Baking Cookies with Nightfish (Mini Build Guides)
[highlight]Baking cookies with Nightfish[/highlight]
[highlight]0. What is this?[/highlight]
In one of my recent thread NacRuno asked me to post a quick summary of my favorite builds. Since I've heard worse excuses for a rant, here we go. As we're aiming for a quick summary here, I'll forgo my usual explanations of how to make stuff work and the rationale behind doing stuff the way I did it. I have no intention of changing that as this would turn this would multiply the size of this wall of text by the number of builds, at least. This is how I do it and while all of this works perfectly for me, if you have different goals in mind and abilities at hand you might have to optimise your builds slightly differently.
Note that I make no claim that all of these will be the most overpowered things in the history of forever, these are but my personal favorites for each class. Builds that I genuinely enjoyed playing for one reason or another. Enjoyment for me may or may not translate into enjoyment for you. Personally, I don't enjoy builds that need help getting through the game, so there's one caveat right there. Neither do I relish builds that *require* high end runewords to make them work, nor does a build *have* to be able to MF in order to be fun for me, but most of them are good at that as a consequence of getting through the game on their own and doing it well. Common sense really, what build can get through the game well and not deal with most or at least some of the alvl85 areas in good fashion? I don't like skipping stuff, so if I have to bypass half the content by teleporting, that's not epic fun for me.
This last one thing might be more of a pet peeve of me, but I don't enjoy builds that revolve around one button only. I am no korean, but I've got decently fast fingers and if I'm limited to pressing the right mouse button and nothing else I'm bored. This just as an explanation of what you can expect from these templates.
Anyway, with that out of the way, let's bake some cookies! \o/ Omnomnom!
[highlight]1. General Stuff[/highlight]
[highlight]1.1 Skills[/highlight]
I'll list the skills I actually used on the builds, disregarding prerequisites. Yes, you can probably use prerequisite X to great effect. I don't care, I didn't need it. Furthermore, I'll simplify the way I'm listing skills and synergies. Poison Nova (20) means I put 20 hard points here. Attract (1) means I put one in attract and had enough +skills that that was enough to make me happy. Golem Mastery (1+) means that I thought this was a good place to bury excess skill points beyond what my +skills gave me but the build was considered finished at Clay Golem (1).
[highlight]1.2. Attributes[/highlight]
Assume that *always* I have enough Str (and possibly dex) to wear my gear. If the build lists block, then also enough dex to block. The rest invariably goes into vit. I enter Hell with as little as 800 life and do not use Call to Arms as I don't have it. Anything that needs attack rating has >8000 attack rating in Hell. Often it will even be OVER 9000!!! Just saying.
[highlight]1.3 Resistances[/highlight]
My resistances are pretty much always like this. Note that poison is not really a priority but a side effect of res all items.
Fire Resistance: >50%
Lightning Resistance: 75%
Cold Resistance: >50%
Poison Resistance: >50%
[highlight]1.4. Excels at[/highlight]
here I'll list stuff the build did good at, in my opinion. At the moment I am considering the following, either because I ran them myself or because I consider them worth running for one reason or another. Assumes crushing blow on the merc in some cases, on the hero in others. Namely if baal is supposed to be a target. Why do this? Because I never liked doing thousands of runs with the same character over and over again until my eyeballs start to bleed. I don't claim that each of the following builds can wear 1000% MF and run Baal in 53.2 seconds. But I don't need to do that. Wearing 150+% MF and having some fun clearing a few areas gets you items as well. Personally I'd rather have fun with a build and get some items as well than do something I find monotonous and get perhaps 10% more swag as a payoff. Not worth it to me. That is the mindset I have when I say something *can* run an area. I don't care if another build is a little faster. I'm not racing anybody.
alvl85: Refers to areas such as: Pits, Ancient Tunnels, Worldstone Keep, Chaos Sanctuary, River of Flame, etc. Actually encompasses all other areas as well but there is usually less reason to run them. Includes being able to kill Baal and his Minions
Meph: Best Act Boss to start building some wealth. Can be run very, very quickly.
Council: The Council in Travincal. Aparantely a pretty good stop for runes.
