Supplemental smite for Ubers

I have reasonably well geared Hammerdin lvl 92 (cookie-cutter but basically missed only enigma) from “extras” 1 point Fana, 1 point Salvation, about 15ish or so in Holy Shield)
In the past (before D2Res) this built was easily flipped for smiting ubers with some gear adjustments.
I use to do Goblins/G-Face/Duress use my p-diamonded HOZ for smite, dracules for life tap. Adding Dwarf Star for Absorb fire, T-Gods for Lighting absorb (use to have wisp as well) and something with can’t get freeze (Ravens) - kill D and B with Fana and M with Salvation and as long as you have lifetap running everything was relatively peachy :slight_smile: I am wonder if anything changed since old times and this approach still working

this still works. i would use sacred targe spirit or up the HOZ for more damage. i really dont like HOZ unless you are zealer.
after you kill meph, swap off tgods for dungos.

i would respec and take the extra points out of holy shield and put points into resist lightning to passively increase your max lite res. a level 20 holy shield and level 36 holy shield only have 4% block difference which is like 7-8 dex.

16 (hard) points into resist lite will give you 83 lite res all the time even with other auras active. if you put on resist lightning aura you and your entire party will have 91 max light res and 140+ to lite resist.

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HOZ usually needed to push up Def (and upping HOZ needed just for that rather than smite damage) second reason to use HOZ - tones of resist (UMez HOZ - 72 resist all with P-Diamond 69). One thing I am kind of curious - what life pool needed to be comfortable at Ubers?
From my memory the only drawback from NOT using Fana was lack of IAS for smite (I’d don’t care about actual smite damage between CB/Open Wounds/LifeTap/+Add Damage I should be able to chew through last 15% of Uber life … providing I have enough IAS
So I am going to get first Grief (IAS/+Add damage) and will check how fast this works my setting if needed I can add 15IAS jewel.
What about Exile? how critical/not critical to have one? compare to CTOA?

are you going grief PB or axe?

-exile is never worth it IMO except in maybe BM duels? mainly cuz the base is so expensive for a bad base imo. ppl use vortex for highest defense and highest max damage from the shield, but that base has a bad chance of block%, so you spend so much more dex to hit 75 block, and it doesn’t add 20-22 vitality like hoz/spirit does. thats like a 40-45 vitality swing. I think last wish is super overhyped and i would rather save my wealth and make a last wish over exile.
-upp’d hoz is great cheap option, however i still use a sacred targe spirit. it actually has higher Resistances than an um’ed hoz besides fire resist if you get a good base to make spirit in. spirit gives more vitality than hoz and the 55% FHR from spirit is alone to hit the first breakpoint. wearing G-face you need a 5% charm and you hit the 86% FHR breakpoint which is important for ubers.

-HOZ imo is best for a zealer/avenger/charger. a melee build that needs AR. also a smiter if you don’t have enigma. spirit in a high all res base just has more stats that benefit paladin.

-all elite paladin shields have same average smite damage of 46. upp’d HOZ is more consistent at a flat 46 damage, sacred targe for example is 22-70 smite damage. vortex is highest at 5-87 smite damage. (sacred targe has highest block %, saving you the most dex hit max block)

-using fanaticism depends on your weapon IMO. you want higher IAS so your stuff like life tap/CB/OW procs quickly. for example, if you are using a grief PB, you need 65% ias to hit max bp without fanaticism. grief can have 30-40, highlords for 20 and ias jewel in helm and you don’t need fanaticism. if you are using a grief berserker axe for example, you really need the ias from fanaticism along with ias jewel/ammy.

fanaticism does keep your ias high though vs. duriel and izual and their cold auras that slow you.
also, the IAS from fanaticism is different than IAS from a jewel for example. you could use any grief PB with a lvl 5 fanaticism i believe and you hit max ias; freesingup your amulet/helm socket to not require ias.

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