Matriarchs Kessa (meteorb) and Nylia (fishyzon), 1.13d SC

[Espr]

Since returning to d2 a few weeks ago, I've finished off some old characters that have been languishing at the rogue camp (hell) for quite some time. Having done normal and nightmare way back in 1.11, I figure it was time to finish them off now in 1.13. They're fairly standard starter characters, but I thought I'd share!


Matriarch Kessa, the Meteorb Sorceress

The game was a breeze with Frozen Orb facerolling the majority of the game and meteorb providing some late game punch. The character is a blast to play, and provides an enjoyable variety of MF targets. Which is fortuitous as that is exactly why I started her after my char after a fresh start (blizzwall).

STATS:
Level: 87 (mat'd at 84 or 85)

Spoiler

Naked/Gear
Strength: 81/**
Dexterity: 219/226
Vitality: 187/214
Energy: 35/62
HP: 540/707
Mana: 207/483
Stamina: 337/337
Defense: 54/740
AR: 1045/1190


Fire: 82
Cold: 57
Lightning: 89
Poison: 83


MF: 329 Block: 75
GF: 494 FR/W: 23
FHR: 45 IAS: 10
FCR: 70

SKILLS:


20 Frozen Orb
8 Cold Mastery
20 Meteor
20 Fireball
15 Fire Mastery
2 Fire Bolt
1 Static/Tele/Telek/warmth/armor/prereqs


GEAR:


Occy / Rhyme


Shako (PTopaz)
Skin of the Vipermagi (Ptopaz)
Chance Guards (low roll)
Up'd GoldWrap (previously rare gloves with less MF, but resists)
Mara's (28%)
Nagel (30%)
Magic Ring (10%FCR, 90 mana)
Rare boots
Charms: MF (gheeds too), FHR, Life/Mana, Minor resists.

Plague Slippers
Demonhide Boots
Defense: 33
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 24
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xccc60b25
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Run/Walk
Lightning Resist +39%
Fire Resist +21%
Poison Resist +26%
46% Extra Gold from Monsters
17% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Notes: This one actually still had a fair bit of NM to do since starting up 1.13, but it took no time at all. Things were so facerolly in NM, that Hell was a pretty rough adjustment in some areas for Kessa. It's more than made up for with her fairly rediculous luck with maps. Outside of having a bad LK map, every zone i'd care to run has a pretty good map. WSK and Meph are particularly good, and CS had an abundance of shrines, although not perfectly placed by any means. The Occy and Shako were traded for back when, though ironically since returning to her she found her own in 1.13.


I took my time with her a fair bit, spending the entirely of LV82->83 farming Meph, and 83->84 farming CS + Diablo. Act 5 rather forced me to take my time by giving me the most ridiculous guest monsters throughout. Payback, perhaps for some very good luck farming diablo and meph.


Future plans are to mostly just be an MFer. I might consider making a HOTO if Occy annoys me too much, and possibly making a project of crafting/gambling a better pair of boots, but that's about it.





Matriarch Nylia, the Fishyzon

A real blast to play with two very fun main skills, that make mince meat of large groups. The only downside, if it can be called that, is the significant slow down when left with small single targets. OTOH, large single targets drop like stones to a charged strike. She had a considerably easier time in hell than Kessa, though a harder time with the ancients, I think, for all that decoy made it easier to split them up.

STATS:


Level: 84

Spoiler

Naked/Gear
Strength: 97/137
Dexterity: 148/211
Vitality: 210/227
Energy: 15/22
HP: 846/1010
Mana: 139/305
Stamina: 357/357
Defense: 37/886
AR: 710/1237


Fire: 82
Cold: 85
Lightning: 89
Poison: 58


MF: 184 Block: 78
GF: 62 FR/W: 55
FHR: 32 IAS: 20
FCR: 30

SKILLS:


20 Lightning Fury
20 Charged Strike
20 Freezing Arrow
20 Cold Arrow
1 Crit/Pen/Pierce and Prereqs
Rest into decoy.


GEAR:


Titan's Revenge / Rhyme
Wizendraw (-33% cold)


Shako (PTopaz)
Skin of the Vipermagi (PTopaz)
Rare Gloves (+1 bow, 20%IAS, 27%cold, 18%MF)
Razortail
War Travs (43% MF)
Ravenfrost
Rare 11% Res All ring
Mara's (28%)


Charms: Almost entirely resist charms, with other useful suffixes.

Brimstone Finger
Sharkskin Gloves
Defense: 56
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 35
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x9b7962c6
Item Level: 62
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+15 to Attack Rating
+40% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +27%
18% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+1 to Light Radius

Notes:
One of my first characters after a fresh start some years ago, that ended up getting put on hold when I was distracted with making a blizz sorc. The Titan's and Shako were traded for, but IIRC the rest were found by either this char, or the blizz or meteorb sorcs. Oddly, just like Kessa, Nylia did end up finding a Titan's Revenge herself since returning. As well as a Thunderstroke, which Nightfish's guide recommends switching in for baal.


Future plans are running WSK + Baal, and in general trying to improve her gear. The big focus is improving her resists so I can swap out the vipermagi for skullder's, and make room for MF charms (not to mention get max lightning when using a bow). I am also considering dropping Rhyme for Stormshield (I have the unspent points to do so), but I'm unsure. Once that's done, it's the long term project of crafting/gambling the best 1.07 +3 bow / IAS gloves possible, and WSK to eternity.


BOTH


Mercenary:
Act2 Normal Defiance (though I made the possible mistake of switching to holy freeze on the meteorb)


Gear:

Duriel's Shell
Cuirass
Defense: 657
Durability: 28 of 150
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0x9f43f453
Item Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+172% Enhanced Defense
+105 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+15 to Strength
+84 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +20
Cannot Be Frozen
+100 Maximum Durability




Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0x7b6bf1f8
Item Level: 52
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+59 to Attack Rating
Adds 6 - 22 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
7% Mana stolen per hit
7% Life stolen per hit
+100% Enhanced Defense
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Damage Reduced by 19%
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Silver Jewel of Fervor


Silver Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xf62c3f57
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+59 to Attack Rating




Insight
Colossus Voulge
RalTirTalSol
Two Hand Damage: 94 - 839
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 200
Required Dexterity: 45
Fingerprint: 0x1cc4528f
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Level 15 Meditation Aura When Equipped
+35% Faster Cast Rate
240% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
201% Bonus to Attack Rating
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
+5 to Critical Strike
All Stats +5
+2 to Mana after each Kill
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)

Swaps:

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
Two Hand Damage: 35 - 411
Durability: 40 of 65
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 114
Required Dexterity: 89
Fingerprint: 0xcb8dc1d6
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
33% Chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking
192% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 4 - 44 Cold Damage Over 1 Secs (16 Frames)
12% Life stolen per hit
33% Deadly Strike
Requirements -25%




Kelpie Snare 
Fuscina 
Two Hand Damage: 100 - 189 
Durability: 18 of 18 
Required Level: 33 
Required Strength: 67 
Required Dexterity: 15 
Fingerprint: 0x49183618 
Item Level: 87 
Version: Expansion 1.10+ 
153% Enhanced Damage 
Adds 30 - 50 Damage 
Slows Target by 75% 
+10 to Strength 
+93 to Life (Based on Character Level) 
Fire Resist +50% 
Ethereal

Nylia still uses the insight predominately, though Kessa has since switched to Reaper's as the main merc weapon.


Notable Finds: Titan's, Thunderstroke, Reaper's Toll, Eth Kelpie Snare, Kessa's Rare boots, Stormshield, the 28% mara's, and Jah. And the majority of my SC stashes.

 

[japanzaman]

Nice work! Now just find yourself a Ber and...

 

[Espr]

Thanks! Yeah that's the plan *finger's crossed*

 

[pharphis]

congrats!

I'd recommend harmony for your switch on the zon in a bow with +skills because it adds multi-element dmg and most importantly the vigor aura
You'd likely also love delirium for the helm if you find an ist

 

[Espr]

I've considered it, as I recently had a +2 GMB 4os drop, but the physical portion of the attack has a really low chance to hit (like 60 something percent), and that's assuming the bowskill AR is working (which I remember reading at some point, that it doesn't). So most of the damage comes from the FA aoe effect, in which (afaik) only added cold damage is carried through.

It might be still worth doing anyway, if only for lightning immune single-target DPS. I've been running a lot of LK so I've got a decent number of Ko's, so it's something worth trying out at least, and I am hitting enough to pierce consistently.

I'm also keeping an eye out for possible harmony bases as well, although a good wizendraw roll beats it out on resistant monsters.

Edit: Something I forgot to mention in the post, is that these two chars were my first time having a serious go at a max block build. It felt more or less comparable to focusing on vit throughout the game, with a few exceptions. Physical threats felt a lot safer with max block because you'd negate a good portion of their damage, otoh things like gloams were a bit rougher given the lower life pool. This was more noticeable on the sorceress who has a significantly lower HP pool than the amazon.

Given that you can't really focus on resists with the shield on the amazon, it seemed natural to use it for max block instead. The only other stats I can think of to use it for is DR/MDR and MF. And those tend to come on shields that lend themselves to max block anyway. I don't want to even think about how much worse her AR rating would be without it too.

The meteorb on the other hand, I feel the differences between max block and high vit are a bit less clear cut. I think it more comes down to personal preference. Max block makes you much safer against physical attacks, particularly archers and throwers, but more vulnerable to the dangerous spell casters. Even gear availability isn't necessarily a deciding factor. A CtA (beta or otherwise) or a 1.07 shako would vastly improve how much health one got per vit point, true, making a vit build better, but also minimizing the effects of the smaller vit on a max block build. And given how easy rhyme is to make, there isn't really much of a gear barrier to going max block, either, even untwinked.