Cheap D-Clone killer In 4 Days Without A Grief

A few days ago I decided to build a Smiter Paladin on the cheap just for killing the

Diablo Clone, with no Ubers in mind. I also made the build as a proof of concept in the event I decide to go for Ladder Season 3. I began with all the basics and a few borrowed low end runes,

Ral,

Tal,

Ort for an Ancients Pledge. All my starting gear was stuff I found or purchased from the

Rogue Encampment Merchants and purchased with gold also borrowed from my Zon. My first weapons were whatever I could find, and I put all my first points into Mite aura.

When I reached level 32 I reset my points and started putting points along with all the prerequisites into

Fanaticism,

Smite, and

Holy Shield. Somewhere along the way I found a 4os Paladin Shield with 22 to all resistances, and a 4os

Crystal Sword and made a Spirit sword and shield. From there I continued on through Nightmare level. In NM Hephasto gave me an

Um, and in

Chaos Sanctuary Diablo dropped a

Tal Rasha's Adjudication which I traded for 2 Ists. In Act 5 NM I found 2

Mal, and from there I began trading for the stuff I would need to make it work.

Even though I had already beat Nightmare and was in Act1 Hell, I decided to stay and level in Nightmare doing TZ runs, and that worked all the way to level 71. From there I began completing all the quests in Act 1 Hell, and I had just completed the staff in Act2 when the Diablo is invading the Sanctuary message popped up on my screen. I was just short of reaching level 76 which would let me use my Dracul’s so I took a waypoint to the

Cold Plains where D-Clone will spawn in The Cave. Having not yet defeated Hell I didn’t know for certain I would even get the chance to try but I went anyway, and it turns out the only requirements to encounter

Diablo Clone is that you have a build in at least Act 1 Hell level.

Here’s The Stuff I used and the cost

1.

Mage Plate Duress all stuff I found.
2.G-Face cost 3 Perfect Amethysts
3. T-Gods

Belt, I got for a

Lem and H

Key
4.Drac’s cost a

Mal :Note Drac’s price is determined by leech, not

Life Tap, a low leech Drac’s is cheap
5.

Goblin Toe:

Fal
6. Black Runeword

Mace, all stuff I found
7. HOZ shield

Mal
8. Ravenfrost I already had an unused extra in my stash
9. Highlord’s, I had an extra one of those in my stash
10. Anni found by this build, and as of yet no P-Torch.

Note, that later on I found a Razor’s Edge

Tomahawk and replaced my Black with it because it has 40% IAS, -33 Target Defense, and 50% Chance of open wounds.

This is pretty cool.

I especially like how you took that lightning whatever strait to the face.

I'm relatively certain that attack is what destroyed my sorceress.

Can a 4os

Crystal Sword / shield drop in normal ? Thought normal was capped to 3. Or did you

Larzuk or had it in stash ?

I'm just guessing, but cows.

[Edit]
Nope. Didn't manage Normal until after that was found...
[/Edit]

Act 5, probably

Nihlathak's Temple. I didn't use it very long because it needed repairing too often. I got lucky in early nightmare and replaced it with a

Mace/Black runeword.

Forum is bit slow?

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

Can a 4os

Crystal Sword / shield drop in normal ? Thought normal was capped to 3. Or did you

Larzuk or had it in stash ?

As far as I understand it - items can only drop naturally with at most 3 sockets on Normal, there's a hard restriction on that. That being said - in some areas in Normal, the monster level is high enough (26+) that if an item drops without sockets,

Larzuk will give it 4. That includes Cows but also most of Act 5.

+1 thanks ShadowHeart

If you have shared stash though both are easy to get from any other char.

Honestly, for dclone, that gear is already overkill. You can basically wreck him near naked as a smiter, so long as you bring say a

Life Tap

Wand, enough res to not get 1shot (4-

Diamond pally res shield = gg) and literally any source of crushing blow. Everything past that is obviously nice but for dclone as a smiter, certainly not needed.

That having been said, since you seem to have built this in a prep-exercise for S3, do keep in mind that the prices you have there are not exactly reflective of what you would pay come S3 start. Drac's and HoZ especially will run you far more than a

Mal each.

But yeah, smiter = sufficient dclone killer typically by the time you hit 70-80 with just the stuff you find along the way.

