Merc gear for uber trist.

[bruticus]

What will the merc die from? Should I socket with resists or life leech my helm (assumin I get socketed armor/weapon)

i've found resists to be very important in Uber Trist. and keep a belt of full juves. :smiley: Um rune in your merc's hat is a common option.

my merc seemed to do relatively well on meph(no deaths), and baal(1-2), but diablo he did horrible. He would trick a potion or two and then just die. Ended up doing the most effective damage when he was dead and it was just my skeles swingin and some revives. He's using a eth CoH, reg insight(in a cryptic axe I think?), and I tried several helms to keep him alive including guillams, tals mask, and kiras. Nothing kept him alive... is the answer getting more dmg from my stick(eth infinity/obediance?) or higher max resists(guardian angel?) or maybe just better management of whats going on? ?

eth obedience/infinity would be very helpful as they offer lots of crushing blow (and therefore wayy more damage).. when crushing blow hits, it will take off a fraction of the remaining life of the boss. keep the insight if you have mana problems in the rest of the game though. i find that in Uber Trist, there's not much opportunity for CE, so i am mainly using Teleport, and curses.

Also, my mages died super quick with pretty much each one, but more so once again on diablo...is this expected/okay? Pretty good gear on my nec, ~16 skeles/mages. Would +2 marrowwalks help this?

i think it's normal for mages to die fairly quickly; the only ones you're really interested in are Cold and Poison. so long as they're at a decent level, and they can get a hit in on the boss, they've done their job. Poison will stop health regen, and cold to provide more slowing (along with decrep and clay golem).

what were the stats on your torch?

 

[anilrobo]

What will the merc die from? Should I socket with resists or life leech my helm (assumin I get socketed armor/weapon)

The merc dies from elemental damage dealt by the Ubers or their minions. Uber Mephisto has a very high level conviction aura, capable of pushing your and your army's resistances into high negatives even if they're max before it. In addition, Uber Mephisto gives off lightning bolts when attacked, to make the matters worse.

There was a video on youtube where the summoner necro goes with a Kira's Guardian unique helm on the merc. Once the army engages Mephisto, he took out a Um'ed Guilllaume's face helm from the horadric cube in inventory, and put it on the merc for crushing blow.

Another option is to use Treachery runeword which has Fade. You have to make sure the Fade is activated though, by getting your merc hit in some other area. The cheapest option is to use Smoke runeword (Nef + Lum) - very cheap, but very effective!

Life leech on merc is hardly effective when it comes from items, you will have to use Life Tap curse if you really need life leech (50% life stolen).

 

[money]

i've found resists to be very important in Uber Trist. and keep a belt of full juves. :smiley: Um rune in your merc's hat is a common option.

my mercs resists are maxed, with ~30-50 to spare I believe(without kiras on), and faired worse after meph was dead and the conviction was gone. I'm wondering if more stacked resists help after the conviction is gone? or would this fall under "only if you have guardian angel on" type item that increases my merc's max resists

eth obedience/infinity would be very helpful as they offer lots of crushing blow (and therefore wayy more damage).. when crushing blow hits, it will take off a fraction of the remaining life of the boss. keep the insight if you have mana problems in the rest of the game though. i find that in Uber Trist, there's not much opportunity for CE, so i am mainly using Teleport, and curses.

yeah I guess mana isn't really a problem, been doing key runs though and insight is pretty amazing for all the teleporting being done. Also haven't had the wealth to buy an infinity. My question though is, do you think higher damage will increase the survivability of my merc? I figure damage and CB and any auras he might give off wont do anything for me if he's dead, so will more damage increase my leech enough to keep him alive? or is the trick faster pole? or maybe just do as much damage as possible while he's alive and live with the fact that he'll die(I dont like this option as much)

what were the stats on your torch?

19/16 sorc. Which equates to: hey I have enough wealth to buy infinity now

 

[bruticus]

my mercs resists are maxed, with ~30-50 to spare I believe(without kiras on), and faired worse after meph was dead and the conviction was gone. I'm wondering if more stacked resists help after the conviction is gone? or would this fall under "only if you have guardian angel on" type item that increases my merc's max resists

more stacked resists won't fix problems after conviction is gone; strange one there, usually Meph is the real problem! were there any other enemies besides the boss? minions breathing fire, Obliv Knights casting curses?

yeah I guess mana isn't really a problem, been doing key runs though and insight is pretty amazing for all the teleporting being done. Also haven't had the wealth to buy an infinity. My question though is, do you think higher damage will increase the survivability of my merc? I figure damage and CB and any auras he might give off wont do anything for me if he's dead, so will more damage increase my leech enough to keep him alive? or is the trick faster pole? or maybe just do as much damage as possible while he's alive and live with the fact that he'll die(I dont like this option as much)

well, lower damage does mean that everyone has to stay alive for a longer period of time. anywhere else in the game and that's not a problem, but in Uber Trist, you probably don't want to hang around for a really long time :grin: Insight for key runs is a great choice as the keys are dropped by fairly easy bosses and there is a ton of teleporting around.

19/16 sorc. Which equates to: hey I have enough wealth to buy infinity now

nice!!! grats on that torch. :smiley:

 

[HCKull]

were there any other enemies besides the boss? minions breathing fire, Obliv Knights casting curses?

OKs are not present in uber trist. Thank GOD

 

[DTtheBlackMage]

i was thinkin beast would cause that i noticed some monsters attract to me when i pull it out