My Zealot is NOT ready for Hell - Improve Life Leech and/or dam?

Paladin
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Hi. Sorry it’s so long, but I basically have to describe my entire Paladin to make this work.

I’m looking for a solution that does not mean changing to a different build, such as a Hammerdin or Tesladin. But I can reassign attributes and skill points freely if needed, thanks to the “enable respec” parameter.

Lvl 76, offline, /players8. Purely melee. +50 IAS. Weapon’s base speed is normal. Fanaticism and Sacrifice 22, Zeal 17. Average dam 1300, almost entirely phys. Leech 13%.

Lvl 76 HF Merc, Avg dam 1400, Lionheart armor, Honor weapon, so 7% leech. +15 IAS. Weapon’s base speed is fast.

Just started Hell, and a bunch of normal monsters are quite tough. Mostly Zombies. If I run into a pack, they force me to run around a lot. If it’s a unique+minions, it then ranges from even tougher to impossible. Merc’s died a lot. I’ve been using multiple health/rejuv potions per encounter, when I was used to barely touching them even when facing Baal in NM.

I think the biggest reason for this, is how brutally nerfed Life Leech becomes when facing those. It’s already down to around 4% thanks to Hell. And those Zombies turn out to be 50% both on drain effectiveness and phys dam resist. Which I’m guessing, means my Leech ends up being a pathetic 1% in practice against them.

Even though leech was doing quite well for Zealot and merc back in NM, I knew it’d be reduced further in Hell. So, I’ve always been on the lookout for chances of improving it. I just didn’t get any, really. No rune drops beyond Fal thus far, and I did farm Pindleskin a lot, plus a few others twice. Countess, Diablo, Zakarum council. I know Pindleskin’s not the best for farming runes. I was just looking for whatever would drop. Bases, mostly.

Currently, Zealot gets 10% leech from Sigon’s partial set. And 3% from a rare ring. I don’t have any runes that could make runewords with leech, nor any stashed magics/rares/uniques that grant it.

I’m guessing, improving leech big time should be my priority. Improving dam and attack speed, should help too.

My weapon is an Ironstone. I made two upgrades. Reciped it to a Battle Hammer base, and added a socket where I put a Shael. Even if I removed that and put an Amn (which I don’t even have, right now) for +7% leech… Losing nearly half of my gear-based IAS is a bad idea.

I have The Minotaur, as a swap weapon. Maybe I could socket that one, then put an Amn there when I find one? And rely on it more often. I don’t use it that much, but I like how it can slow down almost anyone. The fact it has so many other useful mods, doesn’t hurt. But I have to switch back to Ironstone+shield quick, ‘cos I rely on the shield big time of course.

So, I suppose I should do some very specific farming back in NM? What gear do you suggest, and where should I look for it?

I currently gamble in hopes of a better belt, though I don’t know if one of those can come up with leech. And I keep the highest level Grand Charm I find, to reroll it with the cube once I have enough p gems to spare.

How about switching to other skills, to face Zombies? I was just starting to branch out into Conviction+Vengeance (lvl 3, both). In case of phys immunes. Could I reach a situation where a different combination of Conviction/Fanaticism+Vengeance/Zeal, would be more effective? I know Zombies have no res against fire and lightning, even in Hell. But Vengeance suffers greatly from being much slower, single-target, and its dam not benefiting leech.

Defensively, I think my Zealot is fine although of course not ideal. Maxed block, 2750 def, 95 FHR, Rhyme shield stashed for CBF, HF merc + The Minotaur + Weaken

But it seems my priority should be to improve the offense here, as no defense is sufficient if I cannot put down the monsters fast enough.

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-i would switch to act 2 nm offensive merc with might aura. (take items off current merc before buying new one)

  • you need better weapon. try farming countess in act 1 nm to get runes to make black or other basic melee damage runeword.

-where are your skills allocated? max zeal/sacrifice/fanaticism/holy shield.
-1 point vengeance for physical immunes.
-1 point into redemption for your healing. (vigor and cleansing are useful 1pt skills to use also)
-you would be in low 80’s at this point, points can go into defiance for more defense but i prefer resist lighting/fire, every 2 points give you 1 to your max res

increasing your damage and 1 point salvation should cure your mana/health issues.
-you could also use draculs gloves for life tap and you never need potions again.

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The large boost to damage would help my life leech enough? Holy Freeze is very helpful in slowing down pretty much everything. Although it rarely felt like I absolutely needed it to survive.

