Practically everything you find is worthless now. Only items with really good rolls are worth anything.

Unfortunately, there's not much point in playing the game. You have to trade items just.

Thank you so much! I'm going to go with the equipment you mentioned (Pride Duress Enigma CTA Mesh BK Mara etc...) but is the mercenary quite resilient with this equipment?

Regarding the build, I'm thinking of going with the Echo Strike Warlock, which looks pretty fun to play. Otherwise, I'd consider an Electric Sorceress, but it seems the gear is much more expensive. As a backup, I'd make a Hammer Paladin by modifying some of the Warlock's gear. How effective is the Cure runeword with its Prayer aura on the mercenary? Is it really that powerful? Thanks again for your advice, it's so kind of you!

merc will live fine - but is just an aura bot for you with might, pride, cure, etc
EchoLock should have a bound demon which will be, no exaggeration, almost entirely unkillable in pvm


cure alone is good for cleansing yourself
prayer/cure/insight gives healing to all 3 auras, enough that most builds dont need to potion with it

Okay, I understand that healing the mercenary involves auras, but without life steal, he still survives?
Also, what's a good base for pride?

Cure/Prayer/Insight combo will keep him alive for the most part. He'll heal up between encounters pretty quickly.

Personally i prefer Might aura with a life leach helm, such as Tals, on my merc.

With Amp Damage from a cursed demon, he still deals enough damage to stay alive quite well, besides against t5Heralds which you can't really stop them from killing your merc if they target him lol. Your Bind Demon is the only thing that can really face tank a powerful Herald.

Good Pride base is just any Elite Eth Polearm. Pride doesn't have ED on the runeword, so you'll want whatever can give you the most damage. Eth CV is good for it and is the cheapest of the elite bases.

Between Might, Concentration, Amp Damage from Cursed, his damage will still be good enough to keep him alive in normal play with some life leach. Can go for Fanaticism Aura + Cursed on your demon to do even more damage. But any of the Holy auras will work great as well, since it'll spread Amp from the Cursed constantly.

Coh eschuta jmod