PDR Merc feasible?

[IntellectSucks]

PDR Merc feasible?

I figured I'd ask in this section as you guys seem to be the experts on stuff like this:
Would a merc who is geared out for max PDR be good? Or does he not have enough equipment slots to make the PDR effective?

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

Well, you can get ~50-70 from helm & armor. If you go with an Act3 merc you can stick another ~20 into a shield for him. Or if you stick with an Act2 merc you could equip him with Reaper's Toll to use the Decrep curse to cut monster's damage further.

So it's definitely enough to make a difference, but maybe not enough to create invulnerability.

But the question is why... a well-geared merc shouldn't have any big problems staying alive on its own, and should have stronger killing power if it isn't weighed down with focused-PDR gear.

 

[IntellectSucks]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

I was thinking that if a barb merc or prayer merc could get enough PDR, they would recover what little damage they took so fast, it would be like they never took any. An unkillable tank would help some builds who suffer from weak or no summons.
Just a thought....

 

[MYK]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

I can't remember who posted it, but someone had a Reaper's Toll, Gladiator's Bane and Crown of Ages outfitted one. Sol'd armor & Helm, Shael'd reapers.

That would be a damn sturdy mercenary.

 

[mephiztophelez]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

a pdr merc is something a dedicated Nihlathak runner might like. a good gladiators bane with a Sol in it and maybe a sol'd helm should do the trick.

 

[Doppel]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

Currently my merc has an eth great polearm (5 sox, trying to find the runes for obedience) andies visage (non-socketed) and a gladiators bane (non-socketed) and i have the impression that the armors integer pdr and mdr and cannot be frozen mod help him greatly to survive my runs in search of the runes in hell.

 

[Hrus]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

Don't forget that bosses do increased damage to mercs.

 

[skyjuice1]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

Don't forget that bosses do increased damage to mercs.

A fact i'll greatly stress. :thumbup:

 

[madrettorrR]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

I guess you need a really big amount of PDR for it to work.

But If you can get your hands on it, I won't mind trying to equip an act 3 merc with:

- Jewelers armor of Amicae with 4 sols (53 PDR)
- Jewelers Monarch of Amicae with 4 sols (53 PDR)
- Jewelers circlet of Amicae with 3 sols (46 PDR)

This would give you 152 PDR. And should be enough to give you enough physical immunity to totally neglect damage from the minions of destruction.

@MYK. Glad's bane and CoA? That's a small amount of PDR and a small amount of iPDR. Personally I'd prefer to keep it with PDR or iPDR.

 

[0blique]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

I use sol'd gladiator's bane (27 PDR) and a sol'd tal mask in my key runner. Obviously not the maximum value, but he can walk through poison clouds and withstand most boss packs without taking serious damage.

 

[Hrus]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

- Jewelers armor of Amicae with 4 sols (53 PDR)
- Jewelers Monarch of Amicae with 4 sols (53 PDR)
- Jewelers circlet of Amicae with 3 sols (46 PDR)

Both armors and shields can't have more than 15 PDR via Amicae affix.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: PDR Merc feasible?

But If you can get your hands on it, I won't mind trying to equip an act 3 merc with:

- Jewelers armor of Amicae with 4 sols (53 PDR)
- Jewelers Monarch of Amicae with 4 sols (53 PDR)
- Jewelers circlet of Amicae with 3 sols (46 PDR)

This would give you 152 PDR. And should be enough to give you enough physical immunity to totally neglect damage from the minions of destruction.

There are a couple of problems that I can see with this:
1. Act3 mercs don't have enough Stength for a Monarch - you'd need quite a bit on your sword (socketed Fal runes?). That's the minor problem. The big one:

2. Could such a merc actually kill anything? Having tried Act3 mercs a few times, I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

Also, considering Lister always spawns with Spectral Hit, all he needs is a conviction aura and all of that PDR and tanking ability is negated by the elemental damage. Ditto for most elemental attackers (good luck negating Gloam's ~400 lightning damage with the mercs lacking resistances). Or anything with two of: Cursed, Extra-Strong, Might aura would have a chance to do quite a bit of damage to your merc - only the merc couldn't effectively fight back.

So I still don't see much point because, while an invincible merc sounds like a great thing, it's probably not going to happen without an extreme amount of effort. Mephistophelez's point about trying to help him stay alive for Nihl runs makes sense, but that's a specialized scenario and I'd bet that even then he'd still die sometimes. Personally, I'd rather that my merc could at least kill things when I need him to, and that he'd tank at a tolerable (but not perfect) level.

And actually, having the merc get pwned once in a while can make it apparent to your character when a particularly nasty pack has spawned - without having to learn the hard way. I know I've had that happen on a few Countess runs when an archer pack just destroyed my merc in a second or two, but watching Waheed get pwned alerted me to the fact that I had to become a lot more cautious this run, and his death saved my character in the process.