All of these build suggestions depend on Araboth and Plague, leaving a lot of room for customization and hybridization. Generally, I recommend putting one point into any skill you can get. Even if you don't need Blessed Life that much because of Holy Armor, one point and +skills from items can really help you while you are vulnerable. Same thing the other way around: You may not need Holy Armor most of the time, but it's nice to have the skill available, even at a low level. To get a general idea of the build ideas: Using the different holy support skills, you can either improve physical damage (Vanquish, Vindicate, VoJ), survivability (Blessed Life, Holy Armor) or add fire damage (RoL with Searing Orb as a synergy or Holy Trap) to the mix. Also, you can use Scourge as blockers or mix any of these setups in any way you like. I'm not going to give you detailed skill point distribution, since we're trying to get into Archetype-Guides instead of "Step-by-step Pwnz0r-Build for Dummies".]"Urgent communique:
Out of several thousand candidates, you’ve been selected for a unique assignment, soldier; the following information is highly classified.
After the Fauztinville disaster a few months ago, the SA decided to take care of the demonic threat once and for all. You’ve probably heard the rumours about heroes from the past, taking the assailants head on. Well, they are true. Here’s the deal: The time portal, which was used in the counterattack, will carry you into the past. You are then to take out the Prime Evils, who were mentioned in the legend of the Shattered Worldstone and have been thought to be nothing but a myth. Now we know better. Anyway, we are confident, that their destruction will lessen the demonic threat posed by demons today. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to stop the invasion of Fauztinville before it happens, because otherwise there will not have been any reason for us to send you into the past in the first place, making your journey void and logically impossible.
Also, the power consumption of the portal prevents us from sending in a full platoon, let alone a whole army. This is why you’ll bring along two of our newest acquisitions: The ZAK-27 Plasmagun and a portable nuclear battery to power it. You don’t have to worry, its radiation is very low, so the risk of developing cancer is rather slim. Be advised, however, that you may suffer loss of hair, shedding of skin and/or temporary/permanent sterility.
The SA medical plan does not cover any employment related sicknesses.
The aforementioned nuclear battery provides enough power to perpetually use the ZAK-27, as well as a few other powerful gadgets, which are to help you on your assignment. Its poweroutput is limited, however, so you’ll have to choose carefully which equipment to take along.
The demonic invasion in the past has severely diminished the local populace. Most of the western realms has been cleansed of human life (apart from a few struggling survivers, bandits and rogues). Lut Gholein appears to be one of the safest havens at this time. Kurast on the other hand is being swallowed by the jungle (which was completely cut done over the last two hundred years to avoid any such catastrophe to ever happen again). And the northern lands are in total chaos as well.
General information about the ZAK-27:
This newly developed weapon (codename Araboth) allows for maximum carnage by spreading superheated plasma among the enemies. It was banned by the SA’s court of law, however, this proscription is only valid in the use against human combatants. You, on the other hand, will use it against various types of hellspawn, undead and wild beasts, none of which are covered by said law.
While the immediate impact of the ZAK-27 is devasting, our lab tests show that most demonic entities can survive it. The clou is, that the plasma penetrates the target’s skin/hide/shell/exoskeleton, flooding its bloodstream with superheated toxins and chemicals, burning and poisoning it from the inside out.
There are few known creatures whose skin/hide/shell/exoskeleton proved to be too powerful to be pierced or whose metabolism was able to deal with the effects of the plasma. Be careful when dealing with these.
Types of Plasmagunners:
(Common skills: Plague, Silver Dart from Araboth)
Tactical:
(Basic skill setup: Vanquish, Vindicate, Ring of Light, Blessed Life)
You can use your battery’s additional output to further boost the ZAK-27's direct damage potential. Regrettably, the energy consumption is very high, inhibiting you from creating a personal shield. Wearing the strongest types of body armour is highly recommended.
[This build is very fast paced because you don't have the luxury of invulnerability. Your biggest advantage is that you can easily deal with poison immunes. Actually, this subtype is my favourite.]
Ready to rumble!
Shielded:
(Basic skill setup: Holy Armor, Vessel of Judgement, Light and Shadow)
Splitting the battery’s output reduces your damage potential somewhat. On the other hand, it allows you to set up a personal shield protecting you from any harm. Bear in mind that you’ll have to recharge it, leaving you vulnerable for a short duration.
[This build obviously lacks physical damage, but it is very resilient. This means that you won't trigger Vindicate's effect that often (death from poison doesn't activate it). Therefore, instead of Vindicate and Ring of Light, you should try for L&S and VoJ for more physical damage. You can really tank your enemies and thereby make the best of VoJ, thanks to Holy Armor.]
Lame, but effective.
Explosives:
(Basic skill setup: Vindicate, Ring of Light, Searing Orb)
Combine the high tech weaponry of tomorrow with good ol’ fashioned explosives from yesterday. Many creatures are afraid of fire, so use it against them. Remember that many hellspawn are immune to its effects as a result of their origin.
[Instead of physical damage, this subtype relies on fire damage to kill poison immunes. You can obviously also use Holy Trap, but I found RoL to be very powerful and easier to use; you'll probably want to get it because of Vindicate, anyway!]
Napalm in the morning...
Self-proclaimed saviour of the simple folk:
(Basic skill setup: Scourge, synergies for 1.57 aren’t definite yet)
Those who haven’t fled or died are waiting for somebody to take up the roll of a leader. You might be that person. Give those peasants an infuriating speech, some pitchforks, scythes and axes and let them protect you. If you feel like it, enhance their weaponry. Just be careful not to recruit anybody who is known to later play a vital roll in our history.
[The idea is to use the Scourge as blockers and boost their (and your own) physical damage with Vindicate. With 15 Scourge, you won't need Holy Armor that often.]
Highly motivated peasants, brandishing scythes and axes
Hybrid:
(Basic skill setup: Whatever you wish)
You may always choose a different path or the combination of two or more specializations. Just remember the limited power support; don’t spread your ressources too thin, lest you become a jack-of-all-trades without any effective attacks.
Good luck soldier. Fame and untold riches await you, if you choose to accept this assignment.
By accepting this assignment, you also accept that the SA will assume no liability in case of injury, psychological stress, trauma and/or death."
A quest in the past? Heroism? Chicks and money? After carefully weighing the pros and cons, you made your decision. And really: Just a few days after you had handed in your consent, one sunny afternoon, you were knocked out by a bunch of thugs, drugged and blindfolded and brought into an underground lab, somewhere below Fauztinville, where the portal was hidden. Apparently, time was running short, because you were never properly introduced or trained for this special task. When you finally came to, you lay face down in a muddy meadow, feeling sick. Once you were done puking your guts out, you managed to get up and look around. Obviously, you were no longer in an underground lab but somewhere in the countryside, just outside a crude fortified camp.
Jet lag ain't nothin'.
You became aware of another unfortunate fellow, lying a few yards away, appearing rather dead. Judging by the clothes he wore and the sword in his rotting hand, you were already hurled back in time…
Checking yourself for bruises, you saw that you were now clad in body armour and found a distinct lump on your back – the humming nuclear battery they had promised you. But where was all the other equipment they’d been supposed to give to you? Where was the gun? Something must’ve gone wrong during the transition! Wasting no time, you slipped the smelly tunic of your unfortunate comrade over and girdled the sword, then made your way to the fortified camp you saw nearby.
Quickly now: To survive, you really needed to get that gun back…
Hopefully, you'll get it back, too!
Some hints:
Araboth is a jewelword, that requires a six-socket crossbow. Unfortunately, these have rather high requirements. To lower them, craft jewels with -requirements (see .pdf); this really helps when trying for AC-challenges.
Why use Araboth? Simple, it's got a 3/2 weapon damage modifier, granting a fixed +50% (or +100% if you compare it to Retaliate) to your Plague's damage and it spreads it almost as effectively as Retaliate does (a nova, which only has 3/4 weapon damage modifier). There are disadvantages, however: You can't wear a shield (like Asclepion) and other weapons like Enyo (Acid Trance Aura) or Lion (for Vanquish-users) aren't available, either.
Vindicate can get an extremely high radius, make use of it. When moving through open areas, just cast it every 1-2 screens you travel. That way, most to all monsters of the next mob you'll encounter are already cursed. This really helps with keeping the bonus damage and the healing active, even when they physically attack you. You won't need to recast Vindicate during a battle, significantly reducing the amount of time you are vulnerable. Also, whenever in dungeons, cast it before turning around a corner or opening a door; Vindicate works through walls!
When you're playing Tactical, it's very useful to get yourself some items with +Buff/Debuff/Cold Duration. For example, Slippers of Yaerius socketed with perfect sapphires can get your Vanquish duration higher than it's spell timer, granting you a constant, extreme physical damage boost.
Silver Dart hits pretty much everything on screen and up to 2 screens away, thus spreading Plagues poison very efficiently. However, if you lack physical damage, your enemies might still be able to injure/kill you, before they die from the poison. To combat that, items with Monster Flee (for example Bone Clasp) are very helpful. Usually, fleeing monsters die before even finishing their flight thanks to Plague.
To effectively use Silver Dart, you've got to learn its mechanics. The initial bolt spreads on impact, directly aiming at nearby enemies. This means, that you can aim at monsters, walls (to shoot around corners), obstacles like rocks and so on, it will almost always hit something. When you're being attacked from several sides, I recommend shooting a few bolts (2-3) into the advancing crowd of one side and then the other. That way, you make sure that the spreading bolts are fired in various different angles, allowing the poison to spread pretty much everywhere! If you just shoot at one crowd, there's always a chance you will miss monsters advancing from a different angle by a few yards (because the extra bolts are aimed at where the monsters are at that moment without any kind of foresight).
Remember that +% spell or poison damage doesn't affect missile attacks! Try to get more +skills instead! Also, the +% Bonus Elemental Damage to Vanquish mod doesn't work.
One more important thing about Vindicate: Its effect is not activated when a monster dies from the poison! Even if you've poisoned everything on screen, keep shooting to trigger the healing and +% physical damage effect. Also, spells do trigger Vindicate's effect, though their damage isn't boosted by it.
Good job on this build, btw.
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