Elite Zeal Pallies, I need your help!

[Voidtec]

Thanks in advance for any replies/ideas I may get from the knowledgeable Zeal Pallies out there. First off, my skills & equip to give you an idea of what I'm working with, then some questions I'm hoping someone can answer.

-Skills- (Numbers include +skill items) - (I'm level 87)
Zeal - 21
Sacrifice - 21
Fanat - 21
Holy Shield - 20
Smite - 2 (I put 1 hard point into this)

Zeal AR - 5432! :eek:
Defense - 9575 with Holy Shield active! :eek:

Crushing Blow - 50
Open Wounds - 35
Deadly Strike - 82
Damage Reduce% - 15

Fire Res - 111
Cold Res - 82
Light Res - 128
Poison Res - 94

-My equipment-
35/397 Grief PB
1404 Dusk Fortitude
Guil Helm w/UM
Highlords
Sacred Rondache Pally Shield w/4 PDiamonds (101 Resist all)
Draculs
Verdungo
Ravenfrost
Rare ring with 5 Min dmg, 2% Mana Leech & Resist All(11% to 40%)
Goreriders
Various charms in backpack(nothing special)
* Dont have a torch yet, need to get one :(

-Act2 Holy Freeze Merc equipment-
Andy Helm
Shaftstop
3*Amn TombReaver(gives him 30% Life Leech)

Ok, now my questions...

1) I made Grief because its a good weapon imho, and also because it had ITD. My AR seems REALLY low for my lvl, which is why ITD looked good to me. But for some reason, it seems like I miss ALOT even with ITD, or maybie it is just my imagination? In 1-2 player games it takes average 1-5 swings to kill something, so that sounds right, but in 8 player Baal games, it takes a good 5 seconds or so it seems to kill even 1 creature? I thought the grief would bypass my pathetic AR & automatically hit most creatures per swing?(I'm not talking about PI mobs)

Any ideas?

2) My shield is pretty bad lol, except for the nice 101 resist, it offers nothing else of benefit. I have several high runes, so was thinking about either HoZ(if I never do ubers), or exile(if I do ubers). Taking this shield off is going to really hurt my resists tho, as you can see my resists up above include the 101res shield. Any ideas on a shield other then HoZ or Exile(not to mention finding a decent shield is pretty hard right now).

3) My merc is using the Tomb Reaver right now, which pretty much keeps him alive especially when Lifetap kicks in, but I think I need to find a better weapon for him. I was thinking about Crescent Moon Polearm for % static field(helps with PI's), but not sure really what else would be good(that isnt too expensive).

Any ideas on equip upgrades? Or any changes you might suggest in general?

Thanks again for any advice you have. I havent decided whether to try ubers in the future(I know I would get tore up in my current state), but if I decide to try it, I'm going to need to do some serious work on this pally I think.

[the boss]

Thanks in advance for any replies/ideas I may get from the knowledgeable Zeal Pallies out there. First off, my skills & equip to give you an idea of what I'm working with, then some questions I'm hoping someone can answer.

-Skills- (Numbers include +skill items) - (I'm level 87)
Zeal - 21
Sacrifice - 21
Fanat - 21
Holy Shield - 20
Smite - 2 (I put 1 hard point into this)

Zeal AR - 5432! :eek:
Defense - 9575 with Holy Shield active! :eek:

Crushing Blow - 50
Open Wounds - 35
Deadly Strike - 82
Damage Reduce% - 15

Fire Res - 111
Cold Res - 82
Light Res - 128
Poison Res - 94

-My equipment-
35/397 Grief PB
1404 Dusk Fortitude
Guil Helm w/UM
Highlords
Sacred Rondache Pally Shield w/4 PDiamonds (101 Resist all)
Draculs
Verdungo
Ravenfrost
Rare ring with 5 Min dmg, 2% Mana Leech & Resist All(11% to 40%)
Goreriders
Various charms in backpack(nothing special)
* Dont have a torch yet, need to get one :(

-Act2 Holy Freeze Merc equipment-
Andy Helm
Shaftstop
3*Amn TombReaver(gives him 30% Life Leech)

Ok, now my questions...

