Diablo II single player questions

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I think Bonehew is a much better choice for your merc than your barb. In fact, I have used Bonehew as a merc weapon with very good results. The bone spear does activate on merc attacks.

For as dumb as this sounds, bone spear is physical, not magical damage, so it won't help you out against PIs. Additionally, the charges of CE will be a seriously nerfed version compared to what you got from the necro. You'll get a decent area of effect, but remember that CE does half fire, half physical damage, and so the damage was greatly enhanced by having Amplify Damage on your enemies. So it will work, but with far less efficacy than you had with a necro. In Hell monsters have 50% resistance to physical damage automatically, so Amp took them to -50%, so the physical damage will be 1/3 compared to what you got from a necro, and if they are fire immune, it won't do much at all. That still leaves prevent monster heal, and that works just as well if your merc is using it as if you were.

 

I forgot you were using Hone Sudan - best merc weapon in the game.

 

According to the wiki site, the level requirement on Windhammer is 68 (Linky) - so that should be available to you by late nightmare. To be honest, I never even looked at the level requirements until you brought that up just now. I agree that Level 84 would be really freakin' high, and there are some pieces of equipment that have level requirements even beyond that. I typically don't hit level 84 until Act IV or V in Hell, so by the time you have the levels to use it, the game is pretty much over. I also checked and the Cranium Basher has a level requirement of 87!

You are also right that whirl barbs using mauls do have some attack rating issues if they don't get significant bonus AR from their equipment. Because the strength requirements of the top flight mauls are so high, most characters using them leave their dexterity at base. Two Raven Frosts are actually quite common for maul using barbs. The only time you won't have an issue with attack rating is if you use the IK set. All of the partial set bonuses on the set are bonus attack rating. Starting with the second piece the bonuses are 50, 75, 125, 200, and 450 for the full set. They are also all cumulative, so a barb decked out in full IK regalia will have +900 to AR, which of course will be multiplied by his bonus to mace mastery and his attack skill of choice.

The point is, unless you already have equipment picked out that is going to supply you with a fair amount of bonus attack rating, perhaps mauls are not the best choice. I wouldn't worry about your life pool - there's no such thing as a barbarian with too little life (graned, you can never have too much, but even with a little over 100 in vitality your life pool will be around 2000). Battle orders will more than double your life total, and once you get a fairly high level shout you actually don't get hit that much. However, having a low attack rating is definitely something to be concerned about. While a barb with a big freakin' maul looks really cool, if he only hits 50% of the time, he's not going to be kicking nearly the amount of ass as you'd like.

Then again, while I have never had a barb use Bonehew, I imagine it has the scythe animation, so there is definite potential for bonus style points there. Come to think of it, I've never had a scythe-wielding WW Barb, but that could be really cool looking too. I liked my WW spear barb up to the point I played him. (I will go back to that character after aquiring another Pul rune. I only had one Pul in my stash and I used it to up Fleshrender for my druid. Sometimes, I wish you could downgrade runes. I would like to be able to trade in an Um for two Puls.)

 

I got Khalim's relics last night - my merc got crushed again in our attempt to retrieve the Black Book. Close quarters with no where to retreat to make poor fighting position. I don't think my character has died in Hell difficulty yet, which is quite the accomplishment.

I must concede that my two favorite builds up to this point are the high life builds - the barbarian and druid. Nothing compares to the necro in terms of straight survivability, but the hands off approach of the necro is not particularly satisfying.

 

Are two +15% IAS jewels adequate to get you to the LWWBP? Seems a little light to me. I thought you needed -70, but it's been a while since I read Rik's guide so maybe not. Bonehew is, I think, the highest damage polearm available in the game, so it certainly is a solid choice.

As I already admitted, I have never play tested any of these options, and I'm only making comparisons based on what I see on paper. If you get both weapons down to the LWWBP, then based on average damage, Bonehew will out damage Windhammer, disregarding Crushing Blow. I don't know the exact % damage modifiers on your weapons, but Windhammer has a higher minimum, but significantly lower max than Bonehew. Windhammer is about 200-350 base damage, whereas Bonehew is about 100-600 base. The question becomes is Windhammer faster? We know we can hit the LWWBP with Windhammer - it needs another 20% IAS, so a Shael will do it. If Bonehew is at the next to LWWBP, the average damage difference is not so great that Windhammer couldn't catch up by hitting more, and then the CB would push it over the top.

On the other hand, the range is greater on Bonehew. All the Mauls and Great Mauls have a range 3, and polearms typically have a range of 4. (I'm pretty sure only spear class weapons have range 5.) I know you're going to play test them anyway, I'm just trying to figure out based on the stats which one is the superior choice.

 

That's where I went wrong. I thought it was -70 for maxed speed on whirlwind - I really need to re-read Rik's guide. I definitely agree that if you can get to the best speed with IAS jewels with a second modifier on them that is definitely the way to go. The ultimate jewel would be one that added IAS and %ed (they do exist). Of course, even if you didn't have particularly great modifiers, they would at least give you something, whereas Shaels just give IAS.

I also agree that if you already have some CB on your other equipment, Windhammer definitely loses some of it's luster. At that weapon speed, you'll be doing multiple hit checks per second, so it's not like there's going to be a problem with CB activating, especially on bosses, which is where you need it most. Throw in the bigger range on Bonehew, and it's seemingly a no-brainer. I'm not even sure I'd spend a socket quest on Windhammer and perhaps would consider saving it for another character. (Then again, you have extra socket quests. The weapon comes socketed, you aren't using a shield, and your helm is already socketed, so the only piece of gear you have that needs to be socketed is the body armor.)

 

Damn it all. Tried to finish Act III last night, got all the way to Travincal, killed off most of the council including the member who was carrying the flail, only have one of the council members (the one that automatically spawns immune to fire) get cursed and physical immune as his random mods. So I had to save and exit - I love my Fury/Fire Claws druid, but I'm SOL when I run into something immune to fire and physical.

 

Nope he uses a triple Amn'ed Hone Sudan - leaches life like crazy.

 

Well, there's always PowerWord: Save and Exit. The only pre-set mod is immune to fire. Chances are I won't get immune to physical as well when I play next time. I was just compaining - it's not like I'm done with this character.

 

Huzzah! Finally got to Act IV. I seem to be progressing somewhat faster with this character than others. I'm just level 81 - and I seem to remember being somewhat higher in level at this point in the game. Not a ton, but like level 85 or so.

 

Pissed off - finished Act IV and started Act V with my druid this weekend. However, my Hellforge quest earned me a Hel rune, which I think is the lowest you can get on hell difficulty.

 

Got through the second quest in Act V. Only played for a bit yesterday, and not much at all in the past week as I was travelling for Thanksgiving. Spent my socket quest on Jalal's Mane and stuck a ptopaz in it. I don't have much mf for this character, but that should take me to about 100.