Chipadin build/strategy/tactics?

[Zyr]

A few weeks ago it was my good fortune to come across Crystalion's The Great Race discussion, one of the most stimulating and informative threads I've ever read about the game. (I immediately twinked a new assassin with the Hsarus set, Hellforge Hammer, etc. and started a series of level 8 Imbues-- some of which were actually useful. :) But I digress...)

Buried deep in the higher-numbered pages of the thread are a couple of cryptic references to "chipadin" and "Hot Chippie Paladin." From the context, it was clear to me that the references were to a chipped gem finder, built around a particular sword. I inferred that the weapon is Kinemil's Awl (+6 Holy Fire), but I'm not smart enough to figure out what makes a Pal thus equipped a superior chippie finder. (I've played Paladins very little, and have never used Holy Fire.) I searched the Web via Google as well as manually here, at AB, and at diabloii.net, but came up dry.

The question was academic until a little while ago, when Kinemil's Awl dropped for my MFassin in the NM Tamoe Highlands. I would be deeply grateful to anyone who explains how I can best use it to feed my cubing habit. :)

[Ruvanal]

The "Chipadin" will max the Holy Fire skill and try to get as many pluses as possible to that particular skill. The Holy Fire skill give a strong enough fire damage pulse at high skill levels that it can usually kill act 1 normal monster in a single pulse, even when they are spawned in a game with a higher player count.

The higher player count is desired because it will reduce the NoDrop factor which in turn will increase the amount of stuff that all these monster will yield. With act 1 normal having almost only chipped gems (only a small chance of getting flawed in the catacombs) dropping it is the best area to 'farm' for the chips. This paladin can then just run through these areas and listen for the sound a chipped gem makes when falling. There is little need to stop and have to take out most the monsters by the slower method of actually attacking them. The skill also has the advantage of not needing any mana to function, which can slow down some of the other types of builds for this.

[AtomicKitKat]

The only thing that could even come close would be a traps sin with maxed fire blast, but she would have to pause every so often to throw those. The damage itself is pretty high though...

[Zyr]

Thanks very much! :) ZyrChipFinder is already level 3 (and found three chippies in the Den of Evil).

So many ways to enjoy this game... So little time...

[Zyr]

The only thing that could even come close would be a traps sin with maxed fire blast

I thoroughly enjoy Wake of Fire myself. I dress her in Cathan's gear (she hates it-- says the mask is ugly and the armor makes her behind look too big)-- +1 Fire Skills and +50 Mana from the staff, +20 Mana from the ugly mask. At 15, a +1 Traps amulet; at 19, a Leaf, Stealth, and a PSkull+PSapphire circlet...

But I'm sure the Chipadin will be even faster. :)

[ryan4nayr]

Zyr,

I had a HFire chipadin pre-1.10, lots of fun running through Blood Moors all the way to Stony Field to farm chippies. Gave me lots of trading options, not to mention a big stockpile of 3-sock CCBs.

He, too, used a Kinemil's Awl, very effective while farming. However, if you can find a rare +3 HFire weap & a rare Marshal's (+3 offensive auras) shield, he'd be much more flexible. But entirely optional, considering you're killing normal quill rats for retirement. Don't forget to bring a full set of keys, & since you're not even gonna need pots, stick scrolls in your belt instead, that's an extra 4 chippeds B)

A post some months ago raised the issue of 1.10 chipadins, & came up with a few ideas. Very basically, HShock rules in both weapon & radius dmg, with HFreeze coming at a distant 2nd; HFire is a clvl 6 skill, & it shows. From the pages of Arreat Summit:

HFire slvl 20 : 109-127 personal weap dmg, avg 118.0 --> with full synergies : 467.3 avg dmg
18-21 radius dmg, avg 19.5 --> with full synergies : 77.2 avg dmg
HFreeze slvl 20 : 185-190 personal weap dmg, avg 187.5 --> with full synergies : 641.3 avg dmg
37-38 radius dmg, avg 37.5 --> with full synergies : 128.3 avg dmg
HShock slvl 20 : 1-936 personal weap dmg, avg 468.5 --> with full synergies : 1218.1 avg dmg
1-156 radius dmg, avg 78.5 --> with full synergies : 204.1 avg dmg

HShock received a hefty +radius per slvl improvement in 1.10, compared to the fixed radius of 1.09 (it was more of a personal ltng dmg skill back then), which makes it better than ever. Just giving you options. :lol:

<RANT> IMHO, the new HShock put HFire absolutely out of business, which I believe Blizz didn't intend to do, but oh well. HFire should've received another bonus to make it useful post-1.10, perhaps increasing chances of Open Wounds or Monster Flee per slvl (the monsters are, after all, burning). </RANT>

[Obi2Kenobi]

Well, for a chippydin, holy fire or holy freeze would be much better than holy shock. The reason is that 100% of their pulses will kill the monsters in act 1, but only about 94-97% (not sure how much life they have...) will kill the monsters with one hit. Although if it has a higher radius, it may be beneficial.

