I am so hyped to finally time travel

[Jamie]

@Jamie
Cold Mastery lowers the cold resistance by the listed percentage of the target's cold resistance.
So let's say a target has 150 cold resistance, and you have a level 20 CM, which is -85%:
150*85/100 = 127
150-127 = 23
So all your cold damage will hurt the target as if it has only 23 cold resistance, even though it really has 150. This is how it "breaks" cold immunity, and this is why CM is so powerful.
The more cold resistance a target has, the more you get out of CM. But if a target has 0 (or negative) cold resistance, then CM literally does nothing.

GalaXyHaXz made an awesome 1.08 thread: 1.08 News, Info and Gossip.

So the first example you listed was the way it works in 1.07? I had remember reading something along the lines of how it doesn't reduce it as much as it currently does. So 1.07 CM will take out whatever percentage of the monster cold resistance it has? Such as if a monster is 70%, a 50% CM will drop it down to 35%? So this makes it so CM will never actually take it below 0% Cold Resist, unless I have a CM over 100%? Where in 1.14d it will easily drop enemy cold resistances into the negatives with a decently high CM?

Am I understanding this correctly?

Also, do you know if this means progressing Frozen Orb is much more important than Cold Masterty? In Nightmare act 4 I have a level 7 Frozen Orb (71-76 damage) and a level 3 Cold Mastery (42%). My FO is decent, but it doesn't do a whole lot of damage. Especially to say NM Meph.

I would love to know if progressing Frozen Orb only, Cold Master only for awhile or taking turns with them, will lead to the strongest Frozen Orb to use going forward. I am a little upset I lost the good guides I had to building characters and other parts of 1.07. The reason I am interested in 1.07, is that the item levels aren't an issue. So I could find 08 valor/shako and others doing meph and other bosses, although I believe MF is really bugged in 1.08. I believe you can also find 6 mod rare jewels. I just don't want to miss out on max damage charms and some other crazy things exclusive to 1.07.

My main concern was progressing my Frozne Orb and Cold Mastery to make it as strong as possible going towards the end of A4 NM and into Hell, wuth my level 7 FO (71-76) and level 3 CM(42% Cold Pierce).

 

[Jamie]

@Fruit
@zemaj

I didn't mean to repost that. My internet is buggy sometimes.

I just wanted to thank both of you for answering EXACTLY what I wanted to know about everything. You guys are heroes! Thank you so much for the info!!!!

The reason I was sort of considering 1.08 is because it sounds like things like Valor and Shako can't drop from any act boss in 1.07, because items can only drop up to a TC of like 66? Where as in 1.08 they fixed this issue, but MF is broken, so it is like running bosses with no MF. I was wanting a way around having to run racks, because to me, boss running is much more fun. I already get my fix of running inanimate objects doing LK runs in 1.14d lol.

 

[Jamie]

I am in Act 4 Nightmare, just got into the River of Hell, after spending a couple days messing around with NM Mephisto. I now have Magefists on, 4 socketed Gothic Plate with 3 PTopaz in it, a 3 socketed Large Shield with 2 PDiamonds in it. Hopefully I can get the last Perfect Topaz and Perfect Diamond soon enough lol. I went through all of my gear on ATMA's and made a new stash for stuff I don't want to have to sift through on my sorceress Time's mule.

I have her geared as good as I thought I could get her with a focus on resistances, mana and MF last. I just found a 20 All Resists Amulet that I put in pace of a 67 to mana amulet. I also found a 96 to life and 28% Cold Resist Coronet to replace my ACT 5 Merc's '80 to Life Circlet'. Was happy with that find.

I will post what gear I use and have accumulated either once I get finished with Act 4 or perhaps when I Finish Nightmare and am ready to move on to Hell. I'm not sure if I will stick around in NM and do Cow Runs/CS or Baal Runs, before I move on to Hell. I will probably take advice from you intelligent 1.07 players . Time is only level 38 right now. It feels so crazy to be creeping to the end of Nightmare at level 38 with an Untwinked Sorceress for sure!!!

