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Uber Ancients builds (post 3.3)

BigD · 2026-08-29T11:19:04-07:00

With patch 3.3 (or was it 3.2? someone please correct me if I'm wrong), most of you are aware the Uber Ancients were buffed. Buffed, arguably, by a non-insig…

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BigD `552`

2 days ago (pre-Resurrected)

Bertram The Cursed wrote: 2 days ago
Did anyone try out a Cleave Warlock against the uber ancients? More or less with same gear as a smiter focused an Res+CB+Lifetab (+attackrating)? In demon tree maybe just Consume for life and cb + Level 10 Sigil Lethargy and then everything else in eldritch skills. Can he out lifetab the damage from ancients like a smiter does? I mean he should be better in dealing with all of the minions cause of the 360 attack and be a great lifetabber cause he hits mulitple enemies. Thoughts?

If you're talking about using only Cleave vs Uber Ancients, it's probably a bad idea. 13FPA is the max for Cleave vs 10FPA for Mirrored Blades, so it's gonna feel slow vs MB. Plus, with Uber ancients the minions are more of a distraction than anything else. Big priority targets should be ancients themselves.

To get the 360 degree arc you'll likely need to invest more than a few points into Cleave, which in my experience does more harm than good because firstly it isn't much more effective than a 220-230 degree arc, which is pretty easily achievable with 1 hard point and +skills on your gear. Secondly, those skill points are better invested elsewhere, such as the demon skill tree (again speaking from my own experience).

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Bertram The Cursed `65`

1 day ago (pre-Resurrected)

BigD wrote: 2 days ago

Bertram The Cursed wrote: 2 days ago
Did anyone try out a Cleave Warlock against the uber ancients? More or less with same gear as a smiter focused an Res+CB+Lifetab (+attackrating)? In demon tree maybe just Consume for life and cb + Level 10 Sigil Lethargy and then everything else in eldritch skills. Can he out lifetab the damage from ancients like a smiter does? I mean he should be better in dealing with all of the minions cause of the 360 attack and be a great lifetabber cause he hits mulitple enemies. Thoughts?
If you're talking about using only Cleave vs Uber Ancients, it's probably a bad idea. 13FPA is the max for Cleave vs 10FPA for Mirrored Blades, so it's gonna feel slow vs MB. Plus, with Uber ancients the minions are more of a distraction than anything else. Big priority targets should be ancients themselves.

To get the 360 degree arc you'll likely need to invest more than a few points into Cleave, which in my experience does more harm than good because firstly it isn't much more effective than a 220-230 degree arc, which is pretty easily achievable with 1 hard point and +skills on your gear. Secondly, those skill points are better invested elsewhere, such as the demon skill tree (again speaking from my own experience).

But when you use Cleave, every enemy you hit is basically + Life for you. So i think as long as you fight more than 2 or 3 enemies it could be better using Cleave instead of Mirrored Blades.

Further a demon maybe can distract them, so you dont have to deal with all at once, but thats it. You cannot use a cursed demon nor does he any damage. With eldritch tree maxed out you get the highest damage+ the needed attackrating.

So my question is, can you Cleave through and maybe finish the last one with Mirrored Blades or is Mirrored Blades so much superior even in this setting with all the minions, 3 ancients etc.

Isnt it difficult to hit the right enemy in melee infight with Mirrored Blades or Smite?

SizzleZap `27`

1 day ago (pre-Resurrected)

tgods is mostly for uber meph lightning. You probably would be better off with String of Ears vs ancients. I always preferred Chains of Honor for uber smiter.

Grain of salt I have not collected enough statues to even try uber ancients yet ... just farmed a LOT of torches back in the day!

Dnasty225 `46`

1 day ago (pre-Resurrected)

SizzleZap wrote: 1 day ago
tgods is mostly for uber meph lightning. You probably would be better off with String of Ears vs ancients. I always preferred Chains of Honor for uber smiter.

Grain of salt I have not collected enough statues to even try uber ancients yet ... just farmed a LOT of torches back in the day!

On my way-overbuilt Smiter, I went with elemental absorb (lightning, fire, and cold) using Dwarf Star, Thundergod's Vigor, and Raven Frost. Then, I just stacked my resistances as high as possible using Chains of Honor, Mara's Kaleidoscope, a high-resist Exile, and Crown of Ages. For good measure, I'd proc Fade, giving me 90% all resists even while under Conviction.

"Every man dies, not every man really lives."

BigD `552`

13 hours ago (pre-Resurrected)

SizzleZap wrote: 1 day ago
tgods is mostly for uber meph lightning. You probably would be better off with String of Ears vs ancients. I always preferred Chains of Honor for uber smiter.

Grain of salt I have not collected enough statues to even try uber ancients yet ... just farmed a LOT of torches back in the day!

Tgods is better for Uber Ancients. Life leech from String of Ears doesnt apply to Smite and they inflict mostly elemental damage so the %PDR from SoE doesn't do much good. Tgods combined with Guardian Angel makes your character effectively immune to lightning damage.

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SizzleZap `27`

4 hours ago (pre-Resurrected)

Dnasty225 wrote: 1 day ago

SizzleZap wrote: 1 day ago
tgods is mostly for uber meph lightning. You probably would be better off with String of Ears vs ancients. I always preferred Chains of Honor for uber smiter.

Grain of salt I have not collected enough statues to even try uber ancients yet ... just farmed a LOT of torches back in the day!
On my way-overbuilt Smiter, I went with elemental absorb (lightning, fire, and cold) using Dwarf Star, Thundergod's Vigor, and Raven Frost. Then, I just stacked my resistances as high as possible using Chains of Honor, Mara's Kaleidoscope, a high-resist Exile, and Crown of Ages. For good measure, I'd proc Fade, giving me 90% all resists even while under Conviction.

^^^ That would be the final end game build because overly defensive means you never die or fail!

Sure, it takes somewhat longer per run but that is still way less time than farming mats for another attempt, or starting from L1 on HC. You are mostly relying on crushing blow so other than Grief nothing is adding very significant damage to your final hits. Lightsabre is the best option until you find Lo but before HR absorb from Wisp Projector or options like Dragonscale are useful. Maximum resistance is a given prerequisite for all builds but Smite is one of the few worth going over 75%. Maximum absorb is 40% but you will notice the difference with just 10%

P.S. String of Ears is for the % DR only, unless you use Zeal for trash mobs but the life steal is meh ...

Dnasty225 `46`

4 hours ago (pre-Resurrected)

SizzleZap wrote: 4 hours ago

Dnasty225 wrote: 1 day ago

SizzleZap wrote: 1 day ago
tgods is mostly for uber meph lightning. You probably would be better off with String of Ears vs ancients. I always preferred Chains of Honor for uber smiter.

Grain of salt I have not collected enough statues to even try uber ancients yet ... just farmed a LOT of torches back in the day!
On my way-overbuilt Smiter, I went with elemental absorb (lightning, fire, and cold) using Dwarf Star, Thundergod's Vigor, and Raven Frost. Then, I just stacked my resistances as high as possible using Chains of Honor, Mara's Kaleidoscope, a high-resist Exile, and Crown of Ages. For good measure, I'd proc Fade, giving me 90% all resists even while under Conviction.
^^^ That would be the final end game build because overly defensive means you never die or fail!

Sure it takes somewhat longer per run but that is still way less time than farming mats for another attempt, or starting from L1 on HC. You are mostly relying on crushing blow so other than Grief nothing is adding very significant damage to your final hits. Lightsabre is the best option until you find Lo but once you do have HR you can take your pick from Wisp Projector or other options like Dragonscale that otherwise are pretty niche. Maximum resistance is a given prerequisite for all builds but Smite is one of the few worth going over 75% there as well. I think absorb maximum is 40% but you will notice the difference even just at 10% usually.

P.S. String of Ears is for the % DR only, unless you use Zeal for trash mobs but the life steal is meh ...

Yeah, that was my basis for building the character the way I did. I don't like to fail, and I still do thousands of points of damage without Crushing Blow—which is why I didn't want 100% Crushing Blow. If, for some reason, a fight takes longer than I want, I can always switch over to my Grief.

"Every man dies, not every man really lives."

Atomicharmony24 `40`

1 hour ago (pre-Resurrected)

Do you guys make a dedicated smiter? Maxing out Smite, Holy Shield, and such? Or do you just use any pally with one point into Smite?

I did see someone put points into fire resist and light resist, so I assume it’s a dedicated smiter build.

Dnasty225 `46`

58 minutes ago (pre-Resurrected)

Atomicharmony24 wrote: 1 hour ago
Do you guys make a dedicated smiter? Maxing out Smite, Holy Shield, and such? Or do you just use any pally with one point into Smite?

I did see someone put points into fire resist and light resist, so I assume it’s a dedicated smiter build.

Yes I have a dedicated smiter he does have a point in Zeal just because I had a couple of extra points but it's just to deal with multiple mobs like with Mephisto

"Every man dies, not every man really lives."

FerociousTerrier `405`

56 minutes ago (pre-Resurrected)

How fast does a smiter do Ancients? From the few videos I've seen, it isn't suuper fast, just "pretty safe" in that you consistently keep topping off your health globe. I'm curious if a smiter is still king when a chainslock can massacre ancients in under 2 min pretty safely.

Dnasty225 `46`

47 minutes ago (pre-Resurrected)

FerociousTerrier wrote: 56 minutes ago
How fast does a smiter do Ancients? From the few videos I've seen, it isn't suuper fast, just "pretty safe" in that you consistently keep topping off your health globe. I'm curious if a smiter is still king when a chainslock can massacre ancients in under 2 min pretty safely.

I can do them in about a minute and a half but I have a super op smiter build that involves about a dozen high runes

"Every man dies, not every man really lives."