I (somewhat) recently got back into the game after watching some D3 trailers. I quit a while ago and have never done much in Hell difficulty before now. Currently I've got an Assassin, Paladin, and Sorceress but they all seem a little fragile one way or another. I apologize in advance for how scattered this is. Any help is appreciated.
Assassin: 79 Martial Artist, 936 life
Max Tiger Strike (31 w/ +skills)/Dragon Claw/1 point in Cobra Strike (12 w/ +skills). No Phoenix Strike, no Dragon Flight
Shadow Master, no points in Venom/1 point in Fade on account of Treachery runeword, 50% on Weapon Block, Cloak of Shadows, Death Sentry
I may have made a mistake in putting Treachery in a 165 req str armor and my life is a bit lower as a result. A lot of my gear is just bad, but I've got 2x Bartucs, and Kira's Guardian (resists/cannot be frozen).
I really like Burst of Speed but if I don't have Fade up I just take way too much damage. Is this expected?
No Phoenix Strike/Dragon Flight. Am I missing out on a lot here being 'pure' Tiger Strike?
How much worse 'in reality' is Shadow Warrior than Shadow Master? Mostly, I don't like Mind Blast happening but the resist seems important.
It sometimes seems like a lot of my damage is coming from 25% CB boots and a lot of +atk speed. I've got a Strength runeword katar and I can't pin down how the 25% CB from that stacks with everything else. If it's my off-hand weapon, will it only add CB % to strikes with that weapon?
Sorceress: 83 Fireballer, 272 life
(Probably going to respec to Meteorb so I don't have to Glacial Spike lock fire immunes and wait for my merc to kill them.)
71% ES + 37% damage to mana
SUPER terrible gear (though still pretty good at killing Hell Mephisto). Lore runeword helm, stealth runeword armor, Lidless Wall, a bunch of +cast speed stuff. Barely kept in the game by Insight runeword on merc. Keeping my merc alive tends to be my main focus (lots of teleporting in place).
Even with ES it seems that any hits I take put me really low health, though with the Meditation Aura I really haven't bothered putting points in Telekinesis. Are reduce damage sets the only way to live or is this par for the course?
Related, I've heard that you're supposed to go pretty much all energy but I find myself putting points into vitality just so I don't get one-touched. Still, I'm feeling at this point that my life total is too far behind the curve to recover with stat points. Confirm/deny?
Currently have defiance merc. Should I just get the Holy Freeze merc? I'm not sure the defiance is doing enough without a great base defense.
Is there a certain minimum health I should look to get?
Paladin: 76, 855 health, Fana/Zealot
1 point in Vengeance for phys immune, 1 point in Sanctuary for ghosts, points in Holy Shield, few points in Salvation
Mix of good/questionable equipment here (Stormshield w/ PDiamond, and 2 piece Sigons!)
Again, 25% CB boots. This time with 3x Shael Aldur's Rhythm as my weapon. Again, I sometimes think CB is the only reason I get anywhere (char sheet has 722-1260 zeal damage with fanatacism if you don't include the 100 over 5 small charm).
25% life leech and actually good defense/block makes him feel much more stable than my other chars but I can't but feel my weapon choice is suspect. How should I weight weapon stats with this build?
I never use Smite. Am I a terrible player? Is this worth points? I currently don't have a lot to do with my points except increase defense...
I have a Might merc (w/ Insight runeword so... basically so I can Charge to move everwhere but it's incidentally decent damage). Might being just an additive bonus (i.e. not multiplicative with other bonuses) on top of a LOT of other additive bonuses seems like it grants a pretty small benefit. Again, is Holy Freeze just the better way?
Overall: Is there a point at which one feels 'comfortable' in hell? Are there any glaring issues with things I'm doing? Why do I have to have 10 posts to PM people? (Actually, I think I can figure out that last one but it's still annoying.)
Thanks for the help.|||Quote:
I really like Burst of Speed but if I don't have Fade up I just take way too much damage. Is this expected?
Yes, unless you have good resists gear this can happen.
You should use Cloak of Shadows, Mind Blast, merc and Shadow to avoid taking hits from more than one enemy at a time.
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No Phoenix Strike/Dragon Flight. Am I missing out on a lot here being 'pure' Tiger Strike?
You have an unconventional build - dual claws physical damage, right? It can certainly work, but the two conventional ways of using Tiger Strike is either with Dragon Tail (Tiger Strike boosts Dragon Tail damage to extreme heights if both skills are maxed and you have some elite boots) or with a big two-handed weapon (doing Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Attack cycles to make use of that insane bonus damage).
Dragon Flight is more of a utility skill ("poor woman�s Teleport") than a main skill, because it�s impractical and sometimes misses because of a bug.
A Phoenix Striker is a completely different build that also wants points in the elemental synergies (left side of the Martial Arts tree), at least the Fire/Lightning versions. Phoenix Strikers come in at least two variants: dual claws or weapon + shield.
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How much worse 'in reality' is Shadow Warrior than Shadow Master? Mostly, I don't like Mind Blast happening but the resist seems important.
Offensively, there is no constest since the Master gets elite claws.
As for tanking, the Warrior is just as good if you have lots of points in the skill. They have the same amount of life (although the Master is likely to get some +life gear at high levels). Every point adds 5% resist all to both Shadows. You can force the Shadow Warrior to use Fade (have Fade selected when the Shadow can see a monster but is not in melee range) to make her elemental immune, at least if you have a good level of Shadow Warrior.
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