Best Mercenary Setup for Uber Smiter?

I built a new dedicated Smiter recently, but he is currently not using a Merc. I was using my Hdin for double duty (one point into

Smite and

Fanaticism) but got tired of the gear and charm swapping. My hdin uses an Act 2

Holy Freeze Merc with

Eth Fort,

Eth CV Insight, and Andy visage with a

Ral. He dies 50% of the time to Lillity and 100% of the time to Ubers. So, when I made a Smiter I never bothered with a Merc.
I've looked around but can't find a merc build for Ubers that can actually survive. Everything I can find recommends the build I already have with my hdin. Can you fine folk recommend a merc and BiS build? Smiter does just fine solo, so I don't care what act the merc comes from.

I’m spit ball’n bc I have little experience with Ubers but would

Azurewrath be useful? I think it could be great crowd control for undead monsters without overriding

Life Tap proc. Last Wish could be nice also, though the blind could be counterproductive. And so expensive assuming price is being considered. Maybe even Lawbringer assuming you can sustain a bit without lifetap, decrep proc would make for light work of Ubers when factoring in the Ubers physical resistance. I’m assuming it’s around 50 percent in which decrep would double the impact of crushing blow very roughly halving kill speed while also slowing Uber cast and attack rate.

I’m curious too bc I intend to enter the Uber world this wknd. I might try and rough it at first, but should probably secure a spotter on these forums in case I screw myself over. Bc it’ll probably be lifetap

Wand,

Gorefoot, gface,

Blood Belt, Gloves and a

Diamond gemmed pally shield if I want to complete them by Sunday ha.

I’ve seen YouTube videos of mercs “soloing” Ubers, both act 2 and 5. Each requires a source of

Life Tap from merc proc or player assist.

My $0.02 on the weapons for my

Frenzy barb I use against ubers. The main weapon is a BotD ethereal

Berserk

Axe. In the other hand I started with a Lawbringer PB that right off the bat served me well. I've gone through

Azurewrath, Beast

Berserker Axe, Doom

Berserker Axe, Death

Berserker Axe, and every time I come back to Lawbringer for fighting in

Uber Tristram and against

Lilith. It's rarely an issue when

Dracul's Grasp lifetap gets overridden by Lawbringer's

Decrepify, that can be easily remedied with a

Full Rejuvenation Potion. Lawbringer's

Decrepify makes things easier and faster to put down

Lilith and

Uber Mephisto. Against the rest of them a Beast works fine too. I did make a Last Wish

Berserker Axe once back in LoD, and it turned out to be a major disappointment. I may make one in D2R sometime later, when there would be nothing better to do.

bigbikefan wrote: 1 year ago

My $0.02 on the weapons for my

Frenzy barb I use against ubers. The main weapon is a BotD ethereal

Berserk

Axe. In the other hand I started with a Lawbringer PB that right off the bat served me well. I've gone through

Azurewrath, Beast

Berserker Axe, Doom

Berserker Axe, Death

Berserker Axe, and every time I come back to Lawbringer for fighting in

Uber Tristram and against

Lilith. It's rarely an issue when

Dracul's Grasp lifetap gets overridden by Lawbringer's

Decrepify, that can be easily remedied with a

Full Rejuvenation Potion. Lawbringer's

Decrepify makes things easier and faster to put down

Lilith and

Uber Mephisto. Against the rest of them a Beast works fine too. I did make a Last Wish

Berserker Axe once back in LoD, and it turned out to be a major disappointment. I may make one in D2R sometime later, when there would be nothing better to do.

The

Frenzy barb you are referring to, is that your character or your act5 merc? My smiter himself handles Uber's just fine, its the merc im struggling with. He just...dies, every run. Sometimes before even getting to

Uber Tristram.

bigbikefan wrote: 1 year ago

My $0.02 on the weapons for my

Frenzy barb I use against ubers. The main weapon is a BotD ethereal

Berserk

Axe. In the other hand I started with a Lawbringer PB that right off the bat served me well. I've gone through

Azurewrath, Beast

Berserker Axe, Doom

Berserker Axe, Death

Berserker Axe, and every time I come back to Lawbringer for fighting in

Uber Tristram and against

Lilith. It's rarely an issue when

Dracul's Grasp lifetap gets overridden by Lawbringer's

Decrepify, that can be easily remedied with a

Full Rejuvenation Potion. Lawbringer's

Decrepify makes things easier and faster to put down

Lilith and

Uber Mephisto. Against the rest of them a Beast works fine too. I did make a Last Wish

Berserker Axe once back in LoD, and it turned out to be a major disappointment. I may make one in D2R sometime later, when there would be nothing better to do.

Interesting. Looking more deeply into Lawbringer, the -50 percent defense is huge. If it doesn’t challenge persisting as long as rejuvs are available then

Decrepify is more a feature than bug.

I am perplexed by botd testing well. For

Frenzy, of which the ias breakpoints of unfamiliar with, I could see the 60 ias coming in handy and I suppose the 30 to attributes doesn’t hurt neither the -25 target defense but I’d imagine a high ias + crushing blow weapon to be superior. Even a Death in a

Phase Blade or even better and more budget, Kingslayer.

For op purposes, I guess it comes down to whether the smaller health pool of pally can subsist on rejuvs alone during the periods in which decrep is proct.

Or wait it’s strictly about the merc, in which case proct decrep could be a problem for the mercs survival.

A little off topic but has anyone experimented with the

Crainte Vomir on act 5 merc? I’ve always wanted a use for the thing and it’s possible an ethereal upped version coupled with Lawbringer could neuter the Ubers. Depending on max slow which I think was recently discussed in forums but I didn’t read it…

Rik wrote: 1 year ago

Or wait it’s strictly about the merc, in which case proct decrep could be a problem for the mercs survival.