 

[helvete1]

You know about the mpk rings, right? Got a lvl 8 char to roll with?

 

[Jamie]

You know about the mpk rings, right? Got a lvl 8 char to roll with?

I haven't. I didn't realize rolling them was so low! I guess I need to get the recipe and I will start another character and roll some MPK rings . You know the info on it? Any direction to MPK Rings would be greatly appreciated!!!


The reason I signed on this because of the screen though. If I play full screen, it lags like CRAZY whenever there is a moderate to large amount of foes in the area. And it doesn't take a log to start lagging it out and making it painfully annoying
So I play in window (-w) mode. I tried it with just the -w, then I copied what I had on my other laptop I play 1.14d on (-w, -direct, -txt). I honestly don't even remember what those other two do, but I must have been told to way back when. Anyway, no mater now I try it, I get a tiny screen that auto minimizes every time I click off the screen. No way to make it bigger and smaller like on the newer patch. No way to [x]. So no [-] [[]] or [x]. It is annoying, I always teleport off screen.

is there ANNYYYY way to fix it and make it like my 1.14d is? Thankssss

 

[helvete1]

Search forum for Sven's Glide Wrapper. Set it up and never worry again. It has mouse capture and numerous options to smooth graphix.

About the MPK rings, the recipe is:
Sapphire (any) + thawing potion + ring

...and hope it rolls mpk. At clvl 8 you can get fcr as suffix as well.

 

[Jamie]

Search forum for Sven's Glide Wrapper. Set it up and never worry again. It has mouse capture and numerous options to smooth graphix.

About the MPK rings, the recipe is:
Sapphire (any) + thawing potion + ring

...and hope it rolls mpk. At clvl 8 you can get fcr as suffix as well.

Awesome. Thank you

Doing it on my level 39 sorceress would be a waste I assume? And I should remake a character, get that toon to level8 and then start doing the recipe to hope for MPK rings with a possible FCR as an added bonus @helvete

 

[Belthazor]

Doing it with a level 39 character isn't necessarily a waste. You can still get those rings. The odds are a bit lower, since there are more affixes to choose from at that level, so you will burn through more sapphires. However, you can also roll a rare ring with MPK. That's where a higher level can be interesting, since you can get additional affixes on those rings that can be quite useful.

 

[helvete1]

Gems drop a lot in 1.00 so I just forwarded a couple hundred sapphires when I had my rolling spree. The potential better affixes will factor in, but I'd just get one or two good ones from a lvl 8 before testing my luck. The odds drop pretty quickly as lvl increases.

 

[Jamie]

Ok I was due to an update on my progress and I had a very interesting experience just now. After running Nightmare Meph for some time with pure MF gear, I scaled back to a sort of combination of MF and "powerful" Non-MF gear.

I had quite the interesting Nightmare Ancient's experience at level 41.The first round my Act Normal Merc died VERY FAST and I tried to carry it out on my own.. well the guy who jumpattacks, who shotted me lol. Next go around my Merc lived slightly longer, then died, then the guy jump KO'd me again..grrrr... I was now trying to make a very conscious effort to keep my merc alive, but it was hard. This round he died,but I realized I could run around and frozen orb without my merc. I did this until I finally noticed, one of them was cold AND lightning immune...this was beginning to become frustrating.

The next round my merc died halfway through again, but I ran around orbing them until one ancient was left....... that ancient was OF COURSE cold immune and the one who jumps and he ALSO had teleport as a skill. I tried hard to dodge his jumps and made just I stayed super close to him so he wouldn't jump. He would teleport away when I static'd him down to no life and would regain life frequently. I had a orb on switch with 'Enchant' that I use to enchant my merc before I leave town when I cast my frozen armor and then enchant.

