A5 Merc Option?

I just discovered Fury. Would this be nice on the A5 Merc given the +skills to Frenzy? Yes the cost of the RW itself is quite disgusting.

Fury is expensive ( Jah) and not a very common choice for AC5 Merc
For pure damage people generally go for Headstriker (upgraded and ethereal)

Most common choices are
Eternity / Death / Kingslayer / Last Wish (for cb and damage)
Lawbringer (for Decrepify)
Plague (for Lower Resist)
Crescent Moon Runeword (for Static Field)

https://maxroll.gg/d2/resources/mercenary

Thanks for the reply. Yeah my thought is if you have an extra Jah collecting dust it may be an interesting use-case but I guess it's just not worth it.

ghostpos wrote: 1 year ago

Thanks for the reply. Yeah my thought is if you have an extra Jah collecting dust it may be an interesting use-case but I guess it's just not worth it.

Fury has a very weak ED for a Jah

fredkid wrote: 1 year ago

Fury is expensive ( Jah) and not a very common choice for AC5 Merc
For pure damage people generally go for Headstriker (upgraded and ethereal)

Most common choices are
Eternity / Death / Kingslayer / Last Wish (for cb and damage)
Lawbringer (for Decrepify)
Plague (for Lower Resist)
Crescent Moon Runeword (for Static Field)

https://maxroll.gg/d2/resources/mercenary

Lawbringer is also useful due to Sanctuary Aura, it's important, depending on the build. If you got Lucky, an Azurewrath is useful by the same reason.

Fury is viable in an ethereal sword but clearly not the best.
The +10 to Frenzy is useless because you can only hit 10 fpa with a Frenzy barb merc.
You have to use something like 10 base speed sword ( Hydra Edge) and a 0 base speed ( Mythical Sword) to truly benefit from the +10 but still doing low damage.

Many others setups are better and depends what you are playing.

However Fury is dope/lame in BvB because the 66% chance of open wounds.

Hustle deserves an honorable mention at least. In combination with a Hustle armor this guy zoooooms.

Not the strongest variant by all means, but very cheap.

Mind that it's ladder only...

Another great option is the good ol' Grief.

Plague is also very useful for its extremely high Cleansing aura!

The most expensive option is a Dual Last Wish build for a level 34 might aura, high CB, Life Tap and Fade. But you need IAS on the armor/helm for maximizing its use.

Keep in mind that the Barb merc has a very low attack rating. So any item with Ignore Targets Defense and/or bonus to attack rating is very effective.

Fury is one of the "Original Runewords"
https://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/i ... inal.shtml
They are in general weaker than the Runeword that came on 1.10 and after
From what I remember, from "Original Runewords", only White and Memory are used on some end game builds nowadays
They are mostly used for leveling (like Lore, Stealth, Ancients' Pledge, Rhyme, Leaf)

DasNarf wrote: 1 year ago

Dual Last Wish for a level 34 might aura, high CB, Life Tap and Fade. But you need IAS on the armor/helm for maximizing its use.

That's what i use on my Tranvical/General purpose A5 Merc for WW Barb. But i skipped IAS and socketed Um/ Vex in Kira's Guardian and Guardian Angel to maximize survivability. Merc died one time so far since about 1000 Travincal runs

fredkid wrote: 1 year ago

Fury is one of the "Original Runewords"

Should be noted that Fury wasn't even good in the old days. As far as i remember, Jah was used for Increase Maximum Life 5% most of the time. Cruel Elite Weapon of Ias/LL/ML/foo was the way to go.

Blubbalutsch wrote: 1 year ago

DasNarf wrote: 1 year ago

Dual Last Wish for a level 34 might aura, high CB, Life Tap and Fade. But you need IAS on the armor/helm for maximizing its use.

That's what i use on my Tranvical/General purpose A5 Merc for WW Barb. But i skipped IAS and socketed Um/ Vex in Kira's Guardian and Guardian Angel to maximize survivability. Merc died one time so far since about 1000 Tranvincal runs

Yep, same here. Two Barbs are fun! I am good with an ethereal Demonhorn's Edge and humble Fortitude. He's got 5K life with my BO.

@ghostpos What's the build you are using that merc with?

@DasNarf Pretty strong. Grief in Phase Blade. Fortitude in a nice ethereal Lacquered Plate. Lastly Bulwark in ethereal Conqueror Crown. At the moment the second sword is Azurewrath.

If you're playing a melee char with A5, another great option is Lawbringer + Last Wish

You will annihilate hundeads which are the most dangerous monsters in game, but you will benefit from might aura.

Mine with my barb is Guillaume's Face, Lawbringer, Last Wish and Chains of Honor.

CoH so nice. Got me thinking lol. I'm a little too poor to consider Last Wish. Some day.

You can buy a low Last Wish roll for 2 Jah but the level of might aura is always 17, so you don't care.

CoH is underrated but a really solid choice (life leech, res, +% damage demon/undead, DR).
It permits to use a way more offensive helmet like gface.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 1 year ago

You can buy a low Last Wish roll for 2 Jah but the level of might aura is always 17, so you don't care.

CoH is underrated but a really solid choice (life leech, res, +% damage demon/undead, DR).
It permits to use a way more offensive helmet like gface.

Yeah and maybe skip the life leech on weapons as well!

I would also mention other RW for merc: Unbending Will, thats super cheap and if u get nice Eth base and dual wielding them he will just rock !

Or if u find those "Grief dmg" rare ethereal swords which he 'will put them to good use' for sure.

Few seasons back I did theory crafted Frenzy barb and highest dmg was as mentioned above dual Eth upgraded Headstriker + Eth Vampire Gaze and Chains of Honor.

Basicly what to give him is same as what you would wear as Frenzy barb.

Any high dmg weapon is good for him.

If you spent like 10bers on him (or get lucky with RW rolls) he will be hero and you will be his minion

Also if u play Frenzy barb, I do highly recommend Hustle RW and Last Wish, to give you auras
LW is really good on him: he will get Fade, he would proc lifetap so you dont need life leech for him. But the cost of Last Wish is terrible...

You can also try those not much used RW like Destruction (mostly for animation +350%ED, he will proc those spells often) or Kingslayer. He do also well with Azurewrath (if you are on budget).

Frenzy Merc cannot dual wield 2 hand swords...
So he cannot use dual ethereal Unbending Will ... need to be 2 Phase Blade...
(well ... you can use two ethereal Dimensional Blade and its raw damage will be higher - 35.5 avg x 33 avg - but it is slow - base speed 0 x -30)

The Flash wrote: 1 year ago

I would also mention other RW for merc: Unbending Will, thats super cheap and if u get nice Eth base and dual wielding them he will just rock !

Hustle Fanaticism is lvl 1 and has a short range. You have to always Teleport to get Merc close enought to benefit from it.
That's the reason I went Last Wish.

Headstriker is better for Bash Merc than Frenzy.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 1 year ago

Hustle Fanaticism is lvl 1 and has a short range. You have to always Teleport to get Merc close enought to benefit from it.
That's the reason I went Last Wish.

You cannot compare the most EXPENSIVE runeword with one of the CHEAPEST ones.............

Fanaticism is for the merc, not for you. Add Burst of Speed and a Hustle armor and you get the fastest merc possible in this game.

It allows to use slower weapon bases, for example. 3 os versus 6 os allows for a wider choice of bases, too. Hustle is pretty good for its price. Of course it is not "high-end".

Agree!!!
I had a really bad experience with Hustle Act 2 Merc and a Fury: Skill Druid, almost all the time out of range of Fanaticism....
Act 1 Faith and Double Throw Barbarian, on the other hand, works very well for me

Tornado_OLO wrote: 1 year ago

Hustle Fanaticism is lvl 1 and has a short range. You have to always Teleport to get Merc close enought to benefit from it.
That's the reason I went Last Wish.

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