Ok, in practice it takes me far too long to kill elites in MP10.

With that in mind, will there be a run in 1.0.8 where you can get 3-4 stacks simply with resplendent chests while killing trash mobs on the way, and then run the efficient areas? Once you hit MP7-8 the monster health scales enough that killing elites will be quicker, but I am just curious about the idea.

Any input on what acts would be best? Obviously Act 4 is out, and Act 3 didn't really see too many changes. I expect to see the most "reliable" dungeons in Act 2, but Act 1 could prove doable as well.

Thoughts? Any specific runs you think would be quickest and most reliable?

Quickest for Resplendent chests? Act 3 has the frozen caves every time and it's a pretty straightforward dungeon assuming you can avoid the 4-5 elite packs. One problem with every Resplendent Chest in a dungeon is that you need to be able to warp out and it's possible you'll have an elite pack on your tail.

There's rarely a Chest in the depths and that first battlefield area is guaranteed to have a dungeon, but I'm not certain if that dungeon is absolutely guaranteed to have a chest. I think you'll have a hard time coming up with consistent source of Resplendent chests in any given act.

Looking solo, MP 7-8 killing elite packs seems like a much more realistic run for people that can't crush MP10. In multiplayer, a good Ubers group never seems to have trouble taking out the MP10 elite packs except for the worst or the worst affixes so it might not be unreasonable to expect to run 5 elite packs on MP10 with a good crew.

To be fair, doing MP7-8 with a good group of people seems like the ideal farm method at least for me, but yet again I am a man who prefers a method in which you can kill whites and elites as fast as possible rather than wasting time on a pack.

The more I talk about it, the more it seems great in theory, terrible in practice. I should probably just regear or run a lower MP. Most dungeons would supply all 5 stacks given you were able to kill the elites, and then just could run big open areas skipping all the elites and just mowing down trash.

That's what I believe will be the most efficient in getting to paragon level 100 after 1.0.8 hits.

The next trick will be to find the densest areas in the game with the new density improvements.

I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time mining for the best runs right now, because there's going to be at least one PTR patch. They have a lot of knobs and levers to switch which could kill or add XP runs. If nothing else, they could be looking to nerf the best runs and boost the worst Act, anyway.

I would be concerned about them shifting the NV bonus, because they could justifiably move it to 10% per stack or even increase it to 20% per stack if they really want to push making elites worth killing.

I would love to seem them tweak NV entirely. Like drop all NV stack bonuses to 10% per stack, but allow a maximum of 10 stacks (with 5 stacks remaining the cutoff for Keys, guaranteed rares, etc). I haven't heard of any talk about that, but it would be interesting. Better yet, I'd love to see them allow something like 50 stacks, but have any stacks over 5 only give 2 or 3% bonus to XP/MF/GF. Game clears, instead of act clears could result in 50 stacks by Act 4 and would result in a 1.7-2.1 multiplier bonus.

The could move the multiplayer bonus to 20% or something to further encourage multiplayer. They could move the monster HP bonus from 50% back up to 70%.

They'll probably tweak the density, too, based on a blue comment asking about whether monsters too evenly clumped or spaced?

I wouldn't spend a lot of time on determining XP runs until the first 1.0.8 PTR hits.

Has anyone tried MP 10 Hell Acts 3/4? I know Paragon characters earn experience in Hell, because I've had characters at P1 enter Inferno for the first time. The drops would be worthless, because they'll rarely drop ilvl 61+ items, but I'm wondering if a full MP10 5 stack bonus XP could actually make up enough ground to make it competitive with MP1 Inferno, for instance. Given the CC and LS reductions for Inferno vs. Hell, MP 10 Hell might be less dangerous than MP 1 Inferno. MP 8-10 Hell runs could be huge for HC Paragon leveling.

In theory, it could be so much less dangerous, you could run Cain's Set, Hellfire and a Signet making up even more of the XP deficit. With the NV as a multiplier, +50-60% on gear ends up being worth +88-105% XP. Act IV isn't all that bad for monster density and having NV stacks go across acts, the terrible elite density doesn't matter.

Posted by nuhertz at 04/11/2013 06:36 AM

Ok, in practice it takes me far too long to kill elites in MP10.

With that in mind, will there be a run in 1.0.8 where you can get 3-4 stacks simply with resplendent chests while killing trash mobs on the way, and then run the efficient areas? Once you hit MP7-8 the monster health scales enough that killing elites will be quicker, but I am just curious about the idea.

Any input on what acts would be best? Obviously Act 4 is out, and Act 3 didn't really see too many changes. I expect to see the most "reliable" dungeons in Act 2, but Act 1 could prove doable as well.

Thoughts? Any specific runs you think would be quickest and most reliable?

From what I have been experiencing on the PTR with MP10 and Elites are pretty... well weak. Remember HP was dropped by 30% by each player, not sure if that includes yourself also. Alot of people on General were stating that MP8 now feels like MP1 and that their "120k dps monk is doing MP10 like a boss". When I brought @yoyo on the PTR to test exp out, mobs/elites would die in no time. Granted, we are both overgeared in this stage of the game with 250k unbuffed each.

If they plan to Nerf Shadow Realm, I plan to just do the Festering Woods (5 stacks) then do all the big zones like Caverns of A/Highlands/Weeping Hollow/Halls of Agony.

Just curious, is Act 1 now distinctly better than Act 3 or is everyone spending so much time in Act 1 because everyone is so sick of Act 3?

Is Act 2 (outside of Shadown Realm exploit) decent? In your opinion(s), could there exist a sufficient reward for consecutive Act clears to make it worthwhile to clear Acts 1 and 2? Item reward? Experience reward? "Super NV Act stack" for each Act cleared giving a substantial XP% boost for each consecutive Act cleared?

I was able to verify that the NV stacks act as a multiplier in Hell difficulty. While it wasn't particularly fast, I did gain notable experience in Hell Act 3 MP10. It was only about 30% of what I gained in Inferno MP 2 on the same run, but I can tell you that the change in LS alone makes Hell MP 10 a breeze compared to Inferno MP 2. You're stuck with Act 3 and 4 in Hell due to XP scaling from mlvls (and the pack density doesn't change until Inferno, anyway).

For HC players that just want to get up to plvl 10 or something before they start farming, Hell Act 3 seems like a viable way to go. No items or Tomes, though, so you're giving up a ton of Gold in exchange for that additional layer of safety.

I started doing Crypt of the Ancients runs with a group a couple nights ago and think that doing those runs on MP10 will be really good in the new patch since they're already pretty good. I was able to finish off my last level to get 100 on my wizard doing those and I felt that it was quicker than my usually act three route I would do on my own. Plus it was just a lot more fun to just do some mindless runs while shooting the shit with other people. The drops weren't bad either.