Weapon/Shield and Dual Claw Kicker Author: eclipsedk Version: 1.10 Page 1 Index 1. Introduction 1.1 Abbreviations 1.2 I want to duel on non-ladder now 2. Breakpoints 3. Advantages 3.1 Weapon/shield build 3.2 Dual claw build 4. Disadvantages 4.1 Weapon/shield build 4.2 Dual Claw build 5. Dual claw or weapon/shield build 6. Explanation and clarification of Dragon Talon 6.1 Important notice about off-hand claw when dual wielding 7. Attack types blocked by Weapon Block 8. Dragon Talon and special effects 8.1 Open Wounds 8.2 Deadly Strike and Critical Strike 8.3 Crushing Blow 9. Mercenary selection 9.1 Leveling your mercenary 10. Equipment introduction 10.1 Equipment socketing 11. Weapon/shield build 11.1 Martial Arts Tree 11.2 Shadow Disciplines Tree 11.3 Traps Tree 11.4 Skill/builds summary 11.5 Leveling advice 11.6 Stat point distribution 11.7 Weapon 11.8 Inventory 11.9 Equipment/build summary 12. Dual claw build 12.1 Martial Arts Tree 12.2 Shadow Disciplines Tree 12.3 Traps Tree 12.4 Skill/builds summary 12.5 Leveling advice 12.6 Stat point distribution  12.7 Weapons 12.8 Inventory 12.9 Equipment/build summary 13. Why not max fade 13.1 Weapon/shield resistances with low level fade 13.2 Claw/claw resistances with low level fade 13.3 Conclusion on Fade 14. Why to max Venom 15. Maxed Mind Blast or one maxed trap 16. Strategies and tactics introduction 16.1 Basic player versus player information 17. Weapon/shield strategies and tactics 17.1 Amazon 17.1.1 Jabber / Bow / Lightning Fury 17.1.2 Lightning Fury / Lightning Strike / Charged Strike 17.2 Assassin 17.2.1 Trapper 17.2.2 Kicker 17.2.3 Whirlwind 17.3 Barbarian 17.3.1 Berserk/Whirlwind 17.3.2 Throw/Whirlwind 17.4 Druid 17.4.1 Hurricane aka. wind druid 17.4.2 Fireclaw bear/wolf 17.4.3 Rabies bear/wolf 17.4.4 Fury wolf 17.4.5 Rabies/Fury wolf 17.5 Necromancer 17.5.1 Poison and Bone Necromancer 17.6 Paladin 17.6.1 Smite/Charge 17.6.2 Blessed Hammer/Smite/Low-level Charge 17.6.3 Zeal/Charge 17.6.4 Smite/Fist of Heavens 17.6.5 Fist of Heavens 17.6.6 Blessed Hammer 17.7 Sorceress 17.7.1 Meteor/secondary spell 17.7.2 Blizzard/secondary spell 17.7.3 Lightning/secondary spell 17.7.4 Frozen Orb/Thunder Storm 18. Dual claw strategies and tactics 18.1 Amazon 18.1.1 Jabber / Bow / Lightning Fury 18.1.2 Lightning Fury / Lightning Strike / Charged Strike 18.2 Assassin 18.2.1 Trapper 18.2.2 Kicker 18.2.3 Whirlwind 18.3 Barbarian 18.3.1 Berserk/Whirlwind 18.3.2 Throw/Whirlwind 18.4 Druid 18.4.1 Hurricane aka. wind druid 18.4.2 Fireclaw bear/wolf 18.4.3 Rabies bear/wolf 18.4.4 Fury wolf 18.5 Necromancer 18.5.1 Poison and Bone Necromancer 18.6 Paladin 18.6.1 Smite/Charge 18.6.2 Blessed Hammer/Smite/Low-level Charge 18.6.3 Zeal/Charge 18.6.4 Smite/Fist of Heavens 18.6.5 Fist of Heavens 18.6.6 Blessed Hammer 18.7 Sorceress 18.7.1 Meteor/secondary spell 18.7.2 Blizzard/secondary spell 18.7.3 Lightning/secondary spell 18.7.4 Frozen Orb/Thunder Storm 19. Thanks to 1. Introduction Hello, I'm eclipse from the European realm. Since the first day of LOD I have fancied assassins, one of the reasons being that they are very versatile and can cope with almost any situation. I wrote a guide for a dual claw assassin in 1.09 but since the new patch has hit the realms a lot of changes have happened, both good and bad. One of the main differences in PvP is that leeching has been nerfed to 1/10th of the amount it was back in 1.09. So now the days of the super leeching characters, that return to full health after one successful shot are over. Also the cap for physical damage reduction has been changed, so that all characters can now have a maximum of 50%. In this guide I won’t be taking in account any of the rules from the different dueling leagues that are out there, due to the fact that the rules are very different from league to league. What I will be taking into consideration is what is bad mannered and not among common duelers, some things can be discussed whether they are bad mannered or not. If such an item is available to this build I will notify you about this and leave the decision up to you and those you duel with, don't come telling me that I encourage bad manners, because I'm do not.   A last thing to mention is that I have orientated this guide toward ladder play with concern of the items, if you want to duel on non-ladder I suggest you should read section 1.2 where I have made a more detailed description about equipment for non-ladder. Enjoy the guide. 1.1. Abbreviations Allres - Resistance to all AR - Attack Rating ATDo X - Attacker Takes Damage of X (in integer) BM - Bad Manner BoS - Burst of Speed CB - Crushing Blow CBF - Cannot be Frozen CR - Cold Resistance CS - Critical Strike CTB - Chance to Block DEX - Dexterity DF - Dragon Flight DS - Deadly Strike DST - Death Sentry Trap DT - Dragon Talon EIAS - Effective Increased Attack Speed FBR - Faster Block Rate FCR - Faster Cast Rate FHR - Faster Hit Recovery FPA - Frames Per Attack FPS - Framer Per Second FR - Fire Resistance FRW - Faster Run/Walk IAS - Increased Attack Speed LL - Life leech (in percent) LR - Lightning Resistance LS - Lightning Sentry MA - Martial Arts MAX - Maximum Damage MB - Mind Blast MDR - Magic Damage Reduction (in integer) MF - Magic Find MIN - Minimum Damage ML - Mana leech (in percent) Mods - Modifiers NGR - Energy OH - Off-hand (The claw that DOESN'T transfer effects to kicks) OW - Open Wounds PDR - Physical Damage Reduction (in percent) PR - Poison Resistance PvM - Player versus Monster PvP - Player versus Player RepL - Replenish Life R/W - Faster Run/Walk SM - Shadow Master SD - Shadow Disciplines STR - Strength VIT - Vitality WB - Weapon Block WoF - Wake of Fire WSM - Weapon Speed Modifier WSM - Base speed 1.2. I want to duel on non-ladder now After having seen several posts about people being a bit confused about what to do when they are 'stuck' on non-ladder where neither Shadow dancer nor upgraded gore riders are available I thought of adding this section. First off I should say that the kicker build won’t be as effective with semi good boots, however the damage will be the same. You should look for myrmidon greaves, these are the determining factor. Your options to gain a pair of decent kicking boots are these. 1) Look for 'white' myrmidon greaves and have them imbued by Charsi with Act I quest 5; you might just get fantastic mods. 2) Look for rare myrmidon greaves and hope for great mods. 3) Re-roll your rare myrmidon greaves for better mods with either of the following recipes. 3A) 1 Perfect Skull + 1 Rare Item + Stone of Jordan = 1 High Quality New Rare Item of the same type This formula has the possibility of creating a higher quality Rare Item than the following formula. ilvl = int(.66 * clvl) + int(.66 * ilvl) That is, the ilvl will be equal to .66 times your clvl (rounded down) plus .66 times the input item's ilvl (also rounded down). 3B) 6 Perfect Skulls + 1 Rare Item = 1 Random Low Quality Rare Item of the same type You can use this formula to get another chance at a Rare Item of the same type. ilvl = int(.4 * clvl) + int(.4 * ilvl) Player level matters. This formula will not work on items larger than 3x2. 4) Craft for a nice pair of myrmidons greaves with the following recipe. Safety Boots Magic Myrmidon Greaves + Ort Rune + Perfect Emerald + Any Jewel + (10-30)% Enhanced Defense Fire Resist + (5-10)% Magic Damage Reduced By (1-2) Damage Reduced By (1-4) 5) Upgrade a pair of nice greaves/war boots to myrmidon greaves with the following recipes. 5A) 1 Ral Rune + 1 Thul Rune + 1 Perfect Amethyst + Normal (Basic) Rare Armor = Exceptional Rare Armor The item type is upgraded. 5B) 1 Ko Rune + 1 Pul Rune + 1 Perfect Amethyst + Exceptional Rare Armor = Elite Rare Armor The item type is upgraded. 2. Breakpoints Breakpoints are the thing that determines your speed of performing an action, the amount of times you can manage to cast a spell or perform an animation is determined by (25 frames/second) / (frames/animation) = animation/second So if you take 11 frames to complete an animation you can do (25 frames/second) / (11 frames/animation) = 2.27 animation/second Faster Hit Recovery This is the amount of frames it will take for your character to reach "upright standing" position after having received a successful hit. 0% - 9 frames 7% - 8 frames 15% - 7 frames 27% - 6 frames 48% - 5 frames 86% - 4 frames 200% - 3 frames 4680% - 2 frames I suggest heading for either 48% or 86% depending on your choice of equipment. Good means of gaining FHR ED/FHR jewel - 7% (per jewel - Don't use a jewel unless it has other good mods) Shael rune - 20% (per rune) Bartuc's Cut Throat - 30% (per claw) Crafted belts - 10, 17 or 24% Shadow Dancer - 30% Faster Cast Rate This is the amount of time it takes your character to complete a spell casting, the higher the amount the faster you'll cast the spells. 0% - 16 frames 8% - 15 frames 16% - 14 frames 27% - 13 frames 42% - 12 frames 65% - 11 frames 102% - 10 frames 174% - 9 frames The only good sources of FCR for kicker assassins: Ring - 10% (per ring - Preferably with leech on too, leech is more vital than FCR) Amulet - 5-20% (A good one would be +1-2 skills, +7-20 FCR, +leech, +stats these are very rare) Faster Block Rate This is the rate at which you will block attacks, the more attacks you're able to block per second the less times you will get hit during a fight. 0% - 5 frames 13% - 4 frames 32% - 3 frames 86% - 2 frames 600% - 1 frame There aren't really any good sources of FBR for dual claw assassins except for Guardian Angel, but this armor is only good use vs. elemental attackers it's no use searching for FBR if you're dual claw wielding. Increased Attack Speed All weapons have a basespeed, depending on the basespeed they will require a certain amount of IAS to reach their maximum attack speed. Below is listed the most common breakpoints for achieving maximum kicking speed. WSM [-30] Slvl 1 BoS + 19% IAS WSM [-20] Slvl 3 BoS + 29% IAS WSM [-10] Slvl 2 BoS + 40% IAS / Slvl 4 BoS + 29% IAS WSM [0] Slvl 5 BoS + 40% IAS / Slvl 9 BoS + 29% IAS For further breakpoints I refer to fuzzbox IAS table located at DiabloII.Net Blocking For blocking with a shield the total amount of blocking is determined by Total Blocking = (Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2) Blocking = A total of the Blocking on all of your items. (e.g. the shields base chance to block) For blocking with weapon block the blocking percentage is determined by the skill level and is not altered by any sources of 'increased chance to block' like amulets, eld runes etc. The breakpoint for weapon block is listed below. Weapon Block Level - % Chance to block 10 - 50% 15 - 55% 19 to 20 - 57% 21 to 22 - 58% 23 to 25 - 59% 26 to 30 - 60% >30 - 61% This guide is optimized for using 60% chance to block at all times when using dual claws or 75% chance to block when using shield. 3. Advantages 3.1 Weapon/shield build Capable of 75% chance to block when standing still and walking. Harder to gain resistances compared to dual claw build. Higher damage than dual claw build. 50% PDR is easily obtained. Lots of weapons to choose from. 3.2 Dual claw build Capable of 60% chance to block when standing still and running around. Can block almost any type of attack, including elemental/magic attacks. Higher protection versus elemental attackers. Easier to gain high chance of inflicting open wounds. Higher amount of life than weapon/shield build. Easier to gain resistances. 4. Disadvantages 4.1 Weapon/shield build Reduces blocking to 1/3 of the maximum when moving around. Lower amount of life than dual claw build. 4.2 Dual claw build Maximum of 61% chance to block if the gear shouldn't be sacrificed. Lower damage than weapon/shield build. Harder to obtain 50% PDR. Less weapons to choose from. Low efficiency versus melee attackers. 5. Dual claw or weapon/shield build After having been asked the question about which build is the strongest numerous times, I have decided to write this section about it. First of all let me clarify that both build have their strengths and weaknesses. From experience with both build I can now surely say that the best mage slayer build of the two (caster slayer) is the dual claw build. The dual claw build obtains resistances much easier than the weapon/shield build and has quite high chance of blocking elemental attacks where as the weapon/shield build can't block elemental attacks at all with a shield. The dual claw build's damage is however noticeably lower than the weapon/shield build's. The damage difference is ranged, depending on the build, from 200-400 lower damage which is quite a lot. The weapon/shield build's advantage in this comparison is that it has the better overall performance and is much more versatile than the dual claw build. The weapon/shield build is much stronger versus melee attackers where the dual claw build is quite weak. The lack of elemental protection is where the versatility comes into the picture, with the weapon/shield build you are able to switch for dual claws and have a lower chance to block elemental attacks but at least it's better than none at all. To conclude this section, there are only a few words more. If you want a mage slayer and your main goal is to hunt caster characters and have fun with that you should go for the dual claw build, should you however want to duel melee characters and have a decent chance, then you should go for the weapon/shield build as it can hunt both classes with good performance. 6. Explanation and clarification of Dragon Talon There is a lot of talk about what dragon talon does and doesn't to sum it all up and clarify it all read this section. Dragon talons maximum attack speed is 7 frames for the initial kick of 7 frames. After the initial kick each subsequent kick reaches a maximum speed at 2 frames. When determining the speeds for dragon talon and dual wielding claws, you should use the average WSM of the two claws. So if you have a WSM -30 and a WSM -10 claw, you will have an average of [(-30)+(-10)]/2 = WSM -20. For each 6 levels in dragon talon you will receive 1 extra kick, so level 6 is 2 kicks, 12 is 3 kicks and so forth. The effects are transferred to Dragon Talon attack: X% Life Leech X% Mana Leech Elemental Damage Magical Damage Chance to cast X on striking Crushing Blow Open Wounds Prevent Monster Heal Ignore Target Defense Hit Blinds Target Hit Causes Monster to Flee Hit Freezes target Hit Slows Target The following modifiers is not transferred to Dragon Talon's attack: Deadly Strike Critical Strike +Max Damage (both on and off weapon) +Min Damage (both on and off weapon) +X% Enhanced Damage (only on weapon) +X% Chance to cast X on attack Damage of dragon talon is determined by the formula MinDamage= (str + dex - 20) / 4 * (100 + skill_bonus) / 100 + BootMinDam * (100 + (str * StrBonus / 100) + skill_bonus + non_weapon ED) / 100. MaxDamage=(str + dex - 20) / 3 * (100 + skill_bonus) / 100 + BootMaxDam * (100 + (str * StrBonus / 100) + skill_bonus + non_weapon ED) / 100. This equation needs to be worked left to right following the mathematical order of operations. Drop decimals when you get them from division. If you want the formulas explained in detail I refer to jrichard's thread about kicking, it can be located here. . Here’s the list of boots and their damage: Name Min Damage Max Damage Strength Bonus Leather Boots 3 8 120 Heavy Boots 4 10 120 Chain Boots 6 12 120 Light Plate Boots 8 16 120 Plate Boots 10 20 120 Demonhide Boots 26 46 120 Sharkskin Boots 28 50 120 Mesh Boots 23 52 120 Battle Boots 37 64 120 War Boots 39 80 120 Wyrmhide Boots 65 100 120 Scarabshell Boots 60 110 120 Mirrored Boots 50 145 120 Myrmidon Greaves 83 149 120 An excel chart for calculating damage can be found in the files section. 6.1 Important notice about off-hand claw when dual wielding When dual wielding claws, the only effects, which are transferred to the kick, are those of the right hand claw; your left, the assassin’s right hand - also referred to as your off-hand claw. Effects on the secondary claw will NOT be transferred to the kick this does also apply to any amount of IAS on the off-hand claw, however IAS from gear will still count to you total IAS when dual wielding. 7. Attack types blocked by weapon block After patch 1.10 was released weapon blocks abilities was changed a lot, now it no longer just blocks melee attacks but it will also block various types of elemental attacks, making it very useful against casters. Below is the list of elemental attacks that are blockable and unblockable. Class-based Elemental Skill list (note: some monsters use the below skills, like Fetish Shamans using Inferno): Name Min Damage Chain/Lightning/Sentry/Phoenix Strike Blockable Wake of/Inferno/Artic Blast Unblockable Blade Fury  Blockable Blade Sentinel Blockable Blade Shield Blockable Poison Nova Blockable Teeth Blockable Bone Spear Blockable Bone Spirit Blockable Blessed Hammer Blockable Fist of the Heavens Blockable Smite Blockable Fireball Blockable Firebolt/Hydra Blockable Phoenix Strike/Meteor Blockable (only impact damage is blocked, residual flames unblockable) Firewall Unblockable Blaze Unblockable Blizzard Blockable Ice Bolt/Frozen Orb/Phoenix Strike Blockable Fissure Unblockable Hurricane Blockable Molten Boulder Unblockable 8. Dragon Talon and special effects 8.1 Open wounds In patch 1.10 open wounds have changed a lot, so far its causing a lot of pain and drains your life very quickly, I suggest utilizing this, and I’ll do that later on in this guide. Open wounds causes the player affected by it to loose life for a given amount of time, it works far better than poison as it can't be resisted. The only way to reduce the effect of open wounds is to use health potions or replenish life. As replenish life would take insane amounts to counter high level open wounds, health potions are the only way. And in PvP health potions is bad manner, so there is basically no way of countering the effect of open wounds in 'legit' PvP. The player affected by open wounds loose life according to this formula Duration: 200 frames (8 seconds - There are 25 frames per second). Samples of damage Clvl=1-15: 25*(9*Clvl+31)/256 Clvl=16-30: 25*(18*Clvl-104)/256 Clvl=31-45: 25*(27*Clvl-374)/256 Clvl=46-60: 25*(36*Clvl-779)/256 Clvl=61-99: 25*(45*Clvl-1319)/256 Clvl 10: 11.8 per sec over 8 seconds; a total of 94.5 damage. Clvl 30: 42.6 per sec over 8 seconds; a total of 340.6 damage. Clvl 50: 99.7 per sec over 8 seconds; a total of 797.7 damage. Clvl 70: 178.8 per sec over 8 seconds; a total of 1430.5 damage. Clvl 90: 266.7 per sec over 8 seconds; a total of 2133.6 damage. The damage is divided by 4 for a player target. In addition, for a missile versus a player target one should divide the damage by 8 instead. Versus bosses and champions (could be just bosses or special bosses) the damage is divided by 2 All items with open wounds have a percent chance of inflicting it with every hit. Like poison, it is not stacked, but reset with each new successful hit and triggering. So as you see the open wounds can very quickly drain a players life, this makes it very useful vs. all classes as they can't just run if they get affected but have to stay and fight in order to leech the life back. 8.2 Deadly Strike and Critical Strike Deadly Strike and Critical Strike both have a chance of triggering a double damage effect. The Deadly Strike effect is applied after all other damage bonuses. Critical Strike and deadly strike exclude each other. The formula of dealing double damage with deadly strike and critical strike is: Chance of double damage = CS + (DS/100)*(100-CS) Let's assume you have 33% DS and 68% CS, the calculation will look like this Chance of double damage = 68% + (33/100)*32% Chance of double damage = 68% + 10.56% Chance of double damage = 78.56% In all 78.56% and not 101% as the two factors added will give. But since this is a kicker build it won’t be necessary to get DS or CS gear, since DS and CS does not work with Dragon Talon. 8.3. Crushing Blow This is a chance of reducing a monster's health by X% in a single blow. Default: 25% Vs. Players: 10% Vs. Hirelings: 10% Vs. Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 12.5% With missile weapons: 6.25% The life removed is also scaled with number of players. So that if a monster has 450% more life due to 8 players (or whatever the value is) the life removed is further reduced by the same amount (450% would equal multiplying by 4.5 so the life removed by Crushing Blow is divided by 4.5). Physical resistance does apply to Crushing Blow damage, but only if the resistance is positive. Crushing Blow Items stack in most cases. Crushing Blow is calculated after your normal damage. So, after doing the damage that you would normally do, there is a chance you will reduce the health of the monster by X% after that. If you have more than one item with Crushing Blow, the probabilities will be added together. There will be one random check for a Crushing Blow. There is no check for each separate item, so one can not get multiple Crushing Blows in one attack. Crushing Blow can be very deadly when doing exp runs and leveling you character, it's very vital to you in order to level your kicker build, no matter which you choose. 9. Mercenary Selection Mercenaries are a very good idea to use if you're planning on leveling alone and questing to gain the extra bonuses from these. When choosing a mercenary you should be looking for the following factors for a kicker. Crowd control Damage Meat shield/distraction Basically there are two types of mercenaries in the short run that makes a good choice for a kicker. Act I Rogue Scouts and Act II Desert Mercenaries. One could augment that act III or act V mercenaries could also provide this, but I have the following augmentation that these do not provide the suffice amount of help that you're searching for. Another thing to be aware of is the fact that no mercenary will last long in nightmare/hell if they aren't equipped very well. They must be heavily equipped in order to survive and be of a lot of use. Act I - Rogue Scouts These are really great in the beginning, granted at a low level they can add a lot of help. You should equip them with some of the following equipment. Helm - 2/3 sockets helm, socketed with +20 poison or +max jewels. Armor - 3/4 sockets armor, socketed with +20 poison or +max jewels. Bow - 3/5 sockets bow, socketed with +20 poison or +max jewels. The only downside about these archers is that they won’t last long beyond act II, because they have a high tendency of getting themselves into trouble and dying. Therefore I suggest using them to aid you leveling/progress to around act III and the ditch her for an act II desert mercenary. Should you choose a rogue as a mercenary I suggest choosing a cold arrow rogue and equipping her with some of the following gear. Helm - Vampire Gaze / Stealskull / Crown of Thieves Armor - Shaftstop / Duriel's Shell Bow - Windforce / Eaglehorn / Any decent high damage bow Act II - Desert Mercenaries These are the best mercenaries in the long run, they provide all the things you're searching for provided you equip them well too. Might Aura (Offensive) - This mercenary can seriously pack a punch, at decent level and equipped with a nice weapon he can easily solo small groups of monster which is very nice while you're handling other business, like another group. His might aura gives a small boost to your kick damage but it's not a lot, only in the 200-300 range. This mercenary should be chosen to have a tank and a fighter. Holy Freeze Aura (Defensive) - This mercenary isn't packing as much damage as the might aura, but he gives you great advantages versus large groups. The holy freeze aura really gives you some more time to react, which can be really nice, like when you're being mobbed by 10+ monsters. Besides from this he can also kill fairly quickly with the right weapon. Equipping an Act II mercenary isn't very challenging nor very expensive, I suggest the following gear. It's listed in an order of preference with helm and armor, the weapon is up for you to decide since there are so many nice ones. In the beginning I suggest giving your mercenary a 'low-level' elite pole arm socketed with 'Honor' (Amn + El + Ith + Tir + Sol). This should help him a lot staying alive. Helm - Vampire Gaze / Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest / Crown of Thieves Armor - Shaftstop / Ethereal Duriel's Shell / Duriel's Shell Good weapons of choice 'Crescent Moon' (Shael + Um + Tir) Use an elite ethereal pole arm for this, REALLY packs a punch. 'Honor' (Amn + El + Ith + Tir + Sol) Use an elite ethereal pole arm for this, REALLY packs a punch. Tombreaver - Cryptic Axe Ethereal version has unbelievable damage. Bonehew - Ogre Axe Ethereal version has nice damage, not as good as tomb reaver. Viperfork - Mancatcher Insane speed, not superb damage. Act III - Iron Wolves They provide crowd control through cold, but they are required to hit their target in order to make any crowd control and they usually get them selves into trouble. The damage is quite low too and in hell the cold duration won’t be very long; overall a poor choice. However a lightning type mercenary could be an option as the damage can go a lot higher than cold damage, look below. Should you choose such mercenary anyway for whatever the reasons might be I suggest equipping him with some of the following gear and choose a lightning mercenary. Helm - Grisson's Eye / Harlequin's Crest Armor - Shaftstop / Skin of the Vipermagi / Duriel's Shell Sword - RW Crescent Moon Act V - Barbarians True meat shield with lots of health and damage but they provide nothing but a single target damage and in hell they won’t last for a minute versus a crowd of monsters. Should you however choose a such barbarian I suggest using some of the following gear. Helm - Vampire Gaze / Stealskull / Crown of Thieves Armor - Shaftstop / Duriel's Shell Sword - The Grandfather / Doombringer / Honor / Upgraded swordguard / Any decent high damage sword 9.1. Leveling you Mercenary Some of the best places I've found to level my act II mercenary are these, all are in hell mode and level 41+ mercenary. Act I - Countess runs / Black Marsh Act I - Pit runs Act II - Canyon of The Magi Hope this helps out choosing YOUR mercenary, because all mercenaries can work well. It's all about equipment and play style. 0 Please log in to post... Please log in. Use your Diii.net Forum account. Username: Remember me? Password: Want to register?     Lost password?