View Full Version : block-o-zon
I've pasted my exams - hey for me - so I have some spare time this summer. Therefore, I have decided to try out a little project of my own. The idea is to build an amazon around the highest block shield socketed with an eld and use a safety amulet for even higher block.
The idea is to test the survivability of this high life amazon and to explore an unexplored alvl 85 place - the river of flame, not going to diablo. As ultimate test I will go and try to run some wsk's.
I have decided to do atleast two different builds. The first one I will try will be around the Orphan's Call set. And will be a lightning/physical javelin character. I'm still debating about the exact skill distribution, so you can help me if you think you know better - see my next post for more information. Her main target will be the river of flame.
The next build I will try will be a classic fishyzon. We all know how every tells her to be great, now I will see it my self. She will not be using Orphan's Call as I would lose the shield on bow switch. Her target will be wsk and baal. Note that Whitstan's Guard is a very nice shield for this build as it offers no resistance that I can lose on bow switch, no damage reduction I can lose and comes with high block which means more life on bow side. I'll use coh for my resistance problem.
We all know what wsk is about, every has run it multiple times or atleast teleported through. The river of flames, the non-diablo side, is much less explored. I have found that there are a lot of random bosses, and not so many normal monsters certainly not grouped like in the chaos sanctuary. So this means that a high mf character should be in it's element. Count in the fact that there aren't many strong elemental attack, safe perhaps for the mage demons fire attack and I still don't get why nobody tried it before. Count in the fact that you can finish of with the armourer - who has the highest chances to drop an vex IIRC - and you see why I want to try this out.
As merc, I will use an act 1 harmony merc. Again to prove that she doesn't need a mele merc to protect her and because I'm a vigorhollic. For the same reason and because d/e/a is bugged, I will not use a valk. She will be strong enough without it. I hope.
I think I've said all I have to say for this first post.
On to the first post about my first build.
[edit]
this is european softcore nonladder.
Orphan's Call block-o-zon
In this post, I will go in deeper on the skill and stat distribution and on the equipment she will use.
This character hasn't been build, so all I say here is simply something that got stuck in my head - kind of like that song about flowers.
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skills
passive and magic:
one points in penetrate, pierce, inner sight, slow missiles and decoy.
I will get critical up to about 14, so this will probably be 10 hard points.
PIERCE: there are two reason why I will only put one points in this skill even when not using razortails. I don't think more points will be very useful as there aren't many dense groups of monsters in the river of flame. Thus I can perhaps hope to get one pierce tops. Count in the fact that those that do group up aren't very strong - maggot youngs and Vile Childs.
The second reason is because most monsters their are large monsters, making one hit kills with charged strike possible. Getting more synergy points for charged strike seems important - and that way, I get charged strike, lightning strike and lightning fury. Seems like I can handle everything in the game with those skills.
javelin and spear:
one point in jab, impale, lightning bolt, power strike, poison javelin and plague javelin. Spare points will go to lightning synergies.
I will max fend, lightning fury, charged strike and last lightning strike.
FEND: as far as I know, block doesn't bug this skill - d/e/a is bugged and not fend, it's just most noticeable with fend. This skill offers as much ar as penetrate though it comes with damage increase aswell. 20 points in fend in combination with 10 points critical should give me a decent physical attack and hopefully enough ar to effectively hit some monsters.
bow and crossbow:
no skill points will be wasted here unless I'm really really drunk or something.
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stats
I will try to go with minimal str. The set comes with quite some bonusses, so I may have to use some sort of Amethysted armour - lest just hope I don't die to(o) often.
Dex will be little too. my shield gives me 92% block, an eld gives 7% and a perfect safety amulet gives me 10% block. A total of 109% block only needs 152 dex for max block at lvl 99. Assuming I get the worst safety amulet possible, I still just need 164 dex.
the rest will go into vitality and energie will be left to base.
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equipment
ORPHANS CALL: this set comes with two of the best items: a superb mele helm that offers chrushing blow, deadly strike and faster hit recovery. And the highest blocking shield in the game that offers some good faster block rate aswell, all in a light and little strength package. Count in a dual leech belt and gloves that offer 20 ias and fire resistance - the only resistance I claim to need.
If you look at the full set bonusses, it comes with life, stat, resistance and 80 mf. Count a topaz in the helm for a total of 104 mf. If you then look at the cost, you get a very nice combination for the cost.
Sadly no skill.
RINGS: a raven and a craft that comes with max resistance, max min damage and life leech.
