Salutations,
Here's a
thread describing other builds you might enjoy (feel free to add in more, the thread never realy took-off). There's a small bit about the Castadin/Convictor in there too. I think people suggested the name Convictor to me because there is a build for a spell-casting Conviction pally (using oSkills from Trang's set for FBall and Meteor, but the build isn't creatable anymore due to gear changes). Apparently that type of Castadin really did have trouble with a NM Fallen
There's not a lot for me to add, since you've got the primary purpose of the build already. I'll share the gear and ideas I've messed around with:
1) Gear:
- "Chaos" knives have good speed, but rediculously low durability, and a range of 1, so you'll hit the Zeal AutoAim bug unless you alt-walk to where you think the monster is (with lag, this can be very tricky). That aside, this is neat.
- Lightsaber is the only lightning weapon worth considering, but it's still not that useful. It's got good speed, but ChainLightning is flawed at melee range, and level 33 only does about 350 dmg anyways. Pretty to look at.
- "Wonder" weapon works great at level 65-85 (starts being less noticeable in Hell, where it's only good). FOrb and Blizzard are lots of fun to see (What does 3 simultaneously cast FOrbs look like? Only a Convictor knows
).
- "Voice of Reason" and "Rift" weapons work great from about lvl5x to lvl80
- "Ice" javs were fun, but it's been so long since I used them that I don't remember if they were useful. I remember being stunned by the fact that unsynergized FNova actually hurt things (it was something like 10% hp drop, which is nice considering the area effect) in hell.
- "Lawbringer" is nice against bosses since it won't cause many counters, makes you immune to IM (You only do like 100 phys dmg at any level), and decrep is nice too. Sadly the Sanctuary aura causes you to do a bit of damage to demons, so Diablo's IM can lower your life bulb a bit (you'll need extra potions).
- Elemental Set is very nice, but the procs cause more counters than damage (it's fun though, and it's not like you've got many choices).
- Saphire-craft armor with 4 diamonds is a rediculously defensive any-level item to use. In many ways this is better than Corpsemourn or BlackHades (Although both are fun to use to). Having 70 dr/mdr makes you immune to most trash and dps-skills like FireWall, even in NM, also 40k defence isn't hard to do with Maxed HShield/Defiance (5% to be hit by just about anything, and then you block 75% of it... nice).
- Dragonhelm Hydraskull is pretty much mandatory, as it's basically the only non-ice proc in HU. The Meteors have recently been raised to level 30 (about 1k dmg with about 400dps), which far-outclasses anything else available (most gear in HU has skill levels of about 20-25, so generally do about 200 dmg). It also has 3 sockets (upgraded from 2 specifically at my request for this build
). If you want to use Corpsemourn, then you'll need amythests in those sockets (although wirt-jewel Corpsemourn is nice, but I prefer a 40%PoisRes -20%Req jewel). If you don't use Corpsemourn, then you can toss ias jewels in here.
- There are no decent lightning procs in HU, although using IK Gloves+Belt+Boots will give you level 40 ChainLightning. It's not bad, it's noticeable, but ChainLightning is a pretty poor spell at melee range due to the next-hit-delay. Those 3 IK Pieces is really nice though, giving Res, Dex, +10%Life and +70% ias. They require about 185 str though, which is way higher than everything else but corpsemourn.
- Death's Glove+Sash are excellent for the entire game. Using these with either StormWalk (10% absorbs for cold/lightning and a little Cold/Lightning dmg to attack) or CrushingBlow boots (nice for bosses, espeically with "Lawbringer") works just fine.
- Tiamat's Rebuke is the only shield available in the Convictor theme, but it's pretty easy to out-perform it by socketing a good shield with facets. I like GlacialSpike (about 800dmg with 1 second freeze in Hell) facets personally, but Fireball (1k) are alright too. I suggested "Penitence" runeword for this build, but it didn't quite happen this patch. Crafting Emerald, Ruby, Amythest, or Saphire shields can be very nice.
- You can practically cheat if you initially gear your character with level 14 crafts of MStone quality rings and ammy. It's lame, but your character won't have the ED% of zealots, or the percs of other classes. Topaz ammy will give you about 200 lightning dmg to attack (you might keep this until something like Tal's ammy or something), while Emerald rings give plenty of dr/mdr, vita, and resistances.
2) Technical stuff
- I like using a superior +Durability flail for non-"Ice" runewords. Flails are just as fast as WarScepters, but have lower damage and range 3. Only Warscepters (range=2) are suitable for runewords due to the Zeal-AutoAim bug (zeal auto-misses some monsters if you use a weapon with range 1).
- 5 Attacks per second with Zeal alone occurs at 45% ias. 6 Attacks occurs at something like 140%. If fanat is available, then the 6 attacks occurs at something trivial like 20% ias.
- Healing potions will do more for you than rejuvs, since your life is relatively low compared to other melee builds. Your defence, block, and dr/mdr is probably high enough that you've got more than enough time to drink the red stuff. Your vitality is probably so high that most healing potions will have
double-effect (50% double-heal rate at 200 vit, 75% at 400, 80% at 500). It's still worth keeping 1 column of rejuvs in your belt.
- Convictors aren't affected as much by the increase in difficulty as some other builds are, so even though they're relatively weak, they still kill trash just fine. They aren't affected as much because they face fewer immunities, and are completely unaffected by the global 50% phys res facing the majority of classes in HU. Your leach rate isn't even reduced, since the pally can't leach anyways
- Don't bother too much about "OnStruck" procs, since you really won't get hit that often. I've played for about 2-5 minutes before casting the 10%FrozenArmor of saphire-craft armor. Despite that, some elemental missles won't miss, like the ones spit by "Tainted" demons. Those guys are amusing to watch butcher themselves on your procs (I've seen Dragonhelm rain down like 6 simultaneous Meteors on those guys).
3) Mercs
- A5 can wear
eveything you can, but I haven't actually tested to see if they'd work out yet, since I don't have an extra Dragonhelm right now. Really looking forward to this test though. This is a big reason I made one of my "Wonder"s in a flail.
- A1 phys is decent for On-Strike procs like "Ice" and Dragonhelm, also their double-damage DeadlyStrike affects elemental damage, which works well with multishot.
- A1 ImmoArrow is oddly inconsistent. They seem to fire an Exploding arrow 25% of the time and Immo arrow 25% of the time. When those occur, they might devastate the enemy if they're clustered. They don't stack Immo arrow enough to be advantageous against bosses.
- A3 I haven't bothered testing with these guys in over a year. They were just too fragile for me to enjoy. With saphire-crafted armor to boost their defence, they should be alright. Lightning would be the way to go, since that's your main elemental weak-area.
4) Skills
- I went with 20 Defiance, HShield, and Conviction. I didn't go Zeal since I knew that weapon damage would be low anyways, and I don't need any ARating due to Conviction. Defiance isn't that critical if you're going with saphire-armor, and frankly any points in Conviction above level 15 is kind of a waste, but you may as well max that for the party-friendly radius.
- Everthing about your build is in your gear, so really, just have fun with your skills. I maxed prayer once, it was alright. I didn't have enough +Skills to make 1 pt HBolt useful for healing, but whatever.
- There's only about +3 Skills from typical Convictor gear, so you might want to toss 2-5 points into stuff you like, such as Zeal, Conversion, Redemption, and Fanat (regearing to a smiter for bosses is useful).
The Convictor is one of the more amusing and enjoyable classes HU has to offer. I think you'll like it as much as I do.