Efficient Meph Running

[BlueScrote]

I recently boosted my Meteorb sorc into Act 3 Hell, and have started MFing Meph for items.

My question is what is the best strategy to get from the Durance 3 stairs to the proper placement for the moat trick.

I did some search-fu and only found one thread, but its pictures weren't hosted anymore.

What I am doing now is teleport to the next room, try and get the attention of the Council, maneuver them up to the right, tele over the moat, and lead meph to the left stairs.

This works a fair amount of the time, except for when the council spawns on the middle bridge. This causes many issues, because I cannot get their attention until I get meph stuck, and then they hydra me.

What is everbody's strategy for dealing with this?

[Mimeaphone]

I lack pictures but if you've run Meph a few times, you should know the locations I'm describing. Before I started having my merc tank Meph, I would start at the stairs, teleport straight up the right side, checking if any council were sitting on/ near the right side moat or on the center inlet. After getting Meph's attention I would choose to bait him to either the right side moat stairs or left side moat stairs (depending on whether the council was aggroed on the right or not). I rarely use the center as Meph sometimes can still hit you with spells there.

Oh, and to address your problem, I've found that fire resist is a must when running Meph. With full resists and a few pots, all the hydra in the world will not be able to harm you :). I just ignore the council hydra and name lock Meph.

[Hypnosx]

Sorry I can't post pictures, but I'll try to explain how I do it best as I can.

Soon as I get into Durance 3 I put up a TP right at the entrance. This spot is safe and if you do die you can usually get from there to your body with teleport and be ok without having to give up on that game.

I do 1 quick teleport directly northwest from the entrance, across the moat thing and through the wall. About half the time this will immediately aggro the council members, at which point I run up and down dodging their fireballs for a second or two while they get over there, then teleport directly to the hell portal and across, get mephs attention, then go down to the platform southwest of the hell portal and get him stuck on the steps. The exact spot on that platform is just on the lower left corner of the torch thats about halfway up on the edge closest to the hell portal.

If, like you said, they're on the middle bridge, the tactic is almost exactly the same. They don't aggro immediately, but I just run over there and aggro them, then run back to the far east wall. The only trick here is making sure you stay far enough up that you dont aggro the cold immune vampires below you. As long as you aren't standing directly on the hydras they are pretty easy to dodge. If you have any decent run/walk you should be able to run up and aggro the council and then run around/back to the wall without getting hit much. The only time I have a problem is if he's like "extra fast" and "mana burn", and even then its fine if you're quick with the pots. Just keep teleport up so you're ready to tele as soon as you get them where you want or you get in trouble.

Sometimes it does take a few seconds to get them off that middle bridge because they will get stuck on the bridge trying to get east to you instead of going around, and you dont want to go too far south. But with a little patience you can usually do it in a few seconds.

Even doing all this, occasionally there will be 1 council member still on the bridge cause he wouldnt go around to get to you. If so, as long as its just the regular one and not the boss I usually just drop a blizzard or two on his head and kill him... if he casts hydra you can just TP and come back and he'll be dead. Just be careful not to aggro the council guy thats to the south of the platform where you stand when you kill meph, cause that usually means you're screwed unless you can manage to get around and glitch meph on one of the upper stairs, which is possible but hard.

Hope this helps... btw my gear is not very good my resists in hell are negative or in single digits, you just have to be careful running around dodging the fireballs from the hydras and stuff, you can't get hit but maybe once or twice. If you get in trouble just teleport back to the entrance TP, heal/buy more pots, and try again... its better than wasting the run.

[Robdeijn]

Here's a youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seTqbaxN5tE) video with an example of how you could use the moat trick. I personally prefer to lure Meph onto the stairs to the left instead of into the center.

[BlueScrote]

I actually watched that video and the other one on youtube prior to posting, and they helped a bit, but didnt really show how to get around the council members and blood lords scattered around. Taking into account what you guys have said have given be a better idea on luring them out, thanks.

[Fallen_62]

Hey bud,

If you're On tonight I can show ya how I do it ;) Works pretty good, usually.