Maldar, the Magnificent

[Crystalion]

WhyBish wrote:

Grim Ward??? That's not a very pacifist skill

Yes, I know, except the game has corpses lying around like mad in act 5 already and it seems rather symbolic (when allowed) if you GW the corpse of a (quest) required kill. And certainly it is a lovely pacifist skill in a party (so much so, that your party members may hate you for it, haha).

Nah, 3-point Clay Golems don't do very much damage.  Even maggot young will be able to heal faster than the Golem can hurt them.  Anyway, like I said, I don't plan to use the Golem much-- just in special circumstances where bone prisons and walls aren't effective.

Well, partly I'm giving you a bad time because it has been revealed that the new v1.10 slows monsters effect of the Clay Golem is triggered by the monster beating on the Golem (*not* the Golem touching monsters). This makes your Golem, since you aren't allowed to use a HF merc, a rather effective spot crowd control (as the bunch around the distraction golem will be slowed to boot, as you attempt to sneak past).

That is a very interesting idea.  I would never have thought about Leap.  Does maxed Leap also knockback regular boss monsters and champions?

Better even. Level 25 Leap (aside from stunlocking everything I could see on my 800x600 screen) also always put Shenk (a large SU) into HR. The only downside I can see to this uber skill (since it now also synergizes Leap Attack) is that you can't drink potions while Leaping (making it annoying to have to stop chain casting it when you're low on HP or mana). Another misfeature is that although you can Leap some distance, it isn't very far, and there isn't any interface clue (you'll jump in place instead of moving if your cursor is too far away).

Edit: another possible downside is that Leap might decrease your weapon's durability (I see Leap has a 1 in that column in skills.txt--surprisingly Frenzy does not). I kind of doubt it though.