Building a Tankazon. Input Appreciated

[Serdash]

Building a Tankazon. Input Appreciated

Soooo. I've been planning a tankazon. And I need some input since:
1) I've never made one before
2) I'm a total nub sometimes
3) It's good to hear some opinions on equipment other than what I know.
4) WTF? Dash still plays D2?

Also, this thread is going to be garbled and jumbled to crap. Why? Because I'm allowed to. That and I didn't really get any sleep. So these are the sleep deprived ramblings of a madman who is trying to get back into an old game that's just far too boring to do much in nowadays. ;P

Here are some general guidelines I want to try and follow though:
1) Character MUST use the BotD Zerker that's been in my posession for... ever. (This is absolute. No changes)
2) If possible, this character will use Fortitude since it's just an overall awesome armor. (I know there are other possibilities, but Fortitude is hawt.)

Gear Setup (Note that variable stats are based off of the best of a piece of equipment I have. Hence Fortitude having 29 res all instead of the possible 30)
BotD(+30 All Attributes, -25% Target Defense, 60% IAS, Prevent Monster Heal)
Stormshield + PDiamond(35% FBR, 35% DR, 25% Lightning Resist, 60% Cold Resist, 19% Res All, +30 Str)
Fortitude(29 Res All, 300% Off-Weapon ED, 7 DR)
Crown of Ages + ShaelUm(30% FHR, 39 Res All, 10% DR, +1 to All Skills)
Verdungo's (10% FHR, 15% DR, +37 Vit)
Sandstorm Trek(20% FHR, +13 Str, +14 Vit, +68% Poison Resist)
Dracul's Grasp(+15 Str, 25% OW)
Highlord's Wrath(20% IAS, +35% Lightning Resist, +1 To All Skills, 30% DS)
Ravenfrost(+20 Dex, CBF, 20% Cold Absorb)
Wisp Projector(+12% Lightning Absorb)
Shimmering Small Charm of Balance(+5 Res All, 5% FHR)
Shimmering Grand Charm x3 (+43 Res All)

Total Gains From Equipment:
9 Frame Attack
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 All Skills
90% Faster Hit Recovery (5 Frames)
35% Faster Block Rate (11 Frames)
60% Damage Reduction
35 Fire Resist
95 Cold Resist
95 Lightning Resist
103 Poison Resist
20% Cold Absorb
12% Lightning Absorb
+88 Str
+81 Vit
+50 Dex
+30 Energy
30% Deadly Strike
25% Open Wounds
300% Enhanced Damage (Off-Weapon)

Skill Placement:
20 Inner sight (After +2, gives a total of -935 Monster Defense, gg for keeping my hit chances up)
6 Critical Strike(After +2, gives 51% Chance of Critical Strike)
10 Dodge (After +2 gives 50% Dodge)
5 Avoid (Read above.)
10 Evade (Read Above.)
20 Valkyrie
1 Penetrate

This leaves me swinging the axe around at a good speed, hit recovery is decent, but the blocking worries me a bit. 11 Frames is pretty bad, right? The combination of Critical Strike and Highlords, of which I used level 82(Requirement for CoA) as the number for figuring the DS on the amulet. But wait, despite all of this gg-ness, level 82? What? Right. CoA has a ludicrous level requirement. I could substitute it for another item until I get to level 82, but 82 is endgame, and I'm not going to take this character out for a spin all the time like I do my Tesladin or something like that. There's also the idea of me having way too much Cold, Lightning and Poison Resistance, but horrible fire resistance. I could take the Um out of the CoA, and replace it with something like another Shael, then load up on some FHR charms for another FHR breakpoint, but I don't think that's entirely necessary. Also, this does nothing but the normal attack. No crushing blow or anything. Well... a little Open Wounds.


REVISION TWO!

