This Act 2 Merc Build Got a Secret Buff, New Meta for Season 3 - Diablo 2 Resurrected

[@SweetPhil]

Also thanks to the community for bring this to my attention. I was slightly dismissive of this act 2 merc initially, but my chat while live convinced me to try it and I was very happy I did. So thank you everyone.

[@Jason-vi2pj]

So it would seem that this merc is better than the cold one? And I may change my blizzsorc to the light sorc based on this

[@nightworg]

Thank you Phil. Awesome content from you. I will for sure try it out.

[@vengeanceX88]

That level 17 Meditation aura is looking pretty good i bet now Phil lol. I have been running this mercenary and i thought it was so much better than the one mostly everyone else uses. The dolls might have something to say about it though, they aren't nice.

[@Jason-vi2pj]

@@vengeanceX88 that's what I'm asking. Should I use this type of merc over the cold merc?

[@vengeanceX88]

@@Jason-vi2pj Well, you definitely won't be drinking as many health and mana pots and i just keep full rejuv's on my belt now in case since i am on Hell difficulty and find them often. He is a really good merc to use, so i highly suggest him, he keeps your health topped off for the next fight which is very nice and i leveled all the way with him without issue. Just give him the Insight and good armor and he is all around great support to you.

[@zzBlackFenix]

Sweet Phil: Our boy Emilio right here has been with us through thick and thin for years and years. Merc: My name is Mizan!

[@Space-Diver]

Phil: Shut up Emilio.

[@oggaming7362]

"Our boy, Emilio..." "My name is Nizan, sir." "Let me take my gear back..." "My name is Emilio, sir."

[@asbjrnfossmo1589]

Actually, a +1 skill on the merc armor will give him an extra level of prayer (x3 since synergies) so that will heal him (and you) more than +25 replenish life.

[@wojtekmarciniak1173]

shieeeeeeeet!

[@gabrielstarlight9003]

Good video, run to spread that info. Also fyi this interaction is not new, people have been playing with the insight/prayer merc combo for a long time but the addition of cleansing seems to have pushed it over the edge into interesting territory.

[@StirbMensch]

Prayer + Insight is my go to for any caster build, the extra damage from Might isn't even that useful for the merc, even with LL items on him

[@JustaSimplefact]

I run that combo with ES sorcs, feels really beefy with little resources consumption

[@pibbz13]

I've been playing a support paladin based on this for the last two seasons. Prayer merc with insight, and max prayer + cleansing active on my paladin specced with defensive aura skillers and seraphs. Lovely group character, not so great solo :D The possibilities are endless now if i equip Cure on my paladin and use a different active aura. So much healing!

[@FluffyFractalshard]

sounds like a very fun build! (if you have the party to support)

[@mikelam2372]

I feel like this was my initial advice. Nice to see you tried it out! It is game breaking honestly for Energy Shield nova sorc. One change I would mention... CoH is BiS not only because of the life leech but also because of the +skills. Mercenary skills benefit from +skills so Prayer gains +2 additional levels. Love the content Phil!

[@Uketuber1337]

Totally correct! Without that source of lifeleech your merc will get in trouble! The auras alone are not enough. There are a few cheap unique armors that'll also give some lifeleech to remedy this problem on a budget.

[@rube79]

Cure/insight/coh ftw!

[@the253legend]

can enigma be used just the same for the +2 skill?

[@Uketuber1337]

@@the253legend sure, griswalds aswell but it's the added lifesteal that makes coh take the cake.

[@damarlboromans]

@@rube79 I am running Cure/insight/coh he dies in hell cows every time also baal runs he dies everywhere in hell.

[@KingJerbear]

It's not triple active prayer, but you get the life replenish effect on both of the other auras as a synergy. You said "it doesn't say," but if you mouse over the skills on a Paladin there is the line "Prayer: 0" which is telling you the bonus level for each respective aura. Definitely a cool use of mechanics. I always found Holy Freeze to be the safest for hardcore, but this seems to rival that especially after seeing how effective it is against that Snake poison.

[@Smakenzi]

the synergy also always worked like this, it's not a new D2R feature

[@blizbiggy]

Very interesting. Just tried this out on my lvl 43 sin with basically the same setup. Nearly impossible to die.

[@-Zax-]

This inst glitch, its how synergies works from prayer to Meditation and Cleansing. This is being used for a long time amongst some players. I am using it for years because even isnight +prayer merc will heal a lot like 50, Cleansing adds another 25 eventualy so you will have like 75 heal. Which is actualy a lot. I play with it all the time so I can definitely confirm that. Cure made from this merc setup actualy perfect option for ES sorc because you get mana regen, life regen, poison negation and lowered curse duration. Basicly fixing two flaws of ES builds.

[@HagTwo]

Good info! Could have mentioned Cure is ladder only :P

[@Chainmail]

Yea I just try to make it and didnt work😑

[@Hyperdriveuk]

Long story short, you stacked prayer 3 times. I used to do this for fun with my pally + merc. Multi heal. Nothing really new though. You know what would be kool though, a summoner necro where the mages do damage. Once in over 20 years would be kewl.

[@kylesmith987]

I am with you on this. I love summon necro but it pains me that the mages are soo useless and i really want them to buff the mages to be useful.

[@derekgreen7319]

Cure is pretty dope even on a melee character

[@nixSen]

Phil's subpar English and reading are 50% the reasons why I watch his videos . Bless his slayin' heart

[@o.j.79]

He has a successful KZbin channel and a kind heart - his English is fine

[@LawlFrank]

Prayer merc with insight was already a thing in some d2 patch, I think 1.13 or something, when they introduced the synergies. The cleansing aura runeword is a d2res addition, so now it's triple instead of double... worth trying out :)

[@louisax4058]

Does the cleansing reduce the time of the fade triggered by treachery?

[@trenthudson9663]

Also if im not mistaken the +2 on coh applies to the mercs prayer aura.

[@colealexander9542]

I've been holding onto a +24 replenish life eth skin of the flayed one in my sp bank and now I am going to go even more bananas with my whirly barb in search of more Lo runes. Thanks Phil!

[@Dartlin]

I really like cleansing on melee characters because decrep doesn't slow you down nearly as much

[@jankowalski1501]

can this be any name of the A2 merc with Prayer, or must be Mizan spefically?

[@jinn91]

Thank you so much for this. This will help out a lot

[@pheelmacababe2861]

cooley was showing how this is super op in duels to the point it has been banned in most official dueling tournaments because the pally can regen almost all his life at 3k in about 6 seconds

[@BleuQuill80]

Does this work on Non-Ladder or ladder only? Thanks.

[@jakubzubalik]

I put those three runes exactly as you 4:40 and it does not create rune word. How is this possible?

[@jukappa]

I was in your livestream when this was mentioned. I’ll definitely have to give it a try for my nova sorc. Poison and blood mana are definitely a pain point for the character.

[@ncasasola]

You can deal with poison if you equip Sandstorm Treks but blood mana is really annoying, everytime I'm farming dkeys and got the curse I have to tp to town to get rid of it.

[@cjdig86]

For those of you that want to benefit from this, yet still have your merc survive on players 8.. you need to use an ethereal insight thresher on merc, along with a fortitude, and Andariel’s visage with a jewel for 15% ias or something similar with 8% life leech and 45% increased attack speed in total. The large % extra damage on fortitude is needed to steal more life. More damage = more life stolen. The 45% total ias is needed along with a thresher to hit the next attack speed breakpoint. Faster / more frequent attacks will keep him stealing life and surviving.

[@runealexander4916]

Prayer, cure and meditation stack together, yep. Friend of mine was running this day 1, helped the party a ton.

[@Abber64]

Since S2, I ahve always used insight with Prayer on my merc, but I didn't even think about the new Cure runeword as being another synergy. Thanks for the upload, I will definitely try it!

[@thafutureonline619]

called him Emilio and that wasn't his name lmao XD you're great phil

[@jonathanh4443]

This isn't a glitch, it's working as intended, when designed you were never supposed to be able to get these three up at the same time. The problem is the Devs didn't know about this when they did it (ok that's me being cynical.) Insight + prayer merc has always done this, but now your healing is tripled (rather than doubled), as well as curse duration, which is worth cure on it's own. And you can still die....Dolls.

[@leroysunset]

Dude, just got rid of Holy Freeze Emilio and tried this... holy balls batman. Literally cannot die with a Hammerdin and CoH on the merc. What a game changer.

[@goshu7009]

I have this set-up since day 2 of ladder season :P And i am Frozen Orb / Nova Sors :P (instead of Energy shield - i have 40 points on Frozen Orb and instead of Mana, my points are in HP).

[@christopherwoodjr235]

Wow never thought about prayer synergizing with insight and cure on merc, this is awesome! Thanks!

[@Lost_Hwasal]

I decided to start this league with a bone necro and i havent been sure what kind of merc to get, since a2 nm defensive would shatter my corpses. This seems like a good setup for that at least until infinity. Crafted blood armor would be another good low cost armor for the merc.

[@thomasheizmann8230]

Ethereal upped Boneflesh socketed with an UM Rune would also be a good armor choice for this mercenary setup. One thing to mention when using Skin of the Flayed one, that it is also advisable to socket an UM Rune, otherwise the merc wont have full resistances.

[@FluffyFractalshard]

@@TonyPettersson-ij6kx ask hell countess a few more times and she will tell you, they are not 😘

[@JoeArn1]

"Our boy Emilio", **points to Mizan**

[@matthewrivera5484]

Good info. I definitely am going to put this on my low level sorc so she can be a bit less glass cannon

[@alca7538]

Really nice, one thought tho. How well would this work without insight? I mean if u wanna go infinity as a weapon and get prayer merc + cure helm. Will it still be good enough or not?

[@leejordan001]

Im working on a trang oul set poison CE necro with this setup. You get a huge replenish life from the set itself and 20 from hoto and plus this merc make you immortal like a real vampire with great aoe damage via buffed CE by fire mastery provided by Trang set. Pretty solid build.

[@boomerpaschall]

Always a pleasure tuning in, salute

[@aureliandragomir2731]

My god, this would pair up so good with a berserk barb. Gonna take it for a spin

[@ryanhatzenbeller4327]

What about using principle early for the armor?

[@Apolarcat]

Gonna try this

[@filippovecchiarelli1144]

so if u got cleansing aura or meditation aura u got prayer too? so act 5 merc with plague activate prayer too? ty

[@TonyDang0688]

This is definitely helpful when leveling on early. Ran this for a good chunk of my hc season. Once I found a reapers toll/talsmask/ethtreachery to go with my frenzy barb. I stashed this stuff on a mule if my barb dies my got basic gear for my merch for the mean time. Tho a barbarian life pool is usually way higher. You are Def benefiting from this combo.

[@wojtekmarciniak1173]

do you guys have any of that unbelieveable (at first glance) builds that work on summon necro? i started playing offline and i dont have enigma yet, so playing with summ necro is a bit pain in the azz (emilio often gets blocked by summons and jsut stand and does nothing!!!)

[@awpz0r]

If I wear the insight instead of the merc, will the merc still have the max effect?

[@bivdog]

Another budget armor with life steal is Boneflesh. 5% life steal and 25% chance of open wounds

[@rcguy7521]

Went to try this out, and I noticed when I went to hire a new act 2 merc, that all auras are available in hell... was this changed? I thought I had to get a holy freeze merc in nightmare...

