I realized after playing my ex-mule barb with Fenris that he needs to be equipped better, and possibly permanently retired and rebuilt. The WW bug is so irritating.
I guess it’ll be back to the necro and Pit runs, although I think I’ll do some nm Baal runs too to change things up a bit
Sturmhauke was asking about the build of my latest paladin, and it’s an interesting experiment (and also too complicated to explain between waves of fetishes), so I’ll post it here. The goal is an ambitious one: I want to be able to take on the Diablo Clone solo by level 50, using budget equipment.
Of course, this is not an easy task. The Clone has many advantages, to wit:
1: Tons of fire damage
2: Considerable lightning damage
3: Considerable physical damage
4: Chilling attack
5: Insane resistances
6: Insane regeneration rate
7: High defense
8: Tons of life
However, I believe that all of these advantages can be countered, as follows:
1: More-than-maxed fire resistance, plus fire absorb
2: Maxed lightning resist
3: Maxed blocking and high life steal
4: Cannot be frozen
5: Amplify damage
6: Open wounds
7: Maxed Conviction (enemy defense -90%) and fast attack
8: Crushing Blow
Furthermore, I already have nearly all of the equipment I need to get all of those things. The resistances would come mostly from a paladin shield with four diamonds, and the fire absorb comes from the Dwarf Star ring. 16 points in Resist Fire will let me raise my fire resist to 83%, even when not using the aura, and between that and the 15% absorb from the ring, I should be completely immune to fire. The blocking also comes from the shield, of course, supplemented with Holy Shield to 75%. Life steal comes from Skin of the Flayed One armor, a ring (Cathan’s if I can’t get any better), and various Blood craft items (see below). Cannot be Frozen comes from the Darksight Helm, which also gives mana steal, defense, and some fire resist. Amplify Damage would be from an amulet with a chance to cast on attack, and Open Wounds is from a Blood belt. Conviction is self-explanatory, and the attack will be Zeal. And Crushing Blow would come from the Black runeword, probably in a knout, and Blood gloves.
Of this equipment, I do not yet have the Io rune for Black or the amplify damage amulet, and Yeti has the Darksight and the Flayed One (for which I will trade the first Annihilus I get). All of the other equipment needed I have.
If all goes according to plan, it should take less than 75 hits to kill the DC: About 20 hits before the first Amplify Damage triggers, then 45 hits for Crushing Blow to bring him down to a thousand HPs or so, and then another ten hits for regular, non-crushing damage to finish him off. I should be attacking quickly enough to keep Amplify Damage and Open Wounds on him continually.
This same character build should also be very effective against other bosses, so I expect that after I’ve gotten enough Annihili, I’ll use him for Baal runs, probably making sure he doesn’t get quest credit so as to get better drops.
This, unless Stormclash Battle Belt has been deleted, is not so. It does + to individual cold skills, so it’s really only good if your +skills are +skill and not +skilltree.
You would also not be blocking with a Memory staff. FWIW.
Now, onto your paladin…
1: Tons of fire damage
Tons. Not just Tons, but TONNES. My barb normally does not even bat an eye from the fire dmg he incurs anywhere else, but DC (Diablo Clone)'s fire damage is substantial.
2: Considerable lightning damage
I did not notice all that much lightning damage, but as long as you are close enough to DC, you will not feel it all that much.
3: Considerable physical damage
Yes. More than just slightly considerable. I thought Hell Diablo took a while to solo until I tried killing DC. With vol sending down meteors as fast as he could, and me wailing away for a few solid minutes, it still took a good bit of doing to kill him. And I would probably have died so many times I would have given up if not for the fact that, thanks to my Dracul’s Grasps, I had cast lifetap on DC. He does some serious damage.
4: Chilling attack
I had on my DShell (does CBF), so I can’t really say anything about this.
5: Insane resistances
Yes. Yes yes yes. I have heard that he is 95% phys/cold/fire/ltg/psn immune. But not magic. Or so I hear. The trick to this, of course, is to pack lots of magic damage, which is why initially necros were the ones to kill him (bone spirit, being magic dmg…). But if you are expecting your 1000-2000 dmg weapon (with modifiers) to hit with 1500 average damage, take that down a notch or five.
