The Great Race; a proposal for "Khalim" awards

[Crystalion]

This post is a bit of an odd one, at first glance, to put here, but...

Knowledge is power. In this forum, we discuss detailed game mechanics and statistics, from how Diablo II functions, to the probabilities of events happening.

...as I am, personally, primarily interested in the mechanics and speed of (a statistic) accomplishing certain rushing tasks, here it goes.

I'm proposing, informally, a contest for LLers "testing" v1.10 betas. There are quite a few categories, though only one overall theme: speed. Thus the caption: The Great Race. I was thinking that there are a number of odd quest objects, like Khalim's squishy parts and the Golden Bird of Kulay [?] that would make excellent trophy/symbols for the awards (i.e. like the Oscar statue for movie awards).

My bias is towards v1.10 (release) and the interesting fact that the game will start fresh (economy) for large numbers of people. The obvious race for most people will be ranking on the ladder. That race is ultimately a marathon--I'm more interested in sprints.

At some point I'd like to share some of the interesting quirks of rushing and twinking I've been buried in for weeks, and I thought--since a formal report is such an overwhelming task--that the meat of it could be revealed quite simply by practical suggestions and comments in a Great Race thread.

So here's a suggestion for the general Categories of award, with the "nominees" being LLers who have run the race and posted in this thread their final time (hours:minutes:seconds) with a brief write up of their starting conditions, and procedural techniques (plus lessons learned, etc.)...

1) Malus... for qualifying for an Imbue (Charsi quest/reward; fyi norm clvl 8 restriction)
2) Viper Amulet... for getting to Act 3 (sailing post Tyriel quest)
3) Soulstone... for smashing at Hellforge (quest credit/reward)
4) Khalim's Brain, Eye, Heart... (timed from start of new game) clear of the 3 Prime Evils
5) Horadic Cube... for breaking the siege (Larzuk socket quest credit)
6) Golden Bird... for being Worthy (Ancients quest credit; fyi clvl 20xDiff restriction)
7) Book of Skill... for making an xp formula change level (25, 70, 99)
8) Wirt's Leg... for completion of the game (Baal quest credit)

I know I'm skipping lots of interesting categories. But these can all be timed, and are all related to rushing technique. They should all be timed from new character startout (anyone participating leaving town), except for number 4, which is still related to rushing quite directly but typically times the technique of rush aiders instead of the rushee (and is a fun thing to do of itself--not to mention for the drops).

Hopefully it is obvious that you can be running several races simultaneously and that you can take session breaks since your total running time is what matters. The order in which I listed the races is meant to be helpful but is not meant to be restrictive or a checklist.

Now, these catagories are not at all complete without multiplying them by sub-category conditions. These are things like:

A) Aided: Twinked vs. Pure
B) aBetted: Solo vs. Team (i.e. assisted by active players)
C) Count: Players N (e.g. fixed at 1, fixed at 2, ..., fixed at 8, variable)
D) Difficulty: normal, nightmare, hell
E) Exploit: use of probable bug or oversight in game

So your "nominee" summary post should include, at the very least, character name, your Category, sub-categories, and time. Along with your name (poster handle, actually), this info can be summarized from time to time for the leading nominees. If there is any burning question as to who the leader/winner is in a sub-category (say, for example, due to questioning which sub-categorie they qualify to be in) then we can have the usual LL flame war (in a separate thread, please).

So, to summarize:
=============
have a timer handy
create your character
start up a game
if appropo to sub-category, join game, twink
start the clock when a participant leaves town(s)
stop the clock when you take breaks (end the game; idle in town while all participant players take a break; etc.)
record your times at the Category milestones (clock still running for longer races you're also running, of course)
if you did well or have something interesting to report, post it here, for fame and glory.

See ya at the track,
Crystalion

[Crystalion]

As a sample, I did a baseline test for this:

1) Malus... for qualifying for an Imbue (Charsi quest/reward; fyi norm clvl 8 restriction)

Pure (no aid/twink); Solo (no help); Count: always (players) 1, SP v1.10s normal difficulty, no exploits or oddities used. Time was roughly an hour and a half (I could be more precise, but this "record" won't hold).

My thinking, ahead of time, was that any reasonable character will make level 8 pretty fast, so my concern was being able to safely get in (aka sneak) to the Malus. I imagined a Barb with Howl and Leap might do this well. So I created Imba the Barbarian and set out.

