Pouncezon

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Ir0n
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What pike are you guys using until flame/sssu? or gear in general for that matter
I'm struggling to do TA any more.. not playing for 3 seasons fucked me over I have no idea how to even play lol
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Crash
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romanN1
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Rusalka or crafted
Webbhead08
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Edit - saw the wrong 6x earth wep
Thanks HohoHaha
Edited by Webbhead08 5 years.
HohoHaha
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Webbhead08 wrote:Would love to see this guide get some updates, the suggested EaEaEaEaEaEa runeword no longer exists for instance


It still exists, and is still the one of the 2 best options for pouncezons.
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What is the merc setup for this build??
d2mxl
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Couple newbie questions. I am level 46 in Hatred Act5. My resist are Fire 55, Cold 26, Lightning 37, and Poison 79. Life is 1381 and defense is 18614, Great Hunt damage is 238-420, and Pounce is 206-396. These numbers are from character screen. I have been following Britney Spear in The 1.3 SP Miniguides Compilation but standing in one place in certain locations in Act 4 and Act 5 gives the monsters a lot of opportunity to do damage. So I have switched to following Stealthmaster's PounceZon. Mainly I use pounce to move around and if I can't kill the monsters with pounce then I use great hunt. Hyena strike I have stopped using it after Act 1. I haven't die for awhile after Act1, but in Act4, I pounce at Diablo and was instant killed. I am assuming it is by Flamestrike but I didn't see anything at all. After reviving without my merc, I waited till Diablo engages Fire Elements, then pounce in and killed Diablo.

Question 1: My fire resistance is 55. At level 46, should I have it higher? Will having higher fire resist allow me to survive Diablo's fire attacks?

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In early Act 5, the map is really big and there is a lot of torturous roads and barriers, so I pounce around and twice I died, killed by Detonator.

Question 2: Is there anyway not to die except to watch what pounce at? It would slow me down a lot if I had to look before pouncing. When I go slowly something and I am not sure what does a lot of damage to me. It might be some kind of lightning damage but sometimes I don't even see any monster on the screen. This is Act5 quest 1 and 2. Would you recommend going fast, but increase my life or whatever is needed to survive Detonator? Or go slow but increase lightning resistance so I don't take a lot of damage from whatever is damaging me that my merc, a bloodmage, can see and fire at even when I don't see anything on the screen?

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The only guide I can find for bloodmage is Bloodmage Bosskiller by SWaP, the only problem is that this guide is more suitable for high level character than for low level like me. I don't have equipment for bloodmage because if I understand the guide correctly, the right gears for a Bloodmage should be +% fire spell damage and +% enhance defense. So I was thinking of switching to a Barbarian now that I finish Act 5.2 and follow The Act5 Mercenary Guide by Coldzero. It seems to be that other than the weapon ad the helm I can pretty much just retire by equipment to the Barb. I have so far tried Rouge, Bloodmage and now I am in the process of hiring a Barbarian. The mercs has never died on me, usually, I died and kill the merc as a result.

Question 4: What's a good merc for pounczon especially considering that what I need to do next is finish the rest of Act 5 and do LC1? Another way of asking this question is what role should the merc play, as a distraction to keep monsters and boss occupied, or as an additional damage dealer? So far I don't seem to need someone to do crowd control, monsters seem easier to kill as their number increases.

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I am using Fangspear, Titan's Burden, Jitan's Kamon, Visegrip, Deadfall, and Lionpaw. These are all equipments recommended by Britney Spear build which is a "non-pouncing fat spearzon".

Question 5: Why would you recommend Terra Indiges over Fangspear?

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I have 1 point in Pounce, 2 now, I just accidentally click on it again. A tier 4 Fangspear has +3 Amazon Skill Levels, and does about the same amount of damage as Terra Indiges. In Britney Spear, Bloodlust comes from Koth's Lesson, a mace. I don't have this yet but I am looking for it. Is the Lvl 12 Elemental same as Amazon's Fire Elemental? I have level 9 right now with +1 skill from a rare Amulet and +3 from Fangspear. So it seems that both of the CTC on Terra Indiges are redundant in my particular case. In case you are wondering, I cannot respec because I already use up my Act 1.1 reward.

Question 6: In the guide when you talk aobut putting "Ist into Maiden Pike", you said that "Stormblast doesn't work with pounce here". Why? it's CTC on Melee Attack, Is pounce not a melee attack? What about great hunt, is it a melee attack? All the CTC on both Fangspear and Terra Indiges are "On Melee Attack", would they get triggered if I use exclusively pounce and great hunt and not normal attack? What about Crushing Blow, would pounce and great hunt trigger crushing blow?

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Right now I have been putting perfect gems and random jewels that I can find into my equipment. Because my levels increase really fast, I keep on uptiering my TU gears.

Question 7: What kind of damage does pounce and great hunt do? Specifically should I put in my gears +% Spell Damage, +% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage, Perfect Skull with +10% Enhanced damage, or Rainbow stones with +% chance of Crushing Blow, Eth +5 Max Damage, Tal for +5 attributes, Dol for +5 Min damage, or lo for +5% Dexterity. What about Amn's % Damage Reflected? Normally I don't take any damage, is Amn useful for bosses? Should I start MO my gears or is it too early since I need to uptier so often. Does MO carries over if I uptier a piece of gear?
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Solfege
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d2mxl wrote:
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Not an expert on Pouncezon, but I'll answer as best I can.

1:
Diablo also uses Bloodstorm as well as Flamestrike. Both can do a lot of damage, but high Fire res will help protect against them. The amount of res you have at the stage you're at is generally fine, but having higher res against certain Elements at certain times is a good idea (e.g. 75% Cold res for Mephisto, 75% Fire res for Diablo, etc.).

2:
You can survive a Detonator's fireball, but even with 75% Fire res, it will still nearly 1-shot you. Best thing you can do is either ignore Detonators, let your merc kill them, or Pounce on something nearby so your AoE nova kills them, then run or Pounce away asap.

The lightning is probably coming from Thunderbolts. The amount of damage they do is kind of ridiculous. The fact that they can spam you from off-screen is even more ridiculous (get used to enemies spamming you from off-screen, btw).

3:
I didn't see a “Question 3.”

4:
Not 100% sure, but a caster is probably fine (Bloodmage or Abjurer). Rogues could be decent, but they're just so squishy. Barbs are almost always fine.

Here are some basic gear setups for Bloodmage and Abjurer. Listed Bloodmage setup is just a stripped-down version of Scalewinged's Bloodmage. Abjurer setup was adapted from his Bloodmage.

► cheap bloodmage

► cheap abjurer

5:
Damage-wise,
Terra Indiges
Terra Indiges
Maiden Pike (4)

Two-Hand Damage: (7 - 8) to (34 - 43)
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 10
Required Strength: 43
Required Dexterity: 87
Item Level: 19
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.13 per Dexterity)%
Amazing Grace
10% Chance to cast level 10 Ember Spirit on Melee Attack
+6% Bonus Damage to Bloodlust
10% Hit Recovery
+(16 to 23) to Maximum Damage
+(41 to 60)% Enhanced Damage
Elemental Resists +(21 to 30)%
Physical Resist (4 to 6)%
(11 to 15)% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (2)
Two-Hand Damage: (20 - 23) to (78 - 92)
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 63
Required Dexterity: 126
Item Level: 40
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
Amazing Grace
13% Chance to cast level 24 Ember Spirit on Melee Attack
+12% Bonus Damage to Bloodlust
15% Hit Recovery
+(29 to 37) to Maximum Damage
+(61 to 80)% Enhanced Damage
Elemental Resists +(41 to 50)%
Physical Resist (7 to 9)%
(21 to 25)% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (4)
Two-Hand Damage: (47 - 52) to (157 - 183)
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 123
Required Dexterity: 246
Item Level: 59
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
Amazing Grace
16% Chance to cast level 33 Ember Spirit on Melee Attack
+18% Bonus Damage to Bloodlust
20% Hit Recovery
+(43 to 57) to Maximum Damage
+(81 to 100)% Enhanced Damage
Elemental Resists +(61 to 70)%
Physical Resist (10 to 12)%
(31 to 35)% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (5)
Two-Hand Damage: (66 - 72) to (210 - 237)
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 241
Required Dexterity: 483
Item Level: 85
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
Amazing Grace
20% Chance to cast level 40 Ember Spirit on Melee Attack
+24% Bonus Damage to Bloodlust
20% Hit Recovery
+(60 to 72) to Maximum Damage
+(101 to 120)% Enhanced Damage
Elemental Resists +(71 to 80)%
Physical Resist (13 to 15)%
(36 to 40)% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (6)
and
Fangspear
Fangspear
Spetum (4)

Two-Hand Damage: (15 - 18) to (37 - 48)
Required Level: 7
Required Strength: 42
Required Dexterity: 63
Item Level: 19
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
200% Bonus to Miasma Haunt Duration
10% Chance to cast level 5 Miasma on Melee Attack
15% Attack Speed
Adds (8 to 10)-(21 to 30) Damage
+75 to Attack Rating
+(30 to 46)% Enhanced Damage
+(0 to 100) to Life
+(11 to 15) Life after each Kill
Socketed (2)
Two-Hand Damage: (33 - 40) to (78 - 92)
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 70
Required Dexterity: 97
Item Level: 36
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
200% Bonus to Miasma Haunt Duration
15% Chance to cast level 11 Miasma on Melee Attack
30% Attack Speed
Adds (11 to 15)-(31 to 40) Damage
+100 to Attack Rating
+(64 to 80)% Enhanced Damage
+(0 to 150) to Life
+(21 to 25) Life after each Kill
Socketed (4)
Two-Hand Damage: (63 - 71) to (143 - 161)
Required Level: 44
Required Strength: 144
Required Dexterity: 193
Item Level: 51
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
200% Bonus to Miasma Haunt Duration
20% Chance to cast level 18 Miasma on Melee Attack
45% Attack Speed
Adds (16 to 20)-(41 to 50) Damage
+125 to Attack Rating
+(98 to 114)% Enhanced Damage
+(0 to 200) to Life
+(31 to 35) Life after each Kill
Socketed (5)
Two-Hand Damage: (83 - 97) to (184 - 203)
Required Level: 53
Required Strength: 288
Required Dexterity: 382
Item Level: 85
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
200% Bonus to Miasma Haunt Duration
25% Chance to cast level 25 Miasma on Melee Attack
60% Attack Speed
Adds (21 to 30)-(51 to 60) Damage
+150 to Attack Rating
+(115 to 132)% Enhanced Damage
+(0 to 250) to Life
+(36 to 40) Life after each Kill
Socketed (6)
probably won't be much different, but Terra has some nice defensive mods to help with survivability (%DR, TCD, FHR, and res). So you may as well go with the weapon that's gonna help keep you alive while you're Pouncing around. And since Terra is an Amazon class-only spear, it has the “Mega Impact” mod, which gives you a 25% chance to cast an invisible proc that reduces enemy Phys res -25% for 2 seconds. However, it's an on-attack proc, and since Pounce doesn't activate on-attack procs, you'll only get it when you use Great Hunt or Hyena Strike.

6:
Elemental in this case is the proc version of Druid's Elemental skill (a little burning man running in a straight line). It's that thing you see running at you when you fight the High Council in A3 Travincal.

As for respecs, Belladonna Extracts start dropping as early as the end of A1 Terror. They'll let you respec any time, so don't worry about it if you mess up your build.

Pounce is a “teleport strike,” so it won't trigger on attack/on melee attack stuff (procs, Life on Attack, etc.). It will trigger on striking and on kill stuff, though. Great Hunt is a melee attack, so it will trigger on attack stuff.

Pounce and Great Hunt will trigger Crushing Blow. Afaik, all Weapon Damage Modifier attacks trigger Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike (there may be some rare exceptions to this).

7:
Pounce and Great Hunt are WDM skills, which are skills that do a certain percentage of your weapon's damage. The base damage for these skills is Physical, but they sometimes convert that Phys damage to another type of damage. For example, Great Hunt converts 100% Phys damage to Magic damage, so the actual damage you're dealing to enemies is Magic. Pounce doesn't convert Phys to anything, but it does add flat Magic damage to the attack.

For socket fillers, it depends on your build, gear, and the situation. But generally at your level, you'll want Perfect Rainbow Stones in your weapon for CB. In your armor, you'll want Perfect Res Gems (Ambers, Bloodstones, Onyxes, Turquoises) or jewels with res mods to hit the res cap. Later, when you have enough res from gear and Charms, you can replace the socket fillers in your armor with Perfect Amethysts for more DEX or crafted +2% DEX jewels, depending on if you choose Paragon or Curare as your Uber Skill (someone correct me if this is wrong).

As for when to MO your gear, you can do that any time you want as long as you have enough gold. MOs are expensive early on, so I usually wait until I absolutely need them (like, when I notice my killspeed takes a drastic hit, or I start having problems with survivability). Any MO you put on a TU won't carry over when you uptier it. The uptier process basically rerolls the item, so it discards anything you've added to it, including socket fillers, so make sure to unsocket your gear before uptiering (and make sure you're adding a Rune to the recipe when uptiering TUs).

Kind of a long response, but hope it helps.
d2mxl
Skeleton
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Thanks, it's very helpful.

For #4, thanks for the setup for bloodmage and abjurer. I think I will go back or try them again once I got to Terror. So far I haven't find any shines yet. I got a Mark of Infusion, but I didn't know it was special, so I used it on some random item just to see what it does. And it disappeared after that. For early gears, does the +skill have to be +All Skill or is Bloodmage and Abjurer a specific class like Barbarian?

For #5, is +skill not that important for Pouncezon?

For #6, #7, It's very good to know what proc gets triggered, I being searching for this info for awhile, so thank you very much. What is a "Magic Damage", is cold, fire or lightning or a combination of all three, or is it entirely a different category? In Act 4 I begin to see monster that are Fire immune or immune to some other element, but they don't seem to give any trouble at all.
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Solfege
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d2mxl wrote:Thanks, it's very helpful.

For #4, thanks for the setup for bloodmage and abjurer. I think I will go back or try them again once I got to Terror. So far I haven't find any shines yet. I got a Mark of Infusion, but I didn't know it was special, so I used it on some random item just to see what it does. And it disappeared after that. For early gears, does the +skill have to be +All Skill or is Bloodmage and Abjurer a specific class like Barbarian?

For #5, is +skill not that important for Pouncezon?

For #6, #7, It's very good to know what proc gets triggered, I being searching for this info for awhile, so thank you very much. What is a "Magic Damage", is cold, fire or lightning or a combination of all three, or is it entirely a different category? In Act 4 I begin to see monster that are Fire immune or immune to some other element, but they don't seem to give any trouble at all.


Marks of Infusion are used on Magic or Sacred Magic gear pieces to create Honorifics. These are items with no echantments, but the effects of all MOs added to them are doubled. Honorifics also gives max sockets, depending on the item's tier. You can also Shrine-bless Sacred Honorifics by cubing it with a Shrine and an Arcane Crystal to add various mods, depending on the Shrine used. Shrines will start to drop around the same time Belladonnas do.

Mercs don't have merc-specific gear (yet), so it will be +All Skills. Only Barb mercs can benefit from +Barb Skills. It's also important to know that mercs can't use oskills (i.e. skills granted by an item, such as +x to Kraken Stance, for example).

+Skills are always nice, but they're more important for some builds than for others. And a lot of times, you can make up for a lack of +Skills with the right gear. Look at the Lioness passive, for example. +Skills will boost your AR and Defense, but it won't do anything to boost damage. Lioness only gets damage boosts from Base Points into the skill. So by using a spear such as Terra, you're gaining defense boosts from the item itself. This helps make up for whatever you would've gained from +Skills on Fangspear. So it balances out.

Magic Damage is it's own type of damage, separate from Phys or Elemental damage. Phys and Magic are nice damage types because fewer enemies are immune to them, and bosses have much lower resistances to them compared to Elemental damage. However, only a handful of skills offer Phys and Magic pierce. So it kind of balances out.