Bert and Ernie, the dual dueling Pats
Here's a dual pat thread of two semi-clone PvPer's Liq and I have been working on for a while.
Here's liq's write up:
My main focus in Diablo these days is creating optimized hybrids (usually for the purposes of dueling). CRG and I were talking over MSN about character variants not often played and what we could do to blend two characters together. We lept around different character classes before finally settling on a Whirlwind/Thrower hybrid. The skill points looked pretty straightforward. We would create the characters and each try and max the following: Battle Orders, Weapon Mastery, Throwing Mastery, Whirlwind, and Double Swing (this is a %dmg synergy to Double Throw)
We named our guys "Bert" and "Ernie" after the Sesame Street duo. They are not clones, but definately brothers in arms. The gear we each used differed greatly. This is mostly in part to us just having seperate stashes and different items to call on. The other main reason had to do with how we wanted the characters in general. CRG focused on +life/defensive items while I concentrated on +dmg/offensive items. We each had to weigh what we wanted in our characters and optimize accordingly. We each had wild and somewhat unconventional choices.
My gear:
Grief Phase Blade and Azurewrath s/Um- I borrowed my druid's Grief and my retired wolfbarb's Azure. I thought it was a nice combo and it looks quite sexy. I also use a -req Stormshield for opponents I need block against. (I do realize that an Oath might be better because of the dmg boost from Fort, but I wanted to stick with phase blades to keep the strength low)
Dual Ethereal Lacerators- Part of the reason for building this character was because I had 2 of these ethereal badboys. OW, nice dmg, replenish, and most importantly: Amp dmg.
Fortitude Archon- I wanted exceptional dmg and saw nothing better than this armor. 300% ED, enough said.
Nosferatu's Coil- I knew I wanted 10% slow target (not to mention that sweet IAS bonus) so I built this belt into the character from the get-go.
Dual Ravenfrosts- +36 dex, 441 AR, 40% Cold Absorb and the all important CBF. (I used just 1 raven and a dual leech ring during leveling)
Highlords- Scaling Deadly Strike, +1 skills, and lightning resists. I really wanted to use this ammy rather than a partial angelics combo for the AR.
Gore Riders- Great boots. Every duelers favorite. I was originally going to use Hsaurus boots/belt combo for the sweet AR bonus but couldn't forsake my Nos Coil.
How then did I boost the AR if I skimped on the Hsaurus and Angelics combo? (In PvP, a mandatory 12K++ AR is needed) This was the main problem with my gear that I had to overcome. Here was my answer...
Sigon's Helm and Sigon's Gloves- It is little known that together these items have a scaling AR set bonus. It's not the 12 per lvl of angelics or the 10 per lvl of Hsaurus, but its a comfortable 8 per lvl. They also offered +10 str, 10% life leech (great for PvM), and 30% IAS. I socketed the helm with a (poison resist) 15% IAS jewel as well. With 75% total IAS, this character threw his axes at the fastest breakpoint, something I had wanted to achieve.
CRG's gear was equally odd. He built his character with knockback as a number one priority. (Something I did not.) He swore by it in the leveling process and got it via a Giant Skull. I was skeptical on how it would work with whirlwind in duels but would have liked it if my gear could have managed it. For pure PvM, I'd think Cleglaws Pinchers would be a real nice glove choice. CRG also used a .07 Valor, dual Death Cleavers, and some other stuff I did not. We both agreed on the Lacerators though. Although the range is poor, the Amp dmg is too good to pass up in duels.
At level 87, these are my skills.
Whirlwind- 17
Battle Orders- 20
Sword Mastery- 20
Throwing Mastery- 14
Double Swing- 14
His stat points are standard, enough str to hold items, enough dexterity for max block with SS, and all the rest in vita. His important stats are as follows:
Life: 3363 (pretty low for a barb, but I didn't invest in super godly charms for him and he doesn't have +6 to warcries with Echoing switch like most)
Defense: 5517
Defense with stormshield and Chilling Armor from fort: 9128
WW Attack Rating (Enchant): 10199 (15662)
Throw Attack Rating (Enchant): 7333 (12698)
WW damage: Hard to say with Grief, but seems good
Double Throw damage: 1K-7K, 1K-6.5K[/list:fd5b00c894]
His resists left something to be desired, but most of SP PvP is melee oriented and I didn't notice much of a problem in PvM. I might regear for elemental chars (throw on a pdiamond mosers or something like that)
CRG'S WRITE UP HERE
So liq and I like hybrids. A lot. We haven't seen a barbarian hybrid in a long time (I know Zhao has one, and Strijdje had a thrower a long time ago). Thus I bring you, Bert and Ernie, the twin Pvper's.
Both are WW barbs designed with lacerators on switch. Because both chars lack enigma, we're using them to combat ranged characters. Also, a quick throw at a charging character could trigger amp, and thus WW gets so much sweeter.
Bert's stats
Stats: (with gear)
141 STR
193 DEX
541 VITA
5019 life (4001 w/o Valor)
588 Mana
7348 defense w/o shield
(not sure on def /w shield, but 75% blocking)
(Above numbers are w/o echoing weapons used)
274% DC 'um'
280% DC /w ed jewel
183 Lacerator
(151 lacerator to accompany once I go RWM/RRM)
07 Arkaine's Valor (+2.5 vita/clvl, +2 life/clvl, isn't BO-able)
+33 str 2 soc G-Skull (/w 2x IAS jewels)
+15 str drac's
39/15 Dungo's
20/183 raven
20/244 raven
Cat's Eye
Gore Rider
-req SS in stash
11698 AR for WW
~570-1780 WW damage
(XXX) AR for DT (shoot! didn't write down!)
~280-2050 DT damage (/w 183 lacerator)
Above numbers are with enchant.
Charms:
4x iron/steel of vita
7x sc of vita
7x mana/life sc
2x iron sc of balance
4x Sharp GC of sustenance
3/11/13
3/15/10
3/15/20
3/20/2 str
DS/OW/CB
WW:
~85% double damage (counting crit strike)
60% OW (25% from off-hand axe)
25% CB
Throwing:
68% OW
~32% DS
25% CB
20 WW
20 Axe
20 Throwing
BO
1 BC
2 Inc. Speed (25%, iirc)
2 NR (40%)
The build is premised on using lacerators to trigger amp when an enemy approaches, then use WW (offensively/defensively, etc) once amp triggers and enemy is close. I can also WW /w lacerators, but the amp will not trigger then. Res is the only immediate weakpoint, with 20/-20/-10/-30 going for me. However, with SP PvP so melee-oriented, I thought I could get away with it.
Giant Skull is key to this build. It will knock around anyone who gets near me, and helps disorient smiters. It may knock people out of WW range, however, it also stuns them slightly, letting me get back into killing. This works on both axes and both lacerators.
I played throwers in v1.09 to much sucess, especially the LLD ones (1k life, 500 PvP damage b/c of bug, all at slvl 21). I hope this char is gets the same success.
crg
I'll add more later, but I've got to go to class.
Here's a dual pat thread of two semi-clone PvPer's Liq and I have been working on for a while.
Here's liq's write up:
My main focus in Diablo these days is creating optimized hybrids (usually for the purposes of dueling). CRG and I were talking over MSN about character variants not often played and what we could do to blend two characters together. We lept around different character classes before finally settling on a Whirlwind/Thrower hybrid. The skill points looked pretty straightforward. We would create the characters and each try and max the following: Battle Orders, Weapon Mastery, Throwing Mastery, Whirlwind, and Double Swing (this is a %dmg synergy to Double Throw)
We named our guys "Bert" and "Ernie" after the Sesame Street duo. They are not clones, but definately brothers in arms. The gear we each used differed greatly. This is mostly in part to us just having seperate stashes and different items to call on. The other main reason had to do with how we wanted the characters in general. CRG focused on +life/defensive items while I concentrated on +dmg/offensive items. We each had to weigh what we wanted in our characters and optimize accordingly. We each had wild and somewhat unconventional choices.
My gear:
Grief Phase Blade and Azurewrath s/Um- I borrowed my druid's Grief and my retired wolfbarb's Azure. I thought it was a nice combo and it looks quite sexy. I also use a -req Stormshield for opponents I need block against. (I do realize that an Oath might be better because of the dmg boost from Fort, but I wanted to stick with phase blades to keep the strength low)
Dual Ethereal Lacerators- Part of the reason for building this character was because I had 2 of these ethereal badboys. OW, nice dmg, replenish, and most importantly: Amp dmg.
Fortitude Archon- I wanted exceptional dmg and saw nothing better than this armor. 300% ED, enough said.
Nosferatu's Coil- I knew I wanted 10% slow target (not to mention that sweet IAS bonus) so I built this belt into the character from the get-go.
Dual Ravenfrosts- +36 dex, 441 AR, 40% Cold Absorb and the all important CBF. (I used just 1 raven and a dual leech ring during leveling)
Highlords- Scaling Deadly Strike, +1 skills, and lightning resists. I really wanted to use this ammy rather than a partial angelics combo for the AR.
Gore Riders- Great boots. Every duelers favorite. I was originally going to use Hsaurus boots/belt combo for the sweet AR bonus but couldn't forsake my Nos Coil.
How then did I boost the AR if I skimped on the Hsaurus and Angelics combo? (In PvP, a mandatory 12K++ AR is needed) This was the main problem with my gear that I had to overcome. Here was my answer...
Sigon's Helm and Sigon's Gloves- It is little known that together these items have a scaling AR set bonus. It's not the 12 per lvl of angelics or the 10 per lvl of Hsaurus, but its a comfortable 8 per lvl. They also offered +10 str, 10% life leech (great for PvM), and 30% IAS. I socketed the helm with a (poison resist) 15% IAS jewel as well. With 75% total IAS, this character threw his axes at the fastest breakpoint, something I had wanted to achieve.
CRG's gear was equally odd. He built his character with knockback as a number one priority. (Something I did not.) He swore by it in the leveling process and got it via a Giant Skull. I was skeptical on how it would work with whirlwind in duels but would have liked it if my gear could have managed it. For pure PvM, I'd think Cleglaws Pinchers would be a real nice glove choice. CRG also used a .07 Valor, dual Death Cleavers, and some other stuff I did not. We both agreed on the Lacerators though. Although the range is poor, the Amp dmg is too good to pass up in duels.
At level 87, these are my skills.
Whirlwind- 17
Battle Orders- 20
Sword Mastery- 20
Throwing Mastery- 14
Double Swing- 14
His stat points are standard, enough str to hold items, enough dexterity for max block with SS, and all the rest in vita. His important stats are as follows:
Life: 3363 (pretty low for a barb, but I didn't invest in super godly charms for him and he doesn't have +6 to warcries with Echoing switch like most)
Defense: 5517
Defense with stormshield and Chilling Armor from fort: 9128
WW Attack Rating (Enchant): 10199 (15662)
Throw Attack Rating (Enchant): 7333 (12698)
WW damage: Hard to say with Grief, but seems good
Double Throw damage: 1K-7K, 1K-6.5K[/list:fd5b00c894]
His resists left something to be desired, but most of SP PvP is melee oriented and I didn't notice much of a problem in PvM. I might regear for elemental chars (throw on a pdiamond mosers or something like that)
CRG'S WRITE UP HERE
So liq and I like hybrids. A lot. We haven't seen a barbarian hybrid in a long time (I know Zhao has one, and Strijdje had a thrower a long time ago). Thus I bring you, Bert and Ernie, the twin Pvper's.
Both are WW barbs designed with lacerators on switch. Because both chars lack enigma, we're using them to combat ranged characters. Also, a quick throw at a charging character could trigger amp, and thus WW gets so much sweeter.
Bert's stats
Stats: (with gear)
141 STR
193 DEX
541 VITA
5019 life (4001 w/o Valor)
588 Mana
7348 defense w/o shield
(not sure on def /w shield, but 75% blocking)
(Above numbers are w/o echoing weapons used)
274% DC 'um'
280% DC /w ed jewel
183 Lacerator
(151 lacerator to accompany once I go RWM/RRM)
07 Arkaine's Valor (+2.5 vita/clvl, +2 life/clvl, isn't BO-able)
+33 str 2 soc G-Skull (/w 2x IAS jewels)
+15 str drac's
39/15 Dungo's
20/183 raven
20/244 raven
Cat's Eye
Gore Rider
-req SS in stash
11698 AR for WW
~570-1780 WW damage
(XXX) AR for DT (shoot! didn't write down!)
~280-2050 DT damage (/w 183 lacerator)
Above numbers are with enchant.
Charms:
4x iron/steel of vita
7x sc of vita
7x mana/life sc
2x iron sc of balance
4x Sharp GC of sustenance
3/11/13
3/15/10
3/15/20
3/20/2 str
DS/OW/CB
WW:
~85% double damage (counting crit strike)
60% OW (25% from off-hand axe)
25% CB
Throwing:
68% OW
~32% DS
25% CB
20 WW
20 Axe
20 Throwing
BO
1 BC
2 Inc. Speed (25%, iirc)
2 NR (40%)
The build is premised on using lacerators to trigger amp when an enemy approaches, then use WW (offensively/defensively, etc) once amp triggers and enemy is close. I can also WW /w lacerators, but the amp will not trigger then. Res is the only immediate weakpoint, with 20/-20/-10/-30 going for me. However, with SP PvP so melee-oriented, I thought I could get away with it.
Giant Skull is key to this build. It will knock around anyone who gets near me, and helps disorient smiters. It may knock people out of WW range, however, it also stuns them slightly, letting me get back into killing. This works on both axes and both lacerators.
I played throwers in v1.09 to much sucess, especially the LLD ones (1k life, 500 PvP damage b/c of bug, all at slvl 21). I hope this char is gets the same success.
crg
I'll add more later, but I've got to go to class.
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