Obedience

[ThalSwe]

My rune luck isnt exactly known for and to get anything I want I have to invest quite a bit of time and running to aquire it. Managed to use my Countess dropped Ist to make a Delerium for a friend who is now confusing whole screens of monsters with his Strafezon. Was well worth the time spent running and brings both safty to our HC gaming and...a lot of fun when he turns into the little Bone flayer and jabs away at monsters

But the next runeword project is for me and my eyes fell for Obedience as you probably guessed from the thread title. For those who are unsure what it does:

Obedience - 5 Socket Polearms
Hel + Ko + Thul + Eth + Fal
30% Chance To Cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill An Enemy
40% Faster Hit Recovery
+370% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration (Normal)
-25% To Enemy Fire Resistance
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
+200-300 Defense (varies)
+10 To Strength
+10 To Dexterity
All Resistances +20-30 (varies)
Requirements -20%

The main thought is giving it to my BF-sin since the damage, enchant and crushing blow adds up nicely and thanks to the res avalible it is still a quite safe choice. Oh hell, dont care that much about style but how often do you run around with a big mean polearm with your assassin? Its all about style.
I manage to find and cube the needed runes but currently I am really undecicive on what polearm to go for.

For a BF-sin the speed dont matter (the runeword offer NO ias) nor does the fact if the polearm would be eth or not since BF dont effect item durability. An eth polearm would mean a bunch of more dmg and make it a even better merc weapon if my BF-sin retire.

But if I maybe want to throw this over to a secondary character such as a Meleemancer, barb, charger-paladin, meleezon the speed does matter and it cant be eth.

So got three weapon choices in mind:
Thresher which got -10 in base speed.
Cryptic Axe which got 10 in base speed.
Great Poleaxe which got 0 in base speed.

The Cryptic axe has the highest avg. dmg and along with the -20% req. looks to be the one who demands the least extra points in str/dex (as Thresher got a lot higher dex req and Greater poleaxe got higher str. req.) but of course its slow. Thresher would be hitting faster and easier to hit ias breakpoints with for alternative builds other then the BF-sin. Then the Great Poleaxe is just the middle option between the two...the one I think least about picking but its still there.

Another advantage to the Thresher and Cryptic axe is that their max socket is 5 so could simply use the Larzuk reward to get the right amount of sockets.

So what this whole thread is about is asking you all for an opinion.
Shall I go for an eth weapon and let the weapon be a merc & BF-sin weapon?
Or shall I grab a normal one and have a more adaptable weapon for more situations?

Have about 5 white Cryptic Axes after running "superchests" in Lower kurast and having a weapon rack dropping them about every other 15th run or so. Tempted to socket it and make it right there and then but maybe a Thresher would be better. And if the rack keeps giving me white Cryptics I should be able to get an eth one as well right?

I guess I am just to undecisive but also unpatient. Have possible materials but not sure if I should wait it out to make it "perfect" for what I want.

[Pavel]

I'd definately make it in an eth cryptic axe, more damage & -10 reqs. You already have 2 options to make use of it, and if you ever want to try it on a secondary char, another Ko & Fal should take a lot less time to get than Ist. You'll prolly have regrets, if you make it in a non-eth weapon.

[Hendrix Jr.]

I made one in an eth thresher...
84-991
its pretty.
why won't the forums let me copy /paste?

[ThalSwe]

I'd definately make it in an eth cryptic axe, more damage & -10 reqs. You already have 2 options to make use of it, and if you ever want to try it on a secondary char, another Ko & Fal should take a lot less time to get than Ist. You'll prolly have regrets, if you make it in a non-eth weapon.

You have a good point. Had a Ko drop from Countess and same with the Forge. With just leveling the characters I have going and doing a fair amount of countess runs I should be able to get some more. The Fal was really elusive tho so dont look forward to getting that again but...thats the next problem.

So the hunt for the eth Cryptic begins.

[Feceset]

.
why won't the forums let me copy /paste?

Gotta use Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste.
/hijack

[RKC]

Heres my Mercs one but i find the weapon lacks life steal and Attack speed but kills Pretty Much everything Also I think was Lucky finding the right weapon for it

Obedience
Superior Cryptic Axe
'HelKoThulEthFal'
Two-Hand Damage: 232 to 1068
Durability: 33 of 33
Required Dexterity: 72
Required Strength: 122
Required Level: 59
Polearm Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x785e6e79
+10 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+370% Enhanced Damage
+5% Enhanced Damage
+235 Defense
All Resistances +26
Adds 3-14 cold damage over 3 seconds
Requirements -20%
40% Faster Hit Recovery
-25% Target Defense
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
30% Chance to cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill an Enemy
-25% to Enemy Fire Resistance
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (5: 5 used)

[LitmusDragon]

I have a 2H holy fire Zealot using an Obedience Thresher who is fairly close to pat.

I plan to post a thread about it whenever I get around to finishing the character.

I also have one in an eth Thresher that I use whenever I play a might merc.

btw Treachery + Obedience is quite a good combo for a merc, one of my favorites.

[ThalSwe]

After yet a few hours of constant running on my weapon rack it finally dropped me an eth Cryptic (and another three white and one 5 socket so if you play HC and need a Cryptic axe I got myself a small collection).

I quickly mules it to Chop, the BFsin, who used her NM Larzuk on it.

Final product:
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/Ob1.jpg

Damage after Venom and Enchant:
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/ob2.jpg

In action:
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/pb3.jpg
Like that I am almost hard to see due to Fade and the weapon being eth. Cant see the weapon at all from most angles when using BF but you do see the shadow from it on the ground.

So got a really sweet BF weapon now and a kick *** merc stick if nothing else. Thanks for the suggestions.

Will see if I can score myself some more Cryptic Axes (preferably eth) for future runewords. And to your statistical number masters (and people with general more specific d2 knowleadge then me): Is there ANY chance of getting Tomb Reaver from that rack? Guessing not as the area lvl is to low right?