Skills for Zeal/Hammer build

[teampowerforce]

Hi all, my interest was sparked recently by a thread about making a zeal/hammer build.
I'm pretty much going to go for a Hammerdin skill distribution, but looking for advice on one thing. I'm stuck on whether or not to put any points into Fanatacism. I'd would be one thing if I could get my hands on some sweet gear, but this build will be untwinked(minus a couple low level items to make starting a little quicker) on single player. I'm thinking it would work fine to drop some points from Hammers synergies to put into Fanatacism. This won't drop my Hammer damage too low will it?

Any comments or advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

[Amaruak]

Hammers tear everything up single player. I'd say max Bhammer, conc, Vigor, and zeal. rest go into zeal synergy.

That would give you nice damage for sp while still giving you a half viable zeal, which is what you sound like you want.

Or you could just build like a normal hdin, with put enough points into zeal to get 5 hits and 1 into fana.

Not really too sure having had no experiance with a build like this, good luck :)

[koeraokse]

If you are going to max just 1 of the hammer synergys I would suggest blessed aim, for the passive ar bonus..

:badteeth:
*priit2

[rachil0]

I'd still do the all hammers and synergies build (20 hammer, 20 conc, 20 vigor, 20 blessed aim). I'd shoot for crescent moon phase blade as your endgame weapon - it will need 52 more ias to hit 4 frame zealing, without fanatacism.

If you cannot get a weapon with defense cut or ITD, then i'd start looking into fanaticism as your zealot aura because your AR will be lacking. Or you could just run blessed aim as a zealot and rely on a might merc to enhance your damage. (Or run conc and use a blessed aim merc to enhance your AR). I think untwinked will offer a lot of challenges to a zealot, but hammers will still mow em down.

An example set of good, obtainable gear - very few unique or set items.
(At least, if you spend some time mf'ing, crafting and cubing runes)

Melee Weapon: Crescent Moon Phase Blade (shael um tir)
Melee Shield: A 60+% resist all paladin rhyme (shael eth) (need to get CBF).
Armor: Treachery Elite Armor (shael thul lem)
Amulet: Caster crafted, you need 5 FCR on it. +paladin, +combat skills, or +resist would be nice too. (ral , amulet , p-amethyst , any jewel)
Rings: Whatever FCR rings you can come up with. (some life leech would be nice, and patching up holes in your resists is also important)
Gloves: Blood crafted, need 10 ias (heavy glove norm/excep/elite, nef, pruby, any jewel)
Helmet: Guillames, Rockstopper, Tals mask, FCR circlet, use your imagination.

And on your hammer switch:
Weapon: Suicide Branch
Shield: Paladin resist shield (+40 resist base, stuff it with pdiamonds)

Merc: might with insight

Just hit good breakpoints and you should be ok. You need 72 ias with a phase blade and 75 FCR when casting. Mix and match gear anyway you want, there's a lot of flexibility there.

Other good gear to keep and eye out for: Vipermagi, Trangs gloves, P. Crown, Stealskull, Jewels of fervor (make up more IAS on your helmet). Craft like crazy. You can make a decent rig out of nothing if you are good about picking up runes, jewels, gems and putting them to good use. The biggest challenge will be getting decent FCR - this is a difficult mod to get from non-unique / non-set items.