Single Tree Build Grail

[Uzziah]

Single Tree Build Grail

Sorry everyone I just wanted to rehash my build grail into a final form as I work on completing the 5th build.

[highlight]The grail:[/highlight]
1.Single skill tree only builds (one of each 21 total)

2. They are allowed to use any Item able to be found or created (from manipulation in game), Runewords must be created by the character or other characters in the grail. (exception to this rule is "Stone armor" given to the elemental druid)

3.When uniques/sets are found they shall be used by the character or muled to an ATMA stash. Once a unique/set is in the ATMA stash it can be given to any character in the grail.

4.They can use skills given by items in other trees but are to only use them as secondary skill for enemies unable to be beaten with primary skills. Ie. a cold only sorc with a leaf staff for CI. (This rule can be bent to 1 skill being used on harder builds such as the defencive aura pally {most likely Vengence in later stages of Nightmare} and the passive barb{find item, or find potion only})

5.They will be softcore, anytime they die they will save exit and redo the area where they died.

6.They are to complete Nightmare as Hell maybe far to difficult for them.

7. Upon completing nightmare they may play MP, and may carry on into hell for questing, MFing in Hell will not be allowed. Any items they find in Hell may be given to other grail members.

8. Trading made with items found during the quest can be used to give characters items.

[highlight]Progress:[/highlight]
Trap tree complete
lightning sentry 20
death sentry 20
fireblast 20
blade fury 1
blade sentry 1
shockweb 1
charged bolt sentry remaining points

Combat masteries tree complete
Axe Mastery 20
Throw Mastery remaining
IronSkin 20
Natural resist 20
increased stamina 1
increased runwalk 1

Fire tree complete
Warmth 20
Enchant 20
Fire Mastery 20
Fireball 1
Firebolt 1
Hydra remaining

Elemental tree complete
firestorm 20
arctic blast 1
cyclone armor 10
twister 20
tornado remaining
hurricane 20

Passive/magic tree Act 3 normal
critical strike 5
AED 1 each
penetrate 1
decoy 3
slow missle 1
13 unassigned

Trap tree revisited (firetrapper) act 2 normal
fireblast 12
WoF 15

Defencive aura tree unstarted

curse tree (set to be restarted)

All the other builds are at clvl 1 with any +skills items that other characters have found.

I will try to update this thread instead of starting a new thread with each completed character build.

 

[Malachi]

I am thinking about starting something similar but then in HC cause SC simply cant interest me.

I made a pentavarit (5 classic untwinked HC kings/queens) and it was a lot of fun. Making 21 chars sounds great too. A few questions however.

Do you stop each char at the end of nightmare ? Some are well qualified to proceed beyond. Do you re run area's (for finding items, not the ones you may do on death). What are the most difficult builds you foresee ?

 

[ricrestoni]

I am following your progress, Uzziah, and hoping that you finish your rather unusual goal - very interesting!

If I MP'd more frequently, I would create some builds with fully synergized main attack, complete Nightmare by myself and then MP my way to Hell. The builds i thought about doing it includes single tree sorcs, FS (fully sinergized) Lightning Sentry, FS Fire Claws, FS Vengeance, FS Holy Bolt (aka Cleric), etc.

 

[sunbearie]

What you could also consider to taking your builds as part of an overall build. For eg. your single tree sorcs could be converted for hell use with little difficulty. I noted most of your builds only used abt 65pts. That leaves another 20-25 pts for another tree. Definitely doable :lol:

I hope you finish your goal too. Uzziah Definitely an interesting challange. The all-defensive auras pally is rather daunting though. I can't really imagine converting him for hell use.

 

[Uzziah]

Do you stop each char at the end of nightmare ? Some are well qualified to proceed beyond. Do you re run area's (for finding items, not the ones you may do on death). What are the most difficult builds you foresee ?

I have never made it far into Hell I get bored with my builds in act 1 Hell usually. I only do runs for runes and experience while getting these builds through nightmare. I have been keeping good rares, runes, gems, and set/uniques that I find on my way. I have a gem stash with about 600 gems and an item stash with over 1000 items many of which are multiple copies, Surprizingly I have found only 1 green breast plate and 1 gold breast plate on my travels, but lots of angelic armors.

