Best weapon for Merc Infinity?

[WrathTalon]

I think WrathTalon hit it right on the nose, but used the wrong IAS tables. (I've been guilty of that before myself - see the breakpoint thread stickied in the library. The merc IAS breakpoints in the meteorb guide are wrong.)

Gah!! Man, I've been relying on the German Weapon Calculator for all my IAS/Breakpoint info for a while now... :cry: Is it wrong for other characters too, or just for the A2 merc and his jab?

MageChick, could you give me the link to the breakpoint thread you used?--I can't seem to find it anywhere on the site.

Looking at the jab attacks (which are the majority of attacks at higher levels) you see that the WSM 0 hits the same breakpoint as the WSM -10 weapon. The WSM 10 weapons trail far behind. I won't bother with the damage per second, but the Great Poleaxe should come out well ahead.

Good to know, good to know... Hm, I wonder: since I socketed my merc's Andy's Visage with an IAS jewel, for 35% IAS, would a WSM 0 Great Poleaxe still hit the same breakpoint as the WSM -10 Thresher he's using now? I must find out.

So glad this question came up.

[Psycho§omatic]

Sticking an Andy visage plus Duriel shell / CoH pretty much give him enough strength at higher levels.

I highly doubt I'll ever get my hands on an Andy again. I had one last year before I quit. I have a Duriel Shell now, guess I'll go huntin for an Andy lol.

[FrostBurn]

MageChick, could you give me the link to the breakpoint thread you used?--I can't seem to find it anywhere on the site.

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthrea...12#post4718012

[Dystopianday]

The +50 strength on a 3 pamethyst Gris armor will get your merc up to CV strength easily.

Unfortunately, he'll tend to die.

So yeah. After going with the flow and making my first 2 infinities CVs, I'm making them in whatever other eth elite I can now. And I traded my CV infinities for thresher infinities - with an organ set and and Doom ettin axe thrown it.

Not much use for a ettin axe doom, but hey. Infinity for a better infinity + stuff. I win.

[WrathTalon]

FrostBurn, thanks for the link! Now I can answer the question I posed earlier (in case anyone cares):

Good to know, good to know... Hm, I wonder: since I socketed my merc's Andy's Visage with an IAS jewel, for 35% IAS, would a WSM 0 Great Poleaxe still hit the same breakpoint as the WSM -10 Thresher he's using now? I must find out.

So with 35% IAS from gear (Andy's Visage socketed with an IAS jewel), my A2 merc hits the following attack speeds:

WSM 10 (Col. Voulge, Cryptic Axe): 12-frame attack
WSM 0 (Ogre Axe, Great Poleaxe): 12-frame attack
WSM -10 (Thresher, Giant Thresher): 11-frame attack

In this case then, a Thresher or Giant Thresher does result in a faster attack than a Great Poleaxe (and hence more chance to trigger Infinity's CB mod). Since a Thresher is what my merc has, I'm glad socketing his helm wasn't a waste of a jewel. :smiley:

[MageChick]

Well, the STR req'd isn't really a problem once you hit a decent level. If you can afford the Infinity, you can probably afford some decent gear. I'm a big fan of using Andy's helm with runeword poles (Infinity/Insight/Obediance) because they all need the IAS. By the time you hit level 83, which is required for Andy's helm, then you'll end up with pleny of Str once you equip the helm (which comes with 25-30 STR I believe)

I guess it all comes down to availability - CV's are definatly easier to find/make. I ended up with 5os's on my last two Eth Great Poleaxes - so they got turned into some real nice Obediance's. At this point I'll probably use whatever eth elite 4os pole I can get. But the economy still seems wrong to me that eth CV's command a high price, and all the others are cheaper.

*edit - keep in mind that this whole discussion applies to you Insight users too. Of couse you don't really have to worry about "the best" pole to use for Insight (use whatever one you find), but all the principles are the same.

[emar]

But the economy still seems wrong to me that eth CV's command a high price, and all the others are cheaper.

In my experience the other polearms demand a higher price. A 4os eCV vs. a 4os eThresher, you'll pay up to 3 times more for the Thresher. You pay more because they are harder to obtain. If this pricing is based off B.net, they are a bunch of silly people on there. Remember folks, Meteor nerfs experience, and repairing the Hellforge hammer gets you a better rune... Oh the things you learn online

[Jackson]

For the strength requirement...

Try out a Tal's Mask with a Pamethyst in it.

[MageChick]

@emar - maybe I've just been "lucky" in buying eth Great polearms. I've bought two for pgems recently. (of course both gave me 5os when I rolled the sockets) One guy flat told me that only eth CV's have any value. I see people spamming their ISO list all the time - no one ever asks for Great Poleaxe's.

Maybe I should just chalk this up the all the brilliant people on Bnet. Remember to wear all your MF gear when key running. That and it helps to carry a high rune in your inventory when doing the countess or Hell forge quest That way you have a better chance of getting the same rune to drop again :rolleyes:

[KremBanan]

Ogre Axes gets only 3 sox and therefor are out of the calculations for Infinity.
As for range, I belive range is capped for mercs. Meaning that range on the weapon doesnt matter when its equipped by your merc. Or am I totally wrong here??