dem that's a very good armor.. but what is that? weightless of? that's very good for a lightning + cold paladin
and for you to find that on a legendary MI? dem luck
BTW it is legit to find Veteran's Master Seer Robe of the Gods (confirmed drop). Happy farming
And maybe Veteran's Boots of the Valkyrie of the Pegasus (not confirmed).
3) Hybrid stat style caster. Actually, there are some veterans that play casters investing on all 3 stats, even though they know they will only deal elemental damage. Self-proclaimed mage boy has learned many things from at least one of those crazy guys. Sadly, they are not around anymore so the things you'll get from me is mostly theoretical and i can't give any assurances:
At 400+ int, you can already wear most high end mage items except staves. If you invest another 400, you get about +61% ele damage. But if you put all those on str instead, you can get your str to about 500 - 600. At 500 - 600 str, you can equip items like Lykaion Malleus and Visor of the Shadowlord, plus high end shields. See the lightning and EBD damage? With the right items, it's possible to get back the damage you lost, and also gain way more survivability. The main goal though of course is to have enough survivability. I've said this before somewhere: "less running equals more attacks, more running equals less attacks". You might need 1 socrate's ring and 1 hale ring (maybe). But it'll probably be worth it. Or maybe the 10% str from jade emperor artifact will suffice. Don't know but eh experienced hybrid players will know what to do once they play it. If you want to try this for the first time, do at your own risk.
if i am to re-run this right now, 90% chance i would've taken this route.
I'm not sure which version it is refering to, but I disagree with this especially in TQIT.
First, int bonus to ele damage and ele% are MULTIPLICTIVE, NOT ADDITIVE. Given the example, 400 int deals approximately 72% damage of 800 int. We do know in TQIT it's not hard to have 1000+ or 2000+ int with all the int% gears, so the difference would be even larger.
Second, even if you do wish to wear str gear and shield and get all the benefits, it is not the best choice to invest enough str to wear them, instead find some gear with reduced stats req, then invest calculated minimum str. Odysseus' Armor, for example, is one of the most used armor for hybrid builds. This is also true if you want to wear int gear as str/dex build, for example 0CD Dreamkiller could use Archmage's Clasp and Tracker's Hood and also other str gears at the same time while maintain very high damage. I would say before do any hybrid build, calculate your stats (several side quests also give your some permenant stats) and your current gears, find the best str/int/dex req combo, then invest points carefully. Each point matters, at least for me.
Third, "less running equals more attacks, more running equals less attacks". This is very true. However, the reverse statement is also true. Pick gears that increase your damage will reduce your survivability, but it will also reduce your survivability requirement, which is easily neglected. You only need to survive 4 seconds if you can kill enemies within 3 seconds, but you need to survive 7 seconds if you need 6 seconds to kill enemies. Damage and survivability are not mutually exclusive, it's not a zero-sum game. I do not encourage full damage gearing though, it's about finding a balance in gear. From my experience I don't think use str gear for pure casters worth the opportunity cost.
More importantly, as a caster (or any ranged build with cc abilities), more damage may result in significantly reduced damage taken since some enemies won't be able to attack you in the first place, which means the effect of damage is not linear, it has a "threshhold" for a certain monsters or area. I call this "safe time", during which you can fire at will and do not need to concern about your own safety. It is not hard to find that even in Legendary Act 4 in IT. In AE or Ragnarok monster speed has been increased notebaly, and "Very Fast Game Mode" is added to reduce player's reaction time, "safe time" has been drastically reduced, but still exists. Yet also in Ragnorok, several new int purples as well as amulets, grant huge amount of resistances. To conclude, if you choose to invest str or maybe dex to get more tankiness from str gear/shield and sacrifice some damage output, does not garentee to result in actual higher survivability.
Regarding your topic. Back in TQIT, I would choose squall + ice shard + eruption. Ice shard already provided enough constant damage output, add eruption for burst damage, and Core Dweller as tank expecially for boss fight. It's not really glass cannon as long as you manually control your Core Dweller in several dangerous areas. Other skill combo also works in IT, I don't think there are major differences among them. You mentioned all offense and no defense, well squall and CD are both good defense.
Now in Ragnarok I doubt the above playstyle is still good enough although I haven't tried it yet. Core Dweller is not as reliable due to monster aggro change, its tankiness also challenged by bleeding, cold & lighting, and physical damage in Act 5. It's immune damage type, poison and vitality, which is very useful in Act 4, is not that important in Act 5 (immune to fire damage still works well). Ice shard damage output is still good in Epic, but not satisfying in legendary A3 and forward. Ragnarok gear does not increase damage output for pure casters (non-Ternion, non-petmancer, non-dagger thrower) which is sad, and you have to wear more defense gear as you did in IT. In general, you have less damage and less survivability. I guess I would prefer fire+lightning and ignore ice shard in Ragnarok.