(Added after I was done writing this thing: I might expand this a bit later on and give suggestions for suitable areas or something. At the moment it says pretty much nothing because everyone of my chars can run the alvl85 areas pretty well... Perhaps I'll chose an area and time myself doing one run there to sort of give a comparable value of how well each build does. Dunno. Maybe I'll have a bright idea)
[highlight]2. The Necromancer[/highlight]
[highlight]Poison&CEmancer[/highlight]
Core Skills: Poison Nova (20) Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Attract (1), Lower Resistances (1), Decrepify (1), Clay Golem (1), Fire Golem (1), Golem Mastery (1+), Summon Resist (1)
Synergy Skills: Poison Dagger (20), Poison Explosion (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: + skills, +%poison skill damage, -enemy poison resistance
Notable Items: Death's Web, Trang Oul's Set (at least get 3 parts, like: Gloves + Belt + Shield), Rainbow Facets (Poison)
Merc: A2Might
Excels at:alvl85, Council
[highlight]Ye olde Fishymancer[/highlight]
Core Skills: Raise Skeleton (20), Skeleton Mastery (20), Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Amplify Damage(1), Decrepify (1), Clay Golem (1), Fire Golem (1), Iron Golem (1), Golem Mastery (1+), Summon Resist (1), Revive(1)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: + skills
Notable Items: Arm of King Leoric, Homunculus
Merc: A2Might
Excels at:alvl85
[highlight]Iron Golemancer[/highlight]
Core Skills: Iron Golem (1), Golem Mastery (20), Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Amplify Damage(1+), Decrepify (1), Attract (1), Summon Resist (1+), Revive (1+)
Synergy Skills: Fire Golem (20)
Block: No
Item Focus: Weapon Damage, ITD, %AR, flat AR, -target defence, Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Life Leech, Attack Speed
Notable Items: Ribcracker (upgraded), Fortitude, Naj's Puzzler (TP charges), Demon Limb (enchant charges for %AR)
Merc: A2Might
Excels at: Being awesome. alvl85
[highlight]3. The Amazon[/highlight]
[highlight]Fend / Lightning[/highlight]
Core Skills: Fend (20), Charged Strike (20), Lightning Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Penetrate (20), Critical Strike (1+), Pierce (1+)
Block: No (fend) yes (lighting)
Item Focus: Fend: Weapon Damage, Lifesteal, Defense (body armour, >1500)
Notable Items: Kelpie Snare (upp'd), Laying of Hands, Fortitude, Thunderstroke, Gloom, Demon Limb (Enchant for AR), Darksight Helm (CoS charges), Delirum (on the merc)
Merc: Act2Might / Act2Defiance
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Ye olde Fishyzon [/highlight]
(call her old at your own risk)
Core Skills: Freezing Arrow (20), Lightning Fury (20), Charged Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Pierce (1+)
Synergy Skills: Cold Arrow (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, + cold / lightning damage, - enemy cold / lightning resist
Notable Items: Griffon's Eye, Melody, Wizendraw,
Merc: A2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Strafe / LF / CS[/highlight]
Core Skills: Strafe (10+), Lightning Fury (20) Charged Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Critical Strike (5+), Penetrate (10+), Pierce (5+)
Block: yes / partly (LF/CS)
Item Focus: Strafe: slow target, weapon damage, AR,
Notable Items: Windforce, Witchwild String (upp'd), Atma's Scarab, Cleglaw's Pincers, Blackhorn's Face, Nosferatu's Coil, Andariel's Visage, Fortitude, Demon Limb (Enchant for AR), Titan's Revenge
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]M'avinazon[/highlight]
Core Skills: Freezing Arrow (20), Strafe (20)
Utility Skills: Pierce (5+), Critical Strike (1+), Penetrate (1+)
Synergy Skills: Cold Arrow (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: +skills, cold damage, - enemy cold resistance
Notable Items: M'avina's Set (duh?), Insight for the Merc
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: using M'avina's Set. decent at alvl85s (esp Ancient Tunnels)
[highlight]4. The Druid[/highlight]
[highlight]Rabies[/highlight]
Core Skills: Rabies (20), Werewolf (1+), Fury (20)
Utility Skills: Lycanthropy (1+)
Synergy Skills: Poison Creeper (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: +Skills, +poison skill damage, -enemy poison resistance, high weapon damage on switch
Notable Items: Death's Web, Trang Oul's gloves, Bramble
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: some alvl85, possily council with uber items
[highlight]Fury[/highlight]
Core Skills: Fury (20), Werewolf (20), Feral Rage (1+)
Utility Skills: Lycanthropy (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: Weapon Damage, Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Attack Rating, Life Leech
Notable Items: Ribcracker!, Fortitude, Guillaume's Face, Gore Rider, Highlord's Wrath, The Reaper's Toll (possibly on merc), Delirium (merc again)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85 without physical immunes
[highlight]5. The Sorceress[/highlight]
[highlight]Nova / Frozen Orb[/highlight]
Core Skills: Nova (20), Static Field (10+), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Lightning Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, fast cast, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy lightning resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: The Occulus (yes, I'm serial) , Visceratuant (upgraded), Griffon's Eye, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Chain Lightning / Frozen Orb[/highlight]
Core Skills: Chain Lightning (20), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Lightning Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Synergy Skills: Lightning(20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy lightning resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: Tal's Set , Visceratuant (upgraded), Griffon's Eye, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Meteor / Frozen Orb[/highlight]
Core Skills:Meteor (20), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Fire Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Synergy Skills: Fireball (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy fire resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: Tal's Set , Visceratuant (upgraded), Nightwing's Veil, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85, Act Bosses
[highlight]6. The Assassin[/highlight]
[highlight]Ye olde Trapsin[/highlight]
Core Skills: Lightning Sentry (20), Death Sentry (20), Fireblast (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), [Fade (1)],
Synergy Skills: Shocking Web (20)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: +skills
Notable Items: blue +3 Lightning Sentry +3 Trap Skills Claw.
