Re: Obedience Runeword
Made an Obedience Thresher for my Merc (seems like a very aptly named Merc weapon), and I'm puzzled by the chance for Enchant. Does this actually do anything on a Merc? Even without the Enchant it's a pretty nice weapon for an act II merc... but I was under the apparently mistaken impression that when Enchant was cast that I would be the benefactor of it, and that definitely doesn't seem to be the case. Does the merc enchant himself? I don't see his damage turn red...
Yes... it only enchants the merc, however this is still a very substantial benefit, as it significantly increases his CTH in Hell and also adds a respectable amount of fire damage (~200 or so points IIRC).
In fact this Runeword is (along with
Insight,
Spirit and
Harmony) one of the best values in the 1.10 Ladder-only Runewords... for just a few mid-range runes you can get a Runeword which, if made in the right original weapon (my favorite is an ethereal Cryptic Axe), can have over 1024 base physical damage (!). My (now) off-Ladder Summoner Druid's Might merc has one -- just
sick physical damage per hit (can be 9K with Might and HoW) -- but I actually think it worked a bit better on my (now) off-Ladder Strafer Amazon's Defiance merc; the damage (~5K) is still very respectable, and the merc ends up with such a high Defence Rating that he rarely gets hit, on top of that the built-in resists from
Obedience give him 75 across the board in Hell (probably would be more than that if you put the right armor on him, e.g.
GA, upped
Darkglow, etc.).
(
Semi-OT: Another thing that I noticed about having an A2 Defiance merc for an Amazon is that the Valkyrie, she's about Level 30 or so with pre-buff, becomes basically indestructible with that Defence Rating boost. I don't know what this minion's DR is but it must be enormous, as she almost never gets hit, even in Hell A5.)
If you don't need the mana crutch from
Insight this is really the best Runeword to give an A2 merc on the Ladder. (The best one that you're ever likely to legitimately get the runes for, I mean.)
Cheers
Mr_Bill
