I'm rocking your enchantment fire build with 2x Hands of Justice, eth Fort and Cham Gface. But I don't use fireskills otherwise, I'm full Orb. Merc gets the enchant, I use Orb for almost everything. If I run across a big pack that might take the merc a second to clear through, I press W and use Demon Machine to help mow down with some fire damage.
I've really liked the battle cry barb for my beserker barb. Mainly because once I start beserking, my defense is gone, but all the damage reduction makes tanking easier plus he stuns every so often. Still playing with what item pairs work for the merc, but have really liked the update!
A build I've been running now with mosaic sin is: Act 5 frenzy Merc Hustle cryptic sword Lawbringer cryptic sword Fortitude lacquered plate Cure guardian crown He has cleansing, sanctuary & fanaticism auras. And procs burst of speed + chilling armor. He's really tanky and casts decrep constantly with burst of speed + frenzy + fanaticism
Act 5 frenzy merc with grief/lawbringer cham gface and fortitude is now the best blizz sorc mercenary hands down. Most of the cold immunes in the game are undead including chaos sanctuary, the durance of hate and worldstone (outside witches). Sanctuary isn't just crowd control, it has 2 other very powerful attributes. It ignores physical resistance of the undead so all undead monsters including the physical immunes like ghosts take full damage even before the decrep procs from lawbringer. It also givs 620% ED to undead which gives more damage to your grief then the skills and fort combined. As long as you cycle static this set up will almost instantly mow down elite packs of vampires in durance and worldstone and 1-2 shot oblivion knights (including lord de sies) even in high player games. Undead also tend to stay at range and run away and this merc runs them down. It can also kill any animal or demon unique that spawns physical and cold immune once the decrep procs. Other setups and mercs may kill eldrich faster but cold immune animal monsters are a tiny % of the game. If you have the time try this out on a blizz sorc in durance, chaos or worldstone. The play is you kill everything that is not cold immune with blizzard and cycle static as your merc quicky mops up.
I've had a lot of fun experimenting with the Frenzy merc for my Poison Necro. Another tweak I made to your 'stat stick' varient was to use Flickering Flame in a barb helm with +Iron Skin. Having low fire res shift to overcapped fire res is really useful for Chaos Sanctuary. I also put an Amn rune into my Azurewrath so he has life leech. Super cool tri aura support means myself, the merc and iron golem always survive. If you were ballsy enough you could actually make your iron golem out of Infinity with this configuration.
Hey dbrunski, keep up the good work! I’ve been watching your videos for a while now. Very insightful and just realized you mentioned you’re Canadian eh! A fan of your videos from Alberta!
I found the biggest problem for the frenzy merc was attack rating on my play through for ladder(no good gear whatsoever)When killing Baal he couldn’t even get frenzy going, I had to switch to an act 2 merc just so he could hit. I was playing summon necro so he was my main damage source but very cool setups you show!
I am finally seeing Last Wish being used on a merc! I'd like Last Wish and Plague combo for basically immortality for both merc and my barb haha, will get it this year!
imo the last combo is the all-around best, Arreat/Fort/LW/Azurewrath. Since Azurewrath has often been easy to trade for due to little interest/demand, it's sets up another option for semi-budget players, you could rock maybe Guillame's/Treachery/Azurewrath with Amn/Lawbringer for Sanctuary aura and Decrepify support... and it also keeps you from that awkward situation where your build has 800 High Runes yet you have to run like a pansy from every PI and/or Stoneskin monster >.>
My pure summon druid uses a frenzy merc with grief/Lawbringer. I'm giving him lvl15 fanat from a perfect Faith. He tears up everything. And Lawbringer handles phys immunes. It's a fun setup. My avenger pally uses a frenzy merc with e-oath/last wish. It's a solid build and he holds his own. Oath is such an underrated rw. Good dmg, great speed. Helps the LW proc more often.
Grief LB + Fort/Guillaume is actually stronger than A2 might with Reaper's Toll + Fort/Guillaume if you don't need the might aura for yourself, for example with a Wind Druid. A5 merc moves faster, atk faster with crushing blow and waste less damage with overkill.
If u switched to fanat, and just use redemption when needed to heal/mana merc does *alot* better, fanat really kicks them up a couple notches in terms of face tanking and just stomping stuff
Another decent option for poison support that is super budget but shines in higher player counts is running crescent moon of all things for the static field proc. While I agree that dual plague is the better choice, running 1-2 crescent moon when combined with the super fast attack speed of the frenzy merc allows for fairly decent AoE chunking of health that pairs well with poison based builds
Bash merc with an upped eth shael Vile Husk with fortitude or treach(more amp damage procs) and andys is NUTS on a WW barbarian...it cuts your baal time down drastically whether its hitting for the amp damage or giving you the battlecry...really niche setup but could probably be pulled off with a non eth as well...a more survivable version of your brand act 1 merc basically...for ubers i'd give it treach and proc then throw on fort and use arreats as well as a lifetap wand on swap for your ww barb and youll be whirling your way through ubers...frenzy with last wish and grief is INSANE on a summoner necro and if you self wield pride on the necro the merc can literally just clear the game for you while you swap between spells (lifetap, amp, decrep, etc) ps I think you don't need to run dual plague if you just run 1 you'll get the bug (unless fixed) where the game thinks you're dual wielding that one weapon in which case can save you from having to make 2 of the same runeword if you want to dual or make 2 and save that other one for an act 3 merc with medusas gaze and plague for maybe a trapsin or something maybe a blade fury assasin with an enchant act 3 merc to help with boss accuracy (blade fury and blade shield are now AMAZING one point wonders due to the 75% weapon damage modifier)
for the javazon a deaths web on swap with a poison faceted monarch is pretty much the same as having lower res but without relying on procs, I've found for cow farming a lawbringer/etc act 5 does a little better for grouping the cows who can actually benefit from dying slower because you can try to get them all bunched up and clear cows sub 2 minutes the plague javazon isn't budget by any means imo a high end version would have enigma, a fcr frw +2 circlet, aldurs boots, a bunch of mf sc's or frw sc, arachs, spirit, deaths web and faceted monarch on swap, nagelrings, maras as the amulet or a nice zon fcr ammy (I'm really loving the new poison javazon lately it's probably the most relaxing cows build ever and its easy to search loot kind of like a necro or a sin because you get most kills on screen)
Aura sorceress, dual dream + dragon + hand of justice with max fire mastery, max light mastery. A5 mercenary frenzy, dual plague with andariels cham'd plus bramble. Would like to see you showcase a variant of this build. Thanks
Personally I use Last Wish/Lawbringer on my purely phys bowzon, makes shredding phys immune, especially the Undead ones (ghosts, etc) alot easier w/ the Sanc + curse.
Last Wish is a RW I have never been able to make in D2…if I can ever afford it I’ll be using it on my own characters😎 currently rocking the frenzy act 5 merc on my FoHdin he’s using the grief/law bringer set up with a tretch & vgaze. Dude is a beast takes care of all the monsters that FoH can’t kill I just switch auras to fanaticism to support him for a min or so.
Dual wield eth crescent moon for static proc might be interesting for fire Druid. Dual wield eth oath is budget option if no eth head striker or grief. Only downsize about frenzy merc is that you’re limited to 4os or less for eth swords so no dual wield eth death :( I don’t recommend frenzy merc for gold barb if can proc amp/decrep cause his taunt will override those curses
2 x Crescent Moon and Cow King's Leathers. ;) - 18% Chance To Cast Level 5 Chain Lightning When Struck - 25% Chance To Cast Level 5 Static Field When Struck - 100% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items Am I crazy or does that actually sound fun.
making a Beast+LastWish+Dream A5 Merc to go with my Skelemancer. in my head the auras stack work. if im not too stoned by Baal ill let you know how the Bardbarian and Skelemancer work out in HCHell
Loved both these merc build videos. Some very cool ideas, even if I'm too D2 poor to afford them haha. I really wanna see you come up with anything for the act 3 merc now. Surely there's got to be something that can be scraped together to make him useful.
Dear Dbrunski, you forgot about the gf barb's merc! I think the A5 frenzy merc with good equipment could possibly beat A2 might reaper's toll vs hell trav?
I need some answer beforr going to sleep Helm: G face Armor: Fortitude 1) grief pb + eth cryptic sword Lawbringer 2) Eth upped Headstriker with Amn rune + eth cryptic sword Lawbringer Which one is better?
It's fun to watch A5 merc running around hitting things, but ultimately A2 stat stick merc supports you better while you clear entire screens in seconds.
I am going to make this my Merc for my mosaic assassin. I want last wish for life tap so I don't have to use dracs, maybe hustle in off hand, cure helm and fort. Could be fun. I don't think the infinity Merc is necessary.
I just tried the Act 5 vs Act 2. I can’t believe the Act 5 frenzy/ironskin/taunt is doing really well. Very tanky, fast etc. It’s my fav merc now. I just let my merc kill the bosses alone when my fingers get tired lmao. But I heard Act 4 is very powerful of all merc but hard to find.
