KeyRunner UberSlayer: Time to hunt the Trio

[King Of Cold]

Well, Firstly I'd like to start off by saying 'Thank You' for taking the time to view my post and that the reason for my posting this thread is to receive feedback in regards to making a Fanatic Zealot, one who would be made capable of soloing the sinister three as well as being a PvM Beast. :thumbsup:

So far I have read the information that is available, and put it into practice while doing my best to retain my own ideas as to what should be done skill wise and gear wise.

At this point I believe the character is at level 87. (Planning on leveling to 98)
So far these are the skills I have put hard points into:
---------------
Maxed Sacrifice
Five Zeal (planning on putting excess points here)
Maxed Fant
Maxed Holy Shield
Maxed Defiance
Considering ... (1 point Salvation)
..and all prereq's which would be needed to obtain those skills.

For stat points he is currently sitting at:
--------------
70 Strength
50 Dexterity (Planning on putting in for max block once gear is decided)
200 Vitality ( remainder of points go here once max block is achieved)
Base Energy
-------------
So, how does that sound so far for the bare bones?
Thus far equipment wise I have scrounged up so stuff from mules and the like to outfit the character.

Currently the gear he is using;
-------------
+2 Pala ,30% frw, 15 all res, 14 dex, circlet
Highlord Amulet or Cats Eye
Silence Zerker or Eth Stormlash
Eth Vortex Exile
20 dex Raven
Carrion Wind 9% ll
Bloodfists
SoE or Nosferatu
Goblin Toes or Tearhaunch (got to love vigor without wasted points)
Anni 13/10/x
--------------
I don't plan on using a torch so that way I can pick up the one which drops.

At the moment I am searching for:
Guilliaumes (possibly socket with 15 ias 15 all res?) or Kiras
20 IAS,OW,CB, Res crafted gloves
Grief Zerker (due to it being called the #1 uber decapitation weapon)
...waiting to make a Black in a Scourge. ( always wanted to make one, plus it could be useful)
Thinking Chains of Honor would help me to stack my Resistances
amongst other items. which are many...

I have at my disposal a Doom Zerk & a Last Wish Zerk.

Now ,I am curious as to why I haven't really seen much mentioned in regards to using a Last Wish for the weapon of choice. :scratch: At first glance it would seem ideal for the task at hand. Life Tap on Strike, Fade when Struck, Might aura to add damage to Zeal, Ignores Target Defense, Prevents Monster Heal, Blinds, and the possibility for massive CB. :wink2: Is there something I am missing here? I've read posts stating that the average damage from Grief is superb, yet wouldn't the crushing blow from the LW be almost all the CB needed to get the job done? Allowing one to switch out Goblin Toes, and the like for Res Gear etc? Wouldn't the tap from the LW and an Exile trigger frequently enough to keep one alive?

In regards to Doom, wouldn't the +2 to skills, IAS, DS, OW be considered decent? Allowing the Holy Freeze to slow the opposition?

I cannot afford a Death although it would be nice to have. (Who wouldn't want a weapon named Death?) but I doubt I'll be able to get my hands on one, not to mention that Grief is apparently better anyways. What I don't understand is how Death is favorable over LW, I can see that it has 20% to Ar which is nice, as well as the DS and CB, yet it doesn't have an aura to assist damage nor does it have ITD,plus its CB would be lower then that of a LW. I know that if I used a Grief I would need to find my CB elsewhere.

In regards to a Merc, I am unsure as to which I should have accompanying me into the darkest pits of Hell. I was thinking I could put my Pride Pole Arm on an Act2 Holy Freeze Merc, which would allow me to use the Last Wish in favor of the Doom, and then I would have Conc, Might and Fant all running on the two of us simultaneously. Thinking I could hook the Merc up with one of those High Str Fortitudes, and see if I can acquire a decent helm for the guy. But would it be better instead to put an Infinity on him ? Would Mephs Conviction cancel his out and take priority? and would the Conviction from an Infinity be of any help with banishing the other two?

Any helpful advice you could bestow upon me? Gear suggestions and the like?
Thank you again for your time, and happy hunting to you all.

[ZeroStriker]

in regards to your post...

umm, i'm no expert on these things, but i'm fairly certain that

1. meph conviction cancels our your merc's making it useless

2. last wish is Jah + Mal + Jah + Sur + Jah + Ber, which is ~6 Hrs, while death is Hel + El + Vex + Ort + Gul, which is ~1.5 Hrs, so death is a lot easier to obtain.

3. last wish has ITD, but from my understand, it only works on normal monsters, and not bosses, so it'd be useless against the ubers.

