Building a PvM Zealot, just a few quick questions.

[Furyan]

Hi all :smiley:

As I decided to build a Zealot next, I read all guides and treads I could find on these forums I could find about them, and I roughly came up with the following gear for him, but I still have a few gaps to be filled in. Note that this build will be purely for PvM. He might occasionally do Dclone, but I won't let that interfere with my gear choices.

After a lot of consideration, I came up with following gear, but I still have a few questions about it:

- Weapon: eDeath Zerker/War Pike, which of both is best for PvM? Another consideration I made is obviously Grief Pb, but as far as I understood elswhere on these forums, Death > Grief for pure PvM.
- Shield: HoZ, Eth exile later when I got the runes for it.
- Armor: Forti
- Boots: Gores
- Gloves: Draculs
- Helmet: Guillaume's
- Amulet: Highlord's
- Ring #1: Raven
- Ring #2: ?? Dual leech ring? Another raven?
- Belt: ?? Verdungo's or Nosferatu's coil?
- Gimmershred/Bow on switch for IM's

My main goal is to get as much CB/DS as possible, with Life Tap as often active as possible.
1. Do I reach the IAS breakpoint with the Zerker/War Pike, or do I have get more IAS elsewhere (like Andy Face / 20 IAS gloves) ?
2. I'll make the classic 20 zeal / 20 fanat / 20 sacrifice build, but what about the other skills (apart from the 1-point wonders)? 20 in Holy Shield? Try to get Vengeance as high as possible for PI's?

I know most of these points have been covered like 20000 times before, but I'm not asking for an in-depth consideration, just for you paladin-experts to quickly check if I'm missing something important. Like what belt/rings to use, I couldn't find any recommendations on these anywhere.

Thanks in advance :thumbsup:

[niner]

I prefer T-god belt for the lightning absorbtion, +to max light res etc....
Blood ring to your liking+raven

You can also consider when you get your Exile you can dump your dracs for some crafted ias/cb +++stats blood gloves, and if you get a LW then you can exchange your guilliames for something sweeter of your chioce on the dome.

You should also check the frame rate table if youve never made a zealot before with the weaps you plan to use first to avoid getting the wrong weap that dont match your ias speed needed.

[Furyan]

Thanks for the reply niner :smiley: You cleared up a few things.

I still have 2 important questions though:
1. What is the IAS bp to hit 8/4/4/4/4 frames when zealing? Since I couldn't find it anywhere :rolleyes:
2. I will use the Death RW, but do I reach the 8/4/4/4/4 breakpoint when using a berseker axe or war pike, or do I have to add like 20 IAS elsewhere (like 20% from highlords) ?

Thanks in advance.

[HCKull]

Grief PB or LW PB beats Death.

How do you plan on handling Meph's conviction ? He drops your resists by 125 and defense by about 80+ % so you can end up with -50 to resists and under constant elemental/physical attacks. The solution is either overriding his conviction with your own higher level or stacking your resists with an extra 125.

Sanctuary aura is great to deal with the undead physical immunes as it breaks their immunity and lets you leach from them. Most phy. immunes are undead so this would help lots.

Carry a poison charm to stop the bosses regen. OW from dracs will also help with this.

[Furyan]

Thanks for the tips :smiley:

Grief PB or LW PB beats Death.

How do you plan on handling Meph's conviction ? He drops your resists by 125 and defense by about 80+ % so you can end up with -50 to resists and under constant elemental/physical attacks. The solution is either overriding his conviction with your own higher level or stacking your resists with an extra 125.

Sanctuary aura is great to deal with the undead physical immunes as it breaks their immunity and lets you leach from them. Most phy. immunes are undead so this would help lots.

Carry a poison charm to stop the bosses regen. OW from dracs will also help with this.

As stated in my first post, I will do ubers only very occasionally, and I will not let ubers interfere with my gear choices. As far as I could understand from these forums, eDeath is the best weapon out there for pure PvM, all I ask is wheter I reach the IAS bp with it, being it a zerker or a war pike. So please check my gear setup having in mind that this buils is pure PvM . Thanks.

And btw, if I decide on doing ubers more frequenty, I'll simply keep Grief in stash for it.

But then my question still remains: do I reach the IAS bp? :rolleyes: I've been searching all over the place to find it ^^

[Summerfun]

Grief Pb is better for PvM if you have high-end items!

Guillaumes face
Highlords
Grief
Fort or enigma
Exile
Draculs
Raven + BK
Dungo
Gore riders

Insane high physical dmg! 83% DS at lvl 89. 50% CB

you dont really need any DR% as you will be leeching very fast.
If you plan on doing baal runs, Grief setup is even better than death.
When baal casts decripify you will be attacking sooo slow with death

[Furyan]

Hmm, interesting yes. But ain't losing 50% CB a pain in this case? :rolleyes: And also: IF I'd make a Grief, what base weapon? I presume simply a PB since that doesn't have repair costs.

I still question myself if I won't lack damage in comparison to death. I'll have a deeper look into it.

Thanks for the tips :thumbsup:

[Summerfun]

You will kill normal monsters much faster with the grief setup.
CB i great in ubbers, but only okay in normal game playing.
Whats the point in having high CB when your physical dmg will cut through most monsters in hell like butter!

And yes, go for the phase blade. That way decripify, slow and holy freeze wont hurt you that much.

[FatalGrace]

Errr Grief works well in PvM, I'm not really sure but aren't you already let the CB of Death affecting your item selection? I had only used Grief PB and as far as I know, its pretty good...most of the time its just one click. By using Death you should be ubering more =\ Just my 2-cents

[Furyan]

Errr Grief works well in PvM, I'm not really sure but aren't you already let the CB of Death affecting your item selection? I had only used Grief PB and as far as I know, its pretty good...most of the time its just one click. By using Death you should be ubering more =\ Just my 2-cents

As stated in my first post, my main objectives for this build are to get as much CB/DS as possible, thus including Death. But again, ubers aren't my objective, it's PvM that is.

I did some research, but I still can't decide wheter to take Grief or eDeath, although eDeath is better imo.

[ambid]

You will need 60 ias from other gear with 20 lvl fana to reach 4 fps zeal with edeath ba and 37 ias with edeath war spike.

[Furyan]

You will need 60 ias from other gear with 20 lvl fana to reach 4 fps zeal with edeath ba and 37 ias with edeath war spike.

Thank you very much! That's exactly the answer I was waiting for :thumbsup: Could you also post the source you got that from ?

And when using Grief pb, I don't need any external IAS gear, right? :rolleyes:

[HCKull]

Take a read at the 1 point smiter guide to see a good comparison of death and grief. He picks grief way over death.

[Summerfun]

http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english

Ias calc here

[Furyan]

Thanks! :thumbsup: If I did it correct, I'd need 15 IAS extra in order to hit the 4 fpa bp when using a Pb, which comes directly from Grief right? :rolleyes:

[ambid]

Thanks! :thumbsup: If I did it correct, I'd need 15 IAS extra in order to hit the 4 fpa bp when using a Pb, which comes directly from Grief right? :rolleyes:

Yup, you got it right.

[Furyan]

All right, thanks.

One last question: for all of you that have made a Zealot before, what shield is preferred, Exile or HoZ? :rolleyes: I see that the modifiers on both are all great, and I can afford both (with enough patience I might add), but which of both proves best in battle?

[sweetalmonds]

Exile will help you stay alive longer or near invincible if they're are no physical immune or iron maiden. HoZ on the other hand saves you some points in dex because it has such a high block rate so...

Exile-
*High Defence
*Extremly high Life Leech via LifeTap
*Plus max resist

HoZ-
*More HP from not putting in dex(136 Dex min required for PB tho)
*More ResistAll/PDR/etc. Based on socket of choice
*Adds A LITTLE more damage than a base resist Exile from HoZ's +skills and +str

My vote is for Exile in 40+ etheral elite paladin shield. You know what they say.. "Survivability > Damage in 1.10+"

Edit:40+ meaning 40+ resist all base shield

[Furyan]

Thanks a lot for that excellent explanation! :thumbsup: Last question: the "Freezes Target" mod on Exile, does it make any difference at all? :rolleyes:

[Summerfun]

Not really, you kill to fast! But exile is still better than hoz for a pvm zealer

[Furyan]

Thought so ^^ Thanks for the reply.

All right everyone, thanks for your help and input ! :thumbsup: