I theorized one, but it's almost impossible to get one good enough to be better than a circlet. But yeah, they're fine DS helmets if you don't want to GFace or you need to hit that extra breakpoint/want to put a Cham in

I'd prefer Visionary + 2os generally, for the extra AR

This post was edited by Exokek on Feb 6 2022 05:12am

I'd like visio/2os/ds as well, but those things are mad expensive. Not sure one exists yet, and if it did, it's sure to be snapped up by pvp zealers.

So the entire opaqueness of merc AR and chance to hit motivated me to look up some numbers and try to calculate this myself. I made the spreadsheet below, and calculated everything with a merc lvl set to 90.

I mocked 4 different setups:

1) AR from just regular Jab
2) AR with jab+visio
3) Jab + demon limb enchant
4) Jab + visio + demon limb enchant

Due to the 208% bonus from the jab skill, the relative impact of visio is somewhat minor (+3.3% chance to hit) . Demon limb enchant is the biggest boost (+6.3%). Even just the jab bonus itself gives you an 85.7% chance to hit council members, not too shabby. So effectively, visio gives you +3.3% more dps, while +10% deadly is effectively a 10% dps increase.



Another thing I calculated was just how good Andy's is in this setup, relative to a 2os 10% DS helmet. Each +skill level increases Jab AR bonus by +9%, and ed by 3%. There's also a +10% might aura ed increase per level. Then, assuming a +30 str Andy, that's another 30% ed. So in total, Andy can give a 18% AR (negligible) and a 56%ed increase.

Assuming lvl 19 might, fortitude, jab skill, and a +40%ed from the helm socket, we have ~610% total off weapon ed. A bit less if using CoH. Regardlesss, the bonus from Andy is ~10% of that, so it's pretty even matched with a 10% DS visio, assuming the same IAS bps can be met. Andys also has a lot life leech, but I suppose a gfg 2os/10%ds/30str/30fr/10fhr craft could overtake that.



This post was edited by daanno2 on Feb 6 2022 07:28am

In a similar vein, I found a 2os blue Circlet with 8LL/Visionary recently. Lets you socket 15/40s to hit Andy's breakpoint and keep LL. Lose the DS from a potential crafted alternative, but the 40ED from jewels kinda makes up for it!

I think generally, the place to look for alternatives, due to the socket flexibility, is in Circlets of <insert thing you want>. Even Circlets of Half Freeze duration are pretty sweet if you REALLY need the slot for a 15/40.

This post was edited by Exokek on Feb 6 2022 07:52am

Hmm that sorta gives me an idea. I would think a rare 2os circ without +2 skills wouldn't be that expensive - the lack of skills/fcr makes them less desirable for pvp. for example, 2os/30frw/7ll/20allres/visio, that's a lot of utility rolled into one slot

Yeah I mentioned that at some past point.
It's still a very long shot.

Interesting hypothetical merc setup to look at maybe idk: https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/fq0106r3#12

LOL well your merc circ would be charsi'd by 99% of gamblers. it looks nothing like a typical desirable pvm circ...At least my example is probably sitting in someone's stash somewhere.

I started paying attention to GF specific jewel and circlets ever since I got started on this build. Gambled 2x visionary LL fres circlet so far but not 2os yet... even started picking up rare polearm and spears to ID in case something godly came out lmao

So I hopped back on PTR to test an idea. War cry to lock/stun the monsters in place, and then grim ward. Appears to work (tested on ghosts in arcane), but still clunky AF since war cry has such little radius, and duration is not great either. It's probably more of a tactic for pure Singer builds to effectively boost dps or deal with phys immunes.

The biggest issue is War Cry doesn't really need the DPS boost vs random monsters, but Grim Ward doesn't affect Super Uniques & bosses. I really have no idea what they were trying to do honestly with this change.

yea that's by far the biggest issue, doubly so when you don't have the typical reaper merc to augment dps.

I did test the Singer build on PTR in cows, and dps is decent there, although quite limited in AoE. With merc HF aura + Grim Ward slow, they hardly move at all. IDK, maybe could be a HR cow horker build.