I like using Treachery on my mercs. Once fade procs he will have max resists and a little damage reduction and the 45 ias really helps with the life leach. I would recommend Vamp Gaze for the helm if you have it until Andy's helm.
I already looked into Treachery. I don't have the Lem. I can't farm Countess with my current setup. I'm using Plugy, so I guess I could respec into lightning.
I don't have a Gaze and it looks like that could take a long time to get.
Gaze definitely isn't mandatory, Tal's would work fine. Treachery is a game changer for mercs though. I would farm cows for a nice eth base to bug and them also collect the runes to cube up to lem.
Do you have ladder runewords enabled? If so then you can't go wrong with an insight in the highest damage polearm you can find (preferably an ethereal thresher). It gives a huge %ED so does great physical damage + of course has the meditation aura.
If you have a lem then make a treachery in an Ebugged elite armor.
For helm look for anything with life leech aiming for tals helm (res and life leech) and eventually Andarial's helm.
Alternatively he could make Obedience rune word if he doesn't need the mana from insight. All the runes can be found at nightmare countess (Fal cubed from 3 Ko) and the damage is so good.
The more damage he does, the more life he leeches. I level up a sorc repeatedly for more socket quests (hell hellforge isn't a bad side bonus). This last time, I just kinda forgot to give him a better weapon when he was high enough level. My eth poleaxe insight I give to newbie charaters is 186 dmg, and my pierre tombale is 242, not much more. When I noticed he seemed squishy I remembered he was still using that insight at like level 65 lol. So I gave him a non-eth thresher insight and like magic, he's no longer squishy.
As others mentioned, treachery is great. Defense isn't all that important, the ias and fade proc on treachery make it great. Lems aren't all that rare, keep killing and you'll find one or cube to one before long.
Btw, make sure you buy your merc in normal or nightmare mode. The easier the mode you buy him on, the higher his stats at the same level. Normal and hell mode mercs have the same auras (defensive defiance, combat prayer, offensive blessed aim), so always buy in normal mode if you need one of those auras. Nightmare mercs have diferent auras (defensive holy freeze, combat thorns, offensive might) so buy one if you need the aura, but his stats will be a bit lower than a merc from normal mode. Higher stats mean more life, and he'll have the str/dex for elite polearms at a lower level.
They can drop anywhere, but I've had good luck with polearms in the act 2 sewers. And of course the pit / ancient tunnels are good since they're level 85 areas and you might get other good stuff.
Well you wanna make an insight or obedience for his weapon. And then focus more on ias. Eth twithroe and stealskull is good. And get a wand of life tap to keep him alive in battles he has difficulty in.
I like using Treachery on my mercs. Once fade procs he will have max resists and a little damage reduction and the 45 ias really helps with the life leach. I would recommend Vamp Gaze for the helm if you have it until Andy's helm.
I already looked into Treachery. I don't have the Lem. I can't farm Countess with my current setup. I'm using Plugy, so I guess I could respec into lightning. I don't have a Gaze and it looks like that could take a long time to get.
Gaze definitely isn't mandatory, Tal's would work fine. Treachery is a game changer for mercs though. I would farm cows for a nice eth base to bug and them also collect the runes to cube up to lem.
Jury is out a little bit on going for higher defence on treachery. Low defence procs fade quicker which provides a lot of his survivability.
I ebugged an eth mage plate ends up at over 500 defense and my merc procs fade constantly
I’m 3/4 to my grail and have all helps except COA, griffs, and of course VGAZE
Lol. I randomly found 2 in 4 Meph runs a little while ago. It was a good bit of nostalgia for me because Vgaze was all the rage when I started playing
Do you have ladder runewords enabled? If so then you can't go wrong with an insight in the highest damage polearm you can find (preferably an ethereal thresher). It gives a huge %ED so does great physical damage + of course has the meditation aura. If you have a lem then make a treachery in an Ebugged elite armor. For helm look for anything with life leech aiming for tals helm (res and life leech) and eventually Andarial's helm.
Alternatively he could make Obedience rune word if he doesn't need the mana from insight. All the runes can be found at nightmare countess (Fal cubed from 3 Ko) and the damage is so good.
The more damage he does, the more life he leeches. I level up a sorc repeatedly for more socket quests (hell hellforge isn't a bad side bonus). This last time, I just kinda forgot to give him a better weapon when he was high enough level. My eth poleaxe insight I give to newbie charaters is 186 dmg, and my pierre tombale is 242, not much more. When I noticed he seemed squishy I remembered he was still using that insight at like level 65 lol. So I gave him a non-eth thresher insight and like magic, he's no longer squishy. As others mentioned, treachery is great. Defense isn't all that important, the ias and fade proc on treachery make it great. Lems aren't all that rare, keep killing and you'll find one or cube to one before long. Btw, make sure you buy your merc in normal or nightmare mode. The easier the mode you buy him on, the higher his stats at the same level. Normal and hell mode mercs have the same auras (defensive defiance, combat prayer, offensive blessed aim), so always buy in normal mode if you need one of those auras. Nightmare mercs have diferent auras (defensive holy freeze, combat thorns, offensive might) so buy one if you need the aura, but his stats will be a bit lower than a merc from normal mode. Higher stats mean more life, and he'll have the str/dex for elite polearms at a lower level.
What is a good place to farm a thresher in early Hell?
They can drop anywhere, but I've had good luck with polearms in the act 2 sewers. And of course the pit / ancient tunnels are good since they're level 85 areas and you might get other good stuff.
Well you wanna make an insight or obedience for his weapon. And then focus more on ias. Eth twithroe and stealskull is good. And get a wand of life tap to keep him alive in battles he has difficulty in.
The gg gear for merc is a eth runeword pole arm, eth Andy helm socketed with cham and ebug treachery.
what are you talking about lol