Merc only run, is it possible? [share your experience]

I was wondering... Is it possible to do a Merc only run? Could you do it all the way through hell and which one would you choose? Also what gear?

How would it work >> well you could go into game as a new character on offline and just either kill

Blood Raven or lvl up to lvl 8 and buy first Merc. Alternatively on online you could make a new game and ask someone else to just kill

Blood Raven for you so you get a free Merc. From that point and onward, you are not allowed to kill ANYTHING by yourself:

=NO melee
=NO ranged
=NO damaging spells
=NO attacker takes damage stuff (aka

Thorns-y like stuff)
=NO aggro pets or summons (so Sages are fine)

=You must finish all quests in order
=Your Merc must kill

Blood Raven again
=You can buff your Merc or yourself or debuff enemies but generally be careful not to do [if any] damage to enemies
=Curses are fine, Tele is fine
=Healing via potions or NPCs is fine
=Quiting game/rerolling monster mods are fine

Additional challenge would be to be a SSF run, I guess, but it's not necessary!

Did you do/tried such a run and how did it go?

Short answer:
Yes, definitely possible.

Longer answer:
Mercs have successfully solo'd ubers. If they can do that, they can do anything. Personally, I'd go for either A2 or A5 as soon as you can grab one and would expect especially the mid levels to be a bit of a pain. Early on, mob health is so low that mercs given some mid gear for that lvl can pretty much 1shot them so no problem there. Mid-range you leave that OP 1-shot sweet spot but aren't high enough for high-end merc gear yet so that's bound to be more annoying. Come the lvl for high-end gear, your merc will faceroll anything you throw at it, if perhaps not in the fastest way possible.

Per your rules, it seems you're not taking away any non-direct-dmg support so auras, curses, BO and all that would still be fair game which naturally massively boosts your merc's performance and makes the whole thing quite a bit easier. As a result, your own choice of class will also matter quite a bit.

A5 (rather than A2) would likely make the whole thing a lot more convenient, simply because you can focus on non-phys dmg for the 2nd weapon, allowing him to deal with phys immunes without you having to carry around a second set of merc gear just for that (even as a nec, amp doesn't quite break every possible combination after all - rare as the exceptions are).

I would say act 1 merc’s are viable too, i use a 5os superior +3 skills bow for my

Larzuk quest runner, she one-shots pretty much everything with just some gems (on normal, then in nightmare she’d need some gear)

For char classes
Pally: auras = win
Necro: amp damage = win
Barb: war cries = win
Sorc: tele &

Enchant = win
Druid: HoW = win
Assassin & amazon: umm, just, argh, those would be tougher

Too bad that

Holy Bolt does moderate DPS I guess you could still use it on mobs to heal ur merc when they're not demon/undead lol.

Old GF Barbs used to just do Trav going up and down the stairs with their merc killing the mobs so, not to far off. With how strong Act 5 mercs got it's even better.

Having an amp source is a decently big one since they cannot hold sunders though.

It's fun because it explores making you the Act II Merc. lol

Nate2.0 wrote: 3 months ago

Assassin & amazon: umm, just, argh, those would be tougher

Maybe if the valk counts as a merc or the shadows cause if they were free game, then technically the sin would still be hot as a merc based trapsin. >.>

Nate2.0 wrote: 3 months ago

...
Assassin & amazon: umm, just, argh, those would be tougher

Do shadow masters count as mercs for the purpose of this? Cuz...that'd solve the midgame issue.

Nate2.0 wrote: 3 months ago

I would say act 1 merc’s are viable too, i use a 5os superior +3 skills bow for my

Larzuk quest runner, she one-shots pretty much everything with just some gems (on normal, then in nightmare she’d need some gear)

On normal, yeah. But have fun suffering through hell and such. Endgame, you're talking about like 10% of the dmg output of an A5 merc, give or take. Not to mention horrid AI since she spends most of her time running away if you expect her to deal with mobs she can't 1shot. So..maybe 1% of the overall dmg ouput? If at all.

Schnorki wrote: 3 months ago

Do shadow masters count as mercs for the purpose of this? Cuz...that'd solve the midgame issue.

Classic us Lol it's the paul rudd "look at us"

https://gifs.johnsey.cloud/gifs/hey-look-at-us.gif

Okay, I get what you meant now.

If you wanna post a picture, just copy on source and paste the image directly into the message editor here, appears as an attachment and actual working image at that point.

As for links..won't bother clicking.

yeah fair, idk couldnt get it to show in preview. like I said The Paul Rudd Gif if you know you know.

Got to work >.> Less than ideal but like some visual is better than people risking links.

Yea i totally forgot about the valk and shadows, so yea should be fine

Haha I don't know what rules would be cool, what would be annoying and/or which of them would just add a different challenge thus require a different approach. I just dropped a general idea to see how people think and I'm liking what I'm reading. Did anyone try a particular run of this sort?

P.S. Once I switched from Act 2 Merc to Act 5 one on some builds (at least, well after all the changes and buffs) I got to really like him. The

Frenzy one in particular... He is just sooooo tanky and relentless! Progress can be slow, but on offline I have a weaker version of my Auradin guy but with Act 5 Merc that rolls with Grief + LW and sometimes I just leave him to do things on his own... Even on players 8 he's making it possible, yes it takes time but it's quite viable.

The more I think about this, the more I believe A5

Frenzy is the only way to do this without going completely nuts along the way.

Solely because their AI is aggressive enough to where they actually go after stuff fast enough to not push your "DAMN IT, DO SOMETHING YOU F***!" aggression level too high while watching them.

