[1.09b] Erayz’s Unreasonable Project [1457/2376]

It's been a while, because I've been doing other things since the last update, and played other games. But I tried doing at least one CS run every day with my Softcore Classic Barb, and today I finally reached level 90!

Since last time:
Softcore Classic Barb: 89 -> 90
Softcore Classic Paladin: 65 -> 66
Softcore Classic Necromancer: 74 -> 75
Hardcore Classic Sorceress: 1 -> 20

So, now my total is 1409/2376

I'll try going for at least level 91 with the barb, but a Chaos Sanctuary run where I kill every unique packs + Diablo while ignoring everything else now gives only ~600k XP (~250k of it coming from Diablo alone).

However, I rolled a pretty good map where a pack of Urdars almost always spawn near the entrance of the River of Flame. Sometimes there's even double unique Urdars pack or champions. There's also a shrine really close to this spawn, which is sometimes an XP shrine. Killing those Urdars should be faster XP than Chaos Sanctuary + Diablo I got to test a few different strats/runs to see if running this is actually faster than just going for Diablo. Maybe doing CS on players 1 then spawning Diablo on players 8 will give better rates, but I doubt it for now.
 
After testing different runs this morning, I can confirm killing Urdars is the way to go for 90 -> 91 (wih my map seed at least).

Types of runs tested in order of slowest to fastest:
  1. Full CS run + killing Diablo , all on P8
  2. Killing only uniques, seal bosses and Diablo all on P8
  3. Seal bosses only on P1, Diablo on P8
  4. Killing Urdars
The XP rates for the first three are pretty similar, and #2-3 are a lot riskier due to constantly having huge packs running after you, plus all the Oblivion knights casting Iron Maiden while you try to focus on uniques. Also it's less sustainable because you end up using more Full rejuvs, and don't get to pick up as much loot and gold

The XP rate also depends quite a bit on finding an XP shrine before killing Diablo (if there is no shrine in CS or RoF, I go to Stony Field and Dark wood to search briefly for one). The difference is almost 20% more XP in total for the first two types of runs, and near 50% for the third,

Killing Urdars is the best in almost all regards. The XP rate is a lot more consistent while being higher than the other types, the runs are super fast (~30 seconds) and there's little to no risk. The only danger is when you get a pack with Curse, Fanat/Might, Extra Strong or Mana Burn, but even in this case it's safer than CS.

Keep in mind that all of this is with a level 90 whirlwind Barbarian, the rates and strategies will probably differ as I get higher level and Urdars start giving less XP, and the different strategies might be faster/slower for other classes. I also haven't tested runs where I clear RoF when regular Urdars spawn, without Blood maggots slowing me down. These might be worth doing when I see them.
 
Yeah, on the old incgamers forum we had a discussion about Urdars, I think champions specifically gave the most XP, but that was for 1.00-1.06. How does XP compare in 1.09? How much do cows give? I remember trying to get to 99 absolutely is not worth it in pre LoD because past about 92-93 only Diablo gives any worthwhile XP and it takes something like 90,000 runs iirc. Back when the game released there was a race between "RusBarb" (from russia) and GerBarb (germany) and both made it to 99 after a team of people did optimal runs 24/7 for months where they just popped into p8 games killed diablo and left.
 
galaxyhaxz said:
Yeah, on the old incgamers forum we had a discussion about Urdars, I think champions specifically gave the most XP, but that was for 1.00-1.06. How does XP compare in 1.09? How much do cows give? I remember trying to get to 99 absolutely is not worth it in pre LoD because past about 92-93 only Diablo gives any worthwhile XP and it takes something like 90,000 runs iirc. Back when the game released there was a race between "RusBarb" (from russia) and GerBarb (germany) and both made it to 99 after a team of people did optimal runs 24/7 for months where they just popped into p8 games killed diablo and left.
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I don't know how much XP monsters give in 1.00-1.06, but I'd guess you get a lot more in 1.09.

Regular Cows on players 8 at level 90 in Classic only give 716 XP. Champions give 2149 and Uniques, 17194. That's because cows are only level 78 (80/81 for champions/uniques), so they're not worth killing at this point.

Regular Urdars still give 5606, Champions, 31686 and uniques, 65197. A pack of 4 champions will beat a unique pack with 5 minions. But sometimes only 2-3 champions spawn. Though starting at level 91, the XP from Urdars start to drop rather quickly, so I'll have to check again if they're still worth doing vs killing Diablo only.