Nothing beats guardian angel for body. From 25%dmg taken to 10%dmg taken. Thats an effective 60% dmg reduction. Phy dmg from mobs is so weak in d2 for pvm.
Level 80... budget? Ah, any tips for more of the SF/SP, early-NM type of budget? 😅 Maybe some runewords and properties to look out for? Glad they made another type of merc viable after 20 years, would love to give the A5 boys a try, at least before I get Insight and inevitably go back to A2 Holy Freeze. A merc that can actually take a few hits sounds like a novel concept. Maybe my Hdin's old Malice flail? Can A5 mercs even equip flails?
Doing this with a fire druid. He stays alive with G face and having no leach too which is surprising. It's frustrating getting the lower res to proc though even in big cow packs sometimes
I've seen people use super GG rare swords on the act 5 merc with the + to chance to proc amp damage on hit. Basically to attain the same as a reaper's toll act 2 merc.
Currently using twin Azurewrath (Amn sockets), Eth Delerium, Eth Treachery on my FoH/Conviction Pally's merc. Love all the builds and variants in these merc spotlight videos.
Gimmershred in cube for phys immunes when doing dmg build. Also, just use two eth upped headstrikers and put dracs on or use an exile if you need life tap. Probably skip life tap and use Phoenix for added dmg. Only reason for last wish would be might aura. Your previous merc dmg video had eth upped headstrikers at 50% faster killspeed than the other configurations in p8.
Hey DB, thanks for the video! It would be nice if you could offer up an alternative to Last Wish for the Ubers build; something a little more achievable to most :)
Can you get double auras from him? Like if you had lawbringer in one hand and last wish in another, would he give you might and sanctuary aura simultaneously?
Nice video, but make one with cheap merc variants only. Here 90% were hyper expensive builds. I dont invest that much into single character, what about merc 😀
Hello Dbrunski, have you ever tried Bladesin in 2.4? I did recently and it is surprisingly good. Hope you can make a video about Bladesin! Starting from Natalya Set, it's just made for Bladesin. Great damage and survivability. Maybe you can try ubers with Bladesin. I'm planning on that. Hopefully I can gather proper gear for this.
Is it worth it to use an A5 merc on a phys zealer? My idea is: a phys zealer is already so strong due to how grief works, the A5 phys merc is just an overkill. The only two things that stop the zealer are 1) his lack of splash/aoe dmg and 2) phys immunes. Against the first, there is nothing to do. Except playing another variant of the zealer with auras. Against phys immunes I'd use an A2 merc with reaper's toll and break most of them with the curse. What do you think?
@@Trollolololol1337 if u run enigma it should work pretty well. U can telestomp into a pack which lets ur merc activate reapers more quickly. But without teleport the reapers is gonna take longer to activate. Honestly i've never used sanctuary self cast with grief, but it should work pretty well if u dont mind the extra apm (actions per minute). This set up wouldnt require enigma to be efficient so its cheaper, which is good for early game, also more flexible since it lets u wear whatever u want
@@WindCutterX Enigma is no problem. I'm playing and trading a lot. It's like you said, I'm too lazy for that selfcast, so I'd just telestomp and wait for the merc to activate the curse.
So the +Damage from Grief is calculated correct for the Merc's damage screen? Was not aware of that. Why no high damage weapon on second slot for High DPS variant? It is full of security features like Life Tab and Fade.
I've built an extremely expensive,but very effective dual pheonix werebear made possible by 2.4 changes. Fully synergized firestorm,1 point each oaksage, shockwave,lycanthropy,20 in maul and werebear,20 in geddon at level 95, pheozerker and pheonarch ,hoto and spirit on switch for summon,shapeshift and geddon casting,15iasjalas,hilord/raven/bk,treachery,loh, arach and gores. Infinity might merc. He fn demolishes! Aoe damage dealing melee,like a giant chainsaw through mobs. Heaps of -res combined with infinity mean monster pretty much always have -100 fire amp damage on,unless unbreakably immune,in which case I'm doing 8k phys,16 k after 70% chance of deadly strike. Geddon is doing about 8k a bomb,and firestorm is doing a difficult to calculate 6-12k damage depending on size of monster,after factoring -res. My favorite character in 20 years of playing. I used earth shifter for a while to cast geddon on swap,but found I liked spirit/hoto more because it buffed werebear and oak sage as well as geddon,and made up the extra 2 skill points by swapping 2 ss gcs for elemental gcs. Basically the same idea as the earthshifter druid,but more effective if one can afford it.
The lower resist curse, lowers all elements right? So why not use lightning? He can enjoy poison damage bonuses whilst you cover another elemental damage(lol, you just said this....🤦♂️).