[@ethan007]

It is changed

[@smalps-gaming]

Great setup for sure! Still using Andy over here in NL.

[@PhukYu1]

What if I use Duriel's Shell because I need to save those precious runes - and frozen is so disabling?

[@TheDJConnect]

Does this work on Non Ladder??

[@Acreium]

Yes you have prayer up with Cleansing and Meditation, but they are not as powerful as prayer itself. It says in the tooltips of the skill in the game that it is prayers, but every 2 seconds instead of every second. So with all the buffs on it is like having 2 prayers on instead of 3.

[@zraebiel1673]

This is amazing info. Thanks for the videos you do. I usually learn a ton.

[@azndude108]

did they fix the snakes down there?

[@timderoche7838]

I have a support paladin with synergy from prayer, as it says exactly what it does, prayer healing without mana cost is awesome

[@Xainfinen]

So Cure+Insight is better for merc than Tal Rasha helm?

[@nikwaggoner2480]

+to all skills on coh should buff the prayer numbers right?

[@SkullBoy75]

thanks a lot bro you really helped me with the helmet on the mercenary so much stuff...i use your same build you're practically immortal now thanks

[@brakpseudonimu236]

It does say in the tooltip, what Prayer does, just not in the synergy section but above.

[@Cilan1999]

This is twice now this guy has made my game way better. I learned about treachery and now about cure. Going to perma subscribe. Thank you!

[@chancemullins13]

Is this worth switching from a fort and eth Andy’s?

[@SickSlayer35]

How well does this work without using mana shield? I'm doing a full fire hydra build and currently don't use mana shield.

[@jeddriggers5852]

So, Might or Thorns Aura for a Summon Necro?

[@freezxng_moon]

i just tried it on my merc.. i am playing hell for the first time and wanted to farm up a bit on andy so i can gear myself up a bit, but its impossible because I have to rez my merc after every single kill... he dies in literally 1 second from andy?? what can i do about this?? He has insight, cure and skullrider's ire atm, im looking for a base to make treachery but how will that even help? no life leach and way lower def than ire.

[@zero4915]

So, I opted to use a griswold armor on my merc to boost defensive auras and it seems to be doing REALLY well with it. Food for thought. :P Appreciate the help, now my struggling sorc can stop getting killed by a stray gust of wind.

[@Zlatano86]

that does not work on mercs. i just tried it

[@AvariceInc]

Thanks, my hardcore necromancer loves these auras, feels way less stressful to play now! Kinda miss thorns aura for fast boss kills but hopefully can make a Bramble at some point before 99. :)

[@stephen686]

Love the channel bro, always great content.

[@KennyNiii]

When would merc infinity be the better or worse option?

[@FriedrichD]

This is actually insane. Dropped my Might/Andys/Fort/Reapers merc for this setup and will never go back. Brilliant!

[@OGKev87]

how did it work out? do you like it so far?

[@FriedrichD]

​@@OGKev87 love it. Survivability seems more or less the same, less crowd control, but the whole potion guzzling is over.

[@richardmenz3257]

I wonder if g bane the dr would be enough to not need life leach

[@sentientfartcloudofdoomdor2085]

That's good to hear. I find that the desert merc dies a lot, even with good gear. So his survivability is more viable in my eyes.

[@prometheus70516]

And yet I wondered why my life regen was so op with Insight and Bullwark on a Prayer Merc. lol Thanks to you, I finally understand why.

[@DenizDot]

but is it better than the normal defensive act2 merc we usually have we would lose that

[@ttrenchmiranda]

Is this good for other characters as well? Im running a zealot, for example...

[@lang8289]

Surpising how strong that helm runeword is... I thought Bulwark would be the huge new runeword for mercs in the midgame tbh

[@derekgreen7319]

Me too . But I think cure might be better. The curse deduction should not be overlooked.

[@LuckyOctober]

Sooooo funny to see this video i put a cure and insight on my merc last week and switched to prayer lmaooooo woot

[@akalen1]

Ok but would this work with other mercenaries? Rogue can now equip insight on a bow, plus cure you can get the awesome CC with most of the benefits you just listed?

[@matth7129]

Rogue doesn't have prayer

[@adampataki4319]

Thanks, I'll try it out tonight!

[@francismawn3301]

Can someone confirm if the cleansing aura from the merc also reduces the duration of shrines? That would be something to consider as a downside of this setup if that's the case.

[@fifthofascalante7311]

In practice it’s irrelevant. Curses remove shrine effects and in Hell these hit constantly.

[@fifthofascalante7311]

In practice it’s irrelevant. Curses remove shrine effects and in Hell these hit constantly.

[@fifthofascalante7311]

In practice it’s irrelevant. Curses remove shrine effects and in Hell these hit constantly.

[@fifthofascalante7311]

In practice it’s irrelevant. Curses remove shrine effects and in Hell these hit constantly.

[@BigK0003]

so i was told replenish life does not work for the mercs.. was i lied to?

[@OGKev87]

so im currently using an act 2 might merc with my berserk barb, should i switch to a prayer merc? seems interesting

[@ChevyNoel]

The decrepify sanctuary frenzy barb hireling would be good too.

[@TheNjahNjahNjah]

Got a eth skin of the flayed one recently, noice. Gonna try it out

[@maxl10k]

Tried it and it works like a charm for my nova sorceress. I have trash gear but now i can farm much more and feel a lot safer

[@joqlepecheur7350]

I have been using him with this combo this season, he is incredible for teleport. I play him in HC with an orb sorc with low mana shield but max telekinesis, it is good survavibility.

[@gorba4ef]

I am pretty sure, +replenish life on items does not work on mercenaries so the Skin of the Flayed One only looks good on paper. This new helmet runeword is pretty dope tho.

[@overgamed7607]

Hi! Does someone know if you can use Cure RW in non-ladder?

[@Nephalem-Iro]

This is literally my hcl paladins build. I posted about this the second it was announced on the console forums. On a pally can get this up to 250 life per 2.

[@cesarchavelas9340]

Emilio or Mizan? Or do they have the same buffs and stats?

[@zach11241]

No. Emilio gains a level per level up. Mizan sits on his ass and pukes.

[@m43h]

Actually saw this one already in Cooley's video :D

[@Max-zv9jh]

I'm running nova sorc full high end gear, Cure completely replaces Andy helm, Infinity Eth, Fortitude and Cure is the new standard for this build.

[@GodsChild27125]

You deliver the most interesting d2 content for me lately Sir! Ty

[@wildhorse4]

I gave my Merk Insight with the Cure Helm & Griswolds Heart witch has +2 Defensive Auras and a sh*t load of Defense, and now you have the tank you ALWAYS wanted!! I just let him tank Hell Duriel and he didn't die once but I kept feeding him pots lol

[@SeeYouInHeeLL]

Good video

[@NoXQc]

Unless you are selfwielding infinity (which is only good on lite sorc) it’s not really worth it to NOT have conviction aura. It’s GG until you get infinity though. Just makes the lite sorc even more Op ((again))

[@doom8722]

Damn looks like this game keeps getting easier and easier. We need a patch that brings new challenges or something adjusting the difficulty. Good video btw

[@maximos905]

When can cure runeword be used in non-ladder?

[@Afura33]

Yes it can now.

[@Jay7ona]

TRY THIS: my s2 pally was just a chaos runner. 20 foh 20 holy bolt 20 prayer 20 cleanse... Run cleanse. Then merc with insight and prayer.. And rip through chaos. You almost never have to pot and it is great for clearing

[@RareFXChrisC]

I was running a similar Paladin build in S2 as well. Triple healing FTW!

[@Fakeslimshady]

Maxroll says only 2 auras from your merc can affect you

[@Devore1984]

Nice job but can you wash and go?