Statues/TZ Act Boss Farming in ROTW

Hello:)
I’ve been having time a lot of good time with d2r again lately. As first thing I decided to tackle Statue hunting (and Collosal Ancients but that would be best discussed in another topic) and I like how adding new content to the game changes old things and makes me rethink my patterns. In this case patterns which I follow when fighting Act Bosses. It was always my thing in D2 to fight big guys and I found joy in trying to optimize those fights/runs once again after all those years.

So it could be said paradoxically don;t expect a lot of new-stuff content here, because I want to discuss good old

Mephisto farming. Again:)
And yes, you probably know everything about those and if you find something I missed, please point that out.

To set discussion in right direction: I assume we’re using endgame builds and easy defeating bosses is given. And we’re turbo focusing on getting as many boss-kills as possible, minimizing any distractions. Or at least I am, because I would like to underline that I’m not forcing my approach on anybody and it is of course perfect to take different one.

Ok enough words, let’s look at some stats.
(important note: this is P1 on nonladder, so it involves pathfinding)

First thing to point out is I’m close to 1:12 drop ratio, just as data mining said. For most time I was below that number, now I’m slightly above (lucky me).

Legend

Spoiler

Session means

Terror Zone for 30 minutes
Kills is for Act Boss kills
Delays are noted because it’s not easy to always be in TZ on time. If I had to stop early I also put that in delay, but that would be very rare.
XXX in Kills/drop if drop=0
Everything else should self explanatory. If not please ask.

Char/MF

Spoiler

I’m using both Fire builds of Sorc and Warlock. More because I enjoy them rather than it was any strategic decision. Probably

Nova Sorc could be little faster in A4 and A5 than Lock, but hey, it’s new thing and I want to play it:)
As mentioned these are endgame builds with solid gear but nothing GG. And to add to that Sorc leaves Phoenix shield in Stash and goes with Spirit and

Tal’s Armor instead. Except for act2 where Enigma is better for city-running.
Both chars are running my favourite

The Rising Sun amulet which makes negative 20 fire res on P1 enough to heal from enemy Hydras etc. And obv fire dominates all those locations as damage type among elements.
Two most expensive gear pieces which are necessary would be Infinity for Sorc’s Merc and Enigma for Lock/Sorc.

I started to track Magic Find more as an indicator of gear setups vs speed. I did not try to stack MF as much as I could (I simply refuse to navigate all my small charms on all my characters;P)

General rules I follow

Spoiler

No occasional elite sniping*
No

Herald hunting (but it’s super fun when he randomly comes to fight over Seal in Chaos)
No density clearing
No identifying (I prepare empty stash and dump everything there)
Super selective item picking (no gems, mostly no blues, mostly no yellow, mostly no bases, quick check for eligibility of green and

Gold, obv pick that #23423

Shako)
Instead I pick EVERYTHING orange on automode, because react > think

So as you see this is highly optimized into one direction, but unoptimized in terms of traditional MF.
*In A2 I kill Summoner for Keys. In A3 it’s against common sense to not kill Council, but as you see in comment section I try that. In A4 and A5 I obv kill Seal bosses and Waves respectively.

One single most important tip

Spoiler

If you see TZ coming, load up game few minutes early and prepare boss fight. This means find stairs/find orifice/find stairs/pop 4 out of 5 seals and kill all mini bosses/kill all waves and wait.

This way you trigger first fight immediately and have first kill in few seconds. That is mostly important in WSK TZ.

[All Acts description in details PLACEHOLDER]
If I find anybody willing do discuss each act to smallest details I would be happy to do so and put all tips here. I just stopped myself now from doing so as it’s already long post.
But yes, I’ll be happy to talk if/why best number of teleports to Andy is four and two to

Baal.

Only to clarify my routes:
Act1,3,5: classic tele-spam toward boss, no other choice
Act2: through

Arcane Sanctuary, Summoner, Signs, straight to

Duriel
Act4: seal-popping without final kill-loop

So that would be it for starters. How many Mephistos did you already kill since rotw release?:) Do you have any stats of yourself?
I would be super glad to see better results as a goal to achieve and also room for improvement.
I saw people trading statues in dozens and I wonder if the bots are truly banned or is it just marketing. Or maybe they’re trading for some online teams. OR maybe they are better at running those bosses and I will learn something here.


Ending disclaimer:
this is not another topic to complain how today is different from yesterday. I know. It’s two weeks already and

Herald of

Terror still didn’t run into

Rogue Encampment to put Sunder Charm in your stash;)
Bring your inner kid that after 25 years still enjoys Diablo2 and is hyped about new stuff just like me. Yes, you are allowed to not like any changes. But you’re also allowed to let it go and simply have fun. Again.