I freaking hate items with crossclass effects.

[Occhidiangela]

1. Enjoyed your post. :) You write clearly.

2.

Why train a Holy Freeze merc when you can train a Might merc, hand him "Doom", then purchase him some "Bramble" armor and thus receive the benefit of Might, Holy Freeze, and Thorns without having to make a SINGLE goddamn sacrifice in your own equipment? Oh, and he can also wear a "Delirium" helm people can abuse every single stolen skill ad nauseum. And wear some "Enigma" armor to teleport this ubermerc around like a dog on a veeery short leash. Perhaps Blizzard should have allowed characters to gain a Paladin Offensive Aura skill tree at level 80 and dropped the pretense of making unique and interesting items.

You assume that all of the ingredients will be available. Perhaps they will be, what with Rune Morphing being possible. In theory, the Ladder season's "short" duration may limit the volume of ingredients on hand to make this Uber Merc. If a clan, guild, or team gets together and single mindedly tries to make them to equip a team uber Char with this Uber Merc (think Russ Barb team concept) then the loophole you mention will doubtlessly help someone run the ladder a bit faster with either a Static Field Sorceress or a Blessed Hammer Paladin. (I think the BH Paladin will make a comeback, personally, if he gets "just the right merc" some uber equipment. Concentration on top of Might on top of Holy Freeze on top of Thorns add Delerium . . . Goodness!)

3. Fun is where you find it. I personally like the Teleport charges on an item, it helped with MF runs for a Paladin. However, I agree with you that the cross class skill proliferation dilutes the incentive for team play, as did Mercs in LoD.