POE currency players have seen their fair share of buildbreaking discoveries, but every so often something emerges that feels like it's bending the rules entirely. Right now, that "something" is Doryani's Prototype-not worn by your character, but strapped onto your mercenary. The results? BillionDPS potential, tanky AI companions that shouldn't exist, and a flood of lightningbased minion builds about to dominate the endgame.

Why This Shouldn't Work… But Does

Before the current league launched, theorycrafters were buzzing about putting Doryani's Prototype onto a mercenary. The logic was obvious: the unique chest piece sets your Lightning Resistance to match your Armour, and enemies in your armour's range take increased lightning damage. In theory, giving this to a merc could supercharge your DPS without the drawbacks of wearing it yourself.

The Build Concept: Mage Skeletons Go Nuclear

While the trick could apply to various archetypes-highbudget Spectre setups, bomber builds, or even some offmeta lightning casters-Cassie's focus is on highbudget Mage Skeletons. This isn't the classic chaosconversion version either. With the mercenary carrying Doryani's, lightning damage scaling goes through the roof.

Here's the kicker: Cassie's current test character is using absolute trash gear. We're talking:

 A +1 weapon and +1 helmet

 Level 17 amulet, level 32 ring

 A shield with no meaningful minion stats

 Tabula Rasa chest for six links

 Level 19/20 Mage Skeleton gem, lowlevel supports, underleveled golem and mark skills

Despite that, the damage output is absurd-enemies in hightier maps die before they can touch her.

Mercenary Setup

The mercenary of choice is the War Priest, a Strength/Intelligencebased follower that comes with Smite and Holy Relic.

Ideally, you'd run Wrath on them for the aura boost.

Merc setup includes:

 Doryani's Prototype (core of the build)

 Dawn Breaker shield with "20% of lightning damage taken as fire"-extra insurance against stray hits

 Resistances sitting at -141% lightning res before Purity of Elements, about -95% after

 Immortal Flesh belt for -25% elemental res

 Malachai's Artifice for -20% all res

 Optional: Maligaro's Lens shield for -50% all res-if the merc dies, it's just a gold cost to revive, but Cassie hasn't seen their HP move

 Enervating Gloves to unnerve enemies with AoE Smite hits (planned upgrade to Malediction Dark Seer)

 Brittle Boots for crit scaling

 Future upgrade: Crown of the Tyrant for more damage

 The amulet? Perquil's Toe, with no anoint yet. Even in this budget state, the merc survives everything.Skill Tree & Jewel Setup

One of the critical parts of making the build function is forcing your Mage Skeletons to deal pure lightning damage.

1.Crimson Combat Focus-prevents cold damage conversion

2.Viridian Combat Focus-prevents fire damage conversion

3.This ensures skeletons are always lightning, synergizing perfectly with Doryani's Prototype.

Other key passive/cluster choices:

 Enduring Composure small cluster for endurance charges

 Blessed Rebirth medium cluster to prevent minion deaths right after summoning

 Potential duration nodes to synergize with Fresh Meat support, letting skeletons last long enough for efficient resummoning

Currently, without duration investment, skeletons need to be resummoned every 4 seconds. With tweaks, Cassie expects to push that to around 5 seconds-still very manageable.

Spectres & Additional Minions

 Perfect Guardian Turtle-tanky frontline distraction

 Perfect Spirit of Fortune-grants lucky lightning hits for even more damage consistency

 These further boost the build's reliability in clearing dangerous content.

Leveling Path & Transition

1.Level with Absolution

2.Skip archers entirely and go straight to Chaos Mage Skeletons via chaosconversion gloves

3.Once you secure Doryani's Prototype and supporting gear, transition to the lightning version with your mercenary

4.This keeps early mapping smooth and lets you pivot without major passive tree rewrites.

The Meta Impact

If this takes off, expect a wave of lightningbased builds leveraging mercenaries with Doryani's Prototype:

 Lightning Spear spam

 Arc Mage setups

 Spark builds reminiscent of previous leagues

 And, of course, Mage Skeleton armies tearing through bosses

Closing Thoughts

The discovery of how mercenaries interact with Doryani's Prototype is one of those rare buy POE orbs moments where community curiosity turns into a genuine metashaker. The fact that you can stack negative resistances on them without penalty-and in fact, benefit massively-opens up scaling that was previously locked behind highrisk, selfequipping strategies.