Re: tal rasha blues
Thanks for the info!
I started alternating between Baal and pindle (+/- 30 pindle runs and then 1 Baal run).
Just out of curiosity, how fast do you guys do Baal runs ? I was reading about people doing 5 minute runs! Holy smokes, that's fast imho. I'm about 15 - 20 minutes per Baal run atm. I tele to the ToD, then do his minions in 1 player settings. Before I go in for Baal, i set it to 5 player game (i heard for act bosses you only need 5P max, not 8). So Baal isn't that hard, he just takes forever to die (as in about 5 minutes).
Actually, for Baal, you only need /players3 to maximize his drops (Diablo & Meph are basically the same - 3 player game will maximize drops
... well Meph will be so close to max that there's basically no difference between "3" and higher - something like 99.7% "maximized" at /players3.).
I don't run Duriel or Andy, but I think Duriel is /players5, and Andy is /players7 - if I remember correctly. However...
Baal has very high life, and generally drops quite poorly. So, it's often better to stick to the lowest player setting and cut down your run time as low as you can. In other words, the added time for killing him when he has more life (i.e. on a higher setting) outweighs the increased drop "odds" of whatever higher setting. Staying "solo" will actually increase your odds/benefits over time.
also fyi, Baal's experience gain is maximized at /players3... so if you were crazy enough to try for a level99 character built on Baal runs, going higher than that setting would reduce your character's experience-efficiency compared to the time you spend.
In regards to run times, if I run only the throne room and the minion waves, I can get ~5 minutes per run in games with my
new FrozenOrb/Nova sorc (<-- that provides a little more background than the original thread, but the link therein has the details). If I run the entire WSK2, WSK3, and throne room, my time is still 10-13 minutes - so far (it should improve with levels & practice & gaining familiarity with my map)... this is entirely solo.
One under-rated benefit of single-player though, would be "static" maps. Random boss monsters in WSK2 and WSK3 have very good drop-odds relative to every other monster - perhaps ~75% of the "great" items you find will come specifically from these monsters. In single-player, it's very possible to learn your "map-tendencies" to figure out where bosses most often appear, and then run those areas hardest and "skip the rest"... with proper use of this technique, I expect to cut another 4-5 minutes off of my times (about 40% at this point), and still be getting 75% of the "great" drops I would have had... Neat, eh?
However, referring back to that link, except for my lack of Infinity, my equipment is pretty close to top-end. If top-end isn't an option for you, then the info near the bottom of the 'details' will hopefully help you design an efficient runner.
PS. In regards to my previous post, I don't want to discourage anyone on BNet from trying the "run" that Nullvoid listed. Those monsters still (statistically) have very good benefits. But in single-player where sustained ~20 second Pindleskin runs are attainable, overall I think Pindle is a far better option. On BNet, with the limit on number of games-per-hour you can spawn/join, ~20 second Pindle runs will quickly get your CD-key banned, which isn't efficient at all.
