Another 99

Hello there!
I just finish leveling my

Zeal Paladin after an agonizing looong road from 98 to 99. I play solo oflline, P8 and share my only Enigma and

Annihilus between my chars.
I had about 4 deaths in his time, two of them by letting the game running on hostile territory and turning my head to look at TV. On one situation my merc pulled some beetles on us and on one occasion the last mobs from The Cave killed us while I turned my head for about 10 seconds.

Now I have my

Hydra Sorc and

Zeal Pally at 99 and I wonder what should I play next.
I have almost all gear on the game (95% Holy Grail completed) and some runewords and high runes.
I could make a Javazon for farming speed (I have all top gear for this build and Infinity for the merc).
I like the idea of Summoner Necro for passive play.
I like the chances of magic find and rune find of a Barbarian.
I could try the Mosaic Sin for the much criticized damage maker.

I'm kind of undecided right now. Leaning for Javazon but I'm afraid of getting another char and have to take him to 99. It takes too long.
The Paladin and Sorceress reached level 99 after one year and five months.

Spoiler

Congrats

Since you are playing solo offline, finding a group isn’t an issue (can be difficult at times). This also means you need damage, so I’d strongly recommend avoiding Summoner Necromancer or Barbarian. I’ve levelled a Barbarian to 99 (Necro is close at 98), but you need a group with some decent damage dealers. Or be prepared to spend a very very long-time levelling.

The easiest character to level is the Mosaic Assassin, based on own experience and observations from last few ladder rankings. Quality of life wise Mosaic charges are slightly annoying for smaller TZs and the highest damage Javazon build is mana hungry. Fun was had with both builds, maybe try them out and see which you prefer. All TZs are accessible.

Nova is also pleasant to level unless you are specifically wanting to try another character. Play what you enjoy the most though

Congrats ! I love necros, but at P8 they might suffer a bit indeed. On my side, I loved levelling up my Zon (she is a Java / Bow hybrid, but never went over 88 or 89 with her), she may be the funniest char to play with I think - but that's very subjective.

I started Java.
For the game completion, before killing Hell

Baal, I like to kill every mob on the map, explore all corners, wiping out the whole map.
After

Blood Moor and

Den of Evil she's at level 7.

I did the same when levelling my first 3 chars (Nec / Sin / Zon) ^^

I will have to make another perfect Flickering Flame in

Grand Crown this time, Sorc looks so cool!

Have to admit that the Sorc does wear the

Crown very well indeed !

Necrarch wrote: 4 months ago

Have to admit that the Sorc does wear the

Crown very well indeed !

I think the light and the make-up makes all the difference

Storm got her 99th level a few days ago.
She is very powerful, especially on crowded spaces.

The Arcane Sanctuary was a pleasure to farm, so The

Chaos Sanctuary and The

Secret Cow Level.
Did the Ubers with her a few times with no problems, sometimes even

Fade didn't expire before the brothers were finished.
I think I only died 3 or 4 times from start to level 99.

I think I'll start a Mosaic Assassin now.

See the Hall of Fame below
Having a very good friendship between them, the only one Enigma and

Annihilus are shared.

Krisa - Sorceress -

Hydra,

Fireball,

Meteor

Florian - Paladin -

Zeal,

Fanaticism,

Holy Shield

Storm - Amazon -

Lightning Fury,

Charged Strike,

Valkyrie

Congrats, Storm looks great!

I am still impressed by the patience you have. Already levelling my first char ftom 93 to 94 (well p1) seems terrible long

Congrats. So 1 to 99 for Storm was 6 weeks... they age so fast!

seansixsixsix wrote: 2 months ago

Congrats, Storm looks great!

Thanks!

Necrarch wrote: 2 months ago

I am still impressed by the patience you have. Already levelling my first char ftom 93 to 94 (well p1) seems terrible long

I like to take my time and do it properly although at times I'm on the Edge with patience. Level 98 to 99 is from another play, time wise. I was afraid it will be slow to reach 99, like Paladin was, but it was smooth. Maybe that I had all BiS gear at first moment I could wear them.
Online I have a

Hydra Sorc and she's at 91 right now but indeed, it takes way to long to level on P1. I can't imagine how will be from 98 to 99 on P1, grrrr...

TheJudger wrote: 2 months ago

Congrats. So 1 to 99 for Storm was 6 weeks... they age so fast!

