The Warrior-Monk of Uber-Tristram
So, what I originally wanted to do was to ask for advice concerning my kicker...
You know, nothing big. Just a few quick questions. Then I started writing those questions and... well... you're looking at the result.
In the end, I decided to list all the vitals and let everyone bash at her instead. I've also added my reasoning for most of the choices, so if you disagree with anything you can at least see what my point of view is based on and help correct it. Basically, I am looking for any advice on how to improve my character and pointers on what I have done wrong. I built this character based mainly on the Uber-Tristram Warrior-Monk guide in the sticky, but since that guide is fairly outdated, I'm sure I could have done something different. This is also my first-ever "twinked" character in DII, so that might be a factor since I don't have a lot of experience building characters who actually have good gear options available. The character reached level 90 yesterday and I consider the build to be complete, with any more skills / stat points from higher levels being just a bonus, since it's fairly unrealistic to get a much higher level without some serious commitment (and I have other characters planned anyway).
I have attempted to solo Uber-Tristram with this following build. Once. Well, technically it was two players. Since I have two copies of the game, I had another character sit in the game on a different user account just in case the connection decided to get iffy. I guess that means the enemies were slightly tougher than they'd usually be, but it didn't particularly worry me too much. Well, the mini-ubers were simple enough. Duriel died in ~30 sec, Lilith in ~35, and Izual (surprisingly) in less than ~15. This was my first and only time killing them, so I suppose I could do it faster (didn't use traps, CoS, shadow, merc...). Uber-Trist itself, however, was a complete and utter mess.
Since I had never even been to UT before, I did not know what to expect or how to deal with the Ubers. For starters, I completely screwed up and brought my merc and shadow with me. They immediately proceeded to draw all three Ubers to the portal and then promptly drop dead. I did manage to kill all three without even using a single potion though, so I guess that would qualify as a success. It took a while to get them separated again, but once I did, they fell like bricks. It was quite a strange sight being surrounded by large demons while Diablo was whacking away at me like crazy. I literally couldn't see myself under the mass of all the enemies, but I kept kickin' and eventually took them all down. Wicked.
Enough blabber, though. Time to get down to brass tacks. This assassin is meant for general PvM as well as Uber-Tristram and mini-uber runs.
I. Attributes
Strength: 50
Just enough to reach the strength requirement of upped Gore Riders / Stormshield (156) with all the +strength items added.
Dexterity: 125
Enough to reach max block at level 90 (203) with all the +dexterity items added. About half of the stat points after lvl90 would go here in order to keep up max block, which needs about 145 hard points spent at lvl99.
Vitality: 345
Everything else, naturally.
Energy: 25
I'm never-ever-ever touching this with any build on any character.
II. Skills
Martial Arts: 23
- 20 Dragon Talon
- 1 Dragon Claw (Prerequisite)
- 1 Dragon Tail (Prerequisite)
- 1 Dragon Flight
I maxed Talon because I knew beforehand I was going to aim for 6 kicks (lvl30 Talon). Probably would've maxed it anyway for the AR / dam bonus. Dragon Flight is a very nice one-point wonder in my opinion and definitely worth a point, especially since I'm not using Enigma.
Shadow Disciplines: 51-60
- 20 Shadow Master
- 20 Venom
- 4 Fade (for 50% DR)
- 1 in all other skills
Shadow Master makes life easier in PvM and is surprisingly difficult to kill (unless you wander off and she "poofs"). Although her damage might not be that impressive, she does draw enemy fire and cast Mind Blast and Death Sentry with great regularity. Venom naturally provides a large damage boost to the kicks. Fade gets four points to reach lvl15 after prebuffs for maximum physical damage reduction (50%). Other skills are either prerequisites or semi-useful one-point wonders (Mind Blast). Any skill points after lvl90 would probably go to Mind Blast, since I see no other useful alternative and I do occasionally happen to use it.
