Diablo II Single Player Thread - 2

I don't know - all I know is that they aren't implemented. I don't know if they were suggestions/proposed/whatever, but they aren't in the game. So whatever the reason, they are of no use.

 

I like NM Baal, for both XP and items. While he cannot drop top end stuff, there's lots of stuff he can drop that is useful - like nearly every unique amulet and ring in the game. You can never have too many Raven Frosts or Stone of Jordans. I'm also still missing a lot of mid-game stuff I wouldn't mind finding. There are quite a few class-specific uniques that I'd like to have, most of which are of the exceptional variety, and can be dropped by NM Baal.

That said, level 59 seems excessively high to start NM. You can start plowing through NM at a much lower level than that, and due to the exponential XP increases required to reach higher levels, even if you stated NM at level 45, you'd probably only be about a level lower at the end of NM than waiting until level 59 to start. I would guess that the total experience required to go from level 45-59 is probably less than what is required to go from say, level 70 to 71.

Which kind of defeats the purpose of running NM Baal for anything beyond XPs.

I found a 3 open socket war scepter with +3 Blessed Hammer, +3 Concentration last night. I have never made a hammerdin, but I guess this is the weapon you'd want if you were to do so (beyond something like HotO of course). Looking at the options for runewords though, it's rather depressing. Scepters don't work for a lot of runewords, and anything that increases melee damage is largely useless for a hammerdin. So while "Fury" is great (ignoring for the moment I don't have a Jah rune), you'd never make it in a weapon for a hammerdin. In fact, the only runeword I found that would do anything and that isn't terribly expensive is Lawbringer:

Lawbringer: Amn-Lem-Ko
20% ctc level 15 Decrepify
Level 18 Sanctuary Aura when equipped
-50% Target defense
200 Fire Damage
150 Cold Damage
7% life steal
Slain Monsters Rest in Peace
+10 Dexterity
5% extra gold from monsters

Which basically means I'd get a free Sanctuary aura and need 10 less hard points in dexterity for max block. Not exactly an overly impressive runeword.

I started hell with my WWS bowazon this weekend. When everything is going well, it's very fast to run areas, and virtually nothing is unkillable (although some things take a while). Pros of the build up to this point:

Valkyrie - I don't know this for certain, but it seems like a level 27 Valkyrie is either physical immune, or has so much life that it may as well be physical immune. Nevermind finding something that can kill it - I haven't found anything that can hurt it. Standing in an extra strong, extra fast boss pack, her life bar does not budge. If she engages before the merc, the battle is over.

WWS - the list damage on the character screen severely understates the damage you do. First of all, it doesn't take into account the 1% per level chance of a deadly strike. That's independent of the 45% chance I have of landing a critical strike from the skill. When you take both chances into account, I have something like a 90% chance of any given arrow doing double damage. Furthermore, there is a 2% ctc amp damage on striking. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's not 2% per strafe volley, it's 2% per arrow in the strafe volley, and since a typical strafe volley carries about 10 or so arrows with it, it activates quite frequently. An amped monster takes quadruple damage when DS or CS activates, which is a lot. And we haven't taken the might aura from the merc into account yet. So it's a mass kill attack that does lots of damage.

Cons of the build:

The might merc is squishy. I'm working on this, trying different armors on to test performance. So far the only safe plan I've come up with is freezing the enemies with a Frozen arrow around the merc, and hoping most of the non-frozen ones are up against the valkyrie. This is problematic against cold immunes though, who don't get frozen. I've tried Shaftstop to reduce damage, and with less than spectacular results. I could up Shaftstop, but I'm reluctant to do so, given that I only have a single copy of it, and it would really raise the level requirement to equip it if I did that. So now I'm trying a triple-Sol Griswald's Redemption for direct damage reduction and a much better base defense - it's better, but far from spectacular. The only reason this is a concern at all, is while my valk and I can handle any battle, I only have optimal performance when I have the might merc tagging along.

