D2R Item Bases - Merc Weapon Bases (Polearms & Spears) 

Excellent insight base =}

Obedience is amazing Weapon for merc great job

Yes but if you use a faster polearm you can utilize,. Fortitude or duress which are arguably stronger runewords in survivability, and dps output. Fortitude leaning towards raw DPS, and duress leaning toward crushing blow and open wounds. Treachery also does not favor quick farmers, as it can take some time to activate. So trav farmers, pindle farmers, ect will have issues getting fade to proc before the run is already over. Furthermore, Andy's Visage is not going to be available for every Merc and especially early ladder you are using budget gear at best. So choosing a faster weapon early on opens up more gear options that won't hamper your merc

I specifically called out the ogre axe and colossus Voulge during the video as bad options due to the high strength requirements jinx.

Thanks. I made this mistake and put Insight in a Colossus Voulge. I also put Fortitude ona Laquered Plate. It had minimum strength requirements of 210 and 208. I had damage and defense levels above 3300 but no life steal or IAS. I was locked into using a helmet with strength bonus because a level 92 act 2 Mercenary only has a natural strength total of 202.

Does attribute bugging work with mercs? Asking because you are so close and insight does add a menial amount of stats. Wonder if you could throw a chest piece socketed with some strength to get the insight on then it would cover the difference itself. (Be able to take the chest piece off and change it)

@@superanderson the items are usable for sure but in order to get life steal, strength and IAS in one helmet I can grind out an Andariels Visage or Act 5 socket a StealSkull for small amounts of both or a Crown Of Thieves for a moderate amount of life steal and sacrifice the IAS.

the comment was intended to emphasize information you touched on

Range is truly underrated, great advice

The lvl on meditation is secondary, the attack rating is what's important .

@@JamesDM4 His attack and damage were just terrible. I have enough of the runes in my collection to put Obedience on a mancather that I rolled 5 sockets in the cube with ^^ Not ethereal but maybe I'll give it a spin with an amazon in the future .. I'll have to start eating mana potions if I do this but maybe it's not all that bad. Whenever I teleport to Andariel or Meph I'll have to switch back his Insight for the mana regen.

And the mancatcher is even better now because it's a negative 20 speed. Vs the -10 on threshers. Pushes it even further, but honestly I would use duress with infinity not Fortitude. Open wounds and extra CB. Most people who use infinity don't actually hit the target. So having the Merc apply OW helps prevent regeneration. And the extra CB helps take down the tough monsters faster the Fortitude will.

Aye eth CA is definitely the better of those two.

The nice thing about eth CVs is if you larzuk them you get 4 socket, if you use the cube to socket them you'll have a 50% chance to get 4 sockets. The other polearms usually have a maximum of 5 sockets

@@roberthampton2629 yes I said that during the video, but the issue is despite the eth CV's ease of access In obtaining 4 sockets the high strength requirement makes it generally unusable for most act 2 mercs. Like I get the general idea, but unless your Merc is lvl 93+ or you have equipment with large strength enhancements it still remains a rather poor choice for a starter character. The other big issue here is even if you do have strength enhancing equipment, it is generally much worse than other gear he could be wearing as a starter character. Like a common thing is a 3 socketed helm with three p amythsts in it. Which while it might allow you to equip the CV earlier depending on the mercs current strength (it also might not be enough) you are also giving up the helmet slot to do this which results in a much weaker Merc overall. Most notably is the lack of life steal on Insight, which is usually fixed with a cheap life steal helmet like Tals mask, crown of thieves, or even undead crown. Being forced into a Pammy helmet to use the CV removes your option for a LL helmet. And then you are forced to find a LL Armor which there are very few options. Then we can approach it from the other angle a Pammy armor or generic strength enhancing armor. Now you have given up Treachery, duress, fortitude, stone, or any other very good Merc armor. The whole thing snowballs into a weak Merc who dies a lot. Andy's Visage btw is neither an easily obtained starter item, nor is it low level with a requirement of 83. And quite honestly by the time you have obtained an Andy's Visage, you have usually also obtained a better base. And all of this adds up to eth CV is a poor choice in general and only workable if you can put it on your Merc without concessions. And even if you can put it on your Merc without concessions there are better options available.

@@GGMentor Ah I must have missed that part of the video I got interrupted while watching it, I agree the eth CV is mostly good for its ease of access that's how it got to be a popular idea. The CVs slow attack speed isn't ideal either

@@GGMentor "Andy's Visage btw is neither an easily obtained starter item, nor is it low level with a requirement of 83. And quite honestly by the time you have obtained an Andy's Visage, you have usually also obtained a better base." last 2 ladders have tought me otherwise both times i founf andy and eth andy b4 a good weapon base so ill stick with my eth cv for insight tyvm

This video was specifically talking about mercenaries. So while you are absolutely correct just not in the context of this video.

GP is the best polearm base for dps

You can't ever go by the written values of slow, normal, fast ect because the values change for each class holding the item. I am talking about the base speed. As for GP vs CA yes GP is faster by 10 but also has less damage. It's a middle of the road polearm. Usually you want to go for hard hits, or fast hits. Middle of the road ones are ok but I generally don't use them. Also GP has its damage lower because it's balanced around the max range. Which has no effect on mercs. GP is not a bad polearm for Merc weapons it's just neither the highest damage option nor the fastest option.

Yes prayer and meditation synergize and using insight with a prayer Merc will give double regeneration. Regeneration is great for you and your other players. It doesn't however work on mercs =\> It is however a great use of the prayer aura and the meditation insight polearm.

No that is not correct, you can see all their breakpoints here. www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/comments/b9dxmj/all_a2_mercenary_ias_breakpoints_infographic/?

Trying to make an Insight for the Merc

yes, that was fixed in a patch a long time ago

@@GGMentor Thx. It rolled 292ed -52 to Enemy lightning res. 🙂

@@P4ND3R550N grats

@@GGMentor Thanks GGMentor.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 🤔

I came here looking for this same answer. Have you found out?

@@danocon92 yes I made one about 3 months ago or more.

@@narrow_way12 hell yea, thanks

Obedience is a very good Merc weapon, cheap too. Eth 5 socket CV is a good base for obedience

@@GGMentor I’ll have to see if I can give up the mana on my insight. Maybe on my gold barb merc?

@@jeffwagner4522 yes obedience works great on a GF barb

This was updated in D2R 2.4 Obedience, pride, and infinity had spears added to their list of compatible bases. Insight had bows added but not spears. "Insight Now can also be used with Bows and Crossbows Infinity Can now be used by Spears and Amazon Spears Obedience Can now be used by Spears and Amazon Spears Pride Can now be used by Spears and Amazon Spears" news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo2/23788293/diablo-ii-resurrected-patch-2-4-ladder-now-live

@@GGMentor oops ...my bad 😅 but the great poleaxe is still always my best choice for all rw 🤩