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V/t Version 2.0

Hi, welcome to Version 2.0.

CONCEPT!
V/T stands for vindicator/templar. Vindicator is a smiter, and a templar is a FOHer. On their own, foh and smite can kill people easily, but have trouble with certain builds. FOH can be completly negated (160 shields + a tgods + stacked res). Smiters sometimes dont even reach their targets before getting chewed up by ranged spells (yeah..try charging over the top of bone spirits, see how fast that works) Togeather, they are obviously not as powerfull as they could be alone, they make probably the best combo in Diablo. They are the muta/ling combo of the D2 comunity. Sure, that moron wwbarb that you're fighting can strap on a tgods, a kiras, a 160 res shield, and a pair of wisps, but smite will screw him over. Charge is another important skill with v/ts. Although most choose to leave charge at 1 point, its crucial to hunting down those pesky runners and heavy teleporters. It can also kill some chars by itself (although those chars normally suck anyhow and could be killed by a summoner druid...). Its also usefull for getting around. Anyhoo..onto the other sutff.

Stats!
Strength = The lowest you can get. Some builds can leave this at its base, but you shouldnt have to add over 20 unless you're using a btals (which you shouldnt be using anyhow).
Dexterity = Enough for max block without a ravenfrost on. Since your level and gear will affect this, I cant give you an exact number.
Vitality = If you're not smart enough to figure this out, stop reading this now and take up scrabble.
Energy = see above.

Build!
No two v/ts are the same (at least I've never seen any two that follow the same exact build), because you run out of skill points when making one. If you had enough skill points (which is impossible), you'd want to max these:
FOH
Holy Shock
Holy Shield
Fanat
Smite
Conviction.
Since you're not gonna have enough skill points, you should have a healthy mix to obtain the highest damage. A few rules to follow:
1 point in fanat gives you more damage than 1 point in smite.
You dont need more than 1 point in conviction
Maxing FOH and then adding the rest to Holy Shock will give you lower damage than mixing the two (use a skill planner to test out your damage with your gear)
Holy shield gives you more smite damage than fanat or smite

A sample build might look like this:
18 FOH
17 Holy Shock
20 Holy shield
20 fanat
1 conviction
the rest into smite

Or if you're gonna go with more foh damage
20 FOH
20 Holy Shock
20 Holy shield
1 Conviction
20 Fanat
the rest into smite

Or if you want to be a heavy on the smite
20 smite
20 Holy Shield
20 Fanat
1 convic
The remainder used in FOH/Holy Shock to maximize damage

It all depends on your personal preference. I've found that the better your opponent, the more you use smite. FOH is fun to run around in pub games and kill 3-4 people every minute, but in serious 1v1 duels smite will be more usefull. Just remember, FOH has range, but conviction can be negated.

Gear!(the fun stuff)
Honestly, I ran out of room on my char. My stash is filled, my cube is filled, and every box has something in it (when I have certain gear on). So listed here are items I have or would like to have in my stash. Items in blue are must-have items.

Armor: Enigma Do NOT use a mage/bp/low str one. Get a dusk/archon/etc. Your defense rating is important in the end, and the 10 str or so you use on it can save your ass more often than the life will.
COHFor use against certain builds (good poisonmancers, FOHers, some cold sorcs).
Bugged Tals = Once I ran around for a day with a normal tals armor on, no one seemed to notice the difference. Anyways...good for use against chargers/wwbarbs/anything that deals lots of physical damage. Ber it, um it, whatever, I honestly dont think its worth getting one.

Helm: Shako Ber this mofo. Or um it. Or at least shael it. This isnt exactly a poor mans character, so you should be able to afford a ber rune.
Kiras FOH killer. Those 25/25 +3 foh stick users laugh at my silence blade and then end up whining about 'absorb' when I'm not even using a tgods.

Ammy: Either a maras or a Slippers You wont need anything else. I prefer a slippers because of the dex increase, but whatever floats your boat. I know what you ladder people will be picking.

