Act 1 merc survivability

My hammerdin's act 1 merc is dying a ton, and I'm wondering how I can keep her alive a bit more. She's level 87, with 46% base resist all in Hell. She's carrying an Insight bow, so it's just armor and

Helm slots I can really play with. Right now I have

Vampire Gaze as the

Helm, which seems like a strong choice for defensive stats, so I'm mostly thinking of better armors. My current gear is

Goldskin, mostly for the resist all, but it's kinda lacking. Current stats are 1500 life, 1905 defense, and 75% resist all.

I'm guessing that Fortitude is the best answer, but a

Lo rune is a bit out of my budget right now. Is there anything between here and there that'd be worth using, though? And is Fortitude something I should be saving up for, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

(I know I could switch to an act 2 merc and get a bit more raw tankiness there, but I like the range of the act 1 merc, so I'd rather not switch unless it's needed.)

Alternately, should I just get used to my merc dying? 50k

Gold isn't that much, after all.

Act 1 merc with a hammerdin isn't a good idea because the will be close to enemies every times you're jumping in.

You can try Treachery or Chains of Honor as armor.
First one may grant her

Fade which will give +60 all res. Problem, she has to be stuck many times to get it.
45 IAS is nice too because the faster she hit, the faster she life leeches.

CoH is the best armor for survavibility but you need a

Ber.

For the helmet,

Andariel's Visage is nice but she will lose physical damage reduction.

FWIW, I'm nowhere close to Enigma yet, so I'm not "jumping in" like a better-geared character would be doing. Often, the issue is actually that she's too far away - I get into a pack, she's behind me and gets cornered by a few random mobs, and I don't notice until it's too late.

Agreed that CoH would be strong, but Treachery just feels like a terrible choice - why would I take a 5% proc for max resists, when I just straight-up have max resists? Not like she can make use of the +2 'sin skills, after all.

Actually, looking at it, I think I've overlooked one quick and easy way to make her a bit tougher - upgrading the

Goldskin to exceptional. She can't wear the elite version, but she has the strength for exceptional, and that's another 400 defense or so. Could help in some marginal cases.

Smoke,

Duriel's Shell, Duress,

Shaftstop are excelent budget options armors for mercenaries.

Vampire Gaze is excelent, but if you need all res the

Tal Rasha

Helm is excelent also.

Agree with Alexandre_Souza, Smoke is budget but strong option.

If you want her to follow you easily, make a Hustle in an armor and give her.

For Treachery, 45 IAS may be

Key to reach a next attack speed breakpoint.

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest is fantastic.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 7 months ago

Agree with Alexandre_Souza, Smoke is budget but strong option.

If you want her to follow you easily, make a Hustle in an armor and give her.

For Treachery, 45 IAS may be

Key to reach a next attack speed breakpoint.

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest is fantastic.

Remember that Hustle is ladder only. Unless the char is ladder or already have previously made Hustle in other ladder, Hustle is not an option.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 7 months ago

Agree with Alexandre_Souza, Smoke is budget but strong option.

If you want her to follow you easily, make a Hustle in an armor and give her.

For Treachery, 45 IAS may be

Key to reach a next attack speed breakpoint.

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest is fantastic.

Treachery in act 1 merc, although provides 45% IAS,

Fade won't proc frequently for ranged.

I'm on ladder, so Hustle is not a problem. I do have a spare

Tal's, but it looked weaker than the Gaze overall, so I figured it wasn't the answer. Maybe if it lets me use a better armor with lower resists, though...? I'll need to play around with that.

Does anyone know the breakpoints for merc IAS? (Are they the same as the character classes?)

If you want a really defensive armor, go for Smoke.
That's cheap and really strong.

Merc speed calculator : attackspeed.php?char=Rogue+Scout&data=7 ... -0-0-0-0-0

I'd throw a Delirium into the round. Very safe and fun playstyle!

Alsadius wrote: 7 months ago

My hammerdin's act 1 merc is dying a ton, and I'm wondering how I can keep her alive a bit more. She's level 87, with 46% base resist all in Hell. She's carrying an Insight bow, so it's just armor and

Helm slots I can really play with. Right now I have

Vampire Gaze as the

Helm, which seems like a strong choice for defensive stats, so I'm mostly thinking of better armors. My current gear is

Goldskin, mostly for the resist all, but it's kinda lacking. Current stats are 1500 life, 1905 defense, and 75% resist all.

I'm guessing that Fortitude is the best answer, but a

Lo rune is a bit out of my budget right now. Is there anything between here and there that'd be worth using, though? And is Fortitude something I should be saving up for, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

(I know I could switch to an act 2 merc and get a bit more raw tankiness there, but I like the range of the act 1 merc, so I'd rather not switch unless it's needed.)

Alternately, should I just get used to my merc dying? 50k

Gold isn't that much, after all.

Fortitudes kinda overrated, just my personal experience/opinion. I have Fortitude in both a

Sacred Armor and

Dusk Shroud and I haven't used them for a while. Maybe its just my preference but iunno. I have an 85 smiter/Zealer pally with A1 Merc using

Guardian Angel (socketed with scintillating jewel),

Rockstopper, and Faith and she does very well.

For A1 merc I prefer

Shaftstop or

Guardian Angel (preferably socketed with an

Um rune or Scintillating Jewel for the +15 res). A2 merc does better with Fortitude just based on my experience. A1 merc needs the extra defensive capability to make up for being that much more squishy than Act 2 or Act 5 merc. Even on Act 2 or 5 merc I think I'd probably still use Treachery or CoH.

Probably need better than an Insight at level 87 if you ask me. Can't scrounge up a Harmony or Edge? Or a

Windforce? Before I got Faith for mine I was using Edge for a long time, probably all of NM and Act 1 Hell I think until I got her Harmony, and then later on Faith after Act 4 Hell (playing mostly P7 the whole way with my smiter/Zealer).

Delirium would be my tip

The

Confuse range, reach almost full screen and most monster will forget about you both

But maybe

Confuse is not good for the Hammerdin play pattern as the monster will not run to you (never played him...)

My real tip would be to change to Act 2 Merc 🫣
You can still use Insight (with a Polearm) for

Meditation and he can tank for you.
For the rest of the equipment

Vampire Gaze + Duress/Treachery (

Holy Freeze or Might aura)
Or Cure + Duress/Treachery (

Prayer aura)

DasNarf wrote: 7 months ago

I'd throw a Delirium into the round. Very safe and fun playstyle!

fredkid wrote: 7 months ago

Delirium would be my tip

The

Confuse range, reach almost full screen and most monster will forget about you both

But maybe

Confuse is not good for the Hammerdin play pattern as the monster will not run to you (never played him...)

Confuse is bless and curse for a hammerdin. Melee monsters stop engaging you, which may be bad. Ranged enemies stop running away from you, which is good.

All in all, I played that setup for a while a few ladders ago, and it worked well. But in the end, I swapped for an act 2 merc, as I had gathered some more runes and a good Insight base.

For armors Gloom or Stone could be decent and affordable options too with a solid ethereal base.

I depend on Insight for my mana needs, so I feel like that's mandatory. I don't have nearly the kinds of gear that'd let me skip that regen. (I suppose I could dump points into Energy to get my regen up that way, but ew.) Once I get, say, a couple SoJ, that might change.

Smoke does seem like a strong choice, and it's cheap, so I'll give that a try when I find an appropriate base. Gloom is a bit more expensive, but maybe.

Hustle and Stone are a bit too low on resists for now, but in another ten levels, that might be what I want. +40% IAS and

Fanaticism would certainly help her DPS, and the other defenses on Stone are strong.

BigD wrote: 7 months ago

Probably need better than an Insight at level 87 if you ask me.

He's using it for mana regen...

I agree that Treachery is worth trying. It's not JUST the all res that

Fade gives. Lvl 15

Fade also gives 15% physical damage reduction. The 45% IAS will increase her life leaching capability and the 20%FHR will help her when she is surrounded.

What base in the Insight built in? We need to calculate your merc's IAS. Hitting those higher breakpoints is huge.

The base is junk, tbh - some normal bow. I'm looking for an appropriate elite to use instead. Her DPS is not terribly high at the moment, so IAS isn't my #1 concern until that's sorted.

I do have that breakpoint calc linked above, though, so I'll be keeping that in mind.

Alsadius wrote: 7 months ago

The base is junk, tbh - some normal bow.

That's probably the crux of your problem. With little damage she can't leach, and can't kill anything fast enough to get out of trouble.

FULCRUM75 wrote: 7 months ago

BigD wrote: 7 months ago

Probably need better than an Insight at level 87 if you ask me.

He's using it for mana regen...

Fair enough i guess, I've never played as Hammerdin (just Zealer&Smiter) so I'm not sure how bad this build & play style needs mana regen over other things, I just know both my caster builds (sorc and necro at level 83-88) outgrew it awhile ago. Maybe self wield Insight on swap or use the pally's own

Meditation aura and briefly switch when needed? From what I'm hearing it sounds like CTA on weapon swap slot is probably out of the budget anyways?