Clerv's PvM Auradin Guide

[Armandhammer]

I read your guide and I just gotta build me an Auradin. I think I am going with the Act I merc/Ice route without the life tap.

I noticed in your guide that you have 29% life leech. Would you mind breaking it down and letting us know what items you get this from??? Does the life leech from the "Ice" apply to the Auradin the same as the Merc?? (I've never used a bow Merc before)

I think I can access most of the gear for the set-up; however, I've still got to find a 4-socket phase blade and a 4-socket great bow. I have noticed that online dealers have Grand Matron and Matriarchal "Ice" bows ready to go, any comments on those two versus the Grand???

[Clervis]

I read your guide and I just gotta build me an Auradin. I think I am going with the Act I merc/Ice route without the life tap.

I noticed in your guide that you have 29% life leech. Would you mind breaking it down and letting us know what items you get this from??? Does the life leech from the "Ice" apply to the Auradin the same as the Merc?? (I've never used a bow Merc before)

I think I can access most of the gear for the set-up; however, I've still got to find a 4-socket phase blade and a 4-socket great bow. I have noticed that online dealers have Grand Matron and Matriarchal "Ice" bows ready to go, any comments on those two versus the Grand???

Awesome choice of merc. That's the way I went anyway. She's awesome because she slows everyone down so much between here holy freeze, freezing arrows, and frost nova. Not to mention that it's very rare that she dies.

29 Life leech-Let's see. I wrote this a long time ago so let me think. String of Ears gave me 8%, HoJ gives 7%, Blood gloves have 1-3% on them plus up to 3% for 6%, and a rare ring for 8%. That gives you potential for 29%. The more the better, but my guy probably had around 23%. And lifeleech from merc doesn't affect you, just her.

Don't worry about those Grand Matron and Matriarhcal bows. They are for Amazons only. Your merc can't equip them and I'd hate to see you spend the money for something you can't use.

Let me know how he works when you finish him! :wink3:

[HCKull]

Most of your damage is elemental so leach does not help you.

I think a insight wielding prayer merc would help tons.

[Clervis]

Most of your damage is elemental so leach does not help you.

I think a insight wielding prayer merc would help tons.

An insight prayer merc is a good idea, but I much prefer Holy Freeze if it's available because the slows enemies down so dramatically. And slower enemies means less damage taken of all kinds.

Most of your damage is elemental, but you'll still be doing enough to leech. A phase blade does 31-35 average damage and HoJ gives that +280%-330% for an average physical damage of around 132 damage times your strength bonus and Zeal/Sacrifice bonus and you'll triple that. So you'll be doing about 500 average physical damage after DS and other mods. With 29% life leech and 6 attacks per second that 500 can rope you some decent life. And it's low enough to not obliterate when you get hit with IM. It's a pretty nice compromise.

[Armandhammer]

While I'm waiting to find a bow to make the ICE and since I have a Rift polearm on hand, I thought I would try out an Act 2 Merc with this weapon for the time being. The guide suggests either a Prayer or a Defiance Merc, has anyone tried these out?? What were the results?? Anyone try any of the other Act 2 Merc types besides Prayer and Defieance?? If so, any comments???

[Clervis]

Despite what I originally wrote, I'd probably suggest a Holy Freeze merc. The Frozen Orb from Rift slows enemies down but not to the degree that Holy Freeze does and it's not as dependable. Prayer is going to help you gain back some of your life (you may have noticed that this build regains life slowly, but it also looses life rather slowly; so an aura like Prayer that is usually thought to be too little, can still be useful). Defiance also helps reduce incoming damage, but I'm not sure by how much. Just give them all a shot and see which one you like best.

[Jormasteri]

Excellent guide as usual Clervis

I am somewhat puzzled though about strength. You mention your Auradin has
base strength. Yet I cannot see how I'd ever manage that.
What gear did you use during levelling up? Did you have +str charms?
Sigon's set for example needs 60 if I recall correctly.
Can't think of many items that only need base strength and offer enough
to wear rest of gear, well, Face of Horror is one, any tips on this?

Not that I'm that concerned about "wasting" stat points, just curious :scratch:

[Clervis]

Excellent guide as usual Clervis

I am somewhat puzzled though about strength. You mention your Auradin has
base strength. Yet I cannot see how I'd ever manage that.
What gear did you use during levelling up? Did you have +str charms?
Sigon's set for example needs 60 if I recall correctly.
Can't think of many items that only need base strength and offer enough
to wear rest of gear, well, Face of Horror is one, any tips on this?

