What merc//equip 4 smiter???

[XavierX]

Well here goes,

I got 5x keyset from my hammerdin and i want to hunt orgs and uber tristram. I rerolled a baal GC the other day and got a pcomb w/lifer mod(33) and sold it for 9hrs, grief (descent 0ne), and plain pcomb. So i figured that gave me enuff wealth to bild me a smiter to use those keys and do the ultimate quests.

1pt Smiter setup lvl83
Max Zeal (main skill)
Max Sacrifice
Max Fanaticism
Max Holy Shield
1pt in prerequisites including vigor and redemption

equipment
Weapon Grief 37//363
SHeild HoZ ed179
Armor Fortitude proll on resist 30//def 1338
Treachery
Gully's Face
Boots Gores 175ed
Gloves Dracs
Belt Immortal King
Ammy changed to Maras for resist
rings have ravenfrost and Manald Heal Ring (gives 6% mana stole/hit, replenish life 5, regen mana 20%)

anni in inventory, got a ptorch and pcomb on hammerdin i can use on smiter if needed.

I do notice that some bosses i cant hardly touch w/physical dmage immunity. So my question is what else do i need to have smiter ready for ubers and what merc do i use with what equip to compliment the smiter on monster immunity issues. I plan to use him to hunt keys and do ubers.

Thanks for your help
Xx

[Scudstorm]

No merc.

No immunities for keys/ubers (except ghosts in trist/forgotten sands that you're better off skipping). You do need an IM solution.

[XavierX]

I just got ravenfrost ring, so there is 1 missing piece and then will look for good immunity ring.

Does mf % effect key finds any? i always wondered that. do i need to beef mf% as much as possible? not too much gear for smiter allows this but i can include sc's if necessary.

TY
Xx

[Flax]

in tristram you shouldnt use a merc but other then that either and act1 with a CtC amp damage or an atc with reapers toll with CtC decreepify would solve the PI issues.

And i guess just using the hammerdin to clear the way to get the brain and then swap to simter if needed for izual but he's a wuss so i guess the hammerdin should take him no prob

[XavierX]

in tristram you shouldnt use a merc but other then that either and act1 with a CtC amp damage or an atc with reapers toll with CtC decreepify would solve the PI issues.

And i guess just using the hammerdin to clear the way to get the brain and then swap to simter if needed for izual but he's a wuss so i guess the hammerdin should take him no prob


thanx Flax


well,,,,,

I just had a guy tell me i need to completely rebuild to survive uber. His recommendation was to max
Smite
Fanaticism
Holt Shield
Defiance

Gear
Chain of Honors
Last Wish w/Exile

Grief w/ upped HoZ

Thats a bit pricey, but i can almost cover it if i mf the sok items.

Can anyone tell me the formula to up the HoZ?

thx
Xx

[butchie]

You don't need to max smite. Adding smite damage is pointless, because you take ubers down by crushing blow mainly and the +damage from grief helps you when they're low on health and cb is not that effective anymore.

Chains of Honor helps with massive resists and is better choice than fortitude.

Personally i prefer the Grief / Hoz setup. It's cheaper and the last part of ubers life goes down quickly with grief. Again, there's no need to up hoz, the smite damage you'll gain is neglectable against ubers (the up formula is "1 Ko Rune + 1 Lem Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Exceptional Unique Armor = Elite Version of Armor").

Looking at your setup, i'd swap ik belt with tgods for some lightning absorb and also nagel with ravenfrost for CBF. Andy's visage is also not my first pick for uber smiter helm. Better take coa (expensive) or gully's face (cheap and effective) for some extra CB.

P.S.: mf does not affect key drops in any way.

[XavierX]

You don't need to max smite. Adding smite damage is pointless, because you take ubers down by crushing blow mainly and the +damage from grief helps you when they're low on health and cb is not that effective anymore.

Chains of Honor helps with massive resists and is better choice than fortitude.

Personally i prefer the Grief / Hoz setup. It's cheaper and the last part of ubers life goes down quickly with grief. Again, there's no need to up hoz, the smite damage you'll gain is neglectable against ubers (the up formula is "1 Ko Rune + 1 Lem Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Exceptional Unique Armor = Elite Version of Armor").

Looking at your setup, i'd swap ik belt with tgods for some lightning absorb and also nagel with ravenfrost for CBF. Andy's visage is also not my first pick for uber smiter helm. Better take coa (expensive) or gully's face (cheap and effective) for some extra CB.

P.S.: mf does not affect key drops in any way.

Butchie,

Would I understand that you would use greif//HoZ all the way thru, because he said i would have to swap from greif//HoZ to Last Wish//Exile to be able to finish off the bosses.

Do i run straight to bosses and use smite?