The most difficult builds to me are:
combat masteries barb
defencive aura pally
offencive aura pally (yes this one is more tricky than most people would think)
curses only necro
bow skill only amazon (mostly magezon style build)

I really suggest you try the passive barb for a challenge in HC untwinked it will be a slow go but you can get massive amounts of damage if you think hard.

@ sunbearie they use closer to 80 points by the end of nightmare thus far I have been finishing nightmare at an average of clvl 68. If I continue into Hell I would stay to the single tree theme.

The defencive pally will have resist fire/lightning/cold and salvation pretty much maxed with the other points in defiance so it would be ideal for a advenger build, all you would need would be a scepter or pally shield with +1(or more) vengence to make a decent advenger.

@ ricrestoni a Fully Synergized lightning sentry, vengence and fire claw (druid) would be able to make it through hell by themselves. The fire claw druid would have the most difficulty with fire immunes in hell but that is over come with 1 point in maul, or just alot of elemental equipment. Sorry I have not be progressing at a faster rate, I seem to only get 1 quest or 1 waypoint a night of play with my builds (I don't have the hours to spend on the game like others here, the most I have ever leveled a character in 1 day was 24-25 clvls through the middle of act 2 normal)

I forgot to mention I play normal at players 8, nightmare at players 1-8 depending on te build.

 

[Uzziah]

Progress update

Progress:
Trap tree complete Act 1 Hell
lightning sentry 20
death sentry 20
fireblast 20
blade fury 1
blade sentry 1
shockweb 1
charged bolt sentry remaining points

Combat masteries tree complete Act 1 Hell
Axe Mastery 20
Throw Mastery remaining
IronSkin 20
Natural resist 20
increased stamina 1
increased runwalk 1

Fire tree complete Act 1 Hell
Warmth 20
Enchant 20
Fire Mastery 20
Fireball 1
Firebolt 1
Hydra remaining

Elemental tree complete Act 2 Hell
firestorm 20
arctic blast 1
cyclone armor 10
twister 20
tornado remaining
hurricane 20

Passive/magic tree Act 3 normal (ready to fight Meph.)
critical strike 5
AED 1 each
penetrate 1
decoy 5
slow missle 1
1 pierce
1 valk.
11 unassigned

Trap tree revisited (firetrapper) act 2 normal
fireblast 12
WoF 15

Defencive aura tree unstarted

curse tree (set to be restarted)

All the other builds are at clvl 1 with any +skills items that other characters have found. 3 skillers total thus far 2 are shapeshifters. Found a bow for bow tree only amazon.

 

[Uzziah]

update:

Well this weekend was fruitful in getting quests complete. I have been shuffling between my trapsin remake, passive amazon and elemental druid.

assassin Lets start with the Trapsin fire trap tree only. I made it into Act 3 normal beating duriel with a clvl 30 pure firetrapsin, is a piece of cake, I spent 0 townportals, 0 mana potions, and 0 health potions. I ran in cast 5 WoF and ran past Duriel he took on and killed my merc is about 10 seconds, another 2 run arounds with WoF being laid and he fell at my feet I was shocked at how fast he went down.

amazon Next, comes my passive zon, I tried out using a giant axe and for a while until the council beat on me a few times, made it to the Hell forge and then she went back to throwing knives after 3 deaths to OK's in diablo's lair.

After summoning Diablo she stood back ant let her merc and valk get killed repeatedly while she threw knives at big D himself, soon enough after 3 trips to town he fell, and onto act 5 I moved.

Druid And finally My druid, I never thought I would say this, I have an awesome build for a pure elemental druid, I spent about 5 hours playing him this weekend, yeah I only progressed 2 quests into Act 2 Hell but, I have learned alot about the different skills on that tree and how to use them. I found out that having hurricane on in certain areas is completely useless and its better to use the appropriate skill for the appropriate time.

After getting some help from Frosty, and Dave in the basement I was able to cast armaggedon and hurricane at the same time. By the 3rd-4th mob of death beatles I decided that having hurricane or armageddon on was killing me, every pulse of hurricane and every stone of armageddon was resulting in 4-5 Death Beatles sending out charged bolts. So I stepped back and went to plan B tornado/firestorm combo, you cast firestorm followed by 2 tornados then another firestorm, 2 tornados. I used this trick with twister long ago to knock enemies back with the firestorm as it hits them, its surprizing how well the 2 skills work together. Anyways I have made it to the maggots lair where I will be playing next with this druid, He is clvl 77 now and near the halfway point of clvl 78.

