What is the best polearm for insight?

Hi I want to build an insight for my merc. Just got an eth collosus volgue. My merc has 65% IAS (45% for Treachery and 20% from andriel's visage). Taking speed and damage into consideration which is the best polearm to use for insight. Thanks for the help.|||In my opinion CV is quite bad for any weapon. I would prefer Thresher or Cryptic Axe|||There are two factors to consider:

1) It's hard enough to find an Eth elite in the first place, not to mention one that has exactly 4os to make Insight in.

2) Insight is there to enable your char to do better dmg first, and help your merc do better dmg second. Sure a Thresher GT CA etc might be slightly better, but the difference won't be all that much tbh.

So definitely for sure if you have an Eth Thresher or Giant Thresher laying around that already has 4os, then it's most likely a better option. But if all you have is an Eth CV with 0os, and it's worth burning a Larzuk socket quest because you really don't have anything better and/or you don't wanna risk cube recipe just to have it turn out 1os or some junk.... then don't sweat it. An Eth CV Insight will be just fine... assuming of course that your merc is high enough cLvl to equip it or you have some nice high-end gear like Andy's Helm to grant some extra str.|||TLDR: Great poleaxe is the best polearm with your setup, but the difference is small.

First of all: cryptic axe is clearly superior to Colossus volgue because they both have the same speed and average damage, however cryptic axe has lower str req and also higher minimum damage. (minimum damage is more useful than max damage...).

giant thresher is slightly more average damage and more minimum damage than thresher but with higher requirements, although the requirements aren't too high either way.

i'm using this calculator-- i'm pretty sure it's accurate:

http://diablo3.ingame.de/tips/calcs/...lc_english.php

insight has zero on weapon ias and your merc has 65 off weapon IAS you say...

this gets you:

5.5 frame jab with a CA or CV,

5 frame jab with a great poleaxe, and

5 frame jab with a thresher or giant thresher... obviously a poor option with precisely 65 ias although if you socketed your andy's with a 15% ias jewel you could bump this down to 4.5 frame jab. the 15% ias jewel does not help with any other kind of polearm though.

a 260% ED insight in an eth CA or CV would have 496 average damage or 90.2 damage with a 5.5 frame attack.

a 260% ED insight in an eth GPA would have 472 average damage... or 94.4 damage per frame with a 5 frame attack.

a 260% ED insight in a giant thresher would have 420 average damage or 93.3~ damage per frame with 4.5 frame attack. However if you don't want to socket andys with an ias jewel, you'll end up with 84 damage per frame.

...

So your best bet is great poleaxe.

although the difference isn't great and these are harder to find than the other polearms.

Great poleaxe is also tied with giant thresher for the best range-adder-- anyone know if that affects mercs?|||AFAIK rangeadder does not affect mercs.|||Quote:








In my opinion CV is quite bad for any weapon. I would prefer Thresher or Cryptic Axe




A CA isn't better than a CV (or only slightly... it deals 0.5 more base damage on average), as soon as the merc meets the str reqs. That isn't much of a problem with e.g. Griswold's armor. You can socket it with pamethysts, for +50 str and when +20 str are enough, you can switch to Gris armor with IAS jewels (and keep the one with pamethysts for future leveling ).

In fact, a CA might worse than a CV. You can do something about the CV's str req, as mentioned, but there's nothing you can do to compensate the higher level req of a CA (CA: 59, CV: 48). If the runes had a higher req, it would be irrelevant, but that's not the case with Insight runes (Sol is highest: L27).|||Quote:








TLDR: Great poleaxe is the best polearm with your setup, but the difference is small.

First of all: cryptic axe is clearly superior to Colossus volgue because they both have the same speed and average damage, however cryptic axe has lower str req and also higher minimum damage. (minimum damage is more useful than max damage...).

giant thresher is slightly more average damage and more minimum damage than thresher but with higher requirements, although the requirements aren't too high either way.

i'm using this calculator-- i'm pretty sure it's accurate:

http://diablo3.ingame.de/tips/calcs/...lc_english.php

insight has zero on weapon ias and your merc has 65 off weapon IAS you say...

this gets you:

5.5 frame jab with a CA or CV,

5 frame jab with a great poleaxe, and

5 frame jab with a thresher or giant thresher... obviously a poor option with precisely 65 ias although if you socketed your andy's with a 15% ias jewel you could bump this down to 4.5 frame jab. the 15% ias jewel does not help with any other kind of polearm though.

a 260% ED insight in an eth CA or CV would have 496 average damage or 90.2 damage with a 5.5 frame attack.

a 260% ED insight in an eth GPA would have 472 average damage... or 94.4 damage per frame with a 5 frame attack.

a 260% ED insight in a giant thresher would have 420 average damage or 93.3~ damage per frame with 4.5 frame attack. However if you don't want to socket andys with an ias jewel, you'll end up with 84 damage per frame.

...

So your best bet is great poleaxe.

although the difference isn't great and these are harder to find than the other polearms.

Great poleaxe is also tied with giant thresher for the best range-adder-- anyone know if that affects mercs?




Thanks for the detailed description. Seems like they are all rought about the same...with only slight differences. Right now I have only a 4os CV. So I'll use. Luckily also found a 4OS CA. So once I get the right mods on that will use that. Pretty happy by eth CV. My merc is doing much more than he was with the non-eth thresher. Thanks for the info.