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Vessel of Hatred

Making my Frost Zealot uber-viable

E

Ed from Russia

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Oct 21, 2006
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Making my Frost Zealot uber-viable

I've never tried ubers with a Paladin, but have this Frost Zealot now that is about to enter Hell, and I'm wondering how to invest skill points and what items to change.

Please give your comments.

SKILL POINTS

Currently I have:
Max Holy Freeze
Max Cold Resist
Max Zeal
10 pts Holy Shield
rest in prereqs

So, should I invest in Sacrifice now, like a normal Zealot, or should I instead take Fanaticism as a 2nd aura? How effective will HF be with the ubers; will it be helpful or will it just draw monsters toward me when I don't want them? Do I need to max HS, and in what order do you recommend me to invest my points?

EQUIPMENT

At the moment I have the following mid-level equipment :

Pally:
- Heaven's Light (socket: 38% ED charm)
- Rhyme Sacred Targe
- Guardian Angel (socket: Um)
- Rockstopper (socket: Um)
- Thundergods Vigor
- Gore Riders
- Blood (crafted) gloves, to be replaced by Dracul's when lvl 76
- Ravenfrost
- Ravenfrost / Dwarf Star
- Seraph's Hymn
- Enough charms to make my resists 90/90/95/90 in hell

Merc: Act II Might
- Obedience Collosus Voulge
- Duriel's Shell
- Crown of Thieves

I'm still looking for Pally Torch.
I know there are runewords that are far better than my setup, but I don't like MFing so I hope this works well enough, possibly with some moderate changes.

Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
Your equipment is quite decent, actually, and I think most of it would work for Ubers. You have a good amount of Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, and some Deadly Strike. I would worry a bit about your Smite speed and resists after Meph hits you with Level 20 Conviction though. Are your resists heavily stacked?
 
I just did the ubers about a week ago with my holy freeze zealot at lvl 85.

Skills:
20holy freeze
20zeal
20resist cold
8salvation
10 res light
1 prayer
1cleansing
1defiance
1vigor
1redemption
1smite
1charge
1Holy Bolt
1Blessed Hammer
10Holy shield

Gear:
Strength runeword in a PB, Lifetap wand on switch
Tal's mask um'd
highlords ammy
dual ravenfrosts (20&17 dex)
Laying of Hands
Smoke in archon plate treachery in mage plate
gorefoot light plated boots
nosferatu's coil belt
Sanctuary in a sacred targe (115% res all)
12/11 pally torch 10/13/7 anni

base stats are:
65 str without items 122 with
70 dex without items 158 with
365 vit without items 397 with (almost 1500 life)
base energy

resistances: (fade antidote potions and thawing potion prebuff added)
fire res before conv 329 after 204 75% on char screen
cold res before conv 329 after 204 95% on char screen
light res before conv 314 after 189 80% on char screen
poison res before conv 329 after 204 85% on char screen

The aura does attract a little unwanted attention, but its not to bad. smite is at 7fpa so speed is okay and all the bosses move nice and slow for you (50ish percent slower).
Its not as fast as the 1pt smiter and other builds but it gets the job done
 
*Bump*

If sky's the limit on gear, could someone suggest a "perfect" setup for a frost zealot, with Ed from Russia's skill setup? ie. maxed Holy Freeze, but NO points in fanat. This would be geared towards making a frost zealot uber-viable.

Thanks.
 
Hmm, I don't know exactly if there's an "ideal" setup, but I can think of a few that would be nice.

Top picks for armor:

Fortitude, Chains of Honor, Upped Um'd/IAS jewel Guardian Angel (200% ED), Duress (for more CB), Treachery (actually quite nice for the IAS, DR + Resists from Fade, and Venom).

Weapons:

Doom (although the Holy Freeze from it is redundant, it has huge -cold resist on it and good weapon damage), Kingslayer Cryptic Sword, eth Oath Cryptic Sword/Small Crescent, Grief, Last Wish, etc.

Shield:

Herald of Zakarum.

Gloves:

Dracs obviously, crafted Blood gloves w/ 20% IAS and 10% CB and major resists on them or +str and dex in spades.

Boots:

Goreriders. Pretty much the best for any Zealot. No question.

Amulet:

Highlord's, Mara's, or Atma's Scarab (for doubling physical damage).

Rings: dual 20 dex Ravenfrosts, godly dual leech ring.

Belt: Nosferatu's, String, Thundergod's Vigor, or Verdungo's.
 
Great, great. This is really helpful, thanks maiku.

