1pt smiter gear question

[joms]

1pt smiter gear question

Hi. I'm relatively new to diablo 2 (I've just been playing my Sorc to lv82 the last 2 weeks) and after reading some forums, i decided to make a 1pt smiter paladin for uber tristram . Can you please comment on the gear that i plan to acquire if it is the BEST for my purpose. I understand that there is no best and that a lot boils down to personal preferences but just try to close your eyes for a minute and pretend there is a best setup, what do you think is your personal best for uber tristram. I am doing this so that I can plan ahead on how much points I would put in STR/DEX. Thanks.

Weapon = Grief Phase Blade
Helm = Guillaume's Face
Boots = Gore Rider
Gloves = Draculus Grasp
Armor = Fortitude (or is COH better?)
Shield = Eth Vortex Exile
Amulet = Metalgrid
Belt = Verdungos
Ring = BK rings x 2

If you are going to suggest an alternative to my choice/s, kindly indicate your reason so that I would understand the logic behind it.

Again, I understand that THERE IS NO BEST and people have their personal preferences but bear with me on this one.

Thanks in advance for the help. :nod:

 

[jackthelad]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

One ring has to be a raven for the CBF (cannot be frozen).
Belt- I use IK for the strength & light/fire resist, but Tgods is popular too for the +max light resist n light absorb.
Armour- I use forti for the +dmg & +max light resist

Looking at your setup, your resists are going to be quite low for UT: I use an ort in the gulli, a +107@ sanc shield, a maras 27@, Ik belt, carrion ring (with the raven) & a 27@ forti. Combined with some charms, that gives me 80 max resist after mephs convi, althought my fire/cold are low (cold is about -27) but the light is the important one.

Conclusion: one ring must be a raven for the CBF, apart from that you should have a decent chance anyway, but your resists may be a bit low. Give it a go & see how you do!

 

[KillaMike]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

or you could get kira with LW but then your ias would be lowish, and you d get btw 75-85 cb per hit and tons of life tap with fade as proc.

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Thanks for the reply.

Whats a kira with LW? sorry for being a newb.

Also, what do you think would be the best thing for me to change to meet the resist cap in UT? I'll be changing one ring to a raven for CBF(cannot be frozen). What else should i change? Hmmmmmm....

 

[cralz]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Whats a kira with LW?

kira = Kira's Guardian (unique tiara), notable for CBF and +50-70 all res.
LW = Last Wish runeword. Lots of great mods, but also very expensive at 6 high runes.

Also, what do you think would be the best thing for me to change to meet the resist cap in UT? I'll be changing one ring to a raven for CBF(cannot be frozen). What else should i change? Hmmmmmm....

You could probably do without the Exile, since you'll be using Dracul's Grasp for Life Tap. I would recommend Sanctuary made in decent base res Paladin shield, you can easily get 90+ all res. You can also just turn on your Salvation aura against Mephisto to top out your resistances.

As others said, a Thundergod's belt really helps against Mephisto's lightning, also Highlord's Wrath amulet gives a decent boost to lightning resistance (also adding some Deadly Strike and +1 skill).

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Thanks. That's a lot of good suggestions. I'll look into it but i kinda like exile. If i keep exile, what are my other options? If i keep exile and get t-gods, would that be enough resist?

 

[cralz]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Thundergod's does not give any resists, it's good for the +10% max lightning resist and +20 lightning absorb. Exile has no resists, so with your current set up you're looking at this:
25-35 from Metalgrid
25-45 from Paladin shield (a reasonable range)
25-30 from Fortitude

That's only 75-110 all res, not counting any charms. Assuming -70 Hell penalty (after Anya quests, but not including the bug), this leaves you with 5-40 resists. After another -125 from Mephisto's Conviction, you can see that you'll need Salvation active to just break even in the best case.

Swapping Fortitude for Chains of Honour will get you another 35-40 all res, but that still leaves your resists only in the low to mid range. You'd still need a few resist charms to max out.

If you're hell-bent on keeping the Exile, you could get a rare ring with good resists. You could also get Kira's Guardian, but then you're out 35% CB from Guillaume's Face, and CB is crucial for killing the Ubers.

Really, the Exile doesn't do much for you. You already have Life Tap, as previously stated, and the Defiance aura it gives isn't a big deal in PvM. Even a Herald of Zakarum would be a better choice, since it has +50 all res and can be socketed with an Um rune or a perfect diamond. Choosing Exile over others stretches you thin on your resists while not really adding anything good.

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

I see, I understand now. Thanks. So the best thing for me to do is swap exile for Sanctuary Troll nest right? Would that be enough to cover my resist or should i swap more?

By the way, how much +resist should i get from items to be able to max the resist in UT? (After mephisto's conviction)

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Hmmm. What if I get 3x Grand Charms that have 15% All resist each? (Total 45% All resist)

 

[cralz]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

I see, I understand now. Thanks. So the best thing for me to do is swap exile for Sanctuary Troll nest right? Would that be enough to cover my resist or should i swap more?

By the way, how much +resist should i get from items to be able to max the resist in UT? (After mephisto's conviction)

Not a Troll Nest, an elite Paladin shield with good base resistance. That will get you a ton of resistance. Heck, it doesn't even have to be elite - just have good resists.

Hmmm. What if I get 3x Grand Charms that have 15% All resist each? (Total 45% All resist)

All you have to keep in mind is the -70 Hell penalty (after Anya quests) and -125 Conviction penalty. If you can keep you lightning resist maxed out after all that, you're good to go. All res GC's and 40% single res ones are all good to have, just as long as you can keep lightning maxed.

Also be aware of the bug with the 30% resistance boost from all three Anya quests. If you die in Hell, you will lose the bonus, but it won't show up on your character screen. You can fix it by exiting and re-joining the game, and you'll have the bonus again. Just make sure your game has been open for more than five minutes before you do that, or else you'll be out an organ set.

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Thanks again and sorry for being such a noob.

Let me get this straight,

Hell penalty = -70
Conviction = -125
To max resistance = -75
Total = -270

That means i need 270 resistance on my gear to max out my resistance in Uber Tris. Did I get it right?

 

[Ragnarod]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Yes, you got that right. Focus on lightning resistance, since you'll only need that much when facing Meph's Conviction, and as Jackthelad said his most dangerous attack deals lightning damage. Having the others maxed after Conviction would be better just in case, of course, but it's not necessary. If you're lacking resistances you can prebuff with a Treachery armor, Fade will help some with that (and the extra DR doesn't hurt either). Other options besides the ones you've already suggested would be socketing your Guillaume's with an Um/Ort, loading up on resistance charms (they don't need to have extra mods) or getting an Annihilus.

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Hmmm very interesting.

What if I pre-buff with Treachery everytime I go up against Mephisto (60% all resist) plus I will get 3x Grand charms that will have 15% all resist each (total 45% resist).

That will give me 105% resist. Less the Total of 270 resist that I need, that gives me only165% resist that I should acquire from my items. In this case, what would you recommend that I change with my original item list given that I will only need to get 165% resist?

Do you still think I need to change my shield to Sanctuary? or HOZ perhaps?

 

[KillaMike]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

stop thinking that exile is best item for smiter din, all it gives is about extra 1-2 hits faster Uber kill. NOT WORTH IT. better to go with something cheaper, like upped zaka that gives more res. exile in perfect vortex = 45 @, and HoZ with p dia = 68 @, thats extra ( 50 from zaka and 18 from pdia ) thats 23 more res.

kira = 70 res perfict, get um or 15@res jool with mods = 85 res
and swap grief for LW for massive crushing blow.
also, keep in mind that having SC with res / life is a GOOD idea.

my current HC hammer din got 74 light res after conviction and fade, with 20 ias from highlords and conc as aura. did i said that i am using engma in ut with 0 res?

total time to kill ubers with my hammer = ~ 2-4 mins.

not to mension you ll use fana instead of conc, so you nn any ias ( it would be 2nd BP for you, but think how much safer your runner is )

so, my advice:

swap exile for LW
get zaka
kira ( soket with res jool / ort / um is NICE )
belt... personally i prefer t-gods, so i dont take any damage from mephie, but your choice.
and get rid of ugly bk rings on smiter, get res rings, way better and cheaper.

 

[Ragnarod]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Depends on the resistances on your Exile, if it's around 40 you'll be fine. If it's lower I'd consider changing to an HoZ though, it'll be easier to reach max resistances. Metalgrid and Fortitude should get you about 30 all res each, so I think I'd just socket the Guillaume's with an Ort and get a few small 10-11% lightning resistance charms.

If you haven't gotten the Exile yet I'd suggest getting an HoZ instead to be honest, Draculs are enough for getting Life Tap and you'll probably have some extra vitality with HoZ over Exile and higher skill levels and resistances, but if you already have it you can do just fine with it.

 

[Scudstorm]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

The whole point of 1-point Smiter is to use Grief so that you don't have to max Smite. If you switch to LW, you're no more a 1-point Smiter. You'd be a Zealot using a crappy Smite.

G-Face + Gores give more than enough CB. There's no point giving up Grief's damage for a shiny useless LW.

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

The reason why I kept on banking on exile is that my cousin already has it so I can get it from him for free hehehe. My friend, though, has an extra HOZ but it is etheral and it says that "it cannot be repaired". If I get that HOZ, do you think it is justified to spend a socket from lazaruk on it so that I can socket a Zod to make it invincible? Lazaruk can only socket my item 3x so I want to make sure it is worth it.....

 

[cralz]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

The reason why I kept on banking on exile is that my cousin already has it so I can get it from him for free hehehe. My friend, though, has an extra HOZ but it is etheral and it says that "it cannot be repaired". If I get that HOZ, do you think it is justified to spend a socket from lazaruk on it so that I can socket a Zod to make it invincible? Lazaruk can only socket my item 3x so I want to make sure it is worth it.....

If you have the Zod laying around, or can get it easily, then take the free ethereal HoZ. If not, try to get a regular HoZ, so you don't risk ruining the ethereal one. Plus, a non-ethereal one can have more resistances added to it.

 

[joms]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Ive read the forums again and some say that Dracs can't handle the life tap alone and you still need the Exile shield to increase the life tap %. If not for the life tap, I'd set my heart 100% in getting the HOZ (as i can get the HOZ or the Exile from someone)

(Note: I don't have any life tap wand yet)

Comments anyone?

 

[Scudstorm]

Re: 1pt smiter gear question

Something a lot of people don't do is to Zeal before Tap goes off.

To Zeal means faster attacks, and life leech. Its downside is it's not auto-hitting, so against a 50%block super-high lvl Uber it won't work so well. However, if the said Uber summoned some minions to surround you, you can happily Zeal those and get Tap on everything.

It doesn't work so well with Meph (which people conventionally pull out first) since his summons are undead and unleechable. If you can lure another Uber apart instead and work on him (which you should be able to), that'd work fine.

Personally, I've never had to down more than 1 juv before Tap goes off from Dracs alone. Sometimes I just wear Marrows instead of Gores and use its Tap charges. Exile is way too defensive a shield and besides the Tap offers nothing over HoZ for Ubering.