JOOFVCKED'S GM V/T GUIDE FOR 1.12So, being that v/t's are my passion and I've dueled almost 4 straight months with this character and with no other I felt I should write a guide before ladder resets. I had joined the v/t ladder here and dueled LilCanadian. He will vouch my v/t vs v/t. I quit because the ladder blows , mods are never there , and there's just no real competition here on d2 for this build. There is also no reason to make a BM/Pub v/t - exile dracs. They are weaker and a waste of your time. I won't even go into reasons why Up'd Hoz > Evexile.
I will overtime, add more and more to this guide because I cannot address everything in one shot. But nonetheless, enough raging b/c a good v/t is easily the best 1v all class on d2 and I have included pics of my v/t at the end of this guide.
Quick overview: V/t = vindicator templar. Some will say t/v, meaning max foh instead of smite but why play with words. V/t is v/t. Personally, after 6 remakes I have decided that the foh max build is the easiest but also the most efficient. The reason being is this; with the +dmg on grief and the low +dmg from maxing smite, you only lose 200-300 dmg from not maxing all things related to smite. If you decide to max smite, you will lose out on almost 1k+ foh damage and that is significant.
So I will only discuss the Foh max build here.Maximum V/T efficiency is at lvl 95, however anything 90+ is viable at dueling.
Stat DistributionStr: base
Dex: enough for max block
Vit: rest
Energy: if you touch this, uninstall and send me your fg.
Skill Distribution:20 foh
20 holy shock
~ conviction
20 fanat
20 holy shield (this will be the last skill you're dumping points into.)
~ enough points into conviction for lvl 25 or 26. I chose 26 on mine with default bk/raven/dungo gear on so that when it came time for v/t vs v/t duels, the extra bk on top put you to 28 conviction after bo, thus taking advantage of the conviction glitch.
* at this point you will have extra skill points. Depending on your gear you will either want 1 into cold and light res. Do not get salvation and do not put any points into defensive auras. Many v/t's believe that you need vigor for desync, that is absolutely not true and it will set you back about 5 points.
GearoutGear: I will say right now that if you are poor, do NOT bother to make a v/t. The key to a v/t is +skills pcombs and +life. You also will not enjoy this build if you are mediocre. There are some tough duels ahead for you if you gimp in your gear. You don't want too much str glitching. Unlike other builds, you WILL lose gear - just ask whozyerdaddy how i qq'd for a week after losing a 40/400 griefz.
Helms : ber'd shako / 7/8/15res'd kira's. (or you could jah this kira but I find that sometimes removing the shako leaves u short on stats)
Armor Mp Enigma [str req : 55 ] and COH Coh is vs sorcs. With the coh you'll have to find either a 20str ring or just wear tgod's to offset the str req to wear your up'd hoz.
Rings n' Ammys At lot of ppl will say to get slippers, a lot of those people also can NOT afford slippers. You then also have to deal with perm/unperm. Go with a rare ammy. I had a +2 pcomb 30 str / 11 dex / 10 all res ammy. Mara's works as well if you're poor, if u use maras you might not need coh. Rings are 2x BK , 20 dex ravens and a dwarf for GM fire sorb.
WeaponGrief ZERKER that has over 35% ias. Grief pb is great but sucks b/c it's only got a range of 2 as opposed to zerker's 3. There is no reason to get a grief pb if you can afford a grief zerker. Besides, what to do with all the gold you get when you pk?
repair that sucker.
GlovesCrafted MUST have 20ias / 10% crushing blow / +str /+dex /+life/ res optional
BeltDungos 40/13/15. All those stats are important. Keep an arachs in stash as well as you will see in dueling strategies.
BootsWater walks I have found to be the best. Do not build your v/t off of gores, they're a waste of stats and no life. Plus CB only is good vs barbs or 5k life smiters which, as a v/t you should not have any problem against. Open wounds is good for crazy ES sorcs, so i recommend having them on switch. Hotspurs if you want to be THAT guy.
ShieldUp'd ber'd hoz and on switch use a 20/15 or um'd hoz. U lose 2 skills if u use spirit so just keep that in stash for pre-BO if that is acceptable in your duel.
CTADefinitely a 3foh / 3 conviction 6 bo cta. Too much weapon switching is time consuming, also you lose versatility if you end up in the field too often. Yes, with a foh stick you will gain approx 1.5k damage, but it's not worth the switching. Plus, GM rules dictates you cannot pre-BO.
InventoryAnni
Torch
9x 45 life pcombs
20/11 lr and cr sc's. (you don't need 20/5's).
Dueling StrategiesThe key to this is practice,
practice,
PRACTICE. This means if you fail, try again. Don't s/e and bring another character. Be patient and overtime you will start to realize little idiosyncrasies to each class. Also, charge is your main offensive and defensive skill.
BarbsDifficulty : 1/5
Not a challenge. The only ones worth dueling anyways are WW barbs. Do not chase them. Good ones will do one of two things: 1) WW away from you making you walk after them and smite or 2) Triangle WW of death
better
This is why grief zerker with range of 3 > grief pb. Hold shift, smite and when they ww out of range, hotkey to foh/convic and drop a few on them until they return to your grief range. DO NOT WEAPON SWITCH. Your goal is to increase dps, but not to lose out on dmg ability. All barbs lose to smite.
SorcsDifficulty 3/5
There's only really two types of sorcs that are relevant when it comes to v/t dueling. Vita and ES. Vita are easier b/c they cannot tank too many fohs. Charge around and FOH to death. If you're ambitious, charge. Any good sorc will not let you have time to smite-also not a good idea due to charge glitching.
For ES sorcs, Drop a few FOH's to drain their mana and IMMEDIATELY follow up with a namelock charge. Do not charge in a straight line as that is asking for death and chargelock, but rather deysnc or charge in a semi circle before going in for the kill. Charge until death or until they're backed against something, which at that time you will switch to smite and finish them off.
Fire/cold/lightning all have their own little perks and disadvantages for v/t's to look for: such as FCR(fball)/pause to cast (lightning/orb)/and when NOT to charge (blizz) but if needed I will expand on this section later on.
Trapsins4/5
These get tough. Especially if you lack light res. Trap sins die to charge. This is a touch and go duel. Unlike sorcs, don't just bee-line charge and hope for trapsins to die. Charge in, if you get a hit good, switch to smite. If you charge in and miss, charge away immediately. You can drop foh but most of the time sins have claw block and fade, thus pretty much negating foh. Instead, use foh on the shadow master. Take down the shadow master, you will take down the sin.
Versus mindblast, use WSG and charge AWAY from source. This will always break stuns and locks.
Hybrid sins 4/5
Same tactic as above but switch to walk. Worst thing you can do is charge into a ww. Your goal is to draw them away from traps and as they're recasting that is your window of opportunity. Rinse and repeat. Assassin duels will be the longest ones you have.
Druids 4/5
Feral are a joke. Smite, Foh, have fun with this.
Windys: The good ones, like KingKorea's Eatzoo, can eat you alive if you make a wrong move. The goal is to take out sage, preferably by foh, some charge sage then charge windy but this gets tricky esp if they use a bear. After sage is gone, charge druid till death, or if max block, charge in then smite.
+++more dueling strats and gear loadout in the future+++
Jenn
My V/T