Turns out stamina potions and town portal (because of waypoints) are so effective at low levels that my Howl/Leap concept was pretty much pointless. I also forget to distribute any stat (i.e. Vit => life) until I made level 6 (which didn't matter except during one LEB skel archer pack in the underground passage that I didn't choose to just run past). I further discovered that Howl didn't work against the minions I tried it against (didn't extensively subsequently test what determined this).

My feeling, both before and after this test, is that twinking probably wouldn't have sped up the xp leveling much, which was pretty easy. Players 8 would both be much faster leveling and also suitable for a little twinking. Players 8 with an Inner Cloister waypoint teleport search to Town Portal the level 8 player directly to the Malus rack would be a big speed up. If that char was Sorc and the twinkee used ranged attack, I think a mild level of Enchant would be more than enough twink all by itself to optimize leveling to 8.

As a tech note, if you really want to see insane early leveling speed, you can, SP, use -seed 666 (any seed actually) and the game just tiles Blood Moor solid with monsters (which, for example, level 1 poison creeper (Druid) will just obliterate). Major lag but quite entertaining.

For non-exploit max leveling speed there is a powerful team technique (which I will detail at some later date), but I hardly think the coordination effort is worth it unless you're taking 6 or 7 characters to imbue completion simultaneously.

As a further tech note, the reason this rush is important, is that some elite base items have a high enough qlvl that imbuing them is potentially really very good even with level 8 characters (and, at present, v1.10s is reported to allow all affixes on rares without the pre-v1.10 restriction for affixes of magic-only). So if you can readily find elites worth imbuing (not too hard) then the payoff for getting a lot of shots at rares is pretty good if you can generate imbue rights fast enough. An hour and a half doesn't seem worth it, but I bet that time can be seriously beaten, eh?

[Crystalion]

Players 8 would both be much faster leveling and also suitable for a little twinking.

Yep...

1) Malus... for qualifying for an Imbue (Charsi quest/reward; fyi norm clvl 8 restriction)

Aid: twink of Hellforge Hammer; assistance:none; difficulty normal; Players 8 (always); no exploits used... 28:34 (min:sec).

This time I only put one point into Howl and Leap and used them only to get through crowds blocking me. I remembered to put most of my points into Vit (only mattered once) and I dumped all my other skill points into Mace Mastery.

I tried to focus on getting to the Malus, but I ended up getting a bit into level 8 anyway (failure to ignore "distractions"). I started by clearing the Den of Evil and then bee-lined for the Monastary. Travel time was significant (I should have noted how long this took--sorry).

Because of MM my AR was quite high. But whereas my reported to-hit vs. Monster was typically 95% I seemed to miss a lot (you can tell, when you don't see/hear the fire damage from the Hellforge Hammer). I'm guessing I was fighting weenie stuff that nonetheless had decent blocking?

My conclusion from the speed and ease of this run is what I've always felt: Players N (or selecting games with N-1 other players) is typically a huge favor to the players, not the monsters.

You may argue that this isn't true for hell difficulty, v1.10, but I feel PMH technique is required anyway, so once you've turned off their regen, why not let them have more HP (and correspondingly loot and xp)? If this isn't in your favor then probably your crowd control m.o. and damage output need a bump.

Admittedly some boss and champ packs that are already very dangerous could be a problem (e.g. stone skin, extra fast, extra strong, plus auras) if their Players N HP boost makes the battle last too long (aka run out of belt potions or break weapon/shield). But most problem packs are subject to Brave Sir Robin technique. And making the normal easy-to-kill monsters worth more loot and xp while still mass slaughtering them is just a huge win for the player.

edit: I generally don't think about Hardcore--if I do, I'm likely to make explicit mention of it. So please don't take any of my posts or opinions as gospel, because even I know, when I post them, that they don't consider every angle. I also make mistakes and change my mind from time to time. So, as always, YMMV ;) But clearly another interesting sub-category is whether you're doing Hardcore. Kinda of a nasty thought, though, to suggest a "race" in Hardcore, because of Deadman's curve.

[Walkiry]

Aid: twink of Hellforge Hammer; assistance:none; difficulty normal; Players 8 (always); no exploits used... 28:34 (min:sec).

1. Horadric malus, getting to level 8.

No twink, players 1, no assistance, normal difficulty. Using the Assassin: 29:09

Obvious: Burst of speed. At level 8 (slvl 3) you'll outrun absolutely everything in the barracks, no need to jump past the monsters with leap.