Rings: Bks(sojs if you're lazy) +1 skills helps both of your attacks, and the life is pretty sexy. You wont be relying on mana that much, so bks are better than bks.
2 Ravens 20 dex if you can (so if you change gear you still have max block), 250 AR if you have em lying around, helps a lot with charge. The 250 AR wont make or break your char, but it does help. One works wonders if you're fighting an orber.
Nature's Peice ring: If oak sage is your thing, snag one of these. Its BM, but 75% of pub duelers dont even know what BM means. 72% of all statistics are made up on the spot, too.

Wisps: One is gm, but that trapper wearing wisps, a blackhorns, a 160 shield, and a tgods has no right to whine about absorb anyhow.
Dwarf Stars: Fire absorb? Bah, I didnt even bother with these.
+20 str ring. For use with your COH.
Carrion wind: for wwsins, maybe a poisonmancer here or there.

Belts: Dungos Life, DR, and regen. Whats not to like.
Arachs = +1 skills, fcr (which you really dont need), and slow. I rarely use this, maybe vs 1 or 2 builds but thats it. Verdungos works better for me.
Snowclash: For those annoying orbers that just wont fight you GM.
Tgods: A trappers worst nightmare. One piece is good mannered, anyone who says otherwise is A: ignorant. B: stupid. C: the moron that you just walked all over.

Boots: Soul Shanks OR Grim Spurs pick one and go with it. Shanks have more resists, spurs have fhr.
Treks= For poisonmancers.
Hotspurs= Fire sorcs whine about them. But then again the french whined about the Germans in 1940, that didnt seem to stop them.

Shields: Upped Hoz If I have to explain this choice to you, you shouldnt be playing diablo.
Eth/noneth Vortex/Zakarum Exile: If exiles are your thing, and you wanna pick a cheap one up just for kicks, go for it. They DO help out vs wwbarbs assuming you wear ravens (your block wont be as high as a Hoz). Other builds they help out vs: WWsins (assuming you've got enough poison res), Zealots, Conc Barbs, basically anything melee or phyisical damage orientated (not bowazons).
SS = Dont bother bering it, you should have over the cap anyhow. Might as well hel it or throw a fhr charm in it. You'll only be using it against druids anyhow (and even then, I'm still not so sure I'd want to sub out my zak anyhow. See the vs druids section). Upped Hozes are better than them pretty much in every way on this build.

Gloves: Bloodfists
OR
20 IAS/ crushing blow / +str / resists crafted gloves
Take your pick, I like bloodfists, fhr is sexy.

Weapons: Silence Phase Blade Amazing resistances, fhr, decent ED, and it looks sexy too boot. This little gem works wonders against all sorcs, expecially cold sorcs. Your Smite will go super fast with this, but you'll only have a range of 2, so those wwbarbs can outrange you if they're sporting zerkers. You shouldnt be using this vs melee opponents anyhow.
Astreons BM slow, but I've actually never had anyone whine about that outside of temple. Get a +4 one, decent +damage, and if you use charge a lot, you might want to get an eth one and zod it. If not, shael, 40/15, ber, or um this thing. This is probably your best bet against non elemental builds (ele druids.....odd...., bone necros, etc)

Kingslayer: CB and OW, great for smite. Personally, I dont like it as much as....
Gemmed Bezerker axe: 4xUm 2xsheal. Open Wounds every hit. Decent smiting damage. Beats the hell out of ww chars. I've beaten straight up smiters with this by hitting them once, backing off, repeating.

Griefs: For you ladder people, pick up a grief. Honestly, I've never used one (I only play nl) so I cant comment on this. If a ladder player would like to help me out and add their comments (please refrain from using the words 'thundering idiot') I'll be sure to give you credit.
Honestly, there are countless weapons out there that v/ts can use. Redeemers, Dooms, I've even seen +3 foh caddys made into beasts (I wouldnt recommend that). Toy around with stuff untill you get a feel for what you like. And Deadly Strike does NOT work with smite. I wasted 5 Lo runes on that because I'm a moron. Botds arent really that great, the only things that help are the +stats and the ias (well..the pretty poison nova too). I've seen a 4xBer 2xUm zerker, a griz caddy loaded with Ums, one with Bers. Crushing Blow and Open Wounds are your two most imporatant factor when picking a smiting weapon. For FOH, its +skills (duh). I would advise against facets, however, because that spot can be holding a valuable rune with ias, resist, cb, ow, or even FHR.

