Dragon / Holy Fire Auradin Questions

Ok, I have looked through some of the older threads and cannot find anything to answer all of my questions.

Anyways, I'm thinking about doing a HF auradin, and have some questions regarding damage outputs.

This is what I am thinking of for base gear:

-Dragon armor

-Dragon shield

-Hand of Justice weapon

A merc with the same would be fun :P

Skills is where I am getting really confused.

I'm thinking max lvl conviction would be best for active aura, and have the gear for damage aura.

I'm thinking lvl 25 conviction would break immunities? -150% res. with 1/5 effectiveness (immune) would put it at -30%, and according to http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Immune 130 is max fire immune, so it could break any fire immune and wreak havock on any other resists.

Next skill question, will the synergies for HF synergise the gear aura?

And would having any points into character HF do anything for the gear aura?

Would Vengence be good to attack with in combo with the auras?

And, how would the +% fire dmg from Vengence be effected by the +fire dmg from the auras (if at all)?

If you made it this far without closing your browser, I thank you.

I do plan on using this build with a group almost always, and not soloing too much.|||A few things to keep in mind:

1) Conviction is pretty much useless past skill level 25 (-150% resists) so there isn't much point in maxing it unless you have absolutely next to no +skills in your gear

2) Vengeance isn't affected by holy fire as far as I know. All you get from it is the same amount of fire damage any attack would get from holy fire.

3) It might be worthwhile to use at least a phoenix shield as it reduces the enemy's fire resistance even further. It's good to deal with the immunes you can just barely break (remember conviction works at 1/5 effectiveness versus immune monsters)

4) If you go with phoenix shield (or weapon) then you should probably pick up zeal as your main attack to capitalize on the insane enhanced damage provided by phoenix.|||With full synergies, maxed attack skills, Level 25 Conviction, and a Might merc:

Hand of Justice + Dual Dragons with Zeal (4fpa)

3253 Fire Damage & -20% Enemy Fire Resist

385 Poison Damage

1270 Physical Damage

=

10340 Damage per second vs Unbreakable Fire Immune

20510 vs 100% Fire Immune

51000 vs 0% Fire Immune

Hand of Justice + Dragon + Phoenix with Zeal (4fpa)

1548 Fire Damage & -48% Enemy Fire Resist

385 Poison Damage

1870 Physical Damage

=

14090 vs Unbreakable Fire Immune

21640 vs 100% Fire Immune

33440 vs 0% Fire Immune

Hand of Justice + Dual Dragons with Vengeance (8fpa)

3950 Fire Damage & -20% Enemy Fire Resist

695 Cold Damage

695 Light Damage

385 Poison Damage

335 Physical Damage

=

10940 Damage per second vs Unbreakable Fire Immune

17110 vs 100% Fire Immune

35620 vs 0% Fire Immune

Based on the above numbers, I agree with Norritt's suggestion: Phoenix + Dragon would probably outperform Dual Dragons. Dual Dreams outperforms anything Holy Fire-based, but given your stated goal, I assume you're looking for something a bit less conventional.

On skills: points you place into Holy Fire have no effect on the aura; hard points in synergies do, so you will want to max Resist Fire and Salvation if you build this character. And yes, Conviction should be your active aura.

Vengeance looks good on paper, but it's interruptible and annoyingly slow. Zeal just provides a better play experience (in addition to being much less skill-intensive).

Also, 130% isn't the max enemy fire resistance, but there are only a handful of monsters that exceed it and are therefore unbreakable (Balrogs in Act 5 come to mind).

Bonus: an Auradin is probably one of the best team players in the game. Just awesome.|||So would a might merc be your suggested merc for this build?

Yeah, I think i'll try for a HoJ, Dragon, Phoenix with zeal.

eehh... breaking all immunities isn't terribly important, because i'll have a couple friends there to help out, it is just nice to have.

and yeah, it seems like something really fun to do. The point of the dragon, as opposed to dreams, is it looks a little cheaper to make |||I can't think of any reason you wouldn't want a Might merc. Might adds significantly to your Merc's damage, and increases your own physical damage (and leeching capability) simultaneously.

As for Dreams vs Dragon: the Dream setup is cheaper. Dragon uses 2 HRs, HoJ uses 3, and Phoenix uses 4. Sure, Jahs are expensive, but Dreams only use 1 HR apiece, and have more useful secondary mods than Dragon. And Level 30 Shock does about the same damage as Level 44 Fire. And it opens up your armor and weapon slots for awesome gear. It just isn't as cool as the Phoenix Build.

Unless you go with HoJ PB, Dragon armor, Phoenix shield, and a Dream hat. That would be reasonably inefficient but completely awesome.|||What kind of helmet would be better instead of a Dream?|||Anything that helps you reach a zeal breakpoint should be good (andariel's visage?) and/or cover your resists (kira's guardian for a cheap option, crown of ages if you are wealthy, though 1os CoA shouldn't be too terribly expensive)|||As you said you are playing in a group: What do you friends play? Working with a Zeal pally with Fanaticism would open up some fun.|||@Norrit So something with good FHR to start with.

@Rozinig Usually going to be a half-built sorta-kinda summon Druid, and either a Kicker Sin, or half summon/half CE Necro.|||Well let's think about it this way: if your weapon is a phase blade you can get reasonably low IAS and hit 4 fpa zeal. You need 72% IAS if you have a pb. HoJ gives you 33% so you need 40% more from your gear. Let's say for the sake of argument you won't be using dracs as your gloves because a phoenix shield gives you redemption aura.

Tweak around as you feel like, but I would go with:

Helm: Kira's guardian (cannot be frozen, tons of resists, potential 40% FHR with a shael all in one slot)

Amulet": Highlord's wrath (solely for the 20% IAS it gives)

Weapon: "Hand of Justice' Phase blade

Armor: "Dragon" Archon Plate

Shield: "Phoenix" sacred targe (decent block, low reqs, get a base with a decent amount of resists)

gloves: Laying of hands (20% IAS)

rings: personal choice, can't think of any that will give you something you don't already have

belt: Verdungo's if you shael the kira's for a total of 50%FHR getting a reasonable breakpoint without charms, or the good old string of ears if you can get your FHR elsewhere.

Boots: Gore Rider sounds good here as a general purpose melee pair of boots.