My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/Diablo2LoD.html
Alan 'Siyko' Burnett's 100% run as the Sorceress
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's an amazing run, even the guy who rejected thought so.
P.S. For anyone who is wondering about the missing segment, the video has been reencoded with the segment included.
Alan 'Siyko' Burnett's 100% run as the Sorceress
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Well I've verified it...
I hope I did a good job.
If you have any comments about my verification I'll be glad to hear it.
Here it is:
Diablo 2: LoD 100% Speedrun Verification /w no deaths
Video/Sound Quality:
The quality of the sound and video are good, except for the second segment, where it’s kinda bad, also the sound in the first segment is crunchy, but overall the quality is good.
The FPS counter from FRAPS does appear in the beginning (sometimes) when he selects his character, which is a bit weird, but probably just a software bug in the program or something.
Also find it a tad annoying that he uses v1.11 for the first segment and v1.12 for the rest, but I guess he didn’t want to redo the first segment considering how well it went. It also seems there isn’t any noticeable game play difference between v1.11 and v1.12, however this could create some confusion when watching the run.
The Run:
I’m not going to comment on every segment separately, because there are so many of them and there are quite a few town segment in there that really need no commenting.
The beginning of the run was quite good, but as the game progressed I kept noticing more (small) mistakes and a couple ones I found annoying to watch.
In the beginning he actually finds a 10% faster cast rate ring in the beginning, but it’s sold, because the money is needed for the potions.
Finds a very useful orb, which to my surprise wasn’t equiped immediately, even though it had +1 to charged bolt. (although he did equip it soon after)
Sometimes walks a little bit in the wrong direction and/or can’t find a good mob, but again it’s nothing too much.
Liked the chosen runewords and timing when to lvl up sometimes.
Do think he should of tried getting a better staff to use the runeword in, preferably one that already had +firebolt stats (or maybe an ice skill) or something. If I’m not mistaken those stats stay on the staff even after using the runeword.
All in all I really liked the beginning, with all the runes gathering/creating runewords and such, shows it was thought through.
However later on in the game the mistakes pile up imho.
Sometimes leaves items on the ground that could have been useful. This doesn’t happen too often and considering they could turn out to be crappy it’s not that big of a deal. Although, he does sometimes leave staffs on the ground that could have given him some money.
As for the items he uses, there are some, very good, gambled items used. It does indicate he thought it through and getting good gear can save a lot of time.
However, the belt and gauntlets he uses seem to be (totally) useless and even cost him points in strength.
The gauntlets do absolutely nothing except give him very few defence and give him 10 strength, but considering this item has the highest strength requirement (together with the belt) it really seems like a useless feature. The belt doesn’t have great stats either (some FHR and some resistances, it’s not bad, but I wouldn’t call it good) and worse even, also needs 60 strength to carry. Why he didn’t just took a demonhide sash and imbued it in 1st act of nightmare is beyond me, I think he could of even gotten more/better stats out of it that way. Not to mention pick up some of the rare gloves/gauntlets found and use them instead of the gloves he uses now (because they basically do absolutely nothing). The defence (on the gloves) is pitiful already so that really wouldn’t do any difference. There could have easily been spared 15 (or more) stat points in strength and those could have been divided under vitality/energy and maybe even some more space in the inventory, by not needing those + strength charms.
It’s odd to see him going through such lengths to get good gambled items, but something as simple as that completely ignores.
At a certain point (segment 89) he gambles a circlet and replaces it with his current headgear, which had +10 to strength in it because of the socketed amethyst. Because his gauntlets have +10 to strength the ability of the gauntlets make sure he can actually still wear them (the gauntlets and the belt).
However the next segment he can’t wear them anymore (they have a red background in his inventory screen). So all of those stats (that are on the belt and gloves) are lost then. He solves this by putting some extra stat points in strength. I also find this very sloppy and again the whole problem could have been avoided if he just went for a demonhide sash or something.
There are some parts where he gets cold and fire immunes that he cannot kill and has to let his merc do the killing. Most of these battles don’t cost too much time, except for the fight against the council, which is just horrible. It takes almost 4 minutes for the merc to finish him off and is extremely boring to watch. Considering the way he distributed his points in the skills there isn’t much more he can do about it. Wondering why (or if) he didn’t take this into account and if he could have been more prepared for this. (Other skills/stronger merc etc.)
Off course the part where he needs to correct his stash and gold in order to make up for the differences is segments is just stupid to watch. If you don’t know whats going on. It looks as if he’s going haywire. Also the fact he still needs to complete 1 quest in nightmare doesn't really win the beauty pageant (and yes it also costs time).
Upon finding the pul rune he could have tried going for the Enlightenment runeword which give +2 to sorc skills and +1 to warmth among with some other stats. Not sure if this eventually would have saved him time, (he would have done some substantial more dmg with his orb) because he loses some FCR (faster cast rate), maybe could have switched gears at the very end for finishing off the last mobs. Although he was missing 1 rune, so getting that also costs some time. So all in all not really sure if it would have saved any time.
There are other small mistakes like not using the skill/stats immediately when lvl’d up (even if it is save to do so). Some fights were a bit sloppy, but that is to be expected of such a large run. There are also some parts, he uses to level up, where I wonder if it was really needed and if it would be faster if he did them in a later stage. (levelling in act3 normal e.g.)
One more thing is that his merc, near the ending becomes almost completely useless. Now I’m not sure about this, but if I’m not mistaken the merc actually takes some of the XP you’re suppose to get and adds it to his. So that would mean levelling with a merc will make you lvl up slower. So one could wonder if levelling without a merc would have been better. I’m however not sure about this, so I’m not going to take this into consideration.
All in all this run is actually pretty nice, but this game still has a substantial fan base, with some very good players and I believe a speed run of this game should have (very) high standards.
With that being said I was really doubting about what my judgement should be about this run.
There are some very, very good things done in this run that I was really impressed about, but considering all the errors I think it’s just too much. I believe this run can be done (considerably) better/faster.
Doubting about rejecting such a run or not can never be a good thing, so after all that I’ll have to say this run is a reject for me.
However I can’t help but wander if I was too strict and seeing as how most people reacted to the run I’m guessing I’ll be the only one rejecting it.
I hope I did a good job.
If you have any comments about my verification I'll be glad to hear it.
Here it is:
Diablo 2: LoD 100% Speedrun Verification /w no deaths
Video/Sound Quality:
The quality of the sound and video are good, except for the second segment, where it’s kinda bad, also the sound in the first segment is crunchy, but overall the quality is good.
The FPS counter from FRAPS does appear in the beginning (sometimes) when he selects his character, which is a bit weird, but probably just a software bug in the program or something.
Also find it a tad annoying that he uses v1.11 for the first segment and v1.12 for the rest, but I guess he didn’t want to redo the first segment considering how well it went. It also seems there isn’t any noticeable game play difference between v1.11 and v1.12, however this could create some confusion when watching the run.
The Run:
I’m not going to comment on every segment separately, because there are so many of them and there are quite a few town segment in there that really need no commenting.
The beginning of the run was quite good, but as the game progressed I kept noticing more (small) mistakes and a couple ones I found annoying to watch.
In the beginning he actually finds a 10% faster cast rate ring in the beginning, but it’s sold, because the money is needed for the potions.
Finds a very useful orb, which to my surprise wasn’t equiped immediately, even though it had +1 to charged bolt. (although he did equip it soon after)
Sometimes walks a little bit in the wrong direction and/or can’t find a good mob, but again it’s nothing too much.
