countess vs. andariel

[hobbsc]

I tend to play HC solo as I rarely have a schedule to keep up with the groups. I tend to stay in act 1 until about level 18 or so, but that usually involves grinding a boss here or there.

My question is which boss would be better to grind on for leveling? Andariel or the Countess? The Countess is easier to get to and she tends to yield runes. It's kind of a pain searching around for Andy, the area just seems more spread out.

I think the Countess yields less XP than Andy, but if it's easier to do Countess runs, I suppose it'd be faster.

Any opinions?

[MoUsE_WiZ]

Depends what you're playing. If it's a caster, especially a sorc, I'd do countess and get myself a Stealth for sure, maybe a Leaf too. Melee is better equipped to do andy, and has less to gain from countess, so I'd do andy with a baba, pally, or zon.

[Socialism]

You're sub-18 and likely not teleporting, which means you have the opportunity to kill all the wee bosspacks along the way. You'll find that if you just play through (killing stuff in your path), you'll rarely end up at Andariel before level 16-17 anyway.

Playing solo on battle.net is a crime of irony :<

[Zelator]

Playing solo on battle.net is a crime of irony :<

So true... I dont solo normal though.. never!

[Ilikestuff]

hmmm, why not lvl up in dry hills act 2? thats what i do, doing stony tomb runs on the way. then at abouit lvl 22 i start questing act 2. works for me

[hobbsc]

You're sub-18 and likely not teleporting, which means you have the opportunity to kill all the wee bosspacks along the way. You'll find that if you just play through (killing stuff in your path), you'll rarely end up at Andariel before level 16-17 anyway.

Playing solo on battle.net is a crime of irony :<

I tend to play solo because I rarely break 60ish. Not only that, my time playing is kind of hit and miss, so I rarely see the same people twice.

I jump in on games with people when someone has one rolling, but otherwise, I just kind of make a game and go from there.

[hobbsc]

hmmm, why not lvl up in dry hills act 2? thats what i do, doing stony tomb runs on the way. then at abouit lvl 22 i start questing act 2. works for me

Probably a solid idea. I always just did Countess/Andy runs because they were pretty quick.

[Ilikestuff]

Probably a solid idea. I always just did Countess/Andy runs because they were pretty quick.

other alternative is to do countess runs in a public game, just keep an eye on who joins. you dont need to party, just the more players, the better the exp

[Socialism]

I can't stress how useful the level up guide (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=512) in the strategy compendium is.

[Unholy_VI]

The leveling guide is going to be more accurate at say level 50ish

than level 12 untwinked. at level 50ish most chars have their main skill finished and 50 levels worth of finding items.

Act 1 is a great place to level quickly up to around level 18-20. Seriously, you'll notice a huge difference in how much damage you are taking and how long it takes to kill monsters between the sewers and the tamoe highlands. I consistently get more exp per unit of time in tamoe and cats with less danger and hassle.

don't discount the act 1 merc as a major source of damage. you can easily shop a 3 socket longbow and put chipped and flawed gems for elemental damage and she will absolutely destroy act 1 no matter how many people are in the game.

but yeah there is no rush to get to act 2. you get there at 12 you get there at 20 who cares? Just experiment and see where you seem to get the most exp per unit of time and change areas when it starts slowing down.

[Raith]

i prefer andy. more boss packs along the way.

[MoUsE_WiZ]

The leveling guide is going to be more accurate at say level 50ish
This seems like a weird thread to preform necromancy on O_o

[Jarath]

I agree with sticking around in act 1 if you're untwinked. Act 2 is just filled with irritating monsters; Sewers is filled with skellie archers and mages dealing different kinds of elemental damage, everywhere else is filled with lightning bugs, annoying leapers that wont sit still, irritating buzzards that refuse to land, cat people that throw piercing javalins, fire/poison potions or seem to have a high block rate.

Act 2 is one of my favourite acts in terms of visuals/music/overall style but I found it a complete nightmare for leveling untwinked.

[Unholy_VI]

This seems like a weird thread to preform necromancy on O_o

Congratz on noticing. I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that. :whistling: