holy shock zeal build help

i have been thinking about making a PVM zealot build (with mf) that uses dual dreams. so far all i can think of is having the two dreams and the rest i am not sure on.

im thinking i can use conviction as my aura.

the weapons i have thought of have been sort of scattered.. like beastz, deathz, cressent moon phase blade, greif phase blade

with beastz and grief PB i can get 4FPA if i have 40 ias (ammy and gloves) however is this worth not having lifetap from dracs?

if i choose not to go for the infamous 4FPA, i can get 5 FPA with any of the phase blades and beastZ without taking up my ammy and gloves.

with deathZ, i need to use either ammy or gloves to get 6fpa

if i do happen to choose to go with more physical damage i could use an infin on merc but the -res wouldnt be too good

my main question is, which set up is best?

i plan on using the holy shock as the main damage source and Zeal as something to do so it looks like im doing something hah... should i use more defensive equipment.. so far its looking like...

dream helm

dream shield (with resists)

enigma (tele to control merc as well as mf and some DR)

war travs (mf)

raven frost

wisp (maybe need some help with this one)

dungos

as far as weap, ammy and gloves go i dont know what to use. so far i think it might be greif PB with dracs and maras

as far as my invent goes its gonna be anni torch gheeds.... should i get any skill gcs to boost holy shock dmg or go for mf/resists/fhr/life etc?

for my merc i am thinking about an act 2 NM def with holy freeze using dream helm.... and not sure what to else.... maybe a reapers toll and treachery?

i appreciate any feedback, thanks in advance

ps.. sorry for poor english, grammar, etc|||I would use cresent moon full stop. When you break light immunes, conviction only works at 1/6 its normal value. Eg, if you have convi 125%, it would only bring down ~20% off an immune monster.

Once you drag it into broken, it will still have resists from 80% to 99%. Using a cresent moon on a 99% increases your damage 35 times. On a 80%, this would be 2.5 times more. Theres a lot of light immunes on hell. CM also has a lot of other nice mods like IAS.

In terms of your own gear, I would use anything to get your char into the top breakpoint. Dracs are a must. I dont like eni on melee chars, but i guess it works. I would use a rare life leech ring on your second slot.

Incidentally +skills do NOT add to your item damage. This is why something like highlords would be better to help you hit your 4 fps.|||I prefer Grief plus other standard zealot items along with 20 points in zeal and sacrifice (thus no salvation) but as said above the crescent setup ups your damage vs broken immunes by a lot. I'm not sure which build has the best damage but crescent probably wins out against broken immunes, especially if they also have high physical resist.

Reaper's toll, fort and andy's on a HF/defiance merc.|||+1 For crescent pb (and dracs). You'll encounter so few unbreakables so the extra pierce is worth it.

Faith rogue and then you'll reach 4FPA automatically and have a godly merc as well.|||Here is the version I'm currently running on ladder.

Weapon - Azurewrath (with 15%IAS + 19%ED jewel)

Armor - Enigma Archon Plate

Shield - Dream Sacred Targe

Helm - Dream Bone Visage

Gloves - Dracul's Grasp

Belt - Nosferatu's Coil

Boots - Gore Riders

Ring 1 - Bul Kathos

Ring 2 - Ravenfrost

Amulet - Highlord's Wrath

Weapon switch - Wizardspike (for Teleporting and 75% FCR breakpoint)

Shield switch - Spirit (for Teleporting and 75% FCR breakpoint)

Inventory:

Paladin Torch

Annihilus

6x 5 resist all small charms

Skills:

Conviction - 25 after +skills (No need to overstack resists - 26+ is wasted)

Salvation - 20 (synergy for Dreams)

Resist Lightning - 20 (synergy for Dreams)

Holy Shield - 16 after +skills (Good enough defense - diminishing returns)

Zeal - 20 (Adds damage and AR)

Sacrifice - 3 (Adds damage - all future points will go here)

Merc is a Defiance merc (allows less points invested in Holy Shield) who wields Insight (to power Teleport mana).

Like you I wanted to be able to do the following without having to change gear:

Teleport - Enigma with the weapon switch and merc's Insight allow me to Teleport at the second fastest breakpoint with basically limitless mana by simply pressing the 'W' button on my keyboard.

Have Lifetap (Dracul's) - Regular lifesteal is unreliable in hell mode and Lifetap makes me near immortal while keeping the merc alive much longer as well. Since dual Dreams prevents using Exile for Lifetap that meant I needed to wear Dracul's. Unfortunately dual Dreams provide a 20% chance to Confuse when struck, which overwrites Lifetap. It's annoying, but not usually fatal. You should be killing fast enough and have high enough defense that getting hit often shouldn't be a major problem.

Hit the fastest attack breakpoint - Faster attack means faster leech, faster CtC's, quicker enemy deaths, less chance of getting swarmed, and more damage applied. With the gloves and armor slots contributing 0 to IAS, that eliminated many weapons and runewords which wouldn't hit the fastest breakpoint. Of those that remain I settled on the Azurewrath (30IAS), which when socketed with a 15IAS jewel and worn with Highlord's Wrath (20IAS) and Nosferatu's Coil (10IAS) hits the fastest breakpoint possible. There is no faster way to apply my 15% Crushing Blow, 35% Open Wounds, and 48% Deadly Strike. Having a phase blade being indestructible is a bonus as well.

Kill lightning immunes - I didn't want any creature in the game immune to my gear and Azurewrath fills that bill. Grief is awesome because of it's 340-400 physical damage added per attack, however Azurewrath adds up to 250% more with it's 250-500 magic and 250-500 cold to each attack. That means I have the fastest Paladin melee attack in the game, and each attack delivers substantial physical, cold, magic, and lightning damage that is amplified by max level Conviction. There is no creature in the game I can't kill, and kill pretty quickly.

A couple of quick notes:

Running a Defiance merc allows me to save points in Holy Shield which allows me to pump Zeal/Sacrifice to hit more often and do more physical damage. Most people suggest maxxing Sacrifice first and over Zeal since Sacrifice actually adds more physical damage. After running the numbers I found that while maxxing Zeal first has less potential damage, it actually has better applied damage due to it's increased chance to hit.

As for the weapon I've had the Azurewrath on my character since level 85 and always figured I'd upgrade it. However after running the numbers on paper for all the elite uniques and runewords, I haven't found a weapon that theoretically outperforms it while keeping all the above criteria. There are runewords that apply more damage per attack, but those all either hit a slower breakpoint or have lower Attack Rating, thus putting out less applied damage per minute than the Azurewrath. I'm sure there's a better solution out there, but I haven't found it. Honestly though, it's not a pressing issue at the moment. Even running in full hell cow games this character is a melee buzzsaw. It's not as fast as AoE attackers of course, but compared to other melee builds it's a PvM powerhouse.

I will probably replace the Bul Kathos with another Ravenfrost as it would free up Dexterity (to put into Vitality), increase AR (which increases applied damage), and add even more cold damage (which is amplified by Conviction).

If you're trying to be a magic finder, then simply stock your inventory with small MF charms. +Skillers won't benefit your dual Dreams, so a Paladin Combat would only increase your Holy Shield and Zeal. Keep a Ravenfrost in your first slot and go with a MF ring in the second slot.|||i think i am going to settle for using cressent moon phase blade or grief phase blade and just having 5FPA so i can use dracs and maras (need to get the resists from somewhere)... instead of a wisp ring i can across a dual leach mf ring i forgot i had....

i do not think it is worth giving up dracs to have four fpa. the chance to cast life tap is worth losing out on one potential hit per second.

as for my inventory i think itll have a lot single resist mfscs.

my act 2 HF merc will use dream helm reapers toll and fort

thank you all for your advice. i appreciate the quick responces. any other input would be nice, thanks |||As as dreamadin you encounter three types of foes:

Non LI: You can kill them with useless wand of lameness. No problem whatsoever here.

Broken LI: Killing them with lite-dmg is not optimal. Either you use -ELR or another element. Guface explained nicely why -ELR is the way to go.

Unbreakable LI: Switch to your favorite weapon of pain or let the merc do the dirty work.

You'll encounter way more broken LIs than unbreakable LIs* so in speed/safety terms this is the most important part to get right. And this is why:

CM (with faith for 4FPA) is BY FAR the fastest killer. Godly pierce and static field going off all the time. You can even skip crushing blow with CM and still be plenty fast.

Note: AR is useless on a dreamdin. Aim for 1.5-2k = 20k+ with conviction = more than you'll ever need. Oh, and CM has ITD as well.

Note: A dreamadin with CM can match a lite-sorc/zon in terms of boss-killing speed.

Note: If you insist on killing everything in the game AW on switch might be a good idea. For general PVM/MF you'll need it once every blue moon.

*) Only Pit Lords and Horror Mages are unbreakable.|||Attack Rating is not "useless" on a Dreamadin, even if the changes appear to be small. Any time you hit more often you are applying more damage. For example let's use my level 88 paladin. Here is the build:



Weapon - Azurewrath (with 15%IAS + 19%ED jewel)

Armor - Enigma Archon Plate

Shield - Dream Sacred Targe

Helm - Dream Bone Visage

Gloves - Dracul's Grasp

Belt - Nosferatu's Coil

Boots - Gore Riders

Ring 1 - Bul Kathos

Ring 2 - Ravenfrost

Amulet - Highlord's Wrath

Skills:

Conviction - 25 after +skills

Salvation - 20

Resist Lightning - 20

Zeal - 1

Sacrifice - 1

I'm defining maximum damage as being the total physical and elemental damage (multiplied by the Conviction aura) possible if every attack hits. I'm calling applied damage the amount of damage the monster actually takes or must block (maximum damage x chance to hit).

Here are his rough numbers with 4 frame Zeal with Conviction applied (final applied damage is still subject to monster resistances):

1 point in Zeal + 1 point in Sacrifice

88.1% chance to hit hell Baal

3,317,647 maximum damage per minute

2,922,847 applied damage per minute

A skill point in Zeal adds 10% to AR and 6% to damage. A skill point in Sacrifice adds 0% to AR and 12% to damage. This leads many to believe that skill points in Sacrifice provide more damage than Zeal. Although it seems counterintuitive while running level 25 Conviction, the higher chance to hit actually more than makes up for the 6% damage that Zeal lacks. The numbers show:

1 point in Zeal + 20 points in Sacrifice

88.1% chance to hit hell Baal

3,408,314 maximum damage per minute

3,002,724 applied damage per minute

20 points in Zeal + 1 point in Sacrifice

90.9% chance to hit hell Baal

3,362,890 maximum damage per minute

3,056,867 applied damage per minute

And just for fun, here is that exact same build except I'm swapping the Azurewrath and Highlord's for a perfect Crescent Moon phase blade and Mara's. This slows him down to a 5 frame Zeal with Conviction applied (final applied damage is still subject to monster resistances) and here are the results:

1 point in Zeal + 1 point in Sacrifice

88.0% chance to hit hell Baal

2,376,130 maximum damage per minute

2,090,994 applied damage per minute

1 point in Zeal + 20 points in Sacrifice

88.0% chance to hit hell Baal

2,438,339 maximum damage per minute

2,145,738 applied damage per minute

20 points in Zeal + 1 point in Sacrifice

90.9% chance to hit hell Baal

2,407,235 maximum damage per minute

2,188,176 applied damage per minute

One advantage to Crescent Moon would be the procs, 10% chance for Chain Lightning and 7% Static Field, which is not included in my numbers. However other than the Ravenfrost's +15-45 cold damage, this build is all physical and lightning damage which means there will be creatures you cannot kill, unlike the Azurewrath. Also Crescent Moon's ITD gives a slight applied damage boost against normal monsters (useless against Champions, Uniques, Superuniques, or Bosses) but still can't come close to the damage generated by a 4 frame Zeal attack.|||For the third time. You reach 4 FPA Zeal with a Faith rouge.

I agree that Zeal > Sacrifice. But as your calc shows it is not the make or break of the build.

To make precise calcs is more or less impossible. Too many variables, normal monsters vs. bosses (for ITD), monster HP for SF and CB on other equipment and so on and so forth.

A simple calc I made was to look at the HS damage.

A fully synergized lvl30 HS deals 3500 dmg on avg. per attack.


Code:

LR         50    75    100    110    120
LR(Conv) -100   -75     70     80     90

dmg AW   7000  6125   1050    700    350
dmg CM   7000  7000   2275   1925   1575

Even with the extra dmg on AW (750 on avg) the above clearly sugest that CM is the better weapon vs. monsters with LR >= 75 and especially for LI monsters where extra damage really matters.

Add ITD, CtC SF and that the pulse from HS deals more damage as well and I think the picture is pretty clear but YMMV.|||I understand what you are saying, but you're missing the point. The OP wears Enigma, and there is no way to fuel that with a Faith merc. He needs an act 2 merc carrying an Insight. That means it's impossible to hit a 4 frame Zeal with Crescent Moon and means Azurewrath with a 15 IAS jewel easily outperforms it.

Now assuming he does want to go with a Faith merc. Let's review those numbers including the Azurewrath's higher damage, extra skill point (ups Zeal giving more AR and damage), and it's cold and magic damage. Again, using my level 88 as the template and only changing the weapon, Azurewrath versus a perfect roll Crescent Moon, here are the average damage numbers:

Crescent Moon

483 Physical

0 Cold damage

3,505 Lightning damage

0 Magic damage

3,988 Average Damage

Pulse damage 4 - 1,168

Azurewrath

602 Physical damage

375 Cold damage

3,505 Lightning damage

375 Magic damage

4,857 Average Damage

Pulse damage 4 - 1,168

Using the ITD with CM you have a 94% chance to hit and AW has a 91% chance to hit. The 94% won't apply to anything but normal monsters, but I'm going to use it for these comparisons anyway so you don't think I'm stacking the deck. Now let's use the lightning resists you've presented in your table and set physical and cold resists at 50. Now the applied damage would be:


Code:

LR         50    75    100    110    120
LR(Conv) -100   -75     70     80     90

Code:

dmg AW   7944  7148   2526   2208   1889
dmg CM   7052  7052   2599   2269   1939

Code:

avg pulse dmg AW   588  515    88    59    29
avg pulse dmg CM   588  588   191   162   132

CM does slightly more damage with each Holy Shock aura pulse and of course it still has the CtC's in it's favor. With a 10% CtC Chain Lightning it will trigger about once every 2 full Zeals and add about the following damage


Code:

avg Chain Lightning dmg CM   237  237   77   65   53
*Can hit up to 8 targets every time it triggers

Now, if we add all the damages up to get an applied damage per minute, here are the results


Code:

AW (dam+pulse)      2,670,516  2,398,519   818,182   709,571   600,334
CM (dam+pulse+CL*)  2,448,200  2,448,200   891,750   776,503   660,943
*Assuming CL hits the maximum of 8 targets every time it triggers

As for CM's Static Field that's harder to calculate. It isn't affected by Conviction and won't reduce hell mode hit points below 50%, so while helpful, it's has it's limitations. AW has the Sanctuary aura which also is difficult to calculate. Doing nothing against "living" creatures, it ignores physical resistance and immunities of undead monsters, including Super Uniques. Against them you will enjoy a aura pulse averaging 62 magic damage and an additional whopping 510% damage to melee attacks.

While CM does outperform Azurewrath in certain situations, it's loses in some situations as well. More importantly though, it cripples a user by forcing them to trade in their armor for Treachery or keeping a Faith merc alive. If the merc goes out of range or dies, the 4 frame Zeal becomes a 5 frame Zeal, causing a loss of over 17% of your damage output.

On the flip side, Azurewrath provides more physical damage for more leeching, adds an extra skill point, and nothing in the game is immune. Azurewrath also allows the user to hit a 4 frame Zeal and maintain maximum damage output with or without a merc. Given the tradeoffs Azurewrath is a great weapon in many situations, and I don't think there is a better option given the OP's situation.

In fact, the numbers would look even better if I had used a perfect base Azurewrath and socketed it with a perfect IAS/ED% jewel and then compared vs. CM against Uniques, Super Uniques, Champions, and Bosses (where CM's ITD doesn't work).