Need merc advice (PvM,SP,Fury Wolf)

[Todd]

Need merc advice (PvM,SP,Fury Wolf)

I'm getting back into the game after a few years off and dusting off my old single player chars. One is a Ribcracker Fury Wolf currently in A2 Hell. After finishing the game with him, I'd like him to find an MF'ing niche. At the moment, I'm thinking Pindle/Council would work pretty well, but I'm open to suggestions there. Besides the (up'd) Ribby, he's using a Treachery Great Hauberk, Harly, Verdungo's, rare MF/res gloves, Travs, an RF, and a rare ring and ammy.

So, the Merc... I guess the last time I was playing I decided that a Defiance merc would be best in order to boost my defense a bit and compensate for the lack of a shield. I'm now wondering whether that was a good choice, especially since I swapped in the Treachery GHauberk for my old up'd Duriel's Shell. It's nice to have Treachery's Fade open up my other gear slots, but it's a pretty crappy base defense for Defiance to build on. So if I'm going to replace him, I guess now would be the time. Holy Freeze? Might? Or just stick with Defiance? The Merc has standard stuff - a Reaper's, an ethereal DShell, and VampGaze. Being single-player, building godly rune words for the Merc isn't an option.

Any thoughts as to what will serve me best?

 

[stephan]

Re: Need merc advice (PvM,SP,Fury Wolf)

I use Might with Reapers/Guillaume's/Duriel's on pretty much any physical melee build.

 

[Todd]

Re: Need merc advice (PvM,SP,Fury Wolf)

I went back to NM to grab a Might merc and was surprised to see that the available mercs already close to my clvl. Am I misrembering something? I thought the Normal/NM mercs had level caps and that if you went back later that you'd have to tediously level them up. Did a patch change this? I've been away from D2 for a while, so maybe I'm just completely mistaken.

Anyway, that certainly makes experimentation easier. I went with the Might merc and haven't had defense or crowd control issues yet, though I'm only in A3 Hell at the moment.

 

[Metathrom]

Re: Need merc advice (PvM,SP,Fury Wolf)

The Might merc with Reaper's Toll is hands down the best merc you'll ever find for physical dmg melee chars. Another important thing is that the decrep removes physical immunities (some Council Members become phys immunes if they spawn with it; Shenk and Pindle do so as well, afaik)

An interesting option for mfing would be to get your hands on a Tomb Reaver (it comes with built-in MF), shael it twice to reach 4fpa fury and voilá, you have a weapon comparable to Ribcracker in damage. Not for budget chars, but a great mfing option still.

 

[Todd]

Re: Need merc advice (PvM,SP,Fury Wolf)

An interesting option for mfing would be to get your hands on a Tomb Reaver (it comes with built-in MF), shael it twice to reach 4fpa fury and voilá, you have a weapon comparable to Ribcracker in damage. Not for budget chars, but a great mfing option still.

Should I ever find one, my wolf will certainly have dibs on it. I've got some other TC84's/TC87's, but no Tomb Reaver yet. If you'd like to comment on any other details of the build, I laid out them out much more fully here:

http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=756542