The Class Specific Set MP Group

[D2DC]

@maxicek - Yep, I will have conviction, and lvl 15 fana Rogue. Any suggestions about socketing guys?

@Vildecor - if you join, does that mean we all have to play and drink?

 

[maxicek]

@ffs: I'm going FA and Strafe I think as it will help recharge my mana, with a bit of MS too.
For the WW sin I don't know, actually I have a project going to compare the two, but it may take some time. I haven't done it with Nat's set though. I would normally go Venom, remember that the +PSD from facets gets applied twice - once when cast and once when hitting. If you are going to stuff the inventory with mentalist skillers, venom damage looks quite respectable.

@D2DC %ED Jewels in the caddy (I think this is better than +damage), +min damage in the rest.

Name          Character          Set                 Build                 Current Level         Merc
____          _________          ___                 _____                 _____________         ____

maxicek       Antiope            Mavina’s            FA  / Strafe          0                     Might & Pride
skiffcz       Rudla              Aldur’s             Fire                  0                     A3 Cold & sanctuary ?
ffs           Spectre            Natalya's           WW/Venom              42 A5 Normal          Might & Reaper
d2lover       Trang-Oul          Trangs              Zoomancer             50 act1 hell          to be done
D2DC          Griswold           Griswold's          Min-dmg Avenger       58 A3 NM              'Faith' Rogue?

@PhineasB is holding out on joining the table again.

 

[skiffcz]

I was thinking about 3 merc options:
Lawbringer A3 Cold - if thats Ok I always wanted to try one, but maybe the KB is too obnoxious for melee chars? (wink @D2DC wink)
If peeps will have problems fitting AR in their setups, blessed aim reapers merc is always an option
Or I can just run the harmony rogue as last time

Thinking about it, now when I made fort I can also give the Lawbringer to A5 barb and have sanctuary AND decrep ...

 

[Vildecor]

@D2DC - 1pm my time is a bit early for alcohol, so I’ll be drinking coffee. Of course, if others want to drink I won’t complain.

@maxicek - I’ll send you my email the weekend before the start date if I haven’t found the Soul Cage.

I’ll give myself a week before adding my name to the table just to make sure I have enough time to get ready. I don’t expect any issues, as when I have deadlines that’s when I really push myself.

 

[PhineasB]

@PhineasB is holding out on joining the table again.

Can't add character to the table until she exists, right? Rectified, and at least to A2 Normal.

Name          Character          Set                 Build                 Current Level         Merc
____          _________          ___                 _____                 _____________         ____
maxicek       Antiope            Mavina’s            FA  / Strafe          0                     Might & Pride
skiffcz       Rudla              Aldur’s             Fire                  0                     A3 Cold & sanctuary ?
ffs           Spectre            Natalya's           WW/Venom              42 A5 Normal          Might & Reaper
d2lover       Trang-Oul          Trangs              Zoomancer             50 act1 hell          to be done
D2DC          Griswold           Griswold's          Min-dmg Avenger       58 A3 NM              'Faith' Rogue?
PhineasB      Talith             Tal Rasha's         Dual Nova?            18 A2 N               A2 Prayer/Insight?

edit: @ffs I also think it might be worth trying facets. But my experience is that poison loses power in late hell due to immunes and higher life. If lower resist will be going off a lot, it might be worth it, but I think ED will benefit more (and be more versatile if solo at p1), especially if amp or decrep is around.

I have found venom useful for softening as opposed to killing. But I admit I haven’t gone multiple facets and skillers to push the upper bound. Even so, I’m skeptical it will scale to a point of being stronger than pumping physical damage with sockets and charms.

Hmmm, maybe another build to test

 

[maxicek]

That is basically what I want to test for PvM. Won’t be Nat’s set though.

One assassin I will push venom as high as possible, the other will push physical.
Venom + BoS + Widowmaker
Physical + Fade + Blade Fury

I just got both to 75, so time to work on Antiope next.

 

[ffs]

Name          Character          Set                 Build                 Current Level         Merc
____          _________          ___                 _____                 _____________         ____
maxicek       Antiope            Mavina’s            FA  / Strafe          0                     Might & Pride
skiffcz       Rudla              Aldur’s             Fire                  0                     A3 Cold & sanctuary ?
ffs           Spectre            Natalya's           WW/Venom              80 A1 Hell            Might & Reaper
d2lover       Trang-Oul          Trangs              Zoomancer             50 act1 hell          to be done
D2DC          Griswold           Griswold's          Min-dmg Avenger       58 A3 NM              'Faith' Rogue?
PhineasB      Talith             Tal Rasha's         Dual Nova?            18 A2 N               A2 Prayer/Insight?

I finished NM yesterday, got to lvl 79 in the Cave and did a few runs with the full setup. Suuuuper fun.

Following some more spreadsheet-supported theorycrafting, I did go the facet route now. Socketed the claw with 40 ED/8 min jewel, but used 4x facets for armor and helm. After checking my stashes I realized I have almost a full set of Mentalist + life skillers, and according to my calcs those aren't even much worse than Sharp GCs for physical damage in case of the Nat's setup. Looking like this now:

Spoiler

Nat's helm (facet)
Nat's armor (3x facet)
Nat's claw (40 ED/8 min dmg)
Nat's boots
Chaos Suwayyah
TO gloves
blood craft belt
Raven
rare ring AR, res, str, LL
HLW

6x Mentalist/life skillers in inventory, fine and FHR SCs

Might Merc with eth Shael'ed Reaper, ebug Fortitude, Tal's helm (unsocketed)

As mentioned before, IMO without things like GFace and Gore, physical damage output won't be much more than "OK" either way, so trying to see what happens when pushing Venom felt like a natural approach for this particular character and equipment. So far she doesn't feel weaker than the phyisical approach at all, in fact early Hell feels a little smoother than what I remember from my last (physical focus) WW Sin. She can handle Cold Plains & Cave on P8 with ease, which doesn't say much but still was a pleasant surprise.

Overall Nat's set and WW are a really nice fit IMO. Very useful set bonuses, and Sin has a number of tools that can fill any gaps beautifully. For example the last WW Sin I played used Enigma to position the Reaper's Merc and trigger Decrepify ASAP. WW damage isn't exactly impressive on its own so this is a big deal. (I do believe I'll stick with Reaper's for this reason.) But Dragon Flight really does an amazing stand-in job, and is somehow more fun to use then teleport. I'm also using both Fade and BoS depending on whether res/%DR is needed or to move faster. Other than that, DS with 18 hard points in FB for some nice AoE, but not using SW or SM.

As @PhineasB said, I do wonder if psn dmg will still be effective in later Hell and I too am slightly skeptical. Think I'll stash LoH (or CB gloves) and a second Nat's armor with ED jewels, in case the Venom-focus doesn't seem worth it later on.

 

[maxicek]

It has been a long time since I played my Fishyzon and I forgot how quickly the mana bulb goes down without Insight.
I can drop in a 1.07 MPK ring, that will give us a lvl 19 BO unless @Vildecor takes the barb slot. Alternatively I can use an Insight merc and drop Pride, or just stick very close to @PhineasB for the Insight and @D2DC for the Fanaticism & Concentration.

Edit: Meant Conviction

 

[D2DC]

I am probably running Conviction, with Fana Rogue.

 

[skiffcz]

I can go HF(BA/might)/Insight to provide more coverage, if thats what helps. I mean, I run with caster too, so this wont hurt anything.

 

[maxicek]

I will try the 1.07 MPK ring tonight. Option B is always to Strafe more than FA.

I’m also wondering if we should have a second Conviction source, other than just @D2DC . It is going to be interesting how this group plays out as we have a wider range of skills compared to the more melee orientated ones we have done before.

At least there will be no 3 bear door blocks

 

[ffs]

@maxicek I faced similar questions with this FA/Strafe Amazon. She used 'Ice' MB on FA switch and WF on a dedicated Strafe switch. In her playthrough, I found even Insight doesn't sustain continuous FA spamming. So in the end my preferred setup was to use Infinity Merc for higher FA damage, and when mana went out I just fired a single Strafe volley with Windforce. With the high damage per arrow from WF, this filled up mana immediately (+ knockback for CC), so that I could spam FA again... rinse and repeat.

But with 1.07 MPK rings maybe you can just spam FA forever except against CIs.

Infinity moreover solved issues I had with Strafe AR, which wasn't great on that particular Zon... something I had missed in the planning stage.

 

[skiffcz]

^ even if we dont have barb, I can provide lvl20 BO (I dont have anything else to put on switch anyway, except maybe najs staff for tele) - and yeah, I forgot to count +1 point from BC before. I just want to mention it here so @maxicek doesnt feel somehow obliged to carry cta and compromise on his equipment. There are options.

 

[ffs]

To be frank, it's not like we NEED a super high level BO like from beta CtA or Barb. I'd be perfectly happy just using a modest current-patch +6 BO CtA. That being said, if you guys have it, bring it, won't hurt don't have any issue with time-travel gear being in play. I just don't do it personally because in PvM there's really no need for those OP time-travel items (but I can see this being quite different for PvP).... That, and the fact that I do not want to go down that rabbit hole / time sink. I spend more than enough time on D2 as is.

 

[d2lover]

again saturday 20:00 like last time?

 

[maxicek]

@ffs I quite like the build and I'm planning to do almost exactly that in the future - Ice MB and either WF or Faith GMB. She will be much more powerful. Shame that the set gets so few +Bow skills. I mean +2 on the bow you wouldn't even pick up on a white item unless you were untwinked.

For me the most interesting thing about time travelled items (outside PvP) is seing how far I can push an underpowered or unusual build. But certainly it isn't required for PvM. If the character is less powerful you can just play at /p3 rather than /p5 or whatever.

@skiffcz I will bring the CtA anyway - Not like I have anything else to put on switch

 

[maxicek]

Oh yeah I had another idea for an MP Group: "Girls night out." Assassins, Amazons & Sorcs with A1 Mercs only.
Just putting it here as I will forget about it otherwise.

 

[PhineasB]

@d2lover I think the plan is to follow the same schedule as last time, but not until two weekends from now (2/28). So plenty of time for us all to organize our schedules for that weekend

 

[Vildecor]

Name          Character          Set                 Build                 Current Level         Merc
____          _________          ___                 _____                 _____________         ____
maxicek       Antiope            Mavina’s            FA  / Strafe          0                     Might & Pride
skiffcz       Rudla              Aldur’s             Fire                  0                     A3 Cold & sanctuary ?
ffs           Spectre            Natalya's           WW/Venom              80 A1 Hell            Might & Reaper
d2lover       Trang-Oul          Trangs              Zoomancer             50 act1 hell          to be done
D2DC          Griswold           Griswold's          Min-dmg Avenger       58 A3 NM              'Faith' Rogue?
PhineasB      Talith             Tal Rasha's         Dual Nova?            18 A2 N               A2 Prayer/Insight?
Vildecor      Gurgalan           IK                  Whirlwind             24 A2 N               Might & Insight

Mephisto coughed up the last IK item I needed after @Pb_pal included an IKSC in his giveaway. Looks like I'll be done with plenty of time to spare.

 

[maxicek]

I'm done. I decided to play balanced Strafe & FA, I did a few p8 Cave runs to test & they went pretty well. I'm going to go with the Pride Merc, as the original plan, but will bring another Insight just in case.

Name          Character          Set                 Build                 Current Level         Merc
____          _________          ___                 _____                 _____________         ____
maxicek       Antiope            Mavina’s            FA / Strafe           78 A1 Hell            Might & Pride
skiffcz       Rudla              Aldur’s             Fire                  0                     A3 Cold & sanctuary ?
ffs           Spectre            Natalya's           WW/Venom              80 A1 Hell            Might & Reaper
d2lover       Trang-Oul          Trangs              Zoomancer             50 act1 hell          to be done
D2DC          Griswold           Griswold's          Min-dmg Avenger       58 A3 NM              'Faith' Rogue?
PhineasB      Talith             Tal Rasha's         Dual Nova?            18 A2 N               A2 Prayer/Insight?
Vildecor      Gurgalan           IK                  Whirlwind             24 A2 N               Might & Insight

Great news @Vildecor - All classes & sets represented
If anyone else wants to join, don't feel this is full, there is still one place. Pick any set you like and the offer of donating a set still stands