Actually just tried out act 5 merc because i found headstriker yesterday. First in nm act 5 and then in act 1 hell. Gear; Stealskull and treachery. First with necro for amplify damage then with paladin with fanatisicm. Both works exceptionally well ^^ If not completely overwhelmed, even with this sub-par armor and helmet, he could take on treehead woodfist without much need for potions.. quite incredible ^^ Deals about 800-1500 damage with fanatisicm.. that damage is doubled every time, because headstriker has over 100% chance to crit.. As far as i remember from the link above, he hits twice every time. That, along with the fact that he is never stunned, means he can stand in large groups and keep dealing damage, whereas the act 2 merc needs more micromanagement as to not have him be overwhelmed with faster hit recovery lock.
So there are ways to make the act 5 merc at least as damaging as the act 2 merc.. or maybe even more.. the obvious negative is losing the aura. Just depends on what one needs in a merc. With fortitude and kira's guardian to keep him not frozen, and headstriker being ethereal, i imagine he can deal some tremendous damage.
Nightmare baal took about 1 minute with amplify damage, with merc alone attacking him. Forgot to cast enchant from demon limb mid-way, so after i cast that on him, he hit more often.
Headstriker without fanaticism, with 55% ias (48 is bp) he hits 5.5 fps.
With fanatisicm, he just needs over 32% ias to reach 4.5 fps ... which translates to 4.54 attacks per second.. so he definitely deals a lot of damage with this. Rough calculation: 1200 average x 2 (crit) = 2400, twice hit = 4800 x 4.5 = 21 600 per second.. remembering also 5% monster crit, meaning that damage can be doubled, and with such fast attack speed, it probably happens quite often.
This post was edited by Taurean on Aug 6 2022 07:52am
D2