Harbinger Level 65 - best equipment?

[gouldec]

I wondered what you guys thought would be the best combination of equipment for my level 65 Harbinger?

At the mo, she has (dual wield):
- Dire Galantium Dragon Mace of Reckless Power with Inc of Valor of Achilles (+35% AS)
- Blazing Azurite Stygian Scepter of Reckless Power with TBC (just found it! Not sure whether to go with Anubis Wrath, Fury's Heartblood, Peng or Lupine Claw)
- Ares' War Helm
- Harbinger's Breastplate
- Tyrant's Fist Relic (Comp Bonus +25% Damage)
- Conqueror's Bracers
- Athena's Battle Greaves
- Sacred Malachite Necklace of Might (with Leg. Raptor Tooth +33 STR)
- Mark of the Overlord
- Adroit Loop

What other stuff do you have for yours and how can I push up my DPS without losing DA or resistances in Legendary?

Ta!

[Irma2]

Mine has Alexander's Cuirass, Sapros the Corrupter, Star of Elysium, Star of Ishtar and Myrmidon's Pendant. Along with the obligatory Stonebinder's Cuffs.

I think you can do better with your weapons. While ...of Reckless Power is a very nice suffix to have, Dire and Blazing aren't doing much for you. Flat Vit or Fire damage are boosted by Int, which you presumably don't have much of. I wouldn't put Peng, Lupine or Fury's in a weapon for a physical damage toon. Flat damage, piercing or Vit aren't very useful, I'd prefer +% bonuses at this point. Anubis' Wrath is useful for the ADCtH, otherwise farm another Achilles. If your attack speed is maxed out and you don't need another +35% AS, socket the Achilles relics directly into the weapon. You'll get +25% Damage as completion bonus.

With diligent shopping/farming, you should be able to find an ...of Reckless Power club with Veteran's, Relentless, Treacherous, Murderous, Savage or Ferocious as prefix. ...of Havoc/Annihilation/Devouring/Alacrity are also worth looking for.

I'd also swap out Mark of the Overlord. The +200 DA is nice. But you can get ~90 DA on a Hale of Supremacy ring and boost that by another +65 DA with a Dionysus' Wineskin socket. Plus you get the nice Str and Health boosts, along with some Damage Resistance. I imagine your Str must be a bit low with no Hale items and only Tyrant's Fist to boost it by %.

Of course, if you can find unique jewelry items like Star of Elysium, Myrmidon's Pendant, Pendant of Immortal Rage, Crimson Gem of Cytorius or Aphrodite's Favor, those would be fine additions. Although losing the +2 skills on your amulet for something like Myrmidon's or PoIR would probably necessitate dumping Conq's Bracers for SBC. Still, with good affixes and a Herakles or Ares socket, you can get a very impressive set of bonuses from SBC.

Talking of +skills, you only have +3 to each mastery. Adding that final +1 will boost the Onslaught and Dual Wield trees nicely, along with all your other skills of course. I'm not sure where you'd get it, though, as you obviously want Conq's Bracers for the excellent bonuses. Alexander's Cuirass would be one obvious choice. It gives different resistances/bonuses from Harbinger's Breastplate but is overall the better armour imo.

Another option is to swap out your Dire or Blazing prefixes for Warlord's, although in my experience that prefix tends to roll a lot with elemental damage affixes like ...of Rime or ...of Sulfur. I would try to get +4 to all skills, though. I could just about live with the Dream skills being at only +3, but I want Weapon Training, the Battle Standard tree and both the Onslaught and Dual Wield trees at max +4, non-negotiable. More damage, more speed, more OA, more protection, more frequent dual wield procs, more debuffing. The differences between +3 and +4 are only incremental but they all add up.

[gouldec]

Fantastic - just what I was after... I can see I need to do more farming

What's the best way of arranging to trade with other collectors? I realise 'online' (which I haven't played much) but I'm never sure how to go about it... any threads with good tips on that?

[Irma2]

I'm not sure as I don't trade much. I guess you could drop in to the Trading forum and make any requests or arrangements there.

[gouldec]

Cheers Irma2.

BTW, is Vitality Damage not good for Harbingers then? I thought that some of the skills in Dream did have some decent multipliers for that?

Thanks

[Irma2]

Well, Dream gives the following boosts to Vit:

1) Psionic Touch: does flat Vit and +% Total Damage (inc Vit) every fourth hit. But Harb will do far better with Onslaught as LMB attack.

2) Lucid Dream: adds +% Vit. But also adds +% physical. Vit is boosted by Int, physical by Str. Harbs are more likely to invest in Str and Dex, so get more from Lucid Dream's physical boost than the Vit boost.

3) Phantom Strike's +% Total. Again, a Str-based Harb's physical damage will receive a bigger boost than Vit.

The other aspect is that Dire is a flat boost. Prefixes like Relentless, Veteran's, Murderous, Ferocious, etc, add a +% boost. The later you go in the game, the more +% will outperform +flat.

A final consideration is that Undeads, Constructs and Devices all have sky-high Vitality resistance. And, for all that it does exceptionally well, there is one thing that Harb doesn't do well at all: reduce enemy resistances. That doesn't matter, though, because Harbs typically do mostly physical damage (with maybe a bit of Electrical Burn thrown in) and almost nothing in the game has significant resistance to physical.

My Int melee Diviner has boosted Int into the heavens, gets all of Dream's and Spirit's boosts to Vit, along with Necrosis's Vit resistance reduction - and still kills slower than my Harb. There are very few builds in the game that can compete with a plain ole physical damage Harb.

[iwantthehidra27]

Also,a tip:use Sapros vs Legendary Hades in oreder to laugh

[gouldec]

Ta again.

Why is Peng Claw not counted as physical damage?

[Irma2]

It is. It's just that it's flat damage. Compared to the +% damage and +% attack speed of Achilles, it's not that great in the higher levels.

[iwantthehidra27]

Unfortunately,Peng Claw's bonus is unaffected by Str.However,with a Sabretooth,you get past the need for AS...and suddenly need more base dmg .Atleast the Peng Claw is what I have equipped.

Off-topic,the new post-writing layout is weird.:/