One thing I didn’t hear you mention is that diadems and circlets can also be used on act 1 merc. They can roll with plus to skills, life leech, faster runwalk, dex, res, and open sockets. Also hustle armor is highly underrated for this character. Faster run walk makes her kite alot quicker which means she fires arrows quicker.

I look forward to the rest of this series

Ginger I love this new series! Please keep it up!!

Glad to see someone show the a1 rogue some attention. Don't see near enough love there 🍻

Yes! A new series from GGM! Thanks man

i never could afford infinity on act 2 merc. harmony on aft 1 merc for the win.

@arnes5984

3 ай бұрын

Nice and cheap

@HansGuru-bb8iq

2 ай бұрын

Insight on a1 is sweet too

OMG, I just find out that you finally made merc guide. Thank youuuuuuuu. Gonna binge watch :)

made an x-bow enchantress and tried to utilize fire rogue as a merc. Went pretty well on a budget: Kuko Shakaku as a gun, Wisdom runeword on a head (+33% pierce), Peace runeword on a body (+2 skills and stuff). Enchant with a piercing explosive attack works pretty good as an addition to a Demon Machine build.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hustle bow in place of Faith as fanaticism. Hustle Armour in place of Treachey. Both can be budget options with interesting outcomes

I really like Delirium helmet on her

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

It's an interesting choice for any Merc basically makes them into a crowd control machine. Interesting bit of trivia until they fixed it in D2R delirium could not be worn by mercenaries at all because of the doll proc happened the game would immediately crash.

I do prefer Ice bow. The aura keeps enemies stationery and therefore she gets more shots off as opposed to Mist where she spends half her time walking around trying to find a safe spot to shoot. Plus Ice has life leach so you can use treachery

@Fakeslimshady

3 ай бұрын

does faster run/walk lessen their time walking around and increase dps?

@mattcampbell1846

3 ай бұрын

@@Fakeslimshady It can. She’s not fool proof though, as GGM was saying she mostly stays out of the fray but not always and can die stupidly like the act 2 merc. I’ve had her keep shooting and not move while she was literally standing in fire and she got fried haha. I have an Amazon who is exploding arrow and immolation arrow and the dual combo works well, the holy freeze helps a lot so I don’t get swarmed and we both just fire away.

Think its to bad most of the guids include the very endgame gear...when the char is finished. Most ppl wont even see most of this.

Great video as always GGM. I am running a mosaic assassin right now on ladder, and I found that since she kills everything easily, she didnt even need a merc. So I swapped off of a act 2 merc using obedience (no insight needed and imo infinity on p1 mosaic is overkill lol) to a fire rogue. I chose fire because, while I have every element as mosaic, my fire damage is my weakest by far (I did not invest heavily into FoF). I was between harmony or hustle for her bow, but I ended up going Harmony. I found the vigor aura incredibly useful for helping me maintain charges, especially walking back through dead end hallways with no engima lol.

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

so you know what I did for my mosaic sin? I went with the Act 3 Enchant merc and set him up for Fireball spam high FCR. He teleports with you when you kick, and the fireball is an aoe attack which means when you tele into a pack with him he does aoe damage while you murder everything. It was actually surprisingly good. Also it certainly was nice having the huge Attack rating bump.

@reap00

3 ай бұрын

@@GGMentor hmm I like that idea (a little preview of the next video maybe?). I like using non act 2 mercs whenever the auras/polearm rws aren’t necessary or have run their course. FoH/smite and demon machine sorcs for example just don’t need him to succeed. If/when I find an ethereal monarch for him for double spirit I’ll give it a go. Thanks for the idea!

*thumbs up*

As always, best video on the internet. But, there is a but :) I would have spoken about the stuff they can equip and compare the base bows for runeword. They obviously cant get an etheral weapon (downside with a2 a5 merc) but can pick a amazon bow with +skill which can be great. They cant use crossbow wich is sad as we lose some great options :( Another cheap option that is missing is the harmony bow for the vigor, it can empower some builds and is dirt cheap just as edge bow :) Love your content and this gentle voice. Lets hope for a good patch next season !

@GGMentor

2 ай бұрын

I don't like putting vigor on the merc because they never stay close enough for it to be active all the time. I feel like someone keeps slamming on the breaks whenever they leave range. Harmony bow works much better on the player as a swap to imo. As for bases, there are basically only two options. Mat Bow Vs Grand Matron Bow. Mat is faster less physical damage Grand matron is slower more physical damage. So when you are doing elemental damage you do Mat bow, When you want physical damage you want Grand Matron. That's really all there is to it.

