The 1pt smiter guide to Uber Tristram v 1.0.

[Neuuubeh]

Yes you are missing something, Astreons has the +damage mod that gets factored in to your smite damage. This is hidden damage and you will not see it in your character window, but will notice it when smiting.

I dont know the numbers, I'm sure someone here knows how to figure it out, but my guess is it will add 500 to 1000 to your smite damage. ( or about doubling it)

If I remember right, the +damage gets actually added to the shield damage, and thus to the very base of the calculations. Thats why using a decent grief makes such a huge difference, this damage ends up multiplied a fair bit .

I might be wrong tho, or maybe this was changed, I had my smiter at the introduction of uberTristram . Pure smiter, was doing uTristram in an 8 player game :thumbup:. Good old days

 

[Olimp Bathory]

Hi again.
I have now that smither on BN with some little changes and I can now take the Ubers out. I already did 4 runs but I encounter small problems:
My ar sucks, most times i miss when zeal.
Sometimes i just keep dying on meph. I have max reses with fana when fighting mefi and I keep dying. Dunno why.

 

[scratchdtwo]

Just wanted to thank the OP, this is an excellent guide. Working on one right now (cheap gear build!!) and it's going well. Thanks.

 

[Demmi]

Hi again.
I have now that smither on BN with some little changes and I can now take the Ubers out. I already did 4 runs but I encounter small problems:
My ar sucks, most times i miss when zeal.
Sometimes i just keep dying on meph. I have max reses with fana when fighting mefi and I keep dying. Dunno why

you should be using salv. and immediately use a lifetap wand on meph if your not getting dracs to proc quick.

 

[TrapperC]

Hi all.

I am thinking of trying this. I've got the Dracs (only 7% ll, though), Gores and Guillames. I'm planning to make a Grief Phase blade when I have the wealth to do so.

My question is: I've found a 4-socket Gilded shield with +14 resists base. If I put 4 PDiamonds in it will that be a good enough shield for the cheap route? Or should I wait till I've found something better?

I couldn't find gilded shields on the wiki,

http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Shields

 

[vaim]

I'm fairly confident you need higher resists from a shield.
30resist paladin shields are not that expensive at all and i would look for something like that.
Personally i got a 43resist exceptional shield, which netted me 119 resist all, when i first started ubering.
Use http://battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/paladinshields.shtml by the way. For finding everything.

Now i only have 1 more thing missing to make my paladin perfect.
The "other" ring.
I've got everything in your favorite damage build expect i replaced my 105resist Sanctuary with a 198% upped Zaka.
I also took points in defiance, so my defense (With chilling from Forti) is a nice 22,5k
As a neck i'm using a blue 90life 25@ neck, which seems to be pretty good. (anything better to suggest? i don't think i'd rather have a metalgrid because grief is ITD)
Now, my life is at 2100~ with some not-so-good charms so this will likely improve, but i'm wondering what is the last ring i should use.
I was thinking about using a Raven for the nice life and fire absorb mods - i rarely ever need mana/life leech (draculs, hi), so i'm not sure a dual leech ring is all that necessary for me.

Any suggestions of a ring besides a Dwarf?

By the way, i must say, this paladin cuts literally anything down so swiftly, it's unbelievable - plus he never dies.
When wearing Highlord's, running my numbers through a damage calculator gave me an average of 10k per hit (1300max at char screen, lol)
Truly a God among men when complete.

 

[Kev]

im using a grief pb and a eth vortex exile, do i still need to use draculs grasp? if not, what is a better alternative?

 

[Spinns]

Dracs are good for the extra proc but alternatives include steelrend for ed up to 60% and 10% cb or even a nice par of crafted with cb and str if not then rares with whatever mods you are after
personally i would use dracs or crafted

 

[Jayman450]

Dracs are good for the extra proc but alternatives include steelrend for ed up to 60% and 10% cb or even a nice par of crafted with cb and str if not then rares with whatever mods you are after
personally i would use dracs or crafted

No mention of LOH?

 

[Junta]

Okay. After maaaaannyyy hours of trading and mfing/keyhunting i managed to get enough runes to trade for some godly gear for this build. I went for the most expensive damage gear type.

