When Should You Switch To Terror Zones For Experience?

Have you pondered the answer to this question? You are certainly not alone as I still see this as a common inquiry among forums and Discords. I also polled the community and this was the #2 voted topic for me to make a video on, so I decided to bring this to life.

So Sanctuary, when do you switch?

I break down the answer below in my new video released this morning giving a side-by-side framework example in-addition to an extreme comparison. Let me know if you have any questions and happy to chat through anything that would be helpful.



Cheers - War

Not gonna lie..I'm confused. I'm also not entirely sober right now but still..

I won't argue the core point here since you're quite right on that (TZ = good, especially come 94/95+) but how on earth are you calculating the gap %?

Example from your lvl 90 comparison: 36850 - 25413 - 36.74%
Per your voiceover, that's "36% less to level".
And yet, 25413 is 31.04% removed from the starting 36850.
Or 36850 is 45% more from 25413.
Neither perspective is 36%.

Even more confusing and mathematically "odd", you get beyond 100% starting at lvl 93. If the gap % is "x% less mobs that you need to kill to level" then anything >=100% would imply you need to kill 0 mobs to level as you save >=100% of them. So..instant 99. Obviously, that's not a thing.

Naturally (looking at 95), the difference between 4.5 million and 144k is also quite a bit 'more' than 187% no matter which way you look at it from.
If gap % = kills saved then based on your kill numbers at 95, you'd expect a gap % of 96.85% since you have to kill 96.85% less mobs (144349 being 3.15% of 4586747).

The core point holds but how are you coming up with that gap% value?

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Not gonna lie..I'm confused. I'm also not entirely sober right now but still..

I won't argue the core point here since you're quite right on that (TZ = good, especially come 94/95+) but how on earth are you calculating the gap %?

Example from your lvl 90 comparison: 36850 - 25413 - 36.74%
Per your voiceover, that's "36% less to level".
And yet, 25413 is 31.04% removed from the starting 36850.
Or 36850 is 45% more from 25413.
Neither perspective is 36%.

Even more confusing and mathematically "odd", you get beyond 100% starting at lvl 93. If the gap % is "x% less mobs that you need to kill to level" then anything >=100% would imply you need to kill 0 mobs to level as you save >=100% of them. So..instant 99. Obviously, that's not a thing.

Naturally (looking at 95), the difference between 4.5 million and 144k is also quite a bit 'more' than 187% no matter which way you look at it from.
If gap % = kills saved then based on your kill numbers at 95, you'd expect a gap % of 96.85% since you have to kill 96.85% less mobs (144349 being 3.15% of 4586747).

The core point holds but how are you coming up with that gap% value?

Absolute parts were removed in order to visualize negative & positive values.

I think you are over thinking this and it is likely due to a small speaking error which was unintentional. It is not just killing 36% less, it is a differential formula which is the proper statistical way to evaluate.

To give you a physical example using what you called out:

(36850-25413)/((36850+25413)/2) = 36.74%

This is why when the graph is pulled in I called out Differential Gap - my sense is you are getting hung up on the phrase I used preceding that in a small example.

The above math you used is calculating Percentage Change which is very different from Percentage Differential in my framework.

Hope this helped friend.

Suppose that works, from a statistics perspective.
Though pdiff over pchange feels like an odd choice, considering the point of the video (and the explanation in the voiceover matching pchange ).

It does have me wondering though, what's your actual expected target audience for videos like this? More along the lines of "your average player who wants to know where to go to optimize stuff" or "hardcore folk who are all about the statistics behind things"?

Not saying either is wrong or your approach is 'bad' (in fact, I actually rather like your videos in general - certainly much more so than most other youtubers) I'm just genuinely curious.

+sub

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

I'm also not entirely sober right now

Haha love it!

Usually thought the morning after when I re-read any drunk posts I usually delete them, haha

Nate wrote: 1 year ago

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

I'm also not entirely sober right now

Haha love it!

Usually thought the morning after when I re-read any drunk posts I usually delete them, haha

Well, in this case it holds up :p

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Suppose that works, from a statistics perspective.
Though pdiff over pchange feels like an odd choice, considering the point of the video (and the explanation in the voiceover matching pchange ).

It does have me wondering though, what's your actual expected target audience for videos like this? More along the lines of "your average player who wants to know where to go to optimize stuff" or "hardcore folk who are all about the statistics behind things"?

Not saying either is wrong or your approach is 'bad' (in fact, I actually rather like your videos in general - certainly much more so than most other youtubers) I'm just genuinely curious.