A stoneskin or physical immune boss with cold immunity is a tough battle. While WWS gives you a level 20 magic arrow as its standard attack, a level 20 magic arrow is pretty sucky. Each point in magic arrow converts 1% of physical damage into magic damage, and adds 1 point of magic damage. So a level 20 magic arrow does 20% of the damage a standard attack does +20, which is practically nothing in hell difficulty. When I run into such a boss, I fire away with magic arrow until the 2% ctc amplify damage activates, and then strafe away. However, while the 2% occurs frequently with strafe, it occurs not-so-frequently with magic arrow. The issue is you have to hit for it activate, so you cannot just stand there strafing away with the knowledge that it will activate within a couple of cycles - if it's physical immune, since you're not hitting it, it will never activate. It took me forever to kill Corpsefire when he spawned as phy/cold immune.

I have about 700-something life at the moment, and I probably will not raise vitality any further at this point. I'll settle for the 2 life per level up, and the 20 life I get from the Golden Bird in Act III. Every single point I earn (and have earned for quite a few levels) is dumped into dexterity. I get about 1% more damage per point spent, and now that I have maxed penetrate, a one point investment into dexterity translates into 16 points in attack rating, which isn't bad. Strafe doesn't give any bonus to hit, so it's pretty much essential to get your dexterity high. Even with a Raven Frost and close to 300 in dexterity, I'm in the upper 80s with my percent to hit chance. That's acceptable, but I wouldn't want it any lower.

So to sum up, I'm very happy with the performance up to this point, but I am not going to make a final judgement until I start pit running. If things keep progressing as they have to this point, I may have made an excellent pit runner - perhaps the fastest pit runner I've ever had in fact.

 

You know, it's really amazing that you haven't found one. It's kind of like my personal quest of finding Tal Rasha's Adjudication. I'd see a green amulet on the ground, I grab it, TP back to town. Oh, it's Telling of Beads. Or my 43rd Cathan's Sigil. Or my 172nd Angelic Wings. That said, SoJs ARE a lot rarer than other unique rings. Here's a list of the unique rings, item level and their rarities:

Nagelring - ilvl 1, rarity 15
Manald Heald - ilvl 15, rarity 15
Stone of Jordan - ilvl 29 (but qlvl 40), rarity 1
Raven Frost - ilvl 43, rarity 10
Dwarf Star - ilvl 45, rarity 10
Bul-Kathos Wedding Band - ilvl 58, rarity 1
Carrion Wind - ilvl 60, rarity 3
Nature's Peace - ilvl 69, rarity 3
Wisp Projector - ilvl 76, rarity 1

You calculate the odds of what ring you get by dividing the rarity of a particular ring by the total rarity of all the unique rings that a given monster can drop. So if you get a unique ring in the Blood Mor of Act I normal, it will always be a Nagelring, because that's the only unique ring a monster in the Blood Mor can drop. For most of the stuff you kill in Hell difficulty, all of those rings would be possibilities, and thus the chances of a given unique ring being a SoJ would be 1 in 59 (the sum of all rarities). Now I'm assuming you've found more than 59 unique rings in Hell difficulty, so you're really unlucky. Especially if you've already landed a BK Wedding Band.

I remember reading once that the best place to land a SoJ is running NM Andariel. The reason is that she is level 42. She gets a lot of drops, and can drop up to a SoJ, but no higher. So there are only three possible unique rings she can drop - Nagelring, Manald Heald, and a SoJ. The bad news is the other two are the most common - with a rarity of 15. So even running NM Andariel, there's still only a 1 in 31 chance of a given unique being a SoJ, which is better than 1 in 59, but still not great odds. As soon as you hit level 45, both Raven Frost and Dwarf Star become available, which are much more common with rarity 10. So once a monster reaches level 45, your odds of getting a SoJ are 1 in 51, which is only a little better than if all the uniques were available.

