SP: Freezadin Weapon?

[Oldboy]

The only trouble I foresee is getting a 3os PB for base. I haven't seen any so far in act 1 Hell or anywhere in NM, but I'm hoping my luck will change by going a couple of runs in the Mausoleum.

Yeah, I didn't find one until Act 3 Lower Kurast. I ran Mausoleum/Crypt a number of times without any luck.

Another way to get 3 os would be to use the 1 Eld Rune + 1 Chipped Gem + Low Quality Weapon = Normal Quality Weapon of same type recipe. That sets the items ilvl to 1, and at that level it will get 3 sockets from Lurzak.

Edit: Or use the 1 Ral Rune + 1 Amn Rune + 1 Perfect Amethyst + Normal Weapon = Socketed Weapon of same type recipe for a 4/6 chance of 3 sockets at ilvl 1.

[Azaar]

Update: I'm using the Strength barbed club now, and sold the Steel morningstar off. The damage is a bit more, at least, and I'm typically running roughshod over most everything with a Zeal or two (and the +2 mana after each kill almost isn't needed, with my 2% mana steal off Gorefoot -- I'm leeching back more mana than I'm spending with each Zeal).

The hunt is now on, though -- I found three Sol runes (one used to make Lore), and so I have everything rune-wise for Honor. Also got a Shael drop, and I still have a Tir or two, so I'm only an Um (and a good exceptional 3-socket weapon) away from Crescent Moon.

Oh, and Scoobydoo? Thanks for convincing me to hold off on the socket quest: a three-socket Aerin Shield with Defense 36 and 6% resist all popped up in the Frigid Highlands. I almost don't need Holy Shield right now, aside from the Defense boost, because I'm sitting with 62% blocking rate right now (my Dex is an unmodified 110, and I have several +Dex charms and such that boosts it farther -- and I still plan to raise it more, if only to help my base attack rating).

Now, I just need to look for a nice mid-game armor -- I'm using a Glorious Ancient Armor with Defense 351 right now, but I need some options.

[Scoobydoo]

The hunt is now on, though -- I found three Sol runes (one used to make Lore), and so I have everything rune-wise for Honor. Also got a Shael drop, and I still have a Tir or two, so I'm only an Um (and a good exceptional 3-socket weapon) away from Crescent Moon.

I dunno about you, but I always favored making Crescent Moon in PB. Firstly, it is indestructible so you needn't worry about repair, and secondly, it has the fastest weapon base speed of -30; absolutely fantastic for us Zealer types when you add in an additional 20IAS from Crescent Moon, and lastly the stat req for PB is 136 dex investment, which will not go to waste as it works with our block rate with Holy Shield. I have never considered making it anything other than PB tbh.

Oh, and Scoobydoo? Thanks for convincing me to hold off on the socket quest: a three-socket Aerin Shield with Defense 36 and 6% resist all popped up in the Frigid Highlands. I almost don't need Holy Shield right now, aside from the Defense boost, because I'm sitting with 62% blocking rate right now (my Dex is an unmodified 110, and I have several +Dex charms and such that boosts it farther -- and I still plan to raise it more, if only to help my base attack rating).

I'm glad you decided to hold off on spending your socket quest. If we were on bnet, I wouldn't worry too much about getting socket quest as we can always get our mules or other characters to socket them, but for SP, those are a little harder to come by once spent, hence; highly precious .

Now, I just need to look for a nice mid-game armor -- I'm using a Glorious Ancient Armor with Defense 351 right now, but I need some options.

If you happen to find a 2os exceptional class Light weight armor like Ghost/Serpent Skin/Demonhide/etc, you can consider making Stealth (Tal + Eth) armor. It has nice 25FHR, 25FRW, 6dex. Or alternatively, you can strive towards making Smoke (Nef + Lum) armor for it's 50resist and 20FHR. Both of these are definitely NM viable if you don't have much luck in terms of MF drops.

Do keep updating us on your progress. It is nice to share experiences with a fellow Freezadin in SP and we can trade tips and advise each other if we have any doubts. I'm taking this experience as a prelude to the restart of the new ladder season for a Paladin first character.

[Azaar]

I dunno about you, but I always favored making Crescent Moon in PB. Firstly, it is indestructible so you needn't worry about repair, and secondly, it has the fastest weapon base speed of -30; absolutely fantastic for us Zealer types when you add in an additional 20IAS from Crescent Moon, and lastly the stat req for PB is 136 dex investment, which will not go to waste as it works with our block rate with Holy Shield. I have never considered making it anything other than PB tbh.

Which is fine -- I doubt I'm going to find an Um before mid-late NM at least, as it is, so I'll keep an eye out for one. If I can find one, I'll likely have to hope for it to be 3os out of the gate, unless there's some full-proof means of making it three-socket.

I'm glad you decided to hold off on spending your socket quest. If we were on bnet, I wouldn't worry too much about getting socket quest as we can always get our mules or other characters to socket them, but for SP, those are a little harder to come by once spent, hence; highly precious .

