MF CL/Orb Sorc and Merc Question

[kreality]

For a Cl/Orb Sorc in the Hell Mode..Is the merc are not suppose to tank the bosses? My Merc always die everytime he fight against the bosses...Everytime I ress him I have to waste 50,000 gold and it somehow abit pain for me.

And which bosses is the best MF for my CL/Orb Sorc? I try Hell Andriel but my merc died easily.

What should I do? Should I stick to NM mode for MF? or any better place for my sorc to MF?

[ProfessionalBerg]

Post your merc equipment. Also, don't forget to help your merc with tanking by chilling bosses with FO, or Staticking them (if they're not immune).

[Spectrus]

If you're doing Meph, remember that he can't leech off Meph. He shoudl be able to leech off most other things, and Andy's Visage will help a lot against hell Andy (not so much against things that do fire damage though).

[ihuang]

I haven't played a CL/orb sorc myself, but I've heard they're good pit runners. You could also use her to run keys and the countess for runes.

The reason I've never made a CL/orb sorc yet (only meteorb and bliz so far) is that given about equal gear for both a CL/orb and Meteorb, Meteorb is better for boss killing. Andy is weak against fire, Meph can be moated, and with 105% fcr, fireball casts about 60% faster (8 fpc) than lightning (13 or 14 fpc, I'm not sure and I'm too lazy to open a new window to look up the lightning fcr bps) while still having a higher average damage than lightning. You can spam fireballs in between meteor casts, while with lightning, you just have your lightning. Meteorbs aren't that great when being attacked from multiple directions at once however.

[Noite Escura]

IMO Meteorb is better for Pit Runs. FIs in the Pits are weaker than LIs and die more easily to Orb. I'm yet to build a CL/Orb that goes into Hell, but I think Countess and Summoner are easier for ChainOrb than MeteOrb. Dunno bout Nihlatak. Though any boss is doable, but you better stick with Orb for them.

[kreality]

I currently use Defiance Merc..Should I switch to HF merc..since my current Defiance merc died alot as well in Hell Mode even with 75% resistance and 7.5k armour.

[Kaotic Dragon]

Keep the Defense merc, you switch to holy freeze your going to get the crap knocked out of you when your teleing around. HF takes a second to kick in anyway and wont do you any good.

I have a Light/orb sorc with full Tals. My set up is Eth Fort, Eth Partizen Insight, and a Vampire Gaze. Mercs will die at Andy 99% of time because of her poison. Meph isnt much better because of his poison and no leaching ability. For Andy because your merc will die easily. How I do it is clear the antichamber and take out the monsters just inside her throne room door, this gives you some running room. When she comes running up Static her, then switch to Frozen Orb for the kill. For meph I generally static him then use frozen orb to.

[ProfessionalBerg]

My Meteorb uses Might merc - it REALLY helps him leech the damage back. The Orb provides all the crowd control I need, and Defiance is a bit redundant, since I don't bother upgrading his gear (currently he runs with a lame Shaftstop, Tal helm and non-eth CA Insight). :rolleyes: Yeah, I know I'm cheap. Maybe I should upgrade, but good ethereal merc Fort costs quite a bit, as do elite ethereal polearms...

BTW, my merc dies pretty rarely (considering the setup) - perhaps, the Shaftstop's DR% helps him? Dunno.

[Davio]

My tactic with Andy doesn't allow my merc to die.

I just teleport on top of her and fireball her to death. Once she's dead, her flames kill everything else. Only thing I have to watch out for is some Afflicteds who explode their corpse or have a nasty frost nova when they die. So once she dies, I immediately tp to a safe place, let everything fall, tele back and pick up the loot.

My merc uses eth bugged 3.7k 'Stone' armor, Insight eth colossus voulge, vampire gaze.