Ubers Questions

[Excalibur]

Hey guys,

I have started farming the Ubers and I have some questions if anyone can answer.
Basically any Smiter Setup is easy to deal with them but sometimes dying may happen.
I noticed that Memphisto is the only real threat with his Conviction Aura. Even though my resists are maxed his aura still drops them to negative.
Also, it seems like I can't rely on Dracul's since the chance to cast Life Tap is quite small which leads to some deaths, mostly against Memphisto.

1. Are the Forgotten Sands, Furnace of Pain and Matron's Den level 85 areas?
Those areas have plenty monsters so just for a change it would be nice to farm them.

2. Does % damage to demons work with Smite? Does it work against Ubers?
In that case Chain of Honor would be a better solution than Fortitude?
Also thinking of switching HoZ with Exile for the greater chance to cast Life Tap in which case I will replace Dracul's Grasp's with 1.07 Loh (great fire absorb and more damage to demons)

3. Ubers are healing? So I've read you need "Chance to Open Wounds" to prevent that?
Currently I am wearing Goblin Toe for the better chance of Crushing Blow but if I switch my Dracul's I would need to equip Gore Riders in that case.

4. I've noticed most guides are focused on items that absorb fire/lighting/cold damage.
Running Ubers quite several times I would say you only need lighting absorb against Mephisto?
Guides are suggesting Dwarf Star and Thundergod's Vigor but I think I will swap the Dwarf Star with a high resist ring?

My current setup is:
Helmet: Guillaume's with Um
Amulet: Maras
Weapon: Grief
Armor: Fortitude
Shield: HoZ with Um
Gloves: Dracul's
Ring 1: Ravenfrost
Ring 2: Dwarf Star
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor
Boots: Goblin toes
Switch: Call to arms with Spirit

Resists are: Total / In-game / with Conviction
Fire: 108 / 84 / -17
Cold: 108 / 75 / -17
Lightning: 119 / 95 / -6
Poison: 108 / 75 / 75

 

[Kartongen]

[...]
1. Are the Forgotten Sands, Furnace of Pain and Matron's Den level 85 areas?
Those areas have plenty monsters so just for a change it would be nice to farm them.
[...]

I can't add much of value to your questions, but this point in particlular should be easy to test. Just pick up anything dropped by them and check ilvl in gomule.

 

[maxicek]

What is in your inventory? Can’t you just stack the Lightning Resist there?

 

[art_vandelay]

Assuming that they didn't change the mechanics at all (which they promised) the AB wiki should still contain useful info on this.

2. Does % damage to demons work with Smite? Does it work against Ubers?

Nope:

https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Smite

3. Ubers are healing? So I've read you need "Chance to Open Wounds" to prevent that?

See the fourth bullet point:

https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pandemonium_Event#Organ_collecting

Resists are: Total / In-game / with Conviction
Fire: 108 / 84 / -17
Cold: 108 / 75 / -17
Lightning: 119 / 95 / -6
Poison: 108 / 75 / 75

Mephisto supposedly applies level 20 conviction which grants -125% to Fire, Cold and Lightning resistances (see the AB wiki link for the Pandemonium Event) so those numbers look off. In fact the difference between what you give as In-game and with Conviction are not a multiple of 5 (which is what conviction comes in). Do you see these numbers in the LCS (Lying Character Screen) or did you calculate them yourself? Note that the 20% penalty to the resistance debuff only applies to player conviction targeted at immune monsters.

***

Another fun fact: In order to counter Mephisto's conviction some people equip Treachery and stand in one of the fires next to the River of Flame waypoint. Once Fade triggers they switch to their actual armor and do UT.

 

[saracen85]

Another fun fact: In order to counter Mephisto's conviction some people equip Treachery and stand in one of the fires next to the River of Flame waypoint. Once Fade triggers they switch to their actual armor and do UT.

I thought they (paladins) purposely switch to level 21 conviction vs meph?

 

[ffs]

As for Life Tap, I've been using Exile which pretty much guarantees it triggers. That's with Grief, I think Last Wish + HoZ is what people use to min-max but I wouldn't bother with stuff like that, it's not like ubers are a non-stop farming target...

Alternatively you can use a Life Tap wand, that also solves the issue. Same with the Treachery Fade proc for resist. I've seen people running ubers on super budget setups (think 4 PD shield, black weapon, duress armor), and these two things seem to do the trick nicely.

 

[Babyhell]

Just get your own conviction aura to 21+, and you're safe vs Mephisto

Trolling? Maybe...

 

[Excalibur]

What is in your inventory? Can’t you just stack the Lightning Resist there?

It's filled with plain health charms. I could do that yes, it's just that I still haven't moved anything to D2R other than my Smiter.

@art_vandelay Thank you for useful links and info. Regarding the calculations I even did them manually and they seem ok to me?

@ffs I really hate switching equipment so much but it's a good alternative. I've died already too many times to Memphisto just because life tap is not triggering.

