09-03-2003, 04:26 PM
Hi Selby,
I understand your approach. If I'm just generally trying to find better items of any and all sorts I prefer to clear Hell altogether, except maybe Diablo's room. Unless I have truly woeful luck that'll give me 15-20 magic items and 2-5 pieces of jewelry, and maybe more. It also gives me a couple of hundred thousand gold pieces to crank Griswold and Wirt, through both collecting gold drops and selling items. But it takes me 50 minutes to an hour.
I used to always do this if looking for anything special too, but then I realised a bit more about the potential for higher level items from the unique monsters. I still get the feeling of, "But what if it's *that* anonymous Soul Burner I just ignored who's carrying an Obs/Zod?" but I've learned to cope with it :)
If I'm set on one particular very high level item or unique then Laz runs seem more sensible - three guaranteed unique nasties, four if I go and find Bloodlust (which isn't difficult given the simplicity of the dlvl15 layouts), maybe five or six if I'm lucky on the way through dlvls 13 and 14, maybe another one if dlvl15 has those magistrate-types (the charged bolt ones, I think their boss is always with them). And another if I choose to go and check dlvlv16 for Sir Gorash. So maybe eight unique nasties plus a few dozen other monsters killed on the way. That'll take me about 15-20 minutes.
So, four Laz runs will give me almost the same number of items for a few more minutes spent but there's a better chance of those items being the highest quality. The gold isn't going to buy me an RC, a Stormshield or jewelry anyway so I just hang on to enough that I can restock potions before starting over. Usually a Laz run will be one trip down without coming up for air or potions, and no selling/buying/cranking is obviously saving a lot of time.
So when it's highest quality instead of good qulity in highest number, I go with Laz runs. But... Last night Laz gave me a Book of Holy Bolt... and when I was about clvl27 or 28 with this character I got an Obsidian Ring of Perfection from a headless corpse, so I know what you mean :)
Mick.
I understand your approach. If I'm just generally trying to find better items of any and all sorts I prefer to clear Hell altogether, except maybe Diablo's room. Unless I have truly woeful luck that'll give me 15-20 magic items and 2-5 pieces of jewelry, and maybe more. It also gives me a couple of hundred thousand gold pieces to crank Griswold and Wirt, through both collecting gold drops and selling items. But it takes me 50 minutes to an hour.
I used to always do this if looking for anything special too, but then I realised a bit more about the potential for higher level items from the unique monsters. I still get the feeling of, "But what if it's *that* anonymous Soul Burner I just ignored who's carrying an Obs/Zod?" but I've learned to cope with it :)
If I'm set on one particular very high level item or unique then Laz runs seem more sensible - three guaranteed unique nasties, four if I go and find Bloodlust (which isn't difficult given the simplicity of the dlvl15 layouts), maybe five or six if I'm lucky on the way through dlvls 13 and 14, maybe another one if dlvl15 has those magistrate-types (the charged bolt ones, I think their boss is always with them). And another if I choose to go and check dlvlv16 for Sir Gorash. So maybe eight unique nasties plus a few dozen other monsters killed on the way. That'll take me about 15-20 minutes.
So, four Laz runs will give me almost the same number of items for a few more minutes spent but there's a better chance of those items being the highest quality. The gold isn't going to buy me an RC, a Stormshield or jewelry anyway so I just hang on to enough that I can restock potions before starting over. Usually a Laz run will be one trip down without coming up for air or potions, and no selling/buying/cranking is obviously saving a lot of time.
So when it's highest quality instead of good qulity in highest number, I go with Laz runs. But... Last night Laz gave me a Book of Holy Bolt... and when I was about clvl27 or 28 with this character I got an Obsidian Ring of Perfection from a headless corpse, so I know what you mean :)
Mick.