Another quick question

[[wcip]Angel]

I just hit lvl 62 and got a friend to take the trio for me. I'm ready to start leveling up with baal-runs, but I wouldn't want my merc to lag, meaning I don't want to be in a situation where I'm lvl 90, and my merc is 63. Will he be able to keep up even though he may not have the killing power or speed to do any of the actual kills himself?

[Munkay]

I am guessing you mean Hell Baal runs. Will he get exp? Yes. Will it be a lot at level 62? No. Will he die a lot? Yes. :)

I haven't been on bnet for a good three weeks now and my memory is already getting a bit fuzzy. One day while uploading cd's to itunes I decided to level my merc on my javazon. My javazon was already level 88 and had a level 58 act2 nightmare merc.

I want to say I got my merc to level 67 through playing nightmare games. Close to 70 I would run to cold plains during baal games and kill everything as fast as I could. He got really spectacular exp here till later in the 70's. Then I moved to Canyon of the magi. And I finally got his level in Flayer Jungle. I found it easier, and faster to get from 83-87 in flayer. They die quickly, they are small, but each one gives very good exp. I really have no great understanding of Merc Exp mechanics, so I'll yield any of my advice to someone who knows the guts of the matter. Though I do know this method worked very well, and in the matter of a day he went from 58 to 85, and then 85-87 the next day within an hour.

It took until level 87, with shaftstop, vampgaze and an eth unique ogre axe before my merc lived through players 8 baal runs consistantly.

If you have the cash to resurrect him frequently, I suggest joining baal games and merely running to said areas and killing monsters till the thrown is up.

Cheers

Munk

[[wcip]Angel]

My merc is wielding a vamp/shaft+rare sword-gear.

Thanks for your reply. I'll try your technique

What do you think of this XP-guide ? According to this, a lvl 60 character should be XPing in Act4. I assume this also goes for mercenaries?

[gekko]

Keep in mind that either you or your merc must make the kill for the merc to gain experience. While your character gains experience from party kills, your merc does not. So if your character is mostly leeching in experience runs, and your merc isn't killing anything either, then your merc will fall behind. If, on the other hand, you're running solo or at least doing a good chunk of the killing, your merc will gain experience nicely.

On the question of the validity of the XP-guide:
For calculation purposes it's assumed that on each level/act there is only one monster of every kind that is possible to meet on this level. (quote taken directly from introduction to that table)

Use it as a guide and it works well. Keep in mind, however, that it's a very simplified overview of the actual monster levels in each act/difficulty. Also keep in mind that your killing speed and safety are at least as important as the MLVL/CLVL comparisons. Killing 10x faster with not a single death in an area where you receive 50% less experience than the 'optimal' area will still result in a faster experience gain. Pick the area closest to your own clvl where you can still kill quickly and safely for best results.

gekko

[Brista]

For mercs under level 25 stay within 5 levels

For mercs over level 25 play anywhere, as long as they can stay alive. These mercs catch up with you pretty fast unless you're always in a party where the others do most of the killing