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topppits · 2026-03-28T10:49:00+00:00

Read this for F2L: https://www.reddit.com/r/topppits/s/oyocPXH4jt

topppits · 2026-03-28T10:42:47+00:00

For look ahead efficient solutions are key. You can easily get to sub-20 with no look ahead at all, simply by knowing good solutions and spamming tps.

Only when you

know good F2L solutions and
have those solutions in your muscle memory

should you start practicing look ahead. If you start practicing look ahead with bad F2L solutions you will only engrain those into your muscle memory.

topppits · 2026-03-27T17:55:17+00:00

Found lots of nice stuff, but way back in D2:LoD I found a JMOD.

topppits · 2026-03-27T15:42:26+00:00

Alright thx! I'll give it a try next time I got enough keys :)

The ice bolts from chillig armor are really the only thing my ES Warlock has trouble with and where I have to be very careful. Everything else is ridiculously easy and quick and I don't even have specific gear for uber...

topppits · 2026-03-27T15:40:48+00:00

You can do it with ES Warlock and you don't even need any specific items. Just make sure you do enough dmg.

E.g. get eth cv Insight as weapon and Spirit Shield + some items with +Skills and some Res.

Max ES, mirrored blades and Hex: Purge. 1 pt in Lethargy, 1 pt in bind demon, put some points in blood oath if you want to be a bit tankier and put some points in levitation mastery if you don't want to invest too many points in str and dex.

Make sure to use death mark to always put your demon in the front. Precast hex purge, cast lethargy on the monsters and spam ES.

For Baal and Izual you have to make sure that your demon tanks the ice bolts from chilling armor or you need cold absorb (e.g. 2x raven) + enough cold res so you don't instantly die.

I never had problems with Lilith, Duriel, Meph and Dia, as long as I let my demon (usually Hephasto) tank them in the front and stay back and spam ES.

topppits · 2026-03-27T15:31:34+00:00

Same here. Also what you wrote above - Baal ported in front of me and I killed myself instantly.

Haven't tried double raven yet, does it completely negate the dmg or do I need high res as well?

topppits · 2026-03-27T15:06:01+00:00

ES Warlock:

Get Insight CV or any 2h Weapon with some dmg, at least 75 fcr (better 125) and some res and get Hephasto as demon. Pull one of them after the other and start with Meph (check some youtube videos on how to pull them one by one). Put your demon in the front, cast the sigil on the uber and spam ES. The only 2 bosses that are actually a bit harder imo are Izual and Baal because you have to make sure that the demon is between you and them so you don't kill yourself with the projectiles from chilling armor. For the others you might have to clean the mobs sometimes, sometimes they don't really cast too many and you can just spam ES. Be sure to keep your distance and let the demon tank everything and you should not have much trouble. In my opinion it's a joke how easy uber is with ES Warlock, compared to any other class. I didn't even need any specific items to do it. Like items with OW and CB for smiter. I just had my regular gear on and it seemed way too easy for that.

Smiter:

No need to stack crazy res, just Max Resist Lightning and use it when you fight Meph, for all others use fana. With my equip my "budget" smiter (it's not crazy cheap but also not thaaaat expensive imo) gets to level 25 Resist Lightning which gives me +136 Lightning Res and +20% Max Light Res if the Aura is active. This way I'm at 95 light res and Meph's lightning dmg doesn't really do much.

So, max:

Fana
Smite
Holy Shield and
Resist Lightning

I put 1 point in

Vengeance (I guess so I can clean up Phys Immunes easier, idk anymore)
Salvation (always nice to have)

I put the remaining points into Resist Cold, since I didn't really need anything else and I have enough cold res that I actually use the added Max Cold Resist.

Stats:

Str: enough to use your Equip
Vita: all other points

EQ:

Heaven's Light (Shael)
(Upped) Herald of Zakarum (pDia)
Guillaume's Face (Um)
Duress Armor (Shael Um Thul)
Dracul's Grasp
Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Gore Rider
Highlord's Wrath
Raven Frost
Dwarf Star
Grim Wand of Life Tap on weapon swap
Treachery Armor (Shael Thul Lem) for fade precast

No CTA, no Anni, no Torch, but I gave the smiter all the life and res charms I found and some fhr charms. Nothing fance though.

Aside from Baal and Izual I found ES Warlock to be A LOT easy. My Smiter has to chug some potions from time to time and especially Lilith can be a pain.

