S-TIER | BUILD MERCENAIRE DOEDRE’S UNDOING GEMLING (@Mon Facts) | SAISON 5

Build Video

Build Overview

The Doedres Undoing Gemling build is built around a simple yet devastatingly effective concept: turning a curse into a weapon of mass destruction. By spamming Despair (Despair) across the entire screen, you trigger cascading chaos explosions thanks to notable Impending Doom — the famous « frogs » that burst all around you. All of this at zero mana cost, which completely frees up your mana pool to serve as an additional defensive layer.

The cornerstone of the build is the Gemling Legionnaire ascendancy of the Mercenary, which multiplies the quality and levels of your gems. Combined with Doedres Undoing and a high level of Despair (with alternative quality), it allows you to cast the curse without spending a single drop of mana while covering a massive area.

On the defensive side, the build sets up a clever defensive loop: thanks to Zealot’s Oath, your life regeneration is converted into Energy Shield regeneration. Combined with Virtuous Barrier, Vitality, and Arctic Armour, you get a character that regenerates constantly — sturdy enough to handle pinnacle bosses and farm fully juiced maps alike.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Skill Gem Setup by Step

This build offers 1 progression step from leveling to the final build. Select a step to see the corresponding gem setup.

Endgame

Endgame

11 skills • 41 gemmes

DésespoirDespair

ExhumationUnearth

BlasphèmeBlasphemy

Projection de sortilègesSpellslinger

Présence flétrissanteWithering Presence

Armure arctiqueArctic Armour

OrageThunderstorm

Virtuous BarrierVirtuous Barrier

SéismeEarthquake

Brise-osBoneshatter

Frappe parfaitePerfect Strike

Recommended Equipment

• Morior Invictus (chest): the key armor piece of the optimized version. Its many sockets accommodate idols and catalysts that grant spirit (up to +14 per socket), providing enough to power all your auras.
• Darkness Enthroned (belt): holds two idols (including the Fox Idol) whose bonded bonuses are doubled — most notably 5% quality to all gems.
• The Prisoner’s Manacles (gloves): a magic low magnitude pair with life regeneration and a wealth of useful stats.
• Windscream (boots): unique boots whose curses apply without an activation delay — essential for spamming Despair.
• Doedres Damning (ring): allows you to apply an additional curse, regains mana on enemy kill, and rounds out your resistances.
• Helmet (rare): a rare helmet with a socketed idol, optimized for resistances and attributes.
• Jewels — Prism of Belief, Heart of the Well, Split Personality: jewel unique Prism of Belief adds +3 levels to Despair; the others boost regeneration and attributes.
• Amulet: +4 to spells, with a Paragon anointment (+5 quality and +5 attribute) — expensive but highly effective.
• Weapons: in the main weapon set, a rare wand and focus stacking spell levels, chaos damage, and Cast speed; in the secondary weapon set, the unique wand Trenchtimbre.

Gameplay Tips

• Level up Despair and prioritize the alternative quality: this is what makes the spell free in mana and frees up your reserve as a defensive layer.
• A single button is enough: spam Despair on packs, the Impending Doom explosions do the rest.
• Think about the defensive loop: life regeneration → Energy Shield via Zealot’s Oath. Maximize your life regeneration to boost your Energy Shield.
• Make the most of idols: Darkness Enthroned doubles their bonded modifiers; failing that, slot the Fox Idol into your chest to free up the belt slot while boosting your gem quality.
• Anoint Paragon on your amulet: it’s the most cost-effective investment in the build despite its price.

The Damage Engine: Despair and the « frogs »

The heart of this build revolves around a curse loop. You cast Despair continuously, and thanks to notable Impending Doom, every curse that expires triggers a chaos explosion. Visually, the screen fills with tiny explosions — the famous « frogs » the author refers to — which clear packs of monsters at a staggering speed.

The real trick lies in the mana cost: by leveling Despair and using its alternative quality, the spell consumes no mana at all. You can spam it without interruption, and your untouched mana reserve becomes an extra defensive layer. Doedres Undoing further amplifies this mechanic by playing on curse application.

The Life → Energy Shield Loop

The build’s survivability rests on an elegant synergy. The Zealot’s Oath passive redirects all of your life regeneration to your Energy Shield. All you need to do is stack life regeneration to keep your Energy Shield permanently topped up.

To fuel this loop, the build combines Virtuous Barrier (large life regeneration), the Vitality aura (maximum life per second) and the conversion of mana and maximum life into regeneration. The result: a character that absorbs hits and heals without you ever having to think about it. Arctic Armour rounds it all out with armour that scales up in tiers, boosted by the ascendancy’s global quality bonus.

Darkness Enthroned, Idols and Saving Slots

The strength of this build lies in idol management. The optimized version equips a Darkness Enthroned, a unique belt that holds two idols (including the Fox Idol) and doubles the effect of their bonded modifiers — for example 5% quality to all gems, which boosts your entire setup.

The video features a clever trick for tighter budgets: rather than a Darkness Enthroned, you can slot the Fox Idol directly into your chest (a Loreweave) to free up the belt slot, and leverage the Loreweave’s additional curse to save a ring slot. Two approaches, one shared goal: maximize gem quality and overall comfort.

Progression and Budget

Good news: this build scales across multiple budget levels. The optimized version relies on rare runes (such as Legacy of Cursecarver) and a Morior Invictus, but the video shows how to achieve close performance at a fraction of the cost: a simple chaos spell wand, a cheap Loreweave and the Fox Idol slotted into the chest replace the most expensive pieces for a fraction of the price.

The priciest piece remains the Paragon anointing on the amulet. Beyond that, the most tedious item to track down is a corrupted Prisoner’s Manacles with the right mods. In short: you can start this build on a low budget as soon as you enter maps, then optimize it progressively as your resources grow.

Skill Tree