Not that I'm that concerned about "wasting" stat points, just curious :scratch:

If I remember correctly, it was a bit of a struggle. Since I had my gear all together before I started making him, I was able to borrow some decent items with low strength, and I think I did use Sigon's. But, basically, the Auradin is pretty puny until he gets to the levels to get his Holy Shock and Holy Fire gear. However, at level 30 he starts providing Conviction which is great for party play, even if you aren't doing the killing. So what I'm basically saying is that it is most easily done by relying on other people. Join party games and leach off of others and supply useful auras when you can, but don't count on getting good gear until you get to enough level to start using things like Torch and Anni which let you in turn use other things.

As far as strength is concerned, you want enough strength to wear your armor after you strength bonus from anni, torch, jewelry, and any other source of strength that comes from gear with a low strength requirement. This is so that when you die you can grab your body and immediately be wearing all your equipment. Say for example, you use a +5 strength charm to put on your armor which in turn lets you put on your shield and helm. Then you stash the charm afterwards because the armor provides the extra strength. Then when you die and go back to retrieve your cadaver you'll put on everything except your armor, helm, and shield, which will stay on your corpse if you don't have inventory room. Then, you die again. You decide it's impossible to get through those monsters back to your gear so you quit. But that means you'll have more than one corpse with items. The game will dispose of your corpse of lesser value (selling value to venders, not actual currency worth). I've had to learn this the hard way. But I suggest getting your gear in advance so you know how much strength, if any, that you will need.

But back to the matter of gear. Get a scepter with +Holy Shock as soon as you can and put your points into Resist Lightning first. Grab all the strength charms you can find. Mahim-Oak Curio ammy gives you +10 all stats at level 25. Face of Horror like you said. Once you get 60 put on Sigon's gloves and then the rest of the set. The Gnasher at level 5 gives 8 str. Crushflange at level 9 gives +15 str. Cathan's Ring and Ammy give you some decent mods including +10 str at level 11. Skewer of Krinitz is a sword with +10 str at level 10 or Grizwald's Edge gives +12 at lvl 17. I'm not sure which level Honor is, but it would make an awesome scepter with +10 str and Lionheart is another runeword armor with +25! str and reqs -15%. Strength (AmnTir) is a decent weapon with +20 str.

All these items aren't too hard to find. I suggest you first get all the gear your Auradin will use. Then find some good gear to level. I'd personally suggest grabbing Honor, Face of Horror, Strength, Lionheart, and Sigons before you start. And then you should be set.

[Jormasteri]

Thanks for the great info. My Auradin will (at first) be somewhat of a poor man's version, at the end of last ladder it might have been different.
I did build an Avenger at the end of ladder, he was great fun too but Gimmershred just wasn't that strong in large games against Oblivion's.
I have half of items ready for him, couple of items that are missing will cost me arm and a leg
I also plan to either skip the Torch or get as low as possible. Im among those people that wish it didn't have firestorm at all.

So either way, I'm not gonna be able to build the "ultimate" Auradin.
But yeah, as a big fan on twinking gear I'll have to see what I can get for him.

[Clervis]

You could get a torch for another character. The plus skills thing really isn't that important (it just helps you if you want to plan out having exactly a level 25 Conviction). But the stats and the resists go a long way. So you could use any torch you want and still benefit greatly.

The firestorm is different from the firestorm provided from Phoenix. When it casts from Phoenix it automatically makes you stop swing to cast it like a spell. On the torch, it will just spit one out without interruption. The only problem is that I requires a lot of you graphics card. Actually, the Auradin as a whole is a very graphically intensive build. You've got pulse hitting everyone, your character swinging away at 4 frames per attack, Hydras popping up everywhere and shooting there own things, any monsters on the screen, your merc firing away with her own aura (and causing tons of frost novas in my case), the firestorm from the torch, the curses caused mainly by your dream gear, and all the other animations that are going on. I had a crappy processor so occasionally I would get booted because my computer couldn't keep up, usually in baal runs where there were a bunch of sorcs casting meteor and blizzard. But other than the additional graphic strain on your computer, I can't think of why you'd pass up something as good as a torch.