Yet another Ubers post :)

Hi,

I have some doubts about Ubers, so want to receive some advice on how to approach them.

My char is a Frenzy Barb 91 level with Dual Griefs, Lionheart, Arreat Face, LoH (Have Dracs also), Gore Riders, Verdungo (Thundergod), Mara Amulet (because of Resistances), Raven Frost and Dual Leach + Res Rare Ring. My Merc is with Andariel's, Reapers Toll and Treachery. Have ~4000 Life with the buffs

So I already fought the Ubers one time with the above setup (Dracs gloves for Life Tap and Thundergod for Light absorb) and here are my observations:

- Duriel - no problem, it took some time, but it was easy
- Izual - the easiest, no problems at all in the whole level
- Lilith - I had some problems with isolating her from her minions (one with Conviction), after that my merc died pretty fast, but I had no problems with Life Tap (She hits really hard but with so much Life and Life Tap it was bearable)

Before entering Tristram, I buffed myself with Fade (from Treachery) and my res was set at ~300 (So with Hell -100 and Conviction -125 to be ~75).

- Mephisto - with so much res, I had no problems at all killing him pretty fast (my merc died really fast)
- Baal (I thought he would be the easiest from the primes) - this was actually the toughest one, with his Physical res minions, I had problems lowering his life. I had no problems with the survivability, but he was constantly healing while I was Berserking minions to get to him and it was a pain to succeed with killing him (once he healed from half life to full very fast, also spawned clone). Probably here I am missing CB (in this setup only from Gores) My merc stayed alive for the whole fight.
- Diablo - it was easy and my merc stayed alive.

So in my next run, I want to make Baal easier and here are my thoughts:

1. I've already made Duress to switch Lionheart (to add some more CB and OW)
2. After Mephisto to switch Dracs with LoH (don't think I need Life Tap for Baal and Diablo since my Merc is spawning Decrep and I was ok with my Life leach). The idea is to increase greatly damage with 350 Dmg to Demons. Also to switch Thundergods with Verdungo (no need of Light absorb and also to benefit from damage reduction)

So, I am wondering if these changes will make the difference, or I need to add Guillaume's (which I don't want currently because of the great benefits of Arreat, and also I will need to respec, because dex won't be enough for the Griefs).
Also I can make Fortitude, but I am trying currently to not spend Lo if not necessary, also not sure if this added damage will be better than Duress's CB and OW.
Other thing is I can create Death for CB, but not a great fan of slower speed of Colossus Blade.

Any thoughts will be much appreciated

That merc is gonna die and not be of much help.

How about Lawbringer for Decrepify and Sanctuary Aura ?
It is better than Grief to kill Physical res minions

geo89 wrote: 4 years ago

That merc is gonna die and not be of much help.

Actually he only died with Lillith and Memphisto, otherwise I find it very helpful.

mockingbirdreal wrote: 4 years ago

How about Lawbringer for Decrepify and Sanctuary Aura ?
It is better than Grief to kill Physical res minions

I thought about that, but not sure about this Sanctuary Aura will be useful for Baal and I am afraid that my damage may suffer a lot. I think that the main problem is that I am not dealing much damage fast to Baal, but I may be wrong though.

k88lech wrote: 4 years ago

I thought about that, but not sure about this Sanctuary Aura will be useful for Baal and I am afraid that my damage may suffer a lot. I think that the main problem is that I am not dealing much damage fast to Baal, but I may be wrong though.

If I understood well, the problem was about you was busy killing minions so that Baal had time healing.
Lawbringer is for minions, not Baal.
Knockback from Sanctuary make some minions away from you.
Decrepify helps you kill minions faster.

You can try it as Lawbringer will cost you almost nothing.

PS : You need more CB and Open Wounds so Duress instead of Lionheart

mockingbirdreal wrote: 4 years ago

You can try it as Lawbringer will cost you almost nothing.