For the high dps variant you would need to do some testing but my gut feeling tells me that using just grief instead of dual wielding grief + lastwish would result in more dps for general pvm. Both of the frenzy attacks being grief damage should just win out, use CoH instead of fortitude for the lifesteal and you're good to go, the damage difference between those armor pieces is negligibel on demon targets.
Cool video. I was trying to use a frenzy merc with lawbringer and headstriker on my fury druid, but I used my extra points in the summon tree. I found the summons were blocking the merc from being able to reach enemies. Am I crazy, or is that just how it is? May respec to be wold with hurricane for CC if you think that would work better. Or maybe just ignore wolves and only summon bear and spirit?
Bear is a really good option. But you could also put points into ravens since they provide CC via blind. Raven damage is not too shabby either. I have messed around with elemental side but I think hybrid fury / summoner is better.
@@MrKillDebian seems like the slow effect is quite short, too. Not even the whole duration between damage ticks. The summons plus holy freeze is really good cc so the bar is high. Just really want to get an a5 with lawbring for physical immune.
I hired a Lv 84 Frenzy barb and tried to equip Last Wish and Grief on Phase Blades on him but he says "I can't use that yet" despite clearing all requirements. Any idea why that's happening?
All the setup he uses beside the first one are crazy expensive so don't compare yourself to those. If you do less than the Sazabi setup aka takes you 5+ seconds to kill a Venom Lord you probably messed up your build.
So the Sazabi set is better than Treach for the budget setup? I have a low Arreats so I figured I would go the treach route (no luck with lem), but if its cheaper and better I may hold out and farm some better gear.
It's nice to see the act 5 merc getting some love after all these years
I'm rocking your enchantment fire build with 2x Hands of Justice, eth Fort and Cham Gface. But I don't use fireskills otherwise, I'm full Orb. Merc gets the enchant, I use Orb for almost everything. If I run across a big pack that might take the merc a second to clear through, I press W and use Demon Machine to help mow down with some fire damage.
I've really liked the battle cry barb for my beserker barb. Mainly because once I start beserking, my defense is gone, but all the damage reduction makes tanking easier plus he stuns every so often. Still playing with what item pairs work for the merc, but have really liked the update!
A build I've been running now with mosaic sin is:
Act 5 frenzy Merc
Hustle cryptic sword
Lawbringer cryptic sword
Fortitude lacquered plate
Cure guardian crown
He has cleansing, sanctuary & fanaticism auras. And procs burst of speed + chilling armor.
He's really tanky and casts decrep constantly with burst of speed + frenzy + fanaticism
Act 5 frenzy merc with grief/lawbringer cham gface and fortitude is now the best blizz sorc mercenary hands down.
Most of the cold immunes in the game are undead including chaos sanctuary, the durance of hate and worldstone (outside witches).
Sanctuary isn't just crowd control, it has 2 other very powerful attributes. It ignores physical resistance of the undead so all undead monsters including the physical immunes like ghosts take full damage even before the decrep procs from lawbringer. It also givs 620% ED to undead which gives more damage to your grief then the skills and fort combined.
As long as you cycle static this set up will almost instantly mow down elite packs of vampires in durance and worldstone and 1-2 shot oblivion knights (including lord de sies) even in high player games. Undead also tend to stay at range and run away and this merc runs them down.
It can also kill any animal or demon unique that spawns physical and cold immune once the decrep procs.
Other setups and mercs may kill eldrich faster but cold immune animal monsters are a tiny % of the game.
If you have the time try this out on a blizz sorc in durance, chaos or worldstone. The play is you kill everything that is not cold immune with blizzard and cycle static as your merc quicky mops up.
I've had a lot of fun experimenting with the Frenzy merc for my Poison Necro. Another tweak I made to your 'stat stick' varient was to use Flickering Flame in a barb helm with +Iron Skin. Having low fire res shift to overcapped fire res is really useful for Chaos Sanctuary. I also put an Amn rune into my Azurewrath so he has life leech. Super cool tri aura support means myself, the merc and iron golem always survive. If you were ballsy enough you could actually make your iron golem out of Infinity with this configuration.
i dont recommend at high level. unless you like not killing half the monsters
Hey dbrunski, keep up the good work! I’ve been watching your videos for a while now. Very insightful and just realized you mentioned you’re Canadian eh! A fan of your videos from Alberta!
I found the biggest problem for the frenzy merc was attack rating on my play through for ladder(no good gear whatsoever)When killing Baal he couldn’t even get frenzy going, I had to switch to an act 2 merc just so he could hit. I was playing summon necro so he was my main damage source but very cool setups you show!
yeah his attack rating can be low. Also baal is very high level, so he is mroe difficult to hit.
