life leech for act 2 hirelings

[zebulin]

I finally got an insight polearm for my sorc's act 2 defiance hireling and it has certainly solved all my out of mana problems. I don't even need to keep a row of mana potions in my belt anymore. However, I had to replace my mercs life leech polearm with it and now my merc is in constant need of me sending potions his way whereas before he only rarely needed healing. My merc dies constantly when I solo now.

Given that my characters are basically destitute and have nothing of value to trade what are my best options for finding some sort of life leech armor or helmet for my hireling?

I don't have a gheeds and I'm only level 77 with access no further than Hell act 3 travincal. should I try to gamble for lifeleech gear? Should I try to directly buy one from vendors? should i do whatever I have to to get to acts 4 or 5 and try vendors there? Is there a boss whom I could probably solo at this point who would have a fair probability of dropping a lifeleech item for my merc faster than I could get it by other means?

If I must trade to have a realistic prospect of finding something what trade items are currently hottest? All of the gear I have found is crap but I have a handful of gems painstakingly acquired and I have a few dozen runes of Hel or lower.

So far it seems that I must resign myself to doing without insight when I solo and being as how I can only join games in hell acts 1-3 that is putting a real crimp on my diablo enjoyment.

Any advice anybody might have on zeroing in on method to obtain a life leech item for my merc would be very welcome!

thanks!

[gorash]

there are a number of cheap items which provide ll for mercs.

tal helm - resists, ll
cot - more gold (?), ll
gaze - ll, dr
andys - str, ll

most of these if not all can be traded for in pgems.

[zebulin]

there are a number of cheap items which provide ll for mercs.

tal helm - resists, ll
cot - more gold (?), ll
gaze - ll, dr
andys - str, ll

most of these if not all can be traded for in pgems.


If I decide to try a trade what's a good way of guessing the correct number of gems so I don't get ripped off through my profound ignorance of the diablo 2 economy?

[gorash]

If I decide to try a trade what's a good way of guessing the correct number of gems so I don't get ripped off through my profound ignorance of the diablo 2 economy?

depends on realm.

post this in trade values if interested along with realm and ladder or nonladder.

[zebulin]

depends on realm.

post this in trade values if interested along with realm and ladder or nonladder.


so simply ask for:

tal helm - resists, ll
cot - more gold (?), ll
gaze - ll, dr
andys - str, ll

in a trade forum and see how much people demand then accept the lowest offer?? :undecided:

[krischan]

There are also a few armors which add life leech. CoH is the best of them, but if you don't want to give him such an expensive item, have a look at unique armors and upgrade them, if necessary. See the Arreat Summit for that, the link is found in my sig.

[zebulin]

There are also a few armors which add life leech. CoH is the best of them, but if you don't want to give him such an expensive item, have a look at unique armors and upgrade them, if necessary. See the Arreat Summit for that, the link is found in my sig.


so by upgrading you would mean 1 tal rune, 1 shael rune, a perfect diamond and one of the armors that has life leech from arreat summit in the horadric cube? That gives you exactly the same armor only with better numbers? I had always imagined that would sort of "re-roll" the item and you couldn't count on mods like life leech remaining on the upgraded product. If I was wrong I'm surprised people don't upgrade practically everything while they wait for the real deal to finally drop.



Is the best way to get a shael rune from Hell countess runs?

[Evrae Altana]

so by upgrading you would mean 1 tal rune, 1 shael rune, a perfect diamond and one of the armors that has life leech from arreat summit in the horadric cube? That gives you exactly the same armor only with better numbers? I had always imagined that would sort of "re-roll" the item and you couldn't count on mods like life leech remaining on the upgraded product. If I was wrong I'm surprised people don't upgrade practically everything while they wait for the real deal to finally drop.When you upgrade something, the stats and mods don't get rerolled. Only the base item type changes. So for example if you were to upgrade 185% ED Gore Riders War Boots, the end result will a 185% ED Gore Riders Myrmidon Greaves.

