Magewrath or Riphook for Act 1 Merc?

If you had to choose the better bow for an Act 1 merc, would you choose Magewrath or Riphook? Her companion is a bonemancer.

I know there are rune words that are better than either option, but I'm just looking to see which of these two uniques is the best option at the moment since I have both. I'm planning on socketing and upgrading whichever I equip her with.

Riphook.

It has Life leech, open wounds, and slow target. These are all valuable attributes for a mercenary.

On the other hand, Magewrath has +1 amazon skills, which is useless to a mercenary. It also has Mana stolen per hit, useless. Guided Arrow, also useless.

But Magewrath does considerably more damage than Riphook and has increased attack rating.

Riphook does have a faster attack rate though. I would suggest upgrading Riphook, but that costs an Um rune. If you have an Um rune, you are better off just buying an actually good bow.

Like you said, a runeword would be stronger. I suggest Harmony, because its quite cheap and does great elemental damage. If you really want to stick to uniques, maybe get a Witchwild String and socket it with two Amn ? 14% life leech, great all resistances, Amplify Damage, fires Magic Arrow which means that they can hurt physical immunes too, and a very high chance of deadly strike.

That would be a bow maybe worth upgrading.

Also another big thing, Harmony gives you a level 10 Vigor aura. That is going to let you walk 36% faster, and basically never run out of stamina. That is huge for farming on a non-teleporting character like a necromancer.

Harmony is just the best budget option.

Riphook for the time being, but that is not a bow you'd want to keep on the merc for post-mid game, as that will not do enough damage to help in Hell difficulty. If you want her to do more physical damage, consider outfitting her with Windforce/ Eaglehorn, if not, like tat suggested, Harmony is a great option, and that Vigor aura will be very helpful.

Magewrath is a hilariously bad choice for a merc, for the reasons tata already pointed out. Generally speaking, you'd want to have effects from gear that will carry over to the merc, such as all res, +life, +damage, elemental damage, open wounds, etc.

I went against what I said, took both of y’all’s advance, and bought a 4os Blade Bow and made a Harmony. It is much better than either previous option. Thanks!