First, let me say that I came from the .08-.09 Days.. and I had a build that was probably damn close to what this is now, only then my bow was an upped koku with 40/15 armor and a life leech helm..
With that said, Meet Kundri.
https://imgur.com/a/VJafNThis build achieves a few things.
105 FCR + Tank with a Fire Enchanted Exlpoding Bolts A1 Merc (yes it's totally viable, def not better than infinity.. but whatever infinity + lightning isn't fun at all to me)
It had no problem Clearing Santuary, Baal, or doing random pit runs. Shenk is probably the only place that does give me a hard time.. I even did an anya run just to test it out.. and I was fine down there too. Pics for a bit of proof.
Gear on Merc:
Brand Bow - It's just a lul factory, splash damage, amp going off, bone spears, cold arrows ripping every which way. While I am Casting frozen orb. The damage isn't the most insane thing on the planet.. But she kills cold immune just fine and adds more DPS while I blast Orbs everywhere.. Plus it knocks back obnoxious ass monsters when I just want to chill and ID something. You want to go with a brand or a Koku because of the splash.. yes the splash damage gets bonuses from being enchanted.
Fortitude armor, obvious damage boost. (note, the fort that I have isn't even etherial.. and Kundri Didn't die once in 4 hours of gameplay
Andy Helm - Ias, rez, life leech.
Gear On Me:
Vipermagi upped with an UM. (Can swap for skullders for mf, or a COH if you really want to swap stuff around but you lose breaking points on teleport buuut frozen orb IS on an internal timer anyway so meh
Hoto (Can swap with an isted isted occy for mf)
Arach
Shako (can swap for nightwing)
Maras
2x Soj's
Magefists upped
War Travs
STORM SHIELD. Yeah I went there.. YOU A TANK NOW BRO.
Any which way you dice these items I was able to rip through pretty much every corner in the game and tank (max block is super effective. Who knew!? Besides HC players ;P *sarcasm). Shenk and Eld is probably the only area that has TOO much cold immune for me to say skip just because it takes too long but was able to do it just fine by porting there and throwing out some static and waiting 2-3 mins to clean every small fry monster up there.. I did not try Nith now that I think of it.. But I went everywhere besides there.
Stats (people prob ganna look at me sideways)
STR: 156 (enough for Storm Shield) You can lower this you want to use gear as a crutch to get to wear a SS.. I Don't like doing that though. I guess I am trained to do everything from avoid getting popped from back in the day.
Dex: 200 Flat! (rawr) You'll get even more for items too and achieve max block.. Yeah scary dumping that much into dex I know.. but blocking is worth it.. if I were to use a spirit and go with max vit.. it's like 200 hp more but you get hit around every corner and end up potting and sent into a panic.. Spirit imo looks great on the outside.. then you die. (however I think spirit is fantastic for a max energy shield build and dumping into vit then for that particular build)
Rest into vit. I have 600 HP.. yeah that's it.. remarkable I know. If you were to add BO on the swap id prob get what like 900-1100? idk I don't switch off very often except for magic finding. But you can def get yourself a BO stick and Spirit if you really want to.
Skill Points! You'll get at least +16 from gear with a torch, more with charms and an Annhi.
20 Ice Bolt - yes contrary to popular belief it is worth the damage buff to Frozen orb
20 Frozen Orb
1-5 Cold Mastery - Depending on your items.. get this to level 17 with your +1 Skills
20 Warmth - Never think about waiting for mana to spam with again plus the synergy with Enchant
20 Enchant
1 Fire Mastery - dump remaining points here (IF you want PVP then Max Cold mastery and take away some warmth points and leave +1 to FM)
1 Static Field
1 Teleport
1 Frozen Armor
As you can see my Orb Damage is pretty good and by Swapping out for a Nightwing I can add a lot more to it.. and even more with a Deaths Fathom and then Add A COH for the missing resists.. but I think this setup is just fine and cheaper. There is room for swapping for other items as like I said the FCR is mostly just for teleport.
Well enjoy, try it out. It's honestly the most fun build I played from back in the day and I was glad I could recreate it. Just mass explosions and bone spears and shards everywhere lmao. I already can't wait to get home and play it again.
level 17 Cold Mastery is a good baseline for PVM.. max it for PVP.. With that Said.. I would recommend aiming for the 17 with your skill bonuses.. and dumping the rest into fire mastery for more Enchant Damage My current Screen Shots have my skills put more towards cold mastery instead of Fire mastery =( But I will fix that later and edit the picture. I would expect my merc to be doing 3.7-5k Dmg after I fix my skill tree.
Sources on that why lvl 17 is a good baseline for PVM and 20 is for PVP
http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Cold_Masteryhttps://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/cold-mastery-monster-res-cap.757148/In conclusion, this build is just fun. Plain and simple, it's fun, it gets the job done, and you can roam pretty much anywhere with it. You can convert it into a PVP and still have an enchanted merc as well. Oh and the LUL's are worth every bit of effort into this too.
This post was edited by 1337Heretic on Feb 20 2018 12:41pm