Oakbrain said:
Question - I'm already past the 3 weapon limit as regards mercs going weaponless. If at this point I find a new unique weapon that my merc is capable of equipping, can he use it
Yes, absolutely.
-------------------------------------------
Since someone else is into Act III, I may as well write my first update while it's still fresh in my memory. Remember that I got a head start, and I've played a lot since it was so interesting to see how things would develop. It still is, but I
will slow down for now, and I also need to think about what to do in the next act, because the current setup won't work well there.
Viridissima the Amazon (I drew on the 'Green with Envy' symbolic -
viridis is latin for green, and the last part is a strengthening suffix, so her name means 'very green') of course started off with her pack of Javelins. They are crap in melee against zombies and gargantuan beasts, requiring many hits to kill those.
Pretty soon, I swapped to a Two-Handed Sword. I've played a 2h-sword amazon before, so I knew she would handle that weapon well at this time. I think the swinging sound it makes is great.
Found an endgame-worthy charm:
And in the Pit, I managed to get into...well,
sort of a little jam:
The first six topazes dropped rather quickly, but the seventh took until deep into the Catacombs, and that was the last one in the act except for a big one that Andariel dropped. The only two S/U items in the act were Hsaru's Iron Fist, from some regular critter on Stony Field, and Cleglaw's Claw, in the Catacombs. As I wrote before, I missed the ring reward because I came up with the rule after I was past that part.
In Act II, Viridissima (I'll call her Viri from now on) moved up to Claymore. Good damage, but darn slow. Of course, that didn't matter much at this stage since I was in 'merc kills all' mode (he was wearing MF items). I got my new buddy Neeraj (Prayer guard) a 3s Spetum with a chipped emerald. After a couple of areas, it had developed into this rather neat weapon:
With this weapon in Neeraj's hands, Viri really didn't have to do all that much. She put one point into every Passive & Magic skill that opened up, until Decoy. Getting a few levels in Decoy made the progress even easier. It can be used to protect me from monsters that have made it past where Neeraj is fighting, it be used to distract greater mummies so they resurrect undead far less often, etc.
At peak MF, I think I was up to +125% for Neeraj's kills, but that diminshed rapidly. Here are the greens and golds in the act:
Isenhart's Lightbrand (Sewers)
Cathan's Mesh (Ancient Tunnels)
Steelgoad (Canyon of the Magi) <- Viri grabbed this, so Neeraj could keep using the Spetum shown above
Angelic Wings (seven tombs)
Berserker's Headgear (seven tombs)
Cathan's Mesh (Duriel)
This one was annoying. Rolled unique, but ilvl was apparently too low:
Here, I'm using the Decoy as a stopper behind me so I don't get knocked back (thus keeping Neeraj safe):
By itself, Angelic Wings is not much to cheer about (although I like the extra light in dark dungeons) but it's by far the hardest item in the set to find. Makes me hopeful that I may eventually score a cool combo.
(Of course, I was wearing Amulet of the Viper by the time the AW dropped.)
In Spider Cavern, Cathan's Visage dropped, putting an end to non-S/U topazed armor items. MF has been zero ever since then. Neeraj got the Visage, because he hits more often than I do (so the 15-20 fire damage is more useful on him).
Then in Great Marsh, we had to say goodbye to the nice Spetum:
The good thing is that I can be a Bowazon with this. The bad thing is that it pretty much sucks...
What to do with mercs and weapons now?
Decided to try out Steelgoad on Neeraj, despite the ridiculous 75% monster flee. Well, it's often quite messy, but he can still kill things, so I went with this. Getting Valkyrie helped, both to contain fleeing monsters better, and in a pinch, she and I can (slowly) kill things together.
S/U finds, continued:
Bladebone (Lower Kurast)
Vidala's Barb (Disused Fane (in Bazaar))
Nokozan Relic (Sewers)
Bladebone is slower than Isenhart's sword, but I like it better because of fire damage and better AR vs. undead.
Looks like the game wants me to be a Bowazon. Have to think about it more before I commit points.
(and why does this set item have
only one modifier?!)
Mephisto:
Neeraj died, and after that, Mephisto went after the Valkyrie whenever she was closest. I decided to keep on grinding. It was slow but safe. No S/U drop (but a failed unique Scissors Katar).
Gidbinn reward has one good modifier: 11% lightning resist.
Steelgoad won't work well at all in the next act. Monsters will flee to the map edge, and if we kill them there, they won't drop anything. Then we have the finger mages in the CS (and possibly in RoF) who will flee out over lava. My main options are:
- keep Neeraj but leave him weaponless
- hire a Cold Iron Wolf
- hire a rogue and give her Vidala's
Viridissima the undecided Amazon, level 32, Pandemonium Fortress
BTW, what about runes / runewords?
Google