[Occhidiangela]

Amazon. Three socketed Breast Plate. Three socketed Crown. Three socketed Hunter's (or any other) bow.

Put a Jewel of Envy in each possible sockets.

Invest in Multi Shot to at least 10.

Hit the Outer Cloister WP.

WOrk your way back to Dark Wood.

Shoot and follow all over the map, holding down Alt Key.

With 180 damage over 2 secnds, darned near everything drops by the time you reach it after having loosed a spray of poison arrows all over the place.

To each his own. :)

[JustAGuy]

You know, I don't see the need for a chip farmer... They drop all the time, and if you pick up *most* of the ones you find, you should have plenty... Is there really that great a need for a chip farmer when they drop fairly often in all difficulties? If the chips are to make juvys -- I don't see the need for that either, juvys drop all the time.

As for the tactic of using a paladin for, what I call the "lazy man's paladin strategy"; I use it all the time. Partly because I'm lazy, but also because I just love walking around and seeing things die. My retired level 77 holy shocker comes out of retirement to do nightmare countess runs for all my chipped and rune needs (lots of gems fall there), and most monsters drop in 1 pulse in act 1 nightmare. The level 70ish holy freeze merc accompanying him is no slouch either...

One thing about the countess runs: my 77 shocker is capable of doing hell countess runs, but they are significantly longer and usually don't generate anything of interest. I usually get the most useful stuff from the nightmare countess for much less effort. I got two shaels from her in 1 drop the other day. Gotta love the shaels.

[twentythree]

Sorry folks, but I am going to have to disagree with nearly everything here.

I chip farmed like mad in 1.09. Probably in the order of five thousand chips total from all my runs. And the number one key to makign a good chip runner is *NOT* dealing out damage in a large area of efect. The number one key element far and above anything else is walk speed.

Even doing just one lap aroudn the blood more took a frustratingly long amount of time for my HF palidin. Even loaded up with as much faster walk/run items as I could find I still was takign what seamed to be an eternity to go from where one pack of monsters were to the next pack.

A burst of speed assassin may sound like a good idea. And it is way better than a HF palidin, but for all the chip hunter characters I have ever mad nothing can even come close to a teleport sorc.

Teleport dosent even have to have more than one point into it. With +10 all skills and a single point into warmth and teleport with 200 energy I was breaking even on mana usage using teleport for ALL movement. A single point into frozen orb gave enough killing dammage to rip through anything in normal. Using this setup I was able to far chips at the rate of around 50-60 an hour. This included all the "down time" making new games over and over.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

The second thing I want to point out is that act 1 is NOT the best place in the game to farm chips. The monster packs are spread out to far from each other, the packs themselves are not tightly groupd, the maps are too random to make for easy running, and the monsters there (Shock and suprise!) dont have that great a chance of dropping chips.

Now I know what you must be saying to youself. "Twentythree? Have you done lost your mind!!??? Everyone knows that chips drop like mad in the blood more. You get higher than that and flawed gems start dropping instead of chips." Well sory folks, but fallen, fallen shamen, skeletons, zombies, dark hunters, dark rangers, dark spearwomen, and gartauian beasts are not even in the list of the top 100 monsters. Quil rats cant even drop chips at all.

As amazing as it sounds, ghosts actualy drop chips better than any other monster in the game. Thats right. Ghosts. Imagine that? Huh? ghosts actualy drop chips 3 times more often than anything I listed in the previous paragraph. This would make the jail levles the best places to chip hunt if it wernt for the fact that the maps are so durn irigular and produce frequent backtracking over already cleared areas.

My personal favorite stomping ground for chip hunting is actualy arcane sanctuary. "Your crazy" you may say. "By that far into act 2 everything woudl be droping flawed genms and not chips. Well think again because specters actualy have a slightly higher chance of droping a chip than any of the act 1 monsters I listed.

