Fen, do take however many of those tiara/coronets you want. I am not looking for a new helm for my barb, and if you get a barb helm spawn I am sure you could keep it for one or trade for something more to your use. I also have a few other items people can imbue if they like. Since I will not be on bnet again until January, whoever wants a happy fun imbuable item will have to retrieve it from my account. At least one person, probably two or three, know my password. Or at least I’ve told them.
Quick question: what’s the best place in Normal for a level 22 merc to level up?
what kind of merc? I’d say A2 Arcane Sanctuary, but the type of damage dealt, along with the level of the char and the type of char, might make another sort of run more productive.
And as soon as you can get into doing Baal runs you’re golden.
Um.
Something’s wrong in a good way. How can a rare be better than most uniques I’ve ever seen?
Get the stats for this ballista I just found in NM!! (granted my level 70-something pally is holding it, but still…)
2 Handed Damage 33-93
Normal Attack Speed
+20% increased attack speed
+38% max damage (based on character level) (works out to about 1/2 char level)
+104 attack rating
+1270 attack rating (based on character level) (works out to about char level x 16)
+43 damage to undead
+48 attack rating vs undead
+1-6 fire damage
+100 poison damage over 6 seconds
Is this as cool as I think it is? Imagine using it to shoot Guided Arrows!
Fenris
Isn’t Buriza quite a bit better than that? It’s the unique ballista.
It occurred to me that I could just check and contribute something useful. 
(85-102) - (140-168) Dmg
+2.5 * clvl Max Damage
110 Str Required
80 Dex Required
Item Level: 49
Clvl Req: 41
+150-200% Enhanced Damage
+2.5 Max damage per clvl
Adds 32-196 cold damage, 8 Seconds Cold Length
+100% Chance of Hit Piercing Target
80% Increased Attack Speed
Hit Freezes Target
+35 to Dexterity
+75-150 Defense
Buriza’s hands down better. Faster attack, higher damage, piercing, and freezing. All you lose is attack rating, and AR is probably the least of your worries.
Sorry to disappoint ya!
Also, just message me when you want Frostburns. If you’d like to swap something for it, great, or toss some runes at me or something. I feel bad trying to extort much considering your poor luck. 
He’s an Act III cold merc, so he should do fine in the Sanctuary. It’ll give me something to do while waiting to hit lvl30 so I can take on Diablo - I reckon that’s the level I’ll need to be at to take him on toe to toe.
How are Baal runs good for leveling mercs, BTW? I would have thought the critters were too high level to get experience from.
Well for your mercs to get experience. You must do the kills or the merc does the kills. If a party member gets kills, it won’t add to your mercs experience. Therefore it is best soloing in 8ppl games to get good experience for your merc. At level22 I’d say flayer jungle is the best place to level yourself and your merc up.
Waiting to hit level30 to hit D? That depends on the char type. Sorc and necros have their big guns at lvl 30 and they’re fragile char types that can’t take much dmg, so ideally they should hit D at level30. Melee types and zons fare a bit better before level30, but it aint a cake walk.
Oh, if people didn’t know this already. You can level yourself up to level30 by doing 8ppl game flayer jungles. I got my trap assassin to level 30 easily and whizzed through all the other acts.
Baal runs aren’t good for leveling mercs unless you’re the primary killer or you doing it solo in a packed game. Don’t get me wrong baal runs give good experience but it seems now we have is a new “cow level trend”. Act5 is good for your merc from level30 to 45 range.
Do you know what I’ve decided I hate about necromancers?
Trying to solo Act2… that’s what. In the little winding caves of the Maggot Lair it is a PAIN to try to work yourself around to get more than one skelly on the mark. It takes forever killing things when I can’t swarm them. My best friend and her daughters are staying at my house for a couple of days, so I don’t have the time to spend 2 hours just in the Maggot Lair. Oh, well… I guess I can go play in the Pit.
Fenris, when I see you next I’ll show you the unique ballista… you’ll see that that rare has nothing on the unique version.
I realize that Buriza is better, but I was impressed by the numbers on the Attack Rating I guess.
Btw: Who_me: Next time I see you, I’ll help you through the Maggot Lair. It’s a breeze for a Pally or a Sorc (or it would be, if I could get some decent poison protection: other than that…)
Fenris
Fenris, the AR on that would be excellent for a non-zon - since zons have access to both Guided and Penetrate. Looks like it has the “Fool’s” prefix, which adds AR and max damage per character level. The problem is that it doesn’t have any Enhanced Damage, which is crucial for all weapons.
What’s the level requirement?
Well, as ever I’m reminding someone that I play SP only and so don’t have to worry about party members. Still, the advice is helpful - I know the command, I just don’t think of using it outside of NM Bloody runs in 1.09. I was also wondering how I was going to get my pure Poisonmancer past Big D, even with the Jade Tan Do my Assassin has hoiked across to him; this’ll help out there too.
(On the subject of which, what’s the best merc for a Poisonmancer: Act III Cold, Act I Cold or Act II Holy Freeze?)
Oh, since I’ve caught up on several things at work that got behind while I was on vacation… a couple of necro observations, and a question.
I’m still maxing Skeleton mage at the moment. The necro is at lvl 76 at the moment so I don’t have that many skill points to add unless I really level him into the 90’s, although I do have some quests remaining to get a few points). I now wish I would have totally skipped any offensive spells, they would have been more useful in curses. The curses I use most are decrepify and lower resist. I need to add points to the lower resist because it adds to how much you’re lowering the resists and it does remove immunities as long as you lower it enough. I’ve also discovered that decrepify removes the immunity from physical immunes.
I’m leaving resurrect where it is. Using my magic finding equipment I can resurrect 5 monsters and 7 while wearing my better stuff, with my merc, skellies, and gollem (although I still use the iron gollem), they are only reinforcements that help absorb damage… which is basically what I created this character to do… tank.
Every stat point I get from here on out will go into more life, the easiest way to kill my army is to kill me. The skill points I’m not too sure of though. My plan at the moment is to max skelleton mages and dump points into lower resist. I have no points at all in the curse tree leading to attract. Amp damage and decrepify curses do not get stronger from adding points… they just add to the coverage area which can be taken care of by casting it more than once. Lower Resists does get stronger… are there any other curses I should be adding points to? I can get level 2 attract from an item if that curse is that important.
I would think an Act II Defiance merc. You need your merc to be as good a tank as possible while you wait for the poison to take effect. Plus, if you’re using Poison Dagger, you need to be able to get in and out quickly without getting hurt. The less you and your merc get hit, the better.
Who_me?, I’d suggest taking a gander at Nightfish’s Mancer guide over at dii.net. It’s specifically built for 1.10, and people have had huge success with it. I know that he didn’t put more than 1 into Mages, but that’s alright - the strategy as well as other skill point selections hold true. Linky-poo.
Dumb question–you don’t actually have to kill with a MF weapon to get the bonuses as long as it’s equipt, right? In other words, if my sorc is holding GULL and chain-lightnings something to death, she still gets the +100% MF, even though I didn’t actually stab the critter with the weapon., right?
Correct, Fenris. But if you have any MF on your merc, he has to get the kill for it to count.
And the good thing is that if you are wearing a bunch of MF and your merc is wearing a bunch too you get the combined whole of the MF applied. So load the merc up and let 'em go!
Also, you can (for example) cast a meteor using a staff or orb, then do a weapon switch to your mf weapon and as long as you complete the switch before the target dies (probably the start of the death scene sequence), you get the mf bonus.
So far I’ve done 3 Pit runs without finding anything much to speak of. I did find Spineripper, which would be great for me except that my necro isn’t built to use a dagger. If anyone has a dagger necro on USEast, let me know, I have that and a rare +2 to skill dagger.
I think I’m going to wait before starting my next character. Since the necro can do Pit runs fairly easily (although not as fast as I’d like), I’m going to keep hitting it until I get my present characters equipped better. After that I’ll see what equipment I have left over before deciding what character/build I’m going to try for. I would love to find the equipment I have on my best 1.09 barb… none of it is what you could consider godly, but I’ve had him out since the patch and he can still rock and roll solo in a 6 or 7 person game in hell. Crushing blow, open wounds, lots of leech, enhanced damage and IAS can make a killing barb viable.
MDSL, that’s only true if your mercenary makes the kill. If you make the kill, you only get the mf that you have on.
I’ve never found any curse worth putting more than 1 pt into. Maybe Iron Maiden or Lower Resist. Even then, there’s more useful things to pump.