The oSkill Sept -- Planning and Progress Thread

[PhineasB]

Okay, it's time for another Sept, again! I've worked through various characters I had wanted to make or rebuild with better gear, including my Runeword Bonanza Sept, Unfinished Business Sept, 2H Melee Sept, and the Lesser Skills Sept. But there are still some characters or builds that are on my to-do list, a few rebuilds with optimized gear but most trying out slightly quirky builds for a class, using non-class skills. A few others have done oSkill septs, and I figured it was a good one to work into my next Sept Sept, so here goes.

There aren't any rules for this Sept, except each character must use an oSkill as a main feature, and as per my usual all characters will full clear A85 areas and complete all quests in Hell. Also, like the Lesser Skills Sept, they will not be cookie cutters As a result, I expect to drop to p1 in Hell for some of them, but I will keep p-setting as high as possible for non-tedious playthrough. The Pally has end-game gear in A5 NM, but for the others, I haven't thought through the gear in depth, so I will likely give an overview of thoughts on gear when I make the first progress post for each character.

• Amazon – War Pike Zerkazon with A1 Faith Merc (Matriarch Zerka, level 84, 1/1/24)
• Assassin – Chaos Sin with Infinity A2 Might Merc (Matriarch Elinor, level 86, 7/16/23)
• Barbarian – Wolfhowl with eTomby (Patriarch Wigand, level 86, 9/30/23)
• Druid – Vengeance with Hurricane and Grizzly and A2 Infinity Might Merc (Patriarch Stormfront, level 85, 12/3/23)
• Necromancer – Trang Fire Mage Lord of Mages with Lower Resist (Patriarch FireMage, Level 84, 8/14/23)
• Paladin – Conviction Dual Dream Bearadin with Grief and A2 Might Merc with Doom (Patriarch Rem, level 88, 5/14/23)
• Sorceress – Zeal Dual Dream Enchantress with A2 Infinity Merc (Matriarch Nikita, level 87, 6/24/23)

 

[PhineasB]

Rem, Dual Dream Conviction Bearadin, Level 73, A1 H
The first character is ready to tackle hell, with plan to keep him at p8 the whole way through. Standard twinking up to Ribcracker, and then up'ed Ribcracker was smooth sailing to A5 NM (Ko was NM HF), where he could equip all his end-game gear. A few Eldrich runs got the merc to 67 and able to equip Doom. He then plowed through A5 NM.

Concept: Ursa, a Dreaming Polarbear, was by far my favorite character from my 7x7+2. I wanted to go with another type of palabear for this sept, and looked through the different aura options to pair with Dual Dream. Fanatacism seemed meh, I thought about auradin, but I had also build one of those (non-shifted), and found the fire aura underwhelming. I thought about wielding Doom, to pair with Fanatacism and give the merc Infinity, but decided to go with Grief and Conviction and giving the merc Doom. I may ultimately need to try self-wielding Doom, but the idea of repairs made Grief the winner.

I had two dream helms (Demonhead and Grand Crown), but they were somewhat underwhelming rolls, so I decided to give another shot with a Diadem base:

Nice! I went ahead and rolled Phoenix in a 43@ ST while I was in RWM version of D2, which turned out quite nice, and likely to be used for a future Pally.

And we then rolled the Doom, which turned out fine.


Current gear is below:
- Grief (388) /Dream ST (59@)
- Swtich: Beast War Axe / Spirit Akaran Rondache
- CoH Archon Plate
- Dream Diadem (14@)
- Gores
- 20 IAS Blood gloves with 10% CB
- Up'ed SoE (8/15)
- Highlord's
- BKWB and 250/19 Ravenfrost
- Backback: 8 Sharp GCs (7 with +life, 1 with FHR), 2 Shimmering SCs of Balance, 5 Fine SCs (2 with FHR, 3 with Vita)

This allows 67/67/75+/67 resists, > 86 FHR, and ~3000 life shifted, with max block and >10k defense. Should be solid for Hell.

Merc:
- Doom eth Giant Thresher
- Fortitude
- eth Vamp w realgar jewel of fervor

 

[LouB]

I'll be interested in following your Wolf barb. Are you going to cheat and respec when you reach 79 or are you going to play the old fashion way, which actually is pretty easy.

What merc are you going to use? I love the Act 5 Frenzy barb with Grief and Lawbringer.

Tomby is hard to beat going two handed, but what are you going to use from 79 to 84?

 

[maxicek]

Am I allowed to point out that Holy Shock from Dream is not an oskill?

Oskill - Basin Wiki

www.theamazonbasin.com

oskills can have their level increased by +skill items....

*hides*

 

[LouB]

While Holy Shock is a Pally skill and thus not an Oskill the Bear from Beast is

 

[maxicek]

Good point @LouB

I assume these are all in 1.14? I would really like to see some people's takes on what can be done with weird builds in D2R, especially bears with the attack speed changes.

 

[PhineasB]

Yep, the oSkill for Rem is the Beast shifting. The Dual Dream makes him shine He's now to A3, with an update coming when he moves to A4.

And @LouB I'm pretty sure that I will cheat, but I may go with the dual Bloodletters (and then up'ed) to keep it . . . yeah, no, I'll definitely respec. My plan is to respec to Wolfbarb at 79, likely with Oath but maybe up'ed Ribby because it's awesome. And run the Cave to 84, although I may break down and shift to the Pit (and skip a big part of A1 for the playthrough--but I leveled in Cave to 84 before, so I think I can stick with it again for this fine fellow).

 

[PhineasB]

Rem, Dual Dream Conviction Bearadin, Level 85, A4 H
This fine fellow has waddled his way to A4 at p8, finishing all quests and clearing all A85 areas (plus the other three A3 temples). I don't think he's quite as powerful as my prior Polar Bear build, likely due to lack of second elemental damage being more impactful to 150% -resist from conviction versus level 12 conviction from the merc. But he is plenty powerful, to put it mildly

No problems at all, and I don't think his life bulb has dropped below 2400 when shifted. And he takes tough enemies down in 4-5 swipes, often needing only 1-2 for regular monsters. He's had no notable drops, with Hel disappointingly the highest rune drop so far even at p8.

I will finish A4 this weekend for sure, and might end up taking him all the way through, although the weather is finally going to be warm so I may focus on time in the yard and getting some veggies planted.

 

[PhineasB]

Rem, Dual Dream Conviction Bearadin, Level 88, Pat

Rem encountered no resistance in A4, but picked up only a Hel at HF and nothing else of note. This was triple boss pack overlapping with another one just to the North, easily handled:

A5 was a little more interesting, mostly due to Blood Lords, which were everywhere they could spawn, and the PI witches in WSK3. Archeron prompted the first use of potions since NM, a whole row of big purples needed (3 to keep merc upright, one for Rem when his life dropped below 2000 for first time in the playthrough) for this PI Blood Lord pack with a Champ pack of them that were woken up and prompted a retreat to the bridge:

Then some more in the Crystalline Passage and Halls:


They were in Ancients Way also, but no bosses spawned. I went down to the Icy Cellar, and there were PI witches, including an amp'ed one that shredded Zanarhi twice because he decided to charge up to the north where the pack was instead of following over to Snapchit, and more of the same in WSK3. I left Zanarhi down in WSK3 to clear the level solo after two resurrections. Fortunately the other monsters were OKs and flayer types, so I could leech while taking down the witches. His beefy life pool, defense and block made it quite manageable.

Ancients were a breeze. I think one of them must have had a weapon with ctc amp because amp triggered twice, but only briefly and none of them had cursed mod. I don't think I've ever seen that before, but I'm pretty sure that's what was happening.



Baal fell in a heap. Really no drops of note, and hoping to get a Pat thread up this week. Next up will be with Sorc!

 

[PhineasB]

Nikita, Dual Dream Zeal Enchantress, A1 Hell, Level 71
So the second character is ready to tackle hell, thinking of p5 for Hell but I want to see if higher p-setting is viable with her crowd control. Standard twinking for Envy gear and damage jewels/charms to Spirit sword and Charged Boltress, up to level 54 (and actually to 58), before respec to Enchantress with Zeal PB. I spec'ed to 156 strength for Spirit, planning to shift to Phoenix shield at 65, before remembering I was going for dual Dream So another respec happened after A4, but I am interested in seeing how she plays with Phoenix and another helm after she Mat's. She then plowed through A5 NM.

Concept: Dual Dream is powerful, especially with enhancing skill (like lightning mastery), and Zeal is the oSkill. So that leaves maxed Enchant to help with second elemental damage and AR, with not-unreasonable physical damage from Might merc and Fortitude armor enhancing the Passion PB damage (for life leech). Infinity on the merc breaks most immunes, makes AR fine, and makes Enchant and Lightning aura hit that much harder. Highlords and 20IAS gloves reach fastest Zeal frames, and getting FHR to 86 with Dreams and some other gear choices. Confuse proc from Dual Dream, with Passion blind (and somewhat annoying flee) provide solid crowd control. CtA on switch after Enchant prebuff helps with the life pool. I think she will be very solid. As noted, I'm curious about the Phoenix variant (with -eFR, further enhanced physical damage), and will try that out also.

Progress: Meh, pretty uneventful to A4NM, and then quite powerful for A4, and then even more so once I remembered she was supposed to be Dual Dream for A5. I think Hell will be the real test, planning to start at p7, but think she might need to scale down to p5 due to limited life pool. But her defense is nearing 10k, so maybe she can hold up to p7 melee.

Current gear is below:
- Superior Passion PB /Dream Toll Nest (8@)
- Swtich: CtA / Lidless
- Prebuff: HotO (Eschuta's when level reached) / Volcanic amulet / Volcanic circlet / Magefist
- Fortitude
- Dream Diadem (14@)
- 30/10 Rare boots with high FR and CR
- 20 IAS Blood gloves with 10% CB, LR and MF
- Rare belt with 24 FHR, 19 strength, 36 life, and CR and LR
- Highlord's
- BKWB and 250/19 Ravenfrost
- Backback: 7 Burning GCs (mostly sust or life, but 1 each strength, dext and lightning damage), 1 Ruby GC of Sust, 9 slots for SCs (will fill out with resists and vita)

This should allow 70/40/70/>0 resists, > 86 FHR, with the main question how much vita she can pack on, with ~ 9.5k defense when Fortitude triggers. With the firepower she's bringing, I think she will quite strong, if a bit of a glass cannon that will require careful use of teleport to position for large packs and ranged heavy hitters.

Merc:
- Infinity eth Thresher
- Fortitude
- eth Vamp w shimmering charm with damage

 

[PhineasB]

Nikita, Dual Dream Zeal Enchantress, A4 Hell, Level 85
Alright, the Zeal-Sorc made it to A4 with snippets of time over the last few weekends. She ended up being p8 the whole way, with full clears for all A85 and all the temples in A3, and completing all quests.

She was sturdier than I had worried, mostly due to the crowd control from Confuse and Blind. Her cth shows in mid-70s or 80s on LCS, but I think it's higher than that due to Conviction from merc and AR ~5000 with Enchant. Her defense is much lower than I had anticipated, I guess due to lower defense stats on boots and belt. So she gets hit more than I had expected.

But, no matter, she plowed through without a death and quite strong. A few boss packs required retreats to avoid getting swarmed, but she mostly just mowed down groups. LCS shows 9k - 38k, so that makes sense. No drops of note, except a Biggins. She picked up a Lum and Ko, to compliment the Fal found in NM, so really no good drops.


I will probably get her to RoF before bed, so hoping to Mat her by next weekend.

 

[maxicek]

From calcs I did in the past, something like 1500AR + Conviction from Infinity = 8K AR without. So yes, your chance to hit is much better

 

[PhineasB]

Matriarch Nikita, Dual Dream Zeal Enchantress, Level 87

Nikita made it, nothing really of note to report. She stayed solid at p8 the whole way, death free until WSK and this challenging combo (her BO ran out and the amp did her in):


Beyond that, we rolled a few unbreakable FI/LI monsters, including Lister, but they were managed without too much trouble:

Disappointing on drops for the second playthrough in a row at p8, highest rune was the Fal (Ko from Hell HF). She was plenty powerful, but a bit fragile at times. Cool character but happy to finish her off.

