Patriarch Theron -- Fanatic Zealot

Feb 24, 2004
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After finding the runes needed to make my first Grief during the first round of the RFL, I saw that I had the opportunity to make a zealot to use for round 2. As much as I love melee builds, this is actually the first fanatic zealot I've finished the game with.

The Journey

He started normal the usual way for my melee characters, wearing Sigon's and Civerb's Cudgel. I soon wanted to use a different weapon, so I decided to use The General's Tan Do Li Ga. It was fun enough that I upgraded it to continue using until he could equip a Fleshrender. Nightmare difficulty was quite comical. I'd never made an Obedience, and saw that the highest rune needed for it had a level requirement that was easily reached before entering NM, so I made my first Obedience in an Eth Partizan. It was fun to see my mercenary one-hit kill almost everything. He also received a Vamp Gaze and Duriel's Shell. My zealot was using the above-mentioned Fleshrender, Guillame's Face, Lionheart Mage Plate, Herald of Zakarum, String of Ears, dual Ravenfrost, Prismatic Amulet, and IK boots/gloves.

At level 59, I immediately switched to the Grief Phase Blade because why not? At 63 I also put on a Chains of Honor Dusk Shroud, Laying of Hands, and War Travelers. Once NM was finished, I ran Baal until the mercenary hit level 75 to equip him with Reapers and I swapped out Duriel's with Fortitude.

I started Hell still on p8 with no issues. Our first unbreakable physical immune happened to be Black Hack. I happened to have a Lawbringer Ancient Sword on switch, and though Sanctuary didn't help break his immunity, it ended up working out better than the Grief for this situation due to the elemental damage.

After collecting both pieces of the Horadric Staff, I decided to drop the players setting down to p3 for two reasons. First, I was already almost level 83 at that point; and second, RFL round 2 had officially started and I was in a hurry! Hellforge gave me an Ist, which was great as I didn't have one yet. Chaos Sanctuary and Diablo were super easy. The first real challenge was in the Frozen River when Gloams made their only appearance. This guy was found early in the area and could have made things even worse if there were more gloams around. We ended up using all 2 rows of big purples in saving Anya, only because the gloams were unleechable.

After muling more big purples on, the new monster rolls in the Crystalline Passage included Physical Immune Blood Lords. This guy and this one were probably the scariest fights during the entire playthrough. Nihlathak was easy compared to those two bosspacks. His CE took about half of my life each time, but they came with nice audio cues and were easily handled with rejuvs.

The first roll of the ancients came with no super dangerous mods (Korlic - Extra Strong/Spectral Hit, Talic - CE/FE, Madawc - Extra Strong/FE) and were quickly dispatched. The WSK wasn't too difficult. Level 3 was pretty cool -- it looked like Chaos Sanctuary all over again, except with witches instead of Balrogs. The balrogs happened to have moved their party upstairs to the Throne of Destruction. No issues with the waves. I didn't really even see what mods Lister had besides mana burn. Baal was easily dealt with and left me some garbage.

Gear

Main switch: 'Grief' Phase Blade, Herald of Zakarum (Um)
Weapon switch: 'Lawbringer' Ancient Sword, 'Rhyme' Aerin Shield (total 49 all res)
Guillame's Face (pTopaz)
'Chains of Honor' Dusk Shroud
String of Ears
Laying of Hands
War Travelers (36 MF)
Mara's Kaleidoscope (20%)
Ravenfrost
Rare ring - dual leech, AR, FR, PR

Charms: Gheed's, MF small charms, and that's it! I originally had some Steel and Sharp GCs in there, until I realized they really weren't needed with Grief's ITD. CoH, HoZ, and Mara's was overkill on the resistances front so I didn't need any resist SCs.

Alhizeer, Defiance Merc:
The Reaper's Toll
Vampire Gaze
'Fortitude' Dusk Shroud

Stats/Skills

Skill placement is standard:
20 Sacrifice
20 Zeal
20 Fanaticism
20 Holy Shield
7 Defiance
1 Vigor

Code:
Name:       Theron
Class:      Paladin
Experience: 1175560700
Level:      86

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   95/165
Dexterity:  118/141
Vitality:   297/332
Energy:     15/20
HP:         1101/1101
Mana:       142/182
Stamina:    446/446
Defense:    29/1744
AR:         575/20769

Fire:       256/216/156
Cold:       187/147/87
Lightning:  187/147/87
Poison:     198/158/98

MF:         159       Block:      60
GF:         128       FR/W:       25
FHR:        30       IAS:        59
FCR:        0

Finds

  • The Ist from Hellforge mentioned above
  • Demon's Arch, Demonhorn's Edge, Nosferatu's Coil, Windhammer
  • 5os War Scepter with +2 Redemption

Now excuse me...he's got some council members to repeatedly murder!
 
Sounds like a fun run, congrats on the Pat!
I have been doing basically the same thing but haven't Pat'd yet. Soon...very soon...after all the Round 2 clock is ticking.
 
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I was in such a rush, I forgot to add some final words!

Final Thoughts

As someone who plays quite a bit of untwinked single pass, it was nice to feel like I activated God Mode once I twinked on those items for NM. I'll have to do that again. And again.

This was the first character I've made that went to the finish line with zero deaths. This gives me hope for future HC endeavors when I finally get back around to my UT99er zon. Even though I usually play HC all untwinked, I could see myself making characters like this one over in HC once I have the items.

Big thanks again to @Pb_pal for his item donations. Those Dusk Shrouds are straight from him!
 
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