What to Socket in a Bonehew Polearm for my Merc

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Jim Young - 27 Mar 2005 19:20 GMT

I have a char level 86 fireball/meteor sorc (orb thrown in for FIs). Her
merc is an Act 2 NM Holy Freeze type who just got old enough (level 86) to
have the strength to use a Bonehew. What would you recommend putting in the
two sockets in the Bonehew? The merc already has maxed resists and none of
his other gear is socketed. He has been pretty good at surviving since he
was using an ethereal Meat Scraper which did 200-1000 damage and has 10%
life leech. The Bonehew brings his damage to 1000-2000 but has zero life
leech.

I figure that I should probably put an Amn rune in one of the sockets for
the life leech. Something's got to keep him alive, after all. But what
about the other socket? The Bonehew already has 30% IAS. Would a
Shael rune bring the speed past the next breakpoint?

Any other suggestions for what to socket in this Bonehew for the merc?

G'day,

Jim

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Shiflet - 27 Mar 2005 19:31 GMT

> I figure that I should probably put an Amn rune in one of the sockets for
> the life leech.

If you don't have leech anywhere else, definitely an Amn.

> Something's got to keep him alive, after all. But what
> about the other socket? The Bonehew already has 30% IAS. Would a
> Shael rune bring the speed past the next breakpoint?

Shael won't really him. Either go with another Amn, or an ED jewel.

> Any other suggestions for what to socket in this Bonehew for the merc?
>
> G'day,
>
> Jim

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Oliver Wenzel - 27 Mar 2005 22:31 GMT

Hi,

> I figure that I should probably put an Amn rune in one of the sockets
> for the life leech. Something's got to keep him alive, after all.
> But what about the other socket? The Bonehew already has 30% IAS.
> Would a Shael rune bring the speed past the next breakpoint?
>
> Any other suggestions for what to socket in this Bonehew for the merc?

you have several options here. 30%IAS get you 3.5 attacks per second and
the 4.1 attacks breakpoint is at 65% IAS. So if you have life leech
somewhere else, 2 SHAEL runes would get that breakpoint.

If you can get a socket in your helmet or armor with 15%IAS jewel, SHAEL
and AMN would get you the 4.1 breakpoint and 7% life leech.

Last, but not least, you could just slam 2 AMN in it for 14% life leech and
live with the 3.5 attacks. 4 times 2K damage is 8K per second and 7K with
3.5 attacks - so there is not much difference.

Regards,

Oliver

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~misfit~ - 28 Mar 2005 00:35 GMT

> I have a char level 86 fireball/meteor sorc (orb thrown in for FIs).
> Her merc is an Act 2 NM Holy Freeze type who just got old enough
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Jim

Hey Jim,

Shiftlet and Oliver have given you good advice. Personally I just double-Amn
it and that frees up my hat and coat for resists/damage reduction. As you
say his resists are fine then (I would) double-Amn it and look at maybe
Rockstopper (resists and Damage reduction) or Vamp Gaze and an upgraded
shaftstop.

Good to see someone still using Bonehew. Virtually all my mercs who used to
use Bonehew are using Obedience in threshers now. They kill twice as fast
and can use it around clvl mid 50's. Makes a merc a lot harder to kill at
the lower levels as Obedience has resists as well. You just need to get your
leech elsewhere. Vamp Gaze, Tal's F'ugly, Crown of Thieves, Andariels, hell,
even The Undead Crown as he's doing quite a bit of physical and the % LL is
a % of the physical damage. Not many other merc sticks give 56 - 663 damage
in the mid 50's. I even managed to find an Eth thresher and, with Obedience,
it's doing up to 900-odd damage with even lower req's than the normal ones.
Just clvl 53. An awesome twink weapon, your merc ends up doing far more
damage than you do. Add to that 40% FHR, 40% crushing blow, 30% CTC
enchant, -25% target's defence, -25% target's fire resist, adds +200 - +300
defence, req -20% and up to 30 res all and the good old Bonehews are sitting
on a mule. :-(

The only polearms Obedience haven't replaced on my non-casting (and I
include Drac's-wearing meleers as casters for this) characters is Reapers
Toll for it's invaluable 33% CTC decrepify.

Hell, even my M'av's zon has an Obedience thresher on switch. <g> I just
switch to it when it's fairly safe and her enchant has worn off and beat a
few monsters around the head with it. Once I've killed a couple good old
faithful enchant kicks in and I switch back to my (now different-coloured)
bow. Nice to have a bit of fire damage and better AR on a M'av zon. She sure
does look funny swinging that great big weapon though.
--
~misfit~

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Oliver Wenzel - 28 Mar 2005 03:53 GMT

Hi,

>> Any other suggestions for what to socket in this Bonehew for the
>> merc?
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> +300 defence, req -20% and up to 30 res all and the good old Bonehews
> are sitting on a mule. :-(

yeah, Obedience rocks big time. If it had some %IAS on it, my WW Druid
could use it as his end-game weapon. For now, he only uses it to enchant
his AR and then swaps it for Bonehew. Bonehew with SHAEL and AMN rune
reaches the 5fpa breakpoint and has 7% life leech.

And I've put Bonehew on my might merc, too. Allows him to use Delirium
helmet and still have some life leech. If needed, he'll switch back to
Crown of Thieves and Obedience, especially against bosses.

> The only polearms Obedience haven't replaced on my non-casting (and I
> include Drac's-wearing meleers as casters for this) characters is
> Reapers Toll for it's invaluable 33% CTC decrepify.

Reaper's Toll still is one of my favorite merc weapons. I still get a lot
of decrep'ed monsters while also wearing Delirium. The much smaller Decrep
range just affects the monsters close to merc and the others still are
confused or terrored.
I'll skip Reaper's on my Druid's merc, though. The druid has a LawBringer
Phase blade wich gives 20% ctc Level 15 Decrep on striking. He can do a
Feral Rage attack with the Phase, until Decrep triggers and then switch
back to his Bonehew and do some real damage with Fury.

Regards,

Oliver

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