My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

[Greebo]

My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

The first character I've ever try to make, based on a guide, was a min-damage Avenger. Poor choice, I know. This guy is not it (my min-damage Avenger is in NM right now), but he is my "oldest" surviving (i.e. not-deleted) character. I started him 2.5 years ago (and got stuck in A4 Normal) and Patted him last week.

The usual conundrum of an Avenger is the choice of aura: Conviction vs. Fanaticism. Using 'Beast' as the weapon solves that problem. I guess the same can be said about 'Infinity', but I don't have it yet...

The Name: AK is named after a "lovable" character from a Harry Potter fanfiction story: "Dimension Hopping for Beginners" by nonjon.

AK is basically a Harry Potter from an alternative universe. He made a magic oath "to defeat Voldemort (i.e. big bad of HP universe) in every form, everywhere, till the end of time", or something along those lines. Of course he was stupid enough to learn dimensional travel magic first. Oops.

Now he is forced by his magic to travel between alternate dimensions and defeat various Voldemorts. The dimensions themselves are parodies of typical Harry Potter fanfiction stories: on his journeys AK meets a whiny Harry, abused Harry, harem Harry, evil Harry, seer Harry, over-powerful Harry, totally-crossed-over Harry, Azkaban Harry, a Harriet, etc.

His nickname comes from when his patience runs dry, which is quite often if you travel hundreds of worlds: A.K. is short for "Avada Kedavra" which is a killing spell in HP universe. Sometimes he decides to end the lives of Harry Potters he meets and judges not bloody good enough to live. Here's how AK reacts to a slash scene between a random Harry Potter and a Draco Malfoy:

[size=-2]
A.K. thought there seemed to be a few more lumps than normal, and as he looked around the room he saw not one, but two magical trunks. A.K. bent down to take a peek in them and in the first found his old Invisibility cloak, some Gryffindor robes, and the Marauder's Map. All perfectly normal things that brought A.K. comfort to see. Then he looked into the second trunk and found a bottle of hair gel. This was certainly different. It was when he pulled out another school robe, but this time with the emblem of Slytherin on it, that A.K. stumbled backwards in surprise.

"Wha-" A muffled voice called out from under the comforter. "What's going on?" Harry's head came peeking out from the covers. Only it was the bottom of the covers right next to the pale feet that now appeared to not belong to Harry.

A blonde head popped out from the top of the covers, slowly waking up as well. "Yes, love? Something the matter?"

Harry cracked open an eye to see the sheer disgust and horror on the face of the strange man in his room. He closed his eyes again, wondering if he could go back to sleep. Harry tiredly asked, "Who are you?"

"Avada Kedavra!" A.K. called out hitting the sleepy, young Malfoy scion in the face.

"Avada Kedavra?" the exhausted Harry said as he tenderly rubbed his lover's feet. "That's a pretty silly name," he explained with his wrist bent lazily. "How's aboots I call you A.K. instead?"

"Avada Kedavra!" A.K. insisted aiming towards Harry, who just happened to sit up at the right moment and missed being hit by only millimeters.

"Fine, fine, no nicknames. Got it." Harry said as he leaned backward towards Draco, tiredly wiping the crust from his eyes. He was showing a fair amount of asscrack through the top of his pajama pants. "Drakey Poo? Why isn't my Silver Serpent ticklish anymore?"

A.K. stepped forward and made sure not to miss this time. "Avada Kedavra!"

And just like that Harry Potter was dead.

A.K. just shook his head in disappointment. "How many of these goddamn worlds are there?"
[/size]

OK, that's enough about that. I completely understand if you skipped that part, of course. Let's get back to Sanctuary, shall we?

The design: Fanaticism from 'Beast', Might from the moron, Conviction from RMB and Vengeance on LMB. Delirium and Decrep on the idiot for safety. 20 IAS off-weapon is enough for the fastest possible 8fpa. Owns Hell at /p3. No deaths and lots of fun.

[highlight]AK, Level 84 Paladin[/highlight]

Str  98/162   
Dex 108/128   
Vit 294/324
Ene  15/ 25

Life 2,638
Mana   348
(after Battle Orders)

Resistances: 82/75/87/75

LCS highlights:
  -------
  Damage:    3,107 - 9,909 (avg. 6,508 ;  8,525 including DS) 
  30% Crushing Blow
  25% Open Wounds
  60% IAS for Vengeance at 8 fpa (highest possible)
  AR irrelevant with conviction (around 4k)
  -------
  26% Life Leech
  10% Mana Leech
  -------
  34% PDR
  29  MDR
  75% Chance to Block
  Defense 10.4k
  FHR 50% [5 frames @ 48%]
  -------
  90% MF

The Skills:
Vengeance 20 [27] + 14 in each synergy (Resist Fire/Cold/Lightning)
Conviction 15 [20] for -125% enemy resistance
Holy Shield 3 [10], Vigor 1 [6]

Gear:
Weapon: 'Beast' in a 1.07 ATMA-bugged Berserker Axe
Shield: Herald of Zakarum (PDiamond)
Switch: beta-'Call to Arms' + 'Spirit'
-----
Head: Vampire Gaze (20% PDR, 14 MDR, 8% LL, 7% ML, 'Um')
Body: 'Fortitude' Archon Plate
Belt: String of Ears (14% PDR, 15 MDR, 8% LL)
Gloves: Crafted (10% CB, 5% LL, 3% ML, some fire res)
Boots: War Travs (50MF)
-----
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Ring 1: BKWB 5% LL
Ring 2: Ravenfrost 20/242
-----
Charms:
Gheeds 40MF and 21 small charms with resistances, 50FHR, lots of life and 4 seconds of poison damage for PMH (prevent monster heal).

Comments on the gear:
Only needed 20 IAS to reach max speed. This particular Vamp Gaze is usually on my morons, but it worked wonders on this character. Vamp Gaze and String of Ears is such a powerful combo: ridiculous amount of leech (both kinds) together with very significant MDR and %PDR. The only disadvantage was no FHR anywhere, but charms took care of that.

I could have done without War Travs, but the added damage is actually pretty significant and the MF didn't hurt. I love those gloves for situations when no IAS is necessary.

Moron
Act 2 Might
'Delirium' Tiara
eth Reaper's Toll
'Fortitude' Dusk Shroud
A big thank you to Nagisa for trading me a 'Fortitude' for PGems.

Overall:
Fun: 8/10 (would be higher, but the single monster attack is tedious at times)
Difficulty: 2/10
Future: Retirement

[highlight]Remarks and musings[/highlight]
First of all, this was an extremely safe character to play, which came to me as a significant surprise. No deaths at all. A side effect of playing an avenger are very high resistances. Coupled with 29 MDR, this guy was barely affected by gloams, let alone other elemental attackers.

75% Chance to Block, 10.5k defense and 34% PDR meant a lot of safety from physical damage too. People usually complain about defense, but this guy is a bit different that way: a lot of the time he is standing in the middle of a pack of monsters (example) and hitting stuff. For this particular situation high defense works wonders.

Another aspect of safety I consider very important is the fact that he has a high physical damage and high LL/ML on him. Vengeance, high ED and all, does not provide any boost to physical damage. All that has to come from strength, Might, Fanaticism and 'Fortitude'. Without the physical damage boost and high leech, this character wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Final element to bring safety was 'Delirium' on the moron. And it worked wonders (1, 2, 3!). Adding Decrep on top of that makes for a very safe journey. Although decrep wasn't crucial in any way, it helped with ghosts quite a bit, making them leechable (even if a little bit, it was enough with high physical damage and high life and mana leech).

Vengeance + Conviction owns. I went through Nightmare and A1 Hell at /p7 and the rest of hell at /p3, all the way including Baal. It is a single monster attack, but very powerful in my opinion. And nothing is immune to it, which is kind of neat. I went for -125% enemy resistance on Conviction, since a lot of monsters in Act5 Hell do have 25% resistance to an element. I actually went through the bestiary on Arreat Summit for that. I don't know why the common choice seems to be -120%. Maybe it's based on earlier acts.

High MF paid off in the form of a Windforce which was nice considering the hellforge was Lum.

Although this guy is going to retire now, I like him a lot. I'm going to make a min-damage Avenger and Gris Avenger too. That's how much I enjoyed him.

Thanks for reading!
--Greebo

 

[Arkardo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Congrats on your 15th M/Patriarch! Just a few questions, if you don't mind:

This looks like a really fun character to play, but I personally don't e-bug. How would you think this character would fare without? I have some nice builds with Beast in my mind, and I'm tempted to make one, even though it puts me further away from Enigma.

