What is the best smiter build/guide?

[:1]I was looking to build a smiter since my rift assassin doesn't clear ubers fast enough. What is a good guide (talk discusses gear mainly) that assumes wealth?

Here's some basic questions I have:

What is the best weapon assuming you are willing to get Crushing Blow from other sources if its required?

Last Wish looks like a real winner - practically made for Uber Tristam. I guess making it in a Phase Blade makes the most sense since Berserker Axes have bad IAS for Paladins.

Of course, Grief also looks good. Prevent Monster Heal could potentially save you from having to deal a lot of damage over a 40 second period. The increased attack speed will obviously help more while you keep Salvation up since Last Wish will go slower without Fanaticism.

One thing I am curious about is, does the extra damage on Grief really matter? I'm sure the Crushing Blow from Last Wish will make it appear that it's better, but after a certain % threshold is crossed... which one eventually comes through faster?

One big beef with Grief is that I need to switch armors to pop on Fade. Last Wish is just more convenient.

Also, Lash Wish lets me use Crown of Ages and other higher tier items since I don't need to be seeking sub-par items just to get more Crushing Blow.

Decisions.

What armor ends up being better?

I guess there are 3 options here... 2 to be taken more seriously than the last one I suppose.

My first guess was to use Chains of Honor. It's the best choice for me since I have a pile of perfect ones and I don't have to go through the hassle of obtaining something different. But I like it because it has a lot of resistances, which is good against Uber Mephisto. It also has damage reduction, which stacks nicely with Crown of Ages and it has +skills. Since all of these bosses are demons, does the 200% damage increase apply? How much does it make a difference?

The other option is Fortitude. I'll be honest, it doesn't look as good as Chains of Honor as many of the mods are irrelevant. I don't like the extra life matters - the damage reduction and resists are probably better on Chains of Honor. So that begs the question... How much does 300% enhanced damage make things easier compared to the 200% offered by Chains of Honor? (assuming they both work at the times you need them too).

Is this 100% worth it?

The last option is Duress. I would consider Duress if I were using Grief... that is, if someone told me Grief was miles ahead of Last Wish. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't consider it as it's giving up a lot of good modifiers for just 15% more crushing blow... and if I have to start making sacrifices like that, I'd rather swap out Gore Riders for Goblin Toes or something like that.

Gulli's Face vs Crown of Ages

I see a lot of builds use Gulli's face. Is this just a "poor man's option"? I can totally see why it's good with a nice jewel and using Grief. I don't see why it's needed though if a person goes with Last Wish.

With Gulli's, you'd have to use an @ res jewel. That's pretty much mandatory I think. Crown of ages potentially gives 25-30 resistances, and you still have 2 sockets to get even more resistances and/or damage reduction. Let's not forget we get +1 skills, which has to count for something.

Of course, the big drawback to Crown of Ages is the lame Strength Requirement. But even so, I think the 70-100 points of strength we have to add to equip it is probably worth it. I'd like a second opinion on this. If we add 100 points into Vitality, we get 300 life. The only way to get something grander out of this is to keep potting. But with damage reduction, we can potentially get a lot more than 300 life. Over the span of 40 seconds of constant attacks, this could add up to thousands of life and with a lot less need to ever pot or come to into danger.

Of course, gulli's face might kill a little faster. It seems pretty irrelevant though as all the mods don't matter or they exist on Crown of Ages, and CoA has way better mods besides not having crushing blow.

I'd appreciate commentary on any/all of these points.|||Holy crap, wall of text.

I'll answer your first question. If you're going to make a smiter, make a V/T. That is Vindicated Templar. Basically Smite and FoH.

Simple list of gear (by no means a guide):

Helm - Shako - Ber

Amulet - Mara's 30

Weapon - Grief PB and Zerk

Weapon 2 - CTA (ofc) with FoH - Scepter

Armor - Enigma (Probably Mage Plate)

Gloves - 20/10cb

Boots - Waterwalks 65 life

Rings - Raven and BK

Belt - Verdungo

Shield - Up'd HoZ 200% (Ber Rune)

Shield 2 - Spirit pally shield

Charms - 20/20 PTorch, 20/20/X Anni, 9xPCombs, 20/5 (resists) rest.

You'll probably want FCR vsing casters... and such... Don't get ridiculous with it, though.

You can also try to get Armageddon Slippers... though, they are duped and expensive

http://www.telemail.fi/rabbit/d2/bug...onslippers.jpg|||First, why is it a problem that I ask thoughtful questions and explain the options?

Secondly, why does your build basically have no Crushing Blow... do you expect to do UT with that build? Gores/Last Wish alone would kill so much faster. And why enigma? This is even worse than the 3 options I discussed. Teleport isn't necessary at all for ubers, not to mention it provides no resistances to combat Mephisto's conviction aura.

That is why I wrote a wall of text - because you have to put more thought into it than this.|||First, no where in your wall of text did you say "I want a Smiter that only does Ubers."

/end|||Where did he mention PvP? FoH has little use in PvM, and none in Uberland.

IMO: Grief, CoH, Guill's, HoZ, Thundergod's. Fort's ED doesn't do that much for you, Guill's and Gores takes care of CB, T-gods for the light sorb. CB only does so much (and 50% is more than sufficient) after which Grief's +dmg makes all the difference.

People make such a big deal of stacking resists when really all you have to do is switch to 1-pt Salvation and have T-gods equipped while beating on Meph. You only drop from 6 to 7 frame Smite without Fanat, and with Highlord's plus a IAS jewel in your helm you can maintain it at 6 frames.|||Quote:








First, no where in your wall of text did you say "I want a Smiter that only does Ubers."

/end




"Last Wish looks like a real winner - practically made for Uber Tristam. I guess making it in a Phase Blade makes the most sense since Berserker Axes have bad IAS for Paladins."

"My first guess was to use Chains of Honor. It's the best choice for me since I have a pile of perfect ones and I don't have to go through the hassle of obtaining something different. But I like it because it has a lot of resistances, which is good against Uber Mephisto. It also has damage reduction, which stacks nicely with Crown of Ages and it has +skills. Since all of these bosses are demons, does the 200% damage increase apply? How much does it make a difference?"

But I guess it's a wall of text that you didn't read... so it's pretty easy to claim some text doesn't contain references to something if you've never actually read said text.|||Quote:








IMO: Grief, CoH, Guill's, HoZ, Thundergod's. Fort's ED doesn't do that much for you, Guill's and Gores takes care of CB, T-gods for the light sorb. CB only does so much (and 50% is more than sufficient) after which Grief's +dmg makes all the difference.




Would you say the lightning absord is more important than the mods on Verdungoes by chance? This is an interesting option. I hadn't considered it actually... but it basically does a similar kind of thing. If the lightning damage is way more bothersome/prevalent, then maybe it's really worth doing... especially if I bring in a 2-socket CoA with 2 bers.


Quote:








People make such a big deal of stacking resists when really all you have to do is switch to 1-pt Salvation and have T-gods equipped while beating on Meph. You only drop from 6 to 7 frame Smite without Fanat, and with Highlord's plus a IAS jewel in your helm you can maintain it at 6 frames.




So what do you think is better... Gulli's Face with the 15% jewel (maybe w/ @ res) or CoA with a Ber rune and an IAS jewel?|||Quote:








First, no where in your wall of text did you say "I want a Smiter that only does Ubers."

/end




"I would like a smiter build that only runs Ubers." That clearly states that this is what you wish. Just because Uber is used thrice does not mean that you wish to only have an Uber build. It doesn't say it in your title nor do you claim it anywhere in your first post. With that said, have a good day.|||Yuck... it turns out that % damage to demons doesn't work the same was % damage to everything. In the former case, it doesn't work with smite... while fortitude does.

When I read 300% to damage and 200% to demons, I actually expected these mods to work the same way - just one to be more specific than the more generalized one.

Now the decision is actually a lot harder, and it's entirely possible that fortitude is the best armor, or duress. I wish I actually had my character built to test what 300% actually meant - because it's not really 300%... it get applied somewhere in the formula and it works out be a lot less. So a good question is HOW MUCH less|||Quote:








"I would like a smiter build that only runs Ubers." That clearly states that this is what you wish. Just because Uber is used thrice does not mean that you wish to only have an Uber build. It doesn't say it in your title nor do you claim it anywhere in your first post. With that said, have a good day.




So do you formulate your conclusions based on the facts written in a particular post, or do you put more emphasis on things not mentioned at all - to which you have no proof/evidence? Just because I didn't mention anything about PVP did not imply that I wanted a hybrid build or something to work in PvP. This is way the wrong conclusion to draw based on the facts present in my original post, even if that post wasn't as direct as it could have been.