Budget act 5 merc vs nihlathak advice

Hey all, my sorc/necro can farm countess and horizon keys all day, but I seem to have hit a wall with

Nihlathak. I’m solo offline.

I was thinking of trying out a new dual wielding act 5 merc with Lawbringer and Unbending Will. Any advice or suggestions?

For armour I was either going to go with Duress, Treachery or another budget rune word. For

Helm I’ve got a Keira or

Tal Rasha.

I was thinking it’d be best for my sorc so I can tele there quick.

I’m so excited to use my Exile equipped smiter to torch farm!

Thx for your feedback

I'm not sure the new runewords are usuable in offline mode, but I could be wrong. if you can get the Lawbringer though that would do nice for keeping the enemies from exploding. and the sanc aura is nice. not sure what to pair it with. maybe another aura sword. or an Oath

Bear in mind that the 'rest in Peace' mod applies to the weapon that has the property and only when it deals the killing blow (as opposed to other items that grant it globally).

Given that Lawbringer is basically a utility weapon, your barb is more likely to land kills with Unbending Will's superior damage.

I thought it works for the player who uses it, wouldn’t then it be useless for anyone but a melee char? I’ve been ready sorc and Hammerdins using it?

I was referring to mercenaries or anyone else that uses Lawbringer in melee. For casters, it applies to any kill caused by elemental and magic damage.

On my offline sorc, I don't have

Nature's Peace, so Nilithak is a little more scary to farm, but still doable. I stack life charms. I

Teleport in, move a bit away from my merc, and target nilithak. I basically tank (eat potions) the adds until he's dead. If there's snakes or he is both fire and cold immune, I quit out. I don't really pay attention to my merc during this fight, and he dies about 20% of the time. He's super budget act 2 merc with a

Thresher Insight, Treachery, and

Tal Rasha. It only takes a couple minutes to get to Nilithak so I don't mind if I have to quit out of the game.

It's super fun to farm torches. I'm excited for you!

Khegan wrote: 2 years ago

I was referring to mercenaries or anyone else that uses Lawbringer in melee. For casters, it applies to any kill caused by elemental and magic damage.

Yep so it looks like your right, I did a

Nihlathak run and let my merc kill everything and still caught a

Corpse Explosion in my face. So next I might try the merc dual welding Lawbringer.

Good news though, the

Frenzy merc is definitely the tankiest and killingest merc! I had tried an act 1 merc with a matriarchal Insight bow and she definitely lived longer than an act 2 merc, but she didn’t offer much more than that. I chug more mana pots (Insight is hard to give up) but it’s made Chaos runs much faster for my meteorb sorc. I’m going to try one on my necro and see what the time difference is on a cows run!

Rayney wrote: 2 years ago

On my offline sorc, I don't have

Nature's Peace, so Nilithak is a little more scary to farm, but still doable. I stack life charms. I

Teleport in, move a bit away from my merc, and target nilithak. I basically tank (eat potions) the adds until he's dead. If there's snakes or he is both fire and cold immune, I quit out. I don't really pay attention to my merc during this fight, and he dies about 20% of the time. He's super budget act 2 merc with a

Thresher Insight, Treachery, and

Tal Rasha. It only takes a couple minutes to get to Nilithak so I don't mind if I have to quit out of the game.

It's super fun to farm torches. I'm excited for you!

I finally got everything together, I farm my first completely self found torch tonight! As long as it’s not assassin or Druid I’ll be happy-I don’t have those characters yet

I'm not sure about gear, but have you considered putting 1 point in

Corpse Explosion on your necro?
Not only it'll destroy the entire room in seconds (including Nilhatak), it also stops HIM from using

Corpse Explosion on you.

As for sorc, well I only do him on my lightning sorc,

Chain Lightning does the job! (When Nil is immune lightning I cry).

CE would be useful for the bodies of suicide minions — even with SMRIP,

Nihlathak can explode their corpses if they blow themselves up.

Nate wrote: 2 years ago

Rayney wrote: 2 years ago

On my offline sorc, I don't have

Nature's Peace, so Nilithak is a little more scary to farm, but still doable. I stack life charms. I

Teleport in, move a bit away from my merc, and target nilithak. I basically tank (eat potions) the adds until he's dead. If there's snakes or he is both fire and cold immune, I quit out. I don't really pay attention to my merc during this fight, and he dies about 20% of the time. He's super budget act 2 merc with a

Thresher Insight, Treachery, and

Tal Rasha. It only takes a couple minutes to get to Nilithak so I don't mind if I have to quit out of the game.

It's super fun to farm torches. I'm excited for you!

I finally got everything together, I farm my first completely self found torch tonight! As long as it’s not assassin or Druid I’ll be happy-I don’t have those characters yet

Congrats on getting everything together! If you do get a druid or assassin torch, you'll just have to make a druid or assassin You probably already know this, but in case you don't, you can still use the torch on other classes for the attributes and resistances, so it's not a complete loss. I've yet to find a sorc torch and my sorc is rocking an amazon one.

