Seraph's Tale

[Winter]

So at Brista's suggestion (i guess i'm easy to coerce as long as you stroke my ego ^.~) i started up a 1.10 Smite Paladin. I considered naming him "Lefty" for all of about five seconds and went with something a little more dignified- Seraph. I never did like joke names.

This is going to be the journal of his exploits. Eventually (assuming things go ok) it will get condensed, sifted, and re-arranged and turned into the first worthwhile PvM Smite guide. Keep in mind i'm more than open to suggestions on what i miss from people- so don't feel too shy ^.~
Anyway, since this is just a basic journal i'm not going to go over most of the basics right now- that'll be for later. For now, just to get any budding Smite fans on their feet i'll run over the real basic parts:

Smite is a level 1 skill where you take your shield and smack an enemy right in the face with it. It deals damage based on your shield's damage (visible only to Paladins, and sadly- not visible on shields in vendors) plus enhanced damage on everywhere other than your weapon and no flat +damage bonuses from anywhere (quite sadly... i'm not sure why... too broken to give +1 max damage to shields apparently) and no elemental damage bonuses. It always hits, it knockbacks against a good 95+% of all monsters in the game (it doens't knockback act bosses or anything immune to knockback, but it does vs. everything else), and furthermore it stuns for about .6 seconds +.2 per level- a surprisingly long 4.4 seconds at level 20 if i'm not mistaken. Finally, it has an unusual property of taking your base weapon speed as its own (for example, a Scimitar gives your Smite attacks -20 base attack speed) and applying it to its own swing animation- which can become quite fast, all the way down to 6 fps or perhaps even lower with the 1.10 patch (though i doubt it). This means you have to take an interesting approach to choosing your shield and weapon- getting the best mods that transfer over to Smite and the fastest weapon and the highest damage shield.

I won't get into knockback vs. not-knockback now. Smite has knockback and i'm using Smite. I can get the best out of it, or i can not- but if i don't use it, it'll use me.

So out i go with a pack of #lurkerlounge pals and we clear out players 8 blood moor and similar places. While doing this, i realize that i am severely out of practice with Smite. The reason i say that is because, for a while, i was wondering what to put my skill points into. Duh, Smite! If i'm going to build around a clvl 1 skill i may as well sink my first 10 points (minus Might) into it. So with a significantly heftier stun time of 2.4 seconds and +150% damage i start really laying the law down. No usable runes yet (and by usable, i mean "runes that begin with 't' and end with 'ir' or sound like the letter 'L'.") but i still make sure to pick up a 2 socket Scimitar when i see it. I'll thank myself later. Slowly, ever so slowly, i'm getting back into the groove of Smite. Old skills (of mine, not Seraph's) are awakening.

Eventually, though, we do Blood Raven and get Cain and decide to call it a night. Well, the other party members do. I run off and make a single player game. The first thing i notice is that Smite seems not to work like i remember it. There must be some sort of re-work of the code underlying the game because the always-hits ability of Smite doesn't seem to be working. I'll swing at guys but i won't hit three or four times in a row. In fact, i'd say that i'm hitting at most around 75-85% of the time in single play with Smite. Quite unusual. Maybe i don't have the "Smite rhythm" down right, but there you have it.

The second thing i notice is a pack of Carvers. In fact, i notice the largest pack of Carvers i've ever seen. Right at the end of the Dark Wood must have ran into around 150 carvers. At least 3 champion packs, right together. The whole mess spanned about three screens and included one of those camps full of guys. I cleaned up most of it after about ten minutes of fighting (knew i should have gone with something more sane than players 8, but too late to do anything about that) and the survivors are fleeing into the Black Marsh where i run into their bigger, uglier cousins- another "pack" that fills about a quarter of the entire Marsh. About five-seven shamans and their friends, three boss packs (one archer pack that harasses me across the entire field, one bird pack, one carver pack), another champ pack, and who knows what else all flew down on me and my poor rogue merc. After about thirty minutes of fighting, running to town, coming back, running back, reviving the merc, running back out, and killing a few guys at a time (i can't really seem to get any sort of containment because the more i try to spread the pack out the more random guys keep waking up) i finally clear them out. Then it's off to the Countess's tower. Right away, i'm greeted with another pair of boss packs (this time goats+archers) and some Devil Kin. Wow. Stairs traps are BACK. Hardcore Hell frightens me and i don't even play Hardcore. After dismantling that nasty piece of work i wisely set players to 1 and ran through the rest of the Countess's tower, crushed the Countess and hit alt. Hmm, an El rune. Half way there already!

Then i do it again. The second time i land an Eld (boo) and a Tir (yay!) rune. So now i'm all the way there. That was much less painful than i had expected. I run back to town and stick the Tir and El runes into that 2 socket Scimitar and bam, my very own Steel Scimitar. Time to call it a night.

At the end of day one:

Strength: 40
Dexterity: 45
Vitality: 50
Energy: 15

Gear worth note:
Arctic Furs
Steel-ed Scimitar
2 socket Targe (one socket with a chipped diamond in it, +13 resist all in total)

Skills:
1 Might
1 Thorns (to deal with the massive packs and their blocklock, generally not something i'd put a point in- but i figure if i'm going to test Sanctuary out (i've never put Sanctuary on a Smiter up until now) i may as well)
1 Sacrifice
1 Zeal
10 Smite

A question:
Does prevent monster heal transfer over to Smite? This shouldn't be that hard to test with the new uber-regenerating monsters.

And that's all for tonight! It's 4:30 in the morning and i have a D&D game to DM in ~7.5 hours. I'm off to bed!

[ryan4nayr]

Excellent post, well done well done.

Yeah, I'd imagine lack of true riot control would really slow you down, what with the monsters reproducing like nuts. Or should I say with nuts? Anyway, now I can't run to WPs, I always run into huge monster packs, just as you described.

BTW, you should mention that Smite doesn't leech, or so I heard. Verify?

Keep 'em coming. :)

P.S: I'd love for some1 to DM anything other than a (A)D&D game.

[Winter]

BTW, you should mention that Smite doesn't leech, or so I heard. Verify?

That's true. That's the kind of thing i'm hoping to catch by running a draft of this stuff together :)

Smite not getting stuff that goes on your normal weapons is one of the reasons it isn't as nice as it could be. I noticed Blizzard even "confirmed" that Smite doesn't leech by adding an Exile runeword for Smiters that does 15% CTC Life Tap (the one thing that DOES let you leech with Smite) on hit.

Anyway, the lack of crowd control is worrying me. I'm tempted to sink some points into Conversion in an attempt to help, but Smite's 4+ second stun time at higher levels (which doesn't get cut by difficulty, by the way) and the knockback (though with the size of the crowds these days i'm not getting all that much use out of KB) Smite might be of use. I might be a better team game player, going around and "putting out fires" so to speak by Smiting imm/imm/95 LEBs against walls or what have you.

In any case, part two is on the way!.

[WarBlade]

BTW, you should mention that Smite doesn't leech, or so I heard. Verify?

Actually it doesn't carry very much in the way of additional mods at all. No Poison transfer really kills the skill in high player count games.

The one thing I've found that Smite will convey is "Cast on Attack" mods, which is very noticeable when Smiting with weapons like Plague Bearer and Moonfall equipped.

[Winter]

Session two: two discoveries and untold horrors (at least, i think they're still untold...)

So having just finished my run(s) through the Countess and picking up my Steel-ed Scimitar at the end of the last session i started out again and started thwacking guys. For some reason i never ran into quite the same crowd problems as i did before (due to Steel, i suspect) and moved fairly quickly. A couple times i felt like taking players 8 off and just running through more quickly (since somewhere around level 16 or 17 your hit the "you don't get no more XP" mark, i only manged to get to 18 (or a +3 level gain) this session) but never really did. Most of my skill points went haphazardly into pre-reqs for levels 18 and (more importantly) 24. My skill points went mainly into Vitality, both because i'm a Smiter and one of the big selling points of Smite is ultra-high Vitality (putting maybe 150 points into Str, Dex, and Energy combined is not unheard of) and also because i'm moving above the "equip cost" curve and my strength and dexterity are high enough to equip most everything anyway. I crush the Smith and run through the Jail (more or less skipping levels 1 and 3 due to lucky map draws) and head into the Catacombs. It's about here that i make my first discovery:

Open Wounds works with Smite now. This is significant in that it means Blizzard (while they still must think Smite's inability to utilize half the stuff in the game is funny or something) actually took a look at Smite.

Either that or its a bug and they're going to "fix" it for the final patch.

Speaking of bugs, i got to abuse a bug with +mana/kill items. It seems these things kick your mana WAY up. I'm not sure exactly what the deal is, but i was recovering about a 1/3 to 1/5th my base mana each kill- about 10-15 points of mana. I've only got +3 mana/kill, so clearly something is up. Now, i sort of feel bad about abusing this bug for...

