Guide to the "Speed Run" Achievement through The Descent

[osoviejo]

Can a mage blink over the wall?

A mage can't blink anywhere without a clear line-of-sight to the destination. No blinking around corners, for one.

[narf]

Walls are a scaled down version of pebbles - Mage can't Blink over them.

[hades0505]

When I got the achievement (I believe it was 15 secs or so) it was through a bug. I died before the elite pack at the end and it counted the time between reviving and killing them as completion time (so like 9 seconds). I guess it was a bug, hehe.

[adjacentengels]

Can a mage blink over the wall?

[narf]

Important to note that the achievement is easier by using Warrior or Bounty Hunter(with Assault 4). The marked part is crucial as you can either leap over it as Warrior or attack the group that is at the tip of the arrow to have the tip of the arrow as a Bounty Hunter. This cuts short/speeds up about 1/3 of the whole way.

[adjacentengels]

I was just thinking it would be nice to have the map a couple days ago when I got the achievement.

[Coda]

Tips:

• All Classes
  • reduce enemy level to Normal, level 60 instead of 70
  • don't use minions, they lag behind and attack enemies you'd rather just run past, maintaining combat as 'on'
  • swap in Fleet Footed passive
  • maximize %-movement-speed, not just in Champion Points but also >50% on both Boots & Pants
  • memorize the map
  • set view distance to 150% (max)
  • get a lucky spawn -- after you try it a bunch of times you start spawning at other places & eventually you'll spawn a decent ways into the level
• Warriors (said to be the easiest)
  • Battle Rage makes warrior run faster
  • Use the Leap trick to go over the first wall to the north (more or less on your left), and again over the next wall to the north (more towards the right this time -- try to leap past the last bridge) (see video)
  • There's another route that uses the Leap trick -- read it here.
• Bounty Hunters (easier than mage)
  • they have much faster innate movement speed than mage or warrior
  • the Assault-4 bonus makes BH run even faster while attacking -- click to attack a monster as far ahead as you can see -- including the other side of the first wall to the left, as pointed out here.
  • the Smoke Screen spell forces combat to disengage (use at the end, after killing the bosses)
• Mage (hard)
  • use Blink -- but save it for key spots, as you only get ~4 casts; unfortunately you cannot Blink over the wall like the Warrior Leap
  • cast Singularity backwards near the end of the last bridge; kill those slowly spawning enemies then run to the bosses, otherwise combat stays 'on' (see video)
  • about this same last bridge, the long one with the railroad tracks. Running through the middle of this bridge triggers delayed waves of spawns. A mage can BLINK past this spot and avoid the trap being sprung. Minions do not trigger it.
  • consider using Time Warp (slows down time 50% for 6 seconds) and/or Arcane Deflection (30% boost to movement speed for 4 seconds)

It's one of the hardest achievements !

Here's Dyoma's video of a Warrior. Note he runs northeast after the first Leap, in order to get the second Leap in the optimum spot.
~~~

Here's a Bounty Hunter running it in ~26 seconds. If you stand at the spot the Warrior does it's second Leap, you can occasionally click on an enemy on the other side of that wall, instead of just the ground -- and then your BH runs very fast almost all the way to the end. This video did not use that particular trick.
~~~

Here's proof a Mage can do it. I captured this video on PC, where the mouse is a little too accurate when you're in a hurry. So the move/fight/move sequence on the last bridge is pretty messy. Also forgot to set Difficulty Level to Normal 60. But it's under 45 seconds so can't complain much... the lucky spawn helped.
~~~

\

---

/
THE MAP: