Found my favorite uber smiter build

Hey all! I’ve been trying variations of a dedicated uber smiter build over the last year to find the right one for me. After much trial and error, I think I found it and figured I'd share it with you all.

Requirements

Survivability

This is my top priority, if I die I waste my time and XP. This build achieves this with the following:

• 300+ all resist with
  Fade (1)
• 4k+ life buffed
• 39% physical damage reduction / 50% DR with
  Fade
• Max block 75%
• Life Tap x3 (3x Last Wish that can proc)

I’m happy to say I have not gotten killed since using this setup over the last 20+ runs. Hope I don’t jinx myself

Speed

I’m all about getting it done quickly. A run will usually take 3 minutes or less from the time I open the portals to when I pick up the new torch.

• 95% crushing blow
• Max
  Smite frames of 6 frames (PB + lvl 32
  Fanaticism + 15 IAS jewel)
• Teleport with 75 faster cast rate on secondary weapon set
• Vigor to run faster
• In most cases,
  Fade will trigger before I get to the uber bosses so I have max res for Meph. Else, I’ll go to Act 4 and trigger it with the fire.
• Double might from merc makes me
  Smite harder
• I have enough str where I can
  Teleport and grab my torch even after taking off my current torch

Laziness

• Don’t need to change auras for Meph. I’m always on
  Fanaticism unless in town and I use
  Vigor there.
• Only need to swap 1 piece of gear - the
  Helm from
  Circlet (75 fcr) to CoA (max res) when doing Uber bosses

Independant

• I don’t need a merc for this build but it’s helpful to have as it’ll improve the likelihood of LT proc’ing and make the run a little faster with double might buffing me.

Gear

Weapon: Last Wish in

Phase Blade

• Might
• Life Tap
• Fade
• Crushing blow

Weapon Swap: Call To Arms and Spirit

• Need 35 fcr on that Spirit to hit 75

Shield: Upped

Herald Of Zakarum

• +skills
• str/vit
• Easy to hit max block
• 50 all res
• 8 dmg reduction with
  Ber

Body Armor: Enigma

• Skills
• Tons of str
• Teleport
• Dmg reduction
• Faster run

Helm:

• 2 pally skills / 20 fcr
  Circlet with 15 IAS jewel +
  Ber (mini Ubers)
• Crown of Ages with 15 IAS/all res jewel and another jewel with all res (Ubers)

Gloves:

Steelrend

• Str
• CB
• ED for more
  Smite damage

Boots: Gore Riders

• CB
• Run walk

Belt: Verdungo’s

• DR 15%
• Tons of vit

Ring 1:

Raven Frost

• Cannot be frozen
• Dex

Ring 2: Rare

• 10 fcr
• all res

Amulet: Caster

• 2 pally skills
• 10 fcr

Charm 1: Paladin

Hellfire Torch
Charm 2:

Annihilus
Charm 3: +1 combat / life grand charms
Charm 4: 5 all res / life small charms

Overall, I like how smooth this build feels. It’s very predictable now - even if I get hit hard a couple times in a row, my life doesn’t drop so quick I can’t use a pot like it had happened before. With that said, it’s rare to have to use a pot unless I don’t have my merc and LT doesn’t proc right at the start of an encounter. Except for mana pots, I use those often.

Variants

Grief

• I’ve tried this in the past with other builds, and it always seemed to be slower clear speeds

Mercs

• My goal #1 of survivability has made the Act 5 merc a winner with 2x LW for
  Life Tap procs. Double might to hit harder is a bonus. And even though these two are nice, I still can run without a merc and be perfectly fine.

Exile

• This is the only one I’m on the fence about. I’ve tried many runs using a
  Eth vortex with 45@ Exile and yes my defense is much greater making it less likely I’ll get hit by mobs by (I forgot exactly but can check) 6-7% but when I get hit, I get hit harder it seems. The other problem I have is I rely on
  Fade for Meph and since I get hit less,
  Fade procs less often which means I end up in the Act IV fire pit more often slowing down my run.

Fort/COH

• I’ve tried both of these many times and in the end, survivability of
  Teleport and speed of
  Teleport plus all the str I get from Enigma just seems better for me than maybe doing a little more damage which didn’t seem very noticeable to me in my tests.

TGods

• With max res this hasn't felt necessary and the benefits I get from verdungo's seem better

Closing Thoughts

But why you ask? Sure, you could make a successful uber smiter with a fraction of the cost and clear speeds wouldn’t be that much different. Well, I do this because it is what keeps the game fun for me. To keep tweaking and trying to get slight improvements where I can.

Let me know if you have questions or comments, agree/disagree. I welcome the conversation!

Footnotes
(1) Using CoA on Uber Bosses for max resistances of 300
(2) Using

Circlet for 75 fcr in mini-Ubers to get around faster

Try doing a couple of runs with

Conviction. This overwrites

Mephisto's aura and reduces physical damage resistance.

I'm thinking about how to make an uber-killer for 8ppl. What I found out is that the more people, the less effective the CB is.

I rarely do Ubers, but people often write to me asking for help in picking up a corpse.

d2jsp wrote: 3 months ago

Try doing a couple of runs with

Conviction. This overwrites

Mephisto's aura and reduces physical damage resistance.

I'm thinking about how to make an uber-killer for 8ppl. What I found out is that the more people, the less effective the CB is.

I rarely do Ubers, but people often write to me asking for help in picking up a corpse.

I haven't tried p8 ubers, sounds dangerous . Since I have so much res, I don't need to worry too much about Meph's aurora.

My two cents would be a good 20 10 crafted

Blood Gloves and

Highlord's Wrath. Instead of combat skillers, max dmg. -ar -life charms could work better damagewise. And if this would be a dedicated char for only Ubers, you don't need to worry about FCR that much. If you reach around 300 LR without

Salvation or

Conviction, no need to worry about Uber Meph as well. If not, 1p

Salvation erases him.

Of course, without these changes, works well.

basicnecromancy wrote: 3 months ago

nstead of combat skillers, max dmg. -ar -life charms could work better damagewise.

I was under the impression

Smite doesn't benefit from attack rating as it's a guaranteed hit. I'm not sure about the max damage, would those increase

Smite damage?

azeroti wrote: 3 months ago

I was under the impression

Smite doesn't benefit from attack rating as it's a guaranteed hit. I'm not sure about the max damage, would those increase

Smite damage?

I mean, those charms roll only max dmg - ar only oor max dmg -ar -life soo no option for max dmg - life.

Most of the physical melee builds benefit from them more than skillers but you can see it on any planner like maxroll.

Smite doesn't use AR. It doesn't miss.

Smite also doesn't benefit from +max or +min dmg.
(+dmg does work though, hence Grief being the weapon of choice with regards to raw

Smite dmg)

So yeah, for

Smite damage purposes, you want to go with skillers, not max/AR.

Schnorki wrote: 3 months ago

Smite doesn't use AR. It doesn't miss.

Smite also doesn't benefit from +max or +min dmg.
(+dmg does work though, hence Grief being the weapon of choice with regards to raw

Smite dmg)

So yeah, for

Smite damage purposes, you want to go with skillers, not max/AR.

I had no idea. What are the options to increase

Smite damage besides Grief?

basicnecromancy wrote: 3 months ago

...
I had no idea. What are the options to increase

Smite damage besides Grief?

Anything that says “Damage + number”,

Astreon's Iron Ward is a solid replacement.

basicnecromancy wrote: 3 months ago

Schnorki wrote: 3 months ago

Smite doesn't use AR. It doesn't miss.

Smite also doesn't benefit from +max or +min dmg.
(+dmg does work though, hence Grief being the weapon of choice with regards to raw

Smite dmg)

So yeah, for

Smite damage purposes, you want to go with skillers, not max/AR.

I had no idea. What are the options to increase

Smite damage besides Grief?

A better shield with higher base dmg.
Anything with the same flat dmg+ modifier as Grief (mind you, this dmg is added but not shown on your char screen).
%enhanced damage on items other than the weapon (general %ed that is, vs. undead/demon does not work).
More strength (which translates into %ed).
Skill points in

Smite,

Holy Shield and/or your dmg aura (typically fana).
Extra %ed auras (e.g. HoW).
Higher attack speed (which would translate into higher dmg/time).
And for indirect dmg, more open wounds and more crushing blow.

I believe that's just about it.
Most other things don't work with

Smite, be that +min, +max, %undead/demon ed, elemental dmg, critical/deadly, poison or whatever...

In case you wonder where

Über Duriel spawns.
Most of the time in the top right red circle. If he was not in the red circles, I marked the spawning locations in green.
The blue line is my teleporting path to find him 99.9% of the time

Heiko wrote: 3 months ago

In case you wonder where

Über Duriel spawns.
Most of the time in the top right red circle. If he was not in the red circles, I marked the spawning locations in green.
The blue line is my teleporting path to find him 99.9% of the time
grafik.png

Thanks!