Farming Andariel vs the Pit?

Hi. I've recently been playing D2R a bit and while I'm certainly not new to the game, I'm a little rusty on MF practices. I have a level 71 sorceress who can sort of handle Act 1 Hell if I'm careful. I only have like 50 MF right now. Not much in the way of items. I know I can get a

Shako if I farm

Andariel for long enough and get a bit lucky. That would bootstrap my MFing a bit, I think.

But would it be more worth it to just do Pit runs instead? Then I could hopefully find something to trade for a

Shako, etc. I also have a level 74 Zealot who is lacking in the gear department.

Opinions? Any better areas I might not be thinking of?

Thanks

Early on I did most of my farming on Andy or Meph. Those were great for getting started.

Shako, War Travs, some nagelrings etc.

Recently started doing Pit and

Ancient Tunnels. 450 MF. I'm 85 runs into both and have yielded all of:
2

Pul runes
1 Java GC
Arkane Valor which turned into an

Um
...that is all...

lemessur wrote: 2 years ago

Opinions? Any better areas I might not be thinking of?

Have you considered

The Countess? It's quite easy, at level 71 it will still give you decent experience, and keys/rune drops have less variance than hoping to find an HR, so it's a good way to guarantee you'll earn some currencies, which you can then trade for the basic gear you'll need.

I like farming countess on my low level/ungeared characters.

You need to level up, 71 is very low. I assume you're dual elemental since you're thinking of doing the Pit? Anyway, if you run the Pit and can clear it without dying (much) then you're on track. Once you get to 80+, take your char up through Act 4, and get your Hellforge drop. If you're lucky, you'll get a rune

Pul+ in range, which you can trade for some of the gear you need. I'd actually recommend the full

Tal Rasha's set over

Shako+ uniques+runewords. Full Tals set is only marginally worse than the best runewords/uniques, and the ENTIRE set can be purchased for 2

Ist runes right now (it's dumb how cheap it is).

Thanks everyone. I had been doing

The Countess for a while, but switched to

Andariel for a change of scenery.

Yeah I'm just using orb and

Fireball so the pit isn't too bad. I'll try that for a bit.

That suggestion about the

Tal set is very interesting. I have one

Ist and one

Mal just from doing various Act1 runs. I'll keep at it.

As much as I have played the game for a long time I never really got much into the trading scene. I was mostly just playing single player for the most part before D2R. All of my real life friends quit the game like 18+ years ago.

Gear up your Zealot a little bit and start doing

Travincal runs. In about 500 or so you should get a

Vex+ or so (a HR if you are moderately lucky). No point in farming anything else

There are a few things you can do to up your MF initially to get better drops.

• Throw some Topazes in a
  Helm or armor
• Trade for Oculus
• Rhyme shield on swap
• Gamble
  Gull
  Dagger

If you do some of those you should have enough MF to start getting significantly better drops from

Andariel, including better MF gear. Once you have better gear you should proceed to

Mephisto for more good unique drops.

Running areas like the Pit is good, but doing Andy & Meph runs will help you gear up to do that effectively.

A 70+ sorc should easily be able to handle Meph. He's a great place to start for that initial gear. Once you have that, move on to pits and other high-end mfing areas.

Concur that your level is a little low. There are still good items that can drop in NM, and you will clear faster and likely get both levels and some better MF gear in the process.

lemessur wrote: 2 years ago

Thanks everyone. I had been doing

The Countess for a while, but switched to

Andariel for a change of scenery.

Yeah I'm just using orb and

Fireball so the pit isn't too bad. I'll try that for a bit.

That suggestion about the

Tal set is very interesting. I have one

Ist and one

Mal just from doing various Act1 runs. I'll keep at it.

As much as I have played the game for a long time I never really got much into the trading scene. I was mostly just playing single player for the most part before D2R. All of my real life friends quit the game like 18+ years ago.

I started out doing a

Frozen Orb/

Fireball/

Meteor sorc also.

Tal Rasha's Full set is almost certainly best-in-slot if you're a dual elemental build due to the -15% enemy fire res, -15% enemy lightning res, and +15% cold skill damage you get on the weapon.

Now I run a full Tals set lightning sorceress with my mercenary using an Infinity. I do, in fact, have a

Griffon's Eye, Enigma, Heart of the Oak, a perfect 30 all-res Maras, and

Arachnid Mesh, but I still chose to use

Tal Rasha's full set over them. I have done both in-game gear comparisons and simulations/builds using Maxroll.gg. With -5% enemy lightning res facets in the

Helm, weapon, and armor,

Tal's full set only does something like 5% to 20% less damage (depending on the enemy's base lightning res), while having something like 80% more magic find (once you re-adjust your charms and gloves to keep your resists maxed). Since, while running any area, you only spend a fraction of the time attacking and killing enemies, 5% to 20% more damage doesn't actually translate to anything close to 5% to 20% faster clear speed- much less, so the 80% extra magic find on Tals set may entirely erase the faster clear speed advantage of the best uniques/rune words. On the other hand, Tals full set has less cast speed, so you

Teleport slower (unless you use 20% FCR gloves instead of

Chance Guards). So... I THINK the best uniques and rune words have a slight advantage over

Tal Rasha's full set.

