@@Sanozucke I got a necklace with 25 TP charges. It's not an Enigma, but it sure does make MF runs much faster. You just got to repair it constantly. I also have a Spellsteel axe (has 20 TP charges) but I don't use it now.
Rent. You don't own mercs. They're their own individuals with hopes and dreams. My Merc has a family he goes home to when I'm not logged on. Every time I drop 50k on the resurrect it goes toward his kid's college fund. I send him home with perfect gems sometimes for his wife. He's a good guy.
well kicking ass is fun so you should always use an act II merc because they kick ass! BTW: If you are replacing your merc PLEASE REMEMBER to remove the items of the old one first if you plan to keep them. This is a tough lesson to learn but not one everyone should learn the hard way =(
yes, shift+1 fast before he dies almost always works so always have full rej pots in belt. to bad merc get stuck etc without teleport repositioning, ai is not smart enough to go around things instead of just running into a wall.
I find it super cool, and functional, BUTT... It's expensive. The easier way to have one that will not die by tumbling on a rock is hire the desert ones... That being said, a double wielding barb with also expensive af runewords in each hand is also incredibly cool to hire...
For those who want to use an Eth CV at an earlier lvl, and cant get Andys Mask. Try using a Tals Mask with a P amathyst on an Act2 merc bought from NORMAL (They have considerably more base STR than the other difficulties) you can equip it at lvl 85 vs lvl 90 which can take a while. I don't advise using any STR from armor pieces like Lionheart because Treachery is bar none the best merc armor you can use before you can afford Fort. People often don't understand how important it is for your merc to hit certain IAS breakpoints, and how DPS and survivability (leech) scale massively off of it.
One of the hardest times I ever laughed in d2 was teleporting near Maulers, on the way to Mephisto. Merc got instadropped by a fanatacism swing of that rolling pin. That SMACK into *errreeggh* will live rent free in my head for the rest of my days. Worth every gold piece of that resurrection bill in town.
Mine was when my merc got pinned to a wall by Stygian Dolls. I went to help (big mistake) and he re-murders one which explodes taking me out. He walked around for a millisecond or two before noping out of life.
I agree that those two mercs are typically the best but the triple prayer act2 merc, harmony act1 merc, static field/enchant act3 merc, and grief/plague or other awesome runeword sword frenzy act5 mercs can rock out.
Another cheap option is the Hone Sundan Yari (3), cube it (Lum+Pul+Perf Emerald) to become elite, put in 3 perfect skulls. 12% life leech and a 45% crushing blow. It's a good pair with Tal's mask. Right now my merc is using the Undead Crown cubed to grand crown and the base form of the Yari, once he has the stats I'll make it into the elite version, unless I find an ethereal form.
That does work quite well. I've found I prefer using Amn runes for a merc for higher leech, or using a combo of Amn and Shael runes, or even dmg/ias jewels and an Amn.
Hello there i didn't know that treachery armor has a + resistance and physical damage reduction that's why i stick on using smoke armor instead because the +50 resistance is very important on hell mode .
Nice advice on the options available for budget/starting off, but I noticed whenever a streamer mentions Life Leech helms, they always forget Crown of Thieves, just another very high LL option. And also whenever bringing up the STR req's for an Eth CV Insight, they always seem to forget mentioning Griswold Armor with 3 P Amethysts, and for helm Guillame's is probably top budget option with +Str, but also Naj's and Natalya's... all of those are easily found since they drop very commonly, and will allow one 's Merc to equip an Eth CV much earlier than the lvl96 natural Strength as shown on your example Merc in the video. Hope this helps someone.
Ya that thumbnail and like 3 parts of the video I was cracking up. That first part of vid is so dumb I think it's hilarious. And when I was like " they are trash and suck" and I added the text in. Just dying. Think I'm going to start doing more if that. Not sure if shine else likes it but it was fun for me 🤷♂️🤷♂️😆😆😆
If I was not a sorceress I would swap to act 1 or even act 3 mercenary since the act 2 one dies all the time since he goes towards the enemies. Even teleport and life leech will not keep him alive if a powerful and fast unique comes. Sometimes there is no time to teleport.
