Best gf merc weapon ? ebotd GT or double up'd eth 193ed or else ?

[Khagan]

Hi all,

The merc I am talking about is my gf barb's merc. I leap around, he kills hell trav.

He currently wears ebotd GT because I found out that it's better than pride and obediance, but is there anything better than ebotd GT for a gf merc ? (he is the killer, I leap).

Some ideas :
1) double up'd eth 193ed ? Could that be better because of crushing blow ? If so, what to put it ?
2) 3 sockets 210 ed/ 210% dmg to undead / 322 ar/ 34 all res/ 11 life after each kill / 50 mf tomb reaver
3) 3 socket 210 ed/ 213% dmg to undead/ 344 ar/ 49 all res/ 10 life after each kill/ 55 mf tomb reaver

Is there anything that could beat ebotd GT ?

Huge thanks in advance for the help :)

[Battlesnax]

Easy, an eBotD War Pike. Or "ebotdwp" since you love your abbreviations. It's got the highest damage that a Merc can wield and the runeword's 60% IAS gives it plenty of speed.
My gf Might-Merc uses Lem Crown of Theives, E-bugged Fort, and a ebotd war pike. I'd recommend it. :thumbup:

[KremBanan]

I prefer eth Reapers Toll sox Shael. Good damage and the Decrepify slows monsters and breaks the physical immune Council Members.

[Khagan]

I prefer eth Reapers Toll sox Shael. Good damage and the Decrepify slows monsters and breaks the physical immune Council Members.

@KremBanan: well, I did a bit of reasearch, found out ias bp for each weapon (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=485631).

For a War Pike, you get 7 frames per attack (reaching 6.5 frames while not hurting too badly gf would be very hard, it would require 80 ias). On average, it does 105.5 dmg.

For a Giant Thresher, you get 6 frames frames per attack (next breakpoint is 75 ias, for 5.5 frames per attack). On average, it does 77 dmg.

Well, does that mean that the war pike attacks 16,67% less often than the Giant Thresher ?

If that's true, I'd say the war pikes wins, because it does 37% more dmg than the Giant Thresher.

@Battlesnax:
The Decrefify ? are you speaking about the 10% returned monster ? It really breaks physical immunities ?!?

Two-Hand Damage: (99-125) To (450-570) (274.5-347.5 Avg)
Required Level: 84
Required Strength: 165
Required Dexterity: 103
Durability: 65
Base Weapon Speed: [10]
+200-280% Enhanced Damage (varies)
+150-230% Damage To Undead (varies)
+60% Increased Attack Speed
+250-350 To Attack Rating Against Undead (varies)
All Resistances +30-50 (varies)
10% Reanimate As: Returned*
+10-14 Life After Each Kill (varies)
+50-80% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (varies)
+4 To Light Radius
Socketed (1-3) (varies)
(Ladder Only)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

[KremBanan]

Remember that the Decrepify from Reapers Toll gives -50% to monsters physical resists.

[Khagan]

Remember that the Decrepify from Reapers Toll gives -50% to monsters physical resists.

oh ok. But I checked and sadly saw "Adds 4-44 Cold Damage": some corpse must explode, leaving nothing to do find items on :( = way less gold. Sometimes, find items brings 100k gold for 1 corpse.

[sirpoopsalot]

oh ok. But I checked and sadly saw "Adds 4-44 Cold Damage": some corpse must explode, leaving nothing to do find items on :( = way less gold.

The corpse might shatter once or twice per run, on average (with my Whirler getting most of the kills, I find a corpse shatters about once every 2-3 runs - your leaper would probably notice a higher amount because your merc gets more kills). However, I find the extra crowd control from Decrep, in addition to being quicker when StoneSkin spawns, is worth the occasional lost corpse.

Overall though, I think the difference between top-end options is going to be pretty small. Find the one that works for you, and don't worry about being ~2% less efficient than someone else.

In my opinion.

[Khagan]

The corpse might shatter once or twice per run, on average (with my Whirler getting most of the kills, I find a corpse shatters about once every 2-3 runs - your leaper would probably notice a higher amount because your merc gets more kills). However, I find the extra crowd control from Decrep, in addition to being quicker when StoneSkin spawns, is worth the occasional lost corpse.

Overall though, I think the difference between top-end options is going to be pretty small. Find the one that works for you, and don't worry about being ~2% less efficient than someone else.

In my opinion.

I like your words of wisdom :)

However, I am a bit too perfectionist :(

I sill want to know about this:

For a War Pike, you get 7 frames per attack (reaching 6.5 frames while not hurting too badly gf would be very hard, it would require 80 ias). On average, it does 105.5 dmg.

For a Giant Thresher, you get 6 frames frames per attack (next breakpoint is 75 ias, for 5.5 frames per attack). On average, it does 77 dmg.

Well, does that mean that the war pike attacks 16,67% less often than the Giant Thresher ?

If that's true, I'd say the war pikes wins, because it does 37% more dmg than the Giant Thresher.

[KremBanan]

Well, does that mean that the war pike attacks 16,67% less often than the Giant Thresher ?

If that's true, I'd say the war pikes wins, because it does 37% more dmg than the Giant Thresher.

I havent done the math on that, but have you calculated in the -50% Decrepify in that 37%more damage from the WP?

[Hrus]

Khagan, I think you use wrong numbers. Though I am not sure about the specifics of delay between attacks of mercs, current sorc sticky (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=495478) with the breakpoints shows 6FPA for jab with 60%IAS War Pike and 5 FPA for jab with 60% IAS Giant Tresher.
It's backed up by Titanseal calc (http://diablo3.ingame.de/tips/calcs/speedcalc_titanseal/speedcalc_english.php)

EDIT: In both cases, War Pike wins in terms of DPS

[Khagan]

Khagan, I think you use wrong numbers. Though I am not sure about the specifics of delay between attacks of mercs, current sorc sticky (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=495478) with the breakpoints shows 6FPA for jab with 60%IAS War Pike and 5 FPA for jab with 60% IAS Giant Tresher.
It's backed up by Titanseal calc (http://diablo3.ingame.de/tips/calcs/speedcalc_titanseal/speedcalc_english.php)

EDIT: In both cases, War Pike wins in terms of DPS

thanks man !

One very last question: do you think any of the following could beat ebotd war pike in DPS ?

1) double up'd eth 193ed sundan (I don't know what to socket it)

2) 3 sockets 210 ed/ 210% dmg to undead / 322 ar/ 34 all res/ 11 life after each kill / 50 mf tomb reaver
3) 3 socket 210 ed/ 213% dmg to undead/ 344 ar/ 49 all res/ 10 life after each kill/ 55 mf tomb reaver

[Hrus]

Well you can of course calculate the damage yourself, but Tomb Reaver will not top eBotD damage until it's ethereal and even then it's quite close (and it also doesn't have any lifesteal). It's hard to compare Hone Sundan because of the crushing blow, but the base damage of Ghost spear is quite low to War Pike and I would say that generally for solo games and not again act bosses or ubers, eBotD War Pike should be better.

[Khagan]

Well you can of course calculate the damage yourself, but Tomb Reaver will not top eBotD damage until it's ethereal and even then it's quite close (and it also doesn't have any lifesteal). It's hard to compare Hone Sundan because of the crushing blow, but the base damage of Ghost spear is quite low to War Pike and I would say that generally for solo games and not again act bosses or ubers, eBotD War Pike should be better.

Well, that merc fights hell trav: do you consider that a boss ?

[Hrus]

Well, Crushing blow is useful when a monster has a lot of life and you need quite a lot of swings to kill it. If you need only like 3-5 swings than CB doesn't speed things up much. Hell council have also 50% damage resistance which makes CB even less effective.
But it's hard for me to tell, I have never tried to hunt Hell Council before and I never possessed an eBotD so I can't really estimate the difference between having high CB and higher damage. But If I try to estimate, I would still say that eBotD WP will be more effective than upgraded eth Hone Sundan.

[mmmpld]

I did a comparison of several bases for 60ias and using jab - War Pike came out best. It's what mine uses.

Here's the stats for what it's worth:
Name Attk/s Damage/s
Ghost Spear 5.5 332.16
War Pike 6 376.64
Great Poleaxe 5.5 332.16
Giant Thresher 5 320.32

[Khagan]

I did a comparison of several bases for 60ias and using jab - War Pike came out best. It's what mine uses.

Here's the stats for what it's worth:
Name Attk/s Damage/s
Ghost Spear 5.5 332.16
War Pike 6 376.64
Great Poleaxe 5.5 332.16
Giant Thresher 5 320.32

Yea, I got the same results on my side:

Ebotd War Pike (average dmg = 105,5)
*** The best one***
Jab
6 frames per attack
3.57 attacks per second
376,635 dmg/sec

Standard
13 frames per attack
1.66 attacks per second
175,13 dmg/sec

Ebotd Giant Thresher (77 dmg)
Jab
5 frames per attack
4.16 attacks per second
320,32 dmg/sec

Standard
10 frames per attack
2.08 attacks per second
160,16 dmg/sec

Ebotd Ghost Spear (86,5)
Jab
5.5 frames per attack
3.84 attacks per second
332,16 dmg/sec

Standard
11 frames per attack
1.92 attacks per second
166,08 dmg/sec

Ebotd Cryptic axe (91,5)
Jab
5.5 frames per attack
3.84 attacks per second
351,36

Standard
12 frames per attack
1.78 attacks per second
162,87

Ebotd Great poleaxe (86,5)
Jab
5.5 frames per attack
3.84 attacks per second
332,16

Standard
11 frames per attack
1.92 attacks per second
166,08

Seems like ebotd WP owns everything else.

[mephiztophelez]

my GF skellynecs merc swings an eth Insight Colly Voulge. he doesn't need anything else.

the only thing you should avoid at all costs on a GF character is cold damage (barbs can't hork and necs can't corpse explo shattered corpses)