It's not a big secret they can clear area's like chaos in relatively low gear (if painfully slow at times), and some are shown to also kill trav. . and it's a murder in the pits. . . That said, a lot of those show full builds or don't really kill with any type of speed/safety whatsoever outside pits without CTA type builds that can take enough hits to be close enough for the spread. . if you're soo squishy you die to a few demons nearby at once or one elite pack, you may not get to fully abuse FoH's spread. . And your damage is also so low, that killing some targets becomes quite difficult. . . Theirs a lot of random guides that all have different setups. but the one thing that seems missing is where you actually fit mf into the build that isn't like enigma/shako


So I have a few questions about builds/efficiency/mf for the slight power trough you get into where you can massacre pits, kill chaos in what feels like ages (diablo himself takes forever without a lot of +skils).

1st - what's the Initial setup you guys aim for. Do you prefer having really low/no mf, and pick up a lot of +skills items, or go for a heavier mf and stick to the pits?. . Basically asking what the breakeven point you look for is, a balance of the 2. How much damage is adequate to kill chaos/trav with a good pace.

2nd - what earlier game items you use to accomplish that. . .

Helm - MF helm (3x topaz) vs lore vs resistance helm to take the melee hits better

Chest - 4x topaz chest vs quad res chest vs skills chest (spirit shroud/vipermagi/Peace runeword)

Weapon - spirit cs vs +3 FoH scepter (unlikely to get a +skill FoH scepter unless very lucky, and Hand of the blessed light seems quite pricy now. so I don't see that as an option unless lucky early)

Shield - spirit shield vs Rhyme vs Ancient pledge vs Splendor

rings - fcr vs mf vs resistances

boots/belt/gloves - mf vs resistances

3rd - What's your preferred alternative aura. . . Conviction seems to be the primary, but it feels like redemption/meditation/fanatacism are all good alternatives. Theirs even an option to go heavy salvation + fire/light res for the +max resistances. Especially if you're focused on targets where the lightening is of little to no use anyway (trav)

4th - Do you realistically aim for max block? If you're running so much early on and you can't block when running. . And you'll need to invest a lot into dex unless you happen to get something along the lines of HoZ early.

bump

Go 75 fcr and enough res to wear a tgods/dwarf, waterwalks

Then hit the bps you want for mf

Like a griffins for helm or shako
Maras or stat ammy
Hoz or spirit
Unique boots or craft
Trang gloves
3/3/3 foh cta or just use a hoto

Always use conviction, foh is now effected by fcr.

Then get a supporting merc, none with cold dmg.

Always run max block.

This post was edited by Nataraja on Jul 31 2022 08:14am

For the start of ladder I made foh and did player 1 chaos runs. Note this was softcore.

Items - spirit sword/shield (maybe 30 @ base) Stealth armor. Random everything else (mf res, life, whatever). Idk if I'd do this on hardcore without some %dr, sorb, extra res, block etc. That said i didn't really die. Maybe occasionally but with foh/holy bolt it is easy to play safe if you want to.

For chaos I didn't think there was much value in conviction. I used salvation as primary aura. Switched to redemption as desired. I did not put points into conviction or holy shock. Used holy bolt to clear light immune and to clean up remaining things after a few fohs

I did vita and a bit of energy. Again - softcore. Would probably be a bit more cautious on hc...

Edit: i also used cleansing a lot for psn/curse removal and sometimes sanctuary for de seis if I was scared

This post was edited by tributedruid on Jul 31 2022 09:31am