Matriarch/Patriarch/Guardian Archive Thread

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by Jaffa Tamarin on Mar 31, 2004:

Patriarch Wolf

Today I made my first solo Patriarch. Yay!

Wolf is a werewolf (and druid, obviously), running with a pack of maxed-out dire wolves. Untwinked, no mercenary, full-cleared all three difficulties and killed Hell Baal at level 83.

Skills
Oak Sage, Raven, Spirit Wolf - 1 each
HoW, Dire Wolf, Grizzly - 20 each (Grizzly just for the damage bonus, I only ever summoned wolves)

Werewolf - 10
Lycanthropy - 20
Feral Rage - 1
Hunger - 3 (from helm)
Fury - 2 (from helm)

Stats
Strength 194 (+ 26 from equipment)
Dexterity 160
Vitality 130 (life normally 1443 when shifted)
Energy 21 (yes the extra 1 point was a misclick)

Resists in hell
Fire 82, Cold 74, Lightning 64, Poison 31

Equipment
Coral Spirit Mask of Frost Shield socketed with Ort rune, +2 Fury, +3 Hunger
Bitter Hide Mesh Armor socketed with Um rune (def 374, 24% FHR, +19 life, resists)
Pain Cord Mesh Belt (def 93, 24% FHR, 1% life steal, 5% open wounds, +16 life, 21% cold resist)
Havoc Knuckle Vampirebone Gloves (def 62, 10% IAS, 2% life steal, 5% crushing blow, +18 life, +19 mana, poison dagger charges(!))
Infernostride Demonhide Boots

Bonehew Ogre Axe (socketed with a perfect amethyst and an ED jewel, total 110-569 damage)

Chromatic Amulet of Atlas (I gambled endlessly for amulets -- this was the best, 30% resist all and +25 strength)
Stone Touch Ring (+113 AR, +2 life, cold and poison resist)
Order Touch Ring (+3 max damage, +24 AR, 10% resist all, 7% MF, confuse charges)

An inventory full of charms, mostly for resists.

The Bonehew was found in Hell maggot lair -- the corpse explosion charges came in very handy for clearing out a packed Coldworm's Lair. I socketed it with whatever I had to hand at the time, and had a Hel rune waiting to remove those items when I found something better. I never did.

I didn't have anything special for physical immunes. The prevent monster heal on the Bonehew with odd bits of elemental damage from charms and Infernostride was enough. On weapon switch I had a Woestave upgraded to bec-de-corbin, which with 50% open wounds was actually better for some physical immunes (ghosts particularly seemed to be very vulnerable to open wounds).

Hell Ancients were a right royal PITA. Even when I rolled them up with attributes that weren't instantly lethal, I couldn't go toe-to-toe with any of them, so had to run around sniping at them with Bonehew when they were distracted by the wolves. I ran out of pots before the first two died (and the pots I had brought up and left lying around had all timed out, which is the most annoying new feature of 1.10), and I had to get Korlic stuck against a pillar and let the dire wolves nibble him to death. This took around 40 minutes (Korlic was stoneskin, and must have been close to physical immune).

Jaffa

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by javcek on Sep 9, 2005:

Patriarch Cernd

Patriarch Cernd, The Fury Druid

Level 82

Skills
base/equipment

Werewolf 20/26
Lycanthropy 20/26
Feral Rage 1/7
Rabies 1/7
Fury 20/26
Raven 1/5
Oak Sage 20/24
Spirit Wolf 1/5
Dire Wolf 6/10
Grizzly 1/5
Poison Creeper 1/5
Carrion Vine 1/5

Total Skill Points Used: 93

Rest of Points go to Summon Dire Wolf

Stats
base/equipment

Strength 115/165
Dexterity 40/75
Vitality 325/330
Energy 20/58

Rest of Points go to Vitality

Resist in Hell:
Fire 75
Cold 31
Lightning 70
Poison 15

Equipment

Jalal's Mane + 13 resist all jewel
Upped Shaftstop + Um rune
+27 Mara's
Upped 290% Ribcracker + Shael rune
Laying of Hands
IK Belt
Gore Riders
Ravenfrost
Rare ring with: 3% mana leech, AR, MF, cold resist
Charms:
Steel LC of Vita, Sharp LC of Sustenance, Steel GC of life, Steel GC of Sustenance, Steel SC of Good Luck, some resist charms, some mf charms.

On Switch: Baranar's + Tiamat's for Physical Inmunes
Demon Limb on cube

Merc: Hazade (Might)
Vampire Gaze, eth Reaper's, Duriel's Shell

Fury Damage with Might Aura + Enchant: 3360 - 5130 at 5 fps
Fury AR with Enchant: 10660
Life while Shapeshifted + Oak Sage: 4170

General Comments:

Only died once with this character, which is quite an acomplishment for me . That dead was due to IM in the Chaos Sanctuary: I was standing behind a pillar or something, and couldn't see the top of my character...well, you know the rest. OK and other dangerous foes were handled by careful recasting of the Grizzly and, to some degree, by the ravens. Got a mal from hellforge and crap from Baal.
Overall, I'm quite happy with this character; if given the opportunity, I would save the points in Carrion Vine and it's prerequisite, and put them somewhere else: it died too often to be of much use.
Cernd was the name of a character in Baldur's Gate II: really weak while human, but powerful while shapeshifted

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by JihadJesus on Mar 8, 2008:

Smokey says "Only you can cause forest fires" - a pat thread!

I finished my Flaming Mauler this afternoon, and wanted to have his pat write up ready to go when I posted the guide. One of my favorite D2 characters ever, and certainly the most powerful melee experience I've ever had. The weapon might have had something to do with that...:wink3:

Patriarch Smokey
clvl 86 Flaming Mauler Werebear

Stats (w/gear)
STR: 163
DEX: 94
VIT: 296
ENG: ?

Life: 2369
Defense: 5478
Fire Resist: 74
Cold Resist: 58
Light Resist: 75
Poison Resist: 28

Maul Damage (w/Might aura): 3199 - 9065
Maul AR (W/Enchant from Demon Limb): 5389
Total Fire Claws damage (inc. Maul charges): 7470 - 14k
Fire Claws AR (w/Enchant): 8732

Skills (w/gear)
Fire Claws - 20 (30)
Firestorm - 20 (synergy)
Molten Boulder - 15 (synergy)
Werebear - 19(29)
Maul - 6 (16)
Shockwave - 4 (14)
Gizzly - 1(5)

Gear
Jalal's Mane (Um)
'Duress' Diamond Mail
crafted blood gloves (20 IAS, 2/3 dual leech, light resists, 20 life, 5% CB)
String of Ears (perfect 8/15 LL/DR%)
Gore Riders
Ravenfrost/Rare(7% LL, 20% FR, 29%LR, some AR)
28% Mara's
charms - 4x plain SS skillers, the rest resist small charms some with + life
.
.
.
and the coup de grace, my weapon (on semi-permanent loan from nubikoen)

Bone Goad
Giant Thresher
'ShaelShael'
Two-Hand Damage: 312 to 890
Durability: 25 of 28
Required Dexterity: 88
Required Strength: 122
Required Level: 66
Fingerprint: 0x7e4db931
+421% Enhanced Damage
+171 to Attack Rating
Requirements -30%
80% Increased Attack Speed
Repairs 1 durability in 33 seconds
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (2: 2 used)

Well, what do you expect me to say after looking at that weapon? It does huge damage and swing at 5 frames with FC - I think that shoud paint a pretty clear picture of how things went. I beat the absolute living crap out of everything that crossed my path. Played through Hell above /p7 pretty much the whole way - and STILL tore through the baddies like tissue paper. It was a pretty regular occurrence to kill packs so quickly that I didn't even realize when I was fighting champs till I went to check the drops after I killed them. Heck, the merc died taking on Bartuc and I still layed out Meph in less than twenty seconds! At /p7. Yeah, I timed it. Even PIs were no problem - 4.5k average fire damage might not make it to 'elite' levels for pure fire bears, but it's still pretty dang decent and most PIs have pathetic life anyway.

This probably wasn't the best weapon to use for a character I built to write a guide around since it gave a REALLY slanted view of how powerful the build setup in general was, but it sure was a ton of fun. The hardest area of the game was the Plains of Despair, oddly enough. I rolled FI bat demons and ran into THREE FI/PI uniques, each accompanied by another unique of a lesser type with a nasty mod like cursed or aura enchanted. The decrep from the merc was all that finally took them down, but I did get through it eventually.

I died once total in the WSK (whoever decided that quill rats, blow-dart flayers, and succubi with ranged attacks should all be spawnable at the same time needs to suffer a hirrible death) but that was mostly due to my own overconfidence since between that insane weapon and Shockwave I might as well have just had an "I Win" button for pretty much the whole game. I even took out an extra fast/cursed Frenzytaur pack in the ice caves at one point, and that's usually 'drop everything and run like a pansy ohcrapohcraptoofaaaaastohcrapohcrapDEAD' situation. Didn't find a darn thing questing but my Hell forge drop was a Gul, my highest rune yet.

Most of my thoughts on the build I wrote came from this guy and tinkering with other gear to try stuff out a bit, so if you want more in-depth info you can find it in the guide here.

I'm also thinking about retooling the gear to try some melee Baal running, inspired by Liquid's thread. I need some gear suggestions, since I'd probably need to get room for Dracs and my resists are a bit low. Plus, my merc bit it CONSTANTLY in the WSK and that wouldn't cut it. I'll play around with it a bit, but if anyone has suggestions I'm all ears.

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by @jonny5 on Nov 13, 2018:

Patriarch Cameron – Feral Rage / Fury Werewolf

Cameron is my middle child and the second member of my family to get a character themed for him, following Milo. Cameron has a bad habit of biting when he gets mad. So, werewolf was the obvious character choice. At first I was planning a fury/rabies build, but those skills don’t synergize particularly well, rabies is generally not great, and I wanted to (unwisely) drop some expensive jewels into a 3os Tomb Reaver I had found previously. Spending so much on the weapon further inclined me to go all in with a physical damage build.

Stats/Skills:
Name: Cameron
Class: Druid
Experience: 1765347227
Level: 91

Naked/Gear
Strength: 122/165
Dexterity: 82/103
Vitality: 321/321
Energy: 20/40
HP: 842/2260
Mana: 200/256
Stamina: 470/620
Defense: 1866
AR: 9570 / 9117 Feral Rage / Fury (w/ Might only)
AR: 11727 / 11275 Feral Rage / Fury (w/ HoW and Might)
Damage: 1031-4467 / 1494-6580 Feral Rage / Fury (w/ Might only)
Damage: 1288-5640 / 1751-7753 Feral Rage / Fury (w/ HoW and Might)

Boost to AR from HoW: 2157 / 2158 Feral Rage / Fury
Boost to damage from HoW: 257-1173 / 257-1173 Feral Rage / Fury
^Interesting that those boosts are the same for both Feral Rage and Fury; I guess they are applied in the AR and damage equations independent of the boosts from Feral and Fury?

Resistances
Fire: 80
Cold: 77
Lightning: 76
Poison: 81

Other Stats:
MF: 113
Block: 9
GF: 156
FR/W: 30
FHR: 90 (86% breakpoint)
WIAS: 90% (5 FPA Feral Rage, 4/4/4/4/7 FPA Fury)
FCR: 0


Skills:
20(28 on switch) Werewolf
20(28 on switch) Lycanthropy
20(24) Fury
20(24) Feral Rage
20(24 on switch) Heart of Wolverine
2 Pre-requisites

Maxing 5 skills at level 91 is very nice; this build is extremely skill point efficient.

Gear

Tl;dr version:
Helm: Jalal’s Mane with 8% res all / 7% FHR jewel
Amulet: Chromatic Amulet of the Bat (30/4)
Armor: Duress Archon Plate
Weapon: Tomb Reaver 332% ED, 90% IAS, 34% res all, 64% MF (39% Ruby Jewel, 36/15 RJoF, 22/15 RJoF)
Switch: Fleshrender / Lidless Wall (for transforming and casting HoW)
Gloves: Rare with 26% LR, 14% PR, 23% MF
Belt: String of Ears (14% DR, 7% LL)
Boots: Gore Rider
Ring: Raven Frost (181/17)
Ring: Rare with +18 Strength, 27% FR, 8% LL

Readouts:

Spoiler

Cameron's Jalal's Mane
Totemic Mask
Defense: 288
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0xab5ba52
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
+37% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+191% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Energy
All Resistances +38
+5 to Mana after each Kill
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shimmering Jewel of Truth

Shimmering Jewel of Truth
Jewel
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0xf9861e96
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+7% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +8%
Lightning Resist +8%
Fire Resist +8%
Poison Resist +8%

Chromatic Amulet of the Bat
Amulet
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x92e9aba8
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
4% Mana stolen per hit
All Resistances +30

Cameron's Duress
Archon Plate
ShaelUmThul
Defense: 1287
Durability: 58 of 60
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 103
Fingerprint: 0x52e415ea
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40% Faster Hit Recovery
14% Enhanced Damage
Adds 37 - 133 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
33% Chance of Open Wounds
+174% Enhanced Defense
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +15
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Um Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune

Shael Rune
Required Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +20% Increased Attack Speed
Armor: +20% Faster Hit Recovery
Shields: +20% Faster Block Rate

Um Rune
Required Level: 47
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 25% Chance of Open Wounds
Armor: Cold Resist +15%
Lightning Resist +15%
Fire Resist +15%
Poison Resist +15%
Shields: Cold Resist +22%
Lightning Resist +22%
Fire Resist +22%
Poison Resist +22%

Thul Rune
Required Level: 23
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Armor: Cold Resist +30%
Shields: Cold Resist +35%

Cameron's Tomb Reaver
Cryptic Axe
Two Hand Damage: 142 - 648
Durability: 49 of 65
Required Level: 84
Required Strength: 165
Required Dexterity: 103
Fingerprint: 0xf8f30c3a
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+90% Increased Attack Speed
332% Enhanced Damage
+196% Damage to Undead
+283 to Attack Rating against Undead
All Resistances +34
10% Reanimate as: Returned
+10 Life after each Kill
64% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+4 to Light Radius
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Ruby Jewel
Socketed: Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Socketed: Realgar Jewel of Fervor

Ruby Jewel
Jewel
Required Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x2d763dda
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
39% Enhanced Damage

Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x90bab2b9
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
36% Enhanced Damage

Realgar Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xb9d876e1
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
22% Enhanced Damage

Fleshrender
Barbed Club
One Hand Damage: 65 - 107
Durability: 56 of 56
Required Level: 38
Required Strength: 30
Fingerprint: 0x5515ea5d
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
+1 to Druid Skill Levels
131% Enhanced Damage
Adds 35 - 50 Damage
+150% Damage to Undead
20% Chance of Crushing Blow
20% Deadly Strike
25% Chance of Open Wounds
Prevent Monster Heal
+20 Maximum Durability

Lidless Wall
Grim Shield
Defense: 274
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 70 of 70
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0xc8eb1a9f
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Faster Cast Rate
+82% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Energy
Increase Maximum Mana 10%
+3 to Mana after each Kill
+1 to Light Radius

Skull Knuckle
Light Gauntlets
Defense: 17
Durability: 17 of 18
Required Level: 14
Required Strength: 45
Fingerprint: 0x5bce4163
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
12% Chance to cast level 4 Charged Bolt when struck
+45% Enhanced Defense
+2 to Strength
Lightning Resist +26%
Poison Resist +14%
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 107
Durability: 21 of 22
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x91caa474
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
7% Life stolen per hit
+163% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 14%
Magic Damage Reduced by 13
+10 Maximum Durability

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 142
Durability: 33 of 34
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 94
Fingerprint: 0x32f1ed98
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Run/Walk
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
10% Chance of Open Wounds
+163% Enhanced Defense
+20 Maximum Stamina
Requirements -25%
+10 Maximum Durability

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xaaf7c526
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+181 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+17 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

Blood Grasp
Ring
Required Level: 66
Fingerprint: 0x8250390e
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 50 Poison Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
8% Life stolen per hit
+18 to Strength
+6 Maximum Stamina
Fire Resist +27%

Charms:

Tl;dr version:

Leaving 8x2 free space plus TP tome, cube, and keys, an assortment totaling 6% FR, 3% LR, 20% PR, 494 AR, 13% FHR, 4 dex, 3 str, 26% MF, 156% GF, 1-2 cold damage

Readouts:

Spoiler

Tangerine Small Charm of Frost
Small Charm
Required Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0xb39bdd79
Item Level: 23
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 2 Cold Damage Over 1 Secs (25 Frames)
Lightning Resist +3%

Steel Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xe9f528cb
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+31 to Attack Rating

Steel Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x93893523
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+27 to Attack Rating

Steel Large Charm of Greed
Large Charm
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0x24a80c71
Item Level: 58
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+60 to Attack Rating
18% Extra Gold from Monsters

Steel Large Charm
Large Charm
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0x525ea030
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+58 to Attack Rating

Steel Large Charm of Balance
Large Charm
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0xb21b609b
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+8% Faster Hit Recovery
+57 to Attack Rating

Steel Large Charm
Large Charm
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0xaf96b7ea
Item Level: 64
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+56 to Attack Rating

Iron Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x62f18b68
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery
+19 to Attack Rating

Russet Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0xee4fb3c4
Item Level: 1
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Fire Resist +6%

Viridian Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0x5d6c5ca8
Item Level: 66
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Poison Resist +7%

Emerald Large Charm
Large Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xc15f120
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Poison Resist +13%

Iron Grand Charm of Dexterity
Grand Charm
Required Level: 23
Fingerprint: 0x18889ba5
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+83 to Attack Rating
+4 to Dexterity

Steel Grand Charm of Strength
Grand Charm
Required Level: 35
Fingerprint: 0x4a05be6a
Item Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+103 to Attack Rating
+3 to Strength

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0x3f61a0a6
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
138% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 11%
26% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Mercenary:

Tl;dr version:
Act 2, Might
Reaper’s Toll
Tal’s Mask
Duriel’s Shell

Readouts:

Spoiler

Name: Razan
Race: Desert
Mercenary
Type: Off-Nightmare
Experience: 89022490
Level: 90
Dead?: false

Naked/Gear
Strength: 195/210
Dexterity: 157/157
HP: 1967/2118
Defense: 1444/2259
AR: 1970/1970

Fire: 189/149/89
Cold: 219/179/119
Lightning: 189/149/89
Poison: 189/149/89

Duriel's Shell
Cuirass
Defense: 705
Durability: 27 of 150
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0x435ea757
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+192% Enhanced Defense
+113 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+15 to Strength
+91 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +20
Cannot Be Frozen
+100 Maximum Durability

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Death Mask
Defense: 110
Durability: 18 of 20
Required Level: 66
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0x6acfd18a
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Mana stolen per hit
10% Life stolen per hit
+45 Defense
+60 to Life
+30 to Mana
All Resistances +15

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
Two Hand Damage: 36 - 427
Durability: 61 of 65
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 114
Required Dexterity: 89
Fingerprint: 0x7eb47447
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
33% Chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking
203% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 4 - 44 Cold Damage Over 1 Secs (34 Frames)
13% Life stolen per hit
33% Deadly Strike
Requirements -25%

Random Musings

Long version:
Regarding the Tomb Reaver: A big thank you to @T72on1 for trading me his slightly better 3os Tomby (335%) for my 226%er and a handful of pgems, and to @Zylo for trading me a 22/15 RJoF for a pile of Nef runes; together those two trades (in addition to the 39% Ruby Jewel and the 36/15 RJoF found by Milo) allowed me to put together a pretty fun toy. Sure, it’s no eth Zod’d variant, but it got the job done pretty well regardless. Easily one of the most stylish weapons I’ve used in D2 thus far.

