hackedagainanda
Diabloii.Net Member
I'm trying to socket all my gear and I was wondering which character can speed run the fastest? I have a moderate amount of twinking gear.
What build can get to act 5 the fastest?
- Thread starter hackedagainanda
- Start date
Darkthrone
Diabloii.Net Member
Probably sorceress since she inherently has teleport and with respecs can change her attacks pretty easily. If you have Enigma then that opens a lot of other doors. Are you intending to just get to Act 5 normal with a bunch of characters, or to get to Act 5 hell (but with less characters)?
hackedagainanda
Diabloii.Net Member
I'm trying for Act 5 normal with a bunch of characters.
deepfriedpizza
Diabloii.Net Member
Fireball Sorc IMO
5 chipped emerald long bow for starters until you can use fireball
Leaf runeword in a +3 fireball staff (can be shopped from Normal Akara)
Stealth runeword armor
plain magic FCR rings
decent FRW boots (Hsarus/Vidala's/etc)
You get teleport at 18 and you can use the Leaf staff at 19. The bow will carry you until then (one or two shots will kill most act 1 monsters, you can spam fire bolt/ball while the poison ticks down against stronger monsters).
Once you get teleport and the Leaf staff (probably right around the beginning of Act 2) you can switch to /p1 and cruise through the rest of Normal. +6 fireball staff means you'll 1 shot kill everything and with enough mana potion spam you can just teleport though the whole game with decent FCR.
Your stats should probably be something like enough str/dex to wear the longbow, then energy until you get 100 hard points, the rest into vit.
5 chipped emerald long bow for starters until you can use fireball
Leaf runeword in a +3 fireball staff (can be shopped from Normal Akara)
Stealth runeword armor
plain magic FCR rings
decent FRW boots (Hsarus/Vidala's/etc)
You get teleport at 18 and you can use the Leaf staff at 19. The bow will carry you until then (one or two shots will kill most act 1 monsters, you can spam fire bolt/ball while the poison ticks down against stronger monsters).
Once you get teleport and the Leaf staff (probably right around the beginning of Act 2) you can switch to /p1 and cruise through the rest of Normal. +6 fireball staff means you'll 1 shot kill everything and with enough mana potion spam you can just teleport though the whole game with decent FCR.
Your stats should probably be something like enough str/dex to wear the longbow, then energy until you get 100 hard points, the rest into vit.
endlesscircuit
Diabloii.Net Member
The fastest I know of is Nightfish's 3:20 Guardian, which got to Act 5 Normal in 1:20: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?459666-Guardian-29-Speedy_II-(Project-3-hours).But I'd just self-MP a group rush, you should be able to do it with seven characters really fast - easily under an hour.
I like to start new characters, but I don't take many through nightmare. I get bored when they stop dominating completely. I also don't particularly enjoy playing sorceress (when I do use sorc, I have nice +2 fireball +3 warmth leaf staff and a set of tir filled armor that they put on as soon as they can).
So what I usually do: Instead of chipped emeralds, investigate jewels of envy (20 points per 2 seconds). My standard newbie gear (cap, breastplate, shortbow/longbow) hits 140-160 poison per second by 4th level. Chip emeralds work, but too slow. At 8th level, I have a set of jeweled kit with +9 max damage jewels that I use for any melee based builds. +45 damage from your armor, together with Death Touch, Gloves, and Belt (swords have of ease jewels and I keep str/dex charms) gives +25-120 or so damage between the cold and the max damage. makes melee types go fast. This approach means frenzy barb moves good, as do melee based assassins, and bowazons (I have a 6 socket bow that I drop the +9s into). I tend to add cathan's ring and amulet (life leech + some fire damage). For barbarians, I have a pair of Bloodletter's which are fun after level 3 and will complete normal easily. But I also have a pair of hexfire that can be used (ignore target defense). Basically, with a frenzy barb you don't slow down much (note, I haven't tried /p1 to see how fast I can make it to act 5, I should try sometime)., as long as there is something to swing at every 6 seconds you keep running fast.
My setup might not be as fast as a leaf based teleporting sorc, but I find it more enjoyable - and that to me is why I play.
So what I usually do: Instead of chipped emeralds, investigate jewels of envy (20 points per 2 seconds). My standard newbie gear (cap, breastplate, shortbow/longbow) hits 140-160 poison per second by 4th level. Chip emeralds work, but too slow. At 8th level, I have a set of jeweled kit with +9 max damage jewels that I use for any melee based builds. +45 damage from your armor, together with Death Touch, Gloves, and Belt (swords have of ease jewels and I keep str/dex charms) gives +25-120 or so damage between the cold and the max damage. makes melee types go fast. This approach means frenzy barb moves good, as do melee based assassins, and bowazons (I have a 6 socket bow that I drop the +9s into). I tend to add cathan's ring and amulet (life leech + some fire damage). For barbarians, I have a pair of Bloodletter's which are fun after level 3 and will complete normal easily. But I also have a pair of hexfire that can be used (ignore target defense). Basically, with a frenzy barb you don't slow down much (note, I haven't tried /p1 to see how fast I can make it to act 5, I should try sometime)., as long as there is something to swing at every 6 seconds you keep running fast.
My setup might not be as fast as a leaf based teleporting sorc, but I find it more enjoyable - and that to me is why I play.
The fastest time I know of for completing normal is: 58:28 http://speeddemosarchive.com/Diablo2LoD.html#Assassindeaths but that is with the runner re-rolling the maps over and over again until he got one he liked. So he had the advantage of knowing exactly where everything was.
pharphis
Diabloii.Net Site Pal
the -act5 command isn't allowed here beyond testing purposes so that's one good reason.
djmbbandie
Diabloii.Net Member
I would suggest Blizz sorc or fireball sorc.
Fire druid would work too.
Fire druid would work too.
maxicek
Moderator Single Player
I agree. Rixot's Keen at level 2, add some elemental damage, then off you go. BoS, DT and just skip everything except the bosses. Angelics for AR, get some leech. Goblin toes at 22
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purplelocust
Diabloii.Net Member
There have been various discussions about this question, and the answer depends upon the play style:
1) Self multiplay- enchantress in game means very speedy progress, the limitation is walk speed so an assassin (with Burst of Speed) or paladin (Vigor, but doesn't get Vigor until level 18) are good choices.
2) Single-player twinked: an Envy setup works well, and another popular method is to use a 1.09 or earlier Ravenclaw for very speedy killing through normal. Getting good FRW on low-level items isn't so easy- I like Hsarus' boots and belt for that. Some people like stamina-related items for the early running, but with muled-on money (easier for level 1 characters these days) you can just prebuff a long long run with shopped stamina potions.
3) Single-player untwinked: this is the most interesting case to me. Sorc with tele is commonly suggested as a best choice here, as people remember how quick teleport is. But two things limit that- you don't get teleport until level 18, and you don't have a ton of mana like you are used to with well-equipped higher-level characters. So I prefer a Wake of Fire assassin which has an early Burst of Speed and very strong killing through normal. Another good choice is a Holy Fire paladin for a quick start. I recall at least one tourney which involved a quick trip through normal untwinked and an HF paladin got off to a very quick start for me. Both the WoF assassin and the HF paladin slow down immensely later in NM but through normal they are very quick.
For going through all three levels (norm, NM, Hell), a sorc is the clear favorite and Nightfish's methods are fabulous for that. But for just going through normal, much of the time for a sorc is spent on those first 18 levels. A fireball sorc is reasonably quick and there is a chance you can make a good Leaf staff (shopping for bases in A2 norm if you do find the runes.) With some luck, a fire sorc could definitely be faster than pally or assassin but I think not as dependable. In HC, I would prefer a WoF assassin.
