I’m doing a typical hammerdin that’s getting slaughtered in Act II hell.
Running spirit sword with a Targe 4 perfect diamond setup to max out resistance. Still using a stealth armor I picked up in NM.
My boots, gloves, helms aren’t all that great; just stuff giving random resists. My MF is horrible - 20% because i’m using resist gear over MF gear. I’ve had 4 shakos drop - all basics (probably due to my low MF). I have a 32% amulet but I can’t use it because I need a +20 strength amulet equipped to get to 86 strength, which allows my to use the Targe with the perfect diamonds.
Any tips/recommendation? I’m seeing people run enimga but it looks like bur and jah are almost impossible to find.
Stats must be : Enough strenght to wear desired gear
Dexterity goes point to point with holy shield until reaching 75% block
rest to vitality
Dump points in this way : max out blessed hammer first. 10 points into blessed aim / 1 to 1 ratio points between vigor and concentration. when those two maxed out , max out blessed aim
One point wonders into : salvation / redemption / (some prefer resist lightning 1 point)
One point in smite/charge(for movement)/holy shield
then dump the remaining into holy shield when evreything else from above you maxed out
Your chance to block must allways be 75% for smooth hell farming / and resistances caped out.
Thanks for the reply. Is there a way to use two auras at the same time? I have hammer on left mouse and usually have concentrate active. How do I implement holy shield in combat?
Right now, I have hammers maxed, concentration maxed, vigor around 10 or so (I have to check) and blessed aim at 10 or so (I have to check); 1 in holy shield / 1 in salvation. I may be wrong about vigor and blessed aim, but I’m pretty sure I was alternating 1 point to each.
The only way for one character to have multiple auras up is if you found an item that provides an aura (example: infinity runeword).
Setting your skills to hotkeys will let you quickly switch and activate holyshield, then go back to your aura. Having more than 1 point into holy shield will greatly increase its duration so you don’t have to re-activate it in combat too much.
Wow, we’re of the same level… a level 77 Hammerdin. I used to struggle on Act 1 becoz of my poor Resistance. I can beat Act 1 without fixing my Resistance but I would need to be on focus on fast positioning on killing stuffs. My issue is since I keep on running away becoz of my poor resistance, my merc keeps on dying. So I stopped on my progression and I concentrated on my Poor resistance stats.
I dont want to use my Diamonds. I dont want to suffer my MF%. I really have to get “Smoke” Nef Lum Chest Armor as it has +50 resistance. It needs a Lum rune and it didnt drop me runes higher than io. So happened that I got 3x io runes but I need to get a flawed topaz. I went back to Normal difficulty on Act 1 and Act 2 to get the flawed Topaz. Then I got the it… upgraded 3x io runes + flawed topaz into Lum rune to get me Nef Lum Chest. And I never had a resistance problem ever since. Andariel Hell got slaughtered without a swet.
I was happy destroying everything on Act 2 then I encountered Magic immune mobs. Dang, my hammers were useless. My merc kept on dying again as I run too. So I have to fix my Merc gear. I am using a Rogue. And I upgraded her bow … the same Tir Tal Amn Bow but better DPS from Cedar Bow to Shadow Bow. I was trying different strategies. And the best strat I came up is just Smite… I spam Smite stunning magic immune mobs and have my Rogue archer kill everything. I beat the dungeon. I can slaughter more dungeons but I have limited play time today. I will continue tomorrow.
I am using ‘Spirit’ Broad Sword, ‘Spirit’ Akaran Rondache, Ort Sol Hydraskull Helm. My rings, amulet, gloves, boots and belt are nothing special but they carry resist stats, Gold Find% and Magic Find%. BTW, I am doing everything on Solo.
Why? a +4 socket white targe with 45 base resistances is one of the best shields you can find in the game and you put 4 diamonds in it. Similarly a Jeweler’s sacred targe of deflecting for other reasons. HoZ/Spirit/Exile are not the only usable shields or even the absolute bests.
Whatever your using is also probably not as much as Alibaba/Rhyme for killing bosses.
For your merc if you can get your hands on a treachery, the fade proc provides damage reduction % per level in addition to the resistances, so a holy freeze + treacher(fade) merc can usually handle himself pretty well and stay alive vs those magic immune mummies with a little bit of lifesteal.
Magic find is nice to have an all but if your not hitting bosses that specifically have a really good drop table or otherwise in level 85 areas there is no reason to kill yourself over it.
If you think about it, How do you plan on surviving Duriel, Travincal, Meph, or anything in Act 4?
To add to your comment about Smite. HoZ hammerdin is also known as a 1pt smiter (full hammer build but instead of resistances, level 1 fanat aura). The shield you use before HoZ for Ubers is infact a 4 open socket sacred targe with all diamonds and theres a few slots you can level with if you have them to switch on the fly for hybrid damage.
‘TalThulOrtAmn’
Required Level: 25
+2 To All Skills
+25-35% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missiles
+22 To Vitality
+89-112 To Mana
Cold Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+3-8 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
Vs
A Targe with just 4 Perfect Diamonds only have
All Resistances +56
I know 4x Perfect Diamonds Targe is “good”. But the same Targe with Spirit rune is “BETTER”.
If you beat Nightmare, you would have a lot of Tal Thul Ort Amn. That’s why I also have Spirit Weapon… not just shield… so I have +4 to All Skills
+4 Blessed Hammer… not just +20… total of +24
+4 Concentration… not just +20… total of +24
+4 Blessed Aim… not just +20… total of +24
+4 Vigor… not just +20… total of +24
+4 Holy Shield… would require me less Dexterity points to achieve 75% Successful Blocking so I could put more points on Vitality
Versus your Diamond Resistance Shields? I will choose Tal Thul Ort Amn Shield on any day.
I know Spirit Shield is not enough to handle the resistance of Hell mode. That’s why I recommend Nef Lum for +50 Resistances. If you are going to do Hell, you should be able to get Lum rune like what I did. Dont tell me I should put Diamonds again instead of Nef Lum on Chest Armor sockets.
If you are on Hell, use the best stuff there is in there to survive. If you choose inferior gear on Hell, good luck.
Perfect diamond is +19 all resist. So four perfect diamond is +76 all resist by itself. Add that on top of the +45 all res from the white targe you have +121 all resist.
So with that shield, 4 diamonds is +121 all resist versus Spirit’s +80 Cold/Lightning/Poison, +45 Fire resist, which is a difference of +199 resistances.
To be clear, I like Spirit shields a lot, but I also like having a big +all res shield on hand too. It frees you up a bit in other gear slots when you’re not starving for +res in Hell difficulty.
As the other commented posted, a diamond sacred targe has over 100 resistances, and I currently don’t play with Smoke (or plan to) on my paladin. I’m also using a WizSpike dagger as part of my hammer set at the 75% FCR breakpoint with a Gul/Rhyme swap until I pick up an Alibaba.
That said, I’m able to do my own Chaos Sanctuary runs and don’t really struggle with anything in the game.
I have a LightSaber switch as well for a 1pt smite + 1pt fanat setup with Guillames / Gtoes / Dracs so my paladin can run the keys for ubers when I find them. Which I also use a Guardian Angel + Ravenfrost + Dwarf Star. This allows Fire and Lightning elemental damage to heal me instead of dealing damage.
Shaftstop and Skullders both have great milage pre-enigma.
Also your comment about Holy Shield, It takes more dex to reach max block with a spirit, so your investment is always going to be higher than a HoZ setup anyway which is the same requirement as a lightsaber (~136 dex for 75% block at 90+)