best untwinked 3-person team

[Famlith]

My vote would go to Shadowsin, Druid, Amazon.

Shadowsin - CoS (awesme CC), Venom, Fade, SM. DF for teleport and venom-killing. Tiger strike if you want more damage in melee.
- This gives tank (Shadow Master), cc, moblity and high poison damage.

Druid (Wolfpack) - standard Fury setup with Dire Wolf instead of bear, heart of wolverine and Hurricane.
- Extra CC, high physical damage + group buff, added minions for damage/tanking.
- Other option would be elementalist w/ Spirit of Oak and solar creeper for added Cold/Fire damage

Amazon - Magic arrow or Exploding arrow preferably.
- Aim here is for added AoE dps and/or sustained single target dps. (Magic arrow doesn't hit hard... until you add in mercs, wolverine and a semi-decent bow :P)

Mercs - Prayer (sin), Might (druid) and (just for kicks) a Lightning Iron Wolf (amazon). Player-merc pairings should help to keep ranged merc out of trouble barring artificial stupidity. Other option (with Javazon instead) would be to take a cold or fire merc depending on which is lacking (probably cold).

So. a few off the wall ideas but it works pretty well for me and a couple friends.

[MYK]

how can that DPS be too low ?

When you compare the hammerdin to everything else, he's the king of doing DPS, regardless of 99% of immune monsters.

Zeal-Victor isn't underpowered or sucky at all with enchant, but he's not a hammerdin.

The Hammerdin may be part of the best overall team, but the OP only mentions beating Normal and Nightmare and reaching Hell in a reasonable amount of time, this doesn't require a team of hammerdins to accomplish. There are many builds that can reach Hell, just not as many will bulldozer it as fast.

[fledgeling]

2 hammerdins + a sorc are simply the strongest.

I dont play HC much, but I assume it has to be quite boring to be a BO barb (who cant really attack, since you dont have any weapons for him - untinked; perhaps with a shield, some mana leech ring and 1h weapon he could just try to WW around and not die..).

If you dont want 2 hammerdins + sorc (quite boring I have to admit), Id use:
light trapper with shadow (shadow is the tank)
orb sorc (or perhaps blizzard)
either skelly necromancer as suggested (skellies are tanks), or a hammerdin/tornado druid with oak for life; in theory the palladin could also be a FOHer, to heal others/use conviction, but such a char would again be quite boring to play IMO (and noone would heal him)

the problem with 3 mages on team is that they are mana dependant, but you can just buy pots..

[Krupa]

i still think sorc/barb/hdin is the strongest combo:

u donŽt need more tanks than three boŽed mercs if ur barb is a singer, since he will keep everything (except champions & bosses) stunned for 5+ seconds. he can get some cb weapons (strength, black or even a lot of normal uniques grant cb) for bosses (BA merc will help with the cth)
the hdin can use a 1 pt smite with a cb weapon for bosses (smite them against a wall with res aura active for nasty enchanted ones) and has the maybe highest raw dmg output of all untwinked chars.
a sorc is needed to teleport for faster rerunning and area skipping, also provides enough dmg to back up the hdin to kill the stunned or next to a wall located monsters. single tree sorcs have an immense high dmg output for an untwinked char

just my thoughts why this combo would smash everything everywhere faster than any other

[zrk]

Theres just no way a barb could kill faster than the additional DPS provided by a second hdin's killing skills + conviction. CB isnt even needed or terribly useful against anything except hell baal, all other bosses are a joke for hdins.

[mouseman]

There are certainly a lot of ways 3 player team can synergize. So don't just take one but talk with each other and what you'd like to play. It's a terrible idea to have a BO barb just for BO. Make it an item finder or WW'er. But I think teams work best when everyone can kill, although some players enjoy support roles.

Here's what I like the best:

Avenger Paladin: with conviction aura this character is the ultimate party leader. Nothing is immune to the avenger as he uses vengeance as his main skill. Also, an avenger is a complete tank with holy shield.

FB/FO sorceress/javazon: Both of these characters excel without any items. Frozen Orb and Lightning Strike are excellent skills on their own but with conviction aura everything turns into a slaughterhouse.

This leaves things open for imagination. Personally I like Corpse Explosion necromancers and they are very versatile with respects in mind. Just go for what you'd like to try, experience and have fun.

[Krupa]

Theres just no way a barb could kill faster than the additional DPS provided by a second hdin's killing skills + conviction. CB isnt even needed or terribly useful against anything except hell baal, all other bosses are a joke for hdins.

when we talk about pure damage over time, u are most probably right.
however the barb adds a ton of safety. to the hdin, that prolly, untwinked as he is, wonŽt have the best items and life. to the sorc, that has to teleport through hell to bosses and the like without having good equipment. and to the mercs, that...well see the other too chars.

the cheap cb weapons were just one way the barb could add to the fight, when he stunned everything. horking, as suggested, would be another one ofc

[StoneTemplePirate]

A corpse explosion necro would completely own when paired up with a conviction pally. Can you say -100 fire resist and amp damage active? CE would absolutely destroy.

[tetracycloide]

Plenty of monsters can fit into hammer radius.. in fact all monsters with strategic importance in almost every run i can think of

Like monsters standing immediately below the hammerdin right? Look, I know you love the hammerdin because on paper it's the 'fastest' in a twinked team because of the sheer damage output but I've played enough of them to know that they're not a very strong untwinked build in nightmare/hell. I'm sorry, they just aren't. They're not very durable untwinked and hammers aren't that easy to aim in many many areas of the game without teleport or the freedom of movement durability gives you.

[zrk]

Like monsters standing immediately below the hammerdin right? Look, I know you love the hammerdin because on paper it's the 'fastest' in a twinked team because of the sheer damage output but I've played enough of them to know that they're not a very strong untwinked build in nightmare/hell. I'm sorry, they just aren't. They're not very durable untwinked and hammers aren't that easy to aim in many many areas of the game without teleport or the freedom of movement durability gives you.

In a team setup, sorc can tele over the annoying/questing areas(and as per premises of powergaming, i dont see reason not to). In a solo endeavor without boosters sorc would obviously be the optimal choice..