Introduction
Some time ago I made this crazy helm and shield:
Code:
Griffon's Eye
Diadem
Defense: 244
Durability: 13 of 20
Required Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x21c447
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+25% Faster Cast Rate
-19% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+15% to Lightning Skill Damage
+191 Defense
Cannot Be Frozen
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Cham Rune
Jeweler's Monarch of Regeneration
Monarch
Defense: 147
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 68 of 86
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 156
Fingerprint: 0xd4fbb0cc
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
300% Chance to cast level 123 Concentrate when you Level-Up
+15% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 3 - 222 Lightning Damage
-15% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+15% to Lightning Skill Damage
Replenish Life +4
Lightning Resist +30%
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Socketed: Ambergris Jewel of Fervor
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Well, the 300% chance to cast Level 123 Concentrate is of course amusing and false (if only one could cast an aura, let alone a level 123 one...), but the rest of the readout is very accurate
. That gives a total of +30/-34 lightning damage. Of course I made these items for my frozzzenzon, but that doesn't mean they cannot be used somewhere else, with great effect too. The +LSD gets applied to Holy Shock twice, squaring the bonus (1.30*1.30=1.69) for a total of +69% LSD. At the same time, a Crescent Moon gives -35% eLR, combined with the -34% from my Griffon's and shield for the total of +69/-69 Lightning Skill damage. Well, that's just neat and all kinds of cool.
At the same time, the IAS from the shield and Crescent Moon give a nice 35 IAS bonus, meaning I only needed 40 more to hit 4fpa Zeal. Enter amulet and gloves. CBF is taken care of by the Cham rune, leaving belt and both ring slots for +skills. Ideally, the rings would be beta BKWB, but since I don't have any I settled for the normal kind. No mana leech anywhere made me use Gorefoot for boots. And really, using boots for mana leeching? That's just stylish, I think.
Even though I didn't feel like spending a lot of time into hunting down beta-BKWB's, I did spend some of my runes and stuff on getting me a beta Crescent Moon. And it was amazing. Higher damage and 20% chance of casting Static are insane. Especially the static part of course. I mean, seriously insane. With 'Infinity' mercenary, it's like all monsters had half their life, more or less. I went through the entire Hell at /p7 hardly ever noticing any strain on this guy. He's a killing machine. Even killed Baal & Ancients at /p7 just for the heck of it, and it was hardly noticeable.
As you can tell, this character was for me pretty much about the cool gear setup.
The Name: Is it any surprise anymore that I'm a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? No, I think I've told everyone. He's named after Xander Harris from the said TV show.
Xander, Level 89 Paladin
Code:
Str 136/156
Dex 174/174
Vit 215/215
Ene 15/ 15
Life 1,922
Mana 302
(after Battle Orders)
Resistances: 10/0/85/29
Absorbs: 40% Fire, +10 Magic
LCS highlights:
-------
Elemental Damage:
Holy Shock 1 - 15,671
Lightning (gear) 5 - 367
Poison 21 (7 seconds)
Cold 2 - 3 (1 second)
-------
Physical Damage: 1,066 - 1,203 (avg 1134, including DS)
(to demons) 1,863 - 2,102 (avg 1982, including DS)
-------
Total Damage: 1,095 - 17,265 (avg 9,180)
Aura (Lightning) Pulse damage: 1-2009 (every 2 sec)
-------
-69% eLR from gear
-85% eLR from Merc's 'Infinity'
------
75% IAS for 4-frame Zeal (fastest possible), achieved at 72%
AR: 2.1k
ITD from Crescent Moon
-83% enemy Defense from Merc's 'Infinity'
-------
17% Life Leech
2% Mana Leech
-------
5.0k Defense
75% Chance to Block
52% FHR [5 frames @ 52%]
8% PDR
-------
33% Deadly Strike
25% Open Wounds
10% Slows Enemy
20% Chance to Cast Level 13 Static Field
Skills
Holy Shock: 20 [36] + Synergies 40
Zeal: 6 [14] + Synergy (Sacrifice) 15+
Holy Shield, Vigor, Redemption: 1 [9]
-----
Vengeance: 1 [9], Fanaticism: 1 [17]
I pumped Zeal till I got to 2k AR. Fanaticism+Vengeance for unbreakable LI's.
