Smite viable in PVM?

[OldSkoolPlaya]

Smiters used to be one of the most fun builds, now with 1.10 and the higher hitpoints of monsters and iron maiden, it can be problematic, especially in the chaos sanct, where most peeps lvl up at endgame.

Your weapon speed helps the smite, you may have read that in the guide u looked at. Also, with so many concentration pallys around u can get a big damage boost. And an amp cursing necro can help too. This is especially important in big games. Sometimes u can just smite a whole pack of monsters, with the long stun, u can then focus on the one monster u first want.

Not very many people go all the way thru the game with smite anymore. Of great concern to me is that u are hc, and with all that damage, and iron maiden curse in the chaos sanct, u are in for a surprise. You say that this is ur first char, must be first hc char. Instadeath is a possible problem there, my low smite damage paladin puts on holy freeze in the cs. Which means slow kill. I would watch out for lightning bosses too, no leech and fast buildup of bolts could kill u fast even with 75% lr.

It's not my first hc character. I've played hc on xpac lots before. It's my first classic hc character. If I die, I die. It's the risk that you take playing hardcore. I'm having tons of fun though and that's what the game is all about, correct? Hopefully in those cs games later on in my pallies life I may be able to provide support for others. I put 1 point into meditation so that I may be able to help out the sorcs a little. The best thing about my smiter though is that if I do end up doing cs runs, with stacked crushing blow and decent smite damage, diablo will go down in no time. One bonus for my party members.

 

[CoF PwnsEast]

PVP smiter anyone?

For a PvP build (vs sorcs, zons, and dins) I am thinking:

20 Smite
20 Holy Shield
20 Fana
20 Vigor
20 Charge
(Required Level of 88 to max out 5 skills, so I'd max charge last)

125 str
No Dex
No Energy
All Vit


I'd use smite/charge in duels with a high dmg ancient axe (lowest req of the high dmg 2h weaps and decent attack speed) and a priz barbed shield w/ a unique weapon (maybe khalims will for style points.)

For smite dueling technique I'd use vigor until I am about to attack then switch to fana and pound them while they are stunned. If I get bored with smite or if I'm having a hard time for some reason, I'll whip out the axe and charge.


End results:

Faast runner
Very high stacked CR
Max attack speed
High vit
Highest possible smite dmg and high charge dmg due to 220+ dmg axe


My question is, can smite be useful at all in 1.10+ PvP? I saw one early 1.10, but haven't seen one since and can't remember at all how effective he was.

 

[fredsta54]

I havent tested smite in pvp (as in vs all) but vs melee and barbs, it does great.

@fearlessone: the smiter is a great tank, and it doesnt die (or get close to dieng) at all, really. A high lvl redemption is better than leach. Soloing 8 player games is hard, obviously, but with conc//curses its a lot easier. Iron maiden doesnt kill instantly, 1 smite when im iron maiden'd and my life drops to 1/3. Not that in hccl i would run cs on a melee'r....


@papsmurf: use rcage if you can get 6 fpa w/o twitch. Only use clegs gloves + shield if your gonna use the full set.

If you dont use twitch, then get 80 strngth base.. it should be obvious.

As for weapons, check www.battle.net/diablo2exp/uniques And loko at normal unique 1h weapons. Your looking for cb + speed.



A great pvp weapon is that unique scimitar, ias, resists, open wounds (better pvp than cb) and -20 base speed.


Of course the best pvp smite wepn is a +2 40 ias flail (gets 6 fpa by itself, range 3, +2)









Fred

 

[Papasmurf90]

Okay, thanks. I think I'll just go:

Cleg's Set
Twitch

What do you recommend for armor, boots, ammy, and rings though? Also, can Clegs get me through hell or do I need better stuff? How would the Gnasher be for a weapon if I don't use Clegs? Not super fast but it's go CB and OW. I'm SO sorry for all of the questions, I'm just a super noob. So, you're saying that if I don't use the full Clegs set, to not use any of the gear at all? What would be godly gear for this char (Helm, ammy, weapon, armor, shield, belt, gloves, rings, boots?)? Again, I'm so sorry for all of the questions. I'm just confused.

