2.4 A5 Frenzy Barb Merc

I'm running a sorc and I love this new merc. I even gave up my Insight for him which was unthinkable for me before I adjusted to using him. He's so tanky it takes criminal negligence to get him killed. I got him set up with a Plague offhand but I really want an Infinity. It's just going to suck having to go back to babysitting my A2 merc. Anybody else really enjoying the new

Frenzy barb merc?

They're fantastic for a handful of builds.

Though on most, the lack of a useful aura choice just makes them not an option. Giving up Infinity, Insight or the like for slightly higher merc dps just isn't even a consideration in most cases.

The one thing that does annoy me though - in those cases where I do use him (which is ladder and 1 non-ladder build so 2 out of 8) - their hit chance just seems utterly pathetic. I know they're nowhere near what a well geared player would be but from observation, they seem to miss a LOT more than they should, based on their lvl and ar vs. the target mob(s).

I'd love to try an A5 Barb for my

Travincal/Gold Berserker.

Which gear is good for

Travincal?

@ToX-I-qUc
I swapped from act 2 merc to act 5 merc for a barbarian duo on trav runs. Ragnar's equipped with double Last Wish to get lvl 34 might aura that doesn't have to be triggered to be applied. Trav runs are just too fast to bother with auras on Emilio.

Crown of Thieves and

Guardian Angel for 90% fire res.

EDIT: Should have said I use him as a walking aura that wants to survive. I do the killing with

Frenzy/

Berserk.

Oh my... Last Wish is so far away from what I can afford.

Is there a lowbudget version? Thought about Unbending Will and Death in combination

ToX-I-qUc wrote: 2 years ago

Oh my... Last Wish is so far away from what I can afford.

Is there a lowbudget version? Thought about Unbending Will and Death in combination

Honestly, unless someone nearby (you from merc, merc from you, whichever way) gets a massive benefit from the aura, Last Wish is entirely overrated for actual use. Even ignoring the part where the blind keeps overriding

Life Tap or other curses possibly supplied from the outside (ugh...). Napkin math as follows...

The fact that you need 6 sockets inherently means you're using a

Phase Blade. That in turn means it will never be ethereal and you're stuck with 31-35 damage base. Say you get a perfect 375 on the Last Wish, that's 147 to 166 dmg base which is pathetic, compared to many other options and even more so compared to say Grief which adds the +dmg to base, resulting in more than double the base damage, even with the worst roll possible.

With two of them, you get a lvl 34 might to try and make up for the loss (spoiler alert: it won't!). That's 370 additional ED.
Say your merc is lvl 90, that's 218 strength or 218ed. Add in a Fortitude and you're at 518ed without Last Wish, 888 with two of them.

Now, 518ed on a worst-roll-possible Grief Phase is 2305 actual damage per swing (rounded and averaged for simplicity).
888ed on a best-roll-possible Last Wish is 1546.
Note the rather significant difference.

That doesn't take into account the admittedly baller crushing on LW (which doesn't do THAT much on non-bosses by comparison) but it also ignores the additional demon ED on Grief (which is basically flat ED in trav), the added dmg from Venom (which I'll guesstimate probably roughly evens out with LW's

Charged Bolt..either way, both are minor), the deadly strike and extra IAS on Grief (IAS doesn't matter much for merc as phase caps out either way, DS matters all the more as it can combine with the merc's base 5 crit for quadruple dmg procs), the -target def on Grief (keep in mind the ITD on both doesn't work for a merc), the fact that Grief can roll significantly higher than the example above or any extra ed from a higher merc lvl, arreat's strength, the merc's

Frenzy and whatnot all else, all of which would further shift things away from Last Wish.

If your merc acts as an aura stick for you then that's a different picture but if you're a GF/MF stacking horker for example and your merc does the killing, Last Wish is just...mweh.
The only real kicker at that point is the

Fade proc but I have yet to see my horker's A5 merc die (or even come close) since he got half-geared. So...it'd basically be 4

Jah worth for lower damage and a proc that doesn't change anything.

Disclaimer:
Yes, I realize Grief isn't the ideal example but it is a common comparison. The actual math is a tad different for the merc specifically, due to the A5 1h sword multiplier which affects LH in full but only the base for Grief. That ultimately moves LH up to a bit over 300 base but doesn't buff Grief nearly as much. As a result, the actual difference is MUCH smaller on a merc specifically but still there (Grief then still wins out even with a worst roll but only by so little that you need to factor in the DS average and merc's

Frenzy ED - the combination of 1 Grief 1 LH actually leads there, sticking with only those 2 as the options/examples - Grief/Grief goes back to winning if you use perfect rolls for both, Grief and LH). I left that out above so it can be applied in Principle to the idea of carrying dual LW yourself, rather than on the merc. That same merc multiplier actually further increases the differences between LW and other non-Grief options with 4 or less sockets as the relative bonus from being able to use an

Eth. weapon is equally doubled.

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

@ToX-I-qUc
I swapped from act 2 merc to act 5 merc for a barbarian duo on trav runs. Ragnar's equipped with double Last Wish to get lvl 34 might aura that doesn't have to be triggered to be applied. Trav runs are just too fast to bother with auras on Emilio.

Crown of Thieves and

Guardian Angel for 90% fire res.

EDIT: Should have said I use him as a walking aura that wants to survive. I do the killing with

Frenzy/

Berserk.

which base skills does ragnar have?
what is useful?
haven't looked into the new barbs

Crispin wrote: 2 years ago

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

@ToX-I-qUc
I swapped from act 2 merc to act 5 merc for a barbarian duo on trav runs. Ragnar's equipped with double Last Wish to get lvl 34 might aura that doesn't have to be triggered to be applied. Trav runs are just too fast to bother with auras on Emilio.

Crown of Thieves and

Guardian Angel for 90% fire res.

EDIT: Should have said I use him as a walking aura that wants to survive. I do the killing with

Frenzy/

Berserk.

which base skills does ragnar have?
what is useful?
haven't looked into the new barbs

Frenzy,

Iron Skin and

Taunt

Taunt obviously being rather annoying if you plan to otherwise use curses and the like..kinda kills the usefulness of Plague on them on a regular basis.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

ToX-I-qUc wrote: 2 years ago

Oh my... Last Wish is so far away from what I can afford.

Is there a lowbudget version? Thought about Unbending Will and Death in combination

Honestly, unless someone nearby (you from merc, merc from you, whichever way) gets a massive benefit from the aura, Last Wish is entirely overrated for actual use. Even ignoring the part where the blind keeps overriding

Life Tap or other curses possibly supplied from the outside (ugh...). Napkin math as follows...

The fact that you need 6 sockets inherently means you're using a

Phase Blade. That in turn means it will never be ethereal and you're stuck with 31-35 damage base. Say you get a perfect 375 on the Last Wish, that's 147 to 166 dmg base which is pathetic, compared to many other options and even more so compared to say Grief which adds the +dmg to base, resulting in more than double the base damage, even with the worst roll possible.

With two of them, you get a lvl 34 might to try and make up for the loss (spoiler alert: it won't!). That's 370 additional ED.
Say your merc is lvl 90, that's 218 strength or 218ed. Add in a Fortitude and you're at 518ed without Last Wish, 888 with two of them.

Now, 518ed on a worst-roll-possible Grief Phase is 2305 actual damage per swing (rounded and averaged for simplicity).
888ed on a best-roll-possible Last Wish is 1546.
Note the rather significant difference.

That doesn't take into account the admittedly baller crushing on LW (which doesn't do THAT much on non-bosses by comparison) but it also ignores the additional demon ED on Grief (which is basically flat ED in trav), the added dmg from Venom (which I'll guesstimate probably roughly evens out with LW's

Charged Bolt..either way, both are minor), the deadly strike and extra IAS on Grief (IAS doesn't matter much for merc as phase caps out either way, DS matters all the more as it can combine with the merc's base 5 crit for quadruple dmg procs), the -target def on Grief (keep in mind the ITD on both doesn't work for a merc), the fact that Grief can roll significantly higher than the example above or any extra ed from a higher merc lvl, arreat's strength, the merc's

Frenzy and whatnot all else, all of which would further shift things away from Last Wish.

If your merc acts as an aura stick for you then that's a different picture but if you're a GF/MF stacking horker for example and your merc does the killing, Last Wish is just...mweh.
The only real kicker at that point is the

Fade proc but I have yet to see my horker's A5 merc die (or even come close) since he got half-geared. So...it'd basically be 4

Jah worth for lower damage and a proc that doesn't change anything.

Disclaimer:
Yes, I realize Grief isn't the ideal example but it is a common comparison. The actual math is a tad different for the merc specifically, due to the A5 1h sword multiplier which affects LH in full but only the base for Grief. That ultimately moves LH up to a bit over 300 base but doesn't buff Grief nearly as much. As a result, the actual difference is MUCH smaller on a merc specifically but still there (Grief then still wins out even with a worst roll but only by so little that you need to factor in the DS average and merc's

Frenzy ED - the combination of 1 Grief 1 LH actually leads there, sticking with only those 2 as the options/examples - Grief/Grief goes back to winning if you use perfect rolls for both, Grief and LH). I left that out above so it can be applied in Principle to the idea of carrying dual LW yourself, rather than on the merc. That same merc multiplier actually further increases the differences between LW and other non-Grief options with 4 or less sockets as the relative bonus from being able to use an

Eth. weapon is equally doubled.

can you push your mercs damage significantly if you give him a Grief in a

Colossus Blade? the CB is a lot slower than a PB and I wonder if that changes much

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Crispin wrote: 2 years ago

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

@ToX-I-qUc
I swapped from act 2 merc to act 5 merc for a barbarian duo on trav runs. Ragnar's equipped with double Last Wish to get lvl 34 might aura that doesn't have to be triggered to be applied. Trav runs are just too fast to bother with auras on Emilio.

