoleum, like the Pit, can potentially drop any item, but unlike the Pit, there are no fire immunes in the Mausoleum (aside from the occasional boss, which my merc can generally kill). And it’s much larger, as of 1.10. As icing on the cake, there aren’t any ranged attackers. The one “drawback” is that it’s chock full of undead, largely skeletons, which would make leeching difficult… Except that I’m playing a sorceress :).
I can tell you for a fact that magic find makes a difference on act bosses. I notice a huge difference between 100%MF and 500%MF when doing meph runs. In about 20-30 runs i usually find at least 5-6 good uniques, usually more.
haven’t heard of the quest credit bug yet though, what is it?
You’re supposed to get better loot from a boss the first time you kill him. But they use the quest status to keep track of whether it’s your first time. So you can kill a boss repeatedly with the same character and get really good stuff, so long as you never get credit for the quest (i.e., if the game was made by someone who already has the quest). I’m pretty sure that this is the same as the “first kill” bug mentioned by iampunha, so you’re probably already familiar with it.
Meanwhile, Battle.net let me stay on just long enough this evening to find an Eye of Etlich. There are other amulets I’d rather have, but the Eye isn’t too bad, I suppose. Is there some new hack that everyone’s using that’s slaughtering the servers, or is there some other reason why the realm is down?
Magic find is extremely relevant with all non-firstkill enemies. The difference in drops between my 82% mf barb doing Meph and vol’s MF sorc is quite striking, especially over a half-dozen or so drops.
No fire immunes, eh? Well then my sorc, who does between 7 (with full mf gear) and 12K damage per meteor … ::wicked, maniacal laugh:: oh, it will be interesting when the merc is up to level 75 (I had misremembered the lvl req for Reaper’s Toll).
Re: lag and reasons for it, there is nearly always someone hacking. What makes a difference is how many people are hacking, how much they are doing, etc.
Don’t be knocking the Eye of Etlich. Its cold damage has a super-long duration (6 to 10 seconds, or some such) that adds to other cold-based weapon attacks. So my Bowazon’s Frozen Arrow lasts for 3 full seconds in Hell. I guess it doesn’t work so well with your plan though; want a Crescent Moon?
ah, i was under the impression that the only way you got the improved drop was if the quest was being completed. I don’t know that i’ve actually tried though. I can imagine abusing this with hell baal to get some nice drops though.
If you don’t want that eye, i’m sure my hammerdin would like it Maybe i have something to compensate you for it.
I haven’t noticed a great deal of lag on bnet, and i have both computers running D2 some of the time.
The sorc is up to level 77, which is about as high as I’m going to get her in NM runs. The only thing that gives me much XP at all is the last two sets of minions, and even they don’t do a whole lot. The merc has graduated to Reaper’s Toll, so now pretty much the only thing that can kill him is being surrounded or IM. I’ve got at least 12 more skill points (+4 quests, lvl 77 to lvl 85) to invest, and since Meteor does over 10K when I’m sporting full Tal’s, I don’t see the need to put more in Fire Bolt. Fire ball does over 4K in Talset, too. Fun, that. Mana-intensive, but fun.
So tomorrow (read: later today) I’m hoping someone will be along to help me with a Hell rush. I’m going to actually want the skill/stat side quests, to be even more annoying;) After the rush is done I’ll probably do some Hell Baal runs to level 80s and then do a trial run of Hell Meph to see how things go.
Hey pun, I found a staff (rare, I don’t recall the name) that has +2 fire skills and +2 fire ball & 2 other +1 Xskills, w/ some other stuff. Don’t know if you’re interested, but I thought I’d mention it.
hey Chronos, were you still looking for that Eschuta’s Temper? Baal Dropped one yesterday, though it’s only +2 sorc. skills, 11% fire and 16% lightning.
by the way, would anyone happen to have a HoZ they wouldn’t mind trading? I’m trying to pick one up for my hammerdin.
also i’m up for the communal mule / talsorc ideas.
Honestly, you may want to go full MF with it, Skullders/Shako/Goldwrap/Gull/Rhyme etc. It all depends on how much equip you need to keep afloat. Plus a weapon switch can do wonders, just load them up with Occy/Lidless or any shield with enough resistance and blocking to get you to lvl 3. I’m pretty good at meph running efficiently (only die in around 1 out of 20 runs), and that’s with a character that has resistances that max out at -20.
Chronos, Yeti, sturm, and buckgully: were we going to do this on west? If so i’m willing to pitch in some time/items to the cause.
Wow, ask, and you shall receive. The spawn could be a lot better, but that’s still a definite improvement over what I’m using now (some magic orb with +2 skills). Thank you!
And we could do the communal accunt thing, theckd, if you have the gear to make it float. I have some hand-me-down sorc items I could contribute, but nothing better than a +2 lightning skills rare orb, and I think that the others have been funneling most of the sorc gear they find to me (not that there’s really all that much in the way of “sorc gear”… I do over half my regular damage while naked).
And I’d gladly trade that Eye of Etlich for an Atma’s Scarab, if you have one. But if I should happen to find an amp damage ring (if they exist… I’m not yet statistically certain on that one), I’m keeping it on my paladin. I’d rather give up a Cathan’s ring for the amp damage than a 7% life steal Eye. Be advised that I haven’t yet tested the cold duration on it, btw.
By the way, iampunha, I’m probably one of the few folks who can laugh at a 7k meteor. My fireball does that much damage, and I have enough mana regen to keep it up nearly indefinitely. Yes, I’m gloating… Just don’t even say the word “fallen”, or she’ll cower in fear.
You go right ahead and laugh at a 7K meteor done with MF gear equipped. But do keep in mind that when I’m in Tal’s it’s more like 12K:D
Oh, and I have cold skills as well. Orb is close to 200 dmg now, though leveling in NM is next to impossible unless I solo 8-player Baal runs. I managed to get the sorc to level 78, but I’m gonna take a break from playing her because there’s other stuff I should be doing.
I’m afraid i don’t have an atma’s scarab, but if i find one i’ll be sure to let you know. I’ll be on in a few minutes (and then probably for the rest of the evening) so i can give you the Eschuta.
I don’t have enough to outfit a MF sorc myself, but i can contribute a good chunk:
Goldwrap
3-topaz (death?) mask
4-topaz scarab husk
30% Chance Guards
30% MF amulet
Rhyme Luna
The Ward (resists and block)
Nagelring? (not sure if i have one, but i’m sure i can get one easily enough)
Ali Baba? (my brother has one i could borrow, or just blatantly steal)
and i’m sure i have boots with MF on them somewhere as well
I think the sum MF is around 350ish not counting the boots.
Granted none of this is particularly amazing, but it’s enough to get a MF sorc started. Your +2 skills orb plus a Ward or Lidless should get her enough skills to make it through the teleporting stage. The only skills we’ll need are Meteor, Teleport, and Frozen Orb (with all other points in synergies, except maybe one or two for static field and shiver armor)
Just checked again, of of curiousity: that staff-
Bitter Bar Gnarled Staff
+2 fire skills
46-65 fire damage
1-308 lightening damage
7% life steal
+2 chill armor
+1 meteor
+2 fire ball