If I upgrade skin of the viper magi...

What does the str requirements go up to?

Will the additional def help with hits from pindle? He and his crew rock me now and then)

Can I upgrade with the cube formula if I've done the act 5 socket quest for it and added a socket?

What's the formula again? I looked one time but couldn't figure out what level of gear it was.

Here is cheat guide, very good,
https://d2r.guide/

Becomes

Wyrmhide after upgrade, https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Wyrmhide

Yes I think you can upgrade also after adding socket.

Skin of the Vipermagi - see the 'Upped/Ethereal Value(s)' section.

loudogggg wrote: 3 years ago

What's the formula again? I looked one time but couldn't figure out what level of gear it was.

Ahh ok so the str is just pulled from being a

Wyrmhide and not some different requirement since it's a u ique. Thanks for the info guys!!

your socket is safe, the recipe changes the base but not the rolls or the socketed items

The last question was would upgrading help reduce pindle damage? I die to them now and then and hoping the increase would reduce damage

loudogggg wrote: 3 years ago

The last question was would upgrading help reduce pindle damage? I die to them now and then and hoping the increase would reduce damage

It's not going to reduce the damage if you get hit, it is just part of the equation of whether or not a physical attack will hit or miss.

Upping your vmagi isn't going to be an instant solution to the problem, there are other things to factor in:

What are your stats, specifically level, dex and vitality?
What class?
What weapon and/or shield?

Lvl 87
188 dex
5441 def with

Holy Shield
288 vitality
Hammerdin
Max resists except cold is 69
Hoto

Shako w mf gem
Zakarum with

Um
Vipermagi with mf gem
Necklace with +1skills, 10fcr, 8allres,
Chancies gaunts

String of Ears

Belt
War travelers
2 nagelrings

I think you can definitely afford to put some of those dex points into vitality, as long as you can wear your gear and reach max block when

Holy Shield is on. Especially with HoZ which has a lot of block chance it should be more around 100-130, depending on how many +skills and points into

Holy Shield you have.
I usually put enough str and dex to wear my gear, then use

Holy Shield, add dex until I reach 75% block chance and put everything else into vitality.

Also any +life charm should help. Basically anything to turn that one shot into a two shot, which gives you time to heal, run away, get lucky and block the next hit, etc. rather than die in one shot.

When it comes to Pindle, hammers are a bit tough to land in that narrow corridor but with enough experience you get used to where you should stand and start your hammer fest. The goal being that even if they

Charge they will either die from hammers, hit your merc in between or not do much dmg to you and then die to hammers.
But personally I avoid Pindle with the hammerdin and just farm it with a sorceress or another class with a more suited set of skills for this situation.

And lastly, if you have a lot of +skills (which hammerdins typically do) you can always use

Smite preemptively to

Stun the ennemy and then use hammers to kill them. With +10 skills and

Smite at level 1 you still get to

Stun ennemies for 2.6s which is a lot of time to reposition and Rain some hammers.

Wow very insightful post! I got HoZ after I had most of my points so it might be good for a Respec. I've just been dumping all my points into

Holy Shield as I have all the hammer skills and it's synergies so I saw nothing else really needing to put points to unless you have other suggestions like the

Smite but that was only 1 point I think I've al.ost maxed

Holy Shield.

I like running pindle because it's quick for me as I can usually position myself well but sometimes a few of them

Charge and I get splattered heh. Was hoping the armor would reduce that but guess not. As it does go into the equation it might be best to do that anyways though before I Respec right? I'd imagine it might save me a few dex points.

To add to Peacku, Pindle is just kinda harder to run with a hdin. By all means up the vmagi, it'll help to an extent, but like I said, in and of itself may not make a noticeable difference in how often you die

Offhand other ideas to try:
- Assuming you aren't already, let your merc tank, give him time to catch up and run in before you start attacking close up
- Swap out mf gear until you can reliable farm it, then start swapping it back in. If you can't do it with less gear, maybe avoid it?
- Use

Redemption to take care of the corpses outside, and lure pindle out. It'll give you both the advantage of getting more hammers going before you take a hit and you won't be impeded as much by obstacles like the walls of the room

Noemard wrote: 3 years ago

- Assuming you aren't already, let your merc tank, give him time to catch up and run in before you start attacking close up

^ This! Another reason why sorceresses have an easier time at farming Pindle is because they

Teleport in, which places your merc on the same position as you and as soon as you tp into the corridor the merc charges at the skeletons and puts his body between them and you which is usually enough to stop any

Charge attacks.
Of course with a Paladin it wouldn't be possible without Enigma or an item with TP charges (which would be a bit tedious to use depending on your control scheme and requires frequent repairs for recharge)

Adding my 2 cents, but if you can afford it. A CTA on swap does wonders for survivability.

not exactly the same situation but i believe it applys,
my sorc was struggling with Chaos and

Baal runs. after I got my cta her and mr merc barely get scratched, I have more than enough time to pop a full rejuv if things get hairy.

(sorry for necro, didn't notice when it was posted)

About fighting pindle: A little more defense doesn't hurt, but it will only slightly change the % of chance you get it, so you'll just die a little less.

If you play other characters, honestly I'd just advise you to run Pindle on someone else; Hammerdins aren't the best spec to run this imho.

Also, one trick that words very well against pindle is that instead of rushing straight in (and having them

Charge at you), you run to the kind of corner in the wall, so they are forced to walk with you one at a time. When I do it this way, I almost never get charged.

But sadly, this isn't very practical with a hammerdin, because you'll then need to leave the corner to spin hammers.

As others have stated, having the merc go first can work. So does using a CTA for the health buff.

(All that being said, I'm surprised you're dying often enough with a paladin; Do you have max block?)

@mishabg Guys, this post is 3 months old, the people here in thread are probably not even playing by now.

@pinkeh-_- apparently just mains a summoner necromancer