Traps: 27
- 1 Fire Blast (Prerequisite)
- 1 Shock Web (Prerequisite)
- 1 Charged Bolt Senrty (Prerequisite)
- 1 Lightning Sentry (Prerequisite)
- 20 Death Senry
- 1 Wake of Fire (Prerequisite)
- 1 Blade Sentinel (Prerequisite)
- 1 Blade Fury
Maybe it's just because I love Corpse Explosion so much on my summoning necromancer, but Death Sentry gets the full 20 from me. Several sentries blowing up corpses all around really helps clear areas at gut-wrenching speed, which is especially nice since this build doesn't otherwise do very well against large masses of enemies in PvM (swarms of flayers, for example). I also put one point in Blade Fury because of the aforementioned guide, but I seldom find myself using it, if ever. I guess the shurikens are mostly for style
III. Equipment
Weapon: Stormlash (Socket: Shael Rune)
Since the kicker can't really compete with other high-level characters in terms of pure damage and destruction, the main focus is on Crushing Blow. Stormlash has a very fast attack speed, great Crushing Blow and most importantly: a chance to cast Static Field, which is basically Crushing Blow v.2, only it applies to several opponents at once. Never even considered Last Wish for this slot. Admittedly, the price also had something to do with it
Shield: Stormshield (Socket: Um Rune)
A superb shield for any max-block setup and it comes with huge resists to boot.
Body Armor: "Duress" Archon Plate
Here's why: For one thing, I don't like the idea of using Enigma on every single character I happen to make. Secondly, this armor has great FHR, CB, and OW mods, in addition to decent resists and ED% for DT. Thirdly, it's much-much cheaper than other end-game runewords. So there.
Helm: Guillaume's Face (Socket: Um Rune)
A staple piece of gear. Can't even think of a reasonable alternative.
Boots: Gore Riders (Upgraded)
I definitely prefer these over Shadow Dancers. No contest.
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor
For the massive strength + vitality bonuses and in-built anti-gloam mods.
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp
Methinks this is the only choice here. Strength and life leech with the extra important (and mandatory) Life Tap for Ubers.
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope
A universally good all-around amulet. No surprise here.
Ring #1: Raven Frost
For the great dexterity and AR bonuses and, of course, anti-freeze.
Ring #2: Manald Heal
I know this ring is definitely not on the same level with the rest of the gear, but all I really need for the last item slot is mana leech, which the Manald provides. Some kind of a rare ring with decent mana leech and a number of other useful mods (life leech, strength, dexterity, life, attack rating) would probably be ideal here.
Finding a good rare ring to replace Manald isn't that much of a priority to me at least, so for now I'm happy with what I have. This also means that all the equipment is made up entirely of unique items, with a single set item and a fairly cheap runeword added into the mix. On a slightly related sidenote, this character looks totally fierce in the game, especially when compared to all the other high-level characters who are walking around with dirty dishmops on their heads.
IV. Pre-Buff
Switch Weapons: 2 x Bartuc's Cut-Throat
A great alternative for the usual "Call to Arms" / "Spirit" prebuff setup the majority of characters use (and a great deal cheaper!). The only real difference between the two is the life / mana boost you'd get with CtA (obviously nice to have but not a major necessity). Naturally, any magic claws with +3 to Shadow skills are a better choice, but I prefer the cheap and easy-to-get Bartuc's over spending hours trying to find a suitable pair at Anya's.
Stash: Demon Limb and Trang-Oul's Claws
Demon Limb adds a great deal of AR and extra fire damage (every little bit helps when fighting the ubers). When wearing Trang's gloves while casting Venom, the prebuff gets an extra 25% to damage, so that's a neat trick to use occasionally. I haven't really used these outside Uber-killing, however, but I like to know that I can do so if need be.
V. Inventory
Unique Charms
Annihilus and Hellfire Torch. No-brainers, obviously.
Grand Charms
4 Martial Arts Skillers
1 Shadow Disciplines Skiller
All with Strength / Dexterity adds and one with 12% FHR to help reach the 86% breakpoint. I know I could theoretically have more skillers, but I also have a +all resists grand charm taking up one of the extra skiller slots and I carry both Tomes in my inventory, which takes up another. In addition, I've left 2 x 4 slots free to pick up random junk I might find. I guess I simply prefer comfort over power
Small Charms
All for different resistances with the occasional strength / dexterity adds. One of them has 5% FHR to help reach the 86% breakpoint. Otherwise, these are fairly unremarkable as I have no intention to go hunting for 5/20's and the like. I actually don't have any +life on any of my charms (great or small), and I'm pretty much fine with that.
VI. Mercenary
I chose in favor of the Act II Normal Defensive mercenary with Defiance Aura. This decision is partly influenced by the others I play with, some of who have Holy Freeze mercenaries and I figure the more useful stacking bonuses the better. I don't really depend on the mercenary (especially in UT) and simply consider him to be an extremely durable meatshield with a few beneficial auras added in for good measure. The merc carries what I assume is the "default" set-up for an Act II mercenary (and ironically much more expensive than the equipment on the character itself):
Weapon: Ethereal "Infinity" (Colossus Voulge)
Body Armor: Ethereal "Fortitude" (Lacquered Plate)
Helm: Ethereal Andariel's Visage
VII. Some Statistics
Obviously, the Assassin isn't perfect, but I'd like to think she's effective at the very least. Some main stats follow:
Chance of Crushing Blow: 98%
Chance of Open Wounds: 68%
Chance to Block: 75%
Faster Hit Recovery: 87% (four frames)
Faster Block Rate: 35% (three frames)
Physical Resistance (with Fade): 50%
Fire Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 75% / 135%
Cold Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 75% / 225%
Lightning Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 85% / 160%
Poison Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 75% / 135%
Life Stolen Per Hit: 9%
Mana Stolen Per Hit: 7%
Life: ~1500
Mana: ~300
Defense (base): ~2700
Defense (with Defiance + CoS): ~11k
Attack Rating (base): ~11k
Attack Rating (with Enchant): ~13k
Kick Speed (with BoS): 7/3 (seven frames for initial kick, three for the other five follow-up kicks)
Kick Speed (without BoS): 8/3
(+ Cannot Be Frozen, 20% + Cold / Lightning Absorb, CtC Life Tap / Static Field / Tornado / Firestorm...)
Now on to damage. This is really hard to calculate thanks to the lying character screen not displaying added elemental damage or even Venom bonuses and not considering things like Open Wounds, etc. The listed damage is actually largely irrelevant, since the main dose of pain comes from CB / SF anyway. I've listed some rough math for the sake of it, though.
Be warned, this does not take into consideration the resistances and immunities the monsters may (and will!) have, as well as enemy physical damage reduction (at least 33-50% for most monsters). This result in much lower actual damage than displayed. Doing the math with all that in mind would require a brain far greater than mine. Also, even with such a high attack rating, there is only about an 80-85% chance to hit Minions of Destruction, for example, so not all the kicks connect.
Bearing all that in mind (or not), I've added the rough figures for damage per second for Dragon Talon. This means the base DT damage + elemental damage + 19/18-frame Venom (depending on BoS). Although these results are fairly accurate, they do not factor in missed kicks (10-15%), enemy resistances to various elements (0-100%+) and enemy physical damage reduction (25-75%-ish) because it varies wildly from monster-to-monster. On the other hand, it doesn't count OW, CB and SF either, which make up the majority of the kick damage. In an ideal and simplified world, however, the Talon would dish out the following amount of damage per second:
Without BoS ("8/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~4.9k - 11.8k
Damage (With Venom): ~6.8k - 14k
With BoS ("7/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~5.2k - 12.4k
Damage (With Venom): ~7.1k - 14.8k
With Demon Limb + Trang's prebuffs:
Without BoS ("8/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~5.5k - 12.5k
Damage (With Venom): ~7.4k - 15k
With BoS ("7/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~5.7k - 13k
Damage (With Venom): ~7.7k - 15.6k
I don't think it's possible to list any more relevant information
Critique away!
