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Vessel of Hatred

Anything Goes D2 Lounge!

Guess all that rune luck dried up - past ~1200 runs have coughed up a Mal and an Ist (no Ums or Puls, even).

The merc's taking a bit more damage than I'd like. Current gear is Infinity/Fort/Steel Shade unsocketed; would a Mal be useful there, or is hydra damage before resists too much for it to matter?
 
@necrolemming I don't think Mal will do the merc any good. IIRC, the hydra damage is calculated differently towards char and minions, so the mdr is pretty useless for merc. Maybe someone who remembers the exact calculations can pitch in?

I'd just put Ral in the Steel Shade. Simple stacking of fire resists really helps a lot. If after that you're still having trouble, try Guardian Angel for an armor, also Ral'd.

I think I used Forti or CoH with Ral'd Steel Shade with my Sorc's merc during RFL, and don't remember having much problems. With my barb, I use Kira's Guardian (70@, /w 30fr/15ias jool) and eth GA (Ral), and the merc has no trouble whatsoever, unless the council has some absolutely terrible combination of auras.

Also, don't know what level you char is, but sometimes getting a level or two can do wonders for merc survival.
 
Hydra damage suffers pvp penalty, which is 1/6 IIRC, so what damages the char for 30 damage will damage your minions for 180 damage, given the same resist and no mdr/absorb.
 
Im thinking about making a Icemaiden as i have little experience with zons and wouldn't mind trying one. Found this guide and think i will give it a shot as it will be untwinked and self found. Anyone made one recently? Curious to try something different.
 
Dudzy said:
Im thinking about making a Icemaiden as i have little experience with zons and wouldn't mind trying one. Found this guide and think i will give it a shot as it will be untwinked and self found. Anyone made one recently? Curious to try something different.
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I did a hybrid a while back with freezing arrow and lightning fury that did really well. It could have easily completed hell with entirely store bought blue items. Strafe will be a little tougher since damage is heavily gear dependent. You will want a pair of Cleglaw's gloves ASAP, should be super easy to Farm and will make your life instantly better.
 
The merc's 90.

I tried Steel Shade + FR jewel with a Guardian Angel, and while it made the merc untouchable, it also felt like the lack of Fortitude was making runs perceptibly slower. There wasn't much of a difference when I tried timing a few runs, but it felt different enough that I didn't like using it. Having a 11 fire absorb Steel Shade would probably be nice (the one the merc has on is ethereal but only 9 absorb).



I finally got another Sur just now, bringing the count up to 4. It feels like a waste to cube them up to a Jah, but I'm sure I'll find enough of them by the time I run out of runewords to make with Jahs, right?
 
A merc will either wreck your nerves by needing a tactical teleportation rather often in order to save his life or he will waste your time by getting him resurrected. I suggest to go to there with a character who doesn't need one. I'm using a conc barb, for example. He doesn't even have Enigma. Trav will be quicker with that armor, but it probably takes a lot of time to find enough items during the saved time to compensate the expenses... and with respect to resources that help at gathering wealth, you have to take something like interests on a loan into account as well. Also, a barb can jump onto the balcony which is almost as good.
 
Dudzy said:
Im thinking about making a Icemaiden as i have little experience with zons and wouldn't mind trying one. Found this guide and think i will give it a shot as it will be untwinked and self found. Anyone made one recently? Curious to try something different.
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Two thoughts:
  1. Nightfish's mini-guide, 'zons are at #3.
  2. Here's my recent attempt, heavily twinked though.
Untwinked I would think of yourself as a caster who needs +skills, mana leech, and IAS. So Matriarchal bow (with as many +bow skills as you can find) with a decent runeword in it (cheap options include: Passion; Edge; and Harmony) or any of the unique bows - Nightfish mentions Wizendraw - I'd look for Magewrath, and shael + up anything you find that you figure is/will be your end-game weapon. I made a Silence recently and am pleased with it for my purposes, it has 11% mana leech, +2 skills, 75% res all and blind/scare target, but requires Vex + Ist. Shop your +3 bowa/IAS gloves. Razortail is not that rare. Insight on merc, which takes away your mana problems.
 
Crazy Runner Guy said:
Two thoughts:
  1. Nightfish's mini-guide, 'zons are at #3.
  2. Here's my recent attempt, heavily twinked though.
Untwinked I would think of yourself as a caster who needs +skills, mana leech, and IAS. So Matriarchal bow (with as many +bow skills as you can find) with a decent runeword in it (cheap options include: Passion; Edge; and Harmony) or any of the unique bows - Nightfish mentions Wizendraw - I'd look for Magewrath, and shael + up anything you find that you figure is/will be your end-game weapon. I made a Silence recently and am pleased with it for my purposes, it has 11% mana leech, +2 skills, 75% res all and blind/scare target, but requires Vex + Ist. Shop your +3 bowa/IAS gloves. Razortail is not that rare. Insight on merc, which takes away your mana problems.
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Thanks, thats helpful, i was kinda following that guide so im at like level 26 right now using strafe and cold arrow, trying to get to 30 for FA and Valk. Is it going to be a lot harder going with strafe over fire arrow? Kinda like the idea of physical and ice. Also, should i invest in Valkyrie? Its been ages since i'v played and was kinda blindly following the guide but im not super familiar with zons anyways. Enjoying my time so far, been a bit slow going here and there but no major hang-ups. Entering act 4 normal now.
 
Hello all, long time lurker. I wanted to ask what you guys do about obtaining more socket quests.

I started a new account some months ago, it's going well with a handful of characters above level 90 but i'm way behind on socket quests. Obviously I could make a throwaway character and play through normal fast but that doesn't seem too fun. Any new "proper" character is probably going to want the socket quests for their own gear.

