How to beat Fortitude and Grief?

[:1]Guys,

I have been working on a high damaging zealot for the past month, but only just realised my damage may come second to a Fortitude and Grief zealot.

I am using Alma Negra, eth Shaftstop, eBOTD (still in search of that godly rare), and visionary helm, but I am highly considering switching to an Exile. My thinking is that the Fort/Grief user can kill me faster than I can kill him so the extra defense will keep me alive longer, and hopefully my higher AR will give me enough successive hits to finish him off.

Those that have a similar build to my own (without Exile) and have been successful against Fort/Grief could you pass on some advice/comments? I understand a few of you here do not prefer to use Exile so maybe recommend an alternative strategy.

Cheers.|||No chance, I don't think anything is nearly as strong as that pair.|||In melee pvp I believe deadly strikes gear is bm so that leads you to no choice but to use ebotdz. Necromancer curses are also bm in melee pvp so you can't use exile and dracs. What you need is lifer and dr gear along with max resist.|||Quote:








In melee pvp I believe deadly strikes gear is bm so that leads you to no choice but to use ebotdz. Necromancer curses are also bm in melee pvp so you can't use exile and dracs. What you need is lifer and dr gear along with max resist.




What are you talking about? Deadly strike is not bm in melee, and getting max resists in melee duels is almost useless.

@skinnies I'm making a pvp zealot as well, and I didn't want to make one with grief, so I decided to try making one with an eth Death Cleaver. It has a lot of deadly strike, ias, and good damage, and the -33% target def. In order to make up for the slight decrease in damage from not using grief, I made sure that I would hit the other guy first as often as I could. Although I'm still trying to find all of his gear, I'm planning to use coa/ss for max dr, then hsarus boots and belt as well as angelics for the massive ar boost.|||if anythings bm its the proc for venom on grief|||A good death could probably stick up to it, because of the DS/CB%. But you could probably match it with a Grief set up and end up with more damage.|||Nothing really compares to fort/grief. However, both are considered BM in many melee dueling circles.|||scratch my fail post|||If I'm in a pub and my opponent uses grief, I'd switch to grief, but since I can;t be bothered bringing my mule, I just use EDC and setup that have high AR and high defense, 40+k hoping I can hit him more than he can hit me. I'm on west btw where exile is also BM.|||BuffaloSoldier, SlainbyPain - Agreed. On paper nothing seems to come close to Grief/Fortitude. This is really unfortunate because my main reason building a PVP zealot was the flexibility of the character.

Everett - Looks like you're sacrificing huge amounts of damage? Is a eth DC's damage comparable to a eBOTD? Also, how many hits does it take to kill an average zealot? Could you keep me posted on how successful the setup is?

alphaz - I was thinking the exact same thing. Atm my priority for a zealot is as follows: Defense = Attack Rating > Life > Damage. I'm still undecided on whether to use an Exile or Eth Alma Negra. Would love to hear from Zealots that have used both.

Thanks guys, and keep the comments coming.