Hey guys, since weapon damage isn‘t as important as people thought , and + skills and off weapon ed% is worth much more… I‘m pretty sure Forti 125 fcr isn‘t even in contention for the best 125 fcr setup.

I‘ve come up with 3 setups :

1. (my current setup): Ariocs needle 125 fcr

Eth ariocs + Lo
Ars Dul Mephisto 26 fcr, high ed
3/20 2os circlet
2/19 amu
2x 10 fcr ring (one dualleech)
Trang gloves
Arach
Gores
Enigma (of course)

With this setup you get 85% deadly strike 125 fcr and huge + skills.
You need pretty gg rings and amus and all res small charms, but you can cap resists with it and put Ber + stone in helmet.

Setup no.2: Ondals

Ondals with Lo
Phoenix
3/20 2os circlet
Highlords
2x 10 fcr ring (one dualleech)
Trang gloves
Arach
Gores
Enigma (of course)

Changing ariocs to Ondal, you gain a whopping 45 fcr. This gives you the possibility to run highlords AND Phoenix.
With highlords gore and a Lo socket in Ondals you gain 70% deadly strike at 125 while benefiting from the huge ed% from Phoenix.

Compared to arioc you loose +3 skills though (2 from Mephisto,1 from highlords vs 2/x amu) and -20 enemy magic res(Mephisto)and 15% deadly strike.

Making me think: is Ars Dul Mephisto Even that much less damage than phoenix? If you socket it with an 40 ed jool you can gain 155 ed%. Phoenix has up to 250 more but you also loose 2skills and the - magic res on Mephisto isn‘t useless with sigil…..


3. obsession

Obsession
Ars Dul Mephisto 26 fcr, high ed
3/20 2os circlet
Highlords
2x 10 fcr ring (one life leech)
Laying on hands
Arach
Gores
Enigma (of course)

Obsession granting 65fcr means we can drop another 20fcr , wich allows the use of laying on hands. This adds another 350% ed vs demons while allowing highlords + phoenix.
Loosing the Lo rune means we end on „only“ ~50% deadly strike , wich is still plenty.
The defensive stats from obsession are unmatched and free up a lot of options….


Sooo what do you guys think?

Not sure if arioc or Ondal is the fastest at killing.

I actualy think Ars Dul Mephisto is closer to Phoenix than most people guessed. It can have 150ed too with socket and the + skills do a ton.
-20 magic res also slaps.
Since there is so many ed (pride, might, fana, levitation passive…) already phoenix hits some pretty hard finishing returns , while you get 3 more skills with arioc setup and max amount of deadly strike….


Obsession may be a tiny bit behind in damage. But it makes you pretty much immortal. May be the smoothest setup in general….

What do you guys think? What’s the winner ?

Preeeetty sure they are all better than fortititude…. More skills more ed more deadly strike than Forti on all 3 setups….

This post was edited by Junglist69 on Mar 24 2026 11:06am

Bump…

Looking at the formula again, + skills are so much better than weapon damage…
If I’m not mistaken 4 skills on obsession/ondal are already enough to do more damage than a Fortitude even with the low base damage.

Making me think that Ondal might actualy be the best damage option there is… it can be socketed with Lo and still use highlords + phoenix. Getting you to ~70% deadly strike while also being able to use phoenix at 125fcr.

Obsession will have a bit less deadly strike than ondal/forti but can still use phoenix and even Loh while providing absolute insane defense.

Like…obsession is crazy for Qol and seems to do more damage than forti.

For pure damage Ondals/ariocs 125 seems to be king

Overall balanced build seems for me obsession by a mile.

They just all seem way better than Forti.

If you want to go budget , insight is king
Pure mf -> 3 isted toombreaver
Pure damage -> Arioc/ondal
Balance-> Obsession

Don’t realy see the niche for Forti. Am I missing something?
why are people still running Forti over obsession and sink so much gold in those thundermauls ?

Insight is betta

phoenix
insight eth cv
arach
2/20
2/10 amu
opalvein
caster ring
3 res boots
trang gloves

is my default setup for 125fcr works great

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2HXDhEsm_yo

Update from this guy (not that I blindly take this stuff for granted)…

But this confirms my thinking’s pretty much….

I just don’t get why he is always going with 75 fcr setup when using ariocs…. You can gain 125 fcr while having max + skills and 85% deadly strike with it…

He compared 125 fcr obsession with 75% arioc.

But 125 fcr is super strong on arioc. You loose phoenix though.

But Mephisto with ed jewel still has 150ed. You loose 250ed compared to Phoenix , but gain +2 skills (with arioc basicly + 3 since you also no need highlord) and -20 magic res.

Don’t get me wrong, phoenix will be the best damage option on shield. But compared to other meele builds , + skills are much better on warlock… making Mephisto vs phoenix probably closer than most people think.

With ariocs you gain the same or even more + skills than obsession/ondal (+ 1 from 2/15+ amu compared to highlords) but a whopping ~35 more deadly strike than for example Obsession.

Comparing those 125 fcr setup‘s damage stats arioc vs obsession:
- Arioc has 3 more skills (1 from amu, 2 from Mephisto)
-~35% more deadly strike (70 from arioc, 15 gores)
- decent base damage on weapon

Obsession has 250 more off-ed from Phoenix, looses on every other damage stat.

obsession gets crazy defensive stats. But you can even cut gores for mf or tri res boots with ariocs and still end up with 70% ds…

Like what am I missing? Why es everybody only ever talking about arioc in a 75 fcr setup ?

The problem with other non-fcr weapons is that you realy don’t want to cut highlords for an fcr amu. But with ariocs you gain all the deadly strike you ever need just from the weapon and can get a gg amu for even more + skills.

Not sure if gores are even worth it with 70% ds already.

So why is no one ever talking about ariocs on 125 fcr ?
It’s hard to cap resists, but doable with gg rings and amu/circlet (running 3/20/2 circlet atm , so no res for me there).
If you need more res just use trires boots and drop from 85 to 70% ds, wich is still 20% more than obsession build….

This post was edited by Junglist69 on Mar 24 2026 05:04am

Intresting topic. What i dont understand is what exactly making ondals deal more dmg than Obsession in eth Archon Staff? Maybe im stupid but i dont understand

Yeah I saw that too, his conclusion is that weapon doesn't matter luch

just get 125fcr
imo take tomb reaver with 3* ist for MF, ariocs for ubers and obsession/insight for general play

i use mang songs with Ist, it's greatly enough and the socket isn't wasted if I ever go blood boil build (solo HC)

It’s basicly just the open socket… 20% more deadly strike with a Lo.
Giving you ~70% ds on ondal vs ~50% on obsession (highlord+gore)
Guess the defensive stats on obsession may outweight this overall for sure. But damage wise ondal will do a tid bit more.

You gain 20 more fcr on obsession but can’t realy go 2 skill rings since you need dualleech somewhere (one could be bk, but no mana leech then). Could go for a manaleech circlet but that will loose you one skill vs 3/20 circlet.

What obsession can do is still running 2fcr rings and go lay on hands instead of mages/to.

I just value deadly strike a lot, because there is no better damage stat than ds in the game.

Guess that’s why I would still go ariocs for pure damage even on 125fcr.

More base damage, 3 more + skills (Mephisto + amu) and 85 deadly strike

Vs 250% more of weapon ed from Phoenix and only ~50% deadly strike on obsession build .

Guess pure dps—-> arioc 125
Ouality of life/budget—-> obsession

Yeah…would just have been interesting if he actualy used 125fcr on arioc instead of 75fc… you get 85ds without highlord , so easy to build with a decent amu …

Ah ok now it makes sense to me thx