PvP Adventures – Characters, Planning & Progress

ffs

Well-known member
Feb 7, 2017
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Intro
Most of my D2 activity in recent months revolved around PvP. Which in the SPF environment is weird. No torch and Anni, no Anya bug fix. No D2R to address all that because no TCP/IP. Why go for that? Because. It. Is. So. Much. Fun!

Other players have more PvP experience and better gear, obtained through years of playing, trading and/or time travelling. I cannot draw from years of PvP experience, and use only self-found stuff found in modern patches. Still, I figured why not create a place here about my "PvP status and progress" journey if you will. Details on characters, ideas, theorycrafting etc. While my gear is certainly not bad for self-found standards, it's by no means ideal and some characters use a bunch of rather basic stuff. But hey, maybe it can show that in many cases it's not that hard to build generally functioning PvP characters and have some fun with them, hoping that perhaps it will convince others to join us in the PvP action.

With those ramblings out of the way, some details on my current PvP cast, my (very limited) experiences with them so far, as well as goals and objectives regarding further progress and upgrades.

Characters (HLD)
A quick rundown of characters that are in somewhat of a finished state as to their setup and build. They still wouldn't mind upgrades here and there, but they're generally ready for action. These include some of the stronger PvP builds in general and my build/gear approaches here are largely in line with conventional wisdom. Not reinventing the wheel, only a small number of tweaks and changes here and there, in most cases simply due to SP being a bit more restrictive than bnet PvP. The main cast consists of the following characters:
  • Bone Necro
  • ES/Fireball Sorc
  • C/C Trapper with WW/hybrid options
  • W/S Trapper
  • Ghost Assassin
  • Wind Druid (max block)
  • Wind Druid (vita)
  • V/T Paladin
  • Liberator/Hammerdin
  • BvC Barb
  • Poison Necro
  • Bowazon
  • Murderdin
The below setups are generally "all-purpose" and with FFA and TvT capability in mind, since around here (so far) we have such formats more frequently than 1v1. For now I haven't really optimized characters for 1v1 or included entire sets of swap items for specific matchups.

Edit: Updated to reflect current status (October 2022).

***​

Bone Necro
Character history: Ric, untwinked 99er Necro

Very solid build and one of my favorite PvP characters. He's using some of my better PvP gear including a double Ber'ed CoA and a handful of skillers with at least some life on them. Also makes occasional use of a 2/20 craft amulet. Rest of the gear is pretty standard.

Build, gear & key stats
Build:
Simple:
20 all bone skills except armor, last/remaining points BPrison
1pt Fire golem and pre-reqs
1pt Amp for team PvP action. Done.

Stats: All vita except strength for CoA (174 including gear)

Main setup
CoA 'BerBer'
Enigma
Hoto
35 Spirit
Arach
Magefist
Mara's
SoJ (swapped if absorb is needed)
FCR, 24 LR, 38 life, 15 mana
Waterwalk

Inventory:
GCs: 6x P&B skillers with 5x life (7, 9, 12, 15, 21), 1x plain
SCs: 1x FHR/mana, rest life with resists basically

CtA/Spirit switch

Key stats:
  • 3.1k/3.9k (Oak) life
  • 840 mana
  • 4.1k max spear damage
  • 4.4k max spirit damage
  • 125 FCR
  • 86 FHR
  • 75@ (80 FR)
  • 38% DR
50% DR:
Same as above but swapping:
  • Mara's >> 2/20 FCR P&B craft amulet
  • Arach >> Verdungo's
  • FCR ring >> similar ring with bit more resists
  • If resists are still important: 1x plain skiller >> Shimmering GC of Vita (36/13)
Numbers here are pretty much the same except this brings me to 50% at the expense of some ~200 LCS damage with all of the above gear changes.

Screenshots
1_1_LCS.jpg1_BerBerCoA.jpg1_craft ammy.jpg

Personal experience
He can kill everything and be killed by everything, but has many good matchups. His offense is versatile with various projectiles that each have excellent uses. There are opponents that force him to play defensively, which can result in a somewhat boring gameplay, spamming form a distance etc., but he always stands a chance.

Upgrade wish list
Generally happy with his gear. Further upgrades could come in the form of higher life skillers, or perhaps a 2/20 craft amulet with better mods than mine (resists in particular). If I somehow manage to get a 3/20 P&B or 2/20 circlet with 2os, that could also potentially be worth gearing around.

***​

FB/ES Sorc
Character history: HelpYourself, untwinked 99er Sorc

Similar in gameplay to Necro in many ways, but way less gear dependent and therefore (in my book) one of the best builds to start with. Currently I'm running 95% ES to make her very tanky by default, then boosting damage via gear/inventory as much as I could. Mine benefits from a pretty good skiller collection with a bunch of life, but apart from that I landed on rather cheap/common gear pieces in most slots. For the moment she's using Enigma, but I'll probably try a Viper setup at some point.

Build, gear & key stats
Build:
Simple again:
20 ES and Telekinesis
20 FB and Meteor
1 cold armor, all pre-reqs
Rest split between Fire Mastery (8) and Fire Bolt (13)*

* The optimal split depends on final skill levels, and I optimized it for some previous setup, so it's actually not 100% min-maxed for my current setup. But differences in distribution of remaining points here are tiny in any case.

Stats are str for Monarch, vitality for ~1.5-1.7k life, rest energy.

Setup:
Shako*
Enigma
Hoto or faceted Eschuta's**
35 Spirit
Arach
Frostburn
2/10 craft
2x SoJ
Sandstorm Trek

* Socketing depends on opponent, carried/stashed options being Cham, facet and Sol
** Rarely using Eschuta's, mostly together with faceted Shako to potentially boost damage a bit more

ES pre-buff with +8 ES Memory staff and 2x lightning skillers to get to 95% ES.

Inventory:
GCs: Fire skillers with 5x life (45, 33, 28, 25, 24), 1x FHR, 2x plain skiller, 2x life/mana (40/52, 36/56)
SCs: All life/mana basically

CtA/Spirit switch


Key stats
  • 1.7k/2k (Oak) life
  • 4k mana
  • 12-13k FB damage
  • 105 FCR
  • 86 FHR (still important despite ES build)

Screenshots
2_1_LCS.jpg2_45lskiller.jpg

2_craft ammy.jpg

2_Eschuta.jpg2_Memory.jpg2_Shako CHam.jpg

Personal experience
In comparison to Necro her offense is less scary, but ES makes her very tanky except against things that bypass it (OW, poison). Very effective with cheap gear in comparison to most other characters. Similar to Necro I liked her a lot when it came to learning some basic PvP techniques. Coupled with her tankiness, that made her a great entry point into PvP for me personally.

Upgrade wish list
Slightly more so than for Necro, finding a good 3/20 or 2/20 circlet could make me change things around a bit. A godly FCR craft ammy could open up some possibilites as well, along with circlet perhaps making 200 FCR more interesting, or at least enabling some options with other weapon/shield combos for 105 FCR.

***​

T/V Paladin
Character history: Lucid, untwinked 99er Paladin

Tricky to play, and not easy to build either in our SPF PvP environment. After trying a V/T first, I eventually settled for a T/V variant so that FoH at least does some meaningful damage that can’t just be ignored. For the physical attacks he's mostly relying on Grief being OP, otherwise mainly going for high life as much as I could.

Build, gear & key stats
Build at level 99:
  • 20 Fanaticism
  • 20 FoH
  • 20 Holy Shock
  • 19 Smite
  • 17 Conviction (to get lvl 25 = max -150 res with gear)
  • 1 into each Holy Shield, Charge and all pre-reqs
Most bnet FoH/Smite Paladins prefer the V/T route with a focus on Smite rather than FoH. With anni/torch etc you can get FoH to a respectable level even with fewer skill points spent on this aspect of the build, but it's a bit different around here for us in single player D2L. FoH simply needs high skill point investment to be worthwhile, otherwise one might as well just go with a pure Smiter.

For example in my particular case, moving 15 points from FoH/HShock to Smite/HS would yield a ~13% Smite damage increase, but a ~46% FoH damage decrease.

Standard setup:
  • CoA 'BerCham' (Stash: faceted Griffon's -24/+20, Kira's)
  • Grief PB 39/393
  • 35 FCR Spirit in 45@ ST
  • Enigma LP
  • Mara's (Stash: 2/20 FCR craft)
  • Ring 1: Oak/flexible (Stash: Raven, Wisp, Dwarf, SoJ, BKWB, FCR/res)
  • Ring 2: Rare 17 str, 40 life, 38 mana, 24 FR
  • Aldur (Stash: Treks, Waterwalk)
  • Verdungo's (Stash: Arach)
  • TO gloves
The gear is largely in line with bnet V/T or T/V builds.

Inventory:
  • Exclusively SCs with life, some res, some mana (see explanation below)
No skillers, mostly because the only good ones with lifer that I had were forwarded to D2R. :mad: But no big deal, same as with Hammerdin, most of the damage comes from hard skill points and + all skill gear. Single tree + skills such as from skillers are a decent addition, but less so than for most other classes, and certainly without good life amounts for this particular build that wants to get close and smite.

In other words, I wanted the biggest possible life pool I could get, and getting 5k+ on a non-Barb that uses CoA seems nice! My previous T/V had around 4.7k-4.8k with Oak.

Core stats:
  • 5070 life with Oak, 3940 without Oak
  • 550 mana
  • 45% DR in default setup (BerCham CoA)
  • 48 FCR BP with 45% DR, options for 75 FCR and 125 FCR with stash gear (at the cost of %DR)
  • 75@ resists in default setup
  • 970 Smite PvP damage (vs 0% DR) with Fanaticism
  • 750 FoH PvP damage under Conviction against 75 LR/no stack/no absorb (default CoA setup)
  • 1040 FoH damage with Griffon's setup in above scenario
  • 720 Charge PvP damage (vs 0% DR) with Fanaticism
  • 380 Charge PvP damage (vs 0%DR) with Conviction
  • 59% Charge CtH with Fanaticism against lvl 95, 3k defense opponent
  • 65% Charge CtH with Conviction against lvl 95, 3k defense opponent

Screenshots
The below are from his previous iteration but the gear pieces are mostly still in use. Updated LCS and more details in post below.
CoA main setup:

6_1_LCS_CoA.jpg

Griffon's & HoZ:

6_1_LCS_GriffHoZ.jpg6_BerChamCoA.jpg6_Grief.jpg6_GriffCham.jpg6_CB gloves.jpg6_CtA.jpg6_rare ring.jpg6_Spirit.jpg

Personal experience
Difficult to play, it's a technically challenging build. Namelock-stomping with shift-Smite already requires a bit of muscle memory. He's switching back and forth between not only numerous skills/auras, but also entirely different playstyles with FoH and melee.

Upgrade wish list
Skillers with high life please...

***​

Liberator/Hammerdin
Character history: Prism (tri-elemental Bear)

While I first made a straight-forward Hammerdin and felt he was quite strong, the gameplay was just a bit boring. Including some melee prowess with Chage & Smite made it much more fun to me. He uses a decent 2/20 circlet and a 2/20 amulet if need be. I have an Um'ed Widowmaker stashed for potential use on switch, but rarely made use of it tbh.

Build, gear & key stats
Build:
  • 20 Hammer + all synerigies
  • 1 Fana, all pre-reqs
  • Rest into Charge (18 at lvl 95)
Liberator setups
Pretty sure I'll use the first/main approach 95% of the time, as it has solid stats across the board.

Life/mana amounts below are all with cube in inventory for BO, because I want to use Um'ed Widowmaker on switch. :D Also worth noting the charms currently in use are rather bland. He'd have 150-250 higher life with Oak in the various setups when using better charms.

Setup 1: Default / all-purpose
  • Ber'ed rare circlet 2 Pala/20 FCR/18@/52 CR
  • Enigma
  • Grief PB 40/388
  • 35 FCR Spirit in 43@ ST
  • Mara
  • Verdungo's
  • TO gloves
  • Waterwalk
  • Oak/flexible ring
  • Ravenfroat
  • Mara's
Inventory: 2x PComb, 1x FHR/mana GC, 2x life/resist, otherwise just life SCs with just a little resist and FHR

Stats:
  • ~4.8k life with Oak
  • ~600 mana
  • 31% DR
  • 75% FCR
  • Max block
  • Max resists (FR when using Hotspur)
  • 86 FHR
  • 7.7k hammer damage (1.2k PvP)
  • 1700 PvP Charge damage with Concentration (0% DR)
  • 1500 PvP Charge damage with Fanaticism (0% DR)
  • 660 PvP Smite damage with Concentration (0% DR)
  • 450 PvP Smite damage with Fanaticism (0% DR)
  • Charge CtH 71% (Conc) or 74% (Fana) against lvl 95, 3k defense opponent
I like these numbers. 31% DR along with max block seems fine for most opponents and FFA-type situations.

Setup 2: High damage / low DR
This has considerably higher (+40%) Charge damage, 25% Crushing Blow and the convenient 6 FPA Smite with Concentration. Downside is DR is pretty low (16%), not great if physical damage is a threat.

Same setup as above except:
  • Verdungo >> Arach
  • Mara >> Highlord's Wrath
  • TO gloves >> bloodcraft 20 IAS, 10 CB, 29 LR, 28 FR, 16 life
  • Gore Rider if the matchup allows for extra CB/DS/OW
Charge PvP damage is 2.4k avg here when factoring in deadly strike.

Setup 3: 125 FCR / low DR
I wanted him to have a 125 option even with Grief, as this can be useful against characters like Necro or Hammerdins. Specifically with those builds in mind, resists aren't capped here, but they could be covered if I bothered including an extra 30@ in stash to swap in. %DR will be low in any case though (16% again). Differences to the main setup:
  • Verdungo >> Arach
  • Mara >> 2/20 FCR craft amulet
  • Raven >> FCR/dex/resist ring
Higher DR (vs Bowa, Barb)
He should be fine with 31% DR standard setup in most cases so I plan to stick with that almost always. I'm only slightly worried about DR against Bowazon tbh, because he doesn't counter her build-wise like melee physical characters, who always risk eating Hammers when getting close.

At the moment I'd just swap in Ber'ed Shako to get to 41% DR, and using 2/20 craft ammy to maintain 75 FCR.

But I am planning to eventually get a 50% DR setup, using a somewhat overlooked low-strength %DR option – namely Ber'ed Vamp Gaze. I haven't used this on any PvP other character yet, but it grants 28% DR without extra stat requirements, which IMO will fit this build nicely.

Hammerdin setup
Quick & easy 125 FCR pure Hammerdin option:
  • Grief >> Hoto
  • Raven>> FCR/dex/res ring
  • Oak ring >> SoJ
  • Circlet >> Ber'ed Shako
  • Mara's >> 2/20 craft
Keeping max res and sitting at 41% DR and 5k life with Oak. Hammer damage is 9.7k here.

Screenshots
See post below for revised Liberator/Hammerdin screenshots. Pure Hammerdin gear in spoiler below:
3_1 LCS.jpg3_craft ammy 2_20.jpg3_Shako Ber.jpg3_Boots.jpg3_rare ring.jpg3_Spirit.jpg3_Widow.jpg

Personal experience
Super fun build with Liberator/Vanquisher style setups rather than pure hammers, although it is helpful to always have the option to go full Hammerdin. But to me it is much more fun to mix things up with charge and smite alongisde hammers.

Upgrade wish list
He wouldn't mind life skillers, otherwise not sure whether much can be improved gear-wise. A 2/20 craft with better rolls than mine can't hurt, but he's generally fine as is.

***​

Trappers
Another top tier build, with generally two routes to pursue with claws (C/C) and weapon and shield (W/S). By now I made both.

C/C Trapper with WW/hybrid options
Generally a standard C/C Trapper with 65 FCR. After finding a couple of nice improvements (see below), she's probably among my best PvP characters by now. As further described in this post, she doubles as a WW/trap hybrid with a bunch of inventory/customization options.