Skills
firestorm 20
arctic blast 1
cyclone armor 10
twister 20
tornado remaining
hurricane 20

w/ 996 cyclone armor, 1100 hurricane, 450 twister, 1300 tornado, 1000 armageddon, and 970 firestorm as minimum damage amounts. Remember firestorm has 3 streams for 3x damage when in melee range.

 

[farting bob]

I'd love to see your barb masteries build. i presume max a mastery, max iron skin, say 10 in nat res (deminishing returns makes it pointless getting to 20) some in faster run. where else? surely not increased stamina????

 

[Uzziah]

I'd love to see your barb masteries build. i presume max a mastery, max iron skin, say 10 in nat res (deminishing returns makes it pointless getting to 20) some in faster run. where else? surely not increased stamina????

He entered Hell act 1 with:

20 axe mastery
20 ironskin
20 Natural resist
1 increased stamina
1 increased walk/run
and 13 IIRC throwing

at clvl 68

He had about 370-700 damage on his weapon with all the elemental charms and poison damage he had on him.

He was wearing an iron pelt, a prismatic amulet of damage reduced by 15, string of ears (his lucky find, etheral), a shield causing 75% blocking, it also had resistances, and lastly an exceptional military pick with the steel runeword in it. Crushing blow was at about 30% total (and is the only reason Baal was able to be killed.) He will need to be leveled several times before even attempting Hell. His defence is about 3000.

 

[farting bob]

Oh yea, didnt see you already done him :lol:

 

[nethervoid]

This sounds very interesting. Right now I'm kinda working on 5 class mat/pat. Maybe after that, I'll work on this one. I think it would be fun to build some of these weirdos after I build my 5 superfreaks.

*edit - Oop I mean 7 pat/mat. Bah, I guess I have to build a necro! Maybe I'll do a poison one.

 

[Uzziah]

update 12-20-04

Well in a week I have only played a bit with my Druid.

Elemental Druid: Act 2 Hell

I found the staff and amulet and have formed the staff. I then entered the palace to find the Summoner and the pathway to Duriel. I never knew physical immune creatures could be so hard for a Dual Elemental druid. My basic plan was the patented "run and hide" manuever. I would cast hurricane then armageddon and run and hide behind my merc/golem while geddon/cane did their combined damage. The mana drain was killing me, I tried my normal hurricane/firestorm combination but the firestorm was being prevented by the void spaces and the mana drain. Tornado was right out, physical damage was pointless against the Arcane Sanctuary.

I finally made clvl 78 with my druid. Beating the Summoner without much work. I am ready to attempt my fate with Duriel.

Firestorm 20
arctic blast 1
cyclone armor 10
twister 20
tornado 16
hurricane 20

 

[jiansonz]

He was wearing an iron pelt...

:scratch:

I thought the druids were the ones using pelts?






Beating NM with a passive amazon isn´t hard. I have one Guardian (who used valkyrie) and one Conqueror in act 2 Hell who is only accompanied by a rogue merc. Certainly one of the easiest of the 21 builds.

 

[farting bob]

Just finishing NM i agree, alot of these buildas that seem very hard are made considerably easier, most notably the 3 sorc builds. However, some like the defensive aura tree will be a pain in teh ***.

 

[Uzziah]

:scratch:

I thought the druids were the ones using pelts?

I was speaking of the unique "Iron Pelt" Its tressilled armor with reduce physical by X, reduce magical by X, +x defence based on character level. Its the suggested armor of the ES sorc in the guide.

Beating NM with a passive amazon isn´t hard. I have one Guardian (who used valkyrie) and one Conqueror in act 2 Hell who is only accompanied by a rogue merc. Certainly one of the easiest of the 21 builds.

I agree some of these builds are incredibly easy through nightmare, I will be taking some of them into Hell. However, some of these builds are not easy to take into late nightmare let alone Hell. The passive barb for example is very hard to even get through nightmare, I imagine the defencive paladin is going to be even harder. The builds that normally use 1 to 2 other skills than 1 skill tree would seem easy but a fury zon with 0 piercing isn't going to be too strong over all.

