Here is my build
Griffon with 15 IAS, PB with 4xfacets and 2xShael, gloves with (20 IAS, 10CB, resist , leech), BK ring, Raven Frost, Arach, Jewelers rondache with facets, COH, gore rider, 3xofensive auras amu 10fcr. Offensive auras charms and resist charms to hit max resists if possible.
Marc with infinity, COH, andys, blessed aim aura.
I was focused on maxing IAS to 75% for PB, self cast holy shock aura lvl 41. Max minus res where possible.
Zeal DPS - 145k
Aura damage - 5,7k
What do you think guys? Any room for improvement?
Can be swapped with last wish to make him more tanky. Will do Travinical players 8 just fine.
Thanks
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I would exchange the amulet with Highlordās, because you donāt need the FCR.
But if you want to utilize the FCR, you can exchange the COH with Enigma, the 48 FCR breakpoint is still good IMO. Furthermore, you can better position your merc.
I personally would like to have a sunder charm, just because you still do a bit more damage against light immunes.
Dunno if he can do P8 Trav, but I guess so, because itās extremely expensive gear. I canāt tell much about Zeal.
OK so Highlords vs 3xOff Auras Amu
2xmore off auras (more damage), highlords have 1 to all skills means more BO
IAS - I donāt need more IAS since maxed out there
Deadly strike - I think it only applies to melee and this is quite low here since elemental is main damage source
Lighting res - this one is useful
Lightning damage - not much damage
Attacker takes damage - not very useful
I swapped to enigma and he becomes quite squishy (but usually playing players 7-8), The COH helps a lot since I got almost all res maxed out and life leech is nice and damage to demons and undead is nice. I tried to swap to grief and helps quite with life leech since it has crazy melee damage but overall damage is lower since facets in a PB provide much more elemental damage.
Yeah sunder charm for sure, I forgot to mention it.
With last wish he can do P8 trav easy I got him build on SP.
I got the build in d2r planner on maxroll but seems I cannot post link in here. BTW how did you achieve up to 8,4k pulse damage for shockerdin. Self cast holy shock and dual dream? or dual dream and conviction?
I calculate the damage against Hell cows:
Infinity Merc with Conviction aura
Dual Dream (2-2335 x2) = 4-4670
Self Cast lvl40 Holy Shock = 2-3595
In total = 6-8265 dmg
I canāt remember what I did different with the guide build to get a higher damage number, because I usually run 6 Offensive Aura GCs.
Yea, it really sucks, that you canāt link max roll links here. Would made this entire Guide so much easier.
Beside of that, you canāt kill units at P8 with your Aura, so thatās why I donāt really care much about survivabillity. Auradins are P1-P3 killers, P4-P8 you would need to kill with zeal.
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Great topic for my favorite builds. Iām also crunching lots of excel sheets on those tick damage but a lot has already been said.
Anyway Id like to launch other points into this great discussion:
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the raw output damage of the thicks are well calculated but I would suggest to add a radius factor. As the first tick is never in melee and others are most of the time also not in melee, the raw damage are always more important on higher skill level (because more radius). Its another point in favor of full dragondin. Its not super easy to calculate but need to be done.
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as the merc gear cant improve the thicks (except with lower resist proc with plague or meduza), they can only be used to improve attack speed or physic damage. It has been discussed. BUT the auramerc is not that bad! The dream a3wolf deal dmg just like a 25% dream pal (whic is not that bad and can use static field on top) and the dragonbarb a5 is a 14% dragondin. Its not that bad if it is to have a second source of elemental dmg. It will not hit the immunes but the others will take full damage as they will be under the paly conviction.
-there are not much other passive source of damage that can help the aura tick. BUT a thorns aura can help via a2 thorn merc, edge bow and bramble. Whats your opinion on those?
-a last point is the importance of poison damage. It can give quite a great amount of damage with the damage of the skill (not much) of course but mostly with the stop of the regen of enemies. This regen is 1 to 3% of the enemies life per second. There is 2 seconds between each aura tick. A poison enemy will then ātakeā (or not regen) 2-6% of its total life. Its quite huge. However there are not much way to apply it. I cant find a poison nova on hit that is reliable so I use the carrion vine to summon the poison creeper that gives aoe poison. It do not die often as you whipe everything super fast. What do you think? Any idea to apply?
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Just to complete my point on the radius ratio to apply.
If you take the average base damage of the aura tick (not the max dmg). You can do *1 at max distance and *2 at melee range.
So, if you take a specific radius, lets say 16 (which is the border of the screen), you can use the ratio of 1,33 for a dual dream and the ratio of 1,53 for a dragondin. The difference in raw damage is something around 20%, its really huge.
I mean, yes, but it can be simplified with more radius = more good.
If you want to go very deep into the aura stuff, it can make you enjoy and appreciate the build more and might help in sticky situations.
I havenāt found it necessary to cover, because it isnāt crucial to know and tbh, I also donāt have that much Knowledge about it myself. So I would need help to give accurate numbers on it.
If you could provide the numbers I am more than happy to add them to the guide (with crediting you ofc).
Yea, I have looked into Dual Dream, Crecent Moon, A3 Lightning Merc. Itās a cool merc build, but nothing I could recommend for the guide, because I want to ease people into Auradins and might confuse some.
I personally really like the Dragon A5 Merc, that dude hits like a truck and him doing some aura damage is also kinda cool, ngl.
If I would have more wealth, I would build them myself, but Iām a poor mf and I actually lost interesst in D2R.
Thanks for the compliment <3
Yea, I also love the Paladin and especially the Auradin variants
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I provided some numbers on the radius factor on my next post.
I also crunched some numbers for the poison dmg of the poison creeper (if we take into account the āopportunity damageā of the non-regen).
Between two ticks of aura pulse, you can deal something like 500 dmg on a cow which is a good average. Not crazyā¦
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500 is for P1, you can add something like 175dmg per P difficulty. More than 1700 at P8 and 1200 for P5, not that bad anymore.
I dont understand what you mean exactly. Could you please go in more detail on what youu mean exactly
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I am planing to make a paladin that only uses auraās to kill without me hitting or doing any damage myself (if thatās possible), just using the aura(s) to kill the monsters. What would be the best for this purpose? Hoj, 2 dragons and flickering flame (or 3rbf circlet) or hoj+dragon+2 dream?
Dragondin is pretty nice to farm open spaces.
Tesladin is great to clear dungeons.
The Dragondin is the best to just kill everything with the aura, because large area and tons of damage.
Tesladin best to clear strong mobs, the aura is just a bonus here.
I suggest 3 faceted F R/W Diadem, but you can read that in the guide.
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Thanks a lot for your reply man, I will go with the Dragondin then, I love killing stuff without doing anything myself lol.
Yea I did read that a diadem with 3x5/5 fire rbf would give the most damage out of all the possible head gears, but I am thinking though to go with a CoA instead because of the better survivabilty, I feel like the build could be a bit squishy and die pretty quickly.
I mean that for each additional player (in the Player count), the monsters gain +50% health which means +50% ādamageā per player with the poison that mitigate the health regeneration.
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Yeah CoA with two facet is a great choice even if 3 facets add more damage.
For the survivability, the key is to get max resistance (charms should help). A merc with some utility can also be of great help (Holy freeze, plague runeword for cleanse, ā¦).
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I participate in a discussion on Reddit that speak about the Mercadin to complement the dragondin or tesladin.
I made a wall of text on this topic. I will share it here as it can complete the āultimateā guide.
Hi, a very interesting topic that I have tested extensively so Iām happy to share my āconclusionsā on the dual dream (tesladin) OR Hand of Justice + dual Dragon (or dragon + Dual HoJ) (Firedin). First part is about damage and second about utility and various.
I/ Elemental damage
a. General damage
In general a mercadin is a weaker version of the tesladin or the firedin as he doesnāt get the synergies. In termes of figures a mercadin :
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is a tesladin with Ā±25% of the dmg (557 max dmg per tick), or,
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is a firedin with Ā± 15% of the damage (625 max dmg per tick or 664 if dual HoJ)
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For info, an hybrid (dual dream + dragon/Hoj) would deal 557 of light and 235 of fire. The added fire damage seems to be to weak in comparison of the two utility slots (Weapon and armor).
b. How elemental damage works
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Mercadins will benefit from the max Conviction of the main paladin. As the resistances of monster are almost never above 50, the mercadin will always get a *2 damage on a non immune monster affected by conviction.
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keep in mind that merc canāt have access to sunder charm and will do almost no damage to immune monster. The max conviction can break immunities but with a 1/5 efficiency, so only -30%. As the monsters have more than 100%, it leads to only Ā±5 to 20% of max damage (max 100 per tickā¦ very weak).
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remarks on fire damage: they are weaker because are more often resisted. However, they get a slight advantage as the HoJ has always a -20% (or -40% if double HoJ) of enemy fire resist that function totally if immunity is broken by Conviction. We can add that fire damage are a bit more āreliableā as the spread between min-max damage is small. Finaly, the radius of the holy fire is really high (due to high level) and the distance bonus of damage will be more important (at a classic range, it will beĀ± 20% more efficient than dual dream).
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remarks on lighting damage: They can be consider as more potent as there are less immune. The min-max dmg spread is higher with leads to less reliable damage even if it can ācritā. Finaly, the radius of the holy shock is lower than holy fire (due to lower level) and the distance bonus of damage will be less important (at a classic range, it will be Ā± 20% less efficient than dragon/HoJ).
c. Mercadins usage
Base on those remarks, we can say that mercadins can potentially add significant AOE damage. There are no piece of equipment that can add 15-25% dmg. However if you play a firedin, the added fire damage of a firemercadin have little value on non-immune as they are one shotted anyway and have no real value on immune either as they donāt get the sunder effect and cant really stack useful - fire res. Itās the same with a Tesladin with a teslamercadin.
HOWEVER, if you bring another source of elemental damage, it can help as it will hybride the source of damage. Letās take several examples (I dont take into account double immune that are killed with zeal) :
-Tesladin with crescent moon & firemercadin A3 :
*Average tick damage vs non immune with conviction : 4679 (pal) + 1250 (merc) => mercadin means +26,5% of total pal tick damage
*Average tick damage vs sundered light immune with conviction : 1638 (pal) + 1250 (merc) =>mercadin means +76,5% of total pal tick damage !!!
- Firedin with flickering flame (yeah I know, 3 fire facets are way stronger, but itās another topic) & Teslamercadin A3 :
*Average tick damage vs non immune with conviction : 9007 (pal) + 1114 (merc) => mercadin means +12,5% of total pal tick damage
*Average tick damage vs sundered fire immune with conviction : 3153 (pal) + 1114 (merc) => mercadin means +35,5% of total pal tick damage
So, in terms of tick damage, its far for negligible as most of people imagine it especially vs the problematic foes that are immune.
II/ Type of mercadins and utility
a. Type or mercadin
First of all, a āmercadinā can be of 3 types (with some subtypes):
- Firebabardin :
*can walk really fast and arrive rapidly on enemies and the average tick damage is then higher ;
*As a melee character, it will gain the melee bonus elemental damage of holy fire that is really huge. When in contact it then deals massive single target damage. Similarly as above, he will deal more tick damage in melee.
*With two HoJ, its tick damage is slightly higher due to holy fire level (46 v 44) and the great -40% enemy fire resist.*Good survivability.
*In terms of additional gear, itās only limited to the helm. No much utility to gain there.
*No possibility for additional utility in its build.
- Wolfdin/mercadin :
*you can choose the tick damage type, fire or lighting. Each if them as its pro and cons (see above).
*Less survivability than the barbarian but stay away of combat.
*As not in melee, it wont benefit from the elemental bonus to melee damage from holy shock or holy fire. It should also suffer from the distance in its average tick damage.
*In terms of gear, a dualdream mercadin has two opens slots (Armor & sword). The Dragon/Hoj mercadin suffer from the gear limitation (helm only).
*You can choose wich merc you cant (fire/light/cold) with its owns utility and damage. The damage type is not necessary the same as the aura as they will benefit from conviction anyway.
*A cold merc will add a great utility with the slow/freeze effects and another type of damage to deal with immunities and dual immunities.
*A fire merc will add some utility in terms of more AR with enchant. Not that great. It can also give a good amount of fire damage if used with flickering flame and a HoJ (even if its overkill with conviction against non immune).
*A lighting merc also give good light damage but will mostly be useful with its static field. Static field can deal a great amount of aoe damage to soften the enemies. Its mostly effective in higher player counts because most of enemies will be at less than 50% after the first tick (static field do no damage after this threshold). It is still in my opinion a great addition in terms of āafk damageā to complement the aura tick.
b. Additional Gear & various remarks
*In general, the mercadin seems cant keep up with paladin velocity (if no teleport) and will arrive when all mobs are already killed. On top of that, they are further away of the enemies and the tick damage is then lower. However, if you move fast, the foes behind you will take the full damage of your mercadin.
*The mercadin will deal more damage in higher player counts as he will be in combat during more time.
*In terms of gear, the open slots of the mercadin can be put to good use:
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Helm slot: flickering flame is great for fire resist, especially if fire sunder charm for pal. It can add damage on a A3 fire merc. As said earlier, the -15% fire resist is a bit overkill in my opinion.
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Armor slot: you can use the classic survival stuff like fortitude, Chain of Honor, treachery, etcā¦ or add some utility/damage such as Bramble (thorns is a good complement for an afk build). A failed -poison resist roll can be a cheap trade. An ormus robe with a facet can also increase the damage of the aura (and the offensive skills). It can also be socketed with a Cham for cannot be frozen (or another utility). Faster cast rate (fortitude & ormus robe) are also great to increase the dmg (static field) or utility (cold merc).
-Sword slot: lots of utility possible here for A3 merc. The classic spirit for +all skills and FCR (+FHR). Crescent moon is a bit underwhelming in my opinion as it only offers -enemy light resistance for monster that already have -100% after conviction or, if immune to light, are roasted by the paladin holy fire. Plague is great vale as it offers survivability with cleanse aura, damage with + all skills and a nice lower resist proc. It will mostly proc in higher player counts as the monster needs more tick to die. Once again, its overkill for non immune monster (-57%) but its a nice -11% vs immune monster that can greatly helps all forms of damage (and poison duration to prevent health regeneration). This proc is nice to have, not mandatory. Azurewrath or Lawbringer can also give a great utility against undead. Can be usefull in chaos sanctuary which is a harder zone due to massive fire immunities.
So, I hope I gave enough information. Feel free to correct me or add your opinion and comments.
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Thanks a lot for the info 
. Yea I was thinking about the holy freeze merc to slow monsters down, seems to be a good choice for this build.
Thanks for all those infos you dropped there, great read.
I added it to the guide by quoting you.
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Still one build that wasnāt analyzed. Itās the hybrid dragon/tesladin BUT with a SWAP.
In terms of gear :
- Dream helmet
- Dragon armor
- Weapons 1st swap : Hoj + Dragon shield
- Wepons 2d swap : Hoj + Dream shield
In terms of damage :
| normal | convi | |
|---|---|---|
| SWAP dragon | ||
| Non immu | 5860 | 9919 |
| Immu fire | 1582 | 3388 |
| Immu light | 5427 | 9167 |
| SWAP dream | ||
| Non immu | 4145 | 7688 |
| Immu fire | 2716 | 5506 |
| Immu light | 1923 | 3828 |
For the sake of comparison, here is the best dragondin damage (Hoj+dual dragon + 3 fire facet helm):
| Pal 2dragon+hoj+helm3facet+ self convi | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| normal | convi | ||
| Non immu | 6992 | 10358 | |
| Immu | 2072 | 3625 |
Really cool display of the damage and such.
Iāll try and take that thing for my guide to give a better overview.
But to your Build, cool concept, but I donāt want to feature every build which is possible (because that would be an endless task and I want people to test and exchange stuff for themselves)
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