Season Ten, Event 68: 90 Minute Merveil Kill

>Lv11 at Merveil kill
>25mins 29seconds
>smashed my prev record but nearly 3 minutes
>10th Ladder
>2nd Duelist

Holy. Crap. I didn't realise I was losing so much time in previous runs to Tidal/Dweller/Fairgraves o.O I skipped all 3 in this run and looks like it pays off, although I found the Merveil fight a lot more tense than usual, especially with no Decoy Totem

Gear

MVP lol

A bit lost in Upper Prison but that allowed me to face Brutus at Lv8 safely so no big deal.

I very VERY nearly died on 3 occasions but I reckon my Coral Amulet pulled me through
- Puncture Dogs on Ledge
- exploding spawn in cavern of wrath (no fire res rings, coral ring + ammy = lifesaver)
- Merveil herself

Protip to recommend: SKIP TIDAL/DWELLER/FAIRGRAVES during this sort of race!

I've learnt from previous RIPs when to and when not to leapslam, especially around corners. To be honest I'm pretty happy if I can consistently sit around the 25min mark. Just gotta hope Helmann over sleeps on a race and my Demi prospects will soar :P

First dweler + fairgraves and still 13th shadow. Races at awfull timeslot are a blessing.

Didn't get ANY sceptre till brutus somehow.
Then in 2min chanced

and dropped

So, inb4 hate:

Nessa sold me this after Hillock:


Got this in Lower Prison, so I could level Fire Trap before brutus w/o a Jade Amulet:


Got this from Brutus so I didn't need a Jade Amulet:


Sapphire ring dropped in Prisoner's Gate

Never went back to town

Caverns of Anger Merveil room was like 2-3 screens away, very short zone

Firetrap spam + 3x 6+ stack flamelast crit on merv = profit



Thx Merveil

best rng run eva

Unplugged my desktop like a moron during the race BibleThump

Desynced on 100 exploders- Rip. Never had so many in anger before , even had a ruby equipped+ ele resist quicksilver on.

Started late again but got my max points. Had some very helpful drops with skill gems so got LT earlier than usual, plus once again Raise Zombie giving me some excellent meat sheilds. Getting LT via drop let me grab Ice Spear in a reward which was great for boss fights, rare monsters or blue packs. Quick freeze, throw trap, Zombies run interference and everything burns to the ground in place quickly. Also lucky to score MS boots from first vendor which also helped.

What didn't go so well was a real lack of orbs once again. Had some good weapons and other gear I would have like to craft, but no orbs to do it with. No Trans, not a single chance, it was barren out there in Wraeclast tonight!



Wish I'd started on time, I feel I could have gone pretty well with another half hour up my sleeve. Then again, I could have encountered something monstrous, got myself killed and had zero points, so content with the outcome.

Oh, and RNG was gracious tonight:

Found a Kaom's Ring off The Guardian of the Mound Red Goatman. That was a pleasant surprise.

Got a +1 Lightning Wand for my Lightning Tendrils. That was a fun pick. (least this time it had a blue socket)

Seemed like the monsters were really rippy this race. Almost like a brutal version, least for me. I almost rip'd least 5-6 times. Did get the Merveil kill in, so happy there.

An entertaining read as always Alpha and I'm interested in other opinions on this:

I always skip Dweller, it's just a big time waste. I occasionally pick up Fairgraves just because pack density in the shipwreck is pretty good for levelling but I only do this if We're looking at a non-boss kill race where time doesn't matter so much.

The question I have though is whether the time made up from a QS flask is worth the detour to Tidal Island in races? Perhaps not so easy to determine if you get a 10% MS boot from the first Vendor but typically I've thought the small investment pays off in the longer run (pun intended). I also like the comfort of having a speed burst that can get me out of trouble such as that stupid giant red goatman or the flaming dog in Act 1. Particularly the dog has caused me grief in the past with my non-tanky build I use.

......

Awesome drops there Doge. It looks like the RNG gods were definitely on your side tonight.

Congrats Snapfire on the wand. So many times in recent races I get sceptres or wands with +1 lightning and red sockets, +1 fire and blue sockets, etc. Painful!

In my race I did notice some pretty large pack size, certainly more than usual. Was great in in the first several screens, very helpful particularly with some nice blue pack density too.