02-09-2004, 07:06 AM
Obi2 - thanks for clarifying that. Out of interest, does anything else substitute for the 'no drop' chance?
Vash - Sorry, I should have been more clear. Essentially what I am talking about is maximising what I will call your 'rune rate'. Rune rate can be measured objectively as your kill rate multiplied by the average chance of a monster dropping a rune.
So for each rune TC, there must be a monster with the greatest chance to drop it. But going after that monster is unlikely to result in the maximum 'rune rate', because you can probably kill other monsters a lot faster. The council in Travincal is a prime case : sure they offer comparatively decent rune drop chances, but (depending on your character), you can probably kill monsters with lower drop rates so much faster that you're actually more likely to have the particular rune TC drop sooner from them. Of course, how you optimise your rune rate is very much dependent on your character type. Zerker barbs might maximise their rune rate targeting Act bosses, while LF zons might do best in the flayer jungle.
I chose carvers because they are numerous and more importantly, they congregegate in large numbers in pre-defined areas of the map. So you can start a game, waypoint to dark wood, and very quickly wipe out a few hundred of them. Rinse, repeat. You'll need to vary players to optimise your rune rate depending on your character type. But the flayer jungle suggestion (which I read about recently) is probably better.
If you're popping chests (which I now won't recommend until I see the drop rates for them), always leave it at players 8, since you'll get a *lot* more items from the chests. I had a very nicely planned run which took just over 3 mins to pop over 50 chests. It ends at the entrance to Durance 3 (I stopped going on there because the chests are spaced too far apart). Pick up keys when possible, because it's very annoying to buy them. You will need a way to get past monsters (I used whirlwind).
Regarding drop chances, I've started another thread.
Vash - Sorry, I should have been more clear. Essentially what I am talking about is maximising what I will call your 'rune rate'. Rune rate can be measured objectively as your kill rate multiplied by the average chance of a monster dropping a rune.
So for each rune TC, there must be a monster with the greatest chance to drop it. But going after that monster is unlikely to result in the maximum 'rune rate', because you can probably kill other monsters a lot faster. The council in Travincal is a prime case : sure they offer comparatively decent rune drop chances, but (depending on your character), you can probably kill monsters with lower drop rates so much faster that you're actually more likely to have the particular rune TC drop sooner from them. Of course, how you optimise your rune rate is very much dependent on your character type. Zerker barbs might maximise their rune rate targeting Act bosses, while LF zons might do best in the flayer jungle.
I chose carvers because they are numerous and more importantly, they congregegate in large numbers in pre-defined areas of the map. So you can start a game, waypoint to dark wood, and very quickly wipe out a few hundred of them. Rinse, repeat. You'll need to vary players to optimise your rune rate depending on your character type. But the flayer jungle suggestion (which I read about recently) is probably better.
If you're popping chests (which I now won't recommend until I see the drop rates for them), always leave it at players 8, since you'll get a *lot* more items from the chests. I had a very nicely planned run which took just over 3 mins to pop over 50 chests. It ends at the entrance to Durance 3 (I stopped going on there because the chests are spaced too far apart). Pick up keys when possible, because it's very annoying to buy them. You will need a way to get past monsters (I used whirlwind).
Regarding drop chances, I've started another thread.