Act1 faith merc vs Act2 might +..... for a mauler?

[yiuman]

What I would like to know is, how does an act1 merc with a faith bow stack up against a might merc with *insert weapon of choice here* in terms of getting the most out of my mauler.

Ok, faith would give me a +135% damage and +105% AR boost
A might merc with pride would give +500ish% (depending on the mercs level) damage and a 20% uninterupatability
A might merc with infinity would give +200ish% damage and reduce mobs def by 83% and resists by 85%

So, pride would give the most damage, but the other two would help me to hit. But which is better? Does it depend on how much help my AR needs? And how does the AR from fanat compare to the -def% from conviction?

Help!

[Forcefeedback]

The attack rating of fanatism is added to that of maul, so -defence% is better.

Fanatism also adds attack speed, getting 1 frame faster might make a great difference in damage over time. Check the calculator for your case, fanatism is added to skill IAS(SIAS).

If you have enough in shockwave to keep most monsters stunned you won't need decrepify that much, but it makes a great difference agains bosses, uniques and champions. Wrath runeword has it and reaper's toll too. The -50% damage resistance speeds killing lots, maybe even that you deal more damage than with pride and might merc.

I'd probably go with might merc with reapers toll. But if I could get much faster attack rating with a faith rogue merc and have enough in shockwave to keep the monsters at bay, why not?

[yiuman]

The attack rating of fanatism is added to that of maul, so -defence% is better.

If you have enough in shockwave to keep most monsters stunned you won't need decrepify that much, but it makes a great difference agains bosses, uniques and champions. Wrath runeword has it and reaper's toll too. The -50% damage resistance speeds killing lots, maybe even that you deal more damage than with pride and might merc.


thanks, I don't have a reapers, and hadn't looked at wrath, but looking at it...... food for thought, could be good. Thanks again

I do remember hearing that the attack speed for fanat didn't affect wereform - is this not the case anymore?

[Forcefeedback]

Fanatism doesn't speed up wereforms maximum attack speed, except in extreme cases(the need for OIAS is 200% for example). Mainly it lessens the need of OIAS. If you plan to use BotD berserker axe for example on a mauler, you would need 87% OIAS to reach 7 frame maul. If you have level 15 fanatism, you don't need any OIAS to get 7 frame maul. Then again, even the crappiest grief phase blade needs only 22% OIAS to reach 7 frame maul without fanatism.