GameBanshee Forums

IIRC, a weapon with slow AS benefits more from the IAS from Fanaticism, right? So a high damage, but maybe slower, weapon would be better than a less damaging, but faster weapon, right? Example: Warhammer vs War Sword.

Before 1.10 I used to use a Martel De Fer with zeal and fanticism, it worked well but once 1.1 came out it turned out it wasn't fast enough and not having a shield hurt majorly. To go from almost completely clearing act 5 (1.09) of hell to not being able to complete Blood Moors of 1.10 bit. I simply couldn't dish out enough damage fast enough without getting interrupted.

I don't really understand increased attack speed breakpoints, but personally I think you should be able to get away with a normal attack speed weapon, though I wouldn't go any slower than normal speed. Most people try and get the fastest attack speed possible, phase blades with increased attack speeds are in high fashion.

It boils down to your own trial and error though.

Oh, thanks. Currently, my warhammer has boosted my damage a lot. I do see a difference in attack speed, but the damage output hasn't dropped.
Btw, Deadalready, I tried your advice on entering the command /players x in singleplayer. My Paladin went from level 25 to 31 in Act III and he hasn't even entered the Durance of Hate. Thanks!

Yeah, players 8 is simply awesome, don't leave home without it.

~

You can probably get away with any speed weapon in normal though actually, once you enter nightmare and hell it certainly becomes more important.

Deadalready wrote:Yeah, players 8 is simply awesome, don't leave home without it.

Although /players 4 is the optimum for killing speed/experience. Well, depending on your character of course. If you can kill a monster on /players 8, you shouldn't be at that level. Either you're doing the level over again, playing twinked, or cheating.

I don't cheat and since it's SP, I can't be twinked. Also, I only do levels once.

the_bogan, i recently started an assassin and ive been playing with /players 8 since she took her very first step out of the rogue encampent...

by the time i made it to act 4 i was level 31 and had never died once... owning just about everything in sight... all you gotta do is know how to gamble for better items and you can own the game in single player.

not to mention im an old school assassin pro, but thats a different story. *cough* level 90 hardcore assassin on bnet east on dial-up internet. *cough*

@BluePaintCult, it's great that you're willing to add a good bit when reviving a thread instead of posting a one or two word response, but please remember to stay on topic when reviving something. This is about the best weapon for a paladin who specializes in Zeal, not cheats or console functions with assassins.

Siberys wrote:@BluePaintCult, it's great that you're willing to add a good bit when reviving a thread instead of posting a one or two word response, but please remember to stay on topic when reviving something. This is about the best weapon for a paladin who specializes in Zeal, not cheats or console functions with assassins.

touche' Siber, I got a little carried away with trying to illustrate the benefits of the /players 'cheat'.

As I am also a Zealadin player, I should say that in my opinion, any good weapon can potentially be fast and fatal.

Before I start, I should say that if you're planning on playing the game all the way up to the end of Hell mode, you should save your socketing quest from Larzuk until you are a fairly high level so that you can use your sockets on the best items possible.

If you want to use something such as a hammer and shield, though, it's going to dish out a lot of damage but at the cost of striking speed. This can easily (well, not so easily) be fixed by socketing items with +IAS% jewels and getting a good pair of +IAS% gloves. If you can get jewels with +Damage% and +IAS%, all the better.

However, most Zealadins prefer to use the classic sword and shield combo. If you can get your hands on a Lightsabre Phase Blade, id say its best to socket it with something thats going to boost the damage as much as possible because the speed is already so high. This is not to say that socketing other items such as helm/armor with +IAS% jewels will not be beneficial, but the higher your attack speed already is, the harder it's going to be to reach that next speed breakpoint.

Thanks. Maybe a silly question, but what's a speed-breakpoint?

I'm not sure of the exact figures but lets just say, for example purposes, that for every 20% higher your attack speed is made by means of jewels, items, or skills, there is one less frame of attack.

Therefore, every time you reach that next break point (i.e. 20% 40% 60% 80%) your attack speed is going to drop a frame.

Obviously the lower the amount of frames that are in your attack sequence, the quicker you will be dealing blows.


~~The definition of a breakpoint in the world of Diablo is this:

Your attack speed will not actually increase until you reach the next breakpoint. For example, if you have 39% increased attack speed, you're going to be attacking just as fast as if you have only 20% increased attack speed until you get that one extra percent to reach that next breakpoint of 40%ias. That is why they are called breakpoints.


Hope that clears things up. You can find a chart of the actual figures online somewhere, but I'm not sure as it's been probably 2 or 3 years since I've actually seen it, lol...

Thanks!