Just a first post, this is where I intend to discuss any of my Factions speedrunning related questions/strats/builds.
For some backdrop on what speedrunning this entails:
GOAL
To complete the game as fast as possible. Technically, that only involves beating the ‘Imperial Sanctum’ mission as fast as possible.
GENERAL SPEEDRUN RULES
-Essentially the game is to be played as if it was the first character created on your account. This is the fundamental rule that must be adhered to. Major game rules include (but are likely not limited to):
-Skills may only be purchased from the skill trainers they are originally purchased from.
-Access to storage is prohibited.
-Runs must be completed in a single-segment.
-Runs must be completed without any help from other players (using inactive districts is strongly recommended).
-Hard mode must be disabled.
-Use of tomes is prohibited
-Access to other campaigns is prohibited.
-Any special event items/interactions are also prohibited (this includes things like bonus exp/faction weekends).
-Any glitches/exploits/bugs/skips/clips are allowed
-No third party programs allowed, ie. programmable macros, etc.
FACTIONS SPECIFIC:
-Kurzick/Luxon faction must be zero at the beginning of the run (doesn't really matter now as you skip 'Befriending the Luxons' in an any% run anyway)
-No use of /bonus item other than 'Igneous Summoning Stone'.
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Well since discovering the gate glitches my route is now going to be a lot shorter. The gate skip into Gyala allows me to skip the 'Befriending the Luxons Quest and Sunjiang District + other quests. Then the other gates known to be useful for clipping are the one into Boreas Seabed which lets you skip a bunch of quests and the very hard Tahnnakai Temple mission and the gate(s?) into Xaquang Skyway (skips Vizunah Square and Nahpui Corner + quests).
I've confirmed I'm able to do the one into Gyala by aggroing the Reef Lurker spawn nearby (if it's in range). I still need to test if my self sac necro build will work for this gate as assurance (if the reef lurker spawns too far from the gate and I would have to re-run from Cavalon).
The glitches into Boreas and Xaquang are both done in the same fashion, but using masterless minions and other enemies instead. Typically these are done with skills from outside the Factions campaign (Aura of the Lich + sac hero to make it masterless or something along those lines, there are few variants but they use the same principles) and using heroes which I wont have access to either. I don't have time to test Xaquang yet (really busy atm) but I have some theory in place that should hopefully see me able to clip the gate without heroes or skills outside of factions attainable at that point. This would however require me to go A/N and also means I'd skip out on shadow form.
For Boreas I had a character who was nearby and I was able to confirm that I had three different ways of successfully clipping. One way is that sometimes a tiger will spawn near the gate. This is the easiest method, and is just like the reef lurker. However, it's rare that it spawns in range of the gate, but not impossible. The second is aggroing the nearby wallows to kill all the Luxon at the gate and then using shadow form to not die and aggro them to the gate. This is tricky because of the level gap, their constant melee knock downs and lack of survivabilty, but thankfully the resurrection shrine is right next to the gate so you can keep trying. If I get the Xaquang gate skip to work, it's likely this method will be impossible (without shadow form you die in seconds). Either way, it's the hardest of the three but like the tiger can be done as A/Any and will be my method should Xaquang be unskippable.
The third way of skipping the gate is a homebrew self-sac build which will be identical to the method I intend to try at the Xaquang gate later. It involves selecting A/N and using this build or something similar:
[build=OwRSU2fNTwGIuDBeANE4hSG]
You kill something and summon a melee minion (highest level lets it live longer), move it to the gate and then sac yourself to death to make it masterless. You then respawn right nearby and can shadowstep to it and use it to clip.
The Xaquang gate is substantially harder and you need to bring along Su [Henchman]. You then sac yourself and she will resurrect you using her signet. The second time you sac yourself, she will use animate flesh golem. You can then rez at the closest shrine and run back to the gate where Su is flagged. When you get there, sac yourself to low but not dead to give you more time, and wait for the golem to die and leave a corpse. You can then flag Su away to interrupt her from resummoning a golem and allowing you to make your own minion. Once you do so, sac yourself immediately and get ready to run back to the gate from the shrine. It's a lot futher than the Boreas shrine so you really have to run as fast as possible to give yourself enough time. I think that gives you a 10-ish second window to try and get the clip. I will have to test it with a new character seeing all of mine had already gotten past that point and had no actual gate there, but I assume it will work!.
Anyway, after that long detour of background, if all the gates work, I'll likely be level 12 or so in Gyala as opposed to the usual level 20, and without shadow form. Survivablity will be much more of an issue I imagine. Not sure what to do about skill builds, but I'd imagine I might skill cap [Spoil Victor=] on the way through Silent Surf, so that I can kill Kuunavang really fast (and other bosses I guess). It might not be faster than just running, but I'll have a play around when I get time. I don't expect to be doing much running without Shadow form, I'll likely just have to fight a lot of stuff with henchmen, which leads me to wonder if skipping the gate in Xaquang is even going to be any faster (my guess is it should be, but I no longer have sprint as a third IMS skill and the necro quests on Shing Jea take longer than the warrior counterparts, lower overall level, less running/more fighting, etc). Time will tell I guess, I won't be able to test these builds/ideas til later this month. Feel free to brainstorm anything that might be useful in the meantime. It seems that Factions will no longer be a campaign speedrun that just holds your hand 
Hope this is still planned to start, or maybe you can post up your current route?
