Gear and stats for Spellbreaker?

[Overspeed]

[reposted in correct forum]

Hey,

Deciding to start a Spellbreaker, im curious as to the type of gear I should be equipping this build. By this I mean what should I be looking for as far as stat bonuses go. Should I be equipping gear that is +offensive ability? or should I use +str? ... or neither ... should I be looking for elemental resistances? or perhaps pieces that have a high armour rating? etc. Even if I choose all the right mastery skills, having the wrong armour will work against me.

I assume I should be putting all my points into strength and only adding some dexterity when my gear needs it correct?

What about weapon types? Small & faster dagger/knife types or the larger swords/clubs and spears?

I planned to follow this build I found, but before I start I would value your thoughts on where the points have been allocated:

Titan Calc Link (http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Spellbreaker&master1=2&master2=3&sa=21&m1=32-6-0-0-8-1-0-0-6-16-0-0-8-0-6-8-6-0-8-1-0-0&m2=32-6-1-8-6-8-6-10-6-1-10-8-6-2-0-0-8-6-6-6-1-0-0)

What Mastery should I chose first? Spirit or Warfare? Perhaps at the low levels it wouldnt matter much.

Here an off topic question ... I see alot of you talk about how many deaths were suffered after completeing the game ... does this matter somehow to the game or is it just bragging rights?

Thanx!

Overspeed

P.S. Putting aside what build is best for DPS, or for survivability, or tanking etc, what build do beleive is the "funnest" overall?

[Woady]

To start out I'd max out onslaught and weapons training then work on warfare mastery. Use sword & shield for a while. Then work maybe on the deathchill tree until you have a good set of points in there to respec them all into duel wield, since DW is only good once you have a hefty set of points in it. I struggled with my spellbreaker for a while because I was DWing with **** for points there. Once DW tree is maxed you should be getting close to act 3/4 and will need some defense, so get up dodge, ignore pain, and deathchill tree again.

Your build is pretty standard, but triumph is pretty important and I'd max wraith shell also. Lacerate IMO ain't worth it and death ward to me is a 1 point wonder. I'm also not sure how I feel about doom horn for anything more than 1 point.

For gear, people say it over and over to get % dmg converted to health, and that advice couldn't be more right. I'm in act 4 epic at lvl 50, and if I'm not hitting something, I'll die in about 2 seconds, but when I'm swinging I rarely need pots at all.

If you looking for the funnest class though, you may have picked it. I love mowing through enemies with duel wield. I dropped my other 2 chars completely to play my spellbreaker once he hit lvl 20 or so.

[RagingFatman]

A few thoughts on the build:

You're going to be tanking, so don't bother with wraith shell. Only invest 1 point in death ward, and probably don't do that for a long, long time. At 51, I just put point 24 into spirit mastery (been sitting at 16 forever). Also, max hamstring, and don't bother with lacerate. Maxing hamstring does quite a bit of good against Machae Archers. As for war/doom horn, I'm not sure if they're worth it, but they might be; I just haven't used them yet. I suppose they might be another thing good for archers.

Gear-wise, though, I'm sure you know this, but GET LIFE LEECH GEAR. Energy leech is good, too. Believe it or not, a small bit of energy regeneration % gear is also a plus if you don't have energy leech gear, because it amplifies the regen from dark covenant. If I'm low on energy from using war wind several times, I just throw on dark covenant, and I'm back up to full energy (which is presently 1100ish, almost entirely from gear).

Some specific items that I recommend are Aeon (12% life leech on attack amulet), Black Pearl Ring (roughly 45% increased life leech), the 12% life leech on attack artifact, and then just the most powerful weapons you can find (fast weapons are a plus). You might consider putting <blah> of Anubis' Wrath on a life-leeching green weapon, but that might be overdoing it. Neither of my weapons have life leech (presently, I have Key of Elesium and some purple frost-based sword). Another thing which I haven't fully mastered yet is STUN RESISTANCE and SKILL DISRUPTION RESISTANCE. Nothing is worse than getting stunned or being unable to attack as a class that has to attack to survive. Unfortunately, skill disruption disables onslaught.

To progress, I think I'd start off the same was as the person above for a while: max the basics (onslaught, weapon mastery) and go with sword and shield for a bit. Also, get dark covenant pretty early, as this will help with your inevitable energy issue. Once you get TWO really good weapons, start dual weilding. You might take points out of other things in order to boost dual wield all the way up as fast as possible so that there's no crappy in-between time.

Lucky for me, when I hit mid-30's, I had a ton of nice gear laying around, so at 37, I started dual weilding the axe Torment (I had not 2, but 3 of these laying around, and now I have 4 but use 0). If you can make it to the end of act 3 epic somehow, start farming Typhon, because normal Typhon and Hades drop crap.