Waiting, Wishing, Hoping (for a gull)

**Jocular** · 10-07-2012, 17:39

I've started over completely, and while mfing for a gull dagger, I found suicide looking strangely appealing.

Is mfing for a gull supposed to be this painful? I've never actually actively searched for one, they usually just dropped over time. But I'd really like one for the my level 22 sorcy, and running Coldcrow and Andy just isn't working. I may not have the best of mf right now (~170% w/ merc) but I'd thought after 5 hours I'd have something to show for my effort. Pelta Lunata isn't bad I guess.

Am I being too hasty? I'm no novice to mfing, but with the 1:833 odds of Coldcrow (or whatever it is), I thought it'd be a cinch to find.

Kinda asking for advice, but mainly just making sure I'm not crazy

Thanks.

P.S. 1.12v (if it's pertinent)

**pharphis** · 10-07-2012, 17:51

you have a better chance than that, if I'm not mistaken.
I recently did this for 2 gulls in the slow and steady tournament (multi-pass, weird builds preferred). I had a singer, so with item find I pumped that quite a bit. Still, you have teleport so it should be even faster for you.
Ignore andy completely. She takes too much effort, unless you have an amazing map or something.
Do you have gambled boots and gloves? If you can get boots with 20 frw and 20+ mf then you're golden. I had this with a char who did the same thing for a gull, and he was about level 20 when I gambled those boots.
I don't think it's a waste of time :P Just be persistent.
If it helps, I found the first gull pretty quickly, but then it took maybe 200+ more runs for the next. I complained about it a lot in that thread. I'm not sure how many runs I did, but it was certainly less than 350 for both of them.
Is it a bow merc? They will get the kill more easily because they won't be frozen and chasing them.
Give both yourself and the merc a zephyr bow for the frw and 1-50 lite damage (if you need it, but the frw you will want).
Good luck!

**RobbyD** · 10-07-2012, 18:01

I ran Coldcrow for Gull - it's tedious because of the fact that there are so few cool items she can drop - what helps with end-game boss running is all the possibilities for a neat rare or charm to drop, but Coldcrow can drop precious little.

**Jocular** · 10-07-2012, 18:14

Yeah, currently gambling for some 20frw/20+mf% boots, but I've got 23% gloves.

I'm going to do another 100 runs at least, and if I can't get it in 200, then I'm giving up.

Completely forgot about the frw bonus on Zephyr! That'll definitely cut down the run time.

Much thanks for the advice, I'll keep on slogging through for a couple hours more. But this time, with feeling!

**pharphis** · 10-07-2012, 18:16

If you really want I'm pretty sure you can buy 25% gloves in act 2 from elzix. the sewers is right there, too, so you can pop in and out.
Yeah, I would have gone crazy w/o zephyr. Are you teleporting at all? I would also go for a good map, too. I got super lucky with mine being right next to the wp, as well as bishibosh

**purplelocust** · 10-07-2012, 18:47

Coldcrow is a reasonable target, but I've had better luck running the normal Cow King using self-MPing. If you haven't already seen the suggestions in the TC3 hunting guide you may want to look there! Good luck!

**srrw** · 10-07-2012, 18:49

Rakanishu and Treehead Woodfist are also good targets if they are close to the WP's.

edit: If you are Light/Fire sorc Bone Ash is a quick run as well.

**Pyrotechnician** · 10-07-2012, 18:53

I got extremly lucky with my first gull dagger which dropped on my second hardcore character and it was dropped somewhere in the countess tower on my first run through along with a lenymo sash. One of them was from a rack of all things. Its all a matter of luck really, but when you are searching for that one specific thing, it seems to take forever. I'm sure you'll get it though.

**twillight** · 10-07-2012, 19:22

If you run specifically for Gull, run Rakanishu on a nice map (stones near the WP), and while there kill the Smith too in Tristram. They can rarely drop any s/u, but those are reliable, easy to get, and all ok items.

**Jocular** · 10-07-2012, 19:33

Small update:

Just finished 50 runs. I found 3 rare daggers, 3 gem shrines (yay! Now I already have 1 ptopaz), 1 hotspurs, and 1 knell Striker. I suppose it's comforting that I found two other TC3 uniques...but those 3 daggers really killed me.

I've got a relatively good map, and with teleport, my runs are 1 minute probably, maybe a 1:30 at most.

Here's to hoping the next 50 will grab me gull!