Greetings, and a question on Merc survivability

[Crudesash]

Hello SPF; I was an old member on the Diinet site a long time ago, had some spurts of of posts here and there but I've been away from D2 for a long time, and of course, like many others, I'm back now with the D2R announcement. Looking forward to it immensely, and really pleased to see the SPF still thriving. I tell people to this day that this forum was the best internet experience I have ever had, and the reason I stayed with the game (thanks Ranger44, wherever you are!)

So I'm leveling a Sorc and Barb, both in Hell, both mostly untwinked; the barb is all self found, and the Sorc used some of the barb finds, but I find myself a bit stonewalled with the Sorc, and the problem is merc survivability.

She is level 83, and I'm in the Ancient's Way. She is CL/FO, using Spirit/Lionheart/Rhyme and a bunch of rares. Res is in the 50-75 range, and max block. around 740 life. Merc uses an Eth Meat Scraper, and a plain gemmed boneweave/Rockstopper; 75 Res All, ~1800 defense, ~1700 life. For almost every unique pack, he dies after a few hits, so the game has devolved into a dance of port away/heal, port away/heal, TP to heal and refill. It has been many years since I've taken a character this far, and then it was a well-heeled Paladin who was virtually indestructible. Not so much this time.

So I'm wondering what is the best way to beef him up? A better weapon with life leech would heal him faster, is upping the Meatscraper worth it? I have the runes to do so. My son mentioned needing more defense, and if I can find a good eth armor it'd be great, but I guess I'm just trying to figure out the best strategy to keep him alive longer. Not to mention the Ancients will be impossible without him tanking for me, as I have very little in the +skills department.

Thanks for any input or advice, and I look forward to sharing a new Matriarch with you soon!

 

[Maltatai]

The meat scraper is actually a nice and useful mercenary weapon but it's not the most powerful one. Many alternatives with more damage and some with more weakening mods exist, but in my opinion it has a decent mix of both. Upgrading it would indeed make a huuuge difference and have style as well. Weapons with open wounds are a treasure for sorceresses hirelings since you can let enemies be hit once and teleport away while they bleed out for 8 seconds, then repeat.

The town guards armour sounds like a weaker point. I would hunt for some PDR gear for him and buy a pair of weaken gloves or a Smoke armour. That should buy him some time, especially against swarms of weaker but faster enemies like bloodstar casting witches or archer packs. Don't bother with defence, it's nice to have but not so useful to prioritize over resistances or damage reduction.

What does the sorceress use as switch weapon, is there room for a wand of lifetap perhaps?

 

[Crudesash]

Thanks! The witches in particular are a real pain. I hadn't thought of a Life Tap weapon on switch; I've been using a Fire damage bow to help when I come across a CI/LI, but that doesn't really do much except make me feel less guilty standing around. Smoke has great mods, should have probably made that instead of Lionheart, but the loss of 90 life will be something to deal with...the extra 20 resists means I can swap some charms though.

I'll up the Scraper and look for a PDR armor for him, make the Smoke if I can. Do you think I should swap HF for a Defiance/Might merc? Might would boost the life leech, and I can just run AT/LK/Pindle to level one.

 

[Maltatai]

Absolutely not, the slowing from holy freeze is the best defence for your mercenary. Might means more leeching but he will need to get in position and get an opportunity to jab mightily in the first place. Without a tanking or crowd controlling employer, a mighty town guard will not be able to bring his extra damage to bear to any great extent so holy freeze is an easier option, except when facing ancients or Baal. Defiance can be good with godly equipment but then there are conviction and blessed aim monsters around the corner that just nullifies it.

 

[DaveWThe2nd]

Hey Crude, can you handle Hell Andy or Hell Meph runs? If not how about going back to NM Meph/Andy to find better Merc gear. Kelpie or Hone Sundan, Shaftstop or Duriels. And a LL helm like Tals would help as well. Do you have any Polearms you could punch holes in? Obedience is awesome as is Insight. GL.

 

[Crudesash]

Hey Crude, can you handle Hell Andy or Hell Meph runs? If not how about going back to NM Meph/Andy to find better Merc gear. Kelpie or Hone Sundan, Shaftstop or Duriels. And a LL helm like Tals would help as well. Do you have any Polearms you could punch holes in? Obedience is awesome as is Insight. GL.

Thanks! She can handle Andy and Meph, and I have a great map for Meph (“The” map). I’ve been holding the runes for obedience waiting on a good 5os polearm. I should toss Duriel’s on him at the least. Don’t have an LL helm though.
I think upping the Scraper is a good call though; being eth will give it a great damage range and the inherent leech might be just what he needs to hang in there while I bring the pain. But Obedience in an eth Cryptic Axe would be nuts

 

[Rawness]

An item that is nice if you are doing extended runs is Treachery, and it requires at most a Lem rune. Its pretty cheap as well, and the fade really helps with survivability. But if you are doing short runs like pure mephisto runs, the fade doesnt proc in time, so maybe smoke might be preferable. You will eventually get a duriel which is really nice for resistances. For the face I suggest trying for any of these decent low-midtier items: Tals helmet, Vampires gaze, Crown of Thieves. Even a rockstopper should be good for the resistances, as long as you can get leech somewhere. Someone suggested the obedience runeword, and that is a good option if you got a decent elite base. The idea of switching to a mercenary with frost aura is also something worth trying, just remember to unequip the mercenaries items before trying it out.

 

[Crudesash]

Thanks. Yes, I know to do that. I think since I have the obedience runes I’ll up the scraper since it has LL already, and switch to Duriel’s for his armor. Then just keep farming for that elite polearm base.

 

[DaveWThe2nd]

If you find an eth Polearm (Thresher, CA, Partizan) Lazurk will punch 5 holes for you. He gives the max sockets for that weapon type.

 

[Vildecor]

Hey, it's another old-timer. Welcome back @Crudesash68, I remember seeing your name way back when. You probably won't remember me though, I posted very infrequently. Looks like the merc questions have been taken care of. Good luck with the sorc!

 

[Crudesash]

Hey, it's another old-timer. Welcome back @Crudesash68, I remember seeing your name way back when. You probably won't remember me though, I posted very infrequently. Looks like the merc questions have been taken care of. Good luck with the sorc!

Thanks, and well met!

Well, the improvements helped a little, I upgraded the Meat Scraper to an Ogre Axe, and gave him Duriel's Shell, and at first it felt a lot better, but he still was kind of squishy, and the Ancients proved way too hard for my gear level. The Sorc is really undergeared, though, so I am going to start getting the barb back up (I may or may not have pinched some gear form the Sorc's merc) and keep doing some MF farming with the Sorc, since she handles AT/LK/Meph pretty well.

I should try the Weaken strategy though. As soon as I find an item with charges or make Smoke, I'll go back and bang on their door again. Thanks all for the kind words and advice. One does tend to get rusty after a long absence, and I am glad to get a chance to work that out before D2R goes live, which hopefully will be soon.