The Beginnings: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=78078904&f=161

So... Monster Hunter happended, bit PoE, then summer happened lol. But this is the beauty of SP, you play at your own pace. But here we are again, nothing better than some oldschool D2 when it gets cold.

I caught the flue last week & had time to waste... so yeah, GRRRIND. Let's get you guys up to date. I play the P8 and already done content at P3. Got Mephistp down but soon realised, that A4 was a bit too spicy for the current gear, especially when i met the whatstheirname, those red souls. The plan was right away, grind for the good stuff. Little by little i got gear together and gained confidence to finally give Dia a visit, but i set myself a goal: get a Shako first. WELP. Some great things happened, some weirdly disappointed (looking at you, old friend Lower Kurast)... but no Shako yet. So basically, no legit progress this old thread did not cover so far, just grrrriiind. Aight, let's get to i.t

Here is my current route: Outer cloister, set up a skele-squad, then walk to one of my favourite places, The Pit. Clear. Then Andy, Meph plus his buddies and finally L3 or L7 Lower Kurast.

Current gear:

Tarnhelm (grrr)
Spirit CS / Spirit Monarch
Trang gloves
Viper 22 (meh) - unupped
Waterwalk
Crappy rare amu +1 Nec with some res
Arach!
Ravenfrost
... and now wait for it: a fn SoJ from my homegirl Andy!
Naj's on switch


My loyal bodyguard Azrael (A2 might):

Gully
sexy eth upped Shaftstop
Insight eth Thresher (which i luckily found super early, see earlier pages here - incredible comfort item)

Before the shaft drop i was running Rattlecage and Crown of Thieves for cb/leech. I can do without leech because of the protecting mob and the tele, so i was happy that i got rid of Rattlecages flee effect.

I have one Curse & one Summoning skiller. For the next real progress chapters i have loooots of gems saved. Next to amethysts for crafting a Nec amu i'm planning on cubing charms in order to get skillers. No hassle with Baal charms or some, just to get plain Summoning skillers really. I'm still after the damn Shako though and as i keep running Pit (where everything could theoretically drop), i don't have the feeling that this grind chapter holds me back when it comes to efficiency really. Plus Lower Kurast of course. Which totally lets me down btw, sheeesh. Hours and nothing really but gems. Highlight was a really sex 20l 9lres small charm. Online LK has always been very good to me. Yeah, i'm one of those nuts people who run it, it's just really rewarding to get some of your stuff the right way imo.

Buuuut look at this, never had luck there before for some reason: wait, crap, i have the screenshot, but without loot on ground haha. Well, the Meph superchest, the one in the back, was good to me and rewarded me with a LO! I already have a eth bugged 4s Armor, a Wire Fleece. I kinda wait for a 3s currently to go Treachery and then when i have a 15ias xed jool for the Gully, well yeah that + Fortitude would be my optimal setup. I like my merch to have a quick first step after tele, so it's good to have an eth bugged light armor already. Maybe i can upgrade in def before i build Fortitude.

Ok, and here is the big banger. And i have to admit, here it gets a bit squishy. I have set the occurance very low... but i just had to try when the Clone suddenly walked. Thought i get shredded to pieces anyways. I did not and i fully admit, i did not fight him on P8 as i maybe should have. In fact i killed him twice now. Had to reform the skel army 2-3 times each, but it went smooth. Revives, too. Just one point in it, but it's enough, i will run Übers this way, too. I always have bad luck when i have the luxus to fight the Clone, even in this one ladder lately where he spawned publicly all the time. 13/19/9 and i was super happy already. I use to spawn him in A2 in a mob so i can bang the corpse explosion btw.
Well... then on an hour of Lower Kurast grind... this... happened.



About to spend some hours grinding now, have a look in here if you have an equally broing saturday night lol and follow the progress of the next hours!

Alright, time for a small update... Toothrow noneth, Earthshaker. Other stuff already in my collection (which is huuuge already, all molwned sets complete, got all (Cross)Bows except WF, so yeah i take time to put it all together, the crappy stuff, too).

Here we are now, one interesting drop. Eth Hauberk, 688def - which means it gets over 1k. As i said before, i want a light armor if i spend my LO for my merc. I got another 615def eth Hauberk. Maybe i get a great 1k Forti armor here, maaaybe - even handier perhaps at this point of the game - it is finally Treachery time if i get one to 3s. Got everything together right here, Tal Thil Topaz, let's do it live...