Liked the chosen runewords and timing when to lvl up sometimes.
Do think he should of tried getting a better staff to use the runeword in, preferably one that already had +firebolt stats (or maybe an ice skill) or something. If I’m not mistaken those stats stay on the staff even after using the runeword.
All in all I really liked the beginning, with all the runes gathering/creating runewords and such, shows it was thought through.
However later on in the game the mistakes pile up imho.
Sometimes leaves items on the ground that could have been useful. This doesn’t happen too often and considering they could turn out to be crappy it’s not that big of a deal. Although, he does sometimes leave staffs on the ground that could have given him some money.
As for the items he uses, there are some, very good, gambled items used. It does indicate he thought it through and getting good gear can save a lot of time.
However, the belt and gauntlets he uses seem to be (totally) useless and even cost him points in strength.
The gauntlets do absolutely nothing except give him very few defence and give him 10 strength, but considering this item has the highest strength requirement (together with the belt) it really seems like a useless feature. The belt doesn’t have great stats either (some FHR and some resistances, it’s not bad, but I wouldn’t call it good) and worse even, also needs 60 strength to carry. Why he didn’t just took a demonhide sash and imbued it in 1st act of nightmare is beyond me, I think he could of even gotten more/better stats out of it that way. Not to mention pick up some of the rare gloves/gauntlets found and use them instead of the gloves he uses now (because they basically do absolutely nothing). The defence (on the gloves) is pitiful already so that really wouldn’t do any difference. There could have easily been spared 15 (or more) stat points in strength and those could have been divided under vitality/energy and maybe even some more space in the inventory, by not needing those + strength charms.
It’s odd to see him going through such lengths to get good gambled items, but something as simple as that completely ignores.
At a certain point (segment 89) he gambles a circlet and replaces it with his current headgear, which had +10 to strength in it because of the socketed amethyst. Because his gauntlets have +10 to strength the ability of the gauntlets make sure he can actually still wear them (the gauntlets and the belt).
However the next segment he can’t wear them anymore (they have a red background in his inventory screen). So all of those stats (that are on the belt and gloves) are lost then. He solves this by putting some extra stat points in strength. I also find this very sloppy and again the whole problem could have been avoided if he just went for a demonhide sash or something.
There are some parts where he gets cold and fire immunes that he cannot kill and has to let his merc do the killing. Most of these battles don’t cost too much time, except for the fight against the council, which is just horrible. It takes almost 4 minutes for the merc to finish him off and is extremely boring to watch. Considering the way he distributed his points in the skills there isn’t much more he can do about it. Wondering why (or if) he didn’t take this into account and if he could have been more prepared for this. (Other skills/stronger merc etc.)
Off course the part where he needs to correct his stash and gold in order to make up for the differences is segments is just stupid to watch. If you don’t know whats going on. It looks as if he’s going haywire. Also the fact he still needs to complete 1 quest in nightmare doesn't really win the beauty pageant (and yes it also costs time).
Upon finding the pul rune he could have tried going for the Enlightenment runeword which give +2 to sorc skills and +1 to warmth among with some other stats. Not sure if this eventually would have saved him time, (he would have done some substantial more dmg with his orb) because he loses some FCR (faster cast rate), maybe could have switched gears at the very end for finishing off the last mobs. Although he was missing 1 rune, so getting that also costs some time. So all in all not really sure if it would have saved any time.
There are other small mistakes like not using the skill/stats immediately when lvl’d up (even if it is save to do so). Some fights were a bit sloppy, but that is to be expected of such a large run. There are also some parts, he uses to level up, where I wonder if it was really needed and if it would be faster if he did them in a later stage. (levelling in act3 normal e.g.)
One more thing is that his merc, near the ending becomes almost completely useless. Now I’m not sure about this, but if I’m not mistaken the merc actually takes some of the XP you’re suppose to get and adds it to his. So that would mean levelling with a merc will make you lvl up slower. So one could wonder if levelling without a merc would have been better. I’m however not sure about this, so I’m not going to take this into consideration.
All in all this run is actually pretty nice, but this game still has a substantial fan base, with some very good players and I believe a speed run of this game should have (very) high standards.
With that being said I was really doubting about what my judgement should be about this run.
There are some very, very good things done in this run that I was really impressed about, but considering all the errors I think it’s just too much. I believe this run can be done (considerably) better/faster.
Doubting about rejecting such a run or not can never be a good thing, so after all that I’ll have to say this run is a reject for me.
However I can’t help but wander if I was too strict and seeing as how most people reacted to the run I’m guessing I’ll be the only one rejecting it.
Quote:
Personally, I had a lot of problems with the audio not syncing properly. This was especially apparent within the first hour or so of the run. I understand this is not necessarily the "final" version, but it was somewhat annoying at times.
I'll try not to criticize every little mistake, although, there were times where I feel that the runner could have worked harder to memorize where he needed to go. However, some leeway should be allowed, as D2 maps are fairly difficult to navigate, even when the way is known.
As for the inconsistency at the end of Nightmare, it's fairly minor, in my opinion, and the runner goes to extra efforts to correct it, which results in no advantage whatsoever, and a loss of time. Therefore, I see it as acceptable, as the runner would have been in the same position without the inconsistency.
Overall analysis:
Video: The quality was about as good as you're going to get while watching someone play Diablo 2. All the onscreen text was easy to read, and everything appeared clear.
Audio: Despite having problems with it syncing up to the video, the audio quality itself was exactly how it is while playing the game. No complaints here.
Gameplay: There's an insane amount of randomness in Diablo 2. Even while playing perfectly, random things can just go wrong and totally screw you over. However, the runner played very well while maintaining a quick pace throughout the entire run, even in Hell which is extremely difficult even at a level much higher than what the runner was at. Just beating Hell solo is in itself an amazing accomplishment, let alone beating it in slightly over an hour.
Decision: Assuming it is properly inserted, I say accept the run.
I'll try not to criticize every little mistake, although, there were times where I feel that the runner could have worked harder to memorize where he needed to go. However, some leeway should be allowed, as D2 maps are fairly difficult to navigate, even when the way is known.
As for the inconsistency at the end of Nightmare, it's fairly minor, in my opinion, and the runner goes to extra efforts to correct it, which results in no advantage whatsoever, and a loss of time. Therefore, I see it as acceptable, as the runner would have been in the same position without the inconsistency.
Overall analysis:
Video: The quality was about as good as you're going to get while watching someone play Diablo 2. All the onscreen text was easy to read, and everything appeared clear.
Audio: Despite having problems with it syncing up to the video, the audio quality itself was exactly how it is while playing the game. No complaints here.
Gameplay: There's an insane amount of randomness in Diablo 2. Even while playing perfectly, random things can just go wrong and totally screw you over. However, the runner played very well while maintaining a quick pace throughout the entire run, even in Hell which is extremely difficult even at a level much higher than what the runner was at. Just beating Hell solo is in itself an amazing accomplishment, let alone beating it in slightly over an hour.
Decision: Assuming it is properly inserted, I say accept the run.
Quote:
This run shows an amazing amount of skill and knowledge of the game mechanics. There were only a few problems that I saw, including the "big one" of having to replace segments 95 and 96. It turns out though that this is not much of a problem, since he took the time to correct it, and is even actually worse off exp wise in the later segment.
