I wanted to share a build idea I had when I was reviewing the new runewords in the 2.4 PTR.
If you max out prayer and meditation, and use the runeword Plague, I believe you’ll be healing in 2 ways and regenerating mana for you and your party constantly as well. You could get a 3rd source of healing from an Act 2 merc, but I would think a Defiance merc would be better.
From there, skilling him as a Fist of the Heavens/Holy Bolt build cutting out the Holy Shock synergy would make you an effective healer with 2 healing auras and holy bolt as a healing option. You’ll have the full power of a boss killing holy bolt, but you’d be weaker than a Fist of the Heavens build with the lightning synergy, but not that bad.
This would be a sniper/healer build, mostly for support. In normal, and early nightmare, it’s actually quite funny to see how many mobs you can have hitting you and you out-heal the damage they do. I’ve been testing with a paladin with maxed prayer and maxed cleansing aura holding an runeword Insight and the results were great in normal difficulty, but it becomes more difficult to keep people alive in Nightmare Baal runs.
I think I could be onto something. Any ideas for developing this further? The dual healing possibility and having enough points to fully max holy bolt on top of that with full healing synergy is really cool.
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Four weeks and no replies. I hope some of this can be helpful.
If you use a prayer merc with insight you can get even more healing and mana. The mana won’t matter but it is more healing.
People used to make a similar build using a paladin with an insight staff and charge as an attack. A sword opens up using a shield and zeal and or smite as an attack. This sort of build works very well if you stack integer damage reduction. Most of the true elite gear is rare or magic, things with the suffixes Life Everlasting and Amicae and the jeweler’s prefix. These are hard to find; they are also hard to trade for, because most people just trash them. However, it is possible to get a decent iDR setup using much easier to find uniques.
Gladiator’s Bane can give up to 20, socketed with a Sol, you get to 27 and it takes care of your CBF. Gerke’s Sanctuary socketed with a Sol, can give you 23. It is also easy to get to 75% block using it. And it will give you an extra +15 to replenish life. There aren’t any great helm options unless you can get a rare, but a Giant’s Skull with 2os can give you 14 iDR. Nature’s Peace rings can have up to 11 and you can wear two. A Nightsmoke belt can give you 2. A crafted safety belt can give up to 4. Safety gloves can give up to 4. Same with safety boots.
If you were to just go with Giant Skull, G Bane, Gerke’s and two Nature’s Peace rings, you could potentially have 86 integer damage reduction. 75% block would essentially cut your physical damage by three quarters. Very few monsters in the game do more than 80 points of damage so even if you get hit you won’t be taking any damage from most attacks. Now the downside is you won’t exactly be dealing a lot of damage, but if you are looking to play in a party maybe it would work out for you.
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Once ladder happens soon, I plan on making a Pally with a maxed out Prayer using a Plague runeword phase blade to always have healing on for myself and those around me…and probably a merc that does prayer that channels it through insight. Should debuff from cleansing and give 3 forms a healing and mana regen at once. With 110 points, with just maxed out prayer, you can get all the FoH and Holy Bolt synergies with a single point in Holy Shield left over. That’s what I’m shooting for. I haven’t tested the viability of using FoH to damage mobs and whether those holy bolts that fly out from it heal allies or not, but if they do, it’ll make this a pretty cool support build. I’m doing 3 forms of healing, debuff and mana regen, and I’m attacking with fully synergized FoH that’s also healing the guys more who are right up on the enemy doing melee. Holy Bolts affecting demons now in 2.4 means I’ll have a nice way of taking out bosses too. Hopefully, I can make this build somewhat viable with the Plague Runeword.
Unless they changed it, the holy bolts that come off of FOH don’t heal, you need to shoot a holy bolt at an ally, but they pierce so they can still be pretty effective if you can line things up. FOH hits like a truck if you are attacking undead or demons. If not, it is slow at best. In places like Trav and Choas is just crushes everything. Against animals like cows, it is better to just stay away. Plague is a cool choice. You can make insight into a staff early on and get a lesser if similar effect, but i won’t be as good as plague. I am also planing on starting a FOHdin. I intend to start with holy fire and then switch somewhere in the mid thirties. Good luck in ladder.
You can add act 2 prayer merc with insight to have 3 ways :
Wouldnt leveling with FoH be pain in the a**? I was also thinking about levelling above 30th level with holy fire, but then it stops working. And i dont see it viable to level from 35 to 70 with FoH. What will you do with animals in the middle game? Skip? Smite?
One thing i don`t understand - in meditation aura description it shows it also receives healing from prayer auras hard points? So it is 2 in one?
One thing i don`t understand - in meditation aura description it shows it also receives healing from prayer auras hard points? So it is 2 in one?
Cleansing and Meditation receive a synergy bonus from Prayer. Namely whatever Prayer would yield you while active, Cleansing and Meditation would as well on top of their normal effects(Curse/Poison duration with Cleansing, Mana Regeneration with Meditation). In other words, you get passive life regeneration without having to worry about Prayer aura’s mana consuming side-effect. Act 2 Prayer Mercenaries don’t have to worry about it because they effectively have unlimited mana and plopping Insight on them basically doubles the bonus since Meditation aura provided by Insight would synergize with Prayer. Same thing applies with Plague/Insight on a Paladin if they have hard points into Prayer.
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