Doom

The Runeword Doom is one of the three ways to obtain the

Holy Freeze aura. The other options are the Runeword Ice for range weapons and the Desert Mercenary (Defensive, Nightmare). Due to the slowdown effect of

Holy Freeze and the bonus to attack speed, Doom provides a good balance between offense and defense. Noteworthy is the attribute "Prevent Monster Heal".

Since it is available for polearms, it can be used by a Desert Mercenary. This allows a combination of

Holy Freeze aura and Might aura (Offensive, Nightmare) or

Defiance aura (Defensive, Normal). The first setup can improve a Bowazon's survivability and damage output. The latter may increase the defensive properties of a Hammerdin. The bonus to skills also applies to the

Jab attack and the Might /

Defiance aura. To achieve something similar the Runeword Pride can be used (

Concentration aura and a

Holy Freeze aura).

A suitable base weapon is the fast-attacking

Giant Thresher, as the requirements are greatly reduced.

If considering this runeword for a mercenary please note that "Prevent Monster Heal" does not work with mercenaries.

Despite that, Open Wounds have a similar effect that do work with act bosses, Ubers, etc.

Doom Wind Druid - Wind druid guide with cold emphasis.

Doom Wind Druid Gameplay

Quite a rare view: a sorceress wielding an

Ettin Axe with a Doom rune word!

BIS weapon for a Blizzard Sorceress, since Blizzard has cool-down time and FCR isn't that significant. With enough

Cold Mastery, Doom could make enemy cold resistance really close to zero.

The old question of which is better for a Blizzard Sorceress,

Death's Fathom or Doom, has been discussed a lot. And it is consensus, that

Death's Fathom delivers more damage overall while Doom being a more balanced setup, providing additional safety with its

Holy Freeze aura. Compared to

Death's Fathom you lose around 15-20% damage to non-immune monsters and gain up to 50% damage to immunes, depending on the rolls of both items.

But the best thing about Doom is the flexibility it adds to your build. The common Blizzard Sorceress puts almost every skill point into the cold tree. With Doom and enough +skill from your gear, one point in

Cold Mastery is all you need to bring all non-immune monsters down to -100% resistance and immune monsters close to zero.

This frees up 19 skill points, allowing you to do some juicy stuff.

A few ideas:

-Max

Warmth and replace the Insight-Merc with a Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, a

Frenzy Barb or even an Ironwolf for additional elemental damage.

-Put all points into

Static Field for a huge AoE damage tool. On Players 8 setting and in high density monster areas, this build would outperform

Death's Fathom.

-You could make a solid

Energy Shield!

-Use maxed

Frozen Orb for additional cold damage mayhem between two castings of Blizzard!

With his nice 370 enhanced damage, 45 IAS, 20% deadly strike and open wouds, Doom is a nice physical damage runeword.

In PvM, it's more a boss killer than usual runewords like Breath of the Dying, but less than Death which is very strong against bosses.

In PvP, it's mainly used by barbs in BvC paired with Beast to catch ranged ennemies, or to slow down smiters so you get less hits.

It's a very versatile runeword which can also used by casters.