Elite Armor ?

[HCKull]

Elite Armor ?

My lvl 80 trapper is stuck at A2 Hell and would like your suggestions.

My thoughts are:

I think I need better resists and better armor. I have the runes for smoke, but just need 2 socket elite armor and my resists will be maxed. I will be able to drop my ancient pledge shield and use dual claws for +2 all, +2 LS and +3 block.

I use a low resist wand on switch for the bosses and LIs. My shadow is awesome at prebuff lvl 23.

My merc has Tals mask, insight pole arm and 400 def armor. It is a defiance act 2 guy to help out with my defense because my armor is like 200 defense.

So what do your think ? and where can I find a 2 sock elite armor ?

 

[MoUsE_WiZ]

Pits if you can handle it.

Also, keep the white ones you find and use the cube recipe on them to try for 2 socks. battle.net/diablo2exp if you're planning on asking what the recipe is =p

 

[YogiRat]

If you find a damaged, cracked, etc. armor and normal it through the cube and then socket it via the cube, you will have a better chance to roll less than 4 sockets on a hell level armor. You will also get a poor def roll. (hey, you can't have everything :laugh This shouldn't matter much with Smoke and you being a trapper.

 

[STINGER]

I personally love the Archon Plate on a Sin, I was very happy to find a few of these with high D that made some very sweet Smokes.

If you need something to get you by, shoping can be the answer. You can shop 3-4 sock armors with + Life starting at like 55+ to get max stats. They are rare early but more common the higher you get in level. Then use runes, Orts and Rals to cover the more important resists, maybe slap in a Thul or Tal as needed, or use Rubies for more life.

You can also do better than Ancients Pledge for a shield with gems, (3) Diamonds is more resisits than Pledge, but in many cases it may be best to do an assortment of Diamonds/Ruby/Topaz to get more Fire and Light.

YOu can also roll small charms found in hell and get +9-11 fairly well and at times double modes like Life+Rez. Charm rolling is a very rewarding process if you stick with it.


BTW, S1 1.10 I beat the game with a Stealth Breast Plate and (3) sock Tower........you dont need defense, and your Defiance Merc isnt doing a thing for "you or your Shadow" as his boosts are totally based on your defense, even if you were to get a perfect Archon Plate you wont get much over 510 IIRC and Defiance wont boost it alot. Defense really doesnt do alot until you get it extremely high.....

On a Trapper I always went Barb. Hard to kill, natural resistance, constantly stunning things or KBin them and items for him drop constantly. i could see using a Holy Freezer also if you wanted, and a Might one would help your Shadow if its a Master. Also, at your current level you probably dont need that Insight any more, hell they didint have them when I played!

 

[reyla]

Consider Treachery runeword.

I use it on my Amzaon. Resists are max in Hell when the Fade triggers.

 

[WingBlade]

Consider Treachery runeword.

I use it on my Amzaon. Resists are max in Hell when the Fade triggers.

and the runes for Treachery shouldn't be 2 difficult to find - Shael+Thul+Lem

Lem would prob be the biggest hurdle...

a few NM Countess run should get Shael n Thul

 

[AgentMarth]

I always found defense to be a waste on any character other than a Barb or a Paladin. While other characters have ways of upping there defense, it usually doesn't make to much of a difference to me.

If you are a caster, and you have a dangerous monster close to you, you are not going to stand there and hope to just have them miss because of your high defense or CtB, rather you are going to run away where I believe defense then becomes pointless.

That said my first Smoke's I usually make are in a 2 socket Breast Plate that I shop from normal Fara. It's low strength and can be used by whoever needs it and I use it till I can upgrade it to something better.

I'd also consider switching Merc's for a different aura, but thats me, I don't really care about defense that much.

Oh, and while Treachery is an AWESOME armor, to me it really only has 30 CR. Unless you plan on standing in a fire every time it runs out, you will find that the fade doesn't like to trigger than much unless you are in melee alot. Even then, on my CS/Fury Javazon, it doesn't trigger that much because I kill them so fast.

But yeah, the Pits are your best bet if you really want an elite armor.

 

[Lord Penguin]

As said above.. for your char, defiance merc is a waste. The aura works on a percentage anyway so your low def armor makes it worse to use than if you had a high def armor(since 200% of nothing is more nothing). You should get a nightmare defencive merc(hfa).

 

[HCKull]

Well thanks for your advice. A 2 sock breastplate or treachory are good suggestions.

Unfortunately, My gal died yesterday. Trying to do a hell countess run, I got to level 5 and found a large pack of LI archers who got me. I pushed it a bit too hard.

She had very low block and armor so a bunch of arrows hit and did damage.

I intended to use 2 claws with good armor. Traps backed up with dragon talon and a high level shadow master.

Next time I am getting gear before venturing into hell.