Just checked. Black is about the same as my weapon. Also, knockback would seriously screw up my build. Any other runewords that could be better, preferrably with runes I can reasonably find in NM and large life leech?

These are my weapon’s stats, for further clarification:

77-127 (Battle Hammer)
+20 IAS (from Shael)
+120% Dam
+124 AR
+1-10 lning
+10 Str

The skills I use (or plan on using):
Fanaticism 20, Sacrifice 20, Zeal 15, HS 14, Conviction 1, Vengeance 1, Cleansing 1, Charge 1. Aside from those, it’s all prereq’s (lvl 1).

Spirit is my main shield, so you can assume I have easy access to a +2 on all those. Although I change to Rhyme for CBF, and Ancient’s Pledge for higher res.

I have Vengeance and Conviction precisely for that. Phys immunes.

Redemption doesn’t make sense to me as a skill to buy. Too many prereq’s. I have a scepter that provides it, and I put it in my swap when I feel I’ll need it. Mostly to face monsters that can be revived, or Nihlathak. But I try to benefit from it overall. It tends to stay as my main swap, with “The Minotaur” being there less often.

Vigor also feels wasteful. I don’t run long distances, I prefer to tp. For quick short runs between monsters, I Charge.

Spending skills on single resists, for that tiny a bonus, feels WAY too expensive. I usually manage to keep my res in shape, and fire is at 85 max (Nokozan Relic).
And Salvation, I may get it someday. The “one aura at a time” trade-off really bothers me there.

These zombies are doing purely phys dam anyway, and something like 35% chance to hit me. So, focusing on res and def to survive them doesn’t make much sense right?

I’d rather keep spending in HS, which I doubt I’ll even max anyway, than Defiance for its synergy.

Trust me. If I had run into it, I’d be using it. At least to be able to overcome the current issue. Can that item even drop in NM? Farming for it in Hell is not an option yet, considering my current struggle.

I made a Smoke armor for better def, higher res, and Weaken. Although it’s expensive to keep using the curse on those zombies, and not as big a game-changer as you’d think.

Unfortunately, if I changed gloves, I’d lose some big benefits. I have Sigon’s Gage, Visor and Sabot. Those give me almost entirely useful mods, including some of the best I have. Like large leech, and IAS.

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laying of hands gloves are much better in slot for zealer gloves or dracs. other options are crafted cb gloves which aren’t needed.

how do you tele but still using sigons?

-item with redemption is awesome.

-oath, honor, lawbringer are mid tier rune words that are great melee options. grief is best.

-if you aren’t doing the resists, where are you putting your points though? your build is done at like lvl 68 with skill quests? max zeal/sacrifice and holy shield. conviction isn’t needed if you are using vengeance, and you will most likely need the ias from fanaticism since vengeance is slow compared to zeal…

but even still you can run the 1 point conviction, your build is done at 84 (78 with no conviction). where are you putting your points after 84 is what i’m curious about? defiance/resist auras are basically only remaining options.

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I’m not sure what you meant there, sorry.

Do you mean to ask, how do I use teleport? I just don’t. I only recently ran into one item with it, Spellsteel. And it looks too inconvenient, as I’d have to use it as a swap weapon.

All those runewords look nice.

I’ve tried to get decent bases for runewords, but it’s been extremely hard. Maybe I get a non-socketed one, I use a recipe to socket it, and I never ever land the right amount of sockets even if odds are largely in my favor…

I guess I should go back to that. What would be the best place to farm bases in NM? Countess and Nihlathak? I didn’t farm those that much.

I did manage to do Honor for my merc, but of course a two-handed main weapon is a bad idea for my zealot.

What’s the highest rune I can reasonably hope for in NM? I’ve seen people getting really high ones, but of course my aim should be to get any of those runewords you’re mentioning. And those that have really small odds, make no sense to have as a goal.

I’ve just been playing normally thus far, except for some small farming here and there (only large amounts of farming with Pindleskin, as it’s really fast).

I detailed my skill points already. Here it is, again:

That’s 73 skill points. Add 11 in prereq’s, and that’s 84. All my available points thus far, spent (I managed to finish Den of Evil in Hell).

Since I enabled unlimited respecs, I wasn’t too worried about going for Conviction. Even though I’m still not convinced about it, and haven’t used it yet. I can just as easily recover 5 points, by abandoning that aura and all of its prereq’s.

As you can see, Zeal and HS aren’t maxed yet. And even if I respec to recover Conviction and its prereq’s, I’d still be behind on maxing those.

Once again, TWO skill points for a mere +1% in ONE max res feels like a steal. How useful is that? Even if I get hit with an elemental attack that’s 5000 dam, that measly 1% only reduces it to 50. Negligible.

I’d much rather focus on maxing Zeal and HS, which would require me to spend 6 more skill points aside from recovering those from Conviction and its prereq’s.

And the rest, which aren’t many, I could spend on either Blessed Aim for the passive +% AR or Defiance for the HS synergy.

On that, I know I’ll hit a really tough slow-down in progress around lvl 85. And I honestly don’t think I’ll end up doing all that’s needed to reach 99. So, I don’t have a lot ahead for me.

I mean, it’s nearly 9000 Hell Ball runs just to reach from 95 to 99. Even if I need just 5 minutes per run, that’s a month of 24/7 playing. No thanks, I’d rather keep my sanity :sweat_smile:

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i’m level 97, its not that many baal runs. the grind from 98 to 99 is more than half of all the xp required from 1-99. :sob:
97-98 is like 1800 baal runs if you kill baal. depending if you add nith or chaos runs and what lvl your anni is will really affect this. if i did all chaos runs and then did baal throne waves 4-5 + baal you can get it done in like 600-675 runs.

i mention the gloves since you said sigons gloves are giving you good stats… and i’m telling you dracs/laying of hands/crafted ias gloves are best. laying of hands are easiest to get of those 3.

you are calculating the damage wrong on the 1% boost in max resist. every 2 skill points reduces that elemental damage by 4% assuming you were at 75 max res to begin with.

in your example= 5000 lightning damage.
5000-75% base max res=1250 damage taken -50 (from extra 1%) is 4% reduction.
you wont get 4% less chance to be hit from 2 points in defiance and with halfway decent gear maxed zeal/fana you won’t have AR problems.
compared to the defense boost on defiance, and the ar boost from blessed aim the resist auras are actually best value of skill points.

i’m not even saying put all your extra points in there, but 4-8 into resist lightning really helps, and you can put rest into defiance.
i don’t do the other resist auras. cold/poison you get 10 max from potions, and fire is easy to get from ammys, waterwalk, infernostride, hotspurs…

lightning can be an issue though and its hard to stack max res.

1 Like
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Ok, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks!

I’m currently farming Countess, with zero MF for better bases as well as runes and gems. As I said, I reroll a high ilvl Grand Charm once I make enough p gems. Hoping for something truly useful, as GC’s can have any mod.

Is it a good idea to farm the entire Black Marsh plus the entire tower? Or should I just make a beeline for Countess?

Or should I be going Nihlathak? Countess is way easier, in a sense. None of the monsters there are more than an annoyance, by now.

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ifyou are farming nightmare, don’t do nithalak. he has bad drop rates.

just beeline for countess. killing meph, countess, andariel and travincal council are where i would spend my time if i had to farm nightmare. maybe cows as well if you can do it quickly.

you only want reroll charms dropped by diablo/baal/nithalak in hell to be guaranteed chance of rerolling a skiller grand charm. (charm that adds to +skill type)

1 Like
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Great. I’m having good luck, reaching her fast. Thanks for all the other bosses mentioned :+1:

+skills are not THAT important for my build. At least, not for now. So, I reroll the GC I got in Hell Blood Moor because it’s the highest ilvl yet. Hopefully, I’ll get something like I need much more. Like, more leech.

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you would be lucky if you rolled a paladin combat grandcharm, those are some of the most valuable charms in the game.

you are right though, +skill charms won’t benefit your build in particular. max damage/attack rating/life charms is what you want along with life/resist charms. these should be the two types of charms you aim for on your build.

you can’t roll life leech on charms fyi.

1 Like
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I think I only rolled +defensive auras on Charms thus far, and of course that was useless since I barely touch them. I only use Cleansing to get rid of poison and curses in-between fights, and lvl 1-3 is more than enough for that.

Yeah, those are the better ones. Pity I cannot get leech there.

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Countess takes a while, even if I just Charge all the way through from the nearest waypoint and ignore. But at least she drops one rune for sure every time.

How good are my odds with Travincal? There’s a LOT less ground to cover, from waypoint to them.

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Your getting good pointers so far, so I’ll address a few spots I feel got overlooked. What’s your armor?

Redemption - get it, you are saying the pre-req’s are too many, but you also say you don’t like running through things because it takes too long. Vigor is a pre-req as well as Cleansing, you need both. Cleansing is going to be very important in hell as you always get cursed or poisoned and it cleans it off faster. Vigor you slap on when moving around and not fighting.

In Hell you will find a lot of Physical Immune monsters, you need a way to deal with them. Vengeance is good, if you are still missing with vengeance you will need to add conviction to that so you can hit them.

If your farming NM, keep it to the guys who can drop the best items. Baal, D, Meph etc. Doing NM countess or Trav isn’t going to give you the stuff you want. You need the highest area’s. If you can farm Hell countess, great but you will run into PI ghosts in there so you need to be prepared for that.

Shield - how are you getting good resists in Hell with Spirit? I can guess you are using a stealth armor? CBF is great for Hell but I had to go with Ancients Pledge in a 45 resists shield to get to max resists. You need max resists or your going to die, even in Act 1.

Weapon: more damage = more leeching even if you have effectively 4%. You do know you need to upgrade this so make that a first priority. NM Diablo dropped a butchers pupil for me on one of my runs of him. This got me half way through hell till I got a Heavens Light Scepter which I’m still using now until I get better.

What’s your ‘to hit’? AR is the piece most people overlook in this game. When a lot of melee characters hit Hell they have a ‘to hit’ in the 60’s, thus they can’t hit anything, if you can’t hit it, you can’t leech and you die.

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charge around black marsh with vigor on. (you already have cleansing and gonna get defiance syngergy, so no wasted points to get 1 into vigor) its as fast as teleport in open fields. in the tower, have your toon make left turns. (your character’s left, not yours)

travincal and chaos sanctuary are great because of static maps. you can farm just those, but countess has high drop rate for runes so you can pick up some mid tier ones. if you already have basic runewords then just farm trav and chaos.

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Thanks.

Armor is Smoke. Def 449. I like the +50 to res, Weaken, and the +FHR puts me as 95%. Afaik, 85% is the highest FHR that I can realistically go for in a Paladin, since the next break point is ridiculously high.

I already mentioned this, but here goes. I have a scepter I can swap to, for Redemption. It’s my main swap. The nice thing about Redemption, is that you can get its benefits from activating it just one moment. You only need to keep it around, if its first round of redemption attempts was particularly bad. Which is unusual even for lvl 1-3, if there’s a decent amount of corpses.

Also, Redemption is great for corpse disposal of course. Most useful for Nihlathak, and unleechable skeletons that mummies revive.

As I said, I do keep Cleansing because it really helps with curses and poisons. Right now, one of the biggest holes in my Zealot’s mods is a lack of PLR. I just cannot get items with useful mods, that also include it. I do keep a few stashed, to face crazy-poison bosses like Andariel.

I did say this, too. Vengeance is there for that reason alone, as Zeal is enough otherwise. Conviction, I’m still on the fence. We’ll see.

I’m farming for runes, right now. Mal and lower. So I can make one of those Sphinx suggested. Honor, Lawbringer, Grief or Oath. I’ll probably focus on whichever I get the runes for first, since they’re all clearly a sizeable improvement over my current main weapon.

After I get the runes, I’ll focus on bases.

Is farming any of the Primes, a better idea for Countess than that? I’ve found that NM Countess always gives me one rune, and I often run into a few more just by clearing some of the way from waypoint to her.

Honestly, that’s a way better drop rate for runes than what I’ve been running into for most of NM.

Hell Countess is not an option right now, considering what normal zombies are doing to me already. I doubt I’ll go back to Hell at all, until I’ve farmed enough to make a decent runeword for my main weapon.

Gear and a few Charms. I’ve kept a bunch of decent +res rares stashed, in case I wouldn’t be fully ready for Hell’s penalties. Forced me to change to less ideal items to an extent, but it’s worth it. I have kept Ancient’s Pledge stashed as well, but I try to not resort to it since it lacks the benefits of my two actual mains (Spirit and Rhyme). I go back to Rhyme when there’s large chances of chill.

The issue I’m facing with zombies right now, has nothing to do with res fortunately.

Yeah, that’s the reason my two current focuses are increasing dam and leech. I actually have a rather decent helm and amulet for +3% leech each stashed, which I may use as a last measure.

Ah, Butcher’s Pupil. Lovely thing. I had that one, socketed with Shael, as my main for my original Zealot back in the OG days.

NM Diablo was nice enough to drop The Minotaur for me. It’s my other swap, aside from the Redemption scepter. Great dam, bunch of brutal mods, but I love it for the slow specially. I swap, Zeal to slow down a boss or pack, then back to my main. Coupled with merc’s HF, monsters can end up super slow. It’s just kinda clumsy, so it’s tough for me to swap decently. I often find myself not swapping back and forth when I want to, even if I hit the W at the seemingly right moment.

I should probably use The Minotaur+HF to keep those zombies near-paralysed. But I don’t wanna depend on that alone to survive, unless I absolutely HAVE to. I’m quite vulnerable without a shield, after all.

I already despise how buggy Zealot is, so I’ve focused on AR being good throughout the game. Both for the obvious reasons, and to compensate for the bug.

Right now, AR is 5900 or 7900. Depending on whether I use Sigon’s Visor, or a Helm with some other useful stats. As the Either way, that AR coupled with substantial IAS means I hit quite decently.
I’d guess I’m always between 88 and 95%.

Even with 5900 AR, I’m up there.

Frankly, it’s hard to imagine a Zealot having low AR. I mean, both Fana and Zeal boost it greatly (+315% currently).

I’m reaching that 5900, even with just +404 from gear. That is, without the large bonus from Sigon’s Visor.
I do have Dex 172, though.

Would you say my AR will become too low, once I’ve reached the higher Acts in Hell?

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But Vigor 1 is merely +13% to run speed. How would that be “as fast as Teleport?” Right now, since NM Countess is very easy to bulldoze through, I’ve put on all my +run gear. Ending up at +58%.

What do you mean, left turns? If that’s the way to find the stairs to each level, to reach the Countess faster… Yeah, I know that. Thanks. I learned it by sheer accident :sweat_smile:

Yeah, I remember Travincal’s and Chaos waypoints and they would be way faster. But I need the runes badly. Right now, I only have enough for Honor. Which is not my first option for a new main weapon, as I’m concerned it won’t be enough for my current issues. But I will fall back to it if needed.

For the others, I lack the following:

  • Lawbringer: Lem.
  • Grief: Lo Mal.
  • Oath: Pul Mal Lum.

Also, I lack a good base for all of them. I have to figure out best places to farm those, and also best one-handed weapons. I’m focusing on getting the runes first. Also, to compensate for the generally mediocre lack in runes yet. I mean, I finished NM and my best runes thus far have been two Fal.

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AR is not the whole picture when it comes to hitting, your level vs your targets level is part of it. At lvl 77 you should be ok in A1 thus it’s most likely your damage and perhaps your Def rating. I agree looking for a better weapon is worth it, I would cast a wider net, a good rare or unique can be more attainable than all the parts for a runeword. Personally I would run Diablo and Baal in NM looking for better gear. I got string of ears, dwarf star, butchers pupil and demon limb off them and they help a lot.

NM countess can drop up to a Io, Ko on a lucky drop but that’s not very likely. Everything you are looking for needs to be found in Hell. Hell Countess can drop up to an ist, but I’ve farmed her forever and that is highly unlikely. If you can get yourself to farm Hell countess that’s worth talking about, but you will face PI ghosts in there.

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I’ve always been either at around same char lvl as the area’s, or higher. Sometimes significantly higher. So, that’s covered yes.

The problem with hunting for uniques, is that I depend a lot more on sheer luck. Runewords are more attainable, in that I have more and easier options to obtain a decent base + runes. Since the farming spots for those is not with bosses, as those tend to grant magic items instead of bases or runes even with 0 MF.

Frankly, up until now the game’s been quite easy. This is the first time I’m truly forced to go back and farm to be able to face the threats ahead. So, farming NM D and B shouldn’t be too difficult. I barely even need to touch potions then.

However, Baal turned out to be quite troublesome. I got him down to a sliver of health, tp’ed to get my MF gear, and when I came back he had all his health back o_0 Don’t know how that happened, doesn’t his health only reset if I’m gone for like 10 minutes?

What’s a decent minimum +MF, to use there? I could equip just SOME of the MF gear, keep a balance between that mod and actual firepower. So I can kill Baal without needing to TP right before I kill him.

About NM Countess rune drops… Didn’t know that. And it sucks. As I’ve said, Hell Countess is pretty much unreachable if I cannot handle normal zombie packs decently.

Thus far, highest she’s dropped is Shael. Based on what you said, and what I listed above as runes I lack for each RW… Grief and Oath look pretty much impossible to obtain through NM then. Right?

Honor, I have the runes as I said, but I’m unsure about how effective it’d be in this situation. Surely it’d help, as dam is higher and leech goes up by +7%. Also, there’s the Deadly Strike chance of course.

Lawbringer, I only lack a Lem. Which I MAY be able to recipe, if I gather enough of the highest ones she drops. Considering I already have some Ko and Fal.

So, maybe I should just find out what’s the best base NM can drop for a one-handed Honor weapon, and socket it to see if it’s enough for now? My merc’s certainly improved a whole lot by using a Honor polearm.

About PI… Vengeance + maybe Conviction should help, yes.

I like the idea of working for Lawbringer, for several reasons. 3 sockets is easier to get (through recipe or luck),

  • Decripify is great, and it may make me look for another armor instead of Smoke as Weaken would be rather pointless…
  • Sanctuary would be perfect for sturdy zombies and PI undead overall.
  • Higher leeching. I would reach 20% without further gear sacrifice, and 26% if I equip my other decent leech gear on top of everything else.
  • I don’t have much non-phys dam from gear. This one brings much of that.
  • Monsters RIP is perfect against those annoying skeleton+mummy packs, as the former being unleechable is always a pain.
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Baal rejen’s if you don’t hit him with prevents monster heal. That lasts like 10 min, but open wounds and poison is short lived. I’d just find a lower level of MF and charge in, not going back to change things up.

Honor is 5 socket you won’t find a base for that in NM, NM drop will cap out at 4 socket, for 5 and 6 you need Hell drops. The other options is cube recipe it but you need a good stash of runes to start cube recipe’ing things.

Lawbringer doesn’t have an inherent damage boost, it’s damage comes from elemental mods, which may be good for the PI’s but it will lower your overall damage and your leeching as the physical part of the damage is low.

In hell you will be using pots regularly until you get that amazing gear. I am lvl 84 contemplating the Ancients and I chug pots regularly. If my life hits 75%, heal pot, 50% juve.

This is my boy, some area’s are very scary to do, but things like Trav and LK are easy to run. I don’t have amazing gear but I’ve put together some decent stuff with what I found. As always upgrading as I get stuff.

https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/ll0106o8#3

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I lack PMH. I keep a 9" poison Charm mostly to stop regen yes. Again, it’s weird how he recovered FULLY in the few moments I was away. So, I’m not chancing that again. Next time I fight him, I think in NM I can go in with +170% MF. That’s plenty enough, right? Once you near 200%, its benefits start decreasing sharply. Or so I’ve been told.

Yeah, I crafted Honor for my merc through a cube recipe. I’ve had really lousy luck with those recipes though. I never land the amount of sockets I’m hoping for, even if I’m aiming for highest (and the recipe has much better chances of adding max sockets than any lower number, right?).
I actually was hoping for 4 sockets, back then. But since I got 5, I made Honor.

What would you say, are the best one-handed bases for Honor and Lawbringer? With enough sockets possible, of course.
And where could I farm for those? I’ve been told Countess and Nihlathak are best for the ever-present weapon stands.

I can farm for recipe runes in NM Countess, since she only gives lower ones.

Lawbringer wouldn’t increase my phys dam, yes. But its many other benefits help, plus its +7% leech is substantial for me. Between Sanctuary and Decripify, monsters would be harmless enough. Specially coupled with merc’s HF, AND a possible slow from The Minotaur.

I look forward to seeing that “triple-slow” in action.

About pots regularly, I don’t have an issue with that. I just think that 2-3 for a pack of normals is excessive. Also, right after starting Hell I ran into a PI Unique Zombie. Not one minute into it, bam. That’s how I learned how unprepared my Zealot is. I switched to Vengeance, was barely making a dent, he was hitting me hard, I was downing pots like an addict, Merc died quickly, and that was without any other monsters to help him. I ran back to town, restocked and revived merc FAST, but when I returned that Zombie had already regen’d fully. Not that I had reduced him more than about 5%… :sweat_smile:

So, yeah. I learned the HARD way. Didn’t die, my playing style means I can easily finish the entire game without dying even once. But it was clear that I couldn’t handle him. Not just tough, but downright impossible.

I cannot even remember his other mods, but I know he wasn’t extra fast, nor aura enchanted. Maybe he was Cursed or Spectral Hit, Extra Strong or Stone Skin. In any case, ouch.

I’ll check your character when I get the chance, thanks! Maybe I should upload mine there and see what benefits that website gives me? I mean, what do you recommend?

EDIT: How about NM Cow Level, for bases and runes?

Where could I reasonably farm Lo for Grief, of all the areas in the game?

I’m guessing the best for me right now, would be to just make Honor so I can get started with Hell. Then, just farm for one of the better runewords I mentioned, in Hell Countess.