so I've made my mind to convert my smiter into a dragondin after pulling an a pretty much anti-perfect guardian thunder jewel. And also because im bored out of my mind.
That being said, it absolutely melted the ancients in under 45sec id say.

Couple of questiosn on the dragondin tho:

- is PB the best base for a HoJ ? Ive got a 3os 15ed PB laying around.
- ive got a Kurast shield with 3 socks and 44res, is it fine enough? dont wanna spend tons on a secret targe unless the benefits are insane.
- got a 2os COA i could use - or should I rather go for a flickering flame? Also - can FF be made on non-ladder?

What about the Merc:
- I'd prefer a more unorthodox merc than the usual act2, sick of them. Was thinking on a3 (with dual dream?), or a5 with cresent moon/plague combo but i might be completely off.

Also: would a Dragondin still be able to clear the uber ancients (and maybe even normal ubers) with minimal gear swaps or is it a struggle?

Yes PB is best base, but it needs 4os, not 3

Your shield is fine, it's a build that can work with 1 hp and -100 res and you don't really need to ever fight anything.
It's used for density destroying on p1, where your pulse dmg melts mobs around while you just keep moving, easily dodging all projectiles and out of melee range.
But still, try to stay as close as possible to the mobs, so they are in range of your conv aura, and the pulse dmg is up to 2x stronger the closer they are to you.

Best helm is a 3os magic circ with either 30frw or tele charges, 3x facets.

Best non-a2 merc:
a5 with 2x hoj, FF, dragon armor
he does not have synergies, but it's still enough to increase your total pulse dmg by ~12%
with some frenzy stacks he's also able to follow you around while other mercs normally just lag behind as you charge around.

edit:
It's really only good to be a lazy auradin build.
I mean... you could try to make it a decent zealot, but in this case, you should just play a tesladin for much better results and access to teleport.

2 recommended approach for a dragondin (after the 4 core items of 2x dragon + hoj + 3 facet circ):

full mf gear
chancies, goldwrap, travs, gheed, 2x nagel, mf amy

no mf, mobility oriented (to farm bases, charms, crafting supplies, etc)
40frw boots (nats or aldur), mav belt, cats eye, tele charges on circ, 2x dwarf, LoH

cheap stuff... and anything more expensive just makes the build worse and deviates it form its purpose
and even with the shit gear listed above, it's still easy to kill dClone on p1 with close to -100res and no cta

This post was edited by SinsOfTheSun on Mar 4 2026 08:22am

thanks a ton, super helpful!

i was thinking also, that it might be cool to equip double crescent moon on act5 merc to proc static and melt mobs even faster with the fire pulse damage. but a full dragon set sounds very interesting as well.

start by building the core of 2x dragon + hoj + 3 facet circ first (can literally test it naked for other gear slots)
use lvl 25 conv and stay close to mobs, play it like a herding dog who moves around packs of sheep, no need to fight, maybe just a rare zeal to finish some tankier uniques here and there
use normal walk/run around mobs, it will require 2-3 pulse to kill just about anything on your screen
But don’t just wait, keep moving, identifying/crafting on the go while things die around you
If you try to play it like a zealot you’ll just slow your overall clear speed
Mobs will die as they follow you, just keep busy and ignore them with your inventory open anytime you are out of danger
It’s the small difference that makes it an effective farmer for anyone playing mostly on p1 to p3

It turns the game into just some kind of loot/craft simulator lol.
Less loot than on high player count, but while you would ignore most crap on a fast density destroyer on p8, this build is replacing all the time fighting mobs by time spent cubing, crafting, rerolling on the go.
Keep cube in inv, 2-3 tomes of id, as much inventory space as you can, and turn all this crap into a small constant profit flow.
all the crap jewels
ameth + ral for caster amy
ruby + sol for blood ring
saph + ort for KB gloves
skulls to reroll a rare diadem
other gems to reroll a GC ilvl 91+
etc

This post was edited by SinsOfTheSun on Mar 4 2026 08:51am

Put only 2 fire facets in that circlet and that new jewel in it's fire version

yeah I guess we could push the dmg to require 1 less pulse on average
that new jewel for an extra -5/+5%
2x opalvein for an extra +10%
renwed sunder for an extra +15%

that would push the dmg from 1.15x to 1.45x
26.08% dmg increase, without the extra -5% pen

I prefer HoJ in a +3 holy shock base and I use all + offensive skill gear/charms to boost holy shock
You still go HoJ + double dragon but circlet is 3 offensive and amulet (either would have teleport on it preferably)
You use holy shock as your aura
Merc uses infinity
Max holy fire synergies / holy shock + synergies
Same thing lazy auradin but you have more pings going on charging around rarely having to zeal

Dragondin is so unbelievably ass but have fun

so, after an hour of trying. that ive noticed is, that the build is doing fine damage wise (im using a CoA with 2 facets) since i dont have a 3os frw circlet and that's just fine. Im just struggling a bit squishy when targeted by poison dmg.

my act5 merc is however slacking behind most of the time and is pretty useless. I was thinking - what if I get an act1 merc with Ice-Bow for additional crowd control and cold damage + Cure for the aura? Alternatively Harmony for the vigor aura instead of Ice.

All mercs are just gonna lag behind and sometimes briefly teleport back to you before they are gone again.
There are only 2 possible use cases:

a simple a2 prayer + cure + insight, who will normally be able to refill your mana pool (from charging around) and heal a bit and remove curses/psn

the "aura a5 merc" I described previously. Even if he's not on screen, lvl 46 holy fire is huge and will keep ticking on top of your pulse, even if it doesn't seem to do anything it's working and effectively adds to your total pulse dmg