I run act 1 cold with dream paladin....its disgusting. Teleport into a pack of monsters anything that pulse doesnt kill the she cleans up in 1 or 2 shots. A barbarian went hostile on me in an open game, my Merc killed him before he got off the teleport pad. So insanely good with that build, basically unfair on P1 games.

another thing she can at a certain level strip attack rating from the equation for farming for some really good places like the pits

I feel like you missed out on harmony for shapeshifters. My bear Druid benefits so much from having the vigor aura to be able to traverse areas twice as fast

I wanna try Wrath runeword with the decrepify 30% chance for Boss killing and crowd control purposes.

Hey GGM, nice video! I have a few questions. 1 - Is Harmony worth for anything? I used for a while with my Fury Druid to try to keep up with tele party a bit better 2 - Is there a video comparing Concentration to Fanaticism? I do have a Mist, but I was thinking about looking for Faith to try to reach better IAS breakpoints abusing the aura. 3 - You said Crushing Blow is worse with ranged weapons, again, can I find more info in a video? Only useful % property would be Open Wounds? Is knockback is ever useful? 4 - Do mercenaries use Attack Rating? Should I worry about their FHR breakpoints? 5 - For Faith, is GMB better? Should I use Matriarchal just for proc based stuff? 6 - Is Delirium useful or too situational? I found it interesting to help CCing cows, but not sure about general use 7 - Since Rogue usually avoids danger, is there a setup or strat to keep her alive on, say like, ubers? Thanks for the content! Edit: just read your answer about Delirium in another comment, good stuff

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

1, Vigor on harmony is nice yes, it's a solid early option for bowzons, and the vigor aura makes a nice movement speed option. 2 - No, but Concentration is + Melee/Ranged Damage, Fanaticism also gives Melee/ranged damage but primarily to the user not others, it also gives attack speed, and attack rating. So for other people Concentration is more damage than Fanaticism, but Fanaticism is faster and more accurate. 3. It's a Simple formula of Half effectiveness to normal rate. I do have a video on a Crushing blow Amazon that I tested and you could see it in action there. but the actual numbers are, Melee 25% Normal Mobs 12.5% Bosses While Ranged is half that so 12.5% Normal Mobs and 6.25% Bosses 4. Yes, and Yes depending on the merc some are worse than others, the Act 2 and act 3 merc have the worst FHR Breakpoints. 5. Depends on if you are going Elemental Damage or Physical Damage. Elemental Mat Bow, Physical Grand Matron Bow 6. Useful yes but may also interfere with other friendly curses. 7. I have had her survive ubers just by staying out of the way, the melee merc are far less likely to stay out of the way and more likely to die.

@Pocketyuf

3 ай бұрын

@@GGMentor Thank you!

What are the set item choices for fire and ice rogues? M’avina?

Would mixing holy fire and holy freeze aura work for utility. Fire merc with ice, dragon armor and flickering flame. What about phoenix bow, flickering flame and chains of honor?

@GGMentor

5 күн бұрын

Holy Freeze is useful because it has a secondary effect of chilling, and slowing the enemies. Holy Fire is basically useless as it has no secondary effect and does basically 0 fire damage without synergies. Paladin With Synergies, and Sorceress with Fire Mastery are the only two characters which can get good use out of Dragon armor.

Odd question if you use hand of justice bow. Does the holy fire get bonus damage from synergies from flickering flame if it's equipped

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

No

this is quite off topic, but I hope it is still ok to ask it here. I want to make my first treachery on a ssf account. I want my rune words to be as flexible as possible to swap them around chars and mercs (because I probably will not make multiple of the more expensive ones). I can image this or a similar question is asked everyday and that there is no clear answer to it. so, sorry for that. here we go, through: is it fine to stay low on the str requirement for the armor bases to be able to try them out in multiple builds? can i make a treachery, a duress, a chains of honor, a fortitude and even an enigma in a mage plate or am I an idiot in doing so? I do understand, if you make a rune word for a specific build you can push it to squeeze out more defense (making it specifically for a merc for example), but is the extra defense such a big deal? Is this a fine route to go for a not rich person?

