Which mercenary for this Cryer/Singer blend?

[Ax2Grind]

Originally, singers were bards, mostly stunning monsters allowing party members to kill them all the while boosting moral by increasing defense/life/stamina/mana and horking potions out of every non-boss (items out of them). 1.10 brought cryers into play, but they have the obvious weaknesses. Here's the point distribution for those two and the one I have built many times and am building now, but I need to know which act two (we're assuming) merc is best:

Howl: 1/20/5
Taunt: 1/20/5
Battle Cry: 1/20/20
War Cry: 20/20/20
Shout: 20/1/20
Battle Orders: 20/1/20
Battle Command: 20/1/1
Find Potion: 20/1/5
Find Item: 1/20/5
Grim Ward: 0/0/1
Increased Stamina: 1/1/1
Increased Speed: 1/1/1
Iron Skin: 1/1/1
Natural Resistance: 1/1/1
Leap: 1/1/1
Leap Attack: 1/1/1
Bash: 0/0/1
Double Swing: 0/0/1

Also, if you want to get into it, anything I should change, such as the point into Double Swing for early usefulness and survival?

[Ax2Grind]

Now I have a slightly more disturbing problem. After working my way to CLvl30, instead of the 28 I used to start using Sander's Folly/Gravenspine/Spectral Shard combination, I realized Spirit probably changes the entire landscape for the developement of this build. I generally start looking for a set by which to enhance with uniques, runewords and rares (magicals only when nothing else fits), so I still tend to go with SF, but should I ditch one or two Shards for the appropriate Spirit dimensional blades? If so, what else might I want to consider?

[inanefedaykin]

Spirits untill you can get a pair of wizard spikes on.

[MYK]

I'd use the wizardspikes until you can afford Heart Of The Oak runewords in each hand. Kinda spendy, but +skills really help War Cry damage unless you're already decked out with 8-9 sounding Grand Charms.

[Ax2Grind]

Let's assume I go with Spirit dimensional blades (RStr85, RDex60, close enough - with bonuses - to bone daggers and knouts) just so when I use Double Swing against act four/five monsters I can help my mercenary out.

Should I still use Sander's Folly on switch, with a primal helm if I can't find a Paragon, or wait a few levels to use other sets/pieces even though Wizardspike is exactly 33Lvls above SF?
Which mercenary would be ideal: Prayer with Insight, Holy Freeze with Reaper's Toll, Defiance with something else?

[partytimeninja]

A PvM crier almost requires an Insight merc, unless you have one (an Insight) on the switch for the barb or you enjoy chugging mana potions. Warcry burns mana at an insane rate at high skill levels... so fast regeneration is much needed.

[crawlingdeadman]

A PvM crier almost requires an Insight merc, unless you have one (an Insight) on the switch for the barb or you enjoy chugging mana potions. Warcry burns mana at an insane rate at high skill levels... so fast regeneration is much needed.

what he said x2. honestly you get more mana from 2x wizzy than you do from 2x heart of the oak and though your damage is marginally less you can sing for a longer duration since your wc costs less. i've tried 2x hoto, 2x spirit, 2x wizzy, and all the combos of the two and if you must use something other than 2x wizzy i'd use spirit/wizzy over hoto/wizzy.

no mater what you're wearing though, your merc has to have insight imo. what i went with on my last singer was might merc with eth insight/andy/fort. i also tried out insight/coh/guilume's to try and speed up kills with cb/ds, i didnt think it did the trick as well.