Another merc/spirit question

[layn]

I know these questions are pretty common but the answers I've found seem to be intended for other uses (such as ubers in particular), I apologize if they annoy anyone:

I'm playing a WW druid with the intention of being able to solo runs in hell for gear -- planning to be pure fury ww unless someone strongly suggests a grizzly or hunger, though I thought pure fury sounded like a better path.

1) I'm trying to decide which merc and spirit to use for this, I assume that either might merc combined with oak sage, or holy freeze merc with HoW. I'm not against other combinations, just making the assumption that one offensive and one defensive would work best? I wanted to note that I'm leaning towards HoW so that I don't feel like I'm "relying" on my summon for survivability, and in the hopes that HoW can survive with its higher hp -- that might be pointless if it still gets killed constantly in hell though. Opinions from those that have far more experience than I?

2) I'm also wondering about stats -- I plan on putting a large majority into vita and only 100ish in str and dex. Does that sound about right for the intended build or should the balance be changed?


Thanks for the advice!

[BAMFSpecialOps]

Neither spirit will survive long, the AI is really lacking. I usually go with Oak for the life, I'm not a huge fan of the small benifit that HoW gives you. If you are going untwinked/semi twinked than the spirit would really depend on what kind of gear you have and how much life. If you can survive without the extra life from Oak and you need a little extra damage then HoW is your best bet. If your a little short on life then Oak might be better even if you do lose a lot of life when it dies as long as you are paying attention it's never been a problem for me.

Depending on your gear, enough str/dex to equip everything then rest into vit.

[Bjam]

I think you were actually concerned about what combination to use other than vs. the Ubers. That said, the answer to your first question is that it depends on your playing style. For hardcore you'd be crazy not to use Oak, but for me, playing softcore, I can never have enough offense and don't miss the extra life.