for the Uber smiter, Hoz/Exile × duress/fortitude which combination is better?

I've seen people recommending engima, etc. I've gravitated toward a

Teleport amulet with res and Fortitude on the body for ubers.

departure wrote: 9 months ago

For posterity, I recently remembered that Fortitude has 25FCR, so I ended up moving to a

Teleport charges amulet (because ubers and minis don't need much tele when you already have the map on SP), with Fortitude instead of using Enigma with FCR ammy.

Exile is great, but not totally necessary. With Exile you can move to res/CB crafted gloves instead of dracs.

Apparently it is possible to roll a 2 paladin combat, 10FCR, 40lit/fire,

Teleport charges amulet. That would be kindof absurd. It's also totally unnecessary. A blue amulet with 30AR and

Teleport charges would be amazing. I actually think the build works nicely even with just a straight tele charges ammy with zero else on it and Fortitude on the body.

For reference I think my amulet right now is like 15LR with tele charges. But I've not been looking for this for as long as I should have been.

Edit:

Oh right, it has 8FCR because it was a

Caster Amulet. So that puts me at the 48 breakpoint with Fortitude and 2x FCR rings even without arachnid. Or I can switch off of FCR rings entirely and go arachnid, uncham the helmet and put something else in it (

Ber?

Jah? res?). I need a 10FCR amulet with tele charges to hit the 75 BP.

Edit:

I forgot that I tele on swap. So I have 35FCR from Spirit. With 25 from Fortitude and 20 from arach I'm at the 75 BP without the amulet or any rings. 125% is out of reach for the smiter I think. Alternatively, I could run 35 Spirit, 25 Fortitude, 10 ring, 8 amulet and get to the 75 BP without arach.

You make me think about the debate of Enigma granting

Teleport which is too good to be legit lol.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 6 months ago

Crushing blow is the only reson to use Last Wish against ubers.

I'm gonna respectfully disagree.

Fade proc from Last Wish means not having to swap to Treachery, which can save alot of time and hassle, especially if you're running all 3 Mini Ubers + Uber Trist in same game.

High

Life Tap proc, and especially with the huge radius of slvl 18. I've used Last Wish on both Smiter Pally and

Frenzy Barb and never had to use a

Wand of

Life Tap. This allows you to use CTA on swap instead of a

Life Tap

Wand, which is pretty significant. For

Frenzy Barb this means you can use dual HoTos on swap, which is arguably best in slot weapon swap for that build.

Some might point to the lack of IAS on Last Wish, to which I submit that if you're using a

Phase Blade base with => Level 20

Fanaticism you only need like 10% IAS to hit 6 frame max.

I realize we're talking Smiter here, but Last Wish on a

Frenzy Barb offhand slot > literally anything else you could put in that slot (again, assuming you're rich enough to have one). That also brings up the point, that if you're using Grief+Last Wish, there's Grief's Damage+X combined with Lvl17 might aura from Last Wish.

Do you need Last Wish to run Ubers? No, of course not, and I've done it many times with way more budget setups. Does it make it easier, absolutely.

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

Fade proc from Last Wish means not having to swap to Treachery, which can save alot of time and hassle

Or... you know... run it without

Fade and do neither is also a solid option. That's what I do.

I run mine with Exile and Enigma/Chains of Honor... Just in case you need that extra res. Last Wish is a great option too, i used to use that for

Fade proc but it wasn't too important, i wasnt lacking too much res

departure wrote: 6 months ago

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

Fade proc from Last Wish means not having to swap to Treachery, which can save alot of time and hassle

Or... you know... run it without

Fade and do neither is also a solid option. That's what I do.

That's great, I'm happy for you. 🫡

Did you also know you don't need
running shoes to run? However, I've heard it does help.

Fade can be proc from trachery in 2 min in the fire and

Life Tap can be too with gradul's grasp/Exile.
I don't care about the lvl of

Life Tap while doing Ubers.

For

Frenzy barb, losing 300 hp because I have a

Wand switch isn't a problem for me on a 5k hp barb.

And

Phase Blade looking is so meh ^^

Tornado_OLO wrote: 6 months ago

Fade can be proc from trachery in 2 min in the fire and

Life Tap can be too with gradul's grasp/Exile.
I don't care about the lvl of

Life Tap while doing Ubers.

For

Frenzy barb, losing 300 hp because I have a

Wand switch isn't a problem for me on a 5k hp barb.

And

Phase Blade looking is so meh ^^

2 min in the fire Jesus Christ I hope it doesn't take that long, lol.

And yeah iunno switching all kinds of gear to prebuff this and that and the other thing gets right annoying if you ask me. Then you end up forgetting shit or going in with the wrong gear, at least I do sometimes and when that happens its a piss off. I'd rather just stick with my dual HoTos on the

Frenzy Barb and CTA+Spirit on the Smiter Pally (5/5 roll on the CTA too) and not have to fuck with it. If you cant afford a Last Wish then that's different and if that's the case I get where you're coming from, but if you have one or can afford it there's no good reason not to imo. Also, no res on Exile = . Prefer HoZ upped and

Um'd or IASed (whatever you need more).

Last Wish is on my Merc =]
And 45 all res on Exile base isn't no res ;]

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

And yeah iunno switching all kinds of gear to prebuff this and that and the other thing gets right annoying if you ask me.

Agreed.

I am willing to swap in Treachery and proc

Fade if it's the only way to get the job done. But if it's your 20th torch it's probably not what you're doing. But by the time it's your 20th torch you have lots of charms that can get your res up high enough.

=================================================

I'm reading on plenty of sites that Chains of Honor is best in slot for a smiter. Most of these sites assume you're walking the maps, I think the tele amulet is the way to go. But I do question Chains of Honor. One site said it was because damage to demons is so great, but as far as I can tell damage to demons doesn't affect

Smite. What does is off-weapon enhanced damage such as is present on Fortitude. As far as I can tell, Fortitude seems to be best in slot. Someone explain where I went wrong. Chains of Honor has more res than Fortitude, but res is not really an issue for the smiter because charms. Fortitude looks like it would be best in slot even without the FCR.

Also, I have seen those same people explain that the enhanced damage from Fortitude isn't noticeable, while advocating for Chains of Honor because res and paladin combat skillers for damage. But the damage from Fortitude far outweighs the paladin skillers, and the res you can get from the empty slots with charms more than makes up the difference. CoH just looks worse to me any way you cut it.

CoH is nice for Ubers and some low res build like sorc.
I personaly use it for Ubers and and my merc.

The ED% on Fortitude (and Phoenix) is noticeable towards the end of a boss’ health bar. It’s enough to outweigh having lower CB. The thing though is to take the most advantage of it you kinda want Grief, since the +340-400 damage on Grief is multiplied by off-weapon ED%. If you already have lots of off-weapon ED% then having Fortitude might be less noticeable in the grand scheme of things. It depends on the rest of your gear and skills.

departure wrote: 6 months ago

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

And yeah iunno switching all kinds of gear to prebuff this and that and the other thing gets right annoying if you ask me.

Agreed.

I am willing to swap in Treachery and proc

Fade if it's the only way to get the job done. But if it's your 20th torch it's probably not what you're doing. But by the time it's your 20th torch you have lots of charms that can get your res up high enough.

=================================================

I'm reading on plenty of sites that Chains of Honor is best in slot for a smiter. Most of these sites assume you're walking the maps, I think the tele amulet is the way to go. But I do question Chains of Honor. One site said it was because damage to demons is so great, but as far as I can tell damage to demons doesn't affect

Smite. What does is off-weapon enhanced damage such as is present on Fortitude. As far as I can tell, Fortitude seems to be best in slot. Someone explain where I went wrong. Chains of Honor has more res than Fortitude, but res is not really an issue for the smiter because charms. Fortitude looks like it would be best in slot even without the FCR.

Also, I have seen those same people explain that the enhanced damage from Fortitude isn't noticeable, while advocating for Chains of Honor because res and paladin combat skillers for damage. But the damage from Fortitude far outweighs the paladin skillers, and the res you can get from the empty slots with charms more than makes up the difference. CoH just looks worse to me any way you cut it.

CoH is what my

Frenzy Barb uses (sometimes only for Uber Meph if I feel like like swapping gear afterwards lol). Smiter Pally uses

Um'd

Guardian Angel. Chains of Honor always a good choice though, gotta respect it.

Guardian Angel + Tgods I'm pretty sure makes you immune to lightning, but I could be wrong. Might depend on the damage/enemy dishing it out.

departure wrote: 6 months ago

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

And yeah iunno switching all kinds of gear to prebuff this and that and the other thing gets right annoying if you ask me.

Agreed.

I am willing to swap in Treachery and proc

Fade if it's the only way to get the job done. But if it's your 20th torch it's probably not what you're doing. But by the time it's your 20th torch you have lots of charms that can get your res up high enough.

=================================================

I'm reading on plenty of sites that Chains of Honor is best in slot for a smiter. Most of these sites assume you're walking the maps, I think the tele amulet is the way to go. But I do question Chains of Honor. One site said it was because damage to demons is so great, but as far as I can tell damage to demons doesn't affect

Smite. What does is off-weapon enhanced damage such as is present on Fortitude. As far as I can tell, Fortitude seems to be best in slot. Someone explain where I went wrong. Chains of Honor has more res than Fortitude, but res is not really an issue for the smiter because charms. Fortitude looks like it would be best in slot even without the FCR.

Also, I have seen those same people explain that the enhanced damage from Fortitude isn't noticeable, while advocating for Chains of Honor because res and paladin combat skillers for damage. But the damage from Fortitude far outweighs the paladin skillers, and the res you can get from the empty slots with charms more than makes up the difference. CoH just looks worse to me any way you cut it.

From what I understand enhanced dmg % (I.e.

Laying of Hands or Fortitude) is not factored into

Smite. Anyone feel free to clarify or correct there. Only "Damage+X" i.e. Grief or Astreon's etc if I'm not mistaken.

From the

Smite page:

The following things Works with

Smite
...
Enhanced Damage which is off-weapon.
...

(like Fortitude)

The following things do not work with

Smite
...
Enhanced Damage to Demons (e.g.

Laying of Hands).
Enhanced Damage to Undead.
...

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

departure wrote: 6 months ago

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

And yeah iunno switching all kinds of gear to prebuff this and that and the other thing gets right annoying if you ask me.

Agreed.

I am willing to swap in Treachery and proc

Fade if it's the only way to get the job done. But if it's your 20th torch it's probably not what you're doing. But by the time it's your 20th torch you have lots of charms that can get your res up high enough.

=================================================

I'm reading on plenty of sites that Chains of Honor is best in slot for a smiter. Most of these sites assume you're walking the maps, I think the tele amulet is the way to go. But I do question Chains of Honor. One site said it was because damage to demons is so great, but as far as I can tell damage to demons doesn't affect

Smite. What does is off-weapon enhanced damage such as is present on Fortitude. As far as I can tell, Fortitude seems to be best in slot. Someone explain where I went wrong. Chains of Honor has more res than Fortitude, but res is not really an issue for the smiter because charms. Fortitude looks like it would be best in slot even without the FCR.

Also, I have seen those same people explain that the enhanced damage from Fortitude isn't noticeable, while advocating for Chains of Honor because res and paladin combat skillers for damage. But the damage from Fortitude far outweighs the paladin skillers, and the res you can get from the empty slots with charms more than makes up the difference. CoH just looks worse to me any way you cut it.

From what I understand enhanced dmg % (I.e.

Laying of Hands or Fortitude) is not factored into

Smite. Anyone feel free to clarify or correct there. Only "Damage+X" i.e. Grief or Astreon's etc if I'm not mistaken.

The good thing about Exile is that you can just go in there and hold left click without any worries. No need to separate them or such

https://rumble.com/v6wcbwa-ez-ut.html

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/rd3e40rt

Honestly man Exile is very handy having 15% chance to cast - which means it casts a lot sooner than Dracs will more of the time - which is solid for

Mephisto - as Casting ASAP is ideal. If you want to feel the safest then Exile is the way to go on a 45 res Pali Shield.

Hoz needs to be upgraded to

Zakarum Shield for more

Smite damage, and is great for a pre-buff of

Holy Shield.

Fortitude is the best option among those two with the enhanced damage, life, damage reduction, defense, + max lightning resist, 30 all res and

Chilling Armor! Huge.

Grief damage is way more destructive for the entire life pool of an Uber than Crushing Blow so I would ignore Last Wish and keep your Merc alive in

Tristram to provide a Might Aura at least.

My only disagreement from previous posts here is Goblin Toes. I think it's a complete lost opportunity in not having

Boots with Run/Walk, and of course Open Wounds, which exist on

Gore Rider. OW is very helpful in Ubers and as Crushing Blow is only a percentage of CURRENT life - its effectiveness dwindles within seconds - so having over 50% is fine and more is somewhat negligible in my view (meaning gearing for more in place of other useful options isn't worth it).

BigD wrote: 6 months ago

From what I understand enhanced dmg % (I.e.

Laying of Hands or Fortitude) is not factored into

Smite. Anyone feel free to clarify or correct there. Only "Damage+X" i.e. Grief or Astreon's etc if I'm not mistaken.

Fortitude 300% absolutely does factor into

Smite.

Laying of Hands (or Chains of Honor) does not, but ofc has IAS and that 350% is insane for

Charge or

Zeal damage, along with a chunky 50% fire res just coz, it's hard to say no to as a default set of finger mittens.

"+X% Damage to Demons/Undead" does not factor into

Smite, so it's correct that

Laying of Hands does not increase

Smite damage.

Fortitude has plain ED% though which does work with

Smite. It works just as well as any other off-weapon ED%, be that from

Smite itself,

Fanaticism, etc. A Phoenix shield is BiS for maximum damage output for this reason (but you would usually not opt for one in

Uber Tristram for other reasons).

As for gloves, I'd rather opt for crafted

Blood Gloves with 10% CB and 20% IAS (if they have some res or another nice mod as well that's just icing on the cake) over any unique/set item with IAS.

D369 wrote: 4 months ago

Honestly man Exile is very handy having 15% chance to cast - which means it casts a lot sooner than Dracs will more of the time - which is solid for

Mephisto - as Casting ASAP is ideal. If you want to feel the safest then Exile is the way to go on a 45 res Pali Shield.

Hoz needs to be upgraded to

Zakarum Shield for more

Smite damage, and is great for a pre-buff of

Holy Shield.

Fortitude is the best option among those two with the enhanced damage, life, damage reduction, defense, + max lightning resist, 30 all res and

Chilling Armor! Huge.

Grief damage is way more destructive for the entire life pool of an Uber than Crushing Blow so I would ignore Last Wish and keep your Merc alive in

Tristram to provide a Might Aura at least.

My only disagreement from previous posts here is Goblin Toes. I think it's a complete lost opportunity in not having

Boots with Run/Walk, and of course Open Wounds, which exist on

Gore Rider. OW is very helpful in Ubers and as Crushing Blow is only a percentage of CURRENT life - its effectiveness dwindles within seconds - so having over 50% is fine and more is somewhat negligible in my view (meaning gearing for more in place of other useful options isn't worth it).

Couldn't agree more for the Gore Riders. Having 10% more CB is nowhere close to being as good as everything else

Gore Rider has IMO.

I kinda prefer Hoz cause I feel like Exile is kinda meh apart from the CTC lifetap but thats just my preference.

Hard to go wrong with Fortitude, solid setup for sure, although I prefer

Guardian Angel, especially when paired with Tgods (the 2 combined effectively makes your char immune to lightning).