The Great Race; a proposal for "Khalim" awards

[Crystalion]

-- Got a HotChippies palidin already, the unique sword with +6 HF just wouldn't stay in the mule stash.

I've been cubing orbs (maybe a dozen or so times now)... have yet to see a +skill above clvl 24 req but I'm going to keep at it. If I got the +6 HF sword I'd immediately make a Chipadin--nice luck for you that you got one (I should add it to my list to watch for in trades, since I doubt most people consider it to have any value--MongoJerry scored a Kuko for a Sol rune today, gesh!).

-- Started a second necro to test out the "no-twink" rush to Hellforge ideas already.  4 other character builds are already mules!

I finally put a "great race" build to the test today on pub ladder games...

v1.10 softcore uswest ladder, great race to clvl 20 (goal: rushable past ancients for baal rush carry-along and eventual nm quest reward claims).

M.O.: twinked Assassin (no assist, public partying okay) with general set niceness, massive thorns, and skill focus on FireBlast then Wake of Fire (supported by Burst of Speed to get around quicker).

Result: I dinged to clvl 20 on Duriel's death, not having died once (i.e. ala Hardcore) at ~2:20 hours:minutes from character creation.

I got the urge to try this build because I had the Arctic set gloves and belt and realized that if I had the body armor to match I could throw in Hsarus boots and my combo Stoutnail/flawed skulls shield for 34 net thorns for a pretty kickass setup. Unfortunately I didn't have a 3 socket Mask handy to stick flawed saphires in, so I actually wasted some stat points into energy (tip: by clvl 16 shop Ormus before he stops selling your character non-magic stuff).

I grabbed some stamina charms out of warehouse and that must have helped because I don't recall needing to drink any stamina potions.

It took maybe eight or nine kills of Bishibosh (with my MFer) before I got the Arctic Furs I wanted. I have to say my experience with low level SuperUniques is that they drop pretty well, if you're looking for charms and lowbie sets/uniques.

Anyway, from character creation it took over five minutes to get everything transferred, organized and the expedition under way. I did the Den of Evil and Blood Raven and then hunted down the Stony Field waypoint before deciding to change into a pub game with bigger Players N (I was in a private Players 2 game, ala twink xferer didn't leave). My character was clvl 6 or so and had equiped all the twinks at this point, about 27 minutes on the clock.

I joined a pub game with some sort of "act 1" byline and solo'ed the passage to the dark wood. I was leveling pretty fast, so when I was clvl 10 I went down the party portal (auto-join-invites on entering pub games must be common) to Catacombs 2 and immediately joined the party down to Cat 3. I didn't make clvl 12 before we killed Andy. That game kinda broke up so I joined a 7 player "act 2" byline game and made the mistake of not joining them for Radament (I later wasted time going down myself to pick up the book of skill that had dropped for me in my absence). I instead focused on getting to the Far Oasis waypoint--I made clvl 12 and WoF as soon as I killed a few monsters outside Lut Golein--because Far Oasis is a sweet zone for this build (np going from 12 to 20 there).

Soon the party caught up to me (I have a tendency to leave TPs up for people at waypoints, etc.) as I entered Lost City (I should mention that Darkness was already triggered, which is annoying, so I figured I'd do the Vipers myself, if need be, just to lift it). Vipers were trivial for me. On the second level the others hung back at the stairs as I charged in, WoF blazing, and wiped out everything in short order. Because of their hesitation I scored the Death's set gloves from my kill of the special viper (generally I wasn't competing for drops if anyone was next to me since pub game drops vanish with an amazing rapidity and I don't care to engage in that--I gave away a couple of class +skill items while in these games and don't recall seeing a thank you).

The Arcane Sanctuary was a bit different. There my WoF were under-powered. (this game was Players 6 to 8 most of the time). The Fire Clan guys burned, but rather too slowly for my tastes (their regen was pretty good).

I arrived at the summoner in time to toast everything there and allow the werewolf to claim his corpse. The waypoint had a bunch of brutes (someone must have come through and left them there) which I dusted. The Canyon and tomb were trivial. If anything I held back a little so as not to give the party nothing to do.

Duriel was a different story. The game was around Players 6 or 7 but my party was down to 3 players: the werewolf, myself and another Assassin (melee). I had caught up with them over time, so I think we were all clvl 19 at this point. The Duriel fight took about two to three minutes. The other Assassin kept showing up (my portal was pre-chamber, theirs in-chamber) and dying right away. My Merc died (level 13 act 2 hired fresh for Arcane Sanctuary--I'd not used a hireling previously) shortly in. I never went to town during the battle (I'd stocked up on mana pots prior). Ultimately the werewolf settled into running around the outside of the room so he wouldn't die while my WoF fairly slowly wore Duriel down.

Fittingly, I dinged to clvl 20 on Duriel's death, not having ever died, at ~2:20 hours:minutes from character creation.

I think if I got used to doing it, while still picking up drops and having fun, I could manage sub-2 hour times consistently.

I saw players lag out a few times. It is nice that this build is pretty lag insensitive (WoF and thorns).

I hired a cold merc, level 19, in Act 3, but that's just for style points, as this char is "done" in the sense of now having been converted to a warehouse until such time as I rush her to nm hellforge (while using her to carry-along one other clvl 1 mule). By time you add in all the other overhead, I'm guessing a two account player like myself, using this build M.O., will get one nm hellforge reward for under 2 man hours effort.

I have to say that I saw enough rushing beggars in my foray into public games the last two days that I strongly suspect the more successful of those players are beating that average simply by carry-along with parties that want Players N to be high, without needing real players in the party. I'm not sure I'm willing to test that theory by naming one of my pub games "come be rushed past Baal" or some such.