hi. just wondering how to max sustain of my merc from nm a2 during travi runs.
most runs everything is ok, but when enemy spawns with conviction aura he mostly die in 2 seconds and hydras do a lot of damage to him

gear he has:
eth reaper toll amned
gulliames face raled
eth forty 30res

should i change something for more sustain? socket with mals to magic dmg reduce? or maybe ias jools for better ias bp and leech??

i care much about 33% to cast decrepify on reaper so weapon needs to stay the same

or maybe i should switch merc to a5 barbarian? does he have more sustain? i remember ther is a runeword with xx% to decrepify too in swords so should be fine

looking for some advices from you guys, cheers

If treachery causes the merc to hit the next ias bp, it's worth using.

The main thing that keeps your merc alive is your barb. Start leaping.

is bp from ias more important than 300ed/30@/130life from forty? does not sound like it... im not leaping, i use warcry

If you can't warcry the entire council at the same time, there's no reason to be using it over leap. Your merc survives trav by not being attacked by anything except the hydras.

Your merc only life leeches when he attacks. Yes, he deals less damage but attacking more often = more decrepifies, more life leech, more crushing blow

ok will try then, thanks

Do NOT use Leap! It pushes them away, and makes it awkward to control the situation. The knockback motion lasts very short too, so if you stop for about 1 second, many of them will cast Hydra at the same time.

It sounds a little weird that he dies so fast like you mention. I'm running a goldfind barb in NM council exclusively now, must have done about 100 runs, he doesn't die often at all. Not encountering many conviction auras.

- Shop a Life Tap wand. Run towards the stairs, but don't go down right away. Wait 2-4 seconds until the council members are flocking around you and your merc (which usually is lagging behind at this point, and is out of harm's way anyway). THEN go down and up the stairs, to reposition your merc.

Now he lands right on top of a pack of usually 5-6 council members. The first thin you do is cast War Cry! Level it up to 10-15. This will stun them for a very long time, and stop them from casting Hydra's! Stand fairly close to them, but not so close that Geleb's Fire explosion will hurt you. It can do some damage even in NM. Then you swap weapons and cast Life Tap on them. Your merc will lick so much life out of them, he will stay alive.

Life tap wand and War Cry is the key to controlling the council members! You keep Life Tap as the chosen skill on switch, so you just have to press W, right click, then W again. It's a very quick and easy process.

War Cry will not affect the super uniques, at least not all of the time .. some of the time it will. Idk what's up with that. But even shutting down the normal members with such ease is a great relief to your merc and yourself.

My merc uses: Undead crown, Wealth runeword and Obedience (i know Obedience is not optimal).

This post was edited by Taurean on Jun 23 2018 05:13pm

just stop

you can permanently stun council with leap with shortest leaps constantly

best strat is to run to the staircase that leads to durance, go in it and go back out so merc is with you. then leap constantly.. much slower unless they are near the wall already to get pinned down. if you insist on warcry then war cry them once or whatever then leap until the stun wears off

The knockback doesn't move them if they're against the wall.
It's just a shame that travincal has no buildings with walls to push them against, so you're right. They just fly away into open space forever like a space walk gone horribly wrong

When your own strategy involves the phrase "It doesn't work against the council, I don't know why" you probably don't have room to criticize anyone else's.

Taking out Eth Reaper's Toll is step 1. Add in Ethereal Breath of the Dying in a Great Poleaxe (high ias) or Warpike base. Decrepify isn't needed as much as the 12-15 ll. Combined with the high ias and massive ed, this weapon usually is enough to clear out Trav with your mercenary solo.

If you are really concerned about decrepify, throw in an ebug delirium on your merc helm. That will cast % to decrepify amongst other high level crowd control curses upon being hit. It'll even give your merc a bit more gold find from the Lem.

Reaper's toll already has enough life leech
Delirium doesn't cast decrepify

Botd is better, its true, but that isn't the reason he isn't clearing it efficiently. He just needs to leap.