The only gameplay problems I've seen in the run is that sometimes unnecessary spellcasting and misteleporting happens, but this is hard to avoid when the spells are being thrown around like he has to in order to get these times. Also, sometimes he takes a bit long to find what he is looking for (because of a new area that hasn't been mapped yet). This is only a mistake I believe in segment 29, where he wasted some time looking for the Valley of Snakes - since this was at the very beginning of the segment, that time could have come down. At first I was skeptical about not having the full (no disc switching install) running, so you have to cancel the disc switch dialog box, but it turns out when I tried this myself it is usually faster than waiting for the cinematic to load and clicking out of it.
Overall, even with some of the video issues and the replacement of two segments, I feel like this run should be posted. This is a really shining example of mastery of a game, and I don't think it will be easily repeatable by anyone. The route (especially experience) planning was spot on, and the ambition of doing a complete run of this game is hard to match.
The only gameplay problems I've seen in the run is that sometimes unnecessary spellcasting and misteleporting happens, but this is hard to avoid when the spells are being thrown around like he has to in order to get these times. Also, sometimes he takes a bit long to find what he is looking for (because of a new area that hasn't been mapped yet). This is only a mistake I believe in segment 29, where he wasted some time looking for the Valley of Snakes - since this was at the very beginning of the segment, that time could have come down. At first I was skeptical about not having the full (no disc switching install) running, so you have to cancel the disc switch dialog box, but it turns out when I tried this myself it is usually faster than waiting for the cinematic to load and clicking out of it.
Overall, even with some of the video issues and the replacement of two segments, I feel like this run should be posted. This is a really shining example of mastery of a game, and I don't think it will be easily repeatable by anyone. The route (especially experience) planning was spot on, and the ambition of doing a complete run of this game is hard to match.
Quote:
Comments:
Finished watching this.. makes two times, since I've been following Siyko's progress on youtube.
The red life bubble was nearly emptied far too many times to count, but in context, this almost certainly means he escaped death as many times, without it slowing him down.
In particular, he made good use of ice spells to keep enemies away before getting to level 30. I also liked the tricks with telekinesis, although he could've used it a bit more later on since most of the things he looted were potions.
Very few errors - a couple of wrong turns while teleporting, nothing significant, apart from trouble with parking Lister.
However, there is a major discontinuity between segments 134 and 135 (135 starts at about 4:07:20) - the merc is alive (he died fighting Hephasto in 134), talking to Tyrael doesn't award the 2 skill points for killing Izual, the inventory is different.. and later I saw that cold mastery had 2 more points in it that I didn't see assigned.
I'd guess there was, or was supposed to be an intermediate segment where some stuff got sold to pay for reviving the merc, and where those points were assigned to cold mastery. Where did it go?
Segment specific:
1 - The sound was really loud, this is addressed in the comments.
2 - The sound was really... quiet. No sound problems after this one.
10 - Took a door to nowhere in catacombs 1, maybe looking for bosses?
16 - Might've saved a little mana by touching the exp shrine rather than tk-ing it, since he ran pretty close to it in this and other Far Oasis leveling segments.
29 - Hit a dead end while teleporting through Lost City.
31 - One of few times I've seen Duriel drop anything good.
53-58 - Every time he fought Lister, the merc died... except in 58, where the merc was dead before that. Poor guy.
61 - "Puke Pus the Sharp", haha. These guys have such bizarre names. I've seen a "Puke Feast" before..
65 - The number of bosses fought makes nightmare look like hell (but without all the immunities, hah).
89 - The comments don't say this, but many uniques were sold off, including the Tarnhelm in this segment.
He did keep the Kelpie Snare, at least.
101 - Unlucky merc death, just before the menu appeared. Hell was designed specifically to kill mercenaries, I think.
115 - Watching this segment calls to mind the sound of an airplane passing by overhead.
135 - See note above about the discontinuity.
149 - The mercenary dies for his 31st and final time. Rest in peace.
Finished watching this.. makes two times, since I've been following Siyko's progress on youtube.
The red life bubble was nearly emptied far too many times to count, but in context, this almost certainly means he escaped death as many times, without it slowing him down.
In particular, he made good use of ice spells to keep enemies away before getting to level 30. I also liked the tricks with telekinesis, although he could've used it a bit more later on since most of the things he looted were potions.
Very few errors - a couple of wrong turns while teleporting, nothing significant, apart from trouble with parking Lister.
However, there is a major discontinuity between segments 134 and 135 (135 starts at about 4:07:20) - the merc is alive (he died fighting Hephasto in 134), talking to Tyrael doesn't award the 2 skill points for killing Izual, the inventory is different.. and later I saw that cold mastery had 2 more points in it that I didn't see assigned.
I'd guess there was, or was supposed to be an intermediate segment where some stuff got sold to pay for reviving the merc, and where those points were assigned to cold mastery. Where did it go?
Segment specific:
1 - The sound was really loud, this is addressed in the comments.
2 - The sound was really... quiet. No sound problems after this one.
10 - Took a door to nowhere in catacombs 1, maybe looking for bosses?
16 - Might've saved a little mana by touching the exp shrine rather than tk-ing it, since he ran pretty close to it in this and other Far Oasis leveling segments.
29 - Hit a dead end while teleporting through Lost City.
31 - One of few times I've seen Duriel drop anything good.
53-58 - Every time he fought Lister, the merc died... except in 58, where the merc was dead before that. Poor guy.
61 - "Puke Pus the Sharp", haha. These guys have such bizarre names. I've seen a "Puke Feast" before..
65 - The number of bosses fought makes nightmare look like hell (but without all the immunities, hah).
89 - The comments don't say this, but many uniques were sold off, including the Tarnhelm in this segment.
101 - Unlucky merc death, just before the menu appeared. Hell was designed specifically to kill mercenaries, I think.
115 - Watching this segment calls to mind the sound of an airplane passing by overhead.
135 - See note above about the discontinuity.
149 - The mercenary dies for his 31st and final time. Rest in peace.
Quote:
Segment 2 recorded at a much lower volume than the other segments; video and audio fine otherwise.
The massive effort here speaks for itself. Accept.
The massive effort here speaks for itself. Accept.
Quote:
Verifier: segment 2's audio was almost completely unaudible, but since he made no mention of that in his comments I'm not sure if that's a fluke or an encoding error or what
Verifier: worse than going from normal TV to DVD, it's that kind of quiet
Verifier: overall, the run was very very good
Verifier: but there's two sticking points (one I can't explain away), and one which needs to be addressed
Verifier: during his leveling sessions in nightmare act 2, he uses a nice trick to speak to Warriv to get to act 1, then use that waypoint to get closer to the exit at the beginning of act 2
Verifier: normally, when you talk to an NPC, they give a speech for the first time
Verifier: but watching the run, talking to Warriv every time gave a speech
Verifier: he quickly skipped it, but the speech was there
Verifier: that should've only happened the first time
Verifier: beyond that, there is a glaring omission (not including that PM)
Verifier: during the Ancients fight on hell, he rerolled the Ancients to get better immunities/resistances, which he should've
Verifier: but to reroll, he needs to warp to town, he simply created the portal
Verifier: it looks as though the act of going to town was omitted
Me: you're wrong about the second one
Me: I used to play the game online
Me: and you reroll ancients by just creating a portal
Me: I'll ask the runner about the first thing though
Verifier: I've created portals on the summit though, why didn't they reroll for me?
Verifier: safety precautions in case I died horribly (which if I play, is quite often)
Me: I don't know
Me: I remember playing back in 1.10
Me: and we always cast a portal if one of the ancients were fire enchanted
Verifier: hmmm
Me: because it was bugged and killed you ridiculously fast
Verifier: well, the movie isn't jumping
Verifier: so it's not doctored
Verifier: I've never had that happen to me though, which is why I brought it up
Verifier: other than that, this is an excellent run, except for the Toorc fight on Hell
Verifier: snooze fest gallore
Verifier: I did have a small issue with him not getting the Travincal waypoint on nightmare, since he revisited the area with no portal
Me: well 100% is all quests, not all waypoints
Verifier: the only issue I have with it is that he could've used that to get to the Durrance of Hate 10-15 seconds faster than he did on his revisit
Verifier: overall, this is an excellent run
Me: ah okay
Verifier: I'm leaning heavily towards accept
Verifier: well, that makes me an idiot
Verifier: I just tried the portal on the summit
Verifier: worse than going from normal TV to DVD, it's that kind of quiet
Verifier: overall, the run was very very good
Verifier: but there's two sticking points (one I can't explain away), and one which needs to be addressed
Verifier: during his leveling sessions in nightmare act 2, he uses a nice trick to speak to Warriv to get to act 1, then use that waypoint to get closer to the exit at the beginning of act 2
Verifier: normally, when you talk to an NPC, they give a speech for the first time
Verifier: but watching the run, talking to Warriv every time gave a speech
Verifier: he quickly skipped it, but the speech was there
Verifier: that should've only happened the first time
Verifier: beyond that, there is a glaring omission (not including that PM)
Verifier: during the Ancients fight on hell, he rerolled the Ancients to get better immunities/resistances, which he should've
Verifier: but to reroll, he needs to warp to town, he simply created the portal
Verifier: it looks as though the act of going to town was omitted
Me: you're wrong about the second one
Me: I used to play the game online
Me: and you reroll ancients by just creating a portal
Me: I'll ask the runner about the first thing though
Verifier: I've created portals on the summit though, why didn't they reroll for me?
Verifier: safety precautions in case I died horribly (which if I play, is quite often)
Me: I don't know
Me: I remember playing back in 1.10
Me: and we always cast a portal if one of the ancients were fire enchanted
Verifier: hmmm
Me: because it was bugged and killed you ridiculously fast
Verifier: well, the movie isn't jumping
Verifier: so it's not doctored
Verifier: I've never had that happen to me though, which is why I brought it up
Verifier: other than that, this is an excellent run, except for the Toorc fight on Hell
Verifier: snooze fest gallore
Verifier: I did have a small issue with him not getting the Travincal waypoint on nightmare, since he revisited the area with no portal
Me: well 100% is all quests, not all waypoints
Verifier: the only issue I have with it is that he could've used that to get to the Durrance of Hate 10-15 seconds faster than he did on his revisit
Verifier: overall, this is an excellent run
Me: ah okay
Verifier: I'm leaning heavily towards accept
Verifier: well, that makes me an idiot
Verifier: I just tried the portal on the summit
Quote:
I got my comments done, timing will take a bit longer. There's lots of segments and load screens, and my virtual dub is giving me crap. There's also that segment that got left out so I can't accurately time the entire thing until I get that.
If you don't want to read the 4 hours worth of comments, my vote is a big accept. It blows the current runs out of the water.
If you don't want to read the 4 hours worth of comments, my vote is a big accept. It blows the current runs out of the water.
Quote:
Cheating: No cheating found. The one EXP discrepency was not to his advantage.
Quality: The sounds are louder and kind of crackle in the first segment. Also the second segment is a little blurry compared to all the others. The runner is aware of these problems and explained them. It doesn't take much from the entertainment value of the run.
Gameplay:
These notes were mostly taken while watching the run. Forgive any spelling, grammatical, or dialect problems.
Moving very quickly, and insane luck, he managed to pick up some rare armor and a stamina potion right off the bat. Very good use of EXP shrines, since leveling is a big part of the run. Save warps out of the Den of Evil, smart. He does a nice job of picking up high selling items, like items with potential + to skills, and armor.
A few minor mistakes, he dropped an eagle orb before realizing it had + to skills, and he had to pick it back up.
New segment at level 5 after clearing out a large group of monsters. His EXP shrine was probably going to wear off soon. At level 6 he picks up frost nova, and uses it to slow down enemies. A slight misstep in the underground passage, costs a second or two. The map is memorized though, he's certainly not just wandering about looking for the exit.
Not sure if downing treehead woodfist is worth the time, especially without an EXP buff.
He's looking at the staves, and purchases a +2 to frost nova one. The segment could have been a bit cleaner.
Looks like he's clearing Tristram for EXP. Skips Griswold, that guy's a tank. Spends quite some time running around only to kill a few extra carvers. Also fails to get Wirt's Leg, which will cost him later.
Stocks up on pots and grabs telekenisis, a good time saver. Fails to use it early on on the waypoint and shrine. Clears out some large carver camps for good exp, then moves on to the black marsh.
Frost nova is kicking ass, very quick kills. He popped a town portal near the forgotten tower. He hits the waypoint and pops through. Ah, and his first good use of telekenesis, grabbing the shrine. He doesn't kill the elites in the tower, and wastes some time (and nearly dies) deciding to skip them. The arrows are mabye too much. He statics the countess down and basically one shots her. Save warps out. This place could have been a bit quicker I think, countess wasn't getting hit with any of the frost novas. Also, the loot from the chest was not worth waiting around for.
After this heads straight to the monestary. Grabs the waypoint and starts a new segment. Wastes a few seconds by grabbing a refilling shrine instead of the EXP one. Very nice, telekenesis on the well to replenish mana and life. Opens a portal, probably near the horadric malus. Shows good knowledge of the map.
He's running through most of the area. Ah, inner cloister, now he'll go back and kill... err, no he just grabs the malus and save warps to town. Ah, much cleaner EXP shrine this time. He skips Bone Ash. Impressive clicking to pick up potions from elites. Andy is coming soon. One wrong turn in catacombs costs around 10 seconds. Otherwise a very fast decent.
He's spending quite some time clearing out Andariel's room. Grabs a level up from it, oh, and fireball. Must be essential to killing andy, she takes extra damage from fire. No antidote potions but the poison doesn't seem to be a problem. Yeah, that fireball makes short work of Andy.
Backtracking to kill blood raven, she takes surprisingly long.
Completes some quests then off to act 2. Skipping a lot of mobs here, and opening chests. Not sure what he's looking for. Ouch, gets stopped by some cat people, that'll cost a few seconds. Grabs the waypoint and into the far oasis. Got the far oasis waypoint and saves. Moving much faster now, although he skipped the halls of the dead and sewers.
Very smart, traveling to act 1 and waypointing to act 2 to save a lot of running time. Very nice planning. This segment was for getting some new items. Grabs a fireball staff, and a merc weapon. 3 sockets, I wonder if a runeword is coming.
New segment, appears to be leveling in the far oasis. Immediately finds an elite to kill. And another. The bug swarms die very quickly to fireball. Spent a lot of time running to only encounter a few monsters there. May have been better off quitting after the second elite. Yeah, definately leveling up now. Finds a big group and another elite to kill. All this is of course with a luck manipulated shrine of EXP. THe monsters are becoming less plentiful towards the end of this segment. It too could have been cut shorter to save time. Leveling in this segment or the next doesn't really matter overall. A champion pack is here this time, but no elites. Bummer, and even the champions were low exp monsters. That segment might have been better thrown out. Ooo, unique scimitar heh. Too bad it's trash for a mage. This segment has 2 elites... oh wait that's a super elite, beetleburst. Should have been farming him from the begining. Perhaps fireball didn't do enough damage to him at lower levels. He is magic resistant.
