Act 2 Merc w/ Pride Equipment

Hi

I'm thinking in use Act 2 Mer (Might) with Pride with my Strafezon.

On guides are generally recommended

Vampire Gaze +

Shaftstop for the rest of equipment, instead of the typical

Andariel's Visage + Fortitude, to increase his survivability as Pride does very low damage...

I was thinking in trying

Andariel's Visage + Chains of Honor instead, for the +4 to all skill (as more 4 levels of Might is like an extra Ruby Jewel for my char )
Have any of you tried something like that?
May It work or Merc will die to frequently without the extra % dr?

I use

Andariel's Visage and Treachery on the merc. I never cared to get better armor for him because I didn't think it made that much of a difference for what his role in the party is. Now that I can easily afford a better armor for him, my character is 99 and it really, really doesn't matter to me anymore.

When Treachery procs

Fade and he gains the resists and physical damage reduction, there isn't a huge difference between any of the armor options for him, so it comes down to utility because he's really just an aura bot. Before

Fade kicks in though, he is very vulnerable to

Council Member hydras. That only matters when playing solo though, and considering how you're not supposed to be taking hits as a bowazon, I'll sometimes feed him a full rejuv since I typically won't use them.

One nice thing about Treachery is that the 45% IAS plus 20% from

Andariel's Visage combined with 33% from level 15

Fanaticism gets him down to an 8/2

Jab, which is 6.25 hits per second. If nothing else, it allows him to constantly proc Hit Blinds Target.

At level 98, his

Jab DPS is as follows with a level 20

Concentration ethereal Pride

Giant Thresher and

Andariel's Visage:
Fortitude: 18.2K
Treachery: 16.5K
Chains of Honor: 15.2K

However, I don't care very much what his DPS is, because that's my job. In addition to approximately doubling his life steal, another thing I like about Chains of Honor which I never thought of before is that it raises his Might from level 23 to 25. That two-level difference only increases my

Strafe DPS by 338 though. If I go with Treachery/Fortitude and drop

Andariel's Visage for

Vampire Gaze, my DPS decreases by 338 with Might dropping down to level 21. A 676 DPS swing isn't nothing, but it's also not an easily noticeable difference.

Giving him the

Vampire Gaze and

Shaftstop combo never crossed my mind, but I haven't felt like I missed out on him being more tanky because he's hiding in the back most of the time while the

Valkyrie and

Decoy are actually keeping the monsters away. 79% FRW and Harmony on switch means I'm not waiting for his cowardly ass anyway. His only essential combat duty is to activate Might, and even with Treachery before

Fade procs, he can absorb a

Hydra or three before the light turns on upstairs.

I think it sounds like a solid idea. He gets up to 18% leech, overcapped res, some DR, safety from freeze and blind. Undead and unleechable targets could be an issue maybe

Another part of the merc survival equation is your character's damage. If you are killing monsters quickly or at least keeping them in hit recovery, that's a big survival bonus for your merc

I prefer

The Reaper's Toll over Pride in most cases.

When playing solo, I don't need the extra damage of

Concentration, because my damage is through the roof anyway.

When playing split mf games online, I have a hard time killing bosses/physical immunes and Pride sucks ass in keeping the merc alive versus

Baal or Diablo whatever armor or helmet he is geared with.

I am using

Atma's Amulet, but it is not enough to safely break all immunes reliably. Wraiths can be a pain.

Pride is great for doing real party games like a Baalwalk, when I have other players with me.

All in all, I prefer my frostzon/strafezon hybrid build, because she can kill ANYTHING in a solo game. Using an act 1 rogue merc (Hustle/Mist/Flickering Flame) for style and additional fire damage. So I have

Strafe,

Freezing Arrow and

Exploding Arrow from my merc, all with 100%

Pierce. Nothing can hold up against this. If I want more safety (for Nilhatak for example) I simply swap the FF for a Delirium.