GenXGames.com provides this comprehensive Strategy guide as a free service to the public. We, GenXGames.com hope this information can give you some fresh new concepts on ways to enhance your characters and develop new winning strategies. We provide ideas on where to apply skill points, stat points, examples of good equipment and a glossary for explanations of many terms. We have also included some character building basics, with explanations of damage mods including Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, and Open Wounds. We also cover FHR and FCR plateaus, in order to help you get the most out of the equipment you use. This guide is up to date for D2 LOD 1.11 (10 Mar 2006). If you are playing at home (not on a closed realm) and you are using 1.10, 1.09, 1.08, or 1.07 (Classic) some of the following information will not apply (e.g. synergies were introduced in 1.10).

There are many new bugs in 1.11. This GenXGames guide reveals many well known bugs, as well as some that are only obscurely known at this point. Depending on the character class you are attempting to build, this GenXGames guide can possibly give you some concepts you will not find published anywhere else. To purchase any items referred to in this guide, go to GenXGames.com - Buy Diablo2 Items

Around December of 2004, Blizzard added several new runewords to the 1.10 ladder realms. This guide has been updated as of February 2004 to include the new runewords we think should be a part of any elite player's arsenel. The guide was also updated again for the new 1.11 runewords. However, the guide remains unchanged--none of the 1.11 runewords have an impact on elite pvp players.

Recently we added the Energy Shield or ES Sorc to the guide. In part this was because we were not aware of specifics on how to make a proper Energy Shield Sorc. This godly build now explained in the guide, with a detailed summary on all the gear, stats, and skills you need to make an incredibly powerful ES Sorc (fire, light, or cold).

This guide is intended to help you answer the following questions and more (for both PVP and PVM ). You will notice there is a big focus in this guide on efficiency. You are encouraged not to spend a single point on energy, strength, or dexterity when you can spend those points on vitality. All classes need vitality, and having 100 to 200 more life can mean the difference between winning and losing. Here are some sample questions you can find answers to in the guide:

What equipment should my Diablo2 LOD 1.11 character use?
What skills should I pick?
Where do I put my stat points?
What is the best type of Mercenary for my character?
What equipment should my Mercenary use?
What is the maximum possible attack speed for my character? (IAS)
What is the maximum possible faster hit recovery for my character? (FHR)
What is the maximum possible faster cast rate for my character? (FCR)
What are the effects of Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, and Open Wounds?
How much damage can be caused by each of these Damage mods above?

In 1.09 the Bowazon was king because of a bug that allowed guided arrow to pierce - one guided arrow could hit up to 3-4 times (this was patched in 1.10). Although most classes were generally improved in 1.10 (E.G. synergies), Amazons are the one class that clearly lost ground; guided arrow no longer pierces. There appears to be another bug as well; it seems that range attacks have about a 66% penalty on critical Strike... so if you had 100% chance Critical Strike, the range weapon would bring it down to 33%. Aside from that, there is yet another bug; Critical Strike appears to not work properly with poison damage. I would recommend not using poison charms on a Bowazon. In 1.10 it is still possible to make a great PVP Bowazon, but it is very difficult, expensive, and not highly recommended. For a Bowazon, Dexterity is a must. For an Amazon, 1 Dexterity = 1% weapon damage. So, 100 Dexterity will allow your amazon to do 100% weapon damage. We recommend using 400+ Dexterity in order to do sufficient damage with your bow attacks, especially on ladder where max/life charms are not readily available.

Stat Points
· Strength - 135 Strength with gear/charms equipped to use Windforce
· Dexterity - 400+ Dexterity is critical for doing sufficient damage
· Energy - None
· Vitality - The leftover points go here

Base Skills
20 - Guided arrow
20 - Critical Strike
20 - Avoid
12 - Dodge
12 - Evade
1 - in Jab
1 - point all passive skills
1 - point each prerequisite
Extra Points in Multishot

Equipment

Helm: 120/45 IAS ED Bone Visage

Armor: 60/160 IAS ED Armor (if you use a Windforce), although Fortitude Archon (ladder only) is now the best choice because of the 300% ed

Gloves: Rare +2 Passive 20 IAS gloves with +Strength, + Dexterity, resist, or leech, or similar crafted gloves with crushing blow.

Shield: None.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills. Instead of a Lidless you can use a Ber Stormshield on the backside to block while running away.

Belt: 15% Damage reduction Verdungo is the best option here. If you can't afford that, or if you need more IAS, use Nosferatu for 10% IAS, leech +10 Strength, and slow your enemy.

Boots: War Travelers add +10 Strength & Vitality, and they also add 15-25 Damage, or use Imp Shank/Grim Spur if you are Non Ladder.

Weapon: A Faith Grand Matron bow (Ladder Only) is now the best bow for an Amazon. The 12-15 Fanaticism aura from Faith adds quite a bit of damage & IAS. The second best choice (and possibly your only choice if you are on Non-Ladder) is Windforce, socket it with a 40/10 min jewel

Amulet/ Rings: Cat's Eye amulet, 20 Dex Ravenfrost, Bitter Hold (dual stats life leech ring). If you are ladder, you may need to use Highlord's wrath and 2x 20 Dex Ravenfrosts.

Charms: 26x 3 Max/ 20 life small charms (don't use poison charms or Critical Strike does not work properly), 5x 3 max, 5% FHR small charms, 5x 3max/ FRW small charms, 1x Hellfire Torch and 1x Annihilus. If you are on ladder, you may find it easier to get 9x 10max Grandcharms with +life (instead of 3 max/ life SCs).

Strategy
If you use a Windforce (the #2 choice), go for 150%+ IAS, which gives you 8FPS attack speed (90% IAS gives 9FPS) . If you can get a Faith (the #1 choice, but it's ladder only) Grand Matron Bow, you need 95% IAS (with lvl 15 Fanaticism) or 100% IAS (with lvl 12 Fanaticism) to get a 7FPS attack speed. 7FPS is incredibly fast; in order to get 7FPS with a Hydra Bow you need 290% IAS--In effect, the Grand Matron Bow is a much faster bow; it takes only a fraction of the IAS% vs. Hydra bow to reach peak IAS. Those are the key breakpoints you need to be aware of when building a bowazon with a Hydra or Grand Matron Bow. Breakpoints are different for other weapons.

I recommend putting as many skill points as possible in Dex, then use life charms/and a CTA to still allow a fair amount of life. You should have close to 2000 life with this setup and you should be doing close to 7,000 damage. You will not have a lot of resist with this setup (you need about 50% cold Res though, FYI). However, with so much IAS, and nearly 7k damage, a sorceress should never even get close to you. I recommended 5x 5% FHR /3 max small charms because it is critical to get about 50% FHR with an Amazon. This will help you escape from WW Barbs in a duel; it will also be helpful in many other key situations.

A PVM version of the Bowazon only requires the addition of an act 2 Nightmare Mercenary (the setup above is good still). I would recommend the offensive (Might aura Mercenary). This will add a few thousand damage to your attacks (once his aura is activated). As the Merc grows to higher levels, his might aura will also become more effective. I would recommend giving the Merc a 15/40 IAS ED 1.08 Vampire Gaze, Ethereal Stone (runeword) armor, and an ethereal cryptic doom Tombreaver. This will give your Mercenary dual auras, cold & might. The cold aura is great for slowing down monsters--nothing can resist the aura, including cold immune monsters. The might aura will also benefit anyone in your party.

Maybe you have spent time in duel games and seen the Javazons that dominate with 1 hit kills. Although the Bowazon was ruined in 1.10, Javazons are better than ever. In fact, the far cast bug in 1.11 has made Javazons even better. One strategy is to use lower resist items such as the Griffon Eye, 4x Facet Armor, and a 5/5 Lightning facet in your Stormshield. This will allow you to get one hit kills unless your opponent uses a 4 Topaz Monarch, T-Gods and 2x Wisp Projectors. On areas such as West Non Ladder, items such as Wizard Spike Gloves make the lower resist approach less effective; in these situations, you should go for the highest damage output gear (which I will list as DPS- damage per second here).

Stat Points
· Strength - Enough to Equip a 156 Str req. Stormshield
· Dexterity - Put enough points in Dex to get 75% block while fully equipped
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Power Strike
20 - Charged Strike
20 - Lightning Bolt
20 - Lightning Strike
20 - Lightning Fury
1 - Avoid
1 - Dodge
1 - Evade
1 - in Jab
1 - in Penetrate
1 - point each prerequisite

As you raise the Power Strike Synergy to high levels, you can easily do 5,000+ damage between physical/elemental. Max Power Strike and Charge Strike first, then max the rest of the synergy. These are the Javazon's best two attacks.

Equipment

Helm: 2 Soc COA with 2x 15 IAS/ 15 Res Jewels (DPS) or Griffon Eye with a 5/5 Lightning Rainbow Facet - this helms gives FCR, +1 skills, +% Lightning Damage, and -% enemy resist.

Armor: Enigma (DPS & Vitality) or 4x 5/5 Lightning Facet Archon (lower resist)

Gloves: Rare +2 Java Skills, crafted/rare 20 IAS gloves with knockback and helpful mods: +Strength, + Dexterity, resist, or leech.

Shield: Stormshield 15 ias/ 15 res (DPS) or 5/5 Lightning Facet (lower resist)

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1/2 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Thundergod's Vigor has great Strength, vitality, and Java skills bonuses.

Boots: Find a pair of boots with a lot of resist and stats (.e.g. Grim Spur, Rune Slippers [ENL] or Imp Shank[WNL])

Weapon: Use a 180%+ ethereal upgraded Titans Revenge.

Amulet/ Rings: 30% Mara's, 20 Dex Ravenfrost, and a Raven Spiral (WNL-Stats)/ Bul Kathos Ring (life/skill)

Charms: 9x +1 Java grand charms with 30+ life, 3 Max/5% FHR small charms (enough for 50% FHR with all gear equipped ), 1x Hellfire Torch, 1x Annihilus, 20/5 Resist/ Life small charms on the remaining space.

The same build will work great PVM , although I might recommend that you max Lightning fury first, and then max the Lightning fury synergy. You max also want to use COH for resist with this build, or Enigma if you would like to be more mobile. Javazons can also be great clone killers. I would recommend an Ethereal Thunderstroke (yep, you can't throw any javelins, or it will run out). Aside from that, you may want to add an act 2 offensive (might Mercenary) and equip it with an Ethereal Chains of Honor, Ethereal Cryptic Doom, and a 15/40 IAS ED 1.08 Vampire Gaze. With this type of equipment you should be able to kill the clone in about 30 seconds.

Cast 4x light traps, and 1x Death Sentry in case any corpses are nearby. In hell even a zombie CE is extremely fatal to your enemy! Facets do not work for Trap Assasins, so I recommend you do NOT use them. The reason is, the trap counts as a minion (not you) -- apparently the facet lower resist bonus is not applied to minion targets. I.E., facets are useless on a trap assasin.

Stat Points
· Strength - Enough Str to equip your Enigma. With a good Annihilus and a Breast Plate Enigma, you can get away with ZERO points in Strength. If you plan to use Stormshield you will need 156 Strength fully equipped.
· Dexterity - enough to get a 75% block rate with your Stormshield, or nothing if you plan on using dual claws. Once you commit a lot of points to Dexterity, you are stuck using a shield, so think about it carefully. Either build can be effective, although I prefer dual claws.
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here. You can get over 500 points in Vitality if you use a Breast Plate Enigma and dual claws.

Skills
20 - Lightning sentry
20 - Death sentry
20 - charged bolt sentry
20 - shock web
1 - Into all shadow disciplines except for venom.
1 - point each prerequisite
Dual Claw Version: Extra points should go into Burst of speed and Weapon block
Claw/Shield Version: Extra points should go into Burst of Speed and Mindblast

Equipment
Helm: Shael 08 Valkyrie Wing, or Shael Griffon Eye, or Shako socketed with Um, Shael, or Cham. The Shako provides life/mana per level, +2 skills, and comes with 10% damage reduction.

Armor: Enigma Breast Plate. +1 Teleport will make you mobile, and the massive Strength bonus will let you get away with putting zero points in Strength. This leaves a lot of points for vitality!

Gloves: Trang gloves: this will give you 20% fast cast and resist.

Shield: If you choose to use a shield us a Stormshield (Um/Eld/Cham). Many people forget that you can use an Eld rune for 7% increased chance to block. At high levels this can save you from putting as many as 30 points into Dexterity to reach a 75% block rate. Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Thundergod's Vigor has great Strength, vitality, and Java skills bonuses.

Boots: Find a pair of boots with high resist and stats (.e.g. Dread Greaves [WNL] or Rune Slippers [ENL]). If you are on ladder, you might use Ethereal Sandstorm treks. They have great defense, strength, vitality, poison resist, and they are self repair (they won't break).

Weapon: Find some magical 2 socket, +3 Traps, +3 Light Sentry claws/ or rare +2 Assassin skills, +3 Traps, 2 socket claws . Socket them with 2x 15% IAS/15% resist jewels. (Magic Claws usually get 2 sockets)

Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Assassin amulet with 20 FCR, + strength, and stats/resist (Storm Hide [ENL]).

Ring 1: Bul Kathos: +1 skills, and life (or Bitter band - WNL)

Ring 2: SOJ: +1 Skills, 25% more mana (or Bitter hold - WNL)

Charms: 9x +1 Trap grand charms with 30+ life, Life/Resist/FHR small charms , 1x Hellfire Torch, 1x Annihilus.

Strategy
You should be shooting for 102% Fast cast on your Trapsin Assasin. This will give you a 10 FPS cast rate. If you want to be extra nasty (and you are a fan of BM--bad manner dueling) buy a wand from Ormus or Akara with lower resist charges. Cast it on your targets & laugh as your enemies die even faster to your traps! (or just make friends with a Necro that has the skill)

The build above works great PVM , I would just recommend adding a Nightmare Act 2 Merc to tank for you. Give the Merc a 40/15 1.08 Vampire Gaze for life leech, an Ethereal Cryptic Doom for the cold aura effect, and high defense/resist ethereal armor such as Stone, Gloom, or Chains of Honor. A high level Merc with this type of gear should rarely die.

This build is very effective PVP, although you may find PVM difficult with this type of character. Use runeword claws that come with +3 Venom and at least +1 dragonflight. If you do this, you wont really need a single skill point in dragonflight (this saves you 4 skill points). If you find a clean or 3 socket claw with +3 Venom, +1 dragon flight, and +3 Weapon block (don't use it--you should email me!). Anyhow, this is the ultimate combination... if you could get this on both claws you would have +6 venom, and +6 weapon block on your base skills; this would be a devastating pvp combination...

Stat Points
· Strength - enough to hold your chaos (99 Strength with items and charms on)
· Dexterity - enough to hold your chaos (99 Dexterity with items and charms on)
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - Extra points go here, shoot for 400+.

Skills
20 - Venom
20 - Claw mastery
15 - Fade
1 - Each Shadow Mastery
*23 - Weapon Block: You only need level 23 weapon block fully equipped . Diminishing returns make it useless beyond that level.
*1 - Dragon Flight: use a claw with +1 Dragon flight as one of the skills for your Chaos or your FURY claw to save yourself 4 skill points.
1 - point each prerequisite

Fade is a great skill. It literally makes your character harder to see, it adds great resist, AND it has a hidden damage reduction bonus. Fade gives 1% physical resist per level. I.E. at level 20 Fade gives 20% damage reduction, or at level 1 it gives 1% damage reduction. This is important to consider because 50% damage reduction is max in 1.10. So for example, if your fade skill (fully equipped) is level 20, you would only need a total of 30% damage reduction on your Assassin to reach the maximum level (50% DR).

Equipment

Helm: 2x Socket COA with Um Rune + 15ias/15res jewel or Shako with Jah or Shael. The 08 Valk with a 15res/15ias jewel is the best (30 FCR helps for 11 FPS mindblast)

Armor: Bramble for % bonus to your poison damage - try to get 50% although 40%+ is good. We have experimented with Fortitude Archon (300% ED Ladder only) and found that Bramble is still the #1 choice.

Gloves: Trang Oul's Claws for 25% poison damage/ resist.

Shield: None.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: 15% DR Verdungo.

Boots: Vs. melee, use Shadow Dancers, vs. casters use boots with a high resist and stats (e.g. Rune Slippers/ Grim Spur [ENL] or Imp Shank[WNL]). Vs. Another Venom Assassin use Eth Sandstorms (massive poison resist)

Weapon: Use one Chaos (Runic Talon for speed or Suwayyah for lower reqs/ higher base avg damage) and one Fury (Feral claw for speed or Suwayyah for lower reqs/ higher base damage). Equip the Fury on the left side of your screen to recieve the 20% AR bonus. +3 Venom, +1 Dragonflight, and +3 Weaponblock (on each claw) is best but impossible to find.

Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Assassin amulet with stats/resist.

Ring 1: Raven Frost. Adds up to 230 AR / 20 Dex

Ring 2: Raven Frost. Adds up to 230 AR / 20 Dex (or resist/stats ring such as Raven Spiral/ Bitter Band [WNL])

Charms: 9x +1 Shadow grand charms with 30+ life, 1x Hellfire Torch, 1x Annihilus, 10x 20/5 life/resist small charms or 10x 3/20/20 small charms on the remaining space.


Strategy
Do not use pdscs such as 100's or 290's on a WW Assassin , because this will interfere with your Venom skill. Venom acts in 0.2 seconds, while 290's/100's act over 5-10 seconds. If you want to increase your damage, use max damage charms such as 3/20/20's. If you are using an 08 Valk it's easy to hit 65% FCR for 11 FPS mindblast; this is great for finishing players off.

A perfectly built Enigma/Duress Barbarian can be effective vs. almost any class if played well. With this build a few successful hits from a Whirlwind will kill almost any character. This type of Barbarian is great PVM and PVP. It is important to recognize that in 1.10 life leech does not work PVP, unless life tap is cast on the opponent. That is why many duelers like the Exile runeword and Dracul's Grasp; both items give a % to cast life tap on striking. Aside from the life leech change (i.e. that it no longer works), DR (Damage Reduction) is now capped at 50%. Items with high life leech and damage reduction, such as the 1.08 Vampire Gaze, have dramatically fallen in value because of these changes.

Also make sure you don't socket any IAS jewels anywhere in a Barbarian's gear, except in his weapon. Barbarians can only get IAS from their weapon (Druids are the same). Note, there is a clientside ONLY bug that appears to not allow 40/15 Max jewels to work properly. The damage displayed will not stack... you will get 40% ED, or 15Max, whichever is greater depending on your weapon. However, 40/15 max jewels work after all.

Stat Points
· Strength - you need at least 185 Strength to put on Steelrends, so I recommend over 85-95 base Strength.
· Dexterity - 130 base. This will help you get the attack rating you will need to hit, and 75%/ max block as well (225 Dex is required to max block at level 99).
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Whirlwind
20 - Sword Mastery
20 - Battle Orders
20 - Shout - synergistic defense with Iron Skin
20 - Iron Skin - extra points go here last, you will max iron skin at level 99
1 - Increased Speed
1 - Natural Resistance
1 - point each prerequisite

Equipment

Helm: Arreats face with a 40/10 min jewel, 40/15 max jewel, 40ed 8% dmg to mana, or 40ed/+9 Strength are the best options. The reason for the 8% damage to mana jewel is that in PVP leech does not work without life tap, so a little mana burn will help extend your life and give you an edge vs. another melee character.

Armor: The new runeword Duress Archon is now the best Barbarian armor is all melee situations. Duress gives 15% crushing blow, 33% open wounds, and 10-20% Enhanced Damage. Verse casters use Enigma Archon. See Crushing Blow/Open Wounds sections below if you would like to know exactly how much damage these mods add.

Gloves: Steelrends are the best, Dracul's are the next best choice

Shield: Stormshield with 40/10 min Jewel or 40/15 max jewel. 40/15 max jewels only APPEAR not to work. This is a clientside bug (i.e. displayed damage will be lower than your actual damage). The server calculates the damage correctly, you just wont know quite how much damage you are doing unless you are good at math.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Use 2x Echoing Weapons (+3 to Warcries)

Belt: 15% DR Verdungo, 40 Vitality.

Boots: Gore Riders for the crushing blow, open wounds, deadly Strike

Weapon: 400%+ Ethereal Breath of the Dying colossus blade (CB). Don't use a Berserker Axe; although it does more damage, there is a bug that does not allow open wounds, and some other mods to work. In effect, you will do more damage with a CB. If you use an Axe Skill Barbarian already, then I recommend dual weiding axes, use 1-Doom Berserker Axe and 2-Beast Axe. This will give you dual auras; both Holy Freeze & Fanaticism. A Death Ethereal Berserker Axe (ladder only) is an excellent choice as well because of open wounds, crushing blow, high damage.

Amulet/Rings: Use the Angelic Set for +75 life (on the amulet ), and +1000 AR on each angelic ring. You can also use a godly amulet & 2x Ravenfrosts. If you decide to go with the angelic set for the massive AR bonus, you should Cham your helm or shield for the Cannot Be Frozen mod.

Charms: 1x Annihilus with 20 to stats, 1x Hellfire Torch, and 37x 3/20/20's

A PVM version of the Whirlwind Barbarian only requires the addition of an act 2 Nightmare Mercenary (the setup above is good still). I would recommend the offensive (might Mercenary). This will add a few thousand damage to your attacks (once his aura is activated). As the Merc grows to higher levels, his might aura will also become more effective. I would recommend giving the Merc a 15/40 IAS ED 1.08 Vampire Gaze, Ethereal Stone (runeword) armor, and an ethereal cryptic doom Tombreaver. This will give your Mercenary dual auras, cold & might. The cold aura is great for slowing down monsters--nothing can resist the aura, including cold immune monsters. The might aura will also benefit anyone in your party.

This Barbarian is a menace to a single target and a helpless meatshield vs. a group of monsters. Don't use this build PVM - it is really PVP only. This build can easily to 15-20K+ Damage. However, you are going to have to catch the enemy with his/her pants down. It is important to recognize that in 1.10 life leech does not work PVP, unless life tap is cast on the opponent. That is why many duelers like the Exile runeword and Dracul's Grasp; both items give a % to cast life tap on striking. Aside from the life leech change (i.e. that it no longer works), DR (Damage Reduction) is now capped at 50%. Items with high life leech and damage reduction, such as the 1.08 Vampire Gaze, have dramatically fallen in value because of these changes.

Also make sure you don't socket any IAS jewels anywhere in a Barbarian's gear, except in his weapon. Barbarians can only get IAS from their weapon (Druids are the same). Aside from that, a bug does not allow 40/15 Max jewels to work properly either. The damage will not stack... you will get 40% ED, or 15Max, whichever is greater depending on your weapon. You should use 40/10 Min Jewels, Runes, or other jewels altogether, such as 40 ED/9 Strength.

Stat Points
· Strength - enough to equip your Enigma
· Dexterity - 130 base. This will help you get the attack rating you will need to hit
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Concentrate
20 - Battle Orders +10% damage per level to Concentrate synergy
20 - Bash +5% damage per level to Concentrate synergy
20 - Spear Mastery
1 - Increased Speed
1 - Battle Command
1 - Natural Resistance
1 - Iron Skin, extra points go here last

Equipment

Helm: Arreats face with a 40/10 min jewel or a jewel with 8%+ damage to mana and +9 Strength. The reason for the jewel is that in PVP leech does not work without life tap, so a little mana burn will help extend your life and give you an edge vs. another melee character.

Armor: The new runeword Duress Archon is now the best Barbarian armor is all melee situations. Duress gives 15% crushing blow, 33% open wounds, and 10-20% Enhanced Damage. Verse casters use Enigma Archon.

Gloves: Either Steelrends or Dracul's Grasp, both are great for PVP but I suggest Steelrends.

Shield: Stormshield with 40/10 min Jewel or 40/15 max Jewel.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Use 2x Echoing Weapons (+3 to Warcries)

Belt: 15% DR Verdungo, 40 Vitality.

Boots: Gore Riders for the crushing blow, open wounds, deadly Strike

Weapon: 400% ED Botd Ethereal War Pike, or if you need to use a shield, use a Ethereal Botd Colussus Blade (or an Ethereal Death Berserker Axe - ladder only).

Amulet/Rings: Use the Angelic Set for +75 life (on the amulet ), and +1000 AR on each angelic ring. If you don't use the Angelic set go for a Highlord's Wrath Amulet and 2x Ravenfrosts.

Charms: 1x Annihilus with 20 to stats, 1x Hellfire Torch, and 37x 3/20/20's

The new synergies introduced in 1.10 have made the Elemental Druid incredibly powerful. Only good Barbarians and Amazons really pose a threat PVP. A perfectly built Elemental Druid can stomp just about any other class. Elemental Druids are great PVM as well, so this build can serve either purpose equally well. An important note to add, is that Elemental Druids are often called Windy Druids, or Windy Droods, by some players. If you run into a well geared Windy Druid, played a skilled player... you will quickly learn how an elemental Druid can strike fear in the heart of his opponents! Many times while playing against these characters I have personally broke into a cold sweat trying to avoid the tornadoes... a really good player can stun you with one tornado, and follow up with a flurry of tornadoes in a stun lock which can quickly kill even the best geared players! You will find unless you have godly vita/ damage reduction, some druids will kill you with just one or two tornadoes.

Stat Points
· Strength - None. Use jewelry/boots and a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma to get enough Strength to equip your items.
· Dexterity - Either go for max block with an SS, or no Dex at all. No Dex will allow over 500 Vitality.
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Tornado
20 - Cyclone Armor
20 - Twister
20 - Hurricane
20 - Oak Sage

Remember, at level 89 you will have 100 skill points to spend, so you would need level 95 or so to get the exact synergies with pre-reqs shown here.

Equipment

Helm: Use a Shako, socketed with a Shael, or a 15% resist 7%fhr jewel (if you can find one).

Armor: Use a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma and avoid wasting a single point on Strength.

Gloves: Magefist for 20% FCR and mana regen. Max FCR (fast cast rate) is critical in PVP.

Shield: Stormshield with a -15% requirements, 15% Res all jewel or an Eld rune for 7% increased chance to block (saves you from spending points on Dexterity).

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek for vitality, Strength, poison resist and great defense. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'.

Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40%) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice. 40% Fast cast from your HOTO is critical to making your Elemental Druid effective.

Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Druid amulet with stats/resist/FCR.

Ring 1: SOJ, or BK, or use a 10% FCR ring with mana/ stats/ resist to reach 99% FCR plateau (if you have not reached the plateau already)

Ring 2: SOJ

Charms: 5x +1 Elemental grand charms with 35+ life, 5x +1 Elemental grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch and 7x life/mana, life/resist charms.

Strategy
With a HOTO (40), Magefist (20), and Arachnid Sash (20) your Druid will have 80% fast cast. In order to hit the 99% plateau you need a 20% FCR circlet or a 20% FCR amulet. I would hit that 99% plateau for sure (11 FPS), because that will give you a big edge Druid vs. Druid (caster vs. caster). It will also help you catch all those Necromancers that will be running when they see this build.

Druid Fast Cast Rate (FCR) plateaus:
(in FPS - Frames Per Second)
18 frames = base
17 frames = 4%
16 frames = 10%
15 frames = 19%
14 frames = 30%
13 frames = 46%
12 frames = 68%
11 frames = 99%
10 frames = 163%

Druids have horrible base FHR , so I would recommend putting a 7% FHR / 15% Res Jewel or a Shael in your helm (20% FHR ), or getting some Elemental grand charms with FHR , or small charms with FHR (5% FHR/ 5% resist charms are quite rare, but they exist) . See the FHR table at the bottom for details.

Update for 1.11: The Marrow Walk Bug is patched. Necro's are still good, but they are no longer a dominant dueling class like they were in 1.10. In 1.10 it wasn't uncommon to join a dueling game and see a Necromancer dominate again and again. Yes, other classes have powerful attacks, but they can all be resisted, while NOTHING can resist a Bone Spirit. The only exception is the Hammerdin with his magic Blessed Hammer. A well built & played Necro can dominate all other classes except the most perfectly built Elemental Druids (once again, this comment was made during 1.10). I know because I have spent hundreds of hours dueling. Interested? Well, read on, I'm going to give away some Necro secrets here that only the best duelers know. Look below the glossary to see Necro FCR and FHR rates.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - go for 75% Block, or None (personally, I use none)
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - When I build a Necro all my points go here. At level 90 you will have over 500 vitality if you opted for no Dex.

Skills
20 - Bone Spear
20 - Bone Spirit
20 - Bone Wall
20 - Teeth
20 - Bone Prison (dont spend 20 points here if you want summons besides Clay Golem)
1 - Clay Golem

If you want to make your necro more versatile & sacrifice some Bone Spear/ Spirit Damage you can put stats in:
1 - Lower Resist and all pre-reqs.
1 - In every skill on the Summon Tree
1 - The rest of your points in Bone Prison
[The Marrowwalk Bug is patched in 1.11. In 1.10 it gave a +33 to this skill instead of 33 charges, but only if you had ZERO points in it.]

By Level 88 you should be able to have all of the skills above. Yes, you need Fire Golem and yes you need summons, if you plan on having a Necro that can dominate all other classes.

Equipment

Helm: The best helm is a Shako with a 7% FHR , 15% resist all jewel (an equally good choice). If you can't find a jewel like this, Shael your Shako for 20% FHR. An alternative (which some prefer) a circlet with 20% FCR, +3 PB Skills, 2 sockets, and other good mods. If you get one, use 2x 7% FHR jewels with 15% resist all. The 20% FCR will allow you to use 2x Skill Rings, otherwise you have to use FCR rings.

Armor: Use a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma and avoid wasting a single point on Strength.

Gloves: Magefist for 20% FCR and mana regen. Hitting the Necro 125% max FCR (fast cast rate) is critical in PVP, and will of course make you more effective PVM too. You might want to use Trang gloves vs. a Cold Sorc for 33% Cold Res .

Shield: Darkforce Spawn with +3 PB Skills (Poison Bone). This is the best Necro shield period, the 35% FCR, and 10% Mana can't be beat. Socket this with an Um rune or a 7% FHR , 15% resist all jewel. A Spirit Monarch is also a great choice because of FHR, FCR, and +2 skills (another ladder only shield).

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills. A good alternative is a Spirit Monarch (ladder only) for +2 Skills, FHR, and FCR.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: The best Strategy is to use +2 Marrow Walks for the bug (it appears the bug does NOT work if you have zero charges in your boots, so make sure to repair them). If you decide to put 20 points in Bone Prison, use Ethereal Sandstorm Trek for vitality, Strength, poison resist and great defense. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'.

Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40% Res ) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice. 40% Fast cast from your HOTO is critical to making your Necromancer effective.

Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Necro amulet with stats/resist, and 10-20% FCR.

Rings Option A: If you have a 20% FCR between a circlet/ and or amulet, you are free to use a BK Ring and an SOJ for extra mana/life skills. I would much rather get my 20% FCR from an amulet, which would allow me to use a Shako as my helm.

Rings Option B: If you have Shako as your helm, and a Mara's Amulet, you need to use 2x rings with 80+ mana, and 10% FCR each. You will much more effective if you can find rings that also have life & resist mods on top of the ones already mentioned. Once again, you need to hit 125% FCR with your Necro.

Charms: 7x Poison Bone grand charms with 35+ Life, 3x Poison Bone grand charms with 12% FHR , 1 x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms . Make sure your charms get you at least to the 56% FHR plateau which gives 7 FPS recovery. If you can hit 86% FHR , you will dominate other Necros with the above gear mentioned, because of the 6 FPS recovery.

Key Breakpoints / Plateaus - Review
Here some keys to making an unstoppable Necromancer. 1-Get 125% FCR for a 9 FPS cast rate, 2-Get 56% FHR (7 fps recovery) or 86% FHR (6fps recovery). High FHR is extremely difficult to acquire on a necro, but well worth it.

Strategy
With FHR and FCR well above that of your opponent, you will always win head to head Bone Necro vs. Bone Necro assuming you don't run into their Bone Spirits. You can cast IBS (invisible Bone Spirits) by merely casting your Bone Spirits toward your enemy (they must be well out of sight, and nearly off your radar), then you run away. The distance needs to be just right, and you need to move away. This might make your opponent panic if you do it a few times. The reason is, they will not see what is killing them (this still works in 1.11).

Your primary attack should be Bone Spear. This uses much less mana than Bone Spirit. With the build above you should have 900-1100 mana, so you should be able to cast Bone Spear almost indefinitely. Necro vs. Necro, Bone Spear is by far the best. The reason is, Bone Spear is your fastest attack, and it stuns. If you have max FCR, and they don't have high FHR , one bone spear will stun your opponent long enough for you to follow up with chain of Bone Spears - they will not be able to move and you will easily kill them.

Chargadins and WW Barbs may pose a threat, so I recommend finding rough terrain where they cannot directly charge you. Shoot some Bone Spirits and dance around while they chase you (this only works if you have 125% FCR). If one or two Bone Spirits hit, you can follow up with Bone Spears or more spirts. Versus melee characters, make sure you keep your Bone Armor on. This will save your life. If you meet a melee character that does not use Enigma, just cast Bone Prison on them, and Bone Spear/Spirit them to death.

Here is an easy trap to set up vs. Newbie duelers. Find a little house and fill it with bone walls. Go out and cast Iron Maiden on your opponent and get him to chase you into the house. If you can get the opponent to hit a bone wall while Iron Maiden (IM) is on them, they will kill themself in one hit. IM does not work if they hit your Necro, they need to hit a Bone Wall/Prison or a Monster, so be careful. If you duel a melee character, and they attempt to fill their life by attacking monsters, cast Iron Maiden on them - they will kill themself in one hit in Hell Difficulty (and they will lose exp). This will only work if they are melee (range attackers are not affected).

Versus Sorceress, this Necro build can dominate as well. Just keep the Sorc nearly off your screen. As the approach, fire teeth at them (with this build you should be doing 3,000 Teeth damage). Most Sorcs don't have enough FHR to recover from one hit with Teeth, so if you catch them, you can follow up with a chain of teeth attacks, easily killing them. Even if they have a lot of FHR , a few hits with Teeth will drain their life & mana.

To be effective PVM you need a solid Merc. I would use a Nightmare Act2 Offensive Merc with an Ethereal Cryptic Doom, Ethereal Reapers Toll, or Ethereal Tombreaver. I would use a 1.08 Vamp Gaze, and a Leviathan/ or Stone. Your Merc will have dual might/cold auras, and he will easily do 7,000-8,000 damage. You will need your Merc especially vs. the Magic Immune monsters that cannot be hurt by Bone Spirit.

I have read FAQs that claim Poison Nova Necromancers are a joke. These people have never met my hybrid Bone/Nova Necro. I developed this build as an attempt to make a very uncommon, but powerful dueler. To be effective as a hybrid you only need about 5-7k Poison Nova Damage. Your Bone Spirits will do about 2,800-3000 with this build also. The combination of attacks will allow those with good game play skills to dominate other Necros, and slaughter most other classes. The keys are using the Marrow Walk bug, max FCR, good FHR , Fire Golem, Lower Resist, Teeth, Bone Spirit, and smart Strategy. This build works PVM if you use Death's Web instead of a HOTO Flail (Heart of the Oak Runeword). However, PVP, I would only use a HOTO.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - None.
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - over 500 Vitality is good with this build.

Skills
20 - Poison Nova
20 - Poison Explosion
20 - Poison Dagger
20 - Bone Spirit (one in prerequisites , then max this synergy as far as you can last)
1 - Lower Resist (one in prerequisites too)
1 - Fire Golem (one in prerequisites too)
1 - Summon Resist (one in prerequisites too)
1 - Bone Prison

You will need to reach level 90 or level 92 before you have all of these skills listed. This is not an easy build and it is actually my original creation. If you could make a level 99 character with this build, it would be quite powerful, because this would allow you to possibly reach 4k Bone Spirit damage 1.11 Update: Now that the Marrow Walk Bug is patched, I don't know how much Bone Spear/ Spirit damage this build does any longer.

Equipment

Helm: Use a circlet with 20% FCR, +3 PB Skills, 2 sockets, and other good mods. If you get one, use 2x 7% FHR jewels with 15% resist all. The 20% FCR will allow you to use 2x Skill Rings, otherwise you have to use FCR rings. The alternative helm is a Shako with a 7% FHR , 15% resist all jewel (an equally good choice). If you can't find a jewel like this, Shael your Shako for 20% FHR .

Armor: Use a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma and avoid wasting a single point on Strength. Don't attempt to use Bramble for PVP unless you like getting dominated.

Gloves: Use Trang gloves for 25% increased poison skill damage and 33% Cold Res .

Shield: Darkforce Spawn with +3 PB Skills (Poison Bone). This is the best Necro shield period, the 35% FCR, and 10% Mana can't be beat. Socket this with an Um rune or a 7% FHR , 15% resist all jewel. A Spirit Monarch is also a great choice because of FHR, FCR, and +2 skills (another ladder only shield).

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: The only boots that work with this hybrid build are +2 Marrow Walks for the bug.

Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40% Res ) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice. 40% Fast cast from your HOTO is critical to making your Necromancer effective. Don't try to use Death's Web PVP, it does not have the FCR, or resist that is critical to making this build effective. If you use Death's Web instead of a HOTO, I promise you will only be half the Necro you could otherwise be PVP,

Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Necro amulet with stats/resist, and 10-20% FCR.

Rings Option A: If you have a 20% FCR between a circlet/ and or amulet, you are free to use a BK Ring and an SOJ for extra mana/life skills. I would much rather get my 20% FCR from an amulet, which would allow me to use a Shako as my helm.

Rings Option B: If you have Shako as your helm, and a Mara's Amulet, you need to use 2x rings with 80+ mana, and 10% FCR each. You will much more effective if you can find rings that also have life & resist mods on top of the ones already mentioned. Once again, you need to hit 125% FCR with your Necro.

Charms: 7x Poison Bone grand charms with 35+ Life, 3x Poison Bone grand charms with 12% FHR , 1 x Annihilus, 9x 20/5 life/resist small charms . Make sure your charms get you at least to the 56% FHR plateau, which gives 7 FPS recovery. If you can hit 86% FHR , you will dominate other Necros with the above gear mentioned, because of the 6 FPS recovery.

Strategy
Make sure you hit the 125% FCR Plateau if you want this Necro to be effective. You also want to use a 5/5 poison facet on your shield or helm if you can muster up enough resist on your charms. Here is the basic Strategy; cast Fire Golem, Bone armor, and cast Lower Resist on your enemies as well. (With this build you should have level 20 lower resist, which is -65% enemy resist). Lower resist & Fire Golem are key to making your Poison Nova effective. Many characters have enough poison resist to make your Nova useless unless you cast Lower Resist on them first. I like run to the edge of town and cast Lower Resist on all the people sitting in town. Often, I can even reach people with lower resist that are sitting next to Akara. Once you have prepped them with lower resist, most people's life will drain to 1 HP with a single hit of Poison Nova . If they have 1 HP a second Nova will kill them on impact. There is an easier way though too. Chase them with Fire Golem and the golem's aura will kill them when they are at 1 HP. A lot of Bone Necros like to sit still, and go crazy firing Bone Spirits. If you have 125% FCR, you can jump in close, hit them with one Nova (make sure you have hit them with lower resist already!), then just dance around nearby with your Fire Golem. You will laugh with glee as your Fire Golem kills with its aura again and again. You may run into players that still have 75% poison resist, even after you hit them with lower resist. You can still hurt them with Nova, but it will not do enough damage to finish them. This is where your hybrid abilities come in. vs. Sorcs, shower them with teeth (my Hybrid does about 1500 Teeth damage). Or, as you teleport around firing poison Novas, shoot a few Bone Spirits too. My Hybrid does about 3,000 Bone Spirit damage, so he can kill most players with 4-5 Spirits. If you have 125% FCR, you should be able to fire off enough Bone Spirits to be effective. In fact, if you have more FHR than your opponent , you may often find you can beat Bone Necros as well, just using Bone Spear/Spirit (see Bone Necro Guide for details on Bone Necro vs. Bone Necro).

The Hammerdin is incredibly powerful in 1.11. No player or monster can resist a magic Blessed Hammer. A Hammerdin can do 15,000 Blessed Hammer in 1.10 with 10x Combat Grand Charms and a maxed synergy skill tree (1.11 Update: Hammerdins can do 18,000 Blessed Hammer Damage now -- because of the Hellfire Torch). This will kill almost any other player in one hit. With an Enigma, your Hammerdin can teleport on top of another player, release a few magic hammers, and annihilate your opponent in two or less hits. This build is great PVP and PVM . You might have trouble aiming your hammers at first, but anyone can learn to aim their Hammers within a few days of playing (or one day if you play a lot).

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - put enough points here to max block with Holy Shield
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - The rest of you points go here. Shoot for at least 400+.

Skills
20 - Blessed Hammer (primary attack)
20 - Concentration
20 - Blessed Aim
20 - Vigor
1 - Holy shield
1 - prerequisites

At level 86 you will max your Hammer Synergy. Be sure to use Concentration, this aura greatly enhances your hammer damage. You can put extra points into Charge, or Holy Shield. Another alternative is to make a FOH hybrid - this requires 1 point in Conviction and some extra points in the Fist of the Heavens synergy.

Equipment

Helm: Shako with a Ber rune.

Armor: Use a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma and avoid wasting a single point on Strength.

Gloves: Magefist or upgraded Bloodfist (life & FHR ).

Shield: A Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now the best choice because of FHR, FCR, and +2 Skills. The #2 choice is a Herald of Zak (HOZ) with an um rune. The +4 Combat skills, 20 Vitality and 20 Strength on the HOZ are great mods.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: High stats Marrow Walks (for Str and Dex) or Ethereal Sandstorm Trek for vitality, Strength, poison resist and great defense. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'.

Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40%) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice.

Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Paladin amulet with stats/resist.

Ring 1: SOJ

Ring 2: BK Ring

Charms: 6x Combat grand charms with 35+ life, 16x 20/5 life/ resist small charms, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

A perfectly built Zealadin dominates just about all other character classes. Ironically, the biggest theat is posed by other paladins. A Zealadin is very ineffective vs. well built Hammerdins and Smite-adins (i.e. other types of paladins). My personal Zealadin beats other classes 1 vs. 1 such as Sorcs, Trapper Assasins, Necromancers & Druids (Elemental or Melee) 99% of the time.

It is important to recognize that in 1.11 life leech does not work PVP, unless life tap is cast on the opponent. That is why many duelers like the Exile runeword and Dracul's Grasp; both items give a % to cast life tap on striking. Aside from the life leech change (i.e. that it no longer works), DR (Damage Reduction) is now capped at 50%. Items with high life leech and damage reduction, such as the 1.08 Vampire Gaze, have dramatically fallen in value because of these changes.

Stat Points
· Strength - Enough base str to put on a COA fully equiped. If you use HOZ & Enigma you only need 70 str or less at level 90 (Assuming you have a 20 stats annihilus).
· Dexterity - put enough points here to max block with Holy Shield
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - All the rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Zeal
20 - Fanaticism
20 - Sacrifice
20 - Holy Shield
20 - Defiance
1 - Vigor
1 - Salvation (no prereqs required)
1 point in each prereq

Max the skills in the order shown, you will need to hit level 95 to acquire the skills shown.

Equipment

Helm: Ber Ber COA (Crown of Ages) with 11%+ DR - this will get you the 50% max DR with an Enigma + 15% DR Verdungo.

Armor: Ethereal Zod +2 Valor, Enigma, Chains of Honor, Ethereal Steel Carapace.

Gloves: 50%+ ED Steelrend or Dracul's 's Grasp

Shield: A high defense ethereal Exile with good ED or Resist. An HOZ is another good option.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: 15% DR Verdungo with 40 vitality.

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek for vitality, Strength, poison resist and great defense. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Gore Riders are also a good choice. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 400%+ BOTD Berserker Axe, or a 260%+ Ethereal Death Cleaver. Verse Sorcs, or many casters I prefer a Doom Berserker axe. The cold aura also helps slow down Amazons or other classes that may attempt to run away from you. An Ethereal Death Berserker Axe is also a good choice because of open wounds, crushing blow, high damage, etc.

Amulet/Rings: Most of the time I use Highlord's Wrath and 2x Ravenfrosts. The 30% light resist on the Highlords is very useful. In pure melee situations I use one angelic ring, and amulet plus a ravenfrost.

Charms: 30x+ 3/20/20's, 1x Annihilus, 290's/ 5/20's or 5% FHR small charms on the rest. Make sure you have 86% Total FHR on your paladin (this gives 5 FPS recovery, see below glossary for details).

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR plateaus. Most of the time I use the fanaticsm aura on my paladin. However, vs. Trappers or Blizz/ Light Sorcs, or FOH Paladins I often use the Salvation Aura, and then Charge them with a Doom Berserker Axe. Keep a back up T-gods Vigor: The 20 light absorb is equivalent to 40% light resist. Aside from that it gives 15% max light resist as well. It will come in useful vs. lightning elemental attacks. When dueling summon Necros or Elemental Druids I highly recommend using an Exile. The life tap will allow you to absorb the life of their minions while they attack you. If you do enough damage, it will be nearly impossible for a Druid/ Necro with summons to kill you. You will be able to leech more health than the damage they can inflict. Most Druids & Necros have poor FHR also, so it is easy to charge lock them & kill them (charge them 4-5 times in a row... they may be too slow FCR/ FHR to escape).

The Smite Paladin can be effective vs. all classes except hammerdins and some Druids/ Necros. It is important to recognize that in 1.11 life leech does not work PVP, unless life tap is cast on the opponent. That is why many Smiters like the Exile runeword and Dracul's Grasp; both items give a % to cast life tap on striking. Aside from the life leech change (i.e. that it no longer works), DR (Damage Reduction) is now capped at 50%. Items with high life leech and damage reduction, such as the 1.08 Vampire Gaze, have dramatically fallen in value because they are now worthless in PVP. In 1.11, Smite Paladins are the champions of melee dueling; with Exile 45,000+ defense is possible and Smite can't miss (AR doesnt matter--unlike Whirlwind or Zeal). Only the best Barbarians have a chance vs. a well played Smite Paladin (Zeal Paladins are hopeless vs. a good Smite Paladin).

Stat Points
· Strength - Enough base str to put on a COA fully equiped. If you use HOZ & Enigma you only need 70 str or less at level 90 (Assuming you have a 20 stats annihilus). It is even less now in 1.11 because of the Hellfire Torch.
· Dexterity - put enough points here to max block with Holy Shield
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - All the rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Smite
20 - Fanaticism
20 - Holy Shield
20 - Charge
20 - Defiance
1 - Vigor
1 - Salvation (no prereqs required)
1 point in each prereq

Max the skills in the order shown, you will need to hit level 95 to acquire the skills shown. Don't forget to put one point in Salvation (there are no pre-reqs for that skill).

Equipment

Helm: Crown of Ages (COA) with 2x Ber Runes.

Armor: Enigma or Chains of Honor

Gloves: Dracul's 's Grasp, or Crafted Gloves with 20% IAS and 10% Crushing blow. Upgraded Bloodfist is #1 Smiter vs. Smiter because of the 30% FHR.

Shield: A high defense ethereal Exile with good ED/Resist or an upgraded HOZ (Herald of Zak). Don' t attempt to smite with a non upgraded HOZ.. a gilded shield does very little smite damage. If you an HOZ, you need to Cham it, or use a ravenfrost ring. If you prefer Exile, and you don't want to use a ravenfrost ring, you need to Ber/ Cham your COA.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: 15% DR Verdungo with 40 vitality.

Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders for ladder. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: The best weapon is now a Grief Phase Blade (or Crystal Sword) because it adds 330-400 damage, which goes directly to smite. The #2 choice is a Ber'd Astreons Wand (both Grief & Astreons are ladder only). You can use a Doom Berserker axe vs. classes that run away from you. A good Astreon's adds +4 combat skills. With the skills bonus + built in crushing blow, Astreons + HOZ will always beat a Doom + Exile setup (Smiter vs. Smiter).

Amulet/Rings: Mara's Kalaidescope, 2x BK rings (bul kathos) for the +skills & life. Use one ravenfrost ring for the Cannot Be Frozen mod if you have not Cham'd your HOZ or COA.

Charms: 30x+ 3/20/20's, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 290's/ 5/20's or 5% FHR small charms on the rest. Make sure you have 86% Total FHR on your paladin (this gives 5 FPS recovery, see below glossary for details).

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR plateaus. Smiter vs. Smiter, the paladin with the best FHR wins most often (given otherwise equal gear). That is why Bloodfist (upgraded) can be a great secret weapon; the 30% FHR, min damage, and life all work great Smiter vs. Smiter, or in situations where you need an FHR boost (You should use 120% FHR paly vs. paly). FHR Plateaus and corresponding FPS are 75%: 6FPS, 120%: 5FPS, and 280%:4FPS.

In 1.11 player vs. player situations, an ES Sorc will dominate all other sorc types. An Energy Shield Sorceress player with good skills can rival any other class. With the Blizzard synergy a Sorceress can do 16,000+ Blizzard Damage. A pure cold Sorceress with 400%+ MF can easily kill a boss such as Pindle in one hit. Overall I have found that Blizzard synergy is great for both Player vs. Player and Player vs. Monster.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - None or add Dexterity until you reach 75% block
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - with no Dexterity you should have 500+ vitality.

Skills
20 - Blizzard
20 - Glacial Spike
20 - Ice Blast
20 - Cold Mastery
20 - Ice Bolt (you may only be able to put about 18 points here even at level 99)
1 - Warmth
1 - Energy Shield
1 - Static (if you play PVM )
1 point in each prerequisite

Equipment

Helm: Shako with a 5/5 Cold Rainbow Facet

Armor: Chains of Honor (COH) Dusk Shroud

Gloves: Frostburns for 40% mana

Shield: The Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now by far the best choice (+2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 30% Cold Damage Death's Fathom

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs or 1x SOJ 1x BK.

Charms: 6x Cold grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Cold grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

This build works well PVP and PVM . Have fun crushing opponents with low resist in one hit.

Stat Points
· Strength – Have 65 Strength without gear or charms on.
· Dexterity - None. Unless you prefer to max block rate, if you do put enough to have maxed block with your chosen shield.
· Energy - None. We are not using energy shield so Energy is not needed.
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Chain Lightning
20 - Charged Bolt
20 - Lightning
20 - Lightning Mastery
10 - Nova
1 - Teleport
1 - Shiver Armor
1 - Thunder Storm
1 - Warmth
1 point in each prereq

Equipment

Helm: Griffon Eye with a 5/5 Lightning Rainbow Facet - this helms gives FCR, +1 skills, +% Lightning Damage, and -% enemy resist.

Armor: Ormus with +3 Lightning for PVP, or +3 Chain Lightning Ormus for PVM .

Gloves: Frostburns for 40% mana

Shield: The Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now by far the best choice (+2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 20% Lightning Damage Eschuta's Temper

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs or 1x SOJ 1x BK.

Charms: 6x Light grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Light grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

With the new Runeword Beast you can make an effective melee Sorceress. Laugh as your enemies die to the 'Power of the Bear'.

Stat Points
· Strength - Possibly 100 is needed. Only put enough points here to equip your items. You will use elemental damage, not physical, so use as little Strength as possible.
· Dexterity - 100-130 to equip your weapon.
· Energy - None.
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here

Skills
20 - Enchant (this is the key to doing damage)
20 - Warmth
20 - Fire Mastery
20 - Shiver Armor (massive defense bonus, melee attackers take cold damage from this)

Extra points go into cold mastery to help Shiver Armor do extra damage, especially to melee characters that don't have good resist. With this setup you will Enchant yourself with Pre-Duel gear, and then switch to your Duel-Gear.

Equipment

Helm: Shako with Shael for 20% FHR .

Pre-Armor: Ormus with +3 Enchant, 15% Fire Skill Damage (add a 5/5 Fire Rainbow Facet)

Duel-Armor: Stone Archon or Duress Archon

Pre-Gloves: Magefist for +1 Fire Skills

Duel-Gloves: IK gloves for the Strength & Dex, and the AR & defense it will add when you also wear the IK boots.

Shield: Stormshield

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Pre-Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Duel-Belt: 15% DR Verdungo with 40 Vitality

Boots: Immortal King's Pillar

Pre-Weapon1: 20% Fire Damage Eschuta's Temper, with a 5/5 Fire Rainbow Facet

Pre-Weapon2: you will switch to a Beast Weapon after you Enchant yourself to become a Werebear

Duel-Weapon: Use a 3x Shael, 1x Eth Rune High ED Grizwold's Redemption Caduceus. It has 40% Base IAS, and up to 240% ED . If you can't get a Griz Weapon, use a 5x Shael, 1x Eth Rune 6 Socket Phase Blade.

Pre-Amulet/Rings: +3 Fire Amulet and 2x SOJs

Duel-Amulet/Rings: Use the Angelic Rings/Amulet for +2000 AR, and +75 Life bonus. You can also use a Ravenfrost as a second ring for the Dex & cannot be frozen mods.

Charms: 6x Fire grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Fire grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR plateaus.

A pure Fire-Sorceress can do 20,000 Meteor damage and 10,000 Fireball damage. PVP, I would recommend using Fire Bolt to save mana. These Sorceresses can be very effective PVP, and do well as part of a group PVM .

Stat Points
· Strength - 57 to Equip a Dusk Shroud (assumes you have a +20 Str Annihilus)
· Dexterity - None
· Energy - None
· Vitality - The rest of your points go here.

Skills
20 - Fire Ball
20 - Meteor
20 - Fire Bolt
20 - Fire Mastery
1 - Warmth
1 - Teleport
1 - Static

Equipment

Helm: Shako with a 5/5 Fire Rainbow Facet

Armor: Chains of Honor Dusk Shroud add 65% resist all, +2 Skills, 20 Strength and other nice mods

Gloves: Magefist for 20% FCR and +1 Fire Skills.

Shield: The Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now by far the best choice (+2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM (with a 5/5 fire facet).

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 20% Fire Damage Eschuta's Temper or Occulus if you need Resist

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs or 1x SOJ 1x BK.

Charms: 6x Fire grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Fire grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

Prebuff: To make this build work you need a Memory Runeword Stave for your pre-buff. Memory adds +3 skills, +3 Energy Shield. Try to get a base staff with +3 Energy Shield. A staff with both +3 Energy Shield and +3 Shiver Armor is also nice. In total this will give you +9 to energy shield (yes it works) on one item.

At level 40, your Energy Shield will cause your mana to absorb 95% of ALL damage taken, with the exception of open wounds, poison, or other attacks which go straight to your base health. The vast majority of damage will be absorbed by your mana. You need to make sure that with your prebuffs you are able to get +40 Energy Shield. The suggested gear below adds + 30 lightning skills.

All Energy Shield Sorceress Builds require a big prebuff to properly pull off the build. Without the proper pre-buff, the build is not effective. Sure it's a pain to switch out your gear & do the buffs, then put back on your normal gear. However, the end result is a Sorc that can take on any class out there. Someone with solid Name-locking skills, and a good ability to aim a Sorceress's damage spells, namely: Blizzard, Orb, Chain Lightning, Fireball, etc. can really dominate with an ES build.

This is by FAR the best dueling sorc type build. Sure the pre-buff can be annoying, but with all your stats in energy you can reasonably pull off 4-6k+ mana (easily with items like Frostburn with +40% mana, and 2x SOJs with +25% mana each. East non ladder Sorcs will have the advantage of decrepify Small charms. These bugged small charms add 70 mana/ 15 life each. A Sorc with 20x+ decrepify small charms could absorb a mountain of damage (I'm sure something such as 15k mana is possible). I think it might be unnecessary to use too many of those charms. You want to avoid sacrificing your capacity to do damage with the build.

