How many runs to find anything REALLY worthy?

[:1]I'm frustrated. After a lot of NM Meph runs the past few days (and I mean A LOT, 250+), the only thing I found worth to keep was a Pul rune from the Council and a few flawless. The rest? Just junk!

How many runs do I need to do to find something to keep/trade so I can build my wealth and afford the high end items?

I'm a lv79 pure lightning Sorc. Although I don�t have Infinity I�m killing much faster this way than my previous Meteorb. My current setup is:

Shako (was given by a kindly person)

Occy

Vipermagi

low Spirit Monarch (traded for my self-finded Pul)

Frostburn

low def rare Boots with some MF

Nightsmoke belt

Nokozan relic ammy

Wisp Projector (traded for my self-finded Pul)

low Nagelring

The only other possible useful item I have is a +3 skills/+17 light dmg Eschuta's that I was given too.

I keep seeing a lot you with 3-4 chars with RW/high end items doing Hell Baal/Chaos/Meph/whatever MF's, killing Ubers, tanking Uber Diablo and so on... It just seems not feasible to me...

What can I do? Do I keep running NM Meph/something else or do I just conform myself that I am an unlucky person?



BTW, it's worth mentioning that a friend helped me doing my Hell Hellforge. Guess what rune dropped? A Ko! |||Can meteorbs run the pit or chaos in hell? They tend to have more drops than NM meph.

Also doing area runs (lvl 85 areas espically) where you can nix a load of minions and boss packs quickly trumps running a boss for drops. Having MF out the face helps too. my set up was:

Shako - Ptopaz

Tal rashas amulet

Occy-ist

Tal rasha armor - Ist

Monarch 35

Trang-oul gloves

Tals belt

nagel 30x2

Some rare dual res boots w/mf

Gheeds and a handful of 7mf charms and a 20 res torch.

With this you'll have a decent cast rate breakpoint (105 I think), and ~ 500mf, just your reses are a bit poor in hell but you should get used to teleporting out of trouble (also reses can be fixed with charms).

I used to run: Ancient tunnerls, travincal, durance III, Choas sanctuary, Diablo, Countess, WSK 2-3-Throne.

But I was using a pure blizzard sorc. If you can manage it the pit is a great place to run, highest level area (85, on par with worldstone and chaos) and the enimies are easy to drop.

All in all you need some luck/paitence.

E: Another thing to mention is, if you can run the pit well and fast to run it in baal runs, more players = monsters drop more items (well roll more drops, they still hit 'nodrop' a lot), which increase the chance to hit something awesome, like a Jah rune, or elite unique item.|||You are wasting your time if you are still doing nightmare Meph runs with a L79 sorc using that equipment.

Yes, a pure lightning sorc kills non-LIs faster than a dual element sorc, but she sucks versus LIs if you are on a budget, so it's pretty tough to get things done on many occasions. Also, I don't think that there's a L85 area anywhere with no LIs... well, except for lucky monster combinations on WSK 1-3 and Throne Room.

If she was a meteorb sorc, she could do hell Meph+Andy runs (moat trick versus Meph, direct confrontation with Andy, without a merc) and Tunnels+Eldritch+Pindle easily (with a merc). Meteorb sorcs can do the CS and Diablo as well (and even Baal), but sometimes a seal boss will be cold+fire immune and then you have to revive your merc to get the job done.

Whatever, at this stage of the season it doesn't make sense to do Meph/Andy runs anymore because a lot of people already have more than enough of uniques on their mules which they would love to sell for a few pgems. It's better to collect gems and crafting/Spirit/higher runes as your everyday business and buy your gear with them. These bread and butter gems and runes already drop in nightmare, but it's the awesome finds which might make you rich and most of it will drop in hell mode, in particular in high-level areas.|||I would say switch back to a meteorb sorc, stick an Insight on your merc and some high def armor and do area clears. Drop your MF down as low as it will go and look for socketables, runes, and gems. Also look for magic items with the Jeweler's mod, those are worth big bucks.

I run these and get some pretty good wealth:

Cows

Pits

Moseleum

Countess

Andy

Summoner

Meph

Pindle/Shenk/Eldritch

And then when I feel daring or want to toss it up I do Chaos Runs. Thought to beat the F/C immunes you need a good merc. I use Insight/Stone/Guilleme's on mine.|||@RlyehExiled: That's my problem, I can't afford Tal's ammy/armor. The Ists to socket into them are a distant dream.

You said you used a pure Blizzard. Can she do well in those areas? There's not a lot of CI there?

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@krischan: I took some runs in Pits and there's no LI in 3/4 of games, at least in lvl 1. In lvl 2 there's always that pesky Fanaticism Archers that are LI and 1-shot me and my merc.

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@Asrrin: I'm aware of those areas but I still can't manage to kill fast or even survive long enough. With my current gear my resistances are in the 30-ish (hey, at least they are positive).



As the ladder is about to reset I'll spend my 2 remaing respec to see how does a Meteorb (again) and a pure Blizzard MF'ing those areas.

I hope to have better luck in the next ladder. :)

Thank you guys for you answers.|||IMHO

Build pure blizz. Go run meph Hell (It is said a blizz sorc invented the moat trick, wink wink), run the tunnels at burial ground (dont remember which one, google it) and the tunnels in lost city. They are both lvl 85 areas, no cold immunes and easy to run.

Thank me later.|||Meteorb is obsolete, make a blizz/fb or pure blizz, as they are much more powerful.

Asrrin: MF will never significantly reduce the number of socketables you'll find, with 1000 mf you'll find the odds of finding a unique item double, which is still rather small compared to the chance of finding a white/grey item.|||Add hell countess to your run (or trade for a nature's peace and add all the key bosses)

Countess will get you spirit runes and rals in a steady stream (as well as the occasional ist), keys can be traded for decent stuff, and there's no LIs.|||If you have little to no res, Cows is the best thing you can farm. Keep teleporting to reposition yourself and your merc, and unload your spells, pretty much any halfway decent sorc can take down cows en masse. And they are great for runes and socketables.|||Quote:








@RlyehExiled: That's my problem, I can't afford Tal's ammy/armor. The Ists to socket into them are a distant dream.

You said you used a pure Blizzard. Can she do well in those areas? There's not a lot of CI there?




The ist in the armor can be a perfect topaz, and Tals set costs ist for all the peices. You can make an ist easy enough by collecting junk jewels (40 -> ist) or Pgems (40-> ist)

She can do meph, tunnels, andy and WSK easy enough, chaos she can't acctually kill oblivion knights, I ethier ignore them or let the merc tank them. My mercs only using insight, ebugged trechery and crown of thieves, so nice budjet set up and he does fine. (Lord de sies's boss pack kills him enough, but thats doom knights with fanatasm for you)