What are the top 5 cookie-cutter PVM builds?

[ILackEmpathy]

I have a level 90ish Hammerdin, and he is mid-geared.. 8 or 9k ish hammers... bla blah blah. But its pretty godddamn boring playing him. Just vigor,charge do some circle hammer thing and all the usuals. Bores me to sleep... I am wondering what is the top 5 overused, overplayed, rigged, cookiecutters in d2? Lol so I can build one and get bored of it in a few weeks. :grin:

[Pillz]

Hammerdins, blizz sorcs, light sorcs, meteorb sorcs, smiters.

Wonder why sorc and pally torches are valuable? :P

[helvete]

There's always LF zon with Infinity and Strafer with WF fort and merc Faith. But neither are cookie cutters when mid-geared. (Well, LF and cows... always worked. Always will.)

[dezzo]

enigma trapsin with infinity merc.
smiter
light sorc
hammerdin
faith strafazon

and honorable mention:
glf, jeweller's deflecting monarch with 4 5/5 light die facets, eth titans, enigma, infinity merc javazon.

[Duality]

I've only seen one other WF/merc Faith bowie.... Usually it's GMB Faith bowies.

Hammerdins by about a 20 to 1 margin on all other builds....
Bliz sorcs
Everyone has a freaking smiter for the Ubers, torch prices keep dropping
GMB/MB Faith Bowies
As much as I hate to admit it (since I have one), Light Sorcs w/ an infinity merc

If you have the gear, a light sorc is the way to go.....

[MasterMynd]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the Fishy.

[phool]

I'll be considering most powerful builds rather than most overplayed or anything.

1 pt smite hammerdin - best build for ubers and has no issues with immunities.
light sorc 200 fcr vita infinity merc - for the most part faster killing than the hdin and more mobile, reliant on merc however and has occasional issues with immunities
javazon infinity merc - simultaneously the fastest boss killer and fastest crowd killer, can't tele effectively though and reliant on merc however and has occasional issues with immunities

runners up are difficult, these 3 make nearly every other build redundant. I'm going to go for a decked out physical damage glass cannon bowa, these will get about 9k average damage on multishot (more vs demons) at 7 fpa while hitting everything on the screen (and beyond) without waiting for auras to kick in. Smiters are a total waste of space no idea why they're being mentioned when a hdin wearing top smite gear only loses about 10-20% total smite damage and has a far, far more powerful attack for crowds. Pure smite should be a build purely for people on a tight budget who want to uber, that's all they're good for in pvm.

Can't decide on final slot. Summoner nec deserves and honourable mention, I think light trapper and frenzier may as well.

[razen]

wait wait wait. cookie cutter is at a whole different catagory than what you guys just said.

1.09 burito, orb sorc, (what i miss?)
1.09-1.10 javazon

those are what i consider "cookie cutter", not necessarily just because they can do every area, but they do the popular area really really well (back then, cow and cow only) and level really really fast,

i consider effective and cookie cutter to be different things

with that said, in 1.11 my impression so far
fishymancer are effective, not cookie cutter
javazon are effective, not cookie cutter
(haven't seen light sorc yet)

the new and only cookie cutter build is the hammerdin. they do both chaos and baal really really quick. they level really really fast. all other char builds under the hammerdin can only be consider effective, not cookie cutter.

[MasterMynd]

The fact that a single term can have multiple different meanings is probably the biggest single contributor to misunderstandings and differences of opinion.

So what exactly is meant by "cookie cutter"?

[Duality]

Doesn't cookie cutter generally refer to builds that are seen frequently and have essentially identical skill point placement and gear (well, final gear at least) i.e. cut from with the same mold?

There is pretty much one type of hammerdin. (Max BH/Vigor/Conc/some points in HS, they use hoto/shako/enigma/sojs/spirit or HoZ/arachs/mara's, insight merc etc)
Two types of light sorcs - ES and non ES. Both single tree, both with identical skill placement between different peoples chars (assuming they are the same type, es or non-es, they generally use Griffs/Mara's/Infinity merc/viper or ormus/arach/spirit/hoto)
Fishy's vary, since they have a number of spare skill points and thus really aren't "cookie-cutter" by this definition.

Faith bowies are pretty much one in the same, so are light trappers and smiters.

[helvete]

Cookie cutters are anything that does what it's supposed to do very easily and very fast.

[phool]

Cookie cutters are highly popular (and .'. usually effective) builds which people adhere to with little variation, having imitated it from its other users. People often won't fully understand why their char is built as they are and won't have made evaluations on possible variations.

[In the name of Zod]

Summoners
Hammerdins
*Fury Wolf
Frenzy Barb
Avenger
**Zealadin
**CL/Blizz Sorceress
Phoenix Striker
**Smiter

They're more stereotypical builds than strict cookie-cutters but they are pretty much the most powerful for their class too. That's how I see it.

*Can be played with unconventional weapons for the build but the skills are always as. Fury wolf with IK gear is nice.
**Haven't played one yet so I could be a bit out on them

[mephiztophelez]

my $0.02 in terms of super-powerful PvM characters.

1: summon/corpse explosion necro (fishy). upside: totally gear independent, these builds have been know to solo their way to Guardian status NAKED. they can be outfitted with just gear you find along the way. downside: not the greatest boss killers going.
2: hammerdin. upside: immunes found only in secluded areas of act3. downside: boring as hell to play.
3: Kick/Trap assassin. upside: deals 4 elements of damage right out of the box, blasts through hell faster than pretty much any other build (up to ~players 5). downside: can be kinda fragile if not an enigma build, hard to pack huge amounts of MF onto it, needs a few bits of gear to really start to rock along..
4: infinity merc Lightning Sorc. upside: very few lit immunes stay immune under the infinities conviction. downside: requires a very high end runeword to work.
4a: infinity merc lightning javazon.
5: orb-hybrid sorc of some description (fireball or lightning). upside: very cheap to make, can be a viable starting character, able to go pretty much anywhere in regular play, full tals is just awesome. downside: can be a little slow in big games.

[bovine]

Cookie cutters are highly popular (and .'. usually effective) builds which people adhere to with little variation, having imitated it from its other users. People often won't fully understand why their char is built as they are and won't have made evaluations on possible variations.

Bingo.

Regardless of what it was in the past, now it's...

1. Hammerdin
2. Hammerdin
3. Hammerdin
4. Hammerdin
5. Hammerdin

[zarirazz]

Bingo.

Regardless of what it was in the past, now it's...

1. Hammerdin
2. Hammerdin
3. Hammerdin
4. Hammerdin
5. Hammerdin

qft =)

same skill placements. around the same gear choices. same skill used over and over and over again. nothing original about it =)

[MasterMynd]

Builds have "names" (Fishy, Hammerdin, Singer, etc.) Each of those names, by itself, conveys a specific (though not necessarily complete) set of skills and/or equipment. So if we all agree on what skills/equipment are meant when using a specific build name, then it seems to me that any named build would be "cookie cutter".

[/end Pathetically Pedantic Pedagogery:jig:]

[Addict]

I agree with mastermynd...if you say singer & everyone automatically thinks of dual echoing sticks and almost exclusive use of warcry, that's a cookie cutter build. If everyone thought of Britney Spears, then its not a cookie cutter build.

As to the top 5:

by popularity (based solely on my experience in pubbies) I would say
-hdin
-blizz sorc
-windy druid
-fishy mancer
-light sorc
with zealot/zmiter getting the honorable mention

by power (also completely based on my opinion)
-hdin
-light sorc
-javazon
-blizz sorc
-trapsin
with the Cleric (healadin) limping WAAAAY behind in both categories. (Sorry for the shameless plug of one my favorite builds)

Addict