Is "magic damage reduced by X" viable for a Trav Merc?

Hey, I want to switch my typical merc build for my Horker, since GA / Kira / Reapers is boring and I want to use something else.

So I thought I'd give my Gladiators Bane a chance and go for "magic damage reduced by X" to survive the Hydras. Items I want to use to reach a High survivability are:

• Eth
  The Gladiator's Bane: 20 mdr / 17 dr / CBF / 1 socket / 198% def

• Crown of Ages: 24 res / 13% dr / 2 sockets

• Eth
  The Reaper's Toll or
  Eth 2os
  Tomb Reaver if I want no cold damage (2
  Amn runes for ll)

He get to all res 75 and has some decent phys. damage reduction and leech.... But how much mdr does he need to survive the Hydras?

I could use

Mal runes (7 mdr) on all 3 sockets to get 41 mdr over all. Does he really need that much?

Do you have expirience with such a merc?
I could not find much information about the

Hydra damage or level.... and I'm not sure about the damage calculation for merc, since I didn't care much about mdr.

Any input is welcome

I am running an

Eth bane and an unsocketed CoA on my horker merc (+ Insight as a weapon).
He pretty much instantly kicks the bucket even with BO, once hydras get going.

Afaik, mercs take 5x the damge from hydras that the player does, as the player gets the "PvP" dmg reduction for hydras, but the merc does not.
If that is right, then mercs take 165-210 damage per shot.

I use

Guardian Angel socketed with an

Um to get 90% fire resist. Seems to work pretty well and rarely dies unless cursed with amp damage.

Add in

Crown of Thieves for life leech and extra fire resist. Unless of course you really want to try something different ;0

I do Trav runs on p3 with my WW horker barb. However I use

Eth Steelshade and

Eth GA with

Eth Reaper's on Merc , he only dies when there’s

Conviction aura in the mix and I’m too slow to reposition

I use forti atm but bis is Coh for the high resistance against

Conviction and 8LL.
LL increase your merc survivability than damage reduction.

Steel Shade + Chains of Honor is the best setup I've found for Trav Barb merc.

Eth/non

Eth doesn't matter as much as the Fire Absorb + Replenish life rolls on the helmet.

And Insight or

Arioc's Needle are good weapons for A2 merc.

Tomb Reaver might also be good with the extra MF + IAS + All Res + Sockets. But I recently switched to A5

Frenzy merc with 2x Last Wish and loving it. As soon as

Life Tap activates, we are both practically invincible.

M1ck wrote: 1 year ago

I use

Guardian Angel socketed with an

Um to get 90% fire resist. Seems to work pretty well and rarely dies unless cursed with amp damage.

Add in

Crown of Thieves for life leech and extra fire resist. Unless of course you really want to try something different ;0

High five! Perfect gear setup for plain

Travincal runs. Also 2x Last Wish, for obvious reasons.

The Gladiator's Bane is cheap and works well, so long as yr resists are maxxed
bane+reapers+tals hat 4 me

I’d say that PDR and MDR are relevant for ES sorcs only.

For a Trav merc go for high fire res and a high amount of life leach with a high damage weapon. My setup for a GF Barb A2 might merc is this:

• Crown of Thieves 12 ll,
  Cham

• Ethereal
  Bonehew, 2x
  Pul

• Black Hades, 3x ias jewels with some secondary mods

Only

Conviction brings him down.

honestly why even bother with the merc for travs runs with barb? am i missing something? i just gave up after seeing my boi razan standing in all them hydras and geting nuked for the 10th time or so

marek22 wrote: 1 year ago

honestly why even bother with the merc for travs runs with barb? am i missing something? i just gave up after seeing my boi razan standing in all them hydras and geting nuked for the 10th time or so

Ah poor Razan…

If merc is dying all the time, then yeah ultimately it’s a time / gold sink. However, for optimal run times/ survival , you’ll need a merc, primarily for his aura / procs which will lower the time required to take down council unless you’re having to go out of your way to protect/

Revive him.