Leveling to 84: I played norm and nm on p8, hell acts 1-2 on p7, and hell act 3 on p5. I completed all quests, conquered all side areas (sparkly chests), killed all super uniques, and got all waypoints. As for the gameplay itself, after playing a max block paladin this character took some getting used to. Consistently felt much squishier than the pally even with ~2x the life in the end. Leveling early on was fairly easy though, as werewolf, lycanthropy, and feral rage were all available early. I tried to stick with polearms throughout the journey, equipping Insight at level 27, a Bec-de-Corbin Insight a few levels later once str/dex requirements were met, and a 2x Shael’d Bonehew at level 64. Due to pumping strength/dex for various polearms, my life was a little on the low side in nightmare and this resulted in my first two deaths in this difficulty in a long, long time: Geleb Flamefinger’s death explosion, and a death-by-stubbornness-turned-hit recovery-lock to some Frenzytaur champs in the Ancient’s Way. Like I said, some getting used to was required. I moved onto Hell and leveled in the Pits to 84.

I really enjoyed having both Feral Rage and Fury maxed – it was much less redundant than I thought it would be. The general strategy was to use Fury to do most of the damage, switching to Feral Rage periodically to keep it charged. Feral Rage was also fantastic for sniping specific enemies within packs, whereas Fury just causes you to take turns swiping at everything in range. That was especially useful for taking down dangerous aura-enchanted uniques quickly. The FRW from Feral Rage was also very nice, although that often meant that the merc took his sweet time wandering over to join the battle. Fury seemed very buggy at times, much more so with Bonehew than with Tomb Reaver. I suspect the shorter range and slightly slower attack speed of Bonehew may be partly responsible. Due to the somewhat lackluster performance I was getting with Bonehew, and the fact that its damage was close to what Tomb Reaver was going to put out, I was a little worried about the strength of the final build considering the jewels I had invested. Once I equipped the Reaver, however, things got MUCH better. Fewer fury cycles were whiffing, my resistances were higher, drops improved, and I occasionally pretended to be a necromancer.

The moron lived up to his name, frequently charging bravely ahead to kill flayers while alternately hiding behind various objects in dangerous situations when decrepify would have been a massive help. Not that I didn’t hide with him at times. A very close runner-up for moron of the year was the Heart of Wolverine. No matter where I cast the damned thing, it seemed intent on charging right into the middle of every fight and promptly dying. At times I would play the Diablo II minigame, “how long can you keep the floating ball alive?” Usually not very long. But still, the boosts to damage and AR were very welcome when he was around so I didn’t respec to something else. Besides, if I’m to have a weak floating assistant that constantly dies, I’d rather have one that doesn’t greatly affect my life pool and therefore my relative safety (Oak Sage). All breakable PIs were safe enough to kill, albeit tedious due to their still-too-high physical resistance. The cold damage from Duress helped take down unbreakable PIs, as open wounds just didn’t seem to trigger like it should a lot of the time. That was especially noticeable with this PI/CI spawner boss, who took about 10 minutes to kill and I never noticed any bleeding (despite wearing Duress and Gore Rider). Large numbers of unleechables were tough but not unmanageable due to the relatively high HP pool. Yay explosion screenshots.

So, the ancients. Well, they were tame. All easy mods on the first roll and the battle took less than 2 minutes, even on p5. I kind of wish they had had tougher mods, but 1 on 1 this Druid is hard to take down with the damage he does with Fury, the leech of Feral Rage, and crushing blow. Any high HP enemies dropped very quickly. Lister and company were separated, as the constant stun/knockback without any blocking can cause problems. At one point one of them had me cornered next to a torch on the ground, with the merc dead, but at least there was no more knockback. Baal himself was a pushover, as were his drops. Final LCS after hitting level 91 (patted at 89 due to impatience).

Good finds included an SoJ in NM The Hole level 2, this nifty little charm (since traded to @T72on1 – thanks for the trade!), Griffon’s Eye, Skullder’s Ire, Mal, and Pul while leveling in the Pits, Ohm, a few various skillers, Guillaume’s Face, a 34% ruby jewel, this impressive level 13 ring, some various useful charms, Seraph’s Hymn, a nifty rare jewel, Sazabi’s Cobalt Redeemer, and probably 50+ other random sets/uniques not worth mentioning (including just about every exceptional unique body armor). Forges were Dol in NM and Pul in Hell. Also found a Vex on my second to last AT run leveling to 91.

Tl;dr version: Overall, a very fun build once I got used to the lack of blocking. There is a lot of potential for more damage (Guillaume’s and Fortitude in particular), but I enjoyed the balanced, maxed resists approach I took. Feral Rage and Fury are great compliments to one another and make for a strong all around physical damage based melee fighter, and switching between the two keeps things interesting. Lastly, questing with some MF equipped tends to pay off and makes the journey that much more fun.

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by Liquid_Evil on Dec 15, 2008:

Patriarch Fiesta

Fiesta is the newest druid patriarch to grace my character selection screen. He is also all that is bear.

Why a werebear?
To put it simply, it's because I wasn't hugged enough as a child. All seriousness aside, they are unique, they are fun, and they are underrated.

So you mean there's more to them than stash-blocking?
Quite. I'm a bit biased towards druids, but werebears are one of the most versatile characters out there. They possess great physical damage, great elemental damage, excellent leech, and arguably the game's best crowd control. The only problem is, those abilities all come from different skills. To blend these skills effectively requires forethought and finesse (both usually lacking in the standard paladin player, *oh snap*). Not of the standard point and click variety, optimized werebears utilize a symphony of hot keys.

How so? What are your skills?
I toggled between Fire Claws, Maul, Hunger and Shockwave while trying to keep a lowly spirit alive. I was constantly approaching mobs with Shockwave, charging up Maul, weapon switching to apply static field, swapping back for another dose of Shockwave to hit the stragglers, charging Maul, swinging with Fire Claws, Hunger (if necessary), Fire Claws...always first aiming for the Decrepified monsters nearest to the merc.

Fire Claws offers good AR and added about ~5000 fire damage to my physical damage. A charged Maul packs a punch full of pain and is also capable of stunning just about everything that Shockwave can't (i.e. Lister). Hunger is a wonderful utility skill and even with the lone point investment, it was leeching back mountains of health and mana. Shockwave is the ultimate "wait for your turn to die" skill. It locks up armies and gives your bear the necessary time for proper monster mangling. The game has a cap on stunning skills set at 10 seconds. This means there is no reason to ever have more than 15 points in Shockwave (at lvl 15 it stuns for exactly 10 seconds).

Skill points:
20 Fire Claws
20 Werebear
20 Volcano
20 Fissure
11 Maul (where remaining will go)
1 Shockwave
1 Hunger
1 Lycanthropy
1 Heart of Wolverine
(1 in all prereqs)

Why a point in HoW?
I wanted a castable summon (they are handy for certain situations) and I just thought of it as a minor bonus. And even at 1 point, it seemed (slightly) more durable than its Oak sage counterpart.

What about your items? What did you use?
Cerebus' Bite s/13 resist all, 15% IAS
"Fortitude" Archon
This weapon.
Highlord's Wrath
Crafted belt with 24% FHR and resists
Crafted 20% IAS gloves w/ 6% mana leach and 14% Crushing blow (1.07)
Gore Riders
Ravenfrost
Rare ring w/ 8% life leach, 5% mana leach and resists

Weapon switch:
Beta "Crescent Moon" Phase
Stormshield s/Shael (or 'Spirit' monarch depending on mood)

Charms:
Spiritual lifers, steel/resist/dmg of vitas

A Cerebus' Bite? Seriously?
Srsly. I wanted this character to ooze style points and this helm has always been a personal favorite. Gravy open wounds, +4 skills, epic AR boost and nice leech. Plus it's the color of bleached marshmallows and virgin snow.

Why not Dracul's Grasp?
They are a melee character's crutch and any werebear worth his salt simply doesn't require them. Life leech from gear coupled with a physically damaging weapon's Hunger strikes and a relatively low level of hit points and that bulb was almost always full. Plus the unleechables were usually stunned and slain before they started posing a serious threat.

No "Call to Arms" or Demon Limb Enchant charges?
Nope. I think ~2.5K life is pretty much the magic number in terms of safe Baaling (give or take a few hundred) and my AR wasn't too awful. Plus the beta "Crescent Moon" whips away half the life of creatures before I turn it over to the Reaver. It's also a godsend against Baal himself.

Some fun items, but what are his stats?
Click this.
3.2K-15K Maul damage
8.3K-20K Fire Claws damage with Maul fully charged
11.6K Attack Rating
2.2K life
(29% Crushing Blow, 48% Deadly Strike, 48% Open Wounds: 6 fpa attack, 5 fpa Hunger)

Nice damage, but why aren't his resists maxed?
I hate you.

That's a lot of Dexterity. Explain yourself.
I thought the life was ample so decided to pump enough into Dex to achieve max block on Stormshield switch as well as for the AR boost. Now I have the option of using him in a PvM char PvP tournament if such a thing ever came about.

Why the name "Fiesta?"
Because he's my PARTY BEAR! Also, I wanted a moniker somewhat in line with my last Melee Baal Runner, Feast.

What are your plans for this guy?
Shattering times as a Melee Baal Runner! (Or at least getting a Druid back on the board with a respectable average time.)

How's he currently doing in that arena?
His times are mostly in the 7 minute zone at the moment, so not quite as good as I was expecting. Still, as soon as I get a better map, fall back into the groove, and tweak mercenary gear some more (Ol' Waheed is dying 1-2 times a run), I'm sure the times will fall into the 5-6 minute range. My other bear averaged 6:05 for comparison.

Any problems or pitfalls?
Just not enough raw damage. (I crack me up.) There are no problems that are immediately obvious, but the resists are glaringly shoddy when exposed to Conviction auras.

Any other fun thoughts to close on?
-The army of Returned supplied by the Reaver was pretty neat sometimes.
-Hunger still sounds like a tractor being started to me.
-Next is a PvP char to get back to my roots.
-He was a lucky bear. These were his notable finds: 33/13 Verdungos, Dwarf Star, The Stone of Jordan, Leviathan, Azurewrath, Mara's Kaleidoscope, Buriza, Lightsabre (And I was in a MP game where another Stone of Jordan dropped)

Hellforge:
NM: Hel
Hell: Gul

Thanks
JihadJesus (for the inspiration)
Smips (for the Fort)
Ashmer (for believing in goals)
Hurtlocker (for the .07 gloves)
Ray Patean (for the beta phaser and the runs)
Asmodeous (for the .09 Um rune)
Cloudy (for the jewel)
Everyone I MP'ed with (all of 'em)
Everyone that read this (even you)

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by Liquid_Evil on Mar 2, 2009:

Patriarch Trifecta

Patriarch Trifecta
Triple your pleasure by indulging in a read about this devilish new Patriarch.

"Triple my pleasure"? Yeesh Liq, just when I thought you couldn't get any fruitier...*Sigh* Tell us about your build.
I'm so glad you asked. The inspiration for this character came from Ray Patean's "Death" Zealot which cruises through the game with 100% Crushing Blow and 100% Deadly Strike. Witnessing that drool-worthy character, combined with my philosophy that a Druid should easily be able to be built that is at least three times cooler than any of Ray's paladins, I set to work on a project to outdo him.

So you were a n00blar and built a character with 200% CB/DS?
Even better. I was a n00blar and built a character with 100% Crushing Blow, 100% Deadly Strike, and 100% Open Wounds!

Enter Trifecta. (Like what I did with the name there?)

So how'd you design this guy?
With a few trips to the Arreat Summit website and a piece of a paper. "Death" wasn't an option not simply because I don't own one, but also because that weapon would be the equivalent of a hobbled snail in the hands of a wereform. I had to think outside the usual paladin standards and utilize a variety of uniques and runewords to net the numbers.

What's his gear?
Most of it is pretty intuitive, but this was the setup that granted me everything I wanted in the character.
Guillaume's Face (35% CB, 15% DS)
Fleshripper s/ Shael (25% CB, 33% DS, 50% OW)
"Duress" Wyrmhide (15% CB, 33% OW)
Lance Guard s/ Shael (20% DS)
Highlord's Wrath (33% DS)
Dracul's Grasp (25% OW)
Goblin Toe (25% CB)
.07 M'avina's Tenet belt (40% FRW to make up for the boots, plus some gravy mana leech)
Ravenfrost/Rare ring with resists and 8% life leech
Lots of resist charms.

What are his stats?
Here's the LCS. Keep in mind his 100% DS/CB/OW emphasis.

Ninety-nine vitality? Say what?
I've decided that unless it's a wolfbarb, no softcore PvM character needs more than double digit vitality numbers with careful play. Plus, I wanted to milk as much damage as I could from the dagger so pumping dexterity helped to accomplish that. An indirect bonus came in the form of all that juicy attack rating. I'm not a statistician by any means, but I'd wager my chances to hit Hell Baal are close to a bazzillon percent.

What are his skills?
Basically those of a standard Fury wolf.
20 Werewolf
20 Lycanthropy
20 Fury
20 HoW
14 into Carrion Vine, plus the standard prereq's (2 unspent)

A vine?? You foolish fool, explain yourself!
Vines: they're not just for Tarzan anymore. I wanted a change of pace on a PvM Druid and thought it would offer me a bit more survivability on a character that had so few hit points. After Fury, Werewolf, Lycanthropy, and a spirit are maxed, there aren't many options left for a werewolf that doesn't want attacking summons. The vine didn't appear to be a bad investment, though I don't see any real reason for more than 15 points in it after +skills (and that's me being generous). So yeah, depending on your play style, a Carrion Vine might deserve some future love. Just sayin'.

No Oak Sage?
Nah. I used to swear by it, but now I'm all about the blood-pumping organ of Hugh Jackman. (Heart of Wolverine. I know they're not all winners, but please try and keep up.)

How'd the leveling go?
It was the standard ho-hum, slog-worthy progression through Normal up until lvl 31 when the Ribcracker finally became available. I leveled him with one of those while wearing Iratha's full set until he was beefy enough to enter Nightmare.

Later in the game, I equipped him with a Sacaren's Chance just because I couldn't remember ever utilizing one. As someone that plays a good chunk of melee characters, just hearing the terrible sound of the Iron Maiden curse being cast usually leaves me running for cover and/or crackin' the Tome for a hasty exit. So needless to say, the handy little "10% Chance to cast Level 2 Iron Maiden when struck" mod on the ammy made for several heart-pounding moments as well as the occasional change of pants. (Or rather, the occasional heart-pounding moment and several changes of pants)

Later, I upgraded the 'Cracker (which was sort of sad since that was basically two HF drops) and used it exclusively until I could equip Fleshripper at lvl 68. I leveled to 77 in Nightmare Eldritch and Baal runs so my merc could don a Kira's Guardian. I opted against the usual Might merc wereform staple, and instead chose Kasim, one belonging to the order of the Holiest of Freezing. I set him up in some safety gear (Amn'd Reape's Toll, Kira's, Guardian Angel) so I'd be able to march him through the elements without him succumbing to burns, frostbite, or monster venom.

At end game, I tried him out in a few MP games, but no one truly appreciates a dagger Druid as they should when the rest of the party consists of builds like these.

Admittedly, Trifecta doesn't kill like a LF-powered Hammerdin of Blizzarding, but he's not bad. Plus, with slow target, Holy Freeze, and Decrepify (the latter two from the merc), he was still a pretty safe character for the minimal vitality investment and lack of life charms. He can do /p3 Baal runs without any problems, but at higher settings his kill speed takes a noticeable drop. His times on solo /p8 Baal runs were definitely not competitive (10 min omg), but ol' Trifecta was still a fun character and surprisingly much more durable than he first appears.

