Through Norm with a Trapper

[davcol]

I started a 1.1 Trap Assassin last night. I'm now in Act 1 Nightmare. Here are a few random observations, in no particular order.

1. Mana/kill works with Fire Blast and Shock Web. It doesnt work with the rest of the Trap tree. I'm using Fire Blast as a finisher to get the mana benefit.

2. Wake of Inferno does not seem to be generating the listed damage. I base this solely on how slowly things are dying when I use it.

3. Lister and his pack regenerated health so quickly that I couldn't make a dent in them. I had to get a Pilum of Vileness and start flinging it at them before I could make any headway.

4.First time boss drops seem much better; Meph dropped nothing but rares.

5. Rushing has been severly curtailed. Using an old character I was unable to give the trapper any waypoints in Act 2 past the Lost City. I didn't try but I assume this is true in Acts 3-5 also. All waypoints could be given in Act 1.

6. The Ancients seemed to do less damage but had more life - again just an impression. I took them on at level 29 and got exactly one level as a reward.

7. I imbued a circlet and got something useful - skills and resists. I'm taking this as a good sign. :)

I'm sure I'll think of more things after I post this - but for now that's it.


-davcol

[Sporky Smurf]

I'm making a Trapper as well to drag through Norm in 1.10 but I haven't had much time to play her. But one VERY good thing for a Trapper is that mana leech works with Blade Fury now. No need to dirty your claws in melee using Cobra Strike now! Throw on some mana leech gear and start shooting off some blades. Also... A level 20 Lightning Sentry (on a haxxored character) has an AMAZING range. Apparently in A5 there are some DEVESTATING ranged attackers which have longer range than you. But do they have a longer range that a 2+ screen long Lightning Sentry? Mmmm.... Traps.

[whyBish]

Can anyone tell me how well the blade shield line works, and does picking up a maul rather than using claws make for big damage?

[Rataxes]

Also started a trapper. My new favourite skill in the world is Fire Blast. Not only is it the coolest spell in the game to use, makes you feel like a proper grenadier. Almost get the urge to yell "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" before chucking them away en masse.

But the really cool thing is that this spell really has damage potential. The damage scales very quickly when you get to slvl 16+, it does only get to about 130 dmg at slvl 20, but it's still scaling very rapidly beyond that. Shop yourself two claws with +3 Fire Blast and +3 Trap skills and get a +3 Trap skill circlet and amulet, netting you +18 Fire Blast, and I have no doubt that the base damage for this skill can rocket up to 300-400. The really beauty is the synergestic bonuses though, 6 out of 10 skills in this tree gives a +9% dmg bonus per slvl, so you can both have synergestic bonuses and other useful skills (unlike Lightning Res + HS, urk). Max three other skills and you'll get +540% Dmg, netting you approximately 2300 average damage. Not only is this very respectable damage, Fire blast also has a pretty impressive blast radius (3.3 yards, not much smaller than Meteor!) and is spammable! All this makes for a in my opinion very impressive spell with lots of potential.

[Dagni]

Ok, it's still my favorite, but my point is that I already loved this skill, even before it was good past Normal. Just like you said, it is the coolest spell in the game to use :)

Anyway, what you don't realize is that 3.3 yards is horrible! It used to be 4.7!! I loved the huge range, it was nearly the range of a targetable Nova (6 yards).

On the one hand, you are *waaaaay* under-estimating slvl 38 Fire Blast, but on the other hand you can't shop for +6 Fire Blast claws. Even at slvl 32 (with just 2*+3 traps claws) it does 335-401 dmg, at slvl 38 it does 509-599! The reason you underestimated the damage is because it ramps up again at slvl 22 and again at slvl 28. The full break down is this:

slvl: dmg per level
1: 3-4
2-8: 2.5-3.5
9-16: 4-5.5
17-22: 10-12
23-28: 19-22
29+: 29-33

Yes, that's +30 a level once you've gotten past slvl 28!