My boy Sigurd's a frenzy merc, rocking dual unbending will, ethereal atmas and then a g face.
I am finally seeing Last Wish being used on a merc! I'd like Last Wish and Plague combo for basically immortality for both merc and my barb haha, will get it this year!
imo the last combo is the all-around best, Arreat/Fort/LW/Azurewrath. Since Azurewrath has often been easy to trade for due to little interest/demand, it's sets up another option for semi-budget players, you could rock maybe Guillame's/Treachery/Azurewrath with Amn/Lawbringer for Sanctuary aura and Decrepify support... and it also keeps you from that awkward situation where your build has 800 High Runes yet you have to run like a pansy from every PI and/or Stoneskin monster >.>
My pure summon druid uses a frenzy merc with grief/Lawbringer. I'm giving him lvl15 fanat from a perfect Faith. He tears up everything. And Lawbringer handles phys immunes. It's a fun setup.
My avenger pally uses a frenzy merc with e-oath/last wish. It's a solid build and he holds his own. Oath is such an underrated rw. Good dmg, great speed. Helps the LW proc more often.
I needed an answer for my blizz sorce and tired of using a2 merc this is it with plague, thanks!
Guess i'm able to do the first merc some day.
Grief LB + Fort/Guillaume is actually stronger than A2 might with Reaper's Toll + Fort/Guillaume if you don't need the might aura for yourself, for example with a Wind Druid. A5 merc moves faster, atk faster with crushing blow and waste less damage with overkill.
If u switched to fanat, and just use redemption when needed to heal/mana merc does *alot* better, fanat really kicks them up a couple notches in terms of face tanking and just stomping stuff
Another decent option for poison support that is super budget but shines in higher player counts is running crescent moon of all things for the static field proc. While I agree that dual plague is the better choice, running 1-2 crescent moon when combined with the super fast attack speed of the frenzy merc allows for fairly decent AoE chunking of health that pairs well with poison based builds
I miss the little awkward smirk u used to give us in the intro ^^
Sus
love these videos man keep it up
Great video man. Your one of the best d2 content creator esp. your guides.
Bash merc with an upped eth shael Vile Husk with fortitude or treach(more amp damage procs) and andys is NUTS on a WW barbarian...it cuts your baal time down drastically whether its hitting for the amp damage or giving you the battlecry...really niche setup but could probably be pulled off with a non eth as well...a more survivable version of your brand act 1 merc basically...for ubers i'd give it treach and proc then throw on fort and use arreats as well as a lifetap wand on swap for your ww barb and youll be whirling your way through ubers...frenzy with last wish and grief is INSANE on a summoner necro and if you self wield pride on the necro the merc can literally just clear the game for you while you swap between spells (lifetap, amp, decrep, etc) ps I think you don't need to run dual plague if you just run 1 you'll get the bug (unless fixed) where the game thinks you're dual wielding that one weapon in which case can save you from having to make 2 of the same runeword if you want to dual or make 2 and save that other one for an act 3 merc with medusas gaze and plague for maybe a trapsin or something maybe a blade fury assasin with an enchant act 3 merc to help with boss accuracy (blade fury and blade shield are now AMAZING one point wonders due to the 75% weapon damage modifier)
for the javazon a deaths web on swap with a poison faceted monarch is pretty much the same as having lower res but without relying on procs, I've found for cow farming a lawbringer/etc act 5 does a little better for grouping the cows who can actually benefit from dying slower because you can try to get them all bunched up and clear cows sub 2 minutes the plague javazon isn't budget by any means imo a high end version would have enigma, a fcr frw +2 circlet, aldurs boots, a bunch of mf sc's or frw sc, arachs, spirit, deaths web and faceted monarch on swap, nagelrings, maras as the amulet or a nice zon fcr ammy (I'm really loving the new poison javazon lately it's probably the most relaxing cows build ever and its easy to search loot kind of like a necro or a sin because you get most kills on screen)
Aura sorceress, dual dream + dragon + hand of justice with max fire mastery, max light mastery. A5 mercenary frenzy, dual plague with andariels cham'd plus bramble. Would like to see you showcase a variant of this build. Thanks
Idr if you mentioned it, but grief has the -psn res inherently. So that should definitely help any poison build, assuming it’s not bugged.
Excelent video, i just found Cham on Sanctuary single player, i will make Pleague for my Blizz sorc :)
Personally I use Last Wish/Lawbringer on my purely phys bowzon, makes shredding phys immune, especially the Undead ones (ghosts, etc) alot easier w/ the Sanc + curse.
