CS Hammerdin Questions

[japanzaman]

Lately, I've been doing some CS runs with my hardcore Hammerdin, leveling and slowly picking up those elusive TC87's. I'm far from an expert with CS and the Hammerdin build, so I'm wondering what kind of map I should be looking for. I've noticed two primary configurations in terms of layout, but is there anything else I need to be taking into account (shrines, spawning locations, etc.)?

I'm geared decently but not elite by any means. Do about 12k with the hammers and have all the basic requisite gear (Ber'd Shako, Enigma, HoTo, HoZ, skill rings, Mara's, Arachnids). I only have 2 combat skillers and 6 offensive aura skillers, though, so killing on P8 has been a bit too dangerous to be viable long term- especially the de Seis pack.

Any tips or suggestions?

 

[Delsy]

Helvete's lvl 99 vid

Corrupted's lvl 99 writeup

I don't play paladin much but if I ever wanted to do CS runs I would try to mimic the above.
Also I would play with 125 fcr.

 

[japanzaman]

Probably be difficult to hit the 125 fcr without Spirit as I don't use the RW mod. Might be possibly with some freaky crafted gear, but I don't have the time or wealth to get a hold of that kind of swag.

 

[Delsy]

With Wizzy + Lidless you would need 20 fcr circlet or 5 fcr amulet + fcr ring. Those are items easy to come by. Also you can use the combination of 2 fcr rings, Griffon or good caster amulet with Hoto etc. It would all be at the cost of dmg but I would still try it and see what I liked more. But as I said I'm not experienced in this so take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

[japanzaman]

Being hardcore, I'm fine with doing things a little slower. I was aware of the Pally writeup you linked to before, but after doing some testing I've kind of decided that it's a bit too intense for my taste at Hardcore. My main points of concern were map layouts and other smaller strategies, which were covered quite a bit in the links you offered. Thanks for digging those back up.

 

[edistotiger]

I think the difference b/t 125% and 75% is 2.78 APS vs 2.50 APS which is about an 11% increase in damage. However, without some good FCR items ( 2/20% circlet, 2/15% crafted ammy, 10% ring), you will likely lose a lot of damage from dropping +skills for FCR. You would have to check the math on various setups.

Of course with it being HC, dropping a Ber'd Shako for an FCR circlet would tank your EHP, so it's probably not even worth it.

 

[Pyrotechnician]

The layout isn't really important as long as you are comfortable with where you sit when the seal packs spawn.

Chaos sanctuary though is just like any other area that is Magic Findable, do a few runs to determine the number of boss packs that spawn on the map seed you are currently using. I think the number of packs that spawn and their locations can vary similar to Pits/AT/etc., so if you are looking for TC87s you might want to check into this.

If you are going for 99 though the most important thing here is shrines because the more shrines there are, the higher chance of there being an exp shrine in the Chaos Sanctuary itself, so you don't have to waste time going to the cold plains/stoney field or whatever to find one, although the number of easily reachable shrines in those areas wouldn't hurt to check into either.

 

[helvete]

You don't waste many miliseconds by going to act 1 for shrine-hunt unless you have terrible loading times. Unlike baal, diablo keeps loading even when you're not around. Also, a good ac t 1 shrine map can be used after 99 is reached, to upgrade crafting gems.