Fanazealot
(Ubertrist) Fanazealot
The Fanazealot was (and in my opinion still is) one of the most powerful melee builds. With decent equip and skill he was able to solo every adventure available in vanilla, from simple DiaBaalruns to Ubertrist and DClone. The main reason for his constant success, especially in UT, was the possibility of a fanazealot/smite-mix and easily available life tap from Dracul’s, as well as from Exile runeword and Last Wish runeword (which is ofc not so easily available due to the required runes: JahMalJahSurJahBer). Further, he was and still is one of the best party chars, I guarantee it, every party will love it if you join a map or just a simple Dia/Baalrun due to the damage and ias-bonus your aura provides to other players. Here in PD2 the availability of life tap was significantly decreased. Life tap was completely removed from Dracul’s and replaced on exile by amplify damage. So the only remaining option left for our Uberzealer is the veeeeeery expensive Last Wish runeword. However, the version of the Uberzealer I would like to introduce to you in this guide is able to solo Ubertrist without life tap, just requiring a decent level of skill and experience with the D2 mechanics and this build. I try to make it short and simple and to offer a high-end option as well as a mid and low budget option for farming and to get a start. This is not the classic fast-loot-diabaalrun-machine like many other builds, but a build for someone who loves a very active (group) gameplay and who wants to rush and crush every enemy without hesitation (you will literally be able to run into hordes of monsters and not even be able to see your char anymore, but will not die).
Edit: I would like to thank Goat to be the first player asking me some very specific questions about this gear and in doing so helping me to improve it :)
The breakpoints
Crucial for our Uberzealer are increased attack speed (IAS), faster hit recovery (FHR), faster block rate (FBR), lifeleech (LL) and the crits aka deadly strike (DS), crushing blow (CB) and open wounds (OW).
IAS
The calculation is very dependend from different variables and the level of your fanaticism aura does not make it easier. So please just use a calculator (google is your friend). But you should easy reach the IAS cap. That is your target!
FHR
Diablo runs on 25 frames per second. If we lose more than 1/12 of our life points with a single blow, we get paralyzed and need nine frames to recover if our FHR is 0. The table below shows the FHR-rate necessary to reach the next frame level:
| FHR in % | Frames |
|---|---|
| 0 | 9 |
| 7 | 8 |
| 15 | 7 |
| 27 | 6 |
| 48 | 5 |
| 86 | 4 |
| 200 | 3 |
We should be able to easily reach the 6 frames. Nice would be 5, but do not mind to much if you don`t reach it. As we should have about +1.600 life points and max block at level 90 it should not have that much impact on your daily gameplay.
FBR
FBR is responsible for the time we need to block an attack. So the less frames we need, the more attacks we are able to block. This is crucial in situations were many enemies surround you and hit you at the same time. But as we play with holy shield, we do not need to mind about FBR. See the table below (values with holy shield):
| FBR in % | Frames |
|---|---|
| 0 | 2 |
| 86 | 1 |
So we will stay with the 2 frames. If you really mind, I got a zaka with an additional 10% fbr corruption and you might change your gear to reach 1 frame, but at what cost?
LL
Life leech (as well as mana leech) means that we get a certain percentage of our damage dealt as life (mana) points back. However, in hell difficulty the life and mana leeched is divided by 3. Our high-end Uberzealer does not need to mind about, he easily reaches 18%LL and therefore gets more life than necessary. However, low-budget players should constantly check their LL taking into account the damage dealt, especially if it is challenging to fight against larger enemy groups like in Act 4. I recommend a solid 15%+ LL. If you do not find the necessary items, use your Amn runes in your weapon.
This is the formula for the calculation of leech (mana and life):
Leeched life/mana = Physical Damage * (Leech %) * (Penalty) * (Drain Effectiveness)
The penalty factors are in NM 50% and in Hell 33%. Drain effectiveness depends on the monster. Most common mobs do not have a decreased drain effectiveness, but some like skeletons do.
Important is, that the Ubers have a Drain effectiveness below 15%.
Also important, Drain effectiveness is ONLY relevant for your normal LL. Life tap is not affected by the drain effectiveness. This means, you can "leech" life with life tap even from Ubers with 0% drain effectiveness, making it so important in Ubertrist to rely on life tap.
The crits
DS doubles our dmg dealt
CB reduces the enemies life points by 1/8 (this effect adjusts with decreasing life points of the enemy, so it more useful if the enemies life points are high. Also, this effect is reduced on some bosses)
OW is like bleeding dmg and prevents monster heal, so very useful for some boss monsters
As our attack speed/rate is very high, we can easily work with 10% each (I know, many won`t agree, but starting from our mid-gear zealer we should easy reach higher values). However, optimum is of course for DS and CB 100% and for OW 25% (which we will get from our Dracul’s).
