I'm building a Rabies druid and am planning to use an Act 5 Frenzy Merc with the following set up:

Grief Phase Blade
Plague Eth Mythical Sword
Helm?
Fortitude

Question 1: Is an eth mythical sword a good option for plague, or should I just use another PB?
Question 2: How does the - poison res from the weapons work for my druids Rabies damage, and do the sources stack?
Question 3: My wep and armor slots leave me wanting both crushing blow and life leach. As such, I'm not sure what to do with my helm slot. Leach hat or Gface?
Question 4: Perhaps an entirely different set up is optimal. If so, what?

-pr on your merc weapons won’t help your rabies dmg
Dweb is nice rabies Druid weapon

As for A5 merc I personally would try:

- double Plague so that the Lower Res proc is more reliable
- Eth Mythical Swords to do more damage and therefore leech, IAS is fine at the end
- Cham'd Arreat's Face - leech, 30fhr, 30@, +4 Frenzy and even dex + 20% AR which is the main A5 merc problem
- Treachery - another 20fhr, massive ias, 25% ctc Venom in addition to 25% ctc Poison Nova from each Plague

He'll basically run with always proc'd Fade given the fact how pro-active and fast he is in comparison to Emilio. Especially useful since you can't telestomp.

Very high defense from Fortitude will prevent Lower Res - it's "when struck", monsters need to hit him easy and often. That's where %DR from Fade shines to compensate this.

This post was edited by dpswt on Jan 15 2023 06:01am

Bela! Right on, i probably knew that at one point!



excellent post, thanks

I guess I could use a Last wish with a weapon slot to give me both fade and crushing blow. I only worry about the life tap proc interfering with the LR proc.

This post was edited by Ass_Hat on Jan 15 2023 08:49am

Lifetap is going to almost always be on over lower res. A5 Frenzy mercs are quick and hit just as fast. I’d suggest either dual Plague to get the 20% chance when struck to proc more often, or an Azurewrath/lawbringer as the other weapon to deal with the undead that fairly often have poison immunities, and 50% damage resist in hell.

Edit: You mean a LW on the rabies Druid? Why not plague or Dweb for yourself, too? Or even Grief?

This post was edited by Doomtree on Jan 15 2023 03:24pm