This is a quick guide on using Act 5 mercenaries on goldfind barbarians. It assumes familiarity with goldfind barbarians, particularly using teleport charges and Gavel of Pain.
Scroll down for tl;dr if you want.
Pros:
- Act 5 Frenzy deals more single-target damage than Act 2 Might.
- Way higher effective damage vs scattered targets. Frenzy go zoom.
- Pairs extremely well with Grim Ward's new Find Potion synergy.
- Some novelty tricks like wrecking undead stoneskin and physical immunes.
Cons:
- Can't telestomp-warcry-amp Travincal groups in <40 seconds as reliably.
- Requires more obscure/niche gear. People don't keep many 3os eth swords.
Main Idea
"I tried A5 barb and it sucks, going back to Emilio" - sound familiar?
Key thing to understand is frenzy multiattack hits different adjacent enemies.
With identical damage output an A5 merc and an A2 merc might both take 15 seconds to kill a group.
The A2 merc will get kills one at a time, whereas with the A5 merc everything dies in the last few seconds.
This mechanic can slow down kill times in practice due to monsters running/healing/regenerating.
This means we can't use A5 mercs like we're used to using A2. You need to use the goldfind barbarian's toolkit to control monster AI/positioning.
Sometimes that means spamming Leap. I know that's considered cringe now but you're not doing it to compensate for Emilio's paper-thin survivability; you're maximizing Wulfgar's effective damage by separating clumps. With A5 mercs Leap is offensive!
Most of the time it's using a combination of Howl, Taunt, and War Cry to herd and reposition monsters while keeping the fight on the edge your last dropped Grim Ward. Grim Ward's 120% physical resistance reduction is insane and the way it scatters monsters is ideal for Frenzy.
Travincal
Super Uniques can't be amped by Grim Ward and the mercenary's Taunt will devalue Gavel of Pain's amp charges. What do?
Run in to the temple, taunt a Zealot or two onto stairs on the way in, then Grim Ward its corpse to kill minions faster. Then turn off your minimap, stare at your mercenary and what's around them, and spam Leap to separate council members so the merc is constantly 1v1ing. It's not bad.
The Gavel of Pain telestomp strat can also work as an opener, just less reliably. Act 5 damage output is technically higher, but if there's two groups and they start healing...
Realistically though, 2.4 has changed goldfind barbarians for the better. It's also brought in a flood of new players to a build that used to be niche. The rares market is going to be saturated by people price checking trash thinking it's GG. Unless you want to gamble something obscure like LLD gear going all-in on Travincal this ladder season is not worth it.
Find Item bypasses no-drop and basically gives p6 drops in p1 games, all with maximum possible MF. Rather than doing your best meat robot impression and speedrunning Trav like it's Pindle, why not visit somewhere scenic? Every part of the game is viable. You have multiple ways to break physical immunities. Have you ever been to Abaddon? Drifter Caverns?
tl;dr
Frenzy hits random stuff in range, so force 1v1s:
- 2+ enemies on merc => Leap to separate
- dense enemies => scatter with Grim Ward
- converging clump => Taunt off and kite
- bad terrain to fight => herd with Howl
- merc on bad target => run away to tug leash
Maxed Grim Ward & Find Potion is made for A5 merc:
- slow helps shorter weapon range chase
- frenzy bounces ez between scattered targets
- 3.4x more damage vs 50% physical resists!
- corpse tax is minor, overwrites merc Taunt
Frenzy spool up takes ~X seconds and drops in 6s:
- Travincal just needs spooled-up IAS breakpoint
- elsewhere, prioritize IAS to accelerate spool-up
Survival:
- Taunt dmg reduction + barb BO => don't need FHR
- Iron Skin/Shout/eth armor => need less life leech
- passive regen if not poisoned => need less life leech
- yank leash to gtfo to safety when frenzied
Gear:
- no cold damage (20% less non-immune corpses)
- +skills and strength are effectively off-weapon %ED
- CBF or HFD > decent IAS >> damage > armor >> leech
- weapon $: eth coldkill cutlass / djinn slayer? idk
- weapon $$: eth upped Headstriker x2 (yes 2, not 1, ignore sim) you can socket Shael/%ED jewel/Ohm depending on armor used
- weapon $$$: n/a (Headstriker > Grief, maaaybe a Fury offhand?)
- armor $: Treachery + Wisdom for CBF
- armor $$: 45ias upped eth Black Hades + Cham'd Arreat
- armor $$$: Fort + Cham'd Andy, Shael'd swords? not actually a significant upgrade despite pricetag
- armor $$$$: dmg to demons on +2 diadem with ias-dmg jewels
Utility:
- fix hit chance with Demon Limb (Hel) until overleveled, look for attack rating on merc gear (Wisdom, socketed Diamonds, etc)
- Lawbringer (Amn Lem Ko) swap to Decrepify through stoneskin and bypass physical resistance on Undead (no corpses though..)
- good Delirium staffmods don't make up for bad Delirium procs, avoid it unless you get truly juicy +skills
Travincal:
- run in, taunt a Zealot or something onto temple stairs
- Grim Ward it to crank through non-superuniques
- turn off minimap, focus, leap+taunt to separate 1v1s
- still worse than A2 telestomp l o l
D2:R