Hum... Merc Setup

[razen]

I guess this is not a total newb question but I just like to hear some advice and varieties on merc setup.

for a merc to be a successful tank, i think it's a consensus that the following should be achieved:

high resist
some sort of dr
life leech
some sort of aura

working with a act 2 merc (which came with 1 aura automatically), i find that it's actually pretty hard to get all 3 necessary attributes

the problem:
most aura weapon does not have life leech...
most life leech armor sucks
most life leech helm doesn't have resist
most resist helm don't have life leech or dr

it's sorta like a circular logic of death. ignoring the life leech, i came up with:

rockstopper socket with the thing that give poison resist
guardian angel
aura weapon

that way, you get 2 aura, 10% dr, and 90% resist all

but of course, no leech

maybe you guys can be more creative =)

[lukefojut]

I think part of the problem re. auras is that most people play with an Act2 Merc with a defensive aura. Most of the truly useful auras (in my opinion), are offensive ones: Fanaticism, Conviction etc. So it seems logical and balanced that you should have to 'lose' a slot to obtain these powerful gaming advantages for your merc. In fact, I think the way mercs are balanced out from becoming too uber powerful is handled very well.

I'm not going to post possible alternatives here as I think this thread probably belongs in the Community Forum, as it is very much the sort of posting that could run and run...