Inventory:
anni I'm hoping I dont have to explain this.
20 lifers/11 resist either cold or lighting Get at least 9.
Pcombats with life/fhr get at least 7, a lot of builds use 10.
Fill your inventory (duh), and figure out if you want a tad more life (use 20/5s or 20/11s), or damage (use pcombats with life).

Now, to defend a few of my choices by not inculding a few items:
-25/25 +3 foh stick This is a v/t, not a foher. If you want a FOHer go find a FOH guide. Smite always works better than FOH at close range (when you're up against a decent opponent) and you should take every opportunity to smite.
Griffons The same reason as above, and losing 200-300 life plus DR for a few hundred FOH damage points is pointless, expecially when your opponent is probably stacking resist anyhow.
Eth Glitched Hozes Lower smite damage (by a few hundred). Sure, it looks pretty, but winning is better than having good looking gear (- read that over and over untill you get it).
Magefists/Trangs Gloves FCR never mattered on a foher, or on a smiter. Mana Regeneration didnt either.
08 valks If any moron actually wants the reasons, I'll list them. Actually, I just might shorten it to 'bah' and expect them to ebay a brain.

Ok, enough for the gear, lets get it on.

DUELING!
Everyone duels differently, here are some starting strats though.
here are some basic tips:
Use charge to get around. You shouldnt be teleing except to get over bone walls or out of ditches.
Shift-clicking FOH will let you cast with a range greater than 1 screen. Prepare to be called an auto-aimer though.
1 piece of +max resist or absorb PER ELEMENT is considered good mannered. Some people consider anything with 120+ resists of a single element to count as that one piece.
Outside of a hammerdin, if anyone teles ontop of you, forget FOH and smite your little heart out. (if its a hammerdin, run your little ass off)
NKing isnt cool, neither is being BM, but if your opponent starts it, feel free to let loose and line up the naked people just for rapid fire NKing. (holy shock works wonders)

Amazons
Bowazons: Aparently I'm the only one who ever has problems with these. Charge in with..actually..pretty much any weapon will kill them if you do it right. Charge in, fanat on, keep your namelock untill you're right next to them. If they run, foh them once and charge in again. If they stay and fight, or you charged them up against a wall, smite the dickens out of them. I've never had a bowazon tank more than 4 smites (that connected). I've killed many without holy shield. If you lag, you may die. ::continues to blame computer::
Javazons: Tgods + smite = dead javazon. A decent one will be wearing a tgods and will be stacking res, but if they're not, feel free to charge in circles and convic FOH them. Dodge is so freaken annoying with FOH though, so I find its better to charge up and then smite them. I find that a silence is nice against them, as CS hurts if you get caught outa postion.
Hybrids: Charge in, smite. Simple. Wear a tgods just incase they have a decent CS.

Paladins
Hammerdins: Gear Change: OW zerker if he stacks, Astreons if he doesnt.Charge away and FOH, repeat. A good one will stack res against you, so your FOH becomes rather worthless. Fortunatly, his FCR and damage should suffer enough that you can catch him out of position (no hammers circling him), charge in, and get a few smites off. Just dont do this from above him or at about 11 o'clock, as hammers have a way of hurting like freaken hell.
Chargers: Gear changes: Astreons or the OW zerker. A good charger wont let you FOH him more than once, so just stand your ground and smite away. With 15+k defense, max block, and that smug grin on your face, hes not going to hit you every time he comes in. Most will charge in, hit, charge back, charge in, etc. Make sure you shift-smite, if you move your defense/block drops like a rock and you might as well be wearing a 'I love Bush' shirt in San Fransico (yes, that has two meanings).
Smiters: Gear changes: OW zerker. If all other things are eaqual (he doesnt suck major monkey balls), he'll have the advantage over you if you try a straight up smite duel. One thing I've found that works is charging in, hitting once, letting your open wounds do the job. Then charge away a screen or so, and if you have enough time to FOH him, let him have it. If not (he followed with charge), smite him once then run away. Repeat.
FOHers: Gear Changes: Kiras, silence, tgods, coh, +20 str ring (if you need it), and every small resist lightning charm you have. He'll do like 100 damage to you. Smite away. If he calls you an absorbing sissy, feel free to take off the tgods. Now he'll do 200. He'll die just as fast.
Aura Pallys: Gear Changes: Silence Blade. I like to toy with them, letting them get me down to like 1/4th life before just ripping them to shreds. Normally FOH works here, if they stack res, they lose so much damage that they really cant hurt you anymore. If they charge in, just smite them. Your high resists protect you enough.
Zealot/Avenger: Gear changes: OW zerker or Astreons. Exile if you're feeling devilish. Either one of your attacks should kill them, take your pick and go for it.

Barbarians
WWbarbs: Gear Changes: OW zerker. Exile if you want. Hold shift the entire duel. WWbarbs come in 3 flavors: easy (noneth botds), medium (eth botds, still dont know how to duel), and extra spicy (you move = you die). The first two are simple to kill, convic foh them untill they die. They have crappy resists, and if they stack, they lose way too much DR and 3 smites kill them. The good ones, are, however, harder to kill than Aerosmith (die damnit, you're like 75!). Most of them have 85 positive res with conviction on them and dont lose too much DR, which means you've got to stand still and shift smite the entire time. If they're far enough away, you can always throw in a FOH (Keep fanat on) for 100 damage (hey, damage never hurt..wait a second), but smite will be doing most of the work. WWbarbs are the reason I made that OW zerker. Fortunatly for the v/t, botd/beast barbs lack DR, and botd/ss barbs lack the massive damage. I've seen my life drop from 4k to 1k when I moved, got caught by a ww from a botd/beast barb, and got hit every goddamn possible chance. Dont move, dont play stupid, and make sure whatever setup you have, you have max block.
Conc Barbs: Gear Changes: Pick whatever will humiliate them. I like to kill a fallen and use his cracked short sword. Smite them. Then when they complain about it not being melee, take their gold, complain about lag, then leave. Hey thats what a meleer gets for fighting a nonmeleer.
WC Barbs Gear Changes: Astreons/ow zerker. Smite them. With your DR and their inherently low damage, they die faster than a fat zebra during the lion's lunch hour.
Throw Barbs Just let them beat you..give them their moment.

Druids:
Windy Druids: Gear Changes: Astreons. Good ones, you wont beat. Period. Bad ones to average ones you can. Foh their oak sage, then charge in and smite like crazy. Good ones will simply outdamage you, even better ones will tele away and outdamage you without getting hit. NOT fun. Crappy ones will stand their ground and try to fight it out. They die easily. Try to practice clicking on the druid, not his minions. Overall, its your hardest matchup, I rarely, rarely beat good ones. Hardley ever.
SS druids: Gear changes: astreons/OW zerker. Pick a skill and kill them with it. If you die to a SS druid you might as well start licking the wall socket now.
Fire Druids: Good fire druids are rare..rarer than...hmm...well, picture a 3 legged dog with black spots of his fur that spell out 'Yahoo.com.' Good Fire druids are rarer than good analogies in this guide. If I ever find a good one, I'll tell you how to fight em.

Sorcs
Orbers. Gear Changes: COH, +str ring, Silence Phase Blade, 1x Raven. Charge in, keeping namelock. When you hit, you have to see if they get knocked back or not. If they DO get knocked back, charge in again. If they dont, smite your little heart out. With their massive eshields (most have 85+), foh wont do much, but if you wanna toss a few out at the beginning of the duel to get their mana down a bit, feel free. With the raven, you wont take that much damage even from standing in the middle of an orb (dont feel the need to aim for the middle of the orbs though, you're not invincible).
Blizz: Gear Changes: COH, +str ring, silence phase blade, 1xraven. These little bastards are a pain in the ass. If they cast blizzard on themselves, dont charge in for the smite. Stay back, KEEP MOVING, and toss out a few FOHs. If you see them teleporting away, DONT NAMELOCK CHARGE THEM. They'll cast blizzard in your path and your life gets hit bigtime. Charge in from odd angles, try to dysnc just right so they dont know where you are when you start smiting their ass. FOH and smite are both important in this case.
FB sorcs: Gear Changes: Silence blade, hotspurs: I dont like eating fire, so I normally just try to avoid them and FOH. Some people find it fun to charge in and smite them, but hey, whatever floats your boat. If they tele ontop of you, smite away. With hotspurs (one piece is GM), you should be able to tank most of what they have to throw at you, but once again, you're not invincible, so watch yourself.
Lightning Sorcs: Gear Changes: wisp or a tgods, one of the two. Silence Blade. For some reason, these guys dont hurt as much as I think they should. Maybe its the high res or the absorb, but normally I can take 9-10 lightings before I die. Smite works well, normally they have a high level eshield (lighting gcs) so foh doesnt really hurt them that much. Charge in, and follow the same rules for the orber.

Assassins
Trappers: Gear Changes: Silence Blade, tgods. 95% of trappers suck major ass. The other 5% are a pain in the ass to kill. If they're not dealing a whole lot of damage (no +2/3 +3/3 claws), you can charge in and normally just smite them to death. Claw block will block FOH, which just seems to annoy me, but a good convic FOH shot agaisnt a c/c trapper (one that connects) usually knocks a huge chunk of his life off. Dont count on FOHing in close range though, MB will knock you right out of it. A good trapper will give a run for your money, the best bet is to get him out of his protective traps and charge/smite him when hes only got 1 or 2 traps protecting him.
WWsin: Gear Changes: Hotspurs (if they like using fire), OW zerker, carrion wind ring. If hes wearing gores, FOH him. If hes wearing spurs/shanks, you're probably gonna have to rely on smite. Not that that rule is set in stone, but with claw block and a high resist, you're better off smiting good wwsins. Normally, you end up winning by a good margin, expecially if they're not using angelics. 17k defense + max block is hard for a wwsin.
Ghost sins:

Notice my sexy one life? anyways we went 5-2 me, but anyhow, I figured if I beat the best I'd have no problems with his cronies. PS: I lub you koda.

Necromancers
Bonemancers: Gear Changes: Astreons. These guys are a pain in the ass to fight. I've never beat one smiting (bone armor + golem + spirts = dead smiter). And FOHing them is a pain in the ass because shift clicking targets their golem. A good convic shot will bring most of them down to 1/4th life (or just outright kill the crappy ones), but most good ones dont stay in one spot long enough for conviction to lock on. I dueled QQ-sub with this guy, I think I scratched him....maybe.
Poisonmancers: Gear Changes: Treks, Carrion wind, Silence Blade: Smite them...foh them, whatever, they'll deal crap damage to you due to your high resists. I've never lost to a poisonmancer.

GeneralPattonJr

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IVIarijuana
06 Jan 2009, 21:15

If i wanted to see this guide, i would go to JSP, where you have Copy-pasted this from

bronz
08 Aug 2008, 21:10

i rlly like ur guide but do not know wheter or not to choose foh or smite i don't like the try out thing i just want to do 1 and i want to kill pal easy

Max Henninger
20 May 2008, 00:15

AGENT SPALGO

majorpain47
10 Apr 2008, 16:56

i have this exact same build but go with more foh dmg and bugged tals is cheap on JSP. this char ownz anyone and is the best cha ind a game

Anarion
24 Dec 2007, 17:58

Pretty good build!Nice work pal!

Judith
03 Aug 2007, 02:58

Nice guide

CLOUDD_STRIFE
28 May 2007, 11:30

dude thanx, ive been loooking for a good V/T build and im prtty sure this will be good :p

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