Best Item Independent Build

[sjw7]

Best Item Independent Build

Hi all

I currently have a hammerdin thats not doing too bad in Hell difficulty at the moment. It is a build that is quite dependant on items and doesnt do well unless wearing some good kit.

What is the general consensus on a good build that can survive hell mainly on skills and attributes instead of having to find good items. I am asking this because i want to try another build but dont have much to trade yet to get some good items and also when the ladder resets we are all going to be in the same boat and have to start from scratch again.

 

[Beowulfs Revenant]

Hi all

I currently have a hammerdin thats not doing too bad in Hell difficulty at the moment. It is a build that is quite dependant on items and doesnt do well unless wearing some good kit.

What is the general consensus on a good build that can survive hell mainly on skills and attributes instead of having to find good items. I am asking this because i want to try another build but dont have much to trade yet to get some good items and also when the ladder resets we are all going to be in the same boat and have to start from scratch again.

Arguably the best starter build, which is not too item dependant is the Summoner necro. Sorcs are also a good option as well.

What setup does your hammerdin have?

 

[Myrakh-2]

A summoner (Skelemancer) also has the advantage of being able to work extremely well with "pgem gear". I'm still playing the one I started at the beginning of the ladder as my only playchar... and except for the annihilus that I got from a clone back in the clone hunting days, and a summoning charm I found somewhere, all of the stuff is still the one I got for pgems...

Do not expect a "gearless" trip through hell to be a kindergarten field trip, though. Decent gear helps a lot (as always, it's not like the necromancer is special in this respect).

Can't comment on sorcs --- never got one to work. Maybe one day I'll try to buy some reasonably good sorc gear and try again...

 

[dang79]

Hi all

I currently have a hammerdin thats not doing too bad in Hell difficulty at the moment. It is a build that is quite dependant on items and doesnt do well unless wearing some good kit.

What is the general consensus on a good build that can survive hell mainly on skills and attributes instead of having to find good items. I am asking this because i want to try another build but dont have much to trade yet to get some good items and also when the ladder resets we are all going to be in the same boat and have to start from scratch again.

You can get gear for a poor man's hammerdin without that much cost.

Pgems will get you a wizspike, guardian angel, silkweave boots or the like.
Lidless doesn't cost that much, you can gamble a +3 combat ammy.

You should be able to get by. I wasn't that rich when I played my hammerdin, managed to survive without the Hoto, shako, HOZ and enigma.

Now he does have a shako and hoz, but still doesn't use a HOTO or enigma.

 

[sjw7]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

At the moment my hammerdin has a wizardspike, skin of the vipermagi, Hoz and Shako all purchased with pgems and my one and only um. He is doing well in Hell but i am saving for an enigma.

The Necro sounds like fun i will give that a go next.

 

[Elgar]

the benifit for the skelimancer is that early on you can find a lot of + skills. My skelimancer this ladder found a +2 SM +3 RS +1 amp totem in late act 1 normal, lasted him til he found a boneflame in hell countess tower. The wands/daggers can get +skills early too.

 

[gorash]

i have started a skellymancer not too long ago and i'm not wearing the best gear (unfortunately only trang set) but that manages to get me through hell baal without much trouble, only place i have trouble (with everyone of my chars i guess) would be the glooms as i die in a 2 shots :/
You can get through the game with a skellymancer with a very low lvl armor as long as u r very careful of what u r doing....
otherwise thats prob the best build if u aren't rich to get things like hoto, and other rich items...

 

[jkho]

the best non-item dependant builds IMO are
Sorceress and Javazon

both require jack all items as it is all elemental damage

come on... u can use ****ty normal act1 javalins and still do massive dmaage with Lightning fury/Charged Strike and Plague
and they even throw in an additional Tank for u (aka Valkarie)
slvl17 Valk + Act2 Merc == MEAT SHIELD.

Sorc is good too.. will allow u to kill quickly and MF pretty quickly (hi teleport)

 

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Hi all

I currently have a hammerdin thats not doing too bad in Hell difficulty at the moment. It is a build that is quite dependant on items and doesnt do well unless wearing some good kit.

