Re: 1.07 News, Info and Gossip
I have a question- can Cunning (+3 traps) spawn on crafted runic talons? I thought so, in hopes of crafting one with Cunning and Quickness, good staffmods and some other nice mods to boot (and then dreaming of getting good sockets) but I've crafted a bunch (well, not that many) and so far I haven't seen any of the +3 skill tree mods, though I have seen +2 assassin skills several times. I think in 1.10+, Cunning can always spawn on runic talons of any ilvl, but it would be great to know if that is also the case in 1.07.
Check the stickies for the addendum where RTB gives the lowdown on ilvl and rlvl stuff.
Dio the Hammerdin went nuts this weekend after I spent a week in Georgia for a child custody battle. He finished A5 NM, gaining 6 (!) levels off the Ancients. Baal dropped another Rattlecage, and neither the Ancients, Ball's Minions, or Baal were able to kill the merc. Dio ran a few Cow games for fun and profit and currently sits at level 53 with L33 BH and L21 Concentration. He poked his toes in Hell and the Merc is just too low of a level to compete. So Blessed Hammer looks like it is just about as overpowered in 1.07 as in 1.10+, but Hell Baal will be the true test.
Still bored, bored, bored with the necro, so I crafted a couple 40% IAS phase blades, found a Balrog Blade rack in LK, and resisted the temptation to switch over to playing 1.12 for a little while longer after finding a 4os Great Hauberk, a Superior etheral Grim Scythe, and my first white Archon Plate. Runewords are so tempting...
EDIT: Quick update--had my first deaths with the Hammerdin and the Hunter/Hurricane druid...both in NM. Too much to drink and inattention lead to a dead paladin at the hands of a cow boss and Nilthi's CE took out the druid so I reequipped Gerke's Sanctuary over Sigon's. Gerke's is a big improvement in Hell where I will stand in the middle of mobs and tank so my minions and merc can do some killing. I gave the merc a cruel partizan and have Kelpie Snare in the stash after ditching a buzzing war scythe of frost because the elemental damage just wasn't cutting it. CIs are bountiful in A1 and those rogues are still a pain, but if I tank them my wolves can eat them up pretty well. I stopped switching between +6 summoning/+5 elemental hats/amulet set-ups and just resolved myself to the summons as I have to recast them so often. I'm using hurricane as a HF aura primarily and a boss killer. PIs in the first few acts are primarily the Itchies type which have very few hit points. I could go with a +2 druid skills pelt, but I needed every ounce of wolfmeat possible to get through A1, so there is concern about finishing the game--I was going to go Fire/Summon but was underwhelmed with Fissure and Volcano so there are a few misspent points that have me lagging in the Grizzy/HotW development.
EDIT: Fireface crused through the 1st half of A2 with this setup. One death to an LE boss that I didn't see coming. Just need to get the Horadric staff (ran ahead to get the amulet) and I'm off to the Arcane Sanctum where the PI ghosts will be a test of my set-up. I've come to appreciate Molten Boulder for the knockback to split up packs and give my merc some breathing room, and the Gerke's Sanctuary to give me some solid tanking. L60 is a little low for him, but I'm tired of Glacial Trail and WSK clears.
Playing the trapsin w/BoS and 2-h weapons (aiming for Bonesnap or a Shael'd Boneslayer Blade for endgame weapons) has been fun. So much so that I think I'm going to do a couple more 1.07 Mat/Pat projects:
-A FC/Maul Werebear with crafted and socketed 40% IAS Phase Blade and 20% IAS Feral Axe will be fun and hopefully transferrable to 1.12 so I'll synergize the Fire Claws. No minions (outside of possible HotW). I know he won't hit the last frame of attack speed with these weapons, but I'm really just using this as a comparison to max BO/Frenzy barb and want to try out these crafted weapons. I may be trying them on different characters though, as PB wants all DEX and Feral Axe has no DEX requirement...time to craft threshers or just fill the 6os Champion Axe with Shaels and run with that?
-WW/Leap Attack polearm or spear barb. Don't have a good weapon for him yet, but we'll see. I may end up doing another Axe barb because the call of the Boneslayer and crafted Feral Axes is very compelling.
-Fend/LF Spearazon. I've got a +2/+3 skills Matriarchal Pike, a +5 skills Matriarchal Javelin, and +3 skills/20% IAS gloves, so I'm ready to rumble on this one. No valk as the Valk does no damage in Hell and I don't want to wiff on Fend attacks with D/A/E.
-CL/Forb sorc. I'll skip major investments in Static or CM. The impetus for this is a Countess runner in 1.12 and that I have +6 Lightning skills in hat/amu with over +30 Dex, so I'll try max block over max vit.
Necro is too boring and a non-Hammerdin Paladin is too lame after FrenzyBarb and BoS assassin, so I'll skip those. Any thoughts on the above?
Additionally, does anyone collect/use +min damage charms? I finally found a decent on +7 min/+4 dex LC, but it really doesn't seem worth using--anybody found an uber-mindmg charm?
Also reported in the IFT: