I did a Thing (The FINAL Valiant Speedrun)
Cantona59
Member Posts: 277 ★★★
Well hello everyone, didn’t think I’d be back here so soon.
For anyone who’s new, or just doesn’t know who I am, I like doing new account speedruns to progression titles for a mix of fun and to inform the community of how the early to mid game has changed, nice strategies to use, and other random bits of info.
Most recently with the introduction of the crucible, I decided to redo my valiant Speedrun, and managed to bring the time down from 21 days to 16 days.
But something about that Speedrun annoyed me afterwards. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and the run was incredibly unclean, due to a combo of irl sickness and a messy crucible run, the Speedrun was a few days longer than it realistically should have been. In addition, 9.1 released literally days after I finished, which annoyed me as it was a much easier road to valiant (as exploration gives 3 t4a).
However it didn’t annoy me enough to do the Speedrun again, I had still cut a lot of time off my run and I didn’t see anybody beating it soon.
Fast forward nearly 3 months to the last 2-3 days. I load up YouTube for some content while I’m playing arena, and notice that Nick136 and Pepe have both started Valiant Speedruns. I was surprised, but decided to tune in to see how they would approach the challenge compared to how I approached it. That’s when I noticed a few things have been updated sometime since my Speedrun:
1. New players start with 45 energy, and reach 70 energy at lvl 26. What a fantastic change! New players now get a lot more energy per energy refill and level up, making the start of the game less refill intensive
2. 10 phcs after the first quest. A very interesting and huge change for new accounts. The chance of getting an early 3/4 star is increased massively (for example Nick got one).
3. A MASSIVE increase in iso and gold (example picture of an act 3 quest attached). Whether this was due to my feedback or otherwise, this is a great change for new players. Iso was always the limiting factor for the Speedruns in the early game, I had to essentially go all in on one champion and get to shooting stars level with them.
These was the 3 main changes I noticed, all which have happened very very recently. It intrigued me to how it would change the early stages of speedruns, champ acquisition, rankups etc.
Upon watching a few days of his streams, I realised that Nick is on track to just about beat my time, especially because of 9.1 vs the crucible. And so the race is on!!!
I started a new account yesterday, and set up the basics. We got a 4 star Hyperion, which will be a major carry to act 6, and I’ve got some other good champs such as 5 star venom.
I didn’t know whether I wanted to Speedrun, so the first stream on my channel from yesterday is just titled new account fun, as I was testing how I felt about it.
But I’ve decided it’s happening!
This will be my 3rd and FINAL (but actually this time) F2P Valiant Speedrun. The goal is simple, explore 9.1, do a path of necro, and that should do the job. I’m hoping to break 14 days with a decent margin, but like last time showed, things can go wrong quickly.
I’m gonna do a similar format to last time, a mixture of forum recaps, videos and streams, so there is a media that everyone likes. Not all content will be done on stream though, as explained before it doesn’t fit with my schedule.
So this is it. Let’s break that record and hopefully break the record Nick is likely to set!
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Comments
You'll always be number 1. And do you want to post your channel for those who aren't already subscribed?
https://m.youtube.com/@cant0na119
It could be a fun idea for the future in a non Speedrun format, as I’d be interested to see what happens
If we can find someone else that thinks the same way, we might eventually get Valiant down to a few hours.
I’m gonna be stuck in an infinite Speedrun loop now
Day 2 Recap!
Managed to move through 3 progression titles today, all the way from 4.1 to 6.1 😂.
First half of the day is covered by the stream, managed to push through act 4 and to uncollected. Very very easy push, Hyperion destroyed everything in his way. My 5 star Crystal from act 4 completion was a hulkbuster! Combined with 2-3 and 3-4 tech gems this was a great pull, instant r4. I also managed to pull photon from uncollected completion and she went to r3.
Only had to use 4 revives and they was all on the collector, so not too bad.
Then off stream I moved through 5.3 and 5.4, Ultron final boss required a few revives as none of my champs really countered him well.
