Could be fun 
just 
and chaos sanc is completedā¦ well at least the first few times it would be fun
You use Atmaās Scarab for amp damage I take it? If so, why not the Lacerator?
What kinda bow?
Act 4 was meant to have 6 quests but got cut short because the big bosses didnāt want the game to have an extra CD
So they cut quests like the destruction of the soul stones
This could be a very nice expansion thematic
Destroying all 3 soulstones
What gameplay does it provide?
I have ideas like destroying a soulstone turns them into a mist that engulfs you and make you relive a major even of the bearer
This way you could have Diablo soulstone trigger a mini Diablo 1 remaster event
Have new challenging Ubers like Leoric, butcher, Lazarus
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A bow Druid could make sense in my mod since affinity system would make Druidās fire a physical skills synergize with stuff like Skystrike meteor ctc
Then the true unique upgrade system would make the ctc better on the elite version
So you could focus on dire wolf which are 50% phys/50% fire and use them to lock targets in place while meteor is raining on them
Only use Atmaās if there are going to be a high amount of PIās in the TZ, and then Iāll run a BoneBreak as well.
Otherwise I use a +3 Summon ammy in town to cast the Zoo and Oak, then switch to HLords to hit max breakpoint attack speed and crank up Deadly Strike (with Gores).
Crusader bow rolled with Faith - for the Zoo, as they are doing most all the damage/killing.
Act2 Might Merc, with Infinity/Andyās/Brambleā¦ although I may go back to Act1 Merc with Mist (same lid/chest), she was a lot more fun (IMO), but Act2 kills itā¦ Concentration better than Might, but, Might combined with Infinitiyās -83 enemy defenseā¦ hard to beat.
Reflecting, itās just hard to beat a Merc having 3 Auraās that all benefit the Zoo.
Lacerator might be coolā¦ would allow a shield, but, not sure that combo would better suit the Zoo (who, as mentioned, does the vast majority of damage).
Off the top of my head the only shield that might help the Zoo would be Exile, but, they never die as is (except DClone) and, I doubt Defiance is going to make a difference there.
Additionally, I really do not enjoy monster fleeā¦ so there is that.
I also have a couple Wrath Bows I have tried, but, he works so good they way he isā¦ ehn.
Wrath on the Merc sucked, as she tends to focus on stragglers and outliers rather than what the Zoo is gnawing downā¦ which is no help to my main damage dealers.
I did try Wrath on the Druid but gave up +152% Zoo damage, +34% Zoo Speed, and +115% Zoo attack ratingā¦ and, I gave up the opportunity to snipe (from time to time) with Faiths Mega damage. Loosing +2 skills also hurt if I needed recast Zoo members on the fly (typically only Ravens)
Laceratorās open wounds and prevent monster heal might be nice against Baal (not needed, but would be nice) and DCloneā¦ but, heās already got a 377 poison small charmā¦ hmmmā¦
Iām no numbers cruncher, but having gotten the Zoo/Archer Druid to lvl99 (mostly Solo) my seat-of-the-pants tells me Fanata outweighs Decrep and/or Amp unless there is a large amount of PIās present. Then Atmaās and BoneBreak is more than enoughā¦ with or without Infinity on the Merc. Again, my experience, no deep dive numbers crunching probabilities analysis)
Last reason for not using a Lacerator is thematics.
Bow Druid was known as the Hunter Druid back in the day.
No hunter is using an Axe when he has a Bow availableā¦ and multiple arrows are available in a quiver, but, multiple Axesā¦ ?
Thanks for the write-up.
I thought you were going for Amp Damage. Faith/Fana makes more sense. So nevermind the Lacerator. ;-D
why Crusader? Faith is 4 runes, so there would be many options. Great Bow would save you points into dex, other bows strenght, if you donāt need that for other equipment.
And other bows are faster. In case you wanna pling pling yourself. 
EDIT: I guess the fana will help you hit your fasted breakpoint even w/ a +10 speed bow, then your DPS is higher than with a faster bow.
paladin only
Infinity doesnāt lower physical resist. If that is what youāre hinting at?!?
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But the lvl 12 coviction aura from infy does provide -83% enemy defence which does apply to bosses too making ur army hit a lot more and and in most scenarioes outperforms other options like pride by quite a lot, besides the -85% enemy ele res benefits ur spirit wolves while the concentration aura pride only benefit phys attacks. Infy is not only better but when fighting tougher high def mobs on hell difficulty its a lot better than pride, And it also means that with the -83% enemy def he will land a lot more successful hits on bosses with his faith bow since ignore target def doesnt apply to bosses.
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I know.
Good to know that this helps to outperform the other options. WOuldnāt have guessed. 
