Faith mercenary for Trav horker?

Hello all,
For my

Travincal

Whirlwind horker barb, I would like a physical support mercenary that is not an Act 2 Might merc (who sometimes doesn't even turn on Might) and not a ludicrously expensive Act 5 Last Wish or dual Last Wish merc. An Act 1 rogue archer with Faith would provide a huge dps boost- about 20%, according to maxroll.gg. The main theoretical detractor of Faith is that it would rarely resurrect an enemy into a Returned, wasting a corpse, but if that only happens 10% of the time when the Mercenary gets a killing blow as online sources claim, it should be a negligible loss. So my biggest concern is the survivability of an Act 1 mercenary when running with an Engima-equipped, Trav horker WW barb. Has anyone run an Act 1 Mercenary on

Travincal horker barb? Can an Act 1 merc survive?

I've started testing her with a non-

Eth, non-upgraded

Guardian Angel, a

Kira's Guardian, and an Insight bow, and she's definitely quite squishy even with all my barb shouts on her. That said, non-

Eth, non-upped

Guardian Angel isn't that good, and I haven't even given her a form of life leech though I'm not convinced with the pathetic damage output that it would matter that much. That said, an Act 2 merc wearing similar gear would definitely feel tankier.

By the way, I'm wary of using Fortitude with her, because Fortitude will chill enemies, who will then, 25% of the time, shatter when they die, depriving me of a corpse. The Gloom armor runeword actually looks pretty promising, because it would offer very high defense and a lot of resistances.

By the way, looking for good mercenary weapons for an Trav horker is really, REALLY a pain. Blizz went way, way overboard when creating weapons that add cold damage, freeze, or have a chance to resurrect slain enemies as a Returned. Most popular merc weapons are actually unusable with a Trav horker

Peace definitely doesn't spawn a

Valkyrie when worn by a mercenary, so I'll assume Faith won't spawn any returned either when wielded by a mercenary ...but can't confirm that.

Act 1 merc's worst place is probably Trav, whatever their setup.

Their ability to stay behind that usually helps them survive is somewhat annihilated by the Hydras.

Why not A2 merc with BOTD or A5 with dual Grief ?
Those runewords are cheaper than Faith while the dmg from those mercs is better than the 20% dmg boost from A1 merc.

Ravoc wrote: 1 year ago

Peace definitely doesn't spawn a

Valkyrie when worn by a mercenary, so I'll assume Faith won't spawn any returned either when wielded by a mercenary ...but can't confirm that.

Faith does spawn returned when wielded by merc

mockingbirdreal wrote: 1 year ago

Why not A2 merc with BOTD or A5 with dual Grief ?
Those runewords are cheaper than Faith while the dmg from those mercs is better than the 20% dmg boost from A1 merc.

You must have misread my post. Faith boosts MY damage by 20% (because of the fanatacism aura it gives me). A merc weilding BOTD or Grief boosts my damage not at all. In all cases, merc damage is mostly negligable in comparison to my barb's WW damage- this was even true back when I was running an Act 5

Frenzy merc with Grief and

Eth, upped

Headstriker. I don't really care about merc damage other than it boosts their survivability by increasing the life returned by life leech.

Steccothal wrote: 1 year ago

Ravoc wrote: 1 year ago

Peace definitely doesn't spawn a

Valkyrie when worn by a mercenary, so I'll assume Faith won't spawn any returned either when wielded by a mercenary ...but can't confirm that.

Faith does spawn returned when wielded by merc

As does

Tomb Reaver

tatarjj wrote: 1 year ago

In all cases, merc damage is mostly negligable in comparison to my barb's WW damage

How fast you are with and without merc ?
Some horkers do trav with the full dmg from merc and they still able to do under 1 minute per run.

Steccothal wrote: 1 year ago

Faith does spawn returned when wielded by merc

Thx for confirming that; something to keep in mind if I ever build one.

Out of curiosity, do you not want an A2 might merc because you simply don't want an A2 merc or because you dislike that he regularly doesn't actually buff you due to not activating his aura?

In the latter case, I'd suggest...an A2 might merc. :p Except give him a Pride. Even without his might turned on, that tends to be a far higher dmg boost than Faith (since WW ias is easily capped without fana) and when he does turn on might, that's just another bonus on top of the already superior dmg boost.

And even with the comparatively crap dmg of a Pride and even without might turned on, the merc himself still does more dmg than an A1 Faith merc. Not only in theoretical ideal dmg but even more so in real dmg because he'll actually attack, as opposed to an A1 merc who keeps running to find a new spot to then again keep running from as soon as one of the mobs around you moves. And just in case all of that isn't enough..he's tankier, too.


Edit:
Since I completely forgot about the freeze on Pride, you can basically ignore the above. :p
Either way, I'd still prefer A2 over A1.

@schnorki

Works in theory, in practice your merc will freeze the council and you get jackpoop from

Find Item. I know this. I tried it before going with double LW. That freeze from

Cham inside is a major dealbreaker.
Use might merc and wait for trigger on the enemies before council or during - it's not like you need the trigger to kill them on p1 but it certainly helps. I'd consider Faith act1 for

Frenzy barb rather than for WW, if anything.

P.S. You can get crap roll LW for

Jah +

Ber.

Crown of Thieves on merc is a great helmet for

Travincal runs (

Mal to

Ist for ethereal). So is the

Eth upped

Guardian Angel, like you mentioned (socket with

Um). 90% fire res against hydras.

Queegon wrote: 1 year ago

@schnorki

Works in theory, in practice your merc will freeze the council and you get jackpoop from

Find Item. I know this. I tried it before going with double LW. That freeze from

Cham inside is a major dealbreaker.
Use might merc and wait for trigger on the enemies before council or during - it's not like you need the trigger to kill them on p1 but it certainly helps. I'd consider Faith act1 for

Frenzy barb rather than for WW, if anything.

P.S. You can get crap roll LW for

Jah +

Ber.

Crown of Thieves on merc is a great helmet for

Travincal runs (

Mal to

Ist for ethereal). So is the

Eth upped

Guardian Angel, like you mentioned (socket with

Um). 90% fire res against hydras.

Fair point. Admittedly, I completely forgot that Pride had freeze for a minute there..
(not using it on my horker, was just looking at a dmg comparison here)

@queegen

I'd look into putting a

Helm with reduced phys damage% on your act 1 merc (combined with

Guardian Angel and Faith-bow).

The main damage is from the

Hydra's offcourse, but it's a case of "every bit helps when the chips are down" imo.

Rockstopper is an ok option, and CoA is the king i guess (but expensive).
Either one has more than enough resist that you can easyly socket a

Cham into

Helm or armor, so you don't need Kira.

In that case might as well use

Vampire Gaze socketed with a

Ral/

Um/

Cham.

Neither

Rockstopper nor

Crown of Ages has life leech. Going against council without leech is a health hazard.

When in doubt..get extra leech from CoH, seeing how the fort proc just ends up costing you bodies again anyways.

I have to say I dunno which is setup is best. But I do have horker and I do run Faith on A1 merc. Barb is NL, while A1 Faith is Ladder. Cant compare.

Regardless of A1 merc: yes she does activate to spawn zombies on kill. But she spawn like 1 sometimes when lucky 2zombies per any run - its just low I wouldnt consider it deal breaker.

What suprised me is her survivability - non

Eth Andy with 8LL, Fortitude 2154def.
Her dmg is 900-2803 (dunno if its considered with freezing

Arrows or just basic attack).

As someone said: she always try to find better spot - maybe thats why she rarely dies (I dont use CtA).

Regarding her dmg: when I run into physical immune pack of monsters. Her

Freezing Arrow kills it quite easily (compare to me with not having AOE via

Magic Arrow). So when fighting certain immune monsters is "long" she finds her spot and then her dmg is quite high to be honest (its lower than act2, but really decent considering A1 merc). But with trav horker this situation will never occur, because fights are short.

My horker has only Grief + botd + arreat face and rest is towards gold or MF (lately i run only as gold find).

Imho you dont need merc for trav runs as barb. Also because there are no obstacles from WP to council I dont think those few teleports from Enigma saves more time than Fortitude +300% dmg or like

Skullder's Ire with higher MF than Enigma.

If cost isnt a big thing. Last Wish + Beast on a

Frenzy barb act 5 merc.

All said and done, I’ve tried lots of different merc set ups and I always go back to the tried and true act 2 might with reapers toll, Andy’s or Kira’s and a high resist armour (

Um’d

Guardian Angel is nice), he’ll survive, give you might (yea kinda) but the

Decrepify from reapers toll will slow down the council and effectively increase your total damage by 50%.


I’ve also used Faith merc and she dies more often than the above set-up, the increased damage and attack speed is good on paper but doesn’t really make any noticeable difference when playing, at least when I used it.

Also I can also confirm a merc with Faith with raise 10% of her kills as returned

If your going act 1 Faith merc come hell of high water I’d go with any of the cheap runewords, Smoke is amazing for the price, Lionheart is great too, unfortunately the Peace armour won’t buff the merc’s skills, only +all skills will (at least when I tested a couple months ago)

I've said it a couple times before in other threads, but I believe

Arioc's Needle is the best option for A2 merc that doesn't have the dreaded cold damage. Huge +4 to skills, +50% Deadly strike, can be socketed and gemmed to get you up to 45% IAS breakpoint and he kills them VERY fast.

I was able to buy this perfect

Eth roll for about a

Vex. The perfect 15/40 Jewel cost a bit more (paid 2

Ber), but really only need the 15IAS% to hit that breakpoint.
As for his aura not activating during the fast sub-minute runs, that's a great reason to go for Last Wish as your offhand, if you want Might Aura. Bit more expensive, but makes for a good goal for long term players.

Always wondered about a Faith merc on Barb though, and would be interested to hear if you try it out!

StarTempler wrote: 1 year ago

If cost isnt a big thing. Last Wish + Beast on a

Frenzy barb act 5 merc.

Can't use Beast on an A5 merc since it can't be put in swords