Patriarch Kolmogorov, Thorns Palabear

[snickersnack]

The Impetus

This is my second character to use the Beast Cadaceus I made a while back. @LouB suggested that I make a PDR palabear, and I did consider that, but it seemed too easy? I decided that any palabear would be pretty tanky and staying alive wouldn't be an issue, so why not try to make Thorns work?



The Build

I skimmed a few pat threads, but that was a while ago and I don't recall what I may have gleaned, but I knew that Thorns, even with the recent changes, is not a strong main skill. I decided to try to overcome that by having summons to tank hits and reflect damage for me. I made the Beast RW in a Cadaceus so that I could swing it in the mainhand without having to repair too frequently, so that also meant that I could summon a level 13 Grizzly. I also used a Peace MP to spawn a level 15 Valkyrie. I probably could have gotten some more summons, but that seemed to be enough.

My build plan was to max Thorns, use some +skills to boost that more, and then probably max the resist auras for the passive bonuses.

Here're the final skill point values (points/gear):
Thorns: 20/34 (main "damage" skill)
Blessed Aim: 20/34 (purely for the passive AR bonus)
Resist Fire: 16/25
Resist Cold: 10/19
Resist: Lightning: 20/29
saved: 5

With prebuff gear (Enigma, Mara's, BKWB), Werebear cast at level 14.

Here is the final gear:

weap: Beast Cadaceus
shield: Spirit SR
switch: nothing! More on this later...
cube: Mara's, BKWB, Peace MP
helm: Delirium BV
chest: Treachery DS
belt: Trang's
gloves: Lava Gout
boots: Gore Rider
ammy: Angelic
rings: Angelic, BKWB
charms: torch, anni, AR/Life, Offensive Auras x5 (FHR, FRW, 1-2 fire, gold, gold), life/AR/max/res small charms.

merc (Prayer):
weap: eth Reaper's Toll (shael)
chest: Fortitude AP
helm: Cure BV

Early Leveling

Pretty standard twinking (sigon's, iratha, twitchthroe....).

I started this character a while ago, not long after matting my fuzzy dodger, but it got ...well... boring after a while, so it's now been over a month at least since I started, and I don't recall the early leveling.

Here are the notes I kept for this part, in case you are curious:

Spoiler

sigons
iratha
RC
twitchthroe
honor naga
IK boots/gloves
razortail

enter NM at level 44 in 1.14d
go back and do gidbinn
strip char in gomule and reload

I think that I was putting points into Holy Fire to synergize the Exploding Arrow on RC. This was all in 1.14d where I have a bugged RC. I moved the character forward to D2R after finishing normal difficulty.

Mid Leveling

Um, not sure?

Here are my notes:

Spoiler

demon machine, ias jewel
Black flail
HoZ, pd
Peace mage plate
vamp
razortail
Lavagout
War Trav
Amulet: +2 to Offensive Aura Skills (Paladin Only)
+13 to Attack Rating
+6 to Strength
+12 to Dexterity
Dwarf Star
Ravenfrost
charms: +1 offense, max/ar/life

merc: prayer
insight eth partizan
eth duriel
vamp

at 54:
Hustle PB
Flickering Flame tiara
Insight Thresher on merc (still healing)

level 60
BKWB
Grief replaced Hustle
carried in act 4 due to fire immunes

NDE in plains of despair NM, running -30% light res,
gloams hit me, 3 or 4 at once

fortitude replaces peace for a while
without thorns, Valk doesn't do much

level 65
highlords

For a while, I was continuing to get my DPS from Holy Fire, but using Demon Machine instead of RC. I switched to Zeal after a while.

Late Game

I hit level 66 in late NM and (I think) respecced out of Zeal.

Again, here are the notes:

Spoiler

level 66
Beast / HoZ
Faith on switch, planning to swing with this, turns out a bit slow
Peace replaced Fort for now, mostly to see how often the Valk procs

CS was fine, if a bit slow

After killing D, I remembered that there are grizzly charges on Beast
another good reason to swing it.
charges cost 56k each
I'm thinking that wisp projector might be good

the first area of act 5 is pretty fun with so many auras and two summons

prayer+cure helm makes a lot of sense because that'll keep the summons alive longer
redemption for emergencies?

could I keep prayer merc and just match my prayer level with his?
could we both wear Cure helm and get 4x the healing?

Or, he can go with might, fort, and andy. he'll hit like a truck

Or, a cold rogue with upped WWS, fort, andy
her main role is to apply amp
also, I'll use Atma's for the amp proc

got to level 76 with merc at 75, time to respec?

main: Beast caddy, Spirit SR
switch: stopped using due to Grizzly charges
helm: Flickering Flame tiara
chest: Peace MP
belt: trang's (for CBF)
gloves: Lava Gout
boots: Gore Rider
ammy: Highlord's
rings: BKWB, BKWB
charms: torch, anni, 6 offensive auras (plain,FRW,FHR,fire damage,GF,GF)

merc: prayer
weapon: Infinity GPA
helm: Vampire Gaze
chest: eth Duriel's, then Fort

Regear/Respec

main: Beast caddy, Spirit SR
switch:
helm: Guillame's, pRuby
chest: Peace MP
belt: trang's (for CBF)
gloves: Lava Gout
boots: Gore Rider
ammy: Angelic's
rings: BKWB, Angelic's
charms: torch, anni, 6 offensive auras (plain,FRW,FHR,fire damage,GF,GF)

merc: prayer
weapon: eth Reaper's, shael
helm: Cure BV
chest: Fort

I lowered /p8 to /5 early
currently questing in dark wood
switching to /p3

************************************

main: Beast caddy, Spirit SR
switch: faith, unused
helm: Delirium BV
chest: Peace MP
belt: trang's (for CBF)
gloves: Lava Gout
boots: Gore Rider
ammy: Angelic's
rings: BKWB, Angelic's
charms: torch, anni, 5 offensive auras (FRW,FHR,fire damage,GF,GF), 131AR/37life
cube: Treachery DS, mara's, BKWB

I should add physical sunder at some point. PIs aren't a big deal since I'm at /p3 and I Have venom and enchant.
Swap between Treachery and Peace to keep Fade and Valk up. Valk survives well even in act 2 at /p3. I might need to put anther armor in the rotation to improve DPS or something while both buffs are up. I keep Enigma in stash for prebuffing. I could add Arach's for more prebuffage.

Grizzly is dying a lot in act 3 of hell. Not bothering to summon in much of act 4. Valk starting to die a little too often. Might need to get more aoe healing.

switched to /p1 in early/mid act 5. it was just so, so slow.
put delrium on for more CC as grizzly was dying too fast even on /p1

Basically, my original plan was just not working well. I dropped from /p8 in norm/nm to /p5 in early hell, then /p3, and eventually /p1. Even then, the Grizzly died a bit too much.

Chance to hit became a major issue in late NM or early Hell, so I maxed Blessed Aim for the passive AR boost. I also put points into the elemental resist auras for the passive max res boost.

I did intermittently use Guillame's Face for the single target DPS, especially on bosses. Delirium was great for crowds, though.

I used Cure on the Prayer merc because I wanted to have some way to keep the Valk and Grizzly alive. In Hell diff, at any /p setting, the Valk seemed to always outlive the Grizzly. At level 15, she is just so tanky, even in Hell, even at /p5 or /p3. While wearing Peace, the Valk is pretty much always up since she gets respawned so frequently.

Through Hell diff, I had no switch items at all. No CtA, nothing. I had originally wanted to get some use out of the Grizzly charges on Beast, so I wanted to swing that RW. Really, though, I should have used Beast on switch and then something "better" on the main hand. Grief is an obvious choice, but after some thought, I should have tried using an eth Lacerator to up the Thorns damage enemies took.

Thorns was just really underwhelming all around. I think that maybe the DPS of Thorns was undercut by the lack of OW, poison, or any aoe damage at all (because mobs will heal between swings). Also, the Decrepify from Reaper's Toll slows down enemy attacks. I think this build could be made to work better.


I don't have any great action shots, but I like this one. Fade is on most of the time.

Deaths

None. Like I said, paladins are pretty tough and werebear makes them even tougher, so this was not a problem at all.

Finds

Shimmering SC of Dex
Cobalt SC of Vita
Hellforge was Io
Leviathan

Future Plans

I never did try using a Bone Break charm, so I should do that. Maybe Lacerator + BB would be strong? I'm not sure what shield would pair best with an eth Lacerator, but I think that a well rolled Headhunter's Glory full of pdiamonds might work. Unfortunately, I do not have a good HHG. If I'm using Lacerator, then the merc could probably use Infinity, which would solve all AR problems and allow me to using something besides the Angelic set. Maybe a Wisp Projector + Highlord's could be interesting. There seems to be a lot of room for experimentation with this build. I just was dragging trying to complete the pat on this one.

I've recently started doing some 0mf pit runs in 1.14d to (please, please, please) get an eth elite pally shield with 40+ res. Well, I'll need a few of them since I plan on cube socketing to get as much defense as possible on an Exile. Once I get that, I'll revisit the tanky palabear.

I think that a Blade Shield bearsin might be next. Beast/spirit for prebuffing and BotD on the main hand might be good. Or, maybe I'll use Lacerator on this one.

Edit: Oh, btw, I don't have Metalgrid in D2R.

 

[Swamigoon]

This is the first "maxed Thorns" build I've noticed here. I didn't find any when I looked for them a few years ago. Please, pretty please post a link about Kolmogorov in the SPF-MPG compilation thread, like you did for Satyendra. Congratulations on the beastly patriarch!

 

[snickersnack]

This is the first "maxed Thorns" build I've noticed here. I didn't find any when I looked for them a few years ago. Please, pretty please post a link about Kolmogorov in the SPF-MPG compilation thread, like you did for Satyendra. Congratulations on the beastly patriarch!

Yeah, I was mostly looking at other palabear builds for some pointers, but I don't think I got that much out of it since this build is so different. Also, yes, I will post in the mat/pat thread. I actually noticed that I have two other mats/pats that I need to post there...

Also, also, I changed up the gear a bit and did a little Crystalline Passage at /p5. It was pretty comparable to the old gear at /p1, so I think I'll do a little more with the character, maybe some WSK runs at /p3. My single target damage went down, and I lost the Grizzly, but mobs seemed to go down faster. The only issue is the HCMTF on Lacerator.

Spoiler: new gear

weap: eth Lacerator
shield: Spirit SR
switch: Beast/Spirit
cube: Mara's, BKWB, Peace MP
helm: Guillame's
chest: Treachery DS
belt: String of Ears
gloves: Lava Gout
boots: Gore Rider
ammy: Cat's Eye (to equip Lacerator)
rings: Ravenfrost, rare (+str, AR, dual leech)
charms: torch, anni, Bone Break, Offensive Auras x5 (FHR, FRW, 1-2 fire, gold, gold), life/AR/max/res small charms.

merc (Prayer):
weap: Infinity, eth GPA
chest: Fortitude AP
helm: Cure BV

 

[Maltatai]

Thank you for the interesting character study! Even if he was twinked it is encouraging to hear of a paladin that was reassuringly tough, and also especially that the valkyrie could be almost maintained.

I think that maybe the DPS of Thorns was undercut by the lack of OW, poison, or any aoe damage at all

I am sure you are right. I had similar experiences with iron maiden and revived armies.

 

[SirName]

Nice Pat and nice to know Thorns is atleast close to viable as I have a plan to try a Werebear/wolf using an Edge bow / xbow with possibly Spirit of barbs. Idea was to have high life and run around getting hit with Armageddon active.

 

[hackedagainanda]

Quick question, is Kolmogorov named after the famous Russian mathematician?

 

[snickersnack]

Thank you for the interesting character study! Even if he was twinked it is encouraging to hear of a paladin that was reassuringly tough, and also especially that the valkyrie could be almost maintained.

Yeah, the Valk from Peace stayed alive very well, so you only need to wear the armor for a little while to get the proc. I think it could be a viable prebuff for many builds. In particular, I kind of want to try it with a hunter druid.

Nice Pat and nice to know Thorns is atleast close to viable as I have a plan to try a Werebear/wolf using an Edge bow / xbow with possibly Spirit of barbs. Idea was to have high life and run around getting hit with Armageddon active.

Yeah, high life was a goal for me too, but it was hard to fit everything in and get high life, so it wasn't as high as I wanted. Edge+Bramble is also an option if you have the runes for it. A Rabies druid with a high level Thorns aura might work well.

Edit: in fact, I think I can do LK runs until I get a Sur and try that out.

Quick question, is Kolmogorov named after the famous Russian mathematician?

Yes! I think of it as those mobs better stay separated from me!

 

[Maltatai]

@snickersnack
So the peace valkyrie doesn't pop after a short time on D2R like it does on 1.14, if you have no points in the skill?

 

[snickersnack]

@snickersnack
So the peace valkyrie doesn't pop after a short time on D2R like it does on 1.14, if you have no points in the skill?

That's right! When starting a game, I'd use Enigma (and others) to prebuff Werebear, then I'd put on Peace with Treachery in the cube. Once Valk procs, swap to Treachery and use that until the Valk needs to be recast, which isn't often. She doesn't pop like in 1.14d and stays alive well, though the double healing aura on the merc helps with that.