perfect equipment for mercs

[des]

well, most people usually play with either act2 mercs or act4 mercs.
theres plenty of suggestions that imply which type you should choose depending on your character build.
however~ what equipment is right to make your little guy survive a trip to hell and back?

currently i play with a offensive act2 merc. what equipment should i outfit him with? take into consideration all equipment up to lvl 89 for the merc.

[Caaroid]

well, most people usually play with either act2 mercs or act4 mercs.

Well, I'd REALLY like an act4 merc, however I failed to get one so far.

For an act2 merc I'f suggest life leech, high damage, max resall in hell, Hit Recovery and PDR in this order.

What kind of offensive merc?
Normal or ladder?

[Pansesus]

Never seen an Act4 pet before, some kind of Angel? cool :D

In general, what your pet should have are:
High leech, around 10% can keep your pet survive for a long period, except for bosses and PI monsters, feel free to use potion if your pet is in danger

High-damage weapon is badly needed. Doom is the best weapon for mighty pets I have ever seen, far more better than BOTD, but also the most difficult one to gain. Still you have many alternative choices from spears to polems, not very hard to build a great destroyer

Comparing FHC with HP, I think life is more important to pets, since it will decrease your lock chance greatly, and much safer against mass mosters.

What people also use to derease damage effect is DR%. Some of players even max it to their pets. It could make your pet very tough, but I don't suggest you to put too many effort on DR, since now Elemental damage plays a great role, especially in hell levels. Do as quick as possible to max his Res.

Some special effects are also considerable, slow monster attribute, for example, deals with monsters pretty well, but the most powerful effect I have ever seen comes from Delirium. The scene is amazing when he cast lvl 18 confuse, which made those poor guys mad. Wonderful skill for pet to survive.

[ShadowHM]

For me, the usual main concern in equipping a mercenary is making sure he will stay alive. If he kills things for me too, that is a bonus. This particularly applies to Act 2 mercenaries, who are usually selected for an aura that my character needs.

The first two posters have made some good points and have very carefully avoided too many specifics in gear suggestions.

If you, like me, live and play in the low-rent areas of Battlenet, where the runes for Delerium (and other tasty treats) are not handy, one low end item that is useful for keeping your mercenary alive is the lowly Woestave.

Two-Hand Damage: (14-16) To (54-62) (34-39 Avg)
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 75
Required Dexterity: 47
Durability: 55
Base Weapon Speed: [0]
+20-40% Enhanced Damage(varies)
50% Chance Of Open Wounds
Slows Target By 50%
Hit Blinds Target +3
-50 To Monster Defense Per Hit
Freezes Target
Prevent Monster Heal
-3 To Light Radius


Damage is very low, but it can be upgraded to Bec-de-Corbin with easily found runes, after which damage will be merely low. On the other hand, the other mods on the weapon make it very useful for both overall damage and the all important 'keeping him alive' front.

I have a Prayer mercenary at clvl 85 who still uses this (socketed with an Amn), and he stays alive and praying for me and my minions through most encounters, including End of Act Bosses. The only combination that nails him is a Doom Knight pack with Oblivion Knights cowering behind them casting Iron Maiden. And that combination puts fear into the hearts of many a hero. :ph34r:

[LavCat]

I've not yet found a Woestave on ladder, but what dropped for me is Kelpie Snare: life, fire resist, and slows target by 75%. It is amusing to watch monsters in slow motion. As long as the act 2 blessed aim merc can keep things pinned and stay alive, I can pelt them from range at my leisure.

Since my sorceress wears Cleglaw's Pincers, does anyone know how items of slow target stack?

[Pansesus]

AFAIK, they stack correctly in 1.10, since Blizzard has fixed 1.09's slow desync, running speed can not be lower than 1 yard/sec, though. But there is a cap of 50% in pvp.
What I am not sure is that whether slow effects of different types still stack or not now.

[AtomicKitKat]

The only HST polearm I've found has been the Trident(forget the name) I have/had like 7 of them, spread out across various characters' mercs(my brother's and my own) :lol:

[Epi]

The only combination that nails him is a Doom Knight pack with Oblivion Knights cowering behind them casting Iron Maiden.  And that combination puts fear into the hearts of many a hero.   :ph34r:

Yeah, OKs are a big trouble for any melee fighters. However, in case of merc you can just take his pointy stick from him - without the weapon he does practically no damage (much less than shown on the LCS), so he become walking aura, not able to kill anybody nor hurt himself. Absence of life leech may shorten his life slightly, but it's much better than 1-hit-get-killed from IM. ;)

[Refrigerator]

I do love my act4 'angel' merc! ;) His 'Party Redemption' aura makes me a favorite in most games I play in. I have since retired my Cleric because his act4 merc made him obsolete, with a MS (multi-shot) Piercing Angelic Shaft (Pretty much holy bolt, but with AOE and cooler graphics B) ) healing 5600-6150 dmg a pop.... ahh, it's good :D . Of course, the angel's now lvl 86, so that is near the top end of the scale.

I know Zephyryte has at least 80% FCR but from the way those things come out, I think it might be more than Blizzards site suggests (Lying Mercenary Skills, anyone?) Has anyone tested this and figured it out? Thanks for any clarification.

With my +14 enchant enchantress (lvl 88) and my angel merc (lvl 86), most parties absolutely adore me B)

I do love Hell in 1.10!

[whyBish]

The only combination that nails him is a Doom Knight pack with Oblivion Knights cowering behind them casting Iron Maiden.

I've failed to get any melee based char past CS normal in 1.10 (playing IWD2 doesn't help ;) ).

Just thought I should add that a3 cold mercs are very nice for lightning based chars that dont need a tank merc (i.e. LF zons). The gear I use for my a3 cold merc? Venomsward!. Poison is a real pain in the neck with mercs, especially boss2 in baal runs or catapults in bloody foothils etc. And despite what the patch text states, mercs still can die in town from poison :( (Not sure if they always do, or what triggers it but I have had it happen)

[mikey]

Well I just love my act 2 combat (prayer merc). I had him since lvl 10 and has been faithfully by my side up til now (lvl 87). He is my Fireball/Orb sorc meat shield and healer. This is my first sorc built and I'm quite happy with the results. Especially since i recently received a etheral Bonehew from hell Meph that does 800+ dmg. Now with his new equip, he is able to survive River of Flames solo. Plus the sLvl 18 Prayer heals all my dmg while he knocks all the monster around.

Here is a list of his equip:

Etheral Bonehew (socket with AM and Nef)
Blackhorns
900 def armour +lightning and +cold resist

Well the weapon in my opinion is very very good. I love the Nef for knocking back and loosen all the groups of monsters charging at me. Plus knock interrupts their attack and protects the merc too. From that observation I put Knock back as important as life leech for a melee merc's equip. The %50 to cast lvl 16 Bone Spear is awsome too for ripping thru the groups and magic dmg (for those damn bosses with cold and fire immunes :angry: )
The Blackhorns I just put so that he wouldn't die in those close melee combats with Lightning enchanted bosses. It actually heals him since my merc has full lightning resist. Very handy for a low def sorc. Just stand behind him and cast spells away.
I'm still working on the armour for better resist and def especially fire resist since that is the only problem I seem to be having with the merc. He has 53 resist all naked.

Well I'm consider a noob I guess so if I seem too satisfied with my equip, please excuse me. This is actually my first high lvl char/merc so I'm very satisfied with the results. :)

[Raziel]

I recently realized that Sazabi's set can actually be completed on an Act 5 barb merc.

Has anyone tried this? Does it work well?

[Crystalion]

I recently realized that Sazabi's set can actually be completed on an Act 5 barb merc.

Has anyone tried this?  Does it work well?

Looks pretty good at a glance, *if* you're fighting mostly demons.

Except that the clvl 73 req. in order to equip the sword and complete the set means this equip is competing with uber gear (assuming either such gear or this set is available to you). On that basis, I'd have to say the set isn't very attractive.

OTOH putting it on an act 3 merc might be interesting, if possible, since the resists are probably enough to max fireghtning resists in hell (didn't calculate it out, so I'm just guessing), and the +27% max life could be helpful. Of course the merc still gets to have a shield as well (even though it doesn't block, sigh)... lidless comes to mind.

BTW, has anyone seen or done a calculation for act 3 fire mercs on how good their spells are if you do +3 fire from hexfire, +1 shield, +2 helm, +1 torso? It might be nice if they fixed the inferno/WoI bug, of course.

[Caaroid]

Umm, it seems I was lost in space and failed to notice the the infeno/WoI bug (ok, I never used WoI since practically everyone advised against it, and my inferno sorc proved unplayable back in 1.09). Could you enlighten me about them?

[Guest]

Ariocs needle(spelling)
Tals mask with a 11% prismatic jewel
Glad Bane

This guy rarely dies anywhere. Iron maiden is still nasty though.
The plus skills from the needle improves my might bonus which is important to me.
The minus magic and physical damage by points on the Glad bane is really nice.
He has maxed resists.
Pretty good defense.

[AtomicKitKat]

What I use on a act 3 might merc. in thread perfect equipment for mercs

Don't you mean Act 2? :P

[Guest]

Yep, I meant act 2.

[Yogi_Baar]

I've just hired my first act 3 mercenary (Jarulf, of course) and as the Arreat Summit warned me, he doesn't swing his sword much, but his glacial spike (or whatever he casts) is much nicer anyway.

Here are my two noob questions:

1. What is the best sword for such a mercenary? There are quite a few items that these guys can use, but what's the best weapon for them? For fire mercs there are some choices, what about for cold ones? Any decent unique, set, rare or even magic swords out there?

2. Do sets function properly on mercenaries? Do they get the same bonuses for fully/partially completed sets as player characters get? And I suppose their AI isn't programmed to utilize Trang Oul's fireball skill, is it?

[Pansesus]

1. 6 socketed crystal sword with 6 Rainbows

2. Sure they do, ice iron wolf can't cast any spell not written in his AI, though, unless he is morphed into some other character...you might have a try to modify that :P

[Yogi_Baar]

1.  6 socketed crystal sword with 6 Rainbows

That would be nice, aye. I forgot to mention that I'm the sort of purist that doesn't even transfer items between his characters, so it's every char for himself/herself and the odds of a single char finding 6 unique jewels are probably in the (epsilon (10^(-6) and less))-vicinity of zero.

So, what easily attainable items +cold spells items are there, if any?
</mindless optimism>

If there are no such things, what other weapons are useful to cold iron wolves? I'm thinking along the lines of resists and/or life.