You can't shop for +6 Fire Blast claws because by the time claws can get +skills, and by the time claws can get +3 Traps, you've long since passed the time that low-level skills can show up on claws :(. By imbuing any of the last three elite claws with a clvl 8 character, you could get +5 Fire Blast in theory. Or crafting or cubing (6pskull) one of those elites with a clvl 1 could also get the +5. Of course, 1.10 could have changed some of this.

One thing that every Fire Blaster should be very aware of is that weapon speed determines your Fire Blast speed. With just slvl 1 BoS and a 'Steel' (Tir El) Scimitar you barely reach the fastest framerate at 9 frames per cast.

Personally, I'm going to have Charged Bolt Sentry be my secondary skill to go along with Fire Blast because it is the only Lightning trap that gets a damage bonus from my 20 points in Fire Blast. So it gives a second element for fire immunes, and you can lay down 5 of them in just 2 seconds and go right back to spamming Fire Blast. So you can get good use out of both skills at once.

- Dagni

[Rataxes]

Anyway, what you don't realize is that 3.3 yards is horrible! It used to be 4.7!! I loved the huge range, it was nearly the range of a targetable Nova (6 yards).

Oh my... Almost quarter of a 800x600 screen that! Well I guess that nerf was necessary considering how much the damage potential increased. Imagine a spammable skill you can place anywhere on the screen from anywhere that costs 6 mana, does 3000 fire dmg per blast and covers a quarter of the screen :o

You can't shop for +6 Fire Blast claws because by the time claws can get +skills, and by the time claws can get +3 Traps, you've long since passed the time that low-level skills can show up on claws . By imbuing any of the last three elite claws with a clvl 8 character, you could get +5 Fire Blast in theory. Or crafting or cubing (6pskull) one of those elites with a clvl 1 could also get the +5. Of course, 1.10 could have changed some of this.

Bugger. Well I suppose it doesn't matter much, considering I so gravely miscalculated the base damage. :D What is the best claw I could actually buy? Are the bonuses to Fire blast gone by the time you can get +2 Trap skills? How about +1 trap skills?

One thing that every Fire Blaster should be very aware of is that weapon speed determines your Fire Blast speed. With just slvl 1 BoS and a 'Steel' (Tir El) Scimitar you barely reach the fastest framerate at 9 frames per cast.

I noticed this too, it became particularly noticeable when I was chilled and my spamming ability all but vanished :angry: I don't know how I'm going to cope with Duriel. If it's true that he now also ignores minions and mercs, then I'm in real trouble.

Personally, I'm going to have Charged Bolt Sentry be my secondary skill to go along with Fire Blast because it is the only Lightning trap that gets a damage bonus from my 20 points in Fire Blast. So it gives a second element for fire immunes, and you can lay down 5 of them in just 2 seconds and go right back to spamming Fire Blast. So you can get good use out of both skills at once.

I was thinking of getting Death Sentry since it's Corpse Explosion also deals physical damage (right?), and I figured dual immunities, such as Fire/Lightning, would be more common. But then again, this might not apply to normal monsters, and I doubt the CE is useful against Bosses :(

[Dagni]

Well I guess that nerf was necessary considering how much the damage potential increased.

Well, I think I would've preferred somewhat less damage in return for the old range. Part of it is just that I have to get used to the new range, at first I was missing some of my targets that I expected to be hit.

What is the best claw I could actually buy? Are the bonuses to Fire blast gone by the time you can get +2 Trap skills? How about +1 trap skills?

Fire Blast can NEVER be shopped for because by the time you can get Hand Scythes, the first claw with +skills, it is already to late for level 1 skills. Even if Katars could get +skills, I don't think that +1 trap skills would show up in time.

Another good Runeword early is Leaf for the +3 fire skills. But even in a short staff, you will be spamming quite a bit slower - unless you pump BoS a ton.