So I was desperately trying to smash him with my orb with enchant on me and it was going very poorly. He was constantly getting his life back from teleporting and no matter how low I had him on static, and believe me I had him on sliver for huge periods of time, he would not die from me trying to hit him. Well an epiphany finally hit me. I realized the orb that I have on secondary to enchant my merc, also has a LEVEL 2 THUNDERSTORM! I never use it because I can't cast it in town and heal my mana and also because it seems to strike out of the sky only about once every 15 seconds, so it's practically pointless. Well, once I turned that on and got the dude static'd all the way down as low as I could, it only took two lightning srikes falling from the sky before I finaly killed all 3 ancients.

Killing the Nightmare Ancients levled my LEVEL 41 Sorceress to LEVEL 48!!! Such a wonderful surprise!

I thought I would share this funny story, because I haven't really been keeping up as in a walkthrough style like I had wanted to. So will share some of my gear, stats and what not here. I apologize that my screenshots down't work in game on this particular 1.07 on my secondary laptop. Also the hosting sites are having issues with this laptop. I will either type them out or copy paste them from ATMA for you guys to see. I know it's not as pretty and I am sorry for that.

Gear is in my spoiler:

Spoiler

Pain Visor
Circlet
Defense: 27
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 18
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x3f0847ce
+52 to Mana
+25 to Attack Rating
+14 to Maximum Damage
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
+1 to Cold Skills (Sorceress Only)

Prefix 1006 Amulet of the Jackal
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x432a0cb9
+3 to Life
All Resistances +20

Prefix 988 Ring of the Locust
Required Level: 35
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x43cf2e11
+91 to Mana
6% Life stolen per hit

Prefix 1045 Ring of Protection
Required Level: 13
Item Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x545be19f
Damage Reduced by 2
Fire Resist +16%

Prefix 1067 Ring of Protection
Required Level: 13
Item Level: 34
Fingerprint: 0x6ad33ba1
Damage Reduced by 2
Lightning Resist +21%

Prefix 986 Glowing Orb
One-Hand Damage: 8 to 21
Durability: 20 of 20
(Sorceress Only)
Required Dexterity: 20
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 18
Orb Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Level: 24
Fingerprint: 0x21a6c94
+13 to Life
+57 to Mana
+1 to Nova (Sorceress Only)
+2 to Glacial Spike (Sorceress Only)

Prefix 1069 Demonhide Boots of Balance
Defense: 32
Durability: 11 of 12
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 24
Item Level: 57
Fingerprint: 0x41e71142
Lightning Resist +33%
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Magefist
Light Gauntlets
Defense: 19
Durability: 17 of 18
Required Strength: 45
Required Level: 23
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x1cf8272f
Regenerate Mana 25%
+10 Defense
Adds 1-5 fire damage
20% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to Fire Skills

Sigon's Wrap
Plated Belt
Defense: 105
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 6
Item Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x68109d28
+20 to Life
Fire Resist +20%

***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
+96 to Defense (Based on Character Level)
***Partial Set Item Bonuses***

Gemmed Gothic Plate
Defense: 129
Durability: 55 of 55
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 18
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0x544ce781
72% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Socketed (4: 3 used)

Gemmed Gothic Plate
Defense: 129
Durability: 55 of 55
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 18
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0x544ce781
72% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Socketed (4: 3 used)

Obviously I need to get one more Perfect Topaz and Perfect Diamond and hopefully find a better belt and who knows what else. I am not disappointed whatsoever with my items though, being still in end of Nightmare.

None of my charms are really worth writing home about, so I'll spare you that boredom.

Also, I switch out rings and certain things based on the resist that is needed at the time. I have setups where I can max about all of the resists or can stack a particular one or two for various situations. Then I can also just mass up MF and dodge the elements as much as I can lol.

I am level 48 now (thank you Ancients!) and about to fight Baal in Nightmare. I am at the WP there, so just need to find throne and do waves and take down the big boss.

