How fast can you kill Baal using -act5?
Hey everyone! I've decided to hold a mini speedrun competition in the Diablo 2 Speedrun Community. The Category: -act5 Sorceress. -act5 is not an official category, but can be fun and super competitive nonetheless. There are prizes involved, so get your mouse and keyboard ready! This contest runs from now until this friday at midnight, Pacific Standard Time.
About the Run -act5 mode starts any newly made character at level 33 in Horogath in Act 5, with no gear and all stats/skills aren't spent yet (same goes for -act2, 3, and 4 in their respective acts, at different starting levels for each). It was probably there for quickly making new characters to test game content in development, but it was left in. My current best -act5 time is 6:40, but I think a time getting close to 6 minutes is possible. This will be a heavy reset category if you're going for top prizes, but I recommend trying it out anyways even if you don't intend on grinding it out! It's really fun when you get the runs going. Some information I've gathered in my own runs and good-to-know stuff can be found here: https://www.speedrun.com/d2lod/thread/jye7j
The Rules
- End goal: Kill Baal in Normal difficulty
- Game must be launched with -act5 in the executable parameters (same place you'd put -w and -sndbkg)
- New character must be Sorceress
- No save/quit allowed
- No -ns, -seed, modifying drops with -txt, maphack programs, etc
- no use of /players (players 1 only)
- Must use the latest patch of Diablo 2 (1.14d)
- No difference between hardcore/softcore, up to your preference (I recommend softcore, dying at Baal isn't too uncommon but a well placed TP will only lose a few seconds on a death)
- Must be an Expansion character
- Time starts on character creation and ends on the Baal kill. Diablo Interface can autostart and stop the timer with -act5 characters. potentially-prize-qualifying runs will be re-timed if necessary on the first frame after the first loading screen (first frame you see the game) and on the frame Baal starts his dying animation (or ice breaking animation if he dies that way)
- Run must be attempted after February 8th at 15:00 and before February 12th at 23:59
The Prizes First prize: $100 USD Second prize: $50 Third prize: $25 In the event of there being multiple people placing in the same tier, down to the frame, prize will be increased by 50% per person and then split by the number of people who placed, unless it gets to a ridiculous number at my discretion ;) For example, if 3 people placed 1st exactly, prize will be $200 (100+50+50) split 3 ways ($66.67 per person). I doubt this will happen but you never know! I just don’t want to break my bank /too/ much ;) Prizes will be given in the form of Paypal payment, Amazon gift, Tier 1 Sub Donations to your/another channel (random gift subs only), or some other arrangement agreed upon between the winners and myself. If Gift Subs is chosen, any remainder will be sent to the channel in an equivalent amount of Bits, and may be sent during a time that streamer is live (for hype!)
Submissions Standard run submission guidelines apply - No separate in-game timer is needed since there are no save-quits. Good quality video with minimal game screen covered by other stream objects, and game sound must be included. PM the run VOD to me on Discord or Speedrun.com Submissions deadline is 23:59 PST February 12th
Submit your runs to: Blazer-flamewing#6128 on discord Or DM me here Include link to vod, time (include milliseconds: format : 6:40.38), your twitch username and your speedrun.com username
Good luck, go fast and have fun!
Any questions feel free to ask here
-Blazer
d'oh! this is what happens when I change the dates. was originally going to announce this last week!
yeah the end date is the 12th not the 11th. will edit that!
I chose sorc because I thought it would be the most competitive and fun! I've played -act5 with the other classes and found they were a bit malancholy with even more rng in the drops you're trying to get to go the fastest. Teleport staff farming is not exactly ideal
if this is recieved well, perhaps there could be other classes/categories if I host more competitions
Was it established whos 23:59 the contest ends? PST?
Edit: Nevermind, looks like the first paragraph states PST. My bad.
My account is new so i can't DM you on here.
Tried DMing you on Discord but i guess your settings are for Friends Only?
Only had 2 hours to get my OBS setup and get a few runs in since i just learned about this and the deadline is near. Let me know if this is acceptable.
thank you to everyone who has participated! I'll be reviewing submissions this morning and will have results later today! I hope everyone had fun :3
Hey everyone! I have reviewed the winning entries and am happy to announce the winners of this contest! it was really fun watching everyone give this run a try and the different strategies everyone used. The winners are:
Third place: 327 with a time of 5:38 .96
Second place: Mekalb with a time of 5:28 .06
First place: BokserKabaty with a time of 5:22 .07
It was really close as Mekalb and Bokser originally had very close times, I was afraid I'd have to take a magnifying glass to the VODs! But, Bokser put in some more effort after Mekalb's run and submitted a new time just before the deadline.
Very cool! I was delighted to see many different strats, each with their own pros and cons. My favorite strat I've seen I think is Bokser's Ancients fight, teleporting on Talic and alternating casting Orb and Static, making it a very quick and relatively safe fight.
Congratulations to those that placed, but more importantly thank you everyone who participated! I'll get in touch with the winners regarding their prizes shortly.