I don't know how I'm going to cope with Duriel. If it's true that he now also ignores minions and mercs, then I'm in real trouble.

If nothing else works, I'd just throw down 5 traps (of whatever type you decide on), then run away until the traps are exhausted, rinse and repeat.

I was thinking of getting Death Sentry since it's Corpse Explosion also deals physical damage (right?), and I figured dual immunities, such as Fire/Lightning, would be more common. But then again, this might not apply to normal monsters, and I doubt the CE is useful against Bosses

Well, with +12 or more to Trap Skills, I figure that with just one point in Death Sentry the CE radius should be good enough. So unless more points actually increases the damage of the CE in 1.10, I'll use DS without pumping it, and only for the CE, not the lightning damage.

As far as Fire/Lightning immunes, how are you going to even get the first corpse if it is an entire group? If it's a boss, actually CE might work well, if you can hit it with all of its minion's corpses. Me, I might just avoid Fire/Lightning immunes like the plague, but if you are going to fight them, one point in Blade Sentinel or Blade Fury with a good weapon switch probably could do the trick eventually, or get the first corpse for the DS. And if you're willing to spend the points, 20 in Venom would probably make Blade Fury or Sentinel quite effective against the dual immunes.

- Dagni

[AssA]

2. Wake of Inferno does not seem to be generating the listed damage. I base this solely on how slowly things are dying when I use it.

That's what I thought; Lit Sentry, having somewhat lower average damage than Wake of Inferno, was far more effective :angry:

[Rataxes]

Well, I think I would've preferred somewhat less damage in return for the old range. Part of it is just that I have to get used to the new range, at first I was missing some of my targets that I expected to be hit.

Must be that. Can't say I've experienced the v1.09 range of Fire blast, but 3.3 yards is still good enough to cause some major mass destruction against tightly packed enemies :) At least it wasn't nerfed to the near-useless 1 yard radius that Fireball now has.

Fire Blast can NEVER be shopped for because by the time you can get Hand Scythes, the first claw with +skills, it is already to late for level 1 skills. Even if Katars could get +skills, I don't think that +1 trap skills would show up in time.

Oh, then the Arreat Summit must be incorrect. It states that Scissors Katar can get +skills. I shopped for a decent claw for 30 minutes after Anya returned and never once saw any +skills on the hundreds of Scissors Katars I saw, so it makes sense I guess :) Got a nice pair of Blade Talons with 20% IAS and +1 Assy skills though.

Another good Runeword early is Leaf for the +3 fire skills. But even in a short staff, you will be spamming quite a bit slower - unless you pump BoS a ton.

Pumping BoS is out of the question since I need every point I can spare in the trap tree, didn't even look at the discipline tree before I had maxed FB. So no Leaf for me.

If nothing else works, I'd just throw down 5 traps (of whatever type you decide on), then run away until the traps are exhausted, rinse and repeat.

I was playing at Players 8 at that time, and my second most damaging trap besides FB hit for 1-5 pts of damage :D So it'd probably take a few hours before Duriels life bar changed. In the end, I took him out with hit and runs with FB. Was quite a pain when I was frozen just about all the time and a single triple-hit Jab would zap 1/4 of my life bulb, not to mention that it took like 500 Fire blasts to kill him. Think I refilled my inventory with health potions 10 times.

I've begun pumping Shock Web now, not sure whether it'll be my main trap next to FB, but it does look like it could have some real AoE damage potential if you get a few synergestic bonuses. Haven't been able to kill a soul with it yet (not that I've had to, still in normal), but I think it could viable, and it is quite a cool spell as well. Almost like FB, but hurling a dozen little lightning grenades instead of just one :)

As far as Fire/Lightning immunes, how are you going to even get the first corpse if it is an entire group? If it's a boss, actually CE might work well, if you can hit it with all of its minion's corpses. Me, I might just avoid Fire/Lightning immunes like the plague, but if you are going to fight them, one point in Blade Sentinel or Blade Fury with a good weapon switch probably could do the trick eventually, or get the first corpse for the DS

Yep, getting the first corpse would be a problem. I'll probably end up avoiding dual-immunes like the plague anyway. What worries me is that dual-immunes are both going to be more common, and more wide-spread, making it very difficult to avoid them by stimpy sticking to certain areas.

[Dagni]

but 3.3 yards is still good enough to cause some major mass destruction against tightly packed enemies

Yeah, but by the time Frenzytaurs are *tightly* packed, your body is littering the floor. :) Actually, I haven't used the new range against Frenzytaurs yet, but it should be alright. The big difference, I think, is that with the old range more often than not you could hit everyone in one particular group at once, so you wouldn't have to worry about uninjured stragglers as often. Indeed, Fire Blast was kinda anti-CE, because when you got the first corpse, you might well also get the last. :P

Pumping BoS is out of the question since I need every point I can spare in the trap tree, didn't even look at the discipline tree before I had maxed FB. So no Leaf for me.

Oh, I wouldn't dream of pumping BoS either. No, I meant that the slower cast speed is a negative, but it can be outweighed by the improved damage. Without any other item ias, or +skills, a 'Steel' scimitar gives 9 frame Fire Blast at slvl 20, for 85.5-113.5, or 99.5 avg dmg. A 'Leaf' short staff gives 12 frame Fire Blast at slvl 23, for 124.5-159.5, or 142 avg dmg. So the scimitar is +33% faster, but the staff does +43% dmg, just slightly more damage over time.

I've begun pumping Shock Web now, ...

Hmm, I'm not sure if Shock Web is any good now or not. Before, if you threw a bunch of them at the same target, it would still only take damage from one of them. I.e. it wouldn't stack. Fire Blast gives it a ton more spikes, but the spikes are all so tiny, I don't know if that really makes much difference.

- Dagni

[Rataxes]

Yeah, but by the time Frenzytaurs are *tightly* packed, your body is littering the floor.  Actually, I haven't used the new range against Frenzytaurs yet, but it should be alright.

Frenzytaurs were scary. Even in normal they took a lot of Fire blasts to bring down (heavy fire resistance?), and they'd chop up my merc in no time if I fought more than 2 at once. The fact that they're so fast and hit so hard makes it more or less impossible to kill them without stalling them somehow.

A 'Leaf' short staff gives 12 frame Fire Blast at slvl 23, for 124.5-159.5, or 142 avg dmg. So the scimitar is +33% faster, but the staff does +43% dmg, just slightly more damage over time.

Interesting, but I have to hit and run quite a lot with Fire blast vs Boss packs and champs, and this is so much harder with a slower attack animation, so I think I'll stick to my 20% IAS Blade talons :) Do you by the way know what fps that puts me in? I have Blade Talons with 20% IAS, Lvl 1 BoS, and Arctic mitts which give 10% IAS. I tried the speed calculator at the German D2 site, but the business with the left claw gave me some confusing results that I didn't know what to do with.

Hmm, I'm not sure if Shock Web is any good now or not. Before, if you threw a bunch of them at the same target, it would still only take damage from one of them. I.e. it wouldn't stack. Fire Blast gives it a ton more spikes, but the spikes are all so tiny, I don't know if that really makes much difference.

Yep, you're right. It's useless really :D Tried it out against a few Fire enchanted bosses in Act 1 NM in Players 8 and even though the boss was practically walking on a solid white carpet of lightning, it's regenerated far quicker than the Shock webs were damaging him. Still, ít gives synergestic bonues to most traps I have considered using, so maxing it wasn't a waste anyhow. Lightning sentry looks far more appealing, at slvl 3 doing 1-250 dmg, and that's with only one of it's synergy skills maxed. Slvl 3 LS took care of those Fire enchanted bosses quite nicely actually, which bodes well for the future :)