Arcane sanc also has other things working in its favor. The map is very predictiable, you can run it with nearly zero backtracking., the monsters are both closely spaced and tightly grouped, and the summoner takes home the bronze medal for third higest chip rate of any monster in the game, right behind the countess with the silver and anderial with the gold. Then on top of all that you have those oh-so-wonderful chests to open at the end of each "leg".

My teleport sorc that was built JUST for runnign arcane was able to do a full run, killing everything on the whole map and opening all chests, in just under 4 minutes. An average run would net me 4 or 5 chips each. I have gone as high as 15 in a single run.

A final tip I can give is to do runs while wearing headphones. As I would teleport past, I would shoot off a frizen orb then teleport on out before ever looking at what droped. Only if I heard the "ping" of a chip drop would I stop to pick up the rune.

[Obi2Kenobi]

There is just one problem with the Arcane Sanctuary Ghosts. If they are killed over empty space, no drop for you. :)

[moget?]

Hey,

Occhi: Good idea here, but you would not be able to hear the chips drop if they die far off screen :(

JustAGuy: Chips for cube formulae of course!

twentythree: How about some points into vigor to fill in that speed gap? Also, frozen orbs fly through the air too damn slow.

I suppose the optimal character would be holy fire/freeze/shock with enigma armor for teleportation!

-moget?

[Zyr]

Thanks to each of you for the fascinating insights! :)

I have to confess that, while I do a fair amount of cubing and do need chips, my primary interest was in finding an effective use for Kinemil's Awl. The sword dropped for me two or three times in 1.09, but my Paladins all had other builds and better weapons of the blunt variety. I tried one on a Barb merc, but was unimpressed.

ZyrChipFinder actually was conceived as a warehouse mule-- I was completely out of space, and needed to stash an Isenhart's helm and armor, a Cleglaw's sword, a Berserker axe, The Jade Tan Do, and an ethereal Culwen's Point-- most of these items found in a single Countess/The Pit run in NM. (The eth CP is going on my WoF Trapper's cold Iron Wolf when he reaches 29, along with a Lore circlet. Cold Iron Wolf with a Trapper? Don't ask...)

So, in a sense, ZCF was twinked, but he used only items he found himself until level 8, when he donned the Isenhart's gear. I intended to use the Cleglaw's sword as well, but he found a Superior Scepter with +1 to something irrelevant in the Den of Evil, and killed almost everything in one hit with it, so I saw no point in raising his strength enough to wield the Tooth.

I put the first skill point in Might, of course, and subsequent points into Resist Fire until level 6; after that, it was Holy Fire all the way. Bishibosh dropped Death's Hand-- awright!

ZCF had remarkably good luck finding chips in the early going; he had 20 by level 12. Pure coincidence, of course.

Conveniently, Elly, the faithful Fire Arrow Rogue, anounced "I feel much stronger now" for the third time (level 8) just as ZCF dinged 12. Major twinkage time: I transferred the Isenhart hat and body to Elly, and outfitted ZCF in Arctic Furs and Binding (+40% MF), Angelic Sickle, Wings, and 2*Halo (+1 all skills, +100% MF), and a two-Topaz Helm (+32% MF). (One may always hope to find a Gull in Normal, even in act 1, and I've already found a (poor, +17% MF) Nagelring in the Normal Act I Barracks on another character.)

Not only was ZCF s-l-o-w, but he had an amazing craving for Stamina Potions! When he reached 14, I gave him Vidala's Fetlock, solving both problems to my satisfaction. (No doubt he's still much slower than a teleporting sorc, but since he's looking at everything, instead of just listening for chips, that's OK with me.)

Andariel, of course, never knew what hit her. :D The fire-resistant Burning Dead in the Lut Gohlein Sewers weren't a problem. Beetles were a problem for poor Elly; she died several times in the clouds of Charged Bolts as ZCF killed them too quickly in the Far Oasis, Canyon of the Magi, and Tombs. Duriel, however, was a pushover.

ZCF met his match, though, in the Spider Cavern-- and lost, dying to Sszark The Burning and his mob of Flame Spiders. My fault! ZCF was using "found" shields: An ethereal Superior Rondache (21 def, 10% Resist All), and a plain Rondache (10 def, 9% Resist All) on the switch, matched with The Jade Tan Do. His fire resistance was only 20% with the Sickle and eth shield. It never even occurred to me to switch auras from Holy Fire to Resist Fire-- DOH! It DID occur to me to use the poisoned dagger when I went back, and Sszark and Co. were soon puddles on the cavern floor.

