Merc 4 A Meat Sheild Necro

[Guest]

what are your thoughts on a defiance merc to boost the skeles def so they dont die as often..
I have seen people talk about a prayer merc but i thought this "might" (pun intended) work.

[Cartimandua]

Hi Oni MF,

I don't know what the base def of a skeleton is, but for sure it's very slight. The bonus from defiance will still leave them with a 95% chance to be hit in the later game.

Perhaps thorns?

[Conner Macleod]

Mercs should not be meat shields for necros. :blink: Most people treat mercs like red headed step children (and golems for that matter too), but for necros and zons, I've always been of the opinion that they should serve two purposes:

1) Bodyguard - they kill things on your behalf
2) Minion Assistant - they cast invaluable auras improving your playing experience

Load them up with the best gear you can find, and choose Act 2's always. Stay away from Act 3's for Necros. For Zookeepers, Might or Thorns are best, pick either. For Cursing Necros, best to analyze your playing style. Are you in the thick of it? (Thorns). Do you maintain a distance? (Might/Act 5) Do you PvP? (Might/Prayer/Act 5) I say Act 5's only because you can load them up with a TON of heavy def armor and let them attract attention.

Many people discount the Act 2 mercs because they think polearm weapons are slow, unwieldy, and unpowerful. Not true - Pick up a Cruel Colossus Voulge or better yet, a Cruel War Pike. Socket them, Shael them, and watch your killer go nuts. I know when I GF with my sorc, I have a Might loaded up with GF gear and I turn off the TS and Static everything for him and let him kill. (Oops, a little OT but just an example).

I'm kind of a Merc nut, I actually shop the NPC for the name - all of mine are Emilios. I will TP to town immediately once my merc dies, they play that big a part in my playing style.

[Guest]

Maybe there is a little confusion!
I never meant have the merc as a meat sheild I meant for my necro's skelearmy would a prayer or a def merc do beter in increasing the life expectancy of those little buggers.

[Bob]

That's TWO thing's that you've said that are just like me! (The other being in suggestions - I usually use some of the less sought-after equip as well)
Anyway:

1) Bodyguard - they kill things on your behalf

That's basically what I use them for, and absorbing all that nasty lightning from LeB's alter on why I have a - lightning resist. They also make a great place to put all that 1/2 way decent equipment that one get's from time to time (Like a etheral rare great sword, found by a sorceress - just the thing for a barb merc).
I frequently find my merc making many of our kills, which also means that they stay closer to my level. Using them as a body guard comes from my days using a P2 266MMX, my system wold be so slow, that I would have to have a merc drawing them away/killing them, or they'd have all have been on me before my system even got around to displaying it, loss of merc + not enough gold to res would usually result in a character becoming worthless until I could transfer some gold over :-(

I tend to use prayer mercs for most chars, once I can get them - haven't had enough experience with the NM/A2 ones yet. I also like rogues, for the fact that they on't take pleasure in getting themselves killed (The oter seem to love running off and picking a fight with a conviction/LeB unique in NM), and because I can get a pretty hefty damage rating, including an elemental damage as a skill - I use one on my summon druid & necro to get a proper ranged attack in my little band. I have a holy freeze one on my CB sorc, so that I can get more bolts on the enemy before I have to retreat.

I do have a few barbs, but most of them just don't fit in with builds, they either do the same as I do, i.e. deal the damage, or they'll run off picking fights and causing my character unneccesary trouble.

I don't have any iron wolves on Bnet - because of the slow computer, I'd never see anything. I do have a few on single player. The cold ones generally fire so slowly that I'm onto most monsters and pounding the guts outta them before he even hits them. They are handy for slowing down massive HP bosses in players8 mode.

2) Minion Assistant - they cast invaluable auras improving your playing experience

I can't wait to get a might one for my barb... life regen on prayer is good too, Blessed aim is handy for a ranged build.

I'm kind of a Merc nut, I actually shop the NPC for the name - all of mine are Emilios. I will TP to town immediately once my merc dies, they play that big a part in my playing style.

