Melee, Zeal/Fanta Pally with an Act1 Cold Merc.
I’ve bee using an Azurewrath on swap for physically immunes for some time with great results.
lvl-11 Sanct, 264ED, 8 to all attributes.
A friend gifted me a Lawbringer…
lvl-18 Sanct, 228 vs missiles…
Merc runs a Windforce, Gface and Fort.
Geuss I’m headed out to test, but, with math and what not… Lawbringer or Azurewarth for PI’s?
Well, last night servers had issues. So, there’s that.
Tonight, I had limited experience with PI’s, but, the few I encountered went well with the LawBringer.
Not certain it’s better than AzureWrath with PI’s, but when I forget to swap back, it seem’s pretty decent against all other monster types… possibly better that AzureWrath…
It’s pretty darn good, and, I have no desire to swap back just yet, based on my limited running at this point.
Verdict at this point is uncertain.
Would love for the super knowledgeable math types to weigh in.
As a casual, seems LB might have a edge, but… I’m a casual… so there is that.
Azurewrath has far more physical damage
Azurewrath has more elemental damage
Lawbringer has leech.
Lawbringer has Decrepify
Lawbringer will win out if you have a decent base and decrep procs. Without decrep procced, Azurewrath wins and is still close enough even against decrep lawbringer to justify use.
if you just want a definitive answer
Azurewrath
The LawBringer is in a PhaseBlade, and has 20% chance for lvl 15 Decrepify and lvl18 Sanctuary.
The Azurewrath has lvl 11 Sanctuary, and +1 to all skills.
I believe you are right tho, while the LB is pretty interesting when it proc’s, the Azure is dead on all the time.
Just put one hard point in sanctuary
Then swap auras when an undead phydical immune shows up but keep your normal weapon
I’ve tried a lower lvl Santuary option, and lower lvl Vengeance option (that still kept Zeal Fanaticsm and Holy Shield at decent/efficient levels) and I just could not get them to work anything near as well as running an decent elemental weapon on swap. Matter of fact, they were painfully slow and required lots of health/mana pots to stay in the fight.
To be fair, when I was trying those builds my guy was (thinking back) high70’s to low-mid 80’s… if memory is anywhere near accurate… that was months ago.
Now that he’s lvl 95 I guess I have more points to move around/invest, but, he’s working so good I don’t want to mess him up, and, Meph simply will not drop a yellow ess for me… last one I need to make a token.
I’m no expert, but, that Azurewrath is something else for dealing with PI’s on a melee build.
I play in hc and right now my pala is 88. I play it each ladder after my beloved assass. Each time I used azur on switch weapon.
This time I used call to arms as switch, which gives 3k life , insane.
With a very well rolled death rw, with absolutely outstanding ( 50%,crushing blow AND deadly blow … wtf ? ) i tried vengeance ( along with zeal for regular monsters of c ) as I have lvled a lot light red aura ( for the + light passiv res to reach 83 which makes souls so weak, AND the massiv light dmg synergie for vengeance ), immunes get two shots without decrep, one with, when merc simply don’t rape them before.
My merc is a5 barb with lawbringer and crescent moon , so clearly he proc static, decrepify and the -res light from his target.
The result is so absurd that the game is simply a cake walk in hc, not challenging in the slightest.
Never thought the zealot could be that strong, a5 merc with eth forti eth arreat and double eth mythical crescent moon lawbringer, under self Bo and fanaticism is like wtf ? He just totally wrecks the whole screen like a demon under cocain, and the crushing (50% +deadly blow 70% ( death + Highlords) melt bosses within seconds.
Wtf char, especially considering it’s melee.
Can’t stop playing him.
I thought I should reply back with what is really killing it.
Backstory;
I switched my guy to dual dream and respected with lvl25 conviction which solved all my problems…
Then, on the side, i built up another a true Zealot/Fanata build… (again!)
Again, the Azurewrath was doing what it does… but, it’s slow and the Sanctuary was good… but it knocking stuff back, well… arg.
So, I slug’d through to level 96, and, things just got really slow, and with the new Terror Zones being so optimal, there were area’s just not worth the risk of running.
@Moya post really got me to thinking.
I respec’d my guy.
He’s pure Zeal/Fanata as the main, but on weapon swap I went to Veneance/Conviction.
Vengeance (on weapon swap) is lvl17, Conviction is lvl25, and I have 15points each in cold-fire-light-Resistances and 11 in Salvation. (eBotD/HoZ).
He still has (on main weapon swap) lvl17 Zeal, lvl23 Sacrifice, lvl 20 Smite, lvl23 holy shield and lvl25 Fanata… so, he still works good on Zeal/Fanata. (Grief/Exile)
Also finally was able to make a eBOTD Zerker Axe (as I understand ED is converted to elemental with Vengeance?) which is used on weapon swap with the Veng/Conv.
He rocks everything now.
He is Mana intensive, so, I only swap to Veng/Conv for PI’s, but, even on TerrorZone lvl96 most PI’s he 1-shots…
I do have a Sunder BoneBreak lvl12… but, it erases the message you are fighting PI’s, so, I don’t use it… it does get the job done, but, it’s better to know you are facing PI’s and swap to Veng/Conv(efficient)… then to not know and slug it out under Zeal/Fanata/Sunder.
Granted, it took 1.5 years of playing almost daily to make these two builds, but… whatever, it’s a after work de-stress’r.
All points above are end points, with plus from gear/charm’s included.
I update this in case others are google searching for melee options against PI’s…
Admittedly, my final solution is mega expensive, and took 1.5 years…
So, until you’ve gathered all the runes/bases for that… Demon’sArch/GrimmerShred/Azurewrath are still king’s from my experience for PI’s as a melee Pally.
Oh, even this 1.5 year build, with all super gear, is not as fast/efficient as caster/ranged builds… so… not saying he’s a S tier build by any means, simply melee character that can do all content.
Over and Out.
Why not just go zeal holy shock with crescent moon on swap? or Hand of Justice Dragon and conviction?
zeal is just better than vengeance.
Already have a dual dream guy, and did not want to make another lightening based build.
In my limited use of Dragon, before flickering flame, the armor sucks and makes you vunerable to a host of damage types, specifically fire, but elemental in general… admittedly, that was before I found a good M.ara’s.
Possibly worth another look, but, I really just want a pure melee build to work… everywhere all the time.
I must have posted it elsewhere… but I gave up on the dual spec (Zeal/Fanata - Veng/Conv) because Z/F was too handcuffed for 90% of the content, and V/C was so slow at anything non-Physically Immune.
Simply not enough points available to make both viable.
I’m back to pure Zeal/Fanata, with Azure on swap, running my 12% BoneBreak.
Having said that… my next build will be a full Vengeance/Conviction Pally… that showed promise, and I want to explore it… but, to make that work points wise, he’s going to be very limited on Zeal/Fanata to make it work.
He’ll also be handcuffed with an Act1 merc… 'cause, i love running with someone who’s got my back.
Probably about a year out for that build to get anywhere…