Released in June 2001, 11 months after the original game, the Lord of Destruction expansion lifted Diablo II into an elite pantheon of online games played by the masses. Blizzard introduced a new act, two character classes, hundreds of new items, item classes, new enemies, new enemy and boss characteristics, and more. In the new act, Baal - The Lord of Destruction - is leading the entire extended army of Hell against the legendary Mount Arreat in the land of the barbarians, sworn protectors of the World Stone. If Baal is able to corrupt the stone then the barriers holding the planes of existence will shatter and Hell itself will wash over the mortal realm like a tidal wave of shadows.

Category note: 100% is completing all quests in all difficulties, including killing the Cow King.

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Assassin 0:58:52 by Sören Heinrich, done in 33 segments appended to one file.

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Author's comments:

First of all: Thanks to the SDA-staff for having this great site on. It is really a pleasure to see some of the speedruns on this site. They reveal so many new strategies of games one has already played, so it's always interesting to watch 'em. Also thanks to the previous D2-speedrunners for providing the basis on which to build upon. Bimancs run was of great help in terms of calculating and calibrating certain things in my strategy, and it also provided some great motivation to always keep on trying to get better and better times, and optimize more and more (without those previous runs as examples, one would probably stop trying to optimize much earlier in the run - and therefore get a worse time). Also reaching sub-hour was a great motivation for me during the run... ;)

Special thanks to mfb, who helped me out at the start of my run and gave me some advice here and there.

Now let me start to my commentary explaining the segments.

1st segment: In this segment I had to reach the stony-wp and get some very good experience on the way... I do not really like this first segment much anymore, because when I look back I thought I could have done it better. I lost some four seconds due to inaccurate clicking on monsters and such in the Blood Moor, but at least the multiple fallen kills were nice and made back some of that time... In the Cold Plains I went up first for a very good reason. Normally (around 80 % of the time, as you will see in later segments) there is at least one boss-pack up there, so it is a nice and fast level 3. But unfortunately the boss did not spawn on this attempt, so I lost another ten to twelve seconds there just killing a relatively small low-xp-group. Anyway, the three bosses (which is a quite rare occasion) and that big group in the Cold Plains after that saved my day and made it an "ok segment" by almost giving me level 5 here. Without them this segment would have just been thrown away without further notice.

2nd segment: I did not plan on doing rakanishu-runs as bimanc did because I think my "extreme-leveling-on-the-way-method" is much more effective than just massing segments on one to two bosses early in the game, because I can at least proceed through areas while leveling, and the early areas (Cold Plains/Stony) don't give me as much xp as the later ones can do. So as a rule of thumb for later segments I can tell you, that I almost always optimized my segments in terms of experience per segment without loosing too much time on it of course, until I reach level 20 (at least, a very fast level 12 to use traps and level 17 to allow me to equip stealth is VERY important for me right from the beginning). As for this segment, you can see again in the Cold Plains/Underground Passage (like in the 1st segment), that I do not shy away from small detours that are not directly enroute if there is an almost certain bossgroup waiting for me (you can scout those likely boss-spots before starting your "real runs"). Bosspacks always give such AWESOME experience that it would be absurd not to kill them, when they are only a little bit out of the way. You gain even more experience per boss/minion than killing a normal monster in an eight-player-game alone, 500 % instead of 450 % xp with eight-players to be precise, so when you've killed a six monster bossgroup, it is equivalent to having killed 30 normal monster of the same type in just that time and with your experience shrine it's even more extreme (equivalent to having killed 45 normal monsters without a shrine!) Not much else to say about this segment, only that again, I think I could have manipulated one more bosspack in the Black Marsh, but sadly I realised these improvements much too late, so all I can do is complaining now... ^_^

At least I found a belt early in this segment, which makes the following segments much easier to handle, and the experience over time and total time was not bad, just not as ultimate as I later wanted them to be. ;)

3rd segment: This segment is really just about getting the outer cloister wp and hit level 8 before doing my countess runs. I really like this one, except for some minor flaws like killing that fire-enchanted boss with my claws and not killing that big rogues-group following me before getting the wp, because it gives me the maximum possible bosses on that way I think. The two bosses each on stony and tamo were especially nice, because they were very rarely all together in place.

4th segment: This is just about selling stuff and getting some mana for the upcoming countess runs. I don't really need them before, because the boss leveling tactic give me enough mana-potion drops on the way. And before level 12 I always stay at the boss, until he is dead so I can pick up these potions with ease.

5th segment: I need three items to proceed to countess now. A 10-ias-dagger for much faster throwing speed, a javelin, to kill the fire-resistant countess and finally, I decided to get the two-socket-armor for stealth here, so I do not have to worry about that one later. Could have saved two to three seconds there at buying, cause I was a bit slow at the time, but those three things came up SO rarely all together, that I decided to keep that segment anyway.

Segments 6-8: These are my three Countess runs. Why did I do three instead of two you may ask? That is easy I would reply: The Tower is quite simply the best boss-xp-area of the whole game in my opinion as I created some kind of "run-algorithm" for the tower to get a gigantic amount of boss or champion packs per run. Up to seven bosses per run - including the countess - are possible (as you can see in the second run for example). That is why I optimized those three runs for experience and runes together, not just those two necessary double-drop-runs combined with shitty experience, assuming you don't want to sacrifice several months doing just countess-runs a few thousand times to optimize both together (which I absolutely did NOT want to do).

However, I had not realized that run-algorithm in the first run, so I only managed five bosses there with the tir eth drop.

The second run was total pwnage on the xp-side, as I said before...

The third run was kinda special. Why did I kept it despite having "just" six groups (although two of them were champs, which are not as good as bossgroups...) and getting cursed by the penultimate boss-group?

Easy answer: I reached level 12 (that was my minimum goal) and got the biggest kickass-drop EVER. Ral, Tal and Ith, which are the three best runes she can drop at all, all bunched together in just one drop (chances for that occuring are something like 1:5000 I guess...).

Either way Tal and Ith sell for some nice gold and take just two spots of the inventory and I definitely need gold for all the mana-potions soon (I won't pick up many from level 12 on cause of pure running past bosspacks before they die), so I decided to keep that run rather then optimize for some more xp.

9th segment: Alright, big segment here. Jail Level 1 wp was kinda too far off track, so I decided to run from the Outer directly to Inner Cloister. Leveling with traps becomes really fast now, because you just have to stop at every bossgroup and drop two to five traps (takes just one to two seconds of standing still) before you can just go on running, letting the traps do the dirty work for you while you are already on the way to the next bossgroup. :)

This ability to easily kill boss packs with traps was another factor in my calculation, and why I wanted to reach level 12 as fast as possible and made three countess-runs. Firetraps are just the ULTIMATE speedrunning skill in this game (beside teleport of course). From now on I basically only waste approximately one minutes pure laying-time till reaching level 20. The rest is just plain running to the necessary locations, nothing else.

I am quite happy with this segment, because I think I reached the maximum possible boss-packs without any major faults on my side. Took me a lot of tries though, but the result was definitely worth it as you can see!

10th segment: Getting level 2 cata-wp and level 14 before it for my Andi-runs were my aims here. Not much else to say, as the boss-spots were nice and static here, not much manipulation needed.

11th segment: Getting Gorefoot or Hsarus boots from Andi (both with +20 % frw) was my aim here, I got the latter. I was really lucky with my maproll, cause that nice cata-2/3-stairs made it possible for me to reach Andi within 25 seconds each attempt. Also she was quite easy and fast to kill due to the fact that my traps were already at level 3, which also made all those runs quite fast and comfortable of course. ;)

However, the pick up of Andi's drop was the worst scene of this whole run in my opinion, because it costs me like twelve extra-seconds to create all that space in my inventory (cause of my health-pots blocking all the space). I should have drunk those while fighting with Andi, not after the drop. Sadly I realized this too late, when the right drop came. I should have remade this one, but I did not have the ambition back then, as I had later in the run (concerning the sub-hour-goal and such). So looking back at my act 1 segments, I think I could have saved at least 30 seconds here and there. But it is too late to care now and I think the segments get better and better from now on, so i'll stop complaining now. ^_^

segment 12 and 13: I decided to split the shopping-segments into two, because I still needed to get a two-socket short staff from Akara in act 1 (fastest speed of all staffs) and a belt (with fhr) + potions from Charsi and Lysander in act two and those two items together in one segments combined with a nice buying/selling speed were just too hard to get in one segment. I also needed to finally use all my stat-points on the character, which I had not done for a long time... ^_^

Could have saved me another two seconds if I had put all those points in stats in earlier segments with that shift-click while running, but that is not a big deal and it would have been another source of error in earlier segments and I really didn't needed them in act 1.

