Gianthold - only needs 9 of each relic now!

[dkyle]

only my double tr's do gh for xp, gh xp per min is much slower than ALL other quests in that lvl range so i perfer to skip it.

In my experience, Feast or Famine, Foundation and Trial by Fire are each 1000+ XP/min, and they can essentially be window farmed while soloing by dropping the quest, and stepping up the entrance again. They're not Shadow Crypt, or Wiz-king, but that's respectable XP/min.

[Junts]

This is nice primarily because it's not worth grinding dragon relics for exp (only cry for help is worth repeating more than 1/difficulty on that side) and not worth grinding giant either unless you have a nice group to get trap bonus from maze of madness (without it, only trial is worth repeating).

madstone crater is balls bad exp for time these days.

I tend to not get much more than 10 giant/elf relics per tr, so I'm pretty happy with this: i actually skipped tor and reaver exp on my last 34 pt life just because I didn't feel like borrowing, buying or earning an extra 20 relics from those two sides of GH.

At 9, I will actually flag on intermediate lives.

[Junts]

In my experience, Feast or Famine, Foundation and Trial by Fire are each 1000+ XP/min, and they can essentially be window farmed while soloing by dropping the quest, and stepping up the entrance again. They're not Shadow Crypt, or Wiz-king, but that's respectable XP/min.

The problem is with a 34 pt character, they're competing with your need to flag for Litany which is often a level and a half on its own - my last 34 pt life did about 2 action points in gianthold before being exp capped to have to take 16, at whichpoint it was litany > vale > toodles.

The incredible goodness that is vol/gop/litany exp per minute (and the requisite time to flag for litany's 2500 exp per minute or whatever the hell it is for you) on a 32 or 34 pt build will bypass gianthold even if you want to run it for some reason.

note: if you aren't constantly using 20% exp pots, your experience my vary and you may actually have time to run gianthold.

[k1ngp1n]

Everyone sell your relics nao!

[gigobyte]

Wait.. can someone explain exactly what you are all talking about?? It seems like you're saying that gianthold only needs 9 of each relic to flag, but that would be too good to be true... wouldn't it?

Edit: Just saw it on the release notes.

[Uska]

Hmm not sure how I feel about that well it does make it easier for me to decide where to place my next allotment of relics

[Zenako]

Bah humbug....

back in the day when relics only droped occasionaly in the end chests, that was when someone entering Tor knew they were good and ready!

That was back when Toons were Toons and not mere shadow puppets...

back when extreme repetition penalties were the norm on PotP. Named loot was the quest, the death of many a toon in those fickle halls...

When the watery tunnels of death in Crucible were more like a garbage disposal than a mere quest obstacle...many a character was reduced to bloody bits in that passage, or merely carried in soul stone form...

When that crazy enchanter Pat was almost unkillable with some groups, despite having breezed thru the rest of his hallways...

When Madstone, even with all those shrines, pushed groups to the limit to complete without wipes, with the end boss often taking more than one run at him to finish...

When death by purple bubbles was feared...

this new generation of whippersnappers is having it so easy these days...bah humbug

[Talon_Moonshadow]

The alt-a-holic in me loves this.

60 isn't that big of a grind, but times this by all the alts I have, and a few TRs... (MYDDO says I have 50ish, and that is only one acount!)

And then it becomes one hell of a grind.

Gianthold is fun, but not that fun.

And I'd like to actually buy some of that relic armor before I lvl up high enough to get something a whole lot better.

Anyway, good change IMO.

[brian14]

I'm just wondering why they went with 9 per, instead of an even 10 per.......

So that the total number of relics you need to turn in is 3^3?

[Bogenbroom]

When GH was end game, or even near end game, 20 made sense, but now that it is effectively mid-game 9 is an appropriate number.

[dkyle]

The problem is with a 34 pt character, they're competing with your need to flag for Litany which is often a level and a half on its own - my last 34 pt life did about 2 action points in gianthold before being exp capped to have to take 16, at whichpoint it was litany > vale > toodles.

Those quests I listed are level 13, so I do them at level 14. The Litany-flagging quests are level 14, so I do them at level 15. The only other level 13 quest currently in the game is Mired in Kobolds, which is not seem to be good XP/min (haven't really given it much of a chance, though). U8 will introduce some new ones, but new quests seem to be heavy on story, light on good XP.

Madstone, PoP, and Crucible all compete with Litany-flagging quests, but those aren't that great of XP. Maybe PoP is, but my solo runs always seem to get messed up by my hireling frying himself, or other issues, and groups tend to be slow.

