Thanks!
On the contrary, there's always a point to debating.
You're looking at about 18 DPS (over 8 seconds) from OWs @clvl 16 (my current) or about 34 DPS @clvl 25 (just about the highest clvl I'd expect before Act 3). This is 1/2'd vs any champ/unique/super unique/boss (Im usually only clearing these and skipping everything else I can in Normal, trying to rush to get to NM Andariel/Meph).
I actually move forward rather quickly in Normal and usually catch up @ Pindle, so I'm not benefitting from some massive level discrepancy just because P8.

15-90 fire damage @ 1.78 attacks per second = 97.9 average DPS
The downside is that there are no other reductions for Open Wounds while fire damage suffers from mob fire resistance, but fortunately fire resistance is inherently low throughout most of normal for most mobs.

Considering all of this, the fact that physical damage on bases available in Act 2 is pretty bad, the fact that your Mercenary is going to be shitting on your physical damage output, and taking into account massive HP pools @ P8 on champ packs with 80% physical resistance, Stone Skin mobs with 50% physical resistance (like I said, champ/uniques are what I stop for ideally) I'd personally rather have the elemental damage output to dispatch mobs my Merc would take a while to kill. Like I said though, you could always use one on offhand and get the best of both worlds, I'd just rather a decent ED rare with Leech to get a little health return. You can use Steel for sure until you find a decent weapon to leech with, though.

To each his own, though.

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Act 2 complete, should've named it Snail.
Nice roll from the polearm recipe for Mercenary, using the 3x Ral Flail/Steel Flail combo with 2x leech rings.

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Inching closer to NM Andariel where I'll be for quite a while.
Looking forward to CS too, everything's been rather boring so far..

This post was edited by LucAA on Sep 12 2017 08:55pm

Norm is cancer for melee chars

It's not so bad as Frenzy TBH, the mobility buff is quite noticeable even at slvl 1. Howl is nice too.
E: This character is likely to turn out very similar to my Feral Druid, very fast and Faded.

This post was edited by LucAA on Sep 12 2017 09:12pm

Right on. My barb is at NM Meph farming. The grind is real

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War Cry doing work @Infector.
Diablo took fucking forever but I lucked out and finally got a Life Tap wand on my last visit to town before him.
clvl 31

This post was edited by LucAA on Sep 13 2017 10:24pm

I may actually be able to play this tomorrow.

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Finally managed to shrine a P Ruby for some CB.
Pretty good cute helmet, using it for now. Too bad not BO or War Cry.

This post was edited by LucAA on Sep 17 2017 10:19pm

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Reran Pindle to 40 then rumbled atop the mountain.
I have so much HP..