A2 Merc Helm Question

So I really want Cannot be Frozen on my A2 merc. When that dude is frozen the attack speed is just super painful to watch. I am thinking, what is the more versatile helmet to do this with? Versatile in the sense that I can reuse this merc

Helm for other classes/builds super effectively. Personally, I don't want to waste a

Cham rune (which I haven't found yet anyway) on an

Andariel's Visage due to the helmet's inherent fire resistance penalty. So, I am juggling between either punching a hole in

Guillaume's Face or a

Vampire Gaze (preferably ethereal variant but haven't found yet). Any thoughts from the community? Thanks as always.

uniques/darksight-helm-t741.html

Kiras guardian

Tiara is good cbf

Helm with massive resist

Not

Helm but Gladiators bane armor is great for merc. It has cannot be frozen mod as well

The best for surviability armor imo

Darksight Helm

Kira's Guardian

The Gladiator's Bane

ghostpos wrote: 1 month ago

So I really want Cannot be Frozen on my A2 merc. When that dude is frozen the attack speed is just super painful to watch. I am thinking, what is the more versatile helmet to do this with? Versatile in the sense that I can reuse this merc

Helm for other classes/builds super effectively. Personally, I don't want to waste a

Cham rune (which I haven't found yet anyway) on an

Andariel's Visage due to the helmet's inherent fire resistance penalty. So, I am juggling between either punching a hole in

Guillaume's Face or a

Vampire Gaze (preferably ethereal variant but haven't found yet). Any thoughts from the community? Thanks as always.

To satisfy your requirements Hearth checks all boxes.

- You can use it at L35 with the most basic 3 OS base '

Mask' for instance (iLvl41 - can be chanced in Normal Act5 or TZ with the appropriate leveled char.)
- Runes can easily be farmed in NM Tower
- Cold theme with 2 variables and a guaranteed CBF.
- Great twinking gear.

I mean, does it have to be head armour? What chest piece did you have in mind?

Either way, I second Kira, I guess. Just because it can drop at tragically. Makes it a fairly easy one to acquire.

Also, is 2 pieces with freeze duration 1/2 a thing?

Usually, try to rock

Duriel's Shell myself.

https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Cannot_be_Frozen

Here's a list of all sources of cannot be frozen. Hope it helps.

That site is not updated for D2R. For example, it does not include the rune words added by D2R, there's a new helmet rune word called Hearth (as mentioned by Skai) that has Cannot Be Frozen. There's in fact also another new rune word with CBF, called Metamorphosis, but that's only for Druid Pelts.

Hearth ladder only though isn't it?
Lol, I still play Lod from time to.time myself. Gotta go with what I know best.

Lol, I was also going to suggest simply upping movement speed/attack speed on the Merc to.the point where being frozen doesn't matter.

Easier to do on some mercs rather than others.

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 month ago

That site is not updated for D2R. For example, it does not include the rune words added by D2R, there's a new helmet rune word called Hearth (as mentioned by Skai) that has Cannot Be Frozen. There's in fact also another new rune word with CBF, called Metamorphosis, but that's only for Druid Pelts.

BoringTitle wrote: 1 month ago

Hearth ladder only though isn't it?

Yes, Hearth (and Metamorphosis as well, not that it matters for non-Druids) is ladder-only. They're both available offline as well, just not online non-ladder.

BoringTitle wrote: 1 month ago

Lol, I still play Lod from time to.time myself. Gotta go with what I know best.

Oh yeah, these old classic D2/LoD sites are still relevant... for D2/LoD

Gotta be careful though when looking up D2R things. Rune words have been added, skills have been changed (and not just numbers, some have had more impactful changes), mercs have had significant changes, and all the rune words that used to be ladder-only in LoD are now available on non-ladder in D2R (there's a long list of stuff that's still ladder-only in LoD as you know). People still sometimes get confused to this day when looking up rune words' non-ladder availability cause they find wikis and articles that were never updated for D2R

Eh, I guess now that Hearth is outta the way we have all of the relevant cannot be frozen equipment outta the way and the OP is free to decide fornthemselves though.

I think that's the main thing here anyway. Don't really want to derail the topic.

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 month ago

BoringTitle wrote: 1 month ago

Hearth ladder only though isn't it?

Yes, Hearth (and Metamorphosis as well, not that it matters for non-Druids) is ladder-only. They're both available offline as well, just not online non-ladder.

BoringTitle wrote: 1 month ago

Lol, I still play Lod from time to.time myself. Gotta go with what I know best.

Oh yeah, these old classic D2/LoD sites are still relevant... for D2/LoD

Gotta be careful though when looking up D2R things. Rune words have been added, skills have been changed (and not just numbers, some have had more impactful changes), mercs have had significant changes, and all the rune words that used to be ladder-only in LoD are now available on non-ladder in D2R (there's a long list of stuff that's still ladder-only in LoD as you know). People still sometimes get confused to this day when looking up rune words' non-ladder availability cause they find wikis and articles that were never updated for D2R

In your opinion though, would you agree that though impossible to specifically target farm that

Cham is probably still the best possible option?

That's what i think anyway, opens up way more possibilities, despite its rarity and usefulness in a couple runeword.

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 month ago

BoringTitle wrote: 1 month ago

Hearth ladder only though isn't it?

Yes, Hearth (and Metamorphosis as well, not that it matters for non-Druids) is ladder-only. They're both available offline as well, just not online non-ladder.

BoringTitle wrote: 1 month ago

Lol, I still play Lod from time to.time myself. Gotta go with what I know best.

Oh yeah, these old classic D2/LoD sites are still relevant... for D2/LoD

Gotta be careful though when looking up D2R things. Rune words have been added, skills have been changed (and not just numbers, some have had more impactful changes), mercs have had significant changes, and all the rune words that used to be ladder-only in LoD are now available on non-ladder in D2R (there's a long list of stuff that's still ladder-only in LoD as you know). People still sometimes get confused to this day when looking up rune words' non-ladder availability cause they find wikis and articles that were never updated for D2R

BoringTitle wrote: 1 month ago

In your opinion though, would you agree that though impossible to specifically target farm that

Cham is probably still the best possible option?

Personally, I think

Duriel's Shell is a great option. It has both resistances and CBF (and some other decent stats), and it's reasonably easy to find. But if the armor slot is reserved for something else (like Fortitude or Treachery), then

Cham'ing a unique/set

Helm is a good option too, at least if you can trade for it. Its rarity makes it hard to find on your own - it takes on average almost 2000 runs of The

Secret Cow Level on Hell to find one

Cham (on p1).

But I can make this easier for the OP - if he needs a

Cham on non-ladder, he can have one for free.

What do you say, @ghostpos?

Assuming you aren't just talking about an interim solution but solid, top-end merc gear:

1) You typically want a merc to have some sort of life steal to stay alive with.

2) A2 mercs are generally aura sticks more than anything else. I.e. the weapon is dictated by your own build and more likely than not will not have life steal on it.

3) You still want your merc to perform in a fight which in turn usually leaves you with something like Fortitude as the armor and hence again no life steal.

4) You hence want to cover both, your life steal and your anti-freeze on your headpiece. You won't find a headpiece that has both innately and you can't socket life steal into helmets, meaning you will be socketing a

Cham into a life steal headpiece.

Considering the better options available for that, you're left with a select few real choices, depending on preference:
-

Vampire Gaze: The defensive choice. Just excellent.
-

Crown of Thieves: Helmet of choice for your gold-find trav runner's merc.
-

Stealskull: Helmet of choice for your MF char's merc. Also a solid more offensive choice if the 10 IAS happen to push your merc past another breakpoint.

Andariel's pretty much disqualifies itself, thanks to the -fire res which remains the most dangerous thing for many a merc.

There's a few other life steal helmets out there but RWs won't get CBF socketed and the others just aren't as good by comparison. Honorable mention for

Tal's

Mask at this point I suppose which is certainly not bad by any means but since you shouldn't need the res beyond Fortitude, it also pales next to gaze.

Exceptions obviously apply, as always. Life-tap spamming smiter pallies for example don't necessarily need their merc to have his own life steal. Or you might be running one of the few builds that end up with life steal on their merc's weapon/armor.

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 month ago

That site is not updated for D2R. For example, it does not include the rune words added by D2R, there's a new helmet rune word called Hearth (as mentioned by Skai) that has Cannot Be Frozen. There's in fact also another new rune word with CBF, called Metamorphosis, but that's only for Druid Pelts.

The Amazon Basin is being updated to D2R. For example, here is the CBF page with all the sources.

Trang Oul wrote: 1 month ago

The Amazon Basin is being updated to D2R. For example, here is the CBF page with all the sources.

Yes, I know I was thinking of linking it, but I know that it's not available in all countries - they have completely blocked access from certain parts of the world. Plenty of our members have experienced problems accessing it due to this.

d2rppa69 wrote: 1 month ago

Kiras guardian

Tiara is good cbf

Helm with massive resist

Not

Helm but

The Gladiator's Bane armor is great for merc. It has cannot be frozen mod as well

The best for surviability armor imo

I was dropping in to comment this. Cannot be Frozen and a whole lot of flat DR/MDR makes it much better than the lack of resists would initially lead one to believe.

While Cannot Be frozen is considered mandatory for attack builds, especially the melee ones.
(mainly obtained by using

Raven Frost)
And I agree for those builds.

I never feel the need of Cannot Be frozen on my Mercs or on my caster characters

And most of the guides seem to agree, as they normally do not include Cannot Be frozen equipment on the BIS setup for Merc or Casters.

If you really want, I would go with one of the uniques/sets that have natural Cannot Be frozen instead of spending a

Cham (and maybe a

Larzuk quest)

unless you're SF, just punch a hole and

Cham it. if not, go gladiator's bane. it'd help if you posted your merc's gear and why you want to hire a2. if anything, consider thawing potions in a

Belt slot.

If you really wanted to save on the hole punch and the

Cham, consider Wisdom.

Yes, nearly all other stats will not apply from an A2 mercenary perspective, but you can start with Wisdom and then follow the guidelines of all prior posts.

You can get life leach from

Skin of the Flayed One temporarily, and this armor can also roll ethereal for defensive benefits.

---

To be clear, I don't think you should necessarily prioritize Wisdom, but if that really is your primary fixation its far more affordable on a

Pul