Physical Bowzon + dual wield lawbringer merc act5, viable in hell?

SP.

I don’t like starfe.
So it’s multi+ guided mix and maxing passives.

Merc A5 can give me more punch with curse. Lawbringer perhaps give 66% chance when dual? Seemed much cheaper than Brand. And not sure Brand is that good? Though I wish my A1 merc would have it with my bow.

Not sure also which bow would be best.
Considering I don’t have runes for Faith.
Or Windforce.

Fortitude armor I have already from other chars.

Thoughts?

If you wanna spend highrunes on an A1 bow, go for Wrath. Much better than Brand. Add Wisdom and CoH for Pierce, leech, damage and resists.

But I would consider good ol' The Reaper's Toll Might merc for a Bowazon.

If you don't have Windforce or Faith, Mist is a very good option. Or the cheapest alternative: Harmony.

my 2c: i only play online, but ~3 player count is no problem for a sub-optimised phy bowa with act5 merc.

i'm currently Terror-zoning with the following:
GENERAL SETUP:
phy bowa with Strafe (multi to clear crowds), sorry.
Harmony in Great Bow; Hysteria armor; WAR TRAVS boot; BLOOD AMMY +2, faster r/w; RING1: RAVENFROST; RING2: Carrion Wind; Goldwrap Belt; DRACS gloves; titan revenge+ Stormshield on switch; CHARMS anni+helltorch (both far from perf rolls) + phy renewed sunder (omg, shit rolls), life+resist charms to get Cap on light+fire res.

When Herald packs spawn, i head back to TOWN, switch in Windforce ( Shael), GORERIDERS, G-FACE with +15ias/13 all res... and I find I Strafe just to proc the LIFETAP, then switch to MULTI.

Act 5 Frenzy MERC wears VAMPGAZE Helm, Fortitude armor; Crescent Moon in Eth Mythical Sword; Mania in crescent Blade. I've actually used STRENGTH ( Amn + Tir) in Phase Blade in place of Mania vs HERALDS and did quite well, slowly trading for the Kingslayer upgrade but I don't want to pay up lol.

The thing about Brand for procs is that it isn't on striking but on being struck which shouldn't really happen. So the only way to proc it off that is by going suicidal and getting yourself punched a lot.

Dual Lawbringer wouldn't give you 66% though. Lawbringer gives you a 20% chance on striking (only for that weapon). So 20% per hit. If you count a " Frenzy cycle" as 1 hit instead of 2 then you're effectively looking at a 1-(0.8*0.8) = 36% proc chance per double-swing when dual-wielding them.

If you don't have access to WF and are really strapped for runes, you might be surprised by how well Mania works. It obviously isn't quite comparable to WF or Faith and makes you even more reliant on the rest of your gear as a result as phys dmg dealers typically simply don't perform too well in general without at least some amount of proper gear, ideally including the weapon, but it does still work to start out with.

Personally, I much prefer an A2 dual-aura merc (might/Pride) since clearing ends up too fast for merc procs to ever truly matter. But that's coming from a full BiS perspective. At the lower end of the gearing cycle, it might indeed be worth looking into a decrep/amp proc merc, be that with dual Lawbringer, reaper's or Dreadfang. Though in the case of A5 mercs the problem is that their Taunt and whatnot overwrite curses on select targets. And you don't get a free aura on top. I'd hence go with A2 might/reaper's instead, if you have access to that.

As for Strafe, it is situationally significantly more performant than multishot (and vice versa) but you don't have to use it by any means if you don't like it. MS/GA alone still works fine.

Schnorki wrote: 9 hours ago

but you don't have to use it by any means if you don't like it

yes and the reason for that is unfortunate...i played d3 before realizing this was a previous d2 skill..and i hated the single click clear screen d3 damage..
so its ruined for me because it reminds me too much of d3 starfe.

rikus wrote: 9 hours ago

Schnorki wrote: 9 hours ago

but you don't have to use it by any means if you don't like it

yes and the reason for that is unfortunate...i played d3 before realizing this was a previous d2 skill..and i hated the single click clear screen d3 damage..
so its ruined for me because it reminds me too much of d3 starfe.

I refuse to consider D3 or D4 actually "Diablo" so..they can't ruin anything except for themselves.

vued wrote: 6 hours ago

It's hard to give more concrete information since we don't know what you have access to offline. What does your rune stack look like and which uniques do you have?

not sure what to answer. i don't have strong uniques. but i did stack quite a few in the past 5 years.
nothing that has amp damage really, but witchwild bow..which has poor proc %.
the highest runes i got is 3 Mal 2 and Ist.. Lem only one, i need to farm for anoter. and i don't have a good 3 socket sword...ruined a few phaseblade to try to get it..so i rather farm for just sockets... the 3 socket i do have are very high str. like 185.. I've heard that A5 merc can dual wield 2h swords? but i'm not sure as well.

not sure what you mean by uniques i have, there are so many..none that might provide a better physical bowzon? not even Windforce.

godjira1 wrote: 9 hours ago

+15ias/13 all res... and I find I Strafe just to proc the LIFETAP, then switch to MULTI.

yeah that might help - IF its not a skeli Herald...