Diablo II Single Player Thread - 2

[dmc]

I double checked and I actually have two of the armors, one with 2 sockets and one with 3. I have previously punched a hole in one of the claws, which means that I can punch a hole in the helmet and my other claw by the end of NM, which actually makes this character pretty darn versatile - 6 sockets available.

I'll need to see how my speed is without filling the sockets and whether anything gives me problems and, if not, I could seriously make this a MF'er extraordinairre with Ptopazes, Ists and whatnot.

Bears major consideration as I build the character.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

The only downside I can see to MF is that I don't think the set comes with any MF on it at all. That doesn't seem right - pretty much all the class-specific sets come with some MF. Am I forgetting something? Is it part of the complete set bonuses?

That said, you can still get up to 25% mf per socket. (Although realistically, it will be 24% on the armor and helm - 1% isn't nearly enough to justify the use of an Ist - you'll need the those for just the two claws - ptopazes for the armor and helm. So that's 146%. Decent, depending on what else you'll be carrying between charms and other equipment.

One thing that I'm sure you already considered is that you'll have a pretty good block chance with this character with just one point in weapon block. You'll have a ton of +skills, so you should be able to get it to around 50% with just one point. Furthermore, you'll get decent blocking with minimal investment in dexterity. Weapon block isn't altered by dexterity like with shields (and it drops to 0% if you're running, but works fine while attacking), and since the other pieces of the set include a fair amount of dexterity, you'll only need to spend lightly in dexterity to get to the minimum dexterity requirement on the claw (most of the high end claws have dex requirements in the range of 100-120). Since all of your attacks come with a substantial bonus to attack rating, there won't be a real need to add to dexterity for that either.

It's a character I had always wanted to get around to, but since I had limited experience with assassins, the first one I made was a kicker/trapper, as those are pretty much the easiest.

And Treachery is a no-brainer for while your assassin is leveling up.

[dmc]

I just checked - no MF on the set at all. Hmmm.

I think I have Treachery from my trapsin.

[Marceror]

Originally Posted by dmc

Lister's wave took FOREVER.

Sorry to butt in here gentlemen, but I felt the need to say an AMEN to this!! I ran a fire druid not too long ago, and pretty much sailed through the entire game EXCEPT for the fight against Lister and his cronies. Fighting him was like watching paint dry, and that fight alone turned me off to the character in spite of a rocking experience through nearly all of the game up until that point.

Ironically, I started a Phoenix Strike Assassin after the druid... which is currently stuck somewhere in act III of hell... as I'm now using all of my game time for Medieval 2 - Third Age Total War. She was my first serious assassin character ever. Very fun, very powerful... but extremely high maintenance to play well. The antitheses, I guess, of the necromancer, with whom you can pretty much beat the game while you're reading a book.

And with that, I'll let the true D2 mavens around here get back to it.

[dmc]

I have my assassin just starting act III NM. She's level 57, maxed CoT and Phoenix Strike, one point in everything else I intend to use (ignoring the last two dragon moves as not worth it). I have 8 extra points and I am just going to accumulate them until I decide what to do, as my two maxed skills kill everything with ease. I am actually considering maxing FoF and BoI just to see how that works out. Otherwise, I might max one of them and put the rest of the points into SM.

I am using Treachery, two Bartucs, Natalyas boots, a +1 (I think) ammy, crafted+2 MA blood gloves, nosferatu's coil, SOJ, rare ring, 3 skillers (two MA and one Shadow).

Sick and that's without the full Natalya's set. Resists blow (poison is actually negative) but it matters very little right now.

She is a pretty chaotic fighter, kinda cool to behold.

Her sheer speed is sick.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

So you are keeping your finisher as just a one-point wonder? If you decide you want to max out both FoF and BoI that is probably a necessary sacrifice. I think I would probably lean towards more points in my finisher for fire damage, and then maxing BoI. You'd still have fire, cold, and electricity that way. OTOH, I'm assuming your merc is using Infinity, which means it's unlikely you'll NEED tri-elemental damage.

Then there is the matter of the Shadow Master, and there's two options there as well. With all the +skills you have, even just a one point investment will place a body out there with decent enough hitpoints to take the heat off of you. I doubt it will kill much of anything, especially on hell difficulty, but hey, if you're doing so well in killing, then you might not need the SM for killing.

What type of merc are you using anyway? I'm guessing you have infinity so it's an Act II merc, and since your damage is mostly elemental in nature, a might merc probably wouldn't do much for you. Holy freeze?

