WTF, mates.

[Bob the Beholder]

So, I've recently renewed my DII addiction, and I've started up a few new characters, along with playing some of my oldies (I'm pretty sure I've told the story of Piotyr, my Zealot that was started back in the days of D2C patch 1.04, in this forum before), and I've got a couple of questions for all of you with greater game experience than I.

Might I mention that all of this is done in Single Player.

First off, there was Biff_Boneson, the hardcore, bone-skills only necromancer. I thinking full on Bone Spear/Spirit, with some Bone Wall and Bone Armor, and perhaps some CE for bigger groups. On paper, that looks like it'll produce some decent damage, with Bone Walls for my meat/not-meat shield, but that still does not account for actual experience and the vagaries of the DII code.

Next, was Landra, an Enchantress. With this one, I'm quite dissapointed with my performance. I'm still in Act I Normal, but still it's pretty hard. I've yet to actually die, but there have been a few close shaves, and a couple of situations in which there was nothing to do but stand there, take damage, and drink potions as fast as possible. Will these situations decrease as my skills increase? With the ability to teleport and reliably static-field, will things like Archer boss packs be more manageable?

Now, just a few minutes ago, I started another Paladin. My first thought was Sacrifice, but with Piotyr, I've got twelve percent life-leech (the only way I can survive in his under-levelled, low-vitality state), and I've used Sacrifice in a few situations, but it all that leech didn't seem to have much of an effect. I still lost lots of life. Now, with a reasonable bit of luck, I think I can procure up to 19% percent life leech, but I'm still not sure it's enough. Is Sacrifice still workable with the leech-cuts in the higher difficulties? Are there any fairly common ways of getting the necessary life leech?

Otherwise, what other options would you reccomend for my new Paladin? I'm certainly not doing Zeal again, and the only other thing I can think of is Vengeance, but that also requires a good bit of mana leech. There's also Smite, but that straight can't mana-leech.

M'kay, then. I'm pretty much done rambling now.

[Wyrm]

I had a Sacrifice Paladin way back in the 1.04 days, maxed Sacrifice and Conc. Even with 27% leech, he was still dying quite often. Never seemed to be able to deal all that much damage in hell, it took 3-4 swings (he had a not-so-good ancient sword that only dealt something in the ballpark of 40-80) to kill a zombie in a1.

Anyways... 19% life leech won't be anywhere near enough nowadays to safely use Sacrifice as a main skill.

Edit: You can get good leech now with an Honor weapon (crystal sword so you can still use a shield), 4% rings/ammys are cheap and have a low level req (10), you can get 3% on gloves, the unique quilted armor (greyform) has 5%, and there are a lot of other sets and uniques for various item slots that you can use.

[Bob the Beholder]

That rules out Sacrifice, then. The nineteen percent was just a semi-reasonable figure with what I could buy/gamble at the merchants with some eventual success. This is single player, after all, and I dont' mule, so even greyform's just a matter of luck, and it's not something that I'd rely a character on.

Honor is almost doable, if I get lucky, but that's still the luck. I found all the necessary runes for it with Piotyr by about level 65, but I can't get by without leech for that long. And I still haven't found a phase blade with the proper sockets. Actually... I don't think I've actually found a phase blade. (pathetic I know; my official title is The Avatar of Murphy: I invoke Murphy's Law every moment of the day, especially in games)

Vengeance is the next possible option that I think of. I'm going for the big-damage-per-hit style, to contrast my earlier Zealot exploits, and that seems to fit pretty well. Though, Charge would work as well, but I've heard some problems with Charge's ability to hit moving monsters in the expansion pack. I haven't used it since patch 1.05, so I really wouldn't know.

Now, then, with Landra, my Enchantress, I've come up with some things that might be possible. Mongo Jerry's guide mentioned getting enough dexterity for maximum block. To my understanding, the amount needed is somewhere in the range of a-whole-helluva-lot, and I'm really not looking forward to that one.

I was thinking to cut down on points in dexterity and add them to strength instead, so that I can equip the stronger armor, and then use Shiver Armor to increase that even more, hopefully to the point that I can get by with only mediocre block. That's mainly due to the monsters somehow only having a 5 percent chance to hit with frozen armor open, but my only having a twenty percent chance to block with a spiked shield, and dexterity on par with both my strength and vitality, which are all I've put points into so far.

