FoH Smiter merc options

Traditionally, I've always gone to the Prayer+Insight+Cure merc (The Battery merc I've heard some call it). For most parts of the game (certainly TZs which are ideal for FoH paladins) it does well.

Lately, however, I've been having second thoughts. I have an Eth BoTD GPA and a Reaper's Toll sitting in my shared that I've periodically substituted in certain situations, and both of those seem to greatly increase merc survivability again P7-P8 mobs in areas like CS, WSK, and against many Herald packs. I have to substitute a row of Mana pots on the Belt and drink a shit ton, but most of the time you're tripping over mana & health pots when clearing mobs anyway. Max damage on his non- Eth Insight Giant Thresher is ~2900 vs ~6K with Eth BotD GPA, and the attack speed on the latter blows the former out of the water. Reaper's toll only displays I think ~3.5K but the survivability on Reaper's against tanky mobs is through the roof compared to Insight. Plus it also pairs great the Renewed Bone Break I just picked up recently. Reaper's with it's decrep proc also allows my FoH smiter to cut TZ Baal down much faster (some may be aware of the decrep glitch that affects him).

Anyways, just kinda curious as to what some people's thoughts might be. Currently debating possibly switching to a Might Aura merc and maybe swapping in one of the abovementioned weapons as the new go-to.

I run an Act1 cold merc with Insight, plays well together with my Conviction aura to handle non-demons and non-undeads. LL Helm instead of Cure, and I have one point in Cleansing that I can switch to if too annoyingly cursed. I run mostly FoH though and Smite only occasionally.

Btw, my understanding is that your Renewed Bone Break won't help your merc (but maybe you meant that it improves your own smiting together with Decrepify - that I guess it will!).

NaglFarfar wrote: 2 months ago

I run an Act1 cold merc with Insight, plays well together with my Conviction aura to handle non-demons and non-undeads. LL Helm instead of Cure, and I have one point in Cleansing that I can switch to if too annoyingly cursed. I run mostly FoH though and Smite only occasionally.

Btw, my understanding is that your Renewed Bone Break won't help your merc (but maybe you meant that it improves your own smiting together with Decrepify - that I guess it will!).

Good thing in the act1 merc is also that it stays AWAY from the enemies so it wont get killed.

I have an Act5 Frenzy Merc with my FoH/ Smite paladin, but I did not use skill points to max my lightning damage so I'm running Fanaticism instead of Conviction to boost his hit chance. He usually uses Grief PB and Azurewrath (I like it better than dual Grief because of the knockback from Sanctuary Aura and elemental damage). He only died once, to Über Mephisto (when I switch to Salvation then he does not die even in Über Tristram, and I easily kill Meph et al. even without using Fanaticism). I switch to Redemption to fill up health and mana when needed...

I use a battery merc on mine. There might be an argument for a barb, as they can purportedly survive for a nonzero amount of time doing uber content – and Redemption can theoretically adress life/mana needs sufficiently – but for QoL during zone clears, I just like the battery.

Also, as an aside, why would one use Conviction on a FoH/Smiter? Smite doesn't use a hit check and FoH's lightning damage is definitely not the draw of the skill.

My FoHdin runs with a batterie, mainly for mana reg from Insight.

My uber smiters has a budget A5 with full sazabi's and Lawbringer.

Manic Pixie could be an interesting choice for a FoH Smiter as well.

Aelanwyr wrote: 2 months ago

I use a battery merc on mine. There might be an argument for a barb, as they can purportedly survive for a nonzero amount of time doing uber content – and Redemption can theoretically adress life/mana needs sufficiently – but for QoL during zone clears, I just like the battery.

Also, as an aside, why would one use Conviction on a FoH/Smiter? Smite doesn't use a hit check and FoH's lightning damage is definitely not the draw of the skill.

Maxed light damage and Conviction will kill almost any Beast. It's one way to handle the non-deamon non-undead enemies. Maybe not the fastest but it works, at least on P1. I would not recommend it for an end game setup but it's solid in SSF. Lvl 21 Conviction aura also negates Uber meph's, so it's useful for Uber Tristram, too.

Insight is a huge trap on FoHdin imo. You don't need the mana regen, just put 1 point into Redemption.

Now Eth 3os Tomb Reaver on the other hand...

I just use Obedience on my FoH/Smiter merc and use Redemption when I need mana/life, otherwise I'm just using Fanaticism. Conviction is usually used on a pure FoH Pally I believe.

Aelanwyr wrote: 2 months ago

I use a battery merc on mine. There might be an argument for a barb, as they can purportedly survive for a nonzero amount of time doing uber content – and Redemption can theoretically adress life/mana needs sufficiently – but for QoL during zone clears, I just like the battery.

Also, as an aside, why would one use Conviction on a FoH/Smiter? Smite doesn't use a hit check and FoH's lightning damage is definitely not the draw of the skill.

I don't use Conviction, i use Fanaticism. Skill tree has maxed Holy Bolt+FoH+ Fanaticism+ Holy Shield and whatever is left into Smite & Zeal (usually just 5 hard points in Zeal and about 10-12 in Smite).

As an update, I've been using Reapers Toll more often and it seems to do way better overall vs Insight. Basically just need a row of mana pots on the Belt replacing a row of Rejuvs. Still using Prayer Aura merc, haven't switched to Might and still using the Cure Helm.

NaglFarfar wrote: 2 months ago

I run an Act1 cold merc with Insight, plays well together with my Conviction aura to handle non-demons and non-undeads. LL Helm instead of Cure, and I have one point in Cleansing that I can switch to if too annoyingly cursed. I run mostly FoH though and Smite only occasionally.

Btw, my understanding is that your Renewed Bone Break won't help your merc (but maybe you meant that it improves your own smiting together with Decrepify - that I guess it will!).

Yes, what i meant was that Renewed Bone Break + Reapers on the merc is a great combo for cutting down animal physical immunes ( Blood Lord etc). Especially since the one i have has -10% enemy damage resist so it basically cancels out the penalty.