PLANNING

After reading Spiderdrake's accounts of his Defense-oriented Paladin on his site (linked on my Links page), I was inspired to try one of my own. Rather than set out with a notion of my ideal gear, I would instead make one pass, full clear, and see how I could make do, come what may.

Because I would still be lowish level when I hit the tough areas in Nightmare, I decided to opt for a Piercing scepter approach: no dexterity, a little bit of vitality, and head for 170 strength as soon as reasonably possible. I would reserve one imbue for an Ancient Shield, hoping for at least +10 blocking and +defense, for my Holy Shield. That might not be ideal, but I need at least 50% blocking. Alternatively, I would save up gems and take a shot or two at getting a grim shield of deflecting, via the 3-Perfect gem + blue item cube formula, if that's possible. I would also hope for a socketed Pavise/Ancient. Any of those might be made to suffice.

As for armor, I would hope for an ornate to drop sooner rather than later, and imbue that. If I get a good result, I might stick with it. If not, I could use another imbue on the next Ornate. If that fails or no Ornates drop, I may be in some trouble, but I will try to manage as best I can.

As for weapon, with no Dex I am ultimately looking at needing either a Piercing scepter or a Bashing weapon with really high damage. Bashing, once you start to hit, will lower the target's defense and make later hits easier. Against bosses, this is the next best thing to ITD (Ignore Target's Defense). If I don't get a decent piercing scepter in Normal, and don't have a good weapon by Nightmare act 3, I may have to "shop" Ormus for +damage ITD war scepter. I don't relish that possibility, but we'll see what turns up.

Spiderdrake opted to go with Zeal. I am going to go with Normal Attack (yikes) backed by one level of Sacrifice for those times when I need more damage. I am also going to skip any thought of gambling for Goblin Toe, and go with fastest boots or high defense, whatever looks more useful. Speed is not to be underestimated, as a Defiance pally must do a lot of WALKING so as not to lose benefit of his defense rating while in combat, and it helps to walk faster around/through a mob toward that high priority target, as well as for other maneuvers like Tempting. Also, by skipping things like Zeal and Vengeance, I will be completely free of mana reliance, other than for Holy Shield. I plan to get Redemption, at least one level, for corpse disposal and some self-sufficiency with life/mana. Everything else will go into Defiance and Holy Shield.

I may, at some point, opt to change some of my support skill plans. I'll see how it works out first.

ACT ONE

Because I am getting Redemption for Ribinak, that meant a prereq point in Prayer, so that was my first skill. My point in Sacrifice was my second skill point, and the prereq for Smite was my third point. I used prayer until clvl 6, when I switched to Defiance, and also invested my prereq point into Holy Bolt. I stuck with blunt weapons: first a spiked club, then a mace some boss dropped.

My first discovery with Ribinak is how much of a positive effect the Defiance aura has on mercenaries. My rogue was still alive in the Black Marsh. Below you see her biggest scare yet, some Carver shamen champs.

With ever-increasing Defiance at work, the weak foes of Act One posed even less threat. I could mindlessly walk into any mob without fear, except perhaps for a boss pack of shamen. I made the unusual effort of seeking out high defense items rather than waiting for them: such as better helms, shields, and armors.

I added my prereq point to Cleansing and finally ran out of extra points. Charge would have to wait.

At clvl 13, my companion Blaise is still chugging along.

Look at all those potions! With no use for mana, and taking very few hits, I ended up with quite a store of surplus potions. I saved what blue I could for cubing full rejuvs (might as well do that with gem chips, then start saving the flaweds once I get to Act Three).

Blaise lived until almost the end of Catacombs level 2, when I got a little too interested in killing a Dark Shaman boss to keep an eye on her. Still, that's the longest survival for a Raven reward merc I've ever had. Next best was one or two that died in Cats level 1 with necros.

Andariel was no problem. She dropped me a normal Topaz and some diamond chips. I took one of the diamonds and hit the two gem shrines I'd found in Act One (I cleared the whole Act in one session, it didn't take that long with a char that could charge into any situation).

So at the end of Act One, I have a topaz, a diamond, some diamond chips, and lots of other chips and blue potions.

