a3 for pvp

there are plausible builds for most mercs that have practical usages, only act 3 mercs really struggle to find a purpose
act 1 mercs are necessary for fanat aura, as said mostly for bowazons to hit breakpoints, but also for vigor aura, and for PvP purposes as they are a very high ranged damage source due to their inherent double damage per hit, frequently used with BvCs or sorcs who abuse them with defensive play and high fcr. Act 5 mercs have niche purposes either for sanctuary aura for chaos barbs just for crowd control, or for heavy merc-oriented builds that need their tankiness, or for PvP stomping applications where you really want to abuse the fact they're immune to FHR and FHR opponents quite well.
act 3 mercs, its possible to build them to deal somewhat relevant damage, lightning in particular can hit halfway decently for pvp or pvm with lots of -resists, but still much less damage output than an act 1 merc and hamstrung by the fact it casts useless charged bolt 2/3 of the time. Ice blast / frozen spike can deal very mediocre but more consistently cast damage, but without the massive aoe of lightning its terrible for pvm, and a worse damage type besides. Fire mercs have no purpose due to self-stunning themselves to channel an awful inferno.
the ability to use act 3 mercs to apply auras is generally outclassed by all the other mercs, like lawbringer on an act 5 merc who is tankier and gets decrep procs. The only thing act 3 mercs can really do is wield 2x phoenix for a super high % large aoe redemption aura, but it begs the question of why you want to destroy corpses so badly, its not like you want to take that merc into nihl runs and die to tomb vipers



in general I'd say that act 2 outclasses everything else 90% of the time in pvm, while act 1/5 outclasses act 2 mercs about 90% of the time in pvp, while act 3 merc is hot garbage.

This post was edited by Goomshill on Apr 21 2020 04:39am

Would like to see some balancing done to make things more relevant
Expansion with new merc class would be epic

expansion for a 20 years old game?

by the guys who just make wc3 reforged??

act 5 merc can abuse 1h bug damage with and eth upg headstriker and unbreakable animation on bm pvp.
act 1 merc as already stated is not only viable but a really good choise for bvc
act 3 is beyond trash

a3 can carry most for pvp char, wouldnt call that trash

as it is with a 1H wep they do extra dmg, so actually it works out

damage is still crab
best setups are;



even if opponent is just 75% unstacked resist, you've got a merc who deals like 226 hp IB or has a 1/3 chance to cast 307 hp lightning. If they stack resists or tgods, it will tickle or heal them
meanwhile act 1 merc has no problems reaching 6k average physical damage with knockback for 500-1000 pvp damage after DR

also its absolutely brutal when you have an A1 merc with an enchantress. doesn't double her fire damage like it does physical, but that's still 12k damage arrows

This post was edited by Goomshill on Apr 21 2020 09:15am

its not about the damage, its about the extra space u get to bring a block switch