Ok, here we go.
Paladin: Has to be a zealot (Starsteel). I kept speaking against Zeal in favor of Vengeance before, but that's definitely the biggest gap in my record and I gotta plug it. No creativity in the build or cool hybrids, just a straight-up cookie-cutter of Zeal, Fanaticism, Sacrifice, Holy Shield, with 1-point Vengeance for physical immunes.
Amazon: Spearazon (Starspike), of course that's the third major branch of amazon as well. One of the most overlooked classes in general but I've always liked it; I've occasionally dabbled in it but never played it dedicated. And I think there's a good solution for physical immunes, between Power Strike and Lightning Strike, without overshadowing the physical attacking as Charged Strike would.
Assassin: Blade Fury (Starblade). I think this is the most interesting build across all the classes that I've never done. I was looking at the possibility to hybridize BF into the Phoenix build or a kicker, but trying to plan that out didn't really work, BF wants specific equipment for the weapon it uses (AR and damage, ethereal, but not speed) that isn't really compatible with other assassin skills. I want to do this as a dedicated build. For physical immunes, Venom plus an elemental-damage weapon on switch will work I hope.
Druid: Fire elemental (Starlava). That's my one gap for this class too. I played a variant version (Fissure only) with an online team, but never full-blown or solo or hardcore. Planning for this is also why I diverted the werebear on the previous team away from a fire hybrid. I'm aware how much fire druids struggle in hell against immunes. I see that Molten Boulder and Volcano both have a physical component and synergize each other, maybe that's enough with a lot of patience. Or maybe I can get enough skill points into Summon Grizzly to get him up to useful levels of damage too.
Barbarian: Berserk (Starsmash). I've never done a dedicated Berserk barb, only as a backup to physical skills. I want to do this, after the previous Frenzy barb rather underwhelmed me. Berserk deals the damage that Frenzy never really did; Berserk uses a two-hander and scales up to the biggest damage multiplier in the game among practically usable skills. (Some go higher but clunkier, like Charge, Impale, Tiger Strike, Leap Attack.) Especially considering magic resistance is usually minimal. I want to do this big hitter. Of course the downside of Berserk is the zero defense and leeching, but that sounds like "challenge accepted" to me. There is one solution to mitigate the vulnerability: Howl to repel monsters, which just happens to be Berserk's damage synergy.
Sorceress: Cold/fire (Starshatter), with Glacial Spike and Fire Wall as main skills. The previous sorceresses I Guardianed were lightning/cold, lightning/cold, fire/lightning. Cold/fire is the last pairing I haven't. And these are the last two viable skills in each tree that I haven't used. (The remainder are too clunky and slow to be viable, like Blaze, Inferno, Hydra, Frost Nova.) Glacial and Fire Wall are mediocre for damage on the high end, but I think fit right in with the middling power level of most of this team. And they go together, Glacial freezes to hold in place for Fire Wall. That was a classic combo and build way back in pre-expansion days (and even Diablo 1); less good when either immunity foils it, but I'll see how it goes. And it makes for a great character name, which might be half the reason I picked this build.
Necromancer, and now we get crazy. Focused around Corpse Explosion (Starblast), plus golemancy and melee.
That's basically everything I haven't done with the class rolled into one build. I've done all the major necro branches (summon, bone, poison) enough and in hybrids. There's one major necro skill I've never maximized, which is Corpse Explosion. As I've said before, CE is win-more, it only works if you already have bodies hitting the floor, but anything strong enough to start generating corpses is also enough to finish them. The one way to enable but not overshadow CE would be single-target damage, in the form of the merc and a golem plus a melee weapon.
CE requires no skill investment besides itself, leaving enough for other choices. Golemancy is the one other necromancer skill area I've never tried. It looks like the way to do that is max Golem Mastery, make Iron Golems out of weapons for damage, but leave IG itself at 1 point (it only adds to its own thorns and minimal defense) and raise Fire Golem instead, which gives all golems a damage multiplier and can also be used itself for fire damage. Finally, this is also going to max the one other skill I really missed from the poisonmancer and bonemancer on these teams: Dim Vision. That's superlative crowd control like Cloak of Shadows which I tout all the time, exactly the ticket to shut down crowds while I work on the first corpses, and would have averted both times my necromancers died before, plus also means a Holy Freeze merc isn't necessary which avoids shattering corpses and allows Might instead. On top of all that, he can grab a weapon (maybe a bow) to add in his own damage too; he doesn't need the wand/head slots for big +skills; +golem stuff can be on switch; CE and DV don't need to go wild beyond 20. I had on the other teams so many weapon-based characters who went to such great lengths to get Amplify from some source and were so thrilled every time it triggered, and so I want to do some weapon combat with the guy who can simply cast the curses directly. I don't know if this ramshackle plan will work (act bosses are a giant yikes), but I want to try. I love versatile builds with lots of room for player skill and decisions, and this might be that.
What's cool about this team is that it's finally a good balance of melee and ranged and casters, after the first team was overloaded on casters and the second on melee (particularly after that sorc died early, and also including that necro's early poison dagger stabbing.) The meleers are themselves diverse too, with different weapon types. There's no hard rules against reusing skills from the first two teams, although I designed these to not repeat any offensive skills anyway; the one partial exception is Corpse Explosion which the bonemancer on the first team used but died early and never finished.
Meiz got two right, the fire druid (Starlava was the easy one there) and Berserk barb. Not a freezing bowazon; you wouldn't have known this but I did do that once previously, before these teams; she made Guardian (actually my first ever), but not as a pure bowazon, after she self-found a Titan's Revenge and so hybridized into Lightning Fury.
Paladin: Has to be a zealot (Starsteel). I kept speaking against Zeal in favor of Vengeance before, but that's definitely the biggest gap in my record and I gotta plug it. No creativity in the build or cool hybrids, just a straight-up cookie-cutter of Zeal, Fanaticism, Sacrifice, Holy Shield, with 1-point Vengeance for physical immunes.
Amazon: Spearazon (Starspike), of course that's the third major branch of amazon as well. One of the most overlooked classes in general but I've always liked it; I've occasionally dabbled in it but never played it dedicated. And I think there's a good solution for physical immunes, between Power Strike and Lightning Strike, without overshadowing the physical attacking as Charged Strike would.
Assassin: Blade Fury (Starblade). I think this is the most interesting build across all the classes that I've never done. I was looking at the possibility to hybridize BF into the Phoenix build or a kicker, but trying to plan that out didn't really work, BF wants specific equipment for the weapon it uses (AR and damage, ethereal, but not speed) that isn't really compatible with other assassin skills. I want to do this as a dedicated build. For physical immunes, Venom plus an elemental-damage weapon on switch will work I hope.
Druid: Fire elemental (Starlava). That's my one gap for this class too. I played a variant version (Fissure only) with an online team, but never full-blown or solo or hardcore. Planning for this is also why I diverted the werebear on the previous team away from a fire hybrid. I'm aware how much fire druids struggle in hell against immunes. I see that Molten Boulder and Volcano both have a physical component and synergize each other, maybe that's enough with a lot of patience. Or maybe I can get enough skill points into Summon Grizzly to get him up to useful levels of damage too.
Barbarian: Berserk (Starsmash). I've never done a dedicated Berserk barb, only as a backup to physical skills. I want to do this, after the previous Frenzy barb rather underwhelmed me. Berserk deals the damage that Frenzy never really did; Berserk uses a two-hander and scales up to the biggest damage multiplier in the game among practically usable skills. (Some go higher but clunkier, like Charge, Impale, Tiger Strike, Leap Attack.) Especially considering magic resistance is usually minimal. I want to do this big hitter. Of course the downside of Berserk is the zero defense and leeching, but that sounds like "challenge accepted" to me. There is one solution to mitigate the vulnerability: Howl to repel monsters, which just happens to be Berserk's damage synergy.
Sorceress: Cold/fire (Starshatter), with Glacial Spike and Fire Wall as main skills. The previous sorceresses I Guardianed were lightning/cold, lightning/cold, fire/lightning. Cold/fire is the last pairing I haven't. And these are the last two viable skills in each tree that I haven't used. (The remainder are too clunky and slow to be viable, like Blaze, Inferno, Hydra, Frost Nova.) Glacial and Fire Wall are mediocre for damage on the high end, but I think fit right in with the middling power level of most of this team. And they go together, Glacial freezes to hold in place for Fire Wall. That was a classic combo and build way back in pre-expansion days (and even Diablo 1); less good when either immunity foils it, but I'll see how it goes. And it makes for a great character name, which might be half the reason I picked this build.
Necromancer, and now we get crazy. Focused around Corpse Explosion (Starblast), plus golemancy and melee.
That's basically everything I haven't done with the class rolled into one build. I've done all the major necro branches (summon, bone, poison) enough and in hybrids. There's one major necro skill I've never maximized, which is Corpse Explosion. As I've said before, CE is win-more, it only works if you already have bodies hitting the floor, but anything strong enough to start generating corpses is also enough to finish them. The one way to enable but not overshadow CE would be single-target damage, in the form of the merc and a golem plus a melee weapon.
CE requires no skill investment besides itself, leaving enough for other choices. Golemancy is the one other necromancer skill area I've never tried. It looks like the way to do that is max Golem Mastery, make Iron Golems out of weapons for damage, but leave IG itself at 1 point (it only adds to its own thorns and minimal defense) and raise Fire Golem instead, which gives all golems a damage multiplier and can also be used itself for fire damage. Finally, this is also going to max the one other skill I really missed from the poisonmancer and bonemancer on these teams: Dim Vision. That's superlative crowd control like Cloak of Shadows which I tout all the time, exactly the ticket to shut down crowds while I work on the first corpses, and would have averted both times my necromancers died before, plus also means a Holy Freeze merc isn't necessary which avoids shattering corpses and allows Might instead. On top of all that, he can grab a weapon (maybe a bow) to add in his own damage too; he doesn't need the wand/head slots for big +skills; +golem stuff can be on switch; CE and DV don't need to go wild beyond 20. I had on the other teams so many weapon-based characters who went to such great lengths to get Amplify from some source and were so thrilled every time it triggered, and so I want to do some weapon combat with the guy who can simply cast the curses directly. I don't know if this ramshackle plan will work (act bosses are a giant yikes), but I want to try. I love versatile builds with lots of room for player skill and decisions, and this might be that.
What's cool about this team is that it's finally a good balance of melee and ranged and casters, after the first team was overloaded on casters and the second on melee (particularly after that sorc died early, and also including that necro's early poison dagger stabbing.) The meleers are themselves diverse too, with different weapon types. There's no hard rules against reusing skills from the first two teams, although I designed these to not repeat any offensive skills anyway; the one partial exception is Corpse Explosion which the bonemancer on the first team used but died early and never finished.
Meiz got two right, the fire druid (Starlava was the easy one there) and Berserk barb. Not a freezing bowazon; you wouldn't have known this but I did do that once previously, before these teams; she made Guardian (actually my first ever), but not as a pure bowazon, after she self-found a Titan's Revenge and so hybridized into Lightning Fury.