To NM Meph.... Or Not To NM Meph?

[Frozen Orb]

To NM Meph.... Or Not To NM Meph?

well like most of you suggested, I believe that a pure blizzard sorc is best for just straight up meph and pindle, so I started a new sorc. I have her at nm meph right now with a fantastic map, basically 4-5 teleports and im at the stairs. So would you guys suggest running nm meph at all? or just skipping it and going straight to hell meph. May I remind you, at this point, my atma stash consists of only about 100 items and my sorceress is only wearing mediocre gear, vipermagi, lidless, goldwrap, chancies, then the rest are either rares or uniques. Well, lemme know what you think.

 

[Corrupted]

Depends on how good you are at running Hell Mephisto :badteeth:
Personally I stuck around with NM Meph for too long as I had my mind set on getting Oculus+Moser's before moving on.

 

[PSYCHO]

I really do believe Nightmare Meph is a complete waste of time. In my years of playing this game it's been a sure rarity to have a good item drop from him. Some people swear by it others dislike the idea and I am from the latter group.

 

[Suiling]

Why not just stick to Hell Mwph instead?

 

[nebux]

Why not just stick to Hell Mwph instead?

hell meph is harder for a tiny sorc. and merc need to wear PDR gear (shaftshop) so he will be able to tank for you.

 

[Frozen Orb]

yeah thats what i figured, to get my untwinked blizzard sorc there, id have to spend probably another week getting here there, and then when i got there, the runs would take longer, but yet the drops could be better. so I'm just seeing what everyone thinks.

 

[Suiling]

What does PDR means?

@nebux: i get it once i read clearly at his sorc's gear. Ya, NM Meph is much better..

 

[Deaddave]

id say do a load of nm meph runs to round out your gear and then move on to nm baal then hell meph (well thats what i did)

 

[nepeta]

PDR: Physical damage reduction.

My HC sorc did a bit of NM Mephisto, reasons are obvious. Think, than speak.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

I'd say your sorcs gear is almost as good as you'll get from NM Meph. If you can get your hands on a VampGaze (helm) and Shaftstop (Armour) for your merc, there's no point in NM Meph, IMO. Even without the merc gear, I'd still push ahead to Hell Meph anyways. If he gives you too hard of a time, you can always come back to NM.

... assuming you're softcore. In HC probably makes sense to linger for a few items and levels.

 

[maxicek]

Your gear is fine for Hell Meph. Just let your merc die and use the moat trick. Re-roll the map if a council member spawns on the middle bit near the portal and you will not have a problem.

I was in a similar position to you when I started SP. I skipped NM Meph and went straight to hell. Just don't wake up the vampires.

 

[Hrus]

With my MF sorc in untwinked MF tourney, I hunted NM Meph until I got 4 items from key MF items:
Kelpie Snare, Shaftstop, Skullders, War Travelers, Oculus, Blade of Alibaba. Then I moved forward.

 

[Socialism]

I'm a hardcore-only player, so this might not apply to you.

$0.03

When I used to start up character batches (I quit a lot, and loved starting over for some reason), I'd farm NM Meph, Travincal, and Baal (this was done with a Frozen Orb/TK build) until I'd reach at LEAST:

1. 700/600 hp/mana

2. 63% fcr

3. max cold/lightning resistance in hell

4. a Kelpie Snare or any sort of crummy "slows enemy" weapon for the merc (he'd be a defiance merc, so wouldn't do enough damage to pop dolls, and could hold meph still while surviving on a red/rejuv every now and then)

5. ~250 MF on switch (Ali Baba with crappy mf jewels or Gull + Rhyme)

6. Level 70-75 ish.

From what I remember, basic equipment: cheap +dex jewel Wizardspike, PTopaz Vipermagi, PDiamond Whistan's Guard, uh... some resist boots, some resist belt, Oh yeah -- bahamuts ring! 100 mana, etc., you get the picture.

Else I'd be too chicken to teleport Durance 3.

 

[rickcarson]

(I quit a lot, and loved starting over for some reason)

At lower levels the payoffs come more quickly, eg going up levels, finding some strange rare, scrounging enough gold to go gamble some crappy rares from Gheed.

Another way of looking at it is that when you have nothing, everything is an improvement. But when you have level 90+ and Godly gear, then hardly anything to improve your character ever happens.

Also, some of the more interesting choices happen at low levels. E.g. so you've decided to do an Orb/Hydra build... well, both your skills don't even start till level 30 - so how are you going to get past Duriel and Diablo?

Additionally, there are lots of interesting builds out there still to explore, doing that requires lots of characters, which implies not spending a long time on any one character. As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life.

 

[Frozen Orb]

With my MF sorc in untwinked MF tourney, I hunted NM Meph until I got 4 items from key MF items:
Kelpie Snare, Shaftstop, Skullders, War Travelers, Oculus, Blade of Alibaba. Then I moved forward.

how long would you say you ran him until you found some things like that?

 

[Hrus]

how long would you say you ran him until you found some things like that?

I think it was around 10 hours. I didn't get Skullders...

 

[Fluffballer]

Not even hell Meph drops anything worthwhile most of the time, so I never bother with anything in NM. rop:

 

[Socialism]

Don't be fooled by the responses of the L337. They're well-intentioned, but you may not spend as much time playing or be as skilled as they are, play/mf/efficiency wise.

Run NM Meph and Baal (I personally prefer Baal to Meph) for the most basic equipment that'll get you to hell and survivable (i.e. 65 fcr max resist decent life) and you'll do fine. This can vary from 10 hours (Hrus) to 3 weeks (lazyass me).

I wouldn't try to gauge my playtime by others' experiences if I were you. "How long" for anything in a game where MF is a trial of luck = moot.

Pz

Edit: Also with a pure blizzard sorceress, your damage ramps up fairly quickly once you have your base 20 bliz/cm, so you don't really need the +skill stuff. Bank on resistances, Fcr, life, mana, minimal MF (for me - in that order) until you can hop to hell, then make the transition for better payouts. Good luck.

 

[Arreat_mercenary]

If survivability is a problem, I'm impressed no one has sadi: Moat Trick. You can kill Meph from a long distance without problems.

I do run NM meph for a bit when I need items, he's not very hard and can pay off very well (my SoJ came from him :grin: ) But if you are trying to optimize your runs, you could directly go to to hell meph

 

[cade88]

i'm making a pure blizzard sorc mfer untwinked right now. And I play in hc and have been pondering this same question but i decided to just get to a really high level 80. Or somewhere close to that and just go straight at hell meph while nm meph is good for items hell meph is GREATTTTT like tony the tiger says. Also with getting to a high level i'll have a chance to find plenty of good items.