- May 11, 2022
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With some inspiration from a recent Pat thread by TheNix, I decided I wanted to run a Holy Fire Zealot through the game. Holy Fire is of course a great levelling skill. But I don't recall having ever taken it past NM before. Sunder GCs kind of change how you look at things in D2R. Why not give it a go!
Normal and NM were played at p8 throughout.
Normal was an absolute breeze, which was to be expected. I equipped a junk rare Sabre that I got very early, maybe in the Den of Evil or Cold Plains, and didn't both to switch up weapons until I hit the level required for Hexfire. Holy Fire is strong enough early on that the weapon really doesn't matter. Might as well have just stuck with the starter Short Sword.
NM didn't pose much more of a challenge that Normal, though Act IV was a little bit slower due to the appearance of Fire Immune monsters. (Can't equip the Flame Rift sundering GC until level 75.)
In Act III NM, I got tired of repairing my Hexfire sword all the time, so I decided it was time to change things up. I was considering a Lightsabre or 'Voice of Reason' or 'Crescent Moon' Phase Blades, but those are all "been there, done that" for me. Then I remembered that I recently stumbled upon an ethereal Cryptic Sword in a Terrorized Andy farming session with my Fire Ball Sorceress, and the solution was apparent: 'Oath'.
This worked really well and I stuck with it until the end.
For Hell, I toned it down to p1 because I wanted to keep playing at a brisk pace. There weren't many tough spots in Hell. Perhaps that means I should have upped the players setting. Oh well. I had fun, and that's the important thing!
Sadly, there were not many interesting finds to report from this playthrough. I got a Lem from the Hell Forge and found a Seraph's Hymn unique amulet in Act V Hell. Pretty nifty amulet.
I really enjoyed playing the Holy Fire build from start to finish, and it's a character I would love to re-visit with more high-end gear. Right now he's only "p1 strong" (or maybe p3). I think he could become "p8 strong" with the really good stuff. I don't have it in me to do LK runs, but if I did... I would love to try out a 'Hand of Justice' sword and dual 'Dragon' armor and shield running Conviction as the main aura. I have the Cham needed for 'Hand of Justice' but I have zero Lo and Sur at the moment. How many LK runs for 3 Lo and 3 Sur? I'll never know because I would never stick with it!
But I still wonder about it...Final stats and gear:
Level 82
Strength: 135 (203 w/ gear)
Dexterity: 125 (165)
Vitality: 230 (280)
Energy: base (45)
Life: 1129 w/ gear
Mana: 287 w/ gear
Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison resistances: 95/60/73/41
Defense: 6561
Helm: 'Flickering Flame' Bone Visage (-11% enemy fire res.)
Sword: 'Oath' Cryptic Sword (325% ED... a pretty decent roll!)
Shield: Herald of Zakarum (I also have a Dragonscale in the stash but then resistances would become a problem... never actually equipped the Dragonscale)
[no weapon switch]
Armor: Guardian Angel for a while, then 'Lionheart' Great Hauberk (could have loaned him 'Chains of Honor' from another character but that seemed too easy)
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Belt: String of Ears
Boots: Gore Rider
Amulet: Rising Sun -> Seraph's Hymn after I found it while questing through Act V
Rings: Raven Frost, and a rare ring with mana steal and +11 all res.
Flame Rift sunder GC (-71% fire res.), rando 10/20 Necro torch for resistances, various charms found while questing
SKILLS
MAX Holy Fire, Resist Fire, Salvation
15 pts Holy Shield
8 pts Zeal
1 pt to all pre-reqs, and a point in Vigor for added mobility
Attack Rating became a bit of a problem towards the end of Hell. I probably should have invested a bit less in Vitality and Holy Shield in favour of Dexterity and Zeal. I realized that a bit late. It wasn't so bad that I needed to re-spec though.
Finally, my partner in crime throughout this adventure:
Mercenary: Telash the Iron Wolf (Fire)
Level 82
Skills: Level 32 Fire Bolt, Level 30 Fire Ball, Level 32 Enchant
Helm: Harlequin Crest
Sword: 'Spirit' Long Sword
Shield: Visceratuant
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi
I decided at the start that I really wanted to go all-in with fire damage for this build, therefore the Iron Wolf seemed like the obvious choice. Having that high-level Enchant active at pretty much all times was super helpful, and his Fire Ball packed a pretty good punch. Compared to a Rogue Scout, I think he was more prone to dying as we progressed through Hell difficulty, especially in areas where it was easy to get swarmed. (They can equip shields but it seems like they can't block at all, which is a bit of a cruel joke if you ask me!) Telash, or Telly as I took to calling him, cost me a bit more gold to keep bringing him back to life, but I enjoyed having him along for the ride. He really helped me out with some timely Fire Balls. I feel like one or two minor tweaks would make the Iron Wolf a better choice. Fire Ball and Enchant are great, but almost anything would be better than Fire Bolt. In any case, I am curious to hire more Iron Wolves with future characters. I will find a way to make both the Lightning and Cold Iron Wolves work eventually!
Thanks for reading
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