slow start to the new ladder

The finds are starting to trickle in...


IK Belt - my first decent set drop


A tri-enchanted Pindleskin :)


Witchwild String - a nice bow to upgrade.


Wizardspike - unique bone knife... I'll try and use this one on a hammerdin build.


Finally!! A weapon for my merc!! Bonehew is nice, but the high strength requirement means my merc can't use it for the next 2-3 levels :(


One of Pindle's minions drop a Nord's Tenderizer - unique truncheon.


And a Stoneraven - unique Matriarchal Spear. This one spawned with good mods - +3 skills, 45 resists but low ED.


Hellmouth - war gauntlets


And probably my best find till date - Trang Oul's Girth - set troll belt. This is the rarest set belt in the game, a kick ass belt in its own right and one of the 2 rare items of the set.

some good rares and magics

Uniques and sets have been almost unfindable this time around. I don't know if it's Pindle who's been nerfed again, or the overall drop rates. Or maybe it's just that my luck has turned :)
But lack of uniques and sets has not stopped the very occasional sweet rare or magic drop :)
Here's a few interesting drops till now -

A nice rare jewel with ED and some other mods.

And a 100 PDSC. Nice :)

A nice little rare ring with amazing mods - AR, Life, Mana and Energy - lots of good stuff :)

And an eye-popping Ruby Jewel of Carnage! Sweeeeeet!

Update on item finding runs

Recent times have not been nearly as kind as my past ladder experiences. I don't know if it's a stretch of bad luck or if it's some change Blizzard have made in their server code. Makes me want to switch to single player all the more. At least my characters and equipment don't get deleted with disuse, and there's no shit pertaining to assholes using hacks and dupes. Of course, the downside is very slow levelling and no trading.

Anyway... my necromancer is now level 79, and levelling has been very slow indeed this time. He's not nearly as quick in killing as my necromancer in the last ladder. And the levelling has become really slow as well. All in all, I think if I don't find good reasons to stick with this ladder soon, I'll switch to single player mode, or maybe I'll just perhaps play with my old non-ladder characters and kick ass gear (relative to what I own now in the new ladder)

Here're some screenshots of recent finds.

Another interestingly named monster :) (this one is a repeat of a monster I encountered in the last ladder!)

My very first unique in the new ladder! Waterwalk boots.

And my second poor find - Venom Grip gloves!

And here's the first time I saw a sacred armour drop. Haven't seen many of those recently.

And here's a shield which could have so easily been the Herald of Zakarum!

This ring turned out to be a Dwarfstar.

And my rarest drop yet... still rather useless. Demonhorn's Edge - destroyer helm. This one spawned with less than optimal mods of +1, +1, +2 to various skills.

V1.11 gaming update

Though my online gameplay was hit badly by my move, I have been attempting to catch up in recent times.
I started from scratch with my skelliemancer and until now the going has been slow and ponderous.
Especially in hell difficulty, the latter acts were not as quick as before. Finding people to help with the quests was rather difficult, and maybe it's just my imagination, but the skeleton summoner build is not as strong now as it was in 1.10.
My skeletons, even with max mastery, are not nearly as tough as they were before. If of course, didn't help that my mercenary was at a very low level.
Now finally I am doing pindle runs once more! It's almost a relief. My summoner is at level 75, with a might mercenary at level 70, 8 level 20 skeletons with skeleton mastery level 20. Still, the runs are by no means as easy as they used to be. Skeletons seem to be a lot more fragile. This time around, I have not invested many points in summon resist (5 points) or Revive (7 points). Instead I have a high level corpse explosion. It is useful, but I am not happy with my killing speed.
The drops from Pindleskin have also not been terribly encouraging. The best item he has dropped yet (in fact, the only item he's dropped until now) has been Waterwalks, unique sharkskin boots. My merc is slumming it with pitiful weapon and armour. My necro is slumming it with mostly the same gear which I had in normal difficulty.
I will post some screenprints shortly.
Hope y'all are having better luck this ladder season.