Spear-a-Din - 15 Characters

General Discussion
1

Made a Spear Paladin from go.
Way too much fun.
Zeal for 5 hits… couple extra points into Sacrifice…
Get Cleansing and Redemption (1 each) then work/respec into getting Holy Shock and it’s synergies.
Mega Giggles.

Update;

Started out with a +10 ias spear from Charsie, and, gear that dropped… nothing exciting.
Used Holy Fire for starting out.
Found an “Arctic Furs” along the way and tossed that on.
Grabbed the Act1 Cold Merc and Charsie had a 3os bow… filled it with Topaz’s for the Merc.
Grab’d a GreyForm armor for myself from a mule (that will be a theme).

At clvl22 I was able to equip “Lance of the Yaggai” (mule).
At clvl28 I grabbed a “The Spirit Shroud” armor for myself (from mule) and moments later grab’d and eth “The Spirit Shroud” armor for the Merc… (same mule)

Pretty boring eh?
ok.
Grabbed a ViperMagi (mule) and Hone Sundan (mule) for me… tossed a Shael in the HS and carried on.
Made Lore helms for the Merc and I.
Eventually added 2 “Lo” runes to the Hone Sundan… giving me 45 crushing blow and 40 deadly strike.
Gave the Act1 Merc a KuKo (mule).
Switched to Holy Shock around clvl35.

This carried us through to Level 65.

Mule robbery;
For the Merc I grab’d an eth Fortitude, eth VampGaze and crappy Faith bow.
For me I grab’d an Enigma, HighLords… and rolled my first ManCatcher Infinity… ehn… +271ed and -52lr… I’ll take it thanks.

Entered Hell and resists were so bad I could barely survive… off to a mule to gather +5@res small charms… did not have enough to be great, but enough to survive…

Finally hit clvl76 and could equip a Griffon’s Eye I’d been squirreling away… used my normal Larzuk to add a socket and tossed a 5/5 light facet in it.

He’s really strong… but not so tough LOL!

Plan to add Arach’s Mesh at clvl80, and an Andy’s for the Merc if we get that far, also want to find a better base for her Faith.
Currently i am running GoreRiders, but, I might have to swap to SilkWeaves as I get pounded by ranged attacks.

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2

Interesting I’ll admit but I got an idea for ya if you’ll be open to it. Instead of Infinity, what about Doom? You get up to -60 Cold Resistance and Cold is easier to stomach than Light(especially with Sunder Charms) and the Slow you get is nothing short of insane. You can then xfer that Infinity over to an A2 Merc where they can provide the Conviction aura. Yeah you’ll attack slower but the debuff is crazy and instead of Griffons, Nightwing with a 5/5 Cold isn’t too shabby.

Also nice story so far. Forgot to add that Eternity is another option and in an Ethereal base no less. Also if you did Doom, you could use a native Fanaticism instead or another aura altogether(like Salvation).

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Arachnid Mesh did not work out…
So, put my String of Ears back on, really missed the 8 life leach and the 15/14 damage reduction.
I’ll have to go through my rings mule and see if I have a Life Leach with high res.
Res is a tough deal for this guy… currently running a ring with 10fcr, 115ar, 19life, 25lite res and 28fire res… Going to be hard to find better for this guy. Neat part is the ring is only lvl26, so been wearing it for quite some time.

Ran into some packs of Lite res Beetles… grab’d a lite sunder off a mule, but… arg… it nukes me to 45 lite res… makes me wish the spear had rolled higher ED.
Maybe I’ll try the Sunder and see how bad it is.

If Doom could be made in a Spear, I’d give it a whirl.
I just really like the animation of the Spear… not so much for the PoleArm.
I do run a Doom Berserk Axe (from time to time - for fun/change of pace) on my Windy/Zoo Druid… along with a Faceted NightWings.
It is indeed a lot of fun :).

Never heard of rune word Eternity until now! It’s certainly interesting.
I’ll have to think on it.

forgot to click REPLY… LOL… the above was yesterday

So.
Got the Act1 Merc to lvl83, and went and grabbed a pretty good Andy’s Visage… used a Larzuk to put a socket in it and and added a Ral rune to address the fire res (wish i had a 15/30, but, ya… not so much).
Also raided my Zoo/Druid’s Merc to trade my crappy Faith for her perfect Faith (+3/+2/15fanata)…
Not sure it makes any difference to be honest, but when I look at it, it feels good :).

Headed to Baal, Merc got eliminated by the fire wolf guys… Resurrected her, then nailed the rest of the hoards… Lister was a real pain, but Baal went down pretty quick.

So…
Did not document every moment, but, I think this is the fastest I have ever completed Hell Baal… 4 days… LOL!
Spear-a-Din is most interesting.

Result of all that
Finished Baal Hell at clvl84, Merc was lvl83… Baal was a cake walk compared to Lister… Yikees… he almost got me.

Now…
I have a really strong lvl99 Pally Tesladin (dual dream), and, he certainly has more stability/survive-ability…
I have a very strong lvl98 Lightening Spear-a-Zon and she is ridiculous… I mean, a total wrecking ball.

I would say the Holy Shock Spear-a-Din is an in between… not the survive-ability of the Tesladin, nor the damage of the Spear-a-Zon… but an interesting and enjoyable middle ground.

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Alright your journey kind if inspired me to get started on my idea of a proc frenzy barb with dual voice of reason :slight_smile: Not sure how viable that build would be but could be fun at least with all the frozen orb and ice blast procs, maybe combined with an infy merc and a sunder charm it could be kind of decent at least

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Sounds like a really “blue” experience :).
Reminds me, I had an Act1 Cold Merc with NightWings (faceted), Cold Ormus (faceted) and Ice Bow… now, that was a blue experience for real!
It was so much fun it inspired me to make a Cold/Ice Bowazon, and, she is an absolute blast.
At any rate, makes me wonder just how blue the game would be with your proposed Barb and the Act1 Merc I noted would be…

Keep us posted on the Blue Barb :slight_smile: if you go through with it.

6

Nothing wrong with Polearms, its just they generally attack slower while requiring more Strength/Dexterity to equip. As for Doom in 1-H Zerker, I must confess that on a Blizzard Sorceress, it absolutely wrecks thanks to that Cold Pierce. Yeah, I know it doesn’t have FCR but you can still hit 105 FCR with VMagi, Spirit, Magefists and Spider. Level 37 Cold Mastery + perfect Cold Resistance on Doom = -100 Cold Pierce(which is insane). Tack on two 5/5’s on Nightwing + VMagi and you pretty much can roll over everything.

If I had a wishlist though, I’d add 5-6 Socket Shields(but only to the really high Strength ones like Aegis and Ward) and expand Doom to Shields. Imagine a dual Doom on a Paladin. May not deal the raw damage but man that Slow would be nuts.

Don’t forget the Fire side of things. HoJ can be made in any Weapon and with Dragon Armor can hit level 30 Holy Fire(which is pretty solid), although your Resistance will be really bad save for Fire thanks to Flickering Flame.

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Agree, I just like the character animation of the spear being thrust from the hip vs the polearm being swung/dropped from above.
I know it’s silly, but there it is :).

Need to update;

I feel the need to update… errr… correct, the above.
I neglected to factor in both the Tesladin and SpearaZon have been playing in nothing but TZ’s for year(s).

So, ya…
Now that I am playing TZ’s with the SpearaDin…
I’m certain he is my worst character LOL!

Now my other characters are pretty decent…
Summon Necro(CE) - clvl93
Poison Necro(CE) with a decent army - clvl93
Cold/Freezing BowaZon - clvl94
Windy/Zoo Druid - clvl97
Javazon/SpearaZon (weapon swap depending on my mood) - clvl98
Summon Druid - clvl99
Zealot/Smiter - clvl99
Tesladin/Smiter - clvl99

So, why is he my worst character?
He has;
no block
no dodge/avoid/evade
no no meat shield from Army/Zoo
He is essentially, a single target melee dude that delivers lightening, meaning he has to stand off against packs with - zero block/dodge/avoid/evade… and melee down the foes.
Ya, sure he has a lvl 33 HolyShock, but, that is essentially a means to eliminate non-threatening (fodder) monsters.

Sure, he can run around in circles until the fodder is eliminated, and while that is certainly entertaining, I do not truly enjoy it.

I think I’ll try WaterWalks (Defense vs Missile) or ShadowDancers (Faster Hit Recovery)… ILO my GoreRiders…
Possibly swap out my 20ias/10CB gloves for VenomGrips or Dracul’s (that have life steal) - which would allow either ArachnidMesh or Verdungo’s… (ILO SoE which is my only life leach at the moment).
Hmmm…

UPDATE
Tossed on;
Mara’s Amulet for the res and +skills.
a pair of WaterWalks for the Missile defense.
a pair of SoulDrainers for the Weaken and dual leach (-50 monster defense seems rather nice as well).
Arachnid for the +skill and slows target…20fcr cannot hurt.
And I had a ring with 10fcr, 84ar, 8ll, damage reduced ring… equipped it.
playing around in TZ’d Crystalline Passage he seems all good :slight_smile:

TO CLARIFY
He is still my worst character, but, I am really enjoying the challenge and play style/ strategy required to play him efficiently.