9min 88ar 3LL 10 life 11res all
AMULET: I only have a crap craft at the moment. I'll probably go with this one, sadly I haven't even crafted a single one with amazon skills.
2 masteries barb 10% block 12res all light 12
The rest will be standard. Titans revenge or thunderstroke - both have the same damage strangly and I still don't know which to use, If I don't use lf often, what does titan offers that T-stroke doesn't? Skullder's Ire for the high mf and war trav for the mf and the added damage.
Charms will be a bit what I can find, I'll try and get my hands on an ani and torch. For the rest, I have some mf charms, one skiller with +4 to max damage and some more other random life/res/etc charms.
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that's all; I'll start leveling her sometime this evening.
I'm interested in how the physical/lightning build is doing right now!
still levelling - just bought the elder scrolls IV, I had to buy something or my 'credit' would be lost.
Finally, I've started finishing my first project and I must say that it was the right thing to do. Taking a little break from diablo just made me appreciate it even more.
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General:
At level 73 she started out in hell. The three main skill were maxed - fend, lightning fury and charged strike - and the side skill are were coming to completion aswell. A bit to my surprise, all went very well. Lightning fury showed just once again how overpowered it is, and lightning immunes weren't much of a problem.
Currently, she has just finished 10 pit runs and there is no problem. Lightning immunes slow her down though they generally come down without problems. One of things I'm getting worried about are her resistances. Currently they are all negative and this will prove a problem in the future. I'm thinking about using my coh for general play. The other problem is that she has some mana problems. I'm not leeching enough eventhough I took a manaleech ring over the planned life leech ring.
The plans are to get a better titan - only 154 ed at the moment - and try to finally get a torch and ani.
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Equipment:
The ring she uses currently has the following stats:
5-1 damage 4ml 1ll 5str 16life 6pois res
Her charms are combination of damage, ar and resistance.
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The pit:
As said, I've ran the pits 10 times to test her. It seems like it can become a decent pit runner. However, if I remake her for pits, I would take on jab over fend. The lightning immunes archers rarely stay in group making me often attack a single monsters with a multihit skill like fend. Using jab should solve this problem.
And she needs a bit more levels.
She doesn't seem to be the fastest runner, though she isn't slow either and seen the fact the there are immunes to her main attack, I'm not totally disappointed. On the other hand, I kind of hoped her to be a bit faster.
I've kept times so here are the statistics - Note that these times are from the start of the pits until I think I clear everything, the time from the wp to the pits is to much depending on the place of the pit:
mf: 270
times: 4'44'' 5'34'' 5'36'' 4'10'' 4'29'' 4'45'' 5'33'' 6'20'' 4'29'' 5'36
average:5'07.8''
dead: 1 (lightning/cold enchanted boss onehitted me on dead)
merc dead: 2
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Merc:
My merc is using my coh, a crappy non-ethereal sheal amn amn Hone Sundan and tals mask. Giving him great resistance and life leech though little damage reduction.
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Screenshots:
Lets end with screenshots of the skills and stats distribution and my damage with might from merc.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4179/screenshot007gt2.jpg
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/4623/screenshot008cf0.jpg
Does anyone know why my maximum non lightning damage with lightning fury is higher then with charged strike?
Does anyone know why my maximum non lightning damage with lightning fury is higher then with charged strike?
The throw damage of a javelin is higher then the melee damage. :cloud9:
Did you consider using Twitchthroe for 25% icob? Or is it too much of a sacrifice in terms of resistances?
btw. I like your idea:thumbup:
*cough* guardian angel *cough*
Although I don't see why I wouldn't create a blockadin instead
I have thought about using an armour with extra block though I have chosen not to do so for two reason.
Currently, I have enough str and dex to wear my titans revenge and war trav. I use the str on both titans and war trav to wear my head piece - Guillaume's Face. So I have atleast 109 base dex + 20 from titans +10 from orphans call putting me on a total of 139. That's quite close to the 164 of maximum dex I will ever need. If you use an armour with extra block, it may very will be possible that 139 already is to much. Now I'm not saying that you can't equip your gear different and ending up with less dex, though I ended up not doing so - I want to wear the items from the lvl I can, thus often giving out a bit to much str and dex.
Perhaps the second reason can be more convincing. I plan on using this amazon as a mf amazon, thus I need to stack mf. Looking at the orphans call set, you'll see that you can top about 100 mf, 140 with war trav. If you don't have mf on your armour, you'll end up with little mf unless you stack up on mf charms. Though I prefer use my charms to fill in gaps. Count in the fact that Skullder's Ire gives me one needed +skill and it keeps the option open of use coh when I want and I hope you can see why I pasted on the opportunity of having extra block on my armour.