4. Death has CB, and 0.5/lvl deadly strike as well, which doubles the damage when activated

5. Death also has the indestructible mod, meaning that you could make it in an eth item, which has a +50% base damage added to the weapon before the runeword, making it even more powerful.

6. Death has +20% AR, boosting your % to hit.

so overall, death is a much cheaper and powerful weapon, and hence why it outshines last wish.

[King Of Cold]

The reason I said that I could not obtain Death is that it is a Ladder rune word and unfortunately I am on Non-Ladder. I do happen to have a Last Wish Zerker on hand though, hence my wanting to incorperate it into the character plan. It's good to know that the Conviction whould be negated, as well as the ITD. Would an Eth Upped Headstriker be viable? and if so, can that even be upped non-ladder?

Also I finally found a 3 socket Scourge and was able to make the Black Runeword for the first time. Man with all his IAS he swings that thing like the roman who whipped christ. (^v^)
So far his biggest problem with average monsters is Res and Ar. I have some nice Gcs with 100+ ar and 30+ life which I was thinking of putting on him, but wiether that would assist him in connecting his hits against ubers is yet to be seen.

[SyCoMiDgEt]

king Of Cold

Go With Last Wish, Its Alot Better Than Grief

The CB + Might Damage + Ed = More Than That ****ing Grief

[ambid]

king Of Cold

Go With Last Wish, Its Alot Better Than Grief

The CB + Might Damage + Ed = More Than That ****ing Grief

Wrong, last wish will never deal more raw damage than grief.

[King Of Cold]

I was also wondering, would the charged bolt which is triggered from Last Wish be absorbed by Meph?
Would an Eth Stormlash be a decent alternative until I can get him a Grief? Would not the static help in making it a quick kill? Does anyone have any suggestions for a helm other then the Guill, if I decide I want to switch it up?

Thanks for all of you help. :wink2:

[flamingchen]

Stormlash is an excellant weapon until you can get grief phase blade. You could probably get a low grief for 1 HR (but it will still be absolutely devastating).

Grief not only has ITD, but has -25% target res which works on champs/bosses/uniques (I believe), which helps you hit.

Besides guillames, I would probably go for kiras if I needed res. Otherwise, nothing is really better and its also cheap. Maybe if you wanted DR you could get a vamp gaze.

I would suggest getting goreriders over goblin toe or tearhaunch.

[sorcguy]

Man with all his IAS he swings that thing like the roman who whipped christ. (^v^)

Nice... I'm not religious, and I practically consider that offensive anyway...

The +damage on Grief goes directly onto your smite damage in case you didn't know that. That's what makes it so great for ubers.

Have you read the 1pt smiter guide?

Just about everyone would recommend killing your merc before entering uber tristram. Let us know how it goes if you bring him with.

FYI, some people here have tested last wish vs. grief and they say that they are about the same. Grief being slightly faster but both adequate. I would pick one of those if you have the means.

Your gear should be different if you are using last wish or you are using grief so that's choice #1. Meph's aura is -125 (F/L/C only) so ideally you'll still have good resists after that. Main ways to achieve this is salvation or "trechory pre-buff". I'll explain if you don't already know.

[King Of Cold]

Another concern of mine is the proper equilibrium of all the gear combined.
I have a Grief PB kicking around which I can use on him, I recently bought a 1/21/11 CoA as well, dont know if I should use that over a Guill, or a Kira. I'm also considering making a CoH, .. But unfortunately I don't know much about break points.
I remember reading somewhere that with a Grief PB you will hit the desired breakpoint no matter what. So I guess I'd be using the Grief PB in conjunction with a HoZ? ...if I can get an extra one of those or would it be better to Smite with my Exile.

Ahh, the fun and the fury of making a new character :rolleyes: .
Alright, so these are the items at my desposal atm:

20% ias , 6% CB, 2% ll Gloves
Dracs
Guilluames
CoA
Enigma
Gores
Goblin Toes
Ravenfrost
Carrion Wind
Nosferatu
TGods
SoE
Highlords
Cat's Eye
Possibly a Maras (if I decide to steal it from the Hdin)
'Spirit' in a Zakarum Shield
'Call to Arms' in a Flail
'Black' in a Scourge
'Grief' in a PB
'Last Wish' in a Zerker
'Exile' in a Vortex Shield
'Silence' in a Zerker
'Malice' in a Scepter with 1 Med/ 1 Sanc/ 2 Conc
'Treachery' in a Light Plate
Demon Limb for Enchant

I'm also considering making an Eternity to raise myself a small army, I have no idea if they would be able to stand up or not but was thinking it would be nice to have some Gloams as backup.


