Hey all,

Gave up on my druid... I will get back to him some day but right now I am back to my zealer.

He is non ladder and I just got to Patriarch with him this week (first with a paladin!)

Anyways, I wanted to point out my gear and see if anyone has any suggestions for me....

Helm: Guillaumes (empty socket)
Amulet: Atmas
Weapon: Grief - phase blade
Shield: Stormshield (socketed with perfect diamond)
Ring A: Carrion Wind
Ring B: Raven Frost
Belt: Credendum
Glove: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore Rider (not upped)

My skills are:
20 to Sanctuary
20 to Zeal
20 to Holy Shield
1 to Smite
3 to Defiance

He is level 79 and has completed all quests in the game.

However, I still die kinda regularly -- at least once or twice a Baal run... he is a bit better now that I have socketed the Stormshield (was using a spirit monarch).

I also found a Jah rune / Gul rune in one run --- Jah was found in Act 3 - Flayer Jungle and the Gul I ended up with at the Forge...

Anyways, just seeing if anyone had any suggestions - I only do PvM I dont PvP....

Thanks!

Awesomeness!
Also just beat the Ancients finally with my sorceress...

Thanks for the guys who gave me the advice to keep trying it - I finally ended up getting the resistances where my sorceress could damage each guy...

It was actually a very enjoyable fight took a good 5 minutes at least.

Merc died in the first 5 seconds

Continued on and killed Baal no probs...

Kinda funny that I struggled with this game for so long and never beat Hell - and now in the past few months I finally beat it with a Frenzy Barb / Summoner / Zealer / Sorceress....

I have never bought anything and although I am sure some of my stuff from other people maybe duped or bought or whatever... I am pretty happy that I didnt cheat ... it can be done!

Anyways, I think I am now sticking to non ladder since there is no way I would ever find the items needed in a shortened ladder season to duplicate this success....

Maybe a summoner could do it easy - (beat Hell) - but it seems to me most other builds are so item dependant at some point you really need to either play for many many hours or have some other way (cheating) of getting the required items...

getting through and wtf pwning Hell are totally different.
Somebody should link the thread where (who the hell was it) went through only using a decent merc.
Naked hardcore runs have been done (though almost always in parties).

Never think that you have to cheat to get through. Many of the people that have a lot of higher end gear barely know what the hell to do with it. Don't take much advice from them. Learn for yourself...and use reference for things that you are curious about.