Did you find any fun items while questing?
A couple. Not having invested a whole lot of time in this guy for leveling, he did manage to find a Stone of Jordan and a Jalal's Mane while questing. Then there was some other miscellaneous garbage, but c'mon, this is the first time I can remember in a long while that useful items dropped over the natural progression of the game in places where the character could have actually benefitted from them. Hellforge: NM, Hell

Any thoughts you'd like to leave us with?
-I would liken the sound of the Carrion Vine's death squeal to the noise uttered by a monkey that has just emptied the contents of a hot glue gun into its mouth. Imagine hearing that unnerving shriek at least a dozen times a gaming session and you might begin to understand why I can't sleep for more than ten minutes without waking up to wet the bed. (Yes, you read that right.)
-Werewolves are pwn.
-339 dexterity points are not enough for max block with Lance Guard on this guy. Crazy, huh?
-The durability of the Fleshripper is absolutely awful. I must repair it each solo Baal run or it will break during the next.
-I'm terrible with stat-point hording. All of my characters seem to sit on hundreds until all of their end gear is acquired and equipped. I just can't help myself.
- I found almost all the gear he uses on my last patriarch, Ghost-Factory. Plus, since I had all the crap just lying around anyway, after he was planned, this guy only took something like four days to pat, plus another few to get to an acceptable level. He's my weeklong wereform. (So never underestimate the power of insomnia.)
-I believe this write-up proves that this char is way more stylin' than Ray Patean and his zealot.

So what's next on your plate?
The mashed potatoes if you'd ever pass them down this way. Srsly, I'm about half-finished with a Barb that should be pretty gg. Wait with bated breath for my next installment. Same Liq time. Same Liq channel.

tl:dr Conclusion
I pat'd a Werewolf that's better than urmom. So now it's probably time to visit with a doctor concerning your obvious feelings of inadequacy.

Like the Pat? Get on the GG bus. Don't like the Pat? You can ride the other bus.

Sechs, comments, sechs, questions, sechs, or remarks?

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by Low Key on Oct 26, 2008:

Patriarch Lucas - Flaming Mauler

Another pat from me. This time a Flaming Mauler, a Werebear using both Fire Claws and Maul to do both fire and physical damage

Stats

Level: 84
Str: 42 (106)
Dex: 91 (136)
Vit: 357 (357)
Ene: 20 (32)

Life: 903 (2854 as Bear)
Mana: 186 (300)

75/75/80/75 resistances
10104 defense (After Shimmering Armor from Fort)
86% FHR (6 frame BP)
43% chance to block

Fire Claws with Maul buffed:
4632-5424 damage, 7340 AR.

Can't be bothered to do the math, but this is very inaccurate due to Grief being buggy. 3281-3591 is pure Fire Claws damage, but with my ED% and +damage, Grief is likely doing something around 5000-8000 average damage per attack. On top of that you can add the level 15 Venom and other sources of elemental damage.

Skills

Fire Claws 20 (25)
Volcano 20 (23)
Fissure 15 (18)

Maul 5 (10)
Shockwave 5 (10)

Werebear 20 (29 prebuffed)
Lycanthropy 5 (14 prebuffed)

Items

Grief Phase Blade (+395, 40% IAS)
Sanctuary Troll Nest (70 resist all)
On Switch: Heart of the Oak eth Flail & Lidless Wall

Jalal's Mane with 40% ED/7% FHR Jewel.
Fortitude Archon Plate (29 all resist, 1,36 HP/lvl)
Dracul's Grasp (+15 Str, 9% LL)
Gore Rider
Bone Chain, Crafted Mesh Belt
Raven Frost (20/232)
Havoc Whorl, Rare ring
Highlord's Wrath

Shimmering SC of Vita x3 (5/20, 5/18, 5/16)
Shimmering SC of Sustenance (5/14)
Shimmering SC of Anthrax (5/50)
Shimmering SC (5)
Iron SC of Balance (20/5)
Sharp GC of Sustenance x4 (34, 30, 28, 22)
Sharp GC of Strength x2
Sharp SC of Dexterity
+61 max damage, +466 AR in total.

Bone Chain
Mesh Belt
Defense: 37
Durability: 14 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 72
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 94
Fingerprint: 0xacab64b0
+20 to Strength
+25 to Life
Lightning Resist +7%
2% Life stolen per hit
24% Faster Hit Recovery
8% Chance of Open Wounds

Havoc Whorl
Ring
Required Level: 74
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xc0425869
+40 to Life
+34 to Mana
+31 to Attack Rating
5% Life stolen per hit
6% Mana stolen per hit

Merc: NM Act 2, Might
Eth Reaper's Toll
Delirium Diadem
Eth Wire Fleece Treachery

Thoughts

Pros:

- Overall a pretty nice character to play. Great safety, good killing power against single targets with amazing crowd control from Shockwave and the merc's Delirium.

- Fire Claws is a pretty nice skill, though it requires a pretty hefty point investment in it. I could routinely just hit Physical immune things to death with it, even at p3-p5 in the later acts of Hell. The very small damage range makes it do awesome average damage. The speed is also nice, though I was "only" attacking at 7 frames per attack, due to my weapon of choice.

- Shockwave on the other hand isn't "pretty nice". It's amazing. The skill reminds me of a close range Mind Blast that hits even more enemies and entirely disables them for a longer time if you've got points invested in it. Though I probably wouldn't have had that much trouble with surviving, Shockwave allowed me to do crazy and stupid with extreme safety. Like for example, meleeing Oblivion Knights with my Grief. An OK stunned for 7 seconds isn't an OK casting Iron Maiden on me. And one great thing about the skill is that it doesn't override curses. Considering I had 3 different curses from other sources, this is good. Overall, I'd put this skill in the top 10 of best skill in the entire game.

- Hunger deserves a mention here too. Great skill that allowed me to stay alive in some rough spots with only a 1p investment. Doesn't do much damage, but the leech % is huge.

- Having both Delirium and Reaper's on the merc and Dracul's on me meant that there were 3 curses activating pretty often. The overriding isn't as troublesome as one might think. If monsters were on Decrepify, they couldn't hurt me. If monsters were on Confuse, they wouldn't care about hurting me. And if monsters were on Life Tap, I wouldn't care about them hurting me.

- Only had one death. I'll let the screenshot speak for itself. Manage to take it about 1 second after the merc vaporized and 1 second before I shared the same fate.

Cons:

- Single target melee attack is a real pain, even with the damage I was doing. On higher player settings having to hit each monster 4-5 times or more gets very frustrating. And then there were times like this when I would have killed for Lightning Fury.

- The blocking was a pain. I knew that Werebears block horribly slow, interrupting their attacks before I even made this character. However I had the great idea of using the lowest possible Dex my equipment requires and thus having a very low block rate. Turns out 136 Dex isn't quite low enough and that I'd still block over 1/3rd of attacks. Oh well, still only a minor inconvenience.

- I rather didn't like Maul as a skill. It basically has a 20 second timer on it, or you loose the extra damage it adds. As a result I constantly felt pressured to keep it going, to the point that I used it as a primary attack skill over Fire Claws, even against non-FI enemies. That and that it has horrible AR unless you really invest some points in it. If I'd rebuild, I'd go for pure Fire Claws instead.

- And to be honest, my weapon of choice isn't really optimal for the character type. Though 7 frames is fast, the possibility of 4-6 frames is what really makes Werebears shine and I opted to not take that and instead went for the huge physical damage of Grief. In retrospect, the character would have probably been much more fun with a really fast two-handed weapon, like a Tomb Reaver and focus on Fire Claws instead of Maul.

Finds

Nothing noteworthy. Absolutely no MF means absolutely no great finds. The occasional decent jewel, pgems, some runes up to Lum. Hellforge was Pul - Ist, though.

Thanks

To everyone who helped me make this character, be it by trading or by giving me advice.

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by LprMan on Dec 3, 2004:

Patriarch Lachdanan

Well, I just shamelessly copy & pasted this stuff from a thread I posted on another forum couple of days ago. I just thought I could post this here too as this is one of my all-time favourite builds and I found some great stuff while questing

This is quite long one so be patient :lol:

Furydruid is my favourite melee character, and as I have found some nice items for that build, I thought about making one. I stole a nice name for him (my last furydruid was called Lachdanan too, imagination, yeaah ) from D1 and started whacking. Today he killed hell Baal and reached Patriarch status. And I must say, I have never before found as much good stuff while questing I played on p8 all the way just for fun, I haven't done that solo ever before

Normal was quite easy. The first acts were boring...killing all those monsters one by one with Feral Rage was horrible. I died once on normal, I was surrounded by dozens of Flayers and both my weapon and armor broke On lvl 31 things got much better, shaeled Ribcracker and Fury is deadly combo

Nm was even easier, on lvl 56 I twinked my druid with upped & shaeled Ribcracker. Not much else to say about nm

After killing nm Baal on lvl 73 I just tried to get to the Pits asap. I had to do some leveling there so I could equip Lachdanan with Tomb Reaver and Azurewrath. Before lvl 85 he was almost helpless against PI's. In Pits he found Veil of Steel, 2x assy trap skiller (+str and +dex as 2nd mods), 175 psn dmg lc and this small charm:

Arcing Small Charm of Frost
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 57
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xc1a2c546
Adds 1-41 lightning damage
Adds 1-2 cold damage over 1 seconds

Quite nice sc

In act 2 Dry Hills a random monster dropped Pul rune

In act 3 I found 5% allres sc and almost got killed by Stormtree (managed to escape after 6 full rejuvs)

Act 4 was slow going. Monster had so insane amount of hp Really, it was harder to kill a pack of few spawners than Mephy. Hellforge dropped Lem and I didn't kill my druid in Chaos Sanctuary

First parts of act 5 were a joke but Frozen River was horrible. Gloams and sirens everywhere draining my mana and killing my merc, grizzly and Oak Sage I met gloams in Great Marsh but they were so much easier than those act 5 ones. Well, after long time stuggling there I rescued Anya, identified the stuff I had picked up. One of those jewels I got there turned out to be this:

Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x85d49373
+35% Enhanced Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed

My second ed/ias jewel ever :flip: I was quite shocked when edentified it

Killed Ancients on p8, I didn't reroll them even once because they weren't FE. Korlic was mana burn and Talic had Amp but they died easily

FELECE Bartuc killed me and Baal dropped only one unique, Bonehew

Some things of note:

-Mana burn sucks
-Anything with stun attack is really dangerous. Almost every time I was in great danger there was monsters with stun attack hitting me
-Oak Sage dies too easily
-Upgraded Ribcracker is really good weapon


For stats and stuff:

http ://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfolders/upload9/Lachdanan.jpg

Skills:

20 Lycantrophy
20 Werewolf
20 Fury
20 Oak Sage
12 Grizzly
4 Dire Wolf (for grizzly life bonus)

Gear:

Jalal's Mane (37ed/1-13 lgt dmg jewel)
Highlord's Wrath
Tomb Reaver (280% ed, 50% allres, 3 sockets filled with 31ed/15 ias and 39%ed jewels and Shael)
Azurewrath (1-100 lgt dmg/-15% reqs jewel) and Tiamat's Rebuke (26 ar, 1-99 lgt dmg jewel) on switch for PI's
CoH
Steelrends(42% ed, +18str)
8/14 SoE
Gore Rider
228/19 Raven Frost
dual leech ring with some resists and ar

6x Shapeshift skiller, 4 of them with 2nd mod
rest are various charms adding damage, ar and life

Jemali the Might merc is wearing Vamp Gaze (Um), upped Shaft (res all/+life jewel) and shaeled Reaper's Toll

I will try to do some MFing with this him now. I have never had a real melee MFer but this guy seems to be capable of doing that

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by maxgerin on Apr 20, 2008:

Double Pat/Mat Thread: Burning Builds (Fire Claw Bear and Pure Fire Sorc)

I completed these characters 2+ months ago, but for one reason or another I didn't bother posting about them. Neither of them are anything close to spectacular, but I guess I can consider them as decent builds.
Both characters were also completed before my conversion to RWM, so no Spirit or Fortitude.

Since I fail to get screenshots of the gear/skill set-up upon completion of the game, I tried my best to remember their equipments at that time and equipped it moments ago and took screenshots of that. Of course I have already leveled them so I can't get the original numbers again.


Matriarch Pyronia--Pure Fire Sorc
Character name : Pyronia
Character type : Sorceress
Character level : 85
Character exp : 1081878902

Strength : 125
Energy : 35
Dexterity : 35
Vitality : 270
Stat Points Rem : 50
Skill Points Rem: 9

Life : 1041 / 704
Mana : 678 / 203
Stamina : 428 / 418


Skills (Hardpoints Invested):
Fire--20 Fire Bolt, 20 Fire Ball, 20 Meteor, 20 Fire Mastery,
1 each for Inferno, Blaze, Firewall and Warmth. (+2 Fire Master, +9 to all from gears)
Lightning--1 each for Static Field, Telekinesis, Teleport. (+2 Lightning Mastery, +8 to all from gears)
Cold--none. (+2 Cold Mastery, +8 to all from gears)

Fire Ball Damage: 8095--8938
Meteor Damage: 16997--17805

Gears
Helm: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest w/ Ral Rune
Armor: Tal Rasha's Guardianship w/ Thul Rune
Weapon 1: Tal Rasha's Lidless Eye w/ +30% PR, 10%MF Jewel
Shield 1: Head Hunter's Glory w/ 3x Perfect Fire Facets Die (+15%Fire Damage, -15% Fire Resist)
Weapon 2: Call to Arms--Crystal Sword
Shield 2: Lidless Wall
Amulet: Tal Rasha's Adjudication
Ring 1: The Stone of Jordan
Ring 2: The Stone of Jordan
Gloves: Magefist
Belt: Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth
Boots: War Traveler

Charms: 1 Gheed's, 24 SC's of Good Luck some with Prefixes (I'm not really sure if this is accurate, but since I can't remember using Fire Skillers I assume I had MFSC's instead).


Merc Jemali (Holy Freeze Merc)
Helm: Guillaume's Face
Armor: Duress Archon Plate
Weapon: Eth Reaper's Toll (before I punched a hole)


Gaming Experience:
Contrary to what others claim about Fire-based builds, I didn't have too much trouble with her, except for one occasion: Hell Diablo. Obviously, I was the merc who dealt with all the Fire immunes I can't telepass, with some help from Static Field when necessary. Hell Ancients might have to be re-spawned, I can't remember for sure how many times.
My sole purpose on making her is to run Andy for some trinkets. Not that I need more jewelries, but just to have another MF-diversion/target and jewelries are good for trading. But I wasn't able to do that ever since I completed her.
I still have another quest to finish that requires continuous HF pounding.
Leveled her through Pindle runs, which are quite fast, specially when I re-equipped her.


_________________________________________________________


Patriarch Beethoven--Fire Claw Bear
Character name : Beethoven
Character type : Druid
Character level : 81
Character exp : 764389791

Strength : 85
Energy : 20
Dexterity : 95
Vitality : 265
Stat Points Rem : 30
Skill Points Rem: 2

Life : 1630 / 715
Mana : 491 / 180
Stamina : 634 / 404


Skills (Hardpoints Invested):
Elemental--20 Firestorm, 20 Molten Boulder, 20 Meteor, and 20 Fissure. (+6 to all from gears)
Shape-Shifting--20 Fire claw, 1 each for Lycanthropy, Werewolf, Werebear, Feral Rage, and Maul. (+6 to all from gears)
Summoning--1 each for Raven, Spirit Wolf, Oak Sage, Dire Wolf, Grizzly. (+5 to all from gears)

Fire Claw Damage: 6539--7316

Gears
Helm: Aldur's Stony Gaze w/ 2x +3% Fire Damage -5% Fire Resist Facets
Armor: Aldur's Deception w/ +4% Fire Damage -5% Fire Resist Facet
Weapon 1: Aldur's Rhythm w/ 3x Shaels
Shield 1: Stormshield w/ +25% Lightning Resist -15% Req Rare Jewel (with some other mods)
Switch: Naj's Puzzler
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope (+28% Resist All)
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Carrion Wind
Belt: String of Ears
Boots: Aldur's Advance
Gloves: Wraith Claw

Heavy Gloves​

Defense: 5​

Durability: 14 of 14​

Required Level: 35​

Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion​

Item Level: 85​

Fingerprint: 0x6fdcf691​

+8 to Dexterity​

Fire Resist +30%​

Cold Resist +23%​

Poison Resist +27%​

20% Increased Attack Speed​

Poison Length Reduced by 25%​

Backpack: Nothing I can remember aside from the TP Tome/ ID Tome, and Keys.


Merc Alhizeer (Blessed Aim Merc) -- I don't know why I used this merc type...
Helm: Guillaume's Face
Armor: Duress Archon Plate
Weapon: Eth Reaper's Toll (before I punched a hole)


Gaming Experience:
I intended this build to replace my original Aldur's Druid (a Wind Druid of some sort).
I though the original was already the suckiest Druid build I can make, with all the wrong skill placements and whathaveyou. But I have to say, this build just lowered my respect for Druids even more.
Maybe it's the gears, but what can I do?! I'm stuck with them because it won't be Aldur's Druid otherwise.
Maybe I'm just plain stupid when it comes to Droods.
Or maybe...whatever.
I just abhor Druids.
I'll try a Wolf next time and see how that goes, but that will take awhile to complete cause most likely I'll find a better build to do.

Ok, now I'm done with the rant, here's the actual gaming experience...
It sucked that I have to do a few swings just to kill some FI critters just outside Hell A1 town.
It's good if the swing is fast, at least that won't bore me.
I just hurried with the leveling so I can use the teleport stick and telepass whenever I can.
I can't remember any tough spot, but then again I telepass most of the game, right?!
The only good thing about it was it's solid build.
Sure, I died a couple of times, but mainly due to random continuous TP.
Otherwise, the build withstood enough battering.
That's it. Nothing more to this build.


Thanks for reading!
Comments, suggestions, mistakes, rants, whatever, are always welcome. :flowers:


--maxgerin

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by maxgerin on Jun 8, 2005:

Class-specific Set Pat/Mat Countdown: 2 out of 7

After making my Tal Rasha's Wrappings MeteOrb Sorc a Matriarch, here is another step closer to completing my goal...

Aldur's (Semi-Wind) Druid

This was never meant to be my Aldur's Druid. Most suggested that I go with Fireclaw (?) Shapeshifter, but I remeber having a disheveled clvl 75 semi-Wind Druid (you'll see why semi in the skills) and I thought that would be perfect. I didn't break my self imposed restriction of using the complete set the moment the entire thing could be worn by the character cause Aldur's Watchtower requires clvl 76.

Stats so far...

Character name : (Patriarch) Lupin
Character type : Druid
Character level : 83
Character exp : 913092792

Strength : 105
Energy : 30
Dexterity : 105
Vitality : 265
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life : 1100 / 718
Mana : 617 / 204
Stamina : 777 / 406

Hell Resists: 75% All, with 5 Poison Resist SCs (10-11 resist)

Skills (hardpoints):

Elemental Skills:

• 5 Cyclone Armor
• 11 Twister
• 20 Tornado
• 20 Hurricane
• 1 in everything else (total of 6)

Summoning Skills:

• 1 Raven
• 5 Spirit Wolf
• 6 Dire Wolf
• 10 Summon Grizzly
• 2 Oak Sage
• 5 Heart of Wolverine
• 1 Poison Creeper
• 1 Carrion Vine

Shape-Shifting Skill:

• 1 Werewolf

Lupin's Gears:
Helm--Aldur's Stony Gaze, socketed with 2 PRubies
Armor--Aldur's Deception, socketed with 1 PRuby
Weapon--Aldur's Rhythm, socketed with 3 Cold Facets (+3/-5, +4/-5, and +4/-3)
Shield--Stormshield, socketed with PDiamond
Switch Weapon--Naj's Puzzler
Belt--Verdungo's Hearty Cord, 14% DR
Gloves--Magefist
Boots--Aldur's Advance
Amulet--Mara's Kaleidoscope, 28% resist all
Ring1--The Stone of Jordan
Ring2--Raven Frost

Backpack: aside from 5x 10% or 11% Poison Resist SCs, he also carries 8 Natural GCs. This is my way of making up for the wrong placement of hardskills.

Merc's (Defiance, level 83) Gears:
Helm--perfect Vampire's Gaze
Armor--upped Shaftstop
Weapon--upped Ethereal Kelpie Snare

Just like the usual, I remembered he was played with /players 8 all throughout Normal and Nightmare. Hell Act 1 to Act 3 was played with /players 3. Act 4 and 5, all players 1; except when I wanted to level him up through Pindle for the remaining 1/4th experience bar to clvl 83, /players 3. I died a lot in A5 because I teleported right into a monster pack cause i was in a hurry to finish, so eventually I was forced to use Naj's sparingly.

Hell Hellforge dropped me a Mal, which is a decent enough find for me.
Baal, just like the usual, didn't drop anything good: Kuko, Bloodletter, and Milabrega's Rod. Thanks very much, Baal.
Diablo didn't drop even an Isenhart's, but he did give me this...

Doom Spike
Flamberge
One-Hand Damage: 40 to 60
Two-Hand Damage: 56 to 104
Durability: 39 of 50
Required Dexterity: 49
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 48
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 94
Fingerprint: 0x1b4c0d01
+300% Enhanced Damage
+171 to Attack Rating
+4 to Minimum Damage
8% Mana stolen per hit
30% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)

nice ED and IAS, but I don't plan on wasting runes to upgrade it.

Next in line is my lvl 59 Avenger Zakariah.

I would really like to make a real Wind Druid soon, more so now I can make a HotO thanks to 1500+ stingy Countess runs. Maybe after I finish Zakariah.

--maxgerin

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by maxgerin on May 17, 2005:

Class-Specific Set Goal Countdown: 1 out of 7

I've done it! Well, at least partly...

I killed Hell Baal, albeit /players 1, an hour or so ago with my MeteOrb Sorc equipped with Tal Rasha's Wrappings.

Stats so far...

Character name : (Matriarch) Pnembra
Character type : Sorceress
Character level : 86
Character exp : 1218905365

Strength : 90
Energy : 50
Dexterity : 200
Vitality : 175
Stat Points Rem : 5
Skill Points Rem: 3

Resists: Hell, 75% all, with Sandstorm Trek on

Skills:
20 Frozen Orb
10 Cold Mastery
1 in each cold pre-requisites (total of 5)
20 Fire Ball
20 Meteor
6 Fire Mastery
6 Fire Bolt
1 in each fire pre-requisites (total of 3)
1 Warmth
1 in Static Field, Telekinesis, and Teleport

Pnembra's Gears:
Helm--Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest, socketed with Ral
Armor--Tal Rasha's Guardianship, socketed with Thul
Weapon--Tal Rasha's Lidless Eye, open socket
Shield--Rhyme Grim Shield
Belt--Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth
Gloves--Magefist
Boots--Sandstorm Trek, but when I killed Baal, wore perfect mf War Travs
Amulet--Tal Rasha's Adjudication
Ring1--The Stone of Jordan
Ring2--The Stone of Jordan

Merc's (Holy Freeze, level 86) Gears:
Helm--perfect Vampire's Gaze
Armor--upped Shaftstop
Weapon--upped Kelpie Snare

Maintained /players 8 all throughout Normal and Nightmare. Act 1 Hell, still /players 8, iirc. Act 2 and 3, varied from /players 4 to 1. Act 4 and 5, /players 1 all the way questing. I was in a hurry to finish her and focus on Pally. But did some Pit and Pindle runs at /players 3. No notable drops for the entire game, except probably for the Mav's Armor that dropped in one of my Pit runs. Baal even had the guts to drop me just one set/unique item, a Trang-Oul's Armor!!! Well, I guess he knows what my game plan is that's why he dropped me part of a class-specific set...

Thanks to sasja's Meteorb Guide (3rd ed)!
And thanks to everyone who helped me decide on my future builds to, hopefully, complete my project.

Next in line is my Avenger Pally, still level 26 in Act 3 Normal... long way to go.

--maxgerin

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by @Miron on Nov 1, 2018:

Patriarch Iscandel – Rabies druid

This is my second attempt at the rabies druid. The first one I decided to equip with Aldur's set and while he was quite fun and worked well it just felt wrong not to use Plague Bearer on a rabies druid.

After reading several guides and posts I settled for a "sick puppy" build from The Amazon Basin forums. It's basically a rabies druid utilizing the HCMTF mode to spread rabies around. There are several possible builds (fury/rabies, FC/rabies, full rabies….) each with his pros and cons. Since it's a bit of headache to effectively combine 'chance to flee' and a melee skill, I decided to go for full rabies build (max lycanthropy and werewolf). In addition, after reading a bit about rabies and some frustrating experience with act 2 mercs and fleeing monsters, I settled for a rogue as a mercenary (and as the main source for HCMTF) and indeed she proved to be a perfect match for the build.

Gameplay

I started this char quite a while ago so I don’t remember much from the early stages. Rabies itself is a level 18 skill so you can start using it very early. Few +skills raise rabies damage way more than needed to finish norm & NM. At some point, just at the beginning of NM, I actually thought about lowering the damage because fallens died too fast to effectively spread rabies. The real problems began once I reached Kurast in Hell difficulty.

- It turned out that wide open areas are not really so great since the monsters have too many directions to run away and usually (by Murphy law) they ran near or away from their friends.

- In addition to the problems with wide areas, the increasing HP, poison resistance, regeneration and sometimes healing slowed the progress to a frustrating crawl with lots of retreats and chases after runaways.

- The poison immune monsters are some of the most dangerous and annoying types they usually come in large groups and tend to scatter once engaged. A partial solution was a weapon with "Freezes Target" in order to stop them from fleeing and because most of them are PI/LI or PI/FR. I also abused the AI (running away from danger) by reposition of the bear to catch them between us. More than once the monster just stood there while the poor AI tried to find the best route to escape.

Don’t get me wrong, the char was very fun and safe to play, with the merc usually creating a "barrier/safe zone" and once the rabies got them it resulted in some of the bloodiest scenes I saw:

Spoiler

Rabies also give you some form of AoE which is quite useful in situations like this:

Spoiler

Most of the problems were overcome by changing the equipment a bit, slowing the progress or just skipping the area (mostly at act 5 hell and the maggot lair).


The Ancients required a second attempt (Korlik managed to corner me on the first attempt ==> TP to reset them) with Talik being the only real danger and luckily I managed to isolate and kill him at the beginning on both attempts

Spoiler

The waves weren’t much of a problem; the first 3 went down fast due to them not being PI.
Wave 4 was a bit of a hassle forcing me to retreat while constantly recasting the bear (he poofed in 2 hits) but in the end the rogue got them.
Wave 5 was somehow broken by itself, I somehow managed to lure about 3-4 minions one at a time and from there it was no more a challenge.

Baal himself took 10 minutes to kill with almost no CB, he didn’t pose any danger once we slowed him down but it took FOREVER. I'm quite sure that the real winner wasn't Iscandel or the merc but the 'Open Wounds' modifier.


Equipment

For the most part I actually used Rattlecage on both of us to get as much HCMTF as possible (and for the rare occasions the monsters wandered too close to us). At some point I felt that we don't really need so much HCMTF between us and the merc was more than enough as the only source so once I reached level ~65 I started to test some equipment combinations. Since I only have 1 Death's Web it wasn’t an option but I did try another (found with this char!!) wand which might go nicely with a future rabies/fury build:

Beast Wood
Bone Wand
One-Hand Damage: 3 to 7
Durability: 7 of 15
Required Level: 26
Staff Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xbe847066
+32 to Mana
Adds 38-82 fire damage
5% Mana stolen per hit
+1 to Poison Explosion (Necromancer Only)
Hit Causes Monster to Flee 100% <-- Nice!
Ignore Target Defense <-- Nice!
150% Damage to Undead

Eventually it was a tough decision between Bramble and Rain, I settled for Rain for its longer rabies length (but lower damage) the higher level of summons and a nice manna bonus to help recast grizzly.

Act 4 forced me to change rouge's equipment too in order to deal with the high regeneration of barlogs. Off went the Rattelecage armor to be replaced with Crow Caw to provide a source of OW. The loss of 40% "to flee" was somehow mitigated by using Dol rune in the bow. For special events she also had an upped Riphook and Blackhorn's Face in stash. The merc proved to be a crucial part of the build, another contribution to the fun factor in light of the usual role of mercs.

Helm: Jalal
Weapon #1: Plague Bearer (Dol)
Weapon #2: Frostwind (Shael)
Shield #1: Moser (*2 PDiamond)
Shield #2: Tiamats
Gloves: Trang gloves
Belt: Trang belt

Armor:
Rain
Wyrmhide
'OrtMalIth'
Defense: 437
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 84
Required Level: 50
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x6b92e2ee
+124 to Mana
Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Lightning Resist +30%
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
5% Chance to cast Level 15 Twister on striking
5% Chance to cast Level 15 Cyclone Armor when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Amulet:
Entropy Gorget
Amulet
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xfe72e4b9
+4 to Energy
Fire Resist +15%
Lightning Resist +15%
Cold Resist +24%
Poison Resist +15%
+1 to Druid Skill Levels
Poison Length Reduced by 50%
Half Freeze Duration

Rings:
Chaos Circle
Ring
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xdec98c06
Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +24%
Cold Resist +20%
Poison Resist +28%

Chaos Finger
Ring
Required Level: 43
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x6aebaaee
+27 to Life
+13 to Mana
+103 to Attack Rating
Poison Resist +7%
4% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +6

Charms
3 Shape-Shift SK
2 Summon SK
2 CR (~5% each)
3 Fire damage charms

Merc
Face of Horror (15IAS/30 AR&Damage to demons jewel)
Crow Caw (15IAS/8 min jewel)
WWS (Shael, Dol)


Stats & Skills

Skills with equipment:

Spoiler

Naked:
Str 100
Dex 150
Vit 206
Spare 42

Max: Rabies, Poison Creeper, WW, Lycan
1pt: Grizzly
9pts: HoW

Thanks for reading

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by @Miron on Aug 9, 2009:

Pat bremen & Mat Aycora - double thread

Patriarch Bremen -- Aldur's rabies druid

Background story (and the planning stage)

2 main reasons led me to create this druid.

1) One of my goals in D2 is to find, and use at least once, every class-specific set. Two months ago I managed to complete the aldur set so I had to make a druid based on that set.
2) Same as Purplelocust before I wanted to find a use for the "medusa gaze" shield, IIRC he made 2 builds and in the end found this shield useless. I thought that maybe this build is more suitable for this shield.

*For some strange reason all the pats threads I saw about aldur druids were fireclaws bears or fireclaws/fury hybrids. I don't like the fireclaw build so I decided to make rabies instead.

On paper it looked like a solid plan: the full set give huge '+to strength' so no need in high str investment = more to vit, being a druid I will have nice life pool and will be able to take few hits in order to cast LR...

The main problem (I was aware of in the time) was the slow kill speed of rabies compared to poison nova and ama's poison skills. I decided not to depend only on LR so I made this weapon for my merc:
Crescent Moon
Thresher
'ShaelUmTir'
Two-Hand Damage: 35 to 411
Durability: 58 of 65
Required Dexterity: 118
Required Strength: 152
Required Level: 53
Polearm Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
+192% Enhanced Damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
Ignore Target Defense
25% Chance of Open Wounds
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
+11 Magic Absorb
10% Chance to cast Level 17 Chain Lightning on striking
7% Chance to cast Level 13 Static Field on striking
Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30/30 Charges)
-35% to Enemy Lightning Resistance

Everything seems to be covered...ok, lets do it...

Game progress
Normal & NM
No special events during normal and NM.
It was a twinked char from the beginning; I don't have envy gear so I used a combination of rares and uniques instead. Used normal attack till feral rage was available, then a combination of feral/rabies and in the end fury/rabies.
Jalal and plague bearer on level 44 and upped bonesnap on switch carried me through NM up until baal runs.
With the help of my fury druid equipment I leveled up until I hit 76 and was able to use the full set and the 'medusa gaze' too.
Deaths: I died couple of times during NM, probably (it was a month ago so I don't remember) because of my reckless play stile.

Hell
Before entering blood moor: ok, lets see if my strategy work...
Few NDE's later I discovered another flaw I wasn't aware of in the beginning: it's not a good idea to stand in the middle of boss pack if the boss is cursed...
It took me the first two acts to learn how to position myself and when to retreat to heal myself. I still had to spend a lot of money to revive my merc if I failed to retreat far enough.
From act1 black marsh and on I ran past PI's, I killed them only if I had no other option.
Deaths: Had 2 shameful deaths:
1. Tried to outrun pindel and his minions...
2. Managed to get myself trapped in the middle of young worms... :doh::banghead::ashamed:


Tough battles:
Act2- halls of the dead (my hands still shaking)- the skeletons are poison immune and the mummies are LI... rooms with up to 4-6 groups of mummies and skeletons... VERY slow progress there only to get that cursed WP.
Act5- frozen river- vipers, souls (LI & PI), witches, sure why not, why to melee if u can kill him miles away with few shots... Lots of hide and lure games to bring those souls more closely.
Baal- forgot to mule Kelpie Snare on, had to fight him without any CB, I think it took like 15 min to bring him down

Funny moments:
Act3- the jungle- lots of flayers = almost any group is under LR curse and as they tend to run away sometimes the whole screen is infected.
Act4- plains of despair- oh no! souls!...hey wait a second, they are not poison immune...:scratchchin: :evil::mua:
Act4 & 5- CS & the throne level- very nice pursuit by the barlogs and lister (later on) in the process I run through the whole CS and the whole throne main corridor couple of times in order to separate the packs.

-To my great surprise LR triggers often enough, almost half of my battles ended with the group being under LR curse. When it was cast it was almost immediate death for any non PI monster (poison immune).
-The best thing about the bear is that he is recastable so I can quickly reposition him or just cast him behind me while I'm retreating.
-This guy used more life pots then any of my existing chars.

All in all it's a nice build that forced me to play a bit different then my usual play style.

Few numbers:
Level 82
Base:
Str 125
Dex 80
Vit 183

Unused points 92

Skills (+7 to SS, + 4 to summon):
20 in: poison creeper, werewolf, rabies, lycanthropy
1 in: bear, fury, spirit of the barbs

Unused 4

switch 1, switch 2

Equipment:

Full aldur set with ort, tal, low end (3%) poison facet in the weapon, verdungo.
Ring1: Rune Coil
Ring
Required Level: 70
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x632190c
+8 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+11 to Mana
+73 to Attack Rating
Regenerate Mana 9%
Fire Resist +19%
Lightning Resist +10%
Cold Resist +10%
Poison Resist +10%

Ring2: Storm Eye
Ring
Required Level: 69
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xd8b3152a
+14 to Strength
+4 to Energy
+104 to Mana
+64 to Attack Rating
Regenerate Mana 4%
Fire Resist +26%

Amulet: Eagle Emblem
Amulet
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x39671d5f
+3 to Strength
Fire Resist +18%
Lightning Resist +18%
Cold Resist +25%
Poison Resist +18%
+1 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)

On switch: baranar's star & Tiamat's Rebuke

Merc: Tal's helm, shaftstop

Charms:
3 SS skillers (one with +6 to str)
2 100 poison damage over 5 sec
1 vita sc
1 11% LR + 25L LC

Few Pictures
pic 1, pic 2, pic 3,barlogs are tough..., plains of despair,CS




Matriarch Aycora -- blizzard sorc

Technical Info:
Level 85
Base,With gear
Str 90
Dex 65
Vit 202

Left: 123

Life: 568
Mana: 203


Skills (+9 to all):
Blizzard, Glacial Spikes, Ice Blast-- 20 points
Ice bolt -- 17
CM - 10
Warmth, static, teleport, cold armors -- 1 point

Damage:
Blizzard 4061-4285
GS 1023-1085
IB 1972-2043

Eqipment:

Shako + shael rune
Vipermagi 35% + 15% jewel
Lidless + Pdiamond
Oculus
Magefist
On switch: spellsteel (for decrepify)
Amulet: Ghoul Beads
Amulet
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 89
Fingerprint: 0xf66e3718
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Fire Resist +11%
Lightning Resist +11%
Cold Resist +11%
Poison Resist +50%
Replenish Life +8
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
Level 5 Inner Sight (48/48 Charges)

Ring1: Rainbow Ring of the Apprentice
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 57
Fingerprint: 0x95f52ef8
All Resistances +11
10% Faster Cast Rate

Ring2: Scintillating Ring of Sorcery
Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x479f12de
+12 to Energy
All Resistances +15

Boots: Bramble Shank
Heavy Boots
Defense: 5
Durability: 14 of 14
Kick Damage: 4 to 10
Required Strength: 18
Required Level: 26
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0xd73e67a5
+4 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +16%
Lightning Resist +6%
Poison Resist +12%
10% Faster Run/Walk
Half Freeze Duration

Belt: Spirit Lash
Vampirefang Belt
Defense: 111
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 51
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0x7a47209
+20 to Mana
+74% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 6%
Fire Resist +23%
Poison Resist +24%
24% Faster Hit Recovery
9% Faster Cast Rate

Merc: andy + ral, tomb reaver + 2 amn + 1 shael, armor:
Pain Shroud
Great Hauberk
'Shael'
Defense: 684
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Strength: 118
Required Level: 56
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x861a86f6
+36% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 3
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
37% Faster Hit Recovery
Half Freeze Duration
Socketed (2: 1 used)

Charms:
1 cold skiller
2 50 mana GC
13 LR sc
13 mana sc
29 mana LC

Game experience
Simple and common cookie cutter, blizzard is great AoF spell all non CI's die in 1-2 blizzards, I leveled in AT to 84 so I could equip my merc with his gear from then I teleskipped almost the entire game and stopped only to take wps and complete the quests.
She didn't struggle in any point in the game, most of her equipment was available on level 45 so after normal I had almost all the needed gear.
Had to reroll the anc's few times till I managed to kill them, this time I did mule the Kelpie Snare on so baal fell down in 2-3 min.
Deaths: had few due to the random teleport CtC on oculus, not to many though

For some strange reason although I play this game for ~5 years this is my first ever blizz sorc...

Thank you for reading this long thread.

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by MukTuk on Jan 9, 2008:

Patriach Talbain, level 85 Fury Wolf (+Intro)

I haven't made an intro yet, so I figured I may as well make one now if I'm going to make one of these threads =p. I'm 19, and from New Zealand. I've played D2 a few years ago when I was 14-16, but unfortunately lost my copy of D2 when I lent it to a friend that I never saw again once school finished. I had had a few urges to play since then, and eventually broke down and shelled out $100 NZ for a D2 battle chest so I could play again a few months ago. And here I am =p

Talbain was a twinked werewolf. I had a few nice things for him (Jalal's, Ravenfrost, Steeldriver), but not a whole armoury of top-end gear, so there was still some challenges and room for improvement in the gear-department.

Playing him wasn't all too difficult. I breezed through late normal and all of NM with an Upped Shael'ed Steeldriver, but things got a bit harder in hell. My resists sucked, I entered hell with about 20/1/17/-47, which made things tricky sometimes. I didn't encounter too many PI's, which was good, as they were a pain to deal with when I did find them.

One thing I'm particularily proud of is that I never once died, although I had a nasty near death experience with the combined force of 3 Brute boss packs in the underground passage in hell, but I don't carry around 16 Full rejuv's for nothing. I played it careful around Obv knights in hell (as opposed to with reckless stupidity in Norm and NM =p), and let my Merc take care of most of the killing, so no problems there. Ancients were easy, first roll had the thrower as LE Cursed, WWer as Mana Burn CE, and the Leaper as Stone Skin something else. No problem. Lister was a pain though, LE, Holy Shock, Cursed. His pack tore my Merc to shreds a few times and had me on the run, but I eventually took them down between a few town trips. Baal was a push-over, didn't need a single pot. Dropped nothing useful though.

Then, Tyreal decides to go and put the f-ing portal where I can't reach it. Bah. So I had to return to Act 2 and shop Drognan untill I found a war staff with some Telekinesis charges so I could activate the portal and win the game. Note to self: Tyreal is a moron, twink all future chars with a TK Ring.

But in the end, I made it =p

Talbain
Level 85
STR: 140 (120)
DEX: 194 (174)
VIT: 232 (201)
NRG: 40 (20)

Life: 2335/3536 (before and after Oak sage)
Mana: 321

Fury Damage: 1952-2648 / 2414-3284 (before and after merc's Might)
Fury AR: 8594 (71% to hit Baal)
Defense: 813

Fire Res: 75 (85, actually, but capped at 75)
Cold Res: 31
Lite Res: 52
Pois Res: 1

Skills
25 (20) in Fury, Lycanthropy and Werewolf
12 (7) in Feral Rage (more leech to keep me alive - worth it)
23 (20) in Oak Sage
8 (5) in Dire Wolf (more Grizzly life - paid off well)
4 (1) in Grizzly
and pre-reqs and whatnot

Gear
Immortal King's Stone Crusher
Ogre Maul
'HelHel'
Two-Hand Damage: 231 to 318
Required Strength: 135
Required Level: 76
Mace Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xe1965ae
+200% Enhanced Damage
Requirements -40%
40% Increased Attack Speed
200% Damage to Demons
350% Damage to Undead
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
Indestructible

Before this, I was using a Shael'd Up'd Steeldriver, which worked quite well. I found this in Hell Act 3, when I figured I had enough Str to use it with two Hel runes. I actually had found one of these a while ago with my MF Sorc, with 35% CB, but I didn't think to see if I could use it with some -req gear untill I found the 40% CB one. That meant I *could* of been smashing things with an IK Maul starting around Act 1 Hell, but all well, the Steeldriver kicked *** all the way untill I swapped it out anyway.

Switch 1
Djinn Slayer
Ataghan
One-Hand Damage: 88 to 155
Durability: 22 of 22
Required Dexterity: 95
Required Strength: 138
Required Level: 65
Sword Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0x47d048c8
+239% Enhanced Damage
Adds 250-500 fire damage
6% Mana stolen per hit
143% Damage to Demons
+257 to Attack Rating against Demons
+4 Lightning Absorb
Socketed (1: 0 used)

This was to deal with PI's. I found it somewhere in Act 5 Hell, and it was better than what I was using before for general PI's. I never got around to Shaeling it for more speed.

Switch 2
Soul Mar
Balanced Knife
Throw Damage: 9 to 18
One-Hand Damage: 1 to 13
Quantity: 160
Required Dexterity: 51
Required Level: 10
Dagger Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0x4dec8113
+65% Enhanced Damage
+10 to Attack Rating
10% Increased Attack Speed
5% Chance to cast Level 1 Amplify Damage on striking

I picked this up in Act 3 Hell as well, and replaced my previous PI weapon with it (previous was a rare staff with about 54-200 fire and 1-200 lite damage). It also dealt with PI bosses quicker than the staff/sword too, but it was pretty annoying to use against packs of regular PI's though.

Jalal's Mane
Totemic Mask
'Um'
Defense: 249
Durability: 13 of 20
(Druid Only)
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0xc5e20a96
+20 to Strength
+20 to Energy
+152% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +45
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating

My pride and joy =p. This previously had a PRuby untill I found an Um from the Hell Hellforge.

Gemmed Chaos Armor
Defense: 327
Durability: 67 of 70
Required Strength: 140
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0x82912e24
+152 to Life
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Let me explain. I had long figured that since Werewolves don't get any skills to help out in the def department, that it was probably a lost cause trying to reach high values of defense to avoid attacks, so I instead settled for armour with useful mods. I figured that instead of trying to avoid attacks by boosting def, that I should just take them and leech back the damage. Boosting life also meant it was harder to put me into hit-recovery, thus I would also be uninterrupted while attacking. After WW and Oak Sage, this ended up being about +700 life, so it was pretty handy.

Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Mithril Coil
Defense: 153
Durability: 14 of 16
Required Strength: 106
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x1c147285
+31 to Vitality
+102 to Maximum Stamina
+132% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 15%
Replenish Life +13
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Perfect 15% PDR, very helpful. The rare belt I had before was nice too (55 life, 25 fire, 21 lite, clvl req 25) but melee attacks were far more common and worriesome than fire and lite, so Dungo's won out.

Talbain's Bone Finger
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 10
Durability: 13 of 14
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 54
Fingerprint: 0xec846a6d
+17 to Life
+44% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +19%
2% Life stolen per hit
9% Chance of Crushing Blow
14% Chance to cast Level 5 Nova when struck

The only thing I can say about these is that I was constantly wishing that the ctc nova was a ctc frost nova instead. That would of been waaay more helpful, but oh well. The amount of novas that were going off was insane in the flayer jungle.

Loath Blazer
Chain Boots
Defense: 16
Durability: 12 of 16
Required Strength: 30
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 38
Fingerprint: 0x66f18a3b
+3 to Dexterity
+62% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +40%
Lightning Resist +20%
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Previously Nat's Soul. I swapped them at Act 4 Hell as I needed fire res far more than cold res. The loss of 40% FRW when you've gone nearly the whole game with it took a little getting used to. It also made me less mobile against gloams, which was another downside.

Plague Turn
Ring
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0xa7df0be4
+7 to Mana
Fire Resist +23%
Cold Resist +29%
4% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +4

Pretty kick-*** ring for a level 13 req eh? =p

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x446ce8be
+17 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+209 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Bloody useful. Probably my most loved item of them all, behind Jalal's.

The Eye of Etlich
Amulet
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0xe001618c
+28 Defense vs. Missile
Adds 1-3 cold damage over 6 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
+4 to Light Radius
+1 to All Skill Levels

Okay I guess. I tried to get a better one with some combination of +2 skills, life and res all, but never got anything decent. All-round decent enough amulet though.

Charms
I won't list them all, but with 4 GC's, 5 LC's and 4 SC's I had a total bonus of +96 life, 38 lite res, 27 cold res, 47 fire res, 26 poison res, and 175 poison dmg over 6 secs. As you can see, I had to use a lot of charm space to make up for my poor resists.

Merc
'Insight' Grim Scythe (113-243 dmg, lev 17 meditation)
Undead Crown (for the 5% life leech, needed it somewhere)
Rare Ornate (586 def, 35 life, 25 fire, 21 lite)

Thats all, hope I didn't make it too long and boring >.>

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by MukTuk on Feb 14, 2008:

Patriarch Pryomaniac, the Fireclaws Werebear

(first, I'm just going to warn you that I ramble a bit and this may be big >.>)

My second Pat since I joined this forum is Pryomaniac, the Fireclaws bear. I wanted to try one out ever since I heard that all you need is a 6-Shaeled Phase Blade and you can kick some ***. I happened to have said phase blade sitting in a stash (though I didn't end up using it!)

So how was the gameplay? Well, to start off with, pretty boring. Werebears seem to have hideously slow attack speeds to start off with which does not make for much fun with single-target attacks. Things got a little better at level 13 when a Steel Large Axe came into play, killing speed was decent enough. Once level 18 rolled around, Fireclaws became available and I could start adding some damage, though not much at first. The real milestone though, was level 29 when Shael's become available to play with, and I had a 6-Shaeled Great Axe waiting for me at that moment.

And holy bloody hell, what a difference it made. As soon as I equipped that, killing speed skyrocketed as I was swining a 4-frame Fireclaw. Gameplay changed significantly from that point in, it basically became "hold the right mouse button down, if you see a monster, simply move the cursor over it and it will die". This turned my werebear into a bulldozer of death, able to rip his way through things in just a few seconds. I was killing Uniques and Champions before I actually realised that I was killing Uniques and Champions! Even the annoying game of 'chase the bloody Imps all over Mount Arreat' was not a pain, as soon as you moved next to an Imp they simply disintegrated. This was great fun.

Well, untill you run into Fire Immunes that is. Then it takes a little while, but FI's weren't as much of a problem as I thought they would be. With a Might Merc, HoW and Shockwave, they were standing there dumbly while my Merc picked most of them off.

Speaking of Shockwave, it deserves a whole tangent of its own. It is simply one of the most utterly useful and probably imbalanced skills in the whole game. At slvl 15, you can stun things for 10 seconds, and you can re-cast it and re-apply the stun whenever you want. 10 seconds. Thats enough time to make mincemeat out of most things. It even (sometimes) works on Unique boss monters! It makes you incredibly safe. Stun dolls, let your merc explode them. Stun OB Knights, they won't curse you. Stun Greater Mummies, they won't revive the aforementioned annoying undead. Stun Gloams, they're sitting ducks. Stun Lister the fricking Tormenter if you want to! Almost nothing can kill you with smart use of Shockwave. I was able to sit back and enjoy a bowl of Ice-cream while my merc slowly worked his way through the Infector of Souls's minion pack in Hell, all without worry. What other skill can let you lay claim to *that*?

Unfortunately, even as safe as Shockwave can make you, it is no protection from your own silly mistakes and mis-judgements. I had a few deaths, I'll admit. I'm also one of those people who are against using Save & Exit when confronted with a possible death situation. fI I get into a mess, I'm either going to get myself out of it or die trying. No wussy clean escapes for me. The first death came in Act 3 Hell, and having gone that far without dying, you just can't help but feel a little bit invincible. Or at least I can't. I was kinda tired and it was late at night, but I started a game of D2 anyway. It was only a few minutes after entering the Spider Forest, there were storm hawks and suckers. Pfft, weaklings. I have never given blood hawks any credit, always passed them off as annoying little pests more than anything. I crossed a bridge to the over side of the river where I was attacked by a Might-aura blood hawk boss pack.

Of course, instead of hanging back and taking them one by one or god forbid, considering them a risk and Shockwaving them, I instead chose to run smack into the middle and start swinging away. It was working too, untill I head that all too familiar sound that meant I had now reverted back into a pink little fleshy weakling, aka human. Then things turned bad. Their attacks were enough to start putting me into hit recovery, so I wasn't able to immediately shift back because of it. I tried to run to give myself some space, but was still getting hit wherever I went, and each hit was taking alarming chunks of my life-bulb away. I died when I did not hit a Full Revuj in time, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would of made it out of that mess. Note to self: don't underestimate Might enchanted *anything*, even little hawks. This rather embarassing death put me in a pretty foul mood, so as soon as I found the Great Marsh waypoint I closed D2 and went and tried my luck with another game, where I had much better success =p

I had my second death in the River of Flame. There was a boss Urdar pack (Cursed, CE, and some other stuff), with some blood maggots and vile mothers hanging around. I stunned the whole pack of Urdars and anything else next to them, and went in to help my Merc take down the boss Urder who refused to be stunned, as he was the only dangerous one at that point. Before I knew it though, I was surrounded by blood maggots and vile children. No real problem yet, untill the stun wore off on most of the monsters and my Merc and I started taking a fair bit of damage. I tried to re-stun them, but its actually pretty tough to try and aim it right when you're completly surrounded. The damage kept racking up, and I was running through Full Rejuv's pretty quickly as I was trying to cut myself a path out of this mess and re-group. Being stun-locked by the Urdars did not help me, and soon I ran out of all my pots. My merc fell soon after, and I was stuck alone trying to battle my way out. I didn't make it in time, I had most of them dead and nearly had an escape route, but I got stunlocked again and was helpless. Note to self: stop underestimating maggots and mothers, they can swarm you before you know whats going on. Now after all that you'd think that I'd learn from my mistakes and be careful and make sure it never happens again ... right?

BAHAHAHAHA. No. Of course not =p. About five minutes later, I get myself into THE EXACT SAME SITUATION. This time, I had no rejuv's to bail me out. I did manage to stun the entire lot just before I was about to die, and so I had time to swap to my Steeldriver to leech back some life quick. Once I was healthy again, I swapped back and could carve my way out to safety.

I had one other close call in Hell Catacombs where I got trapped between two rows of barrels by two Unique zombies. I escaped through a town-portal, jumped back in on the other side, and proceeded to kick their ***. Among the loot left behind was a 4-os Monarch. This is why you wusses shouldn't S&E at the first sign of danger, you miss the good loot afterwards =p

Blah blah blah, lets just skip to the end. Ancients took many rolls, had another NDE before I got a good roll and wiped them out. WSK wasn't too hard, Lister took forever, and so did Baal. Baal dropped a Naj's Light Plate, better than some of the other junk I guess. Tyreal wasn't a moron this time, and I could enter the portal without the help of TK. Yay.

STATS
Pryomaniac
Level 83
STR: 118 (88)
DEX: 168 (132)
VIT: 296 (256)
NRG: 40 (20)

Life: 2510
Mana: 304

Fireclaws Damage: 3838-4293
Fireclaws AR: 7842
Defense: 1323

Fire Res: 75/16
Lite Res: 75/15
Cold Res: 75/20
Pois Res: 67/12
(figures are Post and Pre Fade)

SKILLS
17 (13) in Lycanthropy
15 (10) in Shockwave
25 (20) in Fireclaws
10 (7) in Heart of Wolverine
39 in Fireclaw synergies
1 in pre-reqs

I got a bit greedy with the Fireclaw Synergies and stole points from HoW, thinking that I'm already able to kill FI's fast enough and that more damage won't help too much. I was mostly right, though killing FI's would be much faster if I did pump more into HoW. It also mean that it was as weak as a glass kitten, so it wasn't actually around to help in most battles where it could be helpful. I started to rectify this during the last few levels, but it might be a bit too late.

GEAR
Practically almost everything Pryo is wearing was borrowed from Talbain the fury wolf. Which makes a bit of sense, they're both shapeshifting meleer's and have mostly the same needs. One of the things sorely missing from my gear though is Crushing Blow. It seems almost criminal to not have any when you're swinging 6 1/4 times per second, and trust me, if I had Duress an/or Gore Riders I'd be using them, but I don't so I can't =p

Weapon
Pryomaniac's Gemmed Great Axe
'ShaelShaelShaelShaelShaelShael'
Two-Hand Damage: 9 to 30
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Dexterity: 39
Required Strength: 63
Required Level: 29
Axe Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0x43b3b9d0
120% Increased Attack Speed
Socketed (6: 6 used)

The backbone of this build really. I still can't get over how fast this swings in the hands of a bear. I was originally planning to replace this with a 6 Shaeled Phase Blade, but never got around to it. That would of also opened up the use of a Shield, although I still wasn't sure whether I'd like the blocking part. Either way, this was good enough for me and I managed the game just fine with this.

Weapon Switch
Talbain's Steeldriver
Martel de Fer
'Shael'
Two-Hand Damage: 173 to 282
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 85
Required Level: 34
Mace Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x1937612c
+185% Enhanced Damage
Heal Stamina Plus 25%
Requirements -50%
Required Level +5
60% Increased Attack Speed
150% Damage to Undead
Socketed (1: 1 used)

This was for killing FI's. I originally planned to swap to this and use Maul, but Maul had horrible AR so I swung this with Fireclaws instead. It was also a bit slow (10fpa), and sometimes it was actually faster and more convienient to just stay with the Axe and swing away at FIs, rapidly applying elemental damage and open wounds to bring stuff down, as well as supplying Lifetap for my Merc. This was mostly used to leech back large amounts of life quickly when Lifetap was active, as there isn't much physical damage on the Axe, despite the fast swinging I regained health too slowly.

Jalal's Mane
Totemic Mask
'Um'
Defense: 249
Durability: 20 of 20
(Druid Only)
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0xc5e20a96
+20 to Strength
+20 to Energy
+152% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +45
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating

Tasty mods. I love this helmet.

Treachery
Mage Plate
'ShaelThulLem'
Defense: 248
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 55
Required Level: 43
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x4d29655b
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
45% Increased Attack Speed
20% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
5% Chance to cast Level 15 Fade when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Why a Mage Plate and not Archon Plate? Impatience, basically. I had no AP plate and didn't want to find one. There is no ED% on Treachery anyway so the difference is pretty minimal anyway. Treachery was pretty damn useful. Fade was very useful for maxing out my resistances, although sometimes it just refused to activate when I needed it most. You do *not* want to be fighting Extra Fast Lightning Enchanted Conviction Aura Bremm Sparkfist with -60 or worse resistances. Venom was also very useful. As I understand it, Venom applies its poison damage in 0.4 seconds, or 10 frames, and also 'condenses' other poison damage into that same time frame, thereby increasing its potency. With a 4 frame attack, I was able to very rapidly apply large amounts of poison damage, enough to actually be able to *kill* FI/PI monsters with a bit of time. The IAS also brought the Steeldriver attack speed down from 12fpa to 10fpa.


Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Mithril Coil
Defense: 153
Durability: 14 of 16
Required Strength: 106
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x1c147285
+31 to Vitality
+102 to Maximum Stamina
+132% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 15%
Replenish Life +13
10% Faster Hit Recovery

With this and Fade active, I had 30% PDR. Very helpful.

Dracul's Grasp
Vampirebone Gloves
Defense: 138
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 76
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb879e44
+10 to Strength
+110% Enhanced Defense
10% Life stolen per hit
+9 Life after each Kill
25% Chance of Open Wounds
5% Chance to cast Level 10 Life Tap on striking

Lifetap was often the difference between life and death for my Merc and I. Life fade though, its not always there when you need it. It was only after my Merc died and Hell Duriel was down to 15% HP did Lifetap decide to show up. Open Wounds was also fun, almost everything was bleeding. This circle of blood used to be Hell Diablo (his body shattered, in case you're wondering)

Aldur's Advance
Battle Boots
Defense: 42
Required Strength: 95
Required Level: 45
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0x20a0b332
+50 to Life
+180 to Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 32%
Fire Resist +41%
40% Faster Run/Walk
10% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
Indestructible

All round useful. The Life and Fire Res really helped out.

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x446ce8be
+17 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+209 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

A melee character's best friend

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 78
Fingerprint: 0x40f016bc
+19 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+216 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

A melee character's *other* best friend =p

The Eye of Etlich
Amulet
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0xe001618c
+28 Defense vs. Missile
Adds 1-3 cold damage over 6 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
+4 to Light Radius
+1 to All Skill Levels

Still haven't found a better Druid amulet. I'd take a +3 SS one over this. +1 skills still meant another 200 odd FC damage, which is not bad.

Charms
To summarise, I had mostly +fire, lite and poison resistance charms with some +life, and a +175/6sec poison damage one for added Venom goodness.

MERCENARY
Ahsab, Might Merc
'Insight' Grim Scythe (113-243 dmg, lev 17 meditation)
Rockstopper Sallet (about 30% res each)
Up'd Boneflesh (563 def. I wanted a non-Lifetap source of leech, and this was 'okay' enough to use)

TREASURE
I managed to find a few nice items during my playthrough. I often forget that MFing isn't the only way to get good things, sometimes you're just lucky and find them while playing. Items of interest include:

Two io runes and a Ko rune, from random monsters.
*Two* Vidala's Barbs from Normal Diablo. Cheers. </sarcasm>
Tal Rasha's Lidless Eye from a ghost boss in Act 1 Hell Jail. Only have the Armour and Amulet to go now, yay.
A Thunderstroke from a boss leaper in Act 2 Hell. I got all excited thinking it was a Titan's, but it turned out to be this. Which is still good. (I think >.>)
A Wormskull, Waterwalks *and* Razorswitch in the space of only 3 minutes while in a Act 3 Temple. The Skull and Walks were also within about 30 seconds of each other too. While not ZOMG godly, their rapid appearance had me surprised and rather amused. I also got my hopes up thinking I had a Ribcracker, as I totally forgot what its base item type was. Cue disappointment >.>
Rockstopper from somewhere in Act 3 Hell. About 30%ish res for each. More balanced in resistances than the one my Merc had on before, so it was put to good use.
El rune from Normal hellforge. Awesome.
Hel rune from Nightmare *and* Hell hellforge. AJKGHKGQTYKLDJS;FL >.<
4 Open Socket Monarch from a zombie minion in Hell Catacombs

Hooray, you've come to the end of my lengthy write-up! Congratulations if you read it all >.>

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by MukTuk on Apr 19, 2008:

Patriarch LoneWolf, level 81 Solo Fireclaws/Fury Werewolf

For my next character, I decided I would give myself a challenge and do a 'themed' character, just to test my D2 skills. My idea (which probably isn't original by now =p) was to make it through the game solo. And by solo, I meant the following restrictions:

No Mercs. No summonable minions of any kind. No twinking. No ATMA stashes (since that would be simulating a mule, another character. Muling off good things I found was accepted though). And while I'm at it, no RRW or /players x either.

Basically, LoneWolf was to do everything by himself with no direct outside help (if he could help it, you can't stop Flavie or the Act 5 Barbarians unfortunately). It was going to be tricky facing the armies of hell all alone, but I was determined to see it through.

So how was it? A mixture of fun and frustration. It was nice not having to babysit a merc and buy it gear or mess around with hotkeys for summons or curse your suicidal spirit of whatever, and it was also good for herding monsters exactly as you want them. It was also incredibly tough facing off against big packs of strong opponents, especially fast ones who could not be seperated easily. Large unsplittable packs were my worst enemy. Mass ranged attackers also gave me a headache as well. However, in most cases, a tactical combination of choke-points, using walls, hit-n-run and just plain running helped to take them down. This character has taken me a while though, I took a few week-long breaks near the end out of sheer frustration at how slowly I was progressing, but I struggled through it all.

Playing untwinked offered its own challenges, but smart use of resources and the cube helped me scavenge up a decent set of stuff with which to kick-*** with. A limited stash did not help either, but I managed with not too many hard decisions to make about what to keep and what to trash. I even ended up surprising myself with a few of the smart things I kept and had a use for, such as using a Gull dagger on switch for chest-popping or holding onto Cleglaw's Pincers for use against bosses and other tough monsters. It also impacted my skill choice, I needed a way to deal with PI's as I could not rely on items or minions to do it for me, so the saved points in summons ended up being re-directed into Fireclaws. It worked out well though.

But as you can tell, despite the difficulty of it all, I was eventually successful. Behold, LoneWolf! (the rest of this post is kinda large, so be warned >.>)

STATS
LoneWolf
Level 81
STR: 187 (165)
DEX: 120 (87)
VIT: 223
NRG: 29 (20)

The reason for the high Str was because I was aiming to be able to equip a Giant Thresher, as my last-resort weapon was going to be a Cruel GT with 1-2 Shaels, created with the chippie recipe. I never ended up needing/using one though, so a lot of points in STR were wasted, but its hard not to have wastage when you're untwinked I suppose.

Life: 2156
Mana: 221

Fury Damage: 990-1872
Fury AR: 3954
Fire Claws Damage: 784-883
Fire Claws AR: 4267
Defense: 241

Damage was not spectacular, but it was enough. FC was more effective than it looks here due to the speed of a 5-frame attack, in some cases it was quicker to kill with that than use Fury!

Fire Res: 40
Cold Res: 68
Lite Res: 74
Pois Res: -16

I was kinda lucky with the resistances I ended up with, I feared I might have to take on hell with negative or close in most of them, but mass resist charms saved my *** by the time I got there.

SKILLS
Werewolf: 12 (11)
Lycanthropy: 21 (20)
Feral Rage: 7 (6)
Fire Claws: 13 (12)
Fury: 21 (20)
Firestorm 21 (20)
3 in pre-reqs

Skill-points were kinda tight, despite not spending any on summons at all. I didn't have a concrete plan, so I spent them as I needed them, like boosting Feral a few times to get my life leech up to my goal of 10% LL in Hell. I boosted WW a bit because I was in dire need of AR, and also it was to reach a BP with my final weapon. The Fury/Fireclaws combo actually worked really well, I'm interested to see how it could turn out on a heavily twinked character.

GEAR
Gear is especially important to an untwinked character, so I'm going to do my usual 'list each piece and comment on it' thing, explaining why I found it useful, why I chose it and how I used it to good effect (and how I was lucky to even get it! =p)

The Minotaur
Ancient Axe
'Shael'
Two-Hand Damage: 129 to 245
Durability: 37 of 50
Required Strength: 125
Required Level: 45
Axe Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 68
Fingerprint: 0xa0b7b75c
+17 to Strength
+154% Enhanced Damage
+20 to Minimum Damage
+30 to Maximum Damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
Hit Blinds Target +2
Half Freeze Duration
30% Chance of Crushing Blow
Slows Target by 50%
Socketed (1: 1 used)


The Minotaur, also known as 'the only reason I even made it through hell'. I was lucky enough to find this from a NM Baal run. Speed is not the greatest, but man oh man, look at those debilitating mods! 50% Slow was amazingly useful in making things less dangerous and more managable. Blind was useful too for keeping the heat off me and disabling the special attacks of many monsters. 30% Crushing Blow was a welcome addition, and Half freeze proved its worth too. My only complaint is that its a bit less than fast, but who needs speed when each hit almost completly neuters a monster?

Gemmed Great Axe
'ShaelShaelShaelShaelShael'
Two-Hand Damage: 9 to 30
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Dexterity: 39
Required Strength: 63
Required Level: 31
Axe Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 52
Fingerprint: 0x8022b4d2
+17 to Mana
115% Increased Attack Speed
Socketed (6: 6 used)

On switch for FC. I was lucky enough to socket this in the cube first try. This gave me a 5-frame attack, which was incredibly useful combined with the Knockback I had elsewhere, as I could stun-lock monsters with it. This did its job rather well against PI's too, taking them down fast enough. I also swapped to this to build up Feral Rage much faster too, a little idea I was rather proud of when I thought of it.

Blood Brow
Circlet
Defense: 58
Durability: 104 of 105
Required Level: 51
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0xe5ab4e63
+9 to Energy
+18 to Dexterity
+21 to Life
+89% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +38%
+1 to Druid Skill Levels

A gift from NM Baal. The poison resistance was especially great, as I had almost 0% from my gear otherwise. The Dex was a godsend for the AR, and +Life is fun too.

Gemmed Gothic Plate
'RalOrtRalOrt'
Defense: 129
Durability: 52 of 55
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 53
Fingerprint: 0xd99f5eaf
Fire Resist +60%
Lightning Resist +60%
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Simple, yet very effective. This went a long way to building my resistances to the more dangerous elements for Hell.

Coral Plated Belt of the Whale
Defense: 10
Durability: 23 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xf40a4083
+99 to Life
Lightning Resist +28%

Power-shopped from Hell Charsi. This was *exactly* what I was looking for too. A good blue can go a long way.

Cleglaw's Pincers
Chain Gloves
Defense: 8
Durability: 15 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 4
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x72eae0ad
Knockback
Slows Target by 25%

I originally threw these in the stash to deal with NM Duriel and other bosses, but by Hell the KB and 25% slow proved far more useful than what I had on my other KB crafted gloves (9-10% fire/lite res, 3% ll, 5% ctc frost nova). With the Minotaur, I had 75% slow against monsters which was *incredibly* useful. I honestly doubt I could have done many parts of the game without it. KB helped keep monsters off my back and gave an escape route if I got surrounded. It was also very useful for seperating Ghosts when they 'merge' into one giant pack, the 5-frame attack of FC + KB meant I could seperate a merged ghost pack with ease. I used to think KB on a melee character was mad, but not anymore, this was a lifesaver in many places.

Sander's Riprap
Heavy Boots
Defense: 6
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 18
Required Level: 20
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 43
Fingerprint: 0xd88fcf80
+5 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+100 to Attack Rating
40% Faster Run/Walk

I simply could not replace these because of how useful the AR was. 40% FR/W is nice too, but it was the AR that sold me, as through-out most of the games it was much less than I liked.

Ghoul Hold
Ring
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xb3b1d3f5
+9 to Life
+11 to Mana
+16 to Attack Rating
Cold Resist +26%
6% Life stolen per hit

A gift from Ormus. A little bit of everything, but it was the Cold res that was the big draw here.

Garnet Ring of Blight
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 68
Fingerprint: 0x3cb9168c
Fire Resist +27%
+50 poison damage over 3 second

Made from the cube. Simple yet just what I needed.

Bone Eye
Amulet
Required Level: 56
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 53
Fingerprint: 0xf763a000
+12 to Mana
+4 to Maximum Damage
Regenerate Mana 9%
Fire Resist +16%
Lightning Resist +16%
Cold Resist +34%
Poison Resist +16%
+1 to Paladin Skill Levels
9% Faster Cast Rate

Caster craft that turned out decent enough. If only it was +druid skills instead...

CHARMS
I'll just make this part short. 4 GC's, 8 LC's and 6 SC's gave me a total of 120 Life, 7% FR, 80% CR, 40% LR, 20% FHR, 97 AR, +1 max dmg and +5 dex. I was very lucky with all the Cold res charms, that filled a big gap in my equipment.

MERCENARY
Oh wait, there was none. I didn't even talk to Kashya after Blood Raven. I didn't even do Blood Raven in Hell out of paranoia I'd accidenatly click on her.

STORY
Oh yes, I kept a log of my adventures, so here is a (hopefully brief) summary of my journey through the game.

Normal
Act 1
First weapon of note was a 3-socketed Large Axe with 2 topaz and 1 sap. I upgraded to a 'Steel' Large Axe once I reached level 13 (9fpa, 10-18 dmg). Found a Gull in the Tower, which I left on switch for chest-popping and Act-boss killing. Andariel was taken out with no problem.

Act 2
Here is where I had my first pangs of loneliness, a defiance merc would of helped reduce my hits, however I managed. Duriel was a major pain, it an entire inventory of pots and a re-fill trip to take him down.

Act 3
Upgraded weapon to 'Steel' Battle Axe. Slower (12 fpa), but stronger (17-41). Not much to note except a handy combat shrine by Durance WP 2 which I put to use for kicking Meph and his council buddies collective assess. Meph was no real hassle.

Act 4
Tyreal's reward went into Feral Rage, to ease things a bit. Diablo was a fun battle, just focusing on me and him, no stupid merc. Used the previous combat shrine for the first half of the battle too. Barely made it without a town trip for more pots.

Act 5
I cubed a Brutal Battle Scythe with 2 sockets, which I stuffed with Orts. Slower at 13 fpa, but far more powerful (25-63 dmg + 1-100 lite). Lister was a friggin *pain* to beat, but otherwise Baal and the Ancients and anybody else was easy enough. Suffered my first defeat to a Champion Cow. Please don't ask how >.<. Did some Baal runs to equip my new toy: Zakarum's Hand. Ignore Target Defense + ctc Blizzard = fun times.

Nightmare
Act 1
Cubed a Prismatic Amulet of Blight. Not too bad. Had a NDE with Andariel, caught between her and a unique zombie. TP'd out, came back and beat them to a paste.

Act 2
Things start to get interesting here. Radamant skill point goes into Feral Rage. I pick up Milly's Orb for added MF-Switch goodness. Then my whole world changes when I find a Heart Carver. Much better damage (45-114), also has ITD, and 35% Deadly Strike. If I socketed with Shael and
kept my 10% IAS Gloves/boost WW to 7, I'd reach a 7-frame fury. Blizzard is nice, but more leeching is more reliable, so I made my first major decision and went with the HC. Found Cleglaw's Claw, which I stashed for future use against bosses. Ran the Countess and socketed HC with Shael. Here is where I find things aren't so spiffy about this weapon, there is a hefty 2.4k per durability repair cost, and at only 20 durabiliy, its a short-run before its off to Fara. Cubed a +1 Druid, 44 life ammy, it was a tough decision but I didn't want to replace my current resistance amulet. Crafted KB Gloves with 9%fr, 11% lr, 3%ll and 5% ctc Frost nova, which is far more useful than you'd imagine. Safety craft indeed, these were handy. Duriel was a pain again, and it was certainly a tricky task to finish him off with the Gull, but I managed.

Act 3
KB is a pain against Flayers, but too useful against Hulks whose stun attacks spell death for me. Picked up a Great Axe, chanced it in the cube and got 6 sockets! I was overjoyed, this was going to be my weapon of choice for Fireclaws usage, and this just saved me a Larzuk quest. Picked up a Gothic plate and threw in 2x Orts and 2x Rals. With some thawing and antidote pots, I have maxed resistances. Killed Mephy, but due to a bad game exit it wasn't saved and I had to do it again (I had alt-tabbed out and tried to close it later to shut-down, things didn't go well)

Act 4
Izual points went into Feral again. I got swarmed and killed by a Cursed Extra Strong Grotesque pack in River. Joy. Picked up an Io rune from Hellforge, perhaps I could make Black in something? Diablo was no problem, but I should of given him a fair fight, his lightning hose was ineffective due to how close I had to be to hit with the Heart Carver.

