2019 Spring RFL Sign-Up and Running Thread: 1st Round

After farming Meph for some more essences, I gave this a try. Mostly the same gear except no Ber rune in Stormlash, a 2 Skill/10 FCR/5 LS/5 MS ammy, and a 11 LS/6 MS ring for lots of leech. My 2/20 circlet also had 5 LS, so I had a total of 21% life steal going in. Charms were Vita/Elemental damage.

Here's the progression of my testing, if you want to read through the rambling:

I did a quick run with my current map, meaning I didn't switch to NM for a Might Merc. Staying with the Defiance Merc might've been a good choice because I took a beating in the Moo Moo Farm. Kick damage is just too low to leech back all the damage taken. Switching to Might merc wouldn't help enough. I tried Dracs but the 5% CTC Life Tap is just too inconsistent.

Survival issues aside, when it goes right, Cows drop fast. CTC static on Stormlash with Conviction has the entire group softened down to half health. It's hard to see, but it seems like I only need 2-3 corpses at most before the entire group of Cows fall over in unison. The issue is still getting those first few corpses- DT's lowish integer damage has a harder time finishing off a Cow as CB effectiveness falls off. This is usually where I start getting pummeled into the ground by 10+ Cows. Performing any sort of defensive repositioning behind the Merc is just too inefficient when I know that the Dragon Tail variant can just jump in and wreck without fear. Dragon Tail has knockback with the splash damage, allowing my previous build to stunlock entire groups of Cows. Not the case with Dragon Talon. The damage potential is there, but the survival is lacking... maybe I can revisit Phoenix?

Replacing Spirit with Phoenix took me down to the 65 FCR breakpoint, but it was well worth the life recovery. I was able to finish 4 runs at about 3:20 average, so things are looking up. Sometimes Redemption manages to steal away the first corpse, and other times cold damage shatters the corpse. Finding another target in the midst of 20+ cows triggered some NDEs.

When things go 'right', DTalon can take down Cows fast, but in tougher situations (massive cow groups from all sides), it's harder to recover. DTail has the splash knockback that can make any situation manageable, but DTalon does not have that luxury. K/T sin is a good cow runner, maybe a 3 minute caliber runner with a better setup and some practice, but she's rather stressful to play.

Edit:
Adding link to K/T Sin P5 Cow Demo Video.

 

Will heavily require the blessings of RNGesus!

Currently running 3-4 minutes on p1, but don't like my map- there's sometimes a massive empty bit.

Main issue is the moron tbh. Without CtA and Enigma he just gets rinsed constantly on p3, even with my Confuse procs and Decoy to help. He doesn't have any %DR either as I lost the Gaze I found for him in a rather unfortunate GoMule incident.

 

I surprised myself. I managed a decent map and was able to run it in about 4 minutes on p3 the first couple of tries. I figure that's not too shabby for a Cow-running noob.

 

I'd just leave the merc dead if hes not wearing an infinity

 

I did improve yes, did two runs, no deeds. So, I'm basically an expert now

 

Thanks for testing @NanoMist. I’ll check her out myself when I get back to running, but interesting to hear about the pros and cons you’ve encountered. Survival issues can be solved I think, but yeah, I’d also be surprised if she could come close to top runners.

 

Here's the 4 run demo of the K/T Sin running P5 Cows. Also adding the video to my previous post for completeness.



I took a little more care with the herding and defensive positioning behind the Merc, allowing me to focus down a Cow with less trouble. I think it's also important to stack all 5 DS together for focused damage, ideally against the Cow being kicked.

 

Yeah, he's only got an Insight. Not even an ethereal one at that!

I do have a socketed Andy's and the materials for an e-bug Fortitude available for him, so tempted to give that a try?

Playing on Hardcore without a merc just feels super weird and uncomfortable. But yeah, I'll ditch him for now if required. I don't really fancy 20 hours at players 1 :\

 

The good news ... with some practice, I already got my run times down to 3:30.

The bad news?

Spoiler

I'm starting to use up some of my RFL luck already.

 

And then some more goodies:







Luckily no more runes above Lem this time .

 

Nice vid @NanoMist. Pretty much the gameplay I had in mind. I see what you mean about finishing Cows off.

