PvM WW'sin

[Vajar]

I'm asking for some guidance in making a PvM WW'sin. Now I know they're not uber or anything in PvM, but I'm doing it for the novelty (and yes, the repairs will suck). I'm single-player so high runes like Jah and runewords like Fury and CoH are not an option (and yes, Ohm is actually obtainable).

Chaos Claw (what base claw should I use?)
Natalya's Mark (or another Chaos claw?)

on switch:
Call To Arms
Lidless Wall

Guillame's Face - ED jewel w/Max?
Highlord's Wrath
Natalya's Armor - 3x Psn Faucet?
CB/Dual Leech Gloves (or Trangs or Steelrend?)
Raven Frost
133 AR / 15 Res / 30 FR / 5% ML ring
Verdungos?
Up'd Goreriders (or Shadow Dancers?)

6x Shadow GCs
6x 5% res scs

Lvl 99
20 Claw Mastery
20 Venom
20 Lightning Sentry
20 Death Sentry
20 Fade

Lvl 90
20 Claw Mastery
20 Venom
20 Death Sentry
20 Lightning Sentry
10 Fade

Lvl 80
20 Claw Mastery
20 Venom
20 Death Sentry
10 Fade
10 Lightning Sentry

Lvl 70
20 Claw Mastery
20 Venom
20 Death Sentry
10 Fade

Holy Freeze Merc

I was also thinking about a Might Merc - mind blast + cloak of shadows may keep him alive and a nice boost to physical damage.

Plan would be to cast call to arms, lay some lightning sentries whirl around until a corpse drops, send out a few death sentries to mop up. For PIs (both kinds) death sentry and lightning sentry along with venom (or physical/CB) should take care of them.

Aiming for about 1000 to 1500 life after call to arms - would be putting a fair amount in Dex to up my AR. Mercenary with Reaper's Toll could help against boost physical damage and aide against PIs.

Some help on choosing a secondary claw would be nice - if only Fury didn't use a Jah.

Remember, this is PvM and single player.

[IN_FLAMES]

i -highly- do not reccomend a PvM wwsin. Firstly, because the repairs are REALLY annoying. Every 10-20 Baal runs I see a yellow claw. both Chaos and fury are expensive to repair (Bramble is a KILLER to repair too)

also, they have a hard time dealing with poison immunes.

[Vajar]

ya, thats why I went with high CB and possibly a might merc - the repairs would be much better than normal WW barbs however, thanks to the high durability on the claws, however, the repairs would cost a bit more

are your expensive repairs based on claws with +skills? if so, I'm not gonna be making chaos in +skill claws - i know they boost the repair cost WAY higher

either way, I'm gonna make one anyhow - like I said, for the novelty - it sounds like a lot of fun, even if the repairs are a bummer (and I think I'll have the poison immunes under control with my setup) - I've played a throw barb in 1.10 with quad glimmershreds and still had a lot of fun, so I have a good idea of what the repair situation will be like.

Whats the repair cost on chaos claws w/o +skills on them (if you know)?

[Naliworld]

Disclaimer: This is all theory, I haven't played a WWsin before.

I'd stick with the Nat's Mark instead of going with another 'Chaos'. Repairs will be less of a problem, damage would be better in most cases, and ITD is so nice to have.

I would stay away from Nat's Armor w/ Poison facets, due to almost universal high poison resist in PvM, and instead go with Shaftstop for some extra defense or something like 'Duress' for the CB/OW, but if you want more emphasis on poison, your choice.

I would suggest downgrading Fade(possibly CM) some and putting more points into an LS synergy(especially if you're planning to play on more than 'players 3', where just 40 points in Lightning Traps isn't going to do much good). Getting high DR isn't nearly as important in PvM as it is in PvM, as long as your life is up to scratch, so IMO you should look toward increasing your supplemental damage.

As for helm socket, ED/Max works, but right now you have only 10% FHR on equipment(assuming you're going with Gores, which I would), so I would go with a Shael instead for a 6 frame FHR animation past the 27% break.

One thing you haven't really addressed is mana, which, from what I've heard, can be a big problem for Whirlwind Assassins. Since you're going to be WW'ing a lot more often than the PvP variety, this problem is compounded for you. One possibly extreme measure you could take is using an upgraded Nightsmoke for the Damage to Mana. The alternative is developing a blue pot addiction, which works too but can be pretty annoying.

[Vajar]

Ahh, there's some good advice. I actually have a couple of shadow charms with FHR on it, so those should work. And now that I remember about the ED/max bug, I'll probably just go with ED. I definately would have gone with Duress, but unfortunately I'm SP - we don't have those runewords here. I think I'll keep CM max'd, but I'll look into moving some points from fade into the lightning synergies.

As far as Nat's Mark - I'm not too concerned with hitting with 337% AR boost from CM and -60% defense from cloak of shadows so it'd be more for the convenience of repairs. If I had Ohm runes to spare, I think I'd go for another Chaos, that extra magic damage would be real nice, and the damage on Chaos itself, isn't that bad either. Like I mentioned earlier, the repair situation with my throwbarb was pretty bad, but it was still really fun. I'll see how one goes with the repairs and then if it isn't too bad, I'll try out too.

I think I'll stick with Nat's armor, as it covers my poison resist, gives a nice bonus to shadow skills and I think the extra poison damage could be quite useful still (definately the -resist part) - even against moderate resists, it should still do around 1000 dmg on its own. That along with LS, DS, crushing blow, critical strike and the physical damage, I'm planning on just stacking up the damage and hoping all my sources will make it quite viable. Another possibility for socketing would be 3x ED jewels. Looks like I'll have to test some stuff out.

Hmm.. mana.. I was wondering what I was going to do about that. Nightsmoke sounds like a good option - I'll see how that goes. With Call to Arms I'll have a good mana pool to use, but beyond that, it'll be interesting to see if thats enough with ML and Nightsmoke.

I also did some scoping over at d2data.net and the poison immunes seem to be confined to undead (which are unleechable anyway) so it seems like I'd be using blade fury and lightning sentry against them for the most part even if they weren't poison immune. So the poison situation may actually not be that bad. However, I don't think the outcome can be guessed at - this seems to be one of those things you just have to go out and try.

[Vajar]

Ok, I rewrote my plan and focused a little more on damage and ditched the call to arms.

145 Str (+15 Face)
130 Dex (+20 Raven)
+Vit

Might Merc

2x Chaos Suwayyahs (Nat's Mark if the repairs are really bad)

2x Shadow Claws - 4x 5/x Psn Faucets (buffing venom)

Guillame's Face - ED jewel
Highlord's Wrath
Natalya's Armor - 3x 5/5 Psn Faucets
Trangs Gloves
Raven Frost
133 AR / 15 Res All / 30 FR / 5% ML
Up'd Nightsmoke
Up'd Goreriders

6x Shadow GC (2x FHR)
6x Res SC (1x FHR)

Lvl 99
20 Claw Mastery
20 Venom
20 Death Sentry
20 Lightning Sentry
15 Charged Bolt Sentry
2 Shadow Master
1 Blade Shield

Lvl 80
20 Claw Mastery
20 Venom
20 Lightning Sentry
15 Death Sentry
2 Shadow Master
1 Blade Shield

Gives me 75% res all, 16% DR, 50% block, 50% CB, 60% DS, -60% target def, 5x 1-1800 lightning, 2000 venom (before -%res), 1500 physical dmg, 400 magic dmg. 50% dmg to mana along with 5% ML should keep me whirling between mana pots and my life will be around 900 - which is decent. I also have a lvl 17 Shadow Master to help tank and Death Sentry to mop up and a Blade Shield to dmg enemies while whirling through them. From the looks of it, it's gonna be pretty viable and should be a lot of fun. Wish me luck, lol!

[Naliworld]

Looks good. :thumbsup: Ah, looking at your build makes me want to start one of my own. Alas, I lack the currency. :p Good luck. :)