Best merc set up for Smiter Uber Ancient

Hi,

I am currently using Act 5 Merc with Sazabi set + Malice sword, even when I prebuff him with

Fade using Treachery, little bro does not really survive much.
I am on a smiter with CoA + Last Wish, so I can tank the whole fight, but I was looking for a new Merc set up so:
- He can survive long enough and tank a bit for me to make my job easier
- Or I have been thinking about trying a long-range Merc and giving him a weapon that gives an aura, so I can benefit from the aura. But I am not sure at all about the aggro, if any Ancient goes onto him, he won't last longer than the current Act 5 little bro

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Following because I'm interested to see as well. Uber Ancients definitely appear to have gotten buffed. Pre patch 3.2 my FoH smiter could get them done without a ton of difficulty. Just tried them a little while ago with my nonHC FoH smiter and died twice and used up two sets of statues trying because i couldnt get my corpse back. And I've done Ubers many times with this same char, FoH smiter w/
Gface w/

Um
Fortitude

Archon Plate
Grief PB
HoZ (upped and

Um'd)
Ravenfrost

Gore Rider
Maras
TrangOuls (mostly for the cold res and i dont feel like switching them out)

Uber Ancients slapped harder than I remember and harder than Uber Trist IIRC. Would like to hear some people's strategies or if I'm just retarded and doing something totally wrong.

Seems that new Uber Ancients are wayyy harder than before, and depending on your build can be harder than

Uber Tristram.

For all the reports I have heard of, except with super fast clearing builds (Mosaic...), mercs are pretty cooked in all cases.

In my experience having capped resistances is the most important issue. Try to get 275+ for Lightning, Cold and Fire (simply switch your dmg Charms with res Charms).

If you can keep your Merc alive with the right gear I don't know. Mine can "help" with killing one but gets killed at the latest when they enter the second phase. My Merc uses

Andariel's Visage, Fortitude and an Infinity (The Infinity is nearly useless in this case but I am too lazy to switch it to maybe

The Reaper's Toll ).

I think Smiter with CoA and

Fade may be one of the best builds. I kill

Talic first, he seems to be the final boss, doing a lot of damage with whirlwinds and the fire tonados. Once he is down, the two others are sitting ducks at least with a smiter.

But my little bro typically never makes it that far.
Have you tried a ranged merc ?

my

Frenzy-barb has a act1 merc with a Mist-Bow and forty and she dies also after 3 sec

Lyrix wrote: 4 hours ago

I think Smiter with CoA and

Fade may be one of the best builds. I kill

Talic first, he seems to be the final boss, doing a lot of damage with whirlwinds and the fire tonados. Once he is down, the two others are sitting ducks at least with a smiter.

But my little bro typically never makes it that far.
Have you tried a ranged merc ?

Ranged merc brings the MPD A1 merc to mind, which i can't imagine doing well in this scenario. My FoH smiter i typically use the Battery merc for TZ area clearing/farming. This time i swapped out the Insight for an EthBotD GPA that I have, and regardless he got cooked almost right away.

oOKIWIOo wrote: 5 hours ago

In my experience having capped resistances is the most important issue. Try to get 275+ for Lightning, Cold and Fire (simply switch your dmg Charms with res Charms).

If you can keep your Merc alive with the right gear I don't know. Mine can "help" with killing one but gets killed at the latest when they enter the second phase. My Merc uses

Andariel's Visage, Fortitude and an Infinity (The Infinity is nearly useless in this case but I am too lazy to switch it to maybe

The Reaper's Toll ).

Reapers toll would be proc'ing decrep hence probably not a good idea for this use case scenario where you'd probably want

Life Tap instead. Thats why i didnt try it.

BigD wrote: 4 hours ago

Lyrix wrote: 4 hours ago

I think Smiter with CoA and

Fade may be one of the best builds. I kill

Talic first, he seems to be the final boss, doing a lot of damage with whirlwinds and the fire tonados. Once he is down, the two others are sitting ducks at least with a smiter.

But my little bro typically never makes it that far.
Have you tried a ranged merc ?

Ranged merc brings the MPD A1 merc to mind, which i can't imagine doing well in this scenario. My FoH smiter i typically use the Battery merc for TZ area clearing/farming. This time i swapped out the Insight for an EthBotD GPA that I have, and regardless he got cooked almost right away.

My thinking was if I get all the aggro, the ranged merc could survive and provide at least an aura that could be useful (won't count on its damage too much).
My current merc with Sazabi + 2

Ber and a

Cham +

Fade can't survive the tanking. I gave him a Malice on the offhand, but can't be that useful if he is dead every time.

What's MPD again?

Lyrix wrote: 3 hours ago

BigD wrote: 4 hours ago

Lyrix wrote: 4 hours ago

I think Smiter with CoA and

Fade may be one of the best builds. I kill

Talic first, he seems to be the final boss, doing a lot of damage with whirlwinds and the fire tonados. Once he is down, the two others are sitting ducks at least with a smiter.

But my little bro typically never makes it that far.
Have you tried a ranged merc ?

Ranged merc brings the MPD A1 merc to mind, which i can't imagine doing well in this scenario. My FoH smiter i typically use the Battery merc for TZ area clearing/farming. This time i swapped out the Insight for an EthBotD GPA that I have, and regardless he got cooked almost right away.

My thinking was if I get all the aggro, the ranged merc could survive and provide at least an aura that could be useful (won't count on its damage too much).
My current merc with Sazabi + 2

Ber and a

Cham +

Fade can't survive the tanking. I gave him a Malice on the offhand, but can't be that useful if he is dead every time.

What's MPD again?

Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, lol. A1 merc with the Delirium

Helm. Noteworthy setup because the A1 merc is the only one who retains all her skills with the Delirium proc. Rest of the build is kinda optional, but the one i had which worked great with my

Frenzy Barb had a Faith

Hydra Bow and CoH. Excellent for crowd control and elite hunting/sniping because of all the various procs from the Delirium RW. For Uber Ancients I don't picture it faring well.

BigD wrote: 4 hours ago

oOKIWIOo wrote: 5 hours ago

In my experience having capped resistances is the most important issue. Try to get 275+ for Lightning, Cold and Fire (simply switch your dmg Charms with res Charms).

If you can keep your Merc alive with the right gear I don't know. Mine can "help" with killing one but gets killed at the latest when they enter the second phase. My Merc uses

Andariel's Visage, Fortitude and an Infinity (The Infinity is nearly useless in this case but I am too lazy to switch it to maybe

The Reaper's Toll ).

Reapers toll would be proc'ing decrep hence probably not a good idea for this use case scenario where you'd probably want

Life Tap instead. Thats why i didnt try it.

Ah, of course. Haven't thought of that

I've read a post that discusses why merc / summon can't stand a chance against these 3. It's because after someone datamined the backend file, the parameter of primeevil of ancients is set to 1, which means they are acting like an act boss, damage-wise at least. It also means they are doing extra damage to merc / summon.

trying to go around with budget builds won't help any of you
try to get Last Wish as weapon with max crushing blow,

Blood Gloves with ias and crushing blow,

Crown of Ages with

Ber, a zakarum with ias jewel or resists, then full skillers and small charms with hp and resists

Pitach wrote: 31 minutes ago

trying to go around with budget builds won't help any of you
try to get Last Wish as weapon with max crushing blow,

Blood Gloves with ias and crushing blow,

Crown of Ages with

Ber, a zakarum with ias jewel or resists, then full skillers and small charms with hp and resists

It's much safer for sure, but it's not a must for sure too.
You do 2 things, you win 90% already. First, fire, lightning, and cold res to 275 at least. Second, walk instead of run.