Baking Cookies with Nightfish (Mini Build Guides)

[Nightfish]

Baking cookies with Nightfish

0. What is this?
In one of my recent thread NacRuno asked me to post a quick summary of my favorite builds. Since I've heard worse excuses for a rant, here we go. As we're aiming for a quick summary here, I'll forgo my usual explanations of how to make stuff work and the rationale behind doing stuff the way I did it. I have no intention of changing that as this would turn this would multiply the size of this wall of text by the number of builds, at least. This is how I do it and while all of this works perfectly for me, if you have different goals in mind and abilities at hand you might have to optimise your builds slightly differently.

Note that I make no claim that all of these will be the most overpowered things in the history of forever, these are but my personal favorites for each class. Builds that I genuinely enjoyed playing for one reason or another. Enjoyment for me may or may not translate into enjoyment for you. Personally, I don't enjoy builds that need help getting through the game, so there's one caveat right there. Neither do I relish builds that *require* high end runewords to make them work, nor does a build *have* to be able to MF in order to be fun for me, but most of them are good at that as a consequence of getting through the game on their own and doing it well. Common sense really, what build can get through the game well and not deal with most or at least some of the alvl85 areas in good fashion? I don't like skipping stuff, so if I have to bypass half the content by teleporting, that's not epic fun for me.

This last one thing might be more of a pet peeve of me, but I don't enjoy builds that revolve around one button only. I am no korean, but I've got decently fast fingers and if I'm limited to pressing the right mouse button and nothing else I'm bored. This just as an explanation of what you can expect from these templates.

Anyway, with that out of the way, let's bake some cookies! \o/ Omnomnom!


1. General Stuff

1.1 Skills
I'll list the skills I actually used on the builds, disregarding prerequisites. Yes, you can probably use prerequisite X to great effect. I don't care, I didn't need it. Furthermore, I'll simplify the way I'm listing skills and synergies. Poison Nova (20) means I put 20 hard points here. Attract (1) means I put one in attract and had enough +skills that that was enough to make me happy. Golem Mastery (1+) means that I thought this was a good place to bury excess skill points beyond what my +skills gave me but the build was considered finished at Clay Golem (1).

1.2. Attributes
Assume that *always* I have enough Str (and possibly dex) to wear my gear. If the build lists block, then also enough dex to block. The rest invariably goes into vit. I enter Hell with as little as 800 life and do not use Call to Arms as I don't have it. Anything that needs attack rating has >8000 attack rating in Hell. Often it will even be OVER 9000!!! Just saying.

1.3 Resistances
My resistances are pretty much always like this. Note that poison is not really a priority but a side effect of res all items.

Fire Resistance: >50%
Lightning Resistance: 75%
Cold Resistance: >50%
Poison Resistance: >50%

1.4. Excels at
here I'll list stuff the build did good at, in my opinion. At the moment I am considering the following, either because I ran them myself or because I consider them worth running for one reason or another. Assumes crushing blow on the merc in some cases, on the hero in others. Namely if baal is supposed to be a target. Why do this? Because I never liked doing thousands of runs with the same character over and over again until my eyeballs start to bleed. I don't claim that each of the following builds can wear 1000% MF and run Baal in 53.2 seconds. But I don't need to do that. Wearing 150+% MF and having some fun clearing a few areas gets you items as well. Personally I'd rather have fun with a build and get some items as well than do something I find monotonous and get perhaps 10% more swag as a payoff. Not worth it to me. That is the mindset I have when I say something *can* run an area. I don't care if another build is a little faster. I'm not racing anybody.

alvl85: Refers to areas such as: Pits, Ancient Tunnels, Worldstone Keep, Chaos Sanctuary, River of Flame, etc. Actually encompasses all other areas as well but there is usually less reason to run them. Includes being able to kill Baal and his Minions
Meph: Best Act Boss to start building some wealth. Can be run very, very quickly.
Council: The Council in Travincal. Aparantely a pretty good stop for runes.

(Added after I was done writing this thing: I might expand this a bit later on and give suggestions for suitable areas or something. At the moment it says pretty much nothing because everyone of my chars can run the alvl85 areas pretty well... Perhaps I'll chose an area and time myself doing one run there to sort of give a comparable value of how well each build does. Dunno. Maybe I'll have a bright idea)


2. The Necromancer
Poison&CEmancer
Core Skills: Poison Nova (20) Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Attract (1), Lower Resistances (1), Decrepify (1), Clay Golem (1), Fire Golem (1), Golem Mastery (1+), Summon Resist (1)
Synergy Skills: Poison Dagger (20), Poison Explosion (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: + skills, +%poison skill damage, -enemy poison resistance
Notable Items: Death's Web, Trang Oul's Set (at least get 3 parts, like: Gloves + Belt + Shield), Rainbow Facets (Poison)
Merc: A2Might
Excels at:alvl85, Council

Ye olde Fishymancer
Core Skills: Raise Skeleton (20), Skeleton Mastery (20), Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Amplify Damage(1), Decrepify (1), Clay Golem (1), Fire Golem (1), Iron Golem (1), Golem Mastery (1+), Summon Resist (1), Revive(1)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: + skills
Notable Items: Arm of King Leoric, Homunculus
Merc: A2Might
Excels at:alvl85

Iron Golemancer
Core Skills: Iron Golem (1), Golem Mastery (20), Corpse Explosion (20)
Utility Skills: Amplify Damage(1+), Decrepify (1), Attract (1), Summon Resist (1+), Revive (1+)
Synergy Skills: Fire Golem (20)
Block: No
Item Focus: Weapon Damage, ITD, %AR, flat AR, -target defence, Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Life Leech, Attack Speed
Notable Items: Ribcracker (upgraded), Fortitude, Naj's Puzzler (TP charges), Demon Limb (enchant charges for %AR)
Merc: A2Might
Excels at: Being awesome. alvl85


3. The Amazon
Fend / Lightning
Core Skills: Fend (20), Charged Strike (20), Lightning Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Penetrate (20), Critical Strike (1+), Pierce (1+)
Block: No (fend) yes (lighting)
Item Focus: Fend: Weapon Damage, Lifesteal, Defense (body armour, >1500)
Notable Items: Kelpie Snare (upp'd), Laying of Hands, Fortitude, Thunderstroke, Gloom, Demon Limb (Enchant for AR), Darksight Helm (CoS charges), Delirum (on the merc)
Merc: Act2Might / Act2Defiance
Excels at: alvl85

Ye olde Fishyzon
(call her old at your own risk)
Core Skills: Freezing Arrow (20), Lightning Fury (20), Charged Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Pierce (1+)
Synergy Skills: Cold Arrow (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, + cold / lightning damage, - enemy cold / lightning resist
Notable Items: Griffon's Eye, Melody, Wizendraw,
Merc: A2Might
Excels at: alvl85

Strafe / LF / CS
Core Skills: Strafe (10+), Lightning Fury (20) Charged Strike (20)
Utility Skills: Critical Strike (5+), Penetrate (10+), Pierce (5+)
Block: yes / partly (LF/CS)
Item Focus: Strafe: slow target, weapon damage, AR,
Notable Items: Windforce, Witchwild String (upp'd), Atma's Scarab, Cleglaw's Pincers, Blackhorn's Face, Nosferatu's Coil, Andariel's Visage, Fortitude, Demon Limb (Enchant for AR), Titan's Revenge
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85

M'avinazon
Core Skills: Freezing Arrow (20), Strafe (20)
Utility Skills: Pierce (5+), Critical Strike (1+), Penetrate (1+)
Synergy Skills: Cold Arrow (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: +skills, cold damage, - enemy cold resistance
Notable Items: M'avina's Set (duh?), Insight for the Merc
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: using M'avina's Set. decent at alvl85s (esp Ancient Tunnels)


4. The Druid
Rabies
Core Skills: Rabies (20), Werewolf (1+), Fury (20)
Utility Skills: Lycanthropy (1+)
Synergy Skills: Poison Creeper (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: +Skills, +poison skill damage, -enemy poison resistance, high weapon damage on switch
Notable Items: Death's Web, Trang Oul's gloves, Bramble
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: some alvl85, possily council with uber items

Fury
Core Skills: Fury (20), Werewolf (20), Feral Rage (1+)
Utility Skills: Lycanthropy (20)
Block: no
Item Focus: Weapon Damage, Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Attack Rating, Life Leech
Notable Items: Ribcracker!, Fortitude, Guillaume's Face, Gore Rider, Highlord's Wrath, The Reaper's Toll (possibly on merc), Delirium (merc again)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85 without physical immunes


