Lvl 76 sorc trying to take on duriel in hell solo with just my merc and he gets 2 shotted and then I flee in fear lol what type of gear should my merc have being in act 2… I’d love to make a fortitude for him but I need a Lo and I don’t think that can drop for me yet.
Merc usually get dead regardless.
Just run around and drop meteor or Blizzard on him.
Insight is a nice weapon to have on your Merc though.
You need very high damage and very high resistance and a decent amount of life leech for a merc to survive in hell.
That said act bosses tend to destroy mercs regardless of their gear because they do increased damage to minions.
You can bug your merc by going to act 1 inner cloister waypoint, go down the stairs and come back up, go back towards the waypoint and close the door while merc is still inside, then go as far away from merc as possible. This will force merc to teleport to you, and by doing that bug him out. Monsters will no longer deliberately target a bugged merc for attacks but the merc will still try to attack monsters. Aoes can still kill the merc though so this is not particularly useful against later bosses.
Yes mercs usually arent great against act bosses, but duriel is kind of the exception.
A good merc setup that would surely tank him would be:
-Merc with defence aura.
-Stone runeword in an ethereal elite armor f0r 2500-3000 armor.
-Tal rashas mask for life leach
-Elite (ethereal) pike to do enough damage to make leech worth while. (insight runeword to also help you)
And use shift to feed potions to your merc. Dont be afraid to feed it full rejuvs when needed. The mercs life = your life in a situation like this.
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While most of that post is technically correct (why though? Why go to such length to be able to tank duriel, a boss no one really farms?) I would like to point out that an ethereal pike is impossible to make insight on.
Edit: and for the record, Duress would be a much better use of that um rune for a merc armor than stone would be.
Just because I am bored, I will compare them 
Stone: shael-um-pul-lum
Duress: shael-um-thul
Stone is considerably more expensive in rune cost.
Stone:
+60% Faster Hit Recovery (nice to have, doesn’t help merc that much though imo. Duress is only a little bit lower in that regard so doesn’t matter)
+250-290% Enhanced Defense (varies) (this seems to be why you recommended it, it is probably the best thing about stone)
+300 Defense Vs. Missile (another nice to have but Duriel doesn’t use missiles so pointless in that specific instance, and imo not that great in general)
+16 To Strength (its ok I guess, not really needed unless merc is having a hard time holding a weapon you wanted him to use, it doesnt add much damage)
+16 To Vitality (solid mod)
+10 To Energy (useless for a merc)
All Resistances +15 (good mod)
Level 16 Molten Boulder (80 Charges) (useless for a merc, and not great for player armor)
Level 16 Clay Golem (16 Charges) (useless for a merc, not the worst thing ever for player but not useless for that)
Then Duress:
+40% Faster Hit Recovery (same as stone, just a bit lower)
+10-20% Enhanced Damage (varies) (not a significant bonus because of the way ED works on armor, but it’s a bigger damage increase than 16 strength would be
Adds 37-133 Cold Damage - 2 Second Duration (very good bonus, a good chunk of cold damage is always nice to have for minions)
15% Chance of Crushing Blow (amazing mod, one of the best things a melee can possibly have against bosses because it does a % of the bosses hp. This can add thousands of damage by itself)
33% Chance of Open Wounds (very nice to have, but less useful against bosses. Causes a huge bleed and prevents monsters from healing, which unlike Prevent Monster Heal mod can be use by mercs)
+150-200% Enhanced Defense (varies) (almost as good as Stone)
20% Slower Stamina Drain (useless for a merc, ok for player)
Cold Resist +45% (against duriel specifically this is amazing, in general it is also extremely good.)
Lightning Resist +15% (the rest of the resists are the same amount as stone would give)
Fire Resist +15%
Poison Resist +15%
So basically, stone has half its mods useless for a merc and not great for a player while costing more to make. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
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Its not just to tank duriel of course. Its to tank anything.
Why cant you make insight in an eth weapon ? I could link any of the bazilion pics google finds, but they are all rm sites so lets not do that.
Max defecence. I dont really care about the rest. I kill mobs. Merc just needs to tank and survive. A little CB and OW against 100% extra defence. I take the defence.
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Drink thaw for frost resistance?
Eh, agree to disagree then. I think the defense on duress is more than good enough.
You said specifically pike, which is a spear class. Insight only works on polearms. You can do runewords in eth items.
The most viable thing should be using several fast run walk and try some fireball-like skills, keeping running around him. You could try some full rejuv on merc with high leech, damage reduction and cold resist also.
But other than that I wouldn’t bet neither on tp or slower skills. You need fast cast and keep running around him keeping distance shoot 1-3 fireballs then, run away and repeat the cycle. That you could easily beat him, but would take some time.
any spell with small animation time
This is all you can do, some has already been said but i’ll repeat.
-If its not the case you’d can change your merc for a defensive act2 merc from normal or hell difficulty (the one with aura that up the defence).
-Im not completely sure but i think duriel damage is mostly physical and maybe some cold, change his stuff to have the highest defense possible and only look towards cold resist in a second time.
-You can prebuff yourself and your merc with the thawing potion, it make you unfreezable and ads 50% cold resist, each one last 30 seconds and u can take multiple ones at one time
the buff time adding, 4 is 2min buff for example.
-Fight should be teleport on boss, static field him, then be ready to drink hp pots and full rejuvs or same to your merc with shift+right clic on belt, depending on who takes damage.
Doing this you and your merc can probably get him down wearing only white items (high def for him tho), good luck and have fun.
For pure defensiveness on your merc you might as well do treachery which is slightly less than Stone. The fade will protect your merc far better than the high Def on Stone. Personally I’d rather do Treachery till fade triggers then move to duress for the CB.
As a sorc you should be tellying around constantly which will keep your merc alive and not getting hit. The only time you should be expecting him to tank is when you move in to Static Duriel. After that, telly, cast your damage spell and telly again. If you have insight on your merc this will keep him alive so you keep your mana pool full.
If you’re a sorc, practice swapping really fast with your hotkeys to teleport and your damage spell. Attack then teleport away when he gets close.
Feel like Obidience would smack him around.
Crushing Blow
370 ED
Casts Enchant
Lowers Fire Res
King of underrated Runewords
HelKoThulEthFal
If your Sorc can get two shotted any where in Hell level, then it’s not built right. so by the time you put on a shakos, maras, HOA, a pair of Silk Weaves and Dungo belt, a couple of SOJ’s and perhaps an enigma or upped Viper Mage, you won’t get killed any where in Non-Ladder On-line D2r.
On drugs? You are necroing on top of suggesting that a noob just get all that gear? Exactly how are they supposed to get shako and enigma? Clearly OP is a solo player so yes from that standpoint having SSF gear as a noob and getting 2 shotted by duriel is totally normal… otherwise do you think us ladder players farm shako and enigma before we beat hell baal? Smh…
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You can get two shot with a sorc with even the best of gear + bo up. Aura stacked + curse + other stuff. Moon lords, archers dolls etc can mess you up pretty good. Ofc you shouldn’t tele blindly into that but happends quite often on console where you can’t control teleport as much as on computer.
As guitars said, you are telling someone who is progressing act 2 hell to “just” farm the hell out of ancient tunnels/pits to progress the game as if that were the only option he had left.
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Not only did you necro a 2 year old thread but:
OP said his merc was getting 2 shotted, not his sorc, and all your suggestions are for improving the sorc.
Also, if OP is in Act 2 trying to beat Duriel, no way he’s got any of that gear to throw on.
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