Also, why not max lightning resist? Lightning immunity is the rarest of f/c/l immunities, Conviction breaks most of these lightning immunities, and you'll raise your maximum lightning resist as well.

Oh, and :shocked: @HP.

 

[Greebo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Congrats on your 15th M/Patriarch!

Thanks!

This looks like a really fun character to play, but I personally don't e-bug. How would you think this character would fare without? I have some nice builds with Beast in my mind, and I'm tempted to make one, even though it puts me further away from Enigma.

Two things:
- I chose 'Chains of Honor' and 'Beast' over 'Enigma'. I'm not 100% happy about it, because I want to run Pits with my Poisonmancer and am running the council like crazy with no effects to show. That aside, 'Beast' is an awesome weapon and I'm not even close to done making characters that use it.
- I rolled a perfect ED 'Beast' (i.e. 270 ED) in a 1.07 atma-bugged BA. If you get a mid-roll in a 1.13c-non-eth BA, you'll probably be doing around 60% of the damage I was doing, so about 4k per hit with the same other gear, disregarding negative resistances from conviction and DS. It is _certainly_ playable at /p1 in Hell, and depending on your patience should be quite playable at /p3, too.

Also, why not max lightning resist? Lightning immunity is the rarest of f/c/l immunities, Conviction breaks most of these lightning immunities, and you'll raise your maximum lightning resist as well.

First off: The fact that conviction breaks Lightning Immunes is almost irrelevant. All the broken monsters will still get 90%+ LightRes, making the damage from this element minimal in comparison with other three (Fire/Cold/Physical), two of which will be at -100%.

As for max resistances: 'Fortitude' already gives +5 Max LR. At 87% LR, 29 MDR and 2.6k life, the only elemental damage that would scare me would be conviction gloams; anything else was a joke.

I'm not so sure LI is the rarest, but I'll trust you on this one. However some dangerous monsters are LI, so that was part of the reason. Of course for this guy gloams are actually easy, so that's not the best reason.

But mostly I did this balanced damage thing because I wanted a balanced elemental damage character. In the end, I highly doubt whether a few points that way or the other would have made any difference on gameplay. That would be different if I wanted to use him to run an area, of course. But he's going into retirement, and I thought this setup would be the most universal, I guess.

--Greebo

 

[scrcrw]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Very nice. Hax Beast Avengers are the best!

Also: I'm vaguely disturbed by the intro.

 

[potter]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Grats on the pat. I like my avenger as well, though he's not nearly as decked out as yours. One of the few characters i actually enjoy running the maggot lair with

As for max resistances: 'Fortitude' already gives +5 Max LR. At 87% LR, 29 MDR and 2.6k life, the only elemental damage that would scare me would be conviction gloams; anything else was a joke.

Actually, their conviction won't affect you. The one with the highest conviction level cancels the other one out (only for yourself though, merc/minions still gets it). Monsters conviction level is their mlvl/8 (arreat lists /4 which is wrong), so in hell it ranges from slvl8-11 (uber meph has slvl20).

...i'll join in on the HP wtf as well

 

[Arkardo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Grats on the pat. I like my avenger as well, though he's not nearly as decked out as yours. One of the few characters i actually enjoy running the maggot lair with


Actually, their conviction won't affect you. The one with the highest conviction level cancels the other one out (only for yourself though, merc/minions still gets it). Monsters conviction level is their mlvl/8 (arreat lists /4 which is wrong), so in hell it ranges from slvl8-11 (uber meph has slvl20).

...i'll join in on the HP wtf as well

But, mr Potter, is it TRUE?! :scratchchin:

 

[Greebo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Very nice. Hax Beast Avengers are the best!

They sure are! Thanks.

Grats on the pat. I like my avenger as well, though he's not nearly as decked out as yours. One of the few characters i actually enjoy running the maggot lair with

For that I really like WW-barb and FA-zon (pierce!). Both for pretty much the same reason: a queue of monsters lining up in the corridor to be owned. Gotta love that.

Actually, their conviction won't affect you. The one with the highest conviction level cancels the other one out (only for yourself though, merc/minions still gets it). Monsters conviction level is their mlvl/8 (arreat lists /4 which is wrong), so in hell it ranges from slvl8-11 (uber meph has slvl20).

I didn't know that, so thanks. Good to know. I was wondering why I never encountered conviction monsters. Apparently I did, but their aura was overridden by mine. That's actually pretty darn cool.

Oh, and :shocked: @HP.

Also: I'm vaguely disturbed by the intro.

...i'll join in on the HP wtf as well

OK, maybe some background would be helpful (obviously read this only if you're vaguely curious):

I like reading and writing fanfiction in general, well, because I do. I don't think there's a good reason other than it gives me pleasure. But HP fanfiction is something else: there are over 480,000 stories on fanfiction.net alone that are set in the HP universe.

Probably 1% of them are good. Maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more. But the few that are the best, those are IMHO better than the original. By far. But it's kind of hard to find them sometimes. There are communities out there where members help find each other the gems among the pretty much horrible other writings.

The thing about those other fanfictions (not the good ones) is that often times people just write them to play out their fantasies. Sometimes it's done by inserting themselves into the fictional universe, be it under a guise of an Original Character, or by completely changing one of the existing characters to fit what the author fantasizes to be him/herself. Those are usually horrible. Like a transfer student from Salem becoming Harry's best friend and helping him defeat Voldemort in 3 days. Unreadable.

Other times the fantasy thing is done by playing out love-related fantasies (sometimes romance, sometimes just plain porn) between characters. These are quite often (but not always) slash (i.e. male/male pairing) fictions. The audience and writers for such fictions are not well studied, but the little knowledge we have suggests they are often highly educated women. Considering how many guys like to watch girl on girl porn, it makes perfect sense to me in many ways.

That isn't to say that there isn't a good story out there where there is a M/M pairing, but finding them is just ridiculously hard. Because most of such stories are just plain fantasies being played out. And most of them sooner or later end up in a NC-17 sex scene. And, well, I don't watch g.a.y (why is that censored???) porn for a reason, so I don't like to read this stuff either... But really, any story which is written just to eventually see two characters going at it, well, it just burns my eyes, independently of sexes of the people involved. That is not to say that I don't like a hot scene now and again. But it can't be the point of the story.

Now, the fragment of the story that I cited is from one of the authors that writes those gems that make it all worthwhile. The whole story is a parody of how bad and ridiculous all those other fanfiction stories can be at times. The whole "silver serpent" thing made me cringe and shudder the first time I read it, but I do think it's hilarious. Mostly how AK just wants to kill the two morons in question. Oh, btw: it's not the fact that Harry is g.a.y that pisses AK off. It's the fact that he likes Draco Malfoy. In a different part of the story when a "Harriet Potter" (did I mention playing out fantasies by college educated women?) likes Draco, she gets the same treatment.

I hope that sort of answers a wtf a few of you might have had, and sorry for OT.
--Greebo

 

[potter]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

It verily is, mr arkardo
Search this forum for others who have tested it or you can just run a lvl85 area until you find a convicted monster. If his conviction slvl really is 22 (mlvl88/4), it will give you -135 resists. slvl11 will only reduce 80. Even from theory here, i doubt there are regular enemies in the game with a higher conv. level than uber meph :wink:

 

[purplelocust]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Well done! I plan on making Beast at some point and there so many great builds for it. I was very close to making Beast in a great eth 1.07 BA right around the time that jjscud discovered what was really going on with ATMA about two years ago and now indecision has resulted in me not doing anything... (Somewhat ironic- my whole effort to play 1.07 was to get eth base items for projects like that, which I never ended up doing (except for merc items) but I ended up instead with a lot of other fantastic 1.07 gear.)

First off: The fact that conviction breaks Lightning Immunes is almost irrelevant. All the broken monsters will still get 90%+ LightRes, making the damage from this element minimal in comparison with other three (Fire/Cold/Physical), two of which will be at -100%.

This is very true and one of the great things about spectral damage like that from Vengeance. Monsters that tend to be immune to one or two elements generally have zero or at least very low resists to the other ones. So the fact that Conviction may break an immunity really doesn't make much difference at all to an attacker with multiple elemental damage sources as the other elements will dominate the actual damage done.

Hypothetical example: say an attacker does 100 cold, 100 fire, 100 lightning and 100 poison damage to a monster which is cold and fire immune with resists of 160 cold /110 fire /0 lightning /0 poison with a level of Conviction which reduces resists by 100%. The resulting resists of the monster would be 140/90/-100/0 (still cold immune, but fire immunity is broken) so the damage taken would be 0 cold, 10 fire, 200 lightning, 100 poison. That 100 fire hardly matters at all.

For a single-element attacker, though, breaking immunities is very important, as there is a huge difference between no damage and a little damage. But for a multiple-element attacker, breaking immunities is the difference between a lot of damage plus a little and a lot of damage, so it really doesn't matter much.

(On the poison: Vengeance doesn't give poison damage and Conviction doesn't lower poison resists, so that was just for illustration and the poison damage could have come from charms/Treachery/weapon/etc.)

The "my Conviction is bigger than yours so yours doesn't affect me" feature is very nice for Avengers facing Conviction gloams, Conviction council, etc as a monsters' Conviction will never outweigh that of a decent Avenger. However, you need to be careful as if you switch auras away from Conviction when facing a boss with a lower level of Conviction, all of the sudden your resists will plummet!

 

[Arkardo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

It verily is, mr arkardo
Search this forum for others who have tested it or you can just run a lvl85 area until you find a convicted monster. If his conviction slvl really is 22 (mlvl88/4), it will give you -135 resists. slvl11 will only reduce 80. Even from theory here, i doubt there are regular enemies in the game with a higher conv. level than uber meph :wink:

Actually, I meant the fan fiction part. 'cause your nickname is, like, Potter. :wink:

@Greebo: that's all fine and dandy and all, but still :shocked:.

 

[Greebo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Well done!

Thanks!

I plan on making Beast at some point and there so many great builds for it. I was very close to making Beast in a great eth 1.07 BA right around the time that jjscud discovered what was really going on with ATMA about two years ago and now indecision has resulted in me not doing anything... (Somewhat ironic- my whole effort to play 1.07 was to get eth base items for projects like that, which I never ended up doing (except for merc items) but I ended up instead with a lot of other fantastic 1.07 gear.)

Far be it from me to defend ATMA-bugging. Hax & cheese, sure. But such lot of fun.

I'll say one thing. ATMA-bugging or not, I'm very happy I've made 'Beast' - it is a fun runeword and I haven't even begun using it seriously.

This is very true and one of the great things about spectral damage like that from Vengeance. Monsters that tend to be immune to one or two elements generally have zero or at least very low resists to the other ones. So the fact that Conviction may break an immunity really doesn't make much difference at all to an attacker with multiple elemental damage sources as the other elements will dominate the actual damage done.

Yeah, it's a bit counterintuitive with an Avenger that way. The usual way to look at Conviction (and Lower Resists for that matter) is how it will help with breaking immunities and doing damage in the broken element. We're especially used to that with 'Infinity'. For an Avenger, a broken immunity is almost "accidental". What really matters is the ownage the aura does to the other elements (doubling it at the very least).

The "my Conviction is bigger than yours so yours doesn't affect me" feature is very nice for Avengers facing Conviction gloams, Conviction council, etc as a monsters' Conviction will never outweigh that of a decent Avenger. However, you need to be careful as if you switch auras away from Conviction when facing a boss with a lower level of Conviction, all of the sudden your resists will plummet!

I was on Conviction almost the entire time, except when I was travelling through an already discovered area, retracing my steps after finding a dead end or something, when I used Vigor. My reason for that was so that the aura could affect the encountered monsters ASAP, reducing their defense (I had a pretty low AR, by my standards at least). A side effect I was unaware of was that I was neutralizing any Conviction auras of my enemies. Cool.

That's all fine and dandy and all, but still :shocked:.

Understood & agreed.

--Greebo

 

[VoX Dei]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Aside from the disturbing Harry Potter related intro this Pat is full of win! Conviction Beast/Faith Avengers and Fanatic Infinity Avengers are all very appealing builds. Masterfully done, Hero :thumbup:

Btw, I see you went for Delirium in a tiara. That choice also gets my thumb of approval :thumbsup:

 

[Greebo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Conviction Beast/Faith Avengers and Fanatic Infinity Avengers are all very appealing builds.

Sure are. I'm hoping to make an 'Infinity' and I'm certainly not going to put it in an ethereal weapon. I want to have the option of hitting stuff with it, just so that I can use it to make an Avenger, too. 2-hander will be more tricky though. Pally wielding a thresher should be an interesting sight.

