Strongest 2-character party?
With all this talk about "this build is best" and "no, I got more damage per second", I thought I'd force all of you into new lines of thought. So here goes: what's the strongest 2-character party? In other worse: "which two level 99 characters with all quests completed are best suited for doing a full clear of all hell areas". Anything goes, except for maphack
Stuff you might want if you wanna complete hell:
1. lots of damage.
2. three different damage types (preferably all 6).
4. lots of defense.
5. a reasonably performable encounter plan.
So, what party complies with that? My guess is Skellemancer / Hammerdin.
1. Skellemancer:
20 Raise Skeleton
20 Skeleton Mastery
20 Revive (Clay Golem, Blood Golem, Iron Golem)
1 Summon Resists (Golem Mastery)
1 Fire Golem
1 Lower Resists (Amp Dam, Weaken, Iron Maiden, Terror, Life Tap, Decrepify)
20 Poison Nova (Teeth, Corpse Explosion, Posion Dagger)
10 Poison Explosion (synergy for PN)
1 Bone Prison (Bone Armor, Bone Wall, Bone Spear)
Items: +skills, +mana, +mana regen, 75 res all.
Stats:
-- Str: enough for heaviest gear
-- Dex: Max block
-- Vit: everything else
-- NRG: none
Merc: Might on legs - give him leech and defense.
2. Hammerdin:
20 Hammer (Holy Bolt)
20 Concentration
20 Vigor (Prayer, Defiance, Cleansing)
20 Blessed Aim (Might)
20 Holy Shield (Smite, Charge)
3 skill points left... pick for yourself. Perhaps Defiance as a synergy.
Items: +skills, +mana, +mana regen, 75 res all. Famine (runeword) on weapon switch (or some other weapon with different elemental damage.
Stats:
-- Str: enough for heaviest gear
-- Dex: Max block
-- Vit: everything else
-- NRG: none
Merc: Holy freeze on legs. Give him leech and defense. Damage is nice, too.
Encounter Strategy:
1. The necro roams around until his minions whack at something.
2. the necro fires steady poison novas while the minions whack at the creep.
3. Meanwhile, the Pala has eliminated any tactical targets (shamans in particular) and/or scouted ahead.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until baal is dead or stuff gets hairy.
Hairy Stuff Resolution Strategy:
what's hairy? Phys+Magic immunes. luckily, afaik, that only occurs on non-vanilla monsters, in which case the vanilla monsters should be cleared out first, then the pala can charge-lock the immune with an elemental damage weapon.
... That's my basic idea ...
of course, a naked punching sorc would own both of these guys
*/
With all this talk about "this build is best" and "no, I got more damage per second", I thought I'd force all of you into new lines of thought. So here goes: what's the strongest 2-character party? In other worse: "which two level 99 characters with all quests completed are best suited for doing a full clear of all hell areas". Anything goes, except for maphack
Stuff you might want if you wanna complete hell:
1. lots of damage.
2. three different damage types (preferably all 6).
4. lots of defense.
5. a reasonably performable encounter plan.
So, what party complies with that? My guess is Skellemancer / Hammerdin.
1. Skellemancer:
20 Raise Skeleton
20 Skeleton Mastery
20 Revive (Clay Golem, Blood Golem, Iron Golem)
1 Summon Resists (Golem Mastery)
1 Fire Golem
1 Lower Resists (Amp Dam, Weaken, Iron Maiden, Terror, Life Tap, Decrepify)
20 Poison Nova (Teeth, Corpse Explosion, Posion Dagger)
10 Poison Explosion (synergy for PN)
1 Bone Prison (Bone Armor, Bone Wall, Bone Spear)
Items: +skills, +mana, +mana regen, 75 res all.
Stats:
-- Str: enough for heaviest gear
-- Dex: Max block
-- Vit: everything else
-- NRG: none
Merc: Might on legs - give him leech and defense.
2. Hammerdin:
20 Hammer (Holy Bolt)
20 Concentration
20 Vigor (Prayer, Defiance, Cleansing)
20 Blessed Aim (Might)
20 Holy Shield (Smite, Charge)
3 skill points left... pick for yourself. Perhaps Defiance as a synergy.
Items: +skills, +mana, +mana regen, 75 res all. Famine (runeword) on weapon switch (or some other weapon with different elemental damage.
Stats:
-- Str: enough for heaviest gear
-- Dex: Max block
-- Vit: everything else
-- NRG: none
Merc: Holy freeze on legs. Give him leech and defense. Damage is nice, too.
Encounter Strategy:
1. The necro roams around until his minions whack at something.
2. the necro fires steady poison novas while the minions whack at the creep.
3. Meanwhile, the Pala has eliminated any tactical targets (shamans in particular) and/or scouted ahead.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until baal is dead or stuff gets hairy.
Hairy Stuff Resolution Strategy:
what's hairy? Phys+Magic immunes. luckily, afaik, that only occurs on non-vanilla monsters, in which case the vanilla monsters should be cleared out first, then the pala can charge-lock the immune with an elemental damage weapon.
... That's my basic idea ...
of course, a naked punching sorc would own both of these guys
*/