This is my version/variation of a PvP smiter, one that looks beyond the typical charge-smite-charge-smite you encounter in pubs. I've had a couple smiters in the past, most notably on east nl and lad ("Regime" and "BlueDevils", respectively). Both are since retired. However I've had a few requests and some spare time, so here it is. This guide is based primarily off of my east nl one. Ie, not entirely legit and comparatively atypical (My ladder variant was a bit more cookiecutter and 100% legit. If there's enough interest I will post the legit setup as well). Please withhold any criticism until you've read the entire guide.... particularly regarding gear suggestions. Some of my choices are unusual, however at some point will be explained. I will try to be as in-depth as possible. As one smiter was stolen and the other is now dismantled, I'm going mostly from memory... please bear with me. I'll begin the guide with this: Do -NOT- underestimate the value of tele-smite.
Gear
Primary setup:
COA, dual ber'd
Archon plate enigma
Grief phaseblade (Not zerk. I will explain why soon.)
1x 20 dex ravenfrost
1x Stat ring..... Aim for one similar to what I had, a 20 str 15 dex with life and/or cold res (perfect statted ring won't be cheap, but try for the best you can get)
Armageddon Slippers (This is an east specific amulet. I'll post a s/s below; if you are from west/euro/asia simply try to find a close alternative)
Spirit sacred targe (35 fcr, as much base res as possible)
Magefists or Trang gloves
Arachnid mesh
65 life waterwalks
Inventory:
37x 20/5's (
Very important. If one thing is worth spending a bunch on for a smiter, it's life/res scs)
Ptorch and anni (as high as possible obviously)
Cta/spirit on switch obviously
Stash:
Soul spurs (Another east-specific item.
. Main mods I keep these boots for are the strength and cold res.)
Um'd wizardspike (Indeed, the "barb ow trick" is occasionally found useful with smiters..)
Swordback hold spiked shield, Um'd or Ptopazed/Psapphired and twice upped
Bloodfists
Dracs
Exile sacred targe (I prefer ed/ar. A bit of extra damage helps more than res vs the chars you need it for.)
40/15 verdungos
glitched hoz, ber'd
Jah'd shako
Ber'd shako
Marrowalks
Hotspurs
1x ravenfrost 1x whisp 1x dwarf 1x carrion wind
Added bm gear like nature's peace or hoto / more sorb / 205 cold shields or thul-thul griz helm/ eternity / crescent moon / gavel of pain can be useful as well. Though you won't have room for all of it. I suggest you like I did and have a mule grushed for when you need these
Some goals reached:
75 fcr (Like I said, amazing telesmiting capability)
~2.5k onscreen damage (decent for all 20 lifers)
4.8 - 5.2k life at lvl 90 depending on how strictly you stat your smiter and on setup
Fhr note: Spirit + Coa together is 85 fhr. The breakpoint for 4th frame fhr is 86. If you so desire you may throw in a fhr sc to reach that bp. I personally chose not to as I see no need for fhr on a smiter when shiftsmite+walk or charge can pull me out of anything. But that's just me. :]
Decent dr in main setup, max dr in other setups
Highly stacked res
Some gear explanations (The strategy section will also have some reasons behind particular setups):
CoA vs Shako
With shako it is simply not possible to keep good dr while maintaining the 75 fcr frame. The DR and stacked res a coa offers is simply outstanding in this setup. However, in the case where that extra dr boost is unnecessary, Shako > Coa anyday. The difference is approximately 200-250 life, give or take, as well as depending on what you socket your shako with... I suggest "Jah". After all you're only using it if you -don't- need the dr or to stack res. In coa I have roughly 4,850 life, with shako I hit 5050. I realize these numbers are somewhat low compared to many pure smiters that hit 5.2k+ on average, yet I strongly believe these other bonuses this build offers makes up for that. Aside from that, in 0 fcr setup with pure dr/hoz build, you will hit almost 5.3k life. I hit 5.7k in my SvS setup (but unfortunately that trick will remain with me
. I add this to show it is very possible and dependent on what you use)
Why not grief zerk?
