Matriarch/Patriarch/Guardian Archive Thread

Originally posted by Grape on Dec 21, 2017:

Patriarch Raskolnikov - Martyr / Smite Paladin

Raskolnikov is best seen as two characters. He sometimes acts in one manner and then suddenly in a manner completely contradictory. These actions compel one to view him as having a split personality or as being a dual character.

Raskolnikov combines many things for me: two builds and two items I've yet to make or use. Builds are obvious if you read the name of this thread, but the items are two runewords that I've had a good while, but never put to a good use. I try to use all runewords containing high runes at least once, and this time I had quite a few HRs in one character: I used my Last Wish and Exile for the first time.


Build:

I built him around those two items obviously, and filled the rest as I saw fit the best. My mercenary is a bit strange if you take a closer look, not the most traditionally equipped desert guy there. Reason: I needed a PI solution, but I didn't want anything overlapping with my Life Tap (other than the Dim Vision I had going on already...), because that could be very fatal... I also didn't feel like going with an Act III one with this, as I think there's builds that those would be better with.

GoMule dump (you can also wiev my items at the end of the playing video):
Code:
Name:       Raskolnikov
Class:      Paladin
Experience: 777021672
Level:      81

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   94/131
Dexterity:  124/149
Vitality:   267/302
Energy:     15/20
HP:         1001/1476
Mana:       135/175
Stamina:    411/411
Defense:    31/3317
AR:         605/1280

Fire:       216/176/116
Cold:       181/141/81
Lightning:  202/162/102
Poison:     206/166/106

MF:         113       Block:      49
GF:         0
FR/W:       47
FHR:        0
IAS:        35
FCR:        25

Sacrifice: 20/25
Smite: 19/24
Holy Bolt: 1/6
Zeal: 0/0
Charge: 1/6
Vengeance: 0/0
Blessed Hammer: 1/6
Conversion: 0/0
Holy Shield: 2/7
Fist of the Heavens: 0/0

Might: 1/5
Holy Fire: 0/0
Thorns: 0/0
Blessed Aim: 1/5
Concentration: 1/5
Holy Freeze: 0/0
Holy Shock: 0/0
Sanctuary: 0/0
Fanaticism: 20/24
Conviction: 0/0

Prayer: 1/3
Resist Fire: 0/0
Defiance: 1/3
Resist Cold: 0/0
Cleansing: 1/3
Resist Lightning: 0/0
Vigor: 1/3
Meditation: 0/0
Redemption: 20/22
Salvation: 0/0

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xa8e1cb65
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+20 to Attack Rating
+16 to Life

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x528be504
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+17 to Attack Rating
+16 to Life

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xd3d9701f
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+13 to Attack Rating
+19 to Life

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2890bbf3
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+19 to Attack Rating
+17 to Life

Shimmering Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xa741e8e3
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +4

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x5f5ef383
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
Lightning Resist +10%

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x23c0ab3b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+15 to Attack Rating
+19 to Life

Shimmering Grand Charm of Inertia
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0x30fadcf6
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+7% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +13

Lion Branded Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 53
Fingerprint: 0x32de89b3
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+34 to Life

Lion Branded Grand Charm of Vita
Grand Charm
Required Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x9fccd98c
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+37 to Life

Lion Branded Grand Charm of Vita
Grand Charm
Required Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x4db2cd3b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+36 to Life

Ruby Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2001ed02
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+18 to Life
Fire Resist +11%

Fine Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xab982155
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3% Faster Run/Walk
+3 to Maximum Damage
+18 to Attack Rating

Shimmering Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xdf7f82d
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +5

Fine Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x5ff0210a
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+18 to Attack Rating
+2 to Strength

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x53169d58
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
Lightning Resist +11%

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xae23e68c
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+19 to Attack Rating
+20 to Life

Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 38 of 40
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0x18f7f1ea
Item Level: 54
Version: Expansion
+15% Increased Attack Speed
14% Enhanced Damage
8% Mana stolen per hit
8% Life stolen per hit
+100% Enhanced Defense
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Damage Reduced by 25%
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Rusty Jewel of Fervor

Rusty Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x960ac853
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
14% Enhanced Damage

Mara's Kaleidoscope
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0xa51ff796
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
All Stats +5
All Resistances +30

Fortitude
Dusk Shroud
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 1407
Durability: 17 of 20
Required Level: 59
Required Strength: 77
Fingerprint: 0x341a34c7
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+121 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +30
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

El Rune
Required Level: 11
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +50 to Attack Rating
+1 to Light Radius
Armor: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius
Shields: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius

Sol Rune
Required Level: 27
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +9 to Minimum Damage
Armor: Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Damage Reduced by 7

Dol Rune
Required Level: 31
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Armor: Replenish Life +7
Shields: Replenish Life +7

Lo Rune
Required Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Deadly Strike
Armor: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist

Doom Touch
Ring
Required Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0xc95e4a2d
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+8 to Minimum Damage
+113 to Attack Rating
5% Life stolen per hit
+38 to Life
All Resistances +11
Poison Resist +25%

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x1b868b49
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+248 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

War Traveler
Battle Boots
Defense: 123
Durability: 45 of 48
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0x6b905796
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+25% Faster Run/Walk
Adds 15 - 25 Damage
+157% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
40% Slower Stamina Drain
Attacker Takes Damage of 8
48% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+30 Maximum Durability

Lava Gout
Battle Gauntlets
Defense: 133
Durability: 35 of 38
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: **
Fingerprint: 0x158ffccd
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
2% Chance to cast level 10 Enchant on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 13 - 46 Fire Damage
+178% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +24%
Half Freeze Duration
+20 Maximum Durability

Thundergod's Vigor
War Belt
Defense: 156
Durability: 21 of 24
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 110
Fingerprint: 0xd08aa352
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 7 Fist of the Heavens when struck
Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
+3 to Lightning Fury (Amazon Only)
+3 to Lightning Strike (Amazon Only)
+195% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Vitality
+10% to Maximum Lightning Resist
+20 Lightning Absorb

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x1ccc8e66
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+11 to Attack Rating
+20 to Life

Super Healing Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenish Life +320

Super Healing Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenish Life +320

Super Healing Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenish Life +320

Super Healing Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenish Life +320

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Shimmering Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xd5f1fdb0
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30 to Life
All Resistances +14

Fine Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xa175da31
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Maximum Damage
+20 to Attack Rating

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Horadric Cube
Fingerprint: 0x9c145cbe
Item Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Full Rejuvenation Potion
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Replenishes Mana 100%
Replenishes Health 100%

Tome of Town Portal
Fingerprint: 0xc8164550
Item Level: 12
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Tome of Identify
Fingerprint: 0xe8e92d1
Item Level: 12
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Fine Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xa7ef3cda
Item Level: 52
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3% Faster Run/Walk
+3 to Maximum Damage
+18 to Attack Rating

Call to Arms
Crystal Sword
AmnRalMalIstOhm
One Hand Damage: 18 - 55
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0xfb1b4825
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+40% Increased Attack Speed
272% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+6 to Battle Command
+5 to Battle Orders
+2 to Battle Cry
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
5 Sockets (5 used)
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune

Amn Rune
Required Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Ral Rune
Required Level: 19
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
Armor: Fire Resist +30%
Shields: Fire Resist +35%

Mal Rune
Required Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Prevent Monster Heal
Armor: Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Magic Damage Reduced by 7

Ist Rune
Required Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Spirit
Akaran Targe
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 112
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 19 of 20
Required Level: 26
Required Strength: 44
Fingerprint: 0xa9562f2d
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+35% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+110 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
All Resistances +43
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+4 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Tal Rune
Required Level: 17
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
Armor: Poison Resist +30%
Shields: Poison Resist +35%

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%

Ort Rune
Required Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Armor: Lightning Resist +30%
Shields: Lightning Resist +35%

Amn Rune
Required Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Last Wish
Superior Phase Blade
JahMalJahSurJahBer
One Hand Damage: 143 - 161
Indestructible
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 136
Fingerprint: 0xe1e82882
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
6% Chance to cast level 11 Fade when struck
10% Chance to cast level 18 Life Tap on striking
20% Chance to cast level 20 Charged Bolt on attack
Level 17 Might Aura When Equipped
362% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
+1 to Attack Rating
61% Chance of Crushing Blow
Prevent Monster Heal
Hit Blinds Target +1
40% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based on Character Level)
6 Sockets (6 used)
Socketed: Jah Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Jah Rune
Socketed: Sur Rune
Socketed: Jah Rune
Socketed: Ber Rune

Jah Rune
Required Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Ignore Target's Defense
Armor: Increase Maximum Life 5%
Shields: +50 to Life

Mal Rune
Required Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Prevent Monster Heal
Armor: Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Magic Damage Reduced by 7

Jah Rune
Required Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Ignore Target's Defense
Armor: Increase Maximum Life 5%
Shields: +50 to Life

Sur Rune
Required Level: 61
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Hit Blinds Target +1
Armor: Increase Maximum Mana 5%
Shields: +50 to Mana

Jah Rune
Required Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Ignore Target's Defense
Armor: Increase Maximum Life 5%
Shields: +50 to Life

Ber Rune
Required Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Chance of Crushing Blow
Armor: Damage Reduced by 8%
Shields: Damage Reduced by 8%

Exile
Sacred Targe
VexOhmIstDol
Defense: 1097
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 23 of 23
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 76
Fingerprint: 0x4ace114c
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
15% Chance to cast level 5 Life Tap on striking
Level 16 Defiance Aura When Equipped
+2 to Offensive Aura Skills (Paladin Only)
+30% Faster Block Rate
Freezes target +1
+242% Enhanced Defense
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Cold Resist
+5% to Maximum Fire Resist
All Resistances +44
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Repairs 1 Durability in 4 Seconds
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Vex Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune

Vex Rune
Required Level: 55
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Mana stolen per hit
Armor: +5% to Maximum Fire Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Fire Resist

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Ist Rune
Required Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Dol Rune
Required Level: 31
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Armor: Replenish Life +7
Shields: Replenish Life +7

Mercenary:

Name:       Azrael
Race:       Desert Mercenary
Type:       Def-Nightmare
Experience: 64564338
Level:      81
Dead?:      false

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   179/179
Dexterity:  144/144
HP:         1607/1607
Defense:    1189/2928
AR:         1865/1865

Fire:       162/122/62
Cold:       162/122/62
Lightning:  162/122/62
Poison:    162/122/62

Black Hades
Chaos Armor
Defense: 1444
Durability: 36 of 36
Required Level: 53
Required Strength: 130
Fingerprint: 0x93972840
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5 to Maximum Damage
+55% Damage to Demons
+243 to Attack Rating against Demons
Adds 3 - 292 Lightning Damage
+181% Enhanced Defense
Half Freeze Duration
-2 to Light Radius
Ethereal
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Carbuncle Jewel of Thunder
Socketed: Jewel of Thunder
Socketed: Jewel of Thunder

Carbuncle Jewel of Thunder
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x3ae4ce48
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5 to Maximum Damage
Adds 1 - 94 Lightning Damage

Jewel of Thunder
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xa802e1df
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 99 Lightning Damage

Jewel of Thunder
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xe8bc92ea
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 99 Lightning Damage


Dream
Diadem
IoJahPul
Defense: 295
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0xfe7709a0
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 15 Confuse when struck
Level 15 Holy Shock Aura When Equipped
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+30% Enhanced Defense
+217 Defense
+10 to Vitality
Increase Maximum Life 5%
+50 to Mana (Based on Character Level)
All Resistances +17
22% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Io Rune
Socketed: Jah Rune
Socketed: Pul Rune

Io Rune
Required Level: 35
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +10 to Vitality
Armor: +10 to Vitality
Shields: +10 to Vitality

Jah Rune
Required Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Ignore Target's Defense
Armor: Increase Maximum Life 5%
Shields: +50 to Life

Pul Rune
Required Level: 45
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +75% Damage to Demons
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
Armor: +30% Enhanced Defense
Shields: +30% Enhanced Defense


Demon's Arch
Balrog Spear
Throw Damage: 180 - 279
One Hand Damage: 147 - 282
Quantity: 80
Required Level: 68
Required Strength: 117
Required Dexterity: 85
Fingerprint: 0xb0339231
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Increased Attack Speed
200% Enhanced Damage
Adds 232 - 323 Fire Damage
Adds 23 - 333 Lightning Damage
12% Life stolen per hit
Replenishes quantity
Ethereal

Max block with HS, of course. I think I could've squeezed few more points into vita, but I don't generally mind with min-max optimizing with characters that are meant to be played once through the game :)

Sacrifice and Smite go very well together: Smite until LT pops up, start killing (and bleeding yourself) the monsters with Sacrifice. Smite has its utility uses as well; it's great to pin monsters against the wall with, or keep PI monsters stunned while merc (with all the added elemental dmg) does his job.

Exile and its Defiance, my own Holy Shield and the Chilling Armor from Fortitude meant a lot of def. Add max block, good DR, stacked res and 90 LR, and the only threat to me was being myself...

Video of Hell Baal and waves four and five:


Journey:


With the Zod God sept chars and my Magic / Rare only septs, and whatnot, I'm not having any too clear memories from Norm/NM. I know that I played him as all points to Sacrifice from the beginning. With enough life leech, you can slash in norm and NM with little to no problems. Life Tap becomes essential (IMO) only in Hell.

There was a lot of bleeding, that much I can tell you. It can be played with quite normal twinked melee items, many of those have some LL anyway. I started to really use Smite only from the lvl 65 onwards when I had my LW and Exile finally on together.

Few screenshots:
1587456047352.png
Starting to get a feel about my Smite->LT->Sacrifice routine by the end of Act I. What took a while to get used to was that while I was really tanky, almost invisible most of the time after Life Tap was cast, I needed to pay really close attention if Dim Vision (Last Wish) or Confuse (Dream, merc) appeared, because the I started to take damage to self at an alarming rate. I almost got killed by that, but the real close calls ended after Act I because I now knew what to expect and was more concentrated on what was happening.

1587456038744.png
Act II, my grand PI solution put to a good test: clear pass. If a PI monster apperead to be too angry I'd smite some and let the merc continue.

1587456022186.png
Do you think I really HAD to move that much while fighting Duriel?

1587456012293.png
P8 Travi. This guy took some time, but he was really helpless as we made a burger of him. I pinned him between me and the merc. I played on the lower players settings for the most of the time though, with LT etc. it wouldn't have brought much difficulties I believe, but this would've taken a lot longer.

1587456003803.png
Martyr facing fallen angels.

1587455993559.png
Ooopsie. Let's take a step back. Smite against the edges of River of Flame worked wonders, after other monsters were done. HF was Mal, by the way.


1587455982032.png
Like I said with Duri... enjoying the blood spilling show. How many gallons of blood can one poor Martyr bleed?

1587455967427.png
Trying to push Tresh Socket down that hole! He was too big to fit in, apparently.


1587455954556.png
Splats.

Thanks for reading! Comments and questions are welcome :)
 
Originally posted by Grape on Mar 24, 2019:

Patriarch Spiked - Justiciar Paladin (The Dark Side of the Zod God 1/7)

Intro

Spiked is my first entry in my new Sept, The Dark Side of the Zod God. Idea is simply to build seven characters, each of them having an item including a Zod.

This Paladin is built around ethereal Rune Master. Looking at the axe and it's damage numbers I figured it could serve well in a hands of "Justiciar". Justiciar is a Paladin build with the Vengeance as a main (or only) attack, but using Fanaticism as the aura, instead of the usual Conviction used by Avengers.

From that starting point, my only concern was to achieve as sweet damage (LCS) numbers as possible. It really was almost my only concern, max block with Paladin using a shield is an obvious choice as well. I trusted the items picked with damage in mind could offer the rest of the protection I'd need. Having played one Avenger before I knew what to expect; single-click attack without any immune problems. Pretty simple, but sometimes smashing trough the game without having to skip any enemies can be satisfactory.

I also took the opportunity for the first time to enjoy my 1.07 damage charms outside the patch they were found in! Not planning to use them every single time on a melee build from now on, but especially on a character basically not needing any more AR, they served more than well.


Build

Builds around Vengeance benefit a lot from synergies, and those indeed (along with the aura of choice) suck all the skill points available. I choose to play /players 8 all the time, not only because this build is able to do so, but also because that way I'd get the most levels, and thus achieve the best damage. Indeed, the build never gets finished as far as skill points go - there's room for improvement all the way to 99 levels.

Since the build itself uses Fanaticism, 'Infinity' merc was an obvious choice to boost the elemental damage. Might aura for little bit of extra damage, of course. Having Conviction around is also handy since you can basically forget about any attack rating issues. Wonderful aura!

Playing P8, I opted for maximum vitality after max block, which was a good pick. I haven't made a (beta) CtA with +Holy Shield yet, so I had to use a total or five skill points for getting the HS. It was of course well worth the points, as I used a Sacred Targe base for my 'Phoenix', so not huge amount of dexterity was needed for blocking.

