(Nov 4) Three-hour Party Hardcore Ladder Race

Race wasn't much fun because got screwed by random rolls and didn't find weapons with flat or %phys damage for the whole of act two (from a weapon-pool of daggers, claws, swords and rapiers). Then my char froze in Western forest (I will report this bug in another thread) which cost me some more time since I didn't get the wp in the dark forest.

Taking way longer than other players to progress through act II I missed out on Dread Thicket first clear and cruel medicine chest + Flooded Depths which i could have taken easily even if i only had not been bugged in the western forest.

But since I finished second place shadow (expected, I wouldn't have been able to keep up with the group anyway) and got first kill/clear on Hillock, both Fetid pools and cave it still is a good result all in all.

Also found a nice rapier in Cruel which I could use for the last 15 mins: (other weapon, alched right before vaal)

The rapier replaced
The previous offhand was similar and thrown away.

Race starts, first zombie drops gem + white item. Clearly click gem, pick up white item instead. Click gem again, move on top of it but dont pick up. Click gem yet again, finally picks up. Good start... Go to place gem in starter weapon, 2nd time, 3rd time, 4th time, 5th time, check net graph, check router, alls well. Leave inv screen, randomly drop gem on ground without clicking. Pick back up, finally goes into starter weapon. Wonder why i didnt get first hillock kill? @__@

Bit over 1 hour and 100+ fake flask gulps later, im at western forest in mostly whites with no movement boots. Do i derrrp for 2 hours and hit 28, or do i attempt cruel dressed in rags? Operation rag run is go!

Bit over another 1.5 hours, 100+ more fake flask gulps and about 20 desync-induced bails later, im at cruel ledge in mostly blues with no movement boots.

Better late than never!

Lvl 24 in the end, 3rd place shadow and 25th place overall.

Feedback:
- Races shouldnt reward those who take the path of least resistance.
- Races shouldnt reward partyers simply for being in a party.
- Bosses shouldnt have so much life that any non glass cannon build is forced to repeatedly portal for flask refills during the battle.
- My character repeatedly attempts to become an abstentious man in a world where being a hard drinker is mandatory.
- The netcode often feels like it was ported straight from mazewars, that late 80s lan game for toaster macs.

I still like these races but all these issues are making them slowly lose their appeal. I hope some strong balancing changes are on the menu for the near future. Really looking forward to that netcode / server stability upgrade patch as well.

GG all, see you next race.

best weapon I found was a 15% increased dmg, that slowed me down considerably
It's the first race where I go into cruel, couldn't really profit from it but I'm far from optimized play

Sigh, i guess dsync is a legit way to die :P

The life node changes to the duelist were very very helpful.

Got some good roll son rings that made the race good going.



Gear was ok for lvl 20, dual strike cleave and viper strike were the skills used.

Thats the best weapon i got ;)

I want a creditlike system so everybody can generate his own rewards.

Only 2 orbs I consider as useable while friend in party got 1 level more and gets 9 useable orbs.

"

Chris wrote:

Prizes have been awarded! They're on new characters on your accounts as usual.

Uhm, I didn't get the dweller reward.

Thank you. This was very fun. :) !! Do it again!

Thanks to my team for helping me up after I died early on in a silly way. I was in upper submerged and was the first one in the zone, I got quite far to a mob before anyone else joined so decided to engage the witch + worms. Sure enough as soon as I move in 3 of my team mates join the instance and boost the enemy hp way up, I tried to get away but it was too late.

Found this pretty sweet gear:

Good race, far too many close calls, rip dead_ranger.

Our party found 2 of these

So much for "unique" ;)