What is the best base for Merc Infinity?

As the title states, what is the best Merc Infinity base?

TL DR; If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher. If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Giant Thresher. Obviously

Eth bases

LarsVonAllen wrote: 1 year ago

TL DR; If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher. If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Giant Thresher. Obviously

Eth bases

Wasn't it :
If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher or

Giant Thresher
If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Great Poleaxe. Obviously

Eth bases
?
T and GT have same base speed.

Well, since you want your merc to prog CB as much as possible, IAS is the

Key for dmg.
Thus for me a

Mancatcher (

Eth ofc) would be the preferred choice.
Has slightly less max dmg compared to GT but reaches already the next AS breakpoint and therefore easily makes it up.

The highest dps at 35 ias has

Cryptic Axe.
Highest dps at 0/20 ias

Great Poleaxe/

Stygian Pike.
This is for trash mobs where the merc can actually manage to kill stuff.

If you think your merc realistically helps you against act bosses, dclones and perhaps even ubers without dying, go with

Mancatcher. Those one frame faster attacks (compared to T/GT) won't make any difference but you will feel better about your Infinity choice.

More often than not the base doesn't matter at all unless you have a

Colossus Voulge without the str req fulfilled. Or if you don't care for resale values.

Giant Thresher is the most expensive, rarest base (tc of 87, now much more common thanks to TZs). Not the best in either scenario but adds a great deal of value, if you roll high ED.

LarsVonAllen wrote: 1 year ago

TL DR; If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher. If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Giant Thresher. Obviously

Eth bases

Thresher and

Giant Thresher have the same speed.
Also, neither requires any bonus stat points for a decent lvl A2 merc to equip.
Your choice of andy vs. non-andy and ias vs. non-ias hence makes zero difference here.

A

Giant Thresher is technically superior to a

Thresher simply because it comes with 0.5 more avg. base dmg. The only reasons to ever use a

Thresher over a

Giant Thresher are a) you want a cheaper base or b) you for some reason want less stable damage (the spread on a

Giant Thresher is far lower than a

Thresher).

What you may want to look at alternatively though is a

Mancatcher because that actually does come with a faster base speed which in turn may (depending on the rest of your gear) yield a faster attacking merc. Faster vs. higher hitting is of course a matter of preference again but especially for Infinity, faster may be more desired due to the crushing blow.

That having been said, personally, I'll never trade GP for any other base.
(But I also don't use andys so..yeah)

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

LarsVonAllen wrote: 1 year ago

TL DR; If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher. If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Giant Thresher. Obviously

Eth bases

Wasn't it :
If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher or

Giant Thresher
If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Great Poleaxe. Obviously

Eth bases
?
T and GT have same base speed.

My Bad, you are right. GT has bigger range and more consisten Dmg output. Expensive thou. I would go

Thresher or GP for looks.

LarsVonAllen wrote: 1 year ago

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

LarsVonAllen wrote: 1 year ago

TL DR; If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher. If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Giant Thresher. Obviously

Eth bases

Wasn't it :
If IAS’ed Andy’s:

Thresher or

Giant Thresher
If not IAS’ed Andy’s:

Great Poleaxe. Obviously

Eth bases
?
T and GT have same base speed.

My Bad, you are right. GT has bigger range and more consisten Dmg output. Expensive thou. I would go

Thresher or GP for looks.

Merc looks don't change, no matter what base you use.

The Weapons are different. They show up at the Merc Window, don’t they

I went with

Eth

Mancatcher for faster attack speed so I could hit the higher breakpoint with 35% IAS Andy's.

But yea, as others said,

Eth GT is the best if you don't have 35% IAS from Andy's.

I think anyone trying to decide what base to use should give this a read.

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/commen ... e_eternal/

What character is your merc for and what level is he?

Nate wrote: 1 year ago

What character is your merc for and what level is he?

Planning to make a

Poison Nova Necro and use A2 Merc. But the weapon will eventually swap between poison Necro and eventually javazon.

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

Nate wrote: 1 year ago

What character is your merc for and what level is he?

Planning to make a

Poison Nova Necro and use A2 Merc. But the weapon will eventually swap between poison Necro and eventually javazon.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious:
You do know that

Conviction doesn't do anything for poison res, right? All the Infinity

Conviction does for a poison necro is lower target def for the merc himself and summons if you have any.

Hmm, for a

Poison Nova I don’t know how much Infinity would help, it doesn’t effect poison res. Maybe an act 5 merc with Plague would be another option? -not necessarily for the -poison res, but for the low resist proc - even though you could cast it as well.

But otherwise I made my Infinity in an

Eth man catcher for 2 reasons: the stat requirements are low, so your merc (or sorc) can equip it without issue, and it’s the fastest (for the crushing blow application, vs damage output, and mine rolled anti-perfect anyways … what a let down) remember the ed varies but the crushing blow is always 40%.

When considering Infinity here’s my recommended consideration priorities:
1. Can you equip it? (For the aura)
2. Do you like the esthetics? (I love how my sorc looks when she wields the

Eth

Mancatcher!)
3. How fast does it attack? (For speed to apply the crushing blow)
4. What’s the damage? (Come on, if your giving your merc Infinity it’s so you can kill stuff much faster, and getting an anti-perfect roll on the Ed is a kick in the junk)

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

Nate wrote: 1 year ago

What character is your merc for and what level is he?

Planning to make a

Poison Nova Necro and use A2 Merc. But the weapon will eventually swap between poison Necro and eventually javazon.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious:
You do know that

Conviction doesn't do anything for poison res, right? All the Infinity

Conviction does for a poison necro is lower target def for the merc himself and summons if you have any.

I actually didn't know that but it does work with CE doesn't it?

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

Planning to make a

Poison Nova Necro and use A2 Merc. But the weapon will eventually swap between poison Necro and eventually javazon.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious:
You do know that

Conviction doesn't do anything for poison res, right? All the Infinity

Conviction does for a poison necro is lower target def for the merc himself and summons if you have any.

I actually didn't know that but it does work with CE doesn't it?

With half of it.

Conviction works for fire, light and cold res.
Since CE is half fire and half phys,

Conviction basically works at 50% efficiency for it.