Has anyone tested and proven that +oSkills for mercs act as more than +3? Anyone know how it was tested?
I had not considered ThunderSky earlier, but if it does give +40 ChargedBolt, then I think it's possible that it still won't be better than Ondals.
1) Thundersky with a socket has -37%Res, while Ondal's has -48% 2) Thundersky gives +33 levels more to ChargedBolt, while Ondals gives +7 more to LitMastery, Lightning, and ChainLightning (it's worth going NM for them, since the CLightning synergizes so well, even though that skill's quite weak). 3) The merc probably only uses CBolt 25% of the time, since he's got 3 alternative skills to cast. I don't know if he's more likely to cast one skill over another. 4) Ondals has 50% more FCRate (not sure this really matters, A3 mercs' cast rate is relatively slow at its best, so getting that extra breakpoint isn't even an extra attack per second). 5) Ondal's has better non-offense mods, like +%Life, more res, -Dmg/MgcDmg.
ThunderSky would certainly be useful from lvl 75 to 85 though, assuming that +40 CBolt had the expected effect.
<edit> Didn't notice Muleofal's post just following mine. It's true that I forgot to put some numbers in my post. I had considered the +2 skills of HHGlory, but forgot to say anything explicit about that. A3 Mercs have Masteries, which is why I only considered the -%Res from the facets (the +% is so small compared to a mastery). You're right that I should have stated that Ondal's had 36% less pierce rather than 24%, and essentially Ondal's only has +3 Mastery rather than +5 (each +5% facet is essentially +1Mastery) compared to the sword+shield. I'm glad you can appreciate why I originally considered that Ondal's over the 6osSword+Shield would be such a close match. I think it comes down to which set of gear is easier to come by.
The -Res% cap is really hard to hit in HU. I think it's practically impossible, because Conviction and LRes cap out around 80% (I mean no one seems to get them higher than this), and the availability of LRes is only common nowadays due to the influx of Poicros. Conviction is the component of that cap you won't easily get nowadays. Considering that most monsters with any resistance at all seem to have about 50%, you'd need about -150%Res to reach the -100% cap you mentioned. With Conviction + LRes + HolyAura, that cap doesn't need any passive pierce (sans immunity), but I never see Conviction pallies and Poicros playing together. For that fairly flimsy reason, I state that it's practically impossible to have too much -%Res.
Level 6 LRes from Medusa shield gives -55%Res for 18 seconds over 6 yards. I've used this shield on my characters in the past, but I never noticed it being consistently cast (probably because it was on a high-def Convictor at the time). I agree that the extra pierce makes up for the loss of +2skills and a facet. </edit>
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