6: Insane regeneration rate
I did to much poison damage to notice, but I have heard this from many other people.
7: High defense
I didn’t take a look at my to/hit against DC, but I was hitting him probably one out of five, maybe a bit more. Of course, my weapons were a blur, but I could tell how often I hit because m life orb would shoot up (lifetap is so useful). I’d put his defense over 5K, probably.
8: Tons of life
Yeah. I don’t know the number, but it’s up there. vol was doing some 5K per meteor, which is cast once every second or so, maybe 1.2 or so seconds. I was doing … well, 1500/1400 left and right hand and hitting at least six times a second (no, I am not kidding you. I hit FAST), and with some of that magic damage. And that’s before crushing blow/critical strike. And it still took (though this is combined with his defense and res) a few minutes to kill him.
Now, for gear I think you need to consider the Fleshrender. True, true, it’s got +skills for a druid, but consider these tidbits:
25% Chance of Open Wounds
Prevents Monster Healing
20% Chance of Crushing Blow
20% Chance of Deadly Strike
Now those, my friend, are some kickass stats. And if you can get one upgraded, you get a good bit more damage. With that PMH and Open Wounds you can pretty much go for a coffee break with DC slivered, come back and see him either still slivered or outright dead.
Amp Damage (you can stack AD and all those things) you can get as charges, true, but you can also get them from WitchWield Bow (hits automatically, so once you hit you can switch to the mace without having to worry about anything) or from Atma’s Scarab (it does %cast AD).
You mentioned having a lot of lifeleech. The ONLY way I survived against DC was having lifetap. Leeching is one thing, but unless you are leeching at least ten percent (after Hell penalties), you are not going to do so well I don’t care how much fire you’re absorbing. And that ten percent is for the damage you’re doing, not the damage you’re showing. I might look at the trade value for Dracul’s hands, since those also have nice stats (+%open wounds and some other things), or for a +dmg to demons (DC is a demon), you might try Magnus Skin, which IIRC are the gloves for that. Or Laying of Hands, though the IAS there makes those much more valuable.
The only thing I worry about is that at level 50 you will not have enough life to withstand DC should you make an error somewhere. It has been a very long time since I leveled a paladin naturally (ie not sitting in hell cows) to level 50, so my guess is that you would be looking at 400 life.
Maybe I’m horribly off. When I built a paladin for Aslan of Narnia, he had over 800 life, but then he was also level 80something.
Cause I just did. I now have two Shadow Killers. I just bought one for $.06
All that looking and whatnot and I bought one for 6 cents. Amazing.
Cause I just did. I now have two Shadow Killers. I just bought one for $.06
All that looking and whatnot and I bought one for 6 cents. Amazing.
I’ll agree with punha about DC… he’s tough. I’ve faced him twice and it was no picnic either time. Off ladder, vol and I killed him. My best barb died several times until he came in with his pally and whatever aura he was using. I had tons of life leech, maxed resists with absorb in lightning and fire.
In ladder, I had my necro, but until Fenris turned on salvation (I think) my skellies died like flies. vol was the heavy hitter there too. I did nothing except die a lot.
As for Fleshrender, I gave one to Fen, I don’t know if he likes it or not.
Sorry, that was Fleshripper I gave Fen.
109.5-146 Avg Damage
45-60 - 174-232
36 Durability
42 Str Required
86 Dex Required
Item Level: 76
+(200-300)% Enhanced Damage
-50% Target Defense
Prevents Monster Healing
25% Chance of Crushing Blow
50% Chance of Open Wounds
33% Chance of Deadly Strike
Slows Target by 20
Sorry, the names and some similar stats confused me.
I feel kinda sheepish about this now, but even though I’ve been playing for a coupe years, I never really took a good look at what the sets did. I had heard that you mightcould be better off, generally, not going with a complete set, as you could build a much better, stronger and harder-hitting character that way, but I never even knew that there were charcter-specific sets. I feel like a rookie. A dufus.
So, on that note, I’m in the market for Aldurs Watchtower. Fenris gave me Rhythm the other night, and I’d have sworn I had Stony Gaze, but it turns out that was on a non-ladder char, so…
If anyone finds Stony Gaze, Advance and/or Deception, I will be more than happy to take those right off your hands.