I would like to see the javazon(lightning) with the lower resist merc
Last Wish is a RW I have never been able to make in D2…if I can ever afford it I’ll be using it on my own characters😎 currently rocking the frenzy act 5 merc on my FoHdin he’s using the grief/law bringer set up with a tretch & vgaze. Dude is a beast takes care of all the monsters that FoH can’t kill I just switch auras to fanaticism to support him for a min or so.
Act 3 merc upgrades too, let's do it!
The only thing i dont like about them is the taunt and battle cry since it over rides ur runeword procs
subscribed today, good vid man
Dual wield eth crescent moon for static proc might be interesting for fire Druid.
Dual wield eth oath is budget option if no eth head striker or grief.
Only downsize about frenzy merc is that you’re limited to 4os or less for eth swords so no dual wield eth death :(
I don’t recommend frenzy merc for gold barb if can proc amp/decrep cause his taunt will override those curses
I think you only need one for it to count as dual wield unless they patched that, which is another plus of the act 5 frenzy merc
@@dartlingaming they patched the one hand glitch so you need 2 of the same to stack auras or proc
2 x Crescent Moon and Cow King's Leathers. ;)
- 18% Chance To Cast Level 5 Chain Lightning When Struck
- 25% Chance To Cast Level 5 Static Field When Struck
- 100% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items
Am I crazy or does that actually sound fun.
making a Beast+LastWish+Dream A5 Merc to go with my Skelemancer. in my head the auras stack work. if im not too stoned by Baal ill let you know how the Bardbarian and Skelemancer work out in HCHell
Mine use oath(eth superior cryptic sword) lawbringer, shaftstop and vampgaze. I haven never had him die.
Loved both these merc build videos. Some very cool ideas, even if I'm too D2 poor to afford them haha.
I really wanna see you come up with anything for the act 3 merc now. Surely there's got to be something that can be scraped together to make him useful.
If they would freaking melee at close range, block, and have a few mastery points it would really change things up for the best.
Dear Dbrunski, you forgot about the gf barb's merc! I think the A5 frenzy merc with good equipment could possibly beat A2 might reaper's toll vs hell trav?
You might wanna swap out the Lawbringer though. If he accidentally gets a kill, the corpse won't be Horkable. Otherwise I totally agree with you.
Yeah I was wanting to know a gf barb merc build and that set has cold damage and lawbringer messes up horking too
Found what iam after, nicely done ty
You should make a video on how to make act 3 mercs relevant
I need some answer beforr going to sleep
Helm: G face
Armor: Fortitude
1) grief pb + eth cryptic sword Lawbringer
2) Eth upped Headstriker with Amn rune + eth cryptic sword Lawbringer
Which one is better?
Dude that plague merc is freaking cool
I feel Act 5 Merc tribe payed Dbrunski to make a series of vids about em! :)
Jokes aside, well done video!
It's fun to watch A5 merc running around hitting things, but ultimately A2 stat stick merc supports you better while you clear entire screens in seconds.
I just switched over to an Act 5 mercenary but I need to get him some better gear. Thanks for the tip!
I am going to make this my Merc for my mosaic assassin. I want last wish for life tap so I don't have to use dracs, maybe hustle in off hand, cure helm and fort. Could be fun. I don't think the infinity Merc is necessary.
I’m currently using an act 5 merc with last wish and plague to support my WW barb clear P8 terror zones.
Very interesting video, well done!!
Since a couple videos have been made about sazabi, it has been going for mal+.
I just tried the Act 5 vs Act 2. I can’t believe the Act 5 frenzy/ironskin/taunt is doing really well. Very tanky, fast etc. It’s my fav merc now. I just let my merc kill the bosses alone when my fingers get tired lmao. But I heard Act 4 is very powerful of all merc but hard to find.
Act 4?
Nothing beats guardian angel for body. From 25%dmg taken to 10%dmg taken. Thats an effective 60% dmg reduction. Phy dmg from mobs is so weak in d2 for pvm.
Level 80... budget? Ah, any tips for more of the SF/SP, early-NM type of budget? 😅 Maybe some runewords and properties to look out for?
Glad they made another type of merc viable after 20 years, would love to give the A5 boys a try, at least before I get Insight and inevitably go back to A2 Holy Freeze. A merc that can actually take a few hits sounds like a novel concept. Maybe my Hdin's old Malice flail? Can A5 mercs even equip flails?
Just made unbending will, thinking that might help plague proc more often with the higher level of frenzy
@Dbrunski125
what gear set up would you suggest with a FOH pally that uses redemption and not conviction
Always interesting to hear you pronounce the word "Plague". I don't know if it's a regional dialect - but it sounds soooo odd. Love the videos tho!
Pretty sure he says it normal.
Pleg
@@bobpope3656 He most certainly does not.
@@mattheModest yes he does, I looked it up. On TH-cam they have videos of how to pronounce words. I am pretty sure your the one who says it wierd
On ladder I'm really enjoying the dual plague setup with my Javazon. I would say its about the same as infinity.
Doing this with a fire druid. He stays alive with G face and having no leach too which is surprising. It's frustrating getting the lower res to proc though even in big cow packs sometimes
@@Bdiz43 You need a tele staff or enigma to port him into mobs so he gets hit and it procs.
I've seen people use super GG rare swords on the act 5 merc with the + to chance to proc amp damage on hit. Basically to attain the same as a reaper's toll act 2 merc.
Nice idea
What gets that proc? Anything other than atmas?
Isn't it 2% ctc. Seems low
Currently using twin Azurewrath (Amn sockets), Eth Delerium, Eth Treachery on my FoH/Conviction Pally's merc. Love all the builds and variants in these merc spotlight videos.
I love how its ai is no need for repositioning :)
Gimmershred in cube for phys immunes when doing dmg build. Also, just use two eth upped headstrikers and put dracs on or use an exile if you need life tap. Probably skip life tap and use Phoenix for added dmg. Only reason for last wish would be might aura. Your previous merc dmg video had eth upped headstrikers at 50% faster killspeed than the other configurations in p8.
Run the grief/last wish merc with a fohdin with fanaticism aura, that's my dream setup.
Hey DB, thanks for the video! It would be nice if you could offer up an alternative to Last Wish for the Ubers build; something a little more achievable to most :)
Can you get double auras from him? Like if you had lawbringer in one hand and last wish in another, would he give you might and sanctuary aura simultaneously?
Awesome video
HELLYEAHH
Sazabi's is brilliant for taking aggro effectively. Great analysis!
I've been curious about a duel voice of reason merc. Maybe use nightwings as well.
Nice video, but make one with cheap merc variants only. Here 90% were hyper expensive builds. I dont invest that much into single character, what about merc 😀
It's still a damn shame they can't use berserker axes though. It's a crime against all barbarian kind.
a2 insight merc.. as usual. nothing special but "never change a running system" good enough for my orbfirewall sorc and new druid summon
Hello Dbrunski, have you ever tried Bladesin in 2.4? I did recently and it is surprisingly good. Hope you can make a video about Bladesin!
Starting from Natalya Set, it's just made for Bladesin. Great damage and survivability. Maybe you can try ubers with Bladesin. I'm planning on that. Hopefully I can gather proper gear for this.
Good guide
On the phys zealer set up u can get lvl1 sanctuary and self cast it when u encounter a phys immune undead. May or may not be worth it.
Is it worth it to use an A5 merc on a phys zealer?
My idea is: a phys zealer is already so strong due to how grief works, the A5 phys merc is just an overkill.
The only two things that stop the zealer are 1) his lack of splash/aoe dmg and 2) phys immunes. Against the first, there is nothing to do. Except playing another variant of the zealer with auras. Against phys immunes I'd use an A2 merc with reaper's toll and break most of them with the curse. What do you think?
@@Trollolololol1337 if u run enigma it should work pretty well. U can telestomp into a pack which lets ur merc activate reapers more quickly. But without teleport the reapers is gonna take longer to activate. Honestly i've never used sanctuary self cast with grief, but it should work pretty well if u dont mind the extra apm (actions per minute). This set up wouldnt require enigma to be efficient so its cheaper, which is good for early game, also more flexible since it lets u wear whatever u want
@@WindCutterX Enigma is no problem. I'm playing and trading a lot. It's like you said, I'm too lazy for that selfcast, so I'd just telestomp and wait for the merc to activate the curse.
Sum nec with beast
Pride Iron golem
Lw merc
For the budget setup I used a unbending will in a phase blade and he does pretty good DPS with sazabis
whats the best way to do a SSF merc only run? like enchant or holy bolt? a5 merc with SSF gear? low level weapons to go for?
So the +Damage from Grief is calculated correct for the Merc's damage screen? Was not aware of that. Why no high damage weapon on second slot for High DPS variant? It is full of security features like Life Tab and Fade.
If your merc used azurewrath and lawbringer, would the sanc aura stack?
Hey DB, could you do Fire melee/elemental druid with the unique thundermaul build?
I've built an extremely expensive,but very effective dual pheonix werebear made possible by 2.4 changes. Fully synergized firestorm,1 point each oaksage, shockwave,lycanthropy,20 in maul and werebear,20 in geddon at level 95, pheozerker and pheonarch ,hoto and spirit on switch for summon,shapeshift and geddon casting,15iasjalas,hilord/raven/bk,treachery,loh, arach and gores.