Items:
Code:
Ethereal Rune Master 'ZodOhmOhmOhmOhm'
'Phoenix' Sacred Targe, 45@
Guillaume's Face 'Vermillion Jewel of Carnage' (25 max dmg)
Highlord's Wrath
War Traveler
Laying of Hands
Crafted Blood belt FHR/STR/Life/LR
Two rare leech/damage/res/life rings

Inventory: mostly 1.07 damage charms, couple all res/FRW SCs

Merc: Fortitude/Infinity/Vampire Gaze

Skills and stats:
Code:
Name:       Spiked
Class:      Paladin
Experience: 1362416292
Level:      88

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   82/136
Dexterity:  169/169
Vitality:   269/279
Energy:     15/15
HP:         1021/1369
Mana:       145/145
Stamina:    420/420
Defense:    42/2191
AR:         830/1125

Fire:       183/143/83
Cold:       133/93/33
Lightning:  228/188/128
Poison:     158/118/58

MF:         49       Block:      52
GF:         0
FR/W:       31
FHR:        54
IAS:        40
FCR:        25

Sacrifice: 1/2
Smite: 1/2
Holy Bolt: 1/2
Zeal: 1/2
Charge: 1/2
Vengeance: 20/21
Blessed Hammer: 1/2
Conversion: 0/0
Holy Shield: 1/2
Fist of the Heavens: 0/0

Might: 1/3
Holy Fire: 0/0
Thorns: 0/0
Blessed Aim: 1/3
Concentration: 1/3
Holy Freeze: 0/0
Holy Shock: 0/0
Sanctuary: 0/0
Fanaticism: 20/22
Conviction: 0/0

Prayer: 0/0
Resist Fire: 14/15
Defiance: 0/0
Resist Cold: 15/16
Cleansing: 0/0
Resist Lightning: 20/21
Vigor: 0/0
Meditation: 0/0
Redemption: 0/0
Salvation: 0/0

Full GoMule item dump:
Code:
Serrated Small Charm of Maiming
Small Charm
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x7e1330b1
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion
+12 to Maximum Damage

Forked Small Charm of Maiming
Small Charm
Required Level: 43
Fingerprint: 0x581d6c25
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
+8 to Maximum Damage

Iron Grand Charm of Maiming
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x9da8b63
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
+20 to Maximum Damage
+68 to Attack Rating

Sharp Grand Charm of Maiming
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x6ff7fa1
Item Level: 93
Version: Expansion
+30 to Maximum Damage
+54 to Attack Rating

Jagged Grand Charm of Quality
Grand Charm
Required Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0x62051d64
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion
+21 to Maximum Damage

Sanguinary Grand Charm of Maiming
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x7a429a0e
Item Level: 93
Version: Expansion
Adds 7 - 19 Damage

Coral Grand Charm of Maiming
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x7cb94714
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion
+19 to Maximum Damage
Lightning Resist +28%

Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 83
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x6856ee94
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 3 Holy Bolt on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+350% Damage to Demons
+25 Defense
Fire Resist +50%


Doom Touch
Ring
Required Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0xc95e4a2d
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+8 to Minimum Damage
+113 to Attack Rating
5% Life stolen per hit
+38 to Life
All Resistances +11
Poison Resist +25%

War Traveler
Battle Boots
Defense: 136
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0x5a0b078
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+25% Faster Run/Walk
Adds 15 - 25 Damage
+185% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
40% Slower Stamina Drain
Attacker Takes Damage of 7
49% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+30 Maximum Durability

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x943d11e8
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
33% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Lightning Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15

Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 50
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0xaa8fa038
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+26 to Maximum Damage
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
+120% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Vermilion Jewel of Carnage


Vermilion Jewel of Carnage
Jewel
Required Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xfd4b6340
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+26 to Maximum Damage

Fortitude
Dusk Shroud
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 1407
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 59
Required Strength: 77
Fingerprint: 0x341a34c7
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+132 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +30
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

El Rune
Required Level: 11
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +50 to Attack Rating
+1 to Light Radius
Armor: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius
Shields: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius

Sol Rune
Required Level: 27
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +9 to Minimum Damage
Armor: Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Damage Reduced by 7

Dol Rune
Required Level: 31
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Armor: Replenish Life +7
Shields: Replenish Life +7

Lo Rune
Required Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Deadly Strike
Armor: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist

Havoc Spiral
Ring
Required Level: 74
Fingerprint: 0x9f2b9001
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+4 to Maximum Damage
+60 to Attack Rating
6% Mana stolen per hit
+36 to Life
All Resistances +8
Lightning Resist +25%

Serrated Grand Charm of Vita
Grand Charm
Required Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0xfc3177
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
+20 to Maximum Damage
+40 to Life

Shimmering Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xdf7f82d
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +5

Serrated Small Charm of Maiming
Small Charm
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x66078637
Item Level: 93
Version: Expansion
+12 to Maximum Damage

Serrated Small Charm of Quality
Small Charm
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x57efc6c0
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
+8 to Maximum Damage

Ghoul Harness
Mesh Belt
Defense: 36
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Level: 85
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0xc4546d51
Item Level: 96
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+24% Faster Hit Recovery
2% Life stolen per hit
6% Chance of Open Wounds
+29 to Strength
+52 to Life
Lightning Resist +7%

Serrated Large Charm of Maiming
Large Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x6d7411c3
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
+21 to Maximum Damage

Horadric Cube
Fingerprint: 0xa833e0b7
Item Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Serrated Large Charm of Maiming
Large Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x42517c31
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
+21 to Maximum Damage

Shimmering Small Charm of Inertia
Small Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xa741e8e3
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +4

Call to Arms
Crystal Sword
AmnRalMalIstOhm
One Hand Damage: 18 - 55
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0xfb1b4825
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+40% Increased Attack Speed
272% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+6 to Battle Command
+5 to Battle Orders
+2 to Battle Cry
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
5 Sockets (5 used)
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune

Amn Rune
Required Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Ral Rune
Required Level: 19
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
Armor: Fire Resist +30%
Shields: Fire Resist +35%

Mal Rune
Required Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Prevent Monster Heal
Armor: Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Magic Damage Reduced by 7

Ist Rune
Required Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Spirit
Akaran Rondache
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 122
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 30 of 30
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 59
Fingerprint: 0x2daaa81c
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+35% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+92 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
All Resistances +41
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+5 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Tal Rune
Required Level: 17
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
Armor: Poison Resist +30%
Shields: Poison Resist +35%

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%

Ort Rune
Required Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Armor: Lightning Resist +30%
Shields: Lightning Resist +35%

Amn Rune
Required Level: 25
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Sanguinary Grand Charm of Quality
Grand Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x72090f5b
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
Adds 7 - 14 Damage

Captain's Grand Charm of Maiming
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x4d644e38
Item Level: 90
Version: Expansion
+1 to Offensive Aura Skills (Paladin Only)
+20 to Maximum Damage

Rune Master
Ettin Axe
One Hand Damage: 269 - 543
Durability: 13 of 13
Required Level: 72
Required Strength: 135
Required Dexterity: 35
Fingerprint: 0x209137b8
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Indestructible
449% Enhanced Damage
+5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Cannot Be Frozen
Ethereal
5 Sockets (5 used)
Socketed: Zod Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune

Zod Rune
Required Level: 69
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Indestructible
Armor: Indestructible
Shields: Indestructible

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Ohm Rune
Required Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Enhanced Maximum Damage
Armor: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Cold Resist

Phoenix
Sacred Targe
VexVexLoJah
Defense: 148
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 45 of 45
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 86
Fingerprint: 0x84e10d6f
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 40 Blaze when you Level-Up
40% Chance to cast level 22 Firestorm on striking
Level 11 Redemption Aura When Equipped
387% Enhanced Damage
-28% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+356 Defense vs. Missile
+50 to Life
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
+10% to Maximum Fire Resist
All Resistances +45
+21 Fire Absorb
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Vex Rune
Socketed: Vex Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune
Socketed: Jah Rune

Vex Rune
Required Level: 55
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Mana stolen per hit
Armor: +5% to Maximum Fire Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Fire Resist

Vex Rune
Required Level: 55
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 7% Mana stolen per hit
Armor: +5% to Maximum Fire Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Fire Resist

Lo Rune
Required Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Deadly Strike
Armor: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist

Jah Rune
Required Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Ignore Target's Defense
Armor: Increase Maximum Life 5%
Shields: +50 to Life

Mercenary:

Name:       Ahsab
Race:       Desert Mercenary
Type:       Off-Nightmare
Experience: 80952822
Level:      87
Dead?:      false

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   190/190
Dexterity:  153/153
HP:         1847/1946
Defense:    1359/4788
AR:         1937/1937

Fire:       177/137/77
Cold:       177/137/77
Lightning:  177/137/77
Poison:    177/137/77

Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0x18f7f1ea
Item Level: 54
Version: Expansion
+15% Increased Attack Speed
14% Enhanced Damage
8% Mana stolen per hit
8% Life stolen per hit
+100% Enhanced Defense
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Damage Reduced by 25%
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Rusty Jewel of Fervor

Rusty Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x960ac853
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
14% Enhanced Damage


Fortitude
Scarab Husk
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 3177
Durability: 15 of 15
Required Level: 59
Required Strength: 85
Fingerprint: 0xbd9cf828
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+99 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +26
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

El Rune
Required Level: 11
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +50 to Attack Rating
+1 to Light Radius
Armor: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius
Shields: +15 Defense
+1 to Light Radius

Sol Rune
Required Level: 27
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +9 to Minimum Damage
Armor: Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Damage Reduced by 7

Dol Rune
Required Level: 31
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Armor: Replenish Life +7
Shields: Replenish Life +7

Lo Rune
Required Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Deadly Strike
Armor: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Shields: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist


Infinity
Great Poleaxe
BerMalBerIst
Two Hand Damage: 311 - 858
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 169
Required Dexterity: 89
Fingerprint: 0x3babb97c
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion
50% Chance to cast level 20 Chain Lightning when you Kill an Enemy
Level 12 Conviction Aura When Equipped
+35% Faster Run/Walk
352% Enhanced Damage
-48% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
Prevent Monster Heal
+44 to Vitality (Based on Character Level)
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Level 21 Cyclone Armor (30/30 Charges)
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Ber Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ber Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune

Ber Rune
Required Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Chance of Crushing Blow
Armor: Damage Reduced by 8%
Shields: Damage Reduced by 8%

Mal Rune
Required Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Prevent Monster Heal
Armor: Magic Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Magic Damage Reduced by 7

Ber Rune
Required Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 20% Chance of Crushing Blow
Armor: Damage Reduced by 8%
Shields: Damage Reduced by 8%

Ist Rune
Required Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Armor: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shields: 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

LCS:
1587456321018.png
I'm pretty pleased with how the numbers turned out. If you have seen a better Vengeance damage, I'm really eager to see that! :p

Some game play:


Journey

As I stated before Spiked played at /players 8 from start to the end. Spiked is not a freshly started character, and he was played as Fanatic Zealer through Norm and NM back then. Final build plan was a different one, and he wasn't even meant to be part of this Sept to begin with.

As I still have one Vengeance build in the pipeline (who is playing with a Vengeance through the whole game) I chose to have this character as a short-cut to the final build. When I picked him, all he had done on Hell was Den of Evil, so I could still play the build itself through every Act.

When there is no dangerous enemies around, he absolutely destroys everything around him with a brutal force. When surrounded by hard hitting enemies he had to be really aware though - reminder that there's no DR% in my build, I've no real crowd control skills, merc has not the usual melee build's basic Reaper's with its Decrepify etc.

In the end the balance was fine, but I have to admit he surprisingly felt fragile at times. Such is the power of P8 Hell enemies at worst, or at best. Still, I didn't get killed a single time in Hell, so all in all, that's pretty OK I guess.

Screen shots:
1587456303539.png
Leveling up with 'Phoenix' is fun! Enjoying it in the Maggot Lair, which some melee builds dread!

1587456289716.png
Welcome committee. I had to retrieve few times. Little by little they were done.

1587456280654.png
Nice! One of the better finds while questing!

1587456265090.png
Rest of the Act III didn't provide any hairy moments, as didn't Act IV as far as I remember, apart from De Seis gang almost killing me. They were extra fast and I ended up engaging in a fight with too many of them in the same time. Full juvs saved me, but I had to be fast with them...

That fresh in my mind this scene had me on my toes. I dragged couple of those at a time, and then it was quite easy.

1587456256994.png
95% LR ridiculed the souls, and Frozenstein was dealt with in a short manner. Crystalline Passage however proved to be a bit problematic. My lowish cold resistance caused a surprisingly big damage from Skeleton mages throwing Ice Bolts all over me, them being non-leechable on top of that. Redemption from 'Phoenix' was a grace. Too much chucking pots to my taste, and around usually easy monsters!

1587456247046.png
Look! Here they are again! And poison, I wasn't fan of that either. First, third and fourth waves were a joke though. Ancients were also really tame. Few dangerous packs in the WSK levels for a proper final gaming session.

1587456227497.png
Mana Burn/PI, ouch. Eventually fell, and they didn't put us in real danger after splitting their pack a little.

Baal took his usual while (P8...), and dropped no items to note. Couple dozen Eldritch runs to achieve the next level followed.



Thanks for reading! Comments, questions etc. are warmly welcome! And if you have any (preferably CRAZY) ideas for the rest of the Sept build, I'm all ears! :)
 
Originally posted by HolyPade on Jun 10, 2005:

Introducing Patriarch Tyrael

Let me introduce Patriarch Tyrael, Avenger. I know, what a sad name, I've always been really bad in inventing names. He's my third Patriarch and quickest (cheesiest) so far.

Normal and Nightmare were played on P8 and Hell on P3 & P1. Tyrael had only two problematic areas during his breeze in Hell; Rescuing Anya was difficult due to loads of Gloams hanging around and Throne Room had Gloams that I forgot to lure out and of course Achmel with his Goons resurrected them... :bonk:
I tried to solve the Gloam problem by putting one point in Salvation, which helped quite a bit but even with Salvation on (90% lightning res) I had to be extremely careful.

I used Holy Freeze merc with Reaper's Toll for crowd (sp?) control. Holy Freeze and Decrepify = sitting duck.

Best find would have to be GUL from the Hellforge in Hell. It's still my best rune find ever.

And then the stats:
Character name: Tyrael
Character type: Paladin
Character level: 83
Character exp: 902096192

Strength: 183/132
Energy: 15/15
Dexterity: 124/107
Vitality: 256/256

Life: 1022/972
Mana: 365/138

Damage (as seen in the character screen): 1729-3508
AR (as seen in the character screen): 2401
Defense: 9810 (with Holy Shield)

Resistances: 79/41/49/68 (94/94/90/68 w/ Salvation on for Gloams)

Skills:
1 in all prereqs
Holy Shield 24/20
Vengeance 24/20
Conviction 23/20
Resist Fire 12/9
Resist Cold 11/8
Defiance 8/5
Salvation 4/1 (for Gloams)

Tyrael's gear (socketed gear stats shown w/o additions):
+1 combat skills GC
Loads of Life and Mana charms
Guillaume's Face (35% Crushing blow)
The Eye of Etlich
Credendum
Gore Rider (15% Crushing blow)
Laying of Hands

Guardian Angel (Def 783, Socketed w/ jewel)

Shimmering Jewel of Daring
Required Level: 14
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x73227801
+5 to Dexterity
All Resistances +10

Corruption Grasp
Ring
Required Level: 46
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x3b4be1b4
+61 to Mana
+66 to Attack Rating
Cold Resist +29%
4% Mana stolen per hit
14% Chance to cast Level 5 Nova when struck

Entropy Finger
Ring
Required Level: 30
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0x6dc6f7b8
+9 to Strength
Fire Resist +29%
Lightning Resist +18%
Poison Resist +27%
3% Life stolen per hit
Level 4 Poison Dagger (30/30 Charges)

Rune Master (4 sockets w/ jewels)

Ruby Jewel of Joyfulness
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x82250847
+39% Enhanced Damage
+1 to Minimum Damage

Realgar Jewel
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0xc5facb9a
+30% Enhanced Damage

Realgar Jewel of Virility
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 52
Fingerprint: 0x73c54086
+8 to Strength
+28% Enhanced Damage

Realgar Jewel
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xa44651d1
+24% Enhanced Damage

Viper Guard (Socketed w/ P diamond)
Royal Shield
Defense: 280
Chance to Block: 65%
Smite Damage: 24 to 32
Durability: 60 of 60
(Paladin Only)
Required Strength: 114
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0x3166df14
+54% Enhanced Defense
+10% Increased Chance of Blocking
Fire Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Cold Resist +35%
Poison Resist +43%
+1 to Paladin Skill Levels
15% Faster Block Rate
Poison Length Reduced by 50%
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Mercenary (Waheed, A2 Holy Freeze, lvl 83):

Life: 1687
Damage (as seen in the "slave" screen): 395-1541
Defense: 2412
Resistances: 47 all

Waheed's Gear:
M'avina's True Sight
Que-Hegan's Wisdom (Ethereal 966 def)
The Reaper's Toll

If you've read this far you have to be interested in my next project. It's nothing special but I'm thinking of patting one of my Druid's. They seem to be almost as fun as Paladins. ;)

Got two pally's and one barb now, go go melee! 👏
 
Originally posted by Hrus on Feb 4, 2006:

Patriarch Mart, the Martyr

I didn't made a Patriarch thread for a long time, but I think that some forumites can find this thread and info about this particular build interesting....

Some of you know that I have Martyr build in progress and I just successfully patted him. He died twice, both deaths in Chaos Sanctuary were caused by Iron Maiden. He was started with classic twinking gear and went through normal and NM in MP game with my friend, though all Hell difficulty he went solo. I skipped a lot of monsters, though they were all regular, all champions or bosses that cross my way were killed.

I didn't want to sacrifice my best charms/jewels/runes for this experimental build (I don't move items between characters), but I still used some goodies. Especially the merc has decent gear. From the beggining, I wanted to use Haeven's Light as the main weapon, I thought I had an almost perfect one, but I couldn't find it anywhere in my stashes, so finally I used one with really low ED :(. The rest of gear was chosen to give Mart high leech, maxed resists, fastest possible attack (only 20 additional IAS was needed with 27 lvl Fanaticism - SHAEL solved it), some FHR, high defence. Also I wanted to save at least 2 socket quests for another characters, so I didn't socketed merc's helm (his fire resist is crappy) neither Mart's armor. I leveled Mart in NM Baal until 76, then Hell Pits until lvl 82 (for CoA), then went straight forward to Pat.

