The quest for level 99- progress thread

[Crazy Runner Guy]

Whats your average per run time?

I'm at sub-three minutes not counting load and town time (3:30 prolly max). I'm also not killing Baal with Coldtest atm either.

Do you kill monsters on the way to the throne?

Nope. My map (almost) doesn't allow for it.

crg

[Aerwynd]

I agree about the boss packs... You get pretty decent XP for them and their minions...

@ jjscud and Corrupted --> what /p? setting? Is that /p8???

I don't think I will join with my Meteorb... The skills just aren't synergized enough to make the runs fast...

My scheduled list of chars to make include 2x Amazons (ImmoZon and FrostMaiden), 1x Assassin (Natalya's Ghost), 2(maybe 3)x Barbs (Frenzy, Conc, and WW if I get Full IK Set), 1x Druid (Fury/Fireclaw), 1x Necro (Don't really like them, but I want 1 of each char, so I'm going w/ a Skelliemancer), 2x Pally (Avenger and Fanatic Zealot, which doesn't require very many Skill Pts, but adding Holy Shield and it's synergy pretty much max's it out), and 5x Sorcs (Meteorb, Blizzballer, Light, Blizzy, and a Melee Enchantress, again doesn't require many Skill Pts... She should be fun :grin

Soooo, as you can see, I have a lot going on in my D2 Career Plans...

I will probably add the Pure Single Elem. Sorcs for the quest to 99, and perhaps other High Speed/High Dmg chars...

Aerwynd

[Crazy Runner Guy]

I agree about the boss packs... You get pretty decent XP for them and their minions...

Uhh...you don't at high levels. I believe jjscud does it because it clears a path to run and because of the drops.

@ jjscud and Corrupted --> what /p? setting? Is that /p8???

Here's the general breakdown on /pX settings.

• Cold-based sorceresses do throne, waves 1-2 on /p1, 3-5 on /p8
• Hammerdins (like Kab's clvl 98er) can do throne on /p3 (this is so to prevent needed to switch /pX settings after killing baal). Minions on /p8
• Everyone else does throne on /p1, minions on p8
• Everyone kills baal at /p3, because XP is the same for /pX settings above 3

Btw, at what point should my blizballer start killing baal? I'm thinking that when the percentage ratios of total XP gained to total run time are equal.

crg

[nazgarok]

Btw, at what point should my blizballer start killing baal?

If I remember correctly, it takes 165 pindle runs on p8 to level from 89 to 90.
I think it might be a good idea to start baaling on lvl 92, because pindle starts to give little xp. from lvl 92.

[jjscud]

Uhh...you don't at high levels. I believe jjscud does it because it clears a path to run and because of the drops.

CRG is correct here and with his general breakdown AFAIK. just a bit of scratchpaper math indicates that I get probably ~100 exp from uniques and ~10 exp from monsters on the way down. It simply doesn't add up to anything useful.

Btw, at what point should my blizballer start killing baal? I'm thinking that when the percentage ratios of total XP gained to total run time are equal.
crg

At lvl 93, your clvl is split between Baal's mlvl and the minion's mlvl. That's where I would start. Then again, baal drops are 2x better than pindle drops, if you can kill baal in just another 20 seconds I would do it just for the drops.

Of course the lvl 98 response would be, its all negligble until you reach the upper 90s.

[Aerwynd]

Uhh...you don't at high levels. I believe jjscud does it because it clears a path to run and because of the drops.

CRG is correct here and with his general breakdown AFAIK. just a bit of scratchpaper math indicates that I get probably ~100 exp from uniques and ~10 exp from monsters on the way down. It simply doesn't add up to anything useful.

True, I forgot that you only get like 7% (IIRC) of the experience when you are that high in CLvl...

My bad... But when you are lower lvls, they are good XP :grin:

[Crazy Runner Guy]

True, I forgot that you only get like 7% (IIRC) of the experience when you are that high in CLvl...

It's actually much, much lower.

Experience penalties by clvl
Scroll down some to the clvl 70+ table. I'm more concerned with those above 90, and then, really with those at 96 and above (because that's where real leveling starts).

Also, as you notice, that there is an additional penalty for XP from monsters that is dependant on your clvl and their mlvl. In otherwords, at clvl 98, you get .59% * 5% of the experience gained from minions. That means you're getting .0295% of the experience you gain. (For every 10k xp you get, you get actually earn 3 of it, approximately).


That's the reason why it takes 3500 baal runs (all at /p8, /p3 baal), or 3900 with cold-based sorceresses to get to 99.

The penalties are extreme.

crg

[XDoomasX]

So maby its better to run baal at p3 and rest minions at p1 at 97-99 ??

[nazgarok]

So maby its better to run baal at p3 and rest minions at p1 at 97-99 ??

I think it depends on your character, because even at /p8 the minions are easy to kill for a blizzard sorceress and not really time consuming. I can run baal at about 4 to 5 minutes with my pure blizz sorc, but that time is really long for 99, so i will build a blizzballer soon.
Btw, does anybody know why baal does not give more exp at players settings higher than 3? (Also he does not exactly give 2x exp. of /p1 at /p3. )

[jjscud]

Yes it is slow, here are my numbers from full p8 runs:

exp from minions ~36,000
exp from baal ~ 48,000
exp per run ~84,000
Total runs 3464

Here's what figured when I first hit 98. Somewhere I've posted the exact breakdown by minion pack but it wasn't in this thread.

If you run at p1, you've got to divide that 36K by 4.5 so only 8K. That's about 1/3 of your experience per run. I believe that means you've got to be able to complete a run 33% faster than doing minions at p8 (I may be off on the percent but 3 p1 baal runs = 2 p8 baal runs at 98). I doubt that much time would be gained for most baal runners.

RE: why baal gives same experience at p3 -p8. I don't know but I would really like to. Anyone??