Holy Freeze Merc Question

[RegisteredUser]

I have a pure cold sorc that uses blizzard and iceblast and I use a holy freeze merc. I wanted to know if the effects of holy freeze and hit slows target stack with one another? If it does I was thinking about setting up my merc with this gear:

Kelpie Snare (socketed with Amn)
-hit slows target 75%
-+1.25 life per char level
-7% life stolen per hit

Guillaume's Face
-30% FHR
-15% deadly Strike
-35% crushing blow

and Shaftstop for its PDR and life bonus

With this setup, I hope to slow everyone down to a halt while still having a decent amount of crushing blow, + life, and life leech, but my main concern is whether Holy freeze and Hit slows target stack. If they do, then would a merc equipped in this way be able to survive with only 7% life leech and 30% PDR?

[RaoulDuke]

AFAIK they both work together, but the percentages don't stack. 100% or more from the "slows target by" mod and holy freeze won't halt monsters. I think holy freeze is applied first, and then slows target is applied seperately to the monsters remaining speed when an attack is made. Monsters won't be stopped, but their attack speed will be really slow. This should work great against individual monsters, but will be less effective against mobs, as your merc will only get the added effect from "slows target by" on the monster he's attacking. The rest of the pack will only be slowed by holy freeze. Any of the Gurus please jump in if this is incorrect.

[RegisteredUser]

Alrigt thanks for the info :)

[Billweed]

IMHO Doom Runeword has made holy freeze merc a waste, get defiance aura merc and use doom.

[McCain123]

Both effects do stack, but Kelpie does pretty low damage and combined with the low life leech, your merc will have some trouble. If you really want to slow monsters badly, use Reapors Toll. The chance to cast Decryptify is neat, it does good damage and has build in leech.

[Peregrine]

Just keep in mind that Doom is in the same general price range as Infinity, which helps a lot more. So if you rely on the merc's weapon for the holy freeze aura, you can't have conviction. And conviction + holy freeze is much, much better than holy freeze + defiance.

[darzog]

I would agree that the Reaper's Toll is a better option than the Kelpie Snare for a (moderately) cheap solution.

For more expensive, getting conviction + holy freeze is better in my opinion than defiance + holy freeze. But it also depends on your build, so it's always open to discussion.

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Darzog