STATS:
STR 174 for CoA, DEX for 75%block, rest VIT
Mart's Stats

Skill distribution:
20 Sacrifice
20 Fanaticism
20 Redemption
20 Holy Shield
rest in Blessed Aim (3 or 4 skillpoints I think)
1 prerequisities
(zeal 0, vengeance 0)


Gear:
Crown of Ages (15%DR,23%resall,ORT,THUL), I used Vamp Gaze before 82, but I had to temporarily use Offensive skiller and +15resall GC to simulate CoA effects.
Haeven's Light (252%ED,+3skills,SHAEL,AMN)
HoZ (PDiamond)
Shaftstop upped (213%ED -> 1524 defence)
Dracul's Grasp (10%LL)
Ravenfrost (crappy 15/189)
Gore Rider
String of Ears (10%DR, 8%LL)

and rare amulet and ring:

Chaos Master
Ring
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x578e98c8
+2 to Dexterity
+118 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +30%
Lightning Resist +11%
Cold Resist +11%
Poison Resist +11%
8% Life stolen per hit
30% Extra Gold from Monsters

Wraith Beads
Amulet
Required Level: 73
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x2d3e842b
+1 to Strength
+17 to Energy
Fire Resist +36%
Lightning Resist +18%
Cold Resist +18%
Poison Resist +18%
6% Life stolen per hit
+1 to Paladin Skill Levels

SWAP:
Wand of Life Tap / Passion War Spike
Herald of Zakarum (was needed because of resistances and STR bonus)

Charms: around +30max damage (fine and sharp charms - not the best though), some minor resists, ~20 FRW

MERC: (Leharas, A2 might)
Eth Bonehew (311%ED, SHAEL,SHAEL)
Andariel's Visage (used from lvl83)
Eth Stone Lacquered Plate (4331 Defence, used from lvl83)
Leharas' stats

Martyr disadvantages:
Well, the 8% damage to self was very annoying in hell, even with 37% life leech I had. I was loosing life even when attacking some leechable monsters, and if they were able to do some damage, I couldn't do anything else than use that Life Tap charges. For normal monsters I leeched some low life back, but it wasn't enough if they were able to hurt me.
Interruptible attack: When surrounded by monsters, you can live (high defence and high block), but still you will be most of the time in hit recovery, not able to kill them quickly.
Nonleechable monsters as Skeletons: You can't offset the damage to self (only Life Tap helps)
Missclick danger: Click on nonleechable monster / catapult / door and you have serious trouble - that's why the 50%DR is a must. Actually I thought it will be worse, I was still able to land 3-4 attacks on non-leechable monsters without dying.


Martyr advantage:
He doesn't have any.... :wink3:
OK, maybe that you don't need mana and you can laugh to those mana burn bosses.
And maxed Redemption is cool and useful.


My strategy:
Well most of the monsters were OK, with my semi-leet gear, I was able to tank most of them, only usual archers/gloams/succubi were problematic.
Those non-leechables were solved this way:
1) Strong merc attack - Eth Bonehew with Might merc and Fanaticism - he was much more stronger than Mart himself 😃
2) Waiting for Life Tap from Dracul's - if leechable and non-leechable monsters were mixed together, I primarily choose leechables as my targets, quite often, LT from Draculs was activated...
3) LT charge from wand on switch - that was used mainly on bosses/champs/big groups
4) skipping them - I skipped smaller groups, especially those bone mages who don't follow me.


Physical immunes - I switched LT wand for Passion and Berserk them to death. The chance to flee was useful against ghosts. The pack of Ghosts is quite nasty, burning your mana, so dividing them by flee turned out to be a good tactic (all I had to do was clicking fanatically instead of holding the mouse button as usually). They often didn't made it back to me because of OW :).
Some stygian furies were skipped...


The toughest areas:Unraveler/Apparition combo in TR tomb, Chaos sanctuary, siren/Gloams combo in Frozen River, WSK.
Bosses were easy with ~50 CB and Lifetap. Even PI Lister was killed with Berserk easily (though it took some time)

Summary:
Martyr is viable even on Hell (I played P3 first act, P1 rest of Hell), but you better prepare good gear and lot of LL. I wanted to use CoA, but maybe even more leech (Vampire Gaze) would be worth it. The damage itself isn't great, I would say it's mediocre in comparison with other skills like Vengeance or Concentrate, but the disadvantages are really painful. You have to be fully concentrated when playing, any misclicks can bring you death.

I enjoyed playing this character, but I think that I will take a break from melee characters.

EDIT: ...and best finds: Saracen's chance, Demonhorn's Edge, MAL from Hellforge. With 0 MF.
 
Originally posted by jrlafrance on Jan 20, 2006:

Patriarch Victor - Mat/Pat #5

Well, as promised in the Thursdaily, here is my thread for Patriarch Victor, a Templar. This character was inspired by the currently ongoing PvP tourney, and an idea that I had with Fist of the Heaven, and Conviction aura. Normal and Nightmare were done at /p8, Hell level done at /p5, except for most of Act 5 at /p3, and Ancients / WSK at /p1. The reason? I was kinda getting bored with this character, and wanted to get it over with!:rolleyes:

I used Zeal/Fanatacism for most of the game, on the rare occasion I didn't, it was FoH/Conviction. I did run around with Zeal/Conviction quite a bit though, just to help break immunities (mostly in Hell level though).

I did have some interesting encounters with monster, and screen shots are as follows:

Hell Coldworm

Ancient Kaa

Strangest Unique Name

Anyone else seen this before?

I didn't intend for this character to do ANY MF'ing, so no good EU's to report, but as reporting in the IFT I present these:

Hell Hellforge

Totally unexpected find in Tamoe Highland from a chest!

OK, on the the things that most of you really want to see, stats!

LCS Zeal/Fanatacism

LCS FoH/Conviction

RCS Defensive Skills

RCS Offensive Skills

RCS Combat Skills

My gear (end game):
Lightsabre
GA
Harley

Rare ammy:

Rune Torc
Amulet
Required Level: 34
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 93
Fingerprint: 0x4847f50
+15 to Strength
+60 to Life
+6 to Mana
All Resistances +19
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
+2 to Offensive Aura Skills (Paladin Only)

HoZ
Gore Riders
Draculs
Ravenfrost
Rare ring:

Bone Eye
Ring
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x1a287cc8
+64 to Attack Rating
+1 to Maximum Damage
Fire Resist +10%
Lightning Resist +31%
Cold Resist +10%
Poison Resist +10%
4% Life stolen per hit
+5 to Light Radius
5% Bonus to Attack Rating

TGod's

Stash:
1xCombat Skiller
2xOffensive Skillers
1xFine Grand Charm
several Fine sc's/ resist sc's

Merc's setup:

Blackhorn's
Reapers Toll
Eth Duriel's Shell until I made this (on accident, you'll see why):

Fortitude
Wyrmhide
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 2796
Durability: 13 of 13
Required Strength: 74
Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 73
Fingerprint: 0x38cc038d
+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
+1 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)

and Finally Hell Baal drop (as you can see, with 74%MF, nothing good for me!

I did make a pretty huge mistake in allocating my skill points. With all my PvP +skills (which I didn't calculate before hand (bad boy!)), I shouldn't have maxed out conviction, but probably only should have put maybe 13-15 in there, and the rest in either Smite, or Defiance (as a synergy to HS). I think I ended up with a little more strength than I needed to, but no biggie. This character was fun until about A3 Hell, then I just got bored with it for some reason.

Next up, I think I'm gonna finish my summoner necro who is currently in Kurast Bazaar, Hell level. After that, I'm haven't really decided, I might just MF for awhile, or try my hand at a javazon. CS/LF sound about right?
 
Originally posted by Milb on Jan 29, 2006:

Matriarch Ndndnd and Patriarch Lrrr

Hey,

Here are my latest Mat and Pat:

First - Matriach Ndndnd - Blizz Sorc

She was finished a while ago but I didn't think she deserved her own thread as she is such a cookie-cutter!

The whole game was actually extremely easy with her and any CI's which my merc couldn't deal with I just teled past. The only real problem I had was the Ancients but I just used a Life Tap wand and let my merc get the job done for me.

She is now my Pindle runner but hasn't found me anything godly as yet!

Stats:

Level: 87
Life: 1087
Mana: 576
Str: 156 / 159
Dex: 43 / 45
Vit: 290 / 336
Ene: 36 / 38
Resists: 34/60/75/20
Damage: GS: 1.3k - 1.4k Blizz: 5.2k-5.5k

Skills:

Blizz 20/33
GS 20/34
Ice Bolt 20/31
Ice Blast 20/31
Cold Mastery 11/22
Frozen Orb 1/12
TK/TP 1/10
Frozen Armor 1/12

Gear:

Shako Ptopaz
Spirit/Spirit
Ali Baba / Rhyme on switch
Viper 24 / Skullders
Trangs Gloves / Chance guards
Snowclash / Goldwrap
32Mf ring / fcr and res ring
Tals Amulet
Aldurs Boots / War Travs

Merc:

Holy Freeze
Andariels Visage
Duriels
Eth Insight Thresher

Deaths: 1: Hell Ancients, One Hit Killed by a Whirlwind

Notable finds:

None while questing but have since mfed another Tals Ammy, GA, HoZ and much more

Second - Patriarch Lrrr - Avenger Paladin

Finished him today, has taken a while as I have mainly been mfing with Ndndnd but I decided I could do with another Hellforge rune so I have raced him through in the past few hours!

He was quite an enjoyable character and breezed through Normal and NM at players 8 and was very comfortable in Hell until act 5 where it became a little more difficult.

Stats:

Level: 81
Life: 1405
Mana: 325
Str: 90 / 156
Dex: 100 / 146
Vit: 295 / 347
Ene: 15 / 27
Resists: 64/60/81/73
Damage: 769-7277

Skills:

Vengeance: 20/27
Conviction: 20/25
Resist Cold/Fire/Lightning: 13/18 each
Holy Shield 2/9
Prereqs 1 each

Gear:

Shako Ptopaz
Oath / HoZ
Redemption stick / 2 Pally Shield on switch / Buriza when near OK's
GA socketed with 13 all res jewel
Tgods
Draculs
War Travs
Ravenfrost / Dual leech, ar, res ring
Cats Eye
Res Charms
Also, Guilluames and Goreriders in stash for bosses/Ancients

Merc:

Defiance
CoT
Duriels
Eth Insight Thresher

Deaths: 3: 2 Iron Maiden, 1 me being cocky and trying to use Redemption rather than a Full Rejuv

Notable finds:

Tal's Amulet from NM Act5
Hellforge Ist
Goreriders Hell Duriel


These chars share some of the same gear as I don't have doubles of them yet!

Thanks to nebux for his many generous item donations, and thanks to everyone who posted in my 'Best gear for Avenger' thread, all the advice was invaluable!

Any questions feel free to ask!
Thanks for reading,
Milb
 
Originally posted by MukTuk on Feb 12, 2011:

Patriarch Spazz, untwinked Charger (Paladin)

Please note, I recently became aware that Spaz can be considered a deragotry term by some, I did not mean to use the name in this manner. The definition of Spaz I knew is someone who is hyper-active and energetic, which I felt fit a Charger fairly well. I mean no offense to those who know this term by another meaning.


I was inspired to make a charger from SSoG's awesome guide to the Charger. I won't go too much into the specifics of the skill, as I'd just be repeating info that is better detailed and explained in SSoG's guide, but the basic gist of a Charger is that it plays very different to other melee classes and requires a good deal of reflexes, fast thinking, and strategy to be effective.

A great big hurty weapon helps too, as Charge's speed is fixed and totally independant of your weapon speed, so the bigger the better. Charge has such a ridiculous amount of ED% when fully synergised that most things will die in one good hit. And for anything that doesn't, you can easily follow up with another Charge, since Charge will always (even if you miss or the enemy blocks) knockback the opponent far enough to give you enough room for another Charge, so you can Charge-lock a monster with repeated fast powerful strikes untill it dies, and it is unable to do anything while you're smashing it all the way across the map.

Despite being able to pull out sick amounts of melee damage in a short amount of time, the Charger plays more like a ranged character that wants to avoid close melee. If you're too close to a monster when you try and charge, you'll execute a regular attack instead. If you're using a big hurty weapon, it's likely to be slow, so these normal swings can be painfully slow and incredibly dangerous if you're chilled or otherwise slowed, as you're left wide open to attacks and being surrounded (did I mention you're not likely to be using a Shield either since the most damaging weapons are 2H?). Thus, hit and run tactics and strategic monster herding and taking your time to watch for an opening to make your move are all essential to survival.

One interesting thing about the Charger is that it is rather more flexible in it's choice of Auras. Since Charge accounts for such a large amount of your ED%, the additional bonus of running a damage aura like Might does not add relatively that much more damage than it would to a Zealer, for instance. Because of this, you have more freedom to choose what Aura you like best or what's most appropriate for the situation. Chilled? Run Vigor to regain some mobility. Conviction boss? Counter with Salvation. Can't hit stuff? Conviction will sort that out. Things won't stay dead? Put on Redemption. Merc died? Oh well, I'll run Holy Freeze myself. Undead? Sanctuary. You get the idea, deciding what Aura to use when adds another nice layer of tactical choice.

That's enough of an over-view of the Charger, so how did mine work out? Well, I parked mine in Act 1 Hell for a while so I don't remember too much early on, but what I do remember is that during Normal and Nightmare you'll pretty much one-hit most things you come across so long as you're wielding the biggest weapon available at the time (Insight into the best Polearm available will do the trick). I also remember having an absolute blast fighting Normal Diablo. It was so much fun to Charge around avoiding his lightning hose, run in to hit him, and then Charge back out just in time to out-run and avoid his Firestorm. Other Act bosses were not so much fun, as they cannot be knocked back so you can't lock them into a Charge chain, which really hurts your offense a lot. My solution to this was to put a 'Black' runeword and a Shield on switch to apply crushing blow via the auto-hitting Smite. Having a Smite set-up on switch was incredibly helpful as a back-up means of offense, but also for safety. A Charger hates small cramped spaces, and hates being swarmed. Stair-traps are its worst nightmare. Having a Shield on switch with Holy Shield active gave me a 75% chance to block at 2 Frame speed with a fast, auto-hitting, stunning and knockback skill that helped keep me alive if I ever got surrounded. Smite can take care of 2-3 enemies at once if you're quick enough. Smite was also good for dealing with PI's, I would run Conviction aura and stun-lock the boss with Smite while my Holy Freeze Merc (and Open Wounds from my Swordback Hold shield) slowly took them down.

Hell gave me quite some difficulty. I originally parked this guy once I got to Hell because I was finding things too hard, but just recently I decided to give it another shot. My biggest problem was my lack of a decent weapon. I had built an 'Honor' Partizan as a placeholder weapon to work with untill I could find a better weapon in Hell. The damage was okay at best, it did the job, but it took some time. As Hell progressed, the lack of damage was really starting to frustrate me, Act 4 was agonisingly slow, it took me about an hour and a half to reach the City waypoint and kill Izual on the way, and I had ran through most of the City of Damned. I was not looking forward to Act 5, but finally, in the middle of the Bloody Foothills I got my lucky break and a Superior Elder Staff had dropped. I was putting my hopes for all of Hell on finding an Elite staff to make Insight in, as Elite staves compare with some of the best Elite weapons in terms of damage. They also have extremely low stat reqs, for instance, an Archon Staff has a 34 Str req with 91 avg damage, while an Ogre Maul has 91 avg damage, but with 225 str. This allowed me to respec and shift about 50-60 points of Str into Vit, giving me a nice bit of extra survivability too. Even better, an Elder Staff has a max of 4 sockets so Larzuk could guarantee me a good murder stick. The first roll kinda sucked, with only mid range ED% and +2 Critical Strike, but I had the runes to empty it and give it another shot. This time I scored 241% ED (out of 200-260%) and +6 Critical Strike (out of 2-6). The difference between +2 and +6 CS is a difference of 25% and 46%, and given the already high damage output of Charge, meant a lot more damage overall. The Meditation aura meant I count benefit from passive healing from Prayer. Finally, I had a Hell-viable weapon and my Charger was fun (and deadly) again. Unfortunately, it was the expensive kind of superior, with extra durability instead of extra damage so my first repair gave me a bit of a shock, but a few Ort runes saved the day. One small disadvantage though, is that a Paladin has much slower FHR Frames when wielding staves and spears, so I had to be more careful to avoid stun-lock.

One last story: I had a miserable time in the Hell Maggot Lair. By the time I found the chamber, it was swarming. Charge was almost impossible in such a tiny space, and there was no way I could make it close enough to the chest. I tried using a confuse wand, hoping that they'd pay no attention to my Merc and he could kill the big Maggots, but that was no help - the duration was far too short. I tried to put the Corpse Explosion charges from Black to good use, that kinda helped but I didn't have the bankroll to keep that strategy up for long. Eventually, half an hour, $400k and one death later, I gave up and hit S&E to try again. The second time around I made it to the lair quicker, so it was less cramped, but still tricky. I succeded though, and then killed Coldworm for good measure. Thinking back, a better way to have dealt with it would've been to get Telekinesis charges to open the chest, and then Teleport charges to teleport right to the staff and grab it.

DEATHS:
Several. Being my first attempt at a Charger, it took a while to get the hang of things and to learn how to not get myself killed. Two notable deaths that I can remember happened in Hell CS. First was when I hit the Infector's Seal (which was in the map layout where it's in a dead-end and Infector spawns up ahead to block you in), and tried to Charge out of the dead-end deathtrap before he and his group spawned. I was not fast enough, they spawned right on top of me as I was charging past and I died instantly. The smart thing would've been to just go to town after hitting the seal and take the WP back. The second was to Hell Diablo, I had Smote him down to a sliver of health with no danger whatsoever, and then decided to swap weapons and go for the kill with Charge. I struck the final blow right as he was releasing a Firestorm, and I was too distracted by his death to notice my rapidly depleting lifebulb, and I fell shortly after. My only consolation is that it made for an awesome screenshot.

FINDS:
Durance Level 2 gifted me with a Demon's Limb (which I had wanted and will be useful for my next character), and my first Gheed's Fortune from a random chest - just in time for a 1 million+ gambling spree.

