Now that 1.10 is out

[Assur]

Hi all

After reading the reports about the beta I decided to build a few chars using synergies.

My first char is a ShockTherapist, a Pala maxing Holy Shock and Resist Lightning, 4 points into Zeal and and 2 points into pre-reqs (Sacrifice and Might).

The second char is a BoneNecro, in the beginning I'm just putting one point each into Teeth, Bonespear and BS and pumping all the remaining points into Bonewall and Boneprison. That way I get increased protection and increased damage through the synergies without raising the mana cost. One point each into Amp Dam (pre-req) and IM, 1 point into Claygolem and 1 point in CE (pre-rey, but also useful), all the rest into boneskills, with a good wand and a good shrunken head you can do useful damage pretty soon in the game.

good hunting

[JustAGuy]

Good day,

When 1.10 came out, I thought to myself, "self, you're a good lookin' fellow. Also, we should play some Diablo 2." So, I played some Diablo 2.

Actually, it wasn't quite like that, but I made some Paladins anyway. I had hoped that 1.10 would have been the patch I was waiting for in terms of making the Paladin fun to play again. For the most part, yes, but it is frustrating. The characters I have made so far have been:

1. Hammerdin; max hammer, max conc, max vigor, some points in BA (retired)
- He was able to kill exceptionally well, in all difficutlies. Seems a bit fruity though, that he just spins hammers out. Seems to me that blessed hammer should be a support skill, not something you have to max fully with synergies to get anything out of it.

2. Hammerdin #2; max hammer, max meditation, max vigor, some points in BA (retired)
- He was a back-up for my friend's hammerdin. He maxed concentration, I maxed meditation. There wasn't a mana burner alive that could stop us. The problem was that my armour was crap, my defense low, and my blocking non-existant. I had over 1200 hit points at around level 77, but two or three hits, and you're done for. Gotta have that blocking. And resists too!

3. Conviction centered fighter of some sort (not an avenger): max conviction, max zeal, max defiance, max holy shield, some points in vengeance and sacrifice. (retired)
- This build is wacky. The only reason he lasted so long was because of the conviction; everything was very easy to hit. Too bad that they hit back... Don't know why I maxed zeal and even entertained maxing sacrifice. The idea was to build a tank for my friend's ice orb sorceress. It was nice getting levels for pracitcally nothing, but the sorceress was killing everything that my conviction touched, even before I got close enough to try and zeal. This guy couldn't kill anything in Hell by himself...

4. Fanatic; max fanaticism, max zeal, max sacrifice, working on holy shield.
- Ah fanaticism. I found the butcher's pupil and proceeded to zeal away. The max damage I was doing was around 1300ish per swing. No crushing blow or chance to cast (yet). I haven't retired this guy, but I have moved on to working on something else... This guy still doesn't kill fast in hell, or even nightmare, despite his high AR and damage. Zealing is just not that effective I guess.

5. Holy Shock centered fighter of some sort #1: max holy shock, max resist lightning, max zeal, some salvation, some in holy shield, some in defiance (retired)
- Non-lightning immunes go down pretty easy. My AR was not bad and I imbued a couple of phase blades that really helped things die quickly (gotta love the indestructible property of phase blades). Lightning immunes I was completely, 100% useless to fight against. My friend and I made a Pally team of him Holy Freeze, and me Holy Shock, with a couple of expendible act 2 aura mercs to help out. We hit a cold and lightning immune and called it quits.

6. Holy Shock centered fighter of some sort #2: The Plan: max holy shock, max resist lightning, max salvation, 5 in zeal, 1 in conviction, max holy shield, some in defiance (that's a lot of points...)
- The problem with synergies is that you really need to pump them to get the most out of them. That leaves you with a big fat gaping hole in your skill tree when it comes to support skills. My problem is that I want to be a tank, but because these synergies have to be maxed to be effective, I get clobbered by my lack of defensive skills. Not this one, though. Since auras poll a lot quicker, it actually is possible to flash conviction and then giver' the old elemental attack. My friend is doing a fanaticism paladin, so together, we should be able to handle most enemies. For those regular monsters that are immune, we either hit em with vengeance, or I flash my conviction and switch to HS to pound away at their momentary weakness.

A side note on the shock centered Paladins: the first one's max damage went up to around 5000, whereas I hope my new "shocker" will go up to around 6000, as I have more + skill items.

That's it. I've played Paladins and only Paladins. Playing with a friend, I've noticed one thing: his characters are ALWAYS faster killers than mine. Why? Because he's not playing a Paladin. I keep telling myself, "when you get the good items, you'll be able to kill fast too". But, will I ever get good items? Best thing I got so far was a regular balrog skin which I imbued to give me 900 defense. Oh yeah, I found an ethereal Ginther's Rift (the ethereal was a boon! Ginther's repairs every 5 seconds, yay!).

Despite my Paladins' poor killing rates (excluding hammerdins), I still enjoy the gameplay. It's just a bit of a shame that the entire game is slanted toward making the game difficult (read: tedious) for meleers. Elemental and magic damage is where it's at. A friend of mine played a trap assassin; the kill speed is ridiculous. The bugger was practically a suped up gloam. I didn't even want to see how it went with conviction in the mix...