Diablo II

[Aikanaro]

why defiance? i think im maxing zeal, sacrifice, fanat, and holy shield.

Defiance gives a passive bonus to Holy Shield, boosting your defense even more whenever HS is on.

Oh, and I was already corrected earlier, I don't think Tesla will add lightning damage to Smite's attack. You'd just get the Aura damage.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Defiance synergizes VERY well with Holy Shield.

[segmentation fault]

but only for defense right? i dont think defense can really matter against ubers i mean yeah you dont want to waltz in with no defense but i think i will hold my own.

[Aikanaro]

What's the highest defense anyone here has gotten before, with Defiance and Holy shield both on? I've gotten over 10K without Defiance maxed before...

[Mighty Jalapeno]

but only for defense right? i dont think defense can really matter against ubers i mean yeah you dont want to waltz in with no defense but i think i will hold my own.

I forgot, Ubers are 99% of the game.

[segmentation fault]

I forgot, Ubers are 99% of the game.

well i said i wanted to make it primarily for ubers...

[Mighty Jalapeno]

I know. It seems a little pointless, though.

"Here's a build guaranteed to kill Ubers with no real skill or effort required!" Might as well just start punching old ladies, if you know you'll win.

[Gelsamel]

Eh, with shitty gear it's actually moderately challenging. With a LW PB it's piss easy. Also If I remember correctly you kinda want a few points in that +resist aura or Uber Mephisto will raep joo.

Again, a lot of people, myself included, have a lot of fun building good builds. If that means that our build is so good that we rape everything, I'm happy with that .

[segmentation fault]

the challenge is in getting those good items to make good builds.

[Kag]

Oh, and I was already corrected earlier, I don't think Tesla will add lightning damage to Smite's attack. You'd just get the Aura damage.

You wouldn't want it anyway, Fanaticism's bonuses are a lot more valuable for smite. The way it went in my head was: Smite-spam for the crushing blow, then switch to tesla to finish the job.

Not that the hybrid is at all necessary, both builds can utterly destroy pretty much anything, it just seemed like a natural step, since they overlap so much in skills.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

the challenge is in getting those good items to make good builds.

Not particularly. I entered a game where people were giving away Elite Uniques and Runewords last night. Just making a pile in Act 1. I picked up some stuff.

However, if you want to get all the items YOURSELF... then you'd want Defiance, since you're not fighting Ubers.

[segmentation fault]

...really? people do that?

wait, was this ladder?

[Gelsamel]

the challenge is in getting those good items to make good builds.

That's true. I can't farm for shit, so I just solely trade and trade and traded and always traded for what I believed was a better deal (and I was right most of the time) I eventually got a Death, and then managed to trade that for a grief, and I got a really really shitty LW basically the same way, actually I think it was from a torch that I got. The point is I got all my gear through trading and a very very small amount of items that I found.

[Mzyxptlk]

The coolest build I've seen so far is dual Dream+HoJ+Dragon for lvl30 holy fire/lightning, 20 conviction plus 20 resist fire/lightning and 20 salvation for synergies. Awesome.

[Gelsamel]

Dual Dream is piss easy isn't it?

[segmentation fault]

oh can someone explain to me the "aura stack" mechanism, and if points in paladin auras affect it?

[Kag]

The coolest build I've seen so far is dual Dream+HoJ+Dragon for lvl30 holy fire/lightning, 20 conviction plus 20 resist fire/lightning and 20 salvation for synergies. Awesome.

Add a beast weapon. 30 Holy Fire/Lightning BEAR. Epic win.

[Mzyxptlk]

oh can someone explain to me the "aura stack" mechanism, and if points in paladin auras affect it?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, so I'll just do a general explanation and hope the answer you're looking for is in there!

It's possible to have multiple active auras at the same time; one from your skills an as many as you can get from your equipment (Dream, Infinity, Insight). An aura from equipment is not boosted by skill points or +skills, but it IS boosted by synergies. Points in Resist Lightning while wearing Dream increase the Holy Shock damage. Further, if you have 2 pieces of equipment that give a certain aura, then their levels are added together. Dream gives lvl 15 Holy Shock. Dual Dream gives lvl 30 holy shock. Dual Dragon + Hand of Justice gives a lvl 44(!) Holy Fire.

Having multiple auras on your equipment works the same way as having multiple auras active from your party. Although only one is displayed at a time, they are all active.

[segmentation fault]

yes, thats what i was looking for. thanks.

[Jebobek]

I did the /players 8 thing and it totally enhanced my play experience. Wish I knew about that when I first played Diablo II.

[Aikanaro]

Yar, great, ain't it? Especially since you get your shiny trickses so much sooner, you spend less time sitting on your skill points...

[Jebobek]

Yea that always drove me nuts. In the first playthrough, chances are you won't even get to your last spells. I mean, what the frick?

[Mzyxptlk]

The first time I finished Diablo 2 (without LoD) I ended up with a crappy lvl24 necromancer in nightmare. I got raped. By Carvers. Repeatedly.

Thank God I've learnt since then.

[Jebobek]

The worst are the little skeleton dudes that move a million miles an hour and explode when you kill them. Honestly I would get through everything else just fine and I'll just start dying over and over again with them. I spent the first 30 minutes trying to comprehend what the hell was killing me.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

I hate those little bastards, BUT some nice Damage Reduction makes them almost a joke.

[Copper Top]

Any of you guys good enough to help me run ubers?
I am a lvl 97 zealdin with a perf HoZ and Breath of the Dieing. Plus some other random items and a merc that has an almost perf infinity...


Also I am looking for a perf deaths fathom...

[Gelsamel]

Any of you guys good enough to help me run ubers?
I am a lvl 97 zealdin with a perf HoZ and Breath of the Dieing. Plus some other random items and a merc that has an almost perf infinity...


Also I am looking for a perf deaths fathom...

Botd is crap, you want CB and LS stuff, thats about the only rule.

[Copper Top]

I onno, for shear damage botd is very nice plus the pvm it really helps on the ubers. And I have a dracule's grasp for life leach.

[Mo0man]

>.>
I think I'll just stick with my massive army of crappy little skeles, you guys do your superpower stuff

[Mzyxptlk]

I onno, for shear damage botd is very nice plus the pvm it really helps on the ubers. And I have a dracule's grasp for life leach.

But BotD has no CB, nor does it help your smite dama. For the Ubers, it's inferior to both Grief and Last Wish.

[Gelsamel]

BotD is inferior to a lot of stuff that isn't based on just hitting things with an axe.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

So page 3 and still no-ones answered my "Ladder or no ladder" question...

[Princess Marzipan]

Just started solo completely unaware of this thread.

I just got my Necro to nightmare at level 36ish. I'm specializing in Poison and Bone - maxing the poisons and bone wall. I've also tossed six points into Dim Vision. So I just fire off Dim Vision, then set off a Poison Nova. Then wait. Then everything says BLEARGH.

[Mzyxptlk]

So page 3 and still no-ones answered my "Ladder or no ladder" question...

Personally, I play europe softcore ladder (EUSCL), for no particular reason.

[Aikanaro]

>.>
I think I'll just stick with my massive army of crappy little skeles, you guys do your superpower stuff

This is what I've been doing in single player, too, and it reminds me.....does Amplify Damage still make Physical-Immune mobs vulnerable to Physical damage? If so, then my Army of Darkness can indeed continue even through Hell mode without problems....

[Mzyxptlk]

Sometimes, yes. Amplify damage reduces enemy physical resistances by 100% if they are not immune. At 100% resist and higher (immunity), AD works at 20% efficiency. It's impossible to break a 120% physical resistance.

Examples:
Monster with 0% PR. AD takes 100% off, reducing PR to -100% (resistances can never be lower than this)
Monster with 99% PR. AD takes 100% off, reducing PR to -1%.
Monster with 100% PR (immune). AD works at 20% efficiency, so 20% is taken off, reducing PR to 80% (immunity broken).
Monster with 120% PR (immune). AD works at 20% efficiency, so 20% is taken off, reducing PR to 100% (still immune).

Decrepify reduces monster PR by 50%, so 110% PR is immunity to Decrepify. Both AD and Decrepify are curses, so they cannot stack.

Conviction (Lightning Cold Fire) and Lower Resist (Lightning Cold Fire Poison) do stack, though they suffer the same reduced efficiency against immunities. 144% resistance against Lightning, Cold or Fire cannot be broken, nor 114% resist against Poison.

Keep in mind, players can't be immune, so AD, Decrepify, Conviction and Lower Resist work at 100% efficiency against them. I'm not sure how this applies to summons with immunities (such as the Druid spirits on NM), but I assume it's the same as monsters.

[Aikanaro]

Argh, I knew that AD gave -100% phys damage reduction, but I didn't know it got weakened for mobs with over 100% resistance....damnit. Thanks, though, I should still be able to get past the vast majority of mobs in Hell mode with just skeletons, then.

One thing, though. When you say 144% resistance to F/C/L can't be broken, are you assuming a max level of Conviction of 20? Or does that even include if you had obscene skill boosts to Conviction?

[Kag]

Argh, I knew that AD gave -100% phys damage reduction, but I didn't know it got weakened for mobs with over 100% resistance....damnit. Thanks, though, I should still be able to get past the vast majority of mobs in Hell mode with just skeletons, then.

Well, unless you're completely insane, you should have 20 points in Corpse Explosion, which should be enough to get you through the difficulty well enough either way. I mean how often do you run into monsters that are immune to physical and fire?

Also, conviction's resistance lowering caps at 150%, so you'll never drop more than 30% from an immune monster. Lower Resist apparently doesn't cap, but it suffers from ridiculous diminishing returns, so I wouldn't expect more than 62% (12.4%) from it, and that's a stretch.

[Copper Top]

I onno, for shear damage botd is very nice plus the pvm it really helps on the ubers. And I have a dracule's grasp for life leach.

But BotD has no CB, nor does it help your smite dama. For the Ubers, it's inferior to both Grief and Last Wish.

I suppose I could go out and find the socketed weapon I need for last wish... you have any recommendations for what to use? I Already have the runes.

[Haistfu]

Phase blade, unless you're completely insane. IT DOESN'T HAVE INDESTRUCTIBLE ON IT. DO NOT WASTE RUNES.