The 1pt smiter guide to Uber Tristram v 1.0.

[Alecz]

...

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

You have to be careful when making big modifications to the build.
The Guillaume's is there for a reason, without it your CB would be pretty low (only 15% from Gore's). What you might want to have handy is a pair of Goblin Toes that give 25% CB. The Open Wounds is a problem if you don't have dracs or Gores! You might want to craft a few blood gloves to get some CB, and i think Blood Belt gives OW.

About the torch... I really recommend against ANY torch in uber trist. when you smite at max speed you cast way too many firestorms and can easily get disconnected. Also, I do not know if it would increase the BO level from CTA. I only know about +all skills.

Also, each +skill is 3% more life, so a torch would give 9% more life, or about 117 life, which may or may not be worth it.

2k life sounds good. I remember at the end of the ladder I was just fooling around with the cheapest equipments viable just to see what would work for the new ladder where I would be poor.

I can say that with poor gear it isn't really doable in HC, but (with a few deaths) it CAN be done on SC.
Just remember the main points:
- Crushing blow (25% absolute minimum! Gores only is NOT enough!)
- Life tap (have wand on switch)
- Max resists (200 res all in Hell = 300 res all in Normal -> you get 30 from Anya)
- Max block (don't run! Use charge instead)
- Max IAS !!!
- Max Holy shield (preferably with an elite shield; I used exceptional and it worked!)
- ITD when zealing (Grief is basically the best weapon for this build and you have it)

Looking at your setup and stuff, I see that your resists are TOO LOW!

Get a Treachery! You might even trade your Forti for Treachery + CTA or something along those lines; you don't REALLY need the damage from Forti. I mean it's nice to have and all, I tried that combo myself, but what's the point of doing insane damage when you die "like a tiny little bug"?

Your biggest problem: resists, you need 200 in hell, remember?

Edit: also if you have Treachery you should be able to smite at max speed without Fana with even the crappiest Grief! So... you can put Salvation!

 

[Spinns]

If an item says +skills such as shako it will increase all your skills including cta's bo but items such as torches or hoz for examples which are + zon sin or paladin skills meaning class specific, they only effect your skills like smite and holy shield for instance

- Max block (don't run! Use charge instead)

When charging your block is the sames as if you were running so even if you have max block it would be 1/3 of that meaning only 25% not 75%

 

[philmein]

Just wondering,
so if I were to do a PvP with this smiter, which shield would be best to use? Or, which equipment or changes should I make for a truly god-given dueler?

Thanks.

 

[vaim]

Wow, 1300 life is kinda low - do you not have any charms at all or have way too much in dex/str? I have 458 in vitality with gear on.

But as mentioned - you really want your resists to be capped and i personally use Thundergod's belt for everythingthing because it's so good. I get my lightning resist to 90 with it and Forti and it gives light absorb (not to mention 20str 20vit etc).
Souls are a joke and do no damage whatsoever to me.

Vipers on the other hand are lethal to everything - they have some very odd mechanics you have to be aware of. (Also i use nature's peace whenever i ventured to Nihlathak - explosions from only the mobs that suicide into you).
quoted

6. Why do the Vipers in the Halls of Vaught kill my GOSU char in one hit?

Explanation by Gta-maloy]:

QUOTE
A percentage of their charge damage is included in the secondary cloud of poison. The AoE cloud. This means that you could avoid the initial poison from the spear but still get the physical + poison damage of the cloud should you run into it.

THE CLOUD IS NOT VISIBLE. This is why many people think they get killed by something that isn't really there. The cloud will stay about five seconds AFTER the initial spear's cloud vanishes. If you do not move in this time, the second cloud will not effect you. Getting knocked back will also not trigger the second cloud. You will get poisoned by the viper and get a nice percentage of life taken away from you but it won't be over time.

Best thing to do is stand still when they fire or run past them at high velocity. The cloud will only form a second or two after the spear is thrown, this gives more than enough time for a character to run past them. Should you need to stop... stop and don't run or walk until five seconds after all the clouds have gone.

 

[Junta]

I checked my base str/dex/vit and found out I maybe misplaced too many points in dex, but thats too late to cry about now Not starting a new pally bcs of this hehe.

But yesterday I tried to have my friend bo me with his soso's cta (his bo was lvl 17) and then I ran around on my own in hell a5 with little over 2k life and it was a BIG difference. I didnt die a single time doing baal solo, except the souls almost killed me on the way down heh

Also got a natures peace so nila running is now a walk in the park

I will look into and try to trade my forti for some CTA because that was just what I needed to feel that I could do whatever I wanted without having to worry about dieing. The gloves I use is some crafted +10 CB with rest minor mods, so combined with my gores that gives +25 CB.

I will also try to get some @ sc's if I find any to reasonable prices. Anyway, the BO really made a BIG difference in his tanking/survival capabilities, so it's not much I need till I reach max resis also.

I don't understand what ur sayong about Treachery? A treachery is the shael thul lem RW with +assa skills, and the only mods I can see it has (from battle.net/daiblo2ex) is +2 assa skills, 45 ias, 20% FHR, +30% cold res, 50% extra gold and some ****ty cast thingies.

 

[Alecz]

...

I don't understand what ur sayong about Treachery? A treachery is the shael thul lem RW with +assa skills, and the only mods I can see it has (from battle.net/daiblo2ex) is +2 assa skills, 45 ias, 20% FHR, +30% cold res, 50% extra gold and some ****ty cast thingies.

Well, the answer is in the last 3 words of what you said.
It has 5% chance to cast slvl 15 Fade which translates into 60% res all and 15% Physical damage Reduction for about 5 minutes :crazyeyes:.

Given the resists in your initial post, you not only need the Treachery (at least for prebuff) but you also need to use Salvation against Mephisto.

The are mods are nice bonuses as well.

...
When charging your block is the sames as if you were running so even if you have max block it would be 1/3 of that meaning only 25% not 75%

Running is when you press Ctrl or you have it toggled by "R".
Max block is when you Stand or Attack, since Charge is an Attack, you keep all your block and defense, plus it's actually faster than running.
There is a post "Everything you need to know about charge" I'll post it when i find it.

...
But as mentioned - you really want your resists to be capped and i personally use Thundergod's belt for everythingthing because it's so good. I get my lightning resist to 90 with it and Forti and it gives light absorb (not to mention 20str 20vit etc).
Souls are a joke and do no damage whatsoever to me.
...

Sure, Tgods is a very nice belt, especially against Souls. However, in Uber trist, there are no Souls, and you need to smite alot - so you can't leech mana. You should have good resists anyway, and the CtC Fist of the Heavens can be extremely annoying and get you dead - because it interrupts your smiting.

Tal's belt gives +20 Dex and 37% DTM, which will basically replenish your mana as you take damage, this is very usefull against uber Baal that has the "mana burn cloud"

I used both and in Uber trist I prefer tal's belt actually.

 

[Junta]

Ran uber trist again two times now without dieing (my friend prebuffed me with BO b4 each portal). Druiel, Andy and Izzy is still easy picks. Full rejuv potions helped alot not dieing at meph before I casted Life Tap. Diablo and Baal was easy.

Thx for much apreciated help

 

[infinitesadd]

This is an extremely long thread, but I have a question. What would be the best merc choice for this character? I started building mine last night.

 

[Alecz]

This is an extremely long thread, but I have a question. What would be the best merc choice for this character? I started building mine last night.

Short answer: NONE


Long answer:

Many would strongly recommend against any merc because they tend to complicate things (similar to having some n00b around you).
The very common thing, is that the merc will lurk out all three ubers and eventually get killed, leaving you alone against the three.

For playing outside Uber trist, I found the Rogue merc interesting. She can provide some ranged attack (with a decent bow), and your Fana helps. You can also go with an Act2 merc. If you have a grief you don't really need a Might merc, BA and Prayer are out of the question. Defiance/HF are good options.
I am not sure about the Thorns mercs; they are supposed to reflect 10x the damage at high levels, and the Ubers do around 250 - 500 damage, so this might help at the end if you don't have grief.

But again, the risks of having a merc in Uber trist outweigh the possible advantages.

 

[philmein]

Weird, my equip and stats are nearly like Juntas, but I have no problem at all with Uber Trist, well maybe except for Meph. I died quite a bit against him but I ended up killing him easily eventually. I have about 1.3k of life and my resist are maxed in hell (but not maxed against Mephi's conviction). The one equip difference is I have Drac's and I'm using an upped HoZ instead of Exile.

I don't BO and I can still easily do Hell even with 8 players in the game. Hmm....

I wonder why he had problems in the past.

 

[Junta]

Me too... It's pretty much solved now and I haven't really changed my gear that much. I think it was just those little things like having a bit more resis and life that really did the trick. Having no problems with souls or anything right now. I did 5 uberruns total today and sold all my torches and bought a +3 CTA so now I have a CTA and spirit on switch which gives me a total life of about 1900, have max lit,c and p res. fire is still only 60 but that hasn't been a problem yet.

 

[philmein]

Wow..
the whole strategy of switching to Salvation is godly indeed.
All I did was do that and I killed Meph without having trouble with his conviction whatsoever.


ANyways, i don't anyone answered my other post, but how does this particular smiter build fair as a PvP'er?

 

[Spinns]

It could probably pvp just fine as a zealer but as a smiter i think you would want the extra damage from maxed smite plus you would lack the defense a pure smiter would have with max holy shield boosted by max defiance

 

[Belthazor]

I'm still in the process of preparing my Zealot for uber trist. He doesn't have any res or vita charms yet and less than 1k life, so he wouldn't stand a chance against Meph's conviction. Gear is the following:

Azurewrath (is this a good weapon for uber trist? I also have a Redeemer, but probably will have trouble to reach max Zeal/Smite speed with that)
Griswold's Honor with 3 pdiamonds (trying to find a 3os Sacred Targe with 40+ res to make Sanctuary)
Duress Great Hauberk
Guillaume's Face
Dracul's Grasp
Gore Riders
String of Ears
Metalgrid
Raven Frost

Now to my question. Last night I found an LO rune, and I'm unsure what to make out of it. Grief? Fortitude? Or a Fortitude armor for my sorc's merc, since my sorc is my main playing character? I was thinking Grief, but I want more insight from people, who have more experience, since this is my first high rune ever. I don't trade for high runes, since they are likely to be duped, so acquiring more of them is out of the question for me. Therefore, I can only make one of those runewords. What do you suggest?

 

[angryhead]

Rebuilt my smiter from last ladder, with almost the same gear, who was also built using this guide
Level 82 Paladin
Guillaumes Face /w jool that gives 29% Lit res and +5% others.
Griswolds Honor /w 3 pgems
Duriels Shell /w Um
Random 14 res and 12% damage taken goes to mana (Very useful) amulet
Draculs Grasp
Ravenfrost and 8 res ring
Gore Riders
10/10/6 anni
A nice 14res 12fhr grand charm in inventory + a random life charms (far from perfect ones) and a 27% fire and 13% lightning resist charm.

With this gear, I had about 50% lit res against meph, so I did not even switch to salvation for him.
1326 HP unbuffed.
Although, I did use a BO baba to boost my life. But, I did it last ladder with about the same gear and no BO, so yeah.

 

[Alecz]

...
ANyways, i don't anyone answered my other post, but how does this particular smiter build fair as a PvP'er?

I don't have that much experience about PvP because of all the hacking and cheating that happens there. However, you should check some PvP smiter guides in the paladin Forum.

Essentially, for PvP you must Max Smite (mostly for the Stun Duration), you wanna use Grief and Enigma (so you can tele-smite). If you use dracs or Life-tap from anything else, not many ppl will duel you since they can't kill you once you connect.

Also there's no point in maxing zeal and sacrifice for a PvP smiter, so those points would go to Defiance and Smite.
Enigma is a must unless you wanna desynch and charge then smite to death.

Sorry, i can't provide more info, I'm not really into PvP that much. I know i read a PvP smiter guide, but I can't find it anymore.

I'm still in the process of preparing my Zealot for uber trist
...

Azurewrath (is this a good weapon for uber trist? I also have a Redeemer, but probably will have trouble to reach max Zeal/Smite speed with that)
Griswold's Honor with 3 pdiamonds (trying to find a 3os Sacred Targe with 40+ res to make Sanctuary)
Duress Great Hauberk
Guillaume's Face
Dracul's Grasp
Gore Riders
String of Ears
Metalgrid
Raven Frost

Now to my question. Last night I found an LO rune, and I'm unsure what to make out of it. Grief? Fortitude? Or a Fortitude armor for my sorc's merc, since my sorc is my main playing character? I was thinking Grief, but I want more insight from people, who have more experience, since this is my first high rune ever. I don't trade for high runes, since they are likely to be duped, so acquiring more of them is out of the question for me. Therefore, I can only make one of those runewords. What do you suggest?

So, regarding your equipment...
Azureath will let you reach max smite speed easily, and it will help against the undead there. Lightsabre is your best low-cost choice for zealing and alos provides 25% light absorb - you might want to consider this one as well.

Duress: gives little resists, some CB and lots of OW, these are good, but you might need more resists. I suggest you keep a Treachery and pre-buff before taking on meph. The Fade from Treachery lasts almost 5 minutes which should be plenty - you don't really need Fade while taking the other two guys.

Rest of gear is good! - maybe get some DTM (tal's belt, ammy, Ith Rune in helm) in case Baal is too annoying with mana drift.

Don't forget 1 pt in salvation - just in case

EDIT: About the Lo Rune, i agree with Harby: make a grief in a phase Blade. It's useful for any melee build!

 

[HarbyHarby]

Make a grief. Even a 340 one will give you more damage 3 fortis would give you combined.

 

[Waz]

Sorry if its asked before but coundt find it. Was just wondering if this setup would kill uber diablo (for anni charm) easy solo too? The other day while doing an MF run uber diablo spawned, but feck my lvl 82 sorc with crap gear had no chance at all, barly got him to 98%

I didnt play D2 for 3 years so im totally lost in all this "new" stuff

 

[angryhead]

Sorry if its asked before but coundt find it. Was just wondering if this setup would kill uber diablo (for anni charm) easy solo too? The other day while doing an MF run uber diablo spawned, but feck my lvl 82 sorc with crap gear had no chance at all, barly got him to 98%

I didnt play D2 for 3 years so im totally lost in all this "new" stuff

I havent tried but, as far as I know, smiters are the usual Dclone killers, so you probably could :thumbup:

EDIT: A question also, is mini-uber Izual doable as a smiter, or will the Iron Maiden casting dudes make it impossible?

 

[Waz]

I havent tried but, as far as I know, smiters are the usual Dclone killers, so you probably could :thumbup:

EDIT: A question also, is mini-uber Izual doable as a smiter, or will the Iron Maiden casting dudes make it impossible?

Just wondering if the 1pt is enough, but as i said i got no clue about diablo anymore , ill go start leveling my smiter