Been playing an Avenger myself, on Players 8 the whole time so far. The plan was clear - Holy Shield and it's annoyingly many prereqs got one point, the rest goes without exception towards boosting Vengeance. Vengeance itself will stay at slvl 1 till I have maxed all Res auras, which means I'll probably never put another point in it. The point of this plan was to make sure Vengeance stayed as mana-efficient as possible. A point in Res X gives you +15% elemental damage, compared with +18% dmg for Vengeance, not too much of a trade-off for the vastly decreased mana cost. The lack of an AR bonus also becomes irrelevant once I get Conviction. With a few +slvl items, Vengeance at slvl 5 costs about 5 mana, and with my current 150 mana I can spam it for quite some time before having to gulp down a mana potion, I always carry plenty of those. I doubt I'll even need mana leech at all with this Avenger. Once my mana gets up to about 300, I'll be able to make more than a hundred attacks before having to refill, which a Super mana pot takes care of nicely.
I got through the whole of Act 1 using only Sacrifice and Holy Fire (Holy Freeze at lvl 18) with a Superior 6-12 dmg scepter. Holy Fire is now a much better choice than Might for your early-game aura due to it's added weapon fire damage. I made sure to get through with all the prereqs for Vengeance, Conviction and Holy Shield as soon as possible, and then dumped all remaining points into Resist Cold.
Holy Freeze is, and will be my aura of choice until I get Conviction. The range is so pathetic as to be nearly useless at slvl 1 unless you're completely swarmed (which I, on second thought actually was quite often), but with all those points in Resist Cold, I got +25-35 cold damage added to my weapon practically for free.
I upgraded to a Vicious Flail of Gore in Act 2, doing a very nice 35-270 dmg at lvl 20 when I first entered the Sewers. Things died pretty quickly needless to say, even though I was constantly draining light mana pots to fuel my never-ceasing Vengeances. Luckily, monsters themselves provided most of them. Is it me, or have potion drops become far more common in v1.10? I seem to get them all the time, and even after pretty small fights, I'm left with more than enough pots of either kind to fill up what I lost. Duriel was a bit of a PITA, mainly because I didn't have the advantage of high DR and kept getting hit constantly. This was on Players 8 as well, so Duriel took quite a few punches to down, had to go back to town to refill and revive my merc twice.
I'm currently in Act 3 at lvl 25 with one invested point in; Might, Holy Fire, Holy Freeze, Thorns, Sanctuary, Sacrifice, Zeal, Vengeance, Holy Bolt, Blessed Hammer, Charge, Smite, Holy Shield - and 14 points in Resist Cold. I upgraded from my Vicious Flail to a Brutal War Scepter of Carnage with +2 Vengeance - currently doing 120-273 dmg. Most things so far in the Flayer Jungle fall in 1-2 hits and it's honestly been a breeze so far. I predict that at lvl 75, I will get a total elemental damage bonus of +3150% (with Conviction of course), which I figure is more than enough to kick some Hell Monster butts, even if I can't get my hands on any godly weapons.
I got through the whole of Act 1 using only Sacrifice and Holy Fire (Holy Freeze at lvl 18) with a Superior 6-12 dmg scepter. Holy Fire is now a much better choice than Might for your early-game aura due to it's added weapon fire damage. I made sure to get through with all the prereqs for Vengeance, Conviction and Holy Shield as soon as possible, and then dumped all remaining points into Resist Cold.
Holy Freeze is, and will be my aura of choice until I get Conviction. The range is so pathetic as to be nearly useless at slvl 1 unless you're completely swarmed (which I, on second thought actually was quite often), but with all those points in Resist Cold, I got +25-35 cold damage added to my weapon practically for free.
I upgraded to a Vicious Flail of Gore in Act 2, doing a very nice 35-270 dmg at lvl 20 when I first entered the Sewers. Things died pretty quickly needless to say, even though I was constantly draining light mana pots to fuel my never-ceasing Vengeances. Luckily, monsters themselves provided most of them. Is it me, or have potion drops become far more common in v1.10? I seem to get them all the time, and even after pretty small fights, I'm left with more than enough pots of either kind to fill up what I lost. Duriel was a bit of a PITA, mainly because I didn't have the advantage of high DR and kept getting hit constantly. This was on Players 8 as well, so Duriel took quite a few punches to down, had to go back to town to refill and revive my merc twice.
I'm currently in Act 3 at lvl 25 with one invested point in; Might, Holy Fire, Holy Freeze, Thorns, Sanctuary, Sacrifice, Zeal, Vengeance, Holy Bolt, Blessed Hammer, Charge, Smite, Holy Shield - and 14 points in Resist Cold. I upgraded from my Vicious Flail to a Brutal War Scepter of Carnage with +2 Vengeance - currently doing 120-273 dmg. Most things so far in the Flayer Jungle fall in 1-2 hits and it's honestly been a breeze so far. I predict that at lvl 75, I will get a total elemental damage bonus of +3150% (with Conviction of course), which I figure is more than enough to kick some Hell Monster butts, even if I can't get my hands on any godly weapons.
In my mind, my dreams are real. No one's concerned about the way I feel.