Act 5
Picked up a GC and attempted to re-roll it a few times for a skiller with the PTopaz and PDiamonds I'd accumulated. Nothing. Found a warcry skiller 2 minutes later. The game is mocking me. NDE with Shenk, and later with FECE Snapchip. Ancients were a complete and total ****ing pain. They were too powerful and it was nigh impossible to seperate them by yourself. Eventually I got a roll where Exta Fast Madawc seperated himself, and I promptly disposed of him. I couldn't seperate the others, so I ended up tanking them both. Picked off Korlic first, then noticed how Talic couldn't WW due to how I was between him and the edge and he often stod still and did nothing. I noted this for future use. Ran out of mana when Talic was at 1/4 HP. Weapon broke when he was at about 1/10th. Finished him off with the Great Axe on swap. Then I remembered the Cleglaw's in the stash, d'oh, that would of helped a lot, but I won eventually. Shortly after I was swarmed and killed in WSK2 by Champion Scarabs and Vipers. Joy. Lister was Might enchanted, but Cleglaw's and some smart hit and run tactics and seperating them eventually took them down. I was starting to run out of cash for the damn Heart Carver too, only 60k left. Baal was not hard, just horrificaly slow. Did you know you can knockback tentancles? Funny =p. Didn't swap to Gull in time, and then missed a 125% MF quest drop. Not funny =(

Battered and panting, I was at the gates of Hell difficulty. I was not quite ready though, I needed to take care of a few things first (which will be covered under A1 Hell). My checklist was:

* Build up a fat stack of cash for Heart Carver untill it can be replaced.
* Level up to about 75-80 to improve hit chances, Str, life and Fireclaws damage for hell
* Get ahold of a magic Great Poleaxe/Cryptic axe and re-roll with chippies to get a Cruel with 1-2 sockets, this may eequire going into Hell to find though.
* Find 2 more Shaels to finish off the Fireclaws Axe
* Run cows for a while, try to craft some better gear and find some good charms

Hell
Act 1
Carefully ventured out into the Den at level 66. With careful and smart play, I managed to clear the Den with no deaths. Skill point into Firestorm. I did a few slow baal runs untill level 68. Hunted some normal cows for gems untill I cubed a Savage Ancient Axe with 2 open sockets, which I filled with Shaels after many, many countess runs. Damage is higher than HC (76-151), and is faster (6-frame fury), with more range, but unfortunately no ITD, but also most importantly cheaper. I can actually *make* a profit now. More baal runs, then I found an *ETHEREAL* Razor's Edge. Would of been a nice upgrade, but no, its now useless. Sigh.

A while later, I found 'The Minotaur', Unique Ancient Axe. Low roll (157%, 129-246), and would need a socket + shael to not suck at speed (13/8 frame fury), but it is far far more damaging, and has tasty tactical mods like 50% slow and Hit Blinds target, with some CB as well. Went rune hunting. Found another Io. I have 2 Dols, and 2 Hels, so one more of either can I can cube up to Lum and make Smoke armour. Finally found the Shael, socketed the axe and shoved it in.

Back to Baal runs. This thing kicks ***, anything that lives is usually knocked back, blinded, and then wandering around slowly trying to find me. Stopped Baal runs at level 75. Can't stand it anymore, I'm going into hell whether I'm fully prepared or not. Resists were 20/32/65/-39. Progress is slow and frustrating, but doable. Found a +28% CR GC. Yay. Found out that if I boost WW to 12, I cut my attack down to 7-frames, but I'm going to use my Imbue quests on pelts before I make the investment. Imbued a Spirit Mask, and got trash. Finally defeated Andariel with not too much trouble.

Act 2
Hit rate is really getting bad, 58% to hit Dung Soldier, thats not looking good >.<. Fighting is such a slow annoying pain that I'm now doing the bare minimum to get through areas. Maggot lair and Viper Temple were absolute and utter hell, took me hours to get through each. Hit level 78 at Arcane Sanc and sunk my saved points into WW for the faster swings. Duriel was not too difficult, though I needed two town trips for pots. 75% slow was amazingly useful. Picked up IK Gloves.

Act 3
It took me about an entire *minute* to dipose of the worms at the start. I realise I'll be royally ****ed if I encounter Vile Mothers in Act 4. Attempted another Imbue of a chicken head. Complete failure. Also didn't think it through and now have to re-explore spider forest, hooray. Great Marsh has Gloams, joy >.<. Found the WP early, so I decided now is a good time to stop and take a shower and resume later >.>. At the start of the Flayer Dungeon, I was harrased by some Champion and two Dark Shape boss packs. Handled them well enough, which was a pleasant surprise. Third and final failure at imbuing a decent Pelt. Oh well. Picked up a Crown of Thieves in Travincal. Kept in stash, may be useful. Took Mephy down without too much trouble, no town trips.

Act 4
Hit rate is getting worse. Encountered Vile Mothers in the footsteppes, awesome. Hugged the walls and tried to find the entrance quickly. The Plains had Gloams, but they weren't too bad. Chanced upon Izual near the borders, so I don't have to go through the entire gloam infested hellhole in search of him, most excellent. Vile Mothers again in the City, great. Took about an hour to fight through them. Fal rune from Hellforge. Nothing I could make with it though. Chaos Sanctuary took about a good hour and a half. Nearly lost my progess when Lord De Seis surprise killed me as I tried to run past him. My TP was by the seal too. I managed to get most of his pack following me all the way to the River WP where I ported away and came back through the TP. Diablo was easy, with 75% slow I could even avoid his Firestorm in time.

Act 5
Getting to Shenk was a pain, burning achers were EVERYWHERE. I reached the WP exactly as I ran out of money to buy pots. Not much of note, untill I hit the Frozen River and rolled Gloams, Ghosts and Yetis. ****. Slow and steady does it though, eventually I saved Anya. Skipped Nilathak completly, I'm mad, but not that mad. I reached the Ancients, and held my breath. They say that Hell Ancients is the biggest brick-wall of any variant character, and after my experience with NM Ancients, I was beginning to doubt if I'd make it. I did have 75% slow on my side though, so maybe I could.

Turns out my fears were unfounded and they were wusses. Took them out on my second roll, the 75% slow was awesome at seperating and killing them. Took out the Extra Fast Extra Strong Talic by remembering to disable his WW by standing next to an edge. Mana Burn Madawc was slow, as I could not Fury him to death, but he eventually caved. Korlic was Magic Resistant Extra Strong, but he was a wuss too. Breathed a huge sigh of relief, if I could take these, I could take anythiing. Well, except PI/FI Lister, which I prayed to never meet.

Hit up the WSK 1, forgot what was even there. However, I was quickly swarmed and killed right by the very entrance in WSK 2 by flayers. I had to save and exit and run all the way bacl up there though. Second roll had Gloams, but I hit up the WP soon enough. WSK 3 had Horror Mages, and those PI succubus types. The Throne was sparely populated with Invaders, Pit Lords and Vampires. Might Enchanted Colenzo was tricky, I knew not to underestimate him and so I killed his minions over and over untill most of them shattered. The rest were no trouble. Thankfully, Lister did not spawn with nasty mods, so I took him out with the divide and conquer tactics I had perfected from endless NM Baal runs.

Baal? Anticlimatic wuss. 75% Slow meant he never hit me. Pathetic AR meant I hardly hit him either, so it was literally just hold down the right mouse button and wait. Slowly and surely, like the entire game thus far, he eventually caved and I was successful. The drops sucked, but come on, this is Baal here =p

And thus, the story of LoneWolf ends. Don't worry, I probably spent longer typing it than you wasted reading it =)

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by MukTuk on Feb 7, 2011:

Patriarch Paws, Rabies/Fury Wolf

After finding a 300% ED Ribcracker, I was itching to put it to use on a Fury wolf, and after reading the 'Sick Puppy' strategy somewhere (combine Rabies + Hit Causes Monster to Flee), I wanted to give Rabies a try as well.

I was quite surprised on both counts. There's not much to say about the Fury Ribcracker, you hit things and they die, but Rabies? Much to say about that skill. Rabies was, to put it simply, a great deal of fun. The infection spreads fast within gorups, and it's usually not long before the whole screen is poisoned. It's fun to be able to infect one monster group with a single bite, and then turn your attention to another knowing that the first group is doomed to die and you don't need to pay them any more attention. There was one time I infected a boss pack of Extra Fast Goatmen, and ran off to explore the rest of the level, watching the group chase me and slowly start dropping dead, with the boss falling soon after. Rabies worked well against annoying things like Fallen, who tend to split up and flee once something dies. When the entire camp is infected, this doesn't do them much good and saves you much hassle chasing them down. There were times I was surrounded by heaps of infected monsters, knowing that I only had to hold on for a few more seconds before they all fell dead (and this saved my life once or twice early on). Special mention must be made for the Cow Level, Rabies' effectiveness can be taken to the extreme here, go see how many cows you can herd before infecting the lot. It's like a fun bonus round between difficulties.

Rabies can be quite tactical too. I noted earlier the 'Sick Puppy' strategy which was to utilise Hit Causes Monster to Flee to help spread the effect of Rabies by infecting one monster and sending them running off to infect anything else in their path. To achieve this, I used a 4xDol 2xEth Phase Blade on switch, although you can get a 100% HCMTF weapon very early, just buy a Wailing Wand from Drognan in Normal and you're good to go (though the speed is a little slow, so you can still find better options). This worked surprisingly well, there were times when an infected monster ran off screen, and I'd later discover small groups of corpses that had succumbed to Rabies. When dealing with large packs of monsters, often one or two will detach first and engage you before the rest of the group catches up, so this tactic was useful for sending one of them back to infect the group, allowing me to apply Rabies in a safer manner and to be ready with my kill weapon by the time the group reached me. There is a great deal of safety offered by this tactic too, if I wanted, I could stick with my HCMTF weapon and keep attacking everything that engages me, causing them to constantly be fleeing untill they finally die from poison - I used this to great effect against the PI Blood Lords in Hell. This offered a great deal of tactics too, I'd often be trying to 'aim' the fleeing monsters where I wanted them to go.

Some monsters made excellent 'carriers' with this tactic. Certain monsters have a flee speed much faster than their normal speed and will take off like a rocket when scared. These include Apes, Finger Mages, or anything that is naturally fast to begin with. Also good are monsters that can fly, as they can cross rivers and gaps to infect the monsters on the other side. Here is an example of a Wraith spreading my love to the Goatmen on the other section. Teleporting monsters were also fun; even though Imps would quickly fall to Rabies, their constant teleporting can help spread the infection very fast amongst scattered monsters especially once one Imp infects a few more. One of the best carriers though are Ghosts, as they can pass through other monsters without stopping and turning back. The absolute best place to employ this strategy is the Arcane Sanctuary. The ghosts will fly down the long narrow pathways and over the gaps, infecting everything in their path if aimed correctly. This made the Arcance Sanctuary one of this build's favourite areas. One more interesting thing about Rabies is that it will still infect Poison Immune monsters, so while they cannot be hurt by Rabies, they can still act as carriers. I learnt that while Hell Maggots are Poison Immune, their eggs are not. By infecting the Maggots with Rabies, I'd ensure that any eggs they laid would get infected and then destroyed before they had a chance to hatch. This was great when there were mass amounts of Maggots around, as this eliminated eggs I could not reach to destory in time and helped cut back on the Maggot swarms.

As far as Rabies damage goes? It starts out great, it will make short work of big groups such as in the Act II Tombs or Act III Flayers (about the time you'd first get Rabies at /p1) and will be a great deal of fun. A funny thing about Rabies though, is that you don't want the damage to be too high, because them monsters will die too quickly before getting the chance to spread the disease, but you don't want damage to be too low to be worthless, so there's a bit of balancing you may need to do. It also helps if the initial bite doesn't take so much of the monster's health that it dies before it has a chance to spread, this is why having a low-damage Rabies switch is useful. Rabies also benefits a fair bit from +Skills, as you increase the level you will see dramatic rises in the damage, a weapon switch with Plauge Bearer and Spirit could give you a +7 boost to Rabies, a significant improvement in damage. As the game goes on, Rabies' damage unfortunately gets less and less impressive as monster HP and Poison Resistance grows. It will start to take quite a while to work, and some monsters you're better off just killing with something else, so Rabies falls to a support skill rather than a main killing skill. As much as I wanted to use Rabies as my main offence, by Hell it was wasn't very worth it and I may as well just Fury everything to death. I think that for Rabies to be really effective in Hell, it's going to need some serious back-up in the form of +Skills, +% Poison Damage and -% Enemy Poison Res. As a Physical Immune solution, Rabies is not very good. Most things that are naturally Physically Immune tend to have high levels of Poison Resistance, making Rabies terribly slow. The only PI's it's effective against are the Bug Swarms, so look elsewhere for a PI solution. And it was completly hopeless against a few naturally spawning PI/PoI's as well

My word, all that text and I haven't even started on Paws' adventures. In fact, I think I've given you a pretty solid idea of what this character was like so I'll spare the details and just get on with the character dump (BEWARE: More rambling in the equipment dump, save yourself while you still can!)

STATS
Paws
Level 83
Strength: 106 (74)
Dexterity: 177 (141)
Vitality: 270
Energy: 40 (20)
HP: 2134
Mana: 304

Fury: 3558-5221, 6869 AR, 4 FPA
Rabies: 8848-9262 / 14.4 secs, 6489 AR, 8 FPA

Fire: 75 (20)
Cold 75 (18)
Lite: 75 (31)
Poison: 75 (34)

FHR: 86%, 3 Frames
Life Leech: 78% (w/Feral)
OW: 35%
CB & DS: 15%

27 (20) Fury
27 (20) Lycanthrophy
27 (20) Rabies
15 (8) Feral Rage
23 (20) Poison Creeper
4 (1) Summon Grizzly
4pts pre-reqs

EQUIPMENT

Ribcracker
Stalagmite
Two Hand Damage: 340 - 507
Durability: 107 of 30
Required Level: 38
Required Strength: 63
Required Dexterity: 35
Fingerprint: 0xdd21dcb0
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+15 to Dexterity
100% Enhanced Defense
+30 to Minimum Damage
+65 to Maximum Damage
+100 Defense
+100 Maximum Durability
Required Lvl +7
50% Faster Hit Recovery
50% Chance of Crushing Blow
314% Enhanced Damage
65% Increased Attack Speed
1 Sockets (1 used)

Socketed: Rusty Jewel of Fervor
Rusty Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x70548e66
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+14% Enhanced Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed

I was very happy to have found this very nice weapon.
Notice how the ED is 314%? Notice how the Jewel only offers 14%? Yes.

Gemmed Phase Blade
Phase Blade
One Hand Damage: 31 - 35
Indestructible
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 136
Fingerprint: 0x77680417
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Hit Causes Monster to Flee
50% Target Defense
6 Sockets (6 used)
Socketed: 4x Dol, 2x Eth

The fastest weapon I could get that offered 100% HTMTF.
Stuffing a Shael would've only dropped a frame
from 8 to 7, so I didn't bother and used
two Eths instead to make sure things I wanted
to be bitten would be bitten.

Raven Gorget
Amulet
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0x8b561598
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+1 to Strength
Fire Resist +7%
+1 to Druid Skill Levels
All Resistances +13

Treachery
Mage Plate
Defense: 248
Durability: 48 of 60
Required Level: 43
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0x4d29655b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
45% Increased Attack Speed
25% Chance to cast level 15 Venom on striking
5% Chance to cast level 15 Fade when struck
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
3 Sockets (3 used)

Bitter Lash
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 31
Durability: 11 of 12
Required Level: 24
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xe81b0efe
Item Level: 45
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+24 to Life
+29 Maximum Stamina
Fire Resist +18%
Poison Resist +14%
Attacker Takes Damage of 6
24% Faster Hit Recovery

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 158
Durability: 33 of 34
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 94
Fingerprint: 0xc169a65d
Item Level: 72
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+20 Maximum Stamina
193% Enhanced Defense
+10 Maximum Durability
Requirements -25%
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike

Dracul's Grasp
Vampirebone Gloves
Defense: 138
Durability: 9 of 14
Required Level: 76
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0xb879e44
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+10 to Strength
110% Enhanced Defense
10% Life stolen per hit
+9 Life after each Kill
25% Chance of Open Wounds
5% Chance to cast level 10 Life Tap on striking

Trang Oul's Gloves would've been ideal here for the
+25% Posion Skill Damage fro Rabies, but unfortunately
I didn't have any when I was sure I did.
Oh well, Dracul's is still awesome and saved my furry butt many times.

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x40f016bc
Item Level: 78
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+19 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+216 to Attack Rating
+15 - 45 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Unfortunately, cold damage interferes a little with the Rabies+Flee
combo, as monsters will get chilled and not move as fast,
however, there is no way I could give up the other
sweet bonuses either, so I just had to deal with it.

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x446ce8be
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+17 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+209 to Attack Rating
+15 - 45 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

And why not add another? An extra 4-5% chance to hit is never bad.

Jalal's Mane
Totemic Mask
Defense: 249
Durability: 16 of 20
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0xc5e20a96
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+20 to Strength
+20 to Energy
152% Enhanced Defense
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+5 to Mana after each Kill
+2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
All Resistances +45
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Um Rune

CHARMS:

Spiritual Grand Charm
+1 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
Coral Grand Charm of Sustenance
+24 to Life
Lightning Resist +25%
Jade Grand Charm of Balance
12% Faster Hit Recovery
Spiritual Grand Charm
+1 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
Jade Small Charm of Strength
+1 to Strength
Poison Resist +9%
Coral Small Charm of Greed
Lightning Resist +9%
8% Extra Gold from Monsters
Coral Small Charm
Lightning Resist +9%
Russet Small Charm of Greed
5% Extra Gold from Monsters

MERC:
Act 2 Might Merc
'Insight' eth Colossus Voulge
Tal's Mask (PAmmy)
Duriel's Shell (PAmmy)

800-4k ish Damage, 1,800 Life, Max Res and CBF. This set-up works ok, the PAmmy's are so he can equip the magical mana stabbing stick at a reasonable level.

