Talking about bramble I guess?

Like I already explained, that’s a pure noob trap that only turns out to be true (and very minimal upgrade) exclusively vs bosses and ONLY if you use fire golem (else the merc will be the target and you won’t benefit from the buffed thorn effect).

It slows down your clear speed vs all non-bosses, and not using IG means no mana sustain (using one of the most mana hungry build out there).
That’s some massive downside in every aspect.

I really wish that well known noob youtuber didn’t promote this falsified idea. Now so many people believed him it’s hard to get rid of that noob idea sadly.

Anyway, its easy to understand how wrong he was to begin with if you look at this fact :
Using thorn merc (much higher aura lvl) with fort is better than using might merc with bramble.
And even if this setup is already more effective than using bramble, it’s simply not yet as good as the one I linked.

His stats compared a much weaker version of my setup, and using fire golem in all comparisons just to get a very minor advantage in clear time only tested vs the prime evil more subject to land attacks.
Its already not true vs andy/meph/baal and all mobs
Its already not true vs everything if you use a real build with IG.

This post was edited by SinsOfTheSun on Mar 3 2025 06:15pm

sinsofsun knows his stuff listen to the og

Can you post your build in Maxroll? I would like to see dmg output. Ty!

74.5k merc dps using infinity is not optimal he said XD
(Most p1 mobs have 5k to 10k hp, they die in a blink of an eye before your fcr recovery even allowed next cast)

Better drop half your CE dmg he said XD

Damn 1966?
Youre quite the og yourself

If its p1 to p3 just play bonemancer. It feels like you actually play the game. Dont rely on your merc or summons. Just you a spear and CE. Usually everyone on p1 dies from one spear. Group the mobs a bit and ce.

And its fun when some douche tries to fight you from times to times.

Extremely thanky with bone armor. You can even put one point in revives

This post was edited by RyuzakiLaw91 on Mar 3 2025 08:46pm

yes but it's not called bonemancer it's called sakataboner

Well, it's basically these 3 items: eBotD, forti and gface

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/7h4gn0eq

With this setup you deal as much dmg as infinity+beast but you are free to get 125 fcr. And it's cheaper.

eBotD also gives you additional 200% vs undead, which is important in many areas (most notably: chaos).

Well, if I put everything together, we got:

Infinity setup:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/mt4p20nw

Merc:

Attack
Damage: 6645–16,336
Attack Rate: 10 frames (2.5 hits per second)
Damage per Second: 26,701
Attack: 26,701
Crushing Blow: up to 1178 damage per second
Time to kill: 0.19 seconds

CE

Corpse Explosion – Level 35
Damage: 7007–12,011
Physical Damage: 3548–6082
Fire Damage: 3459–5929
Cast Rate: 9 frames (2.78 casts per second)

Ebotd gface setup:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/xp4p50nf

Merc:

Attack
Damage: 8054–20,135
Attack Rate: 9 frames (2.78 hits per second)
Damage per Second: 34,601
Attack: 34,601
Crushing Blow: up to 947 damage per second
Time to kill: 0.14 seconds

CE

Corpse Explosion – Level 35
Damage: 5499–9427
Physical Damage: 3548–6082
Fire Damage: 1951–3345
Cast Rate: 9 frames (2.78 casts per second)

Not sure but look like less CE (fire dmg only) but more Merc dmg.

This post was edited by Xshoot on Mar 4 2025 08:00am

A merc doesn't do any damage to bosses because of the damage penalty and a thorns fire golem doesn't do any damage to bosses because its low damage
I've even tried a necro with a 100% cb hone sundan blessed aim + beast + decrep setup for the max possible crushing blow DPS, its still painfully slow at killing a P8 diablo
if you have a 30000dps merc, that's 5813 dps to a 512k hp diablo after 50% block, needing 1.5 minutes of attacking
thorns damage gets around blocking at least but even if you have 21 thorns + 7 spirit of barbs all without pvp penalties and with 400% boost from boss::pet damage, you're still talking about a boss who only does ~338 avg melee damage in P8 including crits, so that 1220% reflected after multipliers/amp is ~25.5k damage reflected, and only about every 2 seconds and only if he decides to keep meleeing your golem instead of spamming hoses. Again, a painfully slow way to kill diablo.

I mean skills like charged strike, firestorm, blaze, etc can kill diablo nearly instantly. A dragon tail assassin has the distinction of being able to kill hell diablo in a single hit. A necro's fastest option is mass urdars and its still slow