I actually considered making an orb/hydra sorc for this current attempt, but I was afraid that the whole “dodging bullets” thing that can happen with hydras (hydrae? It’s a Greek word, but I dunno the word endings there), which would make casting them pointless. However, you can also have five of them active at any one time, which makes for some nice collective damage. What would you recommend coupling with hydra? It’s got a casting delay, so I’d like to couple it with something that’ll slow stuff down but won’t delay my re-cast of hydras. Perhaps frost nova? I don’t dare go solely fireskills, but lightning requires either being close enough to the enemy to be hit or staying in one place for more than a half-second (orb-tp-staticstaticstaticstatic-orb-tp-orb-tp - that’s how baal runs go with the minions).
Right now I have energy shield at about level 8, maybe 9, and telekinesis same level, and warmth maxed, and the only time I run out of mana is if I have a helluva lotta stuff coming at me. With frosties, lidless and 85 points put in energy, I run about 900 mana right now.
I’m very patient, though. Hafta be to take a sorc past norm Duriel without drinking a potion;) I’ll just have to be diligent with muling this char the equipment she’ll need. I’ll sure have all the dex and energy I can handle:D
On the contrary, I find that hydras are very hard to dodge. The key is to not put them all in the same place. When I use them, I scatter them as much as I can, which makes it likely that no matter what way an enemy moves, it’ll be radial to a hydra or to myself (meaning that we’ll hit). Plus, they don’t start moving until they’re aware of you, which might not be until after they’re dead, if you’re at long range. Scattering them also gives you the added advantage of triangulating the position of monsters offscreen, so you can shoot things at them without seeing them.
I don’t know what would fit well between the casting delays, though… Frost nova seems like it would get you dangerously close to monsters, and the other decent damage cold spells also have delays. Lightning or chain lightning, perhaps? Especially if Chain Lightning bounces off of walls, like the Amazon’s Lightning Fury. I usually use fireballs there, but I understand why you wouldn’t want to specialize too much (on the other hand, fireball is a synergy for hydra). Another option would be to just go with Frozen Orb, switch back and forth depending on the enemies you’re facing, and just put up with the delay.
iirc Glacial Spike has no casting delay and freezes monsters completely in an area of effect. I think that would probably be the best skill to pair with hydra. You may also want to consider pumping Static Field a bit, so that you can quickly reduce bosses without having to stand next to them. Bosses will probably be the hardest part of this build, since Static doesn’t work to full effectiveness and Glacial Spike won’t completely freeze them. Probably ought to pick up either an Act 2 holy freeze merc or Act 5 barbarian for tanking and physical damage.
That’s true, but the area of effect is decently small (2.6 yards), and it doesn’t leave stuff frozen for all that long, though with points in Blizzard the 4.1 seconds I’d get for slvl 20 glacial spike would be increased by 3% per point. I think I will have to go with a Holy Freeze merc, which means I’ll have to sacrifice some in the way of gear to ensure enough life regen, but it also means I can concentrate more on my fire skills and consider going with … hell, I dunno. Charged bolt? The lightning tree doesn’t offer a lot in the way of effective spells that don’t start out at 1 damage and don’t require standing either completely still or right next to something.
Would love to do this to see just how fast we can level up one afternoon or evening…if we were able to make each Baal run (~5 million per run) in 5 minutes or less, then that means 12 runs and hour and (since I need 160 million) to get to level 91 would take about 2 hours and 40 minutes. Obviously if your character is below level 90, then it will take less time to level up. I would even be happy if we could commit ourselves an average of 1 or 2 hours per night on just power-baal running and see what we can obtain from baal with 8 (or at least 5-7) players. We could even wipe up iampunha’s list in a few nights…er maybe.
I’m gone for Memorial Day weekend though…maybe Monday night I’ll be back. Going to Mammoth/Yosemite!
For Baal runs I could be available on weekends. I can’t do weeknights usually due to me getting up so early and being in the east, I’m on too early for those of you out west.
I’m trying to trade for a Griffon’s now. Since I’m out of the middle runes, I’ve got to offer an Ist, so I’m trying to get a Skullder’s and a Fire Facet too. If he agrees to give up the facet, I’m planning to give it to Chronos for his sorceress. If he doesn’t want it or can’t equip it, I’ll give it to whoever can use it.
Well, i just need to trade for a 3 socket archon plate and i’ll have the enigma for my paladin. If you want to try doing some runs tonight, i should be up for it.
