Chesspiece_face Wrote:What amount of skill points can you reasonably expect to get? The talent calculator lists 120 but if it's anything like D2 the upper range of those points will be fairly unattainable.
By the end of normal you should be around level 35, so that means roughly 41 skill points. Second difficulty would be char level 55, which equals around 69 skill points. End of Merciless you'll be 72ish where you can expect to have about 92 skill points.
You'll never want to plan above 100 skill points. I'm at 102 skill points (lvl 83) and it's taking me about a week to level up if I play an hour or two a day.
Chesspiece_face Wrote:...Piety. I feel like everything else I go to fight in act 3 is a snorefest but going up against her I just get rocked. Is this normal?
Pretty normal for your first character. She can be a tough fight as each of her forms are pretty deadly and each one does different types of elemental damage. You'll want at least 30 res of each type (Fire, Light, Cold). I'd favor fire as you can't quite run away from that. Even with Max resistances her Ice form is deadly. Just run away or stand behind the closest pillar. When she returns to her normal form is when you should go all out in damage. Another tip is to actually kill her portals, I prefer to stack up on Fire Res and let her take the fire ones, but to always kill the ice portals.
Chesspiece_face Wrote:This is where I am now: [url=http://tinyurl.com/m4z65fq]Present Tree.
How much life do you have? I'd recommend picking up life nodes first, then focus on damage and crit. You'll want at least six or seven hundred life with 30 resist all at minimum (I'm trying to factor into the new reduced life totals. I used to have around 900 life at Piety, or more, and 50+ res).
You have access to six health nodes right now, so either respec or spend your next six on those. I'd recommend not spending any more passives on damage, for a long time.
But I wouldn't worry about perfecting your character too much. It'll be hard to get into end-game with your first few characters. If you're dying go for more health and resistances until you feel stable then go for damage and crit.
If your interest remain in the game I can post some builds that would be optimal at end-game and go over the strategy for them. Also don't be afraid to ask for help in-game, if you need it.
*edit - I wanted to include a sample of my Evasion Ranger build. This is phase one: Life, Evasion, and Resistances: http://goo.gl/2DlpI .Phase 2 is working my way to damage and crit: http://goo.gl/iAXJ0 , then finally at around level 80 (100 points): http://goo.gl/FRox9