There are some things I should clarify, since browsing the forums I see a lot of repetitive questions and comments. I use specific skills / stats / items for a reason.
Gladiator's Armor: I have a set of Gladiator's, but I never use it in this run (except for my arm piece, which I just haven't gotten around to replacing yet). Why? Gladiator's: base 80AL. Wyvern: base 85AL. The base AL is your elemental defense. When you enter the cave and get bombarded by Imps, you can possibly take 3-5 more damage per attack spell wearing Gladiator's. That adds up fast, obviously. The net result is you have to heal more often. If you bring Watch Yourself that's negated, but some people choose not to bring WY. Fine, just keep healing when you should be killing. Don't complain to me about how long it takes or how the imps keep kicking your ass.
Sprint + Charge: Ok I abandoned Charge for a while, but went back to it. Why? Two reasons. 1) Obviously I want to get to the cave as fast as possible. With both skills, you're at 125% speed 100% of the time. With just Sprint at 12 strength, it's 65% of the time. In Tasca's, if you're using both you can actually beat that Dolyak / Ranger patrol to the bridge and not have to wait for them to cross, and even beat the Golem / Heretic patrol to the last part of the map. I get lucky sometimes and make it to the warp before the Heretic patrol who guards it, and them I'm home free. 2) I do just fine with only Sever Artery and Desperation Blow. 20 seconds or less per Imp. Don't underestimate bleeding. -3 health regen adds up faster than you realize. I have no use for an elite attack skill. Those of you who load up on axe attack skills, I have a feeling you're still not killing them much or any faster. I didn't see any noticable improvement in kill time when I came stacked with Eviscerate, Executioner's Strike, and Penetrating Attack. You're looking at the big numbers in the skill description and letting them deceive you, especially since they all use adrenaline.
Tundra Giants: You're kidding, right? These guys kill you? With Dolyak and Watch Yourself up, their stones do 0-1 damage and don't knock you down. Giant Stomp does 25 damage and doesn't knock you down. How can that possibly kill you? Stroll up to one, start him bleeding, spam Desperation Blow when it recharges, watch him fall dead, stroll up to the next one. Sheesh, I took on 6 or 7 of them at once and never even came close to dying. And you shouldn't take the back way anyway, which I'm going to explain in a bit.
Helms: I have a Lieutenent's Helm with a minor strength rune, and a Wyvern Helm with a Superior Strength. When I get to the cave, I switch. At 15 Strength Dolyak lasts 20 seconds, so it's never down. If you don't understand the usefulness of a Lt's Helm, you haven't used it. Every hex lasts half as long as usual. I can now survive Thunderwing's Iron Mist almost every time. I just hit Healing Signet repeatedly until the spell wears off, then immediately Sprint away. Here's where 2 running spells makes a hell of a difference. If you only have Sprint and it's not recharged when IM wears off, you're screwed. And health degen hexes, well, wouldn't it be nice to cut those -3's in half, time-wise? You'd sure last a lot longer, especially if the next mob is too close for you to stop to heal up and recover.
North route vs. south route, and spawns: I strongly recommend never taking the longer south route. There are numerous reasons for this. The biggest is protection against a bad spawn (too many chickens mixed with the imps at the caves, for example, or Thunderwing at a choke point and you don't think you can get past) and respawning after clearing the cave. When you take the north route, if you die, you go all the way back to the rez shrine near the Tasca's exit. That's a GOOD thing. Just run out and rezone. Voila'! Whole new spawn, one which could be better for your purposes. Killed all the imps in the cave? No problem? Run out to the closest group of birds, let them kill you, and boom, you're back at the beginning of the zone. Death Penalty? Who cares about DP?!? All those frigid hearts you have collected and you don't have ANY candy canes? You don't deserve an IDS, sorry. Go back to farming skeletons or something. The kicker is, there IS another rez shrine in Mineral Springs, but you only pass it if you take the south route. And it's not even remotely close to the rezone point. So if you go that way and hit a bad spawn, or die, or clear the cave and want to start over, you die and STILL have to trudge your way back to the Tasca zone point. For this reason alone, it's never worth going that way. Never mind that it takes almost twice as long to get to the cave if you go that way.
I read on this forum, and even get PM's in game from people who make this a heck of a lot harder than it really is. There are only 2 circumstances that MIGHT kill me in Mineral Springs: 1) I hit 2 or more Trolls at the same time in the cave, and 2) Thunderwing's bunch gets the better of me. I've made dozens of runs, and looted a total of 12 swords, so it's not like I'm offering any advice that isn't already proven to work.