[zebulin]

When you upgrade something, the stats and mods don't get rerolled. Only the base item type changes. So for example if you were to upgrade 185% ED Gore Riders War Boots, the end result will a 185% ED Gore Riders Myrmidon Greaves.

then if no stats change all it gets is a slightly different name?

[jiansonz]

The most obvious way to give your merc off-weapon life steal is to gamble a good circlet for him. Works even for untwinked play.

[zebulin]

The most obvious way to give your merc off-weapon life steal is to gamble a good circlet for him.

will this be workable even without a gheeds charm and at only level 77? I gambled a couple circlets and I was astonished at what grossly mediocre crap they were.

[Evrae Altana]

then if no stats change all it gets is a slightly different name?As I said, upgrading means just upgrading the base item. Of course, this usually means an increase in defense/damage, in most cases.

[zebulin]

depends on realm.

post this in trade values if interested along with realm and ladder or nonladder.


So far nobody has replied to my price check post in the trade values forum. Is it possible (judging by the merchandise offered in that forum) that the forum population is simply too rich for me to get information on such modest items? Can you think of any forums where cheaper gear might get traded?

[gorash]

So far nobody has replied to my price check post in the trade values forum. Is it possible (judging by the merchandise offered in that forum) that the forum population is simply too rich for me to get information on such modest items? Can you think of any forums where cheaper gear might get traded?

this forum contains both new players that just started i guess as well as richer type.

check trade values now, just provided an estimate of what they're worth seeing i played east.

lots of other forums such as bnet / jsp / etc are for richer players it seems. (much more scams going on for drop trades also)

[Bjam]

If you need something cheap, go for the Tal Mask (3 to 6 pgems depending on defense and luck), +life, +resists, 10% ll...what's not to like. Gorash's list is dead on, and the most you should ever pay for any of those helms (unless perfect or ethereal) is Lem; I don't care what realm you play.

[zebulin]

If you need something cheap, go for the Tal Mask (3 to 6 pgems depending on defense and luck), +life, +resists, 10% ll...what's not to like. Gorash's list is dead on, and the most you should ever pay for any of those helms (unless perfect or ethereal) is Lem; I don't care what realm you play.


thank you! maybe ill have better luck if I just make a specific offer on that.

[krischan]

The most obvious way to give your merc off-weapon life steal is to gamble a good circlet for him. Works even for untwinked play.
Even more obvious is to keep one of the various Tal's masks which you find all the time when doing Meph runs instead of throwing it away. It has 10%LL (no circlet can reach that) and 15% allres, as well as +60 life.

At L83, switch to Andariel's Visage (leech > +str > %def), but compensate the fire res penalty with a Ral rune because mercs like it to die happily e.g. while fighting Councils in the mid of a couple of hydras. Its str bonus will enable him to wear a few interesting items, like Stone in high def elite armors and Insight CVs.

[jiansonz]

I was thinking about untwinked play (with no runs). It is one of the most common exceptional S/U items, though. A full clear in NM with good MF has a good chance of turning up a Tal´s mask. One problem with it is that the required level is so high. I have often found it when the merc had some 10-15 levels to go before he could use it.

I usually gamble hundreds of circlets during a character´s career. This means that decent life-stealing circlets are much more common that Tal´s masks for me. They are the bread and butter, Tal´s mask is luxury. :azn:

[zebulin]

I was thinking about untwinked play (with no runs). It is one of the most common exceptional S/U items, though. A full clear in NM with good MF has a good chance of turning up a Tal´s mask. One problem with it is that the required level is so high. I have often found it when the merc had some 10-15 levels to go before he could use it.

I usually gamble hundreds of circlets during a character´s career. This means that decent life-stealing circlets are much more common that Tal´s masks for me. They are the bread and butter, Tal´s mask is luxury. :azn:


someone responded to my post in the trades forum! I finally have a tal's mask and while i suspect I could've found one for free eventually or gotten one for less than 2 pgems I'm glad I didn't wait. Thanks so much the advice. the restoration of life leech was all my merc needed and in fact my merc is dying even less often now than he was before I replaced his life leech weapon.