My merc dies ALOT.

[NukeYourFace]

He has a bonehew, with 2 Amn's, Griswalds Chest, and a Valk Helm. (Just started playin D2 again a week ago, still workin on better gear)

He's a level 86 act 2 NM defensive merc. It's really a pain, cuz when i solo meph, if i don't constantly make portals and go to town, meph blows him up.

He also dies pretty fast on the baal packs.

I don't know what's going on cuz he has 14% life leech.

ANy suggestions?

[AnimeCraze]

Meph is unleechable. Also, it is your responsibility to tele and keep merc alive.

[NukeYourFace]

Meph is unleechable. Also, it is your responsibility to tele and keep merc alive.

OH, so it's not just a tank and spank then? You teleport around when he gets low and heal him up, then go back in?

[AnimeCraze]

More or less yes, when it is against something like meph (unless you can kill him so quick that it doesn't matter).

[Pooshy]

switch the weapon for a kelpie snare... i imagine the 75% slow will help him survive, get rid of valk helm- get a LL helkm (vamp, or tals) or hell even rock stopper.
Switch gruzzy armor for dury shell or even lion heart would be good better, or socket the grizzy armor with 3xP ruby

[reubenj]

another decent trick is to intermittently use telekinesis on bosses (especially extra strong or extra fast ones like hephasto can spawn) and it stuns the bosses so that your merc can bang on them. when you do meph, i would just pour pots into him while you static and blizzard/orb him. you just have to get the timing and method down right once.

[Kupa]

Or just shop a life tap wand, switch and cast life tap on meph, problem solved, merc stays alive.

Though meph has a nasty habit of seeminingly ko'ing mercs regardless.

-Kupa

[zebulin]

quit resurrecting your merc and just moat trick meph until you're finished meph running. then resurrect the merc.

[AnimeCraze]

I think that's a horrible idea, simply because you will get temp banned by bnet. If your sorc is decent, you should be able to kill Meph before he kills your merc, given that you static him first. The only case where I think you should leave your merc dead is when you are you are broke (don't want to wake ghoul lords or the councils, do we?).

[zebulin]

I think that's a horrible idea, simply because you will get temp banned by bnet. If your sorc is decent, you should be able to kill Meph before he kills your merc, given that you static him first. The only case where I think you should leave your merc dead is when you are you are broke (don't want to wake ghoul lords or the councils, do we?).


it was a horrible idea that worked *much* better for me than trying to *not* leave him dead. What does it have to do with bnet temp bans?

[AnimeCraze]

Leaving merc dead pretty much means you are running only meph (and possibly andy). That means you will be making new games pretty often. I find that once I disposed of the councils and the ghoul lords, I can moat meph properly (with a few extra teles to keep merc in place). Now with Tal's set, I just static + tank him.

[BattleQueen]

Problem is your merc lacks resists. Meph deals mostly elemental dmg. A Fortitude wd be a nice armor if you can get one. Otherwise, socket some resists jewels into that Gris Heart. I'd agree abt the helm too.. Valk Wing's aint built for mercs.

[Kupa]

Even with resists max, my own merc will fall to meph pretty quickly.

I think its more to do with the extra damage/frozen skull attack and possibly the poison that stops the merc from regenerating.

The only way for a mercenary to successfully tank mephisto, is for meph to have Life Tap casted on him.

-Kupa

[DEA]

kelpie snare, as previously mentioned, is the answer
i used to teleport in right next to him, and my merc would get in the first hit
when you're so close to him, the only ele dmg you'd get is poison, because he'll try to smack either you or your merc
some % dr on the merc, maybe coh will be good enough
and basically he dies so fast he won't do much of anything because of the slow effect

[Vegetall]

If ur still rocking griz armor, just socket it with what cold/ight resists so he can handle bolts from meph b/c he still cast even if hes melee range.. but i have a trick its almost like the moat trick, but its a certian spot u can tele were ur merc wont move and he will be right on top of you... and he will take all the hits.... and u can just orb or whatever ur casts are from this spot b/c mephy wont move..... i cant really expplain where the spot is but its right infront of the first torch stand to mephys right but tele infornt of it on the low portion not next to it on the upper part.... thats what i did when my merc had.... or wait he stills useing griz armore ral,ort,thul socketed and bonehew with a 40% and 23% ed jewel....


edit: i just went over mephy, my merc dies on andy all the time, b/c of posoin but what u do is let him go after the carvers that are next to her and just unload on her to get her attention, and if uer useing fireball, just move close enough to see her name and unload fire balls into her face, should take her down quick........

keys: u shouldnt have a problem on countess, just fly in her chamber if ur fire or part fire just unload into her mob and wait and take her down, and if ur having problems with just her, TK her so she keeps getting knockback she cant attack, ur merc should take her down quickly....... Summoner himself cake, just tele around kill and loot..... Nik is a d@@che but like summoner if u can just tele around find out what he is and kill him try not to let anything else die, good ol CE... then finish everthing else off down there... the only problem u should run into is archers and possibly the snake charge guys (they hurt alot)

87Mlvl areas.... depending on ur gear is what matters not so much merc, hes low on health tele around or away heal repeat..