Best Merc Weapon for Melee?

IF this is the wrong forum, sorry for posting it here.

I was thinking about going with a Botd for my NM Act 2 merc. Since I'm a melee char, should I use a might Barb or stick with the HF merc? I'm a WW Druid.

Thanks.|||if you're doing physical damage, your merc should be using Reaper's Toll. Try to find an eth one. The decrepify proc procs all the time and lowers enemies physical resist by 50%, in addition to slowing them AND reducing their damage. it can even break some physical immunities.

as for aura, i'd go with holy freeze, the slowness stacks with decrepify and makes everything go stupidly slow... although if you're not really worried about dying you can go might for more damage.

(edited to save krischan's eyes)|||It's decrepify. I don't mean to be a smartass, but it hurts my eyes

Reaper's is excellent, except you want your enemies to be cursed by something else than decrep. Fro example, necros have the full catalog of curses anyway and strafe zons might prefer amp (from Atma's) which will break physical immunity more often then decrep.

The choice of weapon depends on your other gear as well. BotD is a nice have-it-all weapon (damage, IAS, leech), so you would be very flexible with the other merc gear, but if you know exactly what you want on your merc, there might be better alternatives. You can as well use Obedience and a LL herlm (Tal's or Andy's) which would be the cheaper alternative.

The optimum runewords for the mercs of casters are probably Insight (for quick mana replenishment) or Infinity (lowers enemy lightning/cold/fire resists and enemy defense as well).|||Hey krischan, that word axcellent really hurts my eyes too.

On the question - eth Tomb Reaver with appropriate jewels/runes in the sockets has great potential.|||Right - and a very good point! Typo fixed, that will teach me not to become too haughty on spelling issues

I really have to work on my a versus e typos. These naughty fingers ! It's usually no problem, but when writing "then" instead of "than", calling it a typo looks a bit like an excuse, even though I know when to write which.|||While I am well known for my DySLeXiC FinGers.|||If you want to go with something a little diff you can make a Lawbringer in a sword for your new best friend the

Bard from act 5

20% Chance To Cast Level 15 Decrepify On Striking

Level 16-18 Sanctuary Aura When Equipped (varies)

-50% Target Defense

Adds 150-210 Fire Damage

Adds 130-180 Cold Damage

7% Life Stolen Per Hit

Slain Monsters Rest In Peace

+200-250 Defense Vs. Missile (varies)

+10 To Dexterity

75% Extra Gold From Monsters

it's all good stuff there |||Reapers Toll, no doubt whatsoever.

If you don't have one, I gambled a nice lance with CTC amplified damage, and it's ok until I find my reaper's |||WW Druid?

might Barb?

What did i miss