Patriarch Galois, Avenger

snickersnack

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Dec 23, 2007
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The Impetus:

Many years ago, I was pretty active in the old trade forum, and I was very interested in ethereal weapons from patch 1.07. I traded for 5 or so weapons, made some runewords, and saved some bases. In particular, I saved an unsocketed ethereal 1.07 BA in a 1.10+ stash, thinking that if I ever found a Zod, I could make Breath of the Dying, or I could roll the dice on cube socketing. (I searched for the trade thread, but I couldn't find an archive, so I can't thank the person who traded it to me.) After finding a Cham in 1.14d, I thought I'll wait for another Cham rune, but that never materialized, and I still have that Cham. Well, last week, I found this Zod while questing my fire trapper, so I forwarded the BA and made BotD using an Ohm found with my mosaicsin:

Breath of the Dying
Berserker Axe
VexHelElEldZodEth

One Hand Damage: 196 - 577 <--- Note, the bottom end is actually 178; there's a display issue in GoMule.
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 69
Required Strength: 103
Required Dexterity: 40
Fingerprint: 0x51970345
Item Level: 90
Version: Resurrected
50% Chance to cast level 20 Poison Nova when you Kill an Enemy
+60% Increased Attack Speed
445% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
+50 to Attack Rating
+200% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
7% Mana stolen per hit
14% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
All Stats +30
+1 to Light Radius
Requirements --20%
Ethereal


I got really lucky with that damage roll. :D My avenger in 1.14d used either an Oath Cryptic Sword (eth, 1.07) or a Death BA (eth, 1.07), so this is a pretty substantial upgrade.

This avenger in D2R is the first a few characters I have planned. I'm going to do a Blade Sentinel/Fury assassin next and then a melee necro after that. It could become a sept, but maybe not. Dunno yet.

galois.jpg

The Build:

I didn't refer to @Asmodeous' guide too much since I've made one before and I more or less knew what I was going to do, but this build mostly follows that guide.
Vengeance: 20
Resist Fire: 20
Resist Lightning: 20
Conviction: 13 (25 with +skills and BC to get -150% resists)
Holy Shield: 1
Vigor: 1
Saved: 10 (not yet sure if these'll just go into a Vengeance synergy)

Early Levelling:

I had considered starting as a Holy Fire paladin for easy levelling, but I decided that I wanted a more challenging experience, so I chose skills with the final build in mind. Of course, this meant using Zeal and Holy Fire for a while, but I switched to Vengeance as soon as I could and used Conviction immediately at level 30. Pretty standard twinking, Sigon's Complete Steel when available, standard twinking weapons as he levelled. It was a bit slow at times, due to the single target attack, but it was fine, even enjoyable. Players 8, of course. I kept the Act 1 Cold Rogue that I got for killing Blood Raven. We'll see more of her. ;)

Mid Levelling:

I used Butcher's Pupil for quite a while, and then Headstriker more briefly. Rockstopper went on and stayed until I could equip Crown of Ages. If I didn't have CoA, an upped Rockstopper might have been the end-game helm. It was around this point that I made Hustle in a Matriarchal Bow:

Hustle (armor)
Matriarchal Bow

ShaelKoEld
Two Hand Damage: 58 - 138
Durability: 28 of 48
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 87
Required Dexterity: 187
Fingerprint: 0xb7e41622
Item Level: 93
Version: Resurrected
5% Chance to cast level 1 Burst of Speed on striking
Level 1 Fanaticism Aura When Equipped
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
+30% Increased Attack Speed
194% Enhanced Damage
+75% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
+10 to Dexterity


Wow, what a neat runeword, and great for a Rogue merc! This allowed my avenger to hit better IAS bps more easily, sped up the Rogue's attacks substantially, and raised her damage. Conviction aura plus a fast cold Rogue does pretty decent damage and provides a lot of CC. I thought of this bow as a poor man's Faith. More on that later. ;)

Around level 57 is where the build really starts to take off. Oath in an ethereal Scourge and CtA both went on, and the damage output jumped. From this point on, the character was a beast. I don't remember a whole lot of it and I didn't take notes ( :cautious: ), but it was fun. I was doing mostly full clears and going as fast as possible. The Vigor aura helped with that quite a bit. At level 63, Fortitude went on, and I kept Enigma in the stash to make certain areas easier to navigate. Mana is a bit of an issue, but between the occasional mana pot or round of Zeal, it was manageable.

