If we're at the point of talking about beast over 1 baba, wouldn't it just be better to go WW barb for clear speed and kill council quickly over relying on the merc for clear speed if most of the gold is coming from horking anyway? Then just switch to dual baba offhand to hork.

This post was edited by Slash1467 on Jul 26 2022 05:00pm

Sadly, no. But that works if you don't like the hassle.

Patch 2.5 for D2R has some interesting changes that open up a quirky new option:

Using Metalgrid's Iron Golem charges on a Lacerator to create a minion with 33% chance to cast Amplify Damage instead of using Gavel. This could allow for Beast support on the main weapons and a GF/MF/Skills swap. No idea if that thing could survive trav, but it might be worth testing.

relevant patch notes:
Fixed an issue where Iron Golems created in a previous game would disappear instead of teleporting to you.
Fixed an issue where Iron Golems summoned through a charge of the skill (Ex: granted by Metalgrid) would disappear when performing an inventory update.
Fixed an issue where Iron Golems created by a charged skill would not save between games.



And a different topic:
Has anyone tested a full aura support build (Beast+Last Wish) with a frenzy merc?

eth Headstriker (40ed/15ias)
eth Headstriker (40ed/15max)
Fortitude
Artisans Tiara of the Lamprey (Cham, 2x 30max)

According to D2planner against amp'ed Toorc this setup starts at 85k dps and ramps up to 104k dps.

This post was edited by Aratu on Aug 29 2022 05:47pm

Headstriker is bad now. They fixed the dmg bug sadly.
Kinda curious about Metalgrid tbh.

This post was edited by Exokek on Aug 29 2022 05:54pm

Too bad about the headstrikers, i must have missed that fix.

I think Metalgrid is going to depend heavily on the Golem survivability. If it never dies the usual aura items are great, but if it sometimes dies, which i suspect, Lacerator might be better. And obviously its going to be pretty bad if it dies nearly every run.

I'm a big fan of the Lacerator idea, but yeah, Hydras will likely murder it. If there are Fire/Magic absorb items with Auras, maybe

You can put flickering flame on a merc to solve the hydra issue. You can Warcry the council to perma-CC them.

I think the biggest issue is actually the iron golem hitting anything at all to proc the effect. They have very low base AR without synergies. Maybe you can enchant them. But now we're playing the charges skill whack-a-mole... solve one problem by creating multiple others

lvl22 Iron Golem hit chance against Toorc:
62% with no support
77% with 1x Beast
91% with 1x Beast and 1x Demonlimb

I think that's good enough even without Demonlimb. The bigger issue is going to be the 980 base life and 0 fire res.

Nice necro post.

do you have a maxroll link? I can't possibly fathom where the extra AR is coming from to achieve those kind of %