Any zealot with a Crushflange and Swordback Hold on its weapon switch should be able to beat this build. All you need it one point in smite, and the equipment will do the rest. If you have it, a point in Holy Freeze is a nice touch. Switch to your main zeal weapon (Blessed Aim helps) when the returns from CB start to diminish so you can hit the deathblow, though that may not be necessary. If you're feeling chippy, PSkull the shield for a fun little "Attacker Takes Damage" boost.

Duskdeep is ordinarily a good way to negate smiters; however, using this build, you advocate putting no points into Concentrate and getting your point(s) from the helmet. Are you supposed to attack the Smiter with a normal attack then? Smite tears through interruptible attacks, and you would fare much better without Duskdeep.

Other than those points, good guide.

Which, now that I think about it, is exactly why I didn't chose to have a Duskdeep when I originally made the character. Dunno why I tossed that info in there. However, with that being said, the smite vs the conc barb thing opens up that "smite is melee/not melee" can of worms. If worse came to worse, I guess I could try slapping a couple of frw gc's (sacrificing a percentage of your defense) and become a "throwbarb" with my weapon switch. It's just a "patch" but maybe it could work. Every build has its counter though, I reckon.


I have never had a problem with kickers. With that being said, I COULD have a problem against kickers if the kicker were built correctly.


I don't understand where you are coming from here Marcsman. I thought the trophy section was intended to post our "godly/trophy" gear. What is trophy about a perfect defense Sigon set suggestion in a build guide? Perfect defense Sigon's gear gives is 12 defense higher than non-perfect. Doesn't sound like a whole lot, but once you apply your iron skin, shout, and concentrate +%defense increase, that same 12 defense turns into roughly 60 defense. Why would you turn away 60 extra defense on something that's so easy to attain? If we apply your same reasoning to cow king boots, then you're looking at a total loss of 120ish defense (post conc).


Looking forward to seeing that one!


They are all in the LLDpk guild charter info. However, I believe we are rapidly approaching the limit of space in it. Can't wait for the forums...


I would wager that 90% of battlenet all uses the same builds. It's a rare thing to have someone try something completely different. (Waramp ftw!) You will almost always find variants of gear. Some people with perfect stuff. Some people without perfect stuff. Consider this: if everyone used the same build and same gear, it would all boil down to actual SKILL at dueling (melee vs. melee need not apply. )


yes


This was the fourth when I posted it. Breakbeatz's new fury guide makes 5 for LLDpk so far!


DOH! save/exit/delete/remake. Can't win em all...

This post was edited by Shademehr on Jan 31 2007 09:48pm

also, my kicker beat the best defensive conc barb on west ladder in a first to 4 on lld101. my high ar (4.6k if i remember) and cloak of shadows was too much to handle. especially since i had a cold dmg sc in my inv, and he was using sigon belt. he had to switch to death's belt and lost even more def.
i would like to duel a conc barb with my new zealer though. 3.7k ar (i think) using blessed aim and clegs, i think i might be able to give a concer a run for their money

I dueled an 18 zealot a week or so ago. I beat him the first time and he realized I was a defense build. Then he switch to ar gear and started using blessed aim. I think he said he had about 4000 ar. He won the next two times. I think I won the next 4 or 5. Then he had to go. (If that person is viewing this, please chime in. I'm trying to recall to the best of my knowledge). I don't recall what his weapon was. Unfortunately I need a remake when I get a chance to have him rushed. I'm currently at 63% block due to a charm mishap and have been that way for months.

Did that barb (that dueled your kicker) say what his defense was? With the last two sc's I got, I pushed my defense up to 5227/5740 (normal/prebuff). My goal is 6000.

Are there any 18 kickers (with high AR) that I can test against on East Ladder? I'll try even with my flawed block to see how I hold up.

ladder needs to merge so we can test my zealot vs your conc.

i beat leandro using b.aim 4/5 times and he had ~5.2k def iirc.

Agreed! I look forward to the competition...if it ever happens.

Blizzard reps: "Diablo who?"

I'll duel it with my 18.. i use that 120ar/40max/37 life circ / b.aim gives me 4.8k ar. im usually in yoru channel if you wanna test it shade =)


Nice guide though shade, id like to try one of these myself

This post was edited by JeW_ on Jan 31 2007 11:55pm

sure thing. I"m currently wrapped up on West completing some trades. I'll look for you tomorrow night if we're both on.

c ya then!

What about a Zeal or Concentrate charged scepter for fighting smiters?
That way you can use Duskdeep, although if it was going to work you'd need your main weapon to be a hammer or something, so that you have points in mace mastery. I actually prefer war scepters to war axes, although you lose 1 socket the scepter is a little faster, and it gives you more flexibility allowing you to use Zeal or Conc charged scepters.

dont forget you would lose a lot of sockets too. charged items can only have 2 sockets. i'd rather just put a point in conc.