SCREENSHOTS:
* What an appropriate name

* I sentence you to death by lethal infection

* A perfect example of the Rabies+Flee at play. A single bat woke up as I approached, and I sent him back to his buddies with a little gift. The whole lot died in their sleep.

* Tutorial: How to kill Shenk's army
Step 1: Nibble
Step 2: Wait
Step 3: Win!

END:
Thanks for reading!

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by muzzz on Jul 16, 2007:

Patriarch Blackfang, the Fury/Rabies wolf

A sickly Fallen wanders into Bishibosh's tent. "Wat da meaning of this?" asks the Shaman. The Fallen answers with his last breath. "Wolf". The Shaman remains silent for a moment, wondering what kind of wolf hunts without spilling blood. His aide motions for caution, but is quickly silenced.

The cry of "Kill Wolf" pierces the night, quickly answered by dozens of Fallen shouting "Bishibosh!". The Shaman steps out of his tent to watch the splendid sight of a bloodthirsty Fallen camp. Alas, he is greeted by the sight of bleeding and dying Fallen. Before he realizes what is going on, something snarls and the world goes black.

Blackfang shudders as he brushes the pieces of yellow-red Fallen innards away. "What a smell..."

Couldn't resist the awful fan-fic there. Sorry about that.

Patriarch Blackfang
Blackfang started out as an experiment. His goal was two-fold. To see if Rabies was viable in Hell, and to confirm what effect Venom had on Rabies' damage. Skillwise he's completely cookie-cutter. Maxed Rabies, Creeper, Fury and Lycanthropy. Everything else in Werewolf.

Progress
Normal was mostly a breeze. Act1 was ye average twinky stuff. Rabies' appeared in Act2. If it could talk it would probably have said "Veni, Vidi, Vici". Duriel was easier than with most characters. By Act4 I had a Steeldriver, and my only worries were Hit Recovery and OK's. Diablo was annoying because the Blessed Aim merc kept dying, but not threatening. Idem dito for Baal, who kept his clone up 90% of the time.

The start of nightmare was very much like the end of normal. Rabies got it's boost from Treachery in Act2, just in time to help with the Maggot Lair. Things were easy and fast until Act4, were Steeldriver started to run out of steam. The rest of Nightmare was easy and slow. Again, Baal kept spamming his clone. :grrrr:

I considered upping my Steeldriver for Hell, but decided I didn't want to raise the requirements on my only copy. Instead I did a few NM Baal runs to level up to the IKSC. Coupled with the gloves and boots, it performed so well that I didn't even bother with a switch (the Steeldriver's still there). After adding some more resists, the only thing I couldn't tackle was my own carelessness/stupidity/lack of skill. I really need to remember to be more careful with multi-boss-packs :undecided:. Yet again, Baal kept spamming his clone. This time, I just kept snarling :jig: (<--- dance I did on Baal's corpse)

Thoughts
Rabies was very useful as an extra source of damage. Especially against larger packs and PI's it greatly reduced the time needed to bring them down. I'm anxious to seeing what Trang's claws will do for him. The same goes for the IK belt and armor, if I ever get my hands on them.

AR is still a bit of an issue. Life leech becomes unreliable if my merc bites it. I'm hoping a few more levels will alleviate this a little.

Fun games to play with Rabies
Leaper football: you may only attack leapers-type monsters. Infect a leaper and smack it around. 1 point for every non-leaper-type monster you kill.

Hide and seek, with traps: no damage reducing gear of any kind (including resists). No healing or rejuvenation potions. You may only attack structures. Venture into the Frigid Highlands and kill as many monsters as you can.

Obligatory equipment block:

14: Cerebus' Bite
Blood Spirit
Defense: 346
Durability: 19 of 20
(Druid Only)
Required Strength: 86
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x4372d466
+137% Enhanced Defense
10% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Feral Rage (Druid Only)
68% Bonus to Attack Rating
33% Chance of Open Wounds
+4 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)

15: Chromatic Amulet of Inner Sight
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x1234b0a8
All Resistances +27
Level 4 Inner Sight (45/45 Charges)

16: Treachery
Diamond Mail
'ShaelThulLem'
Defense: 391
Durability: 16 of 26
Required Strength: 131
Required Level: 54
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0xae5961a5
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
45% Increased Attack Speed
20% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
5% Chance to cast Level 15 Fade when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)

17: Ghoul Band
Ring
Required Level: 60
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0x3a027aee
+7 to Energy
+35 to Life
Lightning Resist +25%
Poison Resist +8%
6% Life stolen per hit
+1 to Mana After Each Kill

18: Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x8ff2af02
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+206 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

19: Nosferatu's Coil
Vampirefang Belt
Defense: 62
Durability: 10 of 14
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 51
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x55640c4a
+15 to Strength
7% Life stolen per hit
-3 to Light Radius
10% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Slows Target by 10%

20: Immortal King's Pillar
War Boots
Defense: 127
Durability: 22 of 24
Required Strength: 125
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xcbf447ec
+44 to Life
+110 to Attack Rating
+75 Defense
40% Faster Run/Walk

***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
+160 Defense
Half Freeze Duration
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***


21: Immortal King's Forge
War Gauntlets
Defense: 113
Durability: 21 of 24
Required Strength: 110
Required Level: 30
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x3e5d9ea4
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+65 Defense
12% Chance to cast Level 4 Charged Bolt when struck

***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
25% Increased Attack Speed
+120 Defense
10% Life stolen per hit
10% Mana stolen per hit
Freezes Target +2
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***


22: Steeldriver
Great Maul
Two-Hand Damage: 132 to 201
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 29
Mace Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x66ab4a8e
+248% Enhanced Damage
Heal Stamina Plus 25%
Requirements -50%
40% Increased Attack Speed
150% Damage to Undead

37: Immortal King's Stone Crusher
Ogre Maul
'Hel'
Two-Hand Damage: 231 to 318
Required Strength: 180
Required Level: 76
Mace Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb810ef2f
+200% Enhanced Damage
Requirements -20%
40% Increased Attack Speed
200% Damage to Demons
350% Damage to Undead
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
Indestructible

***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
Adds 211-397 fire damage
Adds 7-477 lightning damage
Adds 127-364 cold damage over 6 seconds
+204 poison damage over 6 seconds
Adds 250-361 magic damage
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***

Socketed (2: 1 used)

2: Shimmering Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 52
Fingerprint: 0x715a7d2a
All Resistances +5

3: Sharp Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 23
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 38
Fingerprint: 0x2a70875b
+22 to Life
+52 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

4: Sharp Grand Charm of Greed
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xb4d5903b
+50 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage
32% Extra Gold from Monsters

5: Steel Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 55
Fingerprint: 0x951c33a6
+111 to Attack Rating

6: Shimmering Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 68
Fingerprint: 0x499ff684
All Resistances +5

7: Steel Large Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 44
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 61
Fingerprint: 0xc5ce80c9
+22 to Life
+70 to Attack Rating

8: Shimmering Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x867ea6c1
All Resistances +4

9: Shimmering Small Charm of Greed
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0xacc22811
All Resistances +3
7% Extra Gold from Monsters

10: Ruby Small Charm of Flame
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 56
Fingerprint: 0x7c583922
Fire Resist +11%
Adds 1-2 fire damage

11: Amber Small Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xe2f5aa09
+2 to Strength
Lightning Resist +10%

Mercenary Items : 

1: Shaftstop
Mesh Armor
Defense: 682
Durability: 43 of 45
Required Strength: 92
Required Level: 38
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb0bf005b
+60 to Life
+219% Enhanced Defense
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Damage Reduced by 30%

2: Stealskull
Casque
Defense: 222
Durability: 17 of 24
Required Strength: 59
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb0742c33
+205% Enhanced Defense
5% Life stolen per hit
5% Mana stolen per hit
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Increased Attack Speed
10% Faster Hit Recovery

3: The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
Two-Hand Damage: 59 to 694
Durability: 33 of 33
Required Dexterity: 79
Required Strength: 104
Required Level: 75
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x5a87aa54
+229% Enhanced Damage
Adds 4-44 cold damage over 0 seconds
15% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -25%
Ignore Target Defense
33% Deadly Strike
33% Chance to cast Level 1 Decrepify on striking
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired)

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by Naab on Sep 23, 2006:

Patriarch Teddy

Character name : Teddy
Character type : Druid
Character level : 87
Character exp : 1348737750

Strength : 139/165
Energy : 20/40
Dexterity : 83/103
Vitality : 283/532
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life : 3959 / 760
Mana : 57 / 192
Stamina : 810 / 428
Defense 6,8k

resistances:45,-5,75,-5

Damage with fully charged maul,HoW and might 1707-8017

Skills
20 HoW,Maul,Werebear,Lycanthropy.
9 Shockwave
1 Grizzly,Hunger - wasted points here, didnt use it at all.
+prereqs

Equipment

Arkaine's Valor
Balrog Skin
'Ort'
Defense: 1554
Required Strength: 165
Required Level: 85
Indestructible
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x66a3549b
+200% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +50%
Lightning Resist +30%
30% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to All Skill Levels
+174 to Life (Based on Character Level)
+217 to Vitality (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (1: 1 used)


76: Tomb Reaver
Cryptic Axe
'ShaelShaelShael'
Two-Hand Damage: 125 to 568
Durability: 20 of 65
Required Dexterity: 103
Required Strength: 165
Required Level: 84
Polearm Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x9ece245d
+279% Enhanced Damage
All Resistances +35
78% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+14 Life after each Kill
+4 to Light Radius
120% Increased Attack Speed
214% Damage to Undead
+301 to Attack Rating against Undead
10% Reanimate As: Returned
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Gore rider
Raven frost 20 dex 238 AR
rare ring 8ll,30lr,98 AR
Verdungos 15% pdr,+32 vitality
Jalals jewel of fervor
Highlords
1.07 LoH
4 shapeshting cgharms and some fine and sharp charms.some of them with life suffixes.

Prebuff HoTo+Spirit

Might merc
Reapers toll,shaftstop and tals mask(26 all resists)

Gameplay:Everything was on p8 except hell CS, where i chickend out and turned it on p1.This was my first half guardian, because i didn't die at all:jig: Though S&E saved me few times.The real reason why i made this character was to get a very big lifepool, but i didnt know that +vit items dont work with werebear so that was very dissapointing.

This was defenitly my funnest and safest char, because shockwave is such a good skill.It left all monster except bosses and champs stunned for a very long time.+ The char was pretty powerful exspessialy when reapers came to play.Thanks to tomb reaver and 48 oias he was mauling baddies @ 5fpa.

Finds:Eaglehorn,lacerator and ondals wisdom in the pits where i lvled him to lvl 85
Hellforge Pul + 3 ko's from random monsters.

Next charefinetly want to try out a wolfbarb and a +min damage avenger.

 

[Vildecor]

Originally posted by Naab on Oct 21, 2007:

Patriarch Hallivatimees

This is my second try at a fury druid,my first one was meant to be using The Cranium Basher, but he died in hell pits so many times when trying to lvl to 87 that i deleted him.Now i got some better gear and with some discussions with Undying, decided to make a new one and make it a titan too.

Gameplay:Used feral rage with the chieftain,bonesnap and hsarus bill at lower lvls until lvl 31 when ribcracker came,used it until lvl 56 when upgraded ribby - my endgame weapon,was available.NM was MP'ed with Schmaleops frenzy barb.
I solod hell at p8,first 3 acts were very easy with no deaths, but in CS my first death came after like 4 OK's were spread out(my plan was to spam grizzly against em, but as they were spread out they still cursed me) so after 1 feral rage with IM on i transmuted back to human and a venom lord finished it...
Act 5 after crystalline passage was a pain, got some tough monster spawns with conviction gloams,fana and cursed ghosts,OKs,frenzytaurs in WSK and merc died many many times too.I think i died atleast 5 times in those areas(crystalline passage to throne of destruction)Ancients were a piece of cake even on p8 as i got a very lucky roll on mods - no cursed,no auras,no physical immunes.Throne itself was bearable with souls,resurectors and invaders.Wave 1,3 and 4 were quite easy too, but wave 2 and 5 caused some problems,as the strong poison and cold attacks with wave 2 were killing merc and summons very quickly.Listers gang was even harder and needed 2 merc resurections as the stun and knockback were very annoying and i couldnt concentrate on one monster,after some spreading out i could kill all of em fortunatly, though lister died very slowly as he was phys immune.Baal was very easy compared to waves and dropped a unique phase blade which unfortunately was a lightsabre.All gameplay was on p8:smiley:

Stats
With ribcracker
With hurty axe aka edeath decapitator(was way too slow to use it)

Skills
20 lycanthropy
20 Fury
20 HoW
20 werewolf
12 Dire wolves
1 grizzly

Gear

Ribcracker
Stalagmite
Two-Hand Damage: 354 to 527
Durability: 110 of 130
Required Dexterity: 35
Required Strength: 63
Required Level: 58
Staff Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xc124dec1
+15 to Dexterity
+100% Enhanced Defense
+332% Enhanced Damage
+30 to Minimum Damage
+65 to Maximum Damage
+100 Defense
+100 Maximum Durability
Required Level +7
65% Increased Attack Speed
50% Faster Hit Recovery
150% Damage to Undead
50% Chance of Crushing Blow
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Fortitude
Archon Plate
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 1575
Durability: 25 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x608609b5
+200% Enhanced Defense
+300% Enhanced Damage
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
Fire Resist +28%
Lightning Resist +28%
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Cold Resist +28%
Poison Resist +28%
Replenish Life +7
+1 to Light Radius
25% Faster Cast Rate
12% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+119 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Jalal's Mane
Totemic Mask
Defense: 296
Durability: 4 of 20
(Druid Only)
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x8ebf12d9
+20 to Strength
+20 to Energy
+199% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +30%
Lightning Resist +59%
Cold Resist +30%
Poison Resist +30%
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
37% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+5 to Mana After Each Kill
+2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 86
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 63
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xfc2a766
+25 Defense
20% Increased Attack Speed
350% Damage to Demons
50% Fire Absorb
10% Chance to cast Level 3 Holy Bolt on striking

String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 107
Durability: 16 of 22
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x73bd21c1
+165% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 12
Damage Reduced by 15%
8% Life stolen per hit
+10 Maximum Durability

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 160
Durability: 18 of 34
Required Strength: 94
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb2dbcb9f
+20 to Maximum Stamina
+198% Enhanced Defense
+10 Maximum Durability
Requirements -25%
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x76ac1b85
Lightning Resist +35%
Adds 1-30 lightning damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to All Skill Levels
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15
32% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)

Corruption Eye
Ring
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 92
Fingerprint: 0xf751392f
+23 to Life
+9 to Maximum Stamina
+71 to Attack Rating
Lightning Resist +25%
8% Life stolen per hit

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x4cf8df2f
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+238 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

switch:
Demon limb/spirit

Charms

1: Amber Small Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x79f34f26
+12 to Life
Lightning Resist +10%

2: Steel Grand Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 69
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x13756bea
+39 to Life
+129 to Attack Rating

3: Grand Charm of Maiming
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 37
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x36e6e0d
+19 to Maximum Damage

4: Spiritual Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 53
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x863f7682
+32 to Life
+1 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)

5: Stout Grand Charm of Maiming
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 37
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 61
Fingerprint: 0x757ae8a8
+19 to Maximum Damage
+4 Defense

6: Iron Grand Charm of Maiming
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 37
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x75e68762
+81 to Attack Rating
+20 to Maximum Damage

7: Sharp Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xad396363
+75 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

8: Ruby Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0xa9d33d8
+18 to Life
Fire Resist +11%

9: Steel Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x42fe835d
+16 to Life
+33 to Attack Rating

10: Emerald Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0x1aaf057c
+20 to Life
Poison Resist +10%

11: Ruby Small Charm of Inertia
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x84694cb0
Fire Resist +11%
3% Faster Run/Walk

12: Shimmering Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x39f73969
+16 to Life
All Resistances +3

13: Lapis Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xcff1eb9c
+20 to Life
Cold Resist +7%

14: Coral Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x717367f7
+20 to Life
Lightning Resist +8%

15: Emerald Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xb9fc9af5
+19 to Life
Poison Resist +10%

16: Iron Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x47897355
+19 to Life
+22 to Attack Rating

17: Fine Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x1dc0285d
+20 to Life
+10 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

18: Fine Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x8a680453
+19 to Life
+20 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

19: Fine Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xcf45abfa
+19 to Life
+10 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

20: Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x604798cb
+20 to Life

21: Fine Small Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x2b3bde4d
+15 to Life
+13 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

22: Fine Small Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x75d63c7
+11 to Life
+17 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Act 2 Offensive merc

Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x84ec420c
+100% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 14
Damage Reduced by 19%
Adds 6-22 cold damage over 4 seconds
8% Life stolen per hit
6% Mana stolen per hit
15% Increased Attack Speed
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Socketed (1: 1 used)

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
'Shael'
Two-Hand Damage: 40 to 472
Durability: 65 of 65
Required Dexterity: 89
Required Strength: 114
Required Level: 75
Polearm Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x71416750
+235% Enhanced Damage
Adds 4-44 cold damage over 1 seconds
11% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -25%
20% Increased Attack Speed
Ignore Target Defense
33% Deadly Strike
33% Chance to cast Level 1 Decrepify on striking
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Treachery
Archon Plate
'ShaelThulLem'
Defense: 504
Durability: 59 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x5be2a4a9
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
45% Increased Attack Speed
20% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
5% Chance to cast Level 15 Fade when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Finds:Hel and Ist from hellforges,Plain chilling gc,lightsabre from baal

Future:Retirement home,could maybe do p8 baal runs if they removed Lister in next patch(which wont come anyway)