I was so scared the first time, and the adrenaline after it was over lasted way too long lol.
You have to come back and tell us what you got

So what I got was my a$$ handed to me... first portal was

Lilith, and initially I was going to hamerdin my way to her just in case I died, but damn those monsters don’t mess around. I died a bunch of times before I even found her, giving up on that and just running there. Mistake 1: no tele

Once I found her She killed me about 10 times before I got a horn, a couple times I forgot to tp thinking I got a smiter build with an Exile,

Goblin Toe, dracules, Kira’s, skin of the viper magi,

String of Ears, 6 shealed

Phase Blade, maxed res, and they all say “once you proc

Life Tap you won’t die”...

So I had to find my way back to her, dying again a few times on the way, I finally kill her and get the horn...way harder than expected

I’ve now used all my rejuv pots except like 12 but whatever, I figure that was the hardest.

Boots straps up and make the next portal. Sands. Ok cool, Durrell’s supper easy to find and no one pots when they fight him. I do a couple circles and yup he’s close, but I get surrounded also by his damn monsters, not able to even move (ok tele staff is going to be a thing next time) I pot a few times and then I die... I even remembered to prock

Fade from my merc armour this fight and ... still died... I managed to get my corpse back, re prock and figure “na’ll it’ll be fine, he was down to his last sliver!”

I died, and used up all my rejuvs... down to the standard pots to get my corpse, which I do, phew...but by now I’ve run out of town portals... I was at like 16 when I started and forgot to check throughout! so desperately trying to salvage this but I get surrounded, close to the red portal and...die

I tried about 3 times to get back in through the only portal but pre-loaded Death was my only welcome... no chance to even move...

I crack the beer intended as a victory drink, now just to sooth the loss and acknowledge a bitter defeat.

...


I’ll probably try again after a break, level up a bit more, maybe do a respect or two, probably do a gear upgrade, but tonight was to be the culmination of a month’s gaming, only resulting in failure. Sigh

Nate wrote: 2 years ago

So what I got was my a$$ handed to me... first portal was

Lilith, and initially I was going to hamerdin my way to her just in case I died, but damn those monsters don’t mess around. I died a bunch of times before I even found her, giving up on that and just running there. Mistake 1: no tele

Once I found her She killed me about 10 times before I got a horn, a couple times I forgot to tp thinking I got a smiter build with an Exile,

Goblin Toe, dracules, Kira’s, skin of the viper magi,

String of Ears, 6 shealed

Phase Blade, maxed res, and they all say “once you proc

Life Tap you won’t die”...

So I had to find my way back to her, dying again a few times on the way, I finally kill her and get the horn...way harder than expected

I’ve now used all my rejuv pots except like 12 but whatever, I figure that was the hardest.

Boots straps up and make the next portal. Sands. Ok cool, Durrell’s supper easy to find and no one pots when they fight him. I do a couple circles and yup he’s close, but I get surrounded also by his damn monsters, not able to even move (ok tele staff is going to be a thing next time) I pot a few times and then I die... I even remembered to prock

Fade from my merc armour this fight and ... still died... I managed to get my corpse back, re prock and figure “na’ll it’ll be fine, he was down to his last sliver!”

I died, and used up all my rejuvs... down to the standard pots to get my corpse, which I do, phew...but by now I’ve run out of town portals... I was at like 16 when I started and forgot to check throughout! so desperately trying to salvage this but I get surrounded, close to the red portal and...die

I tried about 3 times to get back in through the only portal but pre-loaded Death was my only welcome... no chance to even move...

I crack the beer intended as a victory drink, now just to sooth the loss and acknowledge a bitter defeat.

...


I’ll probably try again after a break, level up a bit more, maybe do a respect or two, probably do a gear upgrade, but tonight was to be the culmination of a month’s gaming, only resulting in failure. Sigh

Oh no! I felt the town portal thing, as it happened to me. That sinking feeling. You did good though for a first shot.

Lilith is a damn Beast. Getting to

Lilith is freaking hard. I don't

Teleport to her because I'm a scaredy cat. My body has littered the halls of that place. But it does get better! For

Lilith I get her to come out and away from her little witchy friends. Getting to her I don't

Teleport, I just slowly and carefully make my way to her. Doorways are my friend, I don't chase those witches in a direction I haven't already cleared. My second time,

Duriel was by the red portal and I was dead before I loaded. Couldn't get my body and was a sad panda.

When I watch videos of people doing it, they make it look so easy, but it doesn't feel easy to me. I go slow and tread carefully.

So I got up 3 more levels (now 85), did a respec to a dedicated smiter (was a 1 point Hammerdin hybrid), switched out my shealed weapon for a Black, and absolutely filled my pack with health charms. I also completely filled my stash with rejuv pots and filled up on cash... and then my next time was no big deal! I think I used like 8 pots and my merc only died like 3-4 times!

I got really lucky with the matron den, it was only filled with Skellies and none of those firebolting witches.

I was rewarded with a mid pally torch!

Now I guess just do it over again and see what I get next.

That damn

Nihlathak is still such a pain to farm though

I find

Nihlathak very easy to farm with necro, just spam

Corpse Explosion from afar when the first minion dies.