Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock? i

[Sunnyg]

Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

I'm at a loss for the last aura to stack.

Faith, Dream, and a Might Merc seem like the way to go to boost a Zon's damage output on a budget. At least, to acceptable levels for 3-5 players or make very quick solo Pit/D/Baal MF runs.

I'm typically running with another Zon who's not providing auras and is being slowly built up.

For this reason, I like the double tank setup between Act 2 Might merc and maxed Valk while we sit back and strafe/GA.

As a side note, I could mule the Dream over to my WW Barb who uses an Act 2 Defiance merc and make the Dream helm due double duty.

What aura's and type of merc do you prefer for your Zon? If you don't group with a Pally and coordinate auras between two characters, am I overlooking an important aura?

 

[crawlingdeadman1]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

dream is next to useless for a zon either lightning (where you can at least stack 2) or physical zon (where there are at least 10 better helms).

dream and faith are hardly "budget" items too btw...

 

[Sunnyg]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

I guess since we're both stuck with Buriza right now, we're physical Zon's? What gives the lightning aura you speak of?

My Sorc MF'er came along quicker than I expected and she's 88 now, so I'm putting all my efforts (~20hrs/wk) towards gearing a friend's Zon so I have someone to play with.

Besides his devotion aura, he has a dagger with 100% backfind so it's in my best interest to share the wealth.

I know those HRs are hard to get, believe me. I still have to find the bow to put them in, though I run tunnels/pits so this shouldn't take too long.

I sold a 4os GMB to vendor without realizing it was worth anything that only took 40 or 50 tunnel runs to find along with an Eaglehorn. This weekend I pop my alt's forges and my friend's forges.

Thanks for the response!

 

[crawlingdeadman1]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

lightning aura comes from dream. a lightning zon is one that uses the lightning skills in the javelin skill tree.

what is devotion? what is backfind? these are terms that have no meaning for me. you're playing diablo 2, right?

high runes are unbelievably hard to find. you wont find them laying around even in 300 runs. you can trade for them easily enough nowadays, which is what you seem to mean.

 

[Rawness1]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

lightning aura comes from dream. a lightning zon is one that uses the lightning skills in the javelin skill tree.

what is devotion? what is backfind? these are terms that have no meaning for me. you're playing diablo 2, right?

high runes are unbelievably hard to find. you wont find them laying around even in 300 runs. you can trade for them easily enough nowadays, which is what you seem to mean.

The Devotion aura got me confused too... Probably means Prayer.
Backfind = Magic find.

And anyways - Find a New Friend. It's better. You shouldn't need Grind your Heart out in order to get your so called friend to play. It's unnecessary and a truly dull way of life.

Trade Values if you need to know anything about HR/Items worth.

http://www.purediablo.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=25

 

[Sunnyg]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

Thanks for the clarification, I had to re-read your reply a couple times and you were saying the Holy Shock sucks for both types of Zons.

As long as it's fun for me MF'ing I don't mind putting the stuff towards a goal.

Backfind, as in a dagger in the back and he won't miss. Devotion as in loyalty to my friends.

Ok, bad jokes. I'll be here all night, folks!

 

[crawlingdeadman1]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

oooh, derp a der. those are rather good puns. i'm off my game today or i'd have caught on, lol.

 

[eA-Zaku]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

I'm kind of confused about your general situation, but what I can make out:

If you want maximum damage from mercs/auras in PvM here's what you do:

Your character:
- Faith

Your mercenary:
- Might (native skill)
- Concentration (Pride runeword polearm)
- Holy Shock/Holy Fire (runeword armors)

Your friend's character:
- Harmony, Faith, or Windforce

Your friend's mercenary:
- Holy Frost (native skill)
- Holy Frost (Doom runeword polearm)
- Holy Shock/Holy Fire (runeword armors)

I think that would yield the most damage. There might be a slightly better combo involving merc armors and the second character, though. Maybe Infinity polearm on the second merc?

The reason Holy Shock sucks is because it's pulse damage is crappy unless you are a Paladin or Sorceress to use hidden skill synergies/stacking with your own natural and runeword auras. And also because Holy Shock's huge on-hit lightning damage only works for the merc that the aura comes from. It doesn't transfer over to your Amazon unless you're the one wearing the Dream runeword.

 

[Sunnyg]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

My general situation is I'm still building gear up and looking to be able to solo Hell with relative ease or hold my own with 2-3 players.

For a Bowazon, here's what the skill tree currently looks like without any + from items/charms.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h267/JaguarXJ12/D2/Currentskills.jpg

I'm looking to max Valk, boost a few extra points into Avoid for 6-7 base, and get Guided up to 10 base.

Now, this looks like a great start and I have this part figured out mostly. But let me dab in a bit of perspective.

I wasn't around for the big'um rune words. I played from beta up to the early part of Season 2, patch 1.10. So many of these were still undiscovered or bugged and not working.

The sudden availability of all of the rune words plus auras of mercs and possible auras from the rune words themselves makes for a lot of combinations all with associated cost.

Merc's sucked, I generally played without one on my 99 Sorc and 98 Zon. I had a Barb, Java, and Pally friend doing Hell runs with me and we never bothered.

I want to front load a lot of damage using Strafe and apply affects such as amp, cold damage. I used to be a GA/multi user but have found a new love in Strafe but can't shake the feeling that with Atma's I can totally give up guided. Confirm?

Until I get a WWS, Windy, Faith, or something decent I'm using a 194% Buriza/Nef.

Leech is not an issue, extra defense really doesn't help from defiance, might is almost a necessity in my opinion. I do my own cold damage with knockback and strafe so crowd control is typically not an issue. That means holy freeze is somewhat of a waste except for it's ability to grab aggro and piss mobs off!

So Might, Fanaticism from Faith and.... and... what's missing for a Bowazon with a max valk?

Current items, Tal's Armor, Tal's Helm/Shako/Face of Horror depending on what I'm doing, Atmas's, War Trav's, Tal's Belt, LoH, Raven Frost, and a leech/resist ring.

 

[eA-Zaku]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

Well Might is a cheap and easy free damage booster. For really min-maxing, Pride polearm on the merc for Concentration for even more damage.

For your Valkyrie and Decoy, Bramble armor and Edge runeword bow give Thorns on equip. Edge also gives vendor price reduction for gambling.

All you really need though is some %IAS on gear, a decent bow, and your skills will see you through Hell relatively smoothly.

Might I suggest a Brand bow for strafing? But if you had the runes for it, you'd be better off with WF, Faith, etc.

I found a WWS and a slew of other lower level uniques doing solo Pit runs so you may want to try that place. Buriza is easily enough to handle it. Maybe upgrade the Buriza to elite? It's a medium level choice that I'd consider sticking with for the long run. Harmony is also a very cheap and very powerful option for your personal bow. Tir+Ith+Sol+Ko, I believe.

As a PvPer I tossed one point in Strafe because that's all I could spare. I actually need that 1 point back to max out my evades at 99, but I don't regret it because Strafe is JUST THAT AWESOME. You definitely don't need GA for PvM, and even if you swapped out Atma's Scarab you have Magic Arrow still. I still think Brand is the coolest Strafe weapon and the Bone Spears it tosses out on every arrow should do quite a bit of the front load burst you're looking for. Obviously Faith or WF are the better options if you're going to talk about spending HR's though.

 

[Sunnyg]

Re: Nub nub aura help - Might, Fanaticism, and.. Holy Shock?

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm on my way to making Faith - just need the bow now (and kick myself having sold one I found and thought 4 sockets was trash...) after getting a WF. I'm on the prowl in the west trades for runes for Pride. I also have the runes for Fortitude armor to increase my own output too.