Should I use this Eth Great Hauberk for Merc Fortitude?

798 def, 6%ed
for a A2 merc Should I wait for a better base?

I would recommend using nothing other than ethereal

Sacred Armor that's either superior with an enhanced defense bonus or has near-perfect non-superior base defense. No other armor in the game has a maximum base defense that comes close to it. Big strength requirements and armor weight penalties are not as relevant for act 2 mercs as they are for player characters.

The exact enhanced defense roll on a superior base doesn't matter very much, because it stacks additively with +200% gained from Fortitude. What matters most is that a superior base generated with enhanced defense will set the armor's base defense to one point higher than the maximum possible value.

Sacred Armor has a maximum possible base defense rating of 600. Ethereal

Sacred Armor therefore has a maximum possible base defense rating of 900. Superior ethereal

Sacred Armor with +X% enhanced defense will always have a base defense rating of exactly 901.


Edit: I noticed that some more posts have been made on this topic, and it looks like I forgot to mention cost. Current non-ladder softcore prices for a godly 4OS ethereal

Sacred Armor base range from around

Sur to multiple

Ber, which is a lot more expensive than all 4 Fortitude runes combined.

I can tell you from personal experience that I made Fortitude for a merc in a good ethereal

Sacred Armor base, and his is ironically much more valuable than the Fortitude being worn by the player character he's supporting.

If you're merc ever has trouble staying alive, it will most likely not be because of too little defense rating. The cost-to-benefit ratio of making Fortitude in high-defense ethereal

Sacred Armor is not as good as other bases.

Gotcha. Very well explained. Guess I'll be holding out until I find a nice

Eth

Sacred Armor with ED. Thank you.

I don't get as excited about max defence as some people do.
I make Fortitude for a Merc in any

Eth base with 750 plus defence rather than spending

Lo plus on getting the "best". (There is little chance that you will ever find that 900 defence base).
If your Merc dies due to low defence, does it really matter? Just go res him. edit: my mercs barely die when using Fortitude, any fort is a great upgrade on Treachery for survivability.
So many people pay high premiums for perfect defence items when it really has little effect on your gameplay

I agree with Moot11 for most situations. It's true that the best Fortitude is in an

Eth

Sacred Armor. However,

Sacred Armor doesn't grow on trees. Let alone

Eth, +%ed, 4os

Sacred Armor. That's expensive stuff there, or really, really good luck.

So it depends what you're after. Do you want the absolute BIS for your merc? Then, yeah, the

Sacred Armor is your target. Do you want to be able to resell it later? Again, you'll want to use a more meta base.

However, if you just need something to get your GF horker off the Ground or to help your Sorc deal with phys immunes, then your hauberk is fine.

Most of my mercs are just fine with non-ethereal kracken forties, for example. Absolutely no effect on the gameplay - merc is either killin mobs easily with whatever def (dmg, leech and ias are what matters), or catches amplify and dies from succubi canonade - regardless of how super-duper

Eth his jacket is xD Def is clearly overrated in D2. I'd say you pick whatever nice affordable base/roll you can afford - it's a matter of taste, really.

an

Eth Insight and an

Andariel

Helm cost less than the fort your making, and with your fort and these 2 items, there is very little your merc cant face tank. Your armor is great, im willing to bet that 95% of players who have made an

Eth fort, made it in other bases other than

Sacred Armor, because in actuality it makes very very very little difference if your merc has reasonable damage and lifesteal

Personally I didn't even put my Fortitude on an

Eth armor because I wanted the option to use it on a character. But yeah if you only are going to use it on a merc than

Eth with the highest possible armor. 800 is pretty solid. I think anything more than 750 is fine. I mean you could go months searching for an

Eth

Sacred Armor and never find one. People selling them are probably going to be looking for at least an

Ohm or

Lo. Getting a superior

Eth one with 15% ED will probably cost at least 1-2 bers. So depends how badly you want it and what you're willing to spend for it.

Thanks to everyone for replying, really appreciate it.
I actually already have a Fortitude in a

Dusk Shroud for my Bowazon, which I gave to my Horker Merc.
I checked how much those

Eth Sacred Armors go for, and holy moly, those ain't cheap...

they are not cheap lol. I have more hr drops this ladder than all combined

Sacred Armor (White/magic/rare/set) drops together probably. What really stings is when you drop an

Eth one and it has 1 socket haha

Agree with the other posters to not hold out for a perfect

Eth

Sacred Armor. Think of all the opportunity you'll lose waiting to find that once-in-a-lifetime drop, when all it really would gain you is 309 extra def (plus a much higher strength requirement).

Anything in the 750 range will get you a solid Fortitude. I would 100% use the base in your screenshot for a merc fort.