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Act 2 Merc - Is there any trick to activate his aura quicker?

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Hi

Sometimes your start a new game and Act 2 Merc's aura is already active 🙂

But other times, it takes minutes for him to activated his aura 🙁

Is there any trick to force him to activate his aura quicker?
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Hi

Sometimes your start a new game and Act 2 Merc's aura is already active 🙂

But other times, it takes minutes for him to activated his aura 🙁

Is there any trick to force him to activate his aura quicker?

Time Zone: GMT-3
Online: workdays (18-21), weekends (09-21)
Non-Ladder | Softcore | Expansion
7
My understanding is that activating his aura is a combat-related action, so teleporting him into direct combat helps a lot. But the likelihood that he activates his aura is inversely correlated with merc level, and I don't understand that mechanic
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TheDoo 240

Europe PC
There was -- to equip and unequip his weapon couple of times, but I don't know if that got fixed in later patches or just messed up with (I know I tried it and it seems like it doesn't work anymore at least not that often as before). :(

Marl is correct, it's best to just get into fights since that helps a lot with that bug (still not all the time tho).

Ma neeeeeeema veeeeeeeze! xd

Someone much smarter than me already said once: "The real value of something doesn't reflect in a number of how much a seller is asking for it, but on how much a buyer is willing to pay for it."
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ShadowHeart 1843Moderator

Europe PC
As far as I know, the merc's AI has to actively 'choose' to 'use' his aura skill. This will only happen in a combat situation, but I don't know the exact mechanics.

I found this old article, but I'm not sure how accurate it is.
https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Guide:Mercenary_Guide_v1.10#Act_2_Merc_Aura_Activation wrote:

Act 2 Merc Aura Activation

Act 2 Merc auras do not automatically activate when you hire them, or do they become active when you leave town. The Desert Warrior requires a little stimulus to use his aura and this means getting him involved in the action.

Basically, the Act II merc will only activate his aura when he has to pick an attack. The chance of activating his aura decreases every level up, to around 2.5% at lvl90+. So if your character kills everything before the merc gets a look in, the aura won't activate.

It can be a little more complicated than what is stated above and there do seem to be instances where a hired mercs aura will simply not turn on, or at least take a very long time to do so. Simply returning to town and then letting your merc kill more monsters should normally solve such problems.

I'm in CET (Central European Time), so that's UTC+1 normally and UTC+2 during DST.
My profile says Ladder, but I play both Ladder and Non-Ladder.
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User avatar

Schnorki 3206Moderator

PC
fredkid wrote: 1 month ago
[..]
Sometimes your start a new game and Act 2 Merc's aura is already active 🙂
[..]
That should not be the case. Ever.
New game resets merc and they always start out with their aura inactive. You can get lucky of course and have it go active on their very first attack but never before that.

Merc auras are a combat action and hence require the merc actually wanting to take a swing at something. If your merc is nothing but an aura supplier and never gets to really attack anything as you actively run, it may be worth going to eldritch first and allowing your merc to solo him, depending on how badly you want his aura active. He and his minions are quick enough to reach and tend to be sufficient to reliably have your merc activate his aura (not always..but almost).

Item auras are of course an exception as those are just always active.
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OP
yes.. possibly I exaggerated with the
fredkid wrote: 1 month ago
Sometimes your start a new game and Act 2 Merc's aura is already active 🙂
😛

But, sometimes the first time I looked at him, he was already with his aura active. Never paid attention if this ever happened before the first combat, so I thought it could be possible to start with the aura active (which, from previous posts, it is not)

I tried the trick of unequip and re-equip items, but it does not work either (don't remember if read it somewhere or it worked - or seemed to work - at some time in the past... but it is something that came from the "pre-ressurrected" era)

Time Zone: GMT-3
Online: workdays (18-21), weekends (09-21)
Non-Ladder | Softcore | Expansion
7
User avatar

Schnorki 3206Moderator

PC
There were plenty of "tricks to improve aura odds" from "unequip and re-equip" over "
Teleport
in and out" to "take wp to town then go back to force trigger" and all that jazz.

In my experience, none of those tricks has ever done anything apart from making it look successful when it was coincidentally followed up by the aura finally turning on within an attack or two.

That's not to say there was never a bug to let you force an aura (after all, there's been bugs for just about everything at some point ^^) but all of those tricks I for one was ever aware of and ended up actually testing always turned out to not actually do anything.
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What works best for me if the aura doesn't come is:
- go to the nearest merc dealer
- click dealer
- point the cursor on "Hire"
- merc starts sweating and aura pops on
Works like a charm!
7
OP
fraggykrueger wrote: 1 month ago
What works best for me if the aura doesn't come is:
- go to the nearest merc dealer
- click dealer
- point the cursor on "Hire"
- merc starts sweating and aura pops on
Works like a charm!
Fear to lose his job? 🤔😝
They Took Our Jobs!

Time Zone: GMT-3
Online: workdays (18-21), weekends (09-21)
Non-Ladder | Softcore | Expansion
7
DEYTUKERJERBS!
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It behaves like a bug in the game. I know that it may have been intentional for the merc to not start with the aura, but it does nothing but detract from the experience. I'd love for this to be patched.
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Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago
Merc auras are a combat action and hence require the merc actually wanting to take a swing at something. If your merc is nothing but an aura supplier...
So, if we wanted to make the merc activate the aura as soon as possible, would it make sense to give him the fastest possible weapon, and possibly IAS gear to reach the next breakpoint?

Lanceor's FoH Zealot Guide
Farm everything. Wreck Ubers.
■ Often online all day, but I'm on call so I may have to leave in a hurry.
■ Sydney timezone: UTC +10.

7
User avatar

Schnorki 3206Moderator

PC
Lanceor wrote: 1 month ago
Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago
Merc auras are a combat action and hence require the merc actually wanting to take a swing at something. If your merc is nothing but an aura supplier...
So, if we wanted to make the merc activate the aura as soon as possible, would it make sense to give him the fastest possible weapon, and possibly IAS gear to reach the next breakpoint?
I dare say the time it takes to switch his gear back and forth would far (FAR) outweigh any potential average benefit there.
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Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago
Lanceor wrote: 1 month ago
Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago
Merc auras are a combat action and hence require the merc actually wanting to take a swing at something. If your merc is nothing but an aura supplier...
So, if we wanted to make the merc activate the aura as soon as possible, would it make sense to give him the fastest possible weapon, and possibly IAS gear to reach the next breakpoint?
I dare say the time it takes to switch his gear back and forth would far (FAR) outweigh any potential average benefit there.
I didn't mean weapon swaps. I meant more along the line of choosing speed over damage per hit when choosing a base for Insight/Infinity for example. :D

Lanceor's FoH Zealot Guide
Farm everything. Wreck Ubers.
■ Often online all day, but I'm on call so I may have to leave in a hurry.
■ Sydney timezone: UTC +10.

7
User avatar

Schnorki 3206Moderator

PC
Lanceor wrote: 1 month ago
Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago
Lanceor wrote: 1 month ago


So, if we wanted to make the merc activate the aura as soon as possible, would it make sense to give him the fastest possible weapon, and possibly IAS gear to reach the next breakpoint?
I dare say the time it takes to switch his gear back and forth would far (FAR) outweigh any potential average benefit there.
I didn't mean weapon swaps. I meant more along the line of choosing speed over damage per hit when choosing a base for Insight/Infinity for example. :D
Fair enough.

Though even then I'd still wager a guess that unless that also happens to be the highest DPS option (in which case it should be chosen anyways), the trade-off wouldn't be worth getting your aura up probably not even a second faster (on avg). But who knows...feel free to run some math. :D
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Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago
Lanceor wrote: 1 month ago
Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago


I dare say the time it takes to switch his gear back and forth would far (FAR) outweigh any potential average benefit there.
I didn't mean weapon swaps. I meant more along the line of choosing speed over damage per hit when choosing a base for Insight/Infinity for example. :D
Fair enough.

Though even then I'd still wager a guess that unless that also happens to be the highest DPS option (in which case it should be chosen anyways), the trade-off wouldn't be worth getting your aura up probably not even a second faster (on avg). But who knows...feel free to run some math. :D
As usual, the answer is "it depends". :D

In my mind though, Treachery is a lot cheaper to make than Fortitude, and quicker aura activation would be small bonus.

Lanceor's FoH Zealot Guide
Farm everything. Wreck Ubers.
■ Often online all day, but I'm on call so I may have to leave in a hurry.
■ Sydney timezone: UTC +10.

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