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Tiger Strike / Death Sentry[/highlight]
Core Skills: Tiger Strike (20), Death Sentry (20), Regular Attack (to release the charges)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Burst of Speed (1), [Fade (1)], Cobra Strike (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Weapon Damage (use 2h weapon)
Notable Items: Ribcracker, etc
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Whirlwind[/highlight]
Core Skills: CM (20), Death Sentry (20), Venom (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1),Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), Fade (1), Lightning Sentry (20) (PIs)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: Damage, Leech, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds
Notable Items: Chaos Suwayyah (Duh), Shadow Killer, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Demon Limb (Enchant), Fortitude
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Dragon Claw[/highlight]
Core Skills: Dragon Claw (20), Death Sentry (20), Venom (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), Fade (1)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: Damage, Leech, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds
Notable Items: Shadow Killer, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Demon Limb (Enchant), Fortitude
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]7. The Barbarian[/highlight]
[highlight]Daggerwhirler[/highlight]
Core Skills: Whirlwind (20),
Utility Skills: Battle Orders (20), Shout (20), Natural Resistances (1), Berserk (1+) (for PIs, obviously), Find Item (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Damage, Leech, Defence (body armour, mainly)
Notable Items: Fleshripper x2 (Shael), Fortitude, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Heart Carver x2 (find item switch)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: disproving that you need range 5 weapons to be AWESOME with whirlwind, alvl85 runs, low player settings boss runs
[highlight]Frenzy [/highlight]
Core Skills: Frenzy (20),
Utility Skills: Battle Orders (20), Shout (20), Natural Resistances (1), Berserk (1+) (for PIs, obviously), Sword Mastery (20), Howl (1+) (possibly needs 10+ points to reliably work in hell when you first enter it, can be reskilled and reduced later on), Find Item (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Damage, Leech, Defence (body armour, mainly)
Notable Items: Vile Husk (upp'd) x2, Fortitude, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Laying of Hands, Heart Carver x2 (find item switch)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85, possibly council, massive bonus damage vs demons and undead (i.e. pretty much everything)
[highlight]8. The Paladin[/highlight]
There is no Paladin build I enjoyed enough to list it here. The fact that I cannot use attackskills on the RMB breaks this class for me as much as the lack of inherent CC does. More power to you if you love the paladin. I love them in pretty much any game except for D2. I know they can be quite powerful and useful, I just don't enjoy them very much.
[highlight]9. Conclusion[/highlight]
Well, that's a wrap for now. I hope this thing proves useful to some of you. If nothing else, it gave me a good idea on which builds I want to take through the game again now that my D2 break is over.
If you didn't like this, be sure to send NacRuno a PM about how this was a horrible, horrible idea. :badteeth: It's all his fault.
If you did like it, be sure to leave a comment and thank me in great detail. It was all my idea with no outside input whatsoever.
[highlight]10. Links[/highlight]
If you're interested in some more in-depth stuff, all my guardian threads have been collected by Thyiad and can be found here: http://www.chrisclarke.co.uk/nightfish.html. This has a lot of additional info and in many cases offers insight into why I did what I did. Downside is that often I used screenshots to show skill trees and the LCS which is one of the main reasons I wrote this summary thing in the first place.
