The Coward

- the underestimated art of leaphowling

Table of Contents
Introduction
Stat Point Allocation
Skill Point Allocation
Equipment
Playing The Coward
Coward vs Player


Introduction

Bored of the usual cookie-cutter builds ? Slammed every other player on your PvP realm into oblivion ? Carefully and thoroughly insulted any inferior lifeforms you happened to come across in public games ? And then you were unfortunate enough to join the club of victims that fell prey to Blizzard's aggressive, zero-tolerance stance against fair play, although you most certainly did not use any thid-party utilities or violated the Terms of Use ? Well, do not despair; as a devout champion of Diablo II, you know how to fight for your beliefs. Those foolish enough to cross you in the past shall soon feel the fury unleashed as you demonstrate the awesome power of the most underestimated build ever devised. They will know that The Coward is not to be trifled with.


NOTE : Everybody knows that Ladder has the best PvP characters, unlike the usual NL garbage. Thus, The Coward MUST be played on Ladder !


Stat Point Allocation

• Strength: none (Charms)
• Dexterity: none (Charms)
• Vitality: none (Charms)
• Energy: all points here

Skill Point Allocation

Warcries

• 20 Howl
• 1+ Taunt
• 1 Find Potion (prerequisite)
• 1 Find Item (prerequisite)
• 20 Grim Ward

Combat Masteries

• 20 Increased Stamina
• 20 Increased Speed

Combat Skills

• 20 Leap

Total : 103+ points (clvl 92+). Any spare points should go into Taunt. The reason for this delicate choice will become obvious once you have learned how to play The Coward.


Equipment

In order to improve your chances of success, you need a sufficient supply of FCR and Mana. You will suck at dueling if you are not alert to reaching the highest FCR breakpoints and have plenty of Mana. In public PvM on the other hand, you shouldn't reveal too many secrets about your build. To avoid embarrassing yourself from dying too often during the process of leveling, it pays to use equipment that instils fear into the monsters, already at early levels. Later on, this will discourage them from attacking you without careful thought.

PvM setup

• Helm: Face of Horror (Hit Causes Monster to Flee 50 % !)
• Amulet: Nokozan or some rare amulet with FCR, +Life, +Mana, +Warcries etc.
• Body Armor: Rattlecage (Hit Causes Monster to Flee 40 % !), Hawkmail, Skin of the Vipermagi
• Weapons: Spectral Shard (+50 % FCR, all res +10, +50 to Mana), Heart Carver (+4 to Find Potion, Find Item, and Grim Ward !)
• Gloves: Frostburn (Increase Maximum Mana 40 % !), Magefist, Trang-Oul's Claws
• Rings: Raven Frost, SoJ (Increase Maximum Mana 25 % !), or rare FCR ring with +Life, +Mana etc.
• Belt: Nightsmoke, Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth (both have X % Damage Taken Goes to Mana !)
• Boots: Gorefoot (+2 to Leap !), Silkweave (Increase Maximum Mana 10 % !)

Shields ? We don't need no stinkin' shields !

PvP setup

• Body Armor: Enigma
• Weapons: 2 x Wizardspike

The rest as in PvM. Make sure you have stashed Face of Horror for particularly tricky match-ups (see the final section).


Playing The Coward

Now that you know how to stat, skill, and equip your character, it's time to wreak havoc. Common knowledge dictates that you get the most experience from public games, so this is where you will be heading. Because you are a true pro at PvM, you will be a wondrous asset to any party in Tristram runs, Cow runs, Chaos runs, and Baal runs, from early Normal to late Hell, perfecting your skills along the way.

PvM Tactics 101

1. Run around really fast, occasionally leaping into monsters by accident
2. Get scared and cast Howl (you're a skunk and this is your defense mechanism)
3. Retreat to the Grim Ward you built from a monster corpse left behind by another player

Once you have mastered this 3-step procedure, you may advance to leaphowling, continuous swapping between Leap and Howl. Both skills will be max'ed and since you should have plenty of Mana, you can repeat this pattern almost indefinitely, causing knockback and scaring the hell out of entire screens of monsters. In the rare event that party members are annoyed with you, make sure you let them know that you will be unable to assist vs Diablo (or Baal), hence this is your chance to show a display of true skill.

Pissing off other players in the Secret Cow Level is an excellent way of justifying your build. Clearly, they have no idea that herding cows makes them more susceptible to damage. Should you have chosen to go with Face of Horror and/or Rattlecage, you even have the option to stab those cows who didn't get the message first.

Party-minded behaviour

• Cast Taunt and when someone is about to slay the target, cast Howl
• Rush in and steal the drops. You have a speed advantage - use it !

Frequent use of Find Potion and Find Item is recommended. Steal and drink as many Healing and Rejuvenation Potions as you can, including those left by dead characters. If they complain, tell them they had no Life anyway. Feel free to chastise anyone insulting you and brag about your leveling supremacy of the most underrated build this game has ever seen.


Coward vs Player

PvM quickly proved a breeze as you leveled. Once you have max'ed the 5 main skills, it's time to consider entering the CvP arena. This will be the true determinant of your skill, although it should be obvious from the start that you have a default advantage as they most certainly have never seen anything like The Coward. Catching people by surprise greatly improves your odds of success.

Stash your Rattlecage, put on Enigma, and equip 2 x Wizardspike. An additional +5 % FCR will put you at 8-frame casting. Given the outlined equipment, this should be easy to reach. Consider 200 % FCR for kick-ass 7-frame casting, otherwise stay at 8. Next, add some charms, preferably FR/W, Mana, and maybe some Life and a bit of res. Do NOT use 20/5 or anything even remotely close. You are The Coward and The Coward has no need for such fancy charms. Instead, he defends with superior tactics and since you have LOADS of FR/W, FCR, and Mana, you can run insanely fast as well as teleport and cast forever.

Public Ladder CvP
These games are full of skilled players who are accustomed to fighting hammerdins, smiters, sorcs, trapsins etc. But they have NEVER seen The Coward in action. They will think you are just another free kill and you will prove them horribly wrong. In order to avoid predictable dueling style, it is adviseable to develop various strategies and alternate between them.

The Coward method

1. Run insanely fast, howl, and hide in corners. They will be like, "wtf, n1 hax spawn"
2. Show some self-confidence, "can't kill what you can't catch". Mental warfare is the key to win
3. Annoyed with your pro response, they will be forced to chase you down and accidentally die to another player

You may be The Coward, but you still won.

The Tauntstack method

1. Cast Taunt; at slvl 11 this will decrease target Damage and AR by 25 %
2. When your opponent comes close, leaphowl, thus effectively scaring him 1-2 screens away
3. Repeat 1 and 2. Due to a hidden Ladder Taunt bug, the decrease in Damage and AR stacks (-25 %, -50 % ...)
4. After 4 repetitions (slvl 11 Taunt, otherwise repeat again), your opponent has 0 AR and deals 0 Damage
5. Since you have 2 x Heart Carver on weapon switch, you can now finish him off with a series of Deadly Strike hits

You may be The Coward, but you still won.

The Scarecrow method

1. Some classes (namely, assassins, druids, and necromancers) are not intimidated by your howling. But you have an ace up your sleeve.
2. Face of Horror has a built-in hallucinatory side-effect, causing the affected to flee in terror, a distance of at least 2 screens.
3. Outside harms way, this gives you enough time to slay a Fallen and establish a Grim Ward.
4. Chase down, leap, and trap your opponent between you on one side and Grim Ward on the other, scaring him or her to death.

You may be The Coward, but you still won.

In the unlikely event that your godly CvP barbarian loses a duel, it will be for one of the following reasons,

• Lag
• Miscllick
• Desink (your body surfaced after you drowned in a Well)
• Your opponent was bugged to be immune to Howl or Taunt
• Grim Ward was not properly angled at your opponent

Lag, misclick, and desink occur to everyone, all the time, and are therefore nothing to be ashamed of. Failure to properly set up a Grim Ward should result in playing your less skill-demanding hammerdin.

This concludes my guide to The Coward. Now, be smart and do as I said.

In before TL;DR. First ever character guide, so be nice ^_____________^

Gozi
btw, I got new assa @ ladder, the best pvp place, and its named Gozi 8DD

This post was edited by tudey on Feb 28 2009 02:22pm

This is so awesome^^

10/10

gg guide.

You've outdone yourself here

I hate it when that happens

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm