Got questions about INFINITY!

[burner2k]

Hi guys, I´ve just gathered all the runes to make my very own Infinity!

What polearm should I use ?

What exactly does Conviction Aura do?

Can I damage lightning immune enemies when my merc is equipped with Infinity,
because of the -(45-55)% To Enemy Lightning Resistance (varies) ?

Really appreciate any help I can get!

My merc is level 88, so dont suggest weapons he cant wear please :)

[KremBanan]

Most people make it in a eth Colossus Voulge, because it always gets 4sox from Larzuk. But imo, its the worst to use, cause its slow and have high str req(200str), which means your merc has to use +str items.
I like eth Thresher or eth Giant Thresher, this because those are the fastest elite polearms. I want speed > damage for the Crushing Blow. Faster attack speed, means faster the CB is dealt.

Conviction (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/paladin-offense.shtml#conviction) is great cause it breaks most monsters lightning-immunity. It also gives monsters lower resists on cold and fire too, but those who are immune tho cold/fire will not get their immunity broken.

The -(45-55)res from Infinity only applies to the one wearing the Infinity. Your merc or you will not benefit if your merc is wearing it.

[burner2k]

Most people make it in a eth Colossus Voulge, because it always gets 4sox from Larzuk. But imo, its the worst to use, cause its slow and have high str req(200str), which means your merc has to use +str items.
I like eth Thresher or eth Giant Thresher, this because those are the fastest elite polearms. I want speed > damage for the Crushing Blow. Faster attack speed, means faster the CB is dealt.

Conviction (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/paladin-offense.shtml#conviction) is great cause it breaks most monsters lightning-immunity. It also gives monsters lower resists on cold and fire too, but those who are immune tho cold/fire will not get their immunity broken.

The -(45-55)res from Infinity only applies to the one wearing the Infinity. Your merc or you will not benefit if your merc is wearing it.

So basically, the number one reason for using Infinity is the Conviction aura.. Does this mean I can kill the lightning spirits before baals minions ?? :)

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Cryptic Axe/Greater Poleaxe/Thresher/Giant Thresher are top choices. My favourite would be the Giant Thresher.

Conviction, does two things. Everyone under this aura:

1. Has their Fire/Lightning/Cold resistances lowered.
2. Has their defence lowered.

This is one of the best auras in the game. It allows melee characters to run around in Hell with 2k Attack Rating and still smack everything in sight, and it boosts your spell damage output for most elemental builds.

Any -%Res found on any given item will only benifit the user. In other words, if you put a Griffon's Eye, a 4x Lightning Rainbow Facet JAPotW, and an Infinity stick on your mercenary, NONE of the +%/-% Lightning will benifit YOU. It will benifit any lightning spells your merc procs or uses (e.g.: CtC Chain Lightning).

However, the Conviction aura does affect any monster under its effect, which does benefit you.

When it comes to immunities and breaking immunities, please read this (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658719), as I want get started on my studying. =p After reading this, you'll understand why some immunities are broken, and some aren't.

(And yes, you can break cold/fire immunities).

[gorash]

i believe that cold immunes are too high espically in hell so its the worst choice for orb / blizz sorcs so infinity wont be able to break most there, light is top choice followed by fire.

[Robobaby]

Conviction is 1/5th as effective versus immunes. Immunity = resistance to an element that is 100% or greater.

Because of the way Cold Mastery works for game balance reasons most creatures have much higher resistance to Cold than either Fire or Lightning.

Infinity grants you a lvl 12 Conviction aura which grants -85% to enemy resists. At 1/5th effectiveness this becomes -17%. Therefore any creature with a resistance that is greater than 117% cannot have their immunity broken by Infinity alone.

Only Conviction and Lower Resist can reduce an enemy's resistance below 100% (thus breaking their immunity). If we take the absolute maximum negative resists from both Conviction (-150% at level 25) and Lower Resist (-70% at level 60) and then we make both 1/5th as effective due to immunity we have -30% - 14% = -44%.

Therefore, any creature with resistance to Cold that is greater than 144% can *never* have their immunity broken. Take a Hell Witch in Throne. These creatures have 160% resistance to cold meaning that it is absolutely impossible to break their immunity. It is a similar story for alot of Cold Immunes which usually have 150% resistance or greater. This is the price you pay for having in built negative resists.

The bottomline - Infinity is not sufficient to break the vast majority of Cold immunes in Hell. However, the ability to reduce all non Cold immunes to -100% should not be sneezed at because your killing power versus non immunes will be astonishing.

For a list of enemy resistances see this page: http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/

This should give you an idea of what immunities you can break. Infinity is most popular for Light sorcs because lvl 12 Conviction aura can break alot more Lightning immunes than Fire immunes. Many Fire immunes cannot be broken with Infinity alone but if you have a wand of Lower Resist to supplement it then you can break alot of them.