07-27-2004, 03:24 PM
Greetings!
It seems to be the popular wisdom these days that Shaftstop, with its 30% DR is the best armor to give to your merc. Combined with Vampire Gaze, it can yield up to 50% PDR. The problem is that, compared to other available uniques, the Defense of Shaftstop is fairly low (~650)... Whereas the defense available on other armors can be as high as ~1800+.
It seems that in using this armor you trade off more hits for less damage per hit. The question is whether the 30% less damage offsets the increased hit frequency.
??
In addition, more frequent hits cause your merc to spend more time stunned/knocked back/in hit recovery, and therefore not dealing damage.
So I guess the questions would be:
Is shaftstop "the best" armor to give to a high level merc?
How big a difference does Defense make at hell difficulties?
Thanks in advance!
It seems to be the popular wisdom these days that Shaftstop, with its 30% DR is the best armor to give to your merc. Combined with Vampire Gaze, it can yield up to 50% PDR. The problem is that, compared to other available uniques, the Defense of Shaftstop is fairly low (~650)... Whereas the defense available on other armors can be as high as ~1800+.
It seems that in using this armor you trade off more hits for less damage per hit. The question is whether the 30% less damage offsets the increased hit frequency.
??
In addition, more frequent hits cause your merc to spend more time stunned/knocked back/in hit recovery, and therefore not dealing damage.
So I guess the questions would be:
Is shaftstop "the best" armor to give to a high level merc?
How big a difference does Defense make at hell difficulties?
Thanks in advance!