New segment, ouch takes a cold burst. Luckily it doesn't last too long. Heading for beetleburst again I presume. Yep. He's worth a very nice chunk of exp. Ah, he again goes off to finish the level he's working on. Mistake I think. Although there's some pretty packed monsters there. He got lucky, and was smart enough to finish the pack before exiting. He must be leveling to 18 to get teleport before trying to snake through the maggot lair. Two more levels to go...
Poor monster count in this segment. And takes another cold burst. That really does slow you down, you know. Ah good, two elites before beetleburst. He grabs the helm and makes a new segment to figure out how to place it in his inventory, hah. Ouch and it was only worth 2000 gold. There was no way of knowing it wasn't worth 10,000 though. One more level to go.
Missed a bone wand, those things can sell for a lot. Oh well, who knows. He's got plenty of money for the moment anyways. Rare Voulge, possibly a good merc weapon. ah finally. Oh, and a rare scythe. New segment, goes to black marsh...? Killing countess, must be for some runes. And holy good god, tir ral tal. That must have taken ages to luck manipulate.
Next segment buys a 3 socket shield and 2 socket breast plate.
Next gets an ith and eth from countess. Pretty quickly done.
Now the fruits of his labor, a Stealth breastplate runeword. He gets 25% faster run/walk, 25% faster cast, and 25% faster hit recovery. Also some extra mana regen. This will be perfect. Wow, also makes a TirRal staff, gives +3 to fire skills. Incredible.
Now it's time for business. He grabs an exp shrine and heads for the sewers. Takes the close entrance. Wow, teleport really pays off even if it is a mana hog. Takes out quest one of act 2 in mere moments.
Halls of the dead, to get the horadric cube. Once again he blazes through it. This is really the "speed" part of the run. Lost city, getting the necklace. Ouch, took a wrong turn. That'll cost about 10 seconds. Fireball is just ripping through these monsters. Talking to key quest people to gain entrance to the palace. Wow, got to arcane sanctuary fast. Misclicked a teleport for a loss of a couple seconds. He's killing the tightly grouped monsters with fireball very efficently. Takes out the mage in, what 2 or 3 hits.
Heads to the canyon, wastes no time entering the tomb. Ouch, merc dies here. I guess he's not needed for duriel. Wow, that must be a record. He just tanked duriel with a single rejuv pot, static'd him down to near nothing and ooo a tarnhelm skull cap. That'll be a nice addition to the gear. Talks to some quest people and haha nice, he town portals from the palace to save time.
Switches mercs. Teleporting into groups and elites for good exp while progressing through act 3.
Get's kalim's eye and save warps out. Quickly completes the jade figurine quest.
Wow, flayer jungle already? Must have manipulated a great map. Gets the gibdin very fast. Making great use of teleport and the tightly packed enemies.
Segments to luck manipulate a good ring I'm guessing.
More quick leveling, and oo a rare amulet. Into the flayer dungeon, and looks like telekenisis to stun the witch doctor until the merc kills him. I'm guessing that inferno is a real killer. Low on money now, but moving right along with the speed. Has all the quests done up till the council, which is a good place to be. Boy all those faster cast items are working well. Finishes off the council. Gets a few set items, dunno if they're any good.
Ditches the council and goes down to kill meph. Wow, ruthless. Not exactly sure what he's up to here, leveling? Why not in act 4? He's not picking up money items anymore, must feel wealthy enough. We'll see if that pays off.
I feel like this section is very wasteful. He's level 23 which should be well high enough for act 4. Yet he's running around trying to chase down zealots in act 3.
Finally in act 4 he starts moving along. He's desperately working to get to level 25, for what? Another point in fireball? Now he negelects to get a EXP shrine while kiling the super elites of chaos sancuary. Wow, big D goes down very nicely. Seemed to avoid the lighting crap from happening at all. He's skipping most of bloody hills now.
Very quick through act 5 so far. Makes an ancient's Pledge shield. High resistances may be nice at some points later on. Already he's on to the ancients. These guys are notoriously hard. Finishes them off nicely.
Heads back to act 4 because cain, vendor, and stash are close together. Puts on his boots he saved, 30% faster run and some stamina. Killing Bhaal's minions, and near the last two groups decides to get an EXP shire. Was that intentional or just forgetful? Ah, ends the game before Baal. This is the most efficent way to level, you'll see no complaints from me. Hm.. once again waits till the balrogs to get an exp shrine. I'm not sure of the reasoning for this. The council members give decent exp. I'm sure the buff lasts long enough. Perhaps Baal's curses would overwrite it?
Might be better off checking to see if an EXP shrine exists before starting the fights. But really only wastes a few seconds searching for one. Yeah, I guess he can't avoid Baal's curse. It seems to happen right after the council. Loses a few seconds on a misclick with the waypoints. Lister and his minions seems to take agonizingly long on this segment. One of them wasn't getting hit with static field. Bummer.
This time he kills a super elite before heading into the worldstone keep. Not sure it was necessary. Oh, he wanted to level up to get frost orb. It seems to be making lister a much quicker kill. Very good planning, he leveled with very little left over. Hmm, didn't kill Baal. "Time to die" led me to believe this would be it.
Luck manipulated a orb, and then killed nithilik. Very nice, didn't hesitate.
Wow, frozen orb is king down here. Wow. Just wow.
Kills baal without a hitch.
Has to backtrack for wirt's leg, takes a few moments. Cow king dies quick and easy.
Nightmare mode now.
Wow, elites are all over the place, this should make leveling easier. Den and Blood raven knocked down quickly. Only a few seconds could have been saved if it were perfect.On to the underground passage, only stopping to kill elites and champions. Got lost in the Dark Wood it seemed like. Wastes some time finding an EXP shrine. Early in the segment too, could have reasonably been restarted.
Hah, I could see his quarter second of hesitation when he was deciding whether or not to leave an elite behind.
Throws his vendor items on the ground....? Very sloppy, expecially since he wasted time moving things to pick them up. Should have restarted the segment.
Seems to stumble through the forgotten tower. Possibly was looking for elites, but it looked more like he just didn't know the way through.
Getting the malus went pretty well.
Not sure why he picked up jail 1 waypoint. Seems like a waste of time. Andy could have gone quicker I think. Why teleport in her room, then out again to kill some random fallen? The exp is better in act 2. Also, no static charge?
He picks up the famous holy freeze merc in act 2.
Sewers goes quick. Oh, nice use of his lower resist wand! Radament is normally immune to cold, but that was removed. Fantastic idea.
Act 2 is a blur. No leveling segments so far. Getting the staff base was about as quick as it can be done. Very impressive. Kills the super elite while grabbing the amulet, once again uses the ingenious lower resist wand.
Quickly kills some elites in the palace, and gets to the canyon of the magi in a flash. Uses the wait time while the staff is charging to look for things to kill. Duriel goes down quick, very impressive.
Takes a small wrong turn in act 3, but it really doesn't amount to much time lost due to super fast teleporting. The player is very skilled. It's not easy to cast fireballs in between frost orbs, and teleporting to maximize frost orb effectiveness.
Act three is full of good route planning and quick execution. All stops are to very efficiently kill tightly packed groups and elites. We also see more town portal warping. Very lucky drop, ethereal splint mail that freezes target on hit. Will go nicely with his Freeze merc. Council goes quite smooth. Very good playing. Wow, nice drop from Meph. That'll be a great merc weapon. Luck manipulated a very nice amulet. Wow, that merc is a beast. 75% slow and freezes target. Get him a vamp gaze and you're all set.
