Results - Finding the Balance 2022

[ffs]

Time for the results for the 3rd edition of our little Finding the Balance MF/RF tournament!

Signup and running thread can be found here.

Very suspiciously, the host finished first although there was tight competition for the top 3 in particular. I believe this marks the first time with this type of format that we're seeing top 5 items consisting exclusively of runes coming out on top, with both mine and Excalibur's close second place score made up of runes only.

Many cool and useful items throughout the submitted results. Thanks everyone for participating - looking forward to seeing the haul pics, and please feel free to share details on characters, builds, targets and strategies employed.

Happy holidays everyone, let's keep those SPF events rolling in 2023!

Placements:

1) ffs
Cham, Jah, Jah, Lo, Sur
Total: 92.9

2) Excalibur
Cham, Ber, Sur, Sur, Sur
Total: 89.1

3) PhineasB
Astreon's Iron Ward, Ber, Stormlash, Vex, Griswold's Honor
Total: 85.7

4) gregth
Cham, Spirit Keeper, Sur, Halaberd's Reign, Boneflame
Total: 76.2

5) Grisu
Jah, Jah, Griswold's Redemption, Griffon's Eye, Boneflame
Total: 69

6) Arparrabiosa
Darkforce Spawn, Lo, Cerebus' Bite, The Redeemer, Ohm
Total: 65.3

7) BBS_Agonistes
Ber, Vex, Ohm, Ohm, The Redeemer
Total: 61.1

8) m4ke
Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption
Total: 56.5

9) LouB
Sur, Sur, Gul, Gul, Nosferatu's Coil
Total: 48.2

10) Kruemelmonschda
Griffon's Eye, Vex, Griswold's Honor, Giant Skull, Head Hunter's Glory
Total: 47

11) Jpy
Vex, Vex, Gul, Gul, Um
Total: 40.6

12) Swamigoon
Darkforce Spawn, Blood Raven's Charge, Andariel's Visage, Andariel's Visage, Pul
Total: 38.1

13) maxicek
Death Cleaver, Arkaine's Valor, Blood Raven's Charge, Nosferatu's Coil, Dracul's Grasp
Total: 36.3

14) Nano & D2DC - no score reported

 

[ffs]

Not much to say from my end. Most of my D2 farming activity revolves around accumulating PvP gear, recently in particular for LLD characters, which means my typical farming is usually just Travincal running with gold find Sorc in 1.14, which means I just did that. She's considerably slower than with damage/speed optimized setup, but still solid.

Haul pic with Pul+ runes:



The number of Pul+ runes was within the expected range, but needless to say I was lucky with the quality. 14x Pul+, half of which Ohm+ and 5x Sur+.

Sorc gear:

Spoiler

Shako (Cham)
6x Lem sword
Spirit Monarch
Wealth body armor
Rare amulet +2 Cold, 10 FCR, 15 all resist
Chance Guards
2x Dwarf Star
Arachnid Mesh
War Traveler

Inventory: Gheed, 4x Cold skiller with extra gold, 1x mana/extra gold GC, 6x extra gold SCs with mana or resist

Merc used basic combo of Infinity, Guardian Angel, Kira

Otherwise: 36x Ral, 19x Sol, 22x Perfect Amethyst (I have a shrine near the WP on my Trav map), 86x Flawless Amethyst, 82x Flawless Ruby, 131 jewels. I picked up a lot more stuff than in my typical RFL sets when I focus on speed. Apart from the crafting materials I also picked up rare amulets, circlets and certain weapon types for LLD chars. Didn't get much out of it though.

Notable non-qualifiers (including gambled stuff) posted here.

 

[Swamigoon]

Congratulations and thanks for hosting again, ffs!

No grailers for me, but I still found some nice loot. My runs were split pretty evenly between a blizzard sorc in the tunnels, CL sorc running Baal, and fire trapper assassin running maggots.


Sorry, didn't get a screencap of the mat bow nor the Pul rune. I also found another Trang-Oul's girth, Bloodmoon, Laying of Hands, Hellslayer, Eaglehorn, and Lightsabre:



Good times!

 

[Grisu]

8) m4ke
Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption, Griswold's Redemption
Total: 56.5

I lol'd pretty loudly does the list continue like this? Any plans on a Paladin Sept questing side by side in the near future?

Grats @ffs for winning this one and thanks for hosting the tournament! I honestly wouldn't have thought to get such good finds from running CS and was pretty surprised that was only enough for 5th place.

Now the question is: should I make Enigma for my UT99er Blizzard sorceress? Of course, I am still missing the Ber...

 

[Excalibur]

I decided to farm with my Javazon for runes to keep my project running at the same time. Very satisfied with my drops but apart from the scoring runes, surprisingly I only got a Mal rune. It didn't start very well. For almost seven hours I didn't have any decent rune qualifier which discouraged me a lot in general. Then suddenly runes started to rain. And at long last, a Ber finally dropped. That's my first Ber in D2R and only 3rd in my whole D2 career.

Runes were dropped in this order.
Hour 3 - Mal
Hour 7 - Sur
Hour 7,5 - Cham
Hour 11 - Sur
Hour 13 - Ber
Hour 16 - Sur

I am super tired of farming at a point that I wish Terror Zones make it to SP to build my Javazon around it hoping for some extra luck with runes. I can't keep grinding at this rate forever.
Haul pic with the runes including some interesting items. I almost felt that I won this time but there's always @ffs to ruin everything.
Congratulations to everyone and mainly to ffs for hosting and winning!

 

[maxicek]

Congratulations on winning your own tournament @ffs. Looks like some nice loot was found by all.

Despite propping up the table I was extremely pleased with my finds as I found what I was looking for - Medusa’s Gaze after 3h in The Pit. After that I swapped back to Baal for the remaining time and drops were about what you would expect.


All qualifiers I picked up:

Aldur's Deception x2
Andariel's Visage x2
Arkaine's Valor
Blood Raven's Charge
Credendum
Death Cleaver
Demon Limb
Doombringer
Dracul's Grasp
Eaglehorn
Firelizard's Talons
Flamebellow
Fleshripper
Frostwind
Lightsabre
M'avina's Caster
Medusa's Gaze x2
Messerschmidt's Reaver
Natalya's Mark
Nightwing's Veil
Nosferatu's Coil
Ondal's Almighty
Ormus' Robes x3
Razor's Edge
Rune Master
Sandstorm Trek x2
Sazabi's Cobalt Redeemer
Stormshield
Tal Rasha's Guardianship
The Reaper's Toll
Tomb Reaver x2
Trang-Oul's Guise
Verdungo's Hearty Cord x2
Warshrike x2
Windhammer
Wizardspike

Pul Rune

Non Qualifiers:
HoZ (Ethereal)
Guardian Angel x2
Pelta Lunata
Rixot's Keen
Titan's Revenge (Ethereal)
54 Perfect Gems

Spoiler: Readouts

Medusa's Gaze
Aegis
Defense: 421
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 89 of 92
Required Level: 76
Required Strength: 187
Fingerprint: 0x59715cf8
Item Level: 85
Version: Resurrected
10% Chance to cast level 7 Lower Resist when struck
100% Chance to cast level 44 Nova when you Die
8% Life stolen per hit
Slows Target by 20%
+160% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +47%
Lightning Resist +26%
13% Extra Gold from Monsters
Requirements --15% 1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Raven Eye

(Found the jewel in LK when rune hunting)
Raven Eye
Jewel
Required Level: 14
Fingerprint: 0x65df6428
Item Level: 80
Version: Resurrected
Lightning Resist +26%
13% Extra Gold from Monsters
Requirements --15%

Death Cleaver
Berserker Axe
One Hand Damage: 80 - 238
Durability: 13 of 26
Required Level: 70
Required Strength: 138
Required Dexterity: 59
Fingerprint: 0xe774ece
Item Level: 99
Version: Resurrected
Unidentified
+40% Increased Attack Speed
236% Enhanced Damage
-33% Target Defense
66% Deadly Strike
+6 Life after each Kill

Tomb Reaver
Cryptic Axe
Two Hand Damage: 123 - 561
Durability: 37 of 65
Required Level: 84
Required Strength: 165
Required Dexterity: 103
Fingerprint: 0xe315758f
Item Level: 88
Version: Resurrected
+60% Increased Attack Speed
274% Enhanced Damage
+183% Damage to Undead
+292 to Attack Rating against Undead
All Resistances +45
10% Reanimate as: Returned
+12 Life after each Kill
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+4 to Light Radius 3 Sockets (0 used)

Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 93 - 255
One Hand Damage: 93 - 182
Quantity: 180
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 15
Required Dexterity: 99
Fingerprint: 0xe8b0238e
Item Level: 99
Version: Resurrected
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
+30% Faster Run/Walk
154% Enhanced Damage
Adds 25 - 50 Damage
6% Life stolen per hit
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
Increased Stack Size
Replenishes quantity
Ethereal

Edit: Pictures

 

[Jpy]

So apparently my screenshots were worse than I thought (I can’t find anything besides a Gul) but on the bright side this made me motivated to play D2 again and I’ve fully embraced the D2R transition. I wish I had LK prepped entirely before the tournament but decent results nonetheless, the big yield was CTA (6/4 so I’m satisfied) from the two Vex and a lot of charm upgrades. Thanks for the tournament @ffs and grats to everyone on their hauls.

 

[Kruemelmonschda]

Only managed to run about 7h (CS /p7 with my Hammadin). Nevertheless quite pleased with the haul.

 

[gregth]

Hello everybody,
First I'd like to thank @ffs for the organization of the tournament, it was very motivating !
I secretly hoped that my Cham would bring me in the top 3, but well you guys are too strong and still I'm happy to get a nice score for my first tournament
Congrats to everybody for your amazing finds !

Apart from my top 5 this tournament was the occasion to get a few grailers, including Arreat's face, WT (finally ! ) and Ondal's wisdom


I spent my time mostly in CS, running in P3 with my Fohdin

 

[ffs]

Nice drops everyone.

