With the right helm I'd be over 43% I could add a few IAS/ED jewels to armor and helm as well...?|||Merc survivability can't rely on LL alone, especially as its reduced based upon difficulty and you can't leach off everything.
Also, your polearm would be doing a pittance in damage, so you'd generally leech less than with a solid runeword or unique or rare.|||So I'm better off with an Obedience, a LL helm like Crown of Thieves and say, armor with +45% or more IAS?|||You are always better off focusing off on a small number of specific stats when it comes to your Merc's gear. Things like Crushing Blow, at least some Life Leech (don't go overboard, it's not a cureall), Resists if needed, and some %damage reduction and/or PDR MDR.
If you can find a balanced gear set that gets as much of these stats as possible, things change for the better in regards to his survivability. You mentioned Obedience, and I absolutely love that runeword... altho it works better for builds that don't need/want Insight. For weapon you could go Obedience, you could go Insight in a very high dmg Ethereal Elite Polearm, you could go Reaper's Toll or Bonehew socketed with Amns for massive Crush and LL.
For the helm department I always like to use Vamp Gaze, Ethereal if possible. It helps balance out the offensive power of your Merc's weapon by providing some defensive stats. Also workable are helms like Rockstopper... or you can use any old high def Life Leech helm, tons of options.
Armor is mostly gonna revolve around what further balance you can bring to your Merc's stats. Eth Duriel's is nice in a pinch, socketed Eth Shaftstop if his resists are fine, Gladiator's Bane is a very nice under-rated armor, and of course you have the big daddy runeword armors like Stone, Duress, Fortitude. Hell... even a simple Treachery made into a 3os Ethereal cube-bugged Elite armor can get your merc close to max %dmg reduction( assuming Gaze is used) along with massive resists when Fade triggers.
So my advice is: don't focus so much on a specific piece of merc gear, especially without weighing the balance of stats. For instance you wouldn't want to find a weapon helm and armor that all had life leech but nothing much else... same for all resists or all -%dmg. Balance is key, you need to get just the perfect combination so that your merc can handle the different situations that arise.|||Use treachery as armor and rely on obediance. I can't really say anything else.|||Obedience is decent but nothing comes close to reaper's for survivability AND damage(well, only botd).|||Zrk, honestly, Reaper > Botd anyday.|||I never threat my merc as a killing machine, thus I stay away from weapons like Obedience. Merc's role is to support your character's spells/dmg with the right equipment like Infinity/Insight for casters, or Reapers Toll for those who deal with physical dmg (windy druid falls into this category).
Other that above, merc is just a meat shield so ll is important but this you can have from the helm (Reaper's Toll has a lot of it too)|||I wouldn't call Obedience an offensive option for merc, I'd call it a defensive option. Sure, the merc kills things sometimes with an eth elite one, but Infinity and Insight are the offensive options for merc weapon: they increase your damage, at the cost of a weaker merc (= less defense). Obedience makes your merc much more likely to survive.
In addition to being an offensive choice for physical damage characters, Reaper's Toll may be the best defensive choice (when it procs), and it gives +% life leech, which gives you some flexibility in your helm choice. If you can afford an ebugged merc Fortitude armor to go with it, you've already got all the must-haves, and can have your merc run around pwning everything even without a hat, which means CBF, slow, absorb, +skills, mf, etc. become options for the merc helm slot (%dr is an option even for those that need leech from the helm).
If you're not rich, the nice thing about Obedience is that it maxes out the resists on your merc, so, while you're restricted to a leech helm (as you also are with Infinity/Insight), you can go for anything in the body armor slot.
On mine I've gone for Shaftstop + Vamp Gaze (self found one with max leech), but there are a few options out there...I might try Gladiator's Bane, as +x DR makes a huge difference in merc survivability (esp. vs. large crowds and Lightning Hose), and the CBF is nice situationally. Guardian Angel might also be a good choice, perhaps best paired with Tal's helm if you don't get the max benefit otherwise.|||Why not 6 Amns in a 6 socket Giant Thresher?
The only weapons an Act 2 merc would ever need are Reaper's, Infinity, Insight, Obedience, and Hone Sundan. Those are the best, and you pick the one that helps your character the most. You can also slap one on the merc for regular play and keep another one in stash for bosses, if that's what gives you trouble.
I agree with the guy above about keeping merc gear balanced. A merc will need resists and leech. Damage is part of leech, since 35% life stolen per hit of 100 damage isn't very much, just as 1% life stolen per hit of 5000 damage isn't very much. If you have good crowd control skills, DR and FHR are less important, and if you have a lot of CB, it's less important for the merc to have it too.
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