Matriarch Feist the /players 8 Daggerzon.

[Indemaijinj]

Matriarch Feist the /players 8 Daggerzon.

Well, if you have read either of my two pat reports you will know that I do all my questing at /players 8 doing full clears to the best of my ability (that includes those darned guard towers).

You would have thought I would have reconsidered the /players 8 thing when playing an underpowered build like a Daggerzon (pure passives/normal attack), but no. She can do it as just as fine as anyone else. Especially with the equipment she was packing.

And look darn cool doing it


Don't you agree?
(this was a staged screenshot after the mat), I don't usually have the presence of mind to take screenshots while playing.


Well, let's not tarry to long, here's her stats:


Matriarch Feist, level 89 softcore 1.11 pure passives Daggerzon (RWM, not that she really took advantage).
2 unspent skill points. No unspent stat points.

All Waypoints taken. All quests resolved, except for the Anya and Charsi quest rewards and the Hell Larzuk socket quest.

Stats: (with gear/without gear)

Strength: 165/120
Dexterity: 202/195
Vitality: 205/205
Energy: 15/15

Life: 967
Mana: 147

Defense: 1472

Dagger AR (with Venom from Treachery): 3940
Dagger damage (with Venom from Treachery): 489-1067
Berserk AR (with Venom from Treachery): 5672
Berserk damage (with Venom from Treachery): 1238 - 1493

Note, all the AR and damage values are grossly misleading as she depends heavily on Critical/Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Open Wounds and -monster defense effects (hell, and my mercs Decrepify from Reaper's even).

Resists in Hell:
Fire: 75
Cold: 75
Lightning: 75
Poison: 27

Regardless of weapon switch/Fade

Skills (actual spents skillpoints in paranthesis):

Inner Sight: Level 11(8):
Monster Defense: -350

Slow Missiles: Level 4(1):
Duration: 30 seconds

Critical Strike: Level 11(8):
58% chance of triggering

Penetrate: Level 23(20):
AR Bonus: 255%

Dodge: Level 10(7):
47% chance of triggering.

Avoid: Level 10(7):
55% chance of triggering.

Evade: Level 10(7):
47% chance of triggering.

Decoy: Level 23(20):
Life: 230%
Mana cost: 2.5

Valkyrie: Level 23(20):
Damage: 550%
AR: 1720
Defense: 220%
Life: 4136 (feels like a hell lot more)
Mana cost: 47


Mercenary:
Waheed, level 89 Nightmare Offensive (Might) Desert Warrior.

Strength: 193
Dexterity: 156

Damage: 486 - 2518
Defense: 2181
Life: 1987


And of course, the equipment that got her there:

Hat:
64% resist all Kira's Guardian socketed with an Ambergris Jewel of Daring (+7 Dex/28% Light Res)
Shirt:
"Treachery" Wire Fleece
Mittens:
Doom Claw
Vampirebone Gloves
Defense: 111
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 57
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x4e7f4cb0
+18 to Life
+69% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +22%
Cold Resist +30%
3% Life stolen per hit
20% Increased Attack Speed
9% Chance of Crushing Blow
Belt:
String of Ears
Shoes:
Gore Riders

Necklace:
Athletic Amulet of the Giant (+3 Passives/+15 Strength)
Right Ring:
Scintillating Ring of Warding (15 Resist all/1 PDR)
Left Ring:
Rainbow Ring of the Bat (10 Resist all/3% mana leech)

Primary Weapon Switch:
233% ed Fleshripper socketed with a Shael
Stormshield socketed with a Hel

Secondary Weapon Switch:
205% ed "Passion" Elder Staff

Mercenary gear:

Hat:
55% resist all Kira's Guardian
Shirt:
Shaftstop
Stick:
202% ed Reaper's Toll socketed with a Shael

 

[FrostBurn]

Magnificient!

This appears to be as much an exercise in patience as it is in skill. How long did it take you to get to Mat status doing full clears? Weeks? Months?

Nice to see others up to the challenge of /p8 all the way (I don't have the patience of doing full clears, although I do gather all the WPs).

Edit: Btw, any interesting /p8 encounters in the WSK? I'm thinking Souls or Oblivion Knights? What was your toughest battle?

 

[Tasdaz]

Congrats, and that is one sweet looking dagger :smiley:

 

[nex]

Congrats!

You forgot Charm of Patience (+1000% to patience) in your equipment listing :grin:

BTW who killed more, zon or merc?

 

[Indemaijinj]

Well, her career has been long as this is a build I have sorta played on-off for some time.

She was started back in 1.10, so the Treachery runeword was a late, but fortunate development. If it weren't for Treachery I would probably have continued with trusty old Twitchthroe.

Anyway, this being a Daggerzon I used daggers all along from the very start. The dagger progression goes:
1. Non-magical dagger from Charsi
2. Gull
3. The Diggler
4. "Strength" Superior Cinquedeas
5: Spineripper (that useless +necromancer skill really drives the repair costs up)
6: Heart Carver (this one almost broke the bank)
7: Stormspike (for the scaling Lightning damage and more sane repair cost)
8: Loath Edge
Mithril Point
One-Hand Damage: 128 to 192
Durability: 55 of 55
Required Dexterity: 98
Required Strength: 55
Required Level: 52
Dagger Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: **
Fingerprint: 0xfcfbdcfd
+248% Enhanced Damage
+111 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage
10% Increased Attack Speed
Level 9 Teeth (127/127 Charges)

...and finally, 9: The one and only Fleshripper!



As for playing strategies. She depends very much in dividing the monster attention between herself, her mercenary, the Valkyrie and the Decoy.
I really got respect for the Decoy. Before I thought it merely to be a pale shadow of other classes' far superior crowd control skills.

I can now safely say that this is not true. The Decoy is probably the most versatile crowd control skill that can both be used defensively (preventing monsters from attacking whatever you don't want them to attack (this could be you, but is most often your mercenary) or it could be luring fleeing monsters into your deadly embrace (they react to a Decoy as though it is a player).

Unlike several curses, boss status or champ mods doesn't matter at all. From my experience the only ones who are not fooled by the Decoy are act bosses (and perhaps some superuniques such as Nihlathak).
A maxed Decoy actually has some staying power and can give you the respite needed for your night invulnerable Valkyrie to close in.
And with a piddly casting cost of 2.5 mana points you can recast it indefinitely.
Even better, unlike other minions such as a golem, it stays it's ground no matter what (which has prompted some players to jokingly announce it the most intelligent minion in the game).

That said it has two weaknesses.
Firstly, since it relies on an unholy fast life regen to stay alive, it is very fragile when infected with strong poisons and against massed elemental attacks it can die pretty fast as it's resists are apparantly not that hot.
Secondly, Amazons has the suckiest cast rate of all character classes and they are thus very prone to be interrupted. This state of affairs is only compounded by high levels of Dodge/Avoid/Evade.

A Maxed Valkyrie is almost invulnerable. If the Valk's life starts going down in any significant way you should be afraid, very afraid. She is a bit slow to move which is actually a blessing in disguise. Since it means she will be the one to take the hits from fast pursuers when you retreat.
But besides tying up large groups of monsters almost indefinitely, she doesn't do all that much. Her damage can hardly be felt unless she gets very a very lucky Cruel/Alacrity pike. Her attack speed is atrocious.

As for my Passion Elder Staff, this is her way of handling physical immunes. It is actually quite decent, though she becomes quite fragile once she switches away from her maxblock %dr Stormshield.
I thought the Berserk from Passion would help me against Iron Maiden as well, but this is definitely not advisable as even the most innocious mana drain effects (such as those darn Finger Casters) can make her hit with a normal attack when you only have 147 mana.

This build would become orders of magnitude harder had it not be for the Reaper's Toll my brave Mercenary carried. This made maintaining my merc an imperative.

Decrepify truly and surely rocks. The combination between the Slow off the Flesripper and Decrep made all the act bosses cakewalks. Especially Diablo.

As for nasty situations, she actually had a sort of hard time in Hell Palace Cellars with all those elemental skeletons (no leech, Decoy lasts only seconds). I also had to reroll WSK 3 twice as the first two times had 3 packs of Doom Knights/Oblivion Knights camped at the entrance. (The third had lot of PI monsters, but were managealble).

The most noteworthy drop on her quest for Matriarchy was a Death Cleaver. (Upcoming Auction in the Trade Forum for the interested).

 

[Indemaijinj]

Congrats!

You forgot Charm of Patience (+1000% to patience) in your equipment listing :grin:

BTW who killed more, zon or merc?

Definitely the Amazon. Remember that she had 85% IAS with a -20 weapon and: 40% Crushing Blow, 48% Deadly Strike, 58% Critical Strike, 60% Open Wounds AND Venom.

With -50% defense from Fleshripper and a beefed up Critical strike I had almost no AR problems. Actually I had a harder time hitting with my Passion staff Irregardless of Zeal and Berserk.

There were only two kinds of situations where my merc killed quicker.

1. Stygian Dolls, because I let him.

2. Blowgun Fetishes because the cloud of darts kept me in almost constant Dodgelock.


And Regarding the Charm of Patience: I actually think she were faster than my Fishymancer under the same conditions. (If I turn the /players setting down to one, she is actually not much slower than the cookie cutters).

 

[Kefir-Tribe]

Congratulations! Cool build.