08-25-2003, 09:13 AM
Hullo Sebastian.
Since I don't have the time right now to actually note specifics, I'll say this in a general manner.
Stats:
Strength: 84; enough to wear Trang's armor, which give you good strength base to wear Frosts (if you find them, and I haven't :angry: ), decent defense caster boots, Shako (if you ever sleep with Bill Roper and he gives you the secret Wand of Summoning Uber1337 Items), and every manner of decent mage equipment.
Dex: I suggest around 85 by around level 60, because that's how much I need to weild my upgraded to elite Blackbog's sharp, and is more than enough to supplement your huge AR boost from PD. However, by level 70 and 80, I highly suggest trying to approach max block, so 200 or more points may be the way to go.
Let me tell you now that Hardcore or not, you'll need some defense from monsters, and it isn't going to come from defense rating. Bone armor is my hardcore safety net (I would wet my pants without it), but blocking a substantial mainstay defense. I also suggest the use of tower shields, and if all else fails, an "Eld" rune socketed in the shield of your choice. It helps a great deal.
Also, having a lot of dex gives a good AR base to be modified by the % bonus from PD. You want to be able to connect a hit and run away fast, especially from walking nightmares like Moon Lords and Gloams. In hell, they will tear you to pieces, unless you have a big friend nearby (mmm, Paladins).
Vitality: Any and all that can be spared. I think mine's at 100, and I am busy collecting life charms so that I can instead pump dex for blocking.
Energy: Surprisingly, I've invested nothing. Why? Decent mana leech and regen should cover most problems. You leech as much as you can from each hit, but leave hits to one per monster so the poison does its job, and in between, you regenerate mana. The great thing about poison dagger is that you set it and forget, or more accurately, put in the sting and then terrorize monsters while they're dying. That affords you a lot of time to come back in with arrows in their back, or poison other monsters.
Dzhumiendae's skill tree follows vaguely like this:
20 Poison Dagger
20 Poison Explosion
20 Poison Nova
1 or more in Bone Armor, Bone Wall, and Bone Prison
1 in each curse
2 in Poison and Bone prerequisites
I believe I have +5 to all skills, bringing all my skills up to workable levels, especially the one point wonders (everything not maxed).
Using Blackbog's Sharp (my friend found one off Hell Andy, lol, and I traded an Um; he's a crescent moon whore), I do around 7K poison damage per poisoning after all is accounted for (charms, skill bonuses, etc.)
Typically, I tread carefully into an area. When I see any monsters, I curse appropriately. Ranged monsters get dimmed, bosses get decrepify, and their minions get confused (tricky with confuses huge radius. which may accidentally override other curses). Ridiculously powerful monsters like unique/champ frenzytaurs and gloams are immediately terrorized.
I lay attract down in places where monsters are confused (so confused monsters can now attack unconfused and attracted monsters), and then move in. I poison the melee monsters without confuse, then terrorize them. By now it's time to renew some curses so I let that rip.
When they're fleeing, I slip in a few bone walls so I can work on the confused/attracted monsters without impunity. Typically I ignore the boss, because their minions are easier to kill and when I kill them, there is less to worry about. Tackling the boss with full minions is way worse, because you have things like mana burn and enchantments to worry about from like 5 monsters, as opposed to one after you kill the minions.
A bone prison does well for the boss, and the minions can also occupy themselves by hitting the prison like idiots. That's when you poison THEM and then terroize them. More bonewalls work wonders.
I keep up with the bone walls and switch to my hideously cheap :D four socke ward bow, with 2 perf topazes, 1 perf ruby, and 1 perf emerald. It sounds tacky, and I admit I'd sell my firstborn for an Eaglehorn (with a perfect emerald and ITD? bliss!), the varying elemental damage is undeniably useful, and ward bows are wickedly fast. While monsters are running with their tails in between their legs, and poison dripping off of said tails, it's sickeningly satisfying to pelt them with sizzling/burning/pestilent arrows. Again, bone walls are invaluable; they're a mana-based fort you make for yourself while you snipe down poisoned monsters.
After letting them soften with your poison and arrows, you can stop using the bonewalls/prisons and reapply poison liberally, watching them die, and then explode their corpses. I do not use Poison Nova at all, because it is a taint to this type of variant. Instead, Poison Explosion is used to get rid of any unwanted corpses and simultaneously deal some extra damage to fleeing monsters. It is not a main damage source.
Lastly, you can deal with the blind ranged monsters. If they, at any point, are activated, you must simply blind them again, run, throw a few bone walls up, and move strategically.
I highly recommend trading for (or hacking; they're so cheap that I think it would be almost that easy to get them in the realms) a Blackbog's Sharp. With 50% slow and massive poison damage, plus a delicious style vantage, and then combined with 25% slow + knockback from the cheap Cleglaw's gloves (though I think Frostburns might be a good choice for people that need some cold damage and would like to spam stuff a bit more, or simply need the mana for bone walls and PD), monsters are virtually debilitated. They're poisoned, knocked back, and fleeing from you at 25% of their normal walk/run rate. It's heavenly.
My untwinked hardcore build has been so immensely successful that I suspect that the above was just a small, unpolished version of a future guide I'd love to write. If you have any further questions, or something I champion isn't working quite right for you, please post again and I'd be happy to look deeper into it and find out if I have missed something that can help. Dzhumiendhae did the Ancients without much trouble on Players 2 in hell, and I expect that this is by far my favorite variant char thus far. Before, specialty equipment was direly necessary to make a char like this in hardcore single player. Thanks v1.10, for the new PD necro!
Buena Suerte Sebastian.
