Pvm cleg zealot mini guide

[grobblewobble]

Ok, I did some number crunching.

Let's assume level 80. Clegs toothpick deals 60 avg. dmg = 90 inc. DS.

Fanaticism 20:

Physical damage ~= 9 * 90 = 810
5.2 attacks / second (4 frame attacks)
=> about 4.2k dmg / sec and 3 CB / sec

Now Holy Freeze. We can replace Twitch with another armor, because the +20% IAS does not reach a BP (recall clegs itself has +20). Let's say we wear Rattlecage instead for more CB.

Physical damage ~= 5.3 * 90 = 470
Cold damage = 750
Total damage / attack = 1220
3.6 attacks / second (6 frame attacks)
=> about 4.4k damage / sec and 3 CB / sec


Now recall that this is the pure raw damage. The ONLY advantage fanaticism offers is an increase in damage per second, yet this calculation shows that Holy Freeze is slightly better even just for that purpose.

[zrk]

things to note -

cold resist on average higher than physical resist
attack rating significantly higher on fanat build(fanat+spare points to blessed aim)

[grobblewobble]

Good points.

However, all in all, after playing through the first 50 levels with both setups, I still feel the holy freeze aura is overall better for solo play. In a team people would love a level 20 fanaticism, but for me personally that is irrelevant as I only play SP.

There are a number of reasons why I feel Holy Freeze is really superior to fanaticism in SP.

First off, it should be noted that 5 frames / sec is possible to attain without fanaticism. One option is to wear the Goldwrap belt, but then you'd lose CBF (very dangerous). Another, if you find a really good one handed weapon, is use death's gloves instead of full clegs. However, at high level I doubt that any weapon can match the high damage, speed, DS and CB from Cleg's full set, so I would only choose this option for intermediate levels. (Cleg's sword increases damage with level.)

So in that case we're stuck with 6 frames attacks. And as you pointed out, average damage per swing will be lower on many monsters because of cold resistance.

But there are some compensations for that. First off, I didn't include the pulse damage. This is another 160 damage / pulse on every monster in range, which really adds up when you are fighting hordes. With my fana zealot it took me forever to cut my way through the crowds of burning dead and later the blood maggots in NM. With the frost zealot it was a walk in the park. Even on average sized mobs the pulse damage can easily add another 1k / second at high level.

Then, I like a mix of cold damage, physical damage and CB better than only physical damage / CB. Cold resistance is more common than physical resistance, but most monsters are at least vulnerable to either. Immunities are much less of a worry.

The difference in attack rating is another good point, but it is not *that* big a difference, since zeal alone offers +200% AR and clegs set offers a very large bonus in itself. Also, the fanaticism setup absolutely needs Twitchtroe to reach the IAS BP, while the holy freeze setup does not. So with holy freeze you have more gear options. One could get away with goldskin for resistances and then replace one resistance ring and ammy with Angels.

Granted, you'd also lose max block in that case, but you gain a lot of defense rating. Also, max block is not as critical when all monsters walk around at half speed.