SP: Freezadin Weapon?

[:1]Hi all, I'm making a Freezadin after being inspired by some recent forum chat in another thread, and I was hoping to get some advice for myself.

My charcter is currently Lv44 in normal act 5 (just completed Ancients quest under player8 mode). Since I have yet to use game mods to allow for ladder-only runewords, and it being my first character in SP, I need some recommendations for weapons.

So far, I'd been using the following, upgrading whenever I find better items and runeword bases.

Lore bone helm

Steel military pick

Stealth breast plate

Ancient's Pledge heraldic shield

Bloodfist

Hsarus belt

Hsarus boots

Rare ML & resist amulet

Rare AR & resist rings x 2

Spare gear: Skewer of Krintiz (ITD), The Gnasher (CB & OW)

My AR is current 1694 with a laughable defense of 285. I have 626life & 105mana after investing 160 stat points into Vita and base Energy. Currently doing 565-582 zeal dmg with Holy Freeze aura and my pulse dmg is 106-108 cold dmg. Resist are max'ed out at the moment with 75/80/75/75.

The problem I am facing here is that I have zero % MF (save for a 39 fire resist with 34% MF amulet I'd recently gambled), and I foresee that I might have to "make" my own weapons since there is no telling how lucky I will be in getting decent unique weapons that are to my liking or needs.

Now, as a Holy Freeze build, my primary means of dealing dmg is through delivering them using melee attacks. Hence speed and AR (or ITD) is preferred. I have a 3socket flail reserved for Black runeword pending a io rune drop if I'm lucky enough to get one soon, a 2socket war axe which I am considering making Strength runeword for the CB & str/vita. I have considered making malice outta a 3socket crystal sword, but finally scrapped that idea after running outta inventory space.

I am primarily thinking of doing a couple of Baalruns in normal; praying for a couple of good drops along the way, and finally killing normal Baal and proceeding to NM to farm Andy. But I think I will need a better weapon if I were to take on Baal minions and Baal himself, as I suspect my Steel military pick will be lacking in killpower.

So, long story short, what runeword weapon should I make, and how should i proceed? Hoping some fellas here will help me brainstorm up a suitable course of action.|||I easily finished normal in worse gear than that, I think you'll be fine. Admittedly, I was on /players3 not 8 (but was also totally new to the game).

A CB weapon for Baal would be nice, either Crushflange or Strength runeword should work.

Rhyme is a nice shield runeword if you've got a Shael yet. Good mods and 25 MF. Make in a paladin shield for added resists if possible. Btw, having 75% max block is MUCH more important than defence.

My other MF gear at that point was mostly shopped, you can get gloves of Fortune (up to 25 MF) and boots of Luck (up to 35) with a resist prefix. I was actually wearing those full time with a MF neck and one MF ring...I didn't get Bloodfist and Hsarus until later in NM.

Going forward, I'd still prefer Honor over Black in NM. Only downside is that you have to use your Lazruk reward from normal to get a 5 socket Knout because 5 socket weapons dont drop in NM. Another very nice option if you get lucky is an Aldur's Rhythm off Baal. I did try farming Baal for a while but got bored because he never dropped me anything good, so I just carried on to NM.

Good luck!|||Great info oldboy. Keep up the contibutions.|||strength in the fastest weapon you can find.

All you really need is IAS and CB, the frost damage does the rest.

If you can get ITD somewhere else, you're pretty much set.|||Quote:








Rhyme is a nice shield runeword if you've got a Shael yet. Good mods and 25 MF. Make in a paladin shield for added resists if possible. Btw, having 75% max block is MUCH more important than defence.




I'd been trying to get a nice pally resist shield to make rhyme for the last 10 levels, but no luck so far.


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My other MF gear at that point was mostly shopped, you can get gloves of Fortune (up to 25 MF) and boots of Luck (up to 35) with a resist prefix. I was actually wearing those full time with a MF neck and one MF ring...




I'm rather undecided on whether to go for MF gear actually, since I'm rather geared up for survivability (playing on player8 and all); not that I had much luck with MF gear drops. My only source of MF currently comes from a rare ring with 111AR 12mana 8%MF. AKA, total MF = 8%


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I didn't get Bloodfist and Hsarus until later in NM.




Yeah, I was lucky enough to get them. Bloodfist was pretty much an "OMG" kinda find at lower levels when I saw a pair of unique heavy gloves from a random mob, and it has been my most prized possession for many levels till I found both Hsarus belt & boots (both of which were part of my ideal gear list for SP since Freezadins kinda lacks AR). I think the set pieces will carry me pretty far into the game, and taking them off does kinda cripple me more than a little if I were to take them off.


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Going forward, I'd still prefer Honor over Black in NM. Only downside is that you have to use your Lazruk reward from normal to get a 5 socket Knout because 5 socket weapons dont drop in NM.




Thanks for the advice. Today must have been my lucky day as I found a superior 15ed 3ar Knout drop while farming Andy before going back to Act 2 NM to continue my tomb runs for better drops. I headed back to Normal to get it socketed and now I have a new weapon to carry me further into the game.

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5107/honorknout.png

Figured I share my findings and latest made runeword. BTW, do you think this weapon will carry me into hell or at least till I find a better replacement (not that I think my luck will get me one though)?


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Another very nice option if you get lucky is an Aldur's Rhythm off Baal. I did try farming Baal for a while but got bored because he never dropped me anything good, so I just carried on to NM.

Good luck!




I had experimented with Aldur's set mace on bnet before I decided to challenge myself in SP, and it worked pretty great. Given the choice between either Aldur's mace and my new Honor Knout, which do you think would be a better choice for a Freezadin like me? And if I do find one, what should I socket the mace with?


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strength in the fastest weapon you can find.

All you really need is IAS and CB, the frost damage does the rest.

If you can get ITD somewhere else, you're pretty much set.




I'll keep an eye out for a better weapon base to make Strength in, since I doubt those I'd found so far will make the cut in terms of being NM or possibly Hell viable. Honor is nice for its Skills/AR/DS mods and might help if I ever face an occasional cold immune mob, but I think Strength has good mods too.

Should I find a similar weapon base like my newly made Honor Knout, which of the two would be advisable as a primary weapon? Since my Black Flail is now on switch for bosses only.|||Quote:








Should I find a similar weapon base like my newly made Honor Knout, which of the two would be advisable as a primary weapon? Since my Black Flail is now on switch for bosses only.




Experiment with both. In players 8 I suppose crushing is nice even in nightmare, but IMHO you simply won't leech enough with strength. Honor gives you enough physical damage to leech, even though you're an elemental zealot.

With my shocker I used redemption to partly help with the leech problem, flashing it as needed, but with a freezer that solution is less reliable, so having enough physical damage to leech back is even more important.|||Quote:








I'm rather undecided on whether to go for MF gear actually, since I'm rather geared up for survivability (playing on player8 and all); not that I had much luck with MF gear drops. My only source of MF currently comes from a rare ring with 111AR 12mana 8%MF. AKA, total MF = 8%




Well, it didn't do me much good in normal play to be honest, so you're probably right to focus on survivability. But you will want some MF gear if/when you do any serious boss farming (which most people do on /players1 I think?).


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http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5107/honorknout.png

Figured I share my findings and latest made runeword. BTW, do you think this weapon will carry me into hell or at least till I find a better replacement (not that I think my luck will get me one though)?




Nice! It took me to Hell (badly ran out of steam there though, I realised that a few minutes after walking out of town in act 1). It will certainly take you as far as NM Mephisto, and you could farm him for an upgrade if necessary. You're pretty much going to have to farm him at some point to get gear for Hell, so start then if you feel you need to.

I'm actually using a (upped) weapon from NM Meph right now because I can't find a Phase Blade to make Crescent Moon in. Spent my one and only Pul rune to up it, but it was worth it, this thing owns! Not sure how much damage the Blizzard actually does, but it looks good and goes off a lot for a zealot I currently have 1775-2024 Zeal damage with L25 Holy Freeze.



Spoiler



Code:

Zakarum's Hand
Mighty Scepter
One Hand Damage: 126 - 164
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Level: 53
Required Strength: 125
Required Dexterity: 65
Fingerprint: 0xedf1c007
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
6% Chance to cast level 5 Blizzard on striking
+50% Increased Attack Speed
217% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
+150% Damage to Undead
8% Mana stolen per hit
+2 to Holy Freeze (Paladin Only)
+2 to Holy Shock (Paladin Only)
Regenerate Mana 10%
Heal Stamina Plus 15%
Required Level +7
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Other nice stuff to steal from NM Meph;

Guillaume's Face

Magnus' Skin

Gore Rider/Goblin Toe

String of Ears

Raven Frost

Herald Of Zakarum (good luck on that one, very low drop chance, I never saw it).

He also drops Aldur's Rhythm A LOT...you'll stop even picking them up after a while...

PS. Shop a staff with teleportation charges on it for this. If you skip the council members (and roll a nice map with the stairs near the waypoint) you can do runs in less than a minute. I have a Battle Staff of Teleportation with 33 charges, it costs 70k to fully repair but I only used 3 charges per run, and a couple of rare armors + gold drops will pay for that.


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I had experimented with Aldur's set mace on bnet before I decided to challenge myself in SP, and it worked pretty great. Given the choice between either Aldur's mace and my new Honor Knout, which do you think would be a better choice for a Freezadin like me? And if I do find one, what should I socket the mace with?




Not sure One nice thing about Aldur's is that it's very simple to get 5 fpa - you just need to put 3 Shael runes in it and you have 90% IAS right there on the weapon (assuming you get 3 sockets that is, it can spawn with 2-3). If you have 20%+ IAS on other gear then just put in enough Shaels to get 90% total and then I guess Eth's (-25% Target Defense) would be the next best option?|||While the Steel runeword may "suck" (it's certainly not end-game material), it bears some potential here for this build, at least at low levels: +25% IAS and +50% chance of open wounds. I'm working up a potential single-player Palabear right now (assuming I can eventually farm up the proper runes) and using Zeal as my main attack -- I'm currently in Act 4 Normal, and been using a Steel runeword to good effect off a two-socket superior morningstar I bought from Fara in Act 2, due in no small part to that Crushing Blow. I'm looking to try out my own Frost Zealot at some point, though, so I'm going to be very interested to see how Holy Freeze works in the early game with it.|||Quote:








Experiment with both. In players 8 I suppose crushing is nice even in nightmare, but IMHO you simply won't leech enough with strength. Honor gives you enough physical damage to leech, even though you're an elemental zealot.




I agree, the drawback of Strength runeword is it low ED to boost the weapon base dmg. Even with some leech from another source, I doubt I would actually be doing enough non-CB dmg to gain life back. And after using my Honor Knout for a couple of levels, I actually like not having to rely on HP pots so often.


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With my shocker I used redemption to partly help with the leech problem, flashing it as needed, but with a freezer that solution is less reliable, so having enough physical damage to leech back is even more important.




I'm planning on putting a 1pter on Redemption after putting 5 solid pts into Holy Shield too. Some of my +skill gear should boost it more to gain the life/mana back.|||Quote:








Well, it didn't do me much good in normal play to be honest, so you're probably right to focus on survivability. But you will want some MF gear if/when you do any serious boss farming (which most people do on /players1 I think?).




I'd finally made a Rhyme shield outta a 14res protector shield base as my primary. The 25MF should help a little with my newly found 30MF nagelring , plus it currently serves as my CBF gear, at least till I find Duriels Shell or a Ravenfrost ring.


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Nice! It took me to Hell (badly ran out of steam there though, I realised that a few minutes after walking out of town in act 1). It will certainly take you as far as NM Mephisto, and you could farm him for an upgrade if necessary. You're pretty much going to have to farm him at some point to get gear for Hell, so start then if you feel you need to.




I'm currently in NM act 4, but farming NM Meph for better upgrades. I did find a Butchers Pupil axe, and while it is very attractive and can be a used as a balanced Freezadin build (physical/cold), I find that I miss having the life leech from Honor; plus the 250AR from it is something I prefer not loosing atm.


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I'm actually using a (upped) weapon from NM Meph right now because I can't find a Phase Blade to make Crescent Moon in. Spent my one and only Pul rune to up it, but it was worth it, this thing owns! Not sure how much damage the Blizzard actually does, but it looks good and goes off a lot for a zealot I currently have 1775-2024 Zeal damage with L25 Holy Freeze.

Zakarum's Hand




Talk about coincidence, I found one from the minions in durance3. It is surprising good and fast, and I did have a couple of test run with it. But ultimately I need a secondary source of life leech to compensate by switch out Honor. My Knout is growing on me, and I may stick with it till I find something really good.


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Other nice stuff to steal from NM Meph;

Guillaume's Face

Magnus' Skin

Gore Rider/Goblin Toe

String of Ears

Raven Frost

Herald Of Zakarum (good luck on that one, very low drop chance, I never saw it).




I'm actually running NM Meph for Guil Face, Orphans' glove & helm, and HoZ atm. Not sure if I will ever see HoZ tho, but I'm aiming for Orphan's set pieces at the very least. Those will go nicely to replace my Bfist and Lore helm.


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PS. Shop a staff with teleportation charges on it for this.




That does sound like a good idea, I'll keep an eye out for one.


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One nice thing about Aldur's is that it's very simple to get 5 fpa ... and then I guess Eth's (-25% Target Defense) would be the next best option?




Eth rune eh? The -% def had never occurred to me as a viable option for Freezadins like me who lacks AR. Does -% def work on bosses?