How do you guys manage?
 
Ragnarod had a guide years back, but it's for 1.09 classic so you'll have to read the rest of the thread.

I can clean up the notes I took for how to do it in 1.07, but I imagine someone's already done it around here.
 
Pre-1.10 advantages to rushing as far as I know:
- You can have permanent act 2 gaters for each difficulty. It's a little bit more annoying on LAN than on Bnet, because as opposed to Bnet you cannot leave the game with the character that created the game, but it should still work (haven't done it since 1.09 Bnet times...). Those have Tal Rasha's chamber already opened, but an unfinished Duriel quest. Open the game with the gater, kill Duriel with the rusher without partying the gater. Leave with the rusher, so you have all 7 rushees in the game, party them up and then talk to Tyrael to finish the quest.

- No need to do Travincal to be able to enter a TP in the Durance of Hate and do Meph (quest 5 will be unfinished, but it doesn't matter)

- much smaller Durance of Hate level 2 map in NM/Hell (level 1 as well I suppose, not that it matters though...)

- I haven't actually tried it in 1.07 yet since I wanted the levels on my characters anyway, but IIRC up until 1.09 you can totally skip the Ancients and just enter a TP in the WSK/Throne/Chamber. Also XP from Ancients isn't limited to 1 level-up, you get the full XP (1.4 million Normal/20 million NM/40 million Hell).

- or you can just do it in classic and avoid having to do Baal.
 
1.00 advantages:
- Can portal anywhere, even if not partied
- Can use Durimules, same as any pre-1.10 patch
- Sick possibilities with the Blade of the Old Religion quest (high dual leech rings lvl 4 to use)
- Only need to kill meph, and get that portal going. No need for rushees to be close
- No act 5 until you actually need the socket quest; can do barbs quest in 1.07 to gain important Ort runes
- Hellforge can be done in 1.10 beta
- Gemmed gear and unique gear has no lvl req, so you can buff up a lvl 1 mule quite a bit to withstand damage from Diablo when doing that quest.

1.00 disadvantages
- The patch is full of bugs, which needs getting used to
- Your optimal rushing character is a lot weaker than an optimal 1.07 or later rushing character
- Getting through 1.00 with that first character is a pain
 
1have2much3time said:
I started a new account some months ago, it's going well with a handful of characters above level 90 but i'm way behind on socket quests. Obviously I could make a throwaway character and play through normal fast but that doesn't seem too fun. Any new "proper" character is probably going to want the socket quests for their own gear.

How do you guys manage?
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We make a lot of pat/mats. Eventually you get through enough times that much of the gear is same/similar enough that all three of a new character's socket quests are not needed for that character. Casters may use the same Harlequin Crest, mercs might use the same socketed D-Shell or Reaper's Toll. For same reason, socket quests may not be needed b/c gear is primarily runewords. Only when a new character has a new need for something that a socket quest should be used.
 
Dudzy said:
Is it going to be a lot harder going with strafe over fire arrow?

Also, should i invest in Valkyrie?
Click to expand...
Fire/Exploding arrows are great until you get to hell. Skip Immolation arrow - it's terrible. If it didn't have the cooldown timer, it'd be much, much better. In hell, so many thing are fire immune that you'll get frustrated. Strafe is different in that it requires a solid bow. Fire arrow is much more flexible.

I prefer a Valk on all of my Bowazons because I am generally not hurting for skill points and I am in the camp that prefers the dodge/evade/avoid skills over not having them. You're fragile when something is close and another tank is nice. Try to cast at level 17 or if you have the +skills for it, 27. Focus on Valk after you've gotten your killing skills (Strafe, e.g.) and Penetrate/Crit/Pierce to their appropriate levels. One point in the D/A/E skills is enough to start.
 
A few more advantages, before the 1.10 era in general:
- The game is easier, it received a huge buff with 1.10
- 1.10 introduced as many bugs as it fixed, (mana burn, temple vipers)
** Many animations and monster sounds work fine in 1.09 but were broke in 1.10
- No synergies makes builds more diverse
- OP runewords don't beat everything
- Developed by the original team who made the Diablo series.
**1.10 was made by one person after the original team left blizzard. Explains a lot...

More 1.00 pluses:
- Easier to PK people the bad way (hyrda/TP, anyone can TP without party)

Cons:
- No mana pots makes casters much more difficult to play. Especially in classic without the LOD gear.
- Some skills suck without the added synergies.
 
Thanks for replies re sockets. I'm not too keen on switching versions so I guess the next character will wear a lot of runewords! Hammerdin maybe.
 
Crazy Runner Guy said:
Fire/Exploding arrows are great until you get to hell. Skip Immolation arrow - it's terrible. If it didn't have the cooldown timer, it'd be much, much better. In hell, so many thing are fire immune that you'll get frustrated. Strafe is different in that it requires a solid bow. Fire arrow is much more flexible.

I prefer a Valk on all of my Bowazons because I am generally not hurting for skill points and I am in the camp that prefers the dodge/evade/avoid skills over not having them. You're fragile when something is close and another tank is nice. Try to cast at level 17 or if you have the +skills for it, 27. Focus on Valk after you've gotten your killing skills (Strafe, e.g.) and Penetrate/Crit/Pierce to their appropriate levels. One point in the D/A/E skills is enough to start.
Click to expand...

I might be the only one that doesn't like Valk. Oh she's a great tank, don't get me wrong. I just don't like Avoid or Evade. I do generally put 1 point in Dodge, that skill seems to work properly without stunlocking you.
 
Haven't played a bowzon in a long time, but I mostly used Decoy over Valk. Untwinked might need it though (cannot remember my last untwinked amazon)
 
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