Fortitude: the best Lo rune I ever spent

Hello diablo2.io!

By the advice of numerous guides around the internet, I was very slow to upgrade my mercenary from Treachery to Fortitude. After all, the guides all said that Treachery was "slightly" worse than Fortitude. Why should I sink all the money (a Lo rune, plus a nice 4OS Eth base) into an armor that was only "slightly" better than what my merc was already using?

However, a week ago I realized that the 300% damage on Fortitude wasn't only applied to Fortitude when it was made in a weapon- it's an attribute of Fortitude in an armor as well! Suddenly the calculus completely changed in my head- not only was Fortitude tankier than Treachery, it also causes your merc do deal MUCH more damage, which means he does much more life leach as well.

So I made my Merc a Fortitude in a superior (12% ED) Eth Great Hauberk.

HOLY !@#$. The guides that tell you that Fortitude is "slightly" better than Treachery are LYING. Fortitude is LIGHT-YEARS better than Treachery. Fortitude is way tankier that Treachery, even after Treachery's Fade finally procs. My merc went from having to be baby-sat to face-tanking the entire Travincal High Council like it was nothing. He can tank an infinite number of cows, forever. I don't think he will survive against most Ubers, but I'm mostly playing a lightning sorc so that's not a consideration anyway. (I don't think any merc can fight the Ubers?) He died frequently before, but he almost never dies now, and when he does, it's my definitely my fault.

So I can't see why people value Treachery so highly for mercs, other than it's a decent budget merc armor. It should in no way be considered good enough that you don't need to make your mercenary a Fortitude.

Treachery when procced does VERY good defense for something made with a Lem. Secondly, that 45 IAS makes the merc hit faster, which also means more life leech. You are not wrong to say fort is better, quite simply because you dont have to wait for a proc just to keep up, and fort's proc is a nice Chilling Armor.

Still using Treachery... until I get another Lo rune.

I created my first Fortitude for my pally in a non- Eth superior armor. The "superior" part was a mistake because it made the armor super-expensive to repair (50k+/durability) but I didn't know it at the time. I started using it as a merc armor to avoid the repair costs. It's a great merc armor even in a non- Eth base so if I had to start over I'd probably create my first Forti in a non- Eth non-superior armor because that way it's good for both mercs and players (including melee fighters that hurt armor durability more frequently).

Now I have Eth Forti and my new characters' mercs use Eth and non- Eth vampiregaze + gladiator bane combo that gives both percent and point based damage reduction with life steal, it's an insanely good combo (even as non- Eth) and very budget friendly compared to Forti. Socket+ Um can give +15% resist that is "OK" for a level 90 merc.

Don't believe what the internet says, you have try it. Certain pieces of gear seem to be good only as part of specific builds complemented by other pieces, another good reason to try it yourself in your specific environment. Not too long ago I tried an expensive ( Ist+) Astreon's Iron Ward for uber farming (recommended by a lot of players) and it was a big pile of poo compared to my double- Shael'd Heaven's Light (purchased for Lem) but the reason might be my lack of knowledge...