Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

[Alash]

Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

Right so I've built this 3200% goldfinder toon and he's all very hilarious - I rake it about 6 million gold per hour and have no difficulties surviving the menace of the council. Still, I feel I could do better, and seeing that my merc's weapon is the only source of damage, this is where I intend to improve first. Here's his current setup:

Act 2 Nightmare Offensive, level 85
Eth Bonehew 309% socketed Lem Lem
Eth Crown of Thieves (Corona) socketed Lem
Eth "Wealth" in Diamond Mail 1082 (Bugged)

With this he hits for 1135-4735 3.12 times per second (9157 DPS). Survival-wise he's got 4200 health, 75/50/50/50 resists and 15k defense, and don't die unless my Taunt pulling goes wrong. A complete run take about 4 minutes.

Now, is this really the best I can do? I feel killing speed isn't as good as I'd hoped, so maybe there are some better weapons out there that doesn't cost a leg and an arm? Pride is awesome for its EG% but is quite frankly not within reach, and nor is some odd eth Tomb Reaver tri-socketed with 40/15s.

Would Obedience work, or does the cold damage disable corpse horking? Maybe I should reroll sockets and put 2 Shaels in there to reach the 5,5 FPA breakpoint? How does eth upped Hone Sundan fit into the equation? Are council members Demons? If so, maybe an upped Spire of Honor would do nicely? Also, that Reaper looks strangely tempting. Or maybe a Treachery armor could prove worthwhile? Would cost me 250% GF though...

All inputs are welcome.

Edit: Humm, Fortitude in a weapon does look quite lovable for this setup, doesn' it? Monster Flee is actually a welcome feature for aggro control, and I can always just pull it back with Taunt.

 

[KremBanan]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

My setup is:

Eth Reapers Toll 'Shael'
Eth Fortitude AP
Eth Crown of Thieves 'Lem'

I tried other setups and I ended up with this. The Reapers cast Decrepify, which lowers the physical resist on monsters with 50%, slows them and it also removes the Physical Immune some of the Council members sometimes spawn with. I hate leaving the game knowing a council-member is still alive.

I went for the Fortitude armor for boosting the damage --> faster killings. It will not have the 300%eg, but runs go faster and imo it paid off. Maybe its just in my mind, but I feel like its going faster.

 

[Alash]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

Good point on the Reaper; got an offer on an eth unidentified one - perhaps that's my ticket to paradise! I'm less sure on the choice of armor though. 300% ED just isn't that much when running it through the formula, while 300% GF on the other hand is quite a bit.

I just got this idea... How about an eth Gladiator's Bane? Massive defense which with Shout is (if possible) even more massive, bootloads of PDR and MDR (the latter being particularly useful vs. Hydras), and the awesome CBF mod to keep killing pace up upon corpse explosions. Sadly you need 20% IAS to reach the next breakpoint, so a Lem in there would seem most reasonable. Maybe an eth Andy's socketed with a 30% FR 30% GF jewel? That way you'll have gained a breakpoint and made your merc virtually indestructable at the cost of 70% GF!

Prudence could be a potential alternative...

Edit: WOOSAH! Bought the reaper and id'ed it for a near-perfect 238% ED (and 13% LL), now socketed with a Shael. It does break PI's, but even so it's a very slow race, and altogether not worth it - the decrep is awesome though, and my merc is (nearly) invulnerable. Still, damage is lacking...

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

I don't know if it would be better or worse, but you could stick some Lems in a Tomb Reaver.

 

[mephiztophelez]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

meh, i go for pure killing power and tankability on my goldfinding skelly'necs merc.

A2 nm might merc, a Crown of Thieves (for lifeleech), gladiators bane (for cbf and tankability) and an eth insight colly voulge.

 

[Alash]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

I don't know if it would be better or worse, but you could stick some Lems in a Tomb Reaver.

The Tomb Reaver alone is more expensive than Enigma, so for me it's really not an option - sure would rock though.

meh, i go for pure killing power and tankability on my goldfinding skelly'necs merc.

A2 nm might merc, a Crown of Thieves (for lifeleech), gladiators bane (for cbf and tankability) and an eth insight colly voulge.

I'm less certain about Gladiator's now that I've seen that Reaper does to survivability - with well timed teleports he simply just can't die. The question remains whether or not substituting the 300% GF from Wealth and 150% from Crown of Thieves increase run speed by more than the increased gold piles offer. One thing's for sure though: there's so many cold affecting corpse explosions, Holy Freeze auras and Speltral Hits, that the CBF modifier would be extremely useful. The only places I can get that is from Gladiator's, Duriel's and then the halfarsed version in Black Hades (which would btw also be interesting because of the sockets - I still don't know if the council are demons though), all of which increase survivability, but not killing speed.

Edit: after having completed lots more runs I realize my merc doesn't hit all that often, and needs more AR. Coupled with the fact that Council members are demons, this put Black Hades in a new light. Think about it. Eth upgraded and socketed with Puls this armor offers 1134-1539 defense, 255%-285% damage and 500-500 AR, while also offering the somewhat useful Half Freeze Duration. A cheap alternative to Fortitude, that might even be better? This also makes Chains of Honor > Fortitude by a mile, as far as travi runs are concerned.

