All the past hcl seasons i've done, has been a learning journey. This season, it's all started to come together a bit.
Some goals i've always had during ladder seasons, are these:
1) First, make two characters and do quest bugged boss runs. This season, i made trap assassins. The burst of speed is such a time saver in normal, running faster. Wake of fire kills everything. Then cross-level both. This means, you run ahead with one, do an act, gain levels. Then the next character runs through that act, does the boss in a new game, does the next act, to build levels. This is most effective. Then the one character does diablo quest, while the other does quest bugged diablo runs, to build levels and gain items, at least until the level exp chart says it's time to move on. This character then runs through act 5 and does baal, while the other does quest bugged baal runs.
2) When i've reached nightmare quest bugged diabloruns, and built a good amount of items, i start making new characters, one of each class. This i've managed to do this season. It's a lot of work, to get them all through the acts. The act 3 travincal quest+stairs trick is a huge time saver. I get all the other 5 characters through that without finding the khalim's items. The fun part about this goal, is that when you start finding a lot of different items, and set items, you can then use these on any character and build. It keeps the game interesting apart from end-game grinding. All these characters are now at level 43, ready to do nightmare baalruns for leveling.
3) Make a good mule system. This i've also managed.
Another unspoken goal is of course no deaths, which i've also been lucky enough to accomplish .. so far. No lag spikes or such. Maybe one or two halfway close calls, but watching out for the common death traps (no pun lol) is essential.
Must have spent many hundred hours by now. Upon first reaching quest bugged hell diablo runs, the first ~40 runs i found almost nothing, which was demotivating and disparaging. Running 2 x trap assassins with sub-par gear, i used death traps all the time, about 1300 max lightning damage which was quite slow. Leveled the 6 new characters to end normal and level 43, which took a long time. Then took a break. Coming back, started doing quest bugged hell diablo runs again, finally the bad luck streak was broken, finding a 99% perfect griffon's eye.
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/3N4RqXsj/D2-42.png[/img]
That was a huge motivation factor. 10 more runs in, finding (sadly ^^) non-eth tomb reaver with 1 socket. However, diablo have now started dropping better gear, and i reskilled the assasssin to use more lightning traps, dealing ~5000 max lightning damage, which hugely improves cs run times. I also use mind blast to run past packs i don't feel i need to kill. The quest bugged diablo drops is what i'm mainly after.
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/hhGqwczk/D2-49.png[/img]
The tomb reaver is probably going to be used by my merc. Using eth partizan insight, giving unlimited mana for the traps. But he does die every now and then. Level 83 now, upon reaching 84, he will most likely follow suit quickly, it will be a huge damage+life leech upgrade. And the +undead% damage will be hugely beneficial. I hate potting, but i think i will actually put up with that for the extra merc benefit. I can switch two crafted rings with some resistances, for 2 x ~100 mana rings. Will try it out at least.
So that's been a great progress this season. 2 months in now, 4 months to next reset.