Stats/Skills with gear:
Life: 477
Mana: 365
Defense: 379 (With Frozen Armor)

Strength: 72
Dexterity: 46
Vitality: 138
Energy: 55
(22 Stats left over, mainly thinks to the 7 levels from ancients. I am holding onto in case the need for a lot of dex or strength comes about for a great item.

Warmth: 8 points
Enchant: 3 points on my weapon switch/0 on main

Telekinesis: 1 point for prerequisite
Teleport: 7 points
Static: 11 Points

Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Frost Nova, Glacial Spike and Blizzard: 2 points for prerequisites (they get the +1 from the +1 cold skills circlet, or else they all would be 1)

Frozen Armor: 2 points
Frozen Orb: 17 points
Cold Mastery: 7 points
(1 Skill Point left over still. All points going forward are going to be a mix of Frozen Orb, Cold Mastery, Teleport and POSSIBLY Warmth.)

I still haven't figured out what would be an appropriate cold mastery in 1.07. Static at level 11 gives a 10 yard radius and I think I am happy with out far it spreads. I don't feel the need to waste anymore on static, even though a lot of people recommend and max static up to level 20. It reaches far at level 11 and I could save those points teleport to make rack running a lot easier when I get to that point. As far as Warmth goes, I think Teleport will save me a lot more mana, unless I am sitting around attacking constantly. But I think my end game will involve rack running and lots of teleporting.

My act 5 mercenary I purchased in normal and he is a pretty good tank. So many people said act 5 mercs were better on 1.07 than act2 mercs were. I'm not sure how much I believe that though. It seemed my act 2 merc was better when I swapped and the kicker was that you get auras with act 2 mercs. I will stick it out with the act 5 though. I hear when they get up to higher levels, they regenerate life SUPER FAST, making them amazing tanks. I have already noticed that they are regenerating life a little higher than earlier and much better than other mercs. So hopefully what I read, will come true.

I tried crafting a few thawing potion, magic ring, any sapphire combom for some super good MPK rings, but I didn't get anything and I did it at level 38 or 39 and it is a lot easier to get them around leve 8, because it cuts out other possible mods. The benefit of doing it at the level I was doing it, was that I could get the super high MPK, along with some very useful mods you wouldn't be able to land at a lower level. Maybe I will make a level 8 to work on making the rings, not sure.

I will keep you updated as I progress into Hell and get into some of the real had stuff. I hope you all enjoy reading walkthroughs as much as I do, because I will keep them coming

 

[Jamie]

I wish I didn't have screenshot issues on this particular laptop. I assume it is something to do with D2 or 1.07, because I can screenshot the desktop and other things.

Anyway, I just wanted to posted that I beat Baal in NM and saw something crazy I had never seen before. The second wave boss to Baal's minions, was immune to COLD, FIRE, LIGHTNING and POISON. Quad resist LOL! Thank goodness for mercenaries.

 

[Jamie]

Is Act 5 Mercenary really any better than an Act 2? In Hell, he is dying left and right and I can't even keep up the gold to keep resurrecting him. I use teleport constantly to reposition him and have always been good at that, since I have played about 50 Blizzard Sorceresses since 1.09 ended and 1.10 started. I mean if this guy isn't going to be the tank that some guides claimed, why should I keep him? Especially when I can get an Act 2 Merc and have helpful auras such as a might/blessed aim one that will give me a better damage dealing merc.. or one with prayer/thorns so I will have a very nice regeneration to work with. I read the Holy Freeze is broken, so I won't even bother with that.

Can anyone either confirm or deny if an Act 2 merc is really worse than an Act 5 merc in 1.07? My act 2 prayer merc was wrecking through normal until I switched to the Act 5 one in normal. Now I'm not saying that he is horrible, but from the start of Hell through the Countess Quest, I bet I have revived him over 10 times and burned through all of my gold. I never used Act 5 mercs in newer patches, but I read that they were the best in 1.07 and I am having a very difficult time seeing this.

If people with 1.07 experience could weigh in on this, that would be cool! Thanks!