Build, gear & key stats
20 LS and synergies
Weapon block for 58%
2pt Mind Blast
1pt Shadow Master, Venom, pre-reqs
Rest Fade (cast at lvl 29 in main setup)


Main setup
Rare circlet +2 Sin, 20 FCR, 48 life, 19@, 46 FR, socketed with Ber
Enigma BP
Craft amulet +2 Sin, 8 FCR, 79 mana, 10@
*Greater Talons +2 Sin, +3 LS, socketed with 15 IAS, 15@ and 15 IAS, 9@ jewels
Scissors Quhab +2 Sin, +2 LS, socketed with 7 FHR, 10@ and 17 life, 15@ jewels
TO gloves
Rare boots 20 FRW, 10 FHR, +5 dex, 11 CR, 27 LR, 8 FR
Nature's Peace
SoJ
Arachnid Mesh

*WSM-bugged to primary claw for max trap laying speed

Inventory:
GCs: 5x Trap skillers with life (22, 25, 31), strength (6) and dex (4), 3x Shadow skiller with life (33, 32, 31), 2xFHR/mana (52 each)
SCs: Various life/resist/mana

CtA/Splendor switch

Key stats
  • 3.6/4.5k (Oak) life
  • 800 mana
  • 1-10k LS damage (~1700 max in PvP)
  • 65 FCR
  • 48 FHR
  • 43% DR
  • 58% weapon block
Stash options:
Not many are needed:
  • 2/20 circlet BerBer >> to max out DR if needed (eg vs bowies, barbs)
  • Absorb rings
  • Hybrid sin swap gear: Steel Vita GCs, Shimmering Vita GCs, Demon Limb, HelFal Giant Skull (to equip Demon Limb)
Her hybrid setup is very customizable, with the standard swap being very simple:
  • SoJ >> Raven
  • 3x Shadow GCs >> 3x life/@ GCs
  • 3x Trap GCs >> 3x Steel Vita GCs
  • Chaos Suwayyah +3 LS +1 MB, Fury GT +3 LS +3 Fade

W/S Trapper with 102 or 174 FCR
Posted about below including LCS and setups. Against physical damage, the 75% block and max DR helps a lot, and gear is pretty cheap including inventory. The downside vs casters is of course lack of claw block, but at least she can go 174 FCR in these matchups which is fun.


Build, gear & key stats
20 LS and synergies
1 pt Shadow Master, BoS, pre-reqs
Rest Mind Blast

Setup1 : 102 FCR, 75% block, 50% DR - vs physical
Shako (Shael)
Enigma
Wizzy (rare jewel 30 FR, 7 str, 7 fhr)
Stormshield (Eld)
TO gloves
Arach
Waterwalk
Rare ring FCR, str, dex, mana, som res
Nature's Peace
Craft ammy 2 Sin, 10 FCR, 15@, 34 FR

Spirit/CtA switch
Inventory: 4 (mediocre) skillers, 1x @/life GC; otherwise mostly just plain life SCs

Inventory:
4x Trap skillers, rest mostly just life SCs
SCs: Various life/resist/mana

CtA/Spirit switch

Key stats
  • 102 FCR
  • 4.3 life (Oak)
  • 770 mana
  • 6k LS dmg
  • 27 FHR BP
  • max DR
  • max block

Setup2 2:174 FCR - vs casters
Same as above, just swapping:
  • Shako >> Griffon (Um)
  • Amulet >> 2/15 FCR amulet
  • Stormshield >> Spirit
  • WW >> Aldur (if FR is needed)
Stats:
  • 174 FCR
  • 4.1k life (Oak)
  • 830 mana
  • 6.3k LS dmg
  • 48 FHR BP

Screenshots
See this post and this post below.

Personal experience
Very strong build and easy to pick up when first starting out, even with basic S&Us. She doesn't need to do complicated things even when chasing opponents. I felt that whether or not she has a hard time depends more than anything on how well the opponent deals with her threats, which is a lot more work for them than for her.

Upgrade wish list
Don't think there's much of a chance of me finding any. Pretty much as optimized as I could hope for without trading or time traveling.

***​

Ghost Assassin
Character history: Not specifically posted about. A decade-old character called Leila.

Another strong build with many good matchups. Following a bit of racking in LK for better claw runeword bases, she has become quite sturdy with a solid life pool and overall defensive stats.

Build, gear & key stats
20 Claw Mastery, Fade, Venom, Mind Blast
1pt Shadow Master, pre-reqs
Rest Weapon Block (59-60%)

115 dex/str for claws, rest vit

Setup:
Griffon's 'Ber'
Enigma
Chaos Suwayyah +3 Fade, +2 Weapon Block
Fury Greater Talons* +3 LS, +3 Fade
Arach
TO gloves
Aldur's boots
Raven
Oak ring
Mara's**

*WSM-bugged to primary claw for max trap laying speed
** stashed several nice caster amulets as alternatives, but in standard setup just Mara to boost BO and get higher life

Inventory:
GC: 2x life/@, life/mana, FHR/AR
SC: Life on everything, mixed with resist/mana

CtA/Lidless switch

Demon Limb for Enchant charges in stash.

Key stats
  • 4k/5.2k (Oak) life
  • 7.4k AR with Enchant
  • 700 mana
  • 49% DR
  • 65 FCR
  • 27 FHR

Screenshots
Note: Screenshots are from initial version, i.e. LCS is outdated, Chaos claw is +3 Fade, +2 Weapon Block and Fury claw is now +3 LS, +3 Fade Greater Talons.

7_1_LCS.jpg7_magic circlet.jpg
7_BerGriffon.jpg
7_chaos.jpg

7_fury.jpg
7_craft ammy main.jpg

Throwing in a bunch of stashed amulets that aren't currently used but still fit the build nicely:

7_alt ammy3.jpg
7_alt ammy1.jpg
7_alt ammy2.jpg
7_Metalgrid.jpg

Personal experience
Very enjoyable build that is generally on offense against most other characters. Except against other strong melee builds that have ways to get out of her stuns, I feel she has pretty good matchups. While she can be killed by many characters, catching them once is often enough to kill them.

Upgrade wish list
I think I landed on the above setup in general. Could use better claw bases with more useful skills. And of course yet again a really good crafter amulet could make me gear around that as well.

***
Wind Druids
Another staple build. I made two of those: Maxblock with an alternative 163 FCR setup (but no DR), and a full vita 163 FCR build, using either dual Ber'ed CoA for 38% DR or +5 Tornado Pelt if the matchup allows.

99 FCR max block
Build:
20 Tornado and all synergies + Oak
1 Grizzly and pre-reqs

156 strength with Enigma, 226 dex with gear on block setup, rest vita

Main setup
Max block, 99 FCR

Jalal's socketed with 7 FHR, 14 all res jewel
Enigma
Hoto
Stormshield (Um)
Arach
Rare ring 10 FCR, 12 dex, 15 life, 22 CR, 25 LR
Rare ring 19 str, 15 dex, 38 life, 13 FR
Magefist
Craft amulet 2 Druid, 10 FCR, 18 str, 50 life, 15 mana, 16 all resist
Shadow Dancer 25 dex

Inventory:
GCs: 7x Elemental skillers with life (9, 14, 16, 17, 25, 30) and strength (6)
SCs: Various life/resist/mana, some FHR

CtA/Spirit on switch


Key stats
  • 2.3/4.9k (Oak) life
  • 720 mana
  • 4.8k max Tornado damage
  • 99 FCR
  • 99 FHR
  • 43% DR
  • 75% block

Alternative setup (163 FCR)

Same as above but swapping:

Hoto >> Wizardspike with 7 FHR, 7 str, 30 LR jewel
Stormshield >> Spirit
Shadow dancer >> Sandstorm Trek
Amulet >> +2 Druid, 19 FCR craft amulet
Ring 1 >> 10 FCR, 41 life, 54 mana, 17 CR
Ring 2 >> 10 FCR, 20 str, 17 life, 16 mana, 27 PR

Key stats here:
  • 4.8k (Oak) life
  • 1k mana
  • 4.6k max Tornado damage (~800 max in PvP)
  • 164 FCR
  • 150 FHR
  • 8% DR (hence only used vs elemental/magic damage chars)
  • 33% block (not that it’s useful against casters)

163 FCR full vita
Build:
20 Tornado and all synergies + Oak
1 Grizzly and pre-reqs

174 strength with Enigma, rest vita

Setup
CoA 'BerBer' - can be swapped e.g. for +5 Tornado pelt if DR is not needed, or Kira for res overstack
Enigma
Wizardspikes with -req, 28 FR jewel or -req, 25 LR jewel
Spirit
Arach
2x FCR rings with resists, life, mana
Magefist
Craft amulet 2 Druid, 19 FCR,
Shadow Dancer 25 dex

Inventory:
GCs: 7x Elemental skillers with life (9, 14, 16, 17, 25, 30) and strength (6)
SCs: Various life/resist/mana, some FHR

CtA/Spirit on switch

Key stats
  • 2.7/5.7k (Oak) life
  • 970 mana
  • 4.4k max Tornado damage with CoA
  • 5.1k or 5.3k max Tornado damage with +5 pelt (depending on inventory/resist needs)
  • 163 FCR
  • 99 FHR
  • 38% DR
Stash options
  • Headpieces: CoA BerBer, +5 Pelt, +4 Pelt with 10 FHR, some life and 27 LR, Kira's Guardian fore resist overstack
  • Absorb rings

Screenshots
163 FCR build with CoA

Screenshot219.jpg

163 FCR build with +5 pelt :

Screenshot227.jpg

LCS with 99 FCR max block build:

Screenshot221.jpg


5_main ammy.jpg5_alt 2-19 ammy.jpg5_craft ring.jpg5_rare ring 2.jpg5_rare ring1.jpg

Personal experience
Very tanky with minions and maxblock setup in particular. Apart from Trappers which have a very clear advantage, most matchups seemed fine. 99 FCR max block is obviously stronger against physical damage dealers, whereas the 163 FCR vita build is fun and better against casters. Both are fine either way.

