Whatever you do, mercs always need rejuvs every now and then, says my experience.oOKIWIOo wrote: 1 month ago Hi,
I am still newcomer Summoner Druid Very informative and well written guide from which I profited also. Thank you for the effort you have put in it! When I started playing D2R "from scratch" in June after a break of ca. 20 years I first have read some guides on Maxroll. I started playing with my two boys and needed a char which was able to complete hell on selffound gear. Because my elder son wanted to play a Summoner Nec I decided to start a Summoner Druid. The youngest played a Paladin Zealer so that all of us could profit especially from his Fanaticism aura. It played out very well and after some farming and trading our chars have overall really usable gear.
Now, my Druid is far from perfect equipment (I suggest in sum it is worth 5-6 JAHs - e.g. I only use bare skillers because I have enough life and all small charms with MF and RES are selffound. The rest of the gear is a Jalal´s (with a Topaz), a perf. Maras, BK Ring (because selffound ), SOJ, Arachnid, Enigma, War Traveller (selffound), Chance Guards (selffound), HOTO + CTA, two Spirits, an anni (18/20/9) and a Torch (15/20).
But I noticed that most improvements I made in the near past really had very little effect. E.g. my merc was for a long time equipped with a Reapers Toll (not Eth., not socketed), Eth. Smoke and a Crown of Thieves. Overall, he survived very well and had a decent proc rate - even in eight player games with solo trav runs.
Not long ago I found an Andriel`s and yesterday I made a Fortitude in an Eth. Wire Fleece. Then I also socketed the RT with a Shael and Andriel`s with a 24 fires res + 9 strength jewel (this was the best I have found so far - sadly not one with IAS so I still miss one frame). I did a lot of Clone killing for the last two weeks (I suggest 80-100 kills) but even after these improvements my Merc sometimes still needs one or two reju potions during the fight (he has 20 LL and all res max). Maybe less often than before but in my opinion the difference is very subtle considering with what I have equipped him now in comparison what he had before.
I have a Beast Axe in my stash but currently I only use my HOTO with 36 res + CTA (4/4/4) because I want my res maxed out and also a good MF rate (with CTA my summons are currently on lvl 47). Do you think loosing the res and the +3 skills is worth the change with my current gear (at least when playing without my zealer son ) or would you too stay with the HOTO on my setup?
If you mostly play with your boys (nice to see this really ), one provides far more effective Fanaticism aura than your Beast. If you play solo and don't find it tiresom, you can summon your zoo with HotO on hand, then switch to Beast.
basicnecromancy
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