Avenger

[CheekyJez]

Avenger

Well I'm working on my Avenger, JohnSteed...

Playing through on /p 8 as per usual.

I've twinked him fairly heavily - he's using Khalim's Will, Steelclash, Bloodfists, and a Tarnhelm.

One of the side effects of this is +2 all skills.

Although he's lvl 19 now, he's still using zeal most of the time for mana conservation.

Have you guys seen a lvl 3 zeal with Khalim's Will? I heard it had the fastest swing speed in the game, but... WOW. Can't see it moving!

Anyway, the point is... Avenger Advice. May I have some? I've been looking at Cyrus's guide and I'm thinking of going with the 1 pt Vengeance, higher synergy build for 2 reasons: +skills will add to Vengeance, and the lower mana cost. Is this a bad idea?

Any tips on gear, stat'n'skill placement, etc. would be much appreciated. I have a fair amount of stuff I can twink him (almost all of the normal set/uniques, plus some tasty rares) - including a Crescent Moon Superior Phase Blade (thanks to TekkaZeroX for this!) - but that's a while away.

Strut your SPF stuff, guys (and elite uniques)

 

[Pucho]

If you are going with a crescent moon weapon for end-game, I'd suggest to max resist lighting for the synergy and then 6+ in each resist fire/cold (always a pair (??) number) and slowly pump vengance to take advantage of the -% enemy light resist. with a tals mask and some mana leech ring you'll be set for the high mana cost ( or even then....drink a blue! :lol: )

 

[MeBrutox]

After conviction and holy shield, I would split the rest of the points into the resists for the synergies and the passive bonus to max resists. That is what I did on my avenger and it worked out well.

One thing you may want to look at, as it can carry you through the early levels up till the end of nightmare, is a large 2-handed weapon. I used the bonesnap (upgraded to exceptional, with a P-skull) and did massive damage and had no problem with the mana, as I was leeching back enough to stay full.

At hell, you will of course want a shield, for the extra resists and blocking, but it is not that needed in the early levels. I was going through untwink and got lucky with the Butcher's pupil, which again was a great weapon.

The crescent moon weapon will be great weapon, just remember the vengeance damage is based of the physical damage you are doing.

 

[Indemaijinj]

Now, were talking outfitting low level characters you can make a rather neat Set-only necromancer setup that is rather hideous:


Hat: Infernal Cranium
Stick: Infernal Torch
Girdle: Infernal Sign

Shirt: Angelic Mantle
Necklace: Angelic Wings
Rings (both): Angelic Halo(s)

Mittens: Sigon's Gage
Shoes: Sigon's Sabot
Shield: Sigon's Guard


This will earn you a whopping +4 to all skills at level 12, good blocking, a high Defense Rating and frankly even some melee damage.

 

[CheekyJez]

Well maybe the way to go is a LIGHTNING avenger...

Max Conviction
Max Res Lightning
Max Salvation
Max Vengeance
Remaining pts in Res Fire, Res Cold, Holy Shield, Redemption, & prereqs

With the immunity breaking effect of Conviction and then the -lightning res on the Crescent Moon he should be able to get through pretty much anything... I guess I should try and get some Lightning based Rainbow Facets to finish him off... will anything give this guy trouble?

 

[MeBrutox]

Well maybe the way to go is a LIGHTNING avenger...

Max Conviction
Max Res Lightning
Max Salvation
Max Vengeance
Remaining pts in Res Fire, Res Cold, Holy Shield, Redemption, & prereqs

With the immunity breaking effect of Conviction and then the -lightning res on the Crescent Moon he should be able to get through pretty much anything... I guess I should try and get some Lightning based Rainbow Facets to finish him off... will anything give this guy trouble?

mana burn, immune to physical packs (specially the undead ones), may cause some problems..but that is pretty specific, and if you have some blue potions running, you will be fine.

Nothing else should really cause any serious problems.

And I would put points into holyshield before maxing vengeance, just because of the mana cost, on my avenger, at 87, I think I have maybe 8 points, plus modifers to vengeance.

 

[CheekyJez]

Tell me... how does vengeance work on PI's? Since the elemental damage is based on physical damage, does it do anything? Or does it work based on the damage that you WOULD have caused were they not PI?

 

[MeBrutox]

Tell me... how does vengeance work on PI's? Since the elemental damage is based on physical damage, does it do anything? Or does it work based on the damage that you WOULD have caused were they not PI?

It does damaged based on the physical damaged that you could possibly do, not that you actually did to the target

 

[TekkaZeroX]

Tell me... how does vengeance work on PI's? Since the elemental damage is based on physical damage, does it do anything? Or does it work based on the damage that you WOULD have caused were they not PI?

Vengeance damages physical immunes. I can guarantee that. :thumbsup:

I think that most players are right about Tal Rasha's Horadric Mask for reasonable end game equipment. If you have Andariel's Visage, you may want to consider swapping it. The problem with the avenger is a slow attack speed compared to other builds (I like more speed. :drool: ).

Also, you may suffer with a low vengeance attack, since you are opting for a crescent moon inside a phase blade. Vengeance is based off of weapon damage and phase blades really do not give a lot of damage compared to other weapons. You may do very well, since your avenger is a lightning avenger.

 

[nikstone]

i would advise to go for max vengeance, youll have alittle problem until you have the mana leech/damage to mana gear but later it will be great

and you want to have huge damage in hell, believe me (killing faster=living longer)

 

[whomhead]

my avenger, which followed Cyrus' guide almost to the letter, has max vengeance, 10 in each of the synergies, max conviction, 1 in redemption and all the rest in holy shield. you absolutely want to have max blocking with an avenger. holy shield makes it ridiculously easy for a pally to have max blocking, and since you are only attacking one monster at a time, you need block to keep the rest from destroying you.

i opted to go with the max vengeance build because it does way more damage per swing, and since you wont be swinging that quickly, you want to dish out the damage. with max vangeance/conviction and a relatively high damage weapon (preferably higher than a phase blade) you can deal out effectively well over 13,000 points of pure elemental damage per swing. :drool:

good luck and have fun!

PS. vengeance + conviction (breaks immunities) = every monster in the game will be incredibly sorry it sees you. the only problem with PIs is that you can't leach off of them. you still do incredible damage though. :jig:

 

[CheekyJez]

JohnSteed has just got the Horadric Cube, he's about lvl 22...

Am dropping points into Resist Lightning at the moment, to boost the Vengeance damage, although I'm still mainly using Zeal.

Let's take a look at his endgame equipment...

So far:

Crescent Moon superior Phase Blade
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest Death Mask

both of which I have waiting for him.

Any other advice on spefic gear, or what mods to look for in general on rares?

 

[ricrestoni]

Do not go Phase Blade, go Berserker Axe instead, if you can help it. A slower swing pays for a much higher base damage. And I also followed Cyrus's guide, and it was incredibly easy to end the game. You need above all HoZ and Guardian Angel, and a Mara's will help a lot to get to those huge resists. I also chose Gaze + Ears for DR, Gore Riders, LoH, Ravenfrost and my 666 ring (6 mana leech, 6 life leech, 6 res all).

 

[kazh]

Do not go Phase Blade, go Berserker Axe instead, if you can help it. A slower swing pays for a much higher base damage. And I also followed Cyrus's guide, and it was incredibly easy to end the game. You need above all HoZ and Guardian Angel, and a Mara's will help a lot to get to those huge resists. I also chose Gaze + Ears for DR, Gore Riders, LoH, Ravenfrost and my 666 ring (6 mana leech, 6 life leech, 6 res all).

Hi,
Does the Cyrus´ guide work well? I am building an Avenger based mostly in his guide... The swing isn´t too much slow?

PS: Heaven´s Light is a good end game weapon to an Avenger?
Kazh

 

[Vajar]

Heaven's Light is good - though its more ideal for a zealdin. I'd socket it with all ED jewels if you can hit a decent attack speed w/o IAS in it.

 

[spiral55]

the only problem with PIs is that you can't leach off of them. you still do incredible damage though. :jig:

Agreed on both. This is when having Meditation and/or Redemption hotkeyed comes in really handy. When your mana globe is empty, switch to the appropriate aura, run away like Arthur, King of the Britons until your blue is full again, then wade back into battle.

It's kinda funny how most pally builds need Vengeance for PI's, but PI's are the bane of true Avengers' existences.

 

[NSXdreamer]

I think 1 pt in vengence is good. I used the max vengence route, and god I do need mana leech. I have only 1 pt in holy shield however, and maxed resist lighting to take advantage of crescent moon phaseblade (however it's now proven useless as I'll explain later). For armor I like guardian angel, and andarial's visage (socket with ral to counter the -resist). 95 resist all is hard to beat, with some abosrb, you can stand in gloam fire and not blink an eye while your teammates are dying left and right. :lol: (though I can't kill them either since they are mana burn, and no mana=no damage for avenger). Helm you can ofcourse use something you like, I used it for the 20 ias, and +max poison resist, just because 95/95/95/95 sounds much cooler than 95/95/95/90. :teeth:

About the weapon, do not put crescent moon in phaseblade. Even superior ones will not do enough damage from act 4 hell on to kill, and leech mana. If you put in in other weapons, the repair cost is quite high from what I heard, and if it's superior, you'd be spend most of your time gold finding. I had to switch to a schaeffer's hammer when I got in act 4 hell, since the pb is not killing anything.

Oh yes, one pt in meditation and redemption works wonder.