Ber in HoZ?

Does it makes sense to stick a Ber in an Herald Of Zakarum for a Zealer paladin that occasionally goes to Smite Ubers?
For Ubers resists are king, but let's say I have the resists I need already. For now I'm using Stormshield with a Diamond in it, so HoZ will improve total resistances anyway. I'm not sure how much I will feel the loss in % damage reduction, whether in Uber Tristram or elsewhere.

Are you having any trouble with Ubers as is? If you’re sporting Grief and have good res then Stormshield should cut it just fine. In fact a non- Ber’d hoz should work to.

Ultimately I’d save the Ber. If you’re looking to optimize survival, you could trade the Ber for the components to builda lower quality Exile, the pinnacle Uber slayer shield. The absurd defense boost alone compensates for the pdr of a socketed Ber, not to mention a very good (the best if I recall correctly) chance to cast Life Tap on strike and in general your survivability should be top notch. Just don’t play duck duck goose with the Ubers (ie run within physical range). Your Zeal damage would suffer based on loss of strength boost and skills but that’s completely negligible when smiting against Ubers.

If you’re looking into about what the better generalist zealot shield would be, that exceeds my scope of experience, but I’d still pick Exile, mainly bc it’s such a rad shield, but also its defensive perks are so extensive that it opens up other gear slots for very offensive options which should more than compensate for the plus skills and strength bonus from hoz. But take that with a grain of salt bc I haven’t made a zealot since Baranors star was a top 5 option 🫢

Honestly a 1 BO CtA will do more for you for a fraction of the price that Ber will. Also there's more than one way to build a Smiter capable of Ubers with very budget gear. This all said it is your Wealth and Phys reduce can be useful. You can get it through a lot of cheaper alternatives tho. String of Ears / Treachery (15% w/ Fade). If you're interested in a super safe build, there is one involving Decrepify from Lawbringer. This won't cost you a Ber investment but forfeits Life Tap (not that it's needed). Who needs Life Tap tho when you deal increased damage and Meph's attacks are cut down by like 50%.

renard wrote: 2 years ago

Does it makes sense to stick a Ber in an Herald Of Zakarum for a Zealer paladin that occasionally goes to Smite Ubers?

No, physical damage reduction is completely unnecessary. Dracul's Grasp is how you always stay at full health (with the occasional Lilith / Uber Mephisto dips).

Thank you all for your very interesting and informative answers.
You're right, I don't know what came over me, of course I have better things to do with a Ber (although I play SP so no trading).

It's just that I found this HoZ recently. I do usual PVM zones way more often than Ubers, that's why I'm attached (maybe wrongly) to the damage reduction. For the same reason I recently stopped wearing Dracul's outside of Uber Tristram, so I don't override merc's Decrepify. I use 20MF 20IAS rares and I try to craft me a good Blood Gloves pair.
When facing Ubers I sometimes die, or come close, and have to chug a few full rejuvs before Life Tap procs. Only Mephisto gives me a hard time.
I forgot about Exile so thank you for reminding me of it, it's a very interesting option, but I'll probably have to consider how to get back some more resistances if I switch to it.

Rik wrote: 2 years ago

Are you having any trouble with Ubers as is? If you’re sporting Grief and have good res then Stormshield should cut it just fine. In fact a non- Ber’d hoz should work to.

Ultimately I’d save the Ber. If you’re looking to optimize survival, you could trade the Ber for the components to builda lower quality Exile, the pinnacle Uber slayer shield. The absurd defense boost alone compensates for the pdr of a socketed Ber, not to mention a very good (the best if I recall correctly) chance to cast Life Tap on strike and in general your survivability should be top notch. Just don’t play duck duck goose with the Ubers (ie run within physical range). Your Zeal damage would suffer based on loss of strength boost and skills but that’s completely negligible when smiting against Ubers.

If you’re looking into about what the better generalist zealot shield would be, that exceeds my scope of experience, but I’d still pick Exile, mainly bc it’s such a rad shield, but also its defensive perks are so extensive that it opens up other gear slots for very offensive options which should more than compensate for the plus skills and strength bonus from hoz. But take that with a grain of salt bc I haven’t made a zealot since Baranors star was a top 5 option 🫢

yo. I also use zealer to making Ubers... I have on him only 90 lvl (most of the time he was 89) and i have over 100 ubers. Solo and with friends often when they plays chars non uber specific. Thats true i die few times but almost always ubers dont bring any problems for me... I dont use zak there ofc. I can share my inventory if u need. Greetings.

For the cost of the Ber you would be better off buying an Exile. I'm assuming you have Grief, and that should be fine for damage for both Zeal and Smite.

So being that you're on Single Player I'd save your Ber for more important items, while Exile is great, fantastic even. It's a very VERY difficult shield to get correct, so unless you're okay with either map rerolling for targeting armor shrines. You'll likely end up putting it in a low Resists Eth shield or a high resists non- Eth. Not to say you can't get lucky, but...

I guess it depends on what you want out of the character. If you're like me and Uber is only done on one class built to kill it then having the most expensive gear is honestly just a flex more than overall usefulness. Honestly You'll get more Value out of a Call To Arms over almost anything else in terms of Survival.

I've killed so many Ubers with gear that you couldn't clear hell with... at least in a timely manner and sure having all this BiS gear is good but generally overkill. Focus on getting some Crushing blow, your resists up, and a way to stop their health regen and it's more of a timed thing than anything else.

My most recent change has been getting Call To Arms earlier and it's been wild how much easier and less risky it is with one and mine was a 1 Battle Orders I made. -.- Thing's like Metamorphosis is also a great Gface alternative that frees up a Raven Frost ring slot for example.

This has become a Call To Arms praising thread... jk >.>