Help make my Merc into a tank!

[AngryAiko]

Help make my Merc into a tank!

I'm having trouble keeping my merc alive against Mephisto and other hell difficulty bosses, currently hes equipped with tals mask, shaftstop and the reapers toll to decrepify bosses and reduce incoming damage. This is not quite enough though and he frequently dies, hes also at only 63 resists but I was using duriels shell and he still died often.

What could I do to make him more reliable with relatively cheap equipment upgrades?

 

[PsycheNoob]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

I have the same question and a few ideas: Atm i have a Vamp Gaze17DR And upped Duriels shell(ED171), but i think the absolute best armor for tanking would be an eth bugged fortitude, not sure about the helm.

Also once i get the runes for infinity,fortidude, would an eth CV be a good weapon to make them in and what armor is good for fortidude.

 

[AngryAiko]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

I have the same question and a few ideas: Atm i have a Vamp Gaze17DR And upped Duriels shell(ED171), but i think the absolute best armor for tanking would be an eth bugged fortitude, not sure about the helm.

Also once i get the runes for infinity,fortidude, would an eth CV be a good weapon to make them in and what armor is good for fortidude.

Ya a eth bug fort would be ideal preferably in a sacred armor since it has the highest def in the game, a eth cv would give you the second to most damage behind a cryptic axe iirc but they are both the slowest which would take less advantage of the crushing blow on infinity.

 

[DH Amazon]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

I'm having trouble keeping my merc alive against Mephisto and other hell difficulty bosses, currently hes equipped with tals mask, shaftstop and the reapers toll to decrepify bosses and reduce incoming damage. This is not quite enough though and he frequently dies, hes also at only 63 resists but I was using duriels shell and he still died often.

What could I do to make him more reliable with relatively cheap equipment upgrades?

Change Tal mask to Blackhorn's Face
---
Slows Target By 20%
+20 Lightning Absorb
Lightning Resist +15%
---

It's easier when merc level is high enough, at least around ~85-88.
Fix merc resist, shael weapon and kill very fast.

 

[Tarantella]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

I'm having trouble keeping my merc alive against Mephisto and other hell difficulty bosses, currently hes equipped with tals mask, shaftstop and the reapers toll to decrepify bosses and reduce incoming damage. This is not quite enough though and he frequently dies, hes also at only 63 resists but I was using duriels shell and he still died often.

What could I do to make him more reliable with relatively cheap equipment upgrades?

I think the answer depends on what skills your sorceress is using and what range you are killing the bosses at. Ideally, constantly using teleport, you shouldn't be depending on the merc on making any contact with the boss but if he beelines like Mr.Fahrenheit towards certain death taking snowballs off Meph it may pay to incorporate shift/potion or shift/belt clicking into the attack routine.

 

[jcvmarques]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

Give your merc a nasty stick. I gave mine an ethereal Kelpie Snare and it considerably slows down Mephisto.

He's also wearing Shaftstop and a 14% Damage Reduction Crown of Ages. His resistances are also maxed on Hell difficulty.

Vampire Gaze is a good alternative since it has more damage reduction, but resists should be maxed.

Kelpie Snare is very good for bosses, 75% slow and a big life bonus to your merc. Mine never dies when i run Hell Mephisto.

 

[CaptainIndustry]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

You guys are hilarious. If you are not having mana issues.. an eth up'd shael'd kelpie snare is best or eth reaper shael'd if you cannot obtain kelpie. Obviously if you are having mana issues, a 17 meditation eth cv or eth ca are the acceptable weapon choice. The kelpie has slow and the reaper has decrep.

Now as for this silly argument about damage reduction. Mercenaries take 1000% damage from act bosses. That is from the arreat summit. If you put a shaft stop with 30% Physical Damage Reduction(PDR) on your mercenary.. he still takes 970% damage. SO, that being said, damage reduction of any kind is useless.

What is important?
RESISTS, ABSORB, SPEED, ARMOR, AURAS, LEVEL, LIFE LEECH, ABILITIES.

Resists : Max out your mercenary's resists. 75 is enough, but items that add max resist can make them even better, obviously.

Absorb : Same as resists.

Speed : The faster your mercenary attacks or recovers from hits, the faster he can move away, leech, deal damage.. etc.. it's self explanatory.

Armor : People preach high defense armor all the time for mercenaries. They do this for a reason! Mercenaries can wear really stat taxing items.. and eth items. This can result in huge levels of armor.. meaning they will rarely get hit. Top it off with appropriate levels and defiance aura... (assuming your a cold sorc). Just wow.

Auras : Important to you and them. The defiance aura is perfect for cold sorcs. If you are fire, holy freeze is best. And if you are a hybrid, it is up to you! Other auras are up for debate depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Level : Your mercenarys' level is very important. If mephisto is lvl 87 in hell.. your mercenary will fair best starting at level 87 himself.

Life Leech : Your mercenary is doing a lot of physical damage and can benefit huge from having tons of life leech. Around 10% LL or more is good and will keep him alive.

