MF meteorb merc gear

[Vulvacore]

I'm making a meteorb sorceress for MF-ing.
Merc will be using Insight polearm as a weapon. I need suggestions for armor and helm.
Also, what polearm should I make Insight in?
Should I go for high damage (Colossus Voulge/Cryptic Axe) or high speed (Thresher/Giant Thresher)?
Should I get holy freeze or might?
I'll be doing mostly Mephisto, the pit, ancient tunnels and such.

Thanks.

Edit:
One more question concerning meteor...
Should I pay more attention to impact damage (more points in fire ball) or fire damage over time (more points in fire mastery)?

[DECOYBOY]

insight is fine in anything. i personally dislike CVs tho due to high str req. for mf gear, go full tals for meteorb.

[Vulvacore]

Whoa, it requires 210 strength, I totally missed that. Oo
I already figured out the gear for sorc (and yes, I'll be using Tal's set), now only the gear for merc remains. :)

[Scudstorm]

The polearm's base item doesn't matter much as long as it's elite. I'd say whichever you get your hands on, eth preferred. Either way, as a dual-tree sorc you will rarely need him for dmg, so as long as the leech keeps him alive it's fine.

In helm and armor spots, you want these:

- Leech
- Resists

And optional good mods:

- DR (% or integer)
- CB

What we suggest depends on your wealth, since there are so many good options. The areas you run will affect your choice, too.

[Keishacoo]

Insight eth thresher
Eth bugged "stone" armor (loricated?) 3300+ def
Vamp gaze, unsocketed.

Act 2 holy freeze merc.

He "never" dies in hell baal runs, even with lister and his cronies.

I don't need the mana regen anymore but still haven't switched out the insight for anything "better". The advantage of this set up is that nothing is really expensive at all. I just switched to the gaze after finding it in a run. Tal's mask is a very good sub.

As mentioned he just has to hold them still for a few seconds so you can go to work.

Joe

[Vulvacore]

Does armor heaviness have any effect on merc run/walk speed? I know he'll be teleporting with me most of the time, but still...
Wouldn't archon plate be a better choice? I go for archon plate whichever armor rune word I make because it's the best elite light armor and in best case it has only 76 base defense short of sacred armor.
As for Stone, it has 60% FHR, 250-290% ED, +16 strength, vitality and energy don't count on merc and all resistances +15.
How are these in comparison?
Duriel's Shell with 160-200% ED and +1.25 defense per character level in cuirass, +1 life per character level, resist fire, lightning and poison +20, resist cold +50, cannot be frozen, +15 strength.
Gloom with 10% FHR, 200-260% ED, +10 strength, all resistances +45 and half freeze duration.
I'm leaning towards Duriel's Shell because it's half way between Stone and Gloom resistance wise, has cannot be frozen and nice addition to strength and life. Only thing it lacks is FHR, does that matter much?
What do you guys think?

[Shanksie1337]

My favourite merc gear usually consisits of the following:
Tals Helm / Steelskull / VGaze
Duriels - by far my favourite, can be had for 1pgem in most cases. CBF +str and +resists +1os (for shael if desired)
Insight - in any non eth elite polearm (or eth exceptional). He really doesn't need the extra damage and with a non eth one he'll still do more than enough damage to leech enough to survive. CV has rather high str requirements, but any of the others are fine.

I never really bother about fhr / ias on act2 mercs, all they need to do is stay alive, granted this may help somewhat but you should be killing more than fast enough to keep them alive very easily and you can alway chuck a purple pot at them when needed or tele them to safety.

For eStone / eForti or w/e i'd certainly put them in the highest def armour i could find/trade, something like a Sacred / Lacqured as far as i know they dont suffer heavy armour penalties (plus ofc u have tele). Tho again i can't recommend duriels enough, no matter how rich you are there's no point wasting wealth if you don't need to :D.

As for HFreeze / Might, i'd say if you're in no danger of dying, take might to help him.

[GGuirao]

The Might merc I used with my Sorc had a "Strength" Thresher, Duriel's Shell, and Blackhorn's Face. My MeteOrb Sorc was killing nearly everything, and he just served as a distraction and killer of fire+cold immunes.

[jackthelad]

My £0.02.....

As you are running pits/AT's, the most important things imho would be 10-20% total life leach>resists>dmg, in that order.
For bosses (mephi/andy etc.) Crushing blow>resists>%DMR>life>dmg, in that order.

You should be pumping in 5-10K fire dmg or 500-600 cold dmg into the area where he is, all he needs is enough life/def to tank & enough leach to stay alive while you kill.

I use to use insight, but I found that (especially while running pits) I would find more than enough blue pots to make up for the occasions when I ran out of mana, so I swapped it out for an Obedience. The best all-round merc runeword. Period.

