My Freezadin was Lv76 when he first entered Hell games under /players1 to complete Den of Evil quest. Sunk about 7-8 hard points into Holy Shield with 89dex total. I sorta had to invest 300 vita points to maintain a necessary life pool, which I think was worth it since I would have had died far too many times if I did not.
I have around 90'ish or high 80'ish % to hit due to my luck at finding dual angelic rings and angelic amulet. Plus I did find a nice 120+AR with 15life gc and rolled up another 105AR with 30+life gc. My current block rate with Rhyme shield is about 52 or 53%.
Steel in any fast weapon would be viable at least till you hit Ancients or Baalruns. For Normal difficulty games, I would suggest making it in a flail for the added range. It has 2mana back from each kill to allow for non-stop Zeal attacks and comes with 25IAS for even faster Zeal. From my own personal experience, Strength runeword would be preferable if you do no have any source of CB (I did not find my Goblin Toe till I was level 70'ish
). I had exactly the same experience when starting Hell. In the end I felt I had no option but to go kill NM Meph hundreds of times to get upgrades. Pretty boring, but the gear did make a massive difference. I think what I have now might take me all the way.
Steel in any fast weapon would be viable at least till you hit Ancients or Baalruns. For Normal difficulty games, I would suggest making it in a flail for the added range. It has 2mana back from each kill to allow for non-stop Zeal attacks and comes with 25IAS for even faster Zeal. From my own personal experience, Strength runeword would be preferable if you do no have any source of CB (I did not find my Goblin Toe till I was level 70'ish
IMO, I would skip Holy Thunder and go straight to Black flail or Honor in one of the exceptional weapon bases. Knout would be best, but as it has been pointed out, 5os weapons do not drop in NM, and that was why I chose Strength or Black throughout NM (at least till I find some decent unique to replace them). But when ladyluck dropped me a 15ED/3AR knout base, I knew I simply had to spend my Norm socket quest for the sockets, and that lasted me till level 60'ish when I finally found Aldur's mace. While the knockback mod on Black can be rather irritating when used with Zeal attacks, it can be a safety feature to keep mobs from swarming all over you and may allow for an "escape route" when they are pushed back.
I would recommend not consuming your socket quest for Ancient's Pledge base, as you will find better pally shields with higher def and resist once you get to act 1 NM. Rhyme would be a better choice for it's CBF mod if you do not have a source. If you are in need for a better shield, you can consider using the class reward from Anya or imbue one up from Charsi as a temporary measure.
Edits: Besides, I'm not sure if Lazurk will give you 3 sockets on a pally shield found in Norm games. I think it best to check it if you're really keen on making Ancient's Pledge. But I would advise against it, as mine was found naturally with 3 sockets in Frigid. Perhaps a couple of runs will drop you one and avoid spending your Norm socket quest.
Have you considered using Atma or GoMule mods to extend your stash capacity? I'm currently using GoMule to keep excess drops and it is non-invasive for SP so it shouldn't affect you logging onto bnet.
A non-up'ed Crushflange should suffice for a Freezadin with enough ias for Zeal bp. Remember, our dmg is primarily our cold dmg from Holy Freeze, and the CB is helpful in bringing down mob's life by the fraction with each hit. I wouldn't recommend up'ing it just yet, since it will only add a little extra dmg with the drawback of higher stats requirement.
I had tried doing that for a full day, but multiple MF runs for gear upgrades can get pretty boring, and I had nearly dozed off a couple of times. Haha.
Unfortunately, I have not found a Pul rune for weapon upgrades.
Yeah, I have had experience with Crescent Moon on bnet. It should work fine for Freezadins. Plus, it has some Lightning dmg to help with cold immunes, and the Static proc is a huge plus. The only trouble I foresee is getting a 3os PB for base. I haven't seen any so far in act 1 Hell or anywhere in NM, but I'm hoping my luck will change by going a couple of runs in the Mausoleum.
Yeah, I didn't find one until Act 3 Lower Kurast. I ran Mausoleum/Crypt a number of times without any luck.
I dunno about you, but I always favored making Crescent Moon in PB. Firstly, it is indestructible so you needn't worry about repair, and secondly, it has the fastest weapon base speed of -30; absolutely fantastic for us Zealer types when you add in an additional 20IAS from Crescent Moon, and lastly the stat req for PB is 136 dex investment, which will not go to waste as it works with our block rate with Holy Shield. I have never considered making it anything other than PB tbh.
I'm glad you decided to hold off on spending your socket quest. If we were on bnet, I wouldn't worry too much about getting socket quest as we can always get our mules or other characters to socket them, but for SP, those are a little harder to come by once spent, hence; highly precious
.If you happen to find a 2os exceptional class Light weight armor like Ghost/Serpent Skin/Demonhide/etc, you can consider making Stealth (Tal + Eth) armor. It has nice 25FHR, 25FRW, 6dex. Or alternatively, you can strive towards making Smoke (Nef + Lum) armor for it's 50resist and 20FHR. Both of these are definitely NM viable if you don't have much luck in terms of MF drops.
I'm glad you decided to hold off on spending your socket quest. If we were on bnet, I wouldn't worry too much about getting socket quest as we can always get our mules or other characters to socket them, but for SP, those are a little harder to come by once spent, hence; highly precious
I'd wouldn't recommend allocating your skills in that way, it's better to prioritise the important ones and cap them first.
I may have to put more serious consideration to that myself -- I'd considered making Exile and switching to a Blessed Aim merc, but I may forgo that and stick with my Defiance merc and get HoZ instead.
). So I think the only time and place I will ever begin to find PBs are in Act 2 Hell onwards. IMHO it is hard to do better for a general purpose weapon. You'll still want black (or whatever crushing item) on switch for bosses but crescent moon is very nice. Especially if you go back to players 8, that static field will be dandy. Obviously something like shael'd stormlash (or grief obviously if you use RWM) is better but not reasonable at your level and gear availability.
I'm currently using a Gull dagger I'd gotten off NM Meph as my switch weapon together with a Rhyme shield vs bosses. TBH, I do know how well Static proc from Crescent Moon works vs tanker-type mobs with huge HP that aren't lite immune. The IAS bonus coupled with the base speed of a PB will get me a fast Zeal attack, not the mention the ITD vs non-unique mobs. But I'm already packing an almost 10K AR as it is with max'ed Zeal and the other bonuses from my gear, so the ITD isn't as attractive as it would normally be; but sexy nonetheless
.I had a couple of Griefs on bnet and used them to good effect. But I doubt I'll be seeing a LO rune drop anytime soon if at all (since we can't trade for one in SP). The same goes for Stormlash, I'd actually never had that drop; ever! even on bnet. Haha.
Duress would be great if I had another UM drop. But as it is, I have CB from Goblin Toes, and so far that worked sufficiently well enough. I actually prefer Duress if I'm using Holy Shock as my primary aura, since the cold dmg + that from Ravenfrost will help vs lite immunes. If I were to face cold immunes, neither the cold dmg from Duress nor the one from my Holy Freeze aura will help. Which is why I'm using Lava Gout gloves for extra elemental help (not to mention the sexy 101%AR bonus from Enchant proc) vs cold immunes.
