Holy fire Paladin (self use Conviction): What is the best Merc?

Hi

I'm using a Holy Fire Paladin (Dual Dragon + Hand of Justice + Flickering Flame + Flame Rift, self use Conviction)

What is the best Merc for this set up?

I'm currently using
Act 2 Holy Freeze
Fortitude + The Reaper's Toll + Guillaume's Face


(Still at act 3 Hell, many monsters are dying off screen )

I saw some guides recommending Act 5 with double Crescent Moon
But not only we are engaging in few fights, but when we engage, the monsters had already received some damage from my Holy Fire (so Static Field triggers will not help much...)

kinda going through this myself. gotta decide what role you want the follower to play.

elemental damage for you: act 5 merc with Plague

physical damage for you: any follower with Fanaticism and/or might.
Concentration aura also works here for some builds

or do you want them to kill stuff? similar set ups to above but you give them Eth weapons and a little bit different gear. max atk speed etc

a lot of builds end up covering both worlds. but point is aura bots just need to live. if their damage isnt great its ok.

for the auradin i would personally use a follower with Plague. careful not to make the defense too high similar to Treachery you want them to take some hits.

On paper the better option will be something that increase the Pulse damage. Plague could in theory, but I think it will proc very little and in practice help only with Fire Immunes (as my own Pierce is already 182: 150 + 20 + 12)

Personally I like the Holy Freeze slowing the surviving monsters, specially the ranged ones

Ooohhh, this entirely depends on a couple factors. Are you playing with a party? Because if you can fill the gap others are leaving open then there is that.

Alternatively I can think of a few options. Act 3 Merc with double Dream comes to mind right off the hop. Act 1 Faith/Harmony merc for increased hit chance or movement speed (matbe evrn Ice). But since you were running Demon Machine I can't imagine attack speed being all that useful, though the random revives could be helpful.

Defiance Merc could be useful with lack of a shield on your pally, but so could a freezing one.

Lawbringer barbarian could be good as well.

(I found Lawbringer Barb very useful if paired with one of the swords that procs Frozen Orb on hit, swapping for Crescent Moon if the Sanctuary Aura was pushing specters into nowhere land)

Oh and your current Merc should easily carry you to hell Baal btw.

BoringTitle wrote: 2 years ago

... if the Sanctuary Aura was pushing specters into nowhere land)

I passed by this situation on Arcane Sanctuary with another character
(and in this case Specters were one of the main reasons why I put Lawbringer on the Merc...)

BoringTitle wrote: 2 years ago

Ooohhh, this entirely depends on a couple factors. Are you playing with a party? Because if you can fill the gap others are leaving open then there is that.

Alternatively I can think of a few options. Act 3 Merc with double Dream comes to mind right off the hop. Act 1 Faith/Harmony merc for increased hit chance or movement speed (matbe evrn Ice). But since you were running Demon Machine I can't imagine attack speed being all that useful, though the random revives could be helpful.

Defiance Merc could be useful with lack of a shield on your pally, but so could a freezing one.

Lawbringer barbarian could be good as well.

" Demon Machine + self using Holy Fire" was my old mid-level build (maybe you are remembering from other thread )
I respec at L75 and now is
"Dual Dragon + Hand of Justice + Flickering Flame + Flame Rift, self use Conviction"

About Defiance, I fell that in practice Holy Freeze is better in mitigating damage (monsters making all attacks at half of frequency, is better than just the ones with hit check hitting you less - an only if you are not running...). And the defense bonus is aditive with others "% def" bonus so the real gain is not that high if you have other sources of "% def" (like Holy Shield)

Double Dream deals very little damage without Synergies (1–278) (that's why the only Dream builds are Sorceress and Paladin).
But could be tried if I already had Dream Helm/Shield... (do not worth spend runes for that...)

But Harmony may be something to thing about

Have you thought about Delirium on a Merc? I really enjoy it on Werewolf druid, locks down massive areas. Not great against gloams and their ilk tho as they just spray lightning randomly.

Anyway I was having an interesting time with it on an act 2 Merc recently. Sure rhe Merc might die, but it is what it is. My cash box usually close to full all the time anyway.

I agree about Defiance Merc, I really only use it with druid or necro and that's just to increase the uptime on summons.

As for Dream, yeah that's a Smoke if you got them situation. Basically act 3 Merc are capable of running dual Dream or double Dragon's, so few real options for them. (That's just an opinion). However thematically they are the ones I like looking at the most. So I use them sometimes. Unfortunately they don't regen life as easily as any of the other options so they splat way too often.

Besides, act 5 Frenzy Barb with the right equipment is in its own way a better spell caster with some fairly common runewords.

One day or another though I swear one day I will figure out a 3pc build for an act 3 Merc that actually works in their favor.

fredkid wrote: 2 years ago

BoringTitle wrote: 2 years ago

Ooohhh, this entirely depends on a couple factors. Are you playing with a party? Because if you can fill the gap others are leaving open then there is that.

Alternatively I can think of a few options. Act 3 Merc with double Dream comes to mind right off the hop. Act 1 Faith/Harmony merc for increased hit chance or movement speed (matbe evrn Ice). But since you were running Demon Machine I can't imagine attack speed being all that useful, though the random revives could be helpful.

Defiance Merc could be useful with lack of a shield on your pally, but so could a freezing one.

Lawbringer barbarian could be good as well.

" Demon Machine + self using Holy Fire" was my old mid-level build (maybe you are remembering from other thread )
I respec at L75 and now is
"Dual Dragon + Hand of Justice + Flickering Flame + Flame Rift, self use Conviction"

About Defiance, I fell that in practice Holy Freeze is better in mitigating damage (monsters making all attacks at half of frequency, is better than just the ones with hit check hitting you less - an only if you are not running...). And the defense bonus is aditive with others "% def" bonus so the real gain is not that high if you have other sources of "% def" (like Holy Shield)

Double Dream deals very little damage without Synergies (1–278) (that's why the only Dream builds are Sorceress and Paladin).
But could be tried if I already had Dream Helm/Shield... (do not worth spend runes for that...)

But Harmony may be something to thing about

Lmao, great. Now you have me thinking about rolling a Holy Freeze Paladin with a Frenzy Barb equipped with Dream Helm Dragon chest Crescent Moon and Voice of Reason lmao

BoringTitle wrote: 2 years ago

Have you thought about Delirium on a Merc? I really enjoy it on Werewolf druid, locks down massive areas. Not great against gloams and their ilk tho as they just spray lightning randomly.

Delirium may be a good option (and will handle ranged monsters)
But have to replace The Reaper's Toll ( Confuse overrides Decrepify), and maybe Fortitude for Chain of Honor (if i replace for a weapon without life leach)

Obedience?

fredkid wrote: 2 years ago

BoringTitle wrote: 2 years ago

Have you thought about Delirium on a Merc? I really enjoy it on Werewolf druid, locks down massive areas. Not great against gloams and their ilk tho as they just spray lightning randomly.

Delirium may be a good option (and will handle ranged monsters)
But have to replace The Reaper's Toll ( Confuse overrides Decrepify), and maybe Fortitude for Chain of Honor (if i replace for a weapon without life leach)

Also Decrepify is a very small range and Delirium is massive, it ends up just being a case of reapers Toll would have its Decrepify overwritten frequently, but it would still remain on elites and bosses

fredkid wrote: 2 years ago

BoringTitle wrote: 2 years ago

Have you thought about Delirium on a Merc? I really enjoy it on Werewolf druid, locks down massive areas. Not great against gloams and their ilk tho as they just spray lightning randomly.

Delirium may be a good option (and will handle ranged monsters)
But have to replace The Reaper's Toll ( Confuse overrides Decrepify), and maybe Fortitude for Chain of Honor (if i replace for a weapon without life leach)

BoringTitle wrote: 2 years ago

Obedience?

Thought about that, but I have an extra Ethereal Infinity tha can be used. While Conviction will not be useful (as my own Conviction is better) it has high % ed and 40% CB as Obedience.
(and my only Obedience is non-ethereal - my Fury Druid used it in the past - but even non-ethereal the damage is close to my Infinity ~-20% )

But now I will keep the next 5S ethereal polearm/ Spear that drops

Probably not as good an option as the above but Tomb Reaver could always be fun as well. (Nowhere near as good might be an understatement but only due to the likeliehood of obtaining it). Potentially spawning with 3 sockets might just be the tipping point, and an Eth one could be a seriously fun toy.

fredkid wrote: 2 years ago

But now I will keep the next 5S ethereal polearm/ Spear that drops

My Frenzy one has Crescent Moon and Plague. Works well.

I've been thinking about this for a while
20 pts Salvation, 4pts Zeal, 20 Holy Thunder, 20 fire resist, 18 points Holy Shield (max last) 1 point in prerequisites.

Demon Limb on switch, swappable with Call To Arms.

Equip double Dragon and the weapon you are currently equipped with. All other slots are really just whatever you happen to have.

Self use Holy Thunder.
Infinity cold Merc.

Most of the other slots would come down to whatever you happen to have on hand at that time.

( Demon Limb just for attack rating.)

I saw a guide of a hybrid Holy Fire + Holy Shock with:

Dual Dream + Dragon + Hand of Justice (self using Conviction)

But deals less damage than the
Double Dragon + Dragon + Hand of Justice (self using Conviction)

Holy Fire L30 x L44 makes a huge difference.