Why is that armor expensive? It's one of the those random uniques that nobody cares for after day 1, no?

its worth more but only its eth version its a very good merc armor

mercs are supposed to wear like fortitude or CoH no?

Depends on merc built

is this because it's the only armor apart from CoH that has lifesteal and is used for a Cure merc???????????

1- People dont keep it when it drop so more rare on the market.
2- Eth drop chance is low.
3- People seem to look at it for the merc build this season. Was not really the case couple season ago.

This post was edited by Xshoot on May 31 2026 07:59am

yeah that's what I remembered as well. Seems like people figured out its BiS right after CoH for early season at least

It’s a budget CoH.

Say you have a might merc with 442 avg damage mancatcher eth infinity, cure helm, level 98, max possible everything- 72.5 base damage, 209 str, +299% ed from might/jab and +13% per skill above that.
And you're against monsters with 0/25/50% dr and 100% leech effectiveness to keep math simple. Flayed one + protector's stone adds 20 base damage -10% dr 7% leech, while CoH adds 2 skills, 0/100/200% ed, 20 str (so 46/146/246 ed) 8% leech

no armor = 3128/2346/1564 damage, no leech
flayed one + protectors stone = 3475/2762/1950 damage, 81/64/46 leeched
coh vs animal = 3365/2524/1682 damage, 90/67/45 leeched
coh vs undead = 3879/2909/1940 damage, 103/78/52 leeched
coh vs demon = 4394/3295/2197 damage, 117/88/59 leeched

Skin of the flayed one + protector's stone comes out pretty close to CoH, clearly less against demons, more against animals, about the same vs undead. More enemies have closer to 25-50% dr and more undead have 0% leech effectiveness, and more enemies are demons so its not like its an average case. You might lose 11% overall dps / 22% leech against a 50% dr venom lord for example, but deal 16% more to animals, same leech more or less.
CoH's other upside is putting 75/75/75/75 resists and 8% dr. Flayed one sits at 62/62/62/75, unless you have tainted warlock its 75/62/62/75. They both give % mf

So the real question has always been since last season: how much do we value 1% chance to cast fade on merc. It really ONLY can be assumed to activate in tz games, and even then mercs die to heralds a lot
and even once it activates, its max resists 15% dr and curse reduction on a merc who already has curse reduction and its competing with reliable max resists 8% dr on coh

This post was edited by Goomshill on May 31 2026 08:32am

eth upped foreskin of the flayed one socketed with protectors jewel is bis now