5. The Sorceress
Nova / Frozen Orb
Core Skills: Nova (20), Static Field (10+), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Lightning Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, fast cast, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy lightning resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: The Occulus (yes, I'm serial) , Visceratuant (upgraded), Griffon's Eye, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85

Chain Lightning / Frozen Orb
Core Skills: Chain Lightning (20), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Lightning Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Synergy Skills: Lightning(20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy lightning resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: Tal's Set , Visceratuant (upgraded), Griffon's Eye, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85

Meteor / Frozen Orb
Core Skills:Meteor (20), Frozen Orb (20)
Utility Skills: Fire Mastery (20), Teleport (1), Cold Mastery (1+), Warmth (1+)
Synergy Skills: Fireball (20)
Block: Yes
Item Focus: +skills, life, damage goes to mana, -enemy fire resistance, +cold skill damage.
Notable Items: Tal's Set , Visceratuant (upgraded), Nightwing's Veil, Delirum (merc), Insight (merc)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85, Act Bosses


6. The Assassin
Ye olde Trapsin
Core Skills: Lightning Sentry (20), Death Sentry (20), Fireblast (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), [Fade (1)],
Synergy Skills: Shocking Web (20)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: +skills
Notable Items: blue +3 Lightning Sentry +3 Trap Skills Claw.
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85

Tiger Strike / Death Sentry
Core Skills: Tiger Strike (20), Death Sentry (20), Regular Attack (to release the charges)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Burst of Speed (1), [Fade (1)], Cobra Strike (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Weapon Damage (use 2h weapon)
Notable Items: Ribcracker, etc
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85

Whirlwind
Core Skills: CM (20), Death Sentry (20), Venom (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1),Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), Fade (1), Lightning Sentry (20) (PIs)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: Damage, Leech, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds
Notable Items: Chaos Suwayyah (Duh), Shadow Killer, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Demon Limb (Enchant), Fortitude
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85

Dragon Claw
Core Skills: Dragon Claw (20), Death Sentry (20), Venom (20)
Utility Skills: Cloak of Shadows (1), Weapon Block (1+), Burst of Speed (1), Fade (1)
Block: Yes (weapon block, so no dex required)
Item Focus: Damage, Leech, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds
Notable Items: Shadow Killer, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Demon Limb (Enchant), Fortitude
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85


7. The Barbarian
Daggerwhirler
Core Skills: Whirlwind (20),
Utility Skills: Battle Orders (20), Shout (20), Natural Resistances (1), Berserk (1+) (for PIs, obviously), Find Item (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Damage, Leech, Defence (body armour, mainly)
Notable Items: Fleshripper x2 (Shael), Fortitude, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Heart Carver x2 (find item switch)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: disproving that you need range 5 weapons to be AWESOME with whirlwind, alvl85 runs, low player settings boss runs

Frenzy
Core Skills: Frenzy (20),
Utility Skills: Battle Orders (20), Shout (20), Natural Resistances (1), Berserk (1+) (for PIs, obviously), Sword Mastery (20), Howl (1+) (possibly needs 10+ points to reliably work in hell when you first enter it, can be reskilled and reduced later on), Find Item (1)
Block: No
Item Focus: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Damage, Leech, Defence (body armour, mainly)
Notable Items: Vile Husk (upp'd) x2, Fortitude, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, Highlord's Wrath, Laying of Hands, Heart Carver x2 (find item switch)
Merc: Act2Might
Excels at: alvl85, possibly council, massive bonus damage vs demons and undead (i.e. pretty much everything)


8. The Paladin
There is no Paladin build I enjoyed enough to list it here. The fact that I cannot use attackskills on the RMB breaks this class for me as much as the lack of inherent CC does. More power to you if you love the paladin. I love them in pretty much any game except for D2. I know they can be quite powerful and useful, I just don't enjoy them very much.


9. Conclusion
Well, that's a wrap for now. I hope this thing proves useful to some of you. If nothing else, it gave me a good idea on which builds I want to take through the game again now that my D2 break is over.

If you didn't like this, be sure to send NacRuno a PM about how this was a horrible, horrible idea. It's all his fault.

If you did like it, be sure to leave a comment and thank me in great detail. It was all my idea with no outside input whatsoever.


10. Links
If you're interested in some more in-depth stuff, all my guardian threads have been collected by Thyiad and can be found here: http://www.chrisclarke.co.uk/nightfish.html. This has a lot of additional info and in many cases offers insight into why I did what I did. Downside is that often I used screenshots to show skill trees and the LCS which is one of the main reasons I wrote this summary thing in the first place.

[kestegs]

Any NF guide is worth a good read! Gives me some good ideas of builds that I may have thought were not viable.

Welcome back NF, we missed you!

[Jcakes]

Rabies
Core Skills: Rabies (40), Werewolf (1+), Fury (20)

I love it how you had rabies at skill level 40

On a more cereal note. Why do you got max block with skelly / poisionmancer but not golemmancer? Is it because you typically use a 2-handed weapon on him to do extra damage?

I also noticed that you listed trangs and block for poisonmancer, do you typically socket the shield with an eld to make it better for blocking?

Otherwise nice insight into the mind of a(the) fish.

[Hammy]

Fantastic writeup NF!

One suggestion: If you wouldn't mind adding a link from each build to your Guardian writeup thread, that would make a great addition without adding to the wall of text. Makes this very much "one-stop-shopping" if anyone is interested in more info on a particular build. Also links to the Fishymancer/zon guides would be huge. I'll dig up the threads if that will help...

2. Necromancer

Poison&CEmancer

Fishymancer Guide

Iron Golemancer


3. Amazon

Fend / Lightning

Ye olde Fishyzon

Fishyzon Guide

Strafe / LF / CS

M'avinazon


4. Druid

Fury / Rabies


5. Sorceress

Nova / Frozen Orb


6. Assassin

Ye olde Trapsin

Tiger Strike / Death Sentry

Whirlwind

Dragon Claw


7. Barbarian

Daggerwhirler


I couldn't find threads for: Fishymancer, CL/FO, Meteorb, Fury and Rabies (but there's a hybrid).

I'm not trying to devalue what you have done here, it's really stellar, but I think this would add a lot. Also, I realize that your Guardians don't necessarily follow your guidelines, but there is some good insight there and they are an entertaining read.


And one nitpick: I don't think your Meteorb is making fantastic use of a Griffon's. I'm guessing that was a copy/paste from the above CL/FO.


Thanks again for the hard work.


-Hammy

[ziambe]

This is nice. Maybe you could link the titles to your guides? Or those that have your seal of approval. How bout a little more detail in the 'excels at' category? On quick glance at sorcs, why viscertuant over a spirit? str?

re: all the runes you've been finding, I am still convinced that D2 somehow recognizes the first month or so upon upgrading to 1.13c and bestows unparalleled luck on the player. Happened to me, happened to others and now again...

[Nightfish]

Any NF guide is worth a good read! Gives me some good ideas of builds that I may have thought were not viable.

Welcome.

Welcome back NF, we missed you!

Uh... get a blessed aim merc?

I love it how you had rabies at skill level 40

That's because originally I had intended to sum up hard points plus synergies. Thus, Rabies (40) = Rabies (20) + Poison Creeper (20) I scrapped that idea halfway through the guide for various reasons but obviously didn't catch all of the instances I had already used it in.

On a more cereal note. Why do you got max block with skelly / poisionmancer but not golemmancer? Is it because you typically use a 2-handed weapon on him to do extra damage?

Yes, as indiciated in the recommended items, this one combines the awesomeness of using iron golem with the even greater awesomeness of "OH MY GOD IT'S A NECROMANCER AND HE'S SMACKING ME IN THE FACE WITH A RIBCRACKER FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE!!!!"

I also noticed that you listed trangs and block for poisonmancer, do you typically socket the shield with an eld to make it better for blocking?

No, not really. I think I used a Perfect Topaz for Lightning Resists. It kinda depends on what you need. Eld is an option, certainly, but I have little trouble achieving max block with the shield as it is and still break 1k life which is kinda my benchmark for "safe enough and then some".

And one nitpick: I don't think your Meteorb is making fantastic use of a Griffon's. I'm guessing that was a copy/paste from the above CL/FO.

Quite so. I fixed it. Shoulda put Nightwing's Veil or something there instead.


As far as links go (good job collecting so many ), Thyiad has already collected a lot of the stuff I wrote over the years. Not just the guardians, but also some other random things:

Links to everything

I figure anyone wanting to know more can take it from there. In some cases, the actual guardian threads are not what I'd build stuff like in hindsight. See my guardian summary thread for that. The builds I listed here are the most fun guardians I have, slightly updated after having played them to make them better.

Maybe you could link the titles to your guides? Or those that have your seal of approval.

I don't read guides, so I cannot comment on which guide would have my

How bout a little more detail in the 'excels at' category?

Yes, as I said up there, I'm thinking about expanding that a little. I'm still unsure about how to best do this so it doesn't turn into a full fledged "how to MF with this build". I am not interested in writing 20 MF builds. The point here is that you can Mf with almost anything you bloody well chose. I just need to find out how to concisely say where the sweet spot are... Hm...

On quick glance at sorcs, why viscertuant over a spirit? str?

72% base chance to block. GG Spirit. No rematch. My 2 cents. YMMV.

[RobbyD]

This is nice. Maybe you could link the titles to your guides? Or those that have your seal of approval. How bout a little more detail in the 'excels at' category?

Nightfish wrote a very nice "MF Oddballs" guide years ago - it doesn't include some of the more recent builds we've seen, but it's a very nice guide that includes a list of the MF areas for each build he discusses. I recommend checking that out.

@Nightfish - Wow, I'm surprised you dislike Pallys so much. I very much enjoyed my first 1.13c Pally - the RMB problem isn't that hard to get used to - you just have to keep an eye on the top of the screen to make sure you are targeting something. It all goes to how different people enjoy playing the game though - I find I prefer the melee approach more than I enjoy the casting approach, so I tend more toward Pallys and Barbs.

[Nightfish]

@Nightfish - Wow, I'm surprised you dislike Pallys so much. I very much enjoyed my first 1.13c Pally - the RMB problem isn't that hard to get used to - you just have to keep an eye on the top of the screen to make sure you are targeting something. It all goes to how different people enjoy playing the game though - I find I prefer the melee approach more than I enjoy the casting approach, so I tend more toward Pallys and Barbs.

I play melee and range and casters in pretty much equal measure. It has nothing to do with the pally being melee that I hate the class. I detest the hammerdin just as much as all the other builds, for example.

Like I said, it's the lack of CC and the no-RMB thing that breaks the class for me. Honestly, paladins are one button characters. You prebuff with holy shield and then you zeal. The end. Me no enjoy. Kudos to anyone that does, for me, that's the epitome of boring. It's not that I cannot deal with it or cannot get used to it. I did get 7 of these suckers to guardian, after all. But compared to anything else, this is less fun for me. And since fun was kinda the focus here, that's what I'm rolling with. If I went for biggest damage output, most useful to a party that already has CC or fastest Baal kills, paladins might be contenders. But that's not what I'm about here.

I like lots of melee builds. My Kelpe Snare Fendzon is one of my all time favorites. I love some of the melee spells (as I think of them) too: Lightning Strike, Rabies... All good stuff. My golemancer is melee as well, and not just token melee. He smacks you, you feel the pain! Me melee sins are fun as well, as are stuff like the daggerwhirler.

It's just that when someone asks me "what do you find fun", i cannot include paladin builds in good faith.

[galtzaiLe]

72% base chance to block. GG Spirit. No rematch. My 2 cents. YMMV.

Wouldn't you miss the 35 pdr?

I'm using a Nova/FO sorc to do Countess runs, and my life became so much easier when I got an Stormshield for her.


I've another question for you, if you don't mind of course. Why Delirium for the merc?

[Nightfish]

Wouldn't you miss the 35 pdr?

No.

I'm using a Nova/FO sorc to do Countess runs, and my life became so much easier when I got an Stormshield for her.

And then you get cursed and there goes your percentile PDR. I never used Stormshield much. Needs too much strength for my tastes, the PDR is not needed. Even on the heroes i use stormshield on, I never give a damn about the PDR. Blocking alone makes me pretty much undeathable unless I get cursed, in which case the PDR is voided anyway.

I've another question for you, if you don't mind of course. Why Delirium for the merc?

Well, look at it. It has more crowd control than a full fledged police riot squad on steroids. Casting confuse alone is gold. Doubly so for a sorceress who has no inate CC and is one of the more squishy classes.