1.07 Build Guides

[galtwish]

1.07 Build Guides

A popular opinion of the raw LoD expansion is that it provides us with a few choice morsels buried under a mountain of drudgery and frustration. Rumors of triple immune, multi-shot Lightning Enchanted bosses, nerfed drops, and a lack of many popular unique weapons tend to scare people off. After all, we have limited time and when Runeword Mod offers Spirit and Insight to supercharge your 1.11 Blizzballer through MF runs, there seems to be little reason to slog a sorceress through 1.07.

Little reason indeed, except for the fun factor.

1.07 is very rough around the edges. Act bosses don’t drop from treasure classes above their Normal counterparts. Lightning Enchanted monsters sometimes damage you without throwing visible bolts. Two handed weapons don’t deal the listed “+ damage”. Runewords, life leach, and + skills gear do not work on mercenaries. The Hellforge drop is capped at Um. The list goes on. But bear in mind that these crude restrictions are counterbalanced by the occasional +37 max damage Grand Charm, Shimmering Grand Charms with 18% resist all + secondary mods, and crafted items that can provide you with 20% or greater life leech. The real fun starts when your matriarchs and patriarchs beat the game in the low 70s with gear that looks like you couldn’t finish a SPF tournament.

I’ve done a bit of rack-running, a bit of 556% MF Hell act boss running, a bit of 374% MF Hell boss monster running, and a whole lot of Lower Kurast, Act 5 and Moo Moo Farm running for crafting and Mat/Pat purposes. Even though my personal project of a 1.07 septemvirate is only a little more than half completed, the following mini-guides are based on observations and the collected wisdom/folly of the D2 forums. So be prepared for information that is a mile wide and six inches deep, rather than the other way around.

For those of you wishing to explore the arcane world of 1.07, setting goals is the best way to avoid frustration, especially upon entering Hell difficulty. Ask yourself if you just want to dip a toe in and just rack unique items that outshine their 1.10+ counterparts, socketed items, ethereal weapons for runewords, and some set items that are particularly hard to find. If this is the case, you just want to power a character to Hell Lower Kurast and follow the 1.07 guide to rack running. Do you want to cube some silly +37 mana per kill rings with the bugged Cobalt ring recipe, or see if you can cube/craft set/unique rings and amulets with resists to bring forward? Takes a little bit more work as you’ll want to get to at least level 78 for these purposes, so push on rescue Anya and run Nihilathak’s Temple for experience. Or do you want to Mat/Pat a couple of toons that will likely be useless in later patches? Then strap on and get ready for the ride, you masochist.

The following mini-guides are presented in the order that would allow you to accumulate wealth as quickly as possible.

Sorceress
Barbarian
Druid
Assassin
Necromancer
Amazon
Paladin

Sorceress

Skills
This is the simplest build, as there are no synergies and Cold Mastery works better in 1.07 than in any other version. To start, simply bash things with a scepter or javelin and let your mercenary do the rest of the work. Put a point into Ice Bolt to start. Save your skill points until Level 6, where Static Field becomes available. Take that to the maximum—there is no cap in 1.07 and you can sliver any monster with it. Frost Nova and Ice Blast are pre-requisites for your endgame skill Frozen Orb, and have their uses. Frost Nova offers you passable crowd control in Normal and Nightmare difficulties with only 1 point, so use this liberally with your fledgling sorceress. Telekinesis is great for stun-locking enemies while your merc gets the kill, and is a prereq for Teleport. Finally, a point in Warmth is well spent. From level 6 through level 29, continue to place skills in the prereqs for Frozen Orb and max out Static Field.

At level 30, put a point into Frozen Orb and another into Cold Mastery. The rest of your skill points go towards maxing Frozen Orb and then getting Cold Mastery to 17+ including +skills gear. You can overcommit to Cold Mastery without having any serious problems, as there is little to no reason to try a dual elemental sorceress since th CM breaks immunities. By level 30, you should have found or shopped a relevant orb that provides you with + skills to Blizzard, Frozen Orb, and/or the more generic +cold skills or +skills.

Stats
Your stats are pretty much yours to decide, though I would recommend going with a Vit/resist rather than Dex/shield build. The shields in 1.07 don't block very well, and finding the Deflecting affix is tedious. Strength should be up to 60-75 in order for you to equip Tower shields w/3 PDiamonds for resists. Everything else should go into Vitality.

Mercenary
A Might merc or a barbarian in very defensive gear can both work for a sorceress. The Barbarian has better AI in that he keeps the monsters at a safe distance, but can get very costly due to countless resurrections.

Gear
Your gear should run towards a +3 Cold Skills orb, +3 Cold Skills Amulet, and +3 Cold Skill circlet. If this is your first character, you probably want to keep a 4x4 spot open in your stash, so your armor, boots, gloves, and rings should be geared towards resists. Your switch should be a Sigon’s Guard, Whitsan's Guard, Lidless Wall, or another Tower Shield with PDiamonds and a wand with Lower Resist charges. If you can't find a LR wand, keep shopping.

By the time you get to Hell, you should have found an orb with +2 skills or +3 cold skills and some relevant secondary mods. If not, don't worry about it. Hopefully you’ve been able to find enough resist gear and charms to get your Fire and Lightning resists to 75, as the elemental damage in Act 3 and Act 4 is quite dangerous to you (and your merc). FCR isn’t very relevant with Frozen Orb, but certainly helps with Teleport.

During NM you can probably quest with a 4 PTopaz armor, as Frozen Orb + Cold Mastery will tear apart every monster you encounter. In Hell, resists are your primary concern. After that, prioritize MF. 374% in Hell gives you a very high chance of set items from uniques and boss monsters, so a couple of armors and helms stuffed with PTopazes on you and your merc will get you most of the way there. You’ll need to get to 556% MF to make act bosses drop uniques, which will take a lot of work and only yeilds drops to TC39. This is a good way to get Twitchthroe, Tarnhelm, and other excellent low-level twinking gear, but you’ll likely find plenty of decent rares and set items before you can amass 556% MF. The real prize here is Raven Claw with can be traded for Pul-Mal or so on the SPTF, as the 1.07 version shoots L33 Explosive Arrows when brought forward to 1.10+ and makes an unbeatable twinking weapon.

