How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

[Sansfear]

How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

I just hit 80 with my Meteorb and finished Act3/Hell.

While I almost never die with my 450hp, my Merc dies on a regular basis with his 1500 even though I do my utmost to keep him alive.

Curses are his main downfall and even when I teleport away the instant I see the curse land, he often dies in that split second of reaction time.

I'm just starting out so his equipment isn't all that great. I have some random 600def armor, the unique bec-de-corbin for some good damage and Tal Rasha mask for the 10% LL.

Any tips are appreciated as i am starting to feel sorry for the guy.

 

[Amaruak]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

Keeping budget mercs alive is a problem. I'd also prefer an insight myself. Not much you can do but find better equip, control him better with your tele and lvl him up. You could do with lvling a bit as well but it doesnt seem like your at hell baalruns yet. Try the flayer jungle if you can manage it.

 

[Xdeathfire]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

Well, I tend to be a little tele insane when I play, but my merc almost never dies.

Basically, my merc kills too slowly to matter so I just use him for the insight. By the time my merc gets to a monster, I usually killed it already so I move on. If I haven't I just teleport back a little to give both of us a little room and repeat. Generally, be smart and don't be afraid of abusing tele to keep him alive.

 

[popsursocks]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

Keeping budget mercs alive is a problem. I'd also prefer an insight myself. Not much you can do but find better equip, control him better with your tele and lvl him up. You could do with lvling a bit as well but it doesnt seem like your at hell baalruns yet. Try the flayer jungle if you can manage it.

Agreed. W/o better than a 600 def armor ur mercs in some trouble. There are solutions however. By increasing your killing speed your mercs will be less exposed. Also make sure ur mercs a a2 holy freeze or a2 defensive, anything else is no good.

 

[MizzouVic]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

I'd say dont even bother with LL with tals helm because ur merc is not doing enough dmg to leech anyway; might as well use a helm that adds str (such as nats helm) so you can put on some heavier, better armors. since your merc will mostly likely be not combatting (since he has low level output), just make an insight for your own good (those are relatively cheap runes, it doesnt need to be in a godly weapon). Also if your merc is a holy freeze merc, they tend to stay alive a bit longer.

 

[Robobaby]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

You are a meteorb so you have 1 point in glacial spike and you should use it in between your timered attacks to freeze baddies that swarm around your merc thus lowering the DPS that he takes. You can completely stop the damage he takes with a well placed spike and even against super uniques and champions that cannot be frozen solid, you can slow their DPS to a point where your merc can counter the loss of life with life leech. If you lower it enough and he has life leech you should see him healing as he is attacking.

Iron Maiden is probably the only curse that will one shot your merc consistantly. In chaos sanctuary I swap out the CV because he can deal enough damage with it to kill himself several times over when he successfully pokes something.

Other than that, hotkey teleport and periodically cast it with the cursor at your own feet or backwards away from the mob. It will pull your merc out of harms way. I do this alot in hell cow games and I have never lost my merc because as soon as he takes damage I yoink him back to where I am.

If you do this alot, use holy freeze aura (act 2 nightmare defensive) since that slows everything in an area around your merc giving you more time to yoink him out of the swarm and drop a health pot on him.

My merc uses Tal's helm and the life leech is enough that I rarely ever lose him anymore. The only problem critters are Oblivion Knights (Iron Maiden), Andy (killer poison :O ) and hard hitters using Amplify Damage (like Hell Hephasto).

 

[melianor]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

Read the [thread=488619]Decent Cheap Merc Gear and Builds[/thread] for more insight on what can be useful for your merc

 

[fwing]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

i use shaftstop/vamp gaze/insight on my pally merc and he only dies on some insane rushing dead/viper nilly runs and trav, but only when i'm not diligent enough to teleport him out of there and throw him a pot. of course IM pwns all act2 mercs, but not much you can do about that if you're not a pally (switch on cleansing for a few secs) unless you run to town all the time, but that's just annoying. oh, remember you can ber the gaze and the shaftstop for the insane dmg reduction, and both vamp and shaftstop are really cheap.

my meteorb sorc's merc uses shaftstop, eth delirium and eth doom and never dies, but mostly cuz my sorc owns anything that could kill him before they get the chance to. ppl use diff things, but from exp my mercs almost never die except what from what i listed. oh and remember, with doom on you could get a defiance or prayer merc or w/e else you want as the wep comes with holy freeze

 

[AlabasterFilth]

Re: How to keep Merc alive in Hell?

Someone mentioned in another thread the importance of high damage and life leech. Get something with high damage and life leech. Cheapest way to do this is Bonehew socketed with 2 Amns. After that, if your merc is still dying, you need to get him some reists/damage reduction. Some good armor/helm comboes are: Shaftstop/vamp gaze. A perfect vamp gaze will put you at the 50% reduction cap. A good alternative is Shaftstop/rockstopper. This will give you better resists and 40% damage reduction. If you can't get shaftstop, get duriel's shell, it's cheap, gives excellent resists, and has good mods like Cannot Be Frozen, +life, and +15 strength.

If want a combination of everything, you'll have to get a better weapon that gives resists: tomb reaver. Socket it with Amns. 1-3x Amn Tomb reaver/shaftstop/vamp gaze will give your merc insane damage, insane attack speed, massive life leech, 45%-50% damage reduction, and max resists, and he should never die unless he gets mobbed by a nastily-modded pack.