Which Builds Can Solo Ubers w/ Legit Gear?

[entranced]

Which Builds Can Solo Ubers w/ Legit Gear?

Like many, I'm back in D2 after a long hiatus (D2 > WoW). Starting from scratch, in the past month I've built up Zu_II, an 86 Summonancer w/ 250mf (370 w/ merc). Now I want a char to tackle the ubers.

However, I would like some input on legit feasibility, since practically every guide focuses on vile dupewords (my runes above Ko consist of an Um and Gul). "The 1pt smiter guide to Uber Tristram" is confident in using very cheap legit gear on a fanatic zealot. Can any other builds/classes do it?

I've played the d2c classes to death, so I'm hoping assassins or druids can. But mainly I don't want to build up an Uber-tailored char only to find that it can't do it, or worse yet, gets one-shotted.

Related: Dracul's Grasp - what's the best place for Zu_II to farm for them, Pindleskin?

 

[BongoFury]

Now I want a char to tackle the ubers.

With their high life, the key to taking down the Ubers is Crushing Blow. So whichever chatacter you choose, it has to deliver CB. The next problem is hitting the Ubers. They are L110 so in the to hit formula you will have to over come this obsticale. Either through massive AR, or with an auto hit skill. The next necessity for fighting the Ubers is leeching back life. You can't do it effectively with normal leech, you need to rely on Life Tap. And the final element you must over come is Mephisto's Conviction which lowers your resists by 120. Given all the above, the ideal toon to kill the Ubers is a Smiter. Smite (one pointer is adequate), beau coup resists on a shield or with Salvation, CB from Guillume's/Goblin's (Gore's)/Duress, Dracul's/Marrowalk's/or a LT wand. A lesser option is a Zealot, Frenzier, Fury Wolf, or Kicker. It's also possible to do the Ubers with a Summoner, provided you have an ample supply of good Revive material[Urdars, Wookies, Frenzytaurs], and very good gear.

 

[Tor Land]

I'm on this quest myself . The most "problematic" part up untill now has been getting destruct keys in a safe way. I'm going to use a zeal pally like in the guide and bring a friend who plays skelliemancer who can cast lifetap for me. Figured it would not be wise to enter ubertrist alone in my first try hehe. Also i'm thinking his skellies might survive better against meph with my salvation on(?). Good luck if you're going solo the first time!

OT: What are you going to use for Nihlatakslaying?

 

[XkoolleoX]

Based on my experience, it's possible to do uber trist without uber gear. My number 1 recommendation is to shop for a life tab wand from malah because the ctc life from gear may not trigger in time. Or you can have a summoner cast life tab for you. I've done numberous trist run and its quite safe with the following:

um guilliam's face
+1 pally and 14 resist rare ammy
smoke armor (+50 resist all babe)
ring 1: raven frost
ring 2: d-star ring
weapon 1: lightsabre
sheild 1: 4pdiamond zakarum shield (112 resist all awesome)
weapon 2: life tab charge rare wand
sheild 2: 40 base resist zakarum spirit shield
belt: The disciple set belt: Credendum Mithril Coil
boot: gore rider

inventory: resist charms, life charms, sharp charms

so with this setup, I have:
300 resist all so meph's conviction aura can't even scratch me
lighting absorb from light sabre
cold absorb from raven frost
fire absorb from d-star

Note: I do my trist run with two others
barb for bo - don't even think of going into trist without 2.5k + life. With one mistake, bye bye to your char and not to mention torch
hammerdin - help with the furnace of pain and keep all those annoying summon off my pally

With this setup, uber is a lot of fun and a real adrenaline rush.

 

[Socialism]

um guilliam's face
+1 pally and 14 resist rare ammy
smoke armor (+50 resist all babe)
ring 1: raven frost
ring 2: d-star ring
weapon 1: lightsabre
sheild 1: 4pdiamond zakarum shield (112 resist all awesome)
weapon 2: life tab charge rare wand
sheild 2: 40 base resist zakarum spirit shield
belt: The disciple set belt: Credendum Mithril Coil
boot: gore rider

I stand by my conviction that +skills are useless on a smiter; I'd run with a Sanctuary
(ko ko mal), but a normal 4-socket pdiamond shield did it for me when I didn't have one.
Amulet's great; a plain blue 30 allres works just as well (if it allows you to make a gear
tradeoff elsewhere). Mephisto's conviction is -135 fire/cold/light resist IIRC; no point in
going over since there are no Lower Resist casters in Tristram.

Personally, I'd switch out the Lightsabre for a CB weapon (high runewords, Redeemer,
Astreon's, Black) and use Thundergod's Vigor beltwise. That said, if it works, it works;
everything else is just efficiency or overkill.

 

[entranced]

Figured it would not be wise to enter ubertrist alone in my first try hehe.

Yeah I'm suicidal, but I'm a soloer at heart. Barring further replies, I will probably be making the 1pt smiter to raise my odds of success on the first try. I've always loved pallies anyway, it won't kill me to make another one.

What are you going to use for Nihlatakslaying?

Vgood question. I figured anything that can solo trist wouldn't have trouble with nilly, but that was an ignorant assumption. I'll probably be forced to make a 3rd char specifically for key running nilly.

There's a parallel thread, Key running in HC, so I'll keep an eye on that one. Bongofury runs it with a trapper so I may go that route, since I had been hoping to make an assassin for the ubers. I'd prefer to make a kicker though, so perhaps a kicker for the ubers and something else optimized for nilly?

I'm going to have to do some reading on how to 100% safely solo nilly legit. Not a big fan of getting instagibbed by things off-screen.

 

[5zigen]

I would say smiter is probably the smartest choice because (as no one has mentioned) you can also easily make a treachery and easily force proc it (on the fire). LvL 15 gives 61 res all and lasts for 288 seconds and if im not mistaken 15% dr. Which would mean you could easily swap a peice of gear for something else. 288 seconds is nearly 5 minutes so it shouldnt be a big danger of it stopping mid fight unless you plan on going over 5 minutes.

In addition to that, Tgods is probably so good it shouldnt be skipped really, it will help nullify mephs le aura. I'd say good gear would be something like

25-30% res all ammy
4x pdiamond Kurast shield (base 40 for 116 res all)
Treachery (switch proc on the fire and switch for 61 res all)
Smoke (50% res all)

Those 4 items are netting around 250 res all. +30 from anya and thats base 280. so -100 for hell and -135 for conv and your at 45 still. making up the other 30 should be pretty easy.

That would leave open your wpn helm rings belt gloves boots

Prob something like
Fleshripper (shael)
Guillames (um?)
Raven / Dwarf
Tgods
Dracs
Gore riders

Puts your at around 90 CB, a heap of Deadly strike ( i forget can smite deadly strike?) and you have absorb for every element to top off your resistances.

Again you could probably do it with an assassin but i think it would be much trickier. Fleshripper + Demon limb is 700% to ar which should take care of the hitting problem, and cb should be no problem but resists will be alot harder to garner as an asn with no pala shield. Perhaps it could be done relying on MDR / PDR? I dont know what mephs charged bolts do damagewise though.



Finally, theres a kicker guide for running ubers, but you will probably point out its full of dupewords. However, you can probably make a kicker for trist, but getting the resistances high enough is going to

 

[AgentMarth]

I guess I could post it here, rather than just make a new thread, since it could maybe be applied.

I have a question, how exactly does Conviction work against the Ubers? Does it lower there defense the same as any other monster? Or at just what effectiveness? Just curious, even though I'm going to use smite anyway for obvious reasons.

That said, I have a Conviction Zealot/Smiter, I ended up maxing conviction, Holy Shield, Smite, 5 In Zeal (Yeah one to many I know) one in all pre-req's and utilities, and the rest in going into Fanaticism.

My plan is to switch on Conviction while fighting Mephy, and Fanaticism for Baal and Diablo. Doing so may result in lower smite damage for Mephy, but not having to stack all that res will make room for other things. The only problem I am having is keeping max smite speed without Fanaticism on, I may have to keep a treachery on while fighting him, but, since I don't have to stack, its fine. Diablo and Baal will be the same old same old (or so I hope)

My current planned gear is the following

Guillames (15ias 28ed jewel)
1 Pally 14 res ammy
Lionheart / Treachery
Heavens Light Sheal'd (Still looking for a 2 Socket one)
HoZ P'Diamond (Need to up it still)
Raven / Dwarf Star
Gores
Dracs
Tgods
Tap Wand/Kurast 45 Base Spirit
Singer Barb for BO

I will have ~2.5k life I think after BO, cold/light/fire absorb, after fade max res and 15% Dr, since I don't need to stack, I'll be ok res wise. Right now with Fanaticism I do about 1k Smite, which I believe should be enough, and will have 83% CB with Heaven's, or still 50% if I switch it out for a Sheal'd up PB when smiting Mephy or something.

I am hoping it will work, I will be trying it out soon, I just need a bit better weapon, and a few more levels. Hes taken down Dclone without a sweat, so I am hoping Ubers wont be too hard.

*Come on 20/20 Ptorch*

 

[entranced]

Finally, theres a kicker guide for running ubers, but you will probably point out its full of dupewords. However, you can probably make a kicker for trist, but getting the resistances high enough is going to

I've decided to go with a kicker (for nihlathak key running as well) - smiter sounds way too easy in utrist even with junk gear. It's definitely going to be a challenge but even with the average gear I have laying around right now I should be able to hit the magic number of 270 resist all for UMeph. Assuming I don't find better while I level her up, she would likely wear:

Wep1: Black rw Flail (40%CB)
Shield1: Rhyme rw (25res all) - my only possible source of cannot be frozen (hawkmail? hahaha)
Armor: Duress rw (15%CB, 15resall, extra 30aice)
Belt: Credendum (15resall)
Amulet: 30resall, 67life
Ring1: rare 10resall, extra 14alit, 18str, 88attack rating, 5%lifeleech, 9mf
Ring2: rare 11resall, extra 30alit, +5%attack rating, 99attack rating, 4dex
Misc: Fade (L15?) 60resall

So far that gives me 196aice/166afir/210alit/166apoi out of 270, and still leaves open boots, gloves, helm, and *charms*. I think I should be able to max them all out. I can always sacrifice the Duress armor for Smoke (50resall) if I absolutely have to on UMeph. Rest of my planned gear for the curious:

Wep2: Life Tap Wand (shopping time!)
Shield2: Rhyme rw
Boots: Myrmidon Greaves (will be crafting Safety, also hope for a lucky imbue)
Gloves: choice of crafted Blood (most likely, aiming for 10%CB and 20IAS), Venom Grip, Bloodfist
Helm: none as yet, worst case 3os to fill in the resist holes with tal/ral/ort/thul; or perhaps crafted Caster for 4%manaleech (is 1 source of ML vital?) and hope for resists
Charms: lots of choices here, from the above it looks like attack rating might be the biggest hole to fill in my setup.

So that'd give me full resists and 65%CB. Wish me luck.

 

[AgentMarth]

One thing to mention, while myrmidon greaves have the best kick damage, the also have the highest str req, 208. The better option would be a pair of upped gores, or shadow dancers thanks to the -req mods on them. I'm actually currently using a pair of treks, they're elite boots so the damage is nice and of course the mods too.

You have to ask yourself if its worth it to pump to 208 str? I personally wouldn't go past ~156, just in case you want to use Stormshield for the DR. If anything, maybe 163 for mirrored boots. But, i plan on using and upped pair of gores, just as soon as i find another pair. The plus str on my lionheart helps alot, hell, its got alot of plus stats that are nice.

Don't feel bad about switching gear for Mephy, most people do if the don't have uber gear, so the duress for smoke is a good idea. However, the one nearly required piece for ubers, to me at least (definitely in HC), would be dracs. Do whatever you can to secure a pair, the last thing you want it Tap running out while your in the fray and can't recast.

Helm, at worse case, and ral, ort, thul helm, but if you can get a Guillames ort'd. Or, what would most likely help out, a lot with res, is a rockstopper, CoA's baby brother. FHR, nice res, and DR, everything a Uber runner could want.

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck!

 

[entranced]

You have to ask yourself if its worth it to pump to 208 str? If anything, maybe 163 for mirrored boots.

There's absolutely no question that upped gores or shadow dancers are infinitely better than myrmidon's greaves. But alas, I am not so fortunate. You bring up a good point though, stopping at ~163 for Mirrored Boots is something I hadn't considered. Every guide seems to say that for a kicker you absolutely *have* to wear the best boots. Let alone for an Uber runner... Avg dmg on mirrored is 98 vs 116 for myrmidon, which does seem like a pretty large jump - 18%.

Same goes for Guillaume's and Drac's. I'd love to have such pieces of gear but I don't and probably won't have them. I haven't done a single trade yet, it seems to be mostly the domain of duped runes, so I'm making do with what I have. Lionheart's a sweet choice but I don't have a Hel nor a Fal.

I'll be doing everything in my power to keep my strength low, for example crossing my fingers I'll gamble a 20str 11resall rare ring, or a prismatic ammy of 30str, etc. We'll see what I've got by the time she's 85-90.

 

[entranced]

Finally, theres a kicker guide for running ubers, but you will probably point out its full of dupewords.

I'm assuming you're talking about the Warrior-Monk guide. If so, he posted Warrior-Monk Update: A Mini-Guide to Kicker Equipment Setups, which includes The Ascetic, a very good list of excellent and cheap ubering gear. He did fail to mention Rhyme though, it's easy to forget the poor don't have many Cannot Be Frozen choices.

 

[5zigen]

I'm assuming you're talking about the Warrior-Monk guide. If so, he posted Warrior-Monk Update: A Mini-Guide to Kicker Equipment Setups, which includes The Ascetic, a very good list of excellent and cheap ubering gear. He did fail to mention Rhyme though, it's easy to forget the poor don't have many Cannot Be Frozen choices.

Your sacrificing so much res all for the CBF though. And as was said before dracs really are just about necessity, plus the black thing wont work nearly as well as a fleshripper(for the -def).

Both fleshripper and dracs should be pretty easy to find, and I would really suggest holding off on ubers till you have a raven

but good luck for going with kicker, let me know how it goes.