My merc currently wears a 'ral'd andy helm (life leach, big +poison resists)
Forti in an eth shadow plate (3,4k def, +dmg, +def, resists, dmg red, everything a growing boy needs)
Obediance in a sup. elite polearm, I forgot which, with 14% edmg. Gives him ~1.6k dmg with the enchant activated.
Oh, & holy freeze. Slowing enemies is always a good thing, especially frenzy-aura'd.

[Shanksie1337]

For bosses (mephi/andy etc.) Crushing blow>resists>%DMR>life>dmg, in that order.


On any other char i might agree with you, but CB on a char with static is nigh on pointless, or rather it's far from the best stat.
He just need to stand there and get hit. LL, resists, pdr, cbf, life and dmg in that order would be my opinion. With def thrown in there somewhere in the middle.

[Vulvacore]

Thanks for everyone's input.
Somehow I missed Obedience and now that I look at it, that's one kickass merc weapon.
Obedience
5 Socket Polearms
Hel + Ko + Thul + Eth + Fal

30% Chance To Cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill An Enemy
40% Faster Hit Recovery
+370% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration (Normal)
-25% To Enemy Fire Resistance
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
+200-300 Defense (varies)
+10 To Strength
+10 To Dexterity
All Resistances +20-30 (varies)
Requirements -20%
Seriously, who can argue against those stats?
Especially with rather easy to get runes.

As for helm and armor, I decided to go for Tal's mask and Duriel's Shell.

[jackthelad]

On any other char i might agree with you, but CB on a char with static is nigh on pointless, or rather it's far from the best stat.
He just need to stand there and get hit. LL, resists, pdr, cbf, life and dmg in that order would be my opinion. With def thrown in there somewhere in the middle.

Thats if you have static, I almost never put a point in. Also, static only takes off up to 25% off monsters in hell iirc, so he would still need to tank the other 75%, which is where the CB comes in.

Also Mr S, & Im not sure I believe it as my merc seems to, but in hell leach doesnt work on bosses at all. As I said, Im sure my merc does leach off hell meph at least, but apparently leach on bosses in hell doesnt work. I think. ;)

I also think cbf on a holy freeze merc is a bit pointless, but on any other aura merc is a good idea.

[Shanksie1337]

Static is the best 1 point wonder in the game imho, and it does 50% in hell as far as i know. So Cretin only needs to tank 50% and ofc whilst he's being a good cretin and getting hit in the face you're free to kill the boss :).

Maybe i'm just lazy and too much in love with infinite mana from Insight. Besides you can always go for:
Guillaumes Face.
CoH (or some other LL armour).
Pokey stick of your choice as you pretty have all the required mods on the 2 other items. (apart from cbf, but i'm not going to be "cham" ing a gui face anytime soon for a Cretin).

[Vulvacore]

One more question concerning meteor...
Should I pay more attention to impact damage (more points in fire ball) or fire damage over time (more points in fire mastery)?
Forgot about this... Can anyone answer? :)

[Scudstorm]

Also Mr S, & Im not sure I believe it as my merc seems to, but in hell leach doesnt work on bosses at all. As I said, Im sure my merc does leach off hell meph at least, but apparently leach on bosses in hell doesnt work. I think. ;)

The ability to leech off monsters is determined by the "Drain Effectiveness" stat of said monster. The Arreat Summit provides it for us. Hell Meph has 0 Drain Effectiveness, meaning your merc can leech off him if and only if Life Tap is active on him.

Forgot about this... Can anyone answer? :)

Both. Most people will only use Meteor against bosses. It is possible to time your meteor to hit normal monsters (which are moving), but most of the time it's much easier to just kill them with Fireballs before the Meteor could even land.

Basically, plan your skills for Fireball, and take the free Meteor however it comes :P

[Vulvacore]

Here are some numbers I got with skill planner for 1.10, using +10 to fire skills.

Fire ball 15, Meteor 20, Fire mastery 20
Fire ball damage: 3634-4054
Meteor impact damage: 10063-10531
Meteor damage per second: 1341-1422

Fire ball 20, Meteor 15, Fire mastery 20
Fire ball damage: 3932-4331
Meteor impact damage: 8669-9133
Meteor damage per second: 1100-1179

Fire ball 20, Meteor 20, Fire mastery 15
Fire ball damage: 4279-4714
Meteor impact damage: 10257-10733
Meteor damage per second: 1201-1271

Looking at those numbers, I guess this would be okay?

Frozen orb 20
Cold mastery 6 (17 with +skills)
Frozen armor 1
Teleport 1
Static field 1
Warmth 1
Fire ball 20
Meteor 20
Fire mastery 15
Prerequisites 1 (total 10)
Total 95 (available on level 84)

[Scudstorm]

The Meteorb maxes both Fireball and Meteor.

When I talked about maximizing Fireball dmg over Meteor's, I was talking Firebolt vs Fire Mastery. As a rule of thumb, more points into Firebolt means a stronger Fireball, and more into FM means a stronger Meteor.

