Goomshill gave the correct explanation, but somehow didn't come to the right conclusion.
Correct affirmation: When fully geared, CE is making you waste time.
On a standard build you get -95% EPR.
EPR is 2x better than all other forms of resistance reductions, because it also lowers PLR by the same amount.
All monsters have 0 PLR (The Ancients can roll this stats randomly on their gear).
With -95% EPR all mobs are down to -95 PLR, no matter if they had base psn res, no matter at which value they end up, and no matter if they were immune (as long as you use a psn sunder).
This means that your psn nova is lasting 2*1.95 = 3.9 seconds.
With a full build you reach 11k+ psn nova listed dmg on skill, over 2 seconds.
The -PLR by itself is increasing that base total dmg to 11k*1.95 = 21.5k
And -95 flat res + some extra 68% from LR is enough to reduce pretty much anything to -100, except immunes.
So you end up dealing 21.5k*2 = 43k total dmg per nova against non-immunes
And sundered immunes are down to 95-95-(68/5) = -13% res
21.5k*1.13 = 24.3k
CE is pretty low dmg on p8 as it doesn't scale with the player count.
A single nova will mark for death most mobs.
If you feel like you need to telestomp a mob with merc to kill 1 faster to get a corpse and then cast amp+CE, sure you'll end up killing those mobs on your screen a bit faster.
But you lose a lot of time compared to a good psn nova player who understand he just needs to keep on moving and apply his nova dmg to as many mobs he can instead of just staying there waiting for a corpse.
You end up finishing your p8 TZ 96 run faster if you just loop around big areas, going for max tele distance + nova.
In most areas, at least 90% of mobs will be dead from the full 3.9s length of a single nova.
A 2nd loop to collect drops will allow you to quickly finish the low hp mobs left, if any survived at all.
So... not using CE = no benefit from infinity for general pvm.
2nd correct affirmation: Infinity is the best dps option on your merc vs bosses.
95% hit chance and high CB%.
But...
Crushing Blow damage to monsters is divided by 0.5 + (0.5 * # players), so effectively monster's base life (prior to the 50% increase with each additional player) is reduced by a fraction, just like CE is not scaling.
That dmg is further reduced by 1/2 against bosses, and by 1/4 when applied by a merc against bosses.
And CB dmg is reduced by positive DR%, but is not increased by negative DR%.
This ends up being ridiculously low extra dmg from your merc.
Is that the best dmg support we can get to help kill bosses on a psn nova nec?
Far from it.
Here's what's BiS:
a2 Thorn merc
CoH + Andy + battle command will push his thorn up to lvl 33
Thorn lvl 33 = 1,530% dmg returned
Do NOT use IG
Put insight on your merc.
Instead, use Fire Golem.
Fire golem is mandatory for this to work.
He is the highest target priority, forcing the AI of anything in attack range to target him over anything else.
Act bosses deal 4x more dmg against summons.
They will auto attack your fire golem.
They will get affected by this 1,530% thorn aura.
4*1,530 = 6,120
and this is further boosted by negative DR% from amp.
Against Diablo for example, base 45% DR, -55% after amp, he will return 1.55*6,120 = 9,486% his attack dmg
That's around 50k unblockable dps
Even if you and your merc did nothing, your fire golem alone would kill p8 Diablo in approx 7.5 seconds.
Now THAT is a massive support dmg on top of your psn nova and lil merc dps.
Or we should say, carry dmg, as he's doing nearly 5x more dps than you against bosses haha
So not only you are clearing full areas faster, killing bosses much faster, but you do not have to worry about your IG dying (more frequent than when playing a summoner with a full army to protect him), and the way your Fire Golem is forcing aggro into him also results in a very good defensive increase for you as long as he is alive.
And on top of that, since you now don't need your merc to deal dmg (by using might), you can go with prayer and get 2x heal aura that you wouldn't normally have.
So it's better in every single aspect, and it's cheaper.
If however you do not intend to kill bosses, then there is a slightly better option for general pvm.
Again, not using CE... Get an a5 Frenzy merc and give him 2x Cmoon.
He will proc static field much more reliably then an a3 merc, and he gets -70% light pen (plus your LR).
In this case you would use an insight IG.
But this approach is forcing you to let your merc go in, and so is your IG... making it really hard to keep him alive, cuz it doesn't work if you constantly reposition them both away from mobs.
Something like?
Dweb -50 (-5facet)
2nec/20ias/2os (-10facet)
2/15-20fcr amulet
Enigma
Trang Sheild (-5facet)
Trang Gloves
Trang Belt
2x 10fcr ring
Trek
Poison sunder
PnB GC
SC (fhr, res, what ever)
Anni
Torch
CTA + Spirit
Act2 Merc (Thorn or Prayer)
Cure
Insight
CoH
1 Fire Golem
1 Summon Resist
20 Mastery
20 Poison dagger
20 Poison Explosion
20 Poison Nova
1 CE
1 Bone Armor
1 Lower Resist
What else?
This post was edited by Xshoot on Nov 6 2025 09:24pm