In the past, every merc used:
Andariel Visage
Forti
Insight


But whats now?
Is Cure helm better than Andariel?

This post was edited by Kuehlfach on May 30 2026 10:53am

Yes

cure
skin of the flayed one (protectors stone) up’d eth
insight/infinity

is the meta now

This post was edited by bQQ on May 30 2026 10:58am

Skin of flayed better than Forti or duriels?

you need life leech to keep a merc alive
the 3 options are

chains of honor
skin of the flayed one + protector's stone
greyform + protector's stone

Protector's stone alone gives pretty comparable DPS boost to the %ed/str on chains of honor, and also gives more % mf, and has the 1% chance to cast fade which only comes into play in long TZ games
mercs are already at 62% all resists by default and 75% poison with cure, so you get 62/62/62/75 with flayed one 75/75/62/75 with greyform, 75% all with coh.
cold resist doesn't matter at all (only significant source is frost nova on death), 62% lightning is enough to survive souls. Fire resist matters the most, though warlock builds with tainted also get resist fire aura for merc for free
So you can have 7% leech or 5% leech and +13% fire/cold resist, or you can use CoH for 75% all and 8% leech and +20% ed might or +2 prayer, but not have the spiffy bonuses of the jewel

Boneflesh + stone is also nice for the open wounds vs Harold.

matters for ubers, but you can use toothrow or crow caw there. But hide the pain harold doesn't regen

Wait. Harold doesn't regen at all?
What about urdur Harolds or other mob types with high regen?

If I'm understanding you correctly I should put a stone in my eth skin and switch to that.

maybe I missed it but I thought they stuck at half hp if I came back to them, maybe I am imagining it

they don't regen hp you are correct