Paladin Socketing Question

[Fragbait]

Hi,

I've been pondering this for a while now. My oldest and best char, a fanatic zealot, swings a Heaven's Light to battle his foes. His current stats are:

clvl: 91
str: 248
dex: 183
vit: 254
ene: 25
5 points unspent

dam (Zeal): 2606-3290 (including elemental damage from items)
dam (Veng): 3613-4645 (including elemental damage from items)
AR (Zeal): 6646 (~78-88% cth against later hell monsters)
AR (Veng): 7649 (~82-92% cth against later hell monsters)
def: 17186 (later hell monsters have a cth of ~10-25% against him)

Stamina: 499
Life: 1087
Mana: 204
Resist All: 75%

Fanaticism: lvl 30
Zeal: lvl 22
Vengeance: lvl 29 (no synergies - he's too old :mellow:)
1 skill point unspent

Hireling is an act I Rogue. AR isn't really a problem since the merc casts IS and I wear Soul Drainer gloves that chew on opponents defense. They also cast Weaken a lot, so enemies will be doing only 67% damage, which gets further reduced by my 14% String of Ears. On the switch I have a BarStar and a Storm Shield for 49% physical resistance altogether and some elemental damage.
Main setup is above-mentioned 250% ed Heaven's Light with a 33% ed / 15% ias jewel in it (+ 1 os) and a HoZ.
Leech is at 15% (life) and 4% (mana). I realize this is kind of low, but then again, I've next to no problems against monsters I can leech of and some more against monsters I can't, so increasing it won't help much methinks?
Only problems (apart from IM;)) are gloams (well...), sometimes undead dolls (less a problem if I switch to 49% phys. res.), sometimes large boss packs of the succubus type monsters if they are ce/fe/le or such (their physical missile performs somewhat odd when carrying elemental damage:blink:), sometimes strong PI monsters. I tend to play /players 3, or /players 2 at least, and especially a cursed/aura enchanted PI blood lord boss pack can be too much of a challenge, even though they don't hit me often (if the aura isn't BA!) and I'm blocking at 75% I think.

Considering zeal break points / general utility, what would you socket into the second socket, if the first already holds a 33% ed / 15% ias jewel as mentioned above?
Shael? 40% ed jewel? Amn? Ist?
Ist is my highest rune. This is singleplayer.


Thanks and Greetings, Fragbait

[Dirsch]

Greetings and Salutations,

I say socket all 4, one at a time of course and see which one has the most impact.

There are two ways to do this on single player. For one, just backup all files that make up this character into a separate directory, socket the scepter, play around with it and see how it feels to you. Then copy your backed up character to the save directory and do the same for each of the other socketing options.

Alternately, you could use ATMA and save your items to your to a separate item file. Then do the socketing, knowing full well that a copy of your original item is safe. I often do this when I need to experiment with skills and items. In case you don't know about ATMA, it is a muling program that allows you to transfer items between characters in SP only, in addition to other nifty features. If you don't already have this program you can download it free from here. The site is hosted by a relatively reputable website - diabloii.net, although I have used it and have determined free from malice, I cannot vouch for it, downloader beware.

[Fragbait]

I say socket all 4, one at a time of course and see which one has the most impact.

Hi,

I could do that, yes. I would do it via the backup copy I have of all of my chars. For muling I use the loopback adapter of Win XP, logging in with different users and muling things over while having DII opened two times. No third party programs interfering with DII.

But then again - Especially with the Ist rune, I wouldn't see the results without intensive testing and long time finding statistics. Also I was hoping for break points for the Zeal and Vengeance skills, since I got a +15%ias/+84AR jewel in the Heaven's Light already (not a +33%ed/+15%ias like I stated above ;), so the Heaven's Light is a natural 283%ed 153-199 dam, which isn't so bad :)).
Would I reach the next break point if I socketed a Shael? Would another +15%ias jewel suffice? (I've got a +15%ias/+13maxdam jewel lying around)
If I don't reach any further break points without other sources of ias than the weapon, would you advise a
Perfect Skull? (Life + Mana leech)
Perfect Diamond (possibly the pinch against Undead)
A 40%ed jewel?

I realise that the +84AR/+15%ias jewel I socketed wasn't the best choice. But then again, I wasn't so sure about keeping my act I hireling then, and I hadn't Soul Drainer munching on my opponents def.

Aren't there some socketing specialists out there? I think this deserves a bump. And I think I'm gonna post this at The Amazon Basin, too.


Greetings, Fragbait