Uber Merc ?

[HCKull]

I have always found that my mercs die easily when I do the ubers. Is there any thing that I can do to change that ?

My mercs generally are A2 types who wear eth fort armor and have life leach.

I talked to one person who said that I should get eth COH or my merc and he would survive the ubers.

Other posibilities are eth treachery armor for IAS, fade and poison.

At least the +20 strength would let him carry an eth CV easily.

[bogie]

To survive meph, the average merc will need...
Coh (eth would be nice, but not necessary)
Kira's (they need the stacked resists)
Polearm that has some ll + high dmg (so he can ll effectively), this will pretty much assure that your merc has a very good fighting chance.

[Bjam]

I agree with bogie except for the Merc weapon. Since the Ubers are nearly unleechable, the merc will be relying on your lifetap. High Damage + Speed is key. Obediance in an eth G. Thresher is sweet on a budget (40% CB and more resists too) as is an eth Ariocs Needle. You can do even better if your budget allows.

[Eilo Rytyj]

The uber's area only leechable via Life Tap. LT works at full capacity against all enemies in the game (i.e. it does not suffer from NM/Hell penalties or reduced leech effectiveness of enemies).

Eth Obedience Thresher/G.Thresher is the best merc polearm for running uber trist, bar none. An IAS/res jewel in the Kiras, and the CoH will negate Conviction, and let him hit fast enough to leech with Life Tap. He, like you, will die without Life Tap.

[kalvydas]

Have some ideas and looking for input:

1) Which Act2 merc to choose:
a) Normal combat (for Prayer, but with ubers everything is based on Life Tap)
b) Normal defensive (for Defiance aura)
c) Nightmare defensive (for Holy Freeze)
d) others look wont be really helpfull in ubertristram

2)Weapon:
a) Obedience 20-30% all resist, 370%ED, 40% CB
b) Silence- 75% all resist, +2 skills, 20%IAS but only 200%ED and no CB

3) Helm
a) if using obedience - then merc needs kiras
b) if using silence - can switch to other helms like giant skull, tal's mask (15% all resist), crown of thieves

4) Armor - yes for ubers it CoH

So witch merc would be better, and which weapon+helm setup will give more benefit and posibilities so survive ubers?

thx

[PlayWithHonor]

1) Prayer isn't worth much.. life tap does the work. Defiance won't do anything when fighting Meph due to his conviction aura. Holy Freeze could wake up the other Ubers before your ready to fight them. So... I wouldn't take any of them. A Might Merc is probably your best best.. more damage = more life leach = better survivability when using life tap.

2) If you can swing the Kiras and get your Mercs resists up while using Obedience then do it. CB is very important... just don't sacrifice your Mercs resists to get there cuz he'll be dead.

If resists are a problem though, I'd take on Meph first giving your Merc Silence for that fight. Then switch to Obedience for the other two.

3) Depends on weapon choice.

4) Yep... at least for Meph CoH is it.

[shuy]

Merc is useful even dying. I have A3 merc and he use double dream. Of course he not survive but cast confuse when struck - mean very often. Last time it let me catch Mephisto, cast life tap and kill him before course passed :)