Bat Lady Guide (SSF, Summoner, VIT assassin)

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Neyhanis
Balrog
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bodhe wrote:Kudos to you for being able to stomach the playstyle. I league started this same idea and promptly rerolled upon switching to it at 80. Maybe I was a bit early, but just changing the "bat" portion of batstrike to the 3rd charge would make it so much more enjoyable to play.

Trying to keep track of, or even see the charges on a busy screen is so annoying. Clawsin using noctule is pretty awesome for leveling though.


Honestly it's unplayable before 70, if you went up to 80 with it thats insane and i understand you ran away from it ^^ even at 80 its not good enough yet, I tried... but past 90/95 you get enough points and suddenly, despite the clunkyness, the damage becomes super good so it makes up :mrgreen:
You might wanna try again at some point on a leveld char :)
rapcior
Vampiress
37 | 1
Can some1 upload sny vid? Seems great build
Semigloss
Onyx Knight
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Neyhanis wrote:Also about the bloodlust, well even if my merc gives it I'm not going to get any source of +bloodlust because it just does... nothing. I mean it buffs physical damage and elemental spell damage, and they do neither (elemental attack damage is what they do), so it'd only be a very slight increase.

Spell damage increases elemental damage done with direct melee attacks of the char. But can anyone verify if this is the case for minions too? This obviously wouldn't apply to the "bat-attack" they gain from Winged Calamity.
Neyhanis
Balrog
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Semigloss wrote:
Neyhanis wrote:Also about the bloodlust, well even if my merc gives it I'm not going to get any source of +bloodlust because it just does... nothing. I mean it buffs physical damage and elemental spell damage, and they do neither (elemental attack damage is what they do), so it'd only be a very slight increase.

Spell damage increases elemental damage done with direct melee attacks of the char. But can anyone verify if this is the case for minions too? This obviously wouldn't apply to the "bat-attack" they gain from Winged Calamity.


Still would help, and I totally forgot about bloodlust's spell damage. Since merc is a bit out of picture in these later acts, i might go for a buffing shamanka setup then, especially for some ubers. Would make a big potential difference since we dont have that much +%spell damage for them (only ways, so 100 to 160%ish depending on ways level)

I'll edit the guide tonight with it, thanks

rapcior wrote:Can some1 upload sny vid? Seems great build

Sorry I don't know how to video-edit or anything :D if anyone makes a video i'll definitely include it in the guide though ! :mrgreen:
TTraw
Bone Archer
73 | 7
So you just play it as as full summon build? Well that's kind of disappointing way to use this ability.

But hey, I can't make it work as a normal melee build, imma test that whole full minion thing.

But do minion's ways passives get increased by minion damage? I remember testing it and they seemed to be completely unaffected. It was long time ago though, so if that changed that's great news.

Edit; For early game isn't akarat robe better than the visage? +1 to skills for free. Also, Astrogha is male I think :DDD
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CircaG
Balrog
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bodhe wrote:Kudos to you for being able to stomach the playstyle. I league started this same idea and promptly rerolled upon switching to it at 80. Maybe I was a bit early, but just changing the "bat" portion of batstrike to the 3rd charge would make it so much more enjoyable to play.

Trying to keep track of, or even see the charges on a busy screen is so annoying. Clawsin using noctule is pretty awesome for leveling though.


I league-started this as well with no respec. I played with lvl 1 noctule the whole way, with maxed ways (just lite and fire), and maxed bat strike. I didn't actually use bat strike until around lvl 90 tho. It really needs EVERY support skill maxed. Try it again if you're a higher level. It really is incredible with endgame. The amount of single target damage is absolutely insane, and the aoe isn't that bad once everything is maxed.

Edit: Also, to ease the playstyle. Use an act 2 merc to take the dmg. AND when you have your bats out, you should try to get 2 stacks up and just hold onto them for 5-10 seconds. Then, respawn the bats. I find this to be very helpful, as it can be VERY stressful to get 2 charges while you have no bats up.
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CircaG
Balrog
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TTraw wrote:So you just play it as as full summon build? Well that's kind of disappointing way to use this ability.

But hey, I can't make it work as a normal melee build, imma test that whole full minion thing.

But do minion's ways passives get increased by minion damage? I remember testing it and they seemed to be completely unaffected. It was long time ago though, so if that changed that's great news.

Edit; For early game isn't akarat robe better than the visage? +1 to skills for free. Also, Astrogha is male I think :DDD


Yes this would be a full summon build. However, I haven't equipped for batstrike third strike to be the main dmg. Although, I think it would be very annoying to play this without bats, as getting 3 charges just for a small aoe would be very inconsistent and annoying to play. Even more clunky than pure bats.
Minion's ways do not get increased by minion damage. Minion damage will only increase physical, which, as Neyhanis says, isn't much. The ways really carry the damage here. However, before this patch, bats were never affected by minion stats (dmg, res, and life). As of 2.0, they are indeed affected by minion stats, which helps CONSIDERABLY with the tankiness of the bats. They are insanely tanky.

Anything would be better than Fauztin's until you go full bats. :)
Neyhanis
Balrog
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TTraw wrote:Edit; For early game isn't akarat robe better than the visage? +1 to skills for free.

CircaG wrote:Anything would be better than Fauztin's until you go full bats. :)


Most definitely, but just in case i'm going to assume TTraw meant "when starting out as bats" by "early game". I would still pick up Fauztin for sure, UNLESS you have at least 3 honorific items with each 40% minion life, in other words 100/120%+ minion life.
Because early on you're likely to have bat strike only level 20 is or so, have little + skills so their base life isnt very high. If on top of that you have little +%minion life, they WILL DIE. All the avoid in the world isnt that good if they can get one or two-shot, in orther words ! ^^
Now don't get scared : compared to other minion builds, it's totally okay for them to die fast or not be super tanky, because you resummon fast, all at once, and doesnt consume your mana (like with other summonners), but if they die way too fast, it would still be a problem of course :mrgreen:

Also at that point you're likely using a lot of +str and +dex in stats and don't have a lot of VIT yet, so the hp and defense from fauzt isnt bad either :)

PS : Endgame, they end up extremely tanky vs elemental/magic damage thanks to avoid+prismatic, and somewhat squishy to physical damage, so some bosses can kill them rather quickly, and you'll need +%minion life. Not that you need to stack 500% or so, but still at least 200-250%. Since we push up crazy amounts of +skill levels their base hp will climb as well and any +hp is worth a lot on them with the defensive passives they have (there arent many other minions with 65% avoid damage lol...), so it ends up quite okay in terms of tankyness (and damage is, of course, superb).
Neyhanis
Balrog
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Edited main post to add a few things in, including a power ratings section to give a quick overview of the build's capabilities to those who might not want to bother reading a full guide (I don't do video editing but this might still help in this regard).
Feel free to comment on your own experiences with the build and your impressions/disagreements even with my expressed power ratings ! Since its new I can't say ive played it for months and don't have that much experience with it yet :)

Also, since im leveling another char, i'm using batlady to redo a few of the charms/ubers, but this time not with trashgear but somewhat decent geared/charmed and all I can say is uh... damage :mrgreen:
I'm gonna record a short video montage (after I learn how to use recording/editing programs haha). I mean killing hell baal without resummonng (sub-15sec even) is pretty fun to watch :D
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ChuckNoRis
Flying Polar Buffalo
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i've tried the new clawsin , there is some improvement on this patch , but it's still many miles away from where the build used to be 10-12 years ago . lacks specific gearing options , cannot be accessed until mid Nightmare , the bats don't last long enough , their damage/tankyness is still lacking in end game , the charges are still shitty to release when you attack super fast and you want a specific charge at a specific moment, the procs are murdered down to about 20% or less of what we had in the Laz days and the fun is no longer there .

my 2 cents