Median XL Speedrunning

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EZ NAV
AbbreviationsBuild CoreMercenaryEarly GameMid GameEnd GameChallengesDungeons and Rifts

Official Documentation



INTRODUCTION

.



PROS AND CONS

► EXPAND



ABBREVIATIONS

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ATTRIBUTES

STR = Enough for gear
DEX = 183 (Enough for T4
Darkflesh
Darkflesh
Unraveller Head (4)

Defense: (87 - 100) to (169 - 194)
Chance to Block: 2%
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 5
Required Dexterity: 24
Item Level: 1
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(16 to 25) Spell Focus
5% Cast Speed
5% Hit Recovery
+(6 to 10)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(12 to 29)% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +(7 to 10)%
Lightning Resist +(7 to 10)%
2% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (2)
Defense: (296 - 329) to (527 - 585)
Chance to Block: 2%
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 23
Required Dexterity: 35
Item Level: 31
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(36 to 45) Spell Focus
15% Cast Speed
15% Hit Recovery
+(16 to 20)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(47 to 63)% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +(15 to 18)%
Lightning Resist +(15 to 18)%
4% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (2)
Defense: (758 - 825) to (1299 - 1414)
Chance to Block: 2%
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 40
Required Dexterity: 74
Item Level: 51
+3 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(56 to 65) Spell Focus
25% Cast Speed
25% Hit Recovery
+(26 to 30)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(81 to 97)% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +(23 to 26)%
Lightning Resist +(23 to 26)%
6% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (3)
Defense: (1126 - 1217) to (1928 - 2084)
Chance to Block: 2%
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 49
Required Dexterity: 153
Item Level: 77
+4 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(66 to 75) Spell Focus
30% Cast Speed
30% Hit Recovery
+(36 to 40)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(98 to 114)% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +(27 to 30)%
Lightning Resist +(27 to 30)%
8% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (4)
and
The Allseeing Eye
The Allseeing Eye
Coronet (4)

Defense: 58 to 106
Required Level: 6
Required Dexterity: 17
Item Level: 1
+1 to All Skills
+10% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(31 to 50) Defense
(4 to 5)% to Strength
+3 Mana after each Kill
Socketed (1)
Defense: 144 to 225
Required Level: 23
Required Dexterity: 36
Item Level: 31
+1 to All Skills
+15% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(71 to 90) Defense
(8 to 9)% to Strength
+5 Mana after each Kill
Socketed (2)
Defense: 262 to 399
Required Level: 41
Required Dexterity: 85
Item Level: 51
+2 to All Skills
+20% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(111 to 130) Defense
(12 to 13)% to Strength
+8 Mana after each Kill
Socketed (3)
Defense: 337 to 514
Required Level: 49
Required Dexterity: 183
Item Level: 77
+2 to All Skills
+25% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(131 to 150) Defense
(14 to 15)% to Strength
+10 Mana after each Kill
Socketed (4)
)

VIT = None
NRG = None



SKILLS -- LVL 30 SNAPSHOT

DEATHSPEAKER
  • Embalming [1]
  • Mold The Flesh [4]
  • Sacrifices [1]
  • Death Ward [1]

MALICE
  • Death Ripple [15]
  • Nightwalker [5]
  • Dream Eater [1]

MASTERY
  • Meditation [3]

SKILLS -- LVL 60 SNAPSHOT

DEATHSPEAKER
  • Embalming [10]
  • Mold The Flesh [4]
  • Sacrifices [1]
  • Death Ward [1]
  • Death Pact [1]
  • Bane [1]

MALICE
  • Death Ripple [15]
  • Nightwalker [15]
  • Occult Path [1]
  • Dream Eater [10]
  • Terror [1]

SUMMON
  • Blood Skeleton [1]

MASTERY
  • Meditation [3]

SKILLS -- LVL 100 SNAPSHOT

DEATHSPEAKER
  • Embalming [20]
  • Mold The Flesh [4]
  • Sacrifices [1]
  • Death Ward [1]
  • Death Pact [13]
  • Bane [1]

MALICE
  • Death Ripple [25]
  • Nightwalker [15]
  • Occult Path [1]
  • Dream Eater [24]
  • Terror [1]

SUMMON
  • Blood Skeleton [1]

ADDITIONAL NOTES
  • Malice is a very skill-point hungry build. Therefore:
  • We are skipping both our Reward skill and our Ultimate skills. Normally, you would take Veil King as the only option to support our build, however our mercenary provides as much tank as we currently need with no downside of hostiling and killing you. As for the reward skill.... well... its a shit skill.
  • Please also note that we skipped the niche mechanic of a Malice build with the Exile/Tremor/Poison instakill. Its been tested in a few scenarios and 99.9% of the time, it's just adding more work and slowing down your speed compared to just using Death Ripple and moving forward. There is a 0.1% scenario where this Exile/Tremor/Poison mechanic can be very useful, and that is in Scosglen farming to instakill the big trees (which along with Etherborn, are the main targets of Scosglen, except Etherborn are pretty easy to kill normally). TLDR: not worth speccing.


BREAKPOINTS

HIT RECOVERY = x / x / x / x (x fpa)
BLOCK SPEED = x / x / x / x (x fpa)
CAST SPEED (Staff) = x / x / x / x (x fpa)
CAST SPEED (Wand) = x / x / x / x (x fpa)



THE BASICS

► DAMAGE


► SURVIVABILITY


THE TLDR ON HOW TO PLAY:
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .



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a2 shapeshifter/fighter mage tank

You can use whichever merc you want, but if you’re interested in other mercs, see NotCube’s The Hireling Handbook for more info.

► CLASS-SPECIFIC BONUSES


► GEAR


► BREAKPOINTS


► NOTES ON MERCS



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GEAR

► expand


NORMAL (CLVL 1-55)

ATTRIBUTE POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Put 20 points into STR→put 25 points into DEX→hold 50 Points→put everything else into DEX.
The points you’re holding will function as a reserve that you can draw from when you need more STR to equip gear. This way, you don’t have to waste a valuable respec just to redistribute Attribute Points.

SKILL POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Generally, you’ll want to distribute Skill Points evenly among your skills as you level; however, you have some leeway to boost skills according to your needs (e.g. focusing on Coven skills if you feel too squishy, or Melee skills if your damage feels too low). Just be aware that your Melee skills cost a lot of Mana, and those costs will be severe if you boost your Melee skills too quickly. To help offset this, spec into Meditation once you unlock Bladestorm. Spec out of Meditation before moving on to Act 5.

GEARING:
When equipping found armor, don’t focus exclusively on a piece’s Defense rating. Instead, prioritize gear with Life, Life sustain, Life regen, Poison Res, Fire Res, DEX, and MF.

RANDOM WORLD DROPS:
Keep an eye out for the following items, which can drop at any point during your playthrough:
  • Belladonna Extracts
    Single-use potions that let you respec at any time.
  • Relics
    Rare drops that give you access to a random oskill plus some secondary benefits. You can carry up to 3 at a time. See this page for the full list of Relics.

PROGRESSION NOTES:
  • Complete all main storyline quests. The rewards are actually helpful now.
  • Collect and upgrade Gems (we are specifically looking for the ones listed in the Gearing Section Socket Fillers), but you can collect up to 50 of each Perfect Gem using a container (see next bullet point).
  • You can create containers for Runes, Gems, Shrines, and Arcane Crystals by cubing one with an Oil of Craft. To put an item into its container, simply right-click it. To pull an item out, cube the container.
  • Akara offers unlimited respecs to characters below clvl 50 (basically, the beginning of Act 5), so don’t worry if you mess something up early on.

► WALKTHROUGH




NIGHTMARE (CLVL 55-104)

ATTRUBUTE POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Put an additional 25 points into STR→increase your reserve to 75 points→everything else into DEX.

SKILL POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Continue distributing points evenly, but do not put any points into Premonition yet.

GEARING:
From here on, start collecting the following items as you find them:
  • All Sacred Warp Blades, Sacred Ceremonial Armor, and Sacred Sashes.
    Use Oils of Renewal to reroll them as you find them. Keep only the best versions of each, and replace them with better versions as they roll. Ideal rolls are:
    • Weapons = +60% ED, or +50% ED and +100% AR
    • Armor = +50% ED and +1% Phys Res (ED can roll as high as +60%, but you can’t get the additional Phys Res bonus with those rolls)
  • 1x Magic Sacred Leather Gloves
  • 3x-4x Magic Sacred Boots
  • 1x Sacred or T4 Jared's Stone
  • All pieces to
    The Mysteries
    The Mysteries
    (Sorceress Melee Set)

    Cauldron
    Pentacle
    Sacred Circle
    Witchblade

    Set Bonus with 2 or more set items:
    +2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
    +50 to Dexterity

    Set Bonus with 3 or more set items:
    +21 to Spiral Dance
    Physical Resist 10%

    Set Bonus with complete set:
    +100 Damage
    +4 to Ward of Fate
    10% Chance of Crushing Blow
    Weapon Physical Damage +100%
    +4000 Defense
    5% Chance to Avoid Damage

  • All pieces to
    Pantheon
    Pantheon
    (Amazon Bow Set)

    Earth
    Fire
    Frost
    Water

    Set Bonus with 2 or more set items:
    50% Attack Speed
    Elemental Resists +50%

    Set Bonus with 3 or more set items:
    Weapon Physical Damage +60%
    +150 to Life

    Set Bonus with complete set:
    3% Chance to cast level 40 Trinity Nova on Kill
    5% Chance to cast level 11 Time Strike on Striking
    Adds 63-125 Damage
    -45% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
    Weapon Physical Damage +60%
    +200 to Dexterity

    (for your merc)
  • Witchhunter's Hood
    Witchhunter's Hood
    Cap (Sacred)

    Defense: (2136 - 2611) to (2161 - 2642)
    Required Level: 90
    Required Strength:
    250
    Item Level: 1
    +(80 to 120)% Enhanced Defense
    10% to Strength
    10% to Dexterity
    Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
    Elemental Resists +(31 to 40)%
    Physical Resist 5%
    (16 to 20)% Bonus to Defense
    Requirements -50%
    Socketed (4)

    Witchhunter's Attire
    (Assassin Claw Set)
  • 1x Abandoned Shrine. You can collect all Shrine types if you want, but Abandoned will be the most important.

PROGRESSION NOTES:
  • A -30% Elemental Res penalty will be applied to you and your merc.
  • All act bosses will now heal 5% of their max life if they kill you.
  • The side areas in all Acts are now filled with Veteran monsters. They’re tougher to kill, but the XP gains and drops are (supposedly) better than in normal areas.

► WALKTHROUGH




HELL (CLVL 104+)

ATTRIBUTE POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Put another 25 points into STR→increase your reserve to 100 points→everything else into to DEX.

SKILL POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Max Baneblade→max Moonstrike→hold the rest

AREA LEVELS:
All Area Levels (alvls) in Hell are 100+. Items that drop here will have an Item Level (ilvl) of 99 or higher. When looking for Rare Sacred equipment or Jewels for crafting, look for them in Hell for a chance at the best possible rolls.

SACRED UNIQUES:
There are 3 “tiers” of SUs (colloquially, SU, SSU, and SSSU). Tiers only indicate how rare an SU is, not how good it may be. The places in which they can drop depend on Area Level:
  • SU = alvl 105+
  • SU+SSU = alvl 120+
  • SU+SSU+SSSU = alvl 130+

RANDOM WORLD DROPS:
You may find certain random world drops unique to Hell. These include:
  • Oils of Augmentation, Conjuration, Intensity, and Greater Luck
    Special oils that do various things, but Greater Luck are the only ones you’ll care about.
  • Whispers of the Damned
    Tiny skulls needed to access the Legion of the Damned quest.
  • Enchanted Runes
    Powerful versions of regular Runes. Collect them all.

DUNGEONS AND RIFTS:
  • All Dungeons and Rifts have a minimum clvl requirement you must meet before you can enter the area.
  • Many Dungeons have lockout timers. You’ve already experienced this with Baal, but most of the upcoming lockouts are short (often only 20 seconds). Be prepared before entering and make sure your gear is fully repaired.
  • Some bosses have a chance to drop a Trophy Fragment (usually 6%, but some are lower). Cubing 3 Fragments together will create a Trophy, which will add bonuses to its corresponding Charm. You can also create Fragments by cubing 20x of the same Charm. Unless otherwise noted, farm for a perfect version of a Charm before cubing it with its Trophy.
  • Some Charms can be used to potentially add a Lottery bonus to a particular item type. A Lottery bonus has a 3% chance of success, and the attempt will consume the Charm. Items cannot be both Lotteried and Luckied.

PROGRESSION NOTES:
  • A -70% Elemental Res penalty will be applied to you and your merc.
  • All Act bosses now regain 10% of their Max Life if they kill you.
  • Activate all Waypoints.
  • Journey through Hell only up to the Worldstone Keep Waypoint. Hell Baal is a proper boss now. You won’t be ready for that fight until End Game.

► WALKTHROUGH



Image



GEAR

► expand


ATTRIBUTE POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Use your reserve points to boost STR as-needed to equip new gear. Once all your Mid Game gear is equipped, you won’t need to hold points anymore. Put them all into DEX. Any additional points you may need for STR will come from SoL.

SKILL POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Put 1 point into Force Blast→max Tenacity→max Endurance

PROGRESSION NOTES:
  • From here on, the guide will be divided into quest groupings. These groupings will be based on your clvl, not necessarily the clvl requirements of the quests. Although the 2 will often align, most “DPS check” quests are behind the End Game gear wall. You simply won’t have high enough DPS to reasonably complete them without End Game gear.
  • Even after you’ve made your Mid Game RW gear, continue collecting and rerolling the Sacred bases you’ll need for End Game RWs.

► WALKTHROUGH



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GEAR

► BASE KIT


► UPGRADE KIT


ATTRIBUTE POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Go all in on DEX. Hold nothing back.

SKILL POINT DISTRIBUTION:
Continue maxing Endurance. Spec into Paradigm Shift when your Base Kit is complete. Consider Cold Blooded only when your Upgrade Kit is complete. Distribute remaining points wherever you want.

GEARING:
Use Oils of Greater Luck on high-end weapons, armor, and amulets. Lottery your rings.

► WALKTHROUGH



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LEVEL CHALLENGE

► More Info


ENNEAD CHALLENGE

► More Info
Edited by Crash 1 year.
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Giving this a bump since some new peeps have been getting into speedrunning. Some fresh competition on the leader board would be nice :)
Princess
Prowler
18 | 0
Sorry to dig this but for some info regarding underlevel, anyone know what level you need to be in every act so you can still xp?
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iHaku
Stygian Watcher
44 | 1
Princess wrote:Sorry to dig this but for some info regarding underlevel, anyone know what level you need to be in every act so you can still xp?


just kill a few monsters and check how much exp you get per kill. try out a few zones and stay where you get the most, easy as that.