[dmc]

HF it is. I was thinking that the finisher and the SM would both be one point wonders. I haven't used a respec yet, so if I find it tough, I can play around with that. Also, Infinity doesn't break everything and, even when it breaks a LI (which appears to be the highest damage output in my arsenal) it doesn't necessarily make killing all that quick.

Who knows? I'll see how it goes.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

You're right about your damage rates. FoF does the least (which is another reason I'd lean towards getting your fire damage from your finisher), BoI is in the middle and has some defensive properties to it, and CoT is the highest damage output.

But here's the other thing that just occurred to me, you maxed PS, so you HAVE a fire based attack. (I think it does fire damage with one charge). I think I would lean towards maxing CoT and BoI, and if you should run into something that is immune to lightning and cold - and let's face it, that's like 1% of stuff in the game - you can rely on the fire damage from PS and your 1-point finisher.

You can alternate left-click right-click quickly with a little practice, to try to get off the fire based PS, but you're using two claws, so if you left click PS and both claws hit, you'll be getting the cold damage as well, but no biggie. In fact, since you don't need the cold damage, it might make it even more effective, as you'll get the fire based charge even if only one of the claws hit.

At any rate, I'd definitely advise maxing FoF last. Hmmm... I think maxing all three elemental attacks is actually a named build. [quick check] Yup, it's the Elementalist. While the recommended equipment doesn't include the assassin set, I think it's because the author is including low end, medium end and high end choices for each of the equipment slots. It says you can go with or without a shield, and the only disadvantages of the build are weak in PvP (which is of no concern), and low physical damage.

[dmc]

I was looking over the gear choices. I will use Natalya's Odium (mainly because I said I would and it's the only upper level set I have completed), but I really tend to think I can do so much better with this build with other equipment.

I am going to finish the character and then trot her out on 10 Baal runs with the set and then 10 Baal runs with a mix and match of runewords and uniques and see which does better. My money is not on the set . . .

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

I agree - substituting in Gore Riders and Guilaume's Face will give you a big amount of CB and make up for the lack of physical damage. CoH or Enigma would make up for most of the lost +skills (my preference of CoH is well documented - although I've never actually made Enigma, which may be the reason for my bias).

[Sir Rechet]

I can understand the hype for Enigma for PvP purposes, but other than summoner type characters, I can't see much of a difference in PvM usage other than the odd moat or river here and there. (No, doing 8972862 Baal runs in manual brains-off mode doesn't count.) For summoners, the "hey minions, I'd like some dps here, right now, pretty please" function of teleporting right beside the intended target is nothing short of a godsend.

[dmc]

I gave up on the set. It basically blows compared to what I can do with other pieces.

I'm in Act III Hell (didn't play all that much recently). I found most of the way through Act I that I was actually having a hard time hitting things, so I threw a bunch of skill points into claw mastery, which helped a little, but by Act II I was again reaching insufficient hitting percentages, so I swapped in the Angelic Ring and Ammy and was able to hit things again. However, my resists were absolutely terrible and I didn't want to fill all those sockets with prismatic jewels (mainly because I don't have all that many of them for some reason) just to get decent resists.

So, I scrapped the set. Now I have Shako, CoH, Gores, crafted +2 MA Blood Gloves, Bartuc's, Jade Talon (+47 resist all), Nosferatu's Coil, Angelic Ring and Ammy, Ravenfrost, various shimmering charms, two +1 shadow skillers and a +1 MA skiller.

My MF is about 100, which isn't terrible. I may swap out one of the shadow skillers for a Gheeds, we'll see. My resists are reasonably good - fire is maxed and the rest are at around 60 or so. I'd prefer to have better lightning resist, but I may swap in T-gods for the lightning absorb.

She kills much faster and better. I was thinking of upping the Bartucs, but that will increase my dex requirements beyond my current dex so I am not sure I want to do that and have to commit another 20 dex points or so away from vitality.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

I was wondering if that set was not necessarily designed well for a martial artist. With the bonuses to all 3 trees, it's one of those things where you might be better off spreading the points out. Then again, between CoH and Shako, you're already getting more +skills than you were with the set... Still, there are certain class-specific sets that really only lend themselves to a couple of builds. For example, if you're using the IK set, you're not getting to get the most out of it unless you're playing a WW barb.

[Sir Rechet]

The sorceress set is also pretty general in what builds work with it, the druid one seems to strongly (?) favor shapeshifters and Amazon one is clearly designed for a Frost Maiden, although a Strafer could put the huge +cold damage bonus to use as well.

[dmc]

Just FYI that I finished her last week and was pretty underwhelmed with her killing speed to get to Baal.

I respecced my summoner necro and maxed out mages as well as skellies, removed a couple of curses that I never used, reallocated some points elsewhere, so he now can summon 14 skellies, 14 mages, a golem and has the merc. Seriously funny watching the crowd that he walks around in. Not sure it significantly changes the killing speed, but it does significantly reduce the chance that anyone is going to target the necro or his merc.

Game's a bit boring for now, so I am taking a break completely and re-running IWD as mentioned elsewhere.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Yeah, I've got tired of it after going back to it for an extended period of time. Once you accumulate a certain level of wealth, it's no longer just about getting through the game. There's no real joy in beating the game on hell difficulty - you just compare your current character to previous characters. Although I went back to BG2 upon hearing about the new mod that added all the BG1 NPCs into BG2. Complete with banters and everything. Even a couple of new areas. (The circus tent is considerably more challenging, especially if you don't happen to have any protection from petrification on you.)

[dmc]

So it's been over a year and I decided to just fire this up and did a sorc run with my lightning sorc. Pretty easy to remember what to hit, and it's funny: In one Meph/Diablo/Baal run I found a Verdungos and Hand of Blessed Light, neither of which I have found previously (according to ATMA). Neat.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Verdungo's is arguably the best belt in the game - especially for a sorceress, as not many give belts give +1 skills.

[dmc]

I think you're mixing it up with Arachnid's Mesh, which is the belt that is +1skills.

Verdungos:


Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Mithril Coil

Defense: 125-158 (varies)(Defense: 58-65)
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 106
Durability: 16
16 Boxes
+90-140% Enhanced Defense (varies)
10% Faster Hit Recovery
+30-40 To Vitality (varies)
Replenish Life +10-13 (varies)
+100-120 Maximum Stamina (varies)
Damage Reduced By 10-15% (varies)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)


Arachnid:


Arachnid Mesh
Spiderweb Sash

Defense: 119-138 (varies)(Base Defense: 55-62)
Required Level: 80
Required Strength: 50
Durability: 12
16 Boxes
+90-120% Enhanced Defense (varies)
Slows Target By 10%
+1 To All Skills
+20% Faster Cast Rate
Increases Maximum Mana 5%
Level 3 Venom (11 Charges)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

It is Arachnid Mesh. That's the one that's far and away the best belt for a sorceress. I even forgot about the FCR on it, which only makes it better.

Verdungos isn't bad by any means, but it's stats make it much better suited for a melee class with the FHR, %DR, and the huge boost to vitality. In the hands of a barbarian, that can easily translate into 300-400 more life.

[dmc]

Yah, I have Arachnids on my sorc already. I was getting nostalgic and am thinking of running one new character. Maybe a pallie of a sort I have not done yet. Auradin or something like that.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Sorry - just saw the reply now. An Auradin is an ambitious build to say the least. You have the digital wealth for that? I know you already have some of the items you'll need, but my god is there a ton of high runes you'll need to do it the "right way".

The only helm I'm aware of that gives an aura worth having is Dream, which gives Holy Shock. Like I said, I don't remember the runes required, but I'm sure at least one of them is high - l just checked it's Jah.

With armor, I know Dragon gives the Holy Fire aura, and Bramble gives the Thorns aura, although I'm not sure if Thorns is really what you're going for. I would expect that this character would have a ton of defense so I'm not sure an aura that requires you to get hit is the way to go. (Dragon needs "only" a Sur and a Lo.)

For shields, you have the aforementioned Dragon and Dream - and I'm nearly positive the effects stack cumulatively. So if you have two Dreams equipped, you don't get two level 15 Holy Shocks, you actually get a level 30 Holy Shock. What else is there? Exile gives Defiance, but meh. Phoenix gives Redemption - double meh - plus IIRC, the runes required are ridiculous. EDIT: just checked - it requires Vex-Vex-Lo-Jah - not even close to worth it.

