To Uber or not to Uber

I used to play Diablo 2 a ton as a kid, but never really understood the game that well back then. I've recently been getting back into it and got my first Hell-capable character, who I am trying to gear up to be a Tesladin. My question, because I don't really know all the ins-and-outs of the game, is this: should I try to deal with the Ubers to get a torch, or would it be better to farm the keys and trade those for runes to start working my way up to my double Dream?

Right now, I'm using a level 22

Holy Shock for damage, and a

Crescent Moon +

Crack of the Heavens to break immunities. It works, but it's a tad slow because my aura isn't a very high level. For defense, I'm using a

String of Ears +

Rockstopper +

Shaftstop to get my physical resist to 56%, and everything else is focused on max all resist. I think I'm sitting around 230% on most everything. That way,

Conviction doesn't totally break my resistances.

The way I see it, I can do mostly alright farming the keys, and doing so gives me opportunities to get other rune drops while also trading the keys for some pretty decent runes. However, my paladin has also been absurdly good at taking out bosses, so maybe focusing on getting a torch is feasible? If so, I could get a pretty hefty bump in power from that, and that might make my farming runs easier in the future. But doing that means I'm spending the keys, and failure means utterly wasted keys. That seems like risking some reasonably valuable resources just for a chance at success.

What do you guys think?

Get a Torch and an

Annihilus ASAP by trading or simply checking for freebies.

While Paladin torches are among the more expensive, chances are you can get one from trade drastically faster than you can get it yourself. And makes a huge difference to play.

And Anni... Well, to take an example, about 2 months ago while i was dropping off some stuff in a "Free stuff" game and checking if there was anything there i needed, another player comes in and starts dropping lowend Annis...

And then halfhour later he comes back and does it again, the two of us others that were in the game figured he dropped at minimum 200 annis there...

All of them low to low middlish quality, but plenty better than not having one.

Check the trade section of this site daily and you have a fair chance of getting either or both fairly soon.

"The way I see it, I can do mostly alright farming the keys"

That's perfectly functional regardless if you use them yourself or use them to trade.
Keys are fairly common trade items and there's a fair number of people that even consider them as good as "currency", since they have a constant demand and takes some effort to find, keeping their value reasonably stable.

Another thing, while farming keys, don't forget to pick up gems, they're also a decent lowend currency.
20

Perfect Gems gets you an

Ist rune if you ask the right person.


"But doing that means I'm spending the keys, and failure means utterly wasted keys. That seems like risking some reasonably valuable resources just for a chance at success."

Check the trade section for services offered, there's people who will help doing the ubers for a not too severe cost.

Bitshift1125 wrote: 1 week ago

I'm spending the keys, and failure means utterly wasted keys.

Before entering

Uber Tristram make sure you create a password protected game and remember the game name and pass.
If you fail to kill the Ubers you can find here plenty of players ready to assist you and do the job for you, even at no cost. Your keys will not be lost and you'll get your torch.
forums/trusted-dclone-killers-t955189.html

Not to brag or whatever but I should be transparent/honest. I started D2R 05/2024 and was given a barb torch around lvl 70+ and a

Annihilus. I then started a sorc and got to lvl 70+ and was given a cold sorc GC (I think it weakened enemy resistances) as well as a

Tal Rasha armor (someone found getting

Wirt's Leg.. Dropped it before cows) . On this site I've been given a Death sword ethereal. Although for that barb is only around lvl 22 and levels quite slowly.

I guess I've been fortunate/lucky. Of course competing barbs (I want

War Cry gcs). The barb that got the free barb torch is a cryer.

Also a lot of other annihiluses and stuff too...

You all are talking like people will just give away the torches. I thought they were supposed to be super valuable?

They are valuable but the low rolled ones are easily given away, sometimes for free by rich players.
The very expensive ones are those perfect or nearly perfect.

Bitshift1125 wrote: 1 week ago

You all are talking like people will just give away the torches. I thought they were supposed to be super valuable?

So what build do you need a torch for? Paladin? I think I can help you with a starter torch.

mhlg wrote: 1 week ago

Bitshift1125 wrote: 1 week ago

You all are talking like people will just give away the torches. I thought they were supposed to be super valuable?

So what build do you need a torch for? Paladin? I think I can help you with a starter torch.

Yeah, Paladin. I only really care about the skills boost, so I don't really care what it rolls. What do you want for it?

Bitshift1125 wrote: 1 week ago

mhlg wrote: 1 week ago

Bitshift1125 wrote: 1 week ago

You all are talking like people will just give away the torches. I thought they were supposed to be super valuable?

So what build do you need a torch for? Paladin? I think I can help you with a starter torch.

Yeah, Paladin. I only really care about the skills boost, so I don't really care what it rolls. What do you want for it?

Then add me on Bnet and make a game.

Bitshift1125 wrote: 1 week ago

You all are talking like people will just give away the torches. I thought they were supposed to be super valuable?

The perfect or near perfect ones are very valuable yes. The middle quality ones are valuable but not hyper expensive, if you can get together 40-60 p gems you can often get one.
And low quality ones can be found for half that, or free.
There's at least 3 players on this site that specifically gives out free ones.
I have 1 torch for each class now, and half of them i got from one of those players.

Here...
Price history for the torch:
pricecheck.php?item=39
1st page, the most expensive one is 3

Jah, while the cheapest one went for 10 p gems. With several going for 20 to 70 p gems.
And that's pretty much representative. And there's currently around a hundred torch's on sale in SC NL.

So yeah, if you feel the need, just farm keys and pick up all the gems while doing so and trade those for whatever basic stuff you need.
It works quite well.

Try to get low torch and anni at cheap price - there are always some around. Then do ubers if you wish, if you get a Ptorch you can always give back the first torch to the giver so that they can help someone else.

Necrarch wrote: 1 week ago

Try to get low torch and anni at cheap price - there are always some around. Then do ubers if you wish, if you get a Ptorch you can always give back the first torch to the giver so that they can help someone else.

I've already given him a torch and anni, so he should be fine for now.

Hi @Bitshift1125
Some bad news for u… Tesladin kinda sucks IMO. I’ve a 94 Paladin dual fire (HOJ + Dragon) + dual Dream. Max

Resist Fire, lightning,

Conviction,

Holy Shock….
It’s fun to play not that powerful.

Good news for u, paladin is probably the cheapest and easiest class to clear D Clone and Ubers IMO.

Key:

-

Smite
-

Zeal +

Conviction (or

Fanaticism if u wish)
(All above skills one point wonder, works wonders
Of course, have

Holy Shield + dex for high enough for max block.
Together with

Life Tap + crushing blow easily get the job done. Dun really need expensive gear. Grief cuts like butter after life is say less than 30 - 40%. If u miss due to low AR, then just

Smite all the way. Takes longer but still gets the job done.


Enjoy the game,
Cheers!

P.S. prior was hammerdin build. Didn’t even use BH for Ubers, just plain

Smite and

Zeal/

Conviction at the end.