An Avenger in 1.10

[IlleglWpns]

Right. Anyway with regard to crowd control the typical wisdom is that you should concentrate on one opponent at a time so as to reduce the numbers of the enemy as quickly as possible. While this is sound in many cases, it is not in all. I will list some scenarios (with vengeance) where this is not the best approach:

1) When your attack is consistently capable of stunlocking your foes, you have a fast attack (esp against three), and you are facing two or three opponents at a time. In this scenario it's best to alternate attacks between your enemies, keeping them in perpetual stunlock and thus keeping you safe from danger.

2) When facing multiple strong foes. If you have a good level of vengeance the best thing to do is not to focus on one opponent. Instead attack them all once to chill them, then concentrate on taking one out. What that first round of attacks does is effectively reduce the damage you take by 50% since chilling reduces attack speed by 1/2.

In 1.10 monster regeneration is more of a concern but this is easily circumvented by some poison damage charms.

[IlleglWpns]

Act III:

I know some people harbour a burning hatred of Act III but I actually like it, esp the Kurast areas. Fetish genocide is always fun....

I think a lot of the frustration comes from Fetish blow darters, which have lots of AR and in packs are a frequent annoyance and cause of block lock. Fortunately a level 5 holy shield doubled my defense, and my defiance merc added another 150% or so. This combined with max blocking meant that physical attacks were a nonissue and I could slaughter pygmies with impunity.

Act III also proved to be a veritable fountain of experience. I went from level 27 to level 32 just reaching mephisto. Mephisto himself was a business as usual. His lightning attacks hurt quite a bit, even with > 60% resistance, but he didn't use them often enough to be problem.

As for items nothing much happened. I swapped my "steel" broadsword for a "steel" longsword for the additional range and speed. My merc, as usual, mowed through enemies with abandon, so there was no need to upgrade his gear. Act IV would change this however...

Act IV:

The outer steppes and plains of despair were routine clears with one exception. That is, of course, the new venom lord inferno attack which hurts quite a bit. Fortunately this didn't impede my progress too much. The river of flame was a surprise, in that most monsters proved utterly ineffectual when it came to hurting me. Usually I fear abyss knights but their elemental attacks did nothing and physical attacks bounced off my high defense. Vengeance is quite powerful now, I have 2+1 (from an amulet) points in vengeance, and 11 points in the resist auras for a total of 411% additional elemental damage. Combined with a 9 fps attack it dispatches small groups of monsters quite efficiently. Mana consumption is not so much an issue anymore since meditation now regens something like 4.4 mana/sec, and potions are very common. Some mana leech would be nice though. I expect the resist auras to be handy in shoring up my resistances in NM and Hell, I think instead of going for a 4 PD shield I'll see if I can get a nice rare one with +skills, +defense, and resists.

Anyway, I killed Hephasto and shattered Mephisto's soulstone, yielded a friggin' el rune. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled I was. I proceeded into the chaos sanctuary which is always an adventure. Mixed packs of venom lords, doom knights, stranglers, and oblivion knights actually managed to kill my merc a couple of times, mostly due to curse assistance from the oblivs and the venom lord infernos. The first seal was the vizier and his buddies, I let them mob my merc while I picked off stragglers at the edges. He died again, but lasted for quite a while. With lifesteal I wouldn't have to worry about him at all. I decided to tackle the infector next. Because I knew that venom lords were dangerous now I switched to a wand with confuse charges that I had been saving for just this occasion. Unfortunately things didn't work out so well. I confused the pack, but they didn't turn on their master. I couldn't get far enough away for them to redirect focus. My merc died within seconds and soon I was fighting a running battle. I discovered that the Infector's inferno was an order of magnitude more powerful than that his of his mundane brethren. I mean it REALLY REALLY HURT, it must have been doing over a 100 damage per sec with 73% fire resists. Eventually I got trapped by a lone venom lord in a corridor, the rest of the pack followed, and I sucked rejuves desperately to avoid being killed. I couldn't kill the annoying roadblock before my potions ran out, so I saved and exit. How humiliating.

As it stands I'm still in Act IV with the following skills.

Vengeance 2
Fanaticism 3
Charge 2
Holy Shield 5
Resist Fire 8
Resist Cold 1
Resist Lightning 2
Meditation 1
Vigor 1
+ all the necessary pre-reqs. I also have a +1 to combat skills amulet.

[Rataxes]

Just wondering what Player X you're playing with IlleglWpns, and what your damage is?

I restarted my Avenger after realizing that investing four points into prereqs just so I can get an slvl 1 Holy Shield with a 30 sec duration which makes it completely battle-specific, and sometimes even need recasting during battles, was nothing but a waste of points.

I therefore skipped the whole thing. HS means nothing but additional trouble, a slight bonus to my already (by choice) pitiful defence, and a blocking bonus that I can easily compensate for with a few extra points in DEX.

My new Avenger had a bit more luck with items than the previous one, I gambled a very nice flail in Act 3:

1-42 dmg

20% IAS
54% ED
+6 Max dmg,
1-79 Lightning damage

With that, a Sharp Charm of Craftmanship, slvl 1 Vengeance, slvl 1 HF, and maxed Resist Cold, I was doing 43-470 dmg in Act 3, with a 10 fps attack.

I quite simply love the Flayer Jungle, those vast groups of tighly packed Soul Killers used to be my prime source of XP in Classic, the Cow Level of that time. Got 4 level ups while walking from Kurast to the Bazaar.

In Act 4, the only monsters that bothered me were Venom Lords. Get in the way of two or three of their Infernos at the same time, and it's almost instant death. I had 550 HP and 48% Fire Res, but they were still the by far most dangerous monsters so far. I had to fight the Infector of Souls and his minions in that very tight corridor and use an slvl 3 Resist Fire aura to be able to tank them. Diablo was a piece of cake by comparison, none of his attacks seem to hurt as much as they used to, even the lightning hose seemed quite harmless. He was very kind with his drops though, a Unique Poignard popped up when he died - Spineripper!

At 33-81 dmg and a decent speed, it is the by far most powerful weapon any of my avengers have seen so far. My on-screen damage jumped up to 290-690 when I equipped it, and I also have -50% Conviction now, so most things in Act 5 Players 8 die in one or two stabs. It looks pretty damn funny when you wield a dagger with a Paladin I must say :) The only problem with it is it's extremely low durability, I hadn't even cleared a quarter of the Bloody foothills when it cracked, but it's something I can live with for now.

My Avenger is currently lvl 34 with the following skills

20 Resist Cold
5 Conviction
4 Resist Fire
1 Vengeance
+ all necessary prereqs

[Occhidiangela]

At the end of act II I was level 27 and had the following skills:

My typical character pre 1.10 finished act II at level 17-22, depending on the class. I would play in games of from 1-4 players, now and again finding a big one.

At players 1, I wonder if the level progression is about the same, and a "full clear" would yield a level 19-21 character by the time of meeting Druiel.

Having given that some thought, HC characters typically, unless well twinked, would do well to follow your example and go from act II with at least 24, just to crack open the level 24 skills that, IMO, can help make Act III less painful.

[IlleglWpns]

Rataxes:

I've been playing in players 8 the whole time. Currently my character is level 36 and still in Act IV. He uses a "steel" runeword longsword, I'm doing River of Flame runs for gold to gamble for a better weapon.