Need a little help with planning Smiter

[Zigzter]

My old Smiter had very bad stats, so I'm remaking him.

The gear he'll have:
Guill's face
Drac's gloves
Grief phase blade
Duress in Balrog Skin
Nosfer belt
Highlords ammy
Gorerider boots
Dwarfstar/Ravenfrost rings
Spirit in a Zak shield (Might replace with Sanctuary)

I've figured out with my att. bonuses from the items, I'll need 115 base Strength, and 107 base Dex.
Does this seem reasonable, considering I want a ****load of health and max block with Holy Shield?

My main att. killers are Duress with 165 Str req. and Grief with 136 Dex req.

[Bladewind]

136 Dex is fair. Most people will need it 1 way or the other.

I suggest dropping the Duress into an Archon Plate if you can get 1. It needs only 103 strength.

[Zigzter]

Hmmm...good idea.

If, in theory, I could get my hands on any runeword, should I still go for Duress, or something else?

I've heard people say Fortitude and CoH are good too.

This is for uber-running, by the way.

[BAMFSpecialOps]

It depends, CoH basically gives you all of the resist you will need(prebuff fade taken into account). If you wont need the extra resists, then Fort is the way to go. With Gores/Guils you will have enough CB% so Duress is not really needed. I would say go with CoH.

[Zigzter]

It's a hard choice.. D:

CoH does have very nice resists, but Fort has very nice Def and extra damage..

I guess I'll have to see how my Res's are.

[Bladewind]

The extra damage is not really a big deal for a 1 pt smiter. It does greatly benefit a zealot though. I still say use COH over Fortitude. More resist on armor = less resist charms and MORE life charms ;p

[bthere]

The extra damage is not really a big deal for a 1 pt smiter. It does greatly benefit a zealot though. I still say use COH over Fortitude. More resist on armor = less resist charms and MORE life charms ;p

Depending on your +skills, the +300 ED on the Fortitude can actually make a big difference. Don't get me wrong ... overcoming Fort's 35-40 point lower resists is hard (and I also prefer the CoH :-). But simply switching between Fort and CoH on the example smiter that kingdryland uses in his 1-pt guide shows about a 1.1K difference (remembering to ignore the Lying Character Screen effect):


Fortitude/HoZ smite dmg = 4978-5008, CoH/HoZ smite dmg = 3887-3910, Difference about 1.1K

Of course, if you "fix" the Fort's low resist problem by switching out the HoZ from kingdryland's example, and replacing it with his high-roll Sanctuary in a +45 Zak, you fix the resists problem but you lose the HoZ's +2 skills and +2 combat skills. After that, the damage difference drops from 1,100 to about 500:


Fort/Sanc smite dmg = 4371-4398, CoH/HoZ smite dmg = 3887-3910, Difference about 500

BTW, as you add +skills with your rings, ammies, Anni and Pally skillers, the raw POINT DIFFERENCE of the damage actually stays about the same (1.1K and 500), but you might not care as much because the total damage numbers get absolutely SICK. :-) For example, if you added just +7 skills to those damage calculations, here's what you get:


Fortitude/HoZ = 6421-6458, CoH/HoZ smite dmg = 5282-5312, Difference about 1.1K
Fort/Sanc = 5751-5786, CoH/HoZ smite dmg = 5282-5312, Difference about 500

See? That 500 point difference doesn't seem so big when you're dealing out 5.7K or 5.2K damage. In return, your CoH/HoZ build gets +4 skills and an extra +2 combat skills. That's why I said at the start that I prefer the CoH/HoZ combo. But obviously, it's all about what YOU prefer.

[Zigzter]

Hmm...guess I'll be searching for a Ber. Thanks guys. :D

..but one fiiiinal question:
I have some 4sock armor with 390 def and good Str. req. Should I use that, or go for something like the Archon Plate?
Will that 100-ish extra defence really matter?

[bthere]

Hmm...guess I'll be searching for a Ber. Thanks guys. :D

..but one fiiiinal question:
I have some 4sock armor with 390 def and good Str. req. Should I use that, or go for something like the Archon Plate?
Will that 100-ish extra defence really matter?

100 final def points wouldn't matter, but we're talkin about the base here. The difference between 390 and 500 will increase your final def by 25%. That's significant, but the "can you afford it" question comes into play. Oddly, I would make the decision not on the character points but on the trading marketplace! Specifically: How easy will it be to get BACK the value of the HRs you put into your armor when you can finally offord something better? Here's an example:

If your 390 is Diamond Mail or Wire Fleece, you could have a hard time trading that away for even the value of the HRs you put into it. But if your 390 is a Dusk Shroud--those are considered pretty popular, even though the 390 isn't considered very high.

Personally, I'd do a little trading and see if I could get a higher-base Dusk Shroud or maybe even a +10% to def Shroud (a CoH built into a 450+ Dusk Shroud is very easy to trade away), and remember that you don't need to find or trade for a 4os Shroud or Archon Plate ... you can get a plain white one (or white/superior with up to 15% def added) with no sockets, and use a Laz quest to socket it. CoH needs 4 sockets, and the Laz quest *always* gives 4. Only thing to watch for are the really low-roll Shrouds and APs. A 420 AP, for example, is gonna be almost as hard to sell as a 420 Diamond Mail :-)

Just my two cents

[BAMFSpecialOps]

I would stay away from Sup armors/weapons, the repair costs can get sky high.

[Zigzter]

Well surprisingly, the Countess dropped a Mal, which I traded for a 4 socket 490 def Archon Plate, so now I have CoH. :D

..I probably overpayed, but I really wanted that armor. :P

[bthere]

Wow! Very cool and congratulations!

[Zigzter]

Thank you!

..and also thank you to you guys for helping me out. :D