Realistically..A1 and 3 would probably make me punch a hole through my screen before even finishing normal.

Act 3 is actually not that bad at all for whole Normal and part of Nightmare except Bosses which would take aaaageees to finish.

And on player 1-3 Act 1 Merc is okay-ish with like top gear for Hell (not for all areas tho) but because I played with her lately a lot I realized how atrocious AI pathfinding/targeting is.

I would say if you just play a little bit with Act 1 and 3 you get a false impression that they could actually work on some builds while you yourself are most of the time carrying them without even noticing.

Anyway... What would you all choose for a main character, which class and what kind of "beacon of support" would you be for your Merc in this kind of run?

Necro with a nice aura IG (Pride?) + curses (amp+decrep+lower res) to help A5 merc

Frenzy seems the easiest to me.

The only saving grace for an Act III Merc is Dual Dream IMO and even then... oof

IMO if they gave Act III mercs like the ability to be all 3 sorc elements (like 3 different hireling types) with maybe Orb/

Nova/Firewall or something along those lines, with their respective masteries. It might put them up there in usefulness and allow for more interesting playthroughs.

OR maybe different hireling types like the standard sorc one, maybe one that can use curses, maybe a

Battle Orders one. idk make it more the utility merc but just with different aspects. Great for singleplayer or SSF, could even

Cap the levels to like 10 tops 1 every like 10 levels.

Theoutrank wrote: 3 months ago

The only saving grace for an Act III Merc is Dual Dream IMO and even then... oof

This notion of equipping dreams onto act3 merc needs to die already. It's worse than equipping them with any cheap gear that ups their FCR. They don't have synergies for that Lvl 30

Holy Shock (1-278 to 556 in proximity dmg), therefore it's weak AF, and spending 2 jahs on a merc that can be a killing machine on normal difficulty is an enormous waste.

Act3 mercs are bad, simple as that, but advocating for dual Dream build as a thing is worse.

Queegon wrote: 3 months ago

Theoutrank wrote: 3 months ago

The only saving grace for an Act III Merc is Dual Dream IMO and even then... oof

Act3 mercs are bad, simple as that, but advocating for dual Dream build as a thing is worse.

As bad as dual Dream is, it's still the only good thing that I can think of and for good reason. Any gear you put on the Act III merc is bad, it's just that dual Dream is also bad on them but LITERALLY better than almost anything they can equip them with.

I'm not advocating it, I know it's trash, I know the hireling is trash, that's why by saying the only saving grace is dual Dream is because it's the only way to convey how terrible it truly is.

Which I once again say... OOF I'd go as far to say that Dual Dream is trash in general it's price point for what it does isn't worth it. To each their own, me stopping someones creativity might never find the perfect dual Dream character. Who knows what builds we have yet to see fully unlocked in potential, Nate keeps coming out with bangers.

Theoutrank wrote: 3 months ago

I'm not advocating it, I know it's trash, I know the hireling is trash, that's why by saying the only saving grace is dual Dream is because it's the only way to convey how terrible it truly is.

This is nothing against you but I yet again disagree with Dream, even as a hyperbole, being the only saving grace. We are still talking about low hundreds at best in an AoE. Slapping a Spirit (ethereal

Monarch is possible) and Spirit sword and either flickering, nightwing or low griffon is miles better than dreams.

In fact I'm using act3 merc to break the staleness of the ubiquity of act1/2/5 mercs. Paladin's buddy, so with

Conviction I'd go as far as say the merc being not a complete poo. Similar DPS to act2 or act1, of course without any auras but

Resist Fire + the

Enchant.

Cold brings nothing to the table and lightning is unreliable with static castings.

Queegon wrote: 3 months ago

This is nothing against you but I yet again disagree with Dream, even as a hyperbole, being the only saving grace. We are still talking about low hundreds at best in an AoE. Slapping a Spirit (ethereal

Monarch is possible) and Spirit sword and either flickering, nightwing or low griffon is miles better than dreams.

Sure if you found a way to make the Act III merc work, that's great! I'm sure myself and others would love to hear your Insight on Act III mercs. I have not mind you, I don't like the act III merc and tend to already dislike Mercs for more than utility. Before the

Frenzy merc it was mainly act II Merc, for auras and not so much their damage.

I've never personally felt the need to make a merc strong until the

Frenzy barb came into play. So my word choice may have been poor but it ultimately boils down to the fact that I just don't really like the mercs, outside of their utility. Similarly so I don't personally like summons we like what we like I guess.

Now with a playthrough revolving around having to make the merc strong, I added in my low-tier Insight to the convo.

10k DPS on a merc isn't chump stuff either so idk how you managed 40+ maybe their skills level differently idk seems like it could be solid for boss running.

Welp, the only use I found for Act 3 Merc is

Enchant from fire-based one and pretty spammy

Glacial Spike which can really slow down a single tougher enemy or slow down/freeze group of enemies which is kind of helpful for very fast builds that already have that speed advantage (

Frenzy,

Fury: Skill for example) or some glass cannon short-to-mid range characters like idk

Dagger Necro or Lightning Spearzon would be for example (or maybe even

Nova Sorc???) but yes, it has very limited use. He doesn't do any significant dmg, not like Queegon's fire one at least tries to do or gives any other buff to you or pets.
But that's exactly what Queegon said, it's pushing it for the sake of changing something about Merc from basically Act 2 and Act 5 meta.

I think people tried the lightning one for the Static purposes but it failed miserably (also yes, very unreliable)?