Level 88, will run some baals to get to 90. Got my Needle Amn'ed for the leech. Also my barb seems to get hurt more than I thought he would with 2 dwarfs - I think its mostly from light enchanted hits (light res is 65, might get another sc to max it). Also, conviction aura is just an auto relog for me. Merc dies instantly.

Also have an infinity on my trapsins merc - is that better than needle?

This post was edited by PappousElf on Dec 15 2021 01:47am

PC

I leave the game with my Ali slot up and it works.
Gavel is in alternate slot and amp is keybound.
When I leave with the Gavel slot up i ose the binding.

It still happens on occasions where i unequip Gavel for Edge and put it on again before I leave the game. Also losing the Amp keybind then.


Conviction can be tough.
I usually draw the mobs outside a bit and engage just a few at a time.
If it's tough, I jump.
Merc still dies sometimes.
Sometimes I revive, sometimes I don't.

Maybe it'd be worth it to try Duriel's Shell at this point for the resists, if the Merc is struggling that much. Or an Eth Black Hades with 3x Um Runes for maximum resists.

Definitely fix the resist issue on your own Barb; and yeah, since a recent patch I feel like Council just deals more damage in general, and I find myself dipping low in HP where I otherwise never did before.
Don't know what they changed.

Technically, Infinity Eth weapon SHOULDN'T be better, but if you're having trouble killing things quickly the hit rate on it might be way better for you.
It's a fine weapon, since it completely removes the need for Demon Limb and/or the occasional Battle Cry.

This post was edited by Exokek on Dec 15 2021 05:02am

Hi, first of all, great guide man, thanks a lot!
Been building towards your build.
Haven’t read through all the replies, but would like to know what best budget start Merc setup would be for me. Items I have gathered for the build (but not been able to try out yet, because still leveling as frenzy barb now, lvl 86):
- eth treachery AP
- eth Andy’s (15 ias) and non eth (ral), can change sockets of course.
- eth ariocs (Amn) +4 skills and 226ed
- eth obedience (I know, cold dmg)
I’m planning to use gavel and maybe Demonlimb.

What setup would u use? I thought about trying Andy’s, treachery and ariocs (95 ias for 90 breakpoint sounds fun but maybe overkill?) or obedience instead of ariocs

But I doubt survivability is enough on low resis (treachery fade might not proc fast enough) en low magic dmg reduce for hydras. I could swap treachery for a fortitude which I must buy first. But lose out on ias breakpoints. Is arioc (amn) /Andy (ral or ias) /forti a good setup? Without using sockets for ias will get me only to 50 ias, below 55 breakpoint. Or maybe using an eth gladiators bane with um (like 100fg) instead of forti (like 600+fg?) won’t matter to much overall?

What would u advice? Thanks in advance!

This post was edited by victim87 on Dec 15 2021 09:01am

Do NOT use Treachery here.
For god's sake please don't.
You don't lose out on anything by not using it; the IAS breakpoint it hits for you are nothing compared to the DPS/survivability you gain from almost any other armor.
You're better off using a cheap Duriel's Shell over Treachery.

The only breakpoint you want on Arioc's is 75, for Jab. There is no autoattack breakpoint that ever matters on an A2 Merc. EVER.

If you were doing other content and could pre-proc Fade, sure. But at Trav, you're asking for your Merc to get 1-tapped before Fade ever happens.

I would use:

Eth Andy's (Ral)
Eth Arioc's (Amn)

Get another armor. Anything but Treachery for Trav, please.

Eth Duriel's Shell (Um Rune)
Eth Glad's Bane (Um Rune)
Smoke (Runeword)
Fortitude (Runeword), if you can afford it.
Chains of Honor (Runeword)

You should use Gavel, but Demon Limb will be more useful when you're lower level/undergeared, or don't have a great weapon. I still use it for instance on my Hone Sundan hipster trash setup.

This post was edited by Exokek on Dec 15 2021 09:07am

Thanks man! That was exactly the answer I was hoping for 😄.
I guess i overestimate the ias breakpoints. My sorc merc uses eth obedience/eth andy with ias jewel/Eth treachery AP and is a (budget) beast with 75 breakpoint. But I understand travi runs are different.

You mention getting tob75 breakpoint. With Andy (ral)/forti/arioc (Amn) I will get to 50. Is that good enough? I guess in the future I could use 15 ias jewels with resis/dmg in arioc and Andy’s?

Will use a duriel or gladiators until I get a forti.

Keep up the good work. Loved the article and video!

This post was edited by victim87 on Dec 15 2021 09:14am

Thanks for the answer. So after doing some runs today I figured out that most of the problems I had were due to poor positioning by me which was followed by poor battle cry stuns. With the setup I have and now figuring out how to play closer to optimal merc rarely if ever dies.
Also, figuring out the range on amp damage is crucial. My run time is still not the fastest but it's not that bad. Timed myself twice , 25 minutes for 5 mill. That's with a shitty pc with bad load times and really suboptimal running (forgetting to repair Gavel, not putting Demon limb back to inventory etc).

What's a good time without GG gear for 10 mil? I'm having fun figuring this out and trying to be as optimal as possible!

Yep!
Basically comes down to being a lot more "aware". This entire build is predicated on the idea that you're paying attention to where you & your Merc are, and what the Auras are, etc.
I'm glad you found better success after more time with the build.

The "time to 10 mil" varies now based on the in-game timer, but with GG gear you're looking at 20-22 minutes with a 60s timer. That assumes you just pick up & stash without IDing on the spot, mostly.
Without GG gear you should be able to get that done in 30 minutes if the timer is 60s? That's 90s per run, including repairs/stashing, etc.

If the timer is 90s, everyone ends up very, very sad, but you can run more Goldfind on the Merc then, with a slower kill speed.

Loading times are a pain in the ass for some people; what I've found is that uncapping my FPS helped with loading, lowering settings as well, and you can "pre-walk" during Loading. Your character for instance upon a fresh game can walk towards the waypoint, and you can normally walk a bit in Travincal while you're loading there, etc. I sometimes even Teleport not even seeing the screen, and I'll be halfway to Trav already

another thing i havent been doing is tping back to base and going to act4, since 2 extra loading screens I thought was not worth it due to load times. BUT I hadn't taken the long walk to hralti into account. This should shave off some time.

Since you're really active I want to ask this too. I'm used to switching to my lvl95 trapsin for my gambles since I'm not 100% sure about the levels required for circlet-coronet buying etc. I'm also not sure if buying Coronets is worth it. Its 122k vs 88k with 15% gheeds and Edge , coupled with a lot of 35K resells I feel like buying just circlets gives me something like 1.5x the quantity.
However, I rolled a blue 2os 30frw circlet yesterday and was so sad that if it was a 3os tiara which come from coronet I woudlve been rich . So would you care to explain some of this for me - or guide me to a useful link? Is the sheer quantity of straight circlets but going for just 2/20/@res instead of also 3os tiaras worth it in your opinion ? What are the levels needed for each? I think I read somewhere 88 for circlets and 92 for coronets but that might be just straight up false. Also 95 is needed for amus? Thanks again and sorry for my spam

Here's a rough breakdown:

Level 87 for Coronets (+2 skills, and you can also get 3-socket blues)
Level 92 for Circlets (+2 skills, but they can NEVER give 3-socket blues)

Amulets at 93 is the sweet spot for crafting, since gambling + crafting with a level 93 character will give you access to the best mods.
If you only gamble & don't craft, Amulets are best done at level 95+

Rings as far as I know can be rolled well even at 74+

Also level 42 for LLD Circlets

I tend to prefer Coronets, but it depends if I'm feeling lazy. A lot of my sales have come from 3os randoms