[highlight]Baking cookies with Nightfish[/highlight]
[highlight]0. What is this?[/highlight]
In one of my recent thread NacRuno asked me to post a quick summary of my favorite builds. Since I've heard worse excuses for a rant, here we go. As we're aiming for a quick summary here, I'll forgo my usual explanations of how to make stuff work and the rationale behind doing stuff the way I did it. I have no intention of changing that as this would turn this would multiply the size of this wall of text by the number of builds, at least. This is how I do it and while all of this works perfectly for me, if you have different goals in mind and abilities at hand you might have to optimise your builds slightly differently.
Note that I make no claim that all of these will be the most overpowered things in the history of forever, these are but my personal favorites for each class. Builds that I genuinely enjoyed playing for one reason or another. Enjoyment for me may or may not translate into enjoyment for you. Personally, I don't enjoy builds that need help getting through the game, so there's one caveat right there. Neither do I relish builds that *require* high end runewords to make them work, nor does a build *have* to be able to MF in order to be fun for me, but most of them are good at that as a consequence of getting through the game on their own and doing it well. Common sense really, what build can get through the game well and not deal with most or at least some of the alvl85 areas in good fashion? I don't like skipping stuff, so if I have to bypass half the content by teleporting, that's not epic fun for me.
This last one thing might be more of a pet peeve of me, but I don't enjoy builds that revolve around one button only. I am no korean, but I've got decently fast fingers and if I'm limited to pressing the right mouse button and nothing else I'm bored. This just as an explanation of what you can expect from these templates.
Anyway, with that out of the way, let's bake some cookies! \o/ Omnomnom!
[highlight]1. General Stuff[/highlight]
[highlight]1.1 Skills[/highlight]
I'll list the skills I actually used on the builds, disregarding prerequisites. Yes, you can probably use prerequisite X to great effect. I don't care, I didn't need it. Furthermore, I'll simplify the way I'm listing skills and synergies. Poison Nova (20) means I put 20 hard points here. Attract (1) means I put one in attract and had enough +skills that that was enough to make me happy. Golem Mastery (1+) means that I thought this was a good place to bury excess skill points beyond what my +skills gave me but the build was considered finished at Clay Golem (1).
[highlight]1.2. Attributes[/highlight]
Assume that *always* I have enough Str (and possibly dex) to wear my gear. If the build lists block, then also enough dex to block. The rest invariably goes into vit. I enter Hell with as little as 800 life and do not use Call to Arms as I don't have it. Anything that needs attack rating has >8000 attack rating in Hell. Often it will even be OVER 9000!!! Just saying.
[highlight]1.3 Resistances[/highlight]
My resistances are pretty much always like this. Note that poison is not really a priority but a side effect of res all items.
Fire Resistance: >50%
Lightning Resistance: 75%
Cold Resistance: >50%
Poison Resistance: >50%
[highlight]1.4. Excels at[/highlight]
here I'll list stuff the build did good at, in my opinion. At the moment I am considering the following, either because I ran them myself or because I consider them worth running for one reason or another. Assumes crushing blow on the merc in some cases, on the hero in others. Namely if baal is supposed to be a target. Why do this? Because I never liked doing thousands of runs with the same character over and over again until my eyeballs start to bleed. I don't claim that each of the following builds can wear 1000% MF and run Baal in 53.2 seconds. But I don't need to do that. Wearing 150+% MF and having some fun clearing a few areas gets you items as well. Personally I'd rather have fun with a build and get some items as well than do something I find monotonous and get perhaps 10% more swag as a payoff. Not worth it to me. That is the mindset I have when I say something *can* run an area. I don't care if another build is a little faster. I'm not racing anybody.
alvl85: Refers to areas such as: Pits, Ancient Tunnels, Worldstone Keep, Chaos Sanctuary, River of Flame, etc. Actually encompasses all other areas as well but there is usually less reason to run them. Includes being able to kill Baal and his Minions
Meph: Best Act Boss to start building some wealth. Can be run very, very quickly.
Council: The Council in Travincal. Aparantely a pretty good stop for runes.
(Added after I was done writing this thing: I might expand this a bit later on and give suggestions for suitable areas or something. At the moment it says pretty much nothing because everyone of my chars can run the alvl85 areas pretty well... Perhaps I'll chose an area and time myself doing one run there to sort of give a comparable value of how well each build does. Dunno. Maybe I'll have a bright idea)
[highlight]2. The Necromancer[/highlight]
[highlight]Poison&CEmancer[/highlight]
Core Skills: Poison Nova (20) Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Attract (1), Lower Resistances (1), Decrepify (1), Clay Golem (1), Fire Golem (1), Golem Mastery (1+), Summon Resist (1)
Synergy Skills: Poison Dagger (20), Poison Explosion (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: + skills, +%poison skill damage, -enemy poison resistance
Notable Items: Death's Web, Trang Oul's Set (at least get 3 parts, like: Gloves + Belt + Shield), Rainbow Facets (Poison)
Merc: A2Might
Excels at:alvl85, Council
[highlight]Ye olde Fishymancer[/highlight]
Core Skills: Raise Skeleton (20), Skeleton Mastery (20), Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Amplify Damage(1), Decrepify (1), Clay Golem (1), Fire Golem (1), Iron Golem (1), Golem Mastery (1+), Summon Resist (1), Revive(1)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: + skills
Notable Items: Arm of King Leoric, Homunculus
Merc: A2Might
Excels at:alvl85
[highlight]Iron Golemancer[/highlight]
Core Skills: Iron Golem (1), Golem Mastery (20), Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Amplify Damage(1+), Decrepify (1), Attract (1), Summon Resist (1+), Revive (1+)
Synergy Skills: Fire Golem (20)
Block: No
Item Focus: Weapon Damage, ITD, %AR, flat AR, -target defence, Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Life Leech, Attack Speed
Notable Items: Ribcracker (upgraded), Fortitude, Naj's Puzzler (TP charges), Demon Limb (enchant charges for %AR)
Merc: A2Might
Excels at: Being awesome. alvl85
[highlight]3. The Amazon[/highlight]
[highlight]Fend / Lightning[/highlight]
Core Skills: Fend (20), Charged Strike (20), Lightning Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Penetrate (20), Critical Strike (1+), Pierce (1+)
Block: No (fend) yes (lighting)
Item Focus: Fend: Weapon Damage, Lifesteal, Defense (body armour, >1500)
Notable Items: Kelpie Snare (upp'd), Laying of Hands, Fortitude, Thunderstroke, Gloom, Demon Limb (Enchant for AR), Darksight Helm (CoS charges), Delirum (on the merc)
Merc: Act2Might / Act2Defiance
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Ye olde Fishyzon [/highlight]
(call her old at your own risk)
Core Skills: Freezing Arrow (20), Lightning Fury (20), Charged Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Pierce (1+)
Synergy Skills: Cold Arrow (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, + cold / lightning damage, - enemy cold / lightning resist
Notable Items: Griffon's Eye, Melody, Wizendraw,
Merc: A2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Strafe / LF / CS[/highlight]
Core Skills: Strafe (10+), Lightning Fury (20) Charged Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Critical Strike (5+), Penetrate (10+), Pierce (5+)
Block: yes / partly (LF/CS)
Item Focus: Strafe: slow target, weapon damage, AR,
Notable Items: Windforce, Witchwild String (upp'd), Atma's Scarab, Cleglaw's Pincers, Blackhorn's Face, Nosferatu's Coil, Andariel's Visage, Fortitude, Demon Limb (Enchant for AR), Titan's Revenge
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]M'avinazon[/highlight]
Core Skills: Freezing Arrow (20), Strafe (20)
Utility Skills: Pierce (5+), Critical Strike (1+), Penetrate (1+)
Synergy Skills: Cold Arrow (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: +skills, cold damage, - enemy cold resistance
Notable Items: M'avina's Set (duh?), Insight for the Merc
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: using M'avina's Set. decent at alvl85s (esp Ancient Tunnels)
[highlight]4. The Druid[/highlight]
[highlight]Rabies[/highlight]
Core Skills: Rabies (20), Werewolf (1+), Fury (20)
Utility Skills: Lycanthropy (1+)
Synergy Skills: Poison Creeper (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: +Skills, +poison skill damage, -enemy poison resistance, high weapon damage on switch
Notable Items: Death's Web, Trang Oul's gloves, Bramble
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: some alvl85, possily council with uber items
[highlight]Fury[/highlight]
Core Skills: Fury (20), Werewolf (20), Feral Rage (1+)
Utility Skills: Lycanthropy (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: Weapon Damage, Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Attack Rating, Life Leech
Notable Items: Ribcracker!, Fortitude, Guillaume's Face, Gore Rider, Highlord's Wrath, The Reaper's Toll (possibly on merc), Delirium (merc again)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85 without physical immunes
[highlight]5. The Sorceress[/highlight]
[highlight]Nova / Frozen Orb[/highlight]
Core Skills: Nova (20), Static Field (10+), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Lightning Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, fast cast, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy lightning resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: The Occulus (yes, I'm serial) , Visceratuant (upgraded), Griffon's Eye, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Chain Lightning / Frozen Orb[/highlight]
Core Skills: Chain Lightning (20), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Lightning Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Synergy Skills: Lightning(20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy lightning resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: Tal's Set , Visceratuant (upgraded), Griffon's Eye, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Meteor / Frozen Orb[/highlight]
Core Skills:Meteor (20), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Fire Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Synergy Skills: Fireball (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy fire resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: Tal's Set , Visceratuant (upgraded), Nightwing's Veil, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85, Act Bosses
[highlight]6. The Assassin[/highlight]
[highlight]Ye olde Trapsin[/highlight]
Core Skills: Lightning Sentry (20), Death Sentry (20), Fireblast (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), [Fade (1)],
Synergy Skills: Shocking Web (20)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: +skills
Notable Items: blue +3 Lightning Sentry +3 Trap Skills Claw.
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Tiger Strike / Death Sentry[/highlight]
Core Skills: Tiger Strike (20), Death Sentry (20), Regular Attack (to release the charges)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Burst of Speed (1), [Fade (1)], Cobra Strike (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Weapon Damage (use 2h weapon)
Notable Items: Ribcracker, etc
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Whirlwind[/highlight]
Core Skills: CM (20), Death Sentry (20), Venom (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1),Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), Fade (1), Lightning Sentry (20) (PIs)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: Damage, Leech, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds
Notable Items: Chaos Suwayyah (Duh), Shadow Killer, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Demon Limb (Enchant), Fortitude
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]Dragon Claw[/highlight]
Core Skills: Dragon Claw (20), Death Sentry (20), Venom (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), Fade (1)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: Damage, Leech, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds
Notable Items: Shadow Killer, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Demon Limb (Enchant), Fortitude
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85
[highlight]7. The Barbarian[/highlight]
[highlight]Daggerwhirler[/highlight]
Core Skills: Whirlwind (20),
Utility Skills: Battle Orders (20), Shout (20), Natural Resistances (1), Berserk (1+) (for PIs, obviously), Find Item (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Damage, Leech, Defence (body armour, mainly)
Notable Items: Fleshripper x2 (Shael), Fortitude, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Heart Carver x2 (find item switch)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: disproving that you need range 5 weapons to be AWESOME with whirlwind, alvl85 runs, low player settings boss runs
[highlight]Frenzy [/highlight]
Core Skills: Frenzy (20),
Utility Skills: Battle Orders (20), Shout (20), Natural Resistances (1), Berserk (1+) (for PIs, obviously), Sword Mastery (20), Howl (1+) (possibly needs 10+ points to reliably work in hell when you first enter it, can be reskilled and reduced later on), Find Item (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Damage, Leech, Defence (body armour, mainly)
Notable Items: Vile Husk (upp'd) x2, Fortitude, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Laying of Hands, Heart Carver x2 (find item switch)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85, possibly council, massive bonus damage vs demons and undead (i.e. pretty much everything)
[highlight]8. The Paladin[/highlight]
There is no Paladin build I enjoyed enough to list it here. The fact that I cannot use attackskills on the RMB breaks this class for me as much as the lack of inherent CC does. More power to you if you love the paladin. I love them in pretty much any game except for D2. I know they can be quite powerful and useful, I just don't enjoy them very much.
[highlight]9. Conclusion[/highlight]
Well, that's a wrap for now. I hope this thing proves useful to some of you. If nothing else, it gave me a good idea on which builds I want to take through the game again now that my D2 break is over.
If you didn't like this, be sure to send NacRuno a PM about how this was a horrible, horrible idea. :badteeth: It's all his fault.
If you did like it, be sure to leave a comment and thank me in great detail. It was all my idea with no outside input whatsoever.
[highlight]10. Links[/highlight]
If you're interested in some more in-depth stuff, all my guardian threads have been collected by Thyiad and can be found here: http://www.chrisclarke.co.uk/nightfish.html. This has a lot of additional info and in many cases offers insight into why I did what I did. Downside is that often I used screenshots to show skill trees and the LCS which is one of the main reasons I wrote this summary thing in the first place.
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), Thyiad has already collected a lot of the stuff I wrote over the years. Not just the guardians, but also some other random things: 
But compared to anything else, this is less fun for me. And since fun was kinda the focus here, that's what I'm rolling with. If I went for biggest damage output, most useful to a party that already has CC or fastest Baal kills, paladins might be contenders. But that's not what I'm about here. 