I've now left Act 1 NM and the first impression of NM is good. I remember Act 1 in Nightmare and Hell mode being a pretty boring place. The XP rewards used to be pathetic considering the level you're supposed to be at when you enter. Not so now, I went from lvl 41 to 47 just going from the Blood Moor to Tamoe Highlands, not even bothering to clear out all the dungeons. And the difficulty curve actually makes sense now, with Act 1 NM being slightly more difficult than Act 5 Normal. Whereas in v1.09, Act 1 NM had been a push-over compared to the act you just completed. Fire blast, now at 270-400 dmg, still works like a charm in Players 8. Only ever had problems with Fire enchanted bosses or Boss packs with naturally fire resistant monsters, but Lightning Sentry takes care of those nicely. Monsters hit exceptionally hard, a nice example being a Returned One hitting me for 170 points while I was Amped. Packs of Fallen can kill you very fast if you happen to get caught in the middle, though you can kill them even faster with Fire blast :)

[Dagni]

Frenzytaurs were scary. Even in normal they took a lot of Fire blasts to bring down (heavy fire resistance?), and they'd chop up my merc in no time if I fought more than 2 at once. The fact that they're so fast and hit so hard makes it more or less impossible to kill them without stalling them somehow.

You're still playing "players 8" aren't you? :) They have no resistances of any kind, base life of about 330 avg. Fire Blast, against any monster but especially Frenzytaurs, is far more effective as long as it does more than 1/12 the monster's life. Stunlock. That IS how I stall them, by stunlocking them. Plus my cold merc can do a pretty good job of stalling at least one. :) No need for hit and run as long as the monsters get stunned.

Do you by the way know what fps that puts me in? I have Blade Talons with 20% IAS, Lvl 1 BoS, and Arctic mitts which give 10% IAS. I tried the speed calculator at the German D2 site, but the business with the left claw gave me some confusing results that I didn't know what to do with.

You should be doing (the fastest) 9 frames per attack. On using the german calculator, select Trap placing as the skill, and just leave the "left claw" blank. I *think* that it won't affect your speed at all. Certainly if you aren't dual-wielding it won't. :P Also leave "WIAS" blank, include any IAS on your right claw in with the other IAS, (so in your case 30% IAS total) and don't count any IAS on your other claw. In general, with any base 20% faster weapon, like the Blade Talons, and slvl 1 BoS, you need 25% IAS to reach the fastest breakpoint. So you've got 5% extra. :) If for some reason you switch to a weapon with a base of 10% faster, like a short staff or a Katar, you'd need 40% IAS total.

Still, ít gives synergestic bonues to most traps I have considered using, so maxing it wasn't a waste anyhow

Yes, it gives a great synergy for Charged Bolt sentry! If you still have it at slvl 1, it may only do 1-14 dmg, but with 11 bolts per shot from 5 of these suckers, and the damage gets up there fast. But then, that's one of the things I hope to find out with this character, once Fire Blast, Shock Web, CB Sentry, and Lightning Sentry are all maxed, which is better? CBS or LS?

- Dagni

[Rataxes]

You're still playing "players 8" aren't you?  They have no resistances of any kind, base life of about 330 avg. Fire Blast, against any monster but especially Frenzytaurs, is far more effective as long as it does more than 1/12 the monster's life. Stunlock. That IS how I stall them, by stunlocking them. Plus my cold merc can do a pretty good job of stalling at least one.  No need for hit and run as long as the monsters get stunned.

True, true... Which is also why I mainly have to hit and run against minions and bosses, since their amount of HP is obscene compared to regular monsters now. I played with Players 8 on almost the entire time in Normal, exceptions being any place in Act 4 with Venom Lords, and all Act bosses, except Duriel. Now in NM I've had to turn it down temporarily to Players 3 in the Catacombs, and Players 5 in the Act 2 Sewers.

