sold on HC heres why

[mesafalcon]

Matt, thx... i was thinking that. plus you have the block. i was even thinking a helm of command.

i guess Hollowed defender s a good choice. SS could be good i guess but, always has that str roll we dont need right ? the dam reduction is nice i guess... the right one could be good i guess ?

[Matt]

Matt, thx... i was thinking that. plus you have the block. i was even thinking a helm of command.

i guess Hollowed defender s a good choice. SS could be good i guess but, always has that str roll we dont need right ? the dam reduction is nice i guess... the right one could be good i guess ?

Yeah, there are several nice options. I managed to find a 20% block shield with high int/vit, 70ish@, and crit chance, but there's a lot of variability on shield mods. Chances are you'll trade the crit chance for higher blocking on a hallowed defender, which is a pretty equal tradeoff in my mind.

Likewise, you'll lose some offensive stats using a stormshield, but you'll have a great block% and DR.

As for the hat, if you manage to find a helm of command with nice mods+a socket, more power to you! I toyed around with a 235ish int/8% block/non socketed one on my WD, and ultimately decided a rare with some all res, less int/block, but including a socket was better for me.

[Cele]

My off hand as a WD alone is worth around 10k dps, plus it nets me manaregen, which in it's own is another huge upgrade for dps. I go by fine with my pets and without a shield. One thing to take into account is that (I least I'm pretty sure it is) shields won't block the stuff on the ground (plagued, desecrator) or arcane beams (not sure about mortars), which is mostly what hurts me, melee hits just aren't that big a deal to me with spirit walk and horrify.

Also most other WD's I see don't tend to use a shield. Not trying to bash the idea whatsoever, but it is certainly not as clearcut as the previous posts make it out to be, and by no means is it the default (or in my opinion best) way to play a WD whith a shield instead of it's offhand.

[mesafalcon]

My off hand as a WD alone is worth around 10k dps, plus it nets me manaregen, which in it's own is another huge upgrade for dps. I go by fine with my pets and without a shield. One thing to take into account is that (I least I'm pretty sure it is) shields won't block the stuff on the ground (plagued, desecrator) or arcane beams (not sure about mortars), which is mostly what hurts me, melee hits just aren't that big a deal to me with spirit walk and horrify.

Also most other WD's I see don't tend to use a shield. Not trying to bash the idea whatsoever, but it is certainly not as clearcut as the previous posts make it out to be, and by no means is it the default (or in my opinion best) way to play a WD whith a shield instead of it's offhand.

okay. good points.

i don't care so much about maxing out dps as def, but good point about the blocking. I suppose melee damage isn't a huge problem for WD.

what do u think about the helm of command idea?

[Napo]

To add to the Shield/Mojo argument: Currently there are three main objectives in the game. 1) Gain experience, 2)Hunt for Items, & 3)Hunt for Keys/Organs. 1) Mathematically the most efficient form of experience gain is to max your +% experience items and farm high density MP0 Act 3/4 (Ilvl 63), the MP level is dictated by your clearing speed and for hardcore it will a be long time before anyone can farm MP1+ more efficiently. 2) Item hunt is same as above just maxing your MF% but still dictated by clear speed so more MP0 action. 3) Key/Organ hunt is the only objective where higher MP is more effective, as long as you can kill the Ubers without seeing the enrage go as high MP as possible. In the first two scenarios you see heavy use of mojos since MP0 is not as dangrous, while on the high MP key/organ hunts many WD's will at least carry a shield in their inventory to switch to if necessary.EDIT: Line breaks aren't showing...

[Matt]

My off hand as a WD alone is worth around 10k dps, plus it nets me manaregen, which in it's own is another huge upgrade for dps. I go by fine with my pets and without a shield. One thing to take into account is that (I least I'm pretty sure it is) shields won't block the stuff on the ground (plagued, desecrator) or arcane beams (not sure about mortars), which is mostly what hurts me, melee hits just aren't that big a deal to me with spirit walk and horrify.

Also most other WD's I see don't tend to use a shield. Not trying to bash the idea whatsoever, but it is certainly not as clearcut as the previous posts make it out to be, and by no means is it the default (or in my opinion best) way to play a WD whith a shield instead of it's offhand.

One thing to clarify, shields do in fact work against desecrator, arcane, etc, not just on physical attacks.

Likewise, I don't mean to suggest using a shield is the only way to go, or those who don't use one are doing something wrong. I just find from my personal experience experimenting with using one vs using a mojo, I find the shield to be far superior for my particular build/playstyle.

I haven't done a ton of checking out other WD builds, but I think mine's slightly different, built around LoH/Regen+tanky stats, swapped out bears for grasp of the dead, and of course a shield instead of a mojo, etc. As a result, I only have ~29k damage, but I can pretty much steamroll act 3/4 on MP1, and can handle MP2-3 without much trouble either. It certainly won't kill as fast as a mojo or otherwise less tanky/more DPS build, but for me it works significantly better.


That being said, I'd definitely agree with Napo that if you're playing in a group with a tank, or are otherwise playing safely enough that you can sacrifice some survivability for DPS, then absolutely a mojo is a great place to get it.

To each his own, both have pros and cons; go with whichever one works for you

[mesafalcon]

I generally play alone. If I played with tanks then ya, I'd go for the mojo.

my WD is now 57 so, I'll hit inferno soon.

of course I'm going to try both and see which I like.

price is also an issue, what can give me the best upgrade for the money? Since block isn't a major issue for WD maybe I can get a nicely rolled shield that's cheap for lack of block and end up w a good off hand.

secondly, what 1hs do you guys use?

[Qugon]

Welcome to the dark side

Just dont get mad when the server lags and disconnects you, it happens rarely but it generates quality rage/cry time

[mesafalcon]

Welcome to the dark side

Just dont get mad when the server lags and disconnects you, it happens rarely but it generates quality rage/cry time

I'm thinking even if I die (a few times or whatever), its still better than Softcore. So... meh.