 

[PhineasB]

Elinor, Chaos/Fury Whirling Assassin, Level 73, A1 Hell
The third character is ready to tackle Hell, thinking to keep her at p8 for A1, p5 for A2-A3, then p3 for A4-A5. My recollection is the physical melee doesn't scale, especially with PIs, but we'll see. Standard twinking for Assassin, Envy gear -> damage jewels/charms -> Bonesnap -> Ribby -> Trapper to level 60. That happened in beginning of A4, so she equipped Chaos and Fortitude, and this Claw:

Rune Barb
Suwayyah
One Hand Damage: 154 - 241
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 99
Required Dexterity: 99
Fingerprint: 0x92728988
Item Level: 95
Version: Expansion 1.10+
295% Enhanced Damage
+36 to Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)
+1204 to Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
8% Mana stolen per hit

She progressed to level 65 at end of A4 when we did full respec to Enigma and Fury. She then coasted through A5 NM.

Concept: Chaos + Fury is quite nice to hit 2-frame WW, with only 35 IAS needed, allowing Mara's and Fade for the aura to keep resists maxed or near-maxed in Hell (will be maxed in all but Cold with Anya quest). Standard WW-sin, with max claw mastery and Venom. I've maxed Death Sentry, with 6 hard points in Fire Blast for 7 shots, and will stick the rest of the skills into LS. Between the Chaos and Fury, we have staff mods that give BF (together with DS the option for nearing level to avoid WW bug) and Dragon Flight, which is on left-click for gathering the merc without needing to switch to teleport. Rather than going Reaper's route on the merc, I've gone with Infinity, to aid AR and complimenting CEs and lightning damage for the PIs that will be encountered. I think with Venom and some elemental SCs (plus magic damage from Chaos), we should be good to go.

Progress: Really solid leveling, quick and some decent drops. I think this circlet actually may be best option for my Novamancer, who still has Griffon's as best option:

She also picked up a Coral Small Charm of Sustenance, plus an Elemental Skiller with + gold find. Hell forge was an Io, and she also picked up lots of pgems that will be rolled. I've loaded quite a few Orts into the stash, so repairs shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Current gear is below:
- Fury Suwayyah / Chaos Runic Talons
- Swtich: CtA / eth Spirit Monarch (BO is mostly for the merc; Elinor's life pool is quite beefy)
- Enigma Mage Plate
- Guillame's w RJoF
- War Traveler's (I went with 50MF and + damage, even though Gores are likely better, but have Gores in Stash to swap in)
- 20 IAS Blood gloves with 9% CB, FR and Vita
- Rare belt with 24 FHR, solid FR and PR, and some strength and LR
- Mara's 29@
- Rare with Mana leech, FR and LR / Ravenfrost (244/20)
- Backback: 6 Sharp GCs (mostly vita or sust, but 1 FHR), 2 Shimmering GCs of Sust, 8 SCs with combo of Shimmering / Fine / Elemental Damage of Balance or Vita

This gives her 75/50/75/67 resists with Fade active, 86 FHR, 2-frame WW. She also has a robust like pool, so main challenges will likely be the usual amp ans unleechable combos.

Merc:
- Infinity eth Thresher
- eth Duriels w 1os (will likely swap in Fortitude)
- eth Vamp w shimmering jewel with damage

 

[PhineasB]

Elinor, Chaos/Fury Whirling Assassin, Level 83, A4 Hell
Elinor made smooth and quick work of the first three Acts of Hell over the last two weeks. I went p7 for A1, and then p5 for A2 and A3, clearing all A85 areas and all the temples, but otherwise playing direct. I ended up switching merc to Reapers (the PIs were frequent and slow enough to prompt the shift), and swapped in Fortitude for him, and went back to Gore's for Elinor, but otherwise set up is unchanged.

Elinor has been death-free so far, and the merc died once, to a PI/LI Bartuc with Holy Freeze and Amp. No finds of note except a Cobalt GC of Sustenance, with the highest rune a Ko. I'm enjoying the play style, with DFlight to initiate fights and then straight to WW, usually with a DS laid ahead of time, or in between twirls. I'm barely using CoS but it's available for lots of ranged attackers, which is handy.

