What do you load on your merc for survival?

I have Obedience and Smoke. I think I need also a really big life steal. Above 10%. He gets massacred on big mobs. He got max res on all.

Is there a good

Helm recommendation?

andariels visage

Vampire Gaze

if you dont have

Stealskull for beginning

Tal Rasha's

Mask

for armor Treachery instead of Smoke

You should also have realistic expectations about what your merc can survive. Even the best decked out merc can get killed by strong elites.
If you can

Teleport, use it to get him out of situations you don't think he can survive. AoE stuns/freezes help as well.

Yeah, mostly that. Do not think that the merc will ever be immortal. Most mercs are used for the utility they provide with the aura and whatever you equip on them is just about enough to keep them healthy in _most_ stations

as a fanadin I have Obedience as well in a

Eth

Thresher, vamp gaze, and for armor

Eth upgraded

Guardian Angel (over 2k def) he has 90 allres with that setup, that helped A LOT. he can solo tranvincal with me in 8 player games.
I figured if hes killed usually its by large mob groups with might or fana aura, or ranged magical mobs. And the magic mobs problem completely went away with getting the res to 90

Manostra wrote: 2 years ago

as a fanadin I have Obedience as well in a

Eth

Thresher, vamp gaze, and for armor

Eth upgraded

Guardian Angel (over 2k def) he has 90 allres with that setup, that helped A LOT. he can solo tranvincal with me in 8 player games.
I figured if hes killed usually its by large mob groups with might or fana aura, or ranged magical mobs. And the magic mobs problem completely went away with getting the res to 90

that's great but vamp gaze is enough for 95%? or is his natural resistences are above 75% in level 80?
is there a chart that shows the merc res according to its level?

I use Tals

Mask and ebotd. The only time he dies is occasionally from Trav if they Amp damage and 1/20 Chaos runs Diablo will kill him for some reason. Most the time D can't even kill a

Skeleton. Andariels Visage is only good if you have a CV if you aren't using armor that boosts STR like

Leviathan or something.

The merc's worst enemy is his own AI but with

Eth Obedience + Treachery/Fortitude +

Stealskull/Tal's Mask/

Andariel's Visage he should survive fine most of the time.
Keeping an eye on his back to get him out of dangerous situations with

Teleport/crowd control/the occasional

Full Rejuvenation Potion helps a lot.

Andariels visage socked with

Ral, infy

Thresher and Fortitude. He dies maybe once every 15-20 games usually somekind of instakill by big D himself.
He can usually hold his own if he got some mobs to leech on but we all know that A2 mercs suffer from incurable dementia and a case of the Mondays.

This is my set up and my merc rarely dies. 1) 10LL Andy socketed with 15ias 27FR jewel 2) Infinity on

Eth

Thresher 3) 2.4K Fortitude. The only thing that can kill him is Diablo's fire skill (I think there is no set up that can tank it at all). The only time he dies is if I am lazy and doesn't feel like teleporting him out of danger or if I think I need to go back to town.

I've done a bit of research on merc and the few factors all contribute to his ability to survive. Life Leech is very important, and how much he leech depends on how much damage he dishes out. So using andy with ias jewel +

Eth

Thresher base sets up him to barely hit his highest attack speed breakpoint, which means more hits.

Eth version of

Thresher and Fortitude give huge boosts to damage and that will also boost life leech with 10% LL Andy. I've tried Infinity+Treachery and Insight+Fortitude both set ups are inferior.

I use and Act II frozen aura Merc. The aura helps with crowds. He's my damage dealer and rarely dies. As a summoner druid, my Bear is a tank that can absorb damage and my merc deals it out. Merc loadout is this:

Helm:

Crown of Thieves - the life steal is the big one for me 12%/hit

Armor:

Duriel's Shell. Not great for defense (699 at level 85), but good resists

Weapon: Reaper's Toll. Great for breaking physical immunities and another 13% life stolen

so 25% life stolen per hit and resists are at 75/75/70/70. Even diablo's lit hit doesn't kill him. The only time he sometimes has trouble are certain long distance crowds. Even then, I

Teleport the bear in to absorb the damage and he closes quickly.

Good luck and Let me know if you ever need some help!