So, I'm set on these...
Armor: Chains of Honor
Shield: HoZ
Gloves: Dracs
Boots: Gorerider
Rings: Dual ravens

But would like a bit more guidance on these:
Weapon:
Amulet:
Belt:

Again, this would be specifically for a setup that would make me viable in Tristram. Thanks.
 
Strange, I can't seem to edit my previous post.

Just wanted to add that Helm isn't in that list, so I'm looking for a suggestion for helm as well.

Also, suggestions on gear for merc? This would be for pvm, as I wouldn't be using a merc in Tristram.

Thanks in advance.
 
Dok,

Since IAS is a problem for frosties, I'd suggest a Last wish phase blade, dump the drac, get 24 ias and settle for the 5 fpa breakpoint. I'd go laying of hands and then maybe a IAS jewel in HoZ or helm, depending on what you end up with there. Also looks like your res might be a little low, so a metalgrid (which I'm partial too cuz of AR bonus) or maras will work for the ammy too. I'd avoid the Atma's, you'll end up with Lifetap cast over it more often than not. If your having trouble finding RA, crenidum belt will give 15 RA. Otherwise, check into a dungos for DR/Vit or Nofs if you need that last 4 IAS. Helm, maybe a dream? Also on switch, throw a demon limb in your stash, cast it in town, then change it for a CtA. The enchant will last 10 minutes or so and give over 200%AR bonus. You'll notice the difference when zealing.

As for Merc, can't help you there, I generally don't keep one with malee chars. My exerience in Trist is they don't last long.

Hope that helps.

skora
 
Last edited:
Dokushinsha said:
Great, great. This is really helpful, thanks maiku.

So, I'm set on these...
Armor: Chains of Honor
Shield: HoZ
Gloves: Dracs
Boots: Gorerider
Rings: Dual ravens
Click to expand...

Good choices.

But would like a bit more guidance on these:
Weapon:
Amulet:
Belt:
Click to expand...

Weapon: Anything with Crushing Blow, because this is what mainly whittles down Uber life quick. This is why I listed Kingslayer and Last Wish, both notable for Crushing Blow. Another good one is Black (Thul Io Nef) in a 3-socket Scourge. Has a lot of CB on it, decent damage in case you need to Zeal minions, and is dirt cheap to make compared to Kingslayer or LW. If you use Guillaume's Face for extra CB, I would say to use Grief or Hand of Blessed Light. Try to get at least 50% CB. Will make things go quicker.

Amulet: Highlord's. Unless you have more than enough IAS, I think the Deadly Strike on it is beautiful for a Zealot build. It also boosts your lightning resist. If you're worried about resists, I would put in a Mara's or high resist amulet to make sure you get those resists covered.

Belt: String or Verdungo's if you want more DR. Always useful when Life Tap takes a little while to kick in.

Act 2 Merc:
Guillaume's/Tal Rasha's/Vampire Gaze
Reaper's Toll, unless the Decrepify bugs you. However, it's great for crowd control and making enemies take extra hurt. If you don't like Decrep, then use something like Obedience, which offers big damage and is cheap to make.
Duress, Fort, Chains of Honor, etc. Always nice to have Crushing Blow on your merc for mangling monsters faster. Make sure he has maxed resists in Hell diff.


 
Perfect. This is the detail I was looking for. I'd definitely love to hear from anyone else who has an opinion, but skora and maiku's replies help point me in the right direction. Thanks a lot.
 
Tnx all for the comments (and Doku for taking over the questions). It looks like the only thing I really need is a HoZ.
 
Great input Maiku, I totally agree. I might switch up the belts because most dmg suffered in Trist is ele, so I don't see the DR making as much difference as increasing max resists. I think, unless you need the IAS from Nos coil, then hands down an upped Tgods is the best belt for uber runs. The +10% to max light res will be great for meph, the +20 light absorb is even better, the +20 vit will also help you survive longer too.

That being said, if you're lacking IAS do to Last Wish, then go with Nos coil. Remember, the life tap is the only thing keeping you alive, so if you're not hitting fast enough to replentish, that is first priority. Also, since you already have life tap from Last Wish, Maiku's suggestion of Laying of Hands is perfect. Then you got +350%dmg against ubers, massive +fire res & faster speed.

Hope that helps.
 
T-gods is a great belt. I run with one on my Conviction Zealot and have never ever taken it off once I put it on.
 
maiku said:
Good choices.



Weapon: Anything with Crushing Blow, because this is what mainly whittles down Uber life quick. This is why I listed Kingslayer and Last Wish, both notable for Crushing Blow. Another good one is Black (Thul Io Nef) in a 3-socket Scourge. Has a lot of CB on it, decent damage in case you need to Zeal minions, and is dirt cheap to make compared to Kingslayer or LW. If you use Guillaume's Face for extra CB, I would say to use Grief or Hand of Blessed Light. Try to get at least 50% CB. Will make things go quicker.

