A Cheap Tesladin...?

[ImmaMechE]

Introduction

Hello all, I have just started playing Diablo II again and am currently working on my first few characters. Obviously this means that my item selection is extremely limited. I have one friend who plays, and have gotten a bit of gear form him (most notable, Sigon’s Shield, lol), but nothing important.

Since I have played every single cookie cutter Diablo II character, specifically Paladins (Yes, even Bow Paladins, Smiters, and Fist of the Heavens Paladins), I wanted to play something different… But I can’t seem to get away from paladins! (They’re just so darn versatile!) So finally, I decided to make an attempt at a cheap Tesladin (Holy Shock Paladin), IE one that does not use dual dream (most commonly this is combined with Holy Freeze to make Tesla-Frosters, I think.) (I am also currently working on a Chargadin with my friend.) This character will be playing through the majority of the game with my brother’s Enchantress and my friends Polearm WW barb, so we will be able to find and share some items/runes. However, starting with next to nothing, funds are EXTREMELY limited. Forunately, the ultimate weapon for Tesladins is a Cresent Moon Phase Blade and it is pretty cheap! However, that Um rune is still looking pretty expensive. (That was a drop in the bucket for me last run at ladder, as the first torch I found was a 19/20 Pal torch, which quickly went for 9 Hrs.) (Another side-bar, could anyone quickly let me know how many chips it would cost me to reach an Um rune…? I think last I knew it was 40 chips to a Pul, and 2 Puls to an Um, is that correct this time around?)

A Cheap Tesladin…???

Now, allow me to begin the chronicles of my Cheap Tesladin thus far… Currently, he is level 26, using random crap that I have found + Sigon’s shield. Right now he crushes most everything with 3 – 500 holy shock and a 5 hit zeal. He is also at 75% block rate without Holy shield, which I will get later, but decided to max out Holy Shock + Resist Lightning first. Salvation only provides a damage increase of approximately 25% (more on this later), and as such, I have not yet decided if I will put my skill points into that, or Defiance in order to bring my defense bonus from holy shield to godly levels. (My Uber-smiter had 93, 95, 92, 90 resists and 40,000K defense last time around.) Unfortunately, having the dexterity for max block, and the strength to use Sigons shield at level 26, with no plus stats gear means that my life is in the crapper (like 220, lol) and as a result of using Sigons, I have next to no resists. To put it simply, the Blarog type enemies who shoot inferno reduce me to ~2.5 life in 0.5 seconds. Yikes! I am looking forward to finishing up act 4 (would be done already, but have to help my bro and friend catch up nearly every day), getting my Ral Ort Tal in act 5 and making myself an Ancients Pledge Paladin shield in order to alleviate this problem.

Now, let me talk about my future outlook for this character: The near future is looking decent. Damage potential early in the game for this character is SICK… Holy shock does a max of 500 right now, which will ramp up quite rapidly to 3000 at level 44. This is without any gear adding skill levels. So far, survivability has been an issue because I am playing this guy like a standard Paladin who has high resists, high block, high AC and quite reasonable life, without the resists or life part, haha. However, it’s only normal and death means nothing to me. So, it’s quite entertaining trying to dodge every single inferno/fireball thrown in my direction.

Thoughts on Tesladins in General

Ok, so now allow me to quickly go over some things that I feel were not quite sufficiently covered in the guides that I’ve read through… (Particularly the numbers as to WHY certain gear/properties are good to have on a Tesladin.)

Attack Speed: While this seems obvious, people may not realize this one fact: Getting your zeal attack speed from 5 frames to 4 frames is an increase in damage of 25%! That gives the equivalent lightning damage increase as 20 points into salvation! Using a Crescent Moon Phase Blade - only weapon you should use end game, IMO, you need an additional 55% off weapon increase attack speed in order to make it to 4 frames per attack Zeal. If you’re not going to get this additional 55%, don’t bother getting any. If you are, realize that you’ll be sacrificing gear to do it. This idea leads into the next...

Defense: That said, the 4 frames attack rate will increase your lightning damage by 25% (and it will, Plus a lot more!) why not look at it this way… Sacrifice gear to get the attack speed, and then, instead of putting your 20 points into Salvation, put them into Holy Shield (Major boost in defense, also saves points in Dexterity), or if you already plan on getting Holy Shield, then get Defiance to almost double your armor! These two things can easily help to make up for the switching around of gear you'll have to do in order to achieve this 4 frame breakpoint.

Crushing Blows: This has been covered other places, but I can’t neglect a quick word on this… SOO VERY IMPORTANT! Especially if you’re building a poor Tesladin like I am… Tesladins live in Hell on one of two things (I suspect very strong ones live on both), either high chance for crushing blows, or massive amounts of plus skills. Either get your Holy Shock damage up near 10K, or get a high chance of crushing blows. Obviously, crushing blows is MUCH easier to get, and as a result, I would recommend that very strongly. 50% should be a bare minimum for ANY Zealing Paladin, specifically one whose attack speed is high, damage is fairly low, and will have problems with resistances. 75% is a good goal here, though 100% would be ideal.

Resists: Go 75+ or go home… My opinion on Paladins is that they are just as capable tanks as Barbarians when built right (something I'm sure will be debated). Getting to 75% block is not very hard with Holy Shield and Paladin Shields, and Holy shield also allows you to boost your defense higher than most Barbarians easily. (Not to mention that in a team game, you get the Barbarian's Shout, and he doesn't get your Holy Shield.) So, in effect, with 75% block rate, you quaduple your life for the purposes of physical damage. Which leaves resistances… Hence, go 75+ or go home! It's completely necessary, no questions asked. (And now, one of the very few recommendations of gear…) If you can possibly get a Guardian's Angel (Fairly rare, I think I got mine for a Pul rune last time around though), that will boost your resists to a solid 90 all. That would be my recommendation. Also, the increased chance to block will allow you to keep your dex at nice and low levels. (I think I only had a base of like 70 dex on my smiter, and between stat bonuses, Upped GA, HoZ and Holy Shield, I had max block at level 85.)

Well, I guess that's all for now. Maybe at some point, I'll make this into a full blown guide to making a very cheap Tesladin. (Mostly gear that you can beg for and get free) However, any feedback (on my guy, or on this mini-guide) I could get would be great!

[w a t s o n]

i was wondering about the ias needed for zeal(and no fanat) 55 seems kind of steep. I think the only way to get this would be highlords/cats eye, 10ias belt, bloodfists, and a 15ias jewel somewhere(maybe in g-angel?) the main problem with this is that you give up draculs, so no life tap. Other problem is resists, it might be pointless to have g-angel if you cant even get to 90 resist in hell. (no resist for armor/ammy) reachable im sure, but probabaly need good torch anni and other res charms.

[ImmaMechE]

Watson, I agree completely, 55% IAS (not counting the 20% already on Crescent Moon) is very steep. My guy is going to be so poor and broke that there is NO possibility for me to get to this 55% IAS. So I’m not going to try. That said, I was just making the point that you either get 55% IAS or none, because anything in the middle is pointless if you’re using a -30 speed weapon (Phase Blade) with Crescent Moon in it. Basically, I am just making the point that this 55% increased attack speed will give you the EXACT same damage boost as you will receive from 20 points into salvation.

THAT SAID, it will actually do quite a bit more because of your Crushing Blows. So, you should look at it this way: Get holy shield instead of salvation and set-up your gear to reach the 4 FPS Zeal. I think that doing this is actually a cheaper way to go gear wise, it’ll also save you points into dexterity (you need 136 for a phase blade, so that’s your goal now) which can be put into life. I don’t have time right now to propose a full blown set-up of both scenarios, but I bet that you can come up with the 55% IAS, get Holy shield instead of Salvation, and do it all with less expensive gear!

Yes, trying to get to 90% resistance is going to be ROUGH also, In order to do it with my Uber-smiter, I was using Ummed HoZ, Ummed Kiara’s, and Ummed GA, along with a 13/14 Torch. (I never got an annihilus, so that could save an UM rune as well as like 15 stats in str and dex = 90 life). I’m sure it can be done (different shield would allow a lot more, HoZ is good, but it can be beaten for resists pretty easy!), but it’ll take some effort.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback Watson. More feedback is always welcome!

