Merc-Doom or Infinity for Orber?

[Zymane]

I've been asking around in-game, and I'm getting both answers really often. Should I put a doom or infinity on my merc? Any help would really be appreciated.

Oh, and if I DO go with doom, which merc should I hire since doom gives Holy Freeze?

[Lycanthronick]

I've been asking around in-game, and I'm getting both answers really often. Should I put a doom or infinity on my merc? Any help would really be appreciated.

Oh, and if I DO go with doom, which merc should I hire since doom gives Holy Freeze?

Therein is the problem with using doom on an orber merc. What aura can he use to be effective? There really isnt one that would make you all that much more effective.

The best choice is infinity to lower resists, while having a nice phys damage+crushing blow to help with cold immunes. Give it to a holy freeze merc and get the best of both worlds. :)

Doom as a Merc weapon is only effective when used in conjuction with a might/blessed aim/thorns merc. Which means you would need to malee to get full use out of it.

[kuafu]

Make sure you understand that the -enemy cold resist on Doom has no effect on your orb damage. In another word, all you get from Doom is the aura, which you can get from a HF merc as well. Infinity, on the hand, does make your orbs more powerful, if your Cold Mastery alone is not enough to lower the enemy's cold resist to -100. Personally, I'd go with Infinity on HF merc.

[tommym]

Can someone please better explain the reason that Doom doesn't make your orbs do more dmg.

I understand the orb dmg (numbers themselves) will not increase with a Doom, but does it not do the same thing as points in CM?

For example, if my CM dictates 30% less resistance, and my doom does 50% less .... my total is not 80%?

I don't have a good understanding of how resists and dmg work.

*btw, I am a meteorb .. so i think i am seeing, that Inifinity would be WAY better for me, if I am understanding what you are saying. Being that is would affect my fire dmg (in the way of -enemy fire resists) .. ?

[Lycanthronick]

Doom, or any weapon, with % increase cold damage or % lower cold resist on it, when used by a merc, will not work with your own spells. It will only increase the cold damage done by the actual gholem or merc.

Doom DOES increase your cold damage if you personally use it. In combination with the 2+ skills on doom, this makes interesting possibilities for the doom runeword.

Anyways, to answer your questions, yes, infinity is much better for a sorc merc.

[gorash]

infinity really isn't a good choice for cold sorcs imo. they work best for light sorcs second to fire.
doom needs 5os polearms for it to be made which means that u will basically need a elite polearm which means u pump in huge str / dex to even wear it, thats why fathom > doom by a longshot.

even weapons like occy are much better choices as well as cheaper.

[draffut]

doom needs 5os polearms for it to be made which means that u will basically need a elite polearm which means u pump in huge str / dex to even wear it, thats why fathom > doom by a longshot.

Huh? I'm a little tired, so maybe I'm reading you wrong, but... what?

A standard Scythe can be 5 os and that only has 41 str / 41 dex requirements. Anni + Torch means you could not sink a single point into either and still wear it. You don't need an elite for 5 os in a polearm.

Not only that, Doom can be made in an Axe or Hammer for shield use as well.

[Bjorgin]

Is there any point to having -% cold resist when CM does it for you?
Or are we talking about zero points in CM?

[draffut]

Is there any point to having -% cold resist when CM does it for you?

Depends.

For PvP, opponents can stack, so more -% cold resist is always useful.

For PvM, you can't reduce a monster below -100%, meaning if you have a lvl.37 CM (I believe that's the correct level, someone's bound to correct me if I'm off), more -% cold resist is useless. Any monster that isn't outright immune will take the full damage whether you add more cold pierce or not.

[tommym]

The main questions I would like a correct answer on is the following:

1. If I put ZERO points in CM, but use full tal's (so I have +2CM, and with +skills, it is at level 13) Does my orb benefit at all, in any way, from the -cold resists I get from my MERC carrying a Doom?

I always though so...but I am gathering that I was incorrect.

2. Does the Conviction from a Infinity lower both the Cold and the Fire resists no the enemies ... thus making my orb and or meteor do more Dmg?

3. What is the best darn weapon for my merc, hands down, if I am a meteorb sorc?

thanks!

[emar]

The only minus to resists from gear that YOU benefit from are what you are wearing, not your merc, not joe blow partied with you. Doom on your merc will NOT provide you with any minus to resists - the only one using those minus to resists from Doom is Hajeed.

Yes, conviction lowers resists. It does not break all immunities though.

