Complete Mercenary Guide

[nedamettin]

okay for end-game setups (you can edit ur main post and add these properly if you wish)

a5 merc has decent all-around setups since some of the 2h weapons are extremely good.

for the new patch the best setup would be:

New 2h sword that gives %10 damage amp to everyone (i forgot its name, only saw as a screenshot)

serpent's deception armor. evade %10 max res socs etc. all purpose defensive armor.

New godly merc amulet with %30 ALL damage reduction, phys res and %10 max res. serpents and this = max res capped with huge phys res

for helmet i would probably go for crown for up to level 20 might aura and superb defensive stats like ALL damage reduction and fhr based on vita.


This merc build i've written is probably 3 times tankier than your main character. also the new merc amulet has 250 life when struck that means he literally wont die unless bahamut poops on him and his blasts don't proc life when struck.

if you need more auras out of your merc i'd recommend using act 2 blessed aim or might mercenary for end game.

physical set weapon has fanaticism aura on eq. you'd rather have fanat on your own gear as it increases the benefit for your character (and also to your summons because % damage effects most summons in anni now). still it is a great damage boost if you can't find proper way to get a fanaticism aura on yourself.

for helmet you have two choices: crown of high heavens for might aura, but that means you won't be able to use might aura from act 2 merc themselves (they don't stack) or focus runeword gives concentration aura on eq which is a rare aura to obtain on yourself.
both have their good defensive options (focus rw has %max all res but crown has all damage reduction) and depends on what you choose.

for chestpiece i'd recommend serpent's or if you still want more auras, arkaine's valor. with arkaine's you may want to use sockets defensively (max all res runes/all res- lph jewels etc) but serpents gives huge tankiness anyway so you can use jewels as you like.

now with our act 2 mercenary alive we have these extra auras:

up to level 20 fanaticism aura
up to 23 level (merc himself) or 20 level might aura
up to 13 level concentration aura or 23 level blessed aim (merc himself) aura
up to 25 (or 20 not sure) armor penetration aura

in total a2 merc gives a lot of damage output to the physical characters.

if you want to get best magic output though, you'd want to use an act 3 mercenary.

infinity runeword can be used as a 1 handed sword (and others i may not know about) and if you combine it with malevolent runeword, you may have a decent conviction aura (up to 24 lvls). for chestpiece and helmet, you should go for maximum tankiness as you can. serpents + crown (again) would give the most tankiness i assume. helmet may change.

right now conviction aura is underperforming due almost all end-game content mobs having resistances over 100-150 which means conviction effects only 1/4 until resistance is pierced. this will change with the new patch and conviction will pierce a stable amount regardless of immunity or not. this will bring act 3 merc on the table and probably a must for casters who wants the most damage output from their builds.

act 1 mercenaries can have unique setups due having a bow as weapon. zephyr, etrayu etc can give them great damage outputs and cold merc freezes enemies so they also have great utility. inner sight they cast is rather weak and only "may" help characters who use attack rating and lacking it. still a great merc to start like a3 because of how cheap needed items are (etrayu etc) and they avoid face-to-face combat unlike melee mercs. a fun, end-game setup for a1 merc would be frostfire, tyrael's might and crown of high heavens. this would allow frostfire bow to give insane amounts of elemental damage to the merc due having high dexterity. also frostfire casts lower resist on striking that means more pierce for the casters.

if you want a more defensive option, a defensive act 2 mercenary may help a lot with sustain. having a caster set weapon on him and using prayer aura merc (hell or norm combat) will get you decent health recovery.

this is all i came up with for now. if you want more budget builds etc you can just ask me for it

a small note: barbs can wear barb specific helms as you mentioned so skull of unclean is a decent choice for unholy might aura. unholy might aura is = ias and lifesteal. helps a bit to the summons and a good amount to the phys chars