PS : You need more CB and Open Wounds so Duress instead of Lionheart

Yep, you are right, will try with Lawbringer, thanks for the advice

or Azurewrath Decrepify is probably not good if you want Life Tap. Sanctuary Aura makes you ignore physical resist of undead monsters.

Udyret wrote: 4 years ago

or Azurewrath Decrepify is probably not good if you want Life Tap. Sanctuary Aura makes you ignore physical resist of undead monsters.

Azurewrath was another option that I was considering, but till now never found one and tought to deal with what I have currently. And yes, I will not put it with Lilith and Mephisto (there double griefs are working perfectly), because there Life Tap is essential.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with minions until after the uber is dead. That goes for all of them. You just end up taking forever due to constant switching and start running the risk of dying because you have running offtime with no leech. Not to mention all of that time switching may result in Life Tap wearing off on your original target.

The only exception to that should be if you manage to get surrounded entirely and the uber moves away but even on Baal, that shouldn't happen much (in fact, I don't believe it ever has for me).

How quickly are you killing the ubers though? Maybe that's the real problem. For a build like that (read: most non- Smite) builds, they lose a lot of kill speed (and survivability) simply due to missing swings, caused by lack of AR. That's why the angelic combo is so popular for non- Smite uber builds. If you consistently hit, no uber should ever heal because your OW on them should never wear off (even if you don't have any OW outside of your drac's).

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

Personally, I wouldn't bother with minions until after the uber is dead. That goes for all of them. You just end up taking forever due to constant switching and start running the risk of dying because you have running offtime with no leech. Not to mention all of that time switching may result in Life Tap wearing off on your original target.

The only exception to that should be if you manage to get surrounded entirely and the uber moves away but even on Baal, that shouldn't happen much (in fact, I don't believe it ever has for me).

How quickly are you killing the ubers though? Maybe that's the real problem. For a build like that (read: most non- Smite) builds, they lose a lot of kill speed (and survivability) simply due to missing swings, caused by lack of AR. That's why the angelic combo is so popular for non- Smite uber builds. If you consistently hit, no uber should ever heal because your OW on them should never wear off (even if you don't have any OW outside of your drac's).

I don't bother with minions, except when they prevent me from hitting the Uber itself. But when they are close to me, many of my Frenzy swings go for them and when they are Physical immuned, with my Frenzy they stay alive much longer time. If I want to get rid of them I should either reposition (but they catch me soon enough) or I need to kill them with Berserk which gives time for Baal to recover. With all other Ubers I finished them fast enough, because minions are not a problem (just because if they are close to me my Frenzy swings when hit them finish them pretty fast). Regarding AR, I have around 7k, which for other Ubers was OK, so I thought that this is not the problem (I see that I miss a lot, but still I am lowering their HP fast enough and without any concerns for my health).
I will try with Duress, LoH and Lawbringer for Baal to see if there will be any difference.

Well, after the second run, here are my observations. Changes that I made:

1. Switched Lionheart with Duress
2. Got Lawbringer

So, Lilith was a little bit easier with Duress (I still used 2 Griefs)
For Mephisto forgot to use 2 Griefs and entered with Grief + Lawbringer, it was OK, I killed him fast, but because of Decrepify overriding Life Tap (Dracs), I needed to drink 1-2 potions.
For Baal used LoH and Grief + Lawbringer, and it was easier than the first try, I killed him fast, even though when he was at a half life Diablo spotted me and first spawned a few minions and after a second rushed to join the party Still I was able to kill Baal fast enough.
For Diablo first tried with Grief and Lawbringer but was not satisfied with the result and switched back to 2 Griefs and everything went smooth.

That were my observations, just sharing them here if someone finds them useful.

To add some final thoughts here. On the third run I switched merc's Reapers Toll with Obedience in Eth Treasher. With the significant damage boost plus added resistance, he actually survived all mini and prime Ubers with only 2 rejuvs from me. Of course this resulted in way more relaxed Uber run as a whole.