In terms of accumulating socket quests, you may also want to consider rushing characters. I have many many socket quests left over from rushed characters, many from 1.07 rushes, as those come at a rate of about 7 at a time.
Edit: a few other thoughts:
muling on Khalim's Will is a great way to have a very quick start in A1. It can avoid needing to visit the all of the dungeons in A3. Of course, if you do that you'll use up the KW when you smash the orb. You can instead farm Khalim's Wills with a sorc beforehand (for example, a strong sorc in A3 Hell who hasn't smashed the orb yet can make those pretty quickly with a fixed map) if desired. Or you can mule KW off when the character is entering A3, for another level 1 character to have a speedy start.
I did a writeup for a Wake of Fire assassin, KVSwizter which may have some useful bits in there. That character had additional limitations (no WP or TP use allowed) so time-wise, it took much longer but the build is appropriate for a quick trip.
I found an old quick HF pally, he was in the Ten Days, Ten Tasks tourney of AJK some time ago but I don't think there was much description there. The object was to get 10 perfect gems in one day with a new character, so I made an HF pally to get through normal (with a forge perfect gem) and then farm cows to get enough flawless to cube.
1) Self multiplay- enchantress in game means very speedy progress, the limitation is walk speed so an assassin (with Burst of Speed) or paladin (Vigor, but doesn't get Vigor until level 18) are good choices.
2) Single-player twinked: an Envy setup works well, and another popular method is to use a 1.09 or earlier Ravenclaw for very speedy killing through normal. Getting good FRW on low-level items isn't so easy- I like Hsarus' boots and belt for that. Some people like stamina-related items for the early running, but with muled-on money (easier for level 1 characters these days) you can just prebuff a long long run with shopped stamina potions.
3) Single-player untwinked: this is the most interesting case to me. Sorc with tele is commonly suggested as a best choice here, as people remember how quick teleport is. But two things limit that- you don't get teleport until level 18, and you don't have a ton of mana like you are used to with well-equipped higher-level characters. So I prefer a Wake of Fire assassin which has an early Burst of Speed and very strong killing through normal. Another good choice is a Holy Fire paladin for a quick start. I recall at least one tourney which involved a quick trip through normal untwinked and an HF paladin got off to a very quick start for me. Both the WoF assassin and the HF paladin slow down immensely later in NM but through normal they are very quick.
For going through all three levels (norm, NM, Hell), a sorc is the clear favorite and Nightfish's methods are fabulous for that. But for just going through normal, much of the time for a sorc is spent on those first 18 levels. A fireball sorc is reasonably quick and there is a chance you can make a good Leaf staff (shopping for bases in A2 norm if you do find the runes.) With some luck, a fire sorc could definitely be faster than pally or assassin but I think not as dependable. In HC, I would prefer a WoF assassin.
In terms of accumulating socket quests, you may also want to consider rushing characters. I have many many socket quests left over from rushed characters, many from 1.07 rushes, as those come at a rate of about 7 at a time.
Edit: a few other thoughts:
muling on Khalim's Will is a great way to have a very quick start in A1. It can avoid needing to visit the all of the dungeons in A3. Of course, if you do that you'll use up the KW when you smash the orb. You can instead farm Khalim's Wills with a sorc beforehand (for example, a strong sorc in A3 Hell who hasn't smashed the orb yet can make those pretty quickly with a fixed map) if desired. Or you can mule KW off when the character is entering A3, for another level 1 character to have a speedy start.
I did a writeup for a Wake of Fire assassin, KVSwizter which may have some useful bits in there. That character had additional limitations (no WP or TP use allowed) so time-wise, it took much longer but the build is appropriate for a quick trip.
I found an old quick HF pally, he was in the Ten Days, Ten Tasks tourney of AJK some time ago but I don't think there was much description there. The object was to get 10 perfect gems in one day with a new character, so I made an HF pally to get through normal (with a forge perfect gem) and then farm cows to get enough flawless to cube.
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