TZ Worldstone Keep/Chamber - best approach for XP Gain

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I guess it depends on your build and experience with those cute little rascals, especially the pastel colored ones. They aren't really much of a bother for me

I have literally been killed and nearly killed with every class and most builds by them. Even a barb with maxed BO, over 3k life, almost got instakilled twice.

If you

Teleport, you always end up in the middle of a pack that instantly explodes, if you run, you don't even see them, just at best hear them less than a second before they hit you and explode.

And they nearly always target YOU, not your merc, summons or pets. Most of the times they literally run around them to hit you.

My first sorceress died so many times that i literally gave up getting her to meph by myself.

So no, i have no idea how people can just ignore them, because they always try to instakill me.

Maybe it's play style? Durance lvl 3 was just never an issue for me. I recently went through all my characters and made sure they were hitting at least their moderate FHR breakpoints and that made it even more of a breeze.
My Emilio is a putz. But taking dolls on head on and tanking them is pretty much his only redeeming quality.
The only time Udars are ever an issue are when a pack is extra strong, extra fast, and aura enchanted.
Souls in WSK though? Yes, they still make me retreat in shame with certain builds sometimes.

FULCRUM75 wrote: 6 months ago

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I guess it depends on your build and experience with those cute little rascals, especially the pastel colored ones. They aren't really much of a bother for me

I have literally been killed and nearly killed with every class and most builds by them. Even a barb with maxed BO, over 3k life, almost got instakilled twice.

If you

Teleport, you always end up in the middle of a pack that instantly explodes, if you run, you don't even see them, just at best hear them less than a second before they hit you and explode.

And they nearly always target YOU, not your merc, summons or pets. Most of the times they literally run around them to hit you.

My first sorceress died so many times that i literally gave up getting her to meph by myself.

So no, i have no idea how people can just ignore them, because they always try to instakill me.

I thought I would do a video of why it takes less time to do a

Mephisto run than it is to do a

Baal run, so I just completed this a few minutes ago. This time I got lucky and found little opposition, but it is by no means representative of how all my runs will go.

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I thought I would do a video of why it takes less time to do a

Mephisto run than it is to do a

Baal run, so I just completed this a few minutes ago. This time I got lucky and found little opposition, but it is by no means representative of how all my runs will go.

The lvl 3 was so close to your tp. Many times you have to tp/run way more longer. And tp as mf sorc is more risky than a javazon.
But sure, that's faster to go to

Mephisto than

Baal. But

Baal is more accessible if no soul.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 6 months ago

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I thought I would do a video of why it takes less time to do a

Mephisto run than it is to do a

Baal run, so I just completed this a few minutes ago. This time I got lucky and found little opposition, but it is by no means representative of how all my runs will go.

The lvl 3 was so close to your tp. Many times you have to tp/run way more longer. And tp as mf sorc is more risky than a javazon.
But sure, that's faster to go to

Mephisto than

Baal. But

Baal is more accessible if no soul.

I realize it was close and I did say that it's not a representative run, but it does demonstrate how much faster it is getting to

Mephisto than it is to

Baal. That being said, I don't use my sorc to farm WSK or Durance, but I will use her to run

Chaos Sanctuary. Some builds are more suited to some runs than others. For instance my Zon was wearing an Enigma, but in Durance I prefer to use it for the 45% gain in running speed than

Teleport. Note that all more resistances were 34% or less and yet I never used a single potion on the run. In fact I can run Durance TZ for the entire hour without using a single potion. As Knappogue stated, it might be your "play style," but it also could be your choice of Char for the given situation. Note that my magic find was only at 263.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 6 months ago

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I thought I would do a video of why it takes less time to do a

Mephisto run than it is to do a

Baal run, so I just completed this a few minutes ago. This time I got lucky and found little opposition, but it is by no means representative of how all my runs will go.

The lvl 3 was so close to your tp. Many times you have to tp/run way more longer. And tp as mf sorc is more risky than a javazon.
But sure, that's faster to go to

Mephisto than

Baal. But

Baal is more accessible if no soul.

I just finished another much longer Durance run that might be a little more representative of fast running through rooms infested with Stygian Dolls. Notice I even killed a couple to demonstrate that they didn't really pose much of an issue for my build.

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I realize it was close and I did say that it's not a representative run, but it does demonstrate how much faster it is getting to

Mephisto than it is to

Baal. That being said, I don't use my sorc to farm WSK or Durance, but I will user her to run

Chaos Sanctuary. Some build are more suited to some runs than others. For instance my Zon was wearing an Enigma, but in Durance I prefer to use it for the 45% gain in running speed than

Teleport. Note that all more resistances were 34% or less and yet I never used a single potion on the run. In fact I can run Durance TZ for the entire hour without using a single potion. As Knappogue stated, it might be your "play style," but it also could be your choice of Char for the given situation. Note that my magic find was only at 263.