[Delreich]

Attack Speed: While this seems obvious, people may not realize this one fact: Getting your zeal attack speed from 5 frames to 4 frames is an increase in damage of 25%! That gives the equivalent lightning damage increase as 20 points into salvation! Using a Crescent Moon Phase Blade - only weapon you should use end game, IMO, you need an additional 55% off weapon increase attack speed in order to make it to 4 frames per attack Zeal. If you’re not going to get this additional 55%, don’t bother getting any.
Follow-up speed is [B]not the same as attack speed. Zeal can't do 4fpa in any way. [/broken record mode]

For a CMpb, breakpoints would be:
0% ias - 10/5 or 6fpa with five swings
5% ias - 9/5 or 5.8fpa (3% better than 6fpa)
35% ias - 8/5 or 5.6fpa (7% better than 6fpa)
55% ias - 8/4 or 4.8fpa (25% better than 6fpa)

Also, for a pal on a budget, getting 55% extra should be fairly easy, just get Treachery and a Stealskull/Nos-coil/Goldwrap/JoF/whatever.

[ImmaMechE]

Delreich - Thanks for the info. I knew that the first attack on Zeal was twice as long as the rest usually, but I didn't know that it could change independantly... Very useful information, however a 3% and 7% increase in damage is still relatively small... 3% for 5 IAS would be decent if you happen to have something that just happens to have IAS and you planned on using for other stuff, however, 35% for a 7% increase in damage is not worth while in my opinion... On that note, I stand by my statement, if you're not going to get the 55% necessary to get to 4.8 FPA (8/4/4/4/4), don't bother with any at all.

On that note, where did you get this information from? I want to know because the weapon speed calculator I usually use (diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english) does not have everything I want... Maybe it would be simpler for me to ask this... My brother is making an enchantress, and I'm under the assumption that the best way to put out damage is using the Zeal granted by the Runeword passion. He's planning on making it in a long sword (not going to get the dex for a phase blade since he's not going for block, shield will just be used for resists) and I want to know how fast he'll be able to swing.

As for the Treachery runeword, it is an option, though not one that I like much... I tend to make my Paladins fairly tanky, and having a body armor with no enhanced defense will probably cut my armor by at least 33%. Though, I guess the best defense isa good offense, so being able to kill faster would mean that I wouldn't get surrounded often...

Now the question I have is this, The Fade and Venom from Treachery, they DO over ride each other, right? For instance, if I have gotten Fade to activate from getting whacked, and then activate venom from attacking, I will lose the benefits of fade, correct? If so, could someone tell me, does it seem to keep Fade on more often, or Venom? Obviously this depends on getting hit to hitting ratio, and with max block (I assume that a block does not count as taking a hit, and therefore does not have a chance to activate Fade) and high defense from holy shield, I don't expect to be taking too many hits. On the other hand, I WILL be hitting a lot... The ITD on Crescent Moon along with what would be 4.8 frames per attack... The way this looks to me, I can't count on Fade for ANYHTING as Venom will be going off left and right...

Could someone please confirm for me that the Fade and Venom granted from Treachery do indeed work this way? I am really hoping they don't, because Fade would be super sweet to have on. Between that and the attack speed, it would make wearing that armor worthwhile because I could then focus less on resists from my shield and helm, and based on that attempt to compensate for my lack of defense on the armor... I could even go with Stormshield, and between that and the DR from Fade, make it to exactly 50% DR. (I normally don't strive for Damage Reduction, but if it'll come to me with just an armor that I want for the attack speed anyway and a decent shield, then I'll take it! Though, I don't know what a SS goes for these days, and as has been discussed so far... I'm very poor!)

[MrKaxe]

The Fade and Venom from Treachery, they DO over ride each other, right?

No they don't...feel free to stand in a fire until you get Fade then Zeal away proc-ing Venom 50 times a second!! (exaggeration)

Oh btw, a good low lvl and cheap runeword for a Tesladin would be 'Holy Thunder' (EthRalOrtTal) and you can get a War Scepter in Norm Cows with 4 sockets if you are lucky...

[Delreich]

On that note, where did you get this information from?
For paladins, you can use the calc by selecting normal attack.
For other classes you will have to find a table somewhere.

I think there's a table for 1-hand sword sorcs in the formulae sticky in the sorceress forum.


you can get a War Scepter in Norm Cows with 4 sockets if you are lucky...
Nope. Stuff that drops in normal can only have up to 3 sockets, unfortunately.
You can get a WS that can be cubed to 4os though.

[MrKaxe]

Nope. Stuff that drops in normal can only have up to 3 sockets, unfortunately.
You can get a WS that can be cubed to 4os though.

iirc the Cow level's area lvl and the cow's monster lvl can allow 4 socket War Scepters to drop in normal...

[Samohtnnam]

As for the Treachery runeword, it is an option, though not one that I like much... I tend to make my Paladins fairly tanky, and having a body armor with no enhanced defense will probably cut my armor by at least 33%. Though, I guess the best defense isa good offense, so being able to kill faster would mean that I wouldn't get surrounded often...

Now the question I have is this, The Fade and Venom from Treachery, they DO over ride each other, right? For instance, if I have gotten Fade to activate from getting whacked, and then activate venom from attacking, I will lose the benefits of fade, correct? If so, could someone tell me, does it seem to keep Fade on more often, or Venom? Obviously this depends on getting hit to hitting ratio, and with max block (I assume that a block does not count as taking a hit, and therefore does not have a chance to activate Fade) and high defense from holy shield, I don't expect to be taking too many hits. On the other hand, I WILL be hitting a lot... The ITD on Crescent Moon along with what would be 4.8 frames per attack... The way this looks to me, I can't count on Fade for ANYHTING as Venom will be going off left and right...

Could someone please confirm for me that the Fade and Venom granted from Treachery do indeed work this way? I am really hoping they don't, because Fade would be super sweet to have on. Between that and the attack speed, it would make wearing that armor worthwhile because I could then focus less on resists from my shield and helm, and based on that attempt to compensate for my lack of defense on the armor... I could even go with Stormshield, and between that and the DR from Fade, make it to exactly 50% DR. (I normally don't strive for Damage Reduction, but if it'll come to me with just an armor that I want for the attack speed anyway and a decent shield, then I'll take it! Though, I don't know what a SS goes for these days, and as has been discussed so far... I'm very poor!)

Venom and Fade work at the same time. Just check out the assassin forums for confirmation, or take my word on it since I have built 4 assassins in the past.

I have read your analysises so far. While I can't help with the zeal attack speed discussion I can help in other areas.

Being a Tesladin vs Dreamadin = sacrifices. A dreamadin, which I currently have made two of, can have: max resists; high cb; high defense; and high damage. Being a Tesladin means you must choose what of the dreamadins "can haves" you want. It's that simple. With that said here's a few routes you can go with Tesladin.

See Tesladin gear selection in the guide sticky. Crescent Moon is the best and cheapest weapon for Tesladin, as noted.

Tesladin skill possibilities:
- 20 Holy Shock (must have for all types)
- 20 Resist Lightning (must have for all types)
- 20 Defiance (more defense)
- 20 Holy Shield (more defense)
- 20 Salvation (more damage for holy shock and resists)
- 20 Fanaticism (more damage, AR, attack speed, & helps party damage)
- 20 Conviction (more elemental damage via lower enemy resists)
- 1 point wonders
- w/e damage skill- 20 Zeal (more Ar and physical damage), 20 Sacrifice (more damage), 20 Charge (for PvP help, AR, and damage), or 20 Vengeance (elemental damage for physical immunes) OR w/e skill points left over depending on what skills chosen above.

Gear change possibilities (cheap gear):
High defense + resists armor (defense & resists)
+ skill armor (more damage and possibly defense)
High defense + resists shield (defense & resists)
Spirit shield (defense, + skills, resists)
Guilleme's helm (crushing blow)


Here's my current Dreamadin build (lvl 76 w/+skill quests):
- 20 Conviction
- 20 Lightning Resist
- 20 Holy Shield
- 20 Defiance
- 1 point wonders: Salvation, Zeal, Sacrifice
Gear:
- Dream helm (400 def)
- Dream shield (400 def, 75% block)
- Chains of Honor (high resists & + skills) or Fortitude (higher physical damage and defense)
- Death ax (crushing blow, mana steal) or Crescent Moon weapon
- Draculs gloves (Life Tap & life steal)
- Gore Rider boots (crushing blow mainly)
- Mara's amulet (resists & + skills)
- Raven Frost ring (Dex & can't be frozen)
- Bul Kathos ring (life, life steal, +skill) or rare resists ring
- String O ears belt (damage red & life steal) or Verdungos (dam red & life)
- 6 +5 resists small charms & anni (14/18)

What I like: 6-7k damage (1k is physical) without factoring Conviction aura (this is double what a Tesladin can do), 20k-30k defense (depending if Fort on), max resists in hell (with CoH on), 60% crushing blow (with Death ax), Confuse (Dreams), +6 skills (depending if CoH on), and the skill point allocation freedom because I don't need to put 20 into holy shock.

One could drop Defiance and place 20 into a damage skill (for physical damage increases) or into Fanaticism (a great aura overall).

"Ooo Samo, I want a cheap build, that's why we're discussing Tesladins." Well after you make the Tesladin and do a few uber trist runs for torches please sell torches and upgrade to the Dreamadin. Heck, I would just make a smite pally (even cheaper to make) and do torch runs, then make the Dreamadin. That's what I did in a month's time (and I'm a casual gamer with 10 hours max a week). The toughest gear for me to obtain was the CoH, Death ax, and resist small charms. I obtained the anni from the Diablo clone while leveling in Hell (yes I got lucky), but annis can be traded for hrs (from the sale of torches or gear found).

[ImmaMechE]

No they don't...feel free to stand in a fire until you get Fade then Zeal away proc-ing Venom 50 times a second!! (exaggeration)

Oh btw, a good low lvl and cheap runeword for a Tesladin would be 'Holy Thunder' (EthRalOrtTal) and you can get a War Scepter in Norm Cows with 4 sockets if you are lucky...

Woot! I love being wrong when it means good things for me! So it looks like Treachery is the way to go armor wise... The 45% attack speed will be great for getting Zeal to 4.8 FPA (10% IAS should be easy to get!), it gives 15% damage reduction (that part does work with Treachery, right?), and 60% resist all! With those stats, I can deal with the lack of defense and work on boosting that up other ways!

Now I need to evaluate shield... Stormshield seems like a really good idea right now (50% DR between that and Fade), not sure how hard they are to come by (Um rune maybe?). With level 15 Fade doing 60% resists, I'll be at a base of -10 in Hell after all three quests. It should be fairly easy to come up with 85 resists, though I could easily get that on a Pally shield and have NO resists anywhere else... Actually, how would I get 85 resist all with my weapon, armor and shield taken up...? I mean, sure I can get some on a helm... I could socket Stormshield with an Um for 22 (another Um rune... darnit, that's looking like 3!) Obviously Cold won't be an issue between SS and Treachery giving like 90%. Also, SS gives 25% lightning, which will be nice because I will have 85% max lightning resists. But that doesn't leave room for much... I could use Sanstorm Trek's for poison, and some gloves that give fire resists (not sure, but I know there are some out there)... That should put me at about 50 or 60% all in hell, and I should be able to come up with the rest between Rings, Ammy, Belt, and Charms... Would be nice to have a torch, even a crappy one... Maybe a 10/10/Necro... Anyone got a crappy one to donate? lol. (Seriously, I'm not begging, but if anyone has a crappy torch to donate, it would be welcome.)

I certainly realize that Dreamers are 5 times stronger than a Tesladin.. I would love to make one, and I likely will when I get the gear. As for the smiter idea, I had a smiter last time around capable of doing Ubers. They're relatively cheap to build and can crush the ubers with little difficulty if built + played right. Problem is, smiters can't really rush themselves, lol. This is my first character, I'll use him to rush other characters (I have a brother and 2 friends who play) and then I can start making utility characters (MF, Key Runners, Uber-Smiter, etc.) At this point, I'm having fun with a reatively untwinked character. I realize that I'll waste stat points on this guy, having no torch or decent gear, as well as skill points (at least 3 in zeal I didn't have to get with decent gear), however, this is my first character and I'm ok with that. He won't be godly by any means, but he'll be fun to play through the game with!

I also plan on being a casual Diablo II player, as I devote a decent amount of time to Warcraft III, and eventually Starcraft II :) (I have never played a non-Blizzard computer game for any more than a week, lol, but I am completely addicted to all of theirs [Except WoW, I refuse to pay monthly.] )

[maiku]

Now the question I have is this, The Fade and Venom from Treachery, they DO over ride each other, right? For instance, if I have gotten Fade to activate from getting whacked, and then activate venom from attacking, I will lose the benefits of fade, correct? If so, could someone tell me, does it seem to keep Fade on more often, or Venom? Obviously this depends on getting hit to hitting ratio, and with max block (I assume that a block does not count as taking a hit, and therefore does not have a chance to activate Fade) and high defense from holy shield, I don't expect to be taking too many hits. On the other hand, I WILL be hitting a lot... The ITD on Crescent Moon along with what would be 4.8 frames per attack... The way this looks to me, I can't count on Fade for ANYHTING as Venom will be going off left and right...