 

[fredsta54]

simply put, use full clegs, twitch, gob toe, rare rings, ammy, and helm with high fire//light resists, and a nice juicy deaths sash.

If playing untwinked (or twinked), use 45 base strength and 29 base dex. A 10 dex//10 strength socketed helm will work until you get twitch

Ive said the same thing over and over








Fred

 

[Papasmurf90]

Okay, thanks. Really sorry that I asked so many questions. I've just built so many characters that I've had to restart because I've screwed up the stats and skills and what not, I just want to make this one perfect. Again, I'm really sorry about all the questions.

I'll be sure to post how he does!

 

[Fearlessone]

@fearlessone: the smiter is a great tank, and it doesnt die (or get close to dieng) at all, really. A high lvl redemption is better than leach. Soloing 8 player games is hard, obviously, but with conc//curses its a lot easier. Iron maiden doesnt kill instantly, 1 smite when im iron maiden'd and my life drops to 1/3. Not that in hccl i would run cs on a melee'r....

And this is with some crushing blow item such as goblin toes? Wouldnt iron maiden return that big physical damage? I wouldnt dare test this with my old high lvl pally, but maybe a newer pally is okay. Trouble is I dont have an editor or any mid level smiters-in-waiting, just ones with a few points in it for special occasions. Have u tested this with concentration pallys around? How about an amp or decrep curse on the monsters in the cs? Lots of barbs in 1.08-1.09 used to be able to cs without problems, but they would exit the game if a fan/conc pally or an amping necro entered.

I used to cs run with my fan zealot pally and frequently with amping necros who didnt care to use life tap. Survival was easy if iron maidened, but not around the above cases, it was very dangerous.

Here in 1.10, my old pally, even with his lvl 10 smite/HS and max fan can survive 2 smites easily. I wonder what it would be like with a lvl 24 smite/HS?? With crushing blow, concentration or amp curse around, and the fact that there is a 5% chance that all monster attacks can be doubled (their version of a critical strike, I dont know if this applies to returned damage) sounds very very risky to me..

 

[OldSkoolPlaya]

Well my smiter is now up to lvl 52. I don't try to solo the cs or anything but I did do a lot of cs runs and I'm still alive. Still haven't had IM cast on me while smiting though. I've been super careful though and I will attack the mages first. I've managed to find a twitch, goblin toe, and steelclash through my travels. Here is what my setup looks like on my smiter.

Rare helm with life and resists
Rixot's keen short sword, 25% cb
Twitch
Steelclash +1 and 15 resist all
Resist gloves
resist and life belt
goblin toe boots
rare rings with resists
Nok relic ammy, 50% fire resist and 10 to max resist, so I have 85% fire resist in nm.

I was doing some runs with a hammer pally and a sorc and they were amazed at how fast I killed nm diablo. The pally went to town to get some potions, came back, and diablo was dead.

 

[purplelocust]

Quick question, and I'm away from my own machine or I'd check myself- does Enchant add to smite damage?

 

[OldSkoolPlaya]

Well just as an update to my smiter...PooheadI may now RIP. Doing maggot lair in act 2 hell, bnet lagged and I ended up dead after someone dropped from the game. I got all my items back though so it's not a huge deal, I did lose some nice stuff from the stash though. He was lvl 59 and doing great. I'm going to make a new character now, I'm not sure what though.

 

[fredsta54]

Quick question, and I'm away from my own machine or I'd check myself- does Enchant add to smite damage?

No.

@fearlessone: If you had read what i said to use, yes, you would know that i said gob toe. Ive tested it with amp and conc, and, it killls way faster, obviously. Crushing blow isnt returned by iron maiden, and its most of ur dmg, so ur okay there. But with conc, in large multiplayer cs games, be careful about smiting. You can survive 1-2, but dont be stupid.

On my lvl 80 pvm smiter using the perfect (imo) setup, in single player, he has no trouble soloing hell trav, hell meph, hell rof, or anywhere without excessive phys immunes, really.









Fred

 

[Fearlessone]

In general, maxed smite, holy shield with a barbed shield (highest smite dmg shield avialable) you can get about 1k dmg. With clegs shield (2nd lowest smite dmg shield in the game) you get about 600 dmg. A small price to pay for the 35% crushing blow, and, lets face it, using a full set to great effect is styling.

