Hi guys,
I currently gotten myself into hell and damn am I struggling.
I just keep getting killed.
Is the best thing just to keep farming nightmare until I find better gear?
Next step will be to find a 5 socket sword to create “Honor”.
Helm: Lore
Shield: Rhyme
Armor: Stealth
Weapon: Random mace
Or do any of you guys have a good suggestion for further progress?
Getting your blockrate and resistances up will help a lot in terms of survivability. When I was leveling my paladin, I was struggling until I respecced and got my blockrate up to near 75%. (as shown when you hover over it on the character screen, not what it says on the shield)
Here is a good website to calculate how much dexterity you need for your build to hit max block rate:
http://www.baronsbazaar.ca/forum/ppr/block_calc.html
Also, it may help to get something better than Stealth. I’m guessing it’s slotted into some low level armor from act 2 normal. Finding an exceptional or elite body armor with good Enhanced Defense + Holy shield would probably bump your dodge rate significantly. Just remember that defense drops to zero when running. So sometimes switching to walk can be beneficial.
Other than that, like I said earlier, get your resistances up to as high as you can. Rhyme is a great runeword for cannot-be-frozen, but was it a paladin shield? If so, what were the “auto-mods” (paladin shields have either resist-all, or enhanced damage even for whites)? If they weren’t very good like +9 resist all, you may want to be on the look out for a better Rhyme (exceptional or elite version). Resist all auto-mod can go up to +45%.
As noted you need quite a bit of upgrading…Wall of text INCOMING!!!
Zealots (all melee) survive not by avoiding damage but by being able to heal through it. You can suck on heal pots constantly but the real source is Life Leech. So the first question is how much life leech are you sporting?
Next is your ‘To Hit’ where is that at? Even if you have good dex and AR your level vs the monsters level effects the ‘to hit’ calculation. A1 in Hell ranges from 68-76 , It is advisable to be at lest that level preferably above the area level you are in, thus your ‘to hit’ is a high percentage.
Provided your ‘to hit’ is good and you have life leech your best option is to charge straight in and face tank things until they die! I just keep an eye on my life ball and when it gets below 85% I pop a heal pot. I’m HC so I don’t like ever seeing my life ball go below 85%, if it hits 50% I hit a juve. The scariest group I faced recently was a might enhanced group of bone archers. They hit at range, hard and I can’t leech from them. I had to run, string them out and take them down one at a time.
Run/Walk: as mentioned above when you run you lose all your def. Def is what keep us from getting spanked too hard. The most dangerous time is when you are approaching something to hit. Charge them! Charge will not remove your def rating and it gets you into the fight quickly. Charge the pack of monsters and zeal away. Ranged monsters are the worst thing to run around as your def goes to 0 and they can hit you far away.
Gear: In short you are sporting caster gear. You need as high of a def rating on your armor as possible, max resists and the highest damage weapon you can find. For a Zealot this is rarely runewords until you get to end game. You outgrow them too quickly to make it worth hunting items and making a runeword.
I would find better armor with a high def rating (you can shop it or just pick up every armor that looks strong,) the other mods are only good once you have a good def rating. If you can get damage reduction even better, I upgraded a rockstopper because it was the best option I had…until something else drops for me. Shield; Rhyme is good for the can not be frozen, if you freeze you slow down your life leech. Hunt down a 2 socket pally shield with good resists to make it in. If you can get ‘can not be frozen’ on something else you can get an ancient pledge in a high resists pally shield. Upgrade to better as you get stuff.
Honor is a decent and cheap weapon but it is no better than any other ‘exceptional’ weapon. The 160 ED is low to average vs the other mid level unique/rare weapons. Don’t get so attached to the idea of it that you ignore other options that drop for you. Elite unique are going up to 250+ enhanced damage.
I would definitely go back to nightmare and farm up some more stuff/levels. If you can handle the Countess runs or Andy, you can farm those in Hell, but getting more exp and drops is going to help you a lot.
Hey that wasn’t as long as I thought!
Hi guys,
Thanks for the thorough explanation - it really helped a new/returning D2 player.
I will definitely go back to NM and farm better gear and probably do a respec in order to get the 75% block rate.
It is so great to have all kind of different approaches to this build.
I am aiming for the runeword “Grief” but I know it’s going to take a lot of farming in hell.
Anyway thank you both for taking the time to answer me and sorry for the written English.
Regards from Denmark
I’m running a poor man tesladin - no dream, which is essentially zeal with holy shock. Had survivability issues as well at first.
Few things I did. Upgraded my armor to a Duress to boost defense & FHR. Got a Holy Freeze merc. Tried Defiance & might, but Holy freeze is best as it slows everything down so you get more time to kill them before they swarm you.
Last tip, in hell - don’t get swarmed/surrounded. Unless you got uber gear, play smart and lure packs to break them apart.
With that I’m soloing Hell Chaos Sanctuary.