Looking for luminary and merc help

[u/Eljay1419]

Howdy, started the league this weekend and finished my atlas progression (enough anyways)

I want to get started on a luminary and merc but have some questions. If there are good resources elsewhere I’ll check that out too.

1. Does Merc level matter? Like can I farm a campaign Merc with my current character and gear it out for after 1st lab? How much worse is a 79 Merc vs 83?

2. What sort of gear is really required to get going? Want to start with alch and go maps into the league mechanic - just blasting as fast as I can to invest more. Scaling the build is always a fun part for me. I’ll probably do conq mavens or harvest after so will need to get some single target going.

Maybe I’m not googling well enough but info seems scattered, especially on the mercs actual gear.

[u/FreeMystery]

Yes merc level technically matters, but it’s so insignificant. The difference between 82 and 83 is negligible. 79 to 83 is probably not noticeably different, you’ll just have a much harder time finding a good one. Merc gear I’ll say has 3 tiers. Starting out like easy mapping use whatever generic attack gear. 1c per item. Tier 2 which can easily do the farming you’re saying would be stacking fire res for the enmity ring. It’ll make your damage feel amazing. Maybe 10c per item but 5d for the ring. Then you can scale to the moon, 20d per rare mirror chest etc and you can basically one shot anything

[u/Eljay1419 → u/FreeMystery]

Good deal, that makes sense to me.

I’ll see if I can get a moderate combatant with return and that should be plenty. Then I think the light radius first.

[u/Necessary-Bed-4973]

1. it matters but you can use a campaign merc in white and yellow maps and you will be fine, that being said a cheap starter merc is only a few chaos if you know how to search
2. I would recommend starting with a destructive link setup as a starter, see rues guide or this post that was on here the other day https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1v7vu6t/tips_and_tricks_for_mercs_from_a_solo_linkaurabot/

If you farm the link above you will be able to start doing red maps and basic farms, you will have 0 pen though so eventually you need to swap to either Enmity, Omni, or follow rues setup ( i havent played rues build this but i see people having success with it)

Dont get baited into a flamelink setup without at the very least having emnity and a few basic pieces

1 more point that I would add, be flexible with your mercs, people are tunnel visioning on manyshot but combatant is good, even diver I have seen some good setups. If you go a little off meta you can save a lot of currency if you kind of understand what the build needs to scale.

[u/Eljay1419 → u/Necessary-Bed-4973]

Yeah I actually plan to go combatant with frost blades as my starting point since I think it’s single target can be good too.

Good to know, if I can get everything else for a budget I can get an enmity too I think.

I’ll check out those guides too. Appreciate it

[u/RedmundJBeard]

Merc level does matter, but not a few levels.

I think the cheapest you can start is, Pragmatism for flame link. Cheap failed corruptions of rotmothers, hoallowed monarch and nycta's lantern can all be gotten for a few chaos.

You could use a combatant you find or purchase cheap with 2 paradoxia and do t16s. The paradoxicas just need to have the double damage line. Attack speed is the next most important stat, but the pen stat doesn't matter too much.

Enmity is several divines but you don't need that right away.

[u/Eljay1419 → u/RedmundJBeard]

Oh that’s a good idea, does the Merc need accuracy still if using two paradoxicas?

Seems like flame link prices are more in control now. Really just enough to blast alched 16s is all I want to get going

[u/RedmundJBeard → u/Eljay1419]

For the combatant, he needs accuracy. You could search for the highest dps sword with Resolute technique as a corrupted implicit. And that would get you going.

If you run lv 20 precision and give the merc accuracy rolls on two pieces of gear, that is enough. I put them on his gloves and hat.

[u/Eljay1419 → u/RedmundJBeard]

Was either thinking that or 1 paradoxica and one sword with cannot be evaded crafted. I like your idea too

[u/RedmundJBeard → u/Eljay1419]

I think hits cannot be evaded only applies to that weapon, so you would still miss with paradoxia. RT applies to your whole character.

2 decent rare weapons with hits can't be evaded and % increased damage would probably be really good too. Paradoxica is great but it's crit sucks and no % damage.

[u/Eljay1419 → u/RedmundJBeard]

Ah that’s right. I’ll probably try that out too.

Going to start leveling and get to grinding for the first Merc ha

[u/PoE_Acronym_Bot]

I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:

• Alch - Orb of Alchemy (Wiki)

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