Tesladin Gear Options

[smokeeblade]

Tesladin Gear Options

Heya everyone, I've been looking through the Tesladin guides and have thus-so-far seen that this build can do well enough on its own without uber gear. It is definitely a build I want to have a look at and I was hoping to get a few inputs into an optimal outfit.

My setup would probably look something of this sort :

Helm - Gillaume's
Armor - Guardian Angel
Gloves - LoH / Dracul's
Belt - Verdungo's (SoE for LL if I choose LoH for gloves?)
Boots - Gore Riders

Weapon - 'Crescent Moon' Phase Blade
Shield - HoZ

Rings - Ravenfrost + Wisp Projector (just to see the lightning spam :crazyeyes
Amulet - Mara's (I think my resistances will be quite shot)

I know most of what I have listed is pretty basic, but I'm looking to push this fella into a fully-fledged Baal runner (my BlizzSorc/Hammerdin/Fishymancer have all been less than impressive for their own reasons).

I noted that although the 'Crescent Moon' runeword is available to polearms, why none of the guides I read used one for their A2 mercs. Is there something I'm missing here? I guess that brings up another question as to whether the two -ELR sources work well together, or at all for that matter (had a quick search but couldn't find any conclusive answers). Given that sort of setup, I wouldn't have much recourse against LI so my weapon switch will have to save me on that one.

My stat/skill build will be very mainstream, so my only concern is gear.

Any input would be greatly appreciated :nod:

 

[Trim]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

The only thing I can say is about the -ELR. The merc's doesn't combine with yours; they're independent. So he has his own -ELR while you have yours. Like, if you had a Griffon's Eye, the -ELR wouldn't help, say, an ActIII Lightning Iron Wolf.

I've never made a true Tesladin before (I'm not a fan of Zeal, personally) but I'm sure you'll get some good advice here. I wish you the best! :thumbup:

 

[essojay]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

-ELR on your equipment (Crescent Moon Phase Blade) works only on your lightning attacks; -ELR on your merc's equipment (CM polearm) works only on his lightning attacks.

Edit: TRM pwned me.

 

[smokeeblade]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

Thanks for that TRM and esso , makes perfect sense now that I have a think about it.

In that case the merc would not benefit as much from the -ELR, unless he has a 'Dream' helm or something to that effect (a man can dream can't he?)(puntastic!).

However, the increased frequency of Static Field could be very useful I imagine. When I get to it I guess I'll just play around with various sticks and see how they all fare.

 

[BFMV]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

Do you really have to use Guardian Angel? I was thinking you could switch off to a shaft for more DR, seeing that you only have 15% from belt. I would think that the DR would provide more safety during Baal Runs in the case of those frenzytaurs.

 

[essojay]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

I found that Kelpie Snare is really the best Baal running weapon (well, other than Infinity--I'm only Ber+Ber+Ist away from that one ). On my sorcs, Kelpie makes Baal a complete non-issue, allowing you to focus your other equipment on Throne monsters and the Minions. If you've got a few Um Runes, CM might be worth testing out. My only concern with CM is the low damage. Another weapon worth using is Reaper's, which is always a solid choice. Decrep makes Burning Souls a lot easier to kill.

Treachery might be nice too, but with your high block and defense, Fade might not trigger all that reliably, or at least when you need it most. And worse, the venom doesn't help you at all against your worst enemies, Burning Souls. It's nearly useless if you don't need the IAS (I don't know the Zeal breakpoints).

I might test Duress, but otherwise I think GA really is the best option.

 

[smokeeblade]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

Well I chose GA since I think it was very viable with this build to get max'd resistances, and thus I could take advantage of the + Max Resistance from GA.

Hoz (P'Diamond) - 69 All
Mara's - 26 All
LoH - 50 Fire
Quest - 30 All

I'm hoping the resistance charms will pull the rest of the resistances up, otherwise an 'Ort' or 'Thul' rune in my armor/helm should be sufficient.

I haven't played a melee character in a very, very long time so DR hasn't bothered me so much as resistances. Shaftstop would help a lot for those raging bulls but I'm not quite sure which way I should lean in terms of the trade-off. Like esso said, Gloams are going to be busting my ******** (thus the Wisp) more often than not so I think the boost to resistance would be more befitting.

Kelpie is quite imbalanced against Baal, as well as the Decrep from Reaper's, don't want to make it too easy for myself . The IAS from Treachery would work well with the CtC Static Field, though I can't imagine me needing the IAS that badly (note: I have a nitpick against wearing +2 Assassin armor on anyone that is not an assassin).

 

[BFMV]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

However, IMO 75% LR would be enough against those gloams. Besides, you already have a Wisp for the %absorb. Not to forget, the hard points you put into the Light Resis Aura would also add to your max LR %. Being a telsadin, you should have 20 pts into it, so you would effectively have +20 to your max light resis, making it 95%.

Go for shaft.

 

[essojay]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

Oops, I totally forgot about the non-synergy bonus of maxing Resist Lightning. BFMV is right, you're probably better off with 30% DR from Shaftstop (while still maintaining 85% LR and wisp absorb) than with GA.

