Nice progress everyone, but especially
@ffs and
@Bewitch with the great progress on high-level characters. And it's very cool to see the entries by
@bcoe and cool to see you enjoying the diversity of characters.
I have a pseudo-update for
Quinta, who has the first 15M XP of level 98 under her belt (so 1/20th of the way there?
). Mainly it's been the gear testing phase, as she is feeling the effects of untwinked playthrough. We’ve tested quite a few options with her existing gear choices, and I think have settled on the set up for now. But with major hopes for an upgrade along the way.
The biggest limitation is the lack of 10FCR/mana leech ring, despite burning through ~20M gold on rings since level 97 (with some gloves, plus amulets for caster crafts mixed in). But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Titan's or Thunderstroke. The first question was Titan’s vs. Thunderstroke (Baal had dropped a +4 javelin skills one). I quickly settled on TStroke due to allowing her to hit IAS breakpoint without Highlord’s, opening up amulet slot, and the extra -eLR. More frequent repairs are the downside, but my sense was time was worth the added speed/run over >12,000 runs. And the current playstyle usually doesn’t involve too many LF throws per run (see below).
68 FCR or 99 FCR Breakpoint (and Mana Management). The IAS freed up the 2/9 caster amulet, but she didn’t have the 10 FCR/ML ring, as mentioned. I gave it shot nonetheless, but lack of mana leech just wasn’t sustainable. That’s when we did a major gambling session of ~10M gold, in addition to gambling as she went through MFO, but without luck. I then checked my stash for a 10+ FCR amulet with mana leech, figuring 2 skills would be worth sacrifices to hit the 99 FCR breakpoint. But she hadn’t found one of those either.
So I went with Mara’s (and figured we’d have to stick with the 68 FCR breakpoint), which allowed nearly 3000 HP with BO active after fiddling with various mana leech rings to fill out the gear and swapping around charms, and allowing War Traveler for extra MF (and damage for extra mana leech). I thought that might win out as the final set-up, as Nihl was fairly smooth and the life pool was nice. But this happened a few too many times:
View attachment 15095
The inability to hit 99 FCR was annoying because of time spent getting to stairs and then to Nihl, but this risk in Hall of Pain due to slower teleport rate finally prompted me to reassess. I hadn’t really thought about gloves that weren’t 2/20, so checked and found a 20 IAS/3ML pair. If I had been willing to give up 2 skills in the amulet slot, why not from the gloves?
The lower mana leech percent means she needs to use pots more than when she was at 68 FCR with a 6% mana leech ring. But it’s workable, especially if she grabs the occasional mana pot right by her when safe to do so after clearing Nihl.
Finally, I decided to test Silkweave for +mpk and maybe allow the 2/20 gloves. That requires a pot each run, which seems slower than the marginal faster speed from the +2 skills.
Current Gear and Stats. So the gear below gives her the key stats/breakpoints listed below that:
Code:
20/11 Griffon’s w Cham
+4 javelin skill TStroke
Spirit shield (35% FCR)
Enigma
20 IAS/3ll/3ml gloves
Arachnid
War Traveler
Nature’s Peace
10 FCR/5ll/+80 mana rare
Switch: 6 BO CtA/Spirit
Charms:
2 skillers and Gheeds
Rest are mix of resist/life/FHR SCs/GCs
HP with BO active: 2799
Skills: +14 javelin skills
-eLR: -35%
Resists: 80 fire/22 cold/1 lightning/34 poison
MF: 202
FHR: 87
IAS: 35
FCR: 99
Approach. Aborted runs are unbreakable LI rolls with mobs around, and some breakable LI with lots of Vipers, so fairly rare. Merc has Infinity, Delirium, and Gladiator’s Bane (I had started with Treachery but prefer this set-up, I think).
The playstyle is more engaged than the other Nihl runners, with different approaches if Vipers are around or not. If not, cast LF twice and then teleport onto Nihl to CS him. If Vipers, side-step technique and stick with LF from a distance with merc’s delirium proc helping keep monsters distracted. Whether I see Vipers teleporting to his platform determines which approach.
Her life hasn’t dropped below 1179 HP on Nihl since settling on this strategy, with HoP a much bigger risk, but much improved with 99 FCR. We’ll see if that holds up
But, based on my experience with Phaedrus, I will likely skip the teleport/CS Nihl approach if I’m tired or not fully focused due to risk of mistake.
One final word is on the map: similar to Pestilence, the spawns around Nihl’s platform make a difference. The first map had lots of monsters on all three sides and was dicey. The current map has regular spawns on only one side plus the open end, and is much more manageable. It has only one shrine in HoP that sometimes doesn’t spawn on the teleport path though, so we will reroll maps.
I'll save the drops for a proper update, likely at 98.25. Any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome! I really hope for a 10 FCR/ML ring or 20 IAS gloves with higher mana leech. But I’m still open to fiddling around with gear if there are interesting suggestions.
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