And does anyone know where I could find an IAS breakpoint table, or help me to calculate it with the gear listed?

Thank you all yet again for your assistance. Happy Hunting. :wink2:

[RequiemDeath]

LW vs. Grief *sigh*

"Both are good for different reasons... Try them both and see which one you prefer..."
This has been a copy and paste response that has been used 34 times and counting... ^_^

If you want to use them both, then do what I do... I use LW to get their life down to about 1/4... After that, CB becomes quite useless... Switch to Grief, and that life will drop in no time... Raw damage > CB at this point...

Kill your merc before going in... He will do you no good, and will most likely get you killed by running into the middle of all 3 bosses, aggroing them before you are ready... Even if that doesn't happen, he's gonna be dead in seconds, which will still do you no good at all... Depending on having a merc alive for whatever reason with this build is just dumb... Only a summon necro or anything other than a pally should worry about such a thing in Uber Trist...

With your gear that you have at hand, I would select the following:

Dracs (obviously)
Gores
You didn't have any other armors besides Enigma, so look into CoH since you're non ladder.... Works really well...
Highlords, or that Mara's...
SoE or T-Gods... (mostly depending on your ammy selection)
Ravenfrost (duh)
Carrion Wind (it's rather neat. I like it, and use it on one of my Uber killers to be unique)
CoA (why not? It's there!)

Now, this is the cool part:

Grief and Exile on switch (Why not Exile and LW? Because, overlapping life tap too much isn't needed, and can cause connection problems, at least it has for me)

LW and anything else other than Spirit... (This will be what you go in and start the attack with. When their life gets to about 1/4 or so, hit "W" and keep wailing away... They will crumble in no time...) HoZ would be the best choice here, IMO, but there are some other great options to consider as well... Sanctuary is just one I can think of at the moment...

This is how I'd use the gear you have to best the Ubers... Now, for normal PvM, Grief all the way... Grief and Exile as the main, and SoE as the normal belt, etc... As far as charms go, life small charms, and any resist charms would be good... Shimmering charms would be even better if you can get them... Go for GCs with 15 resist all, or SCs with 5 resist all...

Hope this helps! ^_^

*Requiem_Death

[sorcguy]

I only use grief and once I start smiting and life tap kicks in I just wait until they are dead, which doesn't take long. If you want to get fancy have at it, if you just want to kill ubers it's not too tough. I use a griz shield with 3 p. diamonds BTW.

"Grief PB you will hit the desired breakpoint no matter what. " That is written in the 1 point smiter guide... (but many people know that now so...)

[King Of Cold]

LW vs. Grief *sigh*

"Both are good for different reasons... Try them both and see which one you prefer..."
This has been a copy and paste response that has been used 34 times and counting... ^_^

If you want to use them both, then do what I do... I use LW to get their life down to about 1/4... After that, CB becomes quite useless... Switch to Grief, and that life will drop in no time... Raw damage > CB at this point...

Kill your merc before going in... He will do you no good, and will most likely get you killed by running into the middle of all 3 bosses, aggroing them before you are ready... Even if that doesn't happen, he's gonna be dead in seconds, which will still do you no good at all... Depending on having a merc alive for whatever reason with this build is just dumb... Only a summon necro or anything other than a pally should worry about such a thing in Uber Trist...

With your gear that you have at hand, I would select the following:

Dracs (obviously)
Gores
You didn't have any other armors besides Enigma, so look into CoH since you're non ladder.... Works really well...
Highlords, or that Mara's...
SoE or T-Gods... (mostly depending on your ammy selection)
Ravenfrost (duh)
Carrion Wind (it's rather neat. I like it, and use it on one of my Uber killers to be unique)
CoA (why not? It's there!)

Now, this is the cool part:

Grief and Exile on switch (Why not Exile and LW? Because, overlapping life tap too much isn't needed, and can cause connection problems, at least it has for me)

LW and anything else other than Spirit... (This will be what you go in and start the attack with. When their life gets to about 1/4 or so, hit "W" and keep wailing away... They will crumble in no time...) HoZ would be the best choice here, IMO, but there are some other great options to consider as well... Sanctuary is just one I can think of at the moment...

This is how I'd use the gear you have to best the Ubers... Now, for normal PvM, Grief all the way... Grief and Exile as the main, and SoE as the normal belt, etc... As far as charms go, life small charms, and any resist charms would be good... Shimmering charms would be even better if you can get them... Go for GCs with 15 resist all, or SCs with 5 resist all...

