Weapon for Merc I got an act2 might merc. Which weapon would you give him? Wraith Flight Ghost Glaive Throw Damage: (112-130) To (317-368) (214.5-249 Avg) One-Hand Damage: (70-81) To (225-261) (147.5-171 Avg) Required Level: 76 Required Strength: 79 Required Dexterity: 127 Base Weapon Speed: [20] Max Stack (75) +150-190% Enhanced Damage (varies) 9-13% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies) +15 To Mana After Each Kill Replenishes Quantity [1 in 2 sec.] Ethereal (Cannot Be Repaired)* (Ladder Only) (Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later) or The Meat Scraper (Ethereal but don't have the stats on me) Lochaber Axe Two-Hand Damage: (15-18) To (145-174) (80-96 Avg) Required Level: 41 Required Strength: 80 Durability: 50 Base Weapon Speed: [10] +150-200% Enhanced Damage (varies) 50% Chance Of Open Wounds 30% Increased Attack Speed 10% Life Stolen Per Hit 25% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items +3 To Masteries (Barbarian Only) (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)
ethereal reapers toll, ethereal spire of honor, ethereal bonehew all work well. i personally have this gear on my act2 HF merc: Ethereal Gaze Ethereal Upgraded Duriels Shell Ethereal Upgraded Spire of Honor War Pike if you have some capital to fork over, you can get these as well: eth BotD War Pike eth BotD Giant Thresher eth BotD Great Poleaxe
Unless you can afford some crazy items such as ethereal reaper's toll or ethereal bonehew or a doom/botd polearm/spear, i would stick with any elite ethereal "Honor" runeword weapon such as ghost spear, thresher, cryptic axe. They offer nice life leech (7%) 25% deadly strike, +1 to merc skills and some decent damage for practically no cost (except the weapon). Honor ethereal thresher : 56-560 damage Honor ethereal cryptic axe : 140-596 damage Honor ethereal ghost spear : 75-612 damage
should my act2 merc use an eth Ariocs needle 500 max dmg with almost 400 psn dmg or dual amn'd bonehew?
Spire of Honor is way too slow. Even if you Shael it, you lose the Life Leech if you Amn'd it. All of my mercs use Bonehews(None-ladder so I can't get reapers) and they are doing excellent. Hel + Shael/Amn until they have the 195 strength(or 180 with Duriel's Shell) and then I suggest Shael + Amn. Just unsocket it with Hel + Town Portal. Honors also work well as a cheap weapon. If you can find an Ethereal weapon to throw it in. And of course BOTD are good for anything.
well the question is which of the two listed, not what is the best weapon of all. either way it also depends on what is your style of play. the bigger damage of the glaive is nice. the open wounds from the meat scraper is probably better though. i assume you'll be doing the actual killing. it's nice to stop the healing somehow on these minions of diablo. try both and observe the difference. by the way, in 1.09 there was a bug with +skills and act2 merc auras. +skills from the same skill tree placeholder as offensive auras would actually increase your merc's skill. the meat scraper's +masteries did just this back then. not anymore. finally the magic find on the scraper might be a factor if you're into that. enjoy.
All my Spires are in storage for that reason. They work nice with the extra bonus to defense for a defiance merc, but that's only for his hide. I have about 20 mercs that use Honor threshers. Threshers drop allover the place in 1.10 it seems, and several already have 5 sockets. Larzuk will put 5 in it for you if you find a plain one. You will find the runes without too much trouble and they're cheap to trade for. Threshers are fast and Honor has some very nice mods - especially the leech and deadly strike. I must say that after 100-200 hours of MF'ing elite areas, I have yet to find one of the new elite polearms! But I I can make another 3 Honors right now with what I've found in that time. Just found a 5-socket giant thresher last night in fact. I also have other type of higher damage polearms/spears on my A2 mercs when I can find a decent one, but Honor weapons satisfy all my needs, and allow mercs to wear the set winged helm for some added damage. Biggin's Bonnet is also nice for that.
From observation alone, that was not the case in 1.09. Maybe' they've changed that. Rogue mercs shot faster with faster bows. Maybe this was due to other factors, but that's what I observed.
