I'm making low level characters & soloing through normal mode to get more socket quests for my NL characters, so I was wondering if anyone had any interesting ideas for low level builds. Granted just about any build or gear will work for normal mode, but if you know of anything fun, let me know. So far I'm just trying stuff that I've never used before. My first toon, a 2h conc barb, is almost done, and then I'll try a poison javazon, probably followed by a MA 'sin. Not really sure what I'll try after that.
My 86 'sin is already a trapsin, so I'm going MA with the next one. Just finished the barb today, so I'm starting the javazon tomorrow or soon-ish probably.
I also recommend multi-shot-azon, charged bolt sorcy, holy fire pally, Firestorm druid... all very powerful low level builds. Fury barb also should be viable (though it will mostly be a 'dual strike' barb cause of the low levels. Bash-a-din too? Lots of good options.
If you want an interesting play, try a bow/summon druid. Weird, weird play, but pretty powerful. Poison javs zon is fun, too, but really not until past level 30 when the damage becomes literally absurd (I think my best was 42k over 27 seconds or something like that. The strat was to thow a jav and then go make a drink while whatever I hit died). Might not be the best for your purposes.
I'm not sure I want to do any caster builds since they tend to suffer at low levels due to lack of mana, though the bow/summon druid sounds strange enough to be fun. How does it work? Does it require certain gear?
I've always played bowazons of some variety, hence why I want to go for a poison javazon. It might not be great, but it's something I haven't done. I could do some sort of lightning javazon instead if there was any compelling reason, but I haven't found one yet.
I'm not sure I want to do any caster builds since they tend to suffer at low levels due to lack of mana, though the bow/summon druid sounds strange enough to be fun. How does it work? Does it require certain gear?
I've always played bowazons of some variety, hence why I want to go for a poison javazon. It might not be great, but it's something I haven't done. I could do some sort of lightning javazon instead if there was any compelling reason, but I haven't found one yet.
plague javas can do massive damage but i find the time is always slow, and for low lvls it might not be fast or even effective.
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Remember the String of Ears
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
I'm not sure I want to do any caster builds since they tend to suffer at low levels due to lack of mana, though the bow/summon druid sounds strange enough to be fun. How does it work? Does it require certain gear?
I've always played bowazons of some variety, hence why I want to go for a poison javazon. It might not be great, but it's something I haven't done. I could do some sort of lightning javazon instead if there was any compelling reason, but I haven't found one yet.
Bow Druid is essentially a pure summoner. You'll use heart of wolverine though, instead of heart of the oak. This will increase your bow damage by quite a bit. Use your summoned critters as a living wall, and you can stand back with impunity blasting away with the bow of your choice. There's no need for any elemental or shapeshifting skills at all (though I find the wind armor is always worth having). In a long-form play, you want the rune word bow that give fanaticism aura, but in the short time frame you're looking at, it will be more about finding a bow with lots of physical damage to take advantage of your heart of the wolverine. Alternately, the witch wild sting is very good as the amp damage benefits all of your critters.
For merc choice, a might merc is probably the best one out there. In low levels, I'd recommend sticking with the rogue so you have a partner in archery.
As Apples says, poison javs take a while to kill things, but it makes for interesting play: Shoot, dance around the mob for a while, watch it die. Mana is hardly an issue since you attack so rarely, and you can ignore +IAS items altogether for the same reason. You also have the added benefit of not needing any real gear - the poison damage is so high that it easily eclipses whatever weapons you may be using. If you're soloing the game, it should be plenty of damage to one-shot most guys, though boss fights might be rough. Get a really tanky merc (defense aura, imo) so he can soak the damage while your poison does its trick, or get a ranged merc to dance along side you (act 3 merc, maybe - lightning has some aoe ability to help with groups. Rogue isn't bad either). The only real problem with poison zons is the prevalence of poison immunes in nightmare and hell. If you move past normal, you'll need to put points into something else (lightning fury or freezing arrow, imo, but those are clearly my favorite zon abilities).
Oh - a fireclaws druid is really fun, too! You max fire claws and then put points into ele skills like crazy. Fireclaws easily climbs over 5k per hit in wolf form, plus you'll have great ele skills for situations where you don't want to melee the baddie, or you need aoe. Also throw 1 point into all of the summons up to grizzly and use +skills to beef those further. This is a build that is 100% about weapon speed - ideally it wants a 5 socket phase blade with all IAS jewels or runes. AND it combos with Fury, so you can build Fury stacks to further increase attack and run speed, and then use fire claws to blow enemies away. I really enjoyed this build, though it struggles with Hell.
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mallow what realm are u on?
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
My 86 'sin is already a trapsin, so I'm going MA with the next one. Just finished the barb today, so I'm starting the javazon tomorrow or soon-ish probably.
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
I also recommend multi-shot-azon, charged bolt sorcy, holy fire pally, Firestorm druid... all very powerful low level builds. Fury barb also should be viable (though it will mostly be a 'dual strike' barb cause of the low levels. Bash-a-din too? Lots of good options.
If you want an interesting play, try a bow/summon druid. Weird, weird play, but pretty powerful. Poison javs zon is fun, too, but really not until past level 30 when the damage becomes literally absurd (I think my best was 42k over 27 seconds or something like that. The strat was to thow a jav and then go make a drink while whatever I hit died). Might not be the best for your purposes.
I've always played bowazons of some variety, hence why I want to go for a poison javazon. It might not be great, but it's something I haven't done. I could do some sort of lightning javazon instead if there was any compelling reason, but I haven't found one yet.
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
Bow Druid is essentially a pure summoner. You'll use heart of wolverine though, instead of heart of the oak. This will increase your bow damage by quite a bit. Use your summoned critters as a living wall, and you can stand back with impunity blasting away with the bow of your choice. There's no need for any elemental or shapeshifting skills at all (though I find the wind armor is always worth having). In a long-form play, you want the rune word bow that give fanaticism aura, but in the short time frame you're looking at, it will be more about finding a bow with lots of physical damage to take advantage of your heart of the wolverine. Alternately, the witch wild sting is very good as the amp damage benefits all of your critters.
For merc choice, a might merc is probably the best one out there. In low levels, I'd recommend sticking with the rogue so you have a partner in archery.
As Apples says, poison javs take a while to kill things, but it makes for interesting play: Shoot, dance around the mob for a while, watch it die. Mana is hardly an issue since you attack so rarely, and you can ignore +IAS items altogether for the same reason. You also have the added benefit of not needing any real gear - the poison damage is so high that it easily eclipses whatever weapons you may be using. If you're soloing the game, it should be plenty of damage to one-shot most guys, though boss fights might be rough. Get a really tanky merc (defense aura, imo) so he can soak the damage while your poison does its trick, or get a ranged merc to dance along side you (act 3 merc, maybe - lightning has some aoe ability to help with groups. Rogue isn't bad either). The only real problem with poison zons is the prevalence of poison immunes in nightmare and hell. If you move past normal, you'll need to put points into something else (lightning fury or freezing arrow, imo, but those are clearly my favorite zon abilities).
Oh - a fireclaws druid is really fun, too! You max fire claws and then put points into ele skills like crazy. Fireclaws easily climbs over 5k per hit in wolf form, plus you'll have great ele skills for situations where you don't want to melee the baddie, or you need aoe. Also throw 1 point into all of the summons up to grizzly and use +skills to beef those further. This is a build that is 100% about weapon speed - ideally it wants a 5 socket phase blade with all IAS jewels or runes. AND it combos with Fury, so you can build Fury stacks to further increase attack and run speed, and then use fire claws to blow enemies away. I really enjoyed this build, though it struggles with Hell.