It's a nice char and all, but I have one big problem. He dies like a tiny little bug. He is now lvl 83, wearing the following gear: Grief pb, Eth bug Exile, Fortitude, Guillames, Gore rider, verdungos, Maras, Raven's, rare ring and crap gloves. Throw an anni in there too.

His resists are somewhere about 40-50-60-50 ish in hell, and life with all gear equipped is 1,2k and boasting 27k defence with holy shield and 75% block in hell.

In single player pvm he is "good enough", but in 8 player games he sucks like a *****. I soloed the ubers in a 2 player game at lvl 77, but died like 20 times or more, but he did it in the end. The real pain in the *** is that he dies for nothing when things become hard. He can't tank ****.

Anyone have any good advises on how to make him survive in PvM (both better survival in the ubers, and in general pvm)? I've looked at filling up my invent with +@ and +life charms, but I don't think that will do the trick... Also thought about switching guillames for another helm (guillames is really just needed for the ubers, in general pvm he has more than enough dmg to deal with any monster). And I need a tip for some good gloves (other than draculs, because exile already gives lifetap).

Any help would be apreciated as I love to play this char, except for his constant dieing. And no, I'm not a noob that doesn't know how to play him, he just isn't strong enough to tank like a zealer should be!

 

[Spinns]

No mention of LOH?

im using a grief pb

If he is using pb then it's kind of useless personally i think they are great gloves especially for their price but the mods for a pb grief whist smiting are useless really as im 80% sure that damage to demons/undead doesn't effect smite

Can someone clear that up for me???

 

[sevencreature]

And no, I'm not a noob that doesn't know how to play him, he just isn't strong enough to tank like a zealer should be!

So, you have the most expensive gear one can buy without selling his children/parents to slavery and still keep dieing? :scratchchin: Considering people are soloing HC Hell with almost naked chars, you shouldn't have any problems, weird, really weird.

What exactly does kill you? Elemental damage? Physical damage?

You have low resists for Ãœber Tristram, it seems (at least from your description).

 

[Junta]

Never said soloing hell was any problem (except souls, IM and nilha if u kill his babies). The monsters I have most problems with (in 8 player games, or when rushing and teleporting alot) is in order of most difficult first: Souls, Prowling dead (sick dmg from them) Hell Witches and a5 Vipers. General big packs of monsters that have fana/might or ele dmg monsters is a real pain in the *** in hell 5+ player games.

In uber trist though the monsters kill me in 1-4 hits even if they have only ele or only physical dmg (if the hit me).

The real question is if anyone have some good gear tips to increase resi and life. Also mana leech is something i lack from gear... I tried to switch guillames for shako (for extra life), but didn't really feel any difference.

I can't come up with any more gear options for resistances except for a rare ring or some rare amu that has more res than my already 25 maras. I could try to get one of those +15@ jewels and socket my Guillames though?

 

[Spinns]

Have You tried ber ber coa up to 31 dr and 30 res all
expensive yes but you seem to have some nice gear so im sure you can afford

 

[Junta]

Hm the coa looks nice. Though I ran the ubers again today (just now) and it went muuch better. I think the problem last time was that I ran them with my eni instead of fortitude... Only died 1 time at uber meph, the rest was easy peasy. Got an assa torch though :S But with the torch in stash (+19 res) I have +60/80/80/75 resis (40/60/75/60 before torch) and that's not bad at all.

Maybe it was just because i didn't know what to expect the first time i ran the ubers, now I was prepared and took it slow and easy killing all the monsters that made things better.

 

[Alecz]

Hey Junta,

I don't how why it's a problem is the monsters kill you in 4 hits... 4 hits is plenty of time to leech back!

Don't forget to have lifetap on the the monsters BEFORE you engage them!

Don't forget Mephisto has -125 resist elem from his conviction aura (slvl 20)!

For the mana problem, use Tal's belt, the DTM mod helps your mana when you take damage.

You focused too much on defense and not enough on life.
At some point you reach "enough" damage (although some people will not agree with this), but you also need a "comfort" zone with your tanking abilities: life, resists, block, life leech (life tap); the other doesn't count with Smite.
Another thing you can do is get BO, from a singer preferably, it makes a HUGE difference!


