Mr_Bill's Plagueazon Sidekick PVM FearMerc
Mr_Bill's Plagueazon Sidekick PVM FearMerc
Hi everyone,
This is not a conventional build guide, in the sense that a "character" build guide for D2 (obviously) concerns how you create the Diablo character that you are playing. This is a mini mercenary build guide based on the assumption that the Amazon who "owns" the merc is a "Plagueazon", that is, a Javazon who specializes in Plague Javelin. It was inspired by the merc for my now non ladder Level 88 Plagueazon (POS_Rhythmstick). Although she doesn't have really great gear (unless you count a Spirit Monarch), her Plague Javelin damage is still healthily above 22K... which is distinctly unhealthy for anything that gets a whiff of it!
What's kind of nice about this setup is that it relies almost exclusively on "ghetto" gear for an A2 Holy Freeze Merc. All of this gear is quite easy to acquire (OK, maybe the Lem rune in the Passion is a little rare but you can get it from NM Forge) and none of it requires being on the ladder. Note that the Passion stick, as well as the mask, are really essential to this mercenary build.
(Credit where credit is due, I have read SSoG's "Fearazon" build on the Amazon Basin Forums but this merc setup is still really my own.)
His gear:
Hat: Upped Face of Horror mask (+20 STR and 50% proc monster flee are what's important but the +10 resist all is also very useful, at Level 88 he's almost max all in Hell).
Weapon: Passion Colossus Voulge (lots of nice mods but 25% proc monster flee is why I chose it, this particular one is non eth so the Merc needs the +20 STR on the hat to use it). You could of course build the Passion in a faster stick, which would trigger this effect more often, I went for raw physical damage but which one would be better is open for debate. You could, of course, always use a Thresher or even a Giant Thresher / Grim Scythe type stick, although those, unlike the CV, don't always get 4 sockets from Larzuk.
Armour: POS Rhythmstick's merc uses a Crafted Blood Hellforge Plate (although if I had one non ladder I'd use Toothrow for the 40% proc OW or maybe Crow Caw, since the Merc's defence is going to be lowish anyway, or if you're rich you could build him an ethereal cube bugged Duress, except I don't have a spare Um rune off the ladder). Another option would be upped Rattlecage (even more Monster Flee!, and CB) but I think that might be overkill. (Overflee?)
Note that Treachery probably would not be a good fit here because of the possibility of the Venom from it over-writing the Amazon's Plague Java.
The drill is:
(1.) Throw Decoy where you want the monsters to come, ideally about a half a screen or less in front of the Merc and Valk.
(2.) When they show up and start to whale away on the Decoy, toss your (20K+, hehe) Plague Java right at the Decoy so the monsters all get a nice deep breath of it. :grin: Meanwhile the Merc will be walking towards where all the action is, accompanied by the Valk.
(3.) Now, the smarter among the monsters will start to take a few whacks at the Merc, either before the Decoy goes poof or certainly the instant thereafter.
But here is where the beauty of this gear setup clicks into action.
First of all, probably about 50-70% of the monsters that the Merc hits -- and he has a reasonably fast attack because Passion has built in IAS -- will turn tail and go (slowly, remember he's Holy Freeze) running off, but, sadly, they have been thoroughly poisoned and they end up gasping their last ugly little breaths of Sanctuary air maybe half a screen from the Decoy point.
Because they will usually be going off in a radial motion from the Decoy, you can then chuck a LF or two at the monsters who are still by the Decoy, and a lot of the resulting bolts will hit because LF usually radiates out from the first point of contact. I don't use LF a lot because it's mana intensive but it's an option if you want to kill faster.
However the other, much harder to notice effect of this 75% monster flee effect also is very important -- some monsters, for whatever reason (I noticed this particularly with Champions, etc.), although they don't actually run away when they get hit by the "FearMerc", do get their attack animation disrupted by a few vital frames, while they sit there thinking, "gee, I'm a Champion, I feel like running away but instead I'll rally and go after this guy".
This is extremely important because for nasty mobs like Urdars and Frenzytaurs, it gives your Merc a breathing space to go out of hit recovery and get back to work, and in the case of the Frenzytaurs it somewhat reduces their insane per-hit chargeup because the seconds are ticking away while they are retreating. For some reason I can't exactly define (maybe an AI check? but what's causing it? I dunno), some non-boss monsters get hit, start walking away but then rapidly turn around and attack... but, the few seconds they have spent fleeing, again gives your Merc a chance to recover and attack himself.
Even though "Monster Flee" doesn't work on bosses, it's almost as good anyway, because the non-boss members of the pack all wander off, leaving the boss to be cut down by the Merc and the Valk together (very important with Frenzytaurs!), also every so often the Passion stick procs "Monster Blind" (e.g. DV) on the remaining monsters so they just stand around stupidly, their life draining away from the poison, until the Valk and Merc get around to slicing them up the old fashioned way. It even works for poison immunes, although obviously the process is slower.
I'm not sure how well this build would work in a party where you are depending on things like Necro curses or Cloak of Shadows (e.g. the over write issue) and it might be annoying for melee builds that don't like to go chasing monsters hither and yon, but for soloing, it has made my Plagueazon almost invincible, the Merc and Valk together are a killing machine.
When I first tried this out -- and I have tested it all over Hell, everywhere from Pits to WSK2 -- I was amazed at how effective it is, the Merc is now almost impossible to kill except for massive elemental damage. It's a good build for Hardcore, or really anywhere.
YMMV, of course...
Mr_Bill
Mr_Bill's Plagueazon Sidekick PVM FearMerc
Hi everyone,
This is not a conventional build guide, in the sense that a "character" build guide for D2 (obviously) concerns how you create the Diablo character that you are playing. This is a mini mercenary build guide based on the assumption that the Amazon who "owns" the merc is a "Plagueazon", that is, a Javazon who specializes in Plague Javelin. It was inspired by the merc for my now non ladder Level 88 Plagueazon (POS_Rhythmstick). Although she doesn't have really great gear (unless you count a Spirit Monarch), her Plague Javelin damage is still healthily above 22K... which is distinctly unhealthy for anything that gets a whiff of it!
What's kind of nice about this setup is that it relies almost exclusively on "ghetto" gear for an A2 Holy Freeze Merc. All of this gear is quite easy to acquire (OK, maybe the Lem rune in the Passion is a little rare but you can get it from NM Forge) and none of it requires being on the ladder. Note that the Passion stick, as well as the mask, are really essential to this mercenary build.
(Credit where credit is due, I have read SSoG's "Fearazon" build on the Amazon Basin Forums but this merc setup is still really my own.)
His gear:
Hat: Upped Face of Horror mask (+20 STR and 50% proc monster flee are what's important but the +10 resist all is also very useful, at Level 88 he's almost max all in Hell).
Weapon: Passion Colossus Voulge (lots of nice mods but 25% proc monster flee is why I chose it, this particular one is non eth so the Merc needs the +20 STR on the hat to use it). You could of course build the Passion in a faster stick, which would trigger this effect more often, I went for raw physical damage but which one would be better is open for debate. You could, of course, always use a Thresher or even a Giant Thresher / Grim Scythe type stick, although those, unlike the CV, don't always get 4 sockets from Larzuk.
Armour: POS Rhythmstick's merc uses a Crafted Blood Hellforge Plate (although if I had one non ladder I'd use Toothrow for the 40% proc OW or maybe Crow Caw, since the Merc's defence is going to be lowish anyway, or if you're rich you could build him an ethereal cube bugged Duress, except I don't have a spare Um rune off the ladder). Another option would be upped Rattlecage (even more Monster Flee!, and CB) but I think that might be overkill. (Overflee?)
Note that Treachery probably would not be a good fit here because of the possibility of the Venom from it over-writing the Amazon's Plague Java.The drill is:
(1.) Throw Decoy where you want the monsters to come, ideally about a half a screen or less in front of the Merc and Valk.
(2.) When they show up and start to whale away on the Decoy, toss your (20K+, hehe) Plague Java right at the Decoy so the monsters all get a nice deep breath of it. :grin: Meanwhile the Merc will be walking towards where all the action is, accompanied by the Valk.
(3.) Now, the smarter among the monsters will start to take a few whacks at the Merc, either before the Decoy goes poof or certainly the instant thereafter.
But here is where the beauty of this gear setup clicks into action.
First of all, probably about 50-70% of the monsters that the Merc hits -- and he has a reasonably fast attack because Passion has built in IAS -- will turn tail and go (slowly, remember he's Holy Freeze) running off, but, sadly, they have been thoroughly poisoned and they end up gasping their last ugly little breaths of Sanctuary air maybe half a screen from the Decoy point.
Because they will usually be going off in a radial motion from the Decoy, you can then chuck a LF or two at the monsters who are still by the Decoy, and a lot of the resulting bolts will hit because LF usually radiates out from the first point of contact. I don't use LF a lot because it's mana intensive but it's an option if you want to kill faster.
However the other, much harder to notice effect of this 75% monster flee effect also is very important -- some monsters, for whatever reason (I noticed this particularly with Champions, etc.), although they don't actually run away when they get hit by the "FearMerc", do get their attack animation disrupted by a few vital frames, while they sit there thinking, "gee, I'm a Champion, I feel like running away but instead I'll rally and go after this guy".
This is extremely important because for nasty mobs like Urdars and Frenzytaurs, it gives your Merc a breathing space to go out of hit recovery and get back to work, and in the case of the Frenzytaurs it somewhat reduces their insane per-hit chargeup because the seconds are ticking away while they are retreating. For some reason I can't exactly define (maybe an AI check? but what's causing it? I dunno), some non-boss monsters get hit, start walking away but then rapidly turn around and attack... but, the few seconds they have spent fleeing, again gives your Merc a chance to recover and attack himself.
Even though "Monster Flee" doesn't work on bosses, it's almost as good anyway, because the non-boss members of the pack all wander off, leaving the boss to be cut down by the Merc and the Valk together (very important with Frenzytaurs!), also every so often the Passion stick procs "Monster Blind" (e.g. DV) on the remaining monsters so they just stand around stupidly, their life draining away from the poison, until the Valk and Merc get around to slicing them up the old fashioned way. It even works for poison immunes, although obviously the process is slower.
I'm not sure how well this build would work in a party where you are depending on things like Necro curses or Cloak of Shadows (e.g. the over write issue) and it might be annoying for melee builds that don't like to go chasing monsters hither and yon, but for soloing, it has made my Plagueazon almost invincible, the Merc and Valk together are a killing machine.
When I first tried this out -- and I have tested it all over Hell, everywhere from Pits to WSK2 -- I was amazed at how effective it is, the Merc is now almost impossible to kill except for massive elemental damage. It's a good build for Hardcore, or really anywhere.
YMMV, of course...
Mr_Bill
