A1 Merc for Xbow Sorc

So I've been playing around with an

Enchant xbow sorc for a bit now and she absolutely smokes most everything. While killing time yesterday I saw an old video by Macrobioboi that suggested using the act 1 fire merc with a

Kuko Shakaku, Wisdom, and Treachery while you play a support sorc. I thought that might be fun to combine with my xbow sorc and now my merc works as backup artillery. Unfortunately she seems to be quite frail. I'm wondering if the piercing and CBF from Wisdom warrants a lack of LL on the

Helm, since

Fade never seems to proc; is Treachery the right option just for the ias and fhr, is it worth finding a

Pul to up the kuko for increased damage? Does anybody have any suggestions to boost her survivability without destroying her artillery strikes? Thanks in advance. =)

Her level is kind of low, so her life and resistances are pretty low. Do you have Call To Arms? That will help a lot

One all-in-one solution is Chains of Honor (leech, res, DR, damage). Or a budget solution is

Skin of the Flayed One (leech) with something socketed for resistances. If you add life leech, I would up the bow, although maybe it's not a high benefit/cost ratio

Alternatively you could put on any life leech

Helm as a temporary solution while you level and find/trade for more gear. It will cut down her damage, but it's a quick fix that might help her survive longer

Ignoring the obvious "ewww, A1 merc" for a sec:
You could try giving her a Hustle armor.

A1 mercs shouldn't get hit all too often. Their AI is largely designed around making them run from everything. A

Fade proc when struck - while theoretically perhaps not bad, albeit probably also not great - is hence a tad counterintuitive. Hustle would give you 5 less IAS, true, but you'd still leave her at the same breakpoints in the end so no loss there regardless. At the same time, she'd gain

Evade and - more importantly - a solid boost to run speed which would be in full support of her AI, allowing her to not only

Dodge faster/better but also get back to actually shooting stuff quicker.

You could of course just try for leech instead but tbh, A1 merc dmg (esp when reduced to only the phys part) is so comparatively bad that it still quite possibly won't be nearly enough. Even more so because whenever they do get hit and need to leech, they stop shooting to run, meaning they still won't leech cuz they refuse to just tank through stuff.

A general thought to this: I always use mercs that suit to my hero.

Am I playing a distance fighter and need a tank? A2 or A5.

Am I able to tank or have lots of minions as meatshield? A1 or A3 are possible.

Thus said, I would swap to an A2 (Infinity) or A5 (dual Plague) merc. Both may increase your fire damage by a good margin. The barb merc is the best (merc) tank in the game.

Not sure how much you're looking to drop on this project, but you might consider Phoenix? The aura will deal with the health problems, the -Fire res will significantly increase her damage output, and the Ignore Target Defense will help you take advantage of the

Pierce from Wisdom. As far as

Exploding Arrow goes, she can use the skill herself (and often will). A Fires Explosive

Arrows/

Bolts bow is not an absolute must like it is for the Sorc herself.

I would also second the Hustle suggestion. Helps her flee, gives her

Evade, and hits your breakpoints with a

Matriarchal Bow.

DasNarf wrote: 3 months ago

A general thought to this: I always use mercs that suit to my hero.

Am I playing a distance fighter and need a tank? A2 or A5.

Am I able to tank or have lots of minions as meatshield? A1 or A3 are possible.

Thus said, I would swap to an A2 (Infinity) or A5 (dual Plague) merc. Both may increase your fire damage by a good margin. The barb merc is the best (merc) tank in the game.

Thank you for the insights. Unfortunately Plague, let alone two, is outside of my available resources atm as I'm still fairly poor. I was running a desert merc before, and he was really good at standing between me and anything. But I found that he rarely did anything because most stuff explodes almost instantly with my xbow unless it's only one or two enemies. So I wanted to play with something else. This is fun, and viable.

Aelanwyr wrote: 3 months ago

and the Ignore Target Defense will help you take advantage of the

Pierce from Wisdom

As far as I know ITD doesn't work on mercs.

Azmenar3764 wrote: 3 months ago

Thank you for the insights. Unfortunately Plague, let alone two, is outside of my available resources atm as I'm still fairly poor. I was running a desert merc before, and he was really good at standing between me and anything. But I found that he rarely did anything because most stuff explodes almost instantly with my xbow unless it's only one or two enemies. So I wanted to play with something else. This is fun, and viable.

Fair enough, I support that Spirit!

DasNarf wrote: 3 months ago

Aelanwyr wrote: 3 months ago

and the Ignore Target Defense will help you take advantage of the

Pierce from Wisdom

As far as I know ITD doesn't work on mercs.

That's an oof if true. I see on the Amazon Basin that it doesn't work against mercs, but D2 has so much spaghetti code that I could see that being the case.

Aelanwyr wrote: 3 months ago

Not sure how much you're looking to drop on this project, but you might consider Phoenix? The aura will deal with the health problems, the -Fire res will significantly increase her damage output, and the Ignore Target Defense will help you take advantage of the

Pierce from Wisdom. As far as

Exploding Arrow goes, she can use the skill herself (and often will). A Fires Explosive

Arrows/

Bolts bow is not an absolute must like it is for the Sorc herself.

I would also second the Hustle suggestion. Helps her flee, gives her

Evade, and hits your breakpoints with a

Matriarchal Bow.

I love this suggestion and really wish that I was rich enough to afford a Phoenix for my pally, let alone one to just yeet at a silly merc trial. I think that I may work towards obtaining a Hustle on a new ladder character for this though. Probably try the Phoenix on an offline edited character though, because that does sound cool...