But with all of that, would I have the necessary defense to fend off the stronger minions of evil? Or would I need to get a defiance mercenary as well?

My original thought was to somehow get enough defense to completely negate the shield's purpose, and then use some sort of gigantic two-handed weapon, if only for the cool-factor. But I'm not sure it would be possible to get that much defense. Any clues on the correctness of this?


Ramble time over. So sad.

[Nightwind]

That rules out Sacrifice, then.  The nineteen percent was just a semi-reasonable figure with what I could buy/gamble at the merchants with some eventual success.

I've had some sucess with a blood cressant, that high built in leach is enough, through normal, to counter the lifeloss of sac, all on it's own.

troble is, that a LOT of enimies are partually un leachable. So sac will always hurt you on a skeleton, and leach will only work half as well on a zombie. Mephisto and big D are 0% leach... you really need charges of lifeleach to play a martyer these days.

[Wyrm]

But with all of that, would I have the necessary defense to fend off the stronger minions of evil? Or would I need to get a defiance mercenary as well?

The simple answer is no. If you want to tank with the sorc, invest in Energy Shield and Telekenesis.

Vengeance is a good skill, you can use it to cut through any immunity in the game, but it only hits one enemy at a time, so you're going to need a high/fast block shield and good resists or you'll be stunlocked into death.

Charge is only really useful in pvp because you have to concentrate mainly on that one skill and its synergies and ignore others that you would normally need for pvm. Astronomical damage though.

[Bob the Beholder]

Yeah, Vengeance is the most likely skill, so far. With my Zealot, Piotyr, I couldn't get far in Hell because of how long it takes Zeal to do significant damage. He's horribly low on Vitality (only about 800-900 life, and that's with over 200 added from equipment), so he can't tank the stronger monsters long enough to do that damage, and Zeal does not lend itself to hit and run attacks, because I get surrounded too fast, and have to run away before much damage is done, and what little damage is done is usually regenerated before I can get back in to attack again. Unless, that is, I switch to the Headstriker I was lucky enough to find, but that seems to have tiny durability, and barely lasts fifteen minutes without needing repaired.

So, what I was going for is something to do heavy damage in one quick, well-placed strike, instead of the random, over-time damage of Zeal.

With the energy shield, I've heard of a very annoying bug that makes it completely useless against elemental attacks, so I'm really hoping to avoid that. So far I've been thinking to add in some static-field and some cold spells. I stuck a point into Frost Nova, and that has been extremely useful, even with just one point. Perhaps I'll go all the way up to Frozen Orb, and some points in Cold Master, to use that against Fire Immunes, and to freeze normal enemies, so they're more maneagable.

[GenericKen]

Charge is only really useful in pvp because you have to concentrate mainly on that one skill and its synergies and ignore others that you would normally need for pvm.  Astronomical damage though.

I had a big hitter avenger back in .09; Convicted cows in 8 players died in two hits from my massive sword. With a Holy Freeze merc, he was perfectly capable with a shield or very high defense.
He, unfortunately, expired. :( :( :(
I very much doubt you could survive with a 2 hander in 1.10


Charge is the physical damage king of the game, doing even better than Leap Attack. Vigor is incredibly useful for pvm, so I can see it working with a slightly gimped HS.

[Boooyakasha]

Prior to 1.10 patch, Sacrifice reduce your HP base on your physical damage without taking into account the actual damage you deal. This is bad, as you might not hit hard enough to leech back the life it takes away.

But it has been changed now, so Sacrifice now actually reduce your life base on the actual damage you deal. With enough life leech you cab actually manage to compensate it, and Sacrifice is actually a very powerful skill. Relying on Life Leech items might not be a good choice but there are two items you can use.

1) Dracul's glove which has % to cast Life Tap.
2) Life Tap wand

Either way will give you 50% Life Leech on any monsters, including Undead. It works on Physical Immune but the catch is the curse works but you cannot deal damage to PI so no Life Leech :P