You should be doing (the fastest) 9 frames per attack. On using the german calculator, select Trap placing as the skill, and just leave the "left claw" blank. I *think* that it won't affect your speed at all. Certainly if you aren't dual-wielding it won't.  Also leave "WIAS" blank, include any IAS on your right claw in with the other IAS, (so in your case 30% IAS total) and don't count any IAS on your other claw. In general, with any base 20% faster weapon, like the Blade Talons, and slvl 1 BoS, you need 25% IAS to reach the fastest breakpoint. So you've got 5% extra.  If for some reason you switch to a weapon with a base of 10% faster, like a short staff or a Katar, you'd need 40% IAS total.

Ah, "Trap placing"! How could I miss it? I was using "Standard attack" and I suppose that's why I got odd results such as 9.5 fps, and could go below the supposed minimum to 7.5 fps.

Yes, it gives a great synergy for Charged Bolt sentry! If you still have it at slvl 1, it may only do 1-14 dmg, but with 11 bolts per shot from 5 of these suckers, and the damage gets up there fast. But then, that's one of the things I hope to find out with this character, once Fire Blast, Shock Web, CB Sentry, and Lightning Sentry are all maxed, which is better? CBS or LS?

My money's on LS, more about that on the AB :)

[davcol]

I thought I'd update with my observations from Nightmare.


The character is now level 70 and playing in Act1 Hell. She has adequate damage, but her gear needs to be improved. At a guess I'd say I need to increase her defense - she's getting hit too hard and too often by ranged attacks.

I ended up maxing Lightning Sentry and Fire Blast. I'm now pumping Death Sentry. I'm also using the Shadow Master, Burst of Speed , Mind Blast and Fade. Fade makes the character ethereal, causing many people to think you're using Nat's Set, even when they can see you have a flail in your hands. :)

As for gear ( and keep in mind I've spent the weekend playing not shopping ) she's wearing a 4 hole ghost armor with 3 flawless sapphires and an eth, a kite shield Ancients Pledge, a +1 Assassin skills circlet with resists, a low level belt with FHR, two rings with +62 mana each, some 30% faster R/w boots ,a +1 Assassin skills ammy and a +3 traps claw. Not what I'd call high end gear. :)

I can't look at her character screen as I type this, but roughly speaking she does 900 damage per throw with the Fire Blast and 1-1100 per shot with the Lightning Sentry. The Death Sentry shoots 11 times and has a 7 yard range. The basic strategy is the same as it's always been with a Trapper - keep everything off of her with the minions and Mind Blast until the traps have a chance to work. But I often switch from Fade to BoS in mid-battle in order to lob fire bombs more quickly.

My overall impression is that the Trapper will be quite viable untwinked in Hardcore, even though the game is now much harder. The character has only died twice, once to a bug that froze her in place in the Chaos Sanctuary and once to poor play in the Cold Plains of Hell.

I'd say that Blizzard has done a fine job with this patch. I'm having a blast!

-davcol

[Occhidiangela]

1.09, AssA. WoI does more but slower and at shorter range, while LS does it a bit faster at longer range, but lower totals. Plus, the Inferno bug, IIRC, still looks to apply to WoI, per your observations. '

KR

[AssA]

1.09, AssA.  WoI does more but slower and at shorter range, while LS does it a bit faster at longer range, but lower totals.  Plus, the Inferno bug, IIRC, still looks to apply to WoI, per your observations. '

KR

You're probably right. It's been a long time I last played around with my Trickster.

I'm interested in how well your assassin will do against the Serpent Magi in act 5 hell, lightning sentry doesn't even seem to hurt them, even though they are not immune :huh:

[Rataxes]

Just got through NM too and my lvl 71 Trapsin is currently working her way through the Outer Cloister.

I've already maxed Fire Blast, Shock Web and Lightning Sentry, and I'm on my way maxing Charged Bolt Sentry as well. I've only spent three points in the Shadow Discipline tree since I want to have the highest possible trap damage I can get, so Claw Mastery, Bos and Weapon Block all got a point each.