Deadly strike doesn t work with

Smite, go for Black (in

Flail for attack speed) rather than other weapon

Steccothal wrote: 1 year ago

Deadly strike doesn t work with

Smite, go for Black (in

Flail for attack speed) rather than other weapon

No but the 40% attack speed, -33% target defense, and 50% Open Wounds work just fine.

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 year ago

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

Can a 4os

Crystal Sword / shield drop in normal ? Thought normal was capped to 3. Or did you

Larzuk or had it in stash ?

As far as I understand it - items can only drop naturally with at most 3 sockets on Normal, there's a hard restriction on that. That being said - in some areas in Normal, the monster level is high enough (26+) that if an item drops without sockets,

Larzuk will give it 4. That includes Cows but also most of Act 5.

That's probably true but I never said where I got the sword because I don't remember, and I stopped using it after a short time because it broke too often for my liking. It's possible I got the sword in Nightmare which is where most of my stuff was found. In normal I used a 2 socket

Scepter with rubies.

That having been said, since you seem to have built this in a prep-exercise for S3, do keep in mind that the prices you have there are not exactly reflective of what you would pay come S3 start. Drac's and HoZ especially will run you far more than a

Mal each.

But yeah, smiter = sufficient dclone killer typically by the time you hit 70-80 with just the stuff you find along the way.

I don't expect anyone to have anything to trade in early ladder 3, because everyone starts with nothing. I never came into ladder 2 until about 6 weeks after it had started and I'm not certain that I will be joining in ladder 3 at all or at the start either.

A pair of

Goblin Toe are not that rare and I found a G-Face right after I traded for the one I have. When I got to Hell lvl Act 1, I returned to nightmare and I stayed there and did most of my leveling and farming in

Terror Zones all the way to level 71, to avoid immunities. Except for the possibility of getting newly introduced stuff, Diablo 2 ladder in my opinion is dead. A lot of players are buying their stuff and using rush services paid for with hard cash.

Honestly, for dclone, that gear is already overkill. You can basically wreck him near naked as a smiter, so long as you bring say a

Life Tap

Wand

I look for

Life Tap wands all the time. I have two of these because It's probably less expensive that paying to have the first one repaired/recharged.

mhlg wrote: 1 year ago

No but the 40% AR, -33% target defense, and 50% Open Wounds work just fine.

Open Wounds sure, but

Smite doesn't use AR nor take target defense into account, it "always" hits

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 year ago

mhlg wrote: 1 year ago

No but the 40% AR, -33% target defense, and 50% Open Wounds work just fine.

Open Wounds sure, but

Smite doesn't use AR nor take target defense into account, it "always" hits

I realize that, it was an error. It was meant to be 40% Attack Speed. It was in reference to this weapon which I am using instead of the Black I made.

Personally, I consider this the bare minimum for a dclone smiter:
Mind you, that's already more than you actually really need to kill him. But I hate charges and pots with a Passion so .. drac's to me is a must off the bat, simply to not need a

Life Tap

Wand. The shield is a simple res pally one with 4 p diamonds. And the

Blade is a Kingslayer phase.

You can replace drac's with a

Wand and be just fine. Hell, you can even do it with just pots (though I'd then recommend bringing a

Belt). But as noted, I simply have a personal distaste for both of those solutions.

The shield is about as cheap as it gets and since

Holy Shield adds plenty dmg, you don't even need it to be elite or even exceptional. Literally anything in the 30-40 res range is sufficient (and realistically already more res than you need for him).

And the

Blade..I mean, you could replace that with a White

Phase Blade (for the added attack frame vs. no weapon at all) and still get by just fine. Or literally any weapon you come across as you level. But to me personally, Kingslayer is THE early

Key budget smiter item since it covers your OW, it covers your crushing, it adds PMH if through some statistical miracle your OW falls off and just because that apparently isn't good enough yet..it even brings enough IAS to ensure you hit the

Smite fana

Cap with no other gear needed.

That and nothing else is perfectly sufficient to never pot, still never even come close to dying (unless you manage to not proc drac's for the entire fight..which is rather rare) and still take him out in under 30 seconds flat.

Next step after that would be to add a

Raven so the anti-freeze again speeds up the fight significantly. Or..just use a 6-

Shael phase instead; that + fana would have you capped even while chilled.