Good stuff bud, I rely on mine HEAVILY being a summon necro player, he needs to beast out and carry his own weight! Now be careful and don't post to much on showing us how to play or be efficient or blizzard servers might crash again, Phil! LOL
As someone who havent played Diablo 2 since 2011 and returned for Resurrected this is actually helpful, I can't remember alot of the runewords like Treachery and the life leech helms you need for ur merc above nightmare, really helpful as I had alot of problems with my merc and it is neccesary in alot of areas while farming chaos and worldstone keep since I play pure blizz sorc, but I do remember the ladder only runewords like Fortitude and Insight for meditation aura apperently they are no longer ladder only? I was running without Insight and chugging potions like crazy because I thought it was ladder only, haha
Ethereal 15%sup base armor Fortitude or Stone(GG defense)or Treachery + Vampgaze/Andy Visage/Crown of Thieves/Tals Mask+ which ever weapon you need Eth Insight/Infinity/Breath of the dying/Pride w/e you need for your Chara. Massively suggest the normal Defensive Merc for defiance aura, once active your Merc is a meat tank beastzilla. Other aura with for niche builds. Cheers nice work Phil
I know everyone uses might or Holy Freeze for the A2 mercs, and I do use those sometimes depending on what class I am playing. I really like A2 Norm/Hell Combat for prayer for the survivability, coupled with an insight that merc will keep your Heath and Mana topped up and hardly never need to use pots. Guess I am more defensive player then an offensive player. Also I found the bonus from might to be negatable, and don't really like holy freeze for MF'ing. I guess it depends on your use case and situation. Edit: I see Phil mentions that HF will only disrupt MF from Barb find Items skill & when using a corrode explosion necro.
8:02 other than a lower level crafting helm... In normal and before you can get an insight polearm you can combine any diamond, any staff, any kriss and any belt in the cube to get a Savage Polearm with the possibility of other suffixes as well.
@@juan.gonzalez03 Just go Inner Cloister WP (A1) and move your Act2 merc behind one of the two doors up top where the jail exit/entrance is. Walk out and close the door to lock him inside that room. Then run all the way on the opposite side of the door and courtyard, basicly the outer wall and hug it and wait for him to spawn/teleport next/close to you. Voila, he's bugged. Won't be targeted by melee enemies anymore but ranged enemies will still shoot at him. The Act1 merc can open doors so it won't work on her. Dunno about A3 and A5 merc. This can also happen by accident and organically in normal play btw.
Hey Phil! Love your take on things. I was wondering, how do I go about calculating the chances of an item dropping from a monster? I have a few niche things I want to look for.
For me, there are to essential Items von the Merc: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest and the Treachery Runeword for the body armor. Treachery is even more the key to survive because of the fade effect.
I've used a Defiance merc on a Zealot quite a few times - definitely helps to keep from getting hit in a swarm. Holy Freeze is better, even for that. Still useful though.
Thanks, Phil. Always Smashin the Like button to your stuff. My last Etherial "Stone" is not bad "midgame" - ShaelUmPulLum are not too hard to get from Countess. (x2.5-2.9 Defence +15 All res. With some Life leech on helm makes almost immortal :)) Well, it lacks the IAS of Treachery, but 4k defence on Merc are good compensation and dont have to wait Fade to trigger.
The advantage of the ranged mercs is A: they can still contribute when their AI inevitably (and frequently) derps them into a position that would make a melee merc worthless, and B: they don't die instantly if they have less than stellar gear (or if Iron Maiden happens). A2 merc is great when you can smother him in top-quality hardware; before that he's just a gold sink.
@@coreypatterson5827 True but ranged mercenaries will be extremely expensive to gear up like the act 1 merc needs a windforce/faith and fortitude, act 2 mercs can be much cheaper and serve as a tank that also has some useful aura's such as might and holy freeze.