@ Kijya: off course, how could I miss that.
I'm back...
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the river of flame
So I finally managed to level her to lvl 85. She's ready to start running the river of flame. Previously, she died much to easy. Though with some more levels, a change of charms toward fire resistance, 7 extra synergy points in the lightning skills and a better titans - thx fluffypaw, it helps my leech big times though leech problems still exists - she's ready to put some times on the record.
Though before we start looking at the times. Lets take a minute and look at the prediction I made about the river of flame. Yes, even with my crappy resistances I'm not having much problems. If the abyss knights are with to many, I simply put a decoy in from of them keeping me out of fire. Run up and fend them to dead - up close they us a physical attack - Or run a bit to the side so their missiles miss afterwards you can close in again. The only problem is a dual enchanted boss. The key is to stay ranged even if it's LI. The physical part of lightning fury in combination with a good merc is more effective then I thought.
Leaving pierce at low levels was a good idea too. If I were to make one without orphans call, I'd surely take on razortails and go for max pierce, though I have the feeling that this build is better off with some more synergy points. With extra points in lightning strike, charged strike is now packing a good punch and I find lightning fury to be strong enough aswell.
One problem I did not see before is the armourer, that guy really can be dangerous. Many times my merc died and my decoy get annihilated fast. Using lightning fury sometimes is the only solution though resurrecting your merc each time is annoying. I ended up giving my merc a shako for extra life and dr though If he spawns cursed, it's almost impossible to stop him it seems.
My average time is 9 minutes 44 seconds - starting from the time I entre to the time I portal out. It's quite stable though sometimes it spawns with two LI on a huge map making the time much longer - up to 14 minutes. Count in the fact that its not always a strait line and it can take a long time. A better idea would be to measure time/area or time/monsters. I think it would be a much better average though I can't see a way to perform such a measurement.
7'52" 7'38" 8'55" 9'14" 9'20" 9'75" 11'20" 8'58" 9'48" 13'59"
If we look at the cth for the Li immunes, we see a acceptable average. Abyss knights are hit with an average cth of 75%, Strangles 74% - I'm surprised some ghosts-things are harder to hit then knights.
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River_Queen in a general light.
Statistics are fun, though they don't mean anything unless you have something to compare with. So I've run the river few times with my harmony bowazon. She's base life, shooting at 8fpa with average of 1.7k physical damage and no mf what so ever. she dies more often then javazon - cold and lighting enchant bosses, though her times are about the same. So it seems like River_Queen is doing quite a good job seen the rather cheap equipment she has.
Once I'm close to completing my other character, I'll give her a go and see what times so puts on the record.
Now, It would be fun to get some more builds to run the river of flame. I only have two builds that can take it on so I've done all I can. So if some of the chaos/pit runners would be interested in helping out. Run it a few times, record the times and lets us know. Make a short description of the builds, equipment and the mf she uses - and ladder or non-ladder, non-ladder is a bit easier.
Builds I'm specially interested in are lightning amazons - certainly some that run without conviction and use jab as their LI-solution - pure fendazon and some of the other 'odd-builds' - like Muffinman's Fire/Cold amazon.
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Merc:
My merc is stil using the coh, decent Arioc's Needle making his damage out put quite good and increasing his might and shako. The extra life and dr aren't just luxury and he already has enough ll. The added mf is just nice to have.
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Screenshots:
Yup, I've token some screenshot. You don't have to look at them, though If you can't contain yourself, knock yourself out.
http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot010zi6.jpg
http://img184.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot011ib6.jpg
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WSK:
Finally, I've found a torch laying around - did lose a skiller though. So I've decided to give the wsk a go anyway. I've token my coh - given merc a viper magi for max resistance - and went through the portal. first two times, gloams eat my merc and almost got me too - just 50-ish lightning resistance. The next time, witches got my merc with their physical fire balls.
Conclusion is that she can't effective run it at this time. Though If I build for it, I'm sure she can hold her own in a one player game. My resistance and life - cta - can both be improved and my merc could use a Shaftstop for high dr combination with an um for resistances - my reapertoll should not only improver our damage though it contains a lot of leech aswell.
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River_Queen has been tested. The River has been slain though not as impressive as I hope. Perhaps I'll get to rebuild her one day and let you know in the amazon show-off thread. For now, She'll continue running the river as she has been doing already for some days.
Hope you will keep around for my next project.
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