1st character to merciless... Need Help!

This is my first character that i have gotten to merciless difficulty. I have farmed ledge for a few levels (currently lvl 57) but i still find myself vastly outclassed when trying to progress further.

The build is a basic ground slam/heavy strike build that utilizes leap slam for mobility. Additionally, i use endurance charges (6) and warlord's mark.


If some more experienced players could take a few minutes and review what i have, and provide some input on what i need to improve i would be really grateful.

Here is my build:




Here is my gear:




Some base Stats: (note that no buffs are applied)



Not sure what other information i could post that would be helpful, but i really could use some pointers in focusing on where and how to improve my gear or build! Otherwise i'm afraid i might be stuck at the ledge for a very very long time.

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adubs300 wrote:

Spoiler

Base Life: 2398hp
Heavy Strike Dps: 1360dps
Ground Slam DPS: 573dps
armor 1097
fire resis 5%
cold resis 10%
lightning resis 41%
chaos resis -42%
life regen 105/sec

I currently have 6 endurance charges

Not sure what other information i could post that would be helpful, but i really could use some pointers in focusing on where and how to improve my gear or build! Otherwise i'm afraid i might be stuck at the ledge for a very very long time.

Hi there and welcome to merci .
First of all your armor and resists need a lot of boosting im in act 2 merci sitting on 6k armor , 4k hp and 82 all resist (-60 for chaos) and i feel a little bit less tanky that i would want to be. Upgrade your gear through crafting or trading to get some resists.

Regarding your build , I see that you took the ES/armor nodes , those are not very helpful if you don't have enerrgy shield on your gear , you could have took those points and get them to life nodes , or go for iron reflexes . The thing is that i see you are using blood magic keystone , this is very dangerous as it will limit your use of auras . purity/determination/grace can increase your survivability a ton. (while wrath and anger help your dps).

Also , get a granite flask or 2 ;-)

to be honest i haven't tried running my build without the blood magic keystone. I currently do not have any blood magic support gems either. I am worried i don't have enough mana to sustain my heavy strikes/ground slams + keeping endurance charges up. Does anyone have any experience with that type of set-up?

Also, i know the armor/es nodes aren't the best, but i did want to swoop in and get body & soul particularly for the +10all resist. From there i could've taken 2 armor/es nodes or the elemental damage nodes to get over to the templar life cluster. I chose the armor/es, it seemed logical, unless there is a better path that i'm missing to get over to the templar life?

"

adubs300 wrote:

to be honest i haven't tried running my build without the blood magic keystone. I currently do not have any blood magic support gems either. I am worried i don't have enough mana to sustain my heavy strikes/ground slams + keeping endurance charges up. Does anyone have any experience with that type of set-up?

Also, i know the armor/es nodes aren't the best, but i did want to swoop in and get body & soul particularly for the +10all resist. From there i could've taken 2 armor/es nodes or the elemental damage nodes to get over to the templar life cluster. I chose the armor/es, it seemed logical, unless there is a better path that i'm missing to get over to the templar life?

I cannot really say as it differs SC from HC , i was aiming for more survivability , so i went for iron reflexes , took the +15% resists on the way and all the life nodes i could find. For armor i didn't take any nodes so far , went for purity +2x15% from talents and +20% prismatic ring (12+8) + some random on gear.

As far as blood magic gems go , i use them with my setup and they work very good . I run a 4 aura combo in which 1 aura goes from hp. Every skill i use has a life leech (or life on hit) and blood magic on it . You just have to have enough 4 links to run the setup . but aim for the resists first , they are VERY important.

how much should i except to pay for a blood magic support gem? a chance orb? a chaos?

Check the quest reward list for mara first , every second quest from act 2 cruel has a blood magic gem as an option it seems :) But if you want to buy it it will probably range 1-2 chaos depending on the deal you will make. be sure to level it somewhere safe though , as the multiplier for the orb is somewhere at 200% at lvl 1 so it will cost you alot more health than you are used to.

ahh thanks, i must have completely bypassed all of them. Hmm.. maybe i'll work on my templar alt. for a bit and pick them up with him.

thanks.

now i just need to figure out how to get some better gear, i tried to craft a better weapon, but all i accomplished was going through all my alteration orbs.

alterations won't accomplish much as they can give you a limited bonuses (2 suffixes i think) and you need at least some str , at least dual resist and at least some hp . So always go for rare or better 4 links . you might need to grind some currency to get it through trade channel (that's where the magic happens) but it will work wonders for you

i had been playing self-found up until this point, i feel like i'm almost being forced into diving into the trade channel... that or spend a huge amount of time attempting to grind my own gear.

-sigh

If you have enough respec points/regrets, you could modify your build to this:

This gives you a bit more hp, a ton more armour (especially if you have grace aura), a bit more all resist and 20% more elemental damage. Also around 50 dex, which can help with allowing gear diversity. You would be losing out on some resists (although single resist nodes are very weak point for point) and 2% life leach.

As for gear, if you are committed to being self found, then props to you, it can be hard. But if not, then it can be very worthwhile perusing trade chat, I got a nice sword for just a chaos and an alc, havent seen anything close to it for the level (requires 48):