A1 Merc Bow questions

[chek]

A1 Merc Bow questions

Just curious what high level bows people are using on A1 mercs and if they are happy with them.

I know A1 mercs are not Amazons but you guys know bows the best!

The bows I was considering are

Windforce socketed with shael or 15ias/moded jewel or nef
BOTD
HoJ
Faith

Thanks for commenting if you have actually used these on A1 mercs.:thumbsup:

 

[crawlingdeadman]

i've used:
ice
harmony
faith
wws

it all depends on what you're using. for instance you shouldnt give your merc faith if you're using it. sure it doesnt hurt, but it doesnt really add a whole lot either. ice is cool as an alternative to holy freeze mercs. a couple of my friends used this for chaos running hammerdins. wws is the (cheap) bow equivilent of giving reaper's toll to an act 2. harmony is just great, especially if you're using faith and dont need them to hold it. faith is great especially when you're using anything but faith (best example is wf).

of your suggestions i'd say NO to BotD and wf is a waste on something that doesnt fire 3million times a minute (btw nef is redundant b/c it has kb). never used HoJ or even seen it as a choice for a merc. dont see why it wouldnt work. act one mercs dont do that great a damage when compared to the almighty act 2. go for their strong points staying out of trouble and doing (slow) consistant damage.

 

[chek]

Doh my stupidity on the nef.

Well WF gets to 12fps and BotD gets to 11fps so they are not really slow but cant keep up with Faith or Hoj in a -10 bow at 10fps.

Frames----16 FPS---15 FPS---14 FPS---13 FPS---12 FPS---11 FPS----10
WBS(-10)---0 IAS----0 IAS----0 IAS----7 IAS----18 IAS----35 IAS-----60
WBS (0)----0 IAS----0 IAS----9 IAS----19 IAS----32 IAS----54 IAS----86
WBS (5)----0 IAS----6 IAS---15 IAS----26 IAS---40 IAS----65 IAS----102
WBS (10)---5 IAS---11 IAS---22 IAS---34 IAS---50 IAS---78 IAS-----120

WWS only hits 11fps. Ice and Harmony are slow as well but the auras are helpful. I dont really need any help I rather they just kill annoying monsters in the area I am too lazy to warp too haha.

Are you recommending not using an A1 merc and just going for A2? I use A2 alot but if A1 sucks that bad then I guess I could give up on em. I have A1 right now with Harmony eth fort and Andys. I will be socketing the Andys with a 15ias/modded jewel.

 

[crawlingdeadman]

no no, they dont suck at all, it's just that with all the high end runewords available (and the not so high end insight) a pole merc with 2 or 3 auras is generally considered "better." the obvious exception being a chaos running zon. then act 1 beats out act 3 (the only other non melee merc) hands down. as for the speed issue, i was referring to the fact that most zon users are used to strafe pumping out a ton of arrows and no matter how fast you make her, your act 1 merc wont be doing that.

 

[BlushNine]

Agreed. There's a reason A2 mercs are the popular choice. Especially for Amazons that can get a boost to physical damage via Might as well as an additional aura like Pride's Concentration. Each one doesn't add that much, but together they make a difference.

As Deadman states, Rogues are a good choice if you plan to run Chaos alot where Dessert Warriors will invariably kill themselves from a measly Iron Maiden cast. You can avoid the Iron Maiden killing an A2 merc but it takes alot of careful playing, casting Decoy ahead to feint Knight castings and sink their spells away from your team and portaling home to ask Jamella to cleans the IM if he gets tagged. But this is hardly for the lazy. You do Chaos and you're lazy go with a Rogue.

If you do go with a Rogue, and you have a Faith on your zon, I would actually go with a magic or rare Blade Bow or Great Bow that has CTC Amp. You want a fast bow with the ability to knock off Physical Resistance/Immune. That's the theory behind WWS, only it has a 2% where you'll find a magic bow comes with 5%. The Rogues damage and shot speed is pretty low and you're likely to kill things the Rogue was working on even by accident with a stray Strafe or MA.

 

[Kijya]

If you do go with a Rogue, and you have a Faith on your zon, I would actually go with a magic or rare Blade Bow or Great Bow that has CTC Amp. You want a fast bow with the ability to knock off Physical Resistance/Immune. That's the theory behind WWS, only it has a 2% where you'll find a magic bow comes with 5%.

Don't forget wrath. :azn:

Other options:
act 3 merc with a last wish = might aura without getting killed by IM, can also freeze some enemies if you use the cold one. expensive though...

 

[Mistress Sersi]

I find that if you use an act 2 merc in hell & he runs into a monster pack, you spend most of your time feeding him red potions rather than firing volley after volley of arrows. With a sor it is not that much of an issue, she can tele away. So I figure a valk & decoy should hold off the monster packs while the rogue & I fire away.

So what would be some good armor for an act 2 merc? I use an ETH treachery( FADE! & Venom!) on my act 2 merc with my sor. He uses insight cv & gulli face ( for the CB), but in packs of cows I have to pull back. Am I doing something wrong or should I change the items he is using?

 

[crawlingdeadman]

he needs life leech.

 

[icharius]

I almost always put a cheap vamp gaze on my a2 mercs just for the life leech.

 

[Mistress Sersi]

Ok. Perhaps thats what he should ask Santa for Christmas. A nice helm with life leech! A TAL or vamp gaze.