The other thing working against you in getting a SoJ is that it has a qlvl much higher than it's ilvl at 40. For a monster to drop an item, it's mlvl must be higher than the ilvl and qlvl of the item to be dropped. For magic and rares, this is never an issue, as in those cases ilvl=qlvl. So any monster capable of dropping the normal (white) version of the item is also capable of dropping it in magic or rare form. But sets and uniques have qlvls independent of ilvl. So a monster of less than level 40 cannot drop a SoJ at all, and a monster of level 45 and over has reduced chances of dropping a SoJ due to more possibilities. So the sweet spot for landing a SoJ are mosnters between levels 40-44, and there simply aren't than many of them in the game.

And the one unique per game rule doesn't help you here. You'd think that if you landed a Nagelring, the odds of the next unique ring (assuming you didn't save and exit) being a SoJ would be higher, because you got rid of one of the rarity 15 rings. Alas, such is not the case. The game still rolls like it did before the Nagelring drops, and if it picks a Nagelring again, you will instead get a rare.

 

The only reason I bring it up is you say you just started NM, so you're going to do it at least once anyway. As with all maps, you can reroll them a couple of times to see if you get one that's fairly good. It's not at all impossible to get a map where the stairs to the level 3 catacombs are nearby the level 2 waypoint. The tougher one is getting a map with the stairs to level 4 close to the level 3 stairs.

Obvious MF rules apply - you want to use a character with a high MF, and you want to minimize your chances of a no-drop. Andariel, like all act bosses, have their no drop percentage set to zero once you hit players5.

The character you have that can probably do that level the quickest is your meterorb sorceress. She should be able to totally tear up NM on p5. Give her Enigma, and you could probably do a NM Andariel run in less than 5 minutes, and have loads of MF gear on her.

Still, I understand you not being thrilled about running NM Andariel. Sure, she CAN drop a unique ring, but she doesn't do so with any regularity. Furthermore, even when she does, there's still only around a 3% chance that unique ring is a SoJ. Even if you land a unique ring one out of every 10 runs (which I think is a generous percentage), you're still looking at hundreds of runs.

But IMO, a SoJ isn't "all that" anyway. +1 to all skills, a decent boost to mana, and a piddling amount of lightning damage. Unless you're talking about a character that never uses a weapon to kill something (such a list is limited to casters, and some specific subvariants - like the hammerdin), you'd much rather have a BK ring. They both have +1 skills, but BK comes with a bonus to life and life leech. I have a few SoJs, but no BKs. Since I generally prefer melee classes, I'd find the BK ring much more useful.

I only progressed a bit further in Hell last night, and I screwed up quite a lot. I got the bark from the Tree of Inifus, but forgot to touch the WP, so now I have to go back through the underground passage. To add insult to injury, the reason I saved and exited was because my merc hit level 73 - the level I needed to up my rare uber lance into a war pike.

I screwed that up too. A war pike has a level requirement of 66, so the upped version would have a level requirement of 73. However, I forgot that the lance was initially a pike, and thus the +5 level requirement for upping it to a lance is cumulative with the +7 level requirement for upping it to a war pike. So the real level requirement is 78. Now I need five more levels before I can use it, and I have my merc equipped with a WORSE weapon than what he had before.

I'm quite happy with this character. There really isn't a heck of a lot that she cannot do well. Only cold resistance is lacking (it just worked out that way) at 42%, and I didn't have to fill half my inventory up with resistance charms to get there. Great leech, excellent crowd control, high damage. The base build is done by the time you're ready to up your WWS to the elite version at level 69. I'm currently working on Freezing Arrow, but I'll finish that with skill points to spare. After that, I suppose the only thing worth investing in is the cold arrow synergy.

The other thing I like is the linear progression of this character. With a lot of builds, you don't really gain much with the last few levels. With this character though, every level gained is effectively worth another 5% damage to all my bow skills (from the 5 points into dexterity) and another 90 or so attack rating. So every level gained makes you more powerful.

