Itching to use merc other than Act 2
- Thread starter fahartle
- Start date
Necrolestes
Diabloii.Net Member
Spirited discussion
My advice is to not use an Act III merc in hell but if you have to, you should go with a cold or lightning merc (too many fire immunes spread throughout the acts...most of the lightning immunes are concentrated but certainly not limited to the first three acts of Hell). Using Spirit shield will really help your merc out and adding the Spirit sword will REALLY help them out, what with the +4 skills they will receive from both pieces of equipment. However, they also need a good helm and cuirass (I recommend ones that boost life, increase cast rate, regenerate life, lower damage taken, and have a faster hit recovery mod...Act III mercs almost never swing their swords so any +life steal mods will be wasted on them).
My advice is to not use an Act III merc in hell but if you have to, you should go with a cold or lightning merc (too many fire immunes spread throughout the acts...most of the lightning immunes are concentrated but certainly not limited to the first three acts of Hell). Using Spirit shield will really help your merc out and adding the Spirit sword will REALLY help them out, what with the +4 skills they will receive from both pieces of equipment. However, they also need a good helm and cuirass (I recommend ones that boost life, increase cast rate, regenerate life, lower damage taken, and have a faster hit recovery mod...Act III mercs almost never swing their swords so any +life steal mods will be wasted on them).
fahartle
Diabloii.Net Member
Oh, I certainly don't have to use one and currently have all townguards. Rather, I'm looking for a good excuse to use one, ha! I'm guessing the Act III mercs won't work with anyone that requires a tank like a sorc, archer, or P&B necro (even though a fire sorc with a cold/lightning merc would be a nice combo maybe). What about for a mf Hammerdin built mostly for Baal runs? I was going to go for a Holy Freeze townguard, but since the hammerdin will be right up front in the action anyway what about a cold Act III?
Any thoughts on armor/helm? How about vipermagi/shako? I'm guessing that a pack of gloams will toast him in no time, but I've got a nice eth blackhorn's also...
Any thoughts on armor/helm? How about vipermagi/shako? I'm guessing that a pack of gloams will toast him in no time, but I've got a nice eth blackhorn's also...
Necrolestes
Diabloii.Net Member
Merc marine
I'd give him the eth Blackhorn's over Shako but keep the Shako handy in case there aren't any Gloams around (Blackhorn's is good against those lightning shooters but pretty useless on a non-close combat merc otherwise; Shako's DR of 10 plus the +life/level will come in very handy in all other cases). I would give him the Vipermagi armor and if possible, the upgraded version (you have to be in SP or on the ladder to use the cube recipe needed to upgrade exceptional uniques to elite uniques...the merc's strength should be able to hold the upgraded version).
I'd give him the eth Blackhorn's over Shako but keep the Shako handy in case there aren't any Gloams around (Blackhorn's is good against those lightning shooters but pretty useless on a non-close combat merc otherwise; Shako's DR of 10 plus the +life/level will come in very handy in all other cases). I would give him the Vipermagi armor and if possible, the upgraded version (you have to be in SP or on the ladder to use the cube recipe needed to upgrade exceptional uniques to elite uniques...the merc's strength should be able to hold the upgraded version).
FreezerBurn
Banned
i have a holy freeze merc on my hammerdin and he works well. you get hit a lot less with everything being frozen. and it makes everything a lot easier to hit since they can't run away.
FreezerBurn
Banned
archers won't benefit from most + skills on bows since they're not amazons. and from what i've heard they have a bad habit of dying.
LorveN
D3 Off Topic Moderator
Those archers were really nice in 1.09, but nowadays they dont really have the damage needed.fahartle said:
If you really want to try something else than the act2-mercs (which honestly are the best), i'd go for a5-barbs just because they are cool.
Damage will go high enough to kill if you find them some nice sword, and with some ias and lifesteal they will be hard to kill.
Keep in mind that they have the highest values of resists and maybe more important: life, of all the mercs.
These guys can turn into real tanks if equipped properly
FreezerBurn
Banned
i haven't tried an act 5 merc yet. will they use barb skills if they're on an item? i have an eth barb helm with 530 def and +3 warcries. it'd be worth using an act 5 merc if he would bo
LorveN
D3 Off Topic Moderator
No, they wont use skills from items. They already use the bash skill (concentrate too iirc?) however.
Also, they will recieve bonuses to the skills they use that comes from items. For instance, using a barb helm with +2 to barb skills would increase the slvl of their bash by 2.
This means arreats is a great choice for such mercs. But no BO
Also, they will recieve bonuses to the skills they use that comes from items. For instance, using a barb helm with +2 to barb skills would increase the slvl of their bash by 2.
This means arreats is a great choice for such mercs. But no BO
fahartle
Diabloii.Net Member
Rats! This is disappointing. I actually used an act 5 merc on a sorc way back in my single player days and he was a decent tank. But an Act II can obviously make a great tank too. Pop a holy freeze aura on him and he's just too freakin' useful. Too bad... You'd have thought that archers/casters/barbs would've been made more deadly in 1.10 rather than less to counter-balance the Act II's obvious strengths. Ah well, thanks for all the feedback guys!
MightyTortoise
Diabloii.Net Member
A5 Barbs use bash and stun.
From my experiences they make far better tanks than the A2 merc because of their faster attacks, higher life, rapid life regen and the ability to stop a few enemies from attacking them with bash/stun. Without those abilities the A2 merc can get swamped very quickly, and considering spears and polearms have some very slow attacks, they can die quick since they can't leech back the damage they are taking.
Even when you compare with a Holy Freeze merc the A5 barb can still hold his own very well. So, if you're using a build that doesn't really need an aura and you want a change then the A5 barb can rule.
From my experiences they make far better tanks than the A2 merc because of their faster attacks, higher life, rapid life regen and the ability to stop a few enemies from attacking them with bash/stun. Without those abilities the A2 merc can get swamped very quickly, and considering spears and polearms have some very slow attacks, they can die quick since they can't leech back the damage they are taking.
Even when you compare with a Holy Freeze merc the A5 barb can still hold his own very well. So, if you're using a build that doesn't really need an aura and you want a change then the A5 barb can rule.
Act II = best for most builds
Act III = decent for melee builds.
fury druid/barbs/enchantress/meleedin/kicker/ or even a light javazon (my LF/LS/CS zon has act III cold merc (for the rare LI/PI)
Act V = tank for casters (sorcs/P&B necros/elemental druids/etc)
depends on what you need. but everyone is right about one thing act III mercs need the uberest equipment (dual spirits/sick caster armor/sicker caster helm/as many cold facets as you can manage) to be godly (imagine spirt shield + spirit sword + 6 cold facet armor + 3 cold facet helm. slow casting but he'll kill stuff lots of stuff. but damn thats a lot of facets. or you could got with godly rares or uniques + socket with facet to each). i like cold merc cuz he freezes people and also had cold armor. the main reason to use act III merc is to help with immunes. if you do cold damage get light/fire merc. if you do light damage get cold/fire merc etc.
Act III = decent for melee builds.
fury druid/barbs/enchantress/meleedin/kicker/ or even a light javazon (my LF/LS/CS zon has act III cold merc (for the rare LI/PI)
Act V = tank for casters (sorcs/P&B necros/elemental druids/etc)
depends on what you need. but everyone is right about one thing act III mercs need the uberest equipment (dual spirits/sick caster armor/sicker caster helm/as many cold facets as you can manage) to be godly (imagine spirt shield + spirit sword + 6 cold facet armor + 3 cold facet helm. slow casting but he'll kill stuff lots of stuff. but damn thats a lot of facets. or you could got with godly rares or uniques + socket with facet to each). i like cold merc cuz he freezes people and also had cold armor. the main reason to use act III merc is to help with immunes. if you do cold damage get light/fire merc. if you do light damage get cold/fire merc etc.
Quietus
Diabloii.Net Member
Personally, I find the a3 mercs to be too useless to be worth the trouble. Then again, I'm not on ladder and can't get spirit for them.
The a1 mercs, the archers... they can actually be quite deadly, but it requires expensive bows to make them do so, as well as an aura. My hammerdin currently has a rogue scout who does 5.2k damage with each shot, using a shael'ed wf, crown of theives, and... duriels shell. If I were to get her ed/ias armor and helm... well, that's out of my price range. But that.. would be disgusting.
She kills some other players in pvp. It's funny watching people try to catch up to me then complain because my merc's been peppering them with arrows the entire time. :lol:
As for a5 barbs... yes. Those guys are a lot of fun. My main reason for liking them? They can use different equipment than the a2 town guards. Getting the same polearm time after time can be tiresome. It's nice to change it up... I have a nl one using an eth swordguard. If only it were ladder, I'd up that puppy... *drools*
The a1 mercs, the archers... they can actually be quite deadly, but it requires expensive bows to make them do so, as well as an aura. My hammerdin currently has a rogue scout who does 5.2k damage with each shot, using a shael'ed wf, crown of theives, and... duriels shell. If I were to get her ed/ias armor and helm... well, that's out of my price range. But that.. would be disgusting.
She kills some other players in pvp. It's funny watching people try to catch up to me then complain because my merc's been peppering them with arrows the entire time. :lol:
As for a5 barbs... yes. Those guys are a lot of fun. My main reason for liking them? They can use different equipment than the a2 town guards. Getting the same polearm time after time can be tiresome. It's nice to change it up... I have a nl one using an eth swordguard. If only it were ladder, I'd up that puppy... *drools*
Beowulfs Revenant
Banned
Aren't the Lightning mercs bugged?Necrolestes said:
jiansonz
Diabloii.Net Member
I love act 1 mercs for tanking characters! I rewrote the rogue section in the mercenary FAQ in the SP Forum:
http://www.rpgforums.net/showpost.php?p=3120517&postcount=24
http://www.rpgforums.net/showpost.php?p=3120517&postcount=24