Strangeness in the Flayer Jungle: I found the Gidbinn, but the dagger never dropped. I think this was because I killed all the surrounding monsters before touching the Gidbinn. I'll have to go back... Oh, well, at least I have the waypoint...

ZCF dinged 23 about the time he and Elly dispatched Stormtree. After finding the Lower Kurast WP, I equipped him with Kinemil's Awl and-- since he was losing the +1 skills from the partial Angelic set anyway-- a Captain's Amulet of the Tiger (+1 Offensive Auras, +23 Life). This gave him slvl 25 Holy Fire (with 5 points in the Resist Fire synergy). The LCS showed his Attack damage as 372-485, with a Holy Fire aura doing 55-58 damage. I then started a new game and took the Stony Field WP.

Even though I knew what was supposed to happen, it was still laughing-out-loud hilarious to see it: All the monsters simply fell over dead when ZCF strolled by. The chips, though, weren't falling; contrary to his previous good luck, ZCF found only three chips in the Stony Field and Cold plains, and two of those were from chests. Taking the Black Marsh WP and headed for the Monastery, I reached Andariel quicker than I ever had before, and it was lots of fun. :)

MFing success for this project was so-so: Two Hsarus boots (always welcome!), a Cathan's ring (ditto!), and a lot of rares, including a series of decent bows for Elly, but no uniques.

ZyrChipFinder's future is unclear: There are a lot of Paladin possibilities I want to explore, on ZCF and his older brother Zyrylyon, who's currently level 21, with one point in each Combat Skill and Offensive Aura available to him, Vigor and prereq, and five unspent skill points. (Zyrylyon is very nicely equipped for his level. With the complete Death set and Steelclash set up for Zeal and Concentration, Bloodrise and Swordback Hold set up for Sacrifice and Concentration on the switch, Stealth Gothic Plate, Duskdeep, and rare FRW boots, he's simply devastating. But then, isn't that the point of a twinked character?)

I'd really, really like to find a four-socket scepter with +3 Holy Shock, into which I'd of course put Holy Thunder for +6 Hshock. I'm sitting on a four-socket War Scepter with +1 Conversion-- I may just put Holy Thunder into that, as Eth, Ral, Ort and Tal aren't exactly unobtanium. It seems to me that maxed Holy Shock and Holy Fire, with heavy investment in their synergies, might make an effective two-element Paladin. Discuss?

Also, I'm sitting on a couple of potentially powerful chilling weapons: Sureshrill Frost and Aldur's Rhythm. Holy Freeze might make a better second elemental attack for ZCF than Holy Shock. Discuss?

I also want to explore the Missionary possibilities of Conversion and Thorns using the Skewer of Krintiz, which Ignores Target Defense. (I know there are more powerful ITD weapons, but the Skewer is what I have, OK?)

At some point I'm sure ZyrChipFinder will play Ranger using the family Hellclap. (I know Raven Claw and the Kuko are more effective with Holy Fire because of the area damage from Exploding Arrow, but Hellclap (upgraded and socketed) is what I have, OK?)

Occhidiangela, your Lucretiazon is simply sick-- I love it! :D I have a young bowazon who'd be perfect to try it, and at level 21 she is able to equip The Jade Tan Do (180 poison damage by itself) on the switch, for potentially 300 points of right-click autoattack poison damage goodness...

I'm deeply grateful for all the feedback, insights, and suggestions-- please keep them coming! :)

[ryan4nayr]

Thanks to each of you for the fascinating insights! :)

Cold Iron Wolf with a Trapper?&nbsp; Don't ask...

I put the first skill point in Might, of course, and subsequent points into Resist Fire until level 6; after that, it was Holy Fire all the way.&nbsp; Bishibosh dropped Death's Hand-- awright!

ZCF had remarkably good luck finding chips in the early going; he had 20 by level 12.&nbsp; Pure coincidence, of course.

Conveniently, Elly, the faithful Fire Arrow Rogue, anounced "I feel much stronger now" for the third time (level 8) just as ZCF dinged 12.

Not only was ZCF s-l-o-w, but he had an amazing craving for Stamina Potions!&nbsp; When he reached 14, I gave him Vidala's Fetlock, solving both problems to my satisfaction.

Strangeness in the Flayer Jungle:&nbsp; I found the Gidbinn, but the dagger never dropped.

