Frenzy Barb Merc ?

Hi D2 Folks !

I made a well geared

Axe

Frenzy barb and can't decide which merc I may use.

I firstly thought about an A2 merc with might/

Concentration auras but I don't want to spend time/golds to resurrect him everytime I encounter a boss.
Then I said myself an A1 merc with Mist or Faith may be another option but I will lose an aura that may increase my damage (which is the first goal for my barb).
An A5

Frenzy merc with Last Wish and

Azurewrath may be a compromise but I prefer to be the only barb on the battlefield and Last Wish is really too expensive to get might.

You understood, I need your advice.

Thank you !

A2 with

The Reaper's Toll is the best imo

Edit: If you want to got with an act 5 merc, use Lawbringer instead of

Azurewrath for

Decrepify

if u have great gear the merc will be doing very little killing...

2 fun mercs-

act 5

Frenzy with sazabi set and Hustle

act 1 fire with Mist Hustle and delerium

You say your first goal is damage, so reapers toll or Faith act 2 merc are the best damage options. But you can't really rely on either all the time unless you are running Enigma--especially with reapers toll you need to place your merc at your target to get the benefit

So if there is an Enigma on your mystery build, I recommend reapers toll. It not only boosts your damage (by an amount that depends on target), it also potentially breaks immunes, it adds safety, and it completely shuts down bosses. If you are not running Enigma, then Pride/might will sometimes boost your damage whenever your merc happens to be near you. It's also going to be stronger in many cases

A1 Mist (165-225%) is not much of a boost to damage compared to a might merc with Pride (~500-600% depending on roll, merc level, merc gear). And Faith is worse yet (118-144%) and the aura has a small range

A5 merc with

Sanctuary Aura is very useful, because it sets damage resistance of enemy undead to zero and stuns dolls and wisps. And with Lawbringer, you get

Decrepify as well. I agree Last Wish is not much of a boost (200%) for the price

Thank you for your answers.

Here is my build :

Grief in

Berserker Axe
Death in ethereal

Berserker Axe

Arreat's Face
Enigma

Highlord's Wrath

String of Ears

Raven Frost
Rare ring life leech @res AR res

Laying of Hands

Gore Rider

It hits 11 fpa.

No way with a Delirium A1 merc, I don't want to run after monsters.

A5 looks good with Lawbringer and Cure synergiesing with santuary aura.
Is it better to go

Frenzy barb or single handed ?
Double Lawbringer ?

Most people only compare damage numbers when trying to analyze merc options.

This is short-sighted!

Example:

My Travincal Whirlwind Barb is using a dual Last Wish barb merc.

Reasons:

Level 34 might aura spends +370% ED, has a HUGE range and is available from start! Since a Travi run is very short, an act 2 merc will not activate his own aura most of the time. The high chance of Life Tap and the additional chance to proc Fade make us both very hard to kill, this saves much time in not reviving the merc. And for the rare case he kills something, he got 90% additional magic find added.

This variant works much better for me than anything else I've tried (reapers, pride, act 1/3 mercs) and this build is able to farm anywhere else, too.


The decision which merc to use is dependant on many factors:

Do you have enigma?

If not, using Hustle armor (and perhaps Hustle secondary weapon) to speed up your merc is a very reliable option. An act 1 merc has a ranged attack, so he doesn't need to be toe on toe with the foe.

Do you play solo or in parties?

If you often play in parties, maybe you could choose a not-so meta variant. Simply because you don't bring a benefit to your team with the fourth pride merc.

If you play solo most of your time, and you have a well geared hero, damage is not that important, too. This opens up many new options. My poisonmancer uses an act 3 merc (Plague, Flickering Flame), because the poison nova does most of the killing and the resistance aura makes my minions immune to fire. My strafezon is using an act 1 merc (Mist, Flickering) for fighting immunes, because with Strafe I kill everything else and my vally proves to be an excellent tank. My Dragondin is either using a LW/Plague barb or a lightning a3 merc (Plague, Griffons, Spirit, Viper). My summoner druid and my pure armymancer necro do an excellent job with their act 1 fire mercs, because melee hirelings often can't reach their enemies due to my minions standing in the way. And so on ... I think you get the picture.

Where do you farm? Do you need an allround-build or do you want to specialise?

Especially in Chaos Sanctuary, Cleansing is a top-notch choice in things of safety and farming speed. Decrepify is gone within a second! In World Stone Tower, Burning Souls/Dolls, Unravelers and Oblivion Knights can be a very deadly combo for any hero! Again, Cleansing saves your ass!


@Tornado_OLO

As a Frenzy Barb, I would use Grief and Lawbringer of two reasons:

-You may proc Decrepify by yourself and don't have to wait for your merc, this also opens up the option of having pride AND decrep.
-Sanctuary also works for your grief damage and you gain 100% leech effectiveness against undead. As stated before, the most annoying and dangerous monsters in diablo 2 are undead. The push-back effect is not an issue, because as a Frenzy your are the fastest class available. And really, you DON'T want those Doll minion packs to gang up on you, don't you?

With this gear, you can jump right into the middle of Lord de Seis pack and you will survive this even in a full multiplayer game!

Clear speed in Chaos Sanctuary is higher than with two grief and hunting souls while your fellows are dying left and right is fun. For other areas you could have a second grief in stash.

Where do you want to farm? Solo or party?

A5

Frenzy merc is fun! Mine is rocking the following:

• Hustle in
  Phase Blade

• Azurewrath

• Ethereal
  Arreat's Face

• Ethereal
  The Gladiator's Bane

I will give a shot with barb Merc with dual Swords Hustle/Lawbringer !

Edit : what about Cure as

Helm for synergy with

Sanctuary Aura ?

Tornado_OLO wrote: 1 day ago

... what about Cure as

Helm for synergy with

Sanctuary Aura ?

Cure is a good option overall to remove curses, but

Cleansing aura cast from gear doesn't synergize with Sanctuary. Only hard points into skills count as synergies