Itemizing a Fishyzon for Hell (ancients)

[Kartongen]

Hi all.

I have slowly been working my way toward Matriach with my Fishyzon (CS/LF/FA), just lurking the forums while I have nothing to report. Finally got my amazon to hell ancients. Most things up to this point have been manageble, although hard at times. (Mainly CI LI bosses.) But now I am trying to beat hell ancients, and I just hit a wall. My only skill that does good damage 1v1 is charged strike, but standing still and attacking means I have 2-3 ancients attacking me. And Thalic especially hurts like hell.

I have realized that (part of) my problem lies in my itemization. And while I have a decent enough idea about what I want to obtain from my items, I have no clue how to get it. After searching from some guides on the matter (and failing miserably... I partly blame the new layout), I now come to you for help.
I would love to find an allround itemization that works for both ancients and later WSK running.

What stats do you usually try to obtain from your gear for a well-rounded hell character? What break-points do you aim for? etc.
I realize many of these questions depend a lot on the build, but any rules of thumb are welcome.

My own priorities right now (in no specific order) are:
CBF
75% resist (at least fire and lightning, pref cold aswell)
Some IAS, hit recovery.
Skills (pref +all/+ama, if not +bow>+jav)
Blocking
MF

I would prefer both CBF and resistance to be independant on my shield, so I'm not screwed when I switch to bow for LI.

Current equipment:

(As you can see, much of it is blues giving res or MF...)

Available in stash:
Stormshield
The Spririt Shroud
Bloodfist
Death's guard (mentioned due to CBF, but I would really prefer over 2 rows of potions... ^^)
Nokozan relic
Sigon's guard
Tearhauch
Magic/rare gloves/boots with ias, skills, mf and resists (though no super-combo)
...Some other stuff, and a small amount of runes

I think my survivalility would inprove greatly by equiping Stormshield or some other blocking shield, even if it means respeccing to a lower vita (I'm at 300 now, about level 85. So no place left for str/dex). I also have decent options for armour (The Sprit Shroud or Skin of the Vipermagi), while I am more strapped for other slots. Apart from MF-ing (which I have done some, and am hoping to do in WSK, but need more MF to do properly), what options do I have to round out my character?

Appreciative of any and all feedback
Kindly
Kartongen

 

[superdave]

All you really need is a cracked sash and a good valk to do the ancients...and know exactly where to stand.

 

[Luhkoh]

@superdave lol love you popped in for that answer.
@Kartongen I had similar struggles and wrote about it on my little untwinked sept. LINK Beat them eventually but it was honestly probably the most difficult thing ive done in D2 to date (embarassing to say after a superdave comment). But i did write about how i eventually whittled em down.

I remembered these guys being a real problem on my twinked fishyzon of the past, so I was dreading this, and boy was I correct to. Probably spent more than 2 hours attempting the ancients or farming the gold to attempt them. First night I was messing around and trying out strategies (while eating up expensive teleport charges on my staff). Merc dies every time before I can even check the rolls of the ancients, so he was out of the picture. Anyways I manage to separate them spamming tele, get lucky on their rolls and I kill two of them. Madawc is left and I can damage him, but since I was just trying stuff out, I hadn't packed mountains of potions to the summit. Regrets. The next day I watched some zon speedruns while at work and decided I was ready to finsih them that evening. Well I tried a while, ran out of gold, farmed 500k from eldritch (even he isn't that fast on p1 with this zon). Tried some more, got decent mods and correct separation setup 2 or 3 times and managed to die while switching javs for LR wand! This was really really frustrating me. Finally after about an hour and a half that day, they all went down. WSK and baal were a bit slow, but were a cakewalk after that experience.

If you wanna know the truth my whole cheap amazon playthrough made me wonder if like a riphook clegaws gloves blackhorns bowazon wouldn't be an easier playthrough. So I guess my real advice though is check out a few speedruns, especially how they get them separated with a tele staff. Then LR wand in the cube is what did it for me.

Edit: also i couldnt keep the merc alive so i did this without him, just recasting my 1 pt valk. Not saying its optimal, in facti it was super hard. But you can beat ancients with your current gear if you wanna. And while it WILL make a big difference to get better gear, even my twinked fishyzon (wizendraw and titans etc) had a heck of a time with them. So i chose to grit through it rather than farming, and then on the bright side, baal was easy afterwards

 

[Pijus1]

It's been forever since I've played Fishyzon. I would replace gloves, belt, boots and rings with decent rares. If you don't have decent rares, roll a good lower kurast map and run the superchests there. Sometimes they drop lots of rare items, or you can also pick up expensive blue items and sell them for gold that you can gamble with. Or just play the game until some decent rares drop.

Replace the bow with Wizendraw. It's a normal unique, so shouldn't be too hard to find. And it's the second best bow for freezing arrow, right after Ice RW.

Lore RW is a pretty good option for a helmet. Your circlet has a lot of resists though, so maybe you can't give it up.

For ancients you need a good merc. Treachery RW is pretty easy to get(relatively speaking) and should boost your merc very well, both offensively and defensively. And of course, your merc will need a good weapon and a source of life leech.

If you really want to cheese the ancients, get some items with Slows Target. Kelpie Snare on the merc is a popular option. Or you could also try Cleglaws Pincers + Riphook on yourself.

 

[Delsy]

1. Lay down on the ground a gajillion of potions
2. Roll a favourable mods
3. Separate them one at a time
4. Collect experience

 

[drmalawi]

You do not need MF for the ancients.

 

[Kartongen]

All you really need is a cracked sash and a good valk to do the ancients...and know exactly where to stand.

@superdave I guess with enough skill and skillpoints in valk, anything is possible.
Only problem with this advice, as excellent as it is, is that I have no points in valk. I have used that skill so much (it's such a good tank) that I challenged myself to make a valkless amazon. Maybe not the smartest to make such a challenge after an approx 4 year hiatus.

I remember reading your annagoanna story about 3 years ago. I am mightely impressed with what you achieved with her. It was a very good read, especially for me remembering my "first" character: a passive tree only amazon.

@Luhkoh oh man, some charges of lower resist will be so nice. That totally slipped my mind. Will probably shop for one of those, and dig out my amulet/circlet with tele charges. Thanks for all the tips. And a riphook/clegaws/blackhorn is on my "twinked list" for later. =D

@Pijus Yeah, lots of things need replacing. Was just hopeing that maybe there was an easy way out for one of them. But I guess it will be more pindle/shenk/eldritch runs or LK runs, along with some gameling.
The idea of a trechery for the merc is nice though. I will have to see if I have a nice base for it.
Lore is a nice idea, but i will have to play around and see if can get the non lightning res elsewhere.

@Delsy Yeah, this was my general actionplan. Could only separate 1v1 once, otherwise I had 2 ancients on me. But with some of the input here, I should get this to work.

@drmalawi Indeed, I do not. However, as soon as I clear them I am going to want MF. So I thought I'd just ask on hint regarding both here.

I'll do some more runs with this advice and check back to ya'll.

 

[PhineasB1]

It’s possible to run for a while to spilt up Ancients (generally corner to corner with a stop behind structure for stairs up to see if the splitting has worked). Decoy should also help to occupy one or two when running away. With the right rolls, it should be manageable to take out non-LI with CS and finish off last one even with LI roll with merc and cold arrow or physical from CS switch. Merc gear options and other gear goals are spot on for this approach. Good luck!