Another tip: Accumulate all the poison potions you come accross and use them in the later parts prior to the monastery (tamoe highlands and maybe the Marsh) since by then your to-hit% has gone down to some 70%-ish (until clvl 6 your mastery will keep your AR somewhat decent, if you're lucky and come accross a diamond and a socketed armour or helm you're set). If you're lucky and get fast running monsters get a huge mob following you, hit an exp shrine and nail them :)

If I had used my poison pots more wisely I'm sure I could have finished under 25 minutes. Also I should have really stocked up in healing pots as soon as I had enough money (I did a total of 4 trips to town, not very efficient).

[Crystalion]

1. Horadric malus, getting to level 8.
No twink, players 1, no assistance, normal difficulty. Using the Assassin: 29:09

That's pretty good. I've made three such runs, but with a Druid, scoring only 44:42, 39:47, 39:40.

In case you didn't know (as I've posted before) you can "repair" throwing potions by selling them to the shop and buying them back. This is most efficient when they are nearly gone. If you want a lot of potions, therefore, you should not auto-pick-up throwing potions, but rather have your inventory open (so as to place them in by hand, thus not combining them, thus allowing to sell/re-buy more stacks). IIRC strangling gas costs on the order of $32 a throw. If you have any luck finding a ring, amulet, wand, scepter, or staff, (to sell) then money on this scale isn't a problem.

In my third run I used strangling gas a bit at the end (as I had, in this and the first run, made it to the Malus before getting to level 8) and it really is very effective vs. chasers, just as you said.

The travel time is a big part of the run, so I like your Burst of Speed concept. My use of Druid, is of course, because I can't count on finding Strangling Gas potions at all, and Poison Creeper almost auto-levels me up as I travel to the Monastary. I'm going to have to try Ravens (edit: tried it... they truly suck). Although I think they peter out sooner than pumping poison creeper, at level 6 strangling gas is faster xp than either. For comparision, giving a decent bow to a Rogue is pretty effective, but not nearly as fast.

[Pren]

Howl used to be limited by level. Slvl+Clvl had to be > mlvl for it to work (or something very close to that.) Grim ward had no such restriction, so it was almost always used in place of howl. When characters like Sirian's Thrower were lvl30 in nightmare act 2, howl just wasn't practical.

However, the AS doesn't mention the level limit anymore. I've never seen anything resist howl in 1.09 or 1.10, but then with /players 8 and act 5, it is very easy to stay ahead of the curve into hell difficulty.

Perhaps something to do with that or some mutated bastard code related to it?


As for /players n making it easier for the player, it absolutely does. You can begin using life and mana leech at lvl1 with a sufficiently strong setup (say, bardichi with skulls.) In classic single player, you can't rely on life or mana leech until mid-late NIGHTMARE. The monsters simply don't have enough hp to survive long enough to meet your leeching needs. I remember having a 177 damage bec-de-corbin and a combined total of 14% mana leech, and having major mana issues whirling in act 3/nm back in the day.

Act 1 up until the dark passage is so utterly trivial, the only reason not to play at least that part of the game at /players 6-8 is for the challenge.

[Walkiry]

Tried again with the assassin, after a few of long times (35-40ish) I got 28:26. A couple more things to consider:

- The Underground passage is KEY for a good time. If you get a bad map and you have to backtrack a lot you'll lose valuable minutes better spent somewhere else getting experience.

- Monsters in both the Black Marsh and the Tamoe Highlands will make a huge difference in your time. If you get (like I did) crows in one (no exp points) and skeleton archers and (/or) rats in the other (no chance for rounding them up and using poison pots) you'll lose several valuable minutes to reach those last 2 levels (specially level 8).

- A chipped skull will make a world of difference. Put it in a shield and you'll have fallen/carvers suiciding on you and giving you free experience points while you run through the mobs. Great time saver. This leads me to belive a paladin with thorns might be the best one for the job, even without burst of speed (I'll check it next). This time saver compensated for the bad monster mix I got.

Good point about reselling the potions, I had forgotten about it. I do think you can count on having at least 2, often 3 stacks by the time you arrive to the later stages.

With a good Underground map, a decent monster mix and some form of returned damage high enough to kill the weakest enemies I think 25 or so is very doable.

EDIT: Well, bugger me but I did 27:05 with the paladin. He starts MUCH slower than the assassin, with no mastery and slower attack, I raised 10 points to dexterity to keep a decent to hit%. But as soon as I came out of the underground passage with thorns up the exp started to roll in (aided by only two stacks of poison pots, and didn't even use them all). I did have a couple of close calls, which is expected if you're a punching bag.

Smite also helps much in sticky situations.

Random tip: Go straight to follow the path from the encampment and you'll end up in the cold plains (of yourse), most likely you'll pass the den of evil (nice high concentration of monsters there). As soon as you secure the cold plains WP, back to the blood moor and explore the remaining part. The advantage is that as soon as you've got most of the map covered you don't have to go through clean areas (= no monsters, = no exp) to get to the cold plains, use the town portal and go through the waypoint.

Also, do it if you find an experience shrine in the moor, since you'll get better exp in the cold plains.

[Crystalion]

27:05 with the paladin. He starts MUCH slower than the assassin, with no mastery and slower attack, I raised 10 points to dexterity to keep a decent to hit%. But as soon as I came out of the underground passage with thorns up the exp started to roll in

Vs. low level monsters with few HPs, thorns effects are pretty amazing.

I did a test with a generic character class (i.e. I used no skills; v1.10s, tcp/ip solo) and outrageous twinking and made 24:50 (sloppy, could have done better) with the power of thorns shields. Hellforge hammer and strangling gas potions were a supplement, but the shields did the heavy (xp) lifting.

Just to make it completely unfair I had, at clvl 5, plus 51 *each* to life in torso and helm (flawed rubies, 3 socket ring mail, 3 socket mask) and at clvl 3 I put on Hsarus set (removing the shield at clvl 5 in favor of the 24 thorns shield). I had so much life, I should have given the character decent heal potions (instead of the weenie ones) as I wasted a bit of time picking up potions and even going to town for them at one point.

This time ought to be improvable if you used an Assassin with BoS (even faster running than the 20% from Hsarus's boots).

In the assisted category, my theory is that a twinker Sorc (teleport, town portal, gather mobs, static) with twinkee Druid (poison creeper, clvls 1..5, strangling gas 6..8) would be the fastest run.

But all this talk of the effectiveness of thorns brings up a very interesting xp assist twink idea that is one of many I'd considered for the leveling of hirelings--a standard problem, since hireling stats are better when hired from earlier difficulties, is power leveling them if you switch to a new one--which is a Paly twinker thorns/healing-Holy Bolt build. Hirelings get more xp (3x iirc) if they make a kill than if you do.

If a player twinkee were level 25 or higher you could play this straight (partied, Paly following and supporting with aura and healing, twinkee acting as punching bag). If the twinkee were below 25 it would be very tempting to play pulse games, joining and leaving the party quickly to acquire the thorns aura. Naturally, if you're a lot below 25, then thorns shields (skulls) and healing potions obviate any need for a Paly helper. (tech note--in case it isn't obvious--at 25 the xp nerf for killing above your level is largely removed, so being twink assisted by someone who can rapidly kill mobs way above your level makes lots of sense).

One amusing thought here is in (maybe rushing a clvl 5 player to) Act 3, where you hire a (max clvl) Sorc merc, who can then be power leveled with both player and merc using 24 thorns shields (since the merc has good regen and gets more oompf out of healing potions this might even work in Hardcore--call it "drag the merc through the muck, and see how much xp we reel in").

[Ferengi]

Malus:

This is probably a Divide and Conquer problem. There are two pieces, getting to clvl 8 and getting the Malus. You can always use a high lvl sorc to get the Malus within 2-5 minutes. So the real problem is getting to clvl 8.

Based on what I've read, I'd say the Poison Creeper Druid would be fastest. This is the closest to an Area of Effect skill for low levels. Said Druid joins any high player count game with the action outside of Act1. A twink is a +3 PC Wolf Head with 3 sockets, but there are some other possibilities. The hard part is probably getting to clvl 3. Since I was in a 6 player game the other day, and made clvl 2 within a few kills, I'd say this was a 15 minute effort. I will not get a chance until next weekend, so I guess I will read about it here.

Hmm, on further thought a Necro with +3 SM, +3 S wand may be better. Put the skill points into SM and AD. Clvl 6 get a CG.

"The player with the Malus has left the game"

[Crystalion]

This is probably a Divide and Conquer problem.  There are two pieces, getting to clvl 8 and getting the Malus.

I agree entirely.

Based on what I've read, I'd say the Poison Creeper Druid would be fastest.

