What is better for Your Merc Faith or Pride?

[soundguy_99]

Hey guys,
I was wondering allot of people talked about pride (concentration) as being the rune word to get for your merc, but what about Faith (Fanatisism).
Any thoughts of which is actually better for your merc, and ultimately your skels.
Any thoughts is greatly appreciated,
soundguy_99

[Omnicide]

Might want to tell us what type of necro you're using, but I'll bite.

Might merc with a Pride.

Your necro could use a Beast and those three auras would be way better than Might/Fana from Faith.

If you're PvM then the Beast shouldn't be a great risk to your skeletons...as it actually helps a hell of a lot more than the skills can, especially when you consider Revives.

[soundguy_99]

My bad sorry about that,
I am using a pretty straight forward summoner necro, with a few points into bone spear and spirit.
Thanks for the help,
Although, it makes it a bit harder to get with the cham rune in there..LOL.
Thanks,
soundguy_99

[Omnicide]

Oh, I kinda answer questions according to how useful they are.

I can't remember the runes needed for Faith but...yeah. Do what you have to within your budget. D:

[tyciol]

I never thought of replacing the traditional wand, that's a great idea, it'd look cooler too, and would be better for the army as a whole...

Normally I'd never allow it because it would reduce the max NUMBERS, but since Blizz did that anyway it might not, so may as well.

[Omnicide]

Eh I've just always put more on quality of my skeletons than just how many.

[Landau14]

lol is this another "quality>quanitity" debate? It's used to much these days. However, I agree, the loss of skele just can't compare with the speed they'll be killing with Beast.

Only downfall is that you'll have less guys to guard you, but I think that anyway you'll have enough...

And you can take a hit or two. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And what kills you just makes you exit and make a new game (except for HC, then you're screwed)

[Omnicide]

Pretty much, yeah.

Besides, I change my curses according to what's happening to my skeles. Life Tap if they start to have troubles...or IM to take out whoever's killing them.

I don't really have a problem one way or the other.

[Landau14]

Yeah Summoner is a pretty easy build. And the curses are just amazing, Life Tap especially

[Omnicide]

I like to maximize the damage and use Amp. Oh...three damage auras and Amp...overkill isn't even the word.

[SkEpTiKaL]

Considering that I don't think that Fanat stacks with your merc (if it does correct me), I'd say use BeastZ for your necro's weapon and Pride on your merc, so that you have two auras at once.

[Zarley]

A little known secret about Skele Mages: they look like they're "casting" their elemental bolts, but according to the game they're "throwing" them. So, that shiny Beast axe will make your mages shoot significantly faster. Whatever loss in total numbers you might see from lack of +skills on your weapon can be made up by mages and revives that are hugely boosted by Fanaticism.

My vote would be a Might merc with Infinity polearm and a Beast for the necro. Why Infinity? It makes your mages hit HARD, and more importantly, it blows away monster defense. Pride will add more damage, but Conviction will help your skeletons hit more often. And, to top it off, Conviction will crank the fire damage from your Corpse Explosion through the roof.

Also, the single biggest thing seperating your merc from your skeletons (after his Might aura, of course) is his access to gear with Crushing Blow, for quicker boss fights. Infinity has 40%, Pride has none.

[Omnicide]

@Skeptical...Yeah, Might/Conc/Fana all stack together.

@Zarley...I didn't know that about Beast...probably why the skele mages are said to have "missle" damage. The Infinity does add more balance between the physical skeletons and the elemental mages...I might just do that. My only problem is that Infinity can't get rid of immunities all the time...cold and fire seem to be the biggest problem.

[Zarley]

The Infinity is really about your skeleton warrior's AR and its Crushing Blow. You're not really dependent on it to break immunities.. your warriors will generally just beat down things that are cold immune.

And you can always add Lower Resist on top of Conviction to really try to break elemental immunities.

[Omnicide]

This is true...I forgot about Lower Res.

[Taurean]

Nice debate.. My next project after the Zealer\Auradin will be a Summoner..

I`ve bought a wand of some kind with Lower res charges, that really helps on my Java`s CS dmg against bosses.