- 922 3s Great Hauberk - alright!!! The stinker already makes me a winner here. TREACHERY!

- 1032def 3s great Hauberk - aaaand it's an even better Treachery! Iiiii likes it.

Here' the thing though... in a summoner build, the Fade triggers not that well. CB from Gully stays a must. That means no leech and no reduced damage from eth Shaft anymore. There is a legit tradeoff here, make no mistake. We'll see... but as for now...



Hey sexy....

See, just b*tch a bit and things turn around... Lower Kurast, my 2nd Summoning Skiller! For sure a big one in SP. That being said, you still owe me min 1 HR, LK.

Otherwise nothing new, just a first impression of the new Treachery Merc: as expected, the Fade just won't trigger... but the IAS is such an update, Merc doesn't seem to suffer much from the loss of dmg reduction and 60l. Teleporting into Meph's council mob is always a good stress test and it works just fine... i draw first blood earlier and then comes the corpse explosion. Sweet! And now let's get at it again....

2-3 frustrating hours after the post last night, nothing really happened despite heavy grinding... just another eth Great Hauberk +1k. Aaaand just cubed, well... 2s. Yeah, i got the 4s Wire Fleece, but i just want to get over 1k for some reason. I know it makes no sense, because Fortitude reaches spheres of def were you're just more than set anyways, but yeah, it feels inferior somehow lol. At this point i'm happy with the Treachery anyways.

Got my coffee, 1h Lower Kurast now. Not sure what i'd do after the first BER(/JAH) drop to be honest... Beast or grind to get Enigma. I've gotten pretty used to Naj's now.

Sheeeesh, i got nothing, guys. Just a mean dryspell the last two days, grinding Lower Kurast. Not even a nice jool or sk, just tons of gems and a bitter taste in my mouth lol. I underestimated the hours and hours some of the SP guys here put in it and the luck i used to have in SCL. Not that i did not put quite some hours in it already, but yeah.
Back to Pit/Andy/Meph now, gotta make that Shako happen ffs and then progress to Diablo. Some updates coming over the next 2-3h i guess if you want to follow.

Aight, nothing relevant really after just eth-bugging a 1k Wyrmhide which got 2s. Some notable drops were:

- Jalals
- 2x 4s Pole (CV and a Thresher), non-eth - i collect some for the glory days in the future were i can run with a Insight Iron Golem. Days which might never come lol, looking at my LK loot.
- some nice SCs, but not for this Nec really, 11pres/3mf, 18l, 3mdmg/14ar/2-4 cold dmg and 2mdmg/14ar/5-11 fire dmg

Your merc needs obedience instead of insight.

Yeah, that's a good objection for sure... and i have a 5s eth pole on my priority list. Still at this point, running Andy/Meph/full Pit, well - the single dmg is fine for the bosskills, i got cb. Slow from golem, freeze from mages etc., it's good control. The biggest part of the routine is Pit by far obviously, so i want to spam the CE, that is the main damage source, wooosh... same when start to raise the skels in a new game, get to a mob, AD on them, merc draws first blood and then just blow them up. It's much more convenient and effective with Insight.
I think CS won't be that different, at least that's what i hope. Tele direct in front of Dia to avoid the sizzle and let the mob go to work with all its effects. Throne, yeah that's trouble. Also for Übers i'm thinking Crescent Moon, pull out Meph, then switch to Obedience for the other two. Maybe Whisp. But that's still a galaxy far far away right. For the casual stuff i'm thinking Insight Iron Golem as i mentioned before, so i in fact can get the best of both.
Thanks for reading and the good tip!

2-3 more runs and Keyser is level 90 btw. Eth bugged another 1k Great Hauberk - what is it with this base type in my run here btw - aaand it became another Treachery base i don't need. Got another Dusk but it won't make it to 1k. Some other drops involved Ocu and Titans noon-eth.
A slight change in my gear: i switched from Waterwalks (got 3 pairs now) to Treks which also dropped lately. The grind makes you sloppy sometimes, i always tele right in front of mobs to get the merc to make the first kill fast... so yeah, the FCR helps me a bit more than the life in the current routine. Just waiting for Marrowwalk basically.

The grind continues!
Got a nice 700def (->1050d eth-bugged) eth Wire Fleece here, let's put 4s in it "live", alright? Light armor, will this be my merc's Fortitude?

WELP... it's the fourth not needed Treachery base now. Not sure why, but i can feel the Shako drops is coming the next 1-2 hours, i'll keep you updated.