Late Game:

At level 69, BotD went on and the damage output jumped again. The damage on my Oath is 17-514, whereas the damage on my BotD is 178-577, so the upper end didn't move much, but the lower end changed drastically. This is the point when one-shotting enemies became much more common. Let's talk a bit about end-game gear. Here's more-or-less what I was using at the end of Act 2 in Hell:

Main: BotD, HoZ pdiamond
Switch: CtA, Spirit
Chest: Fortitude
Helm: CoA (empty, undecided)
Gloves: LoH
Belt: SoE
Boots: War Traveler
Ammy: Highlord's Wrath
Rings: Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star
Charms: anni, torch, fire sunder, lightning sunder, gheeds, life/resists, fhr

merc:
Weap: Hustle MB
Chest: Enigma (for easy swapping to jump gaps)
Helm: Andy (I think...or maybe it was Crown of Thieves)

This worked well, with maxed out resists and an 8 frame attack. The level 1 Fanaticism aura helped a lot. Well, then I found a Jah rune. I was a bit stunned, more so than for the Zod rune drop. I've been hoping for a Jah for quite some time, and Phoenix was my plan for it. Hmmm, I'm questing a character that's using Hustle on the merc to get a good bp, and I just so happened to have a perfect +15% ED 5os Diamond bow. So, I rolled up a Faith both, and luckily got a perfect Fanaticism roll. Only +1 on the skill bonus, but that's not so important, afaik. This meant that I could get an 8 frame attack on the avenger without needing any IAS off-weapon. :oops: Highlord's Wrath is a great melee amulet, and LoH is pretty standard as well. But the direct damage buffs on those items don't affect the elemental damage from Vengeance, so this allowed me to try other options.

I considered Dracul's Grasp and Mara's, but I always want to work in other options when I can, so I settled on Soul Drainer. In case you don't remember the stats, here they are:

Soul Drainer
Vambraces

Defense: 138
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Level: 74
Required Strength: 106
Fingerprint: 0x558a85c3
Item Level: 85
Version: Resurrected
8% Chance to cast level 3 Weaken on striking
5% Mana stolen per hit
7% Life stolen per hit
--50 to Monster Defense Per Hit
+104% Enhanced Defense


The mana steal is what I was mostly after, but more life steal and a ctc Weaken were also great. Since I wasn't using any other curse, Weaken helped with tankiness quite a bit. From here, mana became mostly a non-issue. There's still mana burn or swarms of unleechables, but mostly solved. This also let me choose a different belt, and while I considered Verdungo's, I went with Thundergod's. We're still at /p8, btw. I don't think that I can overstate the tankiness. Here's the final gear:

Main: BotD, HoZ pdiamond
Switch: CtA, Spirit
Chest: Enigma
Helm: CoA, Ral Ort
Gloves: Soul Drainer
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor
Boots: War Traveler
Ammy: Mara's Kaleidoscope
Rings: Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star
Charms: anni, torch, fire sunder, lightning sunder, gheeds, life/resists, fhr

Annor:
Weap: Faith Diamond Bow
Chest: Fortitude
Helm: Andy, fire res and ias jewel

The LCS shows 3271-10K for the damage on Vengeance, which might not seem impressive, but remember that I have no Might aura and no Fortitude on the paladin, so my physical damage is not buffed by a whole lot.

Pop quiz: what's the name of the first area in Act 4? Not sure? Me neither. What I do remember is that I usually spend as little time there as possible. I pick left or right and hug the wall, looking for the exit. This time, I kind of started doing that, but I was having so much fun that I kind of veered off into the middle and mostly cleared the whole area. I can't remember the last time I spent an extra second there, though I still can't name it off the top of my head. The point being that the build is really fun!

I'm not sure if I could optimize gear any better, but what I have fits so well together. The Faith on Annor frees up slots since I no longer need off-weapon IAS, and the resists combine to have 90% light res with absorb to boot. Stiggin it to Gloams is great; not needing to go swap out gear in order to do so is even better. :) Also, using Enigma on this build is excellent. The merc died very rarely at this point since she mostly stayed out of trouble and then I have Teleport at the ready, whether to keep her alive or reposition her so I can get the aura if she gets stuck on something.

I think maybe I could work in a cold sunder charm, mostly because unbreakable cold immunes don't get chilled by the rogue's Cold Arrow, but I'm also not confident that sunder charms affect the merc. [Edit: I checked. They don't.]

I'm also not 100% sure what to do with those saved 10 skill points. Maybe I'll just dump them into Resist Cold for the synergy, but I've also considered a point in Redemption or Meditation.

Deaths:

I want to say there was a death, maybe in early NM. Again, I didn't keep notes, so I'm not sure. No deaths in Hell, though. I did have to use potions at times; this is a melee character running /p8, so that'll happen. I think this may be the tankiest character ever for me. 3k+ life, resist of 69/90/75/75, cold/light/fire absorb, 20% DR, max block, ~11k defense, Weaken, usually chilled enemies. I think the closest thing to an NDE was a pack of Frenzytaurs with Fanaticism. They killed the merc, but didn't hurt the paladin too badly.

Finds:

The Jah rune above was the most notable find. Gul in Act 2 Hell, Um somewhere. NM forge was Um, Hell forge was Fal. 🥱 Though I can't be mad at that Fal rune after finding a Jah. 🤷‍♂️ Meteor Ormus' Robes that I probably won't find a use for.

Future Plans:

As mentioned above, a Blade Sentinel/Fury assassin is probably next. The BotD is a good weapon for that, afaik. A melee necro synergizing the Poison Nova would be next. Maybe a frenzy barb using BotD and Lacerator? After that, I'm not sure what to do with the BotD, but I have some plans for the Faith. I'll take it for a spin on my Hunter Druid; that should be a good time. Maybe a ranger paladin with a damage aura? A bow barb could be fun, and maybe a bow assassin.

Thanks for reading!
 
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Nice build and nice roll on the Faith. Have you considered an Exile shield. Life tap, Defiance and don't forget the +3 freeze.

My first Jah also went into a Diamond bow and the second was used or Enigma and the third or a Phoenix Shield. I don't regret doing aith first, but I should have done Phoenix before Enigma.
 
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Nice build and nice roll on the Faith. Have you considered an Exile shield. Life tap, Defiance and don't forget the +3 freeze.

My first Jah also went into a Diamond bow and the second was used or Enigma and the third or a Phoenix Shield. I don't regret doing aith first, but I should have done Phoenix before Enigma.
I did consider Exlie, but I don't have a good base item, so I'd have to go farm one up, and that seems really dull. Maybe after exhausting the fun builds that BotD and Faith allow I'll have the stomach for racking.

It never really occurred to me to put anything else before Enigma, but I can see that all three have a lot of utility and what you do first probably has a lot to do with which builds you enjoy most.
 
Nice work on what sounds like a really fun character!

I think the Act IV area you're thinking of is the Outer Steppes... maybe..? I usually spend as little time as possible there too :LOL: I have to be really rocking and rolling with a character to spend unnecessary time there, because normally I'm just trying to move on and find Izzy as fast as I can.

Cool use of Soul Drainers. I have been thinking of ways to shoehorn those gloves into one of my builds, having just recently found some myself. It's fun making the lesser-used items work.

I am jealous of that Jah. I am probably making 'Faith' as soon as I find one.

Looking forward to some of your future build threads. I 100% back the Blade Assassin. I love that build.
 
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Nice work on what sounds like a really fun character!

I think the Act IV area you're thinking of is the Outer Steppes... maybe..? I usually spend as little time as possible there too :LOL: I have to be really rocking and rolling with a character to spend unnecessary time there, because normally I'm just trying to move on and find Izzy as fast as I can.

Cool use of Soul Drainers. I have been thinking of ways to shoehorn those gloves into one of my builds, having just recently found some myself. It's fun making the lesser-used items work.

I am jealous of that Jah. I am probably making 'Faith' as soon as I find one.

Looking forward to some of your future build threads. I 100% back the Blade Assassin. I love that build.
The Faith DB is great! I had forgotten that I hadn't finished the pat on my hunter druid, so that's what I'll do next. He's in Act 3 Hell, and I've bumped it up to /p7. The kill speed is pretty good, with high level summons and HoW+Might+Fanaticism+Decrepify. Telestomping makes pretty short work of elites, but the druid is pretty squishy, so it's risky.

Blade assassin will be next. :) Unless, you know, the game wants to throw some more runes at me, then who knows... :whistle:
 
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Blade assassin will be next. :) Unless, you know, the game wants to throw some more runes at me, then who knows... :whistle:
Yeah, cool drops I find while questing usually are the ultimate decider for what character/build I do next. That's part of what make this game so fun and gives it so much replay value.
 
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Nice work snickersnack! I agree with little birdy, I don't think I've seen Soul Drainers used in a build before. Drac's for sure with a Pally build, but Soul Drainers? And thx for the detailed account. It gives one idea's you know .... :D
 
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Excellent achievement and write-up!

(Just wondering - if you decided to name a character Erdös, what kind of quirky class and build might fit that name?)
 
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Nice work snickersnack! I agree with little birdy, I don't think I've seen Soul Drainers used in a build before. Drac's for sure with a Pally build, but Soul Drainers? And thx for the detailed account. It gives one idea's you know .... :D

Yeah, it's an item that has such interesting mods but is often overshadowed. I did consider Drac's as well, but for this build life leech is not a problem while mana leech is. Glad you enjoyed the read. :)

Excellent achievement and write-up!

(Just wondering - if you decided to name a character Erdös, what kind of quirky class and build might fit that name?)

Thanks! Well, this is actually the second character that I named Galois. The first was a llder in 1.10+. He was an Insight Charger and a lot of fun.

For Erdös, I think it would have to be a support build, maybe a supporting summoner? From my knowledge, Erdös was most prolific as someone who could help researchers find good problems in their areas of interest. TBH, a fishymancer fits, but also an aura stacking hunter druid might...
 
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Congratulations on the Jah drop - and the Patriarch.
I had to google to find out he is named after a mathmetician. Is this an ongoing theme?
 
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Congratulations on the Jah drop - and the Patriarch.
I had to google to find out he is named after a mathmetician. Is this an ongoing theme?
Thanks!

Yes, it's definitely a theme. Here are some other characters:
1.14d: Abel, Agnesi, Amalie, Cauchy, Dedekind, Dirichlet, Emmy, Fermat, Lebesgue, Riemann (my first avenger), Satyendra, Weierstrass
D2R: Ada, Dirichlet, Hausdorff, Kronecker, Weiertrass

Feminine names are the hardest, though, as there just aren't as many that I'm familiar with. Amalie and Emmy are both about Amalie Emmy Noether, and I think Noether (pronounced NOY-ter) will be my next female character. Satyendra is a bowzon, and is named after Satyendra Nath Bose, after whom the particle category boson is named. The real person was male in that case.
 
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Just watched The Accountant again and was reminded about the Math name connection that the character used in coming up with his aliases. Gauss, Carroll, Wolff are the three that I remember, but there were more.

And what's the story behind your Druid's name Polonium? My guess is that he is a fire druid.
 
