best build for soloin hell?

[basketball]

whats the best build for anyclass 2 solo hell?
and maybe the uber 3?
hammerdin? smiter?
maybe a fire\sorc?
what about JavaZon\Bowazon?
10x...

[sangfagel]

The build you like best :)

There are several universal builds, good for solo play. I personally prefer FB/orb sorc and hybrid zon for their ability to manage most of the game with very basic equipment.

If you have unlimited access to items/runewords - just make any of cookie cutters as enigmadin.

[basketball]

The build you like best :)

There are several universal builds, good for solo play. I personally prefer FB/orb sorc and hybrid zon for their ability to manage most of the game with very basic equipment.

If you have unlimited access to items/runewords - just make any of cookie cutters as enigmadin.

i want an interestin build...
in Diablo 1 i had a bowazon... i think i wanna remake it...
or maybe a javazon...
these are the builds i did so far:
WW barb
FO/CL sorc (mf)
trapsin and a kicksin
and some pala's (hammerdin, frost zealot)
any suggestions?

[F1R3STR1D3R]

WW barb is good until you run into iron maiden.
FO/CL is good but each skill damage suffers from the other, slower killing.
Trapsin is good until you fight lightning immunes.
Kicksin is a slow killer compared to casters.
Hammerdin is one of the best with enigma.

My personal choice is a wind druid with enigma.

[Pougee_au]

Necromancer - Summoner

[sangfagel]

If you will play an interesting build I wouldn´t recommend anything enigma based.

As someone (Superhall - ???) said before - "you can enigma anything in the game" :D Imo this kind of playing is something like to hunt deers from an attack helicopter: sure, it´s effective but... wher´s the challenge?

Both of the chars I mentioned before can do everything in the game and playing them can give you a kick. I recently went through 3 first acts in Hell playing a zon with -80% res all, ~500hp and ~350 def - soloing all bosses and not dying a single time.

If you want solo the game you must think about all possible situations: about immunes, IM, "mana-to-blood" - curse, bugged dmg of some monsters, etc, etc.

Non of all chars you mentioned have a chance to be universal. WW barb looks best - if you are martyr enough to hack all cursing knights using berserk. :D Oh, sorry - this sorc has a chance - she is 2-ele after all... I would prefer FA/FB anyway.

According Pougee_au´s proposal - How are you going to kill Diablo? I myself never even attempt to do it just using summons, so - I just don´t know. Is it possible?

[Myrakh-2]

According Pougee_au´s proposal - How are you going to kill Diablo? I myself never even attempt to do it just using summons, so - I just don´t know. Is it possible?

Diablo? That's the little puppy in Chaos Sanctuary? Quite relaxing to kill him with a Skelemancer, actually -.-- just stand there, let your skellies whack him, make sure Gumby is on the other side (away from you, as he's a preferred target... and you don't want the brearth weapon coming your way). Don't forget to cast Decrepify every now and then.

Or did I mix up that Diablo thing? I don't really remember who's who, since I almost exclusively play Skelemancers, so all monsters look the same, pretty much.

EDIT: Oh yes, now I remember... Chaos Sanctuary, it's actually a tad annoying. That's why Diablo is so relaxing --- he doesn't cast IM. It's a bit mana intensive sometimes, since IM can kill off skellies pretty nicely, so lots of replacing needed. Luckily there are quite a few monsters in CS, so no shortage on corpses.

[Pougee_au]

Lifetap > IM = No skellys lost.

Diablo with Decrep and Amp is no hassles. I soloed the whole game with my summoner last ladder.

[sangfagel]

mmm, ... thx guys, it sounds good :) May be I should give my clvl 13 necro mule a chance. (The personal disadvantage is that the sound of skellys makes me laugh so much that I can barely keep my muse :D )

[Myrakh-2]

mmm, ... thx guys, it sounds good :) May be I should give my clvl 13 necro mule a chance.

clvl 13 --- the balance "norm diablo vs. someone-who-actually-needs-the-quest" is biased towards norm diablo.

Nightmare and hell diablo are *much* easier.

[sangfagel]

clvl 13 --- the balance "norm diablo vs. someone-who-actually-needs-the-quest" is biased towards norm diablo.

Nightmare and hell diablo are *much* easier.
In earlier patches act bosses made a riduculously multiplied dmg against mercenerys/pets. I belive it´s gone in .10 but I´m not sure about pets. Any opinions?

[Myrakh-2]

In earlier patches act bosses made a riduculously multiplied dmg against mercenerys/pets. I belive it´s gone in .10 but I´m not sure about pets. Any opinions?

This not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of knowing :-) I don't know whether it's still the case, but I always thought it is.

I just never needed to care: my Skelemancers whack everything in hell with ease and mediocre gear (no runewords, duped or normal, whatsoever; no SOJs, no this and no that). Including dclone, but I never had a chance to try the Tristam quest (only got 2 keys before the ladder was flushed...) --- they could pose a problem. I have started a new Skelemancer on this ladder, but haven't played him for a while... don't know whether I'll continue sometime and maybe try the Tristam thing. If I do and it doesn't work out I could just try to collect something like 3 complete body part sets and try to trade these for one torch :-)

Also, something (looks like those claw vipers, but I'm not entirely sure) in the Nhilathak map seem to do insane amounts of damage. I almost never loose skeleton warriors vs. act bosses (mages are a different story; they are much less sturdy), but I always seem to loose a few of them vs. those claw vipers... and not any claw vipers (A2, WSK --- no problems here), just the Nhilathak ones. I'm beginning to believe that they might really be bugged like everyone says.

[mr.dines]

Furysin (assassin using blade fury) and berserker barb can solo hell too and are imo quite fun to play.

[BatTheMan]

any well built and played character can solo hell.

[bladesyz]

any well built and played character can solo hell.

That doesn't tell us much. What do you mean by "well built"? ;)

Anyway, there are a lot of options. Blizz/Meteor/FB sorc is a great MFer and a fast killer, Hammerdins are simple but effective, Bowazons are fun to play with and do pretty well, LF-zons kill non-lit immunes with unparalleled... ermm... fury; IK WW barbs are the classic tanks, slow but steady.

However, for the overall best, most versatile, most optimally suited for all situations in Hell, the easiest to equip, the Necro Summoner takes the win.

I have a necro in NL, and the only times my skellies ever die in mass is against those tomb vipers in nihlathak's temple, and sometimes against IM. IM is mostly annoying, as it kills my merc really fast, and that's a bad thing.

However, those are more annoyances than real challenges.

Unlike any other build, the Necro Summoner has the ability to deal with every single type of monster in the game. He can deal with PIs with Amp, he can deal with unbreakable PIs with lower resist and mages, and his skellies + might merc cut a swathe of destruction against any non-PIs, aided by Amp and CE.

The only issues a summoner has is in tight corridor levels such as Arcane, Maggot, and to a lesser extent, tower/catacombs. In these situations, it is often better to use only a few skellies, unsummon all magi, and let your merc do the most of the killing. He is surprisingly effective at it, once you gear him up properly, and assist him with the right curses.

The classic mistake newbies make with the summoner (which I made too) is not maxing the skellies. That, and using any golem other than the clay golem (you only need 1 pt in clay and golem mastery). You need to aim for slvl 30+ for a relatively safe journey through hell. With slvl 36+, you almost never have to resummon your skellies. With clay golem at level 10+ after +skills, and decrep, Bosses are a breeze to kill, though Baal can take a while (ok, a long while).

Fortunately, it's relatively easy to get those extra 10+ summon skills:

- +2 necro wand, available at your local casino or even gift shop
- +3 summon head gear, available also via gambling
- Homunculus, not all that expensive. If you don't have that, +2 necro heads are also available.
- Trang's armor, or the new Bone runeword. Trangs is cheaper, but Bone offers 30 res all.
- +3 summon amulet

that's +12 to summon skills already. You should be quite comfortable in hell. You won't kill as fast as a sorc or javazon, but you won't die as fast either, and you can go places they can't.

Now consider some high-end gears:

- 2x SoJ
- Necro Summon GCs
- Hoto

You can reasonably get a +5 skill boost from those, assuming 2 GCs, more if you want to sacrifice inventory space.

- Enigma

Sure, you can "enigma" any build (except amazons), but no other build benefits from Enigma like the Necro Summoner does.

With Enigma, suddenly those tight corridors are a breeze to wade through. Suddenly, your magi become a lethal force of destruction as they attack from blob mode. Suddenly, you can MF better and safer than any sorc.

Necro Summoner 4tw!

[Dazuni]

I will say necro summoner as well. if you play the game (rather then get rushed) you will likely to come across + 3 skelly / mastery, head / wand at low level. keep them. you will need them.

you probably will get some ammy with + summon as well, keep that too you will need it.

once skill level is around lvl 30 for mastery and skelly, then you are sorted. sail throught the rest of the game like breeze. also join some pubby games, people love summoners (or hate, if they have 56K modem).

mine summoner last season eventually got full trang and arm king leoric that sorted the game 4 me.

for the rest of the slots, I got highlord for ammy, bk4 and that unique right give poision nove for rings, boot was gore rider, alternate weapon was passion phaseblade and the ward ( which gives a faded trang oul vamp, very cool).

so on switch I melee.

skill wise

skelly / magi / mastery / g mastery maxed.

1 in revive + preq.

1 in summon resist

1 in bone armour, maxed Wall.

1 in all curses

so if I wanna melee I can, or I can sit back let skelly fight it out, or I can luanch fireball/ fire wall attack at the back.

[bruthor]

Assasin or necro. mind blast or AI curses takes care of any crowd, and bosses are only scary in normal. Any build with durable minions, at least to sources of effective dmg can solo hell EASILY in my opinion.

Ligthtning trapper/kicker hybrid is my favourite for untwinked play.
Lightning sentry=massive lightning dmg
Death sentry=massive fire/physical dmg when corpses are available
Dragon tail=1 point OK fire dmg
merc=OK physical dmg and tank
+ some physical kick when needed
Shadow master=Tank, some dmg of all sorts.
Mind blast=nothing seams scary any more.

The best is that anyone can get myrmidion greves and + 2 skills claws, and one point weapon block can easily get you 40-60% chance to block ALL sorts of dmg.

[Savvi]

whats the best build for anyclass 2 solo hell?
10x...
Just about any class and skill combination can solo hell. I play only hardcore and only ladder, play almost solely solo, and have only the items I can find (so, no rune words requiring more than Ist, for example). Below is what I have played at least iinto the mid-80's level (note that I usually plan on 101 skill points, playing through L90):

Necro summoner: 20 in mastery, 20 in skeleteons, 1 in clay, 1 in golem mastery, and about 8 minimum in your choice of curses. You can do pretty much anything you want with the other 31 points. I have gone bone, poison, and corpse with the balance in curses. I generally use enough points to put one in revives since they are a blast. Curse-wise, you clearly want 1 pt in decrepify. I tend to put 10 or so in confuse, which I find more effective in many situations than attract (but I use attract also). In particular, black souls that are more than 6 yards from an attracted monster will ignore it and shoot you...but will go for the closest confused monster no matter how far as long as the confused is closer to it than you are. Necros can kill anything with dispatch, though it's slower going than most other classes, it's a hell of a lot safer (and remember, I do only hard core). I use either a might merc here.

Druid Fire A: my gf has done wind druids through hell. I've done fissure druids (with maxed Oak for life), everything else in fire skills. Can kill almost anything quickly 'cept for dual fire-phys immunes. For those I either have a decrepify weapon switch, an amp damage or decrep weapon on my merc, or just let the merc kill it slowly. I use a cold merc here.

Druid Fire B: Last ladder I did an Armeggedon druid. Very durable build and exciting to play.

Druid Physical: 20 in lyc, 9 in werewolf, 20 in fury, 14 or so in grizzly (so that, with skill adds, you get the max 85 resist all), 17 or so in dire wolf (adds life for the bear). A few points in rabies. I went with wolverine and corpse vine, 1 pt. each. Problem here with physical immunes, but they all die-just takes longer. Cold merc for another damage type and a bit more safety. Slowest part is any place there might be IM...then I just let the merc tank and try to keep him out of trouble. Fun, but nerve wracking because of the lack of a distance attack of my own. Diablo at all levels is almost simple with a melee character though since most of his spell attacks (including his lightning hose) miss you completely if you stand right up next to him while you attack. I rarely even need a potion to do him, and he goes down fast with crushing blow.

'Zons: My gf does a lightning 'zon but I don't know the skill selection. I do a bowazon and it's my favorite character type. 20 in freezing, 20 in cold, only enough to get to 10 strafe arrows (like 6 or 7 points). Even with only 1 real point in magic arrow, I can take down cold/physical immunes with that by the way. In the passive tree, I put 10 or 15 in both valkyrie and decoy. Decoys can be incredibly useful. I usually only put one point in the other passive skills as a base, though sometimes a few more in pierce, depending on what weapon I'm using. If I have extra skill points, they can go into passives that help the Valkyrie avoid damage. Because Freezing arrow sucks of mana so fast, I always get the might merc here to increase my leech (in effect). If I've found one, I often have a bow on switch that has a chance to cast amp damage for the phys immunes. Kills pretty much everything quickly and reasonably safely.

I hope that helps. With what I've played I feel like *anything* is viable in hell, and I have enjoyed pretty much everything I've done. But the most difficult (and prehaps most exciting) is the melee character since the danger is higher. On the other hand, melee chars can take down bosses faster, and against diablo have little danger.

Savvi

[Quietus]

For a powerful, potentially untwinked character that can handle pretty much anything, I recommend a Vanquisher - combination Smite/Hammer. With the gear on mine I have just under 6k damage hammers at level 83, and 1.2k damage smite. My only skill bonuses are a pair of sojs, hoz, and coh - Yes, I know, I've got a fairly powerful build. I can handle anything the game throws at me, including the ubers and chaotic tristram.

[Savvi]

For a powerful, potentially untwinked character that can handle pretty much anything, I recommend a Vanquisher - combination Smite/Hammer. With the gear on mine I have just under 6k damage hammers at level 83, and 1.2k damage smite. My only skill bonuses are a pair of sojs, hoz, and coh - Yes, I know, I've got a fairly powerful build. I can handle anything the game throws at me, including the ubers and chaotic tristram.
For myself, I've never even seen a SoJ despite playing for 5 years-but I play 100% legit on HC ladder. Heck, I haven't even seen a Manald Heal yet even with 2 chars near L80 on the current HC ladder. I have found a bunch of Nagelrings though! Ooooh! I'm rich now!

So of course, dual SoJs, CoH, and Hoz are only in my dreams ;-). Three questions for you:

(1) How viable, completely untwinked (by that I mean, only stuff your characters find themselves) do you think that build is?

(2) Do you think it's HC viable? (That's a very different and much more stringent question that (1))

(3) How viable do you think it is against the new ubers as a hard core character? Obviously if the chance of at least one death in the attempt is high, then it probably couldn't work...but you've got the experience here, I do not.

Thanks,

Savvi

[bruthor]

For myself, I've never even seen a SoJ despite playing for 5 years-but I play 100% legit on HC ladder. Heck, I haven't even seen a Manald Heal yet even with 2 chars near L80 on the current HC ladder. I have found a bunch of Nagelrings though! Ooooh! I'm rich now!

So of course, dual SoJs, CoH, and Hoz are only in my dreams ;-). Three questions for you:

Savvi

Man that sucks. Maybe there should be another stat in diablo called luck, effecting nothing but magic find? I have made doom and delerium, found some sojs, a guardian angel, bla bla. I actually found a zod, but I do'nt know what to do with it yet. PS. Normal baalrunning can get you some OK stuff :D

[nalchik]

There 2 options i like most : Necro Overlord and Hammerdin. These both can solo hell wihout problems with very cheap equip . Both are fun and both are good :)

[plasmo]

If you can get Enigma, Hammerdin by miles. If you can't, a Hammerdin can still kill basically anything and can move pretty quickly with charge.

The only other possible character I'd use would be a sorc, simply because of tele. And to not worry about immunities while still doing decent damage, meteorb is pretty much it.

Of course, these are the ones to use if you want to get somewhere fast. If you just want to sit back and play leisurely, then almost any character with a merc will work (the merc can usually kill anything that's immune to your attacks). I've always had fun playing necros with skeletons/mages/revives, but they just don't move quickly enough if you want to MF.

I actually found a zod, but I do'nt know what to do with it yet. Well, I can only think of 3 options: trade, eBOTD, or put it in some godly ethereal rare.

[Quietus]

For myself, I've never even seen a SoJ despite playing for 5 years-but I play 100% legit on HC ladder. Heck, I haven't even seen a Manald Heal yet even with 2 chars near L80 on the current HC ladder. I have found a bunch of Nagelrings though! Ooooh! I'm rich now!

So of course, dual SoJs, CoH, and Hoz are only in my dreams ;-). Three questions for you:

(1) How viable, completely untwinked (by that I mean, only stuff your characters find themselves) do you think that build is?

(2) Do you think it's HC viable? (That's a very different and much more stringent question that (1))

(3) How viable do you think it is against the new ubers as a hard core character? Obviously if the chance of at least one death in the attempt is high, then it probably couldn't work...but you've got the experience here, I do not.

Thanks,

Savvi

Completely untwinked, I wouldn't try it hardcore. You pretty much NEED dracul's grasp. With a little twinking they're fairly simple; Play them like a hammerdin till you've maxed hammer, vigor, and conc, then do holy sheild. But to make this build viable you do need to have A) A decent speed weapon, preferrably with crushing blow (Though a strength phase might work, you'd be a little slower on the smite), B) Dracul's are highly, highly, highly recommended. The balance required for this sort of character is very fine indeed, unfortunately. It's a fairly good character in terms of living, just as survivable as a hammerdin in the early-mid stages, since you're playing as one until late game. Against the ubers... I wouldn't try them unless you had really, REALLY nice gear. Grief phase if you're on ladder, or kingslayer phase if you're not.. kingslayer is REALLY nice, mul um gul eth for 33% crushing blow, and 30% ias - gives 7 frame smite. Preferrably a chains of honor, hoz, guilla's face, gore riders.... When facing the ubers you're playing as a smiter, using hammers only to rid the field of minions from time to time. I do die on occasion, but I don't have the uber-amazing, top of the line gear. If you intend to do the ubers on hardcore, make SURE you have your resists stacked up to 75 after meph's conviction. If I'm up there smiting him, he can take me out with a single charged bolt wave.

[dogs best friend]

The most sucessful pvm character I have build are my Frost zealot and my wind druid. My friend has so far beaten normal and nightmare with a barb using frenzy and it looks promising I think it'll walk through hell. The frenzy barb and frost zealer aren't very gear dependant but the wind druid is.