Gris Pally - Revisited

[PhatTrumpet]

I was re-entertaining the idea of making a Griswald Pally when I realized I could also make him useful for the new Uber Quest.

From what I've gathered so far, Life Tap and Crushing Blow are the keys to the final battle, and Zealots and Smiters do pretty well.

Life Tap would most likely have to come from Dracul's. Having a Life Tap wand on switch would be very risky and not nearly as effective. Now, if I'm not mistaken, that only leaves the boots slot for Crushing Blow (I'm not about to buy a pile of Ber runes for the weapon, and I'm not about to rely on my Merc for CB since he'll die in about .001 seconds). Is the 25% CB from Goblin Toes or the 15% CB from Gore Riders going to be nearly enough?

As for skills, I'd try for a Smite/Zeal Hybrid if possible:

Max Fanaticism
Max Holy Shield
Max Smite
1 Zeal (should be enough for 5 hits with the full set on)
1 Salvation (!)
1 Redemption
1 Conviction (?)
rest in Sacrifice

Any suggestions on gear, sockets, Merc, skills, etc. gladly welcomed.

[AzaZaz]

Well if i could make a suggestion, by no means should u take it for law but in theory, if you're going to try and unload lots of CB onto the bosses, thereby doing 10% dmg before your dmg, I would think that you would want to ensure yourself hitting as much as possible. Thus, wouldn't you want to try and raise the AR of zeal over the dmg of zeal as to land as many hits as possible and set off CB as many times as possible? so should you max zeal before sac? Or at least give them an even 10/10 split.

Just my 2 cents, since you wont really be able to use angelics for AR since you'll need res and absorb.

[HelzCaretaker]

well if he goes smite that whole idea is moot

[PhatTrumpet]

Well that's part of my problem with the hybrid build. What purpose does the Zeal part serve? What purpose does the Smite part serve?

My original line of thought was that Zeal would be used mostly for triggering Life Tap while Smite would be the primary damage dealer. Now that you mention it though, the 10/10 split might be the way to go since if Zeal is being using to trigger one thing (Life Tap), it'll inevitably be used to trigger another (Crushing Blow).

[STINGER]

I do know this much, GToes upped and no other CB will kill Diablo Clone. It takes a while but it works. IIRC she only had a 5-600 listed damage on her DTalon (or whatever that lvl 1 mulithit kick skill is).

Not sure about mercs, but a good merc can live thru DC. With Slow or Decrep and a bunch of leech and good rez......raw damage isnt the key here but crushing is definetly good.

Disclaimer: I havent seen the new bosses so this all may not be worth a crap!

[HelzCaretaker]

for a zealot the attack rating sucks for standard gear (don't know about griz bonuses), smite is decent if fast/lots of cb. If you go pure smite (which I suggest other then zeal for leech vs typical monsters), I'd go goblin toes since ds = nothing for smite. 5 fps smite roxxors! I think other builds would fare better then a griz smiter though (for killing new bosses).

[AAJimmy]

If you get grief is there any need for ar?

Ps. I know its very expensive but if..