Hey All

Before I start: The game is Middle Earth: Shadow of War, I want to make it clear that I own a full copy of the game+ all DLC so I'm not talking about ripping off developers, just trying to access patches I can not longer access.

Question: Is it valid for a Speed-run to Pirate a game that requires always on connection to access older patches?

Brief summary: I'm new here so my apologies if this has been asked before I did a quick search before asking but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, I couldn't ask on the specific game either as the forum/game is pretty much dead.

Situation: I've been learning from and watching the current WR which uses a rather large bug (to level super fast) however it was patched out after this run was recorded (the last DLC made a ton of changes to the game even if you don't own the DLC) it makes the current WR quite possibly unbeatable (without new discovers of course) due to the time saves the glitch allows.

Since the game requires constant connection to its servers (not even allowing the game to be launched in Steam offline mode) I'm not sure what else I can do. I'd love to hear more veteran speedrunners takes on this, I don't want to go to the effort of trying for a time I think is unbeatable with the current patch but I also don't want to put the effort in with a pirated copy of the game only to have it rejected.

I know I am super late to the party, but I was interested in trying to pick up the game to try to learn to speed-run it over the next year or so. I know the run has a lot of RnG in it but I'm fine with that since it will take me a while to get good with it, right now I'm aiming to just have a run on the leader board by December so I've got a lot of time to learn.

I have a few questions about the game and the run.

In the rules I see that DLC5 caused a lot of issues, which one is DLC 5 and why did it change so many things?

The current WR is still the best route for now, or did someone else find a better one that just hasn't been used yet?

Is there a method outside of backing up save files for practising missions/sections with correct level and talents?

Is there any advice you can give to a new runner to speed up learning?

Keyboard and mouse or controller or a mix? I'm assuming keyboard and mouse are better for bow combat but I'm fairly use to the controller for over-world navigation.

Thanks in advance for any replies.