I think maybe part of the reason that

Griffon's Eye/Enigma/Maras/

Arachnid Mesh/HOTO is favored over Tals full set is that so many gear guides were created by people who play single player where you can use the /players8 command to vastly increase enemy health and better their drop odds. /players8 would definitely magnify the benefit of the extra cast speed and damage that the best uniques and rune words provide over Tals set, but we simply don't have the luxury of that command.

Anyway, the take-away point is this: if you go

Tal Rasha's full set, you don't really need to ever worry about getting a

Griffon's Eye, Enigma, Mara's, etc.

Tal Rasha's full set is good enough to last you forever. Just work towards getting Infinity (and Fortitude) for your mercenary, and you'll be set. You definitely do want to respec lightning once you get Infinity... Lightning is so, so, SO much better- but ONLY if you have Infinity.

Lots of good advice in this thread. I won't repeat the stuff people already said. Instead, I'll suggest something that nobody has mentioned yet, which is: don't get hung up on doing hundreds of Andy/Meph/Pit runs with 400%+ magic find. The vast majority of uniques are worth next to nothing, and there's a vanishingly small chance you'll ever find a Griffon's or a

Death's Fathom. Which won't really make you rich either. The most valuable items in the game are rare (circlets, rings), crafted (amulets), magic (charms, charms, charms) and White items (godly bases).

The most expensive thing I've sold in the two days that I've been on this site was a Shimmering Small Charm of Balance (+5% Faster Hit Recovery, +5% to All Resistances). It went for

Sur +

Lo. I also did like ten

Chaos Sanctuary runs today, found a superior ethereal

Lacquered Plate with +10% Enhanced Defense and sold it for a

Lo. Those didn't require any +% MF to find. And neither does a perfect 3/20/20, which goes for 10

Ber runes.

My recommendation:
1. level to 85+ in cow, Chaos and

Baal games
2. buy that

Tal Rasha's set or

Shako and Oculus setup
3. go ham on

Chaos Sanctuary/The Pit
4. don't worry about having over 200-250 MF
5. make a gold find barb
6. do

Travincal runs
7. gamble circlets
8. do The Pit /

Chaos Sanctuary /

Travincal, whichever you feel like the most
9. sell your best finds here
10. rinse and repeat

That's how you get rich.

Use your

Ist

Mal to get

Tal ammy armor and

Belt. Do countess runs till you can get an

Um from cubing or maybe you find one. And trade it for

Shako. That alone is like 250mf. And your not going to be hurting for dmg. Then go full blizzard and run Andy/meph/

Ancient Tunnels

Also occy is trading for like

Lem and a Spirit sheild is basically free

nilrem wrote: 2 years ago

Use your

Ist

Mal to get

Tal ammy armor and

Belt. Do countess runs till you can get an

Um from cubing or maybe you find one. And trade it for

Shako. That alone is like 250mf. And your not going to be hurting for dmg. Then go full blizzard and run Andy/meph/

Ancient Tunnels

Also occy is trading for like

Lem and a Spirit sheild is basically free

People are still consistently buying 35 fcr Spirit monarchs from me for

Mal. Am I overcharging and not even knowing it? The pain of rerolling alone makes me feel like

Mal is too little for the irritation sometimes.

Aethrall wrote: 2 years ago

nilrem wrote: 2 years ago

Use your

Ist

Mal to get

Tal ammy armor and

Belt. Do countess runs till you can get an

Um from cubing or maybe you find one. And trade it for

Shako. That alone is like 250mf. And your not going to be hurting for dmg. Then go full blizzard and run Andy/meph/

Ancient Tunnels

Also occy is trading for like

Lem and a Spirit sheild is basically free

People are still consistently buying 35 fcr Spirit monarchs from me for

Mal. Am I overcharging and not even knowing it? The pain of rerolling alone makes me feel like

Mal is too little for the irritation sometimes.

I don't think they meant a 35 FCR Spirit. Just a White

Monarch + the four runes.

lemessur wrote: 2 years ago

All of my real life friends quit the game like 18+ years ago.

A bit off topic, but you can't really call them friends in this case, right?

Aethrall wrote: 2 years ago

nilrem wrote: 2 years ago

Use your

Ist

Mal to get

Tal ammy armor and

Belt. Do countess runs till you can get an

Um from cubing or maybe you find one. And trade it for

Shako. That alone is like 250mf. And your not going to be hurting for dmg. Then go full blizzard and run Andy/meph/

Ancient Tunnels

Also occy is trading for like

Lem and a Spirit sheild is basically free

People are still consistently buying 35 fcr Spirit monarchs from me for

Mal. Am I overcharging and not even knowing it? The pain of rerolling alone makes me feel like

Mal is too little for the irritation sometimes.

Oh i just meant the runes and sheild are pretty much free. If the OP wants a 35 ffcr thats on them and even still run countess for a couple days and you will have enough runes for a few re rolls.