Bonus:
If you literally do not want to ever farm any sort of shield..just use a 4-

Shael socketed

Phase Blade instead. That'll have you at max

Smite speed even without

Fanaticism so you can use

Salvation instead and have your resistances covered solely from that and literally

Smite him down with your lvl 1 starter shield. Down to 9 frames when chilled. Add a 5th

Shael to get that back to 8 at least. It ain't pretty..but it works.

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

i

Bonus:
If you literally do not want to ever farm any sort of shield..just use a 4-

Shael socketed

Phase Blade instead. That'll have you at max

Smite speed even without

Fanaticism so you can use

Salvation instead and have your resistances covered solely from that and literally

Smite him down with your lvl 1 starter shield. Down to 9 frames when chilled. Add a 5th

Shael to get that back to 8 at least. It ain't pretty..but it works.

I understand that there could be many ways to achieve a goal, and this is the one I used. I made the post because of all the people I see on the forum who've been seeking help to kill D-Clone, when they could be doing it on their own. All I was trying to do was demonstrate that it's not that hard to quickly build a decent D-Clone killer on the cheap, and I think I've done that. I believe you when you say you don't need that much to kill D-Clone but I prefer a slightly more forceful and heartier build. Also remember in order to kill D-Clone you must first fight your way through normal and nightmare all the way to Hell level or you will never get the chance to kill D-Clone. I doubt very much that you would make it with just a basic sword, mits, and a gemmed shield. In fact I doubt that few people would get past normal level

Andariel with that setup.

If I had a 4 socket

Phase Blade I wouldn't have used the

Crystal Sword. I found a 3os Paladin shield that had a little resistance so rather than using 3 perfect diamonds, I borrowed some runes from my other build and made an Ancients pledge which was cheap and effective until I found a 4 socket Paladin shield with 22 to all resists and I made a Spirit.

Charsi got the Ancient's Pledge. For now the

Razor's Edge provides enough speed for Drac's to proc

Life Tap, not to mention the bonuses of -33% target defense and 50% open wounds. When I find the stuff to make a better weapon then I'll do it, but the

Razor's Edge has proven to be far more effective than the

Mace Black I have, and yes I tested it repeatedly. I'm not entirely dissatisfied with an 18 to 20 second take down.

mhlg wrote: 1 year ago

Also remember in order to kill D-Clone you must first fight your way through normal and nightmare all the way to Hell level or you will never get the chance to kill D-Clone. I doubt very much that you would make it with just a basic sword, mits, and a gemmed shield. In fact I doubt that few people would get past normal level

Andariel with that setup.

That..might just be an interesting challenge actually. From start through hell

Baal with nothing but a weapon and a shield you find along the way.
Finally a reason to start a hardcore character after all!

Wasn't looking to hate on your approach btw, in case you took it like that. Merely offered a different opinion/alternate options. As you already noted, there's many ways to make it work (especially as a smiter) but specifically with a "budget/starting out" setup in mind, I suppose knowing more proven options never hurts as it increases everyone's odds of having one that works for them based on what they found along the way.

Wasn't looking to hate on your approach btw, in case you took it like that. Merely offered a different opinion/alternate options.

I appreciate your advice any time you want to give it. If you have a good alternate cheap build that will also work then post in the thread. More options will make it even easier for others.

That..might just be an interesting challenge actually. From start through hell

Baal with nothing but a weapon and a shield you find along the way.
Finally a reason to start a hardcore character after all!

So does that mean you're going to give it try?

Yeah, pretty much what Schnorki said. Not a lot of people seem to know how easy (or fast) it is to make viable Dclone killer, and this topic has certainly showed that anyone can do it, really. Maybe it will open the eyes of some? Well done, @mhlg! I should have led with that in my previous post, my excuse is that it was a quick reply while at work. A poor excuse at that.

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 year ago

Yeah, pretty much what Schnorki said. Not a lot of people seem to know how easy (or fast) it is to make viable Dclone killer, and this topic has certainly showed that anyone can do it, really. Maybe it will open the eyes of some? Well done, @mhlg! I should have led with that in my previous post, my excuse is that it was a quick reply while at work. A poor excuse at that.

As with Schnorki I appreciate your advice as well, especially since you pointed me to my 2nd and 3rd take down of the day which landed me an 18/19/10 anni.