Yes, I was surprised to see how fast she levels. I was on holiday and had decent (put it obscene) time to play.

Grats! I'm about to hit 98 on my

Zeal pally and know how agonizingly slow that grind can be for melee. My Javazon and Sorc hit 99 no problem, but this

Zeal pally is taking like 5x as long.. Might take me a full year to get that last level on him (I only play at night, and if there's a good Tzone). Almost wanna switch to FOH for last level xD

As for your next char, I'll give my vote of magic find horker Barbarian. That was my first 99 and never felt boring or slow thanks to the hork ability always giving me extra loot.

Good luck, whichever you choose!

Still can't motivate myself to get those last few levels without online P8 and with games generally being as solo/dead as they are. :/

Be that as it may: grats. 4 more to go..

like so many others i wish player count was availavbe online...
Congrats!

The day for Shadow Blade to reach her Level 99 has come.
She wears it proudly, sweeping all the enemies in seconds. She's also having some Ubers trophies at her belt.

Gameplay was a bit annoying at the beginning due to high number of hotkeys / spells that I had to press until I got fully charged but I managed to rearrange them from F1 - F10 and F, G and H.
I didn't use so much with previous characters: Sorceress, Paladin and Amazon. But I got into a routine and then was all smooth sailing.

F1 -

Dragon Talon - Finishing move
F2 -

Teleport

F3 -

Phoenix Strike
F4 -

Cobra Strike
F5 -

Claws of Thunder
F6 -

Tiger Strike
F7 -

Blades of Ice
F8 -

Fists of Fire

F9 -

Burst of Speed
F10 -

Fade

At start I

Charge F3 with two strikes to stay on lightning damage and then from F4 to F8 with three strikes. Then

Fade for extra protection and here we go.
I manage to fill all charges within one session and then F1 to finish, then F2 to

Teleport to other enemies, F1, then F2, F1, F2 and so on. Easy peasy

Now I have only three characters to play with: Necro, Barb and Druid. Let see what I'll choose.

See the Hall of Fame below
Having a very good friendship between them, the only one Enigma and

Annihilus are shared.

Krisa - Sorceress -

Hydra,

Fireball,

Meteor

Florian - Paladin -

Zeal,

Fanaticism,

Holy Shield

Storm - Amazon -

Lightning Fury,

Charged Strike,

Valkyrie

Shadow Blade - Assassin -

Dragon Talon,

Phoenix Strike,

Fade

The game is trying to tell me something?

In the last run of the day I done Ubers and the torch was a Barb, 3/20/19.
This means what I think it means? I have other Barb Torches but this one is way better than the others.

I've been following along for a while. This is awesome stuff!

Your grail post doesn't list

Ondal's Wisdom. Did you have it when leveling your sorc? If so, did she use it for exp at all?

I ask because my offline SC cold sorc has a

Death's Fathom (+25% cold damage) and

Ondal's Wisdom (+3 skills). On P8 she kills faster with Fathom+Spirit but she can still kill quickly using Ondal throughout many areas.

So she uses Ondal for P8 exp runs in a lot of places and it works well. I'm more confident with her doing this regularly since (1) I managed to make a good CtA a little while back, and (2) I finally got a very nicely rolled Insight in a

Giant Thresher for her merc.

I have a 9% exp

Annihilus.

My sorc is at level 95, and I can feel a difference in exp gain when using Ondal. Although I admit that it could partially be my imagination.

Anyway I'm curious about your perspective on exp gain when going for level 99. I've beaten SC Hell with every class at least once, and I've also beaten HC Hell once (so far), but this SC level 95 sorc is my highest character right now.

I have

Ondal's Wisdom on my found list but I didn't used it, never crossed my mind. I have a Heart of the Oak on a ethereal

Flail.

I also have an

Annihilus with 9% XP and it's doing his job but with another 5% from Ondal's should be better.

The levels from 95 to 99 are the slowest on XP gained. You surpass the

Terror zone level at 97 and then the XP gained drops. At level 98 to 99 is a nightmare so an extra 5% should help.

My sorc was the first character to reach 99 then Pally. But my Zealer was 2-3 times slower than sorc. I thought that he will never reach it.
And now I have to play Druid, Barb and Necro which I undestand that the latest are slow leveling. I'm scared when I'll reach 98 and have to go for 99.