I've made Enchantresses before, and while entertaining to play, I used them in the past mostly just to provide Enchant to my lower leveled characters, but this time around I'm attempting to make a character playable even into Hell difficulty, and to do this, I've developed a new type of strategy!
I've gathered guides from all over the net but Mongo Jerry's Guide is by far the most informative I've seen, however it fails to fully elaborate on a specific new concept I began toying with recently. Let me preface with my reasoning if you don't mind: after having been TPPK'd more than once, I've found the best way to gain experience now is to actually play the game (no more Baal runs), but to do that, your character has to be able to survive the greater difficulties in the game. After recently having three enchantresses die pretty much back-to-back in NM around levels 40+, I decided to take a new approach to how I play these fragile characters.
First off, I decided from the get-go that this enchantress would be a missile enchantress using a Kuku bow. This bow is not hard to come by if magic finding or trading, however playing a missile enchantress without this bow to start off with is very difficult, to say the least. Based on this, I planned my Strength and Dexterity to match what I needed for this bow, figuring if I ever found a Demon Machine, I'd have enough Strength and Dexterity items to get me by. The rest of my points are going evenly into Vitality and Energy. Why Energy? I'll get to that part in a second. On her weapon switch, she has a high resist shield so she can teleport in on a boss, static, then retreat and swap back to the bow. Most importantly regarding items, her mercenary has the Insight rune-word (also extremely easy to come by)! I decided to go with a Holy Freeze mercenary for an added safety cushion since I wouldn't have the strength required to wear a high defense armor combined with Defiance.
For her skill points, I decided early on to evenly distribute my points into Energy Shield and Fire Mastery after level 30. Why? With ES at slvl 20, ES absorbs 75% of all damage taken (with just +5 skill levels of items, it becomes 80%). With my enchantresses Warmth maxed out and with +5 fire skills, she is regenerating mana at 318%, but if that weren't enough, her mercenary is giving off a level 14 Meditation from the Insight rune word providing an additional 625% mana regeneration. Combined with her items, she has a total of 1013% mana regeneration with items all found on the ground. I usually teleport near some baddes and let my mercenary's aura kick in and slow them down while I pick them off. If I find they are too dangerous or letting off a lot of sparks, I teleport away. I placed one point into Frozen Armor for the Freezes Target ability for when Extra Fast enemies get the jump on me so I can escape!
So what strategy am I employing here? My enchantress regains mana at an astonishing rate, I'd say her ball fills up completely from an empty state within 12-seconds or less. If Energy Shield is absorbing 80% of all the damage I take and then my mana regenerates at such incredible rates, it makes it much easier to survive difficult situations that any other enchantress build I have seen. Also, her high vitality helps out a lot! The other benefit to this build is that the Insight rune word is very easy to come by and is the ONLY item required for this build making this build very item independent! Of course the more +skill/fire items you can pack on, the better this enchantress will be, but is not necessary to play this build, however I would HIGHLY recommend the Kuku bow for starters! If you using teleport liberally, you really shouldn't be taking much damage anyways, but for the times you are taken off guard, your ES will be a life saver!
So far, I am level 50 into this build and have survived fluently, without any problems I couldn't handle in Nightmare. For Fire Immunes, my mercenary has killed them off and I provided Static when necessary. The only baddies I have had trouble with are the undead skeletons that shoot fire arrows in act 5 - they still hurt and a large group of them can be trouble. This build really works great with a friend to play along with. I think eventually I will max out Telekinesis when Fire Mastery and ES are maxed out.
Opinions?
I've gathered guides from all over the net but Mongo Jerry's Guide is by far the most informative I've seen, however it fails to fully elaborate on a specific new concept I began toying with recently. Let me preface with my reasoning if you don't mind: after having been TPPK'd more than once, I've found the best way to gain experience now is to actually play the game (no more Baal runs), but to do that, your character has to be able to survive the greater difficulties in the game. After recently having three enchantresses die pretty much back-to-back in NM around levels 40+, I decided to take a new approach to how I play these fragile characters.
First off, I decided from the get-go that this enchantress would be a missile enchantress using a Kuku bow. This bow is not hard to come by if magic finding or trading, however playing a missile enchantress without this bow to start off with is very difficult, to say the least. Based on this, I planned my Strength and Dexterity to match what I needed for this bow, figuring if I ever found a Demon Machine, I'd have enough Strength and Dexterity items to get me by. The rest of my points are going evenly into Vitality and Energy. Why Energy? I'll get to that part in a second. On her weapon switch, she has a high resist shield so she can teleport in on a boss, static, then retreat and swap back to the bow. Most importantly regarding items, her mercenary has the Insight rune-word (also extremely easy to come by)! I decided to go with a Holy Freeze mercenary for an added safety cushion since I wouldn't have the strength required to wear a high defense armor combined with Defiance.
For her skill points, I decided early on to evenly distribute my points into Energy Shield and Fire Mastery after level 30. Why? With ES at slvl 20, ES absorbs 75% of all damage taken (with just +5 skill levels of items, it becomes 80%). With my enchantresses Warmth maxed out and with +5 fire skills, she is regenerating mana at 318%, but if that weren't enough, her mercenary is giving off a level 14 Meditation from the Insight rune word providing an additional 625% mana regeneration. Combined with her items, she has a total of 1013% mana regeneration with items all found on the ground. I usually teleport near some baddes and let my mercenary's aura kick in and slow them down while I pick them off. If I find they are too dangerous or letting off a lot of sparks, I teleport away. I placed one point into Frozen Armor for the Freezes Target ability for when Extra Fast enemies get the jump on me so I can escape!
So what strategy am I employing here? My enchantress regains mana at an astonishing rate, I'd say her ball fills up completely from an empty state within 12-seconds or less. If Energy Shield is absorbing 80% of all the damage I take and then my mana regenerates at such incredible rates, it makes it much easier to survive difficult situations that any other enchantress build I have seen. Also, her high vitality helps out a lot! The other benefit to this build is that the Insight rune word is very easy to come by and is the ONLY item required for this build making this build very item independent! Of course the more +skill/fire items you can pack on, the better this enchantress will be, but is not necessary to play this build, however I would HIGHLY recommend the Kuku bow for starters! If you using teleport liberally, you really shouldn't be taking much damage anyways, but for the times you are taken off guard, your ES will be a life saver!
So far, I am level 50 into this build and have survived fluently, without any problems I couldn't handle in Nightmare. For Fire Immunes, my mercenary has killed them off and I provided Static when necessary. The only baddies I have had trouble with are the undead skeletons that shoot fire arrows in act 5 - they still hurt and a large group of them can be trouble. This build really works great with a friend to play along with. I think eventually I will max out Telekinesis when Fire Mastery and ES are maxed out.
Opinions?
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin