Is this Rogue Merc set-up viable?

I have been maining a Hammerdin with a standard Insight x

Duriel's x Andy's Merc set-up, but recently have been toying with popping a Delirium on him instead.

I just love the curse thing it does. It moves me.

The loss of life leech means I'd either have to spring for a Fortitude on him, or eschew Insight in favour of

Bonehew with 2

Amn or somesuch.

The loss of Mediditation would kinda smart, but then again I rarely find myself lacking mana when playing without the merc, so might be fine.

That then got me thinking, if I am not running Insight, or need the extra merc damage (10k on hammers seems plenty), why not go all in on the Delirium procing by switching to a different merc.

So my thought now is to instead run a Rogue with Delirium x Treachery x Breath of the Dying in an

Eth

Crusader Bow.

By my math, the 105% total IAS, even in the slow-ish

Crusader Bow base, should get the the effective attack rate down from 16 frames to 10, i.e. same as when my hammerdin sports MF gear.

This ought to be fast enough to reliably proc confusion on all the mobs about, and the

Conviction boosted damage ought to be enought for the merc to pick off any mobs that were annoyingly positioned outside hammer range.

Although one wrinkle I see in all this is that the use of

Inner Sight might dampen the efficacy of the Confusion spamming.

So yeah, it's all a bit out there, any thoughts on whether this might work?

Eth

Crusader Bow? You know bows and xbows can't be ethereal right? So BoTD is kind of wasted putting into a missile weapon.

If you're going to run the shooter merc, probably Harmony might be a good option, that way she will have the

Vigor aura active and you can always be a speedy boy.

Delirium helm is a good idea for A1 merc, i would use Ice or Faith for the weapon.

And to @halflife's point, bows can't be ethereal. Along with: amulets, rings, crossbows, Phase Blades or set items

halflife wrote: 2 years ago

Eth

Crusader Bow? You know bows and xbows can't be ethereal right? So BoTD is kind of wasted putting into a missile weapon.

If you're going to run the shooter merc, probably Harmony might be a good option, that way she will have the

Vigor aura active and you can always be a speedy boy.

An embarrasing oversight on my part re

Eth, really goes to show I never dealt in archers, be it in this or the original ^.^'

Harmony I might go with on a slower char, but between Dash and being able to toggle to

Vigor on the Hammerdin as is I feel my gotta go fast needs are met.

As it stands though, I feel the lack of LL and IAS kills the viability of Harmony.

BillyMaysed wrote: 2 years ago

Delirium helm is a good idea for A1 merc, i would use Ice or Faith for the weapon.

I like that Ice and Faith come with auras, but other than being an order of magnitude pricier than BotD due to the

Jah invovled, I have concerns.

Ice lacks IAS when I feel speed very much kills when the goal is to proc the Confusion.

Faith's

Fanaticism only grants 31-34 IAS , which while it would be handy for uber runs with Smiter gear, I don't think is enough to hit the 10 frames breakpoint. Also, the lack of LL gives me survivability concerns.

So unless I am missing something, seems to me that BotD ultimately fits better on average. :/

BahamutPrime wrote: 2 years ago

being an order of magnitude pricier than BotD

Ah right, i didn't think about price. I would prefer Ice because of the aura will help a lot more with CC VS just confusion procing slightly more. but yea Breath of the Dying is a much cheaper option lol. Go for it and let us know how it plays.

BillyMaysed wrote: 2 years ago

BahamutPrime wrote: 2 years ago

being an order of magnitude pricier than BotD

Ah right, i didn't think about price. I would prefer Ice because of the aura will help a lot more with CC VS just confusion procing slightly more. but yea Breath of the Dying is a much cheaper option lol. Go for it and let us know how it plays.

Well, barring anyone flagging any other glaring holes in the current plan I think I shall give it a go, once I source a reasonably priced

Zod and get a suitably good base.

Thanks for the input

I have created the herein proposed Manic Pixie Dreamgirl. Sprung for a 14ed base for the BotD and an etherial

Archon Plate on the Treachery, although the Delirium is just a

Tiara.

Preliminary test has been promising. Took Manic Pixie Dreamgirl for a walk in Hell Cows, mostly hanging back to see if her getting swarmed would kill her.

It did not. She never went below half health before the crowd control took hold, and oh boy did it. It's amazing.

Can confirm that

Inner Sight does not over-ride any of the Delirium curses, and that MPD keeps attacking even whilst transformed.

Now for other stress tests, I am gonna do some Nihl runs, solo

Baal, and then do some multiplayer

Baal and cows, see how that fares.

Any other stress tests that I might want to run MPD through?

I have collated my findings into this here guide, hopefully people will enjoy: forums/manic-pixie-dreamgirl-an-alterna ... 65231.html