Yeah, well it has been tested quite a lot. A guy named Microbioboi did some extensive testing using the necromancer and comparing infy,pride and beast and even on a necromancer infy comes out on top. The chance to hit with -83% enemy def simply outperforms the bit of extra damage ur minions get from pride especially on hell difficulty with high def enemies, besides ur CE does way more damage too when clearing an area. On the druid almost half ur army deals cold damage so its even better and i know me and CleanLX did quite a lot of testing too in another topic 
Edit: another thing to remember is that ur ravens doesnt benefit from auras but they do benefit from the -83% enemy def making them land more successful hits too
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Ya, nor I.
@Pede theory crafting and brain work and my willingness to roll a Pride, Bramble (some othersā¦ forget), and steal gear from other characters (and borrow from friends) made it possible to do our little experimentā¦ Itās all out in the open in the Druid forum if you want to see what āmyā observations where, but again, it was all seat of the pants stuff, not number crunching 1000 runs of X stuffā¦ and no videos to make it easy to enjoy.
Just 2 players/fourm-members typing and reporting back.
Thanks for your interest.
I enjoyed The hunter Druid so much I roled a second one for another play throughā¦ but once he was up in the 80ās I swapped him over to Wind to have something different to play.
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In my mind I had already replied ā¦
I usually play caster classes or bow wielders in computere games and table tops. So 24 years ago my first char was an offline sorc. N Duriel was tough. I started playing d2r after 2.4 had been released and thought, hey, why not do something different than usual and try a summoner druid?! So for d2r, my first char actually was a summoner. Unfortunately, season was over before I could finish hell diff (I played very little). But maybe I give HC a try next season and then it shall be a summon druid!
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The mercenary having full gear like our characters doesnāt seem to be a bad idea. Mercās can always be nerfed a little bit accordingly. Even seeing an a2 merc with dracs and procing life tap I wouldnāt call a power creep as most people prefer decrep if they really wanted a power creep. That I do get.
But the unique upgrade and buffing itās mods would be going too far. Iād rather not see anything touched regarding to item upgrading recipes. Though certain uniques could use a small buff for game balancing and more options.
Iād like to see a QoL expansion for D2R myself. It would make sense to have a charm inventory and loot filter and stackable gems and runes. We need the best QoL for D2R. I mean itās been over 20 years since the game was released. It needs to happen.
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You ignore a lot of other options. Like Atmas. You can now get life leech from belt/boots/rings + cnbf + ias on the merc, so you can put even more auras on him.
Infy, Bramble, Flickering Flame and your a2 merc can still leech and have cnbf and proc lifetab or amp. Gets free ll + pdr from SoE and cb and ow from boots.
Just 1 example.
You could nerf the merc as much as you want, but the utility he brings with it is so much more powercreep.
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Simple fix is to start mercenaries out gearless and even we will see all mercenaries punch with the exception of act 3 merc. Or at least a3 merc wouldnāt be relevant as it rarely swings its sword anyways. So starting the mercās base attack and defense like you would for any other character you build. Even nerf the life a little bit on all mercenaries.
I certainly forgot to include Atmaās but either way I think this wouldnāt be as bad as you would explain it. We could use more ways around physical immunes either way. Iād take a merc with Atmaās equipped on it rather than that cheesy physical sundered.
Nothing wrong with equipping ethereal items you self-found that you would have had to throw away as it wonāt last forever. We can make ethereals like arach, tgods, rends, waterwalk, etc. Iād hate to not put them in use.
Best solution is the make monsters a little bit stronger and nerf most builds damage a little bit. Just to balance it out some more. D2R needs more (good) changes like this. As long as they donāt let power creeps take over the game. Lets put Mosaic in the picture here.
Iād pay $40 if theyād start nerfing stuff and make the game harder again.
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You seem to not understand the consequences of the idea or you just donāt care. Either way I donāt think you should suggest any changes as long as you canāt grasp the magnitude
Also nobody wants the power creep loop.
Humans canāt handle big numbers
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God just changing the slots mercs can get leech/CB from itself changes how the entire game is played for way too many builds. All we need is mercs procing life tap and getting CB off boots. Theyāve made a joke of too many things as it is.
Sadly, weāll never see new content for D2R. Blizzard has had decades to do more for this game and they have continued to disappoint and fail. This whole Diablo franchise has turned into nothing but a joke.
I actually think some qol like stacking gems would hurt bot infested economy worse.
A huge qol would be to copy some things from mods such as a separate charm inventory and item inventory.
D2 lod and D2R main end game is pvp. Thatās where they should focus.
Mercs and pets should be killable outside of town.
Smite should be blockable
Toggle option in game creation to have teleport have a cooldown.
Maybe give some melee abilities a bit of splash DMG.
thatās rather debatable.
and this even more so (debatable, not focus).
Iām very fine with this. Iād also remove auto-hit for smite. ATM, smite is a very 
skill imo. I know itās a fantasy game yet it still feels really strange (read: wrong) to me that the best skill in the game to bash in the face of specific enemies is with a SHIELD. Not all those fancy and deadly weapons, but a shield.
(I have fewer problems with sorcs raining down meteors and necros raising the dead than a pala smiting the bejeezus out of stuff)
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