Intro, questions, and observations

[jfutral]

Nice to discover this area! I've been lurking for only a couple of weeks and already learned a lot. I've been playing Diablo II LOD for Mac for <mumble, mumble> years. Never really went past Normal just trying out different classes until this last year when I heard about Diablo III coming out. Had no idea what I was missing!

I now have a dozen or so characters I've taken through Hell. My favourite characters are sorceresses and amazons. Since it became an option, I had to respec my lightning builds as I felt like I kept "rolling" the low end of damage no matter how many points I would put in the tree. Nothing would die fast enough, for me anyway.

I have a paladin, a necromancer, and a druid I carried through Hell, too. Fun but not my favourites. I've tried playing Barbarians and Assassins but they just don't hold my attention. I have no idea why.

I only play SP, never could get interested in BNET. I _loved_ learning about RWM so I could try all those cool Ladder RWs! Never made sense that SP mode cut me out of those. Especially since 1.13 has made runes so much more accessible for us stay-at-homers.

I also loved learning about how much fun a Strafer could be! I always hated it before because I hate not being able to quickly move out of the way of things. But in the upper levels, how can you not like a machine gun? (although I would like a little more control over aim)

Loved learning about GoMule and ATMA. I had been doing the MP on two copies/two computers way of muling, when it finally dawned on me I could do that.

So after a couple dozen characters my latest project is treasure collecting. Sets, uniques, and interesting rares, or even interesting blue magics.

When you guys talk about running an area, how do you do that in SP? Do you just keep running the same character through an old game? Do you boot up a second computer, create a new character, and network MP? Is that the only way to hit the Quest versions of the Bosses again?

For instance I have a lvl 87 paladin with about 400 MF I keep at Normal (edit: I meant Nightmare) to run Andariel and the other bosses, but mostly Andariel (I still haven't found my first SOJ and I am very disappointed in this). I know the map inside and out so I can get to Andariel painlessly and quickly. But lately it seems all I am getting from her is lots of gold no matter how fast I get to her or how quickly I kill her. No magics and sometimes gems, but nothing else. Quite frustrating.

One observation. I have noticed if I run an area and I get a good haul, I run the other important areas and almost always get a good something along the way. It all seems connected. If I get a bad haul, I can't get lucky any where else, either. Maybe it is just coincidence, but it is consistent enough I just quit and restart on a bad game.

Anyway. Long, but dull.

Thanks for all the passing on of info that happens here. I learned a lot.

Tired of Angelic Halo rings,
Joe

[kestegs]

Welcome, nice intro and glad to have you join the community.

When you guys talk about running an area, how do you do that in SP? Do you just keep running the same character through an old game? Do you boot up a second computer, create a new character, and network MP? Is that the only way to hit the Quest versions of the Bosses again?

The technique of killing bosses for the quest drop is not really worth it, unless you are playing an older patch (or classic) I can't remember witch one.

Andariel Is quest bugged for most people all of the time, you merely have to talk to warriv in the same game after you kill her for the quest the first time, then she will always quest drop for you from then on. I also assume you know about players settings, as they can greatly affect your drops.

One observation. I have noticed if I run an area and I get a good haul, I run the other important areas and almost always get a good something along the way. It all seems connected. If I get a bad haul, I can't get lucky any where else, either. Maybe it is just coincidence, but it is consistent enough I just quit and restart on a bad game.

I too have observed this, but have not come to a formal conclusion about it.
I have noticed that Sets or uniques or runes will sometimes appear to be bugged in a game, and drop at a high rate. I have also noticed this with gems, where a certain type will drop at about double of the other kinds combined.


*kicks jfutral's shins*

Now your officially welcomed!

[TheReadMenace]

Welcome! Glad you decided to jump on board!

Your questions about boss running will vary depending on who you ask. There are a few people who do self-MP with two copies of the game so they always get quest drops. It's the best way to run the Cow King, surely. Most of us, however, just run the same boss over and over, quest drop be damned. And though Pindleskin can't drop everything, he can drop a lot, so he's been a popular target for a long while now.

Also, Andariel has the interesting bug where she will always do quest drops indefinitely. I can't tell you the specifics of how it works... but I DO know that when you kill her for the first time, talk to Warriv to travel to ActII IN THE SAME GAME and ta-daa!, quest bugged Andy. If you didn't do that your first time around and you're seeing too many blue items... well, you might want to consider remaking another MF character to get your shiny SOJ. It's a 1:31 chance every time she drops a gold ring, remember, so it might take a while regardless!