I've finally gotten around to trying out a smiter. There are only 2 good pvm smite threads in the past year here, so I will be posting on top of them. I tried gtoes, and they seem to do ok even with the slow run (hotkey vigor), but also tried the full clegs set with cb and it sure brought the hitpoints down fast. Trouble is, when it gets to the last 15% of a monsters life, it takes a while to finish it off - the high cb at the last hitpoints isnt very useful and the lower smite list dmg is slow kill. I like the 900-1100 smite dmg. Still testing. this.

Also tried a wormskull here, for poison to prevent reheal and it didnt work. Maybe snakecord would? What an embarrasment to have to use that belt.

Rich setup: Same gear as above, minus the full clegs. Add in a weapon thats base speed and//or ias on it reaches 6 fpa, with crushing blow and hopefully open wounds. This will be a normal unique 1h weapon. deaths gloves, rattlecage, a rare barbed shield with resists, fhr, + skills, all those good mods. Dont worry about 30/20, as with maxed holy shield, almost anything will give u maxed block. And holy shield gives u the 2 frame fbr, 30% extra fbr wont do squat.

Used the calculator and it seems to show that I cant get a 6 frame smite without twitch, but i have yet to try rcage, which u didnt seem to think was much good earlier in this thread.

Oh, and, another thing that makes you that 1 extra bit better, prebuff holy shield for more smite dmg. Put on + skills, cast holy shield at its higher lvl, put on reg gear. With a +7 skills prebuff (on cleg smiter) i got about 100 extra smite dmg, and holy shield lasted over 10 mins, definately not bad to do, also, more defense.

Well, I tried this and at least the char display didn't show any extra dmg. It was very disappointing. Have things changed since this was posted last fall? Display bug? Anyone know?

 

[Gnostosis]

Well, I tried this and at least the char display didn't show any extra dmg. It was very disappointing. Have things changed since this was posted last fall? Display bug? Anyone know?[/QUOTE]


I dont think it ever worked for me

 

[WarlockCC]

prebuff used to work for me just fine, haven't tried it rescently though :

wear random +2 pala shield and +2 pala sword
cast Holy shield
change weapon and shield to your 'real' weapon and shield.

That should do it. And if you want to compare the damage, you should exit the game, join a game and cast holy shield without the +2 sword and +2 shield and then see what damage you do with your 'real' weapons.

 

[Zodijackyl]

It's the same thing as BO sticks, silks, tarn, etc.
I still would try to get a +2 40ias pally wep with nice dmg, and you really should use a +2 barbed shield, it's a lot more damage.

 

[WarlockCC]

+2 barbed shields are shoppable, I shopped 2 so far, with only the +2 as mod, but, oh well. I have that one equipped most of the time, I rarely use my 30/20 priz barbed, cause it doesn't add sKills.

 

[Zodijackyl]

I have a +2 30/20 39pris 9xed barbed, works well for me.

I still miss my old smiter sheild, +2 30/20 39pris 9xed -20 9str.. idiot friend traded it for 2 SOJs on NL.

 

[WarlockCC]

Did they ever find your friend's body ?

Sweet shields btw. Can't think of anything more I would need on my smitershields. In fact I would settle for a +2 30/20 barbed. I reckon I 'ere is just simple folk.

"What's all this shouting about, this is a local shop for local people, we'll have no trouble here !"

 

[Zodijackyl]

+2 30/20 Barbed is shoppable in Act 2

 

[Fearlessone]

prebuff used to work for me just fine, haven't tried it rescently though :
wear random +2 pala shield and +2 pala sword
cast Holy shield
change weapon and shield to your 'real' weapon and shield.
That should do it. And if you want to compare the damage, you should exit the game, join a game and cast holy shield without the +2 sword and +2 shield and then see what damage you do with your 'real' weapons.

I've done this, and the char screen listed damage is the same. Like I said, it was very disappointing. Is it a display bug? - this has occurred alot in this game over the years - char screen display of dmg often is not at all what it really is. I do prebuffs with bo stix all the time. I do prebuffs with enchant staff and +skills all the time. So could u guys who claim this should work confirm whether it still works? BTW, i play ladder.