As for the guys on a budget... zeal with a Lightsabre!!! It's that simple actually; the lightsabre is very similar to a Grief PB, when you play. The only time you actually see a difference is when the ubers are "almost" dead!

All those scepters are nice for the +damage mod, but without ITD and good speed, they are not as good!

I had a Redeemer, but preferred the Lightsabre because I was able to smite/zeal without Fana. Zealing with Redeemer and Salvation was suicide!

Also, I don't see the point of Enigma for Ubering! But hey... you are the rich guys, so you can do whatever.

 

[Cassell]

So....I just equipped a +117 damage redeemer with a royal shield which is elite, and with level 24 fanat and holy shield cast my smite isnt even hitting 1k? What happened here?

nvm its not elite, i suck, so when I equip an elite shield will my damage suddenly double?

 

[Junta]

Thx for the info Alecz

It's right as you say, 4 hit's is enough to start leeching. The problem is that u don't hit anything while teleporting or running through a pack of monsters. The reason i used eni on the first uberrun was simply just bcs i forgot to switch to my forti.

I think that's my problem really as you say. That my char doesn't fit in to my "comfort zone" when playing. I play fast and want my char to be able to do that also. As I will now continue soloing the ubers, If I have 1,3k life, how much would it help to have a CTA (lets say it's +6 although I can't afford that yet) on switch?

 

[Alecz]

So....I just equipped a +117 damage redeemer with a royal shield which is elite, and with level 24 fanat and holy shield cast my smite isnt even hitting 1k? What happened here?

nvm its not elite, i suck, so when I equip an elite shield will my damage suddenly double?

Hold on there... how do you know your damage isn't hitting 1k? Do you read it from the LCS? If so, and it has been mentioned before, the +damage mod does NOT show on the screen so you can't easily get you damage number. One dirty way to get the real number is duel with a friend that has no damage reduction gear on, see how much damage they get and multiply by 6 (six).

The other way would be actually computing the damage yourself or with a damage calculator utility.

Thx for the info Alecz
...

If I have 1,3k life, how much would it help to have a CTA (lets say it's +6 although I can't afford that yet) on switch?

Teleporting with Enigma in Uber trist is probably a bad idea unless you are a hdin and provide support to a smiter (or some melee class - frenzy barb?)

If you still need teleport, use a teleport amulet, and replace enigma with something better.

Belive it or not Treachery is actually on par with CoH in terms of "tanking mods". It gives 60 res all IIRC, and 15% phys damage reduction when triggered. Also it gives a huge amount of IAS (45%)

As for the CTA... a +6 with no other +skills would get you 50% life boost, so 1300 life would become 1950 life. If you have a Mara, and CoH/Enigma, an Anni, Soj, and Spirit shield you'd get 6 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = slvl14 BO = 74% or a total of 2262 life.

Basically any CTA with some + skills (at least use a Spirit shiled on switch) would give you a decent boost to life.

I feel that around 2k life is "good enough" with "good enough gear"

I cleared all Uber with very cheap gear (Lightsabre, Except pala shiel, Treachery, other cheap stuff, but with Gores/Dracs/Guillaumes) with a base of 1.2k life and a lvl 35ish BO given by a Singer.

I had absolutely NO problem tanking. My damage was not amazing, but nothing could kill me!

 

[Junta]

Ah that sounds very interesting concerning the CTA. I didn't know that skills granted from an item received extra +skills from gear. I feel my dmg is more than good enough for any monster in the game that isn't phys immune so I could sacrifice the guillames for a shako for the +2 and I have a spirit lying around somewhere so that should give some good lvls to it. So if I just manage to get a +1 CTA (i'm poor atm This pally made me broke again hehe) and use shako I will then get +1+2+2+2 = slvl 8 BO which makes my life pool a little under 2k, but shako also adds +100ish to life at my clvl making my life go over 2k.

Also. Would a barbarian torch give +3 to the BO from CTA?

I have always believed that 2k life is a minimum for playing hell so I think that when my pally will reach this goal I will finally find my comfort zone for this one

Thanks very much again for help Alecz