need advice on merc equiptment.

[obeymenow]

I got a summoner necro.

I was playing along, no problems solo hell without a problem. I then decided to try myself at some ubers. I got 3 key sets and all was going well, then I hit Lillith. After reading (after the fact) a bit it seems that she has been a problem for more than a few necros. Well, needless to say, I went into the chat room on the realm and begged for help. A Smiter came to the rescue and just killed her and the ubers for me within minutes. Now I've read that necros can solo ubers as well and I thought how that that be, I can't even beat Lillith. Well, I should have done my home work first. It appears that Crushing Blow (CB) is the key to the ubers. So now I want to set up my merc to have CB and need some help on equiptment choice for ubers.

Helm: I'm set on Guillaumes face for the 35% CB (Not sure what to socket helm with)

Weapon: I'm thinking Obedience for the 40% CB as it is cheaper than the Infinity with 50% CB.

Armor: This is where I'm having trouble.
a) Fort for the 1) Extra resist 2) Extra Life 3) guaranteed 200% Enhanced Def
or
b) Duress for the 1) 15% CB 2) 33% open wounds 3) 40% faster hit recovery

My thoughts are this.
a) Helm, o.k. as is
b) Weapon, obedience in normal Cryptic axe as cheeper than infinity in eth cryptic axe. (The goal if for the merc to cut down life and leave the killing to my skellies.)
c) Armor, I'm torn between the two.

So if you can give me thoughts on
1) If I need to socket the helm and if so with what
2) Is obedience a better choice for summoner and do you think it will matter if I make it on a normal Cryptix Axe, or should I go fancy with a Eth one.
3) Should I go with Duress for the extra chance of CB or the FORT as it will keep my merc alive longer.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Lexur]

Solid choices.

Helm: Guillaume - socket with IAS jewel.

Weapon: Obedience - best option for ubers if you don't have infinity. Get an ethereal thresher to make it it. They get 5 sockets from larzuk, so should not be that expensive. Speed > damage, and thresher is the fastest polearm.

Armor: Duress - the only armor I can recommend for ubers. You need it for open wounds, the only way to stop Lilith and Uber Mephisto from regenerating.

Also if you happen to find a Kelpie Snare, it makes a wonderful iron golem and will turn them into statues. More reliable and more slow % than a clay golem.

[liquid_mage]

Solid choices.

Helm: Guillaume - socket with IAS jewel.

Weapon: Obedience - best option for ubers if you don't have infinity. Get an ethereal thresher to make it it. They get 5 sockets from larzuk, so should not be that expensive. Speed > damage, and thresher is the fastest polearm.

Armor: Duress - the only armor I can recommend for ubers. You need it for open wounds, the only way to stop Lilith and Uber Mephisto from regenerating.

Also if you happen to find a Kelpie Snare, it makes a wonderful iron golem and will turn them into statues. More reliable and more slow % than a clay golem.

I like the setup but if I already have CB from the weapon and armor, I think I would go with Andy's Visage 20ias, LL and, CTC Lv15 Poison Nova, +2skills for higher might damage.

[i am war]

i still reccomend that you use guiliames face on your merc because he should not need lifesteal as the summons should be tanking all the hits, and the poison nova is pretty much useless, also if you want to reduce killing speed even more, make an iron golem out of an ik maul, they are dirt cheap and the added crushing blow helps.

theres my 2 cents :p

[NumtyDoo]

Life leach makes a huge difference, I tried without it to get 90% CB, and merc did better with 75% CB and 8% life leach, life leach helped way more than the extra 15%CB. I use infinity, guilams, and eth CoH.

[shijo]

Fortitude with the 300% damage and 200% defense is the way I tend to go. NumtyDoo makes a great point with the Chains of Honor which tackles the resists as well as the life leech, though. You'll just have to find what works for you as both of those armors are pretty similiar in price (CoH is a little more with the Ist+Ber in the runeword).

My setup is usually Infinity, Guilluame's Face and an Eth fort

[Ankeli]

2 extra levels in the douchebags might nor the 300% ed from Fortitude really make up for surviving long enough to deliver that CB. That's mainly what he's there for. Just make sure he stays alive (Ie. has stacked resists to some degree, some ll and "enough" CB) and delivers what he's supposed to. :)

[NumtyDoo]

2 extra levels in the douchebags might nor the 300% ed from Fortitude really make up for surviving long enough to deliver that CB. That's mainly what he's there for. Just make sure he stays alive (Ie. has stacked resists to some degree, some ll and "enough" CB) and delivers what he's supposed to. :) Thats why I went with CoH, stacked resists, 8% damage reduction, ok-ish def, life leach, life regen, 200%enhanced damage to demons and undead, not really for the +2 to skills, which are nice though.

As a side note, I didn't notice a difference in killing speed between 90% CB and 75% CB on merc.

[Greyeagle]

I use infinity, guilams, and eth CoH.

This is a good all-around suggestion, although I usually go with obedience on my uber summoner in place of the infinity.

[shijo]

Obedience is a great runeword, and a great way to go if you don't want to pay for an Infinity. The conviction aura is unbeatable though.

As for Fort/CoH, I see where ya'll are coming from. And it makes sense. I've never had any issues with him surviving with a Fort, except agaisnt IM which doesn't matter much. CoH definitely appears to be better though, I'll have to give that a try sometime.