A little off topic but has anyone experimented with the

Crainte Vomir on act 5 merc? I’ve always wanted a use for the thing and it’s possible an ethereal upped version coupled with Lawbringer could neuter the Ubers. Depending on max slow which I think was recently discussed in forums but I didn’t read it…

Ah darn it. Two handed, nvm

For my dedicated smiter, the merc is a plus so I gear him in a way where I don't need him but if he's around, I want him to buff me. So far, I'm liking 2x LW to get higher lvl might on my smiting. It's all about positioning though, I need to stand between him and

Lilith same with meph and he'll survive most of the time.

He's act 5

Frenzy with 2x Last Wish, testing

Eth

Guardian Angel for extra resists atm, and

Eth

Arreat's Face with

Cham.

I do notice a slight clear speed increase with the extra might buff on me.

Knappogue wrote: 1 year ago

The

Frenzy barb you are referring to, is that your character or your act5 merc? My smiter himself handles Uber's just fine, its the merc im struggling with. He just...dies, every run. Sometimes before even getting to

Uber Tristram.

Yeah, probably shot in the dark with my $0.02 as I don't rely much on my barb's mercenary rogue for ubers. It's worth mentioning she survives well with little to no attention against all but

Uber Mephisto. The only gripe I have for her is, sometimes when getting engaged in a bout with

Über Duriel she just stands or walks around doing absolutely nothing else until the bout is over.

azeroti wrote: 1 year ago

For my dedicated smiter, the merc is a plus so I gear him in a way where I don't need him but if he's around, I want him to buff me. So far, I'm liking 2x LW to get higher lvl might on my smiting. It's all about positioning though, I need to stand between him and

Lilith same with meph and he'll survive most of the time.

He's act 5

Frenzy with 2x Last Wish, testing

Eth

Guardian Angel for extra resists atm, and

Eth

Arreat's Face with

Cham.

I do notice a slight clear speed increase with the extra might buff on me.

Hmmm, I'm gathering that an Act5 Merc is going to be the best option for merc survivability. Yea the merc is a bonus. I dont want the hassle of him dying within the first 5 seconds of ubers and then spending 50k gold each time for nothing.

For a Merc to survive ubers I'd presume an Act 5

Frenzy is the best option yeah.
It has the fast attack-speed that gives it a chance to get the most out of

Life Tap, which I'd presume is the only way it could work.
-For that reason I'd stay away from everything that interferes with

Life Tap, even for a bit. That means no Last Wish or Lawbringer.

For gear I'd guess you at least want 1x

Azurewrath to get

Sanctuary Aura, and I'd guess Chains of Honor and

Cham'ed

Arreat's Face to overstack the resistance against meph

Conviction aura.

The intersting question is what to pick for a second weapon. That seems a lot less clear to me.

Azurewrath has the attack-speed to function well in main-hand so there are a lot of options:
-Grief /

Headstriker for top damage.
-

Crescent Moon for the static proc.
-Death for Crushing blow and deadly strike (probably my favorite).

assuming u provide the

Life Tap-
Sazabi's Grand Tribute +

Azurewrath

Goggen wrote: 1 year ago

-For that reason I'd stay away from everything that interferes with

Life Tap, even for a bit. That means no Last Wish or Lawbringer.

How does Last Wish interfear with

Life Tap? The Hit Blinds Target?

krathkor wrote: 1 year ago

assuming u provide the

Life Tap-
Sazabi's Grand Tribute +

Azurewrath

If I proc

Life Tap, does it count for me merc too?

Knappogue wrote: 1 year ago

krathkor wrote: 1 year ago

assuming u provide the

Life Tap-
Sazabi's Grand Tribute +

Azurewrath

If I proc

Life Tap, does it count for me merc too?

Life Tap is a curse, so it works for anyone who attacks the monster affected by the curse.

Knappogue wrote: 1 year ago

Goggen wrote: 1 year ago

-For that reason I'd stay away from everything that interferes with

Life Tap, even for a bit. That means no Last Wish or Lawbringer.

How does Last Wish interfear with

Life Tap? The Hit Blinds Target?

Yes.
Actually the Merc

Taunt override curses too, but is not a issue for Ubers, as it do not affect super uniques.

I concur with krathkor. For a budget build Act 5

Frenzy merc, Sazabi's gives great survivability: massive life steal, +27% max life, rez, and damage reduction. I'm sure the

Azurewrath would be great, but it's still on my Holy Grail list. I have used Lawbringer and the overwriting of lifetap doesn't seem to be a deal-breaker - I've killed the Ubers maybe 20 times. The merc survives the mini-Ubers and survives the Ubers part of the time. Without any high runes, that's not bad. Much better survivability than an Act 2 Merc.

Goggen wrote: 1 year ago

For gear I'd guess you at least want 1x

Azurewrath to get

Sanctuary Aura, and I'd guess Chains of Honor and

Cham'ed

Arreat's Face to overstack the resistance against meph

Conviction aura.

Not sure if i missed something - but how do you actualy get 300% AR on Merc to overstack Meph's

Conviction?

Yeah, with

Arreat's Face and Chains of Honor, a level 98

Frenzy Merc has at most 36% res vs Meph. If you replace Arreat's with

Kira's Guardian you can max out resistances even against Meph. But it needs to be almost max roll (69%+).

EDIT: If the Smiter (which the topic is about) switches to

Salvation or

Resist Lightning for Meph fight, then the merc could have maxed res vs Meph even without any resistance on the

Helm (assuming they have Chains of Honor). Requires minimum level 3

Salvation (higher if the merc uses a different armor), or minimum level 3

Resist Lightning (higher if the merc uses a different armor).