Yes, I realize a pb is 1 unit inferior to a zerk in terms of range. However, I enjoy the flexibility a pb build offers. You don't have to worry about keeping an IAS breakpoint (which frankly this setup doesn't allow too much room for). Also for the fact that you will be virtually unaffected by opponents that exploit "Slow target by X" as opposed to those that use a zerk, the effects of which can be critical. However in some instances I do prefer a zerk. More on that later, possibly, as it's what I used on my legit smiter instead of this one.
Why not pcomb lifers?
Because I don't think the damage output, although significant, is worth it. Unless you can find very high lifers, even plain 20 life scs > pcombs. However, your resistances will suffer and you may have to switch to make up for it.... Ie, kiras or coh or res boots, which -severely- compromises your build. 37x 20/5's is a total of +185 resistance. So in hell you have max res and then some from charms alone. So beyond charms everything is effectively stack to cut out facets, conviction, lower res, and cold mastery.
I believe the rest of the basic setup is fairly self-explanatory. As I leave this guide wide open for questions, I will answer any that arise should I have left anything out or failed to explain something in detail. Now for the stash:
Soul spurs:
The only thing you may need these against are blizzers. The +strength also about matches that of the stat ring that you rely on to wear CoA, allowing you to replace a stat ring with a second ravenfrost if you so desire.
Um'd wizardspike / Swordback hold / Dracs
This primarily concerns east, were certain high es/mass bmana sorcs can tank an insane amount of smites, or in any case where you simply don't want to turn it into a contest of tanking ability (high es/dr/etc sorcs that still manage significant damage). In which case you can simply bleed them
. I -RARELY- had to resort to this method. However the few times I did it worked like an absolute charm. Lock and charge or lock and tele+smite, retreat til the 8 second open wound duration runs out.... and work again. Once they're down you can simply finish them off with holy freeze or a single charge.
Exile sacred targe:
There are really only two instances where I advocate using an exile. That is in the instance of smite-v-smite where your opponent chooses to use an exile and occasionally vs a very skilled ele druid.
Dungos
For smite v smite... and occasionally if you feel the need to sacrifice fcr for dr vs druids and barbs
Ber'd hoz
For GM smite v smite.
Jah'd shako / Ber'd shako
For when you don't need dr, thus would prefer a life boost / For smite v smite setup
Marrowalks
Have str/dex. For the reasons that is a plus, see soul spurs. As well as lifetap charges.....
. It's nice having lifetap on a hotkey when you need it (generally just for bm duels. I am strongly opposed to LT in gm duels.)
Hotspurs
For vs. fire sorcs. Obviously. Keep in mind that the Gm/Bm rules regarding hotspurs varies from realm to realm. Ie, on some realms it's generally acceptable whereas on others a fire sorc will be reduced to tears upon mention of a spurring opponent. If that's the case and you pity the sorc, a pair of Infernostrides get the job done.
Other
Ravens/Whisp/Dwarf/Carrion... for stack and/or sorb.... nature's peace/hoto for oak charges... 205 shield and griz helm if you blow and need it vs blizzers... eternity/crescent moon for revives or wolves (keep in mind your smite damage will greatly suffer).... Gavel of pain for amp damage...
What you use vs certain classes, I hope, is common sense. Request specific setups if that is not the case. It's a method of simply choosing which item benefits the most and in turn requires you to make up for the stats possibly lost from switching items with another.
Stats (based at level 90)
Strength: As base as possible. You will have to invest a few points however (in my case I needed to add 3). With torch, anni, your stat ring, slips, and enigma, you will have enough for coa. Keep in mind that you may need to add one extra if you plan to use soul spurs to replace the stat ring every so often, soul spurs have 19 str. So if you have a stat ring with 20, you will obviously need to add one more. If your ring has less than 19, then disregard this last bit. And now this is very important. Most people tend to stat their chars as soon as they can use torch/anni, at lvl 75. I advise against doing this. The difference in the strength bonus an enigma gives at lvl 90 as oppose to lvl 75 is 11 strength.... which in many regards, is a significant amount. Enough to where I strongly recommend using 2 str scs and the like until you have levelled yourself as far as you intend to go.