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8

I strongly prefer the spear animation as well, he does a cool one handed thrust when he zeals with it. :stuck_out_tongue: I did a 2H charger on my mod last year and had a lot of fun with it.

Paladins also have slower hit recovery frames with most 2H weapons (except 2H swords and bows/crossbows) on top of that, little known “fun” fact heh.

In regards to the meatshields I found Conversion to be a godsend, I invested quite a few points to get the convert chance high enough to proc reliably because otherwise it was pretty dangerous to be stuck in melee range with failed attempts.

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I will :slight_smile: did normal today and finished baal solo at lvl 27 with a sigon set and a couple of random maces + angelic jewelery. Lvl 31 atm

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Allright finished nightmare at lvl 56 and switched to dual voice of reason phase blades :slight_smile: currently lvl 62, also put on dual carrion wind rings and string of ears for some twister procs and some much need LL since my phys damage is not very high so i need more LL. 1 more lvl and i will use my archon plate hustle armour for more ias and frw, as far as i can calculate i will hit my max breakpoint with lvl 18 or higher frenzy with this setup.

Merc is currently an act 5 frenzy with 2x lawbringer to proc decrep, combined with my frozen orb and ice blast procs + decrep the mobs almost cant moove at all. I will probably switch to infy merc at some point but i will have to strip my enchant sorc first :smiley:

Not sure how it will work out once i start hell difficulty and can wear all my gear (torch,anni etc.) but for now on nightmare its pretty fun and i think ill stay here till i hit lvl 75, dunno if a sunder would be worth it but i think ill give it a go when i get there

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That’s awesome man!
So stoked that my journey encouraged you to make an “off meta” build.
I have a 70 cold sunder I can spare if you do not have a perfect one…
I have some pretty good Anni’s as well, mostly kept 8-10exp ones.
Free for you.
All out of Torches.

I have recently hit clvl88, and have settled in on HighLords, GoreRiders and LoH, with Arachnid’s (resists are 70cold/poison, 77fire and 85lite and have 8% Life Leach).
Since Paladin - Yay for Cleansing/Redemption… max’d Salvation comes in handy as well.
Paladin is dang near cheat code when it comes to survive-ability LOL.
My current off-hand is eth Demon’s Arch and HoZ… but, it’s a total waste as I never use it… and have no points in HolyShield or Smite.
I’ve searched my mules for a Demon’s Limb… but I must have “free’d” them all… arg…
Hopefully I drop one at some point.

He’s rather squishy with no block/dodge/avoid/evade/Oak Sage/Bone-Armor etc etc…
But…
He really keeps you on your toes… and can kill anything so long as you plan it out, so, I find him extremely fun :).

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Most of my builds are kind of “off meta” :smiley: i dont have a single light sorc or cold sorc and im definitly never going to play mosaic assa, besides i havent owned a hammedin in D2R at all. The only sorc i have played is the demon machine enchantress :slight_smile: and i love my Fury/Summon druid and also did a version with Earth Shifter with the fizzure procs and maxing the synergies, very funny build indeed with both high phys and fire damage.
Besides these builds i have fire trapsins as my favorite cow farmer, unfortunately they are pretty expensive to max out but when you do they become way better than the light trapsin for big open ares like cow lvl.
I do have a tesladin on non ladder, guess he is still kind of meta :smiley: and a few standard grief barbarians that i used for travincal not to forget my poison necro

Think ill take the same setup but using string of ears belt. I need a decent amount of LL to compensate for the mediocre amount of phys damage to stay alive and the deadly strike helps too + i get a bit of CB for bosses. I might have to get some more max damage + attack rating Gc’s too

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Latest update on the “blue” barb: Finished hell today at lvl 79 and i must say it was a bit harder especially when i got to act 4 and 5, act 3 was decent with the cold sunder since there is a lot of low hp enemies where the frozen orb procs really came in handy. The last 2 acts was definitely a slog but it was doable thanks to decrep procs , freeze and the stuns from the twister procs from the dual carrion wind rings.
Once i reached act 4 and 5 i really began to feel the need for more phys damage to sustain my leech and enemies was a lot harder to kill and the frozen orb procs was not doing nearly as well as they did in act 3 jungle, its definitly not comparable to Grief thats for sure

It was a fun spiritual journey but i think ill switch to some travincal gear for now and farm some charms and hopefully a few hr’s. Ill probably return later when i get some better gear, have a few ideas on how to improve the build but it will take some upgrades and charms

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Not sure what i was looking at when I type’d that, must have had a Mara’s and my weapon swap (Demon’s Arch / HoZ) equipped.
At any rate, his HolyShock is lvl30 currently…
OMG… just realized I have Defensive Aura Grand Charms ILO Offensive Aura GC’s… LOL…
Off to my Skillers mule to see what all I did there…

few minutes later…

OK, I guess I swapped some skillers with my Tesladin… got it sorted…
He now has lvl34 HolyShock… no idea if that is going to be noticeable, but he went from 1-2800ish HS damage to 1-3400ish HS damage.
LOL!
Duh!

Blue Barb…
Would love to see game play action…
Apparently my computer is capable of capturing, but, the operator is not.
Does your Cold Barb turn the world Blue?
Would love to see.
I think I noted it above but I had an Act1 Cold Merc with NightWings (5/5), 15 Cold Ormus (5/5) and an Ice bow… that was a lovely blue/slow campaign. :slight_smile:

That was my experience as well.
I hit clvl90 this morning, and, having been playing only TZ’s I think I am finally learning how to play the Spear-a-Din.
Zero block (which I have cried about plenty already :slight_smile: ), so, essentially, he needs to really set-up large packs, and target ranged attackers ASAP… and, only way to do that is approach quickly in an arc’d path to avoid the Missiles, Fire/Lite etc.
I’ve always played characters with shields and associated block/dodge/avoid/Evade/Zoo/Army (s) that allowed me to attack head-on… this skirting damage tatic took me a while to;
recognize for starters
but then employ tactics to stay alive LOL !

I do not believe I have ever eluded to being a fast learner… :slight_smile:

15

He kind of did turn everything blue but as of yesterday i did change to some travincal gear (mainly physical + MF) . My plan is to farm some charms and hopefully a few hr’s then ill try again but i will switch one of the voice of reason for destruction for even more procs (nova, volcano, molten boulder) and a bit of extra phys+ ill switch one carrion wind ring for the wisp projector i found for some lightning procs . If i can afford it i might try out dragon armor for hydra procs too :smiley: but i need to sell a few pieces of gear before this becomes an option.
But if all this gets combined i will be able to proc fire storm, nova, twisters, lightning, frozen orb, ice blast, molten boulder, hydra, volcano (might have to wear my sunglasses) and if i switch my Loh for Draculs i can proc life tap to help sustain my leech and maybe use snowclash to proc blizzard when struck :smiley:
Another option i want to try out is using a throw barb with dual warshrike that has 25% chance to proc lvl 9 nova on striking, with 100% chance to pierce this can proc multiple times pr attack due to piercing and hitting multiple enemies which also means that all my other stuff will proc more often

Sounds like u just need a tank that can actually tank. If u are not too obsessed with having a merc with specific auras i can recommend act 5 frenzy merc, this guy can really take a beating when properly geared besides he is probably the only guy that can keep up with movement speed, in fact if he gets a few stacks on frenzy and a hustle armour he will probably outrun u. This is why i like him on my fury druid :slight_smile: he is the only merc that can actually keep up when im running, besides if u can afford it and want might he can actually use last wish phase blade combined with lawbringer, grief etc. Anything that can be made in one-handed swords. He is by far my most succesful travincal merc, in fact he now survives almost every single run np and i even tried letting him clear all of chaos sanctuary by himself with no help besides heart of the wolverine which he did :smiley: took a while but he only needed pots for diablo but with a last wish he will probably kill him too without pots

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Yep, absolutely will need sunglasses… really, really, good ones LOL!

Agree.
My Wind/Zoo Druid employs an Act5 Merc…
Cham’d GFace, Bramble and dual LastWishes… (have a LawBringer in stash for when needed)
He is a nut case!
I Have a decent eth Forti I could put on him, but, the lvl21 Thorns (and lvl34 Might) for the full Zoo seems too good… admittedly, I’ve not tried/tested the Forti.

Off topic…
I do not know how you all make $ in D2R but I sell Pgems/Pskulls , Spirit-rune-packs , Junk-jewels-low-runes for a Ber/Jah (+) every 2 weeks… less when playing crappy/slow Characters… more with Javazon… my most lucrative cash cow.