ACT TWO

To start Act Two, I refreshed Fara four or five times until she offered up a socketed tower shield. I bought that, socketed the topaz into it, and put it on. I had to use an amulet with +5 Strength on it to wear it, but only until I leveled up again to clvl 16. I considered socketing my two diamond chips, also, but held off on the hope that more chips would drop and I could upgrade to a flawed and save the diamonds altogether. At the time, it seemed unlikely I'd go through all of act two without finding another diamond.

I also bought a plain splint mail. So just like that, Ribinak shot way way up in defense, and his be-hit ratio plummeted. His blocking was also now above 50%. That would not help against the burning dead archers, who autohit with their magic, but it sure did help with everything else. Ribinak turned into an Insta-Tank.

The new defense factor allowed me to breeze through everything except poison damage. I retired that mace in favor of a Warrior's Broad Sword of Lightning 1-16. Great damage on that thing, and I found a Silver ring of -2 Damage, which helped out a lot on my to-hit chances, getting me back up into the 60's in to-hit.

There weren't any lively moments in the whole act. The only thing interesting is how tough the armor and shield I bought at level 15 made Ribinak, and how his continued pumping of Defiance ramped up from there with monster power to keep me virtually invulnerable in combat.

Just stand there and keep swinging. They'll die before me, that's for sure. :)

Duriel made me drink potions. That was noteworthy!

Uberdrop was Boneflesh, unique Plate Mail: 147 DR, +5% Life Leech, +35 AR.

Blah, end of Act Two and no more diamond chips? At least I have a stash full of rejuvs. I socketed the two otherwise-useless diamond chips I had, completing that temporary shield. Why not? Better than two more rejuvs I didn't need, and no other use keeping them. Too bad I didn't socket them right away. I missed out on some benefit from them. Oh well, no biggie.

ACT THREE

I started shopping Ormus for scepters right away. I also shopped Asheara for plated belts and Hratli for helms and armor. By shop I do not mean the sort I did with Fara looking for my shield. I mean only that I checked each merchant on each town trip. At Ormus, I gambled boots and gloves occasionally. When I found a Silver War Scepter of the Glacier, I switched to that.

Sszark got chilled and never landed a blow. Neither did his minions.

In the Great Marsh, there were lots of Drowned Corpses. Lots and lots. More than I can remember seeing. At one of the gold chests, I rounded up most of the mob there to take a group picture.

"Now everyone say Cheese!"

"Good job, guys. You can, uh, rest easy now."

In the Flayer Jungle, Ribinak shattered a lot of flayers. Ormus finally offered me a war scepter of piercing, but it had so many pricy bonuses, I passed it up. I mean, come on. 180k for a scepter with 7-14 damage? It would take a fortune to maintain. I did manage to get some good buys, though: a 67DR Crown of Tiger, a Tangerine Plated belt of Tiger, and two good gambles: Treads and a Rare Gauntlet with 20DR, Lightning Resist, +118 gold, and something else.

For Jewelry, I found a 21 Lit Resist ring with -2 MD, and my Gidbinn reward had +112 AR and some minor bonuses. Nothing good on amulet yet.

I'd grabbed Vigor at clvl 18, and I had needed to get Charge and Hammer to get Holy Shield at clvl 24. So Defiance got put on hold for the moment, at slvl 16. I'll dump the Izual points and NM Den into it, but I'll need to save NM Rad for Redemption. So Defiance won't be maxed until NM Izzy.

Then I finally got a break on weapons. No, not a piercing, but the next best thing: Knight's War Scepter of Bashing. +95 AR, solid damage boost, and -36 Target Defense per hit. Between that and the Gidbinn ring, Ribinak was back in business, offensively. Sacrifice could get a nice solid punch, too.

Not even brutal stair traps bothered Ribinak:

I think that's the worst trap I've seen in the Reliquary, although that one is generally bad for such things. Even so, TWO boss packs at the stairs... I had not seen that anywhere but the Forgotten Temple before.

If can believe it, my Gidbinn merc lived through that. Ah, the powers of Defiance and 300+ health. :)

With my marginal resistances, I had to start drinking health potions at this point. Some of the worst mobs also started landing some strong blows, and despite Ribinak's robust health, I could already see that the easy times were soon going to run out. Oh sure, things will be relatively easy for some time to come yet, but my days of walking unconcerned into any mob are surely numbered. I'll have to start using some tactics eventually.

The Council were, uh, easy. The main threat from them involved their death explosions with Ribinak's modest resistances (12 fire/cold from the diamond chips on shield). Down in the Durance, though, I found myself wishing I hadn't yet sold that scepter of glacier:

What happens when an already damage-resistant monster gets stone skin? Yikes. This fight took several minutes, bashing the boss constantly, doing one or two damage per hit. It didn't help that his fireballs would heal him a bit, either, with his life leech. (My sorcies get jealous of that. They wish THEIR magic could leech life back! Heh... Well, OK, maybe not, but you get the idea).

Compared to that, the rest of the end Act Three went smoothly. Bremm dropped a normal Diamond, so now I have two of them. Crappy Uberdrop got sold, but I did find a rare chain gloves in the Durance with SIAS. I switched to those but also kept the rare gauntlets. I also had several flawed gems now, and hoped to get some upgraded ones soon.

ACT FOUR

Ribinak got a real wake up call to open Act Four. A Cursed Corpulent boss and a large mob of knights and flesh spawners near the gate got me surrounded out in the wide open, and much drinking took place. Reds mainly, but also three minor purples. I am going to get myself killed if I repeat that fiasco in Nightmare.

Not much you can do about Flesh Spawners, though. They are going to breed while you attack, and you will get swarmed a bit. Just have to be careful not to get swarmed by too many at once. If you reach a point where you can't move at all, that's too many. Not necessarily too many to survive, but it's tactically unwise, particularly looking down the road. Maybe a char with twinked uberrares or who is willing to farm areas for experience and better items, could maintain perfect defense through Nightmare, but the reality of making do for Ribinak is likely to mean tougher times to come sooner rather than later.

Izual just about put me to sleep.

Abyss Knights and more spawners in the City. Also Corpse Spitters, which turned out to be more annoying than I expected. Those are cannon fodder to sorcies and necros, but they pose a genuine threat to melee chars who make a stand somewhere. Those ungodly things grab corpses from the fringe, snipe at you while your back is turned or you are busy fighting more aggressive foes, then wander away nonchalantly, hoping you won't notice who or what just flattened you with a large gob of nastiness.

I also, for the first time in eons, drew the City segment with the stained glass windows. Oddly enough, the ones along the south side were all out of place, hanging out in thin air. Are they always like that? Or is that some sort of unusual bug?

Hephasto almost killed me twice. Both times came when I got Cursed and just stood there anyway. One cursed hit must have done 260 or more damage. That was the one that sent me scurrying, to finish the last third of the fight on the run while cursed, and only engaging once the curse clears. Oddly enough, I had an easier time against him with Eksor, who has less defense and less offense. Go figure.

I got nicely rewarded, though: a perfect skull, flawless topaz, flawless and normal diamond. I cubed the diamond with my other two, ending up with two flawless. More Abyss Knights on the River, by the way, and with my resistances, I had to exercise some caution. I would NOT want to have played that fight on Realms with my 56k less-than-reliable connection.

At the Sanctuary, I began for the first time to use some real tactics. I stayed under cover, out of Mageshot line of sight, when large mobs woke. I let the melee critters come to me and let the mages be frustrated.

Sometimes I used Ember's herding tactics to seperate out the Storm Casters from the rest of the mob.

No close calls, but those mages meant no laziness on my part. I had to stay on the ball.

For the first time EVER, I accidentally opened a boss seal while trying to fight a monster. Ooops.

Fortunately for Ribinak, De Seis and crew did not appear on top of him and it all worked out.

To close out Act Four, I bought a Blessed Plate Mail of Mammoth from Jamella, 180-something DR and +37 Life. Will it be a mistake to give up that 5% Life Steal from the unique plate? Maybe. I don't have any other sources of Life Steal. I made the decision anyway.

Diablo made me drink two rows of potions, then dropped a rare war scythe. Oh well.

On now to Nightmare.

- Sirian

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