Dreamer Help

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Lustre

New member
Dreamer Help

Well, my next character is going to be a Dreamer, no doubts about it. I don't want an auradin, hammerdin, or a smiter. Just a lovely, electrifying Dreamer. However, I've come to a few points on which I need some discussion.

I can't decide on whether to max salvation and pretty much attempt to max out the lightning damage, or whether to max out zeal and sacrifice instead and become half-physical zealot. Then again, my weapon would most likely be a Crescent Moon Phase Blade, which would not do too much physical damage. I don't know what other weapon I would use to fit the Dreamer theme.

Which path should I turn?
 
Re: Dreamer Help

Hm, alright. But then again, I have extra points which I could just add to zeal for more attack rating, and finish off with holy shield I guess.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

So I suppose it'll go

20 resist lightning
20 salvation
20 zeal
20 holy shield

right? And all leftover points go to sacrifice?

Also, out of curiosity: does the bonus damage to demons from CoH and Laying of Hands work with the lightning damage from Dream, or would it just be for physical damage?
 
Re: Dreamer Help

Wheres your conviction? You should be running that aura while the dreams together will give you holy shock running also. Only need to get convic to level 25 after all of your +skills. DtD works with the physical dmg.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

20 salvation? :|

get 25 conv with +skills

Half physical half dream zealot eats auradins alive when it comes to PvM so get yourself a grief PB and enjoy the carnage.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

if you have no trouble hitting then points in sacrifice is better damage than points in zeal
 
Re: Dreamer Help

Lustre said:
Well, my next character is going to be a Dreamer, no doubts about it. I don't want an auradin, hammerdin, or a smiter. Just a lovely, electrifying Dreamer. However, I've come to a few points on which I need some discussion.

I can't decide on whether to max salvation and pretty much attempt to max out the lightning damage, or whether to max out zeal and sacrifice instead and become half-physical zealot. Then again, my weapon would most likely be a Crescent Moon Phase Blade, which would not do too much physical damage. I don't know what other weapon I would use to fit the Dreamer theme.

Which path should I turn?
Click to expand...

There are a few paths to take depending on PvM or PvP. It appears from your post that you want to do PvM only, so here is my experience with my dreamer for the past year who excels in PvM and PvP (so you can get a brief overview of both).

lvl 81 Dreamer:
20 Resist Light
15 Conviction
20 Holy Shield
20 Defiance
1 point in Zeal, Charge, and prereqs.

Current gear (took a long time to acquire):
Dream bone helm
Dream targe shield
Eth Fort/Fort armor (other options available, but I use Kira helm switch for resists and Charge to get away when needed)
Grief phase blade/Death zerker ax
Metalgrid/Angelic/rare pally w/resists/Crescent ammies
dual Angelic/Raven rings
Dracs/LoH gloves
Gores/Treks boots
Verd/StringoEar belts

Budget gear used (before above):
Shako/Guillemes helms
Dream Troll Nest shield (always had, and what made me decide to make Dreamer)
Shaftstop/Skin of Viper/FHR armors
Atlantean sword
Seraphs/Angelic ammies
dual Angelic rings
LoH gloves
Rare boots with some FRW & dual resists
Gloom/FHR belts

The / donates multiple gear options. I mainly focused on obtaining resists and + skills (to up light dam) at first with the budget gear. My actual gear was inspired to max out resists, have Lifetap (Dracs) for Ubers, and to have extra damage for Smite when in PvP. Why so many ammy selections? Because I need different attributes depending on what I'm doing. No charms have been mentioned yet because I haven't really acquired life, FHR, and resists charms yet. However a torch and anni is a great boost to any gear choices. My current character can do PvM and PvP with no real issues, except AR in PvP. As I level my pally more I will focus on Zeal or Charge to up my AR and physical damage options. The Crescent Moon weapon can actually be very useful in PvM because it has lower physical damage than other high end weapons, which is great when you get IMed because you'll hit once or twice and live to run away.

Final comments: Make sure to raise Conviction to get -150% resists (factoring in the gear you have) and choose Zeal over Sacrifice because you'll get extra hits to deal with multiple enemies and won't have to worry that you're dropping your own life.


 
Re: Dreamer Help

Thanks a ton, everyone! And of course, I forgot to mention the points in conviction.

So I should go for the Dreaming Zealot instead, in your opinion? It would be something like:

20 resist lightning
20 holy shield
20 zeal
15+ sacrifice
15+ conviction(up to -150 with +skills)

However, would your defiance build work better instead? Wouldn't adding points to zeal/sac make me do a lot more damage?

and BAMF: I'm sure it works with the physical damage, but does it work with the lightning damage in addition?
 