With 8 points in Telekinesis, 1.5 mana points are deducted for each point of damage absorbed - a 150% ratio. With 16 points in Telekinesis, one point of damage absorbed equals one point of mana loss - a 100% ratio. With 20 skill points you can get a maximum benefit of 125% absorption, with 1.25 damage points absorbed per mana point cost. Don't expect to get benefits without putting skills points here. Only hard skill points will help your Telekinesis absorption ratio; each point makes Energy Shield 6.25% more effective. With the combination of a high level, high absorb energy shield that can absorb 95% of your damage taken, Hard points in Telekinesis to absorb mana to damage at an efficient ratio, and very high mana, your mana effectively becomes a second life meter. Until all your mana is gone, you will be very hard to kill. Also, consider in Diablo, the more mana you have, the faster it regenerates. In effect, its almost as if you are quickly regenerating life back on your Sorc, since your mana will take most of the damage, etc. etc. Thus, YES, it is correct, with these builds you do NOT put a single point into vitality! It may seem odd, but of course without high energy, this build becomes pointless, and inferior to a normal or "Classic" Sorc build.

One final note, and a reiteration of the earlier warning. This build is hopeless unless you use several 40+ life / +1 skill grand charms, and life/ resist small charms/ and good gear. Since you will have no base vitality, you will need your gear to get a decent amount of vitality. I have heard Energy Shield can absorb 100% of a Barb Whirl Wind, and I have even heard of Energy Shield absorbing 7k in Necro Bone Spirit / Spear damage. However, there are still a number of attacks that can penetrate that Energy Shield. Because of this, you can't avoid having good gear. Please don't attempt this build with poor gear and complain that we gave bad advice! We promise you can make godly Sorcs with these builds, but it must be done just right.

Pre-buff Equipment
Helm: +3 Lightning Skills Circlet
Armor: +2 skills Enigma/ COH
Gloves: anything
Shield: None
Belt: Arachnid Mesh +1 Skills
Boots: anything
Weapon: Memory Runeword Stave with +3 Shiver Armor
Amulet/Rings: +3 Lightning Skills Amulet and 2x SOJs or BKs
Charms: 9x +1 Light Skills grand charms 1x Annihilus +1 skills, 1x Hellfire Torch +3 skills

Now that we have explained the theory & the goals of the build, let's talk about the specific details including gear for each character build.

Don't attempt any of these ES Sorc builds without reading the prebuff directions. Without the prebuff, the build will not work properly. Notice, with the prebuff directions above, you do not need a single point in energy shield, which saves 4 skill points. Also, if you find a 4 socket staff with +3 Shiver armor and +3 Energy shield both you will not need a single point in Shiver Armor. If you can't find a staff like this, you will need to go ahead and put 1 point in Shiver armor, and 1 point in the pre-requisite. Hardcore duelers should not bother with static-it's useless PVP.

With the Blizzard synergy a Sorceress can do 16,000+ Blizzard Damage. A pure cold Sorceress with 400%+ MF can easily kill a boss such as Pindle in one hit. Overall I have found that Blizzard synergy is great for both Player vs. Player and Player vs. Monster.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - None or add Dexterity until you reach 75% block
· Energy - with no Dexterity you should have 500+ energy.
· Vitality - None.

Skills
20 - Blizzard
20 - Cold Mastery
20 - Ice Bolt
20 - Glacial Spike
16 - Telekinesis
1 - Warmth
1 - Teleport
1 point in each prerequisite
Leftover Points - Ice Blast (only if you are level 89 or higher)
1 - Static (if you play PVM) (but then you will need level 90 for the points
(Follow Prebuff directions above or this build will not work!)

Equipment

Helm: Shako with a 5/5 Cold Rainbow Facet, or Perf Nightwing w/ 5/5 Cold Facet. The best item (hard to get) is a 2 open socket rare circlet with +2 skills, 20% FCR and nice mods.

Armor: Chains of Honor (COH) Dusk Shroud

Gloves: Frostburns for 40% mana

Shield: Spirit Monarch (ladder only - +2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only) for +1 Skills and a +6 BO CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 30% Cold Damage Death's Fathom

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs.

Charms: 6x Cold grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Cold grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Blizzard is all about anticipating your oppenent, consantly dancing with teleport, and then casting a carefully aimed Blizzard when they lose their patience. Name locking and good aim are keys to making your Blizzard connect. With the massive damage Blizzard can do, most players will die in 1-2 hits from your Blizzard. Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

How do I aim Blizz Without Namelocking?
The best way to aim Blizz is to use the 4 edges of your screen to aim it, you teleport so that your opponent is in one of the edges and then blizzard, that way you put your sorc's massive Blizzard range to full use. You can Blizz a PVP or PVM opponent up to 1.5+ screens away by doing this! If you can learn to do this, your Blizz Sorc will be a Godly Dueler. Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

Frozen Orb: "creates a magical globe that sprays a torrent of ice bolts to lay waste to your enemies" - enuff said? Maxed out, an Orber Sorc can do 600+ damage per shard with a Frozen Orb synergy, with the top equipment. We recommend you do NOT attempt this build unless you have extremely good gear. Without the right equipment your attacks will be flacid and weak. However, a well built Frozen Orb sorc can kill most players in 1x well aimed Frozen Orb.

Don't attempt any of these ES Sorc builds without reading the prebuff directions. Without the prebuff, the build will not work properly. Notice, with the prebuff directions above, you do not need a single point in energy shield, which saves 4 skill points. Also, if you find a 4 socket staff with +3 Shiver armor and +3 Energy shield both you will not need a single point in Shiver Armor. If you can’t find a staff like this, you will need to go ahead and put 1 point in Shiver armor, and 1 point in the pre-requisite. Hardcore duelers should not bother with static—it’s useless PVP.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - None or add Dexterity until you reach 75% block
· Energy - with no Dexterity you should have 500+ energy.
· Vitality - None.

Skills
20 - Frozen Orb
20 - Cold Mastery
20 - Ice Bolt
20 - Telekinesis
1 - Warmth
1 - Energy Shield
1 - Shiver Armor
1 point in each prerequisite

You will need to reach level 82 for this exact build. If you plan on making the character level 95+, we recommend going for the Hybrid build (shown next after this build)
(Be sure to follow Prebuff directions above or this ES build will not work!)

Equipment

Helm: Shako with a 5/5 Cold Rainbow Facet, or Perf Nightwing w/ 5/5 Cold Facet. The best item (hard to get) is a 2 open socket rare circlet with +2 skills, 20% FCR and nice mods.

Armor: Chains of Honor (COH) Dusk Shroud

Gloves: Frostburns for 40% mana

Shield: Spirit Monarch (ladder only - +2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only) for +1 Skills and a +6 BO CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 30% Cold Damage Death's Fathom

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs.

Charms: 6x Cold grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Cold grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Good Orbers anticipate the oppenent, consantly moving with teleport, and casting carefully aimed Orbs. Name locking, good aim, and predicting where your enemy wants to go are keys to making your Orbs connect. With the massive damage your Orb can do, most players will die in 1 Frozen Orb--if you can pass it right through them. Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

Maxed out, an Orber Sorc can do 600+ damage per shard with a Frozen Orb synergy, with the top equipment. With this hybrid build you can add a 3.5k+ Blizzard attack to your arsenal. With the hybrid Orber / Blizz build you will need to give up at least a few Telekinesis points to get more offensive damage. In effect, you will have better offense and slightly worse off defense. If you do go ahead and max out Telekinesis (remember, only HARD skill points work for the absorbtion), you will end up making the synergy weaker. We recommend that you put more points into synergy damage if you gain levels.

Don't attempt any of these ES Sorc builds without reading the prebuff directions. Without the prebuff, the build will not work properly. Notice, with the prebuff directions above, you do not need a single point in energy shield, which saves 4 skill points. Also, if you find a 4 socket staff with +3 Shiver armor and +3 Energy shield both you will not need a single point in Shiver Armor. If you can’t find a staff like this, you will need to go ahead and put 1 point in Shiver armor, and 1 point in the pre-requisite. Hardcore duelers should not bother with static—it’s useless PVP.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - None or add Dexterity until you reach 75% block
· Energy - with no Dexterity you should have 500+ energy.
· Vitality - None.

Skills
20 - Frozen Orb
20 - Cold Mastery
20 - Ice Bolt
20 - Blizzard
16 - Telekinesis
1 - Warmth
1 point in each prerequisite
Extra points (past level 86) go to Glacial Spike
(for Blizzard synergy)

You will need to reach level 86 or so for this exact build. With this hybrid build you need all the points you can get; if you are willing to go 95+ you will find it even more effective. Notice I left out Shiver Armor & Energy shield. You will need to get those abilities from your prebuff. You need every point possible to build some decent Blizzard damage, so it is essential that you don't waste a single point. Also be sure to follow the directions not to put a single point in any stat but Energy. (Be sure to follow Prebuff directions above or this ES build will not work!)

Equipment

Helm: Shako with a 5/5 Cold Rainbow Facet, or Perf Nightwing w/ 5/5 Cold Facet

Armor: Chains of Honor (COH) Dusk Shroud, or +3 Blizzard Ormus

Gloves: Frostburns for 40% mana

Shield: Spirit Monarch (ladder only - +2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only) for +1 Skills and a +6 BO CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 30% Cold Damage Death's Fathom

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs.

Charms: 6x Cold grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Cold grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
You will find the Hybrid build will help in many situations, such as those vs. Trappers. Well aimed Blizzards along with your Orbs can make a big difference offensively. If you have good aim with both, you can manipulate the enemy and make them 'eat' one attack while avoiding the other. Good Orbers anticipate the oppenent, consantly moving with teleport, and casting carefully aimed Orbs. Name locking, good aim, and predicting where your enemy wants to go are keys to making your Orbs connect. With the massive damage your Orb can do, most players will die in 1 Frozen Orb--if you can pass it right through them. Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

The Lightning Energy Shield Sorc can be an incredibly powerful PVP build when done correctly. I have seen a lot of good players die many times to just 2-3 chain lightning attacks. Chain lightning can stun other players when done successively. Have fun crushing opponents with low lightning resist in one hit.

Don't attempt any of these ES Sorc builds without reading the prebuff directions. Without the prebuff, the build will not work properly. Notice, with the prebuff directions above, you do not need a single point in energy shield, which saves 4 skill points. Also, if you find a 4 socket staff with +3 Shiver armor and +3 Energy shield both you will not need a single point in Shiver Armor. If you can't find a staff like this, you will need to go ahead and put 1 point in Shiver armor, and 1 point in the pre-requisite. Hardcore duelers should not bother with static-it's useless PVP.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - None or add Dexterity until you reach 75% block
· Energy - with no Dexterity you should have 500+ energy.
· Vitality - None.

Skills
20 - Chain Lightning
20 - Charged Bolt
20 - Lightning
20 - Lightning Mastery
16- Telekinesis
1 - Nova
1 - Teleport
1 - Thunder Storm
1 - Warmth
1 point in each prereq
(Follow Prebuff directions above or this build will not work!)

You will need to reach level 91 to reach this exact build. If your level is lower than 91 you will be missing points in lightning or charged bolt.

Equipment

Helm: Griffon Eye with a 5/5 Lightning Rainbow Facet - this helms gives FCR, +1 skills, +% Lightning Damage, and -% enemy resist.

Armor: Ormus with +3 Lightning for PVP, or +3 Chain Lightning Ormus for PVM. Chains of Honor Dusk is a good second choice.

Gloves: Frostburns for 40% mana

Shield: The Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now by far the best choice (+2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM.

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 20% Lightning Damage Eschuta's Temper

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs.

Charms: 6x Light grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Light grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Your ability to "Dance" around by teleporting to confuse your opponent and carefully aim your chain lightning will determine your success with this build. Avoid namelocking and casting Blizz, chances are they will be out of the way by the time the Blizzard lands. Anticipate where your oppenent will go, try to push / catch them in the corners. If you have a chain lightning ready for your oppenent to land on, it is easy to follow up with a few more and kill them unless they have very high FHR. Players with high FHR may be able to break out of the stun lock. Charged bolt does a suprising amount of damage with this build. You may catch unaware players offguard by showering the screen with charged bolt; some players will make the mistake of underestimating the amount of damage this attack can do. Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

A pure Fire-Sorceress can do 20,000 Meteor damage and 10,000 Fireball damage. PVP, I would recommend using Fire Bolt to save mana. These Sorceresses can be very effective PVP; with the huge fire skills bonus, a ES Fire Sorc will have high Warmth, which translates to high mana regen. Since up to 95% of your damage will be aborbed by your mana (with a level 40 Energy Shield) it will almost be as if your life regens more quickly.

Don't attempt any of these ES Sorc builds without reading the prebuff directions. Without the prebuff, the build will not work properly. Notice, with the prebuff directions above, you do not need a single point in energy shield, which saves 4 skill points. Also, if you find a 4 socket staff with +3 Shiver armor and +3 Energy shield both you will not need a single point in Shiver Armor. If you can’t find a staff like this, you will need to go ahead and put 1 point in Shiver armor, and 1 point in the pre-requisite. Hardcore duelers should not bother with static—it’s useless PVP.

Stat Points
· Strength - None.
· Dexterity - None or add Dexterity until you reach 75% block
· Energy - with no Dexterity you should have 500+ energy.
· Vitality - None.

Skills
20 - Fire Ball
20 - Meteor
20 - Fire Bolt
20 - Fire Mastery
16- Telekinesis
1 - Warmth
1 - Teleport
(Follow Prebuff directions above or this build will not work!)

You will need to reach level 91 to reach this exact build. If you are a few levels shy, you should probably leave points out of Meteor until you level; this ability is secondary to your main attack with Firebolt or Fireball. You will gain the Energy Shield skill from your Memory Stave Prebuff; hopefully you can find a stave that also has +to Shiver armor to gain that ability prebuff as well.

Equipment

Helm: Shako with a 5/5 Fire Rainbow Facet

Armor: Chains of Honor Dusk Shroud add 65% resist all, +2 Skills, 20 Strength and other nice mods

Gloves: Frostburns for 40% mana (for your ES build). A distant second is Magefist for 20% FCR and +1 Fire Skills.

Shield: The Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now by far the best choice (+2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM (with a 5/5 fire facet).

Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills

Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek are good on ladder for vita, Str, poison res and def. They are self repair, so they will never 'break'. Godly resist, stats, FHR boots are the best non ladder choice(e.g. Rune slippers, Grim Spur, Imp Shanks).

Weapon: 20% Fire Damage Eschuta's Temper or Occulus if you need Resist

Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x SOJs.

Charms: 6x Fire grand charms with 35+ life, 3x Fire grand charms with 12% FHR , 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 7x 20/5 life/resist small charms.

Strategy
Make sure you enjoy the full benefit of the gear you equip. See below the glossary for FHR and FCR plateaus.

I only recommend 3 types of mercs: Act1 Normal Rogues, Act 2 Nightmare Paladins, and Act5 Hell Barbarians. Each type of merc is good in some very specific situations. It is imporant to know that mercs are very different from normal characters. They must be equipped with gear, much different from that of other players and they gain experience differently. Mercenaries don't wear down item durability, so nothing they use can ever 'break' as long as it has at least one durability point left. This is why it is very popular to equip mercenaries with ethereal items to take advantage of the extra defenese/or damage ethereal items provide. Ethereal Duress, Chains of Honor, and Doom are some common examples.

As a word of caution to Ladder Realm players, do not attempt to upgrade ethereal armor for your mercenary. There is a 1.10 bug that does not allow armor to get the ethereal bonus if it is upgraded. For example, an upgraded ethereal shaftstop does not get any more defense than a regular upgraded shaftstop. You will get similar poor results upgrading an Ethreal Herald of Zak or Vampire Gaze as well. In some cases, an ethereal item will have LESS defense after it is upgraded.

You may find it difficult to level your mercenary. Mercs don't get experience the same way a normal character does. You may have to experiment to level up your mercenary. I have found that Tristam is good at low levels, and then normal cows from level 20-40, and nightmare cows from level 40-65, and then either hell cows or Baal runs thereafter. I have also found that Pindleskin is good for leveling mercenaries too: lvl 1-13 Normal Pindle, 13-70 Nightmare Pindle, 70+ Hell Pindle.

Overall I would say the Act2 Mercenary is the best for general game play. He can equip most weapon runewords because he can use polearms or spears, and he has plenty of strength to use just about any type of armor or headgear. Act2 Mercs have the fastest attack speeds, and they also have auras that can benefit the whole party. It is easy to make a 'Tank' act2 merc with multiple auras - which can be quite useful.

The Act1 Rogue is the best mercenary if your goal is to inflict a lot of damage. I.E. Act1 Rogues are probably the only effective mercenaries PVP. Without the ability to teleport, your mercenary will easily die though--so be sure to use an Enigma with this type of merc. Make sure you hire your Rogue in normal difficulty. It is harder to level them, but it is well worth it because normal difficulty Rogues do more damage than nightmare or hell rogues at equal levels. It is important to note that although the Act1 Rogue uses a bow, she is not a true Amazon. This is demonstrated by the fact that these characters cannot use 'Amazon only' items.

Equipment

Helm: PVP use a 45/120 IAS ED Bone Visage, PVM I recommend an ethereal 20% Damage Reduction Vampire Gaze with a 40/15 IAS ED Jewel.

Armor: Use a 60/160 IAS ED Archon (use an Ethereal Archon if you can find one), another good option is Ethereal Archon Duress for the resist, open wounds, crushing blow, elemental damage, and 10-20% ED. If your character is low level, and you are fighting the Diablo Clone (Uber Diablo) I would recommend an Ethereal Archon Chains of Honor to give your mercenary extra resist.

Weapon: A Windforce with a 40/15 IAS ED jewel is the best weapon for this mercenary. If you are using a Poison Nova Necro, or if you do a lot of poison damage (e.g. WW Assassin) you can equip your mercenary with a Hand of Justice Bow. The level 16 Holy Fire Aura from this item will kill your opponent if your poison brings them down to 1 hit point.

I have found that an Act1 mercenary with 60/160 ED IAS armor, a 45/120 IAS ED Helm, and a 40/15 Windforce can often kill other players in one hit. Although mercs tend to die PVP, it can be fun to teleport around with Enigma, watching other players get slaughtered by your mercenary. If you use a Necromancer, you can cast Amplify Damage on other players to really make your merc effective PVP.

In short, the Act1 Normal Rogue is fun PVP, but not extremely useful PVM. These mercs are not the best tanks, so PVM the Act2 Nightmare Merc or the Act5 Barbarian are much better choices.

These mercenaries are good 'tanks' for casters such as Sorcs, Necros, and Elemental Druids. They use Paladin auras, and they use the Jab skill to attack (Amazon skill) Here are some of the more popular versions of this merc:

Act2 (Normal Difficulty)- Combat (Prayer Aura - Slowly heals life/mana)
Act2 (Normal Difficulty)- Defensive (Defiance Aura - Increases defense)
Act2 (Nightmare Difficulty)- Offensive (Might Aura - Increases physical damage)
Act2 (Nightmare Difficulty)- Defensive (Holy Freeze Aura - Cold slows down monsters and adds cold damage to attacks)

The Act2 might merc merc is ideal for a melee character is the might merc. This is because you can equip him with an ethereal Doom polearm, which will give him dual auras (Holy Freeze + Might); these mercs can easily do 6,000-8,000 damage when they activate their might aura. A might mercenary equipped with an ethereal Doom does much more damage than a BOTD (Breath of the Dying) /Holy Freeze merc. I.E. I recommend the Doom/Might build.

The best mercenary for a caster (in my opinion) is an act 2 defiance mercenary. At level 90 with decent gear, your mercenary will more than double your defense. I have found that in 1.10, higher defense helps quite a bit. I have found that in Diablo 2 1.10 Hell difficulty, there are creatures where even 35,000 defense (on an exile paladin), will still alow monsters more than a 5% chance to hit my character.

Equipment(That we recommend for your mercenary)

Helm: Ethereal Vampire Gaze with a 40/15 IAS ED Jewel or a 1.08 Vampire Gaze. The Vamp Gaze is clearly the best choice because of the life leech and damage reduction it provides. I have found Ethereal Andariels Visage to be useful as well (over 500 defense). However the built in -30% fire resist and lack of DR (damage reduction) bring to the conclusion that the Vamp Gaze is the best choice for a merc.

Armor: Use Ethereal Archon Bramble for the thorns aura. If your character is low level, and you are fighting the Diablo Clone (Uber Diablo) I would recommend an Ethereal Archon Chains of Honor to give your mercenary extra resist. Some other popular choices are ethereal Stone, ethereal Duress, Leviathan, and an upgraded shaftstop.

Weapon: Ethereal Doom polearm (eth Cryptic Axes do the most damage possible with this runeword) are the best for Might, Defiance, and Prayer mercs (all but the Holy Freeze mercs). With a Holy Freeze merc use an ethereal Breath of the Dying polearm (e.g. ghost spear/warpike). An ethereal Hand of Justice or Beast are two more (but secondary) options.

Try to use a might merc with an ethereal Doom weapon if you use a PVM Cold Sorc (Blizz/Orb). The Doom gives -40% to -60% enemy cold resist, which can slightly increase the effectiveness of your cold attacks. With a PVM Fire Sorceress, you may want to use a Holy Freeze merc equipped with an ethereal Hand of Justice weapon for the -20% Fire resist. A Chain Lightning or Lightning Sorc may want to use an ethereal Crescent Moon polearm for the -35% Enemy Lightning resist. Generally, with most other characters (including melee) I recommend the Might merc equipped with a Doom weapon. As stated above as well, an ethereal beast weapon can also be useful.

Try to make sure your Act2 merc gets at least 60%+ IAS. This will give him a 7fps attack speed. This makes him by far the fastest attacking merc in Diablo 2. Adding 15% more IAS will give put him around 6fps attack speed (there are 25 frames in a second).

The Act5 merc is not a true Barbarian, although he uses the Barbarian Stun skill to attack. Act5 Hell mercs get a lot of life, and do a lot of damage. They can be effective tanks as well.

Equipment

Helm: Ethereal 20% Damage Reduction Vampire Gaze with a 40/15 IAS ED Jewel.

Armor: Use Ethereal Archon Duress for the resist, open wounds, crushing blow, elemental damage, and 10-20% ED. If your character is low level, and you are fighting the Diablo Clone (Uber Diablo) I would recommend an Ethereal Archon Chains of Honor to give your mercenary extra resist. Some other popular choices are ethereal Stone, Leviathan, and an upgraded shaftstop.

Weapn: Ethereal Breath of the Dying colossus blade is the best choice. As other options (but not nearly as good) are an ethereal colossus blade with either Crescent Moon (-35% light res) or Hand of Justice (-20% fire res); based on whether you use fire or lightning skills/attacks.

20/5: Small charm that adds 20 life and 5% resist all (named "Shimmering Small Charm of Vita").

70/15: East Non Ladder Small charm that adds 15 life and 70 mana (named "Fine Small Charm of Decrepify").

AR: Attack Rating. Combined with your character level and the other player's defense, this determines your % chance to hit another character.

BK: Refers to Bul Kathos Wedding Band (ring). Adds +1 Skills as well as life per level.

CE: Corpse Explosion - This is a Necromancer skill that allows him to explode an enemy's corpse. 60-100% of the corpse life becomes the damage, although the damage is 50/50 fire (elemental) and the other half is physical damage. It is a good Strategy for a Necromancer to routinely use amplify damage with Corpse Explosion to ensure its effectiveness. Of course, CE is not very effective vs. fire immune monsters. Assassins can also use the CE indirectly with Death Sentry, a trap that can explode nearby corpses and fire Lightning as well.

COA: Crown of Ages. Unique Corona.

CTA: Call to Arms. Runeword that allows any character to do Battle Orders and Battle Command.

COH: Chains of Honor. Runeword that adds +2 Skills, 65% resist all, and life leech on 4 Soc Chest Armor.

DC: Diablo Clone - an Uber version of Diablo, much more powerful, and much more deadly that walks the Earth as a special world event. At that point, the first unique named monster you run into is replaced by the Diablo Clone.

DR: Damage Reduction - Damage Reduction is capped at 50% PVP and PVM in 1.10. In effect, it is much easier to get maximum damage reduction in 1.10 v 1.09. Some great damage reduction items are: SS (35%), Ber Rune (8%), Verdungo Belt (10-15%), Crown of Ages (10-15%).

ED: Enhanced Damage

ES: Energy Shield Sorceress. This is a godly build for PVP, and it is explained in this guide.

FCR: Faster Cast Rate. Important mod in PVP for casters, get items with +% to FCR to reach a plateau to get the best FPS rate. FHR : Faster Hit Recovery. Very critical in PVP.
FPS: Frames Per Second. There are 25 Frames in a second. This is how speed is measured in Diablo 2, e.g. attack speeds, faster hit recovery, casting speeds.

FRW: Faster Run Walk

GC: Grand Charm

HOTO: Heart of the Oak. This runeword can give a mace class weapon +3 Skills, 40% fast cast, and 30-40% resistance.

HOZ: Herald of Zak (Paladin only shield)

IAS: Increased Attack Speed

IM: Iron Maiden. A Necromancer skill that causes the enemy's damage to be inflicted back on themselves. There is a trick with Blood Golem where if they enemy is cursed with Iron Maiden, the Blood Golem gets credit for the damage and steals life as the enemy inflicts damage on itself.

Merc: Mercenary - Every character should use a Mercenary. Act1 Normal difficulty Rogues are great for damage - even PVP, Act 2 Nightmare difficulty Offensive (might) or Defensive (cold) Mercs are great for their aura's that benefit the whole party, Act 5 Barbarians have very powerful attacks, great defense, and a lot of life.

PVP: Player vs. Player character builds are not always effective vs. monsters, because they are often built especially for PVP and nothing else.

PVM : Player vs. Monster character builds are not always effective PVP.

WF: Windforce. Unique Hydra Bow.

SC: Small Charm

Skill Points:At each level a Diablo2 character gains 1 skill point, which means at level 99 a character has 98 base skill points. Den, Radiment, and Izual are 3 quests that give a total of +4 skills. The quests can be completed once each in normal, nightmare, and hell difficulties for a total of 12 skill points. Overall, the maximum possible BASE skill points on a Diablo 2 character are 110. Many items can be used to increase skill points beyond this level.

Shako: Unique Harlequin Crest Shako, adds +2 skills, 10% DR, and mana/life per level.

SOJ: Stone of Jordan (ring)

SS: Stormshield

When building a character you will have to decide whether block rates or vitality are more important. Personally, when I build a caster such as a Necro I put everything into vitality to make my character more effective caster vs. caster. However, when you do this you run the risk of being less effective vs. melee classes. This is a decision you will need to make each time you build a character.

Block% = (Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2)

Based on this formula, you will need 225 Dex (with all of you equipment on) at level 99 to get 75% block. You can increase your block % with an Eld rune in your shield (7% increased block). This can help you avoid spending so many points in Dexterity. Paladins can use holy shield to get 75% block (and they have the highest natural block rates as well). A good way to determine how much Dexterity to add, is wait until your character is fully equipped (including an Annihilus charm) and add points to Dexterity until your block rate is 75%. Don't look at your shield to determine your block rate, look at your character screen (that shows your character stats) and let your cursor hover over your defense. It will tell you your % chance to block.

Critical Strike and Deadly Strike represent a % probability that you will do double damage. They do not stack. For example, If you have 50% total Deadly Strike, and 80% total Critical Strike Skill the complete chance to get double damage is:

=CS + (DS/100)*(100-CS)
=80% + (50/100)*20%
=80% + 10%
=90.00%

In fact, deadly strike mods make the Ethereal Death Cleaver the best zeal Paladin weapon in the game. The reason for this is that it has 66% Deadly Strike and -33 Target Defense built in. With a Highlords Wrath amulet, a level 91 Paladin can get 100% deadly strike with a Death Cleaver. This means you will always do 200% or double damage. I.E. The Eth DC will do more damage than even a 415% perfect botd ethereal berserker axe.

Open wounds represents a % probability that you will cause your enemy to bleed uncontrollably for 8 Seconds. There are 25 FPS (Frames Per Second), so Open Wounds will last 200 frames. Open Wound mods can stack most of the time. For example, if you have Gore Riders 10% and Duress 33%, you have a 43% chance to inflict Open Wounds. Open wounds is cut by 1/4 PVP, and cut 1/2 by range weapons. In effect, a range weapon only inflicts 1/8 damage PVP. vs. A Boss or Champion Damage is divided by two. Here is the damage per frame (multiply that by 200 for total damage, or by 25 to get damage per second).

Your Level=1-15: (9*Your Level+31)/256
Your Level=16-30: (18*Your Level-104)/256
Your Level=31-45: (27*Your Level-374)/256
Your Level=46-60: (36*Your Level-779)/256
Your Level=61-99: (45*Your Level-1319)/256

For example, if the attacker is level 99, and open wounds is inflicted, it will cause 12.25 damage per frame, 306.25 Damage per second (there are 25 frames in a second, so 25*12.25=306.25), and 2,450 total damage over the 8 seconds that Open Wounds lasts.

Crushing Blow represents the probability that you will reduce a creatures life by X%. Crushing blow normally does 25% damage (although it varies by situation as shown below). Crushing damage is calculated and inflicted before your actual damage (i.e. it causes additional damage). The probablity to inflict crushing blow can stack, although you only get one chance to inflict crushing blow per attack (i.e. you can't get 2x crushing blows from 2x crushing blow items, you just have a higher % to get a single crushing blow). The following displays the amount of life taken by a crushing blow in various situations:

-Default: 1/4th
-vs. Players: 1/10th
-vs. Hirelings: 1/10th
-vs. Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 1/8th
-with missile weapons, default: 1/8th
-with missile weapons, vs. Players: 1/20th
-with missile weapons, vs. Hirelings: 1/20th
-with missile weapons, vs. Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 1/16th

Damage reduction reduces the damage inflicted by crushing blow (e.g. a Stormshield with 35% would reduce crushing blow damage by 35%). Negative physical resistance, caused by decrepify or lower resist does not cause crushing blow to inflict additional damage (i.e. damage is capped at 0% physical resist).

When additional players are in a game, e.g. 8 players, you do not do additional crushing blow damage. E.G. if monsters have 450% life from 8 players, your crushing blow will be cut by 450% (i.e. it will do the same amount of damage regardless of the number of players in the game).

With FCR, FHR , IAS, and many other factors you will hit plateaus. These are specific targets you need to hit in order to have an effect, anything in-between is useless. Here is an example. (The FCR Section below shows rates for all character classes)

Druid Fast Cast Rate (FCR) plateaus:
(in FPS - Frames Per Second)
18 frames = base
17 frames = 4%
16 frames = 10%
15 frames = 19%
14 frames = 30%
13 frames = 46%
12 frames = 68%
11 frames = 99%
10 frames = 163%

FYI, There are 25 Frames Per Second. To allow an illustration, let us assume we both have Elemental Druids. If your Elemental Druid has 150% Fast Cast and my Druid has 99% Fast Cast, my Druid's ACTUAL Fast Cast Rate will actually be equal to yours - 11 FPS (frames per second). The point here is that although Fast Cast is extremely important on Necros, Druids, and Sorcs, you need to make sure you can enjoy the full benefit of the gear you choose to wear. There are similar plateaus for Faster Hit Recovery, Attack Speed, Block Rates, etc. The plateaus vary by character class, and in the case of Increased Attack Speed (IAS) plateaus, these vary by weapon type as well.

Barbarian and Druid IAS Issue
It is important for you to know that Barbarians and Druids can only enjoy IAS benefits on their actual weapon. I.E. Fast Cast Gloves, Jewelry, or Jewels do not help Druids & Barbarians. All of their IAS needs to be obtained on the weapon they are using. I.E. Don't put a 40/15 IAS Jewel in your Barb's helm, because you will not get the 15% IAS benefit. An alternative is to use a 40/10 Min Jewel. I would not use a 40/15 max jewel either because of a Blizzard programming bug that does not allow the damage to stack; the %ed or the max will work, whichever is greater. I.E. 40/15 Max jewels are useless.

FHR Rates
The following chart shows FHR plateaus for each class in FPS (there are 25 Frames Per Second). Each rate shown is the minimum for the respective FPS recovery rate. I.E. Any amount of FHR anywhere in-between is useless. I am displaying this because good FHR is critical in PVP and it can save your life in PVM too.

Character / Mercenary	Weapon	Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)- Frame Rates
		17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2
Amazon	All							0	6	13	20	32	52	86	174	600
Assassin	All									0	7	15	27	48	86	200
Barbarian	All									0	7	15	27	48	86	200
Barbarian Mercenary (Act 5 Mercenary)	All									0	7	15	27	48	86	200
Druid, human form	1-handed swinging weapons 1)				0	3	7	13	19	29	42	63	99	174	456
Other weapons	-				0	5	10	16	26	39	56	86	152	377
Druid, werebear form	All					0	5	10	16	24	37	54	86	152	360
Druid, werewolf form	All											0	9	20	42	86	280
Iron Wolf (Act 3 Mercenary)	All	0	5	8	13	18	24	32	46	63	86	133	232	600
Necromancer	All					0	5	10	16	26	39	56	86	152	377
Paladin	Spears and staves					0	3	7	13	20	32	48	75	120	280
Other weapons	-								0	7	15	27	48	86	200
Rogue (Act 1 Mercenary)	All							0	6	13	20	32	52	86	174	600
Sorceress	All			0	5	9	14	20	30	42	60	86	142	280
Town Guard (Act 2 Mercenary)	All			0	5	9	14	20	30	42	60	86	142	280

FCR Rates
The following chart shows FCR plateaus for each class in FPS (there are 25 Frames Per Second). Sorcs & Barbs clearly get the best rates. This chart should help you properly equip casters such as Sorcs, Druids, and Necros where FCR rates are critical in PVP, and can make your character much more effective PVM as well. I.E. This chart should help you avoid using unnecessary equipment.