I’m liking the merc a lot. So far I have a grief on 1 hand and a lawbringer on the other. I’m running him with my fist of heavens paladin. The paladin can kill the demons/undead, but of course struggles with beast types. That’s where the merc helps, but in order to give the merc some more help(As it takes some time to kill them sometimes). Should I consider making a “breath of the dying” for the merc?
I know I won’t be able to make it in an axe as it can’t wield an axe. It’ll probably be a normal ethereal crystal or phase blade. It can’t wield colossus swords yes?
Would it be worth it to put a Zod into a sword(crystal/phase), just for the act 5 merc?
id consider etheral headstriker. they benefit from a 2x factor i think in the formula for damage calculation. dbrunski tested it during ptr in a vid.
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I think a breath of the dying and a grief is best in slot; like using both. That is, bis for damage. Two law bringers could work in cows with a Javazon, pre-infinity, for example.
I’m not sure if I can answer your question, but the lawbringer is a good choice if your run a physical dealing character like a fanaticism zealot and I have a Unbending Will in his other hand. This is single player off-line, so the new runewords apply.
But I just wanted to join you in the praise of the Act 5 Frenzy Merc. I’m thinking though that twinking him for a magic dealing character can be really expensive while for a physical using one you can make him work much cheaper.
Other than that, I don’t really know which would be better as far as botd or grief. Both are out my budget.
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Grief lawbringer is what I’m using with an enchantress buffing him up and he rocks
That is only if you equip them whit one weapon.
Ethereal Headstriker is worth a try. It’s a lot cheaper to try than your other picks, too.
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Eth upped headstriker, grief, azurewrath are great weapons for him for example. He doesnt need botd.
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Grief lawbringer is about as amazing as you are going to get. Grief will outdamage both in phaseblade by a million times. 8f you can fit a gface in that will also really help.
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That’ll be better than the barb helms ie arreat’s?
I definitley have a G-Face for him, got like 3…lol
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In terms of damage there is no rival. The problem is of course - no leech, no resists, no defense really, no attack bonus. So its tough.
I for one, think crushing blow and deadly strike is massive on a merc - and currently you dont have any. But if you dont have leech than that simply has to come first.
I only have 10% ll that I’m getting from my andariel’s.
I guess I was hoping that the poison ticks from an always “proccing” BoTD would help kill those beast type monsters faster. But it seems like I might have an ok setup with what I have now.
Your setup is what i would have if i had a spare Lo rune. Its fantastic. The other option would be BOTD and Gface - theres an argument there to be had which i cant really answer. I would assume grief with andys is better though due to that amazing + damage.
For me, Lawbringer is an absolute must. Although others will argue.
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Yeah lawbringer is great. And I did neglect to mention that it also has 7% ll of course, so it’s total 17% on my merc.
I’ll try the gface a bit later and see how it does for his own sustainablity with only 7% . Unfortunately it seems like you can only get life steal from runes or gems when it’s socketed into a weapon. Not sure if there’s jewels that can have it for the helm?
Edit: I realize that I only got IAS becasue of my jewel. Total brainfart, so I can’t have jewel + another item too duh haha
Problem is, Lawbringer LL will only work for attacks using LB - So your Grief does not benefit. Due to the low base damage of Lawbringer, this likely wont be sufficient.
Interested to read your findings 
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Grief/Lawbringer is the best combo for the new Frenzy Barb. Grief on its own is straight up godly but Lawbringer is a must for the Decrepify proc. Sanctuary aura is nice too as it allows the Merc to roll Undead but that’s inconsequential to FoHdins(unless Holy Bolt follows Blessed Hammer’s trail in not affecting Magic Immunes… cough Pandemonium Pit Lords cough). As I said, the main reason for Lawbringer is Decrepify. I do wish they could wield 2-H’s since that’d open up more Sword bases and runewords but we have to work with what we got.
Anyways the choice you make for armor is purely on preference but I must point out that in the case of FoHdins, they have Holy Bolt and can be specialized into Clerics that can passively heal quite a bit over time with a very strong Heal Bolt to go with it. Therefore the need for LL is not as essential as it would be to other builds/classes.
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That cleric, passive healing, healing bolt thing is rather interesting…
Giving Act 5 Merc Lawbringer for counter animal types this actually really bad idea because when Lawbringer proc Decrepify curse to packs then Merc taunt every single target who hitting one
you know taunt delete curses so he kill monster without decrepify it makes Lawbringer useless except for bosses (bosses not working taunt)
and Sanctuary aura is working only undead but undead monsters melting by FOH
so it also not a good options for FOHdin
In my experience, the Decrepify from Lawbringer takes precedence over Taunt. For instance, I have my zealot’s act 5 merc equipped with Lawbringer and Unbending Will which has something like a 18% chance to level such and such Taunt. However, if he taunt gets cast first and then decrepify, the decrepify will overrule the taunt and subsequent taunt casts don’t take effect.
If decrepify is cast first then Taunt just doesn’t proc.
Interesting though, and it could be bug, if he casts taunt on a physical immune with Lawbringer equipped, he seems to melt the physical immune ghosts in the Countess’s Tower just as fast as if the decrepify had proc’d.
Could be sanctuary aura that does it, I suppose with the ghosts but it appears to also do it when I’m doing cow runs. Many times, he’s killing faster than I do in /players8 game.
I don’t think I’m imagining it, but I could be I guess.
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