14th segment: This segment is about getting the far oasis WP and the cube. I tried to use the Tal Eth-frw-glitch that bimanc described in the comments to his run (thanks again for that hint) but I didn't know that a level-up would stop the glitch here. But my leveling went so extraordinary well (the other attempts were not even close to this one) that I will not complain about it here either, even if I had the glitch only for one to two desert-areas (for comparison: I almost never had the level up before the far oasis in other attempts... so xp-gain was just total win!)

15th segment: I decided to get the amulet before the shaft, so that I have a higher level in the maggots lair, so I can reach the staff faster. Five bosses was the feasible maximum, which I managed to get here. Some missclicks here and there costs me approx. two seconds, but it is not a big deal. Optimization in D2-speedrunning should basically go for maximum shrine/monster-luck and such (at least in the leveling-segments) not some minor clicking errors which happen sometimes, but only cost a few seconds altogether, maybe... compared with the much higher xp-gain you get for it, those few extra-seconds don't really count for very much later...

16th segment: Now it is time for the staff (in the much hated maggots lair, a trappers hell for speedrunning). This was the first segment, in which I allowed for two types of shrine. Skill-shrine or xp-shrine. With the first one, I would try to optimize for speed only, meaning at least sub-two-minutes. With the latter one I would optimize for xp too, while not going too far over two minutes of course. In the end the xp-segments turned out to have won this battle, so I kept this particular attempt, which, though not as godlike as the first desert-segment, it is still acceptable for a speedrun.

17th segment: Just completing the staff-quest and refilling with potions was the goal here. Not much to say. I definetly am most proud of this segment though, because i get soooo many potions. ;)

18th segment: The coming segments are getting more and more speed-optimized rather then xp-optimized. This segment is all about getting to the arcance sanctuary while killing the maximum possible number of bosses on the way which I achieved. It was the first segment where I decided to go without any shrine, because getting it would just cost me too much extra-time and the segment is only 1:07 long and I already have level 17 now, which means I reached my two earlier stated goals (traps + stealth). I also have enough xp-viable-areas before me to reach level 20 without much hassle. So the only "extra-way" I took here was in the last area, because of that boss-position which is very near to the direct way.

19th segment: In the arcane sanctuary, I went without any shrine again, because of speed. This area is just about getting to the summoner in the fastest possible time killing that one regular ghost-boss on the way. Two stops at monsters in the arcane sanctuary were feasible and those two were killed quite fast by me on that attempt. I would have tried to get some more seconds here (they were within reach) if the summoner did not drop that nice orb, which sells for some nice money later.

20th segment: Duriel was fought with a skill-shrine of course, which speeds the running-part and the fight itself up very nicely. I had some time to sort out the chaos that was my inventory during the opening sequence of his prison which was great for picking up his kickass-drop on that attempt. :)

21st segment: This one is about selling stuff, buying potions and getting the first organ, all in one. I joined them all together, because the first part is easy and getting the first organ (with an xp- or skill-shrine on the way) is the only thing I had to manipulate. Some comments on the jungle. Here I had some really good luck. I did not try to manipulate my map for the jungle part and still got one of the best maps possible as far as I know! It was very short (the great marsh was totally out of my way) and the only bad thing was, that the only wp on the way was the flayer-jungle-wp, but that is not a big deal if you choose your segments carefully. With a crap jungle-map unlike this one the sub-hour-goal would have been much, much harder, if not impossible for me to reach!