ZCF dinged 23 about the time he and Elly dispatched Stormtree.&nbsp; After finding the Lower Kurast WP, I equipped him with Kinemil's Awl and-- since he was losing the +1 skills from the partial Angelic set anyway-- a Captain's Amulet of the Tiger (+1 Offensive Auras, +23 Life).&nbsp; This gave him slvl 25 Holy Fire (with 5 points in the Resist Fire synergy).&nbsp; The LCS showed his Attack damage as 372-485, with a Holy Fire aura doing 55-58 damage.&nbsp; I then started a new game and took the Stony Field WP.

MFing success for this project was so-so:

ZyrChipFinder's future is unclear

I'm deeply grateful for all the feedback, insights, and suggestions-- please keep them coming! :)

Ultimately, the point of any build/variant is the fun factor. It sounds like you are having a blast, & I'm glad somebody else has discovered the fun in HFire-adins, just as I had back in 1.09.

Now that you have a stockpile of chippy's, the next logical step would be building characters that take advantage of those socketed cruel weapons you are cubing. *sigh* I remember my cookie cutter WWing barb, back in the day...

Anyway, you only really need the merc for leveling, don't be too attached to them. With the ltng hose bug gone, I (personally) wouldn't go for Rogues, but it don't sound like you're gonna push him into Hell, so I'm sure she'll provide companionship quite nicely.

I'm a bit biased, but I believe HShock is a nice complementary skill for you, esp. for anti-FI. However, HFreeze also does the trick quite well also. So it ultimately depends on whether you want sparkly smudges on the monsters, or blue monsters :D

Yeah, that's the main reason I'd lvl a chipadin... for the skill pts., & more importantly, the stamina. I actually prefer a slow run when farming, so I can catch the text label on the screen as I Alt+run.

I'm not surprised your trapper went for the Cold Iron Wolf merc, btw, I'm thinking about the same thing!

Odd about that Gidbinn. When you touch the totem, it spawns new monsters, only these new monsters can drop it. Very odd indeed.

[Occhidiangela]

In HC, had Kimel's Awl and maxed Holy Fire. Added a +1 Offensive Auras amulet and circlet.

I was underwhelmed at the results. Maybe with 1.10 having boosted HF, it would work better.

[Animation]

All,

This sounds fun. I regret selling the Awl I just found. Then again, I don't need any other projects. It'd be amusing to play a Holy Fire paladin to level 45 so he could use a +3 offensive Auras circlet and +3 amulet. Then add +6 from the Awl and +1 from Magefists and you would have a level 33 Holy Fire. Amusing. :) Grand Charms of +offense could take this higher. Maybe too high. :) You might not hear some chips. I guess for the remaining gear, I'd go with Stealth runeword armor, Mavina's Tenet Belt (level 45 req), and Nat's Boots to get some resistances and 85% faster run/walk. Gamble up a couple of rare resistnace rings. That'd be funny, and a fun project to boot. I just wish Holy Fire did a bit more damage so it wouldn't be so tedious to take it through hell.

Lewis

[Zyr]

That +1 Conversion War Scepter with four empty sockets was too much of a temptation (my nature abhors a vacuum-- let alone four of them), so Holy Shock will be ZyrChipFinder's second elemental offense. Besides the Holy Thunder scepter, I gave ZCF Stealth Ghost Armor, the Duskdeep unique hat (later replaced by a Lore Circlet), and a 4PD +88% Resist All Akaran Targe (115 def). After reaching 30, I gave him a +2 Offensive Auras amulet.

A friend gave me Hellplague (unique Long Sword, +2 Fire Skills). I couldn't resist the temptation to hire a fire Iron Wolf, and gave Hellplague to Ajheed when I got him to 22.

ZCF killed Nihlathak at clvl 29-- the lowest level at which I've attempted this since starting 1.10 ladder play. But he did it using Holy Shock. He died just about every time he tackled a Boss with Holy Fire (no matter whether he used Kinemil's Awl or Hellplague with a shield and maxed resists).

On the other hand, Holy Fire (with the Awl) proved wonderful in the Spider Forest/ Great Marsh/ Flayer Jungle, when I was training Ajheed, and in the Bloody Foothills and Frigid Highlands.

I put three points into Zeal, to deliver the elemental damage more quickly and to help with AR. Other skill investments at clvl 31: Holy Fire 18, Resist Fire 5, Holy Shock 3, Resist Lightning 2, and a point each in Might and Holy Freeze as prereqs.

I intend to max Holy Shock and Resist Lightning before putting any more points into the fire skills. I'll probably alternate points between the two (unless there's a more efficient way?)

This guy is a fun project, and I'm glad I started him. I really appreciate all the input! :)