No, no. I lied. I don't feel bad at all. If Smite doesn't get manasteal and Blizz goofs up +mana/kill items i'm not going to feel bad at all when i get a stack of mana back each kill.

Anyway, i ran into what must have been the hardest fight up to this point (with this character): Pitspawn Fouldog. I highly encourage skipping this boss. He's a real pain in the butt. Must have killed me three times. In fact, those were my first deaths with this character. Very annoying. Chill hurts and i don't have any Ravenfrosts or anything like that. Very annoying. Oh well, onward!

It's about here that i make a discovery i regret making. I regret making it because it very clearly indicates that either i or Blizzard is clearly, undeniably, and hopelessly insane. It's one of us or the other. I can see no third option.

You see, Smite reduces weapon durability. I think this is a new change, because if it is an old one my mind (failing to comprehend the horrific insanity of such an effect) wiped it clean from my memory. Somehow, when i hit guys with my shield my weapon loses durability. I thirst for the answer to exactly why this is, but i fear it would be too much for my brain to handle. I'll just report it and then go drink some bleach.

So having reported that, you'll have to excuse me for a minute- my bleach is waiting.

...
Much better.
Now then, what was i talking about?

Oh yes, killing Andariel. This was a pretty easy fight even though i forgot to turn players 8 off. I'm tankin' (and have a high poison resist to boot) and she falls quickly (though not without drinking a couple thousand gold worth in potions) to my shield bash, though she actually manages to kill me once by standing on my town portal and smacking before i can get away when i run out of potions. It was an amateur mistake, but i made it. I also should have picked up some Antidote potions, as they would have kicked my poison resist up to 85- but my brain was still trying to recovery from the sanity crushing discovery about Smite and weapon durability.

I get a nice all-rare drop (love those) including a spear for my soon-to-be new A2 merc and a spiked shield. This spiked shield excites me greatly as it does 5-9 damage, kicking my Smite damage up quite a bit over my old 2-6 Targe. Plus it reminds me of back when Spiked Shields were the best Smite weapons out there. My Smite damage (with Concentration) is now 15-27, up from 6-18. A 9 point boost to average damage is always nice. Into A2 i go and make what might be considered an unorthadox purchase- a Defiance merc. I figure Defiance is actually a better plan than any other, Prayer might be worth picking up but not really (usually when i'm getting hurt it means i'm in trouble greater than Prayer is going to help me with) and Blessed Aim is totally and completely worthless since Smite is auto-hit and i plan on riding the +mana/kill bug all the way to the point where i regen faster than i Smite. I load up my now-unused Sorc to drool over her Silkweave boots, but Seraph isn't anywhere near equipping them yet in any case.

Some small equipment changes and i'm ready for the next session.

End of session 2 stats:

Str: 45
Dex: 50
Vit: 60
Nrg: 15

Skills:

1 Sac
1 Zeal
1 Holy Bolt
10 Smite
1 Prayer
1 Thorns
1 Might
1 Blessed Aim
1 Concentration

Best new piece of gear:

rare Spiked Shield
15% faster block
10% increased block%
6 Cold resist
12 Lightning resist
15 Fire reisst
6 Poison resist

[Brista]

Splendid!

I knew it would be good fun :)

[Aenae]

Great story so far, keep at it!

- Aenae

[ryan4nayr]

Mmmmmm, you Smite in Andy's general direction. That's a great character ethos, thou shalt smite evil... with a dagger.

With poison duration boosted in the beta patch, I also thought Andy was gonna be harder, but with the uber-antidote pots, she was quite easy. Did stun & knockback work with Andy? Those aren't supposed to work with act bosses, right?

Oh yeeeah, those Jail lightning guys. Me & my friends got a rude awakening when they popped up... with CE. We haven't died that bad since trying to kill Big D with clvl1 skills waaaay back in D2C. Bad part was, we were all spread apart hunting down stairs, getting ripped apart piecemeal. Even worse was that I was the only 1 who even thought of thaw pots, since my friends typically play twinked & had CBF somewhere (not to mention 1-2 hit kills). Anyway, we got through it, glad you plugged through it also. I think this is a terrible idea on the part of Blizz, that low-clvl means not so good gear & therefore low resists.

For the final edit you should, early on, detail which support skills you're getting, which I'm assuming are Holy Shield &, since you casually mentioned, Sanctuary. Are you also going for the Defiance synergistic Def bonus for HShield?

