Greizer
11-02-2008, 18:54
Excuse the title please... If this is indeed viable I'll test it and come up with a proper name. Maybe even write a proper guide while I'm at it. It seems strange to me that no one has tried this before, given the extreme lameness of Hammerdins and the ever-soaring popularity of Paladins of any kind. Correct me if I'm wrong folks; at least there seemed to be no guide in the guide library for this type of character. Of course, the reason may well be that it is not completely viable.
Without further ado, I present to you the Holy-Bolt-Adin (work-in-progress):
Skills
20 Holy Bolt (duh)
20 Fist of the Heavens (Synergy for HB, with a whopping +50% dmg/lvl!)
20 Blessed Hammer (Not to worry folks... Another synergy, also for +50%/lvl)
At 60 points+prereqs, we have completed the core build and used 64 points. That leaves us 46 points to be distributed as pleased - ideally we want something that can damage non-undead enemies, and given our readymade investment into Blessed Hammer and likely use of Pcombs to raise Holy Bolt lvl, I'm afraid that Hammers are most likely the best choice here. Yes, I know that fully synergized hammers will deal slightly more damage than HB and be able to damage all enemies - but I don't like to aim with hammers, and hammers are t3h lam3 imo, so moot point. This is a novelty build; it's not meant to be the most efficient around, but something new for the rich & bored folks to experiment with (though it may also work for the not-so-rich).
Anyway, since we have already used so many points, we will have half-synergized hammers, which will hurt our damage output with hammers by several thousands of dmg (2000 vs 3500; 4300 vs 7500 w/ +10 all skills). It's still crazy good obviously, since hammers are so overpowered.
Now another alternative is to focus on healing instead of dealing more damage, and use Prayer and max it for its synergy bonus to Holy Bolt. With maxed Prayer, you will heal 25 hp/2 seconds, and one Holy Bolt will heal 290 hp on average. This is with no +skills of course. With +10 all skills (easily achievable), you will heal 47 hp/2 sec and 430 hp with each HB. Not too shabby! Of course, given the extreme durability of Paladins and the CtAs on everyone, you may not need more healing abilities, but it is something to think about - much more so if you play HC obviously.
There may be other options, but I haven't thought enough about them yet. I think that any skills dealing physical damage are out though (except for Smite maybe), since you need AR to hit with them and that doesn't mix well with +all skills equipment.
Equipment
As for the equipment, it should overlap quite nicely with the standard Hammerdin equipment, including Pcombs and whatnot. I won't bother to list it since it's mentioned in every Hdin guide. Basically you need +Skills, fcr and Teleport from Enigma. This build could be used for mfing or finding socketables; with lvl 40 Holy Bolt you do 12,5K dmg/bolt and can presumably spam them @4,4 mana cost like there's no tomorrow. One bolt only damages one enemy though; that may be a hindrance. I assume standard fcr bps for Holy Bolt, in which case you'd definately want 125 fcr. They may be different though; since no one uses Holy Bolt it may not yet have been digged into. If someone knows for certain, please let me know.
Stats
The usual...
Energy min
Dex for block
Str for equip (use Mp Eni, so no need to add Str)
Vita rest
Merc
Your merc will obviously be very important, since if you opt to go the non-hammer way, he may be your only way of damaging non-Undead enemies. EBotD strikes me as the first choice for weapon given its massive leech and dmg. EObedience or Eth Reaper's works well as a poor man's choice. As for armor, there's no beating Eth Fortitude for the Mercedes-man. Eth Duriel's or Shaft work well as low key options, as do Gloom and Duress maybe. Helm would be Andy's or Gaze, eth if possible. Maybe Delirium or even Ber'd CoA for the superrich.
General viability
The main question regarding this build's viability is of course, whether there are areas in the game that are populated solely with the Undead? Namely lvl 85 Areas for mfing/socketables finding purposes that is. The Crypt and Mausoleum come to mind right away, but I think there may be some Demons there too. Can someone confirm/unconfirm this? I'm too lazy to go running through those tombs right now - besides they might spawn different mobs at different times (I wouldn't know since I've never ran those tombs).
It does hurt rather badly that you can't run bosses with this build, since none of them are undead iirc. But don't worry, be happy, and just use other chars to take care of that kind of business. :cool:
That's it, basically. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated; I don't want to dig too far into this before I know that it is indeed viable. Especially info on areas with undead would be most useful. Have a nice (zombie-free! :grin:) day,
Greizer
Edit: Allright, ran Crypt and Mausoleum for a few times; it seems that only Zombies and Skeletons spawn there. Looks good so far - ofc, it may still be that a pure Blizz sorc is a better build to run those areas. But hey - anything's better than a Hammerdin! :)
Without further ado, I present to you the Holy-Bolt-Adin (work-in-progress):
Skills
20 Holy Bolt (duh)
20 Fist of the Heavens (Synergy for HB, with a whopping +50% dmg/lvl!)
20 Blessed Hammer (Not to worry folks... Another synergy, also for +50%/lvl)
At 60 points+prereqs, we have completed the core build and used 64 points. That leaves us 46 points to be distributed as pleased - ideally we want something that can damage non-undead enemies, and given our readymade investment into Blessed Hammer and likely use of Pcombs to raise Holy Bolt lvl, I'm afraid that Hammers are most likely the best choice here. Yes, I know that fully synergized hammers will deal slightly more damage than HB and be able to damage all enemies - but I don't like to aim with hammers, and hammers are t3h lam3 imo, so moot point. This is a novelty build; it's not meant to be the most efficient around, but something new for the rich & bored folks to experiment with (though it may also work for the not-so-rich).
Anyway, since we have already used so many points, we will have half-synergized hammers, which will hurt our damage output with hammers by several thousands of dmg (2000 vs 3500; 4300 vs 7500 w/ +10 all skills). It's still crazy good obviously, since hammers are so overpowered.
Now another alternative is to focus on healing instead of dealing more damage, and use Prayer and max it for its synergy bonus to Holy Bolt. With maxed Prayer, you will heal 25 hp/2 seconds, and one Holy Bolt will heal 290 hp on average. This is with no +skills of course. With +10 all skills (easily achievable), you will heal 47 hp/2 sec and 430 hp with each HB. Not too shabby! Of course, given the extreme durability of Paladins and the CtAs on everyone, you may not need more healing abilities, but it is something to think about - much more so if you play HC obviously.
There may be other options, but I haven't thought enough about them yet. I think that any skills dealing physical damage are out though (except for Smite maybe), since you need AR to hit with them and that doesn't mix well with +all skills equipment.
Equipment
As for the equipment, it should overlap quite nicely with the standard Hammerdin equipment, including Pcombs and whatnot. I won't bother to list it since it's mentioned in every Hdin guide. Basically you need +Skills, fcr and Teleport from Enigma. This build could be used for mfing or finding socketables; with lvl 40 Holy Bolt you do 12,5K dmg/bolt and can presumably spam them @4,4 mana cost like there's no tomorrow. One bolt only damages one enemy though; that may be a hindrance. I assume standard fcr bps for Holy Bolt, in which case you'd definately want 125 fcr. They may be different though; since no one uses Holy Bolt it may not yet have been digged into. If someone knows for certain, please let me know.
Stats
The usual...
Energy min
Dex for block
Str for equip (use Mp Eni, so no need to add Str)
Vita rest
Merc
Your merc will obviously be very important, since if you opt to go the non-hammer way, he may be your only way of damaging non-Undead enemies. EBotD strikes me as the first choice for weapon given its massive leech and dmg. EObedience or Eth Reaper's works well as a poor man's choice. As for armor, there's no beating Eth Fortitude for the Mercedes-man. Eth Duriel's or Shaft work well as low key options, as do Gloom and Duress maybe. Helm would be Andy's or Gaze, eth if possible. Maybe Delirium or even Ber'd CoA for the superrich.
General viability
The main question regarding this build's viability is of course, whether there are areas in the game that are populated solely with the Undead? Namely lvl 85 Areas for mfing/socketables finding purposes that is. The Crypt and Mausoleum come to mind right away, but I think there may be some Demons there too. Can someone confirm/unconfirm this? I'm too lazy to go running through those tombs right now - besides they might spawn different mobs at different times (I wouldn't know since I've never ran those tombs).
It does hurt rather badly that you can't run bosses with this build, since none of them are undead iirc. But don't worry, be happy, and just use other chars to take care of that kind of business. :cool:
That's it, basically. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated; I don't want to dig too far into this before I know that it is indeed viable. Especially info on areas with undead would be most useful. Have a nice (zombie-free! :grin:) day,
Greizer
Edit: Allright, ran Crypt and Mausoleum for a few times; it seems that only Zombies and Skeletons spawn there. Looks good so far - ofc, it may still be that a pure Blizz sorc is a better build to run those areas. But hey - anything's better than a Hammerdin! :)