Ok so I’ve been trying a full summon druid. I wanted to do all the new stuff this go around, I got the Act 5 Barbarian frenzy merc. Just messing around I made the runeword lawbringer in a crappy crystal sword to try it out on him. He literally obliterates stuff with the sword, even in Hell mode, when it’s like 5-17 damages. I’m going to make the runeword again in a better, hopefully ethereal phase blade.
So the question is:
Are there any other easy to make runewords like this one that are crazy powerful for this new merc for his offhand? Maybe a dropped sword I should be looking for? I got so used to using only Act2 mercs I am not even sure what is out there for the others.
Eth Phaseblade doesnt exist, but phaseblade offhand with lawbringer in will be of benefit due to a much faster base speed. Your merc will swing faster with a PB in offhand rather than a crystal sword.
Main sword go damage. Eth headstriker, Oath in conqueror sword, something with good white damage. Headslot with leech, and a nice cheap treachery for body.
Worth noting that only mainhand IAS comes into Frenzy calculation. So literally nothing could be faster than a Phaseblade Lawbrigner in offhand, it is ideal. Some IAS on mainhand always nice - If its high, could even go with duress body.
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Eth Cryptic is his best base choice, right?
Thanks,
Floopay
Googled that and conqueror and you are probably right. Both are rare enough though, so i would use either.
I think Conquest sword has higher average damage and doesn’t have the crazy low damage that cryptic does, but it is base 0 instead of -10, which may or may not matter depending on how much other IAS you have. I just built an Oath in Eth Cyrptic b/c I had one, but was hoping to do one in eth Conquest.
Grief PB/Lawbringer PB on a Frenzy Mercenary is a relatively cheap(Lo + Mal for Grief isn’t that much honestly) but insanely OP combination. Grief is hands down the best melee runeword in the game(for now anyways… lots of talk about nerfing it) and when combined with On-Weapon IAS on a Phase Blade just means an insanely fast Frenzy. Lawbringer is pure gravy because it brings two things to the table. 1) Sanctuary aura. This aura is sooooo underrated but the aura allows the Mercenary to ignore Physical Resistance on anything Undead, including Undead who are Physical Immune(Ghosts/Wraiths). 2) Decrepify curse. This curse is so strong that when combined with Grief will allow him to annihilate anything before him. A bonus is Slain Monsters Rest in Peace(meaning no Corpse Explosion or Revive).
Now since you’re a Druid Summoner(aka Zookeeper), you’d ideally want to get an aura that affects your Minions and hence Act 2 is probably the better Mercenary option given that you can get Might + Concentration or Might + Reaper’s Toll as opposed to Last Wish for A5.
I’ve test grief pb + lawbringer pb on an offline frenzy merc and it absolutely destroys everything in its path. It’s important to have grief pb on main side for the damage. Offhand can be a weaker weapon but something that will benefit your character. For a sorc’s frenzy more go with eth cryptic sword plague. Lawbringer does not provide ed% so just make it out of a pb.
If You’ll ever consider doing Ubers with summon druid, i’d consider Kingslayer runeword, Last Wish runeword, Duress armor runeword, and chammed GFace Helm, + enigma on yourself. When telestomping an uber make sure to recast your pets on top of your merc, so he doesn’t get instagibbed, only spirit should be cast elsewhere, so that the buff doesn’t die right away. Also Frenzy merc has a bug that only one of the weapons provides things such as open wounds and Crusihing Blow and the other doesn’t…
put kingslayer as the one providing the bonuses as Last Wish does not have open wounds. The Might aura works in either hand. It is not case of : put kingslayer in mainhand, since sometimes it’s the offhand that it needs to be placed. to make sure what you do take a look in merc’s advanced stats (click the golden arrow and check for open wounds) open wounds must be Kingslayer + Duress, or it won’t be enaugh.
Also remember to feed your merc with pots when he looses life, since he’ll have no sustain. it’s a good strategy to teleport out of harm’s way when his life goes down.
Tested this setup on Sigle Player, and miniubers went down instantly ( Lilith rquired some pots to the merc). Major ubers required some adapting to, However often recasting your pets correctly, big ubers life goes down like crazy, the only issue is to keep the merc alive.