Otherwise this is great work, looking fwd to part 3.

[Winter]

With poison duration boosted in the beta patch, I also thought Andy was gonna be harder, but with the uber-antidote pots, she was quite easy. Did stun & knockback work with Andy? Those aren't supposed to work with act bosses, right?

Neither knockback nor stun work on any of the act bosses. There's also a small list of other monsters that they don't work on, mostly stuff like the a5 catas or the imp towers or doors or what have you.

For the final edit you should, early on, detail which support skills you're getting, which I'm assuming are Holy Shield &, since you casually mentioned, Sanctuary. Are you also going for the Defiance synergistic Def bonus for HShield?

My tentative plan is as follows:

Max Smite, Holy Shield, Fanaticism, possibly Defiance (i haven't decided whether it's worth sinking the points into it or not yet). Use either a Might merc or a Defiance merc (depending on whether i find myself lacking tanking or damage, almost sure that i'll need more damage but who knows).

If i don't max Defiance, i'm going to do something secret ^.~

Well, ok, i'm going to put maybe 5-10 points into Conversion. I have no idea if this is a good idea or not, but i'm going to be running around with a very fast, low damage weapon and so conversion seems like a logical fit. Now that a couple conversion issues have been dealt with (monsters retaining my fana and might after they realized they're supposed to be hitting me instead of other monsters, mainly) i'm interested in trying it out. I'm not sure if it'll work or not, but i'm excited that it might work. If it behaves how i hope it will it might be the answer i need to the new mega crowds- convert three or four monsters and then run around and smash the rest of them on the head, using the monsters as meat shields.

I want a point in Sanctuary because it will let me kill PI Ghosts and let me roll undead in general, a very nice addition. I'll probably also pick up Meditation, both for myself (with Vengeance as a PI backup plan i'll need it) and for party sorcs. Theoretically, in a Sorc party i can run around whacking monsters with conversion and leaving med up all the time and turn into a sort of tank. That dual role is mostly for realms play, though.

Finally, i'm going to put spare points in each of the resist auras (Diablo is much nicer with resist fire up, or better yet Salvation) for their boosts to Vengeance. I was going to do that to start with, but i didn't plan my points out as well as i should have (too long since my last Smiter) and now i don't feel like taking a 3 point side track to pick them up.

Level 24 is only 6 points away and i need to put points into:
Blessed Hammer
Charge
Cleansing (optional, should have done this a long time ago... bad allocation, though)
Vengeance
Holy Fire
Holy Freeze

Then save point 23 and put it and 24 into Holy Shield and probably Conversion. 25 goes into Sanctuary (in anticipation of the Chaos Sanc) and 26 goes into Meditation (either that or the other way around). 27 is probably Resist Fire (for Diablo, hopefully) and Tyreal's two points get put into the other two resists. From there everything except a point in Salvation goes into Holy Shield and Fanaticism and then Smite and then either Conversion or Defiance. Somewhere in there i might want to sink a point into Conviction for those extra-harsh PIs and/or more Sorc help. This all costs about 82 points (one point in either Defiance or Conversion, take your pick). I figure with 7-8 quest points (a1 and a2 hell) that means i reach The End at around level 75, slightly over the xp cutoff. I could cut five (well, four now...) points out of the picture by ignoring Sanctuary. Three more points would get cut out by ignoring the three resist auras. However, i generally think that getting your one-pointers put together before you start pumping is a good idea. Some of these should have been re-arranged, but no point in turning back now.

Finally, if Conversion seems to be useful/necessary in NM it might get a couple points sunk into it while i'm pumping my holy trio of HS/Smite/Fana.

[ryan4nayr]

It'd be interesting what will be your eventual riot control skill. Conversion for redirection sounds good.

Fanaticism is now downright lethal with the bigger range. And Meditation looks hot now, what with dual replenish, I'm sure casters everywhere will love you.

The plan looks great, looking fwd to your next progress report :)

[Winter]

Sadly, Meditation doesn't look to be doing much dual replenishing for me. It'll get the Prayer point, but i don't have the skill points to stack up the dual replenish. Still, 1 life/second is always welcome.

[Aenae]

Comment on Meditation:

+ skills that affect Prayer will pass through the augmented Prayer bonus to both Cleansing and Meditation. This works with + Prayer, + Defensive Auras, + All Paladin Skills. As far as I know, this synergistic bonus being affected by bonuses ONLY applies to Prayer and no other skills.


- Aenae

[Crystalion]

Open Wounds works with Smite now.

Speaking of bugs, i got to abuse a bug with +mana/kill items. It seems these things kick your mana WAY up. I'm not sure exactly what the deal is, but i was recovering about a 1/3 to 1/5th my base mana each kill- about 10-15 points of mana. I've only got +3 mana/kill, so clearly something is up.

I'm curious that in your first report you said you thought smite wasn't always hitting? In your second report you mention "auto hit" so perhaps I'm a bit confused.

I would think, v1.10, Crushing Blow would again be the Smiter's priority, though it is nice to hear Open Wounds works. The key thing would be if Prevent Monster Heal works. 100% monster flee might be nice, as the stun would keep the monster there for you to beat to death if you wished, but if you were busy would send it running away (my favorite combo in v1.10 beta so far is 100% monster flee with prevent monster heal, layered on top of which slow/chill, poison, knockback, open wounds and confuse have nice synergy).

About your mana gain "bug" I'm quite curious. I've been unable to think of anything unless perhaps +mana/kill gets a bonus for players #?!?

And yes, given the Exile runeword for shields, I agree that someone at Blizzard is putting in a good word for Smiters.

[WarBlade]

I'm curious that in your first report you said you thought smite wasn't always hitting? In your second report you mention "auto hit" so perhaps I'm a bit confused.

There's a huge problem with targeting in melee now. It looks to me like characters with short range weapons are still trying to initiate attacks on targets outside the weapon range. You see it a lot with Smite because the knockback will knock a creature clear, but by holding the mouse button while doing so has a high potential of continued swinging through mid air rather than closing the distance and then swinging.

The effect is easy to reproduce. Smite is one way. Sticking Monsters Flee on a Spear Merc will do it too. I've seen one of my Paladins swatting at nothing but air for 2 or 3 swings after a monster has scampered off with the Merenary in tow.

About your mana gain "bug" I'm quite curious. I've been unable to think of anything unless perhaps +mana/kill gets a bonus for players #?!?

You need to read The Maggot Lair more often. :P :D The way the numbers are working, there's a multiplicative effect happening on the items themselves.

And yes, given the Exile runeword for shields, I agree that someone at Blizzard is putting in a good word for Smiters.

Rubbish. With those runes, Exile amounts to more teasing. <_< If someone at Blizzard was looking out for Smiters you'd see the relevant skills getting upgraded.

[Winter]

I'm curious that in your first report you said you thought smite wasn't always hitting? In your second report you mention "auto hit" so perhaps I'm a bit confused.

I would think, v1.10, Crushing Blow would again be the Smiter's priority, though it is nice to hear Open Wounds works. The key thing would be if Prevent Monster Heal works. 100% monster flee might be nice, as the stun would keep the monster there for you to beat to death if you wished, but if you were busy would send it running away (my favorite combo in v1.10 beta so far is 100% monster flee with prevent monster heal, layered on top of which slow/chill, poison, knockback, open wounds and confuse have nice synergy).

Firstly, what i meant was Smite was missing much more than 5% of the time. Smite is auto-hit, so in order for it to miss much at all something with the game must have been changed. Blocking may get in the way of Smite (i believe it didn't in 1.09, but it might just have been that nobody blocked in 1.09) but other than that there were some isuses with it hitting. The only reason i mentioned it at all was because it's supposed to auto-hit, but it wasn't :o

Anyway, second point: Crushing Blow is really hot. If Deadly Strike worked with Smite i'd go DS over CB, but sadly it doesn't. Six frame swings that auto-hit are always good for applying CB, though, and Smite + CB is a proven build. 1.10 ramping up monster life without ramping up Smite damage just indicates a greater need to use things like Crushing Blow... either that or (dun dun dun!) the Crescent Moon runeword. 20% chance to cast level 13 Static Field is great. Schaefer's is a great choice, but hampered by the fact that about the only thing it has going for it (from the Smite point of view) is the Static Field. CM has even more. Crescent Moon also makes a great shockadin weapon (fast Zeal + CM + Holy Shock = goooooood) but that's a bit more equipment heavy than we can deal with at this point.

Anyway, both Crescent Moon and significant amounts of Crushing Blow are out of the question at this point, and my guide is mainly a "how to play a Smiter" without saying "Well, first you take your perfect Mara's, a SoJ and a Wedding Band and your 1.08 Valor and HoZ..."
Crushing Blow certainly will get mention (i'm slowly (and secretly ;) ) building up to a Strength runeword to add some Crushing Blow, but i'm not certain it's going to be that hot on the Paladin.

