PvM Wind Druid Merc

Hi all!
I have decided to make one more PvM mf char - Wind Druid. Just to switch sometimes my light sorc, javazon for more fun.
And I want to ask about merc. What is the best option? Should it be 2 act Nightmare Defensive or other? And best possible gear for him? The goal is not to have lot of %mf but to kill monsters quick.
Thank you!

 

well, if your chosen character need lots of mana, only act2 merc because of insight
i can tell you only this

 

any defensive act2 merc is good but try to hire from normal because of stats

 

My opinion:

-offense (nightmare) - more dmg, when druid equipped with doom (12lvl Holy freeze + 40-60-% enemy cold rez) and merc equipped wiuth infinity (12lvl conviction aura) and Atma amu (5% chance to cast Amlify curse)

-defense (nightmare) - frost aura, when druid equipment is normal and merc equipped with Eth Reapers toll (33% chance for Decrepify curse)

- offense (nightmare) - If you are playing softcore you can use Offense aura for more dmg + eth reapers toll for decrepify.

Have fun!

 

It may not be the best choice if you're looking for just killing speed, but I found the A5 merc with Lawbringer was very useful. I used it on my HC Windy that ran mostly just Chaos. The Sanctuary aura keeps all undead mobs stun locked for the most part, and the 20% CTC Decrepify still happens pretty often if he's got enough IAS. It's not the fastest setup, but it's different and very safe.

 

Not gonna use Doom in the nearest future so what about these two options but with Infinity? Or Reaper Toll gives more damage overall? And if Reapers is better - what to socket it with (best option)?
And what about BotD weapon for Wind Dru merc?

 

The chance for decrepify curse with Reapers Toll is 33% ; Even you can reach the last ias breakpoint to make the merc cast it faster.
The curses help a lot. The other build i mentioned, is more about hybrid cold/physical dmg and the curse is from the Atma amu ( 5% - But Amlify.).

Reapers Toll is easy to find and much cheaper and works very well. But when you meet a monster Imunne Physical/Imunne Fire + Stoned skin (like sometimes the venom lord from the seals is) at 8players game, you will kiill it, but not that fast. Using doom on dru+infi ot merc+atma amu will improve not only your phyical dmg(amlify curse) but also your cold dmg so you can just watch him falling.

Lawbringer has also decrepify cast (20%) so it`s not bad idea (you can hire the mighty Ragnar on your side xD).
Botd can be used with Atma amu.. but will not make huge difference.

Currently i`m using eth reapers toll (+shael)+ias items for the last ias bps (142) and i`m satisfed. But soon i`ll go for the doom/infi (less clicking - lvling up 98 will be lazier)

 

Ok and what base is best for Doom in this case? And I guess we can use Nightwing's Veil as helm for more cold damage?

 

Last season i was using eth ba but i suggest to try it on non eth ba (in case if you don`t like it, you can sell it to a barbarian player).

My build was eth doom ba, eth tm zod`ed, circlet 2 dru/20cast/2ber, Stormshield+rez, spweb, magefists, amu 2dru/20cast/+/+ , 2x rigns 10cast/stat/rez. The difficult part of the build is finding good rings and good amu.
The druid had 99fcr frame, 86 fhr frame, 50% dmg reduce, tons of resists.
If you are not hardcore you can try nw, yes, it will bump your cold dmg. But it will cost you the stormshield (this is not okay on hardcore)

 

Thank you so much for such a useful information that you gave in this topic!
If you dont mind I will ask you some questions on this Dru build in PM if I have any...

 

I`ll be glad to help