I thought so too, until I did a bunch of testing and listened to Walkiry. Then I realized its another divide and conquer: leveling to 6; leveling to 8. Any class levels to 2 very rapidly. Any class with a tiny bit of thorns levels to 3 rapidly. So a Druid really only has a sure edge getting from 3 to 6, as far as I can see. Once you hit 6 though, Strangling Gas Potions and Poison Javalin are faster than Poison Creeper (because he goes underground for seconds at a time--you can short circuit this by recasting him, but he'll only put a mat down where he attacks, whereas you can specify where you want poison clouds with PJ and SGP, to more quickly maximize your kills). Of course, clvl 5 req thorns shield is huge, as is the Hellforge Hammer, if you twink.

"The player with the Malus has left the game"

Yes. Quite funny. Except that, in practice, you can level in the Players X game, but you have to make a Charsi quest still-open game yourself to collect the Malus. Of course, since the whole point is to do the imbue for a higher level character, you could just wait until they want the imbue and they can have the half minute burden of waypointing to Inner Cloister, running/teleporting to the Malus and then town portaling you in.

I suppose, therefore, that an interesting Great Race alternate-Category would merely be: attain level 8. While I think it is very entertaining and instuctive to consider this, in perspective--rushing the imbue because you found an elite with high qlvl--one has to wonder what is the likely frequency of needing to do it? If you need to do it all the time, then being very very efficient is worthwhile. If you only need to do it a couple times a week, then shaving ten minutes off the time isn't a big deal.

The other big "level up" race is to level 20 (the Ancient's qualification). As a divide and conquer problem you have:

1) getting a char to level 20
2) rushing the char to the ancients
3) rushing the char to nm hellforge reward

And if your total time is good enough, then this is a better deal than even Hell Countess Runs, for the majority of plausible runewords. (actually, at present, as Ruvanal has noted, this can be sleazed to get another 6 or 7 rewards with little additional effort, but lots of accounts--I'm hoping they fix this pre-release).

The best rushing techniques I know for #2 and #3 don't have much room for improvement. But #1 is highly variable, and like the Malus race, probably quite interesting to consider.

[whyBish]

.

Oh, just noticed you realised HC as a separate class.

I don't have time to participate at the moment but I would conjecture that the thorns paladin will win the race to any kill/area/quest until about level 24 or so when mass transit skills come into play (teleport), and mass kill skills start picking up for the bowazon (i.e. bow requirements if twinked, or mana supply if untwinked)... if players 8 was used then there is a bigger tip towards static field, or twinked CB chars with a fast attack (although I suppose this would be classed as an Exploit in the CB case)

[Crystalion]

(although I suppose this would be classed as an Exploit in the CB case)

It is unfortunate, as of v1.10s, that both CBs: crushing blow, and Charged Bolt on being struck, are "exploits" because of the item/effect add-up/apply bug. A low level character wearing a bunch of the (clvl 4 req, iirc) CB 10% on being struck is a mini-LEB, and does quite well for a few levels. With the bug, however, its just insanely good (my Escheu character is level 15 using this and a thorns shield, without *ever* having used normal attack or a skill (throwing potions allowed)--and it was a breeze and hilarious to play, though, natch, an exploit).

I suppose I should give her equipment to a Malus runner, just so I could post the exploit time for you all. It would be a record breaker, I'm sure.

I suspect the same is true, to a lesser extent, for a Druid with the 67 charges of level 10 Firestorm, provided you give him $60,000 to assure he'll be able to recharge it a few times on the way to level 8.

One could even combine the two. That would be a rather silly/amusing thing to watch a 60x speed video of. (edit: I'm considering throwing together a little program to sendkeys(printscrn) to D2 periodically--the glitch in play would be annoying, but it would make it "easy" to have D2 home movies, eh? fyi for anyone considering this: screen reads fullscreen are slower than -w, i.e. for printscrn, probably due to poor graphics driver code)

[Ferengi]

Yes. Quite funny. Except that, in practice, you can level in the Players X game, but you have to make a Charsi quest still-open game yourself to collect the Malus. Of course, since the whole point is to do the imbue for a higher level character, you could just wait until they want the imbue and they can have the half minute burden of waypointing to Inner Cloister, running/teleporting to the Malus and then town portaling you in.

Ah, no.

I should have been clearer. Your clvl 30+ sorc with teleport and FO didn't imbue because she didn't turn in the Malus. She gives it to the Imbuee, who needs to get the elite item anyway. The sorc FOs the Smith et al and picks up the Malus and can do that forever, and really is an "Imbue Mule" similar to the Act2 staff game creator.