Infinity might merc.
He fn demolishes! Aoe damage dealing melee,like a giant chainsaw through mobs. Heaps of -res combined with infinity mean monster pretty much always have -100 fire amp damage on,unless unbreakably immune,in which case I'm doing 8k phys,16 k after 70% chance of deadly strike.
Geddon is doing about 8k a bomb,and firestorm is doing a difficult to calculate 6-12k damage depending on size of monster,after factoring -res. My favorite character in 20 years of playing. I used earth shifter for a while to cast geddon on swap,but found I liked spirit/hoto more because it buffed werebear and oak sage as well as geddon,and made up the extra 2 skill points by swapping 2 ss gcs for elemental gcs.
Basically the same idea as the earthshifter druid,but more effective if one can afford it.
QUESTION: Do these new Mercs have the 'Blade Mastery' skill?...it would be nice if we can boost it with the Barbarian Helmets
Azurewrath is especially free n beats out lawbringer anyday n has better sanctuary
Correction @ 17:10 - not a superior Fade Proc to Treachery. Last Wish = lvl 11, Trachery = lvl 15?
You're correct. It was superior lifetap from last wish to the life tap on my exile. Good catch
@@Dbrunski125 Awesome, thank you for confirming! Love these kind of videos
thanks!!! W Barbarians!!!
What about dual hoj and dragon ? And maybe flickering flame ? Does that work too ?
Ik tried this, gives a lvl 46 fire aura. But the damage is pretty underwelming. So I dont recommend it
@@karelx4769 TY!
I'd love to see a cows thorns naked build. Max HP mode
How would this work with shaefers or stormlash, getting static on there would seem like a nice add on?
The lower resist curse, lowers all elements right? So why not use lightning? He can enjoy poison damage bonuses whilst you cover another elemental damage(lol, you just said this....🤦♂️).
Can plagues be made in maces ? In that case you can create a +5foh weapon and make some spicy stuff
What is the best sword base for this merc ? Any is good ?
what about plague + last wish? and what u think is better combo: headstriker+lastwish or grief+lastwish? ty
Plague flickering flame
Need a eth last wish and ethereal beast with a eth gaze n an eth fortitude
hi. is not better to use a treachery instead of shaftstop on support spec?? it gives fade, ias and has same low def.
15:50. Is that balrog skin ebugged from your d2 lod save file? Cause that def is so high
For the high dps variant you would need to do some testing but my gut feeling tells me that using just grief instead of dual wielding grief + lastwish would result in more dps for general pvm. Both of the frenzy attacks being grief damage should just win out, use CoH instead of fortitude for the lifesteal and you're good to go, the damage difference between those armor pieces is negligibel on demon targets.
Cool video. I was trying to use a frenzy merc with lawbringer and headstriker on my fury druid, but I used my extra points in the summon tree. I found the summons were blocking the merc from being able to reach enemies. Am I crazy, or is that just how it is? May respec to be wold with hurricane for CC if you think that would work better. Or maybe just ignore wolves and only summon bear and spirit?
Bear is a really good option. But you could also put points into ravens since they provide CC via blind. Raven damage is not too shabby either.
I have messed around with elemental side but I think hybrid fury / summoner is better.
@@MrKillDebian seems like the slow effect is quite short, too. Not even the whole duration between damage ticks. The summons plus holy freeze is really good cc so the bar is high. Just really want to get an a5 with lawbring for physical immune.
I hired a Lv 84 Frenzy barb and tried to equip Last Wish and Grief on Phase Blades on him but he says "I can't use that yet" despite clearing all requirements. Any idea why that's happening?
For the uber merc setup is there any reason why you'd go with Azurewrath over Lawbringer which has a higher level Sanc aura?
This damn mercs are stronger than my online main char
relatable
Hey dbrunski, do you plan on going back to PD2 sometime in the future?
man sucks to see that you can get this merc doing higher damage then my own chars lol
All the setup he uses beside the first one are crazy expensive so don't compare yourself to those. If you do less than the Sazabi setup aka takes you 5+ seconds to kill a Venom Lord you probably messed up your build.
@@Patatetbk lol killing trash is no issue just bosses idk how people do thsi nova sorc on them lol
Is it possible to throw 2 hand of justice him, dragon and a dream helm to stack on a auradin pally??
So the Sazabi set is better than Treach for the budget setup? I have a low Arreats so I figured I would go the treach route (no luck with lem), but if its cheaper and better I may hold out and farm some better gear.