hm, 1 point in mastery and frenzy?

For Dreadfang you only need 1 point but you can easily point dump.

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/b1010674

Dreadfang setup is in there somewhere, it's using 900% Goldfind weapon primary set + Dreadfang/Beast offset with point dumps in Mastery/Frenzy to make sure you hit.
The easiest way to "guarantee" hits is to jump in, Battle Cry + War Cry then swing until you get Amp.

Regardless, it's way more straightforward than Gavel repairs.

I'll get around to remaking this thread eventually

Skill casting has nothing to do with gambling.
You gamble too fast you can be flagged as if you are using a click script.
You can test this by dropping 1 gold on the ground over and over as fast as you can. See what happens if you don't believe me.
The whole point of legit guides on here is to avoid any risk of bans altogether. That's why I suggest you don't horde ALL your 10zillion gold across all your chars and gamble it in one hit.

My guy I gamble a full 12.5M every 25~ minutes and I've had 0 problems ever. Never had problems in LOD, never have problems in D2R, never have problems anywhere.

This post was edited by Exokek on Mar 6 2026 12:21pm

did you miss the part where i said "(and shopping)" ?

or do i have to spell packet shopping to you?

my god

"what is kolb? what is a packet? i'm telling u bro just to be safe, dont click things in-game you gonna get banned"

If your not having that problem in D2R that's a good thing.
You guys aren't going to convince me about something that used to happen to my char in LOD though. Gambling amys/rings with huge horks and I'd get a temp once in a while. How else would I come to that conclusion you reckon? It used to happen when I was at Gheed during the actual gamble. There's no other reason I can think this occurring other than gambling too much or too many items consecutively. Ropa seems to think bots can do this but they can't. Don't listen to his info because you can't bot a GF barb like this in trav and when you do gamble with bots it's one item at a time then sell.
And instead of focusing on this as the core topic of convo why not talk about the things in your guide that need improving that I mentioned if you think the gambling topic is irrelevant?

Yeah, as I said updates are in the link at the bottom of my profile.

Right now I'd advocate for:
- Zerker/Enigma setup with Merc DPS assistance where you tele in, Battle Cry, then thin down the Council w/Zerk. After 3-5 kills you swap to off-set to hork while the Merc shreds everything else. Leave game at council, rejoin in A3, keep going. Zerk inherently deals with Phys Immune. Issue is that getting a good Grief setup is costly early Ladder, so...

- Dreadfang primary set main hand w/ either Goldfind weapon or Beast off-hand. Get in, Battle Cry, swing with Frenzy or Zerk to trigger Amp. Swap to MF and let the Merc shred everything. There is an argument to using dual Dreadfang in the primary set if you use Frenzy over Zerk to trigger Amp.

As far as Merc gear goes it's always one of these as much as you can:

- eBOTD GT + Cham'd Gface + CoH
- eBOTD WP + 3os Lamprey circlet w/ 2x15/40 and Cham + CoH
- Arioc's Needle w/ Lamprey circ + CoH

Now because Warlocks jacked up the price of Arioc's, people can use Hone Sundan or...god fucking forbid, Bonehew. Terrible weap but I mean, you do what you can with what's there early Ladder.

There is also the setup I'm using right now with a 2os Blood Armet on Merc for the Jab breakpoint (Cham + 15/40). Unsure what to think of using a Protector's Stone on Merc for now.

Hellwarden's Will is also a decent option for Merc due to not penalizing FR like Andy.

I've messed around w/ Infinity on Merc and while it's nice, the burst is unpredictable.

Either way I'd say most of the people still optimizing goldfind are using an Enigma setup for the added benefit of FRW (which adds up over time) and breakpoint flexibility on Find Item. If you measure gold/run, Enigma is worse than Wealth. If you measure time to gold cap? It's either even or better depending on setup.

But regardless: I would encourage everyone to use Dreadfang now over Gavel. Spellsteel if you're desperate but I'm not a fan since Decrep duration and radius is dogshit, but it's good early Ladder when stuff is too expensive.

This post was edited by Exokek on Mar 6 2026 03:44pm

Interesting. It's changed alot with D2R.

Zerk > Frenzy in the old builds. So I assume it's the same with new builds too.
I used to sometimes run with grief and GF weapon to smash the immune.
Duel wielding anything else you loose too much GF as the weapon is no.1 gold source of everything.

First merc setup is best seeings you can do runs quicker than the old days. Ebotd, Cham Gface. Coh.
That's assuming you use a Warcry GC or a few though to boost his life. Otherwise might need a bit more leech.
In old days it was nothing other than COT helm.
With the oldschool builds I'd have him on 27% life leech.
With Ebotd+COH that's close at 23%.
Imo not enough leech on that last setup with Arioc's Needle.

Enigmas good sure. But I opted for wealth armor and 1 point into shout and into fast run instead. There is more gold over time doing this but it's easier using enigma for gameplay.
From my experience never swap wealth and both lem swords out or it doesn't work out over time. Swap 1 or 2 of them but never all 3.

You can probably see why after your testing that an inventory of 40% WC GCS are the end game goal. The res no need.
High life > res all day long cos of the dwarf stars you use. Only really need boots with fire res to be the ultimate tank.
Are you using any fcr gear yet? Cos that's the endgame goal to have the breakpoints on that for your cries to start to do a little damage which over time adds a fair bit.

You don't lose much if you're using a primary set just to apply Amp. The goal of Frenzy isn't to kill stuff, it's to trigger Amp Damage. You can Frenzy all day with dual-wield Dreadfang or Dreadfang/Beast since your goal isn't to kill shit, just to debuff then swap to Goldfind set when Merc starts shitting on things.
Wealth is worse than a Teleport Amulet and/or Enigma if your goal is to cap gold/hour quickly. Wealth is fine, Enigma's high FRW and +2 Skills for Find Item breakpoints seems to work out better overall, moreso since we now have an extra contested GC slot with the Renewed Sunders (55% Goldfind on a GC + benefits).

We already discussed FCR and how 37% is the goal. Anything above that is unnecessary. If you're playing Singer Barb that's a different story but idk why you're farming Trav with that.
War Cry isn't for damage, just for crowd control and to help Merc kill shit so Council doesn't run away all the time, and unlike Leap it doesn't push Council into walls across the entire area.

COT was never optimal for Goldfind, it was just the easiest to find. Again: Goldfind on Merc is almost entirely irrelevant because most of your drops come from Find Item (p7 drops on p1 due to how Find Item interacts with nodrop).

I will repeat this until I'm blue in the face: it's not about gold per run, it's about gold per hour, or time to gold cap.

Mercs can die when they get stuck on a Phys Immune target even with high leech, if you don't take it out fast enough and there are bad aura combinations. It happens rarely with eBOTD, but it does happen.