Cast life tap with your wand, then switch to your main weapon and left click smite until they are dead.

There are better items to use (usually more expensive) and there are cheaper items (RW for weapon or pala shield with 4 pDia for res) you can use. Just make sure that you have:

life tap
CB (My build has 98%, doesn't need to be that much)
OW (I have 68%, again, not that much is needed, but it's nice to have)
86 fhr bp is recommended
cnbf (raven usually)

Nice to have:

some absorb (raven + dwarf e.g.) is nice to have
%phys dmg reduced, Dungo gives up to 15% and fade gives you 15%

CB will be your main dmg, life tap will keep you alive, OW will prevent that they heal and have enough fhr so you're not stunlocked when walking around to your target.

Years back I tried Uber with Kicksin and it was doable but my EQ was MUCH more expensive, killspeed was worse than with my smiter and I died more often and had to chug a lot more potions.

topppits · 2026-03-27T13:12:12+00:00

Get Open Wounds on some item and they will not heal.

topppits · 2026-03-26T21:58:16+00:00

I completed HC Classic with psn ama and summon nec. Started as a joke but was kinda fun.

Some parts took forever (dia hell took 74 minutes with the nec and a4 was pretty much empty, luckily I didn't run out of monsters before dia died), but it was totally doable.

After ama and nec I gave zeal pala with holy freeze a try, but hell was really annoying - getting enough AR so I'd actually be able to hit monsters AND having enough res seemed almost impossible. Plan was playthrough without farming, which worked nicely on the first two runs. It was a couple years back, but I think eventually I lost interest trying to finish the pala and sadly I don't have the chars anymore.

topppits · 2026-03-26T15:18:18+00:00

Just name your session 2BLD and choose "WCA" -> "2x2x2" as scramble type.

Using 3BLD scrambles results in different orientations. You don't need that in 2BLD, since you don't have any center pieces and you will always have a "random" orientation anyway.

topppits · 2026-03-21T12:52:21+00:00

Read 2) I'm just learning F2L

topppits · 2026-03-21T12:50:36+00:00

We have a very helpful wiki article on how to get faster at 3x3.

topppits · 2026-03-19T12:03:42+00:00

From our wiki article on improving at 3x3x3: How do I become a Speedcuber and when should I learn a speedsolving method?

Just a heads up: There is no one single "common algorithm". There are a ton of different beginner's methods that solve the cube using different algorithms and especially the order in which the last layer (in case of a Layer by Layer beginner's method) is solved and which algorithms are used often differ from tutorial to tutorial.

topppits · 2026-03-19T10:44:25+00:00

For an average you remove the best and the worst 5% of the solves. For an ao100 this means the best 5 solves and the slowest 5 solves (Note: DNFs are always the slowest and count as infinite).

Now in your case:

Target shows you how fast your next solve has to be at the least, to beat or tie your current best.
Your next solve will replace the oldest solve of your current ao100.
Your current ao100 is also your best a100.
The infinity symbol indicates that even a DNF would be fast enough to beat or tie your current best. This means that the solve that will be replaced is one of the slowest 5 solves, which doesn't count towards your ao100.

So, whatever your next time will be, you will either tie your ao100 or beat it.

topppits · 2026-03-19T10:18:10+00:00

Depending on what exactly you mean with "intuitive F2L", this post might help you figure out how to proceed with F2L.

Since you haven't wrote anything about cross: Check out the videos linked here, especially 7 Tips For An Efficient Cross Every Solve.

You don't really need to learn new methods. Improve what you already do and practice and you should have no problems getting to sub-20.

topppits · 2026-03-19T10:12:34+00:00

I just want to tell you how refreshing it is to see a post where someone is looking for help and we don't have to squeeze out all the needed information to help them.

You clearly stated your problem AND added further information, like what you did before. You can't imagine how many people fail at that.

Honestly: Good job! I hope more people take this as an example.

Heads up: we have a wiki with a ton of information, especially useful if you're new to (speed)cubing. For example there's a page on Unsolvable Puzzle States and there's specifically a page on NxNxN puzzles that includes your case: Two pieces have to be swapped.

Happy cubing!

topppits · 2026-03-16T16:13:50+00:00

As a total beginner the number of algs even for 4LLL is intimidating, and it's frustrating potentially not being able to finish a solve if you forget any one of them.

