Same deal with the Fire and Cold Act 3 Merc for good measure. They play well with the Resistance penalty on Sunder Charms.
But the Lightning Resist one would probably be the most useful. Note that he canāt equip Insight or Infinity. Act 3 is also the first time you encounter Gloams.
Why do casters need a merc?
If you think about it, none of the mercenaries do anything for casters. While physical classes get all sorts of useful auras like Might and Defiance and debuffs like Inner Sight and Battle Cry, the only useful merc ability for casters is mostly Holy Freeze and (triple) Prayer.
That's why Insight isn't a bad addition to the game ā
It makes sense to have a runeword that gives casters something offensive for their mercs that actually benefits the caster.
What could be better than Insight is one or more actual caster oriented mercenary. Itās just hard to imagine one because even Level 1 Conviction(-30) and Lower Resist(-31) is too powerful, not to mention breaks immunities.
Casters already do tons of damage. They do not need more offensive abilities, except for endgame minmaxing. They need a tank, and a physical hirelings (act 2 and 5) fit the role perfectly.
Triple Prayer is available only with certain items (Insight and Cure). If we allow items, then the obvious useful skill for casters is Conviction from Infinity.
Except that is it too powerful. Actually not even the item, but Meditation skill itself. Even at level 1 it quadruples the mana regen, and Insight provides level 17 (8Ć regen)!
This single item/skill invalidates the need to use mana potions, and, together with these potions, any reason to put stat points into energy.
All classes need a tank except for summoners. The point is that without Insight, the mercs donāt provide a direct benefit to casters - which results in limiting the choice to what useful rw they can equip.
Without points in Energy, Insight gives you about 15 mana per second if you only have a Spirit equipped for Mana. A Super Mana Potion restores 500 mana for casters. In other words, Insight gives you a free Mana pot every 30 seconds.
This doesnāt take into account that Potions can crit for double Life and Mana restoration - chance depending on Vitality and Energy respectively.
Casters being too powerful has more to do with the availability of Mana Potions than the existence of Insight.
If Act 3 Mercs were useful to casters then you would be forced to choose between them and Insight. Good game design is all about providing players with interesting choices. For this same reason, I think Insight should not be available on Polearms - it should only be available to the Act 1 merc.
Respectfully disagreeā¦ try to beat ubers without keeping your tank merc aliveā¦ itās almost impossible.
for a classic summoner build you lack open wounds and some crushing blow in order to take down the ubers. although Urdars from river of flame, could assist with crushing blow, thereās no easy way of getting open wounds without a merc.
Iām saying itās not easy, but not impossible only due to general poison skills and poison dagger skill. the latter besides poison could apply open wounds from player gear, if you provide decent enaugh chance to hit, however it wouldnāt be a pure summoner build.
well yeah butusing ranged weapons with OW doesnāt fit necro fantasy/lore, nor would it be a classic summoner build.
I was rather thinking of:
Fleshripper dagger, for weapon (25%CB 50%OW, -AC% and other stuff)
elite upped swordback hold for shield(50%OW) total 100% already
duress for armor (15%CB 33%OW)
guiliameās face helm (35%CB)
goblin toe boots (25%CB) for total 100% CB per hit
nets 100% crushing blow and 133% open wounds on top of bonus attack rating from poison dagger skill.
One would just have to invest in dexterity heavily, which based on initial necro stats is not that far off from the necro fantasy/lore. Total of 261 dex ( after bonuses) will give medicore chance to hit and 75% block chance with swordback hold.
Lightning - Cast Lightning, Chain Lightning, Thunder Storm and Energy Shield with Lightning Mastery.
I agree that Act 3 Mercs should come with a set of auras like the Act 2 Mercs, like Meditation, Conviction etc but like a lower level one since it would be too high of a level, like 1 skill level every 7 levels starting at level 20 would make them about level 11 auras which seems fair to me.
it aināt gonna workā¦ blizz made a mechanic in the merc purchase window to fit only 3 skills, hence one could get only 3 active skills and perhaps a fourth passive one.
I think Auras are out of the qustion cause they donāt fit the their lore/fantasy.
However a passive mob debuff aura, like for a single specialization element functioning sort of like a sunder charm for them would be fairly welcome, itās like a3 the act where you can purchase lightning merc and he canāt do crap to like 90% of monsters there due to immunities.
Classic necro is a caster/summoner, but since D3 Diabloās necro is a death knight.
An Enchant soreceress also āshouldnātā use a crossbow hand cannon.
If your a summoner just look at the hated mages for your āsolutionā to the open wounds issue. The Poison mage does the job for you. Everyone hates him but he stops the life regen for D-Clone through the Ubers. I even beat āUberā Duriel with a clay golem, IM and poison mageā¦Canāt say it was worth the fight but he died. Without the poison mage it wouldnāt have been possible.
As much as I do like the Resist Auras on Act 3, we already get that via Runeword(Flickering Flame) for Resist Fire and if Blizzard had a brain, theyād add Resist Cold and Resist Lightning variants(search Permafrost + Capricious) to round things out. The problem is that the runeword(Flickering Flame) is so good that we wouldnāt bother grabbing Act 3 for the Aura in the first place. Therefore, Act 3 needs something else to really make them stand out and there are simply two options that I think would work.
First option is Conviction aura and Infinity will not be threatened by this whatsoever because Casters need Tanks(A2 or A5) to keep enemies at bay and self-wielding Nova Sorceress is godly. Yet if weāre looking at this purely from the A3 perspective, A3 deals Elemental damage and the only aura that debuffs Enemy Resistance is Conviction. It would also help Lightning variants in particular because A3 is full of Lightning Immunes. Second option is Lower Resist curse. Not as strong as Conviction but saves the player the trouble of having to use a Lower Resist wand. Act 3 still struggles with durability/recovery but giving them Prayer via Runeword would help alot too(Search Devotion runeword). Iāve tweaked it many times over so itās not final mind you but the purpose is to give Prayer to A3 Mercās.
At bare minimum, Conviction on A3 would give players the option on whether to grind for an Infinity or simply save the runes for something else. Therefore, Mercenary usage would be as follows:
If I had to choose one, I would remove all the new Io rune resistance helms, remove Flickering Flame and have Act3 Resistance Mercs instead.
I think Conviction Aura on mercs is a hard sell - chiefly because it breaks Immunities, which will have too big an impact on the game, not to mention the conflict with Sunder Charms, which seem to be here to stay.
I took a look at your custom runewords. Pretty neat idea giving Act3 Merc Prayer Aura on a shield.
