Minion-based soloing builds are useless in Hell difficulty

[Arethor]

Have people tried Rabid Dogs with Bad Medicine? I find the 20% damage reduction does quite a bit. I'm only in nightmare, but was in a 4 player game last night that reached act 4 and my dogs were still quite sturdy.

From my experiences my best guess is that they were doing ok because you were playing 4 player. I soloed most of Nightmare and all of Hell so far (just starting Act 2 Hell). Even with Rabid Dogs, Bad Medicine, Zombie Handler, and Jungle Fortitude they would die I would lose at least 2 nearly immediately. It might also be that I don't have the best items and their stats somehow scale off your gear (not sure if true), but they just didn't seem worth the investment and effort to me.