dallemar said:
I'm actually building it for Last Wish. I know, it's expensive - but it takes care of so many things - CB, TWICE the life tap chance AND level of drac's. But i see what you're saying about the dmg - that would render the LT bonus useless. ugh. Guess I need to find a hoz that isn't already socketed with an um. lol. Or make sanctuary. I'll post my build when it's done.
I've got this build and despite the complete overpoweredness of grief (yes, Dryland, I know) it works extremely well and I'm very happy with it.
This is what I'm using:
LW Phase
HoZ: upped/um
Gore Rider (upped)
Dracs (might, someday, Steelrend here, but its not a priority for me)
Verdungo's Hearty Cord (I dont use tgods because the spam holy bolts fighting mephisto lag my computer too bad
)
Fortitude
Highlord's Wrath
Ravenfrost (230/20 for me, whee)
Rare AR/ML ring, str/dex here are great if you can find one. ML is for zealing with mostly, saves your blues for only Baal mana burn.
My helm is presently rockstopper for lack of, uh, you know, the CoA. The optimal helm would be a 2os Coa: BER and a 40 ED jewel with another mod (maybe -15% req if you dont want to go upped gores or Rends
)
A 12 DR CoA with 1 Ber, Verdungo's and LW's fade will put me at 45% PDR (I have a 38/14 dungo), resists are more than fine and meph's conviction doesnt even impact me when fade is up. I have a 362% ED LW with 67% CB.
Switch, of course, is CTA/Spirit.
With this setup I have 40% Open Wounds, over 50% and increasing Deadly Strike, 82% Crushing blow, a base zeal damage of 2400-2800 with Fanaticism and smite damage around 1500ish. I know Grief damage exceeds this notably, but I have absolutely no problems with anything unless I lag so bad that I can't get namelock on Mephisto or Baal in frameskip due to their minion packs (which is my computer sucking, not my equipment).
I have about 2100 life with BO at level 86, and my str is noticably higher htan it needs to be - having the upped hoz, upped gores already and a Fortitude Boneweave I made when my char had insanely high str/dex (he was my first char), I chose to rebuild him with relatively high str to wear that gear and not need new EQ (and to wear the CoA without a -req jewel). I also intentionally built him without using the Hellfire Torch, though he does use a 13/19/9 annihilus to help his resistances.
It is ironic that CoA aside this build is probably actually cheaper on East ladder than Dryland's build at this point - premade Griefs with damage of 375+ cost as much as Last wish (4-5 HR), Exile costs alot more than HOZ in most cases, and Highlords costs less than Metalgrid. However if you're building the build yourself and use the HoZ, Dryland's build's still got cheaper equipment (but only by a very little bit).
This is in no way knocking your guide, btw, KDL: its the best mix of effectiveness, cheapness and playability. I know you'll remind me how good Grief is - trust me, I know, I've got one. Its just really nice to be able to do without it, honestly, its so overpowered it bugs me a little
I've considered at times switching to Grief/Exile on my weaponswap and substituting Metalgrid and guilliame's, having a full 100% CB all the time, and using weaponswap after CB goes through 2/3 of uber hp to finish with exile/grief. However, that's more work than necessary and the sliver finishes aren't really very difficult for me anyway. The only time I've died ubering since my very first attempt at Tristram was when my entire computer seized due to Fortitude and Thundergods spamming me too much when I had about 40 bone mages firing at me while killing Mephisto. My computer really sucks
