Piety - Shield Runeword for Iron Wolves

[Necromant-2961]

@DarkHelmet-1157

Then I added 25% Chance To Cast level 20 Fade when Struck.

@DarkHelmet-1157

The first tweak I made was removing the Mastery skills. These could be added to each Iron Wolf’s arsenal respectively as opposed to this runeword.

The masteries are the core of this RW. So I would like to see that here.

@Milox-21110

the mastery skills are the main component of that runeword though. point is to make it easier for the devs to implement that change. for some reason i got the feeling the devs wont balance the mercs a second time (though the only one really in need is the a3 merc)

Agree!

@Technomancer-1795

Another thought was that, in addition to the -20% blocking, maybe this could become an armor RW instead, that way Act 1 Mercs could also gain Mastery?

Minus Blocking doesn´t matter as said already. I would not make it an armor RW. There a good alternatives for that slot already. But the problem is the shield with spirit only beeing able with + strength on gear… But valid thought!

@CharlesJT-1538

Lightning mastery as o-skill and self-wield conviction aura could add power creep for the javazon, which is a bad thing.

Jep, convition should not be able on a 1H slot option in any case imho. And it would not help the merc more the player…

@Technomancer-1795

Otherwise, it seems like you might want to re-visit the 3 RW approach and customize the LM shield to have extra disadvantages.

For the Lightning A3 Mercs though, they do have Static, which is already pretty good in it’s own way and is one of the few current use-cases for A3 Mercs anyways.

I see where youre going. But would keep it symetric since it doesn´t matter to much. Cold/Fire would be better than now even if lightning my benifit a bit more. The do not cast static often enough to make a difference.

@CharlesJT-1538

Would it be too powerful if it was 4os, then add Mal rune for MDR and add -req to help with STR?

Would keep it 3 OS. Makes it easier to obtain a suitable eth base (at at starting point for the given lvl). The MDR doesn´t make to much of a difference (usefull yes, but standalone only a bit).

@CharlesJT-1538

Piety

Shield
Vex Ohm Lo
Required Level: 59
Level 9-12 Prayer Aura When Equipped
+200% Enhanced Defense
+1-3 To Fire Mastery
+1-3 To Cold Mastery
+1-3 To Lightning Mastery
+35-45% Faster Cast Rate
+5 To Max Fire Resist (Vex)
+5 to Max Cold Resist (Ohm)
+5 to Max Lightning Resist (Lo)
-50 to Mana

I really like this one, as I think it´s perfect for the job! Personally would go -100 mana as penalty, but due to the high cost, thats just a minor detail.

@Leslaw-1328

it would not work. the bonus to skills apply to merc only when the said merc has such a skill ( at least currenlty) hence no bonus from natural resistance, iron skin or sword mastery to the bash merc is given, I know this mechanic should be changed, and there is a better way of giving a3 merc an elemental mastery skill, simply put devs should reenable masteries to roll on Ormus Robes in addition to a3 merc having the masteries natively ( as current mechanics prevents merc from obtaining a bonus from skill they don’t have. certain items are an exclusion to the class equivalency rule (as a3 merc is still not sorceress equivalent which is weird to me) however ormus robes do benefit a3 merc if he has a given skill in his portfoilo.

What would need to be done, to make that happen? I would not change Ormus tbh. In Charles Season 6 - Calling to Improve Itemization thread we proposed, that ormus could roll 1-2 OS. So that would benefit A3 mercs as well already and if you havent one, a viper is an easy and very solid options (I found an eth viper perfectly fine here). Adding the 3 masteries would icrease the number of possible rolls. So makes it even harder to find you desiered piece.

So masteries needs to be added to the mercs portfolio. OK, so that is something Charles might mention in the OP. But still I think we should stick to this approach. The alternative would be to add +3 to the three main spells or adding -5 enemy res to each elemental. But that would not make that much of a difference. And not sure if that would be a problem for vengeance pallys or so?