Finally, if you're interested in playing a Charger, I would very much recommend to do it twinked. Not that its not possible untwinked, but it would probably be a lot easier and more fun if you could deck him out in awesome gear and get a really nice high damage weapon to play with. Also be careful of the numerous bugs with Charge, some can be dangerous (like when you suddenly freeze and cannot move for some reason), so you need to be alert at all times. Also, Charge can drain your mana fast, so I'd recommend Insight if possible, the good thing is its a viable weapon to wield yourself so you can still have freedom with the Merc.

That's enough text for now, have some numbers.

Spazz
Level: 82
Strength: 75 (65)
Dexterity: 180 (159)
Vitality: 271 (266)
Energy: 30 (15)
HP: 1063
Mana: 211

Charge: 5,085-5,884 (might), 4,439-5,139 (normal), 7032 AR, approx 5 Frame attack

Fire: 75
Cold: 63
Lightning: 71
Poison: 75

FHR: 32% (8 frames, thats only 1 lower than no FHR with non-spear/staff weapons!)
Block: 75%
Life Leech: 6%

SKILLS
20 in Might, Charge, Vigor
4 in Holy Shield
17 in Prayer
1 in Redemption, Salvation, Conviction and any pre-reqs

GEAR:
Code:
Insight
Superior Elder Staff
Two Hand Damage: 281 - 317
Durability: 39 of 35
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 44
Required Dexterity: 37
Fingerprint: 0x9ee06620
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
14% Increase Maximum Durability
+1 to Energy Shield (Sorceress Only)
All Stats +5
241% Enhanced Damage
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+6 to Critical Strike
35% Faster Cast Rate
189% Bonus to Attack Rating
Level 13 Meditation Aura When Equipped
+5 - 30 Fire Damage
+2 to Mana after each Kill
+75 poison damage over 5 seconds
+9 to Minimum Damage
4 Sockets (4 used)
 
WEAPON SWITCH
Black
Flail
One Hand Damage: 2 - 52
Durability: 25 of 30
Required Level: 35
Required Strength: 41
Required Dexterity: 35
Fingerprint: 0xc1dde03f
Item Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
150% Damage to Undead
120% Enhanced Damage
+200 to Attack Rating
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
15% Increased Attack Speed
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
Level 4 Corpse Explosion (12/12 Charges)
+3 - 14 cold damage with 3 sec Duration
+10 to Vitality
Knockback
3 Sockets (3 used)
 
Swordback Hold
Spiked Shield
Defense: 50
Chance to Block: 30
Durability: 38 of 40
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 30
Fingerprint: 0x9c17ddb7
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
54% Enhanced Defense
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
+10 Defense
Attacker Takes Damage of 10
50% Chance of Open Wounds
 
Smoke
Trellised Armor
Defense: 255
Durability: 31 of 32
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 61
Fingerprint: 0x8e6ad992
Item Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
All Resistances +50
75% Enhanced Defense
+280 Defense vs. Missile
-1 to Light Radius
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Level 6 Weaken (18/18 Charges)
+10 to Energy
2 Sockets (2 used)
 
Gemmed Great Helm
Great Helm
Defense: 35
Durability: 38 of 40
Required Level: 26
Required Strength: 63
Fingerprint: 0xa3bbe761
Item Level: 58
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
All Resistances +11
Cold Resist +30%
Poison Resist +30%
+6 to Dexterity
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Scintillating Jewel of Daring
 
Death Claw
Chain Gloves
Defense: 16
Durability: 12 of 16
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0x91fa2d91
Item Level: 53
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
66% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +26%
3% Life stolen per hit
Attacker Takes Damage of 3
Knockback
5% Chance to cast level 4 Frost Nova when struck
 
[I]Knockback meant that if I ever accidentally executed a normal attack
I'd sometimes push them back enough to follow up with a charge[/I]
 
Demon Chain
Plated Belt
Defense: 15
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Level: 50
Required Strength: 60
Fingerprint: 0x23be5f58
Item Level: 77
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+17 to Strength
+30 to Life
32% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +13%
Poison Resist +27%
 
Sander's Riprap
Heavy Boots
Defense: 6
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 20
Required Strength: 18
Fingerprint: 0xd2d02dfc
Item Level: 69
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+5 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+100 to Attack Rating
40% Faster Run/Walk
 
Corruption Eye
Ring
Required Level: 48
Fingerprint: 0x3025c92b
Item Level: 57
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+53 to Mana
+20 Maximum Stamina
+1 to Maximum Damage
3% Life stolen per hit
All Resistances +10
 
Rainbow Ring
Ring
Required Level: 48
Fingerprint: 0xd9827260
Item Level: 64
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
All Resistances +10%
 
Prismatic Amulet of Maiming
Amulet
Required Level: 34
Fingerprint: 0xbb6deed9
Item Level: 50
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+4 to Maximum Damage
All Resistances +17

CHARMS:
Code:
Shimmering Small Charm of Burning
 +5% All Resistances
 +3 - 6 Fire Damage
Bronze Grand Charm of Balance
 +11 to Attack Rating
 12% Faster Hit Recovery
Russet Small Charm
 Fire Resist +6%
Beryl Small Charm of Shock
 Poison Resist +4%
 +1 - 6 Lightning Damage
Coral Large Charm of Sustenance
 +18 to Life
 Lightning Resist +11%
Garnet Large Charm
 Fire Resist +11%
Iron Grand Charm
 +61 to Attack Rating
Steel Large Charm of Quality
 +70 to Attack Rating
 +2 to Maximum Damage
Gheed's Fortune
 147% Extra Gold from Monsters
 33% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
 Reduces all Vendor Prices 12%
MERC:
Act 2 Holy Freeze. For a build that relies heavily on monster management, a Merc can sometimes make it harder to get monsters where you want as he draws their attention, however I found his Holy Freeze aura and (sometimes limited) tanking ability to be incredibly helpful, enough to outweigh the disadvantages. In fact, a good deal of the time monsters just completly ignored him, which was actually helpful most of the time as I could have the best of both worls - Holy Freeze to slow monsters, an no distraction to lead them astray. And of course, he was also part of my solution to PI monsters. One weird thing did happen once, my Merc seemed to have gotten himself stuck with the effects of a Conviction aura, and nothing I did would remove it, untill I fixed it by use of S&E.

Code:
Honor
Partizan
Two Hand Damage: 97 - 204
Durability: 44 of 65
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 113
Required Dexterity: 67
Fingerprint: 0x235c2bd4
Item Level: 66
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+10 to Strength
160% Enhanced Damage
+250 to Attack Rating
Replenish Life 10
+1 to All Skills
25% Deadly Strike
7% Life stolen per hit
+1 to Light Radius
+9 to Maximum Damage
+2 to Mana after each Kill
+9 to Minimum Damage
5 Sockets (5 used)
 
[I]This is what I used for most of Hell[/I]
 
Plague Horn
Tiara
Defense: 45
Durability: 19 of 25
Required Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0xf1152f9d
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+54 to Life
Lightning Resist +14%
7% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
20% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +19
 
Gemmed Gothic Plate
Gothic Plate
Defense: 134
Durability: 55 of 55
Required Level: 23
Required Strength: 70
Fingerprint: 0x2616b37b
Item Level: 48
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
All Resistances +30
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune

SCREENSHOTS:
* A few yeti, beating the crap out of my invisible merc.

* The bloody remains of the Hell Ancients.

* My merc, stabbing Hephasto in the ***, over and over and over. This went on for several minutes, Hephasto won't be able to sit down for weeks.

* A good example of how having a Shield saved my life. This wasn't a stairtrap, but very soon after entering I had to retreat back here.

END:
Thanks for reading another lenghty write-up!
 
Originally posted by Neksja on Jul 3, 2008:

Patriarch Neely, Charger

Hello 👋 Meet Neely, he's my charger. He was a hell of a fun. But let me introduce him some more.

Character name : Neely
Character type : Paladin
Character level : 81
Character exp : 755771546

Strength : 107
Energy : 15
Dexterity : 20
Vitality : 358
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 4

Life : 1419 / 1274
Mana : 182 / 135
Stamina : 543 / 502

Resists: 56/40/80/30

Skills:
20 Charge
20 Vigor
20 Might
20 Fanatacism
1 Zeal and all the prereqs

As you can see, he is a pure physical Charger. All the glory to mighty attack. 4 skill points spared, after I've finished maxing Might (last synergy). At first I thought, I'd dump those points to Blessed Aim, for extra AR, but I did small calculations and if I'm right, 1 point to BA raises my AR by ~50. So, not too much of an improvement to my eyes. So, no idea where to put the last points...

And, what is his gear?

Helm: Guillaume's Face "14 all res jewel"
Armor: Fortitude AP
Gloves: Crafted 10% cb
Belt: Crafted 10% ow
Boots: Gorerider
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Rings: Ravenfrost & Rare with mana leech & resists
Weapon: Insight Archon Staff

Pretty much damage orientated, right? But that's how Charger's work, right? Right?! To some numbers:

49% Critical Strike (+7 Critical Strike)
60% Deadly Strike (Highlord's + Gores + Guillaume's)
20% Open Wounds (Belt + Gores)
60% Crushing Blow (Gores + Gloves + Guillaume's)

Charge Damage
Zeal Damage

Gear readouts:
Code:
Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 36 of 40
Required Strength: 115
Required Level: 34
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x1a28129
+15 to Strength
+120% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +14
30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Scintillating Jewel
Required Level: 26
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xedac844f
All Resistances +14

Fortitude
Archon Plate
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 1587
Durability: 54 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x3bebbbe2
+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
+81 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Ghoul Grip
Vampirebone Gloves
Defense: 82
Durability: 11 of 14
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 57
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xe69080d2
+13 to Life
+25% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +9%
6% Life stolen per hit
20% Increased Attack Speed
10% Chance of Crushing Blow

Bitter Chain
Mesh Belt
Defense: 60
Durability: 12 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 36
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 93
Fingerprint: 0x6b2b85c4
+3 to Strength
+20 to Life
+48% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +26%
Lightning Resist +14%
3% Life stolen per hit
10% Chance of Open Wounds

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 145
Durability: 32 of 34
Required Strength: 94
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0xdfe06043
+20 to Maximum Stamina
+169% 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: 99
Fingerprint: 0xcb364ea0
Lightning Resist +35%
Adds 1-30 lightning damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to All Skill Levels
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15
30% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb5d2b10b
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+159 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Death Touch
Ring
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x139162ee
+16 to Maximum Stamina
+1 to Maximum Damage
Fire Resist +11%
Lightning Resist +11%
Cold Resist +21%
Poison Resist +11%
5% Mana stolen per hit

Insight
Archon Staff
'RalTirTalSol'
Two-Hand Damage: 300 to 347
Durability: 9 of 26
Required Strength: 34
Required Level: 66
Staff Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xc1af5faf
+5 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+5 to Dexterity
+5 to Vitality
+251% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+75 poison damage over 5 seconds
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+6 to Critical Strike
35% Faster Cast Rate
237% Bonus to Attack Rating
150% Damage to Undead
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Level 17 Meditation Aura When Equipped
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Merc is Act2 and Might aura (No way?! more damage for Charger?). Here's his gear:
Code:
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: 0xc21218fd
+100% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 12
Damage Reduced by 17%
Cold Resist +11%
Adds 6-22 cold damage over 4 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
7% Mana stolen per hit
15% Increased Attack Speed
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Duriel's Shell
Cuirass
Defense: 669
Durability: 149 of 150
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x9835b6c1
+15 to Strength
+180% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +20%
Lightning Resist +20%
Cold Resist +50%
Poison Resist +20%
+100 Maximum Durability
Cannot Be Frozen
+101 to Defense (Based on Character Level)
+81 to Life (Based on Character Level)

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
'Amn'
Two-Hand Damage: 35 to 418
Durability: 65 of 65
Required Dexterity: 89
Required Strength: 114
Required Level: 75
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x8a924b42
+197% Enhanced Damage
Adds 4-44 cold damage over 0 seconds
20% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -25%
Ignore Target Defense
33% Deadly Strike
33% Chance to cast Level 1 Decrepify on striking
Socketed (1: 1 used)

And, what is a Charger without some damage charms? Nothing! Still, Neely needed couple of res charms to get decent resists:
Code:
Sharp Grand Charm of Dexterity
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x5ad9eade
+5 to Dexterity
+74 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm of Storms
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x79d83075
+10 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage
Adds 1-20 lightning damage

Shimmering Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 26
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x5d2398c1
All Resistances +7

Shimmering Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 66
Fingerprint: 0xdf1bdeab
All Resistances +5

Shimmering Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0xd05b9909
All Resistances +5

Fine Small Charm of Balance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x30ef9342
+15 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage
5% Faster Hit Recovery

Fine Small Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xe80db633
+10 to Life
+10 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xaf2e989b
+20 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm of Dexterity
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xf97f7429
+1 to Dexterity
+13 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x5e35733c
+14 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Shimmering Grand Charm of Fire
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xb60febbd
All Resistances +15
Adds 1-3 fire damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0x36d7c4e1
+5 to Strength
+55 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Quality
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x370d8dc6
+67 to Attack Rating
+11 to Maximum Damage

Shimmering Grand Charm of Shock
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x83771893
All Resistances +15
Adds 1-3 lightning damage

Sharp Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x6cd9025a
+72 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 55
Fingerprint: 0xf00de94
+51 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

Finds: Hell HF gave him a Pul, best find while questing was Trang's Belt in Ancient's Way. With very low mf (23 from Insight), I expected that there's no good drops.

Gameplay:

Fana on right "click", Charge on left. Seek for monster, click and smell a corpse. If there's no room for next charge, a little bit of walking back and charge away. The famous "Charge Chain" is wonderful, one thing that feels great to experience in D2. I played through the Hell with /players1, because I wanted to kill things with one attack 👅

I've heard that people usually park their Chargers in Hell Act3, because of tons of flayed ones. That's where Zeal shines. Charge towards the first monster, if stuck in the middle of them, zeal your way out and charge again. Not the perfect solution, but at least I got to Charge a lot :)

Physical Immunes? "Meeeerc! Poke that stick of yours 'til Decrepify is on!"


Bugged Charge?

Oh yeah! If you don't want to spend half of your playing time under some bug, don't play Charger. The most annoying bug is, when you charge against monster and it will attack at you with knockabck, your charge changes direction to that direction where you were knocked to.

Also, I didn't like that "stunlock" I got awfully often, switch weapons and back and your charge is good to go again. Sometimes, when you charged to monster and wanted to walk back and charge again, your character just runs at the spot until you hit weapon switch.

For people who wants to play a Charger, get used to all the bugs (check SSoG's thread, "everything you need to know about charging in PvM") before you enter Hell. It will help a lot.


Thanks to:[/highlight]
For SPF Community
*enter member name*, who used Insight Archon Staff with his Charger or some other character (I'd like to say Tupsi, but not sure), for inspiration
You for reading
for Neely

Cheers,
Neksja

Wanna piece of me?
 
Originally posted by nualum on Aug 17, 2009:

Patriarch Dune - Avenger

First & Foremost

This character was one I had been wanting to build for a while, and about two months ago I got the perfect excuse from dune6836's Mephisto Plucking thread - really good stuff :nod:- you should give it a read if you haven't.

nualum said:
I've received the elite uniques - thanks again! As soon as I work out a build to center on one or more of them I'll start working toward patriarch dune (or duna, depending which way it goes :))

Anybody have some good ideas? Maybe a Heaven's light zealot or avenger...

So the primary thanks go out to dune - the Heaven't light and Verdungo's used were both from the prize stash (used a couple other bits along the way), with a close second to Jaedhann, who traded me the excellent jewels that pumped up the damage fairly significantly. Thanks as always to the forum as a whole for an almost unending supply of inspiration. Fair warning, this gets a little wordy...

Almost forgot, this is my first melee paladin patriarch. Definitely good enough that I'm considering another...

The Build
Name: Dune
Build: 1H Avenger
Level: 80

Str: 105/146
Dex: 108/127
Vit: 267/320
Eng: 15

Life: 999/1266
Mana: 133/307
Resists: 39/79/76/29 (80/79/85/75 w/ fade)
DR: 35% (50% w/ fade)

Skills: 20 vengeance, conviction, resist lightning, 10 resist fire, 9 resist cold
1 cleansing, vigor, redemption, 9 prereqs (I seem to be missing one skillpoint... curious)

Build Theory: There's not much to building an avenger. Since vengeance gets around any immunity, and only directly uses on-weapon damage, there aren't too many factors to balance. Pick up a good weapon & maximize it's damage, throw on enough IAS for your tastes, deal with the mana consumption with leech or insight, and get some help with crowds (a major factor for a single target attacker). Lastly stack your inventory with all the damage charms you can find. Resists, life, blocking, and stat requirements are all easily manageable.

Vengeance Damage (LCS): 2566-4026 (probably averaging around 5500 w/ conviction active 👍)
Vengeance AR: 4875

Weapon: Dune's Heaven's Light (below)
Switch: 1.09 ethereal scepter (+2 holy shield), ethereal HoZ
Shield: Herald (pdiamond)
Armor: Treachery Dusk Shroud
Helm: Vamp Gaze (MDR 12, DR 20%, 7% LL, 8% ML, empty socket...)
Amulet: Chromatic Amulet of the Centaur (30% resist all, 60 life)
Rings: Ravenfrost (15 dex, 180 AR), Rare (20 str, 89 mana, 115AR, 23% res-lightning)
Belt: Verdungo's (33 vit, 15% DR)
Gloves: Bloodfist
Boots: Natalya's (24% r-light, 23% r-cold)

The ony readout worth the space:
Code:
Dune's Heaven's Light
Mighty Scepter
One-Hand Damage: 191 to 249
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Dexterity: 65
Required Strength: 125
Required Level: 61
Mace Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xec1aca52
+379% Enhanced Damage
Adds 1-37 lightning damage
Adds 2-10 cold damage over 2 seconds
+2 to Paladin Skill Levels
+3 to Light Radius
20% Increased Attack Speed
-33% Target Defense
150% Damage to Undead
33% Chance of Crushing Blow
+15 Life after each Demon Kill
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Ruby Jewel of Lightning
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xe088c99c
+40% Enhanced Damage
Adds 1-37 lightning damage

Ruby Jewel of the Icicle
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xac78d50e
+40% Enhanced Damage
Adds 2-10 cold damage over 2 seconds

Gear analysis: The plan was to throw an IAS jewel in the helm (ideally with resists on it), and switch out the amulet for highlord's or a crescent moon. Unfortunately, I don't have either amulet, and the IAS jewel was just short of the 9-frame bp while wearing soul drainers (which I was planning at the time). Once I recognized that bloodfist were better, I could have stuck with the resists amulet and used a vanilla fervor jewel for the extra frame, which I completely forgot about... oops. :banghead:

Charms: +50 max damage, 335 AR, 45 mana, and some add-ons - left 3 empty columns after the cube & tomes.

Fine Small Charm of Shock (1 max, 14 AR, 1-3 lightning)
Fine Small Charm of Dexterity (1 max, 19 AR, 1 dex)
Fine Small Charm of Fortune (3 max, 20 AR, 5% MF)
Fine Large Charm of Life (3 max, 19 AR, 8 life)
Sharp Grand Charm (10 max, 72 AR)
Sharp Grand Charm of Dexterity (8 max, 65 AR, 3 dex)
Sharp Large Charm of Frost (6 max, 23 AR, 1-3 cold)
Sharp Large Charm (6 max, 34 AR)
Sharp Large Charm (5 max, 48 AR)
Sharp Large Charm of Storms (6 max, 21 AR, 1-34 lightning)
Snake's Small Charm (9 mana)
Snake's Grand Charm of Craftmanship (1 max, 36 mana)
Ruby Small Charm of Strength (1 str, 10% res-fire)

What not to Wear
While the vamp gaze and treachery are almost ideally suited for this build, it does make for one very ugly character. :yuck: I almost wore stealskull and invested another Lem in a heavier armor for nothing more than asthetics, but once he gets his conviction aura going he does have a nice green theme going on with the helm and pants. It still looks questionable at best (particularly since holy shield has never been much of a looker), but when fade triggers I suppose it's not too bad.

Mercenary
I went back and forth quite a bit on what to do with the mercenary choice. My main concern left over from the build was crowd control, having decided that a bit of mana leech, the odd potion, and redemption would negate any need for insight. The other major factor was wanting to do something productive with my conviction aura. I would never have a better opportunity for a strong iron wolf, but that would also create a large opportunity for a dead avenger, so he was out. The standard holy freeze merc with reaper's toll would be the exact opposite (max crowd control, but zero style points), so he's out too. That left me with what might be my new favorite mercenary (for the rare non-mana-intensive, non-tank-needing builds): the Delirium-Harmony rogue 💘. After all, the only thing worse than running around having to left click on every enemy is having to do it slowly... plus, the dichotomy of wearing items called delirium and harmony is too cool to pass up.

Helm: Delirium Crown
Armor: Twitchthroe (didn't have another treachery handy)
Weapon: Harmony Longbow

Delirium's confusion worked perfectly with the rogue's fast and reliable attack, the run speed bonus was fantastic, and her damage was good enough for small annoying targets (particularly flayers, the bane of my hand/wrist while relying on a single target left-click attack). As an added bonus, if you've never seen a character/mercenary with a bow under the effects of vigor and delirium, you should. The little bone fetish zips around at 100 miles an hour throwing out arrows like it were strafing... good stuff! :smug:

How'd it go?
Extremely well. Twinked heavily until he could hold steeldriver, which obliterated everything in normal (I think thresh socket lasted two hits). Unfortunately that hubris would lead to his only death early in nightmare, when he ran around a corner in the underground tunnel into a pack of tainted and a couple archers. No blocking and no FHR... ouch. Had I been remotely alert he would still have gotten away after a rejuv or two, but it wasn't to be. So he shelved the steeldriver and pulled out herald and the best one hander I had available - a butcher's pupil. It wasn't too long after that the delirium became available for the merc, and that took care of crowds from that point forward. Huge flocks of undead were still troublesome, as were mana burners, and large collections of spawners got skipped altogether. The river of flame in hell rolled both maggots and vile mothers... and I promptly hit escape, up, enter. He could have slogged through, but I might still be at it :hammerhead:.

In general, if you're inclined to do a single target melee attacker, this is one of the best. Vengeance kills absolutely anything, and heaven's light has enough crushing blow to take care of bosses. The physical damage was just enough for leech to be effective, but low enough that you can survive one or two hits with iron maiden. He'll chug quite a few potions, but only rarely enough to require buying more - never enough to mule on extra rejuvs. I didn't notice the mods on the ancients (so no curse, nasty aura, etc) so they posed no problem... Baal was a chore though without any of the nice sources of slowing him down - the mana burn attack was annoying as could be, and he had a duplicate active most of the fight. Took a while but was never threatening.

Notable Finds: Tal's Amulet, Wisp Projector, Gloom's Trap (somehow didn't have one yet), Boneshade
Hellforges: Io/Um
Most notable find: VEX

Not bad at all for a character with 5% MF. :yes:

What's Next?
Probably retirement. While Dune was a great quester, I don't foresee running much with him - playing long stretches with a single target attack gets a bit painful. I'll almost certainly bring him back out someday when I've got some of the top end items, just to see what he can do... if I dabble in MP at all he could be a good team member.

On other fronts, working on three new characters at the moment - a poisonmancer (w/ summon backup) who will almost certainly be the next to finish, and a pair of old school sorcs (1.07 and 1.09). I've been getting motivated to put together a 200 FCR LK running sorc also, so that might get started when the poisonmancer's done with the twinking gear...


How's that for a long-winded thanks to Dune for the stash!
 
Originally posted by OCAU_MIKLE on Jan 10, 2006:

Introducing Kalgor!

About Kalgor:
Kalgor, the smiter was created as a PvP anti-meele / allround pwnage pally. He is a reincarnation of a failed smiter which was quite cruddy. He is mainly focused around anti-meele but can still fair up quite well against casters as some of you might know ;). And now for the interesting stuff!

STATS:

clvl: 90
STR: 135 / 150
DEX: 100 / 154
Vita: 295 / 337
NRG: nada

Gear:
Grief BA - +374 / 40% ias
Fortitude Archon - 1663 / +30
Exile Sacred Rondache - +44 all res / lvl 16 Defiance / 234% ED
Verdungoes - +40 / 12%
Dracs - +11
Gores - 195% ed
Harly Sheal'd
Cats Eye
Raven / Rare Dex - Res ring
CtA / Spirit on switch

Skills:
20 Smite
20 Holy Sheild
20 Fanta
20 Defiance
5 Resist Cold
3 Resist Lightning
1 All pre req's / one point wonders

Life: 1763 / 2618
Mana: 337 / 461
Defence: 35K / 42K with Chilling Armor

Merc: Act 2 Holy Freeze merc
Kiras - Perfect upped Shaft - Sheald Reapers

Notable finds:
Hell Pits - Ohm Rune that was used in the exile.
Some other armors and misc stuff.

With 2.6k life, 40k defence and 5fpa smites that whip out a massave 8k+ damage Kalgor is quite impressive. Along with 65% fhr (without bloodfists) and 111 frw (136 with vigor) he is also quite speedy.

Thanks for reading! Look out for me in the Bad Manners PvP Torny!

- ocau_mikle
 
Originally posted by Pucho on Dec 29, 2005:

Nub, RWM Fanatic 2-handed Avenger, Patriarch

Patriarch Nub lvl 85

Base stats:

Strength : 200
Energy : 15
Dexterity : 60
Vitality : 240

Modified stats/damage/life/mana: Nub clicky


Skills:
20 Fanaticism
20 Vengeance
20 Resist Fire
10 Resist Cold <--next skill points here
20 Resist Lightning
1 Salvation
5 pre reqs (sacrifice, zeal, might, Blessed Aim, concentration. 1 each)

Equip:
Andy visage w/23 fire res, 2 max damage jewel
Great Poleaxe "Obedience" (277 def, 20 res all)
249%ed "Gloom" Sacred Armor
Lying of hands
15% dr/6% LL String of ears
Gore rider Myrmidon greaves <--Might change to War trav when I get one
The Eye of Etlich
20 dex Ravenfrost

Ghoul Eye
Ring
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x61c80036
+4 to Mana
+117 to Attack Rating
+9 to Minimum Damage
Lightning Resist +29%
8% Life stolen per hit

Switch: +1 redemption scepter / "spirit" akaran targe

Inventory:
2* 13 res all GC
1* 14% res all GC
1* 5& res all SC
2 res light SCs (18%)
1 res fire SC (8%)
5 res cold SCs (42%)
1* 35 life 19 mana LC
1* 6max dmg 29 AR LC

Razan stats: (defiance) Moron Clicky
Razan equip:
260% ED 1.07 eth Great poleaxe
Tal Rasha HC
Duriel's Shell

Baal was a joke, a big joke, I think I didn't even take a red one while beating him. His drop was proportional to the challenge: a small charm, sigon belt, rougue bow, and the usual yellow crap.
The throne was the one of the nastiest things I've ever met: OKs (3 boss packs), Frenzytaurs (2 boss packs), extra fast-extra strong-extra deadly lister
Had to reroll the ancients a couple times to avoid the "cursed" mod. They killed me once, the first time (it was like curse-hit-death, OHKO, less than a second)

Best find: Wf from pindle.
Normal HF rune: Thul? Shael? dont remember...
NM HF rune: Pul
Hell HF rune: Hel

Next project: Berserk Sorc (RWM)
 
Originally posted by Pucho on Jan 19, 2006:

Dan, RWM Patriarch

(hugs the merc & MP allies)

Level 79

Base stats:
str: 88
dex: 20
vit: 352
NRG: 15

Skills:
20 (23) Holy bolt
20 (23)Blessed hammer
20 (23)Fist of the Heavens
20 (29) Prayer
1 (10)Cleansing
1 (10)Vigor
1 (10) Redemption
1 (10) Resist lightning
1 (10) Salvation
1 (10) Defiance

Pre-reqs : sacrifice, zeal, vengeance & conversion (4 total)

Equipment:

"insight" Rune staff (lvl 16 meditation)
Griz armor (w/3 Ptopaz)
Harlequin Crest (w/Ptopaz)
Trang-oul's claws
Sanders riprap

Bitter Circle
Ring
Required Level: 9
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 30
Fingerprint: 0x3d21d853
+3 to Energy
Lightning Resist +7%
8% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Faster Cast Rate

Eagle Turn
Ring
Required Level: 26
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0xaf8113fc
+2 to Energy
+16 to Life
Cold Resist +12%
Poison Resist +8%
9% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Faster Cast Rate

Chaos Collar
Amulet
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x5a4191fb
+4 to Life
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
Fire Resist +36%
Lightning Resist +26%
+1 to Paladin Skill Levels


Switch:
Tele-staff (I've used once a +3 conviction war scepter)

resistances: 34/28/18/62 (all negatives)
Holy bolt damage: 5k - 5.6k heals 180-367
Meditation healing: +44

Charms:

Preserver's Grand Charm of Dexterity
Preserver's Grand Charm
Small Charm of Sustenance
Preserver's Grand Charm of Inertia
Large Charm of Life
Small Charm of Inertia
Large Charm of Sustenance
Preserver's Grand Charm

Mercenary: Chalan (Might)

"obedience" great poleaxe (non-eth, it was from my avenger)
tal's crest

Black Hades
Chaos Armor
Defense: 1029
Durability: 38 of 70
Required Strength: 140
Required Level: 53
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x6d507c06
+2 to Dexterity
+200% Enhanced Defense
+1 to Maximum Damage
Heal Stamina Plus 12%
Lightning Resist +46%
26% Extra Gold from Monsters
-2 to Light Radius
Half Freeze Duration
156% Damage to Demons
+348 to Attack Rating against Demons
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Eagle Whorl
Jewel
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x9246d424
+1 to Maximum Damage
Lightning Resist +18%
40% Damage to Demons
+25 to Attack Rating against Demons

Doom Whorl
Jewel
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x93f8eae8
Lightning Resist +28%
26% Extra Gold from Monsters
33% Damage to Demons
+46 to Attack Rating against Demons

Death Gyre
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x7aa05d05
+2 to Dexterity
Heal Stamina Plus 12%
28% Damage to Demons
+35 to Attack Rating against Demons

No fancy screenies this time, no story either. if it wasn't for MP, he shouldn't be patriarch. It's a good back up char: heals, removes curses, gives res, kills those mummies/gloams/Ok's that everybody hates, but no more than that... It took me an hour and a half to reach the hellforge in a very good map (it's posted in the item find thread)
The battle against ancients was pretty easy blakezilla's zealot tanked one at the time, thanks to DementiaMaster's necro bone-prisoning the others. i just healed him.
I'll remake him into a templar hybrid next time. That way he (hopefully) will be able to participate actively in the killing. With some gear changes, It's pindle's worst nightmare, so I'll run him a little before retiring him.

Best find was NM/hell hellforege (um-um) no good items at all. Baal drop was the lamest drop I've ever seen (and I've seen lame drops....) gold, blues and a rare glove...
 
Originally posted by sirpoopsalot on Aug 4, 2008:

Dorkelmeyer - Min-damage Griswold's Avenger Patriarch

<short intro> ;)


Level82
Life: 2772 <--- that's a lot for a pally
Mana: 429
Resists: 83f / 80c / 85l / 75p

Str: 148
Dex: 146
Vit: 367
Ene: 19

Vengeance Damage: ~5.1k / 4386-4517 (8-frames)
* I'll explain in the notes

Skills:
20 Vengeance
20 Conviction
20 Resist Lightning
16+ Resist Fire
10 Resist Cold
+1 Holy Shield & Redemption (granted by weapon switch)


Equipment:
Gris' Caddy (4os/224 base, with +48 ED%, +37 min, 78 AR from jewels)
Gris' Armor (+29 min, stuff)
Gris' Helm (+17 min, 1-93 lightning damage, a little MF, stuff)
Gris' Shield (+28 min, -15% req's, +6 Dex, stuff)
Dracul's Grasp
WarTrav's
Scintillating Ring of Performance (14 resists, 10 min damage) <--- it's been a while since I used a 'blue' ring
Switch: Beta CtA and Spirit Sacred Targe

Other Gear #1:
Mara's Kaleidoscope (25)
Trang's Belt
Rare Ring (6/5 dual leech, +6 resists, +5 min, +24 AR)
7x Lionbranded skillers

Other Gear #2:
Cresent Moon ammy (14% mana leech)
Ravenfrost (20/179)
Verdungo's (38/15)
Sharp & Shimmering Charms

Merc:
'Faith' Rogue (Treachery & VampGaze)


Notable Finds: (I had ~85 MF through hell)
Dol/Lem Hellforge, meh
Gheed's (34/106/10)
Vipermagi (20/9... :scratchchin:... what's the antonym of perfect? craptacular?)
Bloodmoon
Jade Talon
Naj's Puzzler
Lum rune
Captain's skiller
Fletcher's skiller
Serpent's GC of Life (48/20)
15% Scintillating Jewel
8% Shimmering Jewel (item level 17, dropped in Act2 Normal)
Crimson Jewel of Carnage (in-game, it only has 'one' mod: "adds 8-11 damage"... kindof neat for a dual-affix jewel)



Notes:
a. I made it to the Lost City waypoint with "other gear #1", but the 5% mana leech just wasn't enough at that point. So I got sick of drinking mana potions all of the time, and decided to abandon my 1-point damage variation (iirc, it was something like 5125-5126 according to the LCS, at level80).

I switched to "other gear #2", which meant a lot lower +skills and resists, even a little lower damage, but it shifted a lot of my damage to "physical" and gave me a lot more mana leech. That solved my mana potion dependency, and was worth the sacrifice.


b. 0 deaths, 0 NDE's in Hell. Died a couple of times in Nightmare, mostly due to carelessness, laziness, and the fact that I had ~180 stat points saved.


c. Left-click attack + single-target attack + single aura + ability to kill anything at a mediocre speed + 75% block + high life + leech almost everything + great resists = quite boring.

He had one aura and one attack. He could tank anything, and with his high hitpoints, LifeTap almost always fired up before he was in any kind of danger. So I really didn't have to do anything except (literally) left-click my mouse continuously and sort through drops. My "excitement" came every 2 minutes when he'd weapon-switch to refresh BC, BO, and HolyShield, or if he had to drink a mana potion or two during/after a battle. Wheeee, what a wild-man!!!


d. Actually, he was quite strong against act bosses. And 1-3 hit kills against almost everything else (~98% of the monsters in hell were 2-hit kills). At first glance 2-hit kills sounds decent, but for a single-target attack on a build with this kindof equipment, it's mediocre.


e. I believe all of the jewels I used were self-found, so that explains why he still has a long, long way to go to catch Lord_Forwhyllin (who was the inspiration for this, as well as the fact that I always wanted to try an avenger with Faith to help his attack speed).


Up next:
I don't know. I'm going to have to think of a fun build, since Henry and Dorkelmeyer were both a little 'meh'. I'm thinking I'll try an off-the-wall, two-handed melee build (or something similar) to liven things up. Or maybe some type of hybrid melee/caster build.
 
Originally posted by SnickerSnack on Jan 21, 2010:

Patriarch Riemann

Intro:


wikipedia said:
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (German pronunciation: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈbɛʁnhaʁt ˈʁiːman]; September 17, 1826 – July 20, 1866) was an influential German mathematician who made lasting contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them enabling the later development of general relativity.

Riemann was born in Breselenz, a village near Dannenberg in the Kingdom of Hanover in what is Germany today. His father, Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, was a poor Lutheran pastor in Breselenz who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. His mother died before her children had reached adulthood. Riemann was the second of six children, shy, and suffered from numerous nervous breakdowns. Riemann exhibited exceptional mathematical skills, such as fantastic calculation abilities, from an early age, but suffered from timidity and a fear of speaking in public.

The build:

Avenger

Sacrifice: 1/6
Smite: 1/6
Holy Bolt: 1/6
Zeal: 1/6
Charge: 1/6
Vengeance: 20/25
Blessed Hammer: 1/6
Holy Shield: 7/12

Might: 1/4
Holy Fire: 1/4
Thorns: 1/4
Holy Freeze: 1/4
Sanctuary: 1/4
Conviction: 20/23

Resist Fire: 10/13
Resist Cold: 8/11
Resist Lightning: 20/23

I'd considered not maxing Vengeance for a while to keep mana costs down, but once I put Fortitude on him, 7% mana leech from Vampire Gaze was always enough to keep him going unless he was mana burned, then I used a zeal round to fill the bulb.

Stats:

LCS

Name: Riemann
Class: Paladin
Experience: 1077125442
Level: 85

Naked/Gear
Strength: 102/132
Dexterity: 115/134
Vitality: 273/303
Energy: 15/25
HP: 1027/1388
Mana: 141/196
Stamina: 421/461
Defense: 28/7632(HS)/(~11k w/ Chilling Armor)
AR: 560/~6k (pretty nice considering it was ignored)

Fire: 183/143/83 (capped at 80)
Cold: 133/93/33
Lightning: 190/150/90 (capped at 90)
Poison: 139/99/39

MF: 80
Block: 57 (75 with HS on)
GF: 217
FR/W: 25
FHR: 30
IAS: 90
FCR: 25

Vengeance damage/ar: 814-9900 / 5944
Zeal damage/ar: 366-3683 / 3956
Charge damage/ar: 465-5060 / 4602

An average of 5357 is pretty good Vengeance damage, too bad the range isn't smaller. And a good chunk of it is physical damage.

Gear:

Here's some gear advice Asmo gave me. Though, some of it was unworkable for me since the damage range on my weapon is so large.

Main: Oath 1.07 Cryptic Sword, HoZ (pdiamond)
Switch: demon limb, tiamat's rebuke
Armor: Aconite's Fortitude
Belt: String of Ears
Helm: Vampire Gaze
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: War Traveler
Jewelry: Highlord's Wrath, Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star

Oath
Cryptic Sword
ShaelPulMalLum
One Hand Damage: 33 - 550
Durability: 23 of 23
Required Level: 61
Required Strength: 89
Required Dexterity: 99
Fingerprint: 0x1709b73
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion
30% Chance to cast level 20 Bone Spirit on striking
Indestructible
+50% Increased Attack Speed
379% Enhanced Damage
+75% Damage to Demons
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
Prevent Monster Heal
+10 to Energy
+11 Magic Absorb
Level 17 Iron Golem (14/14 Charges)
Level 16 Heart of Wolverine (20/20 Charges)
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Pul Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Lum Rune

Herald of Zakarum
Gilded Shield
Defense: 451
Chance to Block: 52
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 89
Fingerprint: 0x9b42abd9
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
+2 to Paladin Skill Levels
+30% Faster Block Rate
30% Increased Chance of Blocking
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+167% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Strength
+20 to Vitality
All Resistances +69
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Perfect Diamond

Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0xfd43284
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 6 - 22 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
7% Mana stolen per hit
6% Life stolen per hit
+100% Enhanced Defense
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Damage Reduced by 19%
Magic Damage Reduced by 14
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 109
Durability: 22 of 22
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x4f4d48e3
Item Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
7% Life stolen per hit
+169% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 13
+10 Maximum Durability

Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 82
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x5de82244
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 3 Holy Bolt on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+350% Damage to Demons
+25 Defense
Fire Resist +50%

Aconite's Fortitude
Archon Plate
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 1581
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 103
Fingerprint: 0xaab9dee7
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+116 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +29
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

War Traveler
Battle Boots
Defense: 124
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0x46c7848e
Item Level: 62
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+25% Faster Run/Walk
Adds 15 - 25 Damage
+160% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
40% Slower Stamina Drain
Attacker Takes Damage of 8
41% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+30 Maximum Durability

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x7f9e3b30
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+225 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+19 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x5e2dd964
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
31% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Lightning Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15


Dwarf Star
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xdffa9bad
Item Level: 83
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40 to Life
+40 Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 15%
Fire Absorb 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
100% Extra Gold from Monsters



Demon Limb
Tyrant Club
One Hand Damage: 94 - 171
Durability: 65 of 65
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 107
Fingerprint: 0x67e5886d
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
195% Enhanced Damage
+123% Damage to Demons
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 222 - 333 Fire Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Fire Resist +16%
Repairs 1 Durability in 20 Seconds
Level 23 Enchant (20/20 Charges)
Requirements -20%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Hel Rune

Tiamat's Rebuke
Dragon Shield
Defense: 203
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 116 of 116
Required Level: 38
Required Strength: 91
Fingerprint: 0x52dd67ca
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 9 Frost Nova when struck
5% Chance to cast level 7 Nova when struck
3% Chance to cast level 6 Hydra when struck
Adds 35 - 95 Fire Damage
Adds 1 - 120 Lightning Damage
Adds 27 - 53 Cold Damage Over 6 Secs (150 Frames)
+199% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +48
+40 Maximum Durability
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Perfect Diamond

charms:
Grand Charm of Maiming
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x19508bb5
Item Level: 51
Version: Expansion
+18 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Vita
Grand Charm
Required Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x9e924d21
Item Level: 83
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10 to Maximum Damage
+64 to Attack Rating
+40 to Life

Steel Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x941869e
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery
+28 to Attack Rating

Viridian Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xdcbad6f
Item Level: 77
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life
Poison Resist +6%

Grand Charm of Maiming
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x1f8606cc
Item Level: 57
Version: Expansion
+20 to Maximum Damage

Smoking Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 56
Fingerprint: 0x96bb8de
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 7 - 12 Fire Damage
+17 to Life

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xb3fd9b88
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life
Lightning Resist +11%

Shimmering Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0xc8ed5942
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +5

Iron Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x7343a4b0
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery
+22 to Attack Rating

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xba217a62
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
117% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 14%
39% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xc8586a3b
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+18 to Life
Lightning Resist +11%

Stash:
Gimmershred

Before I got the Fortitude, I'd used Treachery on him, which worked quite well. I used Shaftstop on him for a while.

I didn't use the Gimmershred all that much. I tried it for a while, but it was too much of a pain. So, I just made judicious use of charge to take out OKs. That was a lot more fun that chucking axes. Only IMed once in Hell CS and the benefits of a single target attack were felt when I was able to not attack while IMed.

Merc:

Act 2 Holy Freeze

Reaper's
eth Duress
Guillame's (ias/max jewel)

Duress
Dusk Shroud
ShaelUmThul
Defense: 3097
Durability: 11 of 11
Required Level: 49
Required Strength: 67
Fingerprint: 0xd7e719e5
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40% Faster Hit Recovery
10% Enhanced Damage
Adds 37 - 133 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (50 Frames)
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
33% Chance of Open Wounds
+199% Enhanced Defense
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +15
Ethereal
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Um Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune

Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 34
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0x63dc1718
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+8 to Maximum Damage
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
+120% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Carmine Jewel of Fervor

Carmine Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0x91ba51ec
Item Level: 66
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+8 to Maximum Damage

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
Two Hand Damage: 40 - 472
Durability: 38 of 65
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 114
Required Dexterity: 89
Fingerprint: 0x1dda7adc
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
33% Chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking
235% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 4 - 44 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (41 Frames)
14% Life stolen per hit
33% Deadly Strike
Requirements -25%

I used an eth Obedience Thresher on him for a while, but switched to Reaper's for more crowd control.

Leveling:

Don't remember much, but I do recall the merc being the faster killer once it had its eth Obedience. (No Oath at that time.)

Some of act 5 was done with Nagisa's help (his Ice/Faith duo), some with his supervision (BOing sorc), some with his interference (see below). 👅

Deaths:

wikipedia said:
Riemann fled Göttingen when the armies of Hanover and Prussia clashed there in 1866. He died of tuberculosis during his third journey to Italy in Selasca (now a hamlet of Verbania on Lake Maggiore) where he was buried in the cemetery in Biganzolo (Verbania). Meanwhile, in Göttingen his housekeeper tidied up some of the mess in his office, including much unpublished work. Riemann refused to publish incomplete work and some deep insights may have been lost forever.

Two that I can recall. One was to a nasty pack ("One pack of 'taurs, surrounded by neighboring ones") of frenzytaurs in act 5. The second occurred the second time I fought the ancients. The second time? Yeah, I was mping with Nagisa and joked that he should cast a tp just as I was about to finish the last one....... Then the third roll was a bit faster than the first roll. He tanks them pretty well, and if I'd bothered to split up the nasty pack, I'm pretty sure he could have taken them too. This was all on either /p5 or /p7.

Finds:

Shimmering SC (+5) somewhere in act 5 I think, not too sure.
Trang's Wing from Baal
Ummm, I think that's all.

edit: almost forgot: hellforge: fail, I mean, fal.

Some More Wikipedia:

wikipedia said:
Bernhard Riemann held his first lectures in 1854, which founded the field of Riemannian geometry and thereby set the stage for Einstein's general theory of relativity. In 1857, there was an attempt to promote Riemann to extraordinary professor status at the University of Göttingen. Although this attempt failed, it did result in Riemann finally being granted a regular salary. In 1859, following Dirichlet's death, he was promoted to head the mathematics department at Göttingen. He was also the first to suggest using dimensions higher than merely three or four in order to describe physical reality—an idea that was ultimately vindicated with Einstein's contribution in the early 20th century. In 1862 he married Elise Koch and had a daughter.

Some Screenshots:

Merc tanks while I toss axes.

How will I pay for my two Bone Spirits? I'll Charge it.

All aboard the Pain Train!

Diablo's Drop.

I think this is the third set of Ancients.

High Damage.

A friendlytaur.

Dude is stylin.

Comments:

There were some things I liked about the build, like riding roughshod into anything on any player setting and hardly ever dying. (Aside from IM areas, of course, those required a little finesse.)

There were other things that I didn't like, like the slow pace given by a single target attack. I actually abandoned the character for a while because he was too slow for my liking when he used less damaging weapons like Djinn Slayer and Lightsabre. I also tried some unique axes, but they weren't much better.

I parked him in act 3 NM until I made the Oath, then once he had leveled enough to wield it, he really killed quickly.

Consider this: 80 fire res, 90 light res, 33 cold res with 20% absorb, and VampGaze+SoE+DS----> 47 mdr. Yup, he can tank soul/gloam hits no problem without even any light absorb. I wish I had a good screenshot of him taking 8-10 direct hits without a problem.

I kept vengeance, zeal, and charge all hot keyed since there were times when vengeance wasn't the best skill. When an enemy is running, vengeance is often too slow to catch them before they leave range, so charge is the best option, and it's quite a bit of fun too. Zeal is great for filling life/mana bulbs. Even with only 7% mana leech and 13% life leech, Vengeance did enough damage to mostly keep life and mana topped off, but occasionally, Zeal was used to quickly fill them when he was taking a lot of damage (pretty much only when he was completely surrounded) or when he got mana drained.

Future for this character:

Not sure. He's a great tank. Maybe some MP baaling?

A bit too slow for runs of any kind.

Thanks:

- antemma for the Amber Small Charm of Vita (18)
- udgard for the 1.07 cryptic sword
- Asmo for his gear advice
- Aconite for the Fortitude
- Nagisa for the Highlord's Wrath

And, of course, Georg Riemann.

Future Projects:

I still need to mat my enchantess.

Maybe I'll collect those 14 saved nm/hell forges I recently rediscovered? And if I'm lucky, I'll probably make a CtA. I'm at 1.0065 Ohm right now, but that would involve cubing up everything, so not only is it not quite enough, I'd have to use up all of my mid runes, so maybe the HF will be nice to me.

Then, once that's done, I can maybe start a new character. Some things on the list:

Fishysin (Death/Fort)
Zealsin

For the Passion weapon, I'm thinking I'd like to ebug something from 1.07 with Oath runes, and then make a Passion in it. Though I may just try it with a plain old PB first.
 
Originally posted by Thirty-Thirty on Oct 14, 2005:

Patriarch Devagen

Ahoy,

After a few tolerant sessions on the part of my MP friends, my Avenger killed Baal a few hours ago. What I mean is that Nepeta's Blizzsorc butchered him on our behalf, but, whatever...

Patriarch Devagen
Level 82 Avenger

Stats
Str: 65(155)
Dex: 60(111)
Vit: 315(350)
NRG: Base.
50 left over.

Resists: 95/95/95/10

Damage: 1756 - 3915 @ 9 fpa (IIRC)
Defense: ~6000
Life: 1278
Mana: 176

Skills
20 Conviction
20 Vengeance
10 Resist Fire
10 Resist Cold
10 Resist Lightning
10 Holy Shield

Gear
Rockstopper
Guardian Angel
Herald of Zakarum (PDiamond)
Immortal King's Forge
Immortal King's Detail
Rune Master - ShaelShaelShal, 2 35% ED j00lz.
Entropy Mark - 12 str, 8 dex, 11 resist all, 5% mana leech
Raven Frost
Bitter Band - 10/22/16 resist F/L/C
Cruel Spur - 19/32 resist F/C

Merc
Act III Cold Merc
Ethereal Harlequin Crest
Spirit Crystal Sword
Lidless Wall
Ethereal Que-Hagan's Wisdom

Not much to this boy. I twinked him like nothing on earth. At first I was trying to keep his Strength to a minimum, but the low dex I needed for max block meant I had some extra points to throw around, and I'd hit my target of 1200 HP. All the equipping/dequipping at the start of the game was getting to me, so I just punched a few into Str.

As for Hell, not much to say. This character can tank very well indeed. Elemental attacks almost don't exist, and physical can't be dealt with. The notable fights would've been the Ancients, Lister and Baal, but Nepeta helped out with all three. His lightningsorc toasted the Ancients with the Conviction. We played to Baal with his Blizzsorc, which was incredible. I didn't see Lister's mods. Baal didn't last long either. Good thing, because I was struggling to land a hit. (I'll probably do this again solo sometime, just to prove that I can.)

Also, his gear should change a bit. My resists are actually 105, because I twinked to 95 before I rescued Anya. I'm thinking I should change the belt to Verdungo's, String of Ears or Thundergod's. (I lean towards Tgod's, since he'll end up in Baal runs.) Then the gloves will have to change to something else: probably Laying of Hands.

A comment on the Iron Wolf... With the gear I gave him, he is actually quite useful. Most of the time he's freezing stuff, so I'm safe, but on /players 1, he actually kills by himself, too. Also, his shiver armour gave him ~5k defense, so he was fairly survivable. It became a pain in Harrogath though: most of the Cold Immunes are unbreakable. At least I can take style points, though.

I've had a lot of fun MPing with this guy. Everyone loves an Avenger, so expect to see more of this particular Paladin.

Cheers,
30-30
 
Originally posted by Tupsi on Aug 5, 2007:

Viktor the Shattering Smiter (/p8 Pat)

Take a man. Not one of those pale and skinny dudes, we'll need some muscle here. You got the one with dark skin tone? Good. Then grab a cookie cutter labeled 'Smiter PvP', press, and voilá, you have a Smiter. Auto-hit, unblockable, delivers Crushing Blow and Open Wounds, you know the deal.
We won't use the popular Smiter weapons (Heaven's Light, Astreon's, Grief etc.), no, we'll grab an item with a chilly mod*), Hit Freezes Target.

The chance of freezing is 50 + (AL + (B*4) - DL) * 5

AL = attacker level
DL = defender level
B = freeze bonus from item (default is 1)

freeze length = (chance - roll) * 2 + 25 frames
with a minimum length of 25 frames (1 second) and a maximum length of 250 frames (10 seconds)
Why? Because Smite has knockback effect built in and freezing prevents knockbacking making our main skill more PvM viable.
If you play like an average single player plays, on high player setting through the first two difficulties, you don't have to worry about the chance to freeze. During the journey. I didn't face a single monster I couldn't freeze at first attempt, chilly and frosty, always. Of course the CIs, Champions and monsters with CBF caused troubles, but there were solutions for handling them:
-Sandwich style! Use your merc as a wall (or for 'Stone' users, summon Gumby for another one). Works like a charm. The bigger monster, the easier it is to squish between you two.
-Charge 'n Smite. Charge a monster to a wall and swap back to Smite.
-Kill the frontal! Kill the first monsters in the pack, their buddies will prevent knockbacking. For some time, at least.
-Secondary weapon/attack/aura.


Character info:
Name: Viktor
Class: Paladin
Level: 87

Stats:
Strength: 90/162
Dexterity: 94/125
Vitality: 281/358
Energy: 15/30
Unspent: 50

Life: 1286
Mana: 206
Defense: 3075/15836

Resists:
Fire: 75
Cold: 67 (31% 'bsorb)
Lightning: 75
Poison: 75

Skills:
Smite: 20/27
Holy Shield: 20/27
Zeal: 1/8
Fanaticism: 20/24
Conviction: 12/14

pre-reqs: 11
unspent points: 14

Smite damage: 1451-1484 (with Might: 1752-1792)
Zeal (elemental): 97-1080


Mercenary info:
Name: Azrael
Origin: Act 2, Nightmare
Type: Offensive
Level: 87

Life: 1934
Defense: 2407
Damage: 535-2863 (with Fanaticism: 741-3961)


The character was played exclusively on /players8 and did nearly complete clears because I wanted to see how well the build that had haunted me for so long could do. He did well, killing speed was nice because of the CB and Azrael's Reaper. And despite the lack of life leech, he didn't die too often. If I faced a terribly damaging opponents, I lured a monster behind a bend close to the main pack, waited for Life Tap to proc and then engaged the enemy in its full powers. Being swarmed? No problem. Life bulb may beat like a heart, but as long as it doesn't hit the bottom...

