A good Fortitude base for a Mercenary

Hello everyone. I know this is a widely discussed topic, but I seem to be missing some context, at least in my opinion.

The introduction

I play the game relatively casually, and will probably never have a character above level 93, the same goes for the level of my mercenary. I would like to have a good armor for my mercenary, which is almost always Fortitude (Required Level: 47). The desert mercenary has +1.5 STR gain per level (https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads ... -0.306061/). I have two armor bases for a potential Fortitude for my mercenary:

1.

Loricated Mail
Ethereal
Defense: 856
Req level: 55
Req Strength: 139 (Level 56 mercenary with no STR bonus items)

2.

Shadow Plate
Ethereal
Defense: 937
Req level: 64
Req Strength: 220 (A Level 85 mercenary has only 190 STR, assuming I have an Andariels Visage with +30 STR I can equip Fortitude on my mercenary on level 85)

Other interesting items include Infinity (Required Level: 63) in a Ethereal

Cryptic Axe (Req Strength: 155, Req level: 59, which is a level 65 mercenary with no STR items)

The problem (if I am understanding it right)

If I decide to make a Fortitude in the

Shadow Plate, then I can not equip the Fortitude until level 85, and assuming that I have to carry a perfect Andariels Visage. This means I can not wear other fun stuff, such as a Delirium runeword and others. If I decide to make a Fortitude in a

Loricated Mail, then I can carry a Fortitude from a level 56 mercenary and all of my other fun gear from level 65. The gain in defense when using a

Shadow Plate instead of the

Loricated Mail is (937-856) * 2 = 162. The difference in defense gain is really negligible compared to the massive STR requirements the

Shadow Plate has.

The questions

1. Did I misunderstand how defense is calculated?
2. Is it better (at least for me) to make a Fortitude better suited for a lower level mercenary (and consequently a lower level character) so I can actually use Fortitude when trying to complete Hell difficulty with a new character ?

Thanks!

What class and build are you running? This will determine which armor is best suited for you.

halflife wrote: 2 years ago

What class and build are you running? This will determine which armor is best suited for you.

I am currently running a Paladin (Smiter), a Sorceress (Lightning) and a Druid (Fury), but I will most definitely try other builds with new characters. But the focus of the question is the mercenary, and it is a Desert Mercenary wearing Fortitude in the vast majority of cases.

Sacred Armor is the best Fortitiude base for Merc, but only if your Merc can get enough Strength to use it. Ethereal

Sacred Armor I believe is 222 strength, and even at level 90 cant use it unless you have

Andariel's Visage.

http://www.lurkerlounge.com/spirea/Hire ... tats.shtml

According to this, a level 90 defensive Act 2 Merc will have 195 Strength, so an

Andariel's Visage with average +Strength can use

Sacred Armor, and this works since Andys is the best

Helm for Mercs anyway.
If you dont have Andys or you want your Mercs to able to use Fortitude without being level 90 or whatever, then any High Def Ethereal Armor works,

Archon Plate would probably be my choice. I would probably draw the line at atleast 750 base defense for an ethereal Fortitude base, above atleast 800 if its Superior on of being Ethereal (

Eth

Sacred Armor goes up to 900, potentially above 1000 with Superior). Anything below that i would wait for a better base.

To answer your question directly though, its a matter of preference honestly theres no right answer, choose the lower Strength one if you want some versatility to be able to use the armor on lower level Mercs, the higher Str one if your goal is to have the strongest min maxed character. Or get rich and make Fortitude in both so you dont have to choose lol.

33windowlicker wrote: 2 years ago

Is it better (at least for me) to make a Fortitude better suited for a lower level mercenary (and consequently a lower level character) so I can actually use Fortitude when trying to complete Hell difficulty with a new character ?

In my opinion, yes. Defense really is a mostly useless mechanic in D2 and having slightly more defense on your merc with a

Sacred Armor is NOT going to make him noticeably more tanky than using any number of lower defense ethereal armors.