Edit note: I found a nice weapon upgrade!
Arch-Angel's Crystalline Globe of Storms
+2 Sorceress Skills
6-36 Lightning Damage
53 to Mana
2 to Fire Wall (if only was FO, CM, Tele, Static or Warmth!)

 

[helvete1]

Leveling them has to be done in the correct areas only until lvl 25 I think. Static is your friend. Also, they do more damage with one handed weapons than two handed. Two handers have something like 3/8 multiplier while one handers get full damage.

Regen to full life in stupid short time. Like 3 seconds.

 

[Fruit]

Holy Freeze is broken

Not really. It works the same as the other dual-aura mercenaries.
The problem is that a mercenary turning on an aura is handled in its AI, and there's only a chance of one being activated. This is why it can sometimes take a while (even in later patches) before the merc finally turns on an aura.
But in 1.07 there's another problem, because mercenaries can overwrite their current aura if their AI decides to turn on the other one. So even if your mercenary turns on Holy Freeze at one point, there is a chance he will overwrite it with Defiance later. This same thing happens with Prayer/Thorns and Blessed Aim/Might.

Duriel his AI is smarter about it. The first thing his AI does is check if he has Holy Freeze on, and if not, he turns it on. If it's on already, he just skips that part.
Who knows why Blizzard didn't just code mercenaries in a similar way. Makes no sense to me.


Has anyone ever tested/checked the Act 5 mercenary? What exactly is going on with his one- versus two-handed damage, and with his regeneration?
His regeneration, in my experience, is very inconsistent. Sometimes he heals so fast he's basically immortal, other times he lacks this super regen for some reason, and he's a goner. Is it an AI thing or something?
As for the poison resistance, he gets 70 in monstats.txt, maybe that is added on top of his "hireling" stats?

 

[Jamie]

@Fruit

That is exactly the issue I am having with my act 5 merc. He can tank regen his life almost instantly sometimes and use skills for a period that stuns and just wrecks havoc. Other times he goes in and dies in 2 seconds or will be down to very low life and it won't regenerate until I give him a potion.

I understand how the auras work with 1.07, I had just read somewhere that Holy Freeze was broken for some reason. I'm not sure why they would only call that one broken, if the only reason it is "broken", is that it also switches between Defiance. Either way, I usually don't use Holy Freeze Mercenaries on Cold Sorceresses.

Do you think Act 2 or Act 5 mercenaries are stronger in 1.07 @Fruit ? I think I am noticing that my A5 merc is regenerating life faster as he gets a higher level. But I may be imagining it. If Act 5 Mercs don't really tank that much stronger than Act 2, I might as well just get an Act 2 merc because I think I will be able to get a lot higher damage on him and I can have Prayer or Might (along with their partner auras half the time).

I guess I don't get why I read people saying Act 5 mercs are beasts.

 

[Fruit]

I understand how the auras work with 1.07, I had just read somewhere that Holy Freeze was broken for some reason. I'm not sure why they would only call that one broken, if the only reason it is "broken", is that it also switches between Defiance. Either way, I usually don't use Holy Freeze Mercenaries on Cold Sorceresses.

Fair enough! Though if no explanation was given as to why HF is broken, I assumed they meant that HF doesn't work at all. But I don't remember seeing anything weird about HF when I checked it out, though maybe I missed something.

I love HF as Sorceress! It stacks with the chill from cold length, and is applied to cold immunes. And if your cold length is low, then there's HF to fill the gap. Lovly.

Do you think Act 2 or Act 5 mercenaries are stronger in 1.07 @Fruit ?

Actually, I have too many questions about 1.07 mercs myself to give you an educated answer.

For me, the fact that the Defense merc (from Normal) doesn't always use HF takes too much away from his value, since I'd really only want him for the crowd control that HF offers.

