TS / DTail build questions

[wacktapaz]

Why is it that Lawbringer is a good weapon for a dtail-kicker? I've read this somewhere before, but i cant quite figure out what it provides such a build.

[PhilMeyer]

I'm assuming that its the combo of decrepify and the sanctuary aura. I actually had to cut that idea (of me or my merc using one), because its a Ladder only runeword, and since all my gear is off ladder that wasn't going to work. Not worth the effort to try and trade for I didn't think.

I ended up going with a Cold Iron Wolf merc. Have him with a Spirit Sword, Shako, Skin of Vipermagi and a Lidless Wall. He spits out ice bolts very quickly, doing a pretty good job of crowd control when he's not being swarmed. He does die more often then I'm used to my merc doing, but its not like I have a better use for gold (I've never been a gambler in diablo).

Anyway, now at level 77 I ended up going with:
20 (35) Tiger Strike
20 (35) Dragon Tail
20 (35) Venom
8 (21) Death Sentry - 10 yard blast range
3 (+1 DS charge) Fireblast
2 (17) Claw Mastery
1 (16) Shadow Master / Mind Blast / Dragon Flight / Cobra Strike
And the rest into prereqs

Weapon 1: Bartuc's Cutthroat
Weapon 2: Bartuc's Cutthroat
Head: Vampire Gaze (Um)
Chest: Chains of Honor (Archon Plate)
Hands: Dracul's Grasp
Boots: Shadow Dancer
Belt: String of Ears / Thundergod's Vigor
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscopic
Ring1: Bul Kathos Wedding Band
Ring2: Ravenfrost
Charms: Anni, Torch, a few resist all and steel charms.

I throw on the T-Gods when I expect to fight Gloams. I have a lightning resist charm that boosts me to 85% then.

Totals (assuming String of Ears)
Plus skills: +15 MA and SD, +13 Traps
Physical Damage Reduction: 42%
Lightning / Fire / Cold / Poison: 75%
Attack Rating: 6722
Life Leech: 42%
Mana Leech: 8%
Faster Hit Recovery: 90% (realistic min of 4 frames)
Improved Attack Speed: 0% (min 7 frame Tiger Strike after BoS)
Faster Run/Walk: 92%

I have to say, this is probably my favorite build ever . She runs like the wind and attacks at lightning speed, which keeps me very engaged. She's also right in the mix, so I'm always on edge for her safety. She's sort of an anti-fishymancer, which is what I needed after so many hours just sitting back and letting my minions kill things.

I seem to only use Death Sentry when I see that the room I am going to enter is loaded with mobs or if I am out in the open with mobs coming from all around. Its very handy in these cases, but the 10 yard blast radius seems to be enough for me. I'm still learning how best to use Mind Blast and Cloak of Shadows, but both are very handy I've found.

To address some specific objections to this build:

No aoe dmg besides fire ( doesnt work against fire immune )

-Fire resistant/Fire immunes = sux for your hero. Doom knights and Venom lords in chaos sanctuary nightmare are a 'nightmare'.

So far (and I'm in act V hell) fire immunes aren't much of an issue. I just kill them one at a time. The blast of my kick, mindblast, shadow master, and my merc combined keeps them managable for me to do so quite well.

no real crowd control ( knockback is crap compared to mindblast/blades of ice )

I have mindblast, so no worries there. My crowd control I feel is pretty darn strong.

Dtail has a very awkward animation

Here I'm still not sure what this means. I haven't noticed an issue with it.

U need high points in all the skills.

Having really excellent gear seems to have solved this issue nicely.

Phil, I don't think you have played the build. Without at least 15 points in claw mastery u r not gonna hit anything ( attack rating too low, damage also low )

As for attack rating have it at atleast 6k. Something like 3k will just not do.

My attack rating is 6700+ with my dual Bartuc's and just two points in Claw Mastery. I seem to hit just fine. I have lots of room for more charms, maybe I'll grab some more though. I also have at least 10 more skill points before this build is "complete", so I may well put them in Claw Mastery.

I will mention though that while fire immunes don't give me much trouble, physical immunes can be a serious pain. Mostly this is when its a lone boss monster that is still alive after I kick his minions to death. I had Radamant spawn physical immune and it took FOREVER to get him down with just Venom and my cold merc.

I'm thinking I should come up with a backup plan in those cases, but without investing 40 points into a Phoenix Strike charge, I'm not sure what that would be.

The most obvious way to handle these cases is to just ignore these monsters. I'd say 95% of bosses in this game can just be bypassed during my average game session. Its even easier to run past physical immune mobs with my 92% increased run speed .

I do still have two socket spots which I can put jewels into. I'm thinking maybe someday I'll take my Um out of my helm and put a Ber there, and perhaps put a resist all jewel in my offhand Bartuc's. That leaves my main hand, where a Jah or Ohm I guess are the obvious candidates?

While I wait to acquire a Jah, I suppose I should put an Eth in there to further increase my odds of hitting.

[zaphodbrx]

Phil, my congrats. Im assuming it is multiplayer as there is no way to level a hero from 0 to 77 in a few days. It took me like a 2 months playing now and then.
I guess most of the problems I faced was because I was untwinked. Lack of +skills gear really problematic.

Regarding physical immunes, you have to kick a minion next to it for the fire dmg to splash over, this doesnt work when the dude is alone.
What was your plan for PI/FI ? Venom good enough?

I am surprised you didn't have a problem with Dragon tail animation. Maybe it has something to do with the 'faster hit recovery' stat of which you have 90% and I had none. It often seemed like my kick would start, and then bug out somehow, animation would complete but no dmg done.

