2018 Spring RFL Sign-Up and Running Thread: Grande Finale

[T72on1]

Cool @T72on1, glad to have another AS tester! I'll try to at least run it for 10h with Javazon, but will likely run the very nice Pit map she has rolled as well.

I might spend the remaining 7 hours in AS. Only other good option is CS, but like I said, I'm getting tired of that one with my Blizz Sorc, and I (hopefully) will be doing plenty of it with my Hammerdin soon(ish).

Only other good option I see for areas is Pit with Necro or Javazon. I couldn't get the hang of it with my Necro, and for Javazon ...

Also such a setup is not too hard to build, only somewhat rare parts are Griffon's and Enigma.

... I don't have Griffon's. Once I have that one, I plan to do a lot of tournaments like this and overall testing with Javazon, Lightning Sorc, Nova Sorc, ...

I skipped the end platform because it involves more back-tracking than the middle corridor, and in my case also killing from the top which is not ideal for seeing drops (resulting in more teleports necessary potentially). That's also the reason why I check the middle corridor on my way back, so I can kill mobs there from bottom right side. Maybe I should roll a map with the map layout in NW direction and check both though.

I have a NW map layout, which might indeed be better for those two parts.

@T72on1 ghost type monsters do drop more shiny stuff (jewels, rings, amulets, runes, gems).

Ok, nice. Thanks. Time to finally find that SoJ .

One thing I forgot to mention is that @NanoMist was right (of course, what did you expect? ) when it comes to the other branches of AS: they aren't worth it, because there are too many gaps and other stuff which prevent good spawns and smooth running.

Btw, if we are talking high density areas, would Flayer Jungle also maybe be a good area? It's packed to the brim with Flayers and Soul Killers, so ... Obviously not as good as AS and CS, but maybe comparable with Pits?

 

[Brak]

have you guys tried ending your run on the Summoner and using the Canyon WP to go to A4?

 

[T72on1]

My map has Summoner at the end of the route, now that you mention it. But since I'm just doing a circular route, I'm ending near the AS waypoint, not the Summoner.

I don't think the Summoner platform is often very crowded, so I'd better skip it alltogether I think, unlike what I said in my previous post.

 

[Brak]

huh, in my experience the Summoner usually has a decent crowd on his platform. I would actually run a zig zag covering the center bridge and end at the Summoner. You would miss two corners, but make up for this by picking up packs in the middle (which are often quite large) and on the Summoner's platform. I've also tried running a figure 8 pattern. You double up on the middle platform, but you can just kill them and look for drops as you teleport past it (this is better suited for a Blizz sorc than Nova).

Are you guys doing all four arms btw? One thing I've noticed is that in some configurations you can teleport between the arms without returning to the center platform. For me this works going between top left arm (switchback) and bottom left arm (portals), but I usually don't bother with these as I have noticed lost drops in space. I can't reroll my map so I'm not sure if this is due to the placement, configuration or both.

 

[T72on1]

No, I only run one branch. Just like Nanomist and ffs. The others aren't nearly as good.

 

[ffs]

@T72on1 I'd put AS higher than CS for sure, it's really comparable to Cows. First couple of Javazon runs I tried resulted in the equivalent of ~143 cows per minute on P7, or ~157 cows per minute on P5. Compare this to Gripphon's P5 numbers in the runefinding guide:

Spoiler

1. PN/Nova necro ~168
2. Nova sorc ~153
3. Blizzard sorc ~144
4. Javazon ~142
5. Trapper ~137
6. Fireball sorc ~130
7. Fissure druid ~126
8. Hammerdin ~97

This is only a rough guideline of course, and IMO Javazon blows all of these out if the water (managed ~165 on P7 myself using the same calculation method used for the above). But any bias I might have towards her is definitely matched by Gripp's towards P&B Necros.

Whichever way you take it, AS is an incredibly efficient area. We are just starting to run it and maybe the best approach has not been tested yet. I wouldn't be surprised if someone manages to run it more efficiently than Cows to farm runes up to Cham. Definitely quite the discovery at this stage!

 

[maxicek]

But outside of RFL, surely you are better running the Council?

 

[ffs]

@maxicek Generally yes, at least I'd go there when just trying to generally farm HRs and want some other stuff along the way. But could be different when only caring about runes, depending on run times.

Taking a (very fast) 2m30s average for P5 cow runs as an example, Travincal will break even with that at around ~24.5 second runs average (or ~39s for hork Barb), based on Gripphon's numbers. Based on Arcane Sanctuary results so far it seems it will break even with those Cow and Travincal times when AS runs take around ~55 second average (P7). Probably in most cases people will be a little more efficient in Travincal, but it's not really a huge margin.

That's for runes up to Cham and disregarding the fact that LK is best choice up to Ber (clearly) and even Jah (slightly) when mostly caring about runes only. For Zod, Cows are incredibly hard to beat, requires sub-18s Travincal running (including cubing) in the above example. AS can't be run fast enough to compete in this regard.

 

[Shuffleblast]

"So, I take it you're done with your 20 hours of fast paced CS running? Here's a random sur from a boss pack for your noob summoner druid."

 

[NanoMist]

If none of the monsters spawns in PoD, just restart game. There are also finger mages in the city of the damned so when I teleported from CotD wp to PoD, if I encountered finger mages in CotD I ran that area first, and then moved to PoD to check monster rolls there. I look for the holy freeze aura procs to locate the burning souls. Vizier himself did have was is 25% higher chance of runedrops than a normal stormcaster?

When I mentioned Vizier, I'm also including the 11 minions, otherwise Vizier by itself isn't significant. I did teleport around the Plains during last year's testing, and I didn't get the impression it was any better than CS. Compared to this year, Arcane Sanctuary looked really good after the first play through.

Btw, if we are talking high density areas, would Flayer Jungle also maybe be a good area? It's packed to the brim with Flayers and Soul Killers, so ... Obviously not as good as AS and CS, but maybe comparable with Pits?

Flayer Jungle is another Cham capped area, but density could be comparable to Pits. The density does vary from game to game, sometimes it's packed, sometimes it's a little lacking.

As for the Arcane, I should probably incorporate the middle corridor into my route, I do have a semi-stable boss pack in the center platform. As for going for ghosts only or big packs in general, that is dependent on the build, like @ffs said. Java kills everything in 1-2 shots, so I'd target all. Nova Sorc is weaker against the ghouls, so I've been targeting the ghosts and hell clans more. I'd say Java is the fastest build so far, and I'd make that bet even before ffs' great demonstration. I prefer Sorc's tempo of play, but I may try that 68 FCR Javazon in the future.

 

[Friiser]

I've added AS to my run pattern. I clear all 4 wings including the Summoner when I do it. It isn't very efficient, but the chore of raising an army every game gets tiring.

Spoiler

Run Pattern:
Pindleskin (raise my army)
Shenk
Eldritch & occasionally Eyeback the Unleashed
Threshsocket
Bonesaw Breaker
WSK+Baal
Hephasto
Chaos Sanctuary+Diablo
Duriel
Arcane Sanctuary*
Ancient Tunnels*
Pits*

* <-- sometimes these are bypassed if I run out of storage space

 

[Brak]

After a small bout of AS running, I wanted a short break before I had to stop playing
First run in RoF I got a Ber from a Superchest
I've hit that pattern 3 times now, but never the other Ber, Jah or Cham patterns on p7/8

 

[drmalawi]

Hmmm one more week remains, perhaps I should start a new batch? Very tempted to go Javazon in Arcane Sanctuary

 

[DaveW]

@ffs, gieb 4 sock eth thresher.

Interesting discussion re AS. I actually ran it abit last year in RFL. I wanted to thrash it hard there but didn't have a char other than Lite sorc with merc holding Infinity. I didn't play it much (2 hours max) coz I didn't like chugging pots all the time.

 

[drmalawi]

Ok, so 1h into my second batch, I got 12 jewels from AS. My jewles/hour count in CS was about 8. Assuming that jewel:rune ratio is theoretically the same in AS as in CS, this already tells me something about either i) how effective AS is compared to CS or ii) how much I suck at CS

 

[ffs]

Tried a bunch of different setups for AS Javazon. Some information in spoilers for those interested:

1. 99 FCR CtA switch

Spoiler

Setup:
Griffon (Cham)
Head Hunter's Glory (5/5 facet, 5/4 facet, 15 IAS/[email protected] jewel)
Razortail
Rare rings with FCR/ML/LL each
Silkweave
Titan's
3/20 gloves
2/20 craft amulet

CtA/35 Spirit switch
Merc: Infinity/Fortitude/Andy's

This is by now my standard Javazon setup, built around the 2/20 amulet. Love it. Runs in the vid I posted above earlier are with this gear, so that was the benchmark for me.

Initial runs with this setup were around ~55s average.

2. 99 FCR Wizzy switch

Spoiler

Setup:
Griffon (15 IAS/3 MPK jewel)
Monarch socketed with four facets (18/18)
Razortail
Ravenfrost
Rare ring with FCR/ML/LL (SoJ is probably be better, didn't try yet)
Silkweave
Titan's
3/20 gloves

The idea was to again have 99 FCR on switch but with maximum firepower on Javelin switch.

Also I lucked a 2/20 amulet which probably not that many have, so the 50% FCR weapon is the other and much more common/easy to achieve option to get 99% FCR on switch.

Tried with two amulets, HLW for 55% IAS, and +2/8% ML/@ craft. In terms of run times it didn't seem to make a difference (yet again).

As expected, the extra life from CtA was not required, but without it I had to take some more care with my mana, potting here and there and picking up more pots also. In the end, that seemed to make it a little bit slower at 1m to 1m5s. But this could very well be due to the small samples. Maybe SoJ makes the difference, didn't try with it yet.

But I don't see any reason why this should be slower than setup #1.

3. 68 FCR Javelin switch (Lidless Wall)

Spoiler

Setup:
Griffon (15 IAS/3 MPK jewel)
Lidless Wall (5/5 facet)
Razortail
Ravenfrost
Rare ring with FCR/ML/LL
Silkweave
Titan's
3/20 gloves
2/20 craft amulet

CtA switch

This worked well, run times around 1m to 1m10s.

4. 68 FCR Javelin switch (Spirit)

Spoiler

Setup:
Griffon (15 IAS/3 MPK jewel)
Spirit
Razortail
Ravenfrost
Rare ring with FCR/ML/LL
Silkweave
Titan's
3/20 gloves
+2/8ML/@ craft amulet or HLW (prefer the former)

Same as above, but difference here is that Lidless is swapped for Spirit and instead of the 2/20 using another ammy with useful stats (+2/ML or HLW in my case). Run times were similar to the Lidless Wall setup. The latter has MPK and a little bit more damage due to the facet, but with a ML amulet swapped in, it pretty much felt exactly the same.

Can definitely recommend this approach. As mentioned above, apart from Griffon's and Enigma, the rest of the gear is rather straight-forward and can largely be substituted with other stuff.

5. 99 FCR Javelin switch (Spirit)

Spoiler

Setup:
Griffon (Cham)
Spirit
Razortail
Rare rings with FCR/ML/LL each
Silkweave
Titan's
3/20 gloves
2/20 craft amulet
CtA switch

This does not hit the 32% IAS BP. Yet it was not too bad, at around 1m to 1m10s.

6. 99 FCR Javelin switch (Lidless Wall)

Spoiler

Setup:
Griffon (Cham)
Lidless Wall (5/5 facet)
Arachnid Mesh
Rare rings each with FCR/ML/LL
Silkweave
Titan's
3/20 gloves
2/20 craft amulet
CtA switch

I figured since ghosts are the main target and die quickly, maybe an exception to the "Razortail must be used, no exceptions" rule can be made. Of course I was wrong, and could have known so, as the rule specifically states no exceptions.

It was fun, but the lack of Pierce was felt. The few runs I did where around 1m10 to 1m15s. Maybe this could work with max Pierce? I doubt it works better than the above, but could be worth a try.

I only compared run times for this, didn't feel like counting thousands of monsters. Something to keep in mind for the setups with lower damage that likely kill fewer monsters in the relevant amount of time.

Conclusions:
Except for the last one, all of these work very well. Can definitely recommend #4 as standard approach with (relatively) little gear requirements. So far, setup #1 is the only one I averaged under 1m runs with. But that doesn't say that much, given the very small samples and overall lack of practice with the different setups on my end. Same for the indication that 99% FCR switch seems to be a tiny bit faster than teleporting on Javelin switch in my case.

 

[drmalawi]

Ok I checked, it is the same Jewel to Rune ratio in AS as for CS, in case someone wondered. What I think is nice by counting Jewels is that then the "void drop factor" is accounted for.

 

[T72on1]

I did 90 mins of AS with my Javazon too. Not really efficient, as my runs take about 1:30 on average, but being able to kill everything and everything fast is more fun than the Blizz Sorc for now, so I'll probably finish the set with her. 4 more hours to go.

Since I haven't got Griffon's yet and I don't like weapon switching during gameplay, I went with a 68% fcr setup, having Spirit Shield, Magefist, a 10% fcr ring and 5% fcr amulet take care of the fcr. Not ideal, which probably explains the slow run times. Although things still kill in one or two throws, so it's probably more a matter of driver errors ...

Founds of note were a +3/15/15 Eschuta's Temper, a Vamp Gaze and this lvl 1 beauty:

Lucky Grand Charm of Greed
Grand Charm
Required Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0x790f2756
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
16% Extra Gold from Monsters
12% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Not sure how high those can go at lvl 1, but it's one of my best, if not the best, I have found for lvl 1 iirc.

 

[drmalawi]

I have done 2h AS now with javazon, I use a 68% FCR setup. Best drops so far (apart from all the Cham runes) are a Spirit Keeper (my first ever) and a Martial Arts GC. I do not have a good FCR mana leech ring, so I have to chug a big blue now and then

 

[T72on1]

Hey, Spirit Keeper ... that would be a grailer for me this time around !!!

No good mana leech ring here either, so I'm running without. 1200 mana after BO and some MPK is enough most of the times .