Socket quests should be saved for armors and shields that have resists and/or +life. Since this character will likely be the MF character you use to farm goodies for other 1.07 character or to bring forward, don’t feel like you are wasting Larzuk’s time by putting holes in dual-affix armor so that you can stuff it full of PTopazes. Shopping for Jeweler's armors of XX isn't a terrible waste of time either, as you can find +3 warcries and +Assassin skill weapons from Anya in Hell as well. Just make sure that you don't kill Nilthi in Hell so you can keep the portal open.

Barbarian

Skills
The Barb is a good second character as his Item Find skill adds a lot to your drops. To start one off, you will likely want to focus on killing speed and survivability. The tried and true Frenzy and Whirlwind builds shine in 1.07. Concentrate and Berserk are also possible, but the slow killing speed of these skills make them less attractive.

Once again, grab a scepter or javelin and get to killing. Start working your way down the Warcry and Combat trees with a point in all the pre-requisites through level 12. Stun and Leap will get a point as well. Around level 6 you should be able to tell if you want to go down the Frenzy or WW side of the Combat skills tree, but you can wait as long as A3 before you really need to make a decision--the Flayers require that you start killing pretty quickly.

You’ll be tempted to put a point or two into a Weapon Mastery, but hold off unless you have an end-game weapon already stashed. WW barbs are best with pole arms, spears, or range 4 axes, but not that all these weapons are quite slow. A Gothic or Champion Axe may be your best bet if you don't have a 40% IAS weapon ready to socket for your endgame. Frenziers do well with whatever gives them fast Crushing Blow, so Guillame's Face, crafted Blood Gloves with IAS, and fast swords or maces will do nicely. Max Battle Orders, then Frenzy or WW, and pump whatever else you need into War Cry and/or your Weapon Mastery of choice to give you crowd control and the damage you’ll need to get through Hell. One point wonders in the Mastery tree and Berserk make life a lot easier in A4, as your resists will be sorely tested as well as your ability to kill while under IM. Berserk will be used extensively in Hell, but shouldn’t require more than a point and your +skills gear to work just fine. Leap Attack is likely work getting a point into as well, since it doesn’t count as a melee attack for IM purposes. It allows you to jump in and kill Unravelers, nasty boss monsters, Nihilathak, and the like while providing you a great way to get out of these situations as well. It can also save a lot of time in the Kurast Jungle as well as the Sewers under Kurast.

Deciding whether to pump War Cry or your Weapon Mastery is up to you, but getting at least 2 seconds of stun out of War Cry will likely be necessary to kill a tougher opponent in Hell before needing to recast. With WW, Weapon Mastery should be pushed farther than with Frenzy. You may want to use War Cry as a one point wonder to give you breathing room between whirls, but it isn't likely needed. Howl is a more cost effective option, but it does scatter your targets.

Stats
Stats should go into STR until you get to 70 or so, and then to VIT until you hit level 30. Save your stat points after that, as Battle Orders will give you great survivability through mid-NM. Your DEX may need a big boost if you find a great rare spear or sword, so hold off on committing 200+ in STR until you are quite sure.

Mercenary
A Might merc is the obvious choice for a barb, but you can be well served by a Cold or Fire rogue, as their AI and elemental damage helps out quite a bit when you are faced with PIs and bosses.

Gear
Your gear should focus around a good +2 Barbarian Skills hat with appropriate secondary skills. Getting one with Find Item or Berserk can save you a few skill points, but you don’t need a much more than 74 skill points to succeed. Your endgame armor will likely be a socketed armor stuffed with resist jewels with secondary mods and/or runes. If you go with Frenzy, swords are generally the best overall choice for damage, durability, range, etc. Axes are fun, but break pretty quickly with only 25 durability on Nagas and Berserker Axes. Maces are an excellent choice, with Knouts and Scourges providing fast damage, but they can lag a bit as many Undead are PI or highly physical resistant in Hell. Your switch should be 2 +3 Warcries weapons. Before you get there, a heavy-duty boss killing weapon is a good idea. Something with crushing blow, lots of poison damage, or –target defense will give you good results when using Concentrate or Berserk against a single target while you level. Mauls and Axes shine here, and can be an endgame option if you don't have the patience to shop for +3 Warcries weapons.

Save your last 2 socket quests for your endgame weapon(s)—you’ll likely pick up a Shae rune or two along the way and unless you crafted greater Blood gloves with the rune, some lesser Blood gloves with IAS and decent CB should help you finish the game. Remember that WW doesn’t work with Chance to Cast mods, so be careful about your weapon selection. Additionally, WW only counts on-weapon IAS, so that socket quest with a Shae rune cane mean the difference between 6 fps and 4 fps. Conquering Hell Baal with his dreaded Manaflame (doing up to 2200 magic damage in 1 attack) will require 2500+ life through Battle Orders and +skills gear, along with CB and hopefully some poison/OW/hit slows target goodness as well.

 

[galtwish]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Druid

The biggest advantage a Druid has over the remaining builds is superior crowd control. Dire Wolves, Shockwave, and Hurricane all offer a good buffer from everything but act bosses.

Lycanthrope
Skills
The Fury Werewolf is very quick to finish, with only 68 points needed to max Lycanthropy, Dire Wolves, and Fury. You should be able to pre-buff your Werewolf casting with a +skills club and Sigon's Guard, be be mindful of getting IAS on-weapon to get the better attack speeds. Since the weapon IAS calc is murky on Fury and may or may not apply to 1.07, it's very hard to say "put 20 points into Werewolf". The life from Lycanthropy will be better appreciated and should help you level. Heart of the Wolverine and Grizzly are all that are recommended outside of pre-requisites. Extra points should go into Grizzly if you have troubles with boss monsters, or HotW for general area clearing. Please note that you are going to need to run past a lot of PIs in Hell, unless you can get a fast multi-element damage on switch. A Phase Blade sockted with gems and runes would be good here, but expect a lot of slogging.