Gear Setup
BotD(+30 All Attributes, -25% Target Defense, 60% IAS, Prevent Monster Heal)
Stormshield + PDiamond(35% FBR, 35% DR, 25% Lightning Resist, 60% Cold Resist, 19% Res All, +30 Str)
Fortitude(29 Res All, 300% Off-Weapon ED, 7 DR)
Guillaume's Face + 11 Res All Jewel( 11 Res All, 35% CB, 15% DS, 30% FHR, +15 Str)
Verdungo's (10% FHR, 15% DR, +37 Vit)
Gore Rider (10% Open Wounds, 15% CB, 15% Deadly Strike)
Dracul's Grasp(+15 Str)
Highlord's Wrath(20% IAS, +35% Lightning Resist, +1 To All Skills, 27% DS)
Ravenfrost(+20 Dex, CBF, 20% Cold Absorb)
Wisp Projector(+12% Lightning Absorb)
Shimmering Small Charm of Balance(+5 Res All, 5% FHR)
Shimmering Grand Charm x3 (+43 Res All)

Total Gains from Equipment
9 Frame Attack
Prevent Monster Heal
+1 To All Skills
45% FHR (7 Frames)
35% Faster Block Rate(11 Frames)
50% Damage Reduction
7% Fire Resist
67% Lightning Resist
67% Cold Resist
7% Poison Resist
20% Cold Absorb
12% Lightning Absorb
+90 Str
+67 Vit
+50 Dex
+30 Energy
57% Deadly Strike
30% Crushing Blow
10% Open Wounds
300% Enhanced Damage(Off-Weapon)

Skill Placement:
20 Inner Sight
7 Critical Strike
11 Dodge
6 Avoid
11 Evade
20 Valkyrie
1 Penetrate

This balances things a bit more. My resistances are still on the low end, but you'll notice I only mentioned four charms. I can make up the remainder of resistances with small charms. The chance of doing double damage would be almost 80% (51 + (.57*49) = 78.93%) I could put extra points in CS to raise this even further. (Level 21 CS would put me at ~86%)

The only thing that bugs me is the block speed(again) and the hit recovery. And I know, this isn't PvP, it's "just PvM" so I shouldn't worry about those numbers too much, but I want to try and be as efficient as I can with it all, y'know?

Also, seeing as I'm only using ~75 Skill points, it'd be nice to hear what you think about where extra points could go. I was thinking of pumping CS for boosting that delicious DS chance, or maybe penetrate for those desperate needs of AR time, or possibly boosting decoy for another sturdy meat block as well as boosting my valk lifespan a little.

I suppose I'll post this thread now and check any replies when I get back from work tonight. ;P

 

[Swiller]

BotD Zerker

Sorry, but I only offer help to people who don't hack. :laugh:

Okay, honestly. I've never played a tankazon, unless you count my Impaleazon that stalled in early Nightmare.

Maybe I've over-thinking here, but if I were you (and I'm not) I would only place one hard point in Dodge, Avoid, or Evade. Why? You're melee. You're going to get surrounded. And when you're surrounded, your attack is going to be interrupted enough by blocking. I think even a mediocre chance of block, coupled with high chance to Dodge etc; your attack is going to be interrupted too much for my tastes. But again, I've never played this build so I'm not sure.

I would put those points into CS or Penetrate instead.

Oh...have you thought about stat point allocation? And what kind of merc setup are you planning on?

 

[Serdash]

Oh...have you thought about stat point allocation? And what kind of merc setup are you planning on?

Merc would probably look something like...
Reaper's Toll
'Stone' Great Hauberk(4.2k Defense)
Vampgaze or Ral'd Andy's

I'd probably go with Defiance(more for the merc than me) or Holy Freeze(gg crowd control)

As far as stats, enough Str to get BotD equipped, the rest to get up to Stormshield should come naturally from equipment after the huge +str boosts I'll already be getting. Dex to block, and Vitality to the rest.

 

[tigercan]

An alternate option to make a pretty rugged tank would be to load up on straight PDR gear. Course that'd mean no Fortitude...