22nd segment: This part is about getting the flayer-jungle-wp and the second organ. I decided to go for a skill-shrine here, because that extra-runspeed really helps with the still annoyingly long way I had to travel, and I did not had to gain much more xp here, so there was no need for an xp-shrine. So basically this is almost purely speed-optimized with some traps on the way, but I still got the gidbinn here because I wanted to manip some really nice ring for it which will help me a whole lot in later segments!

23rd segment: This one is about getting some choking gas potions off the first one to two monster-groups, the upper-kurast-wp and the last organ whilst getting level 20 and some order in my inventory on the way (putting new potions in my empty belt and all the organs in the cube), all combined with a skill-shrine at the jungle-shrine for that extra-runspeed, so it's more optimized than you might think. ;)

Well what do I want with those choking gas potions you might ask? Easy answer: It is the fastest possible way to support my merc in killing those two fire-immune-monsters (Grand Vizier of Chaos and Colenzo) that you have to kill on your way to Baal. I thought much about what I can use to get the maximum damage-output for my character to help my merc with killing them and they were the answer. They are just so easy to get 36 damage per second potions which doesn't have any chance-to-hit-requirements and gives you the best possible damage-output on level 20 besides your traps.

24th segment: This is just about getting my award for the gidbinn and a level 19 coldmerc for max-dmg. I got a REALLY nice ring from him (so gidbinn was definitely worth getting!) which gives me +10 energy, +15 mana (this one allowed me to get normal mana-potions in act 4 and 5 and use them to maximum effect and probably saved me from having to shop for potions a second time), halves freeze duration (saves some seconds if you're freezed somewhere), +1 mana after each kill (just nice to have with traps, saves some more mana), 3% lifeleech and + 14 ar (useless for me, but listed anyway for the sake of completeness).

25th segment: The Council and Mephisto were killed together here, because the wp was off track. I had two requirements for this segment. Max speed (only reached with skill-shrine at Mephisto) and a drop worth loads of money from him so I can gamble a +1 trap-amulet in act 4. First I planned on manipulating tarnhelmet from him but the time variance on killing the Council/Mephisto was just too much, so I dropped that plan and decided to get that +1 amulet from Jamella instead which only needed a good money-output combined with good speed here and had almost the same result as a tarnhelmet.

Segment 26 and 27: Just selling stuff, buying potions and gambling that +1 amulet here. I lost a second just looking at that awesome amulet for too long, but that's ok for this great result (+1 trap-amulets are quite rare).

28th segment: Just pure running to river of flame wp here, optimized for max speed which means getting a skill-shrine on the way and not a single complete monster-block, which was quite hard to achieve. I decided to leave Izual out although he was on the way, because taking him down would just take too long to be of any use for me.

29th segment: This one is my favorite, although there was a minor flaw in it. First, I wanted to damage Diablo with a fire-shrine, to reach the best time possible. But later I realized that this was just too many bottle-necks to handle. Here is the situation:

The first and biggest bottle-neck was right at the start: The CS-approach up until I am at the pentagramm. I wanted to have no more than one to two minor blocks from monsters, maximum (those without fire-resistance, who can be killed fast) and this condition already failed ~80 % of my attempts. So this already reduces the number of actual CS-fights by a large amount.

The second bottle-neck then is that there is just one single shrine within reach of the diablo-fight. This one shrine is a health-pool ~70 % of the times. So chances for reaching CS in a reasonable time and an actual shrine were already very low (roughly 0,2*0,3 = 0,06 = 6 %). If you know how RARE a fire-shrine is, you can get a pretty good picture of how many attempts are needed to get one with those two prior conditions then (chances for a fire-shrine are like ~2% or something). So chances for all of this happening together are something like 0,06*0,02 = 0,0012 = ~0,12 % then. And then you don't even have the CS-fights counted in, which can be dramatically different on different attempts depending on the number and placement of all monsters at the area. That is the third bottle-neck which again reduces the number of successful attempts by at least 50 %. And then there is always the chance to die in there somewhere (maybe 30 % chance). So all this adds up to ridiculously low percentages. I did like 500 tries without a single fire-shrine until I finally gave up on that aim and picked up my fastest segment so far, which was a very nice one. Not a single monster-block on the approach, very fast CS-boss-killing and a good Diablo-kill with nice money-output. The funny thing here was (and my failure in this segment), that this was like the ONLY attempt where my merc survived after the first resurection, so I didn't even had to go to town the second time to try to revive him. I didn't realized it until I was at Tyrael, because it was SO unusual that you wouldn't even look up there to see if he is still alive... (he was also off screen at that crucial moment in the game). It was just a pure automated thing for me, to go to town a second time and try to revive him then...

