Living off runes

[Zorandel]

Living off runes

Some days ago I got a great idea: "I am going to build a Bliz Sorc for MF purpouses". Great, huh? Considering, that I have like 3 chars, who die in act1 hell (no items...) I think this is the thing I SHOULD HAVE begun with when I started playing D2...

Of course, my sorc is crappy, and runs dont wield much results, as I either die in hell too often or it takes too damn long.

So I thought of this: I survive in act1 nightmare 99.9% of the times. So why not run the countess for runes? Then I transfer the runes to a "rune-mule" and cube them. Then (I don't know how long will this take) after I finally cube enough HR's I trade them and become fairly rich(er).

Good idea? Or will I go mad eventually before creating my first ist?

 

[nex]

Good idea? Or will I go mad eventually before creating my first ist?

You will go mad before you cube one high rune from hell countes runs... you will probably die before you cube hr from nm runs.

 

[AnimeCraze]

Not necessary that bad. As long as the countress drops an Ist, then you got it. That will probably take years though. If your sorc is dying at hell act 1, you should consider about your build and your play strat. My sorc at beginning of ladder literally survived with crap, and can still do hell meph runs. If you really want HR's that bad, collect flawless gems and cube them. The pgem <-> HR rate is so low now that it's not even funny.

 

[ffejrxx]

good idea but mf doesnt effect rune drops

running countess will give runes but itll take some time before getting an ist
keep running areas that you can kill monsters at a good speed and run bosses
on eur its only 30pgem for a pul and 3-4pul for an ist
youll easily get the pgems to trade for an ist before you find one

 

[Noodle]

I don't think you guys read his post thoroughly - he's talking about running Nightmare Countess, not Hell. An even worse idea.

To the OP - what level are your characters?

- Noodle

 

[AnimeCraze]

It probably is his playing style. Even with semi crap, I can survive act 1 hell just fine at lvl 60ish with a sorc. The trick is to not get hit at all and pray bnet doesn't lag.

 

[Esuna]

Wouldn't a frozen orb be more easy?

 

[Bandit]

Even with crappy gear you can get a sorc to tele to hell meph and use the ever-so-famous moat trick in order to kill him without being harmed. Wear your mana-gear and teleport to lvl 3. once inside figure out which side the council is on. if they're on the far right side just keep teleporting till you reach the other side where meph is at. be sure to only lure him out and not those annoying lords (very bad for cold sorcs). once you've got his attention teleport to the bottom left side of the moat and be sure to be out of range of meph's attacks. if done correctly you should see a little bit of him just kinda walking back and forth. at this point you can just switch to mf gear and blizz away ^_^ gear i had to start was rhyme, 4ptopazed armor, 3ptopazed helm, rare mf boots, goldwraps and chancies. real easy to get.

 

[DirtyDthelumberjack]

I got a mal from hell countess with about 30 runs I guess I was pretty lucky

 

[ffejrxx]

its alot easier to run countess with a cold sorc and a merc that can tank well and take down any immune unique monsters including hell countess

 

[Zorandel]

To the OP - what level are your characters?

My sorc is 82. Max Bliz and 2 synergies, maxing the 3rd synergie now.

After a couple of hours of nightmare countess running I have a decent amount of runes on the sorc and mule. Now time to cube. But max that'll come out is Dol, Hel...

 

[AnimeCraze]

lvl 82 and only have 2 synergies? Did you maxed warmth or something? Anyways, go to the sorc forum and post your skill, stat, and gear there. It belong there better, and we can find out what is wrong with your gear, and help your run hell meph with 99% safety.

 

[captc]

Definitely something wrong with the build. If you are having trouble staying alive stick a point in energy shield. when you get hit your mana gets drained before your life.

 

[Zorandel]

I meant the two "visible" synergies (I maxed cold mastery as well)

This is a bliz sorc built by the book ;-)

But this isn't the place for sorc evaluation.

So this rune running concept is sort of too long you say ?

 

[krischan]

Don't cube up Tal, Thul, Ort, Amn, Hel (needed for rerolling Spirit runewords) and Ral (for crafting caster amulets), but sell them for gems which you sell for HRs then.

BTW, while the nightmare Countess cannot drop better runes than Io (not to be confused with Lo !) with her special rune drop, the chances for the runes she can drop is nearly the same as for the hell Countess.

 

[AnimeCraze]

So this rune running concept is sort of too long you say ?

You will be lucky to cube up something decent before you die.

 

[captc]

Countess running for runes ain't going to get you rich fast. I've done about 50 and I'm pretty sure I'm ain't got anything better than thul.

there's a good guide on wealth building stickied above.

I'm trying to get some wealth right now and the best way for sure is pgems.
30pgmes on Europe get you pul and pul gets you alot of stuff.

Lower Kurast is good for pgems - just pop, chests, bodies, logs eveything and kill stuff while you're at it. Wear as much MF gear as you can without affecting your ability to stay live and kill at reasonable speed. Get a Gheeds charm - it doesn't need to be a good one as any one is better than none. I paid 4pgm for mine but on the wrong day it might cost you pul.

then sell everything you can find for pgems, people will buy anthing at the right price, even the feeblest set item or unique you can often get 1pgm for. People collecting everything for the sake of it I think.

collect runes too and trade them. Find out the values of them. Keep at least one of every type for trading. If someone offers 4pgems for Thul sell yours cos you can probably buy it back from someone else for 1 and at absolute worst 2.

Soon you will have 30 of them and that magic pul. You can get low stat torches for pul if you are patient. All sorts of stuff.

 

[Zorandel]

I have some mid-level stuff (and even a lot).

So if I create an auction in this forum, will I be able to get buyers (for pgms of course) or will I only be laughed at for trying to sell some lower than godly items ?

 

[Darker Realm]

Not necessary that bad. As long as the countress drops an Ist, then you got it. That will probably take years though.

I run countess all the time and I've gotten Ist, a few Mals, and several Ums. Don't listen to that bad advice. I do hundreds and hundreds of runs, so with patience, you will get what you need. The rule is: never cube any rune unless you absolutely need the next rune. From four years of experience I can say that the only few runes worth cubing are Dol runes.

I highly recommend Countess as a rewarding yet character-building way of making wealth. You will be stimulating the economy with wealth, be well-stocked when making runewords, and most importantly earning wealth in a legitimate way, instead of gaining it from dealing disproportionately (hugely to your favor) with other people.

 

[AnimeCraze]

I personally would cobe something like el runes. I think of countress not as a good source of runes, but a good source of keys. That is why I run her.

Personally, the best I got were Puls.