 

[Insane Wayne]

A good way to reduce instances of blocking, D/A/E animations, and potential mobbings/interruptions/interference in general; is to have another body out there that can absorb a major pounding.

20 Decoy. When maxed, it's strong enough to survive most Hell mobbings, thanks to insane regen. Also it's the most important synergy for the valk, she will rarely be threatened in Hell.

My tankazons were HC, and skewed to focus more on safety, but the principle of "indirect confrontation" still applies. It's much easier to attack over the shoulder of your merc/valk/decoy. You do not want to be dealing much with crappy amazon block rate with a swinging one-hander. My zons used Butcher's Pupil and a "Black" knout as their main weapons. A zerker axe has good range, which is great for hitting monsters w/o drawing their fire away from your teammates. Let them take the brunt of enemy attacks while you rapidly apply your own attacks unhindered.
20 Decoy
20 Valk
20 Penetrate
5+ D/A/E
10+ Crit Strike

I'm not a huge fan of IS. It's not bad, but IMO it needs more +skills to be worth it in Hell. I prefer max Penetrate, with any extra points going to Crit Strike and maybe some D/A/E. (Slow Missiles functions well at minimum level 3). Anything that adds integer AR is great, as the value will explode upwards with your %AR bonus. Angelic jewelry combo is great, but it's tough to beat Highlord's.

 

[jesterlolz]

If you somehow have the runes for it, you could always slap a beast on switch.

You'll be attacking with regular attack anyways, might as well have lots of life while doing that.

 

[Ava]

I've built a few Tankazons before, and my equipment advice is this:

1. Dump the BotD and get yourself a Fleshripper with a good ias/dmg jewel. You will loose a bit of physical damage, but you will gain 50% slow, an additional -25% target defense and 25% crushing blow, you will attack with 8fpa and your blocking speed will more than double (daggers and javelins have a better block speed).

2. Dump the CoA and get yourself a Guillaumes. Seriously, how much damage do you think you're gonna do to a boss without having crushing blow? Also remember that pdr is capped at 50%, so the main advantage of this helm is now gone.

3. I am not a big fan of Dracs (but people have been known to disagree with me here). A good pair of crafted blood gloves can give you ias, +2passive skills, 10% Crushing blow and more.

As for the merc, anything other than an act2 might merc sounds like a bad choice to me. Off-weapon damage is what she lacks and a might merc delivers just that. I completely agree with Insane Wayne's skill setup suggestion.

 

[MedctnStn]

check the palazon guide in the stickies, i think it's pretty good. he suggests using passion runeword for the zeal and berserk instead of normal attack

 

[purplelocust]

Merc would probably look something like...
Reaper's Toll
'Stone' Great Hauberk(4.2k Defense)
Vampgaze or Ral'd Andy's

I'd probably go with Defiance(more for the merc than me) or Holy Freeze(gg crowd control)

Have you considered a Delirium helm for the merc? Chance to cast Confuse is great for one-at-a-time attackers as far as crowd control, as the radius is large, much larger than the Decrepify radius from the Reaper's Toll, so they work well together.

 

[nebux1]

you need to go with revision nimber 3

helm dream ----> start begging
shield dream ----> start begging

foe me i would choose option 2 a little CB never hurts

 

[Serdash]

A good way to reduce instances of blocking, D/A/E animations, and potential mobbings/interruptions/interference in general; is to have another body out there that can absorb a major pounding.

20 Decoy. When maxed, it's strong enough to survive most Hell mobbings, thanks to insane regen. Also it's the most important synergy for the valk, she will rarely be threatened in Hell.

My original skill setup(read: before I actually decided upon gear) worked around a max decoy, and honestly I'll have a good set of points to play with, so Decoy would probably hit a nice level as it is.