Gear
Weapon: beta-'Crescent Moon' Phase Blade (253% ED)
Shield: Jeweler's Monarch of Regeneration (+15/-15 Lightning, 30 LR, 15 IAS)
Switch: beta-'Call to Arms'+'Spirit'
-----
Helm: Griffon's (+15/-19, 'Cham')
Armor: 'Chains of Honor' Archon Plate
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Gloves: 1.07 Laying of Hands
Boots: Gorefoot
-----
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Rings: 2x BKWB (5%, 4%)
-----
Cube+2 Tomes
Charms:
8x Captain's GC (suffixes: 25 Life, 26 Life, FHR, 2x Poison, 1-30 Lightning damage, 2 plain)
8x SC of Balance (prefixes: 5 AllRes, 11 LR, 10 LR, 10 PR, 10 PR, 9 PR, 10 FR, Cold Damage)
Mercenary
A2 Might
'Infinity', 'Fortitude', Andariel's Visage (FR/IAS jewel)
Overall
Fun: 10/10
Difficulty: 3/10
Future: None, though there are some places where he'd shine
The Journey
Semi-mandatory mention of normal (Holy Fire+1.09 Ravenclaw). At level 42 I felt like having some bow-fun so I played as a Ranger using Kuko and Razortail for piercing. Definitely a character I need to make later.
I switched to being a Teslot at level 54, when I could equip my beta Crescent Moon and my 15/-15/30LR/IAS shield. And boy was I surprised. That weapon is just plain insane. 20% chance to cast Static goes off once per second. The aura pulse adds to the damage all around and is actually noticeable. I would like to have better physical damage, sure, but the Static combined with -35 eLR makes beta-'CM' just a great Teslot weapon. A very important mod on it is Ignore Target Defense. Allowed me to get away with 2k AR. For bosses, uniques and so on, the Conviction from 'Infinity' reduced defense by 83%, so effectively it was like hitting stuff with 12k AR then. Relying on 'Infinity' to hit everything is very annoying. But I find it's OK to rely on it for unique monsters.
Anyway, I leveled to 76 in Nightmare (Griffon's) and entered Hell with my final gear. I played a Holy Frost Zealot before, and he was fun too. But this guy was way more powerful. The Pulse damage was actually enough to kill some stuff, sometimes in a cool way, like monsters hidden behind bars. And between Static and Aura Pulses it was quite often that the entire screen lit up. Aura pulses were especially neat when there were a lot of monsters. In a way, and it's a cool concept, aura pulse is the more powerful the more monsters there are around. So the more in trouble you are, the better you get. It's a great concept and a form of crowd control if you will. I love it.
Unbreakable LI's were killed using Fanaticism and Vengeance, which worked out great actually. I always find the ability of a Paladin to kill anything quickly kinda cool.
I found a Lightsabre in A4 Hell and got a Mal from a Hellforge. There were some tight spots, like this one, where I had 3 packs of Abyss Knights in the same spot (6 Rejuvs). In general it's definitely possible to build this guy in a more durable way. 17% Life leech might be enough, but I could've used more at times. He was all about enormous lightning damage and making full use of it. And it worked out perfectly. I mean, with -69 eLR, broken monsters die like mosquitoes in one of those funny trap-lamps.
The Ancients and Baal were played at /p7 without any problem, with the only difference that I bothered to cast Battle Cry on them. I almost didn't notice that the Ancients were cursed, they died so fast.
The 2% Mana Leech with a relatively low-damage weapon was enough most of the time (not like Zeal costs a bundle), but I used Redemption quite a bit on this guy. Which was a first for me (still learning these things). Overall this was a very very fun character. Lots of pleasure out of him. Which is good, because the character before him (Min-damage Justiciar) and the next one ('Cham' WF Strafer) turned out to be quite disappointing. But playing Xander made up for them.
