What untwinked party setup?

[pedu]

Hello,

Me and a couple of friends are thinking about starting to play hc. So, we need a viable party, because we have absolutely nothing on HCL.
So, ive been thinking and reading that a summon necro and a windy druid is good. What could the 3rd char be? A trap assa is viable untwinked too, but she wouldnt give anything to the party. So a paladin would be the best with his auras and all. Is a hammerdin viable, hes kinda semi- ranged, would be nice with conc aura and oak on the necro minions...
You guys have any other/better ideas on a party setup?

Thanks

[PhatTrumpet]

Way too many viable combinations to list, so you might want to list what you and your other two friends like to play or are good at, respectively. No sense in playing through the entire game if ain't fun, right?

[pedu]

I like sorcs alot, but arent they kinda fragile. Their static would be nice tho.
I think i like to play almost every char in the game. Its just when it comes to playing after the char is over 80 and hell baal is pwned. Thats when i dont like playing most of the chars.
Cant speak for my friends tho...
But would a summoner/wind/hammer party be good enough? Atleast i cant think of a better party. Maybe a barb with the howl ability? Its just that with the summoner we wouldnt need a melee char...
A necro with bone wall and an trapper would be nice too perhaps. Block monsters with walls and plant some traps...
Just cant decide...

[MoUsE_WiZ]

With a summoner and a windy you'll want one of the following:
-Baba for invincible skellies
-Pally with fanat and/or convic, I'd go with both, use fanat most times, use convic in places where skels just won't cut it. Untwinked with no BO though a melee pally could become just an aura slave, might not be fun to play.
-Trapper... trapper + windy + summoner will give you a team consisting of what is probably the 3 safest characters to play... if the necro's using Lower Resist it should be reasonably quick. If you go trapper the summoner becomes the complementing character, the trapper gives kill speed.
-Javazon... same as above, only a bit faster on the kills, bit less safe

Here's a few combos off hand, if any of them end up matching what you guys like to play they should all be viable.
1) Zealot w/ Fanat + Summoner + Baba -- very safe, insanely tough skels
2) Pally with Conviction + Java or Trapper + Baba or Summoner -- reasonable safety, though the pally might get bored, should be quick
3) Hammerdin w/ Conc + Hammerdin w/ Conv + Java or Trapper -- extremely quick, but you won't be too safe
4) Hammerdin w/ Conc + Hammerdin w/ Salvation + Baba -- safe and should be quick
5) Orb/TK sorc + Baba + Java or trapper -- this will be the best team if you want to do any baal runs instead of walking every time
6) Chanter + Zealot w/ Convic + Zealot w/ Fanat -- No idea, but would be interesting to see a 3 man group try it =)

[pedu]

Thanks man. I have to share this with my friends and see what they think... :thumbsup:

[PhatTrumpet]

To me, an efficient untwinked party is one in which the members step on each other's feet as little as possible. With a Wind Druid you already have a huge life boost from Oak, so a Barb would become somewhat redundant. With a Summoner you already have Dim Vision, Decrep, Lower Res, Corpse Explode, etc. so things like Avengers (Conviction) and Trappers (Death Sentry, Cloak of Shadows) become somewhat redundant.

A Summoner is almost a given for slot number one just because he covers so many of the things a decent party needs (LR for -res, skellies for tanks, CE for massive area dmg).

After that you need some sort of life boost. Wind Druids work well and do decent physical damage, but you should theoretically already be getting good physical damage from your Summoner, and Oak offers nothing but increased life. I'd much rather have a Barb for this slot as he can tank, contribute some magic and physical damage to single targets (can't always get your skellies to attack what you want when you want), and his Warcries are invaluable (+1 skills from Battle Command, greatly increased life, mana, and defense from BO/Shout, and stun from War Cry).

The third slot should be some sort of elemental damage dealer. Javazon tops the list in my book: incredible area damage with Lightning Fury plus Pierce and devastating single target damage with Charged Strike. She easily gets 75% block and 40-50% dodge, so she's hardly a fragile character with BO/Shout on her. Also, a mid-lvl LR from the Necro will break most lightning immunes. A Fire or Lightning Sorc would also work (not a Cold Sorc: they have a lower resist skill built in and if you need the chilling effect just get a Holy Freeze Merc), especially if you wanted to have a char that could Teleport when needed. As I mentioned before, aspects of a Trapper build would be redundant with the Summoner already there.

So there you go:
Summoner
Barb
Javazon/Fire Sorc/Light Sorc

[pedu]

Intresting...

So the barb would be a conc/berserk barb. As i would think that a ww barb isnt that safe, cos you can be iron maidened during ww. Correct?
And yea, the barb is more handy than a wind druid, cos of the variety of warcrys. Could the barb be a singer with some points in conc?

Even more options to think about... :thumbsup:

[PhatTrumpet]

WW is fine, just don't spam it like an idiot when Oblivion Knights are around. Conc is boring and slow, so I'd much rather play a WW build (one point in Berserk is enough). A pure Zerker might work too, but I've never tried one.

[STINGER]

3 people?

Windy for Oak rocks

Barb would be ok but I think he would be bored if there are skellys

Summoner

Trapper would indeed help the party, he can bring the CE in a machine gun fashion!

Pally, Hammers......but then everyone may be bored they kill well solo and Skellys on roids rock also!

Oak OR Bo.....dont "need" both but you can...

[tomatoman]

you wont have to worry about iron maiden as much either seeing as that your untwinked and you wont be doing 5k ww damage

[STINGER]

Just had to post here, now it looks liek the ole days with me posting in every thread and my name everywhere.

[Omikron8]

barb would be garbage in nightmare and hell due to crappy equipment

in other words a bo slave