Didn't really have much trouble with NM either. Had to turn the difficulty to Players 5 a few more times than in Normal, and as always, to Players 1 when doing the Act bosses, but apart from an initial shock when I entered the Bloody Foothills and saw Extra Fast Bramble Hulks chopping up my merc in seconds and then rushing towards me, I wasn't in any serious trouble. Had to turn the difficulty down to Players 3 till about half of Act 5 was finished and I could shop for a few +Trap skills Claws. I'll tell you, The Cunning Claw is an extremely rare sight in the shops. I must easily have covered 70-80 claws a minute as I dashed back and forth through the red portal, and it took me almost two hours to get two Cunning claws! :angry:

My gear really isn't anything spectacular. Got a +60 HP belt with 16% LR, a +43 Mana ring, another ring, rare one, with very minor resistances. My armor and boots are cheap gambled rares with semi-decent resists and a few other insignificant bonuses. I'm using Sander's Gloves and a pretty nice +17% Prismatic Circlet with +22 HP and a few other bonuses that, while nice, don't really benefit me. And then there's my very lucky amulet find, a perfect Chromatic (+30%) amulet with -4 mdt, and my dual +3 Trap claws. My lvl 67 HF Mercs entire equipment comes from NM Diablo, who kindly dropped me the Tal Rasha Death Mask and the unique Partizan, along with a pretty decent rare Serpentskin armor.

Now I was dreading Hell, reading so many nightmarish reports about how it's impossible to kill anything unless you have less than 10k+ dmg and impossible to survive without several kilo hit points and maxed resists and blocking, but Act 1 Hell on Players 6 isn't that bad at all. My lvl 26 Fireblast (1096-1368 dmg) and lvl 26 Lightning Sentry (1-2649 dmg) can deal with all normal enemies I've encountered so far relatively quickly, and even against the toughest and most highly resistant uniques, they've been enough to at least beat their regen. Corpsefire did take about 2 minutes worth of Lightning sentries to down, but that's about the trickiest encounter I've had yet. What I did notice was how extremely hard they hit. I have 1100 HP and Corpsefire could easily swipe 50% in one hit, he and his minions caught me by surprise the first time and killed me for the first time since Act 2 NM. The one boss ability I dread by far the most, is Extra Fast, anything that is slow enough to be taken out with hit and run tactics isn't a threat, but if they hit hard, are durable enough not to be stunned by anything I have, and are fast enough be all over you the instant I stop to set up a single trap, then I'm usually in serious trouble. Nothing else really scares me.

Considering that I haven't even gotten either of my two primary skills up to half of my projected end-game damage, I'd say they'll probably be enough to handle most things to come in latter acts, all except dual-immunes.

[Albion Child]

I remember an old thread entitled "What to do with this?" The original poster found an ethereal Hellslayer Decapitator and was asking if it was worth the Zod rune you would need to put in it to be usefull.

Well now that 1.10 is out there is a new use. Are the words "blade assy" running through anyone else's head?

Now, an ethereal zodded Hellslayer is a monster already, but why bother putting a Zod rune into the weapon when you shouldn't need to swing it at all? So I guess that (assuming no martial arts are to be used) putting an Ohm rune into a big 2 hand ethereal weapon is the best choice for this build. Is anyone up to calculating the damage that this monster could muster?

[keenduck]

Well now that 1.10 is out there is a new use. Are the words "blade assy" running through anyone else's head?

Now, an ethereal zodded Hellslayer is a monster already, but why bother putting a Zod rune into the weapon when you shouldn't need to swing it at all?

Unless I'm remembering incorrectly (which I might be), the blade skills do affect durability on the weapon you're carrying. Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but I don't believe I've read anything about that being changed in 1.10.

[Ice]

I'm positive blade fury (at least) does not drop the durability of the weapon used. I've played a trapsassin converted from LoD with an ethereal crescent moon for 4+ hours in hell and its durability has still yet to drop.