Merc Help

[ewpublic]

Merc Help

Hey guys,

I'm trying to run Baal with my Sorc but my merc keeps dieing.

It's Act2 NM Defensive (Holy Freeze) dude equipped with:

Non-eth Insight
Vampire Gaze 15% with 7/7 leeches
Shaftstop

He usually dies with the act3 or act4 wave...

Any ideas on how to improve on this?

Thanks

 

[-=Slaye]2=-]

Re: Merc Help

Your merc lacks the ability to leech enough life back. 7% is very little and I'd aim for something like 20% or higher. Hydra's tear apart merc's. Especially merc's that don't have max fire resist.

I use a blizz sorc to solo Baal. I use a NM offensive merc with eth shaftstop, andy face and an eth bonehew double amned. Watch your merc if the council members spawn. With the setup I use he leeches enough life as long as he can attack the nearest council members. If he starts to wander it's going to be a dead merc in a few seconds. Just tele around and feed your merc a pot if that happens. After the wave just park your merc in a corner so he can't get hit by hydra's.

A fast hitting merc is a merc that can survive. The faster he hits the more he can leech.
A high damage weapon, life leech, damage reduction, resists. The former ones are the most important ones. Merc's come with a natural higher resistance than resistance to physical damage. Plus they heal life very slowly, so he needs life leech and damage reduction more than extra resists. You only need to be wary around conviction uniques.

 

[AlabasterFilth]

Re: Merc Help

Agree with everything slayer said.

Also, what level is your merc? make sure he is at your level, and I'd say he needs to be at least level 80

 

[ewpublic]

Re: Merc Help

We're both lvl **.

I want to keep Insight because of the aura - is there anything else that will help with the leech?

 

[AlabasterFilth]

Re: Merc Help

The only way to improve your survivability and keep the insight is to make the Insight in the highest-damage weapon possible, to improve leeching.

Find yourself an ethereal elite 4os polearm to put the insight in

 

[petrov]

Re: Merc Help

Pardon my ignorance, but I only restarted playing recently.

I am trying to find the runes for insight now, but I did find a 4os grey polearm - should I use that to put insight into (I'm level 40), or is it important to find an ethereal elite version (if so, why?)

Many thanks for your help.

Petrov.

 

[MizzouVic]

Re: Merc Help

What they said are all very correct, and to your question regarding whether or not it is important to find an elite ethereal polearm: Yes it is, the higher dmg the polearm itself does, the more life your merc can steal with leech. Imagine your merc have 100% leech, but doing only 10 damage, that means your merc is still only stealing 10 life, but if your merc has 7% leech, yet doing 10k damage, then your merc will leech 700.
Obviously 700 > 10; so as you can see, high damage weapon is equally, if not more important than high leech.