Wind druid vs Ubers

[Hookipa]

Hi guys,

Have you ever cleared uber tristram with a Wind druid? If yes, how did you manage to do it?

After porting my untwinked 99'er Wind druid to D2R I thought I give it a shot. My Windy sits comfortably at level 94 and has all the high end gear, with the exception of +6 possible spaces for elemental skillers and a 2nd BK ring.

In about an hour I gathered the required key sets. Uber Izzy and Duriel were easy. Lillith was in hindsight also quite easy with only 1 mercernary death and being careful. Then uber tristram itself. First I tried uber mephisto. I switched my merc gear to blackthorn's, socketed reapers toll with Um and wore a Tgods myself. I got Meph twice till half his life bulb in 10 minutes. Not too bad... Then I decided to first take care of uber Baal and Diablo. After about 5-10 minutes they were taken care of and it was not that difficult tbh.

Then back to mr. Conviction himself. I tried 1,5 hours to dispatch him but I did not succeed. Got him to at most 4/5 of his health bulb. It costed me about 1,4 mio for resurrecting the merc and I died one time myself. Tried different attack styles (e.g. telestomp/ first letting decrep proc and then telestomp/ attacking with tornoda's from a distance. Hoewever, nothing worked. After 1,5 hours I was through my gold reserves and stamina...

Should I have used Kira's on merc for extra resists? His armor was Duriels shell. In short, have you guys beaten him with a wind druid and how? I really want to get a torch of them. Respeccing is not an option due have used the skill reset quests and having to save ancients for bonus XP later on.

Your advice is appreciated!

 

[Helvete]

Find a way to apply Open Wounds on him. That stops his regen, and does not interfere with auras or curses. Some merc weapons have it by default, but your best bet would probably be an UM rune in the reapers for ubering.

 

[Hookipa]

Thanks fot the input!

My merc's Reapers Toll was already socketed with um. However, hit rate in combination with proc chance was too low, vs his Blizz/ CB attack killing my merc.

After some consideration, my new battleplans are to farm a Ber rune at LK to make a CoH for my merc. In combination with Kira's that should solve the lack of resistance. I will farm Mephisto as well for Demon Limb for the enchant, increasing his chance to hit.

Finally, I will trade off some life/mana charms in inventory for light/ cold resis charms to increase my own survival capabilities.

In short, after 2 months I will report back with the results

 

[snickersnack]

If you want try something that takes less time than farming Ber, you could try prebuffing the merc with Treachery for the lvl 15 Fade. That might get you enough resists. Do you have any source of CB? Maybe gFace /w Um would work on the merc.

You might try using a ranged attack on switch with some CB to whittle Meph down.

If you happen to have a spare Cham laying around collecting dust, a Chammed gFace might be what you need.

 

[Hookipa]

@snickersnack thanks for pointing treachery out, I had not considered it tbh. I used blackhorns in the fight with uber mephi. For now I will continue farming in LK and hopefully make some upgrades to my CTA, HoTO and charm set in the process.

 

[snickersnack]

@Hookipa I wonder if your merc could survive without the light absorb on the helm.

If what you're planning to try next doesn't work, here's what I'd suggest:

weap: Obedience Thresher
helm: Kira's, ias jewel
body: Treachery

Obedience is cheap enough that you can reroll until you get a good resist stat.

Bad rolls: (obedience+kira+fade+base-conviction)=(20+50+60+67*-125)=72
Good rolls: (obedience+kira+fade+base-conviction)=(30+70+60+67*-125)=102

* I'm pretty sure that's what a level 94 merc has.

Use a lifetap wand to keep the merc alive.

With 60% ias, the merc will have a 10 frame normal attack and with Venom procced, he'll apply 10 frames of poison with every attack that lands (preventing healing). Level 21 Enchant will help with landing hits, as will the -25% target defense, both on Obedience. He'll also apply CB 40% of the time.

This setup lacks slowing, but Obedience does apply cold damage for 3 seconds, so you get a little bit. I'm not sure how important that is.

I've only ever done ubers with a smiter, so no merc needed, but that is what I would try. Maybe it won't work, but it's something to consider.

Edit: another idea ... prebuff with Treachery but put Guardian Angel on him for the fight itself. That should get his resists to 90% with decent rolls on Obedience and Kira's. This would mean slower attacks, but if you put another ias jewel in the armor, he'll have an 11 frame normal attack, so almost as fast! Also, losing 20% fhr from Treachery leaves him at the same BP. So, basically not much downside, and with a significant upside. GA also has +AR against demons. So, I'd try this:

weap: Obedience Thresher
helm: Kira's, ias jewel
body: Guardian Angel, ias jewel (prebuff Treachery)
lifetap wand on switch

You'll need the resists on Obedience and Kira's to total to at least 88.

This is *sort of* what I have on my trav whirler's merc. For that, I use Reaper's (shael), Kira's (ias, fire res), Guardian Angel (fire res, max damage).