Is the Act 3 Iron Wolf still "THE LAUGHING STOCK" of Diablo 2 Mercenaries??? - Patch 2.4 D2R

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Time Stamps
00:00 Introduction
01:05 Lightning Merc
03:12 Cold Merc
05:18 Fire Merc
07:23 Budget Merc
09:15 Conclusion

[@Dbrunski125]

*I like the improved AI on the cold mercs but they need auras!! What auras would you guys suggest?* Discord: discord.gg/xy3EynP Twitch: www.twitch.tv/dbrunski125 Twitter: twitter.com/dbrunski125 Check out maxroll.gg/ for Diablo 2 Resurrected and Diablo 3 guides!!! Join my Arena GL club for community events arena.gl/clubs/ckmzh1f49196680vlb6ss2llzu

[@Archangelmd]

I think they should have bonuses to spell damage based on their type. Like the sorceress mastery, they should have a fixed level X mastery to add to damage. I think the HoJ+Dual Dragon would be fun. Would also like more gear with auras on them to really mix around on the merc. I want to run a full fire aura a3 merc with my auradin and see how they fair. I loved your act 2 might/Doom setups and thats what I'm using now.

[@perritadead2106]

Cold, fire and lightning resist auras respectively :))

[@michaelbosch2196]

Why wouldn't you do dual spirit for him?

[@MinionNumber3]

@@Archangelmd I was about to post similar. Give them Masteries, and the option to stack +skill items to boost their damage. Their niche could be carrying around aura combos we normally don't see played much, because it would mean our characters can't carry other good gear.

[@hanliu1861]

so true! How could a ACT2 pure melee merc has all kinds of Aura, but a ACT3 magic merc has none!

[@xAmerlioration]

Maybe instead of adding auras since the act two mercenary already has that they could add curses. Keeping them to be mages. I mean… Desert is kind of a cross between a simple spear Amazon and a paladin Amplify damage for the fire to go with enchant which is boosting attack rating Lower resist lightning. You could keep it low enough that it doesn’t make something like infinity useless. For some reason lower resist feels like it goes with static field Ice maybe weaken since it’s most crowd control and crippling enemies

[@Sanozucke]

Great comment

[@finalcam1740]

Curses override other curses though so that would interfere with necro and on hit procs.

[@jprec5174]

Way too op.

[@kristopherleslie8343]

Bad idea but good in concept.

[@manoqueenz]

I think it's a great idea, but you are asking for something too OP. The auras of A2 mercs are not Fanaticism and Conviction, and for good reason. The curses should therefore be weak auras, with the exception of the "fire curse" which could be (a low level) Life Tap if the Iron Wolf was hired on Hell.

[@alagass6466]

Be nice if they had Cold/Fire/Lightning Mastery as well as their other skills

[@manoqueenz]

Then they would become super OP auradins...

[@fbritorufino]

Yes, in a very diminished rate, like +1 skill point each 20 levels or so

[@gowanlock]

@@manoqueenz just make it not affect the main player then.

[@TheInfinityMaster1]

I think the best usage for his so far is *holding the Auradin gear* so you can have max Holy Fire yourself (while he has double Dream Holy Shock set-up) or vice versa.

[@thaleswest1548]

Has anyone tried that? It would be nice to see if that is a game changer… Maybe someone can make a video? :)

[@user-up3dd1vw6b]

​@@thaleswest1548 made him use hand of justice flickering flames and dragon x2 but dmg is pitiful Prob need maxed out pala synergies to see auradin like dmg

[@TheWalbs]

Llama did a vid on the auradin using the act 3 merc. Having the shied and sword slots give you a ton of aura potential. The merc alone was dropping mobs just from pulses.

[@Dbrunski125]

Wouldn't do anything past p1. Act 3 merc doesn't get synergies

[@F4ttym4n]

You could do that before though so whats the point of testing it

[@manowartank8784]

Yeah sure, but you have to put on Hand of Justice, Dragon, and 2 Dream runewords, for cost of 7 high runes... and it only works for that already expensive Auradin running Conviction ... it's OP only because they buffed the auras too much

[@andyfibb]

@@Dbrunski125 you really think blizzard is making these new builds/changes "viable" and to you "viable" is players 8??? your using the wrong measurements. the game is balanced around players 1. your super broken builds can own players 8 sure, but thats not how it should be...

[@Dbrunski125]

I'm not sure u understand how low the dmg is without synergies. Lv 30 holy shock without synergies is a pulse dmg of 1 - 256 pulse dmg. You realize like that cant even kill anything in nightmare? Barely normal

[@Rencol666]

High lvl enchant seems insane for characters lacking AP and not damage. For example bladesin's biggest weakness is lack of AR, this would free up the spots taken by angelic rings and amu. Also i think making him pure support instead of damage is the way we should go, far too many people has tunnel vision on "damage damage damage". Lawbringer for lvl 18 sanctuary aura - it negates physical imunity of undead (most physical imunes are undead) and yet again, one of the biggest bladesin's weakness. Flickering flame for extra boost to his fire damage and fire resist aura, again freeing up the need to use any fire resist gear. As for armor and shield i dont know, maybe viper and spirit would help? Double dragon?

[@dartlingaming]

enchant is def good but the static field is nice for bosses when it chops 25% off mid fight the issue is they tend to die during baal waves despite the high res I think there's a bug with the baal wave hydras I think they got buffed to be honest...demon limb for enchant gives higher level and lava gout for melee characters is like a lazy mans item (i use them on my barb and zealer sometimes on players 1 for an extra 2-3k AR) I get like 1k more from limb but I think war cry or conviction compensates for ar better and character level tends to compensate the most in my experience

[@Rencol666]

@@dartlingaming I think the lighting merc is the worst. His damage is shit compared to fire, no CC compared to cold, static is cast only sporadically and its effectivness is very reduced on hell difficulty. Merc would need to be near boss too, but they have flight AI pattern. Dont forget enchant also gives you fire damage, not only AR

[@Nikkenator]

I might try one with enchant with my fireclaws werebear. 🤔

[@sergueileonardoafonin7950]

The supporter merc is def. fun. They should give the Iron Wolfs are three support skills at the same time and improve IA to use them accordingly.

[@Vlammenzee]

for a physical bowazon the act 3 merc is a solid choice, over the act 2 merc, he does a lot of damage, and the bonus AR + damage is really nice, especially early on till mid game.

[@ZachIdso]

Fire mage with spirit sword/medusa's gaze/bramble/andariel's visage might be a cool one to try out. Could be pretty fun to back that up with strafe and the decoy

[@RulleTheSkool]

How does the cold act 3 merc compare to an act 2 merc using delirium and holy freeze for crowd control purposes? What’s the best CC merc endgame?

[@Marcv1285]

The main feature of the Fire merc is Enchant, you really shouldn't see it as a killing machine but rather as what buff they can give your character (give him items that gives aura like concentration, fanatism etc). Would be nice to see on a Wirlwind barb and Summon necro (can he keep up casting enchant on all minions?).

[@travisrameysadler9924]

Act 3 Merc cant use gear that gives him anything like that accept for Crescent Moon rw

[@ianatwood5253]

Hey Dbrunski, haven't even watched this video yet, but I've seen a few of your new ones for the new 2.4 d2r patch and just wanted to commend you on making separate videos for each class/build and overall topic. Very professional. A lot of big time streamers as yourself haven't done as such, to include showing not only these new build opportunities at end game gear, but also lower tier gear as if someone were using that class/build as playthrough.

[@UnderworldGrim]

For melee builds, I'm really curious if the fire merc with enchant gives more benefit than a might aura act 2 merc. Could it be close?

[@Hammer_Games]

Maybe giving them fire/light/cold masteries could help as well. Or converting physical damage from weapon into their elemental damage could help as well.

[@JJV7243]

How well does the Act 3 Fire mercenary's enchant work with summons? Would its benefit ever outweigh the possibility of a concentration aura from the A1(bow) or A2 (polearm) mercs?

[@Valariel]

I’m guessing it might add less damage than concentration but a LOT more attack rating and also providing a non-physical damage source.

[@yorkshirelad3133]

if it procs often enough! last thing you want is doing a bunch of trav runs and the council are all dead by the time it triggers, even act 2 might aura has its drawbacks, stupid thing can take ages to kick in

[@biotopebiologist5030]

At least in PTR the level 43 enchant only returned like 450 damage per minion. Which is not better than might. Fire necro was slow compared to pure physical I also had a 37 fire golem for more fire damage. Summon druid isn’t even worth playing or commenting on. Really needs a massive damage buff and something to help clear speed

[@yorkshirelad3133]

@@biotopebiologist5030 with something like berserk it could be really helpful having that extra attack rating from enchant, but like I said before... it still has to trigger or there is no point haha

[@collinbond4782]

Thinking of running the Fire one with my Necromancer, mainly to have him give Enchant to the horde of Skeletons, but if he rarely uses it, might not work well... As the Skeletal Mages would do the rest pretty much the same. Edit: though, I have continued to wonder why they don't add the masteries to these mercs.

[@Droppingtotes]

He does enchant summons, you can use a Crescent Moon to make Spirit Wolves and have him Enchant the wolves as well. He Enchants a lot actually, it's pretty neat

[@ThePureCowbell]

What about using the fire variant with summon necro for the enchant proc while also wielding last wish for the might aura?

[@kuksio92]

i recommend giving them holy fire/freeze/lightning auras and mastery skills for bigger dps.

[@mtgsus]

You made my day 8:11 the well known double turt helm, lol

[@Lathlaer]

6:18 You did get enchant from him (and he also cast it on himself) One thing I would add that is detrimental to using them - 0 physical damage means the only way to keep the alive is to constantly monitor their health and using potions on them.

[@emissarygw2264]

Well, kinda same as a1 merc, only way to keep them alive is by teleporting around and letting them be a turret.

[@Lathlaer]

@@emissarygw2264 I mean, any kind of melee fighter who doesn't telestomp has easier time keepin her alive. I regularly take her to P8 Chaos and WK and she doesn't die because my Dream Zealot tanks for her. And she can either get her own leech or - better yet - uses my Life Tap from Dracs. The problem with A3 merc is that no matter how many enemies you have life tapped for him to use, he won't heal himself because he doesn't do any kind of physical damage.

[@emissarygw2264]

@@Lathlaer fair enough, I'm much more budget though so rely a lot on aggroing a few mobs and pulling back to a doorway or something to kill them a few at a time. All my merc die a lot when I get swarmed by extra fast mobs (for example) except when I'm on sorc and can Tele.

[@emissarygw2264]

@@Lathlaer BTW since it sounds like you use rogue regularly, what are your thoughts on doing a pierce build with kuko and the new helm?

[@Lathlaer]

@@emissarygw2264 It may work if someone really wants mercenary who deals damage. Personally, not a fan of relying on mercs doing damage. I use Rogue because she has Faith and I want her to give me fanaticism. Also, I like the fantasy concept of my knight protecting her from evil monsters :) I briefly tested her with new patch and I am pleased with the new cold skill. Great crowd control. Personally, I also don't think pierce is so important for her. Instead of Wisdom I much prefer Giant Skull with 2OS - then you have cold skills AND knockback to keep her safe and you can put two 15% IAS jewels in the helmet. That along with Faith made in Great Bow allows her to reach max attack speed breakpoint without Treachery (instead, she uses Fortitude). I will admit that I only used cold arrow Rogue. I can't say how fire performs and how viable her damage is.

[@shanx5844]

Great Vids, thanks man, could you make a video about the change on A1 and A5 merc?

[@seanleisse285]

There should definitely be a clearer/easier way to improve their damage than filling out a 6 socketed crystal sword with facets. Act 3 mercs are neat but even with some form of support auras, they'll still be crap compared to ole Waheed poking things. My holy freeze merc without any damage buffs that come from being in a group hits hard enough. These mercs just fall further behind with how monster hp scales in higher player games, and their damage will never be able to keep up vs physical mercs

[@biotopebiologist5030]

I totally agree and their damage doesn’t really scale well with itemization. They should make it so that once the fireball/bolt hit level 40 the scaling of plus to skills is better so by time you hit like +10 to skills you get 8-9k damage. Doing 2k damage isn’t even enough in P1

[@dannykoorevaar1574]

They are still not there yet.. especially since they have no form of life leeching. However.. seeing them finally able to kill something on hell is already a big step up hahahaha

[@Eagle_SFM]

They have no synergies, and no masteries. It's really silly that they are using sorc skills while missing thousands of % of damage. They should just get like 1.5-2 lvl of the skill per level up or something. I mean fireball goes up linearly by ~17 damage per level for Pete's sake. Without any modifiers it's always going to be dog water.

[@mateuszkawczynski1163]

They do what they can but at the end of the day its just Insight and Infinity being too op

[@Xainfinen]

And it can stay that way, they just need to update the game so we can use every merc and fit our playstyle. Make merc specific runewords etc. that's why they have ptr they can test things for months with us otherwise it's just unused potential. The remaster can last for decades with a few specific added content and QoL.

[@brox004]

Would a dual dream setup be any good for the act 3 Merc? Obviously very expensive but could be fun paired with a tesladin/auradin?

[@nunyanunya4147]

stupid question... anyone run a Summoner (necro/druid) with Might runeword on the sword for fury and IceWolf for crowd controll? OR a FireWolf for 12+ skelly fire enchant?

[@Archangelmd]

What are the stats for the Act 3 merc? Do they get enough dex to use Phase Blades? Or if I want to get a HoJ for them I need to us a dimensional blade or crystal sword?

[@ApathyBM]

How about dual dream with the new proximity dmg? How good is that on a merc?

[@c0l0jar0]

What about enchant merc on skele necro? I don't know how bad their AR is but it should help and the fire damage might add up since it's added to every skele eventually.

[@jamesmcclure995]

It works well.

[@travisrameysadler9924]

I think the huge problem is that alot of aura runewords that would be beneficial for many of the mercs can only be placed in weapons used by act 2... who already get auras, and personally I hate Act 2 Mercs as they seem to be obsessed with killing themselves. Blizz could do alot to balance the merc by simply opening up the weapon list available to each rune word.

[@Mirroxaphene]

If I recall, I had a ethereal monarch with “Spirit” on the cold merc back in the old days.

[@JiminParky]

Post patch 2.4, does fire Iron Wolf buff enchants on your summoned minions like Druid wolves?

[@Mangakadenizgaming]

Lmao i remembered your old video where you were suffering watching fire iron wolf xD Thanks for this video very useful.

[@squoblat]

Can you test thorns please? Want to see if it's now viable for my summon necro, considering Bramble for armour

[@sorenwinter5280]

I think looking at damage is missing the point. The potential value of them is support. Fire gives enchant for AR starved characters, such as a physical bowazon or bladesin. Lightning uses a very large area static field to give AOE damage to characters that only have single target damage, such as a frenzy barb or fury druid. Cold, like you said, helps with crowd control. Stacking FCR seems like the best way to improve what these mercs are actually good at. A comparison against might merc for the above cases would be valuable.

[@dartlingaming]

the - enemy res doesn't count on the merc but the +dmg does am I correct or do they both work? I was messing around with a barb with dual hand of justice dragon armor and dream helm with a dragon holy freeze merc with infinity and dream helm it was ok but you need enigma to get the conviction to work well or he is in the back tying his shoes...I think plague is good on this merc moreso than the weapon you have simply because the lower res helps you out and him despite lower damage...I think the battle cry on the act 5 can be good to compensate for lower attack rating but you can't really count on it

[@xxlin88xx]

Or the merc should give some buf like ice armor for the cold merc / enchant for fire merc and storm for elec merc ?

[@MrLuffy9131]

Just wondering this is kind of minor but does ormus robes boost whatever skill the act 3 merc has like static field, fireball etc.

[@timofeyzhukov-khovanskiy9173]

I guess I could see running something like a fire merc on a javazon with Valkyrie tank just to clear some immunes in something like chaos. Perhaps with a lawbringer to crowd control the undead?

[@JJV7243]

They feel a LOT better. I'd love to see the effects of a fire act 3 merc on melee/amazon builds. Does enchant bump your hit% from 75-90? If so that is massive.

[@jprec5174]

They bring a massive level enchant. Brunski didn’t even bother tk see how high he could get enchant with gear. Spirit, ormus, flickering flame, hexfire sword (+3 fire skills) is +11 to enchant. Easily that’s over lvl 40. That’s fucking huge. These streamers are really letting me down and trying to use these mercs for dps? Who gives as shit about merc dps in the first place? This dude just scoffed at a merc with a fucking static field. That merc was using it alot too. That shit is easily going to lower kill times for farm builds. Wth was dbrun thinking making this vid? Nobody cares about merc dps because if you did you’d use an act 5 merc since they always had the best damage.

[@JLK5]

@@jprec5174 best comment

[@Dbrunski125]

Why would I ever use a merc like this on any mid or end game melee set up. Carrying a demon limb and a might aura act 2 merc with treachery tals mask and insight is 1000000 times more useful then a Slightly higher ar from an enchant buff.

[@Dbrunski125]

I set up the highest possible dps and used a - 150 conviction aura to boost his dmg. Im convinced you didn't watch the video

[@alisaforster28691]

@@jprec5174 spirit is subotimal. use that 3 socketed uniqu headhunter (you will waste an amethyst socket for getting enough str for the monarch) and 3 sockets. my estemation was around 500-600 fire damage and 450% ar

[@TwinkleWhiteSeal]

Does the lightning skill from ormus work on the A3 merc?? Doesnt it say sorc only?

[@l4m41987]

I think if they would get a related resist aura, they could really help in playthrough, specially in hell. Also for end game, what if they are equiped with the holy fire sword, armor, shield and flickeryflame helm? I mean very expensive but for end, end game it could be good?

[@leightonderosenroll8347]

What if you did cold merc with dual dream, dragon, and hand of Justice? You would get 4 sources of aura damage on your merc with crowd control from cold skills still

[@JLK5]

Reaally glossed over the chant merc. That seems like the most beneficial change for the a3 merc. I tested and it only adds couple hundred damage but added ~3k AR which could be helpful for melee chars, no?

[@Dbrunski125]

Pretty sure I mentioned it would help a lot on playthroughs. End game a might aura trumps the enchant super hard. Carry a demon limb if you want

[@NtheHecker]

I think the firemerc's enchant can have some uses. It could perhaps help a summonnecro because it will buff the skellies effectly replacing the might aura somewhat. I could also see it work with explosion arrow buffing its AOE. In most cases people will pick the A1 or the A2 mercs. I think the A2 mercs will remain favorite.

[@vernonweiss1276]

Does the +to skills on Ormus robes even help the mercs' skill lvl??

[@legendaryvicius]

YES! The mercs review, this is what I waiting for. Go go power rangers!

[@ricardohernandezvega8588]

Me too. All mercs I want to know

[@thelogos7641]

Hilarious..

[@Matsoke]

I wonder will the fire iron wolf benefit from 2 piece trang oul set to get +18 to fireball? Or is it restricted to +3 as for sorcs. This could perhaps be a big dmg buff...

[@kualarompin589]

Have you tried with a summoner build? Necro with lower resistance?

[@TheSeAcabo]

I have akward question, is it possible to make enigma in griswold 3 socket armor ?

[@Tyrael66]

What happens if you put dual dream on him but the fire one I forgot the name?

[@SeiShinCasios]

whats the benefit of a 6 soc rbf sword when you already rock a max conviction aura? isnt the minus rezz capped at some point?

[@MMKadventures]

Will enchant work on a fire bow with say hoj dragonx2?

[@draven5894]

Why not set them up with a duel holy shock/fire setup? Or even a max holy fire and a delirium helm for cc? I personally don’t see how stuffing them full of those jems is really doing the act 3 merc justice. My personal opinion of course, but if I am using one of those Mercs that definitely not the route I would personally take.

[@static2099]

I made a stupid expensive build and put it on an Act 3 cold merc and it seems awesome to me. I made a Tesladin, and then put Flickering Flame, Hand of Justice, and dual Dragon runewords on him. It's only single player games I've done in PTR, but everything but boss mobs die so fast it's nuts.

[@emailjunk5864]

I main the light wolf now sonce 2.4, on my bonemancer with lower res and infinity e golem. Holds up pretty well tbh.

[@fayt9121]

cant you get sanctuary on the shield? iron wolves are the only ones that use shields right?

[@Killah107]

Ty for this no one is talking about this!

[@Saljen]

You should go for Ormus robe with Enchant + Flickering Flame on the fire one. I wanna see what his enchant damage is for like a summon druid to pump all their AR and fire damage.

[@alisaforster28691]

with flickering flame, hexfire with facet, omus with facet, and hheahunter (3 socket unique shield withh3 facets)his enchant is around 500-600 fire damage, 1200 seconds and 450% AR at level 98

[@HomicidalTh0r]

This lightning Iron Wolf actually seems decent for melee chars that struggle dealing with mob clearing

[@teensillustrated8426]

I actually experimented with the Fire Iron wolf on my Bowazon. Mind you, i'm not done yet, and still experimenting, but, i focused on ranking the skills on him up more so when he prox his enchant on m Amazon, her Multi shot did Ludacris damage against swarms. I believe it'd do even more if i had fire resist deduction. The only time i had problems (mind you, this is me trying it out on a fresh new character) was when i got into hell mode against fire immunities. otherwise, so far my Merc is buffing my BOWazon quite well. More on it once i get Spirit shield on him to match his spirit Dimension Sword.

[@Valariel]

I really like the idea of a Fire iron wolf for a Necro or Druid summoner. The fire damage multiplied over multiple wolves or skellies would be significant and it would add insane attack rating. Also adds a second elemental damage source (fire) to help with physical immunes.

[@1spotkill]

I think adding holy fire,ice,lighting or the resistance aura could balance them out or add elements mastery skill ( like sorc )

[@sdsu6]

use plague, flickering flame and phoenix for the fire variant as a utility merc that gives some extra AR and couple of auras... lower resist also nice to have.

[@chronesrt2925]

Also i tried the merc with FCR and hes a beast. The build i tried was a Holy Freeze Paladin and then a Act 3 Fire merc with FCR and it was slow on P3 imo but fun af to play.

[@otrotland5377]

can I enchant the merc and add fire to cold and such?

[@pirannha]

As you realized in the middle of the video, a fast cast rate approach with make the merc more usable rather than using him for damage. The only reason the act 2 one does good damage is due to runewords w/enh dmg and crushing blow for melee attacks which does not relate to casters, which the act 3 is (besides the auras of course). The support spells for each element is fine imho, maybe some improvement on the AI to make him spam static field/enchant when needed and give him as much fcr as possible and he wont need auras to be competitive

[@douglasguffy369]

Ok on the 2nd merc (cold) you have a Nightwings veil (helm) with 160% enhanced damage... how is that possible? all I see is a 40ed/15ias jewel in it... how did you get the other 120%‽ did the enhanced defence turn into enhanced damage by adding that jewel? is this a bug or something?

[@SteelRainz1]

Enchant for necromancer summons. Will they pump everyone? I'd be down.

[@crimsonodyssey8638]

It seems to me that running rune words like Dragon and/or Hand of Justice on the fire Merc would make for the best setup for act 3 mercenaries (getting up to level 44 Holy Fire with Double Dragon and HoJ while the Merc casts enchant for added fire damage and big AR). Also running Double Dream on the lightning Merc could be strong. obviously you would want to use these mercenaries in conjunction with melee builds primarily Barb or Paladin.

[@Droppingtotes]

His enchant works on summons which is pretty cool. Only drawback is that you can get the same from Demon Limb. But with +Skills you can get the Merc to +40 because his Enchant starts at lvl 31. So the boost to attack rating is pretty significant and a little bit of fire damage. Only really good on summoners.

[@Derzull2468]

But act2 might aura is better by far. Which is a shame.

[@cesarcr3155]

Wow very nice im definetively going for Iron wolf with poison necro, low res will go amazingly with this

[@aaronpriestley1500]

I would like to see resist corresponding element

[@vasheroo]

Isn't it kinda weird that a2 Mercs are the ones with auras? A3 and the zakarum is the land of the paladins and thus auras would be more likely there than out in the desert, right?

[@yosoyhansolo]

Maybe a sanctuary aura from the unique sword azures wrath and run him like that with the conviction aura as a foh pally? Might help clean up non undead and demon mobs

[@Moles666]

Best utilization of the act3 lite merc I found so far is equiped him with dual spirits, enigma, shako/griff to cast static as crazy supporting my Infinity Nova and Infinity Light sorc. So as a supporter just to cast static he is ok, but feels a little bit too expensive... Maybe there is some cheaper armor options for +str. Altough he speeds up game play using Nova for sure. But in this use case the static as synergy for nova is just waste of skill points. :)

[@BengaIaas]

The fire variant seems like a great choice for a kicking doing Ubers since his Enchant is better than Demon Limb

[@OSotoKyoshi]

What if you gave dream + dragon to ct 3 merc?

[@justinhildebrand1515]

Could bump their base stat str up so they could use monarch runewords easily. Would help with damage being able to put spirits on them

[@frankenstein3163]

How frequently does it cast static ?

[@realSAPERE_AUDE]

@8:10 “double turd helmet” - such an OP helmet

[@mccoyrj452]

Here is a thought. Make Pride and Beast able to be placed in Swords. Would that be enough?

[@jonnycatland1987]

They need to make runewords work for all weapons, or armor, helms, shields. No more specific weapons.

[@mccoyrj452]

@@jonnycatland1987 see I disagree with that because I do want to have weapons that are tailored for specific builds and not available for all mercs. Like if Pride were say Sword only instead of Polearms now you are seriously looking at Act 3 and 5 mercs over Act 2. As it is now it’s not a decision. Even if it’s allowed in both it adds to the decision but not as much.

[@Dbrunski125]

Thats a really cool idea !!!

[@beedos08]

see things like this would make it worth it to use A3/A5 mercs. Get rid of the ridiculous amount of auras only available to the A2 merc that he can then stack with his passive auras.

[@mateuszkawczynski1163]

What makes D2R great is not Blizzard, but old school players and people like You Dbrunski and Mrllama. Thank you from the bottom of my hearth 🙂 really cant wait for your next videos and new builds analysis

[@patasan2]

"Double turd helmet"...

[@SexyDex]

Can’t you now do insight on the a3 merc?

[@chrismclean7789]

So my paladin convic duel dream dragon hand of justice uses an act 3 merc cold. I have him equipped with the same set up dragon chest gibe me yhe str to equip.a monarch. Dream helm dream shield dimensional blade hand of justice. The conviction really benefits all the aoe damage So mrrc deals cold lightning fire It's pretty good. Cold gets chilling armour do he rarely dies

[@stevenward4830]

act 3 is the BEST MERC for a hybrid bone/summoner. Static Field with Double Dragon/Plague/Flickering Flame is Massive. The amount of utility this provides is outstanding. his Static Field with the holy fire level 28 with cleansing all poisons/curses on all minions combined with my corpse explosion makes the clear speed much faster.

[@MrLazyleader]

But lvl 28 holy fire without any synergies deals no damage

[@BladaTheHunter]

@@MrLazyleader Ye may as well throw a bramble on him for the changed Thorns aura.

[@issuinoyume85]

I use a lightning act 3 merc for my uber smiter pally using all eth Kira, guardian angel, silence runeword, and ward. With +195 all resist he has max resistances through uber meph conviction boosted to 90 max resist and never dies. The static field does more damage faster to ubers and supplements the crushing blow procs.

[@8888disturbed]

if they add them just cold light and fire mastery u can use dream or dragon hoj combo and they will work good and for cold merc add powerful skills bliz orb etc

[@Ge_n_Ge]

How is the barb merc?

[@GBIGBIGBI]

Totally agree with your points. Without any default auras noone will chose other mercs than the act 2 ones.

[@frizzman1991]

What about turning a lightning Iron Wolf into a mini Tesla? Spare battery build?

[@frizzman1991]

Dream, Dream, Crescent Moon, and whatever for chest armor. Alternately could run Flickering Flame with Double Dragon and a Phoenix sword for MUCHO FUEGO

[@holis93]

fire merch with enchant could be nice on a summoner necro if he buffed your skeletons

[@alexbastow7915]

3 socket 20 fast cast rate diadem with 3 fire facet is better than the flickering flame as + fire skill damage also make big difference but those 3 socket diadem are listed non ladder at like 30 ber so expensive

[@toddwittie4421]

They could give shield runewords with auras for something the Iron Wolf can use that other mercs can't. 6 different polearm runewords provide different options for buffing. Sword and shield runewords are much more limited and the only ones that aren't providing miniscule damage are sanctuary or defiance. I like the Act 1 Merc for my Summon Necro because bow runewords add some good buffs such as Fanaticism on Faith. From my limited testing it seems like it works better than the Might A2 Merc.

[@rowebowcop7889]

there is only one merc that can use a shield

[@toddwittie4421]

@@rowebowcop7889 that's the exact point. It provides a benefit to the Act 3 Merc without adding more to the A2 Merc. A big differentiator between the mercs is what weapons they use so I don't see why not to use that to do some targeted help for the A3 Merc who needs something.

[@janficek8587]

Had fire wolf chant before resurrected? I never used him... :)

[@russ769]

Dude, dual dragon, hoj, and flickering flame for the act 3 fire merc… godly

[@maritogs88a]

Does he cast enchant on your summons? Maybe it could be useful for a summon necro

[@alisaforster28691]

yes

[@maritogs88a]

@@alisaforster28691 indeed, tested it. Can enchant be better than might from act2 merc? I mean, an act2 might merc with infinity or pride are better choices. But maybe iron wolfs enchant would work better than act2 mercs might for a budget build.

[@alisaforster28691]

@@maritogs88a thats what im thinking too. beast, pride, etc are very expensive. maybe even for a budget summon necro with mages and lower resist? i havent tested these yet. the ar bonus on top of the fire damage has to be considered in the calculations too. might only gives % dmg. but not ar.

[@maritogs88a]

@@alisaforster28691 thats right! Skels miss a lot, thats why conviction aura also bumps their damage (reduces enemy def to 0), so the %ar its great too.

[@aureliandragomir2731]

Blizzard needs to really get their senses and change act 3 mercs to be dual with some major/minor spell pair. E.g : frozen orb with fireball and meteor with glacial spike. Otherwise how on earth can I swap my act 2 might merc with eth reapears toll who can also cast decrepify?

[@dertobbe1176]

I like the fact that you showed us the about lvl 20 merc.

[@8888disturbed]

u can add dreams or dragons on merc?

[@christophermichaelson1598]

So could there possibly a niche build that could benefit from his attributes other than this type of paladin?

[@christophermichaelson1598]

Like act 3 lightning merc and a dream pally? With all the -lightning resists?

[@alisaforster28691]

@@christophermichaelson1598 the lightning level is jus too low (level 29) static is more of a damage dealer on him (its like level 22, so it will static aroond 18 yeards, the whole screen

[@jaixc]

Should had put two dreams on him with all those lightening facets.. just the holy shock aura alone would aid in his dmg output. But thats what i DID with my auradin on ptr.. i ran all holy fire with max conviction, and built merc to have dual dreams, faceted sword, and rather than ormus, i gave him a chains of honor. Though i can see why you'd put the ormus, cause of the increase to lightening dmg. Though i ran with the fire act 3 merc for the enchant, if that helps anything. Just being able to allow the holy shock to cc with his fireball he casts all of the time helps.. in the sword i ran 3 lightening, and 3 fire, dual dreams, and a chains of honor for the +2 to his skills, the enchant alone gives you fire dmg on your main weapon and ramps up holy fire auras.

[@jamesmcclure995]

I used the Enchant Iron Wolf on my Skelemancer. He enchanted them all quick.... Did all skeleton/plus mages... really fun to play.