As per my calculations and testing, a level 98 character gains 87690 XP from Diablo on Players 8, so around 131k with an XP shrine. If you were to get an XP shrine on every run, this would take "only" a bit more than 2200 runs for 98->99

If you're curious, in the second post ofmy leveling guide thread, there's a table of XP per monster for each character level from 85-98. The numbers are for players 8, and I included only relevant monsters, so cows and monsters from River of Flame and Chaos Sanctuary.
 
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I haven't posted my progress in a while, because I wanted to wait until reaching 91 with my Classic Softcore Barb, but it's taking a lot of time (only ~40% done), and am currently focusing on other games so I haven't played much D2 recently.

Total went from 1409 to 1460

Softcore Classic Necromancer: 75 -> 77

Hardcore Expansion Sorceress: 59 -> 62
Hardcore Expansion Assassin: 5 -> 51
 
Some progress, and huge regression as well due to an unfortunate and painful HC death from a few minutes ago. I wanted to be satisfied with my LoD HC Frenzy Barb's progress before posting an update, but alas he died, so my total level actually went down this time.

The total of all my levels went from 1460 to 1457

Softcore Classic Barbarian 90 -> 91
Softcore Classic Necromancer 77 -> 80

Hardcore Expansion Sorceress 62 -> 66
Hardcore Expansion Barbarian 12 -> 72 -> 1 (Death)

I still don't have much good gear in Expansion Hardcore, but I was doing good with the following:
  • Helm: Tal Rasha's
  • Amulet: Lapis Amulet of the Mammoth (34 Life, 20% Cold Resist)
  • Weapon 1: Cloudcrack (189%)
  • Weapon 2: Hexfire (151%)
  • Armor: Smoke runeword in a Mesh Armor
  • Gloves: Bloodfist
  • Belt: Heavy Belt of the Whale (84 life)
  • Boots: Tearhaunch
  • Ring 1: Rare with 5% Life Stolen and 29% Lightning Resist
  • Ring 2: Raven Frost (233/16)
  • Switch Weapons: 2x +3 Warcries
Charms were mostly life, resists and Max Damage/AR. Lost two Small charms of Vita

I've done all of Normal and Nightmare on Players 8, and switched to Players 1 when entering Hell.

Needless to say those items are lost forever! I could transfer them using ATMA, but that is 100% cheating, so I'm not doing that.

Other notable items lost from my stash because I was too lazy to mule them before:
  • Poison and Bone Skiller Grand Charm
  • Um Rune
  • Snowclash
The death happened at the Ancients. I wanted to just gauge if they were doable. I had around 2600 HP with BO, and maxed resistances, so I figured I'd be tanky enough for them. Madawc was cursed and hit me with one of his throwing axes, then Korlic Leap Attacked and one-shot me. Didn't really get a chance to see his modifiers. I saw that Talic was Immune to Physical.

So next time, I won't be doing Hell Ancients until I get some decent DR% gear (Shaftstop, String of Ears, etc.)
 
fk dude! I am real sorry to hear about the loss of your HC baba... that has to sting...RIP

Needless to say he wasnt ready for Ancients or 2026. But his deeds of valor shall be remembered.

I only have high level chars in softcore but I need to experience some level of vengeance for my fallen brethren, so in his honor I will attempt a players 64 kill of the Ancients with my pole baba. If I manage to pull it off I will post a screenshot. <3

Very nice progress otherwise bro. And Happy New Year!
 
Manny said:
fk dude! I am real sorry to hear about the loss of your HC baba... that has to sting...RIP

Needless to say he wasnt ready for Ancients or 2026. But his deeds of valor shall be remembered.

I only have high level chars in softcore but I need to experience some level of vengeance for my fallen brethren, so in his honor I will attempt a players 64 kill of the Ancients with my pole baba. If I manage to pull it off I will post a screenshot. <3

Very nice progress otherwise bro. And Happy New Year!
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Haha thanks! Let me know how the Players 64 attempt goes. Hopefully my barb will be avenged. I might have to try this with my Softcore Lod Barb.

I forgot to mention, my "main" character right now is my Classic Softcore Barb, which just reached 91. I did some testing to see what would be the fastest way of going to level 92, and how much time it will take.

I did the following:
  1. 1 hour of killing Urdars packs in the River of Flame (with my map seed which spawns them near the entrance of RoF, from City of the Damned WP)
  2. 1 hour of Chaos Sanctuary + Diablo on Players 8
  3. 1 hour of Chaos Sanctuary on Players 1, then switch to Players 8 before spawning Diablo.
Note that in both Chaos Sanctuary types of runs, I wasn't doing a full clear, only killing enemies on my way and opening seals. Skipping all enemies except the seals makes it too dangerous and doesn't save that much time anyway.

