The Great Race; a proposal for "Khalim" awards

[Crystalion]

Earlier DarkPhenomenon wrote:

In fact I've gotten quite proficient with rushing and if all goes well I can get a new char to 20, ancients then to NM hellforge in about an hour. My record is getting a new char to lvl 50 in 3 hours with him killing 90% of the enemies (Although my 50ish javazon *aided* him in NM cows for a couple levels).

Then I wrote:

The times you cite are probably a bit optimistic, as v1.10 does make several things a little more time consuming than v1.09.

Then Ruvanal quoted that and wrote:

They do not seem to be very optimistic from what I have seen beening done players already.

Then DarkPhenomenon wrote:

So the first inquiry is to what all the rush blockers are. As far as I can remember, you have to kill the council now (which takes a whopping 20 extra seconds for a high level character to do).
Is there a thread or anything outlining all of the anti rush features in the 1.10 patch?

And this is the context I'm replying to here...

If you search on the AB (Amazon Basin) or here you'll find some summaries of the changes in v1.10 that are "anti-rushing". However they all are still subject to efficient coping/bypass tactics. The clvl 20x interlock on Worldstone Keep is the only one with any real teeth to it, which is bypassable at +7x freeloaders by the "Ruvanal sleaze"™. Because there isn't an interlock on the quest rewards that matter (Charsi has one, but clvl 8 rushing and elite base item qlvl almost make a mockery of that) this Baal interlock failure is a big deal.

I think your time to clvl 50 is excellent. However, I still suspect it can be improved and in any event clvl 40 is, imho, the Holy Grail. So my earlier comment refers to clvl 20 and nm hellforge complete in an hour. That character has to traverse (aka finesse) the act2 interlocks twice while also taking the time to get to clvl 20. I don't think your suggested time is way off, but I think a man-hour average is, v1.10, slightly optimistic. I have no doubt that two players can consistantly bring it in in well under two man-hours however, so I'm not saying it's impossible.

A character that doesn't have Summoner credit *can* still go to Canyon of the Magi and Tal Rashas' tombs and Duriel's chamber by walking through the red Summoner portal (v1.10s) but they *can't* town portal *into* those areas. Yes, this means that once they walk through they *can* gain the waypoint and even use it both ways. This backs us up to the Palace/Arcane Sanctuary interlock, which is to require ending the darkness quest credit (touching the Claw Viper chest).

Since a Duriel staff-placed game creator character is useful this is relevant, because they can not create a game for which a "newbie" can still claim the end-the-darkness credit (as they had to already get credit for that). So a Duriel drone is still useful, if you break the problem into two parts (games: first game newbie claims end-darkness; second game Duriel char makes staff acquisition irrelevant). Ruvanal's sleaze™ applies here of course, if you had a EBay production team working the gig. Old sleaze, like the talk-to-Tyriel trick, have not been anti-rushed in v1.10s (indeed the "anti-rush" vis a vis the Council/Durance interlock in act 3 seems to me to be a pro-rush change as of v1.10s).

FYI, because I *like* the phrase "Ruvanal's sleaze"™ so much :D , I loosely apply it to (the combination of or either/or) both techniques he alluded to in his original post (the carry-along +6/7x clvl 1s in town as well as the "mystery" twinker-effort no-risk kill credit sleaze).

This brings two issues. 1) Rushing ahead in order to gain massive amounts of experience

For the "Great Race" I only consider this especially important for the 25 to 40 push (as of v1.10s). However it is a key concept for unbalanced builds (e.g. xp or ladder ranking rushers) like my HolyFist character (see other workshop LL thread if you're interested). As Ruvanal has documented, v1.10s has areas eariler in nm/hell than previously possible to get higher level monsters and drops (e.g. mlvl 81/83/85 +2/+3 minion/boss in Burial Grounds/Crypt/Mausoleum in act 1 hell), and this is especially beneficial to a location-rusher bent on xp rushing a twinked/aided 25+ character by taking them to early nm or hell.

AFAIK v1.10s nerfs xp and drops, at least relatively speaking, for areas like MooMooFarm and ZombieGarden. However rapid mass killing combined with fanatical 24/7 play is still going to rule the ladder (ranking). I've never been much interested in that. YMMV. By toying with HolyFist in the ZG however, I have noticed a lot of "white" base item drops, which, ironically, are very very good drops in v1.10s, as both rares and runewords for elites are now highly desirable (not that any upgradable base for a white isn't *good* for high clvl imbue, as you can then upgrade; just that high qlvl imbue allows a clvl 8 rushee to be made to do the job).

My impression is that MF doesn't work on act bosses and superuniques in v1.10s. I also think Find Item is nerfed from what it was when I last tested it (a long long time ago). But the drops from "regular" monsters seem to have been improved, and MF still works on them. And v1.10s nm/hell has champ/boss packs *everywhere* like flies. So, as I've said before, I think the *direction* Blizzard is moving is great, and would just like to see a few implementation loosenesses or omissions cleared up.