hi,
i made a 3s eth bug shield (no pala), wondering if anyone is still using a2 mercs?

or is there any other use for such a shield?

thx

Act 2 mercenaries are only able to equip spears or polearms. The only mercenaries able to use a shield are Act 3 mercenaries. Preferably you will want low requirement items on it, since it is a mage-class mercenary. The 3 socket shield would be best for making the Sanctuary runeword which is an alternative choice for the Act 3 mercenary.

holy sh** i made a typo^^ act3 ofc... and t4i

yes i was thinking about sanctuary, but not sure if it is worth building it (ko ko mal) in to that shieldl atm (scl).

wondering if this is just a fun build for nl or really useful for anyone. just tried that merc out with spirit sword and rhyme, sucks

@low req: at lvl ~80, my a3 merc meets the requirements for this shield, so np with that i guess...

If you look here there are plenty of character builds that call for a good act 3 mercenary set up. Sanctuary would be a decent choice, so it would be useful for someone looking for a decent budget Act 3 mercenary set-up.

thx again i know that guide.. even linked it on my profile... but there's only one build using sancutary (but storm pref), the other two builds are using rbf'ed items.
I'm not sure if its worth building lawbringer and sanctuary for this setup, mal is not cheap atm, and lem ko still cost some fg, too..

If you are playing on a budget, Moser's blessed circle with 2 perfect diamonds would be a good placement for that instead of sanctuary runeword for shield or even ancient's pledge runeword.
As for the weapon, the only reason you would want it is for the knockback from sanctuary aura.
If you do not use that, then + skills and cast rate is next on the list.
If you still do not get that, then it wouldn't matter what you give him as a weapon.

As for armor, a random Skin of the Vipermagi can work or if you want to go cheaper, smoke or stealth runewords can work.
The helmet is the same. Either get faster cast rate or damage reduce / resists. All other stats do not matter.

This post was edited by Djsem on May 19 2013 09:19am

i used an a3 merc for a while, cold to be exact. did really well with chaos.

Act 3 merc used to show some interest in chaos sanctuary. Now that Iron Maiden is gone, he has become pointless in my opinion.
For example an act5 merc with lawbringer is much more useful (providing decrepify on top of sanctuary).



Charsi food to be honest... Unless you can fool someone and make some fg from it ?

i've now checked that build build with lawbringer and sanctuary shield, i can imagine it used to be nice when IM still was a threat...
I also changed it to a spirit sword.. but in any combination he doesnt deal any noticeable dmg (compared to a2 might merc with rnd insight). as armor and helm i used the same on both (low budget, stealth+lore).

My point is not to use expensive equip, just looking for an alternative to START (mf) with, because i found it a bit boring to always hire the a2 guys... I think with expensive equip (e.g. a ton of rbf's, like in the linked guide) you can make any merc do his work properly, but thats not what i am looking for. I started to think about a3 merc for increased mf, but with ali + rhyme my one has a hard time staying alive, not even to think of killing anything^^

Barb merc with decr+sanc sounds interesting (maybe with some ik part?), ill try that out asap.

btw i dont care what the shield is worth, nn to make fg from it.

This post was edited by MrDuel on May 21 2013 07:00am