Whats a good character that doesn't rely on items?

[koolaidman]

I just reinstalled the game and im looking for a decent character that doesnt need to have awesome equipment. Im not worried about being a portable nuclear assault team, just able to hold my own in hell. Im sure there are some good ones but everything ive seen on here seems to be very equipment based.

[Kartoffelsalat]

Most characters that are not a strict melee build are not very dependent on items. If you take away a good caster's items, they'll be worse; if you take away a melee character's items, they'll be worthless.

In 1.10 the hammerdin is a very powerful build. The huge damage he gets from synergies and the fact that BH is very hard to resist makes it a pretty lethal build.

Just judging by the numbers of them I see on b.net, I'm going to wager that fire sorcs and wind druids are also a pretty good build. You might also want to give a zookeeper a shot.

I've never tried any of these builds, so most of what I've told you is hearsay, but should still hold true.

[malphigian]

My 2 cents:
-Hammerdin, Skeleton/Zookepper Necro are the two big powerhouse builds, neither is terribly EQ dependent.
-Frozen Orb/Some other skill sorcs do pretty well with any equip, but are a little more challenging than the above.
-Trapper Assassin - this is what I went with for my first character (she's currently a level 87 guardian), maxing fire blast, LS, DS, and some in CBS + Shadow Master. Very much not equip dependent and a safe build thanks to the best crowd control skills in the game (CoS and MB).

I'd recommend against a wind druid, they are very powerful in nm, but get a good bit more challenging in hell. Not an impossible build with lousy equip, but I think any of the above might be a better choice.

[Vash]

What's the difference between a Skeleton and a Zookeeper necro? Are skeleton mages worth puttings points in or would going all regular skellies be best?

[Obi2Kenobi]

A zookeeper (a skelemancer is a subclass of zookeeper) has minions. :) A skelemancer has only skeleton minions (or it is a zookeeper skelemancer hybrid type). I am currently trying to decide if I should (with my future skelemancer) go for skeleton mages, or do skeleton, skeleton mastery, and poison nova+synergies.

[whyBish]

The Holy Shock Paladin is also quite well powered with no equip requirements, although the single element and the melee range make it not as powerful as the hammerdin (but still strong enough to get 3.5k lit dmg per hit and ~500 per pulse, and 'only' 40 skill points invested to get there), but Malphigians list is definately the ranking I would go by.

[Boooyakasha]

The safest yet powerful one will be the amazon, be it Javazon or Bowazon. Both build can actually be played naked, while the Javazon still remains the best killer machine in the game.

Not to mention they have the passive skills and the now super killer tank, Valkyrie, at their disposal.

[Kartoffelsalat]

The safest yet powerful one will be the amazon, be it Javazon or Bowazon. Both build can actually be played naked, while the Javazon still remains the best killer machine in the game.

Not to mention they have the passive skills and the now super killer tank, Valkyrie, at their disposal.

Ho wthe heck would you play a bowazon naked? You'd have no bow, so it'd just be your passives, in which case you'd be a tankazon, not a bowie.

[Occhidiangela]

A naked Bowazon is an amazon with a bow and nothing else.

[Nastie_Bowie]

A naked Bowazon is an amazon with a bow and nothing else.

Sounds erotically dangerous.

NB :lol:

[AssA]

A zookeeper (a skelemancer is a subclass of zookeeper) has minions. :) A skelemancer has only skeleton minions (or it is a zookeeper skelemancer hybrid type). I am currently trying to decide if I should (with my future skelemancer) go for skeleton mages, or do skeleton, skeleton mastery, and poison nova+synergies.

Skeleton Mages aren't all that good; they hardly do any damage in Hell difficulty.

A Skeletonmancer doesn't need good equipment to be able to progress; I'm sure 20 Raise Skeleton / 20 Mastery would get you through Hell difficulty (with some help from a Mercenary, that is). The only thing you'd need is some serious Lightning resistance; Gloams really hurt and their bolts pierce your...err... bone shields :P

[Jeger]

The Holy Shock Paladin is also quite well powered with no equip requirements

I will second this. My Pally is only level 75, and to act one hell, but he's doing fairly well without great equipment. I've had to go back and get my body while completely naked and been able to handle it by running around and letting my HS do the trick until I isolate a target or two and quickly punch them to death. ;)

[Obi2Kenobi]

I have decided to have my character be Poison Nova+Skeletons, after seeing some of their stats. But I will still make a pure summoner (plus curses)