Fortitude for Merc or trade Lo for other runes?

I just found my first high rune a couple days ago, and I was wondering what people's opinions are on whether making a Fortitude for my Merc would be better than trading the

Lo rune for other runes such as a few

Vex runes or Ists. I currently have Insight / andariels visage / Treachery on the merc. If I were to trade the

Lo rune I would probably make a HOTO and trade for other gear / a torch. Is Fortitude that much better than Treachery on the merc or would getting more "end game" gear on the character be better?

I was in a similar situation. I was very tempted to make fortitde. I ended up trading it. Was able to make HOTO and trade for an arachinid mesh and a 28ar maras and still had some leftover. I feel like it was 100% the right choice.

Man it really depends on what you decide to play. For example, the price increase of the Fortitude for your merc may not be too justifiable (even when using much cheaper Duress, Treachery or ethereal

Duriel Shell).

If you intend to play other characters, a

Lo is vital in making Grief (the most broken piece of sword in the game) or a Fortitude armor for a Paladin or Barb, which you can exchange freely across them.

However, you brought a good point, you can trade your

Lo for some combination of

Vex or

Ohm, which will allow you to make some nice runewords, if you want those more.

The other issue is that Torches vary massively in price, so I would not spend a HR or equivalent (which hold price reasonably well depending on what are their uses) compared to torches, which are currently being farm like crazy.

In my personal experience, I ended up making a Grief with the

Lo I found, then trading a

Sur for another

Lo to make a second Grief, and again trading a

Sur for a third

Lo to make Fortitude.

Fortitude is something you make cuz you got too many

Lo 's sitting around and want to make a nice armor for your merc.

If you want a Grief, use the

Lo for yourself. Otherwise, trade it to gear up. I would personally make a Grief and farm Trav with a Horker. It pays for itself.

Eventually when the market stablizes, all of these highly desireable runes will be roughly worth around each other

Lo,

Jah, and

Ber.

Definitely trade for other items to gear up first.

Fortitude is quite expensive to begin with so you want the best possible base for it (

Eth

Sacred Armor or

Shadow Plate) and those do cost a pretty penny and your merc needs about 220 str for them.

It's a great armor, no doubt about that. But it's also a high end solution for ppl who can afford it.

My recommendation is to trade the

Lo for smaller runes and then trade for stuff that really improves things for you. Treachery, Insight and Andy or Gaze is a very powerful and much cheaper combination.

Think about what each options enables and that should help you decide:
-

Lo on Fortitude -> merc gets tankier, dies a bit less
-

Lo on Grief -> huge dmg boost to you Smiter or similar melee character
-

Lo on non

Eth Fortitude -> huge survivability boost to your melee character
- Trade

Lo for gear -> dmg/survivability/mf boost for your character, potentially best in slot items can be acquired

Like others have said, trading it far outweighs the other options, although I will say it also means you need to be trading a lot which you may consider annoying if that's not your thing.

Fortitude for your merc is super nice, but don't think that he will be invincible as a result, he'll still get one shot by some uniques, rekt by

Conviction/

Fanaticism auras and die to poison every once in a while if you're not carefully feeding him health pots and rejuvs.

But in the end, regardless of the potential value, you got this

Lo and whatever you make of it will be fine. If you only play one character, don't want to trade and just want that sweet

Eth Fortitude, who is gonna stop you?

Peacku wrote: 3 years ago

If you only play one character, don't want to trade and just want that sweet

Eth Fortitude, who is gonna stop you?

The guy selling the base .......

I would definitely say it depends on what your needs are. For me personally I really need my merc stay alive cuz I’m a one element cold sorc, so i literally can’t kill anything with cold immune, since I got Fortitude on my merc he’s been practically unkillable unless it’s super high magic damage. He can stand in a field of cows forever and not die. That may not be what you need at the moment, but it’s what I needed. Have no use for a Grief at the moment, and already had a hoto. Good luck and whatever decision you make will be the right one. Unless you’re trade that

Lo for a

Mal rune. That would be the wrong decision.

I had a merc with Fortitude, Andy's Visage, and swapping between Insight and Obedience. Then, I traded the Fortitude++ for a

Ber and now use a Treachery on my merc since I'm poor. Honestly, I don't even notice the difference. Take that for what it's worth.

Keep in mind

Lo is about half a

Ber - for that reason I'd never recommend crafting Fortitude for merc or trading it down until you've hit all your crucial runewords.

Peacku wrote: 3 years ago

Think about what each options enables and that should help you decide:
-

Lo on Fortitude -> merc gets tankier, dies a bit less
-

Lo on Grief -> huge dmg boost to you Smiter or similar melee character
-

Lo on non

Eth Fortitude -> huge survivability boost to your melee character
- Trade

Lo for gear -> dmg/survivability/mf boost for your character, potentially best in slot items can be acquired

Like others have said, trading it far outweighs the other options, although I will say it also means you need to be trading a lot which you may consider annoying if that's not your thing.

Fortitude for your merc is super nice, but don't think that he will be invincible as a result, he'll still get one shot by some uniques, rekt by

Conviction/

Fanaticism auras and die to poison every once in a while if you're not carefully feeding him health pots and rejuvs.

But in the end, regardless of the potential value, you got this

Lo and whatever you make of it will be fine. If you only play one character, don't want to trade and just want that sweet

Eth Fortitude, who is gonna stop you?

Largely agree, but would elaborate on 3rd point - for a melee player I would imagine a league start runeword order as something like:
[*]Oath

Phase Blade(s) - farm hell Trav
[*]Grief

Phase Blade(s) - farm hell Trav/CS
[*]Gambling for dual-leech rings
[*]Enigma - summoner > trav > meph > nithalak, trade for

Terror keys and start Ubers.
[*]

Cham

Helm to replace "can't be frozen" off

Duriel's in chest slot
[*]

Arachnid Mesh to cast speed teleports
[*]Hoto for teleports/horking.
Wouldn't consider Fortitude until all of the above was done. Zealot works decently there since they have access to 1 point

Smite for Ubers, while Barb has access to

Find Item for extra rune drops off Trav. Sorc I would exclusively trade

Lo to work towards Infinity.

Aegis200 wrote: 3 years ago

Man it really depends on what you decide to play. For example, the price increase of the Fortitude for your merc may not be too justifiable (even when using much cheaper Duress, Treachery or ethereal

Duriel Shell).

If you intend to play other characters, a

Lo is vital in making Grief (the most broken piece of sword in the game) or a Fortitude armor for a Paladin or Barb, which you can exchange freely across them.

However, you brought a good point, you can trade your

Lo for some combination of

Vex or

Ohm, which will allow you to make some nice runewords, if you want those more.

The other issue is that Torches vary massively in price, so I would not spend a HR or equivalent (which hold price reasonably well depending on what are their uses) compared to torches, which are currently being farm like crazy.

In my personal experience, I ended up making a Grief with the

Lo I found, then trading a

Sur for another

Lo to make a second Grief, and again trading a

Sur for a third

Lo to make Fortitude.

What are you playing for dual wielding Grief?

Frenzy barb? What’s your build?

Frenzy Barbarian, I got a carver for

Find Item (swap), but will put some solid points on it after I reach lvl 90. 1BK 1RF for rings, and a Highlords pendant The rest of the gear depends on the situation. Got a Lawbringer at hand in case ghosts decide to be annoying.