Tips for Solo Melee Fighting:


These tips can be applied to group play as well and could be used to help you keep your merc alive if you're a range fighter. Mostly though they are aimed at people taking on Hell alone in the close up and personal style.

• Back in the days of 1.09 Hell critters had less life and less defence but a higher level on average. In 1.10 their life has gone way up, their defence rating has about tripled, they can do more damage and hit more reliably but their level has gone down a bit on average. Due to these changes in 1.09 a critter you may have had about a 70% chance to hit you'd have about a 50% or maybe even lower chance to hit in 1.10 with the same character. Due to this you'll want to keep your level at least close to what the average monster level is (their level and your level factors into the to hit calculations too, see The Arreat Summit for monster info) and those attack rating bonus items (like charms) you used to throw out you may want to hold on to now. With Claw Mastery at a good high level each attack rating bonus point gets multiplied by at least 2-3 times, more when using skills that give attack rating bonuses and when releasing charges so a little can go a good ways. It is also possible to get items that boost your attack rating by a fixed percentage or a percentage based on your level so those could give a good boost if you're having problems hitting. Also another approach would be weapons with a property that use a lower percentage of a target's actual defence or you could socket your weapon with Eth runes. while the Ignore Target's Defence property does not work on anything stronger than regular critters or minions those that use a lower percentage of their defence may.
  
  
• Use Cloak of Shadows obsessively when fighting on your own (you don't need it as much when in a groups plus it tends to annoy some people), this will cut down on the number of critters that will be attacking you and also reduces their defences (only regular critters and minions though) while boosting yours (always works so use it with bosses too). This skill is also extremely useful when dealing with critters that fight from range, they tend to spread out more than melee critters do when attacking so you could just about pick them off one by one. Using it when encountering critters that raise their dead will keep them from seeing their dead so won't raise them either which can be quite helpful. When you run into a unique critter toss it up and lead it away from it's minions as while it won't be blinded its minions will be. Doing this will allow you to deal with them more easily as then it's you, your merc and shadow (if you have one) fighting one target rather than five or more.
  
• In Hell 1.10 you should just keep using Cloak of Shadows when in a fight, once one wears off throw up another. While a good skill you don't have to invest too heavily in it for it to be useful and is quite good at even skill level one. Its main advantage is how it lets you deal with less targets at a time, not the defence level changes, that's more of an added bonus but it's a healthy bonus at higher skill levels.
  
  
• Mind Blast is a good skill to use when Cloak of Shadows will not be as helpful or in addition to Cloak of Shadows. Cloak of Shadows does not blind critters but greatly reduces their sight range so if you have a big tight pack of critters many to most may still be able to see you once you enter melee range also it seems to be less effective to some types of critters than others. What you could do is just Mind Blast those big groups periodically to keep them together and fighting amongst themselves rather then you. Also while Cloak of Shadows will have no real effect on anything stronger than regular critters and minions Mind Blast can at least stun some stronger ones (does not work on act bosses and may not work on all uniques) as well, it won't turn them but it will stop their attack for a bit. To avoid a group with a unique in them you can use Mind Blast to turn one or more of the minions so then the whole group is fighting each other then run away before it wears off. This is another skill that is great when you're on your own but is not as needed when playing with others and tends to annoy some others a well.
  
  
• As Cloak of Shadows and Mind Blast can be used to greatly reduce the number of attackers you can get by on the 50% or so blocking you'll get from Weapon Block quite nicely as with less attackers to deal with at once there will be less for you to block. Then unlike shields Weapon Block is not supposed to reduce in effectiveness when moving and Weapon Block can also block some magic attacks so the two balance out well.
  
  
• For builds working around physical damage Blade Sentinel is a real handy skill to use. It can cut through those tight packs of critters while you deal with what's in front of you and then you can also toss one just in front of you so it moves back and forth very fast adding to the number of attacks you can get off. More points will lengthen it's duration but it's up to you if you want to add more points or let +skill items do the rest after just one actual point.
  
  
• Death Sentry is an invaluable skill for the solo melee fighter, especially for those working around physical damage. Once you've got a corpse or two down get the critters together by letting Cloak of Shadows/Mind Blast wear off then drop Death Sentry to blow the corpses, toss Cloak of Shadows back up or use Mind Blast, make another corpse or two, blow them then that may be it. Since you can keep them grouped rather well when you're a melee fighter you don't need that high of a range on Death Sentry to get most too all the critters effected by it. Builds working around physical damage can get a corpse down pretty well while those using Phoenix Strike already attack groups at once with their skills so Death Sentry certainly helps but is not as crucial. Since this skill requires a corpse cold damage can make using it harder since it can result in no corpse, then also avoid the new "Slain Monsters Rest In Peace" property which is available on at least a couple new items as it will prevent you from blowing those corpses as well.
  
  
• Some critters you just won't want to get too close to for one reason or another. What can help here is a mix of Cloak of Shadows and Blade Fury so you can attack from a safe distance while they are unaware of your current position. This really is a one point wonder skill and additional points for the most part will only increase its mana cost so leave it at one point. For builds working around physical damage this skill and Blade Sentinel are good skills to get with actual points since your claws already do some good damage. If you're a Phoenix Strike based fighter though your standard claws won't do much damage and you likely do not have Claw Mastery boosted all the way so it would be a good idea to make a Blade Fury weapon set you can switch to which will also save you skill points. This will be composed of one high damage claw in the left weapon slot (ethereal claws are good since Blade Fury does not wear your claws down and they boost their base damage by 50%) which you should socket to put a Um rune in for Open Wounds (a Chaos rune word claw would be great here) and one claw that has the Blade Fury skill on it which you should be able to buy with enough trips to shops. Some attack rating bonus items also would help here since the attack rating used is based off of your normal attack rating. You could also just rely on Open Wounds for the damage and get a claw with Ignore Target's Defence, socket that with an Um and use the second to get Blade Fury.
  
  
• Avoid those you can't deal with too well. Some people insist on killing everything but with as much life as they have now and as much damage as they can do now it's not really a wise idea when you don't have to kill your target. Anything you have to kill won't be physical immune by nature, resistant, but not immune. If they get that attribute it was random, just start a new game to reroll their stats and hope they don't get physical immune again or skip them for now if you can and kill them in a different game another time. Phoenix Strike assassins can throw out multiple attack types but you should be aware of what ones they are most vulnerable to as some will be highly resistant to multiple damage types making those attacks of little use. You should also see the see the "Dealing with Critters Immune to your Attack" post for more info.
  
  
  
  Last Edit: Jan., 22/2004