Can Teslot run something?
So I'm not gonna run anything with him, cause I don't feel like running stuff anymore. The only thing I might want to have, that I don't already have, is 'Pride' for my moron for a couple of my planned builds, and I can and will do without it.
If I were to try him at running, it'd be with different gear:
Weapon: beta-'CM'
Shield: 'Spirit' @45 Sacred Targe
Switch: beta-'CtA'+'Spirit'
Helm: Griffon's (a cool IAS jewel)
Armor: 'Enigma'
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Gloves: 1.07 LoH
Boots: War Travs
Amulet: HLW
Rings: Ravenfrost & Double Leech rare
That should give somewhat less damage, ~200MF and it should shred stuff. And give the 75FCR breakpoint for transportation. He should be pretty cool in that setup. The CtC Static combined with Aura Pulse damage would make him pretty good at crowded places I think. Also, a much cheaper setup than the one I used for questing, I think. 'Enigma' notwithstanding.
Thanks for reading!
--Greebo|||Congrats on the Pat. That is one sexy shield.|||There are some very cool items in your setup (Gorefoot? Are you kidding me???)! Seems like a fun character indeed
And I actually like the quest setup better than the MF setup - although the increased mobility with Enigma seems tempting (not to mention the increased run/walk!). Have you tried Baal running with him? He might be good and fast at that...Would you have preferred a JMoD over your Shield btw?
Quote:
Which is good, because the character before him (Min-damage Justiciar) and the next one ('Cham' WF Strafer) turned out to be quite disappointing.
So...you wouldn't recommend putting Cham in WF? I'm eager for your writeup and what you have to say about the build!|||Congrats on the awesome pat!
I loved the screenshots, well done.|||Quote:
Congrats on the Pat. That is one sexy shield.
Thanks! Sure is. By far my best item.
Quote:
There are some very cool items in your setup (Gorefoot? Are you kidding me???)!
Yep. Only boots with Mana Leech
There isn't a single pair of boots that were gonna help him with damage. I guess I could've used Sandstorm Trek, which would help with FHR and take care of my Poison Resistance. A zealot can get away with no mana leech. Drinking blue pots from time to time is no crime. But using Gorefoot seemed just so much cooler.
Quote:
Seems like a fun character indeed
Definitely. The most fun I've played since my 'Infinity' Lightning zon.
Quote:
And I actually like the quest setup better than the MF setup - although the increased mobility with Enigma seems tempting (not to mention the increased run/walk!).
The problem with my questing setup is actually the shield, or to be more precise the base for the shield, if you will. Not only is the Str requirement very high and block kinda low, Pally's tend to rely on shields for resistances. Because of the inherent lack of real crowd control, they need resistances. 'Chains of Honor' helps a lot, but without 'Enigma' no character can be an efficient runner. Especially not one who relies on 'Infinity' Merc to break stuff.
That's OK. This guy was all about the questing and it was lots of fun.
Quote:
Have you tried Baal running with him? He might be good and fast at that...
He's not a fan of dolls. Or the 2nd wave. He's fine and I did some MP Baaling with people and he was amazing there. I think he'd do fine with the second setup I suggested.
Like I said, at this point, I'm not into running any target. I was never all about the grail and stuff. I always had this plan on playing cool characters through the game. I'm doing that and am happy about it
Quote:
Would you have preferred a JMoD over your Shield btw?
Actually, for this particular guy, if I were to say take him to 99 or something (no way I'm doing something like that), I'd have put those jewels in a plain @45 Sacred Targe. Way better for a Pally than a JMoD IMHO. Funny, that. What I would have really wanted to make this shield in, is a 4os -75% PLR Monarch. Sadly, just as rare as a JMoD.
Of course I don't actually have a JMoD, never will, so it's all kinda a moot point.
Quote:
So...you wouldn't recommend putting Cham in WF? I'm eager for your writeup and what you have to say about the build!
The devil is in the details. I had this idea of standing still, Strafing and monsters all around me being frozen. Neat, yeah?
Quote:
Hit Freezes Target
This bonus is pretty obvious. Items with Hit Freezes Target has a chance to Freeze Targets. Formulae:
The chance of freezing is 50 + (AL + (B*4) - DL) * 5
AL = attacker level
DL = defender level
B = freeze bonus from item (default is 1)
if it's ranged, the AL has a -6 penalty.
if it's ranged, the chance is divided by 3
freeze length = (chance - roll) * 2 + 25 frames
with a minimum length of 25 frames (1 second) and a maximum length of 250 frames (10 seconds
A level 88 Barbarian swinging 'Doom' at a level 88 monster:
Chance to freeze = 100%
Average freeze length = 5.8 seconds
A level 88 Amazon shooting 'Cham' WF at a level 88 monster:
Chance to freeze = 27%
Average freeze length = 2 seconds
The chill effectiveness needs to be accounted for as well. Basically it means that a quarter of the non-CI monsters are frozen for 1 second. It sort of helps a little bit. But between Knockback and cold duration from double Ravenfrost it makes annoyingly little difference. Definitely not 'Cham' worth of a difference.
Needless to say, I did this math after I've made the weapon. Not smart on my part at all. Thus the disappointment.
Quote:
Congrats on the awesome pat! I loved the screenshots, well done.
Thanks! Glad you liked them
--------
Thanks for the comments!
--Greebo|||Nice one Greebo.
You really made me want to test one
.What base did you have for the beta call to arms?|||'Grats on the Pat, Greebo! Very nice items. I'd completely agree on the fun level for tesladins! Spark_Dancer was a blast.
Did you try a Delirium over Andy's Visage for your merc? Mine had the same setup except the helm, and did fine against almost everything, but the Delirium gave some great crowd control.|||Top stuff!
This is *just* the sort of awesome char I'm hoping to build in the future. I love the idea of seeing how far you can push things...|||Quote:
Nice one Greebo. You really made me want to test one
.Thanks! Go for it, the gear doesn't have to be that stellar. Some -eLR will do the trick just fine, though it's a different character without 'Infinity'.
Quote:
What base did you have for the beta call to arms?
Oh, I've traded for my beta-CtA runes a loooong time ago. I paid Sur for the set (!), though that was with a friendly discount. Back then there weren't really many bases available, so I stuck mine in a Crystal Sword. Back then I didn't even know I like Paladins, so I thought it wasn't a big deal. Yeah...
Quote:
'Grats on the Pat, Greebo! Very nice items. I'd completely agree on the fun level for tesladins! Spark_Dancer was a blast.
Thanks! Agreed, very fun.
Quote:
Did you try a Delirium over Andy's Visage for your merc? Mine had the same setup except the helm, and did fine against almost everything, but the Delirium gave some great crowd control.
That's a good question. So my previous guy had beta-'Delirium' on the moron, and it got kinda old after a while. I wanted some more excitement this time and it was more fun this way.
But mostly, a 'Infinity'/'Delirium' Merc needs LL from the armor. I was using 'CoH' myself and I'm not about to make two of that. The other LL armors just wouldn't cut it in my opinion. Maybe he'd have been fine with no Life Leech? I somehow doubt that. And I did rely on 'Infinity' quite a bit, for breaking the monsters, reducing LRes of non-immunes, and for hitting champions/uniques/bosses.
Quote:
Top stuff!
Thanks!
Quote:
This is *just* the sort of awesome char I'm hoping to build in the future. I love the idea of seeing how far you can push things...
It's fun sometimes. This time, it was more like: I have this awesome shield. What else can I do with it? So he was built a bit around the shield, but it certainly didn't hurt that other items were pretty great, too.
----
Thanks for the comments!
--Greebo|||Masterfully done hero! Cool character, sexy shield, and informative write-up.
And on an unrelated note, I find it amusing to see the length of the Xander Harris wiki article you linked. Thirteen sources for something so trivial is fandom at its finest. Not quite "Knuckles the Echidna" levels of devotion, but definitely coming close.
No comments:
Post a Comment