Improving Hireling Skills

[ryan4nayr]

Back in Oct. 2002 there was a thread* mentioning a 1.09 merc bug having to do with +skills gear. All mercs can, of course, be enhanced by gear that add to all skills.

Rogues, in addition, also gained the same improvement from gear that add to All Amazon Skills, & their Fire/Cold Arrows received improved dmg from +Bow & XBow Skill Tree gear; likewise with the Cold/Fire/Ltng Iron Wolves. In addition to +All Skills stuff, they could also gain from +All Sorc Skills gear, &, depending on their skills, from +Cold/Fire/Ltng Skill Tree gear. The inspiration of this thread, the Might merc, gained from +All Paladin Skills & +Offensive Auras Skill Tree.

The truly shocking part of this thread was that it needn't have to be those particular skill trees. As long as the relevant skills were of the same Skill Tab "page", the same +skills gain was received. For example, Rogues gained from +Bow & XBow which is found in Skill Tab 1. Gear with +skill trees from the Skill Tab 1 group had the same effect: Zon's Bow & XBow (Fire Arrow & Cold Arrow), Sorc's Fire (Inferno & Fire Ball), Necro's Curses, Paly's Combat Skills, Barb's Combat Skills (Bash+Stun), Druid's Summoning, & Assy's Traps. In this example, the same circlet with +Bows & XBow improved the Rogue's arrows (but not her Inner Sight), & would theoretically do the same with a Fire Iron Wolf & A5 Barb.

In another example, the Skill Tab 2 group enhanced a Ltng Iron Wolf & an A2 NM Offense Desert Guard (Might): Zon's Passive & Magic, Sorc's Lightning, Necro's Poison & Bone, Paly's Offensive Auras, Barb's Combat Masteries, Druid's Shapeshifting, Assy's Shadow Disciplines.

There were no other tests detailed.

So... *phew* after all this... is the bug still in effect?

ADDED: *discussed again in March 2003 thread

[adeyke]

So... *phew* after all this... is the bug still in effect?

I believe it has been fixed by making them unaffected by any +skill tabs, even the "right" ones. Act 2 might isn't affected by +offensive auras, for example. Now, I didn't try all possible +skill tab effects with all possible mercs (it's hard to see if it has an effect, except in the case of certain auras and certain sorc spells), so it's possible that there might be exceptions.

[ryan4nayr]

I believe it has been fixed by making them unaffected by any +skill tabs, even the "right" ones.

That is a sore blow, esp. now in 1.10 where mercs die a lot more easily despite the slight improvements in hp, etc. I infer from your post that Rogues also no longer get improved skill levels from +bow & xbow gear?

I PMed the author of this (very long) post in another bboard, Zath, that individually posted (huge) tables containing hireling stats such as hp, str, def, skill levels (hence this inquiry) as of 1.10. I don't think there would be any trouble if I c&p'ed the reply:

v1.09d and v1.10 mercs have their skills recorded in different ways. In v1.09d, the skills were listed as "some skill under a specific skill tab" (where "skill tab" was either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, basically their position displayed in the skill tree), whereas in v1.10 they are just "some specific skill". This means that mercenaries will no longer benefit from +skill tab mods, and they will only be affected by +all skill items. I can't remember what would occur with non-class specific +skill items (e.g. BO on Call to Arms), but I don't believe you have to worry about that in a standard B.net game. Now, I haven't actually tested any of this myself, but that's what I've been reading from several sources. You might want to double check with adeyke, adamantine, brianp, Crystalion, or even Ruvanal as they seem to keep some very comprehensive notes on these issues.

EDIT: Fixed Quote tags. Also, another skill bug over at the Armory forum.