What Merc for my poisonmancer?

[beezly]

Hi, i've got a poisonmancer at lvl 37 on USEAST SC NL named Tinker Geely (kudos if you get the reference) and i'm doing baal runs to lvl 47 or so. My gear (for when i can wear it) is:

Lore Circlet
+1 PnB w/ Resists Ammy
Iceblink Mail
whatever belt
Trangs gloves
Trangs wing
+3 Poison nova Whited Wand (+6 to nova baby!)
R/W boots.
Mana/Resist rings.

My skill points
PnB
18 or so in Dagger
1 In PE
Maxing Nova (not sure how far i am)
Prereqs

Curses
Working my way through 1 in all, 5 in DV

Summon
1 Revive and Prereqs. (i'm gonna throw a few more points in here once nova is maxed)


My gear isn't uber, but thats okay. I was wondering what merc i should hire? THe Act 2 Nm HF merc? Or something else? Thanks for your help.

[JoJeck]

You have an interesting problem as there is no clear choice among the 3 Nightmare Act 2 mercs - given that you will be using revives rather than skellies as your minions. All 3 can do a good job for you depending on how you want to play. They will each be stronger than the other two in various situations.

Might will be the best killer of the Poison Immunes that will cause you problems in Hell and will boost your revives if you raise melee types or archers. He will probably be the one that dies most. I guess he'll add something like 50% to the physical damage he and your minions deal.

Thorns will be good defensively when Boss packs charge your minions. He will make even weak skeletons and mages return physical damage when your revives have expired. It's difficult to estimate the amount of damage this will be but it helps most just when you need it. The bigger and nastier monsters (e.g. extra strong, fanatic with your minions cursed) will be hurt much more than ordinary run of the mill types.

Holy Freeze will slow enemies and give time for your poison to do its work but will do the least to help your minions deal physical damage although slowing monster attacks is benificial and allows your minions to attack more.

The choice is yours and any of them can do a good job depending how you want to play your necro. And congrats on the wand, a nice find indeed :thumbsup: I guess some Trangs armour would be a nice addition if you can't get the belt. Three pieces of the set gives a very creditable -25% Poison Resist from the Trang Oul Wing, as you may well know already ...

[ganja_nhb]

Hmm Tinker Geely...I"m guessing WoT?

[cuibono]

Act 1 merc for a Dim Vision/poison nec, fire is probably better than ice.

[royalesse]

Act 1 merc for a Dim Vision/poison nec, fire is probably better than ice.
I agree...

Might probably won't be very effective since you're not maxing SM.

Thorns would be decent but it would only work on melee baddies.

The damage on A1 mercs can be buffed better by equipment than on A3 mercs. The cold or fire arrow will benefit from LR. You'll have plenty of tanks from the Revives & golem.

[cuibono]

Btw, your gear seems a bit quirky. Iceblink only makes sense if you use Poison Dagger, even then, with DV, you don't need freezing. (The % is low anyway.) Assuming you cannot afford something better at this point, Stealth is probably a better bet, due to its 25% fhr and frw. Better armors exist of course, but I always hate it when people "recommend" ubergear I will never see. You can upgrade to Smoke or Lionheart as you wait on something really good.

I also am not a big fan of White wands for poison necs. Like you, I stashed a +3 nova 2 socket wands, with the thought of a White runeword. But then I thought it over, and it didn't make any sense. Faster cast does nothing for a poison nec. +2 bonespear is useless. Bone Armor always helps, but only if you have Marrows. You cannot Poison Dagger with a wand. And the biggest drawback of White, no plus to curses. Of the easily attained nec weapons, I suggest, if you like PD:

Diggler (ITD), Jade Tan Do (good poison dmg, cbf), Blackbog's Sharp (huge bonus to all 3 poison skills, huge poison dmg), Wizardspike (no more mana issues; huge resists)

If you favor wands, my fave easy to get wand is Blackhand Key. +2 to all skills, with an extra +1 curses, +50 life, huge fire resist, and the mod that makes this wand tops over the other low lvl wands, charges of Grim Ward, so you can use Lower Resist and not lose crowd control. While Blackhand key is not that easy to find, people practically give this wand away. I got mine for 3 perfect gems, and a spare for 6 perf gems.