Questions I cant answer

[Kitriara]

Heyo.

So now that I've been diving back into the thick of D2-ness and my item stash is growing a little bit through natural playing, I've had the urge to play a few lesser-used builds. A Holy Fire paladin is one, and since I now have the runes for Passion, a melee sorc using Enchant is another one, and probably an Iron Barb who uses Concentration to see just how much defense I can get. If anyone can help, I have a question or two!...

1. I have an alternate +skills weapon switch for my Enchantress. For the sake of argument lets say it brings my Enchant and Fire Mastery to level 25 (E 25/FM 25). I cast it, now I switch back to Passion. My skills are now at 20. When I hit enemies, am I doing damage equal to E 25, FM 25 or E 25, FM 20?

2. Obviously a 4 socket phase blade is the only thing truly worth making a Passion in. Do I just need to find a 4 socket, or is there some ilvl where I can be sure to only get 4 sockets from Larzuk?

3. I dont really do much MFing - basically I have a couple items with MF on them that I toss on before killing a boss but thats it. Any item or runeword suggestions for my Holy Fire Zealot? I'm going to try and get a bunch of +skills to boost his damage, and use a Might merc for higher physical damage so I have a second damage type.

4. Lastly, its kind of a shame that Act 2 mercs are so darn good because of their auras, because it makes using almost any other merc pointless. However, I was thinking of playing around with the idea. With a good bow, can an act 1 be any good? Also, with some decent equipment, can an Act III cold merc ever get decent enough damage to do anything in Hell difficulty?

5. What can achieve a higher overall defense: shout + iron skin + concentration barb with a defiance merc, or a defiant paladin + holy shield, then use smite + might merc for attacking?

If anyone can help me out with any of these, I'd GREATLY appreciate it. Thanks a million in advance. Though I'll come back and say thanks again anyways haha.

- Kit

[Noodle]

My bf-sin uses an ACT 1 mercenary, who does very well with her Windforce. Never used an ACT III or V.

- Noodle

[Llathias]

1. I have an alternate +skills weapon switch for my Enchantress. For the sake of argument lets say it brings my Enchant and Fire Mastery to level 25 (E 25/FM 25). I cast it, now I switch back to Passion. My skills are now at 20. When I hit enemies, am I doing damage equal to E 25, FM 25 or E 25, FM 20?I'm pretty sure it's E25, FM20. BUT (and that's a very important "but") FM is applied twice when using melee weapons. First time is when you cast Enchant, enchanting your weapon with the increased slvl25 FM bonus. The second is when you actually deal damage (and that also includes the fire damage from equipment and charms), and since that's a momentary thing, it's slvl20 at that time.


2. Obviously a 4 socket phase blade is the only thing truly worth making a Passion in. Do I just need to find a 4 socket, or is there some ilvl where I can be sure to only get 4 sockets from Larzuk?I think there was a web page among Thyiad's bookmarks which showed how many sockets each item type could get at certain ilvls. Someone should come along shortly with the link.


3. I dont really do much MFing - basically I have a couple items with MF on them that I toss on before killing a boss but thats it. Any item or runeword suggestions for my Holy Fire Zealot? I'm going to try and get a bunch of +skills to boost his damage, and use a Might merc for higher physical damage so I have a second damage type.Do you use RWM? And are you willing to try a 2-hander? I heard 2h fire zealots are fun.


4. Lastly, its kind of a shame that Act 2 mercs are so darn good because of their auras, because it makes using almost any other merc pointless. However, I was thinking of playing around with the idea. With a good bow, can an act 1 be any good? Also, with some decent equipment, can an Act III cold merc ever get decent enough damage to do anything in Hell difficulty?A1 rogues can be quite good, and they have quite a few fans here. The downside is that cold rogues have a rather short range but they're not aware of that, so they keep firing arrows which disappear halfway through their target. A3 mercs are literally a joke. jiansonz might come and say they're useful, but it doesn't change the fact that A3 mercs are utterly pathetic! Hell, even if I see an A3 merc taking down p8 Lister's pack in Hell solo, I still won't believe that they can be useful!


5. What can achieve a higher overall defense: shout + iron skin + concentration barb with a defiance merc, or a defiant paladin + holy shield, then use smite + might merc for attacking?Haven't checked the numbers but it seems like the barb will beat the pally. If you wanna go overboard, add frozen armor (any source other than Fortitude?) to the mix. By the way, without Grief, smite is likely to be boring. Too boring!

[FlimFlan]

3. I dont really do much MFing - basically I have a couple items with MF on them that I toss on before killing a boss but thats it. Any item or runeword suggestions for my Holy Fire Zealot? I'm going to try and get a bunch of +skills to boost his damage, and use a Might merc for higher physical damage so I have a second damage type.



Rising Sun Ammy
Ormus' Robes
Kinemil's Awl (leveling)
Hexfire (leveling)
Demon Limb for Enchant
Obedience Polearm (or Flamebellow or Djinn Slayer)
Magefist
Infernostride

[Raskah]

1. You enchant yourself with a E 25/ FM 25 and add the respective fire damage to your attack. When you melee, your fire damage (from enchant and other sources) is increase again by your current fire mastery, which is lvl 20.

Ex: Lvl 25 Enchant (+ Lvl 20 Warmth synergy) + Lvl 25 Fire Mastery (198% Fire Damage): Fire damage: 851 - 1068 added to attack.
Melee: 851 - 1068 added to attack + Lvl 20 Fire Mastery (+ 163% Fire Damage): 2238 – 2608 fire damage

2. I'm not sure but if you get a low quality phase blade, "normalize" it with the chippie+ eld recipe (the item is now ilvl=1), I think it get 4 socket from larzuk.

EDIT: I check this up and it would receive 3 sockets if the phase blade was normalized... You can check this here (http://www.diabloii.net/items/sockets-list.shtml).

3. If you're going 2 handed, a Obedience is the weapon you're looking for. It's cheap, the highest rune is Fal, massive %ED, Crushing Blow, Resists and a juicy -25% Fire Resistance and a ctc a lvl 21 Enchant. It's that enough?! :wink2: And you get massive still points for a 2-handed HFire Zealot! :grin:

4. Act 1 rogues can be very good mercs if you have stuff for them, ie a high damage bow. They usually stay out of harm and backup melee character very well. A cold arrow one should give some crowd control, even better if you have a delirium rune word helm(lem+ist+io) with the ctc to cast confusion.

Also act3 cold can give you some crowd control but they don’t do enough damage to kill stuff in Hell, unless you do some serious twinking, like dual spirit + nightwings + viper’s or something like this.

Act 5 barbs are great tank but also need some good items to be reliable (ranged attackers will eat this guys easily as they have stupid AR in Hell, the merc is dead before reaching them).

5. No idea. The barb has a lot more sources of +%EDefence than the pala but I think HS add the defence bonus on top of the other bonus so... I really don’t know!

Cheerz! :wave:

EDIT: Oops! I'm reaaaaly slow replying threads! I got pwed several times!!!

[Skinhead On The MBTA]

I think that the only way to get a 4-socket phase blade is to get a few and use the cube recipe.

[Kitriara]

Thanks so much everyone! As a note, since I play hardcore exclusively, I will be using a sword and shield for my Fire Zealot.

I guess my final two "double check" questions would be...

Ex: Lvl 25 Enchant (+ Lvl 20 Warmth synergy) + Lvl 25 Fire Mastery (198% Fire Damage): Fire damage: 851 - 1068 added to attack.
Melee: 851 - 1068 added to attack + Lvl 20 Fire Mastery (+ 163% Fire Damage): 2238 – 2608 fire damage
I didnt realize this damage was truly additive. Thats definitely how it works? I thought it would just be 851-1068 * 1.63 = 1387 - 1741. Does anyone know if the Character Screen shows this damage correctly or not? I assume not...

My other question was that I thought that Holy Shield only added that big defense bonus to the defense shown on the shield. I suppose that number could get significant if Defiance gives the percentage bonus to already inflated holy shield number though. Does anyone know if thats how it works, or if defiance just gives the aura bonus to the shield's base defense value? If anyone can explain the holy shield/defiance interaction I'd appreciate it! (And yeah, without Grief that build is probably tough as heck.)

Again, thanks so much for everyone's help!!!!!

[muzzz]

Ex: Lvl 25 Enchant (+ Lvl 20 Warmth synergy) + Lvl 25 Fire Mastery (198% Fire Damage): Fire damage: 851 - 1068 added to attack.
Melee: 851 - 1068 added to attack + Lvl 20 Fire Mastery (+ 163% Fire Damage): 2238 – 2608 fire damage
I didnt realize this damage was truly additive. Thats definitely how it works? I thought it would just be 851-1068 * 1.63 = 1387 - 1741. Does anyone know if the Character Screen shows this damage correctly or not? I assume not...

That's definitely how it works. :smiley:

You add the FM bonus to your 100% base damage. If you didn't, something with for example +40% fire damage would actually decrease your damage. The LCS always displays damage as if the bonus is applied twice. Even for attacks that don't actually apply it the second time.

[Kitriara]

Thanks Muzzz! Thats both funny and sad considering that Level 20 Holy Fire, fully synergized is way, way less than that. Of course at the same time you do need a Passion to really make that effective so its a trade off... aaaaand I'm rambling. But thanks =)

[jiansonz]

2. Obviously a 4 socket phase blade is the only thing truly worth making a Passion in.

Really? For an Enchantress, I can buy that. But isn´t the big damage + big IAS + the ability to use Berserk just asking for a big 2-hander? I mean, the ~0.7 acts I had the privilege to try out this (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m156/jiansonz/Screenshot097Passion.jpg) little toy for my Swordmistress remains one of my fondest D2 memories. I tried Zeal, but didn´t like it, but I fell in love with Berserk with this character. I 1-hit killed Gloams in Hell, it was glorious! Of course, I was helped by maxed Critical Strike, and the evasive skills helped to offset the zero defense (at least against 1-2 enemies, swarms were the weakness of this character - she died in an act III temple).

It shouldn´t suck as an act II/V merc weapon either, especially if you need some crowd control. Ethereal if possible, of course.

The big damage/IAS and crowd control (blinding/flee) makes me want to try it in a Crusader Bow, either for character or merc. Some good potential here, I think.




4...
Also, with some decent equipment, can an Act III cold merc ever get decent enough damage to do anything in Hell difficulty?

It really depends on your definition of 'decent enough damage'. :grin:
For me, he can, but I consider '5 shots to kill a Hell flayer' decent damage. :rolleyes:

He can certainly overcome the life regeneration of monsters (although maybe not against a Possessed Urdar or something on a high players setting...) but he will not be able to become a force of nature.