I'll probably make some progress into A4 today, but have a lot of work to do tomorrow. So I may not finish her off until next weekend.

 

[PhineasB]

Matriarch Elinor, Chaos/Fury Whirling Assassin, Level 86

Elinor ended up finishing Act 4 on Saturday evening, and then tackled and finished A5 on Sunday, getting the third character in this Sept to Mat/Pat. She stayed at p5 the whole way (including Ancients and Baal), so p8 for A1 and then p5 for A2-A5, completing all quests and full-clearing all A85 areas, the A3 Temples and the A5 portal areas.

I jinxed Elinor's safety with the last post's note that had been death-free, dying at the first enemies encountered upon setting foot into the Steppes. All I can figure is that I didn't cast BO when I thought I had, because it was an extra strong Balrog pack mixed in with a PI Fingermage boss and pack, so leachable monsters mixed in. Merc dropped (without decrep proc'ing) and Elinor quickly followed. She safely retrieved her corpse and by then the packs had strung out and were easily handled. So really not sure what happened there :\

HF was a Lum, and Diablo dropped with ease:

A5 was similarly smooth, taking out Ancients after one reroll due to amp and very manageable rolls in second group:



She died once more due to sloppiness in WSK3 teleporting onto OK boss pack mixed in with PI witches, instead of past them as I had intended: the OK boss had Holy Freeze, and the merc and Elinor got decrep'ed and then amp'ed and into hit recovery before she could teleport out even while using all her big purples. Oops!

Lister was a nasty roll, but breakable PI and eventually managed outside of Baal's decrep range (you can see that from the earlier death I had used up the full rejuvs, so she managed with purchased health potions). Baal then fell in short order.


The only notable drop was a low-roll Eschuta's, which was sold. I did one extra Baal run to have her ping lvl 86. Hoping to post a Mat thread this week, and maybe progress the Necro into A2 Normal also.

 

[PhineasB]

FireMage, 3-Piece Trang's Lord of Mages with Infinity Merc, Level 73, A1 Hell
The fourth character is now ready to tackle Hell. With Infinity + Lower Resist, he got pretty strong at p8 in A5 NM, so I'm thinking to try out p7 for A1, but I'm guessing he will drop down to p3 before too long.

Twinking approach for him was Envy gear -> damage jewels/charms -> Bonesnap -> Ribby (as Fishymancer) -> Lord of Mages at level 42 when I could equip a backpack full of skillers, which was start of A1 NM. He then played with LR curse and Mages, with 1 point skellies, with slow-ish going for a twinked character. He equipped Trang's items as he hit levels, and then Enigma and Infinity for the Merc in NM Chaos Sanctuary, where he become quite diesel! He then moved through A5 NM with ease.

Concept: Fire Wall and elemental Mages, with Infinity and LR breaking most immunities and making elemental damage shine, and 1-point Skeletons primarily as meat shields, but doing solid damage with +skills and Might from the Merc, with Enigma to keep everyone well-positioned. An Insight IG rounds out the crew, with 2 facets to boost FW damage as much as possible. I'm pumping Golem Mastery to buff the Insight and hopefully minimize the need to recast (16 hard points so far), and then will shift to boosting Lower Resist (12 hard points, 25 with +skills currently; although I'm not sure a few more -eResists will matter, I think it's best investment for broken immunes given lack of other useful places to sink the points).

Progress: It was slower leveling than usual for my twinked characters, due to Fishy build not being really strong in late Normal and then Mages not being very strong in NM. The biggest issue with Mages, without teleport, is getting them to attack, and getting bottled up. I can't count how many times FireMage was all by himself with a couple Skellies while a single Mage was firing and all the rest, plus the merc, were stacked up. A bit frustrating, but generally I just ran ahead and pulled some Mages to me, and it worked alright. No notable drops, but NM HF was an Um, so finally a rune higher than Fal for this Sept And some pgems that are being rolled with a Nihl GC as he goes.

Current gear is below:
- 40@ HotO / Trang's Wing w Fire Facet
- Swtich: CtA / Lidless
- Enigma Light Plate
- Shako w Fire Facet
- Rare Boots with 37FR, 19 LR, 20 FWR, 24 MF
- Trang's Gloves
- Trang's Belt
- Mara's 29@
- BKWB / SoJ
- Backback: 8 Graverobbers (with life, strength, etc), SCs for resists and 20 FHR

In A1 Hell, he has 74/68/57/60, with 20 FHR and teleport, with firewall and fireball oSkils, with Lower Resist as curse and Infinity from the merc.

Merc:
- Infinity eth Thresher
- eth Fortitude
- eth Vamp w shimmering jewel with damage

 

[PhineasB]

FireMage, 3-Piece Trang's Lord of Mages with Infinity Merc, Level 81, A4 Hell
Several chunks of time yesterday and today saw FireMage progress through the first three Acts of Hell.

Smooth progress, with no deaths, no IG deaths, and only one merc death when I lost track of fact the merc had focused on a boss Blunderbore type that was PI and amp'ed. The standard approach is 14 mages, 8 skeletons, Insight IG and Merc trailing behind the Necro, with a quick teleport to bring everyone together and then step back, cast LR, and then cast fire walls. When there are lots of fast movers, I throw in some Fireballs for good measure, more to keep occupied than because they do much damage. The above picture taking down Meph gives a good picture of how the army shapes up.

Full clears for all A85 areas and all quests completed. I went with p3, which I think was a good balance: he killed pretty quickly in A1 for non FIs, but things slowed down noticeably in A3 with higher life FIs (the Drowned Dead in the Marsh were particularly slow going because they have physical resist, with several bosses being PI). I won't be shy about teleporting through a bit in A4 if we get lots of FIs.

I think @maxicek had asked about interesting builds in D2R with Sunder charms. I think this guy would be one, or going with a Fire + Poison Sunder Charm, allowing a Poison Necro with reasonably strong Firewall backup. The mages aren't that great damage-wise, so I think the poison route would be kind of cool.

 

[PhineasB]

Patriarch FireMage, 3-Piece Trang's Lord of Mages with Infinity Merc, Level 84
I ended up finishing the last two Acts with FireMage Sunday evening, for pretty fun playthrough. As expected, A4 had unbreakable FIs in some supply, mainly the Balrog types in the first two areas. The Merc and IG were plenty strong to sort them out, even a couple bosses, but I went straight around the perimeter looking for the stairs, with Izual right on the way.

RoF was full-cleared, as was CS, with some slower going due to more Balrogs. FireMage kept himself occupied targeting the Sandworm and Hag type spawners, while the Merc and IG sorted out the rest (and Mages contributing, probably ). I was worried about CS a bit, but it ended up being a fun challenge, with the Necro targeting OKs and Fingermages with Firewall, while the crew took on the rest. I had teleport/retreat twice when the Merc and IG took some heavy damage while amp'ed and partially surrounded by melee Knights and Balrogs. Diablo dropped quickly, with only one Skeleton lost to the lightning hose.

Act 5 was also smooth, with fewer FIs after the opening areas. Slow and steady progress, up to Anya rescue (which topped off resists for fire and cold, and nearly for the other two), with witches not really an issue with all the summons. Then to Nihl: Vipers took out the Merc, whom I left down to clear the level, needing to regularly replace skeletons that succumbed to bugged poison clouds. But Nihl was safely neutralized:

The first Ancients roll was non-amp, and even though two were unbreakable FI, we simply let the army do its thing (while the Necro hid behind structures to avoid leaper and whirler picking him out as a target):


WSK rolls were easy, waves were easily dispatched, and then Baal was taken down (and buried deep underground in the Worldstone Chamber )


The last pic shows the Firewall damage (~1800k), and Fireball pretty meager (and only used for low-life fastmovers). The Mages didn't really accomplish much damage if there were larger packs, but even in A5 I noticed monsters dying or very low life when only a handful were around and the Mages could focus fire with LR and Conviction active. Otherwise, the Merc and IG did a good bit of the killing, with FireMage's Firewalls contributing a fair bit (as seen by +life per kill replenish noticeably triggering when he took some damage).

Hoping to get the Pat write up done this week, and maybe progress the Barb into NM!

 

[PhineasB]

Wigand, WolfBarb with eTomby and Reaper's A2 Merc, Level 84, A1 Hell
Character number 5 is not only to Hell, but also fully leveled to equip the eTomby:

Reaver's Tomb Reaver
Cryptic Axe
Two Hand Damage: 218 - 1001
Durability: 33 of 33
Required Level: 84
Required Strength: 155
Required Dexterity: 93
Fingerprint: 0xf93c46a9
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Indestructible
+90% Increased Attack Speed
345% Enhanced Damage
+153% Damage to Undead
+272 to Attack Rating against Undead
All Resistances +37
10% Reanimate as: Returned
+11 Life after each Kill
58% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+4 to Light Radius Ethereal
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Socketed: Zod Rune
Socketed: Ruby Jewel of Fervor
 
Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x8e58b40e
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
39% Enhanced Damage

Zod Rune
Required Level: 69
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: Indestructible Armor: Indestructible Shields: Indestructible

Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x9e8b49c4
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
36% Enhanced Damage

I'm curious how he will perform compared to Reaver, the Fury Wolf who first wielded the weapon as part of my Runeword Bonanza Sept. I'm expecting him to be weaker due to Feral Rage being his attack (rather than Fury), but not by too much because he has Polearm Mastery for a damage boost. And he will also have a much sturdier Merc due to maxed BO and will himself be tankier from very high defense due to maxed Ironskin and Shout (because no other skill options do much) and that life pool.

Concept: Reaver was an absolute monster, and quite fun to play. So let's try the Barbarian cousin! As noted above, I think he will be slightly less powerful offensively, but beefier on defense and life pool. He doesn't have much of an unbreakable PI solution (only OW and some modest elemental damage, compared to Reaver's Azurewrath). But we can always park any of those.

Progress: Twinking approach for him was standard for my Barbs: Envy gear -> double swing Death's Set -> Frenzy Bloodletters-> dual eth Ginthers -> dual eth Oaths at level 49 (somewhere in A2 NM, I think). Smooth as butter on p8. I then went with dual Griefs when they became available (I think in A4 NM), and took down Baal at level 74. NM HF was a Shael, but he picked up an Um in CS, so all good!

I took detailed notes on the leveling to eTomby, but apparently forgot to hit save My recollection is doing a few more Baal runs to 76 (I believe it was four), and then I accidentally selected Hell and lost the Baal map. So I decided to just do A1 H Cave runs to 79 (I think it was only 3 runs on p8) and Wolfhowl. I then tried 2H Oath, but realized he didn't have the necessary strength, and I didn't want to respec. So I tried my eBotD Great Poleaxe, but needed Enigma to get enough strength, which meant losing Fortitude. After one Cave run, I switched to up'ed Ribby, but it was also a bit underwhelming even with Fortitude. So I went back to a Grief PB with Fortitude, and it was the winner (surprise surprise). After those three runs, I think he was nearing level 81. I did one more Cave run before switching to Masoleum and Crypt, on the theory that it wasn't that much longer of a run to reach than the Cave and better XP. It was only a few runs (I believe only 4) before he hit level 84 and was able to equip eTomby with a few strength charms.

Current Gear
- eTomby
- Swtich: dual HotO
- Fortitude Archon Plate
- Wolfhowl (5/4/6) with rare jewel with damage to mana and fire damage - I have a 5/6/6 but it's already personalized
- Gore Riders
- Crafted Gloves with 20 IAS, 9% CB, 2% ll, 27 FR and vita
- SoE
- Highlord's
- Rare with ml and @resists / Ravenfrost 250/19
- Backback: 8 +10 max Sharp GCs (1 with strength, the rest with life), 6 fine SCs with 20 FHR and vita and 1 steel SC with strength

Merc:
- Reaper's w RJoF
- eth Fortitude
- eth Vamp w elemental damage jewel

After completing the Den of Evil quest, I realized that I had forgotten to respec to the Polearm build, which explained why he wasn't as offensively powerful as I'd expected So a quick respec later, he has 75/51/80/75, with 20 FHR, nearly 3800 life when shifted and BO, and almost 18k defense with Shout and Chilling Armor active. He's now at Outer Cloister having progressed at p7.