Same here, Although I don't choose my merc's on name :-)
It got incorporated into my style in the bad old days of my old comp, when I had to have one to survive.
Now it really irks me when I team up with some pubbie or other to kill a boss and they don't bring a merc with them.

Now I've got a proper machine, I can finally start getting Iron wolves - roll on a cold one called Jarulf :P

My gripes / hopes for the patch:

Merc ressurect becomes cheaper
Merc ressurect is free is you died first - particularly in HC :blink:
Full arming
Merc IQ moved up into double figures
Diferent aura's for Hell/A2
Fanaticism, Salvation, meditation
Ability to have more than one (must different)
Charm carrying capacity
I could go on...

[Archon_Wing]

Defiance is out, the skels have too low def, and defense is useless two-thirds of the time anyways. :P (In my opinion)

So it goes for prayer. I use that with my little skel/skel mage/golem/merc army. (Yes, it works in hell ^_^) A few idiotic warriors will collapse but you can always get more :)

[Archon_Wing]

Merc IQ moved up into double figures

Hey, I wish it would be positive.

The other changes are a bit overpowered ^_^ but one can dream

[Saga_Keeper]

Screw Iron maiden and go with amp damage, pick up a thorns merc. So instead of returnign you know, like 750% which gets nerfed in hell... you return like 1150% which gets a groovy 3x effectiveness due to the fact that you used amp (50% pdef, to -50% pdef in hell, 25/-75 in nm iirc, and 0/-100 in normal) so let's just go with these arbitrary numbers.
Monster does 100 damage to minion with im on it, monster takes 750% of this, 750 damage, divide by 2 for hell difficulty suckness, and you get 325 damage.
Okay with merc and amp.
Said monster does 100 damage with thorns on it, monster takes 1150% damage, 1150 damage, which would normally be halved in hell, but instead is mutliplied by 1.5, so said monster takes 1725 damage (1150+575).

1725:325 is a 5.3:1 ratio, meaning it's a little bit more then 5 times as effective, not to mention everyone else around you does 3x their normal physical damage in hell. High level amp has HUGE radius and LONG duration, making it super fun...

Just dont' let your merc die let him be your bodyguard and everything else go die (ww babas for instance have a lot of hps to take hits with *cough*)
-Saga_Keeper

[Logic_X]

doesn't work exactly like that....but yea...a thorns merc +amp = better than IM for return damage......although prayer keeps them alive even though they're doing less damage (slower in damage, but no need to summon up all the time).

For a summoner.....there are many options....Defiance won't help skellies (either kind) their defense is too low...and only revives benifit from Might (skellies have low AR, and magi are "always hit").....Blessed aim won't help, your skellies don't hit with it, your revives will hit without it....Holy Freeze - will shatter the occasional corpse reducing your corpsepool.....Thorns is useful, as it returns more damage than Iron maiden...making your minions kill faster vs. melee enemies (helps them survive more by killing faster, but they will also die more cause they aren't healing), and Prayer - heals your minions keeping them around longer and letting them do more damage on their own without resummoning....

So your best Act 2 choices:
Might - If you're revive based
Thorns - If you don't mind summoning up more often than prayer, but want to kill faster.
Prayer - If you want your minions to stay there doing minor damage while allies (or you) deal the primary damage.

Other Choices:
Act 3 Lightning mercenary - with lots of +skills and fcr will provide a steady (albeit semi-low) reduction in enemy life
Act 3 Fire mercenary - With good +skills can hit with inferno from a range, and fireball has ok splash - if you want a3 for necro, this is the way to go.
Act 5 Barbarian - will deal out decent damage with decent equipment - your minions will distract enemies to keep him alive if you give him life leech.

As for the theory of Hell auras.......i've heard a couple arguments....and after much debate the ones i see possibly being included if they were to ever do it are:
Either: each of the 3 single resist auras. (replacing all defensive with these and putting it prayer, defiance , hf in combat and might, blessed aim, and thorns in offensive)
or: Concentration, Cleansing, Meditation (Offensive, Defensive, Combat respectively)
or: Holy Fire, Holy Shock, Sanctuary (Fire and shock moving to offensive, and sanctuary being defensive....Blessed aim moving to fill the combat slot)

These are the 3 arguments I've seen.....because one major point: I don't think they'd give them a level 30 skill, and most people I talk to agree.

Just my $2 and 95 cents (yes...i'm expensive)

[NERDmanWhippy]

I think the A2 mercs are the best thing you can use for any character class....They are not all used by me as "assistants"....I have a High level HF merc on a MF sorc, and he is a meat shield....his purpose is to draw the cows to him to make the most of my Firewall (FW is my prim cows attack), but he rarely dies b/c of his LL and dmg.....My pally on the other hand has a Might merc, and he is my compatriot....he fights along side of me, and to some degree does better than I do (he has 70% ias with fanat aura, and his max dmg is around 6.8k)....he basically acts like a NPC Fanatadin.... It depends on your play style totally....think about what you need him to do, and outfit him accordingly...It all about taste...

J

[Saga_Keeper]

Do you mean the numbers? I'm not sure those are correct, but the discrepency between IM by itself vs thorns merc+amp is about 5:1 in favor of thorns+amp, and about 3:1 in merc+amp:im+merc... in hell at least. In nightmare and normal the discepency is notably less, but still quite in favor of the merc+amp. Also of note is that amp in hell makes your summons do 3x their normal damage (mages aside, and they're just silly in hell anyways), which means that instead of doing 30 (60 is about the damage skeletons do at 20/20 iirc) they do 90 which gives them a 200% increase in effectiveness in hell without, as well as a 200-400% increase in effectiveness of damage returned. With these in mind your average monster will die a considerable amount faster hitting your skeleton less, less hits=longer skeleton life... that seems pretty simple and I'm sure you'd agree.

Now my arguement against the might merc is that revives/skeletons already do lousy damage, and amp works just as fine(well perhaps 12% less if you want to nit pick)... Amp is terribly party friendly as someone is likely to have their own might merc in most games, and not to mention throrns itself returns more then IM ever could realistically, AND stacks nicely with Amp Damage, whereas you cannot stack amp and IM. A slight twist on this would to be to run decripify instead of amp as it halves monsters attack damage. However, I feel the duration and raduis on this are real issues considering that with a number of minions you will be dealing with a spread, so why bother with a half dozen castings of decripify when you can just cast amp twice and not have to reapply 8 seconds later. Also, amp can function on just a few points, boosted by skills, whereas decripfy idealistacally needs to be maxed for any useful sort of duration.

The only advantage a might merc has is that with life tap it'd gain back more life, but a thorns merc with life tap will probably fill up his ball anyways, and you can always drop potions on him anyways... not to mention an ethereal pole or spear can do a considerable amount of damage *anyways*

But I feel the general efficiency from amp/thorns covers a few more dimensions then might, as it increases your damage output anywhere from 100, to 200% wheras might is around 200%, as well as having a much more impressive effect on returned damage then might ever could.

Also, AMP being more effective at lower skill levels then IM (when combined with thorns, it'd be more effective period really...) due to the fact that' it's 100% always allows you to turn extra points into skeleton mastery and support spells such as poison nova, and perhaps a bone-damage spell and putting points into utilty spells such as bonewall, and boneprison for when your corpse supply runs low or your team could use a little chargeup from whacking it.

Overall to me AMP/Thorns gives you more durability as well as being more effective on more levels then any other merc/curse combo available to a necro, as well as giving you more skill points to put into primary and supporting spells, giving you more bang for your buck at lower character levels, and much more flexibility at later levels.
-Saga_Keeper

[NERDmanWhippy]

Im not at all saying go with a might merc....If you got a ton of skellies, Id use thorns for sure, but if you use a lot of revives (cows) Id think about might.......I use might on my necro now, and Im thinkin bout switchin to thorns to see which is more fun :P

J