Kylearan sends an async team to death or guardianship

[T-hawk]

Yeah, monster-flee can be surprisingly useful in this hardcore team format. Some characters want anything they can get to help disperse crowds. And there are many ways to deal with a fleeing monster, like Dragon Flight or Taunt or War Cry or a freezing effect or even just knockback can often interrupt the fleeing long enough for it to expire.

You're still clearing at players-8? I always did players-5 for nightmare on my teams, and reached the same level 66 at this point.

For the bonemancer - when there are just one or two monsters left in a pack, feel free to just cast Amplify and let the merc do the work. There's also Corpse Explosion, which scales with monster life to help with bigger targets.

The weapon to seek for a barbarian merc at this point is an Honor runeword. A five-socket base will not drop in nightmare difficulty, but you can make one with the cube recipe. Look for a Zweihander base which is 5 sockets max, so the cube has a 2 in 6 chance of getting that.

Runes from the Forge: Hel, 2 Lum, Ko, Fal, Pul, Um. Lots of options.

Wow, that's excellent! Lum is the median, so you got four above that and only one below. I would spend Lum + Pul to upgrade Witchwild String, although that might wait until after nightmare act 5, in case you find anything better, maybe Buriza-Do Kyanon, or something for another class, particularly Bartuc's claw for the assassin. Um usually makes either a Crescent Moon weapon or Duress armor, although you'll want an elite base. You might find a Feral Axe or Legend Sword in late nightmare to make a Crescent Moon for the barb. To get a 3-socket item (either weapon or armor), remember this trick: look for a low-quality one and use the cube recipe of El + chipped gem, which sets its ilvl to 1, so it will get 3 sockets max from either the cube or Larzuk.

Kuko Shakaku vs Witchwild String - the answer is both. I had exactly that for my fire/physical bowazon on one of my teams. Witchwild is noticeably better for physical damage and Kuko much better for fire, and it's worth the effort to switch back and forth.

[Kylearan]

She played a bit with the Kuko Shukaku just to try it out, then switched to the Witchwild String

Well, which do you like better for your build? I am always partial to Kuko for more nichey builds. AoE, Always Hit and Pierce, what more do you want.

At the time I wrote the report, I had already made Conqueror with the amazon and the druid. (After distributing all new-found items when an act is completed, I tend to get excited to try them out and already start playing the next act before sitting down to write the report.  ) I have upgraded the WWS and think it's better than Kuko in my case, mainly because with Strafe, Amplify Damage procs often enough to make a real difference. But I still have Kuko on switch and find myself using it in certain situation, which is fun.

Baba with a shield, that just seem so wrong in my mind.

I'm genuinely worried how I would get along in Hell without a shield. I feel I need it for resists and blocking. It's alarming how things like boss or champion Moon Lord packs already are a real danger to me even in Nightmare.  I have an Iron Wolf as a merc and thus no tank to distract and hold off monsters, which I didn't really anticipated to become a problem for a barbarian. Always using Leap to carefully separate single monsters becomes too tedious quickly, so I'm open to suggestions...

[Kylearan]

You're still clearing at players-8?

Player-7 actually (my bad), but yes. Not because I want the extra experience, but mainly because otherwise it would be too easy.

For the bonemancer - when there are just one or two monsters left in a pack, feel free to just cast Amplify and let the merc do the work.

Spoken by someone who's used to desert mercs and not barbarian mercs, I guess.  Even with AD I don't have the patience of waiting for my barb to kill that last monster (I tried...).

The weapon to seek for a barbarian merc at this point is an Honor runeword.  A five-socket base will not drop in nightmare difficulty, but you can make one with the cube recipe.  Look for a Zweihander base which is 5 sockets max, so the cube has a 2 in 6 chance of getting that.

Can a barb merc actually use a Zweihander? Somehow I thought he can only use one-handed swords; I'll have to test that then. 