As for the

Archon Plate, an ethereal, superior, Enhanced Defense: 15 plate can have at most Defense: 905 and Req Strength is 93 (Level 45 desert mercenary with no STR items). Since a Fortitude requires level 47, then the item could be worn at level 47.


The difference in DEF compared to the

Loricated Mail is (905-856)*2 = 98. So the added value of an

Archon Plate compared to the

Loricated Mail is +98 DEF and the

Archon Plate allows the use of a Fortitude on level 47 instead of 56. There is added value to the use of the

Archon Plate, but I do not have it, and the price of it is probably a

Ber rune. The question is, is it really worth to buy such an

Archon Plate for the added value stated above?

BillyMaysed wrote: 2 years ago

33windowlicker wrote: 2 years ago

Is it better (at least for me) to make a Fortitude better suited for a lower level mercenary (and consequently a lower level character) so I can actually use Fortitude when trying to complete Hell difficulty with a new character ?

In my opinion, yes. Defense really is a mostly useless mechanic in D2 and having slightly more defense on your merc with a

Sacred Armor is NOT going to make him noticeably more tanky than using any number of lower defense ethereal armors.

Agree with this opinion pretty much. If youre not a min maxer the versatility of lower strength one will probably outweight the benefit of a bit more armor. Especially if you like to make a lot of characters and pass the armor around.

33windowlicker wrote: 2 years ago

As for the

Archon Plate, an ethereal, superior, Enhanced Defense: 15 plate can have at most Defense: 905 and Req Strength is 93 (Level 45 desert mercenary with no STR items). Since a Fortitude requires level 47, then the item could be worn at level 47.


The difference in DEF compared to the

Loricated Mail is (905-856)*2 = 98. So the added value of an

Archon Plate compared to the

Loricated Mail is +98 DEF and the

Archon Plate allows the use of a Fortitude on level 47 instead of 56. There is added value to the use of the

Archon Plate, but I do not have it, and the price of it is probably a

Ber rune. The question is, is it really worth to buy such an

Archon Plate for the added value stated above?

Your level requirement assumptions arent correct btw, Fortitude has

Lo in it which automatically means atleast level 59 regardless of base.

Archon Plate is also a lvl 63 armor so 63 if you put it in that. I only said

Archon Plate because I think its a cool armor but your Loricated Armor is more than good enough.

GeminiK wrote: 2 years ago

Your level requirement assumptions arent correct btw, Fortitude has

Lo in it which automatically means atleast level 59 regardless of base.

Archon Plate is also a lvl 63 armor so 63 if you put it in that.

I missed this one... It is confusing to me that some sites (https://d2.maxroll.gg/items/runewords) state Required Level: 47 for Fortitude when there is a

Lo in it. Then I guess the best armor would be the best roll of such an armor that can be worn closest to level 59 and has the most defense.

Best affordable base for a mercenary's Fortitude is 15% Superior ethereal

Great Hauberk.

- Sporting 865 defense meaning ~2367 in Fortitude (archon at 905 translates to ~2476)
- Required strength 108
- The second best light armor (won't slow your buddy down).
- Doesn't cost you

Sur+. You can get it for

Ist-

Vex.

If you want to swap your armor around, go with cheap-ish Hauberk. If you want it for your high level mainchar, go with

Sacred Armor +

Andariel's Visage. But an ethereal

Sacred Armor with enough defense to justify the 222 str req is

Ohm+ for nonsuperior base.

Sur+ for superior.

33windowlicker wrote: 2 years ago

halflife wrote: 2 years ago

What class and build are you running? This will determine which armor is best suited for you.

I am currently running a Paladin (Smiter), a Sorceress (Lightning) and a Druid (Fury), but I will most definitely try other builds with new characters. But the focus of the question is the mercenary, and it is a Desert Mercenary wearing Fortitude in the vast majority of cases.

I'm a casual player like you, often running an

Hydra mf sorc, but I run also a

Frozen Orb sorc, a summoning necro and a zealot paladin.
Always using an act2 merc with

Holy Freeze aura except the necro running with a Might aura merc.
Never had troubles keeping my merc alive while running with my necro because I spam

Decrepify and the rest of my army help a lot too.
I had troubles keeping the merc alive running on other classes/build untill I tryed a quite cheap solution:

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest (but any helmet/

Circlet/blood crafted with some +res and +% life steal works)

Duriel's Shell (any rare armor with high def, some res and +% hit recovery can do the job)

The Reaper's Toll (the

Decrepify procs makes a huge difference)

I still have trouble with my zealot, but maybe in that case a cheap solution is not enough.
Sorcerers and Necro can run hell cows and hell

Travincal with no troubles just paying attenction when too many bad courses/auras happen (cows with

Fanaticism and/or

Conviction, you know)

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

Best affordable base for a mercenary's Fortitude is 15% Superior ethereal

Great Hauberk.

- Sporting 865 defense meaning ~2367 in Fortitude (archon at 905 translates to ~2476)
- Required strength 108
- The second best light armor (won't slow your buddy down).
- Doesn't cost you

Sur+. You can get it for

Ist-

Vex.

If you want to swap your armor around, go with cheap-ish Hauberk. If you want it for your high level mainchar, go with

Sacred Armor +

Andariel's Visage. But an ethereal

Sacred Armor with enough defense to justify the 222 str req is

Ohm+ for nonsuperior base.

Sur+ for superior.

Required strength 108 is a Level 61 Desert Mercenary, and the requirement of a

Lo is 59, which is pretty close. Also, the mercenary does not suffer from the movement speed penalty, so there is no explicit need to use a light armor.

How do you calculate the defense an armor will have for Fortitude anyway. For your example of the

Great Hauberk, I would use:
865 + 2*865 + 2*15 = 2625

33windowlicker wrote: 2 years ago

Required strength 108 is a Level 61 Desert Mercenary, and the requirement of a

Lo is 59, which is pretty close. Also, the mercenary does not suffer from the movement speed penalty, so there is no explicit need to use a light armor.

Someone confirmed some time ago they do in fact get slowed down. I didn't know myself and thought otherwise before that. Unless someone reconfirms the opposite, I'll back this particular knowledge.

33windowlicker wrote: 2 years ago

How do you calculate the defense an armor will have for Fortitude anyway. For your example of the

Great Hauberk, I would use:
865 + 2*865 + 2*15 = 2625

Base defense*3.15 - for 15% superior (ethereal) armor which always has maximum base defense and specifically in hauberk's case is 751.
Your proposed method returns wrong results. The superior ED and runeword ED are added together before they apply as a whole to the base defense.

Someone confirmed some time ago they do in fact get slowed down. I didn't know myself and thought otherwise before that. Unless someone reconfirms the opposite, I'll back this particular knowledge.

Heh, this is an interesting problem.

Base defense*3.15 - for 15% superior (ethereal) armor which always has maximum base defense and specifically in hauberk's case is 751.
Your proposed method returns wrong results. The superior ED and runeword ED are added together before they apply as a whole to the base defense.

Thanks for correcting me.

When I get the time, I will make a table, the goal is to find such an armor that can be worn a level 59 by a Desert Mercenary with no STR items, such that the defense on the item is sufficiently large when Fortitude is rolled in them, and also group them by being heavy/light since there may exist a movement penalty.

And here we are, all elite armors taken into consideration. The small print: all armors assume a perfect Defense and Enhanced Defense roll. The Desert Mercenary is assumed to be a Might Aura mercenary.
The clear winner in the lot is the

Archon Plate. The armor itself can be worn from level 33, and a Fortitude then has 2491 defense. Such an

Archon Plate is also worth around a

Jah rune or more.

If you assume that there is a movement penalty for the mercenary, your best alternative is a

Great Hauberk (-95 Defense compared to the

Archon Plate and can be worn from Level 41).

If you assume that there is not a movement penalty for the mercenary, your best alternatives are a

Loricated Mail (-133 Defense compared to the

Archon Plate and can be worn from Level 58) and a

Boneweave (-92 Defense compared to the

Archon Plate and can be worn from Level 63).

I do not know the cost of the above alternatives, but I do know that the

Archon Plate is way to expensive compared to the added defense. If I were sure that there is no movement penalty, I would roll my Fortitude in my

Loricated Mail, since the difference in defense from both the

Archon Plate (-133) and the

Great Hauberk (-39) is not relevant for me. If there is a movement penalty, the

Great Hauberk is the way to go (here I assume that this armor can be bought for at most an

Ohm, which makes it 4 to 5 times cheaper that an

Archon Plate at current prices).

Feel free to correct me if you see something wrong (for example, I am not sure about the +15 in the Fortitude defense calculation), and thanks to everyone for the discussion.

For starters, you can literally click on any armor in your own thread here and/or search for it to find out the exact base defense values. Yours are off for some odd reason.

Sacred Armor is Medium.

15% Hauberk is 865, Archon 905, lacquered at 934, sacred 1034, off the top of my head. But it has no bearing on the total value. Just an in-between step for clear look of your table.

Regarding your own Fortitude, I'd totally be fine with making it in the 15% Loricated you have and sell the

Shadow Plate, people will pay some good value for superior bases over 900. The +15 from

El rune is indeed added after multiplying by the % ED, so you are correct.

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

For starters, you can literally click on any armor in your own thread here and/or search for it to find out the exact base defense values. Yours are off for some odd reason.

This is true, however the source that I used (https://www.diablo-2.net/items/armors) has different values for armor defenses. For example, a

Great Hauberk on my source is stated to have 504 defense, but when hovering over it in this thread, it says 501 defense. Others might be just rounding errors (I do not know how the game rounds defense) but I also think these values are not relevant for the choice of armor.

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

Sacred Armor is Medium.

True, there are also other mistakes such as the required Mercenary level for the last 2 armors. I will update the table when I find the time.

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

Regarding your own Fortitude, I'd totally be fine with making it in the 15% Loricated you have and sell the

Shadow Plate, people will pay some good value for superior bases over 900. The +15 from

El rune is indeed added after multiplying by the % ED, so you are correct.

The movement speed penalty is not resolved yet, so I will wait. I have started a separate topic for this issue (forums/do-mercenaries-suffer-from-a-mov ... 54431.html) if anyone is interested in the discussion.

The mercenaries do receive a movement penalty.
forums/do-mercenaries-suffer-from-a-mov ... 54431.html

All armors overview
The defense is calculated as follows: TRUNCATE(TRUNCATE((MAX_BASE_DEFENSE+1)*1,15;0)*1,5;0) (forums/defense-calculation-for-superior ... 59860.html)
The final decision

The movement speed: since there is a movement penalty for a mercenary wearing medium or heavy armor, this should be taken into account. Judging from some forum posts, people like to have a slow mercenary because the mercenary AI is pretty bad and the mercenary tends to rush of and die, and he does it even better when he is faster. Some people do not mind this, as they can use Enigma or play a sorceress and reposition the mercenary. Keep in mind that this does not apply to all characters. For example, a druid can not

Teleport when he transforms into another shape, even if he has an Enigma, or your build might not use Enigma, or you simply just do not have an Enigma yet. Here I will make the assumption that a faster moving mercenary is preferred over a slower moving one.

Level requirement
Note that my table was created for a Desert Mercenary with a Might aura. Mercenaries have different strength gains, depending on the act and depending on the mercenary type. For example, an act 1 mercenary has the smallest STR gain per level of all mercenaries, which is +1 (http://www.d2tomb.com/mercenaries.shtml). This means that an act 1 mercenary at level 86 has 139 STR (required for

Loricated Mail) and at level 61 has 108 STR (required for

Great Hauberk), while the level requirement for a Fortitude is 59. If for some reason you plan to use your Fortitude on ANY mercenary, which may happen after a patch and act 3 mercenaries become cool or similar, then you can use a

Great Hauberk.

So, if you want to have the highest possible defense Fortitude, and use it as fast as possible (which is level 59), this is how you can decide on the armor: I recently traded for a 858 defense

Great Hauberk, and will roll my Fortitude in that base. How can I mark this post as the answer?