Slayer XGodly_HammurzX - Investigating the Hammersin
It seems hammersins aren't quite as cheesy as their paladin brethren. The final fight with Baal seemed to go on for hours and without merc & shadow present, most medium sized enemies in Act 5 took four or five hits to kill. At /players 1. In Normal.
I think I'll stop here.
Slayer XGodly_HammurzX
Age: 2 months (Almost exactly)
Song Playing on Baal's Death: Streetlight Manifesto - A Moment of Violence
The Build
Level: 33
Final Stats
Strength : 50
Energy : 130
Dexterity : 50
Vitality : 20
Life : 181
Mana : 286
Skills
Psychic Hammer: 20
Shadow Warrior: 13
1 point pre-reqs (unused): Claw Mastery, Weapon Block, Cloak of Shadows
Equipment:
And some charms, none of any note.
Merc: Naseem (Act 2 Prayer)
I seem to overuse Prayer mercs in Normal difficulty, I find them more useful than the alternatives and they let me play a little bit more sloppily than I might otherwise. Plus, their aura's a decent survival mechanism for both themselves and any other minions too. I should probably pay more attention to their equipment throughout the difficulty, but that didn't seem to hinder him this time.
--Stats over--
Except for one key one. At level 20, Psychic Hammer deals a staggering 56-78 damage (Normal/Magic). :grin:
I took a Shadow Warrior to increase the number of PH being cast, and there were a few times where we ended up side by side blasting the same enemy. At higher levels she was an absolute tank as well compared to the monsters being fought at the time. That let me hide a little bit behind the front line, trying to stall nastier elements of the mob until the merc & shadow were ready to deal with them. As an added bonus this would often also kill the target - although it happened less frequently towards the final acts.
PH is quite fun though - it knocks back and briefly stuns most things, you can but don't need to aim it and it automatically hits. It's possible sometimes to blast an enemy onto the one stood behind him, if this happens at a bottleneck in the map then you can damage your enemy while also blocking off the entire mob from threatening your party.
Mana pots were heavily needed, through most of the game I was using three belt rows for mana potions and only really reversed this in the final fight where I found my health dropping a lot more. This is also why my energy is so high. I'd increased it to about 50 in the early game to try and cope with the drain, then built up a large stockpile of stat points. Around level 24 I thought "lets go fragile for laughs", and dumped everything else into energy. Even so, the constant mana draining meant if I was continuing on further I'd put some serious thought towards how I was going to solve the mana issue. At 8.75 mana per cast PH really gives characters an addiction to the blue stuff.
The skills build was quite focussed. I normally end up finishing Normal around level 40 or so, and doing this would have allowed me to max out the Warrior. This was the point at which I envisaged the build being complete as I would have a maxed PH, a SW casting a maxed PH and no further way I could see to increase the amount of hammer casts. While playing through I even avoided using CoS as it isn't PH.
No interesting finds, although I wasn't expecting anything more than a slim chance at a few TC3's or so from a run through Normal. Perhaps finding out that PH was Blizzard's secretly overpowered skill and no one had noticed for a decade. (It isn't.)
I think Slayer is as far as I want to go with this character. I feel like I'm either approaching or just beyond the point where playing this character makes me entirely a support role for the mercenary & shadow. And every useful side effect of PH besides the damage that just about kept it a killing spell is available with one skill point and for a much lower cost.
Next up will be either a new character (currently deciding what characters to play up until the end of Classic Normal & Nightmare), or carrying on with a paladin who's halfway through Hell in Classic.
tl,dr version: Psychic Hammer is a weak skill with interesting side-effects.
It seems hammersins aren't quite as cheesy as their paladin brethren. The final fight with Baal seemed to go on for hours and without merc & shadow present, most medium sized enemies in Act 5 took four or five hits to kill. At /players 1. In Normal.
I think I'll stop here.
