Boss destroying skill
- Thread starter Doliamn
- Start date
Re: Boss destroying skill
Removing non-merc relevent skills they come out at:
Stone
+60% Faster Hit Recovery
+300 Defense Vs. Missile
+16 To Strength
+16 To Vitality
+15 to all Resistances
~4000 Defence
Treachery
+45% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+30% Cold Resist
+60% to all Resistances
+Almost No Curses
+15% Damage Reduction (does this apply to mercs, or is it just assassin hard points?)
+300 Fast Poison Damage/hit
~1000 Defence
(Assuming fade and venom have been activated, but considering how much a merc gets slapped around it's fair to say they're almost always on, and assuming you make them in a ebugged elite armor.).
I don't know - the only advantage of Stone seems to be more defence and 40% higher FHR, but unless you're going Defiance I'm not sure that the defence will do you all that much good. And it won't help at all vs casters.
Aside from the defence and FHR, I think Treachery beats out Stone pretty easily - you get massive IAS (watch that turbo charged Jab with Obedience Crushing Blow + awesome damage), Great Resists (there are very very few armors that beat 60% Resist All), Nice DR, Curses last only a few seconds and a nice source of poison damage. And it's much cheaper. And your merc looks cool.
To me the only drawback is the venom which means you either learn to live with poison only being active for about half the battle due to the short duration or you get a source of open wounds. Either way - I reckon the damage output from the faster attacking and fairly high poison damage will outweigh the PMH effect of a longer duration poison.
I just really like Treachery - It's cheap, it's cheerful, it's awesome. It's been my standard Merc armor since the moment it came out. It's rare that I use anything else unless I'm going for a special effect.
Why?
Removing non-merc relevent skills they come out at:
Stone
+60% Faster Hit Recovery
+300 Defense Vs. Missile
+16 To Strength
+16 To Vitality
+15 to all Resistances
~4000 Defence
Treachery
+45% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+30% Cold Resist
+60% to all Resistances
+Almost No Curses
+15% Damage Reduction (does this apply to mercs, or is it just assassin hard points?)
+300 Fast Poison Damage/hit
~1000 Defence
(Assuming fade and venom have been activated, but considering how much a merc gets slapped around it's fair to say they're almost always on, and assuming you make them in a ebugged elite armor.).
I don't know - the only advantage of Stone seems to be more defence and 40% higher FHR, but unless you're going Defiance I'm not sure that the defence will do you all that much good. And it won't help at all vs casters.
Aside from the defence and FHR, I think Treachery beats out Stone pretty easily - you get massive IAS (watch that turbo charged Jab with Obedience Crushing Blow + awesome damage), Great Resists (there are very very few armors that beat 60% Resist All), Nice DR, Curses last only a few seconds and a nice source of poison damage. And it's much cheaper. And your merc looks cool.
To me the only drawback is the venom which means you either learn to live with poison only being active for about half the battle due to the short duration or you get a source of open wounds. Either way - I reckon the damage output from the faster attacking and fairly high poison damage will outweigh the PMH effect of a longer duration poison.
I just really like Treachery - It's cheap, it's cheerful, it's awesome. It's been my standard Merc armor since the moment it came out. It's rare that I use anything else unless I'm going for a special effect.
NASE
Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill
I already use treachery, so the venom on a merc become useless. Note aswell that if you are using good bows - faith - then you will do that much damage that some 300-ish poison damage from merc isn't going to make any difference.
60% res is totally overkill. A good merc should already have max resist with 15 on armour and a um in your helm.
And note that a one second IM or amp can already be enough to kill your merc.
The fact that a merc will have 4000 defence armour will make monsters miss him more often, therefore, he'll survive longer.
Now if I were to have two treacheries, I'd surely use it over the armour I'm using now, though in the end, ebugged stone AP will be his armour, and it will serve him good.
I already use treachery, so the venom on a merc become useless. Note aswell that if you are using good bows - faith - then you will do that much damage that some 300-ish poison damage from merc isn't going to make any difference.
60% res is totally overkill. A good merc should already have max resist with 15 on armour and a um in your helm.
And note that a one second IM or amp can already be enough to kill your merc.
The fact that a merc will have 4000 defence armour will make monsters miss him more often, therefore, he'll survive longer.
Now if I were to have two treacheries, I'd surely use it over the armour I'm using now, though in the end, ebugged stone AP will be his armour, and it will serve him good.
Re: Boss destroying skill
It also makes it hard to get decent Crushing Blow as Guilimines face is out (no LL or +resists) and Obedience does not give any LL.
Using treachery for the armor, and it is a good armor, frees up both the weapon and helm choices completely.
And there's the DR, but I'm not 100% sure if that applies to the merc.
I suppose it comes down to personal preference, I just like the faster (therefore higher) damage, the higher leech, the maxed resistsances from very early levels, the relative freedom of weapon and helm choices and the nerfing of curses. And it's cheap. And it allows for cheap helm and weapon choices without sacraficing anything on LL or CB.
If you go for eStone - for level 80 (say) - what helm and weapon choices are you using to get Max resist, LL and Crushing blow?
If we're talking about Faith then we're in a whole different league of gear choices. My reccomendations are for cheap and effective choices - of course if you put ideal gear on the merc there are better options about.
With ideal gear this is true, however there are not many helms that give LL and Resists so unless your merc is ~Level 95 you're restricted to polearms with LL.
It also makes it hard to get decent Crushing Blow as Guilimines face is out (no LL or +resists) and Obedience does not give any LL.
Using treachery for the armor, and it is a good armor, frees up both the weapon and helm choices completely.
True, but if he's IMed for a few seconds there's a decent chance he'll not reach an enemy before it runs off. If he's IMed for 20 seconds he will reach the enemy and die. And likewise Amp - a few seconds of Amp is much better than however long it normally lasts.
And the massive IAS on Treachery will mean he hits much faster, leaches more life and will survive longer.
And there's the DR, but I'm not 100% sure if that applies to the merc.
I suppose it comes down to personal preference, I just like the faster (therefore higher) damage, the higher leech, the maxed resistsances from very early levels, the relative freedom of weapon and helm choices and the nerfing of curses. And it's cheap. And it allows for cheap helm and weapon choices without sacraficing anything on LL or CB.
If you go for eStone - for level 80 (say) - what helm and weapon choices are you using to get Max resist, LL and Crushing blow?
Re: Boss destroying skill
Yeah, and that's why amazon rocks :thumbsup: Especially with -ELR items