Changed playing style to win some fun: Ethereal-only

human_being wrote: 8 months ago

I had seen this casually before, but now I read the whole thing and I'm invested in this journey.

What's your build?

1.80m and 86kg. HAHAHA!!!!

jokes aside : it's my first paladin, so I am going for what seems foolproof:

Zeal /

Fanaticism. Both nearly maxed, and the synergy skill to

Zeal almost maxed as well. I came to realize that

Zeal is the reason why my weapons evaporate so quickly
Now wondering whether I should go for this shield skill that gives +% defense over duration. Or whether I should do anything differently at all. Advice is very welcome!

I didn't want first of heavens or

Blessed Hammer, since this apparently works without equipment and therefore removes the (intended) bottleneck of missing gear.

Haha.

Good! That's what I was hoping. You've made me think if I could come up with a stipulation that could also make me play my first paladin or sorceress.

fraggykrueger wrote: 8 months ago

human_being wrote: 8 months ago

I had seen this casually before, but now I read the whole thing and I'm invested in this journey.

What's your build?

1.80m and 86kg. HAHAHA!!!!

jokes aside : it's my first paladin, so I am going for what seems foolproof:

Zeal /

Fanaticism. Both nearly maxed, and the synergy skill to

Zeal almost maxed as well. I came to realize that

Zeal is the reason why my weapons evaporate so quickly
Now wondering whether I should go for this shield skill that gives +% defense over duration. Or whether I should do anything differently at all. Advice is very welcome!

I didn't want first of heavens or

Blessed Hammer, since this apparently works without equipment and therefore removes the (intended) bottleneck of missing gear.

Honestly, it really puts a lot of fun back into the game for me

Another update:
- Level 66
- Just beat nightmare Diablo
- STILL NO #&%§"!!

Belt!!!!! Not even any ethereal super-basic/low-level belts. It's crazy...
- Ethereal weapons continue to disappear superfast with

Zeal. I saved some remaining durability on an ethereal Black

Spiked Club and on an ethereal

Husoldal Evo, just to stand a chance vs. big D.
- Not sure at which rune to draw the line for making the runewords, since they don't last long. Am SSF offline, so not an abundance of runes around (except for the ones in the shared stash with the other characters).
- In the meantime, due to the (usually) weak and/or fast-disappearing weapons, I am often more or less tanking for my merc. Act 2 merc, Insight

Thresher, Bulwark helmet, and some unique armor with "Spirit" in the name. Not great but what can I do ^^

Spirit Forge
or

The Spirit Shroud
(Probably )

Yeah,

Spirit Forge it is
My current strategy for weapons is to use ethereal throwing weapons and use them for melee, since their stack size goes down much more slowly than durability goes down on regular weapons ^^

If you have a Barbarian with high level

Throwing Mastery (and high Deadly Strike) you could repair ethereal Throwing weapons. But this is probably cheating

Anyway you can try this to keep a "GG" weapon if you really want....

fraggykrueger wrote: 7 months ago

Yeah,

Spirit Forge it is
My current strategy for weapons is to use ethereal throwing weapons and use them for melee, since their stack size goes down much more slowly than durability goes down on regular weapons ^^

fredkid wrote: 7 months ago

If you have a Barbarian with high level

Throwing Mastery (and high Deadly Strike) you could repair ethereal Throwing weapons. But this is probably cheating

Anyway you can try this to keep a "GG" weapon if you really want....

fraggykrueger wrote: 7 months ago

Yeah,

Spirit Forge it is
My current strategy for weapons is to use ethereal throwing weapons and use them for melee, since their stack size goes down much more slowly than durability goes down on regular weapons ^^

Yeah, much like ruling out selfrepair on the ethereal gear, I also rule out replenishing quantity on the throwers. Whyyyyyyy did I do this again? But yeah, maybe it's a good idea to keep one "star" weapon, at least to have something up my sleeve in case the merc can't do it anymore at some point for bosses or so. (Alternative: PUNCHES, as always ^^)

+++ I HAVE A

Belt!!!!!!!!1 +++
- took from level 48 to level 70 (!!) until I found one
- and believe me, I looked for it...
- it is now a plain vanilla ethereal

Plated Belt

Other gear (all ethereal of course):
- 470def, +5% AR rare

Grand Crown
- plain vanilla

Bastard Sword
- 277def rare

Gothic Plate
-

Magefist !
- regular

Heavy Boots

I also started a list of (as far as I remember) which ethereal unique items I went through so far:
-

The General's Tan Do Li Ga
-

Heavenly Garb
-

The Centurion
-

Husoldal Evo
-

Ripsaw
-

Soulflay
-

Culwen's Point
-

Gleamscythe
-

Guardian Naga
-

The Vile Husk
-

Ghoulhide
-

Stoutnail
-

The Jade Tan Do

Now hanging out mid-way in Act 5 Nightmare... looking forward to the Ancients... ^^