When casually doing Hell quests (p1@Bnet) with my Blizzard sorc (lvl 80) I have met Stormtree pack at the lower kurast entrance and have my a2 merc stunlocked and dead in seconds. That was funny.

I have read some guides and equipped merc with good eth-bug CoH, shaeld eth vamp gaze, while keeping his eth ca infinity. Raised CTA's BC/BO to lvl 20. Merc stayed alive a bit longer but without sorc help still was dead pretty fast.

I have read some more guides, leveled up to 88, and switched his gear to CoA(Shael+Cham) and 3s eth Tomb Reaver socketed w/ 2x IAS/ED and Ber (to reach 42fhr bp and 90ias jab bp). That gave him 50% survivability. That is out of 2 tries, he kills the pack himself once and dies on the second try.

Then I have tried the same merc with my pally, playing with auras - holy freeze, might, defiance, fanat, conc. At best the merc dies one of 3 tries (with either lvl 20 fanat or lvl 40 conc - does not matter). Merc's own aura does not matter much, but defiance seems to be a bit better than others.

I wonder if it ever possible to find such a merc gear for A2 merc to improve his chances against Stormtree and his friends?

Eth Fortitude and Ral'd Andy should mostly do the trick.

Hi,
Treachery, guillaume's face and reaper's troll , holy freeze aura.
If they don't attack, your merc won't be stun'lock

This post was edited by Behemot on Feb 17 2022 02:15pm

Thx, Holy Freeze merc with eth-bug Fortitude (4k def), Shael'd eth Andy and same 3s eth Tomb Reaver socketed w/ 2x IAS/ED and Ber gave 90% success rate. Of ten tries only one death from fana-enchanted pack.

This post was edited by lizhnik on Feb 17 2022 04:06pm

They are cold immune, so HF does not affect them much. Will try Treachery, guillaume's face and reaper's troll tomorrow.

Reaper's and Holy Freeze is the best option.


The slow from Holy Freeze is effected by chill effectiveness, not cold resistance/immunity.

Decrepify pretty much turns any unit in this game into a joke, including the Uber bosses. Combine that with some extra slow and it's game over.

This post was edited by piatek on Feb 18 2022 12:32am