People already try this; you don't really need Pierce for Amp to apply well. I just find it clunky to be midcombat for more than the time of a curse cast without your GF weapons equipped

what skills to swap out when using grim ward + find potion

kick out battle cry and not so much skills into faster move + natural resistance ?

then go with 2x 3 bo sticks as offhand or gavel of pain to push even more dmg...?

This post was edited by Spartacus160 on Jan 23 2022 02:42pm

Yep, Battle Cry / Speed / Natural Resists (if you're capped), and even War Cry/Leap if you're geared enough to not need them at all.
It's a little bit like maxing the damage on a Pitzerker; you clear faster with lower BO but maxed Shout/Howl.

The thing about Grim Ward is I'm not sure how it will work. If it still fears enemies from Trav all the way to Australia, then it's useless, even with more damage. The slow effect needs to be extremely good + the damage increase as well.

There's a lot of unknowns, but I'm curious. Grim Ward is so clunky atm it's not even funny.

This post was edited by Exokek on Jan 23 2022 02:43pm

yea fearing effect would be much annoying at trav and lower the kill speed...

blizzard wanted to improve this skill huge so yes they are on the right way it seems

This post was edited by Spartacus160 on Jan 23 2022 02:47pm

I've also tried lacerators before with an offhand 6xlem pb. The fear effect isn't that pronounced - probably because the amp overrides it alot, and the fact that if council spawns in that chamber, there's not far they could run to.

Maybe the fear is somewhat beneficial in that at the beginning, they don't all mob your merc at once.

Great build, been using it for awhile now.

Thank you

Grim Ward still sucks on the PTR

Base damage taken increase is 25%, does NOT grow unless you Synergy with Find Potion (125% total damage increase max, which is great!)
The damage taken increase is only applied if the monster is feared, as far as I can tell, which means... what's the point? I don't know.

The Slow isn't enough to mitigate the idiotic Fear (especially since council is stupid fast, so they race away from you and the Merc)

It doesn't stack with Gavel, and it's too inconsistent to be relevant.

So yeah. Sticking with Gavel. Tragic.

Thanks for the test. Keep us updated regarding the mercs

so sad they ruined it

thx for the update

This post was edited by Spartacus160 on Jan 25 2022 03:13pm

So far it's looking like nothing changes; Jab is too hard to compensate for, and the A5 Merc overrides Amp Damage/Grim Ward with Battle Cry (he's actually worse now, for us)
I wish Grim Ward didn't fear enemies, but just "stunned" them in place. Now THAT would be a fucking change to get behind.

This post was edited by Exokek on Jan 25 2022 03:14pm