Many of us do area runs, too. Upon the introduction of patch 1.10, a few places had their alvls increased. What that means is the champions and unique monsters in these areas can drop every single item in the game (sans the Cow King gear). Most everyone who searches for the grail (which is to collect all set & unique items) has spent a good deal of time in these alvl85 areas. Arguably, the most popular way to collect items is to build a Blizzard sorceress and run the Ancient Tunnels (found in the Lost City of ActII) in Hell, though there are plenty of other places to try, too.

...Don't worry about long a dull. That's how I roll, too!

Any more questions, we're glad to help! Check out the tourneys, dailies, and EMB while you're here!

edit: partially ninja'd by kestegs... again...

[jfutral]

Alright. Cool. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on a better way to run areas or bosses.

I can't for the life of me remember if I spoke to Warriv right away or not. Probably not because I usually get Cain to identify items to see what I've picked up. I usually stop carrying Identify tomes or scrolls after I rescue him.

Starting a new MF character won't be the worst thing. I've picked up quite a few uniques and sets that I've been interested in trying out.

Learning about the players 1-8 settings was the other cool thing here. Breathed new life in running my Lvl 93 Bowazon and that Paladin trapped in Nightmare until he can bring home an SOJ!!! (and a couple other missing low end set items. I have two sets of Tal Rasha's gear, but I can't finish the Death or Infernal sets for the life of me.)

Thanks,
Joe

"Sigon", "Cathan", and "Isenhart" apparently can't hold onto their things for anything. I keep finding their stuff everywhere.

[Synesthesia]

Some low level set like death aren't that easy to find. I think i found a dozen of sigon before i completed my death set. By the way, ATMA has a drop calculator which you can use to see the probabilities of an item to drop with the amount of MF you a carrying. This is really helpful to know which boss/monster you have to run to, to get that particular item with the highest probability.

[purplelocust]

Welcome!

MPing resets maps- for SP boss running, what people usually mean is rerolling maps a few times to get a good map and then just rerunning many times, perhaps with lots of MF, not taking advantage of the quest drop. For example, for a Blizz sorc can run Hell Meph quickly, and if she is going to do it a few hundred times, it is worth rerolling her map to get a map where the stairs down to Durrance 3 are just a few teleports away from the Durrance 2 WP. Rerolling maps is easy- just visit NM difficulty, for example.

Looking for just one item (SOJ for example) is often a frustrating way to play the game. You may do better just loading up on MF and playing rather than targeting just one thing. For the Death's Set items, you may find the TC3 item hunting guide helpful.

[jfutral]

Welcome!
Looking for just one item (SOJ for example) is often a frustrating way to play the game. You may do better just loading up on MF and playing rather than targeting just one thing..

Yeah, no kidding. I have 4 different characters I rotate through for MFing, depending on what I feel like doing. The Paladin hangs out in NM, an Amazon hangs out in Normal, and an Amazon and a Sorceress filter through Hell depending on which class I feel like playing. Sometimes I'll run an area the drop calcs say should eventually pony up an item, but I get bored with that after about 3 or 4 runs in a row. Then I do something else. I am amazed at the people who say they've run an area 500 or more times. 1000+ times I just can't even wrap my head around.

I have two other characters I am just playing right now—a Necromancer and a Druid; although, the Assassin and Barbarian keep tapping their toes waiting for me to come back.

The only thing more arduous than MFing for something specific is leveling characters much past 87! So I try not to think about leveling and just play.

Thanks for the "welcome" everyone,
Joe

[skipjack]

Welcome!

With regards to quest glitching bosses other than Andy, it is only worthwhile in Classic. In LoD, the best MF targets tend to not be act bosses, so glitching is rather pointless; why go through the hassle of glitched Meph runs when normal Pindle/Pit/AT runs will yield better results?

[jiansonz]

The only thing more arduous than MFing for something specific is leveling characters much past 87!

87 is the level most of my stronger characters end up as. A full clear on /p8 on Normal and NM, then a full clear of /players 3 Hell gets you there.
I donīt do runs since I donīt like that areas are populated again after Iīve cleared them out. So I just pretend they arenīt.

Clearing the whole game once on /players 8 gets you to level 89.

[jfutral]

87 is the level most of my stronger characters end up as. A full clear on /p8 on Normal and NM, then a full clear of /players 3 Hell gets you there.
I donīt do runs since I donīt like that areas are populated again after Iīve cleared them out. So I just pretend they arenīt.

Clearing the whole game once on /players 8 gets you to level 89.

Until I went on this treasure hunt, I was pretty much the same way. I remember the first time I revisited an area I had cleared out and I found beasties again. I thought, WTH? I though I finished this? Cleared it out again. Went through this a couple of times. It _was_ the first time I played, so I didn't know any better.

So far I've cleared out the I's, O's, Q's, and U's on my list of Uniques available to find. The A's are kicking my butt, though.

Joe