Griswold Pala to Solo Ubers?

I've been wanting so solo the Ubers with a Griswold Paladin for quite some time.

Yes, I know it far from the optimal gear for that job, but still- Beating the Ubers with a shiny aura tops everything.

However, I've been wondering some things:

1. Sadly, without any Bers and Ums (which I'm not going to invest in), I only have 25% CB from Goblin Toes and 25% OW from Dracs. I know it's very low, and most of you are gonna say "not enough"- But is this managable?

2. With a 4xShael Caduceus and a Goldwrap/Nosferatu I reach the max breakpoint without Fana on.

What should I active instead? Salvation? Maybe a Smite-dmg booster?|||Conviction would be a plus as you won't have to Uber-stack your resists. Salvation would accomplish a similar task, and with less points invested I suppose, but Conviction is style!

I Soloed Ubers with an Avenger paladin and the only Cb he had was on Gores, so it is definitely possible.

You may also consider sanctuary, to help deal with the undeads that are in there.|||Why would you want max speed without fana to "use an aura to boost smite damage" is beyond me. Isn't fanaticism one of the skills (probably the best skill) to boost smite damage?

I believe it would be better to socket your caddy with something else (while keeping max speed with fana on), and use a decent belt (goldwrap sucks, and pretty much everyone except those who desperately need the IAS pass the nosferatu's without giving it a second thought). Unless you are actively trying to handicap yourself, in which case you're better off trying with worse gear than full griz.|||Quote:








Why would you want max speed without fana to "use an aura to boost smite damage" is beyond me. Isn't fanaticism one of the skills (probably the best skill) to boost smite damage?

I believe it would be better to socket your caddy with something else (while keeping max speed with fana on), and use a decent belt (goldwrap sucks, and pretty much everyone except those who desperately need the IAS pass the nosferatu's without giving it a second thought). Unless you are actively trying to handicap yourself, in which case you're better off trying with worse gear than full griz.




I wanted to switch Fana to another "aura to boost smite damage", because I thought Fana is used mainly for the IAS, and maybe another Aura gives much more of a damage boost.

However, I tried some calculators, and it seems Fana IS the bigger Smiter damage booster.



But what is "something else" to socket my caddy with?

As I see it the main things for Ubering are:

1. Crushing Blow

2. Open Wounds

3. Resistances

With Gris setup I can't boost my CB nor my OW.

And with max IAS I can use Salvation and won't have to worry about res.

So my main concern is to speed up the Uber killing, which will be relatively slow with this low CB and damage output.

So- Do you think I can accomplish that with sockets or should I go with Fana and use the sockets for resists?|||Quote:








I've been wanting so solo the Ubers with a Griswold Paladin for quite some time.

Yes, I know it far from the optimal gear for that job, but still- Beating the Ubers with a shiny aura tops everything.

However, I've been wondering some things:

1. Sadly, without any Bers and Ums (which I'm not going to invest in), I only have 25% CB from Goblin Toes and 25% OW from Dracs. I know it's very low, and most of you are gonna say "not enough"- But is this managable?

2. With a 4xShael Caduceus and a Goldwrap/Nosferatu I reach the max breakpoint without Fana on.

What should I active instead? Salvation? Maybe a Smite-dmg booster?




I can answer both questions:

1. Yes bers are too expensive to invest but um is cheap if you are able to find an ist you can get 2-3 ums for it. So you could use some um runes depending on how much you need.

2. x4 shael in griz weap? I would not prefer it but it sounds like a good idea to get ias vs. uber duriel holy freeze which slows down your ias. However I never had too much issues about duriel's holy freeze.