[Crowd Control]

Butchie,

Would I understand that you would use greif//HoZ all the way thru, because he said i would have to swap from greif//HoZ to Last Wish//Exile to be able to finish off the bosses.

Do i run straight to bosses and use smite?

Grief + HoZ can be used anywhere in the game to clear out non-PI enemies (also no IM around preferably). There is absolutely NO added value to blow money in a LW if you can get other sources of CB and Life Tap. So DO NOT buy / make that. Also Exile is just gravy and HoZ is the better shield imo anyway, on top of that it is easily affordable. Just stick to Grief + HoZ.

You could run straight to bosses and smite, you will hit them. I preferably have a Life Tap charged item on switch to cast that beforehand. That way you won't have troubles with CtC Life Tap. Both work eventually.

[SnickerSnack]

Your skills are correct, the guy who told you to max smite and defiance is just wrong. It might work, but it's totally unnecessary and only makes the character less versatile.


equipment
Weapon Grief 37//363
SHeild Spirit good resis all 75,76 +2 skilz
Armor Fortitude proll on resist 30//def 1338
Helm Andariels Visage
Boots Gores 175ed
Gloves Dracs
Belt Immortal King
Ammy Seraphs hymn (Ihave a maras)
rings have aheal ring and nagel ring

These look fine too, but you'll want to prebuff with Treachery. Just put it on and stand in one of the fires when you first enter tristram, then swap back to fort. CoH is good, but I think that fort/treachery > CoH. More damage, increased max light res, more damage reduction..... As was mentioned, HoZ is much better than spirit for this; also, as was noted, don't upgrade it.

Then I ran ubers, I used a chromatic amulet of the bat for some mana leech while fighting Baal. (I'm pretty sure that mana leech worked on him.)

I used String of Ears for more %DR and MDR.

[XavierX]

Good fortune today,

I got a HoZ for an anni. anni was low so, i think i got the better deal. So now my set up is

equipment
Weapon Grief 37//363
SHeild HoZ ed 179
Armor Fortitude p roll on resist 30//def 1338
Helm Andariels Visage
Boots Gores 175ed
Gloves Dracs
Belt Immortal King
Ammy Seraphs hymn (Ihave a maras)
rings have a heal ring and Ravenfrost

Since i got fort already i may just do the treachery thing as its cheap and leaves my high runes for other things. I have an SOJ, but i think some kind of resist ring or something with life/mana leach would be best. Ive done all the anaya runs and my resist is bad,,,-7, -5, 26, 25.

Ill keep my eye out for Tgods belt, found 3 last week,,,lol. Dracs have life tap,,,but will that do it ro do i need another item? Thinking about switching out seraphs for maras for the resist boost. I will look above for the helm recommendations and do my best to get that changed, I am not a big fan of andariels, but it was available.

It sounds like I wont have a setup to switch to. So grief/Hoz the whole time. Smite on left, fanatcism on right, then what, when bosses get low i need to click the left to Zeal so i can leave fanacticism on the right for aura. That sounds like a pain but it sounds like this is the plan,

Smite/fanatacism to Zeal/fanatacism

I have been to uber with a friend and those bosses heal quick so i cant let off of them. the transition will need to be smooth.

Ty
Xx

[krischan]

1pt Smiter setup lvl83
That's called a fana-zealot. He just happens to have smite because it's a prereq for HS, although he will use it a lot versus hell Baal and the übers :whistling:

Armor: Enigma for organs/Baal, Smoke or CoH for Über Tristram (Smoke is good enough, I'm using that armor). You don't need Fortitude. A zealot has so much off-weapon %ed (more than 1000% if he has an act 2 nightmare offensive merc) that this armor won't do that much. Better get Enigma to reach the organ droppers and Baal more quickly. In Tristram you need 125% extra res, e.g. with a Smoke armor and 5 allres GCs.

Spirit (or +skills of any kind) is useless on a zealer. Get a HoZ. However, when using Enigma, you will use a Wizardspike and Spirit on the weapon switch. You just need to have 75% fcr and as many resists as you lose by not wearing that HoZ, so even the most crappy Spirit will be good for that.

Belt: T-God's. It will make you effectively immune to lightning from monsters and it also adds 20 to str and vit.

Amulet: Highlord's. Its DS and IAS will help much more than what Seraph's Hymn can offer and as said, +skills aren't needed on a zealer.

Rings: Ravenfrost and dual leech. You just need a small amount of ML, 3% are enough when fighting leechables with zeal. Ravenfrost adds lots of dex and what's more important, CBF.

Charms: Resists, all the rest MF (with Enigma, you can also do Baal runs with that character and have rather decent MF from that armor and a few charms... my zealot has 200%). No skillers needed.