As other said, your level is very low. Progression slows down terribly only at around level 90. Reaching 85+ with a new character takes only 1-2 weekends if you do it the right way. The trick is avoiding XP penalties by playing the right act and difficulty based on the level of your character: https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Guide:Di ... uide_v1.10

The sorceress is a clear winner when it comes to farming, she will be able to dress up your poor pally too. Mr Pally will need Enigma to be good at farming most places.

lemessur wrote: 2 years ago

That suggestion about the

Tal set is very interesting. I have one

Ist and one

Mal just from doing various Act1 runs. I'll keep at it.

The full

Tal set is stupid good, being able to obtain it for 2

Ist should be illegal, it's almost like cheating. It's insane bang for the buck and IMO it deserves to be recognised as good endgame equipment regardless of how much some people hate it. The set gives 50fcr, you can hit the 105fcr breakpoint easily by adding

Magefist (20fcr) and a 35fcr Spirit

Monarch. If your Spirit is below 35fcr then you have to "waste" one of your ring slots with a 10fcr ring.

Assuming that you have a 35fcr

Monarch your 2 ring slots and

Boots can be used to add MF or other bonuses you need. Hitting 300 MF with full

Tal set is rather easy and getting closer to 500 isn't difficult.

Additional steps to increase MF:
- get a (half-)decent

Gheed's Fortune
- put ptopaz into the sockets of your

Helm and armor
- put an

Ist into your weapon if you are a bit wealthier
- add a few MF small charms
- use some of these on weapon switch (and switch to them only a few moments before the farmed boss dies):

Gull,

Blade of Alibaba, Rhyme/Splendor shield

Aethrall wrote: 2 years ago

nilrem wrote: 2 years ago

Use your

Ist

Mal to get

Tal ammy armor and

Belt. Do countess runs till you can get an

Um from cubing or maybe you find one. And trade it for

Shako. That alone is like 250mf. And your not going to be hurting for dmg. Then go full blizzard and run Andy/meph/

Ancient Tunnels

Also occy is trading for like

Lem and a Spirit sheild is basically free

People are still consistently buying 35 fcr Spirit monarchs from me for

Mal. Am I overcharging and not even knowing it? The pain of rerolling alone makes me feel like

Mal is too little for the irritation sometimes.

I rolled about 50 Spirit Monarchs and never got a SINGLE 35% FCR roll. So

Mal is definitely not an overcharge if it's going to someone like me; I'd gladly pay a

Mal.

tatarjj wrote: 2 years ago

Aethrall wrote: 2 years ago

nilrem wrote: 2 years ago

Use your

Ist

Mal to get

Tal ammy armor and

Belt. Do countess runs till you can get an

Um from cubing or maybe you find one. And trade it for

Shako. That alone is like 250mf. And your not going to be hurting for dmg. Then go full blizzard and run Andy/meph/

Ancient Tunnels

Also occy is trading for like

Lem and a Spirit sheild is basically free

People are still consistently buying 35 fcr Spirit monarchs from me for

Mal. Am I overcharging and not even knowing it? The pain of rerolling alone makes me feel like

Mal is too little for the irritation sometimes.

I rolled about 50 Spirit Monarchs and never got a SINGLE 35% FCR roll. So

Mal is definitely not an overcharge if it's going to someone like me; I'd gladly pay a

Mal.

The runes for 10 rerolls cost about an

Um at the moment and

Tal is difficult to find because most players merge them into Rals, it's easier to sell that way.

On average you need 11 rerolls to get 35fcr because there are 11 possible fcr values (25-35). If your criterias are stricter, let's say you want the mana to be in the upper half of the full range then you have 50% chance to get that with every 35fcr roll so on average you need 11x2 rerolls. The average number of rolls go up very quickly with stricter criterias like mana in upper half of the full range AND absorb in the upper half, something like that requires 11x4 rolls on average. You can mitigate the costs by selling worse 35fcr rolls on the way (worth the trouble only if you use

El-cheapo

Monarch bases) but rolling and selling Spirit Monarchs isn't a lucrative business (at least not the way I'm doing it). The only benefits I see is that sitting down and rolling spirits is a fun mini-game in D2 (some people don't like it) and you can keep the best 35fcr rolls (with high mana/absorb) if you want to.

You can of course rely on averages only if you roll a lot of 35fcr shields. If you roll only one then you might hit the jackpot on your first roll or get a very bad streak with dozens of rolls without a single 35fcr Spirit. Some other interesting numbers: The chances of rolling a perfect 35/112/8 Spirit is 1/1584. The chances of rolling 35/112/x (assuming you don't care about absorb) is 1/264.

lemessur wrote: 2 years ago

Opinions? Any better areas I might not be thinking of?

Thanks

You should consider do Countess run. I play a Paladin, do Countess run take quite of time but I can run around 10 time per day, trying to reach 100 run. Now, at the run 55, the low rune I get is enough for me to trade for 3

Pul.

Also get 3

Fal, 1

Lem, 1

Ko, and round 6-8

Io.

I do believe If reach 100 Countess run, I can gear-up to end of game.

To get better MF, I wear hem with 3

Topaz, and recently is Weath armor.