View Full Version : Hell Countess
Today i finally broke down and decided that i would break down and run the Forgotten Tower and try and build up my pitiful rune supply. Right now my highest rune is PUL followed by DOL. So my options of making any runeword tops out at "HONOR" Here is a brief annalysis of my first 50 runs
Total runs 50
Total times i wish i had Maphack :rant: stupid *** huge tower : 21
Total times i wish i was running with a nova sorc instead of orb : 50
Average time per run : 3:45
Time if i had maphack 90 seconds
Highest rune drop : FAL
Drops of EL , ELD or combo of both :9
Times i cursed at the Countess for a crappy rune drop : 9
Best item drop : Set Kraken from unique ghost :scratch: seems kinda high tc for that area but hey
Well thats it so far, now to do some norm areas to get chips so i can cube my runes
terrymanning
06-04-2004, 21:05
What level is your sorceress? What is your life and mana? Do you teleport or walk? I have a level 79 Orb sorceress and I am wondering if she is strong enough to try and do some countess runs. Thanks!
TM
*thinks of way to get Terry killed*
hmm, i suggest you do Solo Baal runs! :teeth:
skunkbelly
06-04-2004, 21:15
My meteorb sorc is 84 now... I did a couple hell countess runs with her at level 80, and she did just fine. 79 ought to be fine.
What level is your sorceress? What is your life and mana? Do you teleport or walk? I have a level 79 Orb sorceress and I am wondering if she is strong enough to try and do some countess runs. Thanks!
TM
lvl 92
Build pure orb max tk warmth
teleport
1100 life / 800 mana
remember she is ALWAYS cold / fire immune so if your merc is a wuss dont bother
skunkbelly
06-04-2004, 21:37
One thing I should mention, give that the countess is indeed C/F immune... a point in static is always a nice help :) My merc is nothing special (using a Pierre Tombale Courrant, or however you spell it), but he has no problem with her as long as I static her down to size first.
I'm in the midst of my own Hell countess experiment. I was planning to do 100 runs and look at the results. So far I am up to around 64 or so. I use a bow amazon, level 93. I've noticed that I find more on my way to her then actually from her. On my way, I have found Pul, Jah, Lum, as well as A few Amns and Sols.The Countess, herself, usually doesn't drop too well, it seems :(
I'm in the midst of my own Hell countess experiment. I was planning to do 100 runs and look at the results. So far I am up to around 64 or so. I use a bow amazon, level 93. I've noticed that I find more on my way to her then actually from her. On my way, I have found Pul, Jah, Lum, as well as A few Amns and Sols.The Countess, herself, usually doesn't drop too well, it seems :(
Was the JAH from a chest or champion pack? Ive also started hitting weapon / armor racks and been getting quite a few sets / uniques
probowl278
06-04-2004, 23:41
Mike wishing he had maphack.... somethings wrong here, Iirc Kelicc found the Jah from a random boss / monster pack.
Countess runs for mmy Barb have been little more than exp so you guys are doing fine. Havent tried my sorc doing here but may.
Was the JAH from a chest or champion pack? Ive also started hitting weapon / armor racks and been getting quite a few sets / uniques
The Jah came from a boss pack of Blood Clans on Tower level 4. The boss dropped it. Boy was a shocked!
doubleOObubble
07-04-2004, 00:36
The ultimate countess runner would probably be a nova/chain lightning sorc as she, as stated, is always cold+fire immune. Just see that your sorc is strong enough and most importantly have 60%+ fast cast rate. That way you don't have to encounter any bad guys on the way down there.
If you are going for the main stream fire/cold sorc, fire is definately the best, as her posse are always cold immune.
Good luck!
Countess runs for mmy Barb have been little more than exp so you guys are doing fine. Havent tried my sorc doing here but may.
Ya Stinger i reap a whopping 600 xp per run , 1000 if i whack the champions i encounter on the way down.
@Probowl yea after wandering the Black Marsh for a minute to 90 seconds then spending another 2 trying to find tower 5 only to get an EL and ELD sure i wish i could speed it up, havent and wont get it though
found a Lo rune 2 weeks ago from countes herself :) i usually teleport quick to her. But maybe i have to kill all on my way, to find jah :p
I think from a risk vs. reward you would be just as well off to do nm countess runs. From my experience, the rune drops are not that different.
I think from a risk vs. reward you would be just as well off to do nm countess runs. From my experience, the rune drops are not that different.
That was true in .09 Fred with the prevalence of msle and conviction. The biggest problem i encountered when doing countesswas her immunity to cold. The one thing nm has over hell is size of the tower , but then again i got a lot of uniques sets on the way to the countess.
HAMC8112
07-04-2004, 19:13
I am running the Countess with a CLsorc, i tele there and zap her, no luck sofar though. I ran her for a while with my barb for wich she dropped an ist. If you want to tele there instead of killing everything on the way Clsorc's are IMO the best build for the Countess.
Now after the post where someone said that he found a Jah on the way there, lots of people will start killing everything on the way to the Countess, for them i have these words: you can clean out the place a million times, you will NOT find a Jah there.
I am running the Countess with a CLsorc, i tele there and zap her, no luck sofar though. I ran her for a while with my barb for wich she dropped an ist. If you want to tele there instead of killing everything on the way Clsorc's are IMO the best build for the Countess.
Now after the post where someone said that he found a Jah on the way there, lots of people will start killing everything on the way to the Countess, for them i have these words: you can clean out the place a million times, you will NOT find a Jah there.
I found it after my 28th run out of (soon to be) 100. Not saying I wasn't EXTREMELY lucky, but it is possible.
skunkbelly
07-04-2004, 19:38
I think from a risk vs. reward you would be just as well off to do nm countess runs. From my experience, the rune drops are not that different.
If you compare the drop probabilities, there's good and bad to both runs.
NM:
1. safe and easy
2. quicker (smaller tower levels)
3. almost identical probabilities for rune drops up through Io
BUT...
4. no chance for runes higher than Io
5. no experience for higher level chars
Hell:
1. Chance for runes up through Ist
2. you actually get experience
BUT...
3. takes longer
4. chance for high runes is slim
5. you can die
I'm starting to think that unless you're lucky, NM runs are the way to go... but of course, it only takes one Mal or Ist to ruin that theory :D
HAMC8112
07-04-2004, 19:38
I found it after my 28th run out of (soon to be) 100. Not saying I wasn't EXTREMELY lucky, but it is possible.
Congrats! However your find make's my words even more relevant, unless next poster is gonna say: Wow man! I also found 1 on the way to the countess!
Now, even more people will start killing everything on the way to the Countess, so i'll say it again: you will NOT find a Jah there.
^^
ConnerMacleod
07-04-2004, 20:00
Terry, (with evil grin on face) yeah, it's safe to run her with an FO sorc at 79! Yeahhh, that's the ticket!
You can, but it will be very very dangerous for you. Countess runs imply a tanking merc. She's not always immune to cold, but sometimes she is ITP. So give the merc a Unique Thresher so he can slow everything down a notch.
xeyloderixed
07-04-2004, 20:06
well, ive built a few sorcs (ok, 2) sorcs just for countess, and i have to say nova is the way to go. she was pretty godly though (lvl 32 nova) but well worth it in terms of killing speed. the problems with nova is that u have to be pretty rich to make it work*, and the inability to kill anything outside of countess. but of course, when ur like me and the only thing left for u to do in this game is get 438923145236 high runes to build ur chars, go for it.
* the usual "put points into vita" strategy does not work, so a heavy investment in charms is a must. also, since u do have to invest in mana, some dr equipment is advised, either ss or shaft
What's the highest rune that can drop off of hell countess? Ist?
I remember 1.09 hell countess runs being kinda profitable, but 1.10 I havent seen a noticible difference. Sure, you get exp, but trapped stairs, and the increase size of the tower arent worth the time or risk. Especially with a sorc.
And Mike, even when you make it safely to the countess, and she drops a couple of tals and elds, doesn't it totally piss you off?That was true in .09 Fred with the prevalence of msle and conviction. The biggest problem i encountered when doing countesswas her immunity to cold. The one thing nm has over hell is size of the tower , but then again i got a lot of uniques sets on the way to the countess.
skunkbelly
07-04-2004, 20:59
What's the highest rune that can drop off of hell countess? Ist?
Yup.
However, as has been pointed out, other critters in the tower can drop high runes as well (though it's very, very unusual).
madman68
07-04-2004, 22:09
Or better yet EL's. I've seen four EL's drop at once in Hell.
doubleOObubble
07-04-2004, 22:18
I thought LO was the highest drop from the Countess...
IamTheTest
07-04-2004, 22:29
Ive always found hell tower, or tower in general, to be a lot like NASCAR. Go fast, turn left. Good hunting.
WingBlade
07-04-2004, 22:33
I thought LO was the highest drop from the Countess...
I believe Double is correct from what I've heard around LO is the highest that HELL COUNTESS can drop.... whether she drops it for ya depends on how nicely u treat her :drool:
From Strategy FAQ:
"Countess rune drops:
- Normal: El - Ral
- Nightmare: El - Io/Ko ; above Io is much rarer
- Hell: El - Ist/Lo ; above Ist is much rarer"
If they ran NASCAR in Australia, do you think they would turn right? :scratch: :lol: Ive always found hell tower, or tower in general, to be a lot like NASCAR. Go fast, turn left. Good hunting.
Cleglaw_Himself
07-04-2004, 23:17
Well I've started to run the countess with my hammerdin, killing most things on the way.
So far, in about 10 runs, I have found about 10 el's, 2 eld's, 1 ort, 1 tal from the countess.
I found a Lum rune from a random monster on the way... Blood clan guy it was too!
Hell Countess can drop LO in 1.10. 1.09 was Ist.
doubleOObubble
08-04-2004, 03:38
"She's not always immune to cold"
I'm like 100% she's always CI. Comes with "the race" so to speak.
According to d2data.net the probability of hell countess dropping Lo, the highest rune she can drop, is .00003123. Hell odds on ko, the highest rune for NM is .0006511 vs. NM odds of .10347008. If Im after runes, I'm playing NM.
I remember 1.09 hell countess runs being kinda profitable, but 1.10 I havent seen a noticible difference. Sure, you get exp, but trapped stairs, and the increase size of the tower arent worth the time or risk. Especially with a sorc.
And Mike, even when you make it safely to the countess, and she drops a couple of tals and elds, doesn't it totally piss you off?
Well in my insane little world i keep every rune TIR and higher and cube them up as i go along. By the time i had done 135 runs i had a a stash / cube and 14 slots of inv full of RALS , THULS and higher. Though i did mule off items and gems i had found i kept the runes to see what i would get. Afterwards i cubed all the runes as was able to get up to LEM using almost exscusively THULS. The bigggest pain was doing normal areas to get the chips to cube the runes.
Well in my insane little world i keep every rune TIR and higher and cube them up as i go along. By the time i had done 135 runs i had a a stash / cube and 14 slots of inv full of RALS , THULS and higher. Though i did mule off items and gems i had found i kept the runes to see what i would get. Afterwards i cubed all the runes as was able to get up to LEM using almost exscusively THULS. The bigggest pain was doing normal areas to get the chips to cube the runes.
I tried to do that once.
Got to Nef.
Stopped doing it.
Now I start with Thul :)
Well in my insane little world i keep every rune TIR and higher and cube them up as i go along. By the time i had done 135 runs i had a a stash / cube and 14 slots of inv full of RALS , THULS and higher. Though i did mule off items and gems i had found i kept the runes to see what i would get. Afterwards i cubed all the runes as was able to get up to LEM using almost exscusively THULS. The bigggest pain was doing normal areas to get the chips to cube the runes.
You think you're insane? I keep 'em all :D From El on up. Hey, you only need 9 Els for a Tir! :)
slick4hire
08-04-2004, 17:46
The ultimate countess runner would probably be a nova/chain lightning sorc as she, as stated, is always cold+fire immune. Just see that your sorc is strong enough and most importantly have 60%+ fast cast rate. That way you don't have to encounter any bad guys on the way down there.
If you are going for the main stream fire/cold sorc, fire is definately the best, as her posse are always cold immune.
Good luck!
The only problem with that is over half of the monsters on the way down are lightning immune. If i got caught in a sticky situation, I would rather have a spell that can kill what is surrounding me.
Just my $.02
My friend and I have found having very little (less than 50%) MF seems to boost her likelihood of dropping the 3rd rune which is rumored to be her higher rune-drop rune. My friend was the one that researched this on another site.
Does anyone here have any information on this? About MF vs Countess Rune drops?
HAMC8112
08-04-2004, 20:42
[QUOTE=kurg] My friend was the one that researched this on another site.QUOTE]
Could you point me to that other site pls coz i am very interested in this.
Two or 3 weeks ago i started running the countess with my CLsorc, the only mf she had was a shako. She found lots of runes, but the last couple day's i was thinking about that, because the runedrop was much poorer then it was in the beginning.