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During my time as an undergrad, Dr. Paul Halmos visited my school, and I was privileged to meet and talk with him. I think a nice devout Paladin would fit the memory of the late Dr. Halmos very well. I would give him at least one point in Redemption, in honor of his invention of "tombstone notation," and a point in Conversion, in honor of his ability to influence others to love exploring mathematics. However, his personality was a lot more like our friendly NPC Deckard Cain -- "stay awhile and listen!"

Here's one of my cherished memories: My thesis advisor said to Halmos, "It seems to me that the percentage of Hungarians that become accomplished mathematicians is far greater than any other nation's proportion. How does that happen? Is there some property of Hungary's culture that fosters the study of math?"

I enjoyed his funny reply: "Your conjecture is unoriginal." :ROFLMAO:

For whatever reason, I learned to pronounce Emmy Noether like the word "nurture" (Nur-tchur).
 
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Just watched The Accountant again and was reminded about the Math name connection that the character used in coming up with his aliases. Gauss, Carroll, Wolff are the three that I remember, but there were more.

And what's the story behind your Druid's name Polonium? My guess is that he is a fire druid.
He started in 1.14d as a rabies druid (a reference to Polonium tea, morbid, but amusing to me), but I stopped playing him for some reason. When D2R came out, I repurposed him as a hunter druid. I'm not sure why I didn't just roll a new character. Thinking on it now, Erdős would have been a decent name.
During my time as an undergrad, Dr. Paul Halmos visited my school, and I was privileged to meet and talk with him. I think a nice devout Paladin would fit the memory of the late Dr. Halmos very well. I would give him at least one point in Redemption, in honor of his invention of "tombstone notation," and a point in Conversion, in honor of his ability to influence others to love exploring mathematics. However, his personality was a lot more like our friendly NPC Deckard Cain -- "stay awhile and listen!"

Here's one of my cherished memories: My thesis advisor said to Halmos, "It seems to me that the percentage of Hungarians that become accomplished mathematicians is far greater than any other nation's proportion. How does that happen? Is there some property of Hungary's culture that fosters the study of math?"

I enjoyed his funny reply: "Your conjecture is unoriginal." :ROFLMAO:

For whatever reason, I learned to pronounce Emmy Noether like the word "nurture" (Nur-tchur).
Wow, that's pretty cool. I didn't really go to conferences and seminars much, so I don't think that I met anyone very famous.
 
I was thinking Polonium went best with a poison mancer. I forgot about Rabies and the only connection I thought about for a druid was thermal heat generation.
 
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I was thinking Polonium went best with a poison mancer. I forgot about Rabies and the only connection I thought about for a druid was thermal heat generation.
Oh, my poisonmancer in 1.14d is Hcolmeh. :) (edit: it's actually Kcolmeh. Not sure how I messed that up.)

I do need to think of a good name for my upcoming BotD meleemancer...
 
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Unfortunately for you, I'm one of those dreadful nerds that makes "dad joke" puns. Predictably, my brain quickly makes the cheap leap from "poison" to "Poisson," and believes that name would be oh so clever. 🤡

(Ugh, I know. Now I regret the suggestion.)
 
Call him Luke_Out coz what they better do when they see you coming. :D
I'm afraid that pun isn't nearly cringe enough, but thanks for the suggestion. :)
Unfortunately for you, I'm one of those dreadful nerds that makes "dad joke" puns. Predictably, my brain quickly makes the cheap leap from "poison" to "Poisson," and believes that name would be oh so clever. 🤡

(Ugh, I know. Now I regret the suggestion.)
Now this, this is cringe enough. :ROFLMAO: It also keeps with mathy theme.
Maybe Poisson = Poison + Fishymancer hybrid?
I like it. Using maxroll, and I had planned on putting points into Blood and Fire golem to use situationally, but skeletons would be more thematic. I would only worry about crowding. The +2 range adder will mean that I should be able to reach over one line of skellies to hit enemies. A Ghost Spear would have worked better in that case...

BTW, I think things like rangeAdder are what make D2 so great. In D3, daggers and spears have the same reach, and I think D4 is the same. :rolleyes:
 
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