I wrote down all his deaths: First in NM Chaos Sanctuary, IM with perfect timing. Second in Hell Pit, archer pack behind a bend with Might, extra strong and something else. Next was in Act 3, surrounded by Gloams. The next after that was in Pit of Acheron, caused by charging Salamander, nasty mods. In WSK1 some Hierophant fried me. After finding the WP in WSK2 I went to kill Pindle and lonely lurker there charged me to death. And the 7th and the last death was in WSK3, once again IM with perfect timing. I had waited for Decrepify and when I finally decided to stun the OK with a sharp shield bash, fellow off-screen OK casts the damned curse.

The switch weapon and shield idea was stolen from sirpoops'. Low physical damage, high elemental damage, Zeal in Oblivion Knight areas without a worry about Iron Maiden. I did Zeal with the dagger, I did kill OKs, but I didn't kill myself. Working idea.

Viktor's final equipment:
Helmet: Guillaume's Face w/ -req%/res/dex jewel
Amulet: Mara's
Weapon1: Frostwind w/ Shael rune
Shield1: Herald of Zakarum, upgraded w/ PDiamond
Weapon2: Rare throwing dagger
Shield2: 4os Pala shield w/ Jewels of Thunder
Armor: Stone Archon Plate
Belt: Verdungo's
Gloves: Dracul's
Ring 1: Carrion Wind
Ring 2: Ravenfrost
Boots: Gorerider

Charms:
Clean Lion Branded GC
14 all res, 2-3 cold damage GC
2 x Shimmering SCs, 8 all res
3 x other resistance SCs to cover small holes in resistances
11 slots taken


Azrael's final equipment:
Helmet: Andariel's Visage
Weapon: The Reaper's Toll w/ Amn rune
Armor: Duriel's Shell w/ Ral rune

Readouts:
Rich (BB code):
Head:
Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Strength: 98
Required Level: 34
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xe0a02a86
+15 to Strength
+8 to Dexterity
+120% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +10
Attacker Takes Damage of 5
Requirements -15%
30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Armor:
Stone
Archon Plate
'ShaelUmPulLum'
Defense: 1878
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x123a3889
+16 to Strength
+10 to Energy
+16 to Vitality
+281% Enhanced Defense
+300 Defense vs. Missile
All Resistances +15
60% Faster Hit Recovery
Level 16 Clay Golem (16/16 Charges)
Level 16 Molten Boulder (80/80 Charges)
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Weapon2:
Loath Impaler
Balanced Knife
Throw Damage: 6 to 11
One-Hand Damage: 1 to 8
Quantity: 160
Required Dexterity: 51
Required Level: 72
Dagger Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0x1033f491
Adds 59-134 fire damage
Adds 1-445 lightning damage
Adds 13-45 cold damage over 2 seconds
Ignore Target Defense
Level 1 Frozen Orb (22/22 Charges)

Shield2:
Gemmed Protector Shield
Defense: 138
Chance to Block:  50%
Smite Damage: 18 to 24
Durability: 40 of 40
(Paladin Only)
Required Strength: 69
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x73bb99f6
+12 to Mana
Fire Resist +45%
Lightning Resist +45%
Cold Resist +63%
Poison Resist +45%
Adds 4-384 lightning damage
Attacker Takes Damage of 1
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Other things to mention, screenshots and the *):
Hellforge drops Thul, Dol, Hel. Third Hell's hellforge dropping a Hel in a row.
Best find and also a grailer, The Fetid Sprinkler.
Best rune found was Sol.

LCS with Fanaticism
LCS with Conviction

*) items with Freezes Target mod available as a Smiter:
-Iceblink, rlvl 22, +1
-Sureshrill Frost, rlvl 39, +3
-'Exile' RW, rlvl 57-66 (57 for Ohm, 66 Vortex Shield), +1
-Cham rune in weapon, rlvl 67, +3
-Frostwind, rlvl 70, +4


That's about it. Could've included 'Zeal vs. Smite in PvM' comparison, but I'm not particularly sharp at the moment so I'll just skip it. Very shattered thread, but you did well, it seems. Thank you for reading, see you next time 👋
 
Originally posted by Tupsi on Dec 30, 2006:

The crusade of Fransisc (Pat)

Ok, loads of stuff to talk about, at least it feels like it...
The build is SSoG's and it's called the Abbot. If you haven't read his guide, you should at least consider doing it, because they are always nice to read. The basic idea is to stack lots of PDR, resists and have a good Prayer aura running. When I first read his guide, I knew I would do it some day, but accumulating the equipment wasn't very easy. Actually, it was the hardest search ever. After many months, an ISO thread and a few lucky finds, the equip seemed decent and confirmed what I was already going to do; Charger variant of Abbot.
I chose a name, created the character and started by maxing Prayer and giving him a Scepter with 5 pTopazes. I noticed that my charging skills were rusty, very rusty. Bad mouse didn't help either, but running Prayer - later Cleansing - allowed me to take my time, find good hotkeys and kill the enemies with normal attack. The charging skills were coming back somewhere around Normal Act 5. That was the time when I used my first health and mana potions, too.
I rushed through Nightmare, zealing here and there, smiting bosses down. I bought a new keyboard and mouse at that time also.
When I was knocking the Hell's doors, the planned equipment was almost fully worn, only couple of rings, armor and belt choices were still waiting in the stash. I had always wanted to do a cleric, priest or whatever 'holy' character, and now when I was this far, my spirit was high. I decided to make it a crusade, cleanse every act, boss, every lesser minion like Izual and so on. I took lots of screenshots where I was holding an Oil Potion and shooting Holy Bolts at the demons and undeads like I was a redeemer or something. It was fun, got to admit that :azn: I also talked to every guy and girl in the town after finishing a quest. It was very much worth it, the last time I did that, well, Harrogath didn't even exist then...
The game was easy in whole. Standing in the middle of 20 frenzied Thorned Hulks and 10 Gloams? No problem. Frenzytaurs were the only enemies that could take my life bulb slowly down when I was standing still. But when they were charge-locked in long tunnels? Hah. I died twice on the Hell difficulty, both in WSK2 because of Iron Maiden. I was quite surprised about the amount of deaths because my play style is quite self-destructive, I didn't have any life leech during the game and I didn't play with a stacking Prayer Merc. Very durable character.
Now some statistics:

Class: Paladin
Level: 81

Stats:
Strenght: 116
Dexterity: 97
Vitality: 212
Energy: 15
Unspent: 60

Combat skills:
1 Zeal
1 Conversion
1 Smite
20 Charge
5 Holy Shield
4 pre-reqs

Defensive auras:
20 Prayer
1 Salvation
1 Meditation
20 Vigor
1 Redemption
1 pre-req

Offensive auras:
12 Might (and increasing)
1 Sanctuary
3 pre-reqs

Gear:
Priest's Diadem of Life everlasting w/ Sol
Stonecrusher w/ 32ed, -15req jewel
Herald of Zakarum w/ pDiamond
Treachery Archon Plate
Laying of Hands
Thundergod's Vigor
Infernostride
Rose Branded Amulet of Life everlasting
Ravenfrost
Rare ring w/ all res + light res, AR, mana leech, strenght

Demon Limb
Aerin Shield Spirit

5 Preserver's GCs
Shimmering GC
Shimmering SC
Some life and AR SCs

Moron's gear (varied greatly, this is right after Pat'ing):
Vampire Gaze
Reaper's Toll
Shaftstop

Screenshot to make things more clear: *click*
That's with full combat buffs: Enchant, Venom and Fade. Without them, my damage is 300 lower, AR is 2,5k lower and my resists are standing at 85/64/52/27.

The greatest thing about the build was probably that I didn't have to keep an aura activated to maintain my killing power, life leech or AR. Every skill I mentioned before were used and switched all the time, the pre-reqs and Might were never used. The most used combat skills were Charge, naturally, and Smite, which was great help when killing bosses, creating some breathing room or single charge chains.
Cleansing was the overall aura, used in most cases. Sanctuary was used everytime I saw undeads, Meditation when my Merc was dead or too far away, Vigor when I was in town on in an empty battle field trying to find a WP.

Thanks to nebux for donating the HoZ, other people for trading with me and you for reading. Cheers.
 
Originally posted by Ugla on Mar 22, 2007:

Patriarch Irmo and the Third Crusade

A story of sturdy healer Irmo and his company

Keeping the tradition to name my characters after the Valar, powers of Arda from Silmarillion, Irmo is called after the Lord of Dreams who dwells in the gardens of Lorien. Both Elves and Valar come here seeking rest and refreshment from the pains of living.

The original idea was to create a build around the Holy Bolt spell. Since this character was intended for MP from the very start, I didn't bother much with the rest. Still, I wanted to make a character, that is not only capable of healing others and dispelling undead, but also provides a solid tank. This turned out to be almost natural part of the build - see below.

Setting off
Irmo had one stable ally, a poison necro called Venomlord (Hrus), and two Nepeta's characters. Nepeta set off with a heavily twinked fire druid (Tir runes up to his teeth), and pretty much burnt down everything around before I had a chance to declare our peaceful intentions to those guys. I doubt he ever needed the Meditation aura I started using at clvl24 (we're all vanilla to make things clear). At least Venomlord had some use for it at this early time.

Once we reached act2, it became obvious that my allies are a bit fragile resist-wise. Thus, I promptly picked the single element resist auras, and switched these where appropriate (namely Maggot's lair). Time to admit I messed up the progress. I started with raising Holy Bolt followed by Blessed Hammer in a naive hope, that I might be able to do some damage with those hammers. Wrong, unsynergized BH is completely useless in MP game, and next time it would be the last one to bother with, if ever..

Holy Bolt is quite overpowered throughout normal and NM, and soon I discovered, that the most useful thing Irmo can do is scout ahead for the undead, and destroy them, while the other monsters chase him pointlessly. But first you need to make some place around. "Now, if you'll excuse me -Charge-, I need -Charge- to pass. Thank -HB- you -HB-!". As I mentioned before, I wanted to make some "resistant" build. At this moment (~the end of Normal), Hrus pointed me to the Abbot guide by SSoG, which was very close to what I had in mind. A good healer simply must be tough to stay on the front-line next to those he's supposed to heal. Needless to say, that "sorting out the undead" brings a lot of attention towards him as well.

Back to the story
At the beginning of NM, Nepeta replaced his druid with a sorceress, a new build I have no other option but to call "The Suicideress". She probably never heard of vitality, safety, and definitely not about tactics. She just grabbed a huge maul (Steeldriver, I guess), teleported in the middle of the enemies a proceeded to kill them until she died. Irmo followed her into the fray to draw some enemy fire off her, healing if I was fast enough, or casting TP if I wasn't. This little thing helped me greatly with the job:

Bitter Heart
Amulet

Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xb52a5bc0
+2 to Dexterity
+3 to Mana
All Resistances +7
37% Extra Gold from Monsters
+2 to Defensive Aura Skills (Paladin Only)
Level 2 Teleport (25/25 Charges)

Venomlord, who had taken up the position of team's main killer, followed us as quickly as he could, taking care of the mobs, leaving only noxious corpses behind him, and sometimes not even those. NM was definitely the funniest part of the game. Act4 also brought a new, tempting target for our holy man - Burning Souls. With the Resist Lightning aura on, Irmo rushed ahead to get rid of them. Later, we made a gruesome example of the Chaos Sanctuary. From Irmo's part, I'd call it the "unnatural selection". With the loss of the OK support, the desperate minions of Hell fell easily to the rest of the team. Act5 brought additional Souls in WSK, and an easy job for Venomlord vs Nihlathak. Whoever casts the CE faster, wins! It's high time to break the story again and write something about stats, skills and equipment.

I played Normal semi-untwinked (just boots to catch up with rest of the team), and ended up with Str <~100, Dext ~75, and the rest in Vita. While reequipping after Normal Baal, I raised Str to exactly 100 where it remained until the end of Hell. The skill progress was HB, then HB and BH simultaneously, followed by Prayer, and starting FoH by the end of NM. I used the spare points to pick each and every defensive aura except for Salvation, and ran out of hotkeys in the end.

Preparations
With NM finished, I made several Baal-runs to see how can Irmo do on his own. Poorly. As I already mentioned, Blessed Hammer without its synergies sucks, it's not even capable of destroying /p1 waves, not to mention Baal himself. Thus, I open my stash once again, and equipped the following:

Helm: The Guillaume's Face
Amulet: the above rare -> Mara's (see below)
Rings: Bul Kathos', Dwarf Star
Armor: Duriel's Shell (once I abandoned the pure caster route, CBF became essential)
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Belt: String of Ears
Boots: Goblin's Toe (I still lack Gore Rider)

Weapon1: Hand of the Blessed Light->The Redeemer (from lvl72 onward)
Shield1: Gerke's Sanctuary

Weapon2: Wizardspike
Shield2: "Rhyme" Grim Shield - I just randomly took something

First, this resulted in an unbelievably slow motion, and earned the Charge skill an honorable place (F3 hotkey) to catch up with Venomlord. Second, I started to use Zeal against non-undead, and was pleasantly surprised with its performance. Due to the massive damage vs demons (Redeemer +244%, LoH +350%) and 60%CB, it worked quite nicely even with 1pt and no offensive aura at all.

Now, Irmo was ready for Hell.
This time, we set off just the two of us. Venomlord did some insane amount damage with his poison spells, and luckily, we met little immunes, only few of them being unbreakable. We were very lucky to find a Lo - Hrus already posted a screenshot in IFT. Honestly, it was the only significant find we had. Just for sake of completeness, our HF runes were Hel, Io :laugh:

We finished the second Hell session by clearing out the Lost City, which gave me an idea to "test" the Tunnels a little. I rolled a decent map, put on some MF (Skullder's, War Travs) and entered. The Invaders were quite a pain (CB dropped to 35% +they are animals). I cleared the area without getting anything, opened the chest at the end, and a golden Amulet popped out. A short prayer was heeded, as it turned out to be Mara's. Not a great roll (22%), but still my first. Not a bad result from "one whole" Tunnel-run. The rest brought crap, as expected including few blue/white lacquered plates. Anyway, I kept using the Mara's, since there was no need for teleport charges anymore.

Act3 was pretty boring, and I was really disappointed with HB's effectiveness against dolls. Maybe it was partially due to lag, but I was happy when we eventually got through. Act4 brought even worse lags, and Irmo died 2-times, which didn't happen prior to that while questing. He died a few times before while experimenting with the gear, but it was because I wanted to check the limits. I was ill the last week, and spent some time collecting act5 WPs, and we've made it through in two very short sessions this week. Irmo finished the game at lvl85 due to some Pindle-running, and succumbed to the offensive chart by placing that new skill-point into Might aura. Also, he could finally equip The Gladiator's Bane. The current stats are:

Patriarch Irmo, paladin
clvl: 85

str: 115
dext: 140
vita: 250
energy: 15

Skills:
20 Holy Bolt, Blessed Hammer, Fist of Heavens, Prayer
1 in any other combat skill and all defensive auras but Salvation
1 in Might

Merc: currently act2-Defiance, also tried act2-Prayer, act1-Cold

Conclusions and remarks
Synergized Holy Bolt is a very powerful spell. However, due to high density of monsters and merc AI (artificial idiocy), its aiming is sometimes difficult. A Holy Light spell (from Warcraft3) would be much more useful in the world of Diablo - e.g. if a melee merc gets surrounded by stacked PI wraiths, it's almost impossible to hit them instead of healing the moron.

When maxing HB synergies, start with FoH first, despite the many prerequisites it has. It becomes very strong when both FoH and HB are maxed and can overcome the aiming issues of HB. In MP, the nature of HB demands a tough and resistant character to make the best use of HB's offensive capabilities.

Zeal is a very effective "backup" for non-undead foes when supported with decent %CB. Unfortunately I had no good weapon with direct source of CB, and had to rely on Guillaume's, which meant a significant gap in defense - some additional PDR and resists could have made the build exactly what it should be.

Seeking a way to increase the damage output, I once again pulled this out of the depths of my stash and tried to put it on my merc:

Hone Sundan
Ghost Spear

'ShaelShaelShael'
Two-Hand Damage: 100 to 731
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Dexterity: 153
Required Strength: 112
Required Level: 69
Spear Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xaa76d398
+198% Enhanced Damage
+20 to Minimum Damage
+40 to Maximum Damage
Required Level +7
60% Increased Attack Speed
45% Chance of Crushing Blow
Repairs 1 durability in 10 seconds
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (3: 3 used)

However, my merc's Dexterity was 2pts lower than required, thus I took the first helm with +dext I saw: Ondal's Almighty. I was intrigued by its CtC Weaken. Then I realized that the CtC Decrepify on popular Reaper's Toll decreases enemy damage even more(50%), thus negating any amp effects, and makes the enemy more vulnerable at the same time. It takes quite some skill to get used on act2 merc with this build, but it's definitely worth trying.

For pure SP purpose, I'd probably dump Prayer and single resist auras, and went for Fanaticism instead. I might even consider leaving HB with just one synergy (FoH) adding Sacrifice for more damage. What do you think about such a build? I guess most of the PI are undead, thus it could work out fine:

20 Fanaticism, Sacrifice, Holy Bolt, FoH
1+ Zeal

Well, that's all, feel free to post any comments 👋
@nepeta: I'd like to add your characters' names if you provide them
@Hrus&Nepeta: thanks for the game 👍
 
Originally posted by Vang on May 23, 2006:

Lackey turned Hero, Prayeradin

The dictionary defines lackey as:

A liveried male servant; a footman.
A servile follower; a toady.

This is where our Hero, named Lackey, begins his quest. As a lackey, he was was never meant to be a hero, focusing on the powers of prayer, he was always disregarded as nothing more that a combat priest, not focusing on the powers of offensive that most templars did. He decided it was time to begin his quest with the power of prayer on his side, as opposed to the all out might and smiting that templars did. Lackey found a fellow friend of the power of prayers, named Mizan. They formed a bond and fought through the jaws of death and back from the mouth of hell and become heros.