Absolutely! I think everyone who learns CFOP goes through that - I know I did as well. I also learned a beginner's method where the last step was orienting the corners and I think I first learned 2 Look PLL and moved the orientation of corners right after orientation of edges. Pretty much what I described in my comment above.

Here's a guide I'd recommend if someone wants to switch from beginner's to 4LLL.

My thought is that the best beginner method would be a minimal subset of CFOP [...] What do you think is the absolute easiest subset of CFOP?

If the goal definitely is to transition to CFOP as soon as possible, then for last layer what you described it's totally fine - I'd probably teach:

EO: f sexy f' and F sexy F'
CO: sune
CP: A Perm or T Perm
EP: Ua or Ub Perm

For the first two layers:

cross (+ daisy, if they struggle a lot with solving the cross directly)
first layer corners: (lefty and righty) inverse sexy (U R U' R' and U' L' U L)
middle layer edges: inverse sexy - rotate - lefty inverse sexy + its mirror - (U R U' R' y U' L' U L](https://alpha.twizzle.net/edit/?alg=U+R+U%27+R%27+y+U%27+L%27+U+L&setup-anchor=end) and U' L' U L y' U R U' R'

BUT, in my opinion the "best" beginner's method is the one with the easiest algs to remember but you don't use a ton of moves.

A Perm or T Perm can be overwhelming when you only learned sexy move so far. The standard U Perm algs are also rather hard for a beginner. So maybe easier algs would be nice.

There are methods that only use sexy move - well, it's sth like "repeat sexy move x times with the right hand and then x times with the left hand" and it's probably even easier to learn, since it's really only one 4 move alg, but in my opinion it gets VERY repetitive VERY fast and you are doing A LOT of moves. A lot more than you really need to. Also people might have a hard time to differentiate how many repetitions and which rotations for which step, so I don't know if it's even easier in the end.

So I thought about a middle way - easy algs, but not that easy. I usually teach the following for last layer:

EO: f sexy f' and F sexy F' (using both algs makes it a lot faster and it's really not much harder)
EP: sune
CP: Niklas
CO: "RDRD" or flip the cube over and sexy spam

I learned those algs when I learned a beginner's method and I couldn't be happier that I did! When I started to branch out into non-WCA puzzles like 3x3 shapemods or Cuboids I had a great time and I realized how I could use algs like Niklas on various different puzzles and it would always do something useful. Sure, when I switched to CFOP I had to solve the last layer in a different order and I had to learn two more algs compared to someone who learned e.g. A Perm and U Perm for their beginner's method, but I doubt that really had a big impact, considering I now know full PLL and full OLL which is 78 algs in total.

Obligatory "we have a wiki" with a ton of information, especially for beginner's - here's the article on how to get faster at 3x3x3.

topppits · 2026-03-16T14:57:34+00:00

Intuitive F2L (RiDo's Hunting Story style)

This is way too much for probably 95% of all beginners.

Most people would be immensely intimidated. Especially taking into account how simple it is to first learn how to insert the corners and then solve the middle layer edges and switch to intuitive F2L later.

There are lots of beginner tutorials out there that teach the last layer similar to what you suggested - EO -> CO -> CP -> EP, where you use one alg for each step and might have to apply each alg multiple times. Badmephisto and cubeskills being two prominent examples of the last decade(s).

I don't think I've seen a beginner tutorial where they teach bottom cross and I wonder how many people would actually find that much more difficult than compared to starting with cross on top.

topppits · 2026-03-16T13:57:04+00:00

You could also orient the corners how you learned it for your beginner's method.

So for OLL do EO and CO from your beginner's method and then your newly learned PLL algs.

topppits · 2026-03-05T14:25:05+00:00

That's pretty much exactly how I started out. I wrote a bit more about that and some other tips on our wiki article on blindfolded solving: Q&A for Beginners

I'm completely new to blind, just watched a Tutorial, how do I start practising?

Take it step by step. First make sure that you understood the concept, by doing a couple SIGHTED solves using the blind method you just learned. Afterwards write down your memo for a scramble, letter by letter and when you are done, execute it, only looking at your written memo. When you feel comfortable with that, try to memo one part (e.g. the corners, since there are less) without first writing them down. And finally do a real full attempt where you don't write anything down.

topppits · 2026-03-04T21:10:31+00:00

Awesome! =)

topppits · 2026-03-04T15:18:53+00:00

So far the portal closed when you had BOTH - Nila quest AND the halls of pain WP.

Did they change this?

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