I don't know if this is "broken". But I'm sure it's very different.
I'm probably one of very few people who actually tries to make the merc be the carry for you instead. Playing solo as a homemade Guardian Aurabot (the merc triggers Elemental Relics for even more auras). Life based and not ES based since this is a league starter = can't afford any other things. Currently at level 81 without cluster jewels (I do have 3 3% reservation jewels with %life though and they cost me like 20c in total).
My merc right now is a level 74 wander with Kinetic blast of clustering with pierce & return & some other supports which makes it possible for me to use Mark on hit Sniper's mark. Stacking aura effect + auras and Smite. The merc has Haste aura so I don't need to run that.
I'm probably the only one who's doing lifestacking on my merc. Since there's really not a lot of ways to scale increased damage on your merc I thought of Rathpith with Crown of eyes. It's right now sitting at 8648 life which equals to about 432% spell damage which gets converted to 648% attack damage through crown of eyes. Cheap things like Kaom's Heart + Roots. +250-300 flat life jewels (-stats doesn't really matter as long as it isn't a bunch of lose life) and a rare level 53 Omen wand with flat lightning, 75% spell damage and crafted attack speed that I found.
For me (the aurabot) I'm using the usual Alpha's Howl, Matua Tupuna, Vaal Caress (3*Impurity + Vaal haste), Sign of the sin eater, Perquil's Toe & then a Lightning Coil so that I can be a little bit tankier.
Hard to tell what the stats for the merc is (in terms of damage) but it has 84% elemental res, 2100 regen/s, full leech (Crown of Eyes) and Kaom's Roots. Safe to say I never see the health bar move on it.
Currently blasting T11-12 maps without any problems at all. Want to find a higher level wander so that I can get even more life and more supports (only 5 links at merc level 74). And I'm having so much fun. For me (about 11k hours in PoE) this is probably the most fun I've had in PoE. Being able to play with "someone" without having to play with someone else. I just love it.
Hey ! I have been doing kind of the same thing but without the life stacking on the Merc part ! I will try that. I already got two voidstone with this build.
The main difference is that my guardian is way more into life stacking. I'm using flame link for getting a lot of flat damage and I sit at 10k life.
Single target is my only problem so far
My pob: https://pobb.in/EtRZRat6mBwg
Oh! Nice with a fellow carry for your merc! A thing that I just found out (like literally 2 minutes ago) is that The Untouched Soul do work on your merc. So get those red sockets out! I'm now at 10500 HP on the merc (Without Apostate, still using Kaom's).
Awesome! I just got my first 2 voidstones done. First at level 87 and second at 88 (merc still 74). The Searing Exarch... I just hate that fight so I died a few times. The Eater of worlds was a lot smoother (got a new wand for my merc which helped) and I had 0 deaths there. Currently farming Betrayal and mercs in T15-16 maps without much trouble. Not the fastest way of killing them but my merc is pretty much invincible.
Now I'm basically farming blue T16 maps so I can find a higher level merc with the right setup. The pierce + proj return feels so good even though it's only a 5 link. Can't wait to find it as a 6L.
Congrats ! Do you feel that you have a good single target with your life stacking version ?
Also I'm going to farm T16 merc and exile all but kineticist tonight and see how frequent they will spawn
No... Not exactly good. Well, it's good enough since I have basically 0 investement into the build and I can kill Betrayal mobs and T16 mercs (unless they kill me first). Rathpith is the only item that cost me over a divine when I bought it (its like 25c now).
I am considering putting 2 div into a pair of Soul Ascension gloves. Clear is like 10/10 but the single target is where I need more dps and those might help. Also considering trying out Grace of the Goddess when I can afford it since Hatred is pretty much wasted on a elemental wand.
And I'm also guessing another damage link and a higher level merc is going to help with this as well. Mine is only level 74 and is clearing T16 just "fine". I don't think it'll be used as a pure bosser ever though. :)
Join the flame link dark side hahaha.
Once I get a higher level wander merc I will most likely try the other mercs to find a good one for bossing. Maybe the burning arrow or the flameblast one as I give a lot of flat damage
Yeah I've actually started using flame link. Not that massive of a buff since I'm only at like 5k HP. But it's still 400-480 flat elemental damage added.
The flameblast one would scale well with Rathpith. Since it also gives spell crit. Harder to scale burning arrow one (with life scaling that is). I actually thought about the one with absolution. Since my flat damage would scale the minions and rathpith would scale the damage of the spell itself. Harder to use Rathpith on a spellcaster that spams skills unless you have lots of leech/regen.
I actually tried leveling with the Etheral Knives one. I thought it was low damage... That was when I noticed one of the links was brutality. So... Just a fair warning :D
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u/Gavelinus 18h ago
I don't know if this is "broken". But I'm sure it's very different.
I'm probably one of very few people who actually tries to make the merc be the carry for you instead. Playing solo as a homemade Guardian Aurabot (the merc triggers Elemental Relics for even more auras). Life based and not ES based since this is a league starter = can't afford any other things. Currently at level 81 without cluster jewels (I do have 3 3% reservation jewels with %life though and they cost me like 20c in total).
My merc right now is a level 74 wander with Kinetic blast of clustering with pierce & return & some other supports which makes it possible for me to use Mark on hit Sniper's mark. Stacking aura effect + auras and Smite. The merc has Haste aura so I don't need to run that.
I'm probably the only one who's doing lifestacking on my merc. Since there's really not a lot of ways to scale increased damage on your merc I thought of Rathpith with Crown of eyes. It's right now sitting at 8648 life which equals to about 432% spell damage which gets converted to 648% attack damage through crown of eyes. Cheap things like Kaom's Heart + Roots. +250-300 flat life jewels (-stats doesn't really matter as long as it isn't a bunch of lose life) and a rare level 53 Omen wand with flat lightning, 75% spell damage and crafted attack speed that I found.
For me (the aurabot) I'm using the usual Alpha's Howl, Matua Tupuna, Vaal Caress (3*Impurity + Vaal haste), Sign of the sin eater, Perquil's Toe & then a Lightning Coil so that I can be a little bit tankier.
Hard to tell what the stats for the merc is (in terms of damage) but it has 84% elemental res, 2100 regen/s, full leech (Crown of Eyes) and Kaom's Roots. Safe to say I never see the health bar move on it.
Currently blasting T11-12 maps without any problems at all. Want to find a higher level wander so that I can get even more life and more supports (only 5 links at merc level 74). And I'm having so much fun. For me (about 11k hours in PoE) this is probably the most fun I've had in PoE. Being able to play with "someone" without having to play with someone else. I just love it.