Hope this helps! ^_^

*Requiem_Death

Thank you for your reply Requiem, very thorough. I appreciate your imbuing me with the knowledge from your experiences. I'll definately take your advice into consideration. One thing I have noticed as well is that the overall zeal damage from the eth stormlash goes up by about 1.2k on the top end but the bottom end is 1.2k lower then the LW :cry:Sorry about your having to use the copy paste response for the thirty-fourth time :shocked: :rolleyes:
The way you went about your explaination has been very beneficial, thank you again.. Happy Hunting :evil:

[HCKull]

You need to deal with the following to be successful doin ubers:

1) Surviving Meph conviction while under constant elemental and physical attack.
2) Killing the bosses who have 650k life.
3) Dealing with the mnions who constantly spawn out ot the ground and are immune to many type of attack, esp. elemental.

I like to override mephs conviction with my own higher lvl conviction because I don't have to stack resists and conviction will lower ur defense down to almost zero. I am not sure what level his conviction is, but lvl 25 definitly overrides it.

Bosses have so much life that you crushing blow is the only practical way to kill them. Smite is the best way to deliver crushing blow because it always hits. I wear guill. helm and gore rider boots for 50% crushing blow and smite the bosses.

While smiting you are under constant attack and your life will drop quickly unless you can leach a lot of life back. Normal lie leach does not work while smiting. Life tap is the solution as it gives you huge leach, works while smiting and works against normally not leachable bad guys the undead. You could use a wand with charges of life tap but it is awkward switching weapons and you dont want to get caught wielding a wand. A better choice is marrowwalks which have charges of LT also. I want to wear gore riders instead as they are IMHO the best boots for melee chars. Gear with ctc life tap are the best solution. Exile, dracs, LW all do this. It is critical that LT be cast asap so you want a high chance of casting this. Consider wearing all three if you have them.

I love exile because it has lots of useful features and a high ctc for life tap. If you can get max block I would pick exile over any other shield for a zealot.

The best way to deal with the minions is avoid them by drawing the bosses out and away from the minions. Carefully lure the bosses after you and then run as far as you can away from tristram. Then turn and smite them. You want to finish this quickly so max smite speed is good and you need a decent chance for crushing blow to happen. Guill. helm and Gore riders is sufficient.

You want 1 point in salvation to break phy immune undead. It lets you leach from them also and will let you kill phy immune undead easily.

Try to get a barb with a high level of boo to come in and boo you before entering tristram. My barb will boost my pally's life from 1400 to 3200. This is huge and can save your but.

[SyCoMiDgEt]

in regards to your post...

umm, i'm no expert on these things, but i'm fairly certain that

2. last wish is Jah + Mal + Jah + Sur + Jah + Ber, which is ~6 Hrs, while death is Hel + El + Vex + Ort + Gul, which is ~1.5 Hrs, so death is a lot easier to obtain.

LMFAO!
I LOVE NOOBS THAT CONVINCE OTHERS TO GET ****TY CHEAPER WEAPONS BECAUSE THEY CANT AFFORD THE BETTER!

[illestkhmai]

LMFAO!
I LOVE NOOBS THAT CONVINCE OTHERS TO GET ****TY CHEAPER WEAPONS BECAUSE THEY CANT AFFORD THE BETTER!

You continue to flaunt your ignorance, at least he was being helpful.

Oh and I'd always go for the Grief Pb :wink3:.

[King Of Cold]

LMFAO!
I LOVE NOOBS THAT CONVINCE OTHERS TO GET ****TY CHEAPER WEAPONS BECAUSE THEY CANT AFFORD THE BETTER!

The funny thing about that is that I already have a LW Zerker, and I am on USWest Non-Ladder, so in truth even though Last Wish requires higher end runes, I already possess one, I can only imagine what someone would want for a death on NL.

I really truely appreciate everones input, I still feel as if I am not quite ready to tailwhip the triads :rolleyes: . Level 91 now. something like 11 skill points remaining. 50 stat points, 75% chance to block with the HoZ, and 63% with my Eth Vortex Exile. I still need to figure out the Zeal and Smite breakpoints, but other then that its just down to me getting a CoH for him so that I can heavily stack his resists. I wont be buying a merc due to the advice which was mentioned earlier. I can only imagine Kazim running in there and being utterly obliterated then attracting every concievable monstrosity over so that they could crush my palpable egglike skull.

Happy Hunting.

[sorcguy]

LMFAO!
I LOVE NOOBS THAT CONVINCE OTHERS TO GET ****TY CHEAPER WEAPONS BECAUSE THEY CANT AFFORD THE BETTER!

I can't stand you, FYI.

