Diablo 2: Epic Bowazon /players8 Hell mode Max Spawns Extreme

Diablo 2: Epic Bowazon /players8 Hell Max Spawns Extreme

It is incredible what the Diablo 2 engine can handle with barely any discernible slowdown. Absolutely incredible. You will see how Diablo 2 gets pushed to its limit in this post.

The Pit: 2000 kills per 10 mins

Getting a good Pit Farmer going is key to power progression and wealth acquisition in Diablo 2; it's basically your first step to farming Hell mode (info on Frenzy Barb Pit-runner).

In the above screencap, you can see my Multi-Shot Bowazon has just entered the bowels of the Hell Pit - an 85th level killzone. This is on /players8 with maxed spawns on. Yep, I edited the MonDen variable. Imagine a ball of wet clay in your hand. Now, squeeze that clay as you make a fist. That is what the Pit now feels like. It is so jam-packed with foes that they are oozing out of the entrance, out into the Tamoe Highland. This is how you play Diablo 2 in single-player mode. I have cleared the Pit in 7 mins flat. And that includes looting the odd item.

Anyway, first, our Bowazon gets hit by an arrow. Bang. A 14th level Amplify procs, AoEing two-thirds of the denizens. It is no surprise as to what happens with the next volley of arrows: everything amplified just dies. It's a 35% chance of a 14th level Amplify that sports broad radius and generous duration of 20 secs. We need one sec thanks to our damage and IAS. Everything affected by Amplify has its physical damage resistance reduced by 100%, and almost anything flaunting physical immunity has it broken (but nothing in the Pit has physical immunity).

How is this possible? Brand.

An amplified mob of bone warriors and dark stalkers. Next volley, coming up!

Wasted.

(It's funny because everything just died.)

So we take a little sting and a mob gets amplified and popped in return. That is very vengeful. Just the way I like my 'zons.

Not only does Brand sport 35% chance on-being-struck 14th level Amplify proc, but it also sports a 100% on-striking 18th level Bone Spear proc. Yep, two necro skills in one package. The Bowazon has 100% Pierce, and so does Bone Spear. Thus, the shaft of bone, which inflicts magical damage, crashes through the deepest of mobs and to the back of their ranks - and beyond. Thus, the Pit is cleared in 10 mins flat and the killcount per Pit run stands at a whopping 2,000. (This is how we begin to farm high runes, high sets, high everything. To hell with the tedium of sleep-inducing default MonDen. That's for newbies. Life's too short for that.)

As with other procs, Bone Spear only procs on the two central arrows of my Bowazon's 24-arrow-strong hail. It is barely seen on-screen due to hitting the sprite limit on an almost constant basis. But here you can see white shafts of light - enwreathed by Firestorm - hurtling down the tunnel, first left and then right, crashing through everything in their wake. That's Bone Spear baby.

To show it more clearly, here is a twin-proc as we storm the Tamoe Highland en route to its Pit entrance:

I've fired in all directions and seen a max of four bone spears shreding across my viewport. This gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

This particular Brand of mine confers a total of 666% damage vs. demons. Those devilkin, dark stalkers and dark archers? They're demonic. Thus, to Brand, they are squishy. And when amplify procs it's just unfair. This +dmg vs. demons means Brand is the wield of choice for my upcoming Chaos Sanctuary runs, too.

The main problem with Brand is that it doesn't have dual leech. Thus, you will need a rare ring with mana leech and Andy's Visage for life leech. If you can't roll a good rare ring (and this post shows how hard it is), sub out a Raven Frost for a top-tier Manald Heal. Or go back to Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest death mask. They do the job until you can find something better.

Another experiment. Remember my first level Plaguezon (recap)? Well, here's a 69th level version. Here a 20th level Poison Nova procs like a machine-gun; its density, gobsmacking.

Spread that plague.

The poison nova procs on each kill, though is unfortunately centralized on the Bowazon rather than the victim.

Nevertheless, it looks pretty bad ass as it fades out into the shadows of the pit, along with Firestorm from a Hell Torch:

Out in the open fields, the nova stretches out as the Bowazon sprints after her own arrows (because crap is dying off in the distance and the nova emanates from her):

How is this possible? Breath of the Dying in hydra.

Plugs lots of holes but doesn't pack enough punch compared to Windforce/Brand. Poison Novas are more showy than damaging - though when procced at a high rate, they are indeed damaging. Much more damaging than through Spearazon Fend and Barb Frenzy because the Bowazon is a far superior mob-murderer. Fenders and Frenzies - at least, the one's I've built so far - wouldn't have a hope in Hell of surviving a max MonDen Pit run. A multi-shot Bowazon wielding Windforce or Brand? It's a breeze.

Direct comparison of Brand, BotD, Faith and Windforce, all else being equal:

The on-paper story of damage rarely tells the full story in Diablo 2. Breath of the Dying damage exceeds Brand on paper, but Brand damage far outstrips BotD in practice. For all its pomp and glory, BotD (an overrated runeword on everything including Frenzy Barbs) is outstripped by Brand, Faith, and the humble Windforce. Brand's Amplify + Bone Spear + demonsbane, Faith's Fanaticism + Reanimates (and the merc then wields Ice), Windforce's RAW DAMAGE - they all beat BotD in my estimation. Brand and Windforce are crème de la crème. Windforce is still my fave bow. It has no fancy, noisy procs: it's just raw damage, silent and deadly.

Faith reanimates. This is a solid setup for Multi-zons because it's less dangerous to have tanky minions around you, and then the merc wields Ice to slow mobs down. Thus, Faith takes third spot for me. Perhaps second in Chaos runs when max spawns are switched on (because then it's possible to get a legion of undead going.) For Strafe-zons, though, Faith is numero uno (and we roll with an Act Two Might merc, wielding Pride.)

Max Spawns Extreme: Chaosing

Maxing the MonDen variable results in 1,700 kills per Chaos run. Pit runs are in excess of 2,300. And Chaos runs are currently taking me twice as long (20 mins) because the enemies are as tough as nails. There are also fewer super uniques and thus fewer good drops. In regard to experience point gain, Chaos does of course top the Pit, but not by much en route to 94th level. In fact, it's negligible. And when I factor in the increased possibility of being slain (thereby losing a sizeable chunk of XP), the Pit is more attractive. Chaos is heaps more dangerous: not only did my merc die twice, but my maxValk had to be resummoned twice (in addition to repositioning resummons).

Bow-wise, Faith matriarchal doesn't seem to cut it: it's a choice between my Shael'd Windforce hydra (pic) and Brand matriarchal (pic). BotD? Forgotten.

Killcount at Chaos end:

[For comparison: Pit killcount]
(Flayer Jungle runs can yield 3,000 kills in 6-7 mins, but the drops are crap.)

Reduction in XP progress from Pit to Chaos? Yep, I died while experimenting in Act Five. It happens, and it hurts. I couldn't get back to collect my body under max MonDen. Don't conduct experiments or otherwise muck around unless you have just gained a level. Also, be very careful when changing your gear. If you're used to gear a, but then change to gear b, then you might get killed because you have formed particular habits with gear a that don't work with gear b.

Anyway, back to the Chaosing:

See how they're packed in?

Juicy stuff.

This may give a better indication of the max spawn number (the aftermath of the Grand Vizier phase):

Yep. Those are corpses and ash piles representing slain foes. The pace of max MonDen Chaos runs is frenetic and unrelenting due to Pierce constantly drawing more mobs into the fray. Epic, but pretty exhausting. If someone can do 10 runs in a row then they have more stamina than I do...

Mega Infector of Souls Venom Lord mob:

Focus on the map overlay. See those blue dots near the Bowazon? They're her arrows. Note the spread, the range, and the penetration of Pierce.

Highly impressive. This is definitely the best build I've put together outside of battle.net vlld. My Frenzier and Fender wouldn't last 2 secs under these conditions. 

Infector of Souls is the last one standing: owned by Magic Arrow/Bone Spear:

Point-blank plinking of Diablo with Brand. That's my Bone Spear firing upwards and Diablo's red lightning hose firing downwards.