Upgrade wish list
Small things. Again a godly FCR craft like 2/19/good other mods would be nice, although his amulet options are pretty good already. While I do have a +5 Tornado pelt and a couple of 2/20 FCR circlets, finding some with better mods could bring improvements, same for rare rings.

***​
BvC Barb
Character history: A character named Jay. Former MF Barb running Pit, AT and Pindle throughout his career.

I should finally learn how to properly play WW characters :p and this classic build seems like a good way to do it.

Build, setup, key stats
Build: 20 WW, Axe Mastery, Leap, WW, BO, 7 natural resist - rest unspent for now, TBD

Gear:
  • Three headpiece options, depending on needs:
    • CoA BerBer
    • Arreat's (FHR, @)
    • Kira's (AR, life)
    • 2/20 FCR, 87 mana circlet
  • Enigma
  • Grief BA 37/372
  • Beast BA 257 ED, 35 str
  • Highlord's Wrath (stash: Angelic, craft +1 Barb, 20 FCR, 89 mana, 16@, craft +2 Barb, 7 FCR, 101 mana, 19@ )
  • Gore Rider (Stash: Treks, Aldurs)
  • TO gloves (Stash: Dracul's)
  • Arach (Stash: Verdungo's)
  • Oak/flexible ring (Stash: Wisp, Raven, Dwarf, Angelic)
  • Rare ring: 92 AR, 2% ML, 20 str, 15 dex, 6@, 36 FR <<< love this ring, prefer this over Raven as standard option
Inventory:
Lots of room for improvement here, currently using rather mediocre charms and thus missing out on a bunch of life eventually.
  • GCs: 3x AR/life, 3x life/mana, 1x life/@ res, 1x life/FR, 1x life/LR
  • LC: 1x AR/life
  • SCs: mostly AR/life or fine SCs, some life/resist and life/mana
Stats:
  • Life: 6.1k / 7.4k (Oak) with CoA, up to 7.8k (Oak) with Circlet
  • Mana: 650 << TBD whether that's fine
  • 38% DR with CoA
  • WW AR: 5k / 7.5k with Demon Limb and CoA setup
  • Max FR and LR, ~50 CR and PR (unless using Kira's or Treks)
  • 27 FHR

Screenshots

Personal experience
Again very little. Seems harder than Ghost to catch people.

Upgrade wish list
Better Grief and charms, otherwise nothing specific.
***​

Poison Necro
Character history: Not specifically posted about either, I think. My former go-to Cow Necro called Ven.

While poison damage is easy to neutralize via swap gear, I rarely play him because people around here usually don't have a lot of anti-poison gear stashed and in that case he's actually too strong. But having tweaked an initial version around a nice rare circlet I have since found, I revisited him with the goal to include a couple of setups to switch between rather seamlessly. The result was four setups for any combination of 75 vs 125 FCR and max block vs higher life:

Build, gear & key stats
20 PN and synergies, Bone Armor synergies, 1pt Fire Golem and LR + pre-reqs

Setup 1: 75 FCR no block (highest damage)
Rare circlet +2 Necr, 20 FCR, 14 all resist, 18 life (socketed with Shael)
Enigma
DWeb (facet)
Spirit
Rare belt 53 life, 17 FHR, 23 LR, 15 CR, 15 PR
TO
Aldur
Rare ring 30 FR, 6@, str, dex
Nature's Peace
Mara's

Inventory: All life/res/mana

Key stats:
  • 6.3k max PN dmg - PvP avg (4s) = 1.4k vs no overstack
  • 3750 life
  • 700 mana
  • 86 FHR
Setup 2: 125 FCR, no block
Same as Setup 1 but swapping
  • DWeb >> Hoto
  • Rare ring >> FCR ring with some resists
  • Nature's Peace >> SoJ/absorb ring

Key stats:
  • 6.6k max PN dmg - PvP avg (4s) = 550 vs no overstack
  • 3770 life
  • 800 mana
  • 86 FHR

Setup 3: 75 FCR, max block
Same as Setup 1 but swapping
  • DWeb >> Hoto
  • Spirit >> Stormshield (Eld)
  • Aldur's >> Shadow Dancer
  • Nature's Peace >> SoJ/absorb ring

Key stats:
  • 5.6k max PN dmg - PvP avg (4s) = 470 vs no overstack
  • 3500 life
  • 600 mana

Setup 4: 125 FCR, max block
Same as Setup 3 but swapping
  • Mara >> 2/20 FCR ammy
  • Rare ring >> FCR ring with resists and stats

Key stats:
  • 5.6k max PN dmg - PvP avg (4s) = 470 vs no overstack
  • 3400 life
  • 600 mana
  • 86 FHR

Screenshots
DWeb 75 FCR:
Screenshot223.jpg
Screenshot224.jpg
Screenshot225.jpgScreenshot226.jpg


Bowazon
I only played her briefly so far, and without much success. Hard to make her capable with neither bnet gear nor time travel stuff. Mine uses the following setup:

  • Kira's (15 IAS/30 FR jewel)
  • Fortitude Dusk
  • Faith Mat Bow
  • Titan/Stormshield (-req) switch + cube CtA
  • Blood craft belt 9% OW, 17 FHR, 14 life, 30 CR, 10 PR
  • KB craft gloves 20 IAS, 27 CR, 21 FR
  • WT
  • NP
  • Craft ring str, life, mana, res
  • Cat's Eye
Key stats:
  • 2.8k life with BO & Oak
  • 400 PvP dmg (before DR)
  • 127/157 FRW
  • max res
The few duels I've had with her are rough. Both damage and life leaves much to be desired.

***​

Murderdin
Bowazon with Hammers? Yes please! :) I'm loving it.

Build, gear & stats
Build: Simple, max hammer + synergies, max conc, rest fana (17 in my case), 1pt holy shield, salvation, pre-reqs.

Standard setup:
  • Shako, socketing depending on matchup: Cham, Ber, Um, PRuby are stashed
  • Fortitude (key item for both ED and FCR, other great stats)
  • Switch 1: Widowmaker Um
  • Switch 2: Grief PB + Spirit ST
  • Highlord's Wrath
  • Craft knockback gloves 20 IAS, KB, 21 FR, 27 CR
  • Gore Rider
  • Arach
  • BKWB + Raven (swap options: 2nd BKWB, Wisp, Dwarf)
Inventory: 2x OA life skillers, cube with CtA, Mara, BKWB and swap rings for DR setup, rest mostly plain 20 life SCs in my case -- these should actually be Steel/Fine SCs but I'm too lazy to swap them around characters.

He's normally some ~30 resist short of maxing them out for a particular damage type, so I keep life/res GCs in stash and swap them in as needed.

33% DR setup same as above exept:
  • Shako Ber
  • Verdungo's
  • 2x FCR rings with stats/res/life
I considered using Shaftstop to max DR, but Fortitude is just too good to drop and 33% should be plenty given max block and Hammers are a huge deterrent for most phyiscal damage dealers to get close to you.

Key stats, ranges depending on exact gear in use:
  • 3.6-3.8 life
  • 75 FCR
  • max block with Raven
  • Max resist with 1-2 swaps (25-75 by default)
  • 40% Open Wounds with Widowmaker
  • 71% (Grief) or 83% (Widowmaker) deadly strike
  • 6.5-7.5 hammer damage (~1.2k PvP)
  • 2.2-2.4 max GA damage (~400 PvP)
  • 2.2-2.4 Charge damage (PvP)
  • 850-900 avg Smite damage (PvP)

Personal experience
Fun fun fun!

Screenshots, gameplay vid and more info here and here.

Upgrade wish list
For the most part, me bringing myself to give him better charms...

***
LLD Characters
Currently the cast includes Bowazon, Liberator and Bone Necro. Details here.

***
So, that's where I currently am. I'll use this thread for my further planning/theorycrafting, maybe – hopefully – reporting the occasional upgrade find and things like that. Feel free to chime in with ideas, suggestions any type of input or questions! :) Cheers
 
Last edited:
Great input on things, it is an interesting read. Who knows where will journey take you in the future :D
 
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Haven't really been farming much after posting this, but I guess here's something noteworthy to report. First I found this during the second RFL round:

Screenshot010.jpg

Which prompted me to go on a shopping spree at (against?) Anya for ~4 hours today. Painful experience as always, but she finally delivered something interesting:

Screenshot071.jpg

Rather plain, but hey it's +5 LS and it got the +2 all Sin skills as well. So far I had shopped 4 claws with +4 LS in various combinations, so it's nice to finally get a possible upgrade.

Now I need to farm socket quests though, and hope Larzuk is not in his usual mood. :p I have two Scissors Quhab with +1 Sin, +3 LS, one of which is in use but only got 1 socket. If either the above claw or the other +4 Scissors Quhab gets 2os, that would pair nicely with WSM-bugging.

EDIT: Had one Sorc in A3 Hell that was quickly progressed through to A5.

Screenshot072.jpg

Nice! One claw to go.. then off to some number crunching. ;)
 
Last edited:
Didn't have much time to play recently, plus RFL was happening.. but I found a bit of time for D2 occasionally, which was mostly spent shopping for claws and giving a lot of thought as to how I could make the best Trapper with my gear.

After getting the claw pictured above, I figured I'd keep shopping Anya, with the aim to get either
  • WSM-buggable claw with +2 Sin, +2 LS, or
  • WSM-buggable claw with +3 Traps +X claw, or
  • Fast claw with 20+ IAS and either of the above two combinations.
Turns out I found all of the above, and some even with some extra individual skills here or there. But the problem was Larzuk screwing up the first couple of candidate claws with 1os. I definitely wanted two sockets, so I kept going.

Today I found another +3 Traps, +2 LS claw and considered taking that to Larzuk. But eventually I still preferred the +2 Sin skills and instead had him socket an otherwise plain SQ with +2 Sin, +2 LS. Finally I got 2os on a useful claw, and I finally decided this was good enough, so I pulled the trigger and went for the regearing I had in mind with this whole exercise.

New Trapper looks like this:
  • Rare circlet +2 Sin, 20 FCR, 48 life, 19@, 46 FR, socketed with Ber
  • Enigma BP
  • Craft amulet +2 Sin, 8 FCR, 79 mana, 10@
  • Greater Talons +2 Sin, +3 LS, socketed with 15 IAS, 15@ and 15 IAS, 9@ jewels - WSM bugging to primary claw
  • Scissors Quhab +2 Sin, +2 LS, socketed with 7 FHR, 10@ and 17 life, 15@ jewels
  • TO gloves
  • Rare boots 20 FRW, 10 FHR, +5 dex, 11 CR, 27 LR, 8 FR
  • Nature's Peace
  • SoJ
  • Arachnid Mesh
+6 CtA/Splendor Switch; inventory with a mix of Trap and Shadow skillers, one FHR/mana GC and SCs with mostly life, mana, some resist.

Key stats:
  • 10.4k max LS dmg
  • 4.6k life with Oak
  • 800 mana
  • 43% DR
  • 58% claw block
  • 48 FHR
LCS:
Screenshot133.jpg

New gear screenshots:
Screenshot132.jpgScreenshot131.jpgScreenshot130.jpgScreenshot129.jpg

The biggest upgrade in comparison to the previous setup is a significant %DR boost, now at 43% in her default setup, along with a good life pool (for 1.14 standards) and claw block %. Damage is also nice at 10.4k max, and could be pushed further when including more trap skillers. In terms of itemization she's probably among my best characters now.

Looking forward to playing her next weekend! :p

By the way: If anyone wants to build some budget trapper and is in need for claws, I have plenty +4 LS claws to give away now. :D Just PM me.
 
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Very good writeup. I check it often for inspiration and it isn't just because I can't be bothered to search for Grip's and Froz's excellent guides.

Regarding the Nec, I believe both Grip and Froz use Cham exactly to counter Wind. Since you'd like to WSG away when jumped most of the time. I think Grip even uses Aldurs boots for extra frw, the frw junkie he is. I forgot.

When I get some time I'll patch up 1.14 Wind so we can practice. That is if the generous Froz's hostings will continue.

Also, can you post dumps of your claws? Maybe I could use some.
 
@Delsy thanks, I haven't updated most of the setups although I kinda improved all of them at least a little bit here and there. Should get around to updating the setups at some point and include new chars I made in the meantime.

Necro has a flexibile ring slot that's usually SoJ unless I want absorb. So he can just use a Raven instead of SoJ for CNBF. I'd keep BerBer CoA vs Windy for high DR rather than something like BerCham CoA (although I did make one of those). Raven also offers decent mana which helps when dropping SoJ, and its dex makes up for Waterwalk so they can be dropped for Aldur's which are great indeed. (Just about the dex to carry Hoto.)

Some claw readouts:

Code:
Trickster's Greater Talons
Greater Talons
One Hand Damage: 21 - 35
Durability: 69 of 69
Required Level: 49
Required Strength: 79
Required Dexterity: 79
Fingerprint: 0x9c3dbc57
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Trap Skills (Assassin Only)
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+7% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 1 - 76 Lightning Damage
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)
+6 to Life
+19 to Mana
Lightning Resist +27% 2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Turquoise Jewel of Fervor
Socketed: Viper Gyre
 
Turquoise Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xe473984f
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+19 to Mana
Viper Gyre
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x7fad24b2
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+7% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 1 - 76 Lightning Damage
+6 to Life
Lightning Resist +27%


Trickster's Greater Talons
Greater Talons
One Hand Damage: 21 - 35
Durability: 69 of 69
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 79
Required Dexterity: 79
Fingerprint: 0xa861e738
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Trap Skills (Assassin Only)
+2 to Blades of Ice (Assassin Only)
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)



Witch-hunter's Greater Talons
Greater Talons
One Hand Damage: 21 - 35
Durability: 69 of 69
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 79
Required Dexterity: 79
Fingerprint: 0xd954b5ce
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+1 to Blades of Ice (Assassin Only)
+1 to Mind Blast (Assassin Only)
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)
1 Sockets (0 used)


Witch-hunter's Greater Talons
Greater Talons
One Hand Damage: 21 - 35
Durability: 69 of 69
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 79
Required Dexterity: 79
Fingerprint: 0xf2b6db45
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+2 to Dragon Flight (Assassin Only)
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)

Witch-hunter's Greater Talons of the Leech
Greater Talons
One Hand Damage: 21 - 35
Durability: 69 of 69
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 79
Required Dexterity: 79
Fingerprint: 0x3b1a5ef8
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
5% Life stolen per hit
+1 to Dragon Flight (Assassin Only)
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)
+1 to Claws of Thunder (Assassin Only)


Witch-hunter's Scissors Quhab
Scissors Quhab
One Hand Damage: 19 - 40
Durability: 68 of 68
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 82
Required Dexterity: 82
Fingerprint: 0x2a8e915b
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+7% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)
+1 to Wake of Fire (Assassin Only)
All Resistances +8 1
Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shimmering Jewel of Truth
 
Shimmering Jewel of Truth
Jewel
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0x79e956bd
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+7% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +8%
Lightning Resist +8%
Fire Resist +8%
Poison Resist +8%


Witch-hunter's Scissors Quhab
Scissors Quhab
One Hand Damage: 19 - 40
Durability: 68 of 68
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 82
Required Dexterity: 82
Fingerprint: 0x11c6b0e6
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+3 to Blades of Ice (Assassin Only)
+1 to Wake of Inferno (Assassin Only)
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)


Witch-hunter's Scissors Quhab
Scissors Quhab
One Hand Damage: 19 - 40
Durability: 68 of 68
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 82
Required Dexterity: 82
Fingerprint: 0x11c6b0e6
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+3 to Blades of Ice (Assassin Only)
+1 to Wake of Inferno (Assassin Only)
+2 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only) 1 Sockets (0 used)

Let me know if you can use some of them!

Looking forward to the next games. :)
 
I'm building almost identical MB Wind. Two questions.

Wouldn't the second ring be better for absorb/soj? What's your experience?

Also, didn't 620 mana feel a little low?
 
Yeah the mana was bit on the low end initially, he has both higher life and mana after improving a thing or two.

The last couple of sessions I played another Windy, going full vita build with 163 FCR with CoA. Although I could also use a +5 Tornado pelt on that one if the matchup allows, will bring one next time for your Necro. :p

LCS of both Druids:

99 FCR max block:

Screenshot221.jpg

163 FCR vita:

Screenshot220.jpg

For the 99 FCR build, not using a stat ring has advantages for sure such as absorb. Originally I wanted him to have a reasonable 163 FCR alternative setup with not much of a life loss, so str/dex from rings were very welcome. I figured I wanted to go 163 FCR anyway against casters, meaning no absorb rings in any case because FCR is needed on both. So I statted around that. But for an all purpose 99 FCR max block build, it's probably worth investing the extra stats to get the open ring slot even if at the expense of some life, especially for FFAs.

Be sure to share your final setup for MB Windy, I'm curious what you end up using. I landed on pretty budget gear on mine, but couldn't see what to improve except finding some out-of-this-world pelt or circlet. But I like that about him too, using just Meph gear but still a strong character. ;)
 
My MB Wind:

MB setup:
Gear:

HotO
Stormshield 'Eld'
Jalal's 'Shael'
Shadow Dancers
Enigma
Arach
Magefists / TO gloves
Amulet - 2 Dru 9 fcr 20 dex
Ring 1 - 10 fcr 14 dex
Ring 2 - abs / soj / bk
Switch - 5/5 CtA + Spirit / Stormshield

Stats @ lvl 96:

99 fcr / 99 fhr
Life 2.2k / 4.5k Oak, Mana 700 - emtpy ring 2
lvl 33 Nado ~3.9k - full res (175+@ with Li res overstack vs Trap)
lvl 40 Nado ~5.1k - no res + soj

163 fcr setup:
Gear:

HotO
Spirit
2 Dru 20 fcr 27 life circlet 'Shael'
Aldurs boots / Infernos / Treks
Enigma
Arach
Magefists / TO gloves
Amulet - 2 Dru 19 fcr
Ring 1 - 10 fcr 20 str
Ring 2 - abs / soj / bk
Switch - 5/5 CtA + Spirit

Stats @ lvl 96:

163 fcr / 99 fhr
Life 2.3k / 4.7k Oak, 930 Mana - empty ring 2
lvl 34 Nado - full res
lvl 42 Nado - no res + soj

It's very similar to yours in terms of Life/Mana, but with significantly lower dmg due to res@ from inventory. It should be good regardless. Looking forward to test it.
 
I went through the original post to update most of the character details now, and included some of the chars I made since originally posting this (vita windy, bowazon, improved poison necro and trapper).

@Delsy thanks for sharing, looks similar indeed. By LR overstack vs trapper you mean just max LR on CtA switch right (given LR doesn't get lowered)?

Speaking of trapper, I've been theorycrafting WW/trap hybrid and W/S trapper approaches a bit and think I found my preferred setups for both. Not sure when I'll find the time to level additional assassins into mid 90s though. Also the hybrid will cost me 2x Ber (2/20 circlet) and 1x Jah (+3 LS Fury) and will probably be disappointing nonetheless. :D We'll see...
 
I meant exactly that by LR overstack.

I didn't have that on Nec but now it's fixed. Just for comparison, here're my Nec stats @ lvl 92:

Life 2.8k / 3.5k, Mana 1.15k
Spirit dmg 3.95k

The gear is same as yours, except I use 2 Nec 10 fcr ammy and 2 sojs. This is at full res. I can add 5 PB skillers when no Ele is around.

About Hybrid. What is your idea? Full trap synergy or semi? With 1 Raven and Demons Limb, WW should be decent as a backup skill.
 
This is my current spreadsheet for hybrid sin. :D

1656536934422.png

Still work in progress but something like that. Focusing on traps mostly but it's just a wild guess really and just what I think might work well enough. Perhaps I'll quickly find it's garbage. :) But something like that seems reasonable on paper at least, around 7k+ LS dmg, 5k+ AR for whirling, with 3.5/4.4k life and 700 mana.

I really don't expect her to be super strong, but I could use a dual Ber'ed 2/20 on my Trapper as well occasionally (to have an easy 50% DR option) and otherwise it's "just" making the claw runewords... so, why not. ;)

I also thought about a CoA route for hybrid sin but numbers were always a bit worse than with the circlet.
 
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@Delsy FWIW, below the different routes I'm considering for W/S trapper.

What are the pros/cons from your perspective? Also tagging Sin-pro-on-hiatus @maxicek, on the off chance that you're checking in some time. :)

Hoto, Wizzy and Spirit setups all have their pros and cons. I'm kinda leaning towards Wizzy setup just because it allows for 174 FCR against casters which sounds super fun.

Hoto:
1656611660739.png

Wizzy 102 FCR:
1656613289736.png

Wizzy 174 FCR:
1656613363686.png

Spirit:
1656613410284.png

For 102 FCR it seems to me Spirit is the frontrunner when looking at the overall stat package. But it uses Fade instead of BoS which I don't know how important that is.

Thoughts?
 
I've remade MB Trap to 1.14 and chose HotO for its RL (and Oak to a lesser extent).

I realised that most of the time I'm the attacker and when the defender has HotO and I have Wizzy, I'm in battle against time as well. With HotO it's negated and you can take your time and not rush things.

I didn't consider Spirit at all since 30 FHR from Dancers is enough IMO. I know Max uses Spirit PB.

Compared to beta stuff it's quite a drop in both +skills and life (2.7k / 3.4k with Oak), but it should still work.

Here's my setup:

MB:
HotO
Stormshield 'Eld'
2 Asn 20 fcr circlet 'Um'
Magefists / TO
Shadow Dancers
Enigma
Arach
Amulet - 2 Asn fcr
Ring 1 - RF
Ring 2 - free

NB (102 fcr):
HotO
Spirit
Shako 'Um'
Bloodfists
Aldur boots / Infernos
Enigma
Arach
Amulet - 2 Asn fcr
Ring 1 - free
Ring 2 - free

I have 3 hard points in BoS to reach lvl 16, 1 pt in WoF and rest in MB.
 
Re RL tbh I never it did much in our "style" of PvP, meaning getting into the action rather than running away. :D Even with FB/ES Sorc where it arguably makes the biggest difference, I found I'd have to run away from fights for minutes before it made a meaningful difference.

Differences seem really small between Hoto, Wizzy and Spirit for W/S trapper. Hoto has slightly higher damage, Spirit has overall solid stats, and while Wizzy is a tiny bit behind in damage, it has probably highest life as it leaves the whole inventory flexible and can easily use just plain 20 lifers. Important to me because I don’t like shuffling inventory around much, especially between characters but also for 2 setups on one char I try to minimise inventory changes.

Plus Wizzy has that 174 FCR option (with minimal gear changes) which really sounds super fun. So I think I’ll go that way.

Surprised by your life amount, seems low even in 1.14. Are you going for a lot of skillers in inventory? I usually aim for ~4.5k with Oak on characters that get 3hp/vit. Depending on skillers and LS dmg and exact setup, the W/S trapper should end up at roughly 4.2k with 5 skillers, or around 5k with 0 skillers (in each case with Oak).
 
I have low life because of crappy charms. I use mostly res@ charms, which I can switch for skillers when res isn't needed.

20 RL is ~120 life/min which adds up pretty fast. It suits Trap very well but I've already made that point. It's just my conviction that RL is OP.

Looking forward to see your W/S in action.
 
Since there were no games today I got another socket quest to socket a +3 LS, +1 MB claw for a (soon to be) hybrid sin.