Leveling in Act 4 seems to be very quick. No backtracking to level. Ah nice, manipulated a Um rune from hellforge.
Wow, act 4 sure is balls to the wall. Nearly died several times, but it sure is the fastest way to diablo. And god damn diablo dies just as quick. Very skilled orb placement.
Gets a new helm and sockets it. Loses the 10 strength from his tarnhelm, and so his gloves and belt aren't usable.
Blows through Act 5 quests super fast, and picks up an amazing new orb from Anya.
Slows down slightly to level up on the way to the ancients. Proceeds to humiliate the ancients, incapacitating one with the merc slow + freeze. The rest get lowered with static then killed with frost orb/fireball. Insanely fast. Throws an extra 15 resist all in his helm now that he meets the level req.
Goes straight for Baal's throne, and seems to be scrounging for money. I wonder what he needs to buy? Wow, kills baal first thing. Ah, I heard about this. He lost a segment somewhere and now he's making it match up. Even moves potions into the correct positions. I'll be sure to come back and look at this more closely, but I'm betting it's clean.
Yeah, all the items in the inventory are exactly the same. Gold amount is the same. He has 10 pixels less EXP in the next segment than the previous, meaning he did not gain an advantage. There is no better way to fix this segment issue without a time machine.
Seems to be running around in circles in stony field. He's leveling up and looking for elites.
Doesn't bother killing treehead, he's probably too strong.
Tristram goes well, picks up a unique dragon shield. I don't know off hand what that one is, but it could be better than his ancient's pledge. Hmm guess not, he sells it. Downs the fire and cold immune countess with his merc. Picks up a Dol rune and a string of ears belt.
Not a lot to comment on. He's continuing his very fast pace of teleporting, only stopping for quests and elites.
Andy goes down quick, dispite no merc.
Goes back for the den of evil. No EXP shrine, didn't restart the segment for it. Strange decision.
The den is tough, due to hell's various immunities. Seems to do it as fast as can be expected.
Seems to spend a lot of time with Radaments little skeletons.
Gets the staff and amulet faster than a 99 with a maphack.
Act 2 goes as fast as possible, no question. Wasted no time getting the staff in place. Did end up losing his merc, but he would have been a hinderance to keep alive with duriel.
Act 3 goes much the same as act 2, incredible speed. Wow, this is just insane. Attacks the council with no merc? Bold, though I guess the merc would get wasted pretty fast. Ah, he does need to use him for the last council member. Ouch. Stone skin, fire immune, cold immune. I am sure that this is done as quickly as possible, but it is painful to watch the seconds tick away. Minutes. The agony...
Finally the beast goes down. There's really nothing you can do other than not be a sorceress. I'm not sure why he didn't knock open the durance entrance while he was fighting, it would stay open in the new game as long as the quest was completed.
He's getting a few last levels in the catacombs. Probably chose it for the minimal cold immune and resistant mobs. That merc really isn't doing in any favors down there.
Finds a Heavenly Garb while leveling, not sure if it's better than what he has.
Wow, izzy dies very quick. Hellforge picks up a Pul rune. Ah, uses a cube recipe to recharge his wand.
Takes out Lord De Seis with little trouble, considering he's cold immune. Diablo dies very quickly too. That lightning hose nearly takes him out, but he manages to survive. Has to be tricky to kill shenk, he and his baddies are cold immune. Manages, but I could see it happening a little quicker.
Sells some crap and puts poison into his merc weapon. Poison prevents monster heal while it's active.
Flys through and then gets ready the the ancients. They're going to be a bitch, immunities and whatnot. Ah. he resets them with a quick town poral when he gets a bad set. The first two die pretty quickly, but the cold immune korlic takes a long time. He keeps leaping over the fireballs, and when you try to tank him he takes out half your life in one hit. If the merc could survive long enough he might have helped, but then again he couldn't stand long against the extra strong ancient. I'm not sure if the slow effect would even work. Soloing the ancients at 60 is a feat, so even though it appeared to take a while, it really can't go any faster.
Heads to baal after some prep. Clears out the lower chamber to allow for kiting the really tough enemies. Hmm, he kited the skeletons, I'm surprised fireball didn't work. Ah, damn, wasted some time because an unraveller was hiding. That'll cost him some seconds. Has to restock mana potions to deal with the venom lords.
Ah, baal's minions also hide. Damn, that was quite a bit of time to keep them out of the main room. Could have been done faster I think. Baal fight was not managed as well as it might have been. He was running short on mana potions several times and kept having to grab them out of the inventory. Frost orbs were positioned nicely, but there was no fireball inbetween them. The damage may have been neglegible, but it couldn't hurt.
Cow king dies very fast, and so ends the run. Err, well, I guess he's going back to personalize an item. Small and forgivable oversight.
Well that's that. There is definitely room for improvement. The easiest way to see if the errors are large enough to reject it is to compare it to the other Diablo 2 runs. I initially thought that it would be pointless, since this is a 100% run, and the others are any% in normal difficulty. But I decided I could at least compare play skill. Then I saw the time for completion of a single, easiest difficulty. Almost 2 hours! This run could easily beat the current posted runs dispite having to do every single quest AND gear/level up enough for nightmare and hell difficulties. This fact alone is the reason that there shouldn't be a single reject vote cast.
Quality: The sounds are louder and kind of crackle in the first segment. Also the second segment is a little blurry compared to all the others. The runner is aware of these problems and explained them. It doesn't take much from the entertainment value of the run.
Gameplay:
These notes were mostly taken while watching the run. Forgive any spelling, grammatical, or dialect problems.
Moving very quickly, and insane luck, he managed to pick up some rare armor and a stamina potion right off the bat. Very good use of EXP shrines, since leveling is a big part of the run. Save warps out of the Den of Evil, smart. He does a nice job of picking up high selling items, like items with potential + to skills, and armor.
A few minor mistakes, he dropped an eagle orb before realizing it had + to skills, and he had to pick it back up.
New segment at level 5 after clearing out a large group of monsters. His EXP shrine was probably going to wear off soon. At level 6 he picks up frost nova, and uses it to slow down enemies. A slight misstep in the underground passage, costs a second or two. The map is memorized though, he's certainly not just wandering about looking for the exit.
Not sure if downing treehead woodfist is worth the time, especially without an EXP buff.
He's looking at the staves, and purchases a +2 to frost nova one. The segment could have been a bit cleaner.
Looks like he's clearing Tristram for EXP. Skips Griswold, that guy's a tank. Spends quite some time running around only to kill a few extra carvers. Also fails to get Wirt's Leg, which will cost him later.
Stocks up on pots and grabs telekenisis, a good time saver. Fails to use it early on on the waypoint and shrine. Clears out some large carver camps for good exp, then moves on to the black marsh.
Frost nova is kicking ass, very quick kills. He popped a town portal near the forgotten tower. He hits the waypoint and pops through. Ah, and his first good use of telekenesis, grabbing the shrine. He doesn't kill the elites in the tower, and wastes some time (and nearly dies) deciding to skip them. The arrows are mabye too much. He statics the countess down and basically one shots her. Save warps out. This place could have been a bit quicker I think, countess wasn't getting hit with any of the frost novas. Also, the loot from the chest was not worth waiting around for.
After this heads straight to the monestary. Grabs the waypoint and starts a new segment. Wastes a few seconds by grabbing a refilling shrine instead of the EXP one. Very nice, telekenesis on the well to replenish mana and life. Opens a portal, probably near the horadric malus. Shows good knowledge of the map.