As I said, I think this character will make an excellent pit runner. While there are cold immunes in the pit, the are no physical immunes of the possible spawns (with the exception of uniques of course). I'm unsure how effective a Countess runner she'll be. While I doubt she'll have any problems with the Countess herself, ghosts can, and freqently do, spawn in the Tower. Ghosts aren't cold immune, so I have Freezing Arrow to fall back on, but even after Freezing Arrow is maxed, there's no way it can compete with Strafe as far as damage per unit time is concerned:

An upped WWS has a base average damage of 95. With Freezing Arrow, with the cold damage and dexterity boost, I average 805 damage (more once I start working on the synergy). However, with physical immunes, I'm only getting the cold part of that damage, which is 425. Strafe has a 25% damage penalty and no cold damage, hits for just 375, but that's per arrow, and I can probably get off an entire 10 arrow volley in the time it takes to fire two freezing arrows.

 

Remember, player setting affects quantity of drops, MF affects quality of drops. While it is true that everything Andariel drops will be at least magic (blue), MF will increase the chances of landing more rares, sets, and (for the purposes of this discussion) uniques.

Once you hit players 5, the no drop chance of Andariel effectively drops to zero. All mosnters have a no drop chance that is based on player count. The game randomly generates a number between 1-160. For a regular, run of the mill monster on p1, a roll of 1-100 indicates a no-drop. For act bosses, once you hit p5, a no-drop only occurs on a roll of 1 (and it never can get to zero).

So going on players8 won't hurt your chances of landing a SoJ, but the odds aren't any greater of getting one than on players5. Since the monsters en route to Andy aren't capable of dropping a SoJ (I don't know their mlvl offhand, but if she is 42, I highly doubt they are more than 40), it's only Andy that you're concerned about the drop ratios.

So if you can do more runs more quickly on p5 (and I have to guess you would, even if the only thing you are stopping to kill is Andy), it makes sense to do players5. Furthermore, since more mf increases chances of uniques, I'd do that too. Although if you're using Enigma, and presumably at least a Gheeds charm, you're already over 100.

 

Just noticed this. I didn't know you had a CtA. Is that new? Ohm runes don't grow on trees you know...

Anyway, with CtA, Enigma, and presumably at least a Gheeds, you're MF is already over 100, which should be adequate. Remember that MF chart I posted a few pages back. I player with a little less than 100 MF finds half as many uniques as a player with over 500 mf, and a player with 250 MF finds about 90% as many uniques as a player with over 500 MF. Ever since I read that, I really have not placed any priority on MF on my characters, except for characters that are not equipment dependent, and can basically get MF for free. My current WWS zon has about 100 MF, and I'm in no hurry to add much to that.

I did my first Countess run last night, and even with PI ghosts running around it wasn't bad at all. Even with a pierce chance of just 63%, you usually can get amp damage to proc pretty frequently, even when you fire freezing arrows, as a good chunk of them will pierce the first ghost, hit another one, so you can get multiple chances of a single arrow procing amp damage (this is the reason that amp activates constantly when using strafe, even though the chance is only 2%).

The only thing that slowed me down was when I ran into a boss pack, where the boss was cold immune, and remained PI even after Amp activated. This is one of few things that pose a problem for my zon - an unbreakable PI that is also cold immune. The only thing I have in my arsenal to deal with such a foe is the standard attack from the WWS - a level 20 MA . Thankfully, I had the player settings at 1, so I was able to take him out in under a minute, and I also got lucky that the boss didn't spawn with something nasty like extra strong or cursed - I actually do not remember what the second mod was (he got PI for free for being a ghost, and one of the mods was CI, but on hell he had to have a second mod as well).

I'm now level 76 - as is my merc - so I'm inching my way towards level 78. I actually may do some Countess runs to build up my rune stockpile. I have an above average map - there's only one level on the tower where you have to travel far to get to the stairs - and I was pleased with my character's performance against ghosts - I expect I won't regularly run into a PI/CI one, so the runs should be pretty quick.

