So, there are 12 travi mobs (3 super-uniques, each with 3 support mobs). Let's imagine you don't have BiS gear yet. Your merc will surely hit 4-5 mobs. Let's say 5. With 20% to shatter a corpse, that means 1 corpse each run will shatter (on average). Let's imagine 1000 runs. That means 1000 less corpses.

1000 corpses are generated within 83 (rounded) runs. So basically, you lose the hork opportunity for 83 runs after a 1000 runs. Will you make up for that loss, due to being faster because of decrep? Possibly.

*edit
Of course, a lot was simplified. Your merc will not have 95% chance to land a hit. Sometimes even if the merc hit lands, the chilled effect might be over before the killing blow. Also, cold immunes can not be chilled and therefore will not shatter. Also, even if he successfully hits, you might kill the mob faster than 1 frame, which leads to no chill effect as well.

This post was edited by justAddi on Nov 7 2022 03:18am

Hm. not sure what you and me are doing differently but I just did 10 runs without a single shattered corpse.
Here's a run from just a minute ago: https://imgur.com/a/frbUYJj

If you are counting the horked corpses, are you also counting the failed horks?

Thanks

You kill them so fast the merc does nothing. Have you tried with pride in merc?

Your numbers are off. There are 11 Council members. Even with only one Grief, your merc will not be hitting 4-5 mobs per run.
I'm also not convinced about the shattering mechanic. My merc is hitting several times and they don't even get chilled, much less shatter. Your edited comment makes sense. Merc doesn't always hit, they might be cold immune etc. On thing I'd add here is that I don't use any IAS jewels because I don't want him to hit. Maybe obvious but wanted to point that out too.

You also don't take time into consideration when you made this scenario up. Time is the most important factor. If Reaper's generate corpses but saves time on a run, you still benefit from this.

Anyway, here's the breakdown from my testing. It's in the spreadsheet in the post.



Time, 9 runs - Combined time it took to clear Council 9 times. I did 10 runs, removed the slowest run and counted it as an outlier. Timer started on first hit, ended on last hit.
Average time - "Time, 9 runs" divided by 9.
Time, 12 runs - The time it took for me to do 12 full runs, with horking, loading screens, running etc.
Average time - "Time, 12 runs" divided by 12

In my testing, Reapers saved 23 mins, 37 seconds over 1000 runs. This equates to 327 kills. For Infinity to be better than Reaper's, I have to shatter more than 1 corpse every 3 runs. In my experience (and I have done 8000 Trav runs with Reaper's and 2000 Trav Runs with Infinity) you shatter 1-2 corpses in 10 runs with Reaper's. In my case, with my build, with the way I play, Reaper's is worth using. However, I still prefer Infinity.

This post was edited by Dadilydoo on Nov 7 2022 03:41am

Would you mind to share your build, maybe on Maxroll?

Yes! Pride is even faster, but you shatter way more. I only did 5 or so test runs before I gave up. 1-2 corpses were shattere devery run using Pride.

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/6a0206j5 - Here it is

I would max out Find Potion and put enough points into Find Item to hit a reasonable breakpoint.
Here are the breakpoints:



BO has lower priority since Find Item is what makes this build so good.
When I played SC, I would put points into Vitality to reach 2500 after BO.
On HC, I went with 4K Life, but I feel like this is really overkill.
Rest of the points are either put into Strength (1% ED per point) or Dex (added AR to get a higher hit chance)

Your merc is lv85 that explains a lot. Here is the calculation for chill/freeze:

( 50 + (AttackerLevel + (B*4) - DefenderLevel) * 5 )% (B is Chance To Feeze target (default is 1)

So, in your case, with Reapers, for the 3 council members (monster lv 88) (actually only for 2, coz 1 is always cold immune): (50 + (85 + (1*4) - 88) * 5) % = 5.5%

With Reapers for the support mobs (monster lvl 82): (50 + (85 + (1*4) - 82) * 5) % = 8.5%

With Pride for council members: (50 + (85 + (4*4) - 88) * 5) % = 11.5%

With Pride for support mobs: (50 + (85 + (4*4) - 82) * 5) % = 14.5%

Let's imagine a high lvl merc hitting a support mob with pride: (50 + (98 + (4*4) - 82) * 5) % = 21%

That still leaves out duration of chill (if it's a chill and not a freeze, so if its reaper and not pride) and that for chill/freeze to apply the merc has to hit actually. Long story short, low lvl merc reapers ftw. Even high lvl merc, possibly still reapers.

tl;dr Chance to freeze/chill depends heavily on attacker lvl and defender lvl, and for high lvl defenders and low lvl attackers is significantly less than 20%. Also, +Chance To Freeze (Freezes Target) makes a huge difference.

*Edit I'm stupid and can't calculate: Fixed it now lol

This post was edited by justAddi on Nov 7 2022 04:28am

That's a great breakdown! Thank you so much for shining light on this