Need Help with merc setup in Travincal (w Infinity)

rafquad

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Feb 17, 2012
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Hey all, what's up?

I recently found the remaining runes to make Infinity in a Great Poleaxe, and I'm trying to keep doing Travincal runs with my BlizzSorc (I was using the standard Reaper's/Kira's/GA setup, ignoring the cold immunes).

Thing is, now that I switched sticks, the mercenary melts.

I tried different maps, tried Infinity + Kira's + GA, tried Vamp Gaze, Steel Shade, Glad's Bane. Nothing helps.
I don't have Fortitude for the Merc (and I don't think it would defensively make that much of a difference, right?).

What would be the recommended armor + helmet for the merc in this situation, and are there any playstyle key actions that I may be doing wrong? I really don't know what is happening that now he dies so fast.
My Sorceress and merc are lvl93, so I'm sure that's not the problem too.

Thanks in advance!
 
My guess is lower damage and life leech are the culprit. Getting off-weapon LL and CBF on a merc isn't that easy.

Maybe Gladiator's Bane for CBF, PDR/MDR and decent defense if ethereal + Crown of Thieves, it can get up to 12% LL, also give 50 to life and 33 fire resist.
If fire resist is not an issue, try Andariel's with a Ral. Tal's Crest also comes with 10% LL and 15 all res, but I think hydras are the biggest threat.

Other options will require socketing a Cham rune into something and that's expensive, especially when you don't know if it will work well before trying it out.
 
Oh, sorry. It's a Holy Freeze merc. I don't really know if it helps since I haven't tested to see how different auras affect merc's survivability in Travincal.
 
Hey, thanks for the responses!

Merc is a Defiance one. Prior to Infinity he was using Ral'd (both) Kira's and Guardian Angel. All non-eth.
I didn't switch to a Might one, just -Reaper's +Infinity. Then I tried eth Vamp Gaze, Steel Shade, and Glad's Bane but nothing worked better so I went back to Kira's + GA. It's "working", but he still dies too often (like every 3d run). It's really a pain.
Any other suggestions, specially in terms of teleport/positioning? If Infy/Kira/GA should work then I'm doing something wrong myself.
 
Maybe try holy freeze? I've found that it works best if you can't rely on the merc leeching back quickly. Defiance is good with very high base defense, but with no eth stuff HF should provide more safety.

I assume you have CtA? Pretty sure the merc can't survive anything serous without that. Can't help with Travincal specifics because I haven't run them much.
 
How about Might? More damage = More Leech.
 
I'm quite surprised that the merc is dying every 3 runs with infi, ga, kiras, when he was not with reapers. I don't find that a particular merc aura makes much difference. Can you share a video?
 
I'm quite surprised that the merc is dying every 3 runs with infi, ga, kiras, when he was not with reapers. I don't find that a particular merc aura makes much difference. Can you share a video?
Kira's had been equipped broken via GoMule #joking

For conviction aura, the one from Council is at which lvl? I will make a search later when i have some time, answer must be quick to find.

Thanks @Kinkara for @Luhkoh's reference, as I am back in Travincal it will be a nice refresh on the topic!
 
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@Babyhell I dont remember what the conviction aura is at council, but i know for sure that the one from infinity cancels it out. So for merc, conviction is a non-issue if he has infinity.
 
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Hey, thanks for all the replies! This community is incredible, less than a day of this topic and so many people already chimed in to help :)

@Kinkara Luhkoh's video was a great help, thanks!

@Luhkoh I don't know too, haha! Maybe the slow from decrepify is making the difference and I was relying too much on it? After watching your video I realized I was not using Static Field. It does accelerate killing them and is making noticeable difference in keeping the Merc alive. I have a question, though: what was your merc gear in that video? Kira's + GA or something else?

If I keep having issues I can record a video, yeah. I'll try a few hundred runs trying to replicate what you do in your video and see if it resolves the issue.

Thanks again to all of you!
 
@rafquad did I not show it in the vid? My bad. Yes kiras/ga, and I replaced the rals in them with ias jewels since he no longer needs overstacked res when holding infinity. And thanks! But I'm not even that good at trav runs. You should check out some vids by ffs or gripphon for some real runs :).
 
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