For weapons, the initial seemingly obvious choice is Doom (Hel-Ohm-Um-Lo-Cham) - for the Holy Freeze aura, and IIRC, you already have that on hand. I'm pretty sure it comes with +2 all skills to boot. The only other one that I can think of is Beast (considerably cheaper with Ber-Tir-Um-Mal-Lum - that's 1HR as opposed to 3), which gives Fanaticism, and the only reason I throw it out there as a possibility is because: A) It can be made in a scepter, whereas Doom is limited to Axe or Hammer and B) it comes with CB. You don't have any CB on the other rune words, so if you can't get some on your boots, gloves, or belt, that's a problem. Granted, with a paladin, Zeal is going to be the primary attack to activate the Holy Freeze/Shock/Fire auras as frequently as possible, so even something like 20% should be more than enough - that's still one CB per Zeal cycle.

EDIT: Forgot about Hand of Justice - although that one seems like the decidedly worst option of the three. It has the lowest IAS, you can get life leech elsewhere, and the ITD is worthless - you'll obviously be running Conviction as the one aura that won't be given by your equipment, and that reduces monster defense by 90% the way it is - so you'll be hitting 95% of the time without it. EDIT: And the runes are ridiculous: Sur-Cham-Amn-Lo. If you had all those you'd go with Doom.

For skill distribution, we definitely want 20 in Conviction, and since that synergizes with nothing, it's an easy call. It's also the only must-take skill in the build. After that there's some choices. You definitely want to use Zeal as your left mouse button, but it's up to you to decide how much to invest. If you want to add physical damage as a decent percentage of your build's output, you'll need 20 Zeal and 20 Sacrifice as the synergy. The other, and IMO better, option you throw just one point in Zeal (I assume you'll have at least +3 all skills so you get the full five attacks) and concentrate on elemental damage.

You will need Holy Shield, but it's not a maxed skill. You're after the increased % block more than the defense for this skill (the dexterity requirement is just too high to maintain max block without it), and there are steep diminishing returns on the block %. You get +25% for level 5 (easily obtainable with 1 skill point and +skills), you get +30% for level 10 (which would require a modest investment), but at level 20 you're up to just +35%, which probably isn't worth the skill points.

With the elemental damage, I think the main benefit of running a combination of Dream/Dragon/Doom would be that you can pick up Salvation as a synergy to all three elemental auras, rather than picking up the individual resist fire/cold/shock. Point for point, you get a bigger boost to individual auras from the resist skills, but if you're running all three you're coming out ahead in the long run with salvation.

Holy Fire gets +18% from a point in resist fire, and +6% from salvation. Holy Freeze gets +15%/+7%. And Holy Shock gets +12%/+4%. So if you're running all three elemental auras, the cumulative +17% you get from salvation is the way to go. It's also the ONLY option if you decide to add physical damage from Zeal and Sacrifice, as there simply aren't enough skill points to do otherwise.

So the physical build is:

20 Zeal
20 Sacrifice
20 Conviction
20 Salvation
Assorted prerequisites and one-point wonders.

The focus on tri-elemental damage is significantly different.

20 Conviction
20 Salvation
Assorted Prerequisites and 1-point wonders
Then distributing the remaining skill points between the resist fire/cold/lightning to boost individual auras.

Build plan 2 is clearly superior if you have the rune wealth to pull it off. You get the best spread of even elemental damage by going Dream Helm, doubling up Dragon on the Armor and Shield, and putting Doom on the weapon. (Provided you're getting CB on your other equipment, Doom is far and away the best choice. Best IAS, an additional penalty to enemy cold resistance, and the +2 all skills to make all those one point wonders better.) Now the question is do you have anywhere near the required runes to actually do this?

Now if you don't use Doom, and go with Beast instead, you'll get crazy IAS from the Fanaticism Aura, and you'll use a scepter which comes with it's own potential benefits. Done that way, you now have dual elemental damage and your plan is:

20 Conviction
20 Resist Fire
20 Resist Shock
Assorted one-point wonders and prerequisites (and points to burn - probably Holy Shield, but whatever)

If you aren't going for all three elemental types, Salvation ceases to be the most cost-efficient option.

[The Great Snook]

I'm impressed that you guys still play D2. I'm a D3 guy completely at this point. My Witch Doctor would kick your Necromancer's heinie.

[dmc]

I think conviction is "capped" at level 25, meaning that further levels are worthless, not that you can't put further points in it. I would probably go elemental over physical.

With the multiple respecs available, I am in no huge hurry to build him up. I have him in Normal Act 3 now and he's level 28 or 29.

Snook - nothing I have seen about D3 appeals to me in the slightest.