A5 merc doesn’t make sense, he can’t use axes and dual wield… meanwhile his Barbarian pals in the bloody foothills can

General Discussion
1

A5 merc doesn’t make sense, he can’t use axes and dual wield… meanwhile his Barbarian pals in the bloody foothills can

Come on blizz, some love to non-a2 merc

Allow them to use all types of weapon(beside claws) and dual wield

3 Likes
2

I think they were afraid of having to consider the balance implications of dual wielding auras. They got lazy and focused all the balance on act 2 merc.

That should definitely change.

5 Likes
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As far as I know Act 3 merc exists

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My head canon is that Act3 Merc is basically the Zoidberg of Diablo 2.

2 Likes
5

It’s true.

Also my barb can Equip 2 wands but a5 merc can’t.

I’d like to see more realism in our fantasy game please.

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Honestly, one of the changes I would like to see is to make non act 2 mercs more useful. Let’s spice things up.

Opening up gear for a5 mercs, considering extra spells/utility/auras for act1, 3, 5 mercs etc

Give Alhizeer and Pratham a break!

4 Likes
7

I agree

Act 1 merc be like:

  • normal strafe and exploding arrow

  • nm immolation arrow and guided arrow

  • hell freezing arrow and multi shot

Act 5 barb:

  • Norm berserker and battle cry

  • Nm throw and find potion

  • Hell frenzy and howl

As for act 3 merc, they are iron wolf like was D1 sorcerer:

  • don’t try to melee anymore

  • norm flame/shock/cold wave

  • nm fire/cold/lightning elemental

  • hell apocalypse, frost ring, nova

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The Barb in act 5 was supposed to be the damage dealer, and the act 2 the tank if you needed that. But because the Barbarian uses stun and knockback, he spends more time fighting the monsters than killing them. So even if you put on gear as good as you would an act 2 Merc, he is slower killing mobs, because he keeps knocking them back.

He should be given a shout, Battle Orders are too much, but regular shout, or Battle Cry, or even Battle Command would work.

And perhaps different attacks to choose from , so you can ditch the knockback.

1 Like
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Alot of good ideas here that make sense honestly. Mercs are a good option for supporting our sad physical builds.

2 Likes
10

Give them e.g. shout, battle command, the one that reduces defense/damage on monsters, or warcry (you can get defense, skills, or cc). Leave BO as barb specific (just like fanat/convict need other things). Get rid of the knockback and just make them concentrate if 2h weapon or double swing if 2x 1h. Let them use any weapons. Great! Now you have a balanced merc.

Act3 - turn up the damage like 5x and and give them more utility (i.e. frost armor on the player, not the merc, static field on the lightning, enchant on the fire)

Act1 - harder to balance, make her cast slow missiles, freezing/immo arrow, something, multishot, something. She also needs like 5x more damage.

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At blizzard, all the mercs had to draw a stick but this time there was a twist.
The Act 1 Merc drew and it was a medium sized stick, nothing special. Without seeing what the others would draw, she kept all comments to herself.
The Act 5 Merc felt confident and thought the Act 1 Merc held a small stick, so he drew. His stick was the exact same size as the other one. He grumbled for some reason.
The Act 3 Merc saw they both had matching sticks and knew he had a 50% chance of drawing the short stick. His palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy and he drew. He let out a breath and held a regular stick up. He winked at the Act 2 Merc.
The all watched the Act 2 Merc with smug looks as he drew. Slowly, the Act 2 Merc showed them a stick twice the size of everyone else’s.

And that children is why all the other Mercs sock baals.

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The joke should have been that act 2 merc threw both his hands in the bag and pulled out 2 giant sticks called insigth and Infinity

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And the auras or the high base dmg or the numerous other options beside those two runewords

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Yeah was mostly talking about the big sticks but stuff like pride and reaper roll are OP as well

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i vaguely remember a phase where a3 mercs were somewhat popular.
ppl were trying to give him lots of +skills and fcr.

it didnt stick tho. not sure what happened there - it was probably just bad despite being hyped up by someone at the time, no idea.

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I think shout would be ok, battle orders would definitely be too much.

IMO just get rid of his bash and give him concentrate or double swing and let them dual wield. Would be infinitely better. I’d actually use a5 mercs if that was the only change they did to them.

The bash is just so god awful.

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Maybe before synergies and mob health got buffed so much. Since a3 merc doesn’t get synergies at all their damage is so pitiful compared to mob hp that they might as well not even try to attack, even with + skills.

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act one mercenary should able crossbow and javelin… also it just make sense they should have Amazon to hire in the rogue camp… also they need to add the act 4 assassin mercenary

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A3 merc we’re awesome with the aurastacking

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Why would it make sense to be able to hire amazon’s from the rogue camp? Amazon’s don’t live in the rogue camp, the rogue order does…

1 Like