[butchie]

The life tap on draculs will do, but make sure you have some full rejuv pots in your belt because it can take few seconds before the life tap kicks in. Other option is to have a wand with life tap charges on switch.

-7, -5, 26, 25. The resists are ridiculously low for ubers. You'd end up at/close to -100 with mephisto's conviction aura active. There are several options on how to boost them.
Be sure to stick a um rune into your hoz and you can also place some resist jewel into your helm. Also get a random class torch with high resists (you dont need expensive pala ones, assa or druid one will do for the ressits).
Coh / mara / rare res ring can help you with your resists too. If you don't want to swap your current gear, you can pack your char with @res grand charms or single res small charms.
Treachery for fade prebuff is another cheap way on how to improve resists before facing ubers.

[SnickerSnack]

It sounds like I wont have a setup to switch to. So grief/Hoz the whole time. Smite on left, fanatcism on right, then what, when bosses get low i need to click the left to Zeal so i can leave fanacticism on the right for aura. That sounds like a pain but it sounds like this is the plan,

Smite/fanatacism to Zeal/fanatacism

I have been to uber with a friend and those bosses heal quick so i cant let off of them. the transition will need to be smooth.

Ty
Xx

Why would you switch to zeal? Just smite the whole time. The reason you use smite is that it autohits. Zeal has a chance to miss.

The reason you put points in zeal is so the character is useful for other things besides just ubers. Zeal helps in taking out the uber minions once the uber is dead, but really, you could do uber trist without zeal/sac.

[XavierX]

Why would you switch to zeal? Just smite the whole time. The reason you use smite is that it autohits. Zeal has a chance to miss.

The reason you put points in zeal is so the character is useful for other things besides just ubers. Zeal helps in taking out the uber minions once the uber is dead, but really, you could do uber trist without zeal/sac.

Thanks for clearing that up. i was wonderign because i could swear people keep saying to use the grief on the boss once his life is low and that was confusing me because smite would be using the shield as a weapon and if i used greif i thought would mean going back to zeal w/aura. And i wasnt sure if getting the life/mana leech meant a hit with sword or if smite would trigger the leach. So i am set, Smitem into the ground.

[XavierX]

T A zealot has so much off-weapon %ed (more than 1000% if he has an act 2 nightmare offensive merc) that this armor won't do that much.

My hammerdins ofensive merc is equipped with a thresher insight, eth fort, crown of thieves. Would this be a good setup for zealot merc?

Xx

[krischan]

The merc will already benefit from the hammerdin's concentration aura and have his own might aura, as well as a decent str bonus. When assuming L30 concentration, L20 might and 200 str will already have 925% off-weapon %ed, i.e. 10-fold weapon damage. With Fortitide, it will be 13-fold. That's 1.3 times as much as without it.

BTW, I would use an act 2 nightmare defensive merc for a hammerdin. He will have 230% less off-weapon. There's nearly no monster which can resist BH, so your hammerdin is good enough to kill everything on his own while the merc just has to distract monsters and fix them in place while surviving the whole. He doesn't need killing power, so a holy freeze merc will probably do better, by slowing down the monsters, so more hammers hit them before they reach your character or run away too far.

[XavierX]

. Andy's visage is also not my first pick for uber smiter helm. Better take coa (expensive) or gully's face (cheap and effective) for some extra CB.

Butchie,

wut helm we talkin on coa?

ty
Xx

[Crowd Control]

Guillaume's face. From the eeeeeh Orphan's Call set item, iirc.

[XavierX]

This thread has been very helpful. Thanks to all that took the time to give up some info. My inventory is updated again to show my helm changed to gullys Face.

equipment
Weapon Grief 37//363
SHeild HoZ ed179
Armor Fortitude proll on resist 30//def 1338
Treachery
Gully's Face 120ed
Boots Gores 175ed
Gloves Dracs
Belt Immortal King
Ammy changed to Maras for resist
rings have ravenfrost and Manald Heal Ring (gives 6% mana stole/hit, replenish life 5, regen mana 20%)

I just about have everything for CoH and Last Wish and unless someone comes along to change my mind i will probabaly spend for those 2 items. i did 2 org hunts today and i did pretty good. But i am sure ubers r much tuffer. i think the only thing left for me is to get those resistances stacked and i can hang. that is why i decided on CoH, seems like a more solid pick.

I took a cta in with me and the boost came in real handy against andi. The 1pt smite seemed capable only until they are almost dead and then it just seems like it stops working to a degree. i just stay on them and all went well.

Ubers here i come.
Xx

[birthdaycake]

The thing about Last Wish is that it covers so many bases.

You'll have a source of life tap so you don't need Dracs (I use Laying of Hands for IAS), plus it is triggered WAY more than Dracs. I died a few times to Lilith before I got Last Wish and it basically LT'd every half second, instead of sometimes (in bad situations) waiting ten seconds or so for it to come on.

