Polearm WW Barb Defiance or Might?

[Poison_Trooper]

I cannot decide which mercenary is better. I am going to be using tombreaver for myself and either tombreaver or reapers for my mercenary. I will be maxing shout and giving my merc an ethreal guardian angel. His resists will be 95% I really want him to stay alive in solo baal runs. Do you guys think it's wise to just forget the act 2 might merc and stick with defiance? I can do plenty of damage with tombreaver anyway right?

[acceleration turkey]

I cannot decide which mercenary is better. I am going to be using tombreaver for myself and either tombreaver or reapers for my mercenary. I will be maxing shout and giving my merc an ethreal guardian angel. His resists will be 95% I really want him to stay alive in solo baal runs. Do you guys think it's wise to just forget the act 2 might merc and stick with defiance? I can do plenty of damage with tombreaver anyway right?

i would defniitely go for reaper's toll...the cutting of phys resist is simply too good to be without as a WW barb.

as for the merc type, i would say that WW barbs benefit greatly from might, since the ED bonus from WW is fairly low. level 80-ish might mercs add about +200% damage. considering that your WW + mastery + strength is probably adding around +400%, another +200% is a large improvement in overall damage. in contrast, a synergized berserker can have around +1000% weapon damage from strength and skills, so another 200% is not a large marginal improvement, especially since he could really use holy freeze to stay safe, when a WW barb might not need holy freeze much.

if you dont want might, i would say go holy freeze if you are seeking merc survivability. defiance would only protect him from melee, not from gloams or witches, etc. holy freeze is a better counter to overall threats than defiance is.

[kfowler]

FYI, I have a level 84 ww polearm barb atm and I'm working on leveling my might merc. Defeintely go with might you'll see a big diference even at lower levels.

Also, I found that GA is not a great armor for mercs. I think the high defense armors and pdr are superior. imo.

[acceleration turkey]

FYI, I have a level 84 ww polearm barb atm and I'm working on leveling my might merc. Defeintely go with might you'll see a big diference even at lower levels.

Also, I found that GA is not a great armor for mercs. I think the high defense armors and pdr are superior. imo.

duriels shell is my favorite, since it has cannot be frozen, as well as resists and life.

[mstrnicegui]

another vote for both reaper's toll and duriel's shell. An upped eth duriel's shell is something to drool over.

[baneman]

another vote for both reaper's toll and duriel's shell. An upped eth duriel's shell is something to drool over.

Etheral armor bug: Upgrade an eth. armor and it will lose it's ethereal mod.

Upped Shaft is always nice, IMO.

[sk8brdnick]

Use tombreaver for yourself and reapers toll for your merc. I think that holy freeze or might is really the way to go. I chose holy freeze and don't regret it though might is an equally good choice. It all depends on how much you dislike dying!

[mstrnicegui]

You're right that there is an upgrading ethereal armor bug, but it doesn't lose its ethereal mod. It just loses its 50% greater def bonus for being ethereal... I had forgotten about that.

so far my favorite combination of equipment for my act 2 mercs, without using runewords, has been reaper's toll, upgraded duriel's shell, and eth andy's visage.

With that combination, my might merc at higher levels (80+) will have 10k+ def, 4k+ life, 4k+dmg, and maxed resists (with a fire res jewel socketed in andy's visage) after his might aura and my cries. Obviously similar results with a holy freeze merc, just slightly less displayed dmg and no dmg bonus for me.

Personally, I haven't had much luck with shaft on my mercs compared to duriel's shell. If you were to compare shaft vs most other non-runeword armors it would be better, but I think duriel's shell has a better combination of mods.

[Soulstones]

For my frenzy barb my merc uses an etheral cryptic axe . DOOM Socketed with might aura ... works amazing for me

[acceleration turkey]

so far my favorite combination of equipment for my act 2 mercs, without using runewords, has been reaper's toll, upgraded duriel's shell, and eth andy's visage.

With that combination, my might merc at higher levels (80+) will have 10k+ def, 4k+ life, 4k+dmg, and maxed resists (with a fire res jewel socketed in andy's visage) after his might aura and my cries. Obviously similar results with a holy freeze merc, just slightly less displayed dmg and no dmg bonus for me.



hmm i am guessing you are using andy's visage for the skill bonus to might, such that you gain an additional 20% damage.

i often feel like i am in a balancing act between stacking +skills gear on a might merc and actually putting good fighting gear on him. for example, i think that guillaume's face is by far the best offensive helm for an act 2 merc...they trigger crushing blow constantly, and this is especially useful if you have not worked enough crushing blow into your own setup. but then you lose the extra damage on your own weapon. i also use guillame's because i dont have a visage :cheesy:.

similarly, arioc's needle is very much the king of +skills, but reaper's toll is one of those weapons which is simply amazing with its decrep feature. seems like you could get to 2 + 4 + 2 = +8 skills on a might merc, but i dont think that +80% weapon damage is really as good as hitting a decrepified target with crushing blow, etc.

[mstrnicegui]

Andy's visage has everything a merc loves except crushing blow. While the crushing blow on Guillaume's makes your merc put out more dmg than andy's visage, it doesn't have any of the sweet extras that make andy's such a well-rounded combination that my merc only sometimes dies to iron maiden and fanaticized boss packs.

Andy's Visage
Defense: 310-387 (varies)(Base Defense: 101-154)
Required Level: 83
Required Strength: 102
Durability: 20
+100-150% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+2 To All Skills
20% Increased Attack Speed
8-10% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)
+25-30 To Strength (varies)
+10% To Maximum Poison Resist
Fire Resist -30%
Poison Resist +70%
15% Chance To Cast Level 15 Poison Nova When Struck
Level 3 Venom (20 charges)

Also, with an eth andy's visage, you can get over 500 def. That's 2.5 times higher than Guillaume's can get since set items are never eth.