Yes, it does depend on how often you pick up an imbue candidate as to what lengths to go to for speed imbue chances. I don't know what ladder cow games will be like, but I used to scavenge old cow games for items very successfully in 1.09.

As for the Level 8 award, I would use a Players4 setting. It is not too difficult on the Realms to find a 3 player game. If shady tricks are allowed, getting Players8 is not difficult.

As for the Hellforge, it will be a better source for runes in 1.10 and I think there are unexplored aspects to it when involving mixes of players that have/have not completed the quest.

[Ferengi]

Of course, clvl 5 req thorns shield is huge

You can get attacker takes Damage of 9 at clvl 3 on Hsarus Iron Fist. Perhaps the race is merely from clvl 2 to 3 :lol:

I'm beginning to think my 15 minute guess is too big. You probably should take the total time into account, i.e. if a heavily twinked char takes 10 minutes to clvl 8 but 5+ minute to twink, it is not as good as a totally untwinked char taking 16 minutes to clvl 8.

An interesting exercise, but back to real work now...

[Crystalion]

You can get attacker takes Damage of 9 at clvl 3 on Hsarus Iron Fist.

IIRC the thorns on the Hsarus set is only 5. Not to be sneezed at, however.

You probably should take the total time into account, i.e. if a heavily twinked char takes 10 minutes to clvl 8 but 5+ minute to twink, it is not as good as a totally untwinked char taking 16 minutes to clvl 8.

Yes, a very good point. If Walkiry can get his non-twink times within a few minutes of my twink times, then it's hardly worth the overhead.

Your clvl 30+ sorc with teleport and FO didn't imbue because she didn't turn in the Malus. She gives it to the Imbuee, who needs to get the elite item anyway. The sorc FOs the Smith et al and picks up the Malus and can do that forever, and really is an "Imbue Mule" similar to the Act2 staff game creator.

Right... just like the char that doesn't complete *normal* Hellforge, so they can hand out Hellforge hammers all day long. Good point.

but I used to scavenge old cow games for items very successfully

Yes... it is an interesting problem that tons of great stuff is going to waste in BNet games because people don't know what is valuable (to whom and why). This was a big problem even in a game like EQ, with persistant shops and a playing population where nearly everyone knew something about the rarity/trade value of most things. One mod I'd like to see is to have the FoH THUNG sound play whenever a rune above Um drops. I'd hate to think I missed a one in a million drop just because I didn't hear a tiny little snick sound.

[Ferengi]

IIRC the thorns on the Hsarus set is only 5. Not to be sneezed at, however.

If I'm going to twink, I'm going to put a chipped skull in it too..... ;)

[Crystalion]

IIRC the thorns on the Hsarus set is only 5. Not to be sneezed at, however.

If I'm going to twink, I'm going to put a chipped skull in it too..... ;)

Haha! Excellent point. Now that v1.10 has an unsocket recipe I'll have to unlearn my aversion to puttin' stuff into sets and uniques. Given the HPs of the monsters you'll be killing to make clvl 8 it is an interesting question, given this, whether it's worth it to switch to 24 (vs. 9) thorns when you make (clvl req) 5. I'd say so, except only clvl 5 really matters, as you can largely switch tactics at clvl 6 (SGP or poison javalin) for speed anyway.

[Walkiry]

OK guys, I think the race for the Imbue is pretty much nailed down, give or take 5 minutes, 30 minutes seem to be reasonable. Now, I've decided to give the longer race a try, as usual 1 player, no twink, no aid.

The ultimate target is, of course, killing Baal, and as so rush to the Hellforge in Nightmare. The limit is the level 20 and ancients quest, so I decided to take a look at what could be the best character for just running ahead without looking back, move forward and still get exp. The Blaze Sorceress.

To accomplish this task there're basically four parts:

- Lvl. 1 to lvl. 6, as usual. The best pseudo-area-of-effect for this task will be charged bolt. Tempting as it might be, don't add a single point to warmth. Once you pass this first phase you'll be set since Blaze is not very mana intensive.

- lvl 6 to lvl 12: Poison pots will carry you through this. The biggest problem is that you'll likely have to kill Andy before you get to level 12 (no point wasting time leveling up, your target is level 20 in act 5, something you'll reach FAR earlier), but a single poing in static field will do wonders for you.