He's running through most of the area. Ah, inner cloister, now he'll go back and kill... err, no he just grabs the malus and save warps to town. Ah, much cleaner EXP shrine this time. He skips Bone Ash. Impressive clicking to pick up potions from elites. Andy is coming soon. One wrong turn in catacombs costs around 10 seconds. Otherwise a very fast decent.
He's spending quite some time clearing out Andariel's room. Grabs a level up from it, oh, and fireball. Must be essential to killing andy, she takes extra damage from fire. No antidote potions but the poison doesn't seem to be a problem. Yeah, that fireball makes short work of Andy.
Backtracking to kill blood raven, she takes surprisingly long.
Completes some quests then off to act 2. Skipping a lot of mobs here, and opening chests. Not sure what he's looking for. Ouch, gets stopped by some cat people, that'll cost a few seconds. Grabs the waypoint and into the far oasis. Got the far oasis waypoint and saves. Moving much faster now, although he skipped the halls of the dead and sewers.
Very smart, traveling to act 1 and waypointing to act 2 to save a lot of running time. Very nice planning. This segment was for getting some new items. Grabs a fireball staff, and a merc weapon. 3 sockets, I wonder if a runeword is coming.
New segment, appears to be leveling in the far oasis. Immediately finds an elite to kill. And another. The bug swarms die very quickly to fireball. Spent a lot of time running to only encounter a few monsters there. May have been better off quitting after the second elite. Yeah, definately leveling up now. Finds a big group and another elite to kill. All this is of course with a luck manipulated shrine of EXP. THe monsters are becoming less plentiful towards the end of this segment. It too could have been cut shorter to save time. Leveling in this segment or the next doesn't really matter overall. A champion pack is here this time, but no elites. Bummer, and even the champions were low exp monsters. That segment might have been better thrown out. Ooo, unique scimitar heh. Too bad it's trash for a mage. This segment has 2 elites... oh wait that's a super elite, beetleburst. Should have been farming him from the begining. Perhaps fireball didn't do enough damage to him at lower levels. He is magic resistant.
New segment, ouch takes a cold burst. Luckily it doesn't last too long. Heading for beetleburst again I presume. Yep. He's worth a very nice chunk of exp. Ah, he again goes off to finish the level he's working on. Mistake I think. Although there's some pretty packed monsters there. He got lucky, and was smart enough to finish the pack before exiting. He must be leveling to 18 to get teleport before trying to snake through the maggot lair. Two more levels to go...
Poor monster count in this segment. And takes another cold burst. That really does slow you down, you know. Ah good, two elites before beetleburst. He grabs the helm and makes a new segment to figure out how to place it in his inventory, hah. Ouch and it was only worth 2000 gold. There was no way of knowing it wasn't worth 10,000 though. One more level to go.
Missed a bone wand, those things can sell for a lot. Oh well, who knows. He's got plenty of money for the moment anyways. Rare Voulge, possibly a good merc weapon. ah finally. Oh, and a rare scythe. New segment, goes to black marsh...? Killing countess, must be for some runes. And holy good god, tir ral tal. That must have taken ages to luck manipulate.
Next segment buys a 3 socket shield and 2 socket breast plate.
Next gets an ith and eth from countess. Pretty quickly done.
Now the fruits of his labor, a Stealth breastplate runeword. He gets 25% faster run/walk, 25% faster cast, and 25% faster hit recovery. Also some extra mana regen. This will be perfect. Wow, also makes a TirRal staff, gives +3 to fire skills. Incredible.
Now it's time for business. He grabs an exp shrine and heads for the sewers. Takes the close entrance. Wow, teleport really pays off even if it is a mana hog. Takes out quest one of act 2 in mere moments.
Halls of the dead, to get the horadric cube. Once again he blazes through it. This is really the "speed" part of the run. Lost city, getting the necklace. Ouch, took a wrong turn. That'll cost about 10 seconds. Fireball is just ripping through these monsters. Talking to key quest people to gain entrance to the palace. Wow, got to arcane sanctuary fast. Misclicked a teleport for a loss of a couple seconds. He's killing the tightly grouped monsters with fireball very efficently. Takes out the mage in, what 2 or 3 hits.
Heads to the canyon, wastes no time entering the tomb. Ouch, merc dies here. I guess he's not needed for duriel. Wow, that must be a record. He just tanked duriel with a single rejuv pot, static'd him down to near nothing and ooo a tarnhelm skull cap. That'll be a nice addition to the gear. Talks to some quest people and haha nice, he town portals from the palace to save time.
Switches mercs. Teleporting into groups and elites for good exp while progressing through act 3.
Get's kalim's eye and save warps out. Quickly completes the jade figurine quest.
Wow, flayer jungle already? Must have manipulated a great map. Gets the gibdin very fast. Making great use of teleport and the tightly packed enemies.
Segments to luck manipulate a good ring I'm guessing.
More quick leveling, and oo a rare amulet. Into the flayer dungeon, and looks like telekenisis to stun the witch doctor until the merc kills him. I'm guessing that inferno is a real killer. Low on money now, but moving right along with the speed. Has all the quests done up till the council, which is a good place to be. Boy all those faster cast items are working well. Finishes off the council. Gets a few set items, dunno if they're any good.
Ditches the council and goes down to kill meph. Wow, ruthless. Not exactly sure what he's up to here, leveling? Why not in act 4? He's not picking up money items anymore, must feel wealthy enough. We'll see if that pays off.
I feel like this section is very wasteful. He's level 23 which should be well high enough for act 4. Yet he's running around trying to chase down zealots in act 3.
Finally in act 4 he starts moving along. He's desperately working to get to level 25, for what? Another point in fireball? Now he negelects to get a EXP shrine while kiling the super elites of chaos sancuary. Wow, big D goes down very nicely. Seemed to avoid the lighting crap from happening at all. He's skipping most of bloody hills now.
Very quick through act 5 so far. Makes an ancient's Pledge shield. High resistances may be nice at some points later on. Already he's on to the ancients. These guys are notoriously hard. Finishes them off nicely.
Heads back to act 4 because cain, vendor, and stash are close together. Puts on his boots he saved, 30% faster run and some stamina. Killing Bhaal's minions, and near the last two groups decides to get an EXP shire. Was that intentional or just forgetful? Ah, ends the game before Baal. This is the most efficent way to level, you'll see no complaints from me. Hm.. once again waits till the balrogs to get an exp shrine. I'm not sure of the reasoning for this. The council members give decent exp. I'm sure the buff lasts long enough. Perhaps Baal's curses would overwrite it?
Might be better off checking to see if an EXP shrine exists before starting the fights. But really only wastes a few seconds searching for one. Yeah, I guess he can't avoid Baal's curse. It seems to happen right after the council. Loses a few seconds on a misclick with the waypoints. Lister and his minions seems to take agonizingly long on this segment. One of them wasn't getting hit with static field. Bummer.
This time he kills a super elite before heading into the worldstone keep. Not sure it was necessary. Oh, he wanted to level up to get frost orb. It seems to be making lister a much quicker kill. Very good planning, he leveled with very little left over. Hmm, didn't kill Baal. "Time to die" led me to believe this would be it.
Luck manipulated a orb, and then killed nithilik. Very nice, didn't hesitate.
Wow, frozen orb is king down here. Wow. Just wow.
Kills baal without a hitch.
Has to backtrack for wirt's leg, takes a few moments. Cow king dies quick and easy.
Nightmare mode now.
Wow, elites are all over the place, this should make leveling easier. Den and Blood raven knocked down quickly. Only a few seconds could have been saved if it were perfect.On to the underground passage, only stopping to kill elites and champions. Got lost in the Dark Wood it seemed like. Wastes some time finding an EXP shrine. Early in the segment too, could have reasonably been restarted.
Hah, I could see his quarter second of hesitation when he was deciding whether or not to leave an elite behind.
Throws his vendor items on the ground....? Very sloppy, expecially since he wasted time moving things to pick them up. Should have restarted the segment.
Seems to stumble through the forgotten tower. Possibly was looking for elites, but it looked more like he just didn't know the way through.
Getting the malus went pretty well.
Not sure why he picked up jail 1 waypoint. Seems like a waste of time. Andy could have gone quicker I think. Why teleport in her room, then out again to kill some random fallen? The exp is better in act 2. Also, no static charge?
He picks up the famous holy freeze merc in act 2.
Sewers goes quick. Oh, nice use of his lower resist wand! Radament is normally immune to cold, but that was removed. Fantastic idea.
Act 2 is a blur. No leveling segments so far. Getting the staff base was about as quick as it can be done. Very impressive. Kills the super elite while grabbing the amulet, once again uses the ingenious lower resist wand.
Quickly kills some elites in the palace, and gets to the canyon of the magi in a flash. Uses the wait time while the staff is charging to look for things to kill. Duriel goes down quick, very impressive.
Takes a small wrong turn in act 3, but it really doesn't amount to much time lost due to super fast teleporting. The player is very skilled. It's not easy to cast fireballs in between frost orbs, and teleporting to maximize frost orb effectiveness.
Act three is full of good route planning and quick execution. All stops are to very efficiently kill tightly packed groups and elites. We also see more town portal warping. Very lucky drop, ethereal splint mail that freezes target on hit. Will go nicely with his Freeze merc. Council goes quite smooth. Very good playing. Wow, nice drop from Meph. That'll be a great merc weapon. Luck manipulated a very nice amulet. Wow, that merc is a beast. 75% slow and freezes target. Get him a vamp gaze and you're all set.
Leveling in Act 4 seems to be very quick. No backtracking to level. Ah nice, manipulated a Um rune from hellforge.
Wow, act 4 sure is balls to the wall. Nearly died several times, but it sure is the fastest way to diablo. And god damn diablo dies just as quick. Very skilled orb placement.
Gets a new helm and sockets it. Loses the 10 strength from his tarnhelm, and so his gloves and belt aren't usable.
Blows through Act 5 quests super fast, and picks up an amazing new orb from Anya.
Slows down slightly to level up on the way to the ancients. Proceeds to humiliate the ancients, incapacitating one with the merc slow + freeze. The rest get lowered with static then killed with frost orb/fireball. Insanely fast. Throws an extra 15 resist all in his helm now that he meets the level req.
Goes straight for Baal's throne, and seems to be scrounging for money. I wonder what he needs to buy? Wow, kills baal first thing. Ah, I heard about this. He lost a segment somewhere and now he's making it match up. Even moves potions into the correct positions. I'll be sure to come back and look at this more closely, but I'm betting it's clean.
Yeah, all the items in the inventory are exactly the same. Gold amount is the same. He has 10 pixels less EXP in the next segment than the previous, meaning he did not gain an advantage. There is no better way to fix this segment issue without a time machine.
Seems to be running around in circles in stony field. He's leveling up and looking for elites.
Doesn't bother killing treehead, he's probably too strong.
Tristram goes well, picks up a unique dragon shield. I don't know off hand what that one is, but it could be better than his ancient's pledge. Hmm guess not, he sells it. Downs the fire and cold immune countess with his merc. Picks up a Dol rune and a string of ears belt.
Not a lot to comment on. He's continuing his very fast pace of teleporting, only stopping for quests and elites.
Andy goes down quick, dispite no merc.
Goes back for the den of evil. No EXP shrine, didn't restart the segment for it. Strange decision.
The den is tough, due to hell's various immunities. Seems to do it as fast as can be expected.
Seems to spend a lot of time with Radaments little skeletons.
Gets the staff and amulet faster than a 99 with a maphack.
Act 2 goes as fast as possible, no question. Wasted no time getting the staff in place. Did end up losing his merc, but he would have been a hinderance to keep alive with duriel.
Act 3 goes much the same as act 2, incredible speed. Wow, this is just insane. Attacks the council with no merc? Bold, though I guess the merc would get wasted pretty fast. Ah, he does need to use him for the last council member. Ouch. Stone skin, fire immune, cold immune. I am sure that this is done as quickly as possible, but it is painful to watch the seconds tick away. Minutes. The agony...
Finally the beast goes down. There's really nothing you can do other than not be a sorceress. I'm not sure why he didn't knock open the durance entrance while he was fighting, it would stay open in the new game as long as the quest was completed.
He's getting a few last levels in the catacombs. Probably chose it for the minimal cold immune and resistant mobs. That merc really isn't doing in any favors down there.
Finds a Heavenly Garb while leveling, not sure if it's better than what he has.
Wow, izzy dies very quick. Hellforge picks up a Pul rune. Ah, uses a cube recipe to recharge his wand.
Takes out Lord De Seis with little trouble, considering he's cold immune. Diablo dies very quickly too. That lightning hose nearly takes him out, but he manages to survive. Has to be tricky to kill shenk, he and his baddies are cold immune. Manages, but I could see it happening a little quicker.
Sells some crap and puts poison into his merc weapon. Poison prevents monster heal while it's active.
Flys through and then gets ready the the ancients. They're going to be a bitch, immunities and whatnot. Ah. he resets them with a quick town poral when he gets a bad set. The first two die pretty quickly, but the cold immune korlic takes a long time. He keeps leaping over the fireballs, and when you try to tank him he takes out half your life in one hit. If the merc could survive long enough he might have helped, but then again he couldn't stand long against the extra strong ancient. I'm not sure if the slow effect would even work. Soloing the ancients at 60 is a feat, so even though it appeared to take a while, it really can't go any faster.
Heads to baal after some prep. Clears out the lower chamber to allow for kiting the really tough enemies. Hmm, he kited the skeletons, I'm surprised fireball didn't work. Ah, damn, wasted some time because an unraveller was hiding. That'll cost him some seconds. Has to restock mana potions to deal with the venom lords.
Ah, baal's minions also hide. Damn, that was quite a bit of time to keep them out of the main room. Could have been done faster I think. Baal fight was not managed as well as it might have been. He was running short on mana potions several times and kept having to grab them out of the inventory. Frost orbs were positioned nicely, but there was no fireball inbetween them. The damage may have been neglegible, but it couldn't hurt.
Cow king dies very fast, and so ends the run. Err, well, I guess he's going back to personalize an item. Small and forgivable oversight.
Well that's that. There is definitely room for improvement. The easiest way to see if the errors are large enough to reject it is to compare it to the other Diablo 2 runs. I initially thought that it would be pointless, since this is a 100% run, and the others are any% in normal difficulty. But I decided I could at least compare play skill. Then I saw the time for completion of a single, easiest difficulty. Almost 2 hours! This run could easily beat the current posted runs dispite having to do every single quest AND gear/level up enough for nightmare and hell difficulties. This fact alone is the reason that there shouldn't be a single reject vote cast.
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's an amazing run, even the guy who rejected thought so.
P.S. For anyone who is wondering about the missing segment, the video has been reencoded with the segment included.
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