The Hireling Handbook - A Guide to Mercenaries

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cnlnjzfjb
Horadric Mage
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Jovoman wrote:thoughts about super endgame pure dps merc? im playing summon barb atm using full dmg a1 priestess with near perfect roll eth xis ice breaker, rebel xis, royal circlet, beads ammy, hammerfist, endless loop, epicenter boots,

im curious if an a3 abjurer pure light dmg with 135 light pierce is doing more dmg for me in endgam farming? ( no labs )

A3 mercs have the best dps. But still nothing if compared to ur char with endgame gear in super endgame.
In endgame farming, even no labs, mercs are just bad if u expect them to be some really good, exploding pure dps, at least in 1.X MXL.
If char is 10 in endgame, then mercs are just 2-3 at their best.
Jovoman
Cog
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Oky well interesting thx! Well atleast if they give me some Value its still worth:D

Working atm to translate to a3 abjurer some piercing is missing which i take with some more yul runes for 135 , but i see that his dmg is rlly greater in only comparison to a1 priestes for summon barb telestomp


Also less lags cause no 24/7 flamestrike proc from a1 Merc xD
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NotCube
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2.0 note:
- Thankfully not a whole lot has changed for mercs, mainly the global slow in Normal and Nightmare, which is an appropriate "nerf" as they were too op early on before.
- Runeword overhaul as well as affected SUs due to the skill changes invalidated a lot of options in the gear section

So overall there's some retesting and tinkering to do before I could give this guide a [2.0] tag, but most of the concepts still apply, as long as you only follow the gear section loosely.
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aerial
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A Median XL guru... a true book of knowledge
One of most impactful changes I'd say is necrolyte, because sorc spells he uses changed. So frigd sphere now is a nova released from the merc (not a traveling projectile), which means slowing debuff around your character right after you teleport with the merc, very useful.
Another thing is miasma, default duration is 5s (good), -33% enemy damage, and force blast -40% enemy damage. This merc now is debuffing god.
youtube.com/ae1337
BearBearderBarb
Pit Knight
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Or better yet slap on [2.0], nuke gear section (or at least remove the references to particular gear pieces) and incrementally fill it out later.
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Ikafati
Vampiress
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This guide is incredible, I can loosely tell what to equip on my mercs, but having this as a reference is very nice to have
Cah23
Grubber
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Any suggestions? My act 1 merc is getting roughed up in Dunc. I have bowzon set on her, endless loop and witchhunters hood -- 230k def, 37%pr, 77% res. 2 barrel shots and shes done.
illsonmedia
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Whoa bro. I haven't even scratched the surface of this and I'm blown away at the amount of content, effort, and time you put into this. Thank you.
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NotCube
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Cah23 wrote:Any suggestions? My act 1 merc is getting roughed up in Dunc. I have bowzon set on her, endless loop and witchhunters hood -- 230k def, 37%pr, 77% res. 2 barrel shots and shes done.

Nothing you can do about that besides getting her life up as much as possible, or the more practical advice: teleport/move constantly and don't backtrack to where you once were.
Edited by NotCube 2 years.
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NotCube
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Gear section should be up-to-date now. The only exception is Natasha's Legacy which isn't implemented yet. I'll update the main merc post later.