I honestly think you should smite with fanat instead of salvation. I mean salvation could put you in more risk to be honest because you will lose the raw damage to leech with. More raw damage helps increase how much life you leech which is important too. Yes its mad easy to do ubers with cheap smiter gear just get a lifetap wand since you will only have dracs and no lw or exile. Good luck with all that.|||how are your resists looking like atm? I know the full set gives you +50, the shield with nothing on it gives +45 (let's say 3 pdiamonds = 57) so that's some 150ish right there. that plus anya quests leaves you at 180+ resists with nothing else to show for it.

with a little stacking (let's say no torch, and a good anni) you can reach max resists while still fighting meph with fanat. Is a treachery too much out of your league? the fade proc should help you accomplish that. Also, a good resists ammy might be good for you (metalgrid/mara's or even a prismatic rare)

EDIT: the helm gives another 5% all resists |||Quote:








how are your resists looking like atm? I know the full set gives you +50, the shield with nothing on it gives +45 (let's say 3 pdiamonds = 57) so that's some 150ish right there. that plus anya quests leaves you at 180+ resists with nothing else to show for it.

with a little stacking (let's say no torch, and a good anni) you can reach max resists while still fighting meph with fanat. Is a treachery too much out of your league? the fade proc should help you accomplish that. Also, a good resists ammy might be good for you (metalgrid/mara's or even a prismatic rare)

EDIT: the helm gives another 5% all resists




I don't think resists are any problem. With 5 sockets I can Ort/Ral/Thul everything there. And with a Raven, Wisp and Nokzan Relic/Rising Sun (which one's better?) PLUS res charms I can reach 300% no problem.

I guess I'll go with Fana. Pitty, I wanted to try to keep a Merc alive with Salvation and Life Tap.

However, if I'm stuck with a very low CB, how can I upp my raw Smite damage at least? %ED jewels? +max/min dmg?|||in terms of hitting the max smite breakpoint, it is definitely worth doing after fanat to make some space for other sockets.

The only way you can increase your max smite damage is with the following:

%ED, eg from fanat

+smite skills

+holy shield

using an elite pala shield, which you are already using

having +damage on the weapon (eg from grief)

Since most of your damage comes from CB, the max smite damage doesnt matter all that much anyway. The only difference it makes is the last little bits of health on an uber. I doubt there is much in the list above you can change anyway, especially with a set.|||Quote:








in terms of hitting the max smite breakpoint, it is definitely worth doing after fanat to make some space for other sockets.

The only way you can increase your max smite damage is with the following:

%ED, eg from fanat

+smite skills

+holy shield

using an elite pala shield, which you are already using

having +damage on the weapon (eg from grief)

Since most of your damage comes from CB, the max smite damage doesnt matter all that much anyway. The only difference it makes is the last little bits of health on an uber. I doubt there is much in the list above you can change anyway, especially with a set.




Actually I would only prefer 1 point smite if you are going to use grief or astreons otherwise max out smite. I know cb does good damage at first but when health gets low then you will need more raw damage to leech with and to take out the last of the ubers life. So thats why I prefer to max out smite with most weapons.|||Quote:








I've been wanting so solo the Ubers with a Griswold Paladin for quite some time.

Yes, I know it far from the optimal gear for that job, but still- Beating the Ubers with a shiny aura tops everything.

However, I've been wondering some things:

1. Sadly, without any Bers and Ums (which I'm not going to invest in), I only have 25% CB from Goblin Toes and 25% OW from Dracs. I know it's very low, and most of you are gonna say "not enough"- But is this managable?

2. With a 4xShael Caduceus and a Goldwrap/Nosferatu I reach the max breakpoint without Fana on.

What should I active instead? Salvation? Maybe a Smite-dmg booster?






25% Crushing blow

Is all you need really, if you want to do it, you run in to another issue thou, it takes longer time, but if you can survive with ease (have some big revpots incase dracs dont procc right away) 25% is ok. it just take a bit longer.

I tend to go by the rule 25% is the lowest and 80% is the highest ammount.

All there and in btw is accepted. ;D




Quote:








Why would you want max speed without fana to "use an aura to boost smite damage" is beyond me. Isn't fanaticism one of the skills (probably the best skill) to boost smite damage?




Oh yah, since the HUGE diff in this battle is the damage.. or is it?

I heard CB is the game-breaking one here, not the damage on smite really.

It only factors once they are low enough, but if you got good or high resistance, it dont really matter if it takes 2-3 minutes more.

I prefer to run salv on high-hp mobs instead of fana, since its not that huge off a drop in hp most of the time, once they get low, switch back to fana.

On lowhp mobs its just a waste of time to hope for cb-procc and run fana directly would benefit better.