As far as I know the "Prevent Monster Heal" affix that does not work for Merc (or

Iron Golem)
The "Ignore target defense" affix works normally for Merc (or

Iron Golem). But Remember that it only affect normal monsters (non-champion/super/unique)

Azmenar3764 wrote: 3 months ago

Aelanwyr wrote: 3 months ago

Not sure how much you're looking to drop on this project, but you might consider Phoenix? The aura will deal with the health problems, the -Fire res will significantly increase her damage output, and the Ignore Target Defense will help you take advantage of the

Pierce from Wisdom. As far as

Exploding Arrow goes, she can use the skill herself (and often will). A Fires Explosive

Arrows/

Bolts bow is not an absolute must like it is for the Sorc herself.

I would also second the Hustle suggestion. Helps her flee, gives her

Evade, and hits your breakpoints with a

Matriarchal Bow.

I love this suggestion and really wish that I was rich enough to afford a Phoenix for my pally, let alone one to just yeet at a silly merc trial. I think that I may work towards obtaining a Hustle on a new ladder character for this though. Probably try the Phoenix on an offline edited character though, because that does sound cool...

If you do throw it together in a editor, let me know how it goes! The suggestion was pure theorycraft (I use an A2

Prayer/Insight/Cure on my

Demon Machine-tress, personally); I'd be curious to know how it works out in practice.

marl71 wrote: 3 months ago

Her level is kind of low, so her life and resistances are pretty low. Do you have Call To Arms? That will help a lot

One all-in-one solution is Chains of Honor (leech, res, DR, damage). Or a budget solution is

Skin of the Flayed One (leech) with something socketed for resistances. If you add life leech, I would up the bow, although maybe it's not a high benefit/cost ratio

Alternatively you could put on any life leech

Helm as a temporary solution while you level and find/trade for more gear. It will cut down her damage, but it's a quick fix that might help her survive longer

She's the same level as her sorceress mistress. So nothing to do there until i sink more time into her. I do have a

Skin of the Flayed One laying about, no CoH yet. Need a

Ber and

Um to make that, as well as a suitable base.

Another fun idea:

If you happen to have a

Cham rune, make a Mist bow for your rogue.

This nets you 2x 100% piercing attacks, the rogues' freeze should bring some safety to both of you and the huge resist bonus would max out the rogues' resists... put in a

Matriarchal Bow with either Treachery or Hustle she would hit the 9 fpa breakpoint (second highest possible).

So all you have to care of is good positioning, and then its like "double railgun" play.

If I absolutely had to use an act 1 merc though. I would probably use Edge or Hustle.

Tal-rasha's head and chest.

Eventually upgrading to Faith seems like a nice idea, however max attack speed on Xbox sorceress (

Demon Machine) is really easy to get.

Demon Machine needs 8 IAS for max fpa, so any

Fanaticism is a waste imho.

DasNarf wrote: 3 months ago

Demon Machine needs 8 IAS for max fpa, so any

Fanaticism is a waste imho.

Agreed, but I also think 2 Plague is a waste, better off with 1 Plague offhand and a Grief on act 5 merc.

Dual Plague or Plague+Grief are both good options, depending on your needs.

One is for improving merc damage (especially combined with Treachery!), the other for higher chance of LR procs.

I'm using a dual Plague merc with my WoFSin, and the curse procs quite regularly. Using one Plague was remarkably worse.

Guess I will list me build:
Flickering Flame

Duriel's Shell (debating on

Tal rashas with

Cham)

Demon Machine+

Shael

Metalgrid

Razortail

Aldur's Advance

Magefist

Nature's Peace

Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band

Switch:
Call To Arms
Spirit

In Cube:

Hexfire and +3 fireskill talisman.

The merc is using Lawbringer (which I switch out for

Arcane Sanctuary farming) and Kingslayer, ethereal

Great Hauberk with 4

Perfect Topaz and

Tal rashas

Mask.

I had it using Plague, everything still dies just about as fast... (p1) so I gave them to my

Rabies Druid and necromancer.

Fire sunder makes a huge difference compared to lod where Plague x2 or Infinity would have basically been mandatory.

BoringTitle wrote: 3 months ago

Guess I will list me build:
Flickering Flame

Duriel's Shell (debating on

Tal rashas with

Cham)

Demon Machine+

Shael

Metalgrid

Razortail

Aldur's Advance

Magefist

Nature's Peace

Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band

Switch:
Call To Arms
Spirit

In Cube:

Hexfire and +3 fireskill talisman.

The merc is using Lawbringer (which I switch out for

Arcane Sanctuary farming) and Kingslayer, ethereal

Great Hauberk with 4

Perfect Topaz and

Tal rashas

Mask.

I had it using Plague, everything still dies just about as fast... (p1) so I gave them to my

Rabies Druid and necromancer.

Fire sunder makes a huge difference compared to lod where Plague x2 or Infinity would have basically been mandatory.

I like it. Might have to make some adjustments to mine if I can find the right pieces. (i.e.

Duriel's Shell)
Currently using:
Flickering Flame

Demon Machine + 37% ED 13-47 FD jewel

The Rising Sun

Skin of the Vipermagi (for resists)

Hellmouth with

Magefist in stash for prebuff

Razortail

Sandstorm Trek

Dwarf Star

Carrion Wind

Flame Rift
1x burning grand charm
torch & anni
resist and FD charms
Memory on switch for ES and static as required