How frequently/reliable is Act 1 Merc Inner Sight?

Hi

On paper, Act 1 Merc

Inner Sight is, in many cases, better than Act 2 Merc

Blessed Aim to increase hit chance.

Blessed Aim however is always up, while

Inner Sight depends on Merc will to cast it... and while I sometimes see monsters affected by

Inner Sight, I have no ideia if we can force/encourage Merc to cast it in some way or it is completely random ... (and we can't count on it...)

It's admittedly been a while since I bothered really working with an A1 merc (since they generally just kind of suck by comparison ^^) but from what I recall, their IS frequency was nearly 1/3 and equally felt like it was up quite reliably.

Mind you, that is only the case if/when said merc actually "attacks". Not when she's busy randomly running in semi-star-shaped circles again because her AI blows. Depending on your build and the degree of telestomping you force her into, she may very well spend so much of her time just running that she won't be doing anything useful whatsoever for you.

I used to use it with necromancer and occasionally druid, these days though I don't even bother. The skeletons aren't there for damage anyway. I always found it somewhat inconsistent even on normal difficulty.

Though I have had a little bit of luck with act 3 fire Merc for enchanting my skeletons, they don't have access to

Fire Mastery to do pretty much the same shtick.

Mind you, with the

Fanaticism (Faith) bow, Harmony, Edge, etc. the act 1 Merc isn't exactly a terrible option (

Vigor or

Thorns aura).

They do have a habit of suffering critical existence failure at the worst possible times compared to the other mercenaries.

In the end though there's no way to force her to use it, however I find she does cast it almost continuously, as long as she doesn't have something right in her face.

Anyway. Without having access to a spare Faith bow, Bramble armour, Delirium/Dream/Flickering Flame

Helm I usually don't bother with her.

In my humble opinion, a Harmony Merc can be a very solid option for some classes (Poisonmancer/Strafezon without Enigma or summon classes come to mind).

The speed bonus is very convenient to me and my party and can be more impactful than a pure damage aura.

I consider

Inner Sight a small bonus, not the main reason to choose an A1 merc.

DasNarf wrote: 1 year ago

In my humble opinion, a Harmony Merc can be a very solid option for some classes (Poisonmancer/Strafezon without Enigma or summon classes come to mind).

The speed bonus is very convenient to me and my party and can be more impactful than a pure damage aura.

I consider

Inner Sight a small bonus, not the main reason to choose an A1 merc.

I uses an act 1 merc with this weapon (+3 amazon bow), and an armor and helmet that have some IAS. It's not the greatest option, but for a start it's not that bad.

hi, i know this is old topic,

my question is, if your a1 merc only get

Inner Sight. Ice merc , for example, will she use skill 3x more than 3 skill merc?



---
in my case, rogue end her life at lv 6. and I test attack speed performance today again, attack speed is not suitable for her, she like to shoot move.
Better to stack something else

mercenaries suck lol, it would be really cool if you could have a couple of toggles for them, like full offensive(attack without care for his life), full defensive(priority to staying alive) and defensive attack only when someone gets close to the player xD
there are some games that lets you pick stuff like that.

on topic, never liked act 1, bitch has no aura, fr0zen

Arrows sucks, they can't even use explosive arr0ws(on b0w) and the

Inner Sight is meh.

I'll piggyback BoringTitle's ancient comment. I run a Faith Act I with my Dragondin, since he's basically a Zealer with

Conviction and auras from gear. She does decent damage, but is mostly there for the

Fanaticism.

The

Inner Sight is good for early game until you get your Insight for Act 2 Merc.

for normal difficulty , she is best, I think.
a2 merc only get

Prayer which is equal to 0 and close range fight means nothing.

normal difficulty, in fact, you need to custom your style. more attack or more defense or more speed to trigger amp.

it is too many choice , makes me to test over and over. I use melee character, that amp have some effect to me but not much.

the thing is you need to custom your weapon for her or if you use a2

Prayer

Halberd weapon which I dont think any use.

that a1 monster, after my test, 40 poison enough to kill non elite but you need to make it 1 hit tick poison Death, not 1 shot 2 tick.

My current target is to make +life Light resistance/poison/attack rating for her.

the problem is should I use fire merc (2 skill )or no

Ice Arrow only Insight type?

I cant get Insight for speed run.

a2 merc, if I equip everything right, he will get full resistance and 200 hp and

Prayer, which still not enough to tank

Duriel.

The problem with

Inner Sight is, that it is a random attack. So if you want your merc to proc it reliably, she needs high IAS and walk/run speed.

The best armor for that purpose is Hustle (ladder/SP only), with Treachery being second best. Add a fast bow and maybe an

Andariel's Visage, and you are set. Low level options are

Twitchthroe and

Stealskull.

I second the fact that Hustle armor maybe BiS for A1 merc, really enjoy that on my Manic Pixie Dreamgirl that accompanies my Trapsin.

She repositions way quicker, she avoids most of damage, shoots super quickly (and using Ice and Delirium with it she is a hell of a crowd controller) and has decent res.

Necrarch wrote: 3 weeks ago

I second the fact that Hustle armor maybe BiS for A1 merc, really enjoy that on my Manic Pixie Dreamgirl that accompanies my Trapsin.

She repositions way quicker, she avoids most of damage, shoots super quickly (and using Ice and Delirium with it she is a hell of a crowd controller) and has decent res.

which base do you use for Ice? do you need to consider bow attack speed?



--
According to calculator,

Long War Bow to

Composite Bow change is more significant than high lv non speed armor to Hustle.
(1.5x to 1.9x vs 2.0x to 2.5)

Matriarchal Bow for faster Ice effect procs

leox wrote: 3 weeks ago

for normal difficulty , she is best, I think.
a2 merc only get

Prayer which is equal to 0 and close range fight means nothing.

A2 merc with

Prayer and using both Insight and Cure should be very effective.

Necrarch wrote: 3 weeks ago

I second the fact that Hustle armor maybe BiS for A1 merc, really enjoy that on my Manic Pixie Dreamgirl that accompanies my Trapsin.

She repositions way quicker, she avoids most of damage, shoots super quickly (and using Ice and Delirium with it she is a hell of a crowd controller) and has decent res.

Love the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, lol. Just tried one out for first time recently, and she compliments my new

Frenzy barb excellent. Crowd control is unreal and it's hilarious watching her shoot

Arrows as a

Bone Fetish, lol.

She's also a very good addition to a Fanazealot/Smiter, especially when doing Ubers.

Confuse doesn't work on bosses, so it won't interfere with

Life Tap.
I can beat the Ubers while she stays out of trouble and keeps all the mobs at bay.

My Summoner Druid sticks to her as well, after I tried any other possible merc/gear option. Rogue wins for me.

Best gear for MPD: Mist (

Grand Matron Bow if you have access to

Fanaticism,

Matriarchal Bow if not), Hustle, Delirium. The 100%

Pierce and the high IAS are almost game-breaking.

Inner Sight and

Concentration come on top of this. I would say, this is one of the most cost-efficient merc builds available.

I have several other heroes accompanied by a Rogue merc:

Throw-Barb (Faith, Chains of Honor, Cure) -> Faith is quite mandatory here.
Poisonmancer (Harmony/Ice, Hustle, Cure) -> Since I am not using Enigma (Bramble instead) the speed buff of Harmony is godlike.
Armymancer (Faith, Bramble, Cure) ->A stupidly expensive fun-build. No

Corpse Explosion, only relies on his 40+ minions. Pride IG and self-wield Last Wish for a total of 5 auras! Also known as "The Netflix-Necromancer". Just move your mouse here and then.

DasNarf wrote: 2 weeks ago

She's also a very good addition to a Fanazealot/Smiter, especially when doing Ubers.

Confuse doesn't work on bosses, so it won't interfere with

Life Tap.
I can beat the Ubers while she stays out of trouble and keeps all the mobs at bay.

My Summoner Druid sticks to her as well, after I tried any other possible merc/gear option. Rogue wins for me.

Best gear for MPD: Mist (

Grand Matron Bow if you have access to

Fanaticism,

Matriarchal Bow if not), Hustle, Delirium. The 100%

Pierce and the high IAS are almost game-breaking.