Re: Dreamer Help

then again, Samohtnnam did sorta convince me to switch to half-physical dreamer. But you could use zeal/sacrifice for that anyways, all is good! I just might...die a bit more than I'd like in a few cases.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

my 2 cents.
if focus on lightning damage. then go with resist lightning, salvation,conviction, holy shield,defiance. using beast, or other weapon/act1 merc with faith
if focus on physical damage. then go with resist lightning, fana, sacrifice, holy shield. using Grief/act2 def merc with infinity.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

I don't see why you wouldn't take advantage of the auras by using convic yourself having it from a merc is unreliable at best. The rouge merc with faith or even ice would be good as she wouldn't die to IM and would give you either more crowd control with ice, or speed/dmg with faith.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

looking at what lightning sorc or lightning zon does, they are seldom get into trouble with lightning immunes. so...... the same thing could happen to pal too.
just figure him as a standard zealot, sacrifices some physical to get some lightning damage.
IM, yeah, it makes lots of trouble to us, but i still think it is reasonable.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

accipite said:
my 2 cents.
if focus on lightning damage. then go with resist lightning, salvation,conviction, holy shield,defiance. using beast, or other weapon/act1 merc with faith
if focus on physical damage. then go with resist lightning, fana, sacrifice, holy shield. using Grief/act2 def merc with infinity.
Click to expand...

Accipite has a good point if you want to focus on lightning damage then go his route for PvM.

BAMFSpecialOps gave a good suggestion for merc usage. I don't use mercs very often in PvM or PvP so I lack experience here.

For PvM you don't need insane defense, so you can keep Defiance at 1 point and max Holy Shield only. For PvM you may want to do ubers some day so 1, 10, or more into Zeal really helps with multiple targets, and general PvM. I have ubered solo many times and the lightning plus Conviction aura just owns everything (and the uber 3) except for the Pit Lords who are immune to everything but physical damage. The little physical damage you may be doing, compared to your lightning damage, plus AR will allow you to Zeal and leech off the Pit Lords while taking care of the uber 3. 1 point in Charge is great for PvM also. If you are doing Chaos Sanctuary then switch to a low damage weapon to avoid instant Iron Maiden death. I don't know why the others keep recommending Sacrifice because Zeal gives more AR and damage. Zeal gives 5 hits with at least +3 skill equipment- allowing you to deal with multiple enemies in PvM. I could see builds that focus on Fanaticism and Redemption would capitalize on upping Sacrifice, but for a Dreamer who may put 10-20 only in Sacrifice, and none into synergies, just seems silly to me.

For PvP maxed Holy Shield and Defiance, plus my Fortitude magical armor procs and Metalgrid ammy, equates to almost 25k defense. Get an ethereal runeword armor for Fortitude or Stone and you may hit 30k+ defense. Switch Defiance on in certain duels and watch your defense go 35k+. Remember, if you want to PvP you will want some physical damage in case you are sorbed or resisted. For PvP, tone down the Salvation and choose Zeal or Charge. Charge is a great skill in PvP because 10-20 will give a huge AR and damage boost plus a way to run around quickly (yes 1 in Charge is great to run around quickly also). Hitting others in PvP with Sacrifice seems silly to me because of the life loss (unless you maxed its synergies as discussed above).


 
Re: Dreamer Help

IMO, for a dreamer, I don't see the point in maxing Zeal. Obviously, still use Zeal as your main attack, but use one hard point. With the plus skills from gear, you can easily get a 4 point Zeal for 5 hits. Maxing Zeal adds 100% ED and then a nice bonus to AR. But since maxing sacrifice adds 240% ED(>100) and Conviction solves any PvM AR problems the 19 points arent very beneficial. So I'd say:

20 Sacrifice
1 Zeal
20 Holy Shield
20 Resist Lightning
15+ Conviction (get to 25)

Additional points can be put into:

Salvation: +4% Lite Damage.
Defiance: +15% defense. meh PvM doesnt need more than 10k
Charge: Nice secondary attack. meh more work than its worth, but can be fun. Definitely useful if you venture into PvP
Zeal: Additional AR and ED. Only PvM benefit is 100% more physical damage.
Fanaticism: Could be nice to get 4fps in non-LI areas?

My dreamer is level 88 with the above 20 sac, 20 HS, 20 RL, and 18 into Convict. Has about 11 unused points and I havent decided were to put them. He has soloed ubers and can run Baal in under 5 minutes.
 
Re: Dreamer Help

i would do:
20 light res
20 salvation
1 zeal
18-20 convict
20 holy shield
rest in defiance

reason being if you keep your physical damage low, you can put a high elemental damage weapon on switch for chaos sanc and be able to run that like no tomorrow. personally i hate doing chaos sanc b/c all my zealers have been high physical damage and they die constantly.
 
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