Heck, yeah, I can use a fire facet. I’ll have to figure out what to put it in, and I might need to unsocket my armor, but I can use it. Especially if it has good -resists on it… That’d make it a lot easier to take out Venom Lords and Burning Dead Archers. Thanks!
I’ll be on momentarily, and I’m game for runs on Thursday or Friday nights in general.
I’m not entirely sure how experience works for this, but have you considered having one person do Meph while the other two work on Baal? You’ll have to be unpartied with that person to get more XP, I think. Again, I am not sure how the system works, so you’ll want to make sure you understand it before you try.
Simply get someone who doesn’t have the Baal quest to get LH every time and you should be set. Give 'em tanking gear and keep 'em at champion.
Well, to let those of you not there, we had our first 8 player SDMB Baal runs last night. We had to rush a couple of us from NM to get a Hell level character for them to use, but there were 8 Dopers (or former Dopers) in game and running. We only did 3 runs, but they went well except for Baal dropping lousy.
Cheap bastard - a friend and I went through Hell Diablo and got Doombringer plus something else. How much MF was there on the last hit guy, do you know?
Just picked up a Death Cleaver today. Also, i didn’t notice Tomb Reaver on the list before, i have 2 of them.
In case there’s anyone on here who hasn’t heard me whine about this yet, i’m looking for a 3 socket archon plate (or an unsocketed one to use the cube recipie on). Preferably 500+ def. Let me know if anybody finds one.
Before I retire for the night, I just want to say it was a pretty decent day… magic-finding anyway. Besides the Leviathan, I also found an Eaglehorn and a Guardian Angel which I gave to one of the new guys’ pallys. I also found a Razor’s Edge, that my axe barb will enjoy. Combined with the Tal Rasha Ammy I found yesterday, it’s been a fairly productive weekend so far.
Party-wise, I know we also found a Sandstorm Trek and a Jade Talon also. The only Baal run produced the Skewer of Krinitz, so he’s still being stubborn.
ED, the last hit on the Baal runs were probably by a Tal set equipped sorceress and on the last one it was either him or my mf necro that got the last hit. So there was mf in the last hit.
Let it here be known that it is possible to take a no-vit sorc past Norm Duriel.
Of course, I was wearing The Centurion, an Angelic Ring, Bloodfist, Biggin’s Bonnet and I had at least 50 in life from charms, boosting my life to about 240, but that gear will all eventually be switched out for better stuff (frosties, good rare rings, probably Hwanin’s helm for the 20 life regen, Skins of the Vipermagi…).
Now we go on to act 3, where I will have hydra at least at level 2 or 5 before I try Mephy. As I am currently level … 26, I believe, this will require a touch of work.
Let if further be known that a no-vit sorc can beat Meph and Diablo (Diablo was embarassingly easy; three static fields, some orb, hid behind part of a wall and aimed hydras at him for thirty seconds).
I get to thinking when I’m playing (spike spike spike spike hydra spike spike spike hydra can only occupy just so much of my mind), about any number of things. What’s relevant to this thread is that I’m wondering how fast y’all Westers could beat Hell … as a group, of course … without using any items you’ve found. Start completely from scratch. I won’t make any annoying requirements like “get all waypoints” or “complete all quests” (nihlathak I have always found to be just this side of pointless). I’m merely wondering how long it would take you lot to get completely through the game with no rushing, no items muled (except those you find with your new characters once this endeavor is begun), nothing. I’m betting it would take five days (not all day every day, but five calendar days). Once this effort is underway you’re of course allowed to mulerush with your new characters; say Who_me makes a sorc and theckhd makes a hammerdin. Y’all could rush umpteen mules to get NM forge in the hopes of being able to make something useful. However, you couldn’t use any character made before this challenge started, nor an item gotten before this challenge started or any item gotten by a character made before this challenge started.
Any questions? I’m not requiring this, just saying it would be interesting to see. This is essentially what happened with the import of the ladder season, and it might be a good idea to practice it once or twice for when that happens.
Heh, i think i’m channeling punha. i was just thinking the other day of suggesting a doper purist group, but i didn’t think anyone would be interested. That sort of idea is a lot of fun though, i’ve done it before. I think 5 days might be a pretty good estimate too, you can knock off normal in about 4 hours with 4 or 5 people. It does get harder in nightmare though.
If anyone is up for this idea, we could plan for doing it on a weekend when everyone’s available.
Also, i’m thinking of doing a real mule rush (non-purist ;)) this afternoon or tonight, if people are around and up for it.