Quickest way of reaching hell HF solo

[krischan]

I'm playing with the thought to start a series of characters whose sole purpose is reaching hell HF and being used as deluxe mules from that point on. In order to be efficient with that, time is the most importent factor. As I have two computers, each with Diablo being installed on it, the character doesn't have to be able to defeat any monster on the way to hell HF without any help. However, I don't want other players to help him on his way and I don't want him to be parked e.g. in nightmare baal minion runs while another character does all the work. When the character has reached his goal and perhaps after getting rushed through the rest of the game, he will be stripped of his equipment, to be passed to the next character.

What do you think would be the optimum character for that, with respect to class, specialization and series of equipment sets ? Keep in mind that it doesn't matter if he will be efficient at anything after reaching his goal.

[Superhal]

here's my setup:

lvl 1: +3 charged bolt staff
lvl 3: hsarus set, cleglaws shield on switch for andy
lvl 12: +3 lightning staff, angel set
lvl 13: 3 tir helm
lvl 14: start replacing hsarus set with vidala's boots, death's sash, stormguild
lvl 18: +3 chain lightning staff, or 75 mana orb.
lvl 29: viscauteraut, peasant crown, vipermagi, string of ears, +1 sorc ammy, frostburns, sojs, spirit crystal sword, insight bill for merc.
lvl 36: silkweaves, stealskull for merc
lvl 41: duriel's shell for merc
lvl 45: thieve's crown for merc
lvl 56: spirit shield
lvl 62: harle
lvl 72: +2 sorc ammy
lvl 73: stormshield, eschutas

takes me about 6 hours total to get to hell hf, including breaks/self mule. about half that time is spent levelling in trav, n/nm baal runs, and the irritating break between 24 and 25. i'm getting diminishing returns on levelling/questing time, as it seems i'm at the point where any additional time i spend levelling makes the actual questing shorter but the overall time longer.

imho, if you have 2 computers, make 3 durimules, one for each level, and have a char that can get the horadric cube easily, and just give one to new chars.

a couple of shortcuts i use:
immediately kill normal baal and rush to act 2 nm and grab a lvl 27 merc, who can wield an etheral insight bill. then come back and do baalruns. this saves several hours of trying to get into a good baalrun series, and i can level to 40 in under 20 minutes. then you can turn around and hire a new merc at lvl 40.

make sure and kill normal baal repeatedly. static owns normal, and usually he's dead before the next person can run there.

energy shield: i usually use a 5/1 tk/es build for this. it saves a lot of trouble when you are tp'ing through areas rapidly.

stats: the only stat that matters is str. make sure it is 156 by lvl 56.

[rekklesskiller]

here's my setup to level 30
deaths gloves/belt/sword "hel"ed sigon armor "hel"ed cathan helm "+9 max" cathan ring angelic ammy angelic ring sigon boots sigon shield "hel"ed w/ ravenclaw on switch in case i can get an enchant
usually takes ~25-30min (i have my own enchanter)

at level 30 i start nm using this gear
Razorswitch,Vipermagi, Frostburns, 3 psaph mask, +2 cold skill 10 fcr ammy, 56 mana ring, 58 mana ring, sanders boots, rare belt w/ 24 fhr and a few other mods

This gear takes me all the way to hell hellforge (usually cheat on duriel and bring in pally to kill unless char has leveled more than usual)

gotta spawn river of flame till no cold immunes but use this skill setup and its fairly easy

10 in teleport
5 static
Rest in FO and CM
1 in warmth and prereqs

stats 52 base in str none dex (use charms) rest in vit

[Myrakh-2]

imho, if you have 2 computers, make 3 durimules, one for each level, and have a char that can get the horadric cube easily, and just give one to new chars.

You'll get a cube from the A3 council, so just borrow him one to make the normal staff.

[krischan]

Thanks for the replies so far. Hmm, so you are suggesting to use a sorc...

What about a melee character who receives a high level enchant all the time ? That should bring him through all of normal and nightmare without problems and without changing gear all the time, I guess. I always wanted to start an enchantress anyway...

An important aspect is that it should be fun. If I just needed the hell HF rune (worth perhaps Um in average), I could as well do Meph runs and sell the stuff for gems.

The problem with durimules is that talking to Jerhyn might not work because the guards won't let the rushee pass as long as staff+amu aren't retrieved and the anti-rushing measures will prevent entering a TP to the harem, so he would have to wait until Jerhyn comes near enough :scratch:

Another question: Is the time needed to solve the skill point quests worth it ? Should I even skip Anya ? I like doing things a little slower and more thoroughly, so I guess the answer for me is yes and yes. :uhhuh:

[helvete]

A paladin with a +90 max crystal sword and a 80% damage/-60% req ancient armor and targe shouldn't require much assistance. Even stick him a 60%damage mask or crown, and you have one hell of a low level zealot.