That's the truth. That and imbues (had to use my Normal imbue, but I held off for a demonhide sash, and it came out fairly decent -- best belt I've had by far, and that's saying something, considering my royally crap luck with belts so far). I've had the rare character that's had both imbues accessible going into Hell, but not this time, anyway.

If you happen to find a 2os exceptional class Light weight armor like Ghost/Serpent Skin/Demonhide/etc, you can consider making Stealth (Tal + Eth) armor. It has nice 25FHR, 25FRW, 6dex. Or alternatively, you can strive towards making Smoke (Nef + Lum) armor for it's 50resist and 20FHR. Both of these are definitely NM viable if you don't have much luck in terms of MF drops.

Stealth, I'm pretty familiar with, and it is fairly decent (usually I can manage to put one together in Act 2, but this game it was only after I'd sold off the 2os superior splint mail before a Tal finally dropped (and I'd had four Rals drop at that point). Smoke, I've not had occasion to use, but I may give it a look, since I have a Nef or two -- just will need to find a Lum.

Do keep updating us on your progress. It is nice to share experiences with a fellow Freezadin in SP and we can trade tips and advise each other if we have any doubts. I'm taking this experience as a prelude to the restart of the new ladder season for a Paladin first character.

I'm in the Ancients' Way now, just found the waypoint. Clvl 46 (which was my estimate for where I would finish Normal with /players8 -- I have no idea how the Ancients will impact my XP [or if it's the same], but I'm pretty confident I'll be at least 47 and midway to 48 by the time I beat Baal) at present, and doing a round-robin upgrading of Sacrifice, Resist Cold, Salvation (which I'm capping at slvl 9), Zeal and Holy Shield.

Gambled a Commander's Amulet of the Mind (+2 Offensive Auras, +4 Energy), and wearing Lore, so I have slvl 23 Holy Freeze at the moment, and I can take it to 24 with Milabrega's Rod (I have that stashed, though I should likely sell it, since it won't compete with Strength, let alone other weapons down the road).

Edit: Finished Baal and did the Cow Level, just for the sake of completion with Normal. Clvl 48, and 600K experience away from clvl 49. I may well go back through WSK again, just for kicks -- I think I can hit clvl 50 before it's all said and done.

[Oldboy]

and doing a round-robin upgrading of Sacrifice, Resist Cold, Salvation (which I'm capping at slvl 9), Zeal and Holy Shield.

I'd wouldn't recommend allocating your skills in that way, it's better to prioritise the important ones and cap them first.

Especially Salvation, leave that until last because it's only a 7% boost to Holy Freeze compared to 15% from Resist Cold. 1 point in Resist Cold > 2 points in Salvation.

Holy Shield you can also leave once you've got 5 points in it.

After Holy Freeze, the next skill to cap is Zeal or you will run into AR problems later in NM. Then you can do Sacrifice and Resist Cold as you prefer - Sacrifice gives more physical damage for life leech, Resist Cold gives a much bigger overall damage boost. I did 10 in each of them, then finished Resist Cold, then came back and finished Sacrifice.

[Scoobydoo]

After roughly 200+ NM Meph runs for better gear... I'd finally gotten my dream piece.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6084/sphoz.png

I guess it's time to migrate fully into Hell games now.

[Azaar]

Nice. I may have to put more serious consideration to that myself -- I'd considered making Exile and switching to a Blessed Aim merc, but I may forgo that and stick with my Defiance merc and get HoZ instead.

I'm currently at Act 1 NM -- and wishing I hadn't done WSK in Act 5 Normal that second time on /players8. Died for the first time in Nightmare in the Countess's tower, but finally did level up to 51 (after killing the two boss packs that took me down, one of which was a Spectral Hit Dark Archer boss pack) -- which is why I'm regretting that second WSK run, because XP has been incredibly difficult to come by until now. Countess's initial drop was crap -- just a Nef rune.

Edit: However, I did make an interesting find in the Countess's tower. Kicked open a barrel the next level down from where I had been killed, and... what's this? Tan letters? Long Battle Bow? I went to Cain and identified it, nearly sold it before realizing it was Wizendraw. -28% to enemy cold resistance... and imagine that, Holy Freeze works on ranged weapon damage. Guess what my new alternate weapon is? The moral of the story: make sure you kick all those barrels and urns and stuff open.

Found an Io rune in the Black Marsh off a Carver Shaman, and am considering possibly going for Black with a good 3os exceptional weapon, though I may hold out in the hopes for a 5os exceptional knout for Honor. Made Strength on a lochaber axe for my merc. Gonna be a while on Lum for making Smoke (I'm opting not to bother with Stealth and just wait for the Lum to show up). I'm also following Oldboy's recc for maxing out Zeal now.

[Scoobydoo]

Now that I have gotten enough gear to migrate into Hell games full-time, I'm actually rather keen on getting a real weapon upgrade for hell games. I'm currently still using Aldur's mace socketed with 3 x Shael runes for speed and leech. However, even under /players1 mode, the killing is not as "speedy" as I would like (kinda used to the pace Grief kills on bnet).

Not sure if Crescent Moon is a good investment for my one and only UM rune, but I've done some digging into the TC of mobs in act 1 Hell, and I think only Hell Andy is capable of dropping PB of any kinda (not that it helps since I doubt she will drop me a plain white PB or ideally a 3os PB :(). So I think the only time and place I will ever begin to find PBs are in Act 2 Hell onwards.

Am I right on this, or can I actually find PBs in both Mausoleum & Pits in act 1 Hell? I've done a couple of runs of both locations and sadly I have not found a single one. The speed at which I clear these locations are slow given that I rely on my Cold dmg mostly, and weak (for Hell games) physical dmg from Aldur's mace. Can someone enlighten me?

[magicrectangle]

Not sure if Crescent Moon is a good investment for my one and only UM rune

IMHO it is hard to do better for a general purpose weapon. You'll still want black (or whatever crushing item) on switch for bosses but crescent moon is very nice. Especially if you go back to players 8, that static field will be dandy. Obviously something like shael'd stormlash (or grief obviously if you use RWM) is better but not reasonable at your level and gear availability.

The only other thing you'd really do with the um is make duress. I suppose duress might last you longer if you luck into a really good weapon down the line, but crescent moon is guaranteed to be a substantial immediate upgrade.

[Scoobydoo]

IMHO it is hard to do better for a general purpose weapon. You'll still want black (or whatever crushing item) on switch for bosses but crescent moon is very nice. Especially if you go back to players 8, that static field will be dandy.

I'm currently using a Gull dagger I'd gotten off NM Meph as my switch weapon together with a Rhyme shield vs bosses. TBH, I do know how well Static proc from Crescent Moon works vs tanker-type mobs with huge HP that aren't lite immune. The IAS bonus coupled with the base speed of a PB will get me a fast Zeal attack, not the mention the ITD vs non-unique mobs. But I'm already packing an almost 10K AR as it is with max'ed Zeal and the other bonuses from my gear, so the ITD isn't as attractive as it would normally be; but sexy nonetheless .

Obviously something like shael'd stormlash (or grief obviously if you use RWM) is better but not reasonable at your level and gear availability.

I had a couple of Griefs on bnet and used them to good effect. But I doubt I'll be seeing a LO rune drop anytime soon if at all (since we can't trade for one in SP). The same goes for Stormlash, I'd actually never had that drop; ever! even on bnet. Haha.

The only other thing you'd really do with the um is make duress. I suppose duress might last you longer if you luck into a really good weapon down the line, but crescent moon is guaranteed to be a substantial immediate upgrade.

Duress would be great if I had another UM drop. But as it is, I have CB from Goblin Toes, and so far that worked sufficiently well enough. I actually prefer Duress if I'm using Holy Shock as my primary aura, since the cold dmg + that from Ravenfrost will help vs lite immunes. If I were to face cold immunes, neither the cold dmg from Duress nor the one from my Holy Freeze aura will help. Which is why I'm using Lava Gout gloves for extra elemental help (not to mention the sexy 101%AR bonus from Enchant proc) vs cold immunes.

An update of my stats, skills, and gear for any additional advice on how to proceed with a possible weapon upgrade.

Character level: 80

Stats (with gear on)
Strength: 109
Dexterity: 117 (blocks at 73%)
Vitality: 300
Energy: 15

Spare points: 31

Defensive Auras
20 Resist Cold (synergy)
1 Salvation (utility skill)
1 Prayer (prerequisite)
1 Defiance (prerequisite)
1 Cleansing (prerequisite)
1 Vigor (prerequisite & utility skill)
1 Redemption (utility skill)

Offensive Auras
20 Holy Freeze (primary aura)
1 Might (prerequisite)
1 Holy Fire (prerequisite)
1 Blessed Aim (prerequisite)
1 Concentration (prerequisite)
1 Fanaticism (secondary aura for smite & vs cold immunes)

Combat Skills
20 Zeal (primary attack)
12 Holy Shield (utility skill)
1 Sacrifice (prerequisite)
1 Smite (secondary attack)
1 Holy Bolt (prerequisite)
1 Charge (utility skill)
1 Blessed Hammer (prerequisite)

Gear
Helm: Rockstopper
Armor: Vipermagi (has low resist - hoping for a replacement with a better armor)
Glove: Lava Gout
Belt: String of Ears
Boots: Goblin Toe
Amulet: Angelics
Ring1: Angelics
Ring2: Ravenfrost

Weapon1: Aldur's mace with 3 Shaels
Shield1: HoZ with Pdiamond

Weapon2: Gull dagger
Shield2: Rhyme with 58res

1302-1546 Zeal dmg with a level 23 Holy Freeze aura
10.4K AR after enchant
5.1K Def after level 19 Holy Shield

Resist are currently 75/55/55/40

Inventory: 2 Pcombat gcs, 3 100+AR gcs, a couple of random life scs, cube, TP book and ID book, 8 squares of free space.


Edits: I suppose I could respec to a Holy Shock variant if I make Duress, but I'm not really all that keen on loosing the slow effect from Holy Freeze as it can be helpful in staying alive sometimes. Plus my act 1 merc is using Riphook & Blackhorns together with Rattlecage for maximum slowness against mobs as an additional safety feature.