The Werebear is a bit slower to build, but you’ll have more safety with Shockwave. Max Lycanthropy, Werebear, and Fire Claws, while keeping your Maul at an even number after all + skills. A point in Hunger and Shockwave and you're set. If you’ve acquired a lot of PDR gear, you can ignore summons entirely and just focus on the Werebear side of the Shape-shifting tree. This is a bit more dangerous than the Fury Wolf, though, as the wolves aren’t necessarily there for offense as much as they are there to take most of the heat off your character as you close to melee range.

Stats
Stats should get you just enough STR to wear your armor and equip your endgame gear, with as many points as possible pumped into VIT. DEX will be necessary for a number of your endgame weapons to be equipped, so hold onto any +DEX gear or save enough stats to get you to 118 should a suitable Thresher come your way.

Mercenary
A Might merc works best for both builds. Beating Hell Baal is going to take some luck, as even a high VIT werebear is going to have serious problems with the Manaflame. Distracting him with summonables or working him into a corner is your best bet.

Gear
The fastest elite maul, axe, or polearm you can find would be a great weapon for this character. Getting Larzuk to drill some holes for IAS and an Eth rune will greatly increase your killing speed. A +2 druid skills/+3 skill tree club and Sigon’s Guard on switch provide you with pre-buffs for your transformation and summons. Your gear should provide you with resists, +life, and +skills in that order. Barring that, a socketed Phase Blade or Dimensional Blade can provide you with a fast source of elemental damage, and can be a good switch to use against PIs and IM.

Hunter
Skills
The Hunter provides you with one of the best crowd control skills in 1.07, Hurricane. Half Holy Freeze, half Frozen Orb, it allows you to stay safely out of melee range while allowing your Dire Wolves to chew up anything that isn’t dying to your Might Merc or your bow. Max your Dire Wolves first, then Hurricane, then get your Heart of the Wolverine to level 12-14.

If you can’t find a decent bow with Amp Damage, you may want to pump Tornado to help out your small army. The pitfall to avoid here is putting too many of your eggs in the Physical Damage basket. Getting a bow with CtC Amp Damage and elemental damage, as well as strong elemental damage on your Might merc are high priorities.

Be careful about the transition from NM to Hell: Hurricane's effectiveness falls off considerably, the wolves damage is halved and the merc will get killed a lot more often which can lead to a domino effect ending with your druid. In NM you could boldly wade into the middle of monsters as Hurricane took care of business. In Hell you'll need to lure small groups of enemies which can be very challenging with a stupid merc and aggressive wolves. Realistically, Hell will be Hurricane, wolf recast, wolf recast, feed the merc a potion, hurricane, so don't get too attached to your bow. Run from CI/PI monsters.

Act 5 can be especially problematic, and hopefully you've max'ed your Grizzly by that point. The Imps' fireballs will decimate your wolves, and you will need a burly tank against the Ancients.

Gear
The rest of your gear should focus on +summon skills, as the Hurricane damage won’t be your main killing tool in the later stages of the game. Your Attack Rating with your bow won’t likely be that great, so consider using a socket quest to put an Eth or two in the bow: getting Amp Damage to trigger will really increase the effectiveness of the Wolves and Grizzly. During NM you can probably quest with a 4 PTopaz armor, due to the safety of the Hurricane + Wolves. Spirit Shroud is amazing for speeding you through NM.

Save your stats for your endgame weapon: since you will be avoiding melee as much as possible, you won’t need as much VIT as the wereform druids. Conquering Baal consists of recasting Grizzly as often as needed to distract the big guy and plinking away while praying that you don’t run out of Full Rejuves.


Assassin

The Assassin offers you two solid builds that don’t require great equipment. Although they rival the Druid in untwinked survivability, they are fragile when cornered and don’t have the layers of support a Druid does. The Shadow Assassin compares to a Fury Wolf with more “magical” abilities, while the Trapsin is a slow Sorceress with varied tricks.

Shadow Assassin
Skills
A “pure” Shadow Assassin will max Claw Mastery, Shadow Master, and Venom, leave the rest of the Shadow Tree as one-point wonders, and sink all remaining points into Tiger Strike. Questing through normal and NM will rely primarily on Burst of Speed, Cloak of Shadows, and Mind Blast to evade, blind, and convert the forces of evil. Shadow Master is the best minion in 1.07 due to fabulous resists, so don’t feel bad about riding on her coattails.

Stats
Your stats should go to 79 STR and DEX to equip Greater Talons, and keep enough in reserve if you need to go up to 115 for shopped Runic Talons and Feral Claws and whatnot in Hell. Everything else to VIT, even with the low rate of return.

Gear
If you’re equipment poor, just shop two +3 Shadow Tree claws, a +3 Shadow Tree hat, and use the best +Shadow Tree amulet you can find. Cloak of Shadows will cover most of your AR problems, and an Eth or two in your boss-killing weapon(s) or Angelic jewelry will take out boss monsters. You may want to avoid socketing claws however, as they are of limited use outside of 1.07 Assassins. With BoS and your significant pre-buff, you should be able to cast a level 26+ Shadow Master by level 50, and she and a Might merc will clear entire areas for you. Sharp Charms and +dmg GCs will help your attacking claws quite a bit. Although crafted claws won't likely get staff mods, the imbue quest is a good use for white Feral Claws and Runic Talons. Crushing Blow, Venom, and your rapid attacks will allow you to take out PIs and bosses, even if your physical damage is low.

Maxicek’s excellent guide on claws is a jumping off point for claw selection.

Mercenary
If you absolutely loathe Act 2 mercs by now, a Fire Rogue will work nicely. In fact, a Rogue merc is pretty darn helpful with CoS going, as they engage from a distance, only waking one monster at a time and don’t get swarmed when CoS wears off as they are out of the way.