At lvl 27, give him a "Honor" divine scepter, and start using whatever other gear you may have. Make sure to stick a point in Vigor.

[Superhal]

sorc without a doubt. then you can do nm and hell in under 40 minutes. with the staves as mentioned, there's no problem with killing in norm. i would also suggest twinking mana pots from a3.

also, rescuing anya takes about 5 minutes.

[Myrakh-2]

The problem with durimules is that talking to Jerhyn might not work because the guards won't let the rushee pass as long as staff+amu aren't retrieved

Of course, but that's no problem: Durielmule only means you have an open tomb; you still need to get the amulet to get into arcane and you still need to kill the summoner to get to the valley.

I think they have lost popularity mostly because you can only skip maggots lair, and with sorc/enigma and maphack that's not a lot of time for most players.

I only have one for hell...

[Superhal]

i think skipping maggot lair is huge. walking (or even teleporting) the three levels of that plus far oasis to valley of the snakes takes a huge amount of time. the main time savings imho is having the lost city wp. that easily cuts the time to 1/5th. getting the cube in normal without tp is also a huge waste.

conversely, i think the snake temple is relatively quick and easy as there is only 1 main level.

summoner takes around 2 minutes total even if you pick his branch last.

[krischan]

Thanks for all the tips. I guess I will have a lot of options now. Perhaps I will use sorcs for the whole, but I will also try a few other characters and start an enchanter, so melee characters have an easier job.

IMO leveling will take most of the time. The characters must make it past the normal and nightmare anncients and be able to give the respective act boss the final blow. I intend to carry along a L1 mule in town, so I have two HF drops and therefore the main character must finish the quest. Thank god the key for solving act 2 is talking to Tyrael, not killing Duriel :)

Together with seriously playing my first assassin (lightning trapper - I already bought a +5 LS claw), I have a lot of plans :)

[sangfagel]

Oh, these rushes :D ... Some personal tips more:
Recently I rushed 7 chars simultanously - it makes it faster for me.
As rushed chars I would recommend trapsins.
On low lvls (all Normal) they can be leveled with help of an auradin. He kills everything in Normal just by being there, so experience goes VERY fast up for rushed chars.

The problem with durimules is that talking to Jerhyn might not work because the guards won't let the rushee pass as long as staff+amu aren't retrieved .... hmmm, afaik - amu only - to smash the snake altar is enough to make Jehryn happy.

Btw - if you don´t like to have it boring - just start games using wildest and most bizarre builds you can imagine (they use to work anyway :D) and begin rushing them to Hellforge first when it´s not any longer fun to play them.

[sheepe2004]

Can someone explain how a duri mule works please?

[Vakarrona]

Can someone explain how a duri mule works please?

Make sure the mule is partyed and in act2 when someone retrieve staff and amu, combines it with cube, kills summoner and puts staff in tal tomb. After that your mule can exit game and when it creates a new one, the duriel door is already opened.

[helvete]

...which is when your rushee enters the game, and the durimule exits it (after looking at the quest log).

[Raistlin_Majere]

Have you considered a classic rusher? That way you can skip the whole leveling process and still be independant of others (for skipping the ancient quest).

It takes me ~2 hours to get 2 characters to hell and complete the 3 hf quests. (Its important to do 2 characters "simultanious" as you only have to do act 2 once for each level by exploiting the talk-to-Tyrael-"bug" :eek: )

I think you have - but disregarded it because its not fun :scratch:
(You should try and clear hell viper temple with a weak classic sorc :lol: )

A bit more on-topic then. Definately make an enchantress - it will make normal a breeze for any low level-char. Use any bow at level 1 and you'll deal at least 1000 fire damage. Then use ravenclaw as soon as possible (it has exploding arrows which helps for crowd killing).

[krischan]

I already had a classic sorc and I actually rushed a character with her, but I didn't like it, so I deleted her. An important aspect is actually playing the game with the character and getting help via my second game instance only if necessary. I will probably stop playing the character as soon as he enters hell mode. From that point on, things stop to be easy going and I will rush him and the mentioned L1 dummy to hell HF with whatever character I'm in the mood to use for that.

[Superhal]

imho, a5 has the easiest maps. there are no mazes, all maps are square, and i just figured out that in the caves all the exits are usually on the left side of the map. the only map even remotely random is the crystal river (top or bottom to anya) and the wsk.

a1 and a2 are the biggest wastes of time.

[Myrakh-2]

Can someone explain how a duri mule works please?

In the *ideal* case, a Duriel mule is partied when the tomb is opened, and ONLY then.

That means he will have an open tomb, but the Amulet and Arcane quests are still available.

I messed up my Duriel mule (I should really make a new one...) since it has Amulet and Arcane quests completed, so I need to do these quests first, then create a new game with the mule.

[NoobXDon]

...which is when your rushee enters the game, and the durimule exits it (after looking at the quest log).

wont rushee have "quest cannot be completed" for amulet/staff/arcane?