 

The WWS zon is now in Act II Hell, at level 81. Landed a T-Gods on my last pit run. Never had one of them before, so good times, even if I'm not planning on playing a javazon anytime soon.

 

I haven't had the oppotunity to play a heck of a lot this week. I have progressed through much of Act II, but since I'm quite happy at the speed at which this character can do Countess and Pit runs, I find myself spending more time there, and less time actually proceeding through the game. I'm currently level 82, and have reached the last WP (Canyon of the Magi) in Act II. Truth be told, the only thing that really slows this character down are physical immunes.

I still am undecided about the best way to deal with them. The most obvious solution is magic arrow, even if it is a slow means of doing it. However, I have also found that the Amp Damage on WWS can activate against a physical immune while using strafe, irrespective of the fact that you cannot damage them with that attack if Amp Damage doesn't kick in. And I should have realized this early. The 2% chance happens on striking an opponent - there is no need to actually damage the opponent. It appears that the fastest way to get through physical immunes is fire a couple of volleys of strafe at them in the hopes of getting amp damage to activate. Once it does, keep strafing away. MA seems to be more useful when against singular PIs, or when the PIs are spread fairly far apart. Level 20 MA has the following stats:

20% physical damage convert to magic damage
+181% AR
+20 magic damage (and it costs no mana)

Given that I've upped my WWS to the elite version, that there is current an 80% of landing a deadly strike from the weapon, and I have a 49% chance of landing a critical strike from the skill, approximately 91% of all my attacks do double damage, and that damage is converted to the MA skill. (Although it does not double the +20 magic damage.) So MA does retain some situational use as a PI solution.

That said, I don't really like Act II due to the prevalence of ghosts. While all Acts have some PIs in them, Ghosts seem to be everywhere in Act II. In the few areas where Ghosts do not appear, you can get those Insect Swarms which are also PI. I think the main reason I haven't progressed much is as much do to my not liking Act II as it is because of my character's proficiency in Countess and Pit running.

The final word is not yet in on this character, because she hasn't been Gloam-tested yet. And I must admit, I'm a little concerned with that. Even once I take into account the first quest of Act III, my character will be proceeding with just under 800 life. Thus far, that hasn't been an issue. I don't get hit much, and when I do, I quickly leech back what I lose. But strafe locks you in place for about a full second, which is probably more than enough to get your ass fried by gloams. Gloams are also the point where my uber valk will be seriously tested (and my merc likely eliminated).

I'm still planning to trot out the assassin next, although I do have some interest in trying a pure javazon at some point as well. The plan would be to utilize the "Peace" runeword as my armor (uber cheap: Shael-Thul-Amn) to get the +2 skills a free level 15 Valkyrie. The only points that won't be spent in the javelin tree will be Critical Strike, Penetrate, and Pierce, and all will be one point wonders.

The javelin tree will be dedicated to poison and lightning damage. The three main attacks will be Lightning Fury, Lightning Strike, and Plague Javelin, all of which will be maxed. Plague Javelin only has one synergy, Poison Javelin, and that will be maxed to. Along with the 4 prerequisites required for those skills, we're looking at just 87 skill points to complete the build. All remaining skill points will be dumped into Lightning Bolt, Power Strike, or Charged Strike, for the decent synergy each of those skills give to Lightning Strike, and minimal synergy bonus they give to Lightning Fury.

Next up is the equipment. In addition to Peace, I'll use a Titan's a T-Gods obviously. Unless I happen upon a Stormshield at some point, I'm thinking the "Sanctuary" runeword is a solid pick for shields. Not sure on the helm yet, although Valkyrie Wing seems like a solid pick. Either that, or something that gives resistances, or if necessary, leech. I think Trang-Oul's Claws are the only logical choice for the gloves, for the lovely +25% damage to all poison skill damage. Have no idea yet on the belt or boots, although I may need to utilize those slots for some resistances.

