LLD101

[tsr]

I've changed the build around from a lvl 15 defiant smiter to a lvl 18 mighty smiter. Current build is on page 3.

----------ORIGINAL POST------------
Disclaimer: This build is not meant to compete in any arena matches, but will still try to use as few bad manners as possible. Furthermore, this build is just to get feedback and ideas on how to improve this concept.

TSR's Level 15 Smiter Concept
Skills:
Smite 15
Defiance 10
Charge 1

Equipment:
Sigon's Helm [flawless ruby]
Rare Ethereal Ancient Armor of Restoration [-15% req, 10% DTM]
Crushflange // Crushflange [+9 max]
Swordback Hold // 60% ed Aerian [4 flawless skulls]
Sigon's Gloves
Sigon's Boots
Death's Sash
Angelic Wings
Angelic Halo
Manald

Charms:
Primary mods - life
Secondary mods - poison and lightning resists and defense

Goals:
-35 smite max damage
-200 charge max damage
-700 life
-2,000 defense
-1,000 charge attack rating
-75% block
-Max resists

Strategy:
The biggest threat to this build IMO, is a smiter set to kill other smiters.

Many level 15 defense smiters use zeal as finishers. However, usually they do so at a great loss to defense. By using charge as many finisher I can maintain a walking speed, and have superior damage and attack rating to zeal.

Charge is the most apparent use of bad manners in the build as a lot of people call chargers runners; however, charge does force any smiter opponent into a very risky situation. For an opponent smiter using zeal to finish, they must first come into melee range, which will be seldom against a charging smiter. To do so, they will most likely have to reactivate run, which makes their defense useless. If they do no reactivate run, you can hit them with smite to apply open wounds. Once you apply open wounds, they will most likely switch to prayer, which is when you start charging again. The strategy is to use their auras against them by switching strategies between smite and charge.

Other than opposing smiters, most other opponents can be classified into two groups: ranged and melee.

The smiter should win out against most melee characters simply by tanking and smiting until they hit the ground.

Ranged characters will take a little more finesse and you may run into energy issues. Most likely, you'll have to chase them down by shift-charging, then charge them, and switch to smite immediately after, and try to smite lock them. Once they break the smite lock, just repeat. Furthermore, only using walk with shift-charging to maintain your defense should help against ranged attackers such as throwers. Also, your maxed resists will help nullify most of the damage a level 15 caster can dish out.

Summary:
So I should be able to achieve all my goals for this character. However, I am still unsure what to socket my primary crushflange and swordback hold with. My main concerns are against other smiters, so I was wondering if anyone had any advice or ideas on how to improve this build. Also, any criticism would also be appreciated.

[tsr]

So I am torn between maxing smite or putting only 1 point in smite and pumping points into prayer. The 35 damage from smite equates into about 6 actual damage in pvp. That should be enough to finish most targets without relying on my switch. Really, I should be able to outsmite any smiter with damage reduction and cleansing assuming they stay below reduce damage by 4.

Is the health regen from cleansing and prayer really worth optimizing, or should I perhaps just drop 1 point in each, leave smite maxed, and stick with my normal charger strategy?

[krajee]

Against another smiter, I would have crush + swordback on one side and crush + 4flawless skull aerin on the other. I would also switch the boots and armor to a crafted rep life boots and 4flawless skull armor, respectively. If both you and your opponent are not mana potting, a neat trick would be to put 3-4 mana gcs on (up to 26mana/gc). If you can get some with + str, you can further increase your effectiveness against smiters by switching to death's gloves/belt and a flawless skull helm.

And next time, edit your original post rather than double-posting.

[tsr]

So then the skill setup seems fine or should I put some points into prayer and cleansing or just not worry about them? Also, is the "healing: x" modifier of prayer the equivalent of "replenish life x"? 'Cause that really doesn't seem worth the 2 skills if that's the case.

Weapon switch will be crushflange and a 4 os 50% ed heraldric (just cause I already have it, and damage difference isn't even noticable in pvp). This will be more useful against smiters and other casters. I like making my characters without having to switch any more than just weapons (i.e. not going back to the stash just to duel different opponents). Also, I like the idea of just switching to my secondary between combat instead of running to akara.

So, I guess my main question now is whether or not I should put skills into prayer and cleansing or just keep smite to try to power my way through any damage reduction?

[VexSoul]

I'd go with cleansing for smite vrs. smite. Because of how little damage is done by smite, the life boost you get could make the difference. Also, just curious, how this build fares against 18 zealers?

[tsr]

I don't know how it will do against zealots yet. If someone wants to test it out once I finish it, i'd be more than happy. At the moment though I am still in the process of finding my armor and life charms so it might be a week or so before he's up and running. That armor will be the hardest.

[Happy-lld]

I have a lvl 15 Defiance smiter/zealer and he does well against most level 18 zealers even with 1.8k defense. When he reaches ~2k he should do very well. And as far as maxing smite goes, I would rather put points into zeal or use a zeal scepter(clensing/prayer or resistance auras help as well) , my defense drops from 1.8k to 1.6k when I switch to my waraxe, so its not a huge difference. And remember that those extra points are almost completely negated by any dr. Your biggest challenges will be Other smiters (which aren't bad if you stack dr and finish with zeal) and Jabbazons(their innersight can kill your defense).

Good luck, and if you make him on nl east I whanna duel

*pootiepirate

Happy-SM LVL15 Defiance smiter/zealer

Btw a 2os glorius ancient armour of Ease, or Angelics armour are good starter armours.

[tsr]

Only problem with the scepter idea is that I'd be forced to invest 15 more strength to ensure I can still use my armor. I was thinking that Crushflange and a +Max damage aerian shield would give me enough damage for that last strike. Any comments?

[Happy-lld]

Largest problem is the ar from a normal attack sucks. I have around 1.4k ar on my zeal switch and I still miss like hell.

[tsr]

I wouldn't be using a normal attack, I'd be using [CHARGE], which would have more ar and more damage than zeal, which might give me the chance to hit and kill that I need. Plus charge has a lot of other uses for movement.

[Down_Zero]

"I'd be using smite, which would have more ar and more damage than zeal"

Smite doesn't need attack rating to hit.

[Visual Tactics]

Your last attacks would also do less damage than zeal probably. Smite at low levels rely on cb/ow to quickly lower their health. Those last few hits will be hard if they have decent rep life/healing aura/dr

[tsr]

Lol, sorry I meant to say charge, not smite. I'd be using charge, which has more ar and damage. However, this does propose two major problems. Less swings, and a lot more mana. I might have to put the 15 strength points in there so that I can switch to a 4 swing smite. Therefore my switch would be a +3 Zeal Scepter and a 50%+ ed, 80+ ar aerian shield with 4x 9 maxers. I'd lose 45 life, but it might pay off. Also, I could maybe hope for a scepter with might or blessed aim on it also.

I just really think that charge will eat up my mana way too much, saying that I might have to charge 4 times just to get that last hit in there.

[Jerkazoid]

90% of the dmg comes from CB and OW.
1 smite


u can have mana issues from just smite alone. decent DTM is above 35%, (remebr u can ith rune your swordback)

and vs another smiter keep in mind that DTM wont work for you (or them either) from OW and CB. so build around that outlasting/regen idea
suggestion from kraj for combo charms with mana are a good idea

[tsr]

So that 6 damage on smite isnt worth it for finishing someone off? That's the main reason it's on there, so that I never have to use my switch unless they pack on damage reduction. The whole thing with this build is that I want to duel level 30+ in pubs and not have to rely ever on change to hit. Because character level makes such a huge difference, i.e. a level 30 would automatically reduce my chance to hit down to 66% even if they didnt have defense. I know that CB can't kill, and I know that OW can't kill. So, if I had a little damage on smite, I could hit for that last amount without having to rely on ar.

Here's a question: Is damage reduction scaled down in pvp? For example a ring with damage reduction 6 would actually only be damage reduction 1.