I’m having a blast with this build. Thanks for the theory-crafting, was fun to read. Quick question : Act 2 merc and bind demon. What auras are we looking for ?

You should be maxing tainted/mastery/boil first. Demonic mastery directly scales tainted damage, you shouldn't leave it lower, its +10% per level to tainted damage. Points in bind demon add +64 base damage / +5% ed to the bound demon each
With just authority, measured wrath, leaf staff, +3 helm, +3 ammy, magefist, crap torch, anni you're already over 10k tainted and should have no trouble clearing anything that isn't fire immune, including bosses. And that's with no skillers or high runes or sojs or arachs



Its between might merc and prayer merc. Might can raise a bound demon from 40k to 50k which is pretty substantial, but prayer offsets most chip damage you take and negates the need to use any potions for health once in a while, which is kind of nice when coupled with the infinite mana teleport. But since its only a 2x prayer build with infinity instead of insight, you're looking at ~22 hp/s regen even when you don't trigger LAEK/MAEK, which isn't much, but you don't take much damage either.
I feel like there's an argument the prayer merc is more practical and utilitarian, since that QoL really helps streamline it even more. But the might for extra merc/demon DPS just feels nice on paper to pass up even if its overkill for anything but heralds and bosses.

My 1st mistake was not following your guide more closely. I listened to some guy who said he uses defilers. The tainted are the key to making this work. Even without a fire sunder, here is a p8 cs run that felt really good. The lack of fire sunder slows me down on some enemies, but overall this is super safe and smooth. I dont even use BB that much, only on tougher enemies.

The demon was from a p8 non-tz because I missed it by fucking 10 seconds and the zone ended. Took me so many retries until I got a level with lancers instead of skeletons omg. Thank you for taking the time to explain it!

build: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/5fjwbd0w
video: https://streamable.com/pwknne

Defiler + bound demon is a different build. And a vastly slower build at clearing TZ. It may or may not work okay with cheap gear in early ladders ie telestaff and low +skills, since damage on tainted scales geometrically with +skills and infinity and sunder, but bound demon is somewhat linear. Generally the way people farm TZ lancers is to just find a cursed game and then pop an act 5 shard once you confirm an area with lancers- scout as little as possible to see lancers, then use a shard, then spawn in the rest of the area. Act 5 shards should be WAY more common than how often you need to bind a new demon. But early game with underleveled and trash gear and an unmaxed bind demon setup, you could get away with using a siren and just relying on it to cast amp damage. Its once you have level 20+ bind demon after +skills that you definitely want to switch to the holy freeze + cursed lancer.

Once you have enigma+infinity+sunder it becomes clearly the fastest build in the game, and the rest of optimization was just sorting out the fine details of QoL

i dont know who you listened to but build with max bind demon and 2 defillers are top tier,

im not going to discuss kill speed but im running a build wiith 520/810 mf using max bind demon 2 defillers and clearing everything p8 without a problem, ( of course i dont have the 75 fcr for this build)

not here to show off another build just saying that the 2 defiller + bind is not bad, probably you didnt have the full build or understand the gameplay. btw im on hardcore running this build to complete chronicle its SUPER safe

if you go for a "normal" mf build is no way vastly slower, can be slower in some areas but where there is fire imunes and if you want to clear all maps included heralds its probably as fast as.. or better at stronger imunes. ( not a bb version a bowlock version with 2 defiller and max bind)


anyway you cant go wrong following Goomshill build its super effective and and can be played from 0 to hero great leadder start and get exponentially stronger with + skills ( you can even get a setup that wont need insight!)

This post was edited by N1ck0 on Jul 1 2026 04:50am

Is the OP updated with the latest build or should I be digging through this thread more?

It was me he listened to, hes just trash


wasn’t trying to take away from Gooms build was just pointing out maxed bind demon can p8 basically naked and it’s not even slow

This post was edited by Ontarian on Jul 1 2026 04:11pm

So with all that considered my recommended overall build is;


Runtime gear:
Obsession (in a +3 teleport base, war/rune/archon staff)
Enigma
Shako (cham)
+2/20 crafted ammy (or cheaper/worse, sub coven + maras)
Ars Baalos (protector's stone)
Magefist
2x SoJ
Arachs
Crafted caster boots (or just rare resist boots)
CTA/spirit swap
Renewed bone break, torch, anni, skillers, mana or mf scs (needed to hit some extra +mana)
Might or prayer merc with infinity + cure, either CoH or eth upped skin of the flayed one + protector's stone

Prebuff (join game) gear swaps:
Mang songs
+3 demon circlet
+3 demon ammy
+4-6 bind demon tome
8x demon skillers (keep bone break on)
Rest same as runtime gear

Prebuff (summon tainted) gear swaps:
+4-6 summon tainted tome (measured wrath is +4)
Latent flame rift
Rest same as prebuff join game gear

Skills:
20 Summon Tainted
20 Demonic Mastery
20 Blood Boil
20 Engorge
20 Bind Demon
1 Hex Siphon
1 Sigil Lethargy
(remaining points at level 98/99 can be put into blood oath)

tested your garbage build and it's absolutely not playable. deff not naked or whatever nerd