chiefin,Sep 21 2004, 04:54 AM Wrote:My first question is what should I socket in Spirit Forge? I have a +7min dmg/+ar jewel, but I was thinking 2 perfect rubies. I'm quite poor so wondering if common runes or other p gems would be better.
Welcome :)
You might wish to consider Ral and Ort or some such combination of resist runes. Otherwise I'd probably go with the rubies, melee characters get battered in Hell
Quote:Is it advisable to keep pumping conviction, or resists auras, or holy shield?
Get enough Conviction to take resists from 0 to -100 which is the low end cap. That's very necessary
More Conviction will help against resistant monsters. It's more common for monsters to be either immune or at 0% resist to any specific element but there are still a lot with at least one element between 0 and 100.
The main benefit of higher Conviction is against bosses. There are a lot of boss mods that boost resists - LEB, FEB, CEB, Magic Resistant and one or two more. Since bosses in Hell have at least 3 mods it's very usual for a boss to get at least one of these boosts.
Next I think you should max Vengeance. You need damage. Nothing will boost your damage as much as maxxing Vengeance.
Doing so will cause you to hurt even more than you currently do for mana. Don't be afraid to equip mana charms, rings with 100+ mana and drink lots of blues. In the later game you will do big hits that will leech back significant mana provided you have a big hefty weapon, even at just 3% mana leech. (The theory being that 3% of a very big number is rather a lot, certainly enough to cover a 10 mana Vengeance even with leech reduction in Hell)
After Vengeance I'd do Holy Shield because I'm lazy and like longer duration but also because it allows me to maintain max block with less Dex which means I can put the points in life instead
You might possibly want to consider a point or two in Conversion - it gives a crowd control option. However your Barb friend's Howl does the job better if you can count on him to be there and if you don't get too far ahead of the game's internal area levels. Running away also works pretty well but careful - pallies are very vulnerable to Bold Sir Robin teasing
Last point I'd make is that Vengeance needs huge physical damage. Don't worry about Deadly strike, crushing blow, elemental damage etc. The skill takes a weapon's physical damage and then multiplies it. You need enhanced damage% on the weapon and preferably + max damage and stuff like that too
The reason I mention this is that a lot of people think Baranar's is an Avenger's weapon. It isn't, you do more damage per second if you use Conviction and Zeal with Baranar's. On the other hand if you find yourself or cube up a big hefty elite weapon with over 250% enhanced damage you'll do huge damage, certainly more than any zealot*, and you'll leech mana pretty well
If your Barb friend is going to be stunning monsters with Warcry then you might want to consider a really big elite two-hander on your weapon switch. You won't need a shield against stunned critters and you'll do approx double damage
(*excluding special weapon effects like ctc Static Field and crushing blow from the equation)