Fresh Ladder startup strategies?

[Crystalion]

Very interesting.  I've been assuming that a Dury Mule will have completed at least quest 5, so a new game will have to be created for each pass at Duriel.  What are the steps for creating a "perfect" one?

As to the fan out possible with viper/summoner/tyriel cascasdes of carry-alongs: yes, but in practice it isn't worth it to manage that many characters/accounts. Ferengi and I tried fan-out efficiency but he convinced me of the "simple, straightforward M.O. executed well is best" principle in this case.

Now, as to your (and Caaroid's) request for (previously posted?) info on Durimule creation...

If you read my "self-rush with only one account/CD-Key but multiple chars" post some time back, then you're aware that character can potentially enter a game by themself in act 2 and simply walk immediately through the harem, palace, Arcane, Canyon, Tomb directly to Tyriel (and thereby act 3) without meeting anyone monsters (because they were cleared).

The key, of course, is that the game was started by a Durimule.

BTW, the simplicity of just walking (rapidly, after a clear) is very nearly as efficient as carry-along cascades, given that it is very JIT (just-in-time and thus low overhead, esp. cognitively) and given that norm/nm walks are very easy to clear (with suitable high level builds). Much efficiency is regained by spliting the walk at the Summoner (so you then have a batch of carry-alonged carry-alongers that can be directly TPed into TY's chamber). But the walking concept allows you choose expediency or efficiency depending on your mood and whether you feel like keeping an account of Summoner credited mules (remember thats per difficulty level!).

So a Durimule is simply a walker type act 2 denizen that hasn't done anything questwise apart from:

1. handling horadric stuff (must place staff in oriface; use cube to combine staff)
2. touching Horizon's Journal

Now, fortunately, cubing a staff and chatting Drognan is the normal way to open the walk into the Palace. And touching the Journal is trivial (requiring only that the creator of the game quest template has not "completed" that step previously).

So it suffices, to make a Durimule, to create a game in which they perform those three quest state change tasks (and no other).

This means you have to get staff pieces for them (and lend them your cube) without them touching the viper temple chest. This means you have to make it possible for them to *walk* to the summoner's platform and walk to Duriel's antechamber without dying (well, if they spam their own TPs I suspect they can shortcut back down if they die, as, iirc, TPs are only restricted if they're not your own).

Fortunately getting a non-Durimule character who qualifies to touch the claw viper chest in order to get an amulet isn't a huge inconvenience (ditto staff from maggot lair) given that you're only going to do this once per Durimule and then never again. The horadric cube can be lent, of course (or produced in abundance when you take rushees through act 3 Trav Council, if you don't like the Halls of the Undead).

Frankly I've not tested the v1.10 difficulty interlock on quest items to know if you could bring nm/hell staff pieces back to normal (etc.) and use them successfully. I also never got around to testing if the items-on-your-corpse might be used to transport staff/amu past act 2 (there is a point in time at which they auto-delete from your inventory/stash and also then can't be picked up, but a corpse and corpse looting auto-equip might defeat both).

If the quests for act 2 are conveniently numbered so:
123
456
then, iirc, a proper Durimule will show state for 2, completion for 4, and true tomb for 6 (when they start a new game). That means 3, the viper/darkness, and 5, the summoner, are wide open for anyone. Of course 6 is also wide open, even though it has advanced to the point of knowing the true tomb and the entry to Duriel is "wide open".

As a bit of trivia: if you don't kill Duriel but teleport through the wall you will indeed find Tyriel, but he won't talk to you. You can look up the appropriate old STSI pic/commentary if you don't know how to pull off the teleport.

With a little thought I think you can see how easy it would be to create a "perfect Durimule" in passing, while doing act 2 normally, provided you have more than one player or CD-Key cooperating. For normal it's really trivial, since rushing a new char to act 2 is so simple. For nm/hell you have to have planned ahead a little. If you are facing a new Ladder, simply make your regular characters and carry-along three rushees... in normal one rushee becomes the normal Durimule from the amulet/staff your regular character collects and so on for nm/hell. In a way you pay a "tax" of your first three rushees on the presumption that the benefit to later rushees will be well worth it.

Enjoy. :)