1) I made Grief because its a good weapon imho, and also because it had ITD. My AR seems REALLY low for my lvl, which is why ITD looked good to me. But for some reason, it seems like I miss ALOT even with ITD, or maybie it is just my imagination? In 1-2 player games it takes average 1-5 swings to kill something, so that sounds right, but in 8 player Baal games, it takes a good 5 seconds or so it seems to kill even 1 creature? I thought the grief would bypass my pathetic AR & automatically hit most creatures per swing?(I'm not talking about PI mobs)

Any ideas?

2) My shield is pretty bad lol, except for the nice 101 resist, it offers nothing else of benefit. I have several high runes, so was thinking about either HoZ(if I never do ubers), or exile(if I do ubers). Taking this shield off is going to really hurt my resists tho, as you can see my resists up above include the 101res shield. Any ideas on a shield other then HoZ or Exile(not to mention finding a decent shield is pretty hard right now).

3) My merc is using the Tomb Reaver right now, which pretty much keeps him alive especially when Lifetap kicks in, but I think I need to find a better weapon for him. I was thinking about Crescent Moon Polearm for % static field(helps with PI's), but not sure really what else would be good(that isnt too expensive).

Any ideas on equip upgrades? Or any changes you might suggest in general?

Thanks again for any advice you have. I havent decided whether to try ubers in the future(I know I would get tore up in my current state), but if I decide to try it, I'm going to need to do some serious work on this pally I think.

AR is gained from angelic's wing and halo. AR/Life charms will help

Shield should be a nice decent HoZ so go with that and shove in a pdiamond if you will.

If you feel that 9k defence is just too low for you, then use exile or defiance merc. Otherwise, use pre-buff Cta or plus skills gear.

Upgrade your gores IF YOU WANT, it is optional.

Your merc is doing fine with tombreaver(get an eth one).

Btw, that's some nice freakin Grief pb (35%ias/397damage) you got there,....envy :uhhuh:

[Bert]

I use a CoH instead of a forti, and an exile for uber-bashing

and the angelic combo for AR, because that is way to low, I also use a metalgrid in stead of highlords

- Bert

[kingdryland]

Very very low defense and ar. I use 1545 def forti, alma negra shield and the rest gear is same as yours and I have 19.5k defense(after ch. armor kicks in)... Put 1 point in defiance,it will help a lot. For shield a hoz is good option,it will boost defense ,keep your resists high and give a small ar bonus. Other options are an alma negra(great damage and attack rating bonus) if you can compensate the resists from somewhere,or a sanctuary in an elite shield,that would work nicely. Actually if your base shield is what it seems (4sock with 25% all res base) you could make sanctuary in it (it will get 75%-95% all res) and it will get a defense/block/dexterity=more ar boost.

Since you feel you need attack rating invest some points in blessed aim,each hard point spent there gives you 5% bonus to ar.

No you wouldn't get torn in ubers,just stack light/cold/fire resist charms and you can solo them in a few minutes.

[Voidtec]

Very very low defense and ar. I use 1545 def forti, alma negra shield and the rest gear is same as yours and I have 19.5k defense(after ch. armor kicks in)... Put 1 point in defiance,it will help a lot. For shield a hoz is good option,it will boost defense ,keep your resists high and give a small ar bonus. Other options are an alma negra(great damage and attack rating bonus) if you can compensate the resists from somewhere,or a sanctuary in an elite shield,that would work nicely. Actually if your base shield is what it seems (4sock with 25% all res base) you could make sanctuary in it (it will get 75%-95% all res) and it will get a defense/block/dexterity=more ar boost.

Since you feel you need attack rating invest some points in blessed aim,each hard point spent there gives you 5% bonus to ar.

No you wouldn't get torn in ubers,just stack light/cold/fire resist charms and you can solo them in a few minutes.

Yeah, I have an alma negra actually..i cant make Sanctuary in this shield since I need a 3soc shield for that runeword. Also been looking for max/ar/life GC's but they arent real easy to come by. :rolleyes:

[kingdryland]

Yeah, I have an alma negra actually..i cant make Sanctuary in this shield since I need a 3soc shield for that runeword. Also been looking for max/ar/life GC's but they arent real easy to come by. :rolleyes:

Correct,19x4+25=101 all res. Pity,get a 3 sock elite shield with all res mod. If you can't find max/ar/life stick to ar/life only,even lcs and scs They spawn with more ar and you use grief anyway(and a really good one),deadly strike is the best way to max your damage, and you have figured that out.