 

[mephiztophelez]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

I'm less certain about Gladiator's now that I've seen that Reaper does to survivability - with well timed teleports he simply just can't die. The question remains whether or not substituting the 300% GF from Wealth and 150% from Crown of Thieves increase run speed by more than the increased gold piles offer. One thing's for sure though: there's so many cold affecting corpse explosions, Holy Freeze auras and Speltral Hits, that the CBF modifier would be extremely useful.

ok, i use a nec, not a barb for goldfinding, so i don't feel any need to dope my merc up on GF gear seeing as he only kills one or two councillors before the corpse-explosion howitzer clears everything else out.

note that CBF won't protect him from a holy-freeze aura (but it will stop spectral-hit and those blizzard casting heirophants from freezing him. the iDR and mDR on the g-bane do some truly spectacular things to his survivability.

personally, i avoid cold damage on my mercs gear like the plague.

 

[Alash]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

A holy freeze boss is pretty simple to locate, and with teleporting I have full control over who my merc is killing. Hierophants can be taunted, so they are no problem either. It's less certain with spectral hits and corpse explosions, but in all fairness that's down to a minimum too.

In the current state my merc has zero issues with survivability (admittedly I haven't met some Holy Freeze/Conviction/Fanaticism combination yet, but if I ever do, I will have run away screaming long before I send in the cavalry), so Gladiator's just doesn't seem like the ideal choice. Chains of Honor on the other hand offer much damage and survivability, while Black Hades just offers a bootload of damage.

Btw, I'm down to 2600% GF now, which equals about 550k gold per run.

 

[zerth]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

eForti/eCoT/eReaper's would be my pick for the optimal setup.

If you get too many shattered corpses you can either switch the Reaper's to something like upped eHoneSundan or eBonehew or try on /p3.

If you switch the Reaper's a source of teleport is nice to have to reposition your merc if he stucks hitting a Physical Immune. I have a GF/res/teleport charges ammy, but you could also find a nice Coronet (I think they can get teleport charges as well).

 

[Alash]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

40 runs more completed now. I thought I'd try and see how far I could stretch it, so I put a Guilleaume's with a 15% IAS jewel on the merc, and observed the difference. The CB really helps against bosses, but on minions it's somewhat the same, and lack of Life Leech slows down the process as I need to pick out 3-5 mobs, kill them, and proceed to the next ones. I've kept statistics to see if I can make any conclusions on that department, but I need far more data to make anything of it. With a gold income varying between 250-750k per run it's simply too random.

The overall impression seems to be that with Reapers mobs die at a rapid pace, and that anything more than that doesn't change the runspeed, since it reduces his survivability and requires more micromanagement (e.g. taunt teleporting). I still haven't got my hands on an eCOH yet, but I'll try with an eGladiators and maybe socket it with Um or a Mal rune to counter Hydras. Because of the life, life leech, and defense I've come to the conclusion that beating Crown of Thieves is quite hard. Maybe an eAndariels with a 30FR/15IAS jewel, but that's quite a pricey experiment, and the difference would hardly be noticeable.

 

[eLeM3NTz3CP]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

I tried a few of the things you're doing to get away from using etreaver. Btod wp I liked alot w/ eth wealth/cot. Reapers toll is a great option too. Vs pi's id switch from lem'd swords too a 5 lem'd runemaster axe+3 lem'd jtod. All and all tho I prefer to use a Etreaver....btw are you full inventory ? 3k+ gf is pretty hard to come by normally.

 

[Alash]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

I tried a few of the things you're doing to get away from using etreaver. Btod wp I liked alot w/ eth wealth/cot. Reapers toll is a great option too. Vs pi's id switch from lem'd swords too a 5 lem'd runemaster axe+3 lem'd jtod. All and all tho I prefer to use a Etreaver....btw are you full inventory ? 3k+ gf is pretty hard to come by normally.

My analysis of the runs leads me to the conclusion that fighting PI's just isn't worth the time and effort. It takes 3-4 times as much to kill, and it's just a single mob, so the opportunity cost rarely exceed ~80k. Further more, the adaption needed to efficiently kill these would make the standard setup suffer (to replace by BO sticks I would need inventory space, which comes at the cost of 160% GF - and without the sticks my merc couldn't take on as large packs, which again reduce runspeed).

Could you elaborate on the difference in performance between eTR and eReaper? How have you socketed it?

 

[Alash]

Re: Merc Weapon for a Goldfinder

Okay I've completed another 30'ish runs, and think I've nailed the perfect setup. I'm sitting on 2119% MF on character, and 147% on merc, who's chucking out 8670 DPS @ 30% Life Leech, before taking into account the +200% Demon Damage. Add to that the 75 all resist, 4200 Life, and 18000 defense. Put frankly, he just won't die, and he can tank the entire council at once (except when there's a Conviction aura present). Here's the setup:

eth Reaper's Toll Shael'ed
eth Upped Crown of Thieves Lem'ed
eth Chains of Honor in a Laquered Plate

The trick to getting enough strength to wear the armor is that you put on e.g. Andy's, equip the armor, and take off Andy's, at which point the +20 strength on COH will do the rest. You could essentialy wear an eCOH in a Sacred Armor this way. I'm currently testing an eth Tomb Reaver 3/235, but getting the proper runes is quite pricey and even then I'm not sure it's worthwhile; Decrepify is just such an awesome skill. I'll get back with the results when I know more.

I'm currently pulling 3588 gold/sec in average with this build, and I promise you it's loads more fun than any variety of MF runs. Can't stress enough how fun and different this concept is.