Personally I’m not quite sold on Defiance and Phoenix for her though. Same as for other melee physical damage dealers, higher leech from Might should be more beneficial for her survivability. Also seems indeed raw damage is kind of low, so boosting kick damage should help with overall clear speed. Might aura also gives Merc more punch to deliver corpses if the Sin has to reposition.

Love the originality of using Phoenix with a CE char. But in the end it seems it slows things down for this build, while its upside only kicks in once there are corpses (and you’d rather not have it kick in with the first corpses). Apart from that and lower FCR, the fire storm proc can also delay the next DT sequence if it triggers on a late kick (this thing). No biggie, but it further complicates getting that first corpse.

If a defensive shield is indeed required, I’d assume Stormshield does the job without getting in the way of offense. Phoenix could be used on CtA switch, if not going with Spirit for 102 FCR.

Upon checking with a CtH calc I realised Infinity is actually not that essential for 95% CtH, e.g. some 150 Dex is enough for a lvl 95 char with just skill bonus. So could be worthwhile even trying with a Reaper's Merc, seeing as maybe powering up the kicks is more important than helping Static and DS with Infinity. Reaper's also adds a lot of safety.

Anyway, just some ideas. Generally the gameplay looks just as fun as I had hoped, definitely will play around with her. Thanks for giving it a go!

 

Hmm, maybe I'd better stop my practice runs now. Another HR.

 

Frost Nova sorc anyone? She is solid and more safe than Nova sorc. Static x3, Blizzard on self and spam until everything is dead.

 

Nova + Blizzard sorc
sub 2:30 runner for p5, fastest sorc I tried

Equipment:

Spoiler

Griffon's with lightning facet
Enigma (for life per kill)
Death's Fathom with cold facet
Spirit
2/10 amulet
Arachnid
Beta bkwb (Soj otherwise)
1.07 mana per kill ring
Dracul's Grasp (for life per kill)
Silkweave boots (mana per kill)

Switch: Cta + Spirit (Phoenix alternative, but you have potions...)

Merc:
Infinity + Fortitude + Andy

Skills:

Spoiler

Warmth 1
Telekinesis 1
Static - enough for 24 area
Nova - 20
Lightning Mastery - 20
Frost Armor - 1
Cold Mastery - 1
Blizzard 20
rest into synergies for Blizzard

Technique:
Get in between cows packs, static x3, Blizzard self, teleport on self to get merc to you and force cows to get to you, Nova them to death

 

Problem solved!



Absolutely bogging roll, but they're not super important anyway!

Edit:

Spoiler: Rewarded

Might not seem much, but this is the first ethereal elite polearm I've found on any of my SPF characters! D:

 

@Hutton wow! Sick base for fort. And I’m still searching for an eth elite polearm as well! Good stuff

 

Did 18 timed runs so far. Average time was 4:04, best time was 3:25. Not as bad as I thought it would be, but still some room for improvement. Haven't tried the 125% FCR setup yet. I'm also considering cubing up 2 Ohm runes to make a Fortitude for the merc, as I feel that would make getting that first corpse a lot faster. Respec'ing to max Amplify Damage instead of all PNova synergies is also worth thinking about, since I'm not really happy with the AD radius at the moment (14.6 Yards).

 

CE and Amplify damage are the core of necro build and are best maxed. Losing time on recasting Amplify because its range is too low is not optimal. Revives are next on the food chain of imprtance because not only they make running much safer, but they also do some damage helping to get corpses faster. PNova is just a backup skill which doesn't have much importance. It allows slightly faster first and second corpse then CE takes over everything.

20 Amplify Damage
20 CE
1 Revive
1 Iron Golem (optional)
1 Bone Armor
rest into PNova and synergies.

 

do revives really do any dmg? I thought they were basically useless because of monster HP compared to player HP

 

I don't agree. Maxed Amp means you have to stay away from the cow king further, which is less efficient. Recasting you can do while the merc is creating the first corpse. And new monsters often keep on appoaching, in which case you have to recast anyway.

Revives work counterproductive because they spread out packs of cows. 95% of the time, the merc survives just fine without them anyway. The few times he doesn't, it's a matter of better teleporting or maybe using Decrep. I haven't done the latter, bus think it will be enough in those last 5%.