Since I don't have the time right now to actually note specifics, I'll say this in a general manner.
Stats:
Strength: 84; enough to wear Trang's armor, which give you good strength base to wear Frosts (if you find them, and I haven't :angry: ), decent defense caster boots, Shako (if you ever sleep with Bill Roper and he gives you the secret Wand of Summoning Uber1337 Items), and every manner of decent mage equipment.
Dex: I suggest around 85 by around level 60, because that's how much I need to weild my upgraded to elite Blackbog's sharp, and is more than enough to supplement your huge AR boost from PD. However, by level 70 and 80, I highly suggest trying to approach max block, so 200 or more points may be the way to go.
Let me tell you now that Hardcore or not, you'll need some defense from monsters, and it isn't going to come from defense rating. Bone armor is my hardcore safety net (I would wet my pants without it), but blocking a substantial mainstay defense. I also suggest the use of tower shields, and if all else fails, an "Eld" rune socketed in the shield of your choice. It helps a great deal.
Also, having a lot of dex gives a good AR base to be modified by the % bonus from PD. You want to be able to connect a hit and run away fast, especially from walking nightmares like Moon Lords and Gloams. In hell, they will tear you to pieces, unless you have a big friend nearby (mmm, Paladins).
Vitality: Any and all that can be spared. I think mine's at 100, and I am busy collecting life charms so that I can instead pump dex for blocking.
Energy: Surprisingly, I've invested nothing. Why? Decent mana leech and regen should cover most problems. You leech as much as you can from each hit, but leave hits to one per monster so the poison does its job, and in between, you regenerate mana. The great thing about poison dagger is that you set it and forget, or more accurately, put in the sting and then terrorize monsters while they're dying. That affords you a lot of time to come back in with arrows in their back, or poison other monsters.
Dzhumiendae's skill tree follows vaguely like this:
20 Poison Dagger
20 Poison Explosion
20 Poison Nova
1 or more in Bone Armor, Bone Wall, and Bone Prison
1 in each curse
2 in Poison and Bone prerequisites
I believe I have +5 to all skills, bringing all my skills up to workable levels, especially the one point wonders (everything not maxed).
Using Blackbog's Sharp (my friend found one off Hell Andy, lol, and I traded an Um; he's a crescent moon whore), I do around 7K poison damage per poisoning after all is accounted for (charms, skill bonuses, etc.)
Typically, I tread carefully into an area. When I see any monsters, I curse appropriately. Ranged monsters get dimmed, bosses get decrepify, and their minions get confused (tricky with confuses huge radius. which may accidentally override other curses). Ridiculously powerful monsters like unique/champ frenzytaurs and gloams are immediately terrorized.
I lay attract down in places where monsters are confused (so confused monsters can now attack unconfused and attracted monsters), and then move in. I poison the melee monsters without confuse, then terrorize them. By now it's time to renew some curses so I let that rip.
When they're fleeing, I slip in a few bone walls so I can work on the confused/attracted monsters without impunity. Typically I ignore the boss, because their minions are easier to kill and when I kill them, there is less to worry about. Tackling the boss with full minions is way worse, because you have things like mana burn and enchantments to worry about from like 5 monsters, as opposed to one after you kill the minions.
A bone prison does well for the boss, and the minions can also occupy themselves by hitting the prison like idiots. That's when you poison THEM and then terroize them. More bonewalls work wonders.
I keep up with the bone walls and switch to my hideously cheap :D four socke ward bow, with 2 perf topazes, 1 perf ruby, and 1 perf emerald. It sounds tacky, and I admit I'd sell my firstborn for an Eaglehorn (with a perfect emerald and ITD? bliss!), the varying elemental damage is undeniably useful, and ward bows are wickedly fast. While monsters are running with their tails in between their legs, and poison dripping off of said tails, it's sickeningly satisfying to pelt them with sizzling/burning/pestilent arrows. Again, bone walls are invaluable; they're a mana-based fort you make for yourself while you snipe down poisoned monsters.
After letting them soften with your poison and arrows, you can stop using the bonewalls/prisons and reapply poison liberally, watching them die, and then explode their corpses. I do not use Poison Nova at all, because it is a taint to this type of variant. Instead, Poison Explosion is used to get rid of any unwanted corpses and simultaneously deal some extra damage to fleeing monsters. It is not a main damage source.
Lastly, you can deal with the blind ranged monsters. If they, at any point, are activated, you must simply blind them again, run, throw a few bone walls up, and move strategically.
I highly recommend trading for (or hacking; they're so cheap that I think it would be almost that easy to get them in the realms) a Blackbog's Sharp. With 50% slow and massive poison damage, plus a delicious style vantage, and then combined with 25% slow + knockback from the cheap Cleglaw's gloves (though I think Frostburns might be a good choice for people that need some cold damage and would like to spam stuff a bit more, or simply need the mana for bone walls and PD), monsters are virtually debilitated. They're poisoned, knocked back, and fleeing from you at 25% of their normal walk/run rate. It's heavenly.
My untwinked hardcore build has been so immensely successful that I suspect that the above was just a small, unpolished version of a future guide I'd love to write. If you have any further questions, or something I champion isn't working quite right for you, please post again and I'd be happy to look deeper into it and find out if I have missed something that can help. Dzhumiendhae did the Ancients without much trouble on Players 2 in hell, and I expect that this is by far my favorite variant char thus far. Before, specialty equipment was direly necessary to make a char like this in hardcore single player. Thanks v1.10, for the new PD necro!
Buena Suerte Sebastian.
In war, intelligence is the single greatest commodity.