Screenshot237.jpg

Probably will be rerolled at some point in case I like playing the character.

Also stuffed Bers into this circlet which can be used by various assassins when facing physical damage.

Screenshot238.jpg

I had prepared the W/S Trapper for today, will bring her next weekend. Looks like this now:

102 FCR setup:
Shako (Shael)
Enigma
Wizzy (rare jewel 30 FR, 7 str, 7 fhr)
Stormshield (Eld)
TO gloves
Arach
Waterwalk
Rare ring FCR, str, dex, mana, som res
Nature's Peace
Craft ammy 2 Sin, 10 FCR, 15@, 34 FR

Spirit/CtA switch
Inventory: 4 (mediocre) skillers, 1x @/life GC; otherwise mostly just plain life SCs

Stats:
102 FCR
4.3 life (Oak)
770 mana
6k LS dmg
27 FHR BP
max DR
max block

LCS:
Screenshot239.jpg


174 FCR setup:
Same as above, just swapping:

Shako >> Griffon (Um)
Amulet >> 2/15 FCR amulet
Stormshield >> Spirit
WW >> Aldur (if FR is needed)

Stats:
174 FCR
4.1k life (Oak)
830 mana
6.3k LS dmg
48 FHR BP

LCS:
Screenshot240.jpg
 
Two more characters I'm working on currently, hybrid sin and WW barb. These are the last two popular PvP builds I feel I should build and play. Afterwards, I do have an "extended" to do list with things like Java and some Paladin builds with different approaches, but I'm not too enthusiastic about such builds atm. When it comes to "traditionally strong builds" the Sin and Barb should basically conclude the main part of this whole PvP characters exercise I've been doing most of this year. :p

Below current status on those two characters. If anyone has ideas on what else to do include or change, please do share.

Hybrid Sin:
Currently 93 and running Baal waves to get to 95 or so. Will take a while given how much I dislike Baal running. But I have now landed on the below approach, which includes a couple of swap options that I feel cover things nicely, on paper at least.

Build:
20 LS + synergies, 14 Fade, claw block for 54%,1 pre-reqs, Venom

Gear:
  • Rare 2/20 circlet as standard option (see below for swaps)
  • Enigma
  • +3 LS Chaos Suwayyah
  • +3 LS Fury Runic or preferrably GT (need to first rack GT though), alternatively Fool's for high def chars
  • TO gloves
  • Arach
  • Oak/flexible ring
  • Rare FCR ring mana, AR, resist
  • Sandstorm Trek
  • Mara as standard amulet (see below for swaps)

Headpice options
  • Rare 2/20 circlet with 48 life, 19@, 46 FR (Ber) - my C/C Trapper's circlet - for FFA and similar "all round" needs
  • Shako Ber - if resists are irrelevant
  • Kira AR/life jewel - if resist overstack and/or 48 FHR is needed
Amulet options
  • Mara - standard, used with circlet
  • Metalgrid - probably rarely for more AR
  • 2/15 FCR craft - used with Shako or Kira's
Inventory:
- AR/life charms for ~350-400 AR, some resist to max out with rare circlet option, some FHR and mana
- Rest life
- no skillers when starting out, numbers (see below) seem good enough without, but we'll see how it goes


Stats should end up looking like this:
  • Life: 4.9k to 5.2k depending on setup
  • Mana: ~730 to 850 depending on setup
  • LS max dmg 6.5k except with Kira's (~5.9k) << remains to be seen whether this should be increased via skillers
  • WW AR around 4.8k to 5..2k depending on charms (with Demon Limb)
  • 27 FHR BP except with Kira's (48 FHR BP)

I hope within the next 3-4 weeks I'll find the time and motiviation to level her.

She might also just become my standard C/C Trapper as well going forward, especially if I manage to rack a suitable GT base for Fury. Since the build I have in mind is almost identical to my C/C Trapper and the difference mainly comes in the form of items/charms, very few stat points would be "wasted" in pure trapper mode when using GT Fury for the hybrid gear setup.

BvC Barb
The other day I respec'ed one of my MF Barbs who was already lvl 96 rather than leveling the one I had originally decked out for PvP. Saves me some of those pesky Baal runs. So he is already built basically, although not really optimized so far. In particular two points that can be improved rather easily:

First, Grief roll. I failed several times trying to improve his 37/372 Grief BA. Will continue trying with Lo runes as they drop. Last one was 30/344, so things can only get better... I think. ;)

Second thing is charms, so far he hasn't received much love in that department and it makes a difference of course. I don't like swapping charms around so I kinda try to min-max and see which characters can make the most out of "decent" charms, without unnecessarily hoarding "good charms" that aren't strictly needed. But having decked out a bunch of characters by now, new characters tend to suffer more than my earlier PvP characters. As a result his overall stats are probably around 5-10% worse than they could be if I ever decide to use the best/most suitable charms for this guy.

He looks like this currently:
Build: 20 WW, Axe Mastery, Leap, WW, BO, 7 natural resist - rest unspent for now, TBD

Gear:
  • Three headpiece options, depending on needs:
    • CoA BerBer
    • Arreat's (FHR, @)
    • Kira's (AR, life)
  • Enigma
  • Grief BA 37/372
  • Beast BA 257 ED, 35 str
  • Highlord's Wrath (stash: Angelic, craft +1 Barb, 20 FCR, 89 mana, 16@)
  • Gore Rider (Stash: Treks, Aldurs)
  • TO gloves (Stash: Dracul's)
  • Arach (Stash: Verdungo's)
  • Oak/flexible ring (Stash: Wisp, Raven, Dwarf, Angelic)
  • Rare ring: 92 AR, 2% ML, 20 str, 15 dex, 6@, 36 FR <<< love this ring, prefer this over Raven as standard option
Inventory:
Lots of room for improvement here, currently using rather mediocre charms and thus missing out on a bunch of life eventually.
  • GCs: 3x AR/life, 3x life/mana, 1x life/@ res, 1x life/FR, 1x life/LR
  • LC: 1x AR/life
  • SCs: mostly AR/life or fine SCs, some life/resist and life/mana
Stats:
  • Life: 6.1k / 7.4k (Oak) with CoA
  • Mana: 650 << TBD whether that's fine
  • 38% DR with CoA
  • WW AR: 5k / 7.5k with Demon Limb and CoA setup
  • Max FR and LR, ~50 CR and PR (unless using Kira's or Treks)
  • 27 FHR

Of course, the biggest problem with this guy is that I still have no idea how to play him properly :D but I will try!

LCS for now:

Screenshot281.jpg
 
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Not much to report on hybrid Sin except she has reached 94, slowly making her way to 95. Then I'll respec and give the build a try. Also looking for LK maps with GT racks, but no luck so far. Perhaps 2 more weeks will be enough to get the Baal runs done.

The BvC has seen some action in recent PvP sessions, actually very fun to play the build even though he basically just uses WW, Teleport and Leap.

Of course in total contradiction to what I said above about hybrid Paladin plans taking a backseat, I've been working on my T/V Paladin a bit. Both in theory and in practice, the latter meaning getting killed repeatedly by @Delsy and @Miron. :p It was brutal at first but got a little better over time, and results aside I just enjoy playing him, probably because he is so complicated to play... so yeah, only myself to blame!

Anyway I went back to this guy trying to improve the setup and make an improved version. Gotta say my PvP character spreadsheets have become pretty comprehensive by now and very useful for accurate character planning. In particular for builds for which a lot of different aspects matter. So I theorycrafted/simulated a bunch of setups and build variations via spreadsheets to min-max the build as best as I could with the gear available to me.

I wanted every single stat and skill points I could get my hands on, so I respec'ed by formerly untwinked 99er Paladin to become my new T/V. He was my PvP Hammerdin before, but I was pretty bored with that build so I didn't play him much anyway.

Details in spoiler:

Build at level 99:
  • 20 Fanaticism
  • 20 FoH
  • 20 Holy Shock
  • 19 Smite
  • 17 Conviction (to get lvl 25 = max -150 res with gear)
  • 1 into each Holy Shield, Charge and all pre-reqs
Most bnet FoH/Smite Paladins prefer the V/T route with a focus on Smite rather than FoH. With anni/torch etc you can get FoH to a respectable level even with fewer skill points spent on this aspect of the build, but it's a bit different around here for us in single player D2L. FoH simply needs high skill point investment to be worthwhile, otherwise one might as well just go with a pure Smiter.