And if resist isn't an issue on your merc then make a Stone or Duress. Great defense, great recovery. And type of weapon he's using will help with life leech. Not 100% on posting links here but a

Cryptic Axe or

Great Poleaxe with the right amount of ias he will

Jab enough to keep himself healed most the time. Yes,

Giant Thresher and

Thresher are faster but way more expensive. I just bought an

Eth 4s

Great Poleaxe with I believe it was 9%Ed or 10% for less than a plain

Eth

Thresher. I have a link that breaks down Merc ias and damage per strike with each polearm.

hav0c_2 wrote: 2 years ago

I use and Act II frozen aura Merc. The aura helps with crowds. He's my damage dealer and rarely dies. As a summoner druid, my Bear is a tank that can absorb damage and my merc deals it out. Merc loadout is this:

Helm:

Crown of Thieves - the life steal is the big one for me 12%/hit

Armor:

Duriel's Shell. Not great for defense (699 at level 85), but good resists

Weapon: Reaper's Toll. Great for breaking physical immunities and another 13% life stolen

so 25% life stolen per hit and resists are at 75/75/70/70. Even diablo's lit hit doesn't kill him. The only time he sometimes has trouble are certain long distance crowds. Even then, I

Teleport the bear in to absorb the damage and he closes quickly.

Good luck and Let me know if you ever need some help!

If you up the armor with

Ko

Lem P

Diamond it gets like 1200-1300def

Eth gets like 2200-2400def

early on a

Kelpie Snare,

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest and Smoke keeps the merc alive pretty well.

I pondered the same question until I heard someone suggest:

Treachery
Reaper's Toll

Kira's Guardian

Tried it and haven't looked back. The guy just tanks council and cows.

I could fall asleep farming cows or Chaos sanc and my merc would still protect me.

I forgot to mention.... if your merc is dying from physical attacks like in cows or something. You can do the door trick and bug him out. Go to

Outer Cloister stand on the other side of a door and shut it on him. He will remain stuck behind the door until it pulls him automatically to you. I had to do that in hell cows starting out with trangs set. Couldn't afford 50k every 2 minutes to

Revive him.

Cinomed541 wrote: 2 years ago

I forgot to mention.... if your merc is dying from physical attacks like in cows or something. You can do the door trick and bug him out. Go to

Outer Cloister stand on the other side of a door and shut it on him. He will remain stuck behind the door until it pulls him automatically to you. I had to do that in hell cows starting out with trangs set. Couldn't afford 50k every 2 minutes to

Revive him.

That bug was fixed in the last patch. MrLlamaSC tested this on his youtube chan and went "NNNNOooooooooooooooooo" like darth vader.


My sorc merc is running with Andarial's Visage with a +30 fire res jewel,

Eth Fortitude, and Insight and can tank just about anything but Trav council still can wreck him if I dont watch closely.

My Pallys merc is using reapers toll, guardian and kiras for 90 all res and can tank trav council no problem as long as there is no

Conviction aura.... then he dies 75% of the time.

StonerSmurf wrote: 2 years ago

Cinomed541 wrote: 2 years ago

I forgot to mention.... if your merc is dying from physical attacks like in cows or something. You can do the door trick and bug him out. Go to

Outer Cloister stand on the other side of a door and shut it on him. He will remain stuck behind the door until it pulls him automatically to you. I had to do that in hell cows starting out with trangs set. Couldn't afford 50k every 2 minutes to

Revive him.

That bug was fixed in the last patch. MrLlamaSC tested this on his youtube chan and went "NNNNOooooooooooooooooo" like darth vader.


My sorc merc is running with Andarial's Visage with a +30 fire res jewel,

Eth Fortitude, and Insight and can tank just about anything but Trav council still can wreck him if I dont watch closely.

My Pallys merc is using reapers toll, guardian and kiras for 90 all res and can tank trav council no problem as long as there is no

Conviction aura.... then he dies 75% of the time.

May bad then, I haven't used it since my necro was wearing trangs. Thanks for the heads up though

I like my mercs with:

Andariel's Visage /

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest

Duriel's Shell / Treachery
Insight / Infinity

They're pretty good on standing their Ground. Kill speed is another thing to keep them safe.

I have mine with:

Andariel's Visage (

Ral)
Fortitude
Infinity/Insight

Does not die unless there is a lot of Hydras from Travincals Council, where I usually save him with Full Rejuvs