Thinking back i realised that the runedrop went down after i changed gear! I muled in a skulders, before she used an ormus +3 to CL, i put in a Gheed's and WT's instead off the scarabshell boots.
Reading your post here, it makes sense to me eventhough you say less then 50% and i had exactly 50%. Anyway, is it illegal here to post a link to another site? If it is, could you maybe pm with the info?
I will try to get deeper into it myself, maybe run her again with the old setup, change it weekly or so and compare the drops.
abbithedog
08-04-2004, 21:53
Done about 30 runs, with mf varying from 100 to 17. Best drop was with mf at 100, which was a shael in hell.
Best non-rune drop from the countess was when my mf was 17, which was a mahim-oak.
Most runes range around ort-amn.
30 runs is not exactly a scientific sample, just sayin'. Will keep trying with low MF, though.
doubleOObubble
09-04-2004, 00:56
MF has zero to do with rune drops. It only applies after an item is dropped to decide the chance for a unique/set/superiour/etc etc. As in: By then, it's already decided whether a rune or an item has dropped. Anyone who says the rune drops changed drastically after this or that change in MF should know what they have is a far too small a sample size to draw any conclusions other than the jinx-oriented ones from :)
abbithedog
09-04-2004, 20:02
MF has zero to do with rune drops. It only applies after an item is dropped to decide the chance for a unique/set/superiour/etc etc. As in: By then, it's already decided whether a rune or an item has dropped. Anyone who says the rune drops changed drastically after this or that change in MF should know what they have is a far too small a sample size to draw any conclusions other than the jinx-oriented ones from :)
My sample size is fine, dagnabit! :)
Been running her with my 87 LF/PJ zon with no problem, really. Got a nice might merc, and he and my valk pretty much mop the floors with the baddies. Or I just trot on by them.
Best drop so far - Lum. Next best - Hel, shael. About 50 runs. About 5 minutes a run.
CoonerTheRed
09-04-2004, 20:41
My sample size is fine, dagnabit! :)
alright gentlemen, no more "my sample size is bigger than your sample size" arguments :lol:
abbithedog
09-04-2004, 21:18
alright gentlemen, no more "my sample size is bigger than your sample size" arguments :lol:
Pshaw. You should see the size of my warpike. :P
xeyloderixed
10-04-2004, 00:13
Pshaw. You should see the size of my warpike. :P
but can that be bigger than my pole? (poleaxe you dirty minded peeps)
Mr.Bogohossian
10-04-2004, 00:31
how was lo dropped by countess. thats a "LO" i thought top was ist from "her"
Lo is tops
Gul Tops Forge
not sure what NM tops is for Countess
Could you point me to that other site pls coz i am very interested in this.
Well, like other people here, I was/am very skeptical about MF affecting rune drops.
On the other hand, the countess is very complicated (Jarulf even mentions this in passing if you scour the web) and the nearest my friend and I could confirm was 'possibly' true was this:
The Countess makes 5 picks: no drop 28.4%, equipment 28.4%, junk 22.4%, gold 16.4%, good 4.4%, and then her special rune drop: 3 runes, but if 4 or 5 items dropped from the normal drop, only 2 or 1 runes will drop. Runes go up to Ral (r08) in Normal, Io (r16) in Nightmare, Ist (r24) in Hell. When farming for runes, do so with players=1 to maximise the number of no drops in the initial 5.
In other words, MF probably doesn't matter, but the number of players in the game may affect her drop. With more players == more equipment drops == fewer rune drops.
In other words with only 1 player in the game the chance of her dropping her 3rd rune is higher, because of fewer players so less 'other' stuff will drop. Even if the odds are equal for all runes, 3 runes per run will statistically get you better runes than 1 rune per run. But my friend (sorry this is all hearsay) said her 3rd rune is picked from a higher treasure class than the first 2 runes or something like that (I'm unable to confirm, feel free to research it). So you REALLY want to get the 3rd rune to drop because its bound to be a higher rune generally than the other two.
Anyway, have fun scouring the web, I searched for 'special rune' and 'countess' to find some stuff after a bunch of other not-so-useful searches.
ko is the highest for nmLo is tops
Gul Tops Forge
not sure what NM tops is for Countess
wangboBW
11-04-2004, 19:14
STRONG BAD!!!!!!!!!!!
So what is the percent of finding a LO in hell countess?
0.00xxx?
or even lower?
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