Why worry about that much strength for a shield with such low blocking? A 4 socketed Sacred Targe is what you’re looking for. Base block is 60% (compared to a Vortex’s 49%. Defense is quite a bit lower (126-158), but with Holy Shield and high block, that’s hardly a concern. All at the cost of a mere 86 Strength.
Yes, I’m in San Jose, quite a far jaunt from San Francisco. I don’t really have room to board someone anyways, if that’s what you were hoping for, sorry. Note: don’t let anyone hear you call it “Frisco”, they might run you out of town. No, I don’t know why it gets on their nerves, it just does.
Regarding elite paladin shields: on the Arreat Summit pages, it says that the 45% resist all attribute is only available on magic shields. For a normal/superior shield that has four sockets you would have at most 35% base resists. Putting 4 pdiamonds in there gets you up to a mere 111% resist all.
I agree that it’s better to have a shield with good blocking than to have a high-defense shield, now that Holy Shield modifies your defense based upon your entire armor, rather than just based upon your shield’s. A sacred targe with level 10 Holy Shield (+30% block) would require base 15 dex + 5/3 dex per level, so that would be dex 150 at level 81. The +175% (base 160% + 15% from 1 point in Defiance) to your defense doesn’t suck, either.
As far as strength is concerned, Heaven’s Light requires a strength of 125. I think that’s a pretty good number to shoot for. With those numbers at level 81, having done all Lan Essam’s Tome quests, you’d have vitality 210 for a base life of 770.
The ideal would, indeed, be a sacred targe with 45 base resists. The higher base blocking would mean less points needed in dex, and the lower requirement would mean no more needed in strength, and every stat point you save from strength or dex means three more life. Endgame strength is only 115, for Guillaume’s Face, or possibly 118 iff we can spare a Guardian Angel for him. No other items are good enough for this build to justify the greater strength. And it’s important to realize that endgame for this guy isn’t way off in the murky 90s… My first clonekiller started his career at a mere level 55, and this one is better built, thanks to that experience. We’ve got folks in Hell now. We could stumble across a clone at any time. So we need the clonekiller ASAP, not when he’s had the leisure to find absolutely perfect items.
After studying the shields on Arreat Summit, I humbly agree with all of you…
I have to work on payroll tonight, so it is likely that I won’t be on unless by luck, in the late hours or I just might go straight to bed…
My cold sorceress is now lvl 45 and needs 1 to max blizzard, cold mastery is next. I’m not going to take her to NM for a while in case we want to do multiple mule runs. I may try to get her to 50, but that’s about it for the time being.
I’ll be off starting August 1st on vacation for a week, so I’ll be unavailabe for that time. I think I’ll start a barb next, but play the necro nostly to try to get some items to equip the characters I already have. Any I can’t use will go on the community mules. I think I have one more mule on the first acct to burn in, then I’ll do the second. They should be all done before my vacation.
Not sure what page you’re looking at, but the one i found says it can get up to 45% as an auto-mod. That’s different from a magic item. Check here. If that isn’t enough to convince you, i’m more than willing to show you my 121% resist all Vortex shield from the old ladder season, or my 121% Kurast shield from this ladder season.
I usually shoot for 120-130 str on my paladins, depending on what weapons and armor they use. I’ve never gone as far as actually upgrading and socketing a Guardian Angel with a Hel rune (196 base str req upgraded, around 156 after the -20% reqs), but with 130 base str, a half-decent anni, and a few +str items, an upgraded GA isn’t too hard to imagine.
On the other hand, i’m of the opinion that Chronos’s clonekiller build, while good, is definitely not the best build for a clonekiller. A pure Smiter/Fanatacism build is much more efficient at clone killing. This is mostly because you need a solid source of damage to speed up the last 15% of the clone’s death, and the smite/holy shield combination gives that, along with decent resists (if you’re using a 4-pdiamond elite pally shield) and nice defense (due to maxed holy shield). Chronos’s build is certainly more versatile than the smiter build though, and more useful for a party trying to take down a clone (esp. if sorcs are involved).
