Activation of Act 2 Merc Auras [Archive] - Diablo 3 & Diablo 2 Forums

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rumph

25-07-2006, 19:53

I've noticed that my Act 2 Merc is often fairly stingy about Aura activation:

1) If he dies, the insight on his polearm won't activate until I unequip and reequip it.

2) The "built-in" aura is often not active, often for entire campaigns. For example, if I have a holy freeze merc, he may not be slowing the enemies at all often enough.

3) I've got a merc with a might aura right now and am wearing the "Treachery" armor. I like this because it helps me cast venom, and I'm pretty hard up for doing damage with my character right now. However, it seems that when venom is active, the might aura on my merc never turns on (neither he nor I get the damage boost and I don't see the little aura at his feet). However, when the merc's might aura turns on, according to my character screen, venom disappears (meaning my damage on the character screen is now blue instead of green and actually a wee bit lower than before). If I go back to town, the might aura seems to automatically turn off but then venom's damage reappears.

Any ideas? I'd like to give the merc a good kick in the pants and tell him to leave the aura active at all times. . .

RTB

25-07-2006, 20:04

1) If he dies, the insight on his polearm won't activate until I unequip and reequip it.
Known bug.

2) The "built-in" aura is often not active, often for entire campaigns. For example, if I have a holy freeze merc, he may not be slowing the enemies at all often enough.
Every time he lvls up, the chance of activating it decreases. It ends up at around 2.5% at lvl 90.

3) I've got a merc with a might aura right now and am wearing the "Treachery" armor. I like this because it helps me cast venom, and I'm pretty hard up for doing damage with my character right now. However, it seems that when venom is active, the might aura on my merc never turns on (neither he nor I get the damage boost and I don't see the little aura at his feet). However, when the merc's might aura turns on, according to my character screen, venom disappears (meaning my damage on the character screen is now blue instead of green and actually a wee bit lower than before). If I go back to town, the might aura seems to automatically turn off but then venom's damage reappears.
I don't know of any bug with Might/Venom. If you go to town you don't receive the boni from the aura, but it stays active for the merc. Venom in itself has quite an effect on actual poison dmg output, the dmg shown at the LCS may be lower, but the poison dmg/sec usually increases substantially. Don't be fooled by the Lying Character Screen.

SSoG

27-07-2006, 02:23

2) The "built-in" aura is often not active, often for entire campaigns. For example, if I have a holy freeze merc, he may not be slowing the enemies at all often enough.

Activating the aura is considered an "attack" by the game. Further, it is one of several attack choices the merc has- not only does your merc have to attack, he has to choose to use his "aura" attack, which as RTB mentioned has a decreasing chance of being selected the higher level your merc gets.

If you're really impatient, you could always give your merc a fast weapon. Increasing the speed at which he attacks will result in more attacks, which means more chances for him to choose the "aura" attack. For example, a merc with a War Pike and 0% ias will have 10 frame attack. A Merc with a Brandistock and 102% ias will have a 5 frame attack (which means it'll take half as long to activate his aura). Try giving your merc a 6x Shael Brandistock and adventuring out into the Blood Moor until the aura triggers if you're really impatient.

foromir

01-08-2006, 12:11

Activating the aura is considered an "attack" by the game. Further, it is one of several attack choices the merc has- not only does your merc have to attack, he has to choose to use his "aura" attack, which as RTB mentioned has a decreasing chance of being selected the higher level your merc gets.

If you're really impatient, you could always give your merc a fast weapon. Increasing the speed at which he attacks will result in more attacks, which means more chances for him to choose the "aura" attack. For example, a merc with a War Pike and 0% ias will have 10 frame attack. A Merc with a Brandistock and 102% ias will have a 5 frame attack (which means it'll take half as long to activate his aura). Try giving your merc a 6x Shael Brandistock and adventuring out into the Blood Moor until the aura triggers if you're really impatient.

I force him to activate his aura letting him to get all the kills at the beginning, for example in the Blood Moor. He has more chances to activate it.

bubux

09-07-2007, 06:42

SSoG

09-07-2007, 11:50

I have some questions:

1) What about the Holy Freeze aura on doom runeword (http://www.d2tomb.com/sshots/941-01.jpg)?
What determines how often it's Holy Freeze aura will activate?
I don't have one so I can't test.

2) If I give my Act2 Holy Freeze Merc a Doom runeword weapon, will the 2 auras stack to produce a lvl 22+ Holy Freeze Aura?
(see about act2 mercs here (http://www.diabloii.net/townsfolk/warrior-defensive.shtml))

Item-based auras are always on, so there's no delay between equipping Doom and the aura activating.

Item-based auras will stack with other item-based auras, but they will not stack with skill-based auras... so adding Doom to a Holy Freeze merc won't do much. He'll either use the Holy Freeze from Doom, or he'll use his own Holy Freeze- whichever one is higher. The two will not stack.

Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

09-07-2007, 16:04

However, as SSoG implied, adding Doom to any non-Holy Freeze Act II merc WILL give you two auras acting simultaneously. In fact, this is a quite common tactic. For example, you give your might or definance merc Doom so he provides you with two auras simultaneously.