/Players ?

[thejackalinthetor]

Hi there. I have a lvl. 57 Barbarian and I use the /players 8 command to try to grab experience faster. I've been hanging around the end of Act I in Nightmare, but my experience is taking forever to go up. Is this natural? Did they reduce the effectiveness of the /players command after a certain patch? I thought it worked better than this. I can play 2 hours or so and see no change in the exp. bar.

[Evrae Altana]

The /players x command only works in Single Player.

The higher you level, generally, the harder it becomes to gain experience from the same area. This is a sign that you should move on to a more difficult area.

[Fluffballer]

I think somewhere around late act 4 NM would be the best experience for level 57. (?)

[thejackalinthetor]

Yeah, I forgot to mention I only play SP.

For late act IV, are we talking with or without the /players command? If it doesn't really give that much of an experience boost, should I just do without and go through the game faster? Without the command he can't really be topuched, but with it on 8, he runs into trouble once in a while (hence why I'm still back in Act I).

[Kijya]

If my info is up to date then ...

For best leveling you should not only play in a /player 8 game but also be in an area with monsters that are max +5 or -5 levels from your charecter level.

for a level 57 char this would be late act 4 nightmare. Here is a chart (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=551#Area%20Levels) :thumbsup:

[DyetCoque]

And here is a Graphical guide. (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=512)

[thejackalinthetor]

Very nice. Thanks everyone! Both guides are very easy to interpret. Kinda scary thinking that I should be three acts ahead of where I am right now (thinking of how much he gets his butt kicked around sometimes). Oh well. Thanks again!
:grin:

[Fluffballer]

20:1 says your difficulties are caused by a crappy weapon. If that's true, keep playing at at least players5 to increase your chances of finding a decent weapon, even though you won't get much experience. Magic find equipment will help, as well as net you more magic items to sell for gambling money.

[thejackalinthetor]

I'll list my stuff.
Weapon - Dread Barb (59 - 131)
Helm - Horned Helm RADIANCE (came with a +2 to Iron Skin) (57 def.)
Amulet - Death Noose
Armor - Blessed Ancient Armor of Equilibrium (376 def.)
Gloves - Godly Demonhide Gloves of Fortune (78 def.)
Boots - Dire Trample (45 def.)
Rings - Stone Knot and Dwarf Star
Belt - Plague Fringe (Blood Mesh Belt - 72 def.)

None of my items are very earth-shattering, but it's the best I have found. I know there is a lot to be desired, though.

[Orphan]

Note that listing the rare items name (like Death Noose, or Stone Knot) doesn't actually help at all, since the rare name is randomly generated and not associated with any stats or affixes at all.

[thejackalinthetor]

I can list all of the stats of the items (I took screencaps) but I didn't know if anyone was that interested. I wish I could just upload the screencaps (much easier). Should I list the stats?

[Fluffballer]

If you want an equipment critique, people would be happy to do that. But I assume you know what is good and what is better.

In my opinion, at this stage of the game your equipment should focus fairly heavily on magic find so that by the time you get to Hell difficulty, you're properly equipped. Obviously there is a delicate balance of getting yourself killed and MF, and that's the joy of making a new character. :smiley:

Edit: BTW, if you want to upload pitures, use www.imageshack.us.

[thejackalinthetor]

I'll try Imageshack, so here goes nothing. :) This will be a test.
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/4676/screenshot1394au.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[thejackalinthetor]

That seemed to work. I'll send the rest now.
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/7744/screenshot1401ec.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1401ec.jpg)

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/1468/screenshot1417kn.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1417kn.jpg)

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/5193/screenshot1423hw.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1423hw.jpg)

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/4157/screenshot1439ko.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1439ko.jpg)

[thejackalinthetor]

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/7639/screenshot1446zp.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1446zp.jpg)

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/658/screenshot1451be.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1451be.jpg)

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/8734/screenshot1468uy.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1468uy.jpg)

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/2879/screenshot1479bv.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1479bv.jpg)

This is what I work with. :)

[Fluffballer]

Looks like you know what you're doing. :thumbsup:

[thejackalinthetor]

Yeah, I guess. :D That's what I have to work with. The armor, boots and gloves are a little lacking, but at least I have a somewhat decent chance of getting magic items from it (I have a good Find Item skill). I was actually building this Barbarian with Concentrate as the main attack even before 1.10, so the new synergies are a pleasant surprise!

[TheJarulf]

For best leveling you should not only play in a /player 8 game but also be in an area with monsters that are max +5 or -5 levels from your charecter level.


