Zikur wrote:
the conclusion i am drawing from this thread is that hiring them past normal is a bad decision since they gain p nova? which would take away from them using more bone attacks.
That was the case a few patches ago, but at some point they were changed to gain BoneSpirit instead of PNova. I verified that in v1.21z in NM that they gained BoneSpirit. I didn't play the char too much though, so I didn't pay attention to whether their damage improved a lot due to the added skill synergizing. I'm sure it did (should have been upwards of 90% for teeth and 80% for BoneSpear), but it wouldn't have been as significant as it could have been because with BoneSpirit my NM merc would choose to lob a slow moving single-target "BoneSpear" rather than a less synergized but multi-target Teeth or BoneSpear cast by my Norm merc.
The purpose of these mercs in NM and Hell is their -PoisRes aura, not their damage, they suffer the same damage drop-off as Bone Necros, but without the gear to bring them up again.