Dual Dream - alternative gear chioces?

OK, I've got dual Dream, and it rocks. Nothing stands in my way except for Ubers (have tried, I can kill Diablo, but barely touch the other two, but that's a conversation for another thread). But, I was wondering if it can be better? Here is MY current gear:

Dream -

Bone Visage
Dream -

Sacred Targe

Skin of the Vipermagi
Mara's
Grief -

Phase Blade

Dracul's Grasp

String of Ears

War Traveler

Raven Frost

Skull Circle - rare ring |4%LL | 2%ML | 15%CR | +1 MAEK | +18AR | +7 min. dam.

Crack of the Heavens

Bone Break
Gheeds
Hellfire

Annihilus
Small Charm with variou resists

Stats:
21% total LL
2% total ML
+22 LAEK
+35% IAS
+52% FHR
+3 MAEK
ITD
PMH
-25% target defense
20% deadly strike

W/

Holy Shield - 75% CTB
Life - 1009
Strength - 166
Fire Resist 75% (+212%-100% difficulty)
Lightning Resist 75% (+203%-100% difficulty+10% max)
Cold Resist 75% (+216%-100% difficulty)
Poison Resist 75% (+201%-100% difficulty)
Physical Damage recieved increased by 8% (due to

Bone Break)

Merc - Act2 Might w/ Andariels (socketed w/

Ral),

Eth Fortitude, Reaper's Toll

So hear me out...what IF I put dual Dream on an Act3 lightning merc, with maybe

Skin of the Vipermagi? Will his static

Charge fire off often enough to make it worth while if I

Teleport with Enigma onto monster packs? It also would free me up to do possibly Beast (either

Caduceus or

Berserker Axe for

Fanaticism), HoZ (or other option?).

Helm looks like there are many options, Harly, Griffons,

Crown of Ages or ?

Does that seem like a viable option to IMPROVE my killing speed?

Another option (which I can't afford) might be Infinity on Merc, and

Fanaticism aura on me which frees up weapon slot to keep Grief or other option?

If merc and I both have Dream, does it give level 60

Holy Shock (I don't think so), or just 2 level 30

Holy Shock?

What about alternate gear options for myself? Maybe Souldrainer for gloves, a better ring to replace the rare (perhaps a

Blood Ring)? I just recently found a

Demon Limb, so I can buff my damage with

Enchant.

Any other thoughts suggestions, or is the current build as good as it gets for Dual Dream?

You are running

Conviction, not

Fanaticism, right? If so, you aren't hitting the max IAS breakpoint, so that's a good boost in damage if you add

Laying of Hands and

Highlord's Wrath. Here is the best IAS calculator: https://warren1001.github.io/IAS_Calculator/

If you want more flexibility on your gear, you need an act 1 merc with Faith, otherwise you lose the top IAS breakpoint--this lack of gear flexibility is the biggest weakness of the build in my opinion.

You don't need

Bone Break, especially with

The Reaper's Toll on your merc.

I recently did a bunch of calculations on the

Conviction vs.

Fanaticism builds. Damage-wise, Infinity on merc and

Fanaticism on your character is slightly better against some monsters with low resists if you have perfect gear. In all other situations (and real gameplay), the

Conviction build is better.

Dream on a merc is supposedly really bad, and that makes sense because mercs don't have synergies. Merc aura does not stack with yours.

This is in my top three favorite builds. Glad you are enjoying it!

@marl71: thanks for the input and affirmation that I'm on the right path. I am running

Conviction, not

Fanaticism.

Can you explain how my gear is more flexible using Faith? It doesn't change any of my gear by itself.

I'll take

Bone Break off as recommended!

Can you explain in more detail about the synergies for

Holy Shock? I don't have a hard point in it, and all the synergy text is in red, I assume that means they aern't active. I do have points in

Salvation and

Resist Lightning.

EDIT: forgot to mention that I have 100 stat points unspent, I assume they should be put into strength?

I'm fully agree with marl71, you should toss the

Bone Break and try out Act I merc with Faith. With

Fanaticism aura from your merc you'll be less dependent on your own IAS, thus will give you more gear options, this is what "more flexible" means, I suppose.
As for the synergies for

Holy Shock, you should max out

Resist Lightning and

Salvation to achieve full potential of your

Holy Shock. You can even boost it by using Crescent Moon, actually great option if you wanna go full light damage. And you shouldn't spend points into strength more than you need for gear, you don't benefit that much from phys damage, better throw all the rest into vitality.

And if you want to do Ubers I highly suggest changing your Vipermagi for something more suitable like Forti or CoH, War Travelers for Gore Riders and it might be enough. The best thing IMO you can use is Last Wish, it boosts your survivability pretty damn hard, but it is certainly not mandatory, for most cases Dracul's should be enough, just keep your IAS high.

I personally made my Dreamdin into mf character. Here's my skills:

2015 or something

Conviction,
20

Resist Lightning,
20

Salvation,
20

Zeal,
all the rest you might put either into

Sacrifice to boost your phys damage, or into

Holy Shield. I prefer

Holy Shield.

And gear:

Double Dream,
Last Wish,
Enigma,
Mara,

Raven and rare ring with some resists, fcr and strength,
Rare gloves with IAS, mf and resists,

War Traveler,
Arachnid for fcr,
And my inventory is mostly light damage/mf, light damage/fhr, light damage/resists sc.

This way I reach 350+mf, all my resists maxed up, high FHR, high defense, 75% chance of block. Found a lot of great stuff with this little fella.

I agree with @romstone--thanks! I mostly follow this build: https://maxroll.gg/d2/guides/dream-paladin

With an act 1 Faith mercenary, you only need the IAS from Grief itself to hit the fastest

Zeal attack speed, so your other gear is flexible. If you have a Faith merc, a good alternative build to try in places with a lot of lightning immunes is Crescent Moon

Phase Blade and

Dracul's Grasp.

I have 16 points in

Conviction (becomes 25 with +skills and

Battle Command), and 20 in

Resist Lightning and

Salvation. I personally prefer one point in

Holy Shield, 20 points

Sacrifice (more damage than maxing

Zeal), and remaining points into

Zeal.

Those extra points in strength are not necessarily wasted and would boost your physical damage, but I would put them in vitality personally.

I also put one point in

Vigor so I can get through town faster, and one point in

Cleansing for curses and poison.

There are really good tips here. I humbly can add something for Ubers: 1p

Smite, 1p Holly Shield and you already maxed

Salvation. So, with Faith act 1 merc, you can activate your

Conviction or

Salvation to kill Meph, then the rest is okay with

Smite. Just need CB and Gore Riders fits here.

Like basicnecromancy said, 1 point to

Smite and all clones are going to dead easily, with

Dracul's Grasp, and I would remove

Skin of the Vipermagi for something like

Leviathan <

The Gladiator's Bane or better < Fortitude. And i would wear too

Highlord's Wrath than

Mara's Kaleidoscope

I at least change the shield for one Sanctuary I had before the Dream

you don't need AR if you use a weapon with "ignore target defense". the AR is taken out of the damage calculation then.
so the use of

Demon Limb is useless.

Crispin wrote: 1 year ago

you don't need AR if you use a weapon with "ignore target defense". the AR is taken out of the damage calculation then.
so the use of

Demon Limb is useless.

Ignore target defense doesn't work against bosses, but a melee Paladin would normally switch to

Smite in these situations.

According to The Amazon Basin, Ignore Target Defense does not apply to Champions and above not just Act Bosses

oh yeah, true.

Let me throw a few cents into the discussion.

I don't have a Dual Dream Paladin, but i have a Dragondin. I was really worried about attack rating issues with my Dragondin and the clearing speed of some areas like

Chaos Sanctuary. Then I didn't build it as a Zealot but as a FoH. 20 in FoH, 20 in

Holy Bolt, 20 in

Resist Fire and

Salvation, and 1 point in

Zeal /

Charge /

Holy Shield /

Smite and other one-point wonders. I use FoH to clear these areas that have a lot of fire immunes (like

Chaos Sanctuary). The Holy

Bolts itselfs hits for ~2500 damage in this build, so its not that bad at all and the clearing speed is really nice - you throw a clouple of FoH's on the Venom Lords and as you clear them, the

Holy Fire just burns everything else. Bosses I just

Zeal them or use

Holy Bolt.

As i don't fully synergize FoH (due the lack of skill points), the lightning damage is really bad but the Holy

Bolts are awesome to clear these areas. As so, i don't aim for IAS gear but FCR. I use

Magefist and other FCR items such as rings. In this skill configuration (FoH +

Holy Bolt), as a Dual Dreamer, you could use even HOTO.

As a Zealer, maybe spending some points in

Blessed Aim is nice because of the passive AR bonus as well.

And i don't know if a Dual Dream (or Dragondin) +

Blessed Hammer is a viable build. I would love to hear about this.

I only have a single-Dream (SSF) and am having a similar experience. G-face

Helm with a facet instead of the second Dream. I easily killed

Mephisto and Diablo, but could only get

Baal down to 20% or so and got stuck there. I also have Grief,

String of Ears, and

Raven Frost, but am running

Laying of Hands and Duress along with Angelic amulet and ring and some rare resistance

Boots. I tried switching to Goblin Toes and also a +3 offensive aura amulet and neither seemed to help. I only have ~5 points into

Zeal as I have FoH and

Holy Bolt maxed. I do have Drac's available but I thought drinking rejuvi's was a good trade-off for the extra damage on LoH.

Sad to hear the

Demon Limb won't help. My tentative plan for the next attempt was to try pre-buffing with DL and Treachery. It seems I am so close and just need the right tweek. I find it surprising the dual Dream doesn't appear to be better than single Dream.

Update 1 year later: I now have dual Dream and have killed Ubers six or seven times. Dual Dream, Grief, dual Angelics, Goblin Toes, Duress,

String of Ears, Dracs, and

Raven Frost. Barb merc with Sazabi's Set and a Lawbringer. Merc survives more often than not. Would love to find some Gore Riders but RNG Gods say NO!

Resurrecting an oldish thread...

I was wondering if it would be just as OP, or more, dual Dream (shield,

Helm), Hand of Justice and Dragon (body armor)? Has anyone done this? I know its super expensive, but sounds pretty cool!

I think resists might take a hit, but you can make that up with charms, any other downside?

@jrlafrance
Only reason to run physical/light hybrid is Enigma.

If you are not hellbent on wearing one, the light/fire hybrid is generally much stronger overall and can stack more MF (compared to no Enigma dreamer).
No sunders needed, no skillers needed, so you can run on empty inventory (or mf charms).
Merc can be whoever with a preference to Faith act1, so you can use mara+chancies instead of IAS gear.

The "dragondin" is even stronger than that but needs better items to cap resists. Needs a

Flame Rift in inventory and Flickering Flame on mercenary.
Again, can use absolutely any merc whatsoever. I'm running act3 just for the 400% ar bonus from his

Enchant and from the point of thematical perfection.
Worst MF rating of the three variants.
Act5 Plague user to accompany you is great too.

jrlafrance wrote: 1 year ago

Resurrecting an oldish thread...

I was wondering if it would be just as OP, or more, dual Dream (shield,

Helm), Hand of Justice and Dragon (body armor)? Has anyone done this? I know its super expensive, but sounds pretty cool!

I think resists might take a hit, but you can make that up with charms, any other downside?

Yeah this auradin setup has been done to Death. Pretty good. I have one and also have just firedin setup(Dragon 2 pc).

Due to the sunder charm arrival, i like firedin more since i dont have to worry about fire immune anymore.

I use +fire charms to add to my melee dmg as well. Overall, pretty strong and for

Helm, i used a nice rare pally

Circlet with 2 sockets and put in 2x fire facets for synergies and more fire dmg for melee. However this build lacks resist, so resists will need to come from charms

Overall, u cant go wrong with either setup.

+1 to dragondin with

Flame Rift. I feel is a better build than a hybrid and can do Ubers np switching some gear.

Romstone wrote: 1 year ago

I'm fully agree with marl71, you should toss the

Bone Break and try out Act I merc with Faith. With

Fanaticism aura from your merc you'll be less dependent on your own IAS, thus will give you more gear options, this is what "more flexible" means, I suppose.
As for the synergies for

Holy Shock, you should max out

Resist Lightning and

Salvation to achieve full potential of your

Holy Shock. You can even boost it by using Crescent Moon, actually great option if you wanna go full light damage. And you shouldn't spend points into strength more than you need for gear, you don't benefit that much from phys damage, better throw all the rest into vitality.

And if you want to do Ubers I highly suggest changing your Vipermagi for something more suitable like Forti or CoH, War Travelers for Gore Riders and it might be enough. The best thing IMO you can use is Last Wish, it boosts your survivability pretty damn hard, but it is certainly not mandatory, for most cases Dracul's should be enough, just keep your IAS high.

I personally made my Dreamdin into mf character. Here's my skills:

2015 or something

Conviction,
20

Resist Lightning,
20

Salvation,
20

Zeal,
all the rest you might put either into

Sacrifice to boost your phys damage, or into

Holy Shield. I prefer

Holy Shield.

And gear:

Double Dream,
Last Wish,
Enigma,
Mara,

Raven and rare ring with some resists, fcr and strength,
Rare gloves with IAS, mf and resists,

War Traveler,
Arachnid for fcr,
And my inventory is mostly light damage/mf, light damage/fhr, light damage/resists sc.

This way I reach 350+mf, all my resists maxed up, high FHR, high defense, 75% chance of block. Found a lot of great stuff with this little fella.

I know this is an old post, by IMO Last Wish kinda sucks for a dual Dream pally. Especially since Act1 mercs die super quick in ubers. The only time I ever died in ubers with my dual dreamer was when I used LW. Every other time I just used more or less OPs gear with dracs swapped out, and that was far smoother. This was before the patch that brought us sunders, so maybe some things are different