My guy is a lvl 94 zeal/fanta melee build… some points in Cleansing, Redemption and Salvation for viability. I have lvl 21 in Zeal/Sacrifice/Holy Shield/Defiance… and 11 points in my reserve.
Merc is Act I cold, and wears Fortitude (eth - 2500 defense) wields a Windforce with a Ber (20% crushing Blow) and …
Helm?
This is where I am struggling.
I have:
Gface with open socket (would give 55% Crushing Blow, and 15& Deadly Strike).
Giant Skull Bone Visage (eth) with 2 open sockets.
Andarial’s Visasge (eth).
Vampires gaze.
Merc already has 75% resist, and lightening resist of 80%.
Anrariel’s gives her 85% to poison, but, that is not a deal for me, as, if she is poisoned, I am too, and I run Cleansing to rid us f such.
Which helm would you run, and if it has sockets, what would you put in there?
Kinda want to up her damage, but, unsure what to socket to do so.
It seems like there is no bad choice between those, but, what do i socket to increase her damage.
I have the runes for Delirium, but, I -99% of the time- keep her out of trouble, so, her getting hit is rare, so, confuse might work, but, would I be able to invoke attract… and, i don’t even know what attract is… so there is that.
I’m not a speed runner (no teleport of any kind) and don’t enjoy that play style. We cruise and kill everything we come across… I keep her safe, and, she rocks-out/has-my-back from behind the scenes.
Would love the excellent player base here to advise me.
Oh, I have at least 12 of every P-gem, and at least 2 of every rune up to an including Ber… but nothing beyond Ber.
I am a fool, and have given-away, traded or sold (to in-game-vendors) all jewels… i am not opposed to going on a jewel hunt. just started searching for help and realized jewels are pretty good to hold onto. Duh!
Currently running her with a GFace (open socket) and wears a Fortitude (300% ED), which provides replenish life of +7. She has a Windforce Bow that gives 20% IAS (250 ED).
I run lvl 22 Fanaticism (+35% attack speed)… don’t know if she is hitting her break points, but, she doesn’t seem to suffer in the speed department, but, I don’t do the maths, so, I honestly wouldn’t know.
Her Life is at 1827, Damage is 505-3652, Defense is 4107.
All her resistances are at 75%, except lightening is at 80%. Fire seems to be her demise, so, when we come across that I’ll run Salvation (lvl 14) to keep her vertical :).
Do not pretend to know how replenish life works, but +7 seems to be enough, I rarely have to feed her healing potions.
She was wearing a Vampires Gaze (6% life stolen/hit) and I don’t “notice” a difference in her survive-ability now that she is wearing the GFace, but, she is more destructive to monsters with the GFace (a combined 55% Crushing Blow and 15% Deadly Strike for her alone).
As good as the Anderials Visage looks, it’s the -30% fire resist has kept me from trying it.
She already struggles with fire.
Yeah Andy’s Visage usually goes with Ral rune or with Ruby Jewel of Fervor (the one that gives IAS and Fire Resistance).
As for the breakpoints.
With your setup she is hitting 10 frames per attack (2.08 attacks per second).
Even two jewels of fervor (+30% IAS total) would drop that to only 9 frames per attack (2.27 attacks per second).
So tbh I don’t think it’s worth it. Stick to GFace for that Crushing Blow - it will be hard to get higher with Hydra Bow.
For comparison - my A1 has Faith in a Great Bow and hits 8 frames per attack (2.5 attacks per second) and that is maximum possible to achieve.
I will be exchanging that for a Faith in Matriarchal Bow that I have found recently (superior, +12% ED, +3 to B&C skills, +2 AR) after patch 2.4 hits when she will be able to wield Amazon weapons and get +skills from them.
Thanks for the calculations and advice.
I too am looking forward for the 2.4 patch…
I have read Act 1 cold merc is getting freezing arrow… and seen some mention of piercing… do you know if she is getting piercing arrow as well?
My other Pally is a Dual Dream, with Act 1 merc (I’ve never used anything but and Act 1 merc)… that is when my Faith bow went.
Not about to roll a HR bow right now with 2.4 around the corner… not that I have the base of HR’s anyways. I never seem to find HR’s and crafting then ‘up’ is a long process.
With regard to how I keep my merc alive;
I forgot to mention, I’m wearing Dracul’s, with life tap, so, thinking that’s a factor as well.
Her breakpoints are 37 -10, 50-9, 67-8, from what I’m seeing your about 45 (35 fanat, 20 Windforce -10 windforce) = 10 frames? Putting Andy’s on her would get 9 frames, you can socket a Ral in it to remove the -fire resists.
Another option would be to take the Ber out of Windforce and drop Shael in, then you can use G-face for the hat. That hits 9 frames for her attack while getting a net increase of 15% CB. Even Better a jewel of ferver for G-Face and get 55% CB. You lose the Life Leech but honestly I don’t find I need leech for her, I make sure to position her so she isn’t getting hit and I don’t feel like the LL actually helps her when she does get hit.
Treachery will give you the 8 frame attack but it looks like that will lower her potential DPS by 1K. I have an affinity to witchwilds with Treachery. The 8 frame helps her proc Amp mroe and when she does proc amp it blows Windforce away.
Fanat at 27, shael’d windforce, and Andy’s will hit 8 frames.
Rondel,
Good to see you, I was hoping you’d reply.
I have some Ral’s, Shael’s… hate to toss out a Ber, but do have 2 on hand (cube’d my way there).
I really like the Jewel of Ferver idea… never even heard of that until now.
Wonder what they trade for these days? I see a 15/40 went for for Ber+Vex+Gul+Ist in Nov. of '21. Zoinks! Pretty sure I have at least 1 of each, but sweet mother they are expensive.
I checked out the Witchwild… what %chance and lvl of Amp is yours, and what did you socket in it?
15/40 is about the most perfect gem and most sought after thing out there, I’m sure you can find a cheaper one that’s ‘less perfect’.
Witchwild is a 2% ctc amp, I wish it was more but if you throw that on a multishot/strafe zon that’s a crazy high amount of amp triggering. it does have an almost guaranteed crit rate at higher lvls so the damage is deceptive. I have some nice ed gems in it, but even with those Windstorm does come in higher.
I did find a Rare bow that procs Amp at 5% but the damage didn’t measure up. Still that’s a mythical bow…
I am running act 1 merc using Mist. I find that the concentration Aura really boosts the damage of the Hammerdin and the +3 to skill levels does not hurt her either. I am using Fire damage with her instead of cold as it seems to have a better effect with redemption for me to keep up my mana. For the helm, I am using Andarials Visage. Why? because it is either that or Tals Helm. I do not have the others that you have.
OK, I sold my sole for on of those several days go, and, it’s a true improvement over anything I could have imagined.
just now, I was able to trade some P-gems for a Witchwild w/ 2 open sockets.
its;
2% CtC on 5amp.
Magic Arrow.
164% ED
94% Deady Strike (based on Char lvl) - Amplisa is lvl 90… she got obliterated by fire in Trav and Durance the last few days… she was lvl 93 prior,
All-Res is 40 -that looks great to me???-
and 2 open sockets.
I still have all those helms, but, i did socket the Gface with a 15/40 (runes stash took a hit).
And, I do have a zeal-dual-dream pally with an Act1 merc… currently she has a eth giant skull-dream’d… but she could wear any of those others.
You all are so helpful.
Thanks
ETA;
oh, based on that…
who should get the WitchWild?
what should it be socketed with?
and, what helm to compliment?
I have a bunch of all type of p-gems (“rocks”).
And at least 1 of every rune up to jah… well, no Io’s,and no Sur…
Still very lacking on “gems”