Confused about Faith and WF

[Xerezzz]

Confused about Faith and WF

Hi, Atm my amazon is level 86 I have followed 2 different guides making something in between them.

Skills atm are:
20 Guided Arrow
20 Critical Strike
12 Dodge
12 Evade
12 Avoid
8 Multiple Shot
5 Strafe (getting it higher this is where Im putting my "remaining skills")
1 Decoy
1 Valkyrie and 1 on the prereqs for it.
1 Penetrate and Pierce

Equipment atm:

Faith GMB
Fortitude
Giants socketed with 2x 15/40 jewels
The cats eye
Raven frost
Dual Leech Ring
Natalyas boots (for the 40% frw and some resistance)
Verdungos
Crafted Gloves with ias, ll, knockback.

act2 nightmare offensive merc with might aura and equipment
Pride cryptic axe
shaftstop
crown of thieves (for ll)

To sum things up, I use the GMB faith because its awesome aura and its overall good and then use my merc to get might and concentration from pride runeword to increase my damage.

But some people have told me that I should use a shael'd windforce instead and probably put the Faith GMB on a act1 rouge.

That would give me less damage because I will loose the might and concentration aura, but will the windforce max damage make up for the lost auras?

What should you do? Act 2 merc with the setup I have or act1 merc with faith and wear WF instead.

Please help me out and if Im going to use a act1 merc, which one is best?

Thanks / Xerez

 

[Kijya]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

Act 1 mercs cannot use gmb faiths, they need ones in non-amazon-only bows.

I prefer wf+faith merc myself, however there are advantages and disadvantages for both setups. The wf one has an easier time reaching bp's because the bow gives 40 ias towards the 95 needed for multi with 13+ fana aura. This allows some other pieces of equipment, also the merc doesn't die from IM if you wish to run chaos sanctuary often.

The pride+might however has a bit more defense in another tank and the revived skeletons. Also a pride+might gains more from +max charms as that setup has more of weapon ed, for both good and bad (the wf setup requires less charms to reach good damage, while the might merc one can reach higher damages with good charms).


Still this is just said on to of my head, many have discussed this more in detail before, and I bet there's been better analyzes made.

 

[HellPlayer]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

Please help me out and if Im going to use a act1 merc, which one is best?

Thanks / Xerez

My preference is the wf zon+ act1 merc with faith because running a lot of chaos a merc imune to iron maiden is essential, about the question above the ice rogue is better(again because fire imunes are common in chaos).
HellPlayer

 

[Duality]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

WF/Faith merc at the 7/2 strafe BP supposedly has a higher DPS then a might merc/Faith, despite the lower listed damage on the WF/Faith setup. (you are attacking faster) Of course, the calculations rely on maxed strafe. (20 crit is probably overkill)

Also, with the WF/Faith setup, Atma's is a huge boost, since you attack so fast, amp triggers constantly.

Act 1 cold merc is better, you get freeze/slow.

There's a number of threads here about the WF/Faith combo vs other setups. As Kijya said, you need at least a L13 Fanat on the merc's faith to hit the 7/2 BP and 95 additional IAS from your gear. Shaeling the WF gives you 40 to start.

I have a WF/Faith glass cannon, she's fun and kills pretty quickly, but I do hate having to rely on my merc for the IAS boost.

 

[Xerezzz]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

I see, thanks everyone for the info. Sorry but I havn't played diablo for very long so I don't know what that Chaos thing is ur talking about`U mean Diablo runs in chaos sanctury?

And about the act1 merc, must I buy her in normal / nm or hell or doesn't it matter?

And the act1 merc what armor and helmet do u use on it to survive best?

 

[Duality]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

Chaos is a level 85 area, meaning that any item can drop there, which is why people tend to mf there. (and you get to kill D at the end) Also, if you grush a char (getting to hell at aroung level 8~), it's the place to level up to 60.

For the merc, buying a merc in normal at a low level and leveling them up gives them higher stats. Short of that, buying a high level one in hell is better than buying a high level on in norm.

For the helm/armor on your merc you should try to hit the 9 frame BP. Merc's can't use Amazon only bows, so a Great Bow or Shadow Bow is your best bet since they have decent damage and a fast attack speed. I prefer the great bow personally.

Using a Great Bow:
Level 13 fanat, it's 32 IAS for 9
Level 14 fanat, it's 30 IAS for 9

Using a Shadow Bow:
Level 13, it's 22 IAS for 10, 50 IAS for 9
Level 14, it's 20 IAS for 10, 48 IAS for 9

Level 15 fanat doesn't provide any further IAS boosts according to the calculator I'm looking at, so I didn't include it.

In either case, Andy's helm socketed with a 15 ias jewel gives you 35 IAS. Fort is a good armor if you make it in a lower STR req armor. Personally, I use Mav's Helm (30 ias, I have a level 14 fanat and a great bow, so no further IAS needed) and Mav's armor, just because. Andy's Helm/Fort would be a better choice, I just thought I'd try mav's on her since I found it while running the pit. (another level 85 area) And I'm too lazy to make another Fort for my merc.

For the Shadow Bow, a 10 frame attack is probably better than a 9 frame attack, since you would have to have IAS on your mercs armor to hit the 9 frame BP and I *think* that the damage from fort is superior to the damage you would gain from the 9 frame BP.

Act 1 Merc's have no trouble surviving if you use Valk/Decoy, so DR on your merc isn't needed. Just so you know, I was using a stealskull/crow caw on my merc for a while. Both are terrible armors but she still didn't die unless I did :tongue:

 

[deathpusher]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

I asked nearly the same question last week. What build gives higher damage? So I answered the question myself. I swapped out WF for GM faith, atmas for cats eye, razortail for N coil and Andy's for Mav helm. Merc now has might pride also.

Keeping all charms the same and only beefing up dex slightly (less strength requirement for GM vs hydra). I see a modest increase in damage (~700 for guided arrow).

For me atleast, I can't see any difference in killing speed using the two setups so I guess it comes down to preference.

As said many time before....

WF/ merc faith setup:

1. razortail lets you have 100% pierce.
2. Atma's gives that sweet ctc curse. Although i find it less useful for a multi zon, but still nice to have.
3. Merc is more likely to stay alive doing those chaos runs, but she does tend to fall behind frequently and you have to wait for her aura.

GM faith/ might merc-pride setup:

1. you lose the benifit of 100% pierce and ctc amplify damage.
2. A2 merc is more of a tank, although he dies more often.
3. Your rarely out of his aura range, which increases you overall killling speed.
4. Can be useful also to have a few of those returned around as meat shields as they spawn much faster with your zon carrying the faith.

As suggested before, I think its just preference...my preference is GM faith.

 

[crawlingdeadman]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

now do mat bow faith compared to the other two :grin:

also if your main skill is strafe, you dont need nearly the ias and can therefore keep atma's/razortail.

 

[Xerezzz]

Re: Confused about Faith and WF

thanks alot everyone, especially deathpusher that was a really good plane black on white comparison!