Re: Untwinked zealot viable in HC?
Hi there, I haven't played for a while, so my chars expired... I'm going to start a new char and I want it to be a zealot (I haven't played one for years...). U think it's possible? Any suggestions and reccomendations are appreciatted...:thumbup: Or is there anything I should look out for or not forget? Thanks a lot! D.
I'd say "yes" -- depending on what you mean by the word, "untwinked".
If what you mean is, "can't be given any equipment other than what he finds or makes himself", then I'd say that it's certainly do-able, subject to the comments immediately below.
If what you mean is, "has to finish the game in a completely linear fashion, never going back ever to MF what he needs (particularly gems and runes)", I'd say it's likely to be
very difficult, at least in Hardcore.
The reason why I say the foregoing is that while a character like this could probably cruise through Normal mode and Nightmare up to about Act 3 without too much trouble, starting around NM A4 and A5 there would be serious resistance problems.
I wouldn't pick a Frost Zealot, incidentally (although a point in HF or HS, along with one point in Vengeance, is never a bad idea when the PI's and OKs are around). I have played several characters like this and even when fully twinked, they have severe AR problems in Hell, also they simply cannot do enough physical damage to get a significant amount of life leech going. These issues would probably be far worse with an untwinked character.
My vote would be for a "pure" physical damage (Fanaticism) Zealot, with possibly an Act 2 Prayer or Holy Freeze Merc to help him out (for the Prayer guy you would want him to have an Insight stick for the synergy). A good untwinked setup, Hell-viable with the assumption that you don't have a year to spend MF'ing, would be as follows:
Hat: Crafted Blood hat with as good a defense rating as you can get and ideally as close to 10% Deadly Strike, as you can get (resists would be nice, too; it's probably wishful thinking to hope for sockets). Alternative would be
Lore Runeword in something like a Superior Shako or any good unique (
Rockstopper or
Crown of Thieves come to mind here) that you happen to find along the way.
Gloves: Crafted Blood gloves with, ideally, some resists, some IAS and as close to 10% Crushing Blow, as you can get. This is one that you really can't compromise on (unless you have a CB weapon), as you are going to need that CB when facing Urdars and Frenzytaurs in Hell.
Belt: Crafted Blood belt with, ideally, some resists, some life, some FHR, and as close to 10% Open Wounds, as you can get. Here again, unless you get OW in your weapon, you really have little choice, unless some great unique alternative (e.g.
String of Ears, Verdungo's etc.) happens to drop for you. If you find
Death's belt, keep it as you will need CBF (see below).
Boots: Rare with lots of resists, or hope for
Goblin Toe (CB) and up it to Battle Boots in the cube. It would be nice if
Gore Riders drop; they won't. If you find a pair of
Tearhaunch they're worth upping, and
Infernostride are worth watching out for if you're lucky enough to find them.
Shield: Ideally, 2-socket Paladin shield with 35% or more built in resists for
Rhyme (Shael+Eth) Runeword -- this is almost essential given that you will find it hard to get another source of Cannot Be Frozen (remember you can't trade for a Ravenfrost), and getting frozen in Hell is a very, very
bad thing to have happen. Failing that, 3-socket, high resist Paladin shield for
Ancient's Pledge. You could also try a
Spirit, but the problem is that you won't see a 4 socket shield until Nightmare.
Body Armor: Whatever you can get until a Lum rune drops (I like
Stealth as it is dirt-cheap and highly effective in Normal and mid-Nightmare). At that point, hold on to it as long as you possibly can and hope that a Hel and a Fal drop for
Lionheart. If you're a hard luck guy like me, when you get to Hell, and there's no Hel (pun intended) and no Fal, bite the bullet, put it into the highest defense 2 socket body armor you can get and make a
Smoke for resists and that nice little Weaken curse that counts as 33% free Physical Damage Reduce. (You could hope for
Treachery, alternatively, but the Lem is going to be hard to find. No, you won't find the Um rune for
Duress.)
Rings: Rares (or crafted Bloods) with resists and leech. Try to get at least a bit of mana leech somewhere, either with the amulet or rings. Don't expect a
Ravenfrost or a
Dwarf Star.
Amulet: See above; you can always gamble and hope for a good Paladin amulet with resists, skills and maybe something else. A crafted Safety amulet, incidentally, is really nice if you get a good bonus to blocking on it. Don't expect a
Highlord's or a
Metalgrid.
Charms: Don't expect skillers. Go for (a) resists, (b) life, (c) AR / Damage, (d) poison / elemental damage (you should have at least one source of cold damage and one source of poison, however minuscule), (e) FHR, in that order.
Weapon: You can save those Ort runes and try for a good Blood Axe, but personally I would much prefer the
Strength or
Black Runewords simply for the Crushing Blow. Unless a really nice unique 1H weapon (example:
Heaven's Light) with built-in CB and / or OW happens to drop for you, I'd just build the
Strength /
Black Runewords in successively better weapons (a
Black Scourge is a very, very effective one). Alternatively, you can try
Honor in a Scourge once you get to Hell; this ends up with around 215 basic max damage for a non-Superior Scourge, and it's a really nice Runeword if you can live without the CB.
I also like
Passion, just because of the free Druid spirit you get with it; that makes one more target for the monsters to go after. In the same way,
Crescent Moon is a great weapon for a conventional Zealot (save up some money to recharge your weapon when the conjured puppies die), but the Um rune is unlikely to come your way.
Note that as you will be using Fanaticism, while obviously having a weapon with a faster base speed is always nice, it isn't as important as it is for some other characters (e.g. Werebears).
A really nasty little dirty trick is a shopped Necromancer wand with Life Tap charges on switch; hot-key the LT and voila! your own little low-budget Dracul's! :thumbup:
Skills: Max Fanaticism, max Zeal, eventually try to max Sacrifice for the Zeal synergy, at least one point in Vengeance, maybe one in Holy Shock, at least 10 hard points in Holy Shield (just for the blocking, your DR isn't likely to be that hot anyway) and whatever you do, make sure that you put at least one point in Redemption (trust me on this one... otherwise you will go nuts trying to kill Carvers and Skeletons in Hell, faster than the Shamans and Greater Mummies can revive them). Make sure that you have at least one hard point in Cleansing, since being Amped in Hell (also being tagged by Radament) is unpleasant. You may want one hard point in Salvation if you look like your resists are going to be sub-par going into Hell.
Points: Use Mr. Bill's magic formula: Each level, three go into Vitality, one each into Strength and Dexterity (Energy? What's that?) Once your Strength and Dexterity are both above 100 or so, start calculating how much of each you will need to use your end-game weapon (for example, a Scourge is 125 or so) and start diverting more points into Vitality (maybe one into Dexterity for AR, every 2 levels) as you near your "Final" Strength score.
Tactics: Pretty straight forward here -- whale away at everything until it gets cut into chutney, but be careful around fast, high damage monsters like Frenzytaurs, Gloams, Lister's crew, Hephasto and dolls. Watch out for the FE bug in Nightmare, especially around high life monsters like Geleb Flamefinger of the A3 Council. Never be afraid to retreat and replenish your life bulb; encourage the stupider monsters to follow you somewhere where you can separate them from the rest of their group and hack them to bits, one by one. Be very careful in Hell A1, I have noticed that Battle.Net often "cheats" and throws ridiculously tough boss packs at you when you first venture into the Cold Plains; make sure you have cleared a retreat path in situations like this.
Finally, let Waheed take the fall for you, when it looks really rough. That's what he get's paid for...
I have beaten the game many times with the above type of build, so I hope it works for you,
Cheers
Mr. Bill
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