Stats finishing NM

So I'm nowhere near ready to enter Hell comfortably. I need to think about what I'm going to MF for and probably just run a bunch of NM Meph. If anyone has any suggestions let me know, but here is some of the stuff I am hoping to find:
Raven Frost - a must
Pul rune to upgrade ribcracker - a must
Complete Treachery for merc (already have Lem)
Probably vamp gaze or 2
hone sundan for merc
maybe shaftstop also
war travs?

Does anyone know how effective the 15% ctc Dim Vision on Gloom runeword is? I'm thinking about stacking DR with shaft/gaze or shaft/string and running Hell countess to make a Gloom. Not really sure which other armors to use early Hell and I'll need the res. The Dim Vision could be nice. Another concern is that I'd really like to save my 3 socket quests for Ik Armor, Reaper's Toll, and Gface on merc. But I'm afraid that without a Shael, an upgraded Ribcracker just won't cut it for surviving/farming in hell. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get by with just an unsocketed Ribcracker, but if my damage is too crap, I'll have to sacrifice one of my merc's sockets to shael a ribby. Anyone have experience with vanilla mace barbs early hell?

Yikes! Not ready for Hell.


Less than 5 mins and I rolled this insane map! One single teleport brings me directly to level 3. No running involved. I like teleporting across meph's moat rather than Leaping over also, because it brings merc with you. This means that I spend 4220 gold (2 teleports) per run. Easily manageable for the time it saves. Just need to get some CB for merc again so he can really help!


First of what will surely be several thousand NM Meph runs! So far I have 183% MF but I'm still using Smoke and Infernostride. After a few hundred runs I should have more MF but be weaker. And then a few hundred runs after that I should be able to maintain a higher MF and still be strong. After that it's just NM Meph runs until my patience runs out.


And here I go! Nothing to do today but Meph runs

Meph is about to have a very bad day!!

If I were you, I would test out hell mode carefully. If you can get by, and make it to Andariel, I would focus on getting a good map there and do quest bugged Andy runs in hell mode. It just gives amazing drops, it's worth striving for.

Let's hope so about 8 runs in so farlol.



I can assure you that I am not ready for that. I have enough trouble in NM. I may hit up Hell Andy eventually, but I'm not ready yet! I play pretty carelessly and also zone out a lot. I need to be more than prepared before even entering Hell Blood Moor. Thanks for advice but I'm going to run NM Meph a few thousand times first Ideally I'd like to get nice enough gear from NM Meph to shoot straight to Hell Meph, then use 5-piece IK + Gloom or some other armor depending on resistance needs to run Pit or AT for IK armor.

I understand :) I've played HC a lot, but not so much with a Barbarian. I know it's difficult ... so i understand your caution.

Cool name too ^^ André the giant is a cool guy!

I ended up dueling on bnet most of the day and evening! :'( But I did have some time to get some MF runs done last night and ongoing! I have found one item from my ISO list so far :D!

Non-eth headstriker


Infernos gone. 208% mf now.


Eth boneslayer

218% MF


Whaddaya know, first set ammy off NM Meph is Angelic's in my fav graphic

Will prob swap to these if I find Skullder's


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I accidentally clicked Normal mode and forgot that you could just Ctrl Alt Delete out of D2 to get your old map back! I should have remembered since this happens to me all the time. So I lost me 1-tele map!


This post was edited by Belarathon on Apr 13 2020 07:21pm