Inner Sight and

Concentration come on top of this. I would say, this is one of the most cost-efficient merc builds available.

I have several other heroes accompanied by a Rogue merc:

Throw-Barb (Faith, Chains of Honor, Cure) -> Faith is quite mandatory here.
Poisonmancer (Harmony/Ice, Hustle, Cure) -> Since I am not using Enigma (Bramble instead) the speed buff of Harmony is godlike.
Armymancer (Faith, Bramble, Cure) ->A stupidly expensive fun-build. No

Corpse Explosion, only relies on his 40+ minions. Pride IG and self-wield Last Wish for a total of 5 auras! Also known as "The Netflix-Necromancer". Just move your mouse here and then.

Faith is definitely huge boost to barb build. I have Faith on my MPD and its unreal for my

Frenzy Barb, especially with all the other MPD benefits.

I endorse this message.

I use an act I merc on my Fury druid (my uber killer) and it's awesome. She rarely dies, so her Faith is actually relevant, and the

Confuse procs also come in handy.

DasNarf wrote: 2 weeks ago

She's also a very good addition to a Fanazealot/Smiter, especially when doing Ubers.

Confuse doesn't work on bosses, so it won't interfere with

Life Tap.
I can beat the Ubers while she stays out of trouble and keeps all the mobs at bay.

My Summoner Druid sticks to her as well, after I tried any other possible merc/gear option. Rogue wins for me.

Best gear for MPD: Mist (

Grand Matron Bow if you have access to

Fanaticism,

Matriarchal Bow if not), Hustle, Delirium. The 100%

Pierce and the high IAS are almost game-breaking.

Inner Sight and

Concentration come on top of this. I would say, this is one of the most cost-efficient merc builds available.

I have several other heroes accompanied by a Rogue merc:

Throw-Barb (Faith, Chains of Honor, Cure) -> Faith is quite mandatory here.
Poisonmancer (Harmony/Ice, Hustle, Cure) -> Since I am not using Enigma (Bramble instead) the speed buff of Harmony is godlike.
Armymancer (Faith, Bramble, Cure) ->A stupidly expensive fun-build. No

Corpse Explosion, only relies on his 40+ minions. Pride IG and self-wield Last Wish for a total of 5 auras! Also known as "The Netflix-Necromancer". Just move your mouse here and then.

DasNarf wrote: 2 weeks ago

She's also a very good addition to a Fanazealot/Smiter, especially when doing Ubers.

Confuse doesn't work on bosses, so it won't interfere with

Life Tap.
I can beat the Ubers while she stays out of trouble and keeps all the mobs at bay.

My Summoner Druid sticks to her as well, after I tried any other possible merc/gear option. Rogue wins for me.

Best gear for MPD: Mist (

Grand Matron Bow if you have access to

Fanaticism,

Matriarchal Bow if not), Hustle, Delirium. The 100%

Pierce and the high IAS are almost game-breaking.

Inner Sight and

Concentration come on top of this. I would say, this is one of the most cost-efficient merc builds available.

I have several other heroes accompanied by a Rogue merc:

Throw-Barb (Faith, Chains of Honor, Cure) -> Faith is quite mandatory here.
Poisonmancer (Harmony/Ice, Hustle, Cure) -> Since I am not using Enigma (Bramble instead) the speed buff of Harmony is godlike.
Armymancer (Faith, Bramble, Cure) ->A stupidly expensive fun-build. No

Corpse Explosion, only relies on his 40+ minions. Pride IG and self-wield Last Wish for a total of 5 auras! Also known as "The Netflix-Necromancer". Just move your mouse here and then.

For the armymancer, wouldn't you be better with Might a2 merc + Beast on you... and way cheaper than Faith + Last Wish ?
You can even add an Infinity in Merc hands to kick out the enemy defense

To my previous question:
If merc only have inner Insight skill will it trigger more often than two skill?

Here is my current answer that I test earler:
Yes, it will use inner Insight like crazy.
So Ice is better than fire merc if you have equipment. It will makes almost 90% hit for you and her attack.