I still don't think chance-to-flee is worth the investment for Smite. At level 20 your stun lasts 4.4 seconds. That's enough to take whatever you Smite out of the action for a fair length of time. Furthermore, elemental damage doesn't transfer over to Smite for some bizarre reason.

[Crystalion]

There's a huge problem with targeting in melee now.
[...]


You need to read The Maggot Lair more often. :P&nbsp; :D The way the numbers are working, there's a multiplicative effect happening on the items themselves.


Rubbish. With those runes, Exile amounts to more teasing. <_< If someone at Blizzard was looking out for Smiters you'd see the relevant skills getting upgraded.

Ah, yes, I'd noticed the targeting failure-to-close-distance swish problem. I'm assuming they will fix that as it would really really suck if they didn't. Very annoying for my Assassin's Dragon Talon as, at 4 kicks, it is a fairly long attack cycle to be just sitting there swishing. Reminds me of zeal-lock in the old days.

You got me. Totally. I shall henceforth read the Maggot Lair (and any reading would be "more often" than never).

While I agree with the spirit of your comment that skills would have been upgraded were Blizz really looking out for smiters (remember though, that Holy Shield *did* get a major upgrade) I have to disagree your "teasing ergo rubbish" argument.

The game is meant to be replayed, dispite the v1.10 increased challenge to completing hell. In other words, once you once defeat hell, Blizz's reasonable expectation is *not* that you'll say "okay, I'm done, and can retire that character now".

So why keep repeating, er, playing? Well, additional skill points from leveling might allow you to "complete" a build. You might find cool stuff for fun. You might be competing (ladder, PvP, whatever). In any event, clearly the game design is *about* teasing. That is, the game is designed to motivate you to go on--to have something to look forward to.

Of course the more unlikely those events are or the more painful the effort required to attain ever decreasing rewards, the more the game resembles the worse of Everquest. This is why, as a predominently single-player D2 player, I appreciated the original %chance to gamble sets and uniques, thought the nerf was insane, and am glad they improved it in v1.10 (though off-realm aka single-player I wish the chances were higher).

YMMV.

[Winter]

While I agree with the spirit of your comment that skills would have been upgraded were Blizz really looking out for smiters (remember though, that Holy Shield *did* get a major upgrade) I have to disagree your "teasing ergo rubbish" argument.

I don't consider the Defiance synergy to Holy Shield of worth to a Smite build. Now, you can certainly put points into Defiance and make your Smite pally better- but it's a tertiary increase. I think the fact that i'm considering Conversion a better choice is indicative of the value of the Defiance synergy...

[Arutha]

If memory serves right, the 1.09 odds were 1/1,000 for set items, and 1/100,000 for uniques.

Apparently, 1.10 odds are 1/2,000 for sets and 1/5,000 for uniques.

So, if those figures are exact, the odds for gambling sets items are twice worse, and the odds for gambling uniques have gone from "never" to "next to never".


(edit: Just saw that the AS states the odds at 1/20,000 for sets and 1/50,000 for uniques. I'm not sure those figures are right since both MPQ reading reports and my testing with gambling point at the 1/2,000 and 1/5,000 values, but if they are, the situation's even worse.)

[Winter]

Actually, the numbers are even worse than that, IIRC. I think it was like 1/15,000,000 for Uniques in 1.09 or some outrageous number like that. I think they said they knocked off 5 mill so now it's like 1/10,000,000- or in other words, you'll pick up more Zods than you'll gamble uniques.

Actually, i believe someone who was looking deep into the game said it's .02% chance of gambling a unique in 1.10.
I believe rares got upped to somewhere around 10%, which is nice. Still, gambling is more or less stuck to circlets, amulets, rings, and Normal mode
*Sighs* I remember when gambling served a useful function.

[Brista]

Apparently, 1.10 odds are 1/2,000 for sets and 1/5,000 for uniques.

This is correct, I'm pretty sure both numbers are an improvement on 1.09

One has to consider the extremes. A gold-finding character can find insane amounts of gold very quickly - there was a post a while ago here with figures of well over 100K per drop.

The odds in 1.10 make gambling for sets and uniques just about doable for the determined, especially if you find gold with a high level character and gamble with a low level character

If it were significantly more probable people would be gambling Windforces

You get 10% rares and the rares can get Cruel as one of the mods and a regular quality item can be upgraded all the way to elite

Seems gambling is actually pretty strong