Abilities : This is important. Having that kelpie or reaper will give your merc the ability to practically freeze enemies.. and it has the full affect on act bosses.. If your merc uses kelpie snare and blackhorns face.. they slow a boss down by 95%, attacks included. If I was that boss, I would be frantically save/exit when I saw how slow I was. It can be the biggest factor for a magic find sorceress to have a merc with kelpie/blackhorns on.

I hope this helps.. btw I know I didn't mention before, but Griz Caddy (armor) has around 1000defense and 3 open sockets. Socket 3 ptopaz in it and YES that will stack with your magic find, no matter who gets the kill shot.

One last thing to note is that you may be okay with non eth kelpie/reaper if you like to tele mephisto a lot. An eth reaper can easily 1 shot dolls in hell mode. They do a lot of damage, look it up! I would hate to see you insta-die from 1 or 2 of them exploding simply because your merc had that kind of damage.

 

[NDIII]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

You guys are hilarious. If you are not having mana issues.. an eth up'd shael'd kelpie snare is best or eth reaper shael'd if you cannot obtain kelpie. Obviously if you are having mana issues, a 17 meditation eth cv or eth ca are the acceptable weapon choice. The kelpie has slow and the reaper has decrep.

Now as for this silly argument about damage reduction. Mercenaries take 1000% damage from act bosses. That is from the arreat summit. If you put a shaft stop with 30% Physical Damage Reduction(PDR) on your mercenary.. he still takes 970% damage. SO, that being said, damage reduction of any kind is useless.

What is important?
RESISTS, ABSORB, SPEED, ARMOR, AURAS, LEVEL, LIFE LEECH, ABILITIES.

Resists : Max out your mercenary's resists. 75 is enough, but items that add max resist can make them even better, obviously.

Absorb : Same as resists.

Speed : The faster your mercenary attacks or recovers from hits, the faster he can move away, leech, deal damage.. etc.. it's self explanatory.

Armor : People preach high defense armor all the time for mercenaries. They do this for a reason! Mercenaries can wear really stat taxing items.. and eth items. This can result in huge levels of armor.. meaning they will rarely get hit. Top it off with appropriate levels and defiance aura... (assuming your a cold sorc). Just wow.

Auras : Important to you and them. The defiance aura is perfect for cold sorcs. If you are fire, holy freeze is best. And if you are a hybrid, it is up to you! Other auras are up for debate depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Level : Your mercenarys' level is very important. If mephisto is lvl 87 in hell.. your mercenary will fair best starting at level 87 himself.

Life Leech : Your mercenary is doing a lot of physical damage and can benefit huge from having tons of life leech. Around 10% LL or more is good and will keep him alive.

Abilities : This is important. Having that kelpie or reaper will give your merc the ability to practically freeze enemies.. and it has the full affect on act bosses.. If your merc uses kelpie snare and blackhorns face.. they slow a boss down by 95%, attacks included. If I was that boss, I would be frantically save/exit when I saw how slow I was. It can be the biggest factor for a magic find sorceress to have a merc with kelpie/blackhorns on.

I hope this helps.. btw I know I didn't mention before, but Griz Caddy (armor) has around 1000defense and 3 open sockets. Socket 3 ptopaz in it and YES that will stack with your magic find, no matter who gets the kill shot.

One last thing to note is that you may be okay with non eth kelpie/reaper if you like to tele mephisto a lot. An eth reaper can easily 1 shot dolls in hell mode. They do a lot of damage, look it up! I would hate to see you insta-die from 1 or 2 of them exploding simply because your merc had that kind of damage.

That's good advice there if there are no mana problems. 3 things I wanted to mention though.

1) Holy freeze is not useless on cold sorcs. It works on cold immunes and allegedly stacks its slow with your ice spells so holy freeze is still a good choice.

2) the mf from your merc ONLY counts (together with yours) if merc gets the last shot. If you get the last hit then your merc's mf is effectively zero. Waiting for the merc to get the last shot. On hell bosses can be rather time consuming and dangerous for your merc unless he has the gear mentioned above. Either way, you'll have much faster runs (and thus more effective mf: at least in hell) if you just forget about using your merc for mf and do all the work yourself.

3) unequip your mercs weapon if he does enough damage to one-shot dolls. It's annoying but it's a must if you want to stay safe. (on the same note I suggest you unequip your merc when he can one-shot any fire enchanted monster in nightmare that will most likely insta kill you)

 

[tonedef]

Re: Help make my Merc into a tank!

Give your merc a nasty stick. I gave mine an ethereal Kelpie Snare and it considerably slows down Mephisto.

He's also wearing Shaftstop and a 14% Damage Reduction Crown of Ages. His resistances are also maxed on Hell difficulty.

Vampire Gaze is a good alternative since it has more damage reduction, but resists should be maxed.

Kelpie Snare is very good for bosses, 75% slow and a big life bonus to your merc. Mine never dies when i run Hell Mephisto.

This!

I was incredibly skeptical of kelpie before I found one and on a whim tried it. Haven't been the same since. Your merc takes SO little damage since kelpie cuts boss attacks down 75%. It's absolutely the biggest upgrade you can toss him to reduce incoming damage.