Back to topic.
I have saved my last 3 stat points, and am considering going 1 point each into Smite, Charge, Holy Shield…
Ranged attacks really wreck me, and, I think this will add great survive-abilty against ranged melee/elemental attacks… with eth Demon’s Arch and perfect HoZ socket’d with an Um…

17

He is almost unkillable with an eth forti even without the last wish if u have a leech helmet :smiley: i do however like using chains of honor since im doing travincal, the 65% all res is enough to counter the conviction aura that sometimes spawns on trav bosses when combined with arreats or any helmet with a bit of res (fire mainly) and you cant rely on fade procs on trav since its ultra short runs.

See thats the issue, i did start this char on ladder which is why hes gear is not really optimal and i did have to sell my sorc gear (torch, tal armour etc.) but im still short of completing my idea :slight_smile:
To be honest early ladder its all about selling all the good stuff u find while its still worth something, a lot of the good uniques and set items will only drop in value while the runes will keep their value which is why i like to start with my dudu :slight_smile: he doesnt need the commonly used and expensive items so i am free to sell any good unique or set item i find except i keep jalal, gore and highlord everything else is cheap as f… and he does just as well with a cheap hustle armor as any other expensive armor
So basically i sell anything with the slightest value.
My favorite strategy is travincal which is where i make my $. As long as u put in the hours this is really great and trav mobs have the highest hr drop chance + they are very well known for dropping lots of charms and jewelery. Everyone thinks Lower Kurast is the best place for hr’s and this is true for higher player settings but at P1 nothing beats travincal for hr’s once u have a char that can do 40-50 runs an hour.
I was actually lucky one ladder where i was able to make an enigma within 100 trav runs.
Another strategy i used before is key farming with a sorc, torches are in high demand early ladder and if u make a cheap smiter this can be really profitable, in fact a smiter doesnt really need expensive gear all u need is a pair of dracs or a life tap wand + open wounds and crushing blow. This is ez money early ladder if u are fast and everyone wants torches.

Ohh almost forgot. Yes Cows can be really great too but u need a fast char and they often come with a high pricetag, but early ladder things like monarch shields that drop in abundance in cows sell really well the first couple of days on ladder reset :smiley: besides they do seem to drop at least one good rune every 50-100 runs or so + lots of other bases

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18

Travincal is great, but mmmm, the topic is the Spear in a Paladin, and, I don´t think that clase is for this kind of weapon.

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This is true :slight_smile: however everything was kind of answers to OP’s own questions and request for being updated on my proc barb progression

20

As OP, I much appreciate your general forum etiquette reminders, or, social etiquette courtesies… Sincerely I do.
There is no way of you to know this, but Pede and I go back a ways theory crafting silly builds.
As there is no “private message”(that I am aware of) on this site, public lobbies are the only way for us to communicate… yes, we get totally off topic and I apologize for that.
It’s never been called out previously, but you having done so makes me aware of the frustration that is likely felt but other forum members searching a specific topic/build.
Sincerely.

Ok, back to my Spear Pally…

Since clvl88 i have been saving skill points.
I now (clvl91) have enough skill points to invest into Smite (Charge) down to HolyShield.
Thinking really hard on this for weapon swap vs ranged attackers…
It would give me way over 75% block chance with +72 @res… and with an Eth Demons Arch, he’d be pretty stupid (also have a Crescent Moon and StormLash on mule… hmmm…
Also have an AzureWrath and a Asteron’s… and pretty sure 1 more socket quest…
Dang, these wacko builds are tough to figure out. Ha.

And, just dropped a Sup Maiden Spear with +3 Jav/Spear skills, +3AR and increased Durability 14%… with 6os… wonder what SpearaZon with BotD would play like… LOL!

Also, if anyone can make use of a ViperMagi with +33 @res, let me know (non-ladder, softcore)… gonna “free” it otherwise.

ETA;

Like, right now headed to Durance of Hate, and really want Shako/StormShield/SoE’s
I need a good sturdy weapon swap that delivers massive -damage/block/@res for jacked TZ’s…

i am an idiot… just now realized I need BlessedHammer to get to HolyShield, and, even if I did that I cannot runn HolyShock and HolyShield at the same time… with Zeal…

Oh well, have 2 Akara’s remaining, and, with just StormShield and SoE’s he’s rock solid against the dolls… good grief!

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