A2 Might merc lvl 84: Eth Insight Colossus Voulge 560-3022 no aura, 870-4904 w/ aura - this is stated damage for use as a reference, everyone knows how the A2 mercs work.
A3 - All were geared with Spirit sword (had to hunt a base for it), Vipermage, shakko and lidless for +6 to all skills. There might be more ‘optimal’ setups but this is a realistic set up people can make/farm easily. It seems you have not given them more Strength so they still can not equip a spirit shield. It would be great to add some base Strength stat so they can achieve a Spirit shield at higher levels. Even if I socket a Fal into the Shako he needs to be lvl 91 to use a Spirit shield. The spirit shield will also help them hit the 11 frame FCR breakpoint.
Fire Wolf Firebolt 1390-1540 Fireball 1980-2172 Enchant AR 326% 191-227
Lit Wolf Charged Bolt 81-86 Lightning 1-1811 Static Range 19.3 yards
Ice Wolf Glacial Strike 861-914 Ice Blast 673-693 Frozen Armor
FCR Breakpoints
13 frames- 39, 12 frames 58, 11 frames 86 10 frames 138
With lidless, Spirit, Vipermage I get 85, that’s 1 pt below the 11 frame breakpoint. I don’t think 10 frames is attainable with current gear. If you don’t intend to add the ST for a Spirit shields please lower the FCR breakpoint to 85 fcr so a perfect spirit sword will hit it.
AI: I felt they still like walking into melee range too much. The Rouge seems much better, she sits back and attacks from range better. There shouldn’t be much difference between the behavior of Rouges and Wolves.
The way I imagine the Wolves (yes these are my opinions of where the Wolves should be): Fire Wolf is good for AoE damage and AR bonus from Enchant. Ice Wolf has the lowest damage but is great for crowd control, Lit Wolf would be ‘Single Target’ damage but the highest damage of them all. Using this as a template here’s what I would do with them.
They all need masteries. While playing I used conviction for a bit and they all improved, they didn’t come close to the A2’s but it got better. Monsters have too much innate resistance for a lower damage mage to be of any use. The reason Sorcs can do well is they have very high damage abilities and even when you half it to a monster having 50 Fire resists, it still does good damage. When your mage is doing 900 damage and the monster has 50 resists, your getting 450 damage.
Fire wolf - Should only have Fireball and Enchant as usable skills. Fire Bolt should be there for synergy but not used. It lowers his overall damage potential which is already small.
Ice wolf is good skill wise.
Lit wolf should lose charged bolt and pick up ThunderStorm. Charged bolt is a slow attack skill that does little damage unless he is up close and personal. Generally when he gets that close he starts walking around to get out of melee range rather than continuing to attack. This means most engagements where he is using charged bolt have him sit back, cast a ton of charged bolts, I kill everything before the bolts get to me and the monsters. Thus everything he did went to waste.
Lightning allows him to sit back and cast a high damage attack from range. Thunderstorm adds into a high single target attack that works while he is out of range. I was pleasantly surprised by static’s range, of course he doesn’t use it when it’s needed but static turned out better than expected.
! Regarding Spirit Monarch, how much STR does the Etheral base need ? I remember those do drop from time to time … Providing the access to Pala shields would solve STR issues and 4sox choice though…