@GGMentor

2 ай бұрын

In SSF yes it's a common practice to use lower str requirement based so you can swap them between all characters. You might only make one chains of honor ever so making sure it's wearable by all characters is big. There are decent low ste elite options like dual shroud

@sebastianvega4576

2 ай бұрын

@@GGMentor thank you for your answer! i did not want to do something i regret later on, so i feel much better hearing this from an expert like you. keep up the great content!

Does faster run/walk increase dps? SInce the merc runs around so much during fights, faster run/walk makes her shoot more

I choose my mercenary based on the aesthetic of my character.

How about the Ward Bow for that amp damage proc to help melee chars?

@GGMentor

2 ай бұрын

Talking about which wild string? I talked about it as an option but you need to get high attack speed and it doesn't really work as well on the rouge.

@kez83kez

2 ай бұрын

Im an idiot. I thought the Runeward bow Brand, not sure why it changed to Ward. Either way I’m a double idiot them cause it procs Amp when struck, not on cast 😂 What would you recommend to support a physical zealot pala?

What type of character would benefit using the act 1 merc? I have a couple of decent bows but no mist. Currently using act 2 merc on my orb/wall and strafezon.

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

Sorceress's generally benefit most from having a melee merc because they need a tank to hold monster back for them while they cast spells. I find that Act 2 mercs work well with melee characters that don't need a tank, as well as zons that don't need a tank because they already have the valk, or Druids using the bear.

@mikemurray3962

3 ай бұрын

@@GGMentor thanks GG. I might try the rogue merc with witchwild string for my strafezon. If not as good I can always go back to act 2 with reapers. Love your d2r content btw.🙂

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

@@mikemurray3962 I think atmas scarab is better for a strafezon

@mikemurray3962

3 ай бұрын

@@GGMentor still looking, unfortunately lol

@mikemurray3962

3 ай бұрын

I'm guessing the 5% with atmas overrides the 2% with wwstring?

Is life leach necessary for bm pvp situations?

@GGMentor

27 күн бұрын

Life leech barely works at all in pvp due to penalties. Life tap however works surprisingly well. Lol. But I am pretty sure life tap is Bad Manners in pvp. Speaking of which aren't Merc also bad manners?

So Rogues can use Amazon-specific bows these days?

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

Yes

@allysinlombard

3 ай бұрын

@@GGMentor Any other class-specific items that are no longer class-specific?

@rutrowe2661

2 ай бұрын

​@@allysinlombardit's not that the item is no longer class-specific, but one of the updates in D2R made the A1 Merc an Amazon

What ever happened to Neenee? :/

*rogue

Why do you call it coa when you then call it chains of honor? Seriously conufused and curious?

@mattcampbell1846

3 ай бұрын

Two different things dude. Chains of honor and crown of ages

@GGMentor

3 ай бұрын

Two different things. As Matt already explained

Dragon equipment for fire act 3 merc?

@GGMentor

2 ай бұрын

Why? Dragon would do basically nothing for them.

@joeyholthusen6495

2 ай бұрын

@@GGMentor just curious

hahahaha the bukake shitake cedar bow

Act 1 merc with faith is godly for javazon. Makes infinity on act 2 merc look like an absolute joke

It's fun to theorycraft and all but let's be real... unless you need faith(fanaticism aura) to hit a certain breakpoint you're better off using other mercs :p

@GGMentor

2 ай бұрын

There are a lot of reasons why Act 1 Rogue might be the better choice. Enchant Sorc, so you can enchant the merc and she can double your enchant damage. Conversion Paladin, so the merc doesn't kill itself on the thorns Faith Bow for Fanaticism -Defense for the Inner Sight (Melee Specific) Greatly decreases Attack Rating Requirements Insight Bow Option for a Merc that dies less Better AOE Damage than the other mercs with 100% pierce and good + Skill Equipment, also Enchant.

@antonsundin2974

2 ай бұрын

There are better options for the examples you provided. Enchant sorc.... infinity merc. No way an insight act1 merc dies less than a holy freeze insight act2 merc. Even early ladder i wouldn't pick innersight over something like might or holy freeze aura. I haven't really given any thought to conversion paladins so i guess i'll have to take your word for it. Sure the merc itself might be able to do more aoe damage thanks to pierce but if you add both your own and the mercs damage together it will be less using her over other mercs.