Re: Frenzy: Max Damage and Uber Guide 1.11
amazing guide spankeh
after ubering countless times and testing various setups, here's my 2 cents:
1. i suggest using the gavel of pain for amplify damage (unique exceptional mace). it has 3 amplify damage charges, each lasting 29 seconds: 1 for each uber! in comparison, lacerators dont cast right away and the curse only lasts 14 seconds, which, unlike 29, is sometimes not enough.
2. it seems a lot of people dont realize frenzy has to charge up. the attack speed goes from 7% to 42% at a rate of ~7% (i think) per hit. that means that with botd/death, with which you have to make gear sacrifices to barely hit the last frenzy breakpoint, you have to hit 5 times to get to "top speed". against a high def uber mephisto... thats a LOT. not only that, but you often lose your frenzy when going from one uber to the next. so if you really must use botd, i strongly suggest you charge yourself up on some minions...
this phenomenon is why i find beast to be so much better than botd, because you can have a lot of "overkill ias" that enables you to swing at top speed right away, a luxury you'd never get with botd/death. it makes a huge difference, whatever the curse you are using. beast is of course riskier than botd when you use amplify damage since you lose ~15% life leech, but i've found the leech from belt/coh/arreats to be enough for baal/diablo (even just belt/coh). with mephisto it doesnt matter since you cant leech him.
3. AR is king agaisnt ubers... you will lose and gain back your life bulb a few times over against them... so hitting consistently is what keeps you alive... not some huge life which in reality is just a safety net. if you're missing a lot you might even lose your frenzy speed, which can be a disaster, especially with botd/death. thus, get as much AR you can (15+), and that means using plain AR charms instead of lifers if you're not rich enough to afford good ar/(max)/life charms. i'm serious, you wont regret it
(i even tried full angelics + trang belt a few times with lifetap and it wasnt bad at all... no cold absorb means mephisto hurt a lot more but the leeching back is very reliable anyway)
4. i personally prefer guillaume's face to arreats (even for pvm). even if you dont socket it with an um (i suggest a ed/ias), you can still have max res after meph's conviction with coh, fade from treachery and 1 or 2 res gcs. deadly strike and crushing blow are YUMMY. same goes with up'd goblin toes vs gores... i think gores are better but test it for yourself.
5. if you're using beast and lacking AR, consider using metalgrid instead of highlord's, since you dont need the IAS. personally i still prefer highlord's for the overkill IAS and deadly strike, get AR from charms...
6. try amplify damage a few times on baal/diablo before trying it on mephisto, to see if you can kill fast enough. also, make sure mephisto drops your bulb relatively slowly so that you can "time" your full rejuvs, not drown yourself in them in fear of getting a half-my-bulb-disappeared-and-i'm-dead deal.
7. if you're using lifetap and death or grief in your offhand, i strongly recommend using a lifetap wand because your dracs' lifetap might not trigger quickly enough in the beginning. better yet, dump the dracs altogether and use laying of hands instead, which will add to your killing speed A LOT. just recast from your wand when necessary.
8. consider putting 1 point in find potion, especially if you pvm with the guy. you'll fill your belt with rejuvs much faster that way than by just killing stuff. even if you have a mf barb that could do that, transfering would be a pain.
9. for plain pvm, reaper's toll i.e. decrepify on merc RULES. that curse basically doubles your damage, takes cares of almost all PIs and slows monster down, making getting swarmed a joke. use enigma so you can tele your stupid merc right back in the monster's faces, especially since he's probably 2 miles away from you after you've ran off from the last pack like usain bolt. this setup means no lastwish/lifetap of any kind, which would override decrepify. thus, you need life leech, so botd > beast here (death or grief in offhand for damage). get as much leech as you feel you need (i.e. arreats vs guillaumes... dungos vs nosferatu/string... maybe switch a raven for a BK) and/or keep a lifetap wand on switch for when things get really bad (thats 3 less BO, but who cares). from experience, things very rarely go bad with this setup.
10. i agree with spankeh, forget about warcry, especially if you use lifetap. even if you dont, use howl or a lifetap wand instead. leap is a better escape skill than howl imo, so you dont feel too bad about putting a point there. decrepify on merc takes care of the berserk/PI dilemna...
so there we go, i use amplify damage exclusively and meph/diablo go down in 5-10 seconds, baal in 10-15. with max post-conviction res and the ravenfrost's cold absorb mephisto doesnt hurt enough for it to be risky, although i typically need to use 1 or 2 full rejuv since you cant leech him. baal and diablo are a zero pots joke. here's my uber setup for the curious:
beast/death
guillaume's face (40 ed/15 ias)
coh ds
nosferatu's coil (string of ears is just as good)
highlord's wrath (overkill ias and especially DS > metalgrid's AR, but thats debatable)
2x ravenfrosts
laying of hands
gores
AR/lifers (and a few AR/max/life)
2x res all GCs
anni/torch
switch: GavEl oF pAiN (yeah baby)
prebuff: bo helm/warcry ammy and knives/treachery (for simplicity's sake)
finally, anyone knows whether infinity's conviction works on ubers' defense? i just cant find this info ANYWHERE. my merc is geared for pvm anyway so i just let him die in there, but i'm curious. if it does work its arguably better than pride as far as building the ultimate uber frenzy merc goes... what do you guys think?
is this pvp or pvm guide and if its pvm so what is a good build for pvp and what is pvm build for? i mean u just do baal runs and get high lvl... what now? or is it mf?