6.1 is when things went pretty poorly, but it’s not that bad in reality:
6.1.1 - 3 revives, not bad for no retreat I’ll take that, hulkbuster was great for boss when he was in defensive state with oscillate
6.1.2 - 8 revives, this Ultron boss was a mega problem. Photon handled sentinel mini decently well but none of my champs was good for Ultron at all
6.1.3 - 0 revives, one of the easy chapters
6.1.4 - 0 revives, the other easy chapter really
6.1.5 - 2 revives, Hyperion destroyed crossbones boss as I could heavy spam him in the corner for lots of furies
6.1.6 - 1 revive, not bad, accidentally messed up against Havok and used hulkbuster sp1 so I died lol
Overall, not a clean run at all, but it doesn’t actually matter. I had 3k units by the end and a couple of revives left over, but I haven’t explored act 3 for the revives and units yet (likely do that on day 3). Also I can now get the act 6 bundles, so my revives are restocked.
Overall it’s my fastest cav push, which is a good sign of things to come. I want thronebreaker in 2 days, as day 3 will be pretty light overall.
I’m going to try and get a bgs win when that starts to get a 6 star before I push into 6.2 and onwards, and I’ve also ascended photon using the tier 1 dust from cavalier. Gold and iso are still very healthy thanks to the buffs.
Video recap showing all the act 6 bosses, some way sloppier than others:
See you all after Day 3! (No stream I’m afraid)
CozysMCOCWelcome
Those were the promocodes still available a few days ago
@Cantona59 @SandeepS
Unfortunately only the NYCC code still worked, the Cozys one must have expired very recently so that’s a sad loss.
However I don’t think I’m gonna miss out by not getting them really, the account is chugging along with no iso or gold issues (would have been a nice bonus tho)
Light day as I mentioned yesterday, only real progress was grabbing a mastery core from back issues to unlock stupefy (incredible for hulkbuster), and exploring act 3 for the units and revives.
Tonight I plan to push as far as possible in act 6, hopefully all the way to thronebreaker. I’m gonna stream the vast majority of it, may need a recap vid if the stream is getting too late.
Day 4 Recap!
A very successful Act 6 Push! I think I used less items combined in 6.2 and 6.3 than in the initial 6.1 completion. I’ve also completed 6.4.1 - 6.4.5 so that tonight on stream, the grandmaster will go down (could have done it today, but it’s better content on stream).
I decided to ascend photon and take her to r4 after 6.1, she became my heaviest hitter in the act 6 push
So, starting from 6.2:
6.2.1 - 0 revives, photon destroyed the dormammu and sym supreme
6.2.2 - 4 revives, all on sinister boss, post buff he’s very annoying even with good counters like Hyperion. Overall I was happy with this though
6.2.3 - 0 revives, my champs fit Icarus very well due to their parry heavy nature, easy quest
6.2.4 - 0 revives, photon soloed kingpin as she is decent for him, incredibly fast ramp up from the rage debuffs counting as another charge
6.2.5 - 0 revives, photon took mordo all the way to 1% and then I tapped him to get the kill
6.2.6 - 2 team revives, this went wayyyy better than I expected, I only actually had to use 1 team revive to get champion down to 10%, then I popped a team revive just incase I died in final phase. Photon was outdamaging the regen consistently which was insane
6.2 completion offer was an instant pick up. 6 star Crystal was trash (air walker) but the resources are easily worth it
I then ranked 4* Nick as I didn’t have a hood Medusa counter, he has proved to be decent even unawakened atm
6.3.1 - 1 revive, botched the solo on Medusa with Nick, but she couldn’t heal as I turned dex off
6.3.2 - 1 revive, photon destroyed the caltrops lane, and the Nick fury boss was a slog with Hyperion
6.3.3 - 0 revives, hulkbuster destroyed the Havok boss, extinction protocol wasn’t as bad as expected
6.3.4 - 0 revives, probably the simplest quest in 6.3, near nodeless path and the imiw is a bit annoying at 15%
6.3.5 - 1 revive, Mysterio wasn’t too bad with photon in pure light as I could counter the sp2, path had a couple annoying fights
6.3.6 - 2 team revives, I absolutely botched what would have been an insane solo with photon, her sp2 applies a taunt to keep the fight going. Managed to take 60% in that attempt, but took 2 team revives to finish it up
6.3 bundle also an instant pickup, contained the usual resources and a 25% t5cc crystal (mutant)
6.4.1 - 0 revives, pretty easy lane, iceman post act 6 nerf doesn’t have that much coldsnap damage
6.4.2 - 0 revives, hulkbuster destroyed the final boss, static blast lane wasn’t too bad as i could get good power gain with hype and hulkbuster
6.4.3 - 1 revive, annihilus mini boss is the toughest fight in this quest with no retreat, Hyperion works decent as armour break gets rid of his cosmic rod
6.4.4 - 1 revive, cmm boss wasn’t too bad, but the reverse control lane was pretty annoying due to the champs specials
6.4.5 - 1 team revive, hydra adaptoid wasn’t too bad with photon as I could push him to sp3 (he doesn’t have one) and just spam hits in pure light form
That’s where I chose to stop, I could have taken out the grandmaster but saved it for the stream today. A very successful and cheap push overall, put me in good stead for heading into act 7 and beyond.