Just checking in to post some kudos to Yeti’s son for responding with a great amount of class last night during a game in a situation where a lot of other bneters (and a lot of other people, period) would not have. I’m not going to detail here what happened, but he responded with a lot more maturity than a lot of folks our age (he’s 16; I’m 22) would have - and how many have reacted, in fact, in my experience. Email requests will be politely ignored; the issue was resolved and I just wanted to give him (and Yeti) this little post here.
In other news, one mulerusher is to 40, and another is at 28 or so. I can stay on pretty late tonight, so maybe once we get that one to 40 I’ll start a new one and see if my new build idea works well.
Actually, I agree. My goal with that build is not “the best possible clonekiller”, which as you state is probably a smiter. My goal was/is a viable clonekiller who is nonetheless cheap and easy. Your hypothetical smiter, for instance, would need to max three skills (Smite, Holy Shield, and Fanaticism), compared to two for my build (Prayer and Conviction), which would mean he couldn’t start clonekilling until about 15 levels later. If he’s going solo, he’s going to need a source of lifetap to stay alive, and Dracul’s Grasp doesn’t come cheap. He could also use Prayer for life (indeed, my build’s solo plan is Smite plus Cleansing), but that would be yet another skill he’d have to max. He’ll have less choice in a shield, since he needs an elite for the damage, whereas all I need is blocking. He’d still need plenty of Crushing Blow and resistances, which means either similar gear to mine or something more expensive. If anything, the biggest weakness of my build is the lack of versatility: Against any single monster in the game, he’ll clean up, but against any three monsters (three Fallen in the Blood Moor, say), he’s far behind the curve. He can eventually deal with them, but not until a much later level than a conventional paladin build, and even then, slowly.
Incidentally, for another build idea I’m toying with… What’s the most damage you can get from a one-handed weapon? Weapon speed is irrelevant, and ethereal is OK.
Just wanted to say hey, and I am still around. I saw a few of you yesterday. I’ve been pretty busy evenings, so my play time has been a bit limited. I’ve been working on a lightning trap assassin since the reset (I know someone else here also has one) who’s approaching level 40 now. Hopefully before too long she’ll be up in Hell.
Chronos what are you working on? An all-throwing star assassin? Blade shield and a big weapon?
Eonwe I have the other asassin. What are you using (or plan to use) to kill lit immunes? I have my fire blast up to 1k damage and it clears them out pretty good. Just a thought. I haven’t really been saving the +1 asn claws that I outgrew, do you need some if I come across them?
One other thing: I have an eth claw on one hand and someone asked me if the durability would decrease from the claw block skill. It appears not to. The claw is at a steady 37 for the last couple of days and I have 44% block.
That’d be one of your choice of the following (str./dex. req. in paren.):
Bezerker Axe: 24-71 (138/59)
Avg: 47.5
Ettin Axe: 33-66 (145/45)
Avg: 49.5
Scourge: 3-80 (125/77)
Avg: 41.5
Legendary Mallet: 50-61 (189/0)
Avg: 55.5
Not 100% sure yet. How is fireblast doing 1k damage? I’ve got two +1 asn claws at the moment, so no, not unless you find one with some nice resists on it or something.
And, a related question. Is there a table or explination somewhere about Shadow Master and how/if/what changes happen to its ability as the spell level increases? What level of spells does it cast?
Hydra Edge gives avg of 48 (142/105), Balrog spear gives 48 avg as well (51 if thrown), with 127/95 req, and if you’re going with an asn a war fist does you 48.5 avg, with 108/108 reqs. However, the legendary mallet seems to be the way to go; as it appears that no other weapon spawns white with higher than 50 avg dmg.
What are you thinking about, an iron golem-intensive necro?
Well fireblast get a 9% boost in damage from every other trap in the list. I don’t have it anywhere near amxed I don’t think, but with Lightning Sentry and Bolt Sentry maxed and with the Shock Web getting close to my target of lvl18 the damage goes up each time I put a point anywhere. It’s good stuff. Plus I have +7 to trap skills at the moment so that helps.