So, what I originally wanted to do was to ask for advice concerning my kicker...
You know, nothing big. Just a few quick questions. Then I started writing those questions and... well... you're looking at the result.
In the end, I decided to list all the vitals and let everyone bash at her instead. I've also added my reasoning for most of the choices, so if you disagree with anything you can at least see what my point of view is based on and help correct it. Basically, I am looking for any advice on how to improve my character and pointers on what I have done wrong. I built this character based mainly on the Uber-Tristram Warrior-Monk guide in the sticky, but since that guide is fairly outdated, I'm sure I could have done something different. This is also my first-ever "twinked" character in DII, so that might be a factor since I don't have a lot of experience building characters who actually have good gear options available. The character reached level 90 yesterday and I consider the build to be complete, with any more skills / stat points from higher levels being just a bonus, since it's fairly unrealistic to get a much higher level without some serious commitment (and I have other characters planned anyway).
I have attempted to solo Uber-Tristram with this following build. Once. Well, technically it was two players. Since I have two copies of the game, I had another character sit in the game on a different user account just in case the connection decided to get iffy. I guess that means the enemies were slightly tougher than they'd usually be, but it didn't particularly worry me too much. Well, the mini-ubers were simple enough. Duriel died in ~30 sec, Lilith in ~35, and Izual (surprisingly) in less than ~15. This was my first and only time killing them, so I suppose I could do it faster (didn't use traps, CoS, shadow, merc...). Uber-Trist itself, however, was a complete and utter mess.
Since I had never even been to UT before, I did not know what to expect or how to deal with the Ubers. For starters, I completely screwed up and brought my merc and shadow with me. They immediately proceeded to draw all three Ubers to the portal and then promptly drop dead. I did manage to kill all three without even using a single potion though, so I guess that would qualify as a success. It took a while to get them separated again, but once I did, they fell like bricks. It was quite a strange sight being surrounded by large demons while Diablo was whacking away at me like crazy. I literally couldn't see myself under the mass of all the enemies, but I kept kickin' and eventually took them all down. Wicked.
Enough blabber, though. Time to get down to brass tacks. This assassin is meant for general PvM as well as Uber-Tristram and mini-uber runs.
I. Attributes
Strength: 50
Just enough to reach the strength requirement of upped Gore Riders / Stormshield (156) with all the +strength items added.
Dexterity: 125
Enough to reach max block at level 90 (203) with all the +dexterity items added. About half of the stat points after lvl90 would go here in order to keep up max block, which needs about 145 hard points spent at lvl99.
Vitality: 345
Everything else, naturally.
Energy: 25
I'm never-ever-ever touching this with any build on any character.
II. Skills
Martial Arts: 23
- 20 Dragon Talon
- 1 Dragon Claw (Prerequisite)
- 1 Dragon Tail (Prerequisite)
- 1 Dragon Flight
I maxed Talon because I knew beforehand I was going to aim for 6 kicks (lvl30 Talon). Probably would've maxed it anyway for the AR / dam bonus. Dragon Flight is a very nice one-point wonder in my opinion and definitely worth a point, especially since I'm not using Enigma.
Shadow Disciplines: 51-60
- 20 Shadow Master
- 20 Venom
- 4 Fade (for 50% DR)
- 1 in all other skills
Shadow Master makes life easier in PvM and is surprisingly difficult to kill (unless you wander off and she "poofs"). Although her damage might not be that impressive, she does draw enemy fire and cast Mind Blast and Death Sentry with great regularity. Venom naturally provides a large damage boost to the kicks. Fade gets four points to reach lvl15 after prebuffs for maximum physical damage reduction (50%). Other skills are either prerequisites or semi-useful one-point wonders (Mind Blast). Any skill points after lvl90 would probably go to Mind Blast, since I see no other useful alternative and I do occasionally happen to use it.