I'm not a huge fan of IS. It's not bad, but IMO it needs more +skills to be worth it in Hell. I prefer max Penetrate, with any extra points going to Crit Strike and maybe some D/A/E. (Slow Missiles functions well at minimum level 3). Anything that adds integer AR is great, as the value will explode upwards with your %AR bonus. Angelic jewelry combo is great, but it's tough to beat Highlord's.

Well, I based using IS off of the fact that BotD already has -25% Target Defense. That's going to pull off a lot of defense as it is, and IS will just further pull that down (IIRC, IS works first and then -%target def). I have some passive skillers as well I think, so IS might get a few more points. Along with +1 from Battle Command(Plan on CtA switch)

If you somehow have the runes for it, you could always slap a beast on switch.

You'll be attacking with regular attack anyways, might as well have lots of life while doing that.

lol

I've built a few Tankazons before, and my equipment advice is this:

1. Dump the BotD and get yourself a Fleshripper with a good ias/dmg jewel. You will loose a bit of physical damage, but you will gain 50% slow, an additional -25% target defense and 25% crushing blow, you will attack with 8fpa and your blocking speed will more than double (daggers and javelins have a better block speed).

Read my post more thoroughly. BotD is a requirement for the build. I'm working on a BotD sept. Why? Because I'm crazy.

2. Dump the CoA and get yourself a Guillaumes. Seriously, how much damage do you think you're gonna do to a boss without having crushing blow? Also remember that pdr is capped at 50%, so the main advantage of this helm is now gone.

Once again, please don't just pick one or two parts of my post to read. I have a second revision that does just that, and I even mention exactly what you noted under the second revision of equipment.

3. I am not a big fan of Dracs (but people have been known to disagree with me here). A good pair of crafted blood gloves can give you ias, +2passive skills, 10% Crushing blow and more.

I've never had much luck crafting, but when I get around to playing her, if I find that lifetap is unnecessary, I may try this approach. Although those three combined mods are probably a low chance of occurring.

As for the merc, anything other than an act2 might merc sounds like a bad choice to me. Off-weapon damage is what she lacks and a might merc delivers just that. I completely agree with Insane Wayne's skill setup suggestion.

Hmm... might merc for sure? I suppose with d/a/e, blocking, and a high life value, slower enemies won't really do too much for my staying alive. I'm sure it'll help, but yeah. Might sounds like it could be a better option.

check the palazon guide in the stickies, i think it's pretty good. he suggests using passion runeword for the zeal and berserk instead of normal attack

Read my post

Have you considered a Delirium helm for the merc? Chance to cast Confuse is great for one-at-a-time attackers as far as crowd control, as the radius is large, much larger than the Decrepify radius from the Reaper's Toll, so they work well together.

I've always considered delerium for crowd control and such, but found that I didn't want to "waste" an Ist with that runeword. Also, decrepify is going to be essential for me getting rid of PIs.

you need to go with revision nimber 3

helm dream ----> start begging
shield dream ----> start begging

foe me i would choose option 2 a little CB never hurts

Giev 2x Jah

 

[Liquid_Evil]

Yeah I don't like the look of those setups at all. You should probably just kill yourself.

But if you decide not to, let me echo Ava's recommendation of a Fleshripper and Gface but think that this character will practically require Drac's in late Hell. I'm also not a huge fan of stormshield and might try and milk some more deadly strike out of a Lance Guard and rely more heavily on a hearty dex pumping (to help AR problems, net max block with that particular shield, and maximize dagger damage). However! We already know you're too stubborn to use anything but that lame axe in your weapon slot so I guess you better stick with Stormy. You gonna rock some Steel charms and an Enchant switch? I know I'd want some mean AR when I was dealing with a slowish, single-click attack. Oh, and I'd definitely use the HF merc over Defiance (I think you're letting that nice "Stone" bias you if you think Def is going to come close to being on par with HF).

Have you already built a Botd char of each class minus the zon?

 

[Serdash]

Yeah I don't like the look of those setups at all. You should probably just kill yourself.

Noted.