I don’t know where to get this info, though I’m sure it’s out there somewhere. I may search for it this afternoon. I wouldn’t put more than a couple of points into it though. Mine is lvl 5 or 6 I think and she does ok in Hell. Let your +skills make her bigger and focus your points on the traps.
Hi, I’m Lois.
I was wondering…do gems have any value anymore? Chipped or Perfect?
't all depends on the person, Lois. Chips through flawless certain have value, since they are used in higher (Thul to Zod) rune transmutions. Flawless can also be used to cube weapons, and regular can be used to make rejuves. Perfects can be used with items like charms to re-roll them, which is often a good thing to do if you have a crappy charm that dropped in a Hell Baal run. Perfect skulls can be used to re-roll rares, as well. I have seen folks trading good items for perfect gems, but I myself wouldn’t give up much any worthwhile item for any number of perfects. Individuals value them in varying amounts. However, because of the above uses (and past trade experiences), we tend to keep a good amount of gems for whatever use. For example, just last night I transmuted 3 Thuls and a chipped topaz to make an Amn. Amn to Sol to Shael to Dol to Hel etc. If doesn’t sound like much, but sometimes all those transmutions can be the difference between being able to make a runeword and … well, not.
Here is some info on 1.10; you’ll have to scroll down a little to get to the shadow master part. Basically, she gets better equipment when she’s cast at a higher level. On the other hand, the higher level she is, the more likely she is to have a claw with that annoying monster-flee affix.
I recall reading other stuff about her skills, but I can’t seem to turn up the page that I read. My recollection is that it said two relevant things: first of all, your shadow master gets levels in skills based upon the level it’s cast at, and the number of skill points you’ve placed in that given skill. I think that it said the formula is Level = 1/3 * (level of shadow master at the time of casting) + 2/3 * (number of skill points you put in the given skill), rounded down.
The other interesting thing it said was about how synergies work in your shadow master. The shadow master does get synergy bonuses, but in a quirky way: it only gets the bonus once it’s used the synergy skill. So, until it’s set a charged-bolt sentry, it won’t get any bonus from that skill when it sets down lightning sentries. Shadow warriors also work in this way, too (though I think it directly inherits your skill levels, except for SW and SM) which makes them somewhat more viable. If you iterate through the various skills along the lightning trap branch, making sure she casts at least one trap in each skill, she will then throw down traps that are nearly as powerful as yours (she won’t have the skill items that you have, of course).
Thanks! I’m assuming re-roll means to transmute it in the Cube? I didn’t know you could do that with charms.
I hardly play now, and I hoarded any and all gems I acquired. I’d usually dump them off on my boyfriend’s characters, but he’s moved on to another game called Lineage. I don’t bother trying that, I hardly have enough time to barely log in anymore, what with our two little kids.
I just saw this thread for the first time and I figured I could ask a question that he (my boyfriend) won’t even remember anymore.
So does it also matter which character is doing the transmuting? It does, right? The highest I have is a Fire/Ice Sorc at level 93.
Now that we have some characters that can get the Ancients quest in normal and NM, do we have anyone that can do the mule rush? I know we have several sorceresses out there, are any of them in a position to do the rush?
My cold sorc will have some issues doing the rush when she’s complete. Coldwhatever, whatever that big blob’s name is that is protecting the Act2 staff is cold immune in NM and hell, but static will knock down life and hopefully her eventual merc will be able to kill him. I may end up with a secondary fire skill just for this purpose. But, at the moment, she’s level 47 and waiting. Until we get some elite equipment, maybe we should use a 2 sorc approach… or at least a sorc and another high lvl character approach.
If there are no plans to do any mule runs in the near future, I’m going to take my sorc and level the crap out of her. I need better equipment and a dedicated magic finder to get that equipment.
Nope. The only thing that is affected by character level is imbues from Charsi (Act I npc).