[King Of Cold]

Also, I have both a LW PB and a LW Zerker
Here are the diffences in damage.. with zeal:
LW PB: 1879-2249 (seems faster then the zerk)
LW Zerk: 1509-4572 (seems slower then the Grief)

So my question is.. will this difference in damage be significant? Or is it best just to use the PB due to the fact that I will hit the desired breakpoint? Also, I was just trying Zeal with the Grief and that almost seemed even faster then the LW PB, the listed damage is only 800-1000 or something like that, but would that even be a better alternative ? Use the last wish to get tap on and fade and then switch back over to my Grief and Exile and just smite away, with occasional zeals inbetween? *sigh* It'll be great once I get it right, but man its a tad bit frustrating getting him to that point.
Thank you all again for your invaluable advice. :wave:

[ambid]

Grief pb is indeed faster than lw pb and lw zerker. Grief pb hits 4 fpa zeal without any additional ias from gear, lw pb hits 5 fpa and lw zerker hits 6 fpa.

Character screen does not display grief's damage correct. Grief will do more zeal damage than lw pb and zerker together, it's just hidden.

[King Of Cold]

So with that in mind is there really much of a point in switching weapons at all, as in pressing w to an alternative setup? Or should I just stay on one side and switch between attacks? Knowing that the zeal speed of grief would be faster as well as the damage being greater , I guess Last Wish would only be my fade tap item, then once those are triggered switch back to Grief... Hmm, learn something new everyday :thumbsup:

[RequiemDeath]

LMFAO!
I LOVE NOOBS THAT CONVINCE OTHERS TO GET ****TY CHEAPER WEAPONS BECAUSE THEY CANT AFFORD THE BETTER!

You're an idiot...

*Requiem_Death

[niner]

Ill take the LW for the extras over Grief in pvm anytime. An extra aura might,fade,mf,massive CB, ctc charged bolt. Only lacks is ias.

[ambid]

Ill take the LW for the extras over Grief in pvm anytime. An extra aura might,fade,mf,massive CB, ctc charged bolt. Only lacks is ias.

And ill keep my grief and kill stuff 2x faster than you.

In general pvm, fade = useless, ctc charged bolt = useless, cb can be achieved with grief too, so your left with might aura and mf. I agree mf is nice and might aura boosts your lame damage abit, still leaving it 3x lower than my damage with grief.

Lw doesn't come anywhere near grief and edeath in general pvm playing, not on a psychical damage zealot.

[niner]

And ill keep my grief and kill stuff 2x faster than you.

In general pvm, fade = useless, ctc charged bolt = useless, cb can be achieved with grief too, so your left with might aura and mf. I agree mf is nice and might aura boosts your lame damage abit, still leaving it 3x lower than my damage with grief.

Lw doesn't come anywhere near grief and edeath in general pvm playing, not on a psychical damage zealot.

Fade=56% res all, 11%dr, and 71% poison and curse reduction time. Hardly useless in playing a melee char in general pvm.

Charged Bolt- Ya pretty much useless on fana zealot, wonderful for convicting zealot though. Me bad forgot we talking about the fana zealot here.

Might- Boosts not only your pally's dmg but whole party's dmg and mercs as well.

Life tap- 50%LL for a melee char. Also frees up the gloves slot so you can rid yourself of the dumpy dracul gloves for something crafty with dex,str, res, life,ar,ias, more cb,life, and yes even more mf.

Crushing Blow- 60-70% lets see with that much CB, you dont need Guliames,Gores,Duress or any other source of CB. Freeing up your gears for other choices so you can boost your mf for one thing. If you gonna play pvm you should at least try to improve the drops on all those monsters you are killing.

Blinds Target- mildly useful mod, however good for crowd control if it gets heavy.

Ive used both weaps using grief till I can get up enough funds to get my LW.Meh Grief is good you gonna 1 hit ko alot of weak monsters 2 hit others.LW 2 hits all of em, but LW does it with alot more class and style. Adding more flexability to choice of other gears making pvm much more enjoyable and profitable.

[ambid]

I never had resists issues on any of my paladins. 11% dr is usefull, but not needed in pvm. Fade does not reduce poison duration, only curse duration, but it also reduces shrine duration.

Yes, might boosts your damage, but leaving it still ALOT lower than griefs damage.

Draculs aren't good only cuz of the life tap, ll and ow are good mods too. Lots of pvm zealots use exile, so getting lifetap isn't really an issue.

There's no point going overkill with cb, 50% is just fine.

Blind target is useless. You kill stuff so fast with grief.

You using lw pb or zerker? Pb has really pitiful damage and with zerker your gonna have ias issues.
I highly doubt your 2 hitting act 5 monsters with lw pb.