So the expected value of runs should be significantly improved with +20% find item now
I tested grim ward and with the find potion synergy its working as a -120% DR amp damage + flee + slow curse, same rules as amp damage, phys only, 1/5 effect vs immunes, etc. And since its tied to the curse effect, it doesn't affect uniques/champions/bosses. The obvious issue with using it at all is that it consumes a corpse, so you probably won't want to use it in travincal unless you're very careful and there was a stray zealot in the way, but even then the flee could be too annoying. Maybe for something like shenk/eldritch it wouldn't hurt but doesn't seem practical

I still feel like spellsteel seems like the obvious go-to, especially for a barb pre-enigma on ladder. Yeah its less damage than amp, yeah you can get tele on amulet, but its both teleport and decrep in one item and with enough charges of each to do many trav runs per recharge, freeing up your ammy slot for whatever. Having to repair gavel nonstop always irked me, so even if you were using spellsteal for the decrep charges alone I wouldn't mind it as much


I don't think its a given that the base/min/max 1H glitch from the 2H barbarian merc applies to the dual wield barbarian merc. I haven't seen any conclusive testing, but I saw someone say they didn't see up eth headstriker doing the same damage. Assuming that's the case, 2x grief pb would be its highest damage setup, but between taunt and battle cry on the two mercs now its wasting a lot of time dicking around instead of attacking and overwriting curses, so I wouldn't suggest using either of them, a2 merc with ariocs is plenty good.

This post was edited by Goomshill on Apr 19 2022 03:42pm

The "bug" still works if only because of the data we have. The damage calculation hasn't changed for 1h weaps as far as we can tell.

And yeah, a2 merc seems to work best.
If a5 merc didn't override shit all the time it might be worth it.

Spellsteel doesn't work very well for dmg due to its area/duration, and Decrep being less effective for DPS than Amp, but it's a fine substitute before Naj or Tele Amulet super early ladder. Whatever issues I have with Gavel's repair are far outweighed by the rest; I'd rather just skip Amp Dmg than use Spellsteel for Phys Immunity, but I know many people hate it.

Your best bet is always going to be trying to max out the merc early ladder anyway. Arioc's + Tal Mask, and some other defensive armor. Duriel's, Shaft, Black Hades with ok jewels/runes, etc.

Gavel just speeds up damage so much.

I also feel focusing on War Cry can compensate a lot of DPS at Trav super early ladder.

Pretty sure they fixed headstriker damage calculation bug aswell, it should be doing way more damage grief.

So far a2 merc > a5 merc, not even close if you have a high-end Emilio gear.

I don't know. Headstriker is doing the damage I expect it to, mostly? It was always kinda close-ish iirc, but Grief had tighter damage ranges. At Trav you need either highly consistent high damage (grief), or insane level burst (A2 Merc Jab).

Headstriker is too little burst, and less smooth output than Grief, so it falls apart.

I wish it weren't so

Those times where the A5 merc procs Crit on top of Deadly you see Trav explode. That's what you need burst wise to equate a2 merc's super fast Jab burst.

This post was edited by Exokek on Apr 19 2022 04:06pm

I always though HS has been the king by far for a5 merc ? Someone correct me if i am wrong.

In a PTR video Dbrunski did some test with frenzy merc and average time was 30sec with dual HS / 45sec for dual grief (overall ~50% faster)

Idk if we can consider this as a valid result if it was only a one time run.

I tried really hard to make grim ward work. The dps increase is real. You can cast a high level warcry to stunlock them in place for a pretty long duration. A5 frenzyboi can chase down enemies FAST. There's a huge hidden benefit in that stunned/feared council members aren't casting the healing, so this effectively raises your dps. But the mechanics is still really awkward (especially with a split council spawn) and it's hard to get into a "groove" even over multiple runs.

To solve the PI problem in the above setup, it's probably just best to self-dps with a 1point zerk. Even with Decrep, a phys immune still has like 90% physical resistance.

yeah to get mileage out of grim ward in general pvm you probably want to teleport in and stun monsters with WC before you amp them with grim ward, but its also mutually exclusive with amp/decrep
the best solution to PI is to just ignore it and run without it, unless you're on a grief zerk setup. There are 11 council, only 3 can spawn with random affixes, and have about an 18% chance each to spawn PI, so you miss out on less than 5% of drops
same method as a trav sorc just ignoring cold immunes

Well the problem with the merc-dps setup is that they're often just stuck wasting dps on the PI guy. You have to waste telecharges to get him to re-target something else and even then it doesn't always work.

Zerk is exactly how I worked out a build, with an A5 Merc using Grief/Grief.
https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/fq0106r3#14

76% Find Item success, 280MF~/2k~GF, Demon Limb/HOTO swap, juiced up Mercenary.

If you decide to drop down to 288MF/1300GF~ you can get a LOT more DPS out of your build, etc. I just want to be able to Zerk the phys immune though, so that's enough.

It's far from a great DPS build since it's rocking Beast/Lem offhand instead of Grief/Beast, but it's also not trying to be a traditional WW/Zerk build, which would likely run an A2 Merc with Infinity for the AR% if it wanted to do that.

Anyway. A5 merc is cute, just not... amazing yet.

This post was edited by Exokek on Apr 19 2022 08:35pm

btw, would like other gamblers' take on this.

I've noticed that now, the circlets/coronets no longer downgrade to circlets permanently at gheed's. They used to just downgrade to Circlets and stay there until you refreshed.
The rolls are much better post-patch overall if you spam buy, compared to before, and i can't quite make sense of it. I find a lot more +skills alongside level-appropriate rolls, etc.

It's as though spam buying the same item in the store used to downgrade that particular slot forever, and rerolled from that new point instead of rolling from your character level. So if you rolled a circlet that was cLvl - 3, it would just buy a new cLvl -3, etc, and now they've fixed it?

Anyone can corroborate this?