Your merc deals more damage if he isn't dead so he can attack and give you auras.
CoH beats treachery in that regard, especially if you're not on a paladin and can't turn off meph aura.

The +2 all skills on its own beat out the full stats of treachery

Bullshit. Treachery has the same res as COH

Just when you thought the thread, after the opening post, couldn't be any worse, these ridiculous comments make an appearance...

Log in, try it, come back. I'll even supply the armors for you.

I've searched long and far for an application for Chains of Honor where it isn't outclassed by the variety of better options like enigma, vipermagi, ormus, fort, etc.
I believe I found one, and feanur/superbutt aren't far off the mark: CoH is arguably the best item in slot for an act 2 mercenary that you just want to get maximum level aura from
+2 skills is +20% ED on might. A merc with ariocs, CoH & andys & battle command has up to level 29 might aura. of course pride would be more practical for most char builds. But you could do worse than a 40/15'd eth +4 ariocs for damage output.

if the +2 skills are what really matters, then on a merc a CoH outperforms enigma or arkaines valor easily. And mercs don't actually benefit from tab skills, so templars might / griswold's heart don't work, and neither does +2 pally skills on principle.
if you're doing something like a summon necro and really don't care about thorns aura for bramble and aren't too pressed on pimping out merc survivability or dps as much as +20% to your minions, CoH has a reasonable application as BiS

This post was edited by Goomshill on Aug 4 2018 11:06am

Just a little more precision.
I don't suggest (on a sidenote) CoH mercenary only for its +2 skills, but also for its leech, that you don't have with a Guillaume's face / Infinity setup, and that is not only the result of 8% but also 200% damage to demons, and of course its stacked resistance.

I've never found a better armor for my fire/cold sorceress' mercenary when she does UT...

As Goomshill pointed out, it's also a reasonable choice for Summoner's merc.

It is just an item, why the hate?

There surely are some crazy off-beat builds that can use it too. Not everyone wants to teleport every time or have %mf on an armor. Sometimes you just might require physical damage and resists.

This is where you lose me. It's not as if high level characters with maxed out gear by wealthy players is the only mode that D2 gets played on. In fact, I'd consider that mode to be of relatively minor importance in the grand scheme of D2 as a game.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Aug 4 2018 02:59pm

You forget the cost. 65 resistances on a ber rune vs a set of 20/5s for 50 res. 20/5 set can cost upwards to 2000 fg where as CoH can easily be made with 15 fg for non ladder games. Not saying the first one is worse than CoH, but cost is usually factored into this. Imo, CoH is the item for sorceress mf builds who are just starting in the non ladder realms. If you're missing key ingredients, least this armor will fill several holes while you sell and trade for more. While enigma may be inherently better, the cost of building a sorc with a 20/5s, torch, anni, and whatnot may not be widely available. I use CoH in part cause I don't want to drop 3000 fg on a char who will occasionally do some chaos or Baal runs. CoH is cheap, offers basic needs, and is widely popular even in comparison to enigma. Makes it easy to sell and profit, even easier to buy.

The best argument I have with sorc and enigma is the massive str boost for spirit. But for the mf sorceress, those extra vitality points aren't too important if you can gear yourself properly and use the popular energy shield warmth skills. Then vitality is second to your build. Most people don't also want to drop 300 fg onto a mf sorc ladder when items rarely pay off more than 10 fg for decent ones like Shakos and other widely used gear.

This post was edited by eric1014153 on Aug 4 2018 03:04pm

I agree and you can use similar logic when building a melee char for Ubers. Maybe fort is better for a char with maxed out gear. But if you don't have gg charms then the resists on CoH might be just what your char needs for ubers. And it's going to be cheaper on nonladder than a 30 res fort.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Aug 4 2018 03:16pm