Currently, there are a couple of itemization roadblocks getting in the way of improving the build. The first prime item needed is a godly rare ring that outstrips Raven Frost (dual leech, Max dmg, +20 Dex, resists, etc.) Godly rare headgear and gloves would be an improvement, too - though that's really a longshot. The second is that I need better Max damage charms (+2-3 small and +6-10 grand are not optimal). However, I'm not looking forward to the manual labor of rerolling for these items. The reason why Min/Max/x-x dmg charms/jewels are so valuable - more valuable than even bow-skiller charms unless they also have dmg as a secondary mod - is that their dmg is multiplied by %ED sources.

Conclusion: We are Chaos-proof but not Chaos-optimal. I will probably keep farming and experimenting until I get bored. A few more levels will add to Dex and Windforce damage, too.

Max Spawns Extreme Revised: 7,000 kills per 15 min Pit Run

Frenzy barb en route to the Pit

As I showed in Max Spawns Extreme, modding the MonDen variable to its maximum results in the Pit spawning 2,300 enemies in Hell mode /players8. However, through modding max packs on top of that, I now have the Pit spawning 7,000 enemies. My epic multi-shot Bowazon is able to slay all of these L85/TC87 enemies in 15 mins flat. Needless to say, this results in many more drops. And many more drops means a greatly increased chance of finding godly items or foundations for godlies, such as the ethereal archon plate and the ethereal giant thresher.

Above: Note the orange. Those are actually indicators of enemy positions stacked so densely that they paint the passageways of the Pit in solid color.

• /players8 Hell Pit vanilla: 245 enemies slain in 4 mins
• + max MonDen: 2,300 enemies slain in 10 mins
• + MaxPacks: 7,000 enemies slain in 15 mins

Before:

Such a line-up looks like what one might see on a Monday morning outside their local welfare agency, doesn't it?

One second later:

Yep, that's the best way to deal with the parasites of society.

• Loot filtration. It is best to disable common/useless drops from displaying by manually editing the item files or by way of hiding them with maphack config; otherwise you will miss out on items as there is not enough screenspace to display them. Also, you won't be able to move without picking things up, and that is one of the most annoying things in the world.

Multi-shot bowazons handle 7,000 Pit enemies best. The other two prime mass-murderers (lightsorcs & lightjavs) have to contend with lightning-immune and lightning-resistant foes. Yes, we can break through immunity and nerf resistance with specific uniques and perfect rainbow facets, but it's not enough. And while a merc sporting Conviction through Infinity in addition is enough, auras take time to activate and kick in, and that slows down killspeed. I tested it. Yes, lightsorcs and lightjavs do indeed outstrip multi-shot bowazons in killspeed when Conviction is active and the above equipment is employed, but waiting for Conviction to go active after each massacre slows everything down. In addition, lightsorcs and lightjavs do not have control of the battlefield comparable to multi-shot bowazons, who never has her inner circle breeched because her AoE is clearly shown on-screen for precise angular aiming. Level 2 of the Pit offers the best example of her supremacy: she takes two steps forward and then just stands and delivers: angled correctly, her arrow-fan covers the dungeon-space perfectly. Thus, Level 2 is cleared in an instant and there are no time-wasting stragglers to chase down and finish off [recap pic].

Anyway, here is another pic of Max Spawns Exteme Revised; this time, my epic skellymancer. It's very slow-going but also very safe. Tactic? Amplify → wait for a minion to kill something → Corpse Explosion chain reaction.

Amplified horde ready to be insta-killed by corpse explosion:

Incidentally, what happens when a barb leaps in the air under these conditions? Well, with nowhere to land he simply stands atop the mega-pack:

At this point in the proceedings we are searching for nothing more than high runes, godly rares and top-tier unique ethereal self-repairing/self-replenishing items. We are so obscenely rich and fussy-discerning at this point that most drops are a laughing stock to us. Thus, we hide them from view.

Are we there yet? ... Not quite: Next up: Delirium Runeword.

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