Let's not get hung up on the statistical model - as you said, the data is sound, which is the most important thing. I happened to be traveling in NY, and I had a few friends validate some of the data, and they decided to land on the Differential vs. standard PChange model. Either model is correct in its framework, as you pointed out.

As you know, this is still a side hobby for me - on top of 3 kids and work, I try to be swift and accurate across my videos, but like any human, errors can sometimes happen—even with simple voiceovers.

Appreciate the kind words, by the way - it does mean a lot. As you know about my content, I am different than your standard D2 Content Creator who pushes out N # of runs. There's a big audience for that type of content, but that isn't me; nor do I have the time to put hours of runs in according to the above.

I like to get technical and mechanical and help educate, putting things in as many Layman terms as possible. It is likely overwhelming for some, and some may quickly lose interest in watching math, but I try to keep it fun and interactive across my videos. For what it's worth, when I look at my engagement metrics like Average View Duration and Percent Viewed, even on dense videos they can be fairly strong so people are sticking through good chunks of them.

Considering I started the channel 12 months ago with breaks in between, I am thrilled with the success and growth - many in comments and DMS have called my channel "criminally underrated."

With that said, not all my videos are dense - it depends on what I want to make, what the community wants to see, and to your point, a prediction of what video can scale. For example, I put a poll up asking what content people wanted me to make: The #1 vote was for a Super Unique video, and #2 was When to Switch to TZs. Because the community asked, I delivered.

But I am certainly not tone-deaf to the fact that my content isn't for everyone, and if I did shift into "OMG 100000 RUNS LOOK AT MY DROPS," I would likely have far more subs. It just isn't my cup of tea.

Gregory_portman wrote: 1 year ago

+sub

Thank you @Gregory_portman!

Th3ory wrote: 1 year ago

...and if I did shift into "OMG 100000 RUNS LOOK AT MY DROPS," I would likely have far more subs...

Yeah...please don't. There's plenty of shitty variations of that as is (many of which are "criminally overrated" ).

I was just curious on what you yourself saw as your intended primary audience since looking at your past videos, they do seem to indeed occasionally shift from "heavy technical/numbers" to "intro level guides" and back again.

Though I will say that on both extremes, your videos are still generally significantly better than the "better known YTers" imo.
And in stark contrast to many of them usually actually correct, hehe.

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Th3ory wrote: 1 year ago

...and if I did shift into "OMG 100000 RUNS LOOK AT MY DROPS," I would likely have far more subs...

Yeah...please don't. There's plenty of shitty variations of that as is (many of which are "criminally overrated" ).

I was just curious on what you yourself saw as your intended primary audience since looking at your past videos, they do seem to indeed occasionally shift from "heavy technical/numbers" to "intro level guides" and back again.

Though I will say that on both extremes, your videos are still generally significantly better than the "better known YTers" imo.
And in stark contrast to many of them usually actually correct, hehe.

I will make sure to prime one of them up just for you! The closest I got to that was my "Gambled 3000 circlets" form the 22 nights of

Terror - but that was fun to do and make.

And by the way, you can ping me at anytime to work together on content, videos etc. I do my best to be well researched and accurate. The game is complex and I at times, even when I think I have every single angle covered, whoops, I missed a small esoteric nuance.

Thank you for supporting me Schnorki - truly genuine for your feedback and outward endorsement. Only way I can stay the course and keep growing.

I do want to broaden my approach a bit so I can be more "inclusive" to a wider audience pool (or adjacent glass houses) to break into.

I will be working on D4 content - as a matter of fact, that will be my next video - I have wanted to do a Barb one but life got in the way.

The worst enemy of the diablo player isn't Diablo. Nor

Baal, nor even souls or dolls.

It's, by far and definitely, kids.
Love them but playing as daddy/mommy is definitely hardcore play !

Thanks Theory for sharing.

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

The worst enemy of the diablo player isn't Diablo. Nor

Baal, nor even souls or dolls.

It's, by far and definitely, kids.
Love them but playing as daddy/mommy is definitely hardcore play !

Thanks Theory for sharing.

And this is why I play exclusively Hardcore Necrarch! Only living one speed these days...

Cheers friend - good to see you.

While I only play SC because often need to leave PC as is if baby is crying or wifey complaining.

Had to do this recently in WSK, good that

Baal's effectivement are not too deadly

And I only have two, can't imagine with three ^^

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

While I only play SC because often need to leave PC as is if baby is crying or wifey complaining.

Had to do this recently in WSK, good that

Baal's effectivement are not too deadly

And I only have two, can't imagine with three ^^

This sounds all too familiar. With you in solidarity.