NM Ancients with a Jack-of-all-trades-adin?

NM Ancients with a Jack-of-all-trades-adin?

Hi, been away for a long time playing MMORPGs, but my brother was having trouble and I know this is the best place for advice.

He has a pally, HC, lvl 74, in D2X 1.11, who is having a lot of trouble with the NM ancients.

He crushed big D, in his words "had more trouble with Lord de Seis and the balrog pack over on the right side".

I don't know the exact details of his gear or build, but I know he use vengance and conviction, and his character is built with defense in mind (holy shield). I know he has a couple of clicks in the skill that makes them fight for you for a short time, and he uses that as part of his crowd control strategy.

He uses an act3 cold merc for help with crowd control.

Anyways, I'm hopeless with paladins in D2, going back to my old D2 hardcore days where I felt they had too few health points for someone who has to get into close range. I prefer casters, but when I make a melee, its usally a barb or a druid.

Should the NM ancients be seriously hard for him at lvl 74? He used up a full belt worth of full reguvs, and then ran and Save/Exit to rethink his strategy. The merc was toasted quickly.

I don't think he's encountering the old FE bug, since he is playing 1.11.

Any advice that I can pass on to my bro? Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

If he wants a merc for crowd control, I'ld suggest going back to act 2 to get a holy freeze mercenary. They'll do more damage and can chill monsters with out having to shoot at them. Get him some leech as well some equipment with slows monster by X% (Kelpie snare I think).

%dam reduced gear (shaftstop, harliquen's crest, vamp gaze, string of ears, rockfleece?) will let you take less damage.

He doesn't need to save/exit he can just cast a town portal to stop the fight. That is also good to 'reroll' the ancients untill he gets some mods on them that aren't so painfull.

Smite and charge may help in the battle as well.

 

ps. his gear is pretty good for HC self-found, considering his levels, but his highest chars all die off in Hell, so really he's got NM lvl gear.

so shaftstop/gaze/etc are out of the question. if it dont drop from NM meph, then odds are good he doesn't have it.

I'm trying to remember from my old sorcs, which might have been 1.09. But i seem to remember that the ancients were a joke in normal and NM, and then suddenly were hell incarnate on Hell. Course, thats a sorc who has ranged attacks, compared to a pally. And I know 1.10 and 1.11 are a lot harder.

I guess, I still have this vague impression that the NM ancients should just be a speed bump for him, after he handily trounced NM Diablo. My last few chars were fishymancers, so they were reaching the peak of their power when they hit the NM ancients, so that may be coloring my thinking.

Should a lvl 75 pally have serious doubts to his ability to kill even a single ancient? He has about 30% crushing blow from some helmet. I think his AR is bad, but he has conviction/vengance (whichever one lowers the defense).

He hasn't been able to the ancients seperated, so he's facing 2 or 3 of em at once, which I do think is part of the problem.

he's going to run the glacial caves some more tonight to build up a new supply of reguvs, but I'm hoping to offer him some advice or to be able to tell him if he needs to level up some more.

 

Make a Strength runeword in a fast weapon (Amn Tir if I remember right). The Crushing Blow will absolutely decimate the ancients. No melee character should ever have a problem with the ancients at all.

Edit: I know you said he has CB, but the fast attack speed may be the key. Is he doing them at P1 or P8? CB works better at lower player settings and you don't lose out on any experience.

Edit2: Use zeal to quickly reduce their life to near zero with CB. Then switch back to vengeance.

 

I agree with erics, your bro should get a holy freeze merc and equip him corrrectly, all the ancients gonna be frozen. Nm meph and nm andy (not sure) can drop shakos, i can't remember on wich difficulty andy dropped a (bad) shako for me...Also nm andy (with luck) can drop a soj, even if its supposed to be a caster ring, the +1 to all skills will not kill your bro's paladin

 

NM Andy or Meph cannot drop Shako's. Just thought I would clear that up.

NM Ancients shouldn't be a problem, just drop player setting to 1 and follow the above advice.

 

I... umm.... am like 99.9% sure that I got a Shako from NM Meph. It was the first and only one I've ever found.

I just checked the ATMA calculator and it says that he cannot drop it. But seriously, he dropped it for me. It was on b.net, does that change anything? I could be mistaken, but I was sure it came from NM Meph.

-hps

 

Your Brother plays exactly like me. Hardcore, Untwinked, Melee, Paladins. He already has Orphans Call Helmet which gives 35% Crushing Blow.

Run Nightmare Countess for an Io. He will have no chance of death.

Make Black in a Flail or Knout

With Black, the Helmet, and Goblin Toe boots he will have 100% Crushing blow. Goblin Toe can be found from Normal Diablo onwards. This easy setup and 1 point in Smite allows the Paladin to kill act end bosses on Players 8 easier then all other builds. You can even beat the Ubers with that gear and a Blade of Life Tap.

Keep Black on switch. He already has 1 point in Smite which is all he needs. Smite them down then weapon switch to deliever the final two blows with Vengeance.

With the three not that hard to find items above he can then easily run Nightmare Meph on Players 8 to find his Hell gear where he keeps dying.

Paladins are the King of duels and Act End bosses but the worst at PVM crowd control. No summons, no fear or mass stun spells. The Ancients are like act end duels and should pose no problems.

 

As far as I know all monsters on b.net and SP drop the same. I think you are mistaken unfortunately, the Shako has a qlvl of 69 and can't be dropped until the WSK3 in NM.

@Sir Dante: 100% CB is overkill, the 35% from Guilluames will be more than adequate. This can be easily increased using the Blood Gloves recipe to bring it up to 45%, and won't take nearly as long as running for an Io and some Goblin Toes.

 

I've been wrong before, and I guess I'm wrong again. I thought I found it at the time in my career when I was running NM Countess and NM Meph, but it must have been later when I was more confident and I was running NM Meph and NM Baal. In my minds eye I can see it on the ground in Durance 3, but that memory is most likely modified by drunkenness.

Just disregard me and my confusion.

-hps

 

Thanks for the advice. I'd bet he was playing on players 8. he's stubborn about that (views changing it midgame as cheesy), but I'll reccomend players 1, HF merc, and the black runeword.

I think for normal pvm, he relys on a big heavy 1h with vengance to do a lot of physical + elemental damage, with the crushing blow as just a bonus.

But zealing with something faster and more CB will definately help, especially if he stays at players 8.

Maybe he just got a bad roll and the ancients were extra strong extra fast...

ps. I thought I got my 1st shako from NM meph too... but i guess it probably was Hell Meph. Was back in 1.09 at the time

 

As has been mentioned, Smite might be a better way of dealing CB dmg than Zeal, mainly because it is auto-hit and will stun the enemy, keeping the paladin safe while he keeps smiting. Might consider a single point in Fanaticism as well, for the IAS.

 

Shaftstop (1:2405), Rockstopper (1:1856), String of ears (1:1156), Vampiregaze (1:4654) and Rockfleece (1:701) can all drop from nightmare Meph. However if you're looking for them they won't The merc can't wear string of ears obviously, but your brother can. Rattlecage (1:731) also has crushing blow and moster flee. Main thought is to get a merc that can help with physical damage. I'ld choose a cold damage act 1 rogue over an act 3 cold merc even.

 

Blades / Wands with Life Tap charges as recommended before. That's all there is to it, 50% life leech non-penalized by difficulty setting / physical resistance. Put it on weapon switch, cast then own. You can shop for one at NM Malah. You don't need any other item against the Ancients as a melee char.