I will most likely take the passive zon into Hell like I am currently doing with the druid. I would remind you I normally get bored with a build in the onset of Hell. My druid is the furthest I have ever been playing a solo build into Hell, I will attempt to complete Hell with him its just a slow process since I don't play for hours on end like I use to.

The sorc builds should prove to be the easiest I had less problems with the ranged enchantress compared to my passive amazon. I guess its a matter of playstyle. I can't stand losing characters or I would take a stab at hardcore.

 

[Uzziah]

weekly update

Had a nice Christmas, with family and friends.

Spent only about 3 hours playing with my builds, working primarly on my druid, I am going to attempt Patting him before going back to the other builds. He is now only 1/3 of the experience bar away from getting clvl 80.

Elemental tree only druid act 3 Hell (looking for 3rd piece of flail)
firestorm 20
cyclone armor 10
twister 20
tornado 18 ?? what ever amount is left at my current total
hurricane 20

Tornado has really taken off in the past 2 slvls I really underestimated its power, I seem to be using hurricane/armageddon/tornado as my primary attacking theme. Flayers are really easy kills with this build, but still physical immunes are a pain in the butt. I don't like kurast the swarms of insects are annoying since they are all physical immune. Luckly armageddon/hurricane both at 1000+ damage takes care of them really quickly.

I found an eth shako with 2 sockets made a NefTir for my merc so his helm is now in the 300 defence range instead of 180 defence range. A bit of defence makes a large difference for him, no better items have dropped for my merc yet. A pompie's wraith dropped last night while I was traveling in the marsh. It will be given to my passive barb hopefully, I traded for one not to long ago then found one myself go figure. I also found a 6 socketed bow, I may place some elemental damage in it for my bow tree amazon, who knows though. A rare wirefleece dropped with over 1000 defence and a socket with a few other decent affixes, too bad i need to keep stone armor on.

I still need more +skills my hurricane and armageddon have not gain any amounts of beneficial damage since I entered Hell, I have a feeling I will need about 3 more +skills before I face the ancients, That shoulc get my armageddon into the 1200-1500 range and my hurricane to about 1100, not much but an improvement that will be needed, still looking out for the +3 elemental club of fissures though not many club types are dropping lately. I could start rerolling an elite club trying for the magical affixes, all I need is chippies to do that reroll due to the high qlvls. I need alvl 60 to get +3 elemental and fissure slvl 7 drops on alvl 18 clubs so thats not a big issue.

 

[farting bob]

If you dont mind trading, check my ammy site for +3 to tree skills, or +2 to tree skills if your lower level. these are perfect for your grail, if you trade.

 

[Uzziah]

If you dont mind trading, check my ammy site for +3 to tree skills, or +2 to tree skills if your lower level. these are perfect for your grail, if you trade.

Thanks for the offer.

I like this one:

Stone Necklace
Required Level: 67
+17 to Strength
+17 to Energy
+40 to Mana
21% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Druid Skill Levels

I have a +2 elemental +30 energy one right now so this would be a major step up for me. What would you want for it?

 

[farting bob]

Well its all free, all i need is a email address.
EDIT: soryr, thats been taken. an you pick another 1? im doing some more gambling tonight, so if you want to wait a day, ill post any more i find that might be of your taste.

 

[spiral55]

The most difficult builds to me are:
combat masteries barb
defencive aura pally
offencive aura pally (yes this one is more tricky than most people would think)

I'd think that the offensive-aura only pally would actually be fairly easy depending on how you want to play. A tri-elemental ranger, if you aren't limiting the pally to melee builds, wouldn't have the greatest damage, thanks to no synergies from the defensive tree, but the flexibility of being able to choose your damage type based on the situation would more than make up for it in NM. You could even go just dual-elemental if you don't plan to play anything higher than p1. The only problem I can see is getting chilled/holy-frozen yourself, since you won't have Vigor to help you get away.

As for defensive-only, I see only one possibility. Maxed Defiance, high DEF gear, and the highest damaging one-handed weapon you can find. Not having Holy Shield will hurt the defensive capabilities, obviously, but the Defiance will still pump up the shield's AC decently on its own. This'd be hopeless in Hell, but for NM, it'd be more than adequate. The only hard part will be finding gear with enough DR in your travels, but if you're patient with reloading vendors, NM Halbu, Hratli, Asheara, and/or Jamella should be able to help you out.