The Pit - Part II

The Pit in Hell mode is suppose to be one of the most profitable places to run because of the high level of the area. According to different sources it's roughly equivalent to running Baal. I found it wasn't nearly like running Baal, but it also wasn't as difficult as running Baal.

Slicer really couldn't handle the Pit at /players 8. He made it into the pit, but it was clear that he was going to get cut down (he never died, but those darn archers were doing some serious damage). So I switched to /players 1 and ran The Pit a bunch of times.

After 3 runs there was nothing remarkable dropping. Then on the fourth run both an Angelic Halo ring and an Io rune. At level 35 Io isn't a remarkably high rune, but it at least indicates potential for other high runes to drop.

The problem is The Pit takes time to get to. I could run as fast as I could, but then Slicer would probably get cut down, or pretty close. Running the pit also takes a lot more time than popping chests in Lower Kurast. That said... Io, Io, it's off to the pit we go.

The Pit, in Hell

Pit in Hell mode

I mentioned in Validity of builds in solo mode that the  hell mode Pit was cited as a good place to do magic finding. Looking through forums there seemed to be confirmation of the pits as a valid place to run even with the 1.13 patch.

Sadly my first run resulted in nothing, even after wiping out every monster in the Pit nothing green, brown, or even yellow dropped and no runes dropped at all. In fact the best item that dropped was a Flawed Diamond (which is nothing but since I've been cubing runes it could come in handy).

The first run was done at /players 1. I didn't have too much problem handling the monsters, but my hireling did almost die from what I was afraid Slicer might die from (archers). Almost is the operative word.

Kicking it up a notch to /players 8 resulted in my NPC being killed off just inside the Pit and my almost dying several times. As expected, archer-type characters with their run and shoot tactics made playing at /players 8 pretty tough. A few more times at /players 1 might confirm this as a worthy place, but for now it's not as easy as suggested. I think the problem with most advice out there is that it's given with Battlenet in mind or with hacks in mind. Playing in single player mode isn't easy as the advice that's often given.

Countess Nightmare Runs

Stormeye War Scepter

In Runes, runes, runes I talked about the idea of running the Countess in nightmare mode. Instead of /players 8 I used the switch /players 3 and ran the Countess ten times. The results were surprising, several Hel runes, but nothing higher. Cubed up those Hel runes are level 35 Io rune.

With the right map running the Countess takes less than 5 minutes, so we're looking at around 50 minutes for an Io rune. I'm thinking this is a waste of time, but I recall spending a lot of time in Lower Kurast for less than Io. Also factor in a few interesting drops like this Stormeye War Scepter which might come in handy as an alternate weapon (both my weapons have +1 to all skills though).

For the sake of completeness here are all the runes from the 10 runs:

1. Sol
2. Tir
3. Sol, Hel
4. Ith, Tir
5. Tal, (Sol)
6. Tal
7. Tir
8. Eth
9. Eth
10. Sol, Hel

The bracketed (Sol) rune was dropped by a monster other than the Countess. In most cases I rushed the Countess without trying to beat up on monsters along the way.

Validity of builds in solo mode

The fact that I was able to defeat Baal in Hell and become a Patriarch in solo mode without using a level editor validates the fact that builds work. What isn't so valid is expecting to get the exact equipment listed for a build. I'm not saying you won't get some pieces for a build, just not to expect most pieces without a huge time investment in the game.

Lets examine Slicer versus the typical Hammerdin build. Slicer has Blessed Hammer and all it's synergies maxed and did so before level 86. He's a force to contend with but still quite weak against magic immunes and fast strong creatures. But what we want to look at is the equipment comparison:

Armor: Dusk Shroud socketed with Stealth Rune word (For the +25% FCR and FHR), Enigma is the standard.
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope, Hell Diablo (Quest) dropped it.
Helm: Lore rune word in a high defense helm
Weapon: Forget which unique but gives +1 to All Skills.

In short, the only item from the Hammerdin build I have is Mara's Amulet. Later I found Gheed's Fortune, but not really counting it since I'm thinking about items that are helpful in solo combat. (not that I'm complaining about finding it, it's very cool).

I've been reading lately that The Pit in Act 1 Hell is a great place to magic find high level items. What I read was written for patch 1.10, but it may still hold for 1.13. It's supposedly easier than running later areas, but I suspect this may not be true for Slicer, who may get cut down easier by ranged monsters with cold (even though Slicer has max cold resist). Still it's a thought for some of the other uniques in the Hammerdin set.

When I started looking at the chances to get some of those uniques, Arachnid's Mesh for Example, it occurred to me that it's really almost impossible in solo to get the majority of build items without an editor. Sadly the highest percentage of drops usually comes from quest bosses. Once you've defeated the boss for the quest that higher percentage is no longer valid. And these higher percentages are sometimes in a ratio of 1:1200 (at best) or more. It's discouraging.

I'm looking at The Pit as an opportunity both to possibly find a few good uniques and as a platform for leveling.

Jewel of a time

Jewels are not something I use as a rule when playing Diablo II. I've been accumulating jewels along the way and storing them. This Jewel mule is almost full.

I used to do a lot of crafting and may still after my quest for more and more runes. At this point the rune situation is an Ohm, 2 x Lums, 2 x Lems, 2 x Dols, and a bunch of lesser runes.

I checked rune drop stats. What I see is out of 65 nightmare countess runs the IO rune should drop at least once. I'm testing this theory. After 4 or 5 runes the highest rune to drop so far has been Dol. The rest have been very minor. I've also had an enormous unique sword and a couple of set item belts drop.

When I investigated IO I discovered that it drops the same chance or higher in nightmare as hell... so no point in running hell mode.

JadeKicker, the weak side

JadeKicker makes level 20

Sometimes I wonder the wisdom of "builds" when they suggest changing NPC to a tank from the second level. This is one of those times. While the tank dies less often than the archer from act 1, the tank also doesn't seem to help very much with range monsters... and this is an area I noticed JadeKicker is a bit weak against.
JadeKicker has yet to die, but came very close in Tal Rasha's tomb. I've decided not to pursue Durial until level 24 even though most characters take him on around level 20. Instead I plan to level in the fake tombs and run the countess for a few more low level runes. It's longer and more boring, but also more safe. Durial is hands down one of the most difficult bosses, at least at early levels.
Slicer kicked Durial's butt from Normal through Hell, but Slicer was always a Hammerdin build. JadeKicker is a martial artist and needs to be closer to Durial to damage him. The problem is Durial has immense strength and immense hit points. 28-62 damage is not going to do it, even if my probability to hit was high. I need to find a better MA strategy against Durial.
Slicer found Bartuc's claws, so when the time roles around I'll be arming JadeKicker with those. For now she's sporting a rare dual-socket Eagle Song Katar. I was thinking about putting a larger set of emeralds in the claws, but poison takes time to take effect despite the massive damage. I've also thought about putting cold in the claws for the freezing effect - which unfortunately doesn't work well against Durial.
I think JadeKicker's best hope against Durial is to find or make something with the "Cannot be Frozen" attribute to prevent Druial from freezing her and cutting her to ribbons. Speed seems to be JadeKicker's strength. 

JadeKicker kicking butt to the cube

JadeKicker solo martial artist assassin

I mentioned before that I started another solo character, JadeKicker. JadeKicker has been powering her way through everything: Andarial fell easily, Radament and all his minions fell quickly, and JadeKicker just finished picking up a horadric cube.

Nothing great dropping yet.