However, depending on your exact gear setup and expected clvl, you shall play around with the skill planner to get the best effect.

Don't forget that a Meteorb has a high chance of using full Tal's, meaning +2 to masteries.

[jackthelad]

Static is the best 1 point wonder in the game imho, and it does 50% in hell as far as i know. So Cretin only needs to tank 50% and ofc whilst he's being a good cretin and getting hit in the face you're free to kill the boss :).


You're right; I thought it was 50% in NM & 25% in hell, but its 33% in NM & 50% hell. I always thought static was a dangerous skill, trying to get close enough to static them with only 1pt in the skill often got me killed in normal & NM, & in hell my merc was tanking & I was pumping enough dmg to not need to risk getting up close & doing it. Tho I can see the advantages & do use it when I point it.

Forgot about this... Can anyone answer? :)

I would go with FB for impact dmg, & use +skills to boost FM to get the burn dmg.

The ability to leech off monsters is determined by the "Drain Effectiveness" stat of said monster. The Arreat Summit provides it for us. Hell Meph has 0 Drain Effectiveness, meaning your merc can leech off him if and only if Life Tap is active on him.


I thought so. For me as a non-static user, I stick by:
Crushing blow>resists>%DMR>life>dmg for boss killing.
Tho tbh, as long as your merc can survive long enough for a couple of meteors to rain down, its not really that important what skills/stats/etc. he has tbh.

[Vulvacore]

The Meteorb maxes both Fireball and Meteor.

When I talked about maximizing Fireball dmg over Meteor's, I was talking Firebolt vs Fire Mastery. As a rule of thumb, more points into Firebolt means a stronger Fireball, and more into FM means a stronger Meteor.

However, depending on your exact gear setup and expected clvl, you shall play around with the skill planner to get the best effect.

Don't forget that a Meteorb has a high chance of using full Tal's, meaning +2 to masteries.
Yes, I'll be using full Tal's set.
Since only hard points count for sinergizing, maybe I should max fire bolt, fire ball and meteor, put only 1 in Fire mastery and let the gear and skillers do the rest?

Using 8 fire skillers (no point in MF-ing with full inventory), +11 to all/sorceress/fire skills from gear and +2 to fire mastery from Tal's orb, damages would look like this:

Fire ball : 9790-10630
Meteor impact: 20160-20957
Meteor per second: 1434-1497

Looks tasty. Luckily plain skillers aren't hard to roll. :)
Thanks for bringing the idea of syngerizing fire bolt up, I'll definitely do it that way.

[Vulvacore]

Sorry for double post, but I've got another question...
Is it worth getting 235-240 dexterity for max block with Rhyme grim shield?
I've been doing some testing and so far it doesn't look like she needs it, especially for regular MF areas.
She can solo every area in hell, merc takes care of fire/cold immunes and she's pretty much fine without blocking.
What do you guys think?

[jackthelad]

If you are going with 'rhyme' (& I do too ;) ) I would put it into a heater. That should bring down how much dex you need, & with items you should be able to get a decent block % without too much dex. I have about 1k life & 50% block with mine, so not too much points in dex but still a decent chunk of life.

[Shanksie1337]

For PvM Softcore i'd not bother with max block (or any dex apart from as needed for gear).
High vita, good fcr, good fhr & max'd resists are all you really need.

[Vulvacore]

Jackthelad, what level is your sorceress, how much dexterity does she have total and how much is from items (and which)?
I guess I could go with Heater, it has 2% higher base blocking at the expense of somewhat higher strength requirement, but I need higher strenght for Tal's armor and War Traveler so it's not a problem.
Still, I guess I won't bother with 75%, don't really think there's need for it.

[jackthelad]

228 dex, 75% block with items (anni-15, torch-11 & tal belt-20).
182 base, 58% block.

lvl88, 1036 life with items.

Yeah you will need at least 95 for war travs, so getting the 77 for heater wont be a problem.

[Keishacoo]

Coming from hardcore I nearly always used max block and my current sorc was started that way. However, I ended up going to a spirit shield for the extra fast cast and skills and stopped pumping dex.

It is certainly a subjective observation but even the 50% block I am getting seems to activate a lot and blocking half the hits can't hurt.

I will most likely stay in softcore when the ladder resets and will do a very similar meterorb build but this time with base dex for added life.

I use a partial tals set (belt, ammy, armor) along with occy and shako. With a handful of 7% charms I still hover about 400% MF with something like 500 orb dmg, 20K meteor and 6 or so K fireball.

Also in regards to your bolt vs mastery question, I end up using fireball more so spent more into bolt but I don't think there is really a "wrong" answer.

Joe

[Vulvacore]

I played around in the skill planner some more and figured the best option is 10 in Fire bolt and 10 in Fire mastery. Best of both worlds, both Fire ball and Meteor get nice damage. :)