Crown of Thieves and

Guardian Angel for 90% fire res.

EDIT: Should have said I use him as a walking aura that wants to survive. I do the killing with

Frenzy/

Berserk.

which base skills does ragnar have?
what is useful?
haven't looked into the new barbs

Frenzy,

Iron Skin and

Taunt

Taunt obviously being rather annoying if you plan to otherwise use curses and the like..kinda kills the usefulness of Plague on them on a regular basis.

that's alright. I was thinking barb merc for my horker

Crispin wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

ToX-I-qUc wrote: 2 years ago

Oh my... Last Wish is so far away from what I can afford.

Is there a lowbudget version? Thought about Unbending Will and Death in combination

Honestly, unless someone nearby (you from merc, merc from you, whichever way) gets a massive benefit from the aura, Last Wish is entirely overrated for actual use. Even ignoring the part where the blind keeps overriding

Life Tap or other curses possibly supplied from the outside (ugh...). Napkin math as follows...

The fact that you need 6 sockets inherently means you're using a

Phase Blade. That in turn means it will never be ethereal and you're stuck with 31-35 damage base. Say you get a perfect 375 on the Last Wish, that's 147 to 166 dmg base which is pathetic, compared to many other options and even more so compared to say Grief which adds the +dmg to base, resulting in more than double the base damage, even with the worst roll possible.

With two of them, you get a lvl 34 might to try and make up for the loss (spoiler alert: it won't!). That's 370 additional ED.
Say your merc is lvl 90, that's 218 strength or 218ed. Add in a Fortitude and you're at 518ed without Last Wish, 888 with two of them.

Now, 518ed on a worst-roll-possible Grief Phase is 2305 actual damage per swing (rounded and averaged for simplicity).
888ed on a best-roll-possible Last Wish is 1546.
Note the rather significant difference.

That doesn't take into account the admittedly baller crushing on LW (which doesn't do THAT much on non-bosses by comparison) but it also ignores the additional demon ED on Grief (which is basically flat ED in trav), the added dmg from Venom (which I'll guesstimate probably roughly evens out with LW's

Charged Bolt..either way, both are minor), the deadly strike and extra IAS on Grief (IAS doesn't matter much for merc as phase caps out either way, DS matters all the more as it can combine with the merc's base 5 crit for quadruple dmg procs), the -target def on Grief (keep in mind the ITD on both doesn't work for a merc), the fact that Grief can roll significantly higher than the example above or any extra ed from a higher merc lvl, arreat's strength, the merc's

Frenzy and whatnot all else, all of which would further shift things away from Last Wish.

If your merc acts as an aura stick for you then that's a different picture but if you're a GF/MF stacking horker for example and your merc does the killing, Last Wish is just...mweh.
The only real kicker at that point is the

Fade proc but I have yet to see my horker's A5 merc die (or even come close) since he got half-geared. So...it'd basically be 4

Jah worth for lower damage and a proc that doesn't change anything.

Disclaimer:
Yes, I realize Grief isn't the ideal example but it is a common comparison. The actual math is a tad different for the merc specifically, due to the A5 1h sword multiplier which affects LH in full but only the base for Grief. That ultimately moves LH up to a bit over 300 base but doesn't buff Grief nearly as much. As a result, the actual difference is MUCH smaller on a merc specifically but still there (Grief then still wins out even with a worst roll but only by so little that you need to factor in the DS average and merc's

Frenzy ED - the combination of 1 Grief 1 LH actually leads there, sticking with only those 2 as the options/examples - Grief/Grief goes back to winning if you use perfect rolls for both, Grief and LH). I left that out above so it can be applied in Principle to the idea of carrying dual LW yourself, rather than on the merc. That same merc multiplier actually further increases the differences between LW and other non-Grief options with 4 or less sockets as the relative bonus from being able to use an

Eth. weapon is equally doubled.

can you push your mercs damage significantly if you give him a Grief in a

Colossus Blade? the CB is a lot slower than a PB and I wonder if that changes much

You can't use a CB on a

Frenzy merc, 1h swords only.
If you did though, it doesn't help much for Grief if not make it worse. The +dmg stays the same and is independent of the base weapon damage so you're only looking at a few more dmg points on the base weapon to hit with the merc multiplier. And you're paying for that with a significant loss in base attack speed.
Using the same train of thought for LW, you're down to a lvl 17 aura as you can't dual wield those on a merc.

oh, yeah. I see.

pyropy wrote: 2 years ago

I'm running a sorc and I love this new merc. I even gave up my Insight for him which was unthinkable for me before I adjusted to using him. He's so tanky it takes criminal negligence to get him killed. I got him set up with a Plague offhand but I really want an Infinity. It's just going to suck having to go back to babysitting my A2 merc. Anybody else really enjoying the new

Frenzy barb merc?

I switched to this Beast as a Hydrorb and gave him a Grief and an

Headstriker and he's flying. Planning to experiment with Lawbringer, too when I have enough time but so far he's perfect!

I'm using an A5

Frenzy mercenary (Grief +

Headstriker + Fortitude +

Arreat's Face) with my FoH /

Smite hybrid and love it. I only switched from Emilio as I was kinda tired of having the same mercs over and over again. To be honest, for a FoH paladin it doesn't matter one bit which mercenary are you using, even P8 is a joke.

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

@ToX-I-qUc
I swapped from act 2 merc to act 5 merc for a barbarian duo on trav runs. Ragnar's equipped with double Last Wish to get lvl 34 might aura that doesn't have to be triggered to be applied. Trav runs are just too fast to bother with auras on Emilio.

Crown of Thieves and

Guardian Angel for 90% fire res.

EDIT: Should have said I use him as a walking aura that wants to survive. I do the killing with

Frenzy/

Berserk.

You have two last wishes? I feel so poor all of the sudden XD

I’m using the Barb merc as a Barb player for ladder S1 and I’ve been doing a few tests with him. Here’s what I think so far —

I prefer the

Bash Barb over

Frenzy. In my opinion high level

Battle Cry and

Stun with the right gear on him is way more useful than

Frenzy/

Taunt. Right now mine is equipped with an Arreats, Unbending Will in a CB and Treachery in a

Balrog Skin. I plan to make Fort for him at some point (whenever I can find a

Lo) but as of right now he survives and deals damage just fine.

He actually ends up being a great boss killer helper due to being able to cast over Lvl 20

Battle Cry. He’s been aiding me in taking down the numerous Dclones that have spawned recently. As a barb player, I’m willing to forgo a bit of raw power from an A2 merc to essentially having a second me running beside me

If you haven’t tried the

Bash barb yet I recommend it. Throw an

Eth Unbending Will on him and watch him go

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

The one thing that does annoy me though - in those cases where I do use him (which is ladder and 1 non-ladder build so 2 out of 8) - their hit chance just seems utterly pathetic. I know they're nowhere near what a well geared player would be but from observation, they seem to miss a LOT more than they should, based on their lvl and ar vs. the target mob(s).

They do whiff on their attacks a ridiculous amount. That's offset a little bit by the amount of attacks they can get in when frenzied but they need some help in that area.

pyropy wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

The one thing that does annoy me though - in those cases where I do use him (which is ladder and 1 non-ladder build so 2 out of 8) - their hit chance just seems utterly pathetic. I know they're nowhere near what a well geared player would be but from observation, they seem to miss a LOT more than they should, based on their lvl and ar vs. the target mob(s).

They do whiff on their attacks a ridiculous amount. That's offset a little bit by the amount of attacks they can get in when frenzied but they need some help in that area.

This.
So much this...

Currently running

Arreat's Face, Stone, Lawbringer, Oath and even with the +20% AR from arreat and the -50% target defense from Lawbringer, this guy couldn't hit the broad side of a barn... Maybe hitting 40% of hits at level 90?

If they decided to give him some more AR so he'd actually hit things around 75% of the time I bet he'd be pretty good though. He's already better at the areas that i'm struggling with on blizz sorc than an act 2 merc is thanks to Lawbringer and him being a speedy boi so he can chase down oblivion knights.
Chaos,

Nihlathak, some of worldstone keep are usually the biggest struggles for my build and this guy chews through those things since they're mostly undead, and

Nihlathak can't corpse explode his minions thanks to Lawbringer.

Another thing I like so much better on the A5 merc over the A2 merc is getting Treachery to proc. My A2 merc is really vulnerable until the

Fade kicks in. With the A5 merc, I don't even think about it. He's always running around with his

Fade on and I don't have to worry about him dying before it activates.

I hired an act5 barb as a merc and gave him a

Headstriker. in nm he shreds and doesn't care how many mobs there are. I like his cold-bloodedness. I have yet to test hell with him