No, Fade and Speed on an Assassin will override each other. Venom works just fine with Fade in action. I use Treachery on my VoR Conviction Zealot. With fast Zeal, Venom starts to add up pretty quick.

Have a mix of %PDR and straight PDR (-minus X amount of damage, using things of Life Everlasting or Sol runes stuffed into items). Up to 100 straight PDR can make you very hard to damage in hell difficulty. There's a thread in the Barb forum discussing a PDR-based Frenzy barb build.

For shield, I would suggest making a Spirit (Tal Thul Ort Amn) in a 4-socketed paladin shield with decent resists (20-30 all, even better if 40-45). The +2 to skill, +22 Vitality, etc. would be better than the %PDR you'd get from Stormshield, IMO. Compensate for lower %PDR with extra leech. Stormshield also requires level 73 to equip. Skip all that trouble and get a superior shield on earlier.

[ImmaMechE]

Maiku - Thank you for the confirmation on Fade, Burst of Speed, and Venom. I read through the assassin forum and that info is also on there. I also read a lot of people saying that "you can't count on the Fade", but that was mostly in the Amazon forum... I think that with a melee character (even a paladin with 75% block) I should be getting hit enough to keep the 5% chance triggering once every 5 minutes. (Use the stand in fire trick to get it to trigger initially)

As for PDR and %PDR, I generally don't worry about %PDR AT ALL... I just think that it might not be such a horrible idea for this build, because my defense will not be as high as I'd like it to be (>25K). I'm not going to go so far as to center my build around it, but if I can grab a Storm shield, along with the armor I'm going to wear anyway, and still manage to pull maximum resistances out of my butt, then I'll be happy!

I may grab a spirit early on, it would certainly help for where I am right now (level 36). But later game, I think SS would be more helpful.

[maiku]

Well, considering that most bowazons can be killed in one or two hits, there are pretty good reasons for not counting on Fade to save their hide in time. :smiley: That's how it is on my Strafer with Treachery.

My Zealot is Faded after a few minutes of fighting usually, and business continues as usual, with me taking noticeably less damage. The fire trick is nice, but not always needed. Just be able to survive a moment or two of pounding, and Fade should activate and you'll become a ghost, reaping all the armour's benefits.

BTW, I want to mention that I have a Tesladin, too. He was my first character on the new ladder. He's level 78. My build was more of a balance between Shock and physical damage (max Zeal, Sacrifice, Holy Shock, Resist Lightning, some Holy Shield). But the easy ride is over once you get to Hell. Enemies have high resists or immunities that can give an unprepared Tesladin a really tough time. You'll want a lot of +skills items or things to boost your lightning damage or subtract from enemy lightning resist. Try to max resists ASAP or get lightning and fire absorption gear, a lot of crushing blow, and a really fast weapon (which the CM phase blade would be). +Skills is also very important to your damage output, which is another reason why I consider a good Spirit more useful than SS. Better than the Spirit or SS would be a Herald of Zakarum for a melee-oriented bloke. A good rare +2 Paladin shield could also work well, especially if it had a socket or two and high resists.

[ImmaMechE]

Makiu - Yeah, I realize that once I get into Hell, I'm going to have a tough time... This build is primarily centered around the lightning damage and crushing blows. Also, something I may have mentioned earlier (or may not have mentioned), my brother is making an enchatress to run with this charactyer, so I will have about 1000 ish fire damage added on, which will help considerably. I figure that between crushing blows, reaching the last break point, 1 to 6K lightning damage, ~1K fire damage, I should be ok... As for the resistances, yes, I realize that I need very good resistances...

As for defensive capabilities, (As I said in my first post,) go 75+ resistances or go home! With this build, I should have ~15K armor, 75% block, and I'm probably going for 50% DR with stormshield... That said, all that is meaningless if I walk around the corner and get SMOKED by gloams... So yes, I plan on having 75% resists (85% lightning) and I'm going to shoot for absorbs in all. (Ideally from Tgod's vigor, Frost Raven, and Dwarf Star.) All in all, I realize that a Tesladin will be a bit gimp without sweet gear (and you might as well go for a Dreamer with that), but like yours, it's my first character, so I don't expect him to be amazing, I just want him to make it through the game so I can use him to rush other characters.