can anyone explain giant thresher value for me?

mikelessar wrote: 9 hours ago

TimeSlayer wrote: 1 day ago

best speed for max dps

Thresher or

Giant Thresher

Andariel's Visage + ias jewel
Treachery

Small correction, for Infinity and Obedience, there is a faster base:

Mancatcher -20.
But it belongs to the

Spear class, so you can't do Insight in it (how many times I have forgotton about this...)

with Treachery and andy's

Mask u hit the highest breakpoint with a

Thresher, no need for faster. i think there is other setups using Fortitude that may use

Mancatcher, idk. but for resale value i make every Infinity in an

Eth

Thresher.

Bisu wrote: 19 hours ago

Knappogue wrote: 21 hours ago

We all know the the merc AI is asinine. My smiter's A5 merc goes full looney toon on one specific occasion. Uber Duriel. I don't know what it is but 9 times out of 10 he won't attack

Duriel. He will just stand there. Sometimes getting hit sometimes not. Sometimes he will putz around or just stand there. But almost never engage Uber Duriel. Literally any other monster or boss, he acts like his normal suicidal self.

It has been reported that there are some bugs related to Uber Duriel, such as Assassin's traps won't fire, and sometimes mercs would wander off to fight random mobs instead of Uber Duriel, etc.

I read somewhere, and I don't remember where, that it has something to do with how you aggro Uber Duriel. I wish I could find it again, but it had something to do with going beyond a certain point on the map and then

Duriel becomes an available target, otherwise the merc doesn't "see" him. I don't know about asstraps though.

Thresher has a bigger damage spread, so the damage is less reliable, it might under- or overperform, but

Giant Thresher has higher str and dex requirements. So, yes,

Thresher is often the better or even best base.

But often

Mancatcher is slightly better if you need the extra speed to reach a higher breakpoint without Treachery's 45 ias because lots of expensive merc builds prefer Fortitude (which has no ias at all but other desirable massive bonuses).

Hi there, slight derivative, I am now wondering how to optimize my ES Warlock. Have a nice

Cryptic Axe 17 medi Insight, so will use it in either merc or myself - perma mana is too practical.

If on merc, I suppose I have to go for Forti myself. If I use Insight, there are many options:
- Classic a2 merc Pride to get Conc + Might + possibly Haphasto fanat. Damage + damage + damage is good but isn't it overkill (mainly play p1) - That's what everyone does and I am not a super fan of Pride and its low damage - and possibly the low survivability with it.
- a2 might merc but with Obédience on

Mancatcher. Combined with G-Face and Duress or Forti it can become a Crushing Blow powerhouse - just here to kill bosses on which the lock can take time If I use (likely) my lock to do Ubers or Colossal Ancients
- a1 merc Mist + Hysteria (or Mania, the ex-Hustle armor) + Delirium should be fun and useful.

Probably other options work too.

What do you think guys ?

Necrarch wrote: 5 hours ago

Hi there, slight derivative, I am now wondering how to optimize my ES Warlock. Have a nice

Cryptic Axe 17 medi Insight, so will use it in either merc or myself - perma mana is too practical.

If on merc, I suppose I have to go for Forti myself. If I use Insight, there are many options:
- Classic a2 merc Pride to get Conc + Might + possibly Haphasto fanat. Damage + damage + damage is good but isn't it overkill (mainly play p1) - That's what everyone does and I am not a super fan of Pride and its low damage - and possibly the low survivability with it.
- a2 might merc but with Obédience on

Mancatcher. Combined with G-Face and Duress or Forti it can become a Crushing Blow powerhouse - just here to kill bosses on which the lock can take time If I use (likely) my lock to do Ubers or Colossal Ancients
- a1 merc Mist + Hysteria (or Mania, the ex-Hustle armor) + Delirium should be fun and useful.

Probably other options work too.

What do you think guys ?

In your use case, I think "mainly play p1" is

Key. Your ES lock's DPS is already way overkill for regular mobs, and even Ubers should fall within ~10 seconds each, so crushing blow is not that valuable for those. When crushing blow could actually shine, in the situations of say fighting T4/T5 Heralds, chances are your merc will get himself killed easily, unless you want to babysit him with continuous milk bottles....

So IMHO, for p1, QoL is

Key (Actually even in p8, I think the same). So here's what I would do:

-

Cryptic Axe 17 medi Insight goes to Act 2 Merc. Not need for Pride, because it is largely for players that enjoy looking at some nice damage display numbers for their... Pride =p. In p1 or low player count games, you won't miss Pride.

- Obsession in an

Eth

Archon Staff. It gets you all the QoL goodies and you will have a super easy time to itemize however you like <3 It doesn't have the huge damage, deadly strike, and good defense etc that Fortitude provides, but again you don't need that much DPS and your clearing speed is pretty much the same, even in p8.

- Consider using Cursed/

Holy Freeze Hephasto.

Fanaticism is great for boosting damage for the demon and your merc, but you really don't need their dps output much.

Holy Freeze applies

Amplify Damage curse just as instantly, gives you the extra layer of safety with nice CC, along with

Psychic Ward, you can confidently

Teleport into pretty much anywhere without fear (on my way to 99, I actually equipped with

Stormshield and

Crown of Ages after hitting 90, and it was a fairly safe and smooth jouney). The only "down side" of

Holy Freeze is that it could shatter bodies, so you will lose some chances of horking. But again, you are thinking about p1 without horking, so even this part shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks Bisu. Will probably go in the "Insight for merc, whatever good

Eth base I find for either Forti or Obsession for me" direction. Noted for Hephasto, my current Nightmare one is already a

Holy Shock + Cursed, he is super tanky and Curses everyone around - super nice. Still in A1 Hell so i have some time

Good week-end to all !