I lol'd pretty loudly does the list continue like this? Any plans on a Paladin Sept questing side by side in the near future?

Grats @ffs for winning this one and thanks for hosting the tournament! I honestly wouldn't have thought to get such good finds from running CS and was pretty surprised that was only enough for 5th place.

Now the question is: should I make Enigma for my UT99er Blizzard sorceress? Of course, I am still missing the Ber...

I also thought @m4ke's reported top 5 was the best btw you may remember you won last year's event with 130 points, so there's your benchmark for a top placement.

I almost felt that I won this time but there's always @ffs to ruin everything.

Sorry! It was close for sure. Seems your "quality vs quantity" case was even crazier than mine, don't think I've ever seen 5/6 qualifiers being Sur+!

Btw regarding drop distribution in my case, I didn't record exact times, but to give a rough picture: Cham and Jah #1 dropped early, they were the first two qualifiers within the first 1-2 hours or so. Then came 6-7 hours of only Um-Gul range drops, followed by another lucky streak around 12-17 hours with second Jah, 2x Sur and Ohm. The Lo was the last high rune and dropped around 2 hours before the end.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Great work everyone! I was running Cows at /p7 the entire time with the Javazon. My run counter doesn't count runs very well with Cows, but after a few qualifiers it occurred to me to put down how many hours/minutes into the comp I was.

I was expecting most of my qualifiers to be runes, as they were. I did toss on a wee bit of MF on the Amazon just in case it would help me in the tournament. My rune drops plus my other top 5 qualifier came in like this:

??? Pul
2:46 The Redeemer
4:23 Ist
6:01 Ohm
7:11 Ist
8:44 Ber
9:51 Gul
11:20 Pul
12:05 Ohm
12:27 Vex
18:58 Mal

My rune stash is looking pretty decent at this point, so I am very pleased!

Grats to @ffs on the win and thanks for hosting!

 

[PhineasB]

Great to see the nice drops, and thanks to @ffs for hosting again. These tournaments are great, and I find them an excellent opportunity to gain XP with a 99er. Which occurred again here, with Redux getting from ~95.75 to ~ 96.7 on Gripp runs in CS. She's now approaching 96.85 and will hopefully ping 97 by New Year's.

As for drops, I was really surprised by her luck, and if that Mang's from Dec 1 had fallen on Dec 2 instead, we'd have had a 100+ score! Things started off with a bang with Stormlash (two more Scourges fell in quick succession, but were the other one), followed by Vex over the first weekend:


The next weekend saw the Ber (which became her Infinity to have that ticked off for level 98), and then Astreon's at around the 9.5 hour mark for 70+ score at 10-hour mark:


I thought I was in position to maybe pull off an upset win, but we then had nothing 6+ points drop until hour 19 and the Griz shield:

She also had an Um and an eth Headstriker. Aside from the Infinity though, nothing of use for her journey fell: no Sorc skillers, no charm upgrades, no facets. She had two unique Spired Helms but they were both Veils of Steel, and she obviously picked up two more Reaper's, both non-eth, so the search continues there

Congrats again to the winner @ffs and @Excalibur for close second, and everyone else who picked up useful drops.

 

[Excalibur]

My rune stash is looking pretty decent at this point, so I am very pleased!

May I see it please?

 

[m4ke]

I racked 5 green caddys in 1.07 as a starting point. Couldn't improve in D2R and not so motivated. Only ~10hrs done.


m4ke

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Loving all the screenshots!

May I see it please?

Oh, it's nothing compared to many stashes on the SPF, but I've got a Jah from Pindle, a Cham from Nihlathak, and the rest are mostly Cows leading up to the tournament and the tournament itself.

Spoiler

 

[Arparrabiosa]

My top 5 and some more stuff from the second set.

 

[Grisu]

Here are my top 5 in the order I found them. I also found a BKWB and a Gul, still have to sort through the rare circlets, but nothing exciting at first glance.

Funny thing is that I did only like 30 AT runs, but found two of my top 5 in that time. AT runs were slower than CS in the end though and gave less XP. That is why I switched to CS completely in the end. Did 2 seal runs with all non-CI bosspacks, averaging around 3200 XP/sec and around 4-5 boss packs per run..



As you can see I found Griffon's and Griswold's when I started to run and the other items towards the end after reaching level 96. So I suppose I am glad I pushed in order to get my 20 hours in (although I only managed 19 hours and 15 mins).

Now I need to update the perfect grail sheet for Aviendha and do some more runs - my goal was to reach lv98 till the end of the year, but that won't be happening. But 97 is only 25% away

 

[Arparrabiosa]

What were your player settings, @Grisu ?

 

[Grisu]

What were your player settings, @Grisu ?

8 players. I did some runs including p1 Lord de Seis and p7 Diablo though, which added around 30-45 seconds to the runs and overall wasn't worth it for the XP gained. But it showd me that it is perfectly plausible to do so once I get to level 98 (well, p1 seals, p7 Diablo then, I guess).

 

[CaseyJones]

Congrats to all who found some nice stuff!! Hopefully next year I will have a few toons geared and ready to compete!