how to beat smiters

[hydrahydra]

how to beat smiters

I have trouble beating smiters right now. They do tons of damage and have insane defense.

I have decent gears so it is more of a skill factor.

also should i use griefZ on mainhand or offhand along with beast

 

[Ce Olba]

I have trouble beating smiters right now. They do tons of damage and have insane defense.

I have decent gears so it is more of a skill factor.

also should i use griefZ on mainhand or offhand along with beast

It's not necessarily a skill factor.

It's just a fact that smiters can beat barbarians more easy than barbarians can beat smiters (not meaning smiter>barbarian, just that smiters have easier time and need less skill to beat a barb than a barb needs to beat a smiter).

You should always have GriefZ on main, as it's what deals your damage.

A few pointers:
never whirl OVER the smiter, but by his sides
Get high AR (angelics +enchant)
get high DR% (CoA)
Never whirl too long as the better smiters will then proceed to telesmite you.

If you have lots of trouble, you can always replace Beast with a Doom.

 

[hydrahydra]

just a quick question, when should I use arreat over coa?

edit; also I see smiters heal themselves alot, how do they do that?

 

[Ce Olba]

just a quick question, when should I use arreat over coa?

These?:
Sorcs
Fire Druids
Hammerdins
Bonemancers
Novamancers
Javazons
PJavazons
Trappers
Melee sorcs

That's a quickly made list. A few rules:
Vs. Fohers/Mages you should use Kiras
Vs. Windy, Zealot, Smiter, Fury druid, Fury/Rabies druid, Barb, Singer, WWsin, Bowazon you should use CoA.

Some builds might be missing though.

edit; also I see smiters heal themselves alot, how do they do that?

Their attack triggers the curse Life Tap (appears are small red sparks above your character), which causes them to get 50% life from whatever damage they might do. Due to Grief, this damage is huge and thus the regained life is also huge. However, you can counter this via for example, Fade (as it shortens curse duration).

 

[hydrahydra]

as a barb should I just run away when I'm cursed or keep fighting?

edit: also whats a good boot? atm im using an eth trek which is completely useless

 

[Ce Olba]

as a barb should I just run away when I'm cursed or keep fighting?

Neither. You should change your playstyle into a more defensive one. If you're using Enigma, you can get on a nice tele-journey. There's no rule that says that you have to attack while cursed. However I rarely bother with waiting for it, as most smiters are toast anyways.

edit: also whats a good boot? atm im using an eth trek which is completely useless

For versus All, you should use triple or double resistance boots with 30% FRW and +stats.

When dueling anything that doesn't need resistances (cold sorcs, boners, smiters, hammerdins, bowazons, etc), in 1v1 that is, you should use Goreriders. Not upgraded ones. The upgrading does no good for you.

 

[BierWiser]

And why not use upgraded. The Enigma will give enough strength to use them, and strength is the only real problem with them.

 

[GreyGhost]

Upgrading can be useful for the extra def. BierWiser check your forum inbox.

 

[SicHalo]

And why not use upgraded. The Enigma will give enough strength to use them, and strength is the only real problem with them.

No because the str requirements are too high and u wont be able to use them when u switch in ur armour for a duress or forti.

 

[Ce Olba]

And why not use upgraded. The Enigma will give enough strength to use them, and strength is the only real problem with them.

Because:
A) Defense does nothing to you.
B) Upgrading them adds low defense.
C) You will NOT be using Enigma all the time. For example, vs. Smiters.

 

[matchuk]

smiters i find are quite annoying cos of lifetap, but ive met some pub smiters that wait out tap then keep dueling

i find to beat good smiters (not ones that keep charging 24/7 at u) u need real short whirls, good clipping and try not to be too predictable with ur whirl, ive seen a real good telesmiter who could predict all my whirls tele or walk infront of them and smite me dead

also duel angelic setup is a must

 

[Ce Olba]

smiters i find are quite annoying cos of lifetap, but ive met some pub smiters that wait out tap then keep dueling

Of course they're annoying. To each cocky smiter that beats me in a pub I always say "nice cursedin".

i find to beat good smiters (not ones that keep charging 24/7 at u) u need real short whirls, good clipping and try not to be too predictable with ur whirl, ive seen a real good telesmiter who could predict all my whirls tele or walk infront of them and smite me dead

I've only ever had trouble with 2 smiters. One of which is the best Smiter on Europe, and other is a v/t, who is supposedly the best anti-barb player in Europe. The best smiter (Goldwrap) can desynch so damn well that I simply cannot follow it. Also he's damn good with telesmites. IIRC he dueled and trained with morotsjos (the best BvC on Europe). As for the V/T, there's one simple problem with my barb: no stack rings or life/lr scs. Making it so that I get hurt by fohs if I use CoA and if not CoA, then smite.

also duel angelic setup is a must

However vs V/Ts you should/could be using Hsarus.

 

[matchuk]

actually the good smiter i was referring to is actually a v/t, i remember now he didnt want to foh me cause he thought it was quite unfair, he was the craziest built v/t ive seen and very gm

learnt alot dueling him

but yeah i agree in pub smiters have the biggest ego and love to talk

it is so fustrating in pub duels where its not really 1on1 and u get a smiter to under 500hp, he taps it back and types EZ

also another thing to watchout for is charge, i tend to short whirl abit if im he doenst appear to be shift smiting and just walking or standing around, charge if it connects hurts alot connecting with smite, short whirls counters that

 

[Ce Olba]

it is so fustrating in pub duels where its not really 1on1 and u get a smiter to under 500hp, he taps it back and types EZ

That's the time you take out a Doom and beat him up. You could also force him to be offensive, which, unless he teleports, will put his blocking to a test.

also another thing to watchout for is charge, i tend to short whirl abit if im he doenst appear to be shift smiting and just walking or standing around, charge if it connects hurts alot connecting with smite, short whirls counters that

Charge means less blocking, so better for you. If I see a smiter on my map, I usually do some short whirls in case they might wanna charge at me.

 

[SicHalo]

Ce Olba do u use this hsarus boots + belt?

How good are these i hear these mentioned abit but i don't see how it could fit in my setup as i have no problems with stack and i don't see how i can use.

 

[Ce Olba]

Ce Olba do u use this hsarus boots + belt?

I have them, but as I do not play D2 actively anymore, I cannot possibly use it (it got them a while ago). However, it seems that there's a little difference between Angelics and Hsarus. Hsarus allows more damage in a short time, whereas Angelics allow more damage over a longer period (due to more hits).

How good are these i hear these mentioned abit but i don't see how it could fit in my setup as i have no problems with stack and i don't see how i can use.

Let's make it this way:
If you need to stack resistances vs. a V/T, with Angelics you will have crappy stack (as you need to use CoA to have anykind of DR%). So the foh will eat you up, OR the smite will eat you up.
If you need to stack resistances vs. a V/T with Hsarus, you can use CoA and 2* LR rings (even ones that are magical with +30% LR will do) to have higher Stack and a little lower AR (2800ish with Enchant, 2100ish without Enchant).

So which wins? That 2000ish AR gains you very little bit more of chance to hit (I would guess 1-2% at MOST).

As for the AR you gain from Angelics, it's ~360 before anything, so you can replace 18 32020s with 20/11s and you will have the same AR as Hsarus, and ~100ish more stack. But you will also do less damage (incase you were using 32020s at the first place). Now if we compare the crappy 15% DS of Angelics and the lost damage from using 20/11s instead of 32020s, we gain a lot less damage. The HL gives ~26% more damage. The 32020s give about 0.5% less damage (considering that the rest of your charms would be 32020s and almost perfect gear). Totals at ~26.5% less damage done with a little more chance to hit (0.736% after max block). Now, we can make it so that the chance to hit multiplies the damage. Ends up like this:
1.00736 * 0.735 = 0.7404096=~74%. So you do LESS damage than with the Hsarus setup. This is with 15k defense however. I'm not sure of the defenses of V/Ts, so I'm just putting up a number.

 

[SicHalo]

hmm i c

cuz my setup vs V/T i normally use;

tri res boots
tg
CoA
forti or enig
dracs
ravens + HLs (cuz most of the time in pubs i rarely switch gear) or angelics

But normally in pub

im on;

enigma
CoA
Arch
trangs
ravens+ HL
and resboots vs V/T or foh

I usally have a setup like this because i also have 8x 20/10-11 LR + 4x 5fhr/11 LR scs so i usally have enought stack without gear sacrifice.

 

[matchuk]

doom/grief pretty much is too bm for smiters haha i am selling my doomZ id ont find i rreally need it

 

[Ce Olba]

doom/grief pretty much is too bm for smiters haha i am selling my doomZ id ont find i rreally need it

And then you will wish you had them when you meet a max ias bp bowazon that has kb. And BTW, the only things that can compete with Dooms for the best swap on a barb is a +3/+Life Tap dagger.

 

[matchuk]

And then you will wish you had them when you meet a max ias bp bowazon that has kb. And BTW, the only things that can compete with Dooms for the best swap on a barb is a +3/+Life Tap dagger.

for me its not a matter of best item, its just the doomz cost me 6-7hr, which i could use elsewhere on my other pvp char (making a mage) since im poor

doom is awesome vs zons but i think i can manage without it, i dont really enjoy dueling zons anyway its a matter of if i dont make a msitake on the first telewhirl