The Dreaming Tele Zealot
Not your average MF character.

So my favorite type of D2 character has always been a Melee chracter, particularly the Zealot, for its ridiculously fast attack speed and the schere badassness of hacking MOBs apart. However, if you want to find good stuff to sell on JSP you need a solid MF character, which typical zealots are not. I've made a number of variations of Sorc's and your typical Hammerdin, which are all very effective, but I grow board of them quickly and especially hate that every other player in the game has the same build. I started to wish I had a character that I loved playing but that was also good for Magic Finding. So in 1.12 I set off to build an MF Zealot and what I came up with was a Doom wielding Dreamer that rocked Conviction. The main problem that he had was he didn't kill fast enough because he couldn't move fast enough. Even though he sported an Enigma he didn't have enough FCR to make teleporting functional. I had also intentionally shyed away from physical damage with him because I hated IM and 1-hitting myself while running Chaos. So with as tired as I am already of playing my light Sorc and the elimination of Iron Maiden in 1.13 there doesn't seem to be any better time to resurect my old MF Zealot freind but modify the setup to make him an all around better MF chracter. (This is actually my second crack at this guide for those of you who read the original)

My Goals were:
1. High enough damage to frequently 1-hit MOBs.
2. ~300 MF because much more is useless IMO, especialy with the crazy value Whites and Grays have these days.
3. 4-Frame Attack Speed, the faster you attack the faster you kill.
4. Maxed Res in Hell.
5. No immunity issues.
6. A source of life replenishment outside of Pots
7. 48 FHR breakpoint or better
8. 75 FCR
9. Maxed Block
10. No crazy level 95 requirement, because I don't bot and get really tired of leaching baal runs.
11. Relatively low cost

Here's the new Setup...

Skills:
20 Resist Lightning
20 Fanatacism
20 Sacrafice
20 Zeal
8 Holy Shield


Gear:
Dream BV - An obviuos requirement for the lvl 15 Holy Shock Aura, but some great mods here, 30 FHR, 20 Res, great defense and 25 MF to boot. I like using a BV because of its high def and low reqs, and it is one bad looking helm too.
Dream ST - Same is true here as above. 45 Res sacred Targe is a great choice simply because it has the highest chance to block of all pally shields.
Enigma - Teleport, Strength for gear, great MF, we all know why this armor is King of MF
Grief PB - Crazy Damage, I like using a PB because no additional IAS is necessary to reach 4-frames with it while using Fana, and its indestructible so no scary repair bills either. I also like the CtC Venom on it.
Tang Gloves - 20 FCR is required to hit 75, and I don't need mana, so might as well grab some cold res. Not to mention the additional 25% Poison dmg boost it provides Venom from Grief.
Trang Belt - CBF is why I chose this belt, but it has some realy nice life on it too. I also don't quite know what I'm going to do with the 18 to Fire Ball the glove/belt combo grants, but its kind of fun none the less.
2x FCR Rings - Required to hit 75 FCR. Additional mods that are nice are LL to keep your red bulb full, dexterity to help reach max block, all res so you don't need any from charms and AR to help hit more frequently.
Gores - Only source of CB, also provides DS for additional damage and OW, just sick melee boots. If you don't care about CB you could easily go Travs for MF and the 15-25 to damage adds a surpring amount of end damage.
Atma's - CtC Amp provides -100% to physical damage resistance which breaks Physical Immunes and provides a massive increase in the actual physical damage dealt.

Switch:
Spirit ST - Must have a 35 FCR one here, in order to hit 75 FCR. I do all of my teleporting on switch. It's ideal to also make this in a 45 all res ST as well so you can keep your resistances up and maintain max block while teleporting.
CTA - Obvious choice for life and mana boost, I like having this in a Flail rather than a CS since you're using a Phase Blade for Grief it helps you know what gear your on.

Merc: A2 NM Defensive - might as well add another Aura into the mix! Seriously though the slowing effect of Holy Freeze just cannot be beaten.
Andy's - 40/15'd
Treachery
Infinity GP
Note: It's possible to glitch stack your auras by giving your merc a dream helm and then swapping your helm with his over and over again. So if you like to play glitched for ridiculously fast MF runs you can just carry a second dream and prebuff your auras before you start the run.

Inventory:
Anni
Torch
Gheeds
20x 7mfs - Leaves 8 open spaces so you can pick up any size item

The end result, how did we do on our goals?

1. Damage - I'm sure most of you reading this are aware of this problem but the charcter screen will not reflect the damage below because the +dmg from Grief is not properly displayed.
Physical Damage - 6,612 - 6,687 (15ed, 400 dmg Grief with 133 Str)
Light Damage - 1 - 5,222 (Lvl 30 Holy Shock with 20 in Res Light)
Total Damage - 6,613 - 11,909 (Avg. 9,261)

2. MF - Dream-25 + Dream-25 + Nigma-90 + Gheeds-40 + 20x 7MFs-140 = 320 (380 with Travs)

3. Attack Speed - 4-Frames

4. Resistances -
CR - Dream-20 + Dream-65 + Anni-20 + Torch-20 + Anya-30 + Trangs-30 = 85 in Hell
FR - Dream-20 + Dream-65 + Anni-20 + Torch-20 + Anya-30 = 55 in Hell (need 20 more from rings/charms)
LR - Dream-20 + Dream-65 + Anni-20 + Torch-20 + Anya-30 = 55 in Hell (because you've maxed Light Res the cap will now be at 85 so if you can get 30 more from rings/charms it certainly helps)
PR - Dream-20 + Dream-65 + Anni-20 + Torch-20 + Anya-30 = 55 in Hell (need 20 more from rings/charms)

5. Immunities - with 2 sources of damage, conviction to break light immunes and CtC Amp for physical immunes there is nothing that you can't kill!

6. Life Replenshiment - I was originally thinking of using Dracs for LT, but later realized using Dracs and Atmas is counter productive because the two CtC curses would constantly be canceling each other out. This char does deal a lot of physical damage so even a small amount of life leach will be noticable. You can actually craft a blood ring with FCR and as much as 11LL on it, with 22% LL dealing 6,650 avg physical damage you would leach 1,463 life per hit. This does not take into account any phsycial resistance a monster might have, but it also doesn't consider the effect Amp has or any crushing blow. All in all a small amount of LL will go a long way to keeping your health full.

7. FHR - The dreams alone can provide up to 60 FHR ,which easily covers the 48 FHR break point. I personally think 48 is enough for PvM but the option for 86 is there if desired.

8. FCR - Trangs-20 + FCR Ring-10 + FCR Ring-10 + Spirit on Switch-35 = 75. I simply prebuff with BC and BO and then set the left mouse to Tele before switching to the main setup. Then when I want to tele I switch weapons.

9. Max Block - 151 Dexterity at level 85 is necessary with a Sacred Targe and lvl 16 Holy Shield to achieve Max block. The chance to block perecentage for holy shield is 34 for lvl 16 - 19 so with 8 skills from gear charms and BO putting 8 into Holy Shield allows him to reach 16. This char has roughly 60 Dex from base, anni and torch which means you need at least 91 Dex via gear or investment. The best you can do from gear is 15 from each FCR ring with this setup so a major investment in dexterity is necessary. Not to worry though, you get 66 life from trangs belt and can get more life on your rings especially if you go the crafted Blood route. Furthermore, crazy high life is not really necessary in PvM and with no investment in strength required to wear any of your gear you will still be able to pump a bunch into Vita.

10. Level - At level 85 you have enough skill points including pre-reqs to have 20 in Res Light, Fana, Zeal & Sacrafice and have 8 points in Holy shield and thus complete the build. This character is actually fully functional as soon as you can use your Torch and Anni and only gets better with age! Now what to do with the additional skill points? You have a number of options when it comes to skill points beyond 85, my recommendation is to go and get Redemption which is acheiveable at lvl 90, but if you want extra defense you could pump holy shield, or if you want more damage you can pump salavtion, or if you feel like you need AR you can always go with blessed aim for the passive 5% AR per point, your options are really endless.

