Quote (WereWolf12345 @ 25 Jan 2022 11:51)
a5 barb benefits more from enchant than a2, right?
I guess so, haven't looked at base AR numbers. But a1 merc would mostly be there for the freezing arrow crowd control and any ctc procs you slap on her (and/or medi from insight), so the actual damage they output is not a big deal (making attack rating not as important). With the barbarian merc again, a main purpose is the battle cry + tanking capabilities however they also have the added benefit of being able to apply crushing blow at full strength, so the attack rating would be useful here. Of course, with a sorceress, the crushing blow is not as useful since you have static field. It's still good though.
Overall, it will kind of come down to what you are looking for out of the merc to compliment your playstyle. Unfortunately, due to the most OP merc weapons being polearms (infinity and reaper's toll), they haven't done much to change the end-game merc setups. Elemental will still want infinity merc and physical will still want might/decrep merc. But they have added some good options for leveling on the way, before you character is op enough to afford these luxuries. A good source of CC is very important going into Hell in terms of self-found walkthroughs/hardcore. One good thing is that while the a2 mercs will still be superior in almost all end-game scenarios, they have made the other mercenaries at least useful/no longer total jokes, so if people want to use them for style they aren't completely missing out on merc support.
I'm personally wanting to make a nova/hydra sorc to do a legit walkthrough with buddies in the new patch. It will just be a walkthrough until Hell Baal, so I don't expect to find anything like double ber for Infinity. This will be the perfect scenario to check out either the freezing arrow insight bow merc, or the battle cry a5 barb. Of course, if I were to continue and do a ton of runs and try to "perfect" the character, it would end up with the same old infinity a2 merc.