Shaft:
30% DR, 60 life

GA:
+15% max fire res, +10% max lite res, more block, +skills, higher chance of hitting Lister & Baal

Going from 85% LR to 95% LR does reduce your lightning damage intake to 1/3, but with wisp, you're already almost immune to non-conviction Burning souls. I can't calculate offhand how much life you'd get from GA (via saved dex from more block), but I imagine it's similar to the +60 from Shaft. In that case, Shaft is probably worth it.

 

[Grisu]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

Edit: TRM pwned me.

Nvm, TRM pwns everyone when it comes to postin

However, IMO 75% LR would be enough against those gloams. Besides, you already have a Wisp for the %absorb. Not to forget, the hard points you put into the Light Resis Aura would also add to your max LR %. Being a telsadin, you should have 20 pts into it, so you would effectively have +20 to your max light resis, making it 95%.

Resist Lightning only offer +0.5 to max Lightning Resist per skill point invested if it's not active, so it's actually 85% plus the 10-10% absorb from Wisp Projector.

I know most of what I have listed is pretty basic, but I'm looking to push this fella into a fully-fledged Baal runner

You might want to take a look at DC's HC 99er for gear suggestions, also his is far from basic

Good luck and tell us how it's going!:thumbup:

Oh, btw, if you really want to run Baal, putting 1+ pt in Vigor might really help speed up runs!

 

[essojay]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

If you don't want to use Kelpie, I think your choice really comes down to Reaper's vs. Obedience.

Both are great against Gloams (Decrep vs. enchant & resists) and Baal (Decrep vs. CB).

And if you don't want to use Reaper's either, I guess the choice is clear.

 

[smokeeblade]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

You might want to take a look at DC's HC 99er for gear suggestions, also his is far from basic

Very, very, very, ridiculously far from basic :crazyeyes:

Well I think it's settled then. Shaftstop comes out on top for the armor, and I'm going to go with 'Obedience' for my merc (Baal just looks so impotent and silly in slow-mo, I'll give him a chance at least).

I'll be writing up a Pat thread once I finish him since he's not as cookie-cutter as my other characters, though it probably won't be until I get my mid-semester break.

Thanks to everyone for their speedy and very helpful responses

 

[Pyrohemia1]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

A couple of weeks ago I remembered that DC had used exile on his tesladin and I decided to re-equip my tesladin and try it out now that I had an exile. The lifetap and defense boost were much more helpful than I expected. With exile my build ended up as fairly similar to DC's, only with treachery instead of CoH.

He was fun to quest but even though he cut through everything, even /p8 Lister & co in seconds, he was no good at running anything. If I remember correctly I could kill half of Lister's mob before Baal cast decrepify once, so 3 seconds or something -- basically as fast as my 37k lightning sorceress.

Negatives as a character for running
1) Being melee his equipment wasn't very flexible and his only MF came from a Gheed's fortune.
2) No teleport means that he can't get anywhere very fast.
3) Baal's decrepify makes what was a 4fpa zeal feel slow as molasses.

Positives as a character for running
1) Very fast at killing when not under decrepify
2) Melee character immune to IM
3) Very safe throughout WSK & throne room -- stacked resists from fade, 20 points in lightning mastery with passive max resist bonus, life tap, 10+k defense and max block (actually not because my dexterity is set for HOZ not exile ).

Lifetap + low damage crescent moon phase blade was fun because under IM I took almost no damage. Zealing under IM was funny because I discovered that when you hit under IM there is actually a sound effect that plays when you hit something that sounds like you are hitting one of those act 5 quill rats that deals damage to attacker.

All in all, this post had very little helpful information for a plain tesladin :whistling:

Wait, here is a tidbit: DC used FOH to kill oblivion knights because he is HC and I followed his build, but I found that my points in FOH were completely wasted for SC as I was very safe around oblivion knights and FOH was impotent. My FOH only brought oblivion knights down to 1/4 health even at /p1 when they were under conviction from infinity meaning that it took 2 hits to kill each knight. With zeal it took at most 2 hits to kill them even at /p8 and zeal is much much faster attacking than FOH.

 

[DarkChaos1]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

A couple of weeks ago I remembered that DC had used exile on his tesladin and I decided to re-equip my tesladin and try it out now that I had an exile. The lifetap and defense boost were much more helpful than I expected. With exile my build ended up as fairly similar to DC's, only with treachery instead of CoH.

The "Freezes Target" mod on Exile was also invaluable. I never had any real close calls on my Tesladin, even while tanking fanat or might Lister, thanks to Freeze Target + lifetap.

 

[Pyrohemia1]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

The "Freezes Target" mod on Exile was also invaluable. I never had any real close calls on my Tesladin, even while tanking fanat or might Lister, thanks to Freeze Target + lifetap.

Good catch, I forgot about that hit freezes target on exile. :thumbup:
I am forced to agree that frozen minions are safe minions.

 

[Jeff Jonsson]

Re: Tesladin Gear Options

3) Baal's decrepify makes what was a 4fpa zeal feel slow as molasses.

You probably know this, but he only decrepifies whatever's closest to him. With some clever merc positioning you can avoid decrepify all together.