- lvl 12 to lvl 18: Run and blaze. Keep a few stamina potions in the inventory at all times, very useful. A point in a chilling armour might be worth considering (since this isn't hardcore and it's just an experiment, I didn't use it, and several deaths afterwards with precious minutes lost I though it was a mistake). Then you'll have teleport. Teleport eats mana (you should be giving yourself nothing but life. High strength is useless, high dex as well, mana is not an issue and mana pots can be bought) so use it wisely. As soon as I got teleport I didn't miss the cold armours (but given the particular task at hand, wasting one skill point there might still be recommended).

- lvl 18 on: Blaze + teleport and you'll have tons of fun.

FACT: You have to kill the council. I smashed the orb without killing them all and I couldn't enter the portal I did BACK TO durance level 1 (KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!). I so wanted to smack someone (last waypoint was Lower Kurast).

FACT: Twinking could be a good idea. Even with high life (heck, as of level 20 I have over 300) you'll be a sitting duck if you have no faster hit recovery. Due to the nature of this particular game, picking up stuff to sell and gambling is out of the question, too time consuming.

FACT: Cash WILL be a problem with this playing style. Using plenty of pots (and "recharging" poison pots) and not picking up much loot.

FACT: You'll reach level 20 very early.

FACT: Kurast and the Durance can't be done faster with any other character.

Times:

Malus: 30:12 lvl. 8
Andy: 51:20 lvl. 10
Staff: 1:32:56 lvl 14
Amulet: 1:37:15 lvl 14
Canyon: 1:57:27 lvl 16
Duriel: 2:13:18 lvl 17
Jade Figurine: 2:17:44 lvl 17
Gibbdin: 2:39:41 lvl 19
Tome: 2:51:18 lvl 20
Khalim's guts: 2:52:36 lvl 20 (time when the last piece was obtained)
Khalim's Flail: 2:55:15 lvl 20
Mephisto's Soulstone: 3:00:05 lvl 20

I was quite astonished when I saw the time too :) I wasn't going to get the malus, but I came accross it and was level 8 already, so why not.

Andariel wasn't too hard, I died once since I was careless, but I could have survived if I had prepared myself properly. The jail has to be the worst part, when you're really underpowered and the maps can be a pain to find the way down.

The Maggot Lair is horrible, with no teleport you have to move continuously and tempt monsters to follow you. Very slow advance, and the final room with the queen was packed with scarabs. Not pretty.

Having no faster hit recovery really hurt in the viper temple. Those charges really get to you when you're such low level. And Duriel, thanks to the annoying freeze and my lack of rejuvenation potions (I can't cube them anymore, well, at least without gems, and those are not so abundant, remember the lack of loot of this build?), well...

The palace is really easy to just skip, the stairs are always in the same place.

The arcane sanctuary is annoying if you find the summoner in the last possible place he can be. The portals quadrant has to be done with charged bolt because blaze just doesn't cut. Same for the summoner himself.

The jungles go on for ever and ever. And is it me or the packs of flayers are a lot more dense than they used to be? I'm talking "bring down my athlon XP with 1.5 Gb of memory to its knees" kind of dense. Unbelievable.

As soon as you hit Kurast you'll finish in the blink of an eye. See how the time between the Tome and killing Mephisto was less than 10 minutes, including having to kill the council and that "I can't enter my own portal" moment (KHAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!).

Assault to Diablo's fortress tomorrow, I'm too tired today :lol:

It'll include the hellforge, but I'll skip Anya and Nithalak (sp?) in act 5 if possible (do they block any later quests?).

[Crystalion]

the race for the Imbue is pretty much nailed down, give or take 5 minutes, 30 minutes seem to be reasonable

Yes. Also, because of the other rushing goals, one can pretty much presume to have quite a few level 8+ characters just lying around that could be handed a Malus almost trivially.

the longer race a try, as usual 1 player, no twink, no aid.
The ultimate target is, of course, killing Baal, and as so rush to the Hellforge in Nightmare. The limit is the level 20 and ancients quest

Yes, we can ignore the (Ruvanal) sleaze and assume that this is a two parter: level 20; act rushing.

best character for just running ahead without looking back, move forward and still get exp. The Blaze Sorceress.

An excellent choice. I should mention though that a Bone Armor Necro running with max thorns shields is a likely contender, for similar reasons.

The biggest problem is that you'll likely have to kill Andy before you get to level 12

Actually, grab those Fulminating potions when they drop and hit town just before Andy for heal and antidote potions (don't forget the new +50% poison resist from the first one you slug down). Static her at near melee range whenever you're at full HPs (run or Town Portal out if not--she's an act boss, she won't regen) and then hit her with your Fulminating potions (close range, so you don't miss)--as she is -50% fire resist, she should drop quite fast. The key would be to use poison to have cleared the way by killing all the "distractions" before pulling her. Of course if you're playing players X you'll already be 12+ here and Blaze just dusts her trivially.

- lvl 12 to lvl 18: Run and blaze. Keep a few stamina potions in the inventory at all times, very useful.

Man, aren't they! Brilliant change. Kudos to Isolde and co.

A point in a chilling armour might be worth considering

I would. The question is whether to freeze them when they hit you--a nice fit with constant run away tactics, but not with thorns twinking--or to Shiver them when they *try* to hit you (yes, you read that right, they don't have to hit you to get the shiver chill/damage). An interesting choice.

Then you'll have teleport. Teleport eats mana (you should be giving yourself nothing but life. High strength is useless, high dex as well, mana is not an issue and mana pots can be bought)

Yep and yep. This is a major score for the Sorc m.o. vs. Necro or other candidate class (though Leap Attack deserves mention).

FACT: You have to kill the council

Yes indeed. This is a blessing, actually, for act rushing, as you'll see later today when I do yet another act rushee so I can post times for you for comparision (with your no assist times).

FACT: Twinking could be a good idea.

Probably not necessary if you're going to be act rushed, as you might as well be rushed in two phases: clvl 1 to act 5; clvl 20 to act 4 NM hellforge. Thus, starting at clvl 1, you'll have total access to whatever act suits you for maximum xp efficiency (including picking only on suckers, clvl 12+, for blaze). Of course if you really want to twink, there are some lowbie items, like the Hsarus set, and Twitchthroe armor, that would skyrocket your lowbie's survivability (I like the +51 life in a mask for a clvl 5 character--that's just outrageous, isn't it?)

FACT: Cash WILL be a problem with this playing style. Using plenty of pots (and "recharging" poison pots) and not picking up much loot.

You only need to pick up rods, wands and scepters to be rolling in cash, on average. Train your ear. Naturally an initial $60,000 is helpful.

FACT: Kurast and the Durance can't be done faster with any other character.

The aforementioned Bone Armor/Thorns shield Necro has Corpse Explosion. If his life is high enough, the thorns shield will produce corpses. Those corpses can become mass destruction in an instant. So it depends on what "done faster" means and how well each contestant plays to their strengths. Certainly a Necro that hasn't been twinked with the thorns shield is at a huge disadvantage.

Very good times. Nice data to have. Be very interesting if anyone can significantly beat your times (unaided).

The Maggot Lair is horrible, with no teleport you have to move continuously and tempt monsters to follow you.

Well, in a rush this gets completely skipped. If you have to do it without teleport and without points in another skill, I'm wondering if you found any of the poison poisons with clvl 10 or 16 req? Those might work.

The arcane sanctuary is annoying

Another area where (players X?) leveling first to 18 (teleport; LA for Barb) would be a huge win.

The jungles go on for ever and ever. And is it me or the packs of flayers are a lot more dense

I suspect that maybe the lil buggers are just good at keeping up with you, so you just accumulated a whole lot of them over time? Subjectively it only seemed a little denser to me, v1.10beta1&s, iirc.

Assault to Diablo's fortress tomorrow, I'm too tired today

Nice report.

I'll skip Anya and Nithalak (sp?) in act 5 if possible (do they block any later quests?).

Well, as you can legally have a level 1 in nightmare, it is tempting to say: "block? what is this word: block?" While my "Categories" aren't perfect, they do pretty well represent what you have to think about in rushing. The short form summary of minimal requirements is:

• act 1: watch Andariel die
  <>
  
• act 2: touch viper temple chest to lift darkness; use summoner portal; talk to Tyriel
  <>
  
• act 3: watch Council die; watch Meph die
  <>
  
• act 4: watch Diablo die
  <>
  
• act 5: (non-exploit): be level 20 and watch ancients die then watch Baal die<>
  [st]And the "exploit" means you don't even have to watch anything, as long as a party member that should (aka "needs to" just like you) does and you're in the act. I'll post some assisted times for this later. (tech note: "watch" means you are "there" when you or an ally get kill credit (xp not an issue)).

[CelticHound]

If the rushee gets Baal credit via exploit by someone else on the level getting credit, can't they just ignore the Ancients entirely? That way, if you want to level later, you can wait until you are high enough that you get full exp from that quest.

-- CH