The result was:
  • Urdars: 3.7M XP per hour (~41 hours to 92)
  • P1 Chaos: 3.1M XP per hour (~50 hours to 92)
  • P8 Chaos: 3.1M XP per hour (~50 hours to 92)
I thought at that point Urdars and P1 Chaos would be closer to each other in terms of XP/h, and I was hoping for a good reason to stop running Urdars as I find them quite boring. But this will have to wait until at least level 92 lol. I also thought P1 Chaos would be faster since I'd be getting more Diablo XP/h, but turns out the monster still give just enough XP on P8 to offset the difference in speed for the runs. Also, P8 is safer in a way, because I leech more life from monster, so an accidental Whirlwind while Iron Maiden'd is not as deadly.
 
So, I first wondered why you got such small amounts of experience from the p8 Daiblo kill, before i realized that you were playing on 1.09 classic. I made the mistake to assume you were playing on a pre LoD patch for this. 😅
The amount of experience you got from a Diablo kill back then was significantly higher.

Maybe running the classic characters on an older patch might make this go a lot faster
 
Did some testing and it seems that in 1.09, they hardcode monster levels for classic to be what they were in 1.00-1.06, ignoring the value you see in the text file. This means, no level 90 monsters, so champion urdars are the best you've got (around 83) aside from Diablo. I didn't directly compare how much XP they give vs pre 1.07, but nonetheless, I agree with @TWolfMech it would probably be easier to do it in pre LoD. Especially 1.00 which has no global XP penalty, as running is extremely painful when Diablo is the only monster in the game that gives you XP. For LoD 1.07-1.09, 99 is easy because nearly everything is level 90, including cows.
 
Manny said:
@Erayz - See video here: Vengeance (Korlic was saved for last and was killed just before the 18 min mark ^^).
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I've made a vengeance video of my own with my level 99 Softcore Barb vs players 64 Hell Ancients. Beware of the terrible video quality lol. Kinda makes unintentionally authentic to the times of 1.09 :LOL:

TWolfMech said:
Maybe running the classic characters on an older patch might make this go a lot faster
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I might have to give it a try. Plus I'd be getting better rares in there. But I tend to die a lot in pre-LoD versions and there is no "official" players x setting. Maybe I'm too strict with my rules, because I know it's possible to use the unofficial players x command in 1.00-1.06 with Cactus (does it require Singling as well?), but in my mind this would be cheating.

galaxyhaxz said:
Did some testing and it seems that in 1.09, they hardcode monster levels for classic to be what they were in 1.00-1.06, ignoring the value you see in the text file.
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I think what they did is they use the monster levels from Normal and then simply add +25 for NM and +50 for Hell.
 
Erayz said:
I've made a vengeance video of my own with my level 99 Softcore Barb vs players 64 Hell Ancients. Beware of the terrible video quality lol. Kinda makes unintentionally authentic to the times of 1.09 :LOL:
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DANG!! Dude you friggen wrecked them, lol!! I ran around like a crazy person for 15 mins. Now I want to see if I can beat your time :ROFLMAO:

That GF though... 239% ED... 🥹🤤😡
 
@Erayz And yeah... what the heck kinda resolution settings you got going on? That quality looks like you streamed that video in 2001, lmao... :ROFLMAO:
 
Erayz said:
I might have to give it a try. Plus I'd be getting better rares in there. But I tend to die a lot in pre-LoD versions and there is no "official" players x setting. Maybe I'm too strict with my rules, because I know it's possible to use the unofficial players x command in 1.00-1.06 with Cactus (does it require Singling as well?), but in my mind this would be cheating.
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I get your point. The reason why I tried to beat v1.00 on hc in p1 was the same. I wanted the experience to be authentic.

Regarding the experience:
You get 416.497 exp from one p8 Diablo kill on a level 98 character with an exp shrine. So you need 699 DIablo kills under these conditions to get from 98 to 99.
 
Manny said:
@Erayz And yeah... what the heck kinda resolution settings you got going on? That quality looks like you streamed that video in 2001, lmao... :ROFLMAO:
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I know right! It looked ok-ish before uploading to Youtube. I didn't want to spend much time fiddling with the settings of OBS, so I just hit record and uploaded the result.
 
i had a lot of issues with my first recordings too. no worries. 😅

PS: I'm kinda beside myself today and not watching what I'm writing. Sleep deprived from New Years. :ROFLMAO:

Happy New Year, everybody!
 
TWolfMech said:
PS: I'm kinda beside myself today and not watching what I'm writing. Sleep deprived from New Years. :ROFLMAO:

Happy New Year, everybody!
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Pretty much same here, lol. xD

Happy New Year to all! 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣ 🎆!
 
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