I’ve got Treads boots right now, which are doing okay, but looking at the benis I could get from Aldurs, they start to look marginal.
Okay, so my keys are set up thusly, AFAIR:
F1-4 are belt items
1-0 are skills, with Werebear at 1, maul at 2, fire claws at 3, oak sage at 4, carrion vine at 5, summon griz at 9, and tp at 0
q- quests, w- weapon switch, r-toggles run/walk, t- skill tree
a- stats, d- party screen
z- inventory, x- merc screen
The hotkeys I use are designed to make the game playable with only my left hand (right hand is for mousing). Thus, i allocated most of the optional hotkeys and left F1-F8 as their defaults. The hotkeys I use are:
W, E, ®, A, D, F, G, (H), X, V
the ones in parentheses are character-dependent – i only use those as hotkeys if i’ve already filled the others on my list. In the case of R, it’s because it’s got an alternate use (though i rarely ever use it); H is just harder to reach. You’ll note that these hotkeys basically take up the entire left handed side of the keyboard, without compromising most of the built in hotkeys for menu-related stuff (s, t, etc). The only exception to this is weapon switch, which i changed from W to 5 and 6. 1-4 are used for potions.
As a side note, i play a good amount on USWest, so if any of you on USWest would like a fellow to play with, feel free to AIM message me or /whisper me on either of my accounts:
*Gand
*Gand2
Quick question-- can anything be done with a spare Mephisto’s Soulstone? Deckard handed me an extra one last night when I popped back to Act IV after looting Act II for a bit.
The question might be moot since my first Soulstone’s name turned from gold letters to red letters (so maybe I can’t use it?), but I figured it worth asking about.
I don’t play online, but it’s been fun reading this thread. Can’t wait to get to Hell.
[sub]Now there’s a statement you’ll only find in a D2 thread.[/sub]
I have an Advance that’s doing nothing but taking up space. I’m looking for M’avina’s anything-but-the-gloves, or Natalya’s armor-or-claw, if you happen to have some of those lying around. If not, that’s ok too. My account name is Thematrian. [sub]Want to start up the trading thread again? I tried it a little while back, but to no avail.[/sub]
AudreyK: You’re right, you can’t use the red-letter soulstone. I’ve had that happen a lot since I generally skip the Normal hellforge, but I’ve never heard of Cain giving them out before, especially when you’re already carrying one.
Taran, I have a spare M’av’s belt laying around somewhere. It’s yours if/when I see you. I gave thinksnow my buriza for his druid. I loved when I did that in 1.09. In bear form it becomes a melee weapon and doesn’t use bolts. The 80% IAS makes that bear attack like a madman with very good damage.
Magic finding has become a major problem. I’m carrying 430 or so MF around and can’t find crap… well actually that’s all I do find…
That buriza is faaaaantastic!
Taran, I don’t have either of those, yet, but I will cast a vigilant eye for them. Lemme know when you’ll be on and I’ll meet up with you. And thanks!
I am also looking for an Aldur’s Deception. I have the rest of the set and I am almost to the right level to use the armor.
I was going to get the Nat’s set too, and I have all but the boots and weapon, but I have good mirrored boots and a shadow killer in each fist so I don’t know if I want those pieces afteralll. The +skill and 30% damage reduction are nice bonuses though…
I’m aware of that, but I wouldn’t be using it very often. I’d be casting my ice armor and energy shield in town, anyway (or at least, during a lull between battles), and static field is only rarely useful. Most of the time, I’d be using my primary (fire) setup, which will hopefully eventually include a shield.
As for killing the DC, I’m not expecting my weapon to do a thousand damage, normally. Almost all of my damage is going to come from crushing blow. On the other hand, once you take crushing blow into consideration, I’m going to be doing an average of over 8000 damage per hit.
And I know that DC’s fire damage is truly insane. That’s why I don’t intend to take any of it. Unless I’m misunderstanding the calculations, 83% resist plus 15% absorb is enough that I will be taking exactly zero damage. None. Zero times an insane number is still zero.
Magic damage is one way to get around the resists, but I don’t know how to make a necro capable of surviving DC. Another way around the resists is to lower them, which is the way that I intend to go. Normally, DC has 95% physical resist, which means that with amplify damage, he would have -5%. So instead of increasing damage by a factor of 2, as normal, amplify damage would increase it by a factor of 21. I could get amplify damage from a weapon, but that would require switching every so often, so I’d rather use an amulet. Atma’s Scarab is certainly an option if I find it, but you can also find that mod on magic or rare amulets.
And I don’t need Prevent Monster Heal, because that comes with Open Wounds, which I already have. Monsters don’t heal while bleeding, and I should be attacking fast enough that DC will always be bleeding.
I agree, by the way, that level 50 is a bit iffy. I specified “if all goes according to plan”, but you’re correct that I don’t leave much room for error. But then, if it takes until 60 or 70, then that’s OK, too. Level 50 is just the goal.
On a completely different note, theckhd, are you on the ladder? If so, try popping in on the sdmb game every now and then.
Having fought Dclone 5 or 6 times and looking at your proposed setup, my WAG is that you are unlikely to be able to solo DC at lvl 50. I think that with “Prevent Monster Heal” you’d have a slight chance of doing it, but it would still take quite a while. PMH is invaluable if you’re going to try to solo DC, IMO. You can just use any weapon with PMH, hit him once, then switch to whatever you want. From then on, DC will not heal, which he would otherwise do very rapidly while you’re fighting him and while your in town getting more pots, or after death.
BTW, I’m pretty sure absorb is calculated after resistance. So, if you have 85% fire resist and are hit with 1000 fire damage, you are still receiving 15% of that fire damage, 150 dmg. Then, 15% absorb kicks in and 15% of the 150 dmg heals you rather than hurting you. So, in the 1000 fire dmg example with 85% fire resist and 15% fire absorb, you still receive around 120 dmg.
I will be impressed if you can pull it off. At lvl50, I suspect that your chance to hit DC vs. his chance to hit you, will by itself be a major obstacle. Change your Pally into a Hammerdin and my confidence in your quest would shoot straight up.
…just realized my math was a bit off and the damage you would receive in that example was more like 100.
Also important to remember is that while Open Wounds eventually runs out, PMH does not.
Mine would be gone. Hammers do not leech. Modifiers on a weapon, other than +skills, do not apply to things such as hammers; your Open Wounds, Crushing Blow, etc. would basically be there in name only. I’d go with several AR charms; with five +100 AR charms and maxed conv you would be upping your AR probably over 800 and dropping D’s res … well, a lot. I was dueling (for shits and giggles) against some FoH paladins. My ltg res is maxed and then some.
With their conv I was at -61 ltg res. I would conservatively place my ltg res at over 100 (but it only shows up at 75 for obvious reasons). So they did 161% lower ltg res. I don’t know how much more than that they did, but it would be interesting to see my res with their conv in normal.
So a friend of mine, after a hiatus of some months, is getting back into D2. Ladder. He wants to make a WB summoning druid.
It’s been a while since I made a druid. I’ve never made a WB (not fast enough for my tastes) and never made a summon-specific anything … at least not successfully.
What has changed in 110 v. 109 re: summoning druids? What should he do/not do?
Is this actually the way that Prevent Monster Heal works? If so, then I’ll definitely want to do that. I had thought that it only prevented healing of the damage done by that weapon.
I figure I should be hitting often enough just from the conviction, but hitting more is always better. So I’ll definitely hold on to any good attack rating charms I find, but I’m not going to go out of my way to find any, either. The whole point of this build is to prove that you don’t need godly equipment to kill the DC. So I want to do it soley using items that I picked up “naturally”, that is, not on item hunts.
One other thing that I’ve yet to decide is what hireling this guy ought to have. My main concern is survivability: Is there any hireling with a reasonable chance of surviving for more than six seconds? A Blessed Aim or Might aura guy might be nice, but I’m afraid that he’d get shredded.
By the way, does life leech does work with crushing blow? That is to say, if I do fifteen thousand damage from a crushing blow, that should give me a ton of life, right?