[tommym]

ok, clear now. thanks!

[Kupa]

Infinity is somewhat useless for most cold sorcs, since it will almost never break the cold immunes in hell. Personally, with my Tals sorc, I use a doom/might mercenary. For awhile I was using a Defiance/Doom, but the merc got an eth fort, which knocks his defense up pretty high without the need for defiance.

On top of that, the merc with a doom normal thresher does 1k-6.3k damage with might on. Which easily deals with any fire/cold immune monsters.

Infinity merces are much better for Fire or Light sorceresses =P

Plus with a Doom, your mercenary is able to survive a ton better which allows you to solo most parts of hell on your own. (barring places with OKs and IM =/)

-Kupa

[PhatTrumpet]

Infinity is somewhat useless for most cold sorcs, since it will almost never break the cold immunes in hell.
Unless you're tommym, who's building a Tal's Meteorber and won't be investing any points into Cold Mastery, thus resulting in an slvl 13 CM after gear. Slvl 13 CM does not hit the magic 100% reduction, so putting 'Infinity' on his Merc will help his damage out (moreso on the fire side than the cold side).

But yeah, your typical pure cold build doesn't benefit much from an 'Infinity' Merc.

[KingOfBloodBath]

infinity is the best merc weapon for any caster build sorc, hands down, cuz the convction aura lower all enemy resistence, that maks your spells much effiecent, it works best on Lighting sorc, cuz it can break lighting immunity, that means a lighting sorc can kill pretty much everything in hell, but it also works well for a fire, cold sorc as it help you do more damage on your fire spell and you can save some skill point in CM.
The other useful choice would be insight as it give you massive mana boost that allowed you spamm whatever spell you use.
the rest of high runeword is pretty much a waste on a sorc merc for me, sure you can put a doom even a botd on your merc if you are rich and don't care about hrs, but it only boost the damage of your merc but the rest of the mod on those hr doesn't have much help on sorc herself.

[Eilo Rytyj]

You don't need to get to slvl 17 with Cold Mastery. It's not needed for you to still be effective. It's just that slvl 17, -100%, is where everything that's not immune is reduced to negative resists. slvl 13 CM is -80% resist, which will still knock most of the monsters in PvM into negative resists.

For a merc weapon, you could go with a "Regen" themed merc, Insight on a Prayer merc. You benefit from super life and mana regen, which aids immensely in your survivability.

[PhatTrumpet]

You also don't need to put a point in Static, but there's really no point in not doing so.

[Kupa]

infinity is the best merc weapon for any caster build sorc, hands down, cuz the convction aura lower all enemy resistence, that maks your spells much effiecent, it works best on Lighting sorc, cuz it can break lighting immunity, that means a lighting sorc can kill pretty much everything in hell, but it also works well for a fire, cold sorc as it help you do more damage on your fire spell and you can save some skill point in CM.
The other useful choice would be insight as it give you massive mana boost that allowed you spamm whatever spell you use.
the rest of high runeword is pretty much a waste on a sorc merc for me, sure you can put a doom even a botd on your merc if you are rich and don't care about hrs, but it only boost the damage of your merc but the rest of the mod on those hr doesn't have much help on sorc herself.

When I used Doom/Defiance it helped my sorceress immensely. Being able to knock my own defense up to 8k, and my merc's defense up to like 24k, along with holy freeze, it made him nigh-unkillable, and able to successfully tank anything in the game, barring like mephisto -- but even against him he could survive until I was able to kill meph (Takes like 20 seconds, if that, depending on orb placement).

Infinity is nice for a sorceress, but it is by no means the end all and be all mercenary weapon. Personally I like the Holy Freeze/REaper's Toll combo. Its pretty cheap, and very effective.

And if you go Blizzard, or all one tree, a good high damaging mercenary (botd or not) can help you easily take out monsters that are immune to your element.

Also, claiming that infinity "Saves you skill points in Cold Mastery" on cold sorceress a weak claim. Cold based Sorceresses will have at least 1 point in Cold Mastery (or not, if you have Tal's set) but even then you can easily reach -80% or more. Getting that extra 20% from Infinity is a waste, especially when there are other choices out there.

For example, if you truly want a mercenary that can survive anything, throw a Last Wish PB, eth fort, and Andy's on a Barbarian mercenary. He can single handedly deal with any (normal) Boss in the game, and PIs mean nothing since your a sorc.

Infinity is nice, don't get me wrong, there are just other choices.

-Kupa