Act bosses as trapsin help please ^^

[Lightsins]

Hello, I am experiencing and enjoying a trapsin build and is quite different from rest of classes. My problem tho relies in fighting bosses. My character is currently level 32 focused on lightning traps with 1 point wonders in shadow tree. My act 2 normal defense merc seems broken :< Both for Duriel and Mephisto, he is not going to attack the boss, but run behind me... Once my shadow warrior / shadow master dies to boss, it focuses chasing me with my merc walking arround ignoring the boss... I managed to kill them by popping pops and traps and new SM / SW like no tomorrow but what is the point of a merc and to gear him up if he ain't geting involved in boss fights?

Many thanks!

[Burn-X]

I suspect you are moving too far away from the bosses which is why the merc is following you instead of tanking the bosses as he should be.

Stay within one screen (can bit slightly more) of the boss and your merc should happily proceed in whacking him up as long as he can :P

[Lightsins]

Yup that seems to be the cause :>

Another question now tho :> Am clvl 49 atm *untwinked but got 2 claws with 1 to *** skills and 1 coronet with 1 *** skills as well, and some rare / magic items with resists / mana mainly*, my merc is level 47 act 2 normal defense aura, he got 778 life, maxed resists, 1765 defense, and 165-386 dmg *no life leech because I prefered to make him malice in a 3 socket Partizan to increase his dmg and give him some nice mods *he had previously a double socketed spear with 2 flawless skulls in it for leech, but his damage was way lower*. He fares well versus any final act bosses when I manage to get him to tank them except diablo.... Tried both in 1 player and 8 player games and is same thing, diablo kills him so fast I can't even pop a full rejuv or healing pot on him, he simply dissapears! Which puzzles me, as with fade runing I have 75 fire / lightning resist as well, a much lower HP pool *about 529 hp* yet he ain't 1-2 shoting me, can in fact eat a full channeled lightning fork and my hp drop constantly at not a fast rate so i can pop a potion or something... Yet, my merc simply dissapears, he gets on him, does few swings then he vanishes.... and I have no ideea how to make him better with possible runes / gems / items available so he can safely tank diablo in normal *is ok to pump him with life / rejuv pots, but if his life drops instantly I don't even have time for it!* :>

Any input much apreciated, I am playing single player with no mods or cheats / hacks because I enjoy the game the way it is :> I have couple amn / sol runes from higher level ones, one perfect of each gem type and several low level runes as well... I tried gambling for a better armor for him but no luck so far. He is wearing a field plate with 2 sockets with a jewel for 9 max dmg and a perfect ruby for hp bonus. I keept reading on this boards that some peeps manage to get almost unkillable mercs even in hell games *ofc with some very good items, and not counting IM curse* yet despite I reached half of game level and keept improving my merc items the best I could with what was available, he gets 1 shoted by normal diablo even in 1 player game.... Any other boss is easy, but diablo simply hates my merc :< Even my SM who is cast at lvl 4 *1 point spent, 3 from items* seems to fare better yet she has only 32% resist all while merc has 75 *in gold text so I suppose is the hard cap for normal level*....

Many thanks!

[Burn-X]

Diablo's purple lightning and forward fire spell do a lot damage, even with 75 resist to all.
You have to get elemental absorb to reduce his spell damage. Dwaft Star ring is the best source for fire absorb and Thundergod belt for lightning absorb. However you can just run around when he cast his purple lightning to avoid it, so lightning absorb isn't a big priority.

Another good mod to look out for is magic reduction as it also helps in reducing elemental damage.

Now to your merc; getting these elemental absorb on him isn't going to be easy. He also takes on crazy amount of damage when Diablo casts his forward shooting fire spell. The easiest way to improve his survivability is to level him up more so that his level surpasses Diablo level and he gets more life. This should make him able to take on Diablo better.

I suggest you start doing MF runs on NM Meph to find better equipment for yourself and your merc. This should prepare you when you move to Hell which is insanely difficult without decent/good gear >_<