Whats best Merc and Gear for Hammerdin?

[jonx]

Hello everyone... I was curious what the best merc is for hammerdin?

The hammerdin i am using is NM Act2 Defiance Merc...

what kind of gear should he be using?

thanks

[Chimaira]

The best merc would be a holy freeze or defiance aura merc from act 2...Holy freeze slows all the monsters down and is my personal favourite... Defiance adds defence to you and your merc making you harder to hit... which allows you some freedom while mowing monsters down and let's your merc be quite a tank. Still I prefer holy freeze because the slow monsters is very helpful, also if you get good gear for your mercenary he'll still have decent defence for tanking..

[Bakerking31]

on my hammerdin i have a act 2 defiance merc, he uses a eth stone armor, andys visage helm and a insight colosus voulge thats hte best setup ive found for him, hes got max resists and does good dmg and most importantly he stays alive to give me his 2 auras.

[jonx]

What gear is better for my Merc?

Note that my merc is helping my MF hammerdin...

my MF hammerdin seems to be having a very difficult time taking out Baal's Dolls..

especiall the last big frickers.. (Lister and the crew...)

I was thinking about doing 2 possible builds.. One that will slow down people
and weaken them to keep me alive using decrypt.. or one that will simply kill them quickly by maximizing Deadly strike and Crushing Blow

/* Build meant for Dmg Reduce, and Decrypt to slow down enemies
when they get near me... */
Tolls Reaper (For decrypt)
Eth Shako (For 2+ skills and 10% dmg reduced)
Eth Upped ShaftStop (For 30% Dmg Reduced)

or

/* Build meant for High Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike */
Duress
Obedience
Guilems Face

[RetroStar]

I'm NL and this is whats decent. I'm using a Defiance merc.

Helm: Eth Vampgaze
Armour: Eth Stone Sacred
Weapon: Eth Doom Cryptic

[d2 junkie]

What gear is better for my Merc?

Note that my merc is helping my MF hammerdin...

my MF hammerdin seems to be having a very difficult time taking out Baal's Dolls..

especiall the last big frickers.. (Lister and the crew...)

I was thinking about doing 2 possible builds.. One that will slow down people
and weaken them to keep me alive using decrypt.. or one that will simply kill them quickly by maximizing Deadly strike and Crushing Blow

/* Build meant for Dmg Reduce, and Decrypt to slow down enemies
when they get near me... */
Tolls Reaper (For decrypt)
Eth Shako (For 2+ skills and 10% dmg reduced)
Eth Upped ShaftStop (For 30% Dmg Reduced)

or

/* Build meant for High Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike */
Duress
Obedience
Guilems Face

Both builds lack the most important survival skill for a merc IAS and life leech.
Try this 2 instead:
Andys visage <---most IAS and LL
Reapers toll ethereal shaeld
Fortitude or COH if you cannot afford either one of this 2 Duress will do the trick.
On a holy freeze merc of course.
Hope this helps.
*D2_junkie

[jonx]

What level do I get holy freeze merc? NightMare 2? is he offensive or defensive or combat? Thanks

[Weltkriegpally]

What level do I get holy freeze merc? NightMare 2? is he offensive or defensive or combat? Thanks

act 2 nightmare, defensive is the holy freeze merc. For my part on best merc survival, here is my take. Note that I am using your typical teleporting hammerdin for magic finding.
holy freeze merc.
Helm:: Kiras
Weapon:: any crap reapers. decrep is what matters, after that the leech
armor:: Guardian Angel

way I figure it, he has the equivalent of about 75 percent dr. Holy freeze at level 18=50+ percent slow

decrep from reapers=50 percent more slow...so about 75.

Once freeze is up I can and will teleport right into the middle of anything, including fanatic/cursed lister. everything moves slowly and the hammers do the rest. The merc has 90 resist all, has enough leech to survive, and has cannot be frozen for boss battles. Even has the ar vs. demons based on clevel from the angel for boss battles...Itd for everything else. Pretty sweet setup, at least for me.

--welt

[jonx]

Thats my main problem is just the survival..

I was thinking about getting a level 2 Defense Merc because I figure that will help me live... The problem is that when those Lister guys mana burn my azz,, and I am a hammerdin that strives off mana, I can't get myself out, so I need my merc to help me...

I will try your set up... it should work fine

thanks