Posts: 3
Threads: 1
Joined: Feb 2004
Good upgrade candidate for an A2 merc: Meat Scraper: 50% OW, 25% MF and 10% (yes that's ten percent) life leech. And when upgraded should do some serious damage for a high level might merc. IAS and +Barb skills are useless, but even so it's a great little tool to keep your merc alive.
Mine's lvl 60 in A5 NM, with 75 res all (using a Lore crown and a ral + thul armor) he hasn't died on me in I don't know how long (and I haven't upgraded his weapon yet).
Upgrading the weapon for hell diff. will increase his damage and thus his life leech, which will hopefully make him survivable just about anywhere.
Posts: 8
Threads: 1
Joined: Mar 2004
To be completely honest, I've never had much luck finding anything really useful before Normal Act 3, gems not withstanding. I don't bother with MF. Never have; never will... Unless it's found on something like a Harlequin Crest. Then it's pretty unavoidable. <_<
And since I play (mostly) solo, I often just make a 2PS helm and a 3PD large shield. Those two pieces alone will do wonders for almost any build, even into early Nightmare. And the way I play, I can usually have them both completed before I even step into Normal Act 2, though I can't always equip these two items before then either. :P
If I'm playing a sorc (which is nearly always) I also tend to shop for a new +Mana wand of +Energy every Act until finally sticking with a Wyrm's of Wizardry (or sometimes Magus) available in Act IV until finding something more useful in Nightmare.
Anyway, only Mithrandir mentioned socketing anythng with PGems, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents to the discussion. Hope no one minds. :)
Posts: 21
Threads: 1
Joined: Jan 2004
i love a upgraded Witchwild String bow for a act 1 merc, or hunter-druid :P because it fire magic arrows lvl 20, meaning a 20% of the merc damage is magical :D, plus, 40 to al res, , 2 sockeds(insert your favorite thing here), deadly strike=doble damage, amp= bye bye inmune to phisical or doble damage, , is nice in all the ways, to me at least
also mi resistance gear: goldskin,iratas set?(that the name?),the ward, all normal unique and sets, and unique can be upgrade, so they work all the way :D
Since we are talking about dressing up mercs a lot, I thought I'd do my very first non-lurking action on lurker lounge and chime in.
Pretty cheap and fun setup on my thorns merc for my necromancer is upgraded rattlecage and upgraded mask of horror (non ladder so only to exceptional). It's a very reassuring sound always hearing that 'scare the bad guy noise' pretty much every hit. Even at his level of 82, he holds up quite well, and he rarely dies. This may be in large part to all the minions around removing some heat, but monsters spend a lot of time running away from him instead of hitting back. Weapon was a lucky find, ethereal 5 socket mancatcher, so I made Honor word with it. Being pretty poor, I think it was an ok move.