Trapsin
Skills
Max Shadow Master and Death Sentry in that order, and put a point in all Shadow disciplines with the exception of Venom. The traps are pretty miserable until you’ve got Death Sentry going at full blast, so you’ll be leveling the old-fashioned way: grinding it out. Since you aren’t bound to claws for your attack, Burst of Speed and Cloak of Shadows combined with a two-handed beatstick would do you well through the end of NM when you should have respectable traps going. You’re going to have a lot of left over skill points, so cranking Mind Blast is an decent option for the mass stun (holds them still for traps) and marginal conversion. Shadow Warrior may be tempting for the ability to control what traps are thrown, but the resists are terrible in Hell and they tend to poof pretty quickly. Lightning Sentry is a good cadidate for leftover skill points, as MB and SM can handle most LIs.

Stats
The strength requirements of a pole arm or 2h axe may seem a bit much, but your need at least 110 STR to wield the better elite claws available from Anya in Hell. So blow a puff of ninja dust in the enemies face and use your “stealthy” Savage polearm.

Mercenary
You can use any merc you like, with the exception of the lightning Iron Wolf. Ice Rogues and ice Iron Wolves tend to work well; they run enough that you can lay traps to cover their retreat. Another option is to get a Blessed Aim merc and BoS, using a bow until you’ve developed your traps and then selectively using the bow and CoS to engage nasty monsters from a distance while the Merc carves his way through the hordes.

Gear
A Trapsin will need +3 Trap claws (preferably Greater Talons) and a +3 Trap Skills hat in addition to the two +3 Shadow Tree claws and +3 Shadow Tree hat. Use the best + Tree amulets you can find, and feel free to hold your Shadow hat and amulet in your backpack while questing for on-the-run resummoning of Shadow Master. You’ll go out of town, cast your Shadow Master and Burst of Speed, switch your hat and amulet, and then you’re off to throw down some Death Sentries. Cloak of Shadows will cover most of your AR problems, and an Eth or two in your boss-killing weapon(s) or Angelic jewelry will take out boss monsters. You'll want to avoid socketing claws however, as they are of limited use outside of 1.07 Assassins and don't really help that much to begin with. FHR is more important than damage reduction, and CBF is of great use--Spirit Shroud is actually a pretty decent armor in 1.07.

In short, you've got 3 sets of weapons: Traps, Shadow prebuff, and your switch. The switch can be a wand with Lower Resist charges, a polearm/axe, or a fast CtC Amp damage bow. I personally recommend one of the latter two choice as there will likely be LIs that are too fast to get with the small radius of LR charges.

Dragon Flight may be worth shopping for on a claw, but is quite limited in its teleport ability. Blade Fury just does it's listed damage, so the potential for massive poison with Venom and a 6os weapon full of PEmeralds doesn’t come through in 1.07. Kicking is hindered by low physical damage, but is a great way to deliver fast CB to a boss.

Beating Hell Baal is going to take some luck, as Fade doesn’t work against Manaflame. A level 33+ Shadow Master can stand up to the Manaflame, and if you work him into a corner is you can plink away with an Amp Damage bow and lots of CB. Putting an Eth or three in your bow is a strong choice if you are having problems with Shadow Master standing up to bosses.

 

[galtwish]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Necromancer
Skills
The skeletons are weak, the Clay Golem doesn’t slow anyone down, and the Iron Golem doesn’t save when you S&E. What’s left? Bone skills, Corpse Explosion, Blood Golem, and muling lots of ethereal weapons into your stash for Iron Golem. Your skills should focus towards getting that first corpse in Hell for CE and then luring your enemies to the blast radius. You’ll eventually want some points in Revive to go with 20 points in Corpse Explosion and Bone Spirit. A point in all the curses is recommended, if not mandatory, and you’ll need a point in Raise Skeleton, Raise Skeletal Mage, Summon Resist, and each Golem up to Fire. Ultimately, you can get along with just 20 points in Amp Damage and Corpse Explosion, but the mana cost is hideous and frankly the build is boring. An alternate build focusing on Lower Resist, Fire Golem (20), Golem Mastery (20), and a handful of Skeletal Mages/revives may work with serious +skills gear, but doesn’t look easy in Hell A4 and A5 as you’ll be marooned with a Fire Golem that can’t reliably damage anything.

Mercenary
A2 Might without question. No one else will be able to get you your first few corpses as reliably, and he’ll really help your golem and revives.

Gear
To start, twink this character heavily with +skills wands and heads in order to raise your weak army and slog through normal. Sigon’s Visor provides excellent mana, and the full or partial set inflicts a lot of damage to physical attackers, so this can be a good source of corpses to start off in Normal. Consider twinking on a bugged +mana per kill ring made with the cold resist cube recipe (sapphire of any quality + thawing potion + ring)—occasionally the recipe will add the cold resist percentage to MPK, resulting in stupid rings. Corpse Explosion and Bone Spear both eat mana faster than you can find blue potions. If you find this cheesy, be prepared for the long haul or at least have some Frostburns and/or a Gothic Plate stuffed with 4 PSapphires ready to go.

This character is an MF machine, as you can equip Tarnhelm at level 15 on, and at level 18 add Gothic Plate with 4 PTopazes (likely borrowed from your Sorceress Matriarch), and some MF boots and gloves with resists should get you through Normal. FR/W is crucial, and finding teleport charges on an amulet or staff can go a long way in making your life easier.

Diablo and Baal are going to present you with a significant problem at each difficulty level because their AoE attacks will decimate your army. A group of Revived Maulers are a good choice here with a teleport amulet/staff, but Normal Diablo will most likely be fought before level 30. So be prepared for a lot of merc resurrections and possibly hiding and sniping with Bone Spear or a bow.

If you want to use this character for MFing, the Lord of Mages alternate mentioned above is good for running Hell LK/Council/Mephisto.

Amazon

Lightning Fury
Skills
Lighting Fury works as well as it does in later patches. Well, it may actually work better. It carries most, if not all, other sources of damage along the bolts. Additionally, you can leech off lightning bolts since the physical damage is applied to the bolts. So 20 points in that skill seems like a good idea. A 20 point Valkyrie works wonders for crowd control—she won’t put a dent in a Fallen in Hell difficulty, but her thousands of life points will last and last against all but the strongest of bosses. After that, your choice for skills is a matter of taste: Passive and Magic skills are always useful and you really don’t need a bow for back-up with LF carrying cold damage to slow and freeze opponents. If you want to use a bow, Multishot is a cost-effective investment at six to ten skill points. This can be very helpful in leveling up to 30 and unlocking LF. If you take the MS route, a point in Guided Arrow will make act bosses crumble with a poison and crushing blow. Freezing Arrow makes a decent back-up skill if you like Fishyzons, but Immolation Arrow with a source of knockback is viable as well although it is more of a novelty.

