ARgh.

[Tadzio]

Need some help with Attack Rating on my Zealer. Boosting it. I solo'd normal cows for a while until I could hit them 95% of the time, and then went on to Nightmare difficulty. I found that by Act 2 I was hitting most monsters only 60% of the time and bosses 40%. Heck, I can only hit Nightmare Fallen 76% of the time! This is not appealing to me. Looking for some tips to improve my character's performance.

My character:
Level 40 Paladin

Strength 80
Dexterity 98
Vitality 90
Energy 21

Zeal Damage: 222-398
Holy Freeze Damage: 38-40

Zeal Attack Rating: 1022
Defense: 464 Chance to block: 43%
Life: 356
Mana: 113

Resistances (Nightmare):
Fire: 35%
Cold: 34%
Lightning: 33%
Poison: 42%

Skills:
Defensive Auras:
Resist Cold: 6
Salvation: 5

Offensive Auras:
Might: 1
Holy Fire: 1
Holy Freeze: 12

Combat Skills:
Sacrifice: 10
Zeal: 8

Weapon: The General's Tan Do Li Ga

Items which boost AR:
Ring +58
Small Charm +3
Large Charm +13
Large Charm +19

Mercenary: Level 38 Act3 Cold w/ Defense and Resist gear.


Most of my gear is centered on giving me Resists, Defense, Mana/Life Leech, and Faster Hit Recovery. This is my first character since re-installing, so I'm no where near rich.

I had my Zeal points at 4 and wasn't planning on pumping them for a while, but when I entered Nightmare I noticed my hit percent was pretty awful, so I started pumping Zeal (being that it's the only skill I planned to pump that grants extra AR). Fanaticism isn't something I want to invest in as it's outside my synergies build-plan, but this AR problem is something I need to correct. My Act3 Cold Merc compliments my build so perfectly I'd like to avoid grabbing a Blessed Aim Act2 Merc... but it's starting to feel like I may have to.

Are there any cheap runewords I can use to help? Or relatively easy to obtain items I can try to farm? I appreciate any help you all can give me. Thanks ^^

--Tadzio.

[VisMaior]

2 angelic rings+angelic amulet

[Tadzio]

Thank you for the quick reply!

These (http://www.diabloii.net/items/item_sets/d2-angelic_raiment.shtml)? I don't understand how that'd help... ; ;

[Terenas]

Hi, welcome (back ?).
Just some quick thoughts waiting for more knowledgeable guys.
From your skills allocation I understand you are (plan to be) a Frost Zealot.
You could try one or more of the following:
1) If you plan general pvm, use an ITD weapon, your AR will be used only for Bosses/Champs then. A fairly cheap option for an ITD weapon could be 'Crescent Moon' Runeword. I used a Phase blade as base weapon which is the fastest you can get. The runeword uses Shael Um Tir.
2) Get external AR sources: good options are Angelic Raiment Set Amulet + Angelic Raiment Set Ring. You will get a good (very good) boost to AR. As a second ring try Ravenfrost [level req 45ish iirc] (a low one should be cheap too). With this setup you'll have no life or mana leech on rings though. To solve this problem you can try to use Sigon (gloves+boots) that give you 10% ll and 30% IAS, and +70 AR. Mana leech should not be a problem, because zeal uses up only 2 mp.

Note: Phase blade requires a level of 54 I think, so you'll need to level a bit. To get the Um rune, which is like 2*Pul you could mine some Pgems (33-36) to get Pul.

Bye

[Terenas]

Thank you for the quick reply!
These (http://www.diabloii.net/items/item_sets/d2-angelic_raiment.shtml)? I don't understand how that'd help... ; ;
I can understand your disappointment but I fear you are looking at outdated info.
I am positive you are going to understand this (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/sets/sets1.shtml#angelic) more. :wink3:
If you were to use 2 angelic rings + amulet, as suggested by VisMaior, you would gain clvl*12*2+10*5 AR, and as your current class level is 40 that is +1010 AR (dex pts should count 5AR*dexpt).

Bye