But if you decide not to, let me echo Ava's recommendation of a Fleshripper and Gface but think that this character will practically require Drac's in late Hell.

If I wanted to build a Fleshripper tankazon I would've read a guide on it, nub. And once again, my second setup includes a GFace. So it's all gg.

I'm also not a huge fan of stormshield and might try and milk some more deadly strike out of a Lance Guard and rely more heavily on a hearty dex pumping (to help AR problems, net max block with that particular shield, and maximize dagger damage). However! We already know you're too stubborn to use anything but that lame axe in your weapon slot so I guess you better stick with Stormy.

This lame axe is pretty gg, really.

You gonna rock some Steel charms and an Enchant switch? I know I'd want some mean AR when I was dealing with a slowish, single-click attack. Oh, and I'd definitely use the HF merc over Defiance (I think you're letting that nice "Stone" bias you if you think Def is going to come close to being on par with HF).

I think I gave away most of my gg steel charms. Might need to trade/beg for some, but I also need to check in my 1.09 charms stash to see if I still have some nice Steel GCs of Dexterity. I'm sure a demon limb in my cube would be gg. But like I said before, maxed IS is going to take a good chunk off of what AR I do need.

HF Merc does sound GG, but what about the suggestion of a might merc? It'd increase my pitiful damage to "slightly less pitiful" and the merc would be weilding a beatstick of death. Well... not really. Just a reaper's.

Have you already built a Botd char of each class minus the zon?

Just my paladin. And I have a barb at the end of act 3 hell, but I'm being lazy with him. He'll probably come along to pat this week sometime if I get to playing the game properly. Then I'd start on this zon, then I'd go to my Tiger Strike/Death Sentry BotD-sin. Then to my melee enchantress, then to my one handed "how am I going to use a one handed axe for a shifting build oh god this is going to blow I should've put this runeword in an archon staff or something" druid. And then my necromancer, of which I have NO clue how that's even going to play out.

So my BotD has a ways to go.

 

[Psychic Watch]

How necessary is Stormshield, or a shield in general?


Players # setting?

 

[Sint Nikolaas]

Drop the block and get a utility shield. Like stormshield or something. Just no blocking.

 

[Day]

I like the second option with the CB best but I just love CB!

I would reconsider the gloves. If the Merc has Reaper's (which looks good to me) I think the decrepify will over write the life tap? I wonder if anyone can comfirm this is correct.

Also, I don't think with stormshield and max block you need life tap?

I'd think also think about blood gloves (if you give the crafting a go - stick with exceptional gloves as elite can have some ridiculous level requirements) or even laying of hands for the extra damage vs demons.

 

[Heskla]

I would reconsider the gloves. If the Merc has Reaper's (which looks good to me) I think the decrepify will over write the life tap? I wonder if anyone can comfirm this is correct.

Confirmed.

Edit: Have you considered a fleskripper???????

j/k

 

[muzzz]

I would reconsider the gloves. If the Merc has Reaper's (which looks good to me) I think the decrepify will over write the life tap? I wonder if anyone can comfirm this is correct.

It does, like Heskla said. But it doesn't have to be a problem. LT has a much wider radius than decrep, so the merc will almost never overwrite every monster's LT. A zealot would hardly notice a difference. Of course, the zon will have a harder time re-overwriting the decrep due to her slower attack. But with a little positioning, and those summonables, it shouldn't be too hard to focus on the monsters that are still LT'ed.

 

[roninDOG]

For your Merc I would go Guillame's w/ 15 IAS, Duriel's Shell, and your Reaper's w/ Shael. You'll get to 6.5 frames, or 3.8 attacks per second with your Merc that way. The CBF + resists is crucial for merc survival IMO, and CB is crucial for 2 meleers getting through hell. If possible upping an eth Duriels would be ideal.

I personally think HF Merc + Decrepify + Cold Dmg = gg, and the HF Merc will help you deal with Phys immunes.

Setup #2 w/ CB FTW.

-rD