Masterfully done, Hero :thumbup:

Thanks!

Btw, I see you went for Delirium in a tiara. That choice also gets my thumb of approval :thumbsup:

Considering I did so after advice from you, I certainly hope I get your endorsement .

--Greebo

EDIT: Thanks for being my spell-checker, too . That's the way things go if you have one computer in one language and the other in another language...

 

[VoX Dei]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Sure are. I'm hoping to make an 'Infinity' and I'm certainly not going to put it in an ethereal weapon. I want to have the option of hitting stuff with it, just so that I can use it to make an Avenger, too. 2-hander will be more tricky though. Pally wielding a thresher should be an interesting sight.



Thanks!



Considering I did so after advice from you, I certainly hope I get your enforsement .

--Greebo

Haven't really gave any serious thought concerning possible Infinity bases, but an elite non-eth pole although not optimal merc-wise, opens a lot of crazy builds. Worth the thought IMO.

Btw, hope you meant "endorsement" Glad to be of assistance.

 

[Greebo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Well, if my "enforsement" is "endorsement", then your "Haven't really gave" is "Haven't really given" :tongue: :whistling:

 

[VoX Dei]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Well, if my "enforsement" is "endorsement", then your "Haven't really gave" is "Haven't really given" :tongue: :whistling:

haha Touché!

 

[Asmodeous1]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

*munch munch munch, Hiccup!

Now that was a good read over lunch! :thumbsup:

Very impressive damage there for a level 84 beast avenger. Your right in that a typical beast BA avenger would be hitting around the 4.5 kay mark, any avenger hitting over the 6 kay mark @ 8 frames is very good damage indeed!

Not sure if it was planned or you haven't realised it, but Reapers tolls decrep works very well on avengers with high physical damage such as fanatic avengers (I call them Justiciars). So essentially you have Conviction and decrep reducing targets resistance to physical/light/cold/fire damage, Might and fanatism to increase physical damage as well as the IAS to give you fastest attack possible on Vengeance.

Very sweet build.

On a side note, you mentioned your planning a gris pally. You need any parts of the set or socket fillers?

 

[Doctor Clock]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Congrats on the Avenger. Very happy to see Vamp Gaze on a Paladin, brings back good memories.

 

[Greebo]

Re: My #15 Patriarch: AK, a 'Beast' Avenger

Now that was a good read over lunch! :thumbsup: (...) Very sweet build.

Coming from you, that's a real compliment, so thanks!

Very impressive damage there for a level 84 beast avenger. Your right in that a typical beast BA avenger would be hitting around the 4.5 kay mark, any avenger hitting over the 6 kay mark @ 8 frames is very good damage indeed!

Agreed. Any character that slices through Hell at /p3 without pause is very powerful.

Not sure if it was planned or you haven't realised it, but Reapers tolls decrep works very well on avengers with high physical damage such as fanatic avengers (I call them Justiciars). So essentially you have Conviction and decrep reducing targets resistance to physical/light/cold/fire damage, Might and fanatism to increase physical damage as well as the IAS to give you fastest attack possible on Vengeance.

Oh yeah, that was definitely part of the plan. Between strength, might, fanaticism and 'Fortitude', I think I had 800%+ Enhanced damage. If there was a good way to get amp damage, I would. But decrep from Reaper's is much more reliable (33% CtC) and good enough.

Breaking immunities of PI monsters to leech off them, well, that's just a bonus. Honestly I don't recall ever using Reaper's thinking "It will slow down monsters" (though that's a nice side-effect). I think of it pretty much as a "-50% physical resistance" thing.

On a side note, you mentioned your planning a gris pally. You need any parts of the set or socket fillers?

Well, I've only ever found a green Corona. Missing the other two pieces.

I was planning on trading for them when the time came. Right now I'm in the middle of min-damage Avenger. If you do have shield and caddy for trade, color me interested, but no rush.

A more interesting question for me is: what would you recommend for stuffing into all those sockets? I probably have quite a few options, but honestly I'm not sure what to go with...

Congrats on the Avenger. Very happy to see Vamp Gaze on a Paladin, brings back good memories.

Thanks!

Barbs have Arreat's, Druids have Jala's, which beat Vamp Gaze, but for a Paladin, I think it's one of the best possibilities out there.

--Greebo