2021 Spring RFL Sign Up and Running Thread: Round 3 (Areas)

[PhineasB]

Just want to confirm since the method isn't really popular in SPF, but Seal Popping (Link to my youtube video) is allowed right?

Although not violative of SPF rules, I think it is generally viewed as cheesy. Given the competitive setting (although maybe I should say "competitive" setting ), I'm inclined to say drops from the mechanic around Vizier's seal (or whichever is popped last) are okay, but not runes from exploiting it through extended extra teleports prior to popping the last seal. That seems closest in spirit to this competition's intent.

Edit: @DaveWThe2nd I think you covered the key areas. CS and AS are very profitable and likely most efficient for runes due to presence of wraith type monsters for each run, with AS being capped at Cham without very rare drop (that @art_vandelay got once if memory serves) but easier to run.

 

[DaveWThe2nd]

@PhineasB and others more knowledgeable than me: for an Arcane runner, how do we decide which arm of the Sanctuary to take? Do we focus on one of the four arms, two arms ..? Surely we don't run all four in a single run. Or do we?

 

[maxicek]

@DaveWThe2nd IMO this round is the most luck dependent. I have had a 124 point winning round in the CS and rounds with nothing higher than an Ohm. My other objective for running CS is for XP on Paladins, this is the main reason I always run it. I think having a secondary objective for this round is a good idea.

If you are looking for runes up to Jah, the AS is interesting, but you won't get much else there other than the runes.

 

[CaseyJones]

As for which arm to run of AS. The flat arm basically. No teleporters, stairs, or maze-like paths, just straight and flat rectangle. The other arms mess up the mercs pathfinding.

 

[Luhkoh]

Alright @DaveWThe2nd here's my little writeup on round 3.

For reference, HERE is the post from 2018 RFL where @Nano started testing arcane more seriously. And @ffs added his javazon tests (who is almost definitely the best character for the runs) a few pages later. This entire thread is worth a close read if you're really interested in round 3 options. The theorycrafting in it is excellent. My summary though is like this (all runs on p7 if you have a strong character, though p5 is likley competitive and could be tested by each runner for themselves):

1. Arcane Sanctuary - best rune efficiency by a lot, but bosses, their minions and champs are the only things that can drop zod, so zod specifically is much rarer from here than elsewhere. But up to and including cham it's definitely the best option for almost everyone. You run only the flat part of the map (the lightning spire leg) due to an easier time keeping drops out of the void, as well as the fact that running additional legs will have less bosspacks, and ghost minions are great for efficiency. But if for some reason you wanted to run additional legs, I don't THINK it affects the efficiency too much, but I think would def be worse due the reasons I mentioned, despite it not having been tested thoroughly afaik. You target ghosts and if you're a char like java you can blast big groups of any monsters. Best character is very likely javazon (see ffs's video in the thread), but nano does great with a nova sorc. And my favorite runner there is a light sorc. With her I get very slightly worse estimated efficiency than I do with java (sorc gets faster runs, but java gets a lot more goatmen kills). But I'm a lot slower than ffs and nano here, even when running my javazon.
2. Chaos doing stormcaster only runs - this was the thought to be the best meta prior to arcane testing, and it's still perhaps the way to go due to better zod chances. You kill all packs of 2 or 3 or more stormcasters, blast vizier's seal then s/e. No other seals. Best characters are probably blizz sorc and hdin.
3. Chaos 2 seal runs - this is a popular option because it's the best way to get exp up to lvl 97 (and maybe to 98) on an hdin, and the best way to get exp up to lvl 98 on a blizz sorc. And it's still quite good for runes, though closer to pits (next on my list) than to the two above. So a good option if you want to pursue a side goal of exp on a blizz sorc or hdin, in case the runes don't drop for you.
4. Pit runs - Likely with a poison necro or javazon (though ffs likes nova sorc here too). Assassin is competitive here too for runes, but since her number of bosspacks are decreased from the death sentry bug thing, it kinda neuters the mf potential, which in my opinion is the reason to consider pits for round 3. This is about even with the chaos 2 seal runs in my experience, and a good option if you want some mf finds on the side. Since necro can stack the most mf and still do great runs, I think he's the best runner here.

Other common options that of course can work are nihlathak (if you have a lvl 98 runner wanting exp), or ancient tunnels for some side mf, or full chaos runs if you have a lvl 98 hdin, or just enjoy these runs. But these are a good bit worse than the ones above.

For what its worth, here is my own personal estimated efficiency in some areas, using my runefinding calculator, measured by "time to find or cube a jah".

Avg time to find/cube jah for Luhkoh

Note that the chaos input is for 2-seal runs (#3 in the list above). So if you do run type 2 in the list above, it will be better. As you can see, amongst those runs, arcane is by far the best for me. Though to be fair I don't have the runtype 2 for comparison. In all honestly, when arcane is the best or near the best, I like to use this opportunity to run it. Because it's a cool area that I definitely won't be running any other time. Whereas I run chaos in my non-tourney d2 time a good bit.

 

[D2DC]

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Dunno how much time I will have to participate though.

 

[Vildecor]

@Luhkoh - HUGE thanks for that breakdown! Lets me know I don't need to build a new Blova sorc to do CS, I can just use my blizzy and target stormcasters.

 

[DaveWThe2nd]

Thx for the great responses everyone especially Luhkoh

 

[PhineasB]

Oops, used up some (or all) of my luck:

Dusted off the untwinked 99er Druid and realized I hadn't played him since November! I also saw he had >400 MF and what seemed a not great Pit map initially, with long teleport to the entrance and first two runs very thin on boss density. So I went to CS to see if I'd found a nice map there, nope.

Then I found his last update and remembered his last progress had been in the Find the Balance tourney where I'd pushed MF in the Pit. And that post reminded me about the map, with shrine just out of teleport path (for occasional XP bump), up to 6 bosses in the first room (my first two runs had been outliers) and 3 bosses in level 2 most common, with a well right before going down.

So I'm set on doing the Round 3 set in the Pit, hopefully getting past 96.6 and back on track with his progress. Good luck, all, and looking forward to this round!

 

[Tatterson]

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Going to play the new path of exile league instead (starts tomorrow!)

 

[Vildecor]

Did some CS test runs with the blizz sorc. Looks like I'll probably be running on p5 starting out. I suck at area running with sorcs. I plan on just doing one set this round. I have HC characters begging me for my time.

My money is on @Nano to finish out on top once all is said and done. He is nothing if not consistent!

 

[Luhkoh]

Happy to help! Here are some videos/links for inspiration/lifegoals

RFCS
Nano gear
Nano runs
Gripp runs
Haven't seen any hdin gameplay of this runtype, but I know from my own experience and I think Nano tested too, that he is comparable with blizz sorc performance. I tried out the runs last night with him and it honestly wasn't that hard to get good efficiency with him by my standards, but the runs are a bit annoying to my taste, with targeting 2-3 stormcasters with hammers being tedious.

For arcane, check @ffs's 101 thread for links to some crazy videos and thoughts on gear.

As for my light sorc, I find her by far the most chill arcane runner. A while back I tried her our using crescent moon and crafted amulet and vmagi etc. And I found the runs to be stressful and dangerous. So I respec'd to a higher life and res variant with hoto, maras, enigma and havent looked back. Hoping to get my runtimes down this year to 60s-ish, which I think ffs beats on his javazon while killing more monsters! Hopefully he stays distracted by PoE or whatever for a few more weeks... .

Also went back and read the 2017 RFL areas thread yesterday. That is also a great read. It's where nano and gripp did most of the rfcs theorycrafting thats been done, with some more being done in the end of the 2019 round 2 thread. I'm so eager to start my set, that I'm studying old tourneys .

 

[Nano]

I think I'll start with CS Blizz first then move on to AS for some variety.

@Luhkoh Great write-up and summary of Areas rune finding. I had to look back at some of my past RFL results thread to remember exactly what I ran and how effective it was. 2019 RFL was where I ran some CS Hdin, but it's only an 8 hour set vs the full 20 hour set of CS Blizz. There is even a tiny clip of Hdin gameplay towards the end of the highlights video in the linked post. Key is killing those small clusters of Stormcasters without repositioning, but IIRC, I wasn't able to execute that consistently. Stormcasters being a size 3 monster does help a bit in that regard.

 

[ffs]

Hopefully he stays distracted by PoE or whatever for a few more weeks... .

Haha, honestly I'm not playing anything at the moment... but the fact that new PoE league starts today doesn't bode well for D2 gaming in the upcoming weeks/months.

Still following this of course!

In addition to all the great tips already mentioned, I'm hoping to see some Fire Sorc action. Really nice char for both CS Stormcaster runs and AS. Personally haven't played her much because she remains one of the builds that I don't have super OP endgame stuff for (such as good 3/20 or 2/20 circlets, 2/20 sorc/fire amulet and stuff like that). But Gripphon showed that – at least with such OP gear – she has great potential. Of course the typical caster gear choices should do just fine as well. In any case, min-maxing her damage output for the various targets seems like a fun task.

 

[Tatterson]

Haha, honestly I'm not playing anything at the moment... but the fact that new PoE league starts today doesn't bode well for D2 gaming in the upcoming weeks/months.

Still following this of course!

In addition to all the great tips already mentioned, I'm hoping to see some Fire Sorc action. Really nice char for both CS Stormcaster runs and AS. Personally haven't played her much because she remains one of the builds that I don't have super OP endgame stuff for (such as good 3/20 or 2/20 circlets, 2/20 sorc/fire amulet and stuff like that). But Gripphon showed that – at least with such OP gear – she has great potential. Of course the typical caster gear choices should do just fine as well. In any case, min-maxing her damage output for the various targets seems like a fun task.

Sounds like you need to save up gold for then D2 resurrected gets released. It has a refresh button in the gambling menu!

 

[Apila]

I'm in. Will be running Arcane Sanctuary with a Nova Sorc. Trying to reach the full 20 hours.

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[J-Dog]

Hello everyone!

Signing up for RFL seems like an appropriate way to return to the forums after a break. Hope everyone's doing well!

I'll probably dust off the venomancer Lars and see what Pits have to offer. Also fire sorc and AS seems interesting. Fire Druid and A5 icy locations will be the weapon of choice if things start to get boring.


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[Vildecor]

Did some CS test runs with the blizz sorc. Looks like I'll probably be running on p5 starting out.

Less than an hour in and I'm feeling more comfortable with the runs. Switched to p7 and found no notable difference, so that's very nice.

@J-Dog - Welcome back! RFL is definitely a nice way to get back in the swing of things.

 

[Terroriffic]

Some goodies so far. Think dream would be good for the 3os one? And I already rolled a spirit in the 4os. Took like 10 trys to get a 35fcr.

 

[PhineasB]

That Ruby SC of Vita is beautiful, congrats! I’d probably hold out for a Sacred Targe for Dream but that Kurast Shield should work well enough.