 

[NorthDakota]

I slide one point into zeal, spam purple potions until zeal procs lifetap. I'm not sure if this is a good strategy, it's just what has worked for me on mephy. Seems like even though zeal is missing some of the time zeal still on average is proccing lifetap faster than smite. Sometimes I'm using zero purple pots because it procs so quickly, sometimes I'm using 1-2 before it procs.

 

[teddeeboy]

When calcing the resists for Uber Tris you start at -225% in total under Mephs aura and Hell penalty, -195 with the 3 Anya quests Unless you get surrounded by all 3 Ubers quickly upon entering the portal, over stacking cold and lightning res against Meph are the elements that are needed more than sorb. IMO, 2K life and 75 cold and light res after penalties is safer then -res and 2.7K life to prevent the OHKO. However you can get the max res go for it. If you have Life Tap trigger all damage is quickly leeched and the good suggestions above plus the gear you already use is good for triggering it
You could use a 1pt Sal for a lvl 4 Sal with your gear only against Meph and accept a 7 frame smite attack with a +80 boost to resists until you get a nice Torch and Anni and res charms.

I second Duress, Duress is better than just budget with the 45 Cold Res and 15 all res, CB and OW and decent defence. With Dracs the Pally's OW is at 58% each hit which will stop any regen.

GL

 

[Sanae]

I did my first Ubers a few days ago with nearly the same eq as you, but I used Black as a weapon and Duress on armor, Treachery for prebuff, Goreriders instead of Goblin's Toe and a Life Tap wand on switch, was pretty easy to be honest. 105%CB rocks No CTA, had 1,4k life I think, didn't even have max fpa Smite. The Life Tap wand is a must, if you're only depending on Draculs for Life Tap you will probably die.

 

[Excalibur]

I slide one point into zeal, spam purple potions until zeal procs lifetap. I'm not sure if this is a good strategy, it's just what has worked for me on mephy. Seems like even though zeal is missing some of the time zeal still on average is proccing lifetap faster than smite. Sometimes I'm using zero purple pots because it procs so quickly, sometimes I'm using 1-2 before it procs.

That sounds a bit more risky. Considering that the AR will be low with only one point in Zeal I think it will be harder to trigger it.
Memphi actually goes down pretty fast so sometimes Life Tap doesn't even trigger. But it's an intresting idea, thanks for sharing!

When calcing the resists for Uber Tris you start at -225% in total under Mephs aura and Hell penalty, -195 with the 3 Anya quests Unless you get surrounded by all 3 Ubers quickly upon entering the portal, over stacking cold and lightning res against Meph are the elements that are needed more than sorb. IMO, 2K life and 75 cold and light res after penalties is safer then -res and 2.7K life to prevent the OHKO. However you can get the max res go for it. If you have Life Tap trigger all damage is quickly leeched and the good suggestions above plus the gear you already use is good for triggering it
You could use a 1pt Sal for a lvl 4 Sal with your gear only against Meph and accept a 7 frame smite attack with a +80 boost to resists until you get a nice Torch and Anni and res charms.

I agree that higher resists would be better than higher health with negative resistances. But I will try to achieve both since as it seems it's not that hard.

The Life Tap wand is a must, if you're only depending on Draculs for Life Tap you will probably die.

Yes, Draculs should go as it is quite unreliable in this occasion.

Eventually, one point in Salvation can solve these problems. Keep Smiting Mephisto with Salvation on until Life Tap triggers then switch to Fanaticism.

 

[snickersnack]

Yes, Draculs should go as it is quite unreliable in this occasion.

As I recall from running ubers many, many years ago on bnet, I used both a wand and Drac's. Use the wand to start, then get to smiting, and Drac's will keep Life Tap going. Having to disengage, recast, and reengage every X seconds would be risky.

 

[Sanae]

Yes, Draculs should go as it is quite unreliable in this occasion.

I would keep them, like snickersnack mentioned they're useful to keep it going + Life Tap from draculs is a lot bigger, so you usually tap some minions as well, useful when you kill the boss.

 

[thefranklin]

Pro Tip: Wear Marrowalks for the ability to cast life tap without weapon switching. You have open wounds on dracs, so that is covered. I think I usually still had duress on when doing this, so 50% cb was always enough.

On ladder, I always did budget setups. I like to use a 4 pdiamond 40+ resist shield, treachery prebuff, and charms to get to max resists so I don't have to take fanatacism off. Another way to do it is stack ias and just give in and use sanctuary for another resist boost.

 

[Excalibur]

I would keep them, like snickersnack mentioned they're useful to keep it going + Life Tap from draculs is a lot bigger, so you usually tap some minions as well, useful when you kill the boss.

I meant after equiping Exile!

Pro Tip: Wear Marrowalks for the ability to cast life tap without weapon switching. You have open wounds on dracs, so that is covered. I think I usually still had duress on when doing this, so 50% cb was always enough.

That's indeed a pro tip!

 

[d2lover]

I find CoA 2 socs stuffed with Ums the perfect helm for it

I don't think optimizing for speed is necessary, tristram takes not much time anyway

otherwise all would pass on LT and use gaveler of pain