Prayer will probably disappoint you, since the aura caps out at level 17 (Normal), 16 (Nightmare) or 15 (Hell).
Thorns caps out at level 15 (when the merc reaches level 97). The same goes for HF.
If you want a consistent defensive buff, I'd probably just get the Defense merc from Nightmare, which always uses a level 16 Defiance aura at level 52 and above.
As for the Combat merc from Normal, his Might aura caps out at level 21 (when he reaches level 97), and his Blessed Aim caps out at level 17 when he reaches level 52.
(Hopefully these numbers are correct, this was in my notes like this.)

On my Barbarian I have the Blessed Aim/Might merc, since I see no good reason to use another mercenary.

My "main" sorc has an A5 merc because his Bash and Stun are nice crowd control, which I welcome on Hardcore.
An A3 cold merc is a decent option, but unlike melee mercs, he's not gonna tank the tougher stuff for you. I actually have this merc on a sorc that I use for racking. The merc is squishy and deals low damage, but his ability to freeze stuff definitely makes things safer. Just watch out when he starts attacking MSLE monsters.
Against unique monsters is where I feel the A5 merc shines, as the Stun/Bash combo works well to turn a single enemy into a harmless potato, which is something the other mercenaries can't really achieve.
(Unless... does anyone know if mercs apply Knockback from items?)

Anyway, I'm quite curious to the health regen situation of the A5 merc, as well as a damage comparison between different mercs. Perhaps a sick spear or polearm could turn the A2 merc into a beast? Or maybe an A1 merc with an amazing Hydra Bow? Though, if an A5 merc truly does double damage with one-handed swords, then it'll be tough for other mercenaries to beat him in terms of damage.
Well.. A2 mercs do have Jab, which might be pretty sweet with a good weapon.

IIRC it was @GalaXyHaXz that clued us on to the 1hand swords. I don't believe that it is that he gets penalized for 2hand swords, but that he gets damage on 1hand swords doubled.

I see! Cheers. I assumed it was a bug when I first read about it, but maybe that it was done deliberately?

The hp regen is easily observable (end result, anyway). It is inconsistent at times, but seems to work more often than not in my experience.

Oh I'm definitely not denying the (super) regen, I just find it peculiar that my merc doesn't always regen at that rate.
So whenever he moves into combat, I have to monitor his healthbar to see whether or not he has his super regen going, and if he doesn't, I have to teleport away to (hopefully) save him.
It doesn't help that the health bars of allies update at a super slow rate. (WHY?!)

Not to put too fine a point to it, but I believe you are about the only one (currently) present that has the skills and knowledge to effectively 'look into' much in the way of how it all works together... happy to report my observations, though

Yeah, for some reason nobody stuck around to fish out the details of the most buggy, most incomplete patch of an 18+ year old game. Strange!
It's just too bad that I'm a newb at it, but if I do (try to) look stuff up, it's always a big help to have an idea of what to look for.

 

[Jamie]

@Fruit @zemaj

I actually had found 1 handed swords that I was close to keeping for my merc, but the damage obviously didn't match up to the gothic sword I currently have and he doesn't use 1 handed attacks enough to make it worth it in my mind. Now if you guys are saying that 1 handed swords do double damage when the a5 merc attacks two handed, then oh my goodness! That could make for a very powerful mercenary for where he is at. I also made a 'Brand' Dimensional Brand sword for him to try out, but since the 1 handed damage couldn't compare with 2h damage, and I didn't want the runeword to bug my ATMA, I threw it out right after I made it lol.

Can you confirm that 1 handed swords do double damage when A5 mercenary is using a 2 handed attack? I will definitely try to check it out if I can find a 1 handed sword that can give me a good damage amount where I can test it out correctly, but that could definitely take awhile and be difficult to judge exactly.

I am loving all of the information fellers. Thanks a ton

 

[TheGuardianXXXIII]

I want to thank @ioupainmax for leading me to imgur. It was very easy to get set up and to use. Unfortunately, all of my screenshots are turning out black in their actual file location and when I attempt to upload them. So I guess that it is just another issue on my list of things to figure out.

Incase anyone is listening and knowledgeable in what I am doing, why are my screenshots from 1.07 on Imgur all black!?

Did glitching Andy do anything in 1.07 work as far as quest drops go, incase I want to farm her for awhile or on later difficulties if I bug her there too?

I just wanted to post my walkthrough on here for people to see incase they were interested in watching or if the pictures and stories motivated them to give 1.07 a try. I always loved watching other people's walkthroughs, so I wanted to return the favor and give people a story worth watching. Having no screenshots is really going to botch what I plan on doing as I get out of the first couple boring acts where I am learning things.

Try what i do for screenshots, just use the Window's built in Snipping tool and then copy/paste directly into your forum post. I play in Window mode though, so i'm not sure how that would work if you're playing in full screen. If you're in full screen you'll probably need a 2-step process: Press the Prt Scrn button -> paste into MS Paint -> use snipping tool to clip just the part of the print screen you want -> Copy paste into your forum post

 

[Fruit]

@Jamie
@zemaj

Well, I've checked out the regeneration situation. In a way, it's pretty straight-forward. I'll just explain it for those who are interested, but for a TLDR, just skip to the calculations.

So, a mercenary is ultimately just a "monster" unit type, therefore he is created as such. This means that all his values are initially taken from the monstats.txt file. It's only later that his stats are overwritten by the hireling function(s).

So as a monster, a mercenary spawns with hitpoints appropriate to the difficulty it's created on. On Hell, for an A5 merc this is 1400-7895. Now, health regeneration is based on the monster's life roll, which means that 1) regeneration is boosted by player number and 2) health regeneration is random.

This is the table for monster health bonus in 1.07:

1 player  : 0
2 players : 100
3 players : 200
4 players : 275
5 players : 350
6 players : 425
7 players : 475
8 players : 525

Health regeneration is calculated per frame, and it's based on the "precise health" of a monster, which means multiplied by 256. Also, there is a "damageregen" variable, which for the A5 merc is 2.
To give you a fair idea, I'll compare Hell p1 versus p8:

p1, at minimum: 1400*256*2/4096 = 175 per frame. (Multiply by 25 and divide by 256 makes ~17 life per second.)
p1, at maximum: 7895*256*2/4096 = 986 per frame. (Multiply by 25 and divide by 256 makes ~96 life per second.)

p8, at minimum: 1400*256*625/100*2/4096 = 1093 per frame. (Multiply by 25 and divide by 256 makes ~108 life per second.)
p8, at maximum: 7895*256*625/100*2/4096 = 6167 per frame. (Multiply by 25 and divide by 256 makes ~602 life per second!)

So this explains the inconsistency. Depending on RNG, and depending on player number, his regen can either be pretty weak, or really, really strong.

Note that his regen is based on the roll for hitpoints as he is created, so it is not automatically increased or decreased as players join and leave. So if you create a TCP/IP game and your mercenary is already alive, he'll spawn with regeneration based on p1. If you'd then fill up the game to p8, he will continue to regen as if it's p1.
If he would die in that game however, and you resurrect him as the game is still p8, then he will get a new life roll based on p8, potentially sky-rocketing his regen.

So as you either resurrect him, or create/join a new game, his regen is always re-rolled. If you take him to Nightmare or Normal, his regen will drop considerably compared to Hell. This also means that if you bought him on Normal, his regen will go up when you take him to Nightmare or Hell.


His actual hitpoints are later overwritten by the hireling functions, using softcoded values from hireling.txt and running them through some formulas. These calculations are probably not interesting enough to post.

I have the mercenary AI and damage calculations as well, but I'd rather double-check everything before posting it, to avoid the risk of wrong info.

 

[galtwish]

Wow, @Fruit I had no idea. I've only played 1.07 on p1, but definitely noticed inconsistency as I used the Barb merc a lot. Sometime poison ate him alive, and sometimes it didn't even dent his lifebar. Now we know why.