Amulet: Highlord's. Unless you have more than enough IAS, I think the Deadly Strike on it is beautiful for a Zealot build. It also boosts your lightning resist. If you're worried about resists, I would put in a Mara's or high resist amulet to make sure you get those resists covered.

Belt: String or Verdungo's if you want more DR. Always useful when Life Tap takes a little while to kick in.
Click to expand...

Ugh, this is gonna kill my budget, but yes, I think skora and maiku's suggestion of Last Wish sounds like the most viable option. It seems to cover so many different areas, except for, most glaringly, IAS.

So, here's my latest list, for those keeping score.

Armor: Chains of Honor
Shield: HoZ
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gorerider
Rings: Dual ravens
Weapon: Last Wish
Belt: Thundergods
Amulet: Highlords

Helm:??? Andy's Visage for IAS?

All told, I'd have 85 cold, 120 lightning, 105 fire, and 155 poison resists in Hell (including torch and anni).
If I've calculated things correctly, I'd have an additional 60 IAS via gear, and would need an additional 15 IAS to hit the 4fps.

Phew. Anyone notice anything missing? Would this guy survive in Tristram, and even more importantly, in regular PVM?

Thanks for everyone's input so far!



 
I take it someone else will be picking up the torch after it drops? The question needs to be asked.

If you go Andy's you'll have to Ral it since your FR is lower after conv hits you meaning you'll 15% IAS jwl your HoZ. I'd say since that will still be a little low, trade one of the ravens for a dwarf start. Then you'll have absorb for all 3 elemental attacks.

This will be totally viable in PvM and Trist.

Another interesting option might be, and I'd look someone elses opinion, is this:

Helm: Blackhorns face with 15 IAS Jewel
Belt: Nofs coil

Reason being, you'll still hit the 4 fpa break point, keep the light absorb up, but you'll have an extra 30% slow on top of what your freeze aura will be doing. If you can slow everything down enough, you'll run circles around them and they'll be dead before they can turn to look at you. Maiku, what do u think on that?
 
skora said:
Another interesting option might be, and I'd look someone elses opinion, is this:

Helm: Blackhorns face with 15 IAS Jewel
Belt: Nofs coil

Reason being, you'll still hit the 4 fpa break point, keep the light absorb up, but you'll have an extra 30% slow on top of what your freeze aura will be doing.
Click to expand...

How do you keep the light absorb, am I missing something? Your not wearing Tgods or Wisp Protector.



 
Blackhorn's gives 20 light absorb and 15 light resist.

skora: It's a shame I still haven't found a 15 IAS / 30+ fire resist jewel. I've found a 15 IAS / 38 poison resist jewel, but that is obviously not helpful for this build.

I also love the idea of switching out a raven's for a dwarf star. Absorb of all 3 elemental = gg. Great suggestions!
 
Just a couple more ideas:

I wouldn't worry too much about fire here. If you can kill meph without "waking" the others, no pit lords will come out to play yet, so you can kill meph and get back to max resists. I'd worry more about the lightening dmg from meph while under his conviction. Might suggest switching out dwarf for a rare with +all res or Wisp. I'd go with Um or IAS in helm over Ral.

I ran with LW and ended up switching to Grief because it was faster... don't get me wrong, LW is an awesome uber choice, but unless you reach max IAS you may become quickly frustrated with your build. My fatal flaw was not incorporating enough speed for LW.

Also, if you can swing it, pick up a 15% all res GC, that will help too.

Are you planning to pre-buff with Treachery? This is also a good, cheap way to help res.

On an ending note, does anyone know for sure if the "slow" mod (from Blackhorn's in this case) actually works on ubers?
 
Looking at my gear, I'm only 15 IAS short of reaching max attack speed, so I'd have to slot either my shield or helm with an IAS jewel. It would be great if I could slot my HoZ with a diamond instead of an IAS, and then slot the helm with an IAS. Maybe I could trade for a IAS + Resist All jewel?

I'm embarrassed to mention I never realized Meph's conviction aura drops you down 125%! Now I understand why everyone was worried about my resists. I can definitely add another 34 RA (diamond and 15 RA jewel) which would put me at -6C/29L/14F/64P after Meph's conviction. ........ That's pathetic. :(

Seems like Treachery is the answer. That's a whopping 60 RA, which would put me at 54C/89L/74F/124P. Any other more hassle-free methods of increasing my resists? I'd love to use my inventory for skill charms rather than RAs, but if that's my only option...
 
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