LLD101

[LaDanceMacabre]

Now that the obligatory cookie cutter LLD character has been basically finished aside from some charm tweaking, I've found that battle.net lurkers in Low Level Dueling games, unfamiliar to the concept of LLD, generally have a very limited vocabulary, consisting primarily of the words "hax," "pwn," and several variations of "newb". Casting them aside, there are the people who are slightly familiar with LLD. These, however, I find are the ones who most commonly, even habitually, retort, "Oh, you're an 18 Zealot jeweler. Go figure, it's just another cookie.." (but often much more crudely) as if pardons them from the fact that I nevertheless win from a fundamentally inferior position. As aggravating as this may sound, however, there is some truth to their claim. The first, and still the most frequently seen, LLD character I happened upon was a level 18 Zealot jeweler, and I'll wager that the last one I'll ever see will be the same, as far as public dueling goes.

Well, I decided that they're absolutely right. I worked my ass off for this guy, but in the end, I worked my ass off for a cookie, and it really ain't satisfying my hunger. So I'm going to make an off-beat, strange character that can still compete and overcome the easy-make, easy-bake cookies all over battle.net. I thought about it for a while, and I have listed below several options a few companions and I thought of in a game, primarily in the level 14 to 30 range, as the concept of VLLD poses little interest to me. Those listed in bold are the options that I find especially appealing.

Level 14-15 Throw Barb
Level 18 Zeal Barb - Offensive
Level 18 Zeal Barb - Defensive
Levle 30 Frenzy Barb (perhaps a WW hybrid as well)
Level 18 Guided Arrow Zon
Level 30 Wizendraw Cold Arrow Zon
Level 30 Guided Arrow/Jab Hybrid Zon
Level 30 Vengeance/Conviction Pally
Level 30 Wizendraw/Holy Freeze Bow Pally
Level 30 Fury Druid
Level 18 Bone Spear Necro
Level 30 Poison Nova Necro
/insert whatever other builds you may suggest here

I'm running short on time at the moment so I won't articulate on any builds of the characters listed above, but if I find the time and motivation, I'll post them to receive criticism and opinions on their projected effectiveness.

What I'm asking of you is to offer opinions on the builds I listed above, or suggest any off-beat, strange builds that could potentially be quite effective with enough planning and work put into it. Think it's brilliant and it's going to rock? Tell me. Think it's horrible and it'll never work? Say so anyway. My goal is to complete at least one, ideally two to three, of the duelers listed above by the end of the season to the same degree of anal perfection that kept me unwavering in my search of level 18 Zealot gear, so I can prove to the pubbies, and to myself, that the cookie build is not the only reason the character is effective.

So, that being said, tell me what you think. I'm sure plenty of you have good builds that you haven't had the time or whatever else to work on, so now's your chance to get it out, so that we can perhaps encourage a more diverse community of LLD and give our sore eyes a break from those 18 jewelers and 35 kickers that we're most certainly so sick of seeing.

[DeadlyLLD]

Well, since it seems you are rich as hell, I would make a lvl 18 zeal barb (defensive).

You have all those 20 max jewels, so you know...make a 60 max +3 mace mastery +3 iron skin +3shout barb helm

Then find a really high defense ancient armor with eth repair dura and 2 x 20 maxers in that...maybe some fhr on there too

I would say for your shield probably a high defense bone shield of deflecting with fhr and 2 sockets if you can get it with 2 x 20 maxers in it

For your weapon, I think the main thing you need to try to get is a rare war scepter with zeal charges and 20% ias to hit that 5 fps bp. But if you can't do that, one cheap alternative may be to shop one with some kinda attack rating mod on it and get 2 sockets from the socket quest...then just throw in another 2 x 20 maxers.

Deaths gloves/belt...ck boots, angelics...blah blah blah

And the same charms you used for your zealot

With your mace mastery, I don't think you will have a problem getting sexi attack rating with just angelics and your charms, so try to get all 20 maxers, not any 15/60 jewels.

The only major problem with a zeal barb (I made one last season, pure offensive with twitch and plain 15 max jewels) is that it really just sucks having to repair your scepter all the time. However, I found that for most pubby duels you can just use normal attack and destroy ppl, and save those charges for the better lld chars. If you make this guy right, I think he would destroy even your godly lvl 18 pally.

Oh ya one last thing. Make sure you get that battle cry thing. That helps a LOT. Maybe you can try to get that on your helm to save some points. I dunno. Hopefully this helped ya a little bit (although I am sure you probably already thought of all of this stuff )

Have fun!

**Edit**

Oh ya, for the armor I guess you would be better off using 2 x 15 max dmg -15 req jewels (if those even exist...I am not sure)

[Zeiris-lld]

By throw barb, do you mean one handed or doublethrow? Doublethrow barbs are the height of coolness with the blinking-in-and-out glitch, but the lack of a shield makes you complete melee (zealot) fodder. I guess a one handed variant is worth exploring.

A level 18 bone nec, with the best gear I can think of and just a normal rush will only do 26ish pvp damage per hit.


I get the feeling that at level 18, zealot is king. Only things I can think of that might dethrone him are a sacrifice necro (boy those curses would be fun) or a really high def smiter. Or another zealot, even if it is a barb :p

Imo, don't feel bad about the build being cookie cutter. With your gear, it's the template that all the cookies aspire to be like. Not one of many but best of many, etc.

PS: Is the listed zeal damage -per hit-, or per one click of zeal?

[GODZ!]

a sacrafice necro would for sure lose to a zealer every time. A jabber, though cookie in a sense, is a very good alternative lvl 18 which isn't made much. And its a zon, way cool.

[Zeiris-lld]

Even with recastable bone armour/amp/life tap?

Even with IM and clay golem slow?

[DeadlyLLD]

First of all, at lvl 18 you wouldnt make a sacrifice necro. At that lvl you would make a zeal necro. You could try this if you wanted, since zeal is uninterruptible, but I would say that probably, no matter how godly your gear, you arent going to have enough attack rating or enough dmg, and necros block waaaay too slow. And for the recasting of bone armor, I think that while you are in a block lock this would be very hard to do. I dunno, I think for a lvl 18 melee char, the only decent chars would be zeal pallys and barbs, jab zons, and kicksins (some people say you cant make a good lvl 18 kicksin, but I beg to differ )

However, you could try making a lvl 18 ice blast sorc or a hammer pally. From what I hear, although I have never made one myself, they are quite fun to duel with, and I think even the godliest lvl 18 zeal pally is no match for them (at least the ice blast sorc)

[ThatGuy]

Make a level 30 ww barb and duel some casters. It's mega fun, and very powerful.

[DeadlyLLD]

No no no!!! I am working on a lvl 30 ww barb with one honor zweihander and one shaeled bloodletter (hits 2.5 fps and gets a char into fhr animation from farther away with 3 range on zweihander)

I was trying to steer him away from that lol

[Wank]

If you really wanted to stop the endless lvl 18 zealers, make a necro, get iron maiden, get bonewalls, and any golem of your choice. Your slighty BM, but you shall win. Btw are there any builds for a iron maiden necy?

[GODZ!]

Here's a few build proposals, not the ones you listed, but you said your looking for something non coookie, thought i'd just ad some stuff.
Hell rushed lvl 18 cold sorc.
Gear:
1 cold skills/10fcr circlet
Stealth Armor (breastplate)
Bloodfists
Cow Kings Boots
17fhr/deflecting Bone shield
1 cold skills/10fcr ammy
10fcr/stat rings X2
17fhr/stat belt
1 cold skills/ice blast wand

Switch:
1 cold/3 shiver armor wand

Charms:
40x 15 life sc's.

Skills:
lvl 16 Ice bolt
lvl 13 Ice blast

Stats:
30 str
60 dex
10 vita
100 nrg

Hp:757
Mana:199

Frames:
7th fhr
7th fbr
9th fcr

Keep in mind i didn't use any of the + things that the rares/magics would factor in such as life/mana/stats/resists/dtm or stuff that can be socketed.

The basic dmg without any + skills from wand would be.
Ice blast: 385-411
with +3 from wand: 528-558

and here's another...
Hell rushed lvl 21 Cs Zon
Gear:
Tarnhelm
Twitchthroe
Bloodfists
Cow Kings Boots
17fhr/deflecting OR blocking Bone shield
Eye of Etlich
Manald Heal rings X2
Deaths Belt
Maiden Jav +3 jav skills

Charms:
12fhr/+mana Gc
8fhr/+mana Lc
35x 15 life sc's.

Skills:
lvl 1 jab
lvl 5 power strike
lvl 1 poison jav
lvl 10 lightning bolt
lvl 4 charged strike
lvl 7 dodge
lvl 4 critical strike

Stats:
33 str
57 dex(with a blocking mod shield)
53 dex(with a deflecting mod shield)
88 vita(with a blocking mod shield)
92 vita(with a deflecting mod shield)
52 nrg


Hp: 959(with a blocking mod shield)
Hp: 971(with a deflecting mod shield)
Mana: 100

Frames:
5th fhr
4th fbr
11th ias

Keep in mind i didn't use any of the + things that the rares/magics would factor in such as life/mana/stats/resists/dtm or stuff that can be socketed.

The basic dmg without any + skills from jav would be.
Cs: 2-225 with 4 bolts
with +3 from jav: 2-325 with 4 bolts

And another, but this one is 101 legit.
Lvl 20 Hammerdin
Gear:
1 combat/10fcr circlet
Stealth Armor (light plate)
Bloodfists
Cow King Boots
Steelclash
1 combat/10fcr ammy
10fcr/stat rings X2
10fcr/stat belt
1 combat/3 blessed hammer scepter

Charms:
40x 15 life sc's.

Skills:
1 holy bolt
3 blessed hammer
1 might
9 blessed aim
3 concentration
1 prayer
1 defiance
1 cleansing
3 vigor

Stats:
55 str
63 dex
40 vita
53 nrg

Hp: 789
Mana: 100

Frames:
5th fhr
4th fbr
10th fcr

Keep in mind i didn't use any of the + things that the rares/magics would factor in such as life/mana/stats/resists/dtm or stuff that can be socketed.

The basic dmg without any + blessed hammer from scepter would be.
Blessed hammer: 124-142
with +3 from scepter: 232-250

too much, break time.

[Elusive]

ah if your 20 maxed zealot is so boring, feed him to me and sub.

try an 18 concer.

[food-ranger]

What about a lvl 30 blade fury sin.
u could use an eth knout with sheals and max jewels in it + deaths
or eth general tan's (50% slow on it) 20 ias base
becuase duriblity wont decrease

max blade fury + bos and use p crown + sander it would be hard for anyone one without charge to get u but u would sitll have max block,
also you could have a non eth wepon on switch and use tiger strike
a rhyme boneshield some max dmg armor death glove + belt, 2 sojs, i havn't explored this build really it just an idea.

i could even be an intresting lvl 18 build since blade of fury doesnt actualy add that much dmg per lvl and it always attacks at a constant 6fps regardless of ias so you could use clegaw's glove
but it is dependant on ar so u would have to use angelics

would ed / max dmg boost your dmg with blade tho? if you use an eth claw and have claw mastry it add dmg.