I'm just wondering why they went with 9 per, instead of an even 10 per.......

Sure is convenient. Each relic has a quest that provides them I find worth grinding (Feast: Elven, Foundation: Dragon, Trial: Giant) till ransack (8 relics), and one quest only worth doing once.

[Hokonoso]

Abbot would be the best if not for the sheer randomness involved. Some peoples have ran those quest for months, without getting that last sigil piece.

i have a hard time of believing this. i run this quests at least 8 times each (less for gop/inferno depending on group makeup), and i always start with fleshmakers cause it requires 2 ppl and end with vol cause it is easiest/most fun. by the time im done doing fleshmakers 8 times i always have sigil pieces 5-8 (the random ones) ive tr'd many times and never once has this not been the case! of course i run with the same ppl and we always pass/share the pieces till we get them full etc... but we always end up not having to repeat any quests for sigils at the end of the xp farm there. i know random is random but i have flagged too many characters for litany to have never run into this problem. it is to the point that i dont get any extras cause i know in my next life ill have plenty of time to get all sigil pieces again!

i can understand you soloing vol 8 times and not getting the 5 pieces out of there, but if you have a group of 3-4 ppl, you are almost guarantee'd to see pieces 5-8 at least once if not twice due to the high % of it happening. you times this by 4 quests and your 4 man party now has a full sigil and is destroying extras!

[Vordax]

I would have prefered it if they put it up to 29 of each relic to turn in...
......and dropped the Crucible as one of the flagging quests

Switch that to dropping madstone, thats a long boring quest. Crucible is fast, fun and good XP.

Vordax

[markusthelion]

Abbot would be the best if not for the sheer randomness involved. Some peoples have ran those quest for months, without getting that last sigil piece.

/signed....ran those quests till I'm sick to death of them.....still need peice 6, bleh screw abbot.

[Junts]

Those quests I listed are level 13, so I do them at level 14. The Litany-flagging quests are level 14, so I do them at level 15. The only other level 13 quest currently in the game is Mired in Kobolds, which is not seem to be good XP/min (haven't really given it much of a chance, though). U8 will introduce some new ones, but new quests seem to be heavy on story, light on good XP.

Madstone, PoP, and Crucible all compete with Litany-flagging quests, but those aren't that great of XP. Maybe PoP is, but my solo runs always seem to get messed up by my hireling frying himself, or other issues, and groups tend to be slow.



Sure is convenient. Each relic has a quest that provides them I find worth grinding (Feast: Elven, Foundation: Dragon, Trial: Giant) till ransack (8 relics), and one quest only worth doing once.

In my experience, I typically end up doing several major exp quests on hard or elite because of exp backlogs, even with 36 pt characters. farming wizking on hard and even shadow crypt on elite (and almost always on hard) is pretty typical of my tr-leveling experiences. Since I'm usually doing wizking at 13, I rarely get much out of gh except farming the very best sides (cry, trial, cabal), and often those are farmed on H as well.

Hitting shadow crypt+von3 10 times each tends to out-level you relative to the content you should ideally be running by about 2/3 of a level in my experience. Since von3 scales a lot more with difficulty, I try to do it legitimately on normal (and often even still end up doing hard for at least some of it) and put off shadow crypt, where difficulties are barely distinguishable.

[Lithic]

In my experience, I typically end up doing several major exp quests on hard or elite because of exp backlogs, even with 36 pt characters. farming wizking on hard and even shadow crypt on elite (and almost always on hard) is pretty typical of my tr-leveling experiences. Since I'm usually doing wizking at 13, I rarely get much out of gh except farming the very best sides (cry, trial, cabal), and often those are farmed on H as well.

You're missing out on foundation. You can get over 2k/min in there with 4 decent people. Average pug group for me does it in 5mins, though I have had groups get 3min completions consistently (which made us farm it 12 times on norm).

[Junts]

You're missing out on foundation. You can get over 2k/min in there with 4 decent people. Average pug group for me does it in 5mins, though I have had groups get 3min completions consistently (which made us farm it 12 times on norm).

Foundation's kind of the opposite of trial: Trial's basically the same speed whether you solo it or run it with 5 other people.

[ninjaeli]

i always liked the grind in GH because by the time i entered i lvled quickly

[underpants]

get up on the auction house now while there is still time. They have some value for the next week or so

[Deaths_ward]

I think one of the benefits people are missing here, is that it might now be viable to repair dragon scale armors with relics instead of your pocket change. Not the biggest bonus, but still notable if you find yourself strapped for cash.