Auradin variants: Sunder with Dragon-HoJ or Double Phoneix?

I just tried to see them on Maxroll and on paper, Dragon-HoJ variant seems having more damage regarding the added damage on

Zeal but there's a difference in -enemy fire resists.

Dragon-HoJ has -35 enemy fire res with HoJ and Flickering Flame before Infinity

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/2m01066k

This build is a classic and no HF point investment required so other options possible.

---

Double Phoenix with Flickering Flame has -71 enemy fire res before Infinity

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/rv0106wh

This build ofc requires 20 HF points. But can use Enigma.

Does Maxroll have a way to calculate this - res difference effect, or am I just seeing it without the effect.

And what is your over all opinion about this?

Under the calculations tab, you can select your target monster.

Their dummies have no res so for them, the -res doesn't matter past -100 combined (85 of which you get from Infinity so anything past -15 on your gear is pointless there).
If you select something like dclone though who starts with 95 res all, you see a difference.

That having been said..why Infinity? Make use of the fact that a pally has his own

Conviction that is far (FAR) superior to that of Infinity.

This ladder I made Dream pala and Dragon pala.

regarding your Phoenix build it seems weaker than my pure Dragon build.
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/ke01060i

comparison:
-RES: you have -71fire res + 90all res on merc (-161total), Dragon:

Conviction is -150% + another -35fire res from HoJ and Flick. Flame (-185total) + merc has Plague if its proc then another -57fire res)
IAS: you have 20IAS = 5/5/5/5/10 = 4,16attacks per second, Dragon: 73IAS = 4/4/4/4/8 = 5,2attacks per second
FCR: 40fcr = 12frames (imho thats slow, I would rather use

Charge, unless map is a maze)
MERC: you are so much dependant on his

Conviction aura. Dragon: doesnt need merc at all.

Pro to your build: Enigma (12frames)
Cons to your build:
- expensive: 3ber, 3jah, 2Lo, 4vex
- lower dmg
- your active aura is

Holy Fire
- so much dependant on your merc


Well if u still wanna use Enigma. Then I would recommend Dream setup (my problem with Dream is that sometimes pulse is 1dmg, sometimes 8,5k - so sometimes you one shot entire screen, but mostly u wont - if u melee enemies then I havent noticed any difference between Dragon and Dream). Dragon

Holy Fire pulse do sustain dmg and at p1 you one shot basicly every single non-melee monster - and I am not sure about your

Holy Fire / Enigma / Phoenix build).

If you go HoJ +

Dragon Shield. To your current setup it gives you nothing. Because you use your own

Holy Fire aura. So shield would give you nothing, and weapon would give you less -fire res.

and btw for your build skillers are good. I would recommend using offensive auras (to boost your

Holy Fire aura) rather then defensive, which gives you nothing)
regarding charms for Dragon: resists charms and MF charms

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Under the calculations tab, you can select your target monster.

Their dummies have no res so for them, the -res doesn't matter past -100 combined (85 of which you get from Infinity so anything past -15 on your gear is pointless there).
If you select something like dclone though who starts with 95 res all, you see a difference.

That having been said..why Infinity? Make use of the fact that a pally has his own

Conviction that is far (FAR) superior to that of Infinity.

he is using own

Holy Fire aura - check how he invest skill points on maxroll.gg

The Flash wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Under the calculations tab, you can select your target monster.

Their dummies have no res so for them, the -res doesn't matter past -100 combined (85 of which you get from Infinity so anything past -15 on your gear is pointless there).
If you select something like dclone though who starts with 95 res all, you see a difference.

That having been said..why Infinity? Make use of the fact that a pally has his own

Conviction that is far (FAR) superior to that of Infinity.

he is using own

Holy Fire aura - check how he invest skill points on maxroll.gg

Admittedly just looked at the first one which didn't have his own or conv or..well, not sure where it was really going tbh. ^^ Just some low fana that doesn't affect IAS anyways.

I wanna throw in Obedience as a very cheap and very effective rw for a Dragon build merc

I choose Infinity since with Dragon build char can use fana aura. Not possible any other aura but HF for Phoenix build ofc since it is self use HF.

But then, Phoenix build is not actually convenient even if it provides far more -enemy fire res when it is compared with Dragon build.

Next question: Which is better merc: Act 5 with double

Crescent Moon for static proc, double Plague for LR or any other option including Infinity to get higher fana aura as a complement of

Zeal?

basicnecromancy wrote: 2 years ago

I choose Infinity since with Dragon build char can use fana aura.

I don't get it.
Infinity for merc.
You use

Holy Fire.
How can you get Fana?

I still dont understand why use any kind of physical dmg in elemental build.

With Dream you use Grief and with Dragon you use HoJ and in your build you use Phoenix - all three weapons has "ignore target defense" - so there is no point to have higher AR, because weapon will hit anyway (vs boss its not an issue too - I have 1 point into

Zeal +6from items - whoever told me this secret - BIG THANKS !!!).

Because you use

Fanaticism and

Zeal instead of

Conviction and maxing

Holy Shield synergy or going for 95fire and light res. You chose to boost physical dmg on weapon which do 155-175 dmg.

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/
You spent 34skill points to get +366%dmg which gives you 567 - 640 physical dmg - thats 20dmg per one spent skill point. (I would understand it with Grief, but then you would basicly make zealot pala with Dragon/Dream/Phoenix gear - so again less dmg then pure zealot and less dmg than pure Dragon/Dream pala)

You said you would use

Fanaticism - why and how? You use ur own active aura

Holy Fire - you cant have both active at the same time. And to swap from

Holy Fire to

Fanaticism is nonsense regarding dmg.


Main idea with Dragon (and Dream) is:
1) get best frames for

Zeal - 72IAS - you need 32+ on Grief and HoJ has 33IAS. Your Phoenix has no IAS - for this reason I wouldnt use this as main weapon. Difference is 1hit per second less - thats 6-7k dmg per second less (if fire dmg would be same as in full Dragon).
2) use your own

Conviction (-150all res)
3) now with sunders +

Conviction there is no fire immunity vs you. So with your every

Zeal attack. You do insignificant physical dmg, but you do 6-7k elemental dmg (+ bonus dmg from -fire res).

I am not encouring you from playing and trying your own build - its always satisfying But your build is expensive as hell and you became dependant on merc (Infinity) and your dmg would be really lower.
- it needs a lot of tweaks.

You should make priority about your build in first place. What kind of dmg you want to do? Your gear is elemental dmg, but you also wanna max physical dmg (again for weapon with 155-175dmg!!) which wont boost your elemental dmg at all.

If you want to use Enigma then make Dream pala.

But to answer your question:

Crescent Moon vs Plague.

if u play mostly at p1 - then I wouldnt recommend

Crescent Moon because your pulse dmg is 2shoting 95% of all monsters (but with your build and gear you do less dmg so it would come handy to have

Static Field - but you wouldnt have

Conviction so it wouldnt work on light immune monsters) and Plague - imho thats best for elemental dmg - which you dont wanna use (

Zeal + synergy + fana).
With my Dragon my merc use Grief + Plague. With Dream I use Grief so its always nice to boost its dmg so I would go crescent + Plague or Grief + Plague.

My recommendation is to go Dream with Enigma:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/yn0106or - probably I would just use LoH gloves and instead of BK any FC ring - to get to better FCR frames while still having 72% IAS for fastest

Zeal frames

If you want I dont mind making temp exchange my Dream for your Phoenix, because I am really curious about its dmg - I still think pulse dmg will be just low compare to elemental Dragon/Dream and physical dmg will be very bad compare to full zealot.

and best part is that Dragon and Dream uses same skills, so its possible to have both builds on one character and all you have to do is to just swap gear - after trying Dragon I dont think anyone would want to go Dream (the only pro for Dream is way better all res or sentimental value).

The Flash wrote: 2 years ago

But to answer your question:

Crescent Moon vs Plague.

if u play mostly at p1 - then I wouldnt recommend

Crescent Moon because your pulse dmg is 2shoting 95% of all monsters (but with your build and gear you do less dmg so it would come handy to have

Static Field - but you wouldnt have

Conviction so it wouldnt work on light immune monsters) and Plague - imho thats best for elemental dmg - which you dont wanna use (

Zeal + synergy + fana).
With my Dragon my merc use Grief + Plague. With Dream I use Grief so its always nice to boost its dmg so I would go crescent + Plague or Grief + Plague.

EDIT: I just realized one simple fact.

Static Field on merc is nonsense with this build. Pulse dmg do more dmg. And before merc would proc it. Your pulse dmg would already kill all monsters or lower their HP low so

Static Field wouldnt work because of low hp.

So you can go dual Plague or Grief + Plague. But again on p1 my merc do literaly nothing, before he charges his

Frenzy everything is dead. At p8 it takes a bit longer so there can be chance to proc Plague so it can come in handy.

Thank you guys, I'm a dedicated player but not really get technical stuff. So thanks again for great insights and explanations. Try Dragon soon.