30th segment: Just selling/shopping potions again for the last time here. I had more than enough money to do it in act 5 (despite the double-prices), so I did it there to speed things up compared to act 4 shopping. I also got two stamina potions for the running part here.

31st segment: Just pure running segment till the frozen tundra with a skill-shrine of course. I tried to reach a segment without a single complete monster-block and I achieved this goal.

32nd segment: Running to the ancients and killing them as fast as possible, then getting worldstone level 2 wp. I found that the fastest possible killspeed here can only be reached if those guys stand still for some time so I developed some very nice AI-abusive-strategy which involves going in any corner of the arreat summit (preferably as near to the exit as possible) and just standing STILL there despite them hitting on you. The only thing that really damages you from the ancients normally are their abilities whirlwind and leap attack so by standing in the corner they for some reason do not use those ugly skills on you, and just stand still hitting you with normal attacks, and that doesn't really hurt much (potion-heal > hitting-damage). It may not look like it here but normally I do not even get close to dying unlike this attempt (because I took my first health potion much too late) so it is definitely a very nice strat for the ancients, also for other melee-characters in normal or speedrunning play...

33rd segment: This is my last segment in which all i had to do was kill Baal as fast as possible (without a shrine, because that does not work with all those curses down there). There were however four bottle-necks in the World Stone Keep.

First one is the approach, again, which contains an almost clean throne room so the first wave comes as fast as possible.

Second one was the fight with the third wave which could cost you another ten seconds if the hydras are recast shortly before the last minion dies.

Third was the luring out of the last two waves which could fail terribly if not done properly.

And lastly was the Baal-fight itself which has the biggest time-variance and did not always work (cause health-potions were limited and I did not want to buy anymore...). So I only made about 20 actual baal-kills, because the conditions before already failed most tries earlier) and this one had the best time of all. Later, suga gave me a nice improvement-strategy for this, which is just to leave your items in the throne room near baal after the third wave died and opening a tp. Then all you have to do is luring the creeps right in front of the "Baal-room" and die there two times + going back via tp of course and then picking up your items again. It saves another 28 seconds of this run, but is a different run-category then without deaths. So that's why they are posted separately.



Here are some possible improvements for runs to come:

- Manipulate and kill even more bosses than me. You can probably manage to get to level 20 by the end of act 3 by just killing bosses and minions alone, totally ignoring normal monsters on the way (at least if they are sub-15-monster-groups) if you optimize the number of bosses on that way. Also you should manipulate out more champ-packs and make boss-packs out of them, cause they give even greater XP (approx. twice as much as champions).

- Maybe leave out the small detours, that I made for some bosses in act 1 and try to get the same number of bosses directly in the way if possible.

- Maybe do two Countess-runs instead of three, optimized for both xp and double-drop-runes (>1000 tries needed for that) and use the bosses of the last areas of act 3 lower-kurast to travincal to get the last level instead of leveling up to 20 too early (lower-kurast), like in my run.

- Micro a little bit better than me here and there (let me mention my bad Andi-drop-management again here, which still really bugs me, thinking about it...)

- Try to get a fire-shrine in the chaos-sanctuary in connection with a kickass-cs-segment to half the Diablo-bossfight-time (>1000 tries for kickass-segment needed I guess, because as the name already tells you, cs is quite "chaotic" to try and complete in such a short amount of time ... also look at my explanation of the segment above)

- Get an even greater map than mine. Good luck finding one... ^_^

- Use more Fire Blasts in between the Wake of Fire-Traps on Andariel/Ancients/Baal.

All in all these improvements should be able to cut out another ~5 minutes of the run, reaching sub-55-minutes then.