What is the general consensus on a good build that can survive hell mainly on skills and attributes instead of having to find good items. I am asking this because i want to try another build but dont have much to trade yet to get some good items and also when the ladder resets we are all going to be in the same boat and have to start from scratch again.

Lightning trapper with fireblast backup. http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=513 All she needs is claws and you can shop at Anya for them. Use fade to cover your resists and topazed gear until you get better MF gear. Keep your merc leveled and you'll have 2 tanks.

Blizard/Firewall sorceress. http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=217480 Shop at Drogan in Act2 to get a 2 socket staff for a leaf firewall staff. The runes (Tir-Ral) can be gotten off the countess easily. Use Glacial Spike as your main synergy instead of Ice Blast for better crowd control. I started this ladder with her and she did great. I much prefer her to meteor-orb because I can freeze everything in place.

Since you already have a hammerdin in hell, you probably have some Sigons pieces. Plop a Sigon Armor and helm on your merc in normal to give him 10% leech then use the highest damage weapon you find for him. I recommend keeping the normal act1 defiance merc for either of the builds I mentioned.

GOW

 

[Trojan Gladiator]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

At the moment my hammerdin has a wizardspike, skin of the vipermagi, Hoz and Shako all purchased with pgems and my one and only um. He is doing well in Hell but i am saving for an enigma.

The Necro sounds like fun i will give that a go next.

Looks like all your basics are covered...are you having problems aiming the hammers?

 

[TheNewHammerInTown]

At the moment my hammerdin has a wizardspike, skin of the vipermagi, Hoz and Shako all purchased with pgems and my one and only um. He is doing well in Hell but i am saving for an enigma.

Got my first HoZ yesterday for 16 rals. Though it was a great deal as I am more likely to pick up 16 of them than a HoZ. You really want to do something about your armor. I wear a Guardian Angel (great for the 90% resist) when Baal Running but Skullders Ire otherwise. Before that my hammer was only doing 4400 dmg but now its does almsot 7k and my defense with Holy Shield is 8k (was 4.5 b4 got the HoZ). With a Wizardspike, HoZ (socket this with a diamond) and the 30% resists you get from Anya you should be at 74% in Hell so your can go pure defense on your armor. Try get yourself a gladiator bane (1350 strength) or make yourself up a stone.

 

[sjw7]

I wanted to up my vipermagi and Hoz as that will help until i can get an Enigma or something similar (my current defence is only 1100). I just need to do a few countess runs to get the runes. Hitting stuff with the hammers can be a pain at times it would be alot easier if they came out of the front instead of the side. Thats probably the only thing that annoys me about the hammerdin.

 

[dang79]

I wanted to up my vipermagi and Hoz as that will help until i can get an Enigma or something similar (my current defence is only 1100). I just need to do a few countess runs to get the runes. Hitting stuff with the hammers can be a pain at times it would be alot easier if they came out of the front instead of the side. Thats probably the only thing that annoys me about the hammerdin.

If it flew out of the front, the hammerdin would be way too overpowered, not that it isn't already.....

 

[batuchka]

To all new/returning players:

Hi all! I returned to the game after 18mths-2 years with jack items I made a summon/bone necro and after 3 weeks into this game again he is magic finding everywhee in hell and hell cows with really cheap gear that cost less than a lem/20 p gems lol. I enjoyed it so much that i wrote my 1st guide called 'The Bony Magicfinder version 1.10' at the Necro Forums to share - check it out if you are curious about how i did it This build deals physical (merc/minions/golem/revivies) and magical (bone spirit/bone spear) and so has zero immunity problems in hell and even at lvl 50+ and maxed raise skeleton and skeleton mastery beginners can mf in Nm at Memphisto and Baal. I did and it got me homunculus/occy and other good stuff hehe. In fact he is still finding great stuff for future projects/chars Happy playing and enjoy the game!

 

[TheSpeaker]

Try to get a Guardian Angel before going for Enigma, Enigma needs 2 hr and that needs a lot of time... I got my Guardian Angel by trading pgems...

 

[front243]

Actually there was a poor-mans hammerdin thread recently in the Paladin forum.

You can read it here:

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=331256