[Diablo II] help a noob out.

[Lysah]

Paladin with smite*
CB is unaffected by anything except using a ranged weapon instead, and is absurdly overpowered for this reason.

[zealous]

Paladin with smite*
CB is unaffected by anything except using a ranged weapon instead, and is absurdly overpowered for this reason.

CB gear isn't very easy to acquire and doesn't benefit every build/character.

It is however, one of the few options of successfully soloing Hell on players 8 as a melee char.

And a Zeal paladin works just fine with CB too. Tested myself =)

[Lysah]

CB gear isn't very easy to acquire and doesn't benefit every build/character.

It is however, one of the few options of successfully soloing Hell on players 8 as a melee char.

And a Zeal paladin works just fine with CB too. Tested myself =)

Works =/= smite speed, which is like six times faster. Well, I guess you could hit the same frames with Zeal, but it would take an entirely different gear set, smite is so easy to hit the cap you can stack defense and be totally immortal.

[zealous]

Works =/= smite speed, which is like six times faster.

I've never seen that to be true (the 6 times faster part). Zeal can reach the same AS as Smite, perhaps even higher.

Zeal is the more versatile spec. It works better for soloing in my experience, especially in conjunction with Fanaticism if you have premium gear, or with cold damage aura if you are not too twinked.

Smite builds are better in the sense of survivability but good luck clearing rooms packed full of minions empowered by an aura providing champion. Or just generally stuff like pre-Diablo trash or the pre-Baal summoning gauntlet. It's a pain in the ass if I've ever seen one.

Zeal build takes a little more effort to gear up, but is imo more universal and better in the AoE department, great also if you have some lifesteal on your weapon.

And the difference in survivability is not THAT big.

[Kahnugo]

I dont think it has been mentioned but energy shield was mentioned. There's a subtle rather significant drawback on it (as far as I'm aware this is still the case in 1.13).

When it absorbs, it works before resistances and other damage mitigators, that means that you can easily end up losing a LOT of mana in 1-2 sec and mana burn boss packs will make it even worse.
I think it's mainly used by some people in duels, though myself I'm just nerding around with singleplayer, no impressive feats there either got tons of characters, most of them at nightmare.

[Lysah]

Energy shield is staple for anyone on hardcore or without gear.

[Kahnugo]

Dont you just risk being out of mana for a teleport to safety if shit hits the fan? I admit I have never even considered trying it, in the first place I'm not that fond of my sorc

[Lysah]

You shouldn't create situations where you need teleport to survive. This includes not teleporting through dungeons and getting 90 packs of mobs chasing you until you have nowhere to go, not teleporting into an elite pack of death lords in general, and not using The Oculus, well know for it's sorceress-slaying powers.

[Kahnugo]

I didn't say anything about creating a situation, if you were playing perfect you wouldn't need to seek extra defences anyway, the fastest way away from danger if you somehow manage to be in such is teleport (I know I would have died on my sorc without hehe, not hardcore but I still hate dying with passion), the alternative is running/walking.

You could as easily ask why you would need energy shield for defense, anyway I happened to look about a bit and the synergy seems fairly powerful and at lower skills I suppose it does work as a life prolonger, though it's still worth mentioning the drawbacks I think .

A nabkin calc returns that with no extra points and +5 lightning skills a burning soul hit would eat slightly above 400 mana and do 40 dmg to you. Without energy shield that would be about 200 mana on avg and do 80 dmg to you. So the real conversion without extra synergy points is about 5 times the dmg in mana. This is assuming you have 75% light res.

Same hit with 10 hard points in telekinesis would result in 350 mana lost and 40 dmg taken instead giving a ratio of 3.75:1, with all 20 the ratio is 2:1, hehe I suppose it's not a bug that it works the way it does, fits too nicely. Anyway with synergy points spent I would probably be tempted to use it, but it hardly seems worth it with no extra investment, I have 800 health and 500 mana on my sorc, losing 400 instead of 200 is a bit deal to me. Also that's just assuming one hit and +5 skills, with more skills and more than a single hit then it would be bulb gone, even if I switched to frostburn and some mana stuff.

Anyway I'm sorry for hijacking the tread a bit.

Second edit thinking a bit again I realized that the real boon you get is avoiding the hit recovery animation on hits from ranged mobs, seen in that light it doesn't seem like a bad investment I admit, at least if you can afford a couple of points in telekinesis.

[Chickensoup23]

Quick question about Rune Words...

If I have, say, +2 to Fireball on a staff, then I rune word it, does the +2 Fireball stay on it or it goes away?
Thanks,

Chicken

[zealous]

Second edit thinking a bit again I realized that the real boon you get is avoiding the hit recovery animation on hits from ranged mobs, seen in that light it doesn't seem like a bad investment I admit, at least if you can afford a couple of points in telekinesis.

The mana loss is negligible, you can get it back, especially if you're a preparation freak and have a half a belt of rejuv potions with you on all occasions (like I do if I'm doing Hell players 8)

Energy shield is a safety net, much better than teleport in many cases. What good does teleport do you when you entered a room that was smaller than you anticipated and found a bunch of aura-powered champions? You won't even have the time to press anything. Energy shield + rejuv potion + teleport (optional) however gives you a chance to get out.

[Kahnugo]

If you're a preperation freak then you'd never enter a room you haven't scouted, you can hear if you hit monsters so attacking through the door/opening would prepare you for nasty melee attackers . What's been most dangerous to me is being locked down by ranged attackers.

OT: making a runeword in a socketed item with skill bonuses preserves the skills on the items. Your fireball staff would give you a +5 boost to fireball if leafed

[zealous]

If you're a preperation freak then you'd never enter a room you haven't scouted, you can hear if you hit monsters so attacking through the door/opening would prepare you for nasty melee attackers . What's been most dangerous to me is being locked down by ranged attackers.

OT: making a runeword in a socketed item with skill bonuses preserves the skills on the items. Your fireball staff would give you a +5 boost to fireball if leafed

Energy Shield is still near mandatory for soloing Hell, esp on players 8, and especially if you're not cold-specced.

[Dethknell68]

All of a sudden I find myself reinstalling D2x...

[zealous]

All of a sudden I find myself reinstalling D2x...

I haven't uninstalled it for years =)

[ReaperOwnz]

Quick question about Rune Words...

If I have, say, +2 to Fireball on a staff, then I rune word it, does the +2 Fireball stay on it or it goes away?
Thanks,

Chicken

You will keep the +2 fireball stat

[helheim]

dex = ap for barbs if i am remembering correctly? once you have enough str to equip say lacquered plate and colossus blade stop putting points into str and go for dex for more ap.

conc barb with ww secondary is pretty epic.

[ReaperOwnz]

dex = ap for barbs if i am remembering correctly? once you have enough str to equip say lacquered plate and colossus blade stop putting points into str and go for dex for more ap.

conc barb with ww secondary is pretty epic.

I thought barbs got most of their ap from items (Raven Frost etc), don't they usually just stack vitality? :P

[Deleted]

I would also recommend getting the widescreen hack, it makes the game a hell of a lot better on modern screens with large resolutions. Though you won't be able to play online, as blizzard still seems to think it's a hack because of the fact you can see further then your supposed too.

[Sanitius]

Energy shield is staple for anyone on hardcore or without gear.

Nah, Energy shield means death to any tp sorc in hc baalruns.