Uber Avenger

I'm bored with my Smiter and want to spend his respecs on an interesting build. I figured an Avenger might be able to tackle the Ubers and was just wondering if anybody had tried it. Don't wanna spend time on a futile attempt! It'd pan out as follows, by my reckoning:

Conviction: 20pts + 5 prereqs

Vengeance: 20pts +2 prereqs

Resist Lightning: 10pts

Holy Shield: 20pts +4 prereqs

Salvation: the rest

Done at 69 whereupon you boost Vengance via Salvation or the single-res auras.

Helm: Shako or Guillaume's Um or Ber

Amulet: 30@res/8 mana leech magic

Weapon: Beast Caduceus plain or with +Conviction

Armor: Guardian Angel Um

Shield: 45-base Sacred Targe Exile

Gloves: Bloodfist (is upping really worth it?)

Ring: Raven Frost

Belt: Verdungo's Hearty Cord (nothing else seems appropriate)

Ring: 7-leech Manald Heal

Boots: Gore Rider (again, nothing else jumps to mind)

He'd end up at 95/95/95/90 in front of Meph with 25 or 33 pdr and a 5-frame hit recovery.

Stumbling blocks:

1. we can't leech any mana from Mephisto.


2. the other Ubers have high PDR and/or low drain effectiveness so we won't get much mana from them.


3. we'll hit 3.1 times per second for 170 damage a pop, which may not be enough to tank.


4. Pit Lords. Damn 'em, etc. Smite should do 'em in, albeit slowly.

Meph should be doable if we Smite him down first and only use Vengeance to finish him off with a few rows of blue pots. We can use blue pots for the others as well, as needed. The life leech question seems more problematic to me. If this calculator is correct, a Beast Caduceus will produce the Pally's fastest normal attack (3.1/sec), which is what Vengeance is based on. Is that correct? Is 3.1 whacks per second enough to survive? He'll hit his max Smite attack speed, too, btw. Assuming the lowest 240%ed roll on Beast plus the 186%ed from level 9 Fanaticism, that'd be 170 damage per hit or 85 life returned per hit (255/sec). AR wouldn't be a problem thanks to Conviction's -92% to enemy defense (at level 25).

Exile gives 5% to max Fire and Cold resistances, so we'll only need to boost Resist Lightning with ten points to open up 95/95/95/90. If it's in a 45-res base and we Um the headgear and body armor, that puts resistances at 135, leaving 60 to max our res (so 3 columns of inventory space or a bit of time standing in a fire triggering Treachery's Fade). It also frees up our glove slot for Bloodfist which has the gravy 40 life and 30 FHR, which in conjunction with Verdungo's and an 8FHR large charm = 5-frame recovery.

The 35% Crushing Blow (20 from Beast and 15 from Gore Rider) would be plenty to drain the bosses of most of their health relatively quickish, triggering more than once every three hits, but you could wear Guillaume's Face for 70 CB if you thought otherwise. The FHR on that helm would mean you could throw a few FHR large charms in for a 4-frame hit recovery, too.

I don't see many other viable helms. CoA is out because of the str req (assuming a perfect 40str on the Caduceus that's still 37 str or 111 boable life). Vampire Gaze is a contender, though. Leechy goodness and twice the pdr of Shako but you lose life, mana and +skills.

Laying of Hands might be more viable than Bloodfist since the damage to demons is factored into Life Tap's leeching. It'd go from 170 to 310 damage per hit (or 85 to 155 returned).

I suppose this would be far more viable with an accompanying sorc who could dance around with a Prayer or HF/Insight merc. The Meditation would let me whack away with impunity and her spells would do so serious stinging. Would anybody be willing to try with me if I build this thing? I have a dozen keysets waiting to be converted.|||Why Beast caddy? It seems like not the optimal choice. Even though you are attacking fast, the damage seems very pitiful. Anything eth should be good enough. If you are super wealthy I suppose you could go with Eth Rune master OhmOhmBerBerZod (though that would require a whopping 120% IAS to reach a good breakpoint). A very decent compromise between speed and killing power while not being ebotd-class expensive would probably be an "Oath" war spike, which will require either another 10% IAS from gear to reach 9 frames, or 60ˆ% to reach 8 frames (fastest possible with vengeance), either easily achieved through IAS gloves and jewels.

here's my take on it, switching a few items around from your setup:

Helm: Guillaume's face (15 IAS jewel)

Ammy: 30@res/8 leech

Weapon: "Oath" War spike

Armor: Guardian Angel (15 IAS Jewel)

Shield: "Exile" 45@ ST base

Gloves: Laying of Hands

Ring: Raven Frost

Belt: Nosferatu's (hate the belt, but it does give us the IAS to keep the same speed as in your setup)

Ring: Rare ring with mana or dual leech and whatever other bonuses like AR, STR, etc.

Boots: Gore Rider

Inventory filled with charms to make up for lost resists, FHR, etc.

This is a setup that will keep the same speed that your beast caddy gives us, and will do a lot more vengeance damage. If you are willing to sacrifice 1 frame of speed, then you can work with a better belt and better jeweling.|||It was an IAS consideration, yes. An ebotdz would hit 9 frames with Nosferatu's Coil or an IAS jewel; again, my only concern wrt the weapon is balancing damage/speed enough to tank the area.

It'd probably be more viable as a straight team/support build, to be paired with DoT sorcs or other melee builds (Smiters, Frenziers, kickers). I dare say it'd also make bearsins and bearsorcs/chanters Uber-viable...|||i�m not an expert here, but afaik vengeance is very mana intensive skill. i think it might be better to let the skill itself at 1 hard point and rather boost the synergies so it needs less mana.

also u might or most likely will have an ar issue with the ubers. imo it might be better to get a rare fools weapon for the huge ar boost and a metalgrid

also i�d switch the manald for a 5% 1xx ar ml ring

i think upping bloods is worth it when using a high holy shield and defiance aura. cuz the bonus from upping itself is neglectable, but having it multiplied a few times makes it interesting again, specially considering the cost of upping it in comparison to the other equip u plan to use|||You might want to consider swapping the GA out for erm, what's that armor called again? (gee, stop playing this game for 6 months and look what happens to my memory?) Elite padded armor, +10-15% each element, random +3 to sorceress skill. The bonus to elemental damage works directly on vengeance damage making it Vengeance's equivilant to "fortitude".

As to max skill Vengeance versus one point vengeance plus synergies versus non mana leechables.

Keep in mind that with less damage, you will need to hit the target more to kill it. So for example, if you have to hit it 30 times @ 10 mana per hit with maxxed out vengeance versus 50 times @ 6 mana per hit with 1 point vengeance plus synergies. The numbers are approximate, but you get the point. More damage quicker is the better way to go imho.|||Asmodeous- The armor is Ormus' robe or whatever.

Eh I think I would go with the lower skill point Vengeance just for the lower mana, gotta remember how fast mana drains in UT to begin with.|||Nice build Jambe I might have to try it sometime.