Yea once you're merc has good gear and you're high enough level you only need 1pt in shout and BO so you can min max the other things, dps/frw etc. I imagine that's another big leak for a lotta gfers.

My merc hasn't died in over a year with just 1pt in both of those and I didn't even pay much attention honestly.

This post was edited by Ateamer on Mar 9 2026 12:20am

for those who have messed around with dreadfangs (dual) do you prefer frenzy or zerk for procing amp

This post was edited by SkyQ8 on Mar 14 2026 05:31pm

For dual I use Frenzy, for 1h dread + OH (either beast for merc help or 450eg) I use Zerk. Just be careful w/lower defense

Worth using battle cry to hit and War cry to stun to avoid getting hurt.

I'm playing hork barb, using an Act 5 mercenary (dual grief, coh or fortitude, andy with 15ias, 38ed). Should I put a protector stone on andy? And what helm do you recommend? idk if is better a rare helm with 2os, arreats, andy, etc

A2 merc outperforms a5 enough that it isn't worth thinking about minmaxing his helm.

I would recommend not using a5 merc

I have EBOTD, but when the Act 2 mercenary tries to hit the immune council minion, it's awful and I have to go and kill him myself (which I prefer to avoid). On the other hand, with the Act 5 merc, he easily takes down half his health. My main problem is that I hate phys immune council minion, I thought that using protector stone and renewed bone break would solve that. But I'm going to follow your advice, since you know more than I do and have already tested the ideas that I've just come up with lol

You can zerk it yourself w/grief Mainhand
Or use dreadfang zerk to trigger amp for merc, or dual Dreadfang w/frenzy

Yep just get in, warcry all, zerk elites and start horking. I'd default to zerking with beast personally it's plenty strong for the phys immune and the merc buff from it is worth more than the advantage grief gives yourself.

typo'ed earlier and can't edit now, but I mean get in > bcry all > wcry > zerk at minimum the phys immune but I usually try to fast track all the elites then switch to gf/hork while merc finishes (currently still using dlimb/hoto on swap for prebuffs + beast/450gf on main, been busy irl lately so haven't messed around with the dread amp options but I will eventually).