Need help organizing my chars' gear/roles

[Gynli]

Most of your questions boils down to preference or just what you r comfortable with.

But here's my 2cents.

I think you are focusing too much in gear setups, and too little in positioning. 1k life and maxed resists is more than plenty for general PvM; and absorb gear is only really useful to some specific situations and specific monsters. You can't stack defensive stats and hope to face tank everything in this game, it just hurts too much.

This game's much more of not taking damage, and in some situations, out-healing the damage taken. As a caster your best bet is to not take damage in the first place.

Focus on AVOIDING what Meph throws at you, not tanking it.

For example, if it's the melee attacks that's killing you, don't let him walk up close to whack you, kite him between each cast or, better yet, teleport away before he gets close. If it's the ice ball, notice it's a straight shot; strafe left and right between each spell and let the ice ball zoom by you. Charged bolt only really hurts when you are too close, and it moves slow. Don't stand close to him, and teleport away from - or over - the bolts. Same goes for keeping your merc alive. Teleport resets his position; use it to move him. Practice positioning your character first, and when you can manage, try handling both yourself and the merc.

As per your run times, you should first learn to run Meph comfortably at your own pace on your comfortable settings; and only then should you start worrying about optimization.

 

[maareek]

So the big reason your merc is dying fast is because of his level. Meph is mlvl 87, and until your merc gets to about 93 he's going to die rather quickly because most of Meph's fairly hard-hitting melee attacks are going to land.

My suggestion, and what I do when I run Meph, is to keep the merc tanking for a short time instead of trying to hang in for the whole fight. Let them tie up for long enough to static Meph down to half life, then teleport away and fire Frozen Orbs, trying to use the merc to get Meph to stop in the sweet spot of the explosion. This way you're moving yourself and the merc away from Meph constantly, to avoid the melee attack, but still taking advantage of the big FO blast. Takes some practice, most of the time it won't be perfect, but it limits the physical damage the merc takes. Poison is the biggest issue in my experience for the merc with this style, but some potions normally can see him through.

As for gear, I mean Infinity is the best weapon for the merc, but Kelpie is very good (though personally I often just used Insight). Kelpie/Shaftstop/Vamp Gaze is high-tier for the merc running Meph, because of the %PDR as you outlined and the slow. Some IAS or resists would be good if you can fit it in from sockets, but honestly it's not going to make things work if they aren't already.

Basically, the merc isn't going to stand up in toe-to-toe fighting with Meph until he's a higher level. And even then he'll fall down sometimes, Meph actually has a pretty mean backhand. So this is more an issue of tactics than gear.

-There's nothing wrong with running Meph at p1. Again, good use of time is what matters, so if p3 is slow or involves dying, knock it down.
-Keep in mind your maps are changing so 30s runs will be tougher to be at consistently. I'd say focus on getting the runs to be comfortable and feeling like you've got it down, then worry about speeding up the process.
-1000 life is definitely fine. Not really any magical numbers, either.
-I mean "best" merc gear for Meph is probably like Infinity/CoH/Andy's(Cham) or something like that, but no setup is going to be massively better than what you've got on him now.
-63% FCR is enough.

I would use 3-part Tal's over Mara's+Gris Corona, more life and mana is where I'd want to be.

 

[ioupain]

@SWizard Given what you've already stated about not having a Blizzard sorceress at Hell Meph yet, here is my advice for your Meteorb Sorceress, apologies if you're already doing this:

With Mercenary:
Teleport on top of Meph so your Merc tanks for a bit and then SPAM static field until Meph is down to half health (as @maareek suggested in his wall of text...) - the aim here is to get this step done very quickly so that your merc doesn't have time to die. The added benefit is that your merc doesn't have to walk towards Meph and take hits before he is attacking. Give him plenty of life steal and resists.

Without Mercenary:
I would personally leave my Mercenary dead and just concentrate on killing Mep solo by Static Fielding him down to half and then teleporting in a circle around him - or side to side / front and back / whatever - while remaining within the 'sweet spot' range for Frozen Orb to have the final explosion inside his body.

How much Cold Mastery do you have? It really helps take down Meph.

EDIT: Wow - ninja'd by literally a moment by @maareek with almost the same advice!

 

[maareek]

EDIT: Wow - ninja'd by literally a moment by @maareek with almost the same advice!

Though you added the "teleport on top of Meph" part, which is actually pretty important. A good chunk of merc deaths, I've found, even at higher levels, start with the merc getting FO'd, poisoned, and bolted running at Meph, even from a short distance away. Just, uh, make sure to click right beside Meph, not on top of Meph, cause clicking on Meph while teleporting leads to getting the sorc backhanded, which can indirectly lead to the merc dying.