Shade wrote:L H wrote: <see above>
Thanks once again LH. Was this posted just on Youtube or is there a post in the forums here? If forums, I'm surprised I haven't seen it.
I can see the Abjurer is doing a lot of the damage and that his gear is great, but it's not clear how the barb is helping (presumably summoner barb?).
So I'm wondering why use barb - since this barb seems to use totems and some necro minions, would a totemancer do just as well?
Presumably the totems make the build safer since after teleporting (which skill does he use for teleport?) he is safer 'under' his totems.
Interesting build, I guess there's a lot that's not obvious since aerial thought it was worth making a guide for it.
That said - he also thinks abjurer is OP and might be nerfed next patch so perhaps best to wait and and see what the patch brings if this build is dependent on an OP merc (and what seems to be good end-game gear) to be viable.
Totem that is used is elemental totem, which necromancer doesn't even have in his skill tree, it is oskill. Stacking multiple items with high +elemental totem, allows you to get even higher level of it than necro.
Barb has the best party buffs hands down. Bear stance = %defense + 50% DR, a3 mercs have good base defense, so bear actually affects them. Another skill is spirit guide, which grants party total defense.
Minions help as shields, because they take damage. As you can see, this character has no form of healing, and yet survives ubers being at full hp. Normally something like that wouldn't be possible, if all incoming damage, all the projectiles, werent split between minions. Tanky barb minions are an asset too, because they don't die, so you don't need to waste time to recast them. Minions are pretty weak as damage dealers, because they are simply too slow, and you have to let the spread around to start dealing some damage. If you keep them stacked while teleporting, they can hardly hit anything. So you have to slow down dramatically, in order to deal damage, even if your minion damage was infinite, this build would still be relatively slow, because of that limitng mechanics. To make this work (very fast clear pure summoner), minion AI would have to follow you perfect, and aggresively attack enemies, while following you. That is not the case in d2.
Finally you do get strength factor from shamanic trance, which helps if you are trying to mix barb spell damage (hive/path of flames). If you don't use it, only rely on merc, then it isn't important.
chickenfeeder wrote:HohoHaha wrote:
correct me if i'm wrong but glad's domi gives 7% block chance right? so i would have 7% base block chance? but the character stats sheet doesnt show this, if it shows currently 5% it means i have 12% actually?
also why is deadly strike OP?
Gladiadors dominance grants base block, so it basically changes block on your shield by +7. Your total output block chance is calculated with formula, depends on dex. You can see final block chance, while hovering your defense in character screen. You need about 2280 dex with the passive, and using normal barb shield (without any extra +block on shield) to reach 75% block (cap).
Deadly strike means chance to deal double physical damage. So it only works with skills that are weapon damage based. Even skill that converts to elemental damage is affected by it. Chance for 2x damage, means basically increased damage by x% (same thing). 50% deadly strike means, your character in average deals 50% more damage (because half of your attacks will deal 2x more). It is stright up global multiplier to your damage, that works after all other skills. It is very strong.
If you compare to other skills, even a skill that grants very high %damage, like maxed spirit guide. That damage bonus is diminished by other %damage modifiers, you have crapload of it from shamanic trance, from strength bonus on weapon and so on. But after all that, total damage is taken and multiplied by deadly strike, which is worth a lot. Same with weapon upgrades. If you can MO your weapon with 20% deadly strike, that beats practically any other +damage mod, if you do the math how it impacts your final damage value.