I'd put another point into Shadow master. Shadow masters have 'breakpoints' regarding their equipment, the last breakpoint is reached at level 17. More levels in shadow master doesn't improve her a lot.

[magicrectangle]

Phil, my congrats. Im assuming it is multiplayer as there is no way to level a hero from 0 to 77 in a few days.

Can and has been done by many, many people, including myself. My trapsin was 80 by the end of the second day after ladder reset, and I didn't do any rushing/grouping of any kind. I bet I could have done it in one day if I didn't have a life.

[PhilMeyer]

Yeah thanks zaphodbrx. Definitely multiplayer. Power leveling is rather easy these days. Solo until level 8 or so. Then do Trist runs until 15. Get rushed to act 2 and then do tomb runs until 24. Then ancients to get to 25. Baal runs until 40+ and head to nightmare. Get rushed through nightmare and then Baal runs until 70. Head to hell and repeat.

It can be done in just a few hours, but I make sure to solo at least half the time since the above can be rather boring. Especially once I reach hell diff, where I solo at least 75% of the time.

What was your plan for PI/FI ? Venom good enough?

So far I've only seen a couple of them, but I haven't been playing in Hell terribly long. I did a countess run last night where I ran into a boss with this, and it only took a few extra seconds to bring him down. I think my Venom and my merc's cold bolt spam probably did the trick. Maybe my Shadow Master was also helping, not sure. I know a boss in act I and a boss in act V are very different, so will see if there's a problem there. Unless I am trying to do a chaos run or something, I'd probably just run right by such a boss.

Edit: Really I don't see this as being much different from running into a Lightning/Physical immune on my Javazon. I've played that toon much more, and can't remember those ever being an issue. I think doing three types of damage (physical/fire/poison) is better than most builds can provide. Most sorc builds only have 2 types of damage, for instance (besides their mercs).

Now to be honest, while this is perhaps my favorite build so far, its nowhere near as effective as my Javazon or my Fishymancer. And my Assassin has better gear than either of them. My Javazon kills extraordinarily fast, and my Fishymancer can do WSK runs in complete magic find gear without breaking a sweat. I can do clear Baal's minions just by casting a few corpse explosions while my skeletons make the corpses.

My martial arts assassin can do the WSK, but she struggles in places, and Baal's minions are very very difficult. So I don't want to pretend that this build is godly, but I do find it to be hell viable and lots of fun.

[Pyrotechnician]

It seems you build is doing very well. With your choice of sockets there is probably a few options that you could use. You mentioned using either a jah or an ohm, and an eth as a tie over. A thing to remember about Jah is the ignore target defense doesn't work against champion/unique/boss monsters so the toughest ones to hit are still going to be difficult to connect with. An eth on the other hand works at half effectiveness against these monsters so that is an option. Ohm doesn't seem like a bad choice either since it would be applied directly to your weapon damage and is used as the basis for all your off weapon ed sources (skills, items), but it won't improve your kick damage (if only you could put an ohm in your boots, haha) I see from your setup that you don't have any source of crushing blow so maybe consider a ber rune? It may speed up the boss killing a bit when your building up your charges.

[maxicek]

Solo until level 8 or so. Then do Trist runs until 15. Get rushed to act 2 and then do tomb runs until 24. Then ancients to get to 25. Baal runs until 40+ and head to nightmare. Get rushed through nightmare and then Baal runs until 70. Head to hell and repeat.

So I don't want to pretend that this build is godly, but I do find it to be hell viable and lots of fun.

How can you judge a build if you just rushed to Baal? There are plenty off good builds that are only average in the WSK and Baal. You should try actually questing with the build instead.

[PhilMeyer]

How can you judge a build if you just rushed to Baal? There are plenty off good builds that are only average in the WSK and Baal. You should try actually questing with the build instead.

I think you misunderstood that post. That was me describing the basic steps to power leveling. I did not say I followed it. Maybe you missed the paragraph after that one where I mention I don't actually follow that plan? I leveled to 77 in six days, not a single night like you would by following the power leveling steps.

I did rush through most of Nightmare difficulty, but I've been soloing more often than not in Hell. This past week I've done Countess, Sewers, Lam Esen's Tome, Izual, Hellforge, Socket Quest, Frigid Highlands Rescue and Anya all solo. Last night I was messing around in World Stone Keep, which is why I mention my difficulties there.

It's a strong build at my currently gear level, no doubt. I was just mentioning that compared to builds like Javazon and Fishymancer, my current build has got some weaknesses. At least for me. I'm okay with that, on those two toons I find the game too easy.

Edit: We also may just have different definitions of "godly"? Being able to kick serious butt in over 75% of hell zones is pretty awesome. I consider my Fishymancer "godly" because he can comfortably clear every area except the Maggot Lair .

Also, I love your suggestion of a Ber rune in the weapon Pyrotechnician. I could use some speed increase on boss kills.

Edit: I'm also thinking of getting an Azurewrath on switch to help deal with physical immunes. Its similar to Lawbringer, but doesn't have decrepfy which would clash with my Life Tap from the gloves, and has more built in elemental damage. I love leeching from skeletons, so would prefer to keep those gloves equipped if I can. Thoughts?

[Pyrotechnician]

Azurewrath on switch is a common physical immune solution as the majority of physical immunes are undead monsters. The only issue I have with that solution is that since it is in fact a phase blade the dex requirements may be more than what you currently have invested. If your dex level is already at 136 then this is not an issue, but otherwise its essentially wasted stat points, consider socketing it with a hel rune to lower the investment.