Pouncezon

[Hodgey]

What is the merc setup for this build??

[d2mxl]

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?

[Solfege]

► Show Spoiler

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?

------------

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?

------------

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.

------------

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?

------------

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?

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

For early gear, look for items with +Skills, +Fire Spell Damage, and -Enemy Fire Resistance. Supplement his gear with Honorifics orbed with the same MOs listed below.

Weapon: Fascinating-Craft Crystal Sword with +Skills, +Fire Spell Damage and -Enemy Fire Resistance.
Body Armor: Fascinating-Craft Ancient Armor with +Skills and %ED.
Shield: Fascinating-Craft with +Spell Damage, 10% DR, and +2 Skills.
Helm: Fascinating-Craft with +Skills, +FSD/-EFR and %ED.
Belt: Fascinating-Craft Plated Belt with +FSD/-EFR and %ED.
Gloves: Fascinating-Craft Gauntlets with +FSD/-EFR and %ED.
Boots: Fascinating-Craft Greaves with Faster Hit Recovery and +Attribute bonuses (especially STR).
Amulet: Rare with +Skills, Spell Damage, -EFR, and STR.

Socket Fillers:
> Weapon - Perfect Diamonds
> Armor - Enough -10% Requirement jewels to wear each gear piece, then P-Diamonds -> Enough crafted jewels (Zod Rune) with +FSD, EF, and -10% Req to wear each gear piece, then P-Diamonds (switch to Lum Runes when farming).

Mystic Orbs:
> Weapon - FCR, LaeK.
> Armor - FSD and MF. Remaining space can be used for Reanimate Skeletons or FHR. You can use -Req orbs as needed, but try to get -Req from jewels to save MO space.

► cheap abjurer

For early gear, look for items with +Skills, +Lightning Spell Damage, and -Enemy Lightning Resistance. Supplement his gear with Honorifics orbed with the same MOs listed below.

Weapon: Ornate-Craft Crystal Sword with +Skills, +Lightning Spell Damage and -Enemy Lightning Resistance.
Body Armor: Ornate-Craft Ancient Armor with +Skills and %ED.
Shield: Ornate-Craft with +Spell Damage, 10% DR, and +2 Skills.
Helm: Ornate-Craft with +Skills, +LSD/-ELR and %ED.
Belt: Ornate-Craft Plated Belt with +LSD/-ELR and %ED.
Gloves: Ornate-Craft Gauntlets with +LSD/-ELR and %ED.
Boots: Ornate-Craft Greaves with Faster Hit Recovery and +Stat bonuses (especially STR).
Amulet: Rare with +Skills, Spell Damage, -ELR, and STR.

Socket Fillers:
> Weapon - Perfect Diamonds
> Armor - Enough -10% Requirement jewels to wear each gear piece, then P-Diamonds -> Enough crafted jewels (Zod Rune) with +LSD, EF, and -10% Req to wear each gear piece, then P-Diamonds (switch to Lum Runes when farming).

Mystic Orbs:
> Weapon - FCR, LaeK.
> Armor - LSD and MF. Remaining space can be used for Reanimate Skeletons or FHR. You can use -Req orbs as needed, but try to get -Req from jewels to save MO space.

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]

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.

[Solfege]

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.

[tranvanhieu]

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.

Does act5 mers benefit from +x to Ancient Hand?
Does any mers benefit from +x to skills Y given they actually use that skills.

[Solfege]

Does act5 mers benefit from +x to Ancient Hand?
Does any mers benefit from +x to skills Y given they actually use that skills.

Yes. It works like a +Skills boost, just for a specific skill.

[d2mxl]

So from what I learn so far, pounce is not a direct melee but a teleporting attack. According to MXLu vXVI v2.96 "Stun Attack" on items such as Toorc's Gift will not work attacks other than direct melee. So "Stun Attack" would not work with Pounce but should work with Great Hunt. Am I correct?

I see "LL crafted jewels (Ber rune)" mentioned a couple times, the "LL" is just "Life Leech" right?

MXL's difficulty level (Terror and Destruction), is still pretty similar to the original Nightmare and Hell? I got rushed through Terror, and I noticed my resistance is decreased by about 40, same as in Nightmare. My merc still at 75. I plan to stay in Terror for awhile. This means I need 75(resist cap)+40(Terror)-30(from LC1 charm)=85 resist. I am level 58 now, so I plan to upgrade all my gear to Tier 6 except for deadfall belt which will be at tier 4. So I would have 20 sockets (excluding weapon), 20*20% resist from perfect gems / 4 types of resist is 100% resist per element, so I have more than enough sockets to reach resist cap and each perfect gem will give +2% max resist.

So here is the question, is it better to get a Honorific T1 gloves MO'd with +resist. At my level I get 6% to all resist per 4 levels, 58/4=14 MO's, or 84 resist, which is a little shy of max resist. There is no need to use perfect gems for resist, so no +2% max resist per gem. No "Stun Attack". I am using Visegrip right now but I am thinking of switching to Toorc's Gift. So also no "30% increased attack speed, no extra 200 cold damage, about 700 * my current TCD multiplier of defense, and 40% of cold resist. I can still MO Toorc's gift another 3 times before reaching level 58 (but no double bonus). But if I use the Honorific T1 gloves MO'd with +resist, I would have 17 empty sockets. If I upgrade everything to Tier 6, I will not be able to get "LL crafted jewels (Ber rune) with bonus to dex. and resists" any time soon, so I will put whatever gems or runes or random jewels I find in them.

Is Toorc's Gift's extra 200 cold damage just a flat extra 200 damage or does it get multiplied like the weapon damage? When I pounce, does it do cold damage and slow down all the monsters in the area?

The Honorific T1 gloves in the guide has -18% enemy poison resistance, is that from MO as well? I don't see MO's with -% enemy poison resistance for sale from the merchants.

[Solfege]

So from what I learn so far, pounce is not a direct melee but a teleporting attack. According to MXLu vXVI v2.96 "Stun Attack" on items such as Toorc's Gift will not work attacks other than direct melee. So "Stun Attack" would not work with Pounce but should work with Great Hunt. Am I correct?

Correct. But don't rely too much on the old docs. M2017 changed a lot of things. In case you didn't know, up-to-date docs can be found here:

https://docs.median-xl.com/

And the Wiki has some additional info not found in the docs, such as maps and stuff.

http://median-xl.wikia.com/wiki/Median_XL_Wiki

I see "LL crafted jewels (Ber rune)" mentioned a couple times, the "LL" is just "Life Leech" right?

Yes.

MXL's difficulty level (Terror and Destruction), is still pretty similar to the original Nightmare and Hell? I got rushed through Terror, and I noticed my resistance is decreased by about 40, same as in Nightmare. My merc still at 75. I plan to stay in Terror for awhile. This means I need 75(resist cap)+40(Terror)-30(from LC1 charm)=85 resist. I am level 58 now, so I plan to upgrade all my gear to Tier 6 except for deadfall belt which will be at tier 4. So I would have 20 sockets (excluding weapon), 20*20% resist from perfect gems / 4 types of resist is 100% resist per element, so I have more than enough sockets to reach resist cap and each perfect gem will give +2% max resist.

Sort of. Depending on your build and gear, it can be a smooth transition or a huge difficulty spike.

Getting rushed generally isn't a good idea, especially if you're new or playing a build you've never played before. One of the biggest benefits of playing through on your own is learning the ins-and-outs of the build you're playing, as well as increasing your player skill. This makes it easier to adapt to new situations when you get to the really hard stuff (Ubers). As a general progression guideline, you'll finish Hatred at clvl 50-54 with T3 gear, and Terror at clvl 102-114 with T6 gear.

As for res penalties, it's -50% in Terror and -100% in Destruction, so you need +125% and +175% res respectively to reach 75% res. Res gems+Elemental Prism will either res-cap you in Terror (depending on gear), or at least get you close. The rest you can get by putting res MOs on your jewelry. You only need about 70% all res when starting Destruction. The res bonus from the

Optical Detector

Optical Detector
Required Level: 105
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Unlocks Mastery Skill: Tenacity
+5% to Summoned Minion Resistances
Elemental Resists +15%
Infernal Machine (Heroic)
Difficulty Level: 122
Transmute in the cube after reaching Level 122

Charm will make up the rest (unless you're going for more res).

Mercs start with +100% res, and they suffer the same res penalties you do.

So here is the question, is it better to get a Honorific T1 gloves MO'd with +resist. At my level I get 6% to all resist per 4 levels, 58/4=14 MO's, or 84 resist, which is a little shy of max resist. There is no need to use perfect gems for resist, so no +2% max resist per gem. No "Stun Attack". I am using Visegrip right now but I am thinking of switching to Toorc's Gift. So also no "30% increased attack speed, no extra 200 cold damage, about 700 * my current TCD multiplier of defense, and 40% of cold resist. I can still MO Toorc's gift another 3 times before reaching level 58 (but no double bonus). But if I use the Honorific T1 gloves MO'd with +resist, I would have 17 empty sockets. If I upgrade everything to Tier 6, I will not be able to get "LL crafted jewels (Ber rune) with bonus to dex. and resists" any time soon, so I will put whatever gems or runes or random jewels I find in them.

It depends on your needs and how much you're using Great Hunt vs. Pounce. If you're mostly using Pounce and want TU gloves, I'd look at

Featherclaw

. You get IAS, FR/W, AR, DEX and usable sockets. If you wanna go Honorifics, you won't be able to get the same mods as the pic in the guide, but they'll still be useful (things have changed a lot in the MO department since this guide was written). You can start with T1 Leather Gloves (lowest STR and lvl req) and orb them with all res. That will still leave you with plenty of space for other things such as DEX, FHR, TCD, MF, etc. Don't socket them with anything. When T6 items start to drop, you can make new Honorifics in T6 Leather Gloves (low STR req and lvl req of 21) and socket them with perfect res gems instead of orbing them with all res. It's also important to remember that you can only orb an item 5x with the same MO (except Unique Mystic Orbs). So you'll only get a maximum of 30% all res per item from MOs.

And you're still a long way off from having to worry about crafted jewels. Perfect res gems in your gear are fine, even through Destruction's early Ubers. The jewels you'll craft will have a lvl req of 60+ anyway, so they wouldn't do you any good at clvl 58. When you are ready to craft jewels, make sure you're using ilvl 99 jewels (found in Terror Uberlevels and anywhere past A4 Terror Chaos Sanctuary). That way, you have a higher chance of getting the mods you want. Also, don't craft a jewel more than 6 times. Crafting reduces the jewel's ilvl by 5% each time, thus reducing the chance of getting good mods. And you don't need Crafting Points. They're not a thing anymore.

Is Toorc's Gift's extra 200 cold damage just a flat extra 200 damage or does it get multiplied like the weapon damage? When I pounce, does it do cold damage and slow down all the monsters in the area?

It's just flat Cold damage. That type of damage isn't affected by damage multipliers such as EWD (Poison damage from Curare is different, though). TBH, I'm not 100% sure if the Pounce AoE nova would carry the flat Cold damage. I want to say it would, but again, I'm not 100% sure.

The Honorific T1 gloves in the guide has -18% enemy poison resistance, is that from MO as well? I don't see MO's with -% enemy poison resistance for sale from the merchants.

Elemental pierce MOs used to be a thing, but they're not anymore.

[itsme]

It's just flat Cold damage. That type of damage isn't affected by damage multipliers such as EWD (Poison damage from Curare is different, though). TBH, I'm not 100% sure if the Pounce AoE nova would carry the flat Cold damage. I want to say it would, but again, I'm not 100% sure.

AFAIK it's the same deal as Curare. It's a passive damage source, which means it gets multiplied by the WDM on the skill (and also spell damage if direct melee). Physical weapon damage (ED/EWD/whatever) doesn't affect anything. The Pounce nova is WDM but not direct, so it carries the effect but lowers the damage to 60%, and isn't improved by spell damage.