It really depends your build too.
I don't use any form of tanky sorc with ES to do meph runs but a "standard" orb/

Meteor with approx 550mf.
Note a zon has a decent 25-30% block chance and

Evade/

Dodge/avoid wish helps a lot too.
Only 12 points in

Evade will grant you 50% to

Dodge attack while running through lvl 2.

So yes, it depends play style, but not only.

My lightning sorceress died frequently to stygian dolls, to the point that I started to ignore

Mephisto farm even when TZ...

My javazon and my strafezon on the other hand, can both farm

Mephisto with no problem

Tornado_OLO wrote: 6 months ago

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I realize it was close and I did say that it's not a representative run, but it does demonstrate how much faster it is getting to

Mephisto than it is to

Baal. That being said, I don't use my sorc to farm WSK or Durance, but I will user her to run

Chaos Sanctuary. Some build are more suited to some runs than others. For instance my Zon was wearing an Enigma, but in Durance I prefer to use it for the 45% gain in running speed than

Teleport. Note that all more resistances were 34% or less and yet I never used a single potion on the run. In fact I can run Durance TZ for the entire hour without using a single potion. As Knappogue stated, it might be your "play style," but it also could be your choice of Char for the given situation. Note that my magic find was only at 263.

It really depends your build too.
I don't use any form of tanky sorc with ES to do meph runs but a "standard" orb/

Meteor with approx 550mf.
Note a zon has a decent 25-30% block chance and

Evade/

Dodge/avoid wish helps a lot too.
Only 12 points in

Evade will grant you 50% to

Dodge attack while running through lvl 2.

So yes, it depends play style, but not only.

This from my second post in this thread.

"I guess it depends on your build and experience with those cute little rascals, especially the pastel colored ones. They aren't really much of a bother for me which means I can complete a good three to five Stygian Doll hunts in about the time it takes to do just one WSK. ?

fredkid wrote: 6 months ago

My lightning sorceress died frequently to stygian dolls, to the point that I started to ignore

Mephisto farm even when TZ...

My javazon and my strafezon on the other hand, can both farm

Mephisto with no problem

For doing WSK, especially when terrorized, you need a tanky act 2 merc. Sometimes appears

Willowisp in WSK 2 (lightning and poison immune) and throne chamber and undead soul killer in throne chamber. let your merc kill the dollsand stay back far from them. With my hammerdin, I put the reapper's toll in act 2 merc in order to kill physical immunes and help killing second

Baal wave. Besides, a sorceress is very fragile, dies easily if get touched and not have

Energy Shield.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 6 months ago

Th3ory wrote: 7 months ago

FYI -

Baal's XP caps at /players3 regardless so you cannot push him higher.

So if you do want to power farm him for XP in-addition to the waves, make sure it is only /players3. Don't make it unnecessarily harder on yourself!

May explains why people skip him.

Correct - this is precisely why. The irony is that you need to be at /players5 to get his NoDrop to 0% yet his XP cap is /players3.

For those who are on, and are interested, Th3ory, will be streaming tonight at May 11, 2025 1:45 AM   This timestamp has been automatically converted to your local date/time for convenience. The format is DD/MMM/YYYY, HH:MM am/pm. This is based off your browser time.

Link to his stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/warth3ory

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I just finished another much longer Durance run that might be a little more representative of fast running through rooms infested with Stygian Dolls. Notice I even killed a couple to demonstrate that they didn't really pose much of an issue for my build.

If i keep running blindly like that, i run into multiple bosspacks, or at best, large packs of regular monsters, guaranteed.

And only once there did you take noticeable damage from one doll.
That's just not normal from what i see.
Not even close.

FULCRUM75 wrote: 6 months ago

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

I just finished another much longer Durance run that might be a little more representative of fast running through rooms infested with Stygian Dolls. Notice I even killed a couple to demonstrate that they didn't really pose much of an issue for my build.

If i keep running blindly like that, i run into multiple bosspacks, or at best, large packs of regular monsters, guaranteed.

And only once there did you take noticeable damage from one doll.
That's just not normal from what i see.
Not even close.

It's a work in progress! I ran TZ Durance earlier and did the same. The trick is to run and not engage until you have them in a room, and then run in a circular Pattern back toward your merc and then turn and blow them all up.

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

For those who are on, and are interested, Th3ory, will be streaming tonight at May 11, 2025 1:45 AM   This timestamp has been automatically converted to your local date/time for convenience. The format is DD/MMM/YYYY, HH:MM am/pm. This is based off your browser time.

Link to his stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/warth3ory

This was very good looks. Had some stuff come up - also got tired from the day. But i'll be figuring out the streams for next week.

Th3ory wrote: 6 months ago

mhlg wrote: 6 months ago

For those who are on, and are interested, Th3ory, will be streaming tonight at May 11, 2025 1:45 AM   This timestamp has been automatically converted to your local date/time for convenience. The format is DD/MMM/YYYY, HH:MM am/pm. This is based off your browser time.

Link to his stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/warth3ory

This was very good looks. Had some stuff come up - also got tired from the day. But i'll be figuring out the streams for next week.

So the stream is cancelled?? Now where am I going to get new material for my GIFs?