[1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

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fearedbliss
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Posts: 432
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[1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

Post by fearedbliss »

Hey all,

It's been a while but I'm playing some Diablo again, you already know how it is lol. I decided to start from scratch on August 12, 2022 on 1.09b Lod (I love Classic but I decided to do Lod since it's been a while since I've seriously played it deeply, I want to play Classic deeply as well again in the future). Although I didn't only decide to start from scratch in terms of stashes, but also in terms of Ladder number as well. It's a completely new beginning with a fresh perspective on things. For this run I'll be focusing on pure fun and character longevity/development. Which means I'm aiming to have a very long ladder if anything, I have no timeline. The more I play these characters, the more attached I get to them so there may even end up being a situation where I don't even reset these characters anymore. We'll see what happens.

In terms of "pure fun", I feel like over the years I've strived away from what initially made the game fun for me in the first place (just blasting dem b*****s) and maximizing character power and development through MFing and sharing loot/twinking, self rushing. Over the years I ended up placing too many difficulty rules on myself which made things not as fun for me anymore (no self rushing, no sharing items, stuff like that). It's still fine to do that and it's fun as well but I feel I want to do that more as a one off rather than as the main way to play. The same way I don't play Hardcore as my main form of play (but I would be up to do it with other people if anything), the same applies here. So the "rules" for me now is basically just bringing it back a little more to how I played it when I was a kid (minus the mh - and maybe even bots :O, lol, it was a different time in 2003). So this means just using everything that's included in Cactus (Singling and cnc-ddraw), and allowing myself to share items between my characters, twinking, self-rushing, self power leveling (Hell Cowing my lvl 1 char if I want to), and all of that good stuff. If it could be done in the game, it's fair game. Although I don't do any of that `-seed` type of stuff, it messes up the RNG and you could pretty much cheat with it, but either way, using `-seed` IMO defeats the purpose of playing a game that's all about the randomness. Transferring items between characters is done via LAN. Just open up multiple D2s, join the same LAN game, and give the items to your peeps.

So without further ado, a small introduction to my current characters. They are a work in progress of course.

I basically have a Sorceress, Alpaca, which is level 70 and has defeated Hell Difficulty, which means, Hell Cowzzzz :D. OooooOoo sh*t. This not only means infinite cowing till level 99, but also I can rush any character I want from Normal to Hell and power level them, since there are no blocking quests in 1.09b, there are no checks on quest items per difficulty (Meaning I can use the same Horadric Staff that I picked up in Normal, in NM, and in Hell). There is also no limitation of the distance between characters before a character gets experience (they just need to be in the same zone). Which means I can leave my lvl 1 at the hell cow portal and just use my sorceress to blow everything up, and my lvl 1 will get the experience ;D. Alpaca is a Orb/Wall Sorceress, primarily, with maxed out SF (Since I want to be able to reach everything in the screen without getting too close to the monsters), and then finish them off. I'll be using my remaining points to max out Cold Mastery, and will probably put the rest of the points into Warmth.

Cirrus, The Benevolent Bear, is my WW barbarian. WW is obviously nerfed in LOD but given the Eth bug, I want to continue playing around with it. Eventually it would be amazing if I could Dual Wield Grandfathers with each of them having a Ber rune. That will take a LONG time to do, but I can dream can't I?

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Manny
Death Beetle
Posts: 201
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2022 10:19 am

Re: [1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

Post by Manny »

HOLY SHIET DUDE THATS MY EXACT SORC BUILD LMAO!! How in the world.... was this a common build or something?? Here I was thinking I had found some special build lol. And now I no longer feel crazy for maxing SF! I love it... it's perfect for moat-fkin mephisto lol. I static him from a safe distance while he's melting from Firewall. xD

As far as your philosophies for the game, i'm pretty much with you on all of it. I don't MH, or use any hacks, and all my items are legitimately found. I've never botted though and I don't even know how to do that. HOWEVER, I have given myself one grace -- I use ATMA to backup my mules/item stashes and to dupe my runes & gems, neither of which have fingerprints in the game, atleast not in 1.09b. Actually what REALLY helped me is one single drop -- off a jar in Hell mode Crystalline Passage -- an IST rune, dropped on 5/29/22 according to my personal logs ( :geek: ) I duped the sh1t out of that little bugger and put it in all the socketed gear I could find, and the rest is history. I don't feel bad about it since the game legitimately dropped it for me, and runes are crazy hard to find in 1.09b (the IST is the highest rune I have). I do not, however, dupe items, since they are each unique and each have their own special fingerprint. HOWEVER, I did notice once I dropped a skiller charm that matched the identical fingerprint of another skiller I already had in my inventory, meaning the game can drop the same fingerprint again... so i guess even Blizzard dupes lol.

More to say but out of time for now, so glad to see you on 1.09b :D
fearedbliss
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Re: [1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

Post by fearedbliss »

Lol yea it's a common build (Orb/Nova, Orb/FW) haha. I don't dupe the gems or runes either so it just takes time. But I always carry a gem with me in my inventory so when I encounter a Gem Shrine, I get a free upgrade. But since we are now playing in Hell Difficulty, it's easier to get higher gems since you start encountering a lot more flawless gems dropping. Who knows how long it will take me to find 2 Ber Runes without duping (let alone two grandfathers...), but I'm looking forward to it. Maybe RNGesus will bless me eventually? I'll keep on playing my chars and just doing other stuff in the meantime.
Manny
Death Beetle
Posts: 201
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2022 10:19 am

Re: [1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

Post by Manny »

Yeah RNG is crazy. It could be years before you see one and then you have two drop on the same day -- I hope you will be as lucky as this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j5lowyd734
fearedbliss
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Posts: 432
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Re: [1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

Post by fearedbliss »

Lol it's interesting he said this in the comments:
To those who wonder why after 1st Ber nothing happens for about a minute. I was just sitting there freaking out, that's why. Decided to not cut that part for more genuine uncut video
That's what I feel like when I record my videos in general. The "genuine" portion :D. But yea, this ain't 1.13 with increased rune drop rates lol.
Manny
Death Beetle
Posts: 201
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2022 10:19 am

Re: [1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

Post by Manny »

How’s Alpaca and Cirrus doing? And hows her mana pool? Warmth is crucial IMHO in a patch where you can’t buy mana pots. Not maxed per say but in the teens with +skills it really starts to shine
fearedbliss
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Posts: 432
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Re: [1.09b] Ladder 1 - Dawn's Mist (Lod)

Post by fearedbliss »

They are doing good, Alpaca is Level 78, and Cirrus is Level 52. At the moment I'm focusing on 1.05b but I go on Alpaca as well and do some runs ;).

This is the 1.05b run atm: viewtopic.php?t=147
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