Solved Act 3 Merc

Hey i got a question about the act 3 mercenary specifically the damage is there a specific method to upping it? i'd really like to get it above like 1k? best i could do is 218 minimum ...

 

Hi there,

unfortunately the act3 merc has the lowest damage output as he can not get any sorc synergies to boost his skills. However, there are 4 ways to push an Ironwolves mercs damage:

1. Conviction aura and Lower Resist Curse. As you can not equip Infinity on him you are stucked to 3 Player character choices, i.e.:
   Nova Infinity sorc
   Auradin using Conviction
   Poison Nova or Summoner Necro with Lower Resist (and Infinity Iron Golem)
   
   
2. +all skills and +elemental type skills attributes from items work on him. Be awars that any +XX Sorc Skills or Paladin skills will not work (Ironwolf is either a sorc nor a Paladin).
   Special mentions:
   Trang Oul set bonus (2items) could give a huge +18 Fireball but it as capped as +3 here - so not a real option.
   +3 specific Skill from Ormus robes work on him, but it is not a good armor choice for him.
   +1 Magefist for Fire merc.
   
   
3. +%Elemental damage and -% enemy resistance work on him. That's why you would want to put as many 5/5 RBF jewels on him where possible. Any armor socketed with 4 x 5/5 RBF will increase the damage output much greater than +2 Skills armor (Enigma, COH, blue TM).
   Some items to mention:
   Phoenix Shield for Fire wolf
   Crescent Moon RW for Lightning
   NW helmet for cold
   
   
4. Faster Cast rate can increase the cast frequency and hence improve his damage. Check the FCR table for Ironwolf merc below.
   
   Code:

   Frames FCR%
   18—– 0
   17—– 10
   16—– 15
   15—– 30
   14—– 40
   13—– 60
   12—– 90
   11—–140

If you plan to run alot Chaos Sanctuary you can also consider Lawbringer runeword or Azurewrath for its sanctuary Aura. The A3 merc will sometimes swing his sword and therefor the bonus damage vs undead can also help a bit (CS has ~80% undead monsters) .

As a conclusion I can say the only viable A3 merc options are Fire (best damage) and Cold for freeze / safety reasons. Lightning is the worst build and should be skipped...

 

Thanks i mostly wanted to use the lightning merc because i play hammerdin so having a merc that casts static field would have been a huge i mean Huge bonus towards boss kill speed but unfortunately it seems best option is still the act 2 mercenaries... :/ might still try the light merc tho with whatever i can throw together to boost cast and damage for more static field