Slayer XGodly_HammurzX
Age: 2 months (Almost exactly)
Song Playing on Baal's Death: Streetlight Manifesto - A Moment of Violence
The Build
Level: 33
Final Stats
Strength : 50
Energy : 130
Dexterity : 50
Vitality : 20
Life : 181
Mana : 286
Skills
Psychic Hammer: 20
Shadow Warrior: 13
1 point pre-reqs (unused): Claw Mastery, Weapon Block, Cloak of Shadows
Equipment:
Code:
Shadow Circlet
Skull Cap
Defense: 15
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Strength: 15
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 26
Fingerprint: 0xa9b9ba3a
+4 to Energy
+32% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +29%
Lightning Resist +16%
Gemmed Katar
One-Hand Damage: 4 to 7
Durability: 48 of 48
(Assassin Only)
Required Dexterity: 20
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 14
Claw Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x5d046cbd
Lightning Resist +26%
Socketed (2: 1 used)
-Ambergris Jewel
Required Level: 14
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0xc474446c
Lightning Resist +26%
XGodly_HammurzX's Havoc Cloak
Quilted Armor
'Thul'
Defense: 22
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Strength: 8
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x821e537e
+91% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Cold Resist +58%
Poison Resist +20%
Attacker Takes Damage of 3
Requirements -30%
Socketed (1: 1 used)
-Thul Rune
Inserted into a Quilted Armor
Cold Resist +30%
Required Level: 23
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Rune Aegis
Small Shield
Defense: 8
Chance to Block: 40%
Durability: 45 of 48
Required Strength: 22
Required Level: 3
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 8
Fingerprint: 0x766f1a7f
+4 to Life
+5 to Mana
+10% Increased Chance of Blocking
Lightning Resist +9%
10% Faster Hit Recovery
15% Faster Block Rate
Soul Grasp
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 11
Durability: 13 of 14
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x7d3e2099
+64% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +5%
Poison Resist +26%
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
14% Chance to cast Level 5 Charged Bolt when struck
Demon Lock
Belt
Defense: 7
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 11
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0xc9fc8a58
+11 to Life
+23% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +11%
10% Faster Hit Recovery
Hailstone Track
Boots
Defense: 4
Durability: 12 of 12
Kick Damage: 3 to 8
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0x2c5d1a26
+1 to Dexterity
+10% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +5%
Lightning Resist +5%
Fortuitous Amulet of Brilliance
Required Level: 9
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0xc230443e
+10 to Energy
14% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Manald Heal
Ring
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xbb24eb47
+20 to Life
Regenerate Mana 20%
7% Mana stolen per hit
Replenish Life +8
Entropy Gyre
Ring
Required Level: 10
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0x94b96554
+45 to Attack Rating
+1 to Maximum Damage
Fire Resist +5%
Poison Resist +19%
4% Life stolen per hit
10% Faster Cast RateAnd some charms, none of any note.
Merc: Naseem (Act 2 Prayer)
I seem to overuse Prayer mercs in Normal difficulty, I find them more useful than the alternatives and they let me play a little bit more sloppily than I might otherwise. Plus, their aura's a decent survival mechanism for both themselves and any other minions too. I should probably pay more attention to their equipment throughout the difficulty, but that didn't seem to hinder him this time.
Code:
Gemmed Spetum
'IthIth'
Two-Hand Damage: 15 to 41
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Dexterity: 35
Required Strength: 54
Required Level: 15
Spear Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0xeee5b4f
+18 to Maximum Damage
Socketed (2: 2 used)--Stats over--
Except for one key one. At level 20, Psychic Hammer deals a staggering 56-78 damage (Normal/Magic). :grin:
I took a Shadow Warrior to increase the number of PH being cast, and there were a few times where we ended up side by side blasting the same enemy. At higher levels she was an absolute tank as well compared to the monsters being fought at the time. That let me hide a little bit behind the front line, trying to stall nastier elements of the mob until the merc & shadow were ready to deal with them. As an added bonus this would often also kill the target - although it happened less frequently towards the final acts.
PH is quite fun though - it knocks back and briefly stuns most things, you can but don't need to aim it and it automatically hits. It's possible sometimes to blast an enemy onto the one stood behind him, if this happens at a bottleneck in the map then you can damage your enemy while also blocking off the entire mob from threatening your party.
Mana pots were heavily needed, through most of the game I was using three belt rows for mana potions and only really reversed this in the final fight where I found my health dropping a lot more. This is also why my energy is so high. I'd increased it to about 50 in the early game to try and cope with the drain, then built up a large stockpile of stat points. Around level 24 I thought "lets go fragile for laughs", and dumped everything else into energy. Even so, the constant mana draining meant if I was continuing on further I'd put some serious thought towards how I was going to solve the mana issue. At 8.75 mana per cast PH really gives characters an addiction to the blue stuff.
The skills build was quite focussed. I normally end up finishing Normal around level 40 or so, and doing this would have allowed me to max out the Warrior. This was the point at which I envisaged the build being complete as I would have a maxed PH, a SW casting a maxed PH and no further way I could see to increase the amount of hammer casts. While playing through I even avoided using CoS as it isn't PH.
No interesting finds, although I wasn't expecting anything more than a slim chance at a few TC3's or so from a run through Normal. Perhaps finding out that PH was Blizzard's secretly overpowered skill and no one had noticed for a decade. (It isn't.)
I think Slayer is as far as I want to go with this character. I feel like I'm either approaching or just beyond the point where playing this character makes me entirely a support role for the mercenary & shadow. And every useful side effect of PH besides the damage that just about kept it a killing spell is available with one skill point and for a much lower cost.
Next up will be either a new character (currently deciding what characters to play up until the end of Classic Normal & Nightmare), or carrying on with a paladin who's halfway through Hell in Classic.
tl,dr version: Psychic Hammer is a weak skill with interesting side-effects.
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