Odd expirience with smiting hammerdin....

[DustDrake]

I have followed guide 1 point smite/fana built (save for a fact that main attack hammer and not zeal)
Ended up with (in a smiting mode for ubers)
G Face (15ias/29 pr)
Dungo 36/15
2shael 3skill Haven's light
Upped HoZ (pdiamond)
AP Duress
Draculs
Raven/BK rings
Mara ammulet
Torch/Anny/1 Pcomb
Switch
HOTO/P Spirit in Sacred Rodache
1100/max speed smite 98%CB/66% OW - 9k/75fcr hammer (switch)
At some I got wealthy enouth to try "fency" smiter gear (at least things that listed as such)
Made a Grief (35/396) and Fort armor.... Oki first thing that I notice that my smite damage went down by like 20% ?!?!? Second thing ubers become notably harder to kill aka instead of my usual 20 second per uber it was taking me like 60 second or so.
Now question ... I lost a lot CB that slow down killing I know that but why the hell nor fort neither grief help with smite damage?!?! (I had to switch back to my original gear)

[Flaming Banana]

grief's uber damage doesnt show on the character screen. (this is known as the LCS, or the lying character screen)

as to why...i dont know. >_>

[stekkelino]

what are your boots?

G face + gore riders is optimal for crushing blow and should be sufficient.

with grief you do more damage than with... well anything else.
unless you didnt make it into a phase blade (max speed), assuming you did you should be doing more damage and killing faster, provided you dont change any items besides grief vs 2shael 3skill Haven's light and fort vs AP Duress.

btw how do you get to 98% CB? (duress = 15%, G face = 35% ... gores?)

[DustDrake]

Yes I had Grief in PB (followed recomendations for smiters) and yes I use Gore's as a boots
Basically I have tried 3 combo
Haven's light (btw 33% CB) duress (15%), gores (15%), g face (35%) - 98% CB and about 66% or so OW (which is in a sense = prevent monsters to heal)
With all skillers and rest of the gear I am here at 1100 smite and maximum speed of smite (like level 17Fana/31HS)
Second combination
Same except I switched haven's light for a greif (PB, 35/396) = loosing 33% of CB notably slowed down killing ubers (twise slower to get to 1 sliver of health) - it is entierly possible that I did may be 10 swings with grief then 1 silver of health left (on mobs) instead of usualy 20-30 swings but :( overall total time that required to kill ubers went up
Last combo - replaced duress with fort (DS/1470def/27res) barely losing 15% CB ... but 33% OW. I did not notice any displayed damage increase (regard of fact armor said +300% to damage). I went after first after Lilith (did not noticed any visible improvement of killing speed) then after Izzi - same thing - no visible improvement, then after Duriel ... err here was even worth then with duress (in the range of natural error thou)

My guess whould be that fact is - with losing Haven's Light I am also loosing +3 skills to smite/HS/Fana and that anyhow screw my damage. With loosing duress I am loosing to much OW (which may be case may be not) and monsters health regeneration start play some role

[Flaming Banana]

as long as the ubers are dead quickly, you should be happy. :)

[stfrn]

You only need 15%ow with max speed smite: at 6fpa smite you will hit 4 times a second, and in the 8 seconds of your last ow, that gives 32 chances to reapply. At a 15% per, the probablity is 99% that it will proc atleast once... or atleast I think that's the math :brainiac:

grief's uber damage doesnt show on the character screen. (this is known as the LCS, or the lying character screen)

as to why...i dont know. >_>

Because the type of damage grief does was added in that patch, and the LCS wasn't updated in that patch, so the damage isn't reported.

[DustDrake]

Still its not explain fact that with grief it take on average 2-3X longer time to kill ubers compare with Haven's Light

[stekkelino]

no idea how you manage to take it slower with grief/fort than with heavens light/duress :shocked:

[Kinada]

Yeah that seems strange as the only thing that HL and fort help you with is that first 60% or so you'll see it drop faster. Sometimes I get a bad run on CB procs and they dont drop as fast as I'd like but otherwise its fine. The last sliver always seemed to take me a while no matter what my setup is.

I use grief/fort and I wouldnt trade it for anything. Any normal mob simply explodes when I zeal it and ubers go down plenty fast, in fact I forgot to stack my resists for meph and it didnt matter he died easy.

[DustDrake]

Yeah that seems strange as the only thing that HL and fort help you with is that first 60% or so you'll see it drop faster. Sometimes I get a bad run on CB procs and they dont drop as fast as I'd like but otherwise its fine. The last sliver always seemed to take me a while no matter what my setup is.

I use grief/fort and I wouldnt trade it for anything. Any normal mob simply explodes when I zeal it and ubers go down plenty fast, in fact I forgot to stack my resists for meph and it didnt matter he died easy.

Thats the key :) I am not zealot (and I certanly see merit for fort+grief for zealer) - my main attack hammer smite is merely secondary skill that work like 1 point wonder. Basically with 98% CB ubers go down to 1 silver of health just a tiny slower then 5-7second and last silver take like 20 second top... Smiting with grief slow down first part to like 20second and somethat speed up last part up to 15-18 second - in combination make fight 2x longer

Honestly fast and safe killing in tristram its just matter of positioning, 100%CB (or close) and maximum speed of smite and oh well resistances of course

[xNamastex]

Most of the early damage you do to Ubers is the CB damage. If your %CB is reduced then it will take longer to kill Ubers - especially for first 75% of their life. Yes the Greif +Fort damage is nice (and helps speed up the last 25% of life), but can't compare to the amount of damage Ubers take in the early hits from CB.

Since Greif + Fort = 0% CB, you are losing 45% CB from your Heaven's Light and Duress. Greif and Fort are Zealor weapons for 1/2-hit killing most monsters. Not a big help for your build if you are only using them for Smiting Ubers. I would stick with the Heaven's light/Duress option.

Actually, I would probably forgo the Duress and equip an Enigma and just tele to the mini Ubers to speed up the organ runs. I would also consider switching up Dungos for Arach (the slow target is nice) or Tgods.

[DustDrake]

I was wondering it myself....
My enigma in sup wf (1300 def) and duress in AP (1268 def) so I will get small gain deffensve wise and +8% DR,
Arachnids 10% slow target .... does it work with smite too? (archanids my primary belt for hammering) the only drawback from this I will be down somethat in HP and and DR

[kykle]

i find that all the cb you need is on gores - i have no cb beyond gores and i can solo uber trist in under 90 seconds

[DustDrake]

I kill em within 30s each - and that almost prevent any minions spawn .... which is time saver
Oh btw tested arachnids and enigma ... well honestly did not notice any differense compare to dungos/duress set up