Traps: 27
- 1 Fire Blast (Prerequisite)
- 1 Shock Web (Prerequisite)
- 1 Charged Bolt Senrty (Prerequisite)
- 1 Lightning Sentry (Prerequisite)
- 20 Death Senry
- 1 Wake of Fire (Prerequisite)
- 1 Blade Sentinel (Prerequisite)
- 1 Blade Fury
Maybe it's just because I love Corpse Explosion so much on my summoning necromancer, but Death Sentry gets the full 20 from me. Several sentries blowing up corpses all around really helps clear areas at gut-wrenching speed, which is especially nice since this build doesn't otherwise do very well against large masses of enemies in PvM (swarms of flayers, for example). I also put one point in Blade Fury because of the aforementioned guide, but I seldom find myself using it, if ever. I guess the shurikens are mostly for style
III. Equipment
Weapon: Stormlash (Socket: Shael Rune)
Since the kicker can't really compete with other high-level characters in terms of pure damage and destruction, the main focus is on Crushing Blow. Stormlash has a very fast attack speed, great Crushing Blow and most importantly: a chance to cast Static Field, which is basically Crushing Blow v.2, only it applies to several opponents at once. Never even considered Last Wish for this slot. Admittedly, the price also had something to do with it
Shield: Stormshield (Socket: Um Rune)
A superb shield for any max-block setup and it comes with huge resists to boot.
Body Armor: "Duress" Archon Plate
Here's why: For one thing, I don't like the idea of using Enigma on every single character I happen to make. Secondly, this armor has great FHR, CB, and OW mods, in addition to decent resists and ED% for DT. Thirdly, it's much-much cheaper than other end-game runewords. So there.
Helm: Guillaume's Face (Socket: Um Rune)
A staple piece of gear. Can't even think of a reasonable alternative.
Boots: Gore Riders (Upgraded)
I definitely prefer these over Shadow Dancers. No contest.
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor
For the massive strength + vitality bonuses and in-built anti-gloam mods.
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp
Methinks this is the only choice here. Strength and life leech with the extra important (and mandatory) Life Tap for Ubers.
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope
A universally good all-around amulet. No surprise here.
Ring #1: Raven Frost
For the great dexterity and AR bonuses and, of course, anti-freeze.
Ring #2: Manald Heal
I know this ring is definitely not on the same level with the rest of the gear, but all I really need for the last item slot is mana leech, which the Manald provides. Some kind of a rare ring with decent mana leech and a number of other useful mods (life leech, strength, dexterity, life, attack rating) would probably be ideal here.
Finding a good rare ring to replace Manald isn't that much of a priority to me at least, so for now I'm happy with what I have. This also means that all the equipment is made up entirely of unique items, with a single set item and a fairly cheap runeword added into the mix. On a slightly related sidenote, this character looks totally fierce in the game, especially when compared to all the other high-level characters who are walking around with dirty dishmops on their heads.
IV. Pre-Buff
Switch Weapons: 2 x Bartuc's Cut-Throat
A great alternative for the usual "Call to Arms" / "Spirit" prebuff setup the majority of characters use (and a great deal cheaper!). The only real difference between the two is the life / mana boost you'd get with CtA (obviously nice to have but not a major necessity). Naturally, any magic claws with +3 to Shadow skills are a better choice, but I prefer the cheap and easy-to-get Bartuc's over spending hours trying to find a suitable pair at Anya's.
Stash: Demon Limb and Trang-Oul's Claws
Demon Limb adds a great deal of AR and extra fire damage (every little bit helps when fighting the ubers). When wearing Trang's gloves while casting Venom, the prebuff gets an extra 25% to damage, so that's a neat trick to use occasionally. I haven't really used these outside Uber-killing, however, but I like to know that I can do so if need be.
V. Inventory
Unique Charms
Annihilus and Hellfire Torch. No-brainers, obviously.