Stats
We have to reach three goals:
- Ability to wear our gear
- Max Block
- Min. 1.500 life
For our high-end gear that means 103 points in str to wear archon plate CoH and BotD in eth BA and as much in dex as necessary for max block but at least 136 to wear our Last Wish PB. Rest in vitality and NONE into Energy. We should reach about 300 mana at level 90 and this is more than enough.
Please skill and cast holy shield BEFORE you put any points in dex, as we should reach max block with holy shield casted and not without. Otherwise you waste a crucial part of your vitality.
Skills
That is the easiest part of all
All necessary skills to reach the named below = 1 Point
Sacrifice = Max, bonus dmg for zeal
Zeal = Max, main skill
Holy Shield = Should be lvl 16 at the end, so just look how much you need taking into account your +skills from pc skiller, torch, anni etc. After lvl 16 the output of further skill points does not justify the “costs”
Fanaticism = Max, this is our second main skill
Salvation = 1, we use this to “block” the -65res aura from Uber-Mephisto
Makes all in all 77 points if you have +0 skills. At level 90 we should have enough points in spare to do whatever we want to. So the rest depends on your personal preferences.
You could:
1. Put some extra points into “Bleesed aim” to optimize you attack rating. This is especially helpful in UT and for bosses as it increases your hit chance. And the zealer need a good hit rate to work properly.
2. Skill 1 point in Joust. This allows you to tele short distances (if a monster is available) and makes diaruns way faster 😉 Can only recommend this. Also helpful to faster reach enemies!
3. Further push holy shield or defiance to up you def.
4. Skill Holy Nova (but as it costs you 5 skill points and does not have a decent effect, I cannot really recommend it).
5. Put some extra points into smite. But tbh, I do not really use smite in PD2 because of the missing life tap options. It just does not make any sense.
6. Skill resists. Every 2 points increase you maxres by 1%. Does not sound that nice, but we should have more than 18 points left at lvl 90, you might get an additional 8% maxres which might help a lot for DClone.
7. Or just play with your skills, test what fits your needs.
Personally, I prefer Nr. 1, 2 and 6. Blessed aim helps a lot in Ubertrist. You need to hit your enemy to activate leech and the skills on your weapon like life tap on LW. The extra maxres is also nice to have. And joust is just nice to have ;)
Items
This is the interesting part. The Uberzealer is not as …. Let`s call it fixed in his equipment as he was in vanilla. This is due to the missing life tap options and due to the newly invented corruptions.
My current gear
This is my endgame gear. This char can hold the T3 Map Boss in a full 8 player game alone. In brackets () means that this is in sockets.
| Bodypart | Item | Reasons |
|---|---|---|
| Weaponhand | Last Wish runeword in Phaseblade | This is THE tank runeword. 10% chance to lvl 18 life tap, 6% chance to fade, lvl17 might aura, 335+ed, ignore targets defense, up to 70% CB, prevents monster heal….
just WOW. But with JahMalJahSurJahBer around 10HR at the moment (10th December 2020), so expensive as hell. You might think it would make more sense in BA because of the higher damage. But we need to proc LT as fast as possible on hardcore mobs in solo, so speed of the phaseblade outruns the higher damage of ba in my opinion. This is only of use in Ubers, for general gameplay Botd is the better choice. |
| Weaponhand II (press w) | Breath of the Dying in eth berserker axe | Indestructible, so use eth BA for higher dmg. 60% IAS, -25% target defense, +330% ed, 50ar, 8% dual leech, prevent monster heal and +10 all attributes. Very nice choice and the first one after LW since Grief was nerfed in PD2 and is now no longer a real option for this char. Further, this is my first choice for solo diaruns. The damage output combined with dual leech is very nice and fast. Further, it is a good starting option in the high end section as Vex and Zod are easier to get than LW runes |
| Shield | Herold of Zakarum (3x 40ed jewel) | +2PCSkl +2PalaSkl, 20% AR and +20Str/vit combined with +50 plain allres and +19allres from the diamond. With 3os corruption the best shield for pala. |
| Head | Guillaume’s face (3x 40ed jewel) | 30% fhr, 35% CB, 15% DS, 15str and um for 15allres
Nothing to say here if you read the whole story above |
| Body | Chains of honor runeword in Archon Plate | Nice defence, +2allskl, nice dmg push 200%DTD 100%DTU, 8%LL, +20str and +65allres. This is very nice alone for the allres |
| Hands | Dracul’s grasp | 20 IAS, 10 LL, 25%OW, 11str, nice alone for the IAS and life leech |
| Feet | Gore Rider | 30%FRW, 15% CB/DS, 10%OW, nice crits here |
| Belt | Nosferatu’s coil | 20% IAS, 6% LL, 10%DS, 12%Str |
| Amu | Mara's | 2skill, 30allres and all attributes, very nice runeword |
| Ring 1 | Raven | 250AR, Mana, 20% cold absorb and cannot be frozen is a must have for our zealer |
| Ring 2 | Raven | Y, why not? |
Here some other options for your gear in high-end
It is not a final list, just do as you wish and play around with your gear!!!
| Weapon | Death runeword in eth BA
Eth Stormlash (Zod + if you get more sox on it add as you need, +dmg jwl always nice) |
|---|---|
| Shield | Exile runeword (still very nice due to amplify, allres) |
| Helm | Crown of Ages (but you need to get you FHR up on other ways if you use this) Vampire Gaze (see above) |
| Armor | Shaftstop (nice dmg reduction and +life) |
| Gloves | Laying of hands with nice dmg boost if you do not need the LL from Dracul’s Rares with 20ias, str, dex and res |
| Boots | War traveler Goblin Toe |
| Belt | String of ears |
| Amu | Highlords Wrath Maras |
| Ring | Any rare ring with dualleech, AR, str/dex, life, allres |
Some mid-/low-cost gear options
| Bodypart | Items |
|---|---|
| Weapon | Butcher’s pupil Baranar’s Star |
| Shield | Rhyme runeword – nice res + cannot be frozen Sanctuary runeword – also nice res and 20FHR +20dex |
| Helm | Crown of thieves – good with LL, life and fireres as well as dex Rockstopper – res and physdmg reduction |
| Armor | Duriel’s Shell – very nice stats, +res, cannot be frozen and def+life/lvl Templar Coat – nice res, def, AR, +1PalaSkl, +maxres (very nice option here) |
| Gloves | Venom Grip – LL, CB and res Soul drainer – dual leech |
| Boots | Tearhaunch – FRW, str/dex and res |
| Belt | Thundergod’s – str and res are pretty well for our zealer |
| Amu | Any rare amu with the missing stats you need, so IAS, FHR, res, LL/DL, crits |
| Ring | Any rare ring with the requirements in high-end but less perfect. No really good nice options here for the general gameplay. |
Basically, you can mix any items on this char. As long as you reach your IAS cap, got enough FHR and LL as well as crits you should be able to solo most parts of the game. The high-end gear is solely necessary for Ubertrist and DClone. For DiaBaalruns it is just OP.
The Mercenarie
This is mainly a question of your gear and your style. You could either use the "might-merc" (please use the mercenarie information in the wiki, nn to copy them) to extend your damage. But with LW, you already got might aura. You could also use a mercenarie who has an defensive aura or whatever. Just test what fits you best.
As I am doing the Uber's most of the time, I stopped resurrecting my merc and don`t really miss him (he gets`s auto-aggro within seconds and dies from bosses so fast, I cannot even give him a potion :D)
However, I can recommend a nice eth reapers toll on your merc to speed up the process of killing immunes.
FAQ
Q: Does the faster attack speed with LW in PB really make up for some of the damage loss of not using a BA?
A: The matter with the last wish is following:
If you use BA, you have to get IAS from other items, which limits your possibilities in PD2 (imo) way too much. Vanilla was very straight forward in endgame content (meaning one build would fit them all) where PD2 is very divers, making it necessary to vary your gear around the challenges. For example, for DClone you need to stack you fire and light resistances way more than for Ubertrist or regular gameplay, making it necessary to change your head / belt / amu or smth else.
For me, under this circumstances, the faster attack speed is more important. As mentioned in the guide, you also need many attacks asap as you just have 10% LT chance on LW, which you need to trigger soon (problem with Ubers is, that normal LL does not work properly as they are resistant against drain. The only leech possible is from LT. Also see above in the "LL" Section).
So in short: Yes, the attack speed makes up the loss of the slightly higher damage.
Q: If you use last wish and life tap is applied, then if you have other gear such as exile/atma`s which will cast amplify damage, wouldn't that remove the life tap?
A: Yes, it would. You have to balance here. For regular gameplay I mostly use botd and atma`s to get rid of the physimmunes faster. Last Wish is just my endgame weapon for Uber and DClone. I will add an extra section regarding Ubertrist for further information.
Q: And last, how big is life tap really in comparison to just a lot of life leech? I know why it makes sense for a smiter, but with a zealer its just essentially more life leech yes?
A: Again, in regular gameplay the mentioned 15%+LL are well enough, we do not need life tap. It is only necessary for Ubertrist and Dclone because of the reduced drain effectiveness.
How To: Ubertrist
Since life tap is not as easily available as in Vanilla, I would like to give you some further guidance on how to crush Ubertrist with your Uberzealer. Please note, that you, in addition to your last wish or if you do not have it yet, might get the chance to buy a stick with life tap charges at the A5 shop. However, this is not a valid option for me as it is very expensive and you cannot easily stop the fight to recast LT from the stick.
I will not add tons of monster information here, as this is easily available and writing this guide in html code bores me too much to just copy/paste further information, please use google ;)
Please notice: Your Mercenarie will be useless against the Bosses as they auto-aggro him and kill him in most cases instantly. So we will go from the start to every boss monster itself until you hold the unid torch in your hand.
Entering Tristram
You need the three organs and can open the portal in Harrogath (A5) with your cube (just cube any 3 organs in PD2).
After entering the portal, you will be in Tristram in the upper middle of the map (the layout is identical to the "normal" tristram). Caution: The following does apply in 90% of the cases, but sometimes Ubers are spawned different.
Now just walk up on the map. The space in the upper half should be completely free. In the upper right corner I always set my "safe spot".
In the upper left corner I set my "battle space". Meaning, I pull the Ubers after each other (we are going to kill them one by one alone) in the corner and fight them there until they die.
Ubers regularly spawn in the lower middle (so the opposite of our safe spot). Mephisto is very fast and stands a bit beside Dia and Baal. We should do him first as it is easier to pull him than the others.
Baal is no real deal. You may check your phone our cook while you battle him alone if you just hold your attacks up.
Dia is the hard one here, but more to him later.
Please refer to the following pictures to see the single spots mentioned above and below (marked on the ingame card/where I am standing).
File:Pull route.PNG
File:Entrance point.PNG
File:Battlespot.PNG
File:Uber spawn location.PNG
Uber Mephisto
Activate your salvation aura if necessary (remember, aura from mephi costs you 65% of each resistance), check your potions and let`s start!
Start from the battlepoint - Walk on the left border of the map until you reach the first building. Enter tristram from here, walk to the middle of the town.
If you go below now, be careful. Mephisto should rush you as soon as you see him on the map. Pull him right into your battle spot. Be careful, he spawns tons of bonemages who apply high damage to you. So you should have your resistances up and attack him fast to apply LT early. His poisondmg is also high, so have a few red pots in your belt to constantly battle the psndmg with healt pots (for times where LT runs out).
As soon as he dies, clear the bones, check you belt and activate fanaticism aura, you should no longer need salvation as the aura from mephi is gone with him.
Uber Diablo
I always do him second. It is easier to pull him than baal and both of them stick together very strong. That is the only reason why.
Pull him the same way you did with Mephi and start fighting asap to apply LT. Be very careful here. He spawns tons of ghosts (who drain your mana), ghulmages and other demons. The mages and ghosts are especially critical as they are physical immune. So this might be the time to sometimes run into your safe spot, get your merc, pull some adds and clear them with him before you continue to fight Diablo.
Here you might come to the point where your leech from life tap does not work. This is because your zeal hits multiple enemies, and most of them around you will be immune = 0 dmg = 0 leech. If this happens, try smite as last resort. It only hits Diablo and this for sure.
As soon as he dies you may congratulate yourself. Clear the adds, the Ubertrist is done :D Because Baal, as said earlier, is no deal for you.
Uber Baal
Nothing to be afraid of here. Run straigt to him, attack him, kill him. With my gear, you will hardly find a time to use even a normal health potion against him.
As soon as he licks your boots, take that unid torch and your standard of heroes and go straigt to Deckard --> Good luck on your role mate!
Charms
I recently received questions regarding the charms to use. This, as your merc, depends on your gameplay and final equipment. To build this char is easy, to maximize it's power is not.
Especially in high-end you have to balance. For example, you might want to use CoA with 174str requirement to maximize your resistances. To not loose to much life points you may find it a nice alternative to use a few str + add small charms. Or you do neither use CoA nor CoH and want to maximize your resistances, then you need to use allres or singleres +add small charms. It is also possible to use +FHR small charms to reach the next FHR frame. Bit more maxdmg or AR is always nice, too.
As you see, it highly depends on your equipment.
Keep in mind, that if you use last wish as main weapon, you do not need to think about your paper damage. With 70%+ CB chance your main dmg comes from CB mechanics. If you use any other weapon, paper maxdmg should be +7k.
For the ones who need it very simple:
- For paper dmg offensive skiller > pc skiller, as the higher +dmg comes from your fana aura. This is also applicable if you play in parties alot as the fana helps your mates. + should be life
- Torch and Anni are a must have
- If you lack FHR, use small charms with +FHR
- If you lack resistances, use small charms with +res
- It is always nice to have a few +maxdmg + AR +add small charms in your pocket
Keep in mind that you are a melee char. So one thing is always nice to have: +life!!!!!!!!!! This should be your number one +add and you should fill your spaces with +life small charms in case you have any left.
In case of any further questions pm me on discord Maddinsche #6114
Hope you enjoy this build as I do 😊