Pride Merc

**pharphis** · 04-04-2012, 18:27

The other downfall to the merc's damage is that he doens't get the damage from decrep, but eh, if you prefer your damage to be boosted, then why not

**zaphodbrx** · 05-04-2012, 14:37

Originally Posted by zgpmf

Well, yeah, if you want to be a nitpick. :P

I'm not a big fan of merc's high damage (but of course the more the better), if I'm a caster I usually do all the killing and if I'm melee, well, again, I do the killing thing, so I only find him useful in one on one situations vs a tough minion boss and since I'm mostly playing on p8 there is no point in waiting for my merc to kill him.

For many elemental builds, you WILL need a merc to kill the dual immunes. Without infinity, that is.
Eth insight colossus voulge makes short work of dual immunes for the most part as far as I have seen.

**Kitteh** · 05-04-2012, 15:22

I never use Insight, you don't need the mana, much more useful to have something like Reapers.

**Hairless** · 14-04-2012, 17:22

cool so anyway, i'm just using this thread as my own personal item find thread, and to have somewhere to link to in the case of trading HR's.

This one is not for trade though:

Spoiler

I vote +1 for running The Pits for HR's!

**Tupsi** · 14-04-2012, 18:54

Has anyone tried or thought about Pride on a tele-zerker? I've been running Pits with a teleporting berserker and found out it is very entertaining. Because it's hit n' run type of character, the merc doesn't have time to trigger Decrepfiy or help with the right kills. The merc doesn't really need much traits for survival like damage+ll either so Pride's usual weaknesses don't really matter.

Hit Blinds Target was one of the mods I added to my mercenary's arsenal via helmet choice very quickly, so the usual nuisance that HBT is, would actually be a good thing. Howl doesn't scare the monsters away if they're toe-to-toe with me or my merc, so HBT prevents at least some of the monsters from hitting me.

Hit Freezes Target could be a problem with the corpse shattering, and not having Meditation could take away some of the joy of tele-zerking.

The obvious reason for the Pride is of course damage. Might aura adds about 1-2k to my Berserk damage (from 5.5-12k to 6.5-14k). Concentration aura would add about ~300 ED% which is slightly higher than Might's ED% so another 1-2k plus a tad more to damage numbers would be expected.

Concentration also gives 20% chance for uninterruptible attack which isn't that awesome but welcome for sure.

Any thoughts?

**Pijus** · 14-04-2012, 19:56

@Tupsi: Hmm..that does sound good. You'd go to about 8-17k with might and pride. Is there deadly strike involved? + extra damage to demons?

**pharphis** · 14-04-2012, 21:31

I was thinkign the only real downfall would be to not have the meditation aura, but the occasional pot for a mana burn pack should be fine?

**zaphodbrx** · 15-04-2012, 02:44

I don't see what the point of pride would be, the damage addition would be insignificant, really. Much better to stack up on deadly strike so that you can 1-shot the boss. Death+highlords+gores = max ds at high level.
Plus, insight for teleporting around. Don't tell me that isn't awesome. Specially as zerk doesn't leech.

Infact the more skill ed you have the less useful concentration aura becomes. That is why it is much better for bowazons and maybe whirlwind barbs.

**Pijus** · 15-04-2012, 06:19

He could still teleport, have max DS, and have Pride. From the damage he posted, I'm guessing he's using a Death Collosus Sword/Blade. Throw on a highlords and you're nearly there for DS.

If you throw Pride on a bowazon's merc, you run into the problem of low merc damage and leech. Since the bowazon stays back, all the monsters will be hitting the merc. Without a (really)good weapon he'll be toast.

**Codoh** · 15-04-2012, 09:20

Well...i went trough most of the topic. I was in the same position as you, had a Cham, didnt know what to do with it, but I did make a Pride eventually, got a 19 aura on it. I'll adress a few things people mentioned here

Merc doesn't die, he barely hits anything cuz u knockback (assuming you own a windforce or any other source of knockback) the whole armada of monsters. Mine with Pride(aura) + might + fortitude (Eth Superior Sacred armor) + andys never realy looses life in the process. The way I look at the merc with this char is that hes a buffer, rather then a killer. With his setup he still has 4k damage, 10k defense, and the appropriate lifesteal, so he never realy dies, + i like that firewall..it looks neat. Without Pride aura i loose about 1k damage from my strafe, with 1 strafe you shoot out 8 arrows...now do the math, i rather have that damage in my own hands then in "i'mwithstoopid"'s hand.
With Valkyre and Merc, everything gets tanked properly, ...or doesn't because by the time they get to tanking the monsters are dead. Except urdars and those with high DR. To kill those properly i rely on Atma's to proc. Now add the mods from Gore rider to her damage, critical strike, Amplify damage, dur dur glass cannon.
I was browsing the amazon forums regarding Strafezons 1-2 months ago, and after I posted my gear and stats and all, someone...cant remember who...concluded that the damage i put out is at 18k or so...idk if its true, i could care less, I use her to run pits, thoo i havent done so in months, since i got my Infinity.

Here are her stats: http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2...fezonstats.jpg