For example in my particular case, moving 15 points from FoH/HShock to Smite/HS would yield a ~13% Smite damage increase, but a ~46% FoH damage decrease.

Standard setup:
  • CoA 'BerCham' (Stash: faceted Griffon's -24/+20, Kira's)
  • Grief PB 39/393
  • 35 FCR Spirit in 45@ ST
  • Enigma LP
  • Mara's (Stash: 2/20 FCR craft)
  • Ring 1: Oak/flexible (Stash: Raven, Wisp, Dwarf, SoJ, BKWB, FCR/res)
  • Ring 2: Rare 17 str, 40 life, 38 mana, 24 FR
  • Aldur (Stash: Treks, Waterwalk)
  • Verdungo's (Stash: Arach)
  • TO gloves
The gear is largely in line with bnet V/T or T/V builds.

Inventory:
  • Exclusively SCs with life, some res, some mana (see explanation below)
No skillers, mostly because the only good ones with lifer that I had were forwarded to D2R. :mad: But no big deal, same as with Hammerdin, most of the damage comes from hard skill points and + all skill gear. Single tree + skills such as from skillers are a decent addition, but less so than for most other classes, and certainly without good life amounts for this particular build that wants to get close and smite.

In other words, I wanted the biggest possible life pool I could get, and getting 5k+ on a non-Barb that uses CoA seems nice! My previous T/V had around 4.7k-4.8k with Oak.

Core stats:
  • 5070 life with Oak, 3940 without Oak
  • 550 mana
  • 45% DR in default setup (BerCham CoA)
  • 48 FCR BP with 45% DR, options for 75 FCR and 125 FCR with stash gear (at the cost of %DR)
  • 75@ resists in default setup
  • 970 Smite PvP damage (vs 0% DR) with Fanaticism
  • 750 FoH PvP damage under Conviction against 75 LR/no stack/no absorb (default CoA setup)
  • 1040 FoH damage with Griffon's setup in above scenario
  • 720 Charge PvP damage (vs 0% DR) with Fanaticism
  • 380 Charge PvP damage (vs 0%DR) with Conviction
  • 59% Charge CtH with Fanaticism against lvl 95, 3k defense opponent
  • 65% Charge CtH with Conviction against lvl 95, 3k defense opponent

Spreadsheet screenshot:
E: Smite/Charge numbers are slightly off here due to some errors in the formula that I fixed after posting. But generally decent overview of the build.

1658865863580.png

LCS (CoA main setup)

Screenshot310.jpg
 
Last edited:
More updates. :)

As posted in the IFT, gambled a couple of 2/20 circlets, among them a useful one for BvC:

0_2-20 barb.jpg

As mentioned above, my BvC normally carries a bunch of mana charms for a comfortable pool. With the nice mana roll on the circlet he can drop those for more useful secondary mods such as AR or resists. It offers a nice 63 FCR route when coupled with either an FCR ring or this amulet:

3_barb craft.jpg

This was crafted 1-2 months ago but I never got around to posting it around here. Dropping HLW for this results in ~12% lower damage output on paper, but 63 FCR makes chasing casters easier in the first place, and the mana boost form both ammy and circlet is very nice. Plus getting higher AR and life at the same time to indirectly make up for the damage difference.

Further bringing forward those Paladin hybrid builds, there's another update to the cast of characters:

Liberator/Vanquisher/Hammerdin 2.0
With my former Hammerdin becoming the new T/V as described above, it was also time for the former T/V Paladin to be remade. They kinda switched roles as I respec'ed him to a new Hammer-based Paladin, but now primarily as a Liberator build (Charge/Hammer).

@Delsy and @Miron met him in the Blood Moor earlier today. I had lots of fun playing this build, way more than pure Hammerdin.

LCS with default/main setup:

4_prism allround.jpg

For some background, and keeping with the 2/20 circlet theme, while running in the last RFL I gambled this Pally circlet:

0_pal circ.jpg

Missing uber OP rolls like high life/stats and/or 2os, but such is life when being self-found. Pretty good stats nonetheless and I considered this worth gearing around. Some kind of hybrid Paladin build seemed to be the logical choice to make some use of this.

Socketed and upgraded, just so that @frozzzen has no reason to complain:

0_cird ber+up.jpg

Wall of text with numbers and other character details in spoiler below.
Build:
  • 20 Hammer + all synerigies
  • 1 Fana, all pre-reqs
  • Rest into Charge (18 at lvl 95)
Liberator setups
Pretty sure I'll use the first/main approach 95% of the time, as it has solid stats across the board.

Life/mana amounts below are all with cube in inventory for BO, because I want to use Um'ed Widowmaker on switch. :D Also worth noting the charms currently in use are rather bland. He'd have 150-250 higher life with Oak in the various setups when using better charms.

Setup 1: Default / all-purpose
  • Ber'ed rare circlet 2 Pala/20 FCR/18@/52 CR
  • Enigma
  • Grief PB 40/388
  • 35 FCR Spirit in 43@ ST
  • Mara
  • Verdungo's
  • TO gloves
  • Waterwalk
  • Oak/flexible ring
  • Ravenfroat
  • Mara's
Inventory: 2x PComb, 1x FHR/mana GC, 2x life/resist, otherwise just life SCs with just a little resist and FHR

Stats:
  • ~4.8k life with Oak
  • ~600 mana
  • 31% DR
  • 75% FCR
  • Max block
  • Max resists (FR when using Hotspur)
  • 86 FHR
  • 7.7k hammer damage (1.2k PvP)
  • 1700 PvP Charge damage with Concentration (0% DR)
  • 1500 PvP Charge damage with Fanaticism (0% DR)
  • 660 PvP Smite damage with Concentration (0% DR)
  • 450 PvP Smite damage with Fanaticism (0% DR)
  • Charge CtH 71% (Conc) or 74% (Fana) against lvl 95, 3k defense opponent
I like these numbers. 31% DR along with max block seems fine for most opponents and FFA-type situations.

Setup 2: High damage / low DR
This has considerably higher (+40%) Charge damage, 25% Crushing Blow and the convenient 6 FPA Smite with Concentration. Downside is DR is pretty low (16%), not great if physical damage is a threat.

Same setup as above except:
  • Verdungo >> Arach
  • Mara >> Highlord's Wrath
  • TO gloves >> bloodcraft 20 IAS, 10 CB, 29 LR, 28 FR, 16 life
  • Gore Rider if the matchup allows for extra CB/DS/OW
Charge PvP damage is 2.4k avg here when factoring in deadly strike.

Setup 3: 125 FCR / low DR
I wanted him to have a 125 option even with Grief, as this can be useful against characters like Necro or Hammerdins. Specifically with those builds in mind, resists aren't capped here, but they could be covered if I bothered including an extra 30@ in stash to swap in. %DR will be low in any case though (16% again). Differences to the main setup:
  • Verdungo >> Arach
  • Mara >> 2/20 FCR craft amulet
  • Raven >> FCR/dex/resist ring
Higher DR (vs Bowa, Barb)
He should be fine with 31% DR standard setup in most cases so I plan to stick with that almost always. I'm only slightly worried about DR against Bowazon tbh, because he doesn't counter her build-wise like melee physical characters, who always risk eating Hammers when getting close.

At the moment I'd just swap in Ber'ed Shako to get to 41% DR, and using 2/20 craft ammy to maintain 75 FCR.

But I am planning to eventually get a 50% DR setup, using a somewhat overlooked low-strength %DR option – namely Ber'ed Vamp Gaze. I haven't used this on any PvP other character yet, but it grants 28% DR without extra stat requirements, which IMO will fit this build nicely.

Hammerdin setup
Quick & easy 125 FCR pure Hammerdin option:
  • Grief >> Hoto
  • Raven>> FCR/dex/res ring
  • Oak ring >> SoJ
  • Circlet >> Ber'ed Shako
  • Mara's >> 2/20 craft
Keeping max res and sitting at 41% DR and 5k life with Oak. Hammer damage is 9.7k here.

Having made this guy, I kinda want to try a so called "Murderdin" at some point... which apparently is what people call Paladins that use all of Hammer/Smite/Charge/Widowmaker, with Fortitude high bow damage. :D That sounds fun.
 
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