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Vessel of Hatred

Whats the best tank merc???

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USeastrainman

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Dec 4, 2006
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Whats the best tank merc???

i have a (weak:sad2: ) mf sorc, and i want a merc that can tank everything while i kill them.

should i get hell a2 defense merc? or is an a5 merc better for tanking...i have a grandfather CB for the a5. Gbane for his armor i guess. i need a rockstopper for the helm..30% dr.

thx for advice
 
Act 5 mercs regenerate far faster than Act 2 mercs, and they have slightly more life (though less defense). However, the Holy Freeze on A2 mercs pretty much makes up for that...
 
Actually, you're a little off.

Act 2 mercs have more life than Act 5 mercs. It's only around 50-100 or so difference, but it's a difference and it's noticable, especially with boosts like BO and Oak Sage. BUT you're right about the regeneration. Act 5 mercs will regenerate their health fully in 16.4 seconds, all others regenerate in 41 seconds. That's almost 3 times faster.

Act 5 mercs have the higher base defense, ending up at about 500 def higher than Act 2.

Holy Freeze will always be the better tank than Defiance aura for many reasons. Firstly, the Holy Freeze slows enemy attacks, meaning less damage/time taken by the merc. Secondly, Holy Freeze (and all Holy elemental damage auras' pulses) will attract any enemies to him, kind of like a monster magnet. That means they wont be attacking you any more, of course.

If you've got the Grandfather and Gbane already, you may as well get an Act 5 merc. They work pretty well, especially since their normal attack hits twice (bet you didn't know that) and Bash and Stun are great for crowd control.

The damage reduced on Gbane is an integer value (up to 20 IIRC), while the damage reduction on Rockstopper is a percentage (10%). They are two completely different things, and do not add up to 30%.
 
Go for an act2 merc as you can then equip him with an aura granting stick like insight / infinity.
 
Might Act 2 merc with an ethereal Doom polearm, maxed resists, high leech and DR.

He can chill (irresistable)
He can freeze monsters (upon contact)
He can tank:
-High defence from high defense armors
-High resists: *most* monsters can't hurt him
-High DR (maybe with a vampire gaze)
He can dish out damage
-Ethereal Doom Polearm can do 1000+ damage alone.
-Leeches back any life lost
 
Yeah, I think all the advantages of an Act 5 merc are pretty much negated by auras. I really wish Bliz would make all mercs worthwhile. I used to love my poor useless Act III merc... *sigh*

Jackson said:
Might Act 2 merc with an ethereal Doom polearm, maxed resists, high leech and DR.

He can chill (irresistable)
He can freeze monsters (upon contact)
He can tank:
-High defence from high defense armors
-High resists: *most* monsters can't hurt him
-High DR (maybe with a vampire gaze)
He can dish out damage
-Ethereal Doom Polearm can do 1000+ damage alone.
-Leeches back any life lost
Click to expand...

Would might really be better than defiance with the same gear?



 
I'd choose Might over Defiance since more damage means your merc will leech more, and kill immunities faster.

Most of the dangerous monsters in hell either do elemental damage or have really high AR/ hit 95% of the time anyways, so that's why I would choose Might.
 
You're probably right, might/leech won't help with Undead but then, that's probably less of a problem than elemental attackers anyway so that neutralises that.
 
But the defiance aura offers better returns to your caster type character who gains nothing from a might aura e.g. My Meteorb seems to take far fewer hits with a defiance merc compared to a HF merc. At the moment I'm using a prayer merc wielding an insight.
 
That's true, one of my sorcs is still running around with a prayer merc.
 
Either A2 holy freeze or defiance depending on your built. Those were my all time favorites. Sometimes I used A5, once in while A3 and almost never A1.
 
If you want a really good tanker then Act 2 defiance is your choice. Note that an Act 2 merc hired in a normal difficulty has lvl18 defiance aura which gives him and you 3.4 times more defense (hired in hell lvl16). Also give him max resistance, life leech and damage reduction. My merc has:

- Eth Obedience Cryptic Axe
- Eth The Gladiator's Bane + IAS jewel
- Eth Vampire Gaze + IAS jewel

From my experience cannot be frozen modifier is a must for every melee character especially for a mercenary. This is because in hell almost every monster has an additional cold attack which will make your merc always slow to retaliate and leech from them. Without this modifier your merc will die more often.

Second, faster hit recovery is also very important for a tanker. Mercenaries are known for very low FHR, this gives them a very short life while their surrounded in a crowd of monsters. But, they gain very fast by giving them just some FHR mods. If you give him these two items he will gain from 15 frames (0.6 seconds) to 8 frames (0.32 seconds) to retaliate from a hit. If your merc gets surrounded and they start to hit him he will never get out of the recovery mode (he is stunned always), but with a high FHR mode he has a better chance to survive.

My merc has over 12k defense; this high defense is very noticeable during his battles. He rarely dies, usually from the vipers or ghosts.
 
vdzele said:
hired in hell lvl16
Click to expand...

Rehire in Normal. Do it now, before it's too late!!!

Search for either my posts, or any other posts on the subject. In short: Normal mercs have better stats all-round. Hiring a merc in Hell is the worst thing you can possibly do.

EDIT: A Normal merc gets a level 17 Defiance at level 71, capping out at level 18 at level 75. A Hell merc only has a level 16 Defiance. He'll also have 200 more life than a Hell merc, 142 more base defense, and 6 more to all resists.

200 life is quite a big difference to me.



 
Yeah, I keep my normal merc or get mine in nightmare if I have to.
 
USeastrainman said:
alright...will do. ill get the a5 and try him out

many thanks Eilo
Click to expand...

Huh? He was saying Act 2 Makes the better tank...

An Act 2 Holy Freeze Merc with a Reapers Toll polearm will be awesome (assuming you don't need the mana from an Insight)

1. Holy Freeze slows all enemies by 56%
2. Holy Freeze attracts all enemies to the merc, away from you.
3. Reapers Toll casts Decrepify, slowing everything by a further 50%
4. Decrepify also reduces all enemies physical damage by 50%
5. Reapers Toll has massive life leech to keep your merc alive.

Then once you no longer need the merc to tank for you you can give him an Insight polearm for infinite mana.



 
Actually, the almost-triple life regeneration plays a pretty big part in tanky-ness, even if he does have a little less life. Stunning a monster altogether is better than slowing them, and Bashing them puts them into hit recovery, as well as knocking them out of attack range.

But as good as that sounds, the utter debilitation of Reaper's Toll on a Holy Freeze merc is unparalleled.
 
How about suggesting that he tries all these combinations and see for him self what tactic will suite him most. Most of these items are very cheap now. I know which one will win.
 
I personally enjoy usin an act 1 merc with the right gear. I like doing chaos runs, but hate resurrecting my merc after each run because of Iron Maiden. So i use an act 1 merc that I leveled from normal. she uses an eth andy, fort, and faith bow. i use the freezing arrow merc. I have a lvl 89 windy druid with lvl 50 nado, 47 huri, lvl 89 merc with gear mentioned, and my pet bear is lvl 28 doing over 2k dmg himself. I love this char and a combo like this.
 
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