Grand Charms
4 Martial Arts Skillers
1 Shadow Disciplines Skiller
All with Strength / Dexterity adds and one with 12% FHR to help reach the 86% breakpoint. I know I could theoretically have more skillers, but I also have a +all resists grand charm taking up one of the extra skiller slots and I carry both Tomes in my inventory, which takes up another. In addition, I've left 2 x 4 slots free to pick up random junk I might find. I guess I simply prefer comfort over power
Small Charms
All for different resistances with the occasional strength / dexterity adds. One of them has 5% FHR to help reach the 86% breakpoint. Otherwise, these are fairly unremarkable as I have no intention to go hunting for 5/20's and the like. I actually don't have any +life on any of my charms (great or small), and I'm pretty much fine with that.
VI. Mercenary
I chose in favor of the Act II Normal Defensive mercenary with Defiance Aura. This decision is partly influenced by the others I play with, some of who have Holy Freeze mercenaries and I figure the more useful stacking bonuses the better. I don't really depend on the mercenary (especially in UT) and simply consider him to be an extremely durable meatshield with a few beneficial auras added in for good measure. The merc carries what I assume is the "default" set-up for an Act II mercenary (and ironically much more expensive than the equipment on the character itself):
Weapon: Ethereal "Infinity" (Colossus Voulge)
Body Armor: Ethereal "Fortitude" (Lacquered Plate)
Helm: Ethereal Andariel's Visage
VII. Some Statistics
Obviously, the Assassin isn't perfect, but I'd like to think she's effective at the very least. Some main stats follow:
Chance of Crushing Blow: 98%
Chance of Open Wounds: 68%
Chance to Block: 75%
Faster Hit Recovery: 87% (four frames)
Faster Block Rate: 35% (three frames)
Physical Resistance (with Fade): 50%
Fire Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 75% / 135%
Cold Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 75% / 225%
Lightning Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 85% / 160%
Poison Resistance (in hell without Fade / in hell with Fade + stacked resists): 75% / 135%
Life Stolen Per Hit: 9%
Mana Stolen Per Hit: 7%
Life: ~1500
Mana: ~300
Defense (base): ~2700
Defense (with Defiance + CoS): ~11k
Attack Rating (base): ~11k
Attack Rating (with Enchant): ~13k
Kick Speed (with BoS): 7/3 (seven frames for initial kick, three for the other five follow-up kicks)
Kick Speed (without BoS): 8/3
(+ Cannot Be Frozen, 20% + Cold / Lightning Absorb, CtC Life Tap / Static Field / Tornado / Firestorm...)
Now on to damage. This is really hard to calculate thanks to the lying character screen not displaying added elemental damage or even Venom bonuses and not considering things like Open Wounds, etc. The listed damage is actually largely irrelevant, since the main dose of pain comes from CB / SF anyway. I've listed some rough math for the sake of it, though.
Be warned, this does not take into consideration the resistances and immunities the monsters may (and will!) have, as well as enemy physical damage reduction (at least 33-50% for most monsters). This result in much lower actual damage than displayed. Doing the math with all that in mind would require a brain far greater than mine. Also, even with such a high attack rating, there is only about an 80-85% chance to hit Minions of Destruction, for example, so not all the kicks connect.
Bearing all that in mind (or not), I've added the rough figures for damage per second for Dragon Talon. This means the base DT damage + elemental damage + 19/18-frame Venom (depending on BoS). Although these results are fairly accurate, they do not factor in missed kicks (10-15%), enemy resistances to various elements (0-100%+) and enemy physical damage reduction (25-75%-ish) because it varies wildly from monster-to-monster. On the other hand, it doesn't count OW, CB and SF either, which make up the majority of the kick damage. In an ideal and simplified world, however, the Talon would dish out the following amount of damage per second:
Without BoS ("8/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~4.9k - 11.8k
Damage (With Venom): ~6.8k - 14k
With BoS ("7/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~5.2k - 12.4k
Damage (With Venom): ~7.1k - 14.8k
With Demon Limb + Trang's prebuffs:
Without BoS ("8/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~5.5k - 12.5k
Damage (With Venom): ~7.4k - 15k
With BoS ("7/3")
Damage (Without Venom): ~5.7k - 13k
Damage (With Venom): ~7.7k - 15.6k
I don't think it's possible to list any more relevant information
Critique away!
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