Dex: 136 with gear. 65% block with spirit at lvl 90 (which is plenty in most cases. Add a raven if you feel otherwise). Max block with hoz. Enough to use grief pb. 'Nuff said.
Vitality: All else.
Energy: none.
Skills:
20 smite
20 holy shield
20 fanatacism
1 in vigor (significantly better desynch, and cleansing is a prereq that can come in handy)
1 in holy freeze
20 resist lightning (this build doesn't allow tgods for the most part. and as most elemental opponents are indeed lightning, the passive bonus is very valuable)
That leaves you with 11 spare points. What you do is up to you, however here is what I chose:
1 conviction (I team duel a lot. Teamed with a trapper, this works wonders)
1 salvation (if you or your team need a bit of stack)
Rest I loaded into charge.... bit of damage and ar never hurts. Or you could try foh if you find yourself chasing openwounds-shredded opponents that retreat with 1 life.
Strats
There are 2 basic ways a smiter closes in on an enemy. One is by desynch, which I will assume you already know how to do. The other is by teleing. Teleing onto someone on your screen is simple..... just mouse on over to them and press. Easy.
Chainlocking is a bit harder. Those of you that know what I'm talking about will notice I tend to use this smiter's tele-smite capability VERY similarly to the technique of zerking with a bvc. However, for those that might not see that yet, let's start with the basics. To namelock, you must lock onto their name, whether with charge or smite or, as you will soon see, throw/unsummon (unsummon i believe is only available on left click to users of nightlight and LC mod). As smite is a left click skill, I choose to throwlock (i dislike auralocking). The basic idea of this namelock is to tele on your opponent from a distance. They can be anywhere from 2 or so screens away and you can still land on them simply by switching and holding throw on leftclick, and proceding to click tele on rightclick. If this is new to you, go try this before you read too much further on so you can understand what I'm talking about:
Get a friend, and hostile him. Have him stand in the blood moor, and hold 'Throw' on him with left click. Tell him to then move away from you as far as he can without disappearing off of the minimap. Now, on right click (while still holding throw of course), press to tele. You'll be right on them. This is often referred to as "throwlock", "unsummon lock", or basic "namelock" in several senses.
Now, the next step beyond that is "chainlock". You do all the steps of a basic namelock as described above, only you hold your cursor to where as soon as you come out of the initial tele, you are already locked onto them. Now you can switch back to smite and hit them or, if they tele away, switch back to throw and move onto them again. Chainlocking is as simple as moving your cursor on top of you (your character) as you tele from the initial namelock. It's surprisingly easy with just a little bit of practice, and is the entire premise of a tele-smiter. *(If the above explanation of chainlocking was not clear enough, I can "Frap" a video of it to post. For some it's easier to learn by watching after all.)
Similarly, certain classes intend to do the same thing to you, and it will be necessary for you to "Break" their namelock. To do so simply run away far enough to where their name along with the little red "X" disappear from your minimap. Simple. Namelock broken.
A smiter is at a class disadvantage to most other chars. Well, I wouldn't call it so much of a natural disadvantage so much as just about every single other class has a general solution to dealing with smiters. As such, to win,
you must simply outwit and outplay your opponents the majority of the time. Thus, as a forewarning, don't be frustrated if you get your ass kicked a lot with your smiter initially, even in public games. Even though most consider a smiter to be a "skilless" class, to play well they're no more simple than many other chars.
Vs any class that does blockable damage/attacks, be sure to set yourself to walk instead of run. % chance to block is drastically reduced otherwise.
Now that some basic corners are covered, on to more specific strategies. I will give a basic rundown of each class. These are merely guidelines. The details you can only learn yourself... I'm trying to encourage that. Anyways: