The Enchantress Merc Build
By Stephenp1983
Version 1
Copyright Information:
This guide was credit by Stephenp1983, and can not be copied or
distrusted in any way. I only give permission for it to be shown on
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this site's users and visitors. Use of this guide in any way that I
have not stated above is prohibited and is a violation of copyright. So
basically do not copy my work without my permission, it's against the
law.
Contents:
I. Intro
II. Skill Placement
III. Stat Point Placement
IV. Item Information
V. Inventory Setup
VI. Mercanary Gear (This is the one of the most important parts of the build)
VII. Things to know about Enchant (Take from my previous guide)
VIII. Strategy
IX. Damage and Skill Listings with screenshots
X. Conclusions and Suggestions
I. Intro
Let me start of by saying this is a smaller and more definitive version of my original enchant guide that you can find on Gamefaqs. My previous guide gave information and setup several of the main enchant builds, but this guide will focus on the Enchantress Merc Build which is my favorite. Let's be honest a regular melee sorc is fun, but it sucks most of the time with limited AR to hit things. This variation of an enchantress can solo any part of hell, does not have to worry about attack rating, or immunes, and I'm sure could do decently in PVP. (Never really tried PVP). This build focuses on the use of a merc to do ALL the killing. I know that may seem dumb, or boring, but trust me this is a really fun build. Bear with me through the guide and try this build out, I promise you'll have fun with it. Enough of my babbling on to the guide.
II. Skill Placement
The Skill placement for this build follows the dual dream skill placement. Here are what skills you need to max, and the order in which to max them. No variation on what to max order is optional.
WARMTH - Max
Max this or put a few points into it early on. This is going to help your mana regenerate at a insanely fast speed and is one of the only TRUE synergy to enchant.
ENCHANT - Max
This is the main skill of the build so of course you're going to max it. Put points into it next, but put points into fire mastery before you fully max it.
FIRE MASTERY - Max
A passive synergy to enchant, meaning it adds to enchants damage, but isn't a true synergy. Again max this skill, and it really does matter what order you max the first three and main skills anyway.
LIGHTNING MASTERY - Max
After the first three main skills are maxed you start and finishing putting points into this skill. This will help your dual dream damage, and besides theres nothing else worth putting points into for this build.
THUNDERSTORM - Whats left after everything is maxed
This is a nice skill to have and does a good deal of damage with your lightning mastery maxed. You don't have to use this but I find it useful. You won't be able to max this
FROZEN ARMOR - 1 point into the armor of your choice.
This really does help out believe it or not. There have been times when I have teled into a group of monster or have been hit and this froze the monster and slowed them down enough for me to retreat.
Thats it for skill, once you are done just keep pumping points into T-storm, which you won't be able to max.
III. Stat Placement
Really simple here. Your not going for max block or any crap like that, you simple need enough for your gear and the rest into life so go as follows:
STR: Enough for gear (You will have to place a few points into here, because you'll be using a spirt monarch with 156 str req.
DEX: None, max block is retarded for this build and you shouldn't have to put any for your items as your anni etc will cover that.
VITALITY: Almost everything once you get enough str placed for your gear.
Energy: Like every other build except a ES sorc NONE, with the massive warmth you have there will be no need for it.
IV. Item Information
In this section I'm going to lay out what gear to use for yourself. Later on I will tell you what gear to use for your merc, which is very important. The gear I list here is pretty much mandatory, but you can differ a little bit. The setup I use allows me to have the highest possible enchant which is 55 after bo and before a skill shrine. I will list the gear I use, and what I have on switch. With this setup, there will be no gear swapping at all, which to me is a pain in the ass. The multiple gear setups is one of the reasons why a regular melee enchantress was so boring for me.
First we'll start of with your enchant prebuff gear ( I say prebuff but you'll always use it.)
Helm - Magical 2 os three to fire skill circlet, with a nice mod. Either FCR, or something useful. I had enough fcr from other gear so I use one with 30frw speed.
Armor - Enchant ormus with perfect stats and faceted. No room for argument here.
Weapon 1 - Depends on what you can get. I use a 6 to enchant rare or magic orb, but if you can't get that use a 6 to enchant leaf or eschutas. The leaf is very cheap I got one for 3 soj when sojs were worth 1/2 a hr. Eschutas if you want to use a shield
Shield - If your using a 1 handed rare orb like I am, you should be use a Spirt. The higher the fcr the better because you should be able to reach 110 fcr with it.
Rings - Soj are the best choice, but you could use BK as well.
Amulet - I use a 3 to fire skills with 10 fcr on it allow me to hit 110 bp. These are pretty rare with the fcr on them, so you can use a plain one or one with str. If you want, you can use a rare duped ammy for str and resist, but you will loose a skill.
Belt - Arachnid mesh no explanation needed
Gloves - Magefist for the FCR and the plus 1 to fire skills
Boots - Rare duped ones for the str and high resist boost. I Use rune slippers I believe, but any will do.
Second setup - The only thing your going to have to switch out is your helm and its really optional you'll still be able to kill fine with the 3 fire skills one. I'm only going to list the gear that changes.
Helm - Dream tiara or whatever you think looks nice
Shield - Again a Dream, I use a large shield because it has low str req and it looks nice. No need for a monarch.
Weapon - Your cta in a low str weapon. I prefer crystal sword cause of the look. You will not swap this out in your inventory and you could even make a quick hit with it if you wanted.
V. Inventory Setup
Your inventory should be pretty simple and really depends on how much you want to spend.
9 fire gcs, with life if you can afford them
1 anni and 1 torch with best stats possible
Now what to fill the rest of your slots up with? This leaves around 10 or so single inventory slots open. What I used were plain or bad modded 5 all resist charms to help boost up my resist. You could use 5 resist 5 fhr charms to hit the bp, but I don't think its necessary or worth it. The 5 resist charms really help out alot, but its up to you on what to use.
VI. Mercanary Gear and Strategy
Ok this is the main part of the build believe it or not so what I list here needs to be followed closely.
First you will want to get an act 1 merc for this build to work. "Act 1 merc you say, they suck I'm going to use a act 2 merc with infinity." Well if you do then this build won't work and you will end up being a melee sorc, which this is not. This is really the only build I can think of where an act 1 merc is useful, but believe me they are.
I raise my act 1 merc from lvl 11 to 90, but you don't have to if you don't want, it did make her stronger but not by a lot.
Be sure to get one with cold arrow and not fire arrow, because it really helps out by freezing and slowing enemies.
Now merc gear
Helm - 120/45 helm with life if you want, I had a 63 lifer one laying around so I put it on her.
Armor - 160/60 - Mine is a sup archon with no other mods, if you want get a lifer but not necessary
Weapon - 08 windforce no question about it.
Why 08 wf and not Faith - You will hit the merc bp (can't remember which one, but the highest really possible) with the 08 windforce, or regular windforce. You will not need the fanta aura to add to your sorc’s damage because your not going to be hitting stuff. An 08 windforce does more physical damage for your merc so it is the right choice. Also you won’t be using a fort, because you wouldn’t hit the merci as bp without a 16060 armor.
VII. Things to know about Enchant (Take from my previous guide)
This is really just to let you know some interesting things about enchant, I think its one of the most informative parts of my other guide so I'm going to add it in here.
Things you should know:
I've included this section because honestly there are certain things
about enchant that aren't obvious and you really should know them to
full understand how enchant works. Nothing really complicated but good
stuff to know
1. One confusing thing about enchant is that in the skill description
it says that ranged attack or bows that are enchanted only do 1/3 the
damaged of a regular sword melee weapon. Well this is false. A ranged
bow enchanted will do the same damage as a Zeal paladin enchanted.
2. This next piece of information is one of the most important and
unknown things about enchant. Basically when an enchantress enchants
herself and is using a melee weapon such as a sword or an axe, then her
fire mastery is actually multiplied in twice instead of once. So to
understand this, when an enchantress enchants herself the fire mastery
is calculated at that time. It's again used after her enchant
passively, so actually two times. The damage show on the character
screen is the actual damage she does. All of this damage can be
calculated by the following formula.
Enchant base damage * Warmth synergy * Fire mastery at time of enchant
* Fire mastery at time of striking or after enchant.
3. This next part goes along with what was stated above. The double
fire mastery only works with melee weapons not ranged one such as bows.
This is confusing because on the character screen it shows the damage
as if it was multiplied by fire mastery twice but it's not. So to put
it simply the damage you see after enchant on the character screen when
using a bow is wrong. To find the correct damage use the following
formula.
Enchant base damage * Warmth synergy * Fire mastery at time of enchant
4. Fire mastery affects the damage on charms. For example a small charm
with 1-3 fire damage is multiplied by the percent of fire mastery and
then incorporated into the damage done. So this actually makes fire
small charms useful, or at least the ones with higher damage.
5. Enchant is carried by explosive arrows and bolts, when fired by the
enchantress or another character. This is not true when a mercenary
fires an explosive arrow or bolt. This is useful because of bows that
have an explosive arrow skill added on to them. Note that an explosion
from an explosive arrow always hits, and if the arrow is physical and
not magical it hits as well. So basically you're hitting your target
twice, cool huh?
6. Although the character screen does not display the enchant damage
for an assassins kick, enchant does work with them. If you don't
believe me test it out yourself with a level 1 or so character and
you'll see.
7. One thing you should note about enchanting your party members. That
is only one of you has to be outside the town so either the players
have to be outside and the sorc can enchant, or the sorc can go outside
and enchant the party... (Helpful if you are playing in hardcore.)
Well that's basically it for information you should know. I think this
section will be very helpful to people new to the enchantress, and even
people that have made them before. A lot of this stuff I didn't know
myself at first but learned from reading other enchantress guides.
VIII. Strategy
The merc is the basis of this whole character build. Without it your sorc would be a melee sorc, which is not what this build is about. So whats the basic strategy of this build? It's simple all you have to do is tele around avoiding enemies. That's right just teleport around them in circles and your merc will destroy them. My Merc at lvl 90 did right under 10k damage, which was about 3-4 k physical and right over 6 k fire. Most monsters she can kill in one to 3 hits. Fire immunes take longer so just keep teleporting around. Add the damage in for the holyshock auras you have from your dreams and you have three elements creating damage at once. If you find a unique monster that is immune to say fire and physical you may want to run up to it and hit them with your cta. This will do alot of light damage and make killing them easier. You can take a few hits, but don’t make it a practice of doing this. Only do so when necessary.
PVP Strategy -
Honestly I've never seriously dueled with this character, but I suppose it might be decent. It's bad mannered to use a merc so don't plan on any serious duels. Experiment around and let me know what you find.
IX. Damage and Skill Listings
At Level 90 with gear
Strength 156
Dex 62
Vitality 426
Energy 68
Life after bo 2408
Life before bo 1376
Resist in hell
Fire 75
Cold 75
Light 75
Poison 34
Damage with level 55 enchant
24k-70k dual dream damage (maxes at 77k with level 57 enchant from skill shrine)
28k-33k pure enchant damage
1167-1674 t-storm damage
Merc with lvl 55 and 57 enchant
Lvl 55 - 5910-9931
Lvl 57 – 6337-10408
Merc stats
All resist 49 in hell
2729 life after bo
1654 life before bo
Screenshots of stats and gear:
X. Conclusions and Suggestions
I have to say that this is the most fun build I’ve created, and its actually very good. It is very easy to make and to use, and can easily solo most of hell with patience. If you have any questions or can think of any suggestions for this guide please feel free to contact me.
Hope you enjoy the guide.