I think the obvious choice would be a heavy damage A1 merc. They seem pretty obvious.

Was wondering if anyone tried using merc for aura gear to boost the effectiveness of the summons.

One idea is a A3 lightning merc with beast wep, dream helm, holy crafted shield, holy crafted boots. Beast will give all your summons level 6 fanta for a nice AR and damage bonus and attack speed for summon and psn dagger (I didnt think attack speed effected party, apparently it does though), as well as transforms merc into a wolf for a lot of life bonus. Dream helm will give holy shock plus lower their light res (with lower res should do killer lightning damage!). Holy crafted shield will give might aura and boots give vigor. Alternatively you could use a thirst for knowledge orb to boost your merc's damage and skeleton mages damage as well as lower enemys deff so summons hit easier.

Pride +16 Conc - 240% ED
Last Wish +12 Might - 210% ED
Beast +6 Fanta - 90% ED 34% IAS 100% AR
Faith +10 Fanta - 114% ED 38% IAS 140% AR
Thirst for Knowledge - -55% defense & resists

Thoughts?

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The body is but a vessel for the soul, a puppet which bends to the souls tyranny. And lo, the body is not eternal, for it must feed on the flesh of others, lest it return to the dust from whence it came. Therefore the soul deceive, despise and murder men.

a3 mercs cant use orbs unless that was implemented since I've been away.
summons dont kill, mercs and ce deals the damage. If a poison nec is using lr and poison nova then they are doing it wrong (vs trash at least) amp + CE is 100x better.

A3 merc is not a choice to boost summons effectiveness.

A2 Might merc, faith eth ghost glaive, spirit ward, glassglare, wsg/nos, maras, rends/blood crafts, silkweaves (extra boost to might), CoA, blood craft ring with all res + dwarf/raven/shock depending on main elemental damage incoming.
Thats a basic aurabitch merc setup and is mainly used for WW sins etc. Barbs generaly use brand javs on an a2 might merc to provide amp + might.

dont worry about skele mages damage is it is meaningless in comparison to any other form of damage available to you at any stage in the game.

You dont have to use a merc to provide auras, you are better using faith javs against trash yourself and using ce + amp to clear trash. then switch to d web for bosses.

A3 light merc with a dream helm? They already have holy shock as a skill, why waste a jah? I dont know if mercs can cast in wolf form either. The act 3 merc will have pretty much 0 fcr with that setup. and no + skills or + skill damage. He will deal terrible damage at a terrible rate.

Focusing on + skills and fcr is alot more effective. I used a light merc on my old vengance pally and he was dealing better damage than an a1 merc with amp at the same level. Charged bolt destroyed everything in no time with him at 155%fcr iirc (well over the last bp) and my conviction. Even when I switched to fana or another aura he still cleared at an insane rate. Focus on the merc's strengths and it will pay off. Throwing random gear on a merc who will gain no real benefit from it is a waste of equip and is making your build sub par.

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[quote="PureRage-DoD"]
summons dont kill, mercs and ce deals the damage. If a poison nec is using lr and poison nova then they are doing it wrong (vs trash at least) amp + CE is 100x better.


u havn't done tundra with holy. nova works just fine. no time for LR = p

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ISO - 6-6 Poison offering Jah, PnB Gc offering Jah, Pcombat Gc offering Ber, Warcry Gc offering Ber, Defensive Gc offering Sur, Elemental Gc offering Sur.

"Able to use Scepters, wands, orbs, swords and shields. They do not benefit from block on the shields. They will benefit from specific +skills (ex. +3 meteor), but not from +sorceress skills."

From blue's website.

Also I might add, +1 all skills doesnt boost Auras given by gear. I thought it did as well but we tested a month ago to see if the +1 skill effected conviction aura given by items.

And beast does transform them into a werewolf. I've seen it. Elita's merc uses it.

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The body is but a vessel for the soul, a puppet which bends to the souls tyranny. And lo, the body is not eternal, for it must feed on the flesh of others, lest it return to the dust from whence it came. Therefore the soul deceive, despise and murder men.

That needs to be changed then, scepters are not class specific, same as wands and swords. Orbs are "Sorceress Only". An act 3 merc is not a sorceress, they are "Iron Wolves". The only merc who can use class specific items is the barbarian (They can use barb helms)


I didn't say + skills will boost "On equip" auras, lol. The + skills will boost his skill levels and thus his damage. It will also boost his own aura level, giving bigger range. I never said anything about on equip auras.



I know it will change them into a wolf, I said I wasn't sure if the act 3 merc would be able to cast spells in wolf form.

@Holy. Switch to amp and ce it'll go alot faster, every other pois nec I ever encountered has always cleared alot faster that way, even with a pure skiller setup.

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I doubt I can keep up enough mana to clear with ce faster than nova. the little ones in tundra are instant death an the big ones take 2-3 secs to die an they go down 85% of the time with one nova. Now for ancients way an an glacial trails faith stick ce an merc are an amazing trio. Tundra an WSk2 nova clears way faster. 6-7 min tundra runs 4-5 players 9-10 mins for 8 player solo. (timed it when i was tryn to make 101)

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ISO - 6-6 Poison offering Jah, PnB Gc offering Jah, Pcombat Gc offering Ber, Warcry Gc offering Ber, Defensive Gc offering Sur, Elemental Gc offering Sur.

novas mana cost is pretty high too iirc, a little mana per kill (12 would do it) will give you more thn enough back

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deaths web has 50 iirc, so that should be no problem.

CE wins no matter how good your poison gear is. Besides, if you have full pnb gcs, then that CE radius is easily almost a screen.

I use holy all the time im pretty sure ive tried it both ways 60 mana for ce lvl (43) an it takes 3-4 cast to kill screen an 80 mana with nova (lvl 62) an takes 1-2 cast to clear screen. if u use dweb with ce an amp for the mana regen its kinda pointless sense merc is slower there for first kills are slower. plus u have to tele amp ce ce ce ce tele amp ce ce ce were nova is just tele nova tele nova nova tele the time is much shorter just on the cast rates for same over all effect. Also once ur max damage lr is meaningless unless ur killing some champs/bosses. then its just a wack of the wand an move on.

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ISO - 6-6 Poison offering Jah, PnB Gc offering Jah, Pcombat Gc offering Ber, Warcry Gc offering Ber, Defensive Gc offering Sur, Elemental Gc offering Sur.