[KingOfPain]

Yea, Baba mercs, the Bash ones, can use 1 or 2 handed swords correctly, and the Frenzy ones use 1 handed swords only.

I am only speaking strictly in the style point of view about Barbs using shields. Of course, if getting hit becomes a problem then a shield is good to have, provided that you actually put points in Dex to keep up Chance To Block.

Clvl vs Mlvl is one of the most effectual equalizer, which your character seem to be ahead of the curve...

Higher AC

Walk instead of run. I am always set to run, too much bother to switch all the time. However, with my Frenzy Baba I like to set to walk because Frenzy run too fast and gets out of control. Press down CTRL to run if wanted. If your main attack is Leap/LA, default to walk isn't too bad.

Shout actually offers more defense bonus than Defiance, plus you have Iron Skin to boost the effect even more. of course you don't want to spend too much skill points to max both. Best bang for the bucks is to use both Shout and Iron Skin as synergies. For example, instead of 20 points in Shout, put 10 in Shout and 10 in Iron Skin. You get ~10% extra for the same amount of skill points.

Dex it up. This can be a significant boost to your AC (together with Shout and Iron Skin). For example, if you have a base of 100 AC and buff it with 10 Shout + 10 IronSkin, you will have ~400 AC. Adding 80 Dex to your base 20 for a total of 100 Dex, you will get ~500 AC. A whooping 25% increase on top.
YMMV, this information is brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood nekkid baba, Jeremiah. Normal toons with higher AC may see less % increase.

[T-hawk]

As KoP says, the way for a barbarian to take less damage is defense (but not via dexterity, those numbers are tiny.) Even level-1 Shout and Iron Skin make for a fairly decent defense multiplier. The problem is finding a decent defense armor in this team format; you want an elite base with good (+150% or more) enhanced defense, which doesn't come available until a little later in hell difficulty. The one good way to get a defense armor earlier is to upgrade an exceptional unique, something like Spirit Shroud or Duriel's Shell; this consumes a Lem rune. (Also Anya in nightmare can sell a Godly Ornate Plate for ~1200 defense. This is very good for mercs and I shopped those for almost every merc on my teams.)

I didn't like a shield on my Berserk barb when I tried it; the problem is block-lock, with the block animation triggering all the time. Most of the time you would rather just take a small hit rather than get interrupted to block it.

The other way a barb can deal with crowds is War Cry for the stunning. The stun length does not reduce in nightmare/hell difficulties like all the other ways of affecting monster AI. I don't know if you have skill points available to raise it high, but it's an option to consider. It works decently well even against champion packs; the stun chance is 10%, but hit them a lot and it will still work.

[Kylearan]

Nightmare Act 5

Interrupted by work travel and holdiays, Act 5 took a while to play. I'm happy to report that all seven characters made Conquerer at level 73, and now the "real" game, i.e. Hell difficulty, can begin! And while I notice that it bothers me more and more how much time D2R takes and how it prevents me from playing other games I'd really like to play, I also notice how hard it is to stop myself from advancing to Hell immediately and instead take a break and write at least a small report first, which goes to show how good T-hawk's team vatiant is.

One of the reasons this act felt like a bit of a drag was that overall the drops were really bad and boring. Acts 3 and 4 had been fantastic, with several interesting items and good mid-level runes opening up a lot of possibilities! But even though I had increased magic find for all characters to at least 100% and sometimes more, I only seemed to find stuff like this:

   

That's exaggerating a bit, but I only seemed to find low-level stuff, or 3(!) more Bonesnaps, all worse than the one my barbarian is already wielding, or more Manald Heals, etc. (And the only "interesting" rune anyone found was one more Ko rune, for that matter. )

On exception was this:

   

...but even that wasn't really needed, as I felt confident to get through Hell with the upgraded Witchwild String already, and the Buriza wasn't event a good one. Of course it went to my Amazon nonetheless, who now has both the Buriza and and the WWS, planning to use WWS against bigger mobs first until Amp Damage procs, then switch to the slower, but more hard-hitting Buriza afterwards.

Apart from that, I only found some minor upgrades like this:

   

But this will most likely only end up at one of my two barbarian mercenaries until I have runes and bases to spare to kit them out better.

Amazon

By now I always start each act with the Amazon, to get a feel for the new monsters and layout from a safe distance. Nothing noteworty happened; A maxed Valkyrie, WWS, the cold rogue merc and her crowd control, and lots of life and mana leech meant she cruised through the act if I took care of positioning her correctly before strafing, needing almost no potions.

Druid

Despite having over 1000 life, a multishot/might slinger almost killed him with one attack. That was really close, and taught me to take a better look at the monsters around me. Apart from that, he encountered Gloams and Dolls in one of the dungeons, which were okay to deal with if careful but which made me realize that I never thought about re-rolling with this variant. Is it okay for me in Hell to re-roll monsters in mandatory dungeomns as long as I wouldn't do any area twice, or should I at least try to fight my way through regardless of monster mix and only use Escape + Save&Quit in dire emergencies? I think I will try to avoid re-rolling, as it feels less "cheating".

Oh, and I always forget that the Ancient in Nightmare are still easy. Took only two potions, and no pet died. :shrug:

Barbarian

It's sooo nice that you're immune to missiles while leaping, that makes a real difference compared to my other characters. Blood/moon lord champion and boss packs however posed a real challenge for my barbarian; man they hit hard! I had to use Leap and its knockback to carefully separate single monsters and get one or two hits in before the others reached me again. I still stubbornly use Bonesnap instead of a sword/shield setup, but in Hell I finally have to switch I think, when also my resists will demand a shield.

Paladin

By now I have so much mana that I found myself using Vengeance less and less, and instead simply spam Fist of the Heavens to kill animal monsters. Originally I had planned to max Vengeance, but I might re-think this and instead simply use Holy Bolt and FotH for everything and spend my skill points elsewhere (Holy Shield maybe?). I'll have to see how this will work in Hell.

Assassin

With her 43% physical damage reduction and all her elemental absorbs, she can tank nicely and only needs potions against skeletons she cannot leech from. She also fares better against blood and moon lords than the barbarian. She's very busy to play, having to juggle her charges and re-position herself frequently with Dragon Flight (which is also a great defense against missiles), but she's a lot of fun to play exactly because of this. I found that I could deal with lightning immunes easily enough with her maxed Dragon Claw, so I might not use Phoenix Strike as originally planned and instead max Claw Mastery and increase Weapon Block instead, although I will lose the Claws of Thunder synergy from Phoenix Strike that way.

Sorceress

Even with a barbarian tank, I'm surprised how mobile I have to be to avoid being hit and line up monsters for my Hydras to hit them. It's also annoying how many mana potions I have to carry around in my inventory which is already clogged up with resistance and life charms - I'm glad Cain can identify stuff in the cube by now.

While I loved the Frenzy barb merc in Normal diff for his speed, by now I'm more annoyed than happy how quickly he zips towards dangerous monsters when he's on low health; in dangerous situations where he is in danger of dying, I have to teleport a lot until his Frenzy wears off and/or a health potion has finally healed. Maybe I should hire a Bash barb instead of this suicicde barb after all?

Necromancer

His barbarian merc becomes also a bit annyoing, overwriting my Amp Damage way too often with his Taunt; especially considering how slowly he kills stuff. And the necro cannot even use teleport to save him when he's frenzying on low health! It's really too bad that Act 2 mercs still seem to be straight up better (at killing speed and thus indirectly at tanking as well, plus Insight's Meditation aura), at least without GG gear. I will stick it out however, to be able to really experience how the barbs fare in Hell.


I also did cows already, without anything coming out of it. Next up: Gambling, crafting and gearing up for Hell, with a more detailed breakdown of where my team stands right now.

[T-hawk]

And while I notice that it bothers me more and more how much time D2R takes and how it prevents me from playing other games I'd really like to play, I also notice how hard it is to stop myself from advancing to Hell immediately and instead take a break and write at least a small report first, which goes to show how good T-hawk's team vatiant is.

Ha, actually I had the opposite problem, I liked writing the reports so much I would keep re-reading and editing them instead of moving along with the gameplay. And yes, this variant does take a lot of time, and even more once you get into hell difficulty.

Despite having over 1000 life, a multishot/might slinger almost killed him with one attack.

1000 life is low even for a spellcaster, particularly for a short-to-medium ranged one like a wind druid. Sounds like you're not using Oak Sage - why not, usually that's the place for skill points after Tornado/Twister/Hurricane. But 1000 is low even before Oak Sage. I feel much better with 1300 or so. What armor does he have, and if it's not Lionheart, why not? Do you have a good supply of life charms? Any belts of the Whale?

Is it okay for me in Hell to re-roll monsters in mandatory dungeomns as long as I wouldn't do any area twice, or should I at least try to fight my way through regardless of monster mix and only use Escape + Save&Quit in dire emergencies? I think I will try to avoid re-rolling, as it feels less "cheating".

I never re-rolled monster types. But it's not a rule for the variant either way. I do occasionally reduce the player count when a character is particularly bad against some type of monster. That might be a good compromise.

By now I have so much mana that I found myself using Vengeance less and less, and instead simply spam Fist of the Heavens to kill animal monsters. Originally I had planned to max Vengeance, but I might re-think this and instead simply use Holy Bolt and FotH for everything and spend my skill points elsewhere (Holy Shield maybe?). I'll have to see how this will work in Hell.

This might work - with this paladin build being greatly improved in Resurrected (Holy Bolt works vs demons, and the faster casting delay on Fist), Vengeance isn't so necessary.

I found that I could deal with lightning immunes easily enough with her maxed Dragon Claw, so I might not use Phoenix Strike as originally planned and instead max Claw Mastery and increase Weapon Block instead, although I will lose the Claws of Thunder synergy from Phoenix Strike that way.

Dragon Claw falls off in effectiveness in hell difficulty if you don't have really great claws, as my own current assassin is now finding. Also I don't like Weapon Block, the block animation interrupts you too frequently (unless that changed in Resurrected.)

I'm glad Cain can identify stuff in the cube by now.

Cain could always identify stuff in the cube, that's not new in Resurrected, I think that dates back to at least patch 1.09 if not earlier.

Next up: Gambling, crafting and gearing up for Hell, with a more detailed breakdown of where my team stands right now.

What do you want to target for gambling? I most often do amulets at this time, that's probably the slot where you can get the most benefit out of the different combinations on rares. And the cost isn't too bad now since that stays static for amulets while everything else got more expensive.

[Kylearan]

Ha, actually I had the opposite problem, I liked writing the reports so much I would keep re-reading and editing them instead of moving along with the gameplay.

And that's one of the reasons right there why your reports are so much better than mine. By the way, I already skimmed over your current report and found it even more interesting than the older ones because I'm playing myself and now can relate to a lot of stuff much better. I'll hold off commenting until I find the time to read it more carefully. (I have way too many hobbies and plans... )

1000 life is low even for a spellcaster, particularly for a short-to-medium ranged one like a wind druid.  Sounds like you're not using Oak Sage - why not, usually that's the place for skill points after Tornado/Twister/Hurricane.  But 1000 is low even before Oak Sage.  I feel much better with 1300 or so.  What armor does he have, and if it's not Lionheart, why not?  

The answer to that is a bit embarrassing. I do have Oak Sage, but I also have ~150 unspent attribute points.  The druid felt like he was untouchable until that encounter with the slinger. I will put a lot of these points into vit now that I'm in Hell, though.

He still uses a Stealth armor ("untouchabe", remember? ). Since he needs to get rather close to the monsters, I hope to find an elite base for him in Act 1 for at least a bit of defense, but alrady have a mage plate ready in my stash for something like a Lionheart if I feel I need it earlier.

Cain could always identify stuff in the cube, that's not new in Resurrected

For some reason, Resurrected Cain couldn't do this until patch 2.4 (? I think).

What do you want to target for gambling?  I most often do amulets at this time, that's probably the slot where you can get the most benefit out of the different combinations on rares.  And the cost isn't too bad now since that stays static for amulets while everything else got more expensive.

I already gambled amulets, rings and circlets; amulets and rings are some of my weak spots for several chars. (The "untouchable" Druid still uses simple magic +lightning res rings and a magic +2 elemental amulet...).

[Kylearan]

Before entering Hell difficulty, it was time to gamble again to fill some gaps. I was gambling amulets, rings and circlets, mainly looking for +resistances and +skills. While I got indeed some improvements to existing gear, I didn't really get anything great and ended up with some characters still having to wear only mediocre magic gear (see below). I also imbued four circlets and coronets, without much luck either.

Then I tried some crafting, looking for better Hitpower gloves for the amazon and re-rolling some grand charms. The gloves were all bad, but I managed to get some skiller charms, unfortunately mainly where they wouldn't really be needed (e.g., two +1 elemental skills for the already powerful druid and a +1 bows and crossbows for the amazon that already had good gear) - I had been hoping for something for the barbarian or the necromancer. But hey, skillers are skillers, and I gladly kept them of course.

Then it was time to shuffle gear around, at which point I suffered from some analysis paralysis and ended up doing it more by intuition, to get moving. I made another Lionheart and a Smoke armor, and spent a lot of left-over attribute points; some characters would have looked very silly if I had lost them with over 100 unspent points...

So here's what I ended up with, at levels 73 and 74:

Amazon

Attributes: 110 Strength, 216 Dexterity, 242 Vitality, 28 Energy, 20 unspent points, 1045 Life, 230 Mana, 61% fire res, 66% lightning res, 20% cold res, 40% poison res (all except cold at max when switching to Witchwild String).

Important skills: Strafe 20+3, Guided Arrow 20+3, Valkyrie 20+1, Critical Strike 5+1, Pierce 5+1, Penetrate 2+1.

Gear: Buriza-Do Kyanon socketed with an Eth and Witchwild String socketed with two Eth; Lionheart mage plate; Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth; Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest; Hitpower gloves with +20% IAS and +22% lightning res; rare boots with 30% FRW and three resistances; rare amulet with +1 amazon skills, 10% FCR and +all res; rare ring with +5% AR and a bit of cold and lightning res; rare ring with +11 all res and +50 poison damage over 3 seconds. Two +1 bow grand charms, rest of inventory except two rows filled with other charms.

Mercenary: Cold rogue with +1 amazon skills circlet, rare scale mail with +def per level, Insight great bow.

I feel pretty confident and pleased about the amazon. She still needs better resists when wielding her main weapon, the Buriza, but maybe I find a better belt and better rings at some point - Tal Rasha's belt I wear for the +20 Dex right now. The Valkyrie and the knockback gloves provide good safety and 10% mana and life leech sustain her well enough. I even feel strong enough to swap out Tal Rasha's Crest for a topaz'ed helmet for act 1 for some more magic find. (And I just realize I forgot so add a socket to Tal Rasha's Crest, which could help with resists and might free up some small charms for other characters.)

Pierce 5+1 is not wasted even now that I use the Buriza as my main weapon. Against groups of monsters and physical resistant ones, using the Witchwild String's Amplify Damage is very useful, and piercing helps to trigger it earlier (I'm already playing in Act 1, and it works really well). I plan to invest in Penetrate next - hitting things seem kind of important in this type of game...


Assassin

Attributes: 101 Strength, 118 Dexterity, 220 Vitality, 25 Energy, 35 unspent points, 978 Life, 203 Mana, 72% fire res, 75% lightning res, 68% cold res, 42% poison res (with Fade).

Important skills: Claws of Thunder 20, Dragon Claw 20, Phoenix Strike 2, Fade 20+3, Claw Mastery 6, Shadow Warrior 1+3.

Gear: Rare hand scythe with 25-95 dmg, +40% IAS, +max damage per level, +66 AR and +50% damage against demons, +3-10 fire dmg, +1-20 lightning dmg, 7% life leech, +30% cold res, +16 def and +4 life (has socketed two jewels); rare scissors quhab with 35-79 dmg, 10% IAS, +50 AR and +13% dmg against demons, +276 AR and +234% dmg against undead, +7 poison dmg; upgraded Rockfleece socketed with an Ort for +30% lightning res; Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest socketed with a Ral for +30 fire res; String of Ears; Ghoulhide; Sander's Riprap; rare amulet with resistances; raven frost; dwarf star; off-hand claws for overall +3 Fade and +3 Shadow Warrior. In the stash is a magic amulet with +2 martial arts and a rare greater claws with 37 to 76 dmg, +40% IAS and ignore target's defense. Inventory is full with charms except three rows.

Mercenary: Defiance desert merc with Rattlecage, Stealskull and an Insight partizan.

My approach to defense in Nightmare was high physical resistance (43%), high elemental resistances, some fire and cold absorb and some reduce damage (normal and magic). It worked well, but I have no idea how viable this will be in Hell and suspect I will run into problems. Maybe I'll find runes and a base for a Duress, in which case I'll have to shuffle a lot of gear around, but somehow I hope to get by with the Rockfleece and my current concept. We'll see.

I'll invest more points into Claw Mastery next for a needed bonus to AR and to increase my physical damage; I hope to get by without Phoenix Strike (which unfortunately I have invested two points already plus 3 prerequisites, which would result in 5 wasted points).


Barbarian

Attributes: 126 Strength, 97 Dexterity, 230 Vitality, 20 Energy, 48 unspent points, 1151 (2173) Life , 167 Mana , 75% fire res, 75% lightning res, 30% cold res, 75% poison res.

Important skills: Leap Attack 20+2, Leap 20+2, Berserk 1+2, Battle Orders 10+10, Battle Command 1+7, Shout 1+7, Find Item 1+10, Blade Mastery 17+1, Increased Speed 1+1, Iron Skin 1+1, Natural Resistances 1+1.

Gear: Plague Bearer; Rhyme grim shield; rare mesh armor with 10% FHR, +def based on level, +53% lightning res and +30% fire res (helped by socketed Ral and Ort); magic horned helm with +1 barb skills, +3 Battle Orders and +3 Find Item; Chance Guards; Immortal King's Pillar; rare belt with some lightning and fire res; The Mahim-Oak Curio; rare ring with 6% life leech and +all res; Manald Heal; two Spirit swords on switch for buffing; a +1 warcries grand charm; and assorted other charms to leave only two rows of inventory free.

Mercenary: A fire iron wolf with some boring rare armor, a rare helm with some resists, Hexfire, and Milabrega's Orb.

I'm not happy with the barbarian's setup, not happy at all. I still have my upgraded Bonesnap in the stash, but felt I had to switch to a shield for the resists (and a bit of blocking, although the chance is very small with this shield and his low dex at the moment). But the best weapon I could come up with so far is the Plague Bearer with 35-150 dmg and +300 poison dmg over 8 seconds. Even with the iron wolf's Enchant, I don't think this will be adequate for Hell, and I'm prepared to bring out Bonesnap again, although I don't know how to deal with his bad resistances then (I'll have some spare +fire res charms, but no +lightning).

I've grudgingly decided that now is the time to commit myself to a mastery, and chose Blade Mastery to support the Plague Bearer. My plan is to find a white or 6os phase blade and make Unbending Will in it. Depending on how it rolls, it doesn't have that much more damage over an upgraded Plague Bearer (if I'd upgrade it) and also lacks its poison damage, but with +3 to combat skills and some other nice mods, it might be enough to carry me forward. Painful are the high dex requirements, although at least that would improve attack rating and block chance. (Making Unbending Will in a colossus blade or sword would have strength requirements I weren't be able to meet.)

One other thing I realized is that since Leap Attack and Leap are not affected by being frozen, I might replace the Rhyme shield with something else later. A better helmet would be nice as well, and some source of mana leech so I can ditch Manald Heal in favor of something better.

Regarding the merc, I actually managed to not find a 4os shield of any kind for a Spirit, but at least he profits from wielding a Hexfire with its +3 to fire skills.

Skill-wise, I plan to max Blade Mastery and then dump more points into Battle Orders. I might increase Natural Resistances as well if I get desperate.


Druid

Attributes: 82 Strength, 25 Dexterity, 242 Vitality, 30 Energy, 120(!) unspent points, 668 (1370) Life, 225 Mana, 71% fire res, 72% lightning res, 73% cold res, 68% poison res.

Important skills: Hurricane 20+5, Tornado 20+5, Twister 7+5, Cyclone Armor 20+5, Oak Sage 14+4, Summon Grizzly 1+4, Summon Dire Wolf 1+4.

Gear: Spirit sword; Spirit bone shield; Smoke mage plate; rare circlet with +1 druid skills and +15 all res; rare plated belt with +31 life and +cold/fire/poison res; Chance Guards; Tearhaunch; rare amulet with +1 druid skills and +12 all res; rare ring with +21 life, +39 mana, +all res; magic ring with +23 lightning res. Two +1 elemental skills grand charms, and actually 5 empty rows for loot in his inventory.

Mercenary: Defiance desert merc with Haemosu's Adamant, a helm with +life and some resists, and an Insight partizan.

120 unspent attribute points is a lot, and I should probably spend some of them into vit before I start Hell. He lacks a good ring, but apart from that feels ready to go, maybe even with a topaz'ed helm for act 1 instead of his circlet. I'll max Oak Sage before dumping the rest of my skill points into either Summon Grizzly or Twister.


Necromancer

Attributes: 95 Strength, 40 Dexterity, 300 Vitality, 61 Energy, 60 unspent points, 950 Life, 360 Mana, 67% fire res, 75% lightning res, 75% cold res, 46% poison res.

Important skills: Bone Spear 20+9, Bone Spirit 20+8, Bone Armor 1+10, Bone Wall 20+6, Bone Prison 13+6, Corpse Explosion 1+6, Amplify Damage 1+3, Dim Vision 0+5, Clay Golem 1+6, Golem Mastery 1+8, Summon Resist 1+6,

Gear: Bone wand; Rhyme unraveller head; Lionheart mage plate; Trang-Oul's Claws; Nightsmoke; Natalya's Soul; rare circlet with +2 to Poison and Bone skills, +9 to mana and +9 to energy; rare amulet with +2 to Summoning skills, +24 life, +6 energy, +38% lightning res, +27 fire res and +11% magic find; The Stone of Jordan; rare ring with +11 Energy and a bit to all resistances. Off-hand he wields a bone wand with +3 to Bone Armor and +2 to Golem Mastery and an unraveller head with +2 to Summoning skills. One +1 to Summoning Skills and two +all res grand charms (and yet, only two rows free in his inventory).

Mercenary: A Frenzy barbarian with Skin of the Flayed One, Blackhorn's Face and the Atlantean.

During item redistribution, I accidentally sold one too many of my unique swords, and now the necro's merc has none for his off-hand. Next sword I'll find goes to him...

Apart from that, the necro himself doesn't have the best equipment, but if I remember to use Bone Wall more often and bring some patience (and lots of blue pots), I hope I'll be fine.


Paladin

Attributes: 90 Strength, 114 Dexterity, 274 Vitality, 15 Energy, 35 unspent points, 1053 Life, 342 Mana, 74% fire res, 65% lightning res, 32% cold res, 57% poison res.

Important skills: Conviction 12+6, Fist of the Heavens 20+7, Holy Bolt 20+7, Vengeance 13+7, Holy Shield 1+7.

Gear: Spirit sword; Spirit aerin shield; Stealth serpentskin armor; rare circlet with +1 paladin skils, 20% FRW, +37% fire res, +18% poison res and +10 dex; rare belt with +38 life, +23% lightning res, +6% fire res; Tearhaunch; magic amulet with +2 to combat skills; rare ring with 5% mana leech, +8% lightning res, +18% fire res and +9% poison res; rare ring with 7% life leech, +7 all res. On weapon switch: Aldur's Rhythm (not yet socketed) and a Rhyme heraldic shield. +1 Offensive auras grand charm.

Mercenary: A Defiance desert merc with some rare armor, Duskdeep and an Insight partizan.

As I already said, by now I get the feeling I might be able to fight animals with Fist of the Heavens and don't really need Vengeance, especially as I haven't maxed Conviction yet for FotH doing even more damage, so I haven't put any sockets into Aldur's yet and also have off-loaded all my +elemental damage charms into my stash and put +res charms in his inventory instead. Replacing his Stealth armor would be nice if find a good base, and maybe I switch his merc from Defiance to Holy Freeze, now that I no longer be in melee much - I'll have to see how FotH really works in Hell first, though. Then I'd also no longer need leech rings and could replace those with better resistance rings or so (if I will be able to find better ones, that is).


Sorceress

Attributes: 65 Strength, 39 Dexterity, 250 Vitality, 35 Energy, 80 unspent points, 730 Life, 244 Mana, 71% fire res, 61% lightning res, 75% cold res, 38% poison res.

Important skills: Hydra 20+5, Fire Mastery 20+1, Fireball 10+8, Frozen Orb 20+2, Cold Mastery 3+2, Teleport 1+1, Telekinesis 1+1, Static Field 1+1, Frozen Armor 1+4.

Gear: Leaf staff; Stealth armor; rare circlet with 20% FCR, +17% cold resist, +17 lightning resist, +17% poison resist, +48% fire resist, +38 mana (socketed sapphire); Magefist; Natalya's Soul; rare belt with 10% FHR, +7% lightning res, +27% fire res; rare amulet with +1 sorcerer skills and +14 all res; rare ring with +25 mana, +26% cold res, +10% lightning res, +10% fire res, +10 poison res and 10% mf; rare ring with +23% cold res, +26% fire res and 8% mf. +1 cold skills grand charm, rest res charms (two rows left free in inventory).

Mercenary: Frenzy barbarian with a rare armor, Duskdeep, Ginther's Rift, and Coldsteel Eye.

I'm a bit scared how fragile she is, so I will spend more points on vitality before going into the Blood Moor. My main objective for her is getting a base for a better armor with resists, and more sources of life.


All in all, my main goal for act 1 Hell (apart from surviving...) will be finding white or socketed armor and weapon bases for imbuing and runewords, although having already played the amazon by now, I might have overestimated the number of elite items that drop in Hell (on player 5). Rune-wise, I still have an Um, a Pul, 3 Fal, 5 Ko, 2 Lum, 7 Io and lots of runes below that.

[KingOfPain]

Act 3 merc for baba Maila Orb, why?
I cant believe you haven't found any better random shield.

Spirit bone shield. Hello!?

During item redistribution, I accidentally sold one too many of my unique swords, and now the necro's merc has none for his off-hand

AFAIK they haven't fixed this bug yet. You probably get better damage using just one (higher damage) sword on a Frenzy merc. It will count as if you equipped both hands with the same sword. Of course equipping both hands can get you more procs and fx if that's what you are after.

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