You don't need the Might aura from your merc, so you can change your merc to (I'd say) Defiance (although I chose not to since I get Defiance from Exile).

Ignore Targets Defense also means you'll hit a LOT.

Chance to cast Fade is invaluable and easier than using Treachery. It's a higher level (I think?) and lasts longer, so that helps out your resistances.

It has a fat chunk of CB which means you don't need Gface helm. I just used a Shako for skills and life.

Chains of Honour gives you mass resistances, great armour but I guess not totally necessary if you can get away with it.

In short, Last Wish can replace (at least in your setup), gloves, helm, your merc's aura. Choose your own shield (HoZ would be good), and yeah. It may take a bit longer to finish off the ubers at the end of their life but just keep smiting, it'll get there.

Also, if your resists are terrible, then just switch to Salvation. You may attack a bit slower but you'll live.

Oh yeah and rings I had were Ravenfrost and Nature's Peace. Forgot whether prevent monster heal works on the bosses (hey look LW has that too!)

Edit: Also, for Phys Immunes, try Azurewrath. Works a charm

[butchie]

Butchie,

wut helm we talkin on coa?

ty
Xx

coa = crown of ages, but then gores would be your only source of CB... so i'd stick with gully's face.

Uber tristram is not that much harder than organ hunts. The only problem is mephisto. The general tactic is to lure uber meph out first, keep the distance and once he casts one of his spells rush to him and start smiting. My smiter gets one hitted by his charged bolt sometimes when im not careful, but once you get close to him and life tap kicks in, it's matter of seconds with grief.

Uber baal and uber diablo are piece of cake really.

[Scudstorm]

The thing about Last Wish is that it covers so many bases.

You'll have a source of life tap so you don't need Dracs (I use Laying of Hands for IAS)

Except that, if you use Grief pb you don't need IAS.


I died a few times to Lilith before I got Last Wish and it basically LT'd every half second, instead of sometimes (in bad situations) waiting ten seconds or so for it to come on.

Dying to Lilith was probably due to her high damage rather than LT failing to proc. Remember that LW offers DR. Generally, higher hp will solve the issue.


Ignore Targets Defense also means you'll hit a LOT.

Which Grief also has... in addition to -25% enemy defense. Which means you'll hit a lot more the bosses/superuniques. But that's a moot point since it's better to simply Smite those, and Smite auto-hits. Note that Smite damage skyrockets with Grief.


Chance to cast Fade is invaluable and easier than using Treachery. It's a higher level (I think?) and lasts longer, so that helps out your resistances.

Nope, 6% of lvl 11 on LW, and 5% of lvl 15 on Treachery. Both are procs through getting hit or sitting in fire, in which 1% doesn't make a big difference so both are equally easy to cast. However, the point is as a pally, you won't need the extra resists when you're not facing UberMeph, which means the 288 seconds from a Treachery proc are more than enough for all the occasions where you'd want it.


It has a fat chunk of CB which means you don't need Gface helm. I just used a Shako for skills and life.

Skills won't make your damage with LW higher than no skills with Grief. More life and DR are always welcome, but hardly needed on a Zealot/Smiter. Shako is more of a caster item.


Forgot whether prevent monster heal works on the bosses (hey look LW has that too!)

Doesn't work. In any case, the regen is mostly counted with Open Wounds from Dracs/Gores (since Meph is poison immune, poison wouldn't be an ideal solution here).

The thing is, while LW covers a lot of points (CB, LT, Resists) for a Uber run, it doesn't free up enough slots to justify the loss of damage over Grief. You'd not need Treachery pre-buff, Dracul's Grasp and Guillaume's face, but there aren't really any better items to put into those slots. And look at the prices! With the runes in LW, you can buy your entire uber setup using Grief. And yet, the Grief setup will be more effective.

All LW offers is extra safety, but as a standard Grief setup will not die, it's really a moot point.

[XavierX]

Very compelling points Scudstorm. I like the complete breakdown and play by play. I would like to hear your thoughts on CoH against Fortitude//Treach prebuff.

Is there much gain? I do need more resists althogh when i do get a torch on him its going to help. Im sitting @ 75's in hell,,,lightning 66 (w ThGods belt on) and I now have 2 GC's for cold poison (27, 28) and looking for 2 more to complete the resist. Since he doesnt mf i can fill his inventory with life/resists. Wut ur thoughts?

And also, If LW is really not needed here, It sounds more like a luxury//preference to have. what about carrying cta for life/mana/skill boost? good idea?

Xx

[butchie]

@ cta: It's not necessary, but ofcourse the extra life helps to improve your chances to survive.