Stats
Stats should be focused on getting up to 107 STR and 151 DEX for a Matriarchal Javelin. A plain stack with +3 skills will likely be the easiest to find and cheap to repair in town. The elite javelins won’t drop very often, much less with good affixes commuting high cold/fire/poison damage, so once you get to the minimum stats for Matriarchal Javelin, you should be safe to sink the rest of your points into VIT. Going for max block is an option, especially if you've aquired a Whitsan's Guard.

Gear
Gear is easy to shop for once you have a character in Hell, and before that your LF should just decimate the field. Not to sound like a broken record, but 3 PDiamond shield or Sigon’s Guard is about as useful a shield as you can expect to find. A bow with Hit Causes Monster Flee and/or knockback is quite useful, and if you take Guided Arrow make sure you have a source of poison and/or crushing blow. Crafted Blood gloves are a great place to get your Crushing Blow, as you can craft a pair with IAS and/or +Spear & Javelin skills.

Mercenary
A Rogue is good for this build, but you’ll most likely want an Act 2 or Act 5 merc to center your killing around. Might Mercs are the default choice, but don't expect them to give your Valk a big boost in killing power. The Act 5 merc is considerably hardier, and with your Valk by his side you should have no problem finding a safe place from which to lob your javelins.

Bowazon
Skills
A bow-centered Amazon is very gear dependent. You’ll most likely need a Gothic or better bow to deal enough damage with Multishot or Strafe in late Nightmare. Lesser Blood crafts are a good way to come by these weapons, and you can shop magic Hydra Bows at Level 78 or higher in A5. A good craft can rival Windforce once it is socketed. Fast bows with CtC Amp Damage/elemental damage/socketed with PEmeralds or Tals will work before that. You can use Cleglaw’s Pinchers or socket a Nef in your bow for the necessary knockback. A very safe Strafeazon build is focused around the “Death” runeword in a Matriarchal or other elite bow and the Rattlecage unique Gothic Plate, but it costs a Lem rune which is quite dear in the 1.07 economy. In short, until you have an endgame bow ready to go, you may want to hold off on a Bowazon.

Once you have your cannon, start off with 5 points in Multishot, then just place points in prerequisites for Freezing Arrow, Strafe, and Valkyrie. Max Strafe then Valk, and get Freezing Arrow to a respectable level, with the rest of your points going toward Critical Strike, Penetrate, and Pierce until you get 50% CS and 75%+ to hit monsters in A5 Hell after your +skills. If you opt for Multishot and Freezing or Immolation Arrow, CtC Monster Flee and/or knockback is important on your Multishot bow or from Rattlecage.

Stats
Squeeze as many points into DEX as possible, as you don’t want to have to wear two Angelic Halos to get all your AR. STR likely need to go to 70 in order to wear a 4os Gothic Plate stuffed with Rals/Orts/Jewels.


Gear
A good +AR ring with secondary mods can do in a pinch, but you’ll most likely need an Angelic Halo + Angelic Wings, a +Amazon skills circlet with resists, a rare ring with resists and mana leech, Rattlecage or resist armor, and boots with at least 30% FRW. Sigon’s or Immoral King belt/boots/gloves are decent options for resists and IAS, but crafted Blood gloves with IAS, rare boots, and a rare belt will likely cover more resists than either set and have lower strength requirements than the IK set. You may want to have your high damage bow set to Strafe on right-click and a +skills bow on switch with Guided Arrow/Freezing Arrow set to L and R mouse buttons.

Mercenary
Your merc can be a Rogue with a complementary elemental attack, an Act 2 Might merc, or a Barbarian from Act 5. If you have some equipment that you are just dying to use (1.07 Skin of the Vipermagi comes to mind) that doesn’t really cut it on a character, an Ice Iron Wolf isn’t a terrible choice. The melee choices are not as attractive due to the CtC Flee and knockback effects you’ll likely be generating for most of the game. Baal isn’t a real problem due to Guided Arrow with CB being carried at full effectiveness in 1.07.

Paladin

Without synergies or high-powered weapons, Paladins suffer a bit on Hell difficulty. But three builds stand out as viable with a minimal amount of twinking; the Hammerdin, the Zealot, and the Avenger.

Hammerdin
Skills
Blessed Hammer only receives half the bonus of the Concentration aura, so you’ll want to focus on FCR and resists. Start with Might, then Sacrifice and Smite, then Zeal and Blessed Aim at level 12. Max Blessed Hammer first so you can get the hang of it and fill in Concentration next. At level 30, a point in Salvation is a must for corpse retrieval and to get through A4 and A5 areas when you just need to get out of danger. Since this build has a lot of extra skill points, you can either focus on Fanaticism/Zeal if you have a good physical weapon (or something with 100% hit causes monster to flee for crowd control), Holy Shield for the marginal extra protection it offers, or make a hybrid Avenger with the guide below. You’ll be using Smite against bosses quite often to allow your merc to get the kill, so being safe up close is a good idea. If you can’t find equipment that you are happy with in either path, just hold onto the skill points. Using Zeal as a one point wonder is best, as you will get enough +skills to take it to 5 swings, and the marginal gains after that aren’t worth the investment.

You'll be done with Blessed Hammer and Concentration around level 40, so what to do with the skill points after that? Just about everything else is a one-point wonder, and since you are primarily a caster you're gear won't likely be up to melee standards. The primary magic immune threats in Hell are Wailing Beasts and Greater mummies. The Beasts are fast, have stun and crushing blow, and may be guarding Lam Essen's tome. Well, don't worry about them. The Greater Mummies will make A2 a huge pain without a way to deal with them from a distance. So Fist of the Heavens isn't the worst choice, though you may be lacking the strong Conviction aura to back up this attack before the late 70s. Otherwise, those skill points are up to you.

