Hey there.
I am trying to figure out a new build and wanted to ask some of the old D2-veterans for advice on the Merc.
The idea of the char is a Hybrid between Armymancer, Bonemancer and Melee-fighter, using a one-handed weapon with the “Oath”-runeword (not ethereal, I want to use the Heart-of-the-Wolverine-aura). The only minions I will use are maxed Skeletons (NO Sekli-mages) & Clay-golem (and/or iron-golem from oath).
Now my questions:
1.) For a pure Army-mancer I would take an Act2-merc with might and “Infinity”-runeword. But since I use only melee-Skeletons as minions and want to melee-attack myself with this build, wouldnt the “Pride” -Rune with concentration-Aura be more usefull for boosting melee-damage?
2.) “Fanatism” would help me reach max attack-speed much easier, so I wondered if an Act1-merc with “Faith” might be a usefull alternative to the Act2-merc. How usefull is her armor reduction? Is the dps gained from Fanatism for my minions good enough to dump might & concentration/conviction?
Thx for the help. <3
For Fanaticism you can look into getting a Beast runeword instead of using Oath. Considering Oath: it’s pretty expensive to replenish charges and the rest of the weapon does nothing for you where Beast gives you a persistent aura and a meme bear you can summon once in a while.
An act 1 merc with Faith is a nice choice but I’d look into an act 2 merc which has more solid options.
Pride is a solid choice if you don’t use mages. Consider taking a nightmare act 2 might merc to give it to. You’d have fanaticism (from Beast), pride and might.
If you use mages Infinity would be the superior choice considering Conviction lowers defense and thus chance to hit for your skeletons.
These are all pretty expensive pieces though.
Please forget the idea of being a melee fighter though, your damage output would be too low and you too squishy to have any impact compared to all your minions.
And for the love of God, please don’t max clay golem. Put the points in boosting a bone spell, corpse explosion or mages.
Have fun 
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Thx 4 the quick answer!
No, ofc I wouldnt put more then 1 point in clay golem 
I know, that Necro isnt made for melee, but I rly would love to make this work.
Here is the idea for the build:
20 points in: Skeletons, Skeli-mastery, bone-wall, bone-prison, Cadaver-Explosion.
1 point in: Clay, Golem Mastery, minion-Resis, Amp, Life-tap, dim-vision.
The idea is: use the synergies of the bone spells to boost the Bone-spirit-proc on “Oath” (and Bone-armor), since “on-stike”-skills still work with synergies - because of that the only char that can get the “maximum” out of “Oath” is the Necromancer (Iron-Golem-stacks benefit from Golem-mastery and minion-resi as well).
So I actually want to build the Necro around the runeword, thats why “Beast” wont do it for the Necro himself (and since I plan to use the Iron-golem-stacks, I cant “equip” this one with “Beast” either).
Ofc I know that these items are expensive, but this is my plan for the “end-game”, which I will use to calculate my gear and attribute-distribution for in advance. On the way there I will have to use alot of budget-items (even so “Oath” is the core item).
But thats why I was asking for the optimum in the late-game: Act1-merc with “Faith” VS Act2 (Might) with “Pride”?
Since “Oath” is the core item of the build, I am still not sure what weapon to use. To maximize the usefullness of the Bone-Spirit-proc, I need maximum attack speed. With a fanatism-aura I can reach this easily with a Berserker-Axe. But without the aura I will need a Phase-Blade, or at least some fast swinging weapons (cryptic-sword, war-spike, scourge) to reach 11 frames without sacrificing too much Army-mancer equipment.
So since I try to calculate in advance for those expensive Runewords, I really need to decide what merc I wanna use.
I met the same question as yours in years playing D2 on few private servers.
In the end, the answer is: it depends on your merc, and the Nec is always better a support aura for your minions than a support aura+dmg dealer.
the Best Merc for a Sumnec to me is always the Act2 Might Merc, he can carry by himself 4 aura - Better than Act 1 merc (only 3 aura and only 2 is useful)
Aura Might - by his skills
Weapon: Infinity: decrease def/magic def (if you use both skeleton + mage skeleton) or Pride to focus on skeleton only.
Armor: Bramble - Thorn dmg
and Dream helmet (this is not the best choice, but it can work well if stack with Infinity)
Meanwhile, the best posible choice for your Nec is Beast (atk speed/speed/dmg)
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I’m really not convinced on building around Oath, but ofcourse you’re free to try.
Why go for a proc, while you can simply cast it yourself?
The idea of a melee/summoner hybrid sounds fun ofcourse but necromancer is just not a melee class.
I predict the build isn’t going to do all too well in Hell.
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@Tryclyde:
Prbly not, yeah.
“Why go for a proc, while you can simply cast it yourself?” - cause I save 20 skillpoints on Bone-Spirit and 18 on Iron-golem. This allows me to put more points into Skellis and Synergies.
I originally planned to put the 20 points from CE into Bone-Spear instead (to have a castable spell AND an additional synergie for Bone-Spirit), that way it would have been a full Bone-mancer/Armie-mancer-Hybrid, just with a melee-weapon - but CE is soooo strong…
Heart of the Wolverine and merc-auras give boni for both: Skeletons AND myself.
So I thought I could boost my melee without giving up on too much of the other stuff.
I even thought about puttin 1 point into Iron-golem and make him from a Beast-runeword… this way I would have so much auras for my minions AND my own melee… but since the weapon is lost when the iron-Golem dies I cant EVER afford that.
Thats how I came to the current build (I am level 82 atm and playing just as army-mancer since I havent crafted Oath yet - and doing ok in Hell. CE + Amp + Skelis + ActII-merc + Iron-golem’s thorns can deal with most things except physical-immunity).
@DGG:
Thx for the answer.
What about “inner sight” from the Act1-merc? That’s some kind of aura as well. Isnt that usefull for Skeletons or is their attack-rating high enough so they dont need it?