Normal and Nightmare were completed at /p8 without any real problems. A few deaths due to Iron Maiden.

Hell on the other hand..was hard, not in the sense that it was drastically hard, just monsters health even on /p1 was some work at some points. A few areas(Den, Arcane, palace cellar played on /p3) After I ran into some major zombies in the Blood Moor, I decided what priest wouldn't want to smite the undead, so I began to work my way to get Sanctuary, obtained at 76 right before I headed into the Palace cellar.

Prayer at lvl33 heals: 56points. With my merc I was healing 135 every 2seconds. This was good enough for most midsized groups, but as I got up into the later acts of hell, and encountered more than 5-6 at a time, prayer showed its weakness drastically. With the regen rate, and the no shield I took quite a pounding actually. Cetain areas were easy, like Ancients, in NM I dispatched the thrower and walked away, Hell Ancients required me to actually attack, but was very similiar as their damage wasn't the best. In hell once the thrower was dispatched they couldn't out damage me one on one. The Council was very easy, and it was joy not having to have my merc die. Overall It was an interesting setup and although one prayer Paladin wouln't make a difference 3 would, with defensive equipment.

Holybolt deserves a few mentions as a nice little spell. I used it to kill a few of those physical immunes that spawned in the Catacombs and also healed around 70average damage to my merc. It was great in the CS and again in the WSK3/4 as OK's should up once again and by this time it was lvl10 on switch and dispatched OK's fairly fast. Dealing around 500damage, only thing that would of made this thing even better was if it could stun undead. That would be a great addition.

Total deaths in Hell: 4(2 Canyon of Magi, 1 Pindleskin, 1 Fant/strong Pindletype in WSK1)
Level 81:

Str: 180(152)
Dex: 95(123)
Vit: 208(213)
Unused Stat points:20
Life w/BO 1465(965)
Defense: 1628

Zeal Damage: 477-3612
Zeal AR: 4337

Resist: 75FR/15CR/55LR/55PR

Skills:
Prayer: 20(33)
Cleansing: 1(14)
Redemption: 1(14)
Salvation
Lightning Resist
Zeal: 20(23)
Sacrifice: 20(23)
Fist of Heavens: 10(13)
HolyBolt: 6(9)
Sanctuary: 1(4)

Equipment:

Helm:Rare +2paladin circlet with Ort: 30%LR/39%FR/20%CR/+2paladin Skills/22%MF/+23Str
Armor: Duress
Belt: String of Ears
Amulet: +3defensive -14PDR
Rings: Ravenfrost, Carrion Wind
Gloves: Laying of Hand
Boots: Tri-resist, 10%FHR/FRW boots
Switch: CTA/SpiritPaladinshield
Weapon:
Insight
Thresher
'RalTirTalSol'
Two-Hand Damage: 52 to 506
Durability: 26 of 65
Required Dexterity: 118
Required Strength: 152
Required Level: 53
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xeeb43ba8
+5 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+5 to Dexterity
+5 to Vitality
+259% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+75 poison damage over 5 seconds
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+5 to Critical Strike
35% Faster Cast Rate
204% Bonus to Attack Rating
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Level 14 Meditation Aura When Equipped
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Charms: 7 Defensive Skillers, then smalls of Resist and life.

Hellforge
NM:pul
Hell:Lum

Item finds:
NM CS: Shadow GC
DenofEvil Hell: Elemental GC
RoF Hell: Fal
Bloodyfoothills Hell: Windhammer
Frozen River: Um
 
Originally posted by @maareek on July 28, 2014

Patriarch The_Snowman, Frost Zealot

Alright, let’s address the elephant in the room: yes, I have said in the past that I hate Paladins. Yes, I did say I would only make another Paladin if I came up with an interesting/unique idea. And, yes, a Frost Zealot counts as neither.

However, if a person were to decide to make a sept centered around cookie-cutter builds completing the game with items of a specific subset of rarity (and especially if said person were to define said subset as “items easily* obtainable from Nightmare Mephisto”) you’d have something interesting. Or maybe the opposite of that. Either way, the result would be a person needing to build a Paladin and, if that person were, say, to find Paladins abhorrent, they might want to get the suffering out of the way early. They might also, upon finishing said character, write up a patriarch thread complete with an awkward third person introduction, likely because hundreds of hours of Ancient Tunnels running have turned their brains into a puddly goo.

*:
I’ve arbitrarily set “easily” at roughly 1:3000 odds from NM Meph with 0MF, which works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 1:1000 with 250MF. Low-end runewords in low-end bases are also, equally arbitrarily, allowed. Exceptions, also, will be allowed on an “I feel like it” basis.

The Character:
235-302155bd28d4f74bcd9874981a5f0eb4.jpg

Code:
Name:  The_Snowman
Class:  Paladin
Level:  84

Strength:  137 (149)
Dexterity:  83 (125)
Vitality:  280

Fire resist:      80 (75)
Cold resist:      29
Lightning resist: ** (75)
Poison resist:    31

AR:   7095
Block: 54 (75% with Holy Shield)
FHR:   30 (6 frames)
IAS:   70 (5/5/5/5/10 FPA)

Zeal damage with HF: 1194-1516
Zeal damage with Might: 468-787

I’ll point out now that I’m planning on timing these characters. Not as a race or because I want to try and get done as quickly as can be done, but because I want to make sure I’m not just making junk builds and grinding them through. I’ll play them with the same race through when I feel like it, dally when I don’t style I always use, but this just keeps me from being able to say a char did alright when he actually took 40 hours to finish or something. Also just interesting for me, as I can then make more typical characters down the line and compare. This particular fellow completed the game in 26 hours, 7 minutes and 45 seconds.

Skills:

Sacrifice, Zeal, Holy Freeze and Resist Cold: 20
Holy Shield: 1 (5)
Redemption, Salvation, Sanctuary and required skills: 1

I like having my builds finish earlier (I like to shoot for 80) but I didn’t mind the extra utility spells (I expected Redemption to be iffy, but I remember at least five instances where I was glad to have it so that makes it worthwhile) or the extra levels.

Items:

Code:
Fleshrender
Barbed Club
One Hand Damage: 65 - 108
Durability: 47 of 56
Required Level: 38
Required Strength: 30
Fingerprint: 0xb64ffd93
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
+1 to Druid Skill Levels
+20% Increased Attack Speed
132% 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
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Moser's Blessed Circle
Round Shield
Defense: 178
Chance to Block: 37
Durability: 64 of 64
Required Level: 31
Required Strength: 53
Fingerprint: 0x40a7b75f
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Block Rate
25% Increased Chance of Blocking
+219% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +63
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Perfect Diamond
Socketed: Perfect Diamond

Stealskull
Casque
Defense: 222
Durability: 23 of 24
Required Level: 35
Required Strength: 59
Fingerprint: 0x32df5fe2
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Increased Attack Speed
+10% Faster Hit Recovery
5% Mana stolen per hit
5% Life stolen per hit
+205% Enhanced Defense
46% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Angelic Wings
Amulet
Required Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x4d255d0e
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+3 to Light Radius
Set (2 items): +75 to Life
Set (3 items): +1 to All Skills
(2 items): +10 to Dexterity

Twitchthroe
Studded Leather
Defense: 59
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Level: 21
Required Strength: 27
Fingerprint: 0x4bda7d39
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Increased Chance of Blocking
+25 Defense
+10 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
Lightning Resist +30%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Ort Rune

Angelic Halo
Ring
Required Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x612d350
Item Level: 61
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life
Replenish Life +6
Set (2 items): +1008 to Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
Set (3 items): 50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
(2 items): +10 to Dexterity

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x3f4393f1
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+221 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 108
Durability: 22 of 22
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x3b50ac24
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
8% Life stolen per hit
+167% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 14%
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
+10 Maximum Durability

Aldur's Advance
Battle Boots
Defense: 42
Durability: 17 of 18
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0xab46f929
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Indestructible
+40% Faster Run/Walk
+50 to Life
+180 Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 32%
Fire Resist +45%
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Set (2 items): +15 to Dexterity
Set (3 items): +15 to Dexterity
Set (4 items): +15 to Dexterity

Magnus' Skin
Sharkskin Gloves
Defense: 60
Durability: 13 of 14
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x259deb99
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+100 to Attack Rating
+50% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +15%
+3 to Light Radius

Spirit (on switch)
Broad Sword
TalThulOrtAmn
One Hand Damage: 7 - 14
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 48
Fingerprint: 0xb2c78034
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+32% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
7% Life stolen per hit
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+93 to Mana
+8 Magic Absorb
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Spirit (on switch)
Heraldic Shield
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 26
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 40
Fingerprint: 0x94f61e8a
Item Level: 37
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+34% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+110 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
All Resistances +23
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+5 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune


Charms:

Code:
Steel Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0xa5a0b93d
Item Level: 83
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+131 to Attack Rating

Steel Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 35
Fingerprint: 0xda46d9a1
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+115 to Attack Rating

Fine Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0xbc2f9e81
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Maximum Damage
+20 to Attack Rating

Emerald Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xe3f7eeae
Item Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
Poison Resist +11%

Shimmering Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0x1acc77bc
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +13

Steel Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x21d9dc33
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+34 to Attack Rating
+2 to Strength

Steel Small Charm of Blight
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xd68ec7bb
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+34 to Attack Rating
Adds 6 Poison Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)

Iron Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xf420ad78
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+24 to Attack Rating
+14 to Life

Amber Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xf526be2e
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+27 to Life
Lightning Resist +28%

Steel Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xec8827bd
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+29 to Attack Rating

Fine Small Charm of Anthrax
Small Charm
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0xaa2505a7
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Maximum Damage
+18 to Attack Rating
Adds 50 Poison Damage Over 6 Secs (150 Frames)

Iron Small Charm of Dexterity
Small Charm
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xb894040c
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+21 to Attack Rating
+2 to Dexterity

Cobalt Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2c4a747e
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life
Cold Resist +9%

Shimmering Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xd229a880
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +14

Amber Small Charm of Shock
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xbb415646
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 3 Lightning Damage
Lightning Resist +10%


Kyoko, Level 84 Fire Rogue
236-bb800778134db396e423f1522c3afc94.jpg

Code:
Duriel's Shell
Cuirass
Defense: 661
Durability: 38 of 150
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0x5d039965
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+174% Enhanced Defense
+105 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+15 to Strength
+84 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +20
Cannot Be Frozen
+100 Maximum Durability

Wormskull
Bone Helm
Defense: 34
Durability: 29 of 40
Required Level: 21
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0xf604ee0b
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
Adds 80 Poison Damage Over 8 Secs (200 Frames)
5% Life stolen per hit
+10 to Mana
Poison Resist +25%

Witchwild String
Short Siege Bow
Two Hand Damage: 33 - 76
Durability: 33 of 40
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 65
Required Dexterity: 80
Fingerprint: 0xc050a74f
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
2% Chance to cast level 5 Amplify Damage on striking
+40% Increased Attack Speed
Fires Magic Arrows
154% Enhanced Damage
84% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
All Resistances +40
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Shael Rune


Planning:

Needless to say I put a lot of thought into what I wanted this guy to wear. My original plan was full Iratha’s, Twitchthroe, Rhyme in a paladin shield, Fleshrender, Goblin Toe, Cathan’s Seal and Manald Heal complete with a Harmony wielding Rogue. Wanted a Rogue because it was quite evident that setup would lack AR badly and Inner Sight is kinda good. I ran that gear through Normal (as it became available) and into Nightmare, but it became clear the AR just wasn’t going to be enough, so I tried to switch over to my backup plan (which is actually his current kit) but I was short the Stealskull and Moser’s. So from very early into Nightmare until I set him aside during Hell Countess runs he wore Guillaume’s Face, Sigon’s Gage, Sigon’s Wrap, Rhyme in a 27% res all pally shield and Manald Heal (instead of Raven Frost.) Set him aside somewhere around the middle of June, picked him back up after the MFO, in which I found the Stealskull and the Moser’s he finished the game using. Switched the rogue over from Harmony when I remembered I had a Witchwild, as Harmony was less synergistic with both the build and the theme.

If anyone’s interested, the early twinking gear looked like this:

Arctic Belt + Gloves + Berserker hat + armor + axe + Hsarus shield and boots . Full Sigon’s when available. Isenheart’s sword into General Tan Do Li Ga into Bloodletter into Coldsteel Eye into the Fleshrender. Steelclash into grim rhyme into gilded rhyme. Put on Twitchthroe and full Iratha’s when they became available. Goblin Toe at 17. Swapped Goblin Toe out for Nat’s boots when I switched to the Guillaume’s setup, then swapped out Nat’s boots for Aldur’s in order to rework my charm space for more AR.

Playthrough:

Nothing particularly interesting early on; p8 up til Hell. Leveled up to 45 at normal Pindle, then to 51 on Baal before going into NM. Leveled up to 72 on NM Pindle. NM Ancients were: ES Whirler, Stone Skin other two. Took all my reds, but weren’t especially bad. NM Keep level 2 was gloams, beetles and flayers, creating a few dicey moments with my propensity to charge through areas blindly, especially when I found myself surrounded by beetles and flayers in the middle of a 4-arm hallway with gloams on each arm. Moved on to Hell at level 74.

Quested through to the Countess’ tower (which was kindly enough directly beside the waypoint) then stopped to do leveling runs. Took about 9 hours to level up to 83. With the Guillaume’s/Rhyme setup I was doing p3 countess runs, but if I’m honest even they were overzealous, once I switched into the final gear, it was p1 all the way (well, I tried p2 once, but having to use basically a full belt on a PI/LE goat pack backed by an archer bosspack told me all I needed to know about that.)

Most of Act I was spent leveling in the Countess’s tower; not much of note past that. I ventured into the Pits twice around level 80, but once I found myself out of potions while surrounded by two rather innocuously modded rogue bosspacks I decided to stick to the countess runs. Andy went down easily, dropping an essence and garbage.

Act II was, as expected, rough. There was a bosspack of ghosts with Might around the Summoner, so I tossed up a TP while they went after the merc, trying to kill the summoner and duck into the portal before they could get to me, but a goatman on the stairs stopped that plan. The ghosts hit too hard for reds - the Summoner’s Frost Novas didn’t help - and it didn’t take long for them to burn through all my purples. Resed the merc after I died, darted into the TP and started running, eventually feeding the merc to the ghosts while I circled around, rescued my corpse and finished off the Summoner. Best Friend Simulator 2014; new top score! Charged through the majority of the Act, except for Tal’s tomb, where I just ran around with Sanctuary up, hoping to not get caught. Duriel was no trouble.

Act III jungle layout was good: Spider Cavern in the first offshoot, waypoint and entrance to Flayer Jungle area with Gidbinn + Dungeon in the next offshoot. Had to dance around Stormtree’s (ES/LE/CE) pack, but they went down eventually. Lucked out in the Sewers as well, finding the way down rather quickly. Lured the Council out in waves, Toorc and some of his buddies coming first and forcing a resupply retreat, but on the whole they weren’t too worrisome. An Amp/ES pack of Blunderbore just inside Durance level 1 required some more hit and run tactics. Durance 2 was absolutely jam-packed with dolls, so I did what any noble slayer of evil kitted for battling demons in their lairs would do: I stuck a sign on my chest that said “plis to not be disturbed. Kthxbye” (read: turned on Sanctuary) and ran like a thoroughbred on race day. Meph was the easiest opponent on his level by an order of magnitude (Stone Skin + LE Blood Lord pack in the same room as a Stone Skin/CE Council member was good times.)

River of Flame spawned Finger Mages, Grotesques, and Sand Maggots which was fun*. Forge was a Lum, but both the perfect and one of the flawless gems were amethysts, so I’m happy with the result. Hephasto was Holy Freeze/Amp. Also a puppy. Apparently I kill puppies, at least when they get in the way of me saving the world from a Prime Evil. Consider yourself warned, diminutive dachshunds. Chaos Sanctuary took 50 minutes, including a death and reload to Infector of Souls’ pack. Also died on the next time, but had the forethought to put down a TP and was able to run back in from the waypoint, lead enough of them away, then run pack to the waypoint, use the TP and take down Infector and two of his buddies (still took a bunch of potions, apparently ES/CE Infector is a big deal ... who knew?). Rest of the seal bosses were no worries; Diablo was nice enough to spam lightning hose instead of actually dealing damage.
*:
234-854112c10a8b3fabc7463001edde608b.jpg

Bloody Foothills had imps and wasps. Frozen River had yetis, witches and lancers. Ancients rolled with nothing dangerous, which was good because I hadn’t grabbed a waypoint since Crystalline Passage. WSK1 had witches, vampires, and charging undead. WSK2 was straight up act 2: snakes, bats and beetles. WSK3 had imps, skeleton mages and flayers. Throne had Pit Lords, gloams and frenzytaurs. Waves 4 and 5 required splitting up, but fell quickly and quietly from that point. Baal provided neither challenge nor reward.

Finds:

-Forges: Hel/Lum
-String of Ears (14/14/7) from NM Summoner
-Ko Rune in NM tomb.
-Emerald (11) SC of Vita (17) in NM Act V
-2 Passive and Magic, 20% IAS, 3% Mana leech, 17% Fire Res gloves from NM Baal
-Ambergris (21%) Jewel of Fervor
-Blackhorn’s Face in Hell Tower
-2 Pul runes from Countess runs
-Lem rune from Countess runs

Deaths:

You bet your spleen, Norma Jean. (what?) I stopped actively counting after number 7, but probably 15-20, mostly during running either NM Pindle or Hell Countess. He was really fragile with that Guillaume's Face setup; I only remember 4 deaths in the current gear.

Q&A:

So about those Paladins?
-Still hate ‘em.

Why’d you name him “The_Snowman?”
-Because “Frosty” would’ve been tacky. :rolleyes:

Anyone you’d like to thank?
-Nagisafurukawa for the Raven Frost and the Steel GC’s.

Thanks also to you for reading. Remember that while the game’s worst class may be rather pallid, he at least creates quite a din.
 
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