@@alabplays6425 Speaking from experience, Act 1 merc is effective most of the way through Nightmare with just Zephyr, while Act 2 mercs die instantly in any difficulty without some serious investment in armor. Auras mean nothing when the body they're attached to is dead, which is exactly what Emilio will be the second he draws aggro without better gear than a casual player can hope to afford.
Unless you play HC, for classes like Blizz sorc you will want to have Might merc because he is there to provide 1) mana regen from Insight and b) killing cold immunes, so the higher damage he has the better. Holy Freeze aura is better for safety on HC, ofc. Also, I am now currently testing act 1 mercenary with Faith bow for my Dream Zealot and I have to say that initial tests are quite promising. I am using Dracs gloves and she has Giant Skull, Treachery. No native life leech but she benefits from life tap that I leave for her when I hit stuff. It is vastly different playstyle than Blizz sorc who telestomps enemies because he is actually the tank here, so there is a huge benefit to manually entering each room and focusing everything on myself. I did couple of runs on players 8 in WK and CS and she died only twice but that was a huge clusterfuck which the A2 merc wouldn't survive either.
I find the best budget merc survival setup, outside of specific things like travincal, is Trechery, GFace and Reaper's toll, or any other high damage polearm with lifeleach (e.g. boneshew with lifeleach slots)
I am still using the Thief Crown on my act 2 merc with the 15% life leach. It is pretty easy to get. He does die sometimes but as a necro is is rare, the golem drags agro from him and that helps. Still trying to nail the gear down on a merc for the sorc. Infinity is still a few weeks out for me based on what runes I am finding atm. The sorc has outgrown the need for inspiration and could use conviction.
Would really love if the devs did a rebalancing pass. Dont nerf anything, just buff all the underpowered shit. Having ONLY the Act2 Mercenary be of any use to any build is a real shame.
get a might merc, eth obedience (thresher, giant thresher or cryptic axe), treachery armor and a vampire gaze with ias/cham. (ias for the cryptic axe to get to 6 frame jab) you're welcome. He will kill anything including physical immunes. You can telestomp him on anything in hell players1 and it just *poofs*. He will have 40%cb, 8 Life leach, huge poison and fire damage with -25% enemy fire resistance, full elemental res and 35% physical resistance.
Also it's a bit pricey but the best armor "Arguably" for the act 2 merc is an Eth Fortitude...make one and you never have to worry about his death hardly ever again, personally tested it and only Baal's minions grouped and Black Souls grouped take him out...you will not regret it with 200% increased def and 300% increased dmg with resists
Act 3 merc with cold attacks will help you crowd control and get rid of stygian dolls without having to fight them. Act 2 merc can not crowd control, and will die instantly while facing stygian dolls. If you are a decent melee fighter you dont really need act 2 merc, but you can ALWAYS use Act 3 cold mage to freeze your enemy and let you kill them or avoid them. For a hard core character stygian dolls are probably the most dangerous enemies in the entire game, having them frozen and killed by Act 3 merc makes this merc THE BEST in the game.
Commenting primarily to give you some engagement, just found your videos recently. I still really like Prayer Merc for my Sorc builds and just slap a Reapers for decrep if I want them to slow nearby enemies or a normal ol Insight in ethereal thresh/CV. Don't find holy freeze that useful for sorc at least.
Honestly a act 3 enchant merc running shako, vipermagi, duel spirits on a melee build is kind of insane (yes flickering flame is also cool but my eth shako needed to be used lol)
I have a question. Why do ALL of the builds and bases I see to be put on Mercenary’s ONLY include high level 80+ items? I haven’t seen a single mercenary build for normal or nightmare. Surely there is a recommendation for Nightmare Mercs? Fortitude, Insight sounds great, but the bases aren’t available till very late game in hell. Help is appreciated. I’m at nightmare cows needing a solution.
Mercenaries are too aggressive. Pretty much attacks everything that moves. Maybe Blizzard should modify these on different modes from defensive to ultra aggressive.
I did want to mention I think reapers toll/EReaper would have been worth a shoutout as a really solid weapon choice when you either cant afford infinity, don't have the stats to equip CV's, or both.
It’s actually best in slot in terms of pure dmg. 15ias jewel in it and 15ias in Andy’s, combined with Treachery reaches the last attackspeed breakpoint for the A2 merc. 25% total life leech is insane as well.
no matter what gear (uniqueq or RW) have your merc, when you face viperine snakes pack (minions+champions+2uniques) plus Black Souls plus a dozen undeads your merc dies en 10 seconds or less.
current season i'm running Smoke etheral boneweave since first hell countess dropped the Lum rune, 1256 def is about the middle of the range of def possible
![[GUIDE] New Player Guide to MERCENARIES - Diablo 2 Resurrected](/img/n.gif)
If all the money I spent resurrecting my merc went instead to gambling, I’d have some insane GG items.
Just yesterday I spent $300k while trying to help on Baal runs. I cry errteim
For a minute, I thought I wrote this.....
Literally went bankrupt doing hell helforge lol
Bruhhh same
@@TehSeksyManz dude I spent 500k on meth runs
LOL that thumbnail
Jus 2 bros
literally watched coz of that
We love Emilio
It's gold
It’s a great thumbnail lol
"How to keep your mercenary alive..."
Have teleport skill.
For sorceress. For every other class "have enigma, or have troubles with swap and teleport staff"
i used a harmony bow on my trapsin on swap until i got enigma and would kite merc away
@@Sanozucke I got a necklace with 25 TP charges. It's not an Enigma, but it sure does make MF runs much faster. You just got to repair it constantly.
I also have a Spellsteel axe (has 20 TP charges) but I don't use it now.
i use purple potions (Shift key+ 1,2,3..) and runaway quickly. it wowks most of times.
10/10 thumbnail, loving the content it's been super helpful for a first timer!
Rent. You don't own mercs. They're their own individuals with hopes and dreams.
My Merc has a family he goes home to when I'm not logged on. Every time I drop 50k on the resurrect it goes toward his kid's college fund. I send him home with perfect gems sometimes for his wife. He's a good guy.
well kicking ass is fun so you should always use an act II merc because they kick ass!
BTW: If you are replacing your merc PLEASE REMEMBER to remove the items of the old one first if you plan to keep them. This is a tough lesson to learn but not one everyone should learn the hard way =(
yep it sure is a hard one to learn🥺😅 i didn’t forget it🤞🤫🤣
Lmao you don’t buy or rent them like a slave. You hire a mercenary. Being a war/combat mercenary is a service
Yeah but for a one time cheap cost
I just gotta say that's one of the best maybe even the best thumbnail I've ever seen in 15 years on TH-cam.
Yeah it's a shame you can't do the stop video thing to view it haha.
You HIRE a Mercenary!
Counterpoint: You buy an invisible contract and basically own the merc as an indentured servant
@@1512125 you click a button that says “hire”
@@justinleeadams Hey it's an Action Roleplaying game, live a little
You have them till they die if that ain’t owning I don’t know what is
And don't forget to force-feed your boy Kadeem lots of full rejuvenating potions
yes, shift+1 fast before he dies almost always works so always have full rej pots in belt. to bad merc get stuck etc without teleport repositioning, ai is not smart enough to go around things instead of just running into a wall.
There are exceptions to a2 being the best merc. For example, a gf barb probably wants an a1 faith merc for the fanat aura.
I find it super cool, and functional, BUTT...
It's expensive. The easier way to have one that will not die by tumbling on a rock is hire the desert ones...
That being said, a double wielding barb with also expensive af runewords in each hand is also incredibly cool to hire...
For those who want to use an Eth CV at an earlier lvl, and cant get Andys Mask. Try using a Tals Mask with a P amathyst on an Act2 merc bought from NORMAL (They have considerably more base STR than the other difficulties) you can equip it at lvl 85 vs lvl 90 which can take a while. I don't advise using any STR from armor pieces like Lionheart because Treachery is bar none the best merc armor you can use before you can afford Fort. People often don't understand how important it is for your merc to hit certain IAS breakpoints, and how DPS and survivability (leech) scale massively off of it.
Playing offline on console, you cant get these items without farming. And you cant farm hell because your merc is trash.
My mans out here being a thumbnail pro! 👍👍👍
great thumbnail :DD
One of the hardest times I ever laughed in d2 was teleporting near Maulers, on the way to Mephisto. Merc got instadropped by a fanatacism swing of that rolling pin. That SMACK into *errreeggh* will live rent free in my head for the rest of my days. Worth every gold piece of that resurrection bill in town.
Mine was when my merc got pinned to a wall by Stygian Dolls. I went to help (big mistake) and he re-murders one which explodes taking me out. He walked around for a millisecond or two before noping out of life.
Fun Fact: Sweet Phil was the name given to him by his cell mate during his time in prison. 😂
Facts
@@markm.9932 Bubbles says HI
@@BLOODKINGbro who is this
i'm playing again thanks to your videos. i didnt wanna miss out on all the fun. cheers sweet phil!
I always use the prayer merc with healing. I like not having to mess with healing pots all the time
If you don't have a Sorc or Enigma buy a Teleport charges Staff that way you can corral your merc.
I agree that those two mercs are typically the best but the triple prayer act2 merc, harmony act1 merc, static field/enchant act3 merc, and grief/plague or other awesome runeword sword frenzy act5 mercs can rock out.
Came for the thumbnail, stayed for the content.
Just started watching your channel, good content my bro! Informative, and your delivery is second to none! keep it up
I normally just call my Merc various profanities since I can't pronounce his name.
Another cheap option is the Hone Sundan Yari (3), cube it (Lum+Pul+Perf Emerald) to become elite, put in 3 perfect skulls. 12% life leech and a 45% crushing blow. It's a good pair with Tal's mask. Right now my merc is using the Undead Crown cubed to grand crown and the base form of the Yari, once he has the stats I'll make it into the elite version, unless I find an ethereal form.
That does work quite well.
I've found I prefer using Amn runes for a merc for higher leech, or using a combo of Amn and Shael runes, or even dmg/ias jewels and an Amn.
Hello there i didn't know that treachery armor has a + resistance and physical damage reduction that's why i stick on using smoke armor instead because the +50 resistance is very important on hell mode .
Nice advice on the options available for budget/starting off, but I noticed whenever a streamer mentions Life Leech helms, they always forget Crown of Thieves, just another very high LL option. And also whenever bringing up the STR req's for an Eth CV Insight, they always seem to forget mentioning Griswold Armor with 3 P Amethysts, and for helm Guillame's is probably top budget option with +Str, but also Naj's and Natalya's... all of those are easily found since they drop very commonly, and will allow one 's Merc to equip an Eth CV much earlier than the lvl96 natural Strength as shown on your example Merc in the video. Hope this helps someone.
Act 1 with a Faith for the level 15 fantasm, on a tesla pumping conviction is pretty good.
The thumbnail oh my god
Editor Phil crushing the thumbnail
Edit: your mercenary is dying because it isn’t Emilio.
Bruh! That thumbnail is funny as hell. Lol
Ya that thumbnail and like 3 parts of the video I was cracking up. That first part of vid is so dumb I think it's hilarious. And when I was like " they are trash and suck" and I added the text in. Just dying. Think I'm going to start doing more if that. Not sure if shine else likes it but it was fun for me 🤷♂️🤷♂️😆😆😆
If I was not a sorceress I would swap to act 1 or even act 3 mercenary since the act 2 one dies all the time since he goes towards the enemies. Even teleport and life leech will not keep him alive if a powerful and fast unique comes. Sometimes there is no time to teleport.
You hire a mercenary. You don't buy or rent them.
Just wait in the login queue and your merc will not die ever.
so the master tipp is : give him extremly good gear. WOW such a great tipp
Good stuff bud, I rely on mine HEAVILY being a summon necro player, he needs to beast out and carry his own weight! Now be careful and don't post to much on showing us how to play or be efficient or blizzard servers might crash again, Phil! LOL
FYI in 2.4 D2R it is now possible to use Insight runeword with bows, which makes it vaible to use A1 merc
Now Kasim me, Now you don't
RIP Kasim
As someone who havent played Diablo 2 since 2011 and returned for Resurrected this is actually helpful, I can't remember alot of the runewords like Treachery and the life leech helms you need for ur merc above nightmare, really helpful as I had alot of problems with my merc and it is neccesary in alot of areas while farming chaos and worldstone keep since I play pure blizz sorc, but I do remember the ladder only runewords like Fortitude and Insight for meditation aura apperently they are no longer ladder only? I was running without Insight and chugging potions like crazy because I thought it was ladder only, haha
Ethereal 15%sup base armor Fortitude or Stone(GG defense)or Treachery + Vampgaze/Andy Visage/Crown of Thieves/Tals Mask+ which ever weapon you need Eth Insight/Infinity/Breath of the dying/Pride w/e you need for your Chara. Massively suggest the normal Defensive Merc for defiance aura, once active your Merc is a meat tank beastzilla. Other aura with for niche builds. Cheers nice work Phil
How to keep your mercenary alive in Hell in one easy step:
“Hey, Nazeem, buddy, I’m gonna need you to stay here in town, okay?”
First 15 seconds of video is LITERALLY VERBATUME my life story since coming back to diablo 2 Res.
Just did insight last night. Died twice. BUT slays! The meditation aura is perfect
I can't even keep him alive in normal.
Emilio has a big stick now
I came just because the thumbnail, I loved it, congratulations.
I know everyone uses might or Holy Freeze for the A2 mercs, and I do use those sometimes depending on what class I am playing. I really like A2 Norm/Hell Combat for prayer for the survivability, coupled with an insight that merc will keep your Heath and Mana topped up and hardly never need to use pots. Guess I am more defensive player then an offensive player. Also I found the bonus from might to be negatable, and don't really like holy freeze for MF'ing. I guess it depends on your use case and situation. Edit: I see Phil mentions that HF will only disrupt MF from Barb find Items skill & when using a corrode explosion necro.
8:02 other than a lower level crafting helm... In normal and before you can get an insight polearm you can combine any diamond, any staff, any kriss and any belt in the cube to get a Savage Polearm with the possibility of other suffixes as well.
7:28 2% life leech helm
Jemali: 😰
This video came up when I smashed my face on the keyboard hard after running out of gold.
You forgot to mention the easy to do bug that makes your merc untargetable by melee enemies
whaaaat? Never heard of that : O
Phil. Great video! Should also mention and show people how to"bug" the Merc. Thanks again for your help.
you cant bug the merc anymore
@@dilbertdad1994 Ofc you can lmao
Inquiring minds would like to know
@@juan.gonzalez03 Just go Inner Cloister WP (A1) and move your Act2 merc behind one of the two doors up top where the jail exit/entrance is. Walk out and close the door to lock him inside that room. Then run all the way on the opposite side of the door and courtyard, basicly the outer wall and hug it and wait for him to spawn/teleport next/close to you. Voila, he's bugged. Won't be targeted by melee enemies anymore but ranged enemies will still shoot at him. The Act1 merc can open doors so it won't work on her. Dunno about A3 and A5 merc. This can also happen by accident and organically in normal play btw.
@@pRaX85815 Got patched out in the latest version. RIP my mercs again.
Hey Phil! Love your take on things. I was wondering, how do I go about calculating the chances of an item dropping from a monster? I have a few niche things I want to look for.
Google "diablo 2 drop odds calculator" the site pops right up.
Funny thumbnail it flows well😁. Great video and tip Phil.
For me, there are to essential Items von the Merc: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest and the Treachery Runeword for the body armor. Treachery is even more the key to survive because of the fade effect.
Can you give a suggestion to blizzard on how to keep their servers alive.
It’s been 24 hours and can’t get on the servers PS4.
It is a 'BUY Mercenary... CONTRACT✅. The contract ends when he gets too beat up 💢😡
"...Pay me again Bitch - and this time make it MORE. " - end quote
I really like defiance for the defense boost.
I've used a Defiance merc on a Zealot quite a few times - definitely helps to keep from getting hit in a swarm.
Holy Freeze is better, even for that. Still useful though.
Thanks, Phil. Always Smashin the Like button to your stuff.
My last Etherial "Stone" is not bad "midgame" - ShaelUmPulLum are not too hard to get from Countess.
(x2.5-2.9 Defence +15 All res. With some Life leech on helm makes almost immortal :))
Well, it lacks the IAS of Treachery, but 4k defence on Merc are good compensation and dont have to wait Fade to trigger.
The advantage of the ranged mercs is A: they can still contribute when their AI inevitably (and frequently) derps them into a position that would make a melee merc worthless, and B: they don't die instantly if they have less than stellar gear (or if Iron Maiden happens). A2 merc is great when you can smother him in top-quality hardware; before that he's just a gold sink.
The act 3 merc is pretty useless, act 1 sucks unless you put something like Faith with fortitude.
As opposed to Act 2 merc that costs 40x as much gold to keep alive while ALSO doing nothing until you can gear him out.
@@coreypatterson5827 True but ranged mercenaries will be extremely expensive to gear up like the act 1 merc needs a windforce/faith and fortitude, act 2 mercs can be much cheaper and serve as a tank that also has some useful aura's such as might and holy freeze.
@@alabplays6425 Speaking from experience, Act 1 merc is effective most of the way through Nightmare with just Zephyr, while Act 2 mercs die instantly in any difficulty without some serious investment in armor. Auras mean nothing when the body they're attached to is dead, which is exactly what Emilio will be the second he draws aggro without better gear than a casual player can hope to afford.
@@coreypatterson5827 True but speaking of endgame act 1 merc will need some gear to deal alot of damage.
You gotta love this "Pro videos". - Merc surviving in Hell? - He must be lvl 96...
I like the act3 merc with a Azure wrath for Chaos runs to clear the mini bosses super fast, but that's the only time I use them.
Unless you play HC, for classes like Blizz sorc you will want to have Might merc because he is there to provide 1) mana regen from Insight and b) killing cold immunes, so the higher damage he has the better. Holy Freeze aura is better for safety on HC, ofc.
Also, I am now currently testing act 1 mercenary with Faith bow for my Dream Zealot and I have to say that initial tests are quite promising. I am using Dracs gloves and she has Giant Skull, Treachery. No native life leech but she benefits from life tap that I leave for her when I hit stuff. It is vastly different playstyle than Blizz sorc who telestomps enemies because he is actually the tank here, so there is a huge benefit to manually entering each room and focusing everything on myself. I did couple of runs on players 8 in WK and CS and she died only twice but that was a huge clusterfuck which the A2 merc wouldn't survive either.
you neither buy or rent the merc... you hire them
it is a mercenary, you're renting his services.
Hire, one hires a Merc.
I find the best budget merc survival setup, outside of specific things like travincal, is Trechery, GFace and Reaper's toll, or any other high damage polearm with lifeleach (e.g. boneshew with lifeleach slots)
I am still using the Thief Crown on my act 2 merc with the 15% life leach. It is pretty easy to get. He does die sometimes but as a necro is is rare, the golem drags agro from him and that helps. Still trying to nail the gear down on a merc for the sorc. Infinity is still a few weeks out for me based on what runes I am finding atm. The sorc has outgrown the need for inspiration and could use conviction.
Would really love if the devs did a rebalancing pass. Dont nerf anything, just buff all the underpowered shit. Having ONLY the Act2 Mercenary be of any use to any build is a real shame.
you don't want 2021 blizzard making changes to this game trustme
you hire a mercenary. you don't buy them.
You hire a mercenary
Dude, thanks for the quick and informative video helped me a lot
get a might merc, eth obedience (thresher, giant thresher or cryptic axe), treachery armor and a vampire gaze with ias/cham. (ias for the cryptic axe to get to 6 frame jab)
you're welcome. He will kill anything including physical immunes. You can telestomp him on anything in hell players1 and it just *poofs*. He will have 40%cb, 8 Life leach, huge poison and fire damage with -25% enemy fire resistance, full elemental res and 35% physical resistance.
extremely informative. Thanks Phil!
You got me in the first minute. 👍 😂
Also it's a bit pricey but the best armor "Arguably" for the act 2 merc is an Eth Fortitude...make one and you never have to worry about his death hardly ever again, personally tested it and only Baal's minions grouped and Black Souls grouped take him out...you will not regret it with 200% increased def and 300% increased dmg with resists
Love the thumbnail
A fucking plus on the thumbnail
Act 3 merc with cold attacks will help you crowd control and get rid of stygian dolls without having to fight them. Act 2 merc can not crowd control, and will die instantly while facing stygian dolls. If you are a decent melee fighter you dont really need act 2 merc, but you can ALWAYS use Act 3 cold mage to freeze your enemy and let you kill them or avoid them.
For a hard core character stygian dolls are probably the most dangerous enemies in the entire game, having them frozen and killed by Act 3 merc makes this merc THE BEST in the game.
That intro 😂 gg Phil
The thumbnail image definitely did it for me 😄 🤣
Commenting primarily to give you some engagement, just found your videos recently. I still really like Prayer Merc for my Sorc builds and just slap a Reapers for decrep if I want them to slow nearby enemies or a normal ol Insight in ethereal thresh/CV.
Don't find holy freeze that useful for sorc at least.
Neither buy or rent, it's hire
Honestly a act 3 enchant merc running shako, vipermagi, duel spirits on a melee build is kind of insane (yes flickering flame is also cool but my eth shako needed to be used lol)
Best thumb nail!!
I love the thumbnail and on that alone I'll subscribe
Thumbnail was amazing
I like your explain, slow and clear
Act 1 with faith runeword is ok, but that is just because it gives an aura...
Blood helm can roll 1-3% Life Stolen Per Hit so 2% is a mid roll not a low roll :D
Oh oops. I thought 5. I forgot.
The only exception i found that's useful is barb merc with lawbringer for a melee phys character
I have a question. Why do ALL of the builds and bases I see to be put on Mercenary’s ONLY include high level 80+ items? I haven’t seen a single mercenary build for normal or nightmare. Surely there is a recommendation for Nightmare Mercs? Fortitude, Insight sounds great, but the bases aren’t available till very late game in hell. Help is appreciated. I’m at nightmare cows needing a solution.
I like the sactuary aura so he doesnt die from poison, only nasty auras kill him.
Hire, you hire mercenaries
Mercenaries are too aggressive. Pretty much attacks everything that moves.
Maybe Blizzard should modify these on different modes from defensive to ultra aggressive.
You can! It’s a $230 micro transaction. But you also need to buy the “Better Mercenaries Pack” for $35.
I did want to mention I think reapers toll/EReaper would have been worth a shoutout as a really solid weapon choice when you either cant afford infinity, don't have the stats to equip CV's, or both.
It’s actually best in slot in terms of pure dmg. 15ias jewel in it and 15ias in Andy’s, combined with Treachery reaches the last attackspeed breakpoint for the A2 merc. 25% total life leech is insane as well.
no matter what gear (uniqueq or RW) have your merc, when you face viperine snakes pack (minions+champions+2uniques) plus Black Souls plus a dozen undeads your merc dies en 10 seconds or less.
Thumbnail made me laugh. Nailed it
Slotting skulls into a weapon can also give life leech.
current season i'm running Smoke etheral boneweave since first hell countess dropped the Lum rune, 1256 def is about the middle of the range of def possible