 

Achmel was nerfed in 1.13? I'm assuming they nerfed him by reducing his poison damage and duration. That was always a bit of a problem. After that fight you always had to TP back to town to get the poison neutralized. It wasn't so bad that it would kill you quickly, but it lasted forever - much longer than a typical curse duration.

I agree with you on the p8 thing. If you have 10k hammer damage, I cannot imagine there is much of a difference in kill speed. Maybe two hammers instead of one. Out of curiosity, what do you do against magic immunes (not that there are many) since you haven't invested in either HB or HS yet. Zeal perhaps?

I now we've gone back and forth on this before, but for me, the choice between Holy Bolt and Holy Shield is a no-brainer. HS gives you defense all the time, and greatly adds to Smite damage, so a one-point smite gives you a physical attack that carries any damage modifiers (including CB) on your equipment, that doesn't do an AR check, and therefore, never misses. HB gives you a magic immune solution against undead. Granted, a very effect undead magic immune solution, as BH gives a 50% synergy damage per level, so your HB will deal 1000% damage, but because it's so situational, I think I'd rather have Smite as my MI solution, and benefit from constant enhanced defense.

I'm definitely going to the assassin next. I already have most of the gear I want to use, and I do want to eventually try that character out.

How necessary is a Razortail? I'll have a 69% pierce chance with the +skill items I have on hand, and I can go higher than that, if I'm willing to invest some extra points. Obviously, Razortail is going to get the pierce chance to 100%, but other than that, it offers little else.

 

The chance to block has hit the point of diminishing returns, but the defense increase is linear. I suppose a level 15ish HB along with a 20-point hammer synergy would work pretty well. And I guess HB offers an advantage that you can stay at a distance whereas with Smite, it's up close and personal.

 

Advanced to Act IV now - level 84. Things still going smoothly. I reloaded maps a few times, and now I have above average Pit, Countess, and Meph maps. So good times. The Countess map is actually outstanding. The Tower is right next to the WP (you can actually see the tower from the WP), and three of the four stairs you need to take are very close to the preceeding stairs. The only level where there is a sizeable distance to travel is level 2 to level 3. I don't have an Engima, so I actually have to walk it, but I can still do a Countess run in less than 5 minutes.

The Meph map is also pretty quick. Only one large room to traverse between the WP and the stairs to Durance Level 3. That one takes a bit longer, because I always clear the Durance before taking on Meph (the unique Council Members have good drop odds), although I usually just do a circle, killing Meph before finishing off the counter-clockwise circle. The Pit isn't fantastic, as it's located pretty far from the WP in the Outer Cloister, but I'll deal with it based on the other two good maps I have.

As for the drops, I did get a Baranar's Star, and I'm wondering if that is an adequate end-game weapon for the assassin I'm planning. It seems like it should be, as everything from the weapon EXCEPT +%dam and +%AR is transferred to the kicks. So I don't get the +200% damage mod. But the elemental damage IS transferred, as is IAS. So I should get the +50% IAS, along with the 1-200 fire, cold, and lightning damage, essensially making it a spectral hit with each kick, and everything I encounter should have at least two damage types exploited by weapon. It has a user requirement of 65, so it's definitely an end-game weapon, and I'm not too concerned about the 153 strength requirement, as I probably would go pretty high to wear high end boots anyhow. (Shadow Dancers - which I don't presently have - have a strength requirement of 167, with a level requirment of 71, while upped Gore Riders have a strength requirement of 156 and a level requirement of 54.)

Oh, and the 5th and final D3 character class was announced over the weekend, and it's a missile specialist, as expected. It's called a demon hunter. From the description it looks like a cross between an assassin and an amazon. They call dual wield crossbows (!), lay traps, and use shadow magic. This joins the other four classes of barbarian, wizzard, witch doctor, and monk.