Not nessecarilly. You want as much experience as possible (in a given time), not as much percentage as possible. Since base monster experience varies and tend to increase with level, you might actually get more expeirence killing monsters further away from your own level. For example (a bit extreme to show the point though) it is better to get 20% of 1000 than 100% of 100.

You also have to factor in killing time. If you get 100% of a monstyer giving 1000 exp but take a minute to kill, it is better to fight monsters were you only get 20% of the same 1000 but only take 10 seconds to kill.

So don't stare to blindly at the levels.

[thejackalinthetor]

True enough. The exp. gains I'm seeing from going to Act II are much higher than I saw just an area before (end of Act I) and the mosters aren't that much stronger. I'm seeing better treasure from the sellers too, but my chances of gambling don't seem to be any better. I just blew 1.7 milion gold last night trying to get either a better ax, boots or gloves and failed (though I did get screencaps of more rares that I didn't have before... kind of a side project). Is there anything I should know about gambling that may lead to less gold lost carelessly?

[cubob]

The /players x command only works in Single Player.

The higher you level, generally, the harder it becomes to gain experience from the same area. This is a sign that you should move on to a more difficult area.

What is Single Player? How do you set the "/players x" command? Thanks!

[Kijya]

For best leveling you should not only play in a /player 8 game but also be in an area with monsters that are max +5 or -5 levels from your charecter level.
Not nessecarilly. You want as much experience as possible (in a given time), not as much percentage as possible.
Yeah I agree to that :smiley: I like most just ended up in baalruns normally ... not that they were the best acording to my levels ... but the +5 -5 atleast explains a bit why his XP rate gets worse and worse in act 1 (apart from the increasing amount of xp you need to reach each new level) :rolleyes:

What is Single Player? How do you set the "/players x" command? Thanks!
1. Single player is simply when you play offline, not on b.net.
2. Just write "/players x" in the chat (default key to chat is Enter| x should be a number between 1-8)


Is there anything I should know about gambling that may lead to less gold lost carelessly?
A Gheeds fortune charm and "Edge" runeword reduce the prices when bying and gambling with a percentage. "Edge" is a cheap ladder only runeword that you will have to use a mod (RWM if I'm not misstaken) to make. A gheeds is really easy to get but I played online ... might be different in single player.
Anyway for questions regarding the runeword mod do a search in the single player forum or, if all else should fail, just ask them. They should be able to help you regarding ít.

btw I think a "Passion" or "Crescent Moon" axe would do you good ... Note that you can cube runes to get higher grades, cubing a Lem shouldn't be to difficult as long as you run nm countess for the runes ... or try reaching forge and hold your tumbs for a good drop.



Hope it helps :wink3:

[thejackalinthetor]

I checked with the Arreat Summit and it looks like both the Edge runeword and Gheed's Fortune are only in ladder games, so they won't be of any help to me. :tongue:

I have been cubing runes (including some of the first ones that require gems to upgrade). I'm holding out for a 5 socketed Ancient Axe or something groovy. I already have the runes for the Honor runeword. Which brings me to a question: Axes go up to 6 sockets, right?

Crescent moon looks good, but I don't have an Um rune yet. Passion looks interesting too, but I am still missing a Lem. I might just have to do some Countess runs to see if I can grab some better runes (it sucks having to cube the good ones all of the time).

[Hrus]

While 2nd wave of the 1.10 runewords will not work on SP, all "ladder only" uniques and cube recipes work on SP.
Also don't waste your time with NM Countess hoping for LEM, the chance is rather low. Also if you play SP, why don't you post this on SP forum? People have much more knowledge there with untwinked playing. And they can help you with some basic items via Giveaway/trade or with MP through tcp/ip.
About sockets - check arreat summit - each weapon can have different number of sockets.

[thegiantturtle]

I checked with the Arreat Summit and it looks like both the Edge runeword and Gheed's Fortune are only in ladder games, so they won't be of any help to me. as Hrus said, Gheeds should be available to single player. Also, there is a Runeword Mod that enables all realm-only/ladder-only runewords for single player. I believe there is a strong contingent of Runeword Modders over in the single player forum.

[thejackalinthetor]

as Hrus said, Gheeds should be available to single player. Also, there is a Runeword Mod that enables all realm-only/ladder-only runewords for single player. I believe there is a strong contingent of Runeword Modders over in the single player forum.

I did a good bit of reading through the SP forums and it sounds like I'm a vanilla player. I haven't twinked anything and I've never played online. Ultimately, I'm just looking for a strategy to play better, as opposed to a mod or something to help that much faster. I didn't come across anything saying Gheeds is in SP. If it is, I'd love to have it (as long as I don't have to twink anything to get it).Sorry I posted here instead of in the SP forums (I just joined up and didn't look around much before posting).:grin: