Merc gear

Well... i got my merc (2nd act nightmare, defensive) lvl 92 right now, for my blizz sorc, the gear it have is the following:
1- obedience in eth thresher (not giant)
2- upped shaftop (non eth)
3- vampire gaze (non eth)
4- nature's peace (for nilhathak)
5- metalgrid amulet (i used whatever i got that moment)
6- goldwrap belt (i used whatever i got that moment)
7- sandstorm boots (i used whatever i got that moment)
now after this, i want your opinions on what should i change on the gear, what would be the best (affordable prices of course), considering for example he can kill all the mobs around nilhathak just giving him static field, but having problems for example with claw vipers and/or succubus (or whatever they are called).

 

take Offense (Nightmare): Might
helm : guillaume's face
amu : highlord's wraith
ring : raven
Belt : string of ears eth
gloves : steelrend eth / laying of hands / dracul eth
boots : gore eth / goblin toe eth
armor : eth forti
Also you can take a look Here cause people posted some interesting stuff

 

Defensive's not good? i thought it was...
Edit: i killed diablo clon the other day whit this merc

 

i dont use def merc on cold sorc cause i am already freezing them with my sorc, i use might for extra dmg for the immune monsters

 

Ok, that's a good point, do all the offensive mercs have the same aura (might)?

 

Remain the wep, the one i got is ok?(obedience)

 

Does it matter if i made the fortitude on archon (not superior) non eth?

 

Other good options:
Carrion Wind or BK for ring
Eth bug Treachery for armor
Nosferatu coil for belt

Look to reach the IAS bp depending on the weapon type you use.

 

Carrion Wind is the option to go here on my opinion - higher life leech + twister casts are more useful than a BK.

Depending on the weapon time the IAS can be reached without it, keeping in mind our merc here can use also gloves ( instead of stacking some small ED bonus from OGRES you can always find some descent + 20 IAS + rezist + STR + DEX gloves [ not 15 str/ 15 dex - they are too expensive for a merc for myself]

 

Obedience is nice but it's no upgraded Hone Sundan. Hone Sundan can either be 3 shael'd, for a massive speed boost to get your Crushing Blows out faster, or 3 Ber'd to get 100% CB to free up the Orphan's helm for another (like ebug andarial's vissage). It's more economical to use shaels, of course, and the speed boost is really helpful when burning down bosses with 100% cushing blow. It's important to note that neither Obedience, nor Hone Sundan, have speed boosts naturally and Hone Sundan would do less non-crushing blow damage. But, since your hireling is strictly for dealing with immunes it doesn't need to do a lot of damage, and so the faster CBs will be loads better all around (for bosses and high hp targets).

Your hireling's vamp gaze can also be upgraded, and should hold you over until you get Orphan's Helm. If you go the 3 Ber Hone Sundan route an eBug Andarial's Visage will do a solid 6k defense in addition to it's speed and skills.

You can easily replace Goldwrap with Bladebuckle (30% FHR) until you can get and upgrade a String of Ears or Nosferatu's Coil. You'll want to switch from SoE to Nos coil when you get ebug fortitude since mobs won't be hitting your hireling anymore (and thus no longer needing DR%). eBug fortitude is one of the easiest things to make and, realistically speaking, should be your first piece of hireling gear.

Upgrading String of Ears to a spiderweb sash will give more def than getting an eth one. Similarly Goreriders can also be upgraded for more defense than the eth version. Upgrading eth items makes them lose their eth bonuse and so there's no point to go out of your way to get either of these two items as eth. Also, you forgot Gravepalm in the gloves section, which is the Laying of Hands for undead and also be upgraded for more defense than the eth version.

Little known fact: the Telekinisis synergy to Energy Shield increases the amount of damage you can take per mana at a rate of 0.25 points of damage per 1 point of mana per 1 point of Telekinisis. If you are using energy shield it would be irresponsible to do so without also maxing TeleK, and precasting with Warpspear. This is a tricky thing since you'll also want CTA/Spirit in your off set for precasting. In short only mono-elemental Frozen Orb sorcs have the skill points requirerd to dedicate to defense and so you shouldn't waste any points in E Shield if you're not going all the way. That's because the default rate is 2 mana to 1 damage and sorcs get the same amount of Health as they do Mana from their respective sources (2/2 on levelup and 2/2 from vit/energy).

 

Yes you can make a memory but unless it does both +3 ES, and +3 telekinisis it is straight up not worth the effort.

Warpspear does +6 to both and drops from basically everything.

 

That's actually not true. A +named skill that's the synergy, and not +all skills, or +skill tree will boost synergies too.

Please research these things before you try to correct me on them.

 

2 act nm Deffens merc

 

1.i never used string of ears on merc cause of defense, never heard of a merc using arach.
2. eth items dont lose their def bonus on upgrading.
3. gravepalm doesnt give you extra ias.

Little known fact : only hardskills count on synergies, that mean only the points you put in the skill, not the skills that came from items. So a +9 es memory is the right answer all the way.
@inayat is right