The only annoying thing so far is that my 6 star luck is questionable at best. Overseer is the only one i would even debate ranking but I would prefer a non science champ due to photon. Hopefully act 6 completion rewards give me a better option.
Video upload for today is the 6.4.1 - 6.4.5 bosses, as 6.2 and 6.3 was covered in the stream
See you all later for todays stream!
Day 5 Recap!
Thronebreaker has been achieved! The grandmaster went down in 1 team revive and the rewards was pretty good. Still no great 6 star but I did pull 5 star onslaught, so he immediately went to rank 5 and sig 120.
Then I moved into act 7 but became heavily tilted by ai issues and 60 fps causing timings to change 😅. I decided to stop the stream after 7.1.4 as I was draining through resources quicker than I wanted, but I did continue playing later on:
7.1.5 - 0 revives, onslaught was goated here for electro Luke boss as he is non contact attacks
7.1.6 - 1 revive, hulkbuster was very good for gwenperion boss, recharge power shield lane is onslaughts dream
Picked up the 7.1 unit deal, even cheaper and better value than the act 6 ones.
7.2.1 - 0 revives, easy lane and easy moleman boss with onslaught
7.2.2 - 0 revives, the unit lane with power snack is very easy, and the tigra boss is very cheesy with parry heavy champs
7.2.3 - 0 revives, my favourite lane in the whole of act 7, the spectre buffet lane. Dex 10 times and you win 😂
7.2.4 - 0 revives, nova boss was a simple photon solo, onslaught destroyed the tenacity lane
7.2.5 - 1 revive, onslaught destroyed the falter lane, and then platpool boss with photon
I stopped here so that gwenmaster can be streamed tonight, along with at least 7.3 and maybe 7.4. Time to start pushing heavily!
Day 6 Recap!
Not as productive as I wanted today. I’m starting to really feel it not having any good 6 stars to rank unawakened, and fights are taking longer and taking more resources than I want.
7.3 overall wasn’t too terrible, a couple horror lanes but at the same time I nearly soloed the Kang boss, only not doing cause photon sp3 didn’t deal the 2% needed 😂. Obviously I picked up the bundle after as well, such a good deal.
Then it happened. A very good unawakened 6 star in the form of punisher 2099! Instant r3 from me, great damage, good utility and doesn’t need that awakening really (just increases speed). Hopefully going into 7.4 and beyond it will feel easier now that I have a new big helper.
Unfortunately there will be no stream for day 7, I will have a pretty stop start day so no real time to stream despite having a lot of time to play. Rest assured I will be trying to blast through 7.4 and into act 8 as I feel slightly behind where I wanted to be.
Quick little vid for today, the 7.3 Kang takedown with photon (and an sp3 from hulkbuster at the end)
See you all at the day 7 recap!
I really do not like overseer having used him a lot in the past on my main account, I know he is decent but it was a sort of pls don’t make me do it situation 😂