Has progress slowed dramatically at the beginning of NM?

Congrats on completing Normal. You are a lot braver than I was starting Nightmare too!

No, its about the same speed as A5 Normal, maybe a bit faster. Merc was dying alot so I gave him a Strength Lochaber Axe for the LL.



Thanks man! I wasn't sure if I would beat Normal with this build but the Amazon is good with a merc, valk and decoy.

Yes, that is quite the crappy block frame rate. Any ideas on how to combat this as you approach end game gear? I came up with a couple of ideas:

Shael'd Stormshield = 55% increased chance of blocking (ICB)
Shael'd Whistans = 60% ICB

Any other thoughts?

So the solutions to this problem are definitely those two shields if I use a swinging weapon in Hell. The best alternative is to use daggers. They have the same block speed as Javelins for Amazon. So my ideal Hell weapon would be an amazing rare dagger or Fleshripper, or a really good melee weapon with SS or Whitsan.

Here is a daggerzon build: http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Guide:PvM_Daggerzon_v1.10,_by_Ava

Should I use Prayer or Defiance merc for my gang?

I would say use Defiance for overall better tankability (no, that's not a real word). Prayer wouldn't be bad I guess. I wonder what the health regen rate is.

Great WT so far. You planning on looking to gear for high Crushing Blow, Knock Back, and Deadly Strike?

This post was edited by Retrovirus on Jan 28 2016 01:20pm

If I was you I'd just grab a 3os kite, double shael it with one Pdia for resists. Done 40 faster block your frames would go down huge for now. U til you can find a good shield that is.

I think I might make that switch pretty soon, it seems like a smart idea.

Yeah you've got it right, in fact I just created a Black that I'll be posting soon.



I don't think that I'll be fixing my blocking problems until it becomes a bigger problem in late NM and Hell but thats a good idea.

More skills into Valk


First Shael


Blood Raven

Treehead killed merc right away but Valk is dealing some nice damage now


Griswold with drops