Which merc?

[chubbypuppy]

OK I've played a lot of sorcs and almost always I choose to have a holy freeze, because I'm a conservative player and I like the extra protection of monsters moving at half speed.

Now I'm building a ES/Orb sorc (adding points to energy and not vitality feels so weird!!) and I'm reconsidering this. Since I will be totally 1 type (maxed orb with static and TK to help the merc a little), should I get a might merc instead? Will the extra 200% dmg (17 level might) be worth it, versus the 50% slowdown of monsters? With monsters at 50% speed, I will be that much more invulnerable.

I plan to put a big Insight polearm (found 4soc polearm with 20-180, yay) on the merc so I can get massive mana/ES regen, if that changes the logic of this choice.

Your inputs, please.

[lonnie913]

i think might is a fine choice. it boosts your physical damage against cold immunes (by "your" i mean mercs). orb will chill everying anyway. defiance will help your merc survive, but i think defiance is best when you go all out on ethereal huge defense gear.

[chubbypuppy]

The only time I really need the merc to kill is against cold immunes, which my orb can not chill...

I'm not really considering defiance, as my eq is not good enough, and I consider HF/Might as much superior for my tastes.

[Superhal]

definitely go with might. i found that hf adds a lot of safety and damage, but not against cold immunes.

just make sure he has significant leech, say crown of thieves/andy's minimum. tal's will do in a pinch, but the crown's level req is far lower (41 vs 72).

[chubbypuppy]

Thanks for your inputs. I've decided to go ahead with a might merc and see how it goes, just for something different.

So far my ES/orb sorc is doing great, but of course she's just in NM so it's pretty easy with a 20 pt orb. It's sweet to be able to teleport without constant drinking of blue potions, and the Insight (I rolled a 17 meditation!) that my merc is using is incredible in keeping my forcefield up :D I also "tanked" the trav council - popped into their midst and started spamming orbs, did ok with a few potion's help.

I plan to use the Tal set with 2 SOJs and that shield with +10% mana (forgot name). The Tal set adds 371 life in addition the magic damage reduction, resistances, etc. Pretty sweet over all. With a total of +10 skills (Tals=6, sojs=2, shield=1, annihilus=1) I will have almost 700 pts of orb damage. Now if I can just get some cold skillers...

[HoshNasi]

Does anyone use an act 5 merc? I liked the one I used in HC..