Stats
Stats are just to equip your gear, likely 100+ STR to wear the better armors, less than 70 DEX for the scepters, and the rest in VIT.

Mercenary
A Blessed Aim merc is likely your best choice, as the Concentration and Blessed Aim auras will complement both your physical defensive attacks and make the merc much more potent, especially with a cold or slows target weapon. The default Might merc is very powerful with Might + Concentration going, but doesn't help you particularly. If you have an ITD weapon or put a few Eths in your switch Zeal weapon, you should be OK with a Might merc, but BA should suffice. An Ice Rogue or a PDR-centric Barbarian are also viable choices.

Gear
A Hammerdin can do very well with a Suicide Branch or Wizardspike, but barring a lucky rack, a FCR ring with secondary mods, a +skills scepter, and FCR gloves (Magefist or Trang’s) will get you to Baal at 12 frames per hammer. If you can swing a helm, and/or amulet (don’t craft one, they are bugged a 1% FCR) with 8%+ FCR, and other FCR ring will get you to 11 frames, but Suicide Branch by itself will get you to this breakpoint. Considering the massive additional damage you'll be giving up by not carrying a +2 skills or +3 combat skills scepter or sword, I recommend going for slower, more damaging hammers over a 2 frame increase in speed. You max out 9 FP at 125 FCR, but that would take a lot of unique equipment an leave you starved for resists and +skills.

Zealot
Skills
The Zealot will require some very strong gear to make it through Hell: crafted Blood gloves with IAS; a hard-hitting crafted Blood weapon or rare with leeching that hopefully has CtC Amp Damage; max’d resists and some PDR, likely from socketed Sol runes, but String of Ears or Vampire Gaze will make this build a lot more successful. Once you have this type of set-up ready to go, start off with the pre-requisite Might, Sacrifice, and Smite. You’ll want a point in Charge to close distance and dodge missile attacks, so getting comfortable with that earlier rather than later is recommended. Zeal may end up getting more than one point, especially is you are having AR problems, but the first skill you should max is Fanaticism. Vengeance or an elemental switch weapon should be developed as well, as PIs will overwhelm you in Hell without it. A point in Conversion can provide some much needed crowd control, so don’t be afraid to get that up to level 5 or higher with your + skills.

Stats
Stats are just to equip your gear, likely 100-130 STR to equip an elite weapon like a Phase Blade, Cryptic Sword, Scourge, or Berserker Axe. The DEX issue really crops up with this character, as the axes require less than 60 and Phase Blades require 136—15 level of saved stat points. In short, save some stat points for DEX. Health is an issue for this character as well, but once you get to 100 VIT, resist the temptation to make him safer until you have settled on an endgame weapon. And if you don’t have an elite endgame weapon, craft until you run out of Orts or end up with something ridiculous. You can keep recrafting the weapon until you are happy—no need to shop more base blue items.

Mercenary
A Might Merc never hurt a build that is doing primarily physical damage, but a Barbarian is a viable choice for this build as well. If nothing else, the battlelust programmed into the Barbs AI will give you a second to run away if things get out of control, and the stun + bash attacks help sort things out in the thick of melee.

Avenger
Skills
For the 1.07 Avenger, you’ll be taking Conviction to 25 including your +skills endgame gear. If you have a great physical damage weapon, you can combine these skills with the Zealot above, developing Conviction and then Vengeance last and finishing your core build at 73 skill points (20 Vengeance and Fanaticism, 16-20 points in Conviction, and 1 pt in Sacrifice, Smite, Might, Thorns, Holy Fire, Zeal, Smite, Blessed Aim, Concentration, Holy Freeze, Sanctuary, Salvation, and Conversion) with further points going into Zeal for the AR bonus or towards unlocking Holy Shield for the increased chance to block. Consider a two-handed weapon for the Fanatic Avenger for one hit kills and a bugged cold resist cube recipe ring with an obscene +mana per kill, but watch your crowd control.

If you want to combine with the Hammerdin, either because you don’t have a fast, high physical damage weapon or you have good Hammerdin gear, you’ll be done at 74 (20 Concentration, Conviction, and Blessed Hammer, and 1 pt in Sacrifice, Smite, Might, Thorns, Holy Fire, Zeal, Smite, Blessed Aim, Vengeance, Holy Freeze, Sanctuary, Holy Shield, Salvation, and Conversion), with future points going towards Holy Shield for safety. Either way, you won’t need much strength, as your weapon should be a fast dual elemental damage weapon—your vengeance will be coming from the magic affixes rather than your physical damage output. A socketed fast magic or rare exceptional weapon with 2 or more sources of cold lightning/fire damage can be filled with gems, runes, or jewels for good effect. This approach gives you more flexibility so that you can invest in DEX for better blocking or VIT for a high life build. Don't forget to shop and ID Necro wands for high dual-element damage.

Mercenary
Since you’ll be switching between Concentration/Fanatacism and Conviction, a character with a physical attack that does elemental damage seems perfect…but a Rogue doesn’t offer you any protection. They are still workable, especially if you have a lot of safe merc gear with knockback and Hit Causes Monster to Flee. An Ice Iron Wolf can be helpful if you are feeling secure in your crowd control abilities.

The Holy Freeze aura doesn’t work on Mercs, so the default choice of Might merc works pretty well. Another consideration is to go with a Barb merc using a fast two-handed sword like a Zweihander loaded with elemental damage as well.

Gear
Gear for all three builds is going to look similar outside of the weapon. You should be able to get to +4 Paladin skills between your shield, amulet, and helm, but don’t overlook +3 skills tree options in these slots either. Leveling is painfully slow between level 45 and level 67, especially for an Avenger who relies on two skills that won’t be maxed until level 59, so seek out and keep those +3 skill tree items.

The Zealot wants CB and lots of it. Fleshrender and Coldsteel Eye are about as good as you can get, along with some Blood gloves. IK boots and belt can help with AR issues, and Angelic jewelry is always useful. Remember, you can cube set and unique jewelry with FR/CR/LR/PR.

The Avenger will require the most from the gear. Shopping, racking, or crafting a Scourge or Berserker axe and then socketing it with +min damage jewels with secondary mods is pretty close to ideal. Minimum damage charms are much better in 1.07, but quite rare in my experience. Civerb's Cudgel is a decent place to start, but most likely your weapon of choice is going to be very dear. You can ignore AR due to your Conviction.

Beating Hell Baal will require getting up close and personal. Even with CBF and 75+ resists, the Manaflame will kill you immediately. So lure him off the bridge and stand 180 degrees away from your merc. Get him slowed with Kelpie Snare or whatever else you can find and try to get him to turn in circles. Watch out for the Hoarfrost (ice wedge), as it will knock you back even if you have CBF. Or just chicken out with a bow and Blessed Aim off someplace where he can’t reach you with the Manaflame.

 

[galtwish]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Leveling Recommendations

If you start with a Sorceress or Necromancer to MF though Normal and NM, grab a scepter or javelin and whack stuff, and follow Jiansonz’s definitive guide to early game magic finding . Trading those chipped Topazes chances to become cubed rings for good early game twinking gear is worth your time. Though there is little/no evidence that MF helps get you get S/U before the breakpoints, I have noticed some improvement in the number of blue drops when running around in a 4 PTopaz Gothic Plate + Tarnhelm over 4 PSapphire Gothic Plate. This may be anecdotal evidence, so don't think you are wrong in being miserly and not going for early game MF. Gamble away, though.

Since the game is locked on /players1 unless you use fast .dll switching, the full Sigon’s set is likely your L6 through L18+ twink of preference. A Skewer of Krintz is helpful with ITD and the +10 STR at level 10 if you don’t want to add more STR than the 70 points needed for Gothic Plate. Mid-level sets and uniques like The General’s Tan Do Li Ga, Bonesnap, Rattlecage, The Spirit Shroud, Goblin Toe, Peasant Crown, Death’s set, Arctic set, Dark Clan Crusher, Bloodletter, Heartcarver, Spineripper, Hwanin’s Justice, Civerb's Cudgel, and Coldkill can all get you through Nightmare and be reused on other characters, so don’t feel like you are wasting a socketing quest reward by making these better with a -15% requirement jewel, Eth, or Hel rune. The twinking guide has some good points on Great Mauls socketed with Jewels of Freedom, but the real champs here are +4 STR GCs.

Normal should be easy for most characters, twinked or untwinked, until The Summoner. Duriel can be very difficult untwinked. Once you have amassed some PDR or +life gear for you and your merc, he should be manageable. Just remember that thawing potions have no effect against his aura and that you are a better tank than your merc against the big bug. Then it’s on to the Council, where the FE can be deadly even with decent FR. Clear Travincal then drag the Council out one or two at a time to the altar a screen or so away where you can possibly get them stuck on a corner or at least provide yourself some distance from their powerful melee attacks. Mephisto eats mercs and minions for breakfast until you have 75% CR/LR on them, so bring some gold. Diablo is a major pain with his Firestorm wiping out minions and mercs, and the lightning hose absolutely decimating most mercs. Do your best to get in under his hose range and slug it out with CBF or thawing and as much FR/LR as you can manage. The Ancients are as fast and deadly as they are in any other patch, so splitting them up and using your merc and summonables to distract their attention is the standard tactic. The WSK can be scary due to exploding Ice Boars and Frenzytaurs coming after you while you are cursed, but there are no guest monsters and the Gloams are considerably weaker than in 1.10+. Baal is pretty easy in normal and NM, but in Hell his Manaflame does ridiculous damage. Stay out of its way and good luck if you are going to melee him.

If you feel the need to level up before Nightmare rerun the ice cave levels, as they provide channelling corridors that help funnel the enemies to you and don't have many missle attackers.

Nightmare is all about getting your FR/LR maxed and maximizing your main killing skill. Finding and equipping +skills gear should be your main goal as you quest. The Council, The Chaos Sanctuary, Lord De Seis, Diablo, Frozenstein, The Ancients, and Baal’s minions should all provide you with significant challenges, but nothing insurmountable. You will notice a significant increase in difficulty upon reaching the Chaos Sanctuary, so don’t think twice about going back to The Planes of Dispair to level up or to Lower Kurast to hunt for gear. By the end of Nightmare, you should be looking to get some meaningful FHR or PDR on your primary tank. You should rerun the A5 ice tunnels, Nihilathak’s temple, and WSK until at least level 60. If you don’t, you’ll have a hard time gaining additional levels in A1 Hell as the monsters are too far above your character level to be hit easily or to give full experience. This will set you up for serious problems in A3 and A4. If you are playing a melee character, take this to level 65. Nightmare A5 and cows start giving less experience than the Hell A1 around level 68, so if you are still seaching for resistance gear, need to make up for a few skill placement misclicks, or just like utterly dominating the hordes of bad guys feel free to stick around NM for a bit longer.

Hell is all about dealing with the monsters that are immune to your main attack. PIs are the primary concern, so a source of pure magic or elemental damage (Berserk, Hurricane, Venom, Bone Spirit, Freezing Arrow, dual elemental weapon) is a must. At this point you’ll likely be crafting lesser Blood gloves as Tir runes make themselves available and putting together decent partial sets—don’t think that Sigon’s belt/boots/gloves are anything to be ashamed of on a Barb in Hell until you get gloves with CB and dual resists or IAS. Since your merc doesn’t benefit from +skills gear, the Chromatic circlets you’ve been finding have significant value (but don’t socket them as they can only get one socket) and Iratha's Crown is an endgame worthy helmet. A rare dual resist armor with FHR or +life is likely the best you’ll be able to do for an endgame armor unless you’ve spent hours running stable racks in LK. Your other option is to shop Artisan's and Jeweller's armors with secondary mods and socket them with runes and jewels to cover up your resistance holes. Diablo isn’t as disproportionately strong as he is in Normal, but the Oblivion Knights will likely cost you a lot of gold. Nihilathak will kill you from off screen, but the tasty racks on his level are worth running for the highest level items. The Ancients are very difficult, but no more so than in any other patch—the real difficulty comes from the fact that you’ll likely be only around level 70 when you fight them. Baal has already been covered ad nauseam.

A quick note about shield blocking vs max life: if you can get a decent shield, 75% LR/FR, and 1k+ life, then by all means go for blocking. A major concern is that CBF is very difficult to come by and work into your gear set-up. Death's Guard, Hawkmail, and The Spirit Shroud are the only "common" sources of CBF, and they don't sport good resists in Hell. You'll need your attacks to be fast and leech damage rather than get stuck in block lock when you are in the thick of it. Compounding this issue is the low level that you will be completing the game--a sorc or necro at L75 is goiong to struggle to get to 800 life which may or may not allow you to get out from under a Frenzytaur or away from Blood Witches. Physical damage is the biggest concern in 1.07, and all the defensive measures in the world can't protect you from every hit--you still have to be able to shrug off one good thump. So get the life up as high as you can, then PDR/FHR and get the heck out of the way. Standing and deflecting is going to be pretty painful unless you are a Paladin or Javazon without D/A/E. Gierke's Sanctuary is the exception to this rule of thumb.

Once you've beaten the game, your leveling choices are pretty varied. Running the Hell ice tunnels is good up until level 80 or so, and appeals to almost all characters. Nilthi's temple is very good for experience through at least level 85 and is quite safe aside from the occasional Frenzytaur boss pack. Great racks and a few special chests should keep this area fresh as well.

WSK has exploding boars, frenzytaurs, and amp damage witches, so keep your cold resist and and PDR up if you are going to run these levels to the Throne Room. The waves will require some decent fire resistance and the ability to park Lister if your merc can't handle him. Unfortunately, it seems like the drops in the WSK are nerfed in 1.07--very few drops and mostly gold, potions, and scrolls until you get to the Throne Room. Beating the waves can be profitable for sets and rares, though.

The Moo Moo Farm doesn't offer as much XP per kill as Nihli's temple, but Amazons and Sorceresses will probably find this a better place to gain quick experience over time. Multishot, Lightning Fury, and Frozen Orb all rip through the low resist cows and their slow run speed gives these fragile gals plenty of breating room.

High level crafting is generally the end-game goal for 1.07 characters, and you'll want to get to level 78+ for 3 affix blood crafts. Level 91 allows you to craft and cube +3 skill tree gloves and amulets. Check out the addendum to the 1.07 guide for more info.

Racking and LK running for crafting supplies are also typical activities. If you are looking for items that you want to bring forward, avoid paladin and Monarch shields unless you don't care about defense and don't socket items in 1.07. Take all your non-superior ethereal polearms and elite weapons, and your non-superior ethereal Mage Plates and elite armors for cube socketing in later versions. Holy Shield +skills appears on scepters with greater frequency and can be quite valuable in later patches. Jewels are generally nerfed, and socketables drop with much lower frequency in 1.07 so hold on to those for crafting purposes.

Best of luck to you all and please add comments with your personal experiences questing characters through 1.07!

 

[Thyiad1]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Thank you for this, galtwish. :thumbup:

I'll add it to the SPF FAQ.

 

[Jaedhann]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Very nice guide. Didn't read al of it though. :thumbup:

May i be mean, and point to just one thing? Isn't MF'ing following Jiansonz' guide a little useless? Afaik, MF means squat unless you reach certain (high) breakpoints, and then only vs bosses. There is no real early MF'ing.
First few days should be all about killing and surviving then wearing chipped topaz armor on you and the merc. The guide contains a lot more than that, and the part of gambling etc makes it very good to read. Maybe just make sure somewhere that +MF% is useless?

I think it would be a better idea point to repusz' guide for the ring and ammy cube recipies that can certainly be good for twinking.

I love the characterguides though, very nice work.

[edit]Sorry, you made some good points. I still underestimate blues.

 

[galtwish]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

May i be mean, and point to just one thing? Isn't MF'ing following Jiansonz' guide a little useless? Afaik, MF means squat unless you reach certain (high) breakpoints, and then only vs bosses. There is no real early MF'ing.

I think it would be a better idea point to repusz' guide for the ring and ammy cube recipies that can certainly be good for twinking.

MF in the early stages of the game has gotten me a lot more blues than no MF. It doesn't scale properly, but it does appear to increase magic items. Low level magic items are necessary for skill-intensive builds like Sorceresses, Necros, and to a lesser extent Assassins. Barbs and Druids benefit from blue hats quite a bit in the early game. RTB would be the definitive answer to "0% MF until NM Act Bosses", but questing with Sigon's belt/boots/gloves, PTopaz armor, and a Tarnhelm has given me a lot more magic items than without. It could just be a killing speed issue, but I think that MF does work for blue vs. white/grey items.

Repusz' crafting guide is incorrect in a few key items. The Brady Games guide available with the battlechest has the correct recipies. Yes, I should post them somewhere since I found a copy of the book at a thrift store.

 

[Mungo]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Great guide which I shall using a lot as I have only just started in 1.07.

 

[galtwish]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

1.07 crafting recipes (and other good stat info)

http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=575208

1.07 Set & Unique items

http://web.archive.org/web/20030719165105/http://www.d2realms.com/

1.07 Runewords

http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305023&highlight=1.07+runewords

 

[DriveC]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Awesome info man I'm going to fire up 1.07 by this weekend without question.

 

[Mislan]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

Has anyone come across a fix to the problem of ATMA crashing characters equipped with v1.07 runewords?

 

[ch1zra]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

I have started orb sorceress in 1.07. She is just lvl 14 and is struggling through forgotten temple atm.
I would of course like to score some of those nice charms or rings with massive MpK/leech mods on them, but what I really want to know is what are the famous "1.07 base items" every1 talks about.
What's so special about bases in 1.07 that got lowered afterwards ?
Also, rack running is same as in later patches (same approach pattern produces same kind of item) ?

Thanx in advance, and let's rock the 1.07 world!

btw, I forgot how strange is to play untwinked. Man, they're giving me hard time all the time
fun factor is back, and I like it.

 

[ch1zra]

Re: 1.07 Build Guides

thanx a lot for quick reply
I know I've seen 1.07 thread somewhere, but I couldn't find it again. I will post from now on there.