11. Cost - As you can see I'm rather poor so cost is always a concern of mine. Some of the items I've talked about above can be really expensive and hard to find, especially something like a P Spirit ST or a Perfect Grief or an FCR ring with AR, Dex, Life and Res, however this character does not need perfect gear to be a sick killing machine. When you're buying your greif keep in mind that you only need 9 additional IAS with Zeal and level 28 Fana to reach 4-Frames with a PB, so focus on getting one with higher damage and don't wory about IAS. Don't bother buying an expensive FCR ring either, so long as it has fcr and life leach it will do the trick. It's also totally unecssary to have a perfect Spirit ST on switch, just make sure you have 35 FCR and some res and you'll do just fine. Lastly, when acquiring Dreams just focus on high resistances, you don't need perfect 30 FHR just make sure that between the two of them you hit 48, you also don't need perfect Def or MF here either.

All in all this character is by far my favorite character for Magic Finding, very fast killing speed and very versatile, there is no area he can't MF. I also love people's reaction to all of the Auras and getting asked what type of character is that?

I truely enjoy playing this character so I thought I'd try and share it with others. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

sounds interesting ill try it out, i always liked the look of holy shock aura, and my hammerdin has gotten quite

This post was edited by jakovac on Jul 28 2010 01:10am

Nice, I think you'll like giving it a try. Great thing about Re-specs is you could just respec your hammerdin and give it a try, if you don't like it you can always switch back!

That does sound interesting. I have all the gear you mentioned on my old non ladder pally so I might try it out with the respec option.

Sticky !

That's awesome, I don't think you'll be disappointed! If you have any questions about it when you get going feel free to post them here or pm me.



Thanks for this!

From the title I can see you're using Enigma.
Nothing's better than Fortitude for a PvM zealot. Before you argue "I wanna tele to kill the bosses" realize the entire area is most likely area level 85 (Assuming you'll do BR's/DR's as a regulatory run), and any of them is worth killing, if your whole idea here is MF'ing, and if I wanted just a bosskiller, I'd take a simple hdin, and your point here is fun.

Couldn't help but look at your Weapon selection too, since I figured you'd make such a mistake. Eth Death Ettin Axe > Grief PB for the PvM zealot.

20x 7mf sc + enigma + gheeds = easily ove 250 mf... at that point any character can be an mf character... 8 open spots in inventory is a slow way to mf.
CTA is useless for PvM
6k physical damage with grief, not taking into account any monster resistances in damage calcs, no comparison between using native conviction on a dreamer to prove your native fanatacism is better, 15 CB, all perfect stat gear selection suggestions to barely meet decent stats = terrible guide
does the character work in SP games, sure.. but the cost vs performance analysis says that your build is weak, especially for a paladin.

cost is obviously understated in your guide but you claim it's a selling point. do a comparison with perfect low stat gear and show us where that puts you.. or better yet, welfare gear! how would someone make your character if they cant afford enigma and dream and grief? would it still be viable?

or you could learn some basics about paladins and zealots by reading ancalagons fanazealot guide

In his defense, he did a fair bit of analysis in his last thread about Fanat vs. Conviction: http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=45827699&f=87
Especially on the second page.

I don't necessarily disagree that Fortitude would be a great armor on this character. It would alleviate having to get additional Res from rings and charms, it also provides a sizeable boost in damage and defense as well as a bunch of life (albiet not BOable). However, one of the main points of this build is to substitute your sorc or H'din with this character for all MF runs. This does not mean I don't walk baal occassionaly, but it does mean if I don't feel like it and just want to tele to the throne I can do that as well. What if I want to run countess, or Andy, or Meph? A truly versatile MF char isn't going to walk these. I'm not arguing this charcter is better than an H'din or a light Sorc for MF, it's just a viable alternative that is not a cookie cutter build and that I have much more fun playing.

As far as an eth death ettin goes, the avg damage using it on this character would be 6,039, which is less than 6,650. This calculation does not take the 50% CB death provides into consideration, which I'm assuming actually makes the end damage of the eth death ettin better than a Grief PB. The main drawback to Death is its lack of IAS. You need 80 IAS total to hit 4-frame zeal with a lvl 28 Fana aura and with 0 